A Desperate Measure (Worm/Exalted Quest)
- Thread starter Amazing Abzan
- Start date
- Crossover Superhero
To be fair I kinda want to butterfly the Jack Slash into past tense
Flight of the Brilliant Raptor just to be sure, given his upgrades Jack might survive the butterflies.
I kinda want to see peoples reaction when the very nice, peaceful "thinker/trump" Taylor becomes the wrath of god on the SH9, like wolfs (because hopefully we will get that upgrade before SH9 arrives), like imagine the reaction of all the (former, hopefully) thugs who she convinced to give up seeing her become death the destroyer of evil.
Like they won't know that Taylor didn't have those power at the time, they will just break down thanking god that they were smart enough to give up
To Jack the most frightening thing about us wouldn't even be the Sorcery, it would be the fact that his 'intuition' does not work since Taylor is not a parahuman.
Actually it would be the first time in his life were the tables have turned, Taylor is a Solar (so tehcnically perfect in anything) and being a Zenith basically gives her the Jack cheat for free sooooooooooo it will be fun
Something im sure will be a problem down the line, Taylor has many MANY offensive powers at he dispposal but the thing is all of them will literally kill the opponent but passing out on those powers its basically asking to get yourself killed at some point sooooooo im thinking that Taylor will have to either learn how not to obliterate her enemy or how to convince people that is ok for her to kill (she actually could do that)
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Get Mush to share any obvious intimacies/virtues we could target on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
I'm 50/50 on if we should be prepurchasing a charm here. OBS is one I had in mind for a relatively early purchase and it would be nice to help secure victory but there are others I would rather get sooner, so voting for a version with and without it.
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
-[x] In addition to immediate assistance the charity should also help people get back into work and off the streets.
Going for the charity because beyond just getting money and jobs I think the area will really benefit from a sense of community, this will make them more resistant when the moment it becomes worthwhile as territory some other gang starts moving in. Plus it should start building the Cult of Taylor.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Get Mush to share any obvious intimacies/virtues we could target on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
I'm 50/50 on if we should be prepurchasing a charm here. OBS is one I had in mind for a relatively early purchase and it would be nice to help secure victory but there are others I would rather get sooner, so voting for a version with and without it.
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
-[x] In addition to immediate assistance the charity should also help people get back into work and off the streets.
Going for the charity because beyond just getting money and jobs I think the area will really benefit from a sense of community, this will make them more resistant when the moment it becomes worthwhile as territory some other gang starts moving in. Plus it should start building the Cult of Taylor.
Last edited:
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
I think we should buy the charm, the sooner we have it the sooner we use it and so the sooner it starts paying for itself. Not to mention this just makes Mush safer, he is pretty squishy
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
I think we should buy the charm, the sooner we have it the sooner we use it and so the sooner it starts paying for itself. Not to mention this just makes Mush safer, he is pretty squishy
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[X][Merchant cleanup] Try and meet with local politicians and business leaders, convince them to invest in and hire from the area once you've dealt with Skidmark.
-[X] Research stuff that can help with this before hand to give them some ideas and more material reasoning that just being good
--[X] Talk with Dad about it; he has some experience with politics and labour market and you could use someone to run the ideas by
-[X] Go around the merchant stashes with PRT or police to get rid of the drugs and weapons so they won't enter circulation
-[X] talk down the minions into surrendering to the police or at least retiring
--[X] Research reduced sentence for cooperation and etc.
-[X] Maybe start online present to get propaganda and some charity underway
-[X] Ask PRT if they can get in contact with Panacea and if she wants and can get rid of the additions of Merchants who turn in, so they have less incentives to go back to the life of crime
Sooner or later money from charity will run out but investment and proper safety net will give us good will that will make taking over the bay easier, any rich person could give some money to charity and you could be fine for a few months, but it will make people feel despair more when the charity support will run out because most people will forget about it when next big happens like:
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[X][Merchant cleanup] Try and meet with local politicians and business leaders, convince them to invest in and hire from the area once you've dealt with Skidmark.
-[X] Research stuff that can help with this before hand to give them some ideas and more material reasoning that just being good
--[X] Talk with Dad about it; he has some experience with politics and labour market and you could use someone to run the ideas by
-[X] Go around the merchant stashes with PRT or police to get rid of the drugs and weapons so they won't enter circulation
-[X] talk down the minions into surrendering to the police or at least retiring
--[X] Research reduced sentence for cooperation and etc.
-[X] Maybe start online present to get propaganda and some charity underway
-[X] Ask PRT if they can get in contact with Panacea and if she wants and can get rid of the additions of Merchants who turn in, so they have less incentives to go back to the life of crime
I think that Taylor doesn't have enough cloud to only manage the situation with charity, which can easily dry up, and it doesn't solve the issue of unemployment, which is the source of small gangs' existence. I think that cult of Taylor should start with practical and long-term solutions in mind
Sooner or later money from charity will run out but investment and proper safety net will give us good will that will make taking over the bay easier, any rich person could give some money to charity and you could be fine for a few months, but it will make people feel despair more when the charity support will run out because most people will forget about it when next big happens like:
- Empire being a bitch
- Coil being a bitch
- Attack from a slaughterhouse
- attack from Fallen
- Lung being a bitch
- Bakuda being a bitch
Last edited:
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This is pure fanon, cannon doesn't to the best of my knowledge mention how large they are.
I don't think it's fair to assume the charity will immediately collapse the second anything newsworthy happens. I think it's safe to assume that if funding becomes an issue we'll have a chance to take action to correct it but part of setting up our charity should be ensuring a continuing revenue stream rather than just assuming the initial burst of donations will last forever.
I'm not sure what you even mean about the Empire spinning the charity in a bad light. What are you actually expecting them to take as a course of action and how do you think it will negatively impact what we are trying to do here?
I mean that if people don't visibly work more (which requires investments into the region of the city) then Empire can manipulate the narrative that people from that part of the city are parasites which could if not drive up their recruitment then it could harden their followers.
It is quite common scare tactic against the charity/social welfare.
I just personally think that our primary focus should be on giving people a fishing rod instead of fish; sure we should give starving person some fish, but our main focus should be on teaching them how to fish or if they already can then we should focus on getting them the fishing rod.
Also, in the long run, the areas the merchants have low market value because of the Graveyard and people who like us because we care getting their business there, even if only loans or whatever method investment takes form, will help us in long run when we will get rid of the Graveyard.
This is why I did not want to take the anarchist sorcery, it comes with extra demands on Taylor's time and on her charm budget. She is a Solar she could become the best charity organizer in the world... at the cost of things she would need as a cape.
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I honestly don't see the Empire moaning about a new charity in a part of the city they don't care about and if they do I don't see it doing anything to their supporters. If they want to move into the area they will talk about how all non straight cis whites are parasites regardless of how hard the people of the area are working.
I also didn't think it would need to be specified that the charity would try to help people find work. To me it goes without saying that a charity in a dperived area like this would provide employment services to help people get back into work and break the poverty cycle. I'll add something to make that a bit clearer though.
I feel like that ship kinda sailed when we picked zenith caste at chargen. Honestly I like this over a more standard cape story, there's already a lot of stories about Taylor punching people I like having some story beats dedicated to punching poverty instead.
Last edited:
Worm does not really need more better or better intentioned bureaucrats, it needs someone to punch the unkilable monsters in the head until they stop moving. We can all putter around and act like rehabilitating former Merchants is a good use of her time, but at the end of the day it's not. Everything we do in that regard is more of a hobby and an indulgence of her investiture than meaningful progress on the scale of the power she holds.
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I would argue that the wormvers kinda does need better bureaucrats. On the scale of the total number of people in the world the endbringers aren't actually killing that many. The real damage they do is the destabilising effects of their attacks exacerbating the general social collapse parahumans are causing. Yes they need punching but punching them without reversing the social decline is pointless just as reversing the social decline without punching them is pointless. Thankfully Taylor can in fact do both and is rewarded for doing both.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I want to get away from this attitude a little bit, in part because I think it's not really conducive to the quest but also, like the idea that only combat-oriented exalts are useful in worm is just not true. Remember that in canon, Scion got socialed to death.
Also this, yeah. Your progression speed is very fast, fast enough that you can afford to not monofocus on combat or social or sorcery and instead can feasibly be good at many things
Endbringers are going to wipe out modern civilization in a matter of decades, take them out and Cauldron can right the ship in the macro sense, they are already a transdimensional conspiracy with far more leverage to apply bureaucracy charms than Taylor ever will be unless we join them.
Of course all this is moot unless someone can either talk down or kill Scion in a matter of years.
I mean, not really it is quite easy way to grind "EXP" and will probably make taking reigns a bit easier. Also, Worm really needs more better-intentioned leaders; while Zion is the end game, we can probably delay him by a decade if we get rid of Jack Slash when he, the psychopath that he is, inevitably comes when/if we get rid off gangs and make BB a better place.
For Endbirngers we aren't guaranteed to face them in BB (although we could ask the QM), but even then we can afford a bit of the wait, us going social has another possible bonus:
There is a chance that more exalted will come, it isn't a certainty but if we can get BB to be a better place we could rise chances to get more solar, maybe. I am not sure how becoming exalted works.
Fair enough, in that case I don't have issues for primary focusing on charity, but I would add something about cleaning up the staches of guns/money/drugs with police or PRT it would make a good PR and probably limit the amount of drugs and guns entering the circulation with dissolution of Merchants (also getting Police or one of the 3 leters agencies on their suppliers if they were importing stuff would help)
And social Taylor will probably rule the eastern seaboard of North America in those decades with all the EXP coming with it, also Culdron is very much a problem, they are following orders of 1 normal lady and Contassa (who could be compromised given that her powers are from Entity which aren't exactly known for creating stable societies, not to mention that Culdron frankly could very much descent into tyranny if Contessa snaps.
Also, they are quite frankly stupid. Why is BB an experiment to see how parahuman fuedalism would work? The thing they are trying to test is already happening in Africa just an ocean away, not to mention that with internet still running and that alternative world ruled by Goddess.
They are frankly way over their head and I would not trust them at all with restoring the society when Zion kicks the bucket, I dare say that the society will probably look a lot like the one shown in 1984, because that's stable society which is what Path to victory is likely to be asked to do.
Last edited:
Sol is unlikely to control exaltations. If he had them, he'd have thrown them out already, that is his nature. Also Taylor's was in a box in Heaven which implied the Sidereals/Cauldron have them.
thewhiteraven22
(Unverified Worm Fanatic)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
Ok reading about what kind of Solar would work in worm got me and let me say that actually the people that said botj will work is right, like if Taylor tries to be a beurocrat she will not juts be a good one but a perfect one that can literally talk no jutsu villains and guide parahumans to vicotry against Endbringers, also monofocusing in Exalted doesnt work that well as it appears actually being a jack of all trades goes better for the mayority of exalted (specially since Taylor is only one)
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
[x][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[x] Before the fight do our best to pump up Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice. Try to weaken his intimacy of self loathing and instill an intimacy of "I can be a hero"
-[x] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Ask Mush to share any intimacies/virtues he's aware of we could target for this on the way over so we can tailor our approach.
-[x] Use instant training to purchase Orichalcum Battle Soul.
[x][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
-[x] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they are interested in helping out, especially try to get Panacea to do a few sessions helping addicts with withdrawl, focusing on those most likely to suffer lethal effects.
-[x] Ask Dad to help with the legal/orginizational side of things
-[x] Look for Corporate sponsors or donations as well as personal ones.
-[x] Where possible try to get locals involved in helping with the aim of building a sense of community in the area.
How do you do that underline-y bit?
Also, this seems like a good chance to talk about Spells. The usual disclaimer of 'I do not know how this works in Exalted Essence' applies but the general of the intent of the spells are probably still applicable.
- Unbreakable Bones of Stone: Improves Brute rating, reduces wound penalties, ignores fall damage and turns eyes to marble while skin becomes cold as stone. If we want to improve our Brute rating there are charms that would do this as well, and likely longer-term (is Hardness a thing in ExEss?) but this would likely stack with them. If you wanted to double down, there is also the Invulnerable Skin of Bronze to go for a pseudo-Weld build
- Violent Opening of Portals: As the name implies, it opens portals violently. It's a spell that lets you do the 'FBI, OPEN UP!' meme in real life. I don't see an immediate benefit to Taylor getting this, as 'doors being closed' doesn't seem like a problem she'd have to deal with very often (superstrength is a reasonably common power after all) and this is more meant for stuff like 'surprise battering ram the city gates'.
- Lightning Spider: Doc Ock movement (which is cool), and in 2e included short-lived Lightning Silk dragline (lasted the length of the scene). Interesting mobility options, but unless we wanted to focus on grappling or make a habit of fighting Spider-Man I'd hold off (even if it's pretty cool) as other mobility options exist just from Solar Athletics.
- Burning Eyes of the Offender; give penalties to people looking at you while you fight. You can avoid these penalties by closing your eyes or looking away, but then you're fighting blind.
- Corrupted Words: you can name a topic and someone basically vomits slugs (metaphorically...probably) if they try to talk about that. It's phrased as a "keep secrets" spell but let's be honest; if Nazis are going to vomit bile at a rally they can at least have the decency to vomit bile at their rally. Forbidding Kaiser from discussing "minorities in America" should probably earn Taylor a medal or something.
- Curtain of Quartz; debuffs people's combat abilities within a certain area around the caster. Immaterial attacks get a further debuff, so if Purity is trying to Kamehameha Taylor this would be useful for that.
- Disguise of the New Face: I'd ask for clarification on how this compares to Flawlessly Impenetrable Disguise, but regardless it helps you disguise someone (not just yourself) as someone else with a potentially high degree of fidelity (not just appearance, but fingerprints, mannerisms, smell, etc). If we want to walk Dinah out of her cell, sneak into a top secret PRT meeting, or just make Krieg goe through life as a strong black woman who doesn't need this sort of treatmen, we can do that.
- Dragon of Smoke and Flame: lets us call up a little guy to help us find a location with non-unique properties (variable difficulty; water in a forest is easy, water in a desert is difficult) and also helps provide illumination at night. It doesn't help with unique stuff ("Squealer's lab" is a no-go) unless you already know it and just need help getting back there, nor does it help you find magically hidden locations (unless you're the one who hid them). Useful if we want to hunt for jade deposits, otherwise modern tools allow us to do a lot of this without needing to buy a spell.
- Food from the Aerial Table: feed a number of people (exact numbers vary, could be 'a handful' to 'an army' depending on the exact version of the spell). Useful in disaster response where normal logistics are compromised, but not something we need immediately.
- Fugue of Truth: enter a fugue state to better see through deceptions, illusions, manipulation, disguises and dissembling, plus it lets you read motivations much easier. Physical actions are impaired (you're in a fugue state) but if we expect to do investigative work it can be quite handy.
- Incantation of Effective Restoration: If you have more than half a mundane object or its remains, you can restore it to good as new (the ashes of a book restored to fresh from the printers was the given example). For magitech (which I presume Tikertech counts as) you have to target each component individually and it undoes wear and tear and damage but does not restore consumables like fuel or lubricants, and only works to the best of your learned ability. Using this cuts maintenance time by half (under 2e). If we're going to be dealing with Tinkers this seems like the kind of thing they'd promise extravagant things for, and is probably a strong bargaining chip for 'you can trust me with Kid Win's blasters'.
- Invocation of the Living Ship: Ship becomes possessed of a vigorous spirit that either supplants or supplements a ship's crew and can basically sail itself. I want to restore the ships in the Boat Graveyard and do a Working installing this onto each of them as part of an effort to restore Brockton Bay's ports.
- Ritual of Elemental Empowerment: Lets you ritually enchant a mundane item to have attributes associated with one of the five Gaian elements (Earth, Air, Wood, Fire, Water) provided it's not already enchanted and you can lift it easily with one hand. (Whether or not Tinker tech counts as 'already enchanted' is a mystery at the moment)
- Earth: items become heavier, tougher and more resistant to change (ie, weapons don't need sharpening and tools don't wear out)
- Air: Items become lighter, move easier and clothing thus enchanted helps keep you cool. Weapons add cold damage, and while not explicitly mentioned there is enough "air = lightning" going around that you can make an argument for 'batteries recharge themselves automatically' or something similar
- Wood: Item repairs itself over time, you can probably argue for replenishment of poisons or medicine as well
- Fire: Items become immune to fire (this is not automatically conferred to their wearer/weilder, but do offer bonuses to keeping warm), weapons add fire damage to them
- Water: Items have limited shape-changing ability (clothes change their cut but remain made of the same fabric, weapons can change what they're made of but you could probably disguise a handgun as a big ornate belt buckle, etc)
- Mists of Eventide; people caught in the area of effect fall asleep 'until the sun passes the horizon twice' ie "dawn or dusk, whichever happens second". Magical beings like Exalts get a roll to resist the effect and things like robots and the undead aren't effected, but regular mortals just go out like a light for 12+ hours. Seems like a good way to avoid a fight.
- Emerald Circle Countermagic: either nearly useless or invaluable, depending on whether it can effect persistent parahuman effects like Grey Boy loops or Mama Mathers' insane-o-vision. Likewise Emerald Circle Banishment for summoned minions.
- Private Plaza of Downcast Eyes: Wards an area against scrying and teleportation. There's an outside chance this includes mundane espionage effects like survaillance cameras, but it's meant for blocking things like Clairvoyant's omniscience and Gallant's emotions sense. (or, more to the point, Oni Lee showing up using means other than walking through the door)
- The Sacred Tongue: Creates a mask that lets anything the caster speak to anything with a language (potentially including Endbringers and Entities, but that's a judgement call) and offers some social boosts (people find it difficult to ignore your words)
- Shadow Summons: if you have an arcane link (hair or blood is the most likely but there's probably other options) you can snatch up someone's shadow and either have it deliver a message (ie, a social attack) or destroy the shadow leaving the subject wracked with pain for a week and it takes the shadow a month to regrow.
- Silent Words of Dreams and Nightmares: Send people dreams, allows for social attacks.
- The Spy Who Walks In Darkness: Burn up your own shadow and send it scouting, it's close to invisible so long as there are dark places and it can go places that are locked up. (It still triggers magical wards and defenses if they're there, not sure how things like motion sensors count). Can only be cast on nights of the full moon, spy lasts for a few days, has some difficult resource requirements ('clay from a cave that has never seen the sun' etc), you lose your shadow while it's on deployment
- Theft of Memory: Take a memory from someone and trap it in an emerald. The person no longer has that memory, but anyone can review the memory in question if they hold the emerald and think about it. You can cast this subtly (if you aren't in combat) but have to know what the memory you want to recover is.
- Demon of the First Circle
- Summon a Demon of the First Circle from Malfeas to be bound and do your bidding for a period of up to a year and a day. The demon isn't passive-aggressive and recalcitrant about it - they genuinely do want to play ball, unless you've called up a specific demon you have a history with or you're trying to get the wrong demon for the job - but they tend to have an alien mindset and require certain precautions and accommodations (example; one demon must scream in terror for an hour every day because it saw its own horrible fate and no amount of mind control can compel it not to, one goes crazy if it's not fully immersed in seawater every day, another is mortally offended if a child laughs where it can hear it, etc). Improving Sagacity ought to keep us informed of the common demons' quirks (they're frequently useful, and thus more frequently summoned and more frequently have records of how the summoning went.
- Jeweled Wasps: Very attractive flying wasp that considers it an honor to be a flying mount, but is mortally offended if you ride something else (horse, bike, taxi, etc) and will attack it in a jealous rage (the taxi, not the driver). Commonly talk philosophy.
- Stomach Bottle Bugs: Purifiers that can turn the most vile sewage or filth into clean water (or other similar substance), usually summoned to act as medics because they can mend flesh and eat poisons. They become greatly aggreived if they aren't allowed to remove a taint on something (like preserving a crime scene), also enjoy alcohol (they turn it into water)
- Demon Spiders: More a classification than a specific breed, they're called up for a variety of reasons but common ones include 'guard a location', 'kidnap/assassinate a specific person' and 'I want to harvest your venom'. Almost all can produce a strong silk, the example breed listed in Roll of Glorious Divinity is physically pained by a dog's bark (and would either flee or attack).
- Passion Morays: translucent eel things that 'swim' through the air, they sniff out memories with a lot of emotion and devour them. They can't move through metal (and tin is deadly) but can spit back up someone else's memories before digesting them (though they hate to do it)
- Living Armors: They live as a second skin on you and act as another layer of defense (in 2e they increase your Soak) and can act as translators (and presumably language instructors). They're very superstitious (not without cause) and react poorly to ill omens
- I'm leaving out a lot of 'this demon is good at combat for X reason' stuff, but suffice to say you have plenty of options for good stuff even without dipping into well-made fan write-ups. However, if we did decide we needed a mile-long brass centipede to do our bidding (or what have you) we have stats for those. Moreover, when you have a problem with a demon the answer very often is 'there is a demon that can solve this problem'. There was an example I read where you could have demon smiths that require sexual gratification satisfied with demon courtisans paid in company credit (they demand payment) and fed by demon minors singing ore into existance, everything kept on track by demon bureaucrats...etc. Get too many demons in a location and there are problems, but as a Zenith Taylor is better prepared than most to deal with them.
- Summon Elemental
- In some ways a poorer version of Demon of the First Circle given they can't be bound for a full year and have to be treated with at least a modicum of dignity. However having several of them gathered in one spot doesn't risk Omen Weather and there's almost as many uses for elementals as there are for demons. I list here a sample of Elementals, but there are lots of them to work with and they range from 'darn useful' to 'why would we ever need this?' like avalanche beetles.
- Mercury Ants: Their bite has some interesting properties, including transmuting metals (lead into gold is explicitly mentioned), acting as an aphrodisiac and being used in a potion that basically Flowers for Algernon's you. They don't like surface-dwellers, but they'll generally do as they're told if you summoned them as they're used to servitude (...they're ants). They're also adept at alchemical work if necessary.
- Flame Duck; we can literally just call up a pyrokinetic and ask her to be a freelance hero. I'm sure this won't have any complications whatsoever. Likewise Ifrit, and they're noted to be common team-ups in the South.
- Undertows; unobtrusive, slightly paranoid collectors of secrets. Communicate telepathically (it's not an exact science) and they're willing to trade secrets but have no real context for how valuable any given secret is; "Alexandria is part of a dimension-spanning cabal trying to kill Scion" is just as likely to come out of its mouth as "The guy at the ice cream parlor whose nametag says Jeff is actually named Geoff, he just got tired of people struggling with his name".
- Stick People; basically Baby Groot. Their sap makes them seem trustworthy, and most humans find them unbearably cute. They're more mischievous than malicious but they've got the attention span of a small child.
- Not a sincere recommendation, but it amuses me that if we bound a Fire Butterfly to seduce Lung the senior ABB leadership could be preoccupied for potentially an entire month. If they're also bound to report everything they've learned afterwards then it might even count as a honeypot assignment (though given the shallow and vain nature of Fire Butterflies I doubt it'd be of great use)
Assuming that thaumaturgy is permitted in at least some respects (even if it's something like "first you must get the Chaos-Repelling Pattern to make the local vicinity work under Creation's rules"), what I have in mind is:
- Silk production (this can probably be done with just Bestial Traits Technique/other 'talk to critters' charm), allowing for selling silk for heroic use, also probably has fashion consequences. If we talk to Parian about it ahead of time we can possibly release something like a line of spider silk vests for VIPs to better resist assassinations (resistance against knives and low caliber bullets while still being regular clothing, so you can add other protections on top of that without undue complications. Probably employs a handful of people (and I'd be surprised if there wasn't something like a monthly inspection by an exterminator or something) but the real gain here is cash influx and giving a valuable product that is difficult to replicate elsewhere.
- There are plenty of other animals to harvest stuff from that would benefit from such a setup, like getting horseshoe crab blood for anti-coagulants or harvesting venom from snakes to make antivenin. Just reducing the risk of getting bitten by snakes likely would make insurance for the snake-milkers so much easier. (Not going to lie though, I'm certainly open to suggestions here)
- Orichalcum/Tumbaga production, both for personal use and limited production for heroes. Orichalcum (also called Wish Metal or Holy Gold) is made from gold ingots and smelted down in a specific way to make one of the Magical Materials. It's a pretty darn good material for whatever you want (hence the 'wish metal' appelation) and I think we might be able to get Sundancer gainfully employed working that particular foundry. Tumbaga is cheaper (similar process but it's an alloy of gold and copper, used to train apprentices) and less overwhelmingly capable, but still a darn good material. This might be a way to employ metallurges or other metalworkers, as well as the kind of capes that could do something like 'pull a half ton diamond from the Earth's core every weekend' that are encouraged not to disrupt the metals markets. If that is a difficulty, we can make use of Mercury Ants to transmute scrap metal into golden ingots.
- there is also Hepatizon, made from bronze, blood and bile but it's Malfean in origin and I don't know if we want to play that game. Assuming we do, setting up near food processing plants to harvest the blood and bile of livestock is probably worth considering.
- Alchemical medicines like Seven Bounties Pastes and Age-Staving Cordial. May require a chat with Panacea to make some of the crops we need ("orchids that only bloom in moonlight" etc), but being able to produce something that mitigates 80% of the side-effects of chemo-therapy or just makes people heal four times faster would do a fair bit of good. Also Armsmaster is not allowed the 'go immediately into REM sleep' potion, as it is one that you have to test addiction against. Employ people managing the manufacture of the product, the sale of the product, and security of the above.
There are more than a few custom-made spells from talented folks for other effects, ranging from 'enchant an artisan's manufactory to let the workers compete with automated factories for output' to 'talk to Second Circle Demons without having to summon them (allowing you to negotiate with them ahead of time for their service or just maintain a long-distance relationship)'.
Gosh, that sounds pretty darn convenient. (It's probably a good thing we have that Brute rating though)
So, who's for getting the Navigate skill sooner rather than later?
The more things change....
Also, we might want to consider including some glowing lights or something to our uniform if we expect to patrol at night so we're easily seen. It'd be embarrassing to have a traffic accident, you know?
I low key expected him to find someone else who just hadn't seen the business-end of soap for months.
It's good to see Taylor seeing what rock bottom looks like and rejecting it on principle. (Is the anti-hierarchical intimacy permanent or is it possible, if unlikely, for someone to convince her that some hierarchy is good actually? Likewise does it mean she rejects the notion of experts in a field having more say than laymen, or is my advice on how to run a hospital as good as a surgeon's?)
This! This is what Bet needs. This is what Brockton Bay needs. It's hope, that terrible poison. It's idealism, the foolish notion. The absurd thought that tomorrow can be better than today, that the answer to pain and misery and violence is perhaps not to perpetuate it, for what else is there, but to rekindle that ember of something better that does more to thwart the Ebon Dragon than a thousand mighty spears.
The world needs more of this.
"We're going to save...everybody."
Skidmark fight; I'm thinking ask Mush to call Skidmark and tell him there's a new cape that was asking about the Merchants and wanted to talk. See if you can set up a meeting, they get to choose the place. Meanwhile we call the PRT and tell them what they're up to, ask if they want to wrap up the Merchants tonight and that Mush wants to come in (and that you think you might be able to convince Squealer as well). Hopefully there won't be a fight, or not much of one, but if there is having reinforcements just a block or two away would make things easier. You're not interested in the credit, you just want the situation resolved compassionately.
Cleanup, a mix of all three options seems prudent. Starting up a charity or Go Fund Me or whatever not just for this specific project but for Zenith's superheroing career is probably smart, but talking to business leaders and politicians (talk to Danny for suggestions on who to engage with) about how to handle tangible problems while going out to publicize it (and thus give the politicians the public momentum they need to effect change) has a synergistic effect. Likewise, if we purchase Body Purifying Admonitions (or whatever the ExEss equivalent is) to help treat Poison effects and just "Begone, thought!" the addictions, that's going to do a lot to raise our profile and help keep the addicts from slinking off to the ABB or Empire or whomever else to get their fix now the Merchants are gone.
This seems like a great charm to get, but I'm not certain we really need it right now; our combat charms make us a low-tier Brute already (defensive more than offensive, admittedly, but it's not like we need much offensive punch to take down Skidmark as his power doesn't give him a defensive boost), we have Best Doggo and Mush vs him. So long as we play defense while Eurus works to flank him and get him too busy to lay down his AoEs we should be good.
I'm more concerned about being able to convince Squealer to flip. A battered girlfriend usually is reluctant to leave if she has internalized the abuse, and that probably isn't the only hold Skidmark has over her; the gang is full of drug addicts and getting a valuable Tinker hooked on something only you can easily supply seems like a control method that Skidmark would have few qualms with.
She can clean up the body but the problem is mostly in the brain (and she doesn't do those). I also don't want to volunteer her for anything, as that's leaning on her power set and given her burnout issues that seems...fraught.
However I doubt we'll get everyone off their drug of choice soon, so bringing it up after getting introduced to the New Wave crowd seems like it might be possible.
Sidereal'd!
Flight of the Brilliant Raptor is an ideal spell for urban pacification efforts and I will hear no word of logic spoken against it. /joke
Ironically my preferred 'combat spell' is "a quintet of Hounds of Five Winds told to 'sic 'em'."
I don't know about waiting for the Nine, but yeah; "why are we bringing the Thinker along? She just does social stuff and it's not like we're going to invite Behemoth to a tea party and convince him to change his ways"/"holy shit we gotta take her to every fight (why is she sandbagging like that against the small fry back home?)"
Could you explain what you mean here? I know that Taylor would be an amazing charity organizer (because Solar) but is that something she needs to focus her own time on, or just convince people that are already doing that sort of thing to help with this specific problem?
Sol explicitly cannot control Exaltations, as they were created for the Divine Rebellion and he could have been compelled to either not hand them out or hand them out only to Primordial-loyalists. Them being out of his hands is a feature, not a bug.
I'm going to give it a think before voting.
- Location
- Denial
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's abbreviation under the spanner and screwdriver icon at the top of the reply box. the code is:
Code:
[ABBR="this shows up when you hover"]underlined text[/ABBR]Expanding a bit on my logic for these two, aside from the obvious breaching being just plain cool, which will always somewhat influence my choices, the main reason I actually want VOoP is for the ability to blow a way out of environmental hazards which should hopefully give us a way out of shaker effects we might otherwise get trapped in.
For LS sure we could increase athletics purchase some charms and get much better options, and long term I agree we should, but LS is a very cheap way to get good enough right now mobility letting us put off that part of our build while we pick up other more urgent charms and ability increases
Most of the spells you mentioned aren't in Exalted Essence but lots of them seem pretty handy and useful enough to ask Abzan for a conversion. CW in particular is an absolute fuck yes for when we declare war on the Empire. I love it, thank you for introducing me.
These two aren't spells in EE, you need to have the Sorcerous Initiation charm and Sagacity 3 and at that point you get access to the ability to summon without needing a charm or spell purchase. I really want to hit that ability ASAP and will be advocating and voting to spend our next 2 minor milestones getting Sagacity high enough.
Before this I wanted to spend our next personal milestone on an Ox Body repurchase but this does make me think we should grab Navigate 1 just so Taylor can look a bit more competent while riding. Of course Craft 1 feels like it could be useful for the charity so could be more of an immediate concern. Ultimately I think we should be purchasing all of these, so to me this is just an ordering issue and I'll be happy whatever wins on this front.
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/Her
As Jreengus said, many of those are not canon to Exalted Essence, but I'm happy to do some homebrew. And summoning is a basic function of sorcery once you have Sagacity 3, no extra charms or spells needed.
The intimacy is not necessarily permanent, but Taylor's resolve is high so changing her mind is difficult. And she's a budding anarchist, not a cardboard cutout of one. So she doesn't reject expertise, she rejects the notion that some people should have power over others.
Her beliefs will probably be clarified once the quest has time for her to do a little research and cohere her vague principles and past-life memories into a clear ideology. That'll probably be part of what she does in figuring out what to do with the Merchants' leftovers regardless of which route you take.
)