Archangelsk which for some reason is called Archangel in Dresdenverse, right? On one hand it makes sense. On another, it incredibly doesn't, given a large force infiltrating Hidden Halls, and parasitic nature of True Magi organization. Something to think about later. Maybe if and once we have some breathing room, we could explore some of the mysteries of Russia.
Mistress of Copper Mountains could be a useful contact, and
Ivan the Terrible's lost library probably has some valuable knowledge.
It's also an arc (that, I am noting, only took what, a week in-story? Less for the active part) whichc is basically a rehearsal for Apocalypse for a lot of people in power. And where Molly really gets to show off. Because I am fairly sure that Merlin wasn't actually grokking Molly at all.
There's a whole combination of charms that feed upon themselves and each other to deprogram Denarian victims. Theft as release as we physically separate them from their coin, reinforced by Night Swallows secrets (because taking the coin is a distressing and illegal act), a Cold and Lonely World on the angel (since it doesn't affect the victim, but the world, the angels shouldn't have perfect defenses against those) to get the victims away from the coin. Golden Years Tarnished Black to tarnish the memories. Dissonant Lies Made True on the victim under the effects of the previously mentioned charms to reinforce them. Etc.
In general we have a lot of therapeutic charm combinations. Like Naked Wicked Souls + Night Swallows Secrets.
More than loot. As uju previously noted, wizards normally are all about multigenerational wealth, prep, estates, and having assets. With so many of the traitors dying, and their organization collapsing due to being destroyed, at least some of those assets, including real estates, stocks, ownership rights, etc should be up for grabs. And with BMI + Crown + cyberdevils we should be able to pick those up fairly trivially. Premade corporate networks should be a huge grab.
Yeah, GYTB has always been great for therapy, used properly.
I wonder what sort of minerals the Mistress could offer as a trading partner? Mordite is the only Dresdenverse material I personally know of (and I know Hades utterly baffled Harry by having a crown of floating Mordite spheres - it's not safe to be close to the stuff), so there's the magical materials (possibly, in very small quantities) and… what, mithril? Adamantine? Generic mystical coppers? She seems like she's going to be powerful, if we find her (and she might be very interested in Molly's own supermaterials).
Also, yes. All my yes. Stealing any magic items is tradition, but dropping five minutes to steal all the money of the warlocks, if the White Council doesn't make a play for it? Yes.
Unless they do. Not because we don't have Loot Rights for the warlocks we killed, but because the money (while likely enough to help us change institutions and set up our own) is quite possibly the least difficult resource we can acquire at the moment. A Big Score is a one-off, and one that gets attention, but for an AP, we can just… win the lottery. Meanwhile, In The Sky A Thousand Eyes gives us huge amounts of data for tracking red court activities, general societal trends (GPS, financial data, etc) and would likely make it very easy for Clippy to track down some Epstein-tier billionaire, steal all the money in his offshore accounts, and then expose his crimes and save his victims (possibly exposing more red court/warlock/other secret cabal network; this is a WoD cross, and I guarantee that - Penthex or no - there will be supernaturals using powerful criminals as useful pawns).
And heck, who knows what we could make of Molly's new film studio if we had the time to bother with it - although ideally we'd go for Arcane-quality and not Hollywood mass-produced money grubbing.
It's still major, and if they aren't focused on the money as 'unimportant' compared to the major tragedy they almost went through and the war against the Red Court, we absolutely need to steal the money. Especially if we can do it without it really being brought to their attention as an Important Thing of Note. But favor with the wizard army is still more important than money - even if they are infiltrated to a frustrating degree, they have Somewhat Ancient Lore, a bunch of powerful spellcasters who don't run out of power, and heavy hitters like Listens-To-Wind or McCoy to maintain their place at the table.
I don't blame him. It's one thing to hear about potential and can speculate how x was done. It's another thing to see an evil archmage reduced to the status of a novice mage by one curse. And then so scared that he calls an angel to try to save his ass. And then the angel, after initially accepting the claims after a couple of sentences, changes her mind on the spot.
Not to mention Morgan and the others' reports of how Molly pulled off a god theft and casually won a duel with a death orb. And then made the fallen escape with the help of wizard team. And how her team took out Peabody. My personal guess is that the White Council thought Molly's main threat was her minions and armies. And she was either limited like the gods and fairies or not strong enough to tip the balance of power by herself. Now they'll have to re-evaluate that. Especially if we resurrect the fallen wizards.
Yeah, compared to the DF crew, we come off like Ethniu. Which is kinda funny, because in terms of the three Solaroids, Infernals really are the Logistics Masters. Individual charms that have effects tend to be a lot better - look at Ghost Eating Technique Vs Murder is Meat. Roll against 6 instead of enemy WP, regain 3 motes instead of 2, and instead of being physically fed or empowering their nonexistent Shintai, they can gain a game changer against incorporeal spirits. Peony Blossom Vs Thousandfold Typhoon Hand. Their crafting boosts are X2 or x4 infernal speed, and so on.
But Solars don't get an army from nothing without Wyld-Shaping, and they're dependent on Dragon Nests. Meanwhile, Molly can just jump in bleach to regain her Essence, and Craft inside her soul before teleporting anywhere in the world with her army as long as the right music is playing. And prayer eating - which could work with our FCoF denizens - is cheaper for us to buy than it is for Solars. Where Solars have to sink into Akasha for skills and then wander off with charms active to investigate, Molly can use her Crown.
So in a way, the wizards got us right. But our relative advantage among Exalts isn't the same as an Exalt's advantages among mortals.
Which serves as a good jumping point for another question on the Crown. DragonParadox, seeing as how the rules say
we can ask a question of a Scene, itself... "An object, **situation**, or individual."
Can we forge a crown-question link by spilling water on someone, then asking questions of the spill related to the person being spilled on, as well as of their clothes, the water soaked into them, and so on? That would be lovely, and it would fit with Molly taking advantage of Arcane Links… and it shouldn't unbalance things too much, since A) we can already do things like use Mister to learn about Mab, and B) We'd need to be in their presence to make it count. Mostly, it'd just be a way to keep checking up on Harry - make him a brand new origami bracelet, put it on his wrist, and ask the Bracelet what's wrong with its wearer
this time. (Or, if he's struggling to learn a skill - a spell, or some aspect of Essence use - how to help with that. It makes the crown into excellent stunt-fodder for training, because it can be used more than once!)
And it's a source of fun writing and intrigue as well - making use of this weird property without letting people know what you're doing, since you've met them and don't want to lose the ability to ask a question about them if you don't know what they're wearing (in case you want to know where they are/what's their weakness/etc).
