Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
The thought that Lasciel didn't want to pass the knowledge on to her shadow is a lot more comforting than the possibility that she was also ignorant of what went on here.
So Molly now knows. She knows that she is immune from the Sands of Time killing her this is the first time I think in story that she's been confronted with the fact that she is immortal in the way that most people mean immortal in the way of undying / being unfazed by ages passing rather than immune to death altogether.
If she knew she was a immortal beforehand please someone tell me but I'm pretty sure this is the first time she comes across that knowledge in character as far as I know.
If she knew she was a immortal beforehand please someone tell me but I'm pretty sure this is the first time she comes across that knowledge in character as far as I know.
Ivar
Dark Reaper
- Location
- Russia Moscow
It's very strong symbolism, but all I can think of when talking about a giant corpse being turned into a portal to the world of the dead is Elden Ring and the prince of the undead who became the tree of death... I wonder why the symbolism of the ruler is needed, if it is needed at all.
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So, just checking - we have left the Sanctuary team back at the entrance, right? Do they have standing orders to evacuate the area?
Yes and no they do not, you made a perimeter they are going to wait for you.
Ok, so, are we walking upon the corpse of the Eyeless Face? That... fits, I guess? For the record, this is where Eyeless Face is referenced in the books:
If not Eyeless Face, and it's indeed a corpse of a Primordial, my best guess would be Autochton, because of the crown - as far as I can remember, there are only two Primordials with the title king - Malfeas, and Autochton (King of All Craftsmen). I could also buy this being an E10 alchemical, but the being is not nearly mechanical / clay looking enough, I think.
That's assuming it is a canon entity at all, of course, instead of, for example, a devil-tiger.
@DragonParadox what does Molly, and, I guess, Tiffany, think of praying for guidance here, in terms of the Rules? The last time we did something that might have woken up a Neverborn, the word of a known outsider cultist was enough to call in an angel. Lydia talking to what might be one would certainly wake it up in some manner at least. So, would angels be allowed / be likely to respond to a prayer-question of "will talking to this thing pose similar danger / break similar bindings as the one on the being sleeping under Ebon Road?". Not a crown question, a question directed to angelic host.
Outside Creation, Elsewhere, lies a vast, longbanished
intelligence: the Eyeless Face. In the time
since the Solars banished it and its race from the world,
its once-raging anger has cooled and frozen into an
icy, abiding hatred. The Eyeless Face cannot escape
the perfect bindings placed upon it, and though its
servant-limbs are bound to the will of its jailers and
may be pulled from its prison at whim, the behemoth
itself cannot—must not—be released by external forces.
Nevertheless, by the end of the First Age, its jailers'
heirs had found a use for it.
The sorcerer makes the familiar pool of oil used to
call forth the lesser and greater minions of the Eyeless
Face, but instead of pulling anything out, she enters it
herself. An hour passes, and she emerges… changed.
Though she remains recognizable as the person she
was, the skin of her body darkens and grows slightly
refl ective, while the skin of her face pales. Her eyes
become sunken orbs of white as her pupils and irises
vanish. She unconsciously mutes her motions, and her
posture grows unnaturally still. At the back of her mind,
she hears whispered hatreds and seductive assurances
of her own superiority. While under the effects of the
spell, she benefi ts from the following:
92
• If her Compassion is 3 or greater, she need no
longer fail Compassion checks to avoid adhering to
that Virtue. If Compassion is the Virtue associated
with her Virtue Flaw, however, she automatically
gains a point of Limit in situations where she would
have had to roll.
• Calling forth a batch of greater minions of the
Eyeless Face no longer murders any lesser minions she
had under her power, and vice versa, though she may
still have only one batch of greater minions and one
batch of lesser at any one time. Lesser minions under
her power begin to heal as mortals.
• The sorcerer gains perfect knowledge of the
location of each of her greater and lesser minions, as
well as peripheral awareness of their muted, enslaved
hopes and fears. If anyone addresses one of her minions
as if it were her, she knows it instinctively.
• By spending one mote, the character may shift
her senses into the body of any of the minions of the
Eyeless Face under her power. While this power is in
effect, if the subject is a greater minion, she may speak
in her voice through its mouth.
• By spending 20 motes, she may usurp the body of
any of the minions of the Eyeless Face under her power,
effectively taking its place. Her old body crumbles to
dust while her Exaltation and both her souls depart,
traveling instantly to her new body and bonding with
it as it shifts in form to match her appearance. This
journey/transformation moves only the sorcerer herself
and not her apparel or any of her belongings. It breaks
any artifact attunements she has but otherwise has
no long-lasting side effects of which the Solars of the
First Age were aware.
Invoking the Eyeless Face lasts until it is subject
to Adamant Countermagic. During the late First Age,
rumors persisted of another spell, which allowed sorcerers
to use the effects of Invoking the Eyeless Face
on each others' minions. These rumors made it into
at least three surviving pieces of popular fi ction written
by Terrestrial Exalted during the early Shogunate
period, detailing the horrors of the First Age and the
infi ghting between the Solar Anathema. No records
confi rm the spell's existence, however, not even The
Book of Three Circles itself.
intelligence: the Eyeless Face. In the time
since the Solars banished it and its race from the world,
its once-raging anger has cooled and frozen into an
icy, abiding hatred. The Eyeless Face cannot escape
the perfect bindings placed upon it, and though its
servant-limbs are bound to the will of its jailers and
may be pulled from its prison at whim, the behemoth
itself cannot—must not—be released by external forces.
Nevertheless, by the end of the First Age, its jailers'
heirs had found a use for it.
The sorcerer makes the familiar pool of oil used to
call forth the lesser and greater minions of the Eyeless
Face, but instead of pulling anything out, she enters it
herself. An hour passes, and she emerges… changed.
Though she remains recognizable as the person she
was, the skin of her body darkens and grows slightly
refl ective, while the skin of her face pales. Her eyes
become sunken orbs of white as her pupils and irises
vanish. She unconsciously mutes her motions, and her
posture grows unnaturally still. At the back of her mind,
she hears whispered hatreds and seductive assurances
of her own superiority. While under the effects of the
spell, she benefi ts from the following:
92
• If her Compassion is 3 or greater, she need no
longer fail Compassion checks to avoid adhering to
that Virtue. If Compassion is the Virtue associated
with her Virtue Flaw, however, she automatically
gains a point of Limit in situations where she would
have had to roll.
• Calling forth a batch of greater minions of the
Eyeless Face no longer murders any lesser minions she
had under her power, and vice versa, though she may
still have only one batch of greater minions and one
batch of lesser at any one time. Lesser minions under
her power begin to heal as mortals.
• The sorcerer gains perfect knowledge of the
location of each of her greater and lesser minions, as
well as peripheral awareness of their muted, enslaved
hopes and fears. If anyone addresses one of her minions
as if it were her, she knows it instinctively.
• By spending one mote, the character may shift
her senses into the body of any of the minions of the
Eyeless Face under her power. While this power is in
effect, if the subject is a greater minion, she may speak
in her voice through its mouth.
• By spending 20 motes, she may usurp the body of
any of the minions of the Eyeless Face under her power,
effectively taking its place. Her old body crumbles to
dust while her Exaltation and both her souls depart,
traveling instantly to her new body and bonding with
it as it shifts in form to match her appearance. This
journey/transformation moves only the sorcerer herself
and not her apparel or any of her belongings. It breaks
any artifact attunements she has but otherwise has
no long-lasting side effects of which the Solars of the
First Age were aware.
Invoking the Eyeless Face lasts until it is subject
to Adamant Countermagic. During the late First Age,
rumors persisted of another spell, which allowed sorcerers
to use the effects of Invoking the Eyeless Face
on each others' minions. These rumors made it into
at least three surviving pieces of popular fi ction written
by Terrestrial Exalted during the early Shogunate
period, detailing the horrors of the First Age and the
infi ghting between the Solar Anathema. No records
confi rm the spell's existence, however, not even The
Book of Three Circles itself.
If not Eyeless Face, and it's indeed a corpse of a Primordial, my best guess would be Autochton, because of the crown - as far as I can remember, there are only two Primordials with the title king - Malfeas, and Autochton (King of All Craftsmen). I could also buy this being an E10 alchemical, but the being is not nearly mechanical / clay looking enough, I think.
That's assuming it is a canon entity at all, of course, instead of, for example, a devil-tiger.
@DragonParadox what does Molly, and, I guess, Tiffany, think of praying for guidance here, in terms of the Rules? The last time we did something that might have woken up a Neverborn, the word of a known outsider cultist was enough to call in an angel. Lydia talking to what might be one would certainly wake it up in some manner at least. So, would angels be allowed / be likely to respond to a prayer-question of "will talking to this thing pose similar danger / break similar bindings as the one on the being sleeping under Ebon Road?". Not a crown question, a question directed to angelic host.
Molly isn't used of thinking of prayer as something that gives her stuff. Her thoughts are more 'it can't hurt'. Tiffany's opinion... well you would have to ask her IC, it's a sensitive topic.
[X] Pray for permission / guidance on the matter of communicating with the dead being
-[X] If allowed, or no answer comes, Lydia talks to him
-[X] If not allowed, use Naked Wicked Souls on the being, and ask a question to obtain the map of the passages, traps included
Also, two more questions:
1) Are we in a new scene?
2) can BMI handle Molly disguising herself as this being? What about this being when they were alive?
-[X] If allowed, or no answer comes, Lydia talks to him
-[X] If not allowed, use Naked Wicked Souls on the being, and ask a question to obtain the map of the passages, traps included
Also, two more questions:
1) Are we in a new scene?
2) can BMI handle Molly disguising herself as this being? What about this being when they were alive?
I don't think it's Creation's favorite robot or his exalts; Autobot's themes just don't involve meat in this way. If it was clockwork and clay that'd be one thing, but the description we got is of petrified flesh.
This seems more Norse to me, their version of dwarves were literally maggots who crawled from Ymir's corpse and its mutilated form was used to make things. Creation wasn't produced that way, but that doesn't mean the sacrifice of beings from between the age of legends and now couldn't have been used to prop it up.
While I do agree it's probably not him Auto is the only primordial that we know of at least that becomes more fleshy as he becomes never born not less. Gremlin syndrome the thing that arises from his dying sickness is purely flesh based and is rooted in flesh alchemicals when they embrace non-standard don't want to say heretical because that has a whole different meaning charm layouts also tend to contrived Gremlin syndrome but also be able to do biological things like have children.
Where Autocthon is the Android/Robot the Engine of Extinction is the Cyborg/Augment.
He wouldn't end up a full flesh undead though. This thing isn't showing any of his origins.
From a more meta level it seems unlikely we found the grave of one of the most significant beings to ever exist under an unguarded hole in the ground. Especially if people came down here and started pulling up corruption from him sufficient to found a globally significant vampire court.
The Ebon Road has its own Angel. Autobot's body would warrant its own choir.
Honestly true completely agree I just wanted to mention the flesh thing since that's the first thing I came to mind when you mentioned Auto and his thematics.
I fully agree it's not him the first thing that came to mind when you mentioned the Clockwork of Auto was the engine of Extinction and the fact that it's Fleshy.
All that aside it literally just could be any number of slain monsters across any mythology across the entire world primordial beasts are literally a dime a dozen because this is a combined setting of theology could be Tiamat could be what's left of Ra one too many Halloweens ( in myth Ra is the god of the sun but he's not actually the pantheon and he's declared/made feeble by Isis has a lot of his power usurped by Osiris and then Horus. A couple of ambitious Halloween's on his relatively crippled state after the white God takes over the world might be enough to reduce it to less than a shadow of a shadow trapped in the Duat). It could be literally any number of primordial creatures as well.
[X] Pray for permission / guidance on the matter of communicating with the dead being
-[X] If allowed, or no answer comes, Lydia talks to him
-[X] If not allowed, use Naked Wicked Souls on the being, and ask a question to obtain the map of the passages, traps included
-[X] STUNT: You clasp your hands in a way that you have practiced since you were a child, yet the words that come out of your mouth are something you wouldn't have thought to utter until less than a year ago. In your mind, the image of the guardian angel is firmly affixed, as you intone your prayer, the call which, a novel experience that, you actually half expect to receive a direct answer to: "Oh Lord, I seek guidance in this hour of need! Heavy is the hand of the chosen, and loud are our words. I seek not to endanger Creation, but to protect it. I beseech you to send me a sign - will conversing with the being before us endanger the bindings like those you set your angels to guard?"
Added a stunt.
-[X] If allowed, or no answer comes, Lydia talks to him
-[X] If not allowed, use Naked Wicked Souls on the being, and ask a question to obtain the map of the passages, traps included
-[X] STUNT: You clasp your hands in a way that you have practiced since you were a child, yet the words that come out of your mouth are something you wouldn't have thought to utter until less than a year ago. In your mind, the image of the guardian angel is firmly affixed, as you intone your prayer, the call which, a novel experience that, you actually half expect to receive a direct answer to: "Oh Lord, I seek guidance in this hour of need! Heavy is the hand of the chosen, and loud are our words. I seek not to endanger Creation, but to protect it. I beseech you to send me a sign - will conversing with the being before us endanger the bindings like those you set your angels to guard?"
Added a stunt.
It's almost certainly NOT Autochton. As you said, not clay / mechanical enough. Ymir is a very interesting idea, yeah. Doesn't fit with Egypt, but it's interesting. Could be Atum, Osiris, Geb, or some other anthropomorphic Egyptian deity. Some of them were depicted with crowns.
Which is exactly why I am choosing to pray for some hints. Because yes, any Neverborn tomb should have an angel or several guarding it.
Probably why it's Tiffany's first idea for it in fact.
My mind just went there because of the maggots and internal construction on a giant. Egypt would be a weird place to find Ymir, but this layer of the facility is connected to desecrated graves so it technically had global reach.
It might also be another DF classic "many mask, one entity" situation.
It's worth a shot, but I have a hard time believing that this place is a primordial tomb at all. To remain unknown this close to the surface would take a level of divine intervention we're not seeing right now with Evil Bob.
'Night guys.
Two counterpoints:
1) It's not exactly unknown - Evil Bob (and thus Kemmler and quite possibly his disciples) knows about it, ghoul clan that gave us directions knows about it, probably some others also know
2) Despite Ebon Road seeing frequent foot traffic, Ebon Dragon's temple-tomb remains undisturbed.
1) The Death Star being parked in the desert for anyone to use is the problem. Being known and unused/unmanaged is even worse.
2) Frequent traffic in comparison to what? It's not exactly a trade road; it's mostly used by the Yama kings to slip agents around each other's domains.
It also has an Angel sitting on it with the freedom to pick a fight if she thinks you're a problem.
The Ebon Road is by nature a road, there's only so much that can be done about hiding it. The buried tombs of dead gods are set up to be isolated. Sane defenders don't have to make the same allowances.
1) The place is not exactly safe or easy to get in. It's buried under sand, which requires heavy excavation equipment, it's full of poisonous gas and most likely traps inside, and it is a shadowland, meaning that magic is probably bad there. You almost certainly cannot get in through NeverNever either. It's an obscure place of dread. The core contents are unlikely to be known to anyone, and it's not like it's an only place of horror in the world.
2) Frequent traffic as compared to a random patch of nowhere deep in the desert. It's not a trade road, but it's an ex/infiltration path to Yomi hells. Plenty of wan kuei and akuma are using it.
Also, notably the angel doesn't stop anyone from learning about the tomb, merely messing with it - if she did, the empty man wouldn't be able to know about it, and call on her in the first place.
BoredMan
Dinosaurs came in many flavors. Like potato chips.
Wasn't he being given an unknown amount of information/intel by Outsiders?
Almost certainly. But the angel wasn't allowed to attack him / remove the knowledge of the Ebon Dragon's tomb from him for just having said knowledge. He had enough knowledge to recognize our charm's effect and to call her in. That's a lot of knowledge.
BoredMan
Dinosaurs came in many flavors. Like potato chips.
The Angel wasn't allowed to kill him even though he was threatening reality to serve the Outsiders and he called her in to aid him in that task by proxy. A bit of that situation still doesn't make sense right now. Honestly I've just decided to pretend like that didn't happen unless it becomes a problem again..
The Outsiders know what Molly is and have an unknown amount of intel of Exalted things in general so they could've told him everything he knew. I normally wouldn't say as much but that guy was clearly one of their main invested units, he turned his own soul inside out, claimed to have been a Starborn, and sold parts of his soul to an Outsider(s) (which we know because of what DP said regarding Murder is Meat).
I think I am failing to communicate my point, because in my mind, the source of knowledge is irrelevant. Here, let me try to say it this way:
1) The angelic guardian of the Ebon Dragon's tomb was not a Fallen, and was bound by the Rules. We don't know the contents of the rules, but typically they involve "don't directly interfere with mortals or near mortals, even if they are doing terrible stuff that poses danger to Creation as a whole"
2) The angel in question is charged with a specific duty. We don't know the full scope of terms of said duty, but it involves making sure that Ebon Dragon doesn't wake up. When discharging said duty, she is allowed to do stuff that would normally be prohibited by the Rules, specifically she was allowed to stop us by means of direct combat/smiting
3) The angel was summoned by the Empty Man. Empty Man in his prayer / summons implied that our use of Shadow Spite Curse would result in Ebon Dragon waking up. This means he knew
a) Ebon Dragon existed, and roughly the thematic resonances / feel of Ebon Dragon magic / charms - enough to recognize the feeling of Shadow Spite Curse as something that could be invoking Ebon Dragon and risking it waking up
b) The guardian angel existed, and at least enough about her duty to assume she would be allowed and compelled to interfere on his behalf in this situation, but not to act against him. He knew that with enough surety to risk it in life-or-death battle
4) The angel was not allowed to act against Empty Man until we determined that the summoning was done under false pretenses. Notably, and quite uncharacteristically, it didn't matter if Empty Man himself sincerely believed those pretenses - the objective fact that he was wrong was enough to allow the angel to act against him. I actually think, based on how the things went down, that Empty Man sincerely believed he was telling the angel the truth when he was calling her.
5) Based on the above, the angel is:
a) Normally allowed to act against Outsider-aligned forces in her presence based solely on their alignment - she even says as much:
[/QUOTE]
@DragonParadox sorry to bother you, I forgot to tag you with my questions.
Angels can lie, I think, but I doubt she was lying.
b) Not allowed to act against those who call her to prevent Ebon Dragon from waking up. Even if they are Outsider aligned.
6) Again, based on the above, the angel is not charged with keeping existence of Ebon Dragon, the (rough) location of its tomb, the knowledge of how its magic / charms feel secret. If she was, she would have been allowed to act against Empty Man.
TL;DR: The angel is charged with preventing Ebon Dragon from waking up. She doesn't seem to be charged with keeping Ebon Dragon secret.
@DragonParadox sorry to bother you, I forgot to tag you with my questions.