Nope, the rulebook I'm using says Exalt milestones can be used to buy spells. Weird. Are you using the backer manuscript? Or perhaps an older version of the rulebook? I think it was erratad a few months back, that might explain the difference.
That's good to know, I was kinda worried about how bottlenecky minor milestones would be. Being able to pick up spells from exalt milestones will make it much easier to justify picking them up.
In particular I'd like to pick up Unbreakable Bones of Stone it would make Taylor even more tanky than she already is, I'd also like to grab Violent Opening of Portals and Lightning Spider.
The nice thing about being an open cape is that you can walk straight out the front door clad in your full costume with Eurus at your side. No sneaking around and hoping you don't wake up dad, no packing up your costume and changing into it in an alley several blocks over so the neighbors don't see anything fishy. You just… walk out the front door.
Once you're outside, you try something that's been on your mind since you first summoned Eurus.
"Alright Eurus, ready to ride?"
She gives a happy bark, kneeling down and letting you climb onto her back. It's a surprisingly awkward affair; you've never even ridden a horse before, much less a giant wolf mad of wind without a saddle. It doesn't help that Eurus feels strange under your weight; there's more give to her than you'd expect from a solid creature her size, and trying to grab fistfuls of fur only results in a cool breeze blowing through your hands.
Eventually you're able to settle into a position that feels relatively secure, with your arms wrapped around Eurus' neck, and so you urge her forward. She begins to run down the street, and you're suddenly thankful she knows where to go, because it's all you can do to hold on for dear life.
Riding Eurus is dependent on the Navigate skill, in which you have zero points. This doesn't prevent you from riding Eurus, but it will make it hard to do any fancy maneuvering or chases, so bear that in mind for the future.
The streets blur past under Eurus' speed, streetlights flashing past so quickly they're more like strobe lights. You're thankfully traveling through parts of the city that aren't well trafficked late at night, but you still catch the occasional glimpse of someone filming you on their phone, proving once again that many Brocktonites have more courage than sense.
It isn't long before Eurus slows to a stop, and you shakily dismount. Once you do, you see what brought Eurus to a halt: there, spray-painted on the wall in dollar-bill green, is a capital M with two vertical lines through it. The symbol of the Merchants.
You're officially in gang territory. Something that should have filled you with fear as little as two days ago now only fills you with anticipation.
"Alright, Eurus," you say. "We've got to track down one of the Merchants outside Squealer's workshop. It'll be easier to handle these people one at a time, you know?" Eurus gives a woof of understanding. "Right, so I'm thinking you can help me track down one of them by scent."
Eurus cocks her head at you, as if seeing the obvious flaw in your plan.
"Right, I know you don't know what they smell like, but I've got an idea. See there's Mush, who's power covers him in garbage. I figure he's got to have the strongest smell of anyone in the city. Think you can find someone who smells like a dumpster?"
Eurus gives two happy barks and starts to wag her tail.
"Good girl," you say, scratching her behind the ears. "Now let's find Mush."
Eurus, as a secondary familiar, rolls 9 dice for tracking and gets 1 bonus success as this is a scent-based tracking roll. You're rolling against difficulty 5: tracking somebody by scent despite having never met them before, within a region of a few city blocks, is a challenging feat.
Eurus rolls 4 successes, add the 1 bonus success and you just squeak past the difficulty.
You wander aimlessly for a while, doing a circuit around the edge of the Merchant's territory. It's kind of a depressing place to be. You pass more than one homeless person rambling at nothing or passed out on the street, and the few lucid people you pass at this time of night eye you with suspicion and no small amount of fear. You see one memorable kid, who couldn't be older than thirteen, fingering a gun nervously as you walk past. Most of the buildings look like they're in as rough a shape as the people, all crumbling brickwork and smashed windows. It saddens you to think that some people actually live here, that this is normal for those calling themselves Merchants.
This isn't right, you think. Poverty, wealth, it's all just another hierarchy, a way for the haves to think themselves better than the have-nots. But you're not better than these people, you're just luckier, and you want to use that luck to help them.
Eventually, Eurus perks up, distracting you from your surroundings. She looks at you and gives a couple clear barks.
"Found something?" you ask.
She barks again and begins to wag her tail.
"Lead on," you tell her, and she begins to walk confidently down an alleyway, nose to the ground. A few twists and turns later, and you find yourselves circling a seemingly abandoned, boarded up warehouse. After making one complete circuit around the building, Eurus stops at a door and adopts a pointing pose: nose forward towards the warehouse door, one front leg raised, tail out straight behind her.
"He's in there?" you ask. Eurus gives a quiet huff, not breaking her pose. "Yeah, he's in there."
You contemplate kicking the door in, but figure that would make a poor first impression. Besides, you don't know if he's masked or not in there, and you don't want to break the rules by accident when they're one of the few protections your dad can count on.
Instead, you raise a fist and bang on the door.
"Mush!" you call out. "Mush, I know you're in there!"
You continue to pound on the door until you see the knob begin to turn. You quickly step back, making way for the door to open, and out walks one of the most disgusting capes in the bay. The smell alone is so strong your eyes start to water; no wonder Eurus could track him. As for his physical form, you can see he's, well, a giant man apparently made out of trash. Nearly seven feet tall, he's covered in ripped open trash bags which spill half-eaten, moldy food, dirty diapers, various boxes that are dripping wet with some unknown fluid, and even worse things.
Looking closer, you're starting to doubt that there's a person underneath all that trash; the shape of it is all wrong, the movements too fluid for it to be a bulky suit of armor. You think maybe he somehow turns into trash.
He looks you over, looks over at Eurus (who is standing at attention), then turns back to you.
"We gonna fight?" he asks. His voice is surprisingly reedy given his imposing, trash-constructed bulk, but more importantly it's flat. Devoid of emotion, just totally dead inside.
Slowly, you shake your head. "I don't want to fight you, Mush."
"Then the fuck are you here for?" he asks, voice still flat despite his words.
"I want to help you."
He gives you a tired sigh. "Ain't nobody can help me, little girl. Why don't you head on home before we gotta make things messy?"
"And why would things have to get messy?" you ask. You know what he's implying, but you're leading him somewhere with this.
He shakes his trash covered head. "Come on girl, are you stupid? Some young, dumb cape starts poking around our territory, you know I gotta do something about it."
"Do you feel good about yourself when you do things like this?" you press him as the mark on your forehead begins to appear. "Threatening teenagers, selling drugs to children? Does that make you happy? Wouldn't you rather have a life you can be proud of than one that passes in a drugged out haze?"
"Ain't had pride in a long time," he says, and though he's aiming for dismissive there's a bit of old heartache buried in there. You sense this is a sore point for him.
"It's never too late to turn things around," you encourage him. "I truly believe that. I have to, if I'm going to save this city, if I'm going to make it a home we can both be proud of."
"Saving the city?" he asks, skepticism masking his interest. "I s'pose you wanna start with beating up on the Merchants then."
"I want to save the Merchants too," you contradict him. The territory you've seen today has confirmed that for you. "Maybe there's a few people in this gang of yours that need to be taught a lesson, but mostly when I look at this place all I see are victims, people down on their luck with nowhere else to go and little left to live for. If you'll give me a chance, I think we can give the people of this community hope, give them opportunities, help them feel human again."
You're speaking mostly off the cuff, making it up as you go, but something about that idea feels right. You can do more than just beat up the poor. You'll have to, if you want to build the Brockton Bay of your dreams.
"But I'm guessing Skidmark still needs to go," he says.
"You tell me, Mush," you say. "Does Skidmark have a place in the Brockton Bay we want to build?"
He pauses for a moment, considering, then shakes his head. "Nah, Skidmark needs to go."
You smile then. You have him.
"Then I guess we'll take care of him together."
Attempting to persuade Mush to join you in opposing the rest of the Merchants. This would require 2 extra purchases of persuade in addition to the initial success.
You commit 1 mote to Harmonious Presence Meditation, giving yourself 1 bonus success. Your dice pool is Force + Presence + Presence excellency. Stunt dice are spent on instant training for Listener Swaying Argument, and so are not added to the roll. This means you have 14 dice. Spending 1 more mote on Cat's Puffed Tail for 2 bonus successes, you're at 14 dice, 3 bonus successes, 2/10 anima, 3/5 motes, 1 mote committed to HPM.
Mush's resolve is 2, + 3 from a major intimacy= 5 Resolve
You roll 12 successes on 14 dice (which is fucking absurd, you got 4 10s), add your 3 bonus successes and that's 15 successes (which is more than you had dice, what the fuck). You still spend the 1 mote for Listener Swaying Argument, because otherwise each Persuade will cost you 5 successes; this brings them down to 4 successes (1 base success + 3 from the major intimacy). LSA adds 1 bonus success, bringing you up to 16 successes. Anima is now 3/10, you're glowing and in active anima for the rest of the scene. Motes are 2/5, 1 committed to HPM.
5 successes are required to beat resolve, this leaves you with 11 successes. 8 go to buying the 2 extra levels of persuade, 1 instills a principle of "I should help save Brockton Bay," 2 go to finding out he has a minor intimacy of self-loathing.
EDIT: Minor retcon. You're banking the stunt dice instead of instant training, so you don't buy LSA. Mush does not receive an intimacy of "I should help save Brockton Bay," though you do learn his minor intimacy of self-loathing as I can't exactly excise that from your minds. Consider it an apology for the retcon.
Anima is 2/10, not active or glowing. Motes are 3/5, 1 committed to HPM.
"What about Squealer?" he asks.
"What about Squealer, Mush?" you ask. "Does she have a place in our Brockton Bay?"
He stops to think, reaching up and scratching his head with wet squelching sound. "You said you look at the Merchants, you see victims," he says. You nod and gesture for him to continue. "Skidmark beats her."
He says nothing else. You suppose he doesn't need to.
"We'll save Squealer too," you say.
"So what's the plan?" he asks. "You wanna take Skidmark on now? Or do you want to do it later, ambush him or some shit? And what happens to the rest of us once Skidmark's in the clink?"
That's an excellent question. What do you do about Skidmark, and what do you do about the rest of the Merchants? How do you ensure the gang ceases to exist, and can you do that while helping the people who make it up?
[ ][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[ ] Call in the PRT as well. The extra help will be useful, but there's no telling how they'll react to Mush.
[ ][Skidmark fight] Ambush Skidmark another time with Mush's help. This means separating yourself from Mush for some time and leaving him in the company of the Merchants, where he might change his mind.
[ ][Skidmark fight] Write in
[ ][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.
[ ][Merchant cleanup] Start a charity dedicated to helping the people of the Merchant's territory.
[ ][Merchant cleanup] Publicize the issues here as best you can; go on local news to do it if possible.
[ ][Merchant cleanup] Write in
There is a 12 hour moratorium on voting. Please use this time to discuss your options. Please vote by task.
While I don't want to give him a chance to change his mind, I don't know if we're equipped to take on Skidmark right now. Unless we can call in help from the PRoTectorate or New Wave?
While I don't want to give him a chance to change his mind, I don't know if we're equipped to take on Skidmark right now. Unless we can call in help from the PRoTectorate or New Wave?
Mush's resolve will not take being separated from us. I think we need to take on both of them. Counting he air puppy it would be three capes vs two and we are the ones dictating terms. I think we can take 'em, especially since we did not have to use the instant training this time. We can pull a combat charm out if we get pressed.
The thing about fighting Squealer and Skidmark is it's only 2v2 if we can't convince Squealer to stand down, Taylor has enough presence she should be able to keep Squealer out of the fight, something like:
[ ][Skidmark fight] Take Skidmark on tonight with Mush and Eurus at your side. You will be fighting him and Squealer in Squealer's workshop.
-[ ] Start the fight by trying to dissuade Squealer from fighting. Get Mush to share what he knows about her on the way over so you can tailor your approach if possible.
-[ ] Before leaving do our best to inspire Mush and reinforce that this is the right choice.
A charm that might be very useful for taking on Skidmark and Squealer:
Dread Tiger's Symmetry
Prerequisite: Presence 3
The Exalt is a singular and terrifying being, awesome to behold. People and animals instinctively shy away from her.
Commit 1 mote for the scene. The Exalt adds her Essence in bonus dice and gains double 9s on any threatening influence actions. If a character has a Tie of Fear towards the Exalt, add bonus dice equal to its intensity. The bonus dice from Ties do not count towards the limit. Mundane animals and Extras flee from the Exalt outright,
One of our major problems is that we would be fighting a Tinker in her Lab potentially with help. This automatically makes any extras flee and it might even scare off one of them in which case the fight becomes three on one in our favor.
While that would be nice to have I don't think we can instant train it, we already commited to spend one milestone buying LSA and I don't think we're guaranteed to get two milestones that can buy charms. Plus personally I'd really rather not commit our minor milestone if we can avoid it, I'd like to hit sagacity 3 ASAP so we can start summoning our way to more equitable match ups.
Anyhow speaking of milestones we should give a pep talk to Mush before we go so we can hit that Exalt milestone this arc.
While that would be nice to have I don't think we can instant train it, we already commited to spend one milestone buying LSA and I don't think we're guaranteed to get two milestones that can buy charms. Plus personally I'd really rather not commit our minor milestone if we can avoid it, I'd like to hit sagacity 3 ASAP so we can start summoning our way to more equitable match ups.
Anyhow speaking of milestones we should give a pep talk to Mush before we go so we can hit that Exalt milestone this arc.
You roll 12 successes on 14 dice (which is fucking absurd, you got 4 10s), add your 3 bonus successes and that's 15 successes (which is more than you had dice, what the fuck). You still spend the 1 mote for Listener Swaying Argument, because otherwise each Persuade will cost you 5 successes; this brings them down to 4 successes (1 base success + 3 from the major intimacy). LSA adds 1 bonus success, bringing you up to 16 successes. Anima is now 3/10, you're glowing and in active anima for the rest of the scene. Motes are 2/5, 1 committed to HPM.
Edit: hang on... based on that roll we should have had enough successes without LSA right? 15 successes with 5 to win then +10 to buy two more successes...
Edit: hang on... based on that roll we should have had enough successes without LSA right? 15 successes with 5 to win then +10 to buy two more successes...
Edit: hang on... based on that roll we should have had enough successes without LSA right? 15 successes with 5 to win then +10 to buy two more successes...
Okay, my logic was that you can't spend instant training in response to a failed roll, since you need to spend the stunt dice to do it, so you were going to instant train since you needed VERY good rolls without LSA. Looking back on things, I'm realizing that's not quite how it works, since you can bank the stunt dice and spend them at any time. So I'm happy to retcon that so that you don't instant train and Mush loses the intimacy of "I should help save Brockton Bay."
Okay, my logic was that you can't spend instant training in response to a failed roll, since you need to spend the stunt dice to do it, so you were going to instant train since you needed VERY good rolls without LSA. Looking back on things, I'm realizing that's not quite how it works, since you can bank the stunt dice and spend them at any time. So I'm happy to retcon that so that you don't instant train and Mush loses the intimacy of "I should help save Brockton Bay."
Made a minor edit to 2.4, the takeaway is that you did NOT buy LSA, and thus still have instant training available and a set of stunt dice banked. The relevant text is here, in the "Persuade Roll" spoiler box.
EDIT: Minor retcon. You're banking the stunt dice instead of instant training, so you don't buy LSA. Mush does not receive an intimacy of "I should help save Brockton Bay," though you do learn his minor intimacy of self-loathing as I can't exactly excise that from your minds. Consider it an apology for the retcon.
Anima is 2/10, not active or glowing. Motes are 3/5, 1 committed to HPM.
If we're thinking of instant training a new charm to help with the fight we should also consider something that will help more directly in combat since we are already good at presence stuff but we are relatively weak at close combat. In particular Orichalcum Battle Soul could be a big boost:
Orichalcum Battle Soul:
Commit 2 motes when the Solar fights for one of her intimacies or virtues. For the scene, her body gains the artifact tag, conferring the weapon bonus if unarmed or the armour bonus if unarmoured. Her withering attacks generate 2 additional Power for a major inspiration or 1 additional Power for a Minor inspiration. Gain an additional anima.
We are fighting for our major virtue (Ambition: Make Brockton Bay a home I can be proud of) so it will activate. The artifact bonus gives our weapon (unarmed) +1 Accuracy, Damage, Defense*, and Overwhelming. and the +2 bonus to power generation makes it much easier for us to build up the power needed to attack and lets us do much more damage.
*Note weapon defense only applies when taking defend other or full defense actions.
If we're thinking of instant training a new charm to help with the fight we should also consider something that will help more directly in combat since we are already good at presence stuff but we are relatively weak at close combat. In particular Orichalcum Battle Soul could be a big boost:
Orichalcum Battle Soul:
Commit 2 motes when the Solar fights for one of her intimacies or virtues. For the scene, her body gains the artifact tag, conferring the weapon bonus if unarmed or the armour bonus if unarmoured. Her withering attacks generate 2 additional Power for a major inspiration or 1 additional Power for a Minor inspiration. Gain an additional anima.
We are fighting for our major virtue (Ambition: Make Brockton Bay a home I can be proud of) so it will activate. The artifact bonus gives our weapon (unarmed) +1 Accuracy, Damage, Defense*, and Overwhelming. and the +2 bonus to power generation makes it much easier for us to build up the power needed to attack and lets us do much more damage.
*Note weapon defense only applies when taking defend other or full defense actions.
Good thought. Taylor herself is pretty tanky and wolfy girl is made of wind so she cannot die, just get banished, but Mush is only human, being more able to defend him would be great, not to mention just generally fight better.
I am actually fine with that, we can get him to PRT for the probation deal (same as others to be honest) and they will have easier time with rebranding him and maybe relocating him, maybe for another cape with powers that counter one of main villains easier.
[ ][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.
-[] Research stuff that can help with this before hand to give them some ideas and more material reasoning that just being good
--[] Talk with Dad about it; he has some experience with politics and labour market and you could use someone to run the ideas by
-[] Go around the merchant stashes with PRT or police to get rid of the drugs and weapons so they won't enter circulation
-[] talk down the minions into surrendering to the police or at least retiring
--[] Research reduced sentence for cooperation and etc.
-[] Maybe start online present to get propaganda underway (and maybe later get some money out of it)
For the fight itself, I think that going now with Mush should be enough.
For the cleanup we should see if we can convince Panacea to come down and help with people suffering withdrawl. It's likely to be one of the toughest part of getting people off crime and she seems like the perfect solution.
Of course Taylor at this point has no idea about her issues so it sets up for some potential story beats with New Wave and Amy.
Something like:
-[] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they can help out, especially if Panacea can come down and do some sessions helping people through the worst of withdrawl.
For the cleanup we should see if we can convince Panacea to come down and help with people suffering withdrawl. It's likely to be one of the toughest part of getting people off crime and she seems like the perfect solution.
Of course Taylor at this point has no idea about her issues so it sets up for some potential story beats with New Wave and Amy.
Something like:
-[] Get in contact with New Wave to see if they can help out, especially if Panacea can come down and do some sessions helping people through the worst of withdrawl.
That is true, but I am not sure if we should treat Panacea for granted for this; I guess we could ask, but she would have to go through a lot of people. I guess it won't hurt to ask PRT if they could get us in touch with Panacea if she can and could flush the addictions/drugs out of people, because getting rid of withdrawals means fewer people returning to crime and less of a risk of someone triggering over it and joining another gang or starting a new one.
@Amazing Abzan since you said you were open to other spells than are in the core book what do you think about this one:
Mists of Eventide
The sorcerer summons up an opalescent mist that spreads out from her location to insinuate its way. through up to three floors of a large building, or similar amount of open ground. All those caught within the mist not given express protection by the sorcerer fall into a deep slumber.
Sleepers under the influence of the Mists of Eventide are difficult but not impossible to wake; nearby movement and speech won't rouse them, but loud noises or being physically disturbed will. The mists dissipate after a minute or so.
Left out the mechanics because they are using a different system, bit it can be resisted with a hard willpower roll. The point of this spell is that it's very PR friendly since it is just magical knock out gas while also being pretty effective on most non-brute parahumans and even some brutes.
@Amazing Abzan since you said you were open to other spells than are in the core book what do you think about this one:
Mists of Eventide
The sorcerer summons up an opalescent mist that spreads out from her location to insinuate its way. through up to three floors of a large building, or similar amount of open ground. All those caught within the mist not given express protection by the sorcerer fall into a deep slumber.
Sleepers under the influence of the Mists of Eventide are difficult but not impossible to wake; nearby movement and speech won't rouse them, but loud noises or being physically disturbed will. The mists dissipate after a minute or so.
Left out the mechanics because they are using a different system, bit it can be resisted with a hard willpower roll. The point of this spell is that it's very PR friendly since it is just magical knock out gas while also being pretty effective on most non-brute parahumans and ever some brutes.
