Honestly, any of the swords would fit him pretty well.
Also, didn't Sanya get the sword directly from an archangel?
Also, didn't Sanya get the sword directly from an archangel?
Cracking Masquerade, a Dresden Files/MCU Second World War quest
- Thread starter mouli
- Start date
- Alt. History
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
There's also that.
Archangel Michael, I think.
Which is hilarious.
It looks like a cavalry saber now, so it works for Sanya, on several levels, but Excalibur is a proper straight two-hander, and I think Steve honestly would look better with it.
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
That's why it's a soft pitch. Because even the Denarians are (justifiably) wary of pissing off Kemmler, and Zahn isn't a small player either. Nice words and offers made when the other party is dying and desperate work better there, and Nicodemus is patient.
If they roll badly on a few gambits come 1944 though, you'll have Heinrich Kemmler flaying a Denarian envoy alive. Or Erich Zahn dealing damage to the angel itself rather than its host. Which is fun, I guess. TBH it's easier to plan the European theater than here, more source material to draw on.
Edit: Votes are called on the Wen Temple, update begins to be written.
Last edited:
KnightDisciple
Brotherhood. Unity. Peace.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
The swords are Faith, Hope, and Love.
And you're right it's a tightrope walk with Kemmler and a Denarian...but it's plausible, and that's terrifying.
Honestly any of the 3 could work. But I'm pretty sure Fidelacchius has had Shiro holding it for a long time. It's the best-tracked of the Swords, it seems like. There's not as much "room" for Steve to use it.Yeah, but how are you going to explain how the sword of America's poster boy ended up with a Russian guy?
No, "let's not give Sanya his sword" is not an answer.
Amoracchius makes more sense from the setting's standpoint, since Michael Carpenter is a, heh, carpenter and a constructor. He probably didn't used to travel around the world before receiving the sword, so that means he got it somewhere in America.
Eh, that's how I would've explained it, at least.
And Amoracchius does fit Steve's love for his country andthe American Waythere's that one lady, you know, whose grand-niece he dated.
He did, yes, and then continues to be a self-admitted agnostic.
I dunno, a cavalry saber could work for Steve. He could use it while on a motorcycle!
Really none of the 3 options are "great" and the best scenario is violent rejections. Two problems take care of each other!
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Besides, the Sword of Faith is a katana for now. Not the best choice for an American soldier during the WW2.
Yes, I'm mostly discussing their aesthetics, sue me.
And this is not just any katana we're talking about, this is Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, which is documented to be in possession of the Imperial Japanese Family as early as the seventh century, probably earlier. Though they might have lost it somewhere down the line.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Right, Hope it is.
Heh. That would be fun call ba-
... oh fuck. Oh fuck me. I just had a horrible thought: How old was Shiro Yoshimo again?
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
I honestly doubt he participated in the WW2. Though maybe.
The thing is, he is a descendant of Sho Tai, the last king of Okinawa, which was annexed by Japan in the late 19th century. They were granted a title of nobility in compensation, but eh.
Shiro told Dresden that he doesn't consider himself to be affiliated with any government or organization in so many words, he only feels beholden to his calling.
Though, in his earlier years.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Frankly, him being around at this point in time is good, him having the sword even better.
Because while it's not as bad as a Denarian, having an IJA officer with the Sword Of Faith and playing rules-lawyer with its limitations on faith and promise-keeping is immensely bad. So long as the wielder keeps to his oaths, the deaths of the innocent won't break it.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Not exactly. The Sword of Faith is powered by yeah, faith in the highest providence. Faith in that choices matter, that wicked acts will be punished, that humans need not break under the weight of adversity.
A Japanese officer participating in the Rape of Nanjing is going to break the sword a few dozen times over. Or make him desert, one of the two.
Besides, Shiro said that first he became Christian in some bizarre baptism while traveling around the world and doing some soul-searching, then he became a Knight.
If anything, that sounds like even if he participated in the war, he obtained the sword after it.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Ah, that's a bit of a relief. I can't always drop what I'm doing and hit up the local library for checking Dresden Files lore, but if the definition of faith is in pre-defined principles rather than what the wielder or what systems wielder serves then Kusanagi is not going to let itself be taken by pretty much anybody in the Imperial Japanese Military.
Which then begs the question of whether we can get it.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Which then begs the question of whether we can get it.
Now you're thinking with portals.
Yeah, swords don't generally let fucked-up people wield them. Durendal was only intended to be wielded in defense of the country Charlemagne was building. Considering the Crusades, well, I wouldn't be too surprised if someone told me that before it was reforged into a modern saber, it was first wielded as a scimitar by Salah ad Din.
Well, what I'm saying is, you can believe with all your heart that bathing in the blood of your enemies and chopping limbs off is a good way to live a life, but the sword of Faith won't consider your faith to be worthy. It's religiously intolerant that way.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
Then, if I were QMing this as something more long-term, I'd have put this as a 1945 plotline. Sneak into either Okinawa or the mainland of Japan itself, and retrieve the sword before it can be used in a secret component of Operation Ketsu-Go. At that point it's taking stock of how bad the supernatural situation is, the debate over keeping the masquerade if it means Japan is conquered, Japan's genuine chances, and how the person the Army's selected to be the wielder feels about being told to hold an entire beach against the US Navy+Marines single-handed.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Eh, let's see what mouli has in store first. From what little we know about the supernatural side of the WW2 in the Dresdenverse, the European theater was a nightmarish clusterfuck. There are some indications that Kemmler instigated the whole thing or at least helped it along as a low-burn sacrifice ritual to ascend to godhood, because either Darkhallow left him too vulnerable to conduct it properly, or it was devised during the war through experimentation, and he was killed before managing to implement it.
And considering that Nicodemius might be working towards the Apocalypse, well, the Demarians certainly participated.
Edit: and that's without throwing the MCU into the mix.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
I mean, he tried that plan after making sure the families of Europe's Monarchs all knew each other and their populace were nationalist as fuck, then grabbed a Serbian kid he met in a bar. Four years later they all came down with a bad case of peace. I am not surprised his reaction was "Oh well, just a minor setback, eh Adolf?"
Then there's the Marvel shenanigans making the Thule Society an actual supernatural threat in this timeline...
I gather they would have an extensive network of underlings who match his caste's physical attributes. If we look at the larger OtherVerse, the Timonae would be his lackeys; they remind me of a Catch Me If You Can baddie, though earlier, evading the pre-WW2 authorities and selling military intel to the highest bidder.
- Location
- The US
IIRC Shiro was baptized at an Elvis concert, so if he got the sword after that he definitely doesn't have it yet.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Yeah, you're right.
Not to quote the copyrighted intellectual property, but he kinda confused "meeting the King" thing, cuz he didn't know English that well.
Then he came upon the sword.
Waking the City God III: Wrath
mouli
Terrible QM
- Location
- United States
Waking the City God III: Wrath
Fallen prep: 3d20+5 Tactics: molemole:3D20+5 → 32(2 +7 +18+5) what the fuck you're supposed to be a smart angel, this doesn't meet DC
Breach I: Overridden by city spirit
Breach II: Clash: 45 v. 17, begone ye who are damned.
Warlock at the same time: Evocation 2d20=10 v. your 2d20=29. Shields hold with ease even before bonuses, he gets shot.
Warlock: Escape: d20 tactics: 14 v. Nat 20. Congrats, you take him alive.
Breach I: Overridden by city spirit
Breach II: Clash: 45 v. 17, begone ye who are damned.
Warlock at the same time: Evocation 2d20=10 v. your 2d20=29. Shields hold with ease even before bonuses, he gets shot.
Warlock: Escape: d20 tactics: 14 v. Nat 20. Congrats, you take him alive.
The Chaotian Palace lies at the end of a long, long march - and yet one that passes in a blur. You remember as the spirit guides your steps almost on instinct, as you trace a processional pathway laid by the Ming Emperors before you and the city folk move aside. You see Nanjing in all its glory, both dubious and true as the rhythm of bombs and fire sounds from the outskirts like the demented drumming of the damned.
Air-raid sirens and the screams of the wounded are your accompaniment as you drift past medics treating the injured, past the living wailing over the dead. A Japanese bomber burns merrily in the ruins of what Old Nanjing tells you was once a winesink as the scent of blood and fire fills the air and smoke chokes those left alive.
The winding paths of the old city are quieter, refugees and poor alike shouting in accented Mandarin, in Hakka and Min and another dozen dialects of a shattered empire. The old look at you with more than simple distaste as they move aside, a trace of awe in eyes seemingly blank and jaded by the endless wars and grinding poverty. The younger ones try to pick a fight, taunts of Jap bitch and whore the least of it - yet they move aside as you look at them, a golden echo in dark almond eyes seemingly unnerving even the boldest of the gangs.
It was not like this, once. Once, this was beautiful says the spirit of Old Nanjing, and even as the walls of the palace complex approach, you see them overlaid by the city-that-was. The Chaotian Palace to you is the palace as it was before the war, before the Republic, before the Qing - and yet some portion of you that's irreverently American snorts at the sheer ostentation. At the sheer elitism.
Nanjing seems to find it amusing, maintaining the illusion as you come to the complex's gates on a winding stone path, stepping over weeds and cracks as the yellow roof of the gateway looms larger.
Yet the way is shut once more. The gates are shut, the slim bars of a locked gate confront you as the ozone tang of a ward comes to your senses. The gate is shut, locked, and warded.
Yet it is still no bar.
Once more your body burns with power not yours, as memories of ages past flicker through your senses and the city god of Nanjing decrees what may exist in its domain. Open, thou palace. Open, for the overlord of this land has come bellows Nanjing as your body is outlined in smoke and your eyes glow golden - and the gates creak open.
The ward dissipates like smoke in the breeze as you slump a little and lean on your rifle. Your mouth tastes of iron and for an awful moment you can't sense any magic around you until your poor overloaded senses come back to normal, and amidst all that is the palpable impatience of Old Nanjing.
To your senses, to the questing awareness of the spirit riding your soul comes an oily taint near the Wen Temple, and it is there that you go at a dead run. With a shield of the god's essence keeping off a sniper's eyes and with a spell of fire and wrath on your lips you go, and you're greeted by a barrage of flame and force.
Atop the temple's roof is a form wreathed in shadow even as the sun sinks below the horizon, shadow edged in flame that does not bother with conversation. The form of a two-winged angel of shadow and fire starts off with magics meant to kill.
What comes to you in the great square before the Wen Temple is not taunts, gloating, or a warlock - what comes is fire rife with brimstone and a wave of force that send you skidding back five feet before you find your footing.
Even as you fall backwards and crumple, a shadow almost seems to detach from your form and stand on its own. The aegis of Old Nanjing gleams a brilliant silver as hellfire and force meet an ancient soul, and that keeps you alive even as the city god bellows its wrath in ancient Mandarin.
The fallen does not answer, and the energy buildup of another hellfire strike is interrupted almost contemptuously by Old Nanjing, the rumbling voice of a god dismissing it as filth. "Begone, ye who infests your betters' abodes. Begone, and trouble me not."
For the first time and you hope the last, you hear an angel scream. Golden chains and silver fire spring from the temple's roof as a ghostly figure in Chinese armor rises with them, and the first thing it does is rip the angel's left wing off. Old Nanjing almost purrs in satisfaction as it raises an arm and a symbol forms, one you're unfamiliar with.
The city spirit proceeds to enlighten you - all of you in that square. Even as you dart into the temple itself on seeing motion, as the warlock makes a break for it, the old god's rumbling voice follows you like a particularly pedagogical inquisitor. "It is said among the laymen that the mandate of heaven once banished the devils and the wicked, and legends of the Buddha tell he did the same. It is said that they burned in heavenly fire for eternity in Yama's domain."
Another scream from the rooftop as you desperately bark out an invocation to shield, as your Mauser's butt glows with power thrumming through it and you block a fireball dead-on. Your arm burns and bile rises in your throat from feedback - but for the warlock it's worse.
He shouts in alarm - at seeing his fire blocked, perhaps - and fumbles at his belt for something. Before he can pull it out, you cover the six feet between the two of you, and you cold-cock him across the jaw.
As you nurse a hurting fist and incipient exhaustion, Old Nanjing finishes its lecture, "Let's test the legends, shall we?"
There's another angelic scream, then silence. You're left standing over the body of a warlock, and you know that there's a Warden in town.
[]Wait here: The Warden is likely on the way after that display of power, and you have the city's spirit with you. There's no better time to meet him than handing him a captured warlock and with force on your side.
[]Leave: The city god can let the Warden discover the boy, and you can get out with none the wiser. The city will remember this, and the Warden will not have to meet a magic-using American intelligence agent who's killed a man before. Your orders did say to avoid unneeded contact, and you suppose they matter a little bit in the field - field agent initiative or no. Begin reward selection, aftermath, and other prep actions.
AN: My entire dramatic multipart thing was derailed because of your rolls. Wtf. Feedback welcome, and I hope I did justice to the anticlimax.
NeonLights
Formerly Reliable_2IC
- Location
- In shambles
[X]Leave: The city god can let the Warden discover the boy, and you can get out with none the wiser. The city will remember this, and the Warden will not have to meet a magic-using American intelligence agent who's killed a man before. Your orders did say to avoid unneeded contact, and you suppose they matter a little bit in the field - field agent initiative or no. Begin reward selection, aftermath, and other prep actions.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
I honestly thought this was the regular success result until I read this.
Old Grandpa Nanjing doesn't fuck around.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
AHAHAHA! No wonder the Nicklebacks wanting nothing to do with you, dumbass!
Oh thank fuck, we can bribe the Warden.
Eh, sounds about right.
I'm just impressed it got shot down.
Yeah, when the nobility starts marching through the streets the poor're supposed to run for their lives. Be it China or anywhere else.
I like the dynamic. We both mourn with how far war and societal corruption have drained China, but whereas the glory of the son of heaven is right as proper... we don't need or care for it.
Honey, I'm Home!
The old man doesn't like whippersnappers who can't keep up.
Aaaaaand here we go.
That was just... a complete shutdown. Damn.
So we summoned a past warlord to bind the Fallen, cripple it, and then ship it off to Buddist Hell for sentencing. Old Man Nanjin does not fuck around.
... did we just win a fight without having to fire a shot? All we did was a counter-spell and a buttstock to the face.
Oh hello, that sweetest of Dresden-verse currency: Favors.
[X]Wait here: The Warden is likely on the way after that display of power, and you have the city's spirit with you. There's no better time to meet him than handing him a captured warlock and with force on your side.
Oh hello Mr. Warden, don't suppose you had a bounty on this fellow? Also, how much for perma-deathing a Fallen? Can't exactly show a body, but the Good Mr. Nanjing can vouch for me.
- Location
- Florida
[X]Leave: The city god can let the Warden discover the boy, and you can get out with none the wiser. The city will remember this, and the Warden will not have to meet a magic-using American intelligence agent who's killed a man before. Your orders did say to avoid unneeded contact, and you suppose they matter a little bit in the field - field agent initiative or no. Begin reward selection, aftermath, and other prep actions.
Raiseth
I Find Your Lack of Memes Disturbing
- Location
- Russia
Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, Nanjing didn't kill the Fallen. He exorcised the fuck out of him, but didn't kill him, no.
Always Late
Lacking in coffee, sleep, and brains
- Location
- Ohio
The Fallen's been shipped over to the local equivalent of Demonreach by the seat of Nanjing's boot. I think we're close enough to call it.
- Location
- Diamond City
[X]Wait here: The Warden is likely on the way after that display of power, and you have the city's spirit with you. There's no better time to meet him than handing him a captured warlock and with force on your side.