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[Exalted, ?] Most High

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If we do have to prove how we discovered them, being able to hear subvocalized is an interesting bit of 'proof'. We subvocalize, and study them for any sign they can hear such. If they cannot, then our correspondance from last night was secure.

Edit: Fair enough.
 
Writing my omake currently. One question: could Zao answer to our coded message with a one directed to us, thus requiring no codes, with clear directives about what to do? Or are we too limited in conveying about the situation while still preserving a strong enough secrecy?
 
meianmaru said:
Writing my omake currently. One question: could Zao answer to our coded message with a one directed to us, thus requiring no codes, with clear directives about what to do? Or are we too limited in conveying about the situation while still preserving a strong enough secrecy?
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There's not really time to find a sorcerer before you fight, so it would have to be this evening. As for whether Zao's wind carried words carry that far, you don't know.
Guile said:
If we do have to prove how we discovered them, being able to hear subvocalized is an interesting bit of 'proof'. We subvocalize, and study them for any sign they can hear such. If they cannot, then our correspondance from last night was secure.

Edit: Fair enough.
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It's not a bad idea, though, at least the testing aspect. If you want to see whether they heard you from last night, just you and Nilul observe them while you subvocalize that you know what they are and they better meet you. It's unlikely they'll be able to hide their reactions from both you and Nilul!

You could do that even if Forebearance wins, though you'd still need to convince Nilul to help you.
 
meianmaru said:
Huh. I just realized that the Infernals knowing our Solar nature is not exactly that threatening. Strangely, because we have already been accused of being a one and have "refuted" that claim, any future claims require pretty damn good evidence. There is still what the Hell can personally send to cause us trouble, but just throwing us to the wolves could be actually pretty hard, as the Bronze faction hasn't managed to do that already.

Also, maybe could actually convert these particular Infernals to our cause... Though that is a pretty much absurd long-shot. Still, something to keep in mind. Anyway, switching my vote.

[X] Counter-Infiltration
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Dude we do NOT need Hell to give us any shit right now. Any info about us getig back to hell like our physical appearance or our blade risks one of the Yozi or the older demons recon ginning is to say the least of potential past life Shennaggins.

Remember we're Odyissial the guy who helped make done of the NeverBorn and Yozi. The guy who was feared by The Raksha, Heaven, Hell and the Exalted Host(it was as bad as the great curse for them.) the dude who was so hardcore in the Usurpation that the ducking Incarnae had to come and stop us before we annihilated Creation and even when they stopped us we destroyed several of Luna sub forms which even though Millenia has passed still hasn't fully recovered and we fucking SHATTERED THE GODSPEAR WHICH IS SUPPOSED TO BE SUPER INDESTRUCTIBLE. Then after we actually died, we told death "Fuck you", and pimp slapped it into reviving us which also caused the potential for our deceased friends like Pearl to also reincarnate.

He's also know for hating the Primordials.

If the Yozi realize he's back they will throw EVERYTHING(Especially the kitchen sink) at him to kill him before he gets to strong. They're only going to try harder if they learn we're helping Nilul.

We already have enough shit dealing with the Sids sending Dragonblooded execution squads (that we only survived because Uly is just that badass and we got lucky on the rolls) as their opening move to get rid of us And this's with Anys presumably not knowing who we really are. We do not need Hell dedicating its many resources to seeing we are fucked over right now. Not when we even haven't
gained our loyal Satrapy army, regained control of the RDG and still isolated from the likes of Lea and Fairest.

Don't think for one second Hell won't get word about who we are out to everyone if they could.
 
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Diller said:
Dude we do NOT need Hell to give us any shit right now. Any info about us getig back to hell like our physical appearance or our blade risks one of the Yozi or the older demons recon ginning is to say the least of potential past life Shennaggins.
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Hmm. Good points. I'm still for taking the risk currently. More interesting.
 
So you're assuming not only will they be able to deduce Nilul's true identity, but Odyssial's?

I don't really know Ayala and Fei Ling, but that seems like a tall order.

Hey Rihaku, how common are swords forged whole from orichalcum? Even if they just think we found Ambition in some tomb, that would be bad.
 
Rihaku said:
The super hearing angle is extremely dangerous. They can just ask, what did you hear? Plus if they never said anything incriminating then you would be shit out of luck!
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Yep, better not to go in with just this. If the confrontation wins, what are the time constraints? If it doesn't have to happen right away, Uly should keep his ears open in case they do drop something important. Checking for their hearing sounds good too.

Guile said:
Hey Rihaku, how common are swords forged whole from orichalcum? Even if they just think we found Ambition in some tomb, that would be bad.
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Of couse we didn't find Ambition, Zao found it and gave it to us.
 
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Guile said:
Even if they just think we found Ambition in some tomb, that would be bad.
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It's entirely possible that it'll be assumed Zao gave Ambition to Ulyssian as part of training him to be so very capable in combat.

It'd be one explanation for his ability.

Though in that case, how Zao gained posession of it is still a concern.
 
Fanwork## 355

Didn't have the energy for anything longer or more elaborate. Hopefully, it will be at least some help.

***

To Dance With the Green Sun Princes

Have you calmed down now? Ulyssian wrote to Niluls hand. She nodded, and again subvocalized back to him. "I still don't think this is a good idea, but... Damnit, you are right about this being a very good opportunity to get the information about what they are up to. Especially if they are already aware who I am."

The Princess of Lies started to tapping her foot, her demeanor changing from barely controlled (even if well concealed) panic to calculating ruthelessness. "What is sure that I can't use this form when confronting them. I'll fabricate some emergency to leave and return while pretending to be a Solar pretending to be a Dragon-Blooded. To the Infernals it will hopefully look like you sent your little Dragon-Blooded ally to fetch a more potent one. But what explanation to imply when they wonder how we did see through them? The disguise they are using is near-impenetrable..."

Picking up something wrong without getting the exact details right is easier. Pretend that we don't know what they are, but probe them with the "assumption" of them being fellow Solars, or maybe Lunars. The Mnemon champion being replaced so suddenly was attention drawing, which could be enough to make a Solar focused on such matters first suspicious and then near-certain after observing them intently. Letting them supply their own reason is more likely to work and less suspicion rising. Might also cause them to underestimate us."

"My, Uly! I didn't think you had it in you!" How did she exclaim while still subvocalizing? Dismissing it as her ability to precisely control her voice among other things needed for, Ulyssian moved to other matters.

Its easier for me to plan and analyze social interactions than execute them. Also, don't call me Uly. We move immediately. You leave and slip back in a different disguised as my back-up second. After that, we move to confront the Infernals. You talk, I'll monitor them and look intimidating.

"Efficient division of labor, eh? Alright, lets do this, but first, a few things we could do to smoothen the plan..."
 
Guile said:
So you're assuming not only will they be able to deduce Nilul's true identity, but Odyssial's?

I don't really know Ayala and Fei Ling, but that seems like a tall order.
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Honestly?
Either of them having enough ranks in Past Lives could give away that we're Odyssial just by showing our face alone and very likely would do so when we're using Ambition against Polemgaos.
It could put them under the Terror of Odyssial though, so that's not a pure negative provided we still attempt the negotiation thing.

Outside of that, it kind of depends on whether Odyssial did his "erase myself from the memory of Hell" thing here.
If he did, noone should really be able to conclude anything from whatever report on us they make and, if he didn't, demons who can recognize us from a description will still not be that frequent and the ones that do would have to overcome the Terror of Odyssial to tell anyone.
Potentially problematic, but unless we give the two of them reason enough to research our past life, it shouldn't come up.
 
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meianmaru said:
Its easier for me to plan and analyze social interactions than execute them. Also, don't call me Uly. We move immediately. You leave and slip back in a different disguised as my back-up second. After that, we move to confront the Infernals. You talk, I'll monitor them and look intimidating.
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On that matter, perhaps Uly should be included in the parts of conversation that are based on fact. It is easier to believe someone as unsubtle in manner as Ulyssian when he telling the truth, and the story will feel more credible when not entirely coming from the obvious socialite like Nilul.
 
Gerrou said:
On that matter, perhaps Uly should be included in the parts of conversation that are based on fact. It is easier to believe someone as unsubtle in manner as Ulyssian when he telling the truth, and the story will feel more credible when not entirely coming from the obvious socialite like Nilul.
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Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but in the previous quest archive one of the stereotypes was "men are dumb brutes who need to be led by women". It might not be a hard sell that, hey, Ulyssian is hopeless outside of stabbing things hard and being stoic, so Nilul is doing all the talking.
 
Pipeman said:
Honestly?
Either of them having enough ranks in Past Lives could give away that we're Odyssial just by showing our face alone and very likely would do so when we're using Ambition against Polemgaos.
It could put them under the Terror of Odyssial though, so that's not a pure negative provided we still attempt the negotiation thing.

Outside of that, it kind of depends on whether Odyssial did his "erase myself from the memory of Hell" thing here.
If he did, noone should really be able to conclude anything from whatever report on us they make and, if he didn't, demons who can recognize us from a description will still not be that frequent and the ones that do would have to overcome the Terror of Odyssial to tell anyone.
Potentially problematic, but unless we give the two of them reason enough to research our past life, it shouldn't come up.
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Well, do note that they may not have seen you yet; after all, you didn't meet at the party. And you could continue the charade into the fight with Polemgaos simply by leaving that part of the Storm armor's guard up, like a ninja mask of hardened lacquer, while subtly modifying your disguise for the day to be slightly less Odyssial-like above the nose.

Ambition, yeah, that's harder to disguise, but just because you have Ambition doesn't mean you're Odyssial. He frequently loaned it out, after all...
 
Coaxmetal said:
Maybe I'm remembering wrong, but in the previous quest archive one of the stereotypes was "men are dumb brutes who need to be led by women". It might not be a hard sell that, hey, Ulyssian is hopeless outside of stabbing things hard and being stoic, so Nilul is doing all the talking.
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Wasn't it behavior specific to the Realm? We (and they) are Anathema. Besides, something like stereotyping is less important compared to the integrity of our lie.
 
Rihaku said:
Well, do note that they may not have seen you yet; after all, you didn't meet at the party. And you could continue the charade into the fight with Polemgaos simply by leaving that part of the Storm armor's guard up, like a ninja mask of hardened lacquer, while subtly modifying your disguise for the day to be slightly less Odyssial-like above the nose.

Ambition, yeah, that's harder to disguise, but just because you have Ambition doesn't mean you're Odyssial. He frequently loaned it out, after all...
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Do we/Nilul know about the Infernal's Past Lives being a thing or would this fall under general paranoia/reducing the amount of people who can accurately describe Ulyssian to others?
 
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Rihaku said:
Well, do note that they may not have seen you yet; after all, you didn't meet at the party. And you could continue the charade into the fight with Polemgaos simply by leaving that part of the Storm armor's guard up, like a ninja mask of hardened lacquer, while subtly modifying your disguise for the day to be slightly less Odyssial-like above the nose.

Ambition, yeah, that's harder to disguise, but just because you have Ambition doesn't mean you're Odyssial. He frequently loaned it out, after all...
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Seems like a good precaution to take no matter what option we pick... although presumably Polemgaos would have gotten a good enough look at us yesterday to wonder why we look different today...
 
If they do recognize us, they'll be scared out of their minds with terror so it would still work in our advantage as we could bully them the same way we bullied Lytek in the previous quest.
 
afterthought53 said:
If they do recognize us, they'll be scared out of their minds with terror so it would still work in our advantage as we could bully them the same way we bullied Lytek in the previous quest.
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Exalts are not spirits.

Gerrou said:
Unless they see us having trouble / not curbstomping Polemgaos and decide to try taking us out while they still can.
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Depends when you meet 'em. You could meet 'em after Mnemon's had her match for the day.
 
Rihaku said:
Depends when you meet 'em. You could meet 'em after Mnemon's had her match for the day.
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But we don't know the order of the matches, it depends on her draw and there might be other Infernal agents regardless. So it would be good to keep in mind as a possibility, but leaves too much to chance to make deliberate intimidation an integral part of the plan.
 
Yeah, then better to initiate contact after her match. If we lose against Polemgaos, it may not be worth it confront them at all, especially with the damage such a loss would imply. Results of that fight affect how dominant our position can be and adds an inimidation option if the win is seemingly effortless/quick enough. From her fight we can both judge Ayala's general threat level. It also gives time for recovery for us and none for her. We can also use her fight as more justification on identifying them (again depending on her actions, of course).

Confronting the Infernals first runs the risk of not getting a satisfactory resolution from it and then being injured against Polemgaos, leaving us very vulnerable.
 
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