fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Ok then. We can do better then:
[X]Plan Yog's questions v.1.3
-[X] Actually concerning questions
--[X] Question: "Where can I find the largest currently undiscovered and unclaimed collection of writing in the same language?" Focus: the photo of the ritual circle in which [Perfected Principle of Consumtpion] was invoked.
--[X] Question: "What information was the competition looking for by trying to make this purchase?". Focus: the recordings (such as the receipt we got for paying) from the police auction
--[X] Question: "For what reason did the man who once lived here harass Harry?". Focus: Detective's house
--[X] Question: "Who killed the man this tombstone is dedicated to?". Focus: Detective's tombstone
--[X] Question: "Who attempted to shoot Harry from this place?". Focus: The roof from which the shot was made
--[X] Question: "What prophecies feature the people in this photo?" Focus: Carpenter family photo
--[X] Question: "What are the best, most comprehensive sources covering the subject if this book?"Focus: each of our school subject textbooks.
-[X] General curiosity questions
--[X] Question: "where might I find what the organization behind this website seeks?" Focus: SETI website
--[X] Question: "How did humans actually appear?" Focus: a copy of Darwin's "Origin of the Species"
--[X] Question: "Which of the organizations in this list are the most mired in the supernatural?" Focus: an online list of USA universities
@DragonParadox , regarding the humanity's origin question - would it burn out the topic of humanity in general, or evolution only? Ie, is @BronzeTongue correct, and would it be better to use "How different is the true origin of humanity from this mortal theory?"
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
This is likely to have subjectively issues. Also the most comprehensive sources are unlikely to be the most useful for Molly.
They are likely to be very big very dense books. Or the question will just point us at wikipedia.
It will burn out questions about evolution since you are using the Origin of Species as the focus.
I can live with that, I think.
Definitely not wikipedia. As to "the books would be too hard for Molly" - I am trying to set up exalted style learning. With difficulty adjusters and dice adders, we are much better suited to study using the hardest, most dense information sources available. We get to difficulty 9 by default, then adjust it back to 5 with CCC and BSM, then add 2 dice of WHWH. This way we learn more efficiently.
We are an exalt. We should train like an exalt.
Cyber devils would be my answer for this. Memorizing textbooks is a waste of time, but curated and cross referenced information that can be accessed offline would be incredibly useful.
My bet is that we'd get pointed towards stuff like Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia (a huge well curated source that covers things you can't easily pluck from Google), Whitaker's Almanac (for general knowledge) , and possibly stuff like Encarta.
I don't think we need a question for this, but I do see value in setting something like this up.
Cyber devils animate their host platforms and seem to adapt to it to a certain extent. See the cars all knowing how to drive.
I suspect that loading up a computer with local copies of data like this and then animating it, as opposed to using online searches, would be essentially make them into something like cyber-Bob. The knowledge would be their memories in their brain and not an external thing they look up.
Seems like it'd be worth some bonus dice to tech, science, and crafting projects just to have around the same way Bob is for magic.
One should not use the crown on objects or locations or even people. But rather events, events happen and then end, new events are always happening.
Not memorizing. Learning from them. Personally, I was thinking something along the lines of Landau-Lifshitz course of theoretical physics (at least for physics), but backed with exaltation's absolute search engine. Not exactly an encyclopedia. Cyberdevils are only intelligence 2, technology 3 - they wouldn't be able to check the books for quality. Plus, I hope the question would automatically discard books with significantly wrong information. And I want these for every subject we are learning.
Basically, I want to skip the long tedium and get Molly the hardest, most comprehensive study material possible to learn from, then do it using exalted shenanigans.
That's fair, but I think you're not giving them or Molly enough credit. If you narrow the search terms to things with well established reputations and/or active professional use a lot can be done to validate sources. Especially if you get a lot of them.
Really that's probably a better plan than relying on the one true book on a subject, because no single work will be all encompassing or perfect.
Even setting that aside I think starting our own "mundane" Bob would still be very helpful.
As functional AIs they can retain and process information incredibly quickly, clearly beyond what their base statline implies. It doesn't make them smarter necessarily, but they can clearly do a lot of data manipulation very quickly.
My original thought was for direct assistance with projects, but I think they'd be useful for learning as well. Not as a teacher, but just as something more interactive and capable of guiding Molly's interaction with the material.
Especially if they're loaded with context from other sources to bring in when she has questions.
Here's the ruling I'm basing this line of reasoning on, just for reference.
The computer a devil (let's call them Brainiac for now) is in is literally its brain, and its contents are freely known to them. Presumably as something functionally identical to memory.
A search devil only knows what it sees and can determine key words for, but Brainiac would likely be able to pattern match all sorts of things that don't have direct key word connections, and cross pollinate ideas from its knowledge set.
So Molly could be working through some material and ask for context, then have her assistant pull up applications, history, interactions with things Molly already understands, and other elements to grasp what a particular data point actually means.
- Location
- Georgia
...there ain't "we" no more Molly XD
To be fair, as long as she specifies human and not mortal it's still technically true*. The exaltation kind of has a thing about this.
* For now, because infernal.
[X]Plan Yog's questions v.1.3
Oh, I completely agree. Setting up a server farm is one of the actions I am wanting to do with regards to Starting Up action. Using Cyberdevils to help with designing stuff is one of their uses I heavily advocate for.
[X] Yog
- Location
- Germany
You didn't add Lydia's new Ox Body yet.
Will do one moment.
I want to do it, yes. There are three things stopping me:
1) We don't have RVD or other long-range transportation options. We almost certainly would need to travel outside the country to get one, given how rare they are. I'm not even sure Molly has a passport. I mean, we could probably make a stealth plane / submarine or whatever (hell, a spaceship even), but that's a lot of trouble
2) Not sure we have a good focus right now. Mouse's food bowl / bed might work, I guess?
3) We are AP starved right now. And it would certainly take an AP to get one.
I think we should ask the question relating to getting our own temple dog puppy (or, better yet, puppies - one for Carpenter house, one for Lydia and one personally for us) once we get RVD and probably a passport. That's probably next round of questions. Maybe get those for Christmas?
Basically, it's on agenda, but for later.
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Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I'm gonna go ahead and put forward the name Luna for our hypothetical Foo Dog puppy, assuming we can snag a female.
It's only fitting for Sailor Nuclear Hell Princess, after all.
Catching up:
Bodies arent loot in this universe; we've seen two Fae Queens bury their children, and there was no presumption that the killer was entitled to their bodies. If the Fae and their hardcoded rules dont think so, no one else does.
Siriothrax was pretty clearly breaking all sorts of rules in trading human sacrifices for power.
And Michael was a paladin of the White God, acting in his Name, and wielder of a Sword.
Nobody wise wants that smoke. At least no Dragon who actually understands what that means.
Unlikely. If mortal magic is metaphysically potent enough to fuel an ascension ritual fuelled by the spirits of the dead and the lives of tens of thousands, possibly millions? If its potent enough to summon Outsiders and time travel?
Its arguably potent enough to animate a Dragon zombie. And if it wasnt, Lydia wouldnt be able to do it.
Plus, there's also the Denarians out there, with access to nonhuman magic, and they also left it alone.
And noone with access to the Hells has ever bargained for the power to animate a Dragon zombie either.
A centimeter thickness of water that only covers the torso of an average sized woman(a third of 1.6m2 ) masses roughly 5 kilograms/11 pounds. By comparison, Level 3A kevlar vest is 5-6 pounds.
You're essentially upping weights into the point where you'll end up wearing armor heavy enough to impose Dex penalties under ExWoD rules. And you lose the ability to wear this stuff under our clothes to boot.
I like free things too.
But I think this falls firmly into the "requires magic to pull off at all" class of bullshit, let alone pull it off as something you can wear underneath your clothes and not soak all your shit, or run out midcombat.
But thats just my opinion.
They save their serious resources for the main threat, not his associates.
Victor Sells sent a demon after Dresden which had trouble trying to get past the threshold of a bachelor pad.
Kravos' Nightmare couldnt cross the walls of a church.
When Maeve was fucking with Dresden in Summer Knight, she used a ghoul.
When Duke Paolo Ortega came at Dresden in Death Maks, his backup were bogstandard hitmen and normal Rampires.
When an attack was staged on the Warden training program at Camp Kaboom, they sent ghouls.
The Denarians use human cultists or ghouls for backup.
If someone sends Kincaid or a skinwalker after them, they're fucked anyway.
But over and over again, its demonstrated that simple knowledge and the willingness to invest in them increases the threshold for enough supernatural entities and their hitmen that they will retreat, strategize and try again later.
Even Dresden relies on these things.
He keeps iron nails in his office, herbs and party favors in a basket by his door, and water balloons of holy water in his car. As he gets more powerful, they become less necessary, but as late as the Its My birthday Too short story, which happened in 2007, shortly after Molly became his apprentice, the Black Court vampire of that story was an issue he was using garlic condiments against.
We never see a supernatural start shit in a consecrated place of worship(note: we see cultists based out of a desecrated church). We never see anything not an Outsider start a fight in a Accord-designated neutral arena.
Most supernaturals default to melee options. Iron is a defence against that with fae, and I think the weaker forms of glamor as well.
We are talking defense.You can take a random asshole, tell him that Blampires cant stand garlic, and have him be essentially immune to most overt Blampire fuckery. You can take same rando, tell them that Rampires generally cant stand sunlight, and build their schedule around daytime events in the sunshine.
Whampires are the ones that are hardest to defend against, and also the ones least likely to be overt anyway.
As for offense, I will refer you to the climactic battles of Dead Beat, and how Butters managed to survive Corpsetaker and her army of spectres in that same battle, and in doing so, kept Sue under control long enough for Dresden to save the day.
I assure you that skill had nothing to do with it. Just will, knowledge and preparation.
Ignition temperature, otoh, doesnt appear to be all that different from diesel apparently. Or even olive oil.
Doubt it.
Bodies arent loot in this universe; we've seen two Fae Queens bury their children, and there was no presumption that the killer was entitled to their bodies. If the Fae and their hardcoded rules dont think so, no one else does.
Siriothrax was pretty clearly breaking all sorts of rules in trading human sacrifices for power.
And Michael was a paladin of the White God, acting in his Name, and wielder of a Sword.
Nobody wise wants that smoke. At least no Dragon who actually understands what that means.
Unlikely. If mortal magic is metaphysically potent enough to fuel an ascension ritual fuelled by the spirits of the dead and the lives of tens of thousands, possibly millions? If its potent enough to summon Outsiders and time travel?
Its arguably potent enough to animate a Dragon zombie. And if it wasnt, Lydia wouldnt be able to do it.
Plus, there's also the Denarians out there, with access to nonhuman magic, and they also left it alone.
And noone with access to the Hells has ever bargained for the power to animate a Dragon zombie either.
Did the math earlier.
A centimeter thickness of water that only covers the torso of an average sized woman(a third of 1.6m2 ) masses roughly 5 kilograms/11 pounds. By comparison, Level 3A kevlar vest is 5-6 pounds.
You're essentially upping weights into the point where you'll end up wearing armor heavy enough to impose Dex penalties under ExWoD rules. And you lose the ability to wear this stuff under our clothes to boot.
I like free things too.
But I think this falls firmly into the "requires magic to pull off at all" class of bullshit, let alone pull it off as something you can wear underneath your clothes and not soak all your shit, or run out midcombat.
But thats just my opinion.
High level hitters willing to operate in Chicago arent actually that common, or available for this kinda thing in canon.
They save their serious resources for the main threat, not his associates.
Victor Sells sent a demon after Dresden which had trouble trying to get past the threshold of a bachelor pad.
Kravos' Nightmare couldnt cross the walls of a church.
When Maeve was fucking with Dresden in Summer Knight, she used a ghoul.
When Duke Paolo Ortega came at Dresden in Death Maks, his backup were bogstandard hitmen and normal Rampires.
When an attack was staged on the Warden training program at Camp Kaboom, they sent ghouls.
The Denarians use human cultists or ghouls for backup.
If someone sends Kincaid or a skinwalker after them, they're fucked anyway.
But over and over again, its demonstrated that simple knowledge and the willingness to invest in them increases the threshold for enough supernatural entities and their hitmen that they will retreat, strategize and try again later.
Even Dresden relies on these things.
He keeps iron nails in his office, herbs and party favors in a basket by his door, and water balloons of holy water in his car. As he gets more powerful, they become less necessary, but as late as the Its My birthday Too short story, which happened in 2007, shortly after Molly became his apprentice, the Black Court vampire of that story was an issue he was using garlic condiments against.
Most creatures have significant weaknesses or customs they are unwilling to break.
We never see a supernatural start shit in a consecrated place of worship(note: we see cultists based out of a desecrated church). We never see anything not an Outsider start a fight in a Accord-designated neutral arena.
Most supernaturals default to melee options. Iron is a defence against that with fae, and I think the weaker forms of glamor as well.
We are talking defense.You can take a random asshole, tell him that Blampires cant stand garlic, and have him be essentially immune to most overt Blampire fuckery. You can take same rando, tell them that Rampires generally cant stand sunlight, and build their schedule around daytime events in the sunshine.
Whampires are the ones that are hardest to defend against, and also the ones least likely to be overt anyway.
As for offense, I will refer you to the climactic battles of Dead Beat, and how Butters managed to survive Corpsetaker and her army of spectres in that same battle, and in doing so, kept Sue under control long enough for Dresden to save the day.
I assure you that skill had nothing to do with it. Just will, knowledge and preparation.
Take your word for it.
Flash points are high.
Ignition temperature, otoh, doesnt appear to be all that different from diesel apparently. Or even olive oil.
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Observation 1
You shouldnt be making your QM do worldbuilding shit that isnt immediately relevant to the quest that you are running.
Thats essentially extra work for stuff that might not ever be used, and mental bandwith they can spend actually plotting the quest.
Essentially everything in the General Curiosity section needs to go.
So does the Carpenter family question.
Observation 2
Crown focuses are a non renewable resource.
The Carpenter family question needs to go. So does the one that burns the entire Old Realm category.
And the question about the auction.
Observation 3
Nobody tried to kill Harry from the rooftop.
They tried to kill Gorfels.
Frankly, I think you're asking the wrong questions.
And burning non-renewable focuses to boot.
Im now tempted to dig up my old list of questions.
COMMENTARY
Lol.
Molly's noobness is showing. Storm Front chapter 5:
There are certainly supernatural factions that would be materially affected, but the correlation of force is....adverse.Storm Front c5 said:
The others just dont want the conflict.
Interesting to see the boy who affects to be above it all somehow ended up one of Mollys few close friends.
Wonder how that happened.
Rolls were pretty poor.
We rolled 4 sux on 14 dice at DC7. Ugh.
That said, we keep our mortal friends. So not all bad.
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VOTE
[X]Crown Questions Alpha
-[X][Gorfel Assassination Attempt]: Bullet souvenir focus: Chain of command/people involved/that led to a sniper shooting bullets at us/Gorfel outside Harry's apartment.
-[X][Lieutenant Greene Murder]: Grave focus: Sequence of people involved in the murder of the person buried here
-[X][Lieutenant Greene Assault]: White Ford focus: Persons responsible for Lieutenant Greene assault outside Dresden apartment
-[X][Lieutenant Greene Dresden Home Visit]: Greene Home Focus: Which person(s) sent the man who used to live here to Dresden's apartment the day we captured Gorfels?
-[X][Warehouse Crime Scene]: Surveillance camera system focus: Sequence of orders/people involved in its acquisition in time to frame Dresden
-[X][Warehouse Crime Scene]: Dismemberment site focus: Greene's actual murder site
-[X][Car Auction Focus]: Purchase Receipt Focus: Motives of the other prospective buyers for Kattrin's ex-vehicle/Black Rider's current chassis
We still have the bullet from parrying sniper shots at Gorfels, so that should be easy.
That should give us not just the identity of the sniper, but more importantly the person(s) who gave him orders.
Which means we can follow up.
Lieutenant Greene has multiple valid focuses: his grave, his apartment, where he was beaten up, where his body was dismembered on camera. And multiple questions, from who killed him, why he was killed, and who sent him to Dresden's apartment just in time to try and discover Gorfels in custody.
The assault focus is the White Ford because the fact that it was parked there on a weekend evening means its always parked there
The warehouse where "Dresden" was recorded dismembering his body is shady, and provides multiple focuses for who arranged for its presence there ahead of time. The camera system was new, and someone presumably spent four figures for a high res security camera system and data storage for monitoring the insides and outsides of a disused warehouse.
Worth following up on.
[X]Crown Questions Alpha
-[X][Gorfel Assassination Attempt]: Bullet souvenir focus: Chain of command/people involved/that led to a sniper shooting bullets at us/Gorfel outside Harry's apartment.
-[X][Lieutenant Greene Murder]: Grave focus: Sequence of people involved in the murder of the person buried here
-[X][Lieutenant Greene Assault]: White Ford focus: Persons responsible for Lieutenant Greene assault outside Dresden apartment
-[X][Lieutenant Greene Dresden Home Visit]: Greene Home Focus: Which person(s) sent the man who used to live here to Dresden's apartment the day we captured Gorfels?
-[X][Warehouse Crime Scene]: Surveillance camera system focus: Sequence of orders/people involved in its acquisition in time to frame Dresden
-[X][Warehouse Crime Scene]: Dismemberment site focus: Greene's actual murder site
-[X][Car Auction Focus]: Purchase Receipt Focus: Motives of the other prospective buyers for Kattrin's ex-vehicle/Black Rider's current chassis
We still have the bullet from parrying sniper shots at Gorfels, so that should be easy.
That should give us not just the identity of the sniper, but more importantly the person(s) who gave him orders.
Which means we can follow up.
Lieutenant Greene has multiple valid focuses: his grave, his apartment, where he was beaten up, where his body was dismembered on camera. And multiple questions, from who killed him, why he was killed, and who sent him to Dresden's apartment just in time to try and discover Gorfels in custody.
The assault focus is the White Ford because the fact that it was parked there on a weekend evening means its always parked there
The warehouse where "Dresden" was recorded dismembering his body is shady, and provides multiple focuses for who arranged for its presence there ahead of time. The camera system was new, and someone presumably spent four figures for a high res security camera system and data storage for monitoring the insides and outsides of a disused warehouse.
Worth following up on.
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