- Location
- Germany
What I'm more interested in is how Daniel managed to convince the woman who routinely beats Exalted arguments by sheer stubbornness to let him go to the ghost dance.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Simple Lydia. He is not risking himself, well yeah he is, but he is also a young man trying to date a young woman and say what you will about Charity, but she does not interfere in the love lives of her children.
Vote closed.
So, speaking of soul surgery (because that's what it is). What would we need to do to remove someone's ability to do magic? We know it can be done - Charity essentially did it to herself by turning her gift onto itself in her learned hatred of magic (I am also guessing she might have some passive anti-magic effect going on, if a very low key one). How would we go about doing the same to someone? I mean, we could do this with VEE permanently, and via gratuitous applications of Heart-Carving Wind and Crowned with Fury. But how would one go about it with mortal(ish) magic? If we could develop such a method, it might be a worthwhile alternative to "all Law breaches are capital offenses" policy of White Council. Might even reconcile a lot of its issues with mortal governments.
Winning Vote
Arc 5 Post 36: Of Specters and Strangers
Specters and Strangers
29th of September 2006 A.D.
The Dead come forth like pale fireflies drawn to the deeper light of Lydia's aura, figures of mist and memory all, women in wide skirts and fathered hats that waft like smoke into the clear evening air, men in frock coats and bow-ties smiling from behind an assortment of facial hair that seems the most expressive about them. There are you note a lot more young men than women, the First World War more than the second had filled these graves, And then there's the children. It's hard not to flinch when you see them especially the handful few marked and mangled by the teeth of industry, but like their elders they seem cheerful at the prospect of dancing under the moon. They are less weary in their greetings of you more willing to approach...
"Do you have a familiar too?" A dark haired girl asks, her voice a louder than most, the powder blue of her dress clearer among the mist. Her pallor speaks less of fading spirit and more to the manner of her death, as does the blood in the corner of her mouth. The quiet killer had taken her, the 'good death', what they had called consumption.
"Too?" you ask startled even as the music begins to play around you, a dozen mismatched instruments somehow in eerie harmony, a jaunty folk tune that twists uneasily into a minor key and back again.
Silently the girl points towards the branches of a large oak tree where a glossy black bird, a raven you think, sits unnaturally still.
"Oh right, that's midnight my familiar, he's shy," Lydia says. After a moment's pause she admits. "Well OK, Midnight's more than a little scared of you."
Oh... You shake your head sadly, but resolve there's no time like now to fix the problem. "It's OK, I don't mean Lydia any harm see. Come on let's open this dance up."
She giggles and demure, nose pointed dramatically upwards. "I don't know any of your colonial dances." For all the things Lydia does well faking a British Accent is not one of them, laughter echoes strangely from one set of insubstantial lips to another. Maybe it's a trick of the light, but it looks to you like more color is flowing into the guests as they do so, shifting from colorless to sepia to as colorful as the little girl's dress.
Speaking of said girl. "Oh silly me, I didn't introduce myself did I? I'm so out of practice. My name's Madeline, Madeline Jones." Voice dropping to a whisper she adds. "Don't tell anyone but this is my park."
"Really?" you ask in an interested tone you've had a lot of practice in.
Madeline nods firmly, ringlets bouncing all the while. "I wanted to go the park before when I was sick, but mama said I couldn't and I was glum, but then I woke up here lying in the grass, it was great. Then the Hookman said it wasn't a park but a gravayard, he said all sorts of nasty things about how I'd been a naughty girl and sinned, but I didn't believe him. I shouted at him to go away, but he was really strong on account of how mean he was. Then... they they started taking folks out of the ground, it was most bizarre so I asked a fella who was 'taking the poppy' 'cause they can see us better and he said this was a park now, a nature preserve he called it, so I got to the park in the end see. Say what do poppies have to do with seeing the dead? I never could get Mrs Rutherford to explain that to me."
Does too young to know about drugs count for a girl whose been dead for more than a hundred years? you wonder, though not for long as the sound of soft wings herald's the approach of Lydia's familiar. Midnight lands on his mistress' shoulder with a thump that might have unbalanced someone less sure on her feet.
Wait didn't you have...? Searching around your clutch for a bit you find the bag of peanuts you had stashed in there this morning and carefully offer some of them to the bird. He looks at you for a moment, suspicion warring with hunger and... you suspect, curiosity, before he snaps up some of the treats.
A cold breeze tugs at your dress. "Do you have a familiar then?" Madeline presses. "In your purse?"
She means Clippy, you realize. Briefly you contemplate trying to explain mobile phones to someone who had died when landlines were new. Then you come upon a solution. "Say Maddy, do you want to meet some nice police officers?"
"Sure, my daddy was a volunteer fireman you know...." And she is off to the races. In the time it takes you to walk back along the wooded path you learn more about the old volunteer firemen than you had ever known.
To his credit Detective Stallings turns at the sound of your approach. "What do you...?" The words die on his lips as he realizes the girl next to you isn't entirely there, the blue of her dress fading into the roiling mist.
"This is Madeline Jones and she has all sorts of questions," you emphasize in a way sure to fly right over the kid's head, at had over yours at her age after all. "I thought maybe you could help her out. Explain opium cell phones and whatever else she might want to know about. Maybe in exchange she can teach you something about ghosts."
In response the officer gives you a bewildered look that Madeline misinterprets. "I know I'm a ghost, I'm not stupid."
That seems to break the ice, or maybe the detective's sense of the real. Soon enough he's giving the 'drugs are bad' speech to a fascinated and only temperately silent ghost girl.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 11/12
As you wonder back among the graves, the inhabitants whispering to each other like the rustle of dry leaves or dancing in half remembered melodies Lydia walks up to you looking.... a lot less cheerful than you had left her. "What's the matter?"
"We've just had unexpected guests, one of the Jade Court from the feel of him according to dad, though he claims he's just a messenger who wants to speak to the Seed of Elder Night, that's you I bet. He feels pretty young to me, I'm betting I could kick him out on my own if you don't want to deal him or his message..."
"No," you cut her off. "Disrespecting a messenger like that is a declaration of war from the loss of face alone. I'll talk to him." Though if he already knows what you bear you wonder if it might not be worth it to kindle your anima the better to make who and what they are dealing with.
How do you meet the Jade Court vampire?
[] As you are, no need to spook the spooks
[] Flare your anima, make it clear that against you threat and treachery both will fail
[] Write in
OOC: What's a party without someone to crash it?
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To do what Charity did to someone else against their will you would need the kind of necromatic lore the council burns on the spot for being way too easy to abuse
Rolls
Making Friends with Midnight
Cops and ghosts
Lydia identifies the vampire (She's lucky it's a favpred Ability)
taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
So is this a canon character or an OC from some Dresden Files media I'm not aware of? Because I have no idea if a Jade Court vampire has made an actual appearance in the story.
The Jade Court does not show up in canon, though given that they are asking after Molly by what is probably the name of her Exaltation it's a decent assumption that they are doing it because of said Exaltation.
So, I'm guessing elder Skavis had actual contacts in Jade court and called them with "what the hell was that thing?".
@DragonParadox do we have our sword manifested?
@DragonParadox do we have our sword manifested?
You do not, Molly figured it would spook the cops more than they already are if she did.
- Location
- Germany
Would our dress still look good in contrast with brazen skin beneath it?
And bathed in green light?
#Priorities
And bathed in green light?
#Priorities
- Pronouns
- She/Her
We have a high enough Intimidation score to project "if you start trouble, I'll finish it," plenty well without flaring our aura and disrupting the party if we want to, especially with DPE helping out. Maybe stunt a flaring of our cold aura, since that's less likely to disturb ghosts that aren't affected by the cold in the same way as the living. I'll let someone better at that figure it out.
She didn't get rid of her magic like that, she just stopped using it. Magic is like a muscle, if you stop exercising it the strength starts to fade. She basically deliberately did to her soul what being in a coma does to your body.
[X] As you are, no need to spook the spooks
-[x] Etiquette Excellency
-[x] As Molly walks through the grass of the graveyard, her bearing shifts from partying teenager to something much more formal; a monarch holding court.
-[x] Etiquette Excellency
-[x] As Molly walks through the grass of the graveyard, her bearing shifts from partying teenager to something much more formal; a monarch holding court.
[X] As you are, no need to spook the spooks
-[X] All Thing Betray, using willpower
-[X] Etiquette excellency
-[X] STUNT: Composed and regal, you move towards where the envoy of Jade Court is waiting for you, and your senses sharpen, expand, the shadows in the mists coiling to reveal to their mistress the hidden details of the world. You pass between a pair of trees mid-tact of the music permeating the area, momentarily hidden from sight of everyone present by happenstance and design, and when you are seen once again, your sword is there, a masterstroke of your outfit, making it clear that you are not someone to be trifled with. In your mind, Usum feeds you the lines appropriate for a first meeting with a foreign power.
-[X] All Thing Betray, using willpower
-[X] Etiquette excellency
-[X] STUNT: Composed and regal, you move towards where the envoy of Jade Court is waiting for you, and your senses sharpen, expand, the shadows in the mists coiling to reveal to their mistress the hidden details of the world. You pass between a pair of trees mid-tact of the music permeating the area, momentarily hidden from sight of everyone present by happenstance and design, and when you are seen once again, your sword is there, a masterstroke of your outfit, making it clear that you are not someone to be trifled with. In your mind, Usum feeds you the lines appropriate for a first meeting with a foreign power.
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[x] yog
The Jade Court could make very useful contacts.
They're monsters, but they have the potential to be civilized monsters.
They're also (officially at least) seekers of Enlightenment, even if that comes in inhuman flavours. A combination of the Crown and the Occult secrets that Molly has inherited, channeled through her difficulty reducers and Excellency, could make her a particularly effective teacher to even elder Wan Kuei. The fact that the Wan Kuei could well br a fallen type of Exalt or something very similar means that knowledge may have interesting applications for her*. Lydia might also be able to offer some insights into the nature of the Hungry Dead, if she works with Molly, although probably particularly into the nature of Yin for the Bone Flowers. They're also meant to act as wardens and interlocutors for the dead, just as she is.
A lot depends on the Dharma of the Wan Kuei that we're meeting and who they're representing. Sending a Bone Flower or Resppendent Crane to meet us here sends a very different message than a Rootless Centipede or Devil Tiger. I think there's almost no chance they'd send a Thrashing Dragon here (at least not alone).
As a side note, it'll be interesting to see how much of their eschatology is accurate here. The sixth age and the coming of the Demon Emperor is the prophesised over throw of God, as that's pretty clearly who the August Personage of Jade would map onto in the Dresdenverse.
* If Molly is interested in returning to the original nature of her Exaltation in some way, or simply redeeming the Hellish aspects of her power, investigating the way that the Wan Xian became the Wan Kuei, and how the Wan Kuei try to elevate themselves from their fallen state may be applicable. As may working out if there's any way for her to help reverse their fallen state more directly. Even restoring them to how they were on the 4th Age would be an astonishing achievement.
They're monsters, but they have the potential to be civilized monsters.
They're also (officially at least) seekers of Enlightenment, even if that comes in inhuman flavours. A combination of the Crown and the Occult secrets that Molly has inherited, channeled through her difficulty reducers and Excellency, could make her a particularly effective teacher to even elder Wan Kuei. The fact that the Wan Kuei could well br a fallen type of Exalt or something very similar means that knowledge may have interesting applications for her*. Lydia might also be able to offer some insights into the nature of the Hungry Dead, if she works with Molly, although probably particularly into the nature of Yin for the Bone Flowers. They're also meant to act as wardens and interlocutors for the dead, just as she is.
A lot depends on the Dharma of the Wan Kuei that we're meeting and who they're representing. Sending a Bone Flower or Resppendent Crane to meet us here sends a very different message than a Rootless Centipede or Devil Tiger. I think there's almost no chance they'd send a Thrashing Dragon here (at least not alone).
As a side note, it'll be interesting to see how much of their eschatology is accurate here. The sixth age and the coming of the Demon Emperor is the prophesised over throw of God, as that's pretty clearly who the August Personage of Jade would map onto in the Dresdenverse.
* If Molly is interested in returning to the original nature of her Exaltation in some way, or simply redeeming the Hellish aspects of her power, investigating the way that the Wan Xian became the Wan Kuei, and how the Wan Kuei try to elevate themselves from their fallen state may be applicable. As may working out if there's any way for her to help reverse their fallen state more directly. Even restoring them to how they were on the 4th Age would be an astonishing achievement.
[X] Plan Hell and High Water
-[X] Intimidation Excellency and IPM
-[X] ATB, using willpower
-[X] Stunt: As Molly approaches the delegation, the night seems to draw in around her like a cloak. In the glimmering of the ghost light the shadows almost seem caught between whispering in her ears and bowing at her feet.
—[X] Frost gathers in her wake, spreading along her footsteps and flickering into the air like the questing tongue of a vast snake.
—[X] Taking a breath Molly settles at an appropriate distance - far enough to give them space, but close enough that they cannot escape if it turns to violence - and looks over what the night has brought her.
IPM for mind magic, since we've repeatedly seen that being reflexive isn't the same as being immune. Intimidation because these guys are crashing our party and I'd rather not give then the impression that we're so impressed with their importance that we'll make way for them.
Usually I wouldn't be so prickly about it, but if these guys would declare war over a jilted messenger then they seem like the type to read way too much into cautious civility.
If they'd had a while to dig up really old lore and more specific details of Molly's abilities I could see them getting something, but we're talking about around two weeks and a second hand surface level account of a handful of distinct effects that didn't even get a good workout.
-[X] Intimidation Excellency and IPM
-[X] ATB, using willpower
-[X] Stunt: As Molly approaches the delegation, the night seems to draw in around her like a cloak. In the glimmering of the ghost light the shadows almost seem caught between whispering in her ears and bowing at her feet.
—[X] Frost gathers in her wake, spreading along her footsteps and flickering into the air like the questing tongue of a vast snake.
—[X] Taking a breath Molly settles at an appropriate distance - far enough to give them space, but close enough that they cannot escape if it turns to violence - and looks over what the night has brought her.
IPM for mind magic, since we've repeatedly seen that being reflexive isn't the same as being immune. Intimidation because these guys are crashing our party and I'd rather not give then the impression that we're so impressed with their importance that we'll make way for them.
Usually I wouldn't be so prickly about it, but if these guys would declare war over a jilted messenger then they seem like the type to read way too much into cautious civility.
Wait, they actually know what's going on? I figured this was just a visit because Molly reads like something really strange from their end of the street.
If they'd had a while to dig up really old lore and more specific details of Molly's abilities I could see them getting something, but we're talking about around two weeks and a second hand surface level account of a handful of distinct effects that didn't even get a good workout.
The messenger specifically said Seed of Elder Night and your favored charms are Kakuri (darkness) and Lanka (nuclear hatefire). Make of that what you will,
Just as a note, but if the commentaries in Blood and Silk are to be believed, there were survivors of the Third Age at least into the thirteenth century. This are Wan Kuei that were once Wan Xian, Hungry Dead born as Mortals who passed the tests to be Exalted (?) and then were cursed by the August Personage of Jade (God) for abusing mortals (or allowing their peers to do so), who then developed sufficient enlightenment to retain their minds, and sufficient power to survive the intervening millennia.
It's very possible that some of them have survived the succeeding hundreds of years.
If anyone is going to have a clue about the Exalted it's people who quite possibly were Exalted themselves, and in some sense may still be. Particularly as the Wan Xian warred with, occasionally slew, and in at least one case became Yama Kings, and some powerful Wan Kuei have managed the same since. That means they're particular likely, for inhabitants of Earth, to have explored the depths of Yomi Wan and encountered the imprisoned Infernal Exaltations.
And if we're talking about elders like that, they're likely to be extremely enlightened and have truly ludicrous disciplines, included information gathering ones.
It's very possible that some of them have survived the succeeding hundreds of years.
If anyone is going to have a clue about the Exalted it's people who quite possibly were Exalted themselves, and in some sense may still be. Particularly as the Wan Xian warred with, occasionally slew, and in at least one case became Yama Kings, and some powerful Wan Kuei have managed the same since. That means they're particular likely, for inhabitants of Earth, to have explored the depths of Yomi Wan and encountered the imprisoned Infernal Exaltations.
And if we're talking about elders like that, they're likely to be extremely enlightened and have truly ludicrous disciplines, included information gathering ones.
The problem with that is that in the context of the Dresden Files that many exalts running around doesn't make sense. Even setting aside the 700 total celestial exalts versus the 10,000 Wan Xian, getting the exaltations into and out of the black vault is a hell of a trick.
It'd also require their god to be better at cursing exaltations than the primordials were. The great curse wasn't as significant a nerf as the shift from Wan Xian to Wan Kuei was.
I can buy them being patterned on something similar, but not being millennia old exalts who could so easily be put back into the bottle and don't seem to do anything in the world at large.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
To give context here is the background.
Alternatively, they may have gotten a hold of our recent publication exploit and want a copy of the same.
So they have been around, since the age of sorrows in Exalted terms. As for the relation, well......
So not a good look, but the fact that they are sending a Messager is either a very good thing or a bad thing.
Alternatively, they may have gotten a hold of our recent publication exploit and want a copy of the same.