If we really want to screw them we could use our Crown questions to try to design a more reliable akuma detection method and sell it to the Jade Court.
Well, CCC makes traps of many kind into 'I'm not trapped inside with you...' scenarios.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
If we really want to screw them we could use our Crown questions to try to design a more reliable akuma detection method and sell it to the Jade Court.
Well, CCC makes traps of many kind into 'I'm not trapped inside with you...' scenarios.
- Location
- Georgia
never even entertained that idea. But some hells are very profitable to trade with and/or are known to be "reliable". For example empress of burning seas and corpse-tiger demons.
yeah, can't engage on large scale. But molly for now is still a small player.
Mercenaries... maybe? He has got a solid power-set. Would prefer to increase the follower base in general tho.
that was changed in wod exalted. instead of killing spirits infernal now sends them to hell. either his own or whatever hell the charm belongs to.
and I would be more concerned about a swarm of chaff then 1 hero unit.
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@DragonParadox what is the most likely method by which the messenger's loyalty to his masters is assured? Fear? Magical compulsion? Pragmatic self-interest? Genuine loyalty? I want to try recruitment, and there are many ways we can do it, so I want to know Molly's best guess.
I would use the letter question to find the best way to break them.
That is something you guys will have to judge IC, this is not something you can just roll for because Akuma tend to be pretty divergent in how they organize
Do we even need the crown for that? Especially for Emma-O given Molly's occult specialty. Still, I like the idea in principle.
This I disagree with; CCC makes things easier while trapped, but that isn't the same as making traps more useful to us than the people who set them. In a lot of cases it likely will, but we need a clear idea of what they're specifically planning to do to make a proper evaluation.
Fair enough. Not sure Molly would be up for trading favors with a place run on human misery, but you're not wrong about the potential profitability with some of them.
I agree, I was just pointing out that for jobs like this there is apparently a number of middle tier guys making a living as hired muscle we could bring in when we want to bulk up in a hurry.
Pretty sure this got home brewed for the quest on the grounds that if we didn't have a spirit killer we'd just keep screwing around until we had something that could do the job since it's a staple ability it annoys people to lack. Especially since the other celestials didn't get that nerf, and the fluff for MiM doesn't make sense as written. The charm mutilates souls for essence, so they fall apart instead of getting kicked into the afterlife.
Or at least that's how I recall that discussion ending. Will need a minute to get sources.
Edit:
Here they are, thought these would take longer to find:
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The Wan Kuei have had arhats (so equal Occult dice pool to Molly and probably greater Investigation pools) with strong motivations, incredibly strong supporting disciplines (to modify the difficulty and gather information), knowledge of what abilities less Enlightened Wan Kuei have to leverage, and thousands of years to refine more generally applicable methods to find akuma in an arms race with the Yama Kings trying to disguise them.
Given this context, I think the Crown would make it much more likely to find something truly effective.
fictionfan
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- Location
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Not unless they recognize what happened which they wouldn't because thief as release stops them from realizing anything had happened so any mental defenses that need any action to do so including reflexive ones don't trigger. Or at least that seems to be the rules for this quest.
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Honestly, I kinda have decision paralysis, I have a grand but impractical vision of doing every plan the thread has come up with simultaneously and more. I want to have the messenger return with knowledge that will poison or confuse the rank and file if not the upper brass as they scramble for a solution for 5 days. I want us to tell our dad and Harry someone threatened us to recruit them to help us destroy them. Then declare open battle 3 seconds before the meeting starts and send a kamekazie ghost car bomb at the compound. We then move to combat with our allies utilizing our spirit killer charm and destroy them all for threatening ourselves and our family because that was a line they were never meant to cross.
To be fair, the charm makes complete sense when you know that the 'hit points'/energy pool/physical material the body a spirit is made of is called essence. It's no different to a victim able to come back after reducing someone's body to chunks and then eating some of those chunks for Essence recovery (which a dhampyr Exalt could do to someone).
When a Wan Kuei feeds on a spirit, it does so by eating their essence, but them consuming a spirit to the last drop of essence doesn't mean they get permanently killed.
Unless they have persistent mental defences or surprise negators.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
What would we even do with those? We would have a similar problem that anyone else has with Exaltations. Mainly that we can't control who they go to and whoever they go to isn't going to be under our's or anyone else's control. There's a good reason that they were mostly locked up.
We could get lucky and they go to some heroic mortal that we love to work with, but we can also get really unlucky.
Edit: Then again the Exalted instinct to group up does mean that our odds of benefit are much better than most. Also given that Exaltations never go to obvious supernaturals means that supernaturals aren't inclined to let them go.
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I expect they have. The letter makes it pretty clear they've also learned how to use caged exaltations as tools, and they presumably want to learn more about them for a good reason.
From the letter, we could try asking. Where are any other of the Exaltations mentioned in this letter?
Not sure the letter would be a strong enough arcane link. Hmm "where can one find the objects referred to as Seeds of Night in this letter" might work. Hopefully. That's a good point.
We could probably do some shenanigans at least. Like, there are ways to limit the pools from which exaltations select, by isolating the potential candidates and the shards in a separate dimension (like our kingdom). And in any case, I would feel much, much safer if we, not they, had the shards.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I mean we could put the Exaltations in our kingdom than make a habit of only letting mortals that we can work with into our kingdom, but say we get a Solar exaltation those go to someone in their moment of heroism which hopefully won't happen in our kingdom (heroics only happen when things go wrong).
Don't have the books in front of me ,but I think that generally all Exaltations happen under conditions that you can't make happen on purpose or if you did make happen on purpose would make that Exalted your sworn enemy.
That's true, I guess it depends on how far you take the assumption on what it does. The charm can be read to say it renders them into parts rather than simply taking some off the top, and that spirit essence is used to create more potent proper Essence to boot, which in this quest is a significant amount of energy.
Overall I'm content with the IC and OOC reasoning to upgrade the charm.
Though looking at it again, I have a question @DragonParadox . Is there any mechanical benefit to the 4-course meal aspect of the charm?
My bet is that they'd mostly resist on stats or through their wards if they're behind them. Dresden Files native mental defenses are significantly less convenient than exalted ones, so keeping them up all the time would be annoying.
There are very very few infernal exaltations around, so I'm not too worried about that. Especially since they used the one they had for ages without gaining any more. They had plenty of time and motivation to conduct a search while Usum was around to see the results.
They did it once, but that doesn't mean they managed it again. It's possible, but I have my doubts. Especially because they keep referring to the black seed in the singular, as a title rather than a category.
- Location
- Germany
There are no other Exaltations mentioned,only this one.
fictionfan
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- Location
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We hardly have the pull or knowledge of the Unconquered Sun or Luna. Those Exaltations were modeled off them I expect that UC as the exemplar and prime lawgiver was able to define what heroism is. (Also not sure that actually happened the accounts of the Primordial war are contradictory.)
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Lintha are not human at all.
Depends on the exaltation, people have gotten them for solving cypher's. Baking a legendary cake, etc. While all exaltation can show up in a battle or some other dramatic event. That really only the Dawn's thing.
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The benefit is you can technically survive off murdering immortals, it is also pleasant and filling because that is just how infernal charms roll
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Crown question on the letter: "What does Lady Eiko of the Blood-Stained Chrysanthemum know about my [exaltation]". This question both let's us know exactly how much she knows so she can't bluff us and also gives us valuable information if she somehow knows anything we don't.
Lady, you clearly don't know what our exaltation is if you think that your *will of darkness* can devour us. At best it'll get an indigestion, more likely, it'll get a surprise shanking.
Well then, more than enough for our own kingdom, fingers crossed for enough votes for it if we do get essence 3.
My, written like that, I really want to go for telling her that Emma-O is wise for not wanting our enmity.
Then proceed to tell that they'll still have it for threatening us and our family.
Definitely not as the supplicant begging for not getting punishment for their transgression as they expect, at the very least.
Important thing: As long as their trap has any physical component, we get the advantage of CCC, we do have reasons to *put ourself at a disadvantage*, because the way we works means that we get a bigger advantage than disadvantage from doing so.
As has been told several times in the thread, Murder is Meat text says it destroy the essence of those it's used on, so it's a true spirit killer here.