Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Everyone from the contact options at the end of the chapter needs to be told of the threat from the latest batch of supernatural gribblies to make an appearance, but voting for all of them simultaneously is just trying to squeeze too much into too little time. That's going to be at least three separate conversations, and each one of them is going to need to be handled differently, likely with one or more followup votes.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Or we just gather them all in one place and tell them all simultaneously. That's what I read Yog's option as.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
The doesn't seem practical to me. Each of those conversations should rightly be quite different, with varying levels of information being shared.
Members of both SI and the Order are here, and we can tell them so they can pass it on, and let them know we'll tell them more soon.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
[] Plan Authority and Asskicking
-[] Hellscry Chakra, 8 XP
-[] Wind-Born Stride, 8 XP
-[] Murder is Meat, 4 XP
-[] Naked Wicked Souls, 3 XP
-[] Maggot Mana Plague, 8 XP
So here is my xp spending proposal and the reasons.
Hellscry - Infernal becomes aware when she
stands in the presence of any creature of darkness. Rolls Perception + Occult roll against difficulty 6, she can behold the subtleties of their anima and learn their current emotional state, as well as some clues about their nature.
This combos with ATB shich reduces Per rolls by -3. Meaning without an Excellency and BCM we are rolling 7 dice at difficulty 3.
Both are scene long. It also is much more useful in finding hidden threats as while not perfect, it reveals to us their nature. So we can find thd nagashi znc identify Greater akumas.
Useful against Mab too.
NWS - Perception + Empathy against a difficulty of the target's (Wits + Subterfuge). Success tells her what deed in all of his history the target is most ashamed of. With three or more successes, the Infernal also learns some specific details of the sin (names, dates, things she might have seen had she been present to witness the act). With five or more successes she may even learn details the target himself doesn't know, such as longterm consequences of his sin which would further compound his guilt.
ATB + BSM = -4 difficulty on a 6 dice roll without Excellency. So even at max dice we roll it a difficulty of 6.
MMP - we need to feed our minions znd Wvampires fully fead are POWERFUL. Our newest minion has not fully awakened and ghis is a good way to Awaken her without getting people killed.
WBS + MiM = Our one two to dnsure we can kill an immortzl anc that it stays dead. This is MUST HAVE if we want to perma kill z Greater Akuma and ghey will be sent against us. So we need this.
-[] Rendered Villain Dispersal, 4 XP
Optional if we have more xp.
-[] Hellscry Chakra, 8 XP
-[] Wind-Born Stride, 8 XP
-[] Murder is Meat, 4 XP
-[] Naked Wicked Souls, 3 XP
-[] Maggot Mana Plague, 8 XP
So here is my xp spending proposal and the reasons.
Hellscry - Infernal becomes aware when she
stands in the presence of any creature of darkness. Rolls Perception + Occult roll against difficulty 6, she can behold the subtleties of their anima and learn their current emotional state, as well as some clues about their nature.
This combos with ATB shich reduces Per rolls by -3. Meaning without an Excellency and BCM we are rolling 7 dice at difficulty 3.
Both are scene long. It also is much more useful in finding hidden threats as while not perfect, it reveals to us their nature. So we can find thd nagashi znc identify Greater akumas.
Useful against Mab too.
NWS - Perception + Empathy against a difficulty of the target's (Wits + Subterfuge). Success tells her what deed in all of his history the target is most ashamed of. With three or more successes, the Infernal also learns some specific details of the sin (names, dates, things she might have seen had she been present to witness the act). With five or more successes she may even learn details the target himself doesn't know, such as longterm consequences of his sin which would further compound his guilt.
ATB + BSM = -4 difficulty on a 6 dice roll without Excellency. So even at max dice we roll it a difficulty of 6.
MMP - we need to feed our minions znd Wvampires fully fead are POWERFUL. Our newest minion has not fully awakened and ghis is a good way to Awaken her without getting people killed.
WBS + MiM = Our one two to dnsure we can kill an immortzl anc that it stays dead. This is MUST HAVE if we want to perma kill z Greater Akuma and ghey will be sent against us. So we need this.
-[] Rendered Villain Dispersal, 4 XP
Optional if we have more xp.
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Cant.
We cant tell everyone on that list to show up at an hour notice; the Order for example, are all adult women with careers and social lives, several with families. Its going to be hard enough to reach them by phone individually on a Saturday night; its impossible to get them to all show up to a meeting. Especially a meeting after dark.
Any one of these options is easily going to consume the rest of our free time this evening.
But only the Order is immediately time sensitive.
We dont want to tell members of SI, we want to tell Murphy. There are varying levels of need to know, and credulity in SI.
Rudolph the brown nosed reindeer used to be SI, for example.
Just telling Murphy is going to entail an explanation of what the Jade Court are, what Yama Kings, the Thousand Hells and akuma are, what their capabilities are, and coming up with explanations for how Molly knows these things, and why Murphy and SI should stay on the sidelines to avoid reenacting a repeat of the Loup Garou Incident.
===
The Order has at least five other named members in addition to Olivia (Anna, Abby, Pauline, Helen, Maria).
And thats in addition to multiple unnamed members thus far. When we were being introduced to everybody it took three days.
Just reaching everyone else by phone is going to take the rest of the evening after this party is over.
And we are going to need to drive Olivia home to make sure she gets behind her threshold safely.
Either her apartment or Lydia's estate.
Assuming 32xp(24 earned + 8 refund) and 1xp reserved
Molly
Hellscry Chakra: 8xp
Rendered Villain Dispersal: 4xp
Maggot Mana Plague: 8xp
Etiquette 5: 4xp
Alchemy 1: 3xp
Murder is Meat: 4xp
Total: 31xp
Lydia: 8xp base (25% of Molly's)
Command The Dead: 3xp
Authority of the Psychopomp: 3xp
Occult 2: 2xp
Alertness 2: 2xp
Total: 10xp(8 base + 2 extra from Molly)
Especially for Lydia, Authority of the Psychomp gives her -2 DC social buffs against the undead.
Which includes ghosts and Jade Court vampires.
Which would make it a lot easier for her to get information from the local ghost population.
Basically, with Molly rocking Demonic Primacy and Lydia rocking Psychopomp Authority, a Jade or akuma would have -4DC to social rolls.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
We have his one and only name from his own lips. Is there anything useful we can do with that?
- Location
- Germany
Command the Dead would also allow her to steal control over other people's zombies, which is nice.
We will face more Necromancers in the future and Vampires with blood-magic can also make zombies. Even Wan Kuei have ways to do so.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
MiM and MMP are the charms I want the most. While I do think Etiquette 5 is not worth it now, I will approval vote this.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
The hungry dead are in fact dead. It's part of the name. So are black court.
I feel like it is worth mentioning that when it comes to combat movement Running to Forever (•) (4xp) is about as good as Wind-Born Stride (••) (8xp) for half the cost.
RtF allows for running full out the entire scene without having to use any action which effectively makes you hugely faster if you also want to attack or defend. WiS is better no doubt (double initiative rolls is a big deal) , but it also costs twice as much. Of course the effects of the two charms compound on each other.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hellscry Chakra isn't as good as you make it out to be, @uju32, and some of the reasons you give for it make me think that you're mixing it up with the second dot of Yu An, which is basically "Hellscry Chakra but better" with our dice pool, and the Sight is even better than both of them and accessible to us according to Word of QM. Hellscry Chakra will never seem like anything but a waste of XP to me.
Its not his True Name, its his usename. And probably not his full use name, even.
If we buy Divination, it might be useful.
But I dont really expect it to be; that was just supposed to be fluff.
1)I dont agree. It really is that good.
Its functionality for IDing Nemesis-touched alone would make it worth the price of entry, never mind the other stuff.
And the advent of the Jade Court as players expands its utility, because it means it allows us to ID akuma on sight.
2) We would want the Sight in addition to Hellscry Chakra, not in place of.
Its not an either/or.
Both have things they are good at, and things they miss.
Note how Dresden and Ebenezar had Soulgazed each other, and Dresden did not actually see his link to the Blackstaff, which is precisely the sort of arcane link that Hellscry Chakra is supposed to look for.
3)What is Yu An?
I dont recognize the term.
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Perception Shih art.
- Location
- Germany
Yes, but that particular Charm is only for zombies.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
See, I'm pretty sure all of that stuff is technically covered by Sight, it's just that Sight needs an activation roll based on Occult, as seen when Harry rolled for it at the museum. More successes on the roll means more information, so with our dice pools we should get everything we need.
Soulgaze is only the safest form of Sight-based mindreading. It was even almost safe for Harry to soulgaze us, and he won't turn his actual Sight anywhere near us, so clearly it sacrifices amount of information for added safety.
But there's an easy way to deal with this that doesn't involve us talking ourselves in circles with our individual interpretations of both abilities and never convincing the other:
Hey, @DragonParadox, how do Hellscry Chakra and Wizard Sight compare in mechanical capabilities? Is it worth getting both? Or would that be a waste of XP?
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Ah.
@bengalqueen
No, this is more like a cross between Advanced Auspex, just with Exalted fiat.
And the Solar charm Sorcerer's Eye or something like that.
It uses the Auspex chart, even.
1)I posted Word of Jim here last week characterizing the Sight as always true but often incomplete, and filtered by the user's mindset, biases and life experience. Butcher specifically said, and I quote:
Like I said upthread, Dresden Soulgazed the Blackstaff, a man soulbound to one of the most powerful arcane artifacts available to mortals, whose duties revolve around the systematic, ongoing breach of the Laws of Magic.
He saw nothing.
He looked at Corpsetaker with the Sight in Ghost Story, met her eyes, and it didnt activate a Soulgaze.
2)Point of correction:
Soulgazes arent necessarily safe. Mortal souls usually are, but not always. We had to coach Dresden through soulgazing Molly so he didnt break his mind doing so, else he'd have picked up a Derangement.
We dont have to worry about that, because mental defenses.
But the Sight, in all its uses, isnt safe.
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Which bakemono charm? They are all 4 dots charms. If we were to spend XP on a 4 dot charm, I would argue that Devil-refining Cauldron is much more useful, especially if HMP cyberdevils can be used to make fetiches.
No it doesn't It allows us to detect creaturs of darkness. No hints about their true nature. Certainly no "this is akuma" vs "this is a jade court member".
Ok, please explain why we need Murder is Meat. Neither naagloshii nor wan kuei are immortal, as I understand it. We don't need spirit killers to give them final death. Or do they get sent back to their hell of origin when murdered?
- Location
- Germany
A Greater Akuma does get send back to his master, who can ressurect him.
And a real spirit, like a Shikome, or some Bane, would also reform kn her hell after a defeat.
Ok, if this is an immediate action, then
[X] Warn the Order of the Cauldron and SI
-[X]Warn SI and involve SI in Order's protection
-[X] Stunt: In reply, you hand the letter over to Lydia. "His boss wants a meeting" you say, forcing a lightness into your voice that you dont really feel. With an effort, you stop and take Olivia's hand, squeezing it comfortably. "You did fine. " You look over to Lydia, who has just finished reading the letter, and hands it back to you, one eyebrow raised. "The soul of courtesy, that one." You move to the entrance of the graveyard, waving to Detective Stallings: "Detective, I think there's something you and your department need to be aware of. There's a group of people in danger. Please listen while I warn them, and we'll coordinate afterwards". You weigh the letter in your hand for a moment, then fumble it into your purse, drawing Clippy out instead. "I think" you say deliberately "the Order should stay out of Chinatown, and behind thresholds at night for the next week or so." You look at your phone. "Call Anna."
Basically, we have Special Investigations people right here. They are doing security for this event. We can definitely combine warning them and SI, and getting at least some of them into protective custody if needed.
[X] Warn the Order of the Cauldron and SI
-[X]Warn SI and involve SI in Order's protection
-[X] Stunt: In reply, you hand the letter over to Lydia. "His boss wants a meeting" you say, forcing a lightness into your voice that you dont really feel. With an effort, you stop and take Olivia's hand, squeezing it comfortably. "You did fine. " You look over to Lydia, who has just finished reading the letter, and hands it back to you, one eyebrow raised. "The soul of courtesy, that one." You move to the entrance of the graveyard, waving to Detective Stallings: "Detective, I think there's something you and your department need to be aware of. There's a group of people in danger. Please listen while I warn them, and we'll coordinate afterwards". You weigh the letter in your hand for a moment, then fumble it into your purse, drawing Clippy out instead. "I think" you say deliberately "the Order should stay out of Chinatown, and behind thresholds at night for the next week or so." You look at your phone. "Call Anna."
Basically, we have Special Investigations people right here. They are doing security for this event. We can definitely combine warning them and SI, and getting at least some of them into protective custody if needed.
Ok, then yeah, murder is meat is needed.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Yeah, pretty much that. It is why I am pushing so hard for it.
OK then. I think we pretty much agree of Maggot Mana Plague and Murder is Meat. That's 12 xp so far. I agree with Uju on etiquette 5. That's 16 xp.
Let's assume we have 30 xp total. That gives Lydia 30/4=7.5=7 (always rounds down) xp as base.
I consider Alchemy 2 with sleep reducer as a must have, given the perpetual ap hell we are in, and how much actually happens at night. That's 6 xp more. Which leaves us with 8 xp. I argue that Ability enchanter is the best buy. It's a potion that either gives us a specialty (2 successes when we roll 10s, if I understand mechanics correctly), or +2 dice if we already have a specialty. All for 2 xp. That leaves us with 6 xp. If we are doing combat or naagposhii hunting build (which is also combat), seeing is blindness would be damn useful. But I have a different proposal. We buy Craft 4 (3 xp), and spend he rest, and banked 1 xp on Lydia. This gives her 3+1 + 7 = 11 xp. We buy Authority of the Psychopomp, command the dead, and Willpower 6. This significantly boosts her overall capabilities.
Craft has been our most broadly useful power so far. Or we buy Naked Wicked Souls instead of it, to use in the meeting with shikome.
That's assuming 30 xp total. At 31 xp, we might want to buy technology excellency, or Rendered Villain Dispersal. At 32, the equation changes, as Lydia has base 8 xp, and we only need to spend 2 xp on her to buy her willpower 6. 5 xp for us to spend means... That's actually hard. I'm going to have to think about it.
Hellscry Chakra can be useful, also in meeting with Jade Court, but I don't think it's worth it - alchemy is more appealing. I definitely think that Alchemy 1 is useless. We need to go directly to 2. At that dot the humber of useful potions explodes.
A completely social build that still includes Murder is Meat as a backup would be
Hellscry Chakra, 8 xp
Naked Wicked Souls, 3 xp
Maggot Mana Plague, 8 xp
Etiquette 5, 4 Xp
Murder is Meat, 4 xp
And the rest goes to Lydia as shown above.