Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

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Are we talking about mage the awakening abyss or something nephandic from mage or something else?
Mage the Ascension Abyss. There is some conflicting stuff but if we take it all at face value it has...

Lasombra, the Antediluvian that became part of it or got possessed by it (either or), its where Demon the Fallen stuff was thrown (Hell), where the Great Ones of the Baali are from, and its also full of Qlipphotic Hells of Descending (ascending severity) as an explicit mirror and reversal of Deep Umbra and higher realms further away from God towards the Void that was before Creation by him, populated by demons, devils and Aswadim super Nephandi who are about to transcend all earthly attachment into the Void through transcending hell realms of the Qlippoth (which contains all fears, insecurities God had about his act of Creation and unborn Creations that the actual one was made instead) and into the perfect isolation of pre-Creation (potentially the 10th Sphere, the Absolute).

Let's....not...go there, if it exists here. Even if its not WoD per se.

Edit: Lets just say Book of the Fallen for Mage was wild.

Edit 2: You know. This stuff may be related to the Outside here.
 
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[x] Keep it simple, and don't make problems at home
-[X] The local supernatural scene
-[x] The broader supernatural scene and how diplomacy between the factions works

These seem the most important. We already figured out the magic wizard style is off the table, as for the coin boys, Molly already knows a ton and could just ask her father.

Also nice to see that the meme that exalted make fantastic chiefs is alive and well.
 
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[X] Two hours of knowledge
-[X] The Winter Court and Queen Mab, you think you have made an enemy
-[X] The local supernatural scene
-[X] The broader supernatural scene and how diplomacy between the factions works
-[X] The Denarians, you know a bit, but something tells you you are going to need a lot more understanding of them soon
 
[X] The local supernatural scene
[x] The broader supernatural scene and how diplomacy between the factions works

These seem the most important. We already figured out the magic wizard style is off the table, as for the coin boys, Molly already knows a ton and could just ask her father.

Also nice to see that the meme that exalted make fantastic chiefs is alive and well.
Plan based voting here, I'm afraid.

But, yeah, we were an anime-worthy killer cook before. We could ruin instant ramen and now we are building malevolent architecture out of our italian cuisine.
 
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[X] Plan Local Affairs and Probable Enemies
-[X] The Winter Court and Queen Mab, you think you have made an enemy
-[X] The local supernatural scene
 
Lets say things go south hard, but we manage to at least not die in the moment. Lets say we have to cut and run to avoid an immediate execution, pulling all orders of Exalted shenanigans to get out through ways the wardens aren't able to or willing to follow. We'd really rather not put our father or Harry in the crossfire for us... again... so taking ourselves out of the equation is the only option in the near term if things go to hell.

What is our immediate method of egress and endpoint?

Its been ages of the earth since I really was a fan of Dresden and almost everything I know of Exalted came through either fanfiction or lore or wiki dives to understand what the fanfiction was even talking about.
 
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My first thought ironically is Yomi wan.

The thousand hells. The white council is free to send people after us there. They'll die. Or worse.

Though our own fathers auspices... who knows. Perhaps we could seek assistance from an angel? Though the White council is humans.
 
Lets say things go south hard, but we manage to at least not die in the moment. Lets say we have to cut and run to avoid an immediate execution, pulling all orders of Exalted shenanigans to get out through ways the wardens aren't able to or willing to follow. We'd really rather not put our father or Harry in the crossfire for us... again... so taking ourselves out of the equation is the only option in the near term if things go to hell.

What is our immediate method of egress and endpoint?
Uh, not much.

Our options if we need to just run and survive I can think with what we have now...

Sell our services and allegience to someone. Summer, Winter, Monoc sec. whatever.

Yomi Wan is a good choice.

Flee into some frozen wilderness and live off the land until we become swole by ...adventure? Killing shit?
 
Alaska?

[X] Plan Local Affairs and Probable Enemies
Probably. Our Survival is not great, but with our Int, Craft and bonus from Without Honour we can make it.

Edit: Another possibility is buying Charred Sinner and the Charm that makes us immune to liquids and living at the bottom of the ocean.

Crushing pressure makes it inimical to life, volcanic vents may count enough for Charred Sinner to renew motes needed to live underwater.

It would be...weird for a bit.

Or buy the one where we breath underwater and live in a lake. Fucks up all tracking magic.
 
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Lets say things go south hard, but we manage to at least not die in the moment. Lets say we have to cut and run to avoid an immediate execution, pulling all orders of Exalted shenanigans to get out through ways the wardens aren't able to or willing to follow. We'd really rather not put our father or Harry in the crossfire for us... again... so taking ourselves out of the equation is the only option in the near term if things go to hell.

What is our immediate method of egress and endpoint?

Its been ages of the earth since I really was a fan of Dresden and almost everything I know of Exalted came through either fanfiction or lore or wiki dives to understand what the fanfiction was even talking about.
IMO, the single most critical magical skill Harry could teach us in the short-term would be how to open portals into and out of the Nevernever. Or maybe just show us how it's done and give us some pointers on the off chance Usum can tell us the, presumably better, Exalted method of doing so.

Not that fleeing into the Nevernever is a good survival method (there is so much deadly shit over there...), but neither is it necessarily a bad one. When you need to get gone immediately and to disappear from both easy mortal and magical means of tracking, slipping into the alternate reality next door is hard to beat, even if you don't stay for very long.
 
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I would be up for living in the Nevernever, we could flee to a cold place and be buffed forever if not for one thing.

Eating and breathing Nevernever stuff for too long makes it so youre made out of ectoplasm too and cant leave.
 
You know, I'd pay good money to see the expressions on the faces of the guardian angels posted at the Carpenter household when Molly first rolled up with a baby demon god glued to her soul.
 
[X] Plan Local Affairs and Probable Enemies
-[X] The Winter Court and Queen Mab, you think you have made an enemy
-[X] The local supernatural scene
Arts Courteous and Culinary said:
So under the tutelage of a devil and the increasingly alarmed eyes of Harry Dresden you recount:"Good fortune to you scion of the Auspicious Lions, guardian of the high door and keeper of the Fifth House. Know that I mean you no evil and no evil to those whom you guard. I will not drink their breath waking or sleeping, nor crush their bones with ice. I shall not set the flaying wind upon them nor..." Nope, not saying the part about the maggots, that's gross.
: D
 
[X] Two hours of knowledge
-[X] The Winter Court and Queen Mab, you think you have made an enemy
-[X] The local supernatural scene
-[X] The broader supernatural scene and how diplomacy between the factions works
-[X] The Denarians, you know a bit, but something tells you you are going to need a lot more understanding of them soon
 
The vote is quite close, but I do want to get this done today so shorter talk it is.
Adhoc vote count started by DragonParadox on Jul 14, 2022 at 3:02 PM, finished with 145 posts and 15 votes.

  • [X] Plan Local Affairs and Probable Enemies
    -[X] The Winter Court and Queen Mab, you think you have made an enemy
    -[X] The local supernatural scene
    [X] Two hours of knowledge
    -[X] The Winter Court and Queen Mab, you think you have made an enemy
    -[X] The local supernatural scene
    -[X] The broader supernatural scene and how diplomacy between the factions works
    -[X] The Denarians, you know a bit, but something tells you you are going to need a lot more understanding of them soon
    [x] Keep it simple, and don't make problems at home
    -[X] The local supernatural scene
    -[X] The broader supernatural scene and how diplomacy between the factions works
 
An opportunity lost, but not a big one, ultimatly we can have these talks in time, unless something supernatural attacks us within the next few weeks.
I'd also say...generally Yomi Wan is worse but we are safer in Yomi Wan due to being an Infernal with demon tutor.
Our demon tutor was captured, tortured and their bound Exaltation used as a weapon for a long time though.

That's not exactly speaking for Hell being safe for us, not yet at least.
 
Arc 0 Post 27: Of the Hidden World
Of the Hidden World

6th of July 2006 A.D.

Mindful of the time and of the fact that your mother is unlikely to be understanding of your detour if you take too long, and probably even if you don't, you ask to know about you restrain your curiosity as best you can to what you need to know rather than what you would like to know: "So what's Winter like as an enemy?" you are rather proud of the little lilt of defiance in your voice. I'm not scared of you any more.

Harry on the other hand seems less impressed. "Terrible, you should stay far away from them and not poke the ant's nest anymore than they already have. I could sit here and tell you that trolls are as strong as their stink and elves have poison arrows that the sidhe have strong magic over glamor and over the elements of the cold and the dark, but that's not really what makes winter a force to be reckoned with. They are methodical, calculating, cold, willing to bide their time because they know they have all the time in the world. You will think that it is a nice day to sail across lake Michigan for a bit of a lark and then... Boom! A kelpie comes out to eat you or it drags one of your friends under and as they grasp for breath offer to let them go in exchange for their lives. No matter what you choose... heads I win tails you lose."

Jump in sword first and carve them to ribbons, you think but don't say aloud, having been in the receiving end of enough cautionary tales in your life to recognize one. He'd probably say I would drown. "Usun is there a way not to drown?"

"There are many who swim in dark waters and you might swim in imitation of them," he replies. "Lo there is power in those depths as in few places in this age of the world."

"Put a pin in that,"
you say as you turn your attention back to Harry.

"Winter's power over you, its power to use magic and affect you is greater when you are playing to their fiddle, so for instance if you were to take some deal Summer gives you, which they might." He sighs. "Lilly looked interested in you last night I'd like to think, I hope she does not try to drag you into their wars, but she is not Lilly anymore she is the Summer Lady and that means she is part of the game. You know white versus black and who cares if there are real people involved."

"So, don't take deals from any fairies even if they look warm and not cold, got it," you nod, crossing mental fingers behind your back. You got it in the sense of understanding, but that does not mean you are just going to blindly cross off a potential ally, even if they would be trying to use you. "What about Queen Mab>"

"Mab is like the wicked witch in every children's story, cold, powerful and cruel when it suits her," he continues. "Not that she doesn't have reasons for her cruelty, she absolutely does every time but well..." he trails off, uncertain about how much to say or perhaps how to say it. "You saw Slate didn't you?"

"The man on the tree?" you lick your lips nervously. What would have happened if you had followed your first instinct and freed him? "Yeah, I saw him."

"That is what happens if Mab gets her claws deep enough into you, not that Slade was a saint himself far from it, he was the Winter Knight, do you know what that is?"

You nod. "Mortal agent of Winter, but if he is still that and he is too busy being tortured to fight doesn't that mean Winter is weak?" you ask, "Weaker than it should be at least?"

"Maybe and if you are Summer maybe that would matter as well, but you heard the hunt behind us? Weak or strong they are still vicious as they are clever."

"Much as I am loath to suggest such debasement Glorious Light of Darkness Born," Usum interjects into the quiet moment that follows. "Perhaps we might do them some service in exchange for the feud being ended. Their sense of fairness binds them as tight as shackles of iron."

You take another bite of your lasagna and pointedly do not tell Harry the voice in your head suggested cutting a deal with Winter and called them naive in the same breath. "So where can I find them in Chicago?"

"Anywhere the cold and the dark is strong, faerie is the closest realm in the Nevernever to the mortal world... " He pauses and does the listening to Lasciel thing, he isn't trying as hard to hide it. "Undertown avoid Undertown, there's half built tunnels and forgotten tunnelsand tunnels that were here long before there was a city called Chicago here. I won't tell you where the ways in are because that is just asking for you to go pocking it with a stick, but there are all sorts of nasty things down there. There's vampires and ghouls and earth spirits and molds and fungi you won't find anywhere else and only about half of it is made by magic."

"What's the other half." He isn't doing a very good job on keeping you from being intrigued.

"Leftover radiation," Harry answers deadpan

Well you are pretty sure your immune system can fight off any mundane ailment and the decay of atoms seems pretty mundane.

"So you mentioned vampires..." you change the subject.

"Thomas is fine, but the rest of his kind are not, they are predators, whether they feed on lust or fear or despair so keep away from them if you spot them. I know where some of their businesses are but you should probably keep away from them anyway."

It takes more arguing than it rightly should, but eventually Harry explains that he does not mean that the lust eating vampires run the bingo halls for retirees. No, they instead, quite sensibly given their diet, try to run the sex industry and everything adjacent to it they can sink t heir claws in. After all if you can convince the prey to walk into your den there in no need to chase it down.

To be honest you are not sure what to think about the Raiths. On the one hand they are monsters that feed on people, on the other hand they are also people and if they do not feed they die. Is it fair to call someone evil just because they choose not to martyr themselves? Thomas had seemed fine enough so that he had worked with dad which means that unless you had met the one Good Vampire in the universe there are probably others like him, or maybe just a little worse... or a little better. You resolve to treat the white court as people with demons in their heads which you would be a hypocrite to call monsters out of hand.

Harry must have caught something on your face because he scowls. "I am serious Molly, these people eat people up and spit them out hollow as sure as the Reds do, they just leave the body more presentable for funerals."

"I can stop them feeding on me," you reply, sure as you had been when you pushed off the fear of Mouse.

"There's more ways than magic do that to someone," he insists, leaning across the table a little. "Vampires don't care how smart you are or how strong-willed you are, they are old and dark and when the rest of us were living out lives they were learning how to be better vampires."

You might have found that intimidating once, but now looking at him all you can read in his eyes is worry, fear and behind that the shadow of old pain. He had given this advice before, you realize suddenly, and it had ended... badly.

"I promise I will be careful, I can't really promise more since well..." you point helplessly to Mouse now imitating a great shaggy futon in front of the fire. "They might notice me first."

That being a point he can hardly deny he sighs and nods. "Come talk to me or talk to your dad if you have any trouble, any trouble at all."

You agree then change the topic again to something less fraught. "What about people who aren't dangerous, people I can talk to?"

That is how you find out about Bock's Ordered Books, an occult shop that handles the real thing including some books written by still living wizards on the nature of magic and McAnally's Pub which is neutral ground not just between the magical factions of Chicago but the whole world though some pacts Harry says he does not have the time to get into. He calls it 'a good place to duck in for sanctuary'. Inwardly you think of it as a good place to meet people of all kinds safely.

Lastly, almost reluctantly he mentions the Alphas, not because there is anything wrong with them, from the way he talks about them they seem to be good friends in a pinch, but well... they are good friends to Harry Dresden in a pinch. A pack of werewolves to keep the city safe at night sound cool as hell and they are all students at the University of Chicago, only a few years older than you.

"I... er... might talk to them, you know introduce myself so there isn't any trouble," you say when he is done. There's not much point in trying to be sneaky on this one.

Unlike the vampire thing this time Harry does not push, maybe expecting the Alphas to be the responsibility ones. From his descriptions you kind of doubt they will.

So it is that with a spring in your step and a renewed surge of essence at your fingertips from all you had learned you bid farewell to Harry Dresden, though you do not go far before you find trouble.

Gain 1 Essence

Three cars over from where you had parked you notice the white Ford something or other had been damaged, the sheet metal of the hood actually dented. This might have been the car whose alarm you heard when you got in to talk to Harry, though Mouse's barking had covered it. Looking more closely. It is the first time since Splatercon you had seen so much of it, but you do not feel as queasy as you maybe should. Unfortunately that is not the only memory of Splatercon that comes back to you. Next to the car, bloody and bruised, but still warm to the touch is a heavyset man in the uniform of the Chicago PD.

"Shit," you mutter under your breath at the sudden suspicion, confirmed when you turn him over. It's Detective Green otherwise known as that asshole who was questioning you at the convention, who Harry practically had to blackmail with the press to leave you alone.

What do you do?

[] Call an ambulance for him and leave, you are not going to leave anyone to die on the street, but that does not mean he is your responsibility

[] Fetch Harry, there is a beaten up cop fifty yards from his door, that is probably not a coincidence

[] Use your Crown to find out how he got this way

[] Write in


OOC: Well this was longer than I had anticipated , but I got it to where I wanted it to break for a vote. The plot thickens.
 
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