Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
So... akuma seem to be doing some sort of Awakened Eye of the Dragon analogue ritual - injecting chi tainted by death in specific order into leylines to take control of them, and either boost themselves, or imperil us somehow.
Do we have a way to turn it on them? We don't have Ancient Sorcery, but we were able to use our crown to do something similar previously (see the invocation of [Perfected Principle of Consumption]). So, taking a look at a victim of the murders and asking "how do I subvert the ritual servants of Emma-O are attempting, of which the murder of this body is a part, to my benefit without killing or permanently harming any non-consenting being?" or something similar might be an interesting idea.
Servants of Emma-O are trying to align ley lines to the Will of Kakuri. Kakuri is our favored hell. Its power resonates with our essence, even as the Shadow of a Dragon skulks beneath the taint. Subverting the ritual so it serves us, rather than Kakuri should be doable.
Do we have a way to turn it on them? We don't have Ancient Sorcery, but we were able to use our crown to do something similar previously (see the invocation of [Perfected Principle of Consumption]). So, taking a look at a victim of the murders and asking "how do I subvert the ritual servants of Emma-O are attempting, of which the murder of this body is a part, to my benefit without killing or permanently harming any non-consenting being?" or something similar might be an interesting idea.
Servants of Emma-O are trying to align ley lines to the Will of Kakuri. Kakuri is our favored hell. Its power resonates with our essence, even as the Shadow of a Dragon skulks beneath the taint. Subverting the ritual so it serves us, rather than Kakuri should be doable.
Ley lines are highly energetic things, and aren't exactly perfectly safe even if you know what you're doing. I wonder if we could go upstream from them and screw with the flow to make whatever they're trying blow up in their faces. Hopefully very literally.
If we could be certain no mortals are around I'd prefer fire bombing it with suicide cyber devil cars packed with gasoline to actually showing up either way.
[X] But you let it stand, allow the moment to pass and Lán Hè to make the offer of his shaman in order to draw Lady Eiko into the open
We don't actually know if Porter can help us here, and we need to start with the murdering soon to keep the Akuma from finishing their trap.
Yeah, and letting them complete this is a horrible idea on multiple levels. A trap fueled by ley line activity is serious business. If they complete it then we shouldn't directly enter or approach the meeting spot.
If we could be certain no mortals are around I'd prefer fire bombing it with suicide cyber devil cars packed with gasoline to actually showing up either way.
[X] But you let it stand, allow the moment to pass and Lán Hè to make the offer of his shaman in order to draw Lady Eiko into the open
We don't actually know if Porter can help us here, and we need to start with the murdering soon to keep the Akuma from finishing their trap.
We need to stop the ritual soon, yes. Or subvert it, as I propose above. We definitely don't want them finishing their trap.
@DragonParadox , Molly and Usum know a lot about Kakuri and occult in general. Do they think there might be a way to subvert whatever it is that Kakuri servants are trying? To redirect the power to align with our will, perhaps, instead of theirs? Assuming we use the Crown on a victim of said ritual to get insight into it, and occult excellency, and have the help of the spirits before us and their shamans. Perhaps even help of dead shamans (through Lydia).
Maybe, the problem is... well that is ritual magic, it takes focus, reagents, assistants etc... Not really the think of thing you can do without the other person noticing because it is neither fast nor subtle.
I suspect trying to poison the runoff from Demonreach to make it submit to them would ... not have gone well for the akuma.
[X] So you speak up, you do not need that kind of risk taken, now that you know the Akuma are messing with the local dragon lines you can call your own expert in the matter in the from of Porter
- Location
- Germany
Simplest solution would be to attack before they are done.
Use one of the graves to see the location of their murderer, then hit fast and hard.
No need to use anyone as bait.
Use one of the graves to see the location of their murderer, then hit fast and hard.
No need to use anyone as bait.
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it isn't? I mean, they were doing this for several weeks already. Yes, hijacking it is likely to be more noticeable, but it's a large city. In any case, it's worth trying, I think
[X] You propose a plan to hijack whatever it is they were doing, ruining their plans and enacting revenge on those murdered in one swoop
-[X] Use the Crown of Eyes on Bùshì Tùzǐ to ask "how can the ritual that saw this one's lover murdered be hijacked and turned against those who are attempting it without further murders or permanent non-consentual harm to innocents". Use Occult excellency to interpret the results and build upon them.
-[X] STUNT: As the moment hangs in balance, your thoughts race, the knowledge of Kakuri's magic that you have gone over many times when making the Big Book of Yomi Wan, sharpened by the touch of your power comes to the forefront of your mind. Your eyes flick towards Bùshì Tùzǐ, the unseen crown upon your brow tasked with finding a way to turn the murder of her lover to the doom of his killers. Knowledge couple with inhuman insight guide you, as you open your mouth: "Or we turn their trap on them. Here's how we are going to do it, make all those killed see their deaths be the doom of their murderers".
We have Occult 5 with applicable specialty (Kakuri the Night Realm). Three shamans and a vengeful spirit guide. An exigent exalt circlemate whose specialty is ghosts and unquiet dead. Hijacking the ritual they are doing to get revenge for the ghosts from beyond the grave? Totally something we should do.
We are likely to roll 10+ successes on the occult roll here. 14 on average, assuming DC 7 (18 dice with excellency + 2 stunt, coupled with 10s being counted as 2 successes due to applicable specialty). Coupled with Crown data, I think we can get fairly good planning results.
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- Location
- Germany
[X] No need for bait, just interrupt them before they are done
-[X] Use the Crown on one of the victims grave, to find their murderer's hideout, then plan an attack before the set date
-[X] Use the Crown on one of the victims grave, to find their murderer's hideout, then plan an attack before the set date
I think spirits of the dead and their spirit guides would receive more visceral satisfaction if their murders directly served to doom servants of Kakuri.
- Location
- Germany
They do, without those we wouldn't have any focus to find them.
I'd like to do this, but I'm concerned about the timeline. If we fail or they notice then we could be in trouble.
I think your crown question is sort of out of scope too. We got Perfected Principle of Consumption from an occult roll not the crown.
The only time we've gotten direct advice was for the soul gaze thing, and that was asking for a piece of advice about a very general sort of task. This is a lot closer to asking our fancy telescope to do novel research for us.
A better plan would be to use the crown to get an exact description of how their ritual operates and then roll occult to design a counter option based on that. But if we're doing that we probably want to try it in our lab, since we can't reroll whatever we get latter if we're unlucky know.
There's also the matter of potentially exposing the crown to these guys we just met.
To actually do this I think we need to instead float the idea now, get buy in, set a meeting for tomorrow morning, then ask our question before going straight to the workshop to run our occult checks with full charm support.
We come back tomorrow with our high grade ritual and claim we learned it from Nana Urbiznes if they press us on it.
That's a valid concern.
Not the only one. We also used it to get information on how to safely use the Cauldron of the Order of Cauldron. It seems that in this kinds of situation the Crown defaults to showing us past examples / scenes with relevant information. But, let's make sure @DragonParadox is the question I am proposing a vail crown question, or is it too close to "do my research for me" question?
Maybe, yes. Let's see if the question is valid.
Yeah, this could work. We use the question to learn about the ritual. Retreat for a couple of hours, using WHWH, BSM, etc, to make a super ritual. Then enact it.
I don't think so? I mean "yeah, I have a lot of knowledge of Kakuri. I am not interested in saying where I got it from" is a valid response.
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That whole thing was weird in the context of later rulings. Looking back at the chapter we don't even ask a specific question that is explicitly answered in terms of what to do or not to do.
I'm curious what DP's ruling here would be, but this one seems to pretty explicitly answer it.
If we'd otherwise make a skill check to do something the crown probably can't cover it.
Let's wait for a ruling. I am absolutely willing to change the question. We'll probably want to do a counter-ritual at sunrise - Kakuri is a night realm
This would give us 12 or so hours to prepare a ritual. First, we'll need to design it. If we are doing it at our workshop, that's 22 dice at difficulty 5 at most (BSM and CCC). That's almost guaranteed to be 15+ successes for ritual design.
If the ritual is performed in a place of urban desolation (also quite possible), and with the shamans and Lydia participating, we are likely to breach 30 successes.
This is going to be so fun.
COMMENTARY
-Looks like senri are supposed to be disreputable.
Either that or Tuzi's human persona deliberately dresses to get a reaction. Given that mother's reaction, I would not be surprised if she happens to either be a sex worker, or deliberately dresses like a sex worker.
Since I'd expect Molly to pick up on sex worker vibes, Im guessing its more that she's known around here. And not fondly.
I mean, I looked up leopard print pantsuits on Google; they may be tacky, but not avert your eyes bad
So its not the clothes, its her.
-Since these are all spirits, the appearance of their human seemings are mostly by choice.
And how they choose to appear tells us stuff about them.
Leaping Jack deliberately dresses to project an image of modernity and power, a fixer and power broker, someone to be taken seriously in modern society.
Pretty much in line with his clan origins.
Nimble Light is deliberately minimalist in appearance.
You dont come off as cribbing Steve Jobs' style, with the plain turtleneck and everything, by mistake.
Thats a little at odds with the reputation of her species for loving beauty.
And Blue Crane is showy, even if in a coded way; very much a "If you know you know" setup.
Subtle people dont braid feathers into their beard.
-If I had to guess?
I would bet that even with Blue Crane as the oldest shen in Chinatown, the one with the most history here?
He probably isnt the one with the most power. Just the figurehead.
Leaping Jack has obviously been dispatched to keep an eye on a low-importance area, as a way to either prove his chops on independent assignment or to get him away from another area.
And Nimble Light has the mojo to straight up ignore her elders for a century, or went to the trouble of putting out a cover story.
- Noting that Butterfly Lady keeps looking at our forehead like she can see our caste mark.
Maybe she can.
Probably more to this one than meets the eye.
- At least Blue Crane's senses are strong enough to perceive Molly's Mollyness.
A little surprised they are focusing on Molly instead of the Fist of God and the angel he's carrying around in his blade.
Maybe Amoracchius is very good at camoflaging itself at need?
-One has to wonder if that question about making them kneel was a deliberate reference/probe with regards to what we did to Eiko's herald when we met. And how he would have learned about it.
Im not saying Blue Crane has dealings with the akuma, but they did choose Chinatown for a reason.
They have to have eyes and ears here.
And I would not be surprised if those eyes and ears are known and watched.
COMMENTARY
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Because you're delicious.
I do wonder if by Princes of the Slain he means akuma, or both akuma and other kueijin. Kuejin do seem to be part of the spiritual landscape in Asia, but with misfits who knows.
-Nimble's diplomatic chops are...lacking.
Thar, or she saw no need to extend courtesy to Tuzi, even during a meeting with outsiders. One gets the impression that it might be a reason why she was told to go learn wisdom.
-Tuzi reminds me of nothing less than Aisha Laborn from canon Worm. Young, unsophisticated, foulmouthed, but streetwise.
When the guardian of the threshold between worlds speaks on death and its motivations,
Its worth paying attention.
That said, she does come off as younger than every other spirit here.
-Poisoning the Dragon Lines around Chicago?
Thats ambitious. And the sort of thing that would bring both Fae Courts and the power of every significant Order faction down on its head, because the Stone Table is in Chicago-over-Chicago and Demonreach is just a couple miles offshore.
I wonder why Jack was sitting on that information.
Still its the second recent IC justification for Molly becoming interested in Mana Manipulation Path.
The first one was Porter's leyline to electricity effect.
-Noting that Jack is trying to maneuver Blue Crane without fear of future retribution.
Of the two spirits he could have tried to manipulate, he chose Blue over Nimble Light, which supports the idea that Blue doesnt wield as much power as it would first seem. And that there's more to Nimble Light.
His social stats are pretty good too, since he's rolling 9 dice on that attempt.
Worth noting that Leaping Jack is implying that up to 6 people have been killed(male then female, old then young, experienced then novice). Thats twice the estimates in the papers. Six dead are six graves to visit, six ghosts for Lydia to potentially talk to.
And at least six Crown focuses.
Molly rolls 9 sux on 16 dice at DC6. Cha + Etiq. Legendary.
Shen roll 5 sux on 8 dice at DC5. ???. Legendary.
Jack rolls 5 sux on 9 dice at DC5. ???. Legendary.
Molly rolls 9 sux on 14 dice at DC6. Per + Etiq. Legendary.
Everybody is on their A-game here.
Interestingly, Molly rolls 9 successes on both her Cha + Etiquette and Per + Etiquette.
- Location
- Germany
Makes sense.
This is a smash and grab for Molly or her Exaltation.
Burning bridges is a small price if you don't plan on acting in this area again anytime soon.
Same reason why I still think it would have been perfectly reasonable for the monks not to care about Maecone's payment.
When your usual MO is to work on another continent and in another part of the spiritworld, enemies in America hardly matter.
Rituals take time to design and set up. Sometimes require specialty reagents.
And Molly does not have Mana Manipulation or an applicable Path for fucking with leylines.
Meanwhile the Akuma had an unknown amount of planning time in Yomi Wan, at least two weeks of implementation, and either the linear Sorcery version, or high end Disciplines for manipulating Dragon Lines, which is an actual power of vanilla kueijin.
For example:
Tapestry Discipline said:
Note Hand of Darkness(3 dot), Beneficial Celestial Mirror(6 dot) and Transcendent Portal(9 dot) in Feng Shui.Feng Shui Discipline said:
And essentially every effect under Tapestry.
Note in particular the ability to create a temporary Dragons Nest(8 dots), or create a magic storm(5 dots).
This is frankly the sort of thing you ask people with actual magical skill to look into, like Porter, Dresden+Bob.
Molly has no applicable skill here.
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The actual thing worth noting?
Is that it implies that Eiko is under the impression we draw power from external Chi, the same way Yama Kings and elder Kueijin do. Something that would be supported by all the effort we've put into rehabbing Porter's Dragon Nest, assuming they are aware of it, which given that they knew of the ghost dance, they probably are.
And so her apparent efforts are aimed at either levelling the power balance, or cutting us off.
It will probably be an unpleasant surprise for her to discover that Molly's power is all internal.
Briefly.
I dont agree.
The powers in question remain quite capable of power projection, and one of them has already previously defeated Kakuri's forces on its own while they wielded the Exaltation shard as a weapon. And they'd trying this in a city with a Knight of the Sword resident.
Drawing aggro from both Winter and Summer, as well as everyone with an interest in Demonreach remaining intact is a great way to end up worse than Ravana. Kuejin raiding parties have allegedly killed Yama Kings before without external assistance, and Emma-O himself was part of the three person coalition of Yama Kings that killed Yen-Lo, First of The Fallen.
its not wise to align a coalition against you. Its just that hubris that afflicts a lot of Yama Kings.
I would not be surprised if they are themselves affected, twisted and warped by the resonance of chi of the Hells they rule over; for example, if you hoard souls with a history of dishonorableness, you lean that way. Violence, ditto. And so on.
Basically, you are what you eat.
Would explain a lot of their irrationality.
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Which is why we use the crown. Molly has no dots in god forging, or in rituals of consumption. yet she was perfectly able to improve, change and take control of those.
Neither did she have such skill when she revamped Arawn's ritual.
If the Crown question is valid, and even if it isn't, Molly is actually a decent magical theoretician. Occult dice pools and successes in 20+ range account for a lot.
Where are you getting this implication from? It doesn't imply such at all. The only thing implied is that akuma are doing something to the dragon lines to give them advantage. Like, I don't know, enacting their analog of Awakened Eye of the Dragon ritual to give themselves boosts.
All this implies that they are aware of the potential issues with what they are doing. Do they know about Demonreach? Do they know about Chicago's significance? Do they care? Do we know about Winter's power projection capability into Yomi Wan? We don't know a lot, and this can be interpreted in a number of ways.
Unfortunately yes, to get something complicated like a ritual done requires two things:
- Prep work
- Skill success
