Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
- Location
- Germany
Here's what I suspect.
Wan Kuei have the power Chi Shaping in the Discipline Tapestry, with the following variety of effects:
Wan Kuei have the power Chi Shaping in the Discipline Tapestry, with the following variety of effects:
This includes basically everything that we know the Vampires want to do, if we read the power very broadly and assume they use a more powerful and ritualized version of it, ay?
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Yog
What?No it isnt.
Its standard procedure in literally every homicide or missing persons case to have a loved one or someone otherwise familiar with the victim identify the dead. How else do you think its done?
Cheap, fast DNA testing as a crime tool is relatively new, and the date insetting is 2006, not 2023.
And the vics might not even have living family for DNA.
As for telling Tuzi, I specifically crafted that response because @BronzeTongue and I think a couple other people had issues with telling her immediately.
So the writein and stunt was written to let her check on her own, as a compromise.
I personally dont have a problem with telling Tuzi we think her paramour is alive. I argued for it.
Yeah. I posted the entire Tapestry Discipline ten pages back or so.
If they have the juice to power it, they can run the effect or something along that line without anything in the way of setup as written.
And they have been murdering people for juice.
For all we know, the poor murder victim souls are all in little bottle traps to be used as auxiliary batteries.
If you've killed 10 people and trapped their souls, and each will give you 5 points of Chi, you will be feeling pretty confident about a confrontation where you make it difficult for the opposition to channel power from the environment.
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I never said they had access to more than one exaltation. I said "we don't know what they know about the exaltations". And I stay by this. There is a thousand of hells. Some of them quite ancient. Some of them with prisoners who are also quite ancient. If anyone in the setting knows about exaltations, it's Yomi Wan collectively. I have far less trust in Mab knowing stuff about exaltations, than I have in Yomi Wan.
Kakuri's servants were able to figure out how to use it, even if badly. We need to know what they know.
Or, and consider this - they aren't stupid, and when they think that they can take a Knight of the Cross, us, and transfer our exaltation, they do, in fact, have a rational basis for their belief. You are starting from the basic premise "they don't know jacksh*t about exaltations" and working backwards from that premise. We don't know that. They might well know enough to have a significant chance of success. And we need to know which is which. Either you are right, or I am right. And we need to know which one is correct.
Right now from our perspective enemies that we know are very intelligent are behaving in a profoundly stupid way. This means that either they are behaving in a stupid way, or we are missing something significant. That something significant can either be outside circumstances (like Emma-O doing this whole operation as a favor to Nicodemius), or factors we don't know (like Emma-O having found a soul from the first / second age in his hell that knows enough about exaltations for him to be both desperate to get rid of us now, and to be confident of success).
[X] Plan gathering intelligence before a confrontation v. 4.0
-[X] Using your copy of Big Book of Yomi Wan, ask "what do the forces talked about in this book know about the type of object referred to by servants of Emma-O as Black Seed?" Pre-activate Occult Excellency to understand the answer better
-[X] Cyberdevils: Investigate Jaslin Hotel records and security cameras for relevant data
-[X] Using the online page of Jaslin Hotel and data obtained by cyberdevils, such as security video recordings, as the focus, ask "what plans do the akuma that stayed in this hotel over the last two weeks and their affiliates have for winning a confrontation with Molly and her allies?"
-[X] Working out the most optimal travel route on the way to meet Bùshì Tùzǐ, drive through China Town to look at things
--[X] Recover essence by spending time in a bottle of bleach which your father will carry while moving between locations.
--[X] Drive by Pink Swan, and use the Crown to ask "What is the full detailed motivation of a former DJ of this club, known as J, for working with Wan Kuei?"
--[X] Drive by apartments of two victims of Recluse Murders. Ask the questions "how do I get to the current HQ of the group that had the owner of this apartment killed?" and "what forces, in terms of personal, material and immaterial resources, are available to the orchestrator of this apartment'ss owner's murder?"
-[X] Tell Bùshì Tùzǐ about J's survival and what the akuma are likely planning for him
--[X] Empathy excellency and All Things Betray to manage and read her reaction
-[X]Ask Murphy to call Butters so you and Lydia can get a discreet look at "J's" body and autopsy report. As well as any other Recluse Murder victims still in the morgue. Or have Michael/Dresden do it
--[X]Pick up Bushi Tuzi to take a look at "J's" body at the morgue for victim identification to confirm your claims to her.
Ok, so a mixture of both votes, but in a different way. We tell Bùshì Tùzǐ about what we believe and have discerned, then we take her to the body to have her confirm at least some of our claims for herself. I also reworked the vote structure a bit, and the second question based on victim apartment. I liked Uju's "what forces are avaialble" better than "who does the group consists of". Hopefully this won't give us full roster of Emma-O's forces. It shouldn't, our crown is not a monkey paw, and the intent behind the question is clear.
Ok then this looks pretty definitive. Vote closed.
Which becomes even more strange when you realize that he does the exact same thing with the oposite premise when it comes to Winter, who had the exaltations for less time and didn't use it but just let it rot in a basement.
Edit:
Thanks the gods!
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Winning Vote
Arc 6 Post 15: Eyes of Power, Eyes of Glass
Eyes of Power, Eyes of Glass
3nd of October 2006 A.D.
Sleep comes in the form of a bath in poisoned water that lulls you with the whispers of waters far away as dad guards the door into the dark hours, chatting with Porter you judge and perhaps with the Jade Dogs also, at least those among them who aren't put off by a knight in a white cloak bearing a sword anathema to their nature. Sarah describes the nearness of the Sword of Love as 'a tooth-ache only for every bone in your body' You wonder why you don't feel anything, why the Sword is to you no different than it has ever been, it can't just be habit surely? Maybe Usum has a point about it being just a mark of your power, your greater weight and meaning in the world.
Essence Restored to 12/12
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 11/12
So upon waking a question comes to mind reflected in the book you had written days ago: "What do the forces talked about in this book know about the type of object referred to by servants of Emma-O as Black Seed?"
What is what
Seed is Black
It feels like having your brain dipped in ice water, thoughts stuttering endlessly upon themselves. as they try to find purchase on something in the book, on the mind behind the book, finding only your own thoughts, on Emma-O and his knowledge, but Emma-O did not write the book, you did and so like looking down a hall of endless mirrors you see only yourself in mirrors black, down down into empty meaning.
Object or Concept
Real is Abstract and
Abstract is Real
"Damn, OK, bad idea, I get it..." you shake your head as though you had just come out of a shower. Dad looks at you funny so you explain. "Trying to use a book I wrote about Yomi Wan to figure out what the Yama Kings know about my power is crossing the conceptual wires, like my power looking at itself only worse because instead of a flat error message it starts to work then trips itself up."
***
Thankfully Clippy has a lot more luck hacking into the Jaslin Hotel, you get your first look at the Blood-Stained Chrysanthemum. Even in the grainy security footage one could not mistake her for anyone else, a face delineated in slashes of crimson and orange upon the canvas of pale flesh, trailing gold framing the line of a delicate cheekbones that looks like they should be out of a Meiji painting and indeed which might have seen the artist's brush in those days.
By contrast the rest of her company look puffy eyed and splotchy pale, like they are just getting over a bad flu, or a bad trip. More than once you see the lady leaning over the receptionist's desk her presence like a buffeting wind through the ether that bends the mortal soul and twists the mind. This if no mere imposition of desire as the White Court might use, you recognize at once, nor it is the violation of the living will by the powers of death as the Black Court might evoke.
"There are no guns, you have seen nothing amiss. The stains were not blood, there is nothing to worry about. You have seen nothing." Such is the power of the Mandate of Heaven twisted and defiled, but still held in the hand of the damned. There's a part of you that can almost respect the sheer dogged determination to hold onto it with iron nails and corpse-flesh, but then you are reminded that in her own way the woman is herself a slave as much as her underlings if not more so.
With the aid of your unsleeping helpers you mark her habits: every night at midnight she retreats to her room and each time at 12:45 she calls for room service, a whiskey and black coffee. She never interacts with the other akuma until at least three hours later, though she may or may not leave the hotel during those hours, wan kuei have other means of leaving from a third floor room than just by the stairs.
Flipping over to the web page for the hotel you ask of the rather blotch of primary colors someone must have put together in an afternoon: "What plans do the akuma that stayed in this hotel over the last two weeks and their affiliates have for winning a confrontation with me and my allies?"
Isolate... Bind... Poison. Slay... Bind... Poison... Claim.
You get a vague sense of arcane powers of Yomi Wan, twisting of Chi and invokations of the Po into demonic form, there is definitely a hail of bullets in there, but also what looks like an attempt to root your allies in place and a cloud of all consuming poison before a demon of Kakuri, a thing of dead flesh and icy shadows descends upon you. Wait a second... that's... those are Demon Arts, the Black Wind, the Iron Mountain, common enough to the akuma who care nothing of the purity of their chi and who revel in the power of their Po, but ones that also twist the form and turn the mind to madness. Giving in to that... well there wouldn't be much capacity for thought, much less for complex ritual that would then transfer your powers to J. This has to be set up in advance and then fired off like a landmine.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 10/12
Still lost in your own thoughts to a degree you drive to the Pink Swan to ask of the flashing neon facade what J's motivation is in working with the Wan Kuei.
The answer is swift as it is disquieting to hear in a voice you had never heard with your ears and yet know to be the unlucky J's own: To become strong enough to stand beside my beloved without withering, without fading.
As you drive to the apartment of one of the other victims in order to use the connection of the home to find the headquorters of the akuma you spot a familiar police car out front, SI is here.
One thing is for sure Detective Murphy would like to know the answer to the question you are about to ask... but should you tell her. Determined as she might be you do not think she and her colleagues would be able to stand up to a greater Akuma wielding the greater of the Demon Arts, powers meant for the killing of gods. On the other hand she might be of great use clearing out any people from the battle site if you get the drop on them.
Do you link up with Lieutenant Murphy and SI before continuing?
[] Yes, you would need her authority to clear up bystanders
[] No, its too dangerous
OOC: The Black Seed Question was a marginal one so I rolled willpower to see if you Molly be able to force the crown to work as she wished. It did not work so you are going to have to find another way to get into the head of Emma-O.
Ouch... So, this was unlucky. I won't say we burned the book for nothing - learning that we can't create our own crown foci without possibility of glitching was important. Still, this could have gone better.
Since the ritual is preset to go off automatically, and they are banking on it, and are giving up their sanity temporarily, the idea of twisting the ritual on itself should be back on the table. @DragonParadox given everything that Molly knows about the ritual so far, what are her thoughts on being able to twist it around to harm Kakuri's servants?
And J... Well, at least he has a better motivation than expected. Shame we don't have Inner Devils charm - we could have turned him around. The motivation makes it complicated to tell the spirit of him being alive - because he's not exactly betraying her for power.
[X] Yes, you would need her authority to clear up bystanders
Since the ritual is preset to go off automatically, and they are banking on it, and are giving up their sanity temporarily, the idea of twisting the ritual on itself should be back on the table. @DragonParadox given everything that Molly knows about the ritual so far, what are her thoughts on being able to twist it around to harm Kakuri's servants?
And J... Well, at least he has a better motivation than expected. Shame we don't have Inner Devils charm - we could have turned him around. The motivation makes it complicated to tell the spirit of him being alive - because he's not exactly betraying her for power.
[X] Yes, you would need her authority to clear up bystanders
- Location
- Germany
I wonder if they had to hide on a ship for weeks, or take a trip through the NeverNever to get here.
Either would propably leave the mooks in a bad state.
A plane seems unlikely in the post 9/11 world, though enough mind-control and money might be able to swing that.
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Molly thinks that if she (or more likely Harry) gets her hands on those Dragonlines they could be made to backlash.
Do we need to vote for this now, or will we get a chance to call him and arrange for his help in this later?
- Location
- Germany
Just a reminder, regular Wan Kuei do risk their sanity by drawing on their Demon Chi and using Black Wind, but a Greater Akuma does not.
Their shadow-soul is just as bound as their regular self.
Not sure how aware Molly if of that distinction though.
Still, making the ritual backfire would harm them, which helps us.
Molly does know that... but it did not occur to her until just now that she could be dealing with someone that bound to the will of Emma O.
- Location
- Terror Australis
[X] Yes, you would need her authority to clear up bystanders
We should have the cops keep bystanders out, because this has the potential be a rather large fight.
Well pity we don't have a bakemono charm or VEE yet. At least we now know J has just been stupid, as opposed to being mind whammied or fully thrown in with the vampires.
We should have the cops keep bystanders out, because this has the potential be a rather large fight.
Well pity we don't have a bakemono charm or VEE yet. At least we now know J has just been stupid, as opposed to being mind whammied or fully thrown in with the vampires.
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- Location
- Georgia
eh, common enough among all Wan Kuei. Like, you have to take one at character creations. Corrupt ones just use these like ALL the time.
She would be very badly suited to handle even common ones. Firearms are bad at taking them down and fists are even worse.
- Location
- Germany
The discussion if these are "regular" Akuma or fully the Greater version or maybe some of either has been going on in the thread since the first reveal though, so I thought it was in Molly's head too.Molly does know that... but it did not occur to her until just now that she could be dealing with someone that bound to the will of Emma O.
[X] Yes, you would need her authority to clear up bystanders
- Location
- Germany
[X] No, its too dangerous
We have just seen that they are preparing an ambush with both gunfire and Chi-based area attacks.
We can't protect a squishy mortal from that.
If she gets in the crossfire, she will almost certainly die, so we shouldn't take her there.
We have just seen that they are preparing an ambush with both gunfire and Chi-based area attacks.
We can't protect a squishy mortal from that.
If she gets in the crossfire, she will almost certainly die, so we shouldn't take her there.