Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

12. We have images of 12 wan kuei. Others we have got via the crown, and if we draw them, it runs into the same issues as Big Book of Wan Kuei.
That translates to 5x kueijin at South Works. Plus the greater akuma.

So subvert Eiko and her party, and we only have 6x hostiles to deal with.
And the bakemono, of course.
 
That translates to 5x kueijin at South Works. Plus the greater akuma.

So subvert Eiko and her party, and we only have 6x hostiles to deal with.
And the bakemono, of course.
They are not all staying in the hotel, as I understand it. 12 is the number of akuma who visited the hotel at least one time and got caught on tape, from what I understand.
 
They are not all staying in the hotel, as I understand it. 12 is the number of akuma who visited the hotel at least one time and got caught on tape, from what I understand.
We could just ask the cyberdevils how many of them have rooms in the Jaslin Hotel.
Or we could use Tool Constructs to put up pictures of all the warparty members we saw with the Crown, so the cyberdevils can search for the faces and appearance in the files they've seen. And every real picture is a Crown focus.

Better add it to my questions for the QM.
 
@DragonParadox
QUESTION
1) Can we use the faces of the kueijin we saw as a focus for identifying flaws/vulnerabilities in their Dragon Line ritual for Harry to exploit?
2)Has Molly had Holy Communion since Exalting? Im asking because I was thinking of getting at least 1 bottle of holy water from the font at her church.
3)How many kueijin did the cyberdevils confirm are staying at the Jaslin Hotel? We know there's 17 in the city besides Eiko.
4)If we use Tool Constructs to produce images of all the akuma and bakemono party members that the Crown showed, can the cyberdevils use them to search for how many have showed up at the Jaslin Hotel?
5)And if the cyberdevils find those people on video footage, is their footage valid as a Crown focus?
 
@DragonParadox
QUESTION
1) Can we use the faces of the kueijin we saw as a focus for identifying flaws/vulnerabilities in their Dragon Line ritual for Harry to exploit?
2)Has Molly had Holy Communion since Exalting? Im asking because I was thinking of getting at least 1 bottle of holy water from the font at her church.
3)How many kueijin did the cyberdevils confirm are staying at the Jaslin Hotel? We know there's 17 in the city besides Eiko.
4)If we use Tool Constructs to produce images of all the akuma and bakemono party members that the Crown showed, can the cyberdevils use them to search for how many have showed up at the Jaslin Hotel?
5)And if the cyberdevils find those people on video footage, is their footage valid as a Crown focus?
  1. Only if one of them did it
  2. She has yes
  3. 11
  4. Yes
  5. Also yes
 
Do we know enough about the ritual at this point to roughly guess the mechanical impacts of it?

I think we're monofocusing a bit here. The ritual is dangerous, but we have to work out something to mitigate the minion advantage the greater Akuma as soon as we can.
 
V
Should work: What are the flaws meant to be enacted in this place on this date?
Thank you very much.
That simplifies things greatly.
Do we know enough about the ritual at this point to roughly guess the mechanical impacts of it?

I think we're monofocusing a bit here. The ritual is dangerous, but we have to work out something to mitigate the minion advantage the greater Akuma as soon as we can.
11 at the Jaslin Hotel plus Eiko.
Which leaves 6 at South Works with the greater akuma.
Deal with Eiko, then the greater akuma.

Right now Im thinking Molly stops and picks up and modifies a battery-powered fog machine from a store, and holy water from St Mary's. The greater akuma might have enough toughness to shrug off True Faith talismans of that strength, but I'm pretty sure his escort dont.

EDIT
According to my timetable, it should be roughly 5.50 to 6AM.
Lemme see about drafting a plan and stunt.
 
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Right now Im thinking Molly stops and picks up and modifies a battery-powered fog machine from a store, and holy water from St Mary's. The greater akuma might have enough toughness to shrug off True Faith talismans of that strength, but I'm pretty sure his escort dont.
Too bad we don't have time to experiment; getting Harry's sunshine capturing formula would be nice to follow up with.

At least this is an issue Lydia is built for. Her spirit killer gives her more essence back, has a fixed difficulty of 6 instead of being pinned on the target's willpower, and explicitly applies to vampires. If she had spirit maiming essence attack she'd eat them alive. It's the one fight where we probably don't need to worry about her piddly mote pool.

Is our combat party basically going to be her and Micheal? If Harry is behind his wards I think taking Mouse would be wise too, since he's pretty tough and we're heavily outnumbered.
 
Uh, something just occurred to me.
[] His apartment using Little Chicago (Safer, but guarantees giving away his identity if caught)
Sorry for disturbing you again, but I had another couple questions occur to me.

@DragonParadox
QUESTION
1)Yes its safer.
But does Harry get a say about this? Does he finish with the Lines before we plan to hit South Works?
Because I think if he is supposed to stay home while the 17 year old is supposed to be fighting a greater akuma, he might revolt.

2)Is Murphy planning on going in with us?
Or can we convince her and her officers to stay outside?

3)Occult check: Do kuejin or akuma have a problem with holy water?
Just to confirm.
 
Uh, something just occurred to me.
Sorry for disturbing you again, but I had another couple questions occur to me.

@DragonParadox
QUESTION
1)Yes its safer.
But does Harry get a say about this? Does he finish with the Lines before we plan to hit South Works?
Because I think if he is supposed to stay home while the 17 year old is supposed to be fighting a greater akuma, he might revolt.

2)Is Murphy planning on going in with us?
Or can we convince her and her officers to stay outside?

3)Occult check: Do kuejin or akuma have a problem with holy water?
Just to confirm.
  1. The hope is to mess with the ritual without anyone noticing and then go out and fight them with the magic on your side
  2. Murphy is coming with you, trying to convince her otherwise is... not entirely out of the question, but strikes against two of her intimacies
  3. No, prayer scrolls can mess them up as part of the Shih Arts, but holy water alone does not harm the Jade Court. Greater Akuma on the other hand are damaged by all that is holy, or at least inconvenienced by it, holy water will do something to one of them, though it might not be enough hard to be worthwhile
 
Ok, so this is useful information.

[x] His apartment using Little Chicago (Safer, but guarantees giving away his identity if caught)
-[X] Use the Crown on Little Chicago, asking for ways to hide the manipulation of the leylines.
-[X] Have Harry write down the ritual he's planning to do. Use the Crown to ask what flaws are present in the ritual. Communicate them to Harry and, if possible, help him to correct them (use Occult Excellency if appropriate).
-[X] Use the image of Ping Tom Boathouse to ask the question "what are the flaws of the ritual meant to be invoked in this location today?"
-[X] While Harry is preparing and doing the ritual, ask the following questions using using the video recordings of 12 wan kuei we have:
--[X] "Who among the forces of Kakuri sent on this mission is planning to use your power to free themselves of Emma-O?" If the question reveals that at least one of the traitors was caught on camera, use their recordings for the next questions
--[X] "How are the ones trying to escape Emma-O's grasp through this mission plan to accomplish this?"
--[X] "What are the ways to contact those planning to escape Emma-O's grasp through this mission without alerting those who are loyal to Emma-O?"
--[X] "Why does the person in this image look sick?" (to be used on a wan kuei who looks particularly unwell)

-[X] Spend as much time as possible dispersed in bleach

So, this is 7, perhaps 8 motes. We are almost certainly staying here until dawn, which means essence renewal. We should spend essence to get as much information as we can. At least one question here should trigger essence renewal. So on the balance we'd be spending 5 to 6 motes.

There are two blocks of questions:
1) Ritual related. There are three questions here:
1.1) One about the ritual Harry is planning to do, and basically how to improve it. It might require Occult Excellency. It's essentially similar to how we improved Arawn's ritual.
1.2) Ritual akuma prepared. Find its flaws and vulnerabilities.
1.3) General question on how to hide leyline manipulation. This is the most controversial point here. I am for spending resources to make better gains. Yes, Little Chicago can probably be used better. But it's actually of great improtance to know how to hide your leyline messing rituals.
2) About rebels. There are four questions here: who the rebels are, what their plan is, how to contact them and, finally, why do wan kuei look sick. We have had the last part pointed to us several times, we should look at it.
11 at the Jaslin Hotel plus Eiko.
Which leaves 6 at South Works with the greater akuma.
Deal with Eiko, then the greater akuma.
That assumes that Eiko is easier to deal with, and can't summon greater Akuma. We really need to know who the would-be rebels are, and to adjust the plan based on this.
 
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Too bad we don't have time to experiment; getting Harry's sunshine capturing formula would be nice to follow up with.

At least this is an issue Lydia is built for. Her spirit killer gives her more essence back, has a fixed difficulty of 6 instead of being pinned on the target's willpower, and explicitly applies to vampires. If she had spirit maiming essence attack she'd eat them alive. It's the one fight where we probably don't need to worry about her piddly mote pool.

Is our combat party basically going to be her and Micheal? If Harry is behind his wards I think taking Mouse would be wise too, since he's pretty tough and we're heavily outnumbered.
Definitely bringing her and Michael.
Brother Devsimar, Dresden and Murphy are still up in the air. Devsimar has enough experience with rogue shen that his presence is valuable. If Dresden finishes in time and is coming, Mouse probably is.

Murphy.....yeah. Gonna be hard to talk her out of it, but she's squishy.
  1. The hope is to mess with the ritual without anyone noticing and then go out and fight them with the magic on your side
  2. Murphy is coming with you, trying to convince her otherwise is... not entirely out of the question, but strikes against two of her intimacies
  3. No, prayer scrolls can mess them up as part of the Shih Arts, but holy water alone does not harm the Jade Court. Greater Akuma on the other hand are damaged by all that is holy, or at least inconvenienced by it, holy water will do something to one of them, though it might not be enough hard to be worthwhile
1)Gotcha. So war party is Molly+Lydia+Michael+Devsimar+Dresden+Mouse+Murphy.
Guess we can team Murphy with Dresden and Mouse.
Gonna need to borrow chainmail from Charity. Again.

2)Hmm. Okay.
So the fog machine makes no sense, but water guns/balloons might be worthwhile. Might.
Or just bottles to empty over our heads.

Making a stop at St Mary's to get holy water from Father Forthill.
 
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1)IF they are "true" lesser akuma.
Yama Kings dont have infinite resources, and its entirely possible he sent what he could spare from his other commitments. The very fact that the akuma we saw was male, despite Emma-O's predilection for female servitors is evidence of that.

Emma-O's most famous greater akuma is male, he doesn't only recruit women.

1)IF they are "true" lesser akuma.
Yama Kings dont have infinite resources, and its entirely possible he sent what he could spare from his other commitments. The very fact that the akuma we saw was male, despite Emma-O's predilection for female servitors is evidence of that.


2)Then there would have been no benefit to renting hotel suites, as opposed to simply lodging in South Works.
Or using the home of one of the four bakemono they recruited and created. And Chicago being the strongly Fae-inclined city that it is, hanging out in the NeverNever is actively dangerous, both to their mission and personally.

Neither Mab nor Titania would be amused about Demon People in service to a Yama King setting up in Faerie.

No, if they rented the suites here, they are using them. Which means they can afford to do so, whether intrinsically, through the use of akuma Investments, or other magic and talismans. It might even be a feature of the Dresdenverse setting; both Reds and Blacks of all ages are well able to stay awake and active in the daytime as long as they avoid the sun itself.


3)Emma-O prefers female operatives, so much so that his Hell is known as the Shikome Hell for his signature female assassins.
And yet the war party he sent here has males.
Thematics and preferences take a backseat to practicality where necessary.

I just dont find it plausible he'd send people here who can do fuckall for half the day, when one of the strengths of kueijin is that they can spend chi for sunlight resistance.
Especially given they only created 4x bakemono.

They may not like it, but they'll be able to do it.
If nothing else because if they couldnt we'd be able to murder all those kueijin in their sleep by setting the hotel on fire.
Or activating the sprinklers after blessing the water reservoir.

1) Why would they trust any one that hadn't sold their soul. Better fewer more reliable operatives. Note that lesser akuma can be given limitless numbers of investments so can be a lot more powerful than regular Wan Kuei.

2) The benefit to having a hotel suite in the right place is that it could be an entrance to a Way aligned to the right resonance that makes it easy for them to travel to and from Kakuri.

3) Being Yin aligned is different to a preference for female vassals.

4) Emma-O doesn't get a choice. His greater akuma can have a Hun rating of 14 and Internalise 7 so can trivially get 5 successes on the roll to stay awake. Any other Wan Kuei that isn't a serious elder will sleep the day away. That's why they need bakemono, to guard them during the day and wake them if required. That's just part of the Wan Kuei condition.

It's like how they rot in the sun, they sleep in the day. It's just part of their nature and what Emma-O has to work with.

Fair.
So if they are able to do so, wakefulness is going to be easy enough.

Incorrect. Being devil eaten makes it no easier to stay awake during the day. It mostly makes it harder.
 
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Murphy is coming with you, trying to convince her otherwise is... not entirely out of the question, but strikes against two of her intimacies
In that case we should probably bring the ghouls so the squishies can babysit each other. Not sure Murphy packs the punch to make a difference this early in her character arc, and the ghouls are treated like fodder, but they can probably do a better job not dying if they're covering each other.

No, prayer scrolls can mess them up as part of the Shih Arts, but holy water alone does not harm the Jade Court. Greater Akuma on the other hand are damaged by all that is holy, or at least inconvenienced by it, holy water will do something to one of them, though it might not be enough hard to be worthwhile
The knight won't save you indeed. :V
 
That assumes that Eiko is easier to deal with, and can't summon greater Akuma. We really need to know who the would-be rebels are, and to adjust the plan
She apparently still has her own will.
Ergo, she's easier to deal with. And based on wnat we know of kuejin, greater Akuma cant just be summoned.
Even creatures that can be summoned like demons take a summoning ritual.
 
She apparently still has her own will.
Ergo, she's easier to deal with. And based on wnat we know of kuejin, greater Akuma cant just be summoned.
Even creatures that can be summoned like demons take a summoning ritual.
Technically you can deliberately botch a summoning to let one show up by its own power if it's strong enough, as Harry essentially did with Mab that one time. Doubt the will of Kakuri is that good though, since they probably wouldn't be making them stay in a steel mill if they could just teleport them over nearly at will.

Might actually be beneficial for us if they do though.

A hotel in the middle of the day is a pretty cramped space with (on average) a lot of deliberate sunlight exposure. There's some potential for casualties, but at noon there shouldn't be many people around.

Tossing it into the sunlight wouldn't be easy, but it would be less difficult there than in the middle of a fortified slice of industrial park.
 
1)Gotcha. So war party is Molly+Lydia+Michael+Devsimar+Dresden+Mouse+Murphy.
Guess we can team Murphy with Dresden and Mouse.
Gonna need to borrow chainmail from Charity. Again.
I would strongly propose calling Thomas too. He's a strong fighter as is, and with MiS even more so. And Harry is definitely one of his intimacies.
She apparently still has her own will.
Ergo, she's easier to deal with. And based on wnat we know of kuejin, greater Akuma cant just be summoned.
Even creatures that can be summoned like demons take a summoning ritual.
It was previously stated that teleportation through local leylines is a possibility. @DragonParadox do we know if the hotel is near a leyline?

Also, how long would it take us to make mist potion and healing potion? And would us using his lab hinder Harry at all?

Anyway, we should at least learn who the rebels are before going to her. She might well be a rabid loyalist.
 
I would strongly propose calling Thomas too. He's a strong fighter as is, and with MiS even more so. And Harry is definitely one of his intimacies.

It was previously stated that teleportation through local leylines is a possibility. @DragonParadox do we know if the hotel is near a leyline?

Also, how long would it take us to make mist potion and healing potion? And would us using his lab hinder Harry at all?

Anyway, we should at least learn who the rebels are before going to her. She might well be a rabid loyalist.
  1. The hotel is on a dragonline yes
  2. One hour for the single dot mist and three hours for healing
Good night guys, will talk more in the morning, but for now it's midnight
 
Emma-O's most famous greater akuma is male, he doesn't only recruit women.
Exactly my point.
Despite his predilection and preference for female servitors, it didnt stop him from making a man a greater akuma.
Preferences dont beat practicality, even for him.

1) Why would they trust any one that hadn't sold their soul. Better fewer more reliable operatives. Note that lesser akuma can be given limitless numbers of investments so can be a lot more powerful than regular Wan Kuei.

2) The benefit to having a hotel suite in the right place is that it could be an entrance to a Way aligned to the right resonance that makes it easy for them to travel to and from Kakuri.

3) Being Yin aligned is different to a preference for female vassals.

4) Emma-O doesn't get a choice. His greater akuma can have a Hun rating of 14 and Internalise 7 so can trivially get 5 successes on the roll to stay awake. Any other Wan Kuei that isn't a serious elder will sleep the day away.
1)Yama Kimgs do not have infinite resources, and there are multiple demands on them.
Emma-O is certainly still skirmishing with Mikaboshi, as well as a hundred and one other plots at hand.
There is a reason there is only one greater akuma here, instead of half a dozen.

2)Chicago is an infamously Fae-dominated city. Your Way would be opening into Faerie, with all the consequences thereof.

3)Its the exact same thing: a preference, not a requirement.

4)Can have =/= Do have.

The perfect candidate never exists, and even greater akuma candidates have limits to what he could afford to stuff them with before risking destroying a valuable investment. Someone with all the stats to max out, and the hardiness to survive that sort of soul surgery on top of everything else is not going to be common, or necessarily contract with you.
 
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would strongly propose calling Thomas too. He's a strong fighter as is, and with MiS even more so. And Harry is definitely one of his intimacies.
Not our place.
We hired him as financial adviser, not bruiser, and we dont have that sort of relationship yet.
If Harry thinks he needs the backup, he can call him; Thomas is HIS brother, not ours.

Not that Molly knows about that.
It was previously stated that teleportation through local leylines is a possibility. @DragonParadox do we know if the hotel is near a leyline?
Also, how long would it take us to make mist potion and healing potion? And would us using his lab hinder Harry at all?

Anyway, we should at least learn who the rebels are before going to her. She might well be a rabid loyalis
I agree that we should learn about it. And there's foci for that.
But Eiko is a Naked Wicked Secrets + Demonic Primacy conversation. Emma-O has a type of person he victimizes recruits, and they share the same psychological vulnerabilities.

As long as she has Free Will and no perfect social defense, we have a reasonable chance of doing to her what Jizo does to her fellow shikome in Kakuri, and he isnt a Celestial Exalt.
Or what Harry did to Lash.

  1. The hotel is on a dragonline yes
  2. One hour for the single dot mist and three hours for healing
Good night guys, will talk more in the morning, but for now it's midnight
Huh.
Okay, we probably want a Healing Potion as a backup for peple.
Assuming its 6am, thats till 9am to brew 1. 12pm to brew two. And we still have to hit up St Mary.
 
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Anyway, we should at least learn who the rebels are before going to her. She might well be a rabid loyalist.
I'd be surprised if there were any ideological loyalists among the Akuma. The hells own slaves, they don't cultivate subordinates.

I'd also be surprised if there are any ready made traitors around.

It'd make more sense to me if all of them but the will of Kakuri, who has been spiritually debased past the point of return, on some level are looking for an out but get stuck by fear and a crab bucket mentality deliberately engineered by Emma-O to keep them down.

The question probably isn't who's already ready to break ranks, but rather who's more desperate than afraid today.
 
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