True Faith in Molly herself is something you can grant thanks to the inherent sympathy of the Exaltation to the concept.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
True Faith in Molly herself is something you can grant thanks to the inherent sympathy of the Exaltation to the concept.
But not strengthen Harry's True Faith in Magic (which, given the description, he actually has at 1 dot, as he can turn vampires away with the pentacle symbol for magic). Still, making our own saints should be interesting.
Arc 7 Post 16: Of Horrors Old and New
Of Horrors Old and New
31th of October 2006 A.D.
Heavy lies the air in the heaven of the white court, with perfume yes, with oils that give luster to pearls, the finest shampoos and conditioners, but also with fear. They eye Thomas with wariness, the prodigal son returned and they take heed to Lara's brusqueness with growing alarm. Into this sticky-sweet miasma you cast a pair of questions on wings of blazing essence, eyes fixed upon the phone in your hand, the picture Clippy had helpfully snapped in passing. What being aligned with the one who injured the person outside are in the Chicago area?
Nul For the first time ever you get no answer, but not you know at once because the target was somehow veiled from your sight. The question had missed its mark which likely means... the person outside was not injured, another ruse to slow you down
"Van?" you mutter under your breath. The image chances to the vehicle in question.
How long before the associates of the entity who disabled this van will attack the Raith estate?
Nul again, but this one has a different taste to it, silver threads branching, branching into infinitely thin strands until all is white mist , choices yet unmade.
Lost 2 Essence -> Now at 7/12
In one sense that is a relief, you do not have to throw down with Broken Seeker anyone and anything that might be on his side with the proverbial tank half full and surrounded by vampires who, except for Thomas, you do not trust anywhere near as far as you could throw them. But on the other side of things it leaves you jumpy. If the enemy has assets close enough that a car accident a few miles away from the ward-line would have slowed you down enough for him to attack why not go all in. The power of the Naagloshii had been as undeniable as its malice and while you have not had the time to study the wards of Lara's faux-castle you cannot imagine they alone will deter it. Harry and dad are on the way but...
"Perhaps it was testing you oh Herald of the Age to Be," Usum opines. "For you and for your new ally. A new thing has come into the world and one does not grow old in the hunt without caution in choosing one's prey."
It can't just be that, you think as you follow along after Lara and a reluctant Thomas, not when so obviously tipped its hand, but perhaps a combination. If it had simply not had the time the resources or the inclination for a full attack it might make sense to but assets which are already overextended on a long shot to slow the car or at least to get either you or Lydia to tip your hands.
Truth be told you are not sure what you had expected out of Lara's interrogation room, the Torquemada Special maybe to go with the rest of the interior design complete with rack and iron maiden. Instead she leads the way into what is a high end infirmary, the soft whir of medical machines in the background, the lights bright and steady above. One cannot help but wonder what kind of doctors would work in a place like this, for such masters as this, but they certainly seem to know what they are doing as they dress and clean him and attach him to an confusing array of medical tubes and just as professionally they chain him to the bed.
At Lydia's look in askance Lara sniffs delicately. "He could be considerably stronger than a human, even in the state he's in, no sense taking risks when you don't have to," she unknowingly echoes Usum.
"Your boss just tried to pull your skeleton out of your" you make a wordless, yet expressive gesture "everything. And then we were attacked on our way here. I would like to know why." You pull a chair up by the side of his bed, his lifeblood still on your chainmail."Start talking."
Though the color drains from his face and his eyes widen in fear he does not speak. Instead the prisoner tears his gaze from you and looks worshipfully at Lara. "Never... I'll never betray my love."
Now that is creepy... though not as creepy as Lara's cat in the cream expression when she tsks "You should try a subtler touch, they might surprise you. I mean just look at him I bet he wants to tell us all about the one who put him through all that pain and suffering, don't you?"
Robert 'Bobby' Hall is apparently a god bit older than he looks, in no small part thanks to the power that he has been gifted with by his master, no dilettante he, between coughing, wincing in pain fawning over Lara he explains that he is part of a.. commune he calls it, but you would call it cult that had been around since the late sixties, real back to the land off the grid types who had the misfortune of trying to go off grid in a particular patch of Nevada that the Navajo people shunned and avoided, they had even tried to warn the outsides from drawing near it which Bobby now thinks of as The First Test. What the other tests are you are not sure you want to know because the 'Free Association of Independent Ranchers' had become the 'Broken Arrows'. None of the handful of goats they had with them had survived the transition and only about a third of the people.
Even with Lara doing her best to steer him away from the details it is clear the goats and the people had suffered the same fate, hunted, devoured. At the paroxysm of these hunts the victim's mind was taken from them so that they would not anything beyond pain and terror when they were finally devoured... alive.
Such were the gifts of the Great One Bobby explained in the dreamy infatuated voice of one wholly enthralled to the allure of a vampire, to break man's works and man's minds, to make hearts race with terror and then rip them from bleeding hearts. Unsurprisingly perhaps the Broken Arrows have a special loathing for the Navajo though it is taboo for them to hunt them without a direct command from their foul 'god'. All that had changed when 'that whelp Ralph' killed and devoured the heart of a medicine man. There had been open war for almost a full month kept from the outside as much by the sheer remoteness of the desert before somehow the feds had gotten involved and driven the cannibals put into what they called 'the bone wood' and which you recognize at once as a particularly macabre layer of the Nevernever. There the survivors had honed their craft, grown their power, feasting on the essence of unfortunate spirits driven into that tainted place...
Even Lara looks a little perturbed when her new admirer offers to catch a thrush to crush and chew and feel it die on her teeth, though you are not sure if it it at how visceral the description is, or just at the idea of humans devouring spirits. From there the lean ever-hungry survivors, fourteen counting Bobby himself had found another path, leading into well watered upland forest and wooded ravines. The Great One had need of his arrows for war.
"Where was this place? Where is it's seat of power?" Lara asks, though she sounds like she does not expect a straight answer from the now almost delirious prisoner.
"Deer Grove... they call it Deer Grove... Bambi tastes great when it's hurting you know?" the man... the skinwalker, you realize finishes with a mad giggle before his head lolls to the side
"Do you want me to give him a shot to wake him up mam?" the only doctor still in the room, by the waryness with which he eyes you a vampire himself, asks.
"I think we have enough out of him for now." Lara replies. "What was it you wanted to tell me in the car."
How much of what you know do you explain to Lara?
[] Just the Skinwalker and the connection to framing Harry
[] The White Court connection via the attempt on Sarah Greene's life
[] Your suspicion about those feds being Daedalus and what those are
[] Write in
OOC: So you know how the Naagloshii used to be teachers... this one misses the old days. He's decided to spread his new perspective on the world a bit.
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Rolls
*From a previous update*
Subterfuge vs Molly perception
*Back to this update*
A guess as to why you got that null answer
Intimidation
One thing you can say about this guy, he does not lack for will
...but he is under Lara's thrall for a year since that last scene (one year's worth)
*From a previous update*
Subterfuge vs Molly perception
*Back to this update*
A guess as to why you got that null answer
Intimidation
One thing you can say about this guy, he does not lack for will
...but he is under Lara's thrall for a year since that last scene (one year's worth)
Do you mean weariness, or wariness?
taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
Remind my dum dum brain please, what are these Daedalus again?
Magic feds.
Fixed, thanks
The federal agents who arrested Harry in Arc 2... when we was framed by the Nagloshi.
- Location
- Germany
So the injured cyclist was another Skinwalker.
Then we have at least three in town?
Out of 14 that's a considerable investment.
Skinny must have some sort of important plan here, even if he doesn't want a direct confrontation yet.
Then we have at least three in town?
Out of 14 that's a considerable investment.
Skinny must have some sort of important plan here, even if he doesn't want a direct confrontation yet.
- Location
- Germany
Deer Grove sounds like a place that would be meaningfully improved by that Lanka Charm that irradiates an area.
I wonder how it would affect the Naagloshii if we could poison the land he is bound to so deeply.
Cancer might be his least problem.
I wonder how it would affect the Naagloshii if we could poison the land he is bound to so deeply.
Cancer might be his least problem.
taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
[X] Your suspicion about those feds being Daedalus and what those are
Yeah, this looks like a good idea.
In canon, Lara was bloody terrified of the normal authority (I think they're called Librarians?) interfering too much with the supernatural. Having her focus there might shift less of her attention to Moly.
Yeah, this looks like a good idea.
In canon, Lara was bloody terrified of the normal authority (I think they're called Librarians?) interfering too much with the supernatural. Having her focus there might shift less of her attention to Moly.
Librarians (as in the Library of Congress) are a very distinct faction that we are working on slowly building a cordial relationship with.
[X] Just the Skinwalker and the connection to framing Harry
I am fairly sure Lara doesn't need to know anything else.
Let's ask him for lessons! I propose: How to hunt the hunter and how to kill a Naagloshi.
Maybe also how to rehabilitate new skinwalkers, but they seem a little too far gone….
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I'm not sure about what exactly Lara needs to know, but I think it's more than this, if only to provide a suitable explanation for why the lesser Skinwalkers are targeting the Raiths.
She was being followed and spied upon by a specially modified infiltrator, and on the way to the Raith estate we encountered at least two more of its brethren who must have already been in the vicinity, scouting, spying, or getting up to some sort of mischief.
It's one thing if Harry is being targeted, he's made plenty of enemies and he holds a prominent position in the White Council's regional power structure, but targeting Harry and the White Court, that's a whole other ball game, one that indicates the opening moves of a large scale power grab in the Chicago area at the very least.
Deal with them doesn't translate to warping the story around them. An argument made on bad mechanics that broadly changes deliberate world building is an argument for modifying the mechanics.
A TTRPG doesn't need video game glitches.
The point isn't to build people up, the wishes are the bait and not the reward. I'd like to have our cake and eat it too, but not being the default isn't actually an issue for the purposes of using the charm.
I fundamentally disagree with the idea no one worth dealing with will take a deal. It's just that the more powerful they are the more extreme the circumstances need to be or the more specific the mitigating context.
I already specified a band above the mortal mook level but below people like Lara that would make excellent targets.
The parts you seem to be missing are firstly that the charm doesn't do everything for you, and secondly that ending in something other than full minion hood is a failure.
You're supposed to work the relationship and turn the exchange into something that draws in the target to whatever end you have in mind. For most people knowingly taking a deal like this it isn't just a random char sheet improvement. There's a story behind it, something they want badly. Something you can exploit.
The wish might not even be the start of the relationship, but rather just another point in it where you pivot it towards your purpose.
Even if it doesn't end in someone becoming our servant, having the favor is itself a valuable thing. As long as we aren't frequently and obviously an asshole about it we can trade on the favor economy like any of the other factions that do stuff like this.
Again, the issue is that you want it to be easier to use the change for something other than the point not that the charm is weak.
People are doing the best they can with what they know, but there are a lot of factors that influence decision making.
In a game you the player know (or at least can know) the perfect build. Your character might not, but you're aware of the limits of things, where the good stuff is, what the real odds are, and a number of other things that guide you to knowing when you're prepared enough and how to approach things.
A person living their life doesn't have that. I might as well ask why no one on the thread is playing the optimum game in real life; exploiting the metagame in education, finance, and law to do whatever their personal campaign goal is.
That's the context I was talking about. Trusting your dealer for X reason even when you probably should be more cautious. It's not like we don't still have that context on our side either.
There's a scene posted in this thread from the books where Dresden ends up fighting a demon he summoned to buy information from. He knew better but was still surprised because the guy was just so smooth that Harry thought they were something like friends till the last second.
That guy was just a cold call he made to the other side who had the wisdom to be patient.
Mab's relationship with Harry and Changes in particular are a case study in this whole thing.
This is literally a skill issue.
Well for one thing Lara is not the most trustworthy of beings and while Molly does not like Daedalus she does not know what the White Court should do to them if they find out that there are government agents agents out there hunting the supernatural. After all she cannot really explain a connection without explaining what the people in question are.
The reason not to tell her anything else is that it's not relevant to the current situation. To be honest, I am a bit lost about the motivation of the skinwalker cult here. Apparently, there's not going to be an attack. What were they trying to slow us down for? I am tempted to use the crown on this man, but damn, I am loathe to lose him as a focus.
Molly's best guess is that they were reacting in the moment. If you did slow down an attack might have happened. When it became clear that you were too fast they were trying to get the strange not-quite-divine-beings to demonstrate their power.. and possibility inclination for compassion or other 'weaknesses'.