Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

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[X] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing


Grab him in midleap, then roll Intimidation.
A proper Vader impression has a reasonable chance of convincing any people on the fence to stand down, and stay clear of the blast radius.
 
Lara canonically punched, or rather kicked, the Eye of Balor out of Ethniu's head.
And Lara is by no means the most martially powerful White Court vampire there is out there, even if she is one of the most powerful survivors of the Raith Deeps attack.

We know that Constantine Raith the White King at his peak could life-rip people with a single touch, possibly even at range(cant find that quote), and we do know that he killed Maggie LeFay, Dresden's mother, with an entropy curse.
I was talking in terms of the baseline whamp's non-physical abilities. The body enhancement is a well established ability.
We know that Constantine Raith the White King at his peak could life-rip people with a single touch, possibly even at range(cant find that quote), and we do know that he killed Maggie LeFay, Dresden's mother, with an entropy curse.
He spent two millennia getting ludicrously good at bending his Hunger's abilities and cutting deals, even assuming he wasn't the rare whamp talent he isn't a standard example.

We dont actually know that.
It's pretty heavily implied all vampire mages are rare; reality evidently doesn't like template stacking in the mortal world.

The have enough to pull big things when needed, but even under high stress they don't typically pop out cadres of sorcerers to apply magic to their problems.

Weaponized sexual assault against his daughters.
He killed his sons. And some of his daughters who proved too headstrong. And allegedly his brother, who was Madrigal and Madeline's father up to the point he allegedly went skydiving without a parachute.

Heterosexual you see; apparently he has lines he'd prefer not to cross. :eww:
So Thomas was spared quite a bit that his sisters werent.
Yeah, which is actually surprising considering the time period her grew up in.
No, she couldnt have killed him. The Blackstaff tried, multiple times.
So she knew him well enough not to bother, and went indirectly.
Did Ebenezer actually stop before the war either the Reds? He's a stubborn old bastard and I could totally see him making an annual attempt on Constantine's life for decades on end.
 
[x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
-[x][STUNT] Glowing green chains quickly wrap around him, leaving him frozen mid-lunge as his hostile intent is displayed to the entire hall. In the next moment you cross the short distance between you to not-so-neatly cut him in two before he has a chance to adjust, the blade angled just so to send his blood splattering towards you to leave you soaked. Shadows lengthen and wine glasses frost over as all eyes turn to you, red blood, green aura, bronze skin, and armor of fell idols combine to give you a fearsome visage as your cold gaze sweeps the crowd, lingering just long enough on each of the vampires on your list for them to notice, silently asking the question of which fool will try something next and face your blade, even as their auras let you pluck the answer from their very souls.
 
[X] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
 
I was talking in terms of the baseline whamp's non-physical abilities. The body enhancement is a well established ability.
We dont know. We're seldom in a position where Whampires have to flex their abilities in canon.
The fact that they are ALL NeverNever walkers suggests that there's more there, but we have no evidence besides vague rumors.

It might even just be a matter of elders hoarding knowledge and declining to teach
I mean, we know in this quest from Leinth back in Greene's house that Combination Disciplines are explicitly accessible to White Court vampires. And those get funky even before getting into elder Disciplines.

He spent two millennia getting ludicrously good at bending his Hunger's abilities and cutting deals, even assuming he wasn't the rare whamp talent he isn't a standard example.
Word of QM is, and I quote:
Do white court just have access to a whole bunch of discipline powers? Cause they only did like three things in canon burn for power, incite emotion, regen, oh read emotions, anything else is stuff they made deals for, learned over time like rituals, and just general skill. Note those previous things can be applied in multiple ways like general horny aura or specific horny aura. But their usually at least in said categories.
Also stuff like eating too much or too little has risks as in losing control.

They have access to some mental disciplines, presence is common for instance though that can advance to more complicated mind fucking for the elders, they also have improved physical abilities via potence and the like. Beyond that the really esoteric is either the domain of weirdos who learn how to twist their Hunger into a pretzel like Leinth, or the very talented, they are certainly not as versatile as the average Kindred.
So its essentially Plot.
If Lara or the nobility put their backs behind a program of improving learning and martial readiness, the White Court looks very different from their just coasting as is.

It's pretty heavily implied all vampire mages are rare; reality evidently doesn't like template stacking in the mortal world.
The have enough to pull big things when needed, but even under high stress they don't typically pop out cadres of sorcerers to apply magic to their problems.
Not really.
The only WoG I can find on the subject is this:
Unverified WoJ from the 2011 Naperville signing:
'Are there White Court vampire wizards?'
Yes, there are. Thomas is middle-of-the-road in power and [ed: think I'm remembering this correctly] the strongest don't get as strong as mortal wizards [/ed], but they can pull off some strong tricks with their Hunger.
Nothing else, one way or the other.

Yeah, which is actually surprising considering the time period her grew up in.
Personal tastes, I guess.

Man grew up when owning personal slaves was not just the norm but expected of the nobility and the prosperous.
And when human chattel was an essential part of war booty. And the elite could literally buy slaves servants apprentices from struggling peasant families, a condition that persisted in the West well into Victorian times.

He'd have had his pick.
Did Ebenezer actually stop before the war either the Reds? He's a stubborn old bastard and I could totally see him making an annual attempt on Constantine's life for decades on end.
Maggie LeFay was murdered at childbirth, presumably because that was the one time that she wouldnt have been able to defend herself against an entropy curse.
That means that Harry's age is the same as the duration of time since she died.

As of Blood Rites, when McCoy talks to Dresden, Harry is about thirty years old, and McCoy says he's tried three times.
Thats once a decade.
 
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[X] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
 
We dont know. We're seldom in a position where Whampires have to flex their abilities in canon.
The fact that they are ALL NeverNever walkers suggests that there's more there, but we have no evidence besides vague rumors.

It might even just be a matter of elders hoarding knowledge and declining to teach
I mean, we know in this quest from Leinth back in Greene's house that Combination Disciplines are explicitly accessible to White Court vampires. And those get funky even before getting into elder Disciplines.
I'm not saying they're completely dry on more esoteric stuff, but the base description Harry gives talks about them as a rare phenomenon and they are never relevant to any of the major white court plots we see.

Everything from major strike forces to their responses to being attacked by the Naagoloshii completely lack stronger magical support. When Lara needs that sort of thing she tend to lean on Dresden.

That says something about the availability of such abilities on a practical level.

So its essentially Plot.
If Lara or the nobility put their backs behind a program of improving learning and martial readiness, the White Court looks very different from their just coasting as is.
Plot exemptions to baseline rules aren't exactly a standard.
Grab him in midleap, then roll Intimidation.
A proper Vader impression has a reasonable chance of convincing any people on the fence to stand down, and stay clear of the blast radius.
The point of this is the killing though, survivors are actually a problem.

The purely political targets of opportunity Lara may have added probably don't deserve to die and should get the intimidation treatment if we can swing it, but at least a few need to end up spread across the walls to make this work for us and Lara.

If that's going to be anyone it should be Madrigal and his closest supporters, because they are unquestionably an eyes wide open perpetrators and proponents of genocide.
[x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
-[x][STUNT] Glowing green chains quickly wrap around him, leaving him frozen mid-lunge as his hostile intent is displayed to the entire hall. In the next moment you cross the short distance between you to not-so-neatly cut him in two before he has a chance to adjust, the blade angled just so to send his blood splattering towards you to leave you soaked. Shadows lengthen and wine glasses frost over as all eyes turn to you, red blood, green aura, bronze skin, and armor of fell idols combine to give you a fearsome visage as your cold gaze sweeps the crowd, lingering just long enough on each of the vampires on your list for them to notice, silently asking the question of which fool will try something next and face your blade, even as their auras let you pluck the answer from their very souls.


I've said it before and I'll say it again, the first rule of Exalted is that if you're not stunting, you're not really trying. And I didn't like any of the other stunts (slim pickings on that, this round), so I wrote my own.
I think we're still under the auspices of the overall stunt, but just in case:

[x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
-[x][STUNT] Glowing green chains quickly wrap around him, leaving him frozen mid-lunge as his hostile intent is displayed to the entire hall. In the next moment you cross the short distance between you to not-so-neatly cut him in two before he has a chance to adjust, the blade angled just so to send his blood splattering towards you to leave you soaked. Shadows lengthen and wine glasses frost over as all eyes turn to you, red blood, green aura, bronze skin, and armor of fell idols combine to give you a fearsome visage as your cold gaze sweeps the crowd, lingering just long enough on each of the vampires on your list for them to notice, silently asking the question of which fool will try something next and face your blade, even as their auras let you pluck the answer from their very souls.
 
If we were anything else WC canon abilities would be terrifying. Mind magic out the wazzo that can also be used to directly kill. The white king was known for being able to kill someone with a touch.

If we didn't have a perfect defense against mind magic that would be damn terrifying. It's likely that the entire senior council couldn't do what we are about to do today. Because well they do have mind shields they aren't perfect mind shields.
 
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So, before the end of the party/execution, what do y'all think the chances are we'll be able to use MHM to telekinetically wield a Whampire as a weapon against another Whampire?
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Jul 11, 2023 at 12:27 PM, finished with 59 posts and 23 votes.

  • [x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
    [x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
    -[x][STUNT] Glowing green chains quickly wrap around him, leaving him frozen mid-lunge as his hostile intent is displayed to the entire hall. In the next moment you cross the short distance between you to not-so-neatly cut him in two before he has a chance to adjust, the blade angled just so to send his blood splattering towards you to leave you soaked. Shadows lengthen and wine glasses frost over as all eyes turn to you, red blood, green aura, bronze skin, and armor of fell idols combine to give you a fearsome visage as your cold gaze sweeps the crowd, lingering just long enough on each of the vampires on your list for them to notice, silently asking the question of which fool will try something next and face your blade, even as their auras let you pluck the answer from their very souls.
    [x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
    -[x][stunt] Madrigal cry of protest is cut off by you apply pressure on his windpipe. "I did not give you permission to speak.". Madrigal gasps for air "I did not give you permission to breathe" as you stop those gasps as well.
    [X] Start empowering yourself now (you obtain the pre-battle buffs on turn 0 as planned; but you might seem like you are eager to fight due to the obvious transformation and dent some of the justification Lara is looking for)
 
So, before the end of the party/execution, what do y'all think the chances are we'll be able to use MHM to telekinetically wield a Whampire as a weapon against another Whampire?
Not really an efficient use of our limited actions. Better to run up and sword.

MHM would be better if we were trying to avoid killing them. In fact I expect it to pull a lot of weight in future non-lethal combat which this isn't.
 
Vote closed, lets do this.
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Jul 11, 2023 at 12:27 PM, finished with 59 posts and 23 votes.

  • [x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
    [x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
    -[x][STUNT] Glowing green chains quickly wrap around him, leaving him frozen mid-lunge as his hostile intent is displayed to the entire hall. In the next moment you cross the short distance between you to not-so-neatly cut him in two before he has a chance to adjust, the blade angled just so to send his blood splattering towards you to leave you soaked. Shadows lengthen and wine glasses frost over as all eyes turn to you, red blood, green aura, bronze skin, and armor of fell idols combine to give you a fearsome visage as your cold gaze sweeps the crowd, lingering just long enough on each of the vampires on your list for them to notice, silently asking the question of which fool will try something next and face your blade, even as their auras let you pluck the answer from their very souls.
    [x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
    -[x][stunt] Madrigal cry of protest is cut off by you apply pressure on his windpipe. "I did not give you permission to speak.". Madrigal gasps for air "I did not give you permission to breathe" as you stop those gasps as well.
    [X] Start empowering yourself now (you obtain the pre-battle buffs on turn 0 as planned; but you might seem like you are eager to fight due to the obvious transformation and dent some of the justification Lara is looking for)
 
Not really an efficient use of our limited actions. Better to run up and sword.

MHM would be better if we were trying to avoid killing them. In fact I expect it to pull a lot of weight in future non-lethal combat which this isn't.
I figure flipping one vertically and jamming them head first into the ground might be effective though. Smash the skull or break the neck like a breadstick in one maneuver.
 
I'm not saying they're completely dry on more esoteric stuff, but the base description Harry gives talks about them as a rare phenomenon and they are never relevant to any of the major white court plots we see.

Everything from major strike forces to their responses to being attacked by the Naagoloshii completely lack stronger magical support. When Lara needs that sort of thing she tend to lean on Dresden.
That says something about the availability of such abilities on a practical level.
We've never seen Whampires use quick and dirty evocation, sure.But evocation is only one type of Dresdenverse magic.
Thomas is allegely a middle of the road Whampire wizard, and we only see him use magic in a short story. Other times we see him leave it to Dresden.

Entirely plausible we just dont see them use it onscreen.

The naagloshii attack was sudden and short, and it was (allegedly) let past the Raith estates defenses by Madeline Raith
There werent many Whampires around at the time anyway; explicitly only Lara and two sisters.
I dont really think thats a useful example.

Not that it would have mattered against something with Senior Council+ magic.
Plot exemptions to baseline rules aren't exactly a standard.
I didnt mean plot exemptions.
I meant that there is enough left undefined as to rule one way or the other depending on plot.

The point of this is the killing though, survivors are actually a problem.
The purely political targets of opportunity Lara may have added probably don't deserve to die and should get the intimidation treatment if we can swing it, but at least a few need to end up spread across the walls to make this work for us and Lara.

If that's going to be anyone it should be Madrigal and his closest supporters, because they are unquestionably an eyes wide open perpetrators and proponents of genocide.
The accused were always going to go for broke anyway.
The people we're trying to intimidate are their potential supporters, who might feel obliged to support them for feelings of loyalty, or opportunism, or even habit.
I think we're still under the auspices of the overall stunt, but just in case:

[x] Use Mind Hand Manipulation to stop him mid-air you do not like how quickly he made the choice, he seems more steeled than despairing
-[x][STUNT] Glowing green chains quickly wrap around him, leaving him frozen mid-lunge as his hostile intent is displayed to the entire hall. In the next moment you cross the short distance between you to not-so-neatly cut him in two before he has a chance to adjust, the blade angled just so to send his blood splattering towards you to leave you soaked. Shadows lengthen and wine glasses frost over as all eyes turn to you, red blood, green aura, bronze skin, and armor of fell idols combine to give you a fearsome visage as your cold gaze sweeps the crowd, lingering just long enough on each of the vampires on your list for them to notice, silently asking the question of which fool will try something next and face your blade, even as their auras let you pluck the answer from their very souls.
The stunt borrows the imagery of another charm.
Specifically Kneel or Be Knelt.

As for liquid, its a party.
There's probably champagne buckets with half-melted ice on a nearby tables.If the point is to trigger BSM, thats much more likely than getting some dude's blood on you. Especially given how quickly blood clots.
 
The stunt borrows the imagery of another charm.
Specifically Kneel or Be Knelt.

As for liquid, its a party.
There's probably champagne buckets with half-melted ice on a nearby tables.If the point is to trigger BSM, thats much more likely than getting some dude's blood on you. Especially given how quickly blood clots.
Kneel or be Knelt has some cool imagery, but very few use cases. This would have been one of them. Although when tigers break free would have been even better.
 
Arc 8 Post 30: When the Bodies Hit the Floor
When the Bodies Hit the Floor

13th of November 2006 A.D.

As Madrigal Raith lunges at his uncle, face suddenly contorting from pleading to rage, a cornered predator who knows the only way to survival is ripping the throat out of the ones that drove him you reach into the flame invisible the place where will becomes force. It is not like last time, it feels like you could rip the roof off the building, like you could lift a truck, so of course it is no trouble you have no trouble pinning the vampire in place like a butterfly with needles though its wings, on display for all and sundry. So you are about as surprised as the crowd of vampires when the chain he's wearing sings once like a heavy pendulum and the and the red gem at its heart pulses.

Within there awakens a storm of fire a crystal heart that pulses crimson in echo of some distant horror. Upon every face the crimson light is cast, but yours and Lydia's, the shadows under their eyes grow deep, the furrows and lines that should have been upon ever useful faces, but it is you it is to you that it is turned when the face of the jewel cracks and crimson liquid, blood sprays out. There is no way I can dodge that, you realize at once, recognizing entropy magic to which the laws of physics and even the constraints of geometry mean nothing.


So of course you just put out your hands like you are trying to avoid being splashed by Matthew's water gun on the beach last year... and somehow it works green of your anima splashing against the red. For just a moment you feel a rancid taste in your mouth. For maybe two seconds it looks like what passes for peace had been mentained and the White King would be able to pass 'his' judgement, but the illusion of peace passes as swiftly as it had arisen.

"Behold the pale suppurating maggot that calls itself our king!" the Skavis patriarch spits, raising his emaciated arms as though in supplication. Not ten inches in front of his face a whirling vortex of flame that does not shine but devours light black as pitch arises surrounding his entire party.

"It is not real, he's an illusionist, him and Athanasius too!" you hear Lara shout across the room, barely catching a glimpse of her filled with hunger and with purpose as she lunges off the stage cutting the neck of one of the marked vampires almost clean off with an odd curved blade. A kukri, Usum calls it, and not at all strange for one of the pari to wield, because of course he thinks life and death battle is a good time for a knife lore dump

Elsewhere you spy an elder wrap himself in shadow, another throws a circle of black dust around his feet with inhuman precision making the air hum like static around her. Leinth is nowhere to be seen. Younger vampires are not as subtle or esoteric, flowing together in pack and coteries, all awash with the pull of the demon within. For her part lady Malvora calls out to her kin to gather, but does not make any sign of warding or of aggression.

"Is it now?" you hear a voice laugh from the crackling flames. 'Are you sure about that?"

What do you do?

[] Kill Madrigal quickly and move down the list

[] Knock Madrigal out before moving on, you would like to know what a treasomous high placed vampire was doing at splattercon or why he was even a horror director to begin with

[] Write in


OOC: That talisman would have cast the equivalent of the Misfortune of Chernogolov at you if you had not counterspelled it only this thing is nasty and single purpose so it would have been permanent until broken. Not that -2 Successes to all rolls would cripple an Exalt, but they would at least have made you cautious of using any non-Key abilities that can botch.
 
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Now is not the time for half-measures or restraint. As the chapter name says, 'let the bodies hit the floor'.

[X] Kill Madrigal quickly and move down the list
 
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You know what? I'm tired of these flipping vampires and their stupid disciplines and their weird-ass esoteric relics.

It's time to resort to the Exalted method of stress relief: let's kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.

The one good thing about all this hubble is that no one's gonna realize that they need to focus down the Exalted in the room before backstabbing each other. Let's capitalize on this opportunity to kill as many as we can before people start running.

[X] Kill Madrigal quickly and move down the list
 
[X] Kill Madrigal quickly and move down the list

The second to last winning vote explicitly called for killing Madrigal, and the last one wrote ins mostly for the same, nothing here has changed my mind. kind of annoyed that the guy has gotten two additional passes already.
 
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