Remove ads

Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

Reader mode
This is the good and bad thing about Odin; he's a sly old bastard, and he knows it's a bad idea to force what you can instead entice.

He's not wrong about it being an opportunity. In a city with an opening we could take a lot of ground very quickly. We're also talking about a place of mortal influence even beyond the students. Getting into the old boy's network isn't nothing, and Molly has the social dice to walk all over the usual issues with that.

There are costs though; Odin wants us working with him, and if we're not careful we could easily slide into a junior position. Note how generous he's being with things that would publicly associate us with him and make the continued stability of our power base dependent on him.

As far as he knows anyway; since our hell should arguably give us the minion power to stand without him.

I don't want to completely leave Chicago behind, but a lot of our actual gains can be kept alive remotely. Especially since RVD and the local rivers/coast mean we can teleport around.

Another thing Odin has no idea Molly can do that mitigates the downsides of this plan.


Artemis1992 said:
Nothing in the White Court can resist us with straight force and if we have time to work our superior dicepools we can get Lara under our sway while she still thinks she's manipulating us.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is a mistake.

The white court has existed for millennia under exactly the conditions of "everyone around us worth a damn can murder us in a straight fight if they want to" they're the weakest vampire species, grow the slowest, and murdered their own elders to the point where they basically rest their top end after the fall of Rome.

We're good, and we have what it takes to go for the gold here, but this is where they eat.

The game we're playing is essentially taking on a major power at its area of expertise, that's a major undertaking and not a cake walk we can coast through on excellencies.

As to the empty country thing; having the room to stretch our legs isn't nothing. Dragon nests, emerging talents, material resources, local politics, all of that is apparently up for grabs.

We could take the whole place and make it a fortress to move on Boston proper from.

I'm also somewhat concerned about the consequences of not taking over. Someone is going to, and we're talking about a university town full of idiot college students. That could get messy.
 
Boston is also closer to DC, and absolutely a quick dip into the Atlantic away.

But even if you want take the deal we should dither. It's never ideal to take the first offer freely given. This was his opening position. He is likely willing to offer more.
 
Last edited:
BronzeTongue said:
I don't want to completely leave Chicago behind, but a lot of our actual gains can be kept alive remotely. Especially since RVD and the local rivers/coast mean we can teleport around.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We might want to invest into Inner Devils Unchained. (4 dot, favored => 12 XP)
Give some of our Last Station residents the option for more fire power.

Unlike most such offers Molly will give fair explanation of the downsides of the charm of course.
Which are: None, as long as you keep serving Molly, but substantial if you stop.

But it reduces reliance on outside contractors like Odin.

Will have to wait for after the Hell though.
 
Artemis1992 said:
I mean, that goes for every university out there.
Not like they all have some infernal patrons.

Though I would have bet that Harvard had one, before Odin told us it wasn't so.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The problem isn't the university, it's the power vacuum collapsing.

This is the sort of situation where nasty actors like the fomor move in and either dig so deep you can never get rid of them or make everyone extra miserable until someone notices and stomps them out before taking the territory for themselves.
 
BronzeTongue said:
The problem isn't the university, it's the power vacuum collapsing.

This is the sort of situation where nasty actors like the fomor move in and either dig so deep you can never get rid of them or make everyone extra miserable until someone notices and stomps them out before taking the territory for themselves.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As far as we know this Necromancer there wasn't exactly the steady type.

His plan was literally "set a lot of fires and also break the masquerade", propably towards some greater goal, but certainly not subtle.
I really doubt he spend the last decades there and steadily defended his domain, the normal order of Boston will propably be re-established if nobody like Molly intervenes soon.
 
I wouldn't mind a move to Boston. It's a new scene, where we aren't familiar with all of the local supernatural players, so DP would have more freedom to do his own world building rather than working within the already established Dresden Files framework like he's been doing so far.

On the other hand, a lot of shit goes down in Chicago which we might want to get involved in. Familiar isn't always a bad thing, after all, and it's where our family lives. And Harry, too, of course.

We can commute easily enough, however, thanks to RVD and our incredible flight speed. If we did relocate to Boston, we could be back in Chicago faster than we could drive from one end of the city to the other.

All that said, it's much too early to actually give Odin an answer to such an important decision. We should discuss it with our parents, talk to Lydia, Harry, Thomas, etc., about the logistics and particulars of such a significant change.

The best answer for now is the non-answer, IMO.

[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)
 
Also, thinking on transitions between bodies of water.... Is there any reason to not do so, you know, under water? Do we reappear out of the surface or anywhere along the transition between one body of water and the next? It would be stealthier to do the transition at the bottom of the river.

EDIT - We should also apply out game braking out of context information gathering powers before we answer. One essence and a glance at a map of Boston would answer "Who would oppose our rise in this city?" or "What allies could be had in this place?"
 
Last edited:
LightLan said:
We might want to invest into Inner Devils Unchained. (4 dot, favored => 12 XP)
Give some of our Last Station residents the option for more fire power.

Unlike most such offers Molly will give fair explanation of the downsides of the charm of course.
Which are: None, as long as you keep serving Molly, but substantial if you stop.

But it reduces reliance on outside contractors like Odin.

Will have to wait for after the Hell though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Fomor is a shit power boost though, and our ghouls can't even use it.

With discounts it's only slightly cheaper than our crafting charm, and emanations on their own don't require sacrifice other than finding a dragon nest to screw over for a few weeks.

If we make them some actually good equipment; guns, armor, vehicles, and a few spirit bruisers they'd be way more secure than if we make a few people who can spit acid or scent trails like a dog.

Really we should do that either way, because it's embarrassing that we can make next gen combat equipment in a few days and our direct reports have to fight in street clothes using their claws despite having firearm dots.

Also worth noting that being out of town and focused somewhere else doesn't mean we're on another planet.

RVD and a cell phone make it possible to stay in contact, and we can easily keep the financial stuff moving through Thomas.


Our operations are still small enough here that they aren't exactly hungry for attention.

Artemis1992 said:
As far as we know this Necromancer there wasn't exactly the steady type.

His plan was literally "set a lot of fires and also break the masquerade", propably towards some greater goal, but certainly not subtle.
I really doubt he spend the last decades there and steadily defended his domain, the normal order of Boston will propably be re-established if nobody like Molly intervenes soon.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
He knocked over the sand castle and took it for himself:
DragonParadox said:
. With the warkock removed there is a power vacuum in the area that you could take advantage of to set up, he had removed all other major players from the area
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

It doesn't really matter how he got there, just the conditions he created. Something is going to use the opening, and there isn't any particular reason to believe it'll be any friendlier to start with than it is in most other examples we have of this.
 
Artemis1992 said:
As far as we know this Necromancer there wasn't exactly the steady type.

His plan was literally "set a lot of fires and also break the masquerade", propably towards some greater goal, but certainly not subtle.
I really doubt he spend the last decades there and steadily defended his domain, the normal order of Boston will propably be re-established if nobody like Molly intervenes soon.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There is that. Odin is making it sound like there's a power vacuum for Molly to just step into, but I find that very unlikely given the description of what actually happened in Boston. The college, sure, the city? No. Like, sure maybe the White Council lacks a Warden there and it's just junior Red Court members, but the whole 'redwood in a garden' routine smells to me.

OOC we also know that Chicago is congested because it's so important. He just wants Marcone installed.
 
Last edited:
[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)

Let's see what he plays to sweeten the pot. But I'm tempted, especially if we can create the God of Chicago and have him obey us before focusing most of our attention on Boston. I'm sure this would be a great security boost for our investments in the city and would be a very big stumbling block in Odin's way of raising Marcone.
 
[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)
 
DragonParadox said:
Boston is not a stone's throw away from the seat of the White Court while also being the place where the War between the White Council and the Red Court started and where the man who started that war happens to live..."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Personally these don't actually seem like downsides to me. Being a stone's throw away from the seat of the white court seems like it makes them less inclined to mess with us when we can run over and mess them up right back within 10 minutes.

[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)
 
Azais said:
[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)

Let's see what he plays to sweeten the pot. But I'm tempted, especially if we can create the God of Chicago and have him obey us before focusing most of our attention on Boston. I'm sure this would be a great security boost for our investments in the city and would be a very big stumbling block in Odin's way of raising Marcone.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Most people delegate to deal with having interests in multiple places.

Exalted delegate to God (of Chicago)

fictionfan said:
Personally these don't actually seem like downsides to me. Being a stone's throw away from the seat of the white court seems like it makes them less inclined to mess with us when we can run over and mess them up right back within 10 minutes.

[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There is something to being within punching range.
 
Fouredged Sword said:
Also, thinking on transitions between bodies of water.... Is there any reason to not do so, you know, under water? Do we reappear out of the surface or anywhere along the transition between one body of water and the next? It would be stealthier to do the transition at the bottom of the river.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Molly would need some way to orient herself. Though... since she can see perfectly under water even in muddy or obscured conditions she could mark that down with some rocks at the bottom or something. Yeah her teleporting just became a lot less of a hassle, as long as she plans the route at least.
 
DragonParadox said:
Rolls
Offer made vs Molly to read intent
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

We do know that the offer is genuine, that much is sure, now, is it worth it is an entire question entirely.

We do have roots in Chicago, almost literal ones at that, what with the place we are renovating being a place of power.

Alratan said:
I'm tempted to take the deal and then learn Splintered Gale Shintai and send a clone Molly to Harvard while we leverage other charms to take over Chicago.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Have to admit, tempted too.

Another point is that he wants us away from Chicago, and that is putting my contrarians urges on overdrive, most of what he describes as problems are actually things I find good to have.

We have links to the white courts royalty, so staying in their turf has advantages, lots of things are happening, so we can get more experience by taking care of them, we will stay close to Harry in term of alliances anyway, these sorts of things.

[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)
 
Harvard needs a bit of sweetening. A power vacuum isn't really useful unless there are resources to vacuum up. Like if there is a currently unclaimed dragon nest or the like that is a great opportunity, but power vacuum by itself can just mean the place is worthless.

There are hundreds of worthless power vacuums around the world.
BronzeTongue said:
He's not wrong about it being an opportunity. In a city with an opening we could take a lot of ground very quickly.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

What does that even mean in context?
 
Last edited:
It's a good place to be if we want to keep an eye out for other Exalts who might be emerging though. It is one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
 
fictionfan said:
Harvard needs a bit of sweetening. A power vacuum isn't really useful unless there are resources to vacuum up. Like if there is a currently unclaimed dragon nest or the like that is a great opportunity, but power vacuum by itself can just mean the place is worthless.

There are hundreds of worthless power vacuums around the world.


What does that even mean in context?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We could rule as undisputed QUEEN... of Ohio.
 
[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)

Leaving chicago is a shit idea. Odin is just doing it so he can continue manipulating the city and harry.

Why would we ever leave it here. We have staked a claim to this city and i am not giving it up
 
DragonParadox said:
What do you reply?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
1) We have commitments in Chicago.

This is one of the reasons why I was reluctant to make binding moves like officially joining Cauldron, because you cant accept shit like this cavalierly. But having joined them, we kinda have a responsibility TO them which is hard to fulfill if we spend most of the year a thousand miles away in Boston.

And thats not counting Rosie's wellbeing, who we also have to take into account. Or Alec and Izzy.
Or Last Station and Porter.
Or Isabella. Or Murphy.

Or even Lydia, who is significantly more vulnerable with Molly out of the city for long stretches of time.
She needs at least a year of growth at average XP gain rates to be capable of holding her own reliably, and even then she'd not be in Molly's tier of sheer naked threat.


2)High school graduates in May/June, and the freshman year of college starts in August/September.
Thats seven months before Molly graduates high school, and nine or ten months before university starts.
There's time before she has to make a binding decision.


3)We have access to Splintered Gale Shintai for 20xp. At E3 that gives us 3x clones.
We could put a clone in Boston if we really had to, while having 1-2 clones in our Hell.
Or put that clone in Chicago and swap across Boston.


4)Regardless of our eventual decision? Nobody expects you to make that sort of decision in one setting.
Even mundane mortal college applicants take time to research their school and talk to their family about their choices.
Dont let Odin hustle Molly.

Even if he had only Molly's interests at heart, he does not have sufficient information on her capabilities to determine whats best for her. And its worth remembering that Odin's best interests are not necessarily Molly's.

VOTE
[X] You are considering your options (may be taken as an invitation to sweeten the pot)
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top