Yet all does not turn perfectly, you see, for the gurvel, the dragon-folk of balefire begotten flesh still rebels against spirit in fecund malignancy, an old old curse.
No more, you will and so it is, the gift that you had given to Thomas, to Isabela, to Sarah and to the rest of the rest of the Jade Dogs now expanded a hundred-million-fold.
Oh damn, I forgot the gurvels all had cancer from their biology. Molly's Mercy in Servitude just dinged a hundred million here, that's a pretty clear and immediate improvement to her soul-world that she just pulled off. Definitely adds more legitimacy (and probably fanaticism) to her reign.
Oh damn, I forgot the gurvels all had cancer from their biology. Molly's Mercy in Servitude just dinged a hundred million here, that's a pretty clear and immediate improvement to her soul-world that she just pulled off. Definitely adds more legitimacy (and probably fanaticism) to her reign.
I would be unsurprised if the city of endings didn't occasionally make bakemono as its a way to fundamentally change oneself to some degree right? New is sometimes something people seek.
@DragonParadox, one for tomorrow; but does our Hell have Pentex style (techno?)sorcerous rituals to bind devils into mortals to create semi-standardised fomor?
Note that for humans, it doesn't matter if they're creatures of darkness or not…
It would take about 1.4 million human sacrifices to convert the entire Earth into Molly's Hell starting on the surface, or half that starting and the centre.
Molly would probably find that objectionable though.
We could cover North Korea with our kingdom using only 10 human sacrifices if we spent ~6940 motes of essence which would almost certainly require prayer eating.
Plan for taking over North Korea.
Step 1: buy Barren Waste Infection. (16 XP)
Step 2 Sneak into North Korea spam Cyber Devils anywhere we can.
Step 3 Identify 10 humans Molly could murder in cold blood without feeling even a pang of conscious. Extra humans would make step 6 of the plan go faster, but aren't strictly needed.
Step 4 Abduct those 10 humans and stash them in our hell.
Step 5 Sneak into the Presidential Palace likely by using RVD to teleport though plumbing or hiding in a glass of water someone carries in and get an empty room for ourself.
Step 6 Activate Barren Waste Infection 11 times this will require recharging in bleach between. Sacrifice those 10 humans at this point.
Step 6b If we have extra humans sacrifice them as well to quickly expand our kingdom to take over the palace.
At this point the plan would diverge in how we go about it depending on what resistance we hit.
We could cover North Korea with our kingdom using only 10 human sacrifices if we spent ~6940 motes of essence which would almost certainly require prayer eating.
Honestly I would start with the pacific ocean. And its hundreds of Dragon nests that nobody bothers to claim or use, do to being underwater. Call in some few hundred high level builders from the Hell, and raise a bunch of manses.
Honestly I would start with the pacific ocean. And its hundreds of Dragon nests that nobody bothers to claim or use, do to being underwater. Call in some few hundred high level builders from the Hell, and raise a bunch of manses.
I mean if your gonna kill them anyways. I don't wanna give up a possible charm just cause it makes some squeamish. Also it was for taking our hell into the world not to conquer the nation.
Honestly I would start with the pacific ocean. And its hundreds of Dragon nests that nobody bothers to claim or use, do to being underwater. Call in some few hundred high level builders from the Hell, and raise a bunch of manses.
If we have the WoD Yama Kings, one of the less corrupt ones is in charge of that area, Haha No Fukami. She was the primal ocean mother before God asked her to punish those who sinned against the ocean and those who sinned using fire and water.
Here she's probably at war with the fomor after their retreat underwater.
If we have the WoD Yama Kings, one of the less corrupt ones is in charge of that area, Haha No Fukami. She was the primal ocean mother before God asked her to punish those who sinned against the ocean and those who sinned using fire and water.
Here she's probably at war with the fomor after their retreat underwater.
Sounds like an ideal person to bring under Molly influence. Both powerful, not to corrupt that some Exalted social cannot fix. And current dealing with a war, so not able to turn down an offer of aid.
I'm pretty sure conquering a mortal nation so you can reshape it into your literal hell on earth via human sacrifice is the sort of thing that acts as the center of a DF book and would generally be opposed by everyone who learned of it.
Molly would also obviously take issue with it, and I don't see why we would want to do it anyway.
Acquiring a hell doesn't require that we actually start acting like a Yama King.
I'm pretty sure conquering a mortal nation so you can reshape it into your literal hell on earth via human sacrifice is the sort of thing that acts as the center of a DF book and would generally be opposed by everyone who learned of it.
Molly would also obviously take issue with it, and I don't see why we would want to do it anyway.
Acquiring a hell doesn't require that we actually start acting like a Yama King.
There are plenty of problems in the world, traveling halfway across the planet to dunk ourselves in one that really wouldn't benefit from another party stirring up a war isn't a good use of our time.
We just got a planet, we don't need to create a roiling international clusterfuck going after a country to wash it down.
Does this apply here? On one hand this isn't Yomi wan, but on the other it is a hell patterned in part after them.
In fairness nothing.
There are plenty of problems in the world, traveling halfway across the planet to dunk ourselves in one that really wouldn't benefit from another party stirring up a war isn't a good use of our time.
We just got a planet, we don't need to create a roiling international clusterfuck going after a country to wash it down.
I'm unsure a war for north korea would be a bad thing the only reason it'd be totally bad is because of nuclear capabilities. But, you cannot get much worse than systematic prison camps and mass starvation. Like sure do whatever else but like arguing a war is the worse thing that could happen there is kinda eh.
For all we know Seeker could have just ordered them to sleep and a pair of mortal teenagers can't stand against the will of a demigod in such matters. I'd think someone as good at hurting people would also be good at not harming or hurting them any more than intended, otherwise humans would die to easily for his tastes.
And while sleep spells are at least plausible?
They wouldnt have stayed unconscious through that many transitions. They dont appear to work that way IC.
So I dont agree.
The thing about Mab is that while she's presented as one of if not the biggest and baddest guardians of reality around, she's never actually delivered when it mattered.
Not actually true. Just ask the Red Court how that turned out for them.
Also worth noting that when Winter has successes they wont make the news, because they would have been quietly handled.
Its the failures that show up onscreen.
One of the big issues with being the setting heavyweight and load-bearing pillar is that everyone would-be setting arsonist or empire maker comes gunning for you, and specialize their shit to fuck with yours.
The Red Court did it. The Fomor did it. Nemesis has been trying it for centuries.
Even Ethniu scheduled her attack for mid-summer, specifically when Mab and Winter would be weakest.
And the Outsiders contributed their part by staging increased attacks at the Outer Gates, ensuring that she had to split her forces and attention. Notice how Lea wasnt at Chicago; someone had to command at the Gates.
It's funny how much Jim talks her up as someone who never let's her balance sheet come out red when she came pretty close to getting turned into nothing but red on a balance sheet by Ethniu. Also, how apparently very few people would want to fight Mab, when we've seen that regardless of her power Mab fights stupidly and would probably lose to anyone on her general power level in a 1v1. She plots and plans and schemes for every minor advantage, but drop her in a cage match and she'll bruise your knuckles with her solar plexus.
1) The Red Court infected her Lady-daughter and handmaiden, and brought Outsiders into Faerie. Genocided.
2)Nicodemus masterminded a major breach of the Accords and kidnapped one of its accredited mediators.
She engineered his wife and confederate into abandoning him, he had to murder his own daughter, condemning her to a Greek Hell, and his reputation and supernatural contacts are in tatters. And he didnt even get most of what he was after.
3)The Fomor outright declared war, and killed the head of an accredited Accord member before her.
Their nobility and resources were gutted at Chicago; their Titan imprisoned, their military forces comprehensively defeated and slaughtered on the retreat, their king only barely surviving by killing his own people, and even previously neutralish factions now resolutely hostile.
Seems to me Mab's accounts are fairly balanced. And pretty promptly by Immortal standards.
People get hits in, but she is always the last person standing, even when, as with Ethniu, the enemy is personally beefier.
The only people who get repeat swings are Outsiders.
Like, one of the largest issues with Mab is that even putting aside the massive army of Winter Fae that she commands, she's meant to be a Big Stick, a deterrent against the other supernatural faction deterrents like Titania and Drakul and the Elders of the Vampire Courts.
But she can't be that deterrent, because as we've seen she doesn't know how to fight on that level. She seems good at intimidating and beating up those weaker than her, and also good at plotting against those weaker than her...
Ethniu was a Titan, an Old God who hadnt spent enough time in the real world to be depowered by the White God's rules.
Explicit Word of Jim is that the people who created the Faerie Courts did not expect her to duel a Titan, let alone at mid-summer in the real world. Her doing so was Mab going above and beyond.
On top of that Ethniu was rocking epic gear in her mordite alloy armor and her artifact superweapon.
Yet Mab's battle plan still beat her.
Mab just used herself as bait to set Ethniu up.
And to be clear, Mab's alliance won that fight against Ethniu without Mab having to pull forces off the Gates
And with Ferrovax sitting on his hands in the NeverNever.
===
If Molly went up against Ethniu alone, she would body us. If we brought backup, she would body us and our army.
If we brought an army and the Fae Queens and Odin and the Erlking, she would body all of us simultaneously; even though infernal power is the only other thing that can get through her armor besides divine power, the evidence is that she soaks and regenerates aggravated damage under combat conditions.
I suspect that even with stage 2 shintai and E5, she would still win, though we'd at least survive her victory.
We would need preptime, Exalted Sorcery and Exalted Craft to stand a reasonable chance of victory.
That or taking her on somewhere we have home ground advantage.
I wanted a fiat-backed prison in our Hell precisely because I was worried about that sort of scenario.
1. I'm not talking about Winter's army not guarding against Outsider infiltrators, I'm talking about Mab doing her job and guarding against Outsider infiltrators. Which she's not.
2. It very much is how this works. The Mantles literally went to the closest person who fit the job description of "be a fae", which is why Sarissa from Winter still got the Summer Lady's Mantle when Maeve popped a cap in Lily's ass. Before that Lily got the Mantle after Aurora got boxed just 'cause she had the Summer Knight's Mantle. If Mab died next to Maeve, we know who's the next Queen.
3. As I have proven with my sources that I could 'just get anyone to do a better job' given how poor a job Mab's been doing, I'd like to hear your sources for why I'm 'fucking insane' to believe so.
1) Its her job to guard the Gates.
Its not her job to prevent Outsider infiltrators, especially since any mortal with a smidgen of magic can summon single or small amounts of Outsiders into reality with the right ritual, bypassing the Outer Gates.
All those Outsiders the Red Court are using in combat?
Had to be summoned by mortal magic-users. When Lord Raith was sabotaging Genosa's porn movie production with an Outsider magic ritual? It was female sorceresses working the magic rituals to murder staff.
Only mortals with mortal magic have the authority to let them into reality that way.
Even at the Gates, its the job of a mortal wizard, Rashid the Gatekeeper, to scan incoming Fae for infiltrators. The title Rashid bears has not been fully explained in canon thus far, but I doubt it was chosen at random.
The suggestion that infiltrators are Mab's job and hers alone isnt true.
2)Not quite how it works.
Canon Molly and canon Sarissa were both prepared to hold Fae Mantles, just in case; Sarissa by Mab, and Molly by both Lea and (unwittingly) Harry.
Lily is allegedly the only time that a Mantle has gone to someone without predesignation as a potential heir, and even Lily was first sheltered and partly raised by the Summer Knight, then prepared by the then-Summer Lady to hold a major Fae Mantle, so it didnt exactly jump at random.
3)Not really true.
There's a reason that Molly was picked as canon Winter Lady to replace Maeve as next in line to Mab, instead of just random Fae lady out in the wilds.
We dont know precisely what role Mother Winter plays in Winter. Or Mother Summer for that matter; its unstated thus far.
Executive actions however appear to be mostly in Mab's domain; Fae Royalty appear to have limits about their roles and their ability to give each other orders.
If Mab could arbitarily order Maeve around, Nemesis-possession would have been less of an issue.
But as far as I can recall, word of Jim is that yes, Mab can d. She doesnt want to, and Titania would move to stop her anyway, but she could. Certainly in Ghost Story, Winter came early to Chicago and stayed until late May just because she was apparently spending a lot of, if not most of her spare time on Demonreach helping keep Dresden's body alive.
Seems unfair to solely judge Mab by what happened in Battle Ground.
That entire book read like bad Dresden Files fan fiction, everyone in it acts like a damn idiot and does weird shit for no reason.
To be fair to Butcher?
Peace Talks/Battlegrounds was his first DF book after a six year hiatus(Skin Game was in 2014, while PT/BG were in 2020), and he was having to write an urban fantasy book in something mostly like the real world into a high fantasy extended battle sequence.
He did write the 6-book Alera sequence, so he does have some experience with high fantasy.
Im expecting some clumsiness with the next book as well, given that we're looking at another extended hiatus.
You seriously made harry only equal to charity when not pushing an intimacy? Like in terms of willpower hes arguably peak humanity or damn near it. Given I know its a lot but I mean its harry.
Only? Charity is fucking scary.
Consider the sort of willpower it takes to live her life on the daily while raising seven kids.
Or to walk through a recent battlefield into the gates of Arctis Tor, carrying only a warhammer.
I mean he also beat the willpower of arianna ortega someone who dwarfs the age of the senior council possibly all of it, wasn't completely made inert by the offset aura or whatever the mothers have, never succumbed to lash, and has taken more beatings in a decade than most wizards likely do in centuries.
Merit: Iron Will
(3 point Merit)
When you are determined and your mind is set, nothing can thwart you from your goals. Characters using Dementation, Dominate, or any other mind-altering magic, spell, or Thaumaturgy path against your character are at +3 difficulty.
Elder levels of powers like Dementation and Dominate may overwhelm even this resistance. Against Level Six powers, the expenditure of a Willpower point through Iron Will only raises the difficulty of the Discipline roll by two. Against Level Seven powers, the difficulty is increased by only one. Level Eight and higher powers cannot be resisted with Iron Will.
This Merit does not affect Presence or other powers dealing with the emotions. Characters with Willpower scores below 8 cannot take this Merit.
[Vampire the Masquerade: 20th Anniversary Edition p 485]
[ 3 ] Iron Will [ Vampire: The Masquerade (Revised) — Page 299 ]
When you are determined and your mind is set, nothing can thwart you from your goals. When you are affected by a Dominate power, you may spend a point of Willpower to shake off the effects. In addition, you receive three extra dice to resist the effects of any of any mind-altering magic, spell, or Thaumaturgy paths. This Merit does not affect Presence or other powers dealing with the emotions.
Something like that, plus an appropriate intimacy, and it models his resistance to outright attempts to fuck with his Will
Do recall that Corpsetaker canonically battered her way through his mental defenses in Dead Beat.
He resorted to throwing Hellfire at her to kick her out. Or his reaction to seeing Shagnasty with the Sight.
He's strong-willed, but he's not yet at max mortal Willpower.
They really aren't. If we are going by the number of injuries than the warewolves and louo garou or vampires have suffered way worse injuries than him. Or anytime a fairy is burned by iron is more painful than that, does that mean they are more willful than harry.
This isnt true though.
People have done the numbers, broken down by book. My man's injury record is vast.
Storm Front:
Hit in head with baseball bat, fell down stairs. Probable concussion.
Beaten up again
Shot (hip)
In shock to the point that Morgan gives him CPR (despite what you might see on TV when you need CPR things are really bad and there will probably be permanent damage)
Several days in the hospital
Fool Moon:
Shot (shoulder). Lost a ton of blood, unconscious for most of a day (giant red flag).
Dives out of moving car (with gunshot shoulder) while on wizard meth
Viscously beaten by Lycanthropes
Major blow to the head from Denton
Grave Peril:
Slammed into a stone column head first (immediately healed by Lea)
Almost strangled to death
Poisoned
Beaten by superhuman vampires
Technically killed and revived with CPR (again, extremely bad for you)
At least four days in the hospital
Summer Knight:
Knocked unconscious by an ogre for an indeterminable amount of time (despite what Hollywood says if you are knocked out for more than a few seconds it is serious, a severe concussion at a minimum)
Nearly drowned
Another nasty blow to the head in faerie battle
Death Masks:
Pistol whipped unconscious for an indeterminable amount of time
Plague cursed (for only a short while, but with many different diseases running through his system at once)
Shot (Not quite sure where, but disabled his left arm i.e. left arm, shoulder or upper torso)
Blood Rites:
Nice knock to the back of the head, from a confused Inari (incapacitated for a minute or two, possible concussion)
Severely burned hand
Lots of nasty sounding hits over the course of several fights, probable broken ribs
Dead Beat:
Throwing star to to calf
Clubbed in the back of the head, temporarily incapacitating him (possible concussion)
Sliced across the belly, lot of blood loss
Proven Guilty:
Car crash (definitely concussion)
Knocked unconscious with a tire iron for at least an hour
White Knight:
Thrown by car bomb (despite what Hollywood says being that close to a bomb will do damage, even without shrapnel)
Psychic head butt, unconscious for several hours
Nearly drowned, in shock and unconscious for at least an hour after
Psychic attack and Lash's sacrifice, resulting in minor brain damage
Small Favor:
Broken nose from Gruffs
Car crash
Bad hypothermia
Nearly drowned
Turn Coat:
Major car crash
Head slammed into wall
Blast from a concussion grenade
Slashed across face, nearly loses left eye
Slashed in right arm with dagger, major blood loss
In the Edinburgh infirmary for a week
Changes:
Thrown into garbage can by a major bomb blast
Battered around by the Ick
Back broken, lower body paralysis (Accepts mantle of the winter knight, all previous injuries healed by Mab. Endurance, resistance to injury, pain threshold and healing all enhanced.)
Shot in the chest (through the heart knowing Kincaid's accuracy)
Ghost Story:
Spends 6 months in a coma
Cold Days:
God/Jim only knows how many injuries from Mab's school of hard knocks
Bomb blast/car crash
Severe beating from Ace
Bomb blast number two in the warehouse
Head smashed through heavy duty boat windows, and slammed against steel wall by Cat Sith
Skin Game:
Shot in right calf
Left Arm broken by super-ghoul
Battered by the Genoskwa, at first slammed into wall, later smashed into car hard enough to bend metal
Call him Harry the Punching Bag of Chicago.
And that list isnt comprehensive; note that doesnt include the fact that he was sexually assaulted in Grave Peril when the Reds took him captive. Or the fact that he spent several days in the Carpenter household recovering after getting shot in Death Masks.
And his series of injuries in Peace Talks/Battle Grounds is its own list.
None of the Alphas sustain anything like that level of damage; they'd have died by now.
Harry would have without protagonist privilege; just the number of times he's been hit over the head by everything from a baseball bat to a fucking tire iron should have left him a vegetable.
There's a reason I was arguing for a while that wizards should soak damage better than mortals in this quest.
We would have to get that all language charm as well. Both because Molly doesn't speak Korean and because if she speaks any English during the take over they might nuke America and England on general principles.
[X] Welcome them to the wider cosmos, an era of change is at hand, but they should not be fearful for it will be a fair one, for those wishing a challenge of heroism and glory, for scholars of new lore, for all better richer lives
-[X] Leadership excellency
I'm unsure a war for north korea would be a bad thing the only reason it'd be totally bad is because of nuclear capabilities. But, you cannot get much worse than systematic prison camps and mass starvation. Like sure do whatever else but like arguing a war is the worse thing that could happen there is kinda eh.
Eh war is really really terrible. There is about no situation that a war can't make worse. We would be trying for a coup hopefully an almost bloodless* one.
We could bring in an army from our hell, but I would consider that sort of mass fighting and therefore death a lose condition.
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