This is true but wasn't it established in Battlegrounds or some other book that Chicago is unique in the amount of bullshit that goes on? Like Chicago is basicly Gotham unless I have it wrong.
It might be a memory fail on my part, but I don't think so. I remember Harry talks about everyone showing up for something, and Ebenezer says that that isn't everyone. A bigger gathering than usual, but not everyone.
Edit: There were comments in the series that Chicago was generally considered one of the safer places, especially for a city of its scale, actually because of Harry's influence. The crazy warden is willing to throw down with monsters that make a mess in his city.
The metaphor I'd use here is explosives. All wizards can blow you up, but some have grenade launchers and some are improvising with demolitions tools.
It's less convenient and less effective to use the tool over the weapon.
Fair metaphor.
But by the same metric, giving a person a grenade launcher doesnt make them a better soldier.
Its not a matter of power either: Dresden's commonest tool are force rings, which he wears and uses across a spectrum of conditions, from nonlethal to seriousface fight. Or see Binder, who wasnt ever strong enough or versatile enough to be a White Council wizard, yet makes a comfortable living as a mercenary operative with one summoning skill. Or any of the Alphas.
Even Victor Sells was well able to summon demons and activate pre-made combat constructs, and he'd only been doing magic for maybe 3 years.
The problem isnt the tool, its the person behind it.
Short of giving them an autonomous defence construct for security, a different ranged weapon isnt going to do anything. After all, they'd always had access to firearms.
An electrolaser is frankly the sort of thing you give to minor talents at risk who need a response gradient.
Not a wizard.
From the ruling we got they're still in some way part of Molly, and that is the reason they get passive charm effects. The charm says it makes the target a bakemono, which is a new species of supernatural. I shouldn't have been specific about the process because it doesn't really matter.
If you're exalted enough for self targeted charm benefits you're exalted enough for exalted restrictions too. They shouldn't be able to become bakemono any more than they can become vampires.
1) Its linked to and part of Molly, created by her power, but its a construct that mostly models mortal performance and has no access to most of the good stuff.
It doesnt soak lethal. It doesnt soak agg.
2)The process matters.
IDU does not summon banes and stuff them inside you, the way formori are usually created. They take a part of you and transform it, and put it back inside you. They can also reverse the process, painfully but surely.
3)Bakemono/fomori are not a species. Its a status from being infected/possessed by a Bane.
Like I've pointed out, the source material has fomori who are mortal, vampires, werewolves, fera, mages and even mummies.
There are even animal fomor.
Exalted 2E allowed you to take mutations. Same difference.
1) You're arbitrarily recategorizing a transformation to suit your purpose. Dresden Files vampires are nothing like WoD ones but we still translate and model those as vampires because that's how they're listed.
2) the thematic thrust of a boat and a car are both transport, that doesn't mean the mpg of your sedan on the highway means anything in particular about the properties of your speed boat.
3) None of which really gets into why our bakemono charms should go from gimmick mooks for a few motes to minibosses for a few motes.
1)No I am not.Dresden Files has four different types of lupine theriomorphs ie entities that have been called werewolves:
Classic werewolves, like the Alphas are the closest thing to actual WoD Garou, because they change at will into actual wolves of roughly equivalent mass using their own magic. They can heal, and remain intelligent through the change and afterwards. These are the only ones that fit the mold.
Hexenwulfen were also called werewolves. They changed into wolf-like creatures with a fetish/talisman containing a spirit of bestial rage, but its use was addictive, suppressed your conscience, and resulted in progressive deterioration of inhibitions and rationality.
Lycanthropes were also called werewolves.They were possessed by a spirit of rage that made them stronger, more aggressive, much faster healing, especially towards the full moon. But there was no physical change.
Then there's the loup-garou, which changed into a wolf-like demon, doubled or tripled its body mass, gained supernatural speed and strength, healed all damage in seconds, was immune to poison and any magic that affected the mind, and was a mindlessly aggressive beast that took no instructions but committed indiscriminate homicide towards anything living in its vicinity. And could only be killed by inherited silver.
So to summarize:
Alphas: Closest Garou analogue.
Hexenwulfen: Fetish users
Lycanthropes and loup garou: Fomor, possession by a spirit.
=====
2)Not sure I see your point.
===
3)Because thats what the bulk of Fomori were made for: to be foot soldiers and minibosses for their creators.
Its quite explicitly stated for the Ferectoi breed, for example that being princes among the fomori is why they were born/created and that they are often potent enough to end up in positions of command in Pentex.
They appear to be generally framed as minibosses in the narrative.
There are fomori of essentially every major material splat in WoD.
There are even Bane Mummies in Mummy The Resurrection, who are straight up main bosses, with their own mini-bosses in the Asekh-Ren, or lesser Bane Mummies.
Might as well complain that VTM ghouls have access to Disciplines and can be a credible threat to adult vampires
Thats how the setting has historically worked.
1) That's a fair point, but a fragile defense. Unless we stop using things like excellencies as a regular tool someone watching both is going to notice only one Molly is ever superhuman at a time but both make command decisions.
Fomor powers can manage it. Enchantment items can manage it. Ditto drugs.
And thats not counting said observer deciding its just a magical double standing in with a magic communicator; some of the Reds, a lot of the Fae, and even ghosts have all demonstrated the ability to take on another person's form in the series.
Besides, frankly, why is a hostile getting close enough to surveill a Molly clone's capabilities over any sort of time period to build a baseline of comparison to with Molly Prime?
I could have sworn we needed the repeaters in last station before we could do that. Point taken, but things like nevernever travel are still communications issues.
Interdimensional phone service is a priority since we intend to allow the government of the Brass Courts to call Molly when necessary, and for other people to reach Molly when she is not in town.
So, not for long.
Marcone makes doomsday preppers look like hippies, I don't recall all the details but I doubt it was that simple.
for a prize like this I dont see this barrier to entry as anything more than a speed bump.
We have no native knowledge of the clones or ability to do anything to them if they aren't in our immediate presence. Fleeing into the nevernever means we need to use the crown to find them, and in the meantime they can get a lot done.
There's a point here where all of this becomes impractical even if you can contrive to make it possible.
To be the basic level of use from this charm safely we need enchanted items, guards/overwatch, other charms, investment in learning mortal style magic because dupli!Molly can't use anything we adapt to casting from essence, learning a specific suicide ritual in that path, and how many other things?
All of which makes it safer but not actually safe to make casual use of this tool.
1)How are they supposed to tell that a double has her memories?
What particular contents of Molly's head are they supposed to be after? Who has the power to raise all this hell and not already have ancient lore? Because its not the Denarians, and not the naagloshii.
The closest canon analogue is Lash, and we know that in this AU Lash does not have most of Lasciel's memories.
2)It was exactly that.
Marcone, Gard and Henderson fled to a prepared safehouse with a warded panic room; the Denarians followed him there, cracked it like an egg with the aid of a Lucifer-powered ritual, then peeled him out as Gard and Henderson fled for another safe house.
They had him for at least two days before they got to try at Ivy. Didnt break him.
3)We are doing all those things anyway.
The guards/overwatch for Chicago, Last Station and Cauldron/the Carpenter homestead are all necessary investments even if we go to Boston. Especially if we go to Boston. We havent spent all this time building a Dragons Nest to have it trashed while we are away.Thats why Molly clones stays in Chicago or in the Brass Court capital. There's going to be a concentration of friendly force.
The other charms are a given.
BMI allows Molly to hide her aura, change her face and actually be stealthy.
IDU is an option for those minions who need a quick boost, an option to be other than they were born as, or even healing; making a dying person a fomor with Regeneration can save their life, and be reversed.
The enchanted items are essentially off the shelf from the Brass Courts.
Literally the only thing we wouldnt normally do is the mortal-style Fortune Path, and thats 2xp to get to the point where you can fire off a death curse.
We can go all the way to Fortune Path 3 for 7xp with a full discount, but Path 1 is 2xp with training discount. ===
That rather depends on if he knew the appropriate Ways to do so in the middle of North America.
Im assuming he didnt, especially if said Ways were close to naagloshii territory.
Not everyone has the street knowledge of Maggie LeFay.
This is true but wasn't it established in Battlegrounds or some other book that Chicago is unique in the amount of bullshit that goes on? Like Chicago is basicly Gotham unless I have it wrong.
Chicago was explicitly safer than other cities because Dresden was here.
"Molly," I said gently.
"I started leaving the bits of rag on them," she said. "It hurt at first. Being near that kind of . . . experience. It still hurts. But I have to do it. You don't know, Harry. What you did for this town." "What do you mean?"
"You don't know how many things just didn't come here before, because they were afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
She looked at me as if her heart was breaking. "Of you, Harry. You could find anything in this town, but you never even noticed the shadow you cast." Her eyes overflowed and she slashed at them angrily with one hand. "Every time you defied someone, every time you came out on top against things you couldn't possibly have beaten, your name grew. And they feared that name. There were other cities to prey on—cities that didn't have the mad wizard Dresden defending them. They feared you." I finally understood. "The Rag Lady."
"Sometimes me," Molly said. "Sometimes it's Lea. She's like a kid on recess when she takes a shift. I'm building a new name. Creating something else for them to fear. I can't do what you did, Harry." Her eyes, red and blue, flashed with something dangerous, deadly, and she slammed the heel of her hand onto the table as she leaned toward me. "But I can do that. I can kill them. I can make the fuckers afraid."
She stared at me, her breathing heavy. It took her several seconds to look slowly around the room.
Every eye in the place was locked on Molly. A waitress stood with wide eyes and a telephone against her ear.
Molly looked around at them for a moment and then said, "God, you people have it good. You don't know. You wouldn't know if one of them walked up to you and tore the thoughts out of your skull."
She rose, grabbed the tuning fork, and left a pile of wadded bills on the table. She pointed at the waitress and said, "Put the phone down. Or you won't get a tip."
The telephone dropped from the woman's fingers and clattered on the floor.
"See?" she said, glancing back in my general direction. "It's what I do. It's what I'm good for."
I sat there, stunned and heartbroken, unable to think of anything to say or do to help Molly.
I watched my mad apprentice stalk out of the silent restaurant and into the frozen night.
Our hell certainly can make automatically aiming and firing weapons. IRL we basically have the aiming part done, and it would be trivial to just make guns fire themselves.
Fluff-wise I can kinda see your point, but if I had to model these things mechanically, I'd still give the Loup Garou and Hexenwulfen the more werewolf-like build.
Because you can just give them Rage and a bunch of Gifts to simulate their advantages, while leaving the disatvantages as a mix of reduced mental and social stats, the raw-effects of having too much Rage (causes Frenzy and hurts social dicepools) and fluff.
I mean, WoD-Garou don't just turn into mass-equivalent wolves, they also turn into 3-meter monsters that can take a non-silver bullet without flinching and rip 1d4 mortals in half per round.
The Alphas don't have Rage and no additional gifts or powers that we know of, so you might either give them shapeshifting Sorcery or a one-off transformation ability with no further powers at all, besides better healing.
The Lycanthropes are the only ones that are mechanically better fits for Formor than anything else.
Why the hell not? It's entirely appropriate. Hell, carrying out electrification of White Council ('s members dwellings) might be a part of what we are offering? Distributing mobile phones among the council is exactly an appropriate analogy.
Was it confirmed that that was what was happening there? I read that, and I got the impression that she was projecting herself outside of Harry's head where she could interact with others. Not that she was leaving his head.
Yes, there are actually animals whose ecological niche is based on the wheel- turn
Vote is tied, I'm leaving it open for a bit longer.
Adhoc vote count started by Yzarc on Sep 6, 2023 at 2:31 AM, finished with 129 posts and 23 votes.
[X] Plan Connections
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
[X] Plan Active Connections
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
-[X] Set up systems to actively look for talents that are only coming into their gifts in order to avoid them slipping through the cracks
[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
[X] - Write in - I am owed multiple open ended favors from Mab sufficient to give her cause to enter this war without holding back. I will not transfer any of these to you, but I am willing to offer my forbearance in invoking one as part of any peace negotiation. So long as they are in play the Red Court cannot win. If I lose so do they. Informing them of this could speed up getting to peace.
[X] plan: the works
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane -[X] Give Council wizards the names of spirits from Sanctuary which may then be summoned and bargained with at a discount and without the usual dangers of calling up such powerful entities
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council) -[X] Transfer one of Mab's favors (Will dramatically reduce the DC of all other suggestions)
[X] Mollywarts
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council) --[X] We'll also begin taking steps to use our resources to help identify new talents, minor or otherwise, and point those capable of becoming full wizards to the White Council, where they can learn to fully harness their abilities. The WC needs to get their shit together, however, and start training all such talents rather than letting many of them languish for lack of interested wizards willing to instruct them. And if the WC isn't able to keep up with the needs of those we find, the FCF has a fully realized magical paradigm of its own and many, many practitioners who would jump at the opportunity to provide instruction at our request.
We knew that. We even gave the tumbleweed equivalent as an example to Harry of things being different than his experiences. It slipped my mind when posting that because I was distracted by the wonderful idea of people never having to permanently lose pets they love.
Adhoc vote count started by Yzarc on Sep 6, 2023 at 2:39 AM, finished with 133 posts and 23 votes.
[X] Plan Connections
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
[X] Plan Active Connections
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
-[X] Set up systems to actively look for talents that are only coming into their gifts in order to avoid them slipping through the cracks
[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
[X] - Write in - I am owed multiple open ended favors from Mab sufficient to give her cause to enter this war without holding back. I will not transfer any of these to you, but I am willing to offer my forbearance in invoking one as part of any peace negotiation. So long as they are in play the Red Court cannot win. If I lose so do they. Informing them of this could speed up getting to peace.
[X] plan: the works
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane -[X] Give Council wizards the names of spirits from Sanctuary which may then be summoned and bargained with at a discount and without the usual dangers of calling up such powerful entities
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council) -[X] Transfer one of Mab's favors (Will dramatically reduce the DC of all other suggestions)
[X] Mollywarts
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council) --[X] We'll also begin taking steps to use our resources to help identify new talents, minor or otherwise, and point those capable of becoming full wizards to the White Council, where they can learn to fully harness their abilities. The WC needs to get their shit together, however, and start training all such talents rather than letting many of them languish for lack of interested wizards willing to instruct them. And if the WC isn't able to keep up with the needs of those we find, the FCF has a fully realized magical paradigm of its own and many, many practitioners who would jump at the opportunity to provide instruction at our request.
If we're forming the Paranet, then we're going to want to spread the word far and wide to the people. If the White Council is supportive of the idea, or even if he just knows that Molly is going forward with it, then it could mean Harry introducing us to Irwin Pounder in the near future. We've already put off meeting Mortimer or the Alphas so far.
Fluff-wise I can kinda see your point, but if I had to model these things mechanically, I'd still give the Loup Garou and Hexenwulfen the more werewolf-like build.
Because you can just give them Rage and a bunch of Gifts to simulate their advantages, while leaving the disatvantages as a mix of reduced mental and social stats, the raw-effects of having too much Rage (causes Frenzy and hurts social dicepools) and fluff.
I mean, WoD-Garou don't just turn into mass-equivalent wolves, they also turn into 3-meter monsters that can take a non-silver bullet without flinching and rip 1d4 mortals in half per round.
The Alphas don't have Rage and no additional gifts or powers that we know of, so you might either give them shapeshifting Sorcery or a one-off transformation ability with no further powers at all, besides better healing.
The Lycanthropes are the only ones that are mechanically better fits for Formor than anything else.
I will admit that it does look a lot like Butcher deliberately made one set of werewolves from the myths (Alphas) and the other from the horror movies of the 80s and 90s(loup garou)
But. Garou retain control, over both their shifts, and over their actions. Even when they frenzy, they arent mindless.
The utter lack of control over his shifts and the fact that he attacked his own pregnant fiancee, that he killed his own friend?I
Is what puts MacFinn's loup garou form beyond the pale.
As for modelling it? I've done most of this before with standard Fomori powers,
====
LOUP-GAROU
****
There was a snarl, and then the creature that had been Harley MacFinn came through the doorway. The loup-garou was a wolf, in the same way that a velociraptor is a bird - same basic design, vastly different outcome. It must have been five or five and a half feet tall at the tip of its hunched shoulders. It was wider than a wolf, as though a wolf had been squashed down with an extra five or six hundred pounds of muscle. Its pelt was shaggy, jet-black and matte, except where fresh blood was making it glisten. Its ears were ragged, upright, focused forward. It had a muzzle that was too wide to belong to anything natural, a mouthful of teeth, and MacFinn's blazing eyes done in monochrome grey, the whole stained with blood that looked black beneath the influence of the blending potion. Its limbs were disproportionate, though I couldn't say whether they looked too long or too short - just wrong. Everything about it was wrong, screamed with malice and hate and anger, and it carried a cloak of supernatural power with it that made my teeth hurt and my hair stand on end.
Fool Moon Chapter 17, Page 198-199
****
POWERS
Armored Skin: Soak and heal lethal damage as if it was bashing damage. <Suffer no Agg except from inherited silver>
Bestial Mutation: +2 to all Physical Attributes
Exoskeleton[Wolf's Hide]: +3 Strength, +3 Stamina
Mega-Attribute: Stamina: +3 Stamina
Size-Shift Lv1: From size of a man to size of a pony
Claws and Fangs: Str+1 damage
Berzerker: Gives access to Rage. May frenzy
Regeneration: 1 level of bashing or lethal damage per turn. Agg damage requires a full day and 1 WP
Extra Speed: +1 Action and 1.5x movement speed
MERIT
Acute Sense 3: 3 points -2 DC to senses
Immortal: Doom is Inherited Silver: 5 points
Why the hell not? It's entirely appropriate. Hell, carrying out electrification of White Council ('s members dwellings) might be a part of what we are offering? Distributing mobile phones among the council is exactly an appropriate analogy.
How large is the White Council in your opinion?
We know that she tried materializing in the same way Usum did. Everything else is speculation.
Yeah, ok. Let's say one spiritphone is 300 grams (because they need to be rugged). That's 900 kilos of phones to ship from our kingdom (if we aren't buying Earthmade phones and investing them with spirits). We could ship that much relatively trivially.
Why the hell not? It's entirely appropriate. Hell, carrying out electrification of White Council ('s members dwellings) might be a part of what we are offering? Distributing mobile phones among the council is exactly an appropriate analogy.
Because this isnt an either/or situation?
Because the White Council doesnt do infrastructure programs, and this would be a military/intelligence acquisition ?
I mean, its worth recalling that the White Council is filthy rich.
The Merlin controls a vast economic fortune, and a significant portion of their conflict with the Red Court is explicitly economic warfare. Its not money that stops them changing shit.
Note, I dont think Butcher ever thought his numbers through. The White Council suffers too many losses and acts too cavalierly about them for me to take some of the lower end estimates seriously.
Hard minimum is 1000, because we see 1000 wizards onscreen in Changes when Arianna Ortega comes to Edinburgh.
And we have a rough number of 300 and growing for the Wardens as of around Turn Coat, which is them rebuilding from like 50-70 Warden survivors of the Dead Beat disasters.
I also remember Butcher saying in a WoG (dont quote me, too sleepy to look) something about around either one wizard per hundred thousand or per million in pre-modern times. But its explicitly stated somewhere in the books that there are more magical talents in the modern day, both due to an explosion in human population and what sounds like the per captita rate has increased.
I'd estimate in the current day somewhere between 5000 and 15000 wizard members of the White Council, with a median of around 10,000, based on that scene in Changes; I dont believe that more than 10% of the wizard population would be at their capital/HQ at any given day.
I dont have a reasonable estimate for apprentice numbers.
Yeah, ok. Let's say one spiritphone is 300 grams (because they need to be rugged). That's 900 kilos of phones to ship from our kingdom (if we aren't buying Earthmade phones and investing them with spirits). We could ship that much relatively trivially.
Take another look at the White Council switchboard as portrayed in Changes.
We went across the hall to administration and, finally, found someone: a harried-looking woman who sat at an old switchboard—the kind with about a million holes and plugs that had to be manually inserted and removed to run it. She wore a pair of ancient-looking headphones and spoke into an old radio microphone. "No. No, we have no word at this time. When we learn something, you will be informed." She jerked the wire out, plugged it in under another flashing light, and repeated her spiel. I watched that half a dozen times before I literally waved a hand in front of her face to get her to notice us.
She stopped and blinked up at me. She was a matronly-looking woman, iron grey woven smoothly through her brown hair, which meant that she could be anywhere between forty-five and two hundred years old. Her eyes flicked over me and then Molly, and I saw her body tense. She eased her rolling chair a few inches back from us—like most of the older crew of wizards, she probably regarded me as a sociopath looking for a nice bell tower. The switchboard lights blinked on and off steadily. They were the old kind that made little clicking sounds as they did.
"Ah," she said. "Wizard Dresden. I am quite busy."
"It looks like it," I said. "Wizard MacFee, right? Where is everybody?"
She blinked at me again, as though I had spoken in Ewok. "Why, they're in the Senior Council's residence hall. It was the only place big enough for everyone who wished to witness it."
Thats their switchboard. In a location under Edinburgh.
Then remember that Dresden manages to reach it both from his home landline, and random payphones in Turn Coat.
There's magic involved there, not just early 20th century tech.
Adhoc vote count started by Yzarc on Sep 6, 2023 at 2:39 AM, finished with 133 posts and 23 votes.
[X] Plan Connections
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
[X] Plan Active Connections
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
-[X] Set up systems to actively look for talents that are only coming into their gifts in order to avoid them slipping through the cracks
[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council)
[X] - Write in - I am owed multiple open ended favors from Mab sufficient to give her cause to enter this war without holding back. I will not transfer any of these to you, but I am willing to offer my forbearance in invoking one as part of any peace negotiation. So long as they are in play the Red Court cannot win. If I lose so do they. Informing them of this could speed up getting to peace.
[X] plan: the works
-[X] Provide communication equipment that is unaffected by the tech-bane -[X] Give Council wizards the names of spirits from Sanctuary which may then be summoned and bargained with at a discount and without the usual dangers of calling up such powerful entities
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council) -[X] Transfer one of Mab's favors (Will dramatically reduce the DC of all other suggestions)
[X] Mollywarts
-[X] Set up a network of minor talents using the internet so they can pool their resources for common protection (If not chosen can still be done, just without the approval and aegis of the White Council) --[X] We'll also begin taking steps to use our resources to help identify new talents, minor or otherwise, and point those capable of becoming full wizards to the White Council, where they can learn to fully harness their abilities. The WC needs to get their shit together, however, and start training all such talents rather than letting many of them languish for lack of interested wizards willing to instruct them. And if the WC isn't able to keep up with the needs of those we find, the FCF has a fully realized magical paradigm of its own and many, many practitioners who would jump at the opportunity to provide instruction at our request.
"So why not help them organize themselves?" you ask. "One moment I have to look something up." In truth you do not, having done your research in advance, but Clippy dutifully scrolls onto statistics from the Pew Research Center showing 42% broadband adoption in the US, to which one can add about 13% dial up access and that is in addition to the people who can use public access points like libraries and internet cafes. Getting Clippy to talk to the tablet to the point where it can project all that up in full color hologlypics had been a lot more tricky, but had done it even before you knew the Merlin was in town for the convenience of the Jade Dogs.
So step by carefully choreographed step you you explain the internet to a one born long before man had even tamed steam, though statistics you had pulled off the internet. That is not to say the Merlin is slow on the uptake, he is good with numbers, a lot better than you truth be told. Once he had gotten the hang of how a mouse pointer works and what it is there is little stopping him from clicking around to confirm the scope of this new realm of information. It is not all just dry statistics though, you explain your first interactions with Pauline, how she had explained the Pathfinders to you thinking you a a minor practitioner in peril.
By the end you do not even have to say it, not in so many words, if minor practitioners could find one another, share information about alarming happenings, stalkers and threats it would make them vastly more capable of protecting themselves, even though something as simple as calling the mortal authorities with corroborating information. After all while 'men with guns' was a resource at the disposal of anyone willing and able to twist minds to their cause, it was also one the mortal police was well equipped to deal with.
As the Merlin clicks off a forum in which he had just made an account with your help just to show how easy it is, 'Taliesin', kind of funny in an understated way, he looks up to realize his second beer is already gone. You had been at this for about an hour and a half now. "I think Ms Carpenter that you are overestimating the extent to which many practitioners will trust an anonymous nom de guerre delivered by electronic messaging," he sounds out the unfamiliar word with the precision of one long accustomed to the power of language. "But the ability to hide information behind passcodes to obscure one's path to and fro... I am going to ask one of my colleagues look at the cryptography behind these systems. My own skills in this matter are more those of a dilettante than an expert."
Behind him Harry rolls his eyes at what he probably sees as false modesty, but you are reasonably sure Langtry is being genuine here, not from an overabundance of humility but because delegation is his job.
"In principle however I see no harm in lesser practitioners warning one another by these means if they can be secured from malicious intrusion. I am assuming you are planning to use your own ability for spiritual investment for the task?"
"Yep," you tip your head and smile at being 'found out'. "I would also like to offer a bespoke communication network for the Council as a whole if you will accept it. All of it would be Five Cities technology, protected from both being scrambled with magic and more mundane hacking at least initially. Nothing stays foolproof, but that is no reason not to try to keep ahead of the wave."
"To keep our heads above water?" the Merlin asked, a touch sardonically to the vaguely approving grumbles of his guard detail. "The White Council's situation is not so grave as to wave safety concerns, but the offer and the thought behind it is appreciated."
About what you had expected honestly. "I can provide samples of spirit technology and translated texts relating to the use and fundamental principles."
"These are aspect spirits of your domain correct?" Tim the warden asks and this time the Merlin does not cut him off, either mentally or aloud, he is meant to ask something his boss would find impolitic to do himself.
You nod and take a sip of your drink.
"And the domain is a part of you?"
Ah you see where this is going...
"How much access would you have to this communication?"
[] Unfettered access, they are utterly loyal to you (Full Truth)
[] As much as they are permitted to share they could be bound to not speak the council's secrets (Charisma+Subterfuge to hide the fact that you could probably unbind any paths of secrecy given the correct magical lore)
[] Write in
OOC: Good thing Molly's generation has so much experience explaining tech to old people.
Because this isnt an either/or situation?
Because the White Council doesnt do infrastructure programs, and this would be a military/intelligence acquisition ?
I mean, its worth recalling that the White Council is filthy rich.
The Merlin controls a vast economic fortune, and a significant portion of their conflict with the Red Court is explicitly economic warfare. Its not money that stops them changing shit.
Ok, there are two points here:
1) We initially talked about how this (distribution of mobile phones) should be delayed until traitors and leaks are purged from WC. In this respect, my analogy works.
2) The "WC is filthy rich". Yes, they are, it doesn't matter. Because they don't have the knowledge / resources / capability to mass-produce techbane resistant technology. We do. In this respect, White Council doesn't have resources appropriate for the soultion, be they money and technology to produce the phones, or man-hours to enchant them.
Thats their switchboard. In a location under Edinburgh.
Then remember that Dresden manages to reach it both from his home landline, and random payphones in Turn Coat.
There's magic involved there, not just early 20th century tech.
I don't see where you are getting "there's magic here" from. That's a pretty normal switchboard. And what's strange about reaching it from random payphones? You set up a normal phone number leading to a switchboard, and you can reach it from anywhere in the world. I honestly don't get what you find so strange / impressive here.
[] As much as they are permitted to share they could be bound to not speak the council's secrets (Charisma+Subterfuge to hide the fact that you could probably unbind any paths of secrecy given the correct magical lore)
What can I say, I'm allergic to any choice involving full disclosure.
[X] Unfettered access, they are utterly loyal to you (Full Truth)
-[X] You are willing to take an oath not to pry, and regularly verify that it hasn't been broken via magical means.
@DragonParadox we can't be bound by an oath, but can a wizard make a magic that would check if we rode one? Like a magical tripwire that would snap if we were to break the oath?
[X] Unfettered access, they are utterly loyal to you (Full Truth)
-[X] You are willing to take an oath not to pry, and regularly verify that it hasn't been broken via magical means.
@DragonParadox we can't be bound by an oath, but can a wizard make a magic that would check if we rode one? Like a magical tripwire that would snap if we were to break the oath?
