Let's nip justifications in the bud. It's not about whether or not what he does is "so bad" or not, it's about whether Rosie still wants to have a contact with him. Which she clearly does, or she wouldn't be trying to make excuses. She is more asking our permission, not really advice, and we shouldn't be that kind of friend.
Did gaining another dot in her magic give Rosie a chance to roll for increased Willpower? 2 dots in a path mean basic competence after all, and given how quickly she's become a practitioner I'd imagine that's a fairly large confidence boost for her.
Did gaining another dot in her magic give Rosie a chance to roll for increased Willpower? 2 dots in a path mean basic competence after all, and given how quickly she's become a practitioner I'd imagine that's a fairly large confidence boost for her.
She recently had a mental breakdown, she had a drug addiction before that and she's generally not in a great place.
I'd say her being on the lower end of average teenagers makes sense?
Once Rosie gets to 3 dots in Oneiromancy I think we might want to assign her to teach in our hell. Oneiromancy is completely unknown for them and I think teaching a unique expertise will be very good for Rosie's self confidence. Well so long as she doesn't become discouraged by her students learning much faster than she did.
I just want to say, this is kinda acting like a mob boss by ourselves.
Just imagine this in a New York accent:
"If that guy, or his boss, is making any trouble, you come to me. Not the police, not your mom, to me.
I can settle any issues."
I mean, right now Molly's toolkit for dealing with an unruly small-to-medium mob boss runs from "anonymous and perfectly accurate tips to the police" through "hire elite mercenary kill squads to kill them, their family, and all their friends" and ends with "drop their soul into literal hell to be tortured for all eternity, while simultaneously erasing all signs of them ever having existed on Earth, and getting USA government to back this up". It also includes "talking him into a heart attack via sheer intimidation", and "making him turn his whole life around via a short empathetic talk".
To truly change a person would take months of sustained AP-investment.
Sure, mortals can't really resist in the long term, but one talk does not change a man (outside of rare circumstances).
Oh and Oneiromancy, the thing you are actually teaching that does not exist in your hell ironically enough, because it is a hell, the inhabitants do not project their souls out into the nevernever to make short lived domains, they are bound to the Wheel.
Quote provided. Fortunately Oneiromancy is a fairly unusual word that was easy to search.
By the way I want to apologize for recommending the Heaven for everyone Exalted podcast before getting though the whole thing. I just stopped listening in disgust when they started using the Arcane Background for Sidereal super inconsistently. The character has to deal with Teachers marking him absent at school and sending letters to his parents saying that that he is not going to school.
I can see Arcane Background make the paperwork for attendance records become lost or disappear or the teacher not noticing him, but in that case they also shouldn't remember or notice him enough to send letters to his parents.
Quote provided. Fortunately Oneiromancy is a fairly unusual word that was easy to search.
By the way I want to apologize for recommending the Heaven for everyone Exalted podcast before getting though the whole thing. I just stopped listening in disgust when they started using the Arcane Background for Sidereal super inconsistently. The character has to deal with Teachers marking him absent at school and sending letters to his parents saying that that he is not going to school.
I can see Arcane Background make the paperwork for attendance records become lost or disappear or the teacher not noticing him, but in that case they also shouldn't remember or notice him enough to send letters to his parents.
Yeah that was kind of annoying but personally I just skipped those bits, they do not link to much of anything which is kind of the clue for why it is happening at all. The GM did not have anything for the Sidereal to do so he just invented problems from whole cloth that also incidentally damages the world-building if you think about it for 2 seconds. So I just kipped those parts.
Thanks. Given the reason provided for why it's unknown, I'm not sure our guys are even capable of learning it. Also, this would completely kill whatever remains of our friendly peer dynamic, I think.
Still, either Rosie is actually quite talented, we are a superb teacher, or both. Quite possibly both. I wonder how quickly we could get her to 5 dots if we really tried.
COMMENTARY
Buffalo NY is a 270k city. Second biggest city in New York State, but of importance as a border city between the US and Canada.
More importantly, that means we're talking the Buffalo crime family of the Mafia, which runs a lot of NY crime in the area, with extension into the southern Ontario criminal underworld. IRL the boss at this time is Joe Toedaro Jr.
Traditional New York crime families are being reinvigorated by collaboration with the Calabrian mafia. Anna Sergi reports from New York on the shifting dynamics. Key Points The ‘Five Families’ of La Cosa Nostra (LCN) remain the most potent
www.academia.edu
Racketeering, loan sharking, gambling, and critically transnational narcotics trafficking.
Dangerous waters even in RL; in a world with a supernatural side, where narcotics come from Red Court-controlled nations, the dangers are potentially more exotic.
My first guess would be that Jimmy Rings is probably supposed to be Vincent "Jimmy" Sicurella, who would have been in jail at the time for (I think)attempted insurance fraud. Not sure how they would have ended up in the same jail cell though; federal prisoners and DUI manslaughter dont end up in the same prisons.
Or could just be an OC.
Since Rosie is 18, her father is probably in his 40s at a minimum.
And if he's an accountant, that makes him a money man. He's probably not got the connections or the aptitude for field operations, but he likely has some involvement in making the books look good. Or at least, law enforcement thinks so.
And if he's getting harassed by the police, that means he has the attention of the FBI and an organized crime taskforce.
Good odds his phones are tapped at this point if they are being quite so overt about their attentions.
I genuinely have no idea how much of an adult presence that he's supposed to represent.
If Rosie opens contact with him, she'll show up on the radar of both the Feds and the Mob, and become a source of leverage for both. Which will automatically draw in Molly and her resources. But any actions Molly's forced to take to get in their way will bring her to the attention of both organizations.
And a fair amount of our planning is based on simply avoiding the attention of the mundanes.
That said, if we advertise she stay away and dude gets a set of concrete boots? Gets popped in some dispute?
Rosie is going to similarly regret having passed on the opportunity.
And her boyfriend is dead, so the potential for mortality isnt that far from her mind.
I dont really have a strong opinion here. There's good arguments both ways.
I would suggest she talk to her aunt Lizza more.
And we should probably introduce her to some Cauldron people.
When it comes to people in our present with a wikipedia page I am trying not to use them wholesale because this is a world with vampires and wizards, it should not be quite like ours in the details IMO. That said the Buffalo crime family definitely exists and they are the ones running the show in this case.
If Rosie opens contact with him, she'll show up on the radar of both the Feds and the Mob, and become a source of leverage for both. Which will automatically draw in Molly and her resources. But any actions Molly's forced to take to get in their way will bring her to the attention of both organizations.
And a fair amount of our planning is based on simply avoiding the attention of the mundanes.
I am fairly sure that we have multiple ways of handling this. Like, for a 1 dot manual on spirit binding, I believe Library of Congress would gladly call some senators / high ranking officials and make sure police attention go away. For a 2 dot anti-possession splendor White Court would bury the whole mafia family and still count themselves in our debt. Etc.
It's a concern, yes, and I am very unsure if Rosie reaching out is entirely healthy for her, but this is a situation that can have a good resolution, and maybe we might even lift one man out of their crime-ridden life.
Still, either Rosie is actually quite talented, we are a superb teacher, or both. Quite possibly both. I wonder how quickly we could get her to 5 dots if we really tried.
Molly has Occult 5 and Int 4 is what you are rolling here, she has the equivalent of peak human occult insight. Empathy does play a role narrative-wise but I wanted to keep the crunch simple.
Molly has Occult 5 and Int 4 is what you are rolling here, she has the equivalent of peak human occult insight. Empathy does play a role narrative-wise but I wanted to keep the crunch simple.
When it comes to people in our present with a wikipedia page I am trying not to use them wholesale because this is a world with vampires and wizards, it should not be quite like ours in the details IMO. That said the Buffalo crime family definitely exists and they are the ones running the show in this case.
Aflred is modeled perfectly as a 5 dot Emanation. Genius loci in general are perfectly well modeled. And, given what we saw so far of her, a 5 dot combat-oriented emanation would mop the floor with Mab. Would lose badly to her in everything else, but would absolutely wreck her shi*t in direct combat, especially if equipped with a couple of splendors and prodigies (and yes, you can gift splendors to emanations).
1) No he is not.
An Emanation cannot do magic or work with magic energies, and has literally none of the magic abilities that Alfred displayed in his fight with the Maeve and Lily in Cold Days. Alfred did not imprison Ethniu by getting into a fist fight with her.
2)No, you cannot gift Splendors to emanations AFAICT.
They go to supernaturals, not magic robots; a Dresdenverse mortal might qualify based on how everyone is supposed to be a little bit magic, but that depends on a QM ruling.
Un-Exalted magicians can also attune to Splendors, if they can somehow gain ownership of one.
This requires an Arete roll for mages, an Instinct or Self-Control roll for vampires and hedge
magicians, a Rituals roll for werewolves, a Gremayre roll for changelings, a P'o roll for the
Hungry Dead (beware of botching), a Faith roll for demons, and a Sekhem roll for mummies, all
made at difficulty (6 + Splendor's rating), with Splendors rated at 4 or 5 being impossible to
attune, and only one attunement at a time possible.
Also, they can only be activated by chi/quintessence/blood points etc; Willpower is not an option.
Furthermore, hard limits to how many any character can have.
3)And the assertion that a 5-dot emanation would mop the floor with Mab is preposterous.
Mab will, by word of Butcher, mop the floor with the White Council. All of them. Simultaneouly. On her lonesome, without help from any of her minions.
Mab was throwing 20-something dice pools on our first encounter without prep.BEFORE charms, charm-like abilities and any gear.
Her duties include combat and command at the Outer Gates, so her combat dice pools are not going to be less. The queen of the wicked fae didnt get that way by being unable to throw down, or live this long in a world where a lesser Walker with zero preptime can throw 17-19 dice around into an assassination attempt
4)I am reasonably confident that Eldest Fetch, or one of the trolls on Mab's bodyguard we saw dead at Arctis Tor would obliterate a 5-dot. Arianna's senior crew would have murdered a 5 dot without issue. Let alone Arianna herself, or Seeker.
Hell, a jaggling should be able to do it.
This is your reminder that Arcana are of roughly the same tier of power regardless of the fluff, and a 5-dot emanation is of the same power tier as a 5-dot clone grown in a vat.
They are powerful, but they arent supposed to throw down with serious heavy hitters.
Yes, it's exactly that. in a cave (broken down creation). With a bunch of scraps (souls of immortal monsters harvested and repurposed). No magical materials. No geomancy. No shaping.
I did. I'll do it again, but I absolutely don't get where you are coming from. Dresdenverse is a setting that suffers badly from disharmony between implied and on-screen feats. So far nothing I recall is very impressive.
In the designed version, it's a tattoo on the inside of the target's skull, and on their still beating heart. Hard to damage without also killing the host.
Two problems
1)You are implicitly trying to cheese that.
There's a reason why Form of the Hero's Shadow allows for a tattoo, but on the outside of the owner's body.
Not on the inside surface of their hip bone or something.
2) My human physiology lessons were a while ago, but I am pretty sure that internal tattoos are not a thing.
Tattoos work by depositing ink underneath the epidermis of the skin; they absolutely dont work on bone. Dumping that shit on highly vascularized internal tissue risks everything from poisoning(tattoo inks often contain carcinogens) to exuberant immune system reactions. More exuberant than the normal reaction to foreign substances, which is enthusiastic enough as it is.
A Fallen might not even have to nudge the body of its victim.
I am fairly sure that we have multiple ways of handling this. Like, for a 1 dot manual on spirit binding, I believe Library of Congress would gladly call some senators / high ranking officials and make sure police attention go away. For a 2 dot anti-possession splendor White Court would bury the whole mafia family and still count themselves in our debt. Etc.
It's a concern, yes, and I am very unsure if Rosie reaching out is entirely healthy for her, but this is a situation that can have a good resolution, and maybe we might even lift one man out of their crime-ridden life.
Of course we can handle it.
What we cant do is handle it without bringing ourselves to the attention of people who didnt know about us previously, and raising our profile in uncomfortable ways.
Besides?
US federal law enforcement went after the then Vice-President of the United States Spiro Agnew for bribery and corruption, despite what Im made to understand was significant pressure and influence brought to bear to drop the issue.
I would not make assumptions about our ability, or the Library's ability to subtly make mundane organized crime charges go away quietly as a favor. The Library does not appear to have all that much influence anyway.
Mab... has never truly shown that she can fight in the books. Despite all the WOJ and in universe treatment regarding Mab, the only time we've seen her take the field she did so in such an idiotic manner I wouldn't trust her to fight Harry, let alone the Senior Council. They, at least, have been shown to possess an actual brain when it comes to fighting.
All the power in the world means jack shit if you're stupid about it, and frankly Mab's one combat showing has shown that no matter how much power she has (and she didn't exactly show off all that much power either) she cannot be trusted to use it in a way that would help her side, only hinder it.
It's honestly shocking how stupid you have to be to mess up with that amount of power, but Mab's singular combat record frankly shattered all my prior expectations. We've seen Mab be devious and good at plotting, which frankly tracks with her bluffing to the entire world that she can actually fight worth a damn when in actuality she'll probably trip and knock herself out in an actual fight to the death, which isn't that different from what actually happened in Battle Ground.
Ironically this doesn't even contradict WOJ, who mainly pointed out people with "pure, raw power" or "the necessary horsepower" to beat Mab. So there are only a few people in the world with the same biggatons as Mab, only most have the advantage of a working tactical brain to boot.
My hope is we ignore Battle Ground and headcanon an actually competent Mab, but my point is if we relied solely on canon it would be best if we never set foot on a battlefield on Mab's side.
1) No he is not.
An Emanation cannot do magic or work with magic energies, and has literally none of the magic abilities that Alfred displayed in his fight with the Maeve and Lily in Cold Days. Alfred did not imprison Ethniu by getting into a fist fight with her.
2)No, you cannot gift Splendors to emanations AFAICT.
They go to supernaturals, not magic robots; a Dresdenverse mortal might qualify based on how everyone is supposed to be a little bit magic, but that depends on a QM ruling. Un-Exalted magicians can also attune to Splendors, if they can somehow gain ownership of one.
This requires an Arete roll for mages, an Instinct or Self-Control roll for vampires and hedge
magicians, a Rituals roll for werewolves, a Gremayre roll for changelings, a P'o roll for the
Hungry Dead (beware of botching), a Faith roll for demons, and a Sekhem roll for mummies, all
made at difficulty (6 + Splendor's rating), with Splendors rated at 4 or 5 being impossible to
attune, and only one attunement at a time possible. Also, they can only be activated by chi/quintessence/blood points etc; Willpower is not an option.
Furthermore, hard limits to how many any character can have.
This has been discussed with @DragonParadox. Yes, you can. In fact, you can do everything with an Emanation you could normally do with a PC, because you can have a PC Emanation. Moreover, you can stack the sh*t out of this - make a prodigy, and use it as a keystone for an emanation, then gift them said prodigy, and some splendors, and use them as keystones for new emanations, etc.
3)And the assertion that a 5-dot emanation would mop the floor with Mab is preposterous.
Mab will, by word of Butcher, mop the floor with the White Council. All of them. Simultaneouly. On her lonesome, without help from any of her minions.
Mab was throwing 20-something dice pools on our first encounter without prep.BEFORE charms, charm-like abilities and any gear.
Her duties include combat and command at the Outer Gates, so her combat dice pools are not going to be less. The queen of the wicked fae didnt get that way by being unable to throw down, or live this long in a world where a lesser Walker with zero preptime can throw 17-19 dice around into an assassination attempt
We have seen her dice pools when she had all the time to prepare for social combat, and no reason to underestimate us. Assuming she has roughly the same for combat against non-outsiders, she's rolling roughly 17 dice with -2DC adjustment. I could build a Strength 9, Dex 7, Con 9, melee 5 monster with 16 soak (soaks Agg at DC 5, soaks everything else at -3 DC), with some ridiculous weaponry and very strong resistances to any and all magic, with perfect defenses against several elements, including all of Winter's repertoire. Not quite sure about attacking power (will need to calc that out), but I am fairly sure I can come up with something fairly strong. Yes, I think I can make a thing that would take on, even mop the floor, with Mab. She'd be able to escape, obviously, but in a direct white room combat? I would at least give a specifically designed 5 dot Arcana equal odds.
If I had time to actually do it, then a 5 dot Arcana with a full panoply (i.e. 5 5 dot attuned splendors / prodigies) would abslutely wreck anything and everything we have seen so far in the story. You are strongly, strongly underestimating them.
This is your reminder that Arcana are of roughly the same tier of power regardless of the fluff, and a 5-dot emanation is of the same power tier as a 5-dot clone grown in a vat.
There's a reason why Form of the Hero's Shadow allows for a tattoo, but on the outside of the owner's body.
Not on the inside surface of their hip bone or something.
Bone stains quite easily. If you had a way to conjure ink / markings there, you could tattoo it. In fact, this has been done in real life (article talking about it, it has links to at least two scientific papers where direct examples of tattoos on bones are shown).
What we cant do is handle it without bringing ourselves to the attention of people who didnt know about us previously, and raising our profile in uncomfortable ways.
[X] Sounds...complicated. Although re-establishing contact with her father himself is not likely dangerous, it's probably not her father she needs to worry about. As a virtual non-entity in her father's life who has had no contact with the man in well over a decade, her existence may be unknown, or more likely discounted, by his employers and the authorities who are acting against him. If Rosie changes that equation, both she and her unborn child become new variables which will be taken into account. The last thing anyone needs is for her or the baby to become leverage to be used against her father.
I thought Yog's vote included talking about the Laws of Magic. Vote changed. [X] Sounds...complicated. Although re-establishing contact with her father himself is not likely dangerous, it's probably not her father she needs to worry about. As a virtual non-entity in her father's life who has had no contact with the man in well over a decade, her existence may be unknown, or more likely discounted, by his employers and the authorities who are acting against him. If Rosie changes that equation, both she and her unborn child become new variables which will be taken into account. The last thing anyone needs is for her or the baby to become leverage to be used against her father.
