We are, however, entitled for the seat at the table at this point, I feel, as a head of state of a major supernatural nation.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Actually it is precisely because we are on speaking terms with the major factions that I think we CAN develop a major powerbase in Chicago. We would essentially be pulling a Marcone. None of the major factions can take the city without inviting total opposition and so minor players who nobody finds threatening and whom nobody has a major beef with have a place to thrive where the big players all need to step careful around one another.
Take over the city? No.
But it could be the center of our power. We could establish considerable influence. We would have to be careful to not threaten to push any of the big players out, but none of the big players can afford to push US out ether because all the other big players would push back against them on "oppose the opposition" grounds.
We don't have the raw power many supernatural factions have. We are personally strong, but our faction is limited. Chicago is one of the best places to be if we want to leverage factions against one another, and when you lack overwhelming strength leverage matters.
Step 1 - Plant our feet firmly in Chicago's soil.
Step 2 - Craft masterwork infinitely long lever.
Step 3 - Move the world.
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Though we probably need to scout it out Odin by giving Cambridge to us we could claim all of the Dragon nests, all of the Mortal practitioners and all the dark aspected Supernaturals without true organized opposition while keeping a foothold in Chicago. Which is probably Odin's plan it's an attractive bribe because it's good but it does get us out of the way. Not completely because he doesn't know about Rendered Villain Dispersal but still. Not to mention that Dragon paradox has made to mention that we can make Manses being able to claim multiple Dragon Nests and be immediately able to capitalize and build manses because there's no organized Supernatural resistance is really good but that really depends on the scene in Cambridge but the way Odin made it seem like is that the white Council has no presence currently there are no major vampire courts there Fey presence is mostly Wild and there are miscellaneous creatures around perfect for an individual person of great power to just snatch up the entire cities magical scene.
We actually have two possible things here:
1) We can convert Last Station into a proper manse. Said manse was said to have city-wide magical effects
2) We can make a god of Chicago. If we have already made a manse by that point, we could use its heartstone as the anchor for said god, further empowering it.
we have fairly strong leverage over most of those factions and we can just take over the smaller ones won't oppose us.
It can't be that hard, a non exalt mortal did it in canon and we can Definatly levrage more resources and prowess than him.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Any thoughts on what to do about this detection?
[X] Cover your tracks, even if it means bricking any machines that might reveal details about the hack.
The reasoning behind this is if we destroy them they have to get new servers anyway and there's no reason to leave any Trace. So we can hack in again at any point we want with them having no way to defend against it again.
The reasoning behind this is if we destroy them they have to get new servers anyway and there's no reason to leave any Trace. So we can hack in again at any point we want with them having no way to defend against it again.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
It seems worth mentioning that most businesses of any size at all are subject to multiple hacking attempts per day or even hour. Few make serious attempts to back trace most.
Knowing doesn't mean shit, he was a baseline with the free will to choose and no supernatural power to back it up.
Little idiots and the worlds worst antagonist tried shit, and they all failed.
You're shifting the argument. You started with it's fine for them to be collateral and moved to sometime crazy doesn't care about consequences.
I don't know if I'd want to trust anyone that much soon enough to actually manage it under the radar.
What do you think building a megacorp looks like? Having valuable products is great and all, but we're playing in an occupied sandbox.
Politics is huge part of the process, and Molly's social kit is fundamentally incapable of substituting for all of the normal mechanisms of networking. She must be in the room with people to work her magic, and people are going to judge us before they ever have any personal experience to go on. If they self select away from dealing with us it makes this whole process harder.
Look at all those major companies started by college dropouts; almost universally* they left with connections that ended up being vital to their success. We could maybe go without, but this system exists to manage access to all the things we need to make a megacorp on earth, not using it is a waste of time.
It's also even more attention grabbing than making the thing in the first place, and with all the cheating we're going to do we need the cover.
This is building a megacorp, what you're suggesting is an alternative route in the same way climbing the outside of a skyscraper with your teeth is an alternative to taking the stairs.
* All of the ones I'm aware of, but I'm sure there are a few exceptions somewhere.
taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
Hmm.
What happened if we get found out anyway? I don't think the Hedge Fund is that big of a player, so...I guess it's fine?
i was thinking more from a AP perspective. University will be a constant AP drain, where as we can use the funding from the lottery to start a electronics and software company and basically create a cutting edge version of the smart phone from our world. Then we can hire people to market it and the use something like prayer eating to fatebend to make our product popular.
Once we have a few billion we can start making connections by going to social gatherings for rich people.
Because connections made in Harvard will take decades to become powerfull but if we are a young billionaire meeting equals that are currently in power. then we can use our social excellency to make connections at those parties or whatever.
Should be overall less AP Investment. Maybe more EXP cost to get that prayer eating charms and some other skills and excellencies.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Unlikely much they are almost certainly subject to multiple hacking attempts per day most of which come from out of country which means that they can't exactly investigate them.
[X] Cut the connection and leave well enough lone. Any information their IT department may be able to get about the infiltration is likely to be too weird to make heads or tails of
I would be surprised if they even investigated deeply.
[] Cover your tracks, even if it means bricking any machines that might reveal details about the hack
This seems like a somewhat revealing cover-up. Most hack attempts are going to be ignored but this seems to make clear that they hack actually succeeded.
However at this point I don't know just how much the QM knows about network security.
Detecting infiltration isn't the same as identifying them.
If the cyber devils are smart their activity is set up so that they had cutouts between them and the target.
Presumably they just stole someone's password and were looking through files Zoe something. If all the traffic is bouncing off of a VPN from a jurisdiction that doesn't compel data sharing then good luck figuring out who was doing it.
I disagree.
It's worth noting that all the major factions have broader territories and areas that answer to them alone, their slice of Chicago can be important to their operations but they don't move the whole world from there alone.
Taking some territory we can dominate and fully exploit gives us a place to stand. We can spread faster, access opportunities that are rarer in Chicago, and start making something instead of hiding quite so much.
To give an example, remember when the Akuma started screwing around with geomancy to tip the scales in their favor? Doing something like that long term is very hard in Chicago, too many but players who you'd either need to fight in the first place or would start poking when they had more than a week to react.
But in our own city we could do things like subjugate all the useful dragon nests and build things on that infrastructure. Build some test gods before we awaken major cities, try our hand at using leylines to power nevernever border security, stuff like that.
From there our operations can feed into each other, giving substance to our earth side efforts without giving up the political access of Chicago.
From an OOC standpoint I also find it interesting because it'd let us explore the setting without giving up easy access to Chicago plots or being tied to the rails of them.
When they were caught IRIS and company were speed reading all emails on the company accounts. Someone noticed the unexpected access, they have also looked at the trading history and the personnel files
[X] Cut the connection and leave well enough lone. Any information their IT department may be able to get about the infiltration is likely to be too weird to make heads or tails of
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
Worst case scenario is we end up dodging Daedalus in the near future depending on how thia goes.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Ah in that case the hack is unlikely to be ignored. If only to determine exactly what information was leaked.
You're missing the point. The AP spent at a university is basically the buy in for gathering influence. Molly needs a justification to get in contact with the people who already run the systems as they stand. Once she's there the social game should be in her favor because her social skills are very good for individual and small group stuff.
"Just start a company" has a number of issues.
1) As always, attention. This sort of thing doesn't come from nowhere, and showing up with a great new product none of the industry leaders had on their radar is going to make them dig. There's still a certain level of this either way, but with connections from the start we can make it look more normal and get but in from people who'd otherwise be a problem.
2) This isn't the Wild West, going off to build your company in a corner then coming back to play with everyone else once you're rich isn't going to happen. Even discounting the supernatural attention/masquerade, if you want influence you must interact with the people you're influencing. They have the home field advantage and if you won't play ball with them they'll abuse the hell out of it.
Molly is an exalt, but she doesn't have the build to do this sort of thing easily. I think we could win eventually, but this is an inefficient way to do business with no benefits whatsoever.
On AP alone I think we'll lose out just from the messes we make and then have to clean up.
3) Even if it did work, we can't import a megacorp's worth of people from the FCF. We'll need the people who exist in the system as it stands to actually scale up. Avoiding then just means doing it as an outsider.
Networking with the freshmen wouldn't be the point. It'd be the professors, the companies and institutions that work with the school, the introductions to alumni who wouldn't give us the time of day without the nod from the old boy's club, connections to the broader academic community and their R&D programs, all that stuff.
Molly can do inhumanly well when in the room with people, but she has to get there first. This is the streamlined way to do that.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Was it all personnel filed in general that were accessed, or just the specific targets?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
[X] Cover your tracks, even if it means bricking any machines that might reveal details about the hack
On second thought although they aren't going to be able to trace the hack there is a good chance that they share the details of the hack which might raise the DC on future hacking attempts.
On second thought although they aren't going to be able to trace the hack there is a good chance that they share the details of the hack which might raise the DC on future hacking attempts.
NWS + background check via cyberdevils + crown question(s) using their published academic works and their previous students as foci. We can very easily establish if someone can be trusted.
[X] Cut the connection and leave well enough lone. Any information their IT department may be able to get about the infiltration is likely to be too weird to make heads or tails of
No need to damage our grandparents' business. If nothing else, from the looks of it, they seem to be trying to atone for what they did wrong with Charity. Including doing multiple charities. They haven't done anything that's worth us attacking them.
It was all of them, they were just going to pull them all and sort afterwards.
- Location
- The Star Kingdom of Manticore
[X] Cut the connection and leave well enough lone. Any information their IT department may be able to get about the infiltration is likely to be too weird to make heads or tails of
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Cool, so it's going to appear to be just a general intrusion rather than a targeted search. Still alarming, but there won't be any reason for them to believe specific people were being investigated.
[X] Cut the connection and leave well enough alone. Any information their IT department may be able to get about the infiltration is likely to be too weird to make heads or tails of