Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
 
I know Nemesis is important, but I want our breather to be more than a single gasp. And Brother Divsimar is cool, and the Fivefold Courts are cool, and I wanna see that interaction if possible.

[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)

Not seeing his reaction to for 'seeing cool thing', but for his perspective and thoughts on the matter. He's outlook on life is likely quite different from the people from Earth who have had in depth open discussions with people from the Courts, and it might be useful for our... secret anthropologists to talk with him, maybe onscreen, maybe just as background.

And if not, I still think it'd be a nice scene.
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
-[X] Check shih monks for Nemesis infiltration via the crown
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
 
I am fairly sure that was a deliberate block placed into exaltations by Autochton, like how solars cannot understand how alchemicals are made by flat, with no rolls possible. At least that would make sense.
Autobot had no grievances against Exalts until after the war, so no reason to put DRM in the original Celestial exaltations.
Not to mention that if the insistence of some players about the unbounded limits of the Solaroids are true, they would have cracked any such DRM.

Its not like respect or propriety or good sense stopped the Black Nadir Concordiat from plundering the tombs of the Neverborn.


Fairly sure that the proposal to do just that was one of the main reasons for Usurpation:
See bolded underlined part. That was mostly proposed in jest, but mostly means at least some were serious.
If they had the ability, the proposers would have marched out into the Wyld and built their own Creation. Thats what the Primordial Cemunian did when he wasnt invited; he built his own alternative Creation with blackjack and hookers, and Sol Invictus was tasked by the then-Primordials to go burn it down for some reason.


IIRC one of the biggest things that set off the Usurpation was some of the Solars deciding that Creation had too many fundamental design flaws and they should just blow the whole thing up and build a better one. While they were no where near the majority they were actually gaining ground politically, which indicates to me that it was possible.

And given Wyld-shaping technique is basically "Create Creation, the charm" I see no reason they couldn't do this.
I happen to agree with BronzeTongue about this.
Bored crazy talk is bored crazy talk.
When they are serious, they actually start doing it.

Point of order:
Wyld-Shaping Technique is expand Creation, the charm.
Not Create Creation.

Questions Hanging Heavy​
7th of January 2007 A.D.
COMMENTARY
A social Nephilim and a social Infernal Exalt double-teaming a mortal is just unfair.
Changeling or not.

Pity we couldnt redirect the True Faith back to the faith of her parents.
The Archive and her agents really need a neuralyzer-type Splendor.

A little surprised that we didnt see any Summer Fae. Maybe Harry did.
Now we have to find the Lady Ellamore. I suspect she's headed to Vegas; if Winter couldnt send a killteam/snatch team into the city in search of an Outsider agent, I suspect Summer cant either.


Lash has been added to the front page as a companion.
Hmm.

Appearance 5. Willpower 8, Faith 3, Torment 3.
Health 7. Soak 3.
Pact 2, Enemy 4(Denarians).

Interesting that we went with Mist-Wreathed as an Apocalyptic Form feature, despite her not having Storms.
She's only got mortal soak in her base form, and activating her Visage allows her to soak lethal with her stamina, but not Agg.
That makes her more fragile than Lydia.

Raising her base Faith score is gonna be expensive.
Maybe we can make her a splendor that counts as basically the Earthbound Hoard Background for storing Faith.
A Ring of Power, maybe, if we're tapping into mythic archetypes?

Lore of Flesh 5 means she can max out her physical attributes permanently when she decides she needs the upgrades, or can do it for other people; expecting a 5/5/5 in Strength/Dexterity/Stamina whenever she chooses to invest in the upgrades.
And not just physical attributes, but features. Hmm.

No combat skill whatsoever, though, whether Brawl or Melee or Firearms.
Animal Ken 0 and Leadership 1 makes her not very good at wielding minions either, especially since she doesnt have Lore of Beasts(yet) to allow her to pull a Skitter.

Her ability to stack high Attributes compensates somewhat for this, but someone with her enemies probably needs more than that. Right now her only options are to flashbang people with Light 1, pop Wings for a 3x speed boost and then run away.


I vastly prefer the peaches of immortality, but it also wouldn't surprise me if that would set off every paranoid bone in their bodies.
Besides that?
The Peaches of Immortality are frankly more trouble than they are worth.

A Splendor that provides the Unaging Merit in addition to upgrading the physical condition is going to draw the attention of every warlock and necromancer out there, as well as a fair number of hostile organizations looking to upgrade their mooks.
They cant hold on to it, and trying will just end with them dead.

You want to give the Shih something valuable to them, but not so valuable that it will pull aggro from people and factions that they cant handle.

Gonna have to downgrade that more than a bit.
Peaches of Healing, or Peaches of Health. Something that makes it possible to heal training and combat injuries, making it easier to teach the higher-tier abilities or for Shih injured in the field to recover.

And critically, not enough value to draw a Denarian or nationstate raiding force.
Or even just supernatural bandits.


So now that Tiffany is a circle mate are we willing to make a pact with her?
Narratively, thematically and mechanically, no.

Molly is enough of a Catholic to have reservations about that sort of deal for herself, nevermind her own complicated feelings towards Lash. And the girl who left home due to a dispute about her friends would automatically balk at the idea of an arrangement where only the Demon gets to define other elements of a relationship or how it ends.

Mechanically, none of the things a Pact can give her is stuff she cant get on her own if she wants them.
And its not like she cant max out her own physical Attributes in the next eight weeks or so if she thought they were a priority.

Furthermore, a Pact almost certainly counts as an arcane link through which hostile magic can be used to target you.
We have the antishaping charm, but that doesnt actually stop a hostile magus that, say, captures Lash from using her as an arcane link to work lethal magic aimed at a Pacted Molly as long as it isnt shaping.

It generally feels like a bad idea all round for Molly.



Learning to Let Go​
9th of January 2007 A.D.
COMMENTARY
That was a poor Learning roll.
Ah well. Next time.

Brother Div lodges with a Venator.
Not necessarily a True Venator though; a lot more Venatori than True Venatori.
He might actually be aware of some of the other secret wars in the setting. Something to keep in mind.

[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
-[X] Check shih monks for Nemesis infiltration via the crown
No, what you want to do is check the shih monks for infiltration, period.

Nemesis is only one Outsider, it is not the only one, and Nephandi cults are explicitly a thing we just discovered.
Furthermore, the primary antagonists of the Shih are Kueijin, evil shen and the Yama Kings, who are also (mostly)our enemies.
Dont monofocus on one threat.

VOTE
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
[X] Crown Question: Focus: Scene. Check the organization Brother DIvsimar belongs to for infiltrators/moles
 
Autobot had no grievances against Exalts until after the war, so no reason to put DRM in the original Celestial exaltations.
Not to mention that if the insistence of some players about the unbounded limits of the Solaroids are true, they would have cracked any such DRM.

Its not like respect or propriety or good sense stopped the Black Nadir Concordiat from plundering the tombs of the Neverborn.




If they had the ability, the proposers would have marched out into the Wyld and built their own Creation. Thats what the Primordial Cemunian did when he wasnt invited; he built his own alternative Creation with blackjack and hookers, and Sol Invictus was tasked by the then-Primordials to go burn it down for some reason.



I happen to agree with BronzeTongue about this.
Bored crazy talk is bored crazy talk.
When they are serious, they actually start doing it.

Point of order:
Wyld-Shaping Technique is expand Creation, the charm.
Not Create Creation.



COMMENTARY
A social Nephilim and a social Infernal Exalt double-teaming a mortal is just unfair.
Changeling or not.

Pity we couldnt redirect the True Faith back to the faith of her parents.
The Archive and her agents really need a neuralyzer-type Splendor.

A little surprised that we didnt see any Summer Fae. Maybe Harry did.
Now we have to find the Lady Ellamore. I suspect she's headed to Vegas; if Winter couldnt send a killteam/snatch team into the city in search of an Outsider agent, I suspect Summer cant either.



Hmm.

Appearance 5. Willpower 8, Faith 3, Torment 3.
Health 7. Soak 3.
Pact 2, Enemy 4(Denarians).

Interesting that we went with Mist-Wreathed as an Apocalyptic Form feature, despite her not having Storms.
She's only got mortal soak in her base form, and activating her Visage allows her to soak lethal with her stamina, but not Agg.
That makes her more fragile than Lydia.

Raising her base Faith score is gonna be expensive.
Maybe we can make her a splendor that counts as basically the Earthbound Hoard Background for storing Faith.
A Ring of Power, maybe, if we're tapping into mythic archetypes?

Lore of Flesh 5 means she can max out her physical attributes permanently when she decides she needs the upgrades, or can do it for other people; expecting a 5/5/5 in Strength/Dexterity/Stamina whenever she chooses to invest in the upgrades.
And not just physical attributes, but features. Hmm.

No combat skill whatsoever, though, whether Brawl or Melee or Firearms.
Animal Ken 0 and Leadership 1 makes her not very good at wielding minions either, especially since she doesnt have Lore of Beasts(yet) to allow her to pull a Skitter.

Her ability to stack high Attributes compensates somewhat for this, but someone with her enemies probably needs more than that. Right now her only options are to flashbang people with Light 1, pop Wings for a 3x speed boost and then run away.



Besides that?
The Peaches of Immortality are frankly more trouble than they are worth.

A Splendor that provides the Unaging Merit in addition to upgrading the physical condition is going to draw the attention of every warlock and necromancer out there, as well as a fair number of hostile organizations looking to upgrade their mooks.
They cant hold on to it, and trying will just end with them dead.

You want to give the Shih something valuable to them, but not so valuable that it will pull aggro from people and factions that they cant handle.

Gonna have to downgrade that more than a bit.
Peaches of Healing, or Peaches of Health. Something that makes it possible to heal training and combat injuries, making it easier to teach the higher-tier abilities or for Shih injured in the field to recover.

And critically, not enough value to draw a Denarian or nationstate raiding force.
Or even just supernatural bandits.



Narratively, thematically and mechanically, no.

Molly is enough of a Catholic to have reservations about that sort of deal for herself, nevermind her own complicated feelings towards Lash. And the girl who left home due to a dispute about her friends would automatically balk at the idea of an arrangement where only the Demon gets to define other elements of a relationship or how it ends.

Mechanically, none of the things a Pact can give her is stuff she cant get on her own if she wants them.
And its not like she cant max out her own physical Attributes in the next eight weeks or so if she thought they were a priority.

Furthermore, a Pact almost certainly counts as an arcane link through which hostile magic can be used to target you.
We have the antishaping charm, but that doesnt actually stop a hostile magus that, say, captures Lash from using her as an arcane link to work lethal magic aimed at a Pacted Molly as long as it isnt shaping.

It generally feels like a bad idea all round for Molly.




COMMENTARY
That was a poor Learning roll.
Ah well. Next time.

Brother Div lodges with a Venator.
Not necessarily a True Venator though; a lot more Venatori than True Venatori.
He might actually be aware of some of the other secret wars in the setting. Something to keep in mind.


No, what you want to do is check the shih monks for infiltration, period.

Nemesis is only one Outsider, it is not the only one, and Nephandi cults are explicitly a thing we just discovered.
Furthermore, the primary antagonists of the Shih are Kueijin, evil shen and the Yama Kings, who are also (mostly)our enemies.
Dont monofocus on one threat.

VOTE
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
[X] Crown Question: Focus: Scene. Check the organization Brother DIvsimar belongs to for infiltrators/moles
In fairness to unlimited growth there are lines about that and it may just be needing exponential time to grow. So its not feasible in anything like a normal games time. like 1000 years to progress, 3000 years, 10,000 years, 100,000 years and it just keeps getting harder. The age of legends didn't actually last all that long on a cosmic sense right? Also you know for the sake of this quest thats basically what dp said.
 
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[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
[X] Crown Question: Focus: Scene. Check the organization Brother DIvsimar belongs to for infiltrators/moles
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
[X] Crown Question: Focus: Scene. Check the organization Brother DIvsimar belongs to for infiltrators/moles
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
[X] Crown Question: Focus: Scene. Check the organization Brother DIvsimar belongs to for infiltrators/moles
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
 
Point of order:
Wyld-Shaping Technique is expand Creation, the charm.
Not Create Creation.
IIRC you don't need to attach the area you created to Creation proper to use it, the area you created just destabilizes after a while with no Loom of Fate providing stability. And, at least in 3e, the Lunars managed to build their own Loom of Fate. The Lunars.
 
On the subject of the Peqches of Immortality, I may have mentioned this before but they're a thing that existed in WoD. Earing one was the final reward in the trials that mortals took that allowed them to take the Second Breath as one of the Wian Xian.

The Shih may or may not be aware of that, but there are elder Wan Kuei who certainly are, given there are probably (un)living survivors who were originally Wan Xian and themselves ate one. Even if it wouldn't restore them; I can see elder Wan Kuei being willing to risk a lot to try.

On that note, as escapees from Molly's Hell can become Wan Kuei, that means that a set of the now corrupted Trials to become a Wan Xian are now inside her soul. Locating and restoring them to something closer to their original functionality and then allowing the Shih to take them would be a pretty big deal.

IIRC you don't need to attach the area you created to Creation proper to use it, the area you created just destabilizes after a while with no Loom of Fate providing stability. And, at least in 3e, the Lunars managed to build their own Loom of Fate. The Lunars.

The thing is, it's still more Creation, a derivative of the template the Primordials made and encoded into existence.
 
If they had the ability, the proposers would have marched out into the Wyld and built their own Creation. Thats what the Primordial Cemunian did when he wasnt invited; he built his own alternative Creation with blackjack and hookers, and Sol Invictus was tasked by the then-Primordials to go burn it down for some reason.
This is faulty logic. We have an ability to build orbital or lunar habitats right now. The technology is there. It's just economically not viable - there are other avenues where we could put our efforts into first. Same logic applies here.
Lore of Flesh 5 means she can max out her physical attributes permanently when she decides she needs the upgrades, or can do it for other people; expecting a 5/5/5 in Strength/Dexterity/Stamina whenever she chooses to invest in the upgrades.
And not just physical attributes, but features. Hmm.
It can go up to 10, actually, but anything above 7 would produce Delirium effects.
The Peaches of Immortality are frankly more trouble than they are worth.
Sorry, but that's your basically default argument about pretty much everything. Will such peaches attract attention? Probably, after some time when the news leak somehow. Are they more trouble than they are worth? Absolutely not. Especially when we are also there. By the time warlocks and such should learn of this, the benefits would far outweigh the downsides.

Shih monks already have more than enough enemies, and any positive artefact made with ancient sorcery / exalted craft would attract scavengers. Warlocks would still flock to peaches of healing as they do to peaches of immortality.
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
[X] Crown Question: Focus: Scene. Check the organization Brother DIvsimar belongs to for infiltrators/moles
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
[X] Crown Question: Focus: Scene. Check the organization Brother DIvsimar belongs to for infiltrators/moles
 
Besides that?
The Peaches of Immortality are frankly more trouble than they are worth.
I'm not so sure about that.

They definitely are trouble, but there are ways to mitigate that and immortality is a hell of a benefit.

Adding an appropriate prodigy would be cheap and defend against casual detection, though not necessarily leaks. For the actual security the Shih are pretty great - especially since they're likely to have the elders who are slowing down hanging around their places if power teaching and the like.

The mechanical balance of their powers is maintained by chi reserves and health consequences. Even with that they're a knock down drag out brawl for a large swath of the supernatural community capable of walking the earth. Giving them the health merits should be the same thing as breaking their skill set in all the right ways, and the agelessness would let the scariest people in their ranks take full advantage.

Spark of life makes the long term problems a nonissue, allows them to push normal paths to damaging levels, and more freely use the really nasty paths that you pay in damage to activate at all. It's not a listed benefit, but I'd argue that the thing with their blood being worth twice as many points to a vampire should double their baseline chi pool.

Look at Divsimar, who's good but still not so critical he can't just hang out on another continent for months on end. These are just the paths he was willing to teach us of an unknown larger set:
[] Qiao of the Mo Kung (Devil Fighter style): A battle art which burns spiritual energy to empower the fighter's body to superhuman levels.
Ability: Willpower
Maximum Rating: ●●●

[] Qiao of the Chien (Mirror style): A battle art which traps the magic of the night folk and turns it back against them.
Ability: Occult
Maximum Rating: ●●

[] Qiao of the Meng (Dream style): A battle art which helps its practitioners recover from mental strain and torment.
Ability: Willpower
Maximum Rating: ●●

[] Qiao of the Zhu Mao (Resilient Cat style): A battle art which permits miraculous feats of mind over matter.
Ability: Stealth
Maximum Rating: ●●

Even assuming those max dots are actually his max in those paths and not just what he was willing to share of them at the time the guy is a monster. The only thing stopping him from coming into a fight with stam 8, dex 8, str 8, and spending willpower like it's going out of style while deflecting any ranged magical attacks is his chi pool and the consequences he'd face for spending so much of it.
 
[X] Diplomacy is supposed to be about opening up and finding common ground, but of late I have found that it is also about finding the places where interests to not align, figuring out the secrets of those who should be allies (Talk about the opening up of the Fivefold Courts; Offer to take Brother Divsimar there if he wants to visit)
 
Peaches of Immortality are kind of trash level, only grow what ever few thousand years, when level 6 alchemy path, includes things like the making the Philosopher stone. Which is both endless amounts of immortality, and infinite gold.
 
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Spark of life makes the long term problems a nonissue, allows them to push normal paths to damaging levels, and more freely use the really nasty paths that you pay in damage to activate at all. It's not a listed benefit, but I'd argue that the thing with their blood being worth twice as many points to a vampire should double their baseline chi pool.
Not to mention that that it's not just spark of life. It's exalted healing + spark of life + agelessness. That's a triple combo of vitality boosters that synergy with each other. They should, arguably, have more vitality and life energy than we do, and regain it faster. Meaning that their arts should be greatly boosted.
 
Peaches of Immortality are kind of trash level, only grow what ever few thousand years, when level 6 alchemy path, includes things like the making the Philosopher stone. Which is both endless amounts of immortality, and infinite gold.
Not the ones we are talking about. Here is the build. 3 dot splendor, works almost perfectly according to xianxia trashy novels - gives you immortal body, higher stats, higher stat caps, better senses. The number of fruits per season is up to QM, obviously.
 
By default DtF PCs are limited to 5 in attributes, with some exceptions like boni from the apocalyptic form or Earthbound Urges.
we just need like 900 exp and a story arc that shows how we can break the cap and we can start getting past 6 dice and probably went devil tiger. :p
All we need is like 800 more exp!

Edit: Does anyone have any clue how much exp we have now and progress towards essence 4?
 
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