BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
In the previous scene we were driving in a car down the Vegas Strip having a chat with Mayeda and not being attacked. Its not odd that she only noticed her after the attack.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Winning Vote
Arc 11 Post 77 Calling Friends and Pinging Foes
Calling Friends and Pinging Foes
13th of January 2007 A.D.
Taking stock of your circumstances you find them unpleasant in detail —being at the site of a terrorist attack with merge gas surrounded by witnesses and the halo of your own eye-studded aura— and in general —having to untangle the aftermath to the satisfaction of first responders with some very pointed questions. "We've got to get out of this, we've got to stop playing this game..." Drawing close to Slik you lean down and whisper: "I'm sorry, I know this is a mess, but we need to look after the one who organized this. Hopefully the people coming in are going to be a bit clued in."
She nods, only the slight quickening of her breath showing the strain beneath the unnatural calm. It's a spell, up close it's easier to recognize, an enchantment aimed inwards at herself to make herself become what her interlocutor wants or needs and right now what everyone in this room needs her to be is calm and collected.
As you pass by Harry you whisper to him as well: "Search them for anything useful..."
"This is a crime scene Molly," he says back, in like tone though with an edge of annoyance under it and you would guess no small amount of strain for keeping up the air shield. "The cops are going to want to know where that stuff is."
"I'm going to have a talk with their bosses," you counter reasonably, throttling the impulse to reach beyond more polished words, more convincing arguments. I'm going to need those motes in a bit
"And how sure are you of that on a scale of twenty to life?" he presses.
"Fine," you sigh and step away to make a call to Von Trier: "Gonna need EOD to enter and decontaminate the premises, and maybe a evacuation of the neighborhood, but no one's dead. We are going to have to go, otherwise whoever comes in there is going to have to deal with a halo of eyes and a wizard's wind wall just to start with."
"Understood," there is at least a day's worth of sighs in that word, but her frustration does not seem to be aimed at you.
"There's ten witnesses including the owner of the club who is clued in, she's a sorceress and three perps on the premises: one of them's unconscious, the other two appear to be in shock. No idea if they are in their right mind or enthralled..."
"Irrelevant," she cuts in coolly. "Ms Carpenter it speaks well of you to want to make the distinction, but no court in the land if going to allow for the mitigating circumstance of witchcraft. Quite frankly given the sheer difficulty of removing even the most amateurish of binding magics, which one would assume these are not, the point is moot to begin with."
Though your first impulse is to mention Arlene you are keenly aware she does not want the eye of the federal government in any incarnation. Could Tiffany unwind mind magics as the price of a pact? Maybe, probably, but that would raise questions she most likely does not want to asked. The entire southwestern US and large parts of Mexico could turn into the Sahara 2.0, you remind yourself. As unfair as this might be to the handful of people who just like me may have fallen in Sandra's trap I cannot put them above the lives of millions. In that regard you're not like your father, but you can live with it.
"OK, just keep a lid on this and keep an eye on other things that may need lids. I'm not always going to have the chance to call ahead."
"Understood. Fare thee well and fortune favor you," Von Trier answers and with that.
Holding Clippy in front of your face you ask her to show you Sandra and with one final look at the face of your foe you ask: "Where is she now?"
At the foot of the Dragon's bed waiting for her plans to unfold above.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 8/15
"What the fuck...?"
"Should one be skilled enough in arts of trickery Majesty the closer one is to one's foes the farther one is from harm," Usum points out, the voice of long experience speaking.
"Did... did you just quote the Two Towers?" you ask shaking your head slowly.
"Not with intent, but I must admit it was a fair cinematographic attempt, for all it s flawed philosophy," he answers with a courtier's honeyed tongue. Still demonic opinions of Tolkien and/or Peter Jackson it does make a kind of sense, the Dragon is the anchor point, the weak point of the Sin Eater and the Sin Eater is the one holding back the Gate. Simply killing him wouldn't do it, but access to an unconscious victim, one who cannot defend itself would be so much more, so much worse.
The question now is if she had tricked the Reds or suborned them? Would they fight to protect her?
What do you do?
[] Ask more questions
-[] Write in
[] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
-[] Violently, the city could use less of them regardless
-[] Stealthily, Try to sneak in
[] Write in
OOC: Since I know you guys are going to ask, just knowing where Sandra is does not constitute enough of a secret for Essence regeneration, you need more of her plan.
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Rolls
Explaining things to Silk (She is not going to contest an attempt to calm her down)
Reading one of her Rotes
Convincing Harry to tamper with evidence vs Wizard says no
Remembering not to mention Arlene, one success would have been enough, but... yeah
Wits+Politics to figure out what Sandra's plan might be... some clues
Explaining things to Silk (She is not going to contest an attempt to calm her down)
Reading one of her Rotes
Convincing Harry to tamper with evidence vs Wizard says no
Remembering not to mention Arlene, one success would have been enough, but... yeah
Wits+
what no, that gives her a chance to escape, we need to snap her neck with mhm cause you dont let a wizard cast
- Location
- Germany
The Dragon is knocked out or caught in a nightmare or something similar.
He went up against a dreamweaver/illusionist Wizard and he won, but ate a Deathcurse.
If everyone else is allowed to abuse their power to subvert justice I don't see why we can't use ours to support it. Are thralls insane in the way the law was intended? Probably not. Can we engineer a situation where you either need to admit to mind magic in court or accept the premise that they're not mentally sound? Yeah, because the soul damage does make them crazy and we have the money to make them listen.
On the mind magic healthcare end, could we make a prodigy that allows a talent to replicate Arlene's trick? It's sponsored magic, but it's still being done by a mortal and it's not like we aren't already using I-can't-believe-it's-not-divine power.
I don't think we can undo the soul damage of getting butchered like this*, but breaking the ongoing control seems feasible.
* We might be able to help them help themselves though. We don't need a path to make things that replicate its effects with a prodigy by RaW after all. We could give thralls an item of ridiculous fate warping luck focused entirely on ensuring their recovery then apply material resources to give it leverage to work with.
Maybe most of the time therapy is pointless for this sort of problem, but if we can make something to force the conditions where it does help to happen reliably we could cheat "natural" recovery. That way we can get victims like this healthy again without performing more experimental brain surgery than is necessary to get the compulsions out.
- Location
- Right Where I Am
I read that the first time, perhaps because we've been discussing Charon, as referring to the Underworld as in death.
Arlene's 'trick' is a literal divine blessing, it is a power invested in her by an actual-no-kidding goddess so you would need a Splendor to do it. The thing about making a thrall is that it's always soul deep damage, that is the nature of Black Magic.
People can overcome it, Elaine did and Justin got further with her than he did with Harry, but generally only when the intent on the part of the enchanter was to make a fine thrall, that is someone who can still function day to day, bound in thorns but still themselves. These... well Molly is not sure, but she thinks the attackers look more like rough thralls, living bombs.
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BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
Backup from Hell? Not sure how we'd keep the masquerade up though. Maybe have someone set up music inside then drop in with an assualt team?
einargs
Verified Spiller of the Egg Yolk
- Location
- The Egg Yolk, Outer Layer
- Pronouns
- They/Them
If I'm remembering right, we still don't know the details of Sandra's plan. Asking about that to avoid any surprises before we assault her seems important.
Also, don't we still need to get Sandra out of the city so Maeve can get her? I don't remember the details of that either.
Also, don't we still need to get Sandra out of the city so Maeve can get her? I don't remember the details of that either.
Fair on both parts, trick was probably treating it a little too lightly.
On the thrall end it seems like it's a spectrum of difficulty of recovery that hits effectively impossible significantly before it becomes actually impossible. So I was hoping we could expand the recoverable area by forcing near perfect recovery conditions and maximizing the results of any given treatment with fortune magic.
Basically fishing for golden bb after golden bb for as long as it takes to line up enough to make a real difference.
Oh certainly, someone who has access to a medical facility that understands magic in general and their condition in particular is going to have a much broader path to recovery than someone who is on their own. If you add low level magic into the mix you shave a bit more off the edge, though eventually you come to the chasm of 'needs divine intervention'.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[X] Violently, the city could use less of them regardless
"Look Harry, the building is burning and it was definitly our fault."
If we fight well we can regain more Essence from slaying immortal vampires than we loose from fighting them.
-[X] Violently, the city could use less of them regardless
"Look Harry, the building is burning and it was definitly our fault."
If we fight well we can regain more Essence from slaying immortal vampires than we loose from fighting them.
- Location
- Nowhere
- Pronouns
- She/her
[X] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
I don't think this is worth spending any essence on, but we did just help a Red Court business, might as well see if we can cash in any good will. I doubt we'll get very far but we might get lucky, additionally we might get enough info out of the conversation to regain some motes.
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
I don't think this is worth spending any essence on, but we did just help a Red Court business, might as well see if we can cash in any good will. I doubt we'll get very far but we might get lucky, additionally we might get enough info out of the conversation to regain some motes.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
This guy will be boosted by the sin-eater I'd be better to fight him with more essence.
[X] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[X] Violently, the city could use less of them regardless
-[X] Violently, the city could use less of them regardless
- Location
- Germany
The Dragon himself?
Yeah, if he isn't KO that might be a hard fight.
Most of his minions though are regular Rampires, which means to us fodder for Murder is Meat.
- Location
- Right Where I Am
[X] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
That just convinces me more that we need, either through recruitment or construction, gods that answer to us.