Somewhere deep inside Molly's soul there is a stirring at the rightness of this sentiment.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Somewhere deep inside Molly's soul there is a stirring at the rightness of this sentiment.
Maybe this could be something for one of Molly's custom charms once we get that far. The wheel and free will are a significant themes for her, so a charm that lets you do a reset and choose your own nature independent of all wills save your own seems on brand.
She's still an infernal though, so it needs something a little screwed up or encourage screwed up behavior…
The mechanics on this are a little rough, but it feels very thematic for the hells.
The original purpose of the Yama Kings was to cleanse souls through punishment, and these days they draw power from their prisoners through torture. So it seems reasonable to assume the Yama kings have always gotten power from spiritual torment, it's just that they've started inflicting more so they can harvest it instead of releasing sufficiently clean souls.
Which, since the wheel is Molly's eternal torment feature, could technically make the wheel her mouth.
The way it's set up it provides the most basic form of the same temptation to be a bastard that they have. The more hurt someone is the better they taste and the more power they grant. You could use it as rarely needed medicine, but if you're willing to seriously damage people you can get power whenever you want. Worse, the crueler you're willing to be the more you benefit from it.
Probably won't end up using this, but I wanted to share the idea for future reference.
She's still an infernal though, so it needs something a little screwed up or encourage screwed up behavior…
The infernal briefly twists something inside her world-soul, dragging the spirit of anyone she's touching through the wheel at the center of her heart and drinking their suffering like fine wine.
System: The infernal makes a willpower roll against a difficulty of the subject's essence equivalent. This may be opposed by rolling willpower at (10 - essence level equivalent) if they are not willing.
On success the subject loses all derangements and mental flaws gained from traumatic experience as the infernal drinks the pain and madness from their soul. They may additionally choose to cast off intimacies that have harmed them, determined by the will that precedes thought and is therefore beyond their ability to interfere with.
This process is extremely taxing, as they experience for the last time what they choose to leave behind, costing them one temp willpower per every three dots of flaw given up.
No one passes through the wheel unchanged, if by some miracle the subject has no flaws and wishes to keep all their intimacies they instead lose the infernal's essence level in temp willpower as the wheel draws all the worst days of their life to the front of their mind at once. If any subject loses more willpower than they currently possess it instead takes one week of recent memory per missing point.
The infernal regains willpower value given up by the subject in essence as they drink in the sublime flavors of their suffering.
System: The infernal makes a willpower roll against a difficulty of the subject's essence equivalent. This may be opposed by rolling willpower at (10 - essence level equivalent) if they are not willing.
On success the subject loses all derangements and mental flaws gained from traumatic experience as the infernal drinks the pain and madness from their soul. They may additionally choose to cast off intimacies that have harmed them, determined by the will that precedes thought and is therefore beyond their ability to interfere with.
This process is extremely taxing, as they experience for the last time what they choose to leave behind, costing them one temp willpower per every three dots of flaw given up.
No one passes through the wheel unchanged, if by some miracle the subject has no flaws and wishes to keep all their intimacies they instead lose the infernal's essence level in temp willpower as the wheel draws all the worst days of their life to the front of their mind at once. If any subject loses more willpower than they currently possess it instead takes one week of recent memory per missing point.
The infernal regains willpower value given up by the subject in essence as they drink in the sublime flavors of their suffering.
The mechanics on this are a little rough, but it feels very thematic for the hells.
The original purpose of the Yama Kings was to cleanse souls through punishment, and these days they draw power from their prisoners through torture. So it seems reasonable to assume the Yama kings have always gotten power from spiritual torment, it's just that they've started inflicting more so they can harvest it instead of releasing sufficiently clean souls.
Which, since the wheel is Molly's eternal torment feature, could technically make the wheel her mouth.
The way it's set up it provides the most basic form of the same temptation to be a bastard that they have. The more hurt someone is the better they taste and the more power they grant. You could use it as rarely needed medicine, but if you're willing to seriously damage people you can get power whenever you want. Worse, the crueler you're willing to be the more you benefit from it.
Probably won't end up using this, but I wanted to share the idea for future reference.
Is Arlene actually healing their souls, or "just" breaking the mind magic without causing more trauma herself?
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
[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
She is healing souls, her ability is technically 'make you who you were without the chains' or even more in the weeds, allow you to become that person again.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
I remembered Murder is Meat wrongly, the Essence Regeneration only hits for ghosts or spirits, not for regular immortal beings.
So unfortunately we shouldn't cut through any lesser vamps in our way, because they are empty calories to us.
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
I remembered Murder is Meat wrongly, the Essence Regeneration only hits for ghosts or spirits, not for regular immortal beings.
So unfortunately we shouldn't cut through any lesser vamps in our way, because they are empty calories to us.
In the previous scene we were only talking, with no further distractions, but we didnt notice.
In the scene where our party noticed her, we were under attack by Shadow Killers.
Narratively, there were a lot more distractions, from the rocket men to the bystanders to friendly fire in the air fogging up the place.And yet, thats when we noticed her.
Seems sus to me. My two cents.
COMMENTARY
Poor Silk.
She's a strong enough sorcerer to make a rough assessment of who and what just blew into her club. From Dresden, one of the strongest wizards of his generation, to the occult cryptid thats an Incarnate of Flesh, Light and Longing, to the twin Exalts that are Molly and Lydia, one of whom she saw flying, and who is STILL glowing with green eyes of fire.
Any one of these would be intimidating at the best of times for a lesser sorcerer.
All four is pants-shittingly terrifying
At least once we leave, the civilian witnesses and the first responders are likely to write off the weirdness as stress reaction.
Interesting that Harry became such a stickler for the rules all of a sudden.
Von Trier should know better. Witchcraft of course not.
Diminished competence due to insanity, inebriation, even drugs? Bath salts and hallucinogenics have been implicated in a bunch of shit, and are much easier to obfuscate.
Its not like the US hasnt blamed hallucinogenics or bath salts for some out there crimes.
TIL Rudy Eugene, the attacker in the 2012 “zombie/bath salts” case, didn’t actually have bath salts in his system and it is still unclear why he attacked the victim that day.
Posted in r/todayilearned by u/halchemy • 12,257 points and 712 comments
old.reddit.com
We'll come back to this later.
Burned our last Sandra focus.
Called it on Sandra having a hand in the attack on the tunnels, and that we would need to see and talk to the Dragon before this entire affair culminated.
If I have to guess, she's going to need a fresh arcane link from the Dragon to attack the Sin-Eater and the seal it guards.
Which means she needs the Dragon crippled but alive until after her scheme is done.
Lash could likely uncripple him by doing a deal, if she's willing to show that much power. But would she want to?
We're down to a little over 50% Essence or 8/15m, and we have to go talk to a bunch of Reds where Sandra has almost certainly enthralled a good cross-section of the Reds in Las Vegas.
Necessary, but Im not thrilled to be doing this with so little juice.
And because Marcel left the club for the tunnels, we cant just take an hour to regenerate Essence because the longer we wait, the more time we give her to activate contingencies in the tunnels.
We actually need to call Harrowmont on our way and tell him we cant make it, and explain why.
Simple courtesy.
Plus, we might need to backtrack to him after seeing the Dragon, for more foci.
By this standard literally everyone in Chicago would be incompetent.
Sandra Marling spent more than a year(word of Molly in canon that she was one of the Splattercon organizers for more than a year) in Chicago working her way into the life of the daughter of a Knight of the Cross and inveigling her into a plot, and neither her father nor her mother nor the wizard who this plot was aimed at noticed her right under their noses.
She literally was face to face with Dresden at Splattercon.
She was the person who gave him his initial convention nametag, and was also the person who directed him to the room where Greene and an FBI agent were attempting an illegal interrogation of Molly.
I followed her over to a set of tables set up to receive dozens or hundreds of people at once, each designated with white paper signs marked with "A-D," "E-J," and so on down the alphabet. A tired-looking, brown-haired woman of early middle age sat behind the first table, doing some kind of paperwork.
"Molly," she said, and her voice warmed with tired but genuine pleasure. "Who is your friend?"
"Harry Dresden," Molly said. "This is Sandra Marling. She's the convention chair."
"You're a horror fan?" Sandra Marling asked me.
"My life is all about horror, these days."
"You should find plenty here to entertain you," she assured me. "We're showing movies in several rooms as well as in the theater, and there's the vendors' room, and some autograph signings tomorrow, and of course there are several parties active already, and the costume contests are always fun to watch."
"Isn't that something," I said, and tried not to drown in my enthusiasm.
"Sandy," Molly said, stepping in, "I want to use my freebie for Harry, here."
Sandra nodded. "Oh, Rosanna was looking for you a few minutes ago. Have you spoken to her yet?"
"Not since this afternoon," Molly said, and fretted at her lower lip. "Did she remember to take her vitamins?"
"Rest easy, girl. I reminded her for you."
Molly looked visibly relieved. "Thank you."
Sandra, meanwhile, had me filling out a registration form, which I scribbled through fairly quickly. At the end, she passed me a plastic badge folded around a card that said, SPLATTERCON!!! HI, I'm… She gave me a black ink marker to go with it and said, "Sorry, the printer's been off-line all day. Just write your name in."
I promptly wrote the words An Innocent Bystander onto the name tag before folding it up in the plastic badge and pinning it to my shirt.
"I hope you enjoy SplatterCon, Harry," Sandra said.
I picked up a schedule and glanced at it. "Make Your Own Blood and Custom Fangs" at ten A.M., to be followed by "How to Scream Like a Pro."
"I don't see how I can avoid being entertained."
Molly gave me a level look as we walked away. "You don't have to make fun of it."
"Actually I do," I said. "I make fun of almost everything."
"It's mean," she said. "Sandra has poured her whole life into this convention for a year, and I don't want to see her feelings hurt."
"Where do you know her from?" I asked. "Not church, I guess."
Molly looked at me obliquely for a second and then said, "She's a part-time volunteer at one of the shelters where I'm doing community service.
She helped Nelson out when he was younger. Rosie too, and her boyfriend."
I lifted a hand in acquiescence. "Fine, fine. I'll play nice."
"Thank you," she said, her voice still prim. "It's very adult of you."
"Molly," she said, and her voice warmed with tired but genuine pleasure. "Who is your friend?"
"Harry Dresden," Molly said. "This is Sandra Marling. She's the convention chair."
"You're a horror fan?" Sandra Marling asked me.
"My life is all about horror, these days."
"You should find plenty here to entertain you," she assured me. "We're showing movies in several rooms as well as in the theater, and there's the vendors' room, and some autograph signings tomorrow, and of course there are several parties active already, and the costume contests are always fun to watch."
"Isn't that something," I said, and tried not to drown in my enthusiasm.
"Sandy," Molly said, stepping in, "I want to use my freebie for Harry, here."
Sandra nodded. "Oh, Rosanna was looking for you a few minutes ago. Have you spoken to her yet?"
"Not since this afternoon," Molly said, and fretted at her lower lip. "Did she remember to take her vitamins?"
"Rest easy, girl. I reminded her for you."
Molly looked visibly relieved. "Thank you."
Sandra, meanwhile, had me filling out a registration form, which I scribbled through fairly quickly. At the end, she passed me a plastic badge folded around a card that said, SPLATTERCON!!! HI, I'm… She gave me a black ink marker to go with it and said, "Sorry, the printer's been off-line all day. Just write your name in."
I promptly wrote the words An Innocent Bystander onto the name tag before folding it up in the plastic badge and pinning it to my shirt.
"I hope you enjoy SplatterCon, Harry," Sandra said.
I picked up a schedule and glanced at it. "Make Your Own Blood and Custom Fangs" at ten A.M., to be followed by "How to Scream Like a Pro."
"I don't see how I can avoid being entertained."
Molly gave me a level look as we walked away. "You don't have to make fun of it."
"Actually I do," I said. "I make fun of almost everything."
"It's mean," she said. "Sandra has poured her whole life into this convention for a year, and I don't want to see her feelings hurt."
"Where do you know her from?" I asked. "Not church, I guess."
Molly looked at me obliquely for a second and then said, "She's a part-time volunteer at one of the shelters where I'm doing community service.
She helped Nelson out when he was younger. Rosie too, and her boyfriend."
I lifted a hand in acquiescence. "Fine, fine. I'll play nice."
"Thank you," she said, her voice still prim. "It's very adult of you."
I shrugged. "Twenty minutes, give or take. What I'm really concerned about is-"
"Mister Dresden!" called a voice from across the crowded convention hallway. I looked up to see Sandra Marling hurrying through the crowd toward me. The convention's chairwoman looked exhausted and too nervous to be awake, much less standing, much less politely pushing her way through a crowd, but she did it anyway. She still wore the same black T-shirt with the red SplatterCon!!! logo on it, presumably the same I'd seen her in the night before.
"Ms. Marling," I said, nodding to her as she approached. "Good afternoon."
She shook her head wearily. "I'm such… this is such an enormous amount of… but I don't know who else I can turn to about this." Her words failed her, and she started trembling with nerves and weariness.
I traded a frown with Murphy. "Sandra. What's wrong?"
"It's Molly," she said.
I frowned. "What about her?"
"She came here from the hospital a couple of hours ago. The police came to talk to her and I don't think she's come out since then, and none of the officers I've spoken to know where she is. I think-"
"Sandra." I told her, "Take a breath. Slow down. Do you know where Molly is?"
The woman closed her eyes and shook her head, bringing herself under control, lowering her voice several pitches. "They're still… interrogating her, I think? Isn't that what they say? When they try to scare you and ask questions?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah," I said. "Was she arrested?"
Sandra shook her head jerkily. "I don't think so. They didn't handcuff her or read from that little card or anything. Can they do that? Just drag her into a room?"
"We'll see," I said. "Which room?"
"Other wing, second door on the right," she said.
I nodded, slung my pack off my back, and took out a small notebook. I scribbled some phone numbers and names on a page, and gave it to Sandra. "Call both of these people."
She blinked at the paper. "What do I tell them?"
"The truth. Tell them what's going on and that Harry Dresden said they need to get down here immediately."
Sandra blinked down at the page. "What are you going to do?"
"Oh, you know. The usual," I said. "Get to that phone."
"I'll catch up in a minute," Murphy said.
I nodded, slung the pack back on, jerked my head at Mouse, and started walking with purposeful strides toward the knot of reporters that had begun to dissolve at the conclusion of the official statements to the press. My dog fell in to pace at my side until I spotted Lydia Stern at the rear of the crowd.
"Mister Dresden!" called a voice from across the crowded convention hallway. I looked up to see Sandra Marling hurrying through the crowd toward me. The convention's chairwoman looked exhausted and too nervous to be awake, much less standing, much less politely pushing her way through a crowd, but she did it anyway. She still wore the same black T-shirt with the red SplatterCon!!! logo on it, presumably the same I'd seen her in the night before.
"Ms. Marling," I said, nodding to her as she approached. "Good afternoon."
She shook her head wearily. "I'm such… this is such an enormous amount of… but I don't know who else I can turn to about this." Her words failed her, and she started trembling with nerves and weariness.
I traded a frown with Murphy. "Sandra. What's wrong?"
"It's Molly," she said.
I frowned. "What about her?"
"She came here from the hospital a couple of hours ago. The police came to talk to her and I don't think she's come out since then, and none of the officers I've spoken to know where she is. I think-"
"Sandra." I told her, "Take a breath. Slow down. Do you know where Molly is?"
The woman closed her eyes and shook her head, bringing herself under control, lowering her voice several pitches. "They're still… interrogating her, I think? Isn't that what they say? When they try to scare you and ask questions?"
I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah," I said. "Was she arrested?"
Sandra shook her head jerkily. "I don't think so. They didn't handcuff her or read from that little card or anything. Can they do that? Just drag her into a room?"
"We'll see," I said. "Which room?"
"Other wing, second door on the right," she said.
I nodded, slung my pack off my back, and took out a small notebook. I scribbled some phone numbers and names on a page, and gave it to Sandra. "Call both of these people."
She blinked at the paper. "What do I tell them?"
"The truth. Tell them what's going on and that Harry Dresden said they need to get down here immediately."
Sandra blinked down at the page. "What are you going to do?"
"Oh, you know. The usual," I said. "Get to that phone."
"I'll catch up in a minute," Murphy said.
I nodded, slung the pack back on, jerked my head at Mouse, and started walking with purposeful strides toward the knot of reporters that had begun to dissolve at the conclusion of the official statements to the press. My dog fell in to pace at my side until I spotted Lydia Stern at the rear of the crowd.
She was also explicitly involved with Nelson, Rosie, and Rosie's dead boyfriend Ken, and was likely the person who fingered them for attack by the fetches.
Harry noticed nothing out of the ordinary when he met her.
And after the events of Proven Guilty, after he'd talked to Molly about everything, the RPG states that Harry tried to find her, but she had vanished so thoroughly that Dresden, professional magic investigator with magical tracking and all sorts of contacts, couldnt find a trace of her.
Infiltration is what she does. She is Very Good at it.
Its no different from when Quintus Cassius/Saluriel murdered a senior Vatican priest in Death Masks, then stole his face and identity so thoroughly that Dresden wasnt able to tell he was looking at a Denarian.
And unlike the Rampires, he doesnt have the excuse of being mindwhammied by the (alleged)death curse of an illusionist.
Ah.
That would be even more ambitious than trying to take over the Las Vegas crime scene.
Countermagic/Unweaving: Human: 3XP.
Extended roll of Intelligence + Occult + an Occult Excellency at DC 8 to break an effect, or roll of Wits + Occult at DC8 to counter a caster's spell. Citation:
Counterspells and Unweaving
Any sorcerer who does more than dabble in the Arts will
learn at least some basic countermagic, if only so that they
can try and undo the messes they inevitably create while
learning. There are as many different forms of countermagic
as there are spells; in plain terms, however, they are divided
into two basic types: Counterspells and Unweaving.
Counterspells are cast at an incoming spell or effect and
serve to blunt or dispel it before it can take effect. Roll Wits +
Occult (difficulty 8); each success you score cancels one of the
opponent's successes. If the opponent ends up without enough
successes for the spell to go off, then it fails (but she still loses
whatever costs she paid, be it blood, Quintessence, Willpower
or whatever). You can spend Willpower to aid a Counterspell,
but you must score at least one natural success for the Counterspell
to work at all.
Unweaving is the art of disassembling another spell caster's
effect. The sorcerer must have knowledge of the Path that was used
to create the effect in the first place (if trying to unweave an effect
not based on sorcery, such as Thaumarurgy, Sphere magic or the like,
use the Path most applicable). If your character has at least one dot
in the Path (or a related one) being used, roll Intelligence + Occult
(difficulty 8), using the Extended Rolls rules (see above). You must
score at least as many successes as the original caster scored to
unweave the spell;otherwise, it may be weakened, but it will remain.
Long standing Enchantments and those based on Thaumaturgy or
Sphere magic can take more effort to unweave; In the case of very
ancient, very powerful Enchantments, sometimes as many as 15 or
even 20 successes might be needed (time tor some teamwork).
Spells cast by sorcerers (or others) that are more knowledgeable than the unweaver are significantly more difficult to
undo. For every two levels of difference between the unweaver's
level in a Path and the original caster's level, an additional
success is needed. Thus, if you have no knowledge of the Path
of Hellfire and your opponent has four dots with 6 successes on
an effect, you would need 3 successes in order to cancel the first
success and 8 to completely wipe out the spell.
Counterspells and Unweaving work against sorcery and Sphere
magic (and, if the Storyteller wishes, against the mystic powers of
vampiric magic, faerie glamour and the like). There are also
specialized versions of Counterspells and Unweaving designed to
work against spirit powers (such as spirit Charms, ghostly manifes-
tations and similar otherworldly occurrences). These must be
bought separately. Each group of countermagic costs 3 freebie or
experience points, so buying a full set of countermagics costs 12
points. For a sorcerer more interested in staying alive than in dealing
damage, it's an investment well worth the cost.
Any sorcerer who does more than dabble in the Arts will
learn at least some basic countermagic, if only so that they
can try and undo the messes they inevitably create while
learning. There are as many different forms of countermagic
as there are spells; in plain terms, however, they are divided
into two basic types: Counterspells and Unweaving.
Counterspells are cast at an incoming spell or effect and
serve to blunt or dispel it before it can take effect. Roll Wits +
Occult (difficulty 8); each success you score cancels one of the
opponent's successes. If the opponent ends up without enough
successes for the spell to go off, then it fails (but she still loses
whatever costs she paid, be it blood, Quintessence, Willpower
or whatever). You can spend Willpower to aid a Counterspell,
but you must score at least one natural success for the Counterspell
to work at all.
Unweaving is the art of disassembling another spell caster's
effect. The sorcerer must have knowledge of the Path that was used
to create the effect in the first place (if trying to unweave an effect
not based on sorcery, such as Thaumarurgy, Sphere magic or the like,
use the Path most applicable). If your character has at least one dot
in the Path (or a related one) being used, roll Intelligence + Occult
(difficulty 8), using the Extended Rolls rules (see above). You must
score at least as many successes as the original caster scored to
unweave the spell;otherwise, it may be weakened, but it will remain.
Long standing Enchantments and those based on Thaumaturgy or
Sphere magic can take more effort to unweave; In the case of very
ancient, very powerful Enchantments, sometimes as many as 15 or
even 20 successes might be needed (time tor some teamwork).
Spells cast by sorcerers (or others) that are more knowledgeable than the unweaver are significantly more difficult to
undo. For every two levels of difference between the unweaver's
level in a Path and the original caster's level, an additional
success is needed. Thus, if you have no knowledge of the Path
of Hellfire and your opponent has four dots with 6 successes on
an effect, you would need 3 successes in order to cancel the first
success and 8 to completely wipe out the spell.
Counterspells and Unweaving work against sorcery and Sphere
magic (and, if the Storyteller wishes, against the mystic powers of
vampiric magic, faerie glamour and the like). There are also
specialized versions of Counterspells and Unweaving designed to
work against spirit powers (such as spirit Charms, ghostly manifes-
tations and similar otherworldly occurrences). These must be
bought separately. Each group of countermagic costs 3 freebie or
experience points, so buying a full set of countermagics costs 12
points. For a sorcerer more interested in staying alive than in dealing
damage, it's an investment well worth the cost.
3xp each. 12 xp total.
That will actually break the magic involved.
Since neither Lash nor Arlene want the attention at this scale?
Actual healing is likely to require one of the following
- An archwizard healing master,
- A Shih master of Dreams,
- High-tier Alchemy(4+) or Enchantment(4+)
- High-tier Empathic Healing Path(5) or Fortune Path(3-4)
- The interference of a god/spirit with appropriate talents,
- An IDU bakemono with an appropriate healing Gift like Restore Sanity (Tier 5 Gurahl).
No fan of the Red Court in general.
But if Sandra is using them as shields, there's a good chance that putting them down might actually do more harm than good, at least with regards to the greater plans of Sandra's masters.
Generally considered poor form to do an Outsider cultist's work for them.
VOTE
[X] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
[X]STUNT: You begin to dial another number even as your group hurry towards your rental, the approaching wail of sirens adding a certain urgency to your progression. The call is picked up on the first ring, the voice on the other end familiar to you. "Harrowmont? This is Carpenter. Listen, we have to reschedule the meet. There was a..."
[X] Head out to deal with the Red Court
-[X] Diplomatically, try to explain who they have in their midst
[X]STUNT: You begin to dial another number even as your group hurry towards your rental, the approaching wail of sirens adding a certain urgency to your progression. The call is picked up on the first ring, the voice on the other end familiar to you. "Harrowmont? This is Carpenter. Listen, we have to reschedule the meet. There was a..."
The thing to remember here that there was no time to make explicit in the update because things were moving so fast is that Harry is not alone here. Not only is Molly here whom he sees as someone who needs protection in some regards, common sense be damned, it is one of his intimacies, but over there you can find Lydia the 16 year old orphan. Sure he now knows that she can handle herself in a fight, but protracted legal struggles, the cops... yeah, no, he is not going to be doing any major crimes with the feds minutes away while in her company, not if he can help it.
- Location
- Germany
I already switched to diplo for other reasons, I just wanted to repeat that that's never a good reason for anything.
I'm happy to kill my enemy's enemies, be it White Court, Red Court or others, as long as they are our and mankind's enemies as well.
Depends on what they want them dead for. Vampires competing with Broken Seeker for wizard victims have it coming, but if an asshole happens to be a key venator then it's worth a second look. Not to say we should always drop it in that case, but if they're doing important work we need someone to take over their job ready before we gut them.
OK, it looks like we are going to try to talk to the vampires... now lets see if you run into Alfredo and company before they run right into the feds with only Silk to run interference.
???
Red Court vampire. Most of them arent strong enough to even walk around in the open in daytime
So unless they're sending half-Reds, thats not gonna work out very well in the middle of a Nevada afternoon.
Yep, they are sending in the infected.
They have the power of money on their side too, more so than it is on ours even. I'm surprised they don't have something like an extensive private security company mixing mortals and groups like the Red Dogs were before they joined us to deploy during the daytime.
Ghouls aren't high on the superhuman scale all on their own, but if you want muscle and are able to feed their appetites they're good enough to make better soldiers than humans would most of the time.
Is it a trust thing?
So the people with the Willpower to not murder mortals and turn into full Reds.
Of course, they're probably all enthralled.
Else Molly would just try recruiting them en masse.
@BronzeTongue is right.
This is an attritionist strategy; Sandra may not know about how our motes work, but she's explicitly trying to wear us, and the city down, one small cut at a time.
We really shouldnt be rushing into her things; that just results in us getting low on motes.
Partly trust.
Partly that since the Reds can literally make their own high quality mooks, they dont have to outside the family so much, so to speak. At least not for sensitive/important matters.
A Red noble can recruit a bunch of mortals with experience and special skills and turn them directly into half-Reds, which is a straight upgrade in capabilities. With ghouls you have to settle for what you can get, and most ghouls we see in canon(with the exception of Polonessa's group) dont really appear to get very much training in anything.
So while you will see some ghouls in Red Court employ, particularly in expendable or low-class tasks, you're more likely to see Reds,half-Reds and mortals.
Arc 11 Post 78: Black Wings at Noon
Black Wings at Noon
13th of January 2007 A.D.
"We need to talk to the Red Court, I know where she is," you say as you rush to the car thankfully tucked away from the quickly spreading pandemonium in front of the club. Someone had called an ambulance, the siren punctuating the voices of dozens of scared and people and... yep there's the hoking. Traffic had been stopped before the cops had even gotten there. "We need contacts..." you glance back at Mr. Adkin, but he shakes his head. "The only contact I knew of is Silk and she looks to be quite busy with..." a vague wave of the hand encompass all that is behind you, "that."
"Follow the money," Tiffany cuts in. "Regardless of the fact that they may have decided to all live like sewer bats some things still need to be delivered, chiefly blood, but also food and other consumables."
"They don't need it," Harry speaks up from behind the wheel. "The blood is all there is for them."
At that Tiffany gives him a look of sympathy and chiding all at once "It is all they need yes, but all a human really needs is food, water and something to keep the rain off, it does not mean that is all humanity aspires to. The vampires of the Red Court do not just wear masks for their victims' eyes."
Arlene squared away her debts, but maybe... You call and ask, making it clear you are not about to do a repeat performance on vampiric removal, but you really need to get in contact with whoever is down in the tunnels, arrange a meeting.
There is an audible pause as she considers the value of her assets versus the urgency of your mission and perhaps the odds the Red Court will make a liar out of you. The scales must have hung very heavily on your side because what finds its way to your email account twenty minutes later is a ten page PDF with and attached excel sheet of 'notable transactions', shell companies, middlemen, the works. Unsurprisingly perhaps the priestess does not know much about the internal politics of the Red Court, but following the digital thread of suspicious transports out of McCarran International Airport you are able to identify a company Sang Royal Shipping....
"Dear God, they aren't hiding it are they?" you mutter under your breath. At the guarded, but curious look from Mutt you explain.
At first you think a grimace and a shake of the head is all you are going to get but he explains: "I know the guy who runs the company, Jerome Bouchard, names a lot more French than he is if you ask me, vampire, older than the guy who has Silk's leash, lives in Manhattan..."
"Well that's out then," you grumble at jet setting vampires.
"The condo on on South Las Vegas Boulevard, just make a left here, yeah yeah they're gonna honk. Hung over assholes. It's called right of way, look it up!" the last was shouted at a passing muscle car with way too many shirtless college age guys piled in the back like backseat, like a frat house on wheels, signaling sloppily driving too fast into a future that's a thousand times more dangerous than anything they could do on the road.
No Telephone number found, Clippy, ever the voice of practicality cuts off the thought from spiraling. Theory: Day to Day company operations under human or infected oversight, placing the true supervisor beyond easy scrutiny
"Yeah, that sounds right," Mutt says, still a little bemused at the 'talking phone'.
"So we have to go up and talk to him," Lydia concludes. "Whose we? I mean..." she points at everyone in turn. "We kind of look like a hit squad and there's already been an attack on a Red Court affiliated business that we know of. If we all just pile in there in the middle of the day he might panic."
"Ah... I believe I can be of service," Mr Adkin says pulling a trio of dead grasshoppers from one of his dress pockets and holds them out the window as he intones something that is both slow sonorous prayer and a series of quick Morse code like clicks, though as soon as one focuses on one it vanishes into the auditory folds of the other.
A small black bird with curious red eyes dives down to get the treat then circles around the car as Harry gives the old man a vaguely suspicious look, though whether at the nature of the bird or just at the demonstrated skill at enchantment it's hard to tell.
"Ah, carrier birds, takes me back!" Tiffany proclaims with clearly faked enthusiasm.
Outwardly you smile, but as you consider what is safe to out to paper you freeze. There is no reason why Sandra could not have subborned at least some of the local vampires, in fact she would be a fool not to. If you say too much to this guy and he is one of hers you will have only given her warning. Of course you can see his window. You could ask at the cost of one more motes.
What do you write the Red Court vampire?
[] Lay out the whole thing Sandra, her goal and how you think she tricked the leader of the local Red Court into a fight with Orpheus
[] Explain that an enemy of yours is plotting the Baron's downfall and you wish to speak with him
[] Use your Crown to ascertain Jerome's true loyalties
[] Write in
OOC: Enjoy
- Location
- Germany
I have no idea who we are talking to or why?
I expected Molly to roll up to wherever the Dragon and Sandra are and negotiate sword in hand, not this mess around four corners.
I expected Molly to roll up to wherever the Dragon and Sandra are and negotiate sword in hand, not this mess around four corners.
The vampires holed up under the strip have been called out as paranoid and you have Harry Dresden with you in addition to what Molly feels like. Showing up sword in hand is not diplomacy, more like combat with a bit of shouting beforehand.
- Location
- Germany
I'd say having Harry's reputation plus our obvious power is the best possible basis for a negotiation.
Only possible improvement would be waving Ariannas head around.
We want these guys out of the way when we come to kill, not as long-term allies.
Well, I have those limited goals at least.