Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

Looks fine.

We can expand our Hell by conquering others, I hope.
Yomi-Wan only grew into the over-large underworld it is today by absorbing parts of nearby realms after all, so it is just natural that we can do the same once we have the strenght to beat a Yama-King in their own domain.
I dont expect to expand by conquest.

I think there's an error in the options that slipped through editing; Deadly Fauna should be +1 point, not -1.
But we'll see.
I maintain that, depending on how large he was, making a manse out of his remains would be the best use.
We would have to spend all our time and resources trying to defend it against people trying to take it from us.
And there would be a lot of people inclined to try their luck.

My inclination is either the Ring of Power strat where we can actually take whatever we make and stash it away, or just making a new Dragon from scratch to grow to replace Siriothrax.
Do with it what Dresden did with Ivy.
Imagine Chichen Itza except instead of arriving transformed into dogs, we slam into the side of the pyramid at mach 26 in a giant robot. It's like pulling an Ebeneezer, but we are the satellite.
I mean, it obviously wouldn't work for the canon rescue mission, but that's not what most of the war is going to be.
Both the Leanansidhe and Odin were there, Odin as a member of the Grey Council.
If they had wanted to do the kaiju strat and thought it was possible to get through the defenses, they had the magical grunt to pull it off. Would have even managed a battlefield victory. But that would not have genocided the Red Court.

Giant robots are Awesome.
Giant robots are also a very specialized use case that seldom turns up even in Creation, let alone in the Dresdenverse.
 
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We would have to spend all our time and resources trying to defend it against people trying to take it from us.
And there would be a lot of people inclined to try their luck.

My inclination is either the Ring of Power strat where we can actually take whatever we make and stash it away, or just making a new Dragon from scratch to grow to replace Siriothrax.
Do with it what Dresden did with Ivy.
Two possibilities:
1) Make the manse inside our world soul. Would it actually work?
2) Make / bind guardians for the building.
 
Two possibilities:
1) Make the manse inside our world soul. Would it actually work?
2) Make / bind guardians for the building.

Manses work because they focus essence to do unusual things, external essence. Everything in your world-soul runs off your essence so it is already as efficient as your exaltation can make it doing whatever unusual things are inherent to it. So in short no, if you want a manse, and I am not saying such a thing can even be done, you would have to make it out in the physical world or the Nevernever
 
Manses work because they focus essence to do unusual things, external essence. Everything in your world-soul runs off your essence so it is already as efficient as your exaltation can make it doing whatever unusual things are inherent to it. So in short no, if you want a manse, and I am not saying such a thing can even be done, you would have to make it out in the physical world or the Nevernever
Ok, But would actually making a ritualistic building / monument in our world soul out of a (former) pillar of Creation have an effect on said world soul? Making it stronger / firmer / more real? Something like that.
 
Ok, But would actually making a ritualistic building / monument in our world soul out of a (former) pillar of Creation have an effect on said world soul? Making it stronger / firmer / more real? Something like that.

There is a trait for that

• Grand Grimoire (Cost: 1 point): The Hell contains
a great repository of mystical lore, as well as extensive
ritual spaces. The difficulty of all ancient sorcery
rolls within these spaces is reduced by two, and the
Essence cost by 1. Other ritual magic (or magick) in
line with the style and theme of the Hell also enjoys a
–1 difficulty reduction.

As to if you could make this by hand after the hell is completed, I'd say that it seems narrow enough in scope that it could be done with considerable effort. As those dragon remains have not even shown up on screen there is no way to know if they would be suitable for this.
 
There is a trait for that

• Grand Grimoire (Cost: 1 point): The Hell contains
a great repository of mystical lore, as well as extensive
ritual spaces. The difficulty of all ancient sorcery
rolls within these spaces is reduced by two, and the
Essence cost by 1. Other ritual magic (or magick) in
line with the style and theme of the Hell also enjoys a
–1 difficulty reduction.

As to if you could make this by hand after the hell is completed, I'd say that it seems narrow enough in scope that it could be done with considerable effort. As those dragon remains have not even shown up on screen there is no way to know if they would be suitable for this.
I think that this would be a worthwhile use of the material, assuming there's enough to use the remains in such a way.
 
Another trait also gives an additional -1 Essence cost; you can get it from selling (bits) of your soul.

IIRC.


Wait no, that's Pentacle and The Scepter, another Infernal charm.
 
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I suspect that a Manse would be very hard to find in the mundane world, I wager such places or something similar might exist in the Nevernever.

Undoubtedly Molly would have to fight off whatever is already there.

Securing it would probably involve binding a whole bunch of evil spirits to guard the place.
 
I enjoy crunchy mechanics in quests like these, but some of the rolls I see confuse me. Could someone clear things up for me or point me to the system we are using?
  1. I thought that in Storyteller that the difficulty of a task is calculated based on the number of successes you need to roll, but I see checks often with a different success threshold. What determines if the "hardness" of a task demands more successes or a higher threshold?
  2. Excellency means that rolls of 1 don't remove a success, right? Is excellency something only Exalts have or is it something that every character gets in their core-competencies?
  3. The rollz for this insight check showed "(5 4 4 7 3 10+4⊕⊕ 8 10+7⊕⊕ 1⊖ 3 8 5 3 6 → 3 successes against 14)"
    The QM said that we needed 3 successes to succeed at this check, but this result is only 2 right? the 14 and 17 give 1 success each and the excellency negates the 1 botch we rolled. Or do 10+ rolls still count as 2 successes even if the threshold is > 10?
 
I enjoy crunchy mechanics in quests like these, but some of the rolls I see confuse me. Could someone clear things up for me or point me to the system we are using?
  1. I thought that in Storyteller that the difficulty of a task is calculated based on the number of successes you need to roll, but I see checks often with a different success threshold. What determines if the "hardness" of a task demands more successes or a higher threshold?
  2. Excellency means that rolls of 1 don't remove a success, right? Is excellency something only Exalts have or is it something that every character gets in their core-competencies?
  3. The rollz for this insight check showed "(5 4 4 7 3 10+4⊕⊕ 8 10+7⊕⊕ 1⊖ 3 8 5 3 6 → 3 successes against 14)"
    The QM said that we needed 3 successes to succeed at this check, but this result is only 2 right? the 14 and 17 give 1 success each and the excellency negates the 1 botch we rolled. Or do 10+ rolls still count as 2 successes even if the threshold is > 10?

You are an exalted, you ignore 1s when it comes to your key abilities, that is the ones bolded on the front page. Excellency means you double the number of dice you roll, so instead of 7 for Perception+Occult you rolled 14.

Difficulty is measured by circumstances, but many tasks particularly combat and magic related ones need multiple successes
 
I thought that in Storyteller that the difficulty of a task is calculated based on the number of successes you need to roll, but I see checks often with a different success threshold. What determines if the "hardness" of a task demands more successes or a higher threshold?
Very generally speaking the difficulty in the sense of Success-threshold is how difficult a task is.
Keeping your balance on wet ground while running might be 5, keeping it on the iced-over surface of a ship struggling in hard weather a 9.

Meanwhile the number of successes determines how well you do.
1 Success is barely succeding (writing a decent mark at a math-test), more successes means a better result.
In actions against other people (social combat, actual combat, competative sports,...) you have to get more successes than the other person to win something.
So if you get 1 success on an occult roll to notice that a sword might be alive you have a vague idea that might be the case, if you get 5 successes you know the hows and whys of the matter.
 
Demonsreach might be an actual 5 dots Manse, but ye olde goode Exalted times standards.

Aside from that one exception, I don't think there are too many places that qualify for even 1 dot.
 
Demonsreach might be an actual 5 dots Manse, but ye olde goode Exalted times standards.

Aside from that one exception, I don't think there are too many places that qualify for even 1 dot.
1 Dot are very small, with their effects being so minor that it basically takes looking them with proper equipment to find. 5 dots are can cover miles, and can visibly mutate creature that spend time in them.
 
Demonreach may border on N/A if we stat it as a manse. Passive defenses that can hold of armies of outsiders? Keeping hundreds of high power horrors safely imprisoned, with possibly something far worse at the bottom? Constructed across time? Perfect awareness of anything on itself? Able to resist two fairy ladies that made it past said defenses? Able to pick its own keeper and communicate complex information to them? A "nuke the continent" safeguard? Possibly more?

That thing would be high tier even in exalted.
 
Demonsreach might be an actual 5 dots Manse, but ye olde goode Exalted times standards.

Aside from that one exception, I don't think there are too many places that qualify for even 1 dot.

A 5 dot manse is not just a place with a lot of power, it is a place where the power bubbles freely in the water, where if breathes in the air and burns in every flame, where the earth groans or sings with it. It is to the magical background of the Age of Sorrows what that background is to the wasteland of essence all around you
 
Demonsreach might be an actual 5 dots Manse, but ye olde goode Exalted times standards.

Aside from that one exception, I don't think there are too many places that qualify for even 1 dot.

I imagine the best places already have occupants, although there are plenty of places of potential power to investigate.

The UK alone is riddled with ancient giant's thrones, faerie forests and magic caves.

Obviously something closer to Chicago would be better unless Molly fancies finding Ways through the Nevernever.

Edit: But yeah, sounds like the Earth is just too magically barren at the moment.
 
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Soo... I found something odd. In Hunter the Hunted II there are so called asset merits, including this one:

Occult Library (2- or 4-pt. Merit)
Your character owns an estimable collection of works on
arcane lore. If he has access to his library, you can lower the
difficulty of Intelligence-, Occult-, or research-related rolls
by 1 when he's attempting to solve an occult mystery or
generally learn more about the occult. Having this library
doesn't automatically mean the hunter's an occult expert, it
just means he has convenient access to some knowledge. If
you have purchased the four-point version of this Merit, your
character also has an Occult Laboratory stocked with strange
and rare ingredients he might need for his Numina rituals.


In Mage something like this is a Background and building it up to a level where it would be actually useful would be impractical with VED. But on the other hand if I'm willing to give you the preternatural power that is Unaging or Nine Lives it seems a bit arbitrary to stop at Hedge Mage's library. Also getting someone to make a wish in part or in full for your benefit is very on theme for an infernal. So all in all this is valid and so's this:

Science Laboratory (2-pt. Merit)
Your character has access to a fully stocked laboratory with
functional scientific apparatuses and research equipment.
When she has access to her laboratory, your character can
perform experiments, run tests, and collect data, and you may
lower your difficulty by 2 for relevant Investigation or Science
rolls, or lower the difficulty by 1 for other appropriate rolls (as
determined by the Storyteller) while she uses the equipment.


How your power pulls at the threads of the fate to give these things to the supplicant is not under your control, but they will have it the moment you grant the wish, even if they might not know about it at once.
 
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[X] Minor talents in Chicago
-[X]Stunt: Having pried Leech off the home PC with a bribe of storebought icecream, you have three different instances of Internet Explorer open to Google Search,Yahoo Search and MSN with a scratchpad of search notes and other, more obscure local forums beside you. Carefully you type the search term Bock Ordered Books into the Google search box and press enter.
 
There is a trait for that

• Grand Grimoire (Cost: 1 point): The Hell contains
a great repository of mystical lore, as well as extensive
ritual spaces. The difficulty of all ancient sorcery
rolls within these spaces is reduced by two, and the
Essence cost by 1. Other ritual magic (or magick) in
line with the style and theme of the Hell also enjoys a
–1 difficulty reduction.

As to if you could make this by hand after the hell is completed, I'd say that it seems narrow enough in scope that it could be done with considerable effort. As those dragon remains have not even shown up on screen there is no way to know if they would be suitable for this.
This is one of the traits that I have my eye on.
Its not as cool narratively as Lord of the Land, which literally allows you to control the weather
Lord of the Land (Cost: 1 point): The Hell's nat-
ural phenomena obey your will. You can make the
winds blow as you wish, calm boiling seas or bid them
part, and call down lightning during a raging storm.


But it has actual mechanical effects worth taking, while Lord of the Land is only there for style points.
If it can be acquired mechanically in play, then it might be better not to take it while statting up her inner Kingdom and roleplay for it instead. Looting someone's hoard, for example.
I suspect that a Manse would be very hard to find in the mundane world, I wager such places or something similar might exist in the Nevernever. Undoubtedly Molly would have to fight off whatever is already there.
Securing it would probably involve binding a whole bunch of evil spirits to guard the place.
Molly would literally have to live on it 24/7 to keep it.
Else she would risk doing a grocery run and coming back to find out that the Red Court have brought an army of several thousand vamps backed with Outsiders and taken the place.

Or that Nicodemus, say, has rolled up with a dozen Denarians, several score cultists and warbeasts and camped on the front lawn.
And as badass as we are, I dont think we are an Archive-tier heavyweight.
Yet.
Demonreach may border on N/A if we stat it as a manse. Passive defenses that can hold of armies of outsiders? Keeping hundreds of high power horrors safely imprisoned, with possibly something far worse at the bottom? Constructed across time? Perfect awareness of anything on itself? Able to resist two fairy ladies that made it past said defenses? Able to pick its own keeper and communicate complex information to them? A "nuke the continent" safeguard? Possibly more?

That thing would be high tier even in exalted.
Demonreach is certainly a <Background NA>.
Possibly several <Background NAs> to represent the spirit as a Familiar NA, and the island itself as a Manse NA, the auto-binding against Mab-tier entities as a <Weapon NA>, and the continent-destroying self-destruct as another <Weapon NA>.

Soo... I found something odd. In Hunter the Hunted II there are so called asset merits, including this one:

Occult Library (2- or 4-pt. Merit)
Your character owns an estimable collection of works on
arcane lore. If he has access to his library, you can lower the
difficulty of Intelligence-, Occult-, or research-related rolls
by 1 when he's attempting to solve an occult mystery or
generally learn more about the occult. Having this library
doesn't automatically mean the hunter's an occult expert, it
just means he has convenient access to some knowledge. If
you have purchased the four-point version of this Merit, your
character also has an Occult Laboratory stocked with strange
and rare ingredients he might need for his Numina rituals.


In Mage something like this is a Background and building it up to a level where it would be actually useful would be impractical with VED. But on the other hand if I'm willing to give you the preternatural power that is Unaging or Nine Lives it seems a bit arbitrary to stop at Hedge Mage's library. Also getting someone to make a wish in part or in full for your benefit is very on theme for an infernal. So all in all this is valid and so's this:

Science Laboratory (2-pt. Merit)
Your character has access to a fully stocked laboratory with
functional scientific apparatuses and research equipment.
When she has access to her laboratory, your character can
perform experiments, run tests, and collect data, and you may
lower your difficulty by 2 for relevant Investigation or Science
rolls, or lower the difficulty by 1 for other appropriate rolls (as
determined by the Storyteller) while she uses the equipment.


How your power pulls at the threads of the fate to give these things to the supplicant is not under your control, but they will have it the moment you grant the wish, even if they might not know about it at once.
Acquire a 5-dot Familiar, give them the enhancements Spirit-Tied Pet, Spirit-Shape Companion and Saga-Beast Virtue,(page 293-295 of the PDF) then have them make a wish for a Library. I recommend something lowpowered, or for which owning a library is thematic, along the lines of a Mouse of the Sun, a crow, an owl like in Avatar series, or a very small dragon.

Or if you're a Pratchett fan, an orangutan.
:)
 
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The Feds cant do shit about the Wild Hunt anyway; the Erl King and his escort running around is a level of power well beyond anything they're capable of countering, short of dropping nukes, and even that would only be an inconvenience.
The Fae Courts are well beyond anything I expect the govts can do.
Maybe; I think they'd surprise you when dealing with fey that aren't mantle bearers or similarly important, especially once the R&D gets going.

Even if I'm wrong though, provoking the fey to start attacking the federal government would be a catastrophe all on its own.
1)There's another Charm from Shards of the Exalted dream, an Adorjan one, that lets you use any Adorjan movement charm on any vehicle the Infernal pilots using the vehicle's base speed instead of the Infernal's. Combine with Warstrider transformation and VLE expansion and that's a hell of a dynamic entry.
You're kind of taking this from building a useful tool for Molly to building Molly to make the tool useful.

Two charms is a hefty bit of investment for something with such relatively narrow combat applications.

Sure it can work, but we have to go a long way out of our way to make it relevant in a majority of our encounters.
 
Maybe; I think they'd surprise you when dealing with fey that aren't mantle bearers or similarly important, especially once the R&D gets going. Even if I'm wrong though, provoking the fey to start attacking the federal government would be a catastrophe all on its own.
They would have to surprise me.
Its one thing to kill off bridge trolls and minor wyldfae, and quite another to go up against groups of mid-tier Sidhe opposition.

Given how many Sidhe can wield at least some sorcery, their superior logistics and transportation capabilities, and how much modern technology is vulnerable to an entropy spell, well....The sorts of things that fetches, just to pick one example, can do to a group of people is fairly horrifying.

I do agree that such a conflict would be a catastrophe.
 
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