Panicked thought: @DragonParadox does our owl talisman make Lily capable of breaking Summer Law and damaging the mantle by ignoring its warnings in regards to sexual intercourse? Is there a risk she'll destroy Summer Lady mantle without intending to, through simple ignorance?
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
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Certainly not destroy, the Mantle is old and considerably more powerful than the three dot artifact you made. Break Summer Law... probably not, but Molly is not sure, she does not get just how that is enforced or the fundamentals of 'what is a fey?'
Ok. The most important part (that we aren't risking one of the three fundamental linchpins of the fae courts breaking) is there.
What relevance does this have to the conversation? I'm sure he can pick it up by context, but it's not like he's thinking this is a Summer operation or something and we can explain more about what happened when we get Nora.
It's also really hamfisted. He's a fey, he's not going to forget what he owes us or something.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
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Wasn't quite sure if he had. He is acting really decisively for someone with so little information that has just been yanked out of a really bad situation. Makes me wonder if he a way of getting an extra clue or if he is actually under false information somehow.
Yes, I think its a safe assumption that he'll get a choice.
The dude has had more than fifteen years of preptime for precisely this sort of contingency.
Ebenezar is a powerful archmage, but he has constraints.
We have seen him in canon get cornered and neutralized by a pack of Cornerhounds, and in this AU we saw him fleeing a bloodpack of Rampires and lesser Outsiders. Man's human, and is burdened by considerations for collateral.
Peabody in this AU is not.
The dude has received Investment from Ashraaah; in canon, he was just a wizard traitor with the connections and knowledge to source a mistfiend. Here, he is the personal project of some Nephandi gilledian who literally can see through his eyes.
We're in an AU where White Court dukes can summon Walkers at short notice; what an actual experienced wizard with Backing and a stretch goal of maximizing collateral damage can manage doesnt bear thinking about.
THAT was the lesson of canon; Peabody died, but even in dying he collateraled the White Council so badly that they were still feeling the short term effects during Battle Ground. And given the average time for wizards to mature into their full power and knowledge is on the order of a century plus, just the personnel losses were going to be felt into the 22nd century.
And thats not counting the other, more subtle damage.
I dont see how this is our business. Noone asked our opinion.
Certainly not for Molly to intervene ahead of anything; we might have a quiet word of caution later if we think its necessary, but its not like Lily hasnt been Summer Lady for six or seven years now.
Besides, there's a certain symmetry in Old Man Mathews going to Winter, and then Joe Magarac going to Summer.
Balance.
VOTE
[X] It's his risk to take, stay silent
Fey debt magic isn't subtle, if he owed Summer he would know. Even if he didn't this isn't really the way to bring it up. He's almost certainly not flirting with her because he owes her.
More likely he just finds her attractive and is enjoying being out of hell.
Debts dont necessarily require that you change your affiliation.
See Dresden, and the various debts he owes and which are owed to him.
Affairs dont necessarily involve sex.
Note that after Summer Lady Lily got killed by Maeve in canon? New Summer Lady Sarissa and Summer Knight Fix are canonically now dating, while trying to keep it a secret from Titania, while the rest of the Summer Court watch in amusement and root for one result or the other.
Peabody isn't the only one who gets to be competent and first mover advantage is considerable.
A significant portion of Peabody's plotting, and therefore his resource investment, went into not getting caught in the first place. Once that's gone there's a lot less to work with.
You could write in whatever you want in the gap, but given that Peabody's plan was to drop a distraction and run for his life I think his plan for redneck!Megumin is to not get caught by him in the first place.
Good night guys, see you in the morning as we finally check out that Well and get ready for charms.
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- Canada
Yeah but when he did get caught and dropped a distraction, said distraction still killed a bunch of Wardens. If he'd had any warning, his self-destruct/distraction would've been a lot worse, considering how many people he got his hooks into.
That's context dependent. He isn't have a global psychic kill switch, he had to shout at people. If McCoy catches him alone then I'm betting on the combat wizard.
The game here is one of specialties, Peabody is an intrusion and manipulation build. Very dangerous, but when playing against his peers he needs to keep people from noticing or pinning him in place. Getting to a fight is more than half the battle.
Molly is a dungeon bypass to the guy's primary playbook even just tangentially looking in his direction because exalts cheat.
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- Canada
The context of Peabody getting caught red-handed was that he was in the worst possible situation: caught off-guard and outnumbered.
He still dealt massive damage. If Molly had been there she could've resolved things, but if Peabody had gotten a 2 minute warning he could've done a lot worse.
Either way, Molly being there to help will be greatly appreciated once the Council realizes how badly they screwed up. Getting help from Molly is like getting help from a Dragon: there are very few situations in which you'd refuse, and even then you have to consider the cost of pissing off said Dragon.
Molly being there in person will build trust and favor with the White Council. And she wouldn't even have to do too much, just be there as a backup plan in case any squishy wizards end up having to fight a pocket demon.
The problem was that he was revealed surrounded by his victims when they thought they were safe by people who did not know he how far he'd gone. That's completely different than being hunted.
If McCoy went for him he wouldn't do it in a crowd of unprepared wizards.
He had the ability to do that in canon; no extra juice.
This is not canon Peabody; the Crown confirmed him to be the agent of a Nephandi gilledian-equivalent in this AU.
Who is the most trusted traitor within the ranks of the White Council?
Lost 3 Essence (Crown of Eyes: Three questions) -> Now at 7/15
Regained 2 Essence (Urge of the Forbidden) -> Now at 9/15
Samuel Peabody again, this time accompanied by a vision of a mild-mannered bespectacled balding fellow with a salt and pepper, save for the fact that his eyes behind those spectacles are dead, a corpse-gaze looking out of a living face unseen by all, even the wisest. Behind those eyes his master watches, the dark that eats the stars, the shadow inside.
Ashraaah's work
It's the same one who had given Vittorio Malvora his veil against true-sight, a taste like kerosene and rotten meat on the tongue. The irony does not escape you that in trying to hide his pawns he has actually revealed the connection between them, it is just hard to hear the satisfaction over the gibbering horror of someone that highly placed being a servant of not just the Red Court, old and wicked as it may be but Things Beyond.
Lost 3 Essence (Crown of Eyes: Three questions) -> Now at 7/15
Regained 2 Essence (Urge of the Forbidden) -> Now at 9/15
Samuel Peabody again, this time accompanied by a vision of a mild-mannered bespectacled balding fellow with a salt and pepper, save for the fact that his eyes behind those spectacles are dead, a corpse-gaze looking out of a living face unseen by all, even the wisest. Behind those eyes his master watches, the dark that eats the stars, the shadow inside.
Ashraaah's work
It's the same one who had given Vittorio Malvora his veil against true-sight, a taste like kerosene and rotten meat on the tongue. The irony does not escape you that in trying to hide his pawns he has actually revealed the connection between them, it is just hard to hear the satisfaction over the gibbering horror of someone that highly placed being a servant of not just the Red Court, old and wicked as it may be but Things Beyond.
And we were explicitly told that his boss's name is protected against observation by mortal mages.
I dont find that particularly plausible either.
Someone who was able to arrange the subversion of the military command of the Wardens and the murder of a Senior Council member in the middle of the Hidden Halls of Edinburgh was pretty clearly in the heart of all their defensive measures.
Not considering worst case was either magic or incompetence, and I prefer to assume competence.
This is not canon Peabody.
In this AU Peabody is an acolyte/underling of Ashraaah, and we're explicitly told that there's a significant amount of conceptual magic floating around when we first stumbled across the name:
Thus restrained you fix your eyes upon his boring as heck tie, not even enough imagination to go for a colorful one and ask: How is the owner of this tie warded from my sight?
On that unremarkable path in the shadow of a fake chateaux, the smell of night flowers and fine parfume applied perhaps a bit to liberally you encounter something you had not since taking up the Crown of Wisdom, the Crown of Eyes: a shadow in its sight, a void that looms above the vampire's left shoulder up and up until it seems to eat the stars.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 13/15
His master's work.
Ashraaah's work
The word, passes into your mind like a worm crawling through silt and you know that were you merely a mortal wizard so too would it seek to pass out of mind without a trace in memory. But you did not overhear it on the night air, not did you read it in some pilfered scroll or upon a screen left carelessly open... open for the careless. You took it and what you take you keep. Meaning you draw from it as one might drill an oil well down to hell.
Not-Man, Once-Man, Husk. All that was of him in the Image of God is Not and in the place of God, something else, a hunger, a need, a Howling.
All at once the world snaps back into focus, all the sights and sounds of nocturnal gathering spinning around and round in a haze of of blind gaiety, knowing not for the servant, the puppet of darkness that walks among them, for you do not think the Ashraaah is capable of keeping servants that its influence does not devour.
On that unremarkable path in the shadow of a fake chateaux, the smell of night flowers and fine parfume applied perhaps a bit to liberally you encounter something you had not since taking up the Crown of Wisdom, the Crown of Eyes: a shadow in its sight, a void that looms above the vampire's left shoulder up and up until it seems to eat the stars.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 13/15
His master's work.
Ashraaah's work
The word, passes into your mind like a worm crawling through silt and you know that were you merely a mortal wizard so too would it seek to pass out of mind without a trace in memory. But you did not overhear it on the night air, not did you read it in some pilfered scroll or upon a screen left carelessly open... open for the careless. You took it and what you take you keep. Meaning you draw from it as one might drill an oil well down to hell.
Not-Man, Once-Man, Husk. All that was of him in the Image of God is Not and in the place of God, something else, a hunger, a need, a Howling.
All at once the world snaps back into focus, all the sights and sounds of nocturnal gathering spinning around and round in a haze of of blind gaiety, knowing not for the servant, the puppet of darkness that walks among them, for you do not think the Ashraaah is capable of keeping servants that its influence does not devour.
He couldnt in canon.
This isnt canon any longer. The perp is now juicing Outsider power, and is directly linked to a gilledian.
I think its a mistake to use his canon feats as a ceiling, instead of a floor for his capabilities.
Luccio runs their war effort in the middle of a major war.
I would find it criminally incompetent that they would keep her on duty after an involuntary body swap by a Kemmlerite and not have her healthcare regularly overseen by the best medical wizard in the business.
Will not be enough.
Both for intelligence, and for mitigation.
And we are maneuvering against someone who is backed by someone who McCoy might not even be able to remember.
It would be criminally irresponsible to drop this on them and assume they have it.
IMO.
Arbitarily capable? No. But Molly is not an unknown quantity. She lives under the same roof as a Knight of the Cross, she just prevented some Outsider-aligned mage from blowing up Vegas, and she just kicked a Yama King out of Boston, then followed that up by delaying an economic recession.
The Merlin scanned her in front of witnesses. The deputy commander of the Wardens has been to her domain.
She has cred.
No it is not a basic legitimacy thing. Any more than it was when Dresden went after Madeline Raith in Turn Coat, or when Lara Raith used him to squash her political enemies in White Knight. Dresdenverse politics does not work like RL, and when Outsider shit comes into play, the rules become even more flexible.
No more than when Dresden first committed the Council to act as Marcone's co-sponsor to the Accords in White Night, and then again committed the Council to saving Marcone's ass in Small Favor.
Peabody in this setting is explicitly juicing Outsider power in additon to whatever his native skills are, and his patron appears to be a gilledian that the Crown told us cant be perceived by mortal wizards. We made it clear to the Merlin literally at our first meeting that Outsiders are very much our business.
Dresdenverse supernatural politics does not entirely work the way it works IRL.
Individual actors can and do set policy to a level that would be unthought of in the real world; see Dresden. And hiring external consultants to handle major issues is a well-established practice; Dresden's first encounter with Mab was her hiring him for this.
Dresden is actually a senior officer of the Council law enforcement/military arm; this is literally his business.
Thats inaccurate.
Word of Jim is explicit that the White Council has always tightly held whoever holds the position; there's no way Kemmler just wandered in and took it, and passed the evaluation of Alfred to boot.
And the reason that it was even vacant when Dresden got it was because they couldnt agree on who would be the next Warden after the previous one vacated the position. Presumably by death.
You are misremembering.
The only other White Council wizard that met Madrigal Raith was Ramirez, and that was maybe ten or twenty minutes before Dresden yeeted Madrigal's burning body into a rock wall at bone-shattering speeds.
The only White Council delegation that met any of the Raiths was in Turn Coat, several books after White Night.
This Peabody has Nephandi backing, and preptime. More than a decade of it, compared to Sandra's six months.
He isnt working within the constraints of the one that was in canon.
Assuming that his canon feats are the ceiling of what he can do if cornered is....unwise.
Not saying he can win a cage match with a Senior Council wizard, or that he'd even try.
But Im not saying he cant try, or fuck up a ton of shit in the process. Or even die and be reinstantiated in a new body by his bosses if he's judged valuable enough.
I remember Canon!Vittorio Malvora paralyzing an entire hall full of people, including Dresden and Ramirez, with one move, and he wasnt even a Council-tier wizard.
I remember Duke Skavis calling a Walker with a blood sacrifice.
I think its a grave error to think that just throwing the Blackstaff at this dude solves the problem.
Just my opinion.
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Sincerely @uju32 and @BronzeTongue your discussion on this subject is very hasty, we should just wait and see our options on next turn and then see how many AP DP will ask for it, just remind him of that and he will set the option. We can even ask Lash to help us make the plan, she's definitely much better at intrigue than Molly or us.
Then we can kill each other with knives during discussions about how to handle the information.
Then we can kill each other with knives during discussions about how to handle the information.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
Doesn't Rashid have the ability to see Outsider shenanigans just by looking at someone? How is Peabody corrupted enough to allow one to see through his eyes given that? Seems like he should've been caught though maybe Rashid needs a reason to use it.
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The problem is that if it doesn't, it breaks the internal logic of the setting. Blackstaff is the council's hit wizard and trouble shooter. The one that puts things down. If he couldn't cut it, the council would have been done a long time ago.
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- Canada
The question isn't whether the Blackstaff could take Peabody in a cage fight, the question is if he can clobber him before he deals irrevocable damage to the White Council. Most wizards go down in a fist fight fairly easy for their power level, but give them time to prepare and they can hit way out of their league.
And Peabody's had a long time to prepare. Even in canon, without ever managing to set off some of his more destructive traps, it still took a whole of wizardpower from the best of the best to deactivate all his booby traps.
We have absolute informational advantage thanks to the Crown. Disrupting his contingencies (and he can't actually have that many for fear of them being discovered - he's an infiltrator, I remind you) is, if not trivial, than doable in a routine way.
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- Canada
Yes, but it would be easier and safer to do so while actually present and available as a backup. Basically, I don't want to just hand the Blackstaff a list of traitors and their contingencies; I wanna be there when shit starts hitting the fan to cut the power cord with our Essence 4 unsoakable Agg Demon Sword.
Vote closed