Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[TheGrape]

[X]PLAN HOME SECURITY

 

[BronzeTongue]

I'd still much prefer to leave confronting Peabody in-house for the White Council.

For us it would be a quick and dissapointing fight against a squishy mortal, but with negative consequences because Wizards don't like it when an outsider kills one of their own.

It's a much more interesting challenge for Harry and Ebenezer.

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Yeah. Whatever buffs Peabody got for the plot to make sense the Wizards need to be competent enough to deal with this problem if they know about it, or at least have a good shot at it. Peabody's influence isn't absolute and he's not a super god or his behaviors wouldn't fit.

I think we should collect information this turn as an aside during the wizard training event and pass it off directly to McCoy next turn. If things go sideways then we go to physically intervene.

 

[uju32]

Or that he was changed somehow, souls are not completely immutable and it's been a long time.

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Possible. Mab was human.
But I get the impression that if he was human, thats the sort of thing that someone would make a mention of.
The way he's described suggests he never was.

His son Dracula was, but he wasnt.

We do know that their near existence is part of the lock keeping the Gates barred. They might not need to know what they are to be useful, but still need stars to guide the souls through the world to incarcerate.

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Other way around.
They arent part of the lock keeping the Gates barred, they are part of the immune system dealing with infiltrators that get past the Gates into Creation. The difference between the immune cells in the skin, and those circulating inside the blood.

And just like the Fae as guard force was something determined by some of the then-most powerful inhabitants of Reality, I suspect that the creation of the Starborn was done similarly.

 

[BoredMan]

I think we should collect information this turn as an aside during the wizard training event and pass it off directly to McCoy next turn. If things go sideways then we go to physically intervene.

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I'm still not sure what your expecting him to do considering how canon went. He's got magic but this isn't his skillset. If things go sideways we'll hear about it after a shitload of wizards die most likely.

 

[Degorium]

I'm still not sure what your expecting him to do considering how canon went. He's got magic but this isn't his skillset. If things go sideways we'll hear about it after a shitload of wizards die most likely.

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You mean Canon where they had at most an hour to prepare to capture Peabody and still got him in the end even though he had Mordite clad monsters and tons of hypnotized Wizards with him. Instead of him being investigated for multiple days by Harry and Ebenezer, being found out no one says anything and then he gets caught in his home at night by himself against the black staff or found guilty Absentia and having a satellite dropped on his house with him in it.

 

[iledian]

Even back in Creation, the Maidens and the Incarna had fuckall to do with the actual creation of Creation.
The Primordials built the place, both the landscape, the humans and gods. The Loom of Fate was built by Autobot.
THEN the Maidens showed up.

There is zero supporting evidence in any of the source material that they have the sort of power or authority that you are trying to imply with regards to creating stuff.

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The Maiden (at least in 2e from what I remember) were created by the Primordials...except no one remember which Primordial did this. Something funky is going on but it isn't Fate or the Maidens preceeding Creation.

 

[uju32]

Yeah. Whatever buffs Peabody got for the plot to make sense the Wizards need to be competent enough to deal with this problem if they know about it, or at least have a good shot at it. Peabody's influence isn't absolute and he's not a super god or his behaviors wouldn't fit.

I think we should collect information this turn as an aside during the wizard training event and pass it off directly to McCoy next turn. If things go sideways then we go to physically intervene.

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Canon Peabody still managed to kill fifty wizards and got clear from an entire hall full of wizards.
If Donald Morgan hadnt literally sacrificed himself to kill the dude, he would have gotten away clean. AFTER killing Dresden; his knife was literally in Dresden's eye when Morgan shot him

Peabody 's eyes gleamed with triumph as I fell, and he snapped, "The end is nigh!" freezing the young Wardens in place, as he'd done before. He ripped the key on its leather thong from around the neck of one of the Wardens, opened the gate, then turned with a dagger in his hand and sliced it along the thigh of the young woman who had clobbered me. She cried out and her leg began spurting blood in rhythm with her heart, a telltale sign of a severed artery.
I got back to my feet and hurled a club of raw force at Peabody, but he defeated it as he had the fireball, leapt through the gate, and ripped at the air, peeling open a passage between this world and the next.
He plunged through it.
"Son of a bitch," I snarled. None of the young Wardens were moving, not even the wounded girl. If she didn't get help, she would bleed to death in minutes. "Dammit!" I swore. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" I threw myself onto the girl, ripping the belt off of my jeans and praying that the wound was far enough down her leg for a tourniquet to do any good.
Footsteps hammered the floor, and Anastasia Luccio appeared, gun in her good hand, her face white with pain. She slid to a halt next to me, breathing hard, set the weapon on the floor, and said, "I've got her. Go!"
On the other side of the security gate, the Way was beginning to close.
I rose and rushed it, diving forward. There was a flash of light, and the stone tunnel around me abruptly became a forest of dead trees that smelled strongly of mildew and stagnant water. Peabody was standing right in front of the Way as he tried to close it, and I hit him in a flying tackle before he could finish the job. He went over backward and we hit the ground hard.
For a stunned half second, neither of us moved, and then Peabody shifted his weight, and I caught the gleam of the bloodied dagger at the edge of my vision.
He thrust the point at my throat, but I got an arm in the way. He opened a vein. I grabbed at his wrist with my other hand, and he rolled, gaining the upper position and gripping the dagger with both hands, leaning against my one arm with all of his weight. Drops of my own blood fell onto my face as he forced the point slowly toward my eye.
I struggled to throw him off me, but he was stronger than he looked, and it was clear that he had more experience in close-quarters fighting than I did. I clubbed at him with my wounded arm, but he shrugged it off.
I felt my triceps giving way and watched the tip of the knife come closer. The breaking point was at hand and he knew it. He threw more effort into his attack, and the dagger's tip suddenly stung hot against my lower eyelid.
Then there was a huge noise, and Peabody went away. I remained still for a stunned moment, and then looked up.
Morgan lay on the ground just inside the still-open Way, Luccio's gun smoking in his hand, his wounded leg a mass of wet scarlet.
How he'd managed to run after us given his injury, I had no idea. Even with painkillers, it must have hurt like hell. He stared at Peabody's body with hard eyes. Then his hand started to shake, and he dropped the gun to the ground.
He followed it down with a groan.
I went to him, breathing hard. "Morgan." I turned him over and looked at his wound. It was soaked in blood, but it wasn't bleeding much anymore. His face was white. His lips looked grey.
He opened his eyes calmly. "Got him."
"Yeah," I said. "You got him."
He smiled a little. "That's twice I pulled your ass out of the fire."
I choked out a little laugh. "I know."
"They'll blame me," he said quietly. "There's no confession from Peabody, and I'm a better candidate politically. Let them pin it on me. Don't fight it. I want it."
I stared down at him. "Why?"
He shook his head, smiling wearily.
I stared down at him for long seconds, and then I got it. Morgan had been lying to me from the very start. "Because you already knew who killed LaFortier. She was there when you woke up in his chambers. You saw who did it. And you wanted to protect her."
"Anastasia didn't do it," Morgan said, his voice intense and low. "She was a pawn. Asleep on her feet. She never even knew she was being used." He shuddered. "Should have thought of that. She got put in that younger body, made her mind vulnerable to influence again."
"What happened?" I asked.
"Woke up, LaFortier was dead, and she had the knife. Took it from her, veiled her, and pushed her out the door," Morgan said. "Didn't have time to get both of us out."
"So you took the blame thinking you'd sort things out in the aftermath. But you realized that the frame was too good for anyone to believe you when you tried to tell them what was up." I shook my head. Morgan hadn't given a damn about his own life. He'd escaped when he realized that Anastasia had still been in danger, that he wouldn't be able to expose the real traitor alone.
"Dresden," he said quietly.
"Yeah?"
"I didn't tell anyone about Molly. What she tried to do to Ana. I . . . I didn't tell."
I stared at him, unable to speak.
His eyes became cloudy. "Do you know why I didn't? Why I came to you?"
I shook my head.
"Because I knew," he whispered. He lifted his right hand, and I gripped it hard. "I knew that you knew how it felt to be an innocent man hounded by the Wardens."
It was the closest he'd ever come to saying that he'd been wrong about me.
He died less than a minute later.

Chapter Forty-nine​

Thorsen kept me from bleeding to death from the cut Peabody had given me. The Swede and his backup squad had been faced with a long run to catch up, a lot of locked gates, and the confusion we'd left in our wake. They reached me about three minutes after Morgan died. They did their best to revive Morgan, but his body had taken enough torment and lost too much blood. They didn't even bother with Peabody . Morgan had double-tapped the traitor's head with Luccio's pistol.
They bundled me off to the infirmary, where Injun Joe and a crew of healers—some of whom had gone to medical school when the efficacy ofleeches was still being debated—were caring for those wounded in the attack.
After that, things fell into place without requiring my participation.

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Fifteen seconds, and he'd have made a clean getaway.
It took the response team four or five minutes to catch up to where he was killed.

Canon Simon Peabody was an extraordinarily competent dude.
This one has taken an upgrade in threat level due to Ashraaaf literally being able to see through his eyes and provide support.
You gravely underestimate this dude at our peril.

 

[uju32]

You mean Canon where they had at most an hour to prepare to capture Peabody and still got him in the end even though he had Mordite clad monsters and tons of hypnotized Wizards with him. Instead of him being investigated for multiple days by Harry and Ebenezer, being found out no one says anything and then he gets caught in his home at night by himself against the black staff or found guilty Absentia and having a satellite dropped on his house with him in it.

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They didnt get him.
He almost killed Dresden, and Morgan died putting him down. Dresden spent a week in hospital under the care of Injun Joe; Peabody cut a vein of his and he almost bled out before help could get there.

You really arent grokking the sheer deadly competence of this dude.

 

[Degorium]

Canon Peabody still managed to kill fifty wizards and got clear from an entire hall full of wizards.
If Donald Morgan hadnt literally sacrificed himself to kill the dude, he would have gotten away clean. AFTER killing Dresden; his knife was literally in Dresden's eye when Morgan shot him

Fifteen seconds, and he'd have made a clean getaway.

Canon Simon Peabody was an extraordinarily competent dude.
This one has taken an upgrade in threat level due to Ashraaaf literally being able to see through his eyes and provide support.
You gravely underestimate this dude at our peril.

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If the Blackstaff with the element of surprise prep time and sufficiently powerful wizard help in the form of Dresden is not capable of taking Peabody then we stand literally no chance. The black staff even though he's mostly a blunt instrument is still capable of secrecy and still capable of investigation and with Harry's help that's two wizards of focused on the mulching of both regular and magical obstacles via explosions if Harry with his both magical and regular investigation skills and Ebenezer with his both intense experience and magical power cannot figure this out then why even bother getting in good with the white Council because obviously they deserve anything that happened to them if the magical council at the head cannot even find someone capable of doing his job and this is his job dealing with Outsider bullshit is exactly the black staff's job.

 

[TheGrape]

Peabody was this close to escaping, and still managed to take 50 wizards and Donald Morgan with him to the grave. The only preparation he had on hand was his inkwell, and he managed to do that much damage. Imagine if he was able to set off more of those mind traps he placed in literally all the younger Wardens, or had a few minutes to double back to his room to grab some more deadly magical trinkets.

It's possible for the Blackstaff and the Merlin to gank him harmlessly, but it's also possible that they fail to do it without massive collateral. Having Molly present as backup just sounds like a good idea; IC, the fact that nobody realized he was a traitor means Molly can't exactly expect the Senior Council to nab him easily/safely/quickly.

 

[Degorium]

They didnt get him.
He almost killed Dresden, and Morgan died putting him down. Dresden spent a week in hospital under the care of Injun Joe; Peabody cut a vein of his and he almost bled out before help could get there.

You really arent grokking the sheer deadly competence of this dude.

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No he ran away after he got exposed set all of his hypnotized Wizards on people that could not fight back correctly cuz they didn't want to kill them using Magic and then he still got caught by a white council member and shot in the fucking face. He didn't nearly get away he got caught fighting Dresden and then he got killed by a white council member so they got him anyway.

 

[BronzeTongue]

I'm still not sure what your expecting him to do considering how canon went. He's got magic but this isn't his skillset. If things go sideways we'll hear about it after a shitload of wizards die most likely.

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He's the senior council hatchet man; canon went bad because of the timeline of events and a lack of understanding at how deep his influence had gone. If he knows what's going on he's not going to level his accusations at him and just give him an opportunity to activate his contingencies. The Blackstaff exists for things like this.

Keeping up to speed is harder, but we can do some stuff. I'd give it good odds he'll reach back out to us once he's verified the situation or we can use the crown to check on what he's planning if we need to.

Canon Peabody still managed to kill fifty wizards and got clear from an entire hall full of wizards.
If Donald Morgan hadnt literally sacrificed himself to kill the dude, he would have gotten away clean. AFTER killing Dresden; his knife was literally in Dresden's eye when Morgan shot him

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Because everyone there was surprised; they did the investigation and reveal in front of him with zero chance to do anything about it.

Wizards are good at prep; if they have time to do something about it they wouldn't do it the same way or with that many unwitting bystanders.

Fifteen seconds, and he'd have made a clean getaway.

Canon Simon Peabody was an extraordinarily competent dude.
This one has taken an upgrade in threat level due to Ashraaaf literally being able to see through his eyes and provide support.
You gravely underestimate this dude at our peril

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He can't be the only one who got upgraded if he did at all rather than it being the justification for his canon feats. Otherwise things stop making sense about the state of the canon board.

 

[BoredMan]

You mean Canon where they had at most an hour to prepare to capture Peabody and still got him in the end even though he had Mordite clad monsters and tons of hypnotized Wizards with him. Instead of him being investigated for multiple days by Harry and Ebenezer, being found out no one says anything and then he gets caught in his home at night by himself against the black staff or found guilty Absentia and having a satellite dropped on his house with him in it.

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You left out the part where a fuck load of wizards died in the process and he almost escaped anyway. It doesn't matter much if killing Peabody sets contingency plans off or the like and gets wizards killed anyway as a final fuck you or his Outsider backer switches to a different target. Where does Peabody live anyway? If he lives in a populated area he may not even be willing to drop anything on his house to begin with. McCoy doesn't like killing innocents and will avoid doing so.

The black staff even though he's mostly a blunt instrument

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This requires a scalpel. McCoy has not demonstrated the capability in canon to deal with this sort of threat without casualties. One wrong move and Peabody escapes sets Outsiders loose or whatever else they gave him (think the city wide badluck spell Sandra had) and we have to deal with an escalating situation. We don't even know if killing Peabody will be the end of it we don't know what his long term plans are if he has any.

 

[TheGrape]

Peabody also had no time to prepare, was massively outnumbered, and still nearly made a clean getaway. What if he decided to cause damage instead of running away? He probably could've killed a hundred wizards, if not more. He could've used his Death Curse to nuke everybody while using his mind traps to make them fall asleep and not be able to defend.

 

[Degorium]

You left out the part where a fuck load of wizards died in the process and he almost escaped anyway. It doesn't matter much if killing Peabody sets contingency plans off or the like and gets wizards killed anyway as a final fuck you or his Outsider backer switches to a different target. Where does Peabody live anyway? If he lives in a populated area he may not even be willing to drop anything on his house to begin with. McCoy doesn't like killing innocents and will avoid doing so.

This requires a scalpel. McCoy has not demonstrated the capability in canon to deal with this sort of threat without casualties. One wrong move and Peabody escapes sets Outsiders loose or whatever else they gave him (think the city wide badluck spell Sandra had) and we have to deal with an escalating situation. We don't even know if killing Peabody will be the end of it we don't know what his long term plans are if he has any.

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Peabody also had no time to prepare, was massively outnumbered, and still nearly made a clean getaway. What if he decided to cause damage instead of running away? He probably could've killed a hundred wizards, if not more. He could've used his Death Curse to nuke everybody while using his mind traps to make them fall asleep and not be able to defend.

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I guess I just have one question because The Inkwell is in his office and because we know that he's doing those things do you think the black staff cannot find evidence of him performing these crimes. We know he's conspiring it Outsiders we know he's enthralling members of the wild Council he's guilty of breaking two of the seven laws of magic, what is to stop the black staff the second After he finds these things from disintegrating him on site because that is literally his job and he has the remit to do that.

He still ran from the white Council leadership he didn't try to fight them he's sicked a bunch of people who wouldn't be able to just kill in front of them and then ran for his life then got caught up fighting Dresden hey what is functionally speaking to him a baby wizard and then got shot in the face by a white council member.

So why would Peabody do any better in that scenario when people that are definitely aware of what he was doing find out specifically investigate and then don't let anybody know and attempt to kill him because that thrall tactic only worked because he was in white Council territory without any thralls he literally could not Escape any senior council member hell he only nearly beats Dresden who is just a young hot gun rather than someone with both experience and Power.

 

[BronzeTongue]

Also worth noting that Peabody didn't have a wizard army to sic on people. He could interrogate given time, briefly freeze, and provoke simple physical action. That's a lot, but he wouldn't have taken the time to kill that Warden if she was going to keep distracting his enemies. Seems to heavily imply that doing stuff like that rapidly decays his control and she was about to be able to retaliate.

just being made aware they need to fight it could easily be enough to start killing off his influence.

 

[BoredMan]

just being made aware they need to fight it could easily be enough to start killing off his influence.

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Unlike canon he's backed by Outsiders and Ashraaaf. He got buffed. He may have contingency plans that weren't present in canon. Looking at his canon display and operating purely with that in mind makes no sense at all.

Escape any senior council member hell he only nearly beats Dresden who is just a young hot gun rather than someone with both experience and Power.

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See my above comment.

 

[BronzeTongue]

Peabody also had no time to prepare, was massively outnumbered, and still nearly made a clean getaway. What if he decided to cause damage instead of running away? He probably could've killed a hundred wizards, if not more. He could've used his Death Curse to nuke everybody while using his mind traps to make them fall asleep and not be able to defend.

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He has contingencies for being discovered, they weren't ready to be betrayed by someone with his access. He only got as far as the door because of his freeze trick, which was very temporary.

One wizard being free of it and another being stubborn enough to shake it off quickly was enough to end his escape.

Turning the wards on him or picking the fight without a bunch of vulnerable uniformed wizards to leverage around would make a significant difference. Hell, Ancient Mai's hounds being instructed to go for him prior to the surprise brain bomb would have ended his escape before it started.

 

[BronzeTongue]

nlike canon he's backed by Outsiders and Ashraaaf. He got buffed. He may have contingency plans that weren't present in canon. Looking at his canon display and operating purely with that in mind makes no sense at all

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So what only he gets buffed but the dynamic remains the same? Unless the argument is that he's DP's favorite character I don't see why the system transfer would only make him more effective.

 

[BoredMan]

So what only he gets buffed but the dynamic remains the same? Unless the argument is that he's DP's favorite character I don't see why the system transfer would only make him more effective.

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What are you talking about??? I'm referring to the backing he didn't get in canon that he is getting here. Do you have the Outsider minion investment gift kit book sitting next to you or something?

 

[uju32]

If the Blackstaff with the element of surprise prep time and sufficiently powerful wizard help in the form of Dresden is not capable of taking Peabody then we stand literally no chance. The black staff even though he's mostly a blunt instrument is still capable of secrecy and still capable of investigation and with Harry's help that's two wizards of focused on the mulching of both regular and magical obstacles via explosions if Harry with his both magical and regular investigation skills and Ebenezer with his both intense experience and magical power cannot figure this out then why even bother getting in good with the white Council because obviously they deserve anything that happened to them if the magical council at the head cannot even find someone capable of doing his job and this is his job dealing with Outsider bullshit is exactly the black staff's job.

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1) McCoy had the element of surprise, more than two hours of warning and the backup of not just Dresden but other wizards in canon. He failed at capturing canon Peabody, both on the island of Demonreach and later in Edinburgh

And that was canon Peabody. This one has Upgrades(TM)


2) Ebenezar's core competencies do not lend themselves to surgical neutralization.
When he was accosted by an assassination squad of Reds and Outsiders in canon at the Oregon Camp, he retreated.
Explicit notation is that it was Michael's presence that saved him and Martha Liberty.

When the mistfiend was dropped in Turn Coat, it took all of the Senior Council working together to banish it.
When he got jumped by Cornerhounds in Peace Talks, he turtled under shields, he didnt just obliterate them.

Molly's core competencies OTOH lend themselves to precisely this sort of threat-response.

Because everyone there was surprised; they did the investigation and reveal in front of him with zero chance to do anything about it.

Wizards are good at prep; if they have time to do something about it they wouldn't do it the same way or with that many unwitting bystanders.

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Ebenezar had ample warning, and had at least one Warden in it with him in addition to Dresden.

"Interesting," the Merlin said, turning toward Peabody. There was something almost sharklike about his sudden focus.
"Working on the evidence Dresden found," Ebenezar said, "Warden Ramirez and I searched Peabody's chambers thoroughly not twenty minutes ago. A test of the inks he used to attain the signatures of the Senior Council for various authorizations revealed the presence of a number of chemical and alchemical substances that are known to have been used to assist psychic manipulation of their subjects. It is my belief that Peabody has been drugging the ink for the purpose of attempting greater mental influence over the decisions of members of the Senior Council, and that it is entirely possible that he has compromised the free will of younger members of the Council outright."
Listens-to-Wind's mouth opened in sudden surprise and understanding. He looked down at his ink-stained fingertips, and then up at Peabody.

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The only real explanations are plothole.Or mind whammy.
And we're literally told that Peabody had been influencing the Senior Council.

He can't be the only one who got upgraded if he did at all rather than it being the justification for his canon feats. Otherwise things stop making sense about the state of the canon board.

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Counterpoint: See the Dragon of Vegas.
Its entirely possible that he is the only one who got upgraded here. Dresden saw Peabody casting in canon to defend himself during his escape attempt; if he'd been running on Outsider juice, Dresden would have noticed.

 

[TheGrape]

Basically, it's possible for things to go better in canon, but why risk it when having Molly there will almost assuredly make things go better than in canon? Play it safe, do the White Council a solid (and maybe get a Favor from them), and make it clear Big Molly is here to help.

​

 

[uju32]

I guess I just have one question because The Inkwell is in his office and because we know that he's doing those things do you think the black staff cannot find evidence of him performing these crimes. We know he's conspiring it Outsiders we know he's enthralling members of the wild Council he's guilty of breaking two of the seven laws of magic, what is to stop the black staff the second After he finds these things from disintegrating him on site because that is literally his job and he has the remit to do that.

He still ran from the white Council leadership he didn't try to fight them he's sicked a bunch of people who wouldn't be able to just kill in front of them and then ran for his life then got caught up fighting Dresden hey what is functionally speaking to him a baby wizard and then got shot in the face by a white council member.

So why would Peabody do any better in that scenario when people that are definitely aware of what he was doing find out specifically investigate and then don't let anybody know and attempt to kill him because that thrall tactic only worked because he was in white Council territory without any thralls he literally could not Escape any senior council member hell he only nearly beats Dresden who is just a young hot gun rather than someone with both experience and Power.

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1) The inkwell was not in his office, it was on his person.
Inks were discovered in his office upon investigation, because Dresden, the actual investigator, pointed them at it.

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2) The Blackstaff is not a cop, he's a hitman. An externally focused hitman.

Investigative work is not what he does. He never figured out who betrayed Simon Petrovich, and he wasnt involved in the investigation of Aleron LaFortier's murder crime scene.
Essentially, he's the CIA. Not the FBI; thats Warden work. The same Wardens that have been compromised.

=====
3) He ran because his goal was to live, not to flex.
If he'd stood in place and used his death curse or other magic on the Senior Council while they were trying to tackle the mistfiend, just by distracting them he could have plausibly decapitated the White Council right there.

This version of Peabody is Nephandi. Different rules. Different incentives.

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4) I think the problem is that a lot of people are having trouble taking him seriously because he is a colorless little man that has deliberately cultivated an image of inoffensiveness as a cover.
Or maybe because his name sounds so ordinary.

Nobody would say this about Grevane or Corpsetaker or Cowl.

 

[BronzeTongue]

What are you talking about??? I'm referring to the backing he didn't get in canon that he is getting here. Do you have the Outsider minion investment gift kit book sitting next to you or something?

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That's what I'm talking about too. You're effectively claiming he'll be more dangerous than he was in canon but everyone else will be the same or worse even if given significant additional warning to act on.

If that outsider backing made that much of a difference then things shouldn't have played out like they have so far in canon, and the conceit of the quest is that they did. So it follows that the investment should either be balanced by the capabilities the council has here or else his power level without it reduced such that reaching his canon abilities requires the boost.

Ebenezar had ample warning, and had at least one Warden in it with him in addition to Dresden.

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That was not ample warning. They learned during the confrontation and had to present something to the ongoing trial. They didn't really have a chance to understand what he did fully and do something to counter it. They didn't have time to choose a more favorable engagement.

Counterpoint: See the Dragon of Vegas.
Its entirely possible that he is the only one who got upgraded here. Dresden saw Peabody casting in canon to defend himself during his escape attempt; if he'd been running on Outsider juice, Dresden would have noticed

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There's no proof of that, and it doesn't make a lot of sense for it to work that way. If everything is the same except now anyone on the opposition's team retroactively has more support then it shouldn't result in a situation that looks the same.

 

[uju32]

That was not ample warning. They learned during the confrontation and had to present something to the ongoing trial. They didn't really have a chance to understand what he did fully and do something to counter it. They didn't have time to choose a more favorable engagement.

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Nope, you are misremembering.

Dresden told him and showed him the photo at least two hours before he made his presentation.
Citation:

They held the trial in Edinburgh.
There wasn't much choice in that. Given the recent threats to the Senior Council and the unexpected intensity of the attack at Demonreach, they wanted the most secure environment they could get. The trial was supposed to be held in closed session, according to the traditions of how such things were done, but this one was too big. Better than five hundred wizards, a sizable minority of the whole Council, would be there. Most of them would be allies of LaFortier and their supporters, who were more than eager to See Justice Done, which is a much prettier thing to do than to Take Bloodthirsty Vengeance.
Molly, Mouse, and I took the Way, just as I had before. This time, when I reached the door, there was a double-sized complement of Wardens on duty, led by the big Scandinavian, all of them from the Old Guard. I got a communal hostile glare from them as I approached, with only a desultory effort to disguise it as indifference. I ignored it. I was used to it.
We went into the complex, past the guard stations—they were all fully manned, as well—and walked toward the Speaking Room. Maybe it said something about the mind-set of wizards in general that the place was called "the Speaking Room" and not "the Listening Room" or, in the more common vernacular, "an auditorium." It was an auditorium, though, rows of stone benches rising in a full circle around a fairly small circular stone stage, rather like the old Greek theaters. But before we got to the Speaking Room, I turned off down a side passage.
With difficulty, I got the Wardens on guard to allow me, Mouse, and Molly into the Ostentatiatory while one of them went to Ebenezar's room and asked him if he would see me. Molly had never been into the enormous room before, and stared around it with unabashed curiosity.
"This place is amazing," she said. "Is the food for the bigwigs only, or do you think they'd mind if I ate something?"
"Ancient Mai doesn't weigh much more than a bird," I said. "LaFortier's dead, and they haven't replaced him yet. I figure there's extra."
She frowned. "But is it supposed to be only for them?"
I shrugged. "You're hungry. It's food. What do you think?"
"I think I don't want to make anyone angry at me. Angrier."
The kid has better sense than I do, in some matters.
Ebenezar sent the Warden back to bring me up to his room at once, and he'd already told the man to make sure Molly was fed from the buffet table. I tried not to smile, at that. Ebenezar was of the opinion that apprentices were always hungry. Can't imagine who had ever given him that impression.
I looked around his receiving room, which was lined with bookshelves filled to groaning. Ebenezar was an eclectic reader. King, Heinlein, and Clancy were piled up on the same shelves as Hawking and Nietzsche. Multiple variants of the great religious texts of the world were shamelessly mixed with the writings of Julius Caesar and D. H. Lawrence. Hundreds of books were handmade and handwritten, including illuminated grimoires any museum worth the name would readily steal, given the chance. Books were crammed in both vertically and horizontally, and though the spines were mostly out, it seemed clear to me that it would take the patience of Job to find anything, unless one remembered where it had been most recently placed.
Only one shelf looked neat.
It was a row of plain leather-bound journals, all obviously of the same general design, but made with subtly different leathers, and subtly different dyes that had aged independently of one another into different textures and shades. The books got older and more cracked and weathered rapidly as they moved from right to left. The leftmost pair looked like they might be in danger of falling to dust. The rightmost journal looked new, and was sitting open. A pen held the pages down, maybe thirty pages in.
I glanced at the last visible page, where Ebenezar's writing flowed in a strong, blocky style.

... seems clear that he had no idea of the island's original purpose. I sometimes can't help but think that there is such a thing as fate—or at least a higher power of some sort, attempting to arrange events in our favor despite everything we, in our ignorance, do to thwart it. The Merlin has demanded that we put the boy under surveillance at once. I think he's a damn fool.
Rashid says that warning him about the island would be pointless. He's a good judge of people, but I'm not so sure he's right this time. The boy's got a solid head on his shoulders, generally. And of all the wizards I know, he's among the three or four I'd be willing to see take up that particular mantle. I trust his judgment.
But then again, I trusted Maggie's, too.

Click to shrink...

Ebenezar's voice interrupted my reading. "Hoss," he said. "How's your head?"
"Full of questions," I replied. I closed the journal, and offered him the pen.
My old mentor's smile only touched his eyes as he took the pen from me: he'd intended me to see what he'd written. "My journal," he said. "Well. The last three are. The ones before that were from my master."
"Master, huh?"
"Didn't used to be a dirty word, Hoss. It meant teacher, guide, protector, professional, expert—as well as the negative things. But it's the nature of folks to remember the bad things and forget the good, I suppose." He tapped the three books previous to his own. "My master's writings." He tapped the next four. "
His master's writings, and so on, back to here." He touched the first two books, very gently. "Can't hardly read them no more, even if you can make it through the language."
"Who wrote those two?"
"Merlin," Ebenezar said simply. He reached past me to put his own journal back up in place. "One of these days, Hoss, I think I'll need you to take care of these for me."
I looked from the old man to the books. The journals and personal thoughts of master wizards for more than a thousand years? Ye gods and little fishes.
That would be one hell of a read.
"Maybe," Ebenezar said, "you'd have a thought or two of your own, someday, that you'd want to write down."
"Always the optimist, sir."

He smiled briefly. "Well. What brings you here before you head to the trial?"
I passed him the manila envelope Vince had given me. He frowned at me, and then started looking through pictures. His frown deepened, until he got to the very last picture.
He stopped breathing, and I was sure that he understood the implication. Ebenezar's brain doesn't let much grass grow under its lobes.
"Stars and stones, Hoss," Ebenezar said quietly. "Thought ahead this time, didn't you?"
"Even a broken clock gets it right occasionally," I said.
He put the papers back in the envelope and gave it back to me. "Okay. How do you see this playing out?"
"At the trial. Right before the end. I want him thinking he's gotten away with it."
Ebenezar snorted. "You're going to make Ancient Mai and about five hundred former associates of LaFortier very angry."
"Yeah. I hardly slept last night, I was so worried about 'em."
He snorted.
"I've got a theory about something."
"Oh?"
I told him.
Ebenezar's face darkened, sentence by sentence. He turned his hands palm up and looked down at them. They were broad, strong, seamed, and callused with work—and they were steady. There were scabs on one palm, where he had fallen to the ground during last night's melee. Ink stained some of his fingertips.

"I'll need to take some steps," he said. "You'd best get a move on."
I nodded. "See you there?"
He took his spectacles off and began to polish the lenses carefully with a handkerchief. "Aye."
***
The trial began less than an hour later.
I sat on a stone bench that was set over to one side of the stage floor, Molly at my side. We were to be witnesses. Mouse sat on the floor beside me. He was going to be a witness, too, though I was the only one who knew it. The seats were all filled. That was why the Council met at various locations out in the real world, rather than in Edinburgh all the time. There simply wasn't enough room.
Wardens formed a perimeter all the way around the stage, at the doors, and in the aisles that came down between the rows of benches. Everyone present was wearing his or her formal robes, all flowing black, with stoles of silk and satin in one of the various colors and patterns of trim that denoted status among the Council's members. Blue stoles for members, red for those with a century of service, a braided silver cord for acknowledged master alchemists, a gold-stitched caduceus for master healers, a copper chevron near the collar for those with a doctorate in a scholarly discipline (some of the wizards had so many of them that they had stretched the fabric of the stole), an embroidered white Seal of Solomon for master exorcists and so on.
I had a plain blue stole with no ornaments whatsoever, though I'd been toying with the idea of embroidering "GED" on it in red, white, and blue thread. Molly was the only one in the room wearing a brown robe.
People were avoiding our gazes.
The White Council loved its ceremonies. Anastasia Luccio appeared in the doorway in her full regalia, plus the grey cloak of the Wardens. Her arm was still in a sling, but she carried the ceremonial staff of office of the Captain of the Wardens in one hand. She entered the room, and the murmuring buzz of the crowd fell silent. She slammed the end of the staff three times upon the floor, and the six members of the Senior Council entered in their dark robes and purple stoles, led by the Merlin. They proceeded to the center rear of the stage and stood solemnly. Peabody appeared, carrying a lap-sized writing desk, and sat down on the far end of the bench from Molly and me, to begin taking notes, his pen scratching.
I put my hand on Mouse's head and waited for the show to begin—because that's all this was. A show.
Two more Wardens appeared with a bound figure between them. Morgan was brought in and stood as all accused brought before the Council did—with his hands bound in front of him and a black hood over his head. He wasn't in any shape to be walking, the idiot, but he was managing to limp heavily along without being physically supported by either Warden. He must have been on a load of painkillers to manage it.
The Merlin, speaking in Latin, said, "We have convened today on a matter of justice, to try one Donald Morgan, who stands accused of the premeditated murder of Senior Council Member Aleron LaFortier, conspiracy with the enemies of the White Council, and treason against the White Council. We will begin with a review of the evidence."
They stacked things up against Morgan for a while, laying out all the damning evidence. They had a lot of it. Morgan, standing there with the murder weapon in his hand, over the still-warm corpse. The bank account with slightly less than six million dollars suddenly appearing in it. The fact that he had escaped detention and badly wounded three Wardens in the process, and subsequently committed sedition by misleading other wizards—Molly and I were just barely mentioned by name—into helping him hide from the Wardens.
"Donald Morgan," the Merlin said, "have you anything to say in your defense?"

That part was sort of unusual. The accused were very rarely given much of a chance to say anything.
It clouded issues so.
"I do not contest the charges," Morgan said firmly through his black hood. "I, and I alone, am responsible for LaFortier's death."
The Merlin looked like he'd just found out that someone had cooked up his own puppy in the sausage at breakfast that morning. He nodded once. "If there is no other evidence, then the Senior Council will now pass—"
I stood up.
The Merlin broke off and blinked at me. The room fell into a dead silence, except for the scratch of Peabody's pen. He paused to turn to a new page and pulled a second inkwell out of his pocket, placing it on the writing desk.
Anastasia stared at me with her lips pressed together, her eyes questioning. What the hell was I doing?
I winked at her, then walked out into the center of the stage and turned to face the Senior Council.
"Warden Dresden," Ebenezar said, "have you some new evidence to present for the Senior Council's consideration?"
"I do," I said.
"Point of order," Ancient Mai injected smoothly. "Warden Dresden was not present at the murder or when the accused escaped custody. He can offer no direct testimony as to the truth or falsehood of those events."
"Another point of order," Listens-to-Wind said. "Warden Dresden earns a living as a private investigator, and his propensity for ferreting out the truth in difficult circumstances is well established."
Mai looked daggers at Injun Joe.
"Warden Dresden," the Merlin said heavily. "Your history of conflict with Warden Morgan acting in his role as a Warden of the White Council is well-known. You should be advised that any damning testimony you give will be leavened with the knowledge of your history of extreme, sometimes violent animosity."
The Merlin wasn't the Merlin for nothing. He had instincts enough to sense that maybe the game wasn't over yet, after all, and he knew how to play to the crowd. He wasn't warning me, so much as making sure that the wizards present knew how much I didn't like Morgan, so that my support would be that much more convincing.
"I understand," I said.
The Merlin nodded. "Proceed."
I beamed at him. "I feel just like Hercule Poirot," I said, in my reasonably functional Latin. "Let me enjoy this for a second." I took a deep breath and exhaled in satisfaction.
The Merlin had masterful self-control. His expression never changed—but his left eye twitched in a nervous tic. Score one for the cartoon coyote.
"I first became suspicious that Morgan was being framed . . . well, basically when I heard the ridiculous charge against him," I said. "I don't know if you know this man, but I do. He's hounded me for most of my life. If he'd been accused of lopping off the heads of baby bunny rabbits because someone accused them of being warlocks, I could buy that. But this man could no more betray the White Council than he could flap his arms and fly.
"Working from that point, I hypothesized that another person within the Council had killed LaFortier and set Morgan up to take the blame. So I began an independent investigation." I gave the Senior Council and the watching crowd of wizards the rundown of the past few days, leaving out the overly sensitive and unimportant bits. "My investigation culminated in the theory that the guilty individual was not only trying to fix the blame upon Morgan, but planting the seeds of a renewed outbreak of hostilities with the vampire White Court, by implicating them in the death.
"In an effort to manipulate this person into betraying himself," I continued, "I let it be known that a conspirator had come forward to confess their part in the scheme, and would address members of the White Council at a certain place and time in Chicago. Working on the theory that the true killer was a member of the Council—indeed, someone here at headquarters in Edinburgh—I hypothesized that he would have little choice but to come to Chicago through the Way from Edinburgh, and I had the exit of that Way placed under surveillance." I held up the manila envelope. "These are the photographs taken at the scene, of everyone who came through the Way during the next several hours."
I opened the envelope and began passing the Senior Council the photos. They took them, looking at each in turn. Ebenezar calmly confirmed that the images of the Wardens exiting the Way together with himself, Mai, and Listens-to-Wind were accurate.
"Other than this group," I said, "I believe it is highly unlikely that anyone from Edinburgh should have randomly arrived at the Way in Chicago. Given that the group was indeed assaulted by creatures with the support of a wizard of Council-level skill at that meeting, I believe it is reasonable to state that the killer took the bait." I turned, drawing out the last photo with a dramatic flourish worthy of Poirot, and held it up so that the crowd could see it while I said, "So why don't you tell us what you were doing in the Chicago area last night . . . Wizard Peabody?"
If I'd had a keyboard player lurking nearby for a soap-opera organ sting, it would have been perfect.
Everyone on the Senior Council except Ebenezar and, for some reason, the Gatekeeper, turned to stare slack-jawed at Peabody.
The Senior Council's secretary sat perfectly still beneath his little lap desk. Then he said, "I take it that you have proof more convincing than a simple visual image? Such things are easily manufactured."
"In fact," I said, "I do. I had a witness who was close enough to smell you."
On cue, Mouse stood up and turned toward Peabody.
His low growl filled the room like a big, gentle drumroll.
"That's all you have?" Peabody asked. "A photo? And a dog?"
Mai looked as if someone had hit her between the eyes with a sledgehammer. "That," she said, in a breathless tone, "is a Foo dog." She stared at me. "Where did you get such a thing? And why were you allowed to keep it?"
"He sort of picked me," I said.
The Merlin's eyes had brightened. "Mai. The beast's identification is reliable?"
She stared at me in obvious confusion. "Entirely. There are several other wizards present who could testify to the fact."
"Yes," rumbled a stocky, bald man with an Asian cast to his features.
"It's true," said a middle-aged woman, with skin several tones darker than my own, maybe from India or Pakistan.
"Interesting," the Merlin said, turning toward Peabody. There was something almost sharklike about his sudden focus.
"Working on the evidence Dresden found," Ebenezar said, "Warden Ramirez and I searched Peabody's chambers thoroughly not twenty minutes ago. A test of the inks he used to attain the signatures of the Senior Council for various authorizations revealed the presence of a number of chemical and alchemical substances that are known to have been used to assist psychic manipulation of their subjects. It is my belief that Peabody has been drugging the ink for the purpose of attempting greater mental influence over the decisions of members of the Senior Council, and that it is entirely possible that he has compromised the free will of younger members of the Council outright."
Listens-to-Wind's mouth opened in sudden surprise and understanding. He looked down at his ink-stained fingertips, and then up at Peabody.
Peabody may not have seen the man turn into a grizzly, but he was bright enough to know that Injun Joe was getting set to adjust another relative ass-to-ears ratio. The little secretary took one look around the room, and then at my dog. The expression went out of his face.
"The end," he said, calmly and clearly, "is nigh."
And then he flung his spare pot of ink onto the floor, shattering the glass.
Mouse let out a whuffing bark of warning, and knocked Molly backward off of the bench as a dark cloud rose up away from the smashed bottle, swelling with supernatural speed, tendrils reaching out in all directions. One of them caught a Warden who had leapt forward, toward Peabody.
It encircled his chest and then closed. Everything the slender thread of mist touched turned instantly to a fine black ash, slicing through him as efficiently as an electric knife through deli meat. The two pieces of the former Warden fell to the floor with wet, heavy thumps.
I'd seen almost exactly the same thing happen once before, years ago.
"Get back!" I screamed. "It's mordite!"
Then the lights went out, and the room exploded into screams and chaos.

Click to shrink...

He had more than an hour.
More than two hours, actually, given how long formal arraignments with full evidence presentation can take in front of a fussy organization like the White Council.

Dresden showed him his evidence, and told him he was deliberately timing things to let Peabody think he'd gotten away with it.
There was literally no excuse for Ebenezar to fumble that ball.
IF he was in his right mind.

Mind whammy or plothole.

There's no proof of that, and it doesn't make a lot of sense for it to work that way. If everything is the same except now anyone on the opposition's team retroactively has more support then it shouldn't result in a situation that looks the same.

Click to shrink...

I genuinely dont see it.

Canon Madrigal Raith didnt have access to high-end curse equipment.
Duke Skavis did not have the ability to call a Walker into the world in canon. There was no skinwalker with a coven of minions walking around Chicago with transhuman enhancements.

There was no Daedalus with magitech equipment.