1) This isn't a business and all successes are not fungible. If you go out to accomplish X task and do not do so then you failed at it. It's not necessarily an utter failure if you get some other worthwhile stuff done, but framing this as the same as winning all their games is fundamentally misleading. Especially when X is clearly the most important and impactful thing you were attempting.
If we'd gone to hell for Joe and to deploy our weapon then failed to do either but got out with some iron elementals that would clearly be a failure.
2) Shiro says he was doing it because he was dying, it was real sacrifice on his part because it was a hell of a way to actually go out, but you're pushing something that was very much not the implication.
3) I was wrong about this.
Nearly anything we do will have to go through some sort of perfect eventually. That means we need to plan for how we're going to get around it and what we'll do when we get there.
Your attitude doesn't seem helpful to me. You're effectively asserting that they cannot be beaten or meaningfully opposed because they always win somehow and can resist anything we can even hypothetically do regardless of how we arrange things.
I do not expect it to be easy, honestly committing to this was incredibly foolhardy I hope we're good enough to live to regret it, but it's not impossible either. We see them fail, we know they're heavily restricted, and exalts are made for this sort of task before anything else. We aren't assured success, survival, or primacy in system interactions but I don't subscribe to the idea that they're beyond our reach in all things.
In this particular case the way I see it we need to drain their resources and then kill their hosts, at which point they should be temporarily vulnerable enough for us to do something with an impact. Either it goes through, or Hell cheats directly to stop us and gives Heaven an equal favor to the disruption. Stopping a Solaroid's temporal fun time fortress of doom from shooting you into the future should be a very expensive favor to pay back to Uriel.
That's why I want a mega fortress; splendor field effects to tie up their powers, weapon arcana to constantly require them to spend on perfect defenses, at least one army of demonic sorcerers, and a circle of exalts with the most unfair cheating bullshit equipment we can get them. That's not even counting the stuff we can add in from our allies.
I want to see Tiffany's craziest flesh monster builds turned into fomori, design special vegan zombies with Lydia using hell-trees/behemoth corpses to be led by pissed off ghosts fed on daytime TV and memes. I want to see Harry screw with the leylines to try replicating what the Akuma did, and give him a ludicrous budget to play with large scale thaumaturgy on our behalf.
Force them to spend resources blocking mental attacks, exotic shaping effects, physical assault, and direct magic damage of multiple types just for the privilege of fighting a circle of exalts on prepared ground.
Examples for potential builds:
This fascination takes the form of a green flame endlessly burning a simple wooden symbol of the Empress's Covenant without ever bringing harm to it. Whoever looks onto it directly and honestly swears to support some specific purpose of its owner finds themselves shielded by imperial mandate.
For six hours precisely - one for each city and the palace at their heart - the world will shy from doing them harm.
Fire will not burn them, or the cold bite their skin. Wind will part and lightning divert from its path before doing any harm. No form of stone, metal, or wood will allow itself to be raised against them, nor will poison seep into their bodies.
Furthermore, no form of supernatural influence will be able to find purchase on their minds.
Taken in combination the elements may be confused into acting anyway, in which case damage it downgraded severity type or cut in half if it's already bashing.
This fascination makes a fortress of whatever land its owner stands on. When active all who seek to oppose them within the area of a large public park will find the world turning against them.
The howling wind will cut at them as the temperature shifts from bitterly cold to blistering heat in an instant. Fog will cloud their vision and sudden downpours will crash down on anyone attempting magic in an effort to disrupt their efforts. Anything of the earth will shift under their feet at the worst possible time, opening holes or upsetting footing as it actively attempts to fight against attempts to oppose its master.
While the elements will not directly support those who are allied with their temporary sovereign, they will use their presence to enhance their own efforts and disrupt attempts to move against them.
Cumulatively, this results in a -12 dice malus to all actions taken within the area, unless they surrender and throw themselves to the ground. Note that this doesn't have to be sincere, but the penalties will resume as soon as they begin to act again in any way.
That's just to start. This is eye wateringly expensive, but that's the buy in for trying to fist fight fallen angels. Hopefully we can harvest enough from the red court to support it all.
I do not expect it to be easy, honestly committing to this was incredibly foolhardy I hope we're good enough to live to regret it, but it's not impossible either. We see them fail, we know they're heavily restricted, and exalts are made for this sort of task before anything else. We aren't assured success, survival, or primacy in system interactions but I don't subscribe to the idea that they're beyond our reach in all things.
In this particular case the way I see it we need to drain their resources and then kill their hosts, at which point they should be temporarily vulnerable enough for us to do something with an impact. Either it goes through, or Hell cheats directly to stop us and gives Heaven an equal favor to the disruption. Stopping a Solaroid's temporal fun time fortress of doom from shooting you into the future should be a very expensive favor to pay back to Uriel.
That's why I want a mega fortress; splendor field effects to tie up their powers, weapon arcana to constantly require them to spend on perfect defenses, at least one army of demonic sorcerers, and a circle of exalts with the most unfair cheating bullshit equipment we can get them. That's not even counting the stuff we can add in from our allies.
I want to see Tiffany's craziest flesh monster builds turned into fomori, design special vegan zombies with Lydia using hell-trees/behemoth corpses to be led by pissed off ghosts fed on daytime TV and memes. I want to see Harry screw with the leylines to try replicating what the Akuma did, and give him a ludicrous budget to play with large scale thaumaturgy on our behalf.
Force them to spend resources blocking mental attacks, exotic shaping effects, physical assault, and direct magic damage of multiple types just for the privilege of fighting a circle of exalts on prepared ground.
Examples for potential builds:
For six hours precisely - one for each city and the palace at their heart - the world will shy from doing them harm.
Fire will not burn them, or the cold bite their skin. Wind will part and lightning divert from its path before doing any harm. No form of stone, metal, or wood will allow itself to be raised against them, nor will poison seep into their bodies.
Furthermore, no form of supernatural influence will be able to find purchase on their minds.
Taken in combination the elements may be confused into acting anyway, in which case damage it downgraded severity type or cut in half if it's already bashing.
The howling wind will cut at them as the temperature shifts from bitterly cold to blistering heat in an instant. Fog will cloud their vision and sudden downpours will crash down on anyone attempting magic in an effort to disrupt their efforts. Anything of the earth will shift under their feet at the worst possible time, opening holes or upsetting footing as it actively attempts to fight against attempts to oppose its master.
While the elements will not directly support those who are allied with their temporary sovereign, they will use their presence to enhance their own efforts and disrupt attempts to move against them.
Cumulatively, this results in a -12 dice malus to all actions taken within the area, unless they surrender and throw themselves to the ground. Note that this doesn't have to be sincere, but the penalties will resume as soon as they begin to act again in any way.
That's just to start. This is eye wateringly expensive, but that's the buy in for trying to fist fight fallen angels. Hopefully we can harvest enough from the red court to support it all.
This got too long, will split off a Denarian murder wishlist for later instead of adding more here.
