I mean, the guy who did this can't contradict us if he's dead, let's just make sure of it and be done?
Edit:
His fault for not telling it wasn't a duel to the death.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
I mean, the guy who did this can't contradict us if he's dead, let's just make sure of it and be done?
Edit:
His fault for not telling it wasn't a duel to the death.
Or the opposite shards of the Void mixed with Labyrinth ores but no souls.
Yeah, I am not seeing the benefit of a duel, really. Reds aren't interested in playing fair. They are interested in testing our weaknesses and gathering intel (well, and killing us, but that's a stretch goal). The longer we indulge them, the more successful they are.
Ivar
Dark Reaper
- Location
- Russia Moscow
Well, unfortunately we are already in a duel. First we will finish it, and then when the terribly predictable betrayal occurs, we will kill everyone.
Or we just kill everyone right now? I don't see where we agreed not to have the rest of the party not kill the individual we're not currently duelling.
In fact, why don't we have Sophia attack the other three bodies right now?
Not everything is secretly exalted stuff. Mordite isn't typically made of souls, it's some sort of substance from the outside inherently antithetical to any sort of orderly existence.
I think the implication is that he has 5 bodies here but not that he only has 5 bodies total. He'll probably walk this off unless we MiM him.
Though now that I think about it, MiM only requires that we kill to allow an attempt, which has some potential here. Sure we didn't kill all of him, but we did kill one of his bodies.
Other hive mind style entities have been susceptible to the charm even in pieces and this guy is a lot smaller than Nemesis. I assume that's also how the rules would work for Molly. If someone with a spirit killer went for her they wouldn't need to kill every clone before using it on the last one, the whole point of the charm is to contest attempts to evade death.
@DragonParadox could we make a MiM attempt with each body we kill, either targeted at the whole entity or to eat parts of his soul as a distraction?
Not sure what the mechanical consequences of getting soul bits eaten should be, but it sounds like the sort of thing that would make it hard to focus.
… Hope that wizard closes her eyes at some point, cause if we can do that I don't think it'd be healthy to watch.
Playing that game tarnishes the value of your word and starts the full fight from a very bad position for us.
Actions do have consequences, and given the claims we're going to be making to the council very shortly we need our credit score to be impeccable.
Only the last one counts as far as MiM is concerned, the thing isn't dead until then.
What word? We didn't give our word about anything at all that I can see.
- Location
- Canada
I gotta admit, this line is cold. Molly straight up slaughters (1/5 of) a Lord of Outer Night with will alone like its nothing. Despite the fact it's rolling 10 Willpower against her 9, Molly made that look easy.
To be fair the ball started with it instead of in the middle as normal for the trails so winning any one of the challenges does favor her. It's the fact that she has to do it 5 times that makes it tilt in the other direction.
Not even to the degree we saw when eating the Will of Kakuri's shadow puppet thing?
This isn't exactly a temporary spirit, but it seems a lot closer to the thing with the Wayang here than not:
If they were puppets I'd get it, but it sounds like this vamp is distributed among them rather than remotely controlling their bodies. We can eat Wayang and Nemesis, so it seems reasonable for us to be able to eat parts of someone who's homebrewed their way to something a bit like both.
We agreed to participate in this duel, it's very unambiguous. The time to vote for something else was prior to this update. We can prepare to make them choke on their attempts to cheat and abuse our powers where the rules are imprecise, but it would be a bad idea to descend to their level.
Our actions do have consequences, even being able to manage them doesn't mean they're irrelevant. At some point this sort of thing may really be the best idea, but it shouldn't be the default.
We agreed to participate in the duel. Nowhere did we agree that other people with us wouldn't kill people we weren't duelling with.
Sophia can just attack the other Red Vampires here apart from the one that's currently contesting our mental hold on the mordite.
Ah. Thank you for the correction.
My apologies @Degorium ; I was wrong about that point.
=====
COMMENTARY
Called it on Dominate being in play.
A multi-body construct seems unwise to bring into the field against wizards though, who can do the whole arcane link thing with one magic to hit every body.
Mordite?
This is the stuff that was used to make Ethniu's artifact armor in canon.
Even if we cant get our hands on the Lord's body, this makes an excellent consolation prize. Just need to kill him first.
It does raise questions about where and how they got their hands on some mordite.
And what they were hoping to use it for before Molly showed up. The fact that its enchanted confirms that there's likely a wizard on site somewhere, even though we cant see him.
VOTE
[X] Keep playing normally, maybe you can psych this thing out (Manipulation+Intimidation)
-[X]Intimidation Excellency: 1m
-[X]STUNT: "Tricks" you say, putting all the scorn you can summon into that single word. "Silly wabbit." Your anima banner brightens as you refocus, your unleashed presence rapidly cooling the humid Amazon air around you and soaking your skin with water. "Tricks are for kids." And your will meets his in earnest.
RATIONALE
Stunting should add +2 dice to Molly's Willpower roll. And water activates BSM, reducing her DCs by -1.
That would raise her effective WP to 11 rolling at DC5, against a dude rolling Willpower 10 at DC6.
Plus, I dont think elder vampires get double 10s like Exalts do.
We have an Excellency for Manipulation + Intimidation; Man 4 + Intimidation 4 + Excellency 8 + Stunt 2 = 18 dice.
And Intimidation is a Key Ability, so Molly cant botch.
We dont have an Excellency for Dex + Athletics; Dex 4 + Athletics 1 = 5 dice.
And Athletics is not a Key Ability.
Play to your strengths.
Demonic Primacy wont activate against the Lord in question, but it will work against his underlings.
Each time she kills one of his bodies, it should work for intimidating the peons.
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This is funny, but this feels like it undercuts its own menace. Carlos and Molly are the only people who'll get the reference, so from the perspective of the target it's just a weird non sequitur said in a threatening manner. Mechanically the dice are the same, but at a certain level you might as well be reading your roll results directly as dialogue.
The proposal of the duel was as an alternative to open combat. Even the fey can't split hair that finely, and it defeats the purpose of agreeing in the first place. They'll just stab our wizards and this will devolve into a brawl where we're on the back foot.
They're going to back stab as much as they can, but they haven't inarguably crossed any major lines yet.
[X] Keep playing normally, maybe you can psych this thing out (Manipulation+Intimidation)
-[X]Intimidation Excellency
-[X] Your daughter boasted of being divine, right before I killed her and made her head into a paperweight. Will you do the same?
-[X]Intimidation Excellency
-[X] Your daughter boasted of being divine, right before I killed her and made her head into a paperweight. Will you do the same?
Well, apparently it's made from dead gods, or this batch is:
Which is basically soulsteel.
We don't actually know what part of the husk is involved or what they did to it. Dunking chips of god bone in outsider juices might have some funny results.
In canon the fact that it's from the Outside is one of the few things we're actually told about it.
Cite
No, its a recreation of the duel scene from Death Masks.
When Dresden duelled Duke Paolo Ortega, the weapon of choice was a ball of enchanted mordite that they were supposed to move by will.
Dresden was winning, the Red Court vampire pulled a hidden gun, a Fellowship sniper shot him, the rest of the Reds rushed the field as Ortega retreated, and the Archive, who was the arbiter for the duel, proceeded to kill every moving Red Court vampire in half a dozen seconds.
I would not assume that the gods that the Red Court have imprisoned and are draining are necessarily good guys; bad guys have opps too.
There has to be a reason why noone intervened on their behalf before; pantheons usually have friends and loyalists.
Nope.
Mordite is mineral mined from the Outside. Congealed antilife, IIRC.
She walked to the pitcher's mound, not looking at anyone, her focus on the box she carried. She set it down, very carefully, and then lifted the lid from the top of the box and stepped back.
A wave of nauseating cold flooded out when she opened the box. It went past me, through me. I was the only one there to react to it. Susan put her hand on my arm, kept her eyes on Ortega and Thomas, and asked, "Harry?"
My last meal had been a drive-through taco on the way back from the meeting with Cassius, but it was trying to leave. I kept it down and forced the sickening cold away from me with an effort of will. The sensation lessened. "Fine," I said. "I'm fine."
The Archive looked up at me, child features solemn. "You know what is inside the box?"
"I think so. I've never actually seen it."
"Seen what?" Thomas asked.
Instead of answering, the Archive drew a small box out of her pocket. She opened the box and delicately plucked out an insect as long as her own fingers-a brown scorpion-by its tail. She looked around to make sure she had everyone's attention. She did. Then she dropped the scorpion into the box.
There was an instant, immediate sound, somewhere between a wildcat's scream and the sizzle of bacon hitting a hot skillet. Something that looked vaguely like a cloud of ink in clear water floated up out of the box. It was about the size of a baby's head. Dozens of shadowy tendrils held the scorpion, drawing it up into the air along with the inky cloud. Dark violet flickers of flame played over the insect's shell for all of two or three seconds-and then it simply crumbled, carapace falling away in flakes and dust.
The cloudy mass rose up to a height of about five feet, before the Archive murmured a word. It stopped in place, bobbing gently, holding there.
"Damn," Thomas said, he took the earphones out. Music with many electric guitars sounded tinnily from them. "And this is what?"
"Mordite," I said quietly. "Deathstone."
"Yes," the Archive said.
Ortega drew in a slow breath, and nodded in understanding.
"Deathstone, huh?" Thomas said. "It sort of looks like someone spray-painted a soap bubble. And gave it tentacles."
"It isn't a soap bubble," I said. "There's a solid piece inside. The energies it carries in it are what create that shroud effect around it."
Thomas poked a finger at it. "What does it do?"
I caught his wrist before he could touch it, and pushed his hand away. "It kills. Hence the name deathstone, you half-wit."
"Oh," Thomas said, nodding with drunken sagacity. "It looked cool when it gacked that little thing, but so what? It's a bug zapper."
"If you disrespect this thing it's going to get you killed," I said. "It would kill anything living exactly the same way. Anything. It's not from our world."
"It's extraterrestrial?" asked Susan.
"You do not understand, Miss Rodriguez," Ortega said quietly. "Mordite is not from this galaxy or this universe. It is not of our reality."
I had reservations about Ortega's presence on the home-team roster, but I nodded. "It's from Outside. It's - congealed antilife. A chip of this stuff makes nuclear waste look like secondhand smoke. Being near it draws the life off you bit by bit. If you touch it, it kills you. Period."
"Precisely," said the Archive. She stepped forward to look at both Ortega and me. "An enchantment binds the particle in place. It is also sensitive to applied will. The duelists will face each other, the mordite between them. Will it toward your opponent. He with the greatest force of will controls the mordite. The duel will end when it has devoured one of you."
Gulp.
A wave of nauseating cold flooded out when she opened the box. It went past me, through me. I was the only one there to react to it. Susan put her hand on my arm, kept her eyes on Ortega and Thomas, and asked, "Harry?"
My last meal had been a drive-through taco on the way back from the meeting with Cassius, but it was trying to leave. I kept it down and forced the sickening cold away from me with an effort of will. The sensation lessened. "Fine," I said. "I'm fine."
The Archive looked up at me, child features solemn. "You know what is inside the box?"
"I think so. I've never actually seen it."
"Seen what?" Thomas asked.
Instead of answering, the Archive drew a small box out of her pocket. She opened the box and delicately plucked out an insect as long as her own fingers-a brown scorpion-by its tail. She looked around to make sure she had everyone's attention. She did. Then she dropped the scorpion into the box.
There was an instant, immediate sound, somewhere between a wildcat's scream and the sizzle of bacon hitting a hot skillet. Something that looked vaguely like a cloud of ink in clear water floated up out of the box. It was about the size of a baby's head. Dozens of shadowy tendrils held the scorpion, drawing it up into the air along with the inky cloud. Dark violet flickers of flame played over the insect's shell for all of two or three seconds-and then it simply crumbled, carapace falling away in flakes and dust.
The cloudy mass rose up to a height of about five feet, before the Archive murmured a word. It stopped in place, bobbing gently, holding there.
"Damn," Thomas said, he took the earphones out. Music with many electric guitars sounded tinnily from them. "And this is what?"
"Mordite," I said quietly. "Deathstone."
"Yes," the Archive said.
Ortega drew in a slow breath, and nodded in understanding.
"Deathstone, huh?" Thomas said. "It sort of looks like someone spray-painted a soap bubble. And gave it tentacles."
"It isn't a soap bubble," I said. "There's a solid piece inside. The energies it carries in it are what create that shroud effect around it."
Thomas poked a finger at it. "What does it do?"
I caught his wrist before he could touch it, and pushed his hand away. "It kills. Hence the name deathstone, you half-wit."
"Oh," Thomas said, nodding with drunken sagacity. "It looked cool when it gacked that little thing, but so what? It's a bug zapper."
"If you disrespect this thing it's going to get you killed," I said. "It would kill anything living exactly the same way. Anything. It's not from our world."
"It's extraterrestrial?" asked Susan.
"You do not understand, Miss Rodriguez," Ortega said quietly. "Mordite is not from this galaxy or this universe. It is not of our reality."
I had reservations about Ortega's presence on the home-team roster, but I nodded. "It's from Outside. It's - congealed antilife. A chip of this stuff makes nuclear waste look like secondhand smoke. Being near it draws the life off you bit by bit. If you touch it, it kills you. Period."
"Precisely," said the Archive. She stepped forward to look at both Ortega and me. "An enchantment binds the particle in place. It is also sensitive to applied will. The duelists will face each other, the mordite between them. Will it toward your opponent. He with the greatest force of will controls the mordite. The duel will end when it has devoured one of you."
Gulp.
Ethniu's armor is an alloy of Olympian bronze and mordite. The mistfiend that Peabody unleashed in the Hidden Halls in Turn Coat was infused with mordite.
Its Serious Shit.
No need. EIPP is reflexive.
Save the Essence until and unless its needed.
Its all in the delivery.
And ultimately, Molly is a child of the 90s and 2000s; Id expect her to talk in those idioms.
Besides, her audience here is not just Red Court vampires, but wizards as well; trying to out monster the monsters does not actually serve us.
As a tangent?
Two of the best onscreen Lucifers Ive seen were Viggo Mortensen in The Prophecy and Peter Stormare in Constantine.
And both were pretty mundane. Until they werent.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Wouldn't especially matter if they are depending on False Hope Springs in order to function.
If we're already stunting in pop culture references, that just means we start calling it kryptonite.