Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

True, but my point was that the ghosts could have instructions to kill Cindy if it looked like she was about to be rescued, and they're on the same side of the wards as she is.
You do not give broad discretionary orders to ghosts.Else you'd have it kill the girl when a denizen of the Underground walks past the door, or if it thought it heard something. You are going to have instructions like "Kill whoever steps into this room without permission" and it takes a pretty powerful ghost to do that.

We have Michael and Amoracchius. It kills ghosts good.
Plus our own sword, which is no slouch.
Anyway just digging straight down looks to be the only viable option.
Thats insane. I mean that literally. Thats an insane suggestion.
You want to dig several score feet down into Undertown and then somehow find your way to the relevant location, through tunnels that have no maps, while you have no guides.

When using Tool Transcending Constructs you need to make a roll to make the item in question, and Molly can still fail.
Making a powerful enough EMP to be sure of destroying cellphones is going to take something more than you can find in a regular supermarket. And it probably takes more than fifteen minutes to reach a big supermarket.
At the speeds that Tool Constructs enables, not an issue. She can repeat the roll

Supermarkets. Auto parts stores. Secondhand vehicles and electronics. Recycling center.
Or she can loot a random car for its car battery and some parts.
Or like you said, loot a landline cabinet

The parts are there if you know to look. People just dont want to actually blow up their local infrastructure.

You do realize your talking about someone that is in a necromancy cult. They may just have some tricks related to peoples death Come On.
And now you're just making shit up.
We have actually seen top tier necromancers at work in canon and in this quest, and we know their magic does not work that way.
Grevane was literally throwing scores of superzombies at Dresden's wards to try to run them out of power and break them down.

Kattrin would just have brought some poor mook in her car trunk and cut his throat on Mathews estate to short circuit his wards instead of this whole rigmarole with a hostage.
 
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You do not give broad discretionary orders to ghosts.Else you'd have it kill the girl when a denizen of the Underground walks past the door, or if it thought it heard something. You are going to have instructions like "Kill whoever steps into this room without permission" and it takes a pretty powerful ghost to do that.

We have Michael and Amoracchius. It kills ghosts good.
Plus our own sword, which is no slouch.

Thats insane. I mean that literally. Thats an insane suggestion.
You want to dig several score feet down into Undertown and then somehow find your way to the relevant location, through tunnels that have no maps, while you have no guides.


At the speeds that Tool Constructs enables, not an issue. She can repeat the roll

Supermarkets. Auto parts stores. Secondhand vehicles and electronics. Recycling center.
Or she can loot a random car for its car battery and some parts.
Or like you said, loot a landline cabinet

The parts are there if you know to look. People just dont want to actually blow up their local infrastructure.


And now you're just making shit up.
We have actually seen top tier necromancers at work in canon and in this quest, and we know their magic does not work that way.
Grevane was literally throwing scores of superzombies at Dresden's wards to try to run them out of power and break them down.

Kattrin would just have brought some poor mook in her car trunk and cut his throat on Mathews estate to short circuit his wards instead of this whole rigmarole with a hostage.

You do have a perfect memory of the series of tunnels that lead down to the last chamber. I would let you guys try to roll to figure out where that is relative to the surface, though even if you do that there is the issue that there is likely to be a building or public space there.
 
You do have a perfect memory of the series of tunnels that lead down to the last chamber. I would let you guys try to roll to figure out where that is relative to the surface, though even if you do that there is the issue that there is likely to be a building or public space there.
Sure. From the store.
*glances at Molly's Survival 0 rating, and the fact she has no Survival Excellency, then chuckles nervously*
What was being suggested was that Molly start digging a tunnel underground in a builtup area in a tactically relevant timeframe.

Never mind the actual complications of digging a tunnel in a metropolitian area criscrossed by utilitiies and reinforcing said tunnel to prevent the above ground collapsing. Or actually hiding the fact that she was building the tunnel; all that earth and concrete has to go somewhere.

Or that Chicago is a coastal city where the water table rises and falls quite drastically, and basement flooding is a thing that a significant number of buildings have to periodically deal with.

I generally dont use words like insane in a quest; I mean, Im the guy who thinks that we should be able to pull off one or two tons worth of transmutation just fine.But I genuinely think that its easier to do carbon/iron/lead to gold transmutation than to have Molly dig a tunnel here in this situation in any sort of useful timeframe.

EDIT
If we want to go around the thralls, I would suggest finding another entry to Undertown, and tracing our way from there.
Gard does know her way a little judging from Heorot.
But I wouldnt recommend it myself; we have no maps or Survival charms, random encounters are a thing, and we are on the clock.
 
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Modern tunneling machine can dig a mile in about a week. We TTC to do the same at 5 times the speed.
Even if I grant this?
A modern tunnelling machine is NOISY, has a whole set of other machines to get rid of the material that it digs up, and has yet other machines to set up tunnel braces and build concrete walls and reinforcements and the like so the weight of the ground above doesnt collapse the tunnel.

You are vastly oversimplifying this entire thing.
 
Even if I grant this?
A modern tunnelling machine is NOISY, has a whole set of other machines to get rid of the material that it digs up, and has yet other machines to set up tunnel braces and reinforcements and the like so the weight of the ground above doesnt collapse the tunnel.

You are vastly oversimplifying this entire thing.
I think it would be visible for several blocks. At least. And possibly cracked the road its lying on.

I will admit it is a VERY impressive mental image.
 
That's also really stretching the definition of "tool".
We can't make a car with the Charm, as far as we know, so tunneling machines are propably not in there either.
 
I generally dont use words like insane in a quest; I mean, Im the guy who thinks that we should be able to pull off one or two tons worth of transmutation just fine.But I genuinely think that its easier to do carbon/iron/lead to gold transmutation than to have Molly dig a tunnel here in this situation in any sort of useful timeframe.
No, you're right. It would be flatly impossible to dig a tunnel to Cindy's location. At least not if we intended to do so without being discovered and on short notice. And this assumes the Tool charm can even be used for that sort of endeavor, which is kinda questionable.

Ignoring the issues with underground utilities crisscrossing the area (Chicago is lousy with them) and the noise (which would be significant) and even the loose soil, rock, clay, and other detritus (of which there would be hundreds if not thousands of tons that needed to be disposed of in some manner without drawing attention), there would also be the issue of supporting the tunnel we're boring through the earth and keeping it from filling with water.

Modern tunnel boring machines don't just dig a hole, they also sure up the tunnel behind them with all sorts of materials and techniques to keep the newly dug tunnel from collapsing as they go. It's not always immediately necessary when boring through hard rock, but it definitely would be required in this area, otherwise the tunnel could and likely would cave in on us at the worst possible moment (not that there are any good moments for a tunnel to cave in on you). We would also need a pump, or more likely a series of pumps, to continuously pull the ground water that would be seeping into our tunnel.

EDIT:
Even if I grant this?
A modern tunnelling machine is NOISY, has a whole set of other machines to get rid of the material that it digs up, and has yet other machines to set up tunnel braces and build concrete walls and reinforcements and the like so the weight of the ground above doesnt collapse the tunnel.

You are vastly oversimplifying this entire thing.
Oh hey, you said much the same that I did, but with less words. I guess I should have read a few more posts before writing mine up... :oops:
 
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[X] Move in to save Cindy at once
-[x] on the way, call Daniel, and have him ask Lydia how to get in touch with her father.

Will come up with a stunt later.
 
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No, you're right. It would be flatly impossible to dig a tunnel to Cindy's location. At least not if we intended to do so without being discovered and on short notice. And this assumes the Tool charm can even be used for that sort of endeavor, which is kinda questionable.
I mean impossible is kind of a strong word.

We can make a 5X speed jackhammer shovel with optional dynamite attachment. I just don't see it as particularly speedy or practical at this time?

If we needed to crack a safe open in a hurry on the other hand?

edit:
This of course discounts the easy way to make holes. Explosives :V
 
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I mean impossible is kind of a strong word.

We can make a 5X speed jackhammer shovel with optional dynamite attachment. I just don't see it as particularly speedy or practical at this time?

If we needed to crack a safe open in a hurry on the other hand?

edit:
This of course discounts the easy way to make holes. Explosives :V
I'm trying to picture someone using a jackhammer with a dynamite attachment, but it keeps ending in chunky salsa.
 
That's also really stretching the definition of "tool".
We can't make a car with the Charm, as far as we know, so tunneling machines are propably not in there either.
Actually, we explicitly can make a car:
System: The Infernal can work five times faster than normal when creating, modifying, or repairing something, or ten times faster than normal if it's something complicated and mechanical like a car or computer. Generally this Charm enhances Crafts or Technology actions, but might also apply to coding a program with Computer, creating explosives with Science, or preparing a meal. By spending 1 Essence or 1 Willpower, shecan manifest whatever tools she needs for as long
And while currently unusable, I like the idea of making an underground bunker for ourselves. And one under our family's house, as a safe room.
 
Actually, we explicitly can make a car:

And while currently unusable, I like the idea of making an underground bunker for ourselves. And one under our family's house, as a safe room.
I think you're parsing it weird. What I'm getting is that we have 10x speed buff when modifying or repairing a car. We have a 10x speed buff when assembling a car from materials.

We do not get the ability to create a car ex nihilo.
 
I think you're parsing it weird. What I'm getting is that we have 10x speed buff when modifying or repairing a car. We have a 10x speed buff when assembling a car from materials.

We do not get the ability to create a car ex nihilo.
Well, yes. To make a bunker / reinforced tunnel we would need metal scrap (to smelt into metal beams / armature / reinforcement for concrete), either concrete or materials to make concrete.
 
Well, yes. To make a bunker / reinforced tunnel we would need metal scrap (to smelt into metal beams / armature / reinforcement for concrete), either concrete or materials to make concrete.
I thinknit means we could make a hole 5 times as fast as someone with a jackhammer.

Which is really good. But not for right now I don't think.
 
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That's also really stretching the definition of "tool".
We can't make a car with the Charm, as far as we know, so tunneling machines are propably not in there either.
Tool Constructs doesnt have any restrictions on tool size.

Its an at least viable interpretation to think that, say, a bulldozer for excavating ground is a tool. Or that the Webb Telescope is a tool. Or a supercomputer is a tool. That might not be true for this quest, but its an argument that can be made.
I'd certainly buy a tunnel boring machine operated by one person as a tool.

Thing is, something like a tunnel project requires thousands of tools, and hundreds of men working in parallel.
So great. You are operating the tunnel borer. You also need to operate the machine evacuating the thousands of tons of excavated material, thee, the water pump machine, the cement machines et cetera.

Its requires too many people working in parallel to be feasible. As compared to something like a particle accelerator, which is a hugely expensive and complicated tool, but can be operated by one person.

EDIT
And you cant really operate something like that quietly in an urban area.
 
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Thing is, something like a tunnel project requires thousands of tools, and hundreds of men working in parallel.
So great. You are operating the tunnel borer. You also need to operate the machine evacuating the thousands of tons of excavated material, thee, the water pump machine, the cement machines et cetera.
Techno demons?

Heh. Possessed construction equipment.
 
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