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Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

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Arc 3 Post 2: The Better Part of Valor
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    • The Better Part of Valor ​

    22st of July 2006 A.D.

    "Come on it will be fun, you can just stay in my room..." you trail off as Lydia looks meaningfully at Hope's head popping up from behind the chair like the proverbial Hobbit out of their hole and as curious as any resident of Bag End would be seeing a visitor from far away. "Well OK, it'll be a little bit awkward, but we don't bite honest, well not unless you happen to be around baby Harry when it's feeding time..."

    Wait, she doesn't actually think you were being serious? Toddlers aren't piranhas. Right, only child. "Look everyone's gonna be curious now or later, but if you stick around now you can distract the jawas, I can run interference, talk about stuff at the museum. Otherwise you will come to dinner or something, mom's going to make meatloaf and apple pie and the only thing you can use as a distraction is the food. Let me tell you mom makes great apple pie, but not apple pie is that great."

    "What am I supposed to say when they ask me about magic and stuff?" she asks, more pleading than frustrated.

    "They won't." Because mom doesn't want to talk sorcery anymore than she has to, you add mentally.

    Speaking of mom you notice she is grilling to Matthews about Cindy and her sister, there is nothing impolite about the tone, perish the thought, but she is being very... insistent about making sure Cindy can go home safe and reading between the lines it's clear she doesn't just mean the ghosts and goblins.

    Poor Harry, caught in the crossfire, had revealed something of what had gone on at the museum, though thankfully he's been light on the details about decapitations and necromanctic rituals and there is no getting around the fact that a Mantle got transferred and Matthews is no longer entirely master of his own fate, or for that matter entirely human.

    Normally when talking about things like this Mom would send the kids out, but this time she has no hope of shifting Cindy from her grandfather's side so she decided to talk in code about 'new work opportunities' and the 'long hours.' So focused on the little girl you do not even think she realizes that Lydia is listening more and more alarmed by the moment.

    "I hope you will be staying in town now that things are settled Lydia," Dad is trying, but it's clear he doesn't quite know what to make of the girl She makes an odd picture right now, almost professionally put together with what had to be a mark of her nature, alerts and attentive, but so quiet she often falls back on monosyllabic answers, unsure of what to say around younger kids.

    You take one more shot at it. "Lydia had some trouble with her house.... er burst pipes. She can stay here can't she?"

    "That's OK, it's only one room. I'll...." she looks at Daniel and mumbles. "Call you later."

    Short of literally blocking the door there isn't much you can do and so reluctantly you watch her say her goodbyes and leave. You wish Gard were still around to take her home, but she had, perhaps wisely made herself scarce as soon as she dropped you off here. Valkyrie or no someone who works for Marcone likely would get too warm a welcome from mom.

    Harry, ever the gentleman offers to take her home... and to fix up the wards as best he is able. Matthews and Cindy leave soon after, you give the girl your email and Myspace address if she has questions or just wants to keep in touch. Her grandfather smiles, seeming grateful you are taking the time.

    So you are left with just your family for the first time since this whole thing began, your family and your recollections of the past few hours.

    Do you share the fact that you killed someone and assisted a necromanctic ritual with either of your parents

    [] Yes
    -[] Write in

    [] No, no sense burdening them with it. After all it's not like you are upset by either

    OOC: Welp, you cannot win them all.
     
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    • I am tentatively ok with telling Michael.

    IIRC he has killed a Denarian or two before, even if he does try to make them give up the Coin.
    If they don't do it, they get killed.

    Edit: Found the quotes. No mention if Michael personally had to, but I wouldn't be surprised.
    DragonParadox said:
    As seen with Casius he lets them go, the knights are not the police and they do not have a jail. Also while they might kill in battle and in defense of an innocent they will not be executioners.
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    DragonParadox said:
    The only exception to the above is a Denarian who will not relinquish their coin, they are considered to always be threatening innocents by the very nature of what they are and what they are allowing to act in the world. So a knight will ask, even plead with the mortal to give up their coin, but if they will not set aside their coin it is always within the remit of a knight to kill a Denarian rather than let them back onto the world to wreak more havoc.
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    [X] Yes
    -[X] Michael
     
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    Artemis1992 said:
    It's already weakened from the Abyssal version, that can deal aggravated damage for the whole scene.
    I don't think Essence rounds of aggravated damage is too far out there?
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    I took the time to go over all the dragon blooded stuff since they're the terrestrial gold standard, and it seems like it might be.

    From what I can tell dragon blooded get aggravated damage from charms if they're a fire caste using a fire effect against something that already explicitly takes Agg from mundane fire, or they use this charm:

    liFe-sWelling sap striKe (•••)

    In the hands of the Dragon-Blooded, wood is not merely a hard substance suitable for cracking skulls or shaping into arrows, it is a vector for life itself, and thus inimical to the undead.

    System: Reflexively spend 1 Essence when wield- ing a wooden weapon. For the rest of the scene, it inflicts aggravated damage to undead targets, causing their flesh to untwist into fresh flowers and to trans- form into knotted roots.
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    Which is scene limited, requires use of the specific weapon material, and only works on undead.

    Honestly it seems reasonable to me to just port it over and flip the material to iron/steel so she can use it with her knuckle dusters.

    It's also worth noting that in terms of perfect attacks terrestrials are pretty limited too. This is the one charm that seems to do that for them:

    FiveFold dragon shout (••••)

    The Dragon-Blooded dredges up all the power of her Essence, and releases it as a mighty roar which bathes the battlefield in a wild and uncontrolled man- ifestation of elemental fury.

    System: Spend 2 Essence and roll Charisma + In- timidation against difficulty 6. A blast of unleashed el- emental power washes over everyone within 5 yards for each success rolled.

    • Air: For Air Aspects, this is the Storm-Throated Thunder Shout. Everyone caught in the blast is knocked prone and must soak 3 levels of bashing damage.

    • Earth: For Earth Aspects, this is the Earth-Shatter- ing Dragon Roar. Everyone caught in its area of effect is knocked prone, must soak 2 levels of bashing damage, and suffers –1 dice to all actions for the next two turns.

    • Fire: For Fire Aspects, this is the Incendiary Dragon Shout. Everyone caught in its area of effect must soak three automatic levels of lethal damage. This may be aggravated damage against some supernatural creatures, and the blast leaves particularly flammable objects still burning.

    • Water: For Water Aspects, this is the All-Consum- ing Tsunami Shout. Everyone caught in its area of ef- fect must soak one automatic level of bashing damage, and their lungs are also filled with water. They suffer a –3 dice drowning penalty on all actions until they successfully take an action to make a Stamina roll (dif- ficulty 7) to vomit up a great quantity of water.

    • Wood:ForWoodAspects,thisistheVerdantCryof the Wood Dragon. Everyone caught in its area of effect must soak two automatic levels of lethal damage, and the area is left covered in tangles of sudden plant growth that raises the difficulty of all actions taken by anyone within the affected area save for the Exalt herself by +1.

    Fivefold Dragon Shout can be repurchased to ob- tain the effects of a non-native Aspect.
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    Note that it is unblockable, but that it's also sharply limited in the damage it can deal. They can't stack attack dice onto their perfect for excellency boosted damage pools.
    I think the difference between celestial and terrestrial is more than just essence pool size, they have to put in extra work through stuff like MA to get things that celestials would consider essentials.

    The list is mostly good, but the excellency, damage, and perfect effects put her substantially ahead of her technical peer group.

    Not quite a celestial running on a two cylinder engine, but enough to sort of give that impression.

    Edit: removed hanging phrase
     
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    We didnt use the Excellency?
    Dammit.
    LightLan said:
    I am tentatively ok with telling Michael.
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    He beheaded Ursiel onscreen in Death Masks. And I think he may have killed Denarian cultists in the same book.
    He certainly killed Siriothrax to save Charity's life. Death is part of the job.
    She knows it.

    Whether she's internalized the necessity for Molly to do it remains to be seen.
     
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    Maybe we can tell Charity...later? Perhaps after we move out?

    Michael should be all right to tell, when the others are not around.

    [X] Resolve to tell Michael the full details of our fight in the museum, but only when we have time to do so in private with no chance of Charity interrupt. Perhaps in a few days when we're on our road trip?
     
    [X] Resolve to tell Michael the full details of our fight in the museum, but only when we have time to do so in private with no chance of Charity interrupt. Perhaps in a few days when we're on our road trip?
     
    zxzx24 said:
    Mmm.
    If your going to be doing supernatural combat at all in world of darkness it's agg or bust. If she didn't she would be side lined in a lot of fights.
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    Dresdenfiles though. Agg doesnt seem anywhere as prevalent.
    I think the only two people who need Agg to kill were the Loup Garou, who needed a particular type of silver, and maybe Nicodemus, who has an Artifact NA around his neck giving him essentially immortality.
     
    uju32 said:
    Dresdenfiles though. Agg doesnt seem anywhere as prevalent.
    I think the only two people who need Agg to kill were the Loup Garou, who needed a particular type of silver, and maybe Nicodemus, who has an Artifact NA around his neck giving him essentially immortality.
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    Killing many other supernatural beings without agg is very hard though since they regenerate at combat speeds from anything short of dismemberment.
     
    zxzx24 said:
    Mmm.

    If your going to be doing supernatural combat at all in world of darkness it's agg or bust. If she didn't she would be side lined in a lot of fights.
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    No one's dealt agg to use the entire quest and we've still come close to dying before.

    Agg trivializes a lot of stuff, but that's not the same as making it essential to function.

    There's also nothing saying she can't learn MA effects to get those sort of things. Doing that to partially bridge the gap with celestials is even a decent part of how their usurpation setup wasn't it?

    If the Sidreals hadn't been able to initiate them into bullshit cosmic power via punching they couldn't have taken the solars.

    Trying to cut that out by mixing in partially downgraded celestial charms kinds of cuts around how terrestrials are supposed to build if they want to fistfight solaroids.
     
    uju32 said:
    I dont really trust Arawn's judgement of whats healthy for the mental state of a teenage demigod with human ancestry.
    Not out of malice, mind, because he seems to love her, but out of sheer inexperience with raising children.
    The man left a teenager with no explanations while doing his thing, and an entire library of occult tomes available.

    I certainly dont trust Lydia's judgement either. Teenagers will do dumb shit to avoid perceived social embarassment.

    And I certainly think Arawn and Lydia both are underestimating the potential for trouble from whatever forces or contingencies Kattrin may still have around in Chicago.
    Especially since, as far as we can tell, EvilBob DID get away.

    Even an anonymous tip to the police that the people who perpetrated the museum massacre are at her home...well, we've seen them weaponize the cops already.


    Horse.Car. Motorbike.Bicycle. If she has one, she has to tag it beforehand, but she can call and it will respond to her call.
    The major advantage being that she doesnt need to spend Essence for it.
    Unlike the stone carpet thing.

    My thought would be a Charisma + Empathy roll, done as either an instant or extended roll, which can be done with a basic success starting around the size of a room, scaling up to maximum range of a city at 5 or 6 successes or so. Unwilling ghosts would get a Willpower(possibly Intimacy/Fetter-boosted) roll against the summoners Arete/Essence to resist the call, or to attack the summoner.

    Thaumaturgy is stuff that in Ex2 you need training for. Ditto in WoD, Sorcerers need training to set up wards.
    Here, we are talking about a charm-equivalent, something Lydia can develop spontaneously to shield her home from hostile spectres. Or possibly to attract friendly ones. That seems entirely within her themes.

    Im not too familiar with WoD, but in Ex2 Aggravated Damage is a very big deal.
    If its easier to do it here, then sure.
    Just sharing my two cents.

    Temple Dog. They guard thresholds, they dont generally adventure.

    He already has a fulltime job taking care of Dresden and guarding his homebase.
    And probably Maggie, eventually; she's been born by now.
    I dont think he's in the market for another job, and I dont think we get to poach other people's supporting characters.

    If we run into either of his missing siblings(the eldest male and eldest female werent rescued), I'm entirely willing to put in the effort to grab them. But absent that, I think we should just wait until we buy our Hell or take a trip through the NeverNever and acquire a Familiar 5.

    He's a Tibetan Temple Dog.
    A scion, descendant of a mortal canine and a Foo Dog, a Celestial spirit. And in him the blood is very strong.
    Remember how Usum told Molly to greet him? He's as much of a demigod as Lydia is, his portfolio is just smaller.

    You can assume his lifespan is unlikely to look anything like that of a mortal dog.
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    Word of Jim is temple dogs live about as long as wizards. So Maggie isn't going to lose him to age whether she's a wizard or not.
     
    [X] Yes... sort of.
    -[X] Tell an sanatized version for the family, but say "There are details for just mom and dad." When mon pulls us aside and asks, say we will tell her, but does she really want to know, or just trust us when we say it wasn't good, but also not the worst ether, and we helped people. When Dad pulls us aside tell the whole story. Tell mom if she insists.
     
    [X] Resolve to tell Michael the full details of our fight in the museum, but only when we have time to do so in private with no chance of Charity interrupt. Perhaps in a few days when we're on our road trip?
     
    Oh also note temple dogs are powered off thresholds word of Jim Harry's is so weak that mouse has had to use some other sources of power to supplement. Also probably developed slightly different than the average temple dog at least until he moved into the carpenter household which has the strongest threshold in most of the country.
     
    We should definitely talk to someone about the death and the things at the museum. I'd even be ok with telling Charity. She has a chance to find out eventually if Lydia stays in Molly's brother's life, and it's not like she can ground Molly any further. Plus I don't think Charity will be any more worried about Molly. This will give her something she can actually help her daughter with: emotional support.

    [X] Yes
    -[X] Michael
    -[X] Charity
     
    Charity has seen Molly stab multiple Fae to death anyway as we fled Arctis Tor.
    Both fetches and the spider thingies.
    And Michael saw us kill Red Vampires and Outsiders.

    They're both intellectually aware that Molly has killed, and will kill if necessary.
    And Michael is aware we'll default to other methods first
    Better to tell them; by the time the morning news starts with the gory details, they'll be able to guess anyway.
     
    [X] Yes
    -[X] Michael
    -[X] Charity

    I'm... not exactly thrilled about the aftermath of this but its generally better to lance this sort of boil early. We'll get blowback but things get worse the greater our reputation becomes for operating in secrecy. At this point we're building a refuge in audacity thing alongside at least a facade of open, mature dealing. What our mother imagines will always be worse than the truth, even as insanely godawful as the truth is.

    I'd accept short term complications for long term latitude.
     
    [X] Yes
    -[X] Tell Charity and Micheal together at some point once things have calmed down
    -[X] Use excellency to manage the presentation and fallout
    -[X] Stunt: Taking a deep breath Molly catches first her father's, then her mother's, eyes.
    -[X] "Things got… bad at the museum. A lot of people died before we even got there, and most of them weren't freed of their suffering even then". For a moment, the inside of a room you wish you didn't remember flashed before your eyes, and something of it must of shown on your face.
    -[X] " We stopped the people who did it; but it got bloody. I killed the woman started it all, and I can't say I regret it. Maybe it wasn't what was right, nothing about what happened was, but it was what was left." Molly says, a certainty as enduring as stone and brass settling into her voice.
    -[X] " I pray for the wisdom to do better, to be better, but I don't know what else we, I, could have done without innocent people suffering for it"
    -[X] Answer any other questions they have about what we did and why.

    I get why people don't want to talk about this, but Micheal and Charity aren't dumb. They'll know something is up, and they can always talk to Harry about it.

    Even setting that aside, there are plenty of important reasons to do this. The first being that if we want to be treated like an adult making decisions and not a child hiding from punishment then we need to act like it. Talk things over, explain what we did and why. Demonstrate that as chaotic as things got Molly isn't a kid lashing out with fantastic cosmic power and no thought for what's actually going on.

    Not doing that is a step backwards In our relationship with Charity and Micheal. Which is important not only on a practical level, but because they're Molly's parents and she loves them. Creating a situation where they dig. We evade, and the stress builds on the relationship till something snaps is a bad plan for everyone involved.
     
    BronzeTongue said:
    I took the time to go over all the dragon blooded stuff since they're the terrestrial gold standard, and it seems like it might be.

    From what I can tell dragon blooded get aggravated damage from charms if they're a fire caste using a fire effect against something that already explicitly takes Agg from mundane fire, or they use this charm:



    Which is scene limited, requires use of the specific weapon material, and only works on undead.

    Honestly it seems reasonable to me to just port it over and flip the material to iron/steel so she can use it with her knuckle dusters.

    It's also worth noting that in terms of perfect attacks terrestrials are pretty limited too. This is the one charm that seems to do that for them:


    Note that it is unblockable, but that it's also sharply limited in the damage it can deal. They can't stack attack dice onto their perfect for excellency boosted damage pools.
    I think the difference between celestial and terrestrial is more than just essence pool size, they have to put in extra work through stuff like MA to get things that celestials would consider essentials.

    The list is mostly good, but the excellency, damage, and perfect effects put her substantially ahead of her technical peer group.

    Not quite a celestial running on a two cylinder engine, but enough to sort of give that impression.

    Edit: removed hanging phrase
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    Why are you trying to get our allie nerfed. That is strange to me.
     
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