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Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

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Hmm, this is going to be a difficult one, indeed. Since Hell-Walker Technique (•••), the Charm that allows us to pass through the local Gauntlet is a Charm under the Hell of Burrowing Maggots Category. Infernals can only have up to 7 Dots in Charm Dots during Character Generation with them having to pick two Charm Category for Key Charm, and 5 Dots must be allocated to their Charm Category. Meaning that we cannot pick our Lankha + Kakuri as our Key Charm Category. Frebies Point help this in that they can be used to buy Charms. So 22(15 base Freebies + 7 Flaws) - 5(Willpower) - 9(Hell-Walker Technique) = 8 Freebies Point. Yeah, we can buy it. It's going to cut us deep though unless we choose Hell of Burrowing Maggot as our Key Charm Category.

Edit: UNLESS! We can use Kakuri's Ultimate Darkness Internalization (•••), which would allow us to pass through the local Shadowland/Underworld. We don't need to pass into the Spirit World or one of the Hells. We can just use the local afterlife.
Ultimate Darkness Internalization (•••)
The Infernal claps her hands, surrenders herself utterly to the chill void of the Night Realm, and lets the darkness transport her to the realm of the unhappy dead.
System: Spend 1 Essence and roll Manipulation + Occult against a difficulty of the local Shroud. Success transports the character into the Shadowlands. By accepting one level of unsoakable bashing damage per ally, the Infernal can also draw other willing characters into the Underworld with her. This Charm may also be used in reverse to return to the material world.
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God, I love Kakuri. That is if we pick him as our Charm Category.
 
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It should be noted that you also have a still alive wizard not far from you. While you can burst out of here on your own like the Koolaid Man you do not have to, assuming you can keep Harry from being strangled by gnarled wood and supernatural terror. There is also the option to negotiate, you have a crown option that cripples anyone who refuses to negotiate with you when you do so in good faith. The more dice they have the more likely they are to roll a 1 and botch so it's not even like you can simply power through.
 
DragonParadox said:
It should be noted that you also have a still alive wizard not far from you. While you can burst out of here on your own like the Koolaid Man you do not have to, assuming you can keep Harry from being strangled by gnarled wood and supernatural terror. There is also the option to negotiate, you have a crown option that cripples anyone who refuses to negotiate with you when you do so in good faith. The more dice they have the more likely they are to roll a 1 and botch so it's not even like you can simply power through.
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The idea of parley would be delightful if it were not for the fact that: #1, we have just taken a clearly infernal bargain and becomes a Champion of Hell (even if Molly doesn't know it yet, she still radiates corruptive energy all around), #2, we are in the middle of a Fae Goddess' stronghold, and #3, Fae are duplicitous and cruel by nature with Winter being even more so, and lastly #4, that said Fortress was attacked by a hellish forces as well. And wouldn't you know, Molly has now turned into a nascent Demon Emperor at the end of those forces' assault, making her extremely sus by default.

If anyone wanted to try and talk it out with the Fae, be my guest. But my Infernal instinct told me that we should run the hell out of dodge, fast.
 
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Jack vile Ripper said:
The idea of parley would be delightful if it were not for the fact that: #1, we have just taken a clearly infernal bargain and becomes a Champion of Hell (even if Molly doesn't know it yet, she still radiates corruptive energy all around), #2, we are in the middle of a Fae Goddess' stronghold, and #3, Fae are duplicitous and cruel by nature with Winter being even more so, and lastly #4, that said Fortress was attacked by a hellish forces as well. And wouldn't you know, Molly has now turned into a nascent Demon Emperor at the end of those forces' assault, making her extremely sus by default.

If anyone wanted to try and talk it out with the Fae, be my guest. But my Infernal instinct told me that we should run the hell out of dodge, fast.
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If this was a human that would be the natural conclusion yeah, but this is Winter, it is Mab and she is inhumanly rational. It's not like she does not know what she had on ice in that tree and she will be able to see that it was not cracked open with hell-fire but with the Summer fire Dresden used. That should not be taken in any way as an indication Mab will like you, but assume she is a competent investigator.

Also you took occult 5 so Molly would know that Winter is coldly rational even when they hate your guts, or perhaps especially then.
 
DragonParadox said:
Also you took occult 5 so Molly would know that Winter is coldly rational even when they hate your guts, or perhaps especially then.
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I see... (Yes, Occult 5 working as intended pog!)

Honestly, I can see this ending in two ways. Either we escape and go away from Winter's grasp with whatever armament we now have... or we stand and wait for investigation, thus using our Crown of Kings to make sure we have good bargains with the Fae Queen.

I think... I'll stand with using Crown of Kings, still. It grants us utter diplomatic immunity, something that Molly would seriously need and is severely lacking of.
 
[X] The Crown of Kings

Question. Given that this is set in the Dresden Files would infernal powers gain metaphysical weight when used in places known for nuclear radiation e.g. Hiroshima and Nagasaki or Chernobyl
 
Have Demonic Guide Background at higher level and we would be able to gain intrinsic understanding of Hell's metaphysic, topology, and social structure. The fact that It also adds dice and specialties is just the icing on the cake.

Demonic Guide is really good.

Wait a minute, @DragonParadox can we use the Ally Background to basically turn Mab into our ally? And if so, how many dots do we need?

That would definitely solve most of our problems in one fell swoop! Not to mention Background Dots costs only one Freebies Point in Character Generation.
 
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DragonParadox said:
Molly does not know, you could always go try.
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We could and it probably wouldn't even cost that much, though I assume if we did you might decide to add in something a bit more interesting than 'you go to Chernobyl you feel stronger you leave'.
like a mystery or a combat encounter or PUPPIES because puppies and dogs have been found in the Chernobyl exclusion zone so idk radiation immune puppy familiar?
 
CorruptedKing said:
like a mystery or a combat encounter or PUPPIES because puppies and dogs have been found in the Chernobyl exclusion zone so idk radiation immune puppy familiar?
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There is an option in ExWoD for Exalts to have familiars. The Familiars can even transform into a human self with human-level intelligence, endowed with greater strength, or even resurrection from death even after being completely soul-destroyed.
 
Jack vile Ripper said:
Have Demonic Guide Background at higher level and we would be able to gain intrinsic understanding of Hell's metaphysic, topology, and social structure. The fact that It also adds dice and specialties is just the icing on the cake.

Demonic Guide is really good.

Wait a minute, @DragonParadox can we use the Ally Background to basically turn Mab into our ally? And if so, how many dots do we need?

That would definitely solve most of our problems in one fell swoop! Not to mention Background Dots costs only one Freebies Point in Character Generation.
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No, ally background is supposed to represent what the exalted had before the start of the story, this is not reality warping in the moment. So you could take Father Forthil as an ally as long as you do not do something he would find unacceptable... and if you are fine with his end goal being to get you free of he demon. You cold take some kind of minor criminal gang that you knew though the goth or the horror scene. Allies have to make sense and breaking into Arctis Tor does not an ally of Queen Mab make.

You could take Aurora I guess, depending on how you come out of things, she would probably be sympathetic of what is basically having the mantle of would be Emperor of Hell foisted on you.
 
Mmmmh, there goes my plan foiled. Although it would be nice for us to gain the favor of a Fae Queen.

Guess we have to be polite and diplomance our way out of this, then.
DragonParadox said:
You could take Aurora I guess, depending on how you come out of things, she would probably be sympathetic of what is basically having the mantle of would be Emperor of Hell foisted on you.
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And how much would that costs? Or is that something we gained in-play rather than in Character Generation.
 
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Jack vile Ripper said:
There is an option in ExWoD for Exalts to have familiars. The Familiars can even transform into a human self with human-level intelligence, endowed with greater strength, or even resurrection from death even after being completely soul-destroyed.
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Now I definitely want to go there even for the sole purpose of nuclear puppy familiar with some suitably long winded xianxia-esque name
 
Jack vile Ripper said:
Mmmmh, there goes my plan foiled. Although it would be nice for us to gain the favor of a Fae Queen.

Guess we have to be polite and diplomance our way out of this, then.

And how much would that costs? Or is that something we gained in-play rather than in Character Generation.
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Aurora is quite powerful being the lady, but also quite limited, anything in her purview she can give away without price, but when she tries to push it... like say letting Harry into the Heart of Winter, it is complicated. I would say she would cost three dots. As for when to do it , you guys can take X point allies and then we can establish what that is once you are out.
 
CorruptedKing said:
Now I definitely want to go there even for the sole purpose of nuclear puppy familiar with some suitably long winded xianxia-esque name
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Good news, we're playing Exalted. So long names like The Most Puissant Five Lashes Who Brings Autumn and War Bedecked by Widow's Wail most definitely are allowed here.
DragonParadox said:
Aurora is quite powerful being the lady, but also quite limited, anything in her purview she can give away without price, but when she tries to push it... like say letting Harry into the Heart of Winter, it is complicated. I would say she would cost three dots. As for when to do it , you guys can take X point allies and then we can establish what that is once you are out.
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Nice, will do! Thanks DP.

Thank God we're still a kid, so we don't need to worry about monetary values like Resource and some such. We can ask our mom for that.
 
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DragonParadox said:
Just be aware that you will need to have some real heart to heart talks with your family and the size of Molly's allowance is rather low on the priority list.
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Hmm, if we have 22 FP - 5 (Willpower), we will still have 17 FP to spend for things to come. Like Backgrounds and some such. Of course, we can just use Demonic Primacy of Essence to order some jagglings to fetch us some pocket money. But to have a comfortable life, most would choose Resource 2. We have 5 Background dots to allocate. One Background dot costs 1 FP. So that's 17 Backgrounds that we could spend (of which we would not spend most of it, since Charm purchasing is so much more important than Background).

I want to raise our Demonic Guide to 5 so that we'd be able to safely navigate through Hell and to understand the ins-and-out of it and to be empowered by our Unwoven Coadjutor (Occult Specialty, Awareness Dice, Demonic Aspect, Social Dice against evil spirits, and +2 Initiative). So that's 5 free Background dots gone. Resource 2 for 2 FP. So that's 15 FP left. Enough to buy one 5-dot Charm.

What do you guys think? What Background should we buy next?

Also, how tall is Molly? This might be relevant for the future.
 
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I don't think the exaltation would change her height, not without some kind of mutation which she did not get. That said the wiki does not say how tall she is in canon beyond 'not as tall as Harry' like 99% of humans.
 
Jack vile Ripper said:
Hmm, there are ways in dealing with this. First amongst all options is to choose the Crown of Kings, which does this:
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Not sure that would help. Fey can't lie, and they especially can't break oaths if it's at all physically possible to avoid doing so.

The problem is that the stronger and smarter the fey the better at manipulation they tend to be. Mab is absolutely the type who can bend even well worded pacts into something that ends with you further in her influence than when you started.

The fey gimmick isn't quite a binding oath either in some cases. If you break an agreement to them without terms on punishment then it basically turns into a generic thaumaturgical link to you.

There's a scene early on where Mab herself decides to show up in Dresden's office to announce she owned his (very substantial) debt to lesser Sidhe now.

She demonstrates this by body jacking him and making him put a letter opener into part of his hand.

No save, no existing geas hanging off his soul from the previous agreement. Not even the slight warning that something had changed. He owed her so she could just do shit to him now.

Mab is basically a goddess so not every fey can actually do the same things, but that's the sort of effect we're talking about.

It's probably a bad idea to assume we can get one over on her in her own home as an essence one exalt with less than a day's worth of experience.

[X] The Crown of Eyes

I think this one is the best choice because it provides a hilariously valuable unique ability. Information games are really important in most conflicts in DF, being able to have flashes of omniscience that no one can block would be a game changer.

The diplomatic immunity thing is only sort of useful, because the supernatural world already has strong systems for this, so it'd only be useful in edge cases. Which will come up, but it doesn't necessarily add any new ability to negotiate with people we couldn't otherwise approach.

Cursing oathbreakers would be nice, but we can work out other enforcement mechanisms more easily than we can find a separate way to gain unblockable super divination.

Edit: corrected vote for uniformity.
 
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DragonParadox said:
No, ally background is supposed to represent what the exalted had before the start of the story, this is not reality warping in the moment. So you could take Father Forthil as an ally as long as you do not do something he would find unacceptable... and if you are fine with his end goal being to get you free of he demon. You cold take some kind of minor criminal gang that you knew though the goth or the horror scene. Allies have to make sense and breaking into Arctis Tor does not an ally of Queen Mab make.

You could take Aurora I guess, depending on how you come out of things, she would probably be sympathetic of what is basically having the mantle of would be Emperor of Hell foisted on you.
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Aurora might get less supportive if she notices that our power comes with no obligations and the only drawback is that people might mistakenly think we have any obligations to hell.
Well, that and some individual charms have drawvacks, but taking them would be our choice.
 
DragonParadox said:
I don't think the exaltation would change her height, not without some kind of mutation which she did not get. That said the wiki does not say how tall she is in canon beyond 'not as tall as Harry' like 99% of humans.
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Nice, that means that we could slap the Short Flaw on her for extra Freebie Points. That alongside with Nightmare, Phobia and/or Enemy would do nicely.

But that's for the future I think
 
BronzeTongue said:
Not sure that would help. Fey can't lie, and they especially can't break oaths if it's at all physically possible to avoid doing so.

The problem is that the stronger and smarter the fey the better at manipulation they tend to be. Mab is absolutely the type who can bend even well worded pacts into something that ends with you further in her influence than when you started.

The fey gimmick isn't quite a binding oath either in some cases. If you break an agreement to them without terms on punishment then it basically turns into a generic thaumaturgical link to you.

There's a scene early on where Mab herself decides to show up in Dresden's office to announce she owned his (very substantial) debt to lesser Sidhe now.

She demonstrates this by body jacking him and making him put a letter opener into part of his hand.

No save, no existing geas hanging off his soul from the previous agreement. Not even the slight warning that something had changed. He owed her so she could just do shit to him now.

Mab is basically a goddess so not every fey can actually do the same things, but that's the sort of effect we're talking about.

It's probably a bad idea to assume we can get one over on her in her own home as an essence one exalt with less than a day's worth of experience.
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There is an infernal charm that lets you get rid of any geas like that at the cost of burning one of your intimacies. It basically carves off a piece of your soul with the geas on it and then tosses it into hell while the rest of you goes about the day of being Fabulous and Not At All Horrifying :V
 
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