- Location
- Germany
Being in the director's office after our cover is blown seems to me like the optimal way to start a fight.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Dresden is an unreliable narrator in some instances, especially when it comes to magic. The dude treats it more like a religion than anyone else we see in the DF settings, IIRC. He's almost like a Christian Thurgist from Shadowrun in that regard.
Magic is magic is magic.
Unless you're mainlining power directly from a particular entity, and even then that entity is probably just acting as a filter/broadcasting station for magic that it has personally claimed/absorbed before giving it a specific flavor or taint (Outsiders being a possible exception to this), it's all the same stuff. There isn't a different Wind of magic for every type of caster out there in DF, nor a separate source of magic based on what type of creature is doing the casting.
Different people merely use the power in different ways, depending on the nature of their mind, soul, and species. And that magic affects them in different ways.
Only if you assume that we can win any possible conflict with their forces without knowing what they are.
I'm pretty confident in our abilities, but we should always stack the deck and avoid giving advantages to our opponents. Essentially the same rationale behind my belief that we could take the vampire nest, but that standing on the dance floor and letting them set up first would make for a bad time.
A fight starts in the good doctor's office and we don't know who we're up against, what their static defenses are, or what our goal should be beyond "kill gribblies". Escaping if we bite off more than we can chew would be troublesome.
Better to slip in and try something shallower first. If it fails we have an easier time dealing with the fallout, and if it works we can always decide to start with the fire and murder should it seem advantageous.
It's not.
And what he says about the Kemmlerites and Red court magic users drawing on a single specifically different source of power to regular wizards isn't someone talking about their faith.
It's a specific observation from someone who's fought against both, and is a colleague of people who have fought both for centuries and will have had chance to correct Harry if he's wrong. He doesn't state this in emotional terms, just as a simple fact that is well known by the Wardens.
Why do you think the Wardens are wrong?
There's no evidence I can find contradicting the repeated claims that the energy used by Necromancers and the Red Court is distinct.
Notably, Kumori also believes it. What makes you think she's also wrong?
What evidence do you have from the books that disproves the quotes I've supplied? Every single person that has spoken about the subject in the books has been consistent on the matter.
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- Location
- Germany
I will always remain of the opinion that we are much better off when both sides are surprised than almost any force in the Dresdenverse.
We are tanky and very deadly in melee.
Most potential enemies are some kind of casters who het exponentiallymore dangerous if they can plan for you and prepare spells or weapons to keep surprisingly tough melee-monsters away from themselves.
We on the other hand can't prepare any spells better fit for the situation, can't brew specifically useful potions or summon anything relevant. So zero preptime/knowledge on both sides is optimal for most of our fights.
I disagree to an extent. We're better off than almost anyone else would be when surprised, but that doesn't necessarily mean we're well off enough that being surprised doesn't matter, or that others will always suffer more from it.
We should definitely take them by surprise if we can, but a key part of that is being less confused than the enemy so that we can take advantage of the situation.
We don't know what they prepared, or what their weak spots are, we'd just be wasting our shot unless it became incredibly obvious once the fight started.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
No sources to give beyond vaguely remembered mentions of channeling energy from the environment and personal opinion formed through reading the books.
Head canon, it ain't gotta explain shit.
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- Location
- washington
Oh I knew that I just assume that demons at least most demons are treated differently from outsiders.
Question: Do you have a plan for dealing with him and any other muscle if they notice what we're up to, or even just try to disappear us, while we're inside the building? Surprising him in his office at least has the potential to catch him alone and without backup or preparation.
Actually, in the DF RPG Kemmler-style Necromancy is a form of Sponsored Magic just like Hellfire, Soulfire, or Un-/Seelie Magic are. They're power invested in you by something else, and the more you draw on that, the more control that gives it over you. Kemmlerian Necromancy mainlines power from death:
DF RPG Book 1 said:
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1)Hard disagree.
They are taking advantage of our presence now, yes. But they had no prior warning we would show up, yet instead of shutting the entire operation down as soon as they arrived in the city, they have been running scared.
They have 3x hit teams in the city. 18x Reds.
Tearing the director a set of new orifices should be easy on its face, and they just suffered a couple of military reversals so they could use this force elsewhere, incentivizing quick resolution.
Yet they havent done it, and there is zero indication of their being allies.
There are very few reasons they could have stayed their hand.
2)WE know that. THEY dont. Yet they didnt even try.
Which suggests unpleasant things about their assessment of the local Pathfinder cell.
3)We checked their staff when we broke into their computers. The vast majority seem to be nothing out of the ordinary. Your average American wage slave in an assisted living facility is predominantly female, heavily black and hispanic, with LPN/CNA and RN certifications for the medical staff, and no certifications for the custodial and culinary staff.
A bunch of imported cultists from a predominantly Finnish cult would have a very different profile.
Its not impossible they have one or two cultists on each shift, but thats a negligible amount of force. And unlikely.
WoG is that they have no obvious physical security; if they had the available manpower they would have just put a bunch of cultists on the roll as guards. They didnt, so they dont.
4)There are no enthralled mortals to throw.
The elderly residents are their seedcorn for their ritual, and as such are not expendable. They are none too fit in the first place. And its a nursing home/assisted living facility, not a night club; the staff who work here are not young fit partygoers.
Not to mention that its one thing to enchant people not to see stuff.
But attempting that scale of mind/body control of unwitting civilians would have both required significant preptime, and made it ever more likely for them to have been detected by the White Council or other interested parties.
Just like Molly using black magic on two people was detected by the Gatekeeper in Proven Guilty while he wasnt even in the country, and was used as a beacon for fetches from Arctis Tor.
5)No, we do know that they have no police leverage.
That entire affair with the speedboat festival/tournament demonstrated that they lacked any influence with the Cleveland PD/Cuyahoga County PD. Because if they did, they would have used it to help prevent disruptions to their ritual.
There is no big brain strategy in play here. No margin in keeping it back. If they had it, they would have used it.
6)We wouldnt get as far as being in jail.
Because it would be trespass. At worst, a misdemeanor. And, unlike major Chicago hospitals, the local Pathfinder cell has demonstrably no influence with the local police force.
7)Its a nursing home/assisted living facility.
I visited a couple during the 2010 timeframe. Computers are necessary for staff payroll, and useful for stuff like scheduling.
But they arent essential equipment. A computer breakdown is not going to shut down a nursing home; they'll just buy new ones.
8)Mine does address hostage issues. We got a facility map.
We put HMP in the police network to bypass any alert bottlenecks or to shut them down if necessary. Our primary move sends us towards the likely location of any hostiles, putting us between them and the civies.
And critically, it doesnt lock our party in the director's office while giving him time to send out an alert via technological or magic means.
9)Again, we got a look at the staffing list when we broke into their computers before even getting to Cleveland.
If this place was staffed with cultists the staffing profile would look very different.
I mean, they dont have guards, when the easiest way to put cultists on staff is as physical security.
Thats pretty clearly indicative of major limitations in how many people they have who can pass as normal humans at close quarters.
1)Its a nursing home/assisted living facility, not a hospital.
There will be no diagnostic equipment on site, and certainly no auto masseurs or tanning booths.
Thats what hospitals and external facilities are for.
2)Bunch of desktops, maybe an onsite server.
This place is owned by a holding company. Any heavyduty stuff is probably offsite.
This is a nursing home, not a data company.
1)Subdue them long enough for our party cleric/paladin to do his True Faith thing against the ritual.
Stab them to death if necessary.
2) If you go back to the update and Word of QM, it tells us the Pathfinders built this place.
And the Cold Case short story tells us these sort of prepared sites are places of power for cults. Which means they had the opportunity to lay spells, wards and fortifications right in its foundations.
Accosting the dude running the operation in his office is a lot like accosting Dresden in his apartment, in the middle of his wards and equipment.
Hell, I'd be willing to bet that we dont actually enter the facility and get to the director's office without tripping some sort of magical alarm, because Molly is explicitly a miniDarkhallow to people with magic senses. And the director charged with operating a magical ritual to free a chtonic monster definitely has magic senses.
And because Molly is Perception 2, Alertness/Awareness 0, she wouldnt notice any magic alarms going off.
Yup. Kemmlerian Necromancy is Sponsored Magic in the RPG. So is Supayan Necromancy.
But Kemmlerian Necromancy is NEW as magic goes. Didnt exist before the 19th century.
Kemmler refined necromany, but didnt invent it.
I'll get back to you later on if Cowl had a stat block, btw. Not near books atm.
Principally, the issue here is Alratan making the claim that necromancy requires particular energies or emotions.
Which is, to my recollection, not true.
Because Sue was a glorious, terrible thing whose summoning we see described, and it requires no such thing.
- Location
- washington
Offhand long term what do people feel about michael? Word of jim him being injured really was his happy ending (for now at least jim can be evil) for all intents and purposes. That it got him retirement something well he wasn't likely to see otherwise for a long time or until death.
Sp what's stopping him from noticing us while we try to bluff our way in as construction workers and coming after us after gathering any weapons and goons he has at hand? You're not really convincing me to not try to cut off the head right away while giving him as little prep-time as possible here.
Well, yeah. Maybe should have specified. Alone the mere fact that it's called specifically Kemmlerian Necromancy means that it's not the only kind, for a start.
Supayan? Is that from WoD?
True, there are even more details which complicate the matter even more. Such as him calling himself by the Exact name which Rashid faced as a nemesis along with other matters which are shown here.
Lovecraft was an atheist. His viewpoints on religion are outlined in his 1922 essay "A Confession of Unfaith". In this essay, he describes his shift away from the Protestantism of his parents to the atheism of his adulthood. Lovecraft was raised by a conservative Protestant family. He was introduced to the Bible and the mythos of Saint Nicholas when he was two. He passively accepted both of them. Over the course of the next few years, he was introduced to Grimms' Fairy Tales and One Thousand and One Nights, favoring the latter. In response, Lovecraft took on the identity of "Abdul Alhazred", a name he would later use for the author of the Necronomicon.[144] According to this account, his first moment of skepticism occurred before his fifth birthday, when he questioned if God is a myth after learning that Santa Claus is not real. In 1896, he was introduced to Greco-Roman myths and became "a genuine pagan".[15]
This came to an end in 1902, when Lovecraft was introduced to space. He later described this event as the most poignant in his life. In response to this discovery, Lovecraft took to studying astronomy and described his observations in the local newspaper.[145] Before his thirteenth birthday, he had become convinced of humanity's impermanence. By the time he was seventeen, he had read detailed writings that agreed with his worldview. Lovecraft ceased writing positively about progress, instead developing his later cosmic philosophy. Despite his interests in science, he had an aversion to realistic literature, so he became interested in fantastical fiction. Lovecraft became pessimistic when he entered amateur journalism in 1914. The Great War seemed to confirm his viewpoints. He began to despise philosophical idealism. Lovecraft took to discussing and debating his pessimism with his peers, which allowed him to solidify his philosophy. His readings of Friedrich Nietzsche and H. L. Mencken, among other pessimistic writers, furthered this development. At the end of his essay, Lovecraft states that all he desired was oblivion. He was willing to cast aside any illusion that he may still have held.[146]
Hope these details are interesting as it also hint on at least in Dresden files the oddity that is Lovecraft when considering the other details in the series. Along with that Rashid took down Abdul Alhazred which does make the claim of identity somewhat awkward. According to the response by Butcher I think.
@FitzMelech Rashid is, by far, the most dangerous of the Senior Council. Which is not the same thing as most powerful.
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- Location
- Who knows?
Guys, no way Cleveland PD comes out guns blazing for non violent, white appearing, trespassers even if the Bavarian Fire Drill doesn't work. Like I think the failure state of for uju's plan is being way overstated. Even if the receptionist cares enough to dig deeper into a plausible cover story (aka has the itimacies to counter Molly's subterfuge die) if they didn't have the clout to have the police shut down a boating competition they definitely don't have the clout to physically drag a few officers over to make an arrest with any rush.
1)Range. Dresden has limited range for noticing supernatural effects; so will this guy.
How far? At their first meeting, Dresden's outer sensors detected the Archive at several blocks distance, but the inner wards only did so at several dozen yards.
But those are a White Council wizard's wards anchored ln his home's threshold.
Dude's going to be worse, because he isnt a wizard, this isnt his home, and the need for discretion and secrecy would have precluded setting out longrange alarms where random magicals woulf notice them.
2)Nursing homes are big.
Googling around for an example of a mid-tier nursing home/assisted living facility, this is a drone shot of Delmar Gardens Smyrna, in Georgia, USA
Look at the size of the place.
For reference, this is claimed to be a 120 bed facility, so not huge. Quoted fees seem to be in the 4k monthly range as of 2022.
Its nowhere near as big or as nice as the Soul's Rest place, located in a prime real estate spot like the shoreline of the Great Lakes.
A lot of people dont live in the USA, or have had only tangential contact with its geriatric care sector, so they dont really grok how big some of these places are.
No, its from the Dresden Files RPG.
Volume 3,The Paranet Papers. Stat bloc of Sinchi Yutu, Death Priest of Supay.
One of the people who showed up in Latin America after the destruction of the Red Court.
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Vote closed, sorry thing took so long, was busy today
This is what Mr Butcher said when asked back in 2010:
Make of that what you will.#413 "In the Dresdenverse, was HP Lovecraft On To Something like Bram Stoker, or was he just an author with a thing for odd adjectives?"
He was onto something. And, like Stoker, it got him killed.
Rashid, at least, is supposed to have dealt with Al-Hazred back in the first millenium.
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Been thinking, and if we want to prepare for the meeting with Mab, we need to, at minimum, increase our Charisma and Manipulation to five dots, and increase Etiquette as well as Empathy to five dots as well. And upping Perception would also be a good idea.
Unfortunately, Charisma and Manipulation will each take 28 XP apiece, while Empathy and Etiquette need 7 XP apiece. Meaning we'll need at minimum 70 XP... And that's if we don't max out Perception, which will help, as well, which will add 36 XP to the amount.
We need a ton of XP and not all that much time to get it.
Unfortunately, Charisma and Manipulation will each take 28 XP apiece, while Empathy and Etiquette need 7 XP apiece. Meaning we'll need at minimum 70 XP... And that's if we don't max out Perception, which will help, as well, which will add 36 XP to the amount.
We need a ton of XP and not all that much time to get it.
Winning Vote
Arc 3 Post 15: The Prussian Permutation
The Prussian Permutation
25st of July 2006 A.D.
As you start to explain your idea to dad and Lydia over a late lunch she gets a kind of faraway look in her eye and then she giggles. "Dad just told me about something like this. A guy named Wilhelm Voigt in 1906 managed to steal the whole treasury of a Prussian city, and he got Prussian soldiers to help him with it. Among other things he got them to cut the cables to Berlin so the authorities would not find out about it."
"How'd he get caught?" you ask, curiously. "I wouldn't want us to make the same mistake."
"That is OK, none of us have former cellmates to brag to," she deadpans
Dad tries to keep a straight face through the whole thing, but that's too much even for him.
Alas the mirth cannot last past desert and so serious and committed once again you get o work.
***
Or in your case you get into a bath. I'm going through breach like crazy today, but it's more than worth it to b topped up in a fight.
You Replenish all Essence -> Now at 12/12
After the bath and thoroughly wiping off the bleach to make sure you do not stain the clothes it's disguise time. Getting workman's overalls and hardhats isn't hard and a clipboard just as easy, dad is a carpenter when he is not off saving the world from evil, but getting 'building inspector' down for your looks, well that proves to be a bit more involved. Thankfully Lydia has a 'little experience' in costume work working in costumes 'from when I was in a school production of the Tempest in Touluse'. When you finally turn around to look at the final result in the mirror... you have to say you are impressed.
With all your piercings out your hair back to its original color and put up with some simple clips wearing a bit of foundation and some shell pink lipstick and a plain but pretty enough green dress you look... well you look like mom, which is all kinds of disturbing. Not that you are somehow unaware that you took a lot of your features from her, from your height to your hair to your general proportions, but at some point around middle school looking like mom became the very opposite of your style, the magnetic south on the compass. Seeing the similarity all at once like this.... "OK I think that will do," You say shaking off the thought
Lydia goes through the same process for herself sort of like one of those cheesy movie glow-ups only instead of pretty for a date it is 'maximum mom'. You are about to point that your yourself when it occurs to your that you have no idea who Lydia's mom is, or if she if even alive. What kind of woman would have slept with an ancient death god? Had she even known?
None of my business, really none of my business, you think as you pick up the last of your props and finally head for the heart of the whole mess.
***
Soul's Rest does not look the least how you expect it to in person, which is fair enough since you are half expecting some hulking monstrosity of a building that would not look out of place in a Resident Evil game but still the faux-classical look is almost offensively innocuous, like a bank or a government building and even the little inconsistencies look harmless, mismatched lounge chairs and plastic tables so the residents can enjoy their time by the water. Really if you did not know better you would instantly reason that noise complaint makes sense and really how sure can you be that Fred had died of magic and not of some natural cause, people die of previously unknown conditions all the time, even young ones.
"What on Earth am I going on about?" you think, almost tripping over the front steps. It does not take Usum's reply to realize the truth, this place seems to be putting off an unseen haze of rationalization
"Careful, there's something messing with out heads," you whisper as you flex a by now familiar mental muscle and raise all about you a mental fortress.
Lose 1 Willpower -> Now at 8/9 Temporary Willpower
"I'm fine," Lydia says tightly, dad just gives you a reassuring nod as you reach the reception desk.
"Hello there miss..."you say with a brilliant smile while, putting on a show of peering at her nametag "....Anne ? Anne. Me and my team are here to take a look at the building work. Make sure everything remains up to code for elder care." As her eyes go from dad's blue collar bulk to rest on Lydia's slighter form, both in high vis jackets and hardhats, you whisper conspiratorially "Intern." You reach over the counter and grab a key card and a couple visitor cards. "We'll be starting with the wing with the construction work. We know the way."
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 11/12
"Oh yes I'll just ring up Doctor Niemi so he'll know to provide you with anything you might need..."
Darn, darn, darn, you had spent so long thinking of ways to deflect suspicion that you had not considered what to do if the receptionist was helpful.
You throw a glance at her phone, holding a tune of ones and zeroes in your head. That won't be sending any messages to the boss. Hopefully Anne here is too professional to just use her own phone for it right away since that is out of sight.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 10/12
About halfway between the reception and the door to what you had taken to calling the Forbidden Corridor in your head you come across a small group of residents stretching their legs, or a least that is what you think they are doing, they certainly aren't talking to each other and they barely seem to notice the three of you, even though you are hardly inconspicuous... then one little old lady in a pink robe presses something into your hand... a note.
What do you do?
[] Take the opportunity to read the note here, even though it might be conspicuous, it might be something you need to know
[] Continue to your destination, you are committed now
[] Write in
OOC: And we are here, almost at the end game.
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My apologies this is late @Alratan. I had to get access to my books.
1)You have the trouble of unreliable narrator with Dresden, especially in the earlier books, where he, like the readers, is ignorant of much of the world.
For one thing, we know that his characterization of vampire magic is untrue for several reasons
-Thomas uses magic in Backup for a tracking spell. Entirely normal
-We see Bianca use magic in the denouement of Grave Peril. Different spells, no mention of a different source
-We see Ariana Ortega use magic in Changes in her duel with Dresden. She is described as having a shroud of greasy black magic around her, but her power source wasnt called out as any different.
And we see both Kumori and Cowl call on magic up close. There is no indication of their power sources being limited.
In conclusion? Magic is magic is magic. There is no evidence that Rampire or Whampire sorcerers are limited to a different source of power, let alone necromancers. Shit like blood sacrifices might be easier to do to raise power, like they did at Chitchen Itza in Changes, but it isnt necessary. Just a shortcut for people too lazy or too unskilled to do shit properly.
I cant speak for Outsider magic.
2) Also, Dresden knew nothing about Kemmlerite necromancy at this point.
He had to ask Bob for a briefing after Mavra told him to find the Word of Kemmler, because he didnt even know who Kemmler was.
And his briefing was incomplete because he tripped the Evil Bob switch and it nearly killed him, so he told Bob to lock away the info.
He only finds and memorizes the Word of Kemmler several hours after this conversation.
And when he reads it, he promptly raises Sue as a zombie tyrannosaur.
Using his normal power sources.
3)Word of Jim is that Odin uses soulfire to raise his undead Einherjar.
So yeah, necromancy.
Make of that what you will.
Fool Moon.
This is from even further back, when Harry was under the impression that a containment circle designed to hold a lou garou was rated to hold an archangel. And that demons were harmless denizens of the NeverNever to trade information with.
Fool Moon Harry was almost as dumb as he was ignorant.
And just to be clear: Harry does treat magic as his religion.
As of the beginning of Dead Beat, the only vampire sorceress he'd ever fought was Bianca, and he had only academic knowledge of necromancy. Dresden was a pretty inexperienced wizard at this point, with an incomplete education, as evidenced by the fact that IC he didnt recognize the name of the most infamous magical mass murderer in history.
Unreliable narrator tropes fully in effect.
2)He states no such thing to the Wardens. All that passage was internal narration.
I just went back and checked. Dead Beat chapter 31
That is all his internal narration, internal conjecture.
Not Warden statements.
3)Why would you believe anything Kumori said in the book without independent verification?
She's either the undead familiar or a magical associate of Cowl, attempted magical mass murderer . She was trying to recruit Dresden in that scene by convincing him necromancy wasnt so bad. She's not bound to tell the truth. Why would you believe anything she told you in a recruitment speech?
If she said the sky was blue, I would suggest checking to be sure.
Dead Beat
1)You have the trouble of unreliable narrator with Dresden, especially in the earlier books, where he, like the readers, is ignorant of much of the world.
For one thing, we know that his characterization of vampire magic is untrue for several reasons
-Thomas uses magic in Backup for a tracking spell. Entirely normal
-We see Bianca use magic in the denouement of Grave Peril. Different spells, no mention of a different source
-We see Ariana Ortega use magic in Changes in her duel with Dresden. She is described as having a shroud of greasy black magic around her, but her power source wasnt called out as any different.
And we see both Kumori and Cowl call on magic up close. There is no indication of their power sources being limited.
In conclusion? Magic is magic is magic. There is no evidence that Rampire or Whampire sorcerers are limited to a different source of power, let alone necromancers. Shit like blood sacrifices might be easier to do to raise power, like they did at Chitchen Itza in Changes, but it isnt necessary. Just a shortcut for people too lazy or too unskilled to do shit properly.
I cant speak for Outsider magic.
2) Also, Dresden knew nothing about Kemmlerite necromancy at this point.
He had to ask Bob for a briefing after Mavra told him to find the Word of Kemmler, because he didnt even know who Kemmler was.
And his briefing was incomplete because he tripped the Evil Bob switch and it nearly killed him, so he told Bob to lock away the info.
He only finds and memorizes the Word of Kemmler several hours after this conversation.
And when he reads it, he promptly raises Sue as a zombie tyrannosaur.
Using his normal power sources.
3)Word of Jim is that Odin uses soulfire to raise his undead Einherjar.
So yeah, necromancy.
Make of that what you will.
Fool Moon.
This is from even further back, when Harry was under the impression that a containment circle designed to hold a lou garou was rated to hold an archangel. And that demons were harmless denizens of the NeverNever to trade information with.
Fool Moon Harry was almost as dumb as he was ignorant.
And just to be clear: Harry does treat magic as his religion.
1)See my previous posts.
As of the beginning of Dead Beat, the only vampire sorceress he'd ever fought was Bianca, and he had only academic knowledge of necromancy. Dresden was a pretty inexperienced wizard at this point, with an incomplete education, as evidenced by the fact that IC he didnt recognize the name of the most infamous magical mass murderer in history.
Unreliable narrator tropes fully in effect.
2)He states no such thing to the Wardens. All that passage was internal narration.
I just went back and checked. Dead Beat chapter 31
Luccio nodded. "Precisely. The first attack came in Cairo, at our operations center there. Several Wardens were taken, including the senior commander of the region."
"Alive?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yes. Which was an unacceptable threat."
When vampires take you alive, it isn't so that they can treat you to ice cream. That was one of the really nightmarish facets of the war with the Red Court. If the enemy got you, they could do worse than kill you.
They could make you one of their own.
If they managed to turn a Warden, especially one of the senior commanders, it would give them access to a treasury of knowledge and secrets-to say nothing of the fact that they would effectively gain, in many ways, a wizard of their own. Vampires didn't use magic in the same way that mortal wizards did. They tapped into the same nauseating well of power that Kemmler and those like him used. But from what I understood of it, the skills carried over. A turned wizard would be a deadly threat to the Wardens, the Council, and mortals alike. We never talked about it, but there was a sort of silent understanding among wizards that we would never be taken alive. And an equally silent fear that we might be.
"You went after them," I guessed.
Luccio nodded. "A major assault. Madrid, Sao Paolo, Acapulco, Athens. We struck at enemy strongholds there to acquire intelligence to the whereabouts of the prisoners. Our people were being held in Belize." She waved a hand vaguely at Morgan.
"Our intelligence indicated the presence of the highest-ranking members of the Red Court, including the Red King himself. The Merlin and the rest of the Senior Council took the field with us," Morgan said quietly.
That made me raise my brows. The Merlin, the leader of the Senior Council, was as defensive-minded as it was possible to be. He'd guided the White Council into the equivalent of a cold war with the Red Court, with everyone moving carefully and unwilling to commit, in the hopes that it would give the war time to settle away into negotiations and some kind of diplomatic resolution. An offensive action like a full assault from the Senior Council, the seven oldest and strongest wizards on the planet, had been long overdue.
"Alive?" I asked.
She nodded. "Yes. Which was an unacceptable threat."
When vampires take you alive, it isn't so that they can treat you to ice cream. That was one of the really nightmarish facets of the war with the Red Court. If the enemy got you, they could do worse than kill you.
They could make you one of their own.
If they managed to turn a Warden, especially one of the senior commanders, it would give them access to a treasury of knowledge and secrets-to say nothing of the fact that they would effectively gain, in many ways, a wizard of their own. Vampires didn't use magic in the same way that mortal wizards did. They tapped into the same nauseating well of power that Kemmler and those like him used. But from what I understood of it, the skills carried over. A turned wizard would be a deadly threat to the Wardens, the Council, and mortals alike. We never talked about it, but there was a sort of silent understanding among wizards that we would never be taken alive. And an equally silent fear that we might be.
"You went after them," I guessed.
Luccio nodded. "A major assault. Madrid, Sao Paolo, Acapulco, Athens. We struck at enemy strongholds there to acquire intelligence to the whereabouts of the prisoners. Our people were being held in Belize." She waved a hand vaguely at Morgan.
"Our intelligence indicated the presence of the highest-ranking members of the Red Court, including the Red King himself. The Merlin and the rest of the Senior Council took the field with us," Morgan said quietly.
That made me raise my brows. The Merlin, the leader of the Senior Council, was as defensive-minded as it was possible to be. He'd guided the White Council into the equivalent of a cold war with the Red Court, with everyone moving carefully and unwilling to commit, in the hopes that it would give the war time to settle away into negotiations and some kind of diplomatic resolution. An offensive action like a full assault from the Senior Council, the seven oldest and strongest wizards on the planet, had been long overdue.
Not Warden statements.
3)Why would you believe anything Kumori said in the book without independent verification?
She's either the undead familiar or a magical associate of Cowl, attempted magical mass murderer . She was trying to recruit Dresden in that scene by convincing him necromancy wasnt so bad. She's not bound to tell the truth. Why would you believe anything she told you in a recruitment speech?
If she said the sky was blue, I would suggest checking to be sure.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
We can probably slip the note into our clipboard so that it looks like we're reading the clipboard. Not like looking through the clipboard is breaking character.
Or the old "pretend to tie your shoes" trick while we read the note. Either way, we have options.
Or the old "pretend to tie your shoes" trick while we read the note. Either way, we have options.
Rolls
Lydia Disguises Molly...
...and herself (No Excellency since it takes more than the time allotted to that, if she had something like the tool charm she would be fast enough but otherwise no)
Realizing the building is trying to weirdness censor you
Somehow failing the willpower roll so you have to spent an Essence
Playing the part
Yes the receptionist is rolling willpower nine dice... probably not normal for all the good it does her
Cutting off her phone with a demon
Lydia Disguises Molly...
...and herself (No Excellency since it takes more than the time allotted to that, if she had something like the tool charm she would be fast enough but otherwise no)
Realizing the building is trying to weirdness censor you
Somehow failing the willpower roll so you have to spent an Essence
Playing the part
Yes the receptionist is rolling willpower nine dice... probably not normal for all the good it does her
Cutting off her phone with a demon
Probably not the sort of thing that would occur to Molly; but it'd be really funny if she did this bit one day at random over the summer where Charity could see her, then vanished to do work in the dragon nest or something and before she could get an explanation. Not just dressing nice mind, but legit her best Charity cosplay.
"Where are you going dressed like that young lady?" In the opposite direction.
