The Dresden Files RPG Book Quote Scavenger Hunt

[iago]

I figure dozens of readers of the books are better than one -- so I'd like to kick off a "book quote scavenger hunt".  In the RPG, we want to excerpt little bits from the books themselves (short stories, too!) in order to help illustrate the various skills and abilities we have in the game as expressed in the stories of the Dresden Files.  So I'm asking you, the fans of the Dresden Files, to lend a hand!

Here are the "rules":

- Quotes provided need to be no longer than 4 sentences -- these need to be tiny excerpts, not large passages.

- I need at least two such quotes per skill (list found below), for starters.  There may be a second scavenger hunt for other pieces later on (the supernatural abilities part of things is almost guaranteed to need some, once I'm ready for 'em).

- You're allowed to ask questions about particular items on the scavenger hunt list if you're stumped.  I definitely have a few ideas as to who or what might be appropriate for at least a few of these things.

- Anyone who participates and submits quotes is eligible for a "thank-you prize" -- a free PDF (electronic download) of my mini-rpg of surreal horror "Don't Rest Your Head" -- if I choose to use one or more of your quotes in the book (first come first serve logic applies if several people offer up the same quotes).

Sound good?  Okay, ready -- set -- go!

Here's the list

• Alertness (This is 'passive' awareness, on-your-toes-ness, the ability to avoid surprise)
• Athletics (Running, jumping, climbing, dodging)
• Burglary (The ability to break into places you shouldn't be, and to plan to break into them)
• Contacts (Knowing people, tapping into the rumor mill, keeping your ear to the ground, hitting the streets to get the word out)
• Conviction (Your strength of belief -- whether that's in God, magic, or other higher powers -- and thus your psychological fortitude)
• Craftsmanship (Building, fixing, and breaking things with tools)
• Deceit (Falsehood, deception, distraction, misdirection)
• Discipline (Concentration and self-control)
• Driving (driving, flying, boating, car chases, shortcuts, street navigation)
• Empathy ("reading" people, maintaining the social graces, spotting lies)
• Endurance (stamina and toughness)
• Fists (brawling, martial arts)
• Guns (gunplay, firefights, gun knowledge, etc)
• Intimidation (threats, scaring people, provoking anger, interrogation)
• Investigation (examination, eavesdropping, pattern recognition, surveillance)
• Lore (arcane research, rituals, vague i've-got-a-bad-feeling-about-this "sixth sense")
• Might (lifting things, brekaing things, exerting force, wrestling)
• Performance (playing to an audience, artistic composition and appreciation, creative communication)
• Presence (charisma, leadership, reputation, social "teflon factor")
• Rapport (small-talk, friendliness, putting your best foot forward impression-making, gift of gab)
• Resources (wealth, equipment, lifestyle, accommodations)
• Scholarship (mundane research, sciences, languages, using computers)
• Stealth (hiding, skulking, ambushing, "shadowing" or secretly following someone)
• Survival (animal handling, outdoor camouflage, riding, wilderness scavenging, tracking beasts)
• Weapons (weaponed combat, swordplay, thrown weaponry, weapon knowledge)

[iago]

And just to be clear -- you can submit things piecemeal, or for the entire list, and I'd prefer you make the submissions by replying to this thread.

Thanks!

[Kiriath]

Fun! Let us begin...

Driving:

"As a rule, when I drive, I drive very carefully and sensibly. Tonight was an exception to the rule." - Grave Peril, Chapter One

[jtaylor]

Alertness:

Molly rubbed at her wrists, wincing. “Um. Sergeant? How did you know I was there?”
“Floorboards creaking when no one was standing on them,” I said.
“Your deodorant,” Murphy said.
“Your tongue stud clicked against your teeth once,” I said.

White Night Chapter 2

[Redwulf25_ci]

Two quotes for Driving (although it is a bit of an unconventional vehicle, but Survival doesn't seem quite apropriate either) if anyone has a better idea about what skill would be used to ride a reanimated T-rex through Chicago then you can use these quotes for that skill.

Dead Beat Chapter 39:
I didn't know this before, but as it turns out, Tyrannosaurs can really haul ass.


Dead Beat Chapter 39:
Here's something else I bet you didn't know about Tyrannosaurs: they don't corner well. The first time I tried to take a left, Sue swung wide, the enormous momentum of her body simply too much for even her muscles to lightly command. She swung up onto the sidewalk, crushed three parked cars under her feet, knocked over two light poles, kicked a compact car end over end to land on its roof, and broke every window on the first two floors of the building beside us as her tail lashed back and forth in an effort to counterbalance her body.

[Kiriath]

Stealth, sort of kind of. It also might be too much to use. I have a / where the wit just adds verve to it.

"I kept on moving toward my car, and heard footsteps growing closer, behind me. I told myself not get too jumpy. / Maybe it was just some other frightened, endangered, paranoid sleep-deprived consultant who had been called to the morgue in the middle of the night." - Death Masks, Chapter 5

[bugdog]

Conviction- PG (page 155, hardback) - "A lot of the use of magic is tied up with your emotions. With what you believe is real. <large cut here> If I don't believe in it, the spell wont' ever get off the ground."

[loulou]

Conviction - SF chapter 9
"I couldn't ward off off a vampire mosquito with my faith in the Almighty - He and I just never seemed to connect. But the pentacle was a symbol of magic itself, and I had plenty of faith in that.

[jtaylor]

Intimidation

Two options here, both from the same book and chapter:

Fear can feel like literal ice water. It can be a cold feeling that you swallow, that rolls down your throat and spreads into your chest. It steals your breath and makes your heart labor when it shouldn't, before expanding into your belly and hips, leaving quivers behind. Then it heads for the thighs, the knees (occasionally with an embarrassing stop on the way), stealing the strength from the long muscles that think you should be using them to run the hell away.

OR

"Yes," she murmured. "Wise enough to be afraid. To understand, at least in part. How does it feel, to know what you know, child?"
My voice came out unsteady, and more quiet than I would have liked. "Sort of like Tokyo when Godzilla comes up on the beach."

Summer Knight, Chapter 3

[iago]

These are fantastic.  Keep 'em coming!

[jtaylor]

Lore:
 "All right. This is a figure of High magic. Three of them, really, one inside the other, like layered walls. Remember what I told you about magical circles?"

Kim nodded. "That they either hold something out or keep it in. Either magic energies or creatures of the Nevernever, but that mortal creatures can cross the circle and break it."

Fool Moon, Chapter One

[jtaylor]

Rapport:

"I’ve come to Chicago to kill you, Mister Dresden. But I have a proposal for you that I want you to hear, first."
"You really need to work on your opening technique," I said.

Death Masks - Chapter One

[KreenWarrior]

For Performanace (though Rapport or Presence might also work).

"Some words have a power that has nothing to do with supernatural forces.  They resound in the heart and mind, they live long after the sounds of them have died away, they echo in the heart and the soul.  They have power, and that power is quite real."
Grave Peril: Chapter 35, pages 344-345 in the paperback

[Slife]

Discipline/Conviction:
Storm Front paperback page 20
"The way magic works.  Whenever you do something with it, it comes from inside of you.  Wizards have to focus on what they're trying to do, visualize it, believe it, to make it work.  You can't make something happen that isn't part of you, inside."

Not sure exactly what category this quote fits, but it seems like good fluff for the RPG
Dead beat (hardcover) page 75 (beginning of chapter 8)
"Magic comes from life, and especially from emotions.  They're a source of the same intangivle energy that everyone can feel when an autumn moon rises and fills you with a sudden sense of bone-deep excitement, or when the first warm breeze of spring rushes past your face, full of the scents of life, and drowns you in a sudden flood of unreasoning joy... {about half a paragraph more}

More quotes later

[loulou]

Guns or Weapons, SF end of chapter 10.
"Wizardry aside, it's tough to beat a gun for discouraging men with baseball bats."