I've never seen Breaking Bad, but these look like solid statblocks. Might be a good idea to put them on one of the Resource Board threads.

Thanks! I'll move 'em over.

Also note that I disagree with people on the questions of "concession" versus "take-out".

That's fine, but it is important to note that's not an opinion or interpretation of rules; you're describing a house rule. The Rules as Written are clear that concessions occur before a dice roll.

I will also note, however, that it is prudent for a GM to offer concessions when they know they're about to throw out large attacks. If your PCs are getting beaten up and then you plan on throwing a Weapon 10 area attack at most of them, then the GM should pick up the dice, make an evil grin and say "This warlock is getting pretty desperate. Who knows what he might do next. Anyone want to concede?" Etc

Double post.

That's an interesting end-game, but there's one piece that seems a bit off to me: mortals are the nuclear weapons of the supernatural world.  Doing something this blatant would all but force mortal involvement on a large scale.  Now, some of that can be explained with Black Council involvement - they don't seem to care what happens to their pawns as long as they can disrupt the status quo.

I would like to add to this a bit. Good point from wyvern--but depending on what you want to do at the end, you could have the mortal world find out about the supernatural. It'd just be very different than mortals not "waking up." We're kinda reaching this point in RNYC, to the degree that there's a PC or two actively working to smooth this transition by opening people's minds to the supernatural before it's truly revealed in whole.

I tried to follow the link and I hit a brick wall, so I'll take your word on it. In summary what happened?

There's a lot to it, and some I can't say because it's still being resolved, but basically: High-tech megacorporation used as a front by thirteen warlocks to throw off Wardens/White Council spent forty years setting up a global ritual, centered in New York. They made deals with Outsiders that helped them develop more advanced technology and give them power. In NY (and the greater eastern seaboard) they worked through shells in shells in shells, though an organization called Azalea, that basically did two things: steal a bunch of metaphysical links to NY and create large pools of Outsider-based energies, all to set up their main ritual, bringing over a butt-load of Outsiders to the world. This never came to be, thankfully, as the PC's stopped them in time. They...well, they weren't very discreet towards the end of their plan, primarily because they needed to instill fear into people to further the goal. Thankfully, the local in-the-know mortals used the media to play it off as animal escapes and terrorist attacks.

This has been my biggest problem thus far haha. I'm a very structured, rules-oriented person so having to be more flexible has been a challenge. In order to counter that I'm going to try and plan on what happens if they keep it from succeeding and what they have to do to stop it if the plan does succeed. My counter to PC craziness is to just do more planning and preparation in anticipation.

Well, compels can be an excellent mechanic for this. But frankly--your plan doesn't have to be what happens. Ultimately, the goal here is to collaboratively build a story. If it screws up your plans but the story's great, then go for it! And then invent something else. I've found PCs often leave a lot of room for unintended fallout from their actions, which is great for generating more role-playing hooks.

What sort of clues could I feed to my players without going all deus ex machina (they can be sometimes a bit oblivious)?

Well, they've been investigating, right? So, maybe they find a location or three that is most likely where the Bad Guys will deliver their poison. Is it through the water supply? Etc.

Could someone in the organization have a change of heart and flip? They might approach the PCs and give them some knowledge before the Bad Guys show up to take out the turncoat.

Some obscure bit of knowledge or some rumor makes the PCs stumble onto something. Maybe one of the PCs with Contacts hears about the theft of some shipment of strange "something"--that seems random to steal to the mundane, but someone In-The-Know might recognize it as an important ingredient in a magic poison potion.

Give the PCs the why--maybe they can backtrack to the who.

Just don't forget, your PCs skills are independent of the players' ability to use them to their fullest. By which I mean, if you've got someone rolling Intimidation to interrogate a suspect, the player doesn't necessarily have to ask all the right questions--the PC would know what to ask....what useful information they get should be based on the rolls. Don't force your players to be experts in things they're not.

What would make an interesting finale, other than the classical Meet Evil & Fight Until She Dies?

Add more obstacles. Make them make choices--save the cheerleader or go for the warlock and save thousands? Split up the PCs and put one group into a death-trap they have to get out of. Reveal a twist where a PC's ally was really with the Bad Guys the whole time! All of these are compels, of course.

Or my personal favorite: the Bad Guy isn't the actual Bad Guy. Who is the warlock working for? Because Mr. Boss is there too, ensuring the plan goes off right!

How would a strong spiritmancer defend herself, or what kind of defences in general (like wards etc)?

By "spiritmancy" I'm assuming you mean ectomancy or necromancy, given their plan? Ghost sentries, zombie guards, thralls, wards, supernatural guards, etc. Hi-tech traps? Etc.

Don't set them up alone against the PCs or you're going to have a short finale. Goons, goons, and more goons.

What sort of novel applications for spiritmancy are there?

Read the books. There's a lot of things shown there. Calling ghosts into yourself to make you stronger, faster, more skilled--that's my favorite use of ectomancy in the books.

Double post. Edited the IoP above, some. Then I decided to give a shot towards a full char build for the original NPC concept:

If people are still doing requests than I would like to see the mythological version of Cu Chulainn, and more specifically I want to see how the Warp Spasm would impact the character. Use whatever Refresh level you think is necessary.

Hard to judge Power Level of the great heroes of the Ulster age, but given the legends of him killing hundreds of men on his own, etc...I'm going with Scuba Diving.
 

Scuba Diving (45 skill points, 17 refresh, skill cap fantastic)
You're one of the best in the world at what you do. Faerie Queens, Vampire Kings, and Senior Council members know who you are.

Also, just a note, I prefer the translation of the ríastrad of "Torque" to "Warp Spasm", because based on the description of what happens to him it sounds like his whole body is being twisted. Anyway:

Name: Cú Chulainn
High Concept: Ulster Champion
Trouble: Destined For A Short But Famous Life
Other Aspects: Culann's Hound, Born With the Ríastrad, Trained By Scáthach, Champion of the Cattle Raid of Cooley and Bricriu's Feast


Skills:
+6 Might, Weapons
+5 Endurance, Fists
+4 Presence, Intimidation
+3 Athletics, Rapport
+2 Survival, Conviction, Discipline
+1 Scholarship, Lore, Stealth


Stunts: -2
- Footwork (Weapons)
- Riposte


Powers: -7
-2 Inhuman Strength
-2 Inhuman Toughness
-2 Inhuman Recovery
+3 The Catch: Consuming Dog Meat
+1 Human Form: Ríastrad/Torque/Warp Spasm
-2 Supernatural Toughness (Ríastrad form)
-2 Supernatural Strength (Ríastrad form)
-1 IoP: Gáe Bulg (Trained By Scáthach)
   [-0] It Is What It Is: A magical barbed "belly spear", Weapon: 3
   [-0] Indestructable
   [+2] Rebate
   [+1] Barbed Death: If this weapon is used to take an opponent out, it always kills.
   [-1] True Aim
   [-2] Legendary Weapon: This weapons attacks inflict +4 Weapon Damage
   [-1] Ritual Throw: The Gáe Bulg is intended to be thrown ritually from the space between the big and second toe for maximum effect, and only used as a last resort, as it invariably kills all but the toughest opponents. You must invoke this IoP's Aspect for effect when throwing it. When this weapon strikes, it must be cut out of the target with a supplemental action before it can be used again (if the victim manages to survive the initial throw, 4 shifts or more worth of consequences must be taken/inflicted to remove the weapon). All Ritual Throws with the Gáe Bulg are made at +4 to strike.


Starting Refresh: 17
Refresh Spent: 9
Final Refresh: 8

I had a player who focused heavily on evocation attacks. As a result, their evothaum ended up better than their actual thaumaturgy. It was kinda weird in play, and made an extremely-powerful character even stronger.

That is kinda weird. I'm thinking that I like this approach the most:
- if your evothaum opens up new possibilities for an evocation element you use, then it can make sense to allow evocation Specializations and Foci to apply.
- if your evothaum doesn't really fit into an evocation element you use, then you should use Thaumaturgy specializations and foci....but you pick whether they apply as offensive or defensive foci for the purposes of evocation

When I have OP spellcasters I've found I just have to up my own game as a GM. Perfect? Nah, but oh well. I look at 'em like a challenge now. And if they scene-steal too much, talk to them honestly about the role of the spotlight.

One thing to remember is that not everything makes a good aspect. Sure, you could roll fists to give someone the aspect "pinned", but then what? If you don't follow this up with a grapple, the aspect will probably be gone as soon as do something again, unless that something is making sure the other guy is still "pinned". Fights are messy and quick.

Lot of good advice here. I think the quote above sums it up well.

Also, like some have recommended, this is probably better as a Block, particularly because it's against a group of people and not a single target. Note that "+2 power per zone" is a house-rule for maneuvers, and that the rules define maneuvers as either targeted against one opponent or scene-wide, for the same case. No mention of zones is made, actually.

Maneuvers and Blocks get interchanged easily. To tell which one is the right one to choose: are you trying to prevent something from happening, or are you trying to create an advantage? The first is a Block, the second is  a Maneuver. I find most of the time that question helps.