One issue is if the ward would repel people who have been bitten, since they are walking around with necromatic energies in them. I am guessing that it wouldn't since Deedee could stay at our house.
Other then that I wouldn't want to plant the idea among the humans that they can use this ward against vampires. They might figure it out on their own, but I wouldn't want to just hand them that dagger aimed at us.
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."I
-[X] It would be rather ill suited of me if I prevented zombie victims from finding sanctuary here.
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."I
-[X] It would be rather ill suited of me if I prevented zombie victims from finding sanctuary here.
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."I
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
As long as the info we're giving out can help stop zombies but can't directly hurt Morgan, it makes sense to get the info out there.
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
[x] "No, I'd rather you didn't record this spell."
Honestly, I'm much more worried about that Shield-like anti-supernatural group than the Chosen One. Chosen One is young and, likely, easily influenced; and has no anti-vampire bias. These guys are much more dangerous - they are many, they are established by the government (I assume), their very job is to fight all supernatural. Also, I think they are responsible for Veil's Council slow response to Morgan's awakening.
So, no, I don't want to expose how Morgan does their wards. Wards are their only protection, should it be bypassed, they'll end on an experimental table somewhere in the basement immediately after EMZ ends.
So, no, I don't want to expose how Morgan does their wards. Wards are their only protection, should it be bypassed, they'll end on an experimental table somewhere in the basement immediately after EMZ ends.
Eehh if it comes to that Morgan'll show them why people call them "The Pale Death".
Or, that's my headcanon for how terrifying Morgan is if they really wanted to fight. Especially if they have people depending on them.
[x] "No, I'd rather you didn't record this spell."
Honestly, I'm much more worried about that Shield-like anti-supernatural group than the Chosen One. Chosen One is young and, likely, easily influenced; and has no anti-vampire bias. These guys are much more dangerous - they are many, they are established by the government (I assume), their very job is to fight all supernatural. Also, I think they are responsible for Veil's Council slow response to Morgan's awakening.
So, no, I don't want to expose how Morgan does their wards. Wards are their only protection, should it be bypassed, they'll end on an experimental table somewhere in the basement immediately after EMZ ends.
I love your optimism in assuming that the EMZ is gonna end.
I mean, I hope the EMZ is gonna end but I'm really not COUNTING on it at this point. Especially if Morgan doesn't do everything in their power to make it end. "The PC kind of half-committed to this goal but only if they could accomplish it without any risk" is not the recipe for success IME.
Eehh if it comes to that Morgan'll show them why people call them "The Pale Death".
Or, that's my headcanon for how terrifying Morgan is if they really wanted to fight. Especially if they have people depending on them.
Morgan didn't take any combat skills at chargen, so I'm not really counting on their terrifying battle prowess to keep them alive. More on their adorkable charm.
Morgan didn't take any combat skills at chargen, so I'm not really counting on their terrifying battle prowess to keep them alive. More on their adorkable charm.
Morgan in an actual fight against someone they really want to destroy? It's like one of the Roadrunner cartoons, where their enemy is the coyote constantly making a clever plan that will work this time, and Morgan is constantly Somewhere Else, Ruining Your Day. Fighting seers: it's the worst.
Adhoc vote count started by Wysteria on Jun 23, 2019 at 1:14 PM, finished with 1113 posts and 19 votes.
[x] "No, I'd rather you didn't record this spell."
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."I
-[X] It would be rather ill suited of me if I prevented zombie victims from finding sanctuary here.
[X] "Yes, of course you can. The only request I have is that, since you already have footage of my previous ritual, that you film only my face. I want a good closeup for your records."
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."I
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
-[X] It would be rather ill suited of me if I prevented zombie victims from finding sanctuary here.
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
-[X] It would be rather ill suited of me if I prevented zombie victims from finding sanctuary here.
[x] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
Yeah, Morgan is a Seer who is also a telepath who is also pretty darned combat-capable in multiple different ways. Any organization that comes after them who *isn't* composed largely of hereditary vampire hunters is going to have an absurd amount of failure coming to them. For the ones that *are* composed of hereditary vampire hunters... well, honestly, Morgan is obviously out there helping, and not being an asshole. The vampire hunter families that are out there have other, more serious problems to deal with.
I'm not saying that there won't be consequences for offering lore like this for free to the US government. I'm just saying that those consequences are going to be manageable.
Yeah, Morgan is a Seer who is also a telepath who is also pretty darned combat-capable in multiple different ways. Any organization that comes after him who
Morgan in an actual fight against someone they really want to destroy? It's like one of the Roadrunner cartoons, where their enemy is the coyote constantly making a clever plan that will work this time, and Morgan is constantly Somewhere Else, Ruining Your Day. Fighting seers: it's the worst.
Morgan in an actual fight against someone they really want to destroy? It's like one of the Roadrunner cartoons, where their enemy is the coyote constantly making a clever plan that will work this time, and Morgan is constantly Somewhere Else, Ruining Your Day. Fighting seers: it's the worst.
Pale: because Morgan somehow gets more pale when they're being hunted. The blood literally drains from their face. Sounds delicious for a vampire, to be honest.
Death: Morgan's undead. Also, their incompetence in combat is so profound that they run and cause the people who try to kill them to die of accidents like:
-trying to Morgan chase over a crocodile-infested swamp ("I warned you about the Crocs, brother!")
-falling to their deaths from attempting to scale a castle wall ("I can fly, but why didn't you take the stairs???")
-or just having the pursuer dying from their own ill-maintained weapon ("Why would you throw a bomb without looking? Now half your body's gone because you bounced the bomb off a wall!")
People are shocked and horrified at Morgan's apparent ability to murder enemies without even putting up a fight.
Pale: because Morgan somehow gets more pale when they're being hunted. The blood literally drains from their face. Sounds delicious for a vampire, to be honest.
Death: Morgan's undead. Also, their incompetence in combat is so profound that they run and cause the people who try to kill them to die of accidents like:
-trying to Morgan chase over a crocodile-infested swamp ("I warned you about the Crocs, brother!")
-falling to their deaths from attempting to scale a castle wall ("I can fly, but why didn't you take the stairs???")
-or just having the pursuer dying from their own ill-maintained weapon ("Why would you throw a bomb without looking? Now half your body's gone because you bounced the bomb off a wall!")
People are shocked and horrified at Morgan's apparent ability to murder enemies without even putting up a fight.
Yes, well. When faced with enemies that are slow and don't have a working approach to fighting beyond "raaagh!", it's easy to see how Morgan could overpower them.
Their strength and blood magic is fun and nice, but I'm not sure Morgan could do the same against say, a werewolf who is strong and fast, or a vampire hunter who would have ways of directly countering them.
Yes, well. When faced with enemies that are slow and don't have a working approach to fighting beyond "raaagh!", it's easy to see how Morgan could overpower them.
Their strength and blood magic is fun and nice, but I'm not sure Morgan could do the same against say, a werewolf who is strong and fast, or a vampire hunter who would have ways of directly countering them.
The whips/blades/etc of blood can pretty much cut through flesh without issue, and are controlled mentally and effectively. Combine that with undead vitality, and you have a pretty potent combo. Recall that Morgan has spent most of this quest trying very hard to *not* kill people.
Now, that said, the major reason that Morgan isn't a murderblender is that Morgan doesn't *want* to be a murderblender. This waking-time is apparently more benevolent than most, but they've never been much into slaughtering people.
A sufficiently well-prepared Vampire Hunter who had some way to ward against Blood Magic fully would indeed be a threat, but I suspect that "Ward against Blood Magic fully" is nontrivial from a Vampire Hunter perspective, and, as I'd previously noted, they have bigger threats to deal with, to the point that the local Vampire Hunter family volunteered to take up a blood bond. A werewolf... could maybe ruin our evening, sure, but after it punched a hole in our chest or tore an arm off, we'd have plenty of blood to work with, and "turn into sharp things and dig around a bunch" is pretty darned easy as such things go... at which point we'd have a decent pool of blood to drink for recovery. A werewolf that knew exactly what it was doing and also got the jump on us would be problematic, except that "telepathy" plus "seer" means that basically no one gets the jump on us ever, except for Vampire Hunters who have special powers that can block the telepathy, and even they have to seriously work for it. There are still things out there in the world that could trivially disassemble us in a fight (like, say, our accountant) but there aren't all that many of them.
Beyond that, the statements I was making about Morgan being combat-capable were in reference to the discussion of the risk factor of equipping the CDC with an understanding of wards, with the idea that at some point the government, having identified us as a vampire, might come after us. We have the seer/telepathy combo that makes it nontrivial to assassinate us or otherwise take us out with a single threat, because we'll just avoid them. If they can't disable one or the other of those protections (which they basically can't unless they can recruit vampire hunters against us, which, again, seems unlikely) then they need to do something like saturating the area with mooks, so that there's threat *everywhere*. My point was that our personal threat level is sufficient that this is basically ineffective as a technique as well. They're basically not going to be able to field enough people of enough power to hem us in.
Now, they could conceivably decide to handle the entire thing with a nuke or something, but that seems unlikely for reasons that are along the lines of why they're not likely to be able to field a bunch of vampire hunters.
[X] "Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
"Yes, you can record me warding the building. I'm going to have to do some research and come back, to target the ward appropriately. I wouldn't want to exclude anyone except the zombies."
"…alright. In that case, I will take a nap."
"As you say."
With that settled, you finish cleaning up, see Nina off to her bed – or a bed, anyway – and stretch out your awareness. Ken is in the midst of something that feels painful, getting his arm freshly looked at. Deedee is still waiting in line. Elena is… on the second floor, talking to one of the others you shared blood with. Not Sebastian the police officer, or the missing patient. You head that direction.
"None of that explains why I should stay here," Amy says as you climb the stairs.
"Ms. Scott, I've explained this," says Elena.
"Just some ridiculous stuff about vampires. Look, we're all supposed to hunker down at home. I'm not home, so I'm not doing what I'm supposed to. I'm not staying here just because someone I met for all of two minutes says I might be a problem if I die. I just won't die, okay?"
"I can't stop you from leaving, but you're not thinking about this clearly."
"I'm not thinking about this clearly? Go take a flying leap off a-"
"If I may interject?" you ask.
Because you are as you are, you can watch as the swirls of their thoughts calm upon your arrival.
"Morgan, hello," says Elena. "I was just-"
"Being very helpful, thank you. I wonder if I might talk to Amy?"
"Oh, sure. Did you want me to go?"
"No. Amy, you were saying something about leaving?"
"…yeah. I mean, the sensible thing to do here is get the hell out of the city and to someplace with no people to turn into monsters."
She's not wrong.
"Would it change your calculations if I said I was going to ensure that this hospital was secure against monsters?"
She makes a face.
"Yeah. I'm still leaving, but I guess I could come back and stick around, if you're forting the place up."
"I am."
"Okay."
You turn to Elena.
"We're missing one of my patients?"
"Mickey went home to bed. I told him not to."
"Mm. What was his full name again?"
"Mickey Johnson."
"Alright, thank you. How are you both feeling?"
"Pretty great," says Amy. "I don't like it, it's creepy."
You study her, and she looks away. She's a pretty sort of redhead, though she obviously dyes her hair. Somewhere in her twenties, if you're a judge, in khaki pants and a blue t-shirt. The zombie bite was on her neck, and she's very lucky it was only a shallow wound – your blood healed it entirely.
"Well," Elena starts, and you touch her arm.
"Amy doesn't have to be comfortable with the sensation. I don't mind. It was an emergency, after all, not something she chose."
"No offense," Amy adds. "You seem like a nice, um, ambiguously gendered person."
You smile, and resist the urge to keep her.
"Thank you. I appreciate that."
"Keep yourselves safe, both of you," you order quietly, and excuse yourself. You give the same command to Sebastian, on guard outside, and Kasey, who's found a bed and was well on her way to sleep.
Next, you scout out the hospital. It's on its own outside town, to the northwest along the western shore of the lake. Surrounding it are fields, parking lots, and a few trees, nothing that obstructs sightlines in your view. You can neither see nor hear any zombies, standing on the flat roof. It's a multi-level concrete shape, three stories at its tallest, awkward for your purposes. It has wings poking out at odd angles, without the symmetry that makes for a strong spell anchor. You pace around the building for a while, before giving it up as a bad job. There's nothing that will make this mess of architecture suitable for spellcasting, and you're not going to try to come up with something creative. It's big, it's convenient, and you already said you'd do it. The ward won't be very strong, but zombies are not strong either, just obnoxious.
You're heading in through the ER when you see Dr. Finn talking to a patient in the entryway, arm back in a neat sling. You pause.
"Shouldn't you be a patient yourself?"
"Morgan. Did you need something?"
"To thank you. I can go, if you're busy."
He pats the old woman's arm, and comes over to you.
"I'm just keeping busy."
"You could keep busy sleeping."
"We're low on beds, and I don't feel like taking the floor. I – I'm the one who should be thanking you, Morgan. Thank you."
"You could thank me by sleeping."
He runs his good hand over his chin. He needs to shave.
"Losing use of my hands is already something of a personal nightmare. I don't want to know what my actual nightmares would be like tonight."
Right, he's a surgeon. You did know that.
"Is it… very bad?"
"You saved my arm, but – the curse took exception to being confined, I think? Not that I'm not grateful." He smiles briefly. "When you finally turned up, I was so relieved."
You really should have specified when you were coming back to the hospital.
"Will it heal?"
He shrugs, one-shouldered. You refrain from stealing the truth from his mind - it's not like your track record tonight of avoiding notice when you do that is very good. You can read his worries on his face, in any case, in the ways the shadows paint it gaunt.
[]Offer him a blood bond.
[]Offer to heal him.
[]Offer him a bed for the day.
[]Offer him best wishes for his recovery.
[]Write-in
Adhoc vote count started by Wysteria on Jun 25, 2019 at 9:34 PM, finished with 1129 posts and 5 votes.
[X] Offer him healing.
-[X] In addition, offer him a bed. Magic doesn't generally solve the requirement of sleep.
-[X] Also, if he's interested, let him know that you have a more permanent solution to the zombie bite issue, but it's a binding type of thing, and we realize that he might not be entirely comfortable with that with the violence we did to him before.
[X] Offer him healing.
-[X] In addition, offer him a bed. Magic doesn't generally solve the requirement of sleep.
-[X] Also, if he's interested, let him know that you have a more permanent solution to the zombie bite issue, but it's a binding type of thing, and we realize that he might not be entirely comfortable with that with the violence we did to him before.
[X] Offer him healing.
-[X] In addition, offer him a bed. Magic doesn't generally solve the requirement of sleep.
-[X] Also, if he's interested, let him know that you have a more permanent solution to the zombie bite issue, but it's a binding type of thing, and we realize that he might not be entirely comfortable with that with the violence we did to him before.
