Artemis. Did you just suggest offering Resurrections to White Council members. You know, people who follow the Laws and believe in them?
I can't even begin to express how bad an idea that is, when Viserys knows about the Laws himself. And given the prevalance of NeverNever constructs and the like, no one of Power on the Council would ever trust it.
These are arrogant bastards who, more than just wanting to keep their already frustratingly difficult lives as simple as they can be, would run screaming mad if they were forced to confront some of the truths Viserys has to whistleblow on them.
Forget our boy Heinrich, if Viserys gave the skivvy on half the fucked up shit he could learn about in a lazy Sunday afternoon about their ancient and mysterious magical tradition, he would become an existential threat because of all the nasties who will want to get their hands on that knowledge, having no compunctions or limitations that human practitioners have about using it.
That is the main conflict. All they know about the threat is that it isn't human, and that anything that has the gas tank and thoroughput of Viserys who isn't bound by the Treaty is a danger which can upset the status quo (and has, but the threat ladder scales depending on how many problems that creates for the Council).
You're looking a bunch of weary and cynical bureaucrats at the top level who are intractable on Seven Issues, and stubborn assholes about everything else they have an opinion on. Casually waltzing up and saying "hey I got a solution to your X problem" automatically comes with the reply, at the least, of: "What's the catch?"
And if no catch exists, depending on what you're offering, their response is to either show you the door, or reach for their staffs and swords.
@Snowfire
Kinda fundamental issue that seems to come up in a lot of misunderstandings and disagreements between us: Do you think the older Council members really, personally care about the Laws?
I think that, since the Blackstaff exists and is allowed to do so, the Laws are ultimatly something you can get around with the right tools and tricks (like not being quite human in Viserys case).
They are something you keep because breaking them is dangerous, because you need to be sure that the break will have no consequences you can't deal with.
Not because they have any inherent value.
@Snowfire, while I get your intent, I, too, find the ending for this arc of Horde Thief lacking.
Narrative freedom and reader deciding for themselves is not a concept I'm much experienced with, but what I read here is certainly not up my alley.
I like things being stated definitively.
She's dead and un-rezz-able (due to White God assholery)?
Sure, sad but works.
She's rezzed and bottled for the rest of the series?
Well, at least we see that on-screen.
For me, just the fact of me seeing the resolution is satisfying.
Uncertainty isn't.
That bit aside, that was a great chapter.
When's the next one?
personally I think my image is perfect for me I adore it. You are now a dragon. It would have been more thematic if you'd changed it when viserys ascended to full dragonhood.
Kinda fundamental issue that seems to come up in a lot of misunderstandings and disagreements between us: Do you think the older Council members really, personally care about the Laws?
Read the opening of Proven Guilty. They care. They really do, and even the Merlin doesn't like much of what he has to oversee on the matter. But he does it, because as what Harry did to Corpsetaker, it's necessary.
@Snowfire, while I get your intent, I, too, find the ending for this arc of Horde Thief lacking.
Narrative freedom and reader deciding for themselves is not a concept I'm much experienced with, but what I read here is certainly not up my alley.
I like things being stated definitively.
She's dead and un-rezz-able (due to White God assholery)?
Sure, sad but works.
She's rezzed and bottled for the rest of the series?
Well, at least we see that on-screen.
For me, just the fact of me seeing the resolution is satisfying.
Uncertainty isn't.
That bit aside, that was a great chapter.
When's the next one?
@Snowfire
Kinda fundamental issue that seems to come up in a lot of misunderstandings and disagreements between us: Do you think the older Council members really, personally care about the Laws?
I think that, since the Blackstaff exists and is allowed to do so, the Laws are ultimatly something you can get around with the right tools and tricks (like not being quite human in Viserys case).
They are something you keep because breaking them is dangerous, because you need to be sure that the break will have no consequences you can't deal with.
Not because they have any inherent value.
It's tied with Soul magic, basically. The Laws are in place because, in effect, all of them alter free will on some level. They impugn on the areas in which normals and minor talents have no means of dealing with or reasonably responding to.
It warps the mind into thinking that these things are not only okay, but should be used as the solution to an obstacle or problem as much as possible. It is perpetuating suffering from hubris, because of course and eventually a counter force will arise to put a stop to it. See God having to throw in safety nets like the Knights and their Swords.
At the end of the day they do hold inherent value. They hold the value that the creator deity values. The absolute limit of that is bypassing it comes at a cost, someone like Harry, who we follow for most of DF, isn't likely to see that cost. Because ultimately his story and circumstances are not about surpassing inherent limits through ingenuity and defiance. Both of those things are things he has displayed before, but neither is as integral to his character arc as other aspects of his personality.
Ultimately DF works like a neat playground for Viserys to romp around in, but with as great a set of rogues and villains and existential horrors as his own home, to the point where if he tried jousting at every windmill in sight he wouldn't be able to stop. And there is a very good reason not to get started.
Speak with Soul is a thing, Speak with Soul – d20PFSRD he would just have to go back to where she died, and he could have called her ghost up for a chat.
It's tied with Soul magic, basically. The Laws are in place because, in effect, all of them alter free will on some level. They impugn on the areas in which normals and minor talents have no means of dealing with or reasonably responding to.
It warps the mind into thinking that these things are not only okay, but should be used as the solution to an obstacle or problem as much as possible. It is perpetuating suffering from hubris, because of course and eventually a counter force will arise to put a stop to it. See God having to throw in safety nets like the Knights and their Swords.
At the end of the day they do hold inherent value. They hold the value that the creator deity values. The absolute limit of that is bypassing it comes at a cost, someone like Harry, who we follow for most of DF, isn't likely to see that cost. Because ultimately his story and circumstances are not about surpassing inherent limits through ingenuity and defiance. Both of those things are things he has displayed before, but neither is as integral to his character arc as other aspects of his personality.
Ultimately DF works like a neat playground for Viserys to romp around in, but with as great a set of rogues and villains and existential horrors as his own home, to the point where if he tried jousting at every windmill in sight he wouldn't be able to stop. And there is a very good reason not to get started.
Ultimately DF works like a neat playground for Viserys to romp around in, but with as great a set of rogues and villains and existential horrors as his own home, to the point where if he tried jousting at every windmill in sight he wouldn't be able to stop. And there is a very good reason not to get started.
Speak with Soul is a thing, Speak with Soul – d20PFSRD he would just have to go back to where she died, and he could have called her ghost up for a chat.
It's tied with Soul magic, basically. The Laws are in place because, in effect, all of them alter free will on some level. They impugn on the areas in which normals and minor talents have no means of dealing with or reasonably responding to.
It warps the mind into thinking that these things are not only okay, but should be used as the solution to an obstacle or problem as much as possible. It is perpetuating suffering from hubris, because of course and eventually a counter force will arise to put a stop to it. See God having to throw in safety nets like the Knights and their Swords.
At the end of the day they do hold inherent value. They hold the value that the creator deity values. The absolute limit of that is bypassing it comes at a cost, someone like Harry, who we follow for most of DF, isn't likely to see that cost. Because ultimately his story and circumstances are not about surpassing inherent limits through ingenuity and defiance. Both of those things are things he has displayed before, but neither is as integral to his character arc as other aspects of his personality.
Ultimately DF works like a neat playground for Viserys to romp around in, but with as great a set of rogues and villains and existential horrors as his own home, to the point where if he tried jousting at every windmill in sight he wouldn't be able to stop. And there is a very good reason not to get started.
Speak with Soul is a thing, Speak with Soul – d20PFSRD he would just have to go back to where she died, and he could have called her ghost up for a chat.
With all that said, I don't want to talk about Jim Butcher's power levels, so I won't take you seriously if you do. It will flow one ear and out the other.
If you want to build CR 30 sheets for everything, I will rightfully point out even CR 30 encounters can end with XP and loot, and from a D&D mindset, "you could die!" is the same as saying "you really didn't want that Artifact and bag of treasure, didn't you?"
neat thing about dresden files is you can see god level beings but they have to adhere to rules. If you punched mab in the face as a mortal human or entered her territory or some such thing she would be allowed to kill you. If you didnt she wouldn't as she has to adhere to a bunch of rules such as the accords and just straight up not allowed to do certain things for certain unknown reasons like a lot of godlike being in df.
"Sent? No. But I think they knew quite well that I would be coming to your lands. There were certainly hints," you reply, sidestepping awkward revelations. The Magnar does not seem to entirely believe you, but he is certainly not of a mind to call you a liar, especially considering your next words: "As for your troubles, I would be a poor guest to not aid you when I can, and a fool to let those touched by the frost do as they please. There are other things I would wish to speak to you of, but that is talk that can wait for after the battle."
"Honor to you in victory or in death," Styr replies with the cadence of a old saying oft invoked on the eve of battle. Some of the Thenns in the hall raise their cups and cheer while the buzz of whispers grows to more of a rumble. You even catch one boy of perhaps three-and-ten, from the wispy shadow of a beard on his chin, point to Dany and ask loudly: "Why does she get to go out and fight when I don't? She's just a little un!"
Even the stern lord of the hall snorts in amusement at the words, though the boy's father sitting close by is markedly less amused at the breach of decorum.
***
The Magnar does not follow you into the deeper reaches of the hall to plan your attack on the Nightrunners, trusting his sworn men to see that you are given everything you might require. From what you can see, that confidence is not misplaced. Braga Wolf's-Bane, so named for the necklace of direwolf teeth hanging around his neck, is a man of few words but skilled in his craft.
He grunts in almost pained envy as he sees the Legendary Map of the Far North Bloodraven had seared into sealskin for you. "With that alone I would try to send hunters into the hills to hunt the noseless fucks."
"Noseless?" Waymar asks, confused.
"It's cold as fuck up in the mountains even in summer, a man can lose noses, ears..." A sharp smile flashes beneath the clansman's tangled beard. "Even his cock if he ain't careful."
The young Royce tries to smile back but he looks troubled, and not you suspect at the crudity of the remark. How familiar this feud and hatred must sound to his ears... Once you suspect he would not have even noticed the parallels between this hunter garbed in fur and goat hides and the steel-clad knights of the Vale of Arryn, but Waymar has traveled far and seen much in the years since he had first stepped alone and friendless upon the shores of Braavos.
As you pour over the map, adding the hunter's knowledge of his foes to the exquisitely-crafted map, a spark of insight comes upon you. From dreams of dragons born... Though no wyrm of crimson scale would have sought to dwell in these frigid lands, still the shape of the stone is telling to your eye, hinting at the yawning dark beneath... carved by ice and water both. "There... east of Cripple's Watch, there is a glacier hidden beneath the stone and an opening you have not scouted I'll wager..."
"If the fuckers had a hole that close to Thennheld..." Braga pales, not wanting to believe your words.
"Then they would not waste the opening by sending goat raids through it," you cut him off. "In and out only under the cover of the dark or snow. Can you say for certain your scouts could not have missed such a thing if they were careful of their tracks and knew to take the long way when they suspected they were being followed?"
"No... no I can't," Braga admits, sounding angry, though at himself not you. He does not waste long brooding, however, taking the Wayfinder gingerly from your hands and fixing his mind upon the raiders he's crossed paths with in the past who had lived to tell the tale... or at least walked off.
The directions match. Riding a ways off on shadow steeds to triangulate only confirms the thought—the Nightrunners are much closer than the Magnar and his scouts knew.
As you return to the hold to speak to Styr before the battle you are unsurprised to hear that the hunter wishes to come with to uphold the honor of his clan, but there is one other offer that is far less expected. "They say Umbers fought in the Battle for the Dawn and again against the Night's King," Mors proclaims, leaning on his hammer. "A man couldn't ask for better enemies than the sons of bitches who sold themselves out to Them."
What do you reply?
[] Write in
OOC: If you choose not to take one or both of them it would be best to explain it, too. These are rather touchy people. BTW you rolled 72 after bonuses for Knowledge (Geography) back there (Nat 20).
There's no 'afterlife' plane that we're aware of in DF, and if there is, it's locked behind the power of the White God. Once you get on that train, you don't come back.
It is theoretically possible that Viserys could try to plane shift to the spirit world and try to find Kathy's soul, but that's highly niche knowledge that Dresden only has due to spending time there. And that I doubt he talks about to anyone.
That's what divination is good for. He's got a sympathic connection or two ...
but doesn't matter, he tried the direct approach and it didn't work. Which he would put down as 'didn't want to come back'.
Coming in with "by the way, I'm from beyond the Outer Gates, your rules don't apply" would be getting the biggest diplomacy circumstance modifier so far.
With all that said, I don't want to talk about Jim Butcher's power levels, so I won't take you seriously if you do. It will flow one ear and out the other.
If you want to build CR 30 sheets for everything, I will rightfully point out even CR 30 encounters can end with XP and loot, and from a D&D mindset, "you could die!" is the same as saying "you really didn't want that Artifact and bag of treasure, didn't you?"
On the brightside lots of immortal and godlike beings are vulnerable on Halloween and can be killed then.
I mean killing certain ones will most certainly destroy the world like Mab for instance if she doesnt have a replacement pretty much everything associated with her mantle would go haywire and pretty much everyone would die to cold.
Coming in with "by the way, I'm from beyond the Outer Gates, you rules don't apply" would be getting the biggest diplomacy circumstance modifier so far.
OOC: If you choose not to take one or both of them it would be best to explain it too. These are rather touchy people. BTW you rolled 72 after bonuses for knowledge geography back there (Nat 20).
