The thing that most Worm fanfics often fail to portray is that, from the point of view of any other character, Coils' powers are utterly invisible to the point the PRT isn't even 100% sure he's a parahuman. [*Snip*]
Thank you! Yeah, pretty much, and so far I haven't gone back and written any other POV's. Also, his ability to
use said power requires he has some mix of both awareness of something, and an ability to
act on that awareness.
Except, what Ilu did was use a power that would, so long as it works,
let you see him, thereby (inadvertently) locating the real one, promptly followed by using that Info to teleport in- and even if not stealthed, that was pretty much already end of the line. Normally, Coil's power letting him be semi-in two places at once, lets him practically
Mr. Magoo his way into "coincidentally" dodging any traditional ambush, assuming he didn't discover it during the fair amount of time and coordination it might take to set one up.
Except Scry-and-Die is effectively an Ambush
without a location, that, at
best gives maybe half a minute of warning, assuming you manage to spot the scrying sensor, and that the Ambushers waited until
after the
Scrying was cast to start buffing up, if they even do so. Otherwise, you either have
seconds of warning (if you even know enough to anticipate that a Scrying sensor means "incoming"), or
none at all. And even if you
do prepare yourself for it soon enough,
they'll know that, and can just decide to
not teleport in. Except now, you've spent time and possibly resources preparing yourself for a combat that never happened, and you have to stay prepared for as long as that scrying sensor is present, because the
second you lower your guard, they can decide that that's the moment to go in, because often, the guy who cast Scrying and who's going to teleport them in,
are the same person. A Scry-and-Die ambush isn't "at 5th and main, in the alley, when he walks by at 3", it's at
wherever he happens to be, when
he isn't prepared for it.
Unless you have some means to counter-Scry-and-Die, the attackers always have the advantage. Except even then, the attackers can probably
tell that's what you're doing, and just
jump at you anyways, because they wanted a fight the entire time, so even
then they still get what they want. Unless you have some measure to block scrying (very high Will save + Fate-Woven Braid (since the attackers can just
keep trying until you eventually hit a Nat 1 or fail), or the ubiquitous for a reason Mind Blank), then you
cannot escape a Scry-and-Die, at best you can turn it from an ambush to a fight, and delay it. For various D&D villains, who know what magic is, probably have casters on their employ (or are casters themselves), this result is not ideal, but fine.
For Coil, who beyond his mental powers is, a really thin guy in a suit? Death sentence.
Actually, now that I think about it, isn't that a pretty solid reason Cauldron is as capable as it is? Aside from Triumvirate, the Clairvoyant Doormaker Contessa combo is pretty much just a Scry-and-Die. A very effective precog for the Die part rather than a full party/high-level caster, but still.
Anyhow, long post short, yeah Scry-and-Die is almost perfectly suited to hard-countering Coil, and y'all ended up doing so even unaware of his power, both because his power is all-but-impossible to spot without Tattletale-magic/Coil outright revealing it himself, and because Scry-and-Die, is just a
really effective tactic.
