Good night guys.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Ivar
Dark Reaper
- Location
- Russia Moscow
I think by the end of this day we'll have a lot of questions, many of which have answers that are terrifying. But I like to think of it like the meme where Merlin asks Molly why she can't be normal for a minute and she shrugs in Primordial.
But seriously, we need to start making moves to get this done with Peabody and then start building momentum with this operation and everything else. Because we're in a serious war with the Red Court.
But seriously, we need to start making moves to get this done with Peabody and then start building momentum with this operation and everything else. Because we're in a serious war with the Red Court.
Literally in a setting where Hellfire is a thing.
Where wizards and spirits and dragons and hell kings can wield primordial forces of destruction. Where kuejin and spirits can turn incorporeal.
That you think solid material means a goddamn thing is...cute.
Read the events of Proven Guilty again.
Someone broke through the gates of Arctis Tor.
Solid barriers aint shit.
PS
Element 98, californium, is soft enough to be cut with a knife, is radioactive, and tarnishes in air and on contact with water.
All around a terrible construction material.
Great for making nuclear bombs though.
Should have been 24 dice.
Int 5 + Occult 5 + Excellency 10 + Without Honor 2 + Stunt 2.
Assuming you were rolling Int + Occult.
It was wits occult (3+5)*2 +2+2
Honest question - what's the best feat of force projection in Dresden Files you can think of? Because I get a feeling a lot of people lack understanding of what modern nuclear-rated vault doors can be like, while I might be lacking understanding of forces involved.
Wits-based attribute rolls are principally for reaction time.
Something like this should really have been Intelligence or Perception
Clarify.
I assume that by best, you mean most destructive?
And by whom? Wizards only, or others?
Does it have to be onscreen?
Probably? Essentially, I have in my head how heavy a thing can be, and what kind of energy is required to melt it. I want to check it against the feats that can reasonably be attributed to actors in series. So, for example, I know that Tunguska event is man-made in the series. Is that about the largest expression of destructive magic that we should aim to defend against?
I think Carlos used a water magic/entropy based shield that disintegrated incoming bullets into dust, simply bypassing any consideration of the energy involved.
BoredMan
Maintaining the Agenda is our top priority
Should use the Crown later to ask how the Red Court went about taking down and at least partially enslaving a Pantheon. It's very relevant to us now how they managed that.
Perhaps they took advantage of a pre-existing situation to screw them over.
Perhaps they took advantage of a pre-existing situation to screw them over.
Tunguska 1908 was McCoy.
So was Krakatoa 1883.
And the New Madrid earthquakes in 1811-1812.
Onscreen, in Skin Game, we have seen Lasciel!Ascher bring down several hundred tons of molten rock from a cavern roof by hitting it repeatedly with Hellfire once or twice; said rock wasnt molten until she started hitting it.
"Dresden!" howled Lasciel through Ascher's mouth. I looked back to see a form rising up from the small inferno consuming the garment display, violet glowing eyes blazing. She planted her feet and seemed to inhale-and the flames all around her suddenly burned low, and blazed the same ugly shade of purple as her eyes. The smell of brimstone filled the air.
"Oh, crap," I breathed.
And then a lance of pure Hellfire roared toward me.
There was no time to think. I ran on instinct.
I couldn't shield a blast of flame infused with Hellfire, the demonic version of soulfire. Hellfire enormously increased the destructive potential of magic. When Lasciel's shadow had been inside me, I'd used it. If I'd had my last shield bracelet, I might have parried most of it, but even that wouldn't have been enough to stop it cold.
Couldn't counter it with Winter. If I flung ice out to stop the fire, they would form steam, and the Hellfire would flow right into that, and continue on its way. Same result, only I'd be steam-cooked instead of roasted.
Once or twice in my life, I'd been able to open a Way in front of me, fast enough to divert an incoming attack away from me, into the Nevernever or out into somewhere else in the mortal world. But from here, in the secured vault, there was no way I was going to be able to open a Way-not until I got back out beyond the first gate again.
Fire was hard enough to deal with. Infuse it with Hellfire and it was almost unstoppable.
So I didn't even try to stop it.
Instead, I redirected it.
As the strike hurtled toward me, I lifted my staff in my right hand, whirling it back and forth in front of my body in a figure-eight spin and sent my will racing out through the staff, infused with soulfire to counter the Fallen angel's Hellfire, shouting, "Ventas cyclis!"
A howling, whirling torrent of wind whipped out of my staff, spiraling tightly in on itself as the Hellfire reached it. There was a flash of light, a thunderous detonation, and the sharp scent of ozone as the two diametrically opposed energies met and warred. The spinning vortex of wind caught the violet fire and bent it up toward the distant ceiling of the vault, slewing back and forth, a gushing geyser of unearthly flame.
The effort to control that wind was tremendous, but even though the fire came within a few feet, the rush of air moving away from me prevented the thermal bloom from cooking me where I stood. My defense carried the entire power of the strike to the roof of the cavern, where it splashed and danced and rolled out in vast circular waves.
It was actually damned beautiful.
Ascher let out a short snarl of frustration as the last of the strike flashed upward. I released the wind spell but kept my staff spinning slowly, ready to counter a second time if I had to do it. Ascher had plenty of anger still raging in her, and she drew on it to gather more fire into her hands.
"Don't do it, Hannah," I called. "You aren't going to beat me. You haven't got what you need."
"You cocky son of a bitch," she said. "I've got everything I need to handle you, Warden. God, I was a fool to think you were any different than the rest of them."
"Here's the difference," I said. "Back down. Walk away. I'll let you."
She actually let out a brief, incredulous laugh. "There is no end to the ego of the White Council, is there?" she asked. "You think you can pick and choose who is going to live and die. Decide all the rules that everyone else is going to live by."
"The rules are there for a reason, Hannah," I said. "And somewhere deep down, you know that. But this isn't about the Laws of Magic or the White Council. It's about you and me and whether or not you walk out of this vault alive." I tried to soften my voice, to sound less frightened and angry. "That thing inside you is pushing your emotions. Manipulating you. She can show you illusions so real that you can't tell the difference without resorting to your Sight. Did she tell you that?"
Ascher stared at me without saying anything. I wasn't sure she'd heard me.
Hell. If Lasciel was inside Ascher's head, twisting her perceptions with illusion right now, she might not have heard me.
"You can't have had her Coin for long. A couple of weeks? A month? Am I right?"
"Don't pretend you know me," she spat.
"You're right," I said. "I don't know you. But I know Lasciel. I had that Coin once upon a time. I had her inside my head for years. I know what she's like, the way she can twist things."
"She doesn't," Ascher said. "Not with me. She's given me power, knowledge. She's taught me more about magic in the last few weeks than any wizard did in my whole lifetime."
I shook my head. "Fire magic is all about passion, Hannah. And I know you must have a lot of rage built up. But you've got to think your way past that. She hasn't made you stronger. She's just built up your anger to fuel your fire. Nothing comes free."
Ascher let out a bitter laugh. "You're scared, Dresden. Admit it. I've got access to power that makes me dangerous and you're afraid of what I can do."
And, right there, she showed me the fundamental difference between us.
I loved magic for its own sake. She didn't.
The Art can be a lot of work, and it can sometimes be tedious, and sometimes even painful, but at the end of the day, I love it. I love the focus of it, the discipline, the balance. I love working with the energy and exploring what can be done with it. I love the gathering tension of a spell, and the almost painful clarity of focus required to concentrate that tension into an effect. I love the practice of it as well as the theory, the research, experimenting with new spells, teaching others about magic. I love laying down spells on my various pieces of magical gear, and most of all, I love it when I can use my talents to make a difference in the world, even when it's only a small one.
Ascher. . enjoyed blowing stuff up and burning things down. She was good at it. But she didn't love her talent for the miracle it was.
She merely loved what she could do with it.
And that had led her here, to a place where she had tremendous power, but not the right frame of mind to understand the consequences and permutations of using it-or at least not where she needed it, deep in her bones. To wield power like she currently possessed, she needed to understand it on the level of gut instinct, having assimilated the Art so entirely that the whole reality of using it came to her without conscious thought.
It was why virtually every time she'd used magic in the past few days, it had been to destroy something, or else to protect her own hide from the immediate consequences of her own power. It was why she hadn't put in the practice she needed to go up against someone with a broad range of skills. It was why she had focused exclusively on attacking me, to the neglect of her own defenses a few moments before. It was why she'd said yes to the Fallen angel who was now driving her emotions berserk.
And it was also why she hadn't thought through the consequences of unleashing that much elemental destruction in a large but ultimately enclosed area.
Ascher had talent, but she hadn't had the training, the practice, or the mind-set she needed to beat a pro.
"I'm scared," I told her. "I'm scared for you. You've had a bad road, Hannah, and I'm sorry as hell it's happened to you. Please, just walk. Please."
Her eyes narrowed, her face reddened, and she said, words clipped, "Condescending bastard. Save your pity for yourself."
And then with a cry she sent another lance of Hellfire at me, redoubled in strength.
Again, I caught it with a conjured cyclone infused with soulfire, though the effort was even more tremendous. Again I sent it spiraling up toward the ceiling-but this time I sent it all to one spot.
Even before the last of the Hellfire had smashed into the ceiling, I dropped to one knee, lifted my staff, and extended the strongest shield I could project, putting it between me and Ascher. It was a calculated bit of distraction on my part, giving her something she wasn't psychologically equipped to ignore.
She screamed at me, her eyes furious, gathering more fire in her hands, seeing only a passive target, weakened and fallen to one knee, one she could smash to bits with a third and final strike-but I saw Lasciel's glowing eyes widen in sudden dismay and understanding as the Fallen reached her own comprehension of consequences a few portions of a second too late to do any good.
An instant later, several hundred tons of molten and red-hot rock, chewed from the earth above us by Ascher's own Hellfire-infused strike, came crashing down on top of her.
The noise was terrible. The destruction was appalling. Glowing hot stones bounced from my shield and then began to pile up against it, pushing at me and physically forcing me back across the ground. The pileup shoved me a good twenty feet across the amphitheater floor, with Michael hobbling frantically along a couple of feet ahead of me, crouching to take advantage of the protection of my shield.
After a few seconds, the falling stone became less violent and random, and I dropped my shield with a gasp of effort. I stayed right where I was, down on one knee, and bent forward at the waist, struggling to catch my breath, exhausted from the efforts of the past few moments. The vault was spinning around and around, too. When had it started doing that?
The air had gone thick with dust and heat and the smell of brimstone. Half of the freaking amphitheater had been buried by fallen stone. One of the enormous statues was covered to the thighs.
And Hannah Ascher and Lasciel were gone.
A few last stones fell, clattering over the mess, bouncing. I noted, dimly, that their arches didn't look the way they should have. Gravity was indeed something heavier here than in the physical world. It was so heavy, in fact, that I thought I might just close my eyes and stay on the floor.
"Oh, crap," I breathed.
And then a lance of pure Hellfire roared toward me.
There was no time to think. I ran on instinct.
I couldn't shield a blast of flame infused with Hellfire, the demonic version of soulfire. Hellfire enormously increased the destructive potential of magic. When Lasciel's shadow had been inside me, I'd used it. If I'd had my last shield bracelet, I might have parried most of it, but even that wouldn't have been enough to stop it cold.
Couldn't counter it with Winter. If I flung ice out to stop the fire, they would form steam, and the Hellfire would flow right into that, and continue on its way. Same result, only I'd be steam-cooked instead of roasted.
Once or twice in my life, I'd been able to open a Way in front of me, fast enough to divert an incoming attack away from me, into the Nevernever or out into somewhere else in the mortal world. But from here, in the secured vault, there was no way I was going to be able to open a Way-not until I got back out beyond the first gate again.
Fire was hard enough to deal with. Infuse it with Hellfire and it was almost unstoppable.
So I didn't even try to stop it.
Instead, I redirected it.
As the strike hurtled toward me, I lifted my staff in my right hand, whirling it back and forth in front of my body in a figure-eight spin and sent my will racing out through the staff, infused with soulfire to counter the Fallen angel's Hellfire, shouting, "Ventas cyclis!"
A howling, whirling torrent of wind whipped out of my staff, spiraling tightly in on itself as the Hellfire reached it. There was a flash of light, a thunderous detonation, and the sharp scent of ozone as the two diametrically opposed energies met and warred. The spinning vortex of wind caught the violet fire and bent it up toward the distant ceiling of the vault, slewing back and forth, a gushing geyser of unearthly flame.
The effort to control that wind was tremendous, but even though the fire came within a few feet, the rush of air moving away from me prevented the thermal bloom from cooking me where I stood. My defense carried the entire power of the strike to the roof of the cavern, where it splashed and danced and rolled out in vast circular waves.
It was actually damned beautiful.
Ascher let out a short snarl of frustration as the last of the strike flashed upward. I released the wind spell but kept my staff spinning slowly, ready to counter a second time if I had to do it. Ascher had plenty of anger still raging in her, and she drew on it to gather more fire into her hands.
"Don't do it, Hannah," I called. "You aren't going to beat me. You haven't got what you need."
"You cocky son of a bitch," she said. "I've got everything I need to handle you, Warden. God, I was a fool to think you were any different than the rest of them."
"Here's the difference," I said. "Back down. Walk away. I'll let you."
She actually let out a brief, incredulous laugh. "There is no end to the ego of the White Council, is there?" she asked. "You think you can pick and choose who is going to live and die. Decide all the rules that everyone else is going to live by."
"The rules are there for a reason, Hannah," I said. "And somewhere deep down, you know that. But this isn't about the Laws of Magic or the White Council. It's about you and me and whether or not you walk out of this vault alive." I tried to soften my voice, to sound less frightened and angry. "That thing inside you is pushing your emotions. Manipulating you. She can show you illusions so real that you can't tell the difference without resorting to your Sight. Did she tell you that?"
Ascher stared at me without saying anything. I wasn't sure she'd heard me.
Hell. If Lasciel was inside Ascher's head, twisting her perceptions with illusion right now, she might not have heard me.
"You can't have had her Coin for long. A couple of weeks? A month? Am I right?"
"Don't pretend you know me," she spat.
"You're right," I said. "I don't know you. But I know Lasciel. I had that Coin once upon a time. I had her inside my head for years. I know what she's like, the way she can twist things."
"She doesn't," Ascher said. "Not with me. She's given me power, knowledge. She's taught me more about magic in the last few weeks than any wizard did in my whole lifetime."
I shook my head. "Fire magic is all about passion, Hannah. And I know you must have a lot of rage built up. But you've got to think your way past that. She hasn't made you stronger. She's just built up your anger to fuel your fire. Nothing comes free."
Ascher let out a bitter laugh. "You're scared, Dresden. Admit it. I've got access to power that makes me dangerous and you're afraid of what I can do."
And, right there, she showed me the fundamental difference between us.
I loved magic for its own sake. She didn't.
The Art can be a lot of work, and it can sometimes be tedious, and sometimes even painful, but at the end of the day, I love it. I love the focus of it, the discipline, the balance. I love working with the energy and exploring what can be done with it. I love the gathering tension of a spell, and the almost painful clarity of focus required to concentrate that tension into an effect. I love the practice of it as well as the theory, the research, experimenting with new spells, teaching others about magic. I love laying down spells on my various pieces of magical gear, and most of all, I love it when I can use my talents to make a difference in the world, even when it's only a small one.
Ascher. . enjoyed blowing stuff up and burning things down. She was good at it. But she didn't love her talent for the miracle it was.
She merely loved what she could do with it.
And that had led her here, to a place where she had tremendous power, but not the right frame of mind to understand the consequences and permutations of using it-or at least not where she needed it, deep in her bones. To wield power like she currently possessed, she needed to understand it on the level of gut instinct, having assimilated the Art so entirely that the whole reality of using it came to her without conscious thought.
It was why virtually every time she'd used magic in the past few days, it had been to destroy something, or else to protect her own hide from the immediate consequences of her own power. It was why she hadn't put in the practice she needed to go up against someone with a broad range of skills. It was why she had focused exclusively on attacking me, to the neglect of her own defenses a few moments before. It was why she'd said yes to the Fallen angel who was now driving her emotions berserk.
And it was also why she hadn't thought through the consequences of unleashing that much elemental destruction in a large but ultimately enclosed area.
Ascher had talent, but she hadn't had the training, the practice, or the mind-set she needed to beat a pro.
"I'm scared," I told her. "I'm scared for you. You've had a bad road, Hannah, and I'm sorry as hell it's happened to you. Please, just walk. Please."
Her eyes narrowed, her face reddened, and she said, words clipped, "Condescending bastard. Save your pity for yourself."
And then with a cry she sent another lance of Hellfire at me, redoubled in strength.
Again, I caught it with a conjured cyclone infused with soulfire, though the effort was even more tremendous. Again I sent it spiraling up toward the ceiling-but this time I sent it all to one spot.
Even before the last of the Hellfire had smashed into the ceiling, I dropped to one knee, lifted my staff, and extended the strongest shield I could project, putting it between me and Ascher. It was a calculated bit of distraction on my part, giving her something she wasn't psychologically equipped to ignore.
She screamed at me, her eyes furious, gathering more fire in her hands, seeing only a passive target, weakened and fallen to one knee, one she could smash to bits with a third and final strike-but I saw Lasciel's glowing eyes widen in sudden dismay and understanding as the Fallen reached her own comprehension of consequences a few portions of a second too late to do any good.
An instant later, several hundred tons of molten and red-hot rock, chewed from the earth above us by Ascher's own Hellfire-infused strike, came crashing down on top of her.
The noise was terrible. The destruction was appalling. Glowing hot stones bounced from my shield and then began to pile up against it, pushing at me and physically forcing me back across the ground. The pileup shoved me a good twenty feet across the amphitheater floor, with Michael hobbling frantically along a couple of feet ahead of me, crouching to take advantage of the protection of my shield.
After a few seconds, the falling stone became less violent and random, and I dropped my shield with a gasp of effort. I stayed right where I was, down on one knee, and bent forward at the waist, struggling to catch my breath, exhausted from the efforts of the past few moments. The vault was spinning around and around, too. When had it started doing that?
The air had gone thick with dust and heat and the smell of brimstone. Half of the freaking amphitheater had been buried by fallen stone. One of the enormous statues was covered to the thighs.
And Hannah Ascher and Lasciel were gone.
A few last stones fell, clattering over the mess, bouncing. I noted, dimly, that their arches didn't look the way they should have. Gravity was indeed something heavier here than in the physical world. It was so heavy, in fact, that I thought I might just close my eyes and stay on the floor.
In Small Favor, we see the Denarian ritual used to seal off the aquarium literally vaporize a Denarian who was thrown into the path of one of the energy beams by Dresden
A breath later, glass shattered and fell. Dark, inhuman forms dropped silently from overhead.
I picked the outermost of the invading Denarians, the one farthest from the center of action and attention, pointed my staff at him from my hiding spot amidst the green, and snarled, "Forzare!" unleashing a moderate effort of will. Invisible force caught the shapeshifted fiend as he was falling. I never got much of a look at him, beyond the fact that he had a lot of muscle and a ridge of leathery plates running down his spine.
Muscle doesn't do you any good in free fall, no matter how many Fallen angels you've got inside you. Unless you've got some wings to put it to use, you're in the hands of Mother Earth and Sir Isaac Newton.
I wasn't trying to smash him into the middle of the lake. I applied just enough force to alter his trajectory, shoving the falling Denarian thirty feet off course, and he landed in one of those beams of titanic energy.
There was a flash of white light, a brief shadow of a human skeleton burned onto my vision, and then a white-hot something went spinning out from the beam. It landed in one of the pools in an angry gush of steam. The dolphins darted away from it.
Then I froze, not moving.
I picked the outermost of the invading Denarians, the one farthest from the center of action and attention, pointed my staff at him from my hiding spot amidst the green, and snarled, "Forzare!" unleashing a moderate effort of will. Invisible force caught the shapeshifted fiend as he was falling. I never got much of a look at him, beyond the fact that he had a lot of muscle and a ridge of leathery plates running down his spine.
Muscle doesn't do you any good in free fall, no matter how many Fallen angels you've got inside you. Unless you've got some wings to put it to use, you're in the hands of Mother Earth and Sir Isaac Newton.
I wasn't trying to smash him into the middle of the lake. I applied just enough force to alter his trajectory, shoving the falling Denarian thirty feet off course, and he landed in one of those beams of titanic energy.
There was a flash of white light, a brief shadow of a human skeleton burned onto my vision, and then a white-hot something went spinning out from the beam. It landed in one of the pools in an angry gush of steam. The dolphins darted away from it.
Then I froze, not moving.
In Changes, we see McCoy kersplode a pyramid in Changes, as collateral of striking at the Red King and the Lords of Outer Night
Standing on the ball court were twelve figures.
Twelve people in shapeless grey robes. Grey cloaks. Grey hoods.
And every single one of them held a wizard's staff in one hand.
The Grey Council.
The Grey Council!
The nearest figure was considerably shorter than me and stout, but he stood with his feet planted as if he intended to move the world. He lifted his staff, smote it on the ground, then boomed, "Remember Archangel!" He spoke a single, resonating word as he thrust the tip of the implement at the Red King and the Lords of Outer Night.
The second floor of the stadium-temple where they stood . . . simply exploded. A force hit the ancient structure like an enormous bulldozer blade rushing forward at Mach 2. It smashed into the temple. Stone screamed. The Red King, the Lords of Outer Night, and several thousand tons of the temple's structure went flying back through the air with enough violent energy to send a shock wave rebounding from the point of impact.
The massive display of force brought a second of stunned silence to the field—and I was just as slack-jawed as anyone.
Then I threw back my head and let out a primal scream of triumph and glee. The Grey Council had come.
We were not alone.
Twelve people in shapeless grey robes. Grey cloaks. Grey hoods.
And every single one of them held a wizard's staff in one hand.
The Grey Council.
The Grey Council!
The nearest figure was considerably shorter than me and stout, but he stood with his feet planted as if he intended to move the world. He lifted his staff, smote it on the ground, then boomed, "Remember Archangel!" He spoke a single, resonating word as he thrust the tip of the implement at the Red King and the Lords of Outer Night.
The second floor of the stadium-temple where they stood . . . simply exploded. A force hit the ancient structure like an enormous bulldozer blade rushing forward at Mach 2. It smashed into the temple. Stone screamed. The Red King, the Lords of Outer Night, and several thousand tons of the temple's structure went flying back through the air with enough violent energy to send a shock wave rebounding from the point of impact.
The massive display of force brought a second of stunned silence to the field—and I was just as slack-jawed as anyone.
Then I threw back my head and let out a primal scream of triumph and glee. The Grey Council had come.
We were not alone.
Note that the Red King and the Lords were apparently shielded; they were pulling power from a leyline earlier in the scene.
They all survived it without apparent injury.
In Cold Days, Harry made a small glacier in a little under two or three minutes. In October.
But before I could finish the sentence, there was a loud crunching whoomp of a sound, and the entire warehouse shook. I barely had time to think demolition charges before there was a deafening crack, and the floor tilted.
And then the back twenty feet of the warehouse, including all of us, fell right off of the street and into the cold, dark water of Lake Michigan.
We didn't drop straight down. Instead, there was a scream of shearing bolts, and our part of the building lurched drunkenly and then plunged into the water at an oblique angle.
The confusion of it was the worst part. The loud noise, the disorientation inherent in the uneven motion, and then the short surge of terror as gravity took over all served to create a panic reaction in my head—and I'm not a guy who panics easily.
That's what most people don't understand about situations like this one. People are just built to freak out when something goes wrong. It doesn't matter if you're a kindergarten teacher or a Special Forces operator—when life-threatening stuff happens, you get scared. You freak out. That's just what happens. When it's because you've woken up to a hungry bear in your camp, that's usually a pretty good mechanism.
But being dropped into black water in an enclosed area is not a place where panicked adrenaline is going to help you out. That's when you have to somehow set that fear aside and force yourself to use your rational mind to guide you out of the situation. There are two ways to get yourself into that terrified-but-rational state of mind. First is training, where you drill a reaction into yourself so hard and so many times that it becomes a form of reflex you can perform without even thinking. And the other way you get there is to have enough experience to have learned what you need to do.
So the first thing I did as the cold water swallowed me was to close my eyes for a second and focus, just as I would if I were preparing a spell, relaxing my limbs and letting them float loosely in the water. I gathered my thoughts and laid out my options.
First, I had time, but not much of it. I had gotten a good breath before I went under. The others might or might not have done the same. So I had about two minutes to act before people started trying to breathe Lake Michigan. Two minutes doesn't sound like long, but it was enough time to spend a few seconds thinking.
Second, we were surrounded by steel siding. I wasn't getting through that with anything short of a full-power blast, and that wasn't going to happen while I was surrounded by water. Water tends to disperse and ground out magical energies just by being nearby. When water is all around you, it's all but impossible to direct any energy out of your body without it spreading out and diluting to uselessness.
The edges of the building might or might not have grounded themselves into the mud at the bottom of the lake, trapping us all like bugs under a shoe box lid. There wasn't time to search through them systematically, not before people started drowning. That meant that we had to go out through the only way I could be sure was available—the back door.
Except that everyone was spread out in the blackness now, and at least one person, Andi, was already disoriented from the blow to her head. It was possible others had been hurt in the fall, or would get hurt as they struggled to get out. There seemed to be very little chance that I could find the door, then find all of them in the dark, then get them pointed at the door and out. It seemed just as unlikely that everyone would stop to think and come to the same conclusion I had. There was a very real chance that one or more of my friends might be left behind.
But what other options did I have? It wasn't as though I could lift the entire thing out of the water—
No. I couldn't.
But Winter could.
I opened my eyes into the darkness, made a best guess for down, and swam that way. I found mud within a few feet. I thrust my right hand into the mud, thrashing rather awkwardly to get it done. Then I went limp again, floating a bit weirdly, tethered by my hand in the mud, and focused my mind.
I wasn't going to try to lift the freaking building. That was just insane. I'd known things that might have been able to pull it off, but I was certain I wasn't one of them, not even with the power of the Winter Knight's mantle.
Besides, why do it the stupid way?
I felt myself smiling, maybe smiling a little too widely, in the dark water, and unleashed the cold of winter directly into the ground beneath me, through my right hand. I poured it on, holding nothing back, reaching deep into me, to the source of cold power inside me, and sending it out into the muck of the lake bottom.
Lake Michigan is a deep lake, and only its upper layers ever really warm up. Beyond a few feet of the surface, the cold is a constant, an absolute, and the mud at the bottom of what I was guessing to be fifteen or twenty feet of water, at the most, was clammy. As the power poured out of me, the water did what it always did with magic—it began to diffuse it, to spread it out.
Which was exactly what I was going for.
Ice formed around my hand and spread into a circle several feet wide in the first instant, conducted more easily through the mud than through the water. I poured more effort in, and the circle widened, more ice forming, spreading out. I kept up the cold, and the water touching the bottom began to freeze as well.
My heart began to beat harder, and there was a roaring sound in my ears. I didn't give up, sending more and more cold into the lake around me, building up layer after layer of ice across the entire bottom of the lake beneath the collapsed warehouse. At sixty seconds, the ice was three feet deep, and forming around my arm and shoulder. At ninety seconds, it had engulfed my head and upper body, and had to have been five or six feet deep. And when my internal count reached a hundred and ten, the entire mass of ice tore loose from the lake's bottom with a groan and began to rise.
I never let up on it, building it into a miniature iceberg, and the steel beams and walls of the warehouse moaned and squealed as the ice began to lift them free. I felt it when my feet came out of the water, though most of the rest of me was still stuck in the ice. I tore and twisted and seemed to know exactly where to apply pressure and torque without being told. The ice crackled away and I slipped out of it with a minimum of fuss. When I pulled my head out (go ahead; make a joke), I was sitting in dim light atop a sheet of ice floating several inches out of the waters of the lake.
I was still in the rear section of the warehouse. The back door was open, straight above my head, and was letting in most of the light. The broken ends of the room, the floor, and the two walls had been embedded in ice, but crookedly. The ragged edge of the ceiling was a couple of feet out of the water.
Several very startled-looking people and one fur-plastered dog were shivering on the ice. I took a quick head count. Everyone was there.
I sagged down onto the ice in relief, fatigue making my body feel like it weighed an extra ton, and just lay there for a moment as the wreckage bobbed gently in the water. After a few seconds, I became aware of eyes on me, and I looked up.
My friends were all sitting or kneeling on the ice, damp and shivering, and staring at me with wide eyes. Molly's eyes were bright and intense, the expression on her face unreadable. Justine's mouth hung slightly open, and her big dark eyes looked afraid. Butters stared first at me and then down at the ice, his eyes flicking around, the wheels clearly churning in his head as he calculated how much ice there was and how much energy it would have taken to freeze it. Mac regarded me impassively, still supporting the dazed Andi.
Sweetly curved Andi was the most vulnerable. If I could isolate her from the herd, things could get interesting. I'd just saved her life, after all. She owed me. I could think of a few ways that she could express her gratitude.
I pushed the predator thought out of my head and took a deep breath. When I exhaled, it condensed into a thick, foggy vapor, more so than it ever would have naturally, even on the coldest days. I looked down at my hands and they were covered in frost, and my fingertips and nails were turning blue. I put a hand to my face and had to brush away a thin layer of frost.
Hell's bells. What did I look like, to make my friends stare at me like that?
Time for mirrors later.
I stood up, my feet sure even on the wet ice, and found the nearest point of the shoreline. I extended a hand, murmured, "Infriga," and froze a ten-foot-long bridge from my improvised iceberg to land.
"Come on," I said, as I started walking toward the shore. My voice sounded strange, rough. "We don't have much time."
Cold Days Chapter 38, Page 372-375
And then the back twenty feet of the warehouse, including all of us, fell right off of the street and into the cold, dark water of Lake Michigan.
We didn't drop straight down. Instead, there was a scream of shearing bolts, and our part of the building lurched drunkenly and then plunged into the water at an oblique angle.
The confusion of it was the worst part. The loud noise, the disorientation inherent in the uneven motion, and then the short surge of terror as gravity took over all served to create a panic reaction in my head—and I'm not a guy who panics easily.
That's what most people don't understand about situations like this one. People are just built to freak out when something goes wrong. It doesn't matter if you're a kindergarten teacher or a Special Forces operator—when life-threatening stuff happens, you get scared. You freak out. That's just what happens. When it's because you've woken up to a hungry bear in your camp, that's usually a pretty good mechanism.
But being dropped into black water in an enclosed area is not a place where panicked adrenaline is going to help you out. That's when you have to somehow set that fear aside and force yourself to use your rational mind to guide you out of the situation. There are two ways to get yourself into that terrified-but-rational state of mind. First is training, where you drill a reaction into yourself so hard and so many times that it becomes a form of reflex you can perform without even thinking. And the other way you get there is to have enough experience to have learned what you need to do.
So the first thing I did as the cold water swallowed me was to close my eyes for a second and focus, just as I would if I were preparing a spell, relaxing my limbs and letting them float loosely in the water. I gathered my thoughts and laid out my options.
First, I had time, but not much of it. I had gotten a good breath before I went under. The others might or might not have done the same. So I had about two minutes to act before people started trying to breathe Lake Michigan. Two minutes doesn't sound like long, but it was enough time to spend a few seconds thinking.
Second, we were surrounded by steel siding. I wasn't getting through that with anything short of a full-power blast, and that wasn't going to happen while I was surrounded by water. Water tends to disperse and ground out magical energies just by being nearby. When water is all around you, it's all but impossible to direct any energy out of your body without it spreading out and diluting to uselessness.
The edges of the building might or might not have grounded themselves into the mud at the bottom of the lake, trapping us all like bugs under a shoe box lid. There wasn't time to search through them systematically, not before people started drowning. That meant that we had to go out through the only way I could be sure was available—the back door.
Except that everyone was spread out in the blackness now, and at least one person, Andi, was already disoriented from the blow to her head. It was possible others had been hurt in the fall, or would get hurt as they struggled to get out. There seemed to be very little chance that I could find the door, then find all of them in the dark, then get them pointed at the door and out. It seemed just as unlikely that everyone would stop to think and come to the same conclusion I had. There was a very real chance that one or more of my friends might be left behind.
But what other options did I have? It wasn't as though I could lift the entire thing out of the water—
No. I couldn't.
But Winter could.
I opened my eyes into the darkness, made a best guess for down, and swam that way. I found mud within a few feet. I thrust my right hand into the mud, thrashing rather awkwardly to get it done. Then I went limp again, floating a bit weirdly, tethered by my hand in the mud, and focused my mind.
I wasn't going to try to lift the freaking building. That was just insane. I'd known things that might have been able to pull it off, but I was certain I wasn't one of them, not even with the power of the Winter Knight's mantle.
Besides, why do it the stupid way?
I felt myself smiling, maybe smiling a little too widely, in the dark water, and unleashed the cold of winter directly into the ground beneath me, through my right hand. I poured it on, holding nothing back, reaching deep into me, to the source of cold power inside me, and sending it out into the muck of the lake bottom.
Lake Michigan is a deep lake, and only its upper layers ever really warm up. Beyond a few feet of the surface, the cold is a constant, an absolute, and the mud at the bottom of what I was guessing to be fifteen or twenty feet of water, at the most, was clammy. As the power poured out of me, the water did what it always did with magic—it began to diffuse it, to spread it out.
Which was exactly what I was going for.
Ice formed around my hand and spread into a circle several feet wide in the first instant, conducted more easily through the mud than through the water. I poured more effort in, and the circle widened, more ice forming, spreading out. I kept up the cold, and the water touching the bottom began to freeze as well.
My heart began to beat harder, and there was a roaring sound in my ears. I didn't give up, sending more and more cold into the lake around me, building up layer after layer of ice across the entire bottom of the lake beneath the collapsed warehouse. At sixty seconds, the ice was three feet deep, and forming around my arm and shoulder. At ninety seconds, it had engulfed my head and upper body, and had to have been five or six feet deep. And when my internal count reached a hundred and ten, the entire mass of ice tore loose from the lake's bottom with a groan and began to rise.
I never let up on it, building it into a miniature iceberg, and the steel beams and walls of the warehouse moaned and squealed as the ice began to lift them free. I felt it when my feet came out of the water, though most of the rest of me was still stuck in the ice. I tore and twisted and seemed to know exactly where to apply pressure and torque without being told. The ice crackled away and I slipped out of it with a minimum of fuss. When I pulled my head out (go ahead; make a joke), I was sitting in dim light atop a sheet of ice floating several inches out of the waters of the lake.
I was still in the rear section of the warehouse. The back door was open, straight above my head, and was letting in most of the light. The broken ends of the room, the floor, and the two walls had been embedded in ice, but crookedly. The ragged edge of the ceiling was a couple of feet out of the water.
Several very startled-looking people and one fur-plastered dog were shivering on the ice. I took a quick head count. Everyone was there.
I sagged down onto the ice in relief, fatigue making my body feel like it weighed an extra ton, and just lay there for a moment as the wreckage bobbed gently in the water. After a few seconds, I became aware of eyes on me, and I looked up.
My friends were all sitting or kneeling on the ice, damp and shivering, and staring at me with wide eyes. Molly's eyes were bright and intense, the expression on her face unreadable. Justine's mouth hung slightly open, and her big dark eyes looked afraid. Butters stared first at me and then down at the ice, his eyes flicking around, the wheels clearly churning in his head as he calculated how much ice there was and how much energy it would have taken to freeze it. Mac regarded me impassively, still supporting the dazed Andi.
Sweetly curved Andi was the most vulnerable. If I could isolate her from the herd, things could get interesting. I'd just saved her life, after all. She owed me. I could think of a few ways that she could express her gratitude.
I pushed the predator thought out of my head and took a deep breath. When I exhaled, it condensed into a thick, foggy vapor, more so than it ever would have naturally, even on the coldest days. I looked down at my hands and they were covered in frost, and my fingertips and nails were turning blue. I put a hand to my face and had to brush away a thin layer of frost.
Hell's bells. What did I look like, to make my friends stare at me like that?
Time for mirrors later.
I stood up, my feet sure even on the wet ice, and found the nearest point of the shoreline. I extended a hand, murmured, "Infriga," and froze a ten-foot-long bridge from my improvised iceberg to land.
"Come on," I said, as I started walking toward the shore. My voice sounded strange, rough. "We don't have much time."
Cold Days Chapter 38, Page 372-375
In Battle Grounds, he vaporized most of a thirty foot wide circle with a single firebolt
I didn't see the enemy team holding our end of the bridge through the haze until they popped up from under cloaks like ghillie suits and opened fire. Angry wasps hissed through the air and someone hit me in the stomach with a baseball bat and drove the wind out of me.
For a second, I couldn't tell what was happening. Some of my volunteers had raised their weapons and returned fire immediately, but most were confused. I knew the feeling. Getting shot at often confuses the hell out of me, and only training and experience allow you to respond with the kind of instant aggression necessary to counter that kind of surprise attack. I lifted my left arm, and only a lifetime of practice and dedication allowed me to bring up my shield through the pain.
Pain?
I looked down at my belly. There was no blood.
I felt a hit on my shoulder. Another on my cheekbone, even though nothing had touched my shield.
And then I got it.
My people were dying. I could feel it. Feel their pain. Their terror. Their confusion.
The air seethed with magical potential.
I drew my blasting rod, gathered my will, dropped the shield, and screamed, "FUEGO!"
Because nothing cuts through bullshit like a proper fireball.
The lance of energy that emerged from my blasting rod was an order of magnitude more potent than any I had thrown before, thanks to the cloud of terror over the city. The very air boiled and shrieked in protest, and when the blast hit the ground among the enemy fire team, the thermal bloom that erupted was a sphere of white-hot light. The concussion of that expanding heat slapped me in the chest so hard that it rocked me back a step.
The enemy fire stopped.
All that was left a few seconds later as the fire boiled away was a black circle on the ground maybe thirty feet across, in a mound, where the heat had sucked the very earth up in a low scorched dome, some unrecognizable lumps, and a small mushroom-shaped cloud of sullen red flame that vanished into black smoke.
There was a second of stunned silence, and then one of the volunteers, damned if it wasn't Randy, shouted, "We've got a goddamned wizard! F*ck those guys!"
Battle Ground Chapter 25, Page 225-226
For a second, I couldn't tell what was happening. Some of my volunteers had raised their weapons and returned fire immediately, but most were confused. I knew the feeling. Getting shot at often confuses the hell out of me, and only training and experience allow you to respond with the kind of instant aggression necessary to counter that kind of surprise attack. I lifted my left arm, and only a lifetime of practice and dedication allowed me to bring up my shield through the pain.
Pain?
I looked down at my belly. There was no blood.
I felt a hit on my shoulder. Another on my cheekbone, even though nothing had touched my shield.
And then I got it.
My people were dying. I could feel it. Feel their pain. Their terror. Their confusion.
The air seethed with magical potential.
I drew my blasting rod, gathered my will, dropped the shield, and screamed, "FUEGO!"
Because nothing cuts through bullshit like a proper fireball.
The lance of energy that emerged from my blasting rod was an order of magnitude more potent than any I had thrown before, thanks to the cloud of terror over the city. The very air boiled and shrieked in protest, and when the blast hit the ground among the enemy fire team, the thermal bloom that erupted was a sphere of white-hot light. The concussion of that expanding heat slapped me in the chest so hard that it rocked me back a step.
The enemy fire stopped.
All that was left a few seconds later as the fire boiled away was a black circle on the ground maybe thirty feet across, in a mound, where the heat had sucked the very earth up in a low scorched dome, some unrecognizable lumps, and a small mushroom-shaped cloud of sullen red flame that vanished into black smoke.
There was a second of stunned silence, and then one of the volunteers, damned if it wasn't Randy, shouted, "We've got a goddamned wizard! F*ck those guys!"
Battle Ground Chapter 25, Page 225-226
===
We also saw temporal manipulation in Cold Days, that it took Kringle to stall:
The bike jounced a couple of times, but I held on to Karrin and kept from flying off. It was an interesting question, though: If I had, would the water have supported me, like an endless field of asphalt? Or would it have behaved as it normally would?
The entire Hunt swept along behind us, silent but for the low thunder of hooves and the panting of the hounds—when suddenly the silver starlight turned bright azure blue.
"Whoa!" Karrin said. "Did you do that?"
"I don't think so," I said. I looked over my shoulder and found Kringle and the Erlking riding along behind me, I jerked my head at them in a beckoning gesture, and they obligingly came up on either side of the Harleytiger.
"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the sky.
"A temporal pressure wave," the Erlking said, his flaming eyes narrowed.
"A wha'?" I asked.
The Erlking looked at Kringle. "This is your area of expertise. Explain it."
"Someone is bending time against us," Kringle said.
I stared at him for a second and then it clicked. "We're being rushed forward so that we'll get there too late," I said. "We're looking at a Doppler shift."
"Is what he said correct?" the Erlking asked Kringle curiously.
"Essentially, aye. We've already lost half of an hour by my count."
"Who could have done this?" I asked.
"You have encountered this before, wizard," Kringle said. "Can you not guess?"
"One of the Queens," I muttered. "Or someone operating on their level. Can we get out of this wave?"
The Erlking and Kringle traded a look. "You are the leader of the Hunt," Kringle said. "What you wright with your power will grace each of us. Would you like to do it?"
Was he kidding me? I had almost as much of an idea of how to screw around with the fabric of time as I did which of my clothes could be safely washed in hot water. "I probably need to save myself for what's coming," I said.
Kringle nodded. "If it is your will," he said diffidently, "we can set our hands against it."
"Do it," I said.
They both nodded their heads at me in small bows, and then their steeds raced out in front of the pack. Sparks began to fly from their horses' hooves, first blue, then abruptly darkening to scarlet. The air seemed to shimmer, and strange, twisted sounds writhed all around us. Then there was a reverberating crash that sounded like something between thunder and the discharge of a blaster. The air split in front of the two of them like a curtain, and as the Hunt hurtled through it, the stars washed out to their normal silver hue again.
"Well-done, I guess!" I shouted—and then I noticed that Kringle was no longer there, though the Erlking still raced along. Over the next few moments he slowed enough to pace Karrin and me. "Hey, where'd Bowl-Full-of-Jelly go?"
"Kringle was our stepping-stone out of the rapids of the stream," he called back. "To lift us out, he had to remain behind. He will rejoin us farther down the shore."
"Harry," Karrin said.
"How much farther down the shore?"
The Erlking shrugged with his uninjured arm. "Time may hold no terror for us immortals, Sir Knight, but it is a massive force, all but beyond even our control. It will take as long as it takes."
"Harry!" Karrin snapped.
I turned my eyes front and felt them widen.
We had arrived at Demonreach—and the island was under attack.
The first thing I saw was the curtain wall around the island's shoreline. It was nothing but a flicker of opalescent light, like a dense aurora borealis, stretching from the water's edge up into the October sky. It cast an eerie glow over the trees of the island, steeping them in menacing black shadow, and its reflection in the waters of the lake was three or four times bigger and more colorful than it should have been.
The entire Hunt swept along behind us, silent but for the low thunder of hooves and the panting of the hounds—when suddenly the silver starlight turned bright azure blue.
"Whoa!" Karrin said. "Did you do that?"
"I don't think so," I said. I looked over my shoulder and found Kringle and the Erlking riding along behind me, I jerked my head at them in a beckoning gesture, and they obligingly came up on either side of the Harleytiger.
"What is that?" I asked, pointing at the sky.
"A temporal pressure wave," the Erlking said, his flaming eyes narrowed.
"A wha'?" I asked.
The Erlking looked at Kringle. "This is your area of expertise. Explain it."
"Someone is bending time against us," Kringle said.
I stared at him for a second and then it clicked. "We're being rushed forward so that we'll get there too late," I said. "We're looking at a Doppler shift."
"Is what he said correct?" the Erlking asked Kringle curiously.
"Essentially, aye. We've already lost half of an hour by my count."
"Who could have done this?" I asked.
"You have encountered this before, wizard," Kringle said. "Can you not guess?"
"One of the Queens," I muttered. "Or someone operating on their level. Can we get out of this wave?"
The Erlking and Kringle traded a look. "You are the leader of the Hunt," Kringle said. "What you wright with your power will grace each of us. Would you like to do it?"
Was he kidding me? I had almost as much of an idea of how to screw around with the fabric of time as I did which of my clothes could be safely washed in hot water. "I probably need to save myself for what's coming," I said.
Kringle nodded. "If it is your will," he said diffidently, "we can set our hands against it."
"Do it," I said.
They both nodded their heads at me in small bows, and then their steeds raced out in front of the pack. Sparks began to fly from their horses' hooves, first blue, then abruptly darkening to scarlet. The air seemed to shimmer, and strange, twisted sounds writhed all around us. Then there was a reverberating crash that sounded like something between thunder and the discharge of a blaster. The air split in front of the two of them like a curtain, and as the Hunt hurtled through it, the stars washed out to their normal silver hue again.
"Well-done, I guess!" I shouted—and then I noticed that Kringle was no longer there, though the Erlking still raced along. Over the next few moments he slowed enough to pace Karrin and me. "Hey, where'd Bowl-Full-of-Jelly go?"
"Kringle was our stepping-stone out of the rapids of the stream," he called back. "To lift us out, he had to remain behind. He will rejoin us farther down the shore."
"Harry," Karrin said.
"How much farther down the shore?"
The Erlking shrugged with his uninjured arm. "Time may hold no terror for us immortals, Sir Knight, but it is a massive force, all but beyond even our control. It will take as long as it takes."
"Harry!" Karrin snapped.
I turned my eyes front and felt them widen.
We had arrived at Demonreach—and the island was under attack.
The first thing I saw was the curtain wall around the island's shoreline. It was nothing but a flicker of opalescent light, like a dense aurora borealis, stretching from the water's edge up into the October sky. It cast an eerie glow over the trees of the island, steeping them in menacing black shadow, and its reflection in the waters of the lake was three or four times bigger and more colorful than it should have been.
Or when they made Milwaukee vanish for several hours before the story started.
Some effects cannot be conventionally calculated.
[X] Plan: Fortified Position
-[X] Actually you have something pretty specific in mind
--[X] Earth Side
---[X] A Couple of tons of the strongest metals Sanctuary can provide quickly so that I can fashion into a Vault with a loud as hell Lock and hinge.
---[X] Ten Hand agents that have sensory Augments that would allow them to see Immaterial spirts
---[X] 60 Gurvel to patrol around the vault.
---[X] X Amount of mountable Cyberdevil cameras.
---[X] X Amount of small form factor drones.
---[X] Spirits willing to help defend in the mortal world.
---[X] 20 Balefire Mines
---[X] 50 Mundane Mines
---[X] Whoever is qualified to place those Mines.
---[X] 8 heavy Machine Gun Emplacements
--[X] Sanctuary Side
---[X] Full Spectrum Surveillance (Motion, Thermal, Mana, Spirit) in a 30 meter radius of the opening.
---[X] A Series of High pressure hoses of water around the portal Surveillance area aimed at the Iris.
---[X] Raised Microwave active denial system platforms arranged in the same fashion.
---[X] Auto Electro shock turrets arranged in an X formation on both sides of the Oculus set to stun.
---[X] A Sutra powerful enough to take in all the information and coordinate the hand agents, the gurvel, the cyber devils and Auto turrets.
---[X] Ask Regina to start troop build up around the portal.
---[X] Get sorcerer engineers to start setting up words around this area.
---[X] I'll reshape the land around the portal into a bowl-shaped Caldera.
--[X] Stunt: "We'll start earth side this is going to be on short notice but I need the strongest metals that you can get me in large quantity I'm talking tons. I'll make them a large block with a large obvious vault door, one way in one way out. Then I'll need a grouping of Hand agents that possess the augments or ability to see immaterial spirits to be on the inside of the Vault because air will be coming in from the five full court of Fate there's no need to put any holes in it that aren't the door." Taking a deep breath. "Then I'll need a large group of Gurvel as well as eight heavy machine gun emplacements a big obvious defense that will hopefully draw attention away or very least make people believe that they are the last line of defense so they don't believe the sealed box of metal with no airways has anyone in it. As well as any spirits that are willing to volunteer to help us on the mortal side. I'll need as many cyberdevil cameras as you can give me I'll Mount them to the trees in roughly a 100 yard radius around the portal both facing away and towards the portal hopefully to give the Gurvel and the agents as well as Sanctuary warning if anyone is coming. Then a mixed Cadre of mines hopefully the presence of magical ones will even better conceal the non-magical ones they'll be staggered throughout the same area as the cameras. As well as any small form factor durable drones that are capable of flying in between trees we don't want them flying to far above the canopy that might alert anyone who's trying to sneak in and might give away the element of surprise. This is largely temporary and will need someone who's cleared to implant the explosives but hopefully there's a hold of us until we can build something more than a skeleton." Another deep breath think for a second make sure there aren't any objections or anything else that might need to be handled before you continue. " On this side we don't want anyone to die we don't want anyone who comes to that portal unannounced or unofficially to get away. I'll reshape the land around the portal into a bowl-shaped Caldera you'll have clear lines of sight throughout the entire Valley onto the portal. As well as an array of surveillance whether that be manned or otherwise of people that can see Mana see spirits and cameras that can view thermals and sensors that can detect motion along with spotlights on the portal, paired with hoses that will spray down at the lightest provocation anything that might have been sensed with just streams of water I want any magic that they might have on them washed away. Then raised platforms for ADS Flats hopefully integrated into the valley that I'll raise for this area around the portal we're going to need Electro turrets set to stun I want anyone who comes through that portal downed. I want their magic washed away, I want them screaming in pain and unconscious before they know what happened. Then we'll need a Sutra that has a powerful enough receiver and Transmitter to coordinate all the information both from the surveillance inside and outside through the vault. Regina I need you to start Gathering troops just in case as well as get the sources Engineers to Heavily Ward this Valley. Did I miss anything anything you can think of?"
Man that was fucking long anyway that's kind of what I was thinking about setting up a quick position as fast as we can hopefully it has enough guarding that we can come back and make something more secured later. If anyone has any suggestions I'll take them. We've got a whole world at our disposal folks including their military industrial complex let's not be stingy with it.
-[X] Actually you have something pretty specific in mind
--[X] Earth Side
---[X] A Couple of tons of the strongest metals Sanctuary can provide quickly so that I can fashion into a Vault with a loud as hell Lock and hinge.
---[X] Ten Hand agents that have sensory Augments that would allow them to see Immaterial spirts
---[X] 60 Gurvel to patrol around the vault.
---[X] X Amount of mountable Cyberdevil cameras.
---[X] X Amount of small form factor drones.
---[X] Spirits willing to help defend in the mortal world.
---[X] 20 Balefire Mines
---[X] 50 Mundane Mines
---[X] Whoever is qualified to place those Mines.
---[X] 8 heavy Machine Gun Emplacements
--[X] Sanctuary Side
---[X] Full Spectrum Surveillance (Motion, Thermal, Mana, Spirit) in a 30 meter radius of the opening.
---[X] A Series of High pressure hoses of water around the portal Surveillance area aimed at the Iris.
---[X] Raised Microwave active denial system platforms arranged in the same fashion.
---[X] Auto Electro shock turrets arranged in an X formation on both sides of the Oculus set to stun.
---[X] A Sutra powerful enough to take in all the information and coordinate the hand agents, the gurvel, the cyber devils and Auto turrets.
---[X] Ask Regina to start troop build up around the portal.
---[X] Get sorcerer engineers to start setting up words around this area.
---[X] I'll reshape the land around the portal into a bowl-shaped Caldera.
--[X] Stunt: "We'll start earth side this is going to be on short notice but I need the strongest metals that you can get me in large quantity I'm talking tons. I'll make them a large block with a large obvious vault door, one way in one way out. Then I'll need a grouping of Hand agents that possess the augments or ability to see immaterial spirits to be on the inside of the Vault because air will be coming in from the five full court of Fate there's no need to put any holes in it that aren't the door." Taking a deep breath. "Then I'll need a large group of Gurvel as well as eight heavy machine gun emplacements a big obvious defense that will hopefully draw attention away or very least make people believe that they are the last line of defense so they don't believe the sealed box of metal with no airways has anyone in it. As well as any spirits that are willing to volunteer to help us on the mortal side. I'll need as many cyberdevil cameras as you can give me I'll Mount them to the trees in roughly a 100 yard radius around the portal both facing away and towards the portal hopefully to give the Gurvel and the agents as well as Sanctuary warning if anyone is coming. Then a mixed Cadre of mines hopefully the presence of magical ones will even better conceal the non-magical ones they'll be staggered throughout the same area as the cameras. As well as any small form factor durable drones that are capable of flying in between trees we don't want them flying to far above the canopy that might alert anyone who's trying to sneak in and might give away the element of surprise. This is largely temporary and will need someone who's cleared to implant the explosives but hopefully there's a hold of us until we can build something more than a skeleton." Another deep breath think for a second make sure there aren't any objections or anything else that might need to be handled before you continue. " On this side we don't want anyone to die we don't want anyone who comes to that portal unannounced or unofficially to get away. I'll reshape the land around the portal into a bowl-shaped Caldera you'll have clear lines of sight throughout the entire Valley onto the portal. As well as an array of surveillance whether that be manned or otherwise of people that can see Mana see spirits and cameras that can view thermals and sensors that can detect motion along with spotlights on the portal, paired with hoses that will spray down at the lightest provocation anything that might have been sensed with just streams of water I want any magic that they might have on them washed away. Then raised platforms for ADS Flats hopefully integrated into the valley that I'll raise for this area around the portal we're going to need Electro turrets set to stun I want anyone who comes through that portal downed. I want their magic washed away, I want them screaming in pain and unconscious before they know what happened. Then we'll need a Sutra that has a powerful enough receiver and Transmitter to coordinate all the information both from the surveillance inside and outside through the vault. Regina I need you to start Gathering troops just in case as well as get the sources Engineers to Heavily Ward this Valley. Did I miss anything anything you can think of?"
Man that was fucking long anyway that's kind of what I was thinking about setting up a quick position as fast as we can hopefully it has enough guarding that we can come back and make something more secured later. If anyone has any suggestions I'll take them. We've got a whole world at our disposal folks including their military industrial complex let's not be stingy with it.
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So did he successfully go through the wheel? He's here but also there right? So can he defend himself more completely?
Hope the wizards have their blood pressure under control; cause this has been a wild ride. Wonder if Carlos is regretting that crush yet or not.
This was already a crazy decision, let's finish chewing before we bite off more.
That seems a little light. The hardware is good, but 20 guards isn't a lot and if someone like a vampire duke comes through then we're in trouble.
Off the cuff; it occurs to me that we're in charge of this place in more than a political sense and there's an extinct volcano right there. Think we can wake it up?
If we could shift things around a bit we might be able to put the portal over a pool of lava with a bridge out to the rim. Maybe call up some spirits and otherwise change the landscape to be more defensive. Ask the local sorcerers to toss up some wards while we wait too since they're here anyway.
Even without that, air support on both sides would be very useful. Murder anything trying to rush the portal.
Honestly I'd leave Regina with instructions to bring in an army group to keep building up too. Just to be explicit about it.
That's what I'm talking about I'll make some edits probably not going to do the lava Flow thing because that provides an Avenue for someone to very quickly die in our hell and that might allow them to escape or very least leave into our hell somewhere.
Edit: we're up to 70 personnel, as many small form Factor drones capable of flying between trees as we can get and on Sanctuary side we've got a Bowl shaped Caldera that has the portal at its center with sorcerous engineers warding the valley and troops mustering around. All of this on top of the web of surveillance and protections for the portal.
Edit-2: added heavy machine gun emplacements for firing lines away from the vault cube.
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- Location
- washington
Honestly think the numbers your using are too small we have a serving army bigger than any real life army we can afford having thousands defend the base at least from inside.
I also recommend we get our avatar and advisors in on whatever they think would help. Magic and military advisors planning defenses.
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With Regina mustering the army of the Court I do not doubt that will end up with a massive amount of troops around this Caldera positioned and stationed to be ready to move in on the portal if necessary. And if that number approached 100,000 I would not be surprised but we can't expect them to just show up out of nowhere or at least not in the couple of hours we have to set a lot of this up before we have to move on.
we also don't want to maximize our real world profile quite yet. This is a fortification we can put up within a couple of hours until we get done with whatever this is with black Council that's why it's only a Cube, 70 personnel, guns and Mines along with any spirits that are willing to help. Moving hundreds of soldiers is one extremely time-consuming and really attention grabbing even 70 is kind of pushing it.
I'm skeptical of the idea that dying in hell is a good way to dodge its overlord's control. That's kinda the opposite of the point. Croaking inside say the wicked city should put your soul under the power of Mikaboshi, same deal here.
I think it might be good to pick out a general set of details and then delegate much of the implementation to our military guys too.
Also, that stunt is pretty clunky. For this sort of thing I think it'd be better to leave the detailed instructions as bylines on the vote and just set the stage instead of giving all of it as a wall of text.
We should also probably stick to an immediate plan and delegate ongoing upgrades to Regina until we've got Peabody locked down.
[X] Plan This Land is my Land
-[X] Phase 1 Sanctuary defenses:
—[X] Ask any local security forces to establish a perimeter
—[X] Ask local sorcerers to start on what wards they can while more help arrives.
—[X] Get Sophia and Regina on the phone with the Exarchs, explaining the situation, impressing the seriousness of the risk and reward involved here.
—-[X] Request whatever air power can be made available, focusing on surveillance and ground strike capability. Ensure they have perfect weather.
—-[X] Request whatever emplacements, artillery, and heavy weapons units can be diverted to the area. If they have a fast reaction force capable of occupying the area now would be the time to use them.
—-[X] Request they send the best they can get ahold of to take over warding and fortifying the portal.
—-[X] Leave Regina and Sophia to coordinate continuous improvements and an air power heavy earthside contingent as more resources arrive.
-[X] [Stunt]: Taking a moment to consider, Molly stretched something that felt like a limb that had fallen asleep, stirring the world to action. Reaching out a hand more because it felt right than because it was necessary, she pushed it to change.
—[X] Deep in the volcanic crater, lava began to flow. Carefully avoiding anything made by mortal hands, it formed an open lake of molten earth.
—[X] In the distance the ring of lightning momentarily brightened, and five breezes in the iron wind were fused by the heat. Hurled through the air at alarming speeds they struck like thunderbolts before cooling into five pillars - or teeth a part of her noted - forming a perfect pentagon reaching out over the pool at a dizzying height.
—[X] Pinching off a bit of the rim nearest to Mallko she pushed it out, kneading the front into a disk as she went, balancing it on the pillars with the portal dead center.
—[X] An absent tap of her foot sent a shiver through the ground, and the natural landscape seemed to twist in subtle ways. Outcroppings becoming perfect firing positions, paths favoring the defense and slowing ascent, the beginnings of a fortress mountain forming from what seemed to be coincidences of nature. Those who hadn't watched it change could be forgiven for thinking it had always been that way.
—[X] Coming back to herself a bit, Molly turned to her suddenly quiet audience. Looking to the sorcerers, she tried to brush past it "Anyone good with wards? I'd like to ask an army task force to come out here as soon as they can, but we're the first line of defense here" gesturing to her work "I've got it started, but feel free to make suggestions for if you've got them too. Might not get to them till later, but every bit helps".
I'm making some assumptions about the position of the portal and our ability to push it around a little as fixed relative to the world rather than necessarily to an exact point in space. Which I hope will be allowed on the grounds that the scene would be really cool and a specific map hasn't been pinned down yet. If need be I think we can move the mountain a bit to make it work.
If we can't do the lava I'll replace it with horrible murder spikes or something, but this is the sort of thing I see as in lord of the land's remit.
And yeah, asking the sorcerers to suggest geological features to their god is mostly just for laughs, but who knows maybe they'll have something.
—-
I started this with the intent of being more specific, but I think a good amount of the initial steps can be left bellow the level of abstraction unless we have specific tricks in mind. General directives to go with the focus of our death fortress seem like a decent way to give shape to things.
Our guys probably aren't going to forget if they have automated blaster turrets, but if we have a clever game to play with magical interactions that's worth including in detail.
- Location
- washington
By the way the delegation does include more than just our avatar right? As in we have centuries and millennia old advisors available to us many of them geniuses themselves. Also we do eventually want probably turning ding this place at all times and probably turning it into a military base at least on the inside of the portal? Maybe even turning the land outside into land of our hell.I'm skeptical of the idea that dying in hell is a good way to dodge its overlord's control. That's kinda the opposite of the point. Croaking inside say the wicked city should put your soul under the power of Mikaboshi, same deal here.
I think it might be good to pick out a general set of details and then delegate much of the implementation to our military guys too.
Also, that stunt is pretty clunky. For this sort of thing I think it'd be better to leave the detailed instructions as bylines on the vote and just set the stage instead of giving all of it as a wall of text.
We should also probably stick to an immediate plan and delegate ongoing upgrades to Regina until we've got Peabody locked down.
[X] Plan This Land is my Land
-[X] Phase 1 Sanctuary defenses:
—[X] Ask any local security forces to establish a perimeter
—[X] Ask local sorcerers to start on what wards they can while more help arrives.
—[X] Get Sophia and Regina on the phone with the Exarchs, explaining the situation, impressing the seriousness of the risk and reward involved here.
—-[X] Request whatever air power can be made available, focusing on surveillance and ground strike capability. Ensure they have perfect weather.
—-[X] Request whatever emplacements, artillery, and heavy weapons units can be diverted to the area. If they have a fast reaction force capable of occupying the area now would be the time to use them.
—-[X] Request they send the best they can get ahold of to take over warding and fortifying the portal.
—-[X] Leave Regina and Sophia to coordinate continuous improvements and an air power heavy earthside contingent as more resources arrive.
-[X] [Stunt]: Taking a moment to consider, Molly stretched something that felt like a limb that had fallen asleep, stirring the world to action. Reaching out a hand more because it felt right than because it was necessary, she pushed it to change.
—[X] Deep in the volcanic crater, lava began to flow. Carefully avoiding anything made by mortal hands, it formed an open lake of molten earth.
—[X] In the distance the ring of lightning momentarily brightened, and five breezes in the iron wind were fused by the heat. Hurled through the air at alarming speeds they struck like thunderbolts before cooling into five pillars - or teeth a part of her noted - forming a perfect pentagon reaching out over the pool at a dizzying height.
—[X] Pinching off a bit of the rim nearest to Mallko she pushed it out, kneading the front into a disk as she went, balancing it on the pillars with the portal dead center.
—[X] An absent tap of her foot sent a shiver through the ground, and the natural landscape seemed to twist in subtle ways. Outcroppings becoming perfect firing positions, paths favoring the defense and slowing ascent, the beginnings of a fortress mountain forming from what seemed to be coincidences of nature. Those who hadn't watched it change could be forgiven for thinking it had always been that way.
—[X] Coming back to herself a bit, Molly turned to her suddenly quiet audience. Looking to the sorcerers, she tried to brush past it "Anyone good with wards? I'd like to ask an army task force to come out here as soon as they can, but we're the first line of defense here" gesturing to her work "I've got it started, but feel free to make suggestions for if you've got them too. Might not get to them till later, but every bit helps".
I'm making some assumptions about the position of the portal and our ability to push it around a little as fixed relative to the world rather than necessarily to an exact point in space. Which I hope will be allowed on the grounds that the scene would be really cool and a specific map hasn't been pinned down yet. If need be I think we can move the mountain a bit to make it work.
If we can't do the lava I'll replace it with horrible murder spikes or something, but this is the sort of thing I see as in lord of the land's remit.
And yeah, asking the sorcerers to suggest geological features to their god is mostly just for laughs, but who knows maybe they'll have something.
—-
I started this with the intent of being more specific, but I think a good amount of the initial steps can be left bellow the level of abstraction unless we have specific tricks in mind. General directives to go with the focus of our death fortress seem like a decent way to give shape to things.
Our guys probably aren't going to forget if they have automated blaster turrets, but if we have a clever game to play with magical interactions that's worth including in detail.
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VOTE
[X] Leave it to Regina, that is what she does best (Newborn Regent of Sanctuary)
RATIONALE
Regina has the stats and expertise to handle most of these on her own.
When she's running her buffs, her Man/Cha are 9, her Intelligence and Perception are 7, and she has a mini-social Excellency.
And authority as Molly's primary in-Sanctuary regent.
The only thing Molly can do here is spend effort in putting cyberdevils into surveillance satellites on the Earth side of the portal.
Im of the opinion that narratively and mechanically this was a mistake.
IC we both just gave up an arcane link to help everyone in the setting find Sanctuary's location in the NeverNever, AND we out our backup soul at risk.
OOC its going to distort the rest of the quest going forward to close this portal.
Both for personal safety reasons, and to allay fears of an alien invasion and Masquerade breach scenario by Sanctuary. Because we WILL get these concerns. From everybody, not just the Reds.
But immediate threat is rare.
There will be a battalion of troops around the Sanctuary-side of the portal in under six hours and a division in seventy two hours. Enough to fend off 99% of potential threats.
Its the 1%, the Denarians and Outsiders and Yama Kings that we have to worry about.
And I dont think non-Exalted force will be enough.
For some references about superpower force mobility, see Gulf War 1.
Kuwait was invaded on August 2.
The United States had 15,000 troops, 100 aircraft and 35 destroyers in Saudi Arabia by August 7.
By October 17, there were 200k US troops, 15k British and 11k French troops in Saudi Arabia
Sanctuary is an advanced magitech world of 5 billion people.
It can muster orders of magnitude more force than late Cold War NATO, and faster.
[X] Leave it to Regina, that is what she does best (Newborn Regent of Sanctuary)
RATIONALE
Regina has the stats and expertise to handle most of these on her own.
When she's running her buffs, her Man/Cha are 9, her Intelligence and Perception are 7, and she has a mini-social Excellency.
And authority as Molly's primary in-Sanctuary regent.
The only thing Molly can do here is spend effort in putting cyberdevils into surveillance satellites on the Earth side of the portal.
Im of the opinion that narratively and mechanically this was a mistake.
IC we both just gave up an arcane link to help everyone in the setting find Sanctuary's location in the NeverNever, AND we out our backup soul at risk.
OOC its going to distort the rest of the quest going forward to close this portal.
Both for personal safety reasons, and to allay fears of an alien invasion and Masquerade breach scenario by Sanctuary. Because we WILL get these concerns. From everybody, not just the Reds.
But immediate threat is rare.
There will be a battalion of troops around the Sanctuary-side of the portal in under six hours and a division in seventy two hours. Enough to fend off 99% of potential threats.
Its the 1%, the Denarians and Outsiders and Yama Kings that we have to worry about.
And I dont think non-Exalted force will be enough.
For some references about superpower force mobility, see Gulf War 1.
Kuwait was invaded on August 2.
The United States had 15,000 troops, 100 aircraft and 35 destroyers in Saudi Arabia by August 7.
By October 17, there were 200k US troops, 15k British and 11k French troops in Saudi Arabia
Sanctuary is an advanced magitech world of 5 billion people.
It can muster orders of magnitude more force than late Cold War NATO, and faster.
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fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
[X] Leave it to Regina, that is what she does best (Newborn Regent of Sanctuary)
- Location
- washington
I mean we're not going to see direct denarian interaction thats for fucking sure it'd be straight up retarded on their part with our possible quick response and the other side having countless soldiers. Like for the same reason a denarian wouldn't invade a hell they wouldn't go after this gate its just dumb. At least not directly that is.
Also I mean we have nukeish equivalents we can deploy here if we need to. Not many have perfect defenses for that shit I think.
Also not sure I rteally want to permanently close the place instead of making splendors, military tech, and shit to make it stupidly defensible. Temporarily close definitely but I'm unsure I really want to give up this plot hook. Especially long term when I actually want to use fucking sanctuary for something.
edit: I don't think we should be worried for any direct attacks other than maybe red court in the near future and part of me wants the red court to come because by god would it be well defended if we get even a few days to prepare. My worries are more along the lines of a pocket nuke, intrigue though there's going to be semi regular use of crown questions on people going in, or an actual missile though fairly sure we can get somewhat defended for such, or someone with extreme levels of stealth sneaking in.
Longer term we could maybe see an invasion but if we're being serious it'd take high level units to just roughshod an army with their own army to back them. I mean even an akuma while they could do damage would be roughshod by full battalions shooting at them.
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- Location
- Germany
[X] Leave it to Regina, that is what she does best (Newborn Regent of Sanctuary)
- Location
- washington
in fairness keep in mind and this is ooc but leavin it sheerly to our avatar leaves it sheerly to dp to make the defenses.