Oh yeah of course, all you have to do is stop focusing and it stops too, but it's very unpleasant to be under Shadow Spite Curse.
Good night guys.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Oh yeah of course, all you have to do is stop focusing and it stops too, but it's very unpleasant to be under Shadow Spite Curse.
Good night guys.
Enough has happened in front of the current membership to make it impossible to hide, and the necessary clean up will reveal more. Which is enough to cause problems among the membership.
The opposition also knows and is invested in spreading it around, to say nothing of other supernatural factions with various levels of information gathering abilities. Considering how easy it was to convince the Ordo Harry was a serial killer I'm not enthusiastic about the council's PR abilities.
I don't see how they could contain this, or keep it from talents after they join but before they're loyal even if they could.
A certain amount of chaos, death, and forbidden powers makes sense but I legitimately think that this is in wild excess to what DF would normally allow and that the organizational damage from the council failing to make one good decision themselves at any point since this started is a lethally damning failure.
In so far as we can see the black council could modify its plans on the fly to deal with novel situations and the white council did not have plans at all. Four members of the senior council involved and one managed pass his save or suck check. Another sat and listened to a bomb tick underneath her feet with a McGuffin to check on her missing coworkers sitting in her room. The remaining two would have been more useful stuck in medically induced comas.
Two of the most powerful wizards alive turning themselves into tools of the enemy because they rolled poorly isn't necessarily impossible to buy, but when it happened because their only option in their own home was "run at the crisis with zero coordination and see what happens" it makes everyone involved look like idiots.
Not because they failed, but because they didn't seem to have anything to help manage the gamble they were making in the first place.
- Location
- washington
ah didn't get that from the flavor text just that they'd get -2 in actions they do. Hmmm anyone willing to make this victim feel bad? We can say we owe them a minor favor or boon in exchange.
Ivar
Dark Reaper
- Location
- Russia Moscow
Well, I think after this our chances of convincing Olivia that it is possible to work with the White Council have reached incredible new depths of near impossibility... If anything, I agree with the opinion that they have fucked up all their chances and look like a bunch of clowns.
VOTE
[X] Heal LaFortier and Peabody, between the latter and Tiffany your money's on her (Opposed Faith vs Arete Rolls; Peabody takes -2 from being distracted)
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
COMMENTARY
Im actually putting it at less than 50% that we actually get to kill Namshiel.
Based on Kattrina having a Time-based 1UP, and then our first encounter with Iku-Turso having him successfully run away, I'm expecting Namshiel to have some trump card in reserve to get him out of dodge; probably a contingency teleport of some sort.
Its not even like its unprecedented for old or really powerful Denarians.
Nicodemus Archleone has his Artifact NA Judas Noose of Immortality around his neck.
Meanwhile, Polonessa Lartessa has literally put herself back together from being electrocuted then blasted apart with a full magazine of assault rifle fire at short range.
And then from getting a footwide circle blasted clean through her chest with a beam of magical fire.
And thats not counting Skin Game, where we are told that all the Denarians besides Deirdre survived.
Lasciel!Ascher allegedly survived getting several hundred tons of flaming rock dropped on her in Hades.
Similarly, Ursiel!Blood On His Soul survived getting flattened like a beer can
Probably not a coincidence that both of them were wizards.
I'll just be happy to deny him his prize, and maybe trim one of his limbs off as a penalty.
[X] Heal LaFortier and Peabody, between the latter and Tiffany your money's on her (Opposed Faith vs Arete Rolls; Peabody takes -2 from being distracted)
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
COMMENTARY
Im actually putting it at less than 50% that we actually get to kill Namshiel.
Based on Kattrina having a Time-based 1UP, and then our first encounter with Iku-Turso having him successfully run away, I'm expecting Namshiel to have some trump card in reserve to get him out of dodge; probably a contingency teleport of some sort.
Its not even like its unprecedented for old or really powerful Denarians.
Nicodemus Archleone has his Artifact NA Judas Noose of Immortality around his neck.
Meanwhile, Polonessa Lartessa has literally put herself back together from being electrocuted then blasted apart with a full magazine of assault rifle fire at short range.
And then from getting a footwide circle blasted clean through her chest with a beam of magical fire.
And thats not counting Skin Game, where we are told that all the Denarians besides Deirdre survived.
Lasciel!Ascher allegedly survived getting several hundred tons of flaming rock dropped on her in Hades.
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.
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.
Suddenly, there was a ten-foot wall of grinders in front of me, each individual block spinning and smashing and flipping at unpredictable intervals, and I let out a scream and leapt over it completely, high-jump-style. My shoulders brushed the top of the wall, treating me to a dandy view of another house-sized block falling straight at me from the darkness overhead, and then I bounced off the top of the wall and tumbled into the clear.
The Genoskwa grabbed the top of the wall and vaulted it easily, his huge hairy form moving with effortless power. He'd somehow anticipated its presence. He must have heard my shout and jump, and maybe the way I'd gone over it at the top. Or maybe Ursiel was helping him through his sightless chase, the way Lasciel had once helped guide me in total darkness.
But neither the Genoskwa nor the Fallen angel sensed what was plummeting soundlessly toward them.
A block of ice the size of a building came down like the hammer of God Almighty, and crushed the Genoskwa like a beer can.
I rolled to a stop and flopped on the stone cavern floor, utterly exhausted, breathing like a steam engine. But I had enough energy to turn my head to the gruesome remains being tossed about like a rag doll among the last row of grinders.
The Genoskwa grabbed the top of the wall and vaulted it easily, his huge hairy form moving with effortless power. He'd somehow anticipated its presence. He must have heard my shout and jump, and maybe the way I'd gone over it at the top. Or maybe Ursiel was helping him through his sightless chase, the way Lasciel had once helped guide me in total darkness.
But neither the Genoskwa nor the Fallen angel sensed what was plummeting soundlessly toward them.
A block of ice the size of a building came down like the hammer of God Almighty, and crushed the Genoskwa like a beer can.
I rolled to a stop and flopped on the stone cavern floor, utterly exhausted, breathing like a steam engine. But I had enough energy to turn my head to the gruesome remains being tossed about like a rag doll among the last row of grinders.
I'll just be happy to deny him his prize, and maybe trim one of his limbs off as a penalty.
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- Location
- washington
[X] Heal LaFortier and Peabody, between the latter and Tiffany your money's on her (Opposed Faith vs Arete Rolls; Peabody takes -2 from being distracted)
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
Edit: Named artifacts that have done anything. You could probably double the named artifacts which haven't done anything on screen yet.
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
I'd say the noose isn't a fair comparison since while this is a quest butchers named artifacts can be listed on one hand. He makes them rare as fuck really.
Edit: Named artifacts that have done anything. You could probably double the named artifacts which haven't done anything on screen yet.
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I'd argue quite the opposite.
Seeing exactly how fragile things can be behind the scenes, and just how much effort goes into holding things together, is the sort of thing that has a chilling effect on young hotheads.
She's just seen what it took to stop the US economy getting blown up, and despite our best efforts, theres still going to be an economic crisis.
Now she gets an inside look at why it seems the wizards are neglecting the minor talents, and contrary to her previous impression of the high and mighty not really caring, its more about their being under constant attack and scrambling to respond.
And that even the highest wizards are vulnerable, requiring constant vigilance.
Sooner or later, she'll ask herself why the wizards are training people younger than her to be soldiers.
And the losses that implies.
You'd be surprised.
The Three Swords, the Thirty Coins, Morgana's Athame, the five Instruments of the Passion, the Eye of Balor, the Blackstaff and we're already into the double digits.
Not to mention whatever else is still in Hades' vaults.
Ivar
Dark Reaper
- Location
- Russia Moscow
This is a very very optimistic view of this problem in my opinion. But we will see when it comes to that moment.
Not to mention that the fact that they are training people younger than her to fight in their war is not necessarily a positive thing even in light of the desperate struggle.
All 33 of these are actual just beings in objects masquerading as artifacts not actually artifacts complete with the fact they can completely deny their wielder anything if they wanted to.
Morgana's ritual knife and the five instruments are exactly like the noose. The black staff isn't actually that powerful an artifact it allows a thing that shouldn't be allowed to happen happen but it's not actually enhancing or making McCoy a better wizard in any way it just allows them to kill people with magic without going insane.
The eye is the only novel thing on that list and it doesn't actually seem to Grant any ability other than be a laser which is cool but it's not where near on the same level of "you cannot be killed except by being choked by the thing you're wearing" of the noose.
These are by definition unnamed until they are named because they are just random bits and Bobbles in Hades' vault until they're given a name.
- Location
- washington
Is the Merlin's staff a special staff of office, like the Blackstaff, with special abilities?
There are very few objects that have "special abilities." I've only shown about five of them, in fact, including the Swords, the Blackstaff, and the Noose.
Honestly somewhat with you on this one but apparently he doesn't consider the coins a magic item. Which sorta makes sense as the coins are more just vessels to inhabit rather than items with their own special abilities. Unless you count the ability to get a shadow in your head and accept a fallen in your head as the ability. Now the deal thats what gives abilities and the shadow to a lesser extent.
I dont think I agree, but fair enough.
Ethniu the Titan explicitly disagrees with you. And strongly implies that its not the only one that she personally knows about.
Speaking of Ethniu, we also see Gungnir at Battle Grounds.
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- Location
- washington
I mean the coins could literally be changed into phones with a direct line to the fallen and the only change would be their more blatant.
- Location
- Canada
Eh, even if I'm bulletproof I'll be mad at someone giving a kid a gun, which is more or less analogous to the Blackstaff. WOJ says the only thing the Blackstaff does for Eb is insulate him from the consequences of using Black Magic.
Maybe it has some other abilities, but they certainly aren't what the White Council uses it for.
Does the blackstaff have any powers that relate to the dead?
Other than making people dead?
Really, that's kind of the point [Crowd Laughs] Really but the staff itself what it really does is it keeps Eb sane while he's doing insane things.
The Blackstaff is not sentient per se it's just really, really, really powerful and tapped into like some serious elemental powers in the universe. But basically all it really is is insulation from using those powers.
Other than making people dead?
Really, that's kind of the point [Crowd Laughs] Really but the staff itself what it really does is it keeps Eb sane while he's doing insane things.
The Blackstaff is not sentient per se it's just really, really, really powerful and tapped into like some serious elemental powers in the universe. But basically all it really is is insulation from using those powers.
Maybe it has some other abilities, but they certainly aren't what the White Council uses it for.
- Location
- washington
doesn't even perfectly insulate as butcher has said there are consequences to using it. Though whether thats cause hes using it or because hes been breaking laws for so long who knows.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Really if none of these wizards with us did the same that is going to be another tick in the incompetent tally. If a wizard is imprisoning anyone taking a focus off of them should be as standard as stripping them of weapons.
[X] Heal LaFortier and Peabody, between the latter and Tiffany your money's on her (Opposed Faith vs Arete Rolls; Peabody takes -2 from being distracted)
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
The swords and coins aren't artifacts in any meaningful sense. Morgana's athame was a historical curio, not a magical artifact, who someone cursed / tainted with Nemesis. I don't remember anything about instruments of Passion. So, this leaves two artifacts by my count.
I don't see anything in your quote that backs your claim up. Even if we take it like you intend to, "allow someone to break the Laws without being tainted" is a powerful effect because it invokes paradox of a sort - it makes the magic work fundamentally in a way it shouldn't work, or it messes with a human soul. That's powerful in mechanism, but not powerful in effect.
Ivar
Dark Reaper
- Location
- Russia Moscow
[X] Heal LaFortier and Peabody, between the latter and Tiffany your money's on her (Opposed Faith vs Arete Rolls; Peabody takes -2 from being distracted)
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
- Location
- Brazil
[X] Heal LaFortier and Peabody, between the latter and Tiffany your money's on her (Opposed Faith vs Arete Rolls; Peabody takes -2 from being distracted)
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
-[X] Shadow Spite Curse on Peabody using his hair as a focus.
-[X]STUNT: "One moment" you say, as you fumble in your pocket, pulling out an empty Tic-Tac box with some hair. As you notice wizard's eyes following your hands, you explain "Peabody's hair. Sophia kept some to track him, in case his boss managed to break him out." Weighing the contents in your hand, you visualize the person on the other end, and focus all your not inconsiderable spite on them. "Alright Tiffany, your show."
You dont know that they didnt.
But Peabody is in prison under guard, so they dont have a need to use it.
Morgana's athame was a powerful magical item, not a historical curio.
That was why it was a valuable gift to the Leanansidhe.
Let me spell out what just happened in that passage again:
Ethniu the Titan just smote Ebenezar McCoy with Gungnir, Odin Allfather's signature weapon.
And instead of disappearing in a puff of smoke like a moth running into a bug zapper, McCoy not only tanked the blow, he absorbed it and then turned it back on Ethniu's forces, frying a good chunk of her army.
Thats an impossible feat of evocation for an unaugmented human wizard.
This is Ethniu, the Last Titan.
The entity who had just beaten Titania, Odin and the Erlking in a magical duel simultaneously, right before claiming Odin's spear and beginning to wield it against other people.
There is no fucking way that McCoy did that shit under his own power.
This is supported by what Butcher said about the staff:
It explicitly has additional functions and powers, as you would expect of Mother Winter's walking stick.
But thats not what the Council's hitman usually uses it for.
Except when he's on the same battlefield as a primordial force of nature.
- Location
- washington
I mean we were told from the first few books archangels could blow up galaxies. So it's not like we didn't know that Dresden isn't actually the shit when it comes to supernatural powers. Also you know the fact the setting takes place mostly in a city on a planet when we know for a fact the multiverse exists in canon.
Given your kinda right seeing as you know it's magic noire Dresden really shouldn't be dealing with anything a thousandth of said archangels power.
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- Location
- Brazil
I mean, before him we had already been told that there were very strong beings, but they usually stay in the Nevernever because there they can use their powers without scruples, so since we follow Harry, a human who finds the Nevernever very dangerous and is only interested in the thing on planet Earth, we never really see them fight.
There are several other serious flaws in this book for me, but the existence of a power creeper is not one of them.
Dmol8
The Undead Unhinged Lunatic of the Web
- Location
- Belgrade,Serbia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Adding onto this the Demesne of Dust that metaphysically underpins stuff like the Internet is only a thing from at earliest the latter part of the 18th Century while the Demesnes of Farm, Plains, Mountain and the Rampart of the Wood are all millennia old and the best known and played ones.
Could I get a quote? Also, how are we defining artifact? Are Dresden's gravity storing rings artifacts? What about his duster?
No, it explicitly doesn't have additional functions and powers. It says so in the quote:
It is connected to powerful forces, yes, but it doesn't have additional functions.
Blackstuff is powerful. But it's not powerful in a very useful way.
I think people underestimate and misunderstand what powerful means in this context, and what Blackstuff actually does. To do a certain magic is to believe you are right, that you have both ability, and right to do the feat you are attempting. It is to compel reality to follow your will. That's the core of Dresdenverse mortal magic - to put your Free Will, your conviction, against the reality of Creation and win. The corruption brought on by breaking the Laws is an inescapable effect of this. You have to believe you are right to do magic, I repeat. Have to be convinced that killing something is what you can and should do, for example.
Now, what does "prevents Law breaking corruption" means in this context? Blackstuff allows you to do things you know are wrong. You either don't have to convince yourself that what you are doing is right, or it allows you to temporarily lie to yourself, or it can make you believe that what you did is wrong. All three options are utterly terrifying in context. First is an explicit paradox, because it goes against the very principle of what magic is - what you do when wielding Blackstuff is not magic as defined in the whole series. Second is... Remember, it's Mother Winter's walking stick. Remember how utterly disastrous Maeve becoming able to lie to herself was. And this is a more refined, more consequence free version. Third option directly violates Free Will in the way Mab cannot do to her Winter Knight. Explicitly cannot do by seven words of Uriel.
The mechanisms by which Blackstuff functions have to involve fundamental forces of Dresdenverse Creation, beyond and below stuff like gravity and time - manipulation of Souls, Magic and/or Free Will on a core level. The effect it produces is very limited. But the backend is terrifying.