I would have expected continuous willpower drain, or granting Lydia access to collective knowledge of all the dead, which is an ability to rival the Crown of Eyes, to be the sticking points. No problem, I'll edit DC 7 as the limit.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
The willpower drain would be, but it only applies when you are trying to damage them so once someone takes willpower damage from it that would 'just' have to call their shots to avoid them, +1 DC .
That Library feature is supposed to give you a library rating up to the dot value of the splendor. I don't think it should be used to let someone know literally everything the dead do, or as an intelligence gathering tool on current events.
It normally doesn't do that. It's a library background, represented by flowing script which transcribes unheard whispers of the dead connected to Splendor. If you don't have Akashic Root Methodology, you have to first coach the collective manifestation of all dead things in the world to provide you the correct information. They are cooperative in general, unless you really piss them off (so I wouldn't try being a blampire and wearing the vestments at the same time), but the vast majority of the "collective dead" doesn't speak your language. You can still communicate, but it's inefficient - you essentially go through more and more intermediaries - you call to the parts of the dead spirit who can understand you, and they call to the parts that can understand them, and so on and so forth until you reach the parts that have the information you want. And then the information has to get back to you, with all the degradation and drift inherent in such a process. And it gets transcribed in the dreadful black script flowing across the strips of cloth that make up your vestments. That's why while it is essentially a near endless repository of long lost knowledge, getting stuff like Scarlet Empresss's list of lovers and location of her legendary wardrobe is unlikely to happen.
Lydia's charms synergy with the Splendor, and push it well past what it normally would be. Authority of the Psychopomp lowers the difficulty of communicating with the dead. And Akashic Root Methodology speeds up the process ten times. Or she spends a point of Essence and gets what she wants instantly and perfectly.
Yes, I am cheating, absolutely, but I think in this case it's lore-articulated enough to work.
Mechanic argument works like this:
1) Base Splendor - Library 5. Library background doesn't have a roll involved - you spend in-story time, and get narrative results. So, essentially the roll is the iminimum difficulty there is.
2) Authority of the Psychopomp decreases the difficulty of conversing with the dead by 2. Akashic Root Methodology drops difficulty by 1 more. You can't go below DC 3, instead you get two dice per 1 DC. There is no roll involved in the Library background, so my argument is that the combination should be enough to effectively add dots to the background itself.
It's definitely an item that's more narrative heavy than pure mechanics.
The mechanical limits are there for a reason, a little flex is good but it should be in the scope of the base behavior. A 5 dot library card for any mortal okay topic is one thing, literally all knowledge of anyone who's died down to the deepest secrets is not what this stuff is supposed to be for.
By doing stuff like this you'll flatten the peaks and valleys of the setting as we experience it, making taking the novelty out of the characters and pushing the power scaling out of wack.
I left the precise dot value vague for a reason. Maybe some of the dead are beyond reach. Maybe some knowledge is just completely lost. The "get knowledge from the dead" is a narrative / story description of how it works. The charms are to explain why this is effective for Lydia. 5 dot library is supposed to be "You've got a pretty decent collection of diverse lore.". I'm ok with that.
That seems like a different position than you took earlier, where it was supposed to be peer to the crown of eyes. Which is the sort of DBZ level power up behavior which leads to everyone shattering planets and no one caring about it.
I am comfortable with whatever power level is decided. I like the narrative of the idea more, even if the mechanics of it are very neat too. I want Lydia to have something like the Crown, that is to say, the way to pull information out of nothing, basically. Knowledge is both power and a way to gain more power, and Lydia, as the Chosen of Death, gaining ability to tap into the ancient lore of the dead seems very appropriate. And it make her an armor that is more interesting than "just armor".
Update will be in the morning since this is going to be pretty tricky and its very late for me right now.
Sorry about that guys.
Sorry about that guys.
Vote closed.
Arc 15 Post 47: By Gloating Gleamed
New
By Gloating Gleamed
13th of March 2007 A.D.
"Ah, herr spirit, should I make you a bird then, to fly away, or perhaps a goat?" you tease, making the appropriate figures on the wall of this foul tomb with your hands, the practice you had entertaining your younger siblings helping you in the most unexpected ways. "The shadow of a thing is way too easily manipulated, if one has an appropriate light source. What was the sun that cast these shadows, don't you wonder?"
"Heh... heh... heh... heh..." the spirit laughs, a counterfeit sound that brings to mind more the scrape of bone on bone than any true mirth. "Alvays sinkink zey are the heartz of sinks. Like fish... in bowl... in vasteland. Zere ist shaow all round, true shadow, old shadow vrom vitch all over shadows are made. Ze great Maw of Ze Void."
Arcane illumination meant to last though the very depths of the Labyrinth flickers like candles in a sudden breeze and a chill that ows nothing to the laws of thermodynamics sends goosepumps up your arms.
"That feels, familiar, but I don't know why?" Lydia half whispers. "Like a nightmare I had when I was little. What's...?" She stops but the spirit guesses the rest of the question.
"Ze Vell in Ze Graveyard of Ze Gods, Ze True Sphadow." A sort of sly malice enters his tone. "I can sphow you, come and zee"
For the first time since you entered the complex its fetid Essence lurches to uneasy life and one of south wall of the chamber melts away as though worn ot sand in an instant, revealing a set of wide shallow stairs that definitely hadn't been there before, that did not lead to any place on Earth or under it. Upon each black slab are writ writ symbols in a language you know too well... How could you not after all, you've spoken it so many times? The first three steps, still in the light of the cast by the expedition's lanterns read: 'Shadowland/Halfworld', then three more which glow with hellish flame: 'Underworld/Duat/Doom' and at last last a trio which you cannot see, but can still descipher as though the blackness forces its shape though your pupils: 'Bleakness/Tomb.'
"Come, make ze goat on ze vall," the spirit gloats, then something seems to overcome it. Without another word the passage begins to close, though more slowly than it had opened, as though the darkness doesn't wish to be caged once more away from the light it hungers for.
Bob, the real Bob would probably hate the comparison, but you realize that you had goaded him into opening the passage just to show you the depth of his knowledge, or maybe the limits of your understanding and now its master had ordered it closed again. Whatever's down those nine steps isn't an open invitation for such as you at least not according to the true master of this place.
You look left to Lydia, determined and intrigued despite herself, right to Tiffany with an expression that says 'I should definitely be the adult in this situation, but I'm not sure I'm feeling it today'.
What do you do?
[] Rush down the passage before the door closes
[] Stay where you are, keep taunting the spirit
[] Write in
OOC: I hope Evil Bob's manner of speech is still readable. I'm experimenting with making it sound a bit more authentic that just replacing the wh with vs as I did at the start of the quest.
Last edited:
Rolls
Taunting Evil Bob... OK that's 10+ Successes
Willpower: Molly, Lydia, Tiffany (Everyone else can't see inside well enough to have to make the roll)
Reading the Silence Perception Empathy
Taunting Evil Bob... OK that's 10+ Successes
Willpower: Molly, Lydia, Tiffany (Everyone else can't see inside well enough to have to make the roll)
Reading the Silence Perception Empathy
- Location
- Brazil
? We know that the world body of Malfeas, The Demon City, still exists somewhere with the Primordial's mind trapped inside an inescapable nightmare. We know that the Gates of Calibration that we can summon are the gates of Yu-Shan itself. We know that the Ebony Road is, if not the corpse of the Ebony Dragon himself, then its tomb. We've known all this for a long time.
Oh, and than the Neverborn still exist. They were the ones who created the Black Court and are a part of the Outsiders who try to destroy everything, with the other half being Raksha Unshaped.
We just have so many problems in the current era that we don't have time to actively search for things from the ancient age.
Ivar
Dark Reaper
- Location
- Russia Moscow
Yes, we know that. But not the details. I speculate that beyond the gate is not pure chaos, but the ruins of the old universe, and large parts of the horrors of the old Creation are there.
Do you want to detonate Holy Hand Tsarbomba in the most unholy place on Earth and neighbourhood? Because it feels like you want, and I'm not sure if the result wouldn't be matter-antimatter annihilation made metaphysical.
I ammore concerned about getting out of this somewhat alive. If this is a temple-tomb of a Neverborn, and there's even a slightest chance of it being woken up, where the hell is the angelic host?
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
I don't know the source material enough to speculate much, but that seems like the sort of existential threat that would have been dealt with long ago through shear necessity, not allowed to fester for untold eons.
Ok, quick introduction to the issue, as I understand it:
1) Primordials, the original architects of Creation, are not mortal. What this means is that the process and mechanisms called "death" were not designed (by them) to handle Primordials dying
2) When Primordial is murdered (usually by exalts), they ossify into a Neverborn - eternally tortured sort of existence, whose only desire is complete Oblivion
3) Because of point 1, Nevernborn cannot have their sweet, sweet release. The only way to achieve this is, as far as they and everyone else sort-of understands is to completely and utterly destroy Creation itself, draining it into the Maw of Oblivion. Supposedly, I think (I might be confusing this with fanon) if Neverborn could just "let go" of all their resentment and attachments (ie achieve enlightenment, basically), they could finally die, but that hasn't happened yet.
So, basically you end up with temple tombs of Neverborn, their sort-of spiritual corpses who cannot fully disappear. The best way to handle them anyone could come up with was containment and leaving them well enough alone.
We don't actually know that about Malfeas. We looked and saw his identity, but DP answered in a follow up post that it wasn't a live look at his current state.
Nor is it clear exactly what's up with that road. Clearly some major changes have happened and the Ebon Dragon isn't what he once was.
This is way too close to the surface. If evil Bob could find this place then Heaven could find it too, and it wouldn't be any more unguarded than the remains of the Ebon Dragon.
This might be an attempt to drill down into one though, which didn't fully make it. Hence the "rebels against time but not purpose" thing.
It sounds to me like the people here killed themselves too early for some reason, perhaps fanaticism gone so far that it ate itself, and we ended up with the blamps instead of whatever was supposed to happen.
"Kemmler made an abyssal version of dragonblooded" is more and more plausible of a theory, if Lydia had nightmares about this - that's pretty much Whispers background:
We might want and need to discuss it with Lydia. Maybe do some DNA analysis against dragonblooded for signs of shared ancestry.
You are probably right, but this part worries me:
The Tomb in the context of something that's under Underworld, which itself is under Shadowlands is almost certainly a temple-tomb of a Neverborn. In fact, it's almost certainly the temple-tomb of [Perfected Principle of Consumption].
Still, you are probably right - this was a cult meant to breach the tomb of their Neverborn master, only they got to eager and killed themselves off too quickly.
Anyway, we need to decide what to do now. Based on how successful we were at taunting Bob, it's fair to say that he probably didn't intend to let us down. It is still almost certainly a trap, but one we might want to spring. I want to ask a question using the current scene, but I am unsure what best to ask. My two options are:
1) What are Evil Bob's current plans
2) Complete schematics of this place