Hive Keeper (Worm/DungeonKeeper/WFTO Alt!Power)

[Ashkari]

Anyone who fights her monsters with the understanding that they are summoned minions, which they don't have to hold back against, may mistake Taylor in her current guise as more of the same instead of their human master.

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That is an issue, but for Taylor to realize it's an issue she needs to realize some villains will avoid shooting her if they think it will kill her.

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This is, in fact, exactly what happened here. Skidmark really only got as far as "horns, ears, claws, monster eyes... yep probably a master minion" with his quick scan of the situation. So as far as he was concerned she was fair game. In fact, Almaric was the one he assumed was the cape, once he came outside.

Why did you decide on a 'locking mana' approach?

<snip>

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I... hmm... have I not talked about how her mana pool works yet? I actually thought it had been brought up already in the story. Could've sworn Almaric mentioned it. Or maybe it was in the Codex.

Bleh, I write so many heaping piles of notes it may simply be an issue with it being referenced in my notes so much that I forget it never made into the story, hahaha.

Spoiler: "If Not, Mechanics Spoilers Ahoy"

Ok so actually, I decided halfway through that the explanation was quickly reaching textbook lengths that maybe I should just boil it down a little. (OK a lot; skipping reasoning and just going the highlights, lol.)

* Taylor uses locking for persistent spells
* She uses expenditure for instant-cast ones, including for temporary buffs.
* Unlike in WFTO, she isn't arbitrarily limited to a given % of her mana being lockable. She could lock 100% of it if she wanted.
* Taylor has a maximum mana cap, unlike in a few of the games (well... they have programming caps like 99999 or w/e, which I'm not counting. Actually, is WFTO tyne only one that does have a proper cap?)
* The DK system is still in effect. More cores, bigger dungeon, better cores = higher mana cap. Currently she's only got the one, and it's basically garbage-tier given the materials it's made of, and her dungeon is only like a handful of basic rooms, so her mana pool is minuscule.
* Taylor can build things like Mana Vaults, Mana Shrines, and a small handful of other things to increase her cap.
* She also has access to... I think it's called 'Convocation', which is a ritual that temporarily supercharges mana regen, if she knows ahead of time she's gonna really need to go ham on somebody.

(typos)

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Thanks! Will fix those momentarily.

 

[Ashkari]

blonde

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Fixed the other two. FYI, this one above is actually wrong, though. Well, kinda.

"Blonde" tends to refer specifically to women. "Blond" however can be used for either gender. The latter is also usually what is used when referring to a color rather than to a person.

Look, spelling/English is dumb, yeah?

 

[torac]

Theoretically I know that. Someone already pointed that out in another thread when I tried to correct something. I just automatically include it because "blond" still looks wrong to me wherever I see it.

 

[TheUnicorn]

Look, spelling/English is dumb, yeah?

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Nah, convoluted, contradictory and annoying? Sure. But it's not dumb.

 

[Inbetweenaction]

Hopefully when calling the PRT Taylor remembered to identify herself and maybe even mention that she looks differently now than the one time she met a ward before.

If she didn't give a name or description of herself and identify herself as friendly, the authorities will turn up to find a bunch of monsters under the command of a monstrous and frankly evil looking cape surrounded by chaos and and destruction and injured humans.

That is a recipe for disaster.

Not only does Taylor currently look rather 'evil' she does in fact look less human than at least one of her summoned minions.

This is in fact something she might want to address not just with the good guys, but also with the public at large.

Anyone who fights her monsters with the understanding that they are summoned minions, which they don't have to hold back against, may mistake Taylor in her current guise as more of the same instead of their human master.

This may lead to people who didn't intend to take things to far attacking her with the sort of power they wouldn't use on a human opponent.

Better led the world know that she has a changer power and that her current appearance is part of her costume and doesn't mean she is an expendable inhuman monster like her minions.

If her theme park idea takes of she may even offer to provide 'costume' service for visitors who want to play as an elf or something.

Otherwise things look like they are going well for Taylor.

If authorities discover that her naga can heal that should go a long way to make her more acceptable to them.

The destruction caused in unfortunate and while Taylor's powers don't seem to include any repair options for stuff she hasn't claimed as hers, she can at least have her imps clear away any debris and wreckage that was created.

She could have her imps do some trash collecting around the whole neighborhood if she can get enough fine control to carefully delinate what is and isn't trash.

(Fun fact about chunks of road surface that might have gotten displaced: The asphalt on most roads technically counts as platinum ore due to the existence of catalytic converters. It just usually isn't financially viable to extract the platinum. You have to wonder what her powers might make of that though. )

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I second the Naga heal aspect. Healing capes are RARE. She might be a nilbog looking cape, but she is also a cape that can produce healing capes. SHE might not be able to join an endbringer fight, but sending out a team of five nagas with orders to heal to one? could be doable, and would earn her enough goodwill to have alot of shit overlooked. Hell, parahuman healing is the single most valuble service she has, even with the "tinkertech" magic item spawn she has that can be sold. maybe second to the ability to bestove a copy of her power. but that is one power that she better keep damn quiet about. or she will be soo cauldron kidnapped. even he ability to contract people to be dungeon denizens and draw from her mana to power abilities are very, very, a: valuable b: to dangerus to tell anyone about.

even merely unlocking healingpots would make her super valuable and a major contributor to endbringer fights...

 

[Plue]

I might not have a full grasp on the time here, but with the gunfire at first, then the monster truck... I'd assume that the police / PRT would have already been on the way.

 

[Anti-No]

I might not have a full grasp on the time here, but with the gunfire at first, then the monster truck... I'd assume that the police / PRT would have already been on the way.

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If Brockton Bay was actually a sane town? Yes. Trouble is, it isn't. If I read it right, then by canon, the government is only on paper and officially speaking in charge of big chunks of that town.

Considering cape involvement in this particular battle, the police might have been called away by the PRT. The PRT who may or may not have the ability to actually intervene, and may or may not have choosen to intervene even if they could.

 

[Valdimarian]

Taylor letting herself be attacked by a dozen people trying to kill her because she's trying so hard to be non-lethal, and almost getting killed by a non-cape with a gun for her troubles Her handling of the first half of the battle was great, but it fell apart with the reinforcements in a bad way. Mostly inevitable with how little she currently has in her repertoire combined with her 'be nice to the enemy' orders.

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I figured she didn't have time to change orders from "Nonlethal" to "anything goes" once she realized how bad the reinforcements were going to hit. She was still in the Cops and Robbers mindset until she actually got shot, and then she focused on reinforcements instead of her current crop of monsters.

I might not have a full grasp on the time here, but with the gunfire at first, then the monster truck... I'd assume that the police / PRT would have already been on the way.

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Even if the cops / PRT are already on the way, calling means that Taylor can let them know that there's a friendly on scene instead of them thinking it's a third gang. (especially with the Imps tearing into the truck)

 

[Neruz]

Actually, she does know this one. The version she has is the one from... I forget if its DK 1 or 2. I'd have to look. Point is, It's merely toggled on/off and effectively siphons off a little of her maximum mana as long as she keeps it active. The headache grows because she's locking off mana and getting closer and closer to zero available mana.

She knew that much. Of course, she didn't bother to ask if a hard enough hit could break it, or to clarify anything else about it....like the fact that a small percentage of attacks will still go through

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Actually DK2 didn't have a Keeper Spell for Protect\Armor (Protect is the Keeper version, Armor is the Creature version, both do the same thing; increase the Defense stat, which reduces damage taken.)

In fact, I think DK1 was the only game of its type to have a Keeper Spell for straight Protect, DK2 and WFTO don't have one and Dungeons 2\3 have different effects on their 'buff' spells, so unless Dungeons 1 has one (and I'm not going to touch that horrible mess just to find out) then the Armor spell you've created would be new, though definitely thematically appropriate. Your version doesn't function the same way as the DK1 Protect spell either, though the way it does function with a random chance to just not work at all is definitely reminiscent of the era; gotta love the good old days back when video game devs would throw random chance for things to fuck you over into everything just for the hell of it.

* Taylor has a maximum mana cap, unlike in a few of the games (well... they have programming caps like 99999 or w/e, which I'm not counting. Actually, is WFTO tyne only one that does have a proper cap?)

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Nope, DK2 and Dungeons 2\3 had caps as well, DK2's storage cap was fixed at 200,000 (technically 200,000 per Heart, but I don't think it was possible to get more than 1 living heart outside of scenarios) and an income cap of 500 mana per second, which was increased by Mana Vaults up to a maximum of I think 2000. Dungeons 2\3 had a cap based on room size, as mana is stored as physical items that take up space, so bigger room = more max mana, and you could research upgrades to improve the speed at which minions harvested mana.

 

[Ashkari]

Your version doesn't function the same way as the DK1 Protect spell either

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That's because real life doesn't have percent based damage reduction irrespective of kinetic energy I felt a simple RNG method ala D&D Blur/Displacement mechanics was easier. And she's already given Almaric instructions to research something better anyways.

DK2's storage cap was fixed at 200,000 (technically 200,000 per Heart, but I don't think it was possible to get more than 1 living heart outside of scenarios

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That's what I meant by technical limitations. That amount of mana was practically "cast however much you want, whenever" than an actual cap, unless you were talking about Destroy Walls or other end-game stuff. Mostly it served to stop the game from needing to keep track.

As for Dungeons, I've never actually hit a storage cap in that as far as I recall, because you could literally just pick up mana and shove it in a corner somewhere if you really wanted to, or you could just keep bulding bigger and bigger vortexes until you just literally ran out of space. Kind of like how you can do the same with gold. If your vault is full, pick some of it up and just leave it in a hallway. You can always manually put it back when payday comes

 

[torac]

That's because real life doesn't have percent based damage reduction irrespective of kinetic energy

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Worm has damage reduction irrespective of kinetic energy, though. There's Gavel, who I think either takes only a very small percentage of damage, or has a cap on how much damage he can take on a single hit. Glory Girl might also count. She has one 100% damage reduction that requires an occasional cool-down if it blocks too much too quickly.

Also, real life does not have a displacement mechanics either.

 

[Neruz]

That's because real life doesn't have percent based damage reduction irrespective of kinetic energy I felt a simple RNG method ala D&D Blur/Displacement mechanics was easier. And she's already given Almaric instructions to research something better anyways.

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I'm not actually sure how Defence worked in DK1, I know Dexterity (DEFENCE with the Query tool) was a chance to dodge attacks outright versus the attackers Skill (SKILL with the Query tool) and Defence (ARMOUR with the Query tool) reduced damage taken directly by some amount.

A check of the wiki says that it reduced damage taken by a percentage of the Defence value out of 255, capped at 204 for ~80% reduction, which seems appropriately convoluted. I have no idea why it is capped though; Protect\Armor increases Defence by 25%, and the highest Defence is the Avatar at 120. The highest normal creatures are Dragons with 90, and as Defence is static and does not increase with level, the same as Luck, there is no actual way for any creature to ever get anywhere near the 204 Defence cap.

That's what I meant by technical limitations. That amount of mana was basically "cast however much you want, whenever" than an actual cap, and merely served to stop the game from needing to keep track.

As for Dungeons, I've never actually hit a storage cap in that as far as I recall, because you could literally just pick up mana and shove it in a corner somewhere if you really wanted to, or you could just keep bulding bigger and bigger vortexes until you just literally ran out of space. Kind of like how you can do the same with gold. If your vault is full, pick some of it up and just leave it in a hallway. You can always manually put it back when payday comes

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Ewww, micromanagement, what kind of masochist plays Dungeon Keeper games to micromanage, blech.

DK2 did actually have coding for multiple hearts increasing the max mana cap, I'm not sure if it came into play if you claimed the heart of a defeated enemy Keeper though, or only applied to custom scenarios with multiple living hearts. I think it was intended for use with team games where you had a shared mana pool? But it's been so long since I played multiplayer DK2 that I might be misremembering that as a thing that could happen. It definitely did work if you somehow ended up with multiple living hearts, that much I do remember, might have been a leftover from early development when hearts could be built or summoned or something.

Worm has damage reduction irrespective of kinetic energy, though. There's Gavel, who I think either takes only a very small percentage of damage, or has a cap on how much damage he can take on a single hit. Glory Girl might also count. She has one 100% damage reduction that requires an occasional cool-down if it blocks too much too quickly.

Also, real life does not have a displacement mechanics either.

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Also Fenja and Menja, who take progressively reduced damage proportionate to their bigness attribute.

 

[Arden]

Yeah, Worm powers use physics under the hood, but what they do with it is pretty much arbitrary and definitely not necessarily based in how these physics actually work. Getting hit by marble and getting hit by a freight train would hurt Gavel about equally much. The Enjas get more durable completely out of proportion with how big they are. By and large, they're artificially set values - Taylor's power is capable of covering much more ground in an absolute sense than she is actually allowed to when just considering her as the epicenter of the effect in a regular 3-dimensional space.

We can see that by how she suddenly has far more reach when using portals as "pinholes" that let her power pretend a certain place is closer to her than it actually is. This isn't really based on her power passing through portals, I don't think, so much as it is based on the QA always being able to affect those places, but not being allowed to until the portal makes the distance between host and location technically much much less.

 

[Ljapaubeaves]

awesome fight, taylor has much to learn.
lets see Squealers counterattack. now that i think about it, the miscommunication about ABB will be costly.

 

[boo600]

Later if/when we see them again, I might post the PRT Threat Report on them I whipped up for fun.

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I absolutely love it when this happens. I'm looking forward to it!

Moist is one of my favorite words. I just like the sound of it. But whee! Fun chapter. And Taylor really needs to start looting weapons from her enemies. Orcs and goblins can use bats and sledgehammers just as well as they can use clubs.

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Lily would hate you.

Stuff

Robin is upset when she learns how much of Ted's stuff came from his exes. Barney gets revenge on Lily for making him see her bad play by putting on a play of his own. Ted has been confusing his memories of events with Robin with events with his previous girlfriends. To hide this, he repeatedly...

how-i-met-your-mother.fandom.com

 

[Ashkari]

I absolutely love it when this happens. I'm looking forward to it!

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Just imagine Taylor's ratings, haha. We'll definitely see at least one or two threat reports on her.

I don't know if we'll ever see the 'full potential' ones as part of the story, since that would involve her telling the PRT way more than is safe (or actually finishing), but at whatever point I either finish or declare the story dead, I'll most likey post them so people can see. And they are pretty bonkers. Not quite as bad as something like Taylor Varga, but still pretty wild.

It was actually one of the first things I did, making a bunch of notes on her ratings and potential capabilities.

 

[Ashkari]

So, I was jotting down some notes about what Taylor would and would not want the PRT to see when they showed up, and this kind of just came to me.

So here's a little (definitely not canon) scene where the Keeper persona's flair for the dramatic gets a teensy little bit away from Taylor.....

———————————-

Miss Militia pulled out a small pad of paper. "Could you at least give me a brief summary of your powers? Just a sentences or two to give us a rough idea of what to expect?"

Taylor laughed humorlessly.

"What doesn't it do?" she asked with no small degree of sarcasm. "That's the real question. Here, let me show you."

She beckoned Miss Militia to follow with a curl of her clawed fingers, leading the other cape towards the wreck of Squealer's truck.

"Without looking," she began, "I can tell you that you've brought a total of two and a half dozen men spread out across three vans and four cars."

She stopped in front of the truck remains. "I can pinpoint the exact location of each of your men, and could tell you what they are doing right this very moment."

"Including the two that are hiding up on the rooftop over there," Taylor said, pointing without turning her head.

With a twist of her wrist and a mental command, she dropped several imps onto the wreck, where they began hammering away. As they got to work finishing off the rest of the truck, she began speaking rapidly.

"My imps are capable of destroying any material given enough time, and everything they tear down serves only to fuel my strength."

She turned, and with several flicks of her wrist, grabbed an imp and moved him rapidly from side to side of the street in several jumps.

"I can instantly teleport my creatures to any position, from any direction, through any obstruction."

Taylor called fire and lightning into her staff and hand and flung them at the wreck. "I command the elements themselves..."

She cast armor on an imp and then threw a second thunderbolt at it. The imp didn't even flinch.

"...and can avert their fury."

A burst of red and black smoke enveloped her, and cleared her skin of the last of the blood on her.

"I can heal the injured, cure the sick..."

Her vision was briefly blacked out as she was cocooned by Reskin. Her eyes turned purple, her skin became like scaled leather, and her brow grew an additional set of horns.

"...change my form as I see fit..."

Finally, she transported a single member of each minion type she currently had, depositing them all in a row.

"... and give shape to innumerable servants who will obey my every command."

She leveled a steely gaze at Miss Militia.

"I am Keeper, and my powers are legion."

 

[Balra]

.

"My imps are capable of destroying any material given enough time, and everything they tear down serves only to fuel my strength."

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You know this makes me curious if they can dig into an endbringer

 

[Arden]

They can dig into anything... except indestructible level boundary rock.

 

[REAPER35]

the tricks getting one to stand still long enough for them to do it. It might be possible if one was dead first, but I think levi might react a bit to an imp trying to mine him.

 

[TheUnicorn]

You know this makes me curious if they can dig into an endbringer

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I'm sure they can "given enough time". Mellee range of an Endbringer and attacks that take a long time to take effect don't go together.

 

[Arden]

In all seriousness, though, I think the answer is probably 'yes' for the "about as tough as aluminium" outer skin layers and 'hell no' for the "physics break down here" multidimensional bullshit inner layers. Those picks are magic, but they aren't magic, if you know what I mean.

 

[Ashkari]

It's an interesting question, but I think the answer would actually be no.

While imps actually can attack other creatures with their picks (which is basically only other imps, because they flee from everything else and even under Enrage won't attack standard minions), when they do so they deal typical weapon damage.

Ergo, when used against a 'living' creature (and dungeon minions really stretch the definition of 'living' here, so I'm gonna say Endbringers count), it's just an ordinary mining pick.

Could maybe dig in a layer or two with enough time or effort, but not much past that, I'd think.

 

[Valdimarian]

But could they mine the CORPSE of an endbringer?

 

[Arden]

I think by the time you have a dead Endbringer, that's a bit of an academic question.