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Mammoth Apostate vs the World 1: "Lost in the Mist"

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OOC - 18 (before modifiers) vs a crit fail, not only has Glass handily crushed the resistance of the gloom beast but this will also color the interaction of the gloom vs Deacon dynamic. (I.E. Their battle was a much closer affair.)

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The creeping apathy strikes razor edged confidence (not merely faith in her own abilities, but the assurance that Councilor Highwind will know a relevant passage when needed or Mrs. Choi will have some mystical ass pull of flying monkeys the moment a monkey is needed.)

"Yield, worm."

With those simple words the contest ends. The knot of gloom unravels revealing as unlikely an opponent as one might imagine. Sinister arms join like shoulders to a floating cherubic head where might be the ears on a more mundane form.

"As you command Mistress, I am humble Aspis of the concealing gloom. I shall serve as I may, but there are many days remaining on the year and a day of service I owe the Deacon and by the Grand Compact I am bound to this city to still conceal things from any whom have not bested me.

Fear no duplicity or further interference from me, I am your creature.

Ask what services you may within my limits for this day only or wait for your full year and a day once I am free."

[ ] This days service.

[ ] A year and a day, but must await his free service.
 
Short-term advantage versus a long-term one. A year and a day is a long, long time in Vs The World terms, equivalent to 52 turns, and having 'the concealing gloom' serving us can only be helpful to our OPSEC. Provided the next challenger doesn't win a contest as well.

On the other hand, we could use a lot of help right now. I'm leaning towards this day's service.
 
Believe me, parity of service is a thing amongst servants of Wizardry.

If Aspis is offering you a day in exchange for his normal year+ he must feel he has something juicy to sweeten the pot.

Edit: Also here at MAvtW it is not a smooth 1 week = 1 turn conversion, I handle it as the lulls between turns & the 'Monster of the Week' are not noteworthy and we leapfrog forward to re-sync with the RL change of seasons. (It's hard to write summer swelter when my teeth are chattering with an early frost.)

Edit-edit: If I held to a 1 turn = 1 week the periods when posting slows Re: Downtime plans take weeks to reach fruition (like now) the MOTW would que up 4 & 5 deep.
 
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Highwind said:
Short-term advantage versus a long-term one. A year and a day is a long, long time in Vs The World terms, equivalent to 52 turns, and having 'the concealing gloom' serving us can only be helpful to our OPSEC. Provided the next challenger doesn't win a contest as well.

On the other hand, we could use a lot of help right now. I'm leaning towards this day's service.
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I'm leaning toward "today" myself. I'd rather punch really hard today and get closer to crippling the Cultists, plus rescuing a Jaeger+crew, the pilot kids, etc., than wait a few months and get some general service from a being that, if you're really inclined, we could likely get similar such beings on our own.

If he can do something today, but it's just a one-day thing, it's likely to be big.
 
CONSENSUS reached.

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Glasses mission is clear, they need good intel and they need it yesterday.

"Serve today Aspis, but know if I do not agree with the value received is worthy I will declare you a cheat, and the Compact void."

Aspis trembles clearly afraid of the consequence of such a declaration... "No Mistress, information that may save your essence from eternal torment will surely hold a high value, Yes? Surely there is no need to involve the Aetheric Tribunal. I will even reveal the formulae for my summons as a bonus; tis powdered bone of a person blind from birth offered in a rosewood flame.

The Vortex below the church leads to an Artifact of great power, a device presaged to have been the doom of many a world, a sign that the days of this world are surely numbered. The Furnace of Yeb, at all costs avoid looking upon its heart and the black flames therein. It is a source of the physical embodiment of magic the Deacon taps although the price paid for such a 'gift' is horrid to contemplate.

Is Mistress content with the value offered?"

His eyes harden for just the barest of moments, it is clear he feels the deal solid but the power with which she bested him was so overwhelming he might concede more if pressed...

[ ] Accept the deal.
[ ] Press for more. (opposed dice roll required).
 
OOC - Glass has no knowledge of what the Aetheric Tribunal is, or even what the Compact is other than it seems from conversational context to be the rules of service. Definitely something to speak with Richard about. It seemed a good threat to bluff with, and it worked.
 
Smithsguild said:
The Furnace of Yeb, at all costs avoid looking upon its heart and the black flames therein.
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Well then. That's the big leagues right there. Yeb is one half of a pair of deities (the other being Nug) that are the spawn of Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth, and the Furnace is one of the tools they use to prepare the Earth for the return of the Old Ones.

Of note, Nug is the father of Cthulhu while Yeb spawned Tsathoggua.

With that in mind, we can assume that destroying or otherwise tampering with the Furnace will be difficult, but it would also deal great blow to the Deacon's ambitions and Charleston's arcane power.

Hmm. Yes, I am satisfied with Aspis' offer.

...I wish we could drop a MOP on that thing when we attack. It would certainly do something to the Furnace, and probably not the sort of thing the Deacon would like.
 
Glass is certain it -is- a good deal, but feigns considering its worth for a moment longer to retain and reinforce her dominance.

"Very well Apsis, I am content, with the deal as struck." The creature beams and capers in mid-air giving off a not very sinister 'happy puppy' vibe.

"In that case Mistress, I take my leave. Can't be seen shirking my job or consorting with non-Deacon forces."

The knot of gloom reforms then fades from sight, it is never seen again no matter where Glass looks.

True to its word, Apsis withdrawals its gloom to cover only those things on the periphery of Glasses concentration, but anywhere she shifts her gaze it recedes and no longer is an impediment, but it just as quickly covers anything she stops looking at.

Above Charleston is a net of protective traceries only visible to a practitioners eyes. Scores of Grounding spells to alter and diffuse any direct magical attack, they are stacked one atop another. Ablative magical defenses.

Glass attempts to trace several of them back to a common source only to find they have none.

Each spells source is hidden away to make casual location of them all near impossible, as they are engraved either into a cobble in a wall (with the inscription on the hidden interior side - Astral projection allows one to bypass physical barriers wraith-like) or on a plaque welded onto the underside of a sewer manhole cover, one is tied to a hidden copper sheath inside a playground hobby horse. The variety and creativity spent hiding them is impressive, they rarely share form and are each a unique permutation that makes a 'Master Key' approach unworkable.

They all however share one common feature, they are powered by deaths blood & aetheric effluvium smeared upon the surface. Effluvium gained apparently from the Black Flame Furnace.

There are three magical focal points visible now in Charleston. Glass must decide which next merits investigation.

[ ] The Vortex leading to the Black Flame Furnace.

[ ] The "Black Keep" a walled up compound that incorporated the following: Summerall Field for 'classified' live fire practice for the Mk.Zero mini-jaeger training program, Bond/Byrd/& Duckett Halls used as the Deacon's Residence, & the Padgett-Thomas Barracks for housing & training the Mk.Zero mini-jaeger candidates.

[ ] A nondescript barracks (Steven Barracks) that seems to host the Training of SOCOM style troops. The signage outside the Building reads "House of the Holy".

How shall she proceed? Write in is still a valid option.

 
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Smithsguild said:
Each spells source is hidden away to make casual location of them all near impossible, as they are engraved either into a cobble in a wall (with the inscription on the hidden interior side - Astral projection allows one to bypass physical barriers wraith-like) or on a plaque welded onto the underside of a sewer manhole cover, one is tied to a hidden copper sheath inside a playground hobby horse. The variety and creativity spent hiding them is impressive, they rarely share form and are each a unique permutation that makes a 'Master Key' approach unworkable.

They all however share one common feature, they are powered by deaths blood & aetheric effluvium smeared upon the surface. Effluvium gained apparently from the Black Flame Furnace.
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Interesting. When you say "powered by death's blood and aetheric effluvium", what exactly do you mean? Are these required only upon their creation or do they need to be recharged with either periodically? I assume the decentralized nature of these enchantments means they can't be replaced or reinforced without performing maintenance on the individual sigils, which brings to mind the image of black-robed maintenance cultists replacing single broken cobbles and lurking around children parks waiting for them to stop playing with the hobby horse so they can replace the copper sheath once it loses its power.

It also brings to mind the macabre (but somewhat funny) possibility of them literally washing the streets with blood to reinforce these sigils in the fastest way possible in preparation for an attack.

...Speaking of maintenance, Glass could see the spells were linked to the sigils, but are the sigils linked to something else to provide them with the Effluvium through thaumaturgic means?

One way I can think of to efficiently spread a Thaumaturgic effect through a large area is to exploit sympathy and contagion by having a larger magical circle or sigil act as the focus point for the spell while smaller versions of the circle, or of portions of the circle, are spread around the desired area of effect.

Just imagine, first you detonate cluster bombs filled with pamphlets over Charleston, and once the pamphlets hit the ground you activate a thaumaturgic spell and it propagates through the pamphlets. Instant magical effect inside the city, bypassing Charleston's protective screen.

This effect can also be exploited for anything that requires transmitting an effect or information from one end to the other, including relaying signals or long-range communications.

Getting back to the main topic, if we want to turn this scouting mission into a sabotage mission, going to the Furnace and messing with it is the juiciest option. Shutting it down, even temporarily, will severely impact Charleston's magical defensive and offensive capabilities.

It's also really risky and will tip them off that someone was inside their city, while a clean scouting mission might allow Glass to slip in and out without detection and keep the window open for a more well-prepared sabotage effort in the future.

The Black Keep is the next best option, both for potential sabotage and for information gathering, and should be relatively safe as long as we steer clear of the Deacon's house. Their Mengele-style mad scientist might also be there along with plenty of examples of their Mark 0 technology.

The SOCOM troops are... concerning. The name House of the Holy implies they have already started on their Sentinels of Faith equivalent. These may also be their power-armored troops like the ones we encountered a while back, the ones with ridiculous life support. They are probably magically sensitive as well, so I think our chances of detection are roughly equal to the Black Keep's. However, if there's a good place to overhear information about Charleston's black ops, it's probably here.

I think one good project for the near-future would be creating a unit specialized in investigating supernatural phenomena, sort of like the Inquisition to the Sentinels' Space Marines. A mix of FBI and MIB to serve as specialists when investigating things like the incident with Pretorius' machine. Not a proper military force, but the kind of people you send in first to investigate and evaluate the situation before you decide if you need to send in a platoon of soldiers.

Another option would be to make a new Specialist position in the army to attach to existing units so they have someone on-hand to identify and potentially counter magical creatures and effects.

Now, as far as the current vote is concerned, I prefer looking into the Black Keep for now. There's plenty of potential intel there and the relatively wide space in the Sumerall Field should give us a good look at their Mark 0s with less risk of detection, while the barracks for the Mark 0 candidates might offer us some insight into their program.
 
As much as it's hard to argue with "more Mark Zero stuff!", the Furnace seems like it's gonna be a Big Deal, and taking it out (from what I can gather from the thread) seems like it'd tip the odds vastly in our favour in the long run. I can also agree that an actual sabotage mission would be quite high-risk, and could close off other investigative options here in the future, but even so I'd like to look into the Furnace to set up future sabotage and stuff. Thus, I'll vote for...

[X] Black Flame Furnace
-[X] scouting only
 
Ok, so the vortex is still tempting (literally) and wants us to look.

Mk.Zero training seems like it'll give us insight into the most unique part of their army but we might risk detection if we go near the Deacon's place, not to mention the presence of any elites who happen to be nearby.

Socom is also a thread to tug on...but I'm not sure that it's what we really need to know about right now. At least, I hope it isn't. Wouldn't be the first time I got distracted by the shiny object and forgot to mind the basics.

Decisions, decisions.
 
I'm more in support of Fyrstorms position...

But I fear it may not matter, Smiths said that we were operating under combat consensus. That would mean Highwind & Nixeu locked it. :(

A scout mission of a world ending artifact?

Nah, they have Giant Robots over here... no, it doesn't matter that they are 'tiny' giant robots.

Its giant robots, all opposing arguments are invalid. :p :V:V:V
 
All teasing aside, all are tempting targets.

I am a bit more concerned with SOCOM style troop that (? potentially ?) are trained practitioners. It'd certainly make the spy / fishing boat interlude more threatening.

" Oh I see you're all busy with invasion plans, let me summon some hounds of Tindalos inside your nice square buildings..."

I see why the Mk Zero might rate high on the to do list, with having a Councillor (KnightDisciple) intent on rescuing children pilot candidates, mid-strike having actionable on site intel is vital.

Hopefully shit can remain low key and we can peep it all.
 
BadKatt85 said:
But I fear it may not matter, Smiths said that we were operating under combat consensus. That would mean Highwind & Nixeu locked it. :(
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Yep, it was locked at first 2 agreeing votes. Write up will occur this afternoon. (Hopefully /RL is fickle)
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Okay @Highwind I will try and answers some questions and dispel some misconceptions, point by point. Bear with me, I'll try to be brief.

Highwind said:
. When you say "powered by death's blood and aetheric effluvium", what exactly do you mean? Are these required only upon their creation or do they need to be recharged with either periodically?
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They are rather potent self contained spell batteries (required at creation). The blood is because the 'Deacon' is primarily a Wizard / Necromancer so his components tend to skew heavily that direction.

Highwind said:
I assume the decentralized nature of these enchantments means they can't be replaced or reinforced without performing maintenance on the individual sigils, which brings to mind the image of black-robed maintenance cultists replacing single broken cobbles and lurking around children parks waiting for them to stop playing with the hobby horse so they can replace the copper sheath once it loses its power.
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Your thinking Dark Ages, the appearance is more -now-; think more along the lines of W.W. 2 Schutzstaffel (S.S.). The imagery invoked however made me laugh. :)

Highwind said:
Speaking of maintenance, Glass could see the spells were linked to the sigils, but are the sigils linked to something else to provide them with the Effluvium through thaumaturgic means?
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Edit: because I missed this. Self contained Aetheric Battery, no evidence of links.

Highwind said:
Just imagine, first you detonate cluster bombs filled with pamphlets over Charleston, and once the pamphlets hit the ground you activate a thaumaturgic spell and it propagates through the pamphlets. Instant magical effect inside the city, bypassing Charleston's protective screen.
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Thaumaturgy works when provided the raw energy from elsewhere, your misconception is you think the ablative -grounding- spells target the effect they undercut the power safely channeling it away causing spells to fizzle unrealized.

Highwind said:
This effect can also be exploited for anything that requires transmitting an effect or information from one end to the other, including relaying signals or long-range communications.
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Interesting premise, research anything!

Highwind said:
Another option would be to make a new Specialist position in the army to attach to existing units so they have someone on-hand to identify and potentially counter magical creatures and effects.
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Too many 'attachments' dilute a units fighting strength, you'd get better results adding a new troop type to the roster.

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Smithsguild said:
They are rather potent self contained spell batteries (required at creation). The blood is because the 'Deacon' is primarily a Wizard / Necromancer so his components tend to skew heavily that direction.
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Smithsguild said:
Thaumaturgy works when provided the raw energy from elsewhere, your misconception is you think the ablative -grounding- spells target the effect they undercut the power safely channeling it away causing spells to fizzle unrealized.
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Good to know. I guess we're stuck with conventional weaponry if we want to directly attack Charleston, at least until we find a workaround.

Maybe if we figure out our own spell battery and make them into bombs? I'm gonna have to think about it.

Smithsguild said:
Interesting premise, research anything!
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This might be exactly what we need to create a reliable method of wireless communications that isn't affected by the atmospheric interference from the dander.

It might even be Faster-Than-Light, but we don't exactly have a need for that sort of thing right now. Our souls are still weighed down by gravity and there's too much work to be done here on Earth.

...Drone controls! If we can figure out a spell that can reliably transmit electronic signals we can set up a control system for Drones that can cut through the atmospheric interference. It could very well be superior to modern drone controls in that there would be no lag between the pilot and the drone, meaning they can potentially dogfight without the need for complex AI.

There's probably many problems with actually implementing this sort of thing, but hey, it's an idea.


Smithsguild said:
Too many 'attachments' dilute a units fighting strength, you'd get better results adding a new troop type to the roster.
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Maybe a SpecOps-style unit that's trained for magical combat and operations? It'd work well with my other idea to create our own magical FBI/MIB. The Paranormal Investigation Agency deals with identifying and investigating potentially magical incidents as well as arresting those involved when possible, while the anti-magic SpecOps are the muscle that goes after active cultist cells and any critters that pop up and can act on the battlefield.

One is a Law Enforcement agency that answers to the BPRD and cooperates with Homeland Security, while the other is part of the Military proper.

I even have four expys ready for the PIA. Two of them are Mulder and Scully, naturally, while the other two are Temperance Brennan and Seeley Booth from the TV show Bones.
 
I'm proposing we create what's essentially the FBI in order to investigate supernatural stuff. I can't not include expys of those four considering one pair is from the series where an FBI agent teams up with a forensic anthropologist to solve crimes and the other pair is from The X-Files.

...Granted, Scully's character would lose some of her charm considering it's hard to remain a skeptic with all the blatantly and clearly supernatural stuff going on, but I can still make it work by having her offer the more grounded and scientific explanations. Blaming every little thing you can't immediately explain on the supernatural is just as bad as refusing to believe magic is real when there's a cultist throwing fireballs at you.
 
Random thing I decided to do as I rejoined this. After realizing there were knightmare frames. And realizing we have no real set system for categorizing Supernatural stuff. Is this probably over-complicated and unnecessary, yeah, but hey, I had fun making it.
DGR11897 Supernatural Phenomenon Array of Classification AKA, SPAC
This is meant to be a rough way to categorize and evaluate supernatural/unknown phenomena, along with the threat they pose, and how to counter them. (Totally ripping off worm's system here, with some of my own flare and decisions added in)
A SPAC Array is meant to display all the known and speculative abilities/supernatural factors of a given target. Evaluating the nature, limits, behavior, and intensity/threat level of supernatural phenomenon related to a target, and putting that information into a set of ratings and entries.
The first part of an entry is its trigger. Defining how the ability is turned on/accessed. These are, External, Automatic, and Innate. External are triggered by an external action performed by the user, this includes things like spells and rituals, or abilities that only trigger when certain criterea are fulfilled. Automatic triggers are always on, or will automatically respond to certain conditions. Innate meanwhile are triggered apparently at will, with no way to intercede triggering the ability. Triggers are optional, and phenomenon may not fall under any of them.
Class, defining overall nature and methods of an effect. Of which there are the following.
Mystery class phenomenon indicate a supernatural effect that appears to generate a result that could be achieved by purely natural means, with only the mechanism being not understood.
Break class phenomenon indicate a supernatural effect which appears to break the laws of physics in an area.
Mind class indicates a phenomenon which affects the mind of a target.
Learn class indicates an effect propagated through information.
And finally Counter indicates a phenomenon that deals strictly with other magical or supernatural effects and concepts.
In addition we have 1 class for each of the four schools
Thaum class
Alchemical class
Magic class
Wizard class
Sorcery class
Each entry also has one or more types, defining how the power is used by a target. The Types are Move, Summon, Blast, Slash, Shaker, Master, Think, Shield, Enhance, Shadow and Omni.
Move type phenomenon deal in movement enhancing phenomenon.
Summon type phenomenon deal in the calling forth, creation, or of course summoning, of new minions wholesale.
Blast and Slash type phenomenon deal in ranged and melee range abilities respectively.
Shaker Type phenomenon are area of effect.
Master type specialize in taking control of, moving, or otherwise manipulating enemies and allies.
Think type phenomenon deal in information, gaining and/or extrapolating on it.
Shield Type are used to increase survivability of the user and their allies, this includes actual shields, countering other phenomenon, or enhancing the durability of something.
Enhance type improve the physical abilities of a target, so increased strength, durability, endurance, etc.
Shadow type supernatural phenomenon enhance stealth and infiltration, be this invisibility or an anti memetic field.
Omni type effects are too broad to fall into any one category.
Finally, they have an Threat level. Meant to help operatives decide how to respond, what to try and disable first, and overall help with tactical decisions. The threat levels are labeled one or more greek letters, signifying actual known threat, and a number from 1 to six. The greek letter indicates power level of an ability. The numerical value indicates the ease of countering an effect, and how many counters are known, with 1 meaning that we have almost no way to counter it, and 6 indicating something we have a standard effective counter for, or which has no real means of being used against us. This value is only relevant for effects we see in repeated use.
Alpha: Anti Conventional level effects
Beta: Anti K/J Scale level effect
Gamma: Indicating that the threat/power of an effect gets weaker as there are more in a small area.
Delta: Indicating threats which change and grow over time.
Eta: An effect which takes a while to wind up, or is slow to act, you have time.
Episilon: Indicating a threat level that varies at random between encounters, but which generally stays at about the same threat level.
Theta: Indicating a phenomenon with an utterly unknown threat level, we know it exists, we don't know how strong it is.
Lamba: Which indicates a phenomenon which gets less dangerous over time.
Mu: Anti City scale effects.
Xi: Marks an effect we have no clue on the power of for any given use.
Pi: Represents an effect which will fry computers when they observe it, do not use automated systems for countering these.
Sigma: Effects which grow stronger the more are in a given area.
Omega: An effect with world ending power.
New designations, triggers, classes, types, etc, may be added with time. Here is an example SPAC rating for the elder signs we are currently rolling out.
Elder sign: Anti ??? effects: Automatic triggering, Counter class Shield effect, of threat level Theta-Sigma 6
 
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Smithsguild said:
aetheric effluvium smeared upon the surface. Effluvium gained apparently from the Black Flame Furnace.
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Hmm, if effluvium is a form of matter, or more specifically a particle, which has a charge, could we generate anti effluvium? Explode a few bombs full of the stuff over the city, and we can blow up just the places which have Effluvium on them, so all of their magic defenses, plus probably some other stuff. Disadvantage to that is that we have to figure out how to generate anti effluvium on an industrial scale, which will probably require a lot of power, time, and effort. Our best option could be to go for straight up combat. If we do eventually do that, we should design and start mass production of a counter to their knightmare frames.
Thing we could do with the similarity magic that has been suggested which could be quite scary, remote drifting, set up a similarity link between a manequin head and a target's head, put the drift device on, and bam, sudden access to all their memories, or you could link them up to a kaiju brain which is still on their hivemind, transmitting a nice big, go F*ck that guy up signal to the kaiju masters/precursors.
 
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dgr11897 said:
Hmm, if effluvium is a form of matter, or more specifically a particle, which has a charge, could we generate anti effluvium? Explode a few bombs full of the stuff over the city, and we can blow up just the places which have Effluvium on them, so all of their magic defenses, plus probably some other stuff. Disadvantage to that is that we have to figure out how to generate anti effluvium on an industrial scale, which will probably require a lot of power, time, and effort. Our best option could be to go for straight up combat. If we do eventually do that, we should design and start mass production of a counter to their knightmare frames.
Thing we could do with the similarity magic that has been suggested which could be quite scary, remote drifting, set up a similarity link between a manequin head and a target's head, put the drift device on, and bam, sudden access to all their memories, or you could link them up to a kaiju brain which is still on their hivemind, transmitting a nice big, go F*ck that guy up signal to the kaiju masters/precursors.
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"Effluvium" has a general definition of "stinky stuff you can't see", so my guess would be that this is stinky aetheric stuff. Automatically jumping to a posit of an antimatter-like counter is...tenuous?
 
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