Resurrecting this thread (yes, another one) because I've thought of a way to re-write the Tibicena magic.

Stolen Tibicena Magic [-4]:
You have acquired the magic of a dog belonging to a Hawaiian volcano god--or at least, it used to belong to him. Now it's yours, and he probably isn't very happy about it. Sponsor debt should revolve around either the fact that the magic's stolen or around really loving sunlight (ex. being inappropriately happy when in sunlight, snapping at people for no reason when it's dark out, rushing your investigation of a house so that you can get outside quicker).

Tibicena magic allows you to cast spells that fit its essential nature: fire, earth, fear, and hunting and chasing down prey.

Evothaum: You can use divination magic with the speed and methods of evocation. In addition, you can open portals to and from the Nevernever with the speed and methods of evocation, but only when you are in hot pursuit of someone, for the purpose of following them.

Extra benefits: You can make a zone-wide intimidation attack as a supplemental action any time you use this magic, without the normal -2 for zone-wide attacks.

Maybe the WCV just gets burned, and has to stop, like most other cases.  That's certainly a traumatic and tragic experience...

That might work. It has the right feel to it, but I'm looking for something with longer-lasting consequences, since the first feeding is so significant. Maybe the hunger demon gets burned directly instead of the person? But I'm not sure how to represent that...

I don't think they exist, as a class.  Imariel's battle-form is unique to that Fallen, just like Ursiel's is, etc.

So far as I know, the DF offers no theriomorphs who aren't mammals.  The Naagloshii can do more, but that's a (very) special case!  There was a Naga, but that's a Naga, not a human shapeshifter.

I meant something like lycanthropes are, where they have a spirit inside them but don't transform. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

And they don't exist in canon, but I'm trying to find something interesting about one because I'm having my wizard apprentice deal with one (in a fanfic, not in a game, but I'm using game mechanics to keep track of what my characters can and can't do) and I need to give it something besides speed powers or it will take out my wizard apprentice way too easily (she doesn't know combat evocation yet, and isn't supposed to learn it for a while, so I'm trying to avoid her getting into too many direct fights). But the praying mantis needs some combat stuff (and also can't have guns, because this encounter is the first time she uses her shield spell in combat, so she's not going to be fast or good enough to block gunfire). Strength powers don't feel quite right, though, so I'm looking for something that has a "praying mantis"-like feel to it.

We are veering way off topic here.  Does Mother Winter owe Harry a gift?   And if Eb falls during Peace Talks, before passing the staff, does it return to Mother Winter?   That's how I can see Harry getting it.  But I really think based on the laws of three and the fact he has duties and obligations of varying kinds to each Queen, if two of them owe him a gift for Christmas, then Mother Winter must as well.  From the description in Changes, Harry could very well of asked Mab "Is it going to try to eat me?" because the Black staff already tried to?

I had a thought. What if each Queen owed a different kind of gift?

Molly's gift was for Harry--his peace of mind. (Yes, it also benefited a lot of other people, but I'm pretty sure neither Molly nor Harry owed them anything.)
Mab's gift was for Harry's dependents--or one specifically: Maggie.
If this is a progression, then Mother Winter might owe Harry a gift for all of Winter--which could explain why she doesn't have to show up at the Carpenters' in order to deliver it.

Hurt so much that he could not communicate with Maggie?

So the theory is, Maggie will never agree to receive help from an entity that has proven willing to be helpful, so long as there's someone around to tell her not to? That seems both unlikely and unsustainable.

I am doing nothing strange with your posts. I just think you missed a few points, that is all.

It's less an issue here than on the other thread, but you seem to have a habit of responding to my posts in a way that indicates that either you haven't read them, or that you've dismissed what I've said in them out of hand for no good reason that you've explicated.

Google? Really? That will probably tell you that spirit and soul are the same. Jim uses the terminology in his own way, he is creating the world and Ghost Story is where he really thinks it through. How he uses the terms in this book is leading not how someone on the internet defines it.

You didn't read my post, did you? Because I specifically said "Unless you can provide evidence that Jim has a different definition," and yet, rather than even attempting to do so, your argument is "standard definitions should always be assumed not to apply, because Jim defines a small subsection of words differently." Tell me, when Harry's duster is described as black leather, should I assume it's actually made of blue silk and that Jim is just defining the words "black" and "leather" differently?

That is a refutation on the idea that there are no exceptions

Please stop insulting me. The fact that you feel the need to provide evidence for this (and yet not, apparently, for your theories?) shows that not only are you not reading my posts, you don't  even think I've read Ghost Story.

He did say it was possible but that the ghosts who claimed so where usually wrong even if they believed it themselves. Another reason why Sir Stuart wouldn't mention it and maybe even did not believe it himself.

Could you (or someone) please provide a quote? Because you remember one thing while I remember another. I'd provide one myself, but I don't have access to my copy of the book right now.

Later on he did transfer Butters shade back to his body so he certainly knows about the possibility.

The Butters thing was his soul being forcibly removed from his still-alive body, not his soul coming back with his ghost after he had died.

No but even if I did I would take Ghost story as leading. It is the book that really fleshed out his ideas.

And apparently now you don't understand your own argument. The claim you made was "the word 'shade' has never been used to apply to any being except ghosts that also had souls and Sir Stuart's ghost. Therefore, the word 'shade' can be defined as meaning ghost + soul. Therefore Sir Stuart's ghost must also have his soul." I responded in part by saying "You say the word 'shade' has never been used except in the way you've stated. But you only said that you've looked through Ghost Story. There are other books that have ghosts in them. If the word 'shade' is used differently in one of them, then your claim of 'never' is invalidated, invalidating your entire chain of logic around the word."

People who knew.

Too vague.

The word is not thrown around as a synonym just to make sentences run more smoothly.

You claim this, but you have no evidence. I hate to break it to you, but your unsupported opinion is not, in itself, irrefutable evidence, regardless of what you seem to think.

Not in my opinion, I did not get that feeling I sometimes have when someone makes an argument that really refutes what I am saying.

So now you're saying that it doesn't matter what I say or how right I am, if you don't agree with me then I'm automatically wrong? Do you even understand how facts work? Hint: they don't change based on your feelings about them.

“Chicago-in-between” was a very serious place, and I think a place only accessible to those with a soul.

1.   Harry went there and we know he still had his soul, and while there he made the deal that put his soul at risk.

2.   We know from Uriel that Carmichael and Jack are both souls because he says that those that are there are there to help them feel more comfortable about moving along to their final judgement.

3.   Angels are openly active there as door guards, as are, apparently, very bad things.  This differs from our reality significantly.

4.   Harry saw no wraiths or other indications of the more normal “ghostly” stuff that then became normal stuff in in the ghostly world showed for the rest of the book.

What I infer from this:
A.   Ghosts with souls come back in a not so rare situation.  Remember Sir Stuart said, “Sometimes new shades show up claiming they’ve had a run-in with him and that he brought them back from the hereafter.”  This would indicate that any returning having seen Jack really were Shades (ghost+soul) and not just ghosts, since anyone going to the in-between must have a soul.

B.   To go there and do the job Uriel offered Sir Stuart would require a soul.  Without a soul a ghost is just a worn photocopy of a person and lacks the free will that would be needed to have agency in that place.

This is an interesting point. You may be right.

I.   Shade is not just used to describe Stuart, Harry, and Capriocorpus in the book.  Sir Stuart says that many postal workers leave shades behind.  You can argue that Sir Stuart lacks the knowledge/ability to differentiate between a ghost and a shade, but if that is the case then very few people have that ability and that renders the number of uses of the word that count to a too small statistical sample to use for a definitive purpose.  (i.e. it could just be that those three people tend to use the term shade rather than ghost)

Thanks! So it seems like 'shade' is just a synonym for 'ghost,' then.

II.   I would be most inclined to believe that Sir Stuart is a shade for two reasons.  First, he is possibly the progenitor of a line of ectomancers.  While nothing in his demeanor indicates he ever had any inclination toward those abilities, it is possible he had some natural talent that might have encouraged the creation of a shade compared to just a normal ghost.  Secondly, he had a massive life span for a ghost.  Literally hundreds of years as a fully capable active cogent ghost.  This is almost certainly because of his interaction with living ectomancers which I’m sure helped provide him with additional “juice” so that is not a very strong point, but it is still a point.

III.   That said, it seems like it offers an “out” to those that wish to avoid death and ultimate justice because if one just knows enough one can keep the soul from moving on, but I guess that has always been an option for people like Kemmler… until someone actually does stop them.

Good points! Point II is in line with my suggestion that Sir Stuart's ghost is one of the exceptional ones that gains new power sources so that he can grow and change.

Knowing Uriel? Everytime he turns up souls are the only thing he cares about. The only thing he thinks are really important. It is all about souls with Uriel. Everything he does is about souls.

Empoying Sir Stuart is about souls as well

And once again, you prove that you haven't read my posts. Because I've already given at least two suggestions for how Uriel employing Sir Stuart's ghost could be about souls without requiring Sir Stuart's ghost to have one.

Mab didn't ask anything from Maggie for her gift..  No bargain, no obligation..

Two things, one important and one not:

For the important thing, my point is that Mab's gift encouraged Maggie to trust her, like her, and generally see her as someone who would give Maggie things.

For the unimportant thing, there is no scenario in English grammar where ".." is the correct punctuation. It's either "." or "..."

Merlin did a lot of losing in the legends. What he's known for, Arthur & Camelot, was a failure.

True, but I didn't say that Merlin wouldn't lose ever; I just said that he wouldn't lose any of the times that we've seen Cowl lose.

This WoJ was in the context of "the prisoner" in Demonreach having a British accent so, Merlin. So the response is that, in context, that WoJ isn't relevant.

Not really irrelevant. It was certainly in response to someone suspecting that the British prisoner was Merlin, but that doesn't change the substance, which is that Merlin, if he appeared, would sound unintelligible due to language drift.