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Messages - Snark Knight

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1066
DF Spoilers / Re: Stone Table Sacrifice
« on: July 20, 2017, 08:09:27 PM »
Quote from: Rasins on July 20, 2017, 07:15:39 PM
One would wonder why an uber-powerful entity like Hecate WOULD split her power up?

Well, she wasn't as powerful the sum of both modern Courts at the start - a lot of their power came from sacrifices on the table since the separate courts were established.

As to why she divided her power, she probably understood that earth would need protecting from the Unseelie even as they protected earth and Faerie from the Outsiders. She had to ensure a matched balance at the leadership level out of the pool of power available at the time.

I do hope at some point to find out whether Mother Winter is the original Hecate, or Hecate died sacrificing herself to establish the new order.

1067
DF Spoilers / Re: New short story in process
« on: July 20, 2017, 07:32:22 PM »
Quote from: Quantus on July 20, 2017, 04:20:57 PM
I used to be jealous, until I realized that with every book they spend MONTHS unable to discuss it with anyone.  After getting each chapter slowly doled out like a Dickensian soup kitchen.  Imagine wallowing in your own theorycraft that long with no release.  Imagine having each new novel carefully dosed out like the opioid it truly is, no binge reads allowed... 
I think that's where some of Serack's huge theory dissertations come from.  It's just a different kind of torturous waiting.

The poor guy, when I speculated before SG that Deirdre wasn't going to make it and Nic would blame Harry (even though I was wrong on the means; something about a B-plot of black court antagonists, given the previous pattern of vampire plots in every third novel) it must have been frustrating only being able to say "hmm ... interesting".

1068
DF Spoilers / Re: Stone Table Sacrifice
« on: July 20, 2017, 07:12:24 PM »
Quote from: Quantus on July 20, 2017, 12:24:54 PM
Either way I doubt it's as integral to their organization, as it is with the Summer/Winter courts, but then the Summer/Winter system was very specifically designed and built by their predecessors.  And I still have no idea how the Stone Table related to the Wyldfae.

It might not. Whoever created the Courts (presumably Hecate splitting her power, plus unspecified allies) may just have ignored the wyldfae as outside of what they needed.

1069
DF Spoilers / Re: Luccio's perspective compared to Harry's
« on: July 20, 2017, 01:20:38 AM »
I doubt very many Council members were victims of burning at the stake, given the difficulty a mob would have catching someone who can ward their home, veil, and retreat to the Nevernever if cornered. The mobs probably mostly got random wrongfully accused vanillas or innocent small-timers, with a scattering of genuinely malignant sorcerers and warlocks.

But yeah, a lot of their defense probably also did rely on concealing what they were (and, as Harry mentioned at one point, propagating myths that magicians needed elaborate props like crystal balls, so, hey, obviously we aren't magicians, right?) rather than, say, advertising in the Yellow Pages. And if, as several of us were discussing recently on another thread, some of the unsolved assassination attempts on him have been the Librarians probing how hard it would be to kill a wizard after Harry outed himself as a testable specimen, the orthodox Council view on discretion might still have its merits.

1070
DF Spoilers / Re: Stone Table Sacrifice
« on: July 19, 2017, 04:10:01 PM »
Quote from: dspringer1 on July 19, 2017, 03:07:34 PM
The coins are all about choice.  That is why a fallen cannot just put a coin in your hand to corrupt you.  It does not work that way.   I suspect that choosing to give up the coin operates the same way in reverse.  It blocks the person from calling the coin.  I suspect the only people who "could" call the coin are people who choose to take a coin, but have not yet given it up.  Even other fallen could not summon a coin.

That's at odds with the fact that of the Knights using the blessed cloths for containment as a general protocol (e.g. in DM when they kill Ursiel's bearer, and Cassius chooses to give up his coin to have his life spared), not just in the (presumably rare) case of separating a coin from a living and resisting host who wants it back. If it's just a matter of not making skin contact themselves to get stuck with a shadow, any gloves or bag would do.

I suspect at least some of the senior coin holders like Nic and Tessa can call another Fallen's coin to retrieve them - it's probably more difficult and time consuming than for someone who already carries that Fallen's shadow, likely requiring some sort of ritual performed, but the Church's precautions with coins dropped from a dead host or surrendered willingly wouldn't make sense otherwise.

1071
DF Spoilers / Re: Stone Table Sacrifice
« on: July 19, 2017, 02:16:30 PM »
Quote from: Rasins on July 17, 2017, 01:46:59 PM
Also, I wonder if Harry CAN contain just the coins, or does there need to be a host to contain it as well.

The blessed cloths the Knights and Forthill cover captured coins in seem to prevent the other Denarians summoning a compatriot's coin back to them, basically the faith magic equivalent of wards. The problem seems to be a human leak in the Church storage facility, not that Nic and Tessa have figured out a way around the countermeasures against summoning coins. So just putting the warded coins underground on Demonreach where Harry is the only one with access should put them out of reach of being freed.


Quote from: LordDresden2 on July 19, 2017, 05:15:11 AM
What I kind of wonder is if there's anything in play that could destroy the Stone Table itself?  And if you did, what would happen?

Probably. It's a big enchantment, but one of the remaining warden swords might do it. Fidelacchius probably would, now. What would happen? Probably an explosion, from the stored energy being released.

1072
DF Spoilers / Re: A warden's sword for Harry...
« on: July 19, 2017, 02:03:19 PM »
Quote from: LordDresden2 on July 19, 2017, 05:00:42 AM
One of the early reasons for the adoption of firearms as weapons, even aside from their power, was that you could learn to use one effectively more quickly than you could older weapons.  That was part of why guns were in use even when they still weren't all that much more potent than blades and bows yet.

By some measures, after the use of armor trailed off again, bows were better until well into the 1800's. The problem was it took decades of practice for an archer to get to peak performance, and given that most military purposes were shooting into a crowd rather than trying to pick off specific targets, it just wasn't worth the training time.

1073
DF Spoilers / Re: Loose Ends and other Questions
« on: July 19, 2017, 02:01:21 AM »
1) I wouldn't be surprised if Evil Bob shows up again at some point.
2) One possibility is that Cowl's magic is augmented by stealing the power of other mortal practitioner victims.
3) Highly likely. We know Mab has her standard aspect, Judgment, and (per WOJ) the combat aspect we have yet to see (presumably upcoming in PT when we finally 'get to see Mab sweat').
If I had to guess, the armoured gown Titania showed up in to talk to Harry after he summoned her was probably her version of the combat aspect, in case she ended up deciding to squash him on the spot.

1074
DF Spoilers / Re: Mortal Government Knowledge of Magic
« on: July 18, 2017, 10:07:04 PM »
Quote from: Quantus on July 18, 2017, 08:33:12 PM
But some things, like activating a circle around the roulette wheel before you drop the ball, are going to be both subtle and effective.  Beyond that the same mentality for security applies to both magic and science: they just have to Detect.

Something like Luccio's eyeglasses focus from the new short story (enhanced perception but at a much lower intensity than the sight) would help with detection. Circles would be tough to keep undisturbed anywhere with a lot of people walking about between tables though.

1075
DF Spoilers / Re: Mortal Government Knowledge of Magic
« on: July 18, 2017, 08:14:33 PM »
I wonder about the casino issue, actually. Cheating casinos to establish an early-career nest egg is bit of a plot point in the Alex Verus series, for one. Now, in the DV, certainly trying to cheat a house owned by Marcone would be a bad idea (I wonder if that has something to do with how he originally got clued in?), but are all big casinos aware?

Given the diversity of different talents at the lower end of the food chain or the range of skills that can be concentrated in a wizard-level or nearly such practitioner, blocking all possible all possible avenues of cheating could actually be very difficult. Trying to magic-proof a casino would mean countering everything from an ectomancer like Mort with a ghost partner reading the dealer's cards to him at blackjack, to a sensitive like Molly passively detecting opponent's confidence levels changing hand by hand at poker, to someone with short-range future awareness like that Paranet member who got shot in GS taking advantage at the roulette wheel. That's a pretty massive range of vulnerabilities to deal with.

1076
DF Spoilers / Re: Mortal Government Knowledge of Magic
« on: July 18, 2017, 03:56:54 PM »
Quote from: dspringer1 on July 18, 2017, 03:14:18 PM
I suspect the magic secrecy dam is really under strain right now -- and will break at some point (perhaps at the start/during the final trilogy).

It was even mentioned in Ghost Story (by Butters, I think?) that the Fomor had been pushing the envelope far enough that the normals were starting to have a hard time not noticing something going on with the widespread disappearances.

1077
DF Spoilers / Re: Mirror Mirror Opportunties
« on: July 18, 2017, 03:47:45 PM »
Quote from: dspringer1 on July 18, 2017, 03:05:48 PM
Comment on Justine is not known to me.  Where do we get the hint that Justine has some hidden background?   Not surprised, just not familiar with the details.

I don't have the source anymore, just going off a vague recollection. Might have been one of the AMA's, but I'm not positive.

The WOJ itself wasn't super specific. The gist was just that there's something about Justine's parentage that Harry doesn't know but Thomas does - it didn't narrow down whether she was a changeling or her parents were some sort of VIP's in mortal society or something else entirely.

1078
DF Spoilers / Re: Mortal Government Knowledge of Magic
« on: July 18, 2017, 01:04:35 PM »
Quote from: forumghost on July 18, 2017, 06:20:49 AM
Bodies/Blood? Taken away and examined by a Coroner who's either on the take, or refuses to acknowledge the truth in front of him (like Butters Boss).

Taking away bodies and bloodstains would require a team of cleaners prepared for a coverup pretty much on standby outside the door as soon as the shooting stopped. If the FBI survivors regroup enough to start sweeping their building and come across something that blows secrecy, any cleaners are too late.

Plus, institutional arrogance is going to work against a cover story that the elite federal police force got their asses handed to them to the tune of probably a high double-digit body count by a pack of drug-smuggler rabble who then vanished into thin air. Neither the FBI nor outside oversight is likely to buy that an attack like that got done without an edge well beyond what's known of cartel capabilities, without costing the attackers way more casualties than they did.

And even if most of the survivors didn't directly see the Reds in action, a lot would have heard the Ick - 'vanilla cartel gunmen' isn't going to suffice as a cover story for something so big it shakes the floors when it walks and has a heartbeat audible across half the building.

1079
DF Spoilers / Re: Mortal Government Knowledge of Magic
« on: July 18, 2017, 02:22:48 AM »
Quote from: Shift8 on July 17, 2017, 10:38:06 PM
And that none of the other people in the building managed to kill some of them too.

Even if the rest of the FBI were too shocked to line up a headshot or hit the kill spot on the belly, just wounding one heavily enough to leave a bloodstain would be evidence. Forensics is going to be very interested in a DNA profile on any 'terrorists' that escaped with wounds after something like that.

The more we dig into this, the more I think Jim is going to have to include some explanation of the aftermath of that as Harry reestablishes himself in Chicago. Shit pretty much had to have hit the fan after that incident - it's one thing for him to have been out of the loop during past events, but once he's back on the grid, there's going to have to have been some fallout that comes to his attention.

1080
DF Spoilers / Re: Mortal Government Knowledge of Magic
« on: July 17, 2017, 10:31:27 PM »
Quote from: forumghost on July 17, 2017, 10:09:57 PM
Keep in mind that this is the same universe where a Coroner can say 'these people aren't human' and get thrown in the loony bin despite having the bodies to prove it.

It's going to be tougher to pull that if there's an intact corpse, though. A dispute about what intense heat does to a skeleton is pretty much inside baseball among coroners. If they actually left bodies behind, a greasy anthropoid bat-monster with fangs isn't going to be mistakable for human by first responders, even with its belly shot open or half its head caved in.

And while the Reds were certainly pretty deadly, it stretches belief that nobody in the whole building but Tilly and Rudolph saw them and evaded being killed.

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