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Messages - SpoonR

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DF Spoilers / Re: The Placard
« on: September 29, 2020, 01:45:32 AM »
Harry has the following sources of information

Bob
Bonea
Demonreach
Uriel
Mab

Alfred has some difficulty communicating on Harry's level, but he should be usable at least for knowledge like 'point in that direction, add drop of blood, say the magic word to make it do its thing'. What exactly it does might be hard to explain, but for how to trigger it he should be able to reach Harry's level.

Also, there are books. IIRC Mab had a library. And Harry can request books from Mac's Backs'. And there's whatever books are in White Council HQ.

Can't explain why Jim didn't say anything about how Harry learned, but maybe he didn't want to make up more book names.


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DF Spoilers / Gatekeeper's Age
« on: September 29, 2020, 01:24:20 AM »
So, it looks like we know the Rahshid's age. 706 give or take a couple years. Firstly, I'm assuming he is also a starborn, so he is Harry's age plus some multiple of 666 years. Call Harry's bday around 1975, the previous starborns were round about CE 1330, CE 670, CE 1. Even wizards usually don't live 1000+ years so 1330 is most likely.

But if something hinky went on with time/life, I still think 670 is the earliest possible. Rashid seems to be an Islamic name, and assuming it is his original name that would put him sometime after 630-ish. Plus if you further back you run into problems like being pre-swords of the cross, possibly knowing the Merlin and the original Warden. Just starts feeling wrong.

Also, it's interesting to know more about Listens-to-Winds teacher.

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DF Spoilers / Re: Who was the real target of the bloodline curse at CI?
« on: October 16, 2017, 05:43:42 PM »
Agree with overkill for Eb. At whichever fight it was (maybe right before Molly's execution?), Langtry was warding the reds off singlehandedly. Eb can kill lots of reds at once. I think Langtry is best Senior Council in defense, and Eb is best offense.  Also, apparently the spell either couldn't reach people in NeverNever or was really weakened there. Even if the whole ritual was a trap (I guess to get Eb & Harry out of Edinborough but still in the physical realm), that is awfully specific timing & planning needed.  If Harry hadn't shown up, would they have just kept sacrificing people until he did? Called the ritual off and gone home? Fired the spell and just hoped?

So, let's say it is overkill for Eb and Harry. The actual target is someone who they know will not be in the NeverNever, who they can't reach to do a non-magic kill, who has powerful defenses and/or a very distant link to the victim.

The target is Merlin, imprisoned in Demonreach. The Blackstaff, like the notebooks, has always been passed from parent to (grand)-child, so Harry is a direct blood descendant of Merlin (my WAG, not canon). And Merlin is either part source of Demonreach's power, or a keystone to the spell (spell must be cast at multiple points in time, and the caster must remain in the warded area?)  So killing him will let Nemesis free everything under Demonreach.

or not. My WAG

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DF Spoilers / DuMorne and favors owed
« on: October 16, 2017, 05:20:45 PM »
I'm away from book. Does Ghost Story have the exact wording of Harry's bargain with Leah? Cause WAG.

Assume the bargain was Leah will help Harry defeat or kill DuMorne, in exchange for three favors. Mab has collected either one or two I think?  Now, with the DuMorne/Kemler connection Dumorne can be "dead dead" and still come back. So, DuMorne shows himself and Harry recognizes him. What happens to the bargain? The first clause is now untrue, so Harry has done favors without compensation, which leaves a pretty potent unbalance.

I'm assuming IIRC the bit from Cold Days that went something like: Harry is fine. Harry says he will break part of the Winter Knight Oath. The Knightly power disappears until he changes his mind. So the Leah/Harry oath will be "balanced" until Harry, Mab, or Leah find out DuMorne is still around. Now in the Leah/Harry oath, one favor has been equivalent to Harry using all his power to do whatever. I'm thinking this means...

Harry and the Alphas have tied up the villain. Harry reaches out and pulls off the mask...
"The ghoul! It's mister DuMorne"
"And I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn't been for you mangy wolves and that wizard."
Elsewhere, Mab is in the middle of a fight. Suddenly, two Harry's worth of power are drained from her and passed to Harry.
Mab has no power left and loses the fight. Oops. Nice job breaking it hero.


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DF Spoilers / Re: If Mab dies
« on: October 16, 2017, 05:03:29 PM »
Oh no oh no we are in big trouble?   :o

Mab will die for two reasons (three if you count tropes). 1: Mab is at the center of so many webs of oath/debt/vengeance/Unseelie accords that killing her cuts a bunch of Gordian knots. Motive: just about everybody in the setting. For this kind of death, Peace Talks would be an appropriate place.
2. The Apocalypse is coming. The Apocalypse will have to go through Mab to get to Earth. One scenario is the "all of Faerie combined doesn't have quite as much Oomph as Mab. So, after the fight at the Gate goes sour & all the winter warriors die, Mab will hold the gate alone. And then she dies. Bye bye gate."

(all IMO of course)

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DF Reference Collection / Re: Current DR wardens
« on: April 07, 2016, 09:17:30 PM »
Knowing that one warden became many, and their original job, to me at least seems the same, to me their is little difference between what a warlock becomes and the things in the well, heck for all we know the things in the well find resonance with the actions of those warlocks and rach out through said connection to influence and try to control or meld with(which would transfer consiuosness not necassarly raw power, though an increased flow seems likely) until they have replaced enough of them that they genuinely believe themselves to be said creature, at which point, perhaps they are?
What I wonder at from that one warden, is the precise significance of the grey cloak, as it has been pointed out as a specific in woj. I have more than a few ideas of course, but would like some neutral feedback.

"As bad as the monsters are, humans can do worse", or something to that effect.  The basic difference between warlock & THINGS is scale. Is argle-bargle-monster really that different from crazed cursing Korean kid?  My theory is all this goes back to humans becoming dominant and various past flavors of monster-hunting groups.

Old days: The Warden has to go out and take down big bad monsters. The monsters are too something to destroy, hence DR. And comparatively few of them - unless anyone has better numbers, I'm assuming a few thousand, caught and penned over time.
New days: Damaged humans are the monsters. A lot more of them, but much less powerful. So you need a group of less-badass wardens to take over, and you don't have to bother with prison anymore.

Allow maybe half a millenium, and most people won't remember DR.

Associations of gray: Goodman Gray, I think "He Who Dances around Mac's place" had a wrap of strips of gray cloth, the gray council, halfway on the spectrum of White Council, Gray Cloak, and Black Staff.  Maaaybe the blood repelling property is relevant - the Warden has more resistance to prisoners' weird brain-hurting powers, and similar?

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DFRPG / Re: Ideas for St. Louis city creation
« on: February 23, 2016, 02:02:13 PM »
The OP confused me.  "disperse the magic nullification of the Mississippi River". I was thinking of disperse as spreading the Mississippi effect out so thin that the the river no longer nullified magic. (definitions "to dispel or cause to vanish". I'd suggest spread or expand instead if you have to explain it to your players.

Anyhoo, there are a couple aspects of the Arch that I would want to play with. The Arch is big, and a gateway. Ergo, there must be a Godzilla attack during the campaign. Supersized Fomor? Secondly, it has the viewing area at the top. Tailor made for scenes of 'powerful people threatening each other as the city spreads in the background'. Bonus points if the city is burning at the time. Maybe that still has the threshold because it is part of the arch, so it is now neutral ground. And if somebody hexes the elevator, it's a loooong walk down.
http://www.gatewayarch.com/experience/journey-top-arch.aspx

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Cinder Spires Books / Spire dimensions?
« on: February 20, 2016, 10:38:16 PM »
So, spire Albion is roughly a soup can 2 miles tall and 2 miles wide. But, is it a soup can on a stick (all habbles are well above ground level), just a soup can on ground, or is part of the spire underground?

Having underground habbles might explain where some of the raw materials come from. On the other hand, was it just surface critters that are dangerous, or is/was there something bad in the atmosphere when the spires were built (meaning you need the spire to start above the bad stuff, but maybe slowly fixed via terraforming)?  If you continue the ramp and the center pillar, you could have a ground entrance well below the bottom habble.

I think what I'm most wondering about is atmospheric pressure. If the spire sat on the ground, then the bottom is at sea level while the top is 10,000 feet - aka passing out without oxygen tank level.  So are we talking a planet with a lot more oxygen, or something causing the pressure to be the same up to airship heights (super ginormous planet?), or is it instead of 0 to 10,000 feet  it is actually 25k to 35k. Then you definitely need human tweaking to let them survive at all, but it would be a much smaller relative difference.

I guess if half of it is underground, you would have from -5000 feet (not as deep as the TauTona mine) to +5000 (Denver, so pretty livable)

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Cinder Spires Spoilers / Re: The Index
« on: February 20, 2016, 10:20:39 PM »
It's an Index. So, where is the book (or library) it is an index for? Say, a book of "summoning spells" - this book gives the names and pronunciation, the other book tells you what to do with the names. If Albion doesn't know about book#2, then the Index would seem like just a 'list of the names of god'.

The other historical index I can think of is the index of forbidden books. Though I don't think the Spierarch would be calm about someone creating all this mess to get a list of the evuls.

Also, I thought the warriors were halfbloods because they are "half" cat. Cat eyes, coughing roar, high body temperature, etc etc. The cats are either being metaphorical or they actually were the source of some warrior DNA.

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DFRPG / Re: Wizard power level without the Laws of Magic
« on: April 04, 2015, 05:52:49 PM »
I'd really suggest a rethink, cause you're missing out on an amazing set of GM tools. Remember that Jim wrote them in the first place because of the stories he wanted to tell.

First off, there are the laws to prevent spells that shut down stories.  Mind reading and looking into the past kill almost any story that involves secrets or 'who did what to whom'. So, the third, 4th and 6th laws.  Also note that there are workarounds Harry uses, but they all complicate/make interesting the story.  Soulgaze & using the Sight can give you indirect evidence about whether a person did or could have done something, but it doesn't give any solid proof. Plus, using either puts you at risk of 'see Cthulhu in their head, go temporarily insane' syndrome.

Then you have the laws that influence how the story will go, and what kinds of things the heroes will do.  1st law isn't just 'no kill', it is 'no kill with magic'. That means you will see wizards fighting with revolvers, swords, flaming ghostly chains, etc instead of tossing fireballs. Also, it is don't kill souls/free willed folks.  So humans are definitely out, animals & a lot of monsters are fine, and then you have things like WC vampires that generate should I /shouldn't I stories. 
If you WANT fireballs, you could drop this law entirely.  BUT, say you want heroes to toast badguys, but don't want the hero toasting the town guard.  Then, come up with a fancy version of 'PC races are no-nos, but Orks are a soulless hivemind created by Orcus, so they are fair game." Maybe a deity filled in the details.

Other laws and story: 2. Don't turn your enemies into cockroaches and step on them. 4, 5, and 7. Good guys don't use Charm Person, Animate Dead, or Speak with Illithid.  If you want cockroaches, charmed minions, zombie mine detectors, etc, just change the law.

Another benefit. Bad guys can break all these rules, so if you want a bad guy necromancer it's fine, he'll just be crazy and maniacal laughter.

And finally, they create stories abut Heroes skirting the edge, or the consequences of breaking the laws.  Harry: angst abut breaking 1st law, loophole finding to animate Sue, Molly and her various mind magics.

TLDR, tweaking the laws can be very good for your game. Tossing might be extreme.

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DFRPG / Re: Blocks versus Shapeshifters
« on: August 05, 2014, 04:25:57 PM »
For clarification:  Assume target is lycanthropic or other were-type.  I'm starting to think something based on their Catch would be more appropriate.  My thanks to everyone who chimed in.

Given that, binding/handcuff/collar could work.  Human legs always become back legs, arms become forelegs etc, and you always shift to the same shape.  So, use a tight collar, a celestial-monkey-brand shrinking headband, a ziptie bracelet, etc.  The trick is you put it on a body part that will get bigger if they shapeshift. A collar for instance: if you shift without breaking out of the collar, you start choking yourself. Resist the block with Might.

Good luck trying that on a Loup-Garou though.

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DFRPG / Re: what can you do with earth magic
« on: August 05, 2014, 04:11:45 PM »
Earth Magic?  Or Earth Evocation?

Good point. A couple ideas from other games: grasping hands coming out of the earth, making a chunk of rock explode (or just throwing a big rock), temporary stone wall, summon your lightsaber/warden sword to your hand. Ride a chunk of earth around. Passwall. Sense anything touching the floor. Guess someone's weight. Count the number of pennies in the jar.

Given that ley lines are a thing, I think you could block or counterspell by 'grounding' the magic energy. Also seems to be the element for manipulating most solid objects, so reinforcing (t-shirt into armor) & destroying armor would be easy.  Telekinesis. "Enhancing" black powder to make a better bomb, maybe, or would that be over the line?  Dig  a grave in front of someone as a flashy threat.

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DFRPG / Re: Looking for an odd "mission" from the fae
« on: June 23, 2011, 05:47:57 PM »
Bring me... a shrubbery! Or a perfect donut (yah, they contracted it out  ;D).

Traditionally, fae have trouble creating 'real' things. Make something. A perfect homecooked meal. Or, a perfectly RUINED homecooked meal.

A typical Mab-type request would be "do this seemingly simple thing that, while you're doing it, will coincedentally violate or negate the letter of a promise I made." For example, sending Harry to do just about anything in a building, that just happens to contain something you want burned.

Assassinate another fae. In some stories, a faerie battle had no real deaths, and so no winners or losers, unless a mortal participated.

Eat me.

Just about anything that will offend someone other than the police. Capturing dewdrop fairies? Not illegal. Taking a tree out of a park? Not illegal for this park, but will make the creatures that do rituals at the tree grumpy.

Oh, this is a fun one that might or might not be illegal, depending on your point of view. The famous painting in the art museum is a fake. Here's the original. Switch the two. Sure its breaking and entering, but you are also undoing a forgery.

Find the counterfeit dollar bills. Normal money is worthless to a fae, but a worthless thing that is treated as valueable but is therefore worthless to a fae, is oddly interesting.

Get me a backstage pass to the Elton John concert so I can capture his music.

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DFRPG / Monsters using magic
« on: June 23, 2011, 05:32:27 PM »
Let's say you are a monster (red or white court vamp for example) that can use magic. Are the laws of magic any different for you?

For example:
  • You are a vamp wizard using your vampire powers to kill someone. Break any laws?  What about the same vamp using wizardry to kill someone
  • You've made a thrall with your natural powers. Now you use wizardry to do some specific tinkering. Do they have enough mind left to count for the mental law?
  • Can you use wizardry to feed? Say using magic to induce the appropriate emotion, or just to rip out psychic energy for a white court.  Does using magic affect your Hunger?

I have the impression that magic is magic and vamp power are vamp powers, magic can break laws no matter who you are, natural powers never can. Hence why red courts are so crazy. But then again, magic-using reds don't seem significantly crazier than non-magic reds.  Ditto Sidhe

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DFRPG / Re: How does one join the White Council?
« on: June 23, 2011, 05:15:33 PM »
Step 1. Become known to the White Council as a practitioner.  Apparently the grapevine is pretty good - see Wardens turning up to tell people like Kravos and the Ordo Lebes the laws of magic.

Step 2. Pass a test designed to separate 'kitchen witch' from wizard. Personally, I don't think it would normally have any danger associated. More like "do some thaumaturgy", "now do a spell from each of the five elements", any other test if there's a way any of the minor talents mentioned in the RPG could slip past the other tests.  In other words, more of a "lift the ball into the cup with your mind to show your psi level" than "brave the gauntlet".

Step 3. You passed the tests, you are now given the choice of join the White Council, or be called a warlock and die.

The way it's been mentioned in the books so far, it feels like something quick and easy to me, designed to show that you have a certain power level, not testing combat ability or really anything else. For one thing, Ramirez tested Elaine, and she was able to purposely throw the test. Something like "survive in the nevernever" would be too dangerous if you are going to inflict on people who claim to be too weak to be WC.

Also, the WC wants as many members as possible. On the one hand, more people = more power, and on the other hand any breaking of the Unseelie Accords by wizardly-types, whether full WC members or minor talents, will be blamed on the WC. It is in the WC best interest to have all wizards be members. So cruel or terribly stressful tests would not make sense.

That said, I would assume that if someone is willing to sponsor you (wizard & apprentice, or Harry vouching for Elaine), then the sponsor can use whatever tests they want. Ars Magica-style gauntlets would make sense for some wizards, say Luccio and Morgan.


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