The Open Door (megacrossover)

[Xon]

When I described Skuld as a overpower on an enforce vacation, this is the type of things I had in mind.

Even Greater/Elder Gods in thier own plane would be challenged to pull something a tenth of the size off. But on the material plane? Not a chance.

[EternitynChaos]

Heh, This here was a simple case of Skuld working smarter, not harder ^^; even if it WAS alot of hard work for her, considering what she managed in the end I'd say she is going to cause the local gods to wonder just who the hell she is to pull something like this off when restricted to a single Avatar *or so they think.*

all in all however this was a fun chapter, nice to see Skuld can pull off Awesome and GAR as well as the others /laugh

[EarthScorpion]

Ah, it's always wonderful when Science is used to beat what Magic could do on its own. Also, previous comments about Skuld having a very powerful domain stand to bear.

Back on the subject of the Haruhiverse (spoilers for Book 9);

When is the storyline happening then? And, as a related point, how does the Azathoth-Nyarlothotep relationship of Haruhi-Kyon play into the role of Sasaki? If it's before the point when she enters the story, for example, I suspect Kyon might be a bit more willing to rationalise Sasaki as an independent avatar of the meta-Haruhi being that disagrees, in its madness, with what the internal dominant power, in the form of the Ultra Director wants, preferring sterile order to Haruhi's chaos.

The other factions are easy to explain in this new context. The Sky Canopy Domain and the Integrated Data Entity are just very powerful native lifeforms in this current universal iteration (and that actually means that their goal is to survive the end of this universe that they believe will inevitably happen. Why, hello Durandal!). Also, that puts them in a similar status to the Great Old Ones in canon Cthulhu Mythos.

Which puts Yuki as the equivalent of an Avatar of Cthulhu. Yeah.

Well, the timetravellers (both factions of them), are pretty much in the same status as in canon. They're people who can... um... travel in time. Although this does raise the question that Fujiwara and Mikiru appear to be on the wrong sides of the order-chaos Sasaki-Haruhi divide, given their respective goals. Likewise, the ESPers have their own objectives which still work, although technically I suppose it makes them a minor form of cosmic horror.

[Academia Nut]

The overall spell is within the possibility of some of the epic level stuff, but yeah, Skuld is basically taking her understanding of science and SCIENCE! and applying it to make her magic more effective. Instead of brute forcing reality to conform to something, instead of doing what most would consider a conjuration spell, she crafted an illusion and then provided the raw materials for the universe itself to make it real. Better yet, since she knows how to exploit energy balances and use magic to do funky things to entropy, she drew a great deal of power from the magma itself, using the energy stored as heat and pressure to partially offset the change in gravitational energy as she lifted it up several kilometers and the change in enthalpy as she formed the material into different chemical configurations. I get the feeling most other gods or mages attempting such a thing would have used extra power to refridgerate the magma instead of using a smaller amount of power expenditure in the form of magic to extract a large amount of energy from the base material. Probably because they conceive of heat and cold as fundamental things in of themselves, rather than temperature being a property of matter derived in part from its internal energy and thus exploitable.

[MichaelAwesome]

Academia Nut has such a flare for metaphysical symbolism that he doesn’t show off too often, like describing Skuld’s and Gunnhild’s consciousness exists on multiple planes of reality.

So the defense structure is like a big capacitor? Can it repair itself if enough magic is absorbed?

Notice that it was said that the wall absorbed magic, but not psionic energy, which would give Lars and their Duergar allies another home field advantage, such as if Lars could bounce a psychic scream echo off walls to catch enemies at odd angles. The “Dungeonscape” book has a selection of psionic traps, so depending on how the battle goes, psionic traps could be later incorporated into the defense structure.

[WillowBee]

Not to nit-pick, but there’s one small but potentially devastating flaw in Skuld’s star fortress. Sometimes when deities are killed or badly wounded, pieces of their divine essence can linger behind, which could be absorbed into Skuld’s star fortress and taint its magic. For example, fragments of Bhaal remain in the Winding Water, around Boarskyr Bridge where he was slain by Cyric, his blood having flowed into the river. According to the “Drow of the Underdark” book, when Lolth was injured by Corellon, places where her blood dripped to the ground became sites of magical power. Myrkul was a cloud of mist before merging with a sinister Netherese artifact known as the Crown of Horns.

Anyway, I like how musically-inclined witnesses were inspired by the sounds of creation. If Nesme survives the upcoming bloodbath, they may want to get a bardic college built or introduce phonograph technology.

P.S. Long ago, there used to be a goddess of pragmatism called Murdane who was Helm’s lover, but she was killed by Lathander during the Dawn Cataclysm. Given their attitudes, perhaps “pragmatism” could become part of Skuld’s or Gunnhild’s portfolio.


NFL = Necromancer Football League

Gunnhild: “Are ya ready for some football?”
Zombie: “Grrr. Braaaiiinnns…”
**

[Jaeger]

Skuld promising the stars to the unborn children of the future was a touching and beautiful scene. Also, her sincere promise might have given Skuld a small boost in power, as a Faerunean deity is strongest when fulfilling their divine portfolio, which was why the demipower Torm was able to be resurrected after being killed by Bane the Tyrant God.

Not to nit-pick, but there’s one small but potentially devastating flaw in Skuld’s star fortress. Sometimes when deities are killed or badly wounded, pieces of their divine essence can linger behind, which could be absorbed into Skuld’s star fortress and taint its magic.

Even if the fortifications are totally immune to magic, the earth and soil surrounding it are not, so the area directly outside of Nesme’s protective barrier will likely have lingering magical aftereffects of the upcoming seven-way conflict. And it’s not just limited to deities leaving pieces of their essence. Many old battlefields are haunted and long-term usage of a druid circle often leaves behind traces of spiritual energy. For Nesme, you can't have that much power, death, and bloodshed convert on a single location and not leave behind a few marks on the fabric of reality.

[Setesh]

Even if the fortifications are totally immune to magic, the earth and soil surrounding it are not, so the area directly outside of Nesme’s protective barrier will likely have lingering magical aftereffects of the upcoming seven-way conflict. And it’s not just limited to deities leaving pieces of their essence. Many old battlefields are haunted and long-term usage of a druid circle often leaves behind traces of spiritual energy. For Nesme, you can't have that much power, death, and bloodshed convert on a single location and not leave behind a few marks on the fabric of reality.

No kidding, several of the canon Time of Troubles battlefields end up infested with hordes of Swordwraiths (undead soldiers who roam alone or in groups up to whole regiments who do nothing but look for something to fight and kill), along with other spontaneously generated undead. The death of so many wizards when the weave went nuts led to many rising as Deathlocks (souless, undead wizards with little intellect left, spells they had memorized at death become innate abilities). The Time of Troubles led to a large increase in the undead ranks all around as clerics ran dry of divine energy while their gods were exiled to the prime.

[Garlak]

... Very touching ending there.



Hmmm... IS Skuld counted as being in Avatar form? It's more like she came fully to the material realm... unless Academia Nut is going to blow our minds by revealing that Skuld's real body is still back in the AMG-verse while her mind and an astral/ether/SHADOWSTUFF! body is in Faerun...

Also, is Skuld aware of the Whispered? It occurs to me that, since the Whispered are connected to the Shadow Weave--or at least the spellcasters are, Skuld should be able to pick them up "tapping" into her web. Heh... hehehehehe! I just noticed the weave, web, spider, silk, and internet references and connections... Oh jeez.. Haha.
Furthermore, is Skuld aware of the regular Weave? Lars seemed to be able to pick up the weave and shadowweave's energies... so they should probably be aware that that mage in Silvermoon had some major mojo from the weave...

As for the fortress... What does it do to Divine Energy? I mean... it seems like Skuld's own "aura" would sort of dampen other cleric's powers because they're on Skuld's homeground... but how does the fortress react to divine spells? Also, do the walls act like lightning rods, and partially wavebreakers? Attracting and breaking apart spells? Because if they just reflect or absorb spells cast at them, that's kinda useless; aside from a few siege spells, the spellcasters will be shooting off lightning bolts, fireballs, magic missiles and so forth at the DEFENDERS, not at the WALLS!

I look forward to seeing what kind of effects magic cast within the new Nesme has... Like maybe a lightning bolt shot out of the walls would be enhanced.. Hmm... How about something like: all nocturnal/shadowy spells can be cast within the fortress no matter what time it actually is, and people can easily see whether or not they usually see poorly at night, or see poorly during the day, or those with Darkvision seeing in gray or whatever, can now see in colors?


Also also... Is Skuld going to try to.. sorta... apply the assembly line method to magic? I mean, spellcasters and enchanters are sort of like artisans; it's all painstaking stuff done by hand. There's no really viable method of mass production. The best you can do is swiftly provide materials to the mages, or print spellbooks faster... actually, more like print magical TEXTbooks faster, because apparently it's a real pain to scribe scrolls or spells into a spellbook!! And the items effects vary so much, being from doing something like always providing waterbreathing or flight, to "3 times per day" crap.

Think about it. How would we feel if lightbulbs only worked "3 times per day, for caster level minutes," or if it was our water heaters or stoves that worked that way? Hell. No. We expect the damned things to work on demand!

Nesme needs some "pre-fabricated" magic... Maybe magic items which produce an effect if you just pour some energy in them; either use up a 0th, 1st, whatever, level spell slot or the equivalent of a Spellcraft check; place your hand on the symbol, and pop! You get a snack. Through magic conjuration. Pop! Your clothes are cleaned and repaired. Hmmm.... Maybe you could use some kind of stores of energy as currency... Batteries as currency is ridiculous in a world like ours, but where you have magic... Hmmm...

Nesme needs some Articifers.

[Valorie]

If you really want to mass-produce spellcasters, try investigating hypnopedia and subliminal learning. If properly applied, a student could gain the prerequisite knowledge to take a level in sorcerer or wizard within a few years rather than devoting decades to arcane schoolwork. However, after achieving a level in sorcerer or wizard, all further growth would be based on the normal accumulation of experience and the pursuit of knowledge, the same as any other PC or NPC.

Periapt of Arcane Tutoring
Only functions for characters that have +12 intelligence and don’t have any levels in an arcane spellcasting class.

Faint enchantment and illusion; CL; Craft Wonderous Item; creator must have 4 ranks in both Knowledge(arcana) and Spellcraft; Dream, Mnemonic Enhancer, Read Magic; Price: 2,400 gp
(2 x 3 x 2000 / 5 = 2400)

[White Haven]

If the Weave is the Internet of magic, then the Shadow Weave under Shar was 4chan.

[Firethorn]

If the Weave is the Internet of magic, then the Shadow Weave under Shar was 4chan.

4chan's too competently run.

It'd be like some of the more restrictive forums out there - run by a half competent administrator/owner. It hasn't been patched lately, any posts disagreeing with the admin are deleted and the user's account banned.

[Academia Nut]

If anything, the regular Weave is 4chan in that any idiot can get on there and start causing havoc with little to no repercussions, and the one time the admin tried to clean it up the mods and donators all bitched sufficiently that the admin had to relent to their demands or have the whole thing crash due to retaliations/lack of support staff/funds.

The canon Shadow Weave is... man, I shudder to think of the correct Internet analogy. Unless you suck up to the admin, it drives you insane(and if you do suck up to the admin you were probably crazy already). I suppose perhaps some of Darkstar's boards might qualify.

Also, it is an interesting point that after the Time of Troubles when Shar unveiled the Shadow Weave a lot of people were interested in it out of disgust with the damage done by the regular Weave. With a more competent and benevolent deity taking care of the Shadow Weave and the Shadow Weave having not done the ridiculous damage a Silverfire Golem cause...

Wait... were you supposed to hear that yet? Disregard all previous statements and certainly do not try and dream up what such an abomination would look like!

But yes, let's just say that the final two chapters of this arc will be impressive. I have no idea when they'll be done though.

[Garlak]

What's a Silverfire Golem?

Or, failing that, what is this material Silverfire? I THINK I've seen this before somewhere in your story...

No, I don't expect to be handed the plot spoilers on a mithral platter... Just, I'd like to know of the kind of effects such a material has/does, and from there try to extrapolate what a Golem would be like... And if Silverfire is related to the Weave, what would the equivalent Shadow Weave material be, and do?

[D1398342003]

Silver Fire

Essentially it's a Chosen of Mystra attack that destroys non-living objects and magical shields, deals severe damage to living objects, and has nasty side effects if it touches the shadow weave. A golem made of it would be pretty useless though. It would simply burn away the ground at such a rate that it would sink straight down. Unless of course the feet were made differently somehow.

[EternitynChaos]

your forgetting something, if its Silverfire, then I'd be willing to put money of it being able to fly, its damn near a living spell construct, aka a whole lot of trouble for anyone getting in its way.

still sounds like Lars and Co are in for some real fun soon ^^

[D1398342003]

If it can fly, is it still really a golem. Actually, is it really a golem at all? Can you even make a golem from energy or a chemical reaction?

If it can fly, than the two arms/legs a torso and head setup is pretty useless. It would be more effective if it had a squid like form. Sort of like Shamshel's (NGE Fourth Angel) laser tentacles, but with more of them.

If it can only hover a few inches/feet than a humanoid form is still useful, but tentacles are still a better weapon. Not that the caster of the Silverfire construct knows that though.

Will the golem/construct be able to use silverfire like a Chosen can? The whole beams of fire thing.

[Garlak]

The "destroy the multiverse" thing makes me... facepalm and groan.

Destroy/damage the multiverse. I mean, really?


If writers of fiction had any sense of scale, they'd realize just how presumptios and laughable any belief that something or event on Earth--or analogous world--would destroy the entire MULTIverse...

[Xon]

A metastable vacuum event would do so, since the entire "multiverse" is simply dimensionally displayed aspects of the same universe.

In many ways, the closer to the absolute global minimum vacuum energy the more relatively energy intensive it is to drop to the lower vacuum energy levels.

[D1398342003]

It's probably that the two weaves are like oxygen and gasoline, without 'heat' there's no reaction between them. With both weaves spread across the FR multiverse a single match could start a widespread flame. But yeah, facepalm. I suppose that it's lessened somewhat by the fact that only a dozen or so people can do it, and it is considered a last resort weapon.

[Setesh]

It wouldn't destroy the multi-verse, as it has happened before. Shadow Weave and Silverfire interacting causes a local destabilization of the 'reality rules'. The last time it created a stable and, until Elminster sealed it, permanent portal to the nine hells. No one has been willing to risk a second go, but it seems likely it cause catastrophic randomization of the 'laws' the world works on in the blast area. The fact it punched an 'impossible' portal through may have had to do with what Elminster was doing with it, ie. fighting an extra-planar being of obscene power.

[Academia Nut]

The chapter could have been updated today... but I got Warhammer Online a few weeks ago and I need to bash in the skulls of those aligned with Destruction. Maybe Tuesday evening, mountain time, there will be an update. There are a lot of factions to keep track of, but the payoff should be amazing.

Also, I just realized that I should have told you that whenever Rask goes "Yes... yes..." I hear Megatron's voice from Beast Wars a couple months back, but now that he gets more lines it will be a good reading tip.

[holyknight]

The chapter could have been updated today... but I got Warhammer Online a few weeks ago and I need to bash in the skulls of those aligned with Destruction. Maybe Tuesday evening, mountain time, there will be an update. There are a lot of factions to keep track of, but the payoff should be amazing.

Also, I just realized that I should have told you that whenever Rask goes "Yes... yes..." I hear Megatron's voice from Beast Wars a couple months back, but now that he gets more lines it will be a good reading tip.

(palms face)

Oh well....at least isn't WoW.....

[Valorie]

I kinda pictured Rask to be more like Tarantulas or an intelligent, competant version of Waspinator, but its nice to know that Academia Nut is a Beast Wars fan.

That reminds me, a while ago, there was a mock presidental election of Grimlock (Republican) versus BlackArachnia (Democrat). See link before.
http://www.sabrina-online.com/2008-04.html
"Me Grimlock, and me approve this message. Rarr!"
**

[Academia Nut]

Well, actually, Tarantulas for the most part, but with Megatron's particular cadence for his speech tics, the "Yes... yes..." or "No... no..." bits, if perhaps a touch less deep and more sibilant. Really, the way he extends the 'e' sound in 'Yes' is the biggest bit. It's sort of hard to explain, but if you go on YouTube and listen to a bit of Megatron's speech patterns you will probably get the thrust of what I'm getting at. I'm fairly certain someone has compiled a collection of Megatron going "Yes" and "No" somwhere.

Either way he's crazy though.