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Given that Skuld is the Norn of the Future, and now the goddess of the *Shadow* Weave, I have to give this title at least three groans out of five, on the Pun-o-meter.Academia Nut wrote:Chapter Fifty-two: Visions of the Future
I think the soul-rending attack will impress the Erinyes more than the shotgun blast.Then the now thoroughly perforated creature took a strange object off its back and activated the strange wand/staff-thing with a tremendous roar of fire and noise, causing Andre, the paladin at the forefront of the charge, to die messily as his head exploded. The creature then hurled some sort of mental magical attack that slew Andre’s lieutenant Kris, his mental screams as his soul was shredded causing the all the horses and many of the men to panic, destroying the momentum of the charge before it had a chance to hit the tiny cluster of devils.
So Lars' retinue of Erinyes is reduced from ten down to eight. Given that eight still seems to be the "default" holy number for (new) Chaos Undivided, I have to put this in the same category of "is it really coincidence" as Asuka's last fight before her ascension to godhood.On the whole, it hadn’t been worth it, but still, it was good to see two devils erased from the multiverse.
Flaming skeleton(s)? Check.Then, with a terrible cry, she hurled the energies at the Riders, catching in a swirling holocaust of destructive energies that flayed them and their horses to the bone… but not beyond that. As their own flesh burned, they did not die. No, a far worse fate awaited them.
Lots of chains? Check.The metal of their armour and weapons peeled back and melted, flowing about their burning bodies and reforming into thick chains that bound the riders to servitude. Their clothing combusted but did not turn to ash and fly away, rather reforming into the thick garments of semi-nomadic herders they had never seen but that Lars and Skuld knew very well.
So they're wearing leather cowboy outfits? Huh. Well, I guess since they're going to be riding horses instead of motorcycles...When the dread spell was complete, approximately three hundred men and three hundred horses had been transformed, all their flesh stripped away and turned to halos of hellfire and night black smoke about their burning skeletons. They wore long coats and heavy leathers that seemed perpetually singed but never actually ignited. Wrapped around them were chains of steel that seemed to only be solid on a thin, cracked crust on the surface for one could see the white hot glow of molten metal beneath. From their right arms the chains draped down, long whips of molten cold iron wreathed in hellfire ready for use in the service of the one that had just claimed them. Meanwhile their mounts had been transformed into skeletal nightmares, snorting yellow-white flames while their glowing orange hooves struck sparks of molten iron across the ground.
Which is probably going to annoy more than a few good and neutral gods. Having even a small number of your worshippers stolen from you tends to cause teeth to grind. Given that *any* divine spellcaster - including druids and rangers - in the Forgotten Realms has to be a passionate worshipper of one of the gods, the loss of these clerics, paladins and rangers is going to be taken as an even greater insult.Paladins, rangers, fighters, and even clerics of other gods had made up the Riders of Nesmé. They had all been transformed, every last one of them involved in the attack, their souls claimed irretrievably by Skuld’s magic.
Somehow, I don't think that this is going to help Skuld keep a low profile in this part of Faerun. Or *any* part of Faerun, depending on how far individual ghost riders range between now and when the Time of Troubles end. Of course, it will help to spread her faith; since several of the gods (particularly among the evil ones) are regularly invoked to basically show that their powers are recognized so there's no reason to give any "demonstrations".Compelled by more than just the fear and pain that tormented them, the Riders mounted their flaming steeds and whipped them on with their chains, striking sparks as they took to the skies, the hooves of their horses finding purchase upon thin air as if it were a cobbled street. As they ascended, the trails of smoke about them coalesced into dark black thunderclouds, lightning leaping from the storm to lash at the riders, causing them to cry out with pain but harming them not in the least.
Bodkin?And he got a bodkin or eight to the face for his trouble.
Well, I guess that removes any doubt that mingling of their souls has given Skuld a little bit of Mislaato. I guess a previous poster here was incorrect that Skuld would need to absorb (at least part of) Lovitar's portfolio before Odin's parental sense would start to tingle.Looking up at the still rather surprised Erinyes, Lars said jokingly to Skuld, “In the tradition of my people, I present to my wife a small harem for our own amusement.”
Before the Erinyes had time to respond to that Skuld placed a finger on her chin ponderingly and said, “Can they lick a good pussy or are they exclusively cock munchers?”
Cue Asmodeus getting a bit of a headache, and making a mental note to pass down an inter-office memo that it's generally *easier* to tempt individuals if they either don't think you're trying to tempt them, or (at the very least) aren't very good at it.Falagoro frowned at him and protested, “I have personally damned over a hundred mortals!”
The revolution *will* be on your crystal balls.Turning back to the town, he said, “This here is a rifle, approximately modelled after the Pattern 1853 Enfield although incorporating some of the characteristics of a Springfield 1861. It fires a .577 calibre Minie ball bullet, nasty little round that can easily remove a limb if it doesn’t just blow your guts or brains out. For a muzzleloader, it has excellent range, accuracy, and rate of fire. But the real power of this beauty here is that with the proper tools and training, anyone can make one. This is a major advantage as anyone can use one. Typical training time is a few weeks to achieve proficiency, instead of the years it takes to train with a sword or decades for magic.”
Carrot and stick.Lars then frowned and said, “But do not think for one second we will tolerate your abuse of our allies, those whose only crime is that they were born different from you. We judge not on skin or shape, but on action. This world is full of dangers; do not make us amongst them. Think of the future, think of your children. Do you want them standing strong, shoulder to shoulder, the thinks that have hunted you cowering in their holes against them, or do you want them vanished to the mists of history? Choose people of Nesmé, and choose carefully.”
Well, Skuld's worshippers will now know what her holy weapon is.Rushing over to where the refugees were all retreating, the sight that greeted them was rather bizarre collection of giant, shadowy green spiders stepped out of swirling pools of darkness. There were also smaller ones seemingly made of metal that accompanied them, and some strange ones that were pale and seemed to phase in and out of reality. That wasn’t the bizarre part.
The bizarre part was the fact that at the centre of the grouping, riding on the largest of the shadowy spiders was a tiny little rabbit-spider thing with a mallet in its mouth.
Poor Ao. Poor, poor Ao.Then Lars dropped the biggest bombshell when he reported what his senses were telling him.
“They’re all female… and they’re all pregnant… with that System Bug’s children,” Lars said with a strangely horrified look on his face that was quickly mirrored by Skuld.
I have to agree with others who have already stated that this seems to be a request for a non-aggression pact.The bug then hopped down off it’s… well queen seemed the right word… and strode over to Lars and Skuld before depositing the hammer thought lost for months at Skuld’s feet. It then looked up at them with a stare that dared them to turn it against him.
Stronger gods in the Forgotten Realms do typically have one or more weaker gods as their subordinates.Smiling, Skuld said, “I say we kill Lolth and give the spider part of her portfolio to him.”
“If he doesn’t beat us to the punch,” Lars murmured.
I don't supppose you could give us a numerical value for the challenge rating?Academia Nut wrote:Chalenge Rating: Hard
I imagine that the fact that'll be detected by "detect good" and by "detect evil" will cause some confusion for the first few months/years of their existance.Balance of Good and Evil: Ghost riders are creatures of good, but they were damned for rash action and they have the fires of hell wreathing and strengthening their bodies. Thus they detect as evil and good aligned weapons are required to get through their damage reduction and regeneration, but any spells or abilities that deal damage or status effects based on alignment use their true alignment. Thus an unholy blight spell would hurt them, and while a holy sword would get through their damage reduction and deal real damage, it would not deal extra damage for striking an evil creature.
Do they gain any spellcasting abillities (like Ranger equal to their hit dice perhaps) while in their "mortal" form?Love Quenches the Flames: The ghost riders were originally damned for attacking the mate of a goddess thinking him evil, thus the only cure for their condition is for others to not be so blind. If any creature of any alignment truly and honestly loves a ghost rider for who and what they are, then they will revert to a mortal form. Remove all special abilities and attacks except for smite evil, rejuvenation, and love quenches the flames for as long as at least one sentient being loves the ghost rider for whom they are. If killed while in this form they immediately rejuvenate (see below).
So the only ones who could free them are Skuld, Ao, or beings that are at least as powerful/"connected" as either of them?Rejuvenation: Like actual undead ghosts, ghost riders are tied to the mortal realms by the deity level strength of their curse and thus if killed they will return in 1d4 days without fail, unless an over deity steps in to undo the curse. Any ghost rider that has just rejuvenated has the love quenches the flames ability suppressed for a year and a day. If killed while in mortal form due to the love quenches the flames ability, they return on the round following their deaths.
It would still be nice to see their (the mounts) stats.There we go, the first draft of the D&D version of my ghost riders. Still need to do the mounts, but they'll be based off a combination of nightmares, the celestial template, and the paladin's mount so there is less to think up there. Comments from the other D&D players?
JGregory32 wrote:You know someone is going to have to eventually tell Belldandy and Urd that Skuld got married and now has a daughter. A daughter that like to build skull thrones out of 'bad people' but still skull thrones. I wonder if Hild is going to have the typical anime reaction to hearing that she now has Grandbabies she can spoil.
Hmmm... would Mara get appointed babysitter/blame magnet for Grunhild?
Lord help Kenchi if he ever hurts Belldandy, she now has inlaws/neices that would do very nasty things to him.
Through I could see Lars taking him aside for a little 'advice' on relationships.
He, uh... he pretty much already did that.JGregory32 wrote:Through I could see Lars taking him aside for a little 'advice' on relationships.
Given the wording, the stat listing is for a 'generic' Ghost Rider. In reality, if Academia Nut wanted, he could gen Ghost rider versions of all 300 odd transformed men. While it could be argued that they've lost their magical abilities due to the transformation and Skuld's taking of their souls while transformed, I'd say the odds are good that any under the love transformation would resume their previous forms - and all abilities therein. Paladins would be paladins, etc...TheClueless wrote:Do they gain any spellcasting abillities (like Ranger equal to their hit dice perhaps) while in their "mortal" form?
Especially once word of 'Love Quenches the Flames' gets around. Here you are, slaughtering some village when you kill the wrong person and suddenly have a Ghost Rider after you. Whether it be that nasty fighter type or some innocent woman.I haven't played anything in over a decade, but I personally feel it was "Most impressive". If I was playing an evil PC, these would be right up there in my characters nightmares.
I believe the Shadow Weave was essentially a 3e creation--the retcon was that Shar had the Shadow Weave for millenia, but only allowed the occasional individual access to it. Knowledge became widespread in 1372 (the start of 3e, 14 years after the Time of Troubles), when the city of Shade returned to Faerun.Darth Yoshi wrote:I'm curious; how many rare is use of the Shadow Weave? I get the impression that Shar was until recently the only being even aware of its existence.
I had implied the creation of a second daemonworld from the way NewChaos readily agreed to the Ancient's terms.Darth Yoshi wrote:They requested that the Eva not leave the Daemonworld. Of course, that doesn't mean Asukhon can't build a second one elsewhere.
Agreed. Before Shade showed up, Shar supposedly kept the Shadow Weave a secret from just about all of the Forgotten Realms population - that, plus the fact that the Plane of Shadows was her home turf in 3.x - allowed her to keep the existance of the Shadow Weave a secret from all the other gods, let alone Joe Wizard in Waterdeep.Valint wrote:I believe the Shadow Weave was essentially a 3e creation--the retcon was that Shar had the Shadow Weave for millenia, but only allowed the occasional individual access to it. Knowledge became widespread in 1372 (the start of 3e, 14 years after the Time of Troubles), when the city of Shade returned to Faerun.Darth Yoshi wrote:I'm curious; how many rare is use of the Shadow Weave? I get the impression that Shar was until recently the only being even aware of its existence.
Considering that Shar had the power to cut anyone off from use of the Shadow Weave (and, even if she didn't cut you off, those who did not follow Shar took a permanent -2 to Wisdom from touching the Shadow Weave), one would imagine that any servants of Shar used to the Shadow Weave were in for a big surprise when Skuld took her place.
Skill chekc based DC's are oh so easy to boost. But since they don't seem to have class levels, that's not utterly broken. Still, those DC are going to be really high. A DC of 18+1d20+CHA is going to be hard to beat.Academianut wrote:Songs of Thunder: When mounted and either at a full gallop or charging, as part of the action the ghost rider may let out a mournful cry. All evil creatures that hear the song must make a Will saving throw with the DC equal to the ghost rider’s Perform (sing) check or become panicked for 2d6 rounds and shaken until the end of the encounter with the ghost rider. If unable to flee, any creature so affected will be paralyzed with fear if confronted while still panicked. Any creature that successfully saves is immune to any ghost rider’s song for the next 24 hours. This is a mind affecting, sonic effect.
I'm guessing Sorcerer (1 level only) / Artificer (from the Ebberon campaign setting). Possibly with levels in one of the classes from the Book of Nine Swords due to how strong/tough Johan apparently is. Probably no more than nine character levels; possibly no more than five.Academia Nut wrote:Johan had led an interesting life up to this day. At age twelve he had been noticed as having some degree of sorcerous talent and had been recruited by a local mage as an apprentice, only for an orcish tribe to raid his village before he could do anything more than learn a few simple cantrips and thrust him into a long, brutal struggle to survive.
First it had been the orcs, claiming him as a slave for his ability to read the magical writings but never allowed to develop his abilities, instead forced to become a smith for them and improve their implements of war, bending his slight and untrained talents towards the enhancement of what he built for them. It had been a harsh few early years that had turned him to stone, and more than one fellow slave or rival orc who had tried to knife him in the back had taken a hammer blow to the head for the trouble.
Eh, I wasn't too fond of the Bladesinger prestige class in the Complete Warrior book, since you ended up only gaining five effective levels of your spellcasting class over ten levels. But it's still better than the version in Races of Faerun, since it has a seperate spellcasting progression rate that is the (arcane) equivalent of taking levels in a class like Ranger.A week later Kirilae had shown Johan what lay beyond the door. It was a small room, clearly carved out by magic decades ago. In it was a collection of works that probably would have had Kirilae sacrificed on some bloodstained altar for possessing. They were magical treatises written by the surface elves. Kirilae had run across mention of some of their magic years ago and it had become an obsession for her to discover the strange blend of magic and swordplay called blade singing that some of them used.
There were many styles of combining the arcane with martial disciplines, and Kirilae had been cobbling them together with what knowledge she could scrape together on the styles used by the surface elves. It was all heretical in the extreme, but Kirilae had been obsessed with uncovering the mechanics of how it was done since her early days training in wizardry. If her fellow drow would not let her study what she wanted because of what Lolth commanded, then to the Hells with Lolth.
Damascus steel?Then, two months after that, while out shopping for supplies, Johan had discovered a sale for weapons being produced in the Roreril compound. The quality of the blades was unsurpassed by anything without magic; the steel carefully tempered and folded with a delicate pattern of water ripples on the surface that belied the incredible strength such things actually spoke of. And yet there were literally dozens of these blades going for half what a lesser weapon might sell for.
So Lars and Skuld had been on Faerun for approximately four months (due to the time it would take to travel to Menzoberranzan, and then set up the steel production facility) before House Baernre went the way of the dodo bird?Three months later House Roreril and House Oblodra obliterated House Baenre and the city was thrown into chaos as magic began to run amok and the political order tried to sort itself out in the typical drow fashion. Rumours abounded and it seemed that some new goddess had arisen in the midst of the Roreril compound and she intended to leave Menzoberranzan.
Anyone else think of Babylon Five's Delenn when you read this part?Kirilae had come to him, all the worldly possessions she could fit travel with; including the sword Johan had bought her, and asked him simply, “Will you follow me?”
Hmmm... Maybe I should replace the level in Sorcerer with a level in Shadowcaster (from Tome of Magic)?He brought his finger out of the pool of shadow he had created with his tools and he created a tiny smudge of inky blackness where no darkness should be able to manifest.
Well, if Warlocks can take levels in prestige classes that require caster levels, I can't see why Artificers and/or Shadowcasters couldn't take the Shadow Weave feat. Or, for that matter, levels in (Skuld's version of) the Shadow Adept prestige class.Johan’s heart nearly stopped when he realized that she had just called him ‘dear’ so freely and casually. Grinning, he held up the shield about his hand and gestured to the flickering darkness about him and said, “I think I just figured out how to touch Lady Skuld’s Shadow Weave.”
Well, I've already made my opinion on both version of the Bladesinger prestige class pretty clear.She had figured out the blade art she had sought for so many decades!
I wouldn't be too sure that you'll outlve Johan by too much (if at all), Kirilae. Not if Skuld develops her own version of the Shade template anyway.Pulling him tight and demonstrating with her closeness just how thin the silk adorning her body was, Kirilae ask, “I am an elf and you are a human. I will outlive you and any children we might have, barring violence. I doubt I will truly ever comprehend all those little human things that you have been getting so excited about recently. But would you swear to love me for the rest of our lives before the goddess?”
I'm sorry, but I have to smile at this.TheClueless wrote:But, then again, they *did* launch a sneak attack on another goddess' husband...
Making Soulstones and mini-Infinity Circuits standard issue aboard Chaos Undivided's larger warships would also make a good defense in the inevitable conflict against AU versions the old Chaos gods that didn’t go back in time and uncreate themselves. The daemon minions of Slaanesh and Khorne are able to steal souls, so a Chaotic variant of the Infinity Circuit would protect their souls from being capture and leak valuable information to their enemies. Plus, Infinity Circuits behave like a collective spiritual entity, so it could be harnessed as an emergency power source when Warp taps like S3 organs aren’t available.Jaeger wrote:Is the Stiletto equipped with a miniaturized Infinity Circuit? For the Open Doors continuum, there’s the chance that any Stiletto crewmember killed while the ship is in a low-energy dimension (such as the Doldrums) will be lost and not join with their Chaos gods in the Afterlife.
Actually no, katana's are not modern steel. While the forging is of similar care and technical expertise as Damascus steel, their smelting process is terrible. The starting iron is of far less quality, which is why the had to fold it 800-1000 times, otherwise it wouldn't keep an edge. It left them with a strong, but brittle blade. The blade would snap under a certain amount of side blade force. This is why the techniques emphasize cutting through the opponent, if your blade gets stuck in him it could be snapped. Damascus steel on the other hand started from high quality iron, the blades were folded 300-600 times and were easily as strong, but no where near as brittle. There are cases of Damascus steel rapiers being bent 45 degrees with no harm coming to them. Same with long swords cutting into armor, it just needs to be resharpened later but the blade survives.Academia Nut wrote:For those of you with issue for the moderncraft addition, well the strengths of steels in the medieval world were easily an order of magnitude below modern steels, if not two orders of magnitude for some. I remember hearing about someone debunking a bit of katana wanking about how a katana wielded by an expert could cut through a metal helmet, but it was pointed out that the katana was ruined by the act, and it was modern steel versus period iron.
In other words, the Forgotten Realms are about to have to ponder the riddle of steel anew.