Author Topic: Character thread: Halt  (Read 8406 times)

Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #20 on: June 20, 2014, 04:50:12 AM »
Halt feels the solidity of the hit from the hammer-headed Uruk-Hai as if the creature is far denser than he appears, made of lead instead of flesh. As Halt sails across the chamber he is still conscious enough to see Darayat and Ror approaching fast, but then he crashes into the wall between them and his vision winks out amid spinning rubble and fading light.

Then Halt's vision clears; he has a vision of an enormous cavern, the ceiling disappearing up into uncharted reaches above. The only light is that of a fire burning in a forge, and a long round object being hammered on a huge anvil. Sparks fly from the forge, adding a lurid flickering brightness.

The anvil grabs his attention: it seems to be made of adamantine, shot through with veins of deep emerald that flash in the ultraviolet whenever the hammer drops. Then he notices the smith, a gigantic male dwarf, over 6 feet tall, with a barrel chest and a beard of sculpted stone. The dwarf's skin is the same earthen brown as the rock around him, and his eyes are the deep silver of mithril.

The Will of the Dwarf hits Halt like no hammer could, even though the Dwarf seems not to be paying attention to him at all. The immensity of the Power tells the Story better than Ror's images that Halt had seen before; Halt knows beyond the least doubt that he is in the presence of Father Dumathoin, one of the greatest Powers of the First Age who, along with a handful of other survivors, bound together the Second Age from remnants.

The smith says nothing, instead continuing to hammer. Those silver eyes move to Halt where he stands 20 yards away, and suddenly Halt realizes -- no, he knows, as if he has always known, that hammering away with all one's strength is not, cannot be enough to finish the job.

A hammer is a tool of power, capable of delivering tremendous force, of shaping and molding to the will of the smith. However, it is the hand holding the hammer, the subtle shifts of position and momentum, which determine what the final form will be. And Halt knows with equal certainty that the possibilities lie in the material, as much as in the skill of the hand.

The eyes, liquid pools of mithril, do not leave Halt as the dwarf stops hammering; it becomes evident then that the Dwarf had been hammering around the object on the anvil and not the object itself, preparatory strikes to warm the anvil and material to working temperature. He stands like a statue, no heaving chest or quivering arms to betray the effort that has just ceased.

The Dwarf is staring off, his glance ahead, roving. Somehow, despite the angle, Halt can see what the dwarf is looking at:

An infinite swath of Wildspace, sprinkled with worlds and suns, wide enough to tell an entire Story, but at the same time so close in detail that every smallest piece is plain to see.

There is Halt himself, unconscious but alive, on a flat elliptical path that will carry him from below the edge of the Bral fragment with the chamber, to underneath the chamber floor, and then back over the top to the starting point of the ellipse. Chunks of wall are orbiting with him.

There are the remains of Bral, a cloud of rapidly expanding hot dust and fused debris. Halt can also see, expanding out from the center of the explosion in the Dwarf's view, a maelstrom of twisting, glowing, snapping lines, the vast Timestorm that Ptolemaeus saw which threw him into a collision course with Star...

From the Dwarf's intensity of Will on the scene, Halt can get the impression that perhaps that collision was not chance at all...

Even now, the snapping glowing tangle of lines, Halt can see, has begun to be repaired... by a vast, galaxy-sized device of some sort, preparing the way for a replacement Bral's insertion when the world is done... Halt can feel a sense of satisfaction in Dumathoin's far-reaching gaze, whether for the repairs, or for what comes next, is not clear...

The next detail that is clear is the Lifejammer sitting atop the cavern fragment of Bral where the fight rages inside, brief flickering images through the eyes of Dumathoin's priests coming into view, not the totality of viewing the All that Dumathoin enjoys everywhere else, but still enough. Outside the cavern, in plain view, there stands Demogorgon, delicately feeding one goblin plucked from the bale into the Lifejammer engine slowly... slowly... to better savor the anguish ripped from its moaning body as its lifeforce is burned away. The mighty engine has not yet come to its full glory as the crescendo of burning life builds.

Dumathoin's mood shifts to an enormous contempt for the Demon Princeling who has failed to learn from the failures of others before Him, who yet believes He can burn Witchlight Marauders with impunity, and control them when other, more ancient, far greater Powers failed to contain them.

Then the Dwarf’s gaze bores into Halt deep, deeper, as if probing for his heart’s desire, and just before the pressure of that Will becomes unbearable, it stops entirely.

Again Halt sees what the Dwarf sees: A creature who seeks power, but with no clear end: What is Halt's own heart? Ror and Gleron came before the Smith as ones who knew their hearts, as tools who could be sharpened on the Anvil to serve even better. In the Smith's eyes, many futures extend from this point among the tangle of Timelines in the Maelstrom left from Bral, but Halt's choices, Halt's heart, do not point out a path.

The possibilities lie in the material.

Presently, Halt realizes that the Smith is waiting... The Dwarf seems to be waiting for Halt to come to terms with himself.

Edit: tpyo
« Last Edit: June 20, 2014, 04:59:24 AM by MetroMagic »

Offline Debatra

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #21 on: June 20, 2014, 07:15:12 AM »
Is the Smith expecting some great personal change? Some revelation to guide him through this task? Well, it seems the ancient Dwarf is in for a rude surprise. As Dumathoin sets his gaze upon Halt, he also sees the glow of a Silver Oak leaf. The physical manifestation of the intrinsic vows Hammered into every member of the Araluen Ranger Corp.
 
No... That isn't the Rangers' way. We have no path. We go where we are needed. We gather intelligence. We protect the people. When we must, we kill. We seek no Glory. We aren't knights. There is only so much a 'bash-and-whacker' can accomplish.
 
Hell, the only reason I went to Sigil was to learn some magical tricks to help the Corp. He feels a momentary pang of guilt for allowing his mission to become so horribly derailed. Well, at least he learned that what he wanted to do was possible, even if he had no clue how to do it.
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #22 on: June 27, 2014, 05:21:33 AM »
The Smith shifts His weight, raising His axe poll face downward, readying the strike. Halt can feel the Smith's will shift again, from pause to certainty; Halt can realize that his own response of heart was in fact exactly what the Smith willed: a clarity, Halt's own certainty about his role. Araluen Ranger. Going where needed, gathering intelligence, protecting the people. Doing what is needed.

Halt can feel the Smith's certainty about how to sharpen the tool on His anvil. The massive axe descends in a blur. Halt feels the strike as an exquisitely intense flash; it is Halt on the anvil; he can realize he knew this all along.

Halt is tumbling through Time, following one of the possible TimeLoops the Smith had seen in the wild vortex leading from this point. Events flash past his view, sharing the Smith's vision as before. Halt has returned on his own world, only to find the sun blotted out and the sky black with an approaching cloud. As it nears, the cloud resolves into hundreds, thousands, of ships... not ships. Witchlight Marauders, a quarter mile in size, nearing the surface. Each carries dozens, hundreds, of Primary Witchlight Marauders, enormous creatures with maws that tear down mountains and drink rivers, taking in substance to sprout Secondary Witchlight Marauders, who rush to gobble smaller prey and sprout Tertiary Witchlight Marauders like those in the chamber. In days or hours, the cloud departs, leaving a husk of a world behind as it moves heedlessly to the next one it can find for its voracious collective appetite. There was nothing special about Halt's world; along this TimeLoop it was just another grain of sand in the destruction of the Second Age. 

An Araluen Ranger: Going where needed, gathering intelligence, protecting the people. Doing what is needed.

Halt snaps awake, passing beneath the floor of the cavern, as he tumbles through thin shafts of emerald, purple, and golden Light, pinpoint rays through hairline cracks between the plates jointed together for the floor, now jostled out of their perfect alignment by the explosion first, and again from the force of Saint Ror's stupendous blows. Tiny glimpses of the chaos inside the cavern flicker before  his eyes, and at each flicker passing across him, a bit more Healing strength washes into him.

As Halt tumbles he soon notices that he can't see himself at all, not even with any ability he has to see the Invisible or hidden. The knowledge is there in his mind: Dumathoin's tool, sharpened, intelligence gatherer, removed from all sight by the Keeper of Secrets. A good thing he is, too; now he is curving back just above the chamber and there is Demogorgon's Lifejammer ship, a squat spidery thing, resting on its delicate legs on what must have been the floor of the level above the battle chamber. Halt can easily guess that Demogorgon should, would, surely have sensed his presence passing so close by. Not now. This tool has been given an edge so keen it... he... Halt himself cannot be seen, even by a godling, until he wills otherwise.

And there inside is Demogorgon, visible at this side angle through two giant faceted hatchways like a spider's eyes, still easing that same agonized goblin delicately into the Lifejammer's furnace feet first, up to the mid-shins now. The harsh glow from the still dim furnace slaps Halt's senses as he begins to pass above it, power so strong that even in its dimness, Halt can sense its tremendous potential. Perhaps Demogorgon's insane plan could actually work, shattering the Phase barrier keeping the monster from the Phlogiston, the place no Plane touches by bringing Demogorgon there through the agency of Souls.

Halt continues to tumble in an orbital arc back toward his point of departure... not quite orbital, he now sees; sub-orbital. He has been slowed with the lightest touch, just enough to curve back down onto the outer edge of the shelf of rubble-strewn floor near where he left the cavern through the fresh hole he made in the wall.

Halt has a little Time before he gets there, though. Enough to sort through his arrows to select ones already marked with the stick of emerald Rune Chalk the Smith placed in his quiver. Sharpen the tool. Now Halt can sharpen his own tools himself. The knowledge was struck into his mind on the Smith's anvil: How to deliver his Spells and other effects with a prepared arrow's strike to punch through the Spell Resistance that a target might have.

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Offline Debatra

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #23 on: June 27, 2014, 02:18:13 PM »
Nice, but both abilities leave me with questions. Some are things I'm not certain of, and some are things I think I get but want to be clear on. Anyway:
 
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There's also one more, mostly unrelated issue. I wouldn't bring it up, except this is the perfect time to explain it in-story. The Araluen Hunter PrC was updated a few weeks ago. It's mostly just rewording the existing stuff for clarity, but there's one new ability. (Technically two, but one is just a better version of the other.) I understand completely if you don't want to throw it in.
 
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Oh yeah, and since I'm apparently awake now, I take it Dumathoin also healed me?
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #24 on: July 03, 2014, 04:22:42 AM »
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Offline Debatra

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #25 on: July 03, 2014, 06:41:57 AM »
I started typing this post with "Okay, so just two more questions". Then I thought of more until I stopped counting. In no particular order:
 
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #26 on: July 12, 2014, 01:16:16 AM »
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Offline Debatra

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #27 on: July 12, 2014, 08:08:18 AM »
Last question, and I actually mean it this time.
 
Softening only gives a penalty on the very next Fortitude save made by its victim. So what happens if someone under Softening is hit by truly simultaneus effects that force a Fortitude save, like my arrows could?
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Offline MetroMagic

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Re: Character thread: Halt
« Reply #28 on: July 14, 2014, 02:36:46 AM »
Last question, and I actually mean it this time.

Softening only gives a penalty on the very next Fortitude save made by its victim. So what happens if someone under Softening is hit by truly simultaneus effects that force a Fortitude save, like my arrows could?

For this to be the last question, I have to answer a more general case… thus anticipating the next follow-up question, and the next, and… in fact (as you will see) there are an INFINITE NUMBER of individual follow-up questions possible, so I really had better answer the general case or we’ll never get back to playing  :D

(Did you hear about the car thief who started to steal an Infinity?.......) (an MM original; I’ll have to send it to Steven Wright. Yes, we even have stand-up in this game.)

Suppose someone is under the Effect of one or more things that give a penalty to Saves, and is hit simultaneously by two or more things for which their Saves might be affected by those penalties?

AFAIK there is no RAW for this situation and therefore… for the fairness and the excitement, The Dice decide.

It’s a great place for a percentile roll… let’s have some Shenanigans!

As usual the decision is tilted in the PC’s favor, just like when the DMs decide directly.

There are at least two influences upon the roll:

It’s a matter of close Timing; around Star, Time is on your side. If either the caster or the victim is within range of Star or on a Link with her, apply a +2 Time bonus and roll twice, choosing the best result.

You’ll need some Luck to get the Effect you’re hoping to get. If the caster is an ally of Janis and Janis is within 100 feet, OR if the caster is operating within The PlanTM (which is *any* Plan that Janis had a hand in creating), apply a +2 Luck bonus. Any other Luck bonus the caster has will also apply and stacks with this Luck bonus from Janis, even Luck bonuses which specifically say they don’t stack with other Luck bonuses. Janis never did care much about other people’s rules.

Whoever was the caster or creator of the Effect makes the roll. If multiple Effects, then each PC rolls for whatever Effects they created.

This is a little complicated when explained as a generalization; my examples below, especially the one answering your specific question, should help to make it clear.

The generalization: The caster of the penalty Effect divides the 01-99 range of the roll into evenly divided sub-ranges based on the number of Saves, to which that penalty could apply, and declares which sub-range is associated with which Save, from least desirable result to most desirable result (from the caster’s perspective) in ascending order… And then makes the roll.

For example if there are three Saves to be made and four penalties could apply to all of them, then the sub-ranges would be 01-33, 34-66, 67-99, with 01-33 assigned to the least desirable result and 67-99 to the most desirable result, with 34-66 to the middling result.

The roll determines the Save to which the penalty applies. A result of 00 or higher means something extraordinary happens. Go for it!!

This process is repeated for each penalty, to determine which Save the penalty will affect. The result might have all penalties apply to a single Save, or spread out across the Saves, at random. If more than one penalty is randomly applied to any one Save, then the usual rules apply about those penalties stacking, or not.

Here is the clarifying example, going back to your question that started this post:

In the simplest case, the one you asked about, there are one penalty and two Saves: one Softening penalty and two FORT Saves to which it could apply. Assign the range of 01-49 to the least desirable Save from your perspective, and 50-99 to the most desirable Save from your perspective. Make the percentile roll; if both Janis and Star’s influences apply, add +4, roll twice, and take the highest outcome. The outcome of the roll will determine which of the two FORT Saves receives the Softening penalty, randomly but tilted in favor of your most desirable outcome.
« Last Edit: July 14, 2014, 02:39:11 AM by MetroMagic »