07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

The goings on of courts
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by NPC »

(( He doesn't seem to have realized he's holding a fake knife, so the illusion is still being held against the dark elf's neck. So yes, it is maybe a bit difficult to use effectively... but it's also poisoned - maybe he thinks it'll only take a scratch? ))
Spellbinder
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by Spellbinder »

Okay, so Spellbinder sees that the hand under the cloak is doing...something. It could just be shaking from stress, but (so far) he hasn't seen any sign of that in any other part of the body (knees for instance or the other hand). If it was some magical means of escape, his opponent would logically have used it already. That leaves the most likely answer as: weapon. Whatever weapon he might be preparing, it is not in anyone's (except the Conspirator's) best interest to let him ready it. That means Spellbinder has to move very fast.

Spellbinder dives in makes a grab for the concealed hand. He goal is to take what his opponent is holding...or at least control what he can do with it. Based on what has been previously written, Spellbinder may be a strength disadvantage here but he gets to use two hands against one and probably has better leverage. Hopefully the others will see what is happening an offer to lend a hand.
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

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The flashbang ((I'm assuming Spellbinder is still using that)) goes off - triggering a scream from the dark elf. The resulting chain of reactions is... actually fairly predictable, with even those at chaos rank warfare only surprised by the rapidity of it all.

The conspirator tries to slit the dark elf's throat, and discovers that he doesn't actually have his dagger anymore.
The dark elf tries to stab him with his own dagger, though this is somewhat hampered by her current blindness.
The high elf quickdraws his sword, slashing at the back of the conspirator's leg.
The burly human (hero #3 in case of confusion) attempts to grab the conspirator.
The man flings himself aside, apparently realizing where his dagger went and considering it to be a greater threat than anyone else's actions.

Spellbinder's action succeeds, in large part due to the number of other distractions the conspirator is having to deal with, and you are now holding a small vial of clear fluid that's slowly starting to glow with a faint red light.

In addition, the Conspirator receives a cut across the back of his leg - and his blood burns when it hits the air.
Spellbinder
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by Spellbinder »

Spellbinder bites back a word that would not be approved by the Comics Code. He dives towards the Conspirator while invoking a racked conjuration, the goal of which is to enclose the two of them together inside a force field.* Since he's more focused on the dagger and this just requires getting pretty close rather than effectively grappling it shouldn't be that difficult.

Assuming that he pulls his off he will say, "Okay, we're in this together now. How do I stop what's happening and save you?"

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* Why yes, he does keep a racked spell to put a mobile force field around himself that is large enough to enclose one or two (which is really cozy) additional people. He's a superhero. The need for something like that comes up all the time! Lynchpins are already programmed for target (self), size, Magic of Shadow (he was planning to stay in Amber so when reracking he set it for Amber), duration (maximum possible) and dispel word. It is meant to be invoked quickly, because it would be fairly useless otherwise.
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by NPC »

"You? Save...?" The man burst out laughing, as if this were the funniest thing he'd heard all day. The laughter quickly trails off into coughing and wheezing, though, while the injury to his leg cauterizes itself.

And then he closes his eyes and starts muttering to himself - the same language the word "Haakta" came from - in rythmic cadences that sound like some sort of prayer.*

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* Well, okay, to the uninitiated it would also sound like an incantation, but Spellbinder has plenty enough psyche to know that there's no gathering of power associated with this.
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by Spellbinder »

"Okay, let's get some things straight between us. Yeah, I probably have some misconceptions about you, but you definitely have some about me. I don't know for sure what you think I am, but you're wrong! I'm just a man. I'm new here and honestly in way over my head. I'm too new to know what the sides are here let alone to be on one. You're the one taking hostages and threatening people with poisoned weapons. I'm just trying to help people. Right now I'm keeping you from hurting them and them from hurting you, and for all I know I'm probably putting myself at risk to do that. Speaking of which," he holds up the glowing vial, "what does this do?"
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

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The fanatic simply continues his prayer, apparently disinclined to further conversation.

On the other hand, a combination of warfare, psyche (because it is a form of magic) and experience as a superhero gives you the answer to your question: The vial is going to explode, with some moderate degree of force; the man in front of you does not expect to survive. However... given that he was trying to hide what he was doing, it seems likely that the process is interruptable - something as simple as an appropriate power word* combined with exposing the vial's contents to air should disarm the threat entirely.

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* Appropriate power word options include "Process Snuff" to dampen the chemical reaction rate, "Magic Negation" for hopefully obvious reasons, and possibly others with a decent justification. Remember also that the GM allows power words to be swapped out when preparing spells, and any reasonable combination of warfare (for predictive preparation) and psyche (for spider sense and foresight) can be used to declare you have the right power word on hand.**
** Assuming Spellbinder has power words. If not, well, there are always solutions like "Trump to the docks leaving the fanatic stuck in a bubble and then fly straight up," or "Spend an actual spell to shut down hostile magic inside your bubble", or even the retroactive declaration that the bubble spell you used includes a variety of automatic internal defensive features... I don't know if that last is Spellbinder's style, necessarily, but I know that Rasanam at least believes in making individual spells as multi-purpose as he can...
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by Spellbinder »

Spellbinder does indeed have the Magic Negation power word ready, so he will use that to nullify the potion as described previously.

"Fine. I gave you a chance to talk, but if you don't want to that's on you." He turns to the people outside of the bubble. "Thanks for your help here. Is everyone alright? Other than trying to take a hostage did he do anything wrong that you know of? If I'm going to turn him over to what passes for the law around here I really should know as much as I can."

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OCC - Everyone seems to be jumping on the colored speech bandwagon, which is admitted kinda cool. Spellbinder's color really should be red, but I don't see enough differences in the shades of red to avoid stepping on Jaeger's toes. Given that, I will go for choice two of colors: black. LOL
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by The Raven »

There is a Raven perched on top of the force-field bubble.

"Well, he did technically commit a few other crimes. However, it did bring a nuisance* to my attention, so I might be willing to be lenient."

If anyone looks at him, he will reply "Don't mind me, carry on. I will until you're** finished."
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* - He's implying that human-Raven is actually a "nuisance." (continuing the lie he told earlier) Though the cats would also meet the definition.
** - Spellbinder, that is.
Whee font colors! I made my own!
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Re: 07.14e Burning Spiders - Part II

Post by NPC »

The fanatic's eyes widen as he realizes what spellbinder is doing, and he tries to stop the superhero - but he is shaking, now, and is moving much more slowly than he was earlier. There's (presumably)* a brief struggle as he tries to kill himself rather than be captured, but whatever alchemical concoction made him so dangerous is wearing off and in less than a minute he simply collapses unconscious.**

From outside the bubble, the drow will respond to Spellbinder's question. "He had Jormungar venom.*** I don't know if that's technically illegal here... but if not, it should be."
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* I suppose technically Spellbinder could just let him die, but that really doesn't seem like proper style for a superhero.
** And in need of medical assistance; not urgent, exactly, but if he doesn't get treatment within the next hour or two he won't be waking up again.
*** While it's probably not immediately clear what "Jormungar venom" is, there is one thing that's obvious: she considers the stuff dangerous enough to require special containment measures; she's taken the time to seal the dagger inside some sort of glass (crystal?) box.
~ For color for Spellbinder - keep in mind the colors don't actually need to be super-distinct; the main benefit seems to be breaking up text and making speech stand out from not-speech. Alystrakos is using a darker red than Jaeger and that looks fine to me; maybe Spellbinder could use a brighter red, perhaps tinted just a bit towards orange or purple, something like ? Edit: On second thought, maybe not the slightly purple one (FF0040 if you were curious); the longer I looked at it, the more it made my eyes hurt.
~~ Also, apologies on the slow(er) posting here; I've been trying to get responses up with about a day, but I've also been quite sick this week.
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