12 KiB
[RT] [HF] Mother of Learning Chapter 29: The Hunters and the Hunted
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Author: u/Nepene *
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URL: https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2961893/29/Mother-of-Learning
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Score: 34
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Created: 2014-11-09T14:30:13
Post:
Comments:
u/None [+10] (4 hours later)
This fic is an absolute delight.
Is Red Robe hunting down the soul magicians? If so, why hasn't he gotten around to Silverlake yet? When he does, will he find Zorian? :E
The wolf shifter tribe seems like it will be a very interesting plotline. I look forward to seeing that explored. And will it have any relation to the Silver Legend? That description almost begs "werewolf" …
This world is just so rich; I can tell the author has spent a lot of time mapping it out. Kudos to them!
u/daydev [+9] (7 hours later)
There's one case with clear MO of Red Robe (the man found with no apparent cause of death), but others are not so clear. For example, the very first man is missing for two month when it's not even the end of the loop. And there's no corpses in most cases, just missing people. Why would Red Robe go to extra trouble of hiding the bodies (every restart!)?
All this may imply that someone was snatching soul magic specialists before the loop. Maybe even to setup this very loop.
u/MoralRelativity [+2] (9 hours later)
I like your reasoning.
u/Nepene [+3] (4 hours later)
He probably is, or someone is. It would be interesting to teleport to the soul magicians early to see what happens to them.
Yeah, every legend is true and all. I am looking forward to learning more. It is an amazing world.
u/Zephyr1011 [+3] Potentially Unfriendly Aspiring Divinity (5 hours later)
Teleporting to them could be difficult, since Zorian won't know where they were at the start of the loop. Alternately, they could just have been killed before the time loop started, since Red Robe doesn't appear to like using Soul Kill that much, as he hasn't just used it on everyone who might oppose him
u/Nepene [+3] (5 hours later)
He could find that out by asking around. They may have homes.
If they were killed just before the loop started that would be interesting information and it would be worth researching who did it.
u/GeeJo [+2] Custom Flair (a day later)
If so, why hasn't he gotten around to Silverlake yet?
We have some evidence that Silverlake is non-trivially hidden, and little to no evidence that that's the case for the others.
u/clawclawbite [+5] (16 hours later)
And now I'm thinking about all the ways to enchant a rifle.
Strengthened barrel. Magically straightened barrel. If you linked a divination spell of where it would hit to a dancing light spell, you would have a magical laser sight. Build in a cleaning spell and a cooling spell to let you shot more rapidly. Alchemical hollow point ammo...
u/Nepene [+1] (22 hours later)
I think the main issue is that he needs to kill a super tough magical spider. A tougher barrel or better aiming isn't going to do that. He could enchant himself to aim better if necessary for that.
He could just make his own gun. A cannon isn't that hard to make, especially if it only needs to fire once.
u/daydev [+3] (a day later)
I'd say Zoltan needs to get or replicate with magic something akin to modern anti-materiel rifle (or WW2 anti-tank rifle) to get effective firearm against the spider.
And to do that he mostly needs to increase projectile speed (assuming it has decent 8-10 mm caliber already).
And with that stronger barrel would help as it allows for bigger charge.
u/clawclawbite [+1] (a day later)
The issue seemed to be how fast it was, which is why sniping it was a good idea to start with.
u/Nepene [+1] (a day later)
They also noted it was tough enough to shrug off firearms.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (2 days later)
Shrug off civilian firearms, IIRC. If Zorian can make something big enough, it should work.
Also, it seems that the thing should be easy to lead into a trap. It avoids dangerous glyphs and moves towards harmless ones -- you've got a herding mechanic there.
u/Nepene [+1] (3 days later)
He doesn't have any gun making skills. It could take him months to make a good enough gun. That was why I suggested he make a quick dirty cannon which serves as little more than a metal container containing some explosive which fires a lot of metal pellets at something. Single use. Or he might be able to steal a legacy cannon from somewhere, something old enough that the military don't care.
The trapping might be doable, but it could take an alternate route- it is shockingly agile, you can't really herd it to a predesignated route that easily. You know it will be somewhere in the area of the weak magic but not specifically which tree it will take, and trapping everywhere may be a bit beyond his skills. For that I'd probably want to recruit an expert trapper to help him.
u/Gauntlet [+1] (2 days later)
I'm not thinking he will create a modification that applies spell formulas onto the bullets. It could have several different effects which he could select by using a dial. Then he could use mana crystals to charge the bullets. This negates him needing to make the bullets himself.
u/aeschenkarnos [+2] (22 hours later)
Have you written up this setting for D&D/Pathfinder at all?
u/nobody103 [+5] (a day later)
No. And I don't think I could, even if I wanted to - while the setting is heavily inspired by D&D, it really doesn't follow its rules. The mages use a CRPG-style mana bar instead of spell slots, there is no easy healing anywhere, there is no xp cost for making magic items (only time, mana and materials), everyone is basically a glass cannon (no levels and corresponding bonus HP), non-mages are fundamentally disadvantaged against spellcasters with nothing to balance it out, etc.
I will write up the setting as the story goes on, and will probably post it upon the end of the story on some site or wiki - but it will be pure fluff. Nothing playable, I'm afraid.
u/Nepene [+3] (a day later)
A sort of adaptation like yours isn't that uncommon.
http://www.narutod20.com/downloads/
There's a Naruto rpg. It deals with the sorts of issues you mention, as does the source material, d20 modern.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/spellPoints.htm spell points are a common variant of the magic system.
Shields would replace HP and provide 'easy healing'. They're a durable protection that can regenerate fast.
There is actually an 'xp' cost for spells as I note below.
Not that you have to or should, but it wouldn't be that hard to adapt dnd rules to your setting.
I'd probably replace levels with mentorship. You do killing monsters and jobs and such and get xp. This xp can be spent on spells and magical items. Each set of spells and magical items and stats unlocks a level with a particular mentor which grants various benefits like new resources, new books with reduced costs for certain things. If you're spending your time making magical items you're focusing your effort and experience on doing that and it's assumed that whatever advice and experience you get from your mentor will be focused around that magical item. Generally, as you move up the circles you'll gain access to increasing resources and prestige.
Wouldn't be that hard to make one.
u/recursiveAI [+2] (4 days later)
Wonderfully gripping story and world. Great job !
u/Nepene [+2] (3 months later)
I have been trying to write it up for D&D and initially made a system in D&D and it sucked because in trying to get a vague match you needed loads of absurd mechanics. In compromising to make it truer to the story ethics and system it turned out very not D&D like.
I'm doing a roleplay of it now though.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (2 days later)
"Raynie's a wolf shifter?"
Is this a reference to Rayne, the Marvel comics wolf shifter from New Mutants and Excalibur?
u/nobody103 [+1] (2 days later)
I have never read a superhero comic in my life, other than a couple of issues of batman as a kid (I was not impressed). Superhero comics were never very big in Croatia. I grew up reading comics like Tex, Zagor, Alan Ford, Dylan Dog, Nathan Never, Lazarus Leed and so on. I'm pretty sure they're Italian, though I neither new nor cared about that when I was a kid.
So yeah, if something seems to be a Marvel/DC reference in my stories, it's probably not. I only got interested in superheroes due to the recent proliferation of superhero movies, television shows like Heroes, and because of the Worm Webserial... and even then I just casually skimmed through the various superhero wikia for amusement.
u/eaglejarl [+1] (2 days later)
Gotcha. Just a bit of a coincidence, that's all. That's always a pain -- given the amount of stuff out there, it's hard to NOT have coincidental match ups between what you write and something else. I was irked when someone asked if one of my original characters was based on someone else's writing, so I hope I didn't push that button.
u/nobody103 [+1] (3 days later)
No, I wasn't irked. As you say, there is a an absolutely massive amount of stuff out there and a writer is bound to hit on something similar to what's out there sooner rather than later. I actually get a fair amount of questions about whether this or that was inspired by [ExistingWork], or what my inspiration for something was, so I thought I should clarify.
u/frodo_skywalker [+1] (3 days later)
This is excellent. I've read up to the end of Chapter 27 and I'm not looking forward to running out. I'm gonna predict that The
u/Nepene [+1] (3 days later)
I agree, there's probably something weird going on and if he can defeat reddy he may be able to get them back.
I would so go for the ritual to get soul sight.
u/frodo_skywalker [+1] (3 days later)
Agreed on the soul sight ritual, even if it kills people, so long as the harm doesn't persist throughout resets.
u/Nepene [+1] (4 days later)
It's a bit ambitious to teleport to the spiders and immediately kill all of them at the start of every restart. You'd expect it to be obvious too, with all the signs of fighting.
u/frodo_skywalker [+1] (4 days later)
Well, red robe did go through them like a knife through butter. I was actually thinking they just did it once, to make Zorian think the aranea were gone, so he doesn't try to make contact with them again.
As zorian notes, if red robe actually can wipe souls like he claims, the invasion should be trivial. Permakill a few key people each reset, eventually there is nobody powerful left to resist.
u/lsparrish [+1] (3 days later)
I wonder how well the trick with turning the ground into liquid and back to solid would fare against the GH. Basically he needs to immobilize it without directly applying magic to it. Maybe the ground under its feet could be turned into quick drying cement? Or the cement could be temporarily held in stasis to keep it from setting, until the spider touches it, at which point the stasis spell could be cancelled so it falls in and gets stuck.
u/Nepene [+1] (4 days later)
Maybe, but it seems seriously strong, it might be able to rip it's way out of the spell. It's fast too, it might make the reflex save to dodge the effect.
It could work to slow it down, but he also needs something that will put it down.