11 KiB
[RT][HF] A Practical Guide to Evil: Book 4: Chapter 56: Knock Knock
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Author: u/Zayits *
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URL: https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/chapter-56-knock-knock/
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Score: 65
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Created: 2018-09-14T04:01:27
Post:
Comments:
u/notagiantdolphin [+31] (49 minutes later)
"Finally," thinks Catherine "a place that isn't under time pressure from an ongoing war or genocide or disaster or magic! I can take my time relative to the surface problems and do this properly! Minimal murder and arson, maximum professionalism."
Meanwhile the story logic running reality is snickering behind its hand.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+24] Father of Learning (16 minutes later)
Jesus, she's pissed off literally every nation on the surface by now, time to move onto greater foes now I guess? Truly, a disciple of Irritant.
u/ATRDCI [+11] (an hour later)
Eh, the Gigantes dont really give a crap about her right now, outside of her being on the opposite side of a war as Levant
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+15] Father of Learning (an hour later)
Giants are super into Good, I think. She's a villain who's succeeding so...
u/ATRDCI [+10] (an hour later)
So is Procer, and Procerians get killed on site there. Their only contribution was training/arming 2 heroes, neither of which faced Cat. They seem to be as isolationist as 1930s US, at least when it comes to Callow
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+6] Father of Learning (an hour later)
So is Procer, and Procerians get killed on site there.
Yeah, but apparently Procer fucked up real bad with something called "The Humbling of Titans"
u/ATRDCI [+8] (an hour later)
That's entirely the point. For all that the heros are teaming up, the nations of Good are not "one happy family" dead set against Evil anymore than villains are all in one team.
u/Ardvarkeating101 [+6] Father of Learning (an hour later)
The point is that good hates evil, and therefore Cat has pissed off everyone aboveground and is moving downwards
u/Esryok [+17] (13 minutes later)
I'm sure once we get a closer look at them I'll find the dwarves as petty and vexing as surfacefolk, but until then...
That was awesome. Everything, from the epic description of the dwarven invasion, to the slow back and forth of our protagonists as they realize the scale and scope of their ambitions... I am gleeful.
u/ATRDCI [+14] (59 minutes later)
We already know from intro quotes they've stolen family jewels and forced the family to buy them back, so they can be plenty petty
u/LordSwedish [+14] Q Continuum (59 minutes later)
Well, on the bright side it will be easier to get a drow alliance if she figures out a way to save their civilisation. Now all she needs to do is turn back a massive invasion, decades in the making, by the most powerful force in the continent and she can't be seen to kill a single one of their soldiers....and it has to be done before one of the other great powers in the world invade Callow since they all have reasons to do it.
At least it's unlikely that the rats or gnomes will get involved.
u/Rice_22 [+15] (3 hours later)
At least it's unlikely that the rats or gnomes will get involved.
For now.
u/TwoxMachina [+6] (4 hours later)
Offer to evacuate them maybe. Maybe give them Liese to live in XD
u/None [+4] (9 hours later)
At least it's unlikely that the rats
We had a lot of worldbuilding about the rats in the last arc, and they are one of the bordering nations to the dead king and drow, so I suspect they'll turn up at some point sooner than later.
or gnomes will get involved.
Agreed on this one. The gnomes are more like an Out of Context Problem or Existential Risk for the nations we've seen so far in calernia. There's nothing they could do to meaningfuly fight them.
u/Mingablo [+1] (2 days later)
I expect the gnomes to become an open antagonist, or at least a secret enemy, eventually. The author can't keep a Deus Ex Machina and plot resolver like them and never explore further. They need to become a part of the story at some point. Checkov's gun has been seen.
u/turtleswamp [+1] (12 hours later)
Fairy gait to Arcadia and rebrand as "New Winter"?
u/BaggyOz [+8] (52 minutes later)
Well my Dwarf alliance theory took a hit. Guess it'll be Drow refugees instead.
u/narfanator [+9] (2 hours later)
Ten points says the Dwarves are fleeing something.
I also kind of want to bet Cat comes out of this with an alliance of some sort with the Kingdom Under, but, things never go THAT nice for her.
u/AurelianoTampa [+8] (8 hours later)
It would be horrifically hilarious if this entire dwarven invasion is the result of a drow killing a single dwarf some time ago. The previous chapter mentioned that killing one dwarf would cause the entire race to come down upon the killer's location and wipe it out.
It also means that Cat & Co's hands are tied when it comes to assisting the drow. Either they do so while hidden, or kill all witnesses (much like the dwarves are doing to the drow, actually...). I think the smartest thing to do would be to find some way to destroy the dwarven lanterns that the main army has, which would cause them to get lost in the Gloom and be unable to meet up with the vanguard. Then make sure none of the vanguard escape alive. But that still means having to deal with 15k+ dwarves who have already slaughtered at least three sigils seemingly without issue...
u/Menolith [+9] Unworthy Opponent (10 hours later)
Seeing how the lamps are fragile sunlight devices, Cat's title as the Duchess of Moonless Nights should be a pretty scary thought for the dwarves.
Still, I don't think Cat can afford going against them. From what we've heard, they'd burn down Callow and salt the ashes if anyone ever caught a whiff of her actions resulting in the deaths of thousands of dwarves and the failure of their astronomically expensive invasion.
u/AurelianoTampa [+1] (2 days later)
Still, I don't think Cat can afford going against them
So what is the alternative? She evacuates a warlike race as they're under attack, or she just leaves and returns to the surface? Or she enlists the dwarves - a "Good" race - to her cause?
I think your objection makes sense, but narratively it's a dead end. Cat will almost certainly do something to the dwarves, and it won't be backing down or befriending them!
u/Menolith [+1] Unworthy Opponent (2 days later)
I don't see any way where a fight against the dwarves ends well. We've heard over and over again how powerful they are as a nation and how easily they can be angered, and no amount of spit, vinegar and horrific self-mutilation from Cat's part is going to help if the cities of Callow start sinking into the earth because she stepped on the wrong toes.
Unless something really drastic comes up, she just can't afford to give them a reason to spite her. Even if she just tricks them in some manner which gets her what she wants, she has to do so in a way which leaves them either satisfied or unaware.
u/ProfessorPhi [+1] (2 days later)
She does have the ability to glamour herself to look drow, as does Akua. Given the bullshit powers of the night, I can imagine if she's not too obvious, she could easily get involved as a Mighty.
u/None [+4] (9 hours later)
So in a lot of comments on the story, people are expecting her to end the invasion and kill all the Dwarves. I agree that's likely considering the way the story has gone so far. However, wouldn't it be much smarter to see if she could side with the Dwarves and get a favor or three? She didn't really have a dog in this fight and the Drow are fucking terrible.
u/CrimsonOwl1181 [+7] (9 hours later)
I remember it being said that the Dwarves do not consider any non-Dwarves as people. Any kind of deal with them would probably end with them immediately backstabing her and running off with the most valuable resources they could get their hands on.
u/GandaG [+4] (14 hours later)
Wouldn't the fact that she's fae impact their ability to back out of a deal?
u/Turniper [+1] (a day later)
It might give her narrative leverage to fuck them over later as the betrayed party, but the fae compulsion to stick to the letter of their word only applies to her, not to parties she deals with.
u/ProfessorPhi [+2] (2 days later)
I'm 90% sure breaking a bargain with a fae results in terrible consequences for the breaker. Cat can't break the oath, but if the other party does, she gets a huge power up in any future dealings. It's definitely mentioned in this setting and is a trope in a wider setting too.
u/None [+3] (17 hours later)
Not for the purpose of ownership no, but they clearly make mercantile deals.
u/xland44 [+2] (5 hours later)
They’re going through in massive caravans carrying hundreds of them, like a giant snake of light.
One of the lamps further in went dark just before I left a place, and what must have been thousands in the distance just… vanished. The dwarves weren’t happy about that
Not sure how to describe this really, but what if the only way to avoid getting lost in the gloom is to have an unbroken line of light to the exit? Like a tendril reaching into the gloom - and when one of the connecting light sources break, the "tendril" is cut: everyone who was after that point is now lost to the enchantments of the place
So then, the best way to deal with the dwarves - all of them - would be to destroy the very first lamps, the othes that all the rest are connecting to
u/Nimelennar [+9] (8 hours later)
I doubt they'd undertake a risk with that kind of single point of failure, especially when the lanterns are deteriorating so quickly without any assistance.
That said, the lanterns are definitely a legitimate target, if destroying one will take out a thousand dwarves. However, they're certainly aware of that, and I'm sure the lanterns will be guarded proportionally to their importance.
u/turtleswamp [+3] (12 hours later)
The main weekness to that which I see would be that the gloom doesn't actually kill, it juts redirects you back out.
The dwarves could just form up with their remaining lanterns and try again.