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The Two Year Emperor, Chapter 56 "Fire and Water" is up

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• u/Chronophilia:

  Jake's in a pickle now! Well, he's essentially been in a constant state of pickling since the start of the story, but now especially.
  
  Afi's presence is highly disturbing. He's far too clever to try something that already failed once. The only different thing that I can see is Loki's presence.
  
  Is Loki going to chair the negotiations between Afi and Jake? That would be hilarious.
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    "Is Loki going to chair the negotiations between Afi and Jake? That would be hilarious."
    
    That *would* be funny, wouldn't it?  Hmmmm....
    ;)
    

• u/clawclawbite:

  So, the value of a secret is partially that it is not shared. All of the ice assassins should have the same starting knowledge base, so the more their are, the less value each sacrifice should be.
  

• u/ulyssessword:

  They want to put hundreds of people in a small spot?  Has Jake had a look at the Grapple rules yet?
  
  Start with one person, let's say Albert.  Benjamin, Bart, Bobby, and Betty all grapple him.  Then, Cory, Catheryn, and Curtis grapple Benjamin; Carrie, Carland, and Catelyn grapple Bart; Caden, Cecelia, and Caesar grapple Bobby; and Caligula, Cain, and Cal grapple Betty.  This can continue on with people like Derek, Ernie, Francis, and Gertrude adding more and more layers to the grapple.
  
  This allows infinite people in one square, if you continue with that pattern.  Better, each person can move the *entire group* 1/2 their movement per round, so it might be able to supplement the commoner railgun as well.
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    I had cottoned on to the fact that you can fit infinite people in a square as long as they are all helpless, and you are helpless if you are "bound."  Bound is a very flexible and undefined-by-D&D word.  If you tie someone's hands together, they are "bound" but still able to move freely.  So, tie everyone's hands and you can stack the entire population into one square.
    
    I did actually look at the grapple rules, but wasn't certain if it worked or not, because of the line "If you can’t move into your target’s space, you can’t maintain the grapple and must immediately let go of the target."   I THINK your trick works, but I wasn't completely certain.
    
    Thanks for pointing it out, though. :)
    

    • u/GeneralSCPatton:

      Well, [here](http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?117648-3-5e-Fun-with-Grappling&p=6456612#post6456612) is the grapple ball of speed, if you need it.
      

      • u/eaglejarl:

        *blink*
        *blink*
        Oh my god, that is horrible!  I love it, thank you!
        
        That is *so* going to make an appearance.
        

• u/eaglejarl:

  New chapter is up.
  

• u/Zephyr1011:

  I don't quite get why the altars are being moved. Is this to move the ritual away from Afi? Relocate it to another plane? And why can't the altars just be put on a floating disk without the need for bearers, or teleported? 
  
  Also, how many ice assassins does Afi have?! Is there a limit? Or can he just make an army of them and crush all of his enemies? This latest voice seems like it ought to be yet another ice assassin, as I doubt Afi would risk himself. But how does he plan to deal with the anti magic field? He has Loki with him, but I doubt Loki is allowed to help him as that would favor a side. Perhaps Loki is there to run negotiations between them? I can't really see any other plausible explanation, given that Loki must remain neutral. 
  
  And why weren't the people of Grofhamr sacrificing multiple secrets in the first place? Would it have taken too long?
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    The altars are being relocated to a new location that Afi isn't targeting. They can load them on the Floating Disks, but picking them up to put them on the disks requires incredible precision. Once they are on the disks, they will stay level on the roll and pitch axes, but they still need to worry about yaw and Z-axis so they have to move slowly. 
    
    It is possible to make multiple Ice Assassins of the same creature. The spell does not have an inherent limit on number of duplicates. Also, Afi is thousands of years old. 
    
    Who said Loki had to stay neutral? His *alignment* is Neutral, but that doesn't mean he can't take sides, it just means he doesn't give a damn about Law, Chaos, Good, or Evil. 
    
    The Grǫfhamrites were sacrificing one at a time because it made a good balance between how effective they were and how much they were giving up. They didn't know that anyone was interfering, so one per person seemed reasonable.
    

  • u/JackStargazer:

    > Is this to move the ritual away from Afi?
    
    Yes. A wizard or sorcerer can onl;y telkeport to an area they know or have seen before, which Afi clearly has when it comesa to their current location. As such, they requently move everything to prevent constant teleport attacks.
    

• u/Riddle-Tom_Riddle:

  Holy crap.
  
  Holy crap.
  
  Just. Wow.
  
  I thought Afi would have done a *few* sacrifices, not *one point two five* ***million!***
  
  Shit.. I'm going to have to familiarize myself with the rules a lot more to keep up.
  
  Also, if the ice assassins each sacrifice the same thing, that would just seem *wrong*. e.g.:  
  Afi makes a million Ice Assassins.  
  Each one sacrifices knowledge of the same spell(say, magic missile)  
  Repeat for nine more spells, then dispel the Assassins.  
  Afi doesn't lose knowledge of the spells, because his assassins did the sacrificing.  
  Herrun now has ten million sacrifices to her name and is OP.
  
  Doesn't the power Herrun gets from a sacrifice equal less if nothing is truly lost or you use it for your gain?(e.g.: Afi: "*My phylactery is hidden at x,y,z.* Now no one can find it, muahaha.")
  
  ---
  
  I was considering different stories and the amount of enjoyment I got from them and realized that I ranked your story up in the top tier with the likes of HPMoR, Worm, and a few that probably aren't as well known. Here's what contributed to that, in no particular order after the first bit:
  
  The obvious two, mechanics of the English language, and a good story.
  
  Although it's not finished, you update like clockwork, once a week. This allows for time to consider the latest chapter and its implications without forgetting what has happened since last time.
  
  Being able to discuss what's happened in the latest chapter is awesome, other people often have insights into things I wouldn't consider. +Bonus points for the author being  part of the community in which we discuss the story.
  
  Your story is now approaching mid-length on my personal scale of how long I like stories(500k~ish words is where I start to consider them 'long'), and is suitable for rereading, providing expected future enjoyment.
  
  All-in-all, this is an excellent work, thank you!
  
  :)
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    "Also, if the ice assassins each sacrifice the same thing, that would just seem wrong."
    
    Yep.  That's exactly what they did.  I'll save you a little worry however:  Afi does not, in fact, have one million Ice Assassins of himself.
    
    -----
    
    "Doesn't the power Herrun gets from a sacrifice equal less if nothing is truly lost or you use it for your gain?(e.g.: Afi: "My phylactery is hidden at x,y,z. Now no one can find it, muahaha.")"
    
    Yes.  That might actually be harmful to the ritual.  Although, if Afi were to sacrifice that it wouldn't render his phylactery unfindable *by someone else* -- only by him.  And if the phylactery were moved then he could find it at its new location.  If he actually *planned* to do that when he made the sacrifice then it would fall into the "you're cheating and this sacrifice does not help" category, but if he had legitimately never had the idea to do that then it would still count as a sacrifice.
    
    -----
    
    "...then dispel the Assassins."
    
    There's no reason to dispel the assassins.  Even if you've ripped all useless knowledge from them and left them as mindless husks, they are still physical duplicates of you and make great decoys.  Also, [Ice Assassin](http://dndtools.eu/spells/frostburn--68/ice-assassin--1279/) is not actually dispellable -- it has a duration of Instantaneous, meaning that it creates a creature and then is done.  The creature is just as real as anything else.
    
    In point of fact, the spell does not specify what happens to an IA after it kills its target.  I ruled that it goes away, but that's my interpretation -- effectively a house rule.
    
    -----
    
    [You like the story]
    
    Wow.
    
    I'm...really flattered.  Thank you.  I don't actually know what to say beyond that.
    
    Out of curiosity, what are those 'less well know' stories that you mentioned?
    

• u/Chronophilia:

  Um, this has probably been answered before, but I only just now spotted it.
  
  >The Ice Assassin has all of it's target's skills and abilities
  
  So, an Ice Assassin of Afi can cast 9th-level spells. Can they cast *Ice Assassin* themselves, and self-replicate? Because that would be absolutely bananas.
  
  *Ice Assassin* has an XP cost of 5000, and the Assassins can't gain XP or level up, so maybe they can't pay XP costs. That's the only reason I can think of not to go full grey-goo.
  
  Well, either that or Afi tried and the gods warned him that, since his Assassins can also cast *Wish*, his antics fall in the category of "no infinite wish loops".
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    Nope, they can't pay XP costs, so no Ice Assassin or Wish or Permanency, or....
    

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