scrape_r_rational/data/cache/2m3e1d.md

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• u/eaglejarl:

  Folks were generous with the reviews and my muse was generous with the words, so I'm dropping a bonus chapter.  And yes, it's short.
  

  • u/MoralRelativity:

    I was excited when I saw the new episode and you didn't disappoint. 
    
    And... ANOTHER huge cliffhanger... What are the other gods going to do now?!?
    

  • u/None:

    Are we getting anywhere close to the end? I kinda don't want it to, but I'm feeling very denouementy this chapter.
    

    • u/eaglejarl:

      I had originally been going to have to this be the end, yes. Then I realized I still have lots of story to tell, and I intend to write it. I'll probably call this the end of "Book I: The Drauga War" and will start into the next after I finish it. That said, there's still a few more chapters left to wrap up the details, so you'll keep getting drops for at least another month. 
      
      (Aside: this should really be Books I-III, since 80,000 - 100,000 words is typical for a novel and I'm closing in on 300,000.)
      
      I do have other things that I'm interested in writing, so there's some question about whether I'll go right into a sequel or take a break for other stuff first. You'll still keep getting weekly drops of SOMETHING, though.
      

      • u/MoralRelativity:

        300,000? Wow, it does not seem like that. But then, I didn't have to write it. :)
        
        It's been a seriously fun ride and I'm deliriously happy to hear that there's more to come after this story-line is wrapped up.
        

        • u/eaglejarl:

          > 300,000? Wow, it does not seem like that. But then, I didn't have to write it. :)
          
          FFN says:
          
          "Rated: Fiction T - English - Adventure/Fantasy - Chapters: 70 - **Words: 293,053** - Reviews: 693 - Favs: 380 - Follows: 443 - Updated: 7h ago - Published: Sep 8, 2013 - id: 9669819 "
          
          Hard to believe, huh?  That's what you get after more than a year of weekly drops, I guess.
          

• u/philip1201:

  I don't buy Suze's reason for keeping it secret. People shouldn't expect others to hand them opportunities on a silver platter, especially if it's something they could easily ask for themselves. Being a "servant" has nothing to do with it, if someone who has carte blanche to act with Imperial authority can even be considered a servant.
  
  As a result, her resentment put the entire mission - and by extension the entire world - in danger. Nevermind that it's still stupid for a group with millennia of tactical experience between them, a median IQ and wisdom quotient^^TM of 200, not to expect a mindscrape when it's their opponent's signature move; once she had that realisation she should have informed the rest so they could all have hidden information from the Icefi's. It was only by the dumb luck of Neklos not bothering to perform the free action to capture Suze's soul like he had done with every other soul in the party that the mission wasn't a total failure.
  
  However, the author has a history of plans within plans within plans. [My guess is](http://predictionbook.com/predictions/43636) that this is still not the innermost layer of the onion and Suze had more legitimate reasons for her actions. Besides, my tropey sense is tingling, saying the Goddess of Secrets still has to do something important to justify her existence in the narrative, so we can't be at the end yet and there are still secrets left to uncover.
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    > not to expect a mindscrape
    
    They *did* expect a Mindscrape.  They simply had nothing to hide, and they wanted Afi to see that -- they were there to help him get out from under Neklos.  There was nothing going on that he wouldn't be completely onboard with, so there was no need to muck with their own memories.
    

• u/Chronophilia:

  >~Works for you. Also, just baaarely not jailbait. And half your age. Perv.~
  
  To this list, I'd add "is a sixtieth-level spellcaster who could turn you into a dragon and probably still tear you in half with her bare hands".
  

  • u/None:

    [deleted]
    

    • u/Chronophilia:

      I'm going to claim that I meant sixty caster levels, not sixty levels in total, and then I'm going to hide before you work out whether that's correct or not.
      

      • u/None:

        [deleted]
        

        • u/eaglejarl:

          I'd like to see that build when you finish it.  Note that she said "wizard, sorceror, cleric, and rogue" but she's smart enough to keep secrets.  Those might not be all of (or in fact, ANY of) her classes.
          
          Also, she had carte blanche from Jake to have absolutely any and all standard or custom magic items that she wanted and there were more or less infinite Wishes available.  Go nuts.
          

          • u/None:

            [deleted]
            

  • u/ulyssessword:

    >tear you in half with her bear hands
    
    FTFY.  I bet she's a lvl 20 Druid too.
    

• u/None:

  Thank for the unexpected surprise! 
  
  Also, Jake wisdom bonus seriously isn't helping him, right?
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    > Also, Jake wisdom bonus seriously isn't helping him, right?
    
    Odd, isn't it?
    

    • u/MadScientist14159:

      POPEs don't affect him?
      

      • u/eaglejarl:

        He used Wishes to bump his INT and the POPEs are just packaged Wishes.
        

    • u/MoralRelativity:

      Wait. If that bonus isn't helping him then maybe his earlier intelligence bonuses weren't helping either. And that would mean...
      

      • u/eaglejarl:

        No, his earlier intelligence bonuses have been helping.
        

• u/None:

  [](#s "In other news, I just realized that all I ever do in TYE threads is upvote /u/eaglejarl's comments")
  

• u/Gurkenglas:

  Wouldn't it take only one Wish from a follower of Neklos to summon him back out of the time freeze?
  
  (...could Neklos of in who knows how many eons use a Wish to turn back time by one subjective round? Edit: Ah, we just need to actually neutralize him before those eons are up.)
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    > Wouldn't it take only one Wish from a follower of Neklos to summon him back out of the time freeze?
    
    Gods are immune to "effects that...banish them"  My interpretation of this is that you can't move them around with mortal magic -- you can *ask* them to show up, but you can't *force* them.
    
    But, if you don't like that reasoning, try this:
    
    As a greater god, Neklos has spell resistance 32 + divine rank (20) = 52.  In order to move him with a Wish, you need to make a caster check to beat his spell resistance; unless you're level 32 in that class(*), you can't possibly do it.  (Note that you can't take 20 on the check, since you have to pay a cost to use Wish.)   Because of this, no one who hasn't gone through the FLEA is going to be able to Wish him out of the hole.  (Some of the Lich Kings might be an exception, but even they aren't going to have a great chance.)
    
    Now, Neklos could lower his spell resistance to make this straightforward but that takes a standard action and he's currently trapped in a non-magical Temporal Stasis.  (He is immune to the magical version, but not to simple physics-based time dilation, just as he wouldn't be immune to the Flowing Time trait of a plane, if I were allowing those to exist.)
    
    tl;dr  --  He can't be Wished out of the hole because he's a god and gods are immune to that.  Even if that *weren't* the case, it wouldn't be practical for any caster who actually exists.
    
    (*)  From the SRD:  "To make a caster level check, roll 1d20 and add your caster level (in the relevant class)"  So, if you're Wizard20/Sorceror20, you only get to use 20 as your caster level.
    

• u/MadScientist14159:

  Suze seemed a *little* unreasonable considering that the reason Jake didn't want her coming along was that as far as he knew she was level zero and couldn't do much to help, so it would have put her in unnecessary danger.
  
  If she had explained Jake probably would have taken her willingly.
  
  (Of course, this doesn't excuse him from not sending her through FLEA himself, as soon as it was convenient to do so.)
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    > Suze seemed a little unreasonable considering that the reason Jake didn't want her coming along was that as far as he knew she was level zero and couldn't do much to help, so it would have put her in unnecessary danger.
    
    Oh, she's not pissed at him about that.  Actually, she's not really pissed at *him* much at all, at least not in specific.  To the extent that she's angry with him, it's because he's treating her with the same type of thoughtlessness that all the other nobles do...but in his case he's always treated her well and she actually likes him, so that moderates the situation a lot.
    
    No, she's fine with the fact that he didn't want to bring her along.
    

• u/Prezombie:

  Considering I've read the Iron Druid Chronicles, and the exact same thing happened in that book (A true immortal god neutralized with extreme time dilation), I should've expected a similar response. (The bastard had friends who want him back.)
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    Wait, what?
    
    Damnit.  I had thought this was completely original.
    
    *goes off and curses a LOT.  seriously*
    

    • u/None:

      It's okay. Nothing's truly original. I'll bet you did it better, anyway.
      

      • u/eaglejarl:

        It just pisses me off.  I haven't managed to have an original idea in my freakin' *life*.  Every time I come up with something that I think is at least somewhat unique...nope!  Someone else already did it, haha!
        
        I hadn't even *heard* of the Iron Druid series, or its author.  And, I mean, seriously -- trapping a god with time dilation???  Really?????!!  Someone had to preemptively steal that?
        
        Ah well, I suppose I can't complain too much.  /u/drageuth2 was the one who originally thought of it, although I adapted it a bit.
        

        • u/aeschenkarnos:

          Newton, meet Leibniz. Leibniz, this is Newton. I'm sure you two have lots to talk about.
          

          • u/dhighway61:

            Leibniz, my dear chap, your work is so derivative.
            

            • u/PeridexisErrant:

              ...whereas mine is integral to physics as we know them.
              

          • u/eaglejarl:

            Grumble grumble, stop being reasonable when I'm feeling pissy grumble grumble.
            

        • u/Prezombie:

          As another bonus, in IDC, the time dilation is purely magical, it's a portal to a portion of nir na nog which has slow time. You used TRUE time dilation, in the form of a singularity!
          

• u/Gurkenglas:

  We've got them all right there! If Suze does the dilation trick with the Singularity again they can make a world free from gods. (Except possibly from Loki who probably only has a shadowclone here. (Because if you were him, you too would hide behind seven proxies.)) Just take a few days to wish all the creatures they don't want frozen in time to the place they escape to.
  

  • u/alexanderwales:

    If they've been listening to Suze talking to Jake, then they are probably prepared enough that it's impossible to get a surprise round. On top of that, the only reason the singularity didn't destroy the world is that it was unleashed onto a demiplane and not into the real world.
    

    • u/Gurkenglas:

      The planet won't be destroyed, just frozen in time, right? You could still extract all the people and make another planet elsewhere.
      

      • u/notentirelyrandom:

        That is sort of true, from a certain point of view. But if they're *on* the planet at the time, it wouldn't be frozen relative to them. And it *also* destroys everything. Neklos only survives because he's a god and can just walk out immediately.
        

        • u/Gurkenglas:

          If they're on the planet at the time, the Singularity nigh-instantly consumes them and also they are nigh-instantly whisked away by the Wishes that tugged at them after a subjectively very short time.
          

• u/kuilin:

  Is it ever explicitly stated that Suze is half Jake's age? Or does that just come from Jake guessing her age at the beginning before he knew about resurrection? I swear, if it is revealed later that she is some kinda centuries old goddess or something...
  

  • u/eaglejarl:

    Well, back in chapter 2 we got this:
    
    > a girl in a maid's uniform [...] She was very pretty but I chose to ignore it; I was old enough to be her father.
    
    But no, her age hasn't been explicitly stated.
    
    
    EDIT:  Just realized that the above was ambiguous.  There's nothing tricky going on -- she's 19.
    

• u/eaglejarl:

  Huh, that's odd.  Pretty sure I submitted this, but /u/ShareDVI is labeled the submitter.  Wonder what happened?
  

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