Chapter 18-468: Blood of the Fields Beneath the Sky (2/2)
The whole world wanted out from under the Shroud. They wanted to see that blue sky gaping open over the horizon to the north, which he could behold even now through Traveler’s eyes with just a thought, the warm sunlight beating down even in the chill of December in this winter-plagued land.
Demented and depraved greed or insane necroic love of the dead, vs. the world. He weighed the options in his hands and clucked to himself.
If they’d chosen such a mad course, he’d have been happy to kill them himself. His love for his girl and respect for her stepfather would have vanished like blood in the sea, and the sharks would have come out.
She was going to get to do something he’d not yet, though, and that was to face her Ancestor.
-Ye think we could beat him?- he /asked archly, both a sly challenge worthy of Helix’s catchphrase (subbing in some really hard vodka instead of beer, of course) and a professional opinion.
His Visual File beeped at him and filled up with a Stat Block she sent over to him. It wasn’t ‘real’, as in something that had been directly Assayed, but it was based on things seen in the past.
-Pentara was something of an eye-opener for us, as we ran into truly advanced undead who’d had time to refine their own powers. The key thing for the Dark Clergy is that they really delve into the Evil of their own existence. Thanatopic negative energy that bypasses immunity to same, and Vile Cursed damage that couldn’t be healed outside holy ground were standard tools of all the Dark Clergy from that Tombworld of the Shroud.
-That being said, you’ve done everything right, and you are Geared to kill him. If he was alone, you might be able to; it depends on his Health Qi and if he can chip you down faster than you can Blooding him. You’ve got the Sun Saves, Evasion, and Mettle, so the Thanatopic attacks shouldn’t be that dangerous.
-But the Sun Saves only go off once a round each, which means you’d be vulnerable to Fastcasting, and if there’s any other Dark Clergy present, even a Dark Minister, you’re dead. Let’s not even go into the fact he’s going to have Grave Knights, Skeleton Warriors, Slaughtergheists, and Headless Horsemen as guards, among other things.
-It doesn’t know what you can do, and you might be the most powerful Blooded who has ever walked the planet. But that still doesn’t mean you can kill it.-
He eyed the Stat Block, clearly synthesized off something that had existed on the luckless world that had died before the Shroud came here. It felt damn weird to compare reality to math, but the process worked, and could be as detailed as you cared to get on it.
Aye, once you started figuring in reality and its limitations, things got really dicey, really quick.
Traveler’s Sun Saves were in the 80+ range, but she still heaped tons of attention on her ability to avoid or endure through all sorts of threats, her ‘Saves’. Why? Because the Sun Saves required you to Refocus them to expend them again, which you could only do with time... or a Meditation check, of all things, recentering yourself and coming back into balance.
If you were hit with a spell, expended your Sun Save to beat it, and then were hit with a Fastcast Spell requiring the same Save as a follow-up, you were hosed.
-Yer point is taken.- Save-or-Dies. She’d given him plenty of examples. Death spells. Petrification. Chain Stunning. Total sensory loss. Poison. Mind Control. Binding. Illusions. Transpositional attacks. Possession. Forced form change. Paralysis. Loss of ability to think. Abject terror. Insanity. Overwhelming physical force or weight, like being buried under a castle. Forced to unconsciousness...
They were all things that avoided trying to kill by violent disassembly of medically required essential body parts, and skipped right to victory. If you missed the Save, you were likely dead or going to die very quickly, and couldn’t do anything about it. Building up a plethora of resistances or immunities to such things was one of the objectives of getting stronger, simply so they couldn’t be sprung on you.
Indeed, it could be said the whole existence of Sun Saves was to overcome single-attack Save-or-Die effects predictably, every time. They just had that one damn limit on them...
The expatriates were totally down on being the ones chosen to reduce the Kiev Shroudzone. They often had lots of kids and grandkids with them, eager to help. Not all of them were dwarves, of course, but if they were Powered, they’d regained their youth and could fight, singing old songs about the Motherland as they put down their countrymen once and for all.
The fervor with which they went after any units identified as Nazis was worthy of berserkers, too. Germany might have paid the ultimate price for the sins of the Nazis, but in some places, the old hate was still there. The fact that the Buddhists used the swastika as one of their symbols only made it even more a symbol of uncaring conquest over others. Conflating Naziism and Buddhism was one of those intellectual philosophical questions pandered about by theologians of the Churches, and duly resolved by shooting proponents of either when they were seen.
The Mick had to admit that, even though there were raging philosophical debates between the Churches by insightful bastards with Ranks to waste and too much time on their hands, they also tended to be of massive practical mindsets about certain things. The gods generally didn’t want you to be building a better bureaucracy; they wanted you spreading and encouraging Faith.
Long-winded arguments about Good and Right and What’s Best tended not to do that for the common person. Making Bad Things Go Away got lots more attention, opening the door for Doing Good Things Over Time and all that.
The Blood of the Irish had taken up the task of clearing the surrounding areas of any more Constructs. He didn’t like sitting there doing naught, but he was monitoring them regardless, cursing them for being slow, stupid, and feckless sots as he kept them coordinated in their deeds and made damn sure everyone knew where to support everyone else.
They knew he’d get his hands dirty, but his lady had done this for him, and he’d do the same for her.