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thessalian · 8 months

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Thess vs D&D Maths

I am not good at maths. I generally feel bad about this, because one of the hobbies I have chosen (namely D&D) requires a lot of maths.

I feel less bad now, because I have just encountered someone who is apparently worse at maths than me. Reddit again. (I should know better, I really should.) I was talking about having had to graduate to ancient dragons sooner than the average party because my party is so large, and this individual butted in with, "Party size doesn't matter if players need to roll a nat 20 to hit it, so something else is up".

Which.

I mean.

I'm not great at maths, but that didn't sound right to me. Especially not for level 13. So I went and looked at my players' sheets and ran some figures compared to the AC of an ancient red dragon (the biggest and baddest ancient of Tiamat's chromatic bunch). I may have been slightly generous with magical weapons of late (though I took that and everything else away the last combat they had, so they're not exactly taking it for granted) but I ignored that in the immediate for my calculations.

Base Proficiency Bonus: I would hope that if you are unwise enough to be attacking an ancient dragon, you are attacking said dragon with a weapon with which you are actively proficient. Your proficiency bonus at level 13 is +5. Add that to the roll of a d20, and you need ... well, okay, say an 18 because ties go to defender in my world. (I know this is probably not how this works and it should be "you meet this target number and you hit" ... but let me tell you, my players love it when the same applies to something huge going after them with a mega-attack and it misses because the tie went to them as the defender.)

Ability Modifier: We're also hoping that by level 13, you have an actual ability modifier in the key areas. I mean, you should have had some kind of modifier in whatever your main area of attack is since level 1, and it should have grown from there. By level 13, a player has had up to three opportunities to increase their ability modifiers, because levels 4, 8, and 12 are when you get to pick feats or ability score improvements. So if we're looking at a low average of +3 on your ability score for a +8 to hit total, that takes what you have to roll to hit an ancient red dragon (AC 22, remember) down to 15.

Magical Weapons: I should hope a few people have a magic weapon by level 13. If not, the DM is being a dick. So that's at least +1 to attacks, so that brings the base number you have to roll to hit down to 14.

Feats and Abilities: I'm sure this individual is counting on things like wing attacks to knock people prone. Well, that goes out the window if the party's smart and has a few people who specialise in ranged attacks, who should be staying well out of range of that kind of thing. But even with a DC 25 Dexterity check, those with Dex proficiency don't need to roll a nat 20 to save against it. Yes, the roll is high, but it's not nearly impossible. And by level 13, anyone who does make that save probably won't take damage from it (as my former monk said once, "yay Evasion"; also "yay Shield Master feat"). Either way, the front line melee is holding. If your ancient dragon has blown their legendary actions for the round on Wing Blast and Tail Attack, and can't use Detect that round as a result, a rogue can still go sneaky and get Sneak Attack advantage bonus to attack.

Helpful Spells and Magic: Perhaps this individual is also going, "Well, the Frightful Presence of an ancient red dragon should impose disadvantage on everyone, right?" However, the save is comparatively low at DC 21, and more to the point, if the party has planned to fight this ancient dragon ... by this level, if you have a druid or a cleric, you've hopefully prepped for this by doing a Heroes' Feast before you even started. Even if you didn't have time for that, if you have a Bard, there's Countercharm. So we're taking the imposed disadvantage out of the equation. And if that doesn't come into play (or even if it does) - does your cleric have Guidance? If so, that's the roll of a d4 added to your roll right there. Maybe the cleric cast Guiding Bolt - there's advantage for the next attacker. Do you have a bard? We have two, and while one tends to burn their Inspiration dice for Swords Bard Flourishes, we have a Valour Bard who's very generous with the Inspiration dice, so a bard at that level is giving out d10s to add to attack rolls (or damage rolls, because yay Valour bards).

Now, obviously there are other issues, like lair actions, that kind of thing. I've used those to great effect with adults, never mind ancients. But what I objected to was being told that you need a nat 20 to hit an ancient dragon. Which ... clearly no. And I was generous to this entity and used the ancient red - again, the baddest of the bunch. The DC for the other ancient chromatic dragons' defensife stuff is lower - though the AC stays the same, more or less.

I always feel like a bit of a dilettante when set up against the roll-players - the ones that live and die by the stats. But when I, the DM who measures that shit with their heart, am better at the mathematics behind an ancient dragon fight than someone who is apparently all about the stats ... my world is askew.

#Thess RPs

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yourplayersaidwhat · 2 years

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(Kinda long)

I was doing down time activities with my dm and this is just some of the conversations that ensued:

"Roll a d100 and add 15."

"114"

"I'm sorry, what."

"I rolled 99. Plus 15."

"....The table ends at 110...."

"Roll deception or performance."

"Aight, does it matter which?"

"You have expertise in one and advantage on the other"

"No I don't. Both are +11 because of expertise and i have advantage on both?"

"Here lemme check. . . Well fuck. You do."

(Context, I needed 40 weeks worth of work done in 43 weeks, I was on week 33 with 36 weeks worth done)

"Roll a d100 add 25."

"125"

"Okay, you get three weeks of work done in that week"

"Holy fuck I can't believe I got 100 there"

"You got a nat 100???"

"Yes?????"

"Congratulations, on week 33 you finished all the work, and now have 9 weeks left to do whatever you want"

"Look at me, actually getting better at addition as the evening goes on. . . Fuck. 14 minus 8 is 7? "

"6"

"Close enough"

(Wed been rolling 20s and 100s for 4 hours at that point)

"Performance check. Add your proficiency on top"

"32~" (said while cackling)

"You know 30 is supposed to be nearly impossible, right."

"Yup."

"And that's not even your max"

"Oh, I know."

"Do you understand how hard I'm trying to not get arrested within minutes of entering this town, again?"

"Thats a 78 plus 25, so 103, and my cat is purring so loudly behind me."

Well, that just means that you have a happy pussy, and God damn add 20."

"Obviously. Also the dice have been very kind tonight, except that nat 1. 89."

"I usually roll shit on these"

"Lower the number, the worse the outcome"

"Like getting all your stuff stolen"

"Nah, I wouldn't do that."

"You did that to (my other character)"

"The fuck did you roll?"

"Fuck if I know, but my shit got yeeted"

"OOOOH Riiiight. You rolled shit on that"

"No really"

#shit my players say #dnd #rpg #submission #shareable #long post

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thevampiremariusderomanus · 4 years

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The Most Random Questions about your Muse

*Copy and paste. Do not reblog*

Name: Marius de Romanus

1) Do they believe in true love?

Yes and no. He does not think that fate designs people to be perfect for each other, as if there is some romantic thread binding two hearts and souls. But he does believe that there are people who are perfectly designed for each other by chance, a perfect combination of complementary looks and personality, and people are lucky if they happen to meet this person because there is absolutely no hands of fate at work. And with this person, you can experience a love that is pure and depthless, beyond any other love. Because they fill your every void, sooth your every imperfection, bring to life dormant expressions and pleasures you might have denied yourself or not even known you had within you. And importantly, there is a safety in their love.

2) Do they believe that their life has meaning?

Yes, and he believes that it is his own duty to give his life meaning. And this meaning comes from purpose, which is why Marius loathes to be idle. Having something to do gives him meaning, and he defines himself this way. Marius is dutiful. Marius is honorable. These are the things that give him meaning.

3) What first impression do they give when they first meet someone?

Marius is a very repressed and reserved man, very cold natured most of the time, and he is naturally very introverted and introspective. Marius has always been a listener first, and a talker second. When people first meet him they think that he is very reticent, but not in a cold or pompous way. He doesn’t wear an air of superiority. And at times, he can seem chilly, hard to easily draw into conversation. Yet, everyone would insist he is a perfect gentleman, well-mannered, and always generous.

4) Do they believe in Heaven/Hell?

Absolutely not. But he thinks both make for lovely poetry and art.

5) FIVE things that irritate them

1) Loud people

2) Aggressive confrontation

3) Uninformed opinions

4) Ignorant prejudice

5) Selfishness

6) First Kiss?

Marius’ first kiss was with his oldest sister’s best friend in his father’s garden. His sister beat him for it, but he still thinks it was well worth it.

7) What do they find funny that other’s usually don’t?

He loves really bad history-based jokes and memes. Like, “Who invented King Arthur’s round table? Sir Circumference” or “How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it” or “What do you call a detective from the Reformation? Martin Sleuther.”

8) Biggest Regret?

Leaving Pandora. He’d relive every horror of his life if it meant he could go back to then and change that one thing.

9) THREE words that best describe them

1) Artistic

2) Gentleman

3) Quiet

10) Their most attractive feature

People like his hands a lot. Because they are big and masculine, but his fingers are thin and long, which gives his hand a graceful elegance that you don’t typically see in the hands of men.

11) The feature that they find most attractive?

Hair. He loves to put his hands into a person’s hair. He likes it best when it has some texture, some waves or curls to wrap around his fingers.

12) Favorite Song Lyric:

He honestly doesn’t have one.

13) Best advice they’ve ever received:

That it’s okay for a man to make mistakes as long as he does not make the same mistake twice.

14) Worst advice they’ve ever received:

Marius doesn’t take bad advice. He barely takes advise, and won’t heed it unless it actually seems useful. Bad advice is usually pretty obvious.

15) What makes them cry?

Nothing any more. He used to despair a lot, but now there is a sort of emptiness to him that makes such extremes of emotions impossible until he erupts with some emotion.

16) Hardest decision they ever had to make?

Letting go of his human family. Severing those connections because he knew once he did, they would fade into history and the open world, and he would lose them completely, and for all time.

17) What makes them fond of someone?

How sweet they are to him. And persistence. He’s cold-natured, but if someone keeps coming to him sweet and considerate, and definitely undaunted by his ‘chilly’ manner, he will eventually grow fond of them.

18) Do they believe in forgiveness?

He’d like to. But no one has ever really forgiven him, and he’s also never really forgiven anyone. So in his 2,000 years of experience, he’s never known actual forgiveness.

19) Biggest TURN ON

Tell him how... impressive he is. Tell him how much you want him (but not too much-- he thinks quality of noise over quantity), and how good what he is doing feels (again, not too much or he will be like “OMG chill”). Be innocent and slightly submissive. Let him take control. That’s not to say you can’t roll him over and take a little bit of it from him, but he needs to know that within the power dynamic, he is the dominant one. He’s dominant, not a DOM, so don’t confuse BDSM terminology here.

20) Biggest TURN OFF

Don’t be nasty. He likes sensual talk, and even a little dirty talk, but remember: innocence. Innocence acts a certain way.

21) Any fetishes/kinks?

Consensual voyeurism, objectification, body worship (both giving and receiving), certain roleplay/sceneplay scenarios (he’d be reluctant to even reveal them, though), edging/orgasm control (giving and receiving), power exchange, cum fetish (he’d never admit it), to name a few.

22) Do they have a perception of god?

Marius has always thought the ideal of God was lovely. He believes that people who believe in the love of God can bring beauty. But he is aware that people misuse God, and therefore it is something to be wary of when placed in the hands of human and human ideology.

23) A memory from their childhood that shaped them

The older he gets, the less memory he has. But he has scattered memories that come to him, or that he dreams of, of being a child or teenager just doing common things such as playing a sport or laughing with his brothers.

24) birthday and zodiac sign:

January 11, Capricorn

25) Do they agree with said zodiac sign?

In every way. Rather, he thinks zodiacs are a load of nonsense, but between you and me (mun), he is in every way a typical Capricorn.

26) What is ONE thing that they wish they could change about themselves?

He wishes he could overcome in the anger that is inside of him so that he can reconnect with people.

27) A dream that they have never told anyone

He desperately wanted Akasha to love him.

28) Do they believe in fate?

No, not at all.

29) Favorite season: Spring.

30) FIVE favorite singers/bands/performers

Nat King Cole, Johnny Mercer, Dean Martin, Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra

TAGGED BY: @rosefisherlioncourt

Tagging: @claudiaindarkness @caravaggiovagabond @desanctii @pandoratheancient @rhoshamandes @the-immortal-armand @auburnandamberangel @monsieur-nicolas-de-lenfent @amelthebravennian @the-painters-apprentice @perladivenezia (and others! For some reason, a lot of people aren’t showing up when I try to tag, so just do it and I am sorry.)

#about #about marius

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rj019 · 4 years

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The characters don't belong to me. All credits to Marvel or Disney or Stan Lee idk.

So this is my first ever Tumblr Post (人*´∀｀)｡*ﾟ+

Hope you guys will like it.. I'm new to this & I might make some mistakes so I hope you guys can understand and help me throughout my journey (◍•ᴗ•◍)

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Title : Genius, YouTuber, Artist, Musician and Spider-Man

Fandom : MCU

Pairing : Starker(tony stark x peter parker)

Rating : Mature (NSFW, Sexual Content)

Prompt : Social Media

Summary :

Tony started crushing on a guy who is 5 years younger than him... And You all know who that is 😉 one and only Peter Parker.

And Peter has a very famous Youtube channel since he was 6. But he always wears mask in his videos to hide his face. He often mentions his crush on Tony Stark since he was 12 in his videos.

" CHAPTER - 0 "

The notes below are for the things that happened till Peter is 20 from when I'll actually start the story. I didn't wanted to get it all mixed up. So I wrote these so you guys can understand the AU better and how everything came to be and not get confused. It explains everything about Pete's social media, everyone's ages and which part of MCU is included and which is not, and the changes in the whole storyline. So these are must read it if you want to read the actual chapters. (☆▽☆)

Notes :

Tony is 25 year old in this and Pete is 20 and they're both certified geniuses. And they are both Bisexual.

Tony's perants are alive. Pete's uncle Ben is also alive.

Howard is a good parent and husband in this fic and he himself is a Bi so congrats!! No homophobia 🤗

Howard made Tony CEO of the company when he was 22 and only took semi retirement and only went to company once in a while to keep an eye on things. Tony graduated from MIT when he was 17 and then he started helping with company 😀

So Avengers and S. H. I. E. L. D. does exist in this AU but sheild isn't publicly known nor does anyone knows Avengers' real identity that includes Tony's😉 but that was just until New York battle.

Howard and Maria obviously knew about Tony being Iron Man. Tony told them after he came from Afghanistan and created the armor. There was no way to keep it hidden from them. Like all the parents they were reluctant to accept it as it will endanger his life but the accepted it at last.

Tony was kidnapped when he was 19 and when he went to Afganistan for his first ever deal without his father. And bla bla happened and he became Ironman and then he told his father about the Arc reactor tech and told him that there are many other things that can get their company to it's peak and asked him to stop the weapon business and Howard aslo thought about it cause after all he almost lost his one and only son (told ya he is good parent it this one) and then you know what happened 🙃

Howard is alive so no Obadiah Stane.. So no IM 1 events after he came from Afghanistan happened. They hid the fact that tony has arc reactor in his chest though. And world only knew that Iron Man is getting help from SI because of the arc reactor technology in the armor but they could never expect that it's Tony Stark himself. ( yeah yeah I know not very convincing but bear with it cause its a fiction right😅)

Papper, Rhodey and Tony are best friends from childhood cause their parents are friends. So he tell them about IM too. Papper works with him at SI as secretary for few years but when Tony turns 24, He suggest his father to make her CEO and he will be working and providing for Techs and important business deals. And Howard knows his son very well and that doing office stuff ain't getting to Tony plus his IM activities. And Papper was already doing more than half of his paper and meeting work so he makes Papper CEO. And yep Papper and Tony did try relationship but it just didn't clicked so they are still friends and no awkward feelings.

From IM 2, he did get palladium poisoning but he hid it from his family and friends. He did parties and drinking (but without the armor ofcourse) and Rhodey got really angry at his behaviour and recklessness and told him that he will beat him up with his own armour. And then Nat and Fury came and all that injection stuff.. after that he told his father about it and they worked together and made the new element and saved him. After that he apologized to everyone and told the truth and even made Rhodey War Machine suit and Rhodey helped him with it at Expo. Race incident doesn't happen. But Vanko still tried to get revenge by helping Hammer. So Stark expo incident still happened with drones only, not the War Machine armour.

I'll say IM 3 doesn't happen cause we don't have that much time you know fitting all IM parts and then 2 avangers part just within 6 years is impossible 😅

So after that NY invasion happened and Avangers got formed. People didn't know who they atually were just their alter egos and that also not everyone. People were really shocked and afraid after the battle so the government decided to make shield publicly known. Not all the information but just lil bit parts here and there to ensure everyone that there were people and organisation who were ready for something big like this. But it was still not enough to make people safe.

So then Avengers decided that they'll reveal their identities so people will know that there is a group of people who are there and capable enough to save them from something like this and it worked. They did got positive response. But it was uproar it the world. And they had to deal with media and fans. When the world got to know about Tony Stark being Iron Man, SI's PR department was in chaos.

All Avengers are around 24 to 30 except for Wanda and Pietro. They are 21. But they got into team after Ultron and yep Pietro survived.

Events of Captain America and CA : Winter Soldier did happen except for Bucky killing Tony's perants part. And they are both 30. Clint doesn't have secret wife and children (sorry Laura and kids) cause he is 25. Nat is 24. Papper and Rhodes are 27. Thor looks like 28 but is 1500 as we all know. Loki looks like he is 26 and yepp he was mind controlled by Chitauri but he was at Asgard during Age Of Ultron. Sam is 23. Scott is 25 and he is divorced and has a daughter. He is in relationship. Hope is 24. Bruce is 29. (These are their ages at the starting of the 1st chapter, from when I'll actually start writing the story.)

In NY invasion only original 6 were included in Avengers Initiative and after that they lived together too, at the Stark tower which was turned into Avengers Tower. Later Shield recruited others and they trained and did mission together but didn't live with the original 6.

Then Age Of Ultron happened and Vision Wanda and Pietro also joined. At that time they decided to move to the compound Tony built for them in upstate so everyone can live there.

And time period between these all events is smaller than in movies cause you now 6 years time period ain't that long to fit 'em all.

No CW or IW or Endgame happened.

Mary & Richard unfortunately had to die in plane crash 😅 when Pete was 5 so his uncle and aunt looked after him from then.

When Peter was struggling to recover from his parents death, May got an idea to help him *tada* a youtube channel to distract him because she knew Pete liked to watch things on YT. Pete was a genius and he was great at art too and he is an obvious cinnamon roll so she knew it will be a success and Pete will be distracted too. But she didn't want her nephew's face all over the internet if he gets popular and then can't have normal life so she helped him make his videos with him wearing a mask. So here's where Pete's YouTube journey started 🤭

Peter being an adorable and telented and a genius he is, he got famous on YT over the years and got millions of subscribers and views. He even made accounts on other social medias like Insta and Twitter stuff releted to his YT when he was 12 and it was success too he posted his art and photography their. ( His art and videos do contain his fanboying stuff and crushing on Tony Stark🤭)

And yes Pete is Spider-Man. He became SM when he was 13. Same radioactive spider at oscorp stuff but without Ben dying.

Ben has his own business which is good enough to have stable and cozy life with his wife and nephew. May is house wife and she likes to do volenteer work oftenly. They have two story house with a garden and a backyard. Nither too big nor too small.

Ben has always taught Pete about responsibility and righteousness. (With great powers comes great responsibilities.) So when Peter got his powers he decided to help people by being Spider-Man and looking out for little guy. After sometime he told Ben and May about it and they were at first hesitant but then they got over it and were proud of him and supported him.

After a year, it was getting too much at the same time... being at school, managing social media and YT channel, being Spider-Man and all.

Ben and May wanted him to have normal life so even if he was a genius and could graduate early, they still wanted him to complete high school and make friends. But let's be genuine nothing in life is gonna be normal so he told them about his plan to graduate early from both school and college. And he loved his YT and social media cause it helped him so he didn't wanted to stop that and to stop being SM is out of the picture. Ben and May understood him so they allowed him.

He took this opportunity to tell his only 2 and closest friends Ned and MJ about him being SM. He trusts them alot and they didn't disappoint him and even helped him with keeping his secret identity.

So he graduated from high school early, got full scholarship to MIT.

He was fifteen when he saw Iron Man first. He and Ned became fans but Tony was still his idol and his crush. He also started making fanarts about Iron Man on his account. He liked Dr.Banner's work too. He was only 20 when he wrote his thesis about gamma radiation and his books are awesome and he has 7 PhDs by the age of 25.

Peter earned a good amount from his YT channel and he still had money his perants left so he made one of the vacant room in the house his lab after he became SM and he makes videos in his lab after that about his inventions and experiments but ofcourse nothing regarding SM. He and Ned even made a cool SM suit with AI which they named Karen. (The one from the Homecoming) He got his AI inspiration from his Idol's AI called JARVIS. (Tony made JARVIS when he was at MIT and then used him for the company and his lab and he gave an interview about it. That's how Pete knows about it. Tony used Friday for his suits and IM releted activities after he became IM but then after AOU he used Friday for everything.)

Pete's YouTube videos are about everything and anything he loves to do since he was young. When he was young it was about his lil childish science experiments with help of Ben (ofcourse till he could it on his own) or his art or baking and cooking stuff with May and all but they all always wore the different different matching masks while making videos. When he became friends with Ned and MJ, he asked them to be there too. As he got older he started showing his genius brain cells in his experiments and invention. Same goes for his art, it started getting more and more detailed and he also got interested in composing music and songs and he eurned more followers. He even made his accounts unhackable so no one try to find out who he is after he became SM. He had so many happy moments with his family and friends while making his videos, that is why he kept his YT and accounts.

Shield doesn't know who the Spider-Man is. Pete found out about them cause he sensed someone (agents) following him during one of his patrols when he was 14. So he and Ned looked into it and his mind was blown when he found the organisation and all government behind it.

He wanted to know why they were after him cause he only helped people. So they hacked into Shield. He found out that they wanted to recruit him for something called Avangers Initiative and there he saw some other people's and superheroes' information too. (He didn't look into it because he knew that if he didn't anyone want to know his identity, they must not too and he had no right. ) But he knew it was not a good idea to join it cause then he will have to work for them do their missions and he didn't wanted to do that. He wanted to look out for little guy and help whoever, he can wherever he can. Plus he would have to reveal his identity and when they'll know he is so young, they'll try to stop him from being SM plus people close to him will get in danger. And they might even want to experiment on him so it was a big fat NO.

After that he took every cautious step to protect his identity and his aunt, uncle and his friends. He made a security system for their house and made a smart bracelet to communicate or send signal to each other if they were in danger. They all had one including himself. It looked simple and no one could tell it was actually for that.

When Newyork invasion happened, he was not there. He was at MIT for his PhD. He was so damn worried about Ben, May, Ned and MJ. The moment he heard the news he left for NY but by the time he got there the fight had been finished. So he directly went to check on May and Ben. He found them safe and was revealed. Then he called Ned and MJ to check on them and their families and found everyone was ok. After that he told May and Ben that he will go out and help people from the aftermath of the battle.

He stayed in NY for 2 weeks. In which he found out about the Avengers. He and Ned were shocked at the name and that it was the same Avengers Initiative stuff they read when they hacked into the sheild and Peter felt a pinch of guilt but it disappeared when he learnt that Avengers revealed their identities. He was in no condition to reveal his identity.

He was shocked when he learnt Avengers' identities especially Iron Man. He was like "how could I not understand that it had to be Tony.. there were all those connection like SI and no one is such a genius to make that kind of Tech except for his idol. He fell in love with Tony even more but he just thought it was some kind of superhero worship and teenage crush.

After that Ned and him being the 'nerds' as MJ calls them they are, they become fanboys and started to find out more thing about Avengers. Pete started to post more fanarts of them and he even made the reaction video of how he feels about Tony Stark being Iron Man and Bruce Banner being Hulk. Both his favourite scientists. He even made a song for Avengers. Which was total hit so he made more songs in the future.

Pete graduated from MIT even earlier than his Idol Tony Stark at the age of 16. He got his PHD in Biochemical Engineering at 17 and he wanted to get more Phds in Robotics, Nenotech Engeneering study and Astrophysics. (Which he did within next 2 years.) (Pete was 16 when NY invasion happened and 19 when Ultron happened)

And then Ultron happened, it was all over the news and all but Avangers once again saved the world. Pete was happy and revealed that there were Avengers to save them from world ending dangers but there gotta be someone down on the street too. Someone to help people from criminal and other dangers which may seem little in their or government's eye like Rhino, Doc Oct, Green Goblin, lizard, electro and many more with whom he fought. And he felt that his decision to not join Avengers Initiative was right. Though Shield was still eager to find out who he is like he will let them.

And then Homecoming happened except the part with Tony. ( But Peter doesn't go to homecoming because he graduated from high school )

As for the Ferry incident he saved everyone. He held the both part of ferry with his web and his strength ( Pete is very very strong in this fic ) till his latest Nenotech bot he invented arrived and held the ferry together and mend it. (Like Iron Man did. Just that it were bots who fixed the last part too. Where Tony flys around it and mend it.)

Peter had figured out the arc reactor technology a year and half ago but he didn't wanted any one to know cause it will attract the attention of many people and he didn't wanted that. That is also the reason he doesn't use his Nenotech suit he made. ( IW one ) But now that he has used his nenobots and his tech which was even better and cheaper, he knew for sure that it's going to fireback but he thought he'll take care of it later when he is not busy trying to capture a curtain alian tech loaded weapon selling Vulture.

Next day he had asked Karen to keep and eye over everything and at night Karen informed him about some movements at some abandoned warehouse. Then the whole warehouse dropping and plane crashing thing happened. He saved the Mr.stark's tech and averages stuff and weapons.

But now he will even have more attention but he then ask Karen to clear CCTV footage around the beach so no one knows about him leaving from the scene. He can only hope now. He'll have to lay low for now and even more careful.

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Hope you guys will like it. I have thought so much for this fic. It's going to be exciting writing this.

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wearesorcerer · 4 years

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What are your opinions on the Draconic and Efreeti bloodlines? I know I've told you about my sorcerer with those two cross blooded, but I don't remember if you've talked much about them on their own.

Ooo, a combo analysis request! :D

I’ll go by the parts. When in doubt, I list Draconic first, then Efreeti (alphabetization by bloodline).

Class Skill: Draconic gets Perception, which is the most important skill in the game -- bar none. Efreeti gets Knowledge (the planes), which can be useful, but is the class skill most bloodlines grant anyway (to the point that you wonder why it isn’t just a Sorcerer class skill). We’re talking A+ vs. B+ (maybe A-).

Bonus Spells: 3rd - mage armor/enlarge person; 5th - resist energy/scorching ray; 7th - fly/fireball; 9th - fear/wall of fire; 11th - spell resistance/persistent image; 13th - form of the dragon I/planar binding; 15th - form of the dragon II/plane shift; 17th - form of the dragon III/giant form II; 19th - wish (both).

The Draconic bloodline’s spells are almost entirely support ones, whereas the Efreeti spells cover the more prominent Fire spells (save burning hands [eh] and meteor swarm). I don’t think there’s a wrong answer here: you’re almost assured to select the bonus spells from the Efreeti bloodline anyway and several of the Draconic bloodline’s spells (mage armor, fly, fear) are ones that would benefit most any caster.

Bear in the mind that mage armor is what you use to make bracers of armor and doesn’t stack with them, so unless you find a better arm slot item that bonus spell might become a dud. You can’t swap out bloodline spells known, sadly, so that is a drawback.

The only non-Sorcerer spell on either list is (oddly enough) spell resistance, which grants SR equal to 12 + your caster level. That pretty much means enemy casters have to roll a 13 to affect you with spells; not an impossible task by any means. As a 5th-level spell (10th character level), you’re likely to find other (and probably better) ways of getting SR if you want it. In general, if you want SR, you want the base value to be pretty high.

Overall, you’re going to have uses for the majority of the spells on either list, but the Draconic one has possible duds at higher levels. Efreeti wins in that regard (unless you don’t want to turn into a giant). Bear in mind the shapeshifting for later, though.

Bonus Feats: Draconic - Blind-Fight, Quicken Spell, Skill Focus (Fly), Skill Focus (Knowledge [Arcana]), Toughness; Efreeti - Dodge, Empower Spell, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Knowledge [Planes]), Weapon Finesse; Both - Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Power Attack

Power Attack will work quite well with your growth spells and Improved Initiative is always great to pick up. Empower Spell and Quicken Spell are both rather nice to have. If you go Dragon Disciple, you’ll need to take any Efreeti-specific feats beforehand. DO NOT TAKE TOUGHNESS.

Bloodline Arcana: +1 damage per die rolled on spells with the same energy descriptor as your bloodline/free Energy Substitution (Fire) on energy spells.

These are both rather good for a pyromancer, so I can see why you’d want the Crossblooded archetype with them. Combining them, you’d get things like chain fire lightning with bonus damage, which is just awesome. It also doesn’t word it like it’s the actual Energy Substitution feat, so you can use this with [Force] and [Sonic] spells. Load up on those and you’ll be practically unstoppable.

Bloodline Powers:

1st - Claws (with energy damage at 7th level) or Fire Ray (30 ft. ranged touch, 1d6 + 1/two SORCERER levels fire damage). If you were to decide to multiclass (say, into Dragon Disciple), Fire Ray wouldn’t be worthwhile. Heck, it’s not as good as that Fiery Burst feat I mentioned.

3rd - Draconic gets Nat Armor and some Fire Resistance, whereas Efreeti gets more Fire Resistance. The Draconic one would free up any need you’d have for an amulet of natural armor and either way the resistance becomes useless to you (you gain immunity to Fire at 20th level in either bloodline).

9th - 30-ft cone of fire (1d6 per Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple level) 1 (9th)/2 (17th)/3 (20th) times per day (+1 for Dragon Disciple) or giant form I (but you turn into an Efreeti and get its heat ability) once per day.Of the two, I’d take the giant form I unless I were to go into Dragon Disciple. Giant form I is a 7th-level spell, so you’re casting something effectively five levels before you could otherwise, whereas the cone’s length is fairly short.

Giant form I gives you Large size, +6 Strength, -2 Dex, +4 Con, +4 nat armor, low-light vision, Darkvision 60 ft., Fire Resistance 20, and Cold Vulnerability.You already have that Fire Resistance without the vulnerability and you might have low-light vision or Darkvision from your race (I forget what you said; I’m assuming Ifrit), so really what this does is increase any natural armor you’d get at that level from the Draconic bloodline and otherwise works like righteous might (but no DR, instead getting an additional +2 Str and +2 Con).

15th - Fly 60 ft. (average) whenever you want or +30 to your base land speed. Flight is always needed, so this frees up needing the spell or an item, but average maneuverability is rather lame and air speeds are generally much slower bang for your buck than land speeds (because you’re moving in three dimensions instead of two, so you need a faster speed). There are feats for that, but you’ll not want them at that level -- especially if you go Dragon Disciple. There are also spells (I’ll have to look some up later).

20th - Blindsense 60 ft. and immunity to paralysis, sleep, and fire or immunity to fire, plane shift once per day to or from the Elemental Plane of Fire, and limited wish once per day as a spell-like ability.Efreeti all the way here. Never pass up wish of any kind if you can help it.

There are three things to bear in mind when dealing with these bloodline powers specifically:

How melee focused are you going to be? The claws power demands melee. You can supplement it with your growing powers, but otherwise I’m betting you’re going to want to use your feats for something else.

Are you going to go into Dragon Disciple? As I wrote before, if you’re doing the Draconic bloodline, there’s almost no reason not to do the Dragon Disciple. Because of the wording, going into Dragon Disciple will advance both of your bloodlines (it’ll work with Crossblooded), so again, there is almost no reason not to take this prestige class.Reasons you might have: another prestige class that more directly benefits your theme, multiclassing, ... That’s really it.The greatest thing about this? You don’t have to worry about losing blindsense, wings, or the cone. Effectively, you’re going to get both of your 9th- and 15th-level bloodline powers just because of the wording. You also get form of the dragon I/II as spell-like abilities (cannot be counterspelled), so that would free up your 13th- and 15th-level bonus spells known.

They won’t work with feats and abilities that benefit your spells. I bring this up because you can’t use your Bloodline Arcana on your Fire Ray or your claws’ elemental damage and if you want to take Spell Focus or anything, it won’t apply.

Now, the downside of Dragon Disciple is that you’ll have to invest in feats to get your full casting back, but that’s not that big of a deal unless you have certain feats you must take at high levels.

Overall: The Draconic bloodline is a varied and useful bloodline on its own, but not exceptionally good. However, if it’s paired with the Dragon Disciple, there aren’t many that are better. The Efreeti bloodline’s capstone ability is fantastic, but effectively you get a dud of a 3rd-level ability (nothing left over) and your 1st-level ability is only slightly better than a cantrip (and even then is lacking the key range you’ll want). Together, the two are fantastic.

Notes and Other Options: If you only want a couple of things on one Bloodline, the Eldritch Heritage feat chain might be worthwhile. It won’t net you the capstone ability or bloodline arcana (which is a major downside in this particular case) and won’t qualify for Dragon Disciple (in which case you’d want Draconic as your primary bloodline), but spares your Will saves and wouldn’t interfere with advancing your other bloodline.

As I noted, Fiery Burst is strictly better than Fire Ray: at-will, Close range (25 + 5 ft/2 caster levels), 5 ft.-radius burst that deals 1d6 fire damage per level of the highest level Fire spell you are able to cast at a given moment (you need the spell known and an available spell slot to use the feat), with a Reflex save for half damage. Neither would be great against Rogues, but the range, damage progression, and number of possible/probable targets on Fiery Burst is much more forgiving than Fire Ray. You can’t take Fiery Burst until you can cast 2nd-level spells (4th level, meaning your feat for being 5th character level), so at minimum it will have a better range and deal far more damage than Fire Ray would at the same level.

Broken? OP? No, I wouldn’t say so. The whole point of Reserve feats is that they prevent you from using something more powerful (in this case, scorching ray or fireball) to give you a 5e-style cantrip. Still, it being late 3.5, some DMs might balk.

I’m not going to poo-poo having a Fly speed, but unless your opponents are also flying, it’s not going to be of much benefit to you when you’re doing melee stuff (if you intend to go that route). You’d need Flyby Attack for that, but you probably won’t qualify for it at a time when you could take it.

#Draconic #Draconic Sorcerer #Draconic Bloodline #Efreeti #Efreeti Bloodline #alexis-red-dragon

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piratespencil · 2 years

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For the DnD questions, ianbear and I have compiled: 15, 25, and 35.

15. Do you prefer to DM or play?

This is such a tough choice!! I really like getting super attached to/ invested in a single character when I'm a player, and I do miss having my One True Blorbo since I've been DM-ing... But I really really enjoy being a DM! The writer in me has so much fun trying to pace out the plot and come up with fun twists and interesting set-ups for my players to run with. I also find it kind of hard to focus for a whole session as a player, but as a DM I'm constantly engaged so I never have that problem. (I also love rules lol.)

So... maybe I prefer to DM? I do love both though so it's fun to switch it up. <3

25. What is your favorite snack for d&d?

Our go tos are usually chips and gummy candies lolol. But any snacks is good snacks. :P

35. Favorite classic d&d trope

I'm not sure what counts as a classic D&D trope???? Um. I really like when players fail at something really easy because they rolled a nat 1 or succeed at something that should be impossible bc they rolled a nat 20... Is that a trope?? I enjoy that.

#u probably already knew these answers bc we play dnd together!!! but thank u for sending me some qs!!! <3 #say hi to yanbear for me!!#ask meme #dnd #all about kk #valerie #reply

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imjustthemechanic · 6 years

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The Stone Knight

Part 1/? - Two Statues Part 2/? - A Curious Interview Part 3/? - John Doe Part 4/? - Escape Attempt Part 5/? - Making the News Part 6/? - Fallout Part 7/? - More Impossible Part 8/? - The Shield Thieves Part 9/? - Reality Sinks In Part 10/? - Preparing a Quest Part 11/? - The Marvelous History of Sir Stephen Part 12/? - Uninvited Guests Part 13/? - So That’s What It Does Part 14/? - The What and the Where Part 15/? - Gearing Up Part 16/? - Just Passing Through Part 17/? - Dinner with Druids Part 18/? - Kracness Henge Part 19/? - A Task Interrupted Part 20/? - The Red Death Part 21/? - Aphelion Part 22/? - The Stone Giants Part 23/? - Nat the Giant Killer Part 24/? - An Interrogation Part 25/? - Guilt Part 26/? - Rushman’s Brilliant Idea Part 27/? - Hunter in Hiding Part 28/? - Ridiculous Part 29/? - The Guy from Barton Part 30/? - Sherwood Forest Part 31/? - Buckeye’s Fall Part 32/? - Robin Hood Part 33/? - Fantasies and Consequences Part 34/? - Swords of Damocles Part 35/? - The Road to London

Sir Stephen is confused by democracy, Nat does more worrying, and Robin Hood thinks skyscrapers are cool.

They stopped for lunch in Leicester, and then Sharon took over driving while Nat moved to the back of the van, next to Robin, to eat a take-out sandwich. Robin Hood had been talkative before they’d stopped in Barton-in-Fabis, but now he was quiet, looking out the window at the countryside rolling by and chewing thoughtfully. Nat wondered what he was thinking. Was he imagining the life he could have with Marian? Wondering what had possessed his alternate self to abandon it? Pondering the nature of reality? She didn’t want to interrupt by asking him.

Besides, she had thoughts of her own to get lost in. Natasha had escaped the secret agent business and gone into hiding as a nobody academic at a university that wasn’t known for the field she’d chosen, because she wanted to be a normal person. It was a lie, of course – she had never been and would never be normal… but ‘truth’ and ‘lies’ were no longer meaningful categories. If she really wanted it, that kind of life was within her grasp. All she needed was another Grail fragment, and she could be Natalie Rushman or any other identity she wished to assume.

Really, Natalie Rushman would not be a bad person to be. She’d grown up in a suburb with parents who loved her and usually had enough money to get by. She had, as Allen had said, danced in ballet recitals and built snowmen and angsted over career choices. She’d probably done things she’d later regretted, because everybody did that at some point, but she was mostly pretty happy with her life – and, most importantly, she’d never tortured or killed anybody, or been locked up in the cold or forced to abandon a friend on the tundra. That had been the whole point of creating her: Natalie Allyson Rushman was perfectly, beautifully ordinary.

But she also wasn’t Natasha Romanov. The terrible things that Natasha had seen and done in her past had brought her to where she was today, and had taught her lessons that Natalie Rushman would never have had the opportunity to learn. Natalie Rushman wouldn’t have been able to fight her way through the mooks on Flotta, or knock out Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, or work out how to destroy the Red Death’s golems. The situation Nat was in now needed Natasha Romanov.

Even after this was over, though… no, the thought of re-writing her past in such a literal fashion made Nat recoil as if she’d just found a tarantula crawling up her arm. There was a lot of ugly truth in her past, and she had told a lot of lies to cover it. In the future she would continue to tell lies, because it was the only way she could avoid being thrown in prison, but she preferred to remember the truth, even if nobody else did. Maybe that was another of the reasons she’d chosen archaeology – because you could learn from the truth. The ugly parts of it told you the worst that could happen, and you could look back on them and decide to do better in the future. Lies could not teach, they could only disguise, hiding the painful lessons so that you couldn’t learn or grow from them. They stuck you right back where you started and forced you to make the same mistakes all over again

“Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it,” she murmured.

“Hmm?” Robin asked around his mouthful of sandwich.

“Nothing,” said Nat quickly. “I probably ought to warn you guys about London.” Robin Hood and Sir Stephen would have thought of the London of their own centuries as a teeming metropolis. They’d been absolutely astonished by the size of Inverness and Nottingham, but that wasn’t enough to prepare them. “The government doesn’t move around anymore, like it did in the Middle Ages. It stays in London. Sometimes the Queen stays in other places, but Parliament, which actually rules the country, is in London, and it’s also the economic centre of the country. It’s one of the biggest cities in the world, with a population of… I think eight million?” She was pretty sure she’d read that somewhere, but couldn’t recall where.

“Million?” asked Sir Stephen.

“Yes, million,” said Natasha. She took another bite of her sandwich, which she’d almost forgotten about as she pondered.

“How many is that?” he wanted to know.

Nat hadn’t realized he didn’t know what the word meant – she’d assumed he just didn’t believe the figure. She quickly chewed and swallowed so she could explain. “Oh. A million is a thousand thousands.”

Sir Stephen, sitting in the seat directly in front of her, didn’t answer.

“Do you know how many a thousand is?” asked Nat.

“Of course I do,” said Sir Stephen. “So if you were to divide all the inhabitants of London into cohorts of a thousand men…”

“Men, women, and children,” Nat said. “We count heads nowadays, not families.”

“A thousand people,” Sir Stephen corrected himself. “You could do so eight thousand times?”

Poor man, he probably thought a thousand was a large number – William had conquered England with only ten thousand men, and at the time that had been an almost unimaginably large army. As it turned out, an army was exactly what Sir Stephen was thinking about.

“If half of them are male,” he mused, “and a mere quarter of fighting age, your Queen could call up a force the like of which has never been seen on earth. That, from London alone!”

Nat shook her head. “It doesn’t work that way,” she said. “These people aren’t soldiers. The Queen can’t just order them to fight for her. If there were a battle in London, they would have to be evacuated.” She hadn’t thought of that yet, but if worst came to worst and the Red Death showed up to take the Grail by force, he would have no end of people to stab or buildings to knock down. Not to mention the unbelievable carnage if something like the golems got loose in a densely populated area.

“If she had enough weapons to arm them,” Sir Stephen insisted, “or even just asked them to take up their pitchforks and axes…”

“They don’t have pitchforks and axes, because they’re not farmers either!” said Nat. “They’re… they’re merchants and tradespeople and scholars and… and other things you won’t know what they are. The Queen can’t force people to fight when they’re not trained for it.”

“If your Queen cannot pardon a criminal nor raise an army, what can she do?” Sir Stephen asked, exasperated.

“She cuts a lot of ribbons,” said Sam.

“Shakes a lot of hands,” Sharon agreed. “Waves at crowds.”

“She’s on your money,” said Allen.

“Who makes the laws?” asked Sir Stephen. “Who leads you in battle?”

“We vote on that,” Nat explained. “Like the Romans did, but with less bribery.”

“But…” Sir Stephen began.

Sharon interrupted him. “We haven’t seen any sign of the bad guys in a while, have we?” she asked in a louder voice than necessary, to make the point that she was changing the subject on purpose.

“No, we haven’t,” Nat agreed – which was odd, now that she thought of it. Up until they’d left Inverness, Zola and the Red Death had been in step with them the whole time. They’d gotten to Dr. Hughes and stolen the map, they’d arrived at the henge on Flotta at about the same time, and they’d terrified Darren O’Herlihy. Now, however, Natasha and the others had been to Barton, to Sherwood Forest, and were on their way to London, and hadn’t encountered any opposition even once. “What do you think that means?” she asked. Should they be worried?

“Perhaps it only means that the ivy and horseshoes are working,” Sir Stephen suggested. “I never thought I would say such a thing, but bless the witches who sold them to us. Clearly they know their work well.”

“Or it could mean they’re doing something important while we’re distracted by things they figure are irrelevant,” Nat said. “If they already knew that Francis had used up his fragment, they might have gone to America or the Continent to look for some that are still active. Or even directly to the druids, who knows?”

“Or they know that we’re going directly to the Grail, and they’re following us on the down-low,” said Sam.

“They don’t seem like down-low types of people,” Sharon observed.

Having been raised in Russia and worked mostly in America, Natasha was still occasionally startled by just how small Britain was. Driving the length of a country sounded like something that ought to take a long time, but a determined person could go from Durness to Dover within twenty-four hours. It had been around ten in the morning when they’d left Barton, and they reached the suburbs of London before two.

It took the two time travellers a while to realize they were already in the city, and then, as Nat had predicted, they were absolutely astonished by this urban landscape that seemed to go on forever in all directions.

“A man could live his whole life within the confines of such a city,” Sir Stephen said quietly, “and never know anything existed beyond it.”

“I think a lot of people do,” Nat said.

Driving through London, where traffic was thick, almost seemed to take longer than driving to it, especially when they got into the city centre near the Thames. Natasha started to feel a little shaky when she spotted the outline of the White Tower above the buildings ahead of them. This was it – they were about to find out whether her theory were correct, or whether she’d wasted everybody’s time.

At the time it was built, the Tower keep had been the tallest building in London, and it had stayed that way for centuries. It would probably still be impressive to Robin and Sir Stephen if they saw it up close, but for the moment they didn’t even seem to notice it. Instead, their eyes went past it and up, to something that towered over it by nearly a thousand feet.

“What is that?” asked Sir Stephen.

“That’s the Shard,” said Sharon. “It’s the tallest building in the United Kingdom.”

“The Tower of London is coming up on our right,” Nat added. “That’s where I think William the Conqueror hid the Grail.” It did look rather insignificant with downtown Southwark all around it. Even the Tower Bridge was over a hundred feet taller. Time had rendered it nearly impossible to imagine the impact this giant stone keep would have had on a Saxon world, used to timber buildings and defensive ditches. William’s ambitions now seemed modest indeed.

Robin and Sir Stephen, however, were still focused on the Shard. “Do they let people climb it?” Robin asked. He’d figured out how the windows worked, and now rolled his down so he could stick his head out like a dog for a better look. “From up there you’d be able to shoot almost anyone in the city!”

“There’s glass in the windows,” said Sam.

“Actually, they’ve got an open-air platform at the top, I think,” Sharon said.

“But they wouldn’t let you take your bow up there anyway,” Nat added. She was starting to think… Zola couldn’t see or hear what they were doing in the van because of the ivy they’d sellotaped around the windows, but if he were following them he’d definitely know where they stopped. Why clue him in before absolutely necessary. “But yeah, you can pay admission and go up, like in the Willis Tower.” Not that they knew what that was.

“Can we do that?” asked Robin eagerly.

“We’re not here to sightsee,” said Sharon.

“Actually…” Nat glanced up at the building again, then shut off her turn signal and headed for the Tower Bridge instead of turning off to the castle itself. “He’s right – that’s a good vantage point. If we get some binoculars, we can scope out the whole castle grounds without ever setting foot in them. It’ll keep the Red Death in the dark a few hours longer.”

The Shard was even more impressive standing at the base of it looking up. Everybody craned their necks to see if they could make out the top of it, which was almost lost in the low fog. They must look, Nat thought, like a bunch of gawking tourists.

“It looks as if it were built out of air,” said Sir Stephen, taking in the shining steel and glass of the structure. “I’m not sure I trust it not to fall out from under me.”

“It’s stayed up so far,” said Nat. “Let’s see what we can see.”

#fanfic #natasha romanov #black widow #steve rogers #captain america #sharon carter #agent 13 #sam wilson #falcon #clint barton #hawkeye

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shonikado · 7 years

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Possible solution to the level 30 problem: the modifier caps at 19, but you automatically get an extra advantage for each point beyond that?

Also, for my D&D5e-wrangling purposes specifically: players always succeed if d20+mod >= 20, and just let them win ties?

Possible thought: only creatures benefit from the "nat 20 is auto-success" rule? (Though the above change invalidates the nat 20 rule)

This one is NOT well-organized and is ramble-y, so, advising against the readmore

it’s sorta like, the bullet points above are my solutions, and everything below is showing my work. Or concept art. Except it’s less interesting and more word-eresting.

So the three points above the readmore were extracted from this post. Originally it was just the "level 30 problem" thing, then near the end I added the two other ideas. So, keep that in mind, as we now enter the unedited post:

bounded accuracy arguably holds. Like, if you wanted to land one attack on that Lv.30 god per turn, I think you'd need: * About 40 peasants/fighters (Lv.0 or Lv.1) * About 20 heroes (Lv.11) * About 6 legendary heroes (Lv.20) which seems reasonable to me.

an unfortunate note arises, though - once you're converting modifier differences into advantages, it means you can't just let the players add whatever stats or item bonuses they like without involving them in the system. Because if they have a +1 to Strength while hitting that god, that changes the number of advantages involved. Unless modifiers and level bonuses are treated separately somehow, which, ugh,

Really though this is only a concern because I'd like level 1 players to look at a level 20 dungeon, then look at a level 30 dungeon, and be able to differentiate the 30 as being harder than the other. Instead of "these are both equally difficult because we're that low-leveled, if we wanted to try one we may as well do the 30". And additionally, the idea of saying "you'll totally fail going into either" bothers me because if they WANT to risk it, they should be able to.

sigh

I mean what I -could- do is say that level stuff all works as-is but player modifiers change how likely you are to get a crit - like, if you have +1 to Strength, then 19+1 is a crit just as much as 20+1 is a crit. Except when comparing crits, which would need more rules, possibly like "highest natural number wins, if it's a tie then highest modifier wins, if THAT'S a tie then see whatever your rules are for ties". How would that impact the probabilities of success now that there's an entirely separate thing mucking it up? Will it be weird if I don't also give enemies the same stat boosts? Will it be weird if I do? But then I have to track potentially small numbers again. But they might significantly skew the probabilities otherwise.

I feel like this is the obvious result of trying to reconcile two different systems in a way that restricts me from imposing new rules on players

also I feel like my problems mostly arise from the fact that I very very enjoy the idea of a system that doesn't impose limits, so things can go on forever. This is only a problem if I say I want level 30s, but I could just stick with 20s. And there's possibly solutions to the 30s that don't affect the players (increase THEIR crit range?) but then what about 40s? 50s? 100s? There is no satisfying my desire to put increasingly bigger numbers on the table

but where does it end, really

0 has meaning, you're not adventurey - 1 has meaning, you're just starting. 20 has meaning, you're a legendary badass. 30 has meaning, you're a god. What is 40? God-dad? Is 50 the universe? 60's the multiverse? This isn't like a game where a level is just "I can fight things also this level", this is a game where the level is a representation of how powerful that character is in relation to the world. So there HAS to be a cap, where the most powerful thing you can interact with is.

which is probably not gods, if we're gonna be honest. 20 seems like a totally fair endcap for "the most powerful beings of the mortal realm" and anything beyond that is just beyond levels to begin with

and we can simulate level 0s by making them level 1s with a "civilian" or "small animal" trait that just gives them disadvantage always. Done.

oh but there's still the concern of player stats other than level, then

mothrfk

ALSO I STILL HAVEN'T WRITTEN THE SUMMARIES I NEED TO DO THAT but I've been busy actually planning D&D and doing Productive Things (job hunting!) so. That'll happen... Eventually.

okay but if we say player-added modifiers can increase crit chance, maybe that's good enough. Maybe that's fine. Except for the characters who have +11 stealth even though they're only level 5 because they min-max'd super hard and are going to end up with... Hm. 6*2+5=17? Which means they'd crit on absolutely any valUE SHIT ROLLING ATTACKS TO HIT THE PLAYERS. I can't devalue their AC and I can't devalue monster AC either probably can I. I don't think I can.

well there you go. AC has to stay. It was always a special case anyway, not super surprised or bothered. (I am bothered.)

But yeah, if you can add +17 to a roll, possibly more, and 20+ counts as a crit, that's a 90% chance to crit, meaning a 90% chance to succeed regardless of who you're up against if they aren't also employing crit-boosting. Barring complex crit-discerning rules. The running theme here is that I don't actually know the probabilities, that's what I write programs for!

If a level 1 with +4 to stealth goes up against a level 30 with no stealth bonus, the level 1 has a 25% chance to crit while the level 30 has, like. A 43% chance to crit because they get a shitton of bonus so let's scale back and instead talk about a level 20. Who only has a 5% chance to crit.

I think maybe what I should do here is look at it from the perspective of "what effect would this have had when added in addition to levels" and if it matches up reasonably, then I'm fine taking it to whatever logical extreme it ends up going towards. To do that I will need to math a bit.

oh, well, there's a concern. If critting means "20 or higher", what happens when your bonus is +19? You always crit. Unless 1 is an auto-fail. But anyway, if you always crit, and enemies can also do the same, then it means you'll both never crit because you always have it and that means it goes towards regular ties. Unless 20 is a "true crit" that beats any other crit, except for cases where they're both natural 20s, in which case the higher number wins as usual, with ties sometimes happening. Which is. Maybe complicated.

Maybe, making things worse, there's crit tiers? So, for starters, check for nat 20s. If those are not present, check what each roll's crit level is. 1-19 is a 0 - 20-39 is 1 - etc., just divide by 20 rounding down. If someone's higher, they win. Otherwise, if it's a tie, compare modifiers. Wait. If someone's crit tier was higher then they'd have already won by having a higher number, right? Wait, no. It doesn't increase the actual number, it increases... something... ... okay so. Level is an entirely separate deal. These modifiers DIRECTLY modify the die. If neither person rolled a natural 20 then it's just... It's just a strict comparison, isn't it? Wait. The idea is that if both people crit, it's a comparison, meaning you can't have more crit than, the other, person. ... if I have +19 and roll a 1, I have 20. That's a crit. If you have +16 and roll a 5, that's a 25, you crit. We're both critting, so we strictly compare numbers. Yours is higher, you win. Why is 20 a crit, then? What's different between me rolling a 20 and you rolling oh. Modifiers. Right. Wait. Okay so a 20 is automatically a win. And if that doesn't happen then we compare the numbers. We're saying you can win with a lesser number than 20 with your modifier. Because it makes the number higher. no no the level modifier is basically saying "you must win by this much" and a 20 is saying "nah I win anyway" but we can compare numbers so let's do that so I roll a 16, you roll a 12 but you're 5 levels higher. So you get a 17(12) and I have a 16. If you roll a 17 and get 22(17) and I have a 20 then I win. But I can make it so I win on a 19 AND a 20 by using that modifier. So I guess there's Natural, Bonus, and Final? Natural 20 beats Bonus 20, Bonus 20+ beats Final Anything, or something how does this shake out once I have a +19 bonus, only X(20) can beat me, even from high-leveled things. Let's format this as... Natural->Skill->Level? Maybe Luck->Skill->Practice so, if I'm level 5, have a +19 bonus and roll a 1, that's 1->20->25 A singular lucky 20 wins. A singular skillful 20 wins. Lucky 20s being opposed just means "ignore them". Skillful 20s being ignored means going beyond +19 is pointless. Let's compare these two: 10->30->35 15->30->35 They're both skill crits, in the same tier if we're doing the tier thing. Well, what does 19 mean? It means you're absurdly skillful. Maybe the most skillful you can possibly be. There's no way to be more skilled at what you're doing. Again - caps are needed to explain the world. So a +19 means you've achieved perfection. There is nowhere left to go. Except if I can find a way to make +20 meaningful that'd be nice Well, against someone else with skill, you'd both be in crit territory, meaning it'd come down to who rolled higher. Note: having a high bonus may result from being decked out with magic items or being under some sort of buff. Maybe we just can't cap that bonus? But it obviously stops being relevant to anyone except for people who have rivaling bonuses. The super-buffed person can still lose if their opponent gets a nat 20 and buffperson doesn't. But that is the "0 is just as good as 11" issue from earlier... Except I'm not sure how bothered I am by -this- case. Once you're impossibly good at something, being even more impossibly good won't chance the little unknown consequences popping up. Although strength is a question, for things like picking up a rock. The rock can't win. It's a rock. Maybe only creatures can nat 20? Or, again, it's luck getting involved. I think for static challenges, dropping their nat 20 might be fine. You have +20 intelligence and are trying to remember something you have a chance of remembering? Cool, you remember it. No question. They should still be contests to allow for DM fudging, though. Anyway. So where does this leave us? Level is separate from personal modifiers. Personal modifiers can drive up crit rate, which drives up chances of winning. If no monster has stats like players, then it's easy to explain personal modifiers always winning - monsters never go higher than 20, they can't contest you without also hitting 20. If monsters have stats like players that complicates things a little bit. Players don't need to know about the critical system - just that a 20 or higher will always win for them. It can be ignored for enemies if you're in a player-centric game. This also means that having high stats means a guaranteed increase in consistency, although that's not new, I think. Well. I mean. If the idea with the level stuff was that their stats now served a new purpose if they went into higher-leveled territory, that's been shot. We've just made a way for their low rolls to not be so certainly doomed. If an enemy rolls a 24, it's level-based, and the player rolling even a 21 via mods would win because the enemy (assuming their modifier is +5 or more) didn't hit a 20. So now we've gone in the opposite direction of saying high rolls will ALWAYS succeed and we can't fudge them failing. Although, let's be fair - I don't think there's any time where I should be fudging failing to begin with, at least in my campaign. I'm trying to have things be accurate and if a player wants to do something and I let them and they roll well, they should get it. We've already done that. It was a good idea. I mean, if I'm prepared to accept the result on a 20, then I should be prepared to accept it on less. The only weird thing I guess is making level no longer matter. Whether you're up against a dragon or a kobold, if you've got +9 to stealth, you've got about 50% odds of succeeding in your stealthery. also again if monsters never have bonuses themselves then once you hit +19 there's no reason to go further but... oh well? I'll just compromise to keep things clean, the important thing is being able to make my current campaign move as quickly, smoothly and fun-ly as possible without letting players onto all of the shortcuts I'm taking behind the screen.

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imjustthemechanic · 6 years

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The Stone Knight

Sir Stephen explains what’s going on to Robin Hood, and Natasha and Allen actually kind of bond a little.

They found a Bed and Breakfast in the town, and while Nat distracted the middle-aged couple who ran it, Sam and Allen helped Robin Hood up the stairs to the room. When Nat joined them, she found Robin out of his jacket and tunic but still in handcuffs, lying on his side on the bed. Without the clothing, Nat could see another of ivory pendants, hanging on a leather cord around his neck. Sam had gotten the arrowhead out of Robin’s side, and was now cleaning the wound with peroxide from the room’s first aid kit. Allen was holding the kit and handing Sam things when he asked for them, which Natasha suspected was not the most efficient thing to do but might be helping to assuage his guilt.

“If you guys are the ones who tried to kill me in the first place, why are you patching me up?” Robin asked. “Is Nottingham’s bounty that much more for me alive?”

“Would you believe we’re doing it out of the goodness of our hearts?” asked Nat.

“Not when you’re the ones who hurt me,” Robin repeated. “You said you hit me – who stabbed me?”

“That was me,” said Allen, raising a sheepish hand.

“And I’m trying to sew you up,” said Sam. “So stop moving, or I’m gonna end up stabbing you again.”

“Doctors are supposed to get you drunk before they go sawing things off you,” Robin complained. “That stuff I found stashed in the woods doesn’t count. My grandmother’s cider is stronger.”

Natasha cocked her head and considered the situation. Robin was lying on a brightly patterned comforter on a soft bed in a room that was lit without fire and decorated in a style that would have been considered palatial in the twelfth century. In movies, time travellers always seemed astonished by the future, pointing at and questioning every little thing, or blaming it on witchcraft. When Sir Stephen had taken it all in stride, her first instinct had been to think he was subconsciously remembering that these things were normal and harmless. That had turned out to not be true, but now she wondered if it were true of Robin Hood. Was he recalling his modern alter ego?

“Where do you think you are?” she asked him.

Robin winced as Sam stuck the needle into him again. “Hell if I know,” he said. “Somebody’s manor. Anyone who has the money for a place like this doesn’t need the bounty from turning me in.”

“And how do you think you got here?” asked Nat.

“In your fancy little wagon out there,” said Robin. “Is that a trick question?”

“Doesn’t any of this seem just a little weird to you?” she wanted to know.

He sat up a little to look around the room, but it didn’t last long as Sam pushed him back into a reclining position.

“Stop moving,” Sam repeated.

Robin sighed. “If you’re trying to impress me, I’m impressed,” he said. “I don’t know where I am or what half this stuff is. I’m not gonna worry about it right now, because I’m too busy worrying about how long I’ve got before you throw me off a chair with a rope around my neck. Okay?”

That, Nat supposed, was fair.

By the time Sam had finished with Robin’s arrow wound, Sir Stephen and Sharon had arrived. They’d stopped for pizza and more first aid supplies, and as they walked in, Robin looked up from watching Sam put bandages on him, and breathed in deeply.

“That smells great, whatever it is,” he said, his eyes going directly to the pizza boxes Sir Stephen was carrying. “I’m betting I don’t get any.”

“That depends,” said Nat. “We’re gonna have to un-cuff you so you can eat it. Do you promise you won’t attack anybody again?” They’d left his bow and arrows in the car, but he’d demonstrated that he was a respectable hand-to-hand fighter, too.

“For something that smells like that I’ll lick it off the floor if I have to,” said Robin. “I’ve been living off my own cooking for six months.”

Nat wanted to note that nowhere in there had he promised what she’d asked, but when Sharon unlocked the handcuffs the only thing Robin fell upon was the pizza. Sir Stephen handed him a slice, gooey with mozzarella, and Robin bit half of it off in one go, his eyes rolling back in his head as he tasted it.

“Oh, wow,” he said. “This must have cost a fortune. I’ve changed my mind. Go ahead and hang me. It’ll be worth it to have tasted this.”

“We’re not going to have you hanged,” said Nat.

“Then what are you going to do with me?” he asked. “You know, if you’d just told me to begin with, you might not have had to stab me. Just a thought.”

“You weren’t listening to us long enough to let us,” Nat told him. That did offer a bit of an interesting dilemma, though. How were they going to break it to him? With Sir Stephen she’d just told him outright that he didn’t exist, but that hadn’t gone well. What would be better? “Can I ask you another question – what year is it?”

Robin frowned. “What year?” he asked. “Is it supposed to have a name?”

“No, a number, counted from the birth of Christ” said Nat. “Like, King Richard was crowned in 1189.”

He shrugged. “I’m not a chronicler. I don’t keep track.”

Annoyed as she was, Nat couldn’t fault him for historical inaccuracy. Throughout the middle ages it was unlikely that most people had any idea what year it was, or would have any need to.

“Let me try something,” said Sharon. She’d brought up a news article on her phone, from a local Nottinghamshire website, and enlarged the photograph with it to show Robin. The picture showed Mrs. Francis addressing a crowd at the church of St. George, with her sister and children around her. The accompanying text described her quest for attention for the case.

“Do you know this woman,” asked Sharon, but Robin’s eyes had already widened in recognition. He swallowed his mouthful of pizza and snatched the phone, then blinked in surprise when he touched the screen and the image vanished.

“Get it back,” he said, pushing the phone back at Sharon.

“Who is she?” asked Sharon. She pulled the image up again.

“That’s Marian!” Robin said. “Why is she wearing trousers?”

“She’s looking for you,” said Sharon. “But this woman isn’t Maid Marian, and you’re not Robin Hood. Just let us explain,” she added, when Robin opened his mouth again to protest.

“Allow me,” said Sir Stephen. He’d been munching eagerly on pizza too, but now he put down the box and pulled up a chair to sit facing Robin. “I am perhaps the best to tell you. My name is Sir Stephen of Rogsey. Do you know it?”

Robin shook his head.

“I would have died a hundred years before your time,” Sir Stephen said, “but this is not your time, nor mine. Many centuries have passed since then. We are in search of the Holy Grail, which we are told has the power to create things that ought not to exist, so long as somebody believes in them.

It created myself, according to Natalie, who says I am but a legend brought to life.”

“It created me, too,” said Allen quietly. “She made me up, because her real father abandoned her.”

“It seems to have created you, as well,” Sir Stephen went on, “but not in quite the same way. May I show him the fragments, Natalie?”

Nat handed the over, and Sir Stephen explained to Robin Hood what the fragments were for and what seemed to have become of the missing Mr. Francis. Robin seemed first cynical, but he kept glancing at the picture still showing on Sharon’s phone, and his expression became thoughtful, then worried.

“Wait,” he said, holding up a hand. “Just a second. You’re saying that there’s another version of me who’s married to Marian or whatever her name is, has two kids and my own house and my own land and no price on my head and I… I just wished all that away to go live in the woods like a stray dog?” He shook his head, uncomprehending. “Why would anybody do that?”

“You were upset about some stuff,” said Nat. “You’d had some bad experiences in the army, and you’d gone partially deaf.”

“If an angel appeared to me and told me I could have all that in exchange for my ears I would cut them off!” Robin protested. “I don’t… I’ve never owned anything in my life! I’d certainly never be allowed to marry Marian. I mean, my parents were servants in her father’s castle. The reason I had to leave was because her jerk uncle thought she liked me too much and it would ruin her prospects. There’s no way… is that allowed in your world, or… your time, or whatever this is?”

“Nobles marrying commoners? Happens all the time,” Nat said. “Even kings do it.”

“I don’t… this is ridiculous,” Robin rubbed his forehead. “None of this makes sense. I want to see her. If I hear it from Marian,” he started to get up, “then I can… ow!” Robin sat down again as his side twinged.

“Sorry,” Allen said again.

“Maybe tomorrow,” Sam suggested. “You’ve got some torn muscles there and if you’ve been living out in the woods for any length of time, some hot water and a good night’s sleep will do you wonders.”

Robin looked up again, almost as eagerly as he had when Sharon and Sir Stephen brought the pizza in. “You’ve got hot water?”

Robin Hood took a very long shower, singing to himself for most of it and stamping his feet in the hot water, while Sir Stephen polished off the pizza and the rest of them got take-out curry to share – Sir Stephen ate a bit of that, too. Robin missed the meal, but finally they heard the water shut off and he emerged a few minutes later, dripping wet and wrapped in a fluffy pink bathrobe. Without a word to any of them he flopped face-first onto the other bed, and was apparently asleep by the time he hit the mattress.

As they sorted the pizza boxes and take-out containers into garbage and recycling, Allen took a deep breath and said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” said Nat.

“I know you can look after yourself,” said Allen, “and I know you don’t think I’m your father. I just didn’t want to feel like I’d failed you again.”

Nat sighed. After being angry with his inaction earlier, she was now angry about his initiative. He must feel like he couldn’t do anything right, and even as annoyed as she was, it was hard not to also feel some sympathy for him. “You know what they say about the road to hell, right?” she asked. “I know what you were trying to do, but please don’t do it again. I don’t want to see you kill anybody.” Nat was quite sure now that Allen wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he did.

“I don’t want to kill anybody either,” he said, “but I had to do something.”

“No, you didn’t,” Nat said firmly. “Next time, think about whether you could kill somebody, and ask yourself if it’s worth having that on your conscience. Think how you’d feel if Robin had died… what would you say to Mrs. Francis about it?”

Nat’s own conscience was a stunted thing – she’d been raised not to have one, and trying to develop it now was a painful, drawn-out process that happened in fits and starts. Sometimes it would lie dormant for days at a time, or duck out of sight to let her do something like shoot Nazis on Flotta, but then it would bubble up again with a vengeance to make her feel guilty about things that weren’t even entirely her fault, like the death of the HYDRA survivor under the Red Death’s spell. It became stronger the longer she abstained from doing anything awful, and the reverse was also true: the more of a terrible thing she did, the less bad she felt about it. Now that Allen had stabbed somebody once, it would be easier to do next time.

Allen nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m glad I didn’t hurt him too badly, I… I don’t know.” He hung his head. “I have no idea what I’m doing here anymore.”

“I don’t think any of us do,” said Nat. “Next time, don’t just do the first thing that pops into your head because you feel like you have to do something. Have a specific goal in mind to accomplish before you act, and be sure it’s important. If you can’t come up with that, then the best thing to do is stay out of the way. It’s not cowardice,” she added. “It’s knowing your limits.”

“That’s good advice,” he said. “I’ll keep that in mind.” Although the way he said it, Nat could tell he still felt like dead weight.

He was supposed to be her father, she thought, and yet here she was, in a sense mothering him. “Get some sleep,” she suggested. “It’s gonna be another long day tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Thanks, Natalie,” he said.

“Natasha,” she corrected.

It was meant to be an olive branch, a gift of sorts. She hadn’t yet told any of the others her real name – or at least the name she called herself in her head, which was about as close as any name of hers could come. All it did, however, was remind Allen that she wasn’t who he thought she was. How could she be his daughter when he didn’t even know her name?

“Natasha,” he said sadly. “Sleep well.”

#fanfic #natasha romanov #black widow #steve rogers #captain america #sam wilson #falcon #sharon carter #agent 13 #clint barton #hawkeye

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imjustthemechanic · 6 years

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The Stone Knight

Several things Natasha is going to have to deal with whether she likes it or not.

Natasha didn’t sleep well that night. She was used to nightmares – in fact, she didn’t think she’d had what might count as a good dream in years – but these were intense, and horrifying. In each, she was pumping somebody for information while that person disintegrated in front of her, yet even as she watched them die she kept demanding more. Some of them were strangers, foreign agents or followers of the Red Death, but others were people she knew, like Sam, or Sue from Dundee, or even Allen Rushman. He begged her, as his body crumbled, to have mercy on her father, to which she only replied in a cold voice that he was not her father, and never had been.

She woke up curled into a tight, trembling ball, listening to her phone jingle. She had a text.

Nat and the others had spent the night on cots in the half-empty infirmary. Another ship was supposed to be there at eight thirty in the morning to take them and the remaining refinery employees back to the mainland. Nat rolled over and picked her phone up off the floor next to the cot, where she’d left it to charge.

“That better be important,” grumbled Sharon from the next cot over.

Nat tapped the icon to bring up the message. It was from Dr. Hughes at Dundee, and said paternity positive. Who is it?

Rather than reply, Nat just set the phone down again and rolled over. So… Rushman was her father, at least genetically. It didn’t surprise her. The whole point of this mess seemed to be that the lies were plausible, and came true in plausible sorts of ways. The Loch Ness Monster was a type of seal instead of a surviving dinosaur, and Allen Rushman had the right DNA to have fathered Natasha. She told herself she didn’t care. He was still a lie, and he still hadn’t lifted a finger to try to help her yesterday. She could take care of herself, of course, but that was beside the point. If he really believed he loved her, he could at least make an attempt. Maybe it was true that Nat had always wanted a father, but she didn’t want one who was a coward.

The boat was half an hour late, but it did come. The Pentland Ferries company had re-routed one of their vessels, and brought breakfast for the remaining survivors. Nat and the others boarded along with the refinery workers, each stopping to give their names and addresses to a man who was keeping a tally. Tempting as it was to say she lived in a mansion in Morven Hills and see if it came true, Nat instead supplied the address of her actual flat in Dundee. Rushman gave them his fictional address in Manhasset, which was no worse a lie than anything else about him – but Sir Stephen had no permanent address.

“He’s my fiancé,” Nat said, sticking to the lie she’d already used once without consequences. “He lives with me.”

“Congratulations,” the man said, writing that down.

They continued up the gangway. Sir Stephen was still bruised and suffering from a headache as the morphine they’d given him wore off, but although he was leaning on Sam to walk his legs were under him, bearing most of his weight. It was enough to make Nat wonder if anything could actually kill him, and whether Sir Stephen himself ever wondered the same.

“Do people not think it strange that we would live in the same house, not yet being married?” Sir Stephen asked Nat. “I would not want to compromise your reputation.”

“Nope,” said Nat.

Sir Stephen waited for more explanation, but she didn’t give him any. She was not in the mood.

Once the ferry was underway, the crew brought out breakfast –sausages, eggs, toast, and fried tomatoes, with fruit just and plenty of hot tea and coffee. Sir Stephen was ravenous and dug right in, finishing his first plateful before Nat had even bothered breaking the yolks on her eggs. Everybody else ate more slowly, particularly Natasha and Sharon. Neither had much appetite after what they’d seen and done the previous night.

“Where did you girls go after the first boat left?” Sam asked. He looked around at the other people, sitting in the passenger benches with paper plates in their laps. “I keep hearing rumors somebody brought in a guy who died of Ebola?”

Nat and Sharon glanced at each other. “One of the HYDRA guys got left behind, and he was still alive,” said Sharon.

“We questioned him,” Nat added, “and then he just died, right in front of us.” She blinked a couple of times, trying to make the images from her nightmares stop dancing in front of her eyes. Ebola was probably as good a diagnosis as any. Hemorrhagic fevers caused internal bleeding that went on until the organs simply fell apart. Those took days, though, while this had set in within minutes.

“As happened to Heinrich the Potter’s Son,” said Sir Stephen, his mouth full.

“Yeah,” Sharon sighed. “Although we didn’t remember that until after it happened.” She still felt guilty about it. It was nice, Nat thought, not to be the only one.

Sam must have heard the same note in Sharon’s voice that Nat had, because he leaned forward a little. “Are you gonna be okay?” he asked cautiously.

Any of Natasha’s bosses or colleagues in the spy business would have simply asked what she’d learned, not considering the man’s death, or its effect on her, important. Sam’s concern was a privilege she had rarely enjoyed and one she didn’t feel she deserved, and it took her a moment to get the lump out of her throat before she could reply.

“I’ve seen worse,” said Nat.

“I haven’t,” Sharon said, “but I’ve seen things that weren’t much better.”

“That’s not what I asked,” Sam said gently.

“We’ll live,” Nat assured him, and then when he started to correct her again, she added, “we’re fine, okay?”

“Okay,” said Sam doubtfully.

It was time to change the subject. “Anyway,” Nat said, “from what he managed to tell us, we can get an idea of what the Red Death might do next.” She had to stick to the important stuff. They were saving the world, or something, and the emotions she’d been trained to suppress were not essential to that. She dug into her purse, and pulled out the two pendants, still wrapped in plastic. “He’s going to go looking for more of these. Apparently they’re fragments of the Grail, and if he’s got enough of them the Druids can find the whole one for him. That means we have to find them first.”

Sam nodded, chewing thoughtfully on a forkful of tomatoes. “What do once we find them?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Natasha admitted. “Bury them or something. Or… I don’t know, there has to be some way to get rid of them permanently.” She looked at Sir Stephen. Out of all of them, he’d be the one to know.

“We could burn them,” Sam suggested. “If they’re made of ivory, a crematorium could take care of them.”

Sir Stephen scraped a last few toast crumbs into his mouth. “I would not like to try destroying something that is made of the very force of creation,” he observed.

He might have a point. Nat frowned as she fingered the plastic wrap. Zola had known that Nat had taken his pendant from him… why hadn’t he or the Red Death had somebody search her possessions? Could it be that the reason Zola had activated it while Nat was on the phone with Sue was in order to keep her from using it for something else? He evidently hadn’t known that Sir Stephen had one, or he would have taken it while he was searching the police locker room for the shield.

“Maybe we can drop them in the ocean,” Sharon said. “Somewhere like the Challenger Deep.”

That would make them very difficult to retrieve, but not impossible. “What were you planning to do with the Grail once you found it?” Nat asked Sir Stephen.

“We had not decided,” Sir Stephen admitted. “The important task was to find it before the Red Death could. It is the same with such fragments – find them first.”

“Yeah, okay,” said Sam. “So how do we do that?”

“Easy,” Sharon said. “We know who stole them out of Pierce’s car.”

This meant nothing to Sam or Sir Stephen, but Natasha perked up immediately. “Mick O’Herlihy!” she said.

“Exactly!” Having figured this out apparently gave Sharon a bit of her appetite back, because she speared a sausage on her fork and bit the end off it. “That was what he got arrested for, stealing stuff out of cars. By the time Pierce tracked him down, he’d already sold them all or given them away, and didn’t know where they were anymore, so they…” she paused, perhaps remembering the blood at the warehouse crime scene. They knew what that meant now, too.

“So they killed him,” she finished for Sharon. “They stabbed him with that magic dagger the Red Death had, and used his blood to bring the two statues to life.”

“Magic cannot create life,” Sir Stephen repeated.

“Yeah, but if first they used one of their remaining fragments to convince somebody that the legends about you and the Red Death were true, and that you’d been turned to stone in the middle of your final battle, then the statues would technically already be alive,” said Nat. She shook her head. “That’s a sentence that just came out of my mouth and I hope it makes more sense than I feel like it does. In that case, the magic would only need to restore life. The Grail is a force of creation. It should be able to create life, no problem.” It had apparently, for example, created Allen Rushman. “And,” she added, “we know the name of at least one of the people Mr. O’Herlihy gave the fragments to.”

“Exactly,” said Sharon. “There is no way the Loch Ness Monster has just always been there and we never noticed it. He gave one to Darren O’Herlihy, who’s got to be a relative, so we need to go back to where we saw him last and see where he went next.”

Sam was amazed. “How did you ever figure all this out?” he asked.

“I’m a detective,” said Sharon, annoyed that he would ask.

“I’m an archaeologist,” Natasha said. “Figuring stuff out based on clues in context is what we do.” Another beautiful lie, she noted – figuring stuff out based on clues was what spies and assassins did sometimes, too. “You must do the same thing when you diagnose a disease.”

“Yeah, but I have textbooks to look through,” said Sam. “There’s no textbook for this!”

“Anyway,” Nat went on. “If we can work this out, we have to assume that the Red Death can, too, and that he’ll also go looking for O’Herlihy. We have to get going as soon as we can.”

“No rest for the wicked,” sighed Sam.

Sir Stephen was on his third helping of fry-up and upset about being interrupted when the ferry put in at Galltair, but he also looked stronger and was walking better. Maybe food accelerated his healing. Sugars and proteins were the building blocks of the body, after all – having more of them available probably allowed his superpowered immune system to work faster.

Nat got that far in her train of thought, then realized she was expecting something to make sense again. When was she going to learn?

It was sunny but brisk in Galltair. The day would have been warm, but the Orkney wind was blowing again, going right through everybody’s clothing. Even so, there was a crowd there waiting for them. Friends and relatives of the refinery employees must have come in from all over Scotland to meet them and make sure they were safe. Allen Rushman was not among them. Of course he wasn’t. Nat didn’t care.

“Excuse me,” said a voice.

It belonged to a woman in her late fifties or early sixties, with steel-gray hair up in a bun that was quickly being unwound by the wind. She was wearing a dark blue windbreaker over an off-white Aran sweater, and she had just worked her way to the front of the crowd, her eyes on Nat.

“Are you Natalie?” she asked.

“Yes,” Nat replied carefully. As always, being recognized worried her. Zola and the Red Death knew what she looked like and now they knew that she was working with Sir Stephen. What sort of trap might they have laid for her?

“Oh, good,” the woman said, relieved. “He did say I’d know you when I saw you! Your Dad’s in the Oak and Thistle. He’s been there all night and we haven’t gotten much out of him besides that he came here to see you and it’s all gone pear-shaped. I think you’d better take him home.”

#fanfic #natasha romanov #black widow #captain america #steve rogers #falcon #sam wilson #agent 13 #sharon carter

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