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2004-06-25T21:49:44Z

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izzylobo - 02/25/2004 20:33:27

>Xyskalla>"The Outcaste mentions one of Lookshy's wmd's from the first age at the Gunzota Redoubt, an object that transmutes every person within a 2 mile radius into amethyst. It was detonated just over 150 years ago, and it's still turning people into amethyst to this day if they come within 2 miles of it."

Yup

"Tattooed Lunars would obviously be immune."

This I'm not sure about.

While they can't be turned into Amethyst (because they have a Perfect
defense against involuntary shifting), the Essence drain would be
another matter (this is also what prevents a Deathlord from walking in
and wandering off with the device, or any of the other weapons stored
there - the text suggests that anything material enough to touch
anything in the area is material enough to be shanked by the device).

It certainly wouldn't be a pleasant experience - but a sufficiently
motivated Lunar might be able to get in.

"Then I realized that a Lunar can carry this wmd out of the Gunzota
Redoubt and destroy the great cities of Creation. Since no one can
come within 2 miles of the Lunar, and automata shut down from its
Essence drain, how could you stop it from destroying civilization?
How would you even know the threat was coming and where it was coming
from?"

Nope. Didn't work like that. While it's a continuous effect while
activated, the device, as I was writing it, at least, was not
something you could pick up and move around - you activated it, it
went off, everything turned to amethyst, and it was stuck there -
assume that Essence eddies, or what not, hold it in place until
deactivated.

The device is (nearly) the ultimate area-denial weapon - you set it
off in the center of some place you don't want anyone else using, ever
again, and then step the fuck back. I'm not even sure, if turned off,
if it would work again - it's entirely possible it was never intended
to *be* turned off once set in place.

Now, if you want to change that, you can feel free, of course - but if
you *could* move it around, the question becomes - why in hell didn't
the Solar who originally made it use it in just such a fashion, when
the Usurpation came around? An Essence 8 Solar undoubtedly has a
"Immune to Bloody Everything Prana" Charm he can activate, or some
ring of amethyst that renders him immune, or whatever - bounce it on,
set off the device, and wander around the battlefield for a scene
until all your foes are nice and glittery, lather, rinse, repeat.

If I *were* to use this in a story, it would be in one of two ways -

One, assume the device can be shut down, and reactivated elsewhere. Of
course, when Coral Whispers shuts it down, all sorts of alarms at
Nasaru Redoubt (where they are, of course, monitoring the flows of
Essence around Gunzota *very* carefully) go off, alerting the Seventh
Legion about the same time three different Rangers go "uuhhhh... guys
- that crazy Lunar just came wandering out of Gunzota - with a
shit-eating grin on her face, and something in her hands" using some
charm or artifact.

The game then becomes a race against time and madness, as a
psycho-bitch Lunar Anathema races to try and reach major cities and
turn them into statuary, and the Seventh tries to put the El Kabong on
her before she manages to reach anywhere major - possibly with
assistance along the way (from saner Lunars, Solars - hell, damn near
everyone else except the more psychotic Yozis, like She Who Lives In
Her Name, and the Malfeans).

Two - same premise, except the players are Lunars - who have to come
to grips with the power Coral Whispers has, and deal with it - either
by helping her, or by killing her and burying the damn thing so deep
it isn't funny (note that, as written, the amethyst widget really
<nowiki>*isn't*</nowiki> a very Lunar weapon, imho - it slays the strong, the weak, the
infirm, and the mighty without discrimination or chance - if you're in
the radius, you're lawn sculpture - it takes no skill, and no bravery
to use, it confers no honor at all - using this thing is sheer
slaughter, and slaughter alone, especially aimed at a major city).

It is a very nice little bit of fiction, however, and a beautiful
description of the weapon - I can't say that it's canon (since some
other writer might get the order some day to write it up), but it's
likely the one *I* would use, if I ever need to describe the Widget.

Scott Taylor

=== The "very nice little bit of fiction" in question (not by Scott Taylor): ===
Xyskalla - 02/24/2004 17:52:47 - shadarlogoth@mindspring.com

Sorry, I'm not much of a writer, but...

The air in the dark chamber smelled stale. The sound of Coral
Whisper's footsteps broke a silence that had lasted for over 150
years. Her eyes darted around briefly, and finally settled on
something near the center of the room.

"There it is," she said. "The object of my desire."

She walked closer to her goal, until she was near enough to touch it.
She stared at it for several minutes, examining it from various
angles. It wasn't because she was looking for potential traps. At
least that wasn't the only reason. The statues were partially in the
way, too.

"One long-term mystery solved," she said. "Those conspiracy theorists
were right after all. It wasn't an accident." For a moment, she
wished there was someone else here that she could share her discovery
with, but she knew that was impossible. She wasn't about to share the
glory of what she was about to do with another Lunar, and nobody
besides a Lunar could survive here. She had been using this region as
a refuge for years, since nobody could follow her in here, but she had
never found this room before today.

It wasn't a refuge any more. Today, she had another purpose in mind.

The object she was looking at was a sphere almost a foot in diameter.
More accurately, it was two hemispheres connected by three tubes, but
the halves could slide together to form a sphere. It was made of
orichalcum, with intricate etchings inlaid with jade and amethyst.
Several sliding buttons made of starmetal were on one of the
hemispheres. Starmetal catches emerging from the other hemisphere
looked like they were meant to lock the two halves together. The
connecting tubes were made of moonsilver.

It was resting in the hands of two of the statues. They were statues
of men posed to look like they had just pulled the two halves apart.

From the looks of things, both here and just outside this room, there
had been a desperate struggle to keep the object away from those who
had finally used it. Dozens of amethyst statues were frozen in
combat poses. A broken statue lying on the floor looked as if the man
had been lunging for the globe an instant before he was transmuted
into amethyst.

"It's smaller than I expected," Coral Whisper observed. "So much
power contained here." She stared for another moment before adding,
"Such a beautiful object. I think it's about time somebody shared
this with the rest of the world."

She took the object out of the hands of the statues. "I wonder how
much face I'll gain when I single-handedly destroy civilization.
Should I head west along the Yellow? I'd like to take this back to
where it came from, and I can hit Great Forks, Nexus, and every other
city along the way. But I half think I should visit Greyfalls first,
while I'm in the area."

She mused over her options as she walked out of the armory of the
Gunzota Redoubt.

Thus Spake Zarataylor/AmethystWeapon - Revision history

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