Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
Howling in wordless rage, Lex struggled to maintain his telekinetic grip on Severance.
The depression that he’d been struggling with all morning was completely gone now, swept away by a tidal wave of fury at how the Night Mare’s weapon had betrayed him. This thing killed a pony! he seethed inwardly, certain now that Severance had dealt Silhouette a mortal wound. While he was no doctor, Lex couldn’t imagine how the black-and-white stallion could possibly have survived; the blood loss alone had to have been fatal. This thing KILLED A PONY!
Severance had just done the very thing that Lex had set out to prevent ever since he’d returned to Equestria. All of the hardship he’d endured, all of the pain he’d struggled through, all of the setbacks and sacrifices…he had borne them all for the sake of safeguarding his people. And now Severance, having known full well the premium that Lex placed on pony lives, had just murdered a pony right in front of him. That it had done so for the greater glory of the Night Mare was no excuse; as far as Lex was concerned, any sort of hegemony that required shedding pony blood wasn’t worth achieving.
And yet Severance had not only done such a thing without hesitation, but it was trying to do it again! The weapon thrashed and shook, struggling to shake off his magical grasp and lunge downward toward Princess Luna; only the fact that Lex had poured additional magic into his telekinesis let him maintain his grip on it, and even then only barely. In his mind, the weapon’s voice urged him to release it, to let it strike down the pony that would dare to usurp the Night Mare’s rightful domain over the night. But the twisted urgings only caused Lex’s anger to soar higher, and he couldn’t hold back another wrathful scream. “I SHOULD NEVER HAVE OVERLOOKED YOUR FAILURES!”
Severance had failed to protect Cloudbank and the other ponies he’d sent into Vanhoover. It had introduced Fruit Crunch and his friends to the Night Mare despite them being quite obviously too young to appreciate what they were getting into. And now it had just killed a pony and was intent on killing another. No matter that it was the only easy way for him to restore his spells. No matter that it had proven instrumental in defeating the ghoul horde. The scythe had proven itself to be a threat to the people he wanted to protect.
Severance had just forfeited its right to continue existing.
His hold on the weapon already starting to slip, Lex raised a hoof and began to snarl the words to a spell.
Celestia and Luna sprang into the air, giving the scythe in the purple aura a wide berth as Lex began casting. Both of them had seen the new magic that Twilight had brought back from her time on that other world, and recognized Lex using it now. Not needing words to coordinate their actions, both alicorns moved in opposite directions, winging around until they were on either side of him, looking down at the treacherous unicorn from above. Without waiting for him to finish whatever spell he was casting, the pair pointed their horns at him and silently called upon their own magic, each of them sending a brilliant beam of energy lancing downward.
Despite having given no indication that he’d been paying attention to either of them, Lex clearly saw the attacks coming. An instant before Celestia’s beam would have struck him, he ceased to gesture and chant and instead threw himself to the side, the brilliant ray of energy cutting a deep groove into the ground where he’d just been. But the crossfire that the alicorns had put him in meant that he’d only managed to dodge one attack at the expense of another, and Luna’s beam struck him in the side a half-second later. The impact drew a cry of pain from his lips, sending him stumbling, but to both sisters’ surprise he managed to keep to his hooves. Even his hold on the scythe didn’t give out, the purple aura remaining in place around it. If anything, it seemed deeper now, though neither could guess why that was.
“What are you doing?!” Lex roared, craning his neck as he looked back and forth at each of them before pointing at the scythe. “I’m trying to protect you from that treacherous thing!”
“The same way you ‘protected’ Silhouette?!” screamed back Luna.
For a moment Lex looked almost confused by the statement, before his eyes widened in understanding. “You think I wanted that to happen?! Severance acted of its own accord!” He focused on Celestia then. “I told you that I wasn’t going to attack you!”
“You’re not trustworthy!” The words came easily to Celestia’s lips, remembering again what Aria had told her. “You revealed your real feelings when Silhouette saved my sister at the cost of his own life! You won’t trick us again now!”
If looks had the power to injure, the expression on Lex’s face would have sent both alicorns tumbling from the sky. “You fools! My words were for Severance! Not you!”
“LIES!” Luna’s eyes blazed with righteous condemnation as her horn began to glow, calling on her alicorn magic again, determined that her next attack would be one that Lex Legis wouldn’t shrug off so easily. “YOU ARE A BLIGHT UPON EQUESTRIA! AND YOU WILL NEVER HURT ONE OF OUR LITTLE PONIES AGAIN!”
Then she pointed her horn directly at him…
Lex swore under his breath as the alicorns made it clear that they wouldn’t listen to reason. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn’t help but be livid at the unfairness of it all. The two ponies that he respected the least, and were his biggest obstacles to uniting Equestria under his rule, were now the ponies that he had to protect, even as they attacked him! In another context the irony might have been humorous, but right now it was anything but!
At least he’d been able to finish casting his spell before the Royal Sisters’ attacks had reached him. That was fortunate; if he hadn’t been able to complete it in time, then he would have already lost his grip on Severance. As it was, he’d be able to hold onto it for a little while longer now…but only barely.
The spell Lex had utilized – one of the complement that he’d prepared among the few that he’d had time to renew – had been the stamina-enhancing spell that he’d created a few days ago, in the wake of Tlerekithres’ defeat. He hadn’t used it since his disastrous attempt to conjure food and water for everypony in the camp, when he’d come close to killing himself by channeling more magic through his body than he could safely handle. But that was different from now, he knew. That had happened because he’d channeled additional magic into this spell as he’d cast it, enhancing the physical hardiness it granted him and then using the increased endurance that had granted him to channel even more magic through his body. It had created a positive feedback loop that had led to him moving more power through himself than his body had been able to handle. This time he hadn’t augmented the spell, letting it operate within its normal parameters. It was still granting him greater endurance, letting him push his physical limits and in turn increase how much supplementary magic he was able to channel through his body, but now it should be safe. It was thanks to that spell, for instance, that he’d been able to take Luna’s attack spell without being overly injured.
It was also the reason that he’d been able to maintain his hold on Severance. While the scythe was still struggling to break out of his telekinesis, it was no longer in imminent danger of escaping. Thanks to the spell increasing his endurance, Lex was currently able to channel more magic into his telekinesis, keeping the scythe from getting away. But this is still only temporary, cursed Lex silently. Worse, while I’m holding Severance like this I won’t be able to channel any additional magic into anything els-
Then Luna unleashed her next attack.
Unlike the thin ray she’d just fired at him, this one was a massive burst of energy, the beam measuring feet in diameter instead of millimeters. Lex wasted a half-second staring upward in stupefied horror, before his survival instinct kicked in and he transformed into a shadow, surging backward just before the alicorn’s spell struck the spot where he’d been standing, reducing the ground to a smoking crater. He didn’t stop moving, and that was what saved him from Celestia’s follow-up strike, as a beam of similar intensity to Luna’s came hurtling down at the place he’d just vacated. Like her sister’s, the magic scorched the land, reducing terrain where it struck to a smoldering pit.
The heavy bombardment was enough to throw Lex for a loop. This is wrong! Celestia shouldn’t have this much power! The examination he’d made of her before had been cursory, but it should have detected this level of strength! And Luna should have been the same, or even weaker from a millennium of imprisonment in the moon! But apparently nopony had told the alicorns that, and the next pair of magical blasts they sent at him were also intensified. But this time Lex was ready, and a thought was all it took to raise a dome of black crystal around himself, pouring dark magic into it in order to thicken the structure against the impending assault.
The solidified darkness that he could conjure was many times stronger than steel, and practically impervious to damage. But as the alicorns’ attacks slammed into the hastily-erected dome, Lex felt it shudder under the assault, cracks spiderwebbing through it as small pieces began to fall from the ceiling. Another four or five hits will bring it down, Lex decided. He could reinforce it with more dark magic, but producing that much material would be severely taxing, and since he couldn’t channel additional power into his dark magic while he was holding Severance, it would likely only delay the inevitable.
Lex’s next thought was to drop into the ground the way he had against so many other foes when he’d needed to take cover, but he didn’t dare do that now. While he felt confident in his ability to retain his awareness of where to direct his telekinesis even while moving blindly underground, there was still a chance that he’d lose track of his positioning relative to Severance. If that happened, the scythe would break free, and Lex had no doubt that it would cut down Luna – and quite likely Celestia, if she moved to protect her sister – in short order. That couldn’t be allowed to happen!
But at the same time, Lex knew that if he went out there now, in all likelihood his current array of defensive enchantments wouldn’t do very much against the level of magic that the alicorns were currently throwing around, and he’d only prepared a few more. Worse, their assault meant that he couldn’t devote his attention to dealing with Severance. There was one – and only one – spell in his arsenal that Lex felt had any chance of destroying the scythe, and it would require him to channel as much magic as he could into it in order for it to have any chance of working. But that would mean releasing Severance before he cast it, and if the alicorns attacked him and disrupted his casting before he could unleash it-
“LEX LEGIS!” bellowed Luna. “YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE! SILHOUETTE WILL BE AVENGED!” Her statement was followed by another heavy strike to the dome a second later, causing more cracks to spread through it.
I’m going to have to deal with them first, concluded Lex grimly. There was no other choice; the alicorns wouldn’t be talked down, and he couldn’t go after Severance while they were attacking him. That left no choice but to take them out; he’d just have to hope that they’d be more inclined to listen to him afterward.
But for now, Lex swore to himself as he began casting the few defensive spells he’d prepared, if it’s a fight they want, then that’s what I’ll give them!
Barely able to defend himself against Celestia and Luna's unexpected strength, Lex determines that he needs to defeat the alicorns in order to save them!
But will he be able to do it? And how is he planning on destroying Severance?
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Hopefully lex realizes that all his actions has done is give the nightmare access to equestria. He was a pawn through and through
Well. This is more like it.
Hold Severance in the way of teh beams so it can deal with teh hassle?
Use your enemies hate for each other against themselves?
Just hope they dont get a Cozy Glow of Freindship.
9636162 Except for all the bloodthirsty monsters he killed and lives he saved up until now.
9636258 I'm glad you're enjoying it! Hopefully it's proving to be worth the build-up!
9636452 Unfortunately for Lex, it's all he can do to keep Severance immobilized at the moment. Since he's enhancing his grip on it with additional magic (more than he could normally use, since he's magically-augmented his stamina), he's not in immediate danger of losing it, but swinging it around how he wants to is most likely more than he can manage while it's struggling against him.
finally some one to knock down Celestia and Luna. about time some one hands them there ass.
9636649 Hopefully Lex will be able to pull it off!
So the princesses have more power than he had expected(potentially due to their nature of having magic from all three tribes?) though Lex also surprised me given how he's able to hold down Severance on his own despite the scythe having previously revealed to have enough power to cut down a large number of angels and fight Mihr head on briefly on their own turf before fleeing. Though I suppose that can be attributed to the scythe prioritizing Luna as its target rather than killing one of the Night Mare's few chances to establish herself here.
Though I wonder how he'll be able to fight the princesses while also keeping the scythe from cutting them down at the same time or stop it from doing so should he manage to knock one or both of them out of the fight. Though it will be difficult to accomplish since most Equestrian magic (as far as I remember) barely has any casting time which puts a point in the princesses' favor here.
Still, despite the reason for the battle or the fallout in the aftermath, I'm eager to see Lex fight against the princesses after all this time and build up. Shame he's got a major handicap here but I'll take what I can get.
9636863 We've known for a little while that the princesses have their alicorn magic, which is a power that allows them to enhance the other magic that they're able to use. To that end, they can take their typical "beam of light" attack spells and pour more power into them, turning them into huge energy blasts that are far stronger than the unenhanced versions. Which, on its face, seems rather similar to how Lex can channel additional magic through himself to enhance his own spells...
With regard to Severance, what Lex is basically doing is using his telekinesis to hold it immobile. Severance is capable of bringing highly destructive force to bear, of course – we saw that firsthand (firsthoof?) in the fight against the ghoul horde – but it still needs to actually be able to swing itself to attack. It can't simply generate a wave of cutting force without moving. Lex, of course, is aware of that, and so he's pouring the power on to keep it from cutting down Luna. He's apparently still able to move, cast spells, and otherwise fight while doing so (which makes sense, since from what we've seen simply holding things with telekinesis doesn't take much more concentration than you or I would need to hold something in our hands), but he can't pour more magic into his spells while he's doing so to keep Severance still.
But even with those points against him, he's still decided to fight Celestia and Luna directly. It's not a battle he wanted (at least, not under these circumstances), but he's going to give it his all. Let's just hope that it'll be enough.
Well, at least Lex managed to inform the Sisters that it was Severance that attacked and he's trying to stop it. For him that's pretty good social skills!
I don't remember what that spell Lex is casting is. If it enhances his "stamina," I would go for Bear's Endurance, but that wouldn't help with a grapple check or an ego check.
If the Sisters are much stronger than Lex thought, are they strong enough to stand up to Severance? I think you told us in comments the rules about grabbing, containing/fighting Severance, but at this point its been a long time. Care to give a refresher? All I can think of is that Severance should have grease cast on him as a buff spell.
9636979
Well, that was more tactics than social skills. Lex initially didn't realize that Celestia and Luna thought he was behind what happened to Silhouette, despite that presumption being a given to literally everypony else. He might have heard the crowd yelling that he did that, after all, but he at least figured that Princess Celestia would have taken his word at face value and realized that something else had happened. Of course, when he did realize that Celestia and Luna blamed him for what happened, he realized that the smartest thing to do was explain the situation. He didn't want this fight, after all.
I think the last time we saw this spell was in Chapter 160 - Breakthrough and Breakdown, so I don't blame you for not remembering it. It's basically bear's endurance in every way, except that it's a 3rd-level spell that grants a +6 enhancement bonus to Constitution. Lex designed it that way because he already has a permanent +2 enhancement bonus to Constitution, and that won't stack with any other spells he casts, so in order to get a net total of +4 he needed to design a spell that granted +6. Thankfully, the tables in The Practical Enchanter (page 17 specifically) make that fairly easy to calculate.
The reason casting that is helping Lex contain Severance is because of his being built with Eclipse: The Codex Persona (naturally). More specifically, Lex has taken Glory modifier (p. 60) for his Amplify metamagic theorem (p. 56). That means that Lex can, up to (Constitution modifier) times per day, spontaneously add (Constitution modifier) worth of Amplification metamagic to a spell he casts or other magical ability of his. Naturally, using a spell that boosts his Constitution modifier is a good way to increase that power considerably.
That's why Lex is able to hold Severance back now. His normal unicorn telekinesis is basically greater mage hand (a 1st-level version of mage hand, found in the 3.5 Spell Compendium). But right now Lex is basically dumping a large amount of metamagic onto it to bump it up to basically being telekinesis. Fortunately, since spontaneously-applied metamagic doesn't change the actual level of the spell, he's still basically using a 1st-level Innate Enchantment spell effect, and so doesn't need to concentrate on it in order to maintain it. Hence why he can still act otherwise (save for using more applications of Glory with Amplification; that one was a GM's call, but since Lex is maintaining that power for his telekinesis, he can't use it on something else until he lets that go).
Of course, calculating how Severance would resist the telekinesis effect was a bit difficult...
Well, that wouldn't help against telekinetic grappling, but good thought otherwise.
Slightly more seriously, looking back through my notes doesn't show much of anything with regards to trying to grab Severance in combat. The closest I can find is with regards to using Severance as part of the mass combat rules. If there's something I'm missing, then I hope you or someone else will find it and let me know!
That said, the major problem here is that the d20 rules are very sparse when it comes to treating intelligent magic items as creatures. We know that we're supposed to treat them as constructs, but they're not given Hit Dice, which makes it rather difficult to assign them things like saving throw values, a Base Attack Bonus, and even skill points are something their creator builds into them rather than being a function of a high Intelligence score. That's quite obviously because the designers didn't think of intelligent magic items that would be capable of moving themselves, which strikes me as rather shortsighted when you take into account things like animated objects.
Ultimately, I used an ad hoc method for measuring Severance's resistance to being telekinetically grappled here, treating it as a Medium-sized animated object, which meant it had a 14 Strength with a +3 BAB and Dexterity of 10; that gives it a total CMD of only 15, which explains why Rainbow Dash was able to grab it and take it from Applejack back in Chapter 55 of The Apple Falls Far From the Tree without it simply wrenching itself out of her mouth (instead, it used heat metal on itself). Since telekinesis lets Lex substitute his caster level (currently +13) and his Intelligence bonus (currently +6) for his CMB, then he can easily overcome Severance's CMD and effectively "pin" it in place, particularly since heat doesn't translate back through telekinesis. (The "pin" being what stops it from swinging itself in place and throwing out another destructive wave the way it did against the ghouls.)
Of course, this makes Severance fairly weak against grapple attempts, but while it's a powerful artifact it's not supposed to be invincible. (That, and I like the thought that it can be overcome through what's effectively an unarmed attack, presuming that an attacker can put up with the weapon's self-heating. It reminds me of Shieldbreaker in Fred Saberhagen's "Swords" series of books, which effectively made its bearer invincible against anyone wielding a weapon, but helpless against those who were unarmed.)
But like I said, that was just an "ad hoc" determination, rather than something I put a lot of thought/calculation into.
9637392 Glad to hear I hadn't forgotten notes on Sev, I generally have a terrible memory so its a frequent risk. Treating him as an animated object makes a lot of sense, with the exception that he has basically infinite hardness as a major artifact.
Would he be subject to a Warp Metal spell? Artifacts can't be destroyed, but obviously Sev can be heated, so I wonder if he could be warped. It seems unlikely any of the casters present has this fairly obscure spell memorized, but if they did it would probably be a good debuff to put on Sev.
I do think we talked about Sev and ego checks at some point though. It doesn't seem like Lex is currently making a will save, just struggling with Sev fighting Lex's telekinesis. Are we to take it then that unicorn holding something in their field does not count as "possessing" an item for the purposes of making opposed ego checks?
9637472 Severance can be heated, but it can't really be damaged by that per se (particularly since it's heating itself, rather than being affected by an external effect). To that end, I'd be inclined to rule that warp metal couldn't affect it. I know the idea is that major artifacts can't be damaged, but that warp metal isn't "damage" per se, since it's not inflicting hit point loss, but I'm not partial to that argument. By that logic, someone with a sufficiently high Craft skill could conceivably hammer Severance into a plowshare, since that technically doesn't inflict hit point loss either. But the spirit of the rules is that directly altering the substance of a major artifact isn't really possible outside of very specific procedures or bringing overwhelming power to bear.
Insofar as making an Ego check goes...I'm actually of the opinion that a unicorn using their natural telekinesis to hold something does count as "possessing" (or even "wielding") an item. That's why Lex can hear Severance's telepathic voice when he's holding it that way. But insofar as Ego contests go, while that certainly makes sense for an artifact of the Night Mare to go that route, it's something of a non-starter where Lex is concerned. Even if I were to say that an item's Ego check could get past Lex's having The Adamant Will (Eclipse, p. 110) – which is neither impossible nor inconceivable, but given how the d20 System standardizes everything I'm disinclined to simply presume additional powers for things that aren't specifically articulated – an Ego check is basically a Will save made by the character, and happens no more often than once per day. Since Lex has Luck (Eclipse, p. 36) with +4 Bonus Uses, he can easily spend one use to automatically receive a 20 on his saving throw (since this would definitely count as a "magical effect," which are the only saves he can use Luck on). That's a minor resource expenditure, to be sure, but not a very large one. I should probably work that into a subsequent chapter or two, but it's something of a foregone conclusion.
Then again, for all we know, Severance is already aware of that anyway, and would rather spend its actions trying to break free.
9637641 Yeah, I figured you would say that about Warp Metal. Now I'm feeling sorry for the poor fool who tries to beat Severance into a plowshare!
Interesting, Severance is deliberately choosing not to engage Lex in a battle of wills because of a tactical choice. Using an auto-roll 20 would succeed, but even with Lex's incredible abilities I figured Severance has to have a crazy high ego, in the high 20s to low 30s. (The Sword of Pride, for example, was an artifact created by a mortal Runelord, and it had an ego of 25). So without Lex using his guaranteed success he might still have some risk of failure.
The flip side of that is, if Severance choses to engage in a dominance battle with Lex and fails (which he probably would), I believe he would have to stop struggling and obey Lex for 24 hours, so I can see why he's smart not to risk it.