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.
Lex fought down a surge of panic as he continued the ritual.
Celestia and Luna showing up now, at the worst possible moment, couldn’t be a coincidence…and yet, it had to be. His anti-scrying spell hadn’t activated, which ruled out the possibility that they’d been magically spying on him. Likewise, the train that had left here for Canterlot had only departed three nights ago, and should only be arriving at the city now, thus ruling out that somepony on it had directed them here. Plus, he hadn’t told anyone on board what he’d be attempting tonight anyway. But what other possibility was there?
Could someone on board have told them about what’s happened, and they teleported straight here? It wasn’t impossible, at least not in theory, but it was still unlikely in the extreme. Native Equestrian spellcasting, with its reliance on physical modes of manipulating magical energy, had teleportation as one of the most difficult spells a unicorn could learn. Even when done correctly it was typically only used to transport one’s self short distances. Taking another person along and/or increasing the distance traveled would have been taxing in the extreme, to the point where it would – by Lex’s calculation – have required both prodigious training and a cutie mark in spellcasting. Even then, to have teleported halfway across the continent and brought multiple guards with them….
No, even they can’t be that strong, he decided. There had to be an alternative explanation. But whatever it was, he’d need to find it later; for now, he had to deal with the fact that they were here, and they were in a prime position to disrupt the ritual he was conducting if they felt so inclined. The thought made him want to grit his teeth, but he knew he didn’t have that luxury, continuing to chant as he made the proper gesticulations in time with his words. Even then, he couldn’t help but analyze the current situation, weighing the options he had if worse came to worst…only to conclude that he had none.
As much as he hated to admit it, it was all up to Sonata now.
“Hey, is your armor made out of chocolate?” Sonata peered at the golden armor the pair of burly stallions in front of her were wearing, looking for a seam. “I mean, if you get hungry can you peel back the foil and nibble on it a bit?”
Neither of the guards seemed to appreciate her question. “Miss, please step aside immediately,” ordered the one on her left.
“The princesses wish to speak with Lex Legis at once,” added the one on her right. “Clear a path for them.”
Sonata glanced over her shoulder just once, looking back at where Lex was still chanting and gesturing, the glowing form of Aria hovering in the air in front of him like a big nightlight. When he didn’t pause or give any indication that he’d heard what the guards had said – despite being close enough that she was sure their words had reached him – she turned back to the armored pegasi. “Yeah, sorry. That’s gonna be a big no-go. Lex is in the middle of something right now, and totes can’t quit now.” The two stallions frowned deeply at that, but Sonata stood her ground, completely unfazed; Lex’s normal expression had more glower-power than either of these guys.
Nosey, however, seemed a bit more worried, gulping slightly as she made herself stand next to Sonata. This is no big deal, she reassured herself silently. I’ve interviewed plenty of Royal Guards before, this isn’t any different. Except for the part where she was deliberately defying their princess-given orders, because if she didn’t they could cause severe harm to her hero and her best friend’s sister. Right, no pressure. Fortunately Sonata had used her calming spell on her before now, otherwise Nosey felt sure that she’d be fighting the urge to throw up from anxiety. “Listen,” she piped up, drawing both guards’ attention, “she’s not kidding. Right now Lex is casting a really powerful spell to help her” – she nodded her head toward Sonata – “sister. If something interrupts him before he’s finished, they could both be seriously hurt.”
Both guards registered hesitation at that, glancing at each other uncertainly, and Nosey felt the tightness in her chest loosen. “But our orders…” murmured the rightmost stallion, clearly not sure what to do.
Nosey had no intention of letting them make up their minds. That’s right. This is just like interviewing a reluctant source. I’ve just got to make my way sound more reasonable than what they’re thinking. “Look, you said to make way because the princesses are headed here, right?” When both of them nodded, she continued. “So how about we wait here until they arrive, and then explain the situation to them then? I’m sure they wouldn’t want you to hurt anypony, right?” The guards hesitated for just a moment, then nodded slowly, making Nosey sigh in relief.
“Great!” cheered Sonata, rearing up and clapping her hooves before falling back to all fours. “So, can I have some of your chocolate armor in the meantime?”
Nosey resisted the urge to laugh, glancing around past the guards. The crowd was still watching the exchange, but it wasn’t them that Nosey was focused on. The guards had emerged from around the side of the train station, which meant that the princesses would almost certainly be coming from that direction also. But it’ll be okay, she was sure. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna won’t want anything bad to happen to anypony. I’m sure Sonata and I can fill them in on whatever they want to know while Lex finishes his spell. She wasn’t sure if it was because of Sonata’s spell, or because she’d witnessed the princesses so often – albeit always from afar – from having grown up in Canterlot, but the thought of talking to them was only the tiniest bit intimidating, and Nosey found herself standing up straighter as she heard hoofsteps approaching.
Too many hoofsteps.
She had just enough time to feel confused, before a half-dozen guards rounded the corner, marching in unison. There wasn’t a princess with them, however; rather, at their head marched an earth stallion who was also wearing the armor of the Royal Guard…except that it wasn’t gold, but rather a deep purple. Set against his pitch black coat and his white mane and tail, he cut quite a figure. But that wasn’t the most notable thing about him: that particular distinction went to the way his right hind leg was gnarled, the limb shriveled and twisted as though some monster had used it for a chew toy.
“I don’t think that’s one of the princesses,” Sonata stage-whispered to Nosey.
The strange stallion’s leg was clearly as bad as it looked, causing him to limp slightly as he led the other six members of the Royal Guard forward. Despite that, he didn’t seem to be in any particular pain, his features collected as he reached the two guards that had preceded him. Both snapped a salute, holding the pose and making it clear that whoever the newcomer was, he outranked them.
Nosey found herself holding her breath as the purple-clad stallion looked at her. It would have been easy to mistake his unsmiling expression as being like Lex’s, but she could see the difference. Lex’s perpetual scowl was one of disapproval, as though he was passing judgment on whoever he was looking at and found them wanting. It had taken her a while to realize that was his way of indicating that he cared about the ponies around him; he expected them to hold themselves to the same level of personal excellence that he strived to meet, and couldn’t understand why they not only fell so consistently short of the mark, but seemed to be uninterested in trying to do better. That wasn’t an attitude you had unless you were invested in other people, even if Lex was terrible at expressing that.
The unsmiling stallion looking at her now, however, didn’t give her the same impression. Whereas Lex was brimming with restrained passion, this pony felt cold. No, not cold, she corrected herself a moment later. Disinterested. That was it. His eyes looked at her the same way he would have looked at a pothole in the street: she was only worth noticing because she happened to be in his way. His eyes moved over to Sonata after a moment, and Nosey saw her frown at the look on his face, knowing that her best friend – who wanted to be adored – wouldn’t appreciate being looked at like that.
Then the newcomer looked past them. His brow furrowed slightly as he gazed at the glowing form that was Aria, before turning to look at Lex. It was only when his eyes fell on the latter pony that Nosey saw a flicker of genuine emotion appear in his eyes: anger.
“Report,” he snapped, not bothering to look at the pair of guards still holding their salute.
“Yes sir, Commander Silhouette sir!” chorused the guards, before the one on the left continued speaking. “We were attempting to clear the way for the princesses, but these ponies refused to move.”
“We ordered them to stand aside,” added the guard on the right. “But they said that Lex Legis is performing a delicate spell on somepony, and interrupting it could cause injuries.”
“Mm,” grunted Silhouette, not taking his eyes off of Lex. Nosey bit her lip, not liking the vibe she was getting off of this guy. Apparently Sonata didn’t either, because she was glaring at him, and Nosey had the distinct impression that she was about to give him a piece of her mind. Fortunately, she caught Sonata’s eye first, and silently shook her head. Please don’t! she thought as hard as she could, trying to will Sonata to understand what she was trying to say. If we start a fight, this will go from bad to worse in an instant, especially for Lex and Aria! Fortunately, Sonata seemed to read her mind, giving a huff but no longer looking like she wanted to tell this guy exactly what she thought of him.
“Our orders have changed.” Silhouette’s voice dragged Nosey’s attention back to him, seeing that he’d turned his attention back to the guards. “I have beseeched the goddess to leave this task to me, so that I may prove myself worthy of continuing to bask in her presence, and in her boundless mercy she has granted me this.” Again, Nosey could see an emotion working its way onto his face as he spoke, and this time it was rapture. Whoever his “goddess” was (and that he knew that term was surprising in and of itself), he was quite clearly enthralled with her. “She and her sister will remain at their present location,” he continued, “and we shall bring Lex Legis to them.”
“Um, guess again, Limpy,” sneered Sonata. “I dunno which goddess you’re talking about, but you and she can take a number, ‘cuz this guy,” she raised a hoof over her shoulder, pointing at Lex, “isn’t going anywhere.”
Silhouette gave Sonata another glance, his lip curling ever so slightly, before he returned his attention to Lex. “Fall in,” he ordered softly, and the two stallions immediately gave a grunt of affirmation, turning and trotting back to join the six Royal Guards that had accompanied him.
Alarm bells were going off in Nosey’s head, and she licked her lips – now completely dry from anxiety – before speaking up, trying to avert what she knew was coming. “Those guards weren’t kidding! If Lex’s spell gets interrupted, then the consequences could-”
“Lex Legis,” announced Silhouette, cutting Nosey off as he spoke in a loud voice. “My name is Silhouette! I have been given orders by the Mother of the Night, known to you as Princess Luna, to bring you into her divine presence and that of her sister immediately! Cease whatever sorcery you’re performing at once and submit yourself to the will of the goddess, and you will be treated gently! Fail to do so…” He smiled thinly at the prospect of that. “…and we will take you to her by force!”
An anxious murmur ran through the crowd at that, more than a few ponies backing away from Silhouette. Sonata was also increasing her distance from him, moving to place herself directly between Silhouette and Lex as she widened her stance. “Trust me, you really don’t wanna do this,” she growled.
Silhouette waited, just long enough to make sure that Lex wasn’t going to respond to his declaration, and then glanced back at the guards under his command.
“Get them.”
Just when it looks like Nosey and Sonata are going to be able to avoid a fight, a new guy shows up and pushes for one!
Will the ritual be interrupted? Or is Sonata enough to handle Silhouette and the Royal Guard?
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We here?
Silhouette really doesn't know the princesses. He only knows the Royalty they represent, and seems to be incapable of much independent though.
Well, guess we've met one of Luna's first followers and while Luna isn't a proper goddess, she still has quite a lot of power by Equestrian standards and if Silhouette was given enough of it to have crippled his leg, then any defense Sonata musters might not be enough to stop him...well, unless she manages to enchant the guards around him to attack him instead and at the very least buy Lex time to finish the ritual or until either of the sisters arrive to see the commotion.
Still, the fact that one of Luna's followers is a member of her guard is worrisome as it implies that the others might be in similar positions and just as equally zealous in their devotion to their 'goddess' which could prove problematic if they're all here as well, probably likely to subdue and or destroy the 'great evil' that has plagued Vanhoover instead of letting the sisters do it themselves.
OHH FUCK ME SIDEWAYS
Three cheers for fanatical religious military morons. And for lazy ass royals who can't be bothered to go speak to someone themselves but have to have their thugs drag them to them.
Sounds like time for bardic fascination using perform (oratory)?
Sillouette?
I remember my Grandma had personal dealing with guys like this.
Forget guns, this guy is unrestricted class, but I suspect Luna would complain if we used Little Boy on him as a suppository.
Given Sonata as Bard, pity she couldnt corrupt his Zealotry with Unnatural Lust, Illusion and other such magic that are so much in Lunas domain she would be round quick to see how someone is trying to claim her devout follower as their own by trying to supplant them in his mind?
and now the singing starts.
can you make Silhouette cluck like a chicken Sonata?
9303763 Grammatical error fixed now (it should have been "wait here" rather than "here wait").
Silhouette is quite clearly a Luna worshiper, and that's sort of the thing about worship; it requires that you acknowledge that the one you're worshiping be (far) above you. That's why Celestia was so concerned about Luna's trying to become a goddess in the first place; you can't be friends with those who worship you.
9303781 Trying to buy time for Lex to finish the ritual is going to be difficult, as he's still in the early stages of a multi-hour process. One way or another, this is almost certainly going to be finished before he gets involved.
As for the Royal Guards, based on what we've seen in the show they're probably not going to be too big of a problem. The issue is how many of them there are (eight at the moment), not to mention that Silhouette is a complete unknown at this point. We know that Sonata has some fairly potent powers regarding sound-based and mind-affecting magic, so in theory she's got the advantage, but that's presumptive until we have a better idea of what she's up against.
Ideally, Celestia and Luna will come running and put a stop to all this, but it sounds like Silhouette convinced them to hang back and let him take charge. With any luck, they'll notice something that will make them think better of the idea. Of course, that's presuming that they show up and decide to end the fight rather than win it...
9303788 Well, what can I say? Since when has Lex ever gotten a break?
9303892 Well, I suspect that there's a bit more to it than that, though I won't say that you're completely wrong. As it stands right now, Silhouette almost looks like he wants a fight...
9304283
Do you think im abit too expletive
9303981 Sonata strikes me as more of a Perform (sing) kinda girl, along with some Perform (dance).
9304289 Nah, it doesn't bother me any.
9304293
great You need to to vary your profanity though so
FUCK SON OF A Cunt
FUCK DAMMIT
WHO EVES THIS FACASS DAMMSHIT IS I HOPE HE DIES IN A FUCKING NUKE FROM FUCKISTAN POPULATION HIM
9304087 While there are exceptions, most magic doesn't have the strength and duration necessary to supplant someone's religious faith in their deity to the point where the deity would likely become concerned. If that's what you meant. On the other hoof, if you were referring to Sonata trying to out-Luna so as to awe Silhouette into worshiping her, well...one of the tenets of faith is devotion, ideally even when you'd otherwise have cause to doubt. So I question if that'd work.
That, and Sonata's already ticked at him anyway. So I suspect she's going to be more direct in her anger.
9304145 I suspect we're about to find out!
Oracles are generally mad as a hatter, Luna shouldn't be trusting delicate work to one. Sounds like this one doesn't have ranks in Spellcraft or Knowledge Arcana. Trying to disrupt a ritual in a crowded area, with an unknown backlash? Very stupid.
Sonata is being less than useful so far, Nosey has had to pick up the slack. Now that things are turning to a fight I bet that will change.
9304743 Or, alternatively, Silhouette has figured out that if the ritual were disrupted, Lex (and Aria, though I doubt he knows who she is) would be the primary targets of the backlash. Given that he seems to have it out for Lex for some reason, that might very well be what he's trying to accomplish. And oracles aren't so much "mad" as they are "cursed" and "ticked because they've been tapped for a fate they didn't want (and cursed as a byproduct of that)." That doesn't seem to be the case for Silhouette, though. He seems quite devoted to Luna...maybe too much, in fact.
But yeah, now that it's about to come down to a fight, let's hope that Sonata can win!
9304765 He might, but that seems like a pretty big gamble. ID'ing a ritual in progress for one round and being certain of its backlash effects seems pretty difficult, and the Equestrians with Pathfinder character classes seem pretty new to their power. Those loyal guards or nearby civilians could pay a price for his risk.
Also, took another look at Break Enchantment. I'm pretty sure it can reverse the effects of a ritual, since it can end not only spells, but effects. But Lex could also be crafting a ritual that is highly resistant or even impossible to dispel, since the ritual rules are so open-ended.
9304783 Regarding break enchantment on a ritual, did you look at the link I posted before? It contains the reference for why break enchantment doesn't work on ritual effects (basically, the same reason it can't remove lichdom or vampirism). Some changes, even if they're effectively below 6th level in terms of spell effect, can't be reversed by that particular spell (though I suppose a wish or miracle could do it). That's specific to how things work in Eclipse, of course, but I think that it's a fairly good reason (albeit a comparatively minor one) why someone would want to go with a more dangerous effect, rather than casting a spell.
As for break enchantment using "effect" in its description, my read on that is that it's using that term as a placeholder for everything it initially outlines, which is enchantments, transmutations, and curses, be they instantaneous or not. This also covers spell-like abilities and other such instances of those things so long as they have the proper descriptor(s). But in this case, it's running into something that's outside of its ability to affect, as mentioned above.
As for Silhouette being reckless, that's certainly a fair assessment. But then again, he seems like a religious fanatic who's eager to score some points with his goddess. That's not quite madness per se, so much as it is stupidity...unless he knows what he's doing more than he's letting on. Besides, even Lex didn't seem worried about the crowd being nearby.
9304795 The d20pfsrd is my default for anything, that's where I was reviewing the spell. I had not realized the second part behind the spoiler tag was also linked.
I guess in Eclipse it is slightly different, but in Pathfinder rituals do indeed have caster levels and spell levels. Ritual spell levels are the same as regular spell levels except a ritual's level is always at least 4, and the caster level is just the character or HD level of the primary caster: Occult Rituals. In fact, they created rituals for turning someone into a lich, and it's a 9th level ritual, which is why it can't be undone by Break Enchantment. (Also it's a necromancy, not a transmutation or enchantment).
I agree Break Enchantment only dispels enchantments, transmutations and curses, regardless of if they are a spell or other type of effect. I just think it's very hard to imagine the ritual Lex is performing as not qualifying for a transmutation tag.
That said, in the ritual rules, it's pretty easy to craft a ritual that is level 6 or above, which should make it unbreakable. In fact, the ritual level says it should be modelled after an equivalent spell, and since the only spell that permanently polymorphs a creature that I can think of is Polymorph Any Object, which is 8th level, I can't imagine Lex is currently conducting a level 4 or level 5 ritual. So his ritual should definitely not be dispellable by Break Enchantment.
9304865 Okay, so my previous response on this topic wasn't very good (e.g. I should have referenced lycanthropy, as it's a better example than lichdom or vampirism, which are obviously necromancy). I chalk that up to trying to type a response while simultaneously finish a few things up and get out the door. Sorry about that.
While I do use 3.5 and/or Pathfinder for various baselines throughout the story, I go with Eclipse: The Codex Persona wherever possible when generating game stats, as it's far and away more flexible while still being 100% compatible with both, allowing me to have greater narrative freedom while still using the RPG stats as the baseline for how things work in the story. I treat Everglow as defaulting to Pathfinder in terms of how most characters there function, whereas Equestria defaults to 3.5 with necessary Eclipse changes to make what we see in the show possible, but otherwise - if there's a particular subsystem or method that's in 3.5/Pathfinder and also modeled in Eclipse - I'll go with the Eclipse equivalent.
Pathfinder's occult rituals, which are pretty clearly modeled (closely) off of 3.5's incantations, are methods of generating magical effects where, rather than limiting them based on how often they can be prepared a la Vancian spellcasting, are balanced by introducing inherent failure modes via skill checks (and a few other things, but primarily by inserting the possibility of failing the skill checks). Eclipse has something like this too, the Ritual Magic rules on page 96. Those cover the same thematic area as Pathfinder's rituals or 3.5's incantations, albeit with far less intricate instructions on designing them. Among other differences is that they don't have a caster level (the closest they come is that the GM figures what level of caster would be needed to generate the effect, presumably by eyeballing the equivalent spell level of the effect being created).
Given that those rituals have no caster level, there's nothing for break enchantment to go up against, sort of like how a rock has no biology for a poison to affect. That's a key difference between how they work in Eclipse, and how they work in 3.5/Pathfinder, but as mentioned before that's what I'm going with, as it helps to offset how Eclipse rituals are slightly more dangerous than their other counterparts (e.g. you need to hit DC +20 to be completely free of harmful side effects, rather than just the target DC unto itself; I'm also interpreting them as failing automatically if interrupted, which is much more severe than in 3.5 or Pathfinder). It also helps to explain why, as noted in the previous chapter, anyone would go with ritual casting if they could otherwise use normal spellcasting, which is an important plot point for what's unfolding now (hence that bit about giving me greater narrative freedom).
As for the baseline I used to generate the effect of this ritual, I'd planned on waiting until I could make a blog post about this, but the guidelines I used were three-fold: 1) half-blood extraction, 2) elixir of sex shifting, and 3) the racial transformation rituals in Savage Species (a 3.0 book), which had a default caster level of 7th, making them the equivalent of a 4th level spell (albeit only as a baseline). Taking all of those together, it was fairly clear that changing someone's basic characteristics (presuming they're not trading upward in terms of inherent power, i.e. changing a human into a storm giant) is a 4th- or 5th-level effect. So Lex's ritual isn't nearly as high-level as you're thinking it is.
9305065 Ah. I hadn't realized we were going Total Eclipse ( ) on rituals, I thought it was just on how Break Enchantment works on them.
I couldn't really find a browsable source on Eclipse rituals, I'll take your word they are harder (though I always thought Occult Rituals were way too hard anyway. Between the backlash, lack of assists or taking ten on skill checks, and the penalties for failure).
Two of the three examples you listed have CL 9th in them, so I'm guessing this is the equivalent of a 5th level spell. I bet Lex is performing the ritual of Vitality instead of Unlearning, Aria probably has some spare XP from all those ghouls she recently wiped.
9305065 Also, Break Enchantment cures lycanthropy if cast during the full moon, according to Classic Horrors Revisited.
9305112 You know you don't really need a browsable source, right? I linked to the book directly, and it's free to legally download. Likewise, that second link in my post on the previous chapter (the one behind the spoiler bars) went right to some examples of Eclipse rituals, as written by the book's co-author. That said, this is a custom ritual on Lex's part (the system encourages rituals to be customizable, due to how open the design is).
9305140 Why am I not surprised?
Thanksgiving, time to catch up!
9308984 Glad to have you back with us!