With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
runes carves

'carved'

Mr Zoat said:
have show

'shown'

Mr Zoat said:
her interpreting her older memories

maybe 'with interpreting' or just 'interpret'

Mr Zoat said:
people wanted

'who wanted'

Is the next episode going to be a primarily renegade or paragon episode?

Citizen · Aug 27, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
You seem to be rather the worse for ware."

Worse for wear.

Mr Zoat said:
Ah. A small party of lightly armed nobles. A hunting party perhaps. Their leader has a tabard of three black flowers over a black fleur-de-lis on a white field. And none of their hearts beat more than once a minute.

This looks like good timing on someone's part.

Ganurath · Aug 27, 2020

Citizen said:
This looks like good timing on someone's part.

That, or gaslighting.

Handlewithcare · Aug 27, 2020

Are they Vampires? He was hit by some sort of death magic, going by his speech.

Mr Zoat · Aug 27, 2020

Darko said:
'carved'
'shown'
maybe 'with interpreting' or just 'interpret'
'who wanted'

Thank you, corrected.

Is the next episode going to be a primarily renegade or paragon episode?

The main SI.

Citizen said:
Worse for wear.

Thank you, corrected.

Citizen · Aug 27, 2020

Handlewithcare said:
Are they Vampires? He was hit by some sort of death magic, going by his speech.

Seems more likely that he's just in a deep despair after some of his cannonical encounters where he believes everything he held dear was a lie. If that's so he's in the kind of low point that Black light engenders.

Also it's likely that the incoming riders are vampires, yes. Mousillon's not short of those.

Massgamer · Aug 27, 2020

Heh, I wonder what happened to get Paul to collect Beastwomen and put them to work peacefully with normal people.

The more I see of these rare scenes the more I wish Zoat would focus more on WHF and WH40K. I want to see how far Paul rises among the Tau!

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

Massgamer said:
Heh, I wonder what happened to get Paul to collect Beastwomen and put them to work peacefully with normal people.

The more I see of these rare scenes the more I wish Zoat would focus more on WHF and WH40K. I want to see how far Paul rises among the Tau!

Same here. Hope the next episode we see 40k version.

Chojin Patriarch · Aug 27, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
4th Pflugzeit 2510
Early afternoon

"That's… Curious."

Oh, what a time to cut away... Still, at least we're seeing more of Warhammer!Paul.

Aranei frowns at the standing stone in the middle of the village square. Around us, a curious mixture of Bretonnian peasants and beastwomen work to prepare the fields for our first major planting. The beastwomen were a major find; far stronger than normal humans but far more sociable than their male brethren, they've been perfectly happy to pitch in in exchange for protection and a share of the crop. I'm still not really sure why the females are so different to the males, and Aranei hasn't really been able to help me. Neither healing people nor subtle ghur manipulation were really the focus of her magic education.

Maybe something to do with the nature of female herd animals like cows and nanny goats? I mean, they'd fuck you up if you tried to threaten their young, no doubt...

"What is?"

I took a bit of a risk in picking up a selection of potatoes from Lustria; I remember hearing that they can be poisonous and the lizardmen certainly never bothered to put them through the selective breeding process which humans did back on Earth. But as best as I can determine they should be sufficiently safe and nutritious to join turnips, oats and legumes in the local diet. Peasants in Mousillon have some fishing but not a significant amount of herding, which seems odd to me. As a result, while most of the Dark Elf residents are a head taller than me poor diet means that I've got at least that on the locals. Those who didn't have some sort of gigantism-granting mutation, at least.

Or some other divinely-granted mutation. That honestly covers quite a few sins in miniature scales that GW has produced over the years.

"The distortion in the winds of magic which I felt last week." She gestures at the stone, causing the runes carves into the surface to distort very faintly as she makes use of the region's natural magic flows to try and narrow down the source of the oddity which has drawn her attention. As I'm not a magic user myself there's no.. light show. Not that I can see, anyway, but I've at least gotten to the point where I can tell that something is happening. "I've been trying to study the after effects, and I believe that I have a better read on it."

The joy of not having a local soul. Unless she casts something with a flashy visual effect, like a fireball, lightning bolt or Comet of Casandora, you won't even know it.

"Can you tell what it is?"

She makes a face like she just bit down on an unexpected lemon.

Nothing pleasant, then. Necromancy, given they're still hanging around the Duchy of the Dead?

"… No. It wasn't an ignorant human wyrd drawing upon the winds in ignorance, or a daemon or chaos spawn."

"A vampiric transformation?"

Entirely too likely given Mousillion. Some unfortunate peasant striking it lucky out of a Vampire attack, perhaps?

"I doubt it. It's too structured to be primitive dark magic." She considers that for a moment. "Though it is true that I have never had the opportunity to study such a transformation directly." She lowers her hands and pulls a map of the duchy out of her satchel. Unrolling it, she points to a location on the edge of the Forest of Arden. "There. Whatever happened, that was where it happened."

Well, at least it isn't Athel Loren, that's about five hundred miles southeast.

That's not… Too close by. Given the nature of this world I would prefer to keep my head down until I've had a chance to gain more experience, and even after I've spent months draining the local dark magic taint down to safer levels this duchy is basically Bretonnia's Sylvania. But large magic distortions happening in the vicinity of to my home base is… Something I have show an interest in before it blows up in all our faces.

"I'll take a look."

Take care, then. No telling what it is, if your pet sorceress can't identify it.

"You should take an escort."

I frown at her. "Who? The cloaks are a give away, the beastwomen-."

Yeeaaahhh... The best you could hope for is being assumed to be some minor Chaos champion...

"I will accompany you."

I look at the spiked, skull-embroidered and generally minimalist 'I grew up in the arctic, this is roasting' clothing she always wears. "I'm not sure that's a better option."

Dark Elves and their skimpy clothing... Clearly, one of the first spells she learnt was a warming charm.

She moues and raises her hands slightly. "Dress me in Ulthuanian garb so that I only intimidate the ignorant peasants. That will assuage your concerns, will it not?"

"I suppose." I focus on my desire to have her accompany me in a way that doesn't result in her getting shot full of arrows. The result is that her usual ensemble is replaced with a multi-layered robe in two tones of blue, with gold decorations thread work and borders. She looks it over and sniffs. "Tolerable."

What, not happy that you're not basically walking around half-naked anymore? Honestly.

I offer her my right hand and she gracefully accepts, returning the map to her satchel as she does so. Once it's safely stowed she nods and we shoot upwards, the world gradually spreading out below us.

"Such unthinking power…"

Aranei has a habit of… Purring when I do something like this. Her appreciation for having a powerful patron was one of the few non-evil things I found in her psyche when I 'operated' and I thought that leaving it would help her interpreting her older memories. And it… Does…

Again, Dark Elves, man. It's a rare Naggarothi lady who isn't attracted to money, power and status... And most of them end up blood-crazed worshippers of Khaine, god of Murder (among other war-related fields.)

I focus on the area she pointed to and fly us in that direction as rapidly as I can. We don't really have anything challenging us for airspace; Bretonnians do make some use of pegasus and hippogryph knights, but they're uncommon and they generally have better places to be than Mousillon. Getting spotted would be unfortunate, and having our point of origin spotted would be far worse. I can't afford to spend all of my time in the village if I want to get anything done, but I don't want to come back one day and find everyone dead.

Be rather annoying if all your hard work got stomped by some obnoxious knight out questing...

Mousillon is heavily forested, not because it's naturally particularly fertile but more because there aren't enough people wanted to fell it to make much of an impact. Most of the places that aren't covered by a forest canopy are bare because the soil literally can't support large trees; swampland and places where the topsoil is a few centimetres thick over chalk or stone. The land we're travelling towards is swampy, a narrow creak which-

Seriously, this place is the literal armpit of Bretonnia. Look up a map.

Alert! Exotic contaminant detected.

-has some sort of magic taint to it. Ring, scan for people.

Uh-oh. That doesn't sound good.

Compliance.

One person-. Oh. It's… Him.

"Aranei, you remember that Questing Knight who came across you a little after I did?"

Seriously, what are the chances?

"Yes? What of him?"

"He's the only person in the area you pointed to."

"I assumed that a fool like him would be dead by now. I suppose this speaks well of his strength of will, if not his sense of direction. Will we speak with him?"

Too dumb to stay dead? He didn't make a very good impression on them, did he?

"May as well."

And down we go.

I take care to come down well out of lunge-distance. And hopefully out of challenge-distance as well; the ground here would make any attempt to bury him quickly fatal. I'd been hoping since we hadn't seen him since that day that he might have left…

Nah, that'd be too easy.. the Old World just runs on Sod's Law.

Huh. His surcoat is torn and muddy… Fair enough: we're in a swamp and he can hardly take a tailor with him on his quest. But his armour appears to be in a similarly sorry state, and I know that Bretonnian noblemen are taught basic armour and weapon maintenance. Bretonnian squires are trained peasants after all, not junior noblemen. And his face… It's not the beard; shaving regularly would be something of a luxury on a campaign, let alone a quest. It's the dirt and the fact that he's just staring into space without even a fire. He looks like he's been in the metaphorical wars when he'd only been trained for literal wars.

Crisis of faith, perhaps?

"Sir Mallobaude? Are you well?"

He looks around slowly as we touch down. From the looks of it he doesn't really care that we're here; he only moved his head on a sort of mechanical instinct. When his eyes finally alight on us there are a few moments of blankness, then a very dim light of recognition appears.

"Oh. You."

...Or not. That can not be good.

"I ask again, sir knight: are you well? You seem to be rather the worse for ware."

He turns his head away, looking over to where his sword lies carelessly discarded onto the muddy ground next to him.

Then he hangs his head.

Crap, did bringing an Orange Ring here drag other lights along with it? Because this looks a lot like...

"Leave me be."

"Come now, that's no attitude for a knight of Bretonnia when confronted with a man like me!"

Trying to get his dander up? Not sure that's going to work, if this is anything close to what I think it is...

Aranei flashes me a look of frustrated confusion and I respond with a 'I'm going somewhere with this' wave.

"I am no knight. Before you lie the broken remains of a fool.."

Seriously, he sounds like he's soaked in Black Light. Or Anti-Life.

Aranei shakes her head. "'Fool', I'll grant you. But you remain unbroken in body if not in mind, and it appears my lord wishes to offer you succour. He's done the same to less worthy beings before, so I imagine that the offer is genuine. What ails you?"

"If you have any mercy then le-."

Evidently, even he feels something's wrong... If he's asking them to kill him...

The three of us turn as we hear the sound of approaching hooves, and Aranei swiftly makes the gesture to inform me that magic was employed.

Scan.

Ah. A small party of lightly armed nobles. A hunting party perhaps. Their leader has a tabard of three black flowers over a black fleur-de-lis on a white field. And none of their hearts beat more than once a minute.

Vampires. Maybe this'll get good Sir Mallobaude up and at them.

As much as I like more of this... Leaving off on a 'death-rays from the sky' cliffhanger? Seriously, talk about blue-balled on the Renegade's situation... We better find out what's going on there soon. Because it sounds like all hell is breaking loose.

...a narrow creak which-

...a narrow creek which-

Vaermina · Aug 27, 2020

Massgamer said:
Heh, I wonder what happened to get Paul to collect Beastwomen and put them to work peacefully with normal people.

The more I see of these rare scenes the more I wish Zoat would focus more on WHF and WH40K. I want to see how far Paul rises among the Tau!

Given how badly Zoat is twisting both mediums to keep his SI alive it's probably best if the Warhammer snips are kept in moderation.

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
The joy of not having a local soul. Unless she casts something with a flashy visual effect, like a fireball, lightning bolt or Comet of Casandora, you won't even know it.

Considering the setting, him lacking a soul may be a blessing.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Dark Elves and their skimpy clothing... Clearly, one of the first spells she learnt was a warming charm.

Given their nature as sadists and masochists she may enjoy the biting cold.

Chojin Patriarch said:
What, not happy that you're not basically walking around half-naked anymore? Honestly.

She may prefer walking around half naked.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Crap, did bringing an Orange Ring here drag other lights along with it? Because this looks a lot like...

No he's just depressed, and he did have a lot of red when he talked to the SI, but that's not too surprising.

There have been colored texts indicating emotions even if the universe isn't connected to DC comics.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Seriously, he sounds like he's soaked in Black Light. Or Anti-Life.

Again just regular, albeit severe, depression after he discovered that his life was kinda a lie.

Whenever Possible · Aug 27, 2020

Darko said:
Again just regular, albeit severe, depression after he discovered that his life was kinda a lie.

What, did Paul tell him that Brettonia as a culture exists because some wood elves prefer to have mayflies fight for them instead of fighting themselves, and Sir Whatshisname went to the forest to see if it's true?

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

Whenever Possible said:
What, did Paul tell him that Brettonia as a culture exists because some wood elves prefer to have mayflies fight for them instead of fighting themselves, and Sir Whatshisname went to the forest to see if it's true?

Basically this:

Mr Zoat said:
They first met when Mallobaude was a Questing Knight. He was trying to chase down the Dark Elves raiding the coast and came upon the SI having already done so. Seeing unrighteous devilry he challenged the SI, who first tried to talk him down and then defeated him as gently as he could. Their next meeting was some time later, after he completed his Grail Quest and was depressed at finding the whole thing to be a charade. The SI gave him an impassioned lecture on virtue ethics and secular humanism and he grabbed onto it like a drowning man to a lifeline.

The one thing I like about the End Times is that the Chaos Gods don't really care about the Warhammer setting. It's one planet. They've got billions of others.

Stsword · Aug 27, 2020

It is very weird that the Sheeda are Earth bound.

One of the treasures they stole from Aurakles was a Fatherbox. You know, the device they open all those boom tubes with....

Misty Kilgore, Zatanna's apprentice, Snow White, daughter of a human and Melmoth of the Sheeda, has half of it as her Magic Die.

Apparently New Gods like redundancies in their technology, since you can cut a fatherbox in half and get a working machine.

The above is her when she's not blue, she's got enough shapeshifting to switch back and forth.

While I quite like the character, it seems doubtful that she'd be looking to become Zatanna's apprentice in YJ, what with Z still being a teenager herself.

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

Stsword said:
It is very weird that the Sheeda are Earth bound.

One of the treasures they stole from Aurakles was a Fatherbox. You know, the device they open all those boom tubes with....

Misty Kilgore, Zatanna's apprentice, Snow White, daughter of a human and Melmoth of the Sheeda, has half of it as her Magic Die.

Apparently New Gods like redundancies in their technology, since you can cut a fatherbox in half and get a working machine.

The above is her when she's not blue, she's got enough shapeshifting to switch back and forth.

While I quite like the character, it seems doubtful that she'd be looking to become Zatanna's apprentice in YJ, what with Z still being a teenager herself.

If she does show up then she may become Giovannis apprentice, with Zatanna as an older student helping her out.

Korfayron · Aug 27, 2020

Oh yeah more LanternHammer . . . WarLantern? Either way this is awesome.

Vaermina · Aug 27, 2020

Darko said:
Considering the setting, him lacking a soul may be a blessing.

In Warhammer terms Paul doesn't actually lack a soul since he has emotions.

Whenever Possible · Aug 27, 2020

Vaermina said:
In Warhammer terms Paul doesn't actually lack a soul since he has emotions.

Blanks can still have emotions while lacking a connection to the warp/aether

Cuchulin · Aug 27, 2020

Vaermina said:
The GLC doesn't last that far into the future.

Contrary to what Paul might like to think, emotional spectrum tech isn't the end all be all of things and the rest of the universe is at the point where it's only a couple hundred more years till the lantern corps get eaten for breakfast.

Legion of Super-Heroes? But didn't Abra Kadabra reveal that there was a Orangist Night event in his past that is also further into the future than the Legion?

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

Cuchulin said:
Legion of Super-Heroes? But didn't Abra Kadabra reveal that there was a Orangist Night event in his past that is also further into the future than the Legion?

Yeah, but I don't think that's going to happen here.

If I remember correctly the Reach apparently stole the Light Fountain from Larfleeze and he went on a warpath to get it back.

Here Larfleeze has been incapacitated.

transhumansage · Aug 27, 2020

Vaermina said:
Given how badly Zoat is twisting both mediums to keep his SI alive it's probably best if the Warhammer snips are kept in moderation.

i disagree. immensely. i dont know why you are still here, but i want more zoat in warhammer. and in what way is he twisting the medium? please give specific examples.

Mr Zoat · Aug 27, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
Maybe something to do with the nature of female herd animals like cows and nanny goats? I mean, they'd fuck you up if you tried to threaten their young, no doubt...

If I remember correctly, it was so that male beastmen would only ever be able to reproduce through rape, even with their own kind.

Take care, then. No telling what it is, if your pet sorceress can't identify it.

She's pretty junior. There are plenty of things she can't identify.

Dark Elves and their skimpy clothing... Clearly, one of the first spells she learnt was a warming charm.

No, when she's in Naggaroth she dresses warmly, but they're far closes to the equator here.

...a narrow creek which-

Thank you, corrected,

Darko said:
Yeah, but I don't think that's going to happen here.

If I remember correctly the Reach apparently stole the Light Fountain from Larfleeze and he went on a warpath to get it back.

Here Larfleeze has been incapacitated.

No, they didn't steal it. They just woke him up.

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
No, they didn't steal it. They just woke him up.

It seems kinda odd that he would go on a rampage across the galaxy just by being woken up.

That's most likely not the first time he's been woken up by someone, seeing as he has all those assimilated people with him, and he just attacked the ones that woke him up those times.

What caused him to do his own rendition of Blackest Night instead of just killing the ones that woke him up?

Mr Zoat · Aug 27, 2020

Darko said:
It seems kinda odd that he would go on a rampage across the galaxy just by being woken up.

That's most likely not the first time he's been woken up by someone, seeing as he has all those assimilated people with him, and he just attacked the ones that woke him up those times.

What caused him to do his own rendition of Blackest Night instead of just killing the ones that woke him up?

He was half-asleep, they said 'Guardian'. They were also taking samples of some of the things in his cave.

And it turns out that Larfleeze really likes taking stuff.

WereDragon · Aug 27, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
4th Pflugzeit 2510
Early afternoon

Seems the Ring doesn't put Vampires under the heading of 'people'.

Also the 'beastwomen' this is going to go horrifically wrong. They might be less individually aggressive but they remain irrevocably corrupted by chaos. Fantasy is not 40K, where there are a great many reasons for mutation and abhumanism. In Fantasy mutations are caused by chaos corruption and nothing else. Unless his ring can do soul surgery he isn't fixing them enough to be safe.

Mr Zoat · Aug 27, 2020

WereDragon said:
Seems the Ring doesn't put Vampires under the heading of 'people'.

It does, but if they use Vanhal's Danse Macabre they can cover quite long distances quickly.

Also the 'beastwomen' this is going to go horrifically wrong. They might be less individually aggressive but they remain irrevocably corrupted by chaos. Fantasy is not 40K, where there are a great many reasons for mutation and abhumanism. In Fantasy mutations are caused by chaos corruption and nothing else. Unless his ring can do soul surgery he isn't fixing them enough to be safe.

No, canonically, beastwomen are perfectly safish. Warhammer-safe. Their male children aren't, but they are. And as stated above the SI can drain dark magic, and he can hire magicians of the Amber College to try and find alternatives.

WereDragon · Aug 27, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
No, canonically, beastwomen are perfectly safish. Warhammer-safe. Their male children aren't, but they are. And as stated above the SI can drain dark magic, and he can hire magicians of the Amber College to try and find alternatives.

The individuals are a non-threat. The unending hordes of Beastmen they will attract very much are threats. Worst still is the direct attention and enmity of the Chaos gods that trying to steal their followers will prompt.

Also why would he go to the College? The Empire's "magic tradition" is just a dangerously abbreviated copy of the Saphery tradition, focused heavily on battlefield effectiveness. If he wants magical expertise Altdorf is not the place to get it.

Darko · Aug 27, 2020

WereDragon said:
The individuals are a non-threat. The unending hordes of Beastmen they will attract very much are threats. Worst still is the direct attention and enmity of the Chaos gods that trying to steal their followers will prompt.

Also why would he go to the College? The Empire's "magic tradition" is just a dangerously abbreviated copy of the Saphery tradition, focused heavily on battlefield effectiveness. If he wants magical expertise Altdorf is not the place to get it.

The humans may be more willing to work with him than the elves.

Mr Zoat · Aug 27, 2020

WereDragon said:
The individuals are a non-threat. The unending hordes of Beastmen they will attract very much are threats. Worst still is the direct attention and enmity of the Chaos gods that trying to steal their followers will prompt.

Why would a small group of beastwomen who were in the area anyway attract 'unending hordes of beastmen', when beastmen are focused on tearing down civilisation? It's not like beastmen need beastwomen in order to reproduce.

Also why would he go to the College? The Empire's "magic tradition" is just a dangerously abbreviated copy of the Saphery tradition, focused heavily on battlefield effectiveness. If he wants magical expertise Altdorf is not the place to get it.

Most High Elves wouldn't want to work a) for a human b) on trying to help beastwomen.
High Elves don't really focus on individual winds in the way humans do.
High Elves don't want humans coming to their country.
Wood Elves are a bit of a dodgy prospect.
Slaan wouldn't help within a useful time frame.

DAT_NOOB · Aug 27, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
Most High Elves wouldn't want to work a) for a human b) on trying to help beastwomen.
High Elves don't really focus on individual winds in the way humans do.
High Elves don't want humans coming to their country.
Wood Elves are a bit of a dodgy prospect.
Slaan wouldn't help within a useful time frame.

I'm sure you'd be able to find a dark elf willing to *ahem* 'experiment' if only for their own enjoyment.

With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Connoisseur.

Well worn.

Apologizes For Nothing

Versed in the lewd.

Dedicated ragequitter

Well worn.

I trust you know where the happy button is?

Connoisseur.

Veteran Lurker

Well worn.

Connoisseur.

Versed in the lewd.

Connoisseur.

Versed in the lewd.

Connoisseur.

Making the rounds.

Well worn.

Versed in the lewd.

Versed in the lewd.

Connoisseur.

Versed in the lewd.

Dedicated ragequitter

Connoisseur.

Dedicated ragequitter

Bookwyrm

Dedicated ragequitter

Bookwyrm

Connoisseur.

Dedicated ragequitter

Accused of writing in a far away land

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