Subject: I've only played the RTS, but...
Author:
Posted on: 2009-02-27 08:15:00 UTC
I think that any sort of excessive force would do (it's a method I used in the final blood elf mission). You have to stop it from casting spells though, Blood elf disguise?
I'm currently writing a potential mission. However, there are a few issues that neither TOS nor the Wiki seem to clarify quite to my satisfaction:
1) Does the D.O.R.K.S. supplement or replace the Disguise Generator?
2) Based on what I've seen, I take it that both of the above gadgets implement actual shape-shifts rather than just illusory disguises. Confirmation?
3) If agents have to kill a demon!Sue, are there any tactics/weapons that are especially effective against such a foe? (It's a relatively weak demon—just big, loud, and inclined to kick.)
1) From what I've heard, the DORKS enables you to change your disguise while still in the fic. Otherwise, you're stuck as an Orc or whatever for the whole mission. I may be wrong, though.
2) Ja, fraulein. In TOS, Jay and Acacia got the actual thorns and branches and eighteen-feet-tallness when they used Entwife disguises.
3) Demons. Hmmm. It depends. What continuum is this demon from?
1) Okay...they probably won't need to do that, but they might have to vanish into thin air to keep misguided generics from smacking them.
2) Okay, good to know.
3) Warcraft. Specifically, it's a man'ari eredar, if that helps.
I think that any sort of excessive force would do (it's a method I used in the final blood elf mission). You have to stop it from casting spells though, Blood elf disguise?
Yeah, blood elf disguise (and one of the agents—who, ironically, is stated to play blood elves in WoW—grumbles about it). There's a scene in the story where all three objectives are in the same place at the same time, and killing the Eredar!Sam would also make the Sue's survival unlikely.
The Eredar!Sam doesn't seem to have the good sense to cast spells (in the final battle, his solution seems to be just to increase his size and kick the Vindicator!Sam a few times) until the last moment (when he puts some kind of curse on the Sue that blinds her and makes her cry oh-so-dramatic bloody tears).
I'm sure that you can steal them somewhere. Wowwiki (and the fanfic, 'Travels through Azeroth and Outland') says that there are many Vindicators around the Exodar, if you're planning to take the fic with the Dranei Sue.
Where I was probably going to send my agents in is during the capture of the Exodar (i.e. when it was still part of Tempest Keep). The Sue does dumb things that by rights should get her killed...and which would have if the Nicest Eredar Evar™ hadn't taken a shine to her.
I figured it's easy enough to kill the Vindicator!Sam in the heat of the battle (right now, I'm thinking it involves a crossbow). The Eredar!Sam has to die before he can save the Sue's life.
If you kill the Vindicator!Sam first, you can get his blessed crystal hammer, and use it to kill the Eredar (he might change his size, so you should still siphon his mana). Then you can charge the Sue, taunt her with her lover's hammer, and kill her. Lol at irony as needed.
I'm thinking the Vindicator!Sam dies first.
The Sue idiotically jumps into the middle of the fray (ROFL at melee clothie) and gets separated from the group. (A blood elf shoots her in the back with a poisoned arrow; however, the eredar takes a shine to her and heals her.)
This leaves the Vindicator!Sam (who doesn't have the good sense to heal himself) with no direct backup. At least one agent has a crossbow (it's a canon weapon) with some power to it; the Vindicator!Sam is in chainmail, which (IIRC) is not great at stopping bolts. I thought that one agent who's a good shot might be sufficient here; however, I'm beginning to think that one can't be too careful.
The Vindicator!Sam uses a sword, not a hammer. Its quality is not specified.
By this point, the Sue has been shot, and staggers into the area where the Eredar!Sam is. The Eredar!Sam is currently seventy freakin' feet tall. In the actual Suefic, he somehow hypnotizes the blood elf who had the good sense to shoot the Sue (one of the two times in the story that he seems to use any offensive magic at all) then steps on him, heals the Sue in a way that leaves them magically linked, and vanishes.
I'm thinking the agents need to stop the Eredar!Sam before he can heal the Sue...while avoiding getting stomped on themselves. But, as you see, I don't tag him as an Eredar!Sam lightly. (In the initial MST, it was joked that he could only be beaten by someone who out-Sammed him...such as the Vindicator!Sam. And it probably wouldn't be a good idea to leave him alive that long.)
My best bet is probably to somehow drop him through a portal—preferably one that leads to other demons. I don't think the Burning Legion takes any too kindly to their junior officers becoming infatuated with airplane-headed Anchorite!Sues.
And...two more silly questions:
1) If a Suespawn is conceived in the story, and the author has created a time paradox that gives the Suespawn more than enough time to gestate...what are the odds of the Suespawn being spontaneously generated? Or has the situation simply never come up before?
2) If an author's skill at setting a scene is such that readers sometimes wonder where, exactly, the characters are...what would this mean for the mission? My thought was that the agents' surroundings would be blurry and warped, and that there would be urple fog.
You should still suck out the Eredar's mana, though.
With that in mind...arcane torrent alone probably wouldn't dispel the size increase (as I mentioned, he's seventy feet tall by the time they get there).
Now, they could just drop him through a portal as planned (need a big one). But I'm guessing one should still charge even demon!Sues before killing them. And the pre-existing size increase makes it a bit difficult to charge him without getting swatted like flies, or ensure that the other demons to whom he's being turned over know just why he's been a naughty boy. (Thinking someone writes "DRAENEI-LOVER!" on him with a permanent marker.)
Then, we have the Anchorite!Sue. Several solutions will be suggested (including turning her over to the Auchenai or to a less affable man'ari eredar) but all will be rejected on the suspicion that she'd somehow either win them over or just supplant them. As it is, I have two possibilities for her final fate. Still balancing them in my mind.
They're blood elves for this mission; it's a given. (Along with the inevitable "Hey, that was fun!" and "Watch out, it's addictive" comments.) Plus, it allows them to save the life of that poor generic who would otherwise get stepped on.
Well, on the one hand, he's a decent shot who seems to know what to do with Sues. On the other, he's currently working for a group of evil nihilists (the Burning Legion).
So...maybe. The alternative is to send him begging to either the Horde or the Scryers.
Feel free to. Of course, the author's prose could also be described as "urple" in places, which might very well have tinted the fog.
I'm not a Warcraft person, sorry. But most demons tend to be averse to blessed weapons. Does that help?
Only other solution I could think of is holy water. Are there any clergy of any sort on the staff, or is an ordination from the Universal Life Church sufficient?