152 - Critical Examination
Lex Legis was nopony’s fool.
Analyzing a situation from myriad angles and processing the data found therein while simultaneously comparing it to what he already knew in order to extrapolate possible hypotheses had, for as long as he could remember, come naturally to him. So ingrained was that behavior that it had taken him a very long time to understand that everypony else didn’t think that way, and even now he still needed to continually remind himself that virtually everyone else he knew simply intuited their way through life. It was a truism that he found maddening no matter how often he encountered it.
Thus, it was with gritted teeth that Lex held out a hoof to stop Sonata from running to Nosey’s side. She skidded to a halt, almost colliding with his outstretched foreleg as she gave him a baffled look. “Do not approach her,” ordered Lex coldly, not taking his eyes off of Nosey.
“But she-”
“Shut up,” snapped Lex, mentally invoking his circlet again. Based on what Scrubby had just let slip, and what Nosey herself had admitted, she had been in close contact with Block Party shortly before his death. Between his having been in possession of Everglow magic of unknown powers and his unfathomable disposition – both in his lack of concern for the ponies under his care as well as in his purported suicide note – Lex couldn’t help but be extremely suspicious of everyone and everything involved in this incident, especially Nosey. If Block Party had cast some sort of spell on her…
But no magical auras appeared in his vision. Not even the slightest trace.
Frowning, Lex ceased concentrating on his circlet, still eyeing Nosey distrustfully. Just because his circlet hadn’t detected anything didn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t some sort of magic at work, he knew. His circlet could only visualize spells, rather than magic per se. After all, magical energy was everywhere, contained within every living thing as well as flowing throughout the environment itself. Simply checking for the presence of magical energy would be futile due to that ubiquity, so the circlet’s detection ability focused on the complex construction that shaped that energy into recognizable spell effects. But his time on Everglow had taught Lex that some creatures had innate supernatural abilities that were little more than masses of magical energy, crudely shaped into some sort of effect that was too simplistic to be called spellcasting, and so were invisible to what his circlet could detect. The breath weapon of that dragon he’d killed back in Tall Tale had been like that, he knew. Its magical nature had been conclusively demonstrated by how it had wounded him even in shadow-form, but there’d been no indication that he’d seen of a spell being formulated when it had prepared to unleash it.
Could Block Party have had an ability like that? Lex wondered as he kept his eyes trained on Nosey. Obviously, it would have been something far more subtle than a breath of acidic fog, but if he had then there would be no easy way to detect it. But that didn’t mean that there was no way to investigate the pony in front of him right now…
“What was the name of the restaurant where we first met?”
“…huh?” Pausing in the middle of rubbing the tears from her cheeks, Nosey’s face twisted in confusion.
She wasn’t the only one; beside him Sonata was giving him a look as though she were questioning his sanity. “I thought-”
“I said be quiet!” growled Lex, shooting Sonata a dark look that caused her to recoil, her ears folding back as she stepped away from him. The sight sent a pang through him, but he pushed it away as he turned back to Nosey. “The restaurant where we first met. What was its name?”
“Wh-…we didn’t meet in a restaurant,” replied Nosey slowly, shooting a questioning look at Sonata before looking back at Lex. “We met in Tall Tale. I followed you when I heard you shouting at somepony else, and when you collapsed I took you back to my hotel room so I could interview you.”
“Ohhh!” exclaimed Sonata suddenly, her ears flipping back up as she realized what was going on. “You were checking to make sure that she was really her!” She grinned, pleased with herself, but her smile faltered a moment later as the next logical question occurred to her. “Wait, why were you worried that Nosey wasn’t Nosey?”
“Seriously, do we have to do this in here with the dead body?” murmured Scrubby, but everypony ignored him.
Not bothering to answer Sonata’s question, Lex instead glanced over at the candelabra, whose last sputtering candle had just gone out. Slowly lifting it in his telekinesis, everypony watched as he placed it on the ground in front of Nosey. “Pick it up,” he ordered.
Nosey glanced down at the candelabra, then back up at Lex. “Why?”
“I kinda wanna know that too,” admitted Sonata. “I mean, I get that the last one was to make sure she wasn’t, like, an imposter or anything, but what does this prove?”
“Just pick it up.” Outwardly, Lex’s expression didn’t change as he kept his eyes on Nosey. Inwardly, however, he struggled to hold back from unleashing a torrent of invectives at his girlfriend. Sonata’s insistence on interfering with his verifying Nosey’s identity and well-being, despite the gravity of the situation as well as being told twice to remain silent, was beginning to seriously test his patience.
“Okay…” Still giving him an odd look, Nosey reached a hoof out and easily lifted the candelabra off the ground, raising her eyebrows at him in an exaggerated manner as she brought it level with her head before placing it back on the ground.
As she did so, Sonata actually sat back on her haunches and clapped her hooves together, smiling as though she’d just watched a talent show. “She did it! Now,” she looked at Lex expectantly, “tell us what this was about. Please?”
Letting out a slow breath, Lex silently decided that it was easier to indulge Sonata than to waste more of his energy trying to make her cooperate. Right now he needed to focus on Nosey, and allowing Sonata’s simplemindedness to bother him distracted from that. “Lifting the candelabra proved that she had substance, instead of being some sort of illusion or spectral entity.”
“‘Illusion or spectral entity’?” echoed Scrubby quietly, a disbelieving look on his face.
“Are you kidding me?” Nosey gave Lex an incredulous look.
“Aw, come on, it’s kind of fun!” insisted Sonata, giving Nosey a smile. She wasn’t sure why Lex was suddenly being so paranoid; certainly, she didn’t see anything different about Nosey. From what Sonata could tell, she was pretty shaken up, but she didn’t seem like she was enchanted or anything the way Ribbon Cutter had been back in Tall Tale. So really, this whole thing was like one big ice-breaker. “So, what’s the next test?”
For a moment, Lex couldn’t help but look pained, but quickly recovered. “Hold your breath,” he ordered Nosey curtly.
An uncertain look crossed Nosey’s face then. “For how long?”
“Until I tell you to stop,” came Lex’s reply.
Nosey threw her hooves into the air. “This is ridiculous! Look, I’m me, okay? I’m Nosey Newsy, ace reporter for the Canterlot Chronicle! I interviewed you because I thought you were King Sombra when we first met, I watched you fight the dragon, and I’ve been making notes about everything you’ve been doing since you got here. Now, do you want to talk about what happened with Block Party or not?!”
“I do,” replied Lex flatly. “But first, you’re going to hold your breath until I tell you to stop.”
“You know what?” sighed Nosey. “I’ve had it. I’m exhausted and I’m hungry.” She gave Lex an irritated look. “I’m going to go see if there’s anything left to eat and then go take a nap. I promise I’ll still be me when I wake up, and then we can see about doing whatever this is supposed to prove, okay?”
She started to walk forward then, but only got as far as a single step before a row of small black crystals, each ending in a jagged point, sprouted in front of her. Squawking as she struggled to bring herself to a stop, Nosey just barely managed to avoid stepping on them, throwing herself backwards hard enough that she ended up sitting. “Was that really necessary?!” she yelled, giving him a glare.
“Yes,” shot back Lex. “I take this situation with the utmost seriousness, which means that you do not have the option of not doing the same. You are not going anywhere until I’m satisfied that you’re not a potential threat, which means that you can either comply with my instructions of your own volition,” his eyes flared green-and-purple then, “or I can force you to.”
The exchange was enough to make Sonata bite her lip, watching the back-and-forth. The sudden rise in tension had killed her good mood, causing her to wonder for a moment if she should intervene. Deciding that she should do something before Lex managed to alienate one of the few ponies that wasn’t afraid of him, she opened her mouth…only to catch Scrubby frantically signaling her out of the corner of her eye, shaking his head and mouthing “no” at her. When she gave him a confused look, he crept over to her in response, whispering. “Just let him do his thing,” he hissed. “The sooner he’s satisfied the sooner we can get out of here!” He glanced over at where Block Party’s body lay, still clearly afraid.
Nosey, meanwhile, fixed Lex with an indignant look. But it only lasted a moment before melting into one of resignation. “Fine,” she said tiredly. “Let’s just get this over with then.” Without further preamble, she took a deep breath before sealing her lips, standing still.
Long seconds passed, and Lex, Sonata, and Scrubby all kept their eyes on Nosey. At first she glanced around, making a show of her boredom, but eventually held still, tossing a look at Lex. When he didn’t react, she rolled her eyes, still holding her breath. Several more seconds passed, and now Nosey was starting to look uncomfortable. When Lex still didn’t give her leave to take a breath, she started to twitch, shaking slightly as she pursed her lips.
Both Sonata and Scrubby were shooting Lex worried looks now, but he ignored them, his eyes firmly on Nosey. Several more seconds passed, and Nosey convulsed, before finally opening her mouth and taking a big gulp of air, gasping. She took several deep breaths before finally getting herself under control, sending another glare Lex’s way. “What was that supposed to be? You didn’t tell me to breathe at all!”
“Sixty seconds is the approximate length of time that most ponies can hold their breath before it becomes too uncomfortable to keep going,” replied Lex matter-of-factly. “When they do, they’ll tend to turn noticeably red as a side-effect.”
“Why’s that important?” piped up Sonata, curious despite her earlier misgivings.
“An undead creature would have had trouble figuring out how long to pretend to hold their breath for,” answered Lex. “And they wouldn’t have turned red while doing it.”
Nosey’s eyebrows went up. “Undead? That’s what that was about?” She gestured at herself. “You know you could have just taken my pulse, right?” Lex opened his mouth, but she didn’t give him a chance to answer. “So what’s next? Should I punch a cloud to make sure I’m not really a pegasus that’s hiding her wings? Maybe I could go have Cerberus sniff me to prove I didn’t crawl out of Tartarus?”
Lex didn’t respond to her jibes, instead making a gesture at the black crystals at her hooves, which promptly turned into dust. “That will be all for now,” he declared. Behind him, twin sighs of relief were heard. But Lex immediately moved on to the next topic at hoof.
“Now, tell me what happened with Block Party.”
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come naturally to him -- came naturally to him
Well, so far it's safe to say that Nosey is still alive and not an undead puppet though her insisting on leaving for food and sleep after what just occurred recently is rather out of place. Granted, it could just be her nerves talking and her snapping at Lex could be a result of that too.
Then again, the answer she gave Lex could have been obtained during the interview, provided Nosey isn't who she says she is. Quite a few mixed signals here that keeps me wondering but that's likely what you intended.
I'm sure Lex will probably continue to prod Nosey for answers until he's satisfied. And if Nosey isn't Nosey, he'll probably want to know what happened...but if she is, she'll probably want an apology though I doubt she'll ever get it from Lex himself.
Also, poor Scrubby, they're stuck in a room with a dead body and he's the only one that cares while everyone else is focused on each other.
8482734
Depending on the type of possession, Nosey might be able to recite her life's story even if she were under some sort of control. Many creatures that can take over another also get access to their hosts' memories or even thoughts. Lex's other tests show that Nosey's body is still alive...but not if she's the only occupant. Heck that might be the real reason Block Party committed 'suicide': to keep him from warning anyone about what might have been controlling him after it jumped hosts.
As for why Lex didn't pick up any necromancy on Nosey, well this chapter did say it only specifically detects spell (or spell like ability) magic, and if the possession method doesn't require a spell or isn't even strictly magical, it wouldn't have detected anything, and the creature probably hasn't had time or need to use anything yet.
8482734 I think Lex has eliminated the chance that Nosey is a Totenmaske, but not some form of possession. These days tons of different outsiders can possess mortals, not just shadow demons, and there are supernatural abilities they can use to do so, avoiding magical detection. Hopefully Lex will put Nosey inside a Circle of Protection soon.
8482801
If that is the case, this makes me wonder what was the necromantic spell on Block Party's body if it wasn't a possession spell? The only thing I can think of is for Block Party to get up again but this time as a ghoul though as far as I know, only ghouls can create other ghouls. Unless the spell only triggers upon a subject's death.
8482804
And you just made me more paranoid
Though I am curious, are all forms of possession in the games proximity based or can the one possessing the individual place a marker to home in on across certain distances?
8482939
Necromancy is a rather wide field. It covers a lot of arcane magic that does stuff with a body. This ranges from False Life, which grants a few extra HP, to all the raising the dead and siccing them on your enemies stuff. For all we know, the necromancy was just some sort of countermeasure to ensure Block Party didn't get the ghoul disease.
...Or maybe something keeping the ghoul disease at bay.
Tell me about your mother.
8482720 Actually, it's correct the way it is.
While I inserted a clause between "had" and "come," the two words together are the correct tense for that sentence. That's because "had come" is the past perfect tense (i.e. it combines the past tense form of "to have" with the past participle of the verb in question, which for "come" is simply "come") of the verb. It's why saying "had came" sounds odd to the ear.
8483023 Are you checking to see if Nosey's a replicant, or a lesbian?
8483225
Ah, the inserted phrase threw it off. My bad.
8482734 Once again, you've cut to the heart of the matter; the question here isn't so much if Lex is right to keep suspecting Nosey, but rather exactly how far he'll need to go before he's satisfied. That's the problem with magic being so expansive and diverse in what it can accomplish: it makes almost anything possible. How do you conclusively test for "anything"?
Of course, there's a cost associated with trying. If he's wrong to suspect her, then as Sonata feared he's going to upset one of the few ponies that's still on his side. But if he's right to be suspicious, then letting her go before verifying what he's worried about could be disastrous. Either way, he stands to lose something, though at the moment he's apparently decided to keep going under the assumption that she's suspect. That makes sense, of course; since when has Lex ever been very cognizant of social problems that he's caused?
And yeah, poor Scrubby is shaking in his horseshoes even as everypony ignores him.
8482804 One of the major issues with d20 magic is that it has various failure modes baked right into it, such as saving throws and spell resistance. As such, even if Lex were to drop Nosey inside some sort of protection from spell, there are ways that it could fail to work, and so suspicion would still be maintained. (Though, to be fair, it's been established that the spellcaster usually knows when his spells don't work, but even that isn't necessarily foolproof.)
8482801 Part of this chapter, as you noted, was an in-character description of the difference between spells and supernatural abilities. Given that the d20 System has four different categories of special effects, each of which has differences in the various details for how they function/appear. Being a gamist distinction with only minor explanations for the how's and why's of them from an in-character standpoint, this can be somewhat burdensome for an author. Consider:
Extraordinary abilities: These are powers and abilities that are completely non-magical - they can't be detected, do not go away in an antimagic field, cannot be dispelled or counterspelled, etc. - but include categories of effects that are relatively mundane all the way to performing actions that are quite clearly impossible from a real-world standpoint. A barbarian that goes into a rage might be slightly faster than normal (i.e. the Swift Foot rage power), which is plausible, or they might suddenly be able to see in the dark (i.e. the Night Vision rage power), which isn't.
Supernatural abilities: These are magical abilities that aren't spells - and so can't be detected or dispelled, but go away in an antimagic field - and so have no clear giveaway when they're being used (beyond what's inherent in the abilities themselves). For example, there's no clear indication that a dragon is using its breath weapon (a supernatural ability) until it inhales deeply and then uses it (all of which is part of the same action). As such, supernatural abilities with no obvious sensory signifier are exceptionally difficult to detect.
Spell-Like Abilities: These mimic spell effects exactly, but don't require any components (e.g. verbal or somatic) to activate them, being invoked by silent act of will. Rather oddly, such invocations are still detectable to anyone who knows how magic functions (i.e. has at least 1 rank in Spellcraft). Likewise, creatures with spell-like abilities can use them to craft magic items but not use them to activate items that have spell trigger or spell completion requirements to use. There's also no in-game rationale given for why different creatures can use different spell-like abilities differing amounts of time per day. Presumably it's a mixture of biology and how "real" spellcasters need to prepare their spells after so many uses, but the actual in-character rationale is left for the GM and players to come up with.
Spellcasting: These are the standard by which the others are judged, its metrics being the most clearly defined, even if it also has very little in-game explanations for how it works.
Needless to say, this can be burdensome to differentiate, especially if you don't use those particular terms in-character.
8482943
With a small number of exceptions, most of the spells - and other special powers - are extremely limited in their range. Far more often than not, special powers require both line-of-sight (i.e. being able to see the target) and line of effect (i.e. that you have an unbroken path to the target) in order to take effect. Even then, they almost all have a range that's delineated in tens of feet. The longest can get into hundreds of feet, but that's about it. This tends to be true for ranged non-magical combat as well, with regards to ranged increments for hurled and projectile weapons. The absolute longest range that I can think of (though I'm sure there are some powergamers who've expanded on this) is firing a composite longbow to its maximum range, which would be 1,100 feet, though that would incur massive penalties on the attack roll (i.e. -18).
Needless to say, this is deliberate. The d20 System sticks to the idea that if something can attack you, you should at least have the possibility of being able to attack it back. You might be hopelessly outclassed by a higher-level opponent, but you can at least make an attempt at retaliation (or, alternatively, running out of their range of attack). That's why the few spells that don't rely on proximity to reach another character - such as the sending or scrying spells that Lex used to try and contact Twilight Sparkle - don't really have any sort of attack modes built into them, and even then still have failure modes.
For the extremely small number of spells that do let you attack someone from a great distance, these failure modes tend to be even greater. The nightmare spell, for instance, is not only a higher-level spell (and so can't be easily spammed) with a long casting time (10 minutes), that can be negated with a successful Will save on the target's part (which has modifiers similar to the scrying spell) - which automatically succeeds on a natural 20 (and automatically fails on a natural 1) - and needs to overcome the target's spell resistance (if any), but allows for GM fiat in that the target might be awake at the time, meaning that the caster either needs to abandon the spell or fall comatose (and be quite vulnerable as a result) until the target goes to sleep. And of course, it can't be used against creatures that don't sleep, such as outsiders, undead, constructs, etc.
All of that, to inflict a mere 1d10 points of damage and some minor penalties.
8483235
Of course Lex would proceed where most ponies would already accept things at face value but even so, the battery of 'tests' he'll need to carry out would likely consume too much of his time and energy so he'll likely do something to cut to the chase or maybe lock Nosey up in the train station as a way to ensure she doesn't do anything that could cause trouble.
Though if his suspicions are unfounded, then Lex could possibly lose an ally in the press, damaging his image in Equestria at large. Well, unless Sonata does some damage control though given Lex's attitude towards her, I wonder if Sonata might side with Nosey on this one, possessed or otherwise.
Also, the level of detail in the games' rules are just so fascinating though I think I might need to keep a rulebook or at least a cheatsheet on hand if I ever start playing.
8483484 You're right that, at some point, Lex is going to run out of ways to interrogate Nosey. At that point he'll have to make a decision, and based on how he's acted so far, my suspicion is that he'll let her go. After all, at this point he doesn't seem to be able to even articulate a specific concern about what he thinks might have happened to her, let alone show any evidence for it. Of course, if Nosey is indeed fine, she'll likely be pretty upset about everything Lex has put her through. Coming off of whatever tragedy she seems to have suffered will, I suspect, make her rather unhappy about how Lex treated her. Maybe Sonata would talk her down, in that case?
Having said all of that, I'm glad you're finding the discussion of the rules underpinning this story to be fascinating! The d20 System is one of the more complex RPG engines out there, and I absolutely love it for that. It's a very solid framework that's capable of intricate details that do a lot to help model a fantasy world. That said, I do still have some issues with it, which is why I've abandoned its use of character classes in favor of the class-less model of character generation in Eclipse: The Codex Persona.
8482943
8483238 Yeah, possession is nasty. Circles of Protection only force a new save, they don't automatically suppress existing effects. Nosey's Will Save is probably pretty darn low. What's Lex going to do, burn a full wand of Protection From Evil in the hopes that at least 1 out of 50 times Nosey gets the in-game equivalent of a natural 20, when he doesn't even know if she is possessed or not?
I wonder if Lex should take 30 hours and 20 minutes to carve a circle of protection against evil, inward facing, into the ground and stick Nosey in there. A diagram circle would greatly inconvenience any outsiders in Nosey, but it might work only if the outsider is "called."
No typos for me! Well, it depends on is first thing.
This is supposed to have the apostrophe? If it is, then I don't think Lex would like to be Nopony's fool. Because Nopony is Celestia.
8483876 Well, leaving aside the underlying presumption that Nosey is possessed in the first place - which isn't confirmed by any stretch of the imagination - it's worth noting that protection from evil only suppresses possession, rather than ending it, and it only does so for 1 minute per caster level. So it's hardly the ideal solution.
Likewise, the text for a magic circle against evil that's set to face inwards rather than outwards states that it "binds a nongood called creature [...] provided that you cast the spell that calls the creature within 1 round of casting the magic circle." In other words, you can't just make one and then try and trick an evil outsider into walking into it in hopes of containing them. Even if they're called, it won't work, since you need to be the one to call them, and do so immediately after you cast the magic circle.
8484816 Terrible joke is terrible.
8485374
Uh... I missed the joke?
8485598 Treating "nopony" as a proper name rather than a pronoun.