Old Habits Die Hard Part Five, New habits? Or just old ones recycled? Options

[haute ecole rider]

It's now time to start a new thread for Julian of Anvil. Now that she returns to her hometown, it's rather appropriate to start a new thread to celebrate!

Thanks to all who have read and posted input on Julian's story.

For those coming in late, if you've got the time, here are links to the previous threads:

Chapters One through Seven
Chapters Eight through Thirteen
Chapters Fourteen through Eighteen
Chapters Nineteen through Twenty-two

I hope you continue to enjoy this story as Julian works toward the inevitable conclusion!

[Thomas Kaira]

Very nice, tense fight scene here.

I staggered and fell to one knee, Daedra Slayer dragging my right arm down, the weight of the immense sky above pressing me into the hard cobblestones.

Crushingly effective description!

I looked down at my plain linens. “I see, Pollus. To tell the truth, I’m touched by your concern.”

Argh! Don't let mALX see that, it'll just lead to more spear-polishing speculation!

Nice touch with Pollus coming in confused as to who's on what side of the fight, too. A neat little nod at the now rather famous bug in-game that resulted in passing Legion soldiers thinking that your Battlemage escort assaulted Caminalda, and not the other way around (as it was in reality).

Nit?

White energy consumed the scroll and swirled around me just as Caminalda flung another emerald-tinged spell at me.

I understand you are at complete liberty to change things up between the game and the story, but isn't Alteration magic (which Burden belongs to) supposed to be a sort of golden-white? Green is Illusion.

[ghastley]

White energy consumed the scroll and swirled around me just as Caminalda flung another emerald-tinged spell at me.

I understand you are at complete liberty to change things up between the game and the story, but isn't Alteration magic (which Burden belongs to) supposed to be a sort of golden-white? Green is Illusion.

I suspect a combination of a short Paralysis (for the knockdown effect) with a Burden that lasts longer and keeps the victim down. I forget what one is used when multiple schools are mixed. Is the first or the strongest?

Burden alone seems to just lock one in place, rather than make its target drop.

[Thomas Kaira]

Burden alone seems to just lock one in place, rather than make its target drop.

Well, wouldn't you fall to your knees if you had the rough equivalent of two giant bags of onions suddenly appear on your shoulders, without warning? That weight would be quite paralyzing on its own. This is especially so in this story, where I believe Rider is trying to communicate exactly what it would feel like for someone to become dramatically over-encumbered. It does a lot more than just root the person to one spot. Having such weight placed on your shoulders with such suddenness can send you to the floor easily enough without the aid of paralysis.

How would you react if I went and dropped a 100lb dumbbell onto your shoulders without you knowing it? It most definitely would not simply prevent you from moving, it would send you to the ground in a heap. Weight on its own is quite paralyzing enough. Caminalda also strikes me as one intelligent enough to know this, and would see the need to add a paralysis spell to the burden as redundant and wasteful.

That's why I pointed that out.