Author Topic: Redcaps and their iron boots  (Read 4579 times)

Offline devonapple

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Redcaps and their iron boots
« on: August 23, 2011, 10:27:04 PM »
Would Redcaps and their iron boots be completely incompatible with Dresdenverse canon, or easily accommodated by making Redcaps persona non grata in the Fairy-owned portions of the Nevernever? Or would they carry them around like hockey skates until needed?
« Last Edit: August 23, 2011, 11:34:50 PM by devonapple »
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Offline UmbraLux

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2011, 10:52:04 PM »
While the red cap versions I'm familiar with don't have iron boots, iron isn't automatically unwelcome in the Nevernever.  After all, there are far more things there than sidhe.  Can you see them telling Ferrovax to keep his favorite putting iron out?  :) 

I do suspect iron would be very unwelcome in the domains of beings who are vulnerable to it.  But there are other domains...
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Offline devonapple

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2011, 10:56:05 PM »
True, but Fairy seems to "own" the Nevernever immediately adjacent to the mortal world, and Dresden has tried to be very conscientious about not leaving iron behind in their part of the Nevernever, likening it to nuclear waste.
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Offline The Mighty Buzzard

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2011, 11:04:28 PM »
True, but Fairy seems to "own" the Nevernever immediately adjacent to the mortal world, and Dresden has tried to be very conscientious about not leaving iron behind in their part of the Nevernever, likening it to nuclear waste.

They only own the bits Dresden has been to.  Doesn't mean they own all the bits that easily tie in with us.
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Offline devonapple

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2011, 11:34:22 PM »
Got it - I will amend my question
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Offline Haru

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2011, 11:39:31 PM »
Would Redcaps and their iron boots be completely incompatible with Dresdenverse canon, or easily accommodated by making Redcaps persona non grata in the Fairy-owned portions of the Nevernever? Or would they carry them around like hockey skates until needed?

I don't think you have to take that at face value. Who says they are wearing iron boots? They might just be tricky little bastards that made everyone believe they are wearing iron boots, so nobody would bother trying to attack them with iron specifically.
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Offline The Mighty Buzzard

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2011, 11:42:01 PM »
Got it - I will amend my question

Yeah, they'd almost certainly be PNG in the fae bits of the Nevernever.  They're also supposed to carry iron pikes.  According to wikipedia they're often thought of as dwarves, elves, fae, or goblin related.  I'd go with goblin related myself and give them a non-fae bit of the Nevernever.  Maybe read up on some legends involving them and flesh their bit out almost like you would a city.

Or you could drop the iron and have them be fae.  That seems to be the most common thing to do in speculative fiction nowadays.
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Offline devonapple

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #7 on: August 24, 2011, 12:16:12 AM »
Are goblins not, themselves, Fae?
"Like a voice, like a crack, like a whispering shriek
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Offline The Mighty Buzzard

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #8 on: August 24, 2011, 12:38:49 AM »
Are goblins not, themselves, Fae?

Summer Knight.  Good call.  I forgot.
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Offline devonapple

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2011, 12:47:17 AM »
A friend proposed making Redcaps tough enough to decorate themselves with iron body piercings. But the things I want to keep are:

Redcaps wear and wield actual Fae-bane iron without harm (I am open to that being an Aspect one could compel to harm them as well, such as them having to maneuver bizarrely on occasion to keep from self-harm).

Redcaps are Fae creatures (a Goblin court seems as good a home as any).

Redcaps soak their caps in the blood of their prey, and must keep those caps wet with blood or they perish.

I wrote a Redcap character for an upcoming Dresden LARP next weekend, and some of these things are going to become Important.
"Like a voice, like a crack, like a whispering shriek
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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #10 on: August 24, 2011, 02:18:13 AM »
So the cap is an IoP that negates the Catch?

That could work.

I think that having Redcaps as social outcasts among the fey could work pretty well. As long as they are tough enough to avoid outright extermination, it makes perfect sense.

Offline devonapple

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #11 on: August 24, 2011, 02:21:31 AM »
So the cap is an IoP that negates the Catch?

No, that wasn't the plan I had in mind, though it is a potentially elegant solution. I was intending that the bloody cap thing would be analogous to a Feeding Dependency.
"Like a voice, like a crack, like a whispering shriek
That echoes on like it’s carpet-bombing feverish white jungles of thought
That I’m positive are not even mine"

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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2011, 02:30:08 AM »
That would work too, except that I'm not sure what powers it would be linked to.

Offline ways and means

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #13 on: August 24, 2011, 02:44:12 AM »
I think in Side Jobs Butcher mentioned that  a few troll wield iron weaponry (to scare other fae) so I think that probably any fae if it is both tough and stupid enough can wield iron. 
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Offline hank the ancient

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Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
« Reply #14 on: August 24, 2011, 03:01:47 AM »
two thoughts...
1. they might just have iron on the outside of their shoe and wear thick socks
2. the mercy thompson werewolf series gets around this by having a particular metalsmithing gremlin type of fae that can touch iron with no ill effects.