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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: devonapple on August 23, 2011, 10:27:04 PM

Title: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: devonapple 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?
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: UmbraLux 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...
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: devonapple 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: The Mighty Buzzard 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: devonapple on August 23, 2011, 11:34:22 PM
Got it - I will amend my question
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: Haru 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: The Mighty Buzzard 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: devonapple on August 24, 2011, 12:16:12 AM
Are goblins not, themselves, Fae?
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: The Mighty Buzzard on August 24, 2011, 12:38:49 AM
Are goblins not, themselves, Fae?

Summer Knight.  Good call.  I forgot.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: devonapple 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: Sanctaphrax 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: devonapple 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: Sanctaphrax 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: ways and means 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. 
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: hank the ancient 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.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: DFJunkie on August 24, 2011, 12:48:45 PM
Yeah, they might just be really careful with their iron pikes and/or boots.  In Summer Knight the ogre Grum bends steel simply by covering his hand in a garbage bag, and the Za Lord's Guard all have steel box cutters and are presumably careful to only touch the plastic bits. 
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: devonapple on August 24, 2011, 03:40:57 PM
If even steel is enough to serve as faebane, what sort of metal are the Fae using in their normal weapons?
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: DFJunkie on August 24, 2011, 03:45:42 PM
If even steel is enough to serve as faebane, what sort of metal are the Fae using in their normal weapons?
The elite Hobbs in SF use bronze.  Other metals are usually described as "silvery." 
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: computerking on August 24, 2011, 04:36:16 PM
I imagined the boots to be muchlike normal ones, with a normal sole, and an additional iron sole nailed onto it (probably by Cobbs wearing really thick gloves). Really good for stomping on fae of an opposing faction, not so good for things like swimming.

Nasty things, those Redcaps. I like the cap IoP/Feeding Dependency idea, too.
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: HumAnnoyd on August 24, 2011, 10:12:32 PM
Quote
So the cap is an IoP that negates the Catch?

Great idea.  Wish I would have thought about it before introducing a horde of Red Caps last session.  Hmm.  Although I did claim that the Red Cap clan they were facing didn't have as fierce a reputation as one of the others.  Maybe that is what makes that other clan so bad ass?  An immunity to iron would certainly make them hated and reviled by the Courts and give them a powerful weapon with which to enhance their rep.

Either way I did connect Inhuman Strength and Speed to the caps themselves.  One of the wizards in my group used water magic to completely dry the hats out which enabled her to survive the encounter. 
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: Masurao on August 24, 2011, 10:34:33 PM
two thoughts...
1. they might just have iron on the outside of their shoe and wear thick socks

I'd just go with a version of this: boots lined with really thick fur or something. Just think about it: if the Redcaps had an IoP or something that gave them immunity to iron, it would not be an item so rare that it would only work for that individual, so a lot of Fae would hunt them down just for their IoPs.

No, I think it is a lot more likely that they are ballsy enough to wear such things, when other Fae would not. And then only in battle. I mean, you'd hardly, if ever, invite a Redcap to a formal occassion, but when you do (they have lords/Sidhe, no doubt) they definitely won't show up wearing iron boots :)

And even if iron is so anathema to them that it is like a nuke, think about this: even in our 'civilized' world, we've got countries like Iran and North Korea :) Redcaps could be the extremist-fundamentalists of the Fae world!
Title: Re: Redcaps and their iron boots
Post by: HumAnnoyd on August 26, 2011, 05:01:10 PM
Quote
Redcaps could be the extremist-fundamentalists of the Fae world!

In my game they are pretty much like that.  No one likes them and everyone thinks they are the vermin of the Wyld Fae (although some Red Caps owe allegiance to Winter).  They are willing to kill anyone or anything and eat it.  And not necessarily in that order.