ParanetOnline
The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started 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?
-
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...
-
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.
-
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.
-
Got it - I will amend my question
-
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.
-
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.
-
Are goblins not, themselves, Fae?
-
Are goblins not, themselves, Fae?
Summer Knight. Good call. I forgot.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
That would work too, except that I'm not sure what powers it would be linked to.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
If even steel is enough to serve as faebane, what sort of metal are the Fae using in their normal weapons?
-
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."
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.