Can we beatt he Horrors?, It needed its own thread. Options

[Lilt]

[Pthgar]

Good point.

[Rattler]

[Fortune]

[Rattler]

[Fortune]

Why should I negotiate with the vanquished?

[Kagetenshi]

Deus is our saviour, and those who speak of killing him are traitors to humanity.

~J

[Prototype]

Hmmm, humanity wins hands down if the Horrors don't show for another few thousand years.

How long until you can have a tank with a virtually unbreakable armour which also contains powerful enough astral wards to stop all but the nastiest horror? Why not a suit of Power Armour along the same lines? So how many Horrors will stand up to the main gun off of a 2763 main battle tank? Not many I'd bet.

I'm sure genetic research into either Leonisation and/or HMHVV will have advanced to the point of creating exceptionally long lived uber-mages. Once you hit initiate grade 30 you fill up on cyberware, squeeze in some bioware and start pumping horrors all day long. Well, unless we can engineer in Enhanced Physical Attributes, oh, what the hell, give them regeneration and any other powers we fancy too.

What about cyberware along the same lines as the ritual of thorns, rendering it's owner useless to the Horrors as they are already in pain. What about cybernetic or bioware based mods to protect humans from the effects of horrors? If gene-tech can alter your DNA enough to protect you from ritual sorcery, who's to say it can't get rid of horror marks in a few hundred years? How about troops of nanites engineered to constantly alter someone so as to be immune from horror marks?

Take a high-end cybered-physad from SR and put him up against an ED super-tough guy? Who'd win? My money would be on SR boy any day. Reflex augmentation, cyberware, drugs, bioware and the like would, for my money, outperform virtually any of the fighting adepts from ED. Plus, they wouldn't have an Ares-Alpha with APDS... let's see your Wood-Skin stop that.

Manipulation of Strain-3, Bio-Fiber and the like are going to give some pretty effective weapons against even astral nasties. Combined with everything we'd learn from corp research and the like our ability to manipulate the astral could be ridiculous. Think about what we've learned about bugs in the short time they've been around. Look at Threats 2 and all the stuff going on in there. Do you think guys in ED knew half as much about the Invae as we do? Probably not, and they had a lot longer to find out about it.

That's not even looking at the effects of mana and radioactivity. Once we've sussed out exactly what's up (a few hundred years, tops!) we can exploit that. Radiation based weapons that can blast astral nasties to pieces, background-count bombs, areas of low magic, astral shallows. Who's to say we won't be able to create and manipulate all of the above? Astral radar which I believe someone mentioned. Going astral is the Horrors biggest advantage and by then we can probably make life there real tough for them.

Sure, there's always going to be problems with Horror marked individuals in positions of power. But there are a lot of things that can help with that. Modern security systems limit movement of individuals into suspicious areas, surveillance technology combined with AI's can easily spot trends in an individuals behaviour that may be suspicious. Mind altering cyberware, drugs, etc. can be used for sensitive situations and people in power. SK's and AI's should be immune from Horror marks... sure, this Artificer (don't know much about him) could cause some chaos... but I'm sure that he wouldn't find corrupting all the worlds computers and systems a piece of cake. Rigged systems provide ideal solutions to damage shift powers... armies of drones and remotely piloted tanks could fight Horrors leaving them no living targets to damage shift.

As for being forewarned. The ED guys had some idea of what was coming and persuaded enough people to buy into the idea that the only way to survive was to hide. In ED times everything they had to fight the Horrors with was magical, the Horrors could corrupt astral space and being magical in nature, had an edge. Now we don't just have magic, but technology as well. Horrors can't compete with us in this department.

Let's face it. Humans rock!

[toturi]

To paraphrase Agent Smith, "There is another organism that is similar to humans... Virus..."

I think we'll do just fine... We'll just infect the whole Horror race with humanity and pretty soon they'll just get fatal errors in their Horror (meta)genetics.

Imagine Verjigorm getting a blue screen one morning when he wakes up.... :eek:

[Prototype]

Just a further thought... develop a way to lob nukes into the metaplanes, head to the sight of the GGD and start lobbing them across the bridge...

[toturi]

[Kagetenshi]

I laugh that you think that Deus would be so easily defeated.
Anyone know if Netherwalking would allow astral nuke-lobbing?

~J

[Prototype]

On the issue of Mana Warps vs. Absence of Mana...

I'm certain that the game terminology Mana Warps is used to cover both incredibly corrupted regions of astral space and an absence of astral space.

So, although the game mechanic is the same, I think there would be different effects for Horrors depending on which of the two applied.

I think everyone agrees that in highly corrupted areas, Horrors love it ten times. But in the absence of astral space (ie. outside the 'gaiasphere') Horrors would not be loving it very much at all.

I'm sure someone will argue that both are the same, but only in the way that a 10S shotgun blast is the same as a 7M burst fire SMG round - ie. in terms of mechanics only.

[Reaver]

[Kagetenshi]

But Deus potentially has the raw processing power of most of the Horrors. All he needs are those three thousand years of experience.

~J

[toturi]

[Reaver]

[toturi]

[kevyn668]

[booklord]

A few thoughts.......

1) Even though the Horrors are currently being held in check by [you know who] I could have sworn it was said this would only delay them for about 150 years. In addition there are those (including some horrors) in the world that are still trying to bring the next scourge about so it could come even earlier.

2) As was proved in Bug City, nuclear weapons are of limited use against spirits. Until technology gains the ability to produce a magical affect it will be of limited use against the horrors.

3) I always thought that Dunklezahn's big fear was that the horrors would use technology against those who hid behind massive magical barriers like they did in the fourth age. In effect this time there is no hiding.... Imagine horrors with nukes.

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I see the following possibilities

1) The least likely is that the world could fight off the horrors. Simply put the horrors have such an advantage in numbers that I don't see it happening. But give Lofwyr complete control of the world and a hundred years to prepare and he might be able to mold a magical fighting force powerful enough to do it. Of course if technology does develop the ability to produce magical energy then all sorts of neat weaponry could be produced.

2) They could always take the blood wood elf technique. Inflict enough pain and suffering on yourself and the horrors will lose interest in you.

3) It is possible apparently to flee the Earth and return after the scourge. Possiblities include fleeing into astral space or into outer space.

4) The megacorps of Earth could initiate a final solution and release enough FAB III bacteria to completely anhillate magic.

5) A less radical solution from the one above would be to find a way to manipulate mana levels so they would never reach the levels needed for the horrors to come. ( of course most attempts to manipulate mana levels have centered on increasing them )

[Austere Emancipa...]

[Reaver]

[toturi]

[Reaver]

[kevyn668]