Traps - the easy way to fight your foe.

[Feinan]

I've been listening to a lot more filk lately, since I just got a new toy a few days ago: a 1 GB digital audio player. One of the songs comes from the Owlflight album - songs based on Mercedes Lackey's book of the same name.

Snare and Deadfall
Michael Longcor
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Drive your quarry where you choose
Baffle them with trick and ruse
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Snares are meant to catch and hold
Loop of vine with knot to hide it
Placed just where the overbold
Still a foot or head inside it
Hook it to a counter weight
Or a young and sturdy sapling
Use their manly pride as bait
Catch them with its sudden grappling
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Drive your quarry where you choose
Net them so they cant get loose
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Deadfalls kill the prey with weight
Dropping down from high above them
Make it look like act of fate
Rocks and limbs with none to show them
Carve the triggers out with care
Hide them so that none can see them
Greased with fat from boar or bear
So the slightest touch will free them
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Drive your quarry where you choose
Lost without a hope or clue
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Hidden pits for them to tread
Drop them down to kill or maim them
Men cant fight if they are dead
Men march slower if you lame them
Line the holes with wooden spikes
Harden tips within the fire
Row on row like warriors spikes
Give them more than they desire
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Drive your quarry where you choose
Dead men cannot carry news
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Lead them on and lead them long
Make it look like natures crafting
Fear and greed will drive them on
Bite your tongue to keep from laughing
Let them think theyve won the war
While the noose draw ever tighter
Deadly though these brigands are
Traps can take the toughest fighter
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Drive your quarry where you choose
With no choice except to lose
Snare and deadfall, pit and-
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose
Drive your quarry where you choose
With no choice except to lose
Snare and deadfall, pit and noose

I see two potential abilities for this one. First, it could boobytrap the area surrounding Doug, but this would probably only last until the song's end, so it's of limited usefulness. Second, it serves as a very strong 'Detect traps' ability: ALL traps within Doug's range are immediately sensed by him, with all the details known. This allows disabling/avoiding any trap sensed.
The second option would also work VERY well together with Operation Desert Storm. Play Snare and Deadfall first, follow with ODS, and every trap within range should backfire. This is great for making henchman/minion hash, since all of the traps should backfire against their creator/his people.
-Feinan

[Kokuten]

Given the teachy sound to the lyrics, perhaps it provides all friendlies in AOE a crash course in booby traps, primitive.?Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Bob Schroeck]

Hm. All of those are good ideas. I'm going to have to think on this, because I could use any and all of those possibilities in various upcoming stories. Hey, Rob, wouldn't this be of great use in your "Nadia" story, for instance?

-- Bob
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For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...

[robkelk]

Oh, definitely - either in the Africa arc (chapter 3) or the big battle on Red Noah (chapter 4). Just let me know which power you decide to let Doug gain from the song...
-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

After thinking about this overnight, I'm of the opinion that maybe it should let him create traps spontaneously out of local materials. Basically permanent rearrangement of existing stuff, which then remains in place when it's out of his AOE or when the song's over. So he could play the song, walk through the woods, and basically say, "pit trap there, deadfall here", and not have to worry about it continuing to exist.

-- Bob
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For Jor-El so loved the Earth, he sent his only begotten son...