Monster Melee 6! Dakhor Monk(s) vs. Soulcast Awakened Supersoldier

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

Monster Melee is back!

 

This time, I wanted to have a little fun do some ego pandering. So, for this monster melee, we're going to be using a creature not yet seen in the cosmere. Our own cosmere version of Frankenstein's monster!

 

 

 

11) From EMTrevor:

Would an Awakener be able to awaken a corpse that was soulcast into stone more easily because it used to be living, thereby being able to create lifeless similar to Kalad’s Phantoms without having bones in the framework?

Yes. That would definitely work.

Source: http://www.tor.com/b...he-way-of-kings

 

 

So, for the battle, we're going to have to decide what the creature is made of, what kind of realistic skill set we want to give it, while still making it a skilled warrior, and how many Dakhor monks we want to throw at the thing. As usual, once most of the basics have been set in stone, I will open up the poll for voting!

 

 

Here's the Coppermind entry on the monks:http://coppermind.net/wiki/Dakhor

 

I'd say we wait to decide on how many monks we use until we figure out just what our creation can do. 

 

As for limitations, I had joked in my thread about making him out of Vibranium, but let's try to keep it to in-cosmere materials. (Maybe one day we'll do a thread where he's made of Cortosis and sick him on a jedi!)

 

A couple of ideas as far as that goes: Diamond might not be a bad choice, depending on how advanced in metallurgy we want to go. I personally wouldn't mind a more modern metal, but I'll let the group decide on that. For reference, platinum and titanium were both discovered in the 1700s, though platinum wasn't utilized until the very early 1800s, and titanium wasn't able to be used until 1910, 120 years after it's first discovery (Support Monster Melee folks, it's entertaining and educational!)

 

We also could experiment with giving him some sort of reduced investiture power, though I don't want to get too crazy. Maybe a misting of some sort, throw out the ideas and we'll either find one that fits, or decide he's special enough as is. One thing to keep in mind is that we can always throw more monks at him to even things out

 

 

As a slight refresher, Roshone has just suffered defeat at the hands of the Thunderclast, who fell down the cliff and disintegrated for dramatic effect, and because I wanted closure with the monster. (There's two midnight essence still unaccounted for.) 

 

He then turned his attentions towards the small country with the big personality, Herdaz, where our battle will be set.

 

Thanks for the patience on this one, last month was crazy busy. Three different weddings, a weeklong holiday to NYC and Niagara falls, Ontario, and of course the 24 hour shifts beating me up. (I'm not actually British, I just think 'holiday' sounds so much better than 'vacation.') With the release of Sixth of Dusk, I might be inclined to do a few more of these than I said in my lost post, but I'd really like to see more participation before that happens. 

 

And, on the subject of garnering more interest, I thought I'd share my little plan for The Ballad of Roshone's Revenge. When it does finally finish up, I am interested in getting it printed out nice in a book, and possibly getting some cover art if anyone is up to the task (I'm not that great of an artist, passable, but not great.)

 

Then, I'd like to be able to ship that book out to anyone who has participated in the threads and would be interested in signing it. I might have done the writing on the narratives, but every single person that has posted on these threads contributed in just as big a way. Without your help, I would not be nearly as pleased with the results of these threads. But once we've gotten it signed by everyone who wants to, I want to give it to Brandon as a gift. An official fanfiction of the 17thshard. 
 

It might get a little expensive to ship depending on where everyone is located, and I'm willing to help as much as I can, but if there's a bunch of international shipping involved, we'll have to figure out some way of working it out. Anyways, hope you guys are having as much fun with this as I have.

 

Let the discussions begin!

Edited August 5, 2014 by EMTrevor

[Kobold King he/him]

Looks like an awesome battle coming up! And the Ballad of Roshone's Revenge as a printed book... a very original (and epic) idea. I wonder how awesome the cover art will be.

 

To the matter at hand: do we know who's Awakening these super soldiers? My best guess would be

 

Zahel

 

since he's the only skilled Awakener to reside nearby. The skill of the Awakener is likely to have a strong impact on the finished product, after all.

[Left he/him]

Perhaps 4 dakhor monks vs two awakened of perhaps a lighter steel. Gives the awakened more mobility, but less defense.

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

Perhaps 4 dakhor monks vs two awakened of perhaps a lighter steel. Gives the awakened more mobility, but less defense.

Those seem to be a little steep odds in my opinion. I feel like the Dakhor Monks will at least match them in defense if not more so with the magic bone armor, but they'll also dominate in strength. 

 

Should we say that the Awakened will have the same dexterity and strength regardless of the metal? 

[Shaggai]

Those seem to be a little steep odds in my opinion. I feel like the Dakhor Monks will at least match them in defense if not more so with the magic bone armor, but they'll also dominate in strength. 

 

Should we say that the Awakened will have the same dexterity and strength regardless of the metal? 

Same dexterity and strength, sure, but durability and weight will obviously change. Dakhor are powerful, but bone isn't harder than metal (depending on which metal, of course, but I'm assuming we'll be using something strong).

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

What type of Awakened entity is it? Lifeless? Nightblood-ish?

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

It's an awakened soldier on the same caliber as Kalad's Phantoms. I'm not sure if you'd consider them lifeless or not. We're taking a skilled warrior's corpse (we still need to figure out what skills he/she/they had before dying) soulcasting it, and then awakening it. 

Edited August 6, 2014 by EMTrevor

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Well I assume that the bodies used would be ones that Zahel has access to, which would be Dalinar's troops. His troops are trained with spears and are said to be quite good. So their skill level at fighting would be superior to those of the Dakhor monks purely because they have been at constant warfare for 6 years. If I wanted to make an Awakened soldier I would turn them into steel.

I would then arm them with pure steel spears because weight wouldn't be an issue and it hurts when hit by a steel pole.

 

Using that as a template 1 Awakened soldier would be equal to at least 3 Dakhor monks.

 

Those are my thoughts.

[Chrono she/her]

I'd say that the Awakened Warrior thing has a lot of strength and is very good at swordfighting. I do have some ideas. Warbreaker spoilers follow.

Why not make the Awakened Warrior Denth? He's a master duelist and extremely fast. There's no way that somebody wouldn't find his corpse, decide that he's an awesome warrior, and turn him into a Lifeless. I don't know if Returned can be turned into Lifeless, though, so that could be a serious problem. 

 

Either way, if it works, give Denth a sword, give him a Command to "Go kill these Dakhor Monks" and laugh as he rips them all to shreds with lightning fast sword skills.

[Pathfinder]

Same dexterity and strength, sure, but durability and weight will obviously change. Dakhor are powerful, but bone isn't harder than metal (depending on which metal, of course, but I'm assuming we'll be using something strong).

I would have to check the book, but isn't there literally a scene (I THINK it was the partially transformed priest), raised his arm as a sword came down on his bone enhanced arm, and it stopped the blow only lightly slicing the flesh? So I do not think the bone armor is as flimsy against metal as you think. 

[Fifth of Daybreak he/him]

Chrono, that sounds like an awesome idea. I'll have to figure out a way to make it apparent that's who it is in the narrative, beyond just his sword skills. 

 

 

The strength of the bones are definitely better than that:

 

 

...The bone pattern beneath his skin started glowing as he blocked Sarene's attack, and his body began to move even more quickly. 

 

And then the scene Pathfinder is referencing:

 

Hrathen stopped, then whipped his arm out from beneath his cloak. Dilaf's sword hit the flesh of Hrathen's forearm. 

And stopped.

...

Hrathen stood tall, ignoring Dilaf, though the monk began to swing at Hrathen's side instead.

Elantris Chapter 62

 

 

Keep in mind that this is a Dakhor monk attacking another one, so not only is it repelling steel, but it is also withstanding the punishment of a strength enhanced opponent. 

 

That being said, Hrathen earlier is able to hold of a large group of the Monks himself due to his sword skills, and our Super Soldier has to be a much better swordsmen than Hrathen is, so we'll still want, I'd say at least five Dakhor monks, if not more. They struck me as untrained and reliant more on their powers, so a warrior much better skilled than they, with as much protection and armor as they have, and enhanced strength, would make short work of any fewer of them. 

[ccstat he/him]

It's been a few months since I logged in (work has been quite busy) but it looks like I haven't missed an episode yet (unless this got completed in another thread?). 

 

Re: the monks vs awakened statue--I like the ideas so far. Chronos had some great suggestions. I like the idea of having two Awakened out of two different materials, and steel is an easy one for the cosmere. Other choices could be: granite, diamond, obsidian, aluminum/ralkalest (since that could have interesting immune-to-investiture effects, despite material weakness). One swordsman is good, and the other could be a grappling martial artist (e.g. Jiu Jitsu) or good with poisoned weapons such as daggers, blow darts, etc. 

As far as the monks go, there are clearly different levels of awesomeness depending on how high ranking they are. I'm having trouble figuring out what would actually be a balanced ratio.

 

Re: the Ballad as gift for Brandon -- that's a sweet idea, and I'll support where I can. I do think shipping one or more bookplates, rather than the book itself, would be an easier way to do signatures.