Shloshah Makot: Dam, Tsvardeah Vekinim
The Finger of the Lord
Rank: B
Type: Anti-City (Anti-Unit)
When the brothers appeared in the court of the Pharaoh to demand the liberation of their people, it was Caster who announced the will of the Most High to all who were there that day. It was Caster who threw his brother’s staff and watched it transform into the famed snake and later on it was Caster once more who wielded Moses’ shepherd staff to turn the Nile’s waters into blood, sent forth the plague of frogs and turned the dust of Egypt into a sea of lice. Only once Pharaoh had rebuked them for the fourth time did Moses find the conviction to speak the word of God himself, and to bring forth His Plagues by his own hand.
Shloshah Makot is the crystallization of how it was Caster that served as his prophet for the first three plagues, taking the shape of a very familiar shepherd’s staff. Sturdy to the point that it can clash with the most powerful of holy and demonic blades without chipping, it can transform itself back into the famed snake. Unlike before the staff need not leave Caster’s hand in order to transform back into the powerful Monstrous Beast that once struck fear in the hearts of Pharaoh’s courtiers, nor must it transform all the way. Instead it is fully capable of transforming only part of itself (usually either the tip of its tail or its head), allowing a blocked attack to still draw blood or for the cobra’s constriction to become all the more lethal. While the serpent itself is no match to a Servant in a straight fight, it is infused with the essence of the first three plagues, which changes everything.
The first plague, which turned the life-giving waters of the Nile into blood, resides in the serpent’s fangs, making any fluid that even grazes it transform into freshly spilt blood, even if the contact was with already transformed blood. This can of course go from water to mucus and bile to oil, paint thinner and even liquid metals. All are reduced (or elevated, depending on your point of view) to blood. An unfortunate bystander who might be hit by a stray drop of such blood would die on the spot if he does not possess a sufficiently strong resistance to such magics (which would only prolong their suffering).
The second plague can be found in the snake’s venom. Regardless of whether it is injected in flesh or wood or steel, the venom coagulates rapidly until it has taken the rough shape of a frog, at which point it becomes animated and will do anything it can to break free. Yet, regardless of where or from what it was born, these lowly pseudo-amphibians seek out other flesh, the more steeped it is in mystery and power, the better. As these pitiful creatures are terribly short-lived and start
apart almost as soon as they have obtained freedom, it should come to no surprise that they die before ever reaching what they seek. From their remains (not only their corpse, but from every drop they’ve spilled in their short life) then springs forth a new pseudo-frog, identical to its ‘parent’. It then continues the same endless journey not even knowing what it would do once it reaches its goal other than to stay as close to it as it can ever be. Those unfortunate enough to be the target of the ‘frogs’ will quickly find themselves engulfed and smothered, death following soon if nothing is done.
There are only two ways of stopping this plague: either by obliterating all of the ‘descendants’ of the original pseudo-frog or by letting it run its course, by letting it produce four hundred generations (one for each year that the Hebrews were in bondage) after which all the frogs are reduced to harmless dust. Of course, there is nothing preventing either the serpent or Aaron from creating more ‘primordial’ pseudo-frogs, so the only real countermeasure against this is the destruction of the staff or the elimination of its master.
The third and final curse that the serpent embodies lies hidden within its scales. When striking the ground or its byproducts (mainly stone, iron and dirt) it’s all transformed into lice, which are then picked up by a sudden gust of wind and spread far and wide. Soon after these lice find their hosts, be they man or animal, they begin to burrow deeply in their flesh, gnawing away for as long as they exist. This is not fatal nor will it cripple its victims, all that happens is that those who are unlucky enough to be hit by this plague is that their attention is dominated by the…discomfort they go through. The constant scraping keeps them from following their daily routine, it keeps them awake at night and it ruins any attempt at being social.
But while it’s a bother for their mundane victims, for those taking part in something as grand as a Holy Grail War it might very well prove fatal. After all, a distraction that could keep one from even being able to greet one another or do something as simple as cook a simple meal must wreak havoc on their ability to do combat or magecraft. And as a spiritual existence, born from a divinely crafted Monstrous Beast at that, the lice have no problem feeding off of the spiritual flesh of Servants, regardless of whether they are mortal or of the divine (the sole exception being those Servants who are of Jewish origin, the Covenant with God safeguarding them from this plague). Unless one possesses either a mindset that has transcended pain in all its forms and shapes or a mystery powerful enough to banish the lice the afflicted will just have to labor forth under their new plague.
This Noble Phantasm is a weaker version of the one Moses possesses. This refers not only to the fact that the prophet has access to all ten of the plagues and the serpent (which in his hands is a Phantasmal Beast instead) and the crystallization of the splitting of the Red Sea, but also Caster’s version is automatically weaker as he was only the mouthpiece of Moses, the prophet of the prophet if you will. This has resulted in Caster’s version being only powerful enough to affect a city as opposed to a whole nation, but also in the amount of control he has over it. Good-natured and peaceful as he is, Caster would want to avoid harming the innocent with his Noble Phantasm, making it so that he limits himself and only targets his direct enemy (hence why the Anti-Unit label is between brackets). Nothing short of a Command Seal or the assurance that there are no innocent bystanders within the vicinity of the city can make him unleash the full force of the Shloshah Makot.
Eggel Hazahav
The Calf who Mistook Itself for the Shepherd
Rank: C
Type: Anti-Divinity, Passive
The source of Caster’s greatest shame and failing, the golden calf that he crafted to soothe the worries of his heretical brethren has become such an intrinsic part of his legend that it’s been sublimated into this Noble Phantasm. It manifests as a silent, translucent projection of a golden calf the size of an adult rat that only Caster himself can see. It follows him around and nothing, not even the application of a True Magic, can banish it without also killing Caster. This spirit is not the ‘soul’ of the golden calf, but rather the collection of all those would-be Divine Spirits who never managed to come into existence, be it by being prematurely supplanted by an older, more established deity or by having its worshippers cut down to the last man before it could fully form. Yearning for recognition it will do anything it can to be acknowledged and thus Eggel Hazahav will succeed where it failed so many times before: take the place of all those greater divinities that have left their mark on the world.
In more practical terms, this means that, for every other participant in the Holy Grail War who has anything in their possession pertaining to one god or another (be they Personal Skill, bodily alterations, blessings or even Noble Phantasms), Eggel Hazahav will alter the course of events that took place so that it instead is the calf who has granted said boons.
While it would be gratifying for the deities-that-have-never-been to replace Apollo in instructing Cassandra in the art of prophecy or cuckold Mars and be the one to impregnate Rhea Silva, one has to remember that the calf is as ignorant and pathetic as a god can be and does not actually possess the knowledge or the raw power to serve as an acceptable substitute. As a result the boons of the gods are either lost entirely or lessened considerably to account for the…diminished pedigree involved. Depending on what gets affected by this Noble Phantasm, the exact effect of it can differ from person to person.
Those blessings that are a direct result of an innate mingling with the divine, such as the ‘Divinity’ and ‘Natural Body’ Skills are affected most severely, either disappearing altogether or diminished to the lowest possible rank. The same goes for those boons that are entirely separate from the individual, such as the weapons Perseus received to slay the gorgon Medusa. The golden calf’s influence on knowledge or instruction based boons is a tad bit more complex, mostly because the student’s talents and drive to learn remain unchanged and their interaction with the lackluster tutelage can differ greatly. As a rule of thumb in regards to the extent that Eggel Hazahav can interfere in this manner, A-rank skills can be diminished by one rank, B-rank by two and C-rank and below are at risk of being eliminated entirely, although Eggel Hazahav cannot in any way affect those Noble Phantasms that are more potent than itself. Those divinely-granted Skills that are above the rank of A are too potent to be affected by Eggel Hazahav at all.
As with Shloshah Makot, Caster is denying himself the full power of Eggel Hazahav. Wrongly believing that it is the spirit of the actual golden calf, Caster rejects and denies it, effectively lowering its rank and if it weren’t for the fact that it’s a passive Noble Phantasm, Caster would never call upon it without being forced to by a Command Spell. To the surprise of nobody this misunderstanding has reduced its potential significantly (=reduced its rank), straining the already poor relationship it has with Caster. Although frankly, Caster probably prefers it this way.
Originally Posted by RoydGolden
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