Badassery

Power Sphere: The Grey King is Lord of Stone, Ruler of Mountains. His center of power is the whole of Cader Idris and, to a lesser extent, the valley at its foot. This Rising of the Dark is taking place on Cader; the grove of sacred trees are hidden at the peak of Cader; the Great Bard was, until that THIEVING SCOT ALASDAIR DOUGLAS came along, held fast out of time in the environs of Cader.

For the purposes of this Rising, then, his sphere is KICKING YOUR ASS AS LONG AS YOU ARE IN HIS DOMAIN, subject to stone and the power of the Mountain. Yeah, you thought being a Dryad was supposed to be easy.

Asswhoopery:

The greying of the mind. Grey is the color of despair, misery, apathy ... giving up. The Grey King can send forth a crush of greyness at the minds of his opponents, seeping in the cold realization that you can't win, so you shouldn't even try. There are obvious exceptions to this, but the cool thing is, this might work on Eadha where the Black Rider's terror won't. (Like she needs any more depression.)

Casting of illusions. This is slightly more powerful than Silent Bob's version of the Jedi Mind Trick. The Brenin Llywd could make an entire yard full of hardheaded and pragmatic farmers not-see an all-too-real fox ripping the throats out of sheep, and can project himself into the handy-dandy medium of the cloudmist known as the breath of the Grey King.

Warestones. Many Lords of both Light and Dark use these. Will Stanton says of them, "... [a] warestone. A channel for the Dark. So that when it is left in a certain place, you may know all that is happening in that place, and may put into it your will to make other things happen." Those of the Light cannot use or even touch a ware-stone of the Dark, and vice versa. The Grey King is fond of warestones, as might be expected from someone who doesn't really like going out and getting his own information when he can stay inside and get it by other means. Most warestones look like milky white quartz marbles; some, however, look like damn big grey obelisks, and aren't readily portable.

The summoning of Gwynt Traed yr Meirw, the north wind, the wind that blows around the feet of the dead. This is some serious bad mojo. It can blow people straight off mountains and out of Time itself. It is "a roaring flurry of noise and destruction," with "a sound like a high mad human scream amplified beyond belief. It was as if all the air in Wales had funneled down into a great tornado of tearing destruction..." It strikes suddenly and absolutely swiftly, without warning. The good news is, if you've evaded it the first time, you have time to run, hide, and plan a counterattack before the Grey King can use it again.

When the Grey King dislikes someone in his mountain-ringed vale, she is quickly made aware of it. There is always a stone under your car's tire; the wind from the north blows a little bit more howlingly down your neck; your small herd of pet chickens are mysteriously slaughtered in the night by what are probably dogs but might have been foxes. This is his kingdom, damn it all, and if you have the gall to displease him on his turf, ... sucks, mightily does it suck, to be you.

He can still shape stone, and as Lord of Stone he doesn't even have to use tools anymore to do so. Touching the piece of stone and commanding it in the spellspeech of the Dark will shape it as he wills it to be. This can be as small as shaping a pebble to spike into your bare toes, or it can be as large as carving out a tunnel for himself in the bowels of the mountain.

At the peak of Cader Idris, there is occasionally a ragged grey cloud, called the "breath of the Brenin Llwyd." It is never pretty at the best of times. When he's in an EXCEPTIONALLY bad mood, the cloud can block out the sun for days. This cloudmist will sometimes slink down the sides of the mountain, and act as a medium through which the Grey King can spout cold and unhappy-making idle banter with passing Old Ones or other people whom he dislikes, cf. Will Stanton.

Greatest Weakness: The Grey King's greatest weakness is his resistance to change. He will not deviate from a battle plan if it's worked before; he will be very slow to implement the smallest of deviations from his basic battle plan (which is avalanches, dropping rocks on your head, summoning up the dread wind to blast you off the plane, ek cetra). If something has worked before, why of course it will work again. The ways of stone are graven deep, and the roots of mountains are not lightly shifted.

Distinguishing Characteristics: ... Um, grey?