War Scorpion

Scenario: A renown character Mil attacked me and I have War Scorpion attached to Ellaria Sand (PotS) who had a duplicate. I played an event to give Ellaria a Mil icon, then I declare her as a defender and lose the challenge to trigger War Scorpion's ability.

Qn 1: Does the renown character gains power for renown first before War Scorpion's effects trigger? Or does he dies without gaining power for renown. This is important as it may be the last power to win the game.

Qn 2: Do I need to kill 2 characters? Ellaria due to War Scorpion effect, and another due to losing the Mil challenge. If so, can I use Ellaria to satisfy both?

Qn 3: If the renown character does gain power before dying from War Scorpion, will Ellaria, who assuming still survives due to the duplicate/saves, be able to claim the power before he is removed from the board?

Look into FAQ for challenges.

1. Determine winner of challenge
2. Challenge result is implemented
3. Reward for unopposed challenge is awarded
4. Renown is awarded

Then will come passive abilities triggered and responses.

So answers:
1. Yes, he gains power for renown.
2. In point 2 where challenge result is implemented you must choose character to satisfy military claim. You can choose Elaria to satisfy both. Military claim however you can cancel using duplicate. If Elaria will have no duplicate, you can still choose her. She will die but is not yet put to dead pile. She goes to moribound till end of this challange framework. You can still use her for any response or passive ability, so she can grap one power for example being in moribound state.
3. As I said in previous point, Elaria can use her ability even without save duplicate being in moribound. of course she will be put in dead pile after challange will end.

To summary if your character dies in challange it goes to moribound state and then still can be used to pay cost or do any responses/passive ability it can do.

Thanks for the answer!

So... I can use war scorpion even if the character to whom it's attached is dead (in moribound state), can I?

I am almost sure that I can but I just need confirmation

Depends on what killed him (more depends on when it killed him), but likely yes, you still get to use it.

If it depends on something can You give few examples?

Well, if he was killed as a player action before determining who is winning/losing the challenge, such as a Targ player ambushes in Flame-Kissed (Core) during the challenge and kills your guy. He would be removed from the board when Flame-kissed resolved, and the attachment would be discarded long before determining the winner/loser of a challenge.

However, if what you are thinking about was: If you claim the character this is attached to for MIL claim after losing as the defender, then by all means he will stay on the board in moribund and you definately can use the response of this attachment.

Thanx Pycelle

What about if it is attached to a noble character during a Power of Blood turn, and the other participating characters are NOT noble? Can I trigger it, since the effect is a "blanket" target as opposed to only targeting a noble character?

You sure can. "Cannot be killed" is absolute while it is in effect, but War Scorpion doesn't care if it actually kills anyone or not. After losing a challenge, the triggered effect (limited response) is allowed during your response window. You pay the cost by discarding the card itself, and the effect is then to kill all participating characters. Whether or not they actually can be killed is of no concern.

Cool, thanks! I think I was confusing the fact that you cannot choose a "cannot be killed" character for Military claim.

Well if the cost was similar to Pit Viper (RoW), then you would have to successfully kill your character. But the cost here is only to discard the attachment.

Well, if he was killed as a player action before determining who is winning/losing the challenge, such as a Targ player ambushes in Flame-Kissed (Core) during the challenge and kills your guy. He would be removed from the board when Flame-kissed resolved, and the attachment would be discarded long before determining the winner/loser of a challenge.

However, if what you are thinking about was: If you claim the character this is attached to for MIL claim after losing as the defender, then by all means he will stay on the board in moribund and you definately can use the response of this attachment.

FLAME-KISSED is NOT a good example of this because it can only be attached to a character that DOES NOT have attachments already. If your character had WAR SCORPION attachment on it already FLAME-KISSED could not be attached.

Flame-Kissed could be attached, but would have no effect.  Since we are splitting hairs.

While the example didn't pan out so well, the concept is still solid.  If the character dies before reaching the resolution of the challenge, then it will not be in play during the resolution of the challenge in order to trigger the effects of the attachment.