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You’re floating on the Black Sea, desperately clinging to a piece of flotsam. You are burned, broken, weak, and thirsty. You have no hope. You are waiting to die. You won’t. You can’t. There is a fire inside you, bright enough to pull on the winds of fate. It’s the oldest magic, and the strongest. 1. What passion protects you? A. Love B. Hate C. Write in Each breath is agony. Each wave an assault. Yet you endure, long past your limits. You endure, until fate finally deigns to send its rescue: a ship on the horizon. You see it and desperately cry out. This takes the last of your strength, and you succumb to darkness. You find yourself laying on your back shuddering on a deck, hearing snippet of conversation. “…throw it back…” “…already dead…” “…gift of the sea…” You focus on the most forceful voice. It’s high pitched and lisping, but has strength and authority behind it. “… Waste of time, not worth the food or the medicine. Mercy to slit the fish’s throat and give it back to Manu.” Is she talking about you? Killing you? But the Accords… Your eyes focus a flag high above you. Black as night. Well, gently caress. Pirates. With great effort, you turn your head to see your would-be murderer, just in time to catch a spray of spittle on your face. Your first sight is enormous, scarred calves. You slowly raise your eye-line and take in a huge, powerful woman rippling with muscles. Then you get to her face, and you’d recoil if you had the energy. It looks like someone took an axe to her, very literally. A huge scar goes from her right cheek to her left chin, leaving her mouth split and broken. As she speaks, small bursts of spit fly forward to emphasize every point.  “And anger the Goddess? It is an insult to return a gift, all know this,” this voice is deeper but quieter. Your defender is almost as large as the woman. He is covered head-to-toe in tattoos, it’s hard to tell what is skin and what is ink. He’s also dripping wet. He must have risked his life by jumping from the ship to fish you out.  “Bad luck, that!” You don’t catch the shout’s origin, but there’s a general murmur among the crew. Sailors are suspicious folk.  “Shut it!” The woman roars, “ain’t a loving democracy!” “So bring it to the captain!” the tattooed man retorts. The crowd murmurs again, though this time there’s more fear to it. “You want a go?” you see a flash of steel. Oh joy, they’re going to fight right on top of you! You’d like to watch, you really would, but everything is going black again… You jolt back to life a second later, to cackling laughter. You look around and see the giant woman and the tattooed man looking in fear up at the foretop. Laying on your back, you have an easier view of what inspired such terror. An old woman’s face, hanging precariously from the platform on the mast, framed by long, wild hair. She has eyes only for you, and she seems to find you hilarious.  “Let the fish speak,” she cackles. Speak? How? You can barely breathe. But then you feel another strange jolt of strength. Your throat feels less parched than it should, and you find you can slowly rise to a seated position. You should be dead, you know it. At the least, you should be too weak to still be conscious, much less defend yourself. And yet, you can. 2. What do you do? D. Beg the ugly giant for your life E. Thank the tattooed man for saving you F. Appeal to the superstitious crew to protect you G. Insist on seeing the captain H. Ask the cackling old woman to intervene I. Write in 3. What’s your name? Write-in 4. Age? J. Teenager K. Young adult L. Actual adult 5. Gender? M. Man N. Woman Welcome to The Spellbound Seas, a Swashbuckling CYOA. I’m loosely adapting the RPG Spellbound Kingdoms, though I’m changing a lot to make it work as a CYOA and I’ll be inventing most of the setting. A few mechanical notes: 1. So long as you maintain a strong enough inspiration, something you care about with incredible passion, you are immortal. You can still have a very bad time, but your agency cannot be taken away. Some people know this secret of magic, but for the moment your character does not. Your inspirations can also be used for mechanical advantages like re-rolls and maxing dice, I’ll do that automatically when you do something where it applies. 2. You have a mood resource. Mood can be spent to maximize rolls and is restored when you do things that make you happy. If you’re willing to spend mood on an action just put ! after the letter in your vote. You start with 0 mood, as you’ve had a very bad week. 3. We will be raffle voting, but I reserve the right to veto things that would result in a story I don’t want to write. I probably won’t do this at all, but I reserve the right if a write in is creepy or fun-ruining. 4. Big, dramatic, swashbuckling actions will usually pay off well. Character Sheet quote:Cassandra Andorai Notable Characters: Captain Theodore Iordanou - Captain of the Smiling Stranger claims to be the scion of a noble house. You've never heard of them, so either they're very minor or fictional. Claims he was educated at the National University of Suleiman. He was not, you know because you were educated there and you keep a list of Alumni. He advocates for sustainable piracy. Abigail Iordanou - Skilled witch. Claims she was once a beautiful lady who secretly used her powers to secure her husband's place in the New Anthen Court. They prospered for many years, until a curse backfired and took her beauty. She was imprisoned by her husband, who announced she'd died of the pox and took a new wife. When her grandson discovered the family secret, he broke her free and took to the sea. Her story sounds a lot like a fairy-tale, and she laughs inappropriately as she tells it. Betty aka "Backbreaker Betty" - First Mate & Bosun. Once captained her own ship, the Scourge. Won't share the tale of what happened to it. Will share the gruesome tale of the stupid woman who asked too many personal questions. Two Eyed Pim - Second Mate & Quartermaster. Says the Stranger and its original crew were his, before Abigail put a curse on him. If he betrays them his skin will melt off his flesh. That was a long time ago, and they're all friend now. It's water under the bridge. Definitely. Adul Alafa- Gunner - Spins a wild tale about being rescued from savages in the Wildlands. Makohanna - Cook - Has not shared his story. So far all of your questions have been about creating your character. You couldn't have really failed at anything. That's no longer true. I will be rolling for most actions and you can definitely fail. You can also succeed, and big, bold actions can come with big rewards. You have 2 mood (+1 for being apprenticed, +1 for reading a new forbidden text). Put a "!" with your letter vote to spend mood on that action. Mood will maximize your roll. You won't need to spend mood when an action is about gaining or protecting knowledge, those actions get -1 to difficulty, maxed, and exploded. You can fail, but you can't die or lose, so long as you never betray your love of knowledge. Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 20:27 on Jul 18, 2020 |
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May 27, 2020 07:36
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jng2058 posted:A You're well acquainted with death at this point, and the giant's blustering doesn't impress you much, you look her right in the eye: "This decision is not yours to make! Let me speak to your captain!" You hear a general murmur of agreement from the crew. The giant scowls, her face twisting ghoulishly, "you ain't worth losing his beauty sleep!" But you can see the old woman moving before you finish speaking, she darts with surprising speed to the cabin door and pounds, "wake up, lazy!" she screeches. The giant glowers at her but makes no move to stop it. After a beat, the captain emerges, yawning... Does he sleep in that?  The captain affectionately pats the old woman's hair as he stumbles, blurry eyed, towards you. He stops by the giant to peck her cheek, he has to stand on tip-toes and she has to hunch to manage it. He looks you over. You protest, "Your crew wanted to kill me! I'm more valuable alive. I'm skilled! I can work!" He cocks his head, "A gift of the sea? What luck, what luck... Open her mouth." The giant happily complies, seizing you roughly and forcing your mouth open. "Mmmm, impressive. Sometimes our recent troubles can obfuscate our potential. But the teeth, oh yes, they will tell a life story if you know how to read it." 1. What do your teeth say about you? A. All are present, though there is decay from sweets. You have lived a life of high luxury. B. Missing teeth have been skillfully replaced, cracks have been filled in with the latest medical science. You have lived a life of violence and privilege. C. Shockingly pristine. Your life has been peaceful and disciplined. D. Cracked and disgusting. You've scrambled in the gutter. E. Write in[/b] He backs away and gestures at the giant to let you go. "In my estimation, an investment in you will provide acceptable returns. If nothing else, we can sell you at a profit." The old woman chimes in, "There's a storm in her. I'll take her. But only if she's willing. My tricks aren't for slaves." The captain raises his eyebrows, "and so your value skyrockets! I am an indulgent grandson. Congratulations, you are a free woman. I hope your 20 seconds of indentured servitude were not too arduous. I must insist you pay for passage however, and you do not seem to have coin. Work in trade, then." "It must be a choice. A real choice," the old woman titters. The captain rolls his eyes, "A real choice, yes, of course. You may work as my attendant." You notice the giant's eyes narrow at that. Looks might not kill, but that sword she's gripping might. "Or, perhaps you are foolish enough to enjoy the simple, backbreaking labor of the deckhand? That is most certainly an option available to you. I would be most pleased, however, if you decided of your own free will to entwine your fate with my grandmother." 2. What do you do? F. Apprentice yourself to the strange old woman G. Become the captain's attendant H. Join the crew as a simple deckhand I. Write in You are a young adult, so you will have a fairly defined background, a set of skills, and inspirations before your experience sailing with pirates. We'll introduce them a bit at a time. We'll start with the most important bit, your defining inspiration. Love won, but we need to narrow it down. 3. What do you love with a terrifying passion? J. A person or group of specific people- Write in who (ex. My distant lover in the clutches of a cruel noble!) K. Something concrete - Write in what (Gold, beautiful glittering gold!) L. Something abstract - Write in what (Justice! Communism! Exploring!) Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 21:09 on May 29, 2020 |
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May 29, 2020 19:43
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Toughy posted:B B. Missing teeth have been skillfully replaced, cracks have been filled in with the latest medical science. You have lived a life of violence and privilege. F. Apprentice yourself to the strange old woman L. Something Abstract - Knowledge The Discovery lies in the depths of the Black Sea, and with it your chance to find ancient Anthenia and learn from the Dead Philosopher Kings. Yet, the world is full of opportunities if you keep your eyes open. You know a witch when you see one. The path to knowledge is fraught with danger, but you do not hesitate. “I would love to be your apprentice, Great Master!” you grin through the pain. Your mind floods with questions. But then you remember the almost-dead thing. With the danger past and the course set, darkness takes you again. You spend some time in convalescence. You vaguely remember being force-fed foul smelling liquids. Eventually, you are strong enough to spend more than a few seconds awake. The old woman peers curiously down at you. “I’m Abigail. Don’t call me Great Master. Puts the sailors on edge, and they already think about taking a dip in the Black Sea when I look at them.” Abigail putters around the small cabin. She doesn’t have much room to move about, as it’s overstuffed with two real cots, a luxury on a sailing vessel, and the walls are lined with enough curios (secured with nets and lines, this is the Black Sea after all) to impress a museum curator. Your eyes light on the case of leather bound books. You don’t recognize most of them! Those that you do know are very promising, Richard Albright’s Meditations on Thaumtulogical Energies carries a death sentence for ownership in 6 of the 7 Courts. You’ve read it, everyone whose anyone has. She talks while she fiddles with a primitive set of alchemical tools. “That’s your first lesson. Magic is scary. They’re scared of it. I’m scared of it. You’re not scared of it, I can see it in your heart, but you ought to be. Magic is not science, no matter what that fool Albright thinks. It will never submit to human reason. Someday you’ll try to excise a tumor and you’ll turn your daughter-in-law into a pig. If you can do it without magic, or just do nothing, you should. There’s a Storm in you. Raw power to sink a continent. If I was a good person, I wouldn’t teach you a thing.” She’s finished distilling a cup of black ooze. It smells like liquefied rat. She cackles as you force it down and makes her way to the book. “You’re too weak to really start, but we can build your foundations. Pick one of these. Only one. You can learn them all and more, someday, but if you don’t take the Arts one at a time they’ll melt your insides” she throws you three books, you try to catch them but your arms can still barely move and they end up slamming painfully on your chest. 1. Which do you read? A. A small well-worn, dog-eared book that reads “Storm Magic, a primer.” There are a lot of notes in the margins in a chicken-scratch scrawl B. An oversized, heavy tome with no title. Each page seems to be a reproduction of a stone tablet in Ancient Anthenian. The Ancient Anthenians were known for their powerful star-based divinations… Until that very magic destroyed their civilization. C. A loose bound set of sheets titled 2. You spent the first part of your young life as an action-scholar of some kind. What kind? D. A Monk of the Roja Order. You served the Shining Owl, the Living God of Knowledge, and swore a religious oath to seek lost knowledge for the Great Archives. E. A Rogue Alchemist. You trained under the Guild, until disputes over their hidebound practices led to your exile. You now seek to synthesize the fractured alchemical traditions into a new science. F. A Gentleman Explorer. Yes, you’re a lady, but the Gentleman Explorer’s Society didn’t change their name after they started letting ladies in. You inherited substantial wealth from a noble house but cared little for the luxuries that could afford or the petty politics of the Suleiman Court. Instead, you’ve spent it funding scientific expeditions to the far corners of the world. G. Write-In Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 00:53 on May 31, 2020 |
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May 30, 2020 20:25
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I just realized I repeated ABC in the second question, which isn't the voting pattern I wanted. I'll know what you mean if you have a second set of ABCs, but I corrected the options.
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May 30, 2020 21:08
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Sure, I edited that in.
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May 31, 2020 00:53
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Dr Subterfuge posted:A Get a handle on some well-understood fundamentals first. The tome is the real prize though. A - Storm Magic F - Gentleman Explorer You care very little for the hand-written book. It's incomplete, and you suspect that you teacher could just tell you whatever it contains. You lovingly caress a page of the largest book. You've seen a number of these tablets. Some Gentlemen Explorers maintain private collections, and the National Museum has the largest display in the world. Tablets like these, the only remaining evidence of Ancient Anthenia, can be found from Habash to Neko. You were a little girl running wild on your estate when the Roja Order announced they'd developed a complete translation key. The fervor was part of what inspired you to be a an explorer. It was very exciting until they discovered that most of the mysterious tablets described beer allocation. The ancient Anthenians were extremely concerned with the fair distribution of alcohol. Still, you studied the language to prepare for your expedition, and you doubt these tablets are about beer. It's too bad your language expert went down with the Discovery. Anthenian magic... The Inquisition would spare no expense to destroy such a legacy. You glance up to see your teacher watching you a bit too eagerly. You sigh and put it down. Lesson one, magic is scary. It’s untranslated, your Anthenian is far from perfect, and by all accounts their magic was particularly dangerous. Better to get a more solid grasp of the fundamentals before attempting something like that. You pick up the smaller, worn book. Your teacher grins and gives you the cabin. It only takes you a day to read it, you inhale the knowledge like a starving woman, worse than that, truly, because you are also starving yet you refuse to put it down. When Abigail checks on you she gets an endless barrage of questions until she finally she blows some kind of smoke in your face that makes you hungry and then sleepy. You continue like this for two weeks. You study the book and try to perform the training exercises it describes, and you ask a lot of questions. Abigail only answers a few at a time, and only after you’ve rested. Despite your growing theoretical knowledge, you can’t manage to make even the smallest spark. The only advice Abigail will give you on the matter is “sleep more.” Finally, she relents, “the book was written for Spellbound students. Right now, you know it here,” she pokes you in your temple “but not here,” she jabs at your heart. “You need to dig a channel between your soul and the world. I would’ve done that first, but your time as a barnacle left you too weak to survive the two methods I know. You’re not camping at death’s door anymore, but you still look more like jellyfish than woman to me. I’ll show you the path, but only when you can climb the crow’s nest, pump out the bilge, and wrestle Betty. Anything less and I might as well gut you now. By now you should be able to walk, so walk your rear end out of my cabin!” She makes a shooing gesture. You can hear her door locking behind you. You’ve healed faster than you thought possible under her care, but you are still weaker than you’ve ever been. Where do you spend your time recovering, now that you’re temporarily unwelcome in Abigail’s cabin? A. You make yourself useful, and get some much needed exercise, by doing odd jobs for the crew. B. The captain offered to make you his attendant, take him up on it temporarily. C. Seek out the tattooed man who rescued you and help him with whatever he does D. You quickly learn that Betty is the charming woman who wanted to slit your throat. If Abigail is serious you’ll need to wrestle her. Maybe you should get to know her better? E. You exercise alone, listen to the sea, and think. F. You refuse to wait. Pound on the door and demand that she initiate you NOW! G. Write in.
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May 31, 2020 23:06
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Dr Subterfuge posted:What does the tattooed man do? You ask the nearest crew member what the tatooed man does. "Cook" The sailor refuses to look you in the eye. He returns to tying lines like it's the most interesting thing in the world.
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May 31, 2020 23:53
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You exercise alone, listen to the sea, and think. You quickly find that you are not wholly welcome among these pirates. You feel like a wraith, invisible yet fearsome, as they give you a wide berth while at the same time pretend you don’t exist. Is it because you’re an apprentice witch? Or because you’re a refined lady? Both? Something else? You find an out-of-the-way spot on the deck, made more-so by the sailors’ studious avoidance, and perform the body-weight musculature development routine you used to do with your personal trainer. You’re very weak, but you make sure to adjust your routines and pay careful attention so you push your limits without doing further damage. A young deckhand leaves you lunch, fresh sautéed eel and rice with a tangy sauce, and flees. You quickly grow tired and have very little to do. You gaze out at the sea. It almost took you. It still doesn’t make sense that you survived when everyone else died, and that you drifted for so long without succumbing. As a noblewoman you were educated on magic. Not how to practice it, of course. When you joined the Suleiman court you swore an oath to protect your lands from sorcery and put its practitioners to death. In order to carry out those duties properly you needed to recognize sorcery from more acceptable forms of magic, and from pure superstition. Divine Magic comes directly from the gods, and is sacred. Deep magic comes from nature, some believe it to be yet undiscovered natural laws. Sorcery, or profane magic, imposes the greedy will of man on the world and thus corrupts it. It could have been divine magic that saved you, there were many stories of one god or another smiling on a mortal and miraculously saving their life. It would have to be a cruel god indeed to torture you for so long, but many gods were cruel. You also, illegally, read a thing or two about initiation. Allbright wrote that all initiations share similar elements. First, there is a near death experience, an encounter with thaumatulogical energy in a way that’s harrowing enough to touch the soul. Then, the initiate needs to contact that same energy with their consciousness before the link heals. He used the example of a beastly form of magic practiced by a primitive tribe before the inquisition exterminated their shamans and re-educated the remaining tribesmen. Initiates were first thrown, naked, into a pit with a large wild animal. If they survived the mauling, they were to watch the animal for three days and three nights, kill it with a spear, and eat its heart. It seems a bit unfair to almost die twice in a row. Allbright observed that sorcerers often mastered multiple forms of magic and only needed a single initiation. The initiation tended to be thematic with the first Art they learned, and seemed to shape precisely how they practice magic in general, but any method seemed as good as any other. He theorized that, once the Courts overcame their own primitive, ignorant hatred of another natural science, they would develop a safe and systematic way to initiate students. The ocean has plenty of thaumatulogical energy. Perhaps you already completed the first step, and just need to take the second? You stare out at the sea. There’s something there, something that calls to you. Do you try to Initiate yourself, using the ocean as a conduit? A. Yes B. No C. Write in You've answered enough character creation questions for a full character sheet. quote:Cassandra Andorai So far all of your questions have been about creating your character. You couldn't have really failed at anything. That's no longer true. I will be rolling for most actions and you can definitely fail. You can also succeed, and big, bold actions can come with big rewards. You have 2 mood (+1 for being apprenticed, +1 for reading a new forbidden text). Put a "!" with your letter vote to spend mood on that action. Mood will maximize your roll. You won't need to spend mood when an action is about gaining or protecting knowledge, those actions get -1 to difficulty, maxed, and exploded. You can fail, but you can't die or lose, so long as you never betray your love of knowledge.
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Jun 2, 2020 06:24
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Explode?: 1d8 2 You lose 1 mood and maximize your roll You let stare out to sea, mesmerized by the waves. You hear them crashing against the ship and recall their unceasing assault on your body. You flashback to that terrible tribulation. You are the tiniest speck on a surface greater than all the land that shelters your fragile species. The waves take you, swallow you, uncaring, for you are nothing beside it. You are carried down, down, into incomprehensible depths. You see the light disappear above you, a thin layer coating the endless, eternal abyss. Still you descend into the hungry depths. You see empires crumble and mountains fall. You see all things ending, all but the Deep. The Sea’s power is beyond you. Your will is a mite against a hurricane. You can feel it consuming you, hollowing you out. You were arrogant indeed to try and tame this power. You die. … … … You can’t die. … You die. You can’t die. YOU DIE! NO! The oldest magic, and the strongest. You awake in your master’s cabin. Before you felt pain and weakness. Now, you feel like there are worms crawling beneath your skin. Beneath the worms you feel an endless, hungry, abyss. The source of your power. It’s alien, and uncomfortable, but there is no pain. quote:You have gained a level in Chosen One. Abigail yelled at you for a while, but she was also very interested in your new abominable powers. You don’t need much encouragement to experiment and write down your insights. You know enough to begin training in Storm Magic in earnest, but she encourages you to get a better handle on your Abyssal powers first. You’ll be ready for another magic style when you “bond a familiar.” She does warn you: “Magic wants to follow one will or none. When two people fight over the same pot of stew, they’ll both get scaled. It’s why I like boats, it keeps me away from all the other witches so they don’t steal my stew. Covens, pah! Just being Spellbound is enough now to cause trouble. So you tell me before you do magic and stand far away so we don’t both go warty.” You haven’t taken much interest in the crew. They continue to give you a wide berth. The tattooed man who rescued you spends his time cooking or fishing. He brings you meals personally, you think no one else has the courage to do it, but is formal and distant. The captain spends much of his time in the cabin. When you meet, he’s polite, friendly even, but he makes no effort to connect with you. Betty, who you figure is the bosun, avoids you like a plague bearer. It’s lonely. --- You’re exercising on the deck when you hear an excited shout from the crow’s nest. As best you can tell, the ship has been trawling the Black Sea trade lanes. You’re familiar with the route, it was a mainstay of your family’s income before you re-fitted your trade ships for exploration. Suleiman glasswork, dye, spice, and reagents for Habash grain and steel. The crew scrambles to their stations, loading muskets and securing their axes and cutlasses. The captain has a brace of pistols across his chest and a finely engraved sword. It’s hard to see without a spyglass, but you think that speck is a large Suleiman trader. Your countrymen. Abigail appears beside you, “look how excited they are! They’re acting like this isn’t a lamb to slaughter. My grandson is a fool, but I owe him my freedom, so I help him cheat with these little excursions even it takes the fun out of it.” She makes her way to the opposite deck, where you won’t interfere with her spells, and you can feel her power catching the wind. What do you do? a. Help the pirates take their prize. Write how in a sentence or two. b. Sabotage the pirates. Write how in a sentence or two. c. Wait for your chance, then fully betray the pirates. You will probably need to assassinate Abigail to pull this off. Write how in a sentence or two. d. Watch and don’t interfere. e. Write-In.
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Jun 5, 2020 21:00
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Toughy posted:Is the length of the ship far enough away to try anything without messing up our teacher? For spell surges both the origin and the destination matter. For now you're far enough away that your spell origins won't cross wires, but if you target the same general area they will. It also matters how much juice is in the spell and how far it covers.You're not a good enough judge of this to be absolutely sure if casting a spell on the enemy captain will surge with her spell to control the wind, but you think wind-control is a fairly strong and diffuse magic. Spell surges sometimes don't happen at all, and most frequently just gently caress up the spell and cause feedback. Rarely, they're completely disastrous (called a crisis surge) but on the ocean you are shielded from those (Abigail is not).
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Jun 5, 2020 22:20
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This isn’t really your problem either way. The pirates are treating you like a wraith, so you may as well act like one. Besides, you can learn a thing or two about piracy on the Black Sea by acting as an impartial observer. You’ve travelled a fair bit, but your only encounter with pirates was a long distance exchange of cannon fire before they ran off to find easier prey. The merchant ship founders as the wind leaves its sails. Your own ship approaches at a back angle, not giving them a chance to use their cannons. Stealing their wind really was cheating. As you get close, the crew raises the pirate flag. You can see the merchant crew scrambling on the deck. Betty organizes the vanguard. She doesn’t bother with a gun, instead she carries a huge axe. When you get close enough to board, she shouts at the merchants, “We’re coming, we’re taking your poo poo, ain’t nothing you can do ‘bout it! Put down your arms! I see a drop of blood today, and I’ll butcher the lot of ya! Don’t be bitches about this!” They drop boarding planks. You expected the pirates to swing dramatically from the ropes and drop on the poor merchants with a flourish, it’s what you would do, but there was no need. The merchants already had goods on deck their captain was shuffling nervously, unarmed. Betty goes first, searching for a trap. Behind her comes a wave of pirates, and then the flamboyantly dressed pirate captain. He clears his voice, and with much less force than Betty announces, “Excellent! There’s no requisite for violence in this exchange. We may part amicably. As you have sagaciously chosen the tranquil path, no harm shall come to any of your most marvelous crew. We will leave you with sustenance enough to complete your journey, but I fear we must seize any treasures that meet our standards of weight for value. Furthermore, I am compelled to seize libations, the captain’s private stores, and whatever gleaming baubles catch our eye.” Even as he talks, his crew swarm the ship like ants on a sweet. They crack open the goods on the deck, but they don’t stop there. They go down into the hold with crowbars and axes. You nod at that, never trust a merchant’s price. As soon as they decided to surrender, they must have squirreled away their most valuable goods and put just enough to appease the pirates on the deck. This all takes some time. You study the merchant captain and crew. These are your countrymen, but you’ve never been a real patriot. Your eyes meet with the captain… Reputation: 1d4 1 Reason: 1d8 5 You know him! That’s Quick Jack. You once tried to hire his ship for a herbarium expedition to the wildlands. True to his reputation it took him only a moment to turn you down flat. In hindsight, that was wise of him. Poor Slow Jake. You don’t see any recognition on his face. It’s not surprising, he only met you in person once, you’re thinner than you once were and you’re missing the finery of your station. A quick look at his current goods tells you that he was on his way back to Suleiman. You could try to speak with him, maybe give him a coded message. What do you do? A. Try to talk with him privately. You could learn where you are and get some news. B. Try to slip him a message, promising payment on delivery. To who, and what will you write? Some reasonable recipients: your retainers, your bank, the Gentlemen Explorers, the king. C. Do nothing. He doesn’t recognize you, probably best to keep it that way. D. Write-in
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Jun 9, 2020 20:43
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You feel no desire to contact Fast Jack. You’re exactly where you want to be, forbidden knowledge at your fingertips. You won’t risk that for anything, certainly not your near-defunct House. The pirates finish their looting without incident. They only take a few crates of steel and leave the grain. Silk, wine, and spice are seized, hard-tack and water doesn’t get a glance. They systematically seize firearms, but they’re more haphazard about blades and tools. You hear the sound of triumphant laughter and axes crashing into hardwood, then an ecstatic pirate emerges with a small chest over his head. The ship’s profits in silver and gold. You see Fast Jack’s face fall, but he doesn’t make a move. If he’d managed to slip that past the pirates, he may have still made a profit on the trip as a whole. You decided not to help, so you technically don’t have the right to the spoils. On the other hand, the crew are terrified of you and Abigail, so you doubt they’ll try to stop you. You lost everything but the rags on your back in the shipwreck. Right now you’re wearing a loaned dress from Abigail, it smells of thyme and mold. Do you loot the ship? A. Yes B. No True to his word, the captain leaves Fast Jack with his ship and his life. The pirates have a riotous party to celebrate their latest conquest. The spoils are divided along traditional lines: 1/3 for the captain, 1/3 for the ship, 1/3 for the crew, split again according to their rank. You don’t get anything, but Abigail is treated as a mate. Spirits are very high, this is a good opportunity to get to know them, if you’re inclined. Who do you celebrate with? C. The Captain has thrown a feast with the senior officers, including Betty and Abigail. Your teacher is happy to bring you. D. There’s a more boisterous party below deck, there’s music, heavy drinking, and games of chance with the new ill-gotten gains E. A skeleton crew still needs to manage the ship. They drew the short straws, but they’re still glowing in recent success. F. No one. I spend this time exercising or meditating on the sea as before. Time passes. You have been eating well and dutifully following a solid rehabilitation program, +1 Strength. Abigail is able to help you somewhat with your new abilities, guiding you through the universals of magic. She is unable to help you master them, however. “You’ll need to write the book on this one!” she cackles. It isn’t long before you hit a bottleneck. You can swirl a bowl of water, erode a block of steel, and spook the poo poo out of a “volunteer” just by meeting his eyes. A pod of dolphins followed your ship for bit, very good luck, that, and you could feel their joy. That faded as soon as they were out of sight. There is a vast power in the sea, but you feel like only the surface responds to your will, the depths resist you. You can’t seem to do anything nearly as grand as Abigail taking the wind out of distant sails. “You have a channel now, but you need to widen it. The witch way is to bond a familiar. Loosens up the soul, to share it with another being,” the lizard she hides in her blouse picks out at the mention and tastes the air. “Like all things in magic, there’s more than one path. I can try and knock your soul loose with a potion, let you contact your Source again. But wouldn’t you rather have a fun animal friend?” What do you do? G. Drink the soul knocking potion The remaining votes are to bond a familiar instead. What type? H. A bird (Can aerial scout) I. A sea creature (Can scout the water, can fight with you in the water) J. A small mammal (+1 Quickness) K. A small reptile (+1 Body. Makes you tougher) L. A large mammal (Can fight with you) Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jun 11, 2020 |
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Jun 11, 2020 20:17
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malbogio posted:A A- Loot the ship Loot!: 1d8 5 - Success You confidently stroll unto the merchant's deck. You didn't help take the ship, but neither did the pirates, really. Abigail did all the work, and you have as much right to the loot as any of these scalliwags. You start with clothes. No dresses you can see, just bolts of cloth. You never learned to sew, that's servant work. You quickly abandon the idea of wearing lady's clothes. As a Gentleman Explorer, you know well the wisdom of pants and pockets. The salt encrusted trash on most of these sailors is beneath you, so you slip into the captain's quarters while they celebrate the gold chest and take a fine pair of pantaloons, a fresh shirt, some worn boots, and a long leather jacket. They're all a bit loose, enough that you might pass for a men among the poorly sighted, but they fit well enough to be comfortable. With these clothes you'll fit in better with sailors without sacrificing your dignity. You gained an upper class sailor's outfit! You grin. Looting feels good! Really good! What else do you need? Maybe a weapon? Most of your training has centered on the rapier, but you doubt anyone on the ship has such a noble weapon. You know how to load and operate a firearm, but you're no expert. Besides, they're all in the share pile by now. Your eye catches on the belt dagger of a young surrendered sailor. There's fine floral engraving on the sheath. You take it right off his belt, staring him down when he scowls at you. As you expected, it's solid craftsmanship and well cared for. You gained a good quality dagger! What else? By now the other pirates were tearing up the deck in the faint hope of finding more valuable loot. Seems this honeypot is down to the dregs. You stop and think for a moment. Fast Jack was a clever trader. If he still had something extra squirrled away, where would he put it? On a hunch you go down to the stores and take a look at the hard-tack. Every ship had the stale bread-like food product, but it was near the last thing a sailor was willing to eat, right before boots and then their fellow man. You knock over a barrel and pry at the bottom with your new knife. You're rewarded with black bricks. Pressed opium. You squirrel some away and then alert your fellow pirates that Fast Jack is a drug smuggler. They cheer and smash through the stores with feverish enthusiasm. You gained a brick of opium! You gained some goodwill with the crew! C - Party Party: 1d8+1d8 13 Explode?: 1d10 4 Abigail invites you to the captain's feast and you accept. Makohanna, the tattooed man, serves four courses of Fast Jack's finest food and wine. At first your reception is cold and you fear Betty will knock your teeth out at every word. That is, until the captain breaks out the opium. As an aristocrat and adventurer, you are no stranger to the wonderful drug. It would put a raging bull into a stupor, for Betty it takes the edge off. Soon you're delighting everyone with slurred tales of adventure and discovery. You're not the only person willing to share in this relaxed environment. For the first time, you learn a bit about the pirate ship and it's leadership. You can't believe you went more than a month without learning the captain's name! Captain Theodore Iordanou - Captain of the Smiling Stranger claims to be the scion of a noble house. You've never heard of them, so either they're very minor or fictional. Claims he was educated at the National University of Suleiman. He was not, you know because you were educated there and you keep a list of Alumni. He advocates for sustainable piracy. Abigail Iordanou - Skilled witch. Claims she was once a beautiful lady who secretly used her powers to secure her husband's place in the New Anthen Court. They prospered for many years, until a curse backfired and took her beauty. She was imprisoned by her husband, who announced she'd died of the pox and took a new wife. When her grandson discovered the family secret, he broke her free and took to the sea. Her story sounds a lot like a fairy-tale, and she laughs inappropriately as she tells it. Betty aka "Backbreaker Betty" - First Mate & Bosun. Once captained her own ship, the Scourge. Won't share the tale of what happened to it. Will share the gruesome tale of the stupid woman who asked too many personal questions. Two Eyed Pim - Second Mate & Quartermaster. Says the Stranger and its original crew were his, before Abigail put a curse on him. If he betrays them his skin will melt off his flesh. That was a long time ago, and they're all friends now. It's water under the bridge. Definitely. Adul Alafa- Gunner - Spins a wild tale about being rescued from savages in the Wildlands. Makohanna - Cook - Has not shared his story. You've gained significant goodwill with the senior officers! +1 Mood G - Drink the Soul Knocking potion (Quite an upset!) Abigail laughs and rolls her eyes when you go with the potion. It's clear she wanted you to get a familiar, like her. Her path is well-tread, however, and you prefer virgin territory. As far as you know, no one has discovered the abilities you now wield. She spends the day brewing up your potion. The main ingredient is a stinky mushroom that she handles with great care. Then, to your surprise, she has the ship drop anchor at a small atoll. She tells a pair of sailors to row you out and then leave you there. She has you strip, drink the potion, and lay in the surf. Soon you loose all sense of your own body, you can feel your awareness merge with the waves crashing against the island. You spread out along the surface, and you feel luminous ocean as it touches dark spots of empty land across the whole chain. Then you sink deeper again, to the crushing heart of the sea. It still refuses to bend to your miniscule will. But you feel something else there, a great beast resting in the depths. You see a vast toothy maw flash in the darkness, then many enormous eyes. You connect to it, like you did with the dolphins. A vast intelligence touches your mind. Tendrils of thought probe at you, measuring. First you see yourself on a great throne made of shifting darkness, but that image quickly fades. Another asserts itself, of a ruined city under the sea and at its center a dome covered in glowing glyphs. Within the dome, safe from the sea's destruction, you see a library. Your perspective shifts again, to a casket wrapped in four chains. One chain shatters, and the dome floats gently to the surface. You follow the four chains, and as you do they seem impossibly long and immaterial. They stretch across the known world. You flash to the end of the first chain, to a temple in a wild jungle, far to the east. Another is closer, in an underground tomb. The third goes north, and you recognize the Royal Scepter of New Anthens. You know it's an artifact of Ancient Anthenia, and a major component of their claim to the Anthenian legacy. You are intimately familiar with the last chain. You spent a lot of time in the Suleiman Museum. You see the Gem of Arkas in its display case. As the visions fade, you feel one last thought tendril guide you back to your body. Silvery power suffuses you, a gift from your new friend. First post updated with a character list. Character sheet updated. You have gained another level in Chosen One! +1 Magic +4 Herald of the Deep History Vampiric Trait. When you deal harm to others, either magical or physical, you can heal damage. If your health is full, gain +1 mood. Abyssal Magic has upgraded 1. What are your plans for the "chains?" A. Go after one of the chains B. Ignore the creature's offer 2. What are your plans for the pirates? C. Ingratiate yourself with the pirates and learn everything you can from Abigail. Become a respected member of the crew, until you can steer them where you want to go. You expect this will mean several years of living the pirate's life. D. Mutiny. Take the ship as your own as part of a well-laid plan. E. Leave the pirates when you have a good opportunity. Make your own way. F. Write-in Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Jun 14, 2020 |
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Jun 14, 2020 01:01
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AC is unanimous You cough up salt water as Abigail pulls you from the surf. She starts a fire with one of those new alchemical sparkers and entertains you with a story from her youth, something about a poisoned apple. You’re not really listening. Whatever that thing was, it wants you to break some very valuable things. The library it offered was worth infinitely more. You can’t imagine anyone parting with the gem or scepter willingly. The other two are so remote you’d need a full expedition. As a guest on the Stranger you can’t chart their course, and you doubt they’d see the profit in going after any of them. If you were home, you could mortgage what remains of your family’s estate and hire one last ship. But then you’d have to stop learning magic from Abigail, and she has so much left to teach. She’s right, there’s no better place to be a witch than a pirate ship. You can practice illegal magic openly, without fear of being traced and without magical interference. You smile at her as she mimics a young woman going comatose. Your parents died when you were young, leaving only their vast fortune to keep you company. You were raised by nursemaids and tutors. She’s treated you right since the moment you met her. Gained an Inspiration: Loyalty to Abigail (1) You’ll need to take it slow, then. Study magic and become a trusted member of the senior crew. When the time is right, convince them to go after one of the chains with you. --- You step back on the deck with new eyes. You can’t do anything about the crew’s fear, but you also can’t keep pretending to be a wraith. You start by helping Abigail with her more mundane tasks, like brewing cures for sailor’s ills. You practice your magical precision by scouring the deck clean without harming the tar. You also convince the captain to let you help with navigation. He’s a fair hand at it, but you’re a true expert. It isn’t long before you’re treated like a proper mate. You helped chart the course, so your destination is no surprise. It’s still an impressive sight: the great city of Alexia, the trade hub of the vast Nabash Court, breadbasket of the world. You spot the Watchtower first, its eternal flame rising high above the city of marble. The grand double-docks stretch before you, one side holding lines of warships, the other bustling with trade. The captain steers confidently for the trade docks. A quick application of paint renamed the Stranger to the Magnificent, and its one unremarkable ship among hundreds in Alexia’s enormous docks. It’s a calculated risk. There are so many ships coming in every day, it’s easy to hide in the crowd and turn over your loot. On the other hand, if you’re discovered as pirates in port, there’s no escape. A bombardment here would turn your ship to dust in seconds. The captain offers up some stolen papers and a perfunctory bribe, and you make it past the first hurdle. Most of the crew will be taking shore leave. There’s no point in all the pillaging if you can’t spend it. The senior officers plan to enjoy themselves too, but they also have shore duties. You have no assigned duties, and the captain has generously fronted you an officer’s share of the ship’s profits. What do you do? You have gained 300 Silver Pieces. Not literally, it’s a mixed bag of coins that add up to 300 silver. This is several years of earnings for a laborer, a month for a skilled artisan, or a fun day for an aristocrat like you. Pick two. There will be follow up choices or actions depending on what wins. No need to write in what you want to buy at the market, for example. A. The captain needs to sell his stolen loot. The opium in particular is high profit but hard to offload. He’s taking Betty as backup, but could use one more. B. Abigail needs to restock on alchemical supplies. Most of it is black market. She might be a terror on the sea, but you fear the old woman is much more vulnerable here in a crowded city. She could use an escort. C. Two-Eyed Pim is the quartermaster, and he always handles the mundane purchases that keep the ship running. It’s a big job and you could help him. D. The Gentlemen Explorers have a prominent Lodge here. You’re a respected member. You might be able to find rare maps, restricted knowledge, or skilled help with flexible morals. If you’re lucky, a friend willing to lend you money or high quality equipment will be there. E. The Great Archives are in Alexia. You only have access to the first floor, but it’s still the largest library in the world. You’re also a pirate, so maybe you don’t care so much about where you’re allowed to go anymore. F. You are very well known and liked among scholars. The University of Alexia is second rate compared to the National University, but it’s large and reputable. You could hire someone for an obscure research task without rising too many eyebrows. G. You could send a letter from here to your retainers. If you can convince them of your identity, they can send you back identifying documents and bank notes, granting you access to what remains of your liquid assets. The ship won’t wait the requisite months for this exchange of letters, but if you do this now you might have a lot more money waiting for you when you get back. H. You go shopping on your own in the open markets. This is among the busiest trade cities in the world, you can find anything legal in these markets. I. You go shopping on your own in the black markets. You can find almost anything illegal in this city as well, if you know where to look. J. This is a time to relax and enjoy yourself. Most of the crew are enjoying themselves at seedy bars and whorehouses. You’re a fine lady and would not stoop to such things. You go to a high class pleasure club. Totally different. K. Makohanna is staying on the ship, someone has to. You stay with him for a while and watch for trouble. L. Write-in. It’s a big city, and there are a lot of thing you can do. Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Jun 16, 2020 |
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Jun 16, 2020 21:45
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Azhais posted:B Abigail eyeballs you when you try to escort her, "you think I'm some helpless old bag? I can wrastle Betty, good as you!" she cackles, then suddenly stops, "wait. You didn't even try it. Cheat." She shakes her head in mock disappointment. You grin at her, "I know you'll be fine, but what will I do without the brilliant light of your wisdom? Besides, a proper witch should know alchemy too! The guilds keep their secrets close, yet you're a master alchemist in addition to your many other talents." She takes one last bustling inventory of her cabin, "Magic and Potion Brewing are the prevailing winds of witchery. Some use only one or the other, but a proper master knows both. These days, they call brewing 'alchemy.' It's a foolish affectation, trying to lift it from its roots," she pauses and considers for a moment, "though I suppose calling it potion brewing is no better. It ain't a potion if I'm rubbing it on a wart, or lighting a stick of incense. Not proper brewing either. Whatever you call it, it's natural magic. You're just bringing out what's already in the plant or beast. Don't have to be soulbound, and if it explodes on you, blame your ignorance. It's why the guilds survive the inquisition." A quick change of clothes and a strategic shawl transforms Abigail from an obvious witch to a slightly witchy grandma, it will have to do, but you're still worried. The Inquisition has always maintained a strong presence in Alexia, in no small part due to mutual antagonism with the Roja. So far, fear of the Owl has kept them from taking the archives, but they've been increasingly belligerent about any restricted knowledge coming out of them. If they knew who Abigail was, they'd hold a city-wide festival after her burning. Setting them aside, the White Guard were a threat to any black market dealings. You heard a lot about their reforms from a simple garrison to a 'modern police force.' Those dogs would happily enforce the Guild's monopoly, they know who throws them their scraps. "We're going to meet a friend of mine in the local Guild supply chain. We could collect most of what we need from the food market, herbal shops, garden supplies, drug dealers, and the jungle. I've done it a time or two, but I'm too old to bother. We don't need bits and pieces here and there when some jingle in the right pocket will get us the whole collection sitting in some Guild warehouse." You make your way through bustling docks and crowded markets. The shouting vendors slowly give way to fancy glass storefronts protected by glaring guards, and then to large, boxy buildings with tiny signs out front. It's a long walk, and you only grow more nervous as you an Abigail lose the protection of the crowds. Finally you reach your destination, an imposing building with "alchemical supply" on a tiny bronze plate next to its huge doors. The old woman strolls in to the bare reception area, thankfully there are no other customers. Reason: 1d8 1 Herald of the Deep: 1d10 9 The clerk's face flickers when he sees Abigail. You have no idea what that means, though he settles quickly on a pleased smile. Abigail smiles back, "hey slick, been a while. I got a list here with what I need. Oh, and throw in a beginners set. Need to break in my new apprentice!" You tune out their dickering over price. Something is very wrong. You can't tell what exactly, but you can feel it. Like there's a riptide about to pull you down. What do you do? A. Play it cool, keep an eye out B. Try to give Abigail a subtle warning C. Shout a warning D. Grab Abigail and RUN E. Confront the clerk about the... Something. He knows what he did! F. Write in
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Jun 19, 2020 21:48
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Confront the clerk wins in another upset! Intimidate Charisma: 1d6 3 Intimidate Herald: 1d10 10 Explode?: 1d12 12 EXPLODE?: 1d20 20 Something is wrong and you don't know what it is. You do know it's nothing obvious, but this prick gave Abigail a funny look when you came in. You step between them and stare him right in the eye, "what did you do!?" He startles and you can see the wheels turning as he holds your gaze. Then his eyes widen like a trapped doe, "I'm... I'm so sorry. I see now. The Deep calls and I answer..." His voice drifts down to a whisper. Over a long moment, you see him go completely slack, then straighten again. When he speaks again, his eyes are fire, and his voice steel. "This front is a honeypot now. I already triggered the alarm, it rings a bell in the adjoining building. White Guard will be here in seconds. I can hide you in the back." Abigail sneers at the man, but for the moment her rage at the betrayal is weaker than her curiosity as her eyes flicker between you, "I'd take his eyes for this. But... I think he's yours now." You know he is. You're not sure how you did that, but you can feel him radiate absolute devotion. You have gained your first Thrall.  You squat in a crate while your Thrall fast talks the guards into thinking it was a false alarm. Ten minutes later, you're back where you were. Except the clerk's face is a picture of adoring worship. "How can I serve you? Please, I... I must serve you as best I can. I just don't know how. I will provide all that you asked, and more. My life savings are yours. I could steal more! So much more! We could empty this place! It's so clear now, how little it matters. Or does it? I could move up. I see now, it's so easy when your sight is clear! Some hard work here, some poison there. I think, no I know, I could give you the guild! Do you want it? If you don't, I could go with you! Serve you! Kill and die for you! Tell me what to do. Please command me!" What do you want him to do? He will do literally anything in his power and serve you with absolute loyalty and obedience. This vote is in addition to giving you what supplies he can easily sneak out for free. A. Burn his Guild membership and everyone he knows to give you a large amount of money, rare alchemical ingredients, and secret Guild texts on alchemy. B. Same as A, but he'll leave with you. C. Work in the Alexia Alchemists Guild as your agent. He will try to position himself to help you as much as possible. He can provide fewer immediate rewards, but he will give you sustainable funds and ingredients, and you can burn him later for much more than he can access now. There is some risk that he'll be caught. D. Nothing, I refuse to take advantage of this strange mental bondage. E. Write in. Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 01:34 on Jun 23, 2020 |
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Jun 23, 2020 01:30
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Blasphemaster posted:
You grin at your new thrall, pleased to have a mind-slave of your very own. The first of many, no doubt. You don't know how exactly you enthralled him, but you now know you have that capability. Sadly, he wasn't a prominent alchemist. Manning the warehouse is no doubt grunt work given to less promising junior members.They'd pawn it off on an apprentice or hired help if there weren't so many dangerous substances involved. You glance down at his name plate. "I'm glad to hear you're so committed to the cause Ezio! Give me what you can now without endangering your own prospects for promotion. Then seek to improve your position so you can help me further. I have an interest in the deeper secrets, you must gain access to them. Work hard, move quickly, but remember that you are no good to me dead or imprisoned. If you are discovered by the Inquisition or otherwise feel as though your existence puts me at greater risk than potential benefit, kill yourself." He smiles and bows, "yes, brilliant. The moment I am more hindrance than help, I will cease to be. I can arrange for a delivery of our finest tools and supplies without much risk. Please, also, take my savings. I will keep some for bribes and study aids, but I no longer feel any need for the luxuries that once enslaved me. I have a higher purpose now. Is there anything else I can do for you while you're here?" You have gained: - A large supply of common and somewhat rare alchemical ingredients - A masterwork set of alchemy tools - A full set of introductory alchemy textbooks - 1500 silver pieces 1. Do you have any further orders? Ezio is your faithful servant in Alexia and there are many things he could do for you without much risk. A. Shop for you in the open markets. You now have a good sum of money, very few possessions and this is a good place to spend it. Write in general terms what you want and give him a budget. Some options: Adventuring equipment, navigation equipment, scholarly tools, weapons and armor, books, clothing suitable to your station, luxuries suitable to your station. B. Shop for you in the black markets. There's always danger looking for illegal goods, he could take on that risk for you! Write in general terms what you want and give him a budget. Some options: Banned books, magical equipment, drugs. C. Look for news and rumors. Alexia is a bustling city and it's one of the better places to learn what's going on in the world. He can spend his time finding gathering information, then distill it into an executive report for you. D. Write in. You had incredible good fortune helping Abigail resupply, but it wasn't the only thing you wanted to do in the city. You still have a day free while the pirates nurse their hangovers. You decide to spend it at the Great Archives, Alexia's most famous institution. It's not hard to find, you can see the softly glowing Roost from anywhere in the city. Only the glaring flame of the Watchtower overshadows it. At night, red flame and gold glow compete, symbolic of the more mundane cold war between Inquisitor and Monk on the ground. You join the river of scholars and tourists on Enlightenment Road, glad that your stolen clothes don't stick out too much. You feel a spike of hear as Enlightenment Road meets the White Wall. Thankfully, the gates were open and the Hunting Parties restrained themselves to menacing glares at anyone who dared learn things. You can't help but steal a few too many glances at your opposition. You'd always been ideologically opposed to the Inquisition, but now they'd burn this city to ashes to catch you in the inferno. A traditional Hunting Party had seven very well trained killers. Two parties watched the front gate. You count four paladins out front in their shining armor. Four more sharpshooters stood elevated on the wall, wielding traditional longbows they'd trained years to master. Two grenadiers sat behind them, talking their trade. You don't see the assassins, but that was the point. They'd be with the crowd in plain clothes. Finally, the inquisitors. One was stocky and well muscled, the other thin and rat-faced. Both dressed in all white robes. You quickly look away when rat-face's sharp eyes glare towards you. Rumor was, the inquisitors could smell magic. Well, one of many rumors. You keep your head down and make it through the wall. It's like stepping into another world. Visitors congregate around the open air lecturing forums, where monks expound on nature, physics, history, and culture. You want to linger, but you're not yet even in the Great Archives, and there are only so many hours in a day. The Archives is a massive building divided into three distinct tiers. The first floor is the largest and open to all. If you were being pedantic you'd note that it's more accurately three floors linked by open staircases in the center. The main feature of the first floor is the open library. You'd die of old age before you managed to read all the books on those endless shelves. There's also reading room, and for a modest fee you could get any book on the first floor copied. The monks work impossibly fast. Literally, impossibly. You did the math. They're tight lipped about it, but you suspect divine magic is involved. A thick seven story tall tower rose up from the first tier. Those were the restricted sections, available only to monks and select scholars. Those floors were an open sore for the Inquisition. It was well known that in those sections the monks preserved, and even shared, banned books that could be found nowhere else. Above the restricted tower rose a thin spire. Only monks were allowed that high, and only they know what it contains. The Roost glowed from the top of the spire. You say a quick prayer when your gaze reaches it. No need to disrespect the Glowing Owl, Living God of Knowledge. It was only Roja's protection that kept the Inquisition at bay. 2. You're at the Great Archives! What do you want to do? A. There's a lot to learn in the open library. Look for stories, poems, and historical texts that might teach you about the Chains. This is the least dangerous but also least fruitful option B. A, but convince a monk to help in the search. It could go a lot quicker with their aid, but you'd need to be careful about what you tell them C. Convince a monk to grant you access to relevant restricted sections D. Sneak into the restricted sections E. Sneak higher, try to find out what's in the spire. F. Sneak even higher, try to talk to Roja G. Write in
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Jun 28, 2020 20:13
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Higher budgets with fewer items means he'll look for higher quality items. Very high quality armor will look better, be more durable, fit better, and stand up to better weapons. But it's not magic, and most people who aren't rich as hell think the difference between good enough and a true masterwork is pretty small. Do you need the $12,000 couch, or are you just throwing money away when the $500 one sits fine? This is a very good market though, and if you're really willing to pay though the nose you might get something made of exotic materials that really can stand up to things that would shred cow leather.
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Jun 29, 2020 02:10
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You're a passable swordswoman. You were trained in rapier and pistol dueling. You know the "swashbuckling" style, which is derived from court dueling but taught with a more improvisational/self defense focus. You're no match for your fencing master though, and would not do well in a tournament. A paladin would bisect you in a straight fight. You can fight in light armor but nothing heavier. The kind of armor you're most familiar with is layered cloth used for training, but you can get used to leather.
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Jun 29, 2020 06:55
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Kristopher posted:1. 1400 silver to buy stylish leather armor, a rapier, and a parrying dagger. You gave Ezio your order. He frowns seriously when you repeat that you want stylish armor. It seems you’ve given him a difficult task, but he’ll try his best. B = Get help looking in the open library. Persuade Charisma: 1d6 1 Reputation: Patron of the Sciences: 1d6 6 Explode?: 1d8 6 There's a bunch of rolls here but they're all just looking for explosions and none are worth showing. Your Inspiration adds your heart die, maximizes your highest die, and lowers difficulty by 1. That's 8 + 2 with help vs. 5. So you auto-succeed but it's not an extraordinary success. I didn't want to guide you guys too much with system mastery hints, but keep in mind that any action to discover knowledge gets massive bonuses, which means you can very safely do risky things in the name of research. The only option that wasn't a guaranteed win was trying to ascend all the way to the top and speak to Roja. You decide not to risk the restricted sections when you haven’t exhausted the open library. Sorting through the vast collection on your own could take years you don’t have. You need a monk. You stroll to the information desk and give the brown-robed monk your most winning smile. Then you tap the desk. Then you slam the desk. He finally looks up from his book and takes in your sailing outfit, clearly unimpressed, “bathrooms down the hall on the left.” You try to contain your rage at his condescending tone, “Thanks, but I’ll admire the plumbing later. I’m looking for information on some artifacts, likely Ancient Anthenian in origin. One is confirmed as…” “Anthenian archaeology is in section B4 and G6.” He immediately looks back down at the book, and you consider skewering him. Maybe you could make him a mind slave? You’re interrupted from your musings by the voice of a peppy woman, “By Roja! Lady Andorai, is that you? What happened to your expedition?” You instantly recognize the rotund middle aged woman in yellow monk’s robes. Soraya Lajani, one of the world’s foremost scholars on the legacy of the Anthenian empire. You met at a conference two years ago and hit it off immediately. You go with a measured response, “delayed and diverted after some trouble at sea. I’m sorry, but Sir Omondi died during the journey. I believe he was affiliated with the Order?” Her smile fades and she nods, “I’ll inform the council. We all know the risks of long expeditions.” You continue, “the only salvage from the trip is some clues to potential new occupation sites. An underground tomb in…” You take a wild guess based on your vision, “The edge of southern Habash? Well past the great desert. And a temple somewhere in the Savage lands.” Her smile creeps back as she considers, “I wouldn’t be surprised about the tomb, there are sites from the second expansion littered across Habash. Magistrates would be entombed locally with high honors. You understand that ‘southern Habash’ is more land than the whole Suleiman court? Even the well-travelled are often surprised by the sheer size of our nation. Here at the northern tip, we’re far closer to your capital than to our own. I can show you a map of all the currently known Anthenian tombs and burial records, maybe that will help? Are you sure about the other site? The Savage Lands were never occupied, I think that’s why they’re ‘savage.’ We recognize each other as civilized because we share remnants of the same occupation. The Anthenians weren’t much for temples either, as you know they rejected the Living Gods as pretenders to the true divinity they believed could be found among the stars…” You’re not sure if all the chains are connected to ancient Anthenia. Only the scepter is certain, but you need to start somewhere. For the rest of the day she enthusiastically helps you in your search. You check her database of Habash sites, but only so you know where not to look. You’re certain the tomb was undisturbed. The image from your vision comes to you easily, and in a moment of brilliance you realize that you can identify the stone used in its construction. A quick consult on geology in southern Habash and you narrow things down to the province now known as Herero. You have less success with the temple in the Savage Lands. Soraya confirms that the Great Archives just don’t have enough information about the lands that far East. You’d need a local guide. You move on to the two artifacts in your vision. You know exactly where they are, and don’t want to plan the heist of the century with Soraya following you, but you’re interested in their providence. You discuss the scepter with Soraya. She seems uncomfortable at first, “It’s passed down as a symbol of royal authority in New Anthenia, so of course it’s Anthenian… You’re not going to get, you know, political, are you?” After some assurances, she opens up, “It, well, it’s definitely Anthenian. But I really don’t think it’s a Royal artifact. The Anthenians were colonizers from somewhere across the Endless Sea. New Anthenia is the site of their first landing, sure, I’ll buy that. But there’s no evidence that their royal family ever settled anywhere pre-Cataclysm. Why would they, when they have a nation of their own to manage? It’s always magistrates, and the traditional sign of magisterial authority is a thin gold crown of thorns like most Kings wear. The New Anthenian crown isn’t special. The scepter was a prominent object at the time, we have murals in multiple sites depicting it. Those murals don’t show it in the hands of kings. If anything the engravings show it’s a tool…” She glances around conspiratorially, “a magic tool. Upstairs we have reproductions of all the murals, and the scepter is always shooting beams of light at sea monsters. The Inquisition says it’s not magical. Personally, I think it’s just missing something, like a bow without a string.” She has very little to say about the Gem of Arkas, “It’s a big pretty rock. Some say the biggest and prettiest. Could it be Anthenian? I don’t know, someone had the mine it out and pretty it up, I guess. I’m not aware of any evidence either way.” You know it was discovered inside the stump of an oak tree, already cut. Suleiman razed Arkas forest looking for more ‘tree gems’ but never found anything else. Soraya is happy to keep researching in your absence. She believes the tomb in Herero is promising and she’d be overjoyed to find another new archaeological site. 1. What do you do about your archaeologist friend? A. Encourage her to keep researching on her own. Over time she might be able to narrow it down further. She’s likely to publish whatever she finds and this could kick up a dig. B. Encourage her, and give her some money to bring in a research team. C. Discourage her from doing more research without you. D. Write in. 2. You have some time in the library. Is there anything you want to ask or look up?
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Jul 2, 2020 03:37
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Persuade Charisma: 1d6+1d8 4 "Can I look at those murals myself?" She smiles politely but shakes her head, "they're highly restricted. I'm sorry, but things are a bit heated with the inquisition and I'm afraid if they heard we were showing people images that glorified magic they would start kidnapping people at the gate."
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Jul 2, 2020 05:40
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malbogio posted:A. I wouldn't mind the assistance. Maybe we can subvert the expedition or rob the archeologists later. You order some books of interest while you're here. The scribes take them to the basement where they do... Something. They'll have copies ready by the end of the day. She's can read the language herself, and she recommends you a textbook she wrote on Ancient Anthenian translation. Most of these are replacements for books you already had, but they're worth reviewing. She warns you that much of what's "known" about the Ancient Anthenians is up for debate. The cataclysm represents a black period in history with only a scattering of ruins and oral legends. The current date is 244 AC. Most people think that's After Cataclysm, but as a "I wouldn't worry about anything mundane. All that's left is stone, and if they built mechanical traps in the other tombs, they'd be dust by now. There's little evidence that they even had locks besides basic latches. People often misunderstand the Athenians, they think that because they had such a huge, dominant empire that they were an advanced people. Technologically, they were shockingly primitive. Their empire relied heavily on magic to deal with problems that we've long since solved using only the power of clever thinking. You know they didn't even have sails? Yet they crossed the Endless Sea! I believe they used some kind of spatial doorways to connect their colonies. There's no direct evidence of it, but I can't see any other way they could have managed the logistics and moved their forces so rapidly. If there's danger in the tomb, it will be magical. I... Shouldn't advise you on how to deal with those kinds of problems. You're required by the Accords to let the Inquisition explore and purge any new sites as soon as they're discovered. Only they are supposed to know what magical dangers a new tomb could contain." -20 Silver + Collection of texts on Ancient Anthenian language and culture.
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Jul 2, 2020 07:54
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Bob Tuskins posted:C I was a bit discouraged to only get two votes, but I think it's because I quoted a vote along with a question/free action and that probably signaled that he'd won and voting was over. Sorry, I hadn't rolled for votes yet. I rolled a 1d2 and 1 was the winner, so that's Bob with C: Discourage her from pursuing this on her own. ‘Thanks for all the help!” you give her a genuinely warm smile, “but…” “But I’m just a librarian doing my job, not a full collaborator, and you’d appreciate it if I didn’t snipe your research for myself? I understand completely,” She smiles and nods professionally, “Next time you’re in town, I’d love to discuss your work further, and we’d appreciate a copy of your manuscript once you’re ready to publish...” She looks around and leans in conspiratorially, “I’d appreciate it even more if you can get us a draft before its official.” She doesn’t have to say more. You know that the inquisition would want both first crack at the tomb and they’d want to censor anything you write on it. The Archives would put a pre-censored draft in their restricted sections and an official copy in the open library. Not that you have any intention of giving anything to the inquisition. It’s well after sunset when you finally leave the library, a sack of books on Ancient Anthenia in tow, and head back to your ship. It’s been a productive shore leave. +2 Mood for learning new things and spending a day in the library! You love that stuff. You are at 4/6 Mood. Perception: 1d8 7 You’re one of the last scholar to leave the Archives before they close the gates. The stream of visitors has turned to a trickle. You keep a careful eye on the Inquisition hunters, and you notice the skinny inquisitor’s eyes flash quickly to you and then away again. He scratches his nose and looks up at a rooftop. You carefully follow his gaze and notice a shadow drop down into an alley. Moments later, a plain woman strolls out a bit in front of you. You hear the heavy, clanking footsteps of a paladin behind you. 1. It’s clear the Inquisition plans to intercept you, with an assassin in front and a paladin behind. What do you do? A. Play it cool, think really hard about how you’re a law abiding citizen with nothing to hide. This is just a routine stop and frisk, isn’t it? B. gently caress it, RUN! You can easily outrun the paladin in his heavy armor and you’ve noticed the assassin. Dive down the opposite alley and shake them. C. gently caress them, FIGHT! Use the Swashbuckling style. You don’t have a sword or armor, you’re supposed to meet your thrall with the goods tonight, but you do have your stolen knife. A full hunting party will gently caress YOU UP. You’re no match for just the paladin. But you might be able to charge the assassin, wound her, and then escape from the slower paladin. D. NO, gently caress THEM!!!! Fight with Abyssal Magic. You haven’t used it in real combat, but you believe it’s incredibly potent. Destroy them body and soul with terrible power. You know the inquisition’s primary purpose is hunting and killing sorcerers, but there really aren’t enough sorcerers left to occupy them. Most Inquisitors have never seen a real witch. They’ve re-focused on ‘prevention’ i.e. censorship and harassment. Maybe this hunting party can’t handle the real deal anymore? E. Use Abyssal magic more creatively. Write in how. F. Don’t use magic, but do something else creative. Write in.
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Jul 6, 2020 23:19
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Kristopher posted:Since Abyssal magic includes both madness and abomination as part of its nature, would it be possible to drive the paladin behind us to very publicly commit some serious sacrilege? With everyone distracted with that, using the moment of to get the advantage, rush down the assassin and then get out of there. It's definitely possible to try, that kind of thing is well within Abyssal magic's domain.
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Jul 6, 2020 23:45
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Cannon_Fodder posted:Can we do a knowledge check? Worst case they have a way to detect magic and you triggered it. Best case they're just harassing people coming out of the gate because they don't like the Archives and you've been randomly targeted. You don't have anything illegal on you. The worst thing you have is a bag of books on Ancienth Anthenia. That's not illegal, but it might be provocative. The alchemy stuff is being loaded on your ship, supervised by Abigail.
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Jul 7, 2020 18:56
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Bob Tuskins posted:E. I want to try to dominate one or both of them. Play it just like last time, forcefully demand to know why they are following us. Start with whichever reaches us first. You are a member of the nobility and do not deserve this kind of harassment! You’ll make these arrogant fools pay for this! You spin around and stare the paladin down. You’re met with an impassive metal mask, you can barely make out narrowed eyes past the protective slits. It’s a hard trick to look down at him, he’s a mountain of gleaming metal so you have to tilt your head pretty far back. “I would know why you’re accosting a lady of the seven courts!” you sneer. He hesitates, then closes the distance. You try to keep a sidelong eye on the assassin, for now she’s leaning casually on the wall and watching. She’s keeping her cover, assuming you haven’t noticed her for what she is. “The inquisition’s mission transcends all earthly status, ma’am. If you are found innocent and would like to file a complaint, you may do so at the Watchtower. For now, my inquisitor would like a word with you,” he roughly seizes your arm and starts dragging you back to the wall. “How dare you!” you screech. The gall! You hold his eyes again, but this time you draw on your power. It would be so delicious to make this thug submit to you, just like that clerk! He stiffens, and you see confusion in his eyes for a moment. Then he shakes his head and drags you again. “I’m… I’m sorry ma’am. I don’t…. I have to do my duty. My duty. It’s important. I’m protecting the world.” There’s very little authority in his voice, it sounds more like he’s talking to himself. Dominating Gaze: 1d8 5 Mechanics note: You don’t know how to dominate permanently (you may learn eventually, but it’s beyond your power at the moment unless you get very lucky), but you can try to do it temporarily. 4 base, +2 difficulty for a disciplined mind. This is a minor failure, so he resists and you’re in a worse position, but he does not recognize it as a mental invasion. Shout out to Malbogio for voting with a !. If failure isn’t an option, you’ll want to put ! in your vote so you spend resources on succeeding. 1. You’re being manhandled by the paladin who is dragging you to the wall. The assassin is following at a distance. He is slightly befuddled. What do you do? A. Well, you’re along for the ride now. Let him bring you back to the inquisitor and try to talk your way out. B. Run! This will be harder now, you’ll need to slip the paladin and juke the assassin C. Fight! This will also be harder. You might be able to throw the paladin, or slip a knife between the plates? Your fighting style relies on freedom of movement and won’t help you much from this position. You'll need to rely on raw strength or speed. D. Fight with magic! You can use it just fine from this position, though you’ll only have one shot to take down the paladin before things get messy. E. Something clever with magic! They didn’t recognize it last time. If anyone here can detect magic, it’s the inquisitor. You’re being dragged closer to him, but he’s lounging at the wall a distance away. Write in. F. Something clever without magic! You’re a smart lady, maybe there’s still a way to get out of this? Write in.
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Jul 9, 2020 20:21
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You have to get away. Even if he couldn't out you as a witch immediately, you just performed some botched mind magic on his thug. Even without magic detection, anyone with half a brain could tell something's off about him. He still seems a bit out of it, even as he drags you away. Maybe you can use that to your advantage? "Unhand me!" you yell, digging in your heels and tugging at your arm. He's strong enough to carry you bodily, but you feel him hesitate. "I'm a proper lady, I'll go with you," you lie, "but let me walk with dignity." Slowly, you can feel his grip loosen. You take a few steps with him and straighten out your clothes... And you're gone! You shoot off with all the speed you can muster, dignity utterly abandoned! The paladin tries to grab you again, boots striking the ground furiously and long legs propelling him faster than you thought possible. You're unburdened, and you have the energy of desperation, so your headstart slowly lengthens. With a frustrated hiss, the plain woman moves to intercept you. This is the moment of truth. She's, well, she's faster than you. There's no denying it as bursts from her repose like a hunting cat. Even if she weren't, she only needs to slow you for a second before a wall of steel crashes on top of you. You meet her cold eyes. You have one advantage: you need it more. An image of your teacher flashes through your mind, just before you meet the assassin. You can't get caught. Not here. At the last moment you juke left and put all your strength in a brutal stiff arm, right to her face. Her arms try to close for your waist, but with a scream of exertion you push off her, and her fingers fail to find purchase. She falls, and both opponents are behind you! She'll be on her feet in seconds, but it's enough to dash to the alley and topple some boxes as you pass. You spare a glance back and... Oh no! The knight slows over the boxes, but the assassin leaps over man and obstacle like a monkey. She'll be on you, fast! Your lungs burn as you sprint through the alley. You feel something hit your back and you stumble, but you push forward. You lunge for the light, even as you feel slick blood dripping down your back. As you burst out of the alleyway, you find yourself on a main thoroughfare. It's evening, but not too late, so there are still plenty of people. You scream bloody murder. The burly gentlemen closest to you see a woman with a knife sticking out of her back, running for her life. They see another woman in plain clothes right behind her, knives drawn. They do not see the paladin in inquisition regalia still running through the alley. Thank every god, those heroes make the snap decision to protect you. You just keep running and you don't look back. You take one random turn, then another. You duck into a high class clothing shop, panting for breath and dripping blood, and wave some silver around. You walk out in a traditional desert dress, favored by Nabash noblewomen. It's wonderfully concealing. You overpayed, hoping that the extra silver will buy the shopkeep's discretion. Your journey back to the ship is otherwise uneventful. That was... harrowing. You have no doubt that the inquisition would torture you to death if they'd caught you. You review what they know. You told them you were a lady, but not which court. You never gave them your name. You weren't wearing distinctive clothes. They might be able to sketch your face, but the lighting was bad and you hope the paladin's head was scrambled enough that he can't recall you well. You doubt anyone at the archives will cooperate. If they do manage to make an accurate sketch, many scholars, merchants, or nobles could identify you. You didn't confirm you're a witch, so perhaps they won't expend that kind of effort? You'll just have to keep your head down and hope this blows over. You spent 2 mood in your escape. You lost 2 Body. You have 3/5 Body. You bought a traditional Habash dress for 200 silver pieces  Ezio meets you on the ship. He looks tired, but proud, as he displays your new weapons and armor. You inspect the items. You had him spend enough to purchase a nice cottage, almost his life savings, but oh the results! You start with the matched rapier and parrying dagger. They're excellent work, no doubt forged with a noble like you in mind. You balance them in your hand, and they feel good. The steel is strong and sharp. The hilt and cross-guard are beautiful. There are finer blades in the world, divine relics and true masterworks, but a prince would still be proud to wear these weapons at court. You nod. They make an acceptable replacement for your old weapons, lost at sea.  Then he displays your armor. He took your insistence on style to heart. The design is light and feminine, with floral engravings and a flattering cut. At first you're disappointed as you lift it. It's leather, sure, but too light and thin to be real armor. Then you inspect the material more closely and softly whistle, "is this...?" Ezio grins, "drake leather, the finest money can buy. It doesn't need to be thick when it's a hundred times stronger than cow skin, and the thin material allows for more creative designs. There's not much that can cut through drake leather. But what about blunt strikes, you ask? It's reinforced with a lattice of silksteel that redistributes blunt force! It's been alchemically treated too! Water, rockbane acid, blackfire, electrical surges, it all just slides off!" It sounds like he's quoting the sales pitch, but you have to admit it's an excellent piece. You have no idea how Ezio found it, this kind of thing is usually made only on commission, and it's a feminine design!  He hugs you goodbye and promises to do anything in his power to raise his status in the city and help you. He also promises to never get caught, and that he'll die before bringing you any harm. He gets a bit teary eyed, but you firmly tell him to go home and rest. The next morning you sail away with a restocked ship and a hungover crew. It was a productive stop, but you're glad not to stay any longer. 1. You'll be sailing for some time. You are not the captain of the ship and you can't set a destination. What do you do with your time? You have: 10 Abstract Time Units (ATU). 2 Favor - Some actions cost or add favor 4 Mood - Some actions cost or add mood 1 Inspiration - Add to an action that could involve Abigail to improve results. Just put Inspiration or ! with your vote 1 Mega Inspiration - Add to an action that involves gaining knowledge to substantially improve the results. Just put Mega Inspiration OR !!! with your vote Please vote using your whole time budget without going over, if there's time to spare I'll count it as relaxation time. A. Begin training Storm Magic. You've already completed all the foundation work. (1 ATU, +1 Mood) B. Continue training Abyssal Magic until you reach another bottleneck (3 ATU, +1 Mood) C. Begin training Curse Magic (4 ATU, +1 Mood) D. Study the Ancient Anthenian language and culture (2 ATU, +1 Mood) E. Study Alchemy (2 ATU, +1 Mood) F. Combat and command training with the captain (2 ATU, -1 Mood, -1 Favor) G. Combat training with Betty (3 ATU, -2 Mood, -2 Body) H. Master the pirate’s life (3 ATU, -1 Mood, +1 Favor) I. Navigate for the ship (1 ATU, +1 Favor) J. Befriend Captain Theodore (1 ATU, +1 Favor) K. Befriend Betty the first mate (2 ATU, -1 Mood, +1 Favor) L. Befriend Two-Eyed Prim the quartermaster (1 ATU, +1 Favor) M. Befriend Adul the gunnery master (1 ATU, +1 Favor) N. Befriend Makohanna the cook (1 ATU, +1 Favor) O. Relax and recover from your wounds (1 ATU, +2 Mood, +1 Body, repeatable) P. Write in (variable) This actions will only work if you have enough favor in the plan. Realistically only Q for now, the others are for reference in case you want to bank favor. Q. Convince the pirates to sail to Southern Habash (5 Favor) R. Convince the pirate to sail across the Horn to the Savage Lands (10 Favor) S. Convince the crew to help you steal the Gem of Arkash from the Suleiman National Museum (10 Favor) T. Convince the crew to help you steal the Royal Scepter of Anthenia (20 Favor) As usual, I will raffle one person's vote in its entirety, so their plan will be the plan. I'll mix a few minor pirating events in the middle of your ship time, and then we'll hit a major event. Rolls: Let me go!: 1d6 6 Exlode?: 1d8 4 Book it!: 1d4 4 Explode?: 1d6 4 Mood to 6. Juke: 1d4 1 Don't disappoint Abigail!: 1d6 2 Mood to 6 Trick: 1d8 3 Fast talk?: 1d8 6 I'll put the equipment cards in the OP, along with your stolen outfit. 
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Jul 11, 2020 06:44
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Dr Subterfuge posted:Inspiration and mega inspiration are resources, right? Do we use them up by using them in the time skip? If so how do we replenish them? They renew every "scene." If you use them in the time skip they'll be ready to go by the next event. So smoke them if you got em! If a vote doesn't include them I'll just randomly assign them among actions where they qualify, to not be a dick.
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Jul 11, 2020 19:54
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jng2058 posted:Absolute Bookworm! You’re here to learn magic. You joined this gaggle of stinking, murderous pirates. You forsook your oaths as a noblewoman. You risked your life with the inquisition, they may even now be stripping your titles and organizing hunting parties. All of this, to learn magic. So you’re going to learn. You throw yourself into your studies with renewed, vigor. If you’re not sleeping you’re reading, meditating, spellcasting, or annoying Abigail with questions. You find she’ll indulge around seven questions a day, if you spread them out properly. For some, this cramming schedule would be exhausting, for you it’s heaven. You live for the joy of learning. You start with storm magic. You set it aside when you stumbled on abyssal power, but Abigail encouraged you to pick it up again, “never marry young, play the field! You’ll be richer for it.” Now that you’re soulbound and more familiar with magic, the exercises come easier and produce real results. Cycle the wind and catch the water. Build and bind the clouds. Again. Again. The energy grows with each cycle. Faster. More. Contain the storm, guide it out. Slowly. Soul, to storm, to sky and sea… You hear a pounding over your own thunder and look at the cabin door. In that moment, your control slips, and the storm in your hand explodes outward. A cyclone of wind and rain buffets Abigail’s poor cabin before quickly losing steam. Any sailor with a hint of salt knows to secure their belongings, so the damage is minor. Your newly soaked teacher just laughs, “that’s it girl, all but the end there! Try not to gently caress up when it matters.” “It’s so slow,” you complain, “so much build up to do anything!” “It will get faster as your skill grows. But it’s storm magic, storms build. Terrible power once you have it going, but it has to get going first. That’s what killed them. For all their power, they couldn’t summon it fast enough to stop an arrow to the eye or a knife to the gut. The only storm mages left live on ships or islands,” she cackles, “so you can see your killers coming miles off!” You have gained Apprentice Storm Magic. Storm magic offers incredible raw power but it’s slow, loud, and obviously supernatural. As an apprentice you can build up a localized storm and control the winds in your immediate area. Once it’s fully charged the localized storm has a lot of power behind it. If anyone steps inside your storm you can toss them around like dolls, freeze them, shred them with debris, or electrocute them. By picking yourself up with wind, you can fly using the storm. You can shoot lightning bolts or fling stuff out of it and divert ranged attacks. For now, you’re limited by the storm’s size and the slow build up. Themes: Wind, Rain, Ice, Lightning, Weather, Destruction. Storm Combat: Leaves you vulnerable as you summon the storm, then grants you overwhelming offensive and defensive power. Best against slow physical styles. Weak against fast styles and other magic. You hear the pounding again. Abigail opens the door and lets the sailor in with a huff. He withers under your glare and Abigail’s cruel smile. He’s pale, sweating, and shaking, “I’m sick. I need to get well. You have something, right? A potion or something? To make me feel good again?” Abigail shakes her head and chuckles, “yeah, you’re sick and we both know why. That last ship had quite the bounty, yes? But it was light by the time we came to port. One long party till the boy sold it.” The opium! Half the crew will have the shakes now. You smoked some as well. Not enough to cloud your reason, of course. You’re no fool, you’re a refined lady and you do drugs in a ladylike fashion. Like any lady, you hid away a private stash. What do you do? 1. It’s my opium, mine! I continue to smoke it when I have the urge. It helps me relax. 2. Give it to Abigail so she can make a potion to wean everyone off gently. 3. Get off it yourself, but sell it to the crew. It will only delay things, but if you time it right they’ll sell their shoes for another hit. 4. Write in.
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Jul 15, 2020 02:14
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You don’t need it. No mere chemical could compare to magic! You show Abigail your stash and ask her if she can use it to help the addicts. It takes some cajoling, Abigail could have just saved some before the captain sold it off, she wanted them to “learn their lesson,” but at your insistence she decides to have mercy on the poor sailors. “At least you’ll learn something. That sweet man went out of his way to get you the best alchemy kit money can buy and you just leave it in a pile to gather dust. Magic might be more fun, but a proper witch walks both paths!” You spare a guilty glance for your poor alchemy texts. Sorry alchemy books. I’ll get to you someday. “You can watch. It’s how I learned. The books treat it like engineering, but it’s cooking. You start from recipes and just try your best to follow it proper. Then you tweak it here and there and hope you don’t ruin the stew or melt someone’s liver,” she cackles and mimes a person keeling over, “soon enough, you’ve built your intuition and you only kill someone when you mean to!” So, you learn your first recipe, the Detox Cigar. Start with the poison, in this case opium. Concentrate it. Concentrate it? Yes, concentrate it. The shot is enough opium to put a bear down. Mix the concentrate with a very precise amount of powdered nautilus shell and crystalize it. Soak the crystals in the oil of an albatross wing and then carelessly throw in some sage and wrap them up it all up in smoking paper. The patient should puff on it leisurely but not wastefully over an hour or so. Why so much opium? “I have better things to do than dose these fools four times a day for two weeks.” Why the nautilus shell? “I already told you. Better things to do.” The wing? “So they don’t die.” The sage? “So they don’t enjoy it too much.” She brings in her first patient, the man who pounded on her door, “never test your patch on someone you wouldn’t mind losing. That’s just common sense.” He dreamily puffs on the cigar and is clearly feeling much, much better. Abigail peers down at him, “needs more sage.” Over the next few days you become very familiar with the Detox Cigar. You still have no idea why the ingredients are working, maybe it’s somewhere in the books. Abigail makes it clear that she’s making the potion at your insistence, in her opinion they should all just tough it out. When you start feeling a bit low, you take a cigar for yourself. As you smoke it you feel wonderful, like opium but deeper. Still not enough sage, if the spice was supposed to take the joy out of it. Hours later you’re studying, and you feel a wave of pleasure. You scan around the cabin, did Abigail light some? But there’s nothing. For the next few days you get those sudden hits, each weaker than the last. Eventually you no longer feel them, but you never get opium sick. What a fantastic cure! The one downside of opium, and Abigail removes it. +2 Favor You are no longer physically addicted to opium. --- With time your skill in storm magic grows. When you close your eyes and concentrate, you can feel your magic now, or maybe it’s your soul? Abigail waffles between the two. At first it was a dark blue orb with infinite depths. Now, the surface of the orb roils with wind, cloud, and lightning. Abigail was right, you’ve grown fundamentally stronger from mastering a second Art. +1 Magic Inspiration Bonus! Your Storm Magic Primer has been an immense help, but Abigail’s notes in the margin less so. They’re hard to read, fragmented, and enigmatic. Clearly she wrote the notes for herself and no one else. Still, they fascinate you. It takes some time, but eventually you convince Abigail to explain what she meant with some of the notes and teach you an advanced technique she’s developed over decades. 1. Which of Abigail’s mastery techniques do you learn? A. How to summon and partially control natural storms B. How to build up your localized storm faster, so you’re only vulnerable for a few seconds C. How to build a “quiet storm” that takes longer but is less noticeable D. How to “ride the lightning,” you think it improves storm flying --- You don’t want to neglect Abyssal magic either, though improving it is far more frustrating. Your abilities with Storm Magic grew by leaps and bounds, while Abyssal magic creeps forward. There are no pre-established techniques, no well-worn path. You’re left only with your own intuition and you find that a bit lacking. You fear you’ll have to do something a bit drastic to improve it much further. Perhaps the chains will help? When you consult Abigail, she laughs at you (as usual), “that’s what you get for being a snowflake. The other Arts are like trade winds, and here you are rowing! Either put a decade in it, if you’re really the first, or find someone that’s charted this course. I doubt you’re the first woman to bond with the sea, there’s so much of it!” You huff at her, so she relents, “you’ve studied two Arts, so I can show you the next step in the witch way. The first step was a familiar, but you decided to row away from that one too. Next step would be an implement. Witches stretch their soul by sharing it. First with an animal, then with an object, then a person, then an idea.” She bustles through a chest and takes out a stick. She waves it in the air dramatically and then points it at you, “the wand! Magical firepower! A proper wand will strengthen the destructive power of your spells.” Next she shows off a glass sphere. She peers into it dramatically while rubbing the sides, “the orb! Supernal Sight! Peer into the orb, and you can see many things in the reflection, from the traces of magic, to the very hearts of men!” When she puts it down it starts rolling wildly around the deck with the movements of the ship. She snatches a walking stick from the wall. She rises it dramatically above her head and shakes it at the heavens, “the staff! Mystic wisdom! A proper staff will sharpen and energize your mind!” She stomps it on the deck three times then lets it drop. Finally, she opens a drawer and takes out a necklace of bones, “the amulet! Supernatural protection! An amulet will disrupt hostile spells! Not as useful now that most of us are dead, but there are still dark things lurking in the corners of the world.” She giggles while you finger the objects. They don’t seem magic? You think they’re just props she had lying around. “Just those four?” you ask, “or could I bind my soul to something else?” “We could give it a try,” she grins carelessly, “those four are traditional, traditional means predictable. I don’t know what’ll happen if you bind your soul to a scarf, but it’s your soul to play with.” 2. What implement do you choose? E. The wand, improving the destructive power of your spells. F. The orb, improving your supernatural perception G. The staff, improving your reason H. The amulet, improving your supernatural defense I. Your sword, improving something, maybe J. Your armor, improving something, maybe K. The ship, improving something, maybe L. Write in M. What? No. Having a sorcerous implement on your person is punished by burning at the stake. Many people superstitiously avoid anything even vaguely magic looking, like fancy necklaces and canes. Some people refuse to touch sticks that look too wand-y! I'll keep my soul to my self, thank you very much. Edit: Changed the letters so they don't repeat between the two questions. Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Jul 16, 2020 |
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Jul 16, 2020 02:33
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Dr Subterfuge posted:
"If it breaks it will hurt, a lot. Part of your soul will die but souls are like livers. Give it time and you'll be good as new. Your magic will be impaired for a season or so, less if you can fix the implement. You can't lose it. If someone takes it and you can't get it back, well, you'll still know where it is! Get it back or let someone else have a piece of your soul. Hope it's not someone like me with a grudge, I could do some wonderful wicked things with a piece of soul." She cackles to herself but grows thoughtful after a bit, "if someone had my implement I could curse them through it, no matter how far they were. I think I could destroy it from any distance too, say if the sea took it. I'm sure you could figure something out." Arcanuse posted:Why not bind your soul... To yourself? In a sense it already is, but not in the same way binding it to an orb or wand or whatnot would be, surely? Abigail cocks her head like a baffled dog while she tries to wrap her head around this. Then she cackles madly for a while. "I'd need a way to inscribe the bindings on your body. Tattoos or scarification would be easiest. Manehana can help! You'll always have your implement but there's a reason he doesn't leave the ship around here."
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Jul 16, 2020 03:51
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Cannon_Fodder posted:C: Quiet storm - with the idea that we can then add the other skills ontop of that. You look at the four traditional implements. You focus on the orb. You don't need more destruction, and the only spellcaster you've ever met is your own teacher. The staff is too cumbersome and you’re brilliant enough as you are. The orb though, the orb could show you secrets. Knowledge! “What’s your implement?” you ask. Abigail nods at the orb you’re holding, “it’s how I saw your talent. You’ll develop a witch’s eye without an implement, but the orb will always give you more. It’s a good choice.” “Yes, it’s a good choice,” you agree, but you shake your head regretfully and put the orb down, “a choice made by a hundred witches before me, no doubt. I’m an explorer. I chart my own course.” You take your armor off its rack and lay it out in front of the witch, “this is the nicest thing I own, the finest materials and craftsmanship the modern, mundane world can produce. Drake skin is too strong to work by muscle alone, only modern mechanical wonders, forged this very decade, let us shape it. The alchemical treatments have an ancient lineage, but they are improved every day. The ancient witches didn’t bind things like this, but only because such things didn’t exist at the time. Sticks and bone necklaces might have been the height of sophistication a millennia ago, but we’ve grown beyond them. What new worlds would we open, if we combined modern knowledge with ancient power?” You’re proud of your little speech, but Abigail just shrugs, “it’s your soul.” Binding your armor turns out to be much harder in practice than in theory. To make it a proper receptacle for your soul it must be purified, personalized, and inscribed. The armor fights you with every step. The traditional soaps and oils immediately slide off. You try to soak it in a soapy bath, but it comes out dry. You decide to just skip that step. The armor is pristine as is. Next comes personalization. It turns out, drake skin is very hard to shape! In fact, it requires some kind of modern mechanical wonder. You settle for carefully adjusting the inner cloth padding so it contours to you a bit better and adding some silk embellishments, blue-gray to match your eyes, to the outside. Good enough. Finally, inscription. Abigail assures you that you absolutely cannot half-rear end this one. You need to carve a complex array of 333 precise runes. You consider changing your mind, if you wear armor covered in runes anywhere in civilization they'll kill you before you're off the boat, but Abigail assures you that most of the runes can be hidden on the inside and the rest can be merged with the decorative floral patterns. Once again, the sheer durability of the armor fights you. With a sharp enough tool and all your strength, you can lightly mark the leather, but the runes have to be tiny and perfect, a tall order with a chisel and sledgehammer. You solve this problem by using a tool neither the armorer nor the alchemist knew enough to defend against: magic. Drake leather can resist the wind and lightning of storm magic, but it’s defenseless against the decay of the abyss. You coat the tip of a simple quill with abyssal power and the stubborn leather submits like soft clay. -1 Mood for the sheer effort of preparing the leather. Abigail guides you in the binding ritual, which you find shockingly easy. You touch each rune, holding its shape in your mind, and then press the rune into your ball of ocean and storm (your soul?). As you do, you see the corresponding rune in the armor briefly glow a deep blue-gray. The color of a stormy sea, the color of your eyes, the color you chose to decorate the armor, and now, you realize, the color of your power. As soon as the armor is finished, you don it and try to uncover its powers. Abigail peers at you from her bed, “can you feel anything?” You jog in place, “not really? Wait. It’s more comfortable? Lighter? It feels like it’s a part of me. I think I can fight better in this.” You grab your rapier and run through a few forms. The armor is better than light, it makes your whole body feel lighter. Everything is faster and easier. You lift one of your heavier books, and find it feels a bit lighter than before. You take off the armor and lift the book again. Yep, back to how it was. “I think the armor is helping me move!” Your Drake Leather Armor has been upgraded to Soulbound Leather. +1 Strength and +1 Quickness for most purposes while you wear the armor. The armor is external, so it does not help with internal issues like healing, disease, or poison. You gain the Armor Mastery trait while you wear this armor, doubling the amount of damage it can absorb. The armor is now pliant to your touch, and you can repair it easily without specialized tools (you still need materials). If your armor loses its last point of absorption the rune array will break. It loses all magical properties and you lose 1 magic and 1 heart until you repair it or a season passes.  --- You're intrigued by Abigail's tricks to make summoning the storm less threatening. The process is simple, it requires only focus, patience, and practice. Add the energy in a slow trickle, as slow as you can. At this speed, the lightning won't form. Let the water disperse before it forms clouds. The circular winds can't be helped, but they'll be a gentle breeze. Done right, and you'll hit a critical mass of magical power without the physical accompaniment. With the quiet storm complete, you can subtly manipulate the wind or ignite a full storm in an instant. With concentration, you can maintain the quiet storm for a long time. It's not invisible. It won't fool magic detection and the extremely perceptive might be disturbed by the change in the wind and air. Still, it's a far cry from surrounding yourself with screaming winds and a halo of lightning. Unlike the normal storm, you are not helpless when you summon a quiet storm. You can't do anything very strenuous, like fighting or running for your life, but you can perform simple tasks. You now have the option when using Storm Magic to summon a normal storm or a quiet storm. At your current level of skill, a normal storm takes around two minutes of very dramatic powerup effects. A quiet storm takes twenty minutes of hard to notice clues. At your current level of skill, you can hold a normal storm for fifteen minutes without cost and extend it to one hour for 1 mood. You can hold a quiet storm for one hour without cost or extend it to four hours for 1 mood. Cassandra is a smart woman and will use this intelligently. Objectively, you're progressing fast in Storm Magic, but you still frown. There's still so much to learn, you're not even close to Abigail. "How long..." Abigail titters, "talent and focus make a strong brew, but take care you don't sputter out too soon. You've got more raw power than me, and you're learning faster than I ever did. I'm lazy, and weak willed. You'll pass me one day." You straighten up and grin, but then she smacks you on the back of your head, "one day on the far horizon, girl! I've been at this before your grandfather saw his first light. You'll have a wrinkle or two before you're my match!" she cackles while you roll your eyes. --- Sometimes you need a break from studying. Just kidding! Your break is more studying! You work through your Anthenian books with joyous intensity. It reminds you of when you were a little girl, dreaming of being the first to discover the secrets of the ancients. Every day you feel closer to fulfilling your lifelong dream. By the time you reach the end of the language texts, you’re reading Anthenian fluently and you have a strong, informed opinion about the third generation colonies and their relationship with the Landing Dynasty. If there’s something known in scholarly circles about ancient Anthenia, you know it. Your Ancient Anthenian Progresses to Fluent. You gain the background Scholar of the Ancients at 10. Mega Inspiration Bonus 1! You obsessively study one reproduced tablet in particular. Based on context, previous scholars identified it as a map of somewhere in Habash, but without a key or known marker were unable to match the map to any region. In a flash of insight, you realize that the Anthenians didn’t see space as you do. They cared little for the gross matter of the earth. The stars guided them along paths of magic, astral ley lines. They must have used these ley lines to travel, propelled by and dependent upon rivers of magic instead of water! That’s why so many Ancient Anthenian ruins are, seemingly nonsensically, far from waterways that modern civilization relied on. With your new understanding of one of the foundational principals of Ancient Anthenian civilization, you’re now able to read their star maps. The maps you already have will let you identify likely Ancient Anthenian sites across Habash at the intersection of strong astral ley lines. This process isn’t certain, it’s like predicting the location of modern cities by looking at the rivers and thinking about where a city ought to be, but it’s a brand new method that could help you find the tomb and other ruins. 1. Mega Inspiration Bonus 2! A. You use Abigail’s reproduced tablets as study aids and practice some of the magic as you study the language. Gain Neophyte Language of the Stars and a bonus to further developing this magic Art. B. You’re so familiar with the beer allocation records that you discover the exact location of two new Ancient Anthenian ruins near your current location. C. You apply your new discovery of astral ley lines with your in-depth knowledge of the First Landing in New Anthenia to narrow down the mysterious location of Ancient Anthenia. Turns out your first expedition would have been a disaster even if everything had gone right, but armed with this new knowledge, a second expedition might have some slim chance of success! You have been pushing yourself hard instead of resting. Instead of automatically healing, you'll get rolls for your wounds to heal or worsen as time passes. The healing stat is strength, and the armor doesn't help. Heal: 1d4 3 You heal 1 body. You have 4/5 body.
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Jul 18, 2020 00:24
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Yeah. Language of the Stars is the legendary magic of Ancient Anthenia. There are a lot of stories about their capabilities and not all may be true. Some form of teleportation according to your monk friend and the manipulation of hard light. They're most famous for foretelling the future, though just as famously could not foretell the doom of their civilization by their own magic, or perhaps they saw it but could do nothing to stop it? Stories differ but they often dwell on the irony. Themes you're aware of are Light, Space, Stars, and Prophecy.
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Jul 18, 2020 01:35
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Dr Subterfuge posted:Always be learning more magic. The main reason you didn’t start with Anthenian Magic was your weak grasp of the language. As your skill with written Ancient Anthenian progresses, you become more comfortable reading the book of tablets in Abigail’s cabin. The first tablet is the most informative. Clearly written for an apprentice, it explains the basic principals in very simple terms. The Astral realm is a sea of energy butting up against the physical world. The barrier is porous. Astral power leaks through at certain points and travels invisibly through our world according to predictable patterns before exiting at another astral portal, forming astral ley lines, uni-directional rivers of power. This power can be used to fuel specially designed devices. Large astral portals glow with power. We call these portals “stars.” Yes, those stars, though they are very far away and only significant to the creation of great Wonders. The closest star, the sun, (THE SUN IS A STAR???) is a relatively small and weak portal, but its location is convenient and most of the local ley lines originate with the sun and then meander through and around the earth at the beginning of their journey to distant stars. All living things respond to astral power, though they rarely understand its influence. They need its energy to live, and the energy tugs them to and fro according to its own devices. When people speak of the movements of the soul, the masters know that they are dancing to the music of the cosmos. Once you understand the Language of the Stars, you will be able to predict the future, imperfectly, by reading the astral pattern. Once you can write the Language of the Stars by interrupting and redirecting the flow, you can change the future. Direct mental manipulation of astral energy using your soul as a medium is possible, but dangerous and inadvisable. It’s better to use astral-powered objects, called Wonders, so mistakes destroy the object instead of your soul. Lesser Wonders are designed for personal use and require only a small amount of astral power flowing directly through earth from the sun. They are inconsequential when compared to Great Wonders, which are constructed on a monumental scale and draw power from the endless greater stars of the sky. If you are ever entrusted with a Greater Key, allowing you to wield the power of a Great Wonder, you will understand the enormous gap between the two. The collection of reproduced tablets is incomplete. The section on perceiving astral energy is good enough to get you started. The collection on using Wonders is also nearly complete, and that you think you could re-activate one if you ever found it intact. The next set of tablets, on creating Wonders, is extremely fragmented. You could maybe try to repair an almost intact Wonder, but you think with this level of knowledge it would be a dangerous attempt. There’s nothing on direct manipulation of astral energy besides a warning not to try it. You have taken the first step to learning the Language of the Stars. You can perceive the presence of large amounts of astral energy. You’re not yet fluent enough to “read” the Stars and predict the future. You can use Wonders, if you find one. --- Your new implement is pretty neat, but it doesn’t improve your magic like the potion and your visions from the sea. Your progress remains steady and frustratingly slow. You and Abigail have trouble finding a volunteer among the crew for practicing your magic. She has to resort to some truly vile threats and substantial rewards to get someone in her cabin for domination. You’re able to influence his mind, but only for a few minutes at a time. It’s easier to control animals. With some practice, you’re able to command sea birds to perform simple tasks, but find it difficult to communicate complex ideas. You call and pod of dolphins from somewhere in the depths and they follow your boat until you release them. You find that dolphins are a friendly sort, and radiate feelings of love and devotion when you enthrall them. You can do the same with sharks, but feel nothing in their minds but hunger and mechanical duty. You convinced Manehana not to cook a turtle he caught in his net. It’s smart and obedient, if less enthusiastic than dolphins. “It’s not a familiar,” Abigail insists, “it’s just a slave. Or pet if you like. A familiar shares your soul. It becomes more like you and you become more like it.” You take a hard look at Abigail’s face. She does look a bit lizardy? Regardless, you construct a soaking bath for the turtle and feed it fish. Dominaton added to Abyssal themes. You can attempt to temporarily control people, birds, and land animals. You have a good chance to enthrall sea animals. You will need to adventure to further progress Abyssal Magic, studying no longer provides benefits. 1. You have acquired a pet turtle. It’s not a familiar, but through Abyssal magic you can communicate with it and it will obey you. What do you name it? --- Curse magic is hard! Abigail’s incomplete manuscript desperately needs an editor and a more readable type-face. She wrote the thing, but half the time even she can’t tell you what a sentence means. Her teaching style is indolent, and she gets impatient with too many questions. Eventually, after puzzling over a page for the tenth time, you scream and throw the book at a wall. Abigail cackles at your tantrum while you shamefacedly collect it. You stare down at it for the eleventh time, then back up at your teacher, the book’s author, who is busying herself by feeding flower petals to her lizard, “did you invent this magic?” “Oh no,” she laughs while she teases the lizard with a petal just out of reach, “cursing is the first magic I ever learned. My mother taught me. Her mother taught her. It goes back forever. We had this magic long before that lot you love so much,” she nods at your Anthenian books, “arrived. Maybe it goes back to a time when we bashed each other with sticks and rocks over the best piece of meat. Passed down the family line, kept close. Why share your secrets, when they’re what made your family strong? Even now, I’ll bet you half the Courts have a witch in their basement.” Her eyes grow distant, “I started writing this book because I didn’t have anyone to pass this magic to, I don’t want the legacy to die with me. All my children and grandchildren ended up beautiful, talent-less, boneheaded, fops. I guess that’s what I get for having a type. I fell for an empty headed boy with golden hair and an easy smile. Poor luck they’d all turn out like him. Poor luck, and a life made too easy,” she looks like she wants to say more, but stops herself. “That’s all in the past. We can’t keep this to family lines any more. Too easy to extinguish.” She tussels your hair, “But I’m a poo poo writer, and I have a good apprentice now. I can teach you the way my mother taught me. Then you can write the book for me!” --- "Say I have a lock of King Suleiman the IIX’s hair. I make a little doll, with a cute little crown and a nice round belly just like him! I give it the real king’s hair.” She actually gets out a king doll and makes it do a funny little dance. If this is how Abigail’s mother taught, her you wonder how old Abigail was. Maybe 8? “I make the bond with magic, using the hair as a focus. Now, what happens to the doll happens to the man! Then I throw the doll in a FIRE! Oh no! What happens to the man?” “He, um… catches on fire?” “GOOOD! You’re so smart! But it’s a little more complicated than that! He’s so far away, and it’s just a little bit of hair, and the doll isn’t just like him, and I don’t have a big ocean of power to make the link, just the little pond in my heart like you have! So what happens to the doll isn’t exactly what happens in the man. All those itsy bitsy problems take their own little bite at the bond. All those bites together add up! So the doll burns, but the man? “Gets a fever?” “There we go! Wow, just what I was thinking! If the bond is strong enough, maybe it’s a big fever that makes him very sick! If the bond is too weak, he just feels a little hot. This is the easiest kind of curse, we call it direct sympathy. Can you repeat that? “Direct sympathy.” “Perfect! But maybe we don’t want the curse to work right away, maybe we only want it to work when something else happens. King Suleiman will get sick, but only if he’s mean to little Abigail! We make the bond like before. But before we throw it in, we think about him being mean to Abigail! We act out him being mean with the doll. We put that in our head really, really hard! Then we put the IF in our bond. That’s really important. If there’s no IF then he’ll just be mean and get warm, and we don’t want him to be mean. We use one of our magic symbols for the IF. We put it on the doll, and we put it in our head, and we put it in our pond, and we put it in the bond. Can you repeat that? “Put the IF rune in the doll, our head, the ball, and the bond.” “Yep! Now, this is really important. Does the IF make the bond weaker or stronger?” You actually have to think about this one. “Weaker? The conditional adds a complication to the bond that we have to fuel with magic. We’re also suspending the magic over time, and that should cause some leakage. Unless, because we’re suspending it, we can feed it more power like with a storm?” “That’s a good answer! You’d think so, right? But the condition makes it stronger! If he does the things the doll does, it brings him and the doll closer together. It’s not just the hair any more, and it’s not just how the doll looks, now what he’s thinking and what he’s doing matches with the doll! If he’s mean to Abigail just like the doll was, maybe he really will catch on fire! We call this Conditional Sympathy!” “Conditional Sympathy.” You continue like this for some time. Yes, it’s a bit humiliating. Yes, Abigail is loving with you. But because she’s having fun, she keeps talking. You learn so much more, so much faster this way. Even with her instruction, it’s a fiendishly difficult form of magic and comes to you less intuitively than the others. Abyssal magic feels like you’re commanding the world to be a certain way, sometimes the world leaps to respond like a loyal servant, sometimes it’s a surly teen, sometimes it’s in open rebellion. Storm magic is all about moving your magic in a delicate swirling pattern, but once the pattern is second nature it’s no harder than weaving. Each act of Curse magic is an elaborate ritual of symbolic acts, careful language, and rigid mental constructs. It takes preparation, but the possibilities are significant. She calls it curse magic, but it could almost as easily bless your allies. So far Abigail has focused on manipulating a single person, but she hints that as you progress you can curse groups, objects, or anyone who does something very specific. She dares you to stare in a mirror and say Abigail five times. You now understand that the crew’s fear of Abigail might not just be normal superstition. You also see why she trusts them to get drunk in a dangerous port while they harbor a witch. What horrible death awaits her betrayers, the moment they act against her? She could have gathered the materials on all of them with ease. Insensate in her care for weeks, she’d have enough from you to make a perfect effigy. You can’t feel anything, but until it activates a conditional sympathy bond is very hard to notice. If only you’d picked the orb! 2. How do you feel about the possibility that you’re already under Abigail’s Curse? A. Fine B. Impressed C. Afraid D. Angry E. Disturbed F. Write in. You’ve learned Apprentice Curse Magic. You can forge bonds using sympathetic links. The traditional materials in order of least to most effective are accurate depictions, nail clippings, hair, blood (and other bodily fluids), very significant objects, genuine loved ones, and soul fragments. Other materials are possible. You can use effigies, traditionally dolls, to manipulate, harm, or help the people they represent. This is not the limit of curse magic, Abigail has more secrets to share. For now Curse Magic is useless to you in combat. Abigail assures you that there is a curse combat style. She says it’s weaker that Storm Magic and probably weaker than Abyssal magic in a straight fight, but it’s very subtle and lets you tip the scales without drawing attention to yourself. --- You spend three months at sea, most of it studying magic. In that time, your ship takes two merchants uneventfully. Much like before, it’s a relatively peaceful mugging without much danger on either side. With Abigail to cheat and no other magic to stop her, the ships have no means to meaningfully resist. One ship even took an escort, worthless when Abigail can command the wind and separate the two. Whether it’s from a soft heart or an eye towards long term parasitism on a profitable trade route, the captain prefers not to kill his victims or damage their ships. Any rational merchant will trade their treasure for their ship and their life over losing all three. So far you haven’t met an irrational one. 3. You haven’t been doing anything for the ship, not even navigating. Do you claim a share? You currently have 200 silver. G. Yes, a mate’s share like the captain gave me in Alexia (+1000 Silver, -3 Favor) H. Yes, a normal crew share (+200 Silver, -1 Favor) I. No. J. Write in. The captain decides to dock in a small fishing village where he can buy fresh food and water. It’s a lot safer to stop here than a major city, but there’s less opportunity to offload stolen goods or spend treasure. Most of the crew are taking shore leave anyway, to drink at the local watering hole or practice the art of seduction on bored locals. You go ashore as well, it’s a chance to stretch your legs off the boat if nothing else. It’s an insignificant village, but this is still northern Habash and not far from a rich trade route, so some people speak some accented Aboric (your mother tongue and the de-facto trade language). According to your maps, there’s a potential site nearby, deeper in the jungle. Too deep to hike there and back in the short time the boat is supposed to be docked, but you can probably convince them to wait for you. There’s no guarantee that you’ll find it, or that it even exists since this is based on an old map of ley lines. You have: 1200/400/200 Silver depending on your choices You have 4/3/1 Favor depending on your choices. 4/5 Body, 6/6 Mood. 4. What do you do in the village? K. Same thing as the rest of the sailors, try to have a good time. L. Organize an expedition to the interior. The crew is willing to take a week off on the flimsiest excuse, after that it will cost 1 favor for every week the crew have to wait for you. This will trigger some more votes to determine your plan, then a short adventure. M. Write in. 5. You just spent three months obsessively studying magic. Do you have a passion for magic in particular, not just as a form of knowledge but in and of itself? N. Yes! Gain Inspiration: Love of Magic (1). This will use your last free inspiration slot, to gain more inspirations you’ll have to lose one, or do something extraordinary. O. No. I love all forms of knowledge equally. No change, you still have one free inspiration slot. P. No, but I really hate the inquisition. They’re just the worst! Gain Inspiration: Hate the Inquisition (1). Q. Write in a different inspiration and justify it based on Cassandra’s character and the game so far. I’ll revert this to O if the justification doesn’t make sense to me.
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Jul 20, 2020 21:22
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Bob Tuskins posted:Is it possible for us to communicate with sea creatures to learn where other ships are? We could be an asset to the crew if we can direct them to new targets Dolphins and whales take note of ships and are smart enough to remember them. They also communicate over long distances. You could ask them to tell you if they spot a ship, then pass that to the captain. I'll put it up for a vote next time you set sail. It's worth voting on because you may have little interest in increasing the number of ships the crew takes. More profit in that, but more risk too.
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Jul 20, 2020 22:26
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Cannon_Fodder posted:Do we swim? By that, I mean, do we often jump in the drink when we're provided the opportunity? How are we able to manipulate water? Has our need to breathe been affected? You manipulate water by just commanding it in your head. That's how Abyssal magic in particular works for you. Sea water is very responsive to your commands, you can create whirlpools and currents, though you can't part the sea to the floor unless it's very shallow. You can push the ship around if you like. It's pretty dangerous to swim while the ship is sailing. Most of the sailors don't know how, and learning is considered bad luck. Manehana is an expert swimmer. Your father taught you to swim in the pond on your estate before he died and you would sometimes swim for fun. Now that you're docked in a safe place you can swim. You haven't felt any physical changes to your body. You need to breath. You don't swim any faster. With some experimentation you find that you can push yourself through the water much faster than you can swim. You can hold a bubble of air around your head. The air grows stale, but you can refresh it by making the water scoop up a new bubble and force it down to you. This is extremely fun. Discovering this would get you +1 mood if you weren't already maxed.
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Jul 20, 2020 22:48
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Dr Subterfuge posted:
It would apply whenever you do something to stick it to the Inquisition. Most obviously when fighting or escaping their agents, covering your tracks, or violating their laws.
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Jul 21, 2020 03:00
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malbogio posted:Donatello You decide to name your turtle Donatello after the famous Northern Suleiman sculptor. You have one of his smaller sculptures on your estate of a nude boy with a turtle on his head. You make sure Donatello is well supplied with seaweed and fish bits, he seems to enjoy both, and that the sailors will check in on him while you're away. Expedition Prep You are in the fishing village of Tato. It is late spring, warm, and muggy. The village is kept cool by the sea breeze, but as you go further inland the heat will be more oppressive. The jungles of northern Habash are safer than southern Habash or the Wild Lands, but they are still difficulty to navigate and full of predators. The locals inform you that the inland tribes are mostly peaceful, but they are only nominally under the laws and authority of the Habash Court, they should be dealt with cautiously. You estimate the journey will take three days there and 1-2 days to return with a small group. You don’t know how long it will take to explore the site once you're there. You have 7 free days, every 7 days after that will cost 1 favor and 1 morale. You can go into favor debt this way, Abigail will keep the sailors in line even if they’re furious. The other mates just got paid, so they’re all richer than you right now. If you over-spend, you’ll borrow the cash from someone. Probably the captain or Abigail, because you don’t have friends. Who do you recruit among the pirates? All officers have traits that can help or harm the expedition. Many of these traits are hidden because you don’t know them well. You must leave at least one mate on the ship. I rolled charisma checks of varying difficulty for each, depending on their personality and how much they like you, to see if you can recruit them for free. Otherwise they cost 1 favor (I’ll owe you one) or 1 mood (I wore them down with sheer enthusiasm for the last few days), please indicate which payment you prefer, or I’ll just roll randomly. Favor: 3 Silver: 200 Mood: 6 Expedition Morale 3 1. Who do you recruit? A. Captain Theodore Iordanou (???, ???, ???, Braggart) – 1 Favor or 1 Mood B. Ship Witch Abigail Iordanou (Master Witch, Skilled Alchemist, Lazy, Feared) – FREE C. 1st Mate Backbreaker Betty (Master Warrior, Abrasive, ???, ???) - 1 Favor or 1 Mood D. Quartermaster Two Eyed Pim (Organizer, ???, ???, ???) 1 Favor or 1 Mood E. Gunner Adul Alafa (???, ???, ???, ???) - FREE F. Chef Makohanna (Master Chef, ???, ???, ???, ???) 1 Favor or 1 Mood G. Pirate Laborers - 1 Favor or 1 Mood H. Pirate Marines - 1 Favor or 1 Mood 2. How do you prepare in town? I. You’re burning daylight! Move out this afternoon, as soon as your volunteers are organized. J. Spend a day preparing and leave first thing tomorrow morning. If you vote for this, you can vote for as many of the letters below as you want. K. Purchase local supplies. You can use the ship rations but fresh food and booze will improve morale -50 Silver. L. Upgrade expedition equipment. What you have right now is suited to sailing, not the jungle. The locals don’t have a perfect set of expeditionary tools like you could find at a Gentlemen Explorer’s Lodge but their stuff is appropriate to the environment -100 Silver. You can get a refund of 50 silver if you bring it back in good condition. M. Hire 2 local hunters as guides -20 Silver N. Hire 5 local laborers for trail cutting and hauling -20 Silver O. Hire a translator who speaks the language of the inland tribes -10 Silver P. Hire 10 local toughs as guards -50 Silver Q. Throw a party in the local tavern. This will improve morale. -20 Silver. R. Write in preparations you can make in a day
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Jul 25, 2020 20:54
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Bob Tuskins posted:B You've decided to recruit Abigail, Adul, Prim, a group of marines, a group of local laborers, two hunter guides, and a translator. You've decided to upgrade the equipment and throw a party. You ask the captain if the ship can wait here for a while so you can explore some ruins deeper inland. He tilts his head side to side while he weighs it, “our most recent respite was tragically brief due to a minacious port. Please return within the week. If it is your intention to bring my grandmother I will wait irregardless, but I will be dismayed if I must delay excessively." Good! You’re not sure if you can meet that deadline so you better bring Abigail. You ask her and predictably she cackles, “sure, sure. Maybe I can loot something fun before the inquisitors breaks it. We can harvest some red flame petals while we’re out.” Next you decide to bring Two-Eyed Prim. You find the small, wiry man with salt and pepper hair hunched over his log books. He proves to be a harder nut to crack. You get a hint of why he has such a strange nickname as he stares you down with sharp, unblinking eyes, “why do you need me?” You feel his eyes boring into you, like he’s dissecting your soul. If you were a lesser woman, you might have been intimidated. Instead, you quickly outline your reasoning: “I’ve planned expeditions of this sort before, but I always had an assistant to handle the little things. You seem very capable in that regard. We haven’t been forced on short rations since I joined, nor do we have a shortage of supplies…” “So you need me to do the hard work for you while you ‘look at the big picture?’” That about sums it up, but you don’t like his tone. It’s almost like he doesn’t think big picture executive decision making is valuable! You smile graciously anyway, “yes, I would like you to help organize the expedition.” He frowns, still holding your eyes. Has he blinked yet? They must be so dry. “Alright. So what’s in it for me? Why do I want to spend the next three days pulling double duty, then a week in a sweltering jungle instead of taking my vacation?” You want to say you’ll owe him one, but you’d rather not be in debt to the pirates. Better if they're in debt to you. You want to pay him, but you don’t think you can afford him and everything else you need in the expedition. So you swallow your pride a bit, “Because I really need your help and if I screw this up we’ll be lost and dying in the jungle. Then you’ll have to come after me anyway because the captain won’t leave without Abigail. So please help me make this a success the first time. Pretty please?” “Fine,” he relents. You feel a little bad for the tactics you had to employ. Admitting you need help reminds you of Gentlemen Explorers talking down to you, like you’re just a silly girl playing at the real thing. Next you decide to recruit a group of Marines, the elite fighters that form the vanguard of boarding actions. The jungle is a dangerous place and you also hope to hire some locals. Strong, loyal fighters will protect you and keep the other workers from abandoning or robbing you if things get tough. You wait until Betty is away to give your pitch, no need to poke that bear. At first they’re unconvinced and you have to admit, it’s not an appealing proposition if you don't find the inherent value in ruins. No money, no favors, no compelling reason why these murderous louts should help. Unlike Two-Eyed Prim, they aren’t moved in the slightest by your need. There’s some laughter and some lewd jokes. One man makes a counter-offer that’s insulting to your virtue. At that point you may have lost your temper. There may have been gusts of wind, lightning, and dramatic proclamations. In the end, you have 8 very contrite marines willing to join your expedition. As the ship docks, Adul joins you on the deck. You haven’t spent much time with him since that one party. You recall that, much like you, he was rescued by the pirates and joined in gratitude. That’s the story he told at least. The name places him in Southeastern Suleiman, near the capital, or possibly western Rouran. His skin is a shade darker than yours, and his sharp features would be handsome if they weren’t marred by small scars and burn marks. “I hear you’re heading inland to search for Anthenian ruins?” he indicates the treeline past the village. You nod, “I am. I’m bringing a group from the ship and hiring some locals.” “I want to volunteer. I’d quite like to see fresh ruins, before the Inquisition destroys them.” You grin, turns out there’s at least one kindred spirit on this ship! You hammer out the details with Prim. He approves of hiring local laborers and guides but sticking to pirates for the muscle. He brings up a potential niggle. “You and the old witch are going. What are you going to do about the witch thing?” He shakes his head when you tell him you’re planning to take the ship rations instead of buying local, “you’re stealing from the ship’s stores either way. You might as well take fresh food. I’m in charge of purchasing for the ship, I’ll put it in the budget.” You swim and play with your sea powers while Prim hires some local experts and laborers. With a few coins from his own pocket he got an extra work crew to clear a day’s worth of trail and deposit a cache of food and water at the end. Then he put a local craftsman on a special project. You can feel your eyebrows raise when you see it. Really, a crude palanquin? Cloth fans? You’re not some hothouse flower, you can walk… “It’s for the old witch,” he explains as he inspects the supports, “she’s ancient and she gets crabby when she isn’t being pampered. You thought because she agreed to come she wouldn’t complain? She’ll be a nightmare within an hour. You’ve been on her good side. I’ve seen the other. I’d rather this expedition have fewer festering boils than the last one.” Together you scour the village for proper equipment. Prim insists on getting everyone new stockings and used boots in their sizes. He seems to know each Marine’s measurements by heart. You get some gently used machetes and make sure everyone has a large water skin in addition to the barrel the laborers will be hauling. Abigail can’t bring her equipment, but you make sure to carefully pack some of her most common cures. Prim packs up hammocks for everyone, including the local hirelings. You agree, sleeping on the jungle floor is a difficult experience. Adul doesn’t contribute much to the preparations, but he does bring a waterproof powder box and some alchemists fire, which should make starting a fire trivial even in a jungle downpour. You throw a party at the local tavern for the whole expedition, including the local hirelings. They drink, boast, play games, and as they get increasingly inebriated, sing shanties together. You don’t fully participate, maintaining proper ladylike distance, but you’re glad you spent the time and money to do this as you see the pirates and locals bond before your eyes. Prim drinks heavily throughout the night, first happily singing, then shouting incoherently, then crying, then he passed out. Despite his embarrassing display, you notice the less drunken sailors gently clean him up and respectfully put him to bed. I’ll give you the +1 mood for exploring your cool sea powers since you would have spent the mood on the ship. 1. What about the witch thing? A. I’ll make sure we don’t do any obvious magic when there’s a risk of locals seeing B. I’ll curse the locals so they’ll die if they betray us. C. B, but I won’t risk them surviving. I’ll curse them to die by various accidents after the trip. D. I’ll tell them I cursed them and make a big show of it, but I won’t really do it E. They’re just a bunch of fishermen and they don’t really know who we are. Let them see my awesome power and tell whoever they want. F. Write in End of Expedition Prep, next post will be day 1 Silver: 30 Mood: 5 Body 4/5 Expedition Morale 8 - High Spirits Mates: Ship Witch Abigail Iordanou (Master Witch, Skilled Alchemist, Lazy, Feared) Quartermaster Two Eyed Pim (Organizer, ???, ???, ???) Gunner Adul Alafa (???, ???, ???, ???) Crew: 8 Marines 5 Laborers 2 Hunters 1 Translator Equipment is low quality but environmentally appropriate, no bonuses or penalties. Supplies are fresh and more than adequate Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Jul 29, 2020 |
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Jul 29, 2020 01:43
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Not by Mana points or vancian limits or anything like that. It takes some time and concentration and, very importantly, comes with a chance for catastrophic failure that goes up significantly if spells cross. Edit: This was mentioned early on in magic training but Abigail would have drilled it in more off screen. Magic is not consistent, everyone but the Gods slip sometimes and that slip up is usually really bad. The Inquisition is probably ethically correct, in theory, to try to wipe out the practice of magic. From a practical standpoint if you can accomplish your goals without magic you should do so, otherwise you're risking summoning a firestorm that destroys the village because you didn't feel like weeding with your hands today. You have yet to suffer any kind of failure, magic has been perfectly consistent for you so far. This is partially because Abigail is careful not to mix her magic with yours and partially because your Abyss Bound bonus gives you some protection from critical failures on the sea. On the other hand, Abigail herself doesn't really give a poo poo about being ethical and sometimes she uses storm magic to fan herself or just screw around because it's fun. Mr. Prokosch fucked around with this message at 20:59 on Jul 29, 2020 |
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Jul 29, 2020 20:48
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