- The Tines of Madness -
Two weeks ago, the sun itself was sundered. Nobody has any idea what happened. Some say that a tremendous magical duel took place. Others say that a mage, overcome with hubris and stupidity, tried to pit his skills against that of the sky. Still others say that a demon tore the sun’s soul out and devoured it, using the power gained to fight the Gods and upend the heavens. All we know is that the land directly facing the sun at its moment of death has been scorched into oblivion and the Elves are no more.
Panic ruled the entire world. Wood and coal became the dominant currency overnight; pyromancers became millionaires as they sold their fire to light the world. But even their magical energy waned as the moon’s glow had long since faded, the Goddess’ eye closed to the plight of the world. With the darkening of the Goddess’ physical presence, magic ceased to flood into the world.
Ice and snow grew everywhere; frosts destroyed crops and killed livestock. The pyromancers held the worst of the ice off from the major cities of the continent for five days, but by the eighth day, all of the lumber in the world had been consumed and nobody could see well enough to cut more.
Inexplicably, a new sun was born three days ago out of the darkness. A white-hot blaze erupted in the sky. Nebulous clouds of pink and orange dust surround the newborn sun. Relief washed over the world, but what the light revealed scared them once more.
The moon was cracked into three pieces. The source of magic in the world and the physical embodiment of the Goddess of Creation was destroyed. Mages found their powers to be erratic, forces once so malleable to their voices hard and brittle, difficult to work. What’s more, casting magic resulted in great pain to the wielder, sometimes even drawing blood.
You are an adventurer who found employment for the Ten-Day-Night as a bouncer at a pub in a small city known as Shas Isa. For a week you defended the innkeeper’s property from hooligans and other criminals, but now the light has returned and the world has slowly calmed. It’s time for you to move on.
- - - - - - - - - -
Hi! Some of you have seen me wandering around the forums, but for those of you who don’t know me, I’m Niccolo and I’ll be your gamesmaster for this little adventure. This is my first time being a GM, but hey, we all gotta start somewhere, right?
Maska is a world from a novel of mine that’s been in something of a hiatus while I study at university. Now, stuck as I am, I’ve come up with a unique RtD: I want you guys to help me build the history of my world. I have a rough plan of what happened during this tumultuous era, but I thought it’d be fun to get a closer look at the world. Of course, given the way RtDs normally go I’m fully expecting it to all be on fire within a week, but that's just how it is.
The Turns So Far
Chapter 1: Ice, Snow and Barfights
Turn 0: Prologue (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4776233#msg4776233)
Turn 1: Barfight! (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4780640#msg4780640)
Turn 2: Let's Beat Up Civilians! (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4781627#msg4781627)
Turn 3: The Incredible Hulk (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4783052#msg4783052)
Turn 4: HULK SMASH! (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4783894#msg4783894)
Turn 5: More Green? (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4785577#msg4785577)
Turn 6: Karma (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4786494#msg4786494)
Turn 7: The Good Priest (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4788265#msg4788265)
Turn 8: Blood and Ice (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4789264#msg4789264)
Turn 9: Shriekwind Bastion (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4790915#msg4790915)
Turn 10: The Quest (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4792057#msg4792057)
Turn 11: The Quietest Village (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4796113#msg4796113)
Turn 12: Shooting the Messenger (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4804076#msg4804076)
Turn 13: It's Quiet. Too Quiet. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4807362#msg4807362)
Turn 14: Screams and Madness (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4809220#msg4809220)
Turn 15: Enter the Beast (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4812954#msg4812954)
Turn 16: Level 1 Derm (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4815208#msg4815208)
Turn 17: With a Fine Honey Glaze (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4820099#msg4820099)
Turn 18: All Together Now (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4825113#msg4825113)
Turn 19: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4833608#msg4833608)
Turn 20: Half-Assed Pauper's Grave (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4837673#msg4837673)
Turn 21: Fool Me Once/Fool Me Twice (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4840188#msg4840188)
Turn 22:Plot? (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4844206#msg4844206)
Turn 23: Nope, No Plot (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4847104#msg4847104)
Turn 24: Riding the Dragon (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4849600#msg4849600)
Turn 25: To the Village! (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4858090#msg4858090)
Turn 26: Sunlight (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4878548#msg4878548)
Turn 27: The Village of Cnoc Adh (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4896596#msg4896596)
Turn 28: Of Crystals and Charred Carriages (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4909579#msg4909579)
Turn 29: The Tines of Madness (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4917163#msg4917163)
Turn 30: The Basement (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4934311#msg4934311)
Turn 31: Light and Dark (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4944194#msg4944194)
Turn 32: The Hundred Deaths (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4958791#msg4958791)
Turn 33: The Hundred Tombs (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg4968842#msg4968842)
The world is in the tag end of the bronze age. Some enterprising Toans discovered how to economically forge iron several years ago and the use of this amazing new metal is slowly spreading. Before, the cost was too great – and magic and iron do not play nicely together!
Cylenia is a country within Maska, a largely flat country bordered on its northern and southern ends by mountain ranges, with the eastern border being coastal. The western border is nonexistent; the country is sorta triangular, and the two mountain ranges meet at the westernmost point of the country. The northern part of the country is relatively warm and heavily forested. The central part of the country is fairly open land, sorta like English countryside. There are lots of farms around, with fruit orchards being a popular source of revenue. The southernmost region is wind-blasted and snow-driven. The mountains are far more formidable here and beyond a certain point are covered in snow year-round.
The city of Shas Isa is in the country of Cylenia along the southern border. The city is situated in the foothills of the southernmost mountain range of Cylenia, serving as a guardian city and last port of call for people travelling south through the pass. Defending the pass itself is Shriekwind Bastion, a huge granite fortress that looms over the city from further up the mountain. Shas Isa is almost perpetually covered in snow to one degree or another. The rest of the world is a mite warmer, although things are still warming up properly thanks to ten days without the sun.
Humanity is the dominant sapient race. There was once a nation of Elvish people (In fact a race of humans!), but they, uh... well, they were on a continent on the side of the world that was facing the sun when it was cut in half. So they got roasted. Yeah. The scattered remnants of the Elvish nation are few and far between; in a thousand years, the Elves will have been fully bred into the mainstream human races and will no longer separately exist. But that’s a thousand years away.
The main races are as follows:
Cylenian:
Pale-skinned people who inhabit Cylenia. The nation’s primary industry is mining, so Cylenians for the most part tend to be direct, strong and unequivocal. Their magic tends to be similarly direct. Cylenians don’t get along so well with the Yagalians or the Toans.
Some Potential Racial Abilities:
+1 to strength/endurance rolls
+1 to direct-damage magical combat rolls
-1 to charisma rolls against Yagalians and Toans
Limerete:
Bronze-skinned, green-eyed people from the Limero Isles. Fantastic seamen and avid adventurers. Limeretes are masters of weather magic. They tend to trade a lot, so get along pretty well with most everyone.
Some Potential Racial Abilities:
+1 to agility/endurance/perception rolls while at sea
Less likely to panic
+1 to weather magic
Southlanders:
From the land of Zue’qki’Ptar (Their name has a few clicks in it!), most people call them Southlanders so as to not dislocate their jaws. They are tall and dark-skinned people hailing from a land of ice and snow , yet have somehow managed to tame the spirits of the land enough to allow them to farm. Nobody’s quite sure what to make of that. At least their vegetables stay fresh for a long time!
Some Potential Racial Abilities:
+1 to spirit magic rolls (eg: shamanism, elemental controlling)
+1 to charisma rolls against spirits and the Fae
-1 to endurance rolls in hot climates
Yagalians:
For some bizarre reason, Yagalians are grey. They hail from Yagal, a nation to the north of Cylenia and separated by the Stena mountain range. Yagal is a land overrun with minor demons; as a result, many Yagalian mages practice summoning magic. Eastern Yagalians and Western Yagalians don’t get along so well with each other and distrust Southlanders.
Some Potential Racial Abilities:
+1 to summoning magic rolls (Not for elementals, though!)
-1 to charisma rolls with some Yagalians and Southlanders
+1 to Luck rolls
Players who want to play as mages need to be aware of a few things. Magic comes in a few ‘schools’, although basically anything goes. Magic also comes in a series of eight ‘flavours’ that are the magical elements: Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Life, Force, Light, Dark.
Any one element can be cast as a spell. Multiple elements require multiple rolls. Opposite elements (Earth-Wind, Fire-Water, Life-Force, Light-Dark) get a -2 to their rolls, although this can be improved with practice.
Magic also comes with a cost. Every time you cast magic, you run the risk of injuring yourself. The bigger the spell, the bigger the cost will be – up to, and including, your life.
But the scariest part? Mages in this world are allergic to iron. Contact with iron causes your magic to go out of control... which is bad. Kaboom bad. Iron is thankfully not very common yet - the world is still struggling to exit the bronze age – but be careful.
Summoning works a little like Pokemon, to be honest. If you want to be able to summon a demon, you have to find one and defeat it, binding it to your will in the process. Yagal is a good place to go for that, since demons naturally occur in the wild there. You'll find the odd one around the rest of the world too, don't worry.
The world is rife with ´natural´ magics that aren’t very well understood. While not as powerful as the magical forces wielded by mages, they don’t suffer from the same problems of sudden blood deficit or iron-based explosions. So, y’know, there’s that going for them. So don’t worry too much, you won’t be massively outclassed by mages. Unless he rolls a six. Then you’re in a spot of bother.
These abilities are things like prescience, psychic gifts, various odd abilities that possibly belong in anime and other such things. Don't be afraid to play a non-mage; you won't get short-changed!
Character creation is simple! Just follow the outline below.
Name: I’m assuming you can work out what goes here.
Race: Ditto.
Appearance: Likewise!
Profession: Pick a profession. If you're a mage, give me an idea of what kind.
(Mages Only) Magical Affinity: Pick one or two elements that you are particularly adept at. If you're a summoner, you only get one, since you also get a summon.
Favoured Weapon: So you can start with... something. Like a stick or something.
Short Backstory: Flesh ém out a tad. Give me something to turn against you! Also gives me something to work with when assigning you your abilities.
Maska: The world itself. Maska orbits a sun and has a single moon that was recently split into three pieces. The world is in the tag end of the Bronze Age and is slowly entering the Iron Age. Magic and other supernatural forces run wild here.
Cylenia: A country within Maska, a largely flat country bordered on its northern and southern ends by mountain ranges, with the eastern border being coastal. The western border is nonexistent; the country is sorta triangular, and the two mountain ranges meet at the westernmost point of the country. The northern part of the country is relatively warm and heavily forested. The central part of the country is fairly open land, sorta like English countryside. There are lots of farms around, with fruit orchards being a popular source of revenue. The southernmost region is wind-blasted and snow-driven. The mountains are far more formidable here and beyond a certain point are covered in snow year-round.
Shas Isa: A city in the country of Cylenia along the southern border. The city is situated in the foothills of the southernmost mountain range of Cylenia, serving as a guardian city and last port of call for people travelling south through the pass. Defending the pass itself is Shriekwind Bastion, a huge granite fortress that looms over the city from further up the mountain. Shas Isa is almost perpetually covered in snow to one degree or another.
The Greater Gods
Solvarion: The God of Life and Death, his earthly avatar was the Sun. His domain was to give and take life to or from all that exists. He cannot create or destroy, merely bring to life or kill. He also guides souls to their resting place prior to reincarnation.
Lunette: The Goddess of Creation and Destruction, her earthly avatar was the Moon. Right up until some asshole broke it. She created the world itself, but could not bring it to life without assistance from her husband, Solvarion.
The Lesser Gods (Sometimes referred to as angels in Cylenia)
Note: Not all of them are known, just yet. They'll flesh out slowly.
Sariel: The angel of Time and Fate. She watches over the threads that govern each person's place in the world and gently guides mortals towards resolving disastrous knots in her weaving.
Raziel: Sariel's twin brother and the angel of the Unknown. He ensures that the future is never fully written and protects all mortals' free will. He balances his sister's power perfectly.
Cassiel: The angel of Temperance. She watches over the world - particularly when prophecy is in play - to ensure that the world's forces aren't cast into complete chaos or brutal order. Her will plays through the magical elements of Wind and Shadow.
Rampel: The angel of Strength and Endurance. He is the patron angel of Cylenia and lends his strength to people facing impossible odds. His obdurate will is manifest in the magical elements of Earth and Force.
Nathaniel: The angel of Creativity. He watches over the mind and spirit and guides people to learn and create. His fruitful and vibrant will is manifest in the magical elements of Fire and Light.
Haamiah: The angel of Integrity. Her domain is priests and doctors, protectors of the weak and small. His hand shapes the magical elements of Water and Life.
Nyami: the local earth spirit of the Southlander peoples. When the Southlanders first came to the icy lands, Nyami was the one who darkened their skin to protect them from the sun's glare. He taught them how to defend against the cold and how to bring forth plant life in the midst of the snowy hills.
Race: Yagalian
Appearance: he has gray skin and gray hair, very much like a typical Yagalian would - his nose is long and bony, and there is a distinctly birdlike look to him, up to and including the winglike flab on his arms. Has pale, wet and cowlike eyes and a drawn, thick-lipped mouth. Is possessed of a not insignificant amount of bounciness and cheer, almost disturbingly so once you consider the context of the situation.
Profession: Itinerant Priest (completely and utterly nonmagical, one might add)
Favored Weapon: iron-tipped wooden staff - one of the tips has a crude iron figure in the shape of a fist affixed to it.
Short Backstory: hailing from Western Yagal, a land of demons and intrigue, Lyubrak specializes in the latter. He was unappreciated in his homeland as a priest - probably because his sermons, what few he managed to perform before being run out of there, did little to protect anybody from demonic attacks - and so took up the road in order to gain at least something from his intense month of listening to assorted fervent worshippers yammering on about this god and that god - all very good, Lyubrak thought, but there was clearly room for improvement, and he knew just the best place to hammer out the details - Cylenia! Okay, maybe there were better places, but still, he thought he could pull something here, something beautiful. Then the end times came, or at least something similar to them - honestly, Lyubrak's been pretty excited about that. It's created an atmosphere of wonderful dread, perfect for sowing the seeds of a new, hopefully profitable faith. He even got a cushy job as a bouncer to weather out the storm with a bunch of other miscreants. All in all, things, as always, are looking good for him!
Race: Cylenian
Appearance: Baldur is like most Cylenians in that he is tall, wide and muscular, with blonde hair and blue eyes. His right arm is much darker in colour than the rest of his body. Has numerous scars all on the front of his body, which he is always proud to show off. Wears dark green pants, leather boots, and a whitish tunic. Has a bear pelt draped over his shoulders to protect himself from the cold.
Profession: Warrior/Mercenary
Favoured Weapon: Zweihander
Short Backstory: When he was old enough, Baldur left his village in search of adventure. He was waylaid by bandits, who cut off his right arm and left him for dead. Yet he somehow managed to survive, and trained himself to fight with only his left arm. Eventually he hunted down the bandits who waylaid him, and cut off their leader's right arm in retribution before killing them all. He then convinced a life mage to graft that arm onto his body. However he still favours his left arm, and still fights left-handed. Afterwards Baldur wandered Maska for a couple years, working as a mercenary and muscle for hire.
Bergfalk is more concerned about how bloody cold the world has become than the sundering of the sundering of the sun and moon.
Race: Cylenian
Appearance: Thuun is shorter then most Cylenians, but still quite strong. He has a small tuft of hair upon his chin and his hair is knotted into braids.
Profession: Warrior Mage
Magical Affinity: Life Magic
Favoured Weapon: Shortsword(s).
Short Backstory: Lao Thuun was abandoned shortly after his birth to a monastery dedicated to Solvarion, where he was raised by the caretakers. He learned much there, including the magical arts of Life. When he was coming into his teenage years however, Thuun struck out on his own, learning the ways of the world, and similarly, the ways of the blade.
During the Ten-Day-Night Thuun had fought for his own basic survival, and he regrets many of the acts he commited in his desperation. Using his skill with Life magic, Thuun hopes to assuage the wounds he has personally caused.
Race: Limerete
Appearance: Naturally a lighter complex than most of his countrymen, he is nonetheless bronzed by all the time spend at sea. He's of average height, with a rough stubble and jet black hair, cropped short. His arms and torso bear numerous small scars from working on ships and he has one larger scar above his left eye.
Profession: Mercenary seaman
Favoured Weapon: Bow
Short Backstory: When he was a child, he never knew his father. This came as a surprise to no-one, seeing as he was the child of a Limerate whore and some random sailor. Growing up around the docks and near the sea always filled him with a sense of ease. In his teenage years, he worked as a dockhand, and in his adult years he became a sailor for hire. Merchants needing protection, scholars off to inspect dangerous lands and smugglers looking for someone to fend off pirates and authorities alike, he's been on all kinds of ships. Mostly favoring the bow and arrow and various things to throw at his enemies, when the fighting starts, there is only so much space on a ship. No stranger to close quarters fighting, he prefers agile dodging and weaving over pure strength.
His recent work got him to Shas Isa, when suddenly the whole world went dark. All the captains, superstitious lot as they are, reckoned it would be best to stay away from the sea for a while. So here he is, doing a stint as glorified doorman at a pub to pass the time...
Race: Southlanders
Appearance: Short for a Southlander but still taller than most, Ekoka has a shaved head and wears thick robes to protect from the lingering cold. Under the robes,
Profession: Wanderer
Background: Ekoka was a shaman-in-training in his village before the Ten-Day Night. During the Night, his village was attacked by less fortunate, more desperate individuals, and both he and others had to flee. He wound up in Shas Isa, used his mediocre magical talents to help defend the bar, and the rest will be history once it passes.
Empty! Guess I'm not doing my job properly, eh?
Waitlist
Which will go here one day.
Race: Limerete
Appearance: He is bald, but has a dark beard and mustache. He is a lean man, built from years climbing the masts of many ships. He commonly wears light clothing made for the sea.
Profession: Sailing Master/Weather Mage
Magical Affinity: Wind and Water
Favoured Weapon: Dirk
Short Backstory: Born to a successful merchant, Zerusth, was sent to a school for manipulating the weather at an early age. Graduating shortly before reaching adulthood, he got a position on his father's ship as a sail mater's apprentice. After a few years at sea his mentor died fending off a pirate attack, and Zerusth took his position. A couple years pass by, and right before the Ten-Day-Night his ship hit a storm he could not control and he was set adrift. On day four of the catastrophe he found himself in Shas Isa where he worked as a bouncer to wait out the night.
Race: Southlander
Appearance: Orange, sunset-like hair that is let loose. Acorn-color skin, orange smooth eyes. Smaller figure overall, and shy-ish. Has a bright personality.
Profession: Wandering Forest Mage (Druid?)
Magical Affinity: Earth and Light
Favoured Weapon: A stick, of course! She doesn't use attack weapons, silly! She uses her earth magic!
Short Backstory: She was just a girl who was abandoned at birth in the forest and raised by wild cat-like animals, only bigger. She wandered the forests and learned the magic of the earth. She uses things like vines and light to bind people when needed, but she's mostly a passive person. She's cheery and bright, and is not afraid to help people. She admires Zechariah for his sacrifice, but had to visit this planet. And now she's here.
Race: Southlander
Appearance: Tall, dark skinned (of course), dark, wavy hair. Has a neatly trimmed beard. Has a not-so-fully-healed scar next to his lip running halfway up to his cheekbones.
Profession: Elemental shaman
Magic Affinity: Water, Summoning
Favored Weapon: Slingstaff (doubles as Melee and ranged)
Backstory: Weiss was taught at a young age by his father that nature and all it's elements were to be treated with respect. Use one element too roughly or too flippantly, the element you control will turn on you. By the time of the sundering of the moon, he was 21 years old and had almost perfected the mastery the water elements. However, the sundering caused an water elemental summoning to go wrong and resulted in the death of his father. Since then, he was afraid of summoning watery spirits, lest they were to go rogue and attack him again.
Most of you understand the principles already, but for the newbies… well, you have a ⅓ chance of getting through something unscathed. For every action taken, I roll a d6 (Unless otherwise noted). Your success is as follows:
Combat:
1: You fail. Badly. And probably punch yourself in the face.
2: You fail, but thankfully don’t make things worse.
3: Nearly there… nope, you still fail. But at least you achieve something.
4: You succeed! It ain’t perfect, but you did what you were aiming for.
5: You succeed beyond your wildest dreams! Utter perfection in every way.
6: It’s like perfect success, but a little beyond that. You succeed so hard you cause collateral damage! It’ll be either more amusing or more awesome.
7+: Oh jeez. This is basically more awesome than before. If you hit 10, you're reaching apocalyptic levels of power. Hopefully I kill you before that point.
Dodging:
1: You fail and take a critical hit.
2: You fail and take a solid hit.
3: You fail but only get nicked.
4: You dodge!
5: You dodge and parry!
6: You take a minor hit in exchange for a +1 to your parry roll!
Wounds:
1: Head
2: Torso
3: Arms
4: Legs
5: Hands
6: Feet
Sanity
Beyond a certain point, your sanity is going to become quite important. The more mad you become, the more odd things will happen to you.
1: Lose five sanity!
2: Lose two sanity.
3: Lose one sanity.
4: You're safe! No sanity loss.
5: You're safer! Recover one sanity.
6: your mind is fortress-like! Recover two sanity, +1 to next will save.
The spells you can cast are limited by your creativity and your level. However, as a rough guide imagine a triangle. The three points are POWER, FOCUS and RANGE. You need to balance. Spells lose focus as their range increases, for example; to maintain the focus, you sacrifice power.
More explicitly, each element has an associated skill level that determines your range and the level of intricacy you can introduce.
-1 = Range is limited to internal only. Power is minor. You could increase the power of a punch, or heal a wound. Your magic can't extend beyond your own skin, however.
0 = Range is skin to skin (or in the case of the spellsword ability, your weapon). You have a rudimentary understanding of how the element works and could send someone flying with just a touch, cause an object to glow, or heal someone else. Your power is a little erratic, however, so you might just injure yourself.
1 = Range is limited to about twenty feet. Your control is typically akin to a flamethrower. You can seriously wound, but it's hard. Light magic is limited to being a flashlight (A very bright flashlight) at this point, while shadow magic is, well, shadowy.
2 = Your range is several hundred yards and you can coherently focus a ball that far. Earth magic is capable of damaging a building or reducing several square yards of rock into fine dust. You can seriously wound.
3 = Your range is line-of-sight. You can almost instantaneously induce the elemental force at your target location, although as range increases your focus and power decreases. Fire can melt rock, earth can level entire blocks and light magic can bring forth lightsabres. Shadow magic can induce mass invisibility.
4+ = things get a little ridiculous. Your magic is quickly becoming ludicrously powerful.
As soon as one of your magic skills hits 3, you're considered powerful enough that blood begins to make you kasplode.
Name: Baldur Bergfalk
Race: Cylenian
Appearance: Baldur is like most Cylenians in that he is tall, wide and muscular, with blonde hair and blue eyes. His right arm is much darker in colour than the rest of his body. Has numerous scars all on the front of his body, which he is always proud to show off. Wears dark green pants, leather boots, and a whitish tunic. Has a bear pelt draped over his shoulders to protect himself from the cold.
Profession: Warrior/Mercenary
Favoured Weapon: Zweihander (aka bigass two-handed sword)
Short Backstory: When he was old enough, Baldur left his village in search of adventure. He was waylaid by bandits, who cut off his right arm and left him for dead. Yet he somehow managed to survive, and trained himself to fight with only his left arm. Eventually he hunted down the bandits who waylaid him, and cut off their leader's right arm in retribution before killing them all. He then convinced a life mage to graft that arm onto his body. However he still favours his left arm, and still fights left-handed. Afterwards Baldur wandered Maska for a couple years, working as a mercenary and muscle for hire.
Bergfalk is more concerned about how bloody cold the world has become than the sundering of the sundering of the sun and moon.
Not entirely sure what the point of having elves is if you're using the term race in a non-fantastical manner, but meh.
Race: Southlanders
Appearance: Short for a Southlander but still taller than most, Ekoka has a shaved head and wears thick robes to protect from the lingering cold. Under the robes,
Profession: Wanderer
Background: Ekoka was a shaman-in-training in his village before the Ten-Day Night. During the Night, his village was attacked by less fortunate, more desperate individuals, and both he and others had to flee. He wound up in Shas Isa, used his mediocre magical talents to help defend the bar, and the rest will be history once it passes.
((Apostrophes are glottal stops, not clicks. For a click, you can use !, e.g. Zue!qki!Ptar. Oh, and how are you supposed to pronounce "qki"?))
((Also, as noted, iron is somewhat inferior to bronze in both effectiveness and, to a greater extent, ease of making the weapons. Iron only became popular because of its commonness, and later because it could be turned into steel. Of course, it screws up magic in this world, so it might be turned into specialty magekiller gear...but that's about it, if tin is common enough or iron rare enough that bronze is easier to find the materials for.))
((And while I'm here, do you care about the ecological consequences of ten days with no sunlight?))
Name: Adio Freyor
Race: Southlander
Appearance: Orange, sunset-like hair that is let loose. Acorn-color skin, orange smooth eyes. Smaller figure overall, and shy-ish. Has a bright personality.
Profession: A human mage who wanders the forests, kind of like a dryad.
Magical Affinity: Earth and Light
Favoured Weapon: A stick, of course! She doesn't use attack weapons, silly! She uses her earth magic!
Short Backstory: She was just a girl who was abandoned at birth in the forest and raised by wild cat-like animals, only bigger. She wandered the forests and learned the magic of the earth. She uses things like vines and light to bind people when needed, but she's mostly a passive person. She's cheery and bright, and is not afraid to help people. She admires Zechariah for his sacrifice, but had to visit this planet. And now she's here.
Uh... Be glad that BFEL didn't roll a six on his wisp... Or this would have happened throughout the bar.
- Turn 2: Let's Beat Up Civilians! -
You're clearing out the bar pretty well, with the only casualty so far being one idiot with his head in a bucket. The innkeeper is impressed with your efficiency!
Help get the non-injured people out of the bar.
(5) You pick up your shillelagh in your left hand and move towards the Yagalian. He takes a swing at you but you knock his clumsy swing aside and with one deft movement, hook your foot behind his and trip him onto his backside. You grab the Yagalian by the scruff of his neck and bodily toss him from the inn; he lands in a snowdrift outside. Cold, but otherwise unharmed.
There are three rowdy people left in the bar.
"Right. Maybe you would like to leave now, then?"
If they would not, bash the rowdiest one in the shin with my staff.
(6) "LEAVE NOW OR FACE MY PRIESTLY VENGEANCE!" you yell, waving your staff. The Southlander, who towers over you by a foot and is significantly more muscular, just snorts and picks up a chair.
So you take hold of your staff with both hands and crack him in the shins. You hit him in the shins so hard that his tibias both shatter and he collapses screaming onto the floor. He drops the chair in the process and it topples over and lands on your foot. "Oh just walk it off, you big baby," you tell him as he screams. You hope he doesn't notice that your foot is looking a tad flat.
The innkeeper no longer looks pleased. Perhaps you should tone it down a little.
"Huh. I didn't expect that to actually work." Baldur shrugs and manhandles the nearest patron out of the door.
(4) You pick up the screaming Southlander and drape him over one shoulder before carrying him outside. You toss him into the snowbank next to the Yagalian, figuring that the cold will hopefully help numb the pain a bit.
Two rowdy boys remain. The innkeeper is slightly annoyed, but worse has happened.
Tend to bucketfacemcscrewyarm, as he is heavily injured and we want to avoid a lawsuit.
(6) (Oh shit) "Hey, idiot!" You yell at the Cylenian with his head stuck in a bucket. "Hold still!" You decide that the best method for getting his head out of the bucket is to stop the bucket from existing. So you... Kick it. Not metaphorically. The bucket explodes into shrapnel and the man's ears are bleeding, but at least he's out of the bucket!
Not finished yet, you cup your hands. Blazing emerald light fills your hands and pours onto the wounded man. There's a sickly crackling as his arm forcibly realigns. Wanting to be perfectly sure that he's okay, you don't stop and so more and more magic pours in! His muscles begin to bulge. His clothing tears at the seams. Noticing this abnormal muscle growth, you finally decide to stop.
A seven-foot tall brute stands up, most of his clothing falling away in tatters. His pecs are bigger than your entire chest. Holy shit.
(3) All of a sudden all of the muscles in your arms seize up in pain. You can't use your arms for one turn!
On the upside, you feel you understand Life magic better. +1 exp!
There's STILL two guys in the bar... And one of them is now the Hulk. Way to go. Oh, and the innkeeper is pissed.
Assist Baldur in manhandling troublemakers out of the door, put on my best scowl as I do so
(6) (A third? Oh hell.) You howl and tackle the non-Hulkified Cylenian to the floor and club him into unconsciousness with the hilt of your dirk. You then toss him out into the snowbank. He lands on top of the Southlander.
On top of his shins, actually.
Ouch. You cruel bastard.
BOSS FIGHT: THE INCREDIBLE HULK!
HULK: ME FEEL POWERFUL. YOU PUNY MAGES!
His skin is still glowing a brilliant emerald green. He grunts and charges at Lao Thuun!
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Creating a source of screaming.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: removing the source of screaming.
Inventory: Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak 300 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Succeeding too hard at magic.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Massive arm cramps]Abilities: [Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Inventing the scrum a few years too early
Inventory: Cracked Shortbow
Seven Arrows
Really Blunt DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
370 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Planting humans in the snowbanks
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
The Hulk is somewhat depowered, Baldur is a bad sport and Ekoka learns a new skill. All in all, an amusing turn.
- Turn 3: The Incredible Hulk -
So Lao Thuun accidentally made one of the drunken fighters into the fantasy analogue of The Hulk. Way to go, Lao. Since there's currently a very angry, very large person smashing up bits of the bar, you decide it's high time he take a nap.
Deftly dodge the ungrateful lout!
(3) you throw yourself to the side, but don't quite make it out of the giant green man's range. He swipes at you with his left hand! (1+1) He manages to hit you in the chest. It's only the tip of his fingers but you still feel like a hammer caught you!
(6) You spin and tumble in midair, but manage to recover your balance and land on your feet, on a table. Your head stops a mere inch from one of the rafters. You hook a foot around a candle and kick it at the Hulk! (2) But it misses. Thankfully it goes out midair.
"Well."
Run like hell! Try to trip the green man up!
"Well."
(2) You decide to mimic Ekoka from earlier. You hook one foot around his leg and heave! But... Nothing. Shit. Luckily he didn't even notice you. He just sorta absently pushes you aside when...
"Finally! I was starting to think that this was going to be a boring night!" Baldur tries to tackle the hulk to the ground.
(1) "Feh, this is a boring fight!" you say and sit down. On a chair right in front of the Hulk. He takes your attitude as a challenge and picks up a table, a very heavy table! But before he can throw it...
"Ya big bastard, I've tackled fish bigger than you!"
Attempt to jump on the hulkified one's back and pummel his head witht the hilt of my dirk, trying to drag him to the floor
(4) You decide that Lyu has the right idea, if wrong method. "Ya big bastard, I've tackled fish bigger than you!" you yell at him as a challenge. Next thing he knows, you're on his back, clubbing away somewhat ineffectually at his skill with your dirk. Since there's only one of you and he's, like, three people rolled into one you're less than effective.
But hey, at least he's not trying to throw that table anymore! Now he's flailing around trying to grab you! But his muscles are so big that his arms can't quite bend enough to grab you. Which, from the way he picked up that table, is probably a good thing.
Attempt to counter the life magic with force magic, without hurting him. Or getting squashed.
(4) Deciding that now, with the monkey on his back, is as good a time as any, you move forwards to counteract the Life magic with Force magic. You decide to ignore that they're opposites in the same way that oil and water opposites and try it anyway.
He's flailing around trying to grab Felis, so he doesn't even notice you step up and lay both hands on his chest. It's fever-hot beneath your touch and you can feel the brimming Life magic still running through him. You're not even sure that he could be hurt until the Life magic ran out!
You push the Force magic into him, definitely not thinking about imploding his stomach. You somehow target the magic itself. Angry scarlet light flares from your hands! The emerald green of his glowing skin disappears in a wave emanating from your hands, leaving behind his normal skin colour.
However, he's still... Well, he's still big. At least he probably won't immediately heal any wound!
(5) You brace for the magical cost. It's not too bad! Your chest clamps up a bit and you fight for breath for a moment, but you're otherwise unharmed. Lucky you!
(6) You've even come to better understand opposing forces! You can now dual-cast opposing magics with a -1 to roll instead of -2. Holy hell.
Hulk's Status: Perfectly fine. Probably can't rapidly heal anymore. He's also a bit calmer. He's still trying to get Felis off his back, though.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Failing at judo.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Being bored. At a really bad time.
b]Inventory:[/b]
Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak 300 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Standing on a table.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Being the literal monkey on the Hulk's back.
Inventory: Cracked Shortbow
Seven Arrows
Really Blunt DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
370 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Flaunting the current understanding of magic.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 7: The Good Priest -
"Why arrest me, though? I did not use any magic. Or damage any property. I swear it on my honor as a holy man."
Hope that works.
(4) "Why arrest me, though? I did not use any magic. Or damage any property. I swear it on my honor as a holy man,” you inform the captain.
He stops, blinks and notes the holy symbol hanging around your neck. “What’s a priest doing working as a bouncer?” he asks, curiously. He seems to have bought your story for the most part. (6) He even ignores your staff that matches the staff-shaped dent in the screaming Southlander’s shins.
“Oh, you know, I got stuck in this town during the Ten Day Night and needed some extra money.” He nods noncommittally; it must be a fairly common story this week.
"Honestly, officers, I was just doing my job as a bouncer. I had just gently but firmly escorted a troublemaker out of the door when the one who is still inside threw my into a table, dislocating my arm."
Look all meek and defenceless, say above to guards.
(5-1) You put on a reasonably plausible ‘meek and defenceless’ act, managing to look pathetically harmless despite your assortment of weapons, scars and general rough-and-tumble demeanour. “Honestly, officers, I was just doing my job as a bouncer. I had just gently but firmly escorted a troublemaker out of the door when the one who is still inside threw me into a table, dislocating my arm."
The guard captain seems to buy it… mostly. “And you didn’t draw your weapon?” he asks, looking pointedly at the empty sheathe on your hip.
(1) “Yeah, I absolutely did!” you holler gleefully. “Beat that giant dude a few times over the head with it, too!” About a second later you facepalm. You’re not sure what came over you.
(6) Lyu Brak swats you over the back of your head. “Quiet, idiot!” he hisses at you. “Ignore this one,” he explains to the captain. “He got tossed into a table and dislocated most of his left arm. Twice. So he’s a tad loopy from pain.” The captain nods and waves a hand at his guards, telling them to back down for the moment.
Baldur shrugs. "Last I checked I got a set of broken ribs trying to stop a patron from running amuck. Not my fault if I couldn't stop him from smashing up the place a bit."
(1) “BLAH BLAH BLAH. GUARDS SO NOSY.” You go to make a rude gesture at the captain, (4) but Lyu grabs your arm and forces it back down.
"I did not damage property, either, nor was my magic used improperly. I merely attempted to undo my comrade's mistake and restrain the mayor before he could hurt himself or others further."
Hope that works, too.
(1) “MAGIC IS AWESOME!” You yell and spin in a circle. “I threw the mayor into a bucket and Lao made him crazy!” You collapse to the floor and giggle uncontrollably.
(5) “Please ignore my good friend,” Lyu Brak interjects hastily. “He took a blow to the head. He did use magic, but it was only to separate a brawl and to pin down one very large attacker. He did no harm.”
The guardsman looks at you askance, but seems to trust the word of the good priest. He decides that Lyu Brak is the only sane one in the group.
Lyu Brak gained a new ability! The Good Priest!
(3) Your headache doesn’t fade, so magic is still painfully beyond your reach.
Captain: Wait, one of you actually did use magic?
Lyu Brak nods soberly. The captain sighs and facepalms.
Captain: It’s worse than I thought. Father, I must ask you and your… friends… to accompany me to Shriekwind Bastion.
Lyu Brak: Whatever for, my good man?
Captain: Your friend here used magic. And so did the one inside, by the sounds of it.
Lyu Brak: They’re mages, it’s what they do. What’s wrong with magic, the Goddess Lunette’s gift to the world?
Captain: You… You really don’t get it. Look, priest, for your own protection I’m going to have to take you in. Before the crowd gets ugly.
The crowd does seem to be a bit restless. They seem particularly ill at ease over Ekoka’s presence. You’d think, this close to the border of Zue’Qki’Ptar they’d be used to Southlanders.
Just beyond the guards is a small carriage waiting. It’s the type normally used to transport prisoners so it’s not exactly comfortable, but at least it will get you out of the view of the small crowd.
Thuun ATTEMPTS to explain that he was only trying to fix some rather nasty wounds the Mayor incurred, but all that comes out is "GLABLUUBLUGGUD."
(6-3) “Hurgleflurgleblaarrgh!” you manage to mumble around your swollen jaw. You decide that charades is the way to explain what went down, but don't know how to sign "I accidentally turned him into a rage-monster and punched myself in the face".
The guardsman looks from you to the mayor. “What.” Of course, the hulkified mayor picks this time to wake up. Awesome.
He hacks and coughs. “Ugh. What… What happened?” he rumbles in a scarily deep voice. He sits up slowly. “I do say, what seems to be the matter, officers?” He blinks and looks down at himself. “Oh dear Goddess what the hell happened to me?” He… doesn’t seem entirely upset at being built like a freaking mountain. Just surprised.
(5) His beady eyes lock onto you. “You… The mage. I remember. You… tried to heal my arm?” The guardsman looks at you for confirmation and you nod. The mayor continues. “But… But I’m like this. Hm. Old Asclepius did say magic was acting a bit funny since one of you lot broke the Moon. Oh well, no harm done. My original was no great shakes, after all.”
Against all odds the mayor seems to be pleased! Well this is a pleasant turn of events. The mayor stands up shakily. There’s a tearing sound and the last shred of his dignity falls away. “Oh… Oh my,” he mutters. “You really did improve me all over, didn’t you?” He grabs a blanket from behind the bar and ties it around his waist.
The guardsman sighs. “Be that as it may, he did use magic. Which means…”
The mayor nods. “Yes. Take him to Shriekwind. We don’t have the facilities in town.”
The guardsman turns back to you. “Come with me. For your protection - and everyone else’s - I’m going to have to take you in.” He leads you outside to a waiting carriage. It’s basic and probably not very comfortable, but at least it’s better than walking all the way to Shriekwind Bastion.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Displaying a silver tongue
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Being rude.
b]Inventory:
Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Broken rib]Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Somehow not being arrested. Yet.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Heavily Torn Muscles] [Swollen Jaw] [Exhaustion]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Being rude.
Inventory: Cracked Shortbow
Seven Arrows
Really Blunt DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
370 gold
Wounds/Status: [Tender left arm]Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Somehow acting like a crazy man.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Headache]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 8: Blood and Ice -
It has been... suggested that you accompany the Captain of the Guard to Shriekwind Bastion, the imposing fortress that squats over the southern pass like a hungry lion.
Lao Thuun blushes when the Mayors clothing falls away, and then joins the nice officers who are thankfully not beating him with sticks.
He reasons to thank Lyu later for his excellent diplomatic skills.
(5) You manage to avoid mumbling or miming any faux pas vis a vis the naked truth about the mayor. You happily make it into the carriage and mumble hello to your companions.
Go along with the guards. Still kinda have broken ribs, after all.
(4) You climb into the carriage.
Go with the guards. Peacefully.
Convince the GM to roll for actions like this so we can laugh at 1's being rolled and people accidentally fighting the guards.
(3) You try to climb in, but slip and bash your shins. One of the guards sighs, picks you up and tosses you in.
go peacefully with the guards
(4) Unlike Ekoka, you manage to climb into the carriage unharmed.
"Oh, yes. Let us go. It is unbecoming of civilized people to make a scene."
Go with the guards in a tranquil, innocent fashion.
(1) "Okay!" You answer, smiling beatifically. As the guard turns away, you heft your stick, take hold of it with both hands and crack it across his head! (5) His bronze helmet crinkles under the massive force and the guard goes down like a poleaxed ox.
The other guards are staring in shock. (6) (Oh shit) You smile at the captain. "Bless you, my son," you intone peacefully. As he reaches for his sword you jab your staff into his neck, crushing his windpipe! The captain flies backwards under the force, his half-drawn sword sliding out of his hand and into the arm of another guardsman.
One guard steps up behind you and swings at your (3) arm! You (2) take a solid hit, but (4) manage to swing your staff one-handed into his (2) ribs. He wheezes and topples over.
(1) on your next swing you slip on a patch of blood. Yours, someone else's, you're not sure. You go down and four guards appear in your vision. "DIE, SCUM!" they yell. Four bronze swords plunge down...
...
...
...
...
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51H9mCZPB-L._SL500_SL160_.jpg)
You suddenly startle awake. The prison carriage is still rattling along. The cabin is damn cold... You must be pretty high up in the mountains. Lao Thuun is sitting across from you. Unlike the others, he's been handcuffed. Sigils gleam on the cuffs; your limited experience suggests they are to seal his magic. Probably wise.
Ekoka and Baldur are sitting next to Lao, Felis to your right. It would appear that someone has strapped Felis' ribs for him.
The carriage comes to a halt. There's a small barred window that runs along the top of the carriage; you can't see much out of it other than mountain. A freaking lot of mountain. "End of the line, boys," the Captain's voice says from outside. The door at the end opens and the five of you clamber out. As Lao gets out, the Captain grabs his shoulder. "I don't want to see you ever come into my town again, you got that?" he asks. "You take your freaky shit elsewhere." With one swift movement he jerks the cuffs off.
The five of you turn to face where he points, before he climbs back into the carriage. In front of you is a causeway. A wide road runs straight up, clearly carved into the mountain. This is the pass that leads into Zue'Qki'Ptar.
A huge arch dominates the road. That arch, and it's twin on the other side, mark the boundaries of Cylenia's oldest fortress, the black basalt monster that looms above the road, dug into the side of the western mountain. Thick, sturdy towers corner the wall across the road and the corners of the fortress itself. You see archers, warmed by braziers, stationed in each tower. They brook no nonsense.
Your gaze shifts back to the fortress. To Shriekwind Bastion.
A soldier is waiting. "Come. The Baron is waiting."
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Dreaming
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Riding
b]Inventory:
Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Broken rib (3/2)]Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Getting cuffed. Possibly enjoying it.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Heavily Torn Muscles (4/5)] [Swollen Jaw (2/3)] [Exhaustion (2/3)]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Riding along peacefully.
Inventory: Cracked Shortbow
Seven Arrows
Really Blunt DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
370 gold
Wounds/Status: [Tender left arm (2/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Not being crazy.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Headache]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 9: Shriekwind Bastion -
The mayor has decided to pawn his problems off to the Baron of the district, who makes his home in the fortress overlooking the town. You have decided to peacefully accompany the Guard to meet with the Baron.
"Guess we better go, then," Lyu said, smiling widely. From where he comes from, they often wondered where the good priest got his honest smile and boundless cheer from.
Oh, if only they knew.
Go where I'm supposed to go. Happily beam as a result of my wonderful dream.
"Oh, he's awake now."
Smack Lyu.
"Idiot."
Then head out and follow the guards.
Cheerfully get out of those cuffs and away from the town of overreacting whiny bumpkins.
Then follow the group.
"Mountains....always mountains...why can't these things ever be build near the sea..."
Follow the group
Baldur chuckles at Lyu and Ekoka and follows the guards. "So what does the Baron want with the likes of us?"
After some slapstick, the five of you decide to follow the Guardsman to find out what the baron of this accursedly cold place wants. You decide by unspoken agreement that one of the Cylenians in your party should speak to the Cylenian nobleman; he is not known for his love of ‘outsiders’. Further unspoken agreements decide that the cause of the trouble, Lao, should stand well at the back.
You are led into the courtyard. The wide road passes through the middle of the fortress courtyard; there are a few small wagons waiting at the customs station. Trade has been slow to resume since the Ten Day Night, but capitalism will always find a way. A small hostel on the Eastern side of the fortress complex provides lodging for merchants and their teams of oxen, but the Guardsman leads you across to the western side.
The main entrance to Shriekwind is nothing short of ‘massive’. The door looks to be nearly a foot thick, made of some dark wood and strapped together with bands of brass and rivets the size of your fist. The Guardsman leads you into the fortress. The interior is lit by large braziers mounted along the wall every six or eight feet; the glowing coals keep the passageways warm and comfortable. The main entrance hall is quite large. Twin rows of pillars run the length of it. Along the walls on either side you can see wooden doors that presumably lead to other sections of the fortress. He leads you to the back of the main hall and into a spiral staircase. As you wind upwards, he begins to talk. “Be careful what you say to the Baron, lads. He’s been a mite testy of late. If you annoy him he might just throw you in the dungeon.”
Finally the five of you pass into a hallway. It runs back towards the east. At the end of the carpeted passageway is an oak door about ten feet tall guarded by two men armed with spears and swords. Your escort snaps a salute to the guards. “Here they are, the men Captain Regnis sent word about.”
The rightmost guard nods. “The Baron’s waiting inside.” With a grunt he shoulders the door open and stands aside. “In you go, then.” You walk into the the Baron’s office. A wide oak desk dominates the centre of the room, the legs covered in ornate carvings. The similarly ornate chair is empty, however. Behind it all you can see a tall man standing at the eastern floor-to-ceiling window. The glass must have been prohibitively expensive, but there it was. He was watching something out in the courtyard.
Presently he turns to face you. He has a well-kept beard and moustache and the rugged face of someone used to living in the mountains.
Baron: So, you are the troublemakers. An itinerant priest, a Southlander mage, a sailor, a Solvarion acolyte and a mercenary, by the looks of you. I heard about the chaos you five caused thanks to some… creative methods.
Baldur: What? No, we-
Baron: I don’t like chaos. It’s noisy, time-consuming and messy. Ordinarily I wouldn’t even deal with you lot and leave it all up to Mayor Neshalt’s discretion. He’d just toss you all into jail until everything was sorted out.
Baldur: Just let me-
Baron: But he doesn’t have the facilities to deal with errant mages, and right now if you lot were thrown into the town jail there would be a riot. Gods damn the blasted spineless, quivering populace!
His voice has risen into a roar. It’s quite uncomfortable on your ears.
Baldur: EXCUSE ME!
The baron looks like he’s about to speak, but says nothing. Instead he raises one bushy eyebrow.
Baldur: We didn’t do anything wrong! Eight patrons got into a brawl. We simply did our jobs and removed them from the damn tavern. 'Swhat we were hired to do!
Baron: As I understand it from this report… (He taps a thick finger onto a sheet of paper on his desk) You were ineffective in preventing the breakage of… three tables, six chairs, four mugs and two windows. One patron suffered broken legs, another dislocated his arm and a third was magically altered into some kind of monstrosity. Thankfully he has gotten his mind back.
Lao shifts his feet guiltily.
Baron: Well. I have no desire to deal with any of you and I don’t have the resources to spare at the moment. So here’s what is going to happen. You five are going to go on a little ‘quest’ for me.
Oh yes. You just know this is going to go well.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Listening
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Getting interrupted
b]Inventory:
Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Broken rib (2/2)]Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Listening
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Heavily Torn Muscles (3/5)] [Swollen Jaw (1/3)] [Exhaustion (1/3)]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Listening
Inventory: Cracked Shortbow
Seven Arrows
Really Blunt DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
370 gold
Wounds/Status: [Tender left arm (1/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Listening
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Headache]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
And I know that everyone's actions aren't included, but hey. Moving for this turn was optional, since it's just another talky-talky turn.
- Turn 10: The Quest -
The mayor can't hold you and the baron doesn't want you. Instead, he's going to send you on an 'errand'. Right. Well, this should be easy.
Thuun thinks to himself that whatever this "quest" is, its certainly better then dealing with more overreacting bumpkins and barons.
Baldur chuckles. "Alright, fair enough. What's this quest, and what's the danger pay like?"
"Alright. Let's hear it, sir."
Ekoka nods, Baldur chuckles and Thuun just shrugs. Seems like they're all in agreement.
Ekoka: alright. Let's hear it, sir.
Baldur: Yeah, fair enough. What's this quest, and what's the danger pay like?
Baron: Well. There is regular correspondence between Shas Ria and the outlying cities. Twice a week, couriers ferry this correspondence; both to the citizens of Shas Isa and to me.
The baron waves towards his window.
Baron: Yet, since before the Ten Day Night no courier has graced my courtyard and the mayor tells me that no mail has arrived in town either. Yesterday, I received a report from my lowland troops that they had found... Well. See for yourself.
He picks up a satchel from his desk. You can see the familiar crest of Cylenia, a stylised gemstone backed by crossed picks. He tosses it to land in front of Lao Thuun's feet. The healer bends over and picks the bag up, very carefully avoiding a conspicuously red patch.
Thuun: Blood. And...
He opens the bag.
Thuun: Fantastic. It's a heart... Looks human. It's, uh, it's in pieces. It looks like it was torn apart, not cut.
Thuun mutters in what sounds like Liminari. Felice raises an eyebrow and snorts.
Thuun: I have never seen a creature that has this strength. What did this?
The baron shrugs.
Baron: You five are going to find out. Find out who - or what - has been shredding the messengers. Destroy it, or them, or whatever. Do so and the entire tavern debacle will be forgotten, provided you stay the hell out of town for a couple of years. You go free, I get my communications and hopefully the town will be quiet for a good long while. Everybody wins.
Your group look slightly nonplussed that they will essentially be working for free. There's a cough at the door. A tall, thin Cylenian enters.
??: Milord, you sent for me?
Baron: Cyrus, there you are. Gentlemen, this is Cyrus, my advisory mage. He will be accompanying you to ensure there aren't any shenanigans. He will also report back to me once your task is completed.
Cyrus: My lord, must I? Surely someone else can-
Baron: No, Cyrus. You need to get out of Barony Waterstone for a few days anyway. You know you do.
Baldur growls under his breath, but doesn't yell. He takes a moment to compose himself... A little. Bartering his skills is familiar territory to him; he knows how the game is played.
Baldur: Baron, I'm a mercenary. I don't get food in my belly by doin' community service.
Baron: Well I'm sure as hell not paying you. If you prefer I can have you thrown off the tower.
Baldur: You're welcome to try. But it seems to me that we'd be doin' the country a huge favour by restoring her communications. I'm sure we would deserve some compensation for time given.
Lyu Brak: (Muttering) Especially since three of us aren't even Cylenian...
Cyrus: Uncouth as he may be, he does have a point sire. The messengers are Crown personnel. The Duke will pay for the bounty if you issue it.
The baron sighs.
Baron: Very well. In return for your freedom and a bounty of ten thousand gold, you five will fix this problem and not bother me for a very long time.
The baron writes out a letter. It looks short and terse, but you do see him distinctly write down plenty of zeroes. It looks to be an actual bounty. He signs it and stamps the letter with his signet ring before handing the letter to Cyrus.
Baron: Now go. There is a carriage waiting. Cyrus, give them the bounty letter once the job is completed.
Cyrus sighs and bows.
Cyrus: As my Lord commands.
This carriage is much nicer than the first one. The seats are padded and everything! The baron's seal is placed prominently upon the door, warning most potential ne'er-do-wells to leave well enough alone. The small windows are curtained and the inside is spacious enough for six people to sit in somewhat comfort.
Cyrus sighs heavily as the carriage begins to trundle along the road. The driver, bundled head to toe in furs, expertly controls the sure-footed oxen from a sheltered cabin. Nobody says much as the carriage moves down the mountains or into Shas Isa. All of you, newcomers to Shas Isa, get a proper look at the town that was your home for the ten days of darkness.
It is not a particularly large town, nestled in a valley between what would count as mountains anywhere else. A gently-sloping road runs from the southern gate to the northern gate and is wide enough for four wagons to drive abreast. Even so, the road is fairly crowded. Market stalls stud the roadside, selling hot food to the weary wagoneers. Inns beckon to them as well, offering a warm bed and cheap ale. Your time up to the bastion and back has taken up nearly two hours. As it is, there's only an hour or two of sunlight left. But your carriage doesn't stop, instead heading for the northern gate.
Disturbingly, you hear the thudding of stones being thrown at the carriage. Cyrus sighs again. You get the sense that he does that a lot. "The plebeians know I'm in here," he mutters in his cultured voice. "Damnable fools. It's not like I'm the one who cut--is that the mayor? Whatever happened to him?"
You look out the window. The mayor is indeed there, dressed in a cloak that looks to have been hastily made from a horse's blanket. He sees who is in the carriage and smiles. You get the sense that he is quite pleased to not be troubled with you anymore.
On the other side, you see whispers running through the crowd. One of them gestures in the vague direction of the enlarged mayor. By pure chance, you catch the words on their lips: three mages?
"Oh dear, they've spotted you two as well," Cyrus murmurs. He knocks on the wall behind his head twice. "Driver, the crowd is getting uglier. May we pick up the pace?" The worrisome mage is right. The crowd appears to be trying to hem the carriage in, but nobody is brave enough to confront two oxen that weigh in at half a tonne each. Which is just as well because the crowd seems one step away from the torches-and-pitchforks routine.
The carriage safely makes it through the gate, now only occasionally being rattled by showers of rocks. Stretching out before you is the widening valley that leads into the low, flat hills of the lowlands. Somewhere within those hills was the remains of several messengers, apparently torn apart by something insanely strong. And here you were, off to confront it.
Awesome.
At least you're getting paid.
Rightio, and we're off! The next turn will be a travel turn. The journey is quite long, so the carriage will make a stop. So write up some things that you'd like your character to do in the half an hour or so that the stop will last for. Some light reading, some napping, maybe tend to your weapons (Which I'd advise at least one of you to do!).
By the way, from here on out, the kid gloves are off.
The Tines of Madness are Ringing
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Listening
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Bargaining
b]Inventory:
Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Broken rib (1/2)]Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Listening
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Heavily Torn Muscles (2/5)]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Listening
Inventory: Cracked Shortbow
Seven Arrows
Really Blunt DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
370 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Listening
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Headache]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 11: The Quietest Village -
On your way to where the murdered bodies were found, you stop in at a small village for a rest. The carriage driver swaps places with someone in the village and you settle down to take care of some business...
Polish my staff proudly. It has served me well. Inspect it for dents and whatnot.
Then see if there is any good reading material around. If there is, read it. Do this the whole way along. Also, make conversation.
"So, Cyrus... what do you know about monsters? Or demons?"
Cyrus clearly uses this carriage somewhat frequently, as the seat has a small compartment with half a dozen scrolls on various topics. "No books?" You ask the mage curiously.
He shrugs. "The cold makes the binding glue brittle and books just fall apart." You nod and pick a scroll and open it... Before hurriedly closing it and picking another. Cyrus coughs. "That's, uh, not mine." The second scroll has slightly more tasteful writing, so you sit for about four or five hours, happily reading a treatise on parsley. You doze off for a while, but the carriage continues on through the night. The driver must be used to night-time carriage work.
Finally the carriage stops at the entrance to a small village. The sun is fully over the horizon, but not much higher. It's a lot warmer. You decide to polish your staff, so you retrieve a small polishing cloth and some wood polish from the carriage's little trunk. You take a seat on a large rock a small distance from the carriage and enjoy the warm sunshine as you polish the staff to a gleam. It seems mostly unharmed, save for two small shin-shaped dents. Huh.
Every time you try and strike up a conversation with Cyrus about demons, he shudders and changes the topic. Huh. Must get scared of them. Probably a good thing he doesn't live further north!
Felice stays quiet, not feeling all that comfortable this far away from the sea. He checks his bow, and sees if he it's possible to do something about the "cracked" part, If it is possible and the repairs cannot possibly fuck the bow up more, do the repairs. Then he will try to fletch some more arrows and sharpen his dirk when they take a stop.
You just quietly sit and watch the scenery going by, lit up as it is by the broken moon high above. You marvel at how everything changes from minute to minute, unlike out at sea, but you long for the feel of the boat rocking beneath you. Eventually you doze.
When you awaken, it's light and the carriage has stopped at a village. You climb out gratefully and stretch your legs before sitting down to take a good long look at your bow. (3) there's not much you could do, since your skill at bowyery is insufficient, but you probably wouldn't break it any further. Nevertheless, you decide to take it into the village. There may be a fletcher in the village who could help.
On the way in, you pass a small smithy. It looks fairly commonplace; farm tools, cutlery, various parts... And a greatsword. You blink a little at that. It looks quite well made... And are those magical runes cut into the blade? Somebody in the village must be a practicing enchanter. Shrugging, you buy a small whetstone from the smith (-5 gold) and ask him about a bowyer. He nods across the street to where a man is just setting up shop.
Across the road, you chat to the man and show him your bow. He coos over it a little, since he hasn't seen a Limerete shortbow in many years. He says yes, he could definitely repair it! He'll have it done by the time you leave. You also ask him for some fletching supplies.
Over the next twenty minutes, you make (5+6) eleven arrows, startling the bowyer with your speed. He hands you back your bow. The crack is gone, the area smelling of glue and tightly bound with copper straps. "The glue needs to set properly," he tells you. "Give it a few hours." You pay him (-30 gold + -22 gold) and head back to the carriage! pulling out the whetstone and your dirk as you go.
You sit next to Lyu Brak and begin to sharpen your dirk. (6) Over the next ten minutes, you manage to sharpen it to a razor's edge, fine enough that it would probably hew through even bone! Holy shit.
Thuun strikes up a conversation with this Cyrus fellow. He asks about why the town seems so adverse to magic users, afterward he asks if Cyrus has had trouble with his own magic after the Ten-day-night, and informs him that the mayors hulkifying was because of miscast healing.
Once that is over he steers conversation toward Cyrus himself, asking about where he's from, how he became the barons advisory mage and generally gets to know the man, reciprocating his own origins if pressed.
Over the course of the trip, you hold a pleasant conversation with Cyrus about magic. It turns out that he specialises in fire magic and was responsible for keeping the town alive through most of the Ten Day Night. You sound suitably impressed. Keeping an entire town defrosted for the six or so days that Cyrus managed is a feat that few mages could pull off without dying. "But... Why does the town suddenly seem so averse to mages?" you ask. "When I got to town a month ago everything was fine!"
Cyrus shrugs. "You know how people are. Two weeks ago something cut the sun in half. The only beings with that kind of power are the Gods, but maybe enough mages together could do it too." He waves a hand up at the newborn sun where it is just cresting the horizon. "They're scared. Any mage could be the one who did it, they think. Like as not, you'll find similar sentiment wherever you go. So be careful."
The carriage stops at a small village. Cyrus vanishes into the village, presumably to discuss the missing messengers with the villager's headsman and hunters. You sit and bask in the pink-orange light of the dawn.
Presently Cyrus returns. "Not much farther, just a few hours. That was where the body was found." You all climb back into the carriage, except for Baldur who's still fast asleep.
"Has your magic been acting weirdly?" you ask the mage as the carriage rumbles onwards. "I, uh, was trying to heal the mayor's broken arm and accidentally turned him into that... beast, I guess."
Cyrus looks shocked for a moment then just laughs. "Yes, since the moon cracked my magic is strange. The first time I tried to heat the town I nearly set the people on fire! Once I accidentally froze the well somehow. Apparently they haven't fully defrosted it yet. Magic has been very odd since that night."
Your conversation slowly shifts to respective pasts. It turns out that Cyrus was a bandit mage for a while before being run through by the baron. In return for healing, Cyrus pledged fealty to the baron and to Waterstone barony. But that was a long time ago. Apparently Cyrus had never liked the bandits much; he hunted his own band down a year later and burned them all to ashes. You trade stories about your respective training regimes, even trading a few tips along the way!
Cyrus taught you a bit about fire magic. +1 exp!
Bored, use Force magic to try and permanently negate the force of gravity on some pebble I pick up. Keep trying until I succeed, fail disastrously, or run out of time.
If that succeeds and I have more time, then make it glow with Light magic. If that succeeds and I have more time, use Life magic to imbue it with a bit of sentience and self-mobility. Again, keep trying these until success or disastrous failure, if time permits.
(5) Well look at that. A nice nap in the carriage and your damn headache finally leaves. Looks like your magic is good to go! As the sun rises over a dainty little village, you climb out. You're eager to test yourself, so you find a small pebble. Hmm. Force magic time!
You balance the pebble in the palm of your hand and focus the arcane energies of the universe through your mind. (2,6) your first attempt fails miserably, the pebble just sort of... rocking in your hand. But for your second attempt... well, things get out of control.
Force magic pours out of you, through the soles of your feet and into the ground. The entire area starts shaking; Lyu Brak glances around in shock before glaring daggers at you. Every pebble for a hundred feet around you suddenly lifts off, levitating between waist and head height.
You're not entirely sure when it will wear off.
you focus on Light next, returning your mind to the pebble still sitting in your hand. For some reason it refused to levitate, so in revenge you decide to make it glow like the sun. (1) Welp. Your magic fails so hard that the magic itself inverts! Shadows crawl across the pebble and the rock slowly disappears from view. You're now holding an invisible rock. You're really not sure how you did that. Could you do it again? Not without a lot of skill or luck.
Growling at this stupid invisible rock, you decide it's high time it knew who was boss. So you decide to turn it into a pet. You focus Life magics through the rock, totally unsure as to what you're doing. With enough skill in Life and Earth magic you could probably make a golem, but that is well beyond you.
(1) The rock in your hand detonates as your magic inverts into Force magic. Oh shit, your right hand is just... gone! You scream. Loudly. Thankfully the heat generated by the exploding rock seared the wound shut, or you would bleed out rapidly. As it is you... Uh... Well, you're one handed.
All of the other rocks stop floating.
You perfectly cast the earlier Force magic, so +1 exp!
Baldur wraps his bear fur cloak around him and tries to catch some sleep.
You curl up tightly and wedge yourself into the corner of the carriage. Within seconds of the carriage leaving Shas Isa, you're fast asleep,
It feels like only a moment later that you're shaken awake by Cyrus. "We've found something," he whispers. "Bring your sword. You'll need it."
The five of you get off the carriage. You're in the middle of the road. It's a dirt track, well worn. There's a dead body lying about ten feet ahead of you. There is a hell of a lot of blood. To your left are some light woodlands. To your right are more woods, but a road juts off from the main road through the trees. There must be a small village, since you can smell smoke.
The three mages look uncomfortable. Their magic must be reacting ever so slightly to the blood just up ahead. You blink and notice that Ekoka is somehow missing a hand! Huh. You must have slept through quite a bit.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Polishing his
rodstaff
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Sleeping
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Learning
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Listening
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Injuring himself
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [No Right Hand]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 12: Shooting the Messenger -
You’ve stumbled across a dead messenger, similar to the one who was attacked earlier and had its heart delivered to you in a really macabre display.
Examine the body and the surroundings.
You slowly turn the body over with one foot. Cyrus is watching you carefully, hanging back from the bloody pool on the ground.
(3) You can’t make a huge amount of sense of the wounds, but you can see that they were definitely not inflicted by any weapon you’ve ever seen. The wounds are long and ragged and his throat is torn open. There are signs of fire on the wounds.
The surroundings are similarly unhelpful. You can smell smoke in the air, drifting from the woods off to your right. There is a small village, you can just see the wooden palisade through some trees. You look for tracks. (3) The body has no noticeable tracks around it… But there’s something, you just can’t quite put your finger on it...
Inspect the surrounding ground for some kind of a struggle.
(4) The ground around the body is not scuffed very much, indicating that if there was a struggle, it was extremely brief. You widen your search to include the sides of the road. (5) You find deep, smearing indents in the dirt about fifteen feet from the body, as though something was launched from here at great speed - directly towards the fallen messenger. There are two indents, which could well be feet. If that is the case, then whoever was crouched here would have been well hidden from the messenger by a large bush.
You find no other tracks indicating where the attacker might have gone.
Try to heal and restore my hand with Life magic. Ask for help from the "Healer".
(1) (Okay, GWG, really. This is ridiculous.) You focus your Life magic on the wound, but the spell in your mind turns jagged and wrong. Your stump scales over rapidly with some kind of… it’s almost rocky? Huh. The bleeding is stopped and no infection can get in, but whatever you did is almost certainly irreparable now.
You go to ask Thuun for help but he’s backed far away from you. Perhaps he’s afraid that your arm is about to explode or something. Possibly wise.
First off, stay FAR away from Ekoka, secondly attempt to sense any hostile life within the area, using life magic of course. If any is found, alert the rest of the group as silently as possible.
(2) You mutter under your breath but the magic just sorta sputters and dies in your hands. Huh.
"Wonder if this is demon work or just a few crazy kids having fun."
Check the body for stuff. All of its stuff. Steal anything that looks valuable.
“Huh. Wonder if this is demon work or just a few crazy kids having fun?” you murmur sidelong to Cyrus as you step past him. You kneel next to the body and rapidly pat the body down. (2) You find nothing valuable at all.
As you’re about to stand you notice… something. You’re not sure what it is. There’s something on the edge of your perceptions, something weird about this body. What the hell is it?
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Trying to strip the body of valuables like some sort of pleb.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Being a successful tracker
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Being unhelpful
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Searching
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Not healing himself
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [No Right Hand]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Astounding.
- Turn 13: It’s Quiet. Too Quiet -
You’ve tried to search the body and come up snake-eyes. Time to get a closer look…
"I sense something disturbing about the body. Something unquantifiable, at the edge of perception."
Identify what the source of this wrongness may be.
"I sense something disturbing about the body. Something unquantifiable, at the edge of perception," you mutter. The others take a step back as you kneel next to the body once more, this time to take a proper look at the body itself instead of its worth.
(3+1)”DEMONS!” You yell and tumble backwards. The aura around those wounds is unmistakeably demonic, but… tempered with something. There’s certainly more to this than just demons eating people, but you’re far too shaken to work out what.
Demons, this far south? Oh dear.
Double-check the body's wounds. Pay attention to any wounds that look like they could be inflicted by claws or teeth.
Lyu stumbles back from the body and shouts about demons. That worries you a tad. You’ve never seen anything shake the forever-smiling priest. Shrugging, you crouch down to get a more temporal examination.
(2) The body definitely has no bite marks, but the wounds look absolutely nothing like any animal you’ve ever seen before. They look… “Human?” You mutter.
Lyu Brak shakes his head emphatically. “Demon. Can’t be human.”
Cyrus, silent until now, steps forward. “I’ve heard… tales… of demons taking over human bodies. What about that?”
The Yagalian priest shakes his head again. “Demons are… animals. From a different plane of existence. They’re not intelligent. And I’ve never heard of a demon capable of… taking over. Not in a dozen years of being a priest in Yagal.”
You shrug. Guess your wound-identification skills are better suited to weapons than animal attacks.
Ekoka swears in the Southern tongue. (Well, one of them, but they all sound the same to northerners.)
Attempt to use Earth magic to turn the rocky things into a proper hand.
You swear, loudly. It translates roughly to “Son of a bitch!” Cyrus looks at you for a second before shrugging and turning back to the body.
You decide that a rocky hand is better than nothing. Focusing the peculiar, dusty orange-brown magic of the Earth into your hand, you bend down and press the stump against the ground.
(5) Petrichor hits your nose first. Wan orange light plays out along the ground and pebbles clatter towards you. They swiftly pile up around your stump. As you straighten, the pebbles cling to the stump as though magnetically bound together. They form the rough shape of a spindly hand.
You don’t have any movement or feeling in your hand, but you probably could… With your other hand, you shape the rocks into a rough fist. It stays. So you can’t control it, but you can get some use out of it.
Limb Gained: Lesser Rock Hand! It’s inanimate, but poseable. Like an action figure. Later, with better skill, you could probably remould it from a slightly more suitable material (You think wistfully of a hand crafted from copper) and even animate it! Enchant it, reshape it, who knows.
Perfect Earth Casting! +1 exp!
(3) Your creative and exploratory magic takes a toll on your body. You feel your arms and legs cramp up painfully. Bit of stretching and you should be good, though.
"What in the bloody fuck is going on here...better get in the crow's ne-...oh...."
Get my bow ready, climb on top of the carriage and sweep my gaze in a 360° circle, looking very carefully for anything out of place
"What in the bloody fuck is going on here...better get in the crow's ne-...oh...." Not for the last time, you curse your captain for deciding to abandon ship and walk fifty miles inland to Shas Isa. Why the hell did you follow him? You’re probably nuts.
You take your shortbow out of the carriage and rub the stave between your hands before bending and stringing it in a practiced motion. The glue seems to be holding nicely! Awesome. You climb onto the carriage roof and crouch low, one arrow nocked and ready.
"Well this is...not great. Hey Cyrus, anything on your end?"
Still avoid Ekoka. Also avoid the body. Hang around Cyrus. Try to be better at the detection magic.
"Well this is...not great. Hey Cyrus, anything on your end?" You edge away from the experimenting mage and towards Cyrus, but he seems to be coming up with nothing. They seem to have the dead body in hand, so you turn back to your magic.
(4) A wave of green light pulses from your outstretched hand, reverberating through the forest for a quarter of a mile in every direction. There’s life everywhere. Birds, foxes, deer, bugs, even a few rabbits. Your companions burn brightly in your mind’s eye. And just on the edge of your perception in what must be the village, a dwindling flame.
Huh.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: DEMONS!
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Being a less successful tracker
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Finding stuff!
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Making like a seacat
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Rocking out
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: No open wounds!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Okie dokie. I’ve put some thought into improving the magic system and it goes thus:
Unless your skill is -1, internalised spells always tend towards 5.
At rank 2 and above, rank 0 and non-complex rank 1 spells tend towards 5.
(So a simple blast would get the dynamic bonus, but GWG’s earlier wind-shackle spell was complex enough to not get the bonus)
So complex or obscenely powerful spells can still backfire for hilarious results. Personalised spells… their rank is adaptable and it depends on what you’re doing with it.
- Turn 14: Screams and Madness -
The common consensus seems to be that the messenger was killed by a demon that’s hiding out (or butchering) in the nearby small village.
Stay on top of the cart, keep looking for anything out of place, or anything that moves
You don’t move and nothing else does. You feel a tad silly up there while they’re all talking, but somebody’s gotta keep watch, right?
"Well, this could have been much worse."
Stretch. Test the limits of flexibility on my new hand.
Head over to the group.
"Did I hear that there were demons about?"
“Well, this could have been much worse,” you mutter. You groan as you fully straighten, however. Your legs feel like you’ve just run all the way from Shas Isa, instead of a comfortable ride. Nevertheless you stretch, loosening your cramping muscles. You sigh in relief as the pain fades.
Next you turn your attention to your new right hand. Formed out of pebbles, it feels peculiar. You bend one of the fingers experimentally. It feels almost like it has the same range of motion as a normal flesh-and-blood finger! Weird.
You decide to try something. (3+1) The twenty-odd pebbles gleam with an ochre-coloured light and the hand slowly, laboriously falls apart. The pebbles hang in midair in a rough cloud. You release the magic and the pebbles reform into a relaxed hand. You get the feeling that with increased magical ability, you could potentially reshape your hand into nearly anything.
(All magic you perform on your rockhand counts as internalised magic)
"Demons, huh? Guess that makes sense. Well, are we going to hunt the damn thing down or not?" Baldur mutters, itching for a fight.
Ekoka strolls up to the with that slightly freaky rock-hand of his. "Did I hear that there were demons about?"
"Yeah. Apparently they're the ones behind this. Still, no trouble for the likes of us, huh?" Baldur laughs heartily.
After a moment Ekoka joins in. "They actually would be a major threat," he says in the middle of his laughter.
Thuun coughs and gives them a sober look. “It went into the village.” He waves a hand in the general direction of the village. “I can sense… one thing alive in the village. Not the best time to laugh.”
"Ah. Yes. How terribly wonderful," Lyu murmurs as he straightens, brushing his robes down. He rubs his face roughly for a few seconds; when he lowers his hands, the familiar smiling visage is back. “Well, the village seems like our best lead. Shall we g-”
The priest is interrupted by a blood-curdling shriek from high in the pine tree a few yards away. A humanoid creature leaps out from fifty feet up and begins to plummet towards Felice!
“I thought you said there was only one?!” Lyu yells at Thuun as the entire goddamn forest comes alive with screams that make their bones shiver.
“I forgot to look up, okay?”
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Talking
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Also talking
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: More talking
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Making like a seacat
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Playing with his hand
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: No open wounds!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit]Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Generally.
For a panic roll, on a 4+ you’re all good, but 3- you panic.
3: Suffer -1 to all rolls for the turn
2: You, uh, panic. And run.
1: You cower like a little girl.
- Turn 15: Enter the Beast -
Some… thing has just launched itself at you, revealing the presence of around two dozen more things. They appear to be demons, but look human. What is going on here?
"Demons in the skies, friends! Time to sing the songs of prayer and courage!"
Righteous Litany! Sing these sad, sad people into shape to fight the demon!
(6+1) "Demons in the skies, friends! Time to sing the songs of prayer and courage!" you roar, raising your voice into a dramatic baritone completely at odds with your short, cheerful stature.
“Der Herr ist mein Hirte, mir wird nichts mangeln. Er weidet mich auf einer grünen Aue und führet mich zum frischen Wasser. Er erquicket meine Seele. Er führet mich auf rechter Straße um seines Namens willen. Und ob ich schon wanderte im finstern Tal, fürchte ich kein Unglück; denn du bist bei mir, dein Stecken und Stab trösten mich!”
(5) The Litany inspires your comrades! It’s so inspiring it stiffens their spines and uplifts their souls! They gain +1 to panic rolls and attack rolls vs. demons! (The litany pretty much always succeeds, failing only on a 1. On a 5+, panic rolls gain a bonus too.)
Attempt to shoot an arrow into the creature. After the arrow is shot, scramble!
(2+1) Your legs shake, but the Litany stiffens your legs and you face the creature down as it hurtles towards you. Even though your limbs shake, you rapidly nock an arrow and let fly!
(4+1, 5) Your arrow soars out and stabs through the creature’s right hand, somehow slicing the limb clean off! (6) You throw yourself violently from the roof, just missing being flattened by a falling demon-thing. You land awkwardly but roll to your feet, a second arrow already nocked.
The creature stands and glares at you before screaming loudly. You feel the shriek pierce deep into your skull! (5) Your thoughts are scattered momentarily, but you’re otherwise fine.
You all finally get a good look at the creature. It is… it was... Elven. But it’s eyes are yellow and boiling over with madness, its skin a sickening shade of khaki. Lightning crackles around its hands… Lightning blacker than midnight, more vastly black than the deepest crevasse of the world. Its stump comes alive, black lightning wriggling out of the wound, sealing it shut. As you all watch, a replacement limb forms out of energy. Long claws, crafted from the black, demonic lightning form on both hands.
Beneath it, the carriage is dented and crumpled as though it has the weight of a boulder. Probably want to avoid getting hit by it.
Just what the hell is this thing?
"..." Ekoka swears horribly in the Southern tongue.
Use Alaracity on myself and those nearby. Run. Run like the wind!
(3+1) You swear vehemently and eloquently before pouring your willpower into the winds around you.
“Roho za upepo, kuja misaada wangu!”
(3) The winds spiral around you, but your magic doesn’t reach far enough to help anyone else. You feel the power gripping your legs and arms. You feel as agile as a leopard!
You turn and run. You’re not sure where, but you run! Trees blur, people blur, everything blurs. In an instant you’re past all of your comrades, diving into the forest. You’re fifty metres away from them in the space of a couple of seconds, somehow narrowly missing trees.
(6) You collide abruptly with a second of the damn monsters! Where the hell are they coming from? The winds binding you help you keep your momentum, but the demon comes off second best and is bowled head over heels!
As the monster straightens, it leaps for you, shrieking in its blood-curdling voice! (4+2) You dive to the side with contemptuous ease, but crash sideways into a tree. Seems you need a bit of practice!
(1) The creature’s shrieking is doing a serious number on your mental state.
Thuun leaps into action, channeling life magic through his blade to produce a wisp spell for himself and his comrades. Considering the circumstances, hulkification wouldn't be considered a bad thing in his mind.
(1+1) You momentarily consider casting something, but the shrieking is too goddamn unnerving. You bolt, following the cloud of dust that is Ekoka’s trail.
(1) (Oh man) Blindly running through the forest, you collide with three of the goddamn monsters. Today is really not your day. As one, they all scream. (1) Your thoughts scatter wildly and you suddenly feel alone in a dark, uncaring world.
Pull out (broken) greatsword and try to intercept the demon before it attacks anybody squishy important!
(2+1) You’re shaky, but you’re not gonna show those damn things that they’re scared of you. You step in front of Felice, guarding the archer as the creature leaps off of the carriage. You meet it squarely!
(1) The creature’s massive bulk and surprising speed knock you flying. The two of you tumble head over heels, the monster clawing at you several times. You end up with gashes on both of your arms!
You struggle to your feet and swing wildly at the creature. (5+1, 2) Your sword scores a direct, massive hit on the creature’s chest, biting deeply. The creature’s chest caves in; the force of your blow actually splits the goddamn thing in twain. The two halves fly apart like a macabre watermelon.
Lightning pours out of the body and lances almost immediately up your blade, (3) but you manage to hold onto your weapon… Just.
The palm of your left hand is burned terribly and you can’t hold the sword with it until it’s healed in eight turns! Active Ability disabled!
Cyrus gestures at a monster as it leaps out of a tree; fire blooms around the creature, but it carries on. The mage dives out of the way, screaming like a little girl, as the flaming monster advances on him!
You’re not sure how many are left, but you think it’s about twenty. The village is a quarter of a mile to the east. The monsters seem to be fairly evenly scattered around you.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Preaching like a badass
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (3/3)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Murderising the demon creature
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: Burned Left Hand (Palm) (9/8)Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] [Righteous Litany (3/3)]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Finding Bad Guys
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword] [Righteous Litany (3/3)]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Archering?
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Righteous Litany (3/3)]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Fleeing
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: No open wounds!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] [Righteous Litany (3/3)]Spells:
[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Jesus, BFEL.
I mean, I was gonna say that Baldur kicked awesome ass in this one, but then you had to go and roll a fucking 8.
- Turn 16: Level 1 Derm -
Outnumbered, you valiantly (or foolishly) decide to face off against the myriad demonic creatures rather than fleeing for the possible safety of the village...
Beat these demonic creatures into submission with my trusty staff! Focus on the ones my nearby teammates are fighting in particular, the one approaching Cyrus first of all.
You turn around, spotting the flaming demon-beast thing flailing at Cyrus. You growl and heft up your staff! (5+1, 3) With an almighty crack, your staff slams into the beast’s arm, crunching through the arm and into the ribs. There’s a horrific snapping sound as the beast’s humerus shatters like glass and its ribs cave inwards, slicing the poor thing’s right lung into so much casserole.
The dying, flaming beast is launched sideways; it smashes into another one of the creatures and both go tumbling into the undergrowth. You set yourself and wait for the inevitable counterattack when the whole place suddenly flares up with a fiery light...
Cyrus is just sorta staring at the light. There's a couple of dead monsters at his feet, charred beyond recognition.
Find another demon and slash at it!
One of the beasts soars past you, but you see that Lyu has it quite handled. You turn back to face the forest. Where could they be?
There’s a skitter behind you. You turn. Two of the demonic Elf things are behind you, their yellowed eyes glazed over with madness. One eyes you up and down and licks its lips with a blackened tongue. You shudder. You heft your sword into your right hand and charge!
(2+1, 6) You stumble as you swing, so your swipe only nicks the one creature’s foot. You brace for the shock, but nothing happens. Weird. The monsters growl and swipe at you with their hands! (1+1, 1) One ragged hand scratches you across your face, dirty nails slashing across your eye. You scream in rage as you realise you can’t see out of your left side! (5+1, 3) The second one strikes your right arm, just near the shoulder, but you let it. The critter leaves itself open to a counterstrike! (5+2, 5) With a swipe you take both of its ragged, dirty hands off before booting it in the chest. It flies backwards, slams into a tree and just sorta… explodes.
Holy shit.
You turn so as to see the one creature left with your good eye, as crimson light pours out of the forest...
You're blinded in your left eye! You'll need to get it fixed, or suffer -2 to dodge rolls for attacks from your left. Or get an eyepatch and train your senses, I guess.
Ok, just gotta concentrate, lightning is a power of wind magic right? Then I just need to use Earth Magic! That'll shut them up!
Focus power through my blade and stab it into the ground, making the Earth under their feet swallow them!
Concentrate… Concentrate… (3+1)
You growl and focus on the three creatures in front of you. You draw your sword, calling on the power of the Earth, focusing your will on the very tip of the blade. (6+2) (Oh shit) You slam the blade into the ground, releasing your will at the same time.
A rumbling, heaving wave of rock ripples out from your feet in every direction for thirty feet. Not done yet, you draw your sword up in a dramatic swing, howling your might into the forest. Crimson light pours out of the cracked, broken ground.
A second later, molten rock jets from the ground in a widening ripple around you. The heat is scorching, but you survive. The monsters, not so much.
(2) You scream and fall to your knees. A thousand tiny wounds split open all over your body and blood pours out sluggishly. If you don’t do something fast, you’ll probably bleed out. (In three turns!)
On the upside, the monsters are too fucking terrified of you to come anywhere near you. The forest goes dead quiet as every monster heads for the goddamn hills.
On the downside, the huge wave of molten lava has kinda blocked you off. And set the forest on fire.
Ridiculous overpowered casting! +2 exp to Earth magic, +1 exp to Fire magic!
Use Force magic to strengthen my staff and increase the force of its blows. Strike the demon with it, then flee some more.
You feel a sudden wave of heat come from behind you. You turn to behold liquid fire pouring out of the ground in an expanding, rippling wave. The monster behind you shrieks and vanishes into the undergrowth; you turn and growl. The wave of lava crests and breaks towards you; you focus force magic into your staff and slam it into the ground! (5+1) A bubble of force billows out from where your staff strikes the earth and the wave of lava is repulsed. Fires ignite around you, but the expanding force bubble crushes them. No lava encroaches for twenty feet around you.
(5) Somehow, you escape paying any price for the magic. You feel fine!
Perfect Force casting! +1 exp!
"Wots it going to be ya lily-livered treehuggers, I've fought plankton more fierce than you!"
Fire at the nearest demon, try to aim for center mass or head.if they come close, try to dodge and retaliate with my dirk.
"Wots it going to be ya lily-livered treehuggers, I've fought plankton more fierce than you!" you yell at a creature that’s just dropped from a tree in front of you. It cowers as you draw back your bow, but bolts before you can sight properly. “That’s right, you better run!”
You yell after it. Belatedly you notice that the scene has turned red; you turn to find lava sluggishly flowing out of the forest, cooling into rock as it does so. Huh. Weird.
The carriage appears to be on fire from the intense heat, and small fires are burning in the forest where Thuun and Ekoka ran off to.
So, the monsters all ran from the sudden miniature volcano. The forest is on fire, but the fires are small. The lava is very quickly cooling on account of the seriously cold weather. Thuun is at Ground Zero, bleeding out. It's still far too hot to get within about twenty feet of him, but everywhere else is mostly okay. If a little on fire.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Laying the beatdown
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (2/3)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Murderising another demon creature
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (8/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] [Righteous Litany (2/3)]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Doing the Derm
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Thousands of Tiny Cuts Everywhere (4/3 to bleed out]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword] [/color]
[Righteous Litany (2/3)]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Scaring? off the monster. Not really, it was the lava.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Righteous Litany (2/3)]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Standing his ground against molten rock.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: No open wounds!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] [Righteous Litany (2/3)]Spells:
[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 17: With a Fine Honey Glaze -
The monsters are defeated and fleeing. All that's left is to regroup and investigate that village...
"Bwahahaha. Demons aren't so tough."
Baldur grins and sheaths his sword before heading back to the carriage.
"Anybody got something for my bleeding eye?"
You laugh heartily. “Demons aren’t so tough!” you chuckle, sheathing your sword. You saunter back towards the carriage - which is still on fire - and decide it makes as good a gathering point as any. Your eye is rather painful, but you’ve had worse. “Anybody got something for my bleeding eye?”
Cyrus looks a tad nauseated. “Gods, you look like a bandit I once knew,” he mutters and hands you a length of bandage. “Sorry, I’m terrible at Life magic. Maybe you could ask your healer friend? Wherever he is.”
You think it’s probably a very bad idea to ask Thuun for any healing, but it is an option. You bind the bandage into a makeshift eyepatch in the time being.
"Well, at least I landed a hit before you swept in and took all the glory." Feliz looks around, and smiles "credit where credit's due, that's quite the party trick"
stay with the rest of the gang
You smile and quietly congratulate Thuun on his rather… spectacular magical dealings. (4) You manage to recover your arrow, intact! You slip it back into its quiver before wandering towards Baldur and Cyrus, over near the burning carriage.
((Is it Felis, Felice or Feliz? I swear I’ve seen it spelled all three ways.))
"My. This is...unexpected."
Use Fire Magic to douse the flames, touching them with my pebbley hand.
"My. This is...unexpected." You are rather astonished at the sheer magical effort it must have taken to cause this. Unfortunately, the forest is now on fire, so you decide to put them out with a little fire magic of your own.
Your hand flies into the nearest flame. Oops, maybe you should deactivate Alacrity? You can’t control your movements very well yet. (4) Luckily, you manage to stop your hand before your whole body falls into the fire! You also manage to put the fire out.
Your path to Thuun is clear, since most of the brush between the two of you is flattened by sudden rock injection. The rest of the fires are slowly spreading, but the thin forest will take a while to properly catch. You could probably make it back to the road quite safely.
"One thing we should probably do now is regroup, I believe, and head over to the village. It had only one creature living in it if I recall what the fellow said, and that is about twenty times better than the number we face here. Fortunately, it seems we did kill about half of the ones that came at us - they are not extraordinarily tough, it seems."
Get the gang together - we shouldn't be split up.
You eye the dead creatures. They seemed demonic, but they’re clearly mortal. Huh. You shudder at Baldur’s bravado and almost tell him what true demons are like, but decide to bite your tongue.
Instead, regrouping seems smarter. You wander closer to Cyrus, Baldur and Felice and stand with them, watching the forest slowly begin to burn. Hopefully Ekoka and Thuun find their way out!
"Damn...I wanted to capture one! Ah well, terrifying an army of living nightmares will just have to do for today." At this thought Thuun smiles, until he fully notices the pain wracking his body and the many cuts he is afflicted with.
Attempt to use convection from the lava to cauterize wounds.
(3)
(http://www.villanayarit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/NapalmDuck.jpg)
Your legs are now burned. You can no longer walk properly. Just be glad you didn’t roll lower.
Cyrus raises his hands, concentrating. All around the group, the flames begin to waver and shrink. He grunts in effort. It’ll probably take him a minute or two.
The carriage is on the road and on fire. It’s a quarter mile walk to the village and one known lifeform is present. There’s nothing remaining in the forest, everything ever has fled thanks to sudden lava.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Gathering his flock
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (1/3)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Eyepatch!
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (8/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] [Righteous Litany (1/3)]Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Slow-roasting over an open fire
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Thousands of Tiny Cuts Everywhere (3/3 to bleed out)] [Roasted Legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword (Cooldown: 3/3)] [Righteous Litany (2/3)]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Scaring? off the monster. Not really, it was the lava.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Righteous Litany (1/3)]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Honouring Smoky the Bear
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: No open wounds!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] [Righteous Litany (1/3)]Spells:
[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
A nice, quiet turn.
For once.
- Turn 18: All Together Now -
Time to gather yourselves and treat your wounded… The monsters won’t stay gone forever.
Search for Ekoka and Thuun - hopefully they're not dead just yet.
Follow the priest and help search for our companions. Keep out an eye for trouble as well
Help Lyu Brak look for the two mages.
"Right, that's most of us. But where's the others?" Lyu asks, looking around. His gaze locks onto the burning forest and the newly-visible clearing about thirty yards into the forest full of black rock. “Ah. Naturally.”
"I'm sure they're fine, they both have magic after all," Felice points out. Lyu raises an eyebrow. Felice smiles ruefully and scratches his head. "On second thought, we may want to go look for them."
"Alright then." Baldur growls. “That’s settled. Let’s go find our mages, eh?” The three of you head tentatively towards the burning forest. Cyrus gives out a final gasp behind you and the fires ebb all the way down to no more than embers. One of you whistles softly in amazement.
Cyrus slumps against the charred carriage. “I’ll… stay here, I think…” he mutters, already falling asleep. you can see that the magic has really done a number on him; bruising is spreading all up and down his limbs. The three of you shrug and head into the blackened forest.
The heat is intense as you approach the rocky clearing. You stop, surveying your surroundings. To your left, there’s a rustling...
"Ooh, that could have been bad."
Deactivate Alaracity. Head over to the others, putting out fires as I pass them.
You sigh and release the spell, feeling the sense of relief as your limbs slow down to match your mental commands. “Ooh, that could have been bad,” you mutter. At least now you are no longer clumsy!
(5) You reach out with your mind into a fire, but already find Cyrus’ will at work. So you stop and watch the master Pyromancer. You quietly take a few pointers in how to handle fire from one of the best!
Master lesson! +2 exp to fire magic!
You push your way through the charred undergrowth, skirting the hot field of rock. You can see Thuun lying in the middle of the field, somehow unburned - except for his legs.
Finally, you break through and find Lyu, Baldur and Felice. You nod at them in greeting. They nod back. “Where’s Thuun?” Lyu asks.
You gesture at the rock. “There, of course. Who else would do that?”
attempt to crawl toward the others.
You crawl towards the edge of the lava. Your magic has mostly faded from the rock, and along with it, the searing heat. You somehow manage to cross the field without incurring any more burns. It’s damn uncomfortable and if you tarry - or stop - you’re toast, but you’ll make it.
However, you’re leaving bits of your legs behind along with a rather alarmingly large trail of blood. You fall collapse in front of the other four, who were helpfully watching you suffer from outside the ex lava field. The sound of your blood sizzling on the hot rock is really disturbing.
(1+1) You slowly fade into unconsciousness. Thankfully, you made it off the rock and won’t cook yourself to death. Maybe just bleed out, though.
Blood loss and pain has knocked you unconscious. Luckily, since your heart rate has dropped, you’ve gained a turn to bleed out.
You all sigh as the strength given by Lyu Brak’s Righteous Litany fades.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Gathering his flock
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (6/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Eyepatch!
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (7/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Unconscious!
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Thousands of Tiny Cuts Everywhere (3/4 to bleed out)] [Roasted Legs] [Unconscious]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword (Cooldown: 2/3)] [/color]
Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Lookin’ for people
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Learning form the best
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: No open wounds!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
BFEL, BFEL, BFEL. You poor bastard.
- Turn 19: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back -
The party healer done got himself roasted, so you all decide to heal his sorry ass...
Heal Lao.
If Ekoka should fail at helping Thuun, go and address his bleeding wounds with more traditional medicinal methods.
Stand around and watch our surroundings, assist the priest if he needs help
Assist anybody who needs help.
"What did that idiot do to himself?" Ekoka asks in an astonished voice, eyeing the charred form of Thuun with bemusement.
"Well, whatever he did definitely worked nicely, so we probably should heal him to the best of our ability," Lyu points out. Ekoka nods, kneels and rests his hands on Thuun’s relatively unburned shoulders.
(6) (WTF) Green light kindles under Ekoka’s hands. Emerald fire appears in similar splashes from every cut on Thuun’s arms. The wounds slowly begin to close before the party’s eyes. Against all odds, when magical healing should have been able to do absolutely nothing for Thuun, Ekoka decided to ignore centuries of knowledge and do it anyway.
Huh.
Good news! Thuun’s no longer going to bleed out. His legs are still chargrilled, though. Ekoka’s magic isn’t nearly strong enough to handle that amount of damage.
Beyond the Impossible! +1 Life exp!
Now for his legs. Lyu kneels next to Thuun’s legs, where the life magic strangely refused to even go. There doesn’t seem to be much that can be done for them, but at least they can be bound and infection prevented.
“Maybe… Uh…” Lyu gets up and wanders over to a bush covered in small, spiky fruits. They’ve managed to survive both the frost and fire pretty well, although they’re certainly on their way out. “We have a plant like this up north… The fruit juices rubbed on a wound help them heal. I’m not sure about his legs, but it might stop infection!” The priest picks several of the fruits and, with a small dagger, rapidly skins each one and squeezes the juice out over the unconscious mage’s legs.
He then takes a length of bandage from Cyrus, who’s watching on in interest; the legs are bound quite well, the others agreeing that the priest’s handiwork looks most professional and Thuun will almost certainly be okay now. After all, priests are smart, educated people, right?
(2) Turns out Lyu’s education stayed the hell away from herblore. Probably shouldn’t have rubbed jimsonweed into the wounds. The poisonous liquid rapidly soaks through the burned flesh, passing into the sort-of-functioning venous system. On the upside, it also kills the infection.
“Oh Gods, he’s having a seizure!” Felice yells, pushing Lyu aside as Thuun begins to shake uncontrollably. (4) Felice manages to pin Thuun down, collecting a couple of minor bruises on the way, but avoids serious injury. “Shit, his heart is going nuts!” the seaman shouts. “But he’s just not waking!”
Yup! Jimsonweed makes your heart race. In three turns, It also induces comas. And hallucinations. You won't die, but you won't wake up naturally.
Thuun’s eyes slowly open. He sits up to find himself lying on a huge expanse of black sand. Hills of obsidian rise all around him. A path seems to wind off to his left, through the jagged, lethally sharp rock. To his right is a lake of fire that extends for miles into the distance. He can only just see the far shore.
He looks up. The sky is a dark, scabrous red. Stars that gleam a sickly mustard yellow can be seen through the reddish sky, and clouds the colour of blood and ash glide over the sky. He looks down, at himself. His legs are whole. Odd. He also notes that he can see all of his legs… What the hell happened to his clothes? And his sword? And his… everything?
There’s a soft wailing in the background. It permeates the bloody night, worming into his skull. And through it all is this pitter-patter, pitter-patter. Feet? Perhaps he should move before whatever owns those feet can find him.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Failing at being a healer.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (5/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Not doin’ much.
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (6/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES?
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Roasted Legs] [Coma]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword (Cooldown: 1/3)] [/color]
Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Pinnin’ Thuun down.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Healing what cannot be healed.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: No open wounds!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 20: Half-Assed Pauper’s Grave -
The itinerant priest has poisoned your healer, who’s now locked in some insane nightmare…
Hm. Regrettable! While others presumably help the guy, do no further harm. Instead, collect more of that jimsonweed - could be extremely useful. Gives visions, don't you know.
You… decide to stop helping. Instead you turn and gather a few of the strange fruits. You’re not entirely sure what they do, exactly, but maybe some deliciously poisonous fruits will be useful.
For, you know, something.
If the man keeps convulsing, keep him pinned down. If he has stopped, go with the priest, make sure he doesn't get ambushed or something
You get up, slowly. Thuun is still shaking, but not much; besides, Ekoka’s making with the magic again and you don’t want to be anywhere near that. You decide to follow the priest; he seems to be the only one here who comes out of every scrape unharmed.
Use Earth Magic to give Thuun neat artificial legs. Use Life Magic to animate them.
(1) (Tails: Other Failure) You place your hands on Thuun’s thighs, trying to ignore the weird looks the others are giving you.
Ochre-coloured light pours out from beneath your hands. The ground underneath Thuun begins to soften! You leap up in surprise and watch as he sinks, foot first, into the ground. The sound is magnificently terrible, a hearty squelching sound like a pie being hit with a club in slow-motion, with delicate undertones of rampant screaming as the tortured rock is bent to your misguided will.
You hurriedly release your magic. The ground re-hardens and the awful sound stops. Thuun is now stuck in granite up to his waist. Awesome going.
(4) Your head thumps painfully! Ow. Too much magic. You probably shouldn’t do any magic for a little while. (For two turns, any magic will result in crippling pain)
Take off to the left, down the rock way. Use earth magic to harden feet against sharpness.
You reach out with your mind, but magic seems… gone. You reach out further, but you can’t even sense the moon! Any mage worth his salt can, but for some reason the moon no longer exists. And with that, no magic.
You sigh and turn away from the fiery lake and walk up the low, short hill. As you crest it…
What.
A herd of black and white giraffes gallop gaily through a field of orange wildflowers. The sky is a cerulean blue above you, little white puffy clouds scudding across the sky. The grass plain extends as far as the eye can see! Herds of multicoloured animals seem everywhere. Lions, that seem to be performing cabaret for an audience of pangolins in top hats. Zebras that are obviously drug dealers hiding under flat savannah trees, their red and blue stripes making them ludicrously noticeable… but the police-penguins just ignore them.
You turn back, only to find the hellscape gone; all you can see now is a very large, very angry rhinoceros. He’s pink, for some reason. And there’s a cute little daisy on the end of his horn. You think it’s growing out of his head.
The rhinoceros grunts and stamps his feet.
Continue being a productive member of the team!
You turn away from the amusing scene of people fondling the prone Life mage, single eye scanning the forest. There’s a terrible squelching sound from behind you, like all of the people in the world just spontaneously jumped into a pot of custard; you turn back to find Thuun up to his waist in solid rock.
Well, you didn’t expect that.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Picking fruit in the forest, like some sort of Russian fairytale girl.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (4/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Not doin’ much.
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (5/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: In… Africa…? Maybe?
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Roasted Legs] [Coma]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword]] [/color]
Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Following the Priest.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Giving Thuun an early partial burial.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Splitting Headache (3/2)]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Thuun gets high, Ekoka gets smart and Lyu and Felice feed off of each others’ stupidity.
- Turn 21: Fool Me Once/Fool Me Twice -
Thuun is buried up to his waist in the rock, Lyu is picking flowers and Ekoka is nursing one hell of a hangover. A normal day in an RtD…
"Ow! Double (insert Southerner curse here). Sorry, Thuun, I didn't mean to do that..."
Clutch and rest my head. Plan a spell to make a hovering rock, in hopes of getting a bonus when I actually do so.
“Ow! Double $&%@!!” you yell, clutching your head. On the far side of the mountains to the south, your mother pales and reaches absently for the soap.
“Sorry, Thuun… Didn’t mean to do that,” you apologise to the distinctly comatose mage. You’ve read somewhere that people in comas can still hear you. Hopefully you won’t need to apologise again when he wakes, since that’d be awkward.
You sit down, far away from Thuun to nurse your aching head. To pull your thoughts in, you try and slowly construct a spell in your mind. You want to make a rock levitate, damn it! It slowly pieces together in your mind.
New Ability Gained: Slow Cast! If you take two turns to cast a spell, it will always have the dynamic bonus applied - Unless it’s way too complex.
While the others screw around, gather other plants of value and use! Even if said value and use is dubious!
Having decided that he really, really did not want to mess with anything magical any time soon, Felice will help the priest with what he is doing
Felice and Lyu wander together through the forest. “You know,” the priest starts. “We have a fairytale like this. Two kids wander through forest, picking fruit. Find a witch. She captures them and eats them.” the priest seems way too cheerful about this.
Felice glares at the priest. “You’re not helping.”
(1) Lyu finds some small red berries! “Hey, these look delicious!” he exclaims. He immediately picks and crams about five into his mouth.
(2) Felice doesn’t recognise them, so he shrugs and apes the priest, but daintily selects merely one to eat. One shouldn’t be too bad.
"Did I miss something?"
Try to pull Thuun out of ground. Carefully, of course.
The priest and the seaman (You chuckle, remembering a tawdry ballad from Shas Cyrra) have wandered off, leaving you with the half life mage. “Did I miss something?” you ask aloud, eyeing Thuun. “Huh. Well. Um.” Shrugging, you bend down and loop your arms through his armpits and heave.
(4) You pull gently, but not too gently. The man’s a life mage, he can fix what’s broke. Probably. Anyway, you slowly begin to drag him out of the ground. You manage to pull him out to about his knees, so he can at least sort of sit on the ground now.
You’re about to pull him up further when you hear a horrified screaming from the forest. Lyu and Felice burst back into the clearing, screaming and frothing at the mouth!
”OHGODWHYDIDIEATCHILLIES!”
RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNSAVEMEPENGUINPOLICE!
You break into an all-out sprint down the waving plain of grass as the rhinoceros behind you begins to stamp his feet. The ground beneath your feet begins to shake as he charges! You can feel him getting nearer and nearer. You sprint through the trees and hurtle straight off a cliff!
You immediately faceplant into a mudpool. You slowly straighten up and look around, almost unsurprised that the area has changed again. The pool of mud is actually a green rug. What. It’s a rug. Made of wool. How did you… What?
You look around. The woolen rug is on top of a building. You’ve never been on a building this high before. You look over the edge and immediately recoil; the ground is so far below that the trees look like blades of grass. The building must scrape against the very sky! You reach up hesitantly, but can’t touch the sky. Even here, at the top of the world, it’s out of reach.
You stand. To your left and right is the dizzying drop; in front of you is a small trapdoor. Huh. Apart from the ridiculous height of the building, the world is more… normal. Why is there nothing dangerous here? What’s going on? Are you slowly waking up? (No)
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Not learning a damn thing, apparently.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (3/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Extracting life mages from the ground.
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (4/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Uncomfortably high.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Roasted Legs] [Coma]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword] Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Eating a chilli.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Plannin’ and Learnin’
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Splitting Headache (2/2)]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] - Turn 23: Nope, No Plot -
Cast the spell on Thuun, letting him fly! And, you know, move under his own power. When he wakes up. Until then, it'll make him easier to carry without dragging him!
(1+1) Thuun just sorta flops around a bit.
"So... do we take the legs with us? They seem rather well-done. Maybe we can find a use for them."
Grab roasted legs. They shouldn't be too hard to remove from the ground, right? And if they are, just break off whatever pieces I can and pocket them for later.
“So… uh… Hm.” You decide to try and tear the bits of roasted flesh from their earthen prisons, even though there is no story ever which started with that line and ended well.
You try and grab the leggy bits by the flesh, but no dice; it just sorta tears off more. Ew. Probably best to leave them there. What the hell were you going to do with dead and cooked legs, anyway?
Rations?
"Shit. Uh... if you want to carry his legs around, do it. You aren't putting them in my pack though."
Carry Thuun to the carriage and put him in it.
You pick up the flopping not-quite-corpse of Thuun and lever him into the charred carriage. Nobody’s sure why, since the horse probably bolted as soon as the monsters showed up and the carriage driver was riding the horse.
The village nearby might just have another horse in it? Hopefully? And driving the carriage can’t be too hard.
"Well, that was almost as unpleasant as that time I was in the middle of sea when both the flu and scurvy broke out amongst the crew. Fun times and explosive Diarrhea for all."
Go to where the shiny is at. Inspect shiny. If shiny seems harmless enough, acquire shiny
You recount the truly horrifying story for anybody who will listen; strangely, everyone avoids you afterwards. Nobody will make eye contact with you. So you shrug and leave to investigate the shiny in the woods.
(4) Well how about that. It’s a bracelet. Looks like a Limerete one, too! A band of copper, inscribed with sharp designs in a style favoured by some of the smaller Limerete islands. It shimmers in the golden sunlight as you pick it up; a small tingle passes through your hand. It’s probably worth a fair bit!
Coooooool.
Take the advice of the dead Sun God and get the hell out.
You back away from the vista in front of you before turning and bolting through the door and passing into blackness. As you do so, the voice whispers into your mind again. ”Very well, young mage… I shall release your mind back into the web of dreams. We shall meet again…”
The blackness around you thickens and tears. You fall and land face-first on rock. You stand woozily and dust yourself off - really wishing for once you’d dream about clothing - before looking around.
Huh. The rock is something black, but not obsidian… It smells a bit like the bubbling, black pits that spell doom for anything that wanders into them. It’s laid in neat… lines. It’s a road? Maybe? You’ve never seen a road like this. Buildings soar up around you, just like the one you lay upon some time ago. This must be how they appear from the ground?
You hear a weird sort of hissing, whirring sound from your right. A man is sitting at a table, the first man you’ve ever met in this weird dream, apart from the elves from the strange message. The table is a simple wooden affair. The man is playing with a child’s spinning top; that’s where that whirring sound is coming from. Weird.
The buildings are gone. Just… gone. it’s like you took your eyes off of them and they evaporated like a puddle in the sunlight. You’re standing in hard-packed sand now and the light is dizzyingly bright from marble walls around you… Ah. it’s a coliseum. And you’re apparently the main event.
The mayor of Shas Isa is watching you. A horde of him is watching you. Seven feet tall and built like an ox, an army of hulkified mayors are hooting and yelling as they cheer your demise from the stands.
There is a loud rumble from behind you. You turn to look and see a carriage bearing down on you! The carriage is carved in the shape of a drago-wait, no, it actually is a dragon. Breathing fire. And it looks hungry.
Through all of this, Cyrus had been standing around watching the surroundings.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Ew.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Bits of Thuun’s legs
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (2/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Sticking Life mages in strange places
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (4/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Still dreaming. Seriously dude, wake up.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's Suncloak210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Totally Mutilated Legs] [Coma]Abilities:[Enduring] [Atoner] [Spellsword] Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Finding shinies
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
Shiny Copper Bracelet
Wounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Nope!
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Splitting Headache (1/2)]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Note to self, addendum: Next dream sequence, don’t require Inception style methods to leave it.
- Turn 24: Riding the Dragon -
You’ve been still for too long. It’s time to move, very soon…
"Stubborn, aren't they?"
Keep trying! This stuff would make amazing bait for woodland creatures.
“Stubborn, aren’t they?” you remark to anybody listening before crouching and getting a really good grip on Thuun’s tibias.
"Goddamn it. Can we hurry up and get the hell out of here before more of those demons show up?" Baldur growls from behind you.
"Be right there, just have to make sure there's no flesh left behind!" You focus back on the bones. You heave! (1) The tibias shatter and you stumble backwards, still holding jagged shards of bone. The sudden lack of resistance makes your hands fly up, releasing the bones.
(6) The bones tumble through the air before one jaggedly stabs through your right foot like a knife through butter. The other tumbles through the air towards Felice as he exits the surrounding forest!
Congratulations.
Your right foot is punctured and bleeding! you’re going to have trouble walking, running or doing much of anything foot related. Good thing you already have a staff, hm? You won’t bleed out quickly, but the pain is also damn distracting.
"Jackpot. This reminds me somewhat of home."
Put on the bracelet, then go stand next to cyrus and also watch our surroundings. Ask him how he's doing
“Jackpot!” you crow, slipping the bracelet on. It tingles like mad. “This reminds me somewhat of home!” As it slips on you feel almost as though your mind is expanding. It’s weird. You can hear the rustling of the leaves in the trees. Each individual leaf.Shrugging, you turn and head back through the bush. As you push aside a branch, a ragged, sharp-looking blade comes slowly tumbling through the air towards you. You reach out and catch it effortlessly. “What the hell?”
You eye the destroyed legs and the bleeding priest before it clicks that it’s Thuun’s bone that just flew at you. “UGH!” you yell, dropping it. You cautiously edge around the priest before sidling up next to Cyrus. “Hi there,” you greet as you survey the surroundings..
He nods in greeting to you. “Nice bracelet. Never noticed you wearing that before…?”
You chuckle. “It’s new.” You slip it off and hand it over; the tingles fade. The world feels slightly smaller.
Cyrus’ eyebrows rocket up. “You just casually found a magical artefact, lying in the bush?” he asks incredulously. He angles the bracelet to show you the designs. “Limerete magic.” He goes off on a tangent, guessing at the meaning of the different runes. He taps one mark, the one he calls the ‘master’ rune. “I don’t recognise this one, though.”
You glance at it. It’s Limerete, not some magical rune. “Kidzuku. It means Perceive.” You chuckle at his bemused look. “It’s a Limerete character. Of course I can read it.”
He hands it back and you slip it on, allowing your mind to open once more. “If I’m right… Well, you notice the world better, don’t you?” You nod, gloriously taking in the world around you.
Artifact gained! Kidzuku is a bracelet that enhances your perceptions of the world. You passively gain +1 to dodging or otherwise neutralising any ranged attack. You can also focus your senses on your surroundings (+1 to search/noticing rolls), although to do so can be quite distracting, so this bonus doesn’t apply unless you specifically mention it.
Baldur sighs, sits in the carriage and places his head in his hands.
You sigh as yet another party member manages to injure himself. “Rampel grant me strength,” you mutter, invoking the patron angel of Cylenia.
Ekoka joins him.
"I know. Idiots. All of them."
Ekoka rises from the carriage, before climbing on top of it. This probably wasn't needed, but it would certainly be more dramatic. And you never know. He then prepares a spell that would let them get out of this hellhole.
Focus on casting a spell similar to Alacrity, which will propel the carriage rather than accelerating my movements.
“Idiots, all of them,“ you mutter to Baldur, waving a hand at the rest of the party. He grunts in response and looks pointedly at the spot where you sank Thuun up to his waist in the ground. You reply by patting Thuun’s leg, just above where Baldur severed them.
Moving on, you climb on top of the carriage that somehow doesn’t give way under your weight, even though the roof was never made to hold people. You adopt a mystical-looking meditative pose as you focus on modifying Alacrity to move the whole carriage.
(4) Pieces fall into place. You rise to your feet, the air around you tingling with power. You can do this.
Well screw it, TIME FOR SLICING AND DICING! That is, yknow, if I have a weapon. If not then just run away again :P
“SCREW THIS!” you yell at the dragon. You knock the man’s table over, sending his top flying; in one sharp movement you snap a leg off and brandish it like a club at the dragon. The giant lizard inches closer, his long, snakelike neck contorting as his head - which is the size of a horse - glides towards you. Fire spills from around the monster’s lips. Razor-sharp fangs as long as your arm gleam with saliva as the dragon’s jaw opens slightly. Is… is it drooling? Ew.
“RAAAARGH!” You scream, more in fright than in rage, and bravely leap at the dragon. Somehow you avoid its snapping jaws; you grab one horn and swing up on top of its head and begin laying into its snout with your club. The dragon roars in pain and shakes its head viciously; you whip through the air, but manage to cling on tightly.
In an effort to dislodge you the dragon’s wings snap out and within seconds you’re airborne. The beast lurches beneath you and suddenly the ground is rushing away; a wave of vertigo tears through your stomach. You continue beating the dragon furiously with your stick, savaging the beast’s snout.
The ground is almost a mile away now. You try and not pay attention to the fact that you are now in the clouds. You focus solely on the dragon, not even questioning the wisdom of beating the one thing keeping you alive.
“I shall release your mind back into the web of dreams...“ The words tumble through the back of your mind for a moment. Dream? really?
This is a dream? Then…
“SWORD!” You bark at the stick. Suddenly it’s no longer a stick but your bronze sword, gleaming in the golden sunlight like the day you forged it. The dragon’s head whips around dizzyingly; you almost fall. As it is, you slide backwards down its neck. You wrap your arms around the neck as well, barely staying on.
You growl and stab your bronze sword deep into the dragon’s neck. The beast roars, a roar so loud that the reverberations knock you loose. You tumble through the air and away from the only thing keeping you aloft. The ground is far, far below you. A screech above you; you look up only to catch a blast of fire as the dying dragon swoops down towards you. All-consuming heat wraps you in blazing pain. You feel your skin charring, your flesh burning, even your bones crumbling…
All that is left is your soul. As a bright spark of light, you continue to plummet downwards. Above you the dragon itself finally dies as well, its body too burning away until all that is left is a blazing comet. The comet smashes into you with the force of an avalanche and again you are consumed by burning light.
You feel a voice in your being once more. ”You rose to my challenge, young mage. I give you my strength for the trials ahead.” The voice - and the comet of fire - fades, leaving you and the rapidly-approaching ground. The ground fills your vision… and you startle awake. You remember the dream so vividly, so clearly. It’s astonishing. You can remember the strength of that dragon, the strength of its soul as it collided with you… In fact, you can still feel its furious strength, burning inside you.
Ability Gained: Dragon Aspect (Level 1)! The strength of the dragon that you beat the stuffing out of burns inside of you. Gain +1 to strength and fire- and light-magic rolls. This ability fades if you become very cold.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Stabbing himself.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone (In foot)
Wounds/Status: [Stabbed and Bleeding Foot][/abbr]
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (2/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Sticking Life mages in strange places
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (3/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Beating the snot out of a dragon
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Totally Mutilated Legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Atoner] [Spellsword] Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Finding shinies
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Meditatin’
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Merry Christmas to all of you and have a happy and safe new year!
- Turn 25: To the Village! -
With everyone finally in roughly the same place, it’s time to gather yourselves and book it out of there…
Collect shards of bone - if these can easily pierce a foot without any real force put behind them, they should be pretty dangerous. Particularly the one that did pierce my foot. Also, bind foot with available materials.
If my foot is successfully bound by the end of the turn, get moving!
“Ah! Those are some very sharp bones!” you exclaim, carefully extracting the shard of Thuun’s tibia from your foot. The hole is leaking, but luckily it didn’t go all the way through. Just as much damage as you’d expect from dropping a very pointy, rather heavy bone onto your foot.
Nope, certainly not magical at all.
You decide to keep them anyway, because… uh… you don’t learn quickly.
“Say, does anybody want to help with my bleeding foot?” you ask the others.
(Righteous Litany has cooled down completely)
Go to Lyu and help him with his foot. When he's ready to move to the rest of the group, support him if his foot can't take his weight
You sigh and pinch the bridge of your nose. "Old man, you really should be more careful." You borrow some more bandage from Cyrus and crouch next to the wounded priest to help him.
(3) Your inexpert wrapping is mediocre, at best, but at least the foot is mostly bound. He won’t be able to walk much without his staff, but it’ll do.
Lyu’s foot is bandaged, but it’s still rather weak. It will also need more attention before it will properly heal.
You help Lyu into the carriage and climb in yourself.
After he gets done with the screaming and the cursing and the vowing revenge upon those who have maimed him, he turns his attention toward fixing his legs, and decides he needs to properly meditate and think hard on the task at hand before attempting something like that.
You blearily try and sit up, noting you appear to be in the charred shell of the carriage. But you can’t seem to get good leverage. Well, not easily. “Right… my legs are burned,” you mumble. You heave yourself up using a chair and get a good look…
"WHAT THE FUCKING MONKEY BALL SWEATSHOPS HAPPENED TO MY LEGS?!" you scream, startling several birds into flight. They’re gone! They’re just fucking gone!
You look out the door in a panic and see bits of bone sticking out of the ground. “GODS BE DAMNED FUCKING STUPID--” you lapse into swearing in one of the various Limerete dialects that you picked up in the temple, cursing whoever tore your legs off with the fury of a dozen scorned women, leeches in their genitals, peeling the skin from their eyeballs, that kind of thing.
Feeling calmer, you decide to maybe heal your legs yourself. You know there’s no ways in hell you’ll be able to just regrow your legs. Charred wounds, maybe. Missing limbs? Not a chance.
You sink into a trance as the others pile into the carriage around you, stopping only to wave at them so they know you’re awake and not to steal any more limbs. If they didn’t guess from the cursing.
(5) ”There are a thousand different ways to approach a wound. Even a wound as complex as a destroyed eye or amputated hand can be fixed, with the right knowledge.” The words of one of your teachers rumbles through your mind, filling it with images.
Another image slowly forms in your mind. A Southlander -Ekoka? - focusing on a rock. The rock explodes in his hand, leaving nothing but a stump behind. Then he suddenly has a new hand. Made of rock.
With the right magical combination, you could probably build something similar. But you’re a master of healing, so you could take it a step further… Possible solutions pour through you. And if you release the magic slowly, ever so slowly, you could probably avoid the worst of the magical backlash, too!
Again and again, three elemental signs appear in your mind. Life, Fire and Light. What could it mean?
New Ability Gained: Slow Cast! If you take two turns to cast a spell, it will always have the dynamic bonus applied - Unless it’s way too complex.
Success! The spell you cast next turn will have a dynamic bonus applied. Probably.
Wait for everyone to finish what they're doing.
You sit in the carriage and wait. When Thuun wakes up and begins screaming, you jump a foot or so in the air in fright. You also prudently decide to not mention that you helped remove his legs.
Continue focusing on the spell. If, somehow, everyone actually does get to the carriage before the end of the turn, cast it and start heading for civilization.
“Everyone in? Let’s go!”
(5) As Cyrus hurriedly joins the others in the carriage, you perform the final muttered incantations from your perch on top. You dramatically raise your hand skywards, calling a swirling vortex of wind, before gesturing forwards. The vortex surrounds the carriage which lurches into life and begins pounding down the road. Seeing the turn to the village, you shunt the air around and the carriage tilts wildly, but manages to turn without killing anyone.
You’re flying down the road now, way faster than anybody should ever go. Will you ever be able to stop? The quarter mile to the village vanishes in less than a minute and you’re releasing the airstream, tugging it backwards to slow the carriage before it smashes directly into the village gates.
The carriage skids sideways, sliding to a stop a bare inch before the gates. You thrust your fist triumphantly into the air. “Boo yaaaargh!” (2) Your happy shout turns into one of pain as your arms and legs cramp. Your right arm cramps up worst of all, since that was the limb you were directing the magic with. The arm stiffens right up and probably won’t work for a while (2 turns).
But you cast the magic perfectly (Didn’t even need the dynamic bonus!). +1 experience to Wind magic and an extra +1 for the perfect slowcast!
Hork some jimsonweed.
Determine what horking and jimsonweed are.
You sit down and pull out a jimsonweed fruit, biting deeply into it and swallowing the tangy flesh. Almost immediately you feel your heart begin to race. Colours around you begin to blend together into a psychedelic smear of pinks and fluorescent greens. You suspect that the carriage is plotting against you, as are the tre--
NO NO NO NO NO
The village is quiet. Very, very quiet. There are a couple of rustling sounds, but you can’t hear much at all. The gate is shut, but probably not a big obstacle to you five. There are signs of recent damage.
You can almost hear a thin voice. Is it calling for help?
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Stabbing himself.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
More bits of Thuun’s legs
Wounds/Status: [Partially treated Foot]Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (1/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Waiting
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Burned Left Hand (Palm) (2/8)] [Slashed left eye] Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Meditatin’
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Totally Mutilated Legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword] Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Helping foolish priests
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Eighteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Castin’ like a boss
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Cramped up right arm]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 27: The Village of Cnoc Adh -
Having decided to enter the village and find the source of the crazy demon-monster-things, you gather yourselves at the village entrance…
Back up towards the village gate, keeping an eye on our surroundings. Shoot at any kakhi's that attack the group. Enter village if my teammates get the door open.
"You gentlemen do whataver you want, but just so you know, there's a whole bunch of these stinkin' arseholes coming our way.” You gesture at the fallen khaki thing before drawing another arrow and notching it. “I'm just going to go ahead and get to relative safety now.” Seeing the priest and the swordsman moving towards the gate, you quickly sign your intent to stand guard and cover their backs. “Also, there's someone calling for help inside of the village. Just so you know."
The forest is getting strangely quiet around you. That’s weird. You can’t hear anything at all moving out there. You haven’t travelled the forested highlands of Cylenia very much - being a seaman from a tiny tropical archipelago - but you’re pretty sure that there should be a bunch of rowdy birds pretty much at any point when the sun is up. No deer, no birds, no mice… even worse, you can’t hear any more of the khaki monsters. You know they’re there, but… Oh dear.
Cyrus is standing next to you, fire glimmering in his hands as he too surveys the forest. “I don’t like this,” he murmurs in his cultured voice. You wonder how he ever fell in with bandits like that. The travel and battles have been a little rough on the poor mage; he looks positively exhausted from his magical use in the firefight. Somehow, though, his hair is still utterly immaculate. Where does he find the time?
Behind you, the gate swings open. You cast one eye back over your shoulder...
Seek a way inside the village. A way to open the gates, for instance.
"It is a miracle! My mild wounds have completely disappeared!" you crow happily, clapping your hands gleefully. Possibly because it seems to confirm Thuun’s possible sainthood and thus the great value of his holy bone shards.
Turning thoughts of miracles and money aside, you eye the newly-fallen, rapidly dying khaki man. This one appears to not be an elf - unlike the others - which is odd, as this village was primarily comprised of elven people. You decide that you’d feel a fair bit safer with stout village walls between you and its friends, so you turn and survey the gates.
The village wall is a sturdy wooden palisade, able to withstand most banditry and the encroachment of the forest, but nothing that an irate mage couldn’t take down. Undamaged save for the natural wear and tear of an old fortification, it gives you some hope. However, villages have been abandoned quietly before - and it’s all too common in Yagal.
You hesitantly step towards the gate. It looks to be in relatively sound condition. You go to push on the one gate and Baldur strolls over to assist you...
Baldur walks over to the village gates and tries to force them open.
“Thanks,” you mutter to the mage who’s still glowing disturbingly. You edge away from him and decide it’s high time to get inside this village and see what’s in there. Hopefully something good. You’re not expecting much, though. In your years as a mercenary you’ve seen villages like this before. Murder, monsters and mayhem on the outside; you know exactly what’s going to be inside.
You step up to the gate, joining the priest there. You lean your shoulder into the strong, heavy door and give it a good shove. The gates ponderously swing open…
Keep an eye on Khaki Man, which is possibly a good name for a superhero so I should write that down. Ahem. Also look for some kind of rock to throw at him if he turns out to be hostile.
You backstep from the dying monster/man thing and pick up a rock just in case he springs up and bites you. While bleeding profusely from the arrow through his chest. You decide not to think about exactly how much good a rock will do against a monster that can’t be killed by such a high level of trauma.
As the monster gasps out its last, you hear the gates behind you creak open. You turn to survey the village entrance...
Sitting there twiddling my thumbs, because I cant twiddle my toes, on account of not having toes.
You sit and twiddle your thumbs. Your glowing legs are a little distracting. They feel tingly. You feel a popping sensation on the base of your stumps which topples yo in shock. You blink and look closely at the stumps.
Are those… Are those tiny feet? Really? That’s how they’re going to regenerate? You mutter incoherently about the inconsistency of the laws of magic and go back to twiddling your thumbs. Your tiny feet are far too tiny to do anything except wiggle.
You hear a creak behind you as the gate opens, so you turn and look…
The wooden gates ponderously swing open to reveal a wide dirt track into the village. A cadaverous mist hangs low to the ground, giving the village an unearthly presence, as though it’s not quite there… which makes what you see all the worse.
Small houses can be seen just inside the palisade. One of them is missing most of its roof, signs of fire showing just how the thatching was removed. The other has a door hanging by a single hinge, creaking faintly in a breeze. Further in are some more houses in similar disrepair. Windows are broken; rosebushes are torn forcibly from the ground; doors smashed and splintered. And everywhere that you look you see bodies. And… pieces of bodies.
You can see clear down the track to the centre of the village, maybe fifty metres away. In the centre square is the village’s maypole, erected for the upcoming solstice celebrations. Tied to the maypole in some macabre mockery of the traditional ribbons are four severed heads, lashed to the pole by their hair. Blood has run down the pole in rivulets so thick you can see them from the entrance, looking for all the world like a barber’s sign.
Closer to you, three women have been torn into pieces, their limbs used to paint crude signs and sigils on the walls of the houses. Their torsos are just piled to one side like morbid apple cores, freshly divested of their flesh. Another woman is hanging from the eaves of a tall building, her own intestines looped in a ghoulish noose around her neck.
Blood is thick on the ground, splatters and trails and pools. Most of it has coagulated, binding the dirt track into a sticky, red-brown mess. And square in the middle of a puddle, although strangely unbloodied, is one corpse. A young woman is lying not twenty feet away, her arms and legs limp and exhausted in death. You can see only one wound on her, one of her delicately tapered elven ears is torn off and has been stuffed roughly into her mouth. Her eyes are staring directly at the gate, hanging open and dull. Her dress is torn into tatters. You shudder to think at just how she died. Just behind her is lying another corpse, this time of a young man. He is run through, pinned to the ground by a copper spear.
Again, you hear a voice. A plaintive, mournful and wordless cry for help. It seems to be coming from the centre of the village.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Opening doors
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
180 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
More bits of Thuun’s legs
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (1/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Openin’ doors
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Slashed left eye(3/3)][/color]
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Twiddling his thumbs
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword (3/3)][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Watching for nasties
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: A trifle jumpy
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Cramped up right arm (1/2)]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Fun fact: Cnoc Adh is Irish. You really should have translated that.
You also possibly should have paid more attention to the devilish signs painted on the walls and less attention on phat lewt and the morality thereof.
- Turn 28: Of Crystals and Charred Carriages -
Stand still and try to pinpoint the location of the voice and anything else of interest. Is it the same voice that I heard before?. If I've got an idea as to where it's coming from, carefully make my way there. ((Kidzuku: comprehension go))
"God damn, this is even worse than pirate raids..." you mutter, swearing profusely. You’ve seen worse, but only once.
The bickering of Ekoka and Lyu distracts you. "Would you two be quiet for a second? I know looting corpses and having a discussion over what's right and wrong may seem like something very important to you right now, but there's someone in there who is still alive! Now shut up for a bit so I can find them. If anyone wants to help me go save them, feel free to tag along."
Leaving them to their amusements, you step a little way past the first bodies and stop still, opening your mind. Wind rustles. The heads tied to the maypole a couple dozen feet away from you clank like a devil-child’s rattle. You shut your eyes and focus fully on your ears…
“Help!”
The voice is thin. Feminine. Quite thready, a little throaty. You’re almost totally convinced it belongs to a woman in her final few years of life, which makes her survival all the more peculiar. (6+1) You’re also shocked to discover you can hear her heartbeat! Bloody hell.
Curiously, you can hear two more heartbeats. One is strong and young, sounding for all the world like the gorillas you’ve seen in some of Limero’s jungles, beating his chest in a display of dominance. It sounds like it’s coming from the same cellar as the old woman’s. You can’t make out the words, but by the tone of the whispering your crazy-sharp ears pick out, he’s telling the old woman to be quiet.
(2+1) There’s a third heartbeat in that cellar, too. You can’t quite pick out it’s details. Your mind just slides around the edges. Curious.
However, you’ve pinpointed the exact house. “Small cottage, one street beyond the maypole, on the left.” Good lord your ears are sharp.
Smack him.
Head towards the voice, keeping an eye out for anyone alive that could be saved with timely application of life magic.
You and Lyu hold a long and tangentially philosophical debate on the merits of looting bodies, which you punctuate heavily with smacks to the priest’s head. While ordinarily most people would feel that hurting priests is probably a good way to get cursed, it would appear that in this case the universe has given you free reign.
So you smack him. Several times. But he doesn’t seem to get the message.You sigh in disgust and stand close to the gate, watching in revulsion as Lyu begins to pat down the various body pieces. At least he isn’t collecting them this time…
Grumbling, you stalk past the priest and head towards the center of the village, following Felice’s cue. You and the sailor slowly stalk through the bloodied village, pausing a few feet from the maypole to wait for Baldur and Cyrus, who is trailing along behind you with a handkerchief pressed to his nose. Privately, you wonder just where Thuun has gotten off to. Surely he knows it’s no safer outside the village?
Continue looting regardless of getting smacked or not. Make sure to pay attention to how these people were killed, mentally recreating the circumstances of their death to see if they match what we've seen the false-demons do, and also for fun.
You endure the slappings of the irate mage with good humour, quietly thankful that he didn’t use the hand made from rocks. When he gives up, you smile and stroll towards the first corpse, humming to yourself. Naturally, it stinks. Really, really badly. Thankfully the cold air keeps most of the stink down; had it been a hot day you would currently be throwing up last week’s meals. You wrap your cloak around the lower part of your face and kneel to examine the pieces.
There’s a perverse sort of artistry to the destroyed corpses. The wounds bear a passing familiarity to the dead messenger’s body, but to say they are caused by the same being would be akin to saying a lion and a housecat are the same. The monsters outside were mad, you could see it in their eyes. Whatever killed these was methodical. And judging by the state of several of the womenfolk, he enjoyed it.
You shudder. You’ve never heard of demons that treat women like this. Yet the maddened monsters outside were certainly demon-touched. Just what the hell is going on here? You play the smiling and unflappable priest to the others and most of the time, it’s true. But right now? You’re just a little too sickened to properly notice the fine details. You can see it was all dony by one creature, though. One human. Or demon that looks] human. You’re not sure which is worse.
You mutter darkly under your breath before beginning to pat the bodies down for valuables. You decide to search the five most assembled bodies, since picking through piles of organs doesn’t really seem like a good idea.
(6, 4, 2, 1, 3) You pick up some interesting loot. One body yielded a curiously-shaped dagger in a crude buckskin sheathe, while another body contained nothing but maggots. An alarming number of them. As you turned over a third body, something jabs you through the fabric of the remaining garments! You wince and push the cloth aside to find a small collection of dark shards. They appear to be from a shattered black sapphire that would have been about the size of your thumb; as it is, the remaining shards appear to be still of somewhat respectable size. Score! The remaining bodies contain nothing but a few coins. No magical items, no Elven artefacts. Sad.
You shrug and examine the collection of black sapphire fragments in your hand. The sight of them makes you smile.
(3) The hairs on back of your neck begin to prickle...
Baldur gives the dead bodies a wide berth, and heads towards the centre of the village.
“I doubt you’ll find any clues besides the fact they’ve been brutally murdered,” you mumble to Lyu as you pass by the incorrigible priest. You don’t stop to listen to his reply, instead picking your way through the village.
(3) A familiar smell assaults your nose, cutting through the charnelhouse reek of the village. A mix of bronze, leather and oil. You can’t quite pinpoint the source of the smell, but it certainly grows stronger as you reach Ekoka, Cyrus and Felice in the village square.
You stare at the morbidly-decorated maypole in the center of the village. It’s terrible and you know you should look away, but you just can’t tear yourself away from the grisly sight. Finally you manage and begin to look around, keeping your back to the others and your eyes on the buildings.
Make every effort to stay in the carriage, safely away from my teammates demons
You decide that the safest place for you is in the charred, flimsy carriage, outside the gates. You’d better hope that no predators with a keen sense of smell and supernatural strength happen alo-Oh, wait. Right. They live in this forest. You begin to wonder if this was altogether wise.
Within the village, the sigils painted on the walls begin to glow a musty cinnabar red. Similar signs begin to blaze all through the village, where bloody markings were made and then partially washed away to hide their true purpose. The gates and walls flare up brightest of all as an unseen force slams the heavy wooden structures shut with a dreadful finality.
Pitch-black flames roar into being atop the walls, tongues of fire reaching for the heavens themselves. An oblivious hawk soars too close to the fire wall and is reduced to ash in an instant; it would seem that entry or exit is no longer possible.
A dense, clinging mist begins to rise from the ground with no apparent source. There are whispers and howls within the mist, half-remembered words and sighing secrets that you can’t quite catch.
You can feel your teeth being set on edge slowly as adrenaline begins to pump through your system... Anxiety courses through your mind! What's going on?
Oops.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Looting
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Pile of black sapphire fragments
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Walkin’ and lookin’
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Slashed left eye(2/3)][/color]
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Inventing prepackaged meals.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword (2/3)][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Listening for not-nasties.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Wandering the deathly streets.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Hey guys! Guess what’s getting introduced soon? Yup, the insanity rolls! And some new monsters. I’ll include the stats for each monster if they’re above the norm; a couple of them get bonuses here and there. I’ll explain those when you encounter them.
About Insanity:
You guys each have 30 sanity points. Every five points, you gain an erratic effect which will appear from time to time throughout the story. Dice also get rolled.
26 - 30 points: No dice roll.
21 - 25 points: On a 1, crazy stuff.
16 - 20 points: On a 1 or 2, crazy shenanigans!
11 - 15 points: On a 1, 2 or 3, baaaad stuff.
6 - 10 points: On a roll of 1 to 4, you soil yourself, see monsters, set your teammates on fire because they look like fireplaces…
1 - 5 points: Roll of 1 to 5, you do naughty things.
0: You get a nasty surprise.
- Turn 29: The Tines of Madness -
You’re trapped in Cnoc Adh! Oh dear…
The sun is setting in the western sky; where the sky can be seen past the inky black flames, it’s burning the more conventional golden-orange. To the east the moon has begun to rise above the treeline, the three pieces of the Goddess’ corpse hang delicately in the night sky, aglow with silvery light yet somehow… flat. The light just isn’t right. Nobody can quite put their finger on it, but the moon just looks subtly wrong. It’s almost nauseating to see.
“And there’s not even a hill here. Why did they call the village Silent Hill? That makes no sense!” Grouching, Cyrus sets himself and faces the gates, examining the magical trap walls. “Hm. This is quite unlike any magic I’ve ever seen,” he murmurs, adjusting his glasses idly with one hand. “But I can sense the power. We would have a rough time of it if we tried to smash down that gate. Well, the least I can do is try and put the fires out.”
The air around him ripples gently as his magic flows forth. The ripples brush up against the towering tongues of fire and slide right off. “What?” he muses, trying again. His magic has the same result, just slipping over and around the black flames. “Oh hell,” he swears. “I can’t touch the flames!” He kicks at an unoffending rock. “Well. It would seem that whatever force has created this trap is incredibly resistant to normal, Goddess-given magic. We might be in a bit of trouble.”
He mutters darkly and wanders back over to the maypole. “Stupid magic. And what are those damn signs? They’re really annoying me!” he shouts before wandering over to the nearest devil-sign and inspects it. “I have no clue what this sigil is for. It has none of the usual control loops, power routes or shapers. Is it just for dramatic effect?”
He groans and holds his head. “Ow! No. No, they’re not for drama… Oh Gods!” he falls to his knees. “It’s in my head… It’s in my head!” He shakes himself roughly to focus his mind and clear his thoughts. “Damn. It’s an insanity sigil. Fellows, we had best move quickly. These signs on the houses will slowly drive us mad.”
Baldur grumbles.
You grumble. "What a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into." ((Please give me a little more to work with))
A sense of unease slides over your shoulders. Are you already mad? Maybe. Who knows?
Your eye has finally totally regenerated. From next turn on, you have full vision!
Quickly locate my good friends. Relay information!
You feel happy, despite the incredibly obvious trap. You have a new dagger of some kind and a pile of gem fragments that should be worth a good amount! You also seem to have worked out what killed those creatures. "Hey, friends! I've discovered that these people were obviously killed by somebody who enjoys killing things, rather than some manner of beast like the ones in the forest,” you explain to them when you finally catch up. They’re standing near the maypole in the centre of town, trying to ignore the multitude of bodies in every direction. “Also, said killer also seems to have been a person. So, watch out for suspicious murderers. I also found some good stuff on the corpses. Well, that and some maggots."
“Empty your pockets of maggots!” Ekoka says in disgust. His normally-dark skin has paled somewhat since entering the village.
“Why would someone keep maggots in their pockets? They'd spoil. You'd need a jar with a piece of meat inside to keep them for any length of time. And it's good to know that somebody is paying attention at least."
“How do you know it was a person?” Cyrus asks quizzically. He has tied his handkerchief into a bandanna around his nose. “The bodies are torn to shreds!” You shrug and explain your findings in greater detail to the mage, cheerfully describing the methodical slaughter and how the wounds seem similar to the ones on the messenger’s corpse, but not quite the same.
You finish by showing your gems proudly to Cyrus, since he seems the most interested. He pales and backs away. “Ow… those hurt my head!” he mutters, averting his eyes from those beautiful gems. You shrug and put the fragments back in your pocket. If he can’t appreciate them, he doesn’t need to benefit from their lovely value, does he?,
"Finally, is anybody else feeling very unsafe all of a sudden?"
“Yes, things are VERY unsafe! It's obvious!" Ekoka retorts as next to him, Baldur sighs and shakes his head. He waves that rocky hand of his at the giant walls of fire. “We’re kinda stuck here in crazy butcher land!”
You shake your head. “No, this is more… uh…” Something dark skitters through the edge of your vision and neatly scatters your thoughts. “What was that?”
Thuun wonders how many of his teammates have just soiled themselves. Then he wonders how they expect to survive without him. They're probably pretty doomed.
You sit in the carriage and think about your teammates, wondering if they know just how screwed they are. Mist is continuing to rise around the village, slowly seeping into the carriage. You shudder at its cold fingers on your slowly-growing legs, wishing you had something to cover up your teeny tiny feet with.
Angels be praised! You have incy-wincy ankles now! They’re so tiny and adorable and can take absolutely no weight whatsoever without shattering like the pathetic little glass bones that they are, but you have ankles! It’s a definite improvement.
The mist glows where it touches your legs, set alight by the warm orange light seeping forth from your knees. You shudder at the cold touch, but marvel at the luminous beauty of the mist. It takes a while for you to notice, but you slowly realise that the light of the regeneration spell appears to be dimming slightly! What’s going on?
You hear a rustling from outside. The gentle patter of feet carrying something over the dusty path towards the carriage. Suddenly there’s a thump from the roof of the carriage! Your heart races. You would swear, but if you remain quiet you might not get noticed. At which point you realise that the mist all around the carriage is glowing with refracted bronze light from your legs.
Oh dear.
Spellsword has completely cooled down! Now there's good timing.
Head towards where Felice indicated the survivors are. Manipulate my rocky hand into a fist.
You mutter darkly about the priest before forcibly shaping your rockhand into a fist. You’ve decided you’re going to put your fist through the first creature you meet. This is bloody nonsense! Magic that’s impervious to magic, signs that make people go crazy, and that damn annoying buzzing sound in your ears…
You swear and stalk off towards the house that Felice pointed at. You haven’t quite decided yet whether you want to save the old woman in the house or punch her lights out for dragging you guys all into crazytown, but you’re going to find out.
Stick with the others. Keep a lookout for nasties. Defend against possible nasties.
“This is bad, why did I ever get on land. Nothing good comes from being on land, capn' used to say.” You start swearing. A lot. Crows’ feathers turn white in shock, rocks tremble at your language and hide. You truly are eloquent as you loudly speculate on the identity of the monsters’ fathers and the origins of this bloody village.
When you finally run out of words, you notice that Ekoka has wandered away from you, Cyrus, Baldur and Lyu. “All right, gotta stay together, land-beasts are cowardly and try to pick off stragglers,” you explain to the others, making shooing motions to indicate that they should follow Ekoka. He has the right idea. Find a nice basement. Get underground. Hide. No, wait. That’s the crazy talking. Cyrus said you were all going crazy. Slowly. Or did he say slowly but mean quickly because he wants you all to go crazy so he can take your stuff?
He did say he was a bandit. That’s like a pirate, isn’t it? Hm. It bears closer thought.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Showing off his loot
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Pile of black sapphire fragments
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Doing nothing much.
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Slashed left eye(1/3)][/color]
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Giving his hiding spot away admirably.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword (1/3)][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Swearing like a sailor.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Growling and making fists of stone.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Also, a hint. Get into the habit of closely examining stuff. And listen to Cyrus. He’s a bit like a more useful and less annoying Navi.
- Turn 30: The Basement -
You’ve found your way into the center of town, trapped by signs that will slowly make you go mad. Fortify your minds lest you lose all sanity and attack your teammates…
Continue towards the place. Try to calm down. No punchies.
You take deep breaths, pushing the thoughts about those glowing signs out of your mind. It’s tough, but you manage to distract your mind suffici-Seriously, what the hell is that sound? You have to wake up. It’s like this constant droning buzz, as though a horde of bees are sitting two feet behind you. Weird.
You reach the house with Felice, Cyrus, Baldur and Lyu in close step behind you. “The basement, right?” you ask the seaman. Really, it’s time to wake up. He nods, opens his mouth and buzzes at you. What? You roll your eyes. Your mind will have to do better than that to drive you crazy.
You head around the side of the house to the trapdoor that leads into the basement. One blow of your rockhand shatters the crude chain holding it shut and you kick the door open before heading down the stairs...
Guide everyone to follow Ekoka. With my staff. Like a shepherd and whatnot!
"Ah, so it must have been the wisest course of action all along to pay no attention whatsoever to the signs on the walls and whatnot,” you announce, quite pleased with how it all turned out. “Thanks, Cyrus! What would we do without you?"
“Don’t be stupid!” Cyrus roars. The air shimmers around him as though he is giving off a tremendous amount of heat. He stops, claps his hands together and shuts his eyes, evidently focusing. The shimmering slowly fades. “Sorry about that,” he apologises embarrassedly. “But really, what kind of trap would they be if they only worked when you paid attention?” The pyromancer shakes his head roughly and turns back towards the sigils. “I could probably destroy them, but it would waste a lot of power. Let’s find the source of the energy instead.”
You nod and smile disarmingly, hoping to distract Cyrus from his rage. Evidently the signs affect different people in different manners. You wonder what it will feel like for you. You shrug and turn back to the other two, directing them with your staff to follow Ekoka, who is determinedly walking in the direction that Felice indicated.
Ekoka looks… odd. He doesn’t seem quite right. Surely he wasn’t that tall. Maybe you’re remembering incorrectly.
Yeah, that must be it. Nobody grows six inches in a day.
You follow Ekoka down into the basement...
Thuun grabs his blade, setting up in the closest thing he can to a defensive stance while sitting legless in a burnt up carriage.
The thumping and thudding on the roof is growing tiresome. You try and manoeuvre yourself into something approaching a swordsman’s stance, but with only half of your legs it’s a little cumbersome. You silently curse your instructors for not covering legless swordsmanship, blatantly ignoring the absurdity of that notion.
There’s noise all around you, now. Whispers rustle through the cabin, half-heard phrases that make no sense and probably make even less sense if you caught the whole line. Voiceless screeches resound through the twilight, accompanied by hair-raisingly loud shrieks of tortured metal. What on earth is going on outside?
The mist is now so thick that you can barely see your hands. The light from your legs is scattered for hundreds of feet in every direction, quite neatly masking your presence - but it’s the only good thing to come of it all. The cold air is seeping deep into your bones and will take some serious work to dislodge the icy grip on your innards. You shiver, taking extra care to not let your teeth rattle.
You can see little through the carriage door, but every now and then foggy shadows slip through the air. It’s all rather unnerving; the shadows change size regularly, the misty air altering everything about them. Even their number is clouded. All of a sudden, one shadow looms particularly large near the doorway! Whatever it is can’t see you in the darkness of the carriage, but if whatever-it-is climbs inside with you, it’ll be a very short, very ugly fight.
Follow Ekoka. Keep my bow ready at all times, if we go indoors, get my dirk out instead. Ask Cyrus if he's feeling alright.
“You feeling alright, mate?” you ask Cyrus as you follow Ekoka towards the basement that’s apparently designated old-people-storage. He nods and gives you a wan smile, but the skin around his nostrils is white. He’s clearly under a significant level of strain trying to keep his mind together.
Ekoka kicks the basement open and you draw your razor-sharp dirk in anticipation...
Baldur sticks with the party, his sword at the ready.
You follow Ekoka, herded along by Lyu’s insistent staff. You draw your broken greatsword, holding the shattered weapon negligently in one hand, ready to sweep it up into a guard. The mist is thin on the ground within the village; you glance back over your shoulder only to find thick clouds pressed up against the village wall, threatening to boil over but held back by… something. Possibly the black fire. Creepy.
The basement is perhaps twenty by thirty feet. The walls are bare save for several torches giving off thin tendrils of dirty black smoke; several barrels line the far wall, obviously for food preservation in winter times.
An old woman is sitting in a chair, her wrinkled hands folded demurely in her lap. “Well, it’s about time!” she tells you tartly.
“Mother, be quiet!” orders the young man standing behind her. “We have no clue who these people are. I mean, look at them!”
“They’re perfectly healthy,” the old woman responds. “Except him, he’s got something wrong with his hand. And that one’s a greyskin. Well, no matter. They’re here now, so quit your bellyaching.”
The young man sighs and shrugs in apology to the five of you. “I’m sorry about all that. We’ve been stuck in this damn cellar for a week now. Her yelling was getting on my nerves.”
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Showing off his loot
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Pile of black sapphire fragments
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Doing nothing much.
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You're all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Giving his hiding spot away admirably.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Swearing like a sailor.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Growling and making fists of stone.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 31: Light and Dark -
You’ve found your way into a cellar containing a way too creepy pair…
Implore them to introduce themselves.
Ask in a friendly and neighborly way.
Baldur grunts and asks a question.
Baldur, Ekoka and Lyu crowd forwards, all clamouring to question the old lady and her grandson. “Greetings, Mr. and Mrs…” Ekoka begins, giving them a questioning look.
The young man smiles. His teeth are really very white. Hypnotically so. “Miodóg,” he answers the unspoken question. “I’m Lonracha Miodóg, and this is my grandmother, Géar. Welcome to our humble abode.”
Lyu elbows Ekoka aside and grins, hoping to appear friendly and neighbourly. "Good tidings to you both! Say, did you two happen to kill all those people outside? And if not, do you know who did?"
The old woman cackles. It’s a dreadful sort of cackle, like she’s gargling a pile of dead bugs. “No, no! We employ a professional butcher to kill our livestock for us.” She’s completely blasé about it. “I’m far too old to do it, and my strapping young grandson here,” she adds in a crackly sarcastic tone, “wouldn’t know which end of the knife to hold.”
Ekoka and Lyu share a glance. Baldur steps forwards. "Hello there. Mind explaining what happened here? Those piles of bodies are not butcher work."
The young man, Lonracha, shrugs. “We had a party, you see. Lots of guests. They always get a bit carried away.” He sighs mournfully. “It always takes so long to clean up after they leave.”
The old woman cackles again. That sound is really disturbing. “Never fear, my lad. Our friends are on their way back, since dessert has just arrived. Would you be a dear and go fetch the butcher?”
Stand in a corner of the basement. Use kidzuku: comprehension to inspect both people. If I think one of them might not be human, whisper this to Cyrus/anyone of my of my teammates I can tell without the two people hearing. If both of them seem human, use kidzuku to scour the rest of the basement, might as well do that while we're using it.
You stand unobtrusively in a corner of the basement as Ekoka, Lyu and Baldur question the two strangely alive people in the middle of a village of bodies. You shut your eyes momentarily and focus on the bracelet, feeling the crackling energy within.Your mind falls into the infinite void within Kidzuku and slowly grows, falling into the cracks in the world and filling itself to bursting. In a rush your mind overflows into the real world.
(6+1) Your mind explodes into reality around you. Lights flare from your irises; to the others in the room, they see your eyes as orbs glowing in a shifting hue of colours from violet, through a cerulean blue and on into green as though the Northern Lights were trapped in your head.
The world takes on a strange violet hue as illusion upon illusion are peeled away. The cackling grandmother turns her face to stare at you; she looks human, but her eyes are… gone. Just gone. Smoking black pits that threaten to suck you into oblivion gaze at you and you hurriedly avert your eyes. The man is huge and grotesque in your sight. His eyes too are gone, replaced with the nothingness of the void. He is turning away from you, thankfully keeping that terrible gaze away. You see a tail, a forked tail, just for an instant. You’re not sure whether it’s real, symbolic or magical, but it’s there. Creepy.
They're both human, you can see that. You can see everything that's ever happened to them in their short, miserable lives. How in the middle of the Ten Day Night, a creature came to them. Something born of that terrible darkness, a piece of the malevolence that shattered the Sun and the Moon. A force that was no mere demon, but something so far above demons that you shudder as your mind gropes around the edges of understanding. You see how it captured them, twisted their minds with magic and words until they became the freak show before you. How it twists others into abominations of demon and human blood, stripping their minds of their sanity and gifting them with strength, speed and cunning beyond that of most mortals.
(SAN: 3) You feel as though a wire brush has been run through your thoughts from their appearance, but you manage to mostly hold your thoughts in line. (-1 SAN)
You turn your eyes to the world around you. Glittering, gleaming lines trace eye-catching patterns on the walls of the basement, whirling and spiralling through the air and even scratching out webs of mental traps on the floor. Your mind, infinitely expanded, sees through the traps and you understand. It’s a spell, a complex magic unlike anything ever seen on the face of the earth before. It’s attacking your mind, but it can’t come close to denting it since your mind is currently filling the entire village.
And… you understand. (5) You draw an arrow, fit it to your bow and fire it, all in one smooth motion. The grandmother has barely had enough time to blink before the arrow is embedded in her skull, the root of the spell. Around you the line explode into black fragments not unlike the crystal Lyu so proudly found earlier. The fragments shatter in turn into smaller slivers before dissolving into nothing.
The young man falls to his knees, screaming and crying. The blackness in his eyes begins to smoke harder, the pits on his face expanding to rapidly consume his entire head.
The vanishing lines peel away one final illusion as your mind begins to shrink once more, revealing the source of the third heartbeat in the basement. You don’t know how he hid from your infinite mind, but you’re pretty glad he did.
You slump to the ground, exhausted but strangely fulfilled. You can feel something tingling on the edge of your awareness, something that should maybe be investigated in greater detail - but perhaps when you are in less mortal peril.
(In case it’s not clear, the insanity spell has been destroyed. As have the crystals in Lyu’s pocket. Sorry Harry!)
A… man is standing there in the basement, behind the dead old lady and her weeping grandson. He appears to be about seven feet tall and built more akin to a gorilla than a human; his arms are muscled enough to be bigger around than most people’s thighs and end in hands that could pass as shovels if they were a tad smaller. His hair, ragged and unkempt, is long and black. His skin is a distressingly familiar shade of khaki.
His eyes glow with a golden light as he examines the five of you. His presence is somewhat overwhelming.
And then he speaks.
A dreadful sound, plucked from somewhere between the whisper of a knife sinking into flesh and the scream of a dying man. Garnished with the wails of a terrified child and completed with delicate undertones of tearing meat, the creature speaks.
“I wondered who would come first. How did so few kill so many of my children? I guess I must work harder on the next batch.” The monster’s face drops, eyes fixing on the wailing young man. “These two served… adequately. But I do so hate overly emotional people.”
There’s a flicker. A flash, so fast nobody is quite sure that it even happened. The monster is standing as he always was, not even appearing to have moved. A black line glimmers across the man’s throat and with a slow and definite finality Lonracha’s head topples to the floor. The illusion fades from his eyes, showing the blackened pits to all five of you.
Finally the monster looks back at the group. “But to send only four against me… Fools will always underestimate my kind.”
Cyrus glances around. “Um, I do believe there are five of us, Mr…”
The monster’s eyes fix on Cyrus. “Bah. Mages. Always think they’re smarter than the rest of us. My name is Vanda Maraṇālu. And like I said,” he retorts, his hand blurring, “There are only four.”
Cyrus sags to the floor. Something dull and grey is sticking out of his chest; a knife hewn from some peculiar, dark grey metal. His face is wan. “Oh Gods…” he whispers. Brilliantly white light flares from his wound and his robes begin to char. As they smoke and evaporate away in an ever-expanding circle around the wound, his chest is slowly revealed. Blood is pouring from the wound, but it can barely be seen as his skin is glowing. First a buttery yellow before brightening into an eye-searing white, the glow spreads all through his skin. “Run!” he yells hoarsely, his final breath escaping his body.
The light spouting from his wound is solidifying into a blazing column. You four decide it’s prudent to heed the mage’s words as the basement floor begins to rumble and shake from the colossal energies being unleashed. The four of you tumble and roll towards the staircase, fighting your ways up the shaking stairs and into the sunlight. A shockwave knocks you all flying, to land in a heap several metres away from the house.
Behind you, the modest cottage is filled to the brim with light. Blazing white spears of light are pouring from the windows as Cyrus’ unleashed magic eats the house from the inside out. With a final roaring detonation that blasts you back even further, a brilliant white explosion of light ignites the sky around you for miles.
With a groan, the remaining shell of the cottage collapses into the basement, sending up a huge cloud of dust. The dust slowly settles to reveal the monster, Vanda, standing on the opposite side of the ex-basement, none the worse for wear.
Boss Fight: Vanda Maraṇālu
Vanda Maranālu is similar to the monsters faced outside of the village, khaki-skinned and golden eyed. But he shows no signs of the madness which inflicted them.
Traits:
+1 to Strength
+1 to Endurance
+1 to Agility
+1 to Defence against Magic
Thuun activates plan "Get the fuck out of this carriage" which begins with a (hopefully) leaping stab at the shadowed figure followed by repeated stabbings till it stops moving, then a lot of crawling under the carriage and out the other side and into any place that looks easy to hide with less monsters.
You sit and wait in the carriage, trying to judge the perfect moment to leap out and strike. All of a sudden you sense a huge upheaval in magical energies; above the fog, you witness the pillars of black flame belch once and vanish. Huh. One of your comrades must have found out how to destroy the trap spell.
Nonetheless, it’s high time for you to vacate the carriage. It’s about a thousand years before canned food is invented, after all.
You gather yourself to spring for the shadow in front of you. (5-1) You less leap gracefully through the air and more flop forwards, but you flop far enough to tackle over the shadowy figure and stab him in the general chest region with your shortsword. “RAARGH!” you scream in rage, stabbing him over and over again, hoping like hell that it IS a monster and not some hapless human puttering around the village entrance to investigate.
Wait. Wasn’t there… something… on the carriage roof? (2) Something collides with your back like a goddamn cannonball and the two of you go tumbling off of the freshly-corpsified shadowy figure thing. Your mind reassembles itself to find yourself lying flat on the ground with your attacker straddling you, clawing viciously at your back with what feels like simple fingers and nails. Huh.
There’s a sudden flare of bright, white light. Your senses go ballistic as the sheer magical energy overwhelms you for a second. The light rushes over you and your attacker in a wave, burning away the fog. The thing on your back screeches and leaps off you; you hurriedly sit up and spin on your stumpy legs, putting the light out of your mind for now.
The dead body is revealed to be one of the monsters from the forest; you heave a sigh of relief. Your relief fades into horror a moment later as the khaki colour drains away from the body, revealing a perfectly ordinary Cylenian body. The one still standing, however, is indeed still a khaki colour. His eyes are shiny yellow, frosted around the edges with madness. It… he… hisses at you a few times before crouching!
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Smiling and running.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] Righteous Litany]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Running.
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status:You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Stabbin’ people
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Piercing illusions like a badass.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Seventeen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: You're perfectly healthy!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Questioning. Then running.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 32: The Hundred Deaths -
Just when it was all going so well, some sort of maddeningly powerful beast has shown up like a bad cliche…
"Well, that situation got resolved quickly. Shame about our friend, though. Oh well."
Righteous Litany. Chant, baby, chant.
(2) The beast before you is truly fearsome, his eyes of yellow piercing your soul to pin you to earth. Nevertheless, you raise your hands skywards and let your voice boom forth, the words of Solvarion rolling from your tongue to lift your spirits and those of your comrades.
“Wer unter dem Schirm des Höchsten sitzt und unter dem Schatten des Allmächtigen bleibt, der spricht zu dem HERRN: Meine Zuversicht und meine Burg, mein Gott, auf den ich hoffe.
Denn er errettet dich vom Strick des Jägers und von der schädlichen Pestilenz.
Er wird dich mit seinen Fittichen decken, und deine Zuversicht wird sein unter seinen Flügeln. Seine Wahrheit ist Schirm und Schild!“
Create a shield of wind between us and Mr. Boss Monster.
I could try making a shield of stone, sturdier, but now is not a time to try leveling up.
(Your action doesn’t get a +1 from Righteous Litany because it wasn’t an attack.)
You decide that the first order of business is a barrier. Let the monster come to you! (1) (Tails: Inversion) You reach forth to call upon the power of the skies, but your mind slips and falls and comes crashing to earth.
With a resounding crack and a scream, the ground between you and Vanda splits open. Unfortunately, it’s not a very deep crack, nor a very wide one, but it might form a barrier.
If he were the size of a rabbit.
Sadly, he is not.
(3) The force of the inverted magic leaving your body tears the Earth power holding your right hand together into shreds. There’s a clattering, barely audible over the shrieking of the ground, as your rockhand crumbles to the floor. It’ll probably take a few seconds for the magic to reassert itself. (Rockhand is nonfunctional for a turn)
Get behind the shield and behind Baldur. Shoot arrows at boss-nasty.
You slip your bow back off your shoulder and nock an arrow. "Oh, heads up, the insane-O scribbles were all linked to the old woman. Just in case you wondered why I killed her,” you explain, feeling the need to justify your homicidal impulses to the others.
(2) You fire two arrows in quick succession, your hands blurring between bow and quiver. (5+1) Your first arrow lances forth like the fury of a god and tears a hole completely through the beast’s left shoulder. (4+1) Your second arrow follows suit, stabbing deep into his gut.
Vanda lurches slightly, before straightening. His lips pull back from his teeth in a disturbingly wide grin and lightning, pitch black and crackling, fills both wounds. When the lightning fades, the bleeding in both wounds has stopped.
Baldur adopts a defensive stance, ready to strike if Vanda gets past Ekoka's air shield.
"Damn it, I knew that something like this was going to happen!" you shout, drawing your sword and stepping in front of Ekoka, standing squarely between him and the ‘chasm’. Your greatsword, broken in half, is held ready in one hand. You wish you had strayed to investigate the village’s smithy to investigate possible replacement weapons, but it’s a tad late now.
Oh well.
Manda laughs at your pathetic attempts to defend yourselves. “A mage who can barely control his power, a man with a broken sword and a priest who can only chant? Bah!” He stalks forward slowly, seemingly intent on biding his time.
“You, however,” he murmurs in a sultry voice, pointing one sickly-green finger at Felice, “I like your style.” His voice is worming into your ears, dripping like poisonous honey. “You would make a fine lieutenant… You’re even of the right blood.” His lips peel back from his teeth again, revealing disturbingly shiny teeth. Man, that’s just not right. “But then… You would never agree, would you?” He pouts like a child with his favourite toy taken away. “Pity. Don’t worry, my kinsman. I’m sure you taste delicious. I’ll savour every bite.” His eyes drift over the other three. “Although… I’ve never tried Southlander.”
He turns his hand over so it’s palm up. Light - or a lack thereof - flickers and the surroundings darken as though his hand was a source of shadow. Inky black fire blooms into existence, a ball of flame that’s the colour of midnight. Ekoka tilts his head. “It’s… not magic. I don’t know what that is!” he mutters.
The fireball flares up before shrinking, condensing on itself in the span of a few seconds until Vanda is holding a ball of pitch blackness. He grins. “Catch.” He lobs the ball directly at Ekoka!
Baldur steps forth, greatsword held in both hands, and swings as though to bat the ball away. (2) He misses and the ball flies past to crash into the ground at Ekoka’s feet. It pulses once and that’s all the warning the four of you get.
DODGE ROLL:
Lyu: 5
Ekoka: 4
Felice: 5+1
Baldur: 3
Lyu dives sideways as the ball explodes; a chunk of cobblestone the size of his head flies past, narrowly missing out on flattening his nose. He pulls his hands up to shield his face as more pebbles and chunks of rock rain down, but little more than dust lands on him. He climbs swiftly to his feet, staff raised and ready to parry any incoming attack.
Ekoka is knocked backwards by the blast, but manages to land on his feet. He sets himself a little shakily, spitting sideways to get the dust from his mouth.
Felice rolls sideways but hurriedly rises to his feet as he goes immediately for the counter. It’s a danger, but he has an opening! An arrow is in his hand and on the string before the sound of the blast has completely faded; a rock crashes into his back painfully, probably bruising a rib, but it worked; the monster hasn’t fully recovered from his throw. (4+1+1) The arrow streaks forth and pierces Vanda in his right hand, the shaft travelling directly up his arm. Vanda screams as the arrow is embedded in his hand up to his elbow!
Baldur gets knocked head over heels by the blast and lands flat on his back with a massive crash. A lump of cobblestone lands squarely on his stomach, pushing all of the air out of his lungs in one great exhale.
(Vanda can’t use his weird demon magic with his right hand anymore.)
(Felice is bruised on his back. He can’t quite draw his bow back fully. -1 to ranged attacks for three turns.)
(Baldur is winded! -1 to all rolls for the next turn while he catches his breath.)
Vanda is thoroughly angry now. “You… You filthy animals!” he growls, crouching slightly. “How dare you lay a finger on me!” He darts forward and leaps, arms outstretched, directly for (3) Felice!
Traits:
+1 to Strength
+1 to Endurance
+1 to Agility
+1 to Defence against Magic
Known Techniques:
Grenade
Injuries:
Big hole in left shoulder (Cauterised)
Hole in gut (Sealed)
Arrow in right arm (Can’t use magic with right hand)
Quickly roll on side toward the flunky, then cut its legs till it falls down and initiate plan "stab repeatedly until dead"
Then try and sneak away without being found again.
You dimly hear an oration coming from the direction of the village, but you pay it no mind. The shrieking and screaming of rock is a little more disconcerting, but of no moment; the gibbering and mad monster in front of you takes precedence.
You dive sideways, rolling around in the dirt like a flustered chicken. This strange movement has the desired effect, however, confusing the monster and allowing you to roll within reach, so you roll a little more and take a swing at his legs! (5) There’s a rather nasty thwuck as your sword embeds in the creature’s thigh. It screams and falls over.
You heave yourself on top of the screaming and crying beast and lever yourself into a half-decent stabbin’ position. (1) You… uh… Well, you miss. Shoot. Which gives the monster all the opening he needs to grab you by the shoulders! He pulls your torso down (Really, you’re not much more than a torso, head and arms anyway…) and bites deeply into the thick band of muscle at the base of your neck!
(2+1) You flounder and flail at the thing with the deathgrip on your neck, but to no avail. At least you didn’t slip into unconsciousness or lose hold of your sword. That would have made it really difficult to escape this thing that’s determined to have you for dinner.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Chanting his heart out.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (3/3)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Tumbling.
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: [Winded (2/1)]Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] [Righteous Litany (3/3)][/abbr][/color]
Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Getting eaten
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Still being a badass.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Fourteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: [Bruising on back (4/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension] [Righteous Litany (3/3)][/abbr][/color]
Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Losing his hand. Again.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Disabled Rockhand (2/1)]Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] [Righteous Litany (3/3)][/abbr][/color]
Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 33: The Hundred Tombs -
Vanda of the Hundred Deaths is facing off against the four of you… who will make it out alive?
Push blade into its throat and sever its head. Then get out of there, stealthily as possible.
(2) Your blade completely misses his throat. Thankfully, it distracts the little bastard from eating you. The monster hisses and rears up in astonishment and anger before drawing back one fist to strike you. (6) You let its fist strike you across the jaw - you feel something crack, painfully - so that you receive the opening you need. (4+1) Your shortsword slams into the creature’s throat, properly hitting this time and killing the damn thing instantly. There’s a jolt and the khaki colour fades, revealing that the now-dead monster was once a Cylenian.
You heave the monster off, resheathe your blade and decide to high-tail it out of there. (2) Naturally, you break several sticks as you drag your sorry arse into the bushes to hide. Well, shit. There’s a few more hooting calls from the trees around you and three more monsters appear, dropping to land silently next to their fallen brethren.
You watch in disgust as they tear the corpse apart, each of them grabbing a limb and biting deeply into the flesh. You struggle to keep your lunch down; throwing up right now would be a very, very bad idea.
Your legs feel funny. You feel your legs tenderly. Are… Are those shins? Teeny tiny shins? Yes!
This demon's talking is tiresome. Drive the staff into its throat.
“Well.” You step in between Vanda and Felice and draw your staff back as the demon-beast-thing comes flying through the air directly at your face. You have a momentary thought that perhaps this wasn’t the best idea. You grip your staff with both hands and set yourself. (6+1) Vanda’s yellow eyes momentarily widen in panic, but (4+1) he manages to twist himself in midair just enough to almost entirely avoid your bronze-shod staff.
He screams in an unearthly, mind-shattering voice as his hand catches on your staff at the wrist and is completely torn off. He flies through the air and collides with you, knocking you over and sending your staff flying. His weight is pinning you solidly to the floor; you notice that he is far heavier than any human should be, yet still apparently as fit as any prime swordsman. Vanda clambers to his feet. “You bastard!” he yells, drawing back the stump of his right arm. Lightning, blacker than the inside of a coal mine, is already crackling around the wound and burning it shut.
He swings at you, twice. (3, 1) His right stumpy arm cracks you across the jaw but does very little in the way of damage. (5, 1) His left hook comes streaking down for your face again, but you somehow manage to interpose your arm and block his strike. Good God it feels like a freaking sledgehammer just blasted into you. You manage to deflect the blow, however, and take a swing at his angry, mottled face with your left hand. (3+1) You crack him across the jaw and he winces.
(1) Vanda manages to grab both of your arms in his huge, meaty hand and pins your arms above your head. He draws the stump of his left arm level his his growling face. Black lightning begins to coalesce around the stump; the shadow of fire blooms. “Now, you arrogant little shit…” He mutters, before pausing. His jaw works for a second and then he spits out a tooth that you must have knocked loose with your fist. He presses his arm stump against your forehead as the terrible blast builds up, clearly intending to fire it at point-blank range. “Now it’s time for you to die!”
Evade the attack. Depending on how far away I can evade the charging demon, retaliate with my bow or my dirk. aim for either his undamaged hand or his head.
"Bah, I've caught fish more fiercesome than you!" you howl as he leaps for you. You’re about to roll out of the way, but suddenly Lyu is there. Their little scrap is over in an instant and Vanda is about to blow Lyu’s head off.
You have a split second to act; out of the corner of your eye, you see Ekoka’s arm-stump glowing with the wan, orange-ochre colour of earth magic, but it’ll be too late. Your dirk comes whistling out of its sheathe in the small of your back. With only moments to spare you go to fling the dirk (3+1, 4) and it sinks into his left hand, the one holding Lyu’s arms down. Vanda rears back, his khaki face contorted in an expression of rage, pain and… hunger? “You degenerate freak!” he thunders and thrusts his stump towards you.
A black ball of pulsing energy has formed there, lightning coursing across the surface. As you watch the lightning shimmers and vanishes as the monster’s will relaxes, releasing the torrent of energy directly at you. (4+1) You effortlessly dodge the blast, but an arrow tumbles out of your quiver as you dive to the side. You grab it between two nimble fingers, twirl it into your hand and fling it. (1+1) The arrow flies well wide and the demon-thing just laughs.
Lightning begins to form again, on both hands this time. A ball of power rapidly forms in his left hand; on his stump, the lightning condenses into a clawed, crackling mockery of a hand.
Strike the earth with my right hand. Channel Earth magic through it, creating a ridge of earth rising up and forward to strike Vanda.
Also work on reforming my hand.
"I will show you who can't control power!" you yell, drawing your will into the stumpy bits on the end of your right arm. Ochre light flares. (6+1) (What. The. Hell.) The light blazes so brilliantly that your eyes sting, but you manage to maintain coherency enough to slam your stumpy arm into the ground.
The ground is like an extension of your will; shockwaves of power ripple forth and a wave of rock rips from the ground and bears down on Lyu and the demon-monster-thing. Oh. Shit. Right, Lyu’s still in the way. Well. In the instant remaining, you offer a quick prayer to Solvarion to protect his priest. Then you remember the priest’s habits and wonder just what Solvarion would think, anyway.
Vanda tries to avoid the wave, but it still catches him; it sweeps up both him and the priest in a humungous torrent of airborne earth and rock and flings them bodily into the side of a house. The gigantic shockwave of earth crashes into the house after them, burying the two in rubble.
As the dust settles it reveals a startling visage. Massive spikes of rock jave torn their way out of the ground and trace a path right through where Vanda and Lyu were, ending at the rubble of the house the magic collided with. The house itself has clearly collapsed; the shockwave has knocked down four more. (1+1) A pile of bricks falls away, revealing Vanda’s broken body. The creature struggles to sit up, but it’s apparent that he can’t, since (3) his arms are totalled. There’s nothing left of his arms but flattened smears of bloody flesh; not even the black, cursed lightning can heal that. You hope.
(1) Lyu’s staff can be seen, snapped into three pieces. There’s an awful lot of blood leaking out of the bottom of the rubble pile. If even half of that is Lyu’s, then he is in serious danger.
(4-1) Your body pulses painfully and is racked with spasms as the magic fades from your blood. You slump to your knees, absolutely exhausted. Bruises rapidly spread across your entire body and your joints stiffen up, making it very difficult and painful to move. (-1 to all physical activity for three turns; -2 if it’s extremely strenuous)
You somehow cast that ridiculously complex spell! +2 Earth experience - which means you’re now a Level 1 Earth magic adept!
There’s a clattering sound as pebbles leap up and reform your rockhand.
Baldur leaps forward to try to protect Felice. He also tries to slash at Vanda if he gets the opportunity.
You stride over to Vanda. The monster is gasping like an air-drowning fish. “Curse… you…” he mutters as his one good eye fixes on you. His other eye is glazed over and bloody. “How… could mere food… kill me?”
You lift up your sword. “Guess your last meal didn’t agree with you.”
The broken blade of your greatsword slides effortlessly into and through his broken chest.
An ugly light flares and you feel a jolt course up your arm. As you draw your blade out of the body, you watch in astonishment as the creature’s khaki skin fades. In a wave emanating from your fatal wound, the green tone vanishes to reveal the brown skin of a Limerete; the dead yellow eyes soften and melt into their usual green colour. Apparently, on death the curse is destroyed.
Deep under the rubble, Lyu stirs. He can feel that he’s in intense pain and rather deep trouble; he panics slightly in his tomb under all of the rock. He knows that he’s been wounded somehow, but he can’t quite figure out how under all of the rock pressing on his… everywhere. But if he doesn’t get out soon, the rock will crush him completely under its weight.
Lyu currently has one turn to live. You guys have to dig him out. Unfortunately, he also has been wounded and that will require treatment; it’s not life-threatening, but there is a chance he may lose a limb.
On the upshot, next time Ekoka does that he’ll have the control to avoid hitting his teammates. Hopefully.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Stuck under a pile of rock.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: [You’re being crushed by rock!][Entombed in rubble (1/1)[/abbr]
[Unknown Injury]Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (2/3)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Stabbin’
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] [Righteous Litany (2/3)][/abbr][/color]
Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Hiding.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs] [Broken jaw]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Still being a badass.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Thirteen Arrows
Razor-sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: [Bruising on back (3/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension] [Righteous Litany (2/3)][/abbr][/color]
Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Losing his hand. Again.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Bruises and Strains (4/3)Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] [Righteous Litany (2/3)][/abbr][/color]
Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
Have fun, BFEL.
- Turn 34: The Most Unhelpful Magic -
Lyu is buried! Quick, dig him out before he suffocates…
Despite the fact that death was undeniably snuggling up to him and demanding a nice, long kiss on the lips after a hard day's work, Lyu couldn't help but keep on smiling widely underneath the rubble. The pain was quite excruciating, and he might not survive if he is not immediately helped in some way, and yet he was filled with such supreme happiness. What a worthless bag of wind that demon was. To see the moment of complete, utterly undignified panic in the thing's eyes... that was quite possibly the most priceless sensation Lyu had ever had. If he was to die now, that was surely a wonderful image to die to. That and the scream it made when its hand was torn off by the staff. It was, literally, the stuff of dreams for him.
It was also rather pleasant to know that, no matter how much peril he may have ever found himself in, the greatest danger to his continued safety was always going to be the presence of his teammates in the area. Thinking about it, Lyu just had to laugh. And he did. It was a pretty long laugh, in fact.
Laugh heartily. Try to resist being crushed.
You laugh, regardless of your predicament. And try to resist getting crushed. You fervently hope that your friends manage to dig you out. Preferably without more magic.
Aid in saving Lyu from his unfortunate situation
"That'll do it… I can't believe scurvy Pete was right, all those drunken dagger flinging competitions really did pay off," you mutter, bending to retrieve your dirk which must have been knocked loose during Ekoka’s little rock show. You idly test the edge of the dirk on your thumb; it’s lost some of its sharpness, but it’s still pretty good. Awesome. You resheathe the dirk and take a look around.
A pile of wood in the rough shape of a staff catches your eye and you begin swearing. "Where's the priest? WHERE'S THE PRIEST?! I CAN'T LET A HOLY MAN DIE, THAT'S WORSE THAN GOING OUT TO SEA WITHOUT A CAT ON BOARD!" you scream, running over to the pile of rocks. You aren’t sure, but you think you got your superstitions right. Probably. “Is he under here? Really? What the hell!” you yell and begin tugging rocks away. “Damn it, damn it, damn it!”
Baldur immediately rushes over and attempts to dig Lyu out.
"Quit panicking and start digging. Hopefully we'll get to him in time,” you growl at the panicking sailor, cuffing him over the head.
"I'm digging, I'm digging! I'm more scared than that one time we heard someone singing during our voyage!” Felice retorts, pulling another rock out of the way. You wince, having heard some sailors with truly terrible voices before.
“Just focus. Let’s find that priest.” You tug a large chunk of rubble off of the pile and toss it aside. “Just how deep did he get buried, anyway?”
Try to lie in a comfortable position without straining anything.
Use earth magic to try and manipulate the rubble off of Lyu.
You whimper and slide gratefully to the floor before doing your best to stretch out into something approximating the same duchy as a comfortable position. Your muscles inform you exactly what they think of this plan. You never knew muscles could be so rude and noisy.
You sigh and slowly let your eyes shut, hoping to rest for just a moment. But Felice and Baldur are yelling at each other. Damn it. You open one eye and regard what they’re doing, trying to piece together some logic through your slightly scrambled brain. The appear to be digging. Why? For treasure? Surely not. Besides, didn’t Lyu collect all of the tre… Ah. Right. The priest. You raise your rockhand and wave it negligently at the rubble pile, orange-brown light playing out over the ground for a second.
Felice: 5
Baldur: 6
Ekoka: 1
Felice works tirelessly, tossing rocks over his shoulder. “Hey, priest!” he yells. “You in there?” There’s a muffled response which might have been ‘yes’ and that’s enough for the sailor. he kicks several more offending bricks off of the pile and levers up a particularly large chunk of wall to reveal Lyu’s face.
“Oh thank the heavens!” the priest crows, clearly taking his first breath of fresh air in a while. “Could you see your way clear to getting the rest of this rock off?”
Baldur shoves an offending boulder off of the general region where Lyu’s legs would be. “Give us a minute here,” he tells the priest, effortlessly picking up what looks like a quarter of a ton’s worth of boulder.
What remains of the wall above Lyu’s head begins to glow a distressing orange colour. “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” Lyu orders, one fearful eye on the wall. “Oh Gods, not again!”
Without further ado, Baldur shoves the last entrapping sheet of rock aside, picks up the injured priest and slings him over one shoulder. The three of them manage to get clear just in time for the rest of the building to collapse directly on top of Lyu’s previous grave.
Baldur lays Lyu down next to Ekoka. “Bloody mages,” he swears. “How’re ya feeling?”
(2, 3, 3, 2, 2) “Gods, I hurt all over,” Lyu groans. “But it’s... only bad in two... places.” He waves his left arm gingerly. “I think... this is... broken. Lucky it’s... not smashed.” He pauses again, trying to catch his breath. “I… suspect… I have broken… ribs, too…” he smiles, which rapidly contorts into a grimace. “Okay. Lots… of sprains… Ouch.”
Lyu is pretty badly injured! His broken left arm is a clean break, easy to fix, but there’s nothing he can do with it until it’s at least set. His ribs are another matter; they’re impinging slightly on his lungs. If he moves there’s a chance that a broken rib will open a lung, probably get that strapped up right away. Otherwise, he has a -3 to all actions for the rest of this chapter (Which is not much more… like, one turn? Maybe two?) And then -1 for a while after.
(2) Ekoka gets a nosebleed.
Be vewy vewy quiet. They're hunting cripples!
I.E. STEALTHYNESS
You freeze in place, trying to remain very quiet. The Elmer Fudds pace around the burned out shell of the carriage, one still gnawing on a humerus from their fallen comrade. Ugh.
One of them spots a crow and leaps onto the hapless bird in a single blurring motion; there’s a puff of feathers and a single startled squawk. “Dessert!” the monster growls cheerfully. Oh Gods, you wish it had never spoken. None of the other monsters ever spoke and now you fervently wish they would remain so. The creature’s voice was like tar, oozing out of their mouth and gumming up your ears.
A single tiny feather floats on the breeze, gently drifting towards you. You dare not make any motion; the monster is far too close to you now. You silently will the feather to leave you the hell alone, but no dice; it stubbornly drifts into your face and tickles your nose.
Shit.
(1, 5, 3) You sneeze and it’s about as stealthy as an erupting volcano. Which you should know, since you’ve made one. Regardless, all three monsters know that there’s something around here.
One monster is something of an idiot, apparently - even for completely insane, cannabilistic murder beasts. It lopes in the opposite direction and vanishes into the trees as swiftly as it first appeared. The second one seems more cautious and is peering curiously in your general direction.
”Go,” the third monster orders in its disgustingly slimy voice. ”It came from that direction.” The monster waves a khaki hand in the direction that his first comrade ran off in. Huh.
The other one tilts its head. ”No… It was here…”
”Oh, for pity’s sake. I don’t have time for this.” There’s a flash of the purest white light and the too-curious monster slumps to the ground, his khaki skin fading to reveal he was once a Yagalian.
The final monster turns back to the bushes. ”Come on out, young Life Mage.” As you watch in astonishment, the monster begins to glow. It straightens from its gorilla-like crouch and stretches, becoming taller and thinner. And… uh… female. You weren’t expecting that. “I said come out. We don't have time for this! You need to get moving!”
You feel quite confused. Standing before you is a young woman carrying a short staff that looks almost like a drop spindle, except its capped with an hourglass. Odd. Her clothing is of a style you don’t recognise, simple knee-length robes belted at the waist with what appears to be a rope woven from gold thread. A simple mantle is draped around her shoulders, decorated with more gold thread in weaving, flowing designs that threaten to ensnare the eye.
And then there’s the wings. Wait, what? Why… Wings that wouldn’t be out of place on a hawk are folded up. The feathers flutter slightly in the breeze, revealing that the wings are a chestnut brown and further patterned through with gold.
Yeah, whoever this is, she most certainly is not your ordinary mage. Is she even human?
”Don’t you recognise me, young Life Mage?”
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Dug out and sore.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: [Broken Left Arm] [Broken Ribs]Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (1/3)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Digging like a machine
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] [Righteous Litany (1/3)][/abbr][/color]
Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Sneezing at the worst possible time.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs] [Broken jaw]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Digging out priests.
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Thirteen Arrows
Sharp DirkNautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: [Bruising on back (3/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension] [Righteous Litany (1/3)][/abbr][/color]
Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Not being useful in the slightest.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Bruises and Strains (3/3)Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] [Righteous Litany (1/3)][/abbr][/color]
Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
You know, as long as Thuun is in touch range, he can heal you with a very nice dynamic bonus. And since there’s blood, I’d be happy to allow touch range Life magic to be from an inch or two above the wound to avoid Thuun going the way of Cyrus.
Prematurely, anyway.
- Turn 35: The Epilogue of Cnoc Adh -
One dead demon, one unburied priest. Seems all is in order…
Remain still. Try not to injure myself further.
"Well... at least I'm not... quite buried alive anymore. That's nice. Did you... all kill the... demon, mayhap?" you rasp around your broken ribs, trying to lie in one spot on the ground. You hurt pretty much all over but as long as you don’t move too much it doesn’t seem too bad.
"Oh thank the waves you're all right! I was afraid I'd have bad luck for a year," the sailor answers, seeming most relieved. You can’t quite tell if he’s relieved just because of his superstitions or if he actually does feel concern towards you. But that’s a thought for another time. Right now, most of your energy is focused on staying conscious.
"Yeah, we did," Baldur responds to your unanswered question. He’s busily wiping blood from his broken sword. You guess he’s the one who finally did for the monster, although the miniature avalanche undoubtedly helped.
"Pretty unsurprising, I guess. If you monologue that much, how can you not turn out to be a total wuss, after all?” you shrug and immediately regret it. Apparently your shoulders do not appreciate that. “Make sure to... steal anything... he's got on him... by the way. You never know what... you'll find on these... demon corpses, you know?" You secretly hope for more crystals, even though they tried to drive you mad.
"Later. I'm grabbing the life mage," Baldur remarks, ambling towards the village’s main gate. His greatsword is sheathed in its sling across his back now.
"Oh, don't be silly. You're not supposed to do that until after you hear the explosion.” Just outside the gate, you hear a muffled sneeze. You put it out of your mind. “He's probably alright if you haven't heard one. I mean, how much trouble could he possibly get into that doesn't involve mass destruction of some kind?” you remark to whoever’s listening, hoping that the healer won’t prove you wrong.
Baldur stops and turns. He shrugs. You’re momentarily jealous of his ability to move his shoulders without crippling pain, but you put it behind you."So you don't want him to tend to your wounds?" he asks, giving significant glances at your arm that’s currently crinkled up like a piece of waste paper.
"I can't honestly see how him doing that is likely to help my situation any."
"You sure?"
"Maybe later. If the pain doesn't stop soon, I might have a transcendental experience! Or we could just get the other guy to do it. You know, the guy that buried me in rubble."
"It worked, didn't it?" Ekoka responds indignantly from his spot on the ground. “The bastard’s dead, what more do you want?”
"Well, I really wouldn't know. I missed the subsequent events for some reason. But you can do a bit of healing, right? As long as you do it nice and slow, I mean."
"Just wait a few minutes."
Rest. Attempt to stop nose bleeding. Prepare healing spell.
You grumble a bit about complaining priests and stretch out on the ground, trying to find a comfortable spot amongst a large pile of stones. You wriggle until one offending stone dislodges from your spleen and then sit, sighing as you can finally relax. You lean forwards and pinch the bridge of your nose to try and control the trickle of blood.
As you sit there, you decide to piece together a spell to heal the priest. (2) Unfortunately, your collective aches and pains distract your mind and you can’t quite put the spell together. Damn. “Sorry, Lyu… Might take a bit longer.”
"Hey, take all the time you need. I'm not going anywhere, am I?"
Baldur checks if the unholy barrier around the village has gone away, and if so goes to grab Lao.
"I'm still grabbing Lao in that case," you rumble to the others, stepping around the mage trying to stop his nose from bleeding.
The gates are cracked and broken and the signs and sigils that covered the walls are blackened as though they’ve been burned out. You gingerly step up to the threshold of the village and poke one finger across. When nothing happens, you shrug, take a deep breath and hurriedly step across the threshold.
There’s no flare of light, no sudden annihilation. Good. Now to find Thuun… You glance around and your eyes finally lock onto a stumpy little person waddling out of some bushes on itty-bittty feet.
Bingo.
You stroll across the clearing towards Thuun but stop when you see who he’s with - a lady with… uh… wings. An angel? Here? And she didn’t lend a hand? Damn.
Gather arrows that aren't broken. Use kidzuku to inspect Vanda's body, and if possible for possible shinies around these parts.
You scout around and manage to recover both of your arrows.
Well, time to get a look at your opponent. You draw your mind inwards, standing perfectly still and marvelling at the feel of the breeze on your skin, the sunlight on your neck and the ground beneath your feet as your mind slowly stills. You gradually funnel it into the bracelet and through; in a rush, your mind opens to the glories of the world around you.
You stride over to the body and peer down at what was once Vanda Maranalu. (4+1) “Male, aged about thirty five, half-Limerete. Cursed for seven days, one of the originals born of the chaos. Looks like he was actually an artist.” You stop and shake your head as a myriad tiny details thunder through your mind. “The curse… I don’t know. It’s fading fast. It seems as though it feeds on his life force and now that we killed him, it’s dying.” You take a deep breath and focus all of your huge mind on that curse. “It’s… It stinks of blood, but not mortal blood. I can’t see what created it, though.”
You sigh and step back. You open your mind once more, allowing it to simply expand as it wants to as you let your senses examine the surroundings. (4+1) Five things catch your eye. Five spots where something of value may well be hidden.
(3+1, 4+1, 2+1, 3+1, 1+1)
(4) You find a sword. The blade is pretty heavily nicked, but it’s solid enough. It looks to have once been wielded by a pretty deadly warrior; you can only sense one person has ever wielded it and it’s seen a lot of killing. Huh. You test the edge. Yup, nicely sharp.
(5) Across the plaza, in what would be the small church, you find a library. You try and ignore the desecrated altar as you walk in and cast your gaze over the treasure trove of books. (4) Four books jump out at you as being particularly valuable. You tug them off the shelf and stow them in your pack.
(3) It must have been the mayor’s house, judging from the extremely gaudy architecture. It’s been pretty well ransacked, but you manage to find a pair of silken underwear. Silk is fairly valuable, but still…
(4) A gnarled old staff, capped at one end with a small crystal trapped in twining roots or something. An affectation, most likely - you can’t sense anything magical about it, even with your expanded mind.
(2) It’s… a skull. That someone has scribbled swear words on. You’re not entirely sure why.
--------------------
(3) There’s a small chance that there’s something else here, but you can’t quite sense it. (If someone wants to search, they’ll only find something on a roll of 5 or 6. Everyone can try, of course.)
You sigh and relax your mind, allowing it to draw back to normal. The pressure in your skull slowly decreases and you smile as it no longer feels like your brain is about to squirt out of your nostrils.
Thuun emerges from his hiding place, crawling toward the woman. FLIRTING GO!
You totter your way out of the bushes, trying to preserve some form of dignity - which is difficult for someone with tiny-ass feet. "I do, you're Sariel aren't you? The depictions don't do you justice," you mumble around your broken jaw, finally sitting yourself down with a modicum of dignity so you don’t fall over.
She smiles. It’s the kind of smile that would make babies spontaneously giggle. “I must confess, I was worried… Last time I spoke to you, you seemed convinced that I was my late Father.” She steps closer and kneels so that she’s somewhat closer to your eye level. “I don’t have much time, young mage. My siblings and I are a tad distracted.” She grumbles. “I also can’t tell you much. Even after all this, my father’s Laws are still in force. You mortals must defend yourselves, we can only guide you.” She reaches out and touches your forehead with one delicate finger. There’s a pulse of rose-coloured light that fills your vision with it’s brightness and your nose with the delicate scent of rosewater. When it fades, she’s gone.
Your mind’s eye is consumed by a vista from high above Cylenia. A city lies in front of you, squatting on the coastline where Cylenia is bordered by the Eastern Sea. You look to your right and see the distant sparkles that mark Limero, although it’s nearly a thousand miles away.
Suddenly you’re falling into the city.
You’re standing in front of a large cathedral, domed in gold. The doors are massive affairs; one is gold, the other is silver. Small sally ports set into the centre of the huge doors form a smaller, more practical entrance; these are made out of some unknown, jet-black metal. You feel a pulse tugging you inside. “Seek the answers within here,” Sariel’s voice whispers.
You sit up and you’re back in the land of the living. Baldur’s got you slung over one shoulder and is carrying you resolutely back towards the small village.
Dark is falling. It seems wise to finish up soon; the darkness holds creatures far worse than simple wolves now. Finish looting the place and let’s get moving!
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Still sore.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: [Broken Left Arm] [Broken Ribs]Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (6/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Digging like a machine
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Mumbling
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour and boots
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs] [Broken jaw]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Finding cool things
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Fifteen Arrows
Sharp DirkBroadsword
Four Mysterious Books
Silken Underwear
Gnarled Old Staff
Strange Skull
Nautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: [Bruising on back (2/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Not thinking
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Bruises and Strains (2/3)Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 36: Splitting the Loot -
At the end of the day, split up the pay…
Meditate. Distract myself from the pain with the sound of my own voice. Don't move.
Trying to mimic a Toan monk you met once, you attempt to meditate so as to distract yourself from the pain. “Ooommmmmm,” you hum under your breath. You’re not entirely sure why monks say that, but they do, so you do too.
However, you keep one eye on the others - particularly Felice. The lucky bastard is hunting for treasure! Enlightenment and one-ness with the universe can wait, there’s gold to be had! He reappears in your field of vision with a peculiarly gnarled and seriously ugly staff that’s capped with a chunk of raw crystal. The crystal looks to be cloudy quartz; not particularly valuable, but not liable to shatter if you brain somebody with it. Felice lays the staff - really, it looks like someone just picked up a tree branch - next to you. “Here you go, mate. Since your last one broke.”
He then returns to being carried, and silently wills his regen to work faster
You, uh, sorta burrow into Baldur’s arms. And mumble, like you’re half-asleep. "You saw her too right? We need to get to a city on the east coast, has a really ornate cathedral." Are… are you curling up?
For your sake, I hope Baldur isn’t a married man, or there’s all sorts of opportunity for hilarious misunderstandings here. Like in those terrible theatre productions you’ve seen sometimes… who was that actor? Sandal? Sandle? Something like that.
Anyway, while you’re doing that you focus on your regeneration. Your legs are still tingling and it feels like the process is coming along swimmingly. Maybe you can nudge it into moving a little faster. (5) You nudge it. And it begins to regenerate your legs faster. Hooray, the time necessary has decreased by a full minute!
(By the way, your jaw is still broken. Maybe extend your regen into your face?)
Baldur carries Thuun back to the group.
“I… uh… I did. Are… Are you nuzzling?” you ask the half-asleep mage. He glares at you. And his cheeks are red. Perfect. You shake your head and put it out of your mind.
“Hey boys, I found our missing mage. Damn fool was hiding under the carriage the whole time!” you call to the others as you meet up with them. You set Thuun down next to the priest and hastily step back, lest the mage try healing Lyu and turn him into a giant green rage-monster.
Felice offers you a basket-hilted sword. “Here you go, mate. I know ya favour using both mitts, but this’ll do nicely.” You shrug and accept the broadsword and buckle it onto your belt. It feels nice to have a whole weapon again, even if it’s one you’re not entirely used to using.
Continue attempting to focus on casting a simple healing spell.
You shut your eyes and draw your mind together, silently sketching out how a simple healing spell would work. (3) You’ve mostly worked out the kinks - you’re pretty sure you know how to avoid critically messing the spell up and having the magic invert and turn Lyu’s chest into a pile of mince.
(Next turn you get a guaranteed +1 if your roll is lower than five. You can still overshoot, though.)
[/color]
Give staff and skull to Lyu! Give sword to Baldur! Inspect the books and start reading a random one, unless it looks evil! Follow party!
You stop to admire your score. “Screw me sideways, this thing comes in handy,” you mutter, absently polishing Kidzuku in gratitude. “Welp. Hey, guys! I found some goodies for us! I've got a new staff for Lyu and a non-broken sword for Baldur. It used to belong to a deadly warrior. If...you care....just throwing that tidbit out there.” You wander around, dishing out your haul to whomever seems to be best equipped to make use of it. You’re a little stumped on Thuun, since he manages to injure himself with most everything, so you decide to hold off on giving him anything just yet.
When you get to Ekoka, he raises an eyebrow. “Neat. Anything useful for those of us who haven't been getting new goodies lately? Other than inanimate rock hands..."
"I dunno. I've got some silk underwear, but I was thinking of just selling those,” you offer, holding up the fancy silky thing. You idly wonder if it’s as comfortable as it looks, but decide to not try it on. “I also found some books, but I'd like to read them myself, firstly. There was also a skull with some obscene language on it, not sure when or how that will come in handy." You hold up the skull so Ekoka can see it. His eyes peruse the dirty language covering the bleached white bone and, if possible, his eyebrow creeps even higher. You shrug. “I get the feeling that there's still a goodie out there somewhere, but I can't quite seem to pinpoint where.”
"Can I have the skull? It sounds interesting!" Lyu calls from just beyond Ekoka.
"Certainly, knock yourself out. Figuratively speaking." You lob the skull to the priest, who manages to catch it despite his numerous injuries. You privately wonder if he isn’t trying to collect enough bones to build a complete skeleton.
"Oh he can do it literally too,” Thuun remarks dryly as Baldur sets him down. “Yeesh, this place is a mess. Now where's Cyrus?”
"Dead, poor bastard. He got stabbed and then he exploded," Ekoka explains. Thuun’s face pales. “Yeah, it was like he’d picked up a lodestone. Blew the entire buildiong apart. You can see it over there.” He waves over at the still-smoking ruin where the pyromancer met his sudden end.
You sigh and sit next to the mages and pull the books out to examine them more closely. The first book is a royal blue; the front of the book is marked with a weird swirly symbol that looks a little bit like the Limerete symbol for River. The second book, a startling shade of scarlet, has a single golden teardrop on the front. The third book is a pale cream, marked with a starburst drawn in gold foil. The final book is a reddish purple and the golden symbol on the front is a simple circle.
Shrugging, you open the purple book. It… appears to be discussing Force magic. You flick through the pages more out of idle curiosity than anything. The book seems to actually contain magic as well, given how your bracelet is humming; the buzzing intensifies every time you move your left hand closer to turn a page.
Okay folks, that’s it. Next turn, post two actions. The first one is a short action, anything final that you want to do in the village before it’s all wrapped up. GWG, you’re welcome to heal Lyu and go hunting for precious objects, so don’t worry.
Then we’re travelling. I don’t feel like writing up a separate turn just for travelling, so it’s all being lumped into one post.
As such, the second action is a ‘travel’ action - ie, a long-ish action/set of actions you want to do when you stop in a village on your travels. Hopefully it doesn’t finish with Ekoka missing another hand. Be a little creative. The city will have stalls, smiths and the like, but if you want to look around the small village you’re welcome to. There’s all sorts lying around villages that doesn’t turn up in the cities.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Still sore.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Gnarled Old Staff
Skull Covered in Rude Words
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
185 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: [Broken Left Arm] [Broken Ribs]Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany (5/6)]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Carrying Thuun
Inventory:Broken greatsword
Warrior’s Broadsword
Worn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: More mumbling
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Healed stumpy legs] [Broken jaw]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ][Regenerative Magic]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] Magical Experience:[Ea: 0] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Handing out cool things
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Fifteen Arrows
Sharp DirkFour Mysterious Books
Silken Underwear
Nautical Longcoat and Boots
313 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: [Bruising on back (1/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Thinking
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Wounds/Status: [Bruises and Strains (1/3)Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 0] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0]
HOLY SHIT THIS TOOK FOREVER TO WRITE.
- Turn 37: Chapter 1 End -
Welcome to the final stages of Chapter One...
Heal Lyu. Look for precious objects. Contemplate ways to improve my hand.
The spell held mostly firm in your mind, you stand up from your seat on the rather uncomfortable cobblestones and approach Lyu, green lights whirling and cavorting around your rockhand. You kneel next to the severely injured priest and lay your rockhand on his chest. “Right, let’s see what happens,” you mutter and cast the spell.
(3+1) Your pebbles rattle a little as the magic passes through them and into Lyu. Green sparks spiral out and dance along Lyu’s chest, every now and then a single spark stopping next to a graze or cut. The majority of the cloud of sparks continues on until they reach the badly bulging, rather dented pieces of his broken ribs. There’s a terrible rattling, gurgling sound followed by a sickenly wet crackle as his chest reinflates and the bones are reforged. The priest is sent into a coughing fit, but it rapidly subsides and he winces and touches his chest gingerly. “I’d not care to repeat that,” he winces.
You shrug and stand, stretching your muscles that cramped under the magic usage. “Well, I’ve still got to do your arm,” you inform him and rearrange yourself. The spell is still mostly complete in your mind. You lay both hands on the broken arm and release your magic. (6) Green light flares brightly and the village square is momentarily turned emerald. The rich smell of fertile, wet earth fills your nostrils and grass spontaneously blooms into existence beneath Lyu’s arm, rapidly spreading into a circle about two metres wide. Lyu’s arm begins to glow, too, first a startling green and then slowly inching into eye-searing white. The glow rapidly spreads to his chest and head.
After a few instants the light fades, leaving Lyu’s arm brand new. Except… for… Huh. Deep, bottle-green marks reminiscent of tattoos in the design of some Limerete tribals now spiral up Lyu’s left arm. Their spidery design traces from the back of his left hand to his shoulder, where they appear to bloom out in a strange sort of flame pattern across his chest. The pattern continues up his neck and underneath his grey hair, although the designs avoid his face.
You sit back and eye the design. “Uh… Thuun?” you call over your shoulder. “What the hell is this?”
“What the hell is what? I can’t exactly get up and look,” he answers.
“Lyu. I healed his arm and now there’s some weird tattoo thing.”
Thuun is silent for a moment. Finally he props himself up on one arm. “Ah. You over-extended yourself and reshaped his flesh a bit. Don’t worry, it’s harmless. He’ll just be more receptive to his next healing, that’s all.”
Lyu gained an attribute! You warped his flesh with Life magic so badly that it created purpose-built channels! The next time Lyu gets healing magic applied to his head, torso or left arm, the magic gets an automatic +1 applied to it!
Perfect casting! +1 Life exp! One point to go to level up.
You shrug and stand, arching your back. “Well, all done.” You take a few steps back from the priest and eye your work. Satisfied, you turn to glance over the village. Felice mentioned that there might be something of value left that he couldn’t find; you decide to have a look for yourself. You dust off your hands and decide to go potter around the ruins for a couple of minutes. (4) Your heart’s not really in it, since Felice and his fancy bracelet have surely already picked the place clean. Nevertheless, you press on. Your foot knocks against a small box. You stop and crouch to take a closer look. Inside, you find 76 gold! (5) Buoyed by this find, you move on. Something glittery catches your eye. You roughly bend your rockhand into the shape of a scoop and dig a bit at the rocks. (4) It’s another book! The book is leatherbound and a chocolate brown. The front is marked with a golden symbol, the glitteriness that caught your eye. The symbol is a triangle but the bottom line extends out beyond the vertices, almost as though its an extremely simple drawing of a mountain.
Lie peacefully and appreciate the skies for now. If I get bored, examine swear words on skull.
Your chest and arm are seriously sore. Apparently Ekoka’s remedial Life magic skills don’t extend to magical anaesthesia, but ohwell. You decide that the best thing to do is to just lie back and wait for the pain to wander off by itself.
With nothing better to do other than look at the slowly darkening sky and hoping a bird doesn’t fly overhead, you pick up the skull and examine the words. They appear to have been carved into the skull with a knife and then dyed black. The writing is really quite pretty, whoever did it was a master of penmanship. So why the hell did they write swear words all over a skull? The reasoning utterly baffles you. You’re not entirely sure that there’s any rhyme or reason to the swear words, even. Maybe whoever did it was crazy. The harmless kind, not the I-eat-babies-and-old-grandmas kind.
1.Focus some regen into fixing my jaw, and assuming Lyu actually gets healed by Ekoka then ask him to give Cyrus a few words and quick service.
You nudge some of the light out of your legs and into your jaw. You wince as the pain in the break doubles and redoubles; all of a sudden it fades in a tidal wave of endorphins. “Much better,” you sigh and rub your newly healed jaw as the light fades.
Your legs feel really odd now. You struggle to sit up and look at them. Well, the entire leg structure appears to be there, but everything from the knee down is miniature. Awesome. However, it does seem to be growing slowly!
Wait. Wait wait wait. Are those BABY LEGS? So… you really do actually regrow lost limbs entirely from scratch? Huh. Well. You decide that next time you’ll try harder to not lose your limbs. Having baby legs is not your idea of a good time.
You put your disturbingly small legs out of mind and glance over at the healed and inked up priest. “Hey, Lyu, will you say some words for Cyrus?”
The priest nods his assent. “When the rather debilitating pain in my chest leaves, I’ll be glad to,” he answers.
Short Term Action: ... Search for loot, I guess.
You eye the flimsy sword… thing that Felice gave you. “People actually fight with these things?” you ask nobody in particular. Oh well, it’ll do for now. You shrug and decide to have a poke around for valuables. No mercenary ever got rich by avoiding looting, after all. (4) In a mostly-intact house, you find a small safe. Heavy application of a boot cracks the safe open to reveal 90 gold coins inside! You gleefully scoop them into your pockets. (6) The glee is mildly infectious and you happily turn over the rest of the house. You find five more caches of coins, amounting to another 246 coins.
You’re really rather pleased about that.
Short term: Look through the other three books to see what they're about.
Dismissing the buzzing of your magical bracelet as mere happenstance and not some sort of message - that’d just be superstitious and silly, after all - you shut the book on Force magic. The buzzing immediately cuts off. Huh. You shrug and check out the other three. As you suspected, they’re all books on magic; one of Fire magic, one on water magic and the last one, the cream one, appears to be about Light magic. Cool. Entirely useless to you, since you don’t practice magic, but still pretty cool.
Kidzuku buzzes again and startles you into dropping the Light magic book. The book hits the floor with a thud and falls open to a very peculiar page covered in hundreds of different symbols. As you bend to pick up the precious book the symbols catch your eye. It’s a design, similar to the network that covers Kidzuku. It appears to be a treatise, or a map? Maybe? At the centre of the design is a winged shape. Some sort of bat? No, it’s tail and neck are too long. The network of lines centre around and stem from the winged shape, spiralling out in a web.
You wonder what it means.
“Hey, I found us a horse and cart!” Baldur calls from the back of the village. Somehow, one lonely old nag escaped the slaughter. Too placid to run and too old and stringy to be butchered, the nag has survived alongside a small cart that’s probably big enough for the five adventurers. “What do you guys say to getting the hell out of here?”
The others all voice their assent. The sun hass almost completely set, leaving an overlay of shadows to the already-way-too-creepy village of Cnoc Adh. Baldur comes slowly around the corner, riding in the driver’s seat of a dinky little cart. The mare is old and grey - nobody’s sure if the greyness is natural colour or sheer time. The mercenary clucks her to a stop near the wreckage that is Cyrus’ tomb and sits negligently holding the reins in one hand.
Ekoka and Felice are the first in, each carrying books of varying colours. Thuun, ambulatory for the first time in hours, totters over on legs that would better suit an eight year old child. He too climbs in. Finally Lyu wanders across. He stops next to the wreckage of the house, turns and raises his hands. “Father of Life and Light, grant this kind soul rest among the stars and may his rebirth be into a life as brilliant as the sun’s.” The eulogy is simple, but has been said for nearly a thousand years. Lyu takes a deep breath and continues. “May these other souls, touched and tainted by demon’s blood and fire, find peace in the greater beyond.”
A breeze sighs through the empty village. The last glimmer of fire fades from the sky as the newborn sun sinks beneath the horizon. Lyu turns and climbs aboard the cart. “let’s go.”
- Chapter 1 End -
- Interlude -
The cart trundles on, stopping only around midnight when the five of you feel safely far from the creepy village. By general consent, the cart is headed in the general direction of Shas Ria, the capital of Cylenia and the next stop along the road. The huge temple that Thuun saw in his vision is from a city beyond Shas Ria, but nobody knows which one. Hopefully in Shas Ria somebody will know where to go next.
As the sun rises the five of you set out once more. Iin the distance can be seen a tiny village, perhaps breaking there for a time is a good idea…
Read books. At some point when we're stopped, use Life Magic to make my hand alive and under my control. And ideally detachable.
The journey is long and the cart rattles annoyingly underneath you, but it’s a damn sight better than walking. You pick a book at random. (5) You pick the cream book with the golden starburst and open it. Light magic. Hmm. You’ve never done much Light magic, having never seen any point in it beyond creating a source of light. But the book explains some of the concepts involved in Light magic and its like a whole new vista of possibilities opens before your eyes.
Light, it appears, is good for more than just lighting something up. It appears to be a crucial part in summoning rituals, although they look to be a tad beyond you just yet. It also, disturbingly, seems to extend into magical rituals involving the soul. That’s creepy. The book doesn’t describe them much, since soul-magic tends to be frowned upon by most people
The book also describes more normal techniques, such as creation of light, blinding of opponents and how to focus the light into burning a target from far away. You feel much smarter once you’ve finished reading the book. (+1 Level in Light magic! You can now create limited solid light.)
In time, the carriage comes to a stop. You gratefully climb out to stretch your legs. You’ve been itching to try some new magic on your rockhand, too. Since the last time you experimented on rocks you blew your hand off, you decide to step away from the cart.
(6) Emerald light gleams and thunders through your hand. There’s a thunderous detonation followed by an immense pressure in your ears, as though the air around you was being compressed into your head. Just as the pressure become too intense it fades almost as fast as it appeared.
You look down at your rockhand, hoping to see something pretty cool. Sadly, it’s still just a rockhand. You can’t even twitch it.
You’re about to try again when you come to a realisation. This is a hand made of stone, there’s absolutely nothing alive in there. Life magic will do diddly squat for a lifeless lump of rock. You realise you’ll need some Earth magic in the mix to bind it properly.
(If you hadn’t rolled a six, you wouldn’t have had the wonderful realisation.)
(3+1) Each little pebble begins to glow orange. As you force Life magic in little spindles of green light appear. Using Earth magic as crude sutures and glue, you bind the Life magic into each stone and then into your arm. You’re not skilled enough for anything more exotic just yet, but at least you could achieve something…
As the light fades, you see that the central pebble of your rockhand has been metamorphosed into a lump of quartz. You can see a tiny green spark trapped inside the crystal; as you focus, the spark grows and rapidly forms a network through the surrounding rocks, laying out a pattern that is reminiscent of blood vessels and nerves. Well, that’s something.
+1 Life magic! Congratulations, you have reached level 1 in Life magic! You can heal from a distance of twenty feet or so. Touch-based healing gets a dynamic bonus, too.
Congratulations, you now have limited movement in your rockhand! You’ve reached the limits of what a bunch of pebbles can do. You can sort of control it with your mind - you can grip things, but fine motor control sucks. With better materials (Like copper and tiny crystals) you could make a truly impressive hand. You can also will it into various ‘shapes’. A cloud of pebbles, a whip, whatever you need. The downside is if the little quartz crystal ever breaks, the magic is destroyed and you have to start from scratch.
If I travel, do the same if I am not healed. If I am healed, practice my staff battling skills. If we stop anywhere, look into purchasing armor.
You feel much better for a night’s rest. When Baldur pulls the cart over at a small village, you clamber out and pick up your staff, intent on stretching your limbs out. You dip, strike and slide through a half-dozen different forms, practicing your handiwork as well as your footwork. It feels good to be up and moving again!
With your morning workout done, you decide to investigate the village. Hopefully a leatherworker will be able to provide you with some armour. (6) You find a leatherworker alright, and what a leatherworker he is! He normally trades with passing merchant caravans, but you’ve managed to reach him before any of this season’s merchants did. You step into the cool dimness of his shop. “Do you have any armour, my good man?” you ask cheerfully.
The leatherworker looks up and eyes you suspiciously, but when he sees the religious pendant around your neck and your - admittedly rather tattered - priestly garb, his suspicions noticeably fade. “Come in, come in! Yes, I do indeed have suits of armour!” He waves you to follow him towards a cabinet. “Our hunters occasionally run into bears and wolves, so my armour is often in demand.” He opens the cabinet to reveal several leather cuirasses and, with a glance at your proportions, he pulls down one suit in particular.
The cuirass is beautifully stitched together. You can see that a tremendous amount of work has gone into each piece of leather and the greatest of care has been taken in ensuring that the pieces are properly bound together. The garment is light yet quite sturdy. At a permissive nod from the shopkeeper, you decide to try it on. Somehow, the garment fits almost perfectly. The shopkeeper hands you accompanying greaves and vambraces, which fit snugly onto your legs and arms respectively. You feel significantly safer. “It looks good on you!” he grins, pointing you at a mirror.
You step into the light coming from the small window and turn to face the mirror. You can’t help it; you smile. The light reveals that the armour has been delicately inscribed with various Cylenian designs. Although they’re not magically empowered, you recognise runes for speed and protection carved into discreet places on the armour. The arm and leg armour is no less decorated, with swirls and whorls covering the leather in their tracery. “I’ll take it!” you crow happily. “How much?”
“Three hundred gold for the lot,” the leatherworker answers promptly. You balk slightly, since you’re carrying only a little more than half of that. He watches your face crumble. “Two hundred, twenty five if you don’t buy the vambraces,” he adds.
That’s a more reasonable number. Time to bargain. (5+1) “It’s fine craftsmanship,” you begin; “But I think a hundred for the lot is more suitable.” You know it’s an outrageously low number, but it’s important to follow procedure in these things.
“Excuse me?” he nearly shouts. “The cuirass is worth a hundred and fifty alone!”
Back and forth you two barter. He lingers on the craftsmanship of the runes, hinting that a mage of sufficient knowledge could empower them for you. You counter by saying that no merchants will be coming for some time due to the Ten Day Night hampering trade. He ripostes by remarking on how there are no other nearby armorers. You respond by shrugging your shoulders and saying you’re headed for Shas Ria, where you receive an ecclestial discount, but you thought to help the isolated village.
He gives in.
You pay full price for the cuirass and he tosses in the greaves for free. “You had better tell everybody who you bought these from!” he growls as he takes your money. You smile beatifically and slip the armour on before leaving the shop.
Assuming everything goes well and my legs get totally fixed by the time we reach a town, help Baldur get his greatsword reforged and take the extra broadsword off his hands. After that use any remaining time to look through the scarlet-with-teardrop book first, and the others if enough time still remains.
You wake up the following morning to a wonderful realisation. You have legs! You have fully grown, real, manly legs! When you awoke from your fever dream to discover that Baldur had divested you of your legs, you had feared that you would never again dance the cantata naked beneath the moon, as is only proper. At least, that’s what the Limeretes in the temple told you when you asked how they danced it back in Limero.
As the cart rumbles on, Baldur patiently guiding the sleepy mare along the dusty track, you pull out the book on Fire magic. You see that the teardrop is more of a stylised flame than anything, which makes sense. You idly flip through the book, hoping to find something of interest. In the very centre of the book, you find a diagram. At the centre of the diagram is a dragon you recognise from your dream. You shudder. After a moment, you realise that the page is describing Nathaniel, the Angel of Creativity. The implications make your brain hurt. Did you really meet an angel? And he gave you his strength? Holy crap. You continue examining the designs. Apparently you are not the only one that the angels have invested their power in. They’ve done it before. You stop and pull out the cream book, flipping to the middle. Yup, as you expected, the exact same diagram is in the centre there. Huh. You go back to the red book and keep reading. According to the treatise, the Aspect within continues to grow for as long as the mortal’s actions please the angel. Annoyingly, it doesn’t say how to do that.
You shrug and keep reading the rest of the book. The book describes some truly arcane uses of Fire magic, such as the best temperature to remove only a certain amount of skin from a person. It waxes lyrical on how to adjust and maintain temperatures, even varying them across a single spell. It also describes the various ways Fire magic interacts with other elements and after reading. Fire and Wind create lightning? That sound pretty sweet.
Finally, you find a new spell. A pretty neat spell, too!
Spell learned: Flame Cloak! You can sheathe yourself in flames. You become immune to Fire magic and gain a resistance to Ice magic and the cold. Anybody within reach can get burned. It would appear that the spell is quite draining and as long as its active you can only use touch-based magic and only in schools you have some mastery in. The spell lasts for three turns or until you end it. It has a three turn cooldown.
When the cart pulls over you leap out and caper around in sheer joy, ignoring the fact that your newly-grown legs actually rather hurt. Probably a side effect of cramming twenty-odd years of growth into a single day.
Traveling Action: Find a blacksmith to reforge my greatsword! If that's not possible/it breaks, purchase another greatsword.
You’re about to wander into town when a capering, dancing Thuun appears in front of you. “Ooh, ooh, let me!” he yells excitedly. Before you can even say anything he’s somehow stolen the scabbard right off your back! You shrug. It’s not like he can make things any worse than before, right?
“Hmm… Earth or Fire magic?” he mutters to himself. You decide to back up. “Maybe a bit of both?” he continues, oblivious to your concern. You back up further. A lot further. Finally he shrugs and tips the scabbard over, letting both halves fall to the floor. You see him kneel and draw himself in, clearly focusing on the unusual spell. Probably for the best that he’s taking his time about this. (1) You get the feeling he’s only halfway there. Probably forgot to focus on how to limit the spell, damn fool.
(Ea: 6) (Fi: 2+1+1) Sooty red light blazes up from in front of him all of a sudden. There’s a terrible earth-shattering wrench and a chasm splits open in front of the mage. There’s a golden glow from within the chasm; you inch closer and peer into it. Magma! There’s goddamn magma down there! You back far, far away and murmur a quick prayer to any angels listening.
Thuun stands and tosses both halves of your blade into the furnace. Strangling noises come from your mouth. That was a favourite sword! You’re going to kill him! You’re going to push that damn mage into the hole so he can go fetch it for you! You’re going to--
Thuun raises his hands and holds them dramatically over the chasm. Fiery red light mixes with the ochre you all have come to associate with earth magic and pours down into the chasm. The light turns sooty as the magics mix. Rumbles and crunches from deep within the earth continue to threaten to spill you to your knees.
There’s a final heart-rending shriek as the hole closes up; Thuun sighs and steps back. There, sticking out from the ground like some damn fairytale, is your sword! Minus a grip, of course. That was simple leather. But your sword, gleaming golden like the day it was forged, is there for the taking. You stand shakily and step towards the blade, one hand outstretched. “Go on, take it,” Thuun murmurs. You notice a small crystal embedded in the crosspiece - that’s new. (6) As your hand closes around the hilt, a bright orange spark appears deep within the crystal.
You draw the gleaming, golden blade from the earth in one swift movement. It feels like your blade. It whistles through the air as you swing it experimentally. You smile, then grin. “Awesome.”
You gained a new, really sharp, freshly forged greatsword! The crystal holds something as yet untapped.
Thuun gained 1 experience point in Earth magic!
Find someone who is willing to buy the silken underwear. Also look for a shop that sells bows/arrows and some kind of armor, check what they have for sale. also look if there are any other interesting shops.
Strangely, nobody wants to buy used underwear from a swarthy and grumpy Limerete sailor who might or might not be a pirate, based on his heavily armed status. You sigh and put them back in your pocket. Maybe there’s something else of use in this town.
You stumble across the same leatherworker that Lyu did. “Hi, can I buy some armour?” you ask.
“Wow, two in one day!” the shopkeeper exclaims. “And a Limerete, to boot. Well, I may have something for you.” (2) It seems that Lyu has already bought the best pieces. All that’s left is fairly plain armour, the kind that he supplies to the village’s hunters. However, you manage to purchase a complete set for two hundred gold.
You go looking for other stores. (5) You find a local fletcher and eye his stock. Wait… Are those… You pick up one of the arrows with shaking hands and show it to the fletcher. “Is this what I think it is?” you ask.
He nods. “Explosive arrows, yep. Y’recognise ‘em, eh? Y’must be a sailor out from th’East. ‘S’where I learned me craft.” You marvel at the explosive arrows, a Limerete specialty. You haven’t seen their like in nearly a decade! “They’re only ten gold a pop,” he offers. “We use ‘em mostly f’r settin’ off rockslides ‘n such. They’s weak ones, t’be’sre, but they’ll do th’job.”
You fight through the accent long enough to buy five explosive arrows and slip them carefully into your quiver. Even if they are much weaker than normal ones, they should still prove nice and useful!
- Interlude End -
Baldur jumps up onto the driver’s seat of the cart as the other four pile onto the back. “Right, we all here?” he calls over his shoulder. “Let’s go!” He clucks to the nag and flicks the reins once, setting the cart to rolling. The villagers are glad to see you leave, given Thuun’s little experiments in earthmoving. Next stop, Shas Ria!
- Chapter Two: Shadows -
The cart rumbles to a stop near the southernmost gate of Shas Ria. The city has stood on this spot for nearly eight hundred years and has sprawled to cover most of the plains. A river runs through the centre of the town, directly towards the ocean. On the far bank can be seen the majestic palace of the Archduke, the temporal ruler of Cylenia. The palace is a crescent moon shape, with the great Sun and Moon Basilica within the arms of the palace. Great markets stud the city; near the palace is the University, one of the finest centres of learning outside of Toa. Although the angel has advised you to seek a city by the sea, there may well be information within this great city that will help your quest.
Rumours have already reached the city of monsters roaming the night, bringing madness and death in their wake. Apparently little news has reached the capital from outlying cities. What little there is doesn’t sound good. From the sounds of it, Shas Isa was destroyed by rampaging mages and a horde of ten-foot-tall monsters that they summoned from the bowels of the earth. Shas Cyrra’s mines are thinning out, meaning that soon there will be a shortage of summerstone and the major raw good of Cylenia and an essential ingredient in most of Cylenia’s exports will perhaps dry up.
The city is your playground, but beware… the alleys and markets hold more than just information. Tarry not within the shadows.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Travelling
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Gnarled Old Staff
Skull Covered in Rude Words
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
Inscribed Leather Cuirass and Greaves35 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Life Channels: Left Arm, Head, Chest] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany ] Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Travelling
Inventory:Reforged, Really Sharp GreatswordWorn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Travelling
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Warrior’s Broadsword
Leather armour
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] [Flame Cloak] Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Travelling
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Fifteen Arrows
Five Explosive Arrows
Sharp DirkWater Magic Book
Force Magic Book
Silken Underwear
Nautical Longcoat
Leather Armour Set63 gold
KidzukuWounds/Status: [Bruising on back (1/3)]Abilities: [Fearless] [Kidzuku: Arrowtime] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Kidzuku: Comprehension] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Travelling
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Light Magic Book
Mysterious Brown Book
Wounds/Status: [Bruises and Strains (1/3)Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Rock Hand] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 1] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 1] [Sh: 0]
Okay, before the High Lord of Munchkinry here gets too carried away, I might just clarify a few things.
The five books you've found are five basic books on magic - Water, Fire, Force, Light and Earth. They are meant to help mages who can't project magic to learn the basics of doing so. Which is why it bumped Ekoka up to level one, but Thuun just learned a new spell. Each book also has some generalities, such as other applications for the fields. Non-mages can't always find useful things, but if Felice was of a mind to learn psychic abilities then he might find something useful.
Your best chance for selling the books, if you so desire, is in a big town. As you might remember even larger towns currently don't like mages very much on account of suspicions vis a vis cutting the damn sun in half, but at least larger towns should be less suspicious. You can hope.
"Wait, I've only got the water and force book here. Which one of you took my fucking light magic book, I was going to read that one! In fact I distinctly remeber having 5 of these damn things, you bastards better return them, because I was planning on selling them to buy more arrows and a new bow."
You only had four books. The fifth one was found by Ekoka and it's all his.
((OMG, this has provided SOOOO much material for my mad min/maxing. I mean, for one thing I'm possessed by the ANGEL OF CREATIVITY, which I read as the Lord Almighty of Munchkinry. So I imagine keeping him happy will mostly involve "do what you been doing, you crazy motherfucker" and probably also "don't be a dick" which my negative trait kinda weans me away from anyway.
On top of that, the revelations about Light magic are pretty awesome, and mean I now theoretically have a bonus to YOURSOULISMINE and the Pokémon summons that I will probably find flimsy justification for at some point.
So yeah, just the lore and understanding granted by that ALONE compel me to READ ALL DA BOOKS BRO. ALL DEM. But I'm mostly eyeing that Force one so I can possibly balance out that particular shortfall in my repertoire.
It's less 'be creative and I'll love you' and more 'be creative or I'll take my gift back, thank you very much.' If you want it to grow you have to seriously impress the angel.
((Munchkin-y idea of the day: Life magic and transformation/polymorphing, is it possible and could I use it selectively on bodyparts to turn myself into a genetic abomination of sexiness? Particularly I want to permanently harden my skin, possibly into a scaly type exterior, and possibly increase muscle mass for things like teh supa jumps. Could also go for gills/waterbreathing/other permanent natural abilities that make evolution scary and those who can force it scarier.
Related: Could those Life conduits of Lyu's be made permanent? And if so, what kind of interaction would they have with the regen ability?
There is DEFINATELY a reason you gave me the Angel of Creativity, huh? :P))
(http://daveroslives.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/big-no.jpg?w=625)
(http://www.krankyscartoons.com/images/The_Big_No.jpg)
(http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/images/climate/heathrow/big-no.jpg)
(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTH0JLfgyvNI7UB944vHgmCg-2zUL9LKT6XufX-Ijh8nQjG0RPl)
- Turn 38: Shas Ria, the City of Summer -
You have just arrived in Shas Ria, the city of Summer. You decide to find a place to stay and then go your separate ways…
Day 1: Morning
At some point, have attempted to bring life back into the old nag with magic.
Continue study at various convenient points. Say...the Mysterious Brown Book.
Locate a place for us to stay. Inn, tavern, barn, whatever.
Follow Ekoka around and help negotiation of proper living quarters if I can. Also, read his book over his shoulder stealthily.
Swear like the sailor I am and get my light magic book back. Help the guys looking for a place to stay, read the page with the kidzuku symbol again if I get the time, using kidzuku:comprehension.
Baldur rolls his eyes as his companions squabble over the books. He helps Ekoka find lodgings (+1 to barter!). Afterwards he finds a convenient tavern to sit in, quaff booze and listen to rumours.
Give Warrior's Sword to Felice before leaving for the UNIVERSITY.
Go to the University with the magic books (borrow books from Felice and Ekoka) then READ ALL DA BOOKS BRO. ALL DEM. MOSTLY THE FORCE ONE.
After that is done look around and talk to the scholars there, discuss magic and also the monsters from Cnoc Adh that I encountered and how the others described "The Hundred Deaths"[/b]
"Ah, Shas Ria! What a town! Definitely the least pestilent excuse for a hole in the ground I've been to this week, that much is certain!" Lyu Brak exclaims extravagantly, waving his hands melodramatically at the soaring golden walls that surround the city. The sandstone walls, more delicate and decorative than fortress-like, show no signs of damage from the Ten Day Night. More importantly, the gates are wide open and manned by two of the Guard in sturdy forest green clothing beneath leather armour. Bronze spears gleam in the morning sunlight as the four of you walk through the Eastern gate, eyes a-wander as you behold the city known as the ‘Jewel of Cylenia’.
Far in the distance, in the exact centre of the town, can be seen Ria’Manc. The tower is made of curious reddish blocks and even from this distance of more than a mile, the capstone can be seen. The capstone is as tall as a person and more than two feet wide; a piece of ria carved into the shape of a flame, the work of nearly a decade at the hand of a master gemcutter. The jewel is a deep amber colour and sparkles brilliantly in the morning sun, a fair indicator of why ria is also known as summer diamond and is the main export of Cylenia.
The five of you wander along the main eastern boulevarde, aiming for the centre of town. The city is slowly coming alive around you. Tall lamp-posts are spaced along the boulevarde; as the sun creeps higher, the light emanating from the small crystals within fades. And everywhere, people can be seen going about their daily routines. Mothers are shooing children out of the house before taking up their brooms; fathers wearing simple workman’s smocks are ambling along in small groups towards their various places of business. All in all, there seems to be a refreshing lack of craziness present. Which is rather pleasant.
Everywhere, rumours are running through the crowds. Although the creatures of the dark have not yet apparently reached the city, news of them has; judging from the rumours, messengers between all cities have been targeted - not just Shas Ria and Shas Isa. Which is mildly creepy. However, the four of you feel slightly smug in knowing that messengers can now get through from Shas Isa. In fact, by the sounds of it one did; that madman who galloped past on a horse while you were all frolicking in a tiny village buying stuff must have been a messenger from the Baron of Waterstone. The townspeople are all talking about a messenger in red livery who arrived in the dead of night and was allowed through the gates, even though by ancient tradition the gates are barred shut at sunset.
In time, the five of you find yourselves in the central square of Shas Ria. The square is easily a quarter of a mile long; much of the centre is dominated by the massive base of the tower. The base of the tower has a door set in it, but the door is barred shut. The rest of the square is made up of a large set of gardens that wrap around the tower; normally the gardens are green and overflowing with flowers, but they are still currently dead and brown following the Ten Day Night.
It is here, looking onto the gardens, that you find a series of inns, taverns and restaurants. Nicely centred within the city, any one of them will provide an ample base of operations for your stay within the city.The four of you wander into an inn at random - and then immediately wander back out, given the activities taking place within.
Picking another inn, this one with a nice tasteful banner of a fern branch painted in silver, the five of you make your ways inside. Immediately in front of you is a desk, unmanned given the early hours. The taproom through a door on your right seems to contain a fair amount of noise; given the number of people who choose to drink their breakfast, this doesn’t surprise you. There is a little brass dingbell sitting on the desk; Lyu rings it a couple of times.
A rather tubby Yagalian sticks his head out of the taproom door. “Oh, customers? This early?” he bustles on through, dodges around the four of you and steps behind the desk. Then he stops and looks closer at you four. “A priest, a shaman, a sailor, a healer and a mercenary. Are you setting me up for a joke?” He shrugs; the motion makes disturbingly distracting little ripples pass down his rotund figure. “So, you wish to stay the night. Just the five of you?”
Ekoka coughs. “We’re not sure how long we’ll be staying.”
“Ah, you are adventurers then. Far too mixed a group for anything else. We get your kind through here every now and then. There’s always some world-shattering evil to fight.” The innkeeper mutters under his breath; you suspect it’s swear words. “Well. Don’t be expecting any saviour specials. We have two rooms, a three-bed and a two-bed. That will be fifty gold per night.”
Baldur nudges Ekoka aside with his shoulder. “Fifty gold to stay in this dump?” he growls. (5+1) “You have rats in the taproom and I can smell your food is burning from here. The dust tells me you’ve got about five tenants. I wouldn’t pay a tenth of that to stay here.” The innkeeper looks tremendously upset. “Besides. After the Ten Day Night, how many tenants are you even going to have? Everyone except us is too scared to travel. So we’re each paying one gold a night and that’s final.”
The innkeeper is now extremely upset, but the gruff mercenary has cowed him into acceptance. (5+1) “Don’t mind my burly friend here,” Lyu proclaims cheerfully, patting his kinsman on the shoulder. “Look at it this way. You’ll barely have to do anything to look after us and we’ll almost certainly be gone before trade picks up. Where’s the harm in collecting a few coins a day for doing nothing? Why, it’s basically charity what you’re doing, isn’t it?”
The innkeeper looks much happier and so is far less likely to rob and murder you in your sleep. “It is charity, isn’t it?” he smiles at the four of you. “Well then, allow me to extend the charity of the rooms for a mere five gold a night. Here are your keys.” He slides two brass keys across the counter. “Here you go. One floor up, last two doors on the left. Baths are in the cellar, cold water only unfortunately. We had a mage employed here, but he got stoned to death about a week ago.”
Ekoka and Thuun decide to just not mention their magical ability. The wisdom of the ages right there. The five of you split up and head in different directions.
- Ekoka -
You let yourself into the small room, pleased at how clean it is. You had privately expected rats at the very least, but the room is rat-free and in rather good condition. A small window looks out onto the Manc Gardens outside; a plush armchair positioned nearby. A tiny stove and kettle feature in another corner of the room. You set the water to boiling, prepare yourself a cup of tea and sit down to read through the leatherbound brown book. Lyu sits down on the windowseat behind you. He’s ostensibly just watching the world go by, but you catch him reading over your shoulder every now and then.
The embossed triangle on the front catches your eye. A simple equilateral triangle, the base extends out beyond the corner. You assume it’s meant to represent a mountain. The book turns out to be a primer in Earth magic, as you had expected. The layman’s guide to Earth magic lays out the basic guiding principles of the art, centred largely around the idea of being in command at all times. Unlike the Wind magic with which you are more familiar, which espouses the need for guidance and a certain willingness to just go with the flow, Earth magic is far more obdurate.
Most of it is stuff you’ve pretty much worked out for yourself through - sometimes rather painful - trial and error. You eye your rockhand in amusement. The book, however, appears to contain some rather good ideas for spells. The book specifically describes a technique for treating any rock like clay. By passing magic into your hands, you could theoretically reshape any rock that you desired as though it were clay.
New spell learned: Clayform! The spell charges through your hands and allows you to simply reshape rock into whatever form you see fit. You need your hands to do this with.
When you look up, the sun has passed to almost directly overhead. The pink and orange clouds of dust of a newborn star can still be seen around the sun and undoubtedly will for several decades more. You idly wonder just where it could have come from. The spirits of Maska have no idea and less advice for you. Well, they’ve never been known for their understanding of anything beyond their realms.
Nevertheless, it’s now midday.
- Lyu Brak -
You follow Ekoka up into the small room looking out onto the gardens. It would probably be quite pretty at literally any other time, but for now the only view is of depressingly dead flowers. You ensconce yourself in the window-seat, giving yourself a rather nice view of Ekoka’s treatise on Earth magic.
One page in particular - the centre page - catches your eye. it appears to be another mind-map type drawing of an angel. Rampel, this time, one you recognise from several drawings and passages in the various holy texts you’ve studied over the years. It would appear that Rampel has governance over the sphere of Earth magic.
The mage flips through the book, barely giving you time to read the pages. (5) Nevertheless, you manage to catch enough of the book to get an understanding of what’s going on. The book talks about the proper methods for casting Earth magic; setting yourself right, standing your ground and being extremely forceful and stern. You wonder if the techniques couldn’t be applied to your staff techniques? Setting yourself properly could avoid a lot of pain.
New passive ability gained: Obdurate! Upon taking a critical hit, a coin is flipped. On heads the hit is no longer treated as a critical hit.
Eventually Ekoka finishes the book and glances out of the window; you do too and notice that it’s already midday.
- Felice Nasib -
You ferociously beat Thuun away from the Light magic book that he seems so intent on borrowing from you. He finally relents and returns the broadsword to you as well, which was nice of him. You shrug.
You wander up to one of the rooms and open the door, slipping inside. The curtains are drawn; a breeze reveals a view of the brown and dead gardens. You sigh and long for the simple sight of ocean once more. Ah well, maybe one day.
You pick up the book on Light magic, wondering exactly why you decided to read this book. Hmm, maybe there’ll be something interesting in here? You open your mind through Kidzuku and gently open the cover...
(1+1) Even with Kidzuku enhancing your perceptive powers, much of the book goes straight over your head. The book rapidly descends into in-depth discussions on the nature of light and frequently refers to something called a photon, a word you’re about eighty percent sure doesn’t actually exist. You struggle and push harder at the bracelet, hoping to expand your mind even further.
You fight with the book until burning pain lances through your mind like fire. Just like that, the pain vanishes and your mind is empty of thought. Of emotion. Left in its place is a void. Gradually, bits and pieces fall into the void. Shards of a broken mirror, tiny glimpses of who you are caught in them.
A fragment falls with nothing but two words. Felice Nasib.
A shard shows a ship, your life’s work, your dreams and your livelihood.
You see a bow, arrows, islands. A jumble of shards of your family, of friends.
The shards fall. As they fall they begin to coalesce into… (3+1) a ball. Each piece simply falls into place, a glass orb forming in the middle of that vast emptiness that’s subsumed your mind.
The last piece falls into place and rays of intense, blue-white light pour forth within your mind.
The startling image makes your eyes snap open; pale blue light pours out from them, lighting up the room around you. You collapse to the floor as your brain shorts out from the overload.
In time, the light fades. You slowly sit up and roll your neck from side to side, wincing as the joints let out a crack. You look down at your bracelet, only marginally surprised to see the copper dulled and cracked, the rune for Kidzuku faded into nothingness. The bracelet apparently burned out, but before doing so clawed your mind wide open to the world around you.
You shakily climb to your feet and collapse into a chair. Your nerves are absolutely buzzing now and you feel incredibly weird. You take a deep breath and calm yourself. That icy, glowing ball is still there within your mind’s eye. What secrets could it hold? You mentally prod at it, but nothing happens. You wonder what’s inside and how to open it.
You’re shocked to see that it’s nearly midday. Where did the day go?
Kidzuku was destroyed! Comprehension is now a permanent, passive ability for you. With time and practice your powers will grow… once you find the right key.
- Baldur Bergfalk -
You slip out of the door and amble along the street, aiming for a tavern you passed earlier. The sign out the front is a bird of prey of some kind with a bandaged wing. You push the door open with a creak and step inside.
(2) You while away a few hours, but nobody else in the tavern seems to be talkative. You catch a couple of bits of idle conversation; news is beginning to trickle in from down south, harvests are terrible and odd monstrous sightings. Ultimately, nothing you didn’t know already.
(5) As you are ready to give up and just start drinking properly, the door tinkles. You glance over your shoulder to see a man in red livery step through, the familiar crest of Baron Waterstone on his breast. “Good God, I need a drink!” he bawls as he slumps down at the bar. “The strongest thing you have.”
The bartender cocks an eyebrow but nevertheless pulls out a yagalian import, something that you’ve heard is brewed from potatoes. “Whatcha tryin’ to forget?” he asks the messenger in a casual voice, clearly expecting to hear a tale of illicit love or something similar.
“The Baron of Waterstone is dead,” the messenger replies in the deadpan, haunted voice of a man who’s seen something truly terrible. “He just suddenly grabbed me and threw me through that bloody great window of his. Saved me life. His last words to me were to grab a horse and ride to the Duke. As I was leaving, I saw a creature just tear him in half.” The messenger shudders. “You ever seen a person get torn in half? I ain’t never going to forget it.”
The bartender is quite pale. “That’s… That’s impossible!” he whispers, sliding a rather full glass of vodka across the bar.
“You don’t know the half of it…” the messenger grumbles. He swigs back nearly half of the glass in one go. “The whole city of Shas Isa is going nuts. There were five witch-burnings going as I rode through on my way north. And they had another twenty to go that day!” He polishes off the rest of the glass. “I ain’t never going back there.”
Your eyebrows are now thoroughly lodged in your hairline. You remember Shas Isa as being rather unfriendly to mages when you were leaving, but burnings? That was new.
Outside, the shadows have nearly vanished, telling you that it’s nearly midday.
- Lao Thuun -
(2) You try and gather up all of the books, but fail miserably. You only manage to spirit away the Force magic book, which you will hopefully get a chance to study soon.
You sit in a quiet corner and pull out the Force book. (1) Given your heavy ineptitude with Force magic, you find you can’t make hide nor hair of the book. It makes no sense! Force projection? Kinetic energy? Statics? Moments? Words just sort of blur together. Finally you shut the book and just curl up in a ball, your head thumping.
Yeah, your head hurts waaaay too much to do much anything else magical.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Travelling
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Gnarled Old Staff
Skull Covered in Rude Words
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
Inscribed Leather Cuirass and Greaves35 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Life Channels: Head, Chest, Left Arm] [Obdurate] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany ]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Listening
Inventory:Reforged, Really Sharp GreatswordWorn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Booze
Bear fur cloak300 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Failing
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Warrior’s Broadsword
Leather armour
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Wounds/Status: [Painful Headache]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] [Flame Cloak] Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Travelling
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Fifteen Arrows
Five Explosive Arrows
Sharp DirkWater Magic Book
Fire Magic Book
Light Magic Book
Warrior’s Broadsword
Silken Underwear
Nautical Longcoat
Leather Armour Set63 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Comprehension] [Mysterious Orb in your Mind’s Eye] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Learning new tricks
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Light Magic Book
Earth Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Rock Hand] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity] [Clayform]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 1] [Fo: 0] [Lt: 1] [Sh: 0]
Wait, did this thread get put back [/i]on the rails[/i]?
(http://data2.whicdn.com/images/29212271/large.jpg)
To answer quickly: Yes there's quite a few bits of medieval stuff tossed through our bronze-age world. That's mostly because I know Medieval Maska better than I do Bronze Age Maska, so it slips through. I'll fix that when I get there, if I can. Bronze age Maska is reasonably gender-equal, largely as an offshoot of the primary religion having a top God and top Goddess of equal standing. It's funny how much the game changes when you have a dualist religion like that. There are a few weird things concerning genders, but those tend to be offshoots of the dozen or so smaller religions that have sprung up around one angel or another, a couple of demons in Yagal and of course the elemental worship in Zue'Qki'Ptar. The Gods don't make a huge noise of their presence and most people accept that they exist, but there are a few atheists around who are adamant that the moon is really just a ball of dust and the sun is actually no more than a massive fire really far away. But it's not like the angels go walking down the main street and stop in at the Bee and Barb for a quick pint. They tend to only get involved when stuff is seriously fucked up, and then only if magic is involved since normal people trying to take down a crazy mage is like two guys with sticks trying to stop a tank.
Maska really is an exploration into what happens when religion is utterly different, and so far I'm liking the results. Really, it's shaping up quite a bit like early Celtic culture more than anything.
Anyhoo, back to the game! I think I'm just waiting on USEC to comment. Maybe I should make a separate thread for us to sit around discussing Maska...
A quiet round, although Felice has some fun/headaches.
- Turn 40: Diamond Nights -
Night falls on the City of Diamonds. Predators stalk the nights, but you all gather in the inn…
Before heading to bed, Thuun realizes just how long its been since he has eaten, and immediately rushes to the tavern/inn owner and buys up a enormous amount of food, practically a banquet, before promptly stuffing his face in the most expedient manner.
Relate the information to my compatriots.
Tell Felice I'll need to see that Light book in the morning to be able to learn the lucidity spell.
Suggest we sleep in shifts, because seriously, shit is gonna go down and we all know it even WITHOUT OOC knowledge.
You walk into the inn’s taproom just as the last rays of light fade from the sky. It’s now truly dark outside. You storm up to the counter. “Rightio. I’ll have two dozen mutton shanks, ten bowls of rice, three pounds of roast beef, four roast pumpkins and as much cranberry jam as you have in stock.”
The serving girl behind the counter looks at you blankly. “Huh?” she mumbles. She looks… stupid. As though she’s been hitting the pipe. You dutifully repeat your order. “We got a pig on the spit, roast winter vegetables and some bread. Is that okay?”
You sigh. “Yeah, that’ll be fine. Make mine two orders.”
Your compatriots begin to appear. Ekoka looks smug; he must have pulled off something pretty cool. Baldur looks - and smells - like he’s been drinking as he wanders in from the street Somehow, he’s still perfectly ambulatory and barely even weaving. Lyu looks like he always does; perpetually smiling. You wonder how he does it.
Lastly, in comes Felice. You look closely at him; something seems different. Suddenly you spit out a mouthful of cheap beer in surprise. His eyes are glowing! They’re glowing with an icy blue light, like marsh-flames are trapped within his skull. You’ve never seen anything like it.
Strangely, he doesn’t even seem to notice. He orders food along with the others and the four of them sit down to join you. Finally the others notice Felice’s new acquisitions; you cover your food as they all take it in turns to spit-take as well.
“What the hell is up with your eyes, Felice?” you ask finally. He raises an eyebrow. “They’re glowing! Burning, even!”
He blinks. “Ah. All right, so, weird stuff happened inside of my noggin. Now, whenever I concentrate, I see some kind of blue sphere inside of me. I get the feeling I need to open this thing up somehow, but I have no clue how to begin doing this. Any ideas?” He looks hopefully around, but everyone’s faces are as blank as yours. ”Damn it,” he mutters. ”Oh, also, I'm done with the books, so if you want to borrow them, now's your chance."
Everyone’s still a little startled by Felice’s new eyes to register what he’s saying right away. Finally, your brain restarts enough for you to share your day’s gleanings. ”Well. In other news, mages aren’t exactly welcome here in Shas Ria. Which is damn weird… Outside of Sinlamurien in Limeros, Shas Ria has always been the biggest magical centre in the world. It seems that they’re as terrified here as they were back in Shas Isa.” You eat some pork. It’s not great, but at least it’s filling. ”Those devilings? The mages here haven’t heard of them. Professor I spoke to damn near chased me out the second I mentioned demon-inside-human.”
”So he agrees with me, then,” Lyu observes. ”Demons can’t control humans. Whatever this is, it’s like a demon, but it’s not one. It’s…”
”Something new,” you finish. You place the pile of sketches and diagrams on the table, studiously avoiding wet patches. ”Good news, though, he and I managed to theorise a way to destroy any more crazy-maker sigils. Bad news is it takes serious firepower. Ekoka and I won’t be able to fully destroy them until we get much stronger.” You glance at Felice, still slightly unnerved by his burning eyes. ”I’ll need that Light magic book in the morning… if I’m to learn this spell, I need to get a hang of Light magic first.”
The others murmur. Ekoka seems keen to get started, but also quite wiped. Finally, Baldur speaks. He barely slurs at all, not showing the faintest sign of his day of drinking. ”I spoke with the messenger who visited the Palace,” he begins. ”Turns out, Shas Isa went nuts. The Baron is dead, most of the town is crazy and apparently ‘witches’ are the new kindling.” He taps his chin thoughtfully. ”According to the messenger, the only normal one is the mayor. Eating like a horse, though.”
The news is disquieting. The baron, dead? That just doesn’t seem possible. The man was as indomitable as the mountains he lived in.
”Apparently, the beastie that killed the Baron was a fair sight stronger than ol’ Vanda whatsisname. The messenger said the beastie physically tore the Baron in half!”
With news like that, there’s not much more else to say. You all quietly and soberly go back to your food.
Loan out magic books to companions, try to get some kind of idea as to what to do with my mind orb thingy
You’re a little surprised that your eyes are apparently glowing. You hadn’t noticed at all! You shrug. The news is sobering, but at least it’s pretty much what you had expected. ”Well, I’ll take the graveyard shift.” You set the pile of magical texts on the table and get up to leave.
As you’re walking, you prod a little at the mental orb. (1) Something… Just on the edge of your vision. With a start you realise the world has blue-shifted. You glance around quickly, but nobody else is reacting. In fact, nobody else is moving. Everything around you is flat and blued over, as though the world were dyed. Everything appears inanimate, as though painted onto a canvas.
You walk through the still world, stepping around frozen patrons. It’s eerily silent. There must be… You shut your eyes. The orb in your mind is still whole, but glowing brighter than ever. ”Stop it!” you shout in the depths of your mind. “Whatever you’re doing, stop!” There’s a sudden swirl of red to your right and then the colours are back.
”Okay. What in the name of sanity was that?” you growl. Behind you, your compatriots are swearing in surprise. You call out to them and wave, and they calm down. You chuckle and walk out the door and head for the room.
Okay, ball, let’s see what you’ve got, you think at the glass orb thing. (3) You give it a rather vicious mental jab. It sparks, but doesn’t really do anything. (4) So you jab it again, imagining getting a massive run-up and driving your elbow into it. The orb flashes and suddenly you’re swept off your feet and flying towards the stairwell! (3, 6) you mostly manage to recover your footing, but stub your feet hard enough to bruise. Interesting.
(4) This time, you imagine caressing the ball. It hardens for a moment and becomes clarified in your head; you stop and grab hold of the banister as images swarm into your brain. There’s no rhyme or reason to the pictures; you see carriages pulled by explosions. You don’t know how it’s explosions, since you can’t see them, but you do. People sitting in front of little boxes that have glowing sides. Metallic birds that have eaten hundreds of people. And you see the infinite, vast chasm between stars and suddenly you open your eyes and the images are gone.
Okay, that was weird.
You drag yourself up to the room, exhausted, and collapse onto a bed.
First off, make a mental note to buy a glove for my rockhand.
After that, study one of the unread magic books until it's time to sleep.
"Hm. I'll need to practice this,” you mutter as you look over the rough clay book. But you feel pretty proud of your accomplishment, and with a smug grin on your face that you know will annoy Thuun, you head down to get something to eat.
A short time later, you return to your room carrying the Force magic tome. You sit in the armchair and read about Force theory for a few hours; behind you, the cracked pieces of the moon slowly rise over the city and paint it a pale grey.
You while away a few hours reading. Force seems to be the most elemental of magics, a simple outpouring and focusing of energy. Of the eight schools, it is one of the most dangerous to deal with; as you read that, you give your rockhand an amused glance. But it would seem that Force is not all about brute strength; you read about how the subtle use of Force magic can be used to simulate luck. In particular, the book seems to detail one weak but undeniably skilled mage who, incapable of simply blowing his opponents apart, would use delicate nudges to upset their footwork or guide their blades harmlessly past. Well beyond your level, but still pretty interesting.
The angel described in the book’s centre is none other than Rampel, the same as the angel in your Earth magic text. The four angels seem curiously interlinked. But Rampel in particular is a quite obdurate fellow, judging from his spheres of guidance. You chuckle. He’s certainly a good match for the hard-headed Cylenians.
Congratulations, you’re now Level 1 in Force magic! Useful by itself, Force magic can be combined with other elements to give them a nice extra ‘oomph’.
Pick up a random magic book if I can, and commence reading it! Otherwise look through the Cylenian bible and examine Cylenian beliefs.
"Ah, good literature! How I love it!" you sigh happily and pick up a random text. It turns out to be the Water magic book! You take it up to the room you’re sharing with Ekoka, not at all surprised to find him already engrossed in a book.
You sit and read for a while. Apparently Water magic is as much about entropy and simple redirection of forces as it is about directly controlling water. It’s also apparently pretty important in weather magic!
The book also contains a treatise on Haamiah, the patron saint of priests as well as Yagalia. It doesn’t contain much that you didn’t know, although it turns out that Haamiah should apparently be keeping an Eye on Thuun as well, given His sphere covers both Water and Life magic. You idly wonder what would happen if Thuun were to try and combine water and Life magic. Would it attract Haamiah’s attention?
Having not much else he wants to do, Baldur flips through a few of the magic books before heading to bed.
You sit and idly flick through the Fire magic text. The book seems to have been written by a young hothead, which is rather fitting, you think.
A curious diagram catches your eye. It’s not Nathaniel, that one was a few pages back. This one is more familiar… ”Ah!” you shout. It’s a description of the forging technique that Thuun used on your blade! Damn, that event was scary. You were not expecting the son of a bitch to split the goddamn earth open.
The page describes a rune that is a weird mix of the characters for bronze, fire and rivers. You’re not entirely sure what it’s meant to be, but you’ve seen it somewhere before… Curious.
You keep reading. The book is rather interesting; it delves into the theory of Fire magic and how it’s about aggression as much as it is about passion. it also describes the ‘momentum’ of a fire, and how once a fire has properly caught it is so much more difficult to combat. Interestingly the language seems to describe swordplay just as much as it does magic. You’re not entirely sure that swordplay is a whole lot like a forest fire, but this author certainly seems to think so. Nevertheless, the author describes how to ensure that magical Fire acts like real fire does; you let that sink in a little and smile.
New passive trait gained: Momentum! On attack, your opponent rolls to block. On a roll of 4 or 5 the strike is only blocked (no parry) and on a coin-flip of heads you immediately strike again. The second strike cannot critically fail, and if the second strike is blocked then they are knocked over and gain a -1 to actions next turn.
The moon slowly passes over the night sky. The five of you take turns watching out for one another through the night, but nothing at all happens.
The next day dawns cloudy and damp. There will undoubtedly be rain at some point, and judging from the clouds, a rather spectacular lightning storm.
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Reading
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Gnarled Old Staff
Skull Covered in Rude Words
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
Inscribed Leather Cuirass and Greaves35 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Earth Magic Book
Water Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Life Channels: Head, Chest, Left Arm] [Obdurate] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany ]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Reading
Inventory:Reforged, Really Sharp GreatswordWorn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Booze
Bear fur cloak265 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Momentum] [Guileless] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Stuffing his face.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Lucidity Spell Tome
Wounds/Status: [Crippling HeadacheAbilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] [Flame Cloak] Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Practicing
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Twelve Arrows
Three High Quality Arrows
Five Explosive Arrows
Sharp DirkWater Magic Book
Light Magic Book
Warrior’s Broadsword
Silken Underwear
Nautical Longcoat
Leather Armour Set63 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Comprehension] [Mysterious Orb in your Mind’s Eye] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Studying like a good boy.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Clay Book
Force Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Rock Hand] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity] [Clayform]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 0] [Wa: 0] [Li: 1] [Fo: 1] [Lt: 1] [Sh: 0]
- Turn 42: What is Life? -
The afternoon of your second day in the city is passing. Money is yours and with it comes both great opportunity and great danger…
Day 2: Afternoon
With his new understanding, Thuun is more then ready to risk his own death. He has seen that Life begets Death and Death begets Life, and if he must die so that others may live, that is what he must do.
Thuun first examines the orb. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg5062736#msg5062736)
Thuun gets weirded out by the priest’s glowing eye (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg5064057#msg5064057)
Thuun fixes the cracked orb and spirals into unconsciousness. (http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=133412.msg5064214#msg5064214)
"Hello again, young Healer. To stay is to learn the truth, but as you know you may well die. Are you ready this time?" Sariel’s voice rings through your mind as you eye the frozen figures of the Elves all around you.
You nod. ”Yes, I'm ready now.”
You can’t see her, but you know that the angel is smiling. "Very well, young Healer. Watch and learn.”
With that, time resumes. It appears to be moving faster than normal, as though you’re skipping ahead to the pertinent part. The sun quickly climbs to its peak far above your head and then, all of a sudden, everything’s back to normal speed. You look up at the sun and see the Orb of Solvarion curiously overlayed with the sun itself. Perhaps a remnant of your recent magical working? Or perhaps you needed to fix the Orb to truly understand.
Suddenly, to one side of the sun a spot of red appears. ”What is that?” you ask. There’s no answer and you feel quite alone in this strange time, alone and unprotected. The spot extends into a ruby line, a brilliant scarlet gash perpendicular to the sun. It reaches down and touches the surface and the sun flashes, all of the colours of magic as Solvarion fights back. But the attack came on too suddenly for the half-asleep God and within a minute the ruby gash covers half of the sun’s surface.
Solvarion fights back incessantly, forcing scarlet shards to fall away from the line. Soon the sky is spattered with red, yet the sun is inexorably being cut still. Within another minute, the grisly murder of Solvarion is complete. You watch, aghast. The Orb overlays the picture for an instant and you see that the two colours of the orb, black and white, no longer swirl together. The sun is split into a black and a white half, a miniscule chunk of the white attached to the black all that remains of their join.
The white half slowly turns pink then red and you understand. The being that did this didn’t just kill Solvarion, he stole the God’s power over Life itself. And then…
And then the shockwave hits. The physical force of the furious battle high above you has only just reached your location. In an instant, the fury of the conflict flattens and burns the entire nation of Elves. Thousands die in the blink of an eye and then cease to exist at all. Trees wither and turn to ash; plants crumple and then crumble.
And you are left standing in a graveyard the size of a nation, even as the red light overhead fades and you are left in pitch blackness, one by one the stars appearing overhead as your eyes adjust, once more revealing the piles of ashes that used to be an entire people.
"The truth, young Healer. And those red droplets have since fallen to Maska. On the fifth day of the Ten Day Night, they landed across Maska and congealed into the curse that you have faced, powered by my father’s divine gift of Life.”
You’re dumbfounded. This is so far beyond anything you could have imagined. ”Wait, I thought I had to go to a city on the coast to learn all of this?”
The presence of Sariel is pensive. Finally she appears beside you, gazing somberly up at the spot of inky blackness wrapping around a tiny core of white, the only remains of her father. "Not from me. My siblings and I know no more than this. But you humans, ever clever and eternally inquisitive, have stumbled across something, in Shas Tule. A seer there, one who knew the truth of things, has taken great care to hide what he learned from all divine creatures so that the being above could not find it. Subsequently, neither can I learn it - all that I know is that it exists.” She shrugs. "I pity you, young Healer. Yet you and your companions are the only ones in the position to save your world. We cannot interfere more than we have - all of our powers are bent to trying to heal my mother, who somehow yet lives - so it falls to you to destroy this curse as best you are able. Now… sleep, and heal. I pray you don’t lose heart from this sight, for to do so is to die...”
Her voice fades and you slip into the blackness of a dreamless sleep.
…
…
…
You awaken in a simple bed, your wounds sewn shut. The seer is sitting at your bedside. Curiously, his bookshelf has been pushed across the bedroom door. You see out the window that the moon has risen, her three pieces glowing a muted grey. But is it just you, or are they drifting inexorably closer?
Go to the shooting range and practice shooting 2-3 arrows in rapid succession. Then try and see if I can use telekinesis to shoot an arrow and make it go where I want it to go. Return to the Inn with the rest of the crew before it gets too late
You wander out into the afternoon sun, your bow and quiver over your shoulder. Maybe you’ll go burn off some excess energy at the range. Yeah, that sounds nice. Now that your eyes no longer glow like bog-lights, you can probably walk down the street unhassled!
You find your way to an archery range and pay a few coins to enter. You set ten arrows point down into the dirt at your feet, focus your mind on the target and practice a few shots, limbering the bow up. Finally you decide to see how many arrows you can have in the air at once.
(4) You fire off an arrow and before its barely halfway to the mark your second arrow is already strung, drawn and fired. Both arrows thud into the target, but alarmingly off-centre. It would appear that you can fire two arrows in rapid succesion, but you can’t quite focus enough to keep them dead on target.
Skill: Doubleshot. You can fire twice in one turn, but each arrow takes a -1 to hit.
You’re about to walk down the archery range to retrieve your arrows, but you stop and reach out one hand instead. ”Return” you order them. (4) One by one, your ten arrows wriggle loose of the haybale target and slowly tumble through the air. You catch them one at a time and slip them each into your quiver. Finally you decide to see how well your newfound psychic abilities mesh with your archery!
(3) Your first try is to nudge the arrow mid-flight, but that fails miserably. You can’t quite keep your mind to pacing the arrow, falling behind and only tapping the feathers.
Next you decide to draw a mental line, a spring by which to pull the arrow in. (1) The haybale comes rocketing down the range towards you instead, pulled forwards by the mental spring! A lucky roll is all that saves you from being buried in hay. Luckily, nobody saw the antics - or is too scared to say anything - so you rapidly re-stuff the target bale and drag it all the way down the range to its place.
Finally, you decide to mimic a lodestone, keeping in mind that you don’t want to launch the haybale at your face again. (5) The process works remarkably well! Your arrows curve in mid-flight, unerringly hitting the bulls eye. You find that it can’t save you from a terrible shot, but it’s still a lovely help.
Psychic Skill: Guided Shot. By focusing your mind on the target, you can gain a dynamic bonus to your shot. The extreme focus results in a -1 to dodge and you can only fire one arrow at a time.
Mentally exhausted, you retrieve your arrows and wander back towards the inn, aiming for the taproom where the five of you shall surely be meeting once more.
Upon your arrival, you see three of the others, but no Thuun. He must still be at the temple. Curious…
Hurry on back to our room at the inn. Stay away from any people until this point!
You run back towards the inn, the thousands of gold in the sack over your shoulder calling to you like a siren to sailors. (5) You manage to make it all the way back to the inn without seeing anybody! You hurry up to the room, startling Ekoka from his reading, and stuff the sack as far under your bed as possible. You resolve to discuss it over dinner with your companions… Perhaps they don’t need to know exactly how much was awarded?
With that settled, you settle into a seat and pull a random book off of the room’s shelf and open it, whiling away the hours until dinner time...
Baldur goes and purchases a sturdier wagon and a couple of horses to pull it for when the party leaves the town. Assuming that we have the money to, obviously.
”I’ll get you the money tomorrow!” you growl at the merchant. ”I only want to order one.”
The merchant shrugs. “I don’t take orders. If I did, I wouldn’t have enough hours in the day to work, let alone sleep! Come back tomorrow and you’ll have your horse and wagon. It’s normally fifteen hundred , but if your wagon’s in good nick I’ll trade it to you for a thousand.”
You mutter darkly and leave without another word for the wagon merchant. You can’t do much bargaining just yet, since you have no collateral to back it up with, but tomorrow you’ll probably be able to take that thousand gold down a notch or two. Hopefully Lyu was successful in getting the money from the duke, or else you’ll all be stuck in the tiny carriage with the rickety wheels all the way to the city on the coast.
You kill some more time in the markets, perusing goods and the odd services,until the sun begins to set. Finally you head towards the inn so as to meet your companions for dinner.
Read the fire book.
The book describes some truly arcane uses of Fire magic, such as the best temperature to remove only a certain amount of skin from a person. It waxes lyrical on how to adjust and maintain temperatures, even varying them across a single spell. It also describes the various ways Fire magic interacts with other elements and after reading. Fire and Wind create lightning? That sound pretty sweet. And quite handy to somebody of your skills.
You marvel at the knowledge you’ve gained. You feel properly in command of fire magic now, able to create jets of flame to scorch your foes! No more dropping houses on priests, now you can just burn everything.
Awesome.
Welcome to Rank 1 in Fire magic! You can create jets of flame of up to twenty feet and can put out fires with your will.
As the sun goes down, you nudge Lyu and head for the taproom to meet your companions…
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Hiding the goods.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Gnarled Old Staff
Skull Covered in Rude Words
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
Inscribed Leather Cuirass and Greaves10,000 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Earth Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Life Channels: Head, Chest, Left Arm] [Obdurate] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany ]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Not quite getting a wagon.
Inventory:Reforged, Really Sharp GreatswordWorn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Booze
Bear fur cloak262 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [Momentum] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Dreaming.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
210 gold
Lucidity Spell Tome
Wounds/Status: [Woozy from blood loss]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] [Fire Spell: Flame Cloak] Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Psychically Firing
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Twelve Arrows
Three High Quality Arrows
Five Explosive Arrows
Sharp DirkWater Magic Book
Light Magic Book
Warrior’s Broadsword
Silken Underwear
Nautical Longcoat
Leather Armour Set63 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Doubleshot]Psychic Abilities (Level 1):[Comprehension] [Lesser Telepathy] [Lesser Telekinesis] [Focused Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Studying like a good boy.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
380 gold
Stone Book
Force Magic Book
Water Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Rock Hand] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity] [Earth Spell: Clayform]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 1] [Li: 1] [Fo: 1] [Lt: 1] [Sh: 0]
Anyway, let’s get this party started!
- Turn 43: The Glow -
The day has ended once more... The night approaches and the moon's three pieces rise steadily in the east.
Day 2: Evening
The general consensus appears to be "Lock selves into rooms with money like Scrooge McDuck".
Lyu, Felice, Ekoka and Baldur sit around a small table in the inn’s taproom. Lyu quietly and conspiriatorially informs his companions about the large amount of money he recently acquired. At first, the consensus leans towards finding the missing healer, who is almost undoubtedly up to some form of mischief involving volcanoes. The sudden influx of golden light an hour or so previously would seem to indicate that he has, in fact, already done so.
But then the group realise that they simply cannot leave ten thousand gold lying around in an unsecured inn room. Lyu suggests that the four of them barricade themselves in their rooms, make a big pile of the money and just sort of swim around in it. This idea is met with clear approval. Thuun can probably look after himself for one evening.
The four men head upstairs, glancing into every shadow as though a horde of thieves would materialise before their eyes. They finally reach the two hired rooms and Lyu splits up their gold, keeping Thuun’s two thousand for the moment. Following this, the four decide to get a good night’s rest, hoping to spend their well-earned gains on the morrow. One by one they fall into the land of slumber.
Thank seer for his help. Query about the bookcase thing. Get to inn if there's no priest lynch mob waiting outside.
“So… Uh… why are we barricaded into this room?” you ask the seer. “Are the priests superstitious about mages too?”
The seer raises his uncovered eyebrow. “Not… quite.” He glances up at the ceiling, although you get the feeling he’s looking beyond the timber roof of the room. “Your magic not only healed the stone but you also remade the temple dome. It’s still glowing, in fact. Apparently it can be seen from all of the city gates.” The seer drags the bookcase away from the door. “So, well, the city knows that there’s a mage in the temple now. Most of the priests are still terribly upset, but at least they’ve regained enough composure to keep the populace from rioting in the hallways. Still… Better safe than sorry.”
His covered eye glows momentarily before he waves you out of bed. “Now, you had best be off. Quickly. The hallways are clear, but not for long. The people’s anger and terror will peak soon, fear of the mage in the temple. Fear of you.” He sighs. “Gods, but I hate mobs.”
You hastily climb out of bed, noting that your arms and legs are swathed in crisp white linen. You’re still rather woozy from your blood loss and terribly exhausted, but promise of arson and murder upon your person gets you moving. You hurriedly dress and belt on your sword. “Thank you, seer. I hope I haven’t brought too much trouble down on the temple…” You clasp his hand. ”Stay well.”
And with that, you’re gone. As you exit the temple from a small side door, you’re stunned by how bright it is. Did you sleep until noon? You glance up at the temple roof. Once dented gold, it shines now with the fury of the sun. You whistle in amazement. You couldn’t have pulled that level of magic off by yourself, so that extra power must have come from somewhere.
Your amulet, a simple starburst, tingles. An impossible thought blooms within your mind. Could He… Could He live?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
You find your way back to the inn, the glow of the temple’s dome still washing golden light over you. The door is barred, but a knock calls the innkeeper to let you in. “Come in, quickly!” he orders. “Mobs are out tonight. Some crazy mage lit up the temple. Prob’ly tryin’ to desecrate it or sommin’ after killing the Gods. Y’d best stay indoors, good sir.” You nod, not saying anything. Although you are mildly angry that he thinks you’re blaspheming and desecrating temples. A small part of you wants to immolate him right there; for a moment your tongue is that of a dragon, ancient words of fire’s true nature filling your mouth. But you clamp down on the urge and smile at the innkeeper.
”I’m really tired, so I’m going to heada to bed. Goodnight.”
The innkeeper coughs. “Good sir… You must pay today’s rent.” You grunt and hand him five gold coins before stumping up the stairs.
You find your door locked, so you knock. loudly. ”Hey, Felice! Baldur! It’s me, can I come in?”
You hear a whispered conversation. Finally, Baldur’s muffled voice comes through the thin wood. ”What did you do to the mayor?”
What? Mayor? You’re a little confused. There’s only one mayor he could be talking about, but what’s with the identity test? ”I turned him into a giant, green, rather-too-well-hung ragemonster. Why?”
”Good, it IS you. Get in here.” There’s a scrabbling sound as a heavy piece of furniture is dragged from the door. The door creaks open and one massive, hairy arm looms out of the darkness, grabs your collar and drags you in. The door slams shut behind you and the chest of drawers is replaced by Felice. ”Lyu got our money. Ten grand. Had to check, y’know. Don’t want to get it stolen!”
You chuckle. ”As long as he gives me my share in the morning, ‘s all good.” You collapse onto the bed, quickly falling asleep as your wounds drag you under…
The next day dawns bright and sunny, birds chirping happily. They're the first birds you've all heard in some time. Outside, there's no sign of any of the rioting. Strange. Maybe it just never got really bad? There's the distant rumble of wagons up and down the main street, carrying goods to the markets. People are chattering happily, there's even a bit of singing from buskers. There's a little tension in the air and disagreements become fistfights a little more often than usual, the only signs remaining of the high emotions from the night before.
The five of you make your way downstairs to the taproom, determined to get something to eat and to discuss your plans for the day...
Lyu Brak (Harry Baldman)Profession: Priest
Status: Hiding the goods.
Inventory:Staff (Bronze-Capped)Gnarled Old Staff
Skull Covered in Rude Words
Religious Necklace
Warm Priestly Robes and Pants
Warm Priestly Shoes
Inscribed Leather Cuirass and Greaves4000 gold
10 Jimsonweed Fruit
Many bits of Thuun’s legs
Jagged shard of bone
Curious dagger
Earth Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Boundlessly Cheerful] [The Good Priest] [Life Channels: Head, Chest, Left Arm] [Obdurate] [Not that faithful] [Righteous Litany ]Baldur Bergfalk (USEC_OFFICER)Profession: Mercenary
Status: Not quite getting a wagon.
Inventory:Reforged, Really Sharp GreatswordWorn leather jerkin (and normal clothes)
Worn leather boots
Booze
Bear fur cloak2257 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Skilled Bargainer] [Guileless] [Momentum] [I'm Not Right Handed] Lao Thuun (BFEL)Profession: Warrior Mage
Status: Dreaming.
Inventory: Blunted bronze sword
Leather armour
Acolyte's SuncloakReligious Necklace
205 gold
Lucidity Spell Tome
Wounds/Status: [Woozy from blood loss (4/4)]Abilities:[Enduring] [Dragon Aspect: 1] [Slow Cast] [Atoner] [Spellsword ]Spells:[Life Spell: Wisp] [Fire Spell: Flame Cloak] Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 0] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 0] [Li: 2] [Fo: -1] [Lt: 0] [Sh: 0] Felice Nasib (Pancaek)Profession: Seaman
Status: Psychically Firing
Inventory: Repaired Shortbow
Twelve Arrows
Three High Quality Arrows
Five Explosive Arrows
Sharp DirkWater Magic Book
Light Magic Book
Warrior’s Broadsword
Silken Underwear
Nautical Longcoat
Leather Armour Set2058 gold
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Fearless] [Not a Landlubber] [Trick Shot] [Doubleshot]Psychic Abilities (Level 1):[Comprehension] [Lesser Telepathy] [Lesser Telekinesis] [Focused Shot]Ekoka (GreatWyrmGold)Profession: Wanderer
Status: Studying like a good boy.
Inventory: Cracked shillelagh
Wanderer's Cloak
Sturdy Clothes and Boots
Length of Rope
Flint and Tinder
2375 gold
Stone Book
Force Magic Book
Water Magic Book
Wounds/Status: You’re all good!
Abilities: [Survivalist] [Dual Focus] [Slow Cast] [Rock Hand] [Maladjusted to heat] [Guiding Spirit] Spells:[Wind Spell: Alacrity] [Earth Spell: Clayform]Magical Experience:[Ea: 1] [Wi: 1] [Fi: 1] [Wa: 1] [Li: 1] [Fo: 1] [Lt: 1] [Sh: 0]