Bay 12 Games Forum

Turn 208

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Time to dig deeper.. thought Khozek.

Back up and attempt to open a hole near the estimated area of the face-stone using spatial disruption, expending my essence(s?) on this

Khozek focused on a spell to make a gateway to the tomb. He was not stupid, the place could be under water, or filled with nasty things just teleportation blindly was suicidal. The gate flickered and blinked, but failed to form. This most likely meant that it was attempting to open in something more solid than air, maybe he misjudged the distance or maybe the place was indeed filed with water.  It did not matter, this particular portal was not going to work.

Doktor Diabolical:

"So... what's this about laws? Such a thing would interfere with my diabolicalness..."

Doktor Diabolical frowns at the screen, then gets back to work on his... shoe boot skate things. Refinement ho. 2 +1 POT essences, 1 +1 CMP essence, 1 chaotic +1 CMP essence. Assuming he isn't in danger after that, he makes 3 robots essences. If he is in danger, cubebots and attack drone counterattack.

Doktor focused on his footwear again. He would not have another case of cubebots all over again. He focused some more power and fired off the spell for the third time. The parts shifted, some of them outright flying away. The structure reformed into a pair of ski skates. Doktor was overjoyed! Finally, it worked. Now to remember why he wanted skis in the first place.

GM: I'm fairly sure I should be on magical fallout(?) hex on southeast where I appear to be. So that in mind...

Southwest one, place totem (+1POT), southeast one, place another totem (+1/+1).

Filtiarn ventured southwest and conjured a totem. It exploded before even touching the ground. Bits of it embedded themselves in Filtiarn's forehead. He just sighed and went off southeast. Totem there was far more stable but struggled to get enough power through. The luck was just not his this time, possibly his thoughts were still thrown off from seeing Gloomy again.

Hit him again.

Cuberac lifted his hyperbladecube upwards to the sky. Blake was writhing in pain below. Cuberac brought down his cube. Blake stopped writhing. Finally, after so much hassle, the man was dead. The burning runes on Cuberac vanished. But there was still one last nasty trick Blake had for him. Three of ten shards burned up when Cuberac picked them up, and sound echoed with demonic laughter. It seems he owed demons something and they took their part. It was regrettable, but five shards Blake had on him made up for this.

Healing item roulette.

{Uhhh, you posted two actions. I'm going to use this one as it came later.}


James managed two good healing pills, but other two spells resulted in a homeopathic potion and some more black sludge. Both of the last ones went into the box, with the potion failing entirely to reduce the effectiveness of the sludge. Though, since it diluted the sludge, by homeopathic theory, it made it more toxic. There is probably no reason to actually test this. the last spell exploded into red sparks, which did seem to do something to the sludge, but there seemed to be too much of it to be really affected.

3 essences.
((Also, I just noticed that my action is missing from the previous turn.))

Quote from: XXXXYYYY on November 27, 2016, 11:26:14 pm

-Snipped-
3 essences.

Gambler continued observing the argument moving to and from. It was calming down now, as usual, with nothing of real importance decided. Except, maybe, for battle lines. Those were becoming more and more real.

Back to wizard form, make 2 essences then accept the call

Seva returned to his fleshy form and landed in the Tower. The entire battle was a gigantic waste of time, and he had things to do. Like activate the conference screen. The speaking was winding down by now, but he could still catch some interesting stuff.

((Just to clarify: burning 'for hours' equates to 'for hundreds of turns', right?))

Redrum glanced momentarily at the newly arrived screen before disregarding it entirely. A time would come where he'd seek out new friends to play with, but he was far too immersed in his own little games to care much about petty wizardry at present.

Summon (chaotic +1/+1) the ex-Gravekeeper's soul into the torture chamber lantern trap, thusly binding it once more to the object that gives it its identity. Light the unearthly flame to welcome it back like an old friend....a friend who abandoned his playmate at the first opportunity. THIS IS THE PENALTY FOR BETRAYAL.

Also, 3 new essences.

{Yes. The lantern is nearly useless as soul destroying device but it's a very useful torture implement.}


Redrum looked at the lantern and it gave him ideas. Ideas about events that happened not so long ago. There was a plaything that ran away, well, that was just rude. And Redrum was in a mood to explain just how rude it was. Using the lantern itself as a focus, Redrum filtered through souls of the island until he found the one he was looking for and shut the trap. There were faint wails coming from it now, and flames were more lively.

Ao laughed softly at the proposals:

"Mages of Order, indeed. You believe that laws, once laid, would preserve the way of things from spiraling out of control. While it may held true if given enough time to form a tradition, it would be presumtious to think we'd have enough time. Say, was there any one single moment that the laws would have prevented death of mages? Omnicidal chaotics would have killed without regard for their safety anyway. And lawful sentinels would have them murdered without fail. What does your proposal actually change?"

4 essence, try to find truly unique drink in the bar.

Ao was getting more heated as the argument went and by this time, maybe the alcohol was having an impact. Though it could had been sugar overdose from breaking down all that alcohol. Ao grabbed a large bottle, with the label declaring that there must be a lot of a good thing. It tasted kind of minty, and when Ao breathed out the table in front of him froze. It seems he had found an alcohol version of ice breath potion.

{Ice breath potion, 4 doses}

Continue the ritual:
+2/+2 in essences

Keep charging! Essences this turn: 3 +1/+1, 1 chaotic +2 CMP

((I'm using chaotic essences to prevent excess chaos.

THIS SPELL WILL BE EXACTLY AS CHAOTIC AS I CHOOSE AND NO MORE!!!))

Skelibon and Chorkinaan continued pouring power into the ritual, but the blade no longer changed. Maybe they had reached the limit. Maybe the changes were now outside of their perception. They still had the power to keep going, but there was a question of whether they should. Having a sword of great power was an asset, and messing with limits of possibility was what wizards did but... A sword like that could very well make it's bearer a target.

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There are many providers of VPN, they can't get all of them. But damn am I glad that I don't live in England. Sharia is creeping up on it still.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/swedish-police-are-not-allowed-to-give-descriptions-of-alleged-criminals-so-as-not-to-sound-racist-a6810311.html

Would someone be so kind as to tell me why this is not so bad as it seems to me? Because I really don't want to believa that Sweden is completely fucked.

Turn 207

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Summon a cube of glowstone and continue to attempt murder.

Blake placed a fourth rune on Cuberac's remaining leg and other three flared with pain. The pain rose and the fourth rune glowed, brighter than others. Then the pain peaked and the rune burned up. Maybe it was the burning rune, maybe it was the pinch of glowstone dust that Cuberac summoned, but Blake got distracted and took the bladecube to the side of the head again. He dropped to the ground moaning. There it was, Cuberac's second chance at execution.

fire breath on the wasps then fly away from them, to the tower unless they are in that direction, in the direction with the least mages if they are

Easter focused, his last few spells were whiffs, but this one would strike true. He focused on form and function, and unleashed perfectly formed and utterly loyal, but also few in number, wasps. There were five of them and they flew off towards Seva, who had about had it with this. With remarkable agility, he bent every which way and spat fire at wasps that had beset him. Insects were burned, larva were boiled and eggs were incinerated. Seva stopped only because he had ran out of firebreath, but he had also ran out of enemies. Deciding he had wasted enough here, Seva flew off back to the Tower. Below, Easter checked his finally regrown wings and wondered if there was any merit to following.

((well, for one, I'm pretty sure I used up those two +1 pot's, and I think I noticed having a few others which I had stated a desire to use up entirely. It's been a bit though, I can't remember super clearly.))

MOAR POWAAAAARRRR!!! (4 +1/+1 essences)

Continue the ritual. +2/+2 essences

{I have checked, and apparently, I forgot to remove essences at least once. I fixed that time, but this is more clusterfuck than I really have time to deal with right now, so I'm going to say that your essences are as they are now and will try not to miss them again.}


The sword had almost entirely vanished by now. Sharp edges scattered out of sight one by one and only faint remains of strings retained the promise of something at the end of the ritual. And still they could go for more safely, as even if they both failed the sacrifices would still protect them. This was gone far past the original idea, but not to the edge of what could be done.

Doktor Diabolical:

"Well, this is inconvenient."

Doktor Diabolical tries again, building on what's already been done. 1 +1/+1 essence, 1 +1/+2 essence. Afterwards, if he isn't attacked, he makes 3 robots essences. If he is attacked, he sics his cubebots and attack drone on the attacker.

Doktor focused on his utterly unsuitable footwear and magicked at it again. It worked out less than perfectly. The platform did split in two parts, and it did split into parts, but that was about it. The parts did some mysterious purpose and the "slides" were no better than before.

Poke around for anything like ruins or caves with 'strong presences'. Probe them.

Khozek looked around the swamp. It was hard to tell which part went "gloop" the least, so he relied on his more mythical senses. So he guessed, and shot out a probe spell into the swamp. The spell bent space, and cut out a piece of rock from somewhere below the water. Upon closer inspection, the stone was carved, and probably was part of a face, as it contained an eye. Khozek traced his spell and figured that the stone was taken from about two meters below, making it strange that swamp was not a bit more solid.

Filtiarn observes the magical screen suspiciously. "What is this now?"

Make three essences.

A screen appeared before Filtiarn. It was a strange thing, apparently a spell of communication. Who would want to talk to him here? Understanding dawning, Filtiarn activated the screen and saw the face of his hated enemy. There were others but they did not matter. He was being taunted, but he would hold for now. Time would come soon enough.

It had been a while since Redrum had last reanimated a creature of this size, and the hydra's polycephalic anatomy was proving to be a more complex obstacle than he'd initially anticipated. Perhaps pausing to perform a simpler task would allow him to recharge his reserves before another attempt.

Further enchant (chaotic +1/+1) the soul-trapping lantern, converting it into an on-demand spirit incinerator.
Following this, craft 3 essences.

Redrum decided to take some time off from resurrecting the hydra. He had been going for almost five minutes without committing a really-nobody-doubts-an-attrocity and he was getting twitchy. By his command, the lantern walls flared with pale green flame. He looked it over critically. The flame was weak, any soul placed inside would burn for hours. Redrum judged this to be an advantage.

If I haven't made three essences this turn, make three essences.

Magus N.A. casually listened to the conversation going on. There was some arguing, a few thinly veiled threats, some old salt between Filtiarn and Gloomy. Pretty average for wizards, although far calmer, possibly because fireballing people for disagreeing wasn't an option. Alliances seemed to become slightly more solid as grudges escalated. It would be fun to watch if he wasn't involved in this.

5 essences.

Duritarum mostly ignored the screen that appeared next to him. He was busy focusing power and he was far too focused to care about some other mages squabbling. There was still no response to his flare. The pools seemed strangely empty and the distant towers seemed to have no skeletons left in them.

Ao stared at the screen in slight disbelieve. Normally, an ordinary beer - especially when your organs can purge alcohol intoxication at will - could not make you see things. Especially so complex and unusual ones. So, was it a foreign intervention or drink sideffect?

"More experiments are needed..."

Observe the screen while tasting another alcoholic beverage, to see if things change. 4 more essences which I'll never use.

Ao picked up another bottle which turned out to be white wine. It went well with the arguing going on in the screen, cheesy phrases going well with bitter taste. As bottle emptied, Ao began to participate more, though that was probably not related to drunkenness. There were some rules to investigate and positions to challenge. No normal bar could offer amusement as this.

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Council spell, which should come into effect next turn:

As I said, this is essentially wizard Skype. Use knowledge magic to detect the locations of every [player-character] mage, on or off the island, and set up a communication network which records their voices and surroundings. These feeds will essentially be put together and magiced to create a "video" of everyone in the council chamber, which appears as a sort of "screen" in front of each mage. That should be an actual, light-based screen, by the way. Mind magic is just asking to be hijacked.

Should anyone offer to help, use the yes/no book to confirm their good intentions (and show them my own, for that matter), and assuming everything checks out, take full advantage of their assistance. If we have two or more mages, including myself, I feel it is quite possible to make this a system which recharges once every twenty turns. For now, anyway, we'll definitely improve it later. Halve this number for each mage beyond the second.

EDIT: Whoops, forgot to put essence use. Use 3 +1 POT and +1 CMP knowledge essences, and two knowledge essences +1+1.

Assist with the spell, perhaps examining the glass orb to provide some further help with shaping the viewing portion of the spell. Assuming the recharge is being added, add a decent chance of the recharge happening substantially quicker. Use 4 +1/+1 essences, and one each of the +1 to CMP and POT essences for the spell in total.

If I misread and the spell isn't being cast this turn, make four essences instead.

The spell was cast and the dice were thrown. Magic reached out to all mages that had arrived on the island, even those that had moved away since. It was not an overly strong link, but it was not meant to be. This was magic only for those willing to make use of it. Screens appeared in the Council chambers, one in front of each seat. Over twenty of the screens lit up, though no faces presented themselves just yet. Mages found screens hovering before them, waiting for their input. Four mages breathed again, as the spell they crafted worked.

{Council call:
-Recharge: 5 turns.
-Applies to all mages in game.
-Can be activated by any of the four that cast it or by anyone visiting the Council chamber.}

Turn 206

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Doktor Diabolical:

"Well, that worked. I suppose. Though I don't think the creature is dead yet... odds are it'll attack me from below."

Doktor Diabolical converts his boots into robo-boots that can be used for skating, hopefully helping him to evade the creature. Afterwards, if he isn't attacked, he makes 3 essences. If he is attacked, he sics his attack drone and cubebots on the attacker.

Doktor, awaiting reappearance of the creature, decided to reshape his boots into more advanced, skating optimized form. Maybe the very premise was flawed, but the end result was that his boots merged and extended, trapping Doktor's feet in a thick sheet of leather, rendering him unable to go anywhere. It could had been worse, but the creature did not burst out of the ground so the situation was merely embarrassing as compared to lethal. This was the problem of in-battle enchantments, you never knew if they would actually help.

Fire another, brighter flare.

Duritarum fired off a bright flare, red light reflecting from nearby fetid pools. It shone brightly in the sky, visible form anywhere where sky could be seen. This one too, was entirely ignored by anyone seeing it.

Switch back to attempting to smash his head with the bladecube.

Cuberac attempted to bash Blake once more, becoming more and more furious at unsuccessful execution attempts.  Blake on the other hand was fighting for his life with full force. The cube nearly missed, hitting Blake's shoulder and cracking bone beneath. It was not enough to impair the demonologist and he managed to place a third rune, this one on Cuberac's left leg. The marks burned now, each glowing with unholy light.

"Karnax, you're doing that weird thing again where you just stare into space, so let me say this; I am going to explore the surrounding area a bit. Maybe I'll find something that can conduct my dimensional influence.. if you need me, give me some form of signal with that fire magic of yours."

Set off towards the southwest, wary of any signs of magic in my vicinity

Khozek abandoned Karnax. His ally/convenient meatshield was probably thinking about something really deep and did not want to be disturbed. Or that was what Khozek hoped, the alternative that his mind was eaten by horrific creatures between dimensions summoned by Khozeks's tampering with the borders of worlds was rather bad for one's sanity. There was little magic to distract Khozek on his way and he soon found himself in the middle of a swamp.

Filtiarn doesn't particularly like strong smell of sulfur here. Have to move quickly, get preparations done.

Create new totem here (essence: +1 POT), move onto hex in southeast and create another (essence: +1/+1)

Filtiarn placed a totem in a puddle of liquid, where it would be best capable of doing it's purpose. There was a faint sizzle, and then the totem slowly sank into the puddle. It was nearly-boiling acid. This seemed like a really good time to leave, so Filtiarn did. The nearby magic fallout field seemed considerably safer. He placed another totem there. This was much safer.

((I feel like my essences aren't being properly updated...))

Continue the ritual despite this setback! Essences this turn: 4 +1/+1

continue the ritual: 3, +1/+1 essences

{Anything in particular off about your essences?}

Skeliborn and Chorkinaan continued pouring power in the blade. The shape was becoming more and more undefined, but edges of the shape were sharp straight lines. They were connected by a whole cloud of strands, each vanishing in the main body.

"Ah. A magical bar. What an unusual occurrence... Another test of luck, it seems?"

Look through the bar contents. Taste some samples if they seem magical enough - I have no need for mere alcoholic drinks. Add regular 4 essences on top, possibly conjured while being drunk.

Ao picked one of the smaller bottles, but seemingly on a whim placed it back and took it's larger and fancier neighbor. It turned out to be simple beer. Ao placed the bottle back with slight disappointment. His spell escaped him, and possibly due to environment, nested in Ao's liver, enchanting it with ability to purge body of alcohol on command.

3 Essences

Magus N.A. was waiting. Some great magic was going on, he could feel it and he wanted to be ready to observe it. It was very likely to be important going on. There was little else to do here, though there would be a small part of accepting a connection of enchantment.

Weave puppeteer bindings into the corpse as a whole, properly restraining the active heads under my control and (hopefully) mobilising whatever remains to be animated. Essences used: [+1/+2][+1CMP]

2 new essences if stuff gets done without any unexpected hitches.

Redrum usually greatly approved of minions duking it out as it was amusing pastime to watch them, but this time there were other priorities. With a whip of his hand, fifth head rose from the mud and other four stopped fighting. Main body still struggled to get out, but a clawed foot, only made more dangerous by loss of flesh, was trying hopelessly to pull the whole out.

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Back to phoenix form, burn the wasps

Seva turned back to his phoenix form. Magic was not helping and he had immediate problems to deal with. He breathed fire on approaching wasps, burning them to crisps instantly. Or that was what he expected to happen. What happened instead was that the wasps melted slowly, too slowly to get all of them. Some wasps reached Seva and began eating his flames. They were few in number, but they were alive and some were seemingly attempting to lay eggs. Down below on the ground, Easter attempted to conjure some more but the few that appeared attempted to bite him instead and broke their mandibles on his armor.

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I'm getting a lot of unrelated PM's. Did I get everyone's actions?