((Been suffering from some manner of tropical disease, the last three days were mostly a blur of headache. And I did post an action to follow the astrologer's suggestion and go with him to whatever shelter he mentioned.))
Follow the Astrologer's instructions but keep a close eye on him.
I see, my bad. The action is somewhat dependent on Pencil_Art's success, however.
Roll 26
"Thank you for this. Well, lets us go."
Head out into the ash-storm towards the Lake of dream.
You leave the hideout and enter into a sun-scorched field of slush and streams. Water trickles past your feet in the direction of depressions in the ground. The Ashstorm is melting all of the snow, which might lead to some trouble in the mountains due to avalanches.
You spot a pillar of steam rising up into the sky from past the edge of the forest. A characteristic sign that there is a lake in there--although once you enter the forest the steam pillar will be hard to see from beneath the canopy.
Lily: The barrier will last about a quarter-hour. The trees are just past the hill, we need to go now.
You make your way to the forest border, where you stumble upon a peasant and his wheelbarrow, full of burnt eggplants. He looks to be sullen, sitting on a roughly-hewn stump with his face buried in his hands. He does not move as you approach.
...
Your whole body is burned (1)
...
You have 3 black empty tomes (black tomes must be written in red ink, and gain +2 positive dice if inscribed with an illusionary spell)
Silent Wind of Night: Dispells all nearby items and detatched effects, regardless of origin. Shapeshifts, summons, and polymorphs are unaffected.
Phantom Lake Essence: Dark tendrils emerge from the book, ensnaring enemies that fail to dodge.
Unending Phantasmagoria: Dissolves a dead body to create a reanimated ghost in place of this tome. The ghost can use Shadow Blink and drops a black spell tome upon death.
You have a stack of spell tome pages and a black cover
You have a bloodied ceremonial dagger (Attack power: 3) (attaches to target and Drains it, suppressing it) (remembering a memory teleports this weapon to your hand)
You have a Beech Javelin (Attack power: 3 (thrown), 1 (stab))
You have 10 Javelin memories (lucid)
You have about thirty Hours
You have a royal goblet, a golden watch, and some jewelry
You remember the Lady of Winter
You remember a giant eye
You remember many pixies
You remember a band of Arinthian soldiers and some bandits
You remember a bandit sinking into the ground
Traits and Skills:
Forest Ranger
>Gain +2 positive dice when navigating and moving through the wilderness, as well as performing stealthy actions
Javelineer
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a javelin
Noble's Education
>Gain +1 positive dice when learning from writing or conversing about literature
Shapeshifter
>You have unlimited strong memories of forest animals
Cynical
>Others will press any advantage...
Xenophobe
>Foreigners always disappoint
rub my eyes, try to feel if the mushroom had any other effect. follow zikal and flower girl
[3][5] The yellow glowing shield around you keeps you from rubbing your eyes. Your hands just sort of... bounce off. But as you follow the others outside the fogginess clears up. The suns burn high in the sky, but looking at them does not seem painful--the yellow layer must be protecting you.
You follow the others into the border of the forest, stumbling upon a sullen peasant whose crop seems to have caught fire. It's Winter, so you're not sure where the crop came from...
As you peer into the forest over the thorny brush and crooked, knobby trunks of the snowpines, you see nothing but endless shadow cast by the tree canopy. A few rays of light peek through gaps where trees have fallen. Eventually, the shadow fades into a mist where the mountains normally pierce the clouds.
It is said that the clouds hold back fallen constellations which fell out of the great river and took refuge in the mountaintops. These forests are much harsher than the gentle woodlands you know.
The burned eggplants remind you that that the trip has made you hungry. A hardy man like you can't go long on an empty stomach, after all!
...
Your whole body is burned (1)
Your left arm is bruised (1)
...
You have a schematic of an iron arrow trap
You have a steel axe (Attack power: 1) (Deals piercing damage if the attack connects but fails to pierce)
You have an iron mace (Attack power: 2) (If the target has less than 2 damage, deals piercing damage)
You have a charged large greatbow (Attack power: 3 (charged), 1 (uncharged)) (charging takes one turn of preparation)
You have an uncharged Quickbow (Attack power: 1. Can fire twice per turn. Charging it allows you to fire two arrows per attack, four in one turn)
You have 13 arrows in your quiver (Attack power: 1)
There is one recoverable arrow near the Old Fortress Mound
You have an important scroll in a copper cylinder
You have about one hundred Hours
Traits and Skills:
Man of Steel
>Gain +1 positive dice when using melee weapons
>Your opponents get +1 negative dice when attacking you
Fists like Hammers
>Gain an additional +1 positive dice while unarmed
Bow Mastery
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a bow
Illiterate
>What's a book?
Amnesia
>You have forgotten many things
Archae looks around in thought. He takes some of the (undoubtedly) burning organic material on the ground, and attempts to fashion a cloak of the ash left behind using thoughtform.
Organic material does not burn unless in direct Ashlight. Since the black slime is permeable, you toss some of the remembered foods out onto the street and sure enough, they catch fire.
[5+1][6+1] =>
13 You've not only lit the food, however. Your lack of depth perception means awful aim, and the food just happened to land next to the Inn. The flames have melted off some of the Ashstorm-resistant varnish commonly made from snowsaber fat and applied to the surface of buildings. This exposed the flammable wood beneath.
You've just set fire to the Inn, which is creating a lot more Ash than you initially desired. But at least you made quite a few cloaks! You actually have a lot more material than you need, and since each cloak is limited to a certain size, your spell instead created more of them (5 and a half).
The black cloak also protects you from the heat. The material sort of oozes off near the fire, but you can shape it back into place since it is an active magical substance.
Now about the people inside the burning Inn...
Snowsabers are tiger-like predators who hibernate during the summer and hunt in winter. Their skin has a fatty layer underneath the surface layer, and the surface layer burns off during summer Ashstorms. The fatty layer protects them should this happen.
The winter-hunting is due to their main source of prey, the thornskipper, which is a sloth-like mammal that chews the bark off trees during winter when predators such as bears are less active.
...
You have a black Cloak of Ash (protects against Ashlight and fire)
You have a green poison slime with Paralysis
You remember a red, blue, and a green spell-slime (weak)
You have a spiny walking stick (Attack power: (attacking head) 2, (attacking other parts) 1)
You have a silversteel falchion (Attack power: (on odd swings) 3, (on even swings) 2)
You remember your time in the wilderness well
You have some sandwiches and citrus
You have a Sprite Trap, labelled with the words "Samantha Magdelene, professor at U.T"
You have seventy-five Hours
Traits and Skills:
Mystical Learning
>You can create and cast simple (complexity of 1 or less) Aganis spells on the same turn. Spell complexity:
+1 if range is longer than 1-2 yards
+1 if multi-target
+1 if effect lasts more than a single turn, or if a creature is created
+1 if created creature is more complex than a slime
Animal Handler
>Gain +2 positive dice whenever animals are involved, unless you are hunting them
Wilderness Survival
>Gain +2 positive dice for actions involving gathering natural resources, starting fires, tracking, and other survival skills
Photographic Memory
>Weak memories become strong if you successfully cast them the first time
Cannot Speak
>Silence is golden
One-Eyed
>Your targets gain +2 positive dice if you attack them from a distance
Follow the Astrologer's instructions but keep a close eye on him.
Archae seems to have made some slimy cloaks for you so you can make it to the Office without burning up. That was thoughtful of him.
However, he also seems to have set fire to your favorite inn in order to get the raw materials for them. That fiend!
Adept: That's not what I had in mind, traveller... are you going to do something about the people inside that building?
...
You have a Zweihänder slung on your shoulder (Attack power: 4) (can only be used offensively every other turn)
You have a Katzbalger (Attack power: 2)
You have an arquebus (Attack power: 3) (Your opponent gets an extra positive die to dodge)
You are wearing light plate armor (incoming attacks lose 1 attack power if over 1)
You have about one hundred and fifty Hours
Traits and Skills:
Charisma
>Gain +1 positive dice when speaking with others and persuading them
Veteran
>Gain +1 positive dice to defense rolls, and your enemies gain +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Swordmaster
>Gain +1 positive dice to attack rolls with long, bladed weapons
Sharpshooter
>Your targets get +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Noisy
>You get +1 negatice die to stealth, and an additional +1 negative die if you are wearing armor
Old Pains
>In cold weather, without thick clothing, you get +1 negative dice to all actions
I lower my arm and slightly bow my head for a moment before stepping aside, allowing them to pass unhindered.
The headband guy fires a cable from the apparatus under his sleeve. The line pulls taught and pulls him up to the top of the library shelves. Once on higher ground, he looks surprised and reaches into the bag to pull out a gun with a medium-length barrel, then starts loading it.
The thieves decide to try to kill you instead.
[1][2] The gun is fired at you, and would have hit you. But before the trigger was pulled something thrust you aside and got hit instead. You hear the impact as it's quite close, and as a result of the hit you notice several pieces of some red, white-spotted material flying away from the impact.
The person who pushed you out of the way was Efa, and her hat seems to have exploded and absorbed the bullet. The strange thing is that she had no eyes under the hat. Just a mostly-bald white head with several flat and flexible strips of material hanging down like hair.
Efa: You weren't supposed to get into trouble, dear, now we have to kill them! Can't have rumors going around... what direction are they?The other thieves pull knives from their belts and draw closer. There are three knifers in total, along with the guy with the gun (currently reloading) and a sulky-looking fellow in the back with a loose hood over his jacket.
Traits and Skills:
Secret Powers
>DoOOoobillidabidydappidydap dipigillidydapda!
Current Stat Modifiers:
+0/0 positive dice to attack rolls
+0/0 negative dice to enemy attack rolls
+0/0 positive dice to defense rolls
+0/0 negative dice to enemy defense rolls
It is the 4th hour after noon. Ash is blazing bright in the azure sky, burning all exposed objects and adding +1 to all die in a thoughtform roll.
Expected end of Ashstorm: 7th hour. (Next hour: Turn 32)
Author
Topic: Pastblasters - Adventures in Wizardry (Turn 55) (Read 84843 times)