Weapons
"Always liked that bit."
The heavyset bald man in front of you stuffs his speech into a pocket of his already bulging overalls and looks you up and down.
"Name's Vince, but you can call me Sir if you like. I'm in charge of this deadbeat excuse for a chapter, which means you'll be on my orders for the foreseeable future. Now, you've been chosen because you have certain qualities, maybe a knack for witchcraft, which won't mean a fucking thing unless you keep your head down and do what I say because otherwise you'll be dead. Understood? Now let's get you some weapons."
He hands out badly photocopied manuals, glaring at anyone who moves or breathes particularly loudly.
"Get reading. You have a day to get your shit together and arm yourselves, and then it'll be time to move out.
The weapons of the coven are usually assembled from mundane objects, sometimes with magical ones thrown in. They usually require puissant clots, little buildups of magical energy stuck fast to the lining of your brain, to create. New witches generally have two, but you'll gain more as you see strange and wonderful things, kill adepts and beasts, and penetrate occult mysteries.
Wands: Your go-to ranged weapon for a wizard, wands can be made from anything solid, provided it's roughly between the length of a pen and your forearm. Wands generally shoot magical projectiles, though they will likely have other functions. Wands take one puissant clot to create, but can be made more powerful, and gain more functions, in tiers by investing subsequent clots. Tier two requires an additional 3 clots, from there to tier three takes 5, and the unholy power of a tier four wand needs seven clots more to be unlocked. Wands can also be used to parry magical projectiles, gaining puissance and negating the occult missile.
Spells cast by wands consume puissance, which regenerates over time to one's limit.
Staffs: Staffs are the melee counterpart of wands. They can be upgraded in the same way, with the same costs for each tier. Staffs generally have aoe or defensive spells, or temporarily transform into extremely destructive magical weapons. Staffs can also be used to block magic.
Chalices: Chalices are created using a base chalice (a container, or anything that can hold some liquid, such as a t.v. aerial), a banal medium (a non-magical liquid, such as oil, blood or lemonade) and an occult medium (a magical liquid or solution, such as the spinal fluid of a necromancer, blended sentient crab flesh, or yeti urine). Chalices can be used to form a contract with a demon, which the creator of the chalice will then be able to summon repeatedly, at a puissance cost that decreases exponentially with their ritual strength. Strong summoners do not need particularly large or quickly returning stores of puissance at all: summoning will cost very little for them. Note that especially reactive or potent mediums may bring up demons that are excessively hard to control.
The demon summoned will depend on the materials used. Notably, more powerful occult mediums will result in the summoning of more powerful, if more free-thinking, demons. The number of puissant clots used also greatly determines the strength of the demon. Though only one is required, there is no limit to the number of clots that can be invested at creation. Chalices cannot however be upgraded.
Inexperienced summoners are advised not to mix occult mediums in one chalice. Generally, demons can be banished at the summoner's will, though if this proves impossible, trapping them in a circle sprinkled with their banal medium will suffice to send them back. Demons can be summoned repeatedly even if destroyed, though some time may be required between summonings.
Pendants: These do not require puissance, and depend on the ritual strength of the user. Everyday objects roughly the size of a clenched fist, these require an investment of one clot, and can be upgraded once with two. Pendants cast a miracle performed by a maybe-god that half exists, the object functioning as a holy relic of the congregationless deity. Pendants, once used, must be replenished over time by their creator. The greater the ritual strength of the user, the more pendants they can restore at once, and thus the great the number of miracles they can perform over a given time.
Talismans: Ranged (or more likely to be) pendants. Do note that not all talismans are ranged: they are simply ranged where a pendant would have been melee. In all other respects, they are the same.
Brooms: Any cleaning implement over a metre can be turned into a flying vehicle. This costs one clot, though the speed, steering, duration of flight and ability to fly unaided can be enhanced in tiers requiring 2, 3 and 4 clots. A tier-one broom can still hover and swoop short distances, though a tier-four one can fly through a lightening storm unscathed at hundreds of miles an hour even when the rider is unconscious and bleeding. Brooms are enhanced by the user's agility.
Rings/Gems: Magical events and substances often create occult gems of a certain element, such as fire, sleep, coffee or boredom. These can be used in the creation of weapons, chalices, etc to enhance them with that gem's element. The gem can also, with one puissant clot, be turned into a ring which grants the wearer resistance to that gem's element.
Caduceus: A healing tool created by wrapping two snake-like flexible things, such as showerheads or ropes, around a stick of over a metre. Caduceuses can be used to heal pretty much any injury, and cost three clots to create. They cannot be upgraded, and rely on puissance.
Magic Swords: Made from a valiantly retrieved material (steel bars snatched from the mouth of a dragon, a stone idol pulled from the stomach of a giant undead alligator, a pile of rusty doorknobs fliched from the private toilet of an evil psychic CEO) and a gem. These can be used by those with skill in banal weapons as swords, though also have magical effects not affected by one's banal skill, such as firing occult projectiles. The power of the sword scales according to the valiance with which it was retrieved.
Vince then gives each of you fifty pounds in cash and a card for public transport. He also hands out to everyone a certificate emblazoned with unintelligible runes and circles.
"This here's a cheque from the bossman Belial himself, meant to help out summoners just getting started. Means anyone has to give you a bit of occult medium in exchange if you ask, provided you don't go for the good stuff or look at them funny or try any ungrateful shit like that. London's pretty safe for someone with one of these, provided he's got a bit of ritual strength and keeps to himself. Otherwise, I wouldn't go wandering too far."
"Now bugger off and get your weapons together, alright? Try not to get killed doing it, and come back here at the end of the day."
You set out from in a failed industrial bit of East London, full of skips, dumps, motorways, crumbling tower blocks, charity shops, pawnbrokers, cheap restaurants, abandoned or failing factories, and hipster bakeries. From here, the entire city stretches out, or at least several train lines. Now is the time to decide what you're looking for and where you're going to go to find it. Or just where you're going to go and stare at all the magical creatures and people that were previously hidden from your mortal eyes.
Lucian Faust
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic Sight - 1
Agility - 2
Melee - 1
Inventory: £20
Runes:
Name: Sand
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 3
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 3
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £20
Goe T. Thelle
Puissant fettle - 2
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 1
Practicality - 1
Inventory: £20
Runes:
Jimmy "Car bombs" Castanza
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 3
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £20
Runes:
Ben Breeze
Stats:
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 3
Aim - 2
Melee - 0
Agility - 1
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £20
Micky Roberts
Puissant fettle -
Ritual potency -
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 2
Aim -
Melee - 2
Agility - 1
Practicality -
Inventory: £20
Runes:
Sir Lootington
Puissant Fettle- 1
Ritual Potency- 1
Runic Sight- 1
Melee- 1
Agility- 1
Practicality- 1
Inventory: £50
Runes:
Oh, and everyone feels two puissant clots, points of warmth and energy, formed at the periphery of their minds, as well as some small amount of puissance, like a coiled spring lodged deep in the brain. You can restat now, if you really want to, by the way.
Author
Topic: COVEN: Gulled Goldsmiths and Lost Locomotives (Read 145886 times)