[Turn 3: Fight!]"What is with the fucking dogs in this town!? DIVERSIONARY TACTICS!"
Quickly, second magnitude dog spice on the next biggest dog with the intention of starting up an inter pack leadership brawl!
Run towards not here! Secondary concern: Water based cleaning spell.
[Dog Spice: 3] You succesfully turn the second-biggest mutt in the pack, a yellow, pure-blood-ish collie, into the most canine dog in the world.
[Ugly/Collie Dominance: 1 vs. 6; 2] Just as you expected, both the collie and the ass-face start struggling for power in a noisy and spectacular way, and quickly attract the whole pack's attention to themselves.
Which means it's a good time for you to leave! [Running: 1+1] Veeeeery slooooowly. You don't want to bring the pack's attention to yourself by moving any faster, do you? [Chase: 6; 1] Fortunately, all the dogs in the pack are busy enjoying the show of their leaders' canineliness, and figure that they will chase you any... moment... now...
After a while of running in some indeterminate direction, you finally notice a thin silhouette of Archmage's Tower showing through the rain and start running in that direction; however, when you meet two more people - mages, you believe, as both are wearing robes - you decide to slow down and follow them for a while. It's always safer to travel in groups, especially when you're traversing the Slums - and hey, it's not like you had anything else to do here in the gang territory.
Derm: "
Hello there, fellow wizards! I see you've wound up in the Slums, as well? I'm Derm. What are your names?"
Mehrik: "
Mehrik."
Bruce: "
Bruce Grothinime."
Derm: "
Wonderful to meet you! Say, don't you know how to get to the Arcane District? I've been trying to find it, but I can't even see the Tower through the rain."
Bruce: "
We do. We are already heading there."
Derm: "
Oh. I'll just tag along, then!"
You follow the two to the Arcane District and then, the Library. They enter it and you do, as well: if anything, here's the best place to find a few useful spells to aid you in the future. [Book: 5] In the Library's catalogue, you find a few books on cleansing things with Water Magic. The "Exterminator's Guide to Steam" and "History of Ethnic Purges, Ch. 2: Atlanthean Conflicts" don't exactly fit your requirements, so you decide to go with the "Wet Cleaning For Beginning Entrepreneurs".
[Book Lv2 -> Spellcrafting Lv2: 5] All spells in that book stem from a single Level 3 spell, which, admittedly, was one of the most universal Water spells you have ever seen: it could be fine-tuned to do everything from washing a cat to cleansing a house.
[Somatic: 4, Vocal: 2, Focus: 5] Fortunately, the spell, while complex, also had two components allowing for easier casting: a somatic one and a focus. The somatic component consisted of a few gestures which you'd have no problem repeating, while the focus was a handful of water to be held in the caster's hand.
For the first time in maybe half an hour, you look up from your notes and notice that the two other mages you followed here are in the same reading room as you are, both so preoccupied with their books they don't notice anyone around them.
Name: Derm
Color: GreenHP: 120/120
Gender: Male
Bio: A new wizard, he scoffs at the human form and desires to surpass its current limitations. He took to jogging during his apprenticeship. and is a little faster and healthier than his comrades.
Suppressed Desire: Wants to ascend to a higher state of existence. (EX: Become genetically perfect, and probably ageless in the process.)
Skills: Apprentice Flesh Mage
Novice Water Mage
Known Spells:Dog SpiceEmergency DetoxWet CleaningTraits:-2 to fisticuffs
+1 to movement
+20 health.
Inventory: Robes of Swag +5Necklace of Bling +1Rings of Bitch-Slapping +2Hat of SwagA book titled 'Guide to the alteration of chromosomes'. Author: R. M.
Ancestral dagger made of magically sensitive metal
100 gp
Bruce did a literal double take when someone actualy decided to group with him, but he decided to roll with it, he could pickpocket later, but now he had an idea.
"Well my friend, my skills are better seen in action, but first we need to been in action so we are going...... to a libary!"
If the man has no objections we head to the liabry and look for books on mysterious powerful relics.
[Searching: 5] You were almost about to ask the barkeep where the nearest libary is, but then you remember: libaries are just libraries spelled without an R! And the best lib
rary in the City is the Arcane Library, which is located just below the Archmage's Tower. Surely it will be a good place to start looking for some powerful relic's location?
You get out of the tavern, keeping in minds where, according to the barkeep's words, the Archmage's Tower is located. You go in that direction, and soon enough meet another person - a strangely-dressed man wearing a little too much pink fur and golden jewelry.
[Recognition: 6; 4] He approaches you, and Mehrik recognizes him as one of the Graduates, a flesh mage studying genetic engineering and advanced biochemistry. He even knew the guy's name: Derm. But why would a wizard wear such strange attire?
Derm: "
Hello there, fellow wizards! I see you've wound up in the Slums, as well? I'm Derm. What are your names?"
Mehrik: "
Mehrik."
Bruce: "
Bruce Grothinime."
Derm: "
Wondrous! Say, don't you know how to get to the Arcane District? I've been trying to find it, but I can't even see the Tower through the rain."
Bruce: "
We do. We are already heading there."
Derm: "
Oh. I'll just tag along, then!"
After what seems like an eternity, you finally enter the Mages' District and then the Library. Nothing seems out of the ordinary - except that there are only you three out on the streets. Nevertheless, the Library is open - and that's what matters.
You head to the Library's catalogues; from there, you and Mehrik locate sixteen books that could help you find a powerful artifact, and Derm disappears after looking at the first card he draws from the cabinet.
An hour later, you return to the cataloguing room with only four of the tomes: one about beastmen and their unique enchantments, one about priceless dwarven technology abandoned in the ruins of their outposts, one about finding the monsters' lairs and looting them for mostly mundane, but valuable trinkets, and one about lost grimoires. Mehrik picks up the one about lairs, and you take the book about grimoires.
Mehrik: [Danger: 5][Loot: 5] There is a lair of an old werewolf fittingly called 'The Hoarder' in the forests near the City; the werewolf is known for raiding unprotected caravans and leaving nothing of value behind, taking even scrolls and potions to its lair. The book doesn't really have any solid information on that werewolf, but the timing of its attacks wasn't limited to full moons, so the Hoarder must be at least somewhat dangerous in its human form.
Bruce: [Danger: 4][Loot: 6; 3] The book about grimoires - a creation of some disgustingly amoral wizard that, nevertheless, seems to be an expert on finding things - mentions a few graveyards in the Slums, unprotected by the City Guard, where the poor are buried. The book specifically mentions that there are graves, traditionally marked by a five-pointed star, that belong to mages, and notes that almost every wizard is buried with their staff and a magical journal from which a few pointers can be taken. The spoils from looting such graves may differ, but hazards are comparatively few: all the truly dangerous graves belong to the rich.
Name: Bruce Grothinime
Color: OrangeGender: Male
Bio: Wears glasses, younger than he looks, lost his love when pushed towards magic though he does love magic too.
Suppressed Desire: his lost true love.
Skills:Apprentice Fire Mage
Novice Air Mage
Known Spells:Fiery LashTraits:-1 to speech
+1 to stealth
-1 with the ladies
+1 to agility rolls
-1 to intuitionish rolls
+1 to intellectish rolls
Inventory:Robes
Glasses
House keys
Unkown address
Frying pan
0 gp
Name: Mehrik
Color: BlueHP: 100/100
Gender: Male
Bio: Narrow, brown eyes, one of which is obscured by a bad-ass eyepatch. He doesn't need it, he wears it for intimidation purposes. He prefers tighter clothes that allow freedom of movement. He has a generic dark past, and acts generically witty because of it.
Suppressed Desire: Generic vengeance
Skills:Apprentice Fire Mage(1 Lv3 Success)
Novice Flesh Mage
Known Spells:Fiery LashTraits:Dedicated: +1 will
Bull-Headed: -1 negotiations
Stealthy: +1 sneaking
Slender: -1 wrestling
Inventory:Shortsword
Robes
Tight trousers
Flesh spellbook
Badass eyepatch
Cleaver
230 gp
((Turn once again seems fine to me. Maybe all the sloppiness is elsewhere. 
And eugh, good luck with your illness.))
Vira took a deep breath, then exhaled.
"I'm in," she said, smiling at him. "Pleased to meet you, Cohen, and it was nice meeting Morul as well."
((Perhaps you're right: perfection is overrated.))
Cohen pulls a pair of bracelet out of his robe. He slaps one on his wrist and offers you the other:
Cohen: "
Put on this bracelet, and we'll start. The spells cannot be described by words or drawings, so we have to transmit knowledge directly to our new members."
You put on the bracelet, and feel... strange. It's almost as if you knew Cohen for your whole life: you can understand everything he says exactly the way he means it, even the things you never considered before. He starts speaking - very fast, but comprehensively. You notice that he isn't moving a muscle in his mouth.
Cohen: "
First spell is a Soul enchantment, cast on two or more objects bearing a certain similarity. In our case, these are bracelets made by one and the same smith, Morul, from one and the same bar of metal. The enchantment's words are these: RUY HIK VALAT YEJ."
A series of images flashes before you, a new image with each word uttered. They are... impossible to describe in any language you know. All that you can say is that nothing they capture belongs to this world.
Cohen: "
The imagery is a vital part of the spell; you'll be unlikely to forget it, of course, so one worry less for us. Now, the second spell is a Flesh cantrip. Sounds easy, yes? Keep it up for longer than a few seconds and you risk brain damage, so don't go overboard with it. Now, the spell itself..."
The cantrip is wordless: it just requires you to visualize and concentrate on a peculiar-looking, but simple rune. You think you could keep casting this spell indefinitely... if it didn't come with a feeling of boiling oil getting poured over your head.
Cohen: "
I said don't go overboard! The spell kicks the resting parts of your brain awake and drives them into a... a... well, there isn't even a word for that state - just know that you're going to die very fast if you don't exercise proper caution. Most of the time, you won't even need it - but if a subordinate disobeys, or if you get a particularly willful new recruit, you may have no other choice."
Before you can respond, all hell breaks loose. The bar on the door snaps from a powerful strike and the door flies open; three people leap into the room, cutting you away from Cohen's 'agents' and surrounding you in a half-circle.
You are stunned by the speed with which they have done it, but Cohen is not: he casts some spell and a stream of steaming water hits the big guy's axe and splatters all over his hands, stopping him in his tracks. [Learning: 2] You don't really understand how Cohen performed that spell, but it was clearly Water Magic.
You hear Cohen's voice in your mind again:
Cohen: "
Morul was right: our lair has been discovered. He says there is a crowd of gangsters near the mansion; he can't return in time, not without leading them back here. We're on our own. Keep the mages busy, but don't touch the rogue in the back."
[Perception: 5] You notice the person that the three have left behind: he's twitching and gasping for air in the darkness of the corridor. That... doesn't look natural. At all.
Name: Vira
Color: PurpleHP: 140/140
Gender: Female
Bio: A young witch leaning more towards outright necromancy. She's ambitious but cautious, good traits to have given Soul Magic's limitless potential for both weal and woe.
Suppressed Desire: Servants
Skills:Apprentice Soul Mage
Novice Flesh Mage
Known Spells:Conjure WispPower Phrase: Soul-LinkWillpower BurstTraits:+40 HP
-2 Grappling
Notorious DrunkardInventory:Witch Dress
Witch Hat
Gnarled Staff
Black Grimoire of Unpleasant Things
Medical Supplies
100 gp
Soul-Linked Golden Bracelet
((The writing was great! This is an RtD, you don't need perfection, especially when you're sick))
Ardimis whispers:
"Oh, I recognize him now, he's one of my colleagues. He's harmless"
Ardimis turns to the Earth Mage
"Alright, things are about to get messy. You can either get out of here or help us, otherwise you're a liability. The exit to the sewers is the way we came in" he says, nodding his head toward the exit
He turns to Burly
"After you"
Ardimis takes a charcoal out of his bag, holding it in his right hand. He follows Burly's plan of action, keeping behind him
((Alright, this turn was done with your advice in mind. We'll see if the change is noticeable.))
[Perception: 2] Everything seems to be in order, so you help the mage up and take a charcoal out of your bag, gesturing for Burly to start when he feels like it. Burly kicks the door off its hinges and three people - you, Burly and the other mage - run into the room. Lanky stays behind for some reason - probably so that he could run if something happened.
Inside the room, you see three people chained to the walls by iron collars on their necks: a blonde girl somewhere around your age, an old man in an alchemist's robe, and a shady, roguish type, probably one of the gangsters down in the sewers. They are all wearing golden bracelets on their right hands. None of them is awake.
There is also a pair of mages in the room: a man and a woman. The man has a scar over his eye and a well-maintained black goatee, and the woman looks like your typical renegade witch, although she emits a disgustingly strong stench of bad booze with every breath. Despite the obviously high levels of alcohol in her bloodstream, the witch is standing straight and looking at you quite clearly, but her expression is surprised, as if she doesn't know what to do; the young man, however, shows no such hesitation.
[Burly, Axe Lv1: 2+2] vs. [Cohen, Water Lv1: 4+1] The man points at the axe-wielding warrior and says "
ANNARKHE TILKET". A stream of water flies out of the boiling cauldron next to a wall, forms itself into an arrow and launches itself at Burly... only to be stopped by the flat of his axe, raised just in time to shield him from the attack. He jerks away in pain, his fingers scalded by the spray, but seems to be unharmed otherwise.
Name: Ardimis Maximus
Color: GoldHP: 100/100
Gender: Male
Bio: Ardimis had always wanted to be a hero. The guy who slays the dragon, frees the town, and has his statue erected in the town plaza. The guy who drinks alcohol all night in the town bar, forms a party that morning, and slays ultimate evil by afternoon, while still under a buzz. He wanted to be that guy.
Unfortunately, he's a little...off. He doesn't always think things through. Old lady's cat in the tree? Burn the tree down. Rat problem? Burn the house down. Insect problem? Burn the field down.
Suppressed Desire: Ardimis wants to be the greatest hero of all, to be admired by all the peasant folk in the land. He wants to slay the biggest dragons, meet with the greatest kings, and overall be known throughout the world for his exploits.
Skills:Apprentice Fire Mage
Novice Earth Mage
Known Spells:FireballSparkTraits:+1 to physical rolls when below 50 HP
-1 to interaction with other people
Inventory:
Blue cape
ClothingA bag of charcoal50 gp
Name: Nathair Siliar
Color: GrayHP: 100/100
Gender: Male
Bio: Nathair is a young-ish wizard, with dark-coloured hair, with a calm personality. He is the typical picture of a whoring, alcoholic wizard, though his does try to keep control of himself and keep a suave front up. He has always had a fascination with golems and Soul Magic, and thus has made it in his interests to study the two things.
Suppressed Desire: Power, Wealth, Social Standing.
Skills:Apprentice Earth Mage
Novice Water Mage
Known Spells:Shape StoneDuck SkinTraits: +1 to social interaction rolls
-1 to movement rolls
+2 to crafting rolls
-2 to grappling rolls
Auditory Comprehension.Inventory:Dark gray robes with green highlights
A toolkit
An empty bottle
20 gp
Definitely sneak inside the building! Who knows what goodies there could be? And, if I have such a friend...We could both profit heavily.
You climb the tree and crawl through the window. The window leads into one of the tavern's rooms - this one has been inhabited by an old man, and you can see a few empty bottles lying underneath the bed. There are two red potions labeled "CureDi-2" on the drawer near the bed, but the room has nothing else of value - only a cane and a change of clothes.
Leaving the room, you end up on a balcony that overlooks the tavern's first floor, and an unusual picture takes place before your eyes.
There are pieces of luminescent ether - wisps - covering the walls in the form of blood spatter, lying on the floor as exact copies of dead bodies and even severed body parts, twisted into huge, non-human footprints on the ground. There are a lot of glowing 'bodies' here - at least six of them whole, and a lot more lying around in separate bodyparts. The light breeze coming from the door behind you blows the wisps out of their shapes, but after this momentary disruption they come back into the form they were given by their creator. Other than that, the tavern is virginally clean - not even a single fork on the table.
This is an unusual amount of effort for the Guard to put into preserving a murder scene: if the rumors are right, they just leave the bodies and blood lying where they are, as long as the investigation doesn't require anything to be moved. [Comprehension: 1] You have no idea who would have cleaned up the murder scene, but it surely couldn't be anyone aside from the Guard - right?
You descend onto the first floor and then - into the tavern's basement. The cellar, unlike the floor above it, was untouched: there were still bottles and barrels lining the shelves. The only wisps here are the same giant footprints going from the stairway to the wall directly in front of you and then suddenly ending, as if the footprints' owner went through the wall.
[Looting: 3] Most of the bottles contain wine and beer, but eventually you stumble upon a bottle of 'aqua vitae', the flavorless, but strong spirits that you receive if you try to distill some wine a few too many times. Not exactly what you'd call 'exquisite', but it's got a kick.
Now, you're pretty sure that you could find something more interesting if you looked a bit more. The tavern's cellars are pretty huge, and you feel that you've only just scratched the surface: the good stuff must be hidden somewhere deeper.
[Perception: 2] You don't notice anything out of the ordinary.
Name: Murkal
Color: RedHP: 100/100
Gender: Male
Bio: Murkal has the attire and attitude of a beggar. He wears raggedy clothes, and is more than willing to do a dirty deed for a quick coin.
Suppressed Desire: The ability to control the rules of the universe. He wishes to bend things to his will, do the impossible and tear down any barriers in his way.
Skills:Apprentice Air Mage
Novice Soul Mage
Known Spells:Lesser BuoyancyTraits:+2 to Enchanting
Golems May Go Rogue
Inventory:Well-made, raggedy clothing
A book labelled "Advanced Golemistry for the Apprentice Wizard."
GlassesAn empty bottleA stuffed nightingaleA bottle of Aqua Vitae0 gp
Author
Topic: Staggering Wizards RTD: Turn 7: Saving Lives of Rats and Renegades (Read 21165 times)