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[IronyOwl]

The Four Apprentices

~A Lightly Illustrated Adventure~

*sigh*

"You, yes, YOU! YOU have been CHOSEN! CHOSEN to receive a chance at becoming a magical apprentice to the Master of this Tower! Think of all the benefits that come with being a loyal apprentice: Learn magic! Live in a magical Tower! Rub elbows with the Master himself! So don't delay, fill out this application to submit yourself to the Master for consideration as his NEXT APPRENTICE!

...or... if you can't write... I am obliged to fill out your form for you as you direct me. Eugh.


Also, please note that the Master will only be selecting FOUR candidates, so please try to do a good job on your form."

Name: Note that the Master reserves the right to call you something else.
Physical Description: A brief description of your physical nature. Note that lying here may imply a lack of attachment to your current form.
Mental Description: A brief description of your mental nature. Note that lying here may imply a lack of attachment to your current mental state.
Assets: What makes you qualified to be a servant of the Master? Note that the Master is aware that you're nothing but a filthy peasant, so please try to keep lies to the contrary to a minimum.

Spoiler: Short Version (click to show/hide)

I'd like to keep some of this secret, but still give enough information to let people know if they'd like to play (and what they'd like to play) or not.

Accordingly, this will be a lightly illustrated magic-focused RPG-ish thing with some basebuilding and similar elements. If you have specific questions, feel free to ask; I'll either do my best to answer them, or reaffirm that I'd rather not reveal that yet.

Location
The game will focus primarily on the Tower, a highly magical place you'll become more familiar with as time goes on. Other locations will be accessible, and venturing out from the Tower will generally be necessary to acquire materials and such.

In a similar vein, expanding the Tower will be one of your privileges and, to some extent, duties. Construction will work similarly to DF, though less adroitly, and as a general rule, you own what you build.

Magic
Mastering magic will require a combination of research and practical experience.

Magic consists of a school and spells. Initially, your school will be a (not necessarily traditional) element; more nuanced schools may be possible, but you don't know about them.

Most apprentices will achieve a certain number of spells per school, but this is not a hard limit. Freestyling with magic is generally only possible for the fairly skilled; normally, apprentices will be consigned to using spells they already have.

System
A combination of dice and arbitrary decisions will decide how things go. Opposed contests will usually use opposed rolls; other things that might end badly or well will tend to use RTD mechanics.

[IronyOwl]

Reserved for things. Players, probably the Tower status, and so on.

[Weirdsound]

Name: Herald Dugrath
Physical Description: Tall, muscular, and unshaven. My skin is pale in the rainy season and tan when it is sunny out. I dress simply in brown rags when it is warm and wear heavy jackets when it is cold.

Mental Description: Firmly grounded but a bit disgruntled. I went into the woodsman business hoping to slay big bad wolves and win the hearts of maidens. So far I've only been able to land a creepy Lolita in a red cloak after saving her grandmother from a wolf. Hopefully this apprentice job will help me hide from her and pick up some chicks that are a bit closer to my age.

Assets: A few changes of clothes, a woodcutting axe, a long bow, a quiver of arrows, and a toolbox of carpenters supplies. I used to have a nice wooden cottage until some bastard wolf huffed, puffed, and blew it down to steal my salted pork supplies.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Name: Dlogmrywtaerg
Physical Description: Tall and thin, with golden eyes
Mental Description: Easily distracted, curious
Assets: He emanates an aura of chaotic magic, which makes him both a potentially great mage and a good candidate for experimentation.

[Xantalos]

Posting to watch and if I can I'll put a character in.
Name: Brog
Physical Description: A fairly standard lad. Average height, average weight, brown hair, brown eyes, a plain face; nothing that would attract attention.
Mental Description: Seems to be a fairly unobtrusive fellow, but those who cross him seem to have terrible luck, and he advances himself at any opportunity.
Assets: Powerhungry, so he's unlikely to try for a stab at the Master's back, and ruthless into the bargain. Plus he learns fast.

[Mlamlah]

Name: Malagar
Physical Description: Short and stocky, with long black hair and brown eyes that dart around constantly. Malagar's height is made worse by a tendancy to hunch over. When nervous he fidgets and avoids eye contact.
Mental Description: Malagar is paranoid and a compulsive hoarder, gathering even the most useless objects in the hope that some of them may become useful. At the same time, very little escapes his notice and he pays great attention to detail, valuing every scrap of information. He enjoys using the information he notes to make inferences and fill gaps in information.
Assets: Malagar keeps a sack full of his baubles and possessions, including string, needles, and bits of metal. His clothes are simple and he keeps few possessions of real value. Edit: Malagar as mentioned is adept at absorbing information, including information others might deem irrelevant, perhaps a leftover of his hording compulsion. His attention to detail borders on obsessive and he is quite the perfectionist. He demands quality from himself in anything he does.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Guys, the "assets" aren't put possessions, they're why we were selected for apprenticeship.

[Nirur Torir]

"I'm not a peasant. I'm just a bit down on my luck. You know how it is, the ones in charge keep taking larger and larger cuts."

Name: Snake.
Physical Description: I keep myself shaved bald save a thin black mustache. A scar from an old sword fight mars the left side of my face. I am thin and wry, and usually wear a hooded cloak with the hood up.
Mental Description: I'm in the business of acquiring things people would rather not part with. Usually petty change. I rather like money. Others are expendable. I hope this job doesn't call for any of those magical contracts, those are unfavorable restrictive.
Assets: I'm good at not getting caught, AND I can read.

[LordBucket]

Name: Alice
Physical Description: 5'1, 100 pounds, blonde, C-cup.
Mental Description: Treacherous, lying and backstabbing. The second we have the chance to kill him in his sleep and take over, we're going to do it. Possibly while laughing maniacally. Bonus points if we accidentally unleash a demonic horde on the local townsfolk in the process.
Assets: Most Common Superpower

[GreatWyrmGold]

Yeah, that sounds like about the only reason one could want her around...

[Weirdsound]

Guys, the "assets" aren't put possessions, they're why we were selected for apprenticeship.

My characters assets can easily represent a set of skills.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Guys, the "assets" aren't put possessions, they're why we were selected for apprenticeship.

My characters assets can easily represent a set of skills.

True enough.

[IronyOwl]

"The Master wishes to convey his laziness in picking from you right now. As I call your name, please step forward a little bit so you don't all get hit with the spell at once."


"Mr. Dugrath, for your hardy tendencies and... 'outstanding charisma,' eugh, you are hereby selected as an Apprentice to the Master."


"Mr. Dlogmrywtaerg, for your curiosity and willingness to be an experiment, you are hereby selected as an Apprentice to the Master.

...though, apparently as your name is 'hard to say,' your 'new name' shall be Doodles. Good luck with that."


"Mr. Malagar, for your 'obsessive scholar stuff,' you are hereby selected as an Apprentice to the Master."


"Mr. Snake, for your 'roguishness' and... I'm not saying that. For various reasons, you are hereby selected as an Apprentice to the Master."




"The rest of you get out of my sight, and go back to dying pointless and ignominious deaths outside a wizard's tower."


"Anyway, the first order of business is getting you cleaned up, because frankly you're all filthy and the Master doesn't want his Tower getting filthy just because you're loafing about in it. To that end, he's prepared the following spell."



"Officially you have all been given white robes because blah blah earning unique ones, but the real reason is that the Master was lazy and didn't know what colors you wanted, and feels you should really in charge of your own wardrobes anyway.

More importantly, none of you are filthy anymore. Please try to keep it that way, or at least counteract some of its inevitable decline. These rooms don't clean themselves, you know.


Now, here's the important part. Due to circumstances you don't need to hear about it, your worthless opinions are going to be given weight for a trifling matter.

In essence, there are two things you need to know. One concerns the Tower itself and your roles in it, the other concerns magical ability. Which would you like explained and taken care of first?"

[GreatWyrmGold]

"Magical ability, if you wouldn't mind."

[Nirur Torir]

"Yeah, starting with magic sounds good."