Thursday, December 12th 2013, Week 0, Day 1
Jerry:
You bundle up and head out to campus in an attempt to meet potential converts and check the place out. Many of the residence halls, apartment buildings, and frat houses on campus are quite old; some seem to date back to the 1600s and 1700s. The classrooms, student union, admissions office, and fitness center all look state of the art and no more than 10 or so years old. The Library seems to stick out like a sore thumb as a building that is clearly from the Victorian era.
You catch a man exiting a computer lab, and flag him down for some conversation. The pair of you walk down to the student union and quickly pick up a friendly religious discussion. The man, a graduate student named Ross, turns out to be an Olympic Studies major and a priest of Ares or Mars, the savage Greek/Roman god of war. Despite the theological gap between you and him, you are able to maintain a polite and productive conversation about the merits of various translations of the scrolls that tell of Ares' successful repulsion of Vich Gor'Teerech's 3rd Conquest and Aaijorluk's single handed victory over the entire Olympic pantheon.
As you reach the student union and are about to part ways, Ross makes you an offer. He informs you that a recent dig in sealed off lands north of Tehran in Persia has turned up vases depicting a battle between the forces of several gods and a large tribe of elves under the influence of the Chaos Circle. Ares is depicted as a part of the battle, and so is an outer god who he suspects may be Vich Gor'Teerech. If you would be willing to look at the vase, and confirm the presence of the Conqueror, Ross claims he would make it worth your while.
He is savvy enough to not offer a specific reward that could make you jealous and grant you another reason to hurt him in the name of Aaijorluk, but assures you that the payment will be one pleasing to a priest of the outer gods.
Roll Results = 10
New Opportunity!
You get Frederic to agree to take you down to the nearest mundane Wallies' World where you proceed to shop until you drop. You end up purchasing a sewing machine as well as almost all the supplies you need for your emergency kits. You still need to repurpose the crosses into Fen Fwa symbols, and figure out a safe way to bottle your spell. To earn proper favor with Vich Gor'Teerech, you will also need to figure out how to store your goods in a secure yet easily accessible to you fashion.
Returning to the Hostel and dropping off your purchase, you dry off for a few minutes and then head out into the Old Woods. It dosn't take too long before you pick up a trail, which eventually leads to a strange and snowless clearing where the temperature is miraculously in the mid eighties.
In the clearing three children in T-Shirts play outside of a large greenhouse. The greenhouse is marked with many divine symbols, most of which belong to gods of Nature, Death, or Torment: One of the symbols used to represent Aaijorluk on earth, a human phallus with a large nail driven through the cajones, is present amoung the others.
You ask about the place, and the kids inform you that it is their family business. They specialize in breeding and selling large supernatural bugs, and their byproducts such as venom and honey. Inferring that the bugs must be used by followers of unpleasant gods to make their victims miserable, you ask to go in. The kids inform you that they are closed because their dad is away, and their mother cannot be trusted not to eat customers without his supervision. One of them runs inside and comes out with a flier listing their regular stock and prices for your browsing pleasure. You take the brochure, thank the children, and return back to home base.
New Store Discovered!
Result = 10
Upon your return to the Hostel, Jan, upon hearing that you wished to study astral-projection, goes through the company records and comes back with a small stack of books.
"These are copies of the Dream Journals of Daphne, a merchant who worked for the company on and off in the 50's and 60's. There should be some good stuff about Astral projection in em."
The journals are meticulously organized and indexed, so although there is not a whole lot of information on Old Ones or projection spells, what is written on the topics is rather easy to find. You quickly come across an incident where Daphne accidentally projected herself to a temple of an outer being, where her sleeping soul was almost eaten by a Dreampreyer. Being a bit curious and reckless she spent the following few days experimenting with the circumstances that lead to the unexpected trip until she could do it at will.
You are fairly sure that you should be able to figure out her ritual herself, given proper time and study.
+ Copies of Daphne's Dream Journals
+ New Opportunity to Learn an Astral Projection Temporary Ritual
Result = 7
Miles:
You head down to the Library on campus, intent on spending most of your day researching Arkham and it's history.
The first order of business is people. A time merchant, especially a time merchant just starting out, tends to favor clients in the past or future with a close physical proximity. If the person you are doing business with is in the same general location as you, magic is only needed to transport most goods in one direction; the person in the past can just bury a time capsule using mundane means and tell the other party where to find it.
Skimming through the book, you find three prime candidates.
Lindsay Fairchild was the first female head of MU's Human History and Inheritor Race Studies department from 1896 to 1910, and the first female mayor or Arkham from 1912 until she was tragicly murdered by Cthulhu Cultists in 1926. Lindsay was a complex character: Although she was most famous for leading Arkham's defense against various outer being attacks during her time at the university and in office, she was also a huge bigot. During Lindsay's reign as department chair the curriculum was rather racist, and she admitted only seven non-humans to the program during her tenure. As mayor, Lindsay was known as 'The Hanging Judge; Of the 456 criminal cases brought against non-humans in Arkham during her term, 387 ended in hard death execution or banishment from the universe. Lindsay had a habit of working with time brokers to bring in advanced weaponry to give her beloved Arkham an edge against the invading Old Ones.
John Deadman was a former slave and soldier in the civil war who came to Miskatonic as a student in 1866 to study both Mysticism and Alchemy. John lived a very long and successful life, and returned to the school as a professor nearly 100 years later in 1958. During his later years, John gained a reputation as one of the greatest human potion brewers of his time. Although a good many brewers throughout human history have equaled or surpassed John in terms of quality or price, Deadman remains popular amoung time brokers because of his skills as a seer; he would often foresee incoming commissions, and have the product ready before the order was even placed. Deadman, like most mystics, finally met his end in the great purge of the late seventies and early eighties. Some contemporary accounts suggest that he may not have been properly hard deathed, and might have been somehow involved in the 2011 attempt by a California Mystic to awaken the Egyptian god Set.
James Pierce was a terrible member of one of the darkest witch covens in the 1600's and 1700's, and a time broker himself. He ruled over Arkham on and off during his time Other known incarnations of Mr. Pierce include American Vice President and slavery advocate John C. Calhoun, and Nazi scientist Joseph Mengele. Nobody knows his current whereabouts. Most merchants from earth are loathe to do business with him, but Pierce and his incarnations offer reasonable prices on dark things merchants wouldn't be able to ethically collect themselves. Pierce also has alot of contacts in the ancient Egyptian, Olmec, and Mayan cultures, and is a great middleman for merchants looking for stuff from those eras.
+3 Possible Contacts
Results = 26
As you are researching Old Arkham, a book catches your eye - or rather the author does. Michael Westman, a pseudonym you have used in the past. The book, A Traveler's Guide to Arkham, paints a sugary picture of the town in 1911 that completely glosses over its at the time current struggles with outside forces. You must have been very naive, desperate, or well paid to agree to output that kind of propaganda. As you flip through the book, a note falls out of the back.
The note is written in Mage-Latin, a language you understood once, and you are fairly sure you recognize the handwriting as your own. On the back of the note is a diagram of a tunnel system that seems to originate from one of the dorm buildings, but it is so crudely drawn and you remember so little about the school, you can't be quite sure which building it is. You pocket the note and put the book back where you found it. You doubt anybody will check it out, and are fairly sure that it will still be around if you want to give it a good read later.
+New Exploration Opprotunity
+Note in Mage Latin
Result = 18!
You decide that if you want to get your shopping done in time to properly explore Innsmouth, you will have to shop online. You head to the computer-lab, and log in with the company credentials Jan has given you. You quickly load up amazon and a few other shopping sites, and set to work. It is a bit of a headache, but within an hour you have purchased everything on you list, and managed to score free 2-day shipping on all of it. Your only regret is that you couldn't figure out how to adopt a cat over the internet.
Shopping Complete. Order will Arrive on Saturday, December 14th.
Heading to the student union, you enter the special code for free transport to Innsmouth, and with a sickening flash you are gone.
You stagger nauseously off the teleport pad at the Innsmouth town hall, out the door, and into the huge merchant bazaar. The place is well kept; a bit too well kept. You suspect most of the shops and merchants that have good placement by the waterfront or main walkways are under the direct control of one individual or institution, like Sweeny the Seafoam. This gives you pause for thought; very few mages as rich or powerful as Sweeny must be are particularly ethical creatures.
Veering off the beaten path, you enter the seedier looking part of the bazaar where the more independent merchants and shops ply their trade. You start to see faces that look familiar, but most of them you can't put a name to. After a bit of wandering, someone flags you down by name. He introduces himself as a time broker named Alan Glover, and explains that you helped him get back on his feet after a botched jump forward. When you explain your current situation, he offers to repay the favor
+ New Resource/Trainer
Result = 8
Vortanna:
Deciding to split your day between research and training, you head to the library first. You grab an introduction to magic book and spend the morning pouring it over, paying extra attention to the 'Class Frameworks' that humans without internal power sources use to cast their spells. You manage to gain a decent understanding of all the common ones, and take notes on the ones that fit your personal style and that you might choose to eventually branch into for variety or as a backup in-case your supply ever runs dry.
+ You gain IC knowledge of Everything on the wiki Class Index, as well as any fluff, restrictions, and limitations imposed on the individual class pages
Result = 7
You return the book and return to the Hostel, where you pratice raising your awareness and speed in battle based on techniques you have seen in your dreams. By dinner time you are drenched in sweat, but have the feeling that your combat style is more inline with your own fate, and that you will be much harder to take by surprise in a fight.
+ Feature: Secrets of Future Strife
Results = 10
Leilani:
You bundle up tight to brave the snow and visit the library on campus for some research. Your first stop is the card catalog where you quickly look up books on audio illusions. Your search gets off to a great start when you actually do find a book entitled exactly that: 'Audio Illusions'.
The book however is not an easy read, and uses many terms that you are not familiar with. Furthermore many spells require extremely advanced knowledge of magical framework theory to work. Eventually you narrow the book down to a single spell and a single ritual that are written in simple enough language to understand, and that you think are within the limits of your current abilities.
+Opportunity to Learn a new spell
+Opportunity to Learn a new ritual
Result = 15
Looking up Conjurations in general is much, much, easier. Miskatonic University has taught introductory courses on the subject for over 150 years, so it is a simple matter to pick up an old 101 level textbook on the subject and start reading. The mathematical principals governing withdrawals and deposits quickly begins to make sense, and the book is full of tips and tricks that you could nail down to become a better conjurer.
You decide the book is worth checking out, so you take it with you back to the Hostel.
+Opportunity to Learn a new conjurer feature
+New Item: 1978 Edition of The Craft of Conjuration (Libarary Book, on loan for 14 days)
+You can attempt to learn any of the basic spells/features/rituals/maneuvers on the Conjurer class page, once that page is complete
Result = 16
Using the equations contained within the text, you are able to calculate your current balance, which seems to have reset to a nice even 0 overnight.
Balance = 0
Result = 10
Alice:
+ Opportunity to learn a new spell
See Francis's turn for results and flavor text for the first research action...
Deciding to remain in the library after working with Francis, you explain your situation and job to the librarian, and he kindly shows you a book about all the supernatural creatures created by nazi super science, including the vampires. Sadly for you, the book is written in German, so you end up taking the tome to the computer lab and spending most of the morning trying to understand it with the help of google translate. Eventually you figure out that the Court of the Eagle consists of three vampire bloodlines, and get some notes on each of them.
Many members of the Court belong to the Common European Bloodline. These classic vampires have better endurance and speed than the average human, but suffer from all the traditional vampire weaknesses such as Sunlight, Holy Water, Garlic, and having their heart pierced by wood. Anybody drained to death by a Common European Vampire will rise as one, but will not automatically obtain any sort of allegiance towards the court.
More dangerous is the Adler Vampir, a powerful bloodline created by nazi magic and science. The Adler Vampir are physically superior to living humans in pretty much every way. The Adler Vampir have no fatal weaknesses, but honey and the ashes of Holocaust Victims can both cause them extreme pain and slow them down. To become an Alder Vampir, one has to consume its blood. All Adler Vampirs slowly become more Aryan in appearance, and all become subconsciously predisposed to prefer fascist and racist ideologies.
The most feared vampires of the Court of the Eagle are the ones called Blut Dämon. Blut Dämons are humans enhanced with the influence of undeath, hellish fiends, and incomprehensible outer beings. The are unbelievably powerful internal mages on par with the Titans. One could easily obtain godhood with enough followers. Blut Dämons are harmed by weapons of silver and gold. Blut Dämon internal magic only works at night, near a tributary of the River Styx, or near a portal to an infernal realm. Vampires of other bloodlines may obtain Blut Dämonhood via a lengthy and expensive ritual.
After you finish jotting down notes on the vampires you are likely to be fighting, you head to the student union to socialize a bit. There are about a dozen students hanging around when you show up, eating warm beef stew and enjoying the atmosphere. You approach a table of 4 and introduce yourself to them.
You are invited to sit down, and quickly learn that the students are members of the human history and heritage club, or HHH Club for short, and that they are on campus over the winter working on a secret project. You spend the next couple hours getting to know them all as individuals.
Karen Star is clearly the group leader and a Priestess of Eve. Karen is a bit of an alpha bitch, and quickly starts to look down on you when you reveal the fact that you are eighteen.
Jacques Beaumont is a performance mage from France, and Karen's henpecked boyfriend. He dosn't speak often, as his performance style of choice is the art of mime, and when he does it is through a translation charm necklace that gives him the deep voice of Morgan Freeman. He joins in Karen's teasing of you, but perhaps a bit reluctantly.
Milly Jones, and her familiar Sheen the Blue Jay, share the role of group geek. Milly launches a few scanning cantrips at you to access your potential, and seems to take your side until Karen shoots her a death glare and Milly and her bird join in the mocking.
Samwise Kraft, whom you thought to be a child from a distance, actual turns out to be a halfling. He is eager to join in the mockery at first, but when it comes out that you are an orphan he quickly jumps to your defense. You learn that Samwise is an orphan himself, and although he never had to live in a group home, many of his foster parents were just plain dicks.
Sam is able to get the group to tone their abuse down, and civil conversation resumes. When Milly asks why you are in Arkham, you inform her that you are a bloodrusher. Karen smirks, and quickly issues a challenge:
"Yeah right. A Vampire or some other nasty would eat you right up kid. If you can actually kill a vampire or something else truly nasty, I'll declare you an honorary MU Upperclassman and let you work on our project!"
Eventually the talk dies down, and the HHH club split off one by one, and in time it is only Samwise and you left. The Hobbit reaches into his bag and tosses you a wand.
"This has five charges left on it. Just point at something alive or animated and say the command word 'Discriminate'. If what you point at isn't human, it will get hurt badly. If it is human, the wand will just let off a soft chime. It should have three charges left in it. It should help you show Karen up."
You thank him for the kindness, take the wand, and return to the Hostel.
+ New Opportunity
+ Wand of Eve's Discrimination
Result = 19
Francis:
You and Alice meet up for an early trip to the library to research some magic that you can both use. Since you both incorporate song into your casting, you suggest music as a starting point, and look up spellbooks relating to song in the card catalog. You come up with a dusty old tome entitled 'The Merry Tunes of Mages' that lists dozens of spells for each of the known class frameworks commonly used by human casters.
The book is written in Elizabethan English, so reading it is a pain in the ass, but eventually you strike gold with a chapter called 'The Grand Ensemble'. The chapter contains a spell for each class, and each of the spells is designed to combine and mesh with the others to form a single all powerful offensive song. Alice and yourself spend a good couple hours, with the help of the librarian, translating the spells made for Performance Mages and Scribes into more contemporary English. After completing the work, you and Alice agree to part ways and meet up again some other time to pratice the spells together.
+ Opportunity to Learn a New Spell
Your Result was highest, using your roll...
Result = 12
Deciding that you are done with bookwork for the time being, you return to the hostel, and spend the remainder of the day trying to get in touch with your inner magic supply. You end up reaching a rather zen meditative state several times, but by the end of the day you don't feel like you have unlocked any potential or anything...
Result = 6
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Topic: @)~~}~ (RPG) Magia Exquisitis: Bloodrush ~{~~(@ (Read 16736 times)