Staging Area
"Okay but I figured I was supposed to have some sort of maybe mentor maybe taskmaster out of...you all, with that sentence. And apparently quests."
"Oh. Hehe. Need a mentor? I can be your mentor.""Nah, screw that guy." the bartender butts in, jumping on a barstool next to you.
"I'll be your mentor.""Hey. I saw him first.""Yes, but I brought him beer." he continues, leaving a mug of beer in front of you.
"Alex, as your mentor and taskmaster, I say that your first task as my protégé is to ignore that guy.""Alex, as your mentor, I say screw that guy and let's go drink some beer."((What mission's up next?))
Haven't decided yet. I want to try and finish the other mission and/or be less busy before I start another mission. Feel free to look at the availiable missions and mission types and decide or suggest things.
Right... spawn Kosak back in the staging area.
You pop into existence again in the inn. It's so much better than non-existence.
"Very interesting. Thanks for the information. I'm curious as to your opinion as to when you think I will be ready to face it."
: Unknown. The power you have earned will help you succeed. However, your mind is still weak. Furthermore, you seem unwilling to push yourself and improve unless you've been backed into a corner. And the fact that you do not feel ready is also relevant.
I will deploy you when you are ready. Or I will push you when you are strong enough to buy yourself enough time to adapt. : "By "real dirty" I mean the ones that the average being with a moral system close to mine would consider objectionable. But since that's probably meaningless to you, I'll rephrase it to ask this way: are final challenges often ones that more entities find objectionable?"
: Yes. That is why they exist. :
: And even though your morals do not apply to me or most of the situations you will encounter, they are not irrelevant. I merely made the deduction based on past observations that your morals are not strong enough to matter, at least not in the challenge I am most likely to give you. That was my answer to your previous question. :
: I am using this unit due to its ability to better communicate with individuals such as yourself. If you are incapable of understanding it, I will readjust accordingly. : John paused for a moment in thought.
"What about you? Can you tell me any past final challenges you've assigned?"
He remains quiet and unmoving for a few seconds. You can hear something whirring inside his head for a few moments.
: No. I am unable to do that. : His entire body shifts slightly, the surfaces that make up his... skin? armour? surface? moving and then readjusting before returning to the same position.
: I have an objective. And in my attempt to complete that mission, I have encountered a problem. An enemy. You were chosen for a reason. You will most likely be used to counter that problem and help me complete my objective. You will learn more about it when the time comes. As was the case with the others before you. Is that answer satisfactory or do you require further information? : ((I'd like to restate that the thoughts and opinions of my characters are not necessarily my opinions.))
Campaign
After the meal is concluded, the group spends some more time drinking and talking (and playing, in the case of Theri and River) before saying your goodnights and making your way to your rooms. As agreed, Ike, Zechariah and Nikolai share one room while Theri, Irine and River share another and Alan sleeps alone outside. The general was kind enough to supply you with an extra set of clothes while his servant cleans and repairs your old ones, so you slip into them (with some help in Nikolai's case) and get comfortable.
Ike claims one bed, leaving Zechariah and Nikolai to share the other. He's tired and he needs the rest and they don't seem that willing to sleep. Zechariah is being obsessed with playing with his staff and Nikolai is trying to entice Zechariah into working for him with offers of enlarging his staff. The general spends some time trying to teach Ike (what he calls) a simple spell meant to close those magical lamps hanging around the house. After a few minutes of trying however, saying the words and trying to think and act as the general instructed him, the only thing he has managed to do is make the flame inside one of them wobble slightly. The general says
"It's alright. Not everyone is cut out to be a magic user. You're probably tired. I'll let you sleep." before showing him a trick to physically close the lamps by carefully shaking them, causing the fire inside to transform into a pebble and plunge the room into darkness.
In the other room, Irine claims one bed while Theri claims the other. River attempts to curl up on the floor next to Theri's bed in his four-legged form, facing the door, but after Theri's insistence that he and Irine sleep well, he curls up close to the foot of the bed instead, trying not to disturb Theri's legs. Roger makes some idle telepathic conversation about the day's happenings with Irine and some mental comments to about feeling the horror of lost joke opportunities occurring somewhere nearby, but quickly grows quiet, allowing her to relax. Irine uses her ability to extinguish the magical lights in their room, allowing her thoughts to wander in the darkness.
It's not hard to relax in such good conditions. You soon drift into unconsciousness.
Well, most of you, anyway.
Spike all the food and water/juice/wine or whatever I can find with my collected Red Bull during the night, including the animal feed. If caught, provide no real reason for doing so other than 'I thought you could use some pep in your step'.
During the day, summon large amounts of whoopee cushions and place them all over the place. Generally be a nuisance, but also give them unreasonably large amounts of cutlery in recompense. Overflow their drawers! They'll surely be grateful.
When the dinner is over, you are unceremoniously dropped in your little room outside the house. The room is... OK. A bit small, a bit chilly, but the bed is warm and comfortable and you're getting this for free, so you can't really complain.
But it's too early and you don't feel like sleeping. There's bound to be something fun you could do around here. You can help, like the fairies in fairy tales that do fun work when everyone else is sleeping. Or was that "good work"? Eh, whatever, you'll make it work.
You go outside and manage to unbolt a storage room. There you find some food you promptly spike with whatever Red Bull you've gathered during the day. This will surely be a pleasant surprise for them when they discover it.
However, your attempts to keep spreading the joy to the inside of the house are hampered by the fact that the door won't open. Blast it. Foiled by locks once more.
You go to sleep in disappointment, vowing to continue your work in the morning.
Which you do. You wake up in the morning feeling rested and more ready than ever to spread the joy. It's just that... there's this... strange feeling... like there's something in your... throat?
You take a quick deep breath and give a mighty sneeze, which is followed by an eruption of colorful confetti. Huh. How did that get in there? Wonder what you were doing last night.
Nothing noteworthy. I want a good night's rest. Assuming fire is available upon request I would be attending meals in human form in order to be nice to the racist, but spending idle team in hybrid form, and of course for painting I'm in whichever form Linus asks for me to be in. I also want to try slipping in a half-joking question of if he's trying to make a spell to duplicate my abilities, rather than actually focusing on painting.
You get up early in the morning, woken up by thin rays of sunlight falling on your face and the sounds of others going about their work, feeling quite well rested. After a quick breakfast and a brief discussion about what each of you will do today, you go to the top floor to continue your work with the general.
While working, you ask in a half-joking manner whether or not he's interested more on copying your abilities than on capturing them in his works.
The man laughs.
"Let's assume I am. Why would I want to do that?" he replies with a smile.
<Cosplay?> D suggests.
"Some people are fascinated by change, wondering what it would be like to live in a different body than their own. And the way that I change is deceptive, not entirely within the action itself. Even if someone copied it perfectly, attempting to use it would almost certainly result in their death. I don't want that to happen to you." you respond.
"Hehe. No, you need not worry. I'm perfectly happy with who and what I am." he replies, still smiling. He looks down for a second and stops smiling, but he looks up at you again a second later.
"Besides, even if I wasn't, I know enough about magic to know how dangerous those kinds of transformations are. You're clearly a magical creature. I'm a human. It would be at least silly of me to attempt to copy your abilities."<At least not without using a test subject first.> D comments.
"Nevertheless, thank you for your concern." he adds with another smile.
You continue your discussion on the subject of magic in general. Remembering you mentioning your previous bad experiences with magic, he explains some basic signs of magic being cast. The conversation continues with the topic of the use of symbols in magic, when he shares a story about a group of dark chaos sorcerers using symbols of blood from a fresh sacrifice to power their spells. He also says that some order mages use runes, scrolls and inscriptions to aid them in their spells, while others draw their intent and how they imagine the flow of their spell to make it easier to understand. He also tells you some stories about legendary spells (which he claims he doesn't know how to cast), such as Return to Order, which is meant to make people who don't have the will to resist the power of the caster to comply with "orders that are right and true", or Eruption, a powerful fire spell which is meant to bring forth the power of Stodir to destroy large groups of enemies, creating a gigantic, blinding explosion that cleaves the earth in two and leaves a strange spherical cloud behind it.
Your work today focuses heavily on transformations. Normally, that would probably not be a very pleasant prospect for you. But that changes with a very surprising experience. Your first transformation doesn't cause you any pain. Neither does the next. Nor the one after that. They don't feel completely normal, not like you remembered them, there's still some occasional unpleasantness and disorientation. But they feel a lot better.
You pause your work and try transforming using your own fire instead of the general's, but the result is once again the same. You ask him if he knows anything about it and he replies that he doesn't. He says he didn't even knew it felt unpleasant for you before you told him about it.
You continue working, pleasantly free of pain but with little knowledge of how it happened.
Nikolai will demonstrate his "magic" to the General since he might be interested. See if he knows anything about it or has any tips.
He will examine those mysterious magic tools and ask General what they do.
Try to get some basic supplies. Food, water, first aid stuff, red bull. Can't rely too much on Alan. No stealing though.
If he can get some help (maybe Zech is willing?), and if he has enough time try to craft a cuirass or two or three from the giant can. If its too thin to be decent armour try multiple layers.
Make a spare sling too. Just in case.
((Would it be possible to have characters (non-secret) inventories and conditions kept somewhere we can see it, maybe a google doc or something? I don't think it's that important for the shorter missions but it would be very helpful for the longer campaign missions.))
((You are free to do so. I'll even put a link to it and help you write it up if you do so. Just don't expect me to keep it up to date.))
The general is quite interested in your magic. He pauses his work and conversation about magic with Irine to examine you, after you give him permission to do so. First he asks you how you use your ability, what you think and do when you use it, which ends up frustrating him slightly when you insist that "it just works", you "just use it". He asks you to transform objects while he casts spells on you and the objects you transform, surrounding the two of you with stringy grey lines.
He says he is trying to determine how your magic works, because he has never seen anything like that. After a bit of examination, he says he managed to isolate the chaos element in the spell, which he demonstrates by crushing it along with your resistance. The mug on which you were experimenting changes. It becomes lighter, the spikes and patterns on it start receding, its opening widening into something you could comfortably drink from. And then it breaks apart into pieces.
"Hm. Not entirely stable then."He says that, while interesting, it's not of much use to him. There's not much he can learn from it. At least not with the amount of time you have left. If he had a few more days...
"What is this then?""A pen. It helps you write well. And it can be loaded with special magical substances.""And this?""A preservation box. It keeps things from degrading. But only things that are specially prepared can be preserved properly and for long. And not everything can be prepared to be preserved.""How about this?""A fire cleaver. It can be made hot and sharp with powerful fire and order magic and used to cut things. Almost anything non-magical can be cut with a high quality cleaver supplied with enough power. Larger versions with expensive power sources attached are used as weapons by the bodyguards of nobles and high ranking mages.""This?""Metal purifier. It can be used to purify most things, but this is specially reinforced to handle more abuse, the kind of abuse that working with molten metal causes.""What about this one?""A hot point. It can melt things. Write in wood or wax. Or anything that can be burnt. Make fine metal work. Chase and sting people who ask too many questions..." he says that last bit while looking at you and smiling.
You decide to stop distracting the man and focus on your own work instead. With your direction and Zechariah's help, you manage to make quite an impressive armour and even add your makeshift shield (with improvements) to it. It's not very strong or very thick (only one layer of metal is used, with two or three covering your vitals) and it's held together by cloth strips. But having access to such fine tools and Zechariah's excellent work allowed you to make the best armour you could with the materials on your disposal. And the fact that it's quite light and flexible means you can move freely despite the fact the armour is covering most of your body.
"Hehe. What do you know? You actually did it."As for supplies, he says he is sorry, but he can't give you more than a day's worth of supplies.
So, yes, I have been gone for a long while. That's something I really am regretful for, because I truly am dedicated to doing my best in making Zechariah as involved a character as possible. Unfortunately, life seems to get in the way a lot of the time, and with the work that had been building up in the past few weeks, I wasn't able to exactly stay on top of things like I had planned. The turns kept coming (as I was excited to see!) and I was unable to stay on top of things.
With most of the issues in my life at least put to the side or gone entirely, I have found the time to read up on what I've missed and return! Hopefully, with the New Year coming, I can be better at staying on top of things and being more active in this game.
So, once again, apologies, and I hope that I can integrate back into the game without much trouble. Thanks,
Artemis
Eat my meal quietly. After that's done proceed to my room and check out Joma - well, is it still Joma? Anyway, yes, see if the staff still has powers over shadows or natural light if I can get close to some. When the deep night comes and everybody else seems to be getting ready to sleep, go to bed without a word. Keep Joma (should I even call it Joma now?) at the foot of the bed. Sleep. Try not to have nightmares. Fail at not having nightmares. Get ready for working the next day, and if Nikolai needs help with his homemade armor, go ahead and help.
Oh, and, of course, ruminate as I try to fall asleep.
I don't even have my regular clothes with me to feel... familiar anymore. The only familiar thing is the staff, and I don't even know if it's really mine. Have I lost Joma forever? I guess I shouldn't feel so attached to a stick. It's just a focusing element. But, damn. If this isn't Joma, then absolutely nothing I have will be familiar. I'm even a stranger here. Nobody knows me, really. I could die here and now and nobody would give a damn. I'm as good as dead.
Well, I really should be dead. I caused the Break. I felt myself being torn apart. I could see my body become vaporized, and I could feel my soul split apart. Nothing should be left of me. I was literally torn out of the fabric of space and time. And I was torn away from the Medium, worst of all. I don't even have that to rely on now. My powers now come from myself, but even those are starting to decay. I can't even manage to block a few bullets now, when I could stop pure, concentrated energy with my constructs before. Everything I have is faltering and breaking away. I'm weaker than anybody in this goddamn 'verse.
Zechariah hugs himself as he tries to drift off into his dreams and nightmares.
I am alone here. I don't have anybody who cares for me back in the Medium. I served my purpose. And now, I don't have anybody who cares for me here. I'm just another mean to an end. I'm just.. a..
He fails to continue his train of thought as the heavy grasp of slumber drags him into a blurry world.
((Eh. Don't worry. It's not like I've been a good GM lately either. Haven't been making turns as regularly as I'd like.))
The staff is indeed quite different. The wood is clearly part of a hard, thick and mostly straight branch, with small branches forming a nest-like rim around the crystal embedded on its top. Among splinters and the stubs of broken branches are a few small carvings, made by small repeated slashes. The largest lays on an area of the wood close to where you hold it. That part has been cleared as if by grinding it against something, removing part of the bark and making it smooth. The carving there depicts three points, joined by lines to form a triangle pointing up, itself surrounded by an triangle pointing down that is made out of lines curving outwards. Overall, the staff's form gives it a crude appearance, more like the club of a savage than the staff of a mage.
The crystal is the only thing that remains the same. Well, mostly the same. It looks exactly the same on first glance, but holding it close to the light and inspecting it more closely reveals something. It's like a thin, barely visible strand of black smoke is constantly rising out of the base of the crystal. Hm.
You've been feeling quite better at manipulating light ever since you helped River revive Alan and Nikolai. You're curious to see how much better you can do with the help of your staff. You focus on manipulating the light coming from the nearby lamp's fire. You immediately feel dizzy. You feel weak, your stomach turning, your heart aching and pounding. You stop as quickly as you can, before you seriously harm yourself. That doesn't make sense. That was just a tiny piece of light. It shouldn't had made you feel like that.
Dreading what will happen next, you raise your staff and manipulate a tiny bit of shadows. It feels fine. You try more. It still feels fine. You try as much as you can hold in the room. It strains you a bit, but it's still fine. You could probably do more. That went better. You focus all your strength on forming a rod to ram an empty box. The box rolls and flies of the table. Good, that still works. You try forming an image of yourself. You find yourself facing a soup of eyes, teeth, guts and blood, frozen in a horrible spiral pattern, slowly extending its long pointy tongue to you. Cancel illusion, cancel illusion!
The thing disappears.
Well then. That's bound to give you nightmares.
Campaign, Ike!
"Say, general, do you know what a demon is? A devil? A fiend? Any regional specifics you could possibly share?"
Ask the General about the local infernal gentry. Listen for any particulars.
Other than that, keep an eye and an ear out. Be unobtrusive. Rest.
When late morning comes, you wake up feeling like you've had the best sleep you've had in days. The pain and tiredness in your body had become so constant you'd stopped paying attention to them. And now it's gone. The bruises on your face, the aches in your bones. And its absence is noticeable. You don't know if it's that shortness of memory and exaggeration people are prone to, but right now you really feel better than you've ever felt before. Like you could run for a day.
Fortunately, you do not have to put that statement to the test. Today's work is light and easy compared to yesterday's. Mostly carrying things around and caring for the animals, with the help of the others. Which is mostly Zechariah. Alan seems to be focusing on building a mountain of cutlery outside of the house for some reason. He is occasionally interrupted by sneezes, each sneeze causing eruptions of random objects. The two that happen in your presence are confetti and pumpkin pies. Thankfully, not aimed at you.
"Oh, no! He has the clown flu!"Terrevieve returns with his cart sometime during midday. The news the elf brings are not good. Apparently, there were food riots at Areloggez. The town sealed its gates to the refugees for several days, some of the refugees gathered into an angry and hungry mob that broke through the gates and the guard slaughtered a good number of them to drive them away, but not before they looted, ransacked and burnt half the town, lynching some people in blind revenge in the process.
"One bad decision, a few foolish and scared men and things are worse for everyone." the general comments.
Luckily, Terrevieve managed to hide during the night, getting the supplies the general asked for and heading back before morning came. After the general praises his servant's speed, skill and dedication, you are sent to help unload the cart while said servant rests.
You spend what little free time you have with the general asking him for information about the various magical creatures you might encounter and their names.
Apparently there are rumours for the existence of various magical creatures, including some that could fit the traditional image of a horned evil creature prone to making deals in exchange for the souls of men (which, from what the general says, they don't have to be the souls of the same men who closed the deal). But most of those are just that: rumors and folk tales, talking about the minions of dark gods tempting good (or not so good) men. Not many beyond a few mages and priests could probably provide concrete answers about the existence and capabilities of such creatures.
Elementals and magical creatures are relatively more common, creatures that are the manifestation of an element or a combination of elements or animals with a strong connection to magic. Those kind of creatures are rarely seen close to civilization without a good reason. They tend to gravitate towards great sources of magical power and most of those that are used by humans are protected by enchantments. The ones facing the most danger from those are explorers, settlers, adventurers... and warriors, since some may try to use those kinds of creatures in combat, with varying degrees of success.
What people seem to be worried about the most is bandits and beastmen (which, from what you understand, are often bandits). Bandits normally prey on travellers and caravans going through here, but they may occasionally go after towns. Some might even be in the slave trade, capturing people (mostly elves) and then sending them away from their homes to be used as slaves. Both beastmen and bandits tend to live in remote places, but they may be found close to the roads.
From what you understand, people are generally more afraid of beings of flesh and blood than vague spirits.
((Sorry for brevity; net is unstable but I have read through all the turn 
I love the lore bits you give out, Paris!))
Nothing noteworthy. I want a good night's rest. Assuming fire is available upon request I would be attending meals in human form in order to be nice to the racist, but spending idle team in hybrid form, and of course for painting I'm in whichever form Linus asks for me to be in. I also want to try slipping in a half-joking question of if he's trying to make a spell to duplicate my abilities, rather than actually focusing on painting.
Following the first two sentences here: Theri tries her best to stay in polite waters while avoiding the general's wife's gaze--studying both their body language for anything peculiar. If possible: She tries to play with the young daughter! If also possible, she tends to River and tries to teach him conversational topics and manners (suggesting that she'd back him up if ever the awkwardness happens again, and teaching him tact with how the "others see how his words come off as"). She will also ensure that both Irine and River will rest well since the three are sharing a room.
((Thank you! I love making up and telling stories.))
Playing with the daughter doesn't seem possible, since the general and his wife keep her in their room. They even bring her meals there. You only occasionally hear her crying. You don't know if they're keeping her away from other people for health reasons or if that's just how they do things.
You do however have fun playing with the general's son. The young boy can barely speak, but he's curious and full of energy. He has fun running around with you, playing hide and seek, chasing you, hugging you whenever he catches you, showing you his toys... that is, whenever his mother doesn't scold him and tell him to stay away from you.
It's understandable that he'd enjoy your company. There are few other people around here. No children, nobody even close to his age. His sister too young to play with yet. He probably enjoys the chance to have new and fun friends he can play with, not ones of the same group of grownups he lives with.
You don't notice anything too strange with the behaviour of the general and his wife. She seems to be a bit angry about something and that colors her entire attitude and relations with everyone. The general on the other hand treats her with affection, but he also seems to keep his distance from her, spending much time on his own. You don't know if that's how things normally are around here or if it's your presence here that's making her angry.
You talk with River about supporting him and helping him become better at conversations and generally being with other people. He appreciates your help, but he dislikes the notion that his behavior was wrong, since he was only trying to help. Or the notion that he should try to think like someone else, especially when that someone else is a human. He struggles for a bit, having trouble reconciling what you are saying to him with his apparent dislike for humans. He thanks you, says that he will consider what you've told him and try to do it. But he needs some time to think about it. He leaves, running away from the house.
EveryoneThe day continues without incident and the end of you stay approaches, when River suddenly sends you a telepathic message to stop whatever you're doing, gather your things and get ready. He runs back to the house and tries to get your group away from the residents of the house as he delivers the news:
"The human betrayed us. There are soldiers coming from the east. We should kill him and get ready to fight. Or just leave."
OOCWrote most of this from phone over the course of two days (good thing there's Dropbox). Please forgive any mistakes.
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