Turn 2: Monday, 7th of July, 2014Robert:You make a quick trip to the store to purchase supplies, and then head on down to the workshop to make a few items. Each turns out perfectly. First is a nice set of full plate armor with a large and carefully measured hole in the back to fit your new sail. Next you produce a large tower shield that can easily protect yourself or cover an ally. Lastly you make the hard hat that Jacob wants.
-200 USD
+1 Full Plate Armor, Modified for Mutation (Sets default speed stage to -2 and default defense stage to +1. Bonus and penalties can be improved upon with proper training. Always grants the wearer access to a Physical Defense Industry defensive stance and a Physical Defense Material defensive stance. The large hole for the sail is an obvious weak point if anybody other than Robert wears this armor; All incoming AC and Uncanny attacks have their critical hit range extended by 1 on such a target.)
+1 Tower Shield (Grants the wearer access to to a special Tower Shield Defensive Stance. The Tower Shield Defensive Stance uses industry as a defensive element and your defense as a defensive stat. The Tower Shield Defensive Stance allows you to use your defense evasion against all incoming attacks that can be evaded, ignoring what stat may usually be used evade said attacks. The Tower Shield Defensive Stance increases your defense evasion by 2. The Tower Shield Defensive Stance grants a +1 bonus to all evasion of all ajacent allies. Each turn you are using the Tower Shield Defensive Stance, you must use your standard action to maintain the defensive stance; If you don't, you break the stance and default to the free defensive stance you gained during character creation)
+1 Hard Hat
Jacob stops by and hands over the Mind Iron, so that you may use it to enchant the hat. As soon as he departs you set to work. It takes hours, but you manage to infuse the strange metal into the hard hat, placing a powerful enchantment upon it. You feel as if the mind of the wearer will be protected.
Result = 21
-Hard Hat
-Mind Iron
+Hard Hat of Paranoia (The wearer has access to the Paranoia defensive stance. The Paranoia defensive stance uses Ambiance as a defensive element and Magical Defense as a defensive stat. When using the Paranoia stance, and suffering from any sort of status condition, treat your evasion as doubled. Anybody attempting to read or manipulate the thoughts of this hat's wearer, whether or not they are using the paranoia stance, takes -3 to any skill checks required to do so.)
RogerYou wake up early and set out to follow the directions you have been given in search of the treasure chest. The walk is long, cold, and leads to a close encounter with a rather angry polar bear, but in the end the Dread Pirate Roger manages to locate the booty.
The chest is rather heavy, so dragging it back is a pain. By the time you return your back and arms are all rather sore. You put it down, tackle the mundane lock with a heavy duty wire cutter from the workshop, and check out the contents. The hat is able to identify the workmanship as that of the Clockwork Devils, infernal beings from a hell known as The Toybox who are known for their complex craftsmanship and skill as manipulators. He is also able to point out what a few of the items do.
Chest Contents:
+5 Golden Gears
+20 Golden Wind Up Keys
+75 Tiny Purple Gears
+5 Golden Springs
+3 Purple Springs
+10 Purple Bars
+1 Large Heavy Pentagram Shaped Sheet of Purple Metal
+1 Small Wind Up Werebeast Machine (A wind-up device the size of a toaster. Converts the body and soul of a small animal placed inside into a serum that turns a sentient humanoid who drinks it into a monstrous version of that creature on the full moon.)
+1 Box of the Fell Game (A single-use jack-in-the-box like machine that, when used, transports everybody in the room to a pocket universe to play a high stakes game. The winner is allowed to return home with a reasonable infernal boon for his or her troubles. The losers all suffer death or worse. Does not work outdoors or in rooms over 10000 Square Feet in area.)
+10 Holy Rot Grenades (Single use weapons used by the Clockwork Devils against more organic fiends. Creates a 3m DB15 Blast that causes magical logos damage. These grenades only effect creatures who are both organic and evil)
+1 Devil's Play Thing (A clockwork... toy used to aid in particular adult activities in a manner best left undescribed. Extracts two units of soul energy from the user's unwitting partner, one of which is sent to the device's maker somewhere in hell, and one of which is given to the user in the form of a crimson or black jewel. This device often has terrible consequences, as most mundane humans cannot afford to spare two units of soul energy.)
+1 Clockwork Baton (Can be wound up and wielded to change the element of a spell you cast. Winding up the wand takes awhile and cannot be safely done in combat. The Baton has three wind up keys: One for the Pathos element, one for the Cosmos element, and one for the Industry element. When you cast a damage inflicting spell while wielding the Baton, a randomly selected wound key is selected, the spell's element changes to match the selected key, and the spells damage base is increased by 3. You can choose to wind up only one or two keys at a time if you wish for the Baton to be more predictable.)
+1 Strange Orange Cylindrical Wind-Up Device that the hat cannot identify
+1 Strange Wind-Up Clown Head that the hat cannot identify
YuriYou spend your morning suffering through the letters. Why did the damn Oni have to be so fond of sentimental poetry? Eventually you are able to cut through the crap and find some of the good stuff. Two spells and a ritual catch your intrest. The spells, which the Oni claims he learned from a daughter of the emperor he had been sleeping with, both offer good quick disguises in a pinch. The ritual, while disturbing, will allow you to build up a collection of disguises that you can fall back on whenever you need them.
Results = 23
+3 new opportunitiesYou decide that you need to toughen your body up. It is, after all, your greatest weapon. Wearing only your pajamas, you head outside and spend several hours standing in the biggest snow drift you can find. When you finish, you have a nasty case of frost bite, but feel much tougher. Kestrel, having foreseen your training stunt, comes to your room with a magical salve to cure frostbite, and helps you rub it in the afflicted areas.
Results = 10
+1 Rank of ConstitutionJacob:Finding a quiet corner in the library, you begin to look for books about healing for conjurers and realms that have life energy to spare. You are having little luck today however. All the titles that clearly and obviously contain what you want have been checked out, and you are reduced to frantically searching the indexes of generalized conjuration books.
"You won't find what you are looking for in a book today."Looking up from your reading, you shockingly find yourself face to face with a strange hooded figure with the warts, facial structure, and bulging eyes of a toad. You try your best not to panic.
"Relax... I'm not with them... Well I am... but it is my day off. I've been watching you since you showed up in town a few days ago, and I decided that I want you."The creature reaches foward and puts its hand on your cheek. You are suddenly paralyzed with fear.
"When we succeed in our plans, you will be kept alive in a mostly human state as my pet. I might even let you keep your free will. I will give you the healing knowledge you seek now, so that you don't die before then."It leans in and kisses you on the forehead, and for the briefest of seconds as the lips touch you, its form changes into that of a beautiful woman. You find yourself unable to move as the creature produces a ring from her cloak. It is a frightening thing; A gold plated mouse skull with black gems in the eye sockets, attached to a band with strange characters on it.
The creature slides the ring onto your finger, and suddenly new knowledge of healing magic flows into your head. What also flows into your head is a sort of dreadful understanding; You know what the ring is and how it works at once.
"And now you are marked as mine. Consider this both a token of my affection, and fair payment for your freedom when I take you into slavery. Take care!"And with that, the creature leaps over several rows of books in a single bound, and is gone.
Results = 15 (CRITICAL SUCCESS!)
+New Permanent Ritual
+2 New Spells
+Cursed Plaguering of Magical Knowledge (This ring occasionally grants you free knowledge of spells, rituals, and magical features. The knowledge gained from this ring is almost always tainted with some side effect related to illness or mutation. You may gain this knowledge at will, by kissing the ring and describing what sort of new knowledge you would like. This process takes an hour. The ring has a five day cooldown if it gives you a spell, pair of cantrips, or temporary ritual and a seven day cooldown if it gives you a permanent ritual or feature. This ring is cursed and impossible to remove without powerful magic or cutting off your own finger. If you do ever get the ring off, it will leave you with 1d6+1 magical diseases as a parting 'gift'. Each of these parting diseases has a 25% chance of being the sort that is lethal if not properly treated.) You do your best to shake off the disturbing encounter by running errands. You pick up the memory stick, install it for Robert, drop the mind iron off with Robert, and then visit the hardware store in search of fuel. You get a liter and a half, and also some good advice, for your 500 bucks. The guy who helps you find the fuel you need mentions the name of Tyrone Griswald, a local retired foreman who loves to tinker with space ship bits. You are given Tyrone's number, and informed that he would likely be more than willing to help you restore and/or sell the engine.
Back at the workshop, you make some progress with the engine. You manage to get some of the lights on it to flash, and even figure out how to start the thing up, but you will need to find or make some sort of proper fuel tank before you can have any sort of sustained runtime.
Results = 17
+New OpportunityNathan:You spend the morning reading. The romantic poetry of Burns and Blake helps calm your troubled spirit, even if you do not fully understand it.
Next you make a visit to the fighting ring outside of the church. Today mundane fights are scheduled, and you manage to watch a few. The first is a standard MMA fight between two people who are both described as light heavyweights; You note however that one of the combatants, who appears to be an elf, has a clear weight advantage against his foe. The elf finishes the fight in the second round with a triangle choke. Next you watch a minotaur take on three large men; The humans put in a valiant effort, but are all quickly dispatched by the bull-persons horns. The next bout, in the flyweight division, easily goes to the man who can literally fly.
Feeling that you have seen enough, you find a nice secluded spot to practice and do some shadow sparring. You focus on your fists and boxing technique, and eventually come up with a combination of punches designed to exploit your defensive element in an offensive fashion.
Results = 12+ New Maneuver
Finding a good place nearby to sit, you begin attempting to meditate. Sadly this proves useless today. The mysteries of your two sets of memories are tough to unravel, and the confusion and effort it takes to do so is rather frustrating. Eventually you get too angry to think, and return to the castle to cool down with a nice shower.
Results = 1