Phew. Can't believe I actually managed to pull it off... guys, I am so, so sorry this took so long to get out. I really have no excuse; I was just procrastinating. Horribly. I'm trying to be better about this, though, so... well, maybe you guys could do me a favor? If I start to lag behind with updates again, poke/prod me, like Pencil_Art was doing before. Or send me a PM. Guilt is a powerful motivator. Anyways, enough of that, let's have some rolls!
(You guys got a
sickeningly good streak of luck this turn. There's no
way I'm letting this go unpunished again.)
Turn 3
To the roofs! Up the wall! It's like a forest without trees!
{} You smirk. Forget the street and the alleys; walls were
made to be bypassed! It doesn’t take you long to find one with dozens of potential handholds, and most of these buildings aren’t even that high to begin with. A leap (assisted by a large granite flowerpot) easily finds your hands firm purchase on a low-hanging windowsill, and you almost effortlessly transition from there to laundry poles, loose stones, and finally the lip of the roof. You smoothly pull yourself up to a standing position atop the structure, and are immediately hit with the marvelous, invigorating sensation of the cool breeze against your body. Your face splits into a grin; fog be damned, this is too good to resist!
{} Your eyes almost automatically set themselves on the next building over, and with a simple ten-pace head start you
leap and clear the seven-foot gap with split inches to spare! Exhilarated by your success, you soon set into a comfortable routine, even finding it easy to bring yourself back to the alleys and up to the next line of structures as if it’s your personal jungle gym. Now and then you catch the awestruck eye of a random townsperson; one woman in particular was leaning out a window to hang clothes just as you were clambering up the adjacent wall, and nearly dropped her basket in surprise. Unfazed, you offer a halfhearted "Sorry!" and finish conquering your climb in record time.
However, just as you are making a tricky jump to a slanted roof at an angle, a stab of something cold in your mind throws off your focus!
{} You manage to shake it off
just in time to salvage the maneuver, and gain a solid grip on the roof without slipping even once! Pulling yourself up feels like second nature at this point. Deciding enough is enough for now, you pull up against the chimney of the building for a rest. Whatever that was back there, it very nearly caused you to make a dangerous mistake in the middle of your jump. It’s gone for now, but… it felt like someone… didn’t like you. You shrug it off for later, however, opting to just stay and enjoy the pleasant burn of good exercise.
(Skill gained: Expert climber.)Head on back to the town. Try to remember what I was doing watching them in the first place.
{} Ok. You can do this. There’s nothing but solid ground all around you… just stand… Ok, good, now to get back to town. Just as you walk past a stripped-bare tree stump, however, you pause.
{} Your brief mental circus run must have keyed your mind up to ‘hyperaware’, because you see a glint of light out of the corner of your eye, right next to the stump! You bend down, and sure enough, there is a small steel knife sticking right out from under a few leaves! Someone must have been out here whittling on a stick at some point. Grinning, you quickly snatch it up, noting that the blade is an appreciable 4 inches long. There’s barely a spot of rust on it. Since it has no accompanying sheath, you simply slide it into your boot, where it fits quite snugly.
After you reach the cleared-out stretch of land between the logged-out field and the first buildings, you turn your thoughts back to those odd figures.
{} You know you were watching them before from the hill, maybe you were… AH! Now you remember; you’ve seen those five before! You’d watched them going into and coming out of a house you were passing by close to the river, and for lack of anything better to do, you’d staked the place out for a while. Sure enough, they’d exited almost a half hour after that, and milled about the edge of town at random before heading on back to the wilderness. You think you can even remember the exact house they went into, and that it’s somewhere close to the eastern edge of town.
(Memory gained!)Suddenly, you stop in your tracks, and the hairs on the back of your neck prickle like a porcupine. Your entire thought process seems to stop for a split second as you’re hit with the overwhelming uneasy sensation that you are, or were, being watched… even though a quick glance around your surroundings reveals nothing but the odd dichotomy of sunshine and fog. Except that said fog seems to slowly be getting closer…
Slowly back away, look at the woman more closely, and find something to defend myself with.
{} You back up a couple steps and stare, your attention flicking between her and the wall, but nothing new seems to come to mind despite your best efforts. In fact, your head actually begins to
hurt the more you stare, like a nagging ache in the back of your mind as though someone is slowly knocking on a door. You can’t even notice the strange bluish tinge you swear you saw earlier. Tearing your gaze away, you find that the headache still persists, only it seems to be spreading out and becoming a slightly warm buzzing feeling around your temples… You angrily shake your head, which seems to clear the sensation briefly. Still, it is quite annoying.
(-1 to all actions for the rest of this turn.){} You forget about the wall and the woman for now. Something is wrong here, and you decide it’s better to not be caught defenseless. Unfortunately, a quick search of the surrounding area reveals only waist-high bushes, a few trees along the side of the path, and a single thin signpost that reads “Adventurer’s Guild” and “Main Road” written on arrow-shaped boards pointing in opposite directions. A more involved search might turn up something useful, but you don’t like the idea of turning your back on that woman…
(If you remain here, you have the option of committing a turn to either searching for a weapon or to observing the woman for clues – not both. Either roll will have Failguard (1’s become 2’s).)Grab a nearby heavy object, such as the bench. Relieve my intense feelings of stress by ruining its day. Harness the feeling of rage. Not the red-faced, screaming kind of rage, either. The pale, cold-sweat, adrenaline-rush, primed-for-killing kind.
{} Your mouth twists into a baleful snarl. No cats, no fox people, no apparitions, no
nothing. The world must be
mocking you with these constant attacks on your sanity! You decide that enough is enough. Through sheer force of will, you settle your boiling river of anger into a calm, constant simmer, then reform it to a cold, precise stream. If anyone would be looking you in the eye right now, they would likely be knocked back by the
staggering amount of killing intent suffusing your veins. As it is, with no one in easy reach to vent your frustrations on, you whirl around and set your focus on the next best thing: the park bench. One vision, one purpose, echoes forth from your mind:
Destroy. (Skill gained: Cold focus.)BASH! WHAM! SMACK! You lay into the harmless bench with all four limbs in a hailstorm of fury and vengeance!
{} However, though your kicks and punches scuff the wood, dent the frame, and leave many unsightly marks on its surface, you seem to be causing very little damage. The thing must be built pretty sturdy… although your lack of a weapon or similar instrument of destruction probably has something to do with it, too. It feels like half a minute before you finally stop, still feeling the electric tingle of adrenaline in your limbs.
{} Just then, you hear it – quiet, yet distinct murmuring. You turn around, and see several townspeople giving you unamused stares, likely wondering if you’ve gone insane.
Gunther pulls out his Pickaxe and insults the Bartender's Manhood.
That little
prick! Time to teach him a lesson! You rocket up to a standing position in just a few seconds, growling deep and menacingly. The other bar patrons wisely step back, leaving a wide path in between you and the little gnome, who is still standing there glaring at you with his giant monocle. You chuckle; oh, you’ve got a surprise for him.
{} With a movement that feels as ingrained into your being as walking, you reach behind your back for your pickaxe, and brandish the hefty iron tool before your eyes!
(Memory/skill discovered: Weapon manifestation: Pickaxe.)
The atmosphere in the room changes almost instantly as soon as all those present notice your fearsome icon of dwarvenliness. You take a step forward, and smirk as you see the gnome gulp and retreat two steps. But then, the bartender’s booming voice cuts through your thoughts of revenge. He calls for both of you to stop immediately, and demands you to, quote: “put that thing away.”
{} You grin even wider, and snark right back with an insinuation that the bartender is cursed with the world’s
cruelest handicap.
His eyes immediately flare wide with barely-constrained rage. “WATERFALL!!” he roars. There is a palpable moment of silence before the response, which comes in the form of a 6-foot tall man built like a lighthouse and carrying a rather thick-looking oak staff. You can only assume this is the establishment’s bouncer, "Waterfall." You can barely focus on his face, but you can just
feel his cold glare on you as he slowly says: “Put it down, friend.”
You reluctantly shift your pickaxe to a waiting posture, but don’t break eye contact even once. The tension in the air is thick enough to cut with a knife.
Demand the Gnome he can examine my puzzle box if he stops fighting.
Getting Cogwheel to stop fighting turned out to be a lot easier than expected, as he seemed to lose interest soon after he laid the dwarf out on the floor. While the bouncer and the angry drunk dwarf—a force of nature in its own right—stare each other down, you quickly head up to the counter to speak to the only person so far you actually know by name. It doesn’t take much persuading to get him to follow you back to a booth far away from the possible scuffle.
{} He seems happy enough to turn his focus back to business, especially after successfully defending his pride, even though you still notice him fidgeting slightly. You place the puzzle box on the table between you, and like clockwork a smile breaks out on his face as he examines the piece, fiddling with the levers and latches.
{} It doesn’t take long for a frown to replace his happy expression, however. No matter how many ways he turns and manipulates the cube, he still can’t seem to find the proper order to engage the mechanisms… if there’s even an order to begin with. When you try to speak to him, the only response you get is silence—this is a man wholly engaged in his work.
(Cogwheel will continue attempting to find the right combination in every turn, unless interrupted.)----------
Time/Environment: It is a temperate, partly-cloudy afternoon. Davros has recently noticed that the fog appears to be slowly moving closer towards town, although it is still avoiding heavily populated areas.
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Character Status:Location: Standing on grassy sidewalk outside apartment building, in front of scuffed-up wooden bench.
Abilities: Cold focus.
Memories/Phobias: Fear of cats.
Items: Key (apartment room). Pouch of coins (full).
Health: Scratch (head, left ear, right ear).
Location: On the slanted roof of a house, above the alleyways of Harker's Ford.
Memories/Abilities: Rudimentary Illusion magic. Expert climber.
Location: Inside the Adventurer's Guild, sitting in a booth with the gnome, Cogwheel.
Items: Strange puzzle box (currently being handled by Cogwheel).
Location: Just outside of the northern edge of town.
Memories/Abilities: Awakened Acrobat. Memory of a place of interest (mysterious strangers).
Phobias/Penalties: Acrophobia (fear of heights).
Items: 4-inch steel boot knife.
Location: On the path leading to the Adventurer's Guild. Stopped in front of a stone wall with a strange woman making carvings of faces.
Memories: Memory of the Adventurer's Guild.
Items: Cloth shirt, trousers, and off-white tie-back apron stained with spots of ale.
Location: Standing inside the Adventurer's Guild common room.
Memories/Abilities: Weapon manifestation: Pickaxe.
Items: Iron pickaxe (Mfst).
Health: Drunk (pain tolerance).
NPCs:Location: Sitting in a booth in the Adventurer's Guild common room, fiddling with Averus' strange puzzle box.
Items: Comically large glass monocle.
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Locations:Harker’s Ford: A quaint but rapidly-growing medieval hamlet that lies astride a small river and the new land trade route connecting... actually, you can't remember the name of the nation. What you do know is that close to 600 people currently live here, and that number has steadily been growing as its prime location makes it a popular stop for travelers. The river lies on its east side, the road on the south, whilst the west and north are mostly covered by forest. Goldy and Yvette live here.
1) The Adventurer's Guild: A large boarding house/inn for travelers coming along the main road, located between it and the bulk of town. The front door leads into a common room where ale and food are served. Averus, Vil, Gunther, and Davros live here.
2) Market: A pair of major squares along the main street through town, lined with stalls and permanent shops alike. It is also one of the few places in town where the fog seems to be less prevalent.
The Wilderness: This is a region of old growth forest about a hundred meters off from the edge of town. You can’t even remember its name, if it ever had one to begin with. When viewed from the town’s edge, it looks as though the fog that’s been steadily creeping in around and through Harker’s Ford is particularly thick beneath the tree canopy.
The River: A fair-sized body of slowly running water which covers much of the town’s eastern edge. A large wooden bridge almost straight into town marks the quickest and most direct way over, but you could probably swim across without too much trouble. The river snakes north and disappears behind the wall of trees marking the Wilderness' edge.
The Road: All you can really remember of this particularly large cobblestone thoroughfare running along the south edge of Harker’s Ford is that it was designed as a trade route, though you have no idea where to or from. The road is fairly busy; you can typically see at least three traveling parties of some description heading along it every day, though lately, most of them seem to divert off the road and wind up in town.
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GM Notes: You guys are getting dangerously close to the lore a little quickly. You might want to develop your abilities before digging too deep, or I'm gonna have to start spawning nasties early... (Looking at you, Davros!)
Also, I should probably explain how combat works, specifically Attack and Damage. When you attack an enemy, you make an Attack roll to determine accuracy; the higher this roll, the better. If your attack lands, then the enemy makes a roll to determine how much damage it takes; the lower this roll, the more damage is taken. So having + bonuses to your damage rolls means that the enemy takes a penalty when they roll for damage; i.e, a +1 to damage from a weapon results in a -1 penalty on damage rolls for your target. Having + bonuses or - penalties to damage resistance affects a creature or object's rolls accordingly.
Author
Topic: The Veil of Memories [dead] (Read 16273 times)