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Author Topic: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)  (Read 50201 times)

escaped lurker

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #435 on: April 03, 2015, 04:47:12 pm »

Well, normally I'd be all for intrigue and dark arts and what-not... but thats kind of an abrupt change in character, y'know?

Until now we played Jehundik as a goody-two-shoes from the country, generous and caring to his friends, and suddenly he decides to go all-out ambition and schemery? I'm not saying that Viskesha does not sound fun, but rather, that choosing her is somewhat surprising.
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3man75

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #436 on: April 03, 2015, 04:50:46 pm »

Well, normally I'd be all for intrigue and dark arts and what-not... but thats kind of an abrupt change in character, y'know?

Until now we played Jehundik as a goody-two-shoes from the country, generous and caring to his friends, and suddenly he decides to go all-out ambition and schemery? I'm not saying that Viskesha does not sound fun, but rather, that choosing her is somewhat surprising.

We could play off that we care about our friends and new friends (our fellow apprentices) but that we want knowledge above all. An to get that knowledge we are going to be ambitious and proactive about it. Not very good but again we should talk to Viskesha about what loyalty to her means. Would she trow us away once she's done using us?

EDIT: I mean in the end of the day its the GM who makes the conversations mostly. We just do suggestions.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2015, 05:02:49 pm by 3man75 »
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Mlamlah

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #437 on: April 03, 2015, 05:13:47 pm »

I actually base personality on the suggestions and dialogue of you guys, and so far Jehundik doesn't have many traits listed on my notes. Mostly he prefers to avoid dangerous conflict and to talk things over when they get tense in addition to the original informed trait of having a passion for new knowledge.

Basicallly your charachter is pretty... neutral in outlook right now, so there isn't much that would be out of character just now. You don't neccecarilly have to commit to personality traits either, as that's the sort of thing to evolve naturally.

Next update will probably be the last before decisionmaking, but since there seems to be new embers of interest forming i'll have a meeting with Viskesha arranged in the next update. Feel free to think of specific things to ask her.
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3man75

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #438 on: April 03, 2015, 05:23:04 pm »

With Viskesha:

Before meeting her look into Deep Elves and Shadow towers a bit. At least know to what were getting into with her and her old affiliations.

"So what it's like to have lived in the Shadow Towers?"

"What are your goals and can a herbalist like myself find use in your research?" (If she dosent do research then ask her what she DOES do.)

"What are the chances of you promoting an apprentice right now?"

"What kind of magic do you know and do you teach them to your apprentices?"

Other than that anything else can be too pushy and force her to lie too much. Not that we should trust her especially with question #2.

EDIT: That's 2 for Vikesha and 3 for Suafelta btw. An that's not counting Lurker coming over to the Dark side.
« Last Edit: April 03, 2015, 06:37:37 pm by 3man75 »
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Mlamlah

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #439 on: April 04, 2015, 05:54:35 am »

Jehundik Vanyik
First Circle Apprentice of the Bronze Tower
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Your academic studies continue to go productively all around, and you find yourself already beginning to develop a knack for cross referencing, double checking and chasing literary citations. You find mention of more magical disciplines, including Kinetic or "force" magic, and null or "void" magic. The former is fairly straightforward, but the latter is referred to a little more cryptically, if you were to guess you would probably say it's some sort of cancellation magic. You learn that one common use for light is the creation of a gel-like substance called "Light-Stuff" that can be willed into existence as long as a mage concentrates in bright environments. For good measure you memorize a couple combat-worthy basic fire spells, though you will have to wait for an excuse to use them to determine just how accurately your memorization did the trick. One involves the flinging of flames at short distance, and another launches an arrow sized flame projectile, both are apparently easier when cast in warm places, even more so when an already burning fire is used as the focus for the creation of the flame.

Your time spent in the gardens and processing herbs is spent quite productively, and you can tell you are beginning to earn the respect of the servants who share the work with you. You're the equal of most, if not all of those who provide the tower with it's herbs and extracts, and your practiced hands help the servants reach closer to meeting the excessive demand of the tower mages.

While practicing your archery a bird flies through the training ground, and on a whim you shoot at it in mid flight. The arrow skewers the bird straight through the neck, and is taken away by a gawking servant, who congratulates you on your stunning shot. You imagine he will be gossiping about that for a while yet. You are however, injured while sparring with one of the local soldiers, as misplaced footwork and an illtimed swing of your opponents stave leaves with a twisted ankle and  limp. By the estimation of the servants who treat your injury you will be fine, though they give you a walking stick and tell you not to exert it heavily for at least a couple of weeks.

1d20-2(very little bartering experience+)= 16 1d20-1( little bartering experience+)= 18
You sell what's left of your tea herbs in Bytower during your various comings and goings within it, and the great demand allows you to charge exorbitantly for them, which still is no great fortune. After you do so, you take the time to attend to a few other niggling desired purchases, and so you ask around, doing some rather remarkably successful pre-emptive haggling. A local tailor offers you a simple Red Cotton Robe with a pair of deep pockets for a mere three silver pennies, the colour apparently isn't as vibrant as the mage he made it for wanted, so the tailor wants to be rid of it. You tell the tailor you need time to think on it, but he assures you his price will hold. Your search for armour is a little less encouraging, even the cheapest Gambeson costing nearly half of your current wealth. One leatherworker has recently begun making leather armor however, and he offers you a Breastplate made of stiff leather for four silver six copper. It certainly doesn't cover as much as a gamberson, but it seems hard and sturdy, apparently his work is in little demand however.

...

Through her apprentices, you arrange a meeting with Viskesha. Upon meeting her she strikes you as a particularly beautiful woman, though with the grey skin and hair you imagine charachteristic of her people. When you later reflect on it however, you find that you cannot summon to mind what the left half of her face looked like, something that seems a curious thing to forget. She tells you that if you became her apprentice you would of course receive training in the basics of fire and light magic, a thing she charachterizes as "child's play, in a place already so focused on those magics.", however she also adds that you would receive training in shadow magic, a discipline of illusion, subtlety and obfuscation, capable of turning minds astray and of taking solid form when untouched by bright light. She also adds that the duties she expects of her apprentices would be compensated with generous rewards. She adds that with the huge libraries in the tower and the thousands of books within each library texts are often lost and misplaced, and that her own apprentices often find these books, and since they already have them in hand, why not take advantage of the knowledge within those texts before returning them?

Before departing you ask her what use she might have of an herbalist in her service. She idly responds that rare plantlife is a commodity in high demand in the tower, and that being both skilled in their finding and use is a useful bargaining chip, as is having such a person in your service. When you mention the shadow towers she grows cold, mentioning that you presume too much for someone who isn't even yet in her service.

...

You've spent three weeks in the tower, and you are beginning to notice and grow almost accustomed to the oddities of life here at the Bronze. Neither natural light nor fire provides the greatest portion of brightness within the tower. Instead, in the hallways and most rooms in use lamps are hung up on the ceilings and on the walls. In these lamps sit suspended clear stones that themselves glow with an inner light. Some such lamps are greatly ornate and bright, and never to your knowledge go out, others have stones that grow dimmer as the hours pass, and are hung up or carried wherever there isn't constant need of light. The halls of stone are never damp or cold, and sometimes the walls even seem to give off their own warmth. From time to time you see inhuman servants and mages, deep elves, scaled dragon-kin and a short and gnarled folk that you are told are called "The Grem".

One morning as you prepare to head to the library to begin your morning studies Adabelle arrives with a scribe, asking you if you would like to officially request a specific master and servant. She adds that most specify servants by profession, such as scribe or bodygaurd, and many request apprentice craftsmen. However if you would like to request a specific servant by name that can also be arranged.

GM Note
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

« Last Edit: April 04, 2015, 05:56:49 am by Mlamlah »
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Andres

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #440 on: April 04, 2015, 06:50:22 am »

We don't really need to see the rolls but a list of what spells we know and how proficient we are at casting them would be nice.

Buy the leather breastplate.
Ask the tailor if he has cheaper clothes with equally-deep pockets coloured dark green or brown. Forest camouflage, of course.
Find a spell that'll fix our leg and work on it constantly until it's healed, then go back to studying. It's better to master the spell now than needing to do so in the field. Our poultices should handle cuts easily enough.
Buy some blank books, make some charcoal, and start writing cantrip books. Save one of the books for our own purposes. We were offered 24 silver pieces for Aednat's book. Making and selling them in the places we visit could make us heaps of cash.
Stop sparring and doing archery until we're healed, obviously.
While we're studying, see if we can find anything on summoning or familiars.

Viskesha seems pretty mean. How about we -don't- apprentice under her? Saufelta seems nicer, has knowledge of alchemy, and will probably send us on field assignments.
As for a servant or bodyguard, a bodyguard would be nice. A tank would be best since their intimidation values would prove valuable, plus a strong pair of hands is always useful to have around.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2015, 08:13:10 am by Andres »
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Mlamlah

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #441 on: April 04, 2015, 06:54:45 am »

We don't really need to see the rolls but a list of what spells we know and how proficient we are at casting them would be nice.

Was actually planning on doing a character sheet overhaul right away, to account for future and current changes.
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Andres

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #442 on: April 04, 2015, 07:00:30 am »

We're 'fit'. If we do a lot of exercise, would we become more than 'fit'? Would it mean we could traverse the countryside more quickly than we used to?
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3man75

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #443 on: April 04, 2015, 07:09:42 am »

Fire magic and light do seem like the "easier" stuff to learn and it's what suafelta knows and will most likely teach us. Basics. Viskesha however, can teach is that and really co illusionary magic with shadows as well as warping people's mind.

I'm going with Viskrsha.. She may be mean but she'll reward us much more than the others. Plus, her rise to the top will happen quickly once we start helping her. An if she rises so will we of we prove better than the other 2 apprentices. Which is another thing little competition to beat while supplies as sua`s can't be beaten. There all equal.

Viskelsha is about strong advancement. Which I like and the mystery will be fun too :)
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escaped lurker

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #444 on: April 04, 2015, 07:14:48 am »

For our Servant, I would think that we could make good use of an apprentice herbalist. While he also might learn something from us, in the long run we won't keep up making these basic mixtures that we send upwards right now, but be on their recieving end.

We could also use some schooling in diplomacy, which is sure to become more important the further we try to head up the tower, and a plethora of other situations.

A bodyguard would only be needed if we venture outside, most likely under Suafelta. If I remember the wording right, it implied that we would tag alongside her for these errands. Else, if we plan to venture outside on our own, we might actually need a bodyguard.
Still, this should be a service easily attainable in by-tower, especially for us as we already spar with the guys anyhow.

And that's not counting Lurker coming over to the Dark side.

I shall be stalwart then ;o
No, since we already are making headway into alchemy, learning the same further under Suafelta, coupled with bits of life-magic, should do us well to capitalize even further on that. Edit: Which means my vote goes to Suafelta

We should use the morning hours to practice magic in one of the rooms which are built just for that purpose.
At least until we have learned some offensive fire magic. The bow for longer range, The spear for melee. Some fire-balls for mid-range-mayhem. ;3

Take the Red Robe
If we go outside, it won't be in an effing robe, far too hard to move in. Nothing finer than woodsman-clothes while traversing the same.

Absolutely against trying to make a quick buck with spreading magic
Not only can we do better with our time if we invest it into herbalism, this could also get us into trouble. Once under a master, we shouldn't be hurting for cash.

As for fixing our leg, that is an idea we might want to keep for later, once we know the basics of life-magic. Then? All for it.
« Last Edit: April 04, 2015, 07:20:50 am by escaped lurker »
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3man75

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #445 on: April 04, 2015, 07:19:37 am »

So lurker is that suafelta or viskesha? Just to be sure.
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Generally me

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #446 on: April 04, 2015, 07:51:52 am »

My vote is Saufelta
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tryrar

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #447 on: April 04, 2015, 08:10:12 am »

My vote is Saufelta
+1

for servant either bodyguard or scribe who has skill in diplomacy and can help us with that
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Andres

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #448 on: April 04, 2015, 08:22:39 am »

Fire magic and light do seem like the "easier" stuff to learn and it's what suafelta knows and will most likely teach us. Basics. Viskesha however, can teach is that and really co illusionary magic with shadows as well as warping people's mind.
Do you really think the only things we'll learn from Saufelta is fire and light? Her work entirely revolves around plant magic and alchemy. So no, not "basics". Plus she'll actually send us out into the field which is a lot more fun than indulging in skulduggery.
She adds that she is currently studying Alchemy and plant based Biomancy, an advanced discipline involving the manipulation of living matter. As such she's interested in you as an apprentice partially due to your current skill set, as she does not currently have anyone she can trust to seek out the intriguing magical plant-life of the nearby swamps.

Viskelsha is about strong advancement.
Strong political advancement. It's plainly obvious she's using magic as a means more than an end. If we want to actually improve ourselves as a mage picking another master would be better.

We could also use some schooling in diplomacy, which is sure to become more important the further we try to head up the tower, and a plethora of other situations.
We can learn some diplomacy in our travels. We don't really need anyone to school us.

We should use the morning hours to practice magic in one of the rooms which are built just for that purpose.
At least until we have learned some offensive fire magic.
-1. Less because I disagree with the idea in and of itself and more because we already know enough of that magic that it's not worth spending time practising it. Our offensive fire magic is good enough that we could shoot a bird out of the sky on a whim. Our time would be better spent finding out what other types of magic exist. Healing magic? Blood magic? Necromancy? Summoning? All useful things we can find out about. (Well, blood magic and necromancy might not be available to First Circles but still.)

Take the Red Robe
If we go outside, it won't be in an effing robe, far too hard to move in. Nothing finer than woodsman-clothes while traversing the same.
-1 to buying anything from the tailor, including my suggestion. We don't need to buy any clothes. For the field we have our woodsman clothes (as you said) and for indoors stuff we have the robe supplied by the tower. If the tower has not supplied us with a robe, we could just ask the tower or our master for one. For free.

Absolutely against trying to make a quick buck with spreading magic
Not only can we do better with our time if we invest it into herbalism, this could also get us into trouble. Once under a master, we shouldn't be hurting for cash.
It'll take us, what, half an hour, an hour to copy the words from one 20-page book to another? At most? Besides, how would this get us into trouble? It's not like the tower has a legal monopoly on magic or anything, and if they're evil enough that their policy is to keep magic out of the hands of peasants then it ought to be our job as the good guy to put it into their hands. Hurting for cash is one thing but being absolutely stinking rich is another. If we can mass-produce our own cantrip book and sell it for cheap to the masses we'd make a crap-ton of money. Come to think of it, that's probably why the bard wanted our book.

As for fixing our leg, that is an idea we might want to keep for later, once we know the basics of life-magic. Then? All for it.
I'm saying we should learn the spell now while we have a twisted ankle to practice on. It'll be more difficult to learn the spell without a target and we can't just go around twisting people's ankles out, right?

for servant either bodyguard or scribe who has skill in diplomacy and can help us with that
I was going to comment on how a scribe probably wouldn't be good at diplomacy but then I thought that maybe scribes could help us out when it comes to research? Maybe while we're in the tower we can enlist a scribe's help and when we're in the field we can get a bodyguard?
« Last Edit: April 04, 2015, 08:25:04 am by Andres »
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tryrar

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Re: Seeker of Spellcraft (SG)
« Reply #449 on: April 04, 2015, 08:39:50 am »

we shot that bird out of the sky with an arrow, not fire magic(we haven't actually cast a fire spell yet). Also, NO TO SELLING MAGIC. WE ARE GOING FOR ALCHEMY. WHAT ABOUT THIS DO YOU NOT GET?
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This fort really does sit on the event horizon of madness and catastrophe
No. I suppose there are similarities, but I'm fairly certain angry birds doesn't let me charge into a battalion of knights with a car made of circular saws.
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