Roll 38
"Well, an ominous black castle on a coast of a serene lake, in a swamp, with pristine green plants around. Definitely an important place."
Head to the entrance of the castle and knock on the door/drawbridge/entrance.
As you approach the castle gate after a short walk across the black sand beach, Lily tugs on your shoulder from behind.
"Look this way!"You turn around. She ran up to you, her evanescent wings spread far and wide in the air of the lake. They appear almost transparent, a soft green, slightly reflective in the ashlight.
(5+1)(6+1)She holds two potions in leather flasks. One of them she unplugs and swings your way, spilling the potion all over you. The burns on your skin fade away, and start to glow a healthy green afterward.
"There were materials I needed in the reeds. Now I got them, so I hope you don't mind me helping out."(4+1)(2+1) She treats Wilhelm next, then backs off.
"This is where I belong. I protected you from the sprites. But I have no place in my Lady's castle. See you soon!"The castle gate does not immediately respond to your knocking. After some time, however, a great eye like the one you saw before appears on the door, followed by many smaller eyes. It looks somewhat disquieting.
The door of many eyes opens, as does the door to the keep, revealing a dark hallway lined with shining glimmers on either side.
((See next post))
...
Your whole body is protected by some sort of green glow, visible in the dark (-1)
...
You have 3 black empty tomes (black tomes must be written in red ink, and gain +2 positive dice if inscribed with an illusionary spell)
Silent Wind of Night: Dispells all nearby items and detatched effects, regardless of origin. Shapeshifts, summons, and polymorphs are unaffected.
Phantom Lake Essence: Dark tendrils emerge from the book, ensnaring enemies that fail to dodge.
Unending Phantasmagoria: Dissolves a dead body to create a reanimated ghost in place of this tome. The ghost can use Shadow Blink and drops a black spell tome upon death.
You have a stack of spell tome pages and a black cover
You have a bloodied ceremonial dagger (Attack power: 3) (attaches to target and Drains it, suppressing it) (remembering a memory teleports this weapon to your hand)
You have a Beech Javelin (Attack power: 3 (thrown), 1 (stab))
You have 10 Javelin memories (lucid)
You have about thirty Hours
You have a royal goblet, a golden watch, and some jewelry
You remember the Lady of Winter
You remember a giant eye
You remember many pixies
You remember a band of Arinthian soldiers and some bandits
You remember a bandit sinking into the ground
Traits and Skills:
Forest Ranger
>Gain +2 positive dice when navigating and moving through the wilderness, as well as performing stealthy actions
Javelineer
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a javelin
Noble's Education
>Gain +1 positive dice when learning from writing or conversing about literature
Shapeshifter
>You have unlimited strong memories of forest animals
Cynical
>Others will press any advantage...
Xenophobe
>Foreigners always disappoint
The castle, should you choose to enter, begins with a hall of mirrors, lit by torches that light as soon as you enter. The mirrors to either side reflect each other, giving the appearance of two endless tunnels, with infinitely many copies of yourself eventually fading into the distance.
The mirrors are continuous, and line the halls as one large strip from toe to ceiling. The torches are evenly spaced, about three meters from each other, and continue on only a short distance, becoming lit only when you step forward into range.
You hear a faint scratching noise if you walk, but nothing seems to react to your presence immediately.
...
You have a schematic of an iron arrow trap
You have a steel axe (Attack power: 1) (Deals piercing damage if the attack connects but fails to pierce)
You have an iron mace (Attack power: 2) (If the target has less than 2 damage, deals piercing damage)
You have a charged large greatbow (Attack power: 3 (charged), 1 (uncharged)) (charging takes one turn of preparation)
You have an uncharged Quickbow (Attack power: 1. Can fire twice per turn. Charging it allows you to fire two arrows per attack, four in one turn)
You have 11 arrows in your quiver (Attack power: 1)
There is one recoverable arrow near the Old Fortress Mound
You have an important scroll in a copper cylinder
You have about one hundred Hours
Traits and Skills:
Man of Steel
>Gain +1 positive dice when using melee weapons, as well as lifting and wrestling actions
>Your opponents get +1 negative dice when attacking you
Fists like Hammers
>Gain an additional +1 positive dice while unarmed
Bow Mastery
>Your targets get +2 negative dice when you target them with a bow
Illiterate
>What's a book?
Amnesia
>You have forgotten many things
"It just gave me a creepy prediction of the future. Well, I was invited to the palace so it's as good a time as any. Follow me if you want then." Leonhard shrugs.
To the palace as appropriate.
You slip out of your cloak, noticing it wet with a slimy translucent substance similar to the cloak material itself, but liquefied. Twisting into a knot and applying torque causes droplets of the stuff to drip down. The cloak is noticeably lighter and more flexible after the maneuver. It was also getting quite soggy beforehand, so much that it would have stained your clothes had you not done it.
[5][1] However, making the trip to the castle, you feel an itch on your neck which you realize you can only investigate once you go indoors. A guard at the inner gates, wearing cloaks of dark, purplish material with a veil-like covering over the face, hold up his hand to stop you. After a short while, however, he holds up his thumb and allows you to pass.
Upon entering the castle you realize that you've got a minor sunburn on your neck. It looks like the cloak is losing its effectiveness. Angstrom got a similar burn on his forehead as well.
The palace doors open from outside to a set of inner doors, protected by two guards in royal dress underneath a similar dark purple cloak as the one at the gate. They open the inner doors in unison as the outer ones swing shut, and release you into the middle of what seems to be...
...a giant party.
Uneven golden lamplight brings out the brightest in crimson hues on the wallpaper, which shows fantastical designs of unicorns and narwhals from the north, leaping from the waves and spearing silhouettes running across a field. A single grand chandelier hangs from the top of the rotunda above, piercing three floors through a large circular gap in the checkered marble, cordoned off by guardrails. It holds many candles, each hand-lit, or so the children are taught.
There are nobles from across the realm present, some talking, some dancing under spotlights roaming across the floor--blazing gaslamps focused by mirrors and turned by children in tuxedos from the upper floor.
There are also scores of extravagant dishes on two long tables to each side. There are no chairs at the table, but there are standing tables all over near the walls, with white surfaces and black stools in pairs.
To your side is a familiar face. The duchess from the street reclines against a wall, her eyes dour and almost gloomy. You become the subject of her gaze only briefly, for she gets up and starts heading toward the great stairs up ahead, wide as three horses toe-to-toe.
You hear music from beyond the great stairs, though muffled by a wall.
Angstrom says something. Marco nods.
Angstrom: Over there. It's Hippie!They step over to meet a fellow astronomer, gorging himself on poultry at a table. The man is a rotund fellow, with stout arms and a great belly somehow held in check by his uniform. Before him, at the table, is a chart of constellations written in ink blue as the azure dawn.
...
Your head is sunburned (1)
...
You have a black Cloak of Ash (protects against Ashlight and fire)
You have a Zweihänder slung on your shoulder (Attack power: 4) (can only be used offensively every other turn)
You have a Katzbalger (Attack power: 2)
You have an arquebus (Attack power: 3) (Your opponent gets an extra positive die to dodge)
You are wearing light plate armor (incoming attacks lose 1 attack power if over 1)
You have about one hundred and fifty Hours
Traits and Skills:
Charisma
>Gain +1 positive dice when speaking with others and persuading them
Veteran
>Gain +1 positive dice to defense rolls, and your enemies gain +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Swordmaster
>Gain +1 positive dice to attack rolls with long, bladed weapons
Sharpshooter
>Your targets get +1 negative dice to their defense rolls
Noisy
>You get +1 negatice die to stealth, and an additional +1 negative die if you are wearing armor
Old Pains
>In cold weather, without thick clothing, you get +1 negative dice to all actions
Archae puzzles over these words, and is quite confused about them. While he does this, he tries to float down the hole, from floor to floor, and attempts to find whatever punched through the floors.
((Eeps. I don't think I meant to continue that sentence.))
You leap off, dashing across the gap one floor at a time. The wings serve you well, although you do get this strange urge to preen yourself after a few rounds. In fact, it is surprising how satisfying it is to run your teeth down your feathers and straighten them out.
The hole has the same diameter all the way through--hardly characteristic of a cave-in. No, it had to be an object rigid enough to punch through and keep its momentum. It keeps going down... and down... and down... forty floors! At this point the books on the walls seem to contain nothing but word salad. But you're not done yet. It is only until you travel one hundred floors below ground level that you reach a semblance of a floor. Down here the books are just gibberish, interspersed by unreadable glyphs made with marks far too fine to replicate by human hand.
At the bottom of the you find a slate monolith standing two men in height and as wide as the hole, embedded in the cobble floor of the unusually tall basement. Here there are no lights, and the light from above is dim even with Ash raging above. It seems only prudent to remove the cloak.
There seems to be a fog in the air, along with a pungent odor that smells of something burnt... like burnt metal more than anything else.
Darkness surrounds you, although all around you there are dimly glittering streamers made of some flexible material. When your wings brush against it, you see a transient flash reflected behind you, soon fading back to darkness. There are thousands of these streamers, forming a dense forest that is difficult to walk through.
And yet despite the silence, you see a faint figure dressed in white, scarecely visible from the fog. It's a creature... no, a woman, with a great trail of snow-white hair behind her, treading lightly parting the streamers with a single arm wrapped in loose white fabric. She looks like a ghost, her features hidden by fog. And yet an uneasy feeling comes upon you, as if you are being watched.
...
You have a pair of wings and a lightened body (+1 Negative Dice to melee combat)
You have a black Cloak of Ash (protects against Ashlight and fire)
You have a green poison slime with Paralysis
You remember a red, blue, and a green spell-slime (weak)
You have a red resonance crystal.
You have a spiny walking stick (Attack power: (attacking head) 2, (attacking other parts) 1)
You have a silversteel falchion (Attack power: (on odd swings) 3, (on even swings) 2)
You remember your time in the wilderness well
You have some sandwiches and citrus
You have a Sprite Trap, labelled with the words "Samantha Magdelene, professor at U.T"
You have seventy-five Hours
Traits and Skills:
Mystical Learning
>Your Aganis spells are reduced in complexity by 1. Spell complexity determines the number of turns it takes to prepare a spell. You can cast early, but each turn you skip incurs a negative die. Complexity rules:
+1 if range is longer than 1-2 yards
+1 if multi-target
+1 if effect lasts more than a single turn, or if a creature is created
+1 if created creature is more complex than a slime
Animal Handler
>Gain +2 positive dice whenever animals are involved, unless you are hunting them
Wilderness Survival
>Gain +2 positive dice for actions involving gathering natural resources, starting fires, tracking, and other survival skills
Photographic Memory
>Weak memories become strong if you successfully cast them the first time
Cannot Speak
>Silence is golden
One-Eyed
>Your targets gain +2 positive dice if you attack them from a distance
((this is interesting, I wonder what Efa's next move is...))
I wait.
The princess lets Efa sit down on a bench. The doctor glances over, sees no blood, and returns to his work, picking out corked vials and beakers from a drawer.
Meanwhile, an orange-faced boy with long, golden curls of hair walks past in the direction of the stage, twirling a sword around hit. He appears to yawn, but you realize that he's not yawning because he is tired; his head is tilted far up, as if he is loosening his neck muscles. The sword is for swallowing.
Somehow, that makes the purpose of the infirmary much more apparent.
Princess: "Tell me, what happened to you?"Efa: It's... it's a burn from the suns. I was looking up at the sky as it came, and the sudden flash of light left my head scalded. But this is my job! I have to put food on the table, I couldn't just abandon my role at the last moment, they'll have my lowborn neck.
But the pain! Ah, it was so much, I couldn't handle it. I had to run upstairs and cover my head. Even my eyes hurt. You have no idea how bad it was! Now my hair is falling out and I can't even shut my eyes under these bandages. It's so horrible!Princess: I'm so sorry! Up here in the mountains... well... the air is thinner, or so say the Astrologers. The First Cry is all it takes to get a nasty burn like that. That's why we wear hats outside...
So I presume you are a foreigner? Sorry to inquire during your pain, but I am curious to know.Efa: I come from over the great desert, a showmaiden in an Elvish court--they tend to pay better. But one day a member of the royal family saw my performance, and he offered me a a ride up the river. That's how I got here.Princess: The sorrows you must face, even though none of this was your fault! Don;t worry, I'll make sure She puts on a pleasant smile and wipes a tear off her brow before twirling and making her way back. But instead of turning right to return backstage, she turns left, leading outside the theater area.
Behind you are the dressing rooms and costume racks, currently unwatched. The infirmary is occupied solely by the doctor and his barely-conscious patient. All the way up ahead is a galley with open doors. A man over the counter twirls a lump of dough over his head, stretching it into a flat disc. In front of him are three strongmen still in costume. Their demands seem to be giving the chef quite a lot of stress.
...
Efa's cap is destroyed (no longer absorbs damage)
Traits and Skills:
Secret Powers
>DoOOoobillidabidydappidydap dipigillidydapda!
Current Stat Modifiers:
+2/(max 2) positive dice to attack rolls
+0/(max 0) negative dice to enemy attack rolls
+1/(max 1) positive dice to defense rolls
+0/(max 0) negative dice to enemy defense rolls
It is the 5th hour after noon. Ash is blazing even brighter in the azure sky, burning all exposed objects and adding +1 to all die in a thoughtform roll.
Expected end of Ashstorm: 7th hour. (Next hour: Turn 42)
Author
Topic: Pastblasters - Adventures in Wizardry (Turn 55) (Read 89214 times)