Roll 36
"...Good beastie. Very good." Zikal quickly thought of a name he should give the beast. Bovril. 'He' looks like a Bovril.
Motion 'Bovril' to safely return to the group and attempt to get on his back.
Bovril approaches the group.
[4][1] You become the first to step up onto Bovril. However, without a saddle or any handhold other than the creature's thick, fluffy fur and the many eyes that dot its body, you are forced to grab on to its side and use a lower eye as a foothold.
The creature promptly rolls mid-air and flings you down onto the ground. Off of the quicksand, of course.
...
Your whole body is burned (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
While the bonetacles are distracted, get to safety
[5][4] Unlike Zikal, you yourself have much greater success mounting the creature. It seems to struggle under your weight. Zikal may have been wrong about its strength. Either way, the creature should be able to ferry your party across the quicksand, if not one-by-one.
On the other side is a swamp free of bonetacles. Instead, the mud bubbles gently with non-sentient phenomena and the sprites glitter overhead. Said sprites are also seemingly afraid of Bovril. They part as the creature approaches.
The ground there is slippery and muddy, but too thick for there to be bonetacles. It opens up into a clearing where a crystal-clear lake is visible, along with a long sandy beach made of black sand.
...
Your whole body is burned (1)
Your left arm is bruised (1)
...
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
Leonhard insists on the matter, offering the crystal to Marco. "Wanna investigate what it was used for? Might be useful information." he says, before turning to Angstrom. "There's an audience with the Kaiserin I was invited to. Should probably be there just to check out exactly what it's about, I wasn't given too much in the way of detail."
As you hand the crystal to Marco, it warms up in your hand to the point where it becomes too hot to hold.
Marco: I'm trying to tell you something.You then realize it wasn't Marco that said it at all. It was much higher-pitched, a woman's voice. You didn't actually hear what Marco said. Angstrom also seems to be talking, but no voice issues forth.
Strange Voice: You must find a woman with a scarlet robe at the palace. She wants her own audience with the Kaiserin. If you help her, she will take you to the Lake of Dreams. We can discuss things there.
...
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, enjoying the feeling of the wind flying past him at tremendous speeds, nevertheless turns his mind back to the task at hand.
He decides to try and land on the roof.
[3]
[1]/
[6] You land on the roof, scraping your wings, but you don't need them anyway. The damage won't carry over when you transform back (a free action).
Down the hole in the ceiling you see many levels filled with books and shelves. It seems that there was some sort of force dragging them into the hole, as there are quite a lot of multicolored books just scattered around the edge, along with toppled bookshelves. In fact, it seems to have been a quite recent event, for the books still retain their bright covers.
The chasm continues until the hole becomes a dark pinpoint. The bookcases extend as far as you can see down.
To your sides, you notice the castle is barren. Looters must have climbed up here and stripped it clean of all the usual stuff you'd find on top of a castle, such as weapons and tools.
...
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
"You want a bold, daring idea for how to convince the ruler of a land to listen to a foreign traveler without contacts or credentials before the day is out?"
"There are old predators.
and there are bold predators.
but there are no old, bold, predators."
"Don't be silly! You need to think long-term. If you have nobody to vouch for you, then even if you manage to spea, your word will have little weight. Step one is make friends in high places!"
"Or enemies that don't understand you. those can be used too. Make them attack what they think you support, and enjoy watching them do your bidding unknowingly. It's always good fun."
Efa: Hmm... high places...She thinks to herself for a bit.
Efa: Say... could you happen to get me to a high place? I am aware of the ashstorm, just get me to a safe shadow on top of the palace. The robe I wear was designed for the outside world.She puts up a hood that was hidden inside the robe, a feature designed to sacrifice neither form nor function. She then checks the book inside her pocket.
Efa: I happen to have a very good means of making friends. I an skeptical of its utility in the midst of armed guards, but surely it will work on a member of a noble family. There's got to be one lounging in the upper quarters. If all fails, we can make our escape with ease--the guards cannot chase us into the scorching heat....
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 90967 times)