Initiative:
The Manipulator
[6]Avery
[4]Salsacookies
[4]Sinvara
[3]Derm
[3]Greeny McEmerald
[2]Why was Nuclear Explosions even on the list? It's a shame I got Rocks instead of Rock, because then I could play The Final Countdown or something and win the game by destroying it.
Look upwards, towards the spectators.
"You honestly think you can cage ME? Come, fellow mages; your freedom awaits."
To the spark:
"May you please turn me into an earth elemental? I think that it is time for us to leave."
As
The Manipulator grabs his aspect he notices a very annoying sound. It's the sound of the cheering, excitement, laughter, Joy............
These horrible things, they must be eliminated!
The Manipulator whispers something to his aspect.
Pronunciation roll:
[6]Aspect d20 roll:
[10]Then he looks up and shouts at the crowd
Crowd intimidation roll:
[5+1 body horror bonus]"You honestly think you can cage ME?" Suddenly, as if on cue his skin slowly begins to darken and take on a more sandy texture.
"I am a being more powerful than you can comprehend, so let me warn you, this arena will not hold me."
"The arena isn't infallible. You know it, I know it, but after this, you will know one more thing. When I escape-" As he says this, his hair begins to fall out.
"I promise that I will bring you people such pain and suffering, that you would rather crawl back into your worst nightmares than face my wrath!"There is a pause, and the crowd is silent
"I see that the memory of the last escape is still fresh in your mind... Do not forget it." and with these final words, the transformation into a pseudo earth elemental is completed. Completely bald and made of sandstone
The Manipulator now looks like a human sized golem.
"Come, fellow mages; your freedom awaits."Sadly though, it doesn't seem like any of your fellow mages are coming. Perhaps a more proactive approach is required?
After such a rousing speech, your aspect makes a comment.
Understanding roll
[4]You can't make the message out fully but this is what you understand.
Their eyes are filled with scary? They do not trust us, when we break out we will make a new world."It's a bit disappointing being forced to interpret his sentences more... primitively, but you'll have to make do with it for now.
Avery glanced around, taking in what he thought everyone else had, and promptly asked his essence "My good friend, could you kindly throw an extremely heavy paper weight at that man over there that reminds me of cookies?"
Perhaps the essences did this themselves? Normal text is my OOC chat.
As you look around, you see a man spouting gibberish at the guy who just made that, frankly terrifying speech. He reminds you of cookies for some reason. Anyway, he's distracted making him an easy target.
Pronunciation roll
[6]"My good friend, could you kindly throw an extremely heavy paper weight at that man over there that reminds me of cookies?" Understanding roll
[5]"You mean throw it at that bald man that looks brown and grainy?"Pronunciation roll
[5]"No, I mean at the crazy man who's shouting gibberish at the bald, brown, and grainy guy."Understanding roll
[6]"Oh... How the void does he remind you of cookies?"Aspect d20 roll
[13]Salsacookies dodge roll
[5]A large paperweight materializes and is launched in an arc. It fly's over the weapon podium, heading straight towards the crazy man. Unfortunately, he turns around and quickly sidesteps towards the left, the paperweight crashing against the wall behind him. His gaze is now fixed upon you.
"Poke The Manipulator in the side with a needle, please"
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... Huh, who's making that racket?
Oh, it's another mage talking about escape. He must still be dreaming. Maybe I should pinch him to wake it up. You can do that right,
Cookies McSalsa thinks as he loving stares at his sphere.
Pronunciation roll
[2]"WIWAC BEGO WEVUC IRO BEPARIE PIHA ERABIESA IHEL RA IMENAMIF! PIYOL AFUSU RAH TEG ALOTEW XAY ETUFANO SEPENIED? HOPO TALASAM URAPO TILUCIEN NIETA GEHANO PE CENIHA UNUGONAT: TINENAB RIY FUT RERO QIM RALUCO ITIGELER! OBE VASIEY PUCED DAPI CIDAR XADIE LADECIL IDENACOS SERAD SENIYA. HINUM MORANE RIEPATU ELITE. IMAPINIEC LASEC MET TESA FERAJ! POROMID NAF NERELE RIDES."Understanding roll
[3]What?Seeing no results, you turn around only to lay eyes on a giant paperweight flying towards you.
Dodge roll
[5]You quickly side step out of the way and face your attacker.
"Come, friend, let us bask in the glory of defeating our enemies. Could you slow down time around everyone in this room besides us?"
You observe your surroundings. One guy is giving a speech, the other is shouting giberish, no wait someone just threw a paperweight at him, oh look someone just materialized a grail out of thin air... Gahhhh!! It's all going to fast, I need to slow things down....
Pronunciation
[3] "Come fiend, let us bath in the gore of our decapitated enemies. Everyone in this room beside us has slow time."You hope you pronounced it right. Let's see what the aspect says.
Understanding
[3]"Mamm, you a creeper. They are idiots. As the aspect of time *blah blah* certify *blah blah giberish* same as you."You don't think that was an accurate translation. Anyway, time hasn't slowed down yet so you probably didn't get your point across either.
"Oh holy spirit blah blah blah bless me with a cup containing sulfuric acid." Go for the sword and hurl liquid at anyone who gets near me.
While all of that other stuff was happening in the background, Derm was preparing to arm himself for the battle ahead.
Pronounciation
[6]"Oh holy spirit, grant my humble request. Bless me with a cup containing superacid."Suddenly, you hear the glorious tenor of your
master aspect. When you finally begin to piece the words together though...
Understanding
[1]"Wasteful Servant, who's loyalty is my end. I shall dump you in a pit of superacid!"That can't be it, can it?
aspect d20 roll
[9]Suddenly a golden cup filled with sulfuric acid appears in your hands. As for why the cup isn't eroding, it's because gold is specifically immune to sulfuric acid.
Your aspect speaks again
Understanding
[6]"Wasn't my best work unfortunately. I tried to fill it with superacid but I only managed to make a pint of regular sulfuric acid"Satisfied with your loot. You run towards the sword and try to pick it up.
Agility roll
[2]As soon as you take your first step on the platform where the sword is nestled, it suddenly dips. It feels like standing on a seesaw to be honest. You almost trip at the unexpected surprise although you manage to save yourself just in time. You are still on the unstable slowly tipping platform though, you should do something about that. The dip makes the sword slide in your direction.
"Psst. Do you wanna get out of here with me? Perhaps make an alliance?"
"Sure, yes. Go throw shards of obsidian at people. I'm gonna go hurl glasses of liquid at people like an offended middle aged woman at a fancy party."
"Now, why would I do something like that? No, I'm going to free us all. The real enemy is our captors, and I'm not going to perpetuate the assumption that they are not. Unless, of course, someone tries to harm me, or a friend of mine, such as you."
The mage that gave the rousing speech begins to approach you. The only thing stopping you from immediately dumping sulfuric acid on his face is the fear of losing your footing if you do so.
Surprisingly, rather than kill you, he talks.
"Psst. Do you wanna get out of here with me? Perhaps make an alliance?"After considering his offer you decide sure, why not, what's the harm.
"Sure, yes. Go throw shards of obsidian at people. I'm gonna go hurl glasses of liquid at people like an offended middle aged woman at a fancy party.""Now, why would I do something like that? No, I'm going to free us all. The real enemy is our captors, and I'm not going to perpetuate the assumption that they are not. Unless, of course, someone tries to harm me, or a friend of mine, such as you."As you ponder this, you see a mage summon a minotaur, pull the lever and run upstairs. You suddenly feel warmer.
((Cow, huh? Wait, I got this.))
"Oh great aspect of the Mighty bovine, please grant me the form of a Minotaur so that I may better smite my foes."
Go pull that lever behind me, then get up the nearest stairs.
You were the last one to wake up. You missed the speech and the paperweight throwing but you're here now. After thinking about arenas and strategy, you think about the tactics of champions. Unfortunately the tactics used by most champions are too complicated for you in your opinion... except for one. The Minotaur. Based on what you've read, the minotaur was champion of the labyrinth for 3 years by using the tactic of simply being a minotaur. You bet that if you used that tactic, you would totally win.
pronunciation
[4]"Ok aspect of the cow, please give me a minotaur so I may better hit my hated people."aspect d20 roll
[12]You hear some giberish before a humanoid adult bull standing on it's hind legs appears before you. It's thick fur completely covers up any biceps or six-packs it may be hiding. It also still has hoofs for hands. It's actually kind of cute.
Suddenly, you aspect begins to lecture.
Understanding
[3]"Blah, blah, blah, Command, blah blah blah command blah blah."You're trying, you really are but you just can't figure out what he's saying, it's a he right? You also feel like you just missed the owner's manual.
Understanding
[2]You don't understand this gibberish either.
Understanding
[5]"You could also try to command it verbally and wirelessly although that is harder."
Finally something that you understand.
Anyway, now to pull that lever. You pull it, but nothing seems to happen... yet.
You then run upstairs but your minotaur isn't following you for some reason. It's just standing there, looking around.
Upstairs you find a machine with a sign next to it.
Aspect combiner
Are you a hoarder who's killed too many mages? Do you struggle as the weight of all of your defeated foes' aspects weigh you down? Do you hate how some aspects seem to be absolutely useless but you feel obliged to carry them anyway because it's the only way to win the tournament and earn your freedom. Well don't fret, the aspect combiner is here. What this revolutionary piece of technology does is that it allows you to put two aspects into the input slots, and then combine them! Simple, right?
The Aspects will fuse into a new aspect that is related to it's original "parents". A combined aspect will not be A aspect + B aspect, it will instead be a C aspect. An example is fusing the aspect of fire, and the aspect of ice. This will create an aspect of water, not "An Aspect of Ice and Fire".
Now let's be realistic here, you probably find this to be quite lame. And disappointing. And frankly quite wasteful. Why sacrifice two aspects only to get one. Well the answer is quite simple... you have to. In order to win the Marathon of Magical Murder and thus be granted freedom, you need to kill x mages, and own x number of aspects (x changes each year, depending on the number of mages captured in the preceding magehunt). The problem is this though. Aspects are heavy and there is no way you can carry the x aspects required for your freedom at once. As you acquire weight, you will become more and more encumbered and it will become more and more difficult to perform certain tasks. So what you instead do is put your unwanted aspects in this machine, combine them, and Presto! You now converted the weight of two aspects into the weight of one.
Now if the idea of throwing away the aspect you spent months bonding with irks you, have no fear. The new aspect that comes out is much more tame than a freshly captured one meaning that you don't have to go through nightmare of trying to tame it again.
Now go back to killing your colleagues.
The Manipulator, Greeny McEmerald, and Avery. Your spheres dim a little.
Cookies Mcsalsa and Auguste Vernier, your spheres glow slightly brighter.
Floor 1. The brown thing is a minotaur
Floor 2
Whooh, that took a while to write. Still, I'm quite proud of myself. ATHATH, are you okay with me writing lines for your character like that. I did make your character sound a bit evil although to be fair, you got a 6 on the intimidation roll (5+1). At least those lines were well written and I got to incorporate some more behind the scenes lore.
Also, this goes to anyone who doesn't like the characterizations of their character. Ultimately these are your characters and not mine, so please tell me and I will stop (except on 6's maybe).
In other news, a rule change. Everyone now starts off with a flat +6 bonus to their d20 roll. This bonus will shrink the more complex or stretching a sphere a spell gets. This should reduce the chances of a simple spell outright failing at the d20 stage while still leaving the more difficult spells tricky to cast.
And to answer ATHATH'S questions
1.No, they can do magic in their natural form, but they rarely do so since few situations ever come up when they would ever need to.
2.Usually, they agree after some solitude and self reflection. After the initial fury and escape attempts thye begin to learn to accept their fate as a servant of someone. Another thing is that once trapped they need physical contact with another being or else they will suffer sensory deprivation.
3. Why haven't they taken over the world yet? In the minds of the free, the world is already their playground. They are also less ambitious and more primitive. Ambition is a mostly human exclusive trait.
4. Their personality is based on what they are an aspect of, my interpretation of your personality, and also what you're first words to it in the arena were (you guys have known each other for at least a month). My own whimsy factors into this as well.
Author
Topic: The Magicians Marathon of Magical Murder: Cuthulu kills everyone (Read 26076 times)