It's here!!! ^^ I had a lot of fun with this. I hope you guys like it, too.
You will find that I use the 'acronym' macro a lot in my posts, like this:
{_}. To reveal what the acronym says, just hold your mouse cursor over that {_} for a second.
Incidentally, you're gonna be seeing a lot of
{_}'s this turn. ^^
Turn 1
Primary power/ability: High Willpower//Iron Will [Basically aiming to not actually 'have' an ability akin to psychic or entropic tendencies, but more focused on the abstract and innate power each and everyone of us has. Read on this as you will, GM. :3]
{_} You come to a sudden halt near the road, heart racing from your sudden run, as well as the amount of sneaking you'd just done. But it was all worth it. Giddy with excitement, you reach into your pockets to withdraw your prize: A rocky pebble, liberated from the ground near a traveler's steed at the stables.
After about fifteen seconds of hard squinting at the rock, it is all you can do not to cry out in glee. Extrusive andesite! What a find! Whoever had this
had to have come down from the mountains on a rough and dusty trail, and likely shook it loose from their boots. With just one look, you already know half this person's story! And to think, you never would have noticed it before coming to Harker's Ford. Before seeing the...
Your bright grin slowly dulls, twisting into an odd frown. You
wouldn't have noticed the rock before, would you? Something, some distant part of yourself you feel like you've forgotten, rebels at the silliness of the idea that one day you'd just be scraping rocks off the ground to satisfy your curiosity. But without realizing whatever connection you feel you ought to be making, all your scientist's will and passion turns to feed on whatever it can find.
Empirical evidence, then: The major constant you've noticed with regards to your memory since you're arrived has been that wispy bank of fog blanketing the region. You risked walking out along the Tearsfall riverbank to study the plantlife a couple days ago, and almost got completely lost if not for that one single landmark to guide you back -- and even then it felt like it had been a 50/50, unknown-fork-in-the-road chance.
Hypothesis: The fog, or veil, or whatever it is, is somehow mystical in nature. That is at least more comforting than the alternative theory that you're somehow going senile two or three whole generations early in life.
Your smile returns. Well, then. Perhaps it's time for a test.
With your mind spurred by the enormous breadth of new possibilities unlocked by discovering the Veil, your innate will to strive for perfection in all things academical has risen to the fore, allowing you to constantly process new details about the world around you at an alarming rate. Your attention to detail coupled with mental fortitude lets you notice details many would give up on; however, this comes at the cost of it being very difficult for you to trust anything that you haven't had a chance to thoroughly examine yourself.
You gain +1 to all rolls involving tracking, observation, research, or looking for hidden clues. This bonus even applies to searching through the Veil for new memories and information, but not for assimilating entirely new abilities. However, when attempting to use most unfamiliar items, devices, or recipes you have not properly researched or looked over to satisfy your scientist's curiosity, any roll above 3 (Meager success) is automatically reduced to 3.
Primary power/ability: He can read the stars and the moon for events which have transpired under the night. He can also see perfectly under starlight, and possibly see things he wouldn't normally be able to see if he is successful, such as a man walking on the other side of a hill.
(After discussing this with _DivideByZero_ because he tried to pick two abilities, he said he'd rather have the first one.){_} You amble onwards like a blind man, unnatural blue fog surrounding you, dogging your every move. It is all you can do just to hold on and keep moving forward, stepping vicariously with legs not your own. This had been going on for the better part of a minute, with naught to show for it but blue, blue, and more blue. Just as you feel your concentration fraying from the fruitless plodding, you break the connection and
leap back out of the fog like a bullet fired from a slingshot.
With a jerk that knocks empty bottles rolling out from underneath your booth table, you open your eyes, cold sweat clinging to your face.
Damn. It wasn't enough. The stars had answered your call readily enough, leading you like an army of silvery wisps towards the object of your search, but again you'd been stymied by that choking bank of unnatural, cloying fog that foiled even your supernatural senses.
You'd done everything right. The stinging sensation on your chest, and the rag soaked with alcohol and a dark splotch of blood is clear proof. The night demanded a sacrifice, and you'd gladly paid it. It had worked before, when the stars granted you memories not your own of the movements of a town guard unlucky enough to get the graveyard shift. But now you'd attempted to look outward, beyond the town, through the fog... and came up short.
A ragged sigh slips from your throat. At least you can brood in comfort; you'd taken a good booth with a back wall in the common room of the Adventurer's Guild for yourself. There is little distraction save the clinking of mugs and plates closer to the center of the room, where a handful of people are gathered on stools and the odd couch near a burning hearth.
You may spend a full turn to attempt a reading of the Veil, sorting through the myriad memories within specifically for those that occurred during the night. You must select a subject to match this reading: The movements of a single person over the course of a turn, monitoring an area to look for memories created by those who passed through it, whether anyone has entered a certain house or not, etc.
To prove your faith and devotion and activate this power, you must also make a minor sacrifice, typically either wounding yourself (roll to determine the severity of the damage), destroying an item of value to you, or becoming wounded in honorable combat (challenging a worthy opponent and not trying to run away, for example). As long as your memory of this sacrifice remains fresh, you may attempt a reading of the Veil in a turn after it with no penalty -- and even "accumulate" these sacrifices to potentially strengthen the effect or broaden your search.
Primary power/ability: Speech. Vi knows how to talk herself out of many things. Which is a fairly important skill for Yakko to have. Yakko are not known for their inhibitions after all, and waking up from a drunken binge to the sharp end of a spear directly in front of one's face means you need to talk quite fast. Vi's experienced that exact scenario multiple times in the past.
{_} Pfffft. That was too easy. You flick a smile at the retreating form of the poor loafer melting into the marketplace crowd as you sidle up, sliding smoothly into the now vacant shady spot. His loss. Your back agrees, as you cross your arms and lean pleasantly against the cool stone wall of one of the rare permanent stores overlooking the ambling sprawl of market stalls and milling legs of the townspeople.
Harker's Ford isn't a bad place to be, you have to admit. Oh, you still get quite a few strange looks now and then -- "Are you some kind of spirit of the hunt?" "Will you bring us luck?" "Kindly move your tail, please.", of course. But in the here and now? It's all worth it. Particularly when it's clear that some serious excitement is coming your way. You just haven't been quite sure what to think of it taking the form of... fog. Strange, mystical blue fog, draping over the fields and trees outside town like a wispy veil. Yet barely a trace of it seems to be found within the walls. Never where you can hear this many voices at once.
Ah yes, voices. Your own seems to be getting noticeably better recently, in strange, unexpected ways. All it took to convince that layabout to give up the premium shady spot you're now standing in was the small lie that a liquor stall just down the road was undercutting their competition by selling at rock bottom prices to anyone with "the password". Not the first such lie you've told today, and also not the first frown to tug at your expression. Something's going on. And somehow, for some reason you can't put your finger on, you've got a feeling it's connected to that fog moving into the area.
Confers +1 to all speech- or persuasion-related rolls. You are also more adept at spotting opportunities for interesting conversation and spotting tells and mannerisms. However, you must make an additional roll to avoid becoming 'locked' in conversation whenever you enter one, due to your almost preternatural desire for talk. Should you become 'locked', any attempt to disengage from conversation on your own initiative must pass a roll. You incur a -1 penalty on the roll to avoid becoming conversation-locked if you have not spoken to anyone for multiple turns in a row, but this penalty only applies for the first such roll.
Primary power/ability: Alchemy: Before she awoke, Darcy was little more than a half-mad quack with a tendency for self-medication. But the Veil granted her the memories of the scholars and sorcerors who plunged the depths of natural philosophy, uncovering secrets no mortal should touch. She can create soothing medicine, diabolical plague, miraculous metals, and all sorts of strange chemicals beyond the bounds of human conception. From there she can use them in potions, apply them to weapons, or create grenades with them. Of course, the risk of violent illness or massive explosions hangs over this power like a Sword of Damocles.
{_} You slam the door to your graveyard shack behind you and wrench the lock into place, nearly frothing in rage.
Bastards! Rotten, impotent old duffers all, gloating from on high with their arses rooted to their chairs! How
dare they. You never took more than what you needed -- what
no one else needed anymore. So what if you harvested a few of this town's dead for the valuable compounds only human decomposition could provide? You hurt no one! And yet that ignorant, entitled
council dared try and sanction you and your valuable projects over a grievous misunderstanding.
Still, they'd at least realized you were too useful as the doctor of Harker's Ford to lock away and waste your potential like a soiled cloth. "No more digging up those laid to rest", they'd said, though the legalese on paper -- which was now a crumpled, spat-on wad in your pockets -- put it far more 'properly'. Fine. You have all that you need for now, anyway. The Veil had shown you everything: Secrets beyond your wildest dreams, recipes and combinations for mixtures that could propel you to the top of the alchemical community.
Your workspace is just as you left it. No one dared come out this way with thieving intent, not with the fearful reputation you've carefully enkindled between your hermit-like lifestyle and crow-beaked mask you hardly ever removed these days. You smirk. Ah, and of course, many already guessed you weren't
really growing potatoes with all those heavy sacks you kept dragging in...
You take a step forward, adjusting the straps of the satchel nudging at your thighs. The comforting tingle of foreign memories echoes in the back of your mind. Ah, well. Time to get back to work.
You may choose to create any of three different types of items listed below. The item produced will always be random, unless you opt to try and produce one with specifically desired effects from scratch. That will incur a -2 penalty to your ability roll, however, as your excitement over your newfound bursting-at-the-seams knowledge of alchemy makes it very difficult to focus on any one variety of item.
Potion - Produce a fluid potion to carry in a bottle, flask, or other receptacle. You may select a helpful or harmful variety.
Application - Produce a topical oil, ointment, powder or other substance to carry in a jar, tin, or similar container. You may select whether it will apply to people, or to items.
Grenade/Bomb - Produce a volatile substance contained in a jar, ball, or similar object. Grenades and bombs may only be harmful.
Primary power/ability: Healing of living beings.
{_} A tearful smile spreads over your face as you behold the dried-out lily in your hands go from faded gray to bright white, its wrinkled petals and stamens straightening out and taking on new life. You'd insisted on taking the poor thing with you after noticing a flower seller in town cycling out her old stock, and she simply let you have it with only a bemused shrug and a chuckle. Oh, but you're the one chuckling now. Thanking luck that the roots of the plant are still mostly intact, you set it down carefully in a hole you'd already dug beforehand, padding down the dirt around it to hold it steady.
With your good deed for the day finished, you stand, brushing grass and twigs off your pants. Still, your mind is racing. It's true. All of it is true. You'd felt the warmth thrumming through your hands over the past several days you've been in Harker's Ford, and somehow you guessed what its purpose was. You knew you had a knack for handling plants and gardens before, but
never imagined you'd actually have the power to turn back the clock and restore them vitality.
It's the fog. That "Veil". It has to be. It's the only thing that's seemingly changed about this place since you arrived, other than the odd traveling party visiting town
(and usually choosing to stay). That last thought gives you pause. If you've confirmed the Veil to have power... could that be the reason for your strange loss of grip on your memories? You glance at the bluish fog around you, somehow seeming to unnaturally shift and hold still at the same time.
At will, you may channel your energies into a living being by touching them directly in order to drastically accelerate their natural healing process. This allows you to not only heal most minor to moderate wounds on living beings, but also revive dried-out flowers and other plants. Consistently rolling 5's when healing living beings can result in skill increases.
Primary power/ability: Limited Intangibility - At times that Webley can occasionally control (and many others that he can't), Webley can turn more of his body into a ghostlike form, allowing it to pass through walls, people, and other solid objects. This intangibility radiates from his left hand outward, though it isn't completely unheard of that other portions of his body would unknowingly ghost on him. When this happens, the intangible parts of his body appears blue and ghostlike and emanate fog just like his hand. He maintains an ability to feel objects while passing through them or inside them, but unable to do much of anything else. Unfortunately, maintaining this form over a large volume requires massive amounts of energy, and would only be possible under great stress, and it also has the side effect of retangiating (which is now a verb) toward his hand. He has yet to see what happens when he retangiates inside of an object, but prefers not to find out.
As a result of this, Webley has lost the majority of the use of his dominant left hand.
{_} The sounds of the bustling marketplace seep through the wooden walls of your father's watchmaking workshop. Every now and then a barker will loudly proclaim a sale of some sort or the other, or the sound of laughs and clinking bottles will sound forth from a booth or pavilion closeby. More closely, the familiar tick-tock of clockwork and occasional shift of automatic hourglasses provides a steady cadence that lends the space its own unique identity.
You are deaf to it all. You're too busy staring at the lockbox your left hand is currently stuck through.
It is only when you become aware of a mounting headache that you come to your senses and withdraw the hand, which
phases right through the box like it was mere air. You flex your ephemeral blue fingers, which tingle with remembered sensation of oaken woodgrains, and iron from the box's combination-locked double deadbolt. But you'd barely felt any resistance at all from all that solid matter. Frowning so much your bushy eyebrows practically knit together -- a quirk you fondly recall sharing with your father -- you try to think. Intangibility?
Where had you seen this before? You don't even
know magic! "Trust what you make with your own hands, son," your old man once said. And you did, as was well proven by the perfectly calibrated mechanical wonders all around that were your stock and trade. But what were you supposed to do when you couldn't even trust your
hands?Beads of sweat trickle down your brow. Think. What had you been doing special? Just a simple bit of work to entertain yourself and stay in practice on a slow day, trying to open an aging, rusty lockbox, the only contents you recall being a few commemorative pins your family had made to celebrate notable successful commissions for certain timepieces. The obstinate thing had proven tricky, however, and you'd just been ready to break out your prybar -- you could always fashion a new lock, anyway -- when your hand had just
slipped, going right through the box and nearly taking you off-balance in shock. You recall being in stark concentration at the time, wishing fervently for that darn rusty deadbolt to just
give...Wishing. Blue, ephemeral hands. Wait, blue? Wishing? Magic? Suddenly, it all clicks, sliding into place like the wind-up key on a music box. It had to be that fog, somehow, didn't it? But why...
You shake your hand and grunt in frustration. Focusing your will on your still-tingling hand, you try and imagine healthy, normal pink skin, wishing it to abide by the normal rules of the world. Before your astonished eyes, the blue quickly begins to recede away from your wrist, across your palm and towards your fingertips, the ghostly form giving way to natural flesh. Gingerly, you touch your hand to the lockbox again, and let out a breath you didn't realize you were holding when it makes contact with and slides over the wooden surface.
Okay. Whatever happened, you seem to have at least
some control over the effects. The bigger question remains, however: What
is going on, here?
After realizing that the Veil surrounding Harker's Ford does not behave quite like real fog, you have learned to literally meld parts of your body with it and thus gain some of its unique properties, among them the ability to phase effortlessly through most solid matter. Any intangible body part is immune to physical damage and attacks, but also cannot be part of any physical attack or other overt action. You will still be able to feel physical objects if you will it, but you cannot interact with them -- no reaching through a wall to grab an object on the other side.
Using this power in an area with low to no Veil concentration (where you can't see much if any of the blue fog) only allows you to turn certain parts of yourself intangible, such as your limbs and head, and "intangiating" anything but just your hands at once carries a -1 roll penalty. You may "retangiate" an intangible body part at will, thus returning it back to normal. It is not recommended to do this with any part of your body phased into solid matter.
However, you may turn parts of yourself intangible without a penalty if you are standing right amongst the Veil, and may even turn your entire body intangible to pass straight through solid walls -- but doing so requires intense concentration, and is done at a -1 penalty. Merging your whole body with the Veil makes it very difficult to focus on anything else; every turn you spend this way, you must pass a roll to avoid short-term memory loss, on top of any such rolls you may already be rolling. Failing this roll prevents you from "retangiating" that turn, and can also carry all the problems involved in getting lost amidst the Veil.
Time/Environment: It is a bright and early afternoon, and only partly cloudy.
Character Status:Location: Relaxing in a shady spot against the wall of a wooden building in the marketplace in Harker's Ford.
Abilities: Confers +1 to all speech- or persuasion-related rolls. You are also more adept at spotting opportunities for interesting conversation and spotting tells and mannerisms. However, you must make an additional roll to avoid becoming 'locked' in conversation whenever you enter one, due to your almost preternatural desire for talk. Should you become 'locked', any attempt to disengage from conversation on your own initiative must pass a roll. You incur a -1 penalty on the roll to avoid becoming conversation-locked if you have not spoken to anyone for multiple turns in a row, but this penalty only applies for the first such roll.
Location: On the edge of the path leading to the Harker's Ford stables, on the eastern side of town.
Abilities: With your mind spurred by the enormous breadth of new possibilities unlocked by discovering the Veil, your innate will to strive for perfection in all things academical has risen to the fore, allowing you to constantly process new details about the world around you at an alarming rate. Your attention to detail coupled with mental fortitude lets you notice details many would give up on; however, this comes at the cost of it being very difficult for you to trust anything that you haven't had a chance to thoroughly examine yourself.
You gain +1 to all rolls involving tracking, observation, research, or looking for hidden clues. This bonus even applies to searching through the Veil for new memories and information, but not for assimilating entirely new abilities. However, when attempting to use most unfamiliar items, devices, or recipes you have not properly researched or looked over to satisfy your scientist's curiosity, any roll above 3 (Meager success) is automatically reduced to 3.
Location: Alone with only empty bottles for company in a booth with table in the common room of the Adventurer's Guild.
Abilities: You may spend a full turn to attempt a reading of the Veil, sorting through the myriad memories within specifically for those that occurred during the night. You must select a subject to match this reading: The movements of a single person over the course of a turn, monitoring an area to look for memories created by those who passed through it, whether anyone has entered a certain house or not, etc.
To prove your faith and devotion and activate this power, you must also make a minor sacrifice, typically either wounding yourself (roll to determine the severity of the damage), destroying an item of value to you, or becoming wounded in honorable combat (challenging a worthy opponent and not trying to run away, for example). As long as your memory of this sacrifice remains fresh, you may attempt a reading of the Veil in a turn after it with no penalty -- and even "accumulate" these sacrifices to potentially strengthen the effect or broaden your search.
Location: Near the water mill, between Harker's Ford and the few farms on its southeastern outskirts.
Abilities: At will, you may channel your energies into a living being by touching them directly in order to drastically accelerate their natural healing process. This allows you to not only heal most minor to moderate wounds on living beings, but also revive dried-out flowers and other plants. Consistently rolling 5's when healing living beings can result in skill increases.
Location: Inside her shack, at the cemetery on the western outskirts of Harker's Ford.
Items: Alchemist's Satchel
Abilities: You may choose to create any of three different types of items listed below. The item produced will always be random, unless you opt to try and produce one with specifically desired effects from scratch -- this will incur a -2 penalty to your ability roll, as your excitement over your newfound bursting-at-the-seams knowledge of alchemy makes it very difficult to focus on any one variety of item.
Potion - Produce a fluid potion to carry in a bottle, flask, or other receptacle. You may select a helpful or harmful variety.
Application - Produce a topical oil, ointment, powder or other substance to carry in a jar, tin, or similar container. You may select whether it will apply to people, or to items.
Grenade/Bomb - Produce a volatile substance contained in a jar, ball, or similar object. Grenades and bombs may only be harmful.
Location: In their watchmaker's shop in the center of Harker's Ford, pouring over a workbench with a lockbox atop.
Items: Keepsake pocketwatch.
Abilities: After realizing that the Veil surrounding Harker's Ford does not behave quite like real fog, you have learned to literally meld parts of your body with it and thus gain some of its unique properties, among them the ability to phase effortlessly through most solid matter. Any intangible body part is immune to physical damage and attacks, but also cannot be part of any physical attack or other overt action. You will still be able to feel physical objects if you will it, but you cannot interact with them -- no reaching through a wall to grab an object on the other side.
Using this power in an area with low to no Veil concentration (where you can't see much if any of the blue fog) only allows you to turn certain parts of yourself intangible, such as your limbs and head, and "intangiating" anything but just your hands at once carries a -1 roll penalty. You may "retangiate" an intangible body part at will, thus returning it back to normal. It is not recommended to do this with any part of your body phased into solid matter.
However, you may turn parts of yourself intangible without a penalty if you are standing right amongst the Veil, and may even turn your entire body intangible to pass straight through solid walls -- but doing so requires intense concentration, and is done at a -1 penalty. Merging your whole body with the Veil makes it very difficult to focus on anything else; every turn you spend this way, you must pass a roll to avoid short-term memory loss, on top of any such rolls you may already be rolling. Failing this roll prevents you from "retangiating" that turn, and can also carry all the problems involved in getting lost amidst the Veil.
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 700 people currently live here, and that number has steadily been growing as its prime location makes it a popular stop for travelers. The river Tearsfall runs partially through it from the north and creates its south border, the main road runs right through the center, whilst the west and north are mostly covered by forest. A palisade wall hewn out of trees from the nearby forest rings the town on all sides, with gates opening up on the west, east, and north ends. The blue fog blanketing the region seems to be far less prevalent within the town.
Webley has a shop that doubles as his home here.
1) The Adventurer's Guild: A large three-story 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.
Jadan, Amelia, Vi and
Rachael each have rooms at the Adventurer's Guild.
2) Market: An ambling line of market stalls with a few permanent shops covering the space primarily around the east and south sides of the central town square. It is also one of the few places in town where the Veil seems to almost non-existent.
3) Town hall: The center of local government for Harker's Ford. Jiles Harker himself sits on the council here along with a small committee of aldermen.
4) Harker's shack: The residence of Jiles Harker, founder of Harker's Ford. Technically a clean and well-kept log cabin, but so small and spartan that it may as well be a shack.
5) Militia drill ground: A flat square of ground on the east side of town across the river, enclosed by the palisade. Includes the town's emergency armory, though most of the guards in Harker's Ford keep their own gear in their homes.
6) Cemetery: A pair of hillocks and mostly flat ground makes up the primary resting place of the less fortunate near Harker's Ford, sitting just outside the west gate.
Ophelia lives in a nearby lean-to shack using part of one of the hillocks as support.
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 even 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 Tearsfall: A fair-sized body of slowly running water which covers much of the town’s eastern edge. A large wooden bridge, simply referred to as "The Span" by some inhabitants of Harker's Ford, marks the quickest and most direct way over, and is completely enclosed by the town's palisade walls. Still, you could probably swim across without too much trouble, as long as you're careful. The river snakes north and disappears behind the wall of trees marking the Wilderness' edge.
The river owes its name to a local legend surrounding three men who became lost amidst the caves and rocks of the mountains lying far to the north of what is today Harker's Ford. When they finally managed to find their way through and emerge into the sun, they wept so openly at the sight that their tears created the river Tearsfall, ever flowing with joy down from the mountains.
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. A path on the east side of town diverges south for about a day's journey towards a nearby keep overlooking the region, but you can remember even less about that.
GM notes: Five Overshots and an Epic success, and that was on your
healer. I couldn't believe it either. But the online d6 randomizer does not lie! This game oughta be interesting... xD
Also, note that no one in this game has plot armor; if I build up story around someone or start liking them, that won't spare them from a grim fate if the RNG hates your guts. I know. It sucks. But I have to be fair. =P
Anyway, let me know if you think I missed anything, or if I should add more details on an ability. Thanks!
Author
Topic: The Veil of Memories [Remake] (dead) (Read 10967 times)