..The voice seems contradictory to the pendant. The pendant's an animal collar, with fur, yet the god seems to be about LOSING hair, becoming LESS like an animal. Odd indeed.
And I didn't mean asking the voice about itself. I meant trying to 'feel' the magic of the wand and pendant, seeing what I could find out about their spells/effect.
EDIT:If I could try out my spells safely while having the time to regenerate to max Puissanse, do that in a safe location.
You wander into a nice secluded bit of a park where you'll be mistaken for a harmless jogger or addict and get testing.
The wand can fire a blob of extremely fast, near-boiling molasses. There are burn marks on the trees you hit, the stuff's pretty hot.
It can also, as you find out by accidentally pointing it at a kid on a skateboard, make someone spin round unusually fast. The guys gets away with a sick 1080 and mild trauma, but this could really make a difference in a fight, and could even be used on an ally for a melee combo.
The pendant definitely does
something. You feel the energy flow out of it, as it becomes temporarily unuseable for about an hour. But you can't tell what.
You notice a naked guy wandering around near a picknicking family. He seems dazed and confused, and isn't communicating. The father is making threats of violence, the mother is covering her son's eyes, and the rest of the kids are screaming something about a dog.
I Head down to a hardware store a buy the following before wandering off to find a car with a nice long antena to cut off.
>£10 worth of copper wire
>£5 worth of Cloth
>a light bulb
All done. If anyone notices your illegal activity, they're too polite or terrified to say anything about it.
"Well, I guess I should see what these do..."
Test my spells, sighing in a unsatisfied manner
You're able to turn your staff into a three foot long brass staff, spiked with brass flowers and electrified. It drains about 2 puissance to use it for ten seconds.
By slamming the weapon into the ground, you can either throw up a ring of floral brass spikes around you, or cover yourself in heavy brass petal armour for 20 seconds. These cost 5 and 4 puissance points respectively.
Test my spells at the nearest inanimate object.
You wave your ivory cane in the air experimentally. It transforms into a long-handled ivory scythe, with a blade of sharp serrated tusk. This drains about two puissance for twenty seconds.
When you slam the cane townwards, for 6 puissance you send out some kind of flow of energy. Everyone around you staggers, and several start to complain of bone ache. One man trips over, breaking his hip despite falling very lightly. The symptoms clear up after a dozen seconds, but you're pretty sure it was your doing.
Nothing like using people as ants for your sport, eh?
"Oh on the contrary Jeremy, my ophidian friend, I am completely sane. I simply advocate a particular kind of joyful experimental zeal that many people mistake for madness. I suppose that combined with my general energetic attitude and appearance it is an understandable accident. Much like how a crown of bones might make someone mistake you for a dangerous beastie, as opposed to your reality as a charming gentleman."
Stop swirling the mixture for a moment.
"By the way, I can't help noticing that, on top of being probably the coolest thing I've ever seen while not in the depths of a ketamine coma, you are an enormous phallic object. As such, I hope you don't get the wrong idea when I ask this: Can I ride you?"
Hold the glass up to my face and keep swirling.
"Not that I would mind either way, I've heard snakes are of the...dual wielding variety in terms of genitalia, so thats an adventure in and of itself. BUT! BUT! I am new to this..." Wave my hand at him and the other magical silliness around me, "Paranormal experience and would very much like to get a gonzo style initiation into it if you are willing to allow me to tag along with you for a day or two. After all, a budding summoner would do well to make as many supranormal contacts as possible. I mean, summoning isn't always about magic and such. Maybe sometimes summoning is about calling my big snakey mate Jeremy over to my flat to watch antique's roadshow."
Dump in two clots as I talk.
"I don't really know reptile etiqutte, so stop me if I'm being rude, but are you a Basilisk? Because that would be just freaking awesome."
Jeremy blushes an attractive bluish colour against his green skin, and pretends not to hear some of your more candid comments about serpent biology.
"Well, I certainly wouldn't object to giving a lady a lift to somewhere in the vicinity, though I'm not sure that I should get too involved with a witch... I'm part of the
non-violent magical community, you see, and Coven involvement tends to make situations rather
complex."
He looks at you to make sure you've got the message.
"I mean, they kill people. Frequently. And not just snacks - I mean, mortals - but sometimes rather major figures. So it might be in both our interests for me
not too introduce you to too many powerful people."
"And yes, I am technically a basilisk, not that I can do the stone thing, though that reminds me of a rather funny story - good Lord!"
You create the chalice. The skull immediately shines with a brilliant white light and becomes immensely heavy. You drop it and step back out of instinct.
A column of writhing, completely transparent snakes erupts from the ground as the light fades, arcing though the air before smashing through a bus shelter, scraping along the sides of a stone wall, and flying screaming across the street under a bus to fade away into nothing, just as you get the knack of steering it.
Blood oozes from a network of thick swollen veins lining huge cracks in the bus shelter roof. Patches of raw flesh shiver and stretch uneasily along the stone wall. Sections of intestine wriggle slightly protuding from potholes on the road, unused to the crisp winter air.
You feel, after about twenty seconds, the single dribble of puissance you spent summoning the things recharge itself. Oh boy.
Jeremy is nowhere to be seen.
Let's just find a fairly flammable building in an area where there's plenty of people around, then light and throw the molotov at it, preferably somewhere that the flames won't be easy to reach--high up, if my char has the arm for it. Then scream some anarchist bullshit and run away to hide. Wait for sirens.
You
make the molotov, then toss it through a pub window, the wooden frame catching at once. Jogging into an alley after screaming "Ibn al Yahud Facisto Marx Akbar Mitzvah," you wait several blocks away for the sirens.
They aren't long in coming. And there are quite a few of them.
Yay for arson, I guess?
Get a bottle of sports drink, and mix the drink with protein powder. This will be used as a chalice one I find some magical liquid. Speaking of, go find some magic shit to finish the chalice.
Sportsified sports drink created. You look around for magical beings.
You glimpse a herd of centaurs playing frisbee, a shift looking guy who seems to be tweaking at bits of the city and moulding concrete with his hands, a scientist with fifteen pairs of spectacles tending to a rosebush that seems to have grown maces, a giant created from smashed-together skeletons striding through traffic, astronomers at a farmer's market haggling pieces of space, and a dung beetle the size of a building rolling a huge ball of crushed vehicles along a quiet avenue.
Lucian Faust
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic Sight - 1
Agility - 2
Melee - 1
Inventory: £50
[Ugly Brass Lamp Body Staff]
Runes:
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:6/6
Name: Sand
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 3
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 3
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £20,
[Glass Skull Chalice]
Puissant clots: 0
Puissance:5/5
Goe T. Thelle
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 1
Practicality - 1
Inventory: £30, empty jar
[Dog Collar Pendant] [Molasses Clockhand Wand]
Runes:
Puissant clots: 0
Puissance: 6/6
Jimmy "Car bombs" Castanza
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 3
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £35, very rusty saw, length of pipe stuck to block of concrete, a nice long antenna sawn off a car, 3 feet of copper wire, £5 worth of Cloth, a light bulb
Runes:
Puissant clots: 2
Puissance:5/5
Ben Breeze
Stats:
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 3
Aim - 1
Melee - 1
Agility - 1
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £25, knife
Puissant clots: 2
Puissance:5/5
Micky Roberts
Puissant fettle -
Ritual potency -
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 2
Aim -
Melee - 2
Agility - 1
Practicality -
Inventory: £40
[Boxing Glove Pendant]
Runes:
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:5/5
Sir Lootington
Puissant Fettle- 1
Ritual Potency- 1
Runic Sight- 1
Melee- 1
Agility- 1
Practicality- 1
Inventory: £50
[Ivory Cane Staff] ("The Staff of Power")
Runes:
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance:6/6
If people could be planning to be ready for the mission in two or three turns, that would be useful.