Attempt to negotiate one additional clause, the ability to temporarily or permanently designate a portion of the power gained by me through the main clause instead to a proxy or an item or location. Said power gain would still be subject to any halting of my personal gains.
Also, does permission to open holes between mortal viewing and the magical world extend to the power to open said holes? (temporary or permanently.)
In any case, yes or no to the addition of this clause, sign the deal, take the seductive power and the limited conscription option.
(I'm asking for it to only apply to new power gained, so that it can't be used to transfer existing power should the demon be displeased with my actions. it isn't an attempt to bypass censure through that method.)
Clause accepted.
Whatever form your media takes
is the hole. You can open up temporary ruptures just by doing magic near mortals and making them watch, but they'll always forget about it afterwards. I guess they might not forget seeing you if they're already a fan.
You sign the deal in a small amount of blood, and leave unmolested.
Time to go film some magical shit.
Hm... Maybe I should get into a demonic contract that gives me stuff when we fail missions.
In all seriousness, though... What do the demons in the local area tend to want? If I don't know, ask Vince about this.
You talk to Vince.
Local demons... well, Belial is in charge of London, but he will have thousands of subordinates, who could want countless different things.
The ones very nearby? They're probably involved in leeching magical energy from humans. They're better converters of human worship to magical energy than witches are, but might be less efficient in their use of magical energy, in which case you could help them out in exchange for power.
"Worship" of a demon might take an odd form, especially as humans these days aren't really aware of their presence. For example, playing a certain mobile game or sitting at a bus stop might feed a demon power. Like the Six-headed Hyena Morgalath who feeds off the local commuters as they stand under a bus shelter waiting for a bus. And these demons would want you to help increase their power in some way, such as by making sure there were always people waiting at the bus stop. They could probably reward you by vomiting gold or somesuch.
First, ask/look around to see if there's anything I could use to write a journal on what's happened so far. Second, put the suit away somewhere, and leave a label saying it's mine/was obtained by me. Third, go to the magic market, and look around for the following 3 places:
1. A place to obtain slightly stronger magical liquids. I could use a good demon chalice.
2. Somewhere involving runes. Sure, us witches can discover them, but surely other folks can see and/or use them, right?
3. Somewhere where objects could be traded. I'm not sure if other witches could use my wands or pendants, but someone somewhere might find worth in breaking them down.
Prac: 2+1
You get a ring-binder full of graph paper. Not exactly journal-ish, but good enough.
Suit stored in Vince's laundry cupboard.
1. Loads of stall are selling basically powerful liquids, which are certainly "slightly" stronger. For really chalice-specialised or potent stuff you'd probably be a bit short, but there is definitely stuff here within your price range, especially if Jimmy shares the coins with you. You two should probably sort that out between you somehow; I don't care if he honours his promise or not. You see:
Gastronomers selling starlight soup and liquid void, as well as other culinary items from the depths of space.
Reality-altering coffee sold in Klein mugs.
Mix-With-Water powdered dragon's blood from the packed
alchemist's stall. A major alchemical ingredient, this.
Volatile Quickblood, drained from silver fishwrymes at the pungent and untalkative cyclopes at the
Weirdfish stall.
Tanngrisnir's Restorative Milk - healing and potent, from the
New Zealander's stall.
More if none of these stalls appeal.
2. There's a shrine to Apollo at which the priests offer to blind you in exchange for a massive boost to the discovery, manipulation and perception of runes, and greater visual understanding of magic anyway.
Or if that's not your thing, there are some cheap dreamcatchers, which purportedly boost the chance of rune discovery in sleep.
3. A witch's weapons are specific to him, except for rings, swords, brooms, and caduceuses. Nobody can use the other ones, and there's no easy way to undo their creation. You might get
something back if one of the
scrappers destroyed it for parts and energy, but not as much as you put in.
I'm going to see if the 'farmers have anything within my price range, and if not weather they have any jobs I can do to make up the remainder.
They have a small but high-end handgun, provided you don't split the gold with Goethe. If you only pay with half the stuff you stole, you'll need
a chit from the
chit merchant, but will be able to buy something considerably more powerful.
That's... quite a bit bigger than what I was intending to use, but I can work with it.
say that I bought it for self defense purposes, but have not actually had to use it yet. As for scrap metal? I have to find a way to get money somehow. I'm not a citizen of the U.K., and can't exactly get a job easily, now can I? Bad enough I have to eventually get a plane or boat ticket back to the US on scrap metal collection and sales. Speaking of sales, I was going to ask around about places to sell my metal.
Might as well provide proof of purchase for my switchblade, or at least give the shop name for it.
So basicallllllly... you tell the
civil servant that you're working on the black job market because you don't have a passport or work visa, selling stolen scrap metal. And are accustomed to carrying a semi-legal weapon inpublic without good reason. Oh, and you just don't answer the question about what you were doing on private property.
That's at least six different kinds of illegal.
Practicality: 6+1
You manage to hastily correct yourself with confused and raspy garbling about how you aren't actually massively breaking the law. The guy thinks you're crazy and looks out of patience. You probably only have one more chance to catch his interest or extricate yourself from this mess before you get handed over to the police.
Do eet.
Scavenge some gold out of a broken phone or something, then use my paintbrush-wand to create large amounts of gold. Redeem this gold for some money at a Cash For Gold business.
Go wandering around London, looking for interesting/helpful/useful magical stuff. If I find demons, inquire as to what contracts they'd be willing to offer me.
Can we drain clots from each other if the person who is "donating" the clot does so voluntarily?
You create the chalice, pouring demonic toad slime and battery acid into a poorly washed tupperware box. It explodes, droplets of burning liquid searing your hands before trickling away to nothing.
The road by your feet wells with clear green stuff and then parts, and a misshapen creature the size of a van rears up. The head of a toad, with bulging dark eyes, it's body is freakishly elongated, the front covered in whiskers and grapsing, prawn-like arms. The thing itself is made from tough membranes leaking sizzling acid, biting away at the tarmac. The thing arcs into the air then subsides again, crashing through another hole in the concrete and trickling away into the earth.
You can summon it about once every twenty seconds.
You create a mess of broken electronics and fused metal. Great.
So stuff you see... let's see... a guy outside Buckingham palace is selling the blood of members of the royal family. Pretty damn cheaply too; well within your price range. You also notice a bunch of creeps in biohazard suits stuffing the extremities of something not-human into a van. And a talking bear, who is of no use at all. There's a suit who offers to exchange magical items for cash (he gives you his card), and a rasta running a delicious carribean takeaway who teaches pyromancy, and would be cool with taking on another pupil. To be honest, the rasta seemed like he'd be cool with anything at the moment, he's a more than a little mellow.
There's an avacado demon, who offers to increase your physique and glamour if you get more people to eat vegetables and healthy foods from the grocery store it lives in.
You also get handed a notice by one of the Transport For London mages, who herd the giant worm-trains through tunnels. You're not sure exactly what's going on with that, but the underground seems to be made of worms that can also carry commuters or something. Anyway, there's a loose crazed trainworm, and he's paying money for sightings as well as putting a really substantial bounty on it.
And then you get mugged by a couple of hoods in an alley. How do you wanna play this?
Eh. Put a second clot into the roomba, then. Mount up and hoverboard around the city, looking for opportunities. Something involving profit, as I don't have any money.
You fly around the city like... well, there aren't many things like someone flying through the air on a Roomba. A dirt-fighting superhero? Seems a little flat.
Opportunities, eh? Well, first off you try the
chit merchant at the magic market. Carry out a mission for him (well, for someone else, but you don't get to know who that person is), and you earn a slip of paper entitling you to any valuable object in the market. Not mega-valuable, just quite valuable. There's a different chit for mega-valuable, you gotta have some serious street cred to even be given a chance at one of those.
So according to the coiling ink on the slip of Livepaper you're handed, you have to pick up a box of raw product from a magical drug baron and deliver it to another dealer in a certain tomb. Simple.
That do you, or you want a different way to make profit?
GM NOTE: DUE TO SUSPECTED BALANCING ISSUES, THE UPGRADE COST OF WANDS AND STAFFS HAS NOW DECREASED DRAMATICALLY, HALVING IN SIZE. THE UPGRADE COST OF BROOMS HAS ALSO LOWERED TO A FLAT ONE CLOT PER TIER. ANY CLOT INVOLVED ACTIONS SINCE MISSION TWO CAN THUS BE UNDONE, FOR THE SAKE OF FAIRNESS. CADUCEUSES NOW COST ONLY TWO CLOTS.
Oh, and everyone knows about the magic market.Name: Nanami Adachi. (Nanami)
Inhuman skill in seduction: granted by demonic contract.
Power from mortal media.
Conscripted into twenty-nineth legion of Amdukias.
Puissance: 0
Ritual: 0
Runic Sight: 0
Banal Combat: 0
Aim: 0
Melee: 0
Agility: 1
Praticality: 2
Inventory: £350
{Belial Certificate handed in for greater deal}
Puissance: 5/5 - temporary
Puissant Clots: 2 - temporary
Bob Howard
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 1
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £50, 1d20
{Certificate from Belial; Valid for one Potent Medium}
Puissance: 5/5
Puissant Clots: 2
Goethe T. Helle
Puissant fettle - 1
Ritual potency - 2
Runic sight - 1
Banal combat - 0
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 2
Practicality - 1
Inventory: £25, clockface minus one hand, highlighter pens, two kitchen knives, half-empty cologne bottle
From the beast: one bone,
Italian Dinner suit, stored at Vince's place.
[Dog Collar Pendant][Molasses Clockhand Wand]
[Icecream Beast Blood Fur Chalice][Beast Remains Wand]
Runes:
Isolation: you never had many friends or allies, so are used to poor odds. +1 to rolls when outnumbered and alone.
Stoicism: a rune that calms those dealing with shock, tragedy or injury.
Perseverance: despite all the odds, you managed to kill a huge beast using nothing but hot syrup. Bonus to attack and extra damage to powerful or resistant enemies after several turns of combat or aggression.
Dwarven Weapon Storage: learned from a dwarf carrying a small armoury on his back. Increases load of weapons and tools that can be borne without being hampered or slowed down, or collapsing outright.
Ruination: when written, it makes a bad situation worse, and an irretrievable one more so. Learned after the second mission.
Puissant clots: 1
Puissance: 6/6
Name: Ellen York
Has a few teeth embedded in forehead. Blood on face.
Puissant fettle: 1
Runic sight: 1
Banal combat: 1
Agility: 3
Runes:Unending Avarice: you can tell which loot is the most expensive and tradeable instantly, and can grab it as well. Pearls, money, fur coats, expensive champagne, and all things glamourous are magically attracted to your questing fingers.
Wallfish: a rune derived from snails you particularly enjoyed eating with pearls and vinegar. Better at avoiding damage when in or heading for cover.
Inventory: Duct Tape, nettles, crocuses, thorns,
Thorny and gothic katana
[Broom] - Roomba wrapped in rusty barbed wire.
[De-thorned Rose Wand]
Puissant Clots: 1
Puissance: 6/6
Name: Sir Worthington the Fourth
Has a pretty crappy wooden broom for a leg.
Stats: Ritual Potency: 3
Practicality 3
Agility: -1 (wooden poles and plastic bristles do not a good leg make)
Inventory: £40,
[Glass Eye Pendant] [Paintbrush Wand]
[Toad Demon Battery Acid Tupperware Chalice]
Puissant Clots: 0
Puissance: 5/5
Jimmy "Car bombs" Castanza
Slightly slowed by a heavy load.
Magical power boosted by Oligarchy rune.
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 3
Banal combat - 1
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £25, very rusty saw, length of pipe stuck to block of concrete, highlighter pen
Bag of old gold coins
[Lightbulb Antenna Wand]
[Broom] - Bike handles for steering.
Runes:
Detonation: volatile stuff explodes or catches fire more when you're around it. You can't help it, it must be genetic. Written rune used to detonate volatile substances.
Dead Man Running: you escaped the wrath of a mafia boss. Higher chance of surviving things that should really be deadly.
Mafioso: a mafia hitman, you preferred not to let your targets know they were hunted until after they were spread over an area of three hundred metres. Bonus to carefully planned unexpected attacks.
Alchemical (definitely idiot) savant: you saw an alchemist's shop when wandering around London, and deluded yourself that you understood something of how it worked. Because of the nature of magic, this belief is now partially true. Use this rune to make substances a bit more useful or volatile when used in alchemy.
Trader: a rune that when signed signifies to people that you'd be a good guy to buy from and sell things to.
Reticence: a rune whispered to you by birds perched on phone lines, you can get information without giving away much about yourself.
Bethel: a rune that enhances and aids summoning performed where it is written.
Degeneration: you saw men turned into animals. This rune turns advanced things like steel bolts into crappy primitive things, like wooden bolts.
Entrance: a god tried to break into our world. You now have a +2 in breaking into magic places you shouldn't be messing about with.
Hiijacking: Sand crashed a summoning-party and inserted herself into the centre of the ritual. Things with this rune written on will be more central to events and will conduct more power and magical energy than they should by rights.
Hassle: a rune that allows you to deal more effectively with multiple threats, distractions and tasks at once.
Scrap-crafting: after making a wand with bicycle horns, you have improved at making stuff out of junk. And you were already great at making stuff out of junk.
Oligarchy: a rune revealed to you the first time you flew over London, spelled out in the twistings of the financial buildings and the houses of millionares. Increases your power according to how much money you have.
Punctuality: You're good at getting things done on time.
Puissant clots: 2
Puissance:5/5
Ben Breeze
Stats:
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 4
Aim - 1
Melee - 1
Agility - 2
Practicality - 0
Inventory: knife, taser, handcuffs, police baton, stab vest, torch, incapacitant spray, and a first aid kit. All in sports bag
Also a bag of athames, War Bacon (Vince's Fridge), a worn face-concealing hooded coat.
Four generous Roast Beef and Horseradish Sandwiches
Gunfarmer P90 (45/50) (in bag)
Puissant clots: 3
Puissance:5/5
Name: Derrick
Marked by horrific burns.
Puissant fettle - 1
Banal combat - 2
Melee - 1
Agility - 1
Practicality - 2
Inventory: scrap metal spike, new katana and leather armor secured in crate
[Pocket Knife Wand] [Scrap Metal Shield Staff] - Where? You're unsure.
Puissant Clots: 1
Puissance: 6/6