Nuke it with my worm. Then nuke it again after my worm recharges. Then nuke its nest. Then nuke its nest again.
Then report my success back to the monks.
So, I can burn the string (or other magical stuff) later to improve my pyromancy? Would the pyromancy spells that I'd learn be influenced by what I burned (i.e. if I burned the string, would I gain the ability to make a fire snake/whip or twist fire to constrain opponents?)? Take the string with me.
Can I animate the dead by just putting clots into them? Would becoming a lich serve as a focus for my necromancy?
Do I have to use my phylactery to consume my lich-food (if I become a lich), or can I just bury it somewhere?
@Tree-woman: "How did you die? Why weren't you buried? Can you tell us anything about the man that tied this string around you?"
You could burn the string to learn new pyromancies, yes. Yes, they would be influenced by what you burned.
Yes, provided you were a lich or similar. A clot would produce an undead nearly as functional as something living. You don't really have any reasonable claim to an affinity with death-based magic right now. Maybe if you were a morbid goth or something, or had a death-related experience or artifact... as much a RP thing as anything else. Yes, being a lich would make you capable of necromancy.
You don't
have to use the phylactery, but if it isn't getting food, you aren't doing magic or living very long.
You keep the string. The end that isn't trailing off out of sight. The tree-spirit is evasive, but claims to have been murdered by ruffians and left to rot. She's pretty calm about it, all things considered. You guess the dead don't get PTSD.
"Well only one way to go i guess" he thinks and heads east
You start to walk East, but
only get a few blocks before complications arise. Staggering along the pavement towards you are three giant man-shaped golems. Squat and powerful, they're still three times your height, and are built out of odds and ends collected seemingly at random. Each has a large metal dumpster for a jaw and chin, while irregular eyes composed of cameras, flashlights and shattered electronics glare down at you from skulls of scaffolding. Incredible muscles made from garbage bags and shopping trolleys flex concrete fists and feet. The largest of the three golems, its chest a mess of smashed car and barbed wire, bends down to talk to you.
"Do not come here again... go somewhere else. Turn back."
It gestures along the street.
"Here... our place. Do not come."
Adjusting your route would be easy enough. And you aren't very curious about what the golems are protecting... are you? Hmm...
Ben pauses for a moment, visibly shaken, and closes his eyes. "P90, not P50, I'm not that crazy yet, I know guns..." he mutters to himself, before taking a deep breath.
Ben's reverie is interrupted by Nanami's order, which he's clearly confused by, but he shrugs and turns away anyway. He does give a parting glare to the little runt before leaving, just to make sure it knows not to mess with the woman.
Leave Nanami, and go find a dumpster. Grab a few completely-intact trash bags out of it, and dump their contents, then put them inside each other so that they're all like one extra thick bag.
(I'm very much wondering if this is one of those 'lure near the waterside and drown people' water spirits. That said.. I've got an idea.)
"Ben, can you go and get a travel cup or a water bottle or something big enough to hold something about that big in it, and one that has a lid? Indicate the size of the magic water source with my fingers. "I'll go talk with it and find out what's up." "Don't worry, I'll be careful."
Go closer to the water spirit, but stay about five or so feet away, and ask it to describe the problem. If it comes closer, lure it further away from the water. Try to use my seduction training to figure out if it's genuinely distressed or faking it.
Ben gets the bags while Nanami talks to the spirit. It clearly wants to get closer but doesn't dare to, staying miserably on the damp boundary between dry land and the deep water.
The spirit tells a blubbering and incoherent story about weird lights under the water, odd people on the land further North, and the river tasting funny and being too warm. It doesn't feel safe getting back in, but can't manage being away from water for too long. You're pretty sure it's telling the truth; the thing seems too weak and simple for this to be a deception. And you can't percieve any nearby threats, though the water does seem to have a slight magical residue.
Follow the string, with the others. Have bone wand at the ready, and upgrade it with clots if whatever I see provides one to me. I doubt it, though, but it's worth being ready for.
Follow the magical string!
I'm still in a quantum, timey-wimey state of both following OceanSoul and fighting the beetle, right?
Also, my offer to Ben extends to all of you, if you're somehow here and participate.
You can't follow the string and fight the scorpion at once. I think having you in two simultaneous combats would be too confusing.
Hm... Are my legs still around? If so, are they magical? If so, can I burn them to gain power?
If not, can I burn other parts of myself to gain power, Planescape: Torment style?
One leg is still around. They're slightly magical just like the rest of you. Ew. No, you can't burn parts of yourself to gain power: you have to teach your flame something new when you burn something with it. So burning the ensignia of a particular order or group would teach your flame about the group.
The Pest in the ParkFly up on my broom, Shoot down at the Big buggy.
Agility:
16
+1, 2
+3 vs 4
+3Sir Worthington immediately conjures upon his toad demon. Acid splashes everywhere as the thing emerges from the earth, and the two beasts grapple furiously. The prawn-limbs slash and grab at the scorpion's carapace, but to little effect as the massive claws of the creature slam through the demon, puncturing its light exoskeleton with wet ripping sounds. Defeated, Worthington's creature falls to the ground.
Jimmy has by this point leapt onto his broom, and is circling the scorpion several metres out of the reach of its stabbing tail. Holding his glock in both hands, he takes careful aim and fires. The shot penetrates the sting, shattering it and spraying physics-warping venom over the earth. Startled by the recoil, Jimmy loses his balance and goes over backwards, toppling from the broom and falling ten metres to the ground. He lands on his back, winded but unharmed, having squashed beneath him several of the brood. The remaining scorpion larvae scuttle towards him, as his broom floats down unhurriedly.
Sir Worthington backs away from the incensed scorpion, which fixes its attention upon him, making a sound not unlike a welding torch in pain. An area of uncertain space starts to open up between Jimmy and the other two combatants: the reality-bending venom of the creature twisting and enlarging tiny contours in the earth until, paradoxically, a hill forty feet across occupies the centre of the ten-metre lawn. Stalks of grass the height of wheat grow there, and a few confused ordinary insects magnified to the size of dogs buzz away back into normal space. A point of height and relative safety, it's an option for either witch if they want to put some distance between themselves and their enemy. You coul also run round it a lot faster than you can run across it, and other neat stuff like that.
StringFollow the string, with the others. Have bone wand at the ready, and upgrade it with clots if whatever I see provides one to me. I doubt it, though, but it's worth being ready for.
You follow the string through the market, across roads, down alleys, over and under bridges and overpasses, until you reach a rather expensive looking apartment building not marked on Vince's map. In fact, you can't sense any magic coming from it at all. The string leads up the stairs, but the well-dressed security man at the door won't let you upstairs without a resident asking you up to their apartment, or similar proof of your right to be there.
You're also alone, by the way.
Name: Nanami Adachi. (Nanami)
Unnatural beauty granted by demonic contract and the adoration of mortals. Slight charisma/popularity boost.
Power from mortal media.
Conscripted into twenty-nineth legion of Amdukias.
Puissance: 2
Ritual: 0
Runic Sight: 0
Banal Combat: 0
Aim: 1
Melee: 0
Agility: 1
Praticality: 2
Inventory: £315
Backpack, expensive camera + memory cards
Quality sketching paper, art pens+pencils, charcoal, etc.
Sketches of self as main character, Amdukias, the non-mortal world, etc.
[Glass Rod Crystal Wand] - Enhanced slightly through media
Puissance: 9/9
Puissant Clots: 1
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: £20, 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: 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: £25, Pint of royal blood (stored at Vince's), blood covered knife, Cursed String
Stored at Vince's place: mortal's tendons, skull and leg bones.
[Glass Eye Pendant] [Paintbrush Wand]
[Toad Demon Battery Acid Tupperware Chalice]
Novice's Pyromancy Flame - Heal Burn (1P), Create Flame (1P)
Puissant Clots: 0
Puissance: 3/5
Jimmy "Car bombs" Castanza
Slightly slowed by a heavy load.
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 3
Banal combat - 1
Aim - 1
Melee - 0
Agility - 0
Practicality - 3
Inventory: £20, very rusty saw, length of pipe stuck to block of concrete, highlighter pen
[Lightbulb Antenna Wand]
[Broom - TIER 3] - Bike handles for steering.
Glock 17 (9/10)
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: 0
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, 2.5 legs War Bacon (Vince's Fridge), a worn face-concealing hooded coat.
Two generous Roast Beef and Horseradish Sandwiches
Gunfarmer P90 (44/50) (in bag)
Puissant clots: 3
Puissance:5/5
Steve
Puissant fettle - 0
Ritual potency - 0
Runic sight - 0
Banal combat - 3
Aim - 0
Melee - 0
Agility - 3
Practicality - 0
Inventory: £50
Puissance: 5/5
Clots:3
Author
Topic: COVEN: Gulled Goldsmiths and Lost Locomotives (Read 154083 times)