I want to try asking the old woman first then anyone I see in the inn.
Name: Randolf Osborn
Appearance: Ugly as hell. Smells like rotten fish. Very brutish.
Magic path: Channeler Ascetic
Mana: 0
Strength: D6
Speed: D6
Endurance: D12
Knowledge: D4
Will: D12
Senses: D4
Ongoing effects:
Inventory:
Sealer Suit D4
Shield
Wooden Club D6
Backpack
Lantern
100 feet of rope
30 gold coins
[/quote]
You ask the inn keeper and then a string of random people around town questions about the lake. They alternate between being vague- "We are a simple fishing town, stranger." -and being mildly threatening -"Now we don't come to your home and poke our noses in your dealings, do we? I wouldn't think that anyone who wanted to remain a guest would harass their host like that."
You get a few tidbits of info, which you're pretty sure they let spill by complete accident. This church that hired you worships some sort of...thing in the lake. They're very cagey on details. But apparently they bring people down there every so often as "Converts". Though what happens to those converts isn't really spoken about. The church apparently got popular back when the lake became more of a bog than a lake, when fishing was really difficult to make a living on. Members of the church always seemed to have fish, so the faith spread quickly. They rule the town at this point, and they're not to friendly to those that question them.
((Finally got everything settled for my next semester of college, just in time for the year to be over. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with this thread better now. No promises for next year, though.))
I feel bad that I keep doing this, but any chance I could have continued working my business to earn gold and thaum for the turns I missed? Anyway, back to the poor side of town. See if a few of the downtrodden would be willing to offer some blood for gold. Hopefully getting it from a few people will let me get the fill of a small child without undue harm to the donators.
Name: Aurum
Appearance:
I am the alchemist.Magic path: Alchemist Sculptor
Mana: 3
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d10
Knowledge: d8
Will: d10
Senses: d4
Ongoing effects: None
Inventory: Magical Material (Grand Item)
Alchemist's Gear (Great Item) (Set up at home)
A drop of Thaum
Box of Glass Vials (Mundane Item)
Bug-goldman hourglass sculpture
25 Thaum
6 Gold
Backpack (Mundane Item)
To be honest I don't even remember what you were doing for work, you've been gone a while. Can you tell me how many weeks you've been gone, roughly, and what the work you were doing was so we can work out what you get?
As per selling blood, there are people willing to do it, of course, especially in the poorer parts of town. It does, however, arouse a bit of suspicion: they're probably wondering exactly what this weird foreign man wants with blood.
Get to the pillar, CREATE THE SCULPTURE.
Name: Moghorn the Journeyman
Appearance: Fiftyish and very weathered. Moghorn spent his youth, adolescense, and adulthood travelling according to the voices in his head and the strange compulsions he felt. Then he stumbled across a magical spirit and gained magical powers.
Magic path: Servant Sculptor
Mana: 5
Strength: d6
Speed: d12
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d6
Will: d6
Senses: d8
Ongoing effects: Has a spirit in him
Needs:Some Black Flux (Fuel in Fearce, also naturally sourced), a lot Human blood, Alchemist's tools (just buy), A gallon of mercury (free near Pillars of Lead), Contained lightning (Fearce Battery), a fist sized crystal (Try science crystal before magic)
Inventory:
Lodestone
11 gold coins
Camping Gear
Five days of supplies
Mundane: Backpack, 100 feet of rope, Lantern
Great: Marsh Hog Leather Armour (d6 protection), Marsh Hog Bone crossbow (d6 ranged damage)
Grand: Spirit (Wants stone guide from the towers around Kaolin)
Cheap Alchemist's Tools, ample Black Flux urn, fist-sized raw crystal, fist-sized lightning battery.
Sculpture:
Flamethrower RodMaterials: "Grand Lode Stone" or rare earth magnet in our terms
Wax
Copper
Dirt
Fire
Snake
You walk to the pillars, dragging the corpse behind you, until you come to the great lakes of silvery mercury that surround them. You kneel down by the lake, drag the body close, and unpack your supplies. The next few hours pass in that same creative haze you're used to, only bits and pieces of half remembered actions remaining in your memory.
When you're done, you're left with something odd.
Its a gem, about the size of your fist, with a briolette cut. Its roughly teardrop shaped, with a fat semi-spherical bottom and a top that tapers up into a razor sharp point. It looks at first glace like a massive ruby but you can see that the colors within are actually swirling and churning between red, black and silver, with crackling arcs of silver light, like static discharges. As you stare into the flow of colors, you begin to understand.
You gain the words
Black Flux
Blood
Lightning
Crystal
and Sharp
((Probably best to wait with getting some of that jade, lest the locals ask some very pointed questions as to why exactly we're stealing their cultural patrimony/infrastructure. ))
Onwards we go! If one of the people on the upper catwalk want to collect some of that oil, hand them some of my alchemist glassware to store it in.
Could I use my 'viscera' word in a sort of scrying spell? The idea is that I'd try to sense any 'viscera' in a fairly wide area to know if any creatures/people/whatever are near (and that have organs that can be described as viscera, of course). And what is the difficulty/mana cost difference if this scrying is only as a momentary 'pulse' as opposed to an effect that continues working for a while (aka a temporary magical sensing)? What about trying to give me a permanent ability to sense nearby viscera?
Name: Darwin Zeppeli
Appearance: An old medicine man.
Magic path: alchemist gut-reader
Strength: d4
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d10
Mana: 10
Ongoing effects: None
Magical materials- Vacuum!
- Reanimate
- Sharpen
- Viscera
- Diamond
InventoryWeapons
Armor
- Medium armor: d6
- Sealer Suit: d4 (vs magic)
Alchemist swag
- Alchemist’s Gear
- small amount of thaum
- 250 gold worth of precious gems
General adventurer crap
- Zomboraptor head
- Lantern
- several hundred feet of rope
- climbing crampons
- a grappling hook
- iron stakes
- net made of rope
You toss some glass bottles up to Eclair. He catches them and doesn't even comically break any of them.
You could use your viscera word to effectively sense living things around you. The major limiting factors are the area it is effective within and the length of time it is active. You could also try to magically change your own body in some way that would allow you to sense life, but that change would have to be organic and not magical. Ie heat sensing or something like that.
((Merry Christmas to all.))
Collect some of the black oil with the vials Darwin gives me. Then join the group in venturing forth.
Name: Écalir Speedwagon
Appearance: barbarian, think Arnie from Conan the Barbarian
Magic path: Hunting flesh-scroll
Mana: 10
Strength: d10
Speed: d10
Endurance: d8
Knowledge: d4
Will: d6
Senses: d6
Ongoing effects:None
Inventory:
Backpack
100 feet of rope
Bandages
Tattoo Kit
Medium armour: d6 (damaged)
Quality weapon (Spear): d8
250g worth of gems
Tattoos:
Arm: "wood"
You gather some of the oil. It smells...like grease and dust and you inevitably get a bit on your hands. Its very slippery.
Onwards! While thinking about rune magics, of course.
Name: Behiar the Scribe
Appearance: Green coveralls, blond hair in a bun, dark eyes and pale complexion. Adventure often leads to death and glory! Better than sitting around doing nothing, ehe.
Strength: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d4
Knowledge: d8
Will: d6
Senses: d6
Ongoing effects: Excited!
Inventory:
100 Coins
250 GP worth of Gems
Sturdy backpack
Oil lamp
Book & pen
Rock hammer (d6)
Everyone continues forth, following the pathway either on or below it. It becomes quickly evident why this walkway exists; there are copious amounts of very ancient fish bones scattered around, not to mention a fine dusting of sediment. This place was probably a shallow lake at one point, with the walkway over the water. The walkway abruptly ends with a crevice, or perhaps its more correct to say a canyon or a cliff? There's no end of it in sight, no sides either, just a sharp drop into darkness. You can hear the water from the river crashing down into it. However, you're all a bit more distracted by something else. Down in that darkness, there are glimmering lights; they're either your own lanterns reflecting off something shiny or independent lights. Either way, its too solid for water and not the right composition for run of the mill wet stone. There's something down there, something very large.