"Ha! I could beat you fools with my hands tied. Is that all you've got?"
Slash at the painting with the kukri and draining it with my empty hand. Kick the machetes away if possible.
Name: Zavirius En-Drani Haver, Painter
Appearance: A girl of unknown but apparently foreign decent. She claims to be the last surviving member of a long-dead ancient race, kept preserved in some kind of magical stasis, but this is likely untrue. Though her skin is a strange shade not normally seen on the continent, and her hair is bleached white with a slight green reflective tint. She is not very tall but stout like a dwarf and startlingly strong. The clothing that she wears is very minimal.
Mana: 5
Method: Flesh-Inscribing Channel
Materials: Lightweight, Explosion
Strength: d10
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d8
Will: d8
Senses: d6
Ongoing effects: Okay?
Inventory:
Wooden Arm-Guards (d4 armor)
Hemp sack
Paints and brushes
Kukri (d6 weapon)
[6v3][4]
You step on the machetes and kick them backwards, sending them sliding across the room and against the opposite wall. You then dart in and grab the painted man by the face, draining mana from him in a spray of golden sparks that race from his body and into yours. The painting golem grows dull and flat until it is literally nothing but a flat, animated piece of paper. It struggles to stand, flapping slowly like a flag in the breeze.
The two men, disarmed and clearly outmatched, make a break for the door, shouldering their way through and out into the street.
"Ah ha!" You shout, twirling your kukri, "Now then, I should probably deal with this situation before they get reenforcements."
The lady has passed out and is laying still, but breathing. The hostage is silent but looks rather...expectant. And the painting golem is trying to charge you but has fallen over and is stuck to a glob of paint on the floor.
"Alright, then what's your plan?"
Ask the guy if he can think about a better plan than mine without using actual women as bait or having people dress as women.
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
White Robes
Shield
Wooden Club D6
Backpack
Lantern
100 feet of rope
29 gold coins
4 silver coins
Air bladder
Aqua Vitae???
"I would say we stake out the areas they keep hitting. Women still walk through there everyday, we don't need to purposefully set up a bait situation. Besides, there's a chance whatever is doing this monitors the people moving through the territory. It might prefer chosen targets but strikes at opportunities when it gets them. The thing we don't wanna do is be obvious and arouse suspicion. So far I don't think they know we're on to them. If they see a set up they might skip town, lose them forever."
"Okay. Um, here's what I'm seeing."
Explain the situation to the parents, including the likelyhood of it being a magical ailment and how I can't identify it specifically but not including what Adam said.
"I can message a couple other healers I know to try to get help, but they'll take a couple days to arrive. It'll be cutting it close, but they might be able to arrive in time. Alternately I can try to drain the magic from him, which hasn't been harmful in the past, but I've never tried it on someone as unhealthy as him. So I want your permission before I do anything."
If the parents give permission, then I'll drain the magic from him. If he seems to be getting harmed by it, then stop immediately. If they deny permission or I have to stop, then send for help.
Name: Nina Morellis
Appearance: A young, red-haired woman, green eyes, somewhat unkempt. She's had Adam for as long as she could remember, and has a bit of a reputation as a harmless nut. The town guard are okay with Nina though, occasionally getting her help keeping a mage secured by having her drain their mana so they can't cast. Since they don't have a proper magehunter available, having a local civilian channeler they can bring in as needed is a big help. And Nina tries to be on her best behavior with them to keep their relations good. Nina herself works as a healer, living out in the poor part of town, and has an erratic schedule based on the needs of those who want her help. so she has a lot of free time, but also gets woken up in the middle of the night a lot. add in Adam's occasional antics and she doesn't get to have a stable sleep schedule.
Magic Path: Channeler, Invoker.
Materials: Sound
Mana: 5
Strength: D4
Speed: D6
Endurance: D10
Knowledge: D8
Will: D10
Senses: D6
Inventory: Backpack, padded cloak (D4 protection, Light armor), Lantern, doctor's bag, waterskin (air), hammer, 2 silver, air bladder, white robes.
Inhabited by a spirit which takes the form of a floating disembodied limb that constantly melts and reforms into other body parts. She calls it "Adam."
Location: Mesothorium
Cabal: None at this time.
The parents listen to you and then retreat to talk it over by themselves. You sit with the boy and wait. Most of the time people say yes to this kind of thing, trust the doctor. Sometimes they get afraid, lock up, go defensive and static. Too afraid to act, they let things progress in a mire of indecision until its too late to do anything. Then they often blame those that tried to help, rewriting things in their head to make themselves the victim. People are tedious sometimes.
You place your hand on the delirious child's forehead, sopping up sweat with your sleeve, and waiting. Finally they come back. They ask you if there is any sort of test or divination you can do to make sure there's magic at work. They understand that it probably is, but they just want to know if you can do something to be more certain.
Hug the bugman from behind, try to drain mana from him. I don't mind if the bugman's knocked out due to mana induced fatigue, so try to drain him more or less dry... It was too bad he had to get hurt, but I can't really negotiate with creatures I can't understand.
Enlarging weapons to make them less useful is a possibility as a defensive act. Are these bug-guys using any kind of tack to keep mounted on their giant bugs? If so, maybe some judicious use of enlarge could cause their saddles to slip, (enlarging tongue holes, making straps loose, etcetera), dismounting the bugman doing the riding. That's also a possibility to defend myself or the others.
Lastly, how many bugmen are there, compared to people around the carts?
Saeko Hirahara
Japanese girl with a long black braid and a white and red dress with long gloves and stockings.
Invoking Empath
Str d4 -> d6
Speed d8
Endurance d10+1
Knowledge d4
Will d10+1
Senses d8
Items:
6 mana (+5 mana last turn)
114 coins (gold)
d6 armour: The outfit, naturally. Weighs as if it were d4
Backpack
100ft Rope
Waterskin
Compass
Hat
Sun Goggles
Materials: d12 Ape, d12 Grow, d12 Strengthen, d12 Expand.
Location: Crocus
Status: Fine. Burn scars on arms.
Notes: Improving physical stats with strengthen, d4->d6 is d6, d6->d8 is d12, d8->d10 is d20 or more.
Mental stats are possible, but harder or more complicated.
[3v5]
You dart in, attempting to get your arms around the bug man and suck enough mana out of him to render him helpless. But he either sees you coming or is just assuming you're going to attack because he hops, with surprising agility, a good 10 feet in the air and 15 feet away, back into the mist. You don't see him land, just vanish. Huh.
In the distance there is a reverberating bellowing noise, like a brass horn the size of a small mountain being played. The insects circle once more before suddenly breaking off and charging away into the mist, the sound of their retreat vanishing within moments.
You shop around for a bag and attempt to haggle people down from their starting prices but you end up annoying them so much that they actually raise them.
A doctors bag will be about 25-30 gold here. Cheaper if you can haggle someone down.
Oh well, though luck. Buy a doctor's bag for 30 gold, that still ok?
You start to explain things to the butcher and he interrupts you after a few sentences.
"Ain't no one coming down here to dissect out of curiosity. If you were one of those types with the time and money to do it, you'd just buy the corpse and have it taken to your estate or whatever you have. So you're either here to try and steal and smuggle guts or you're a wizard who wants some magic from the beasties." He punctuates the last sentence with a cleaving blow from his knife.
"If its guts you want, you'd best be leaving, but if its magic then I'll make you a deal." He looks up at your blank and somewhat shocked expression, "I've had two others like you come in here before." He says, grinning.
Try to get an idea of his character and whether he’s being honest about making a deal, or if he’s planning to betray me or rat me out. If he seems good for it, then let's make a deal. Ask him what monsters he still has available, mention that the fresher the better. Get an idea of how much I'd need to pay him for every monster I take a look at.
Then, out of curiosity (and certainly not for future necromancy fodder, no siree) ask how much buying a whole corpse would cost.
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: 32
Ongoing effects: None
Magical materialsVacuum!
Reanimate
Sharpen
Viscera
Diamond
Inventorydissection knife: d4
Springy metal knive: d6
Springy metal sword: d6
Springy metal halberd: d8
gun: d8
9 smokebombs
Medium armor: d6
Ecalir's old armor: d8
Sealer Suit: d4 (vs magic)
shield (+1 to protective rolls from armor)
Alchemist’s Gear
250 gold worth of precious gems
Sack of jewels worth 314 gold
5 silver
an ingot of platinum (40 mana)
A glass slab with a topographical map of the kingdom carved into it
a bottle of glowing blue sea water, inside protective box with lock
a glass orb with barely visible lotus inside of it, inside staff assembly.
High quality backpack
donkey for carrying
Zomboraptor head
Lantern
several hundred feet of rope
climbing crampons
a grappling hook
iron stakes
net made of rope
several vials with imp fat
20 vials
good quality book&pen
Sure.
The man seems, judging from his speech and nonchalant attitude, to be on the level. You get the feeling he doesn't care and just wants to make a buck. At least thats your impression. You decide to make a deal.
"Ok, here's the deal. Every day there are games, I'll let you know. You come in and pay a gold per corpse and I let you dig around in them before I chop them up. They'll be freshly dead, just like you like them. We'll usually get a couple dozen corpses."
"Depends on the beast. I'm selling them based on the value of all the guts in them. Something with lots of medicinal parts gonna be more than something without, even if the medicinal one is a lot less...effective than the other."
I return from my academic floundering. Go and tour the arena and see the sights, and figure out what the fight I'm going to be in will be like exactly
Name: Écalir Speedwagon
Appearance: barbarian, think Arnie from Conan the Barbarian
Magic path: Hunting flesh-scroll
Strength: d10
Speed: d10
Endurance: d8
Knowledge: d4
Will: d6+1
Senses: d6
Mana: 15
Ongoing effects:None
Magical materialsleft Arm: wood
Right arm: Insect
Stomach: Strong acid
Chest: White Phosphorous
Left buttcheek: Electricity
Right buttcheek: Lightning
left leg: multiply
InventoryQuality weapon (Spear): d8
Longsword with glowing runes
Springy metal warpick: d8
Springy metal knive: d6
Springy metal sword: d6
9 smokebombs
Fitted armor: d8
Shield (+1 to protective rolls from armor)
Backpack
100 feet of rope
Bandages
Tattoo Kit
250g worth of gems
The arena is pretty circular, just slightly ovoid. It has what look like three distinct sets of graduated seats going from the lowest and nearest to the highest and furthest seats. There are no individual chairs just long wooden benches, at least in the normal seating areas. You can see several balconies jutting out of the second level of seating; providing nice overhead views for the more wealthy patrons, no doubt. The arena floor itself is flat for the moment, just an open dirt floor with several trap doors and platforms embedded in it. There are also several gates around the perimeter. You squint down and see there are attachment points in the dirt, places where obstacles and such could be affixed. They could probably have fairly elaborate setups.
Your fights will be one on one, with pre-selected equipment. They will go till first true blood; ie first to land a good blow, not a little cut or scuff. They have told everyone that killing your opponent is an automatic disqualification.
Author
Topic: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game (Read 365003 times)