The Ascetic Ghost Shepherd
A thin, wiry guy. Hazel eyes. Black hair. Long fingers.
current status: fine
Stats
6 str
6 spd
10 End
8 Know
10 Will
4 sense
Mana: 5
Materials: Porcelain, Black Flux, Force
Inventory:
Inhabited by a Spirit - a little shepherdess girl. Likes dolls. Adventurous. (Current request:shiny thing)
Currently hosting a Scarab ghost in muh brains. (Currently wants a religious relic that has been buried with the dead for some time)
One catamaran sailboat
Ghost Charm
Doctor's Kit
Lantern, Rope, Backpack
(1) rolling horse toy
0 gold
[5] [1]
Felix shimmies up the bottom spike like a monkey up a tree and grabs the ball. Despite being apparently barely connected to the top and bottom spike, the ball doesn't budge when Felix tries to rip it free. He gives it such a hard yank that he loses his grip and tumbles off the spike.
[5]
He lands on his back with a grunt but gets up, uninjured.
"Tricksy precious" he grumbles.
(Spock raised eyebrow.)
(Any other stat changes?)
Lets get Benedict fitted out for travel, then. I don't need anything fancy, I'm just aiming to travel, so I just need a few strong ropes, padding as needed, a few soft ropes to grab, steel rings to clip to, and three carabiner belts. I'll get a more elaborate harness and saddle done when I have plenty of time.
Also, see if I can get my compass chained to my robes like a pocketwatch, and purchase some goggles.
Finish this up for the night, and get ready to head out tomorrow. Do ask some questions about directions to the capital and the specifics of the Magebreakers.
(It also strikes me that the capital shouldn't be that hard to find from the air, with roads leading towards it, and it being a large city on top of a huge lonely mountain.)
Gryphon's too big to sleep indoors, but big enough to shield Saeko from the weather, so rest outside under its wing.
(estimating Benedict's food consumption at 1 gold/day. Will deduct along with the 1 gold/week pay for each of my two guards.)
Japanese girl with a long black braid and a white and red fitted robe with long gloves. Slight sparkle in eyes. Burnt off eyebrows from spell failure. Missing fingernails on right hand.
Currently ~11 days until next full moon.
Invoking Empath
Str d6
Speed d8
Endurance d10+1
Knowledge d6+1
Will d10+1
Senses d8
Materials: d12 Ape, d12 Grow, d12 Strengthen, d12 Expand, d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
Location: Lunare
Status: Fine. Burn scars on arms. Missing fingernails on right hand.
Temporary Effects: None.
Items:
16 mana
65 gold
d6 armour: The outfit, naturally. Weighs as if it were d4
Backpack
100ft Rope
Waterskin
Compass
Surgical Tools
Jade tablets with d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
Familiar. "Benedict" Cougar/red-tailed hawk, adequate flyer, elephant-sized with 60+ foot wingspan. Regal.
Str D6
Spd D4
End D8
Kno D4
Will D8
Sen D6
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.
Strength for it should be d12, speed d8, Endurance d12, otherwise unchanged.
We'll assume the town will lend you items needed for a temporary harness and sell you the chain for your compass and some goggles for 1 gold.
They tell you the general way to the capital (Which should be visible from the air pretty quickly. Its a giant dormant volcano in the middle of an otherwise mostly empty plain after all. They also tell you the building where the Magebreakers will be, and warn you that maybe a giant griffin might spook them if you just fly down on it in the middle of the street.
Accept the position of a worse paid caravan guard, keep guarding until there's combat or we arrive at Balneum Mariae.
Name: Robert Grant
Appearance: A stocky, tall man with black hair.
Magic path: Hunter Sculptor
Strength: d10
Speed: d6
Endurance: d8
Knowledge: d8
Will: d8
Senses: d4
Ongoing effects: Cut palm (treated)
Mana: 5
Materials:
Shrink
Inventory:
War axe D8
Doctor's Bag
Leather armor D6
Bandages
Backpack
Lantern
199 gold
Shield
Sword d6
Crossbow with 20 bolts d6
Helmet d4
Leather gloves
Crowbar
Rope
Iron thread
The route is indeed not very dangerous and you get there without issue, getting 20 gold for your trouble. Balneum Mariae is quite a thing, especially after following a wind blow, barely visible path through hot sands for several days. Its an oasis of quite a good size, a small lake with many trees and plants clustered around its edges and a town made of adobe squatting along the beach. It looks almost like an oversized sand castle, domed sand colored structures rising up, stacked on each other in a way that seems almost organic. The people wear long robes and head coverings to protect themselves from the sun and long, thin boats shoot out through the clear bluegreen waters of the lake like minnows, gathering giant algae rafts and seaweed bunches.
"I'm quite alright, thank you. Now what have I missed?"
Listen to anything my familiar wants to report, then listen out for any signs of returning bandits or townsfolk. Then head towards the tallest nearvy building to get a view of what's going on.
Name: Frick Varmer
Appearance: An enthusiastic, young-middle-aged man. Between his
ridiculous magnificent hat, the strange bird always perched on his shoulder, and his unbridled curiosity for arcana in all its forms, he is clearly either a wizard or an eccentric fool. Or, more than likely, both.
Magic Path: Alchemist Invoker
Mana: 4
Stats:Strength: d4
Speed: d6
Endurance: d8
Knowledge: d12
Will: d8
Senses: d6
Ongoing Effects: None
Materials: Alcohol (d12)
Inventory: Pointy hat (-)
Thick winter clothing (d4)
Stout walking stick (d4)
Hunting rifle (d8)
Backpack
Lantern
Tent
Climbing gear, 200ft rope
Spyglass
Iron rations (6 person-weeks at start of journey)
Fresh thorny devil meat, good amount.
Net
Bear Trap
Box of thaumic junk
Empty book and ink pen
Alchemist's gear
Glass vials, box
Urn w/ ashes, bound for Kaolin temple.
29 Gold
3 Silver
Giant thorny devil skin
Companions: Familiar: A small crow, which shares its master's inquisitiveness.
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d4
Knowledge: d6
Will: d6
Senses: d8
Grant: A mountain trapper who lost his wife and child to an avalanche. He is...withdrawn, quiet, terse and seemingly quick to anger if asked repeated questions.
The familar reports that the bandits moved a bit into the interior of the town, apparently searching for you, before turning back and retreating away from the town the way they came. The townsfolk are still making their way in the opposite direction, trying to outrun the bandits they assume are still after them.
You climb up into a nearby two story building and look around. The familiar's reports seem to square with what you see, though there are also a few other things of importance...like the fact that a not insignificant amount of the town is now on fire.
"Did I say you could leave?"
Cut down the ones trying to flee.
Name: Zavirius En-Drani Haver, Painter
Appearance: A girl of unknown but apparently foreign descent. 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: 3
Method: Flesh-Inscribed Channel
Materials: Lightweight, Explosion
Strength: d10+1
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d8
Will: d8+1
Senses: d6
Ongoing effects: Okay?
Inventory:
Needlessly ornate painting guardian sword
[9+1][6]
You chase after the retreating ghouls and promptly cut down two or three of them, but the rest manage to scamper. Still, at least 20 or more of these things are now laying dead or dying.
Ask if it's a good idea to continue, seeing that Nina is almost completely out of mana.
Name: Randolf Osborn
Appearance: Ugly as hell. Smells like rotten fish. Very brutish.
Magic path: Channeler Ascetic
Mana: 7!
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
2 silver coins
Air bladder
Aqua Vitae
Ferry ticket
Recruitment Leaflet
"Her taking that vampire into herself wasn't a good idea. Her doing this at all isn't, strictly speaking, a good idea. Noble. Self sacrificing. But in terms of self preservation its distinctly not a good idea."
Implant into all bugs we have line of sight that we are just part of the background scenery (D8 difficulty will spell)
Name: Écalir Speedwagon
Appearance: barbarian, think Arnie from Conan the Barbarian
Magic path: Hunting flesh-scroll
Strength: d10+2
Speed: d10+1
Endurance: d8+1
Knowledge: d4
Will: d6+1
Senses: d6
Mana: 17
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
InventoryMare's Leg: Lever Action, d8, 5/5 magazine, 45 spare bullets.
Quality weapon (Spear): d8
Longsword with glowing runes
Springy metal warpick: d8
Springy metal knive: d6
Springy metal sword: d6
9 smokebombs
Thaumic flamethrower (5/50 thaum tank, d10 str requirement, armored fuel tank) + extra canisters with compressed gas
Poncho
Sombrero
Fitted armor: d8
Sealer Suit: d4 vs magic
Shield (+1 to protective rolls from armor)
Backpack
100 feet of rope
Bandages
Tattoo Kit
199g worth of gems
doctor's bag
Gladiator Badge
Jade tablets (48-number of words)
binoculars
[1v2] [-2 mana]
Assuming the spell works, start our sneakin'. Try to head for wherever the bugs seem to be flying around or coming to and from, staying near the mindcontrolled bugs but avoiding others where possible. If not clear, then head for the middle of the cave.
If spell fails, and we aren't spotted due to that, retreat into the tunnel until I think we won't be heard/seen and convert 750 gold into 30 mana.
Name: Darwin Zeppeli
Appearance: An old medicine man.
Magic path: alchemist gut-reader
Strength: d4
Speed: d6->d8
Endurance: d6->d8
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d10
Mana: 0
Ongoing effects: None
Magical materialsVacuum!
Reanimate
Sharpen
Viscera
Diamond
Rope
Inventory6 mercenaries:
1 ranged and 1 melee merc, stay with Ecalir and watch his back
3 melee mercs and 1 ranged merc stay with Darwin, 2 of the melee mercs stick close to him at all times and act as bodyguards
dissection knife: d4
Springy metal knive: d6
Springy metal sword: d6
Springy metal halberd: d8
Curved blade: d6
Icepick: d4
gun: d8 [50 rounds left]
9 smokebombs
Thaumic bomb (currently empty)
Ecalir's old armor: d8 (in use)
shield (+1 to protective rolls from armor)
Sealer Suit: d4 (vs magic)
Alchemist’s Gear
1514 gold
5 silver
Octopus core
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.
magic coin
Small book
magic compass + map
book on normal plants and animals
book on magical plants and animals/creatures
handbook on making weapons&armor, including a list of known types
a detailed account of the Artifacter war
map of the old world
good quality book&pen
good history book
Paradox snail (inside jar) and things to keep them happy and fed
Doctor's bag
set of ingredients (plants, chemicals and the like) for making poisons or antidotes (24 uses left)
High quality backpack
donkey named Yvonne 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
2x Collapsible rod
20 oil flasks
300 feet of really big, thick, strong rope
100 feet of metal chain
box of metal spikes
pair of binoculars
5 boxes of rags
Medium armor: d6 (not in use)
Eclair points at the bugs and sparks fly out of his finger. Not good sparks though as he immediately jerks his hand back with a muttered swear.
Darwin drags Eclair back into the tunnel and sets up his alchemical equipment to start converting gold into mana. It will take a while. Maybe 30 minutes.