I assumed some days were taken up with finishing up various things, settling debts, etc. Time skip basically.
I’m afraid that wasn’t the correct assumption in this case. We actually just wanted to get things settled up asap and immediately leave, without resting in that place. If it were the case we had to rest before we could do more traveling, we’d have preferred to teleport away first and then rest.
When you attempt to convert the Biometal you get a bit of it in but as soon as you start breaking it down the stuff literally leaps out of the beaker and reconnects with the larger block. When you attempt to get it back in, it actively fights against you and slithers between your fingers. It never attacks you, but it seems completely hell bent on not being dissolved. Stupid living metal.
Would getting a sturdy closed flask help with converting a little of it into mana, or is this just you informing us that this stuff isn't convertible into thaum?
Alternatively, would forming it into a combat shape and having Ecalir fight it be an acceptable way of farming mana for you?
Did you decide yet what the effect of doing a vivisection instead of a dissection in terms of words found, by the way? Lower difficulty? More words? Nothing?
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: 7
10 thaum in bottle
Ongoing effects: None
Magical materialsVacuum!
Reanimate
Sharpen
Viscera
Diamond
Rope
Inventory1 sedated bugman
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
30 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 (23 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
10 oil flasks
300 feet of really big, thick, strong rope
100 feet of metal chain
box of metal spikes
pair of binoculars
4 boxes of rags
Medium armor: d6 (not in use)
18 days worth of supplies
Sorry about that, I kind of just time skipped everyone together.
If you were to lock it in a sufficiently robust vessel you could convert it. Its not unable to be converted, but it is alive and will resist being destroyed in the same way that if you threw a live chicken in a frying pan it wouldn't just sit there. Fighting with it is a reasonable way to gain mana, sure. Though to really gain the most it would have to be a real dangerous fight, not a spar.
Ok so the way I generate words for thing is that I grab all the words I think would be reasonable to get from the dissection and I throw in some "NONE" and then I randomize the list and take the first X results. I would say that for a vivisection I would probably throw in less Nones and increase the size of the X I'm pulling from. In other words, higher chance of getting words, and higher chance of getting more words. The variety of words however, wouldn't be effected.
Stick with Darwin while he thinks things over, keep on whistling and posing.
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+1
Mana: 25
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
You thought it was a turn you'd see here? But no! It was me! Youtube link!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJnsWdOZ5t4Are there any Materials they're willing to teach me? and do they want me to teach another invoker the material for Sound? Am ready, just trying to use the wait time productively.
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: 3
Strength: D4
Speed: D6
Endurance: D10
Knowledge: D8
Will: D10
Senses: D6
(Locked up) Inventory: waterskin (air), hammer, 2 silver, air bladder, white robes, aqua vitae. a red gambleson, gray pants, metal bracers, shin guards and a sallet helm (d6 armor). kite shield (d6), a long sword (d6), catch pole.
(current) Inventory: 3 small bombs and a pair of manacles. Backpack, padded cloak (D4 protection, Light armor), doctor's bag, walking stave, Lantern.
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."
Cabal: None at this time.
Invoker huh, lets see what they have....well turns out fate favors the talkative.
Electricity
Mammal
Gas
Ape
Accelerate
Demonic
Strong acid
Concrete
Volatile
Drug
Take your pick of one.
Name: Eve
Appearance: 4 ft tall female human with long hear that constantly changes color. She always wears a long sleeve shirt and jeans. She has slightly tan skin and green eyes. most of her right arm is made of aluminum, from her hand to her forearm.
Magic path: Servant Sculptor
Mana: 9
Strength: d4
Speed: d8
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d10
Will: d8
Senses: d8
Ongoing effects: None
Items needed for current Sculpture
1. A smooth river rock: Acquired
2. A block of Ice: Not Acquired
3. About a half liter of mercury: Not Acquired May be found at Bromcresol
4. Silver Wire: Acquired
Spirit: None
Spirit Task: None
Inventory: Doctor's bag, Thick fur shirt D4, Thick fur leggings d4, ghost charm, Smooth river rock, 100 ft of string, a pry-bar, a spool of silver wire, 50 gold
Materials: lightsilver
Head towards the men and investigate. Are they dead or just sleeping?
HmmmYou walk over to the men and look at them. Definitely dead and dead for a good while. Days? Maybe a week? Checking both, it appears that they killed each other.
[4v4]
You reconstruct the scene in your head as best you can using the remaining clues. A duel maybe, One man is dead on his back, facing north, the other is laying face down, also facing north, as though he was walking away when he died. You Check the wounds. Gunshots. Man on his back has a shot straight to the head, other one to the chest. Heart shot maybe? There's a very eroded trail of blood showing the man walked a few feet before he went down. You check the bodies. No guns, no money, nothing of value. Hmmm.
Examine myself physically trying to determine if I need immediate medical assistance. Use a very weak View Ape spell, (d4) in an attempt to examine myself magically to make sure. If nothing is found, just wash up and wait for tomorrow.
Japanese girl with a long black braid and a white and red fitted robe with long gloves. Clothing made of metallic thread. Pointy, somewhat elfish ears. Violet tinted eyes. Very faintly luminous. Missing fingernails on right hand. Heavy lightning scars up right arm, and around the neck, ending at the right temple.
Invoking Empath
Str d6 +1
Speed d8 +1
Endurance d10+2
Knowledge d6+1
Will d10+2
Senses d8 +1
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. Slightly enhanced hearing.
Temporary Effects:
Items:
Two machine guns! with lots of ammo.
98 mana
35 gold (-2 for first week of lodging.)
d8+1 armour: The outfit, and a shield. Weighs as if it were d6.
Shield.
Backpack
Waterskin
Black metal scrap, resembling woven cloth but steel hard.
Shining steel ingots and pile of rust/other impurities.
Cable-wrapped metal box of happiness.
Box of painting-golem
Compass
Goggles
Surgical tools
50 feet of rope
Magic Spyglass
~250 gold value of gold and silver ingots and precious gems.
Jade tablets with d8 View, d10 Steel, and d10 Speed.
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.
You check yourself (after you rekt'd yourself). You're not bleeding out or on fire or anything like that. You're certainly sore and bleeding a bit from the burns but nothing horrible or at least not life threatening.
[4+1v4] -4 mana
You use a quick spell and double check that you're not bleeding internally or infected with some sort of horrible disease or filled with magical parasites or shrapnel or whatever. It reveals that you are banged up but not truely injured in a debilitating way.
So you pat out any smoldering embers on your skin, wrap the burn in gauze and bandages, and then go to bed. You wake up the next morning feeling oddly worse but at least not tired.
Fire my crossbow at one of its wings. Hang on tight and try to get a grip on its body, once it stops its maneuver head to my ax and reattach it before moving on to the head for some eye stabbing.
Name: Robert Grant
Appearance: A stocky, tall man with black hair.
Magic path: Hunter Sculptor
Strength: d10+1
Speed: d6
Endurance: d8
Knowledge: d8
Will: d8
Senses: d4
Ongoing effects: Cut palm (treated), deep gash in the side (treated)
Mana: 3
Materials:
Shrink
Inventory:
War axe d8
Doctor's Bag
Leather armor d6
Bandages
Backpack
Lantern
223 gold
76 silver
Shield
Sword d6
Crossbow d6
20 crossbow bolts
Helmet d4
Leather gloves
Crowbar
Iron thread
8 lead weights
Harness
200 feet of rope
3 wyrm scales
Rented beetle mount (50 gold deposit)
[3v4]
You fire your crossbow one handed and the bolt goes wide, somehow missing the enormous bulk of the wing. You suppose the crosswind didn't help.
[8+1 v 7]
You get a grip on the rubbery flesh and yank yourself back into a better spot, clinging there until you see an opening.
[4v8]
You run for the head and suddenly you find yourself in open air, feet running on nothing. The Ray is diving and you are freefalling behind it for a few moments. Then it pulls up and you fly forward, past its head. You find yourself dangling around in front of its face, near the great sucking maw. The ax shifts and pulls free as your weight settles on it in the wrong direction.
[5+1v4]
You reach out and grab hold of one of the ray's thin mouth feelers, holding on with both hands to stop yourself from falling. There is no safety line anymore, in fact that line is now dangling below you, the added weight of the ax only making this more difficult.
Ekrov lets out a small animalistic whine while he looks over the crashsite, having finally finished taking stock of what remains. "I could spend a year here, studying this... no, years! And I only have seven days?"
He covers his face with his hands, groaning.
Oh dearie, this stokes my tinkery urges something fierce. I'm not sure I can restrain myself. If at any point I get too boldtexty, or start draining your lifeforce, feel free to just stop and say so. I'm honestly expecting to leave this wreck with most of my questions unanswered, so if this gets too bad for you we'll just say that Ekrov ran out of time and had to give up on stuff.
I'm going to regret this, but spend ten mana improving knowledge to d12+1.
Deconstruct the remains of the clockwork robot with the broken brain, slowly and methodically. Every step of the way, draw the workings of the parts, with an eye towards being able to put them back together. There's two reasons for this: Getting a partial blueprint and parts that can possibly help in repairing the other robot, and simply understanding clockwork mechanics better IC.
Once that is complete, look over the robot with the intact brain, and try to figure out why the robot is nonfunctional, if its brain is intact. Ideally, I want to use parts from the deconstructed robot to repair this one to at least partial functionality. If that seems to be possible, first disable or disconnect the robot's arms and legs (or whatever limbs it has) if that is possibly without irreversibly damaging them, and then try to repair it. If it doesn't seem to be possible to repair the robot, don't deconstruct it at all, and just try to ascertain why it's nonfunctional, without damaging it.
UNRELATEDLY, how does alchemizing things into thaum work? Does it require directly handling the materials that are being alchemized, or is it more of a "jam thing in jar, then it melts into thaum" deal? I ask specifically because I want to try alchemizing some of those power pellets death rocks power pellets, preferably without lethally irradiating Ekrov.
Name: Ekrov Trenian Vyachilad
Description: A noble's son, Ekrov is a boy on the cusp of adulthood, and barely looks it. His hands are soft, his appearance taken care of, and his bones slightly visible under his unmarred skin. He's scrawny, clearly having never done manual labor in his life, and somewhat short--though it's hard to tell whether that's due to age or genetics. His eyes are wide and constantly look around in absentminded wonderment; he's clearly out of his element in this, and gives off a tourist-y impression. He wears a clearly high-quality outfit, but to his credit it looks unusually practical for a noble, subdued brown in color and light aside from thin pieces of light leather in strategic locations, clearly intended more as protection than a fashion statement. He carries a small backpack, and wears a light cloak that's had an absurd number of little pockets clumsily sewn into it.
Magic Path: Alchemist Sculptor
Mana: 21
Magic Words: "Animate"
Stats:
Strength: d6
Speed: d6
Endurance: d6
Knowledge: d12
Will: d6
Senses: d12
Ongoing Effects: None.
Current Sculpture Materials:
1. Human skull
2. 10 lbs of pure iron
3. a piece of complex machinery; clockwork or similar.
4. a bottle of water collected directly from the a cloud.
5. The blood of someone who has fought off a possession with their own will
Inventory:
Backpack
Lightly armored traveling outfit (enchanted to d6, from d4)
Wooden shield (+1 to armor rolls, most of the time)
Steel stilleto (d4 melee)
Merc Longsword (d6 Melee)
Ornamental spring pistol (d6 ranged) [6/6] (30 spare shots)
Alchemist gear
A decapitated mercenary's skull.
23 gold, 8 silver (Saeko owes him 400 gold... For someone with d12 sense, Ekrov can be pretty gullible.)
Paints, a dish, sands, glitter, water, general scrying supplies.
Pencil + Paper.
Expensive medical supplies.
Sketches of:
Gyrotourbillon's workings
Benedict the Griffon
TO-DO LIST:
Diagnose Benedict (I'll definitely do this eventually!)
Collect thaum to convert steel into pure iron.
Clockwork wreck stuff:
Fix a robot
Alchemize power pellets
Alchemize scrap clockwork
Collect and deconstruct tools
Collect and deconstruct guns
Collect and deconstruct bombs
Figure out precisely what loot to take, and how much Benedict can carry.
Try to reverse engineer and understand those power pellet crucibles.
Build a helicopter!
Stat increase done.
This process of deconstructing and drawing I'll say won't require a roll, but will take a whole day in order to do it well. We'll assume you do so.
[12+1 v 6]
You very carefully look over the other robot and attempt to understand why it isn't functional. These things, despite their massive complexity, are driven by a spring. Albiet a kind of spring you've never seen the likes of. Its a spiral torsion spring, not really that different from the springs that are used to power watches, at least in theory. But this one is...absurd. The metal itself is paper thin, maybe even thinner, and its wrapped maybe thousands of times around itself, so tight that no seams or spaces are visible throughout most of the coil. The amount of mechanical energy stored in the thing is so great that if it were to break free of its housing it would probably kill everyone in a wide radius as coils of razor sharp metal sprung out in all directions at super sonic speeds. Luckily for you, the spring "Core" is a seemingly seperate device that is simply slotted into the bots and can be removed easily. Neither of these bots has had their spring cores destroyed but the bot your working on has had a lot of the mechanical pieces that connect to the core damaged. You sort through the pieces of the other bot, cross referencing your notes.
You select the pieces you need and set them to the side. You think you have about...70% of the pieces you'd need to get this bot back to bare minimum functioning, at least in the chest and head. You consider that you might be able to substitute parts for all or at least a good chunk of that remaining 30%, but it wouldn't be perfect. Everything in this machine is highly specialized so switching gears or pieces requires a very precise match to even somewhat work. You don't try it, at least not for the moment.
More the second thing. You could remove them and place them in a container and then have the reaction happen while you are distant to it. You might have to go in and make adjustments every now and again but its not a "hands on" process the whole way.