Retcon that to be complete resistance to some specific quickly-deadly toxic gas. Take your favorite or something. If I pick this it's going to end up being something dumb and ineffectual, because I have a -1 to my chemistry skill.
Then, get on with it. Repeat getting on with it as many times as necessary.
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.
Mana: 56
Method: Flesh-Inscribed Channel
Materials: Lightweight, Explosion, Toxic
Strength: d10+1
Speed: d6+1
Endurance: d6+2
Knowledge: d8+1
Will: d8+1
Senses: d6+1
Ongoing effects: Okay?
Inventory:
Normal clothing
Tracker
Boot Knife (d6)
10 Gold
Medium Armor (d6)
Kite Shield (d6)
Long Sword (d6)
Catch Pole
3 Small Bombs
Manacles
Wooden Arm-Guards (d4 armor)
Hemp sack
Paints and brushes
Kukri (d6 weapon)
Square-tip machete
Needlessly ornate painting guardian sword
Jewelry box
Alright. I have some ideas. Questions regarding that:
1. Do you want it to be something like a neurotoxin or something more corrosive? Ie do you want to cause tissue damage or just stop them breathing?
2. Do you want it to be flammable? There could be some good synergy there with your explosive powers but also it could be dangerous.
Accelerate I choose you!
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, Accelerate
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.
Done.
The two of you wait for evening and then head out. You have plain clothes escorts somewhere near by, following at a distance, crossing and intersecting, walking in parallel until you reach the spot. They've laid out a path for you to follow, one that takes Zavi through much of the area that the others were kidnapped in. And so there is nothing much to do but to walk that path.
The first night nothing happens. Same with the second. On the fourth someone attempts to mug her but she runs away. Only on the sixth night, near the point of giving up, does it finally happen. Zavi is alone on a stretch of tight road, almost more of an alley between two tall buildings. There is barely any light in that tight passage; it is tunnel-like in that expanse of darkness, with nothing to do but push forward. When she reaches the halfway point she hears something behind her. A tinkling noise of metal on stone. She stops and turns around, following the noise, squinting against the dark. She kneels and finds several gold coins laying scattered on the cobblestones. She reaches for one and suddenly a hand is clapped over her mouth from behind. Her vision starts to go fuzzy almost immediately. She struggles as best she can -or at least tries to make it look like that- but unconsciousness quickly overtakes her.
She wakes up some time later, though she can't really guess how long. She's in a dark room but finds herself oddly unbound or restrained. There are cracks in the walls, thin lines of twilight light leak through.
*****
Those tracking Zavi follow her signal as she leaves the city entirely and moves out to an area in the middle of nowhere practically, off the main road in the ash plains that extend from the area around the capital to the artifacters' grave. Recon shows a handful of small shacks out there and some people scavenging the ash for parts. Zavi cannot be directly observed; she must be somewhere inside a building.
Get myself into a resting position by any means necessary, even if that includes climbing into its mouth. Once I'm in a safe resting position, pull up the rope, retrieve the ax and get it stuck inside the Ray's mouth.
Should I fall with no way to catch myself, shrink myself down to a size that would allow me to survive the fall.
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
19 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)
[5+1 v 4]
You climb the feeler until you reach its root near the mouth and wrap your legs around it, pressing your back against the ray's flesh to steady yourself. You pull the ax up and then cast it out in an arc, whipping it around so that it flies straight into the ray's mouth. You then pull the rope back until you feel the blade snag somewhere inside the creature. You give it several good tugs and it seems secure.
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, 9 gold’s worth of food and water, 41 gold
Materials: lightsilver
You continue north and eventually reach Ens Vereris. The town is on the River Worm, surrounded by tall grasses, an oasis in the wasteland. The town itself is smallish, packed on the north side of the river directly after the large bridge that crosses it. Mostly it seems to be constructed along the road there, with some branching out to dip into the river with short angled docks. Its a trade town in the purest form, here at the cross roads of the river and the the actual road north. All industry and services seem geared towards travelers and merchants.
It looks as though there was a fire or raid somewhat recently, as several buildings in the north of the city are in ruins.
Keep travelling with Darwin, be on the lookout so we don't get ambushed or otherwise surprised. Whistle whatever tune that comes to mind when I think about the fat stacks of diamonds we're gonna be chasing.
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
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.
How much for such a flask?
Move on, to the capital, on foot for now. Just follow the road, keep going until we either reach a town, find something noteworthy or get a random encounter. Be sure to have a watch rotation for the night.
Finally, question: suppose I wanted to use my diamond word to find naturally occurring diamonds, and assuming we're already in more or less the right location for it (volcano near he capitol, as per our earlier discussion), what would be the easier: senses spell to find them (eg. draw their location on a local topographical map) or end roll to make a diamond detector (assume we buy something like a compass and change it, not create one fully de novo)?
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.
((Just for the record, this is somewhat different from how you described it in the past, where it was a more involved/hands-on process.))
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
Depends on size but I'd say 20 gold for a big sturdy flask would work.
Lemme roll...you actually don't encounter anything on the way. Rare. Consider yourself in the capital.
Hmmm. I think that the sense spell would be able to have a larger range, but would be more difficult to pinpoint the locations exactly. You could get within a range on the map. The end "Detector" route would require wandering around until something came into range BUT would be much more specific and the "Signal" could be followed. Think of it like the difference between a GPS and a Metal detector. For naturally occurring diamonds, I think the End path would probably be the most functionally useful to you.
((Really, I think I just wanted to make it so people didn't just walk off and leave the thing processing on its own. Ie its not something you need to constantly poke at, but you can't let it run on its own. You have to always be there to monitor it but not always have your hands in it? Maybe.))
Damn. I hope I'm not going to suffer from two weeks of feeling increasingly awful. I could die, or end up badly crippled. I'll take action if this continues through tomorrow.
See if I can find someone to haul my goods up to the capital for sale. Bring the steel ingots and the black cloth-like metal today. Sell the steel ingots, and attempt to identify the black cloth stuff.. maybe someone knows what it is.
Also, see if there's an auction house in the capital, and find someone to approach about selling one of the machine guns.
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.
94 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.
Easy enough. -1 gold for workers to haul things. Steel ingots will sell for 170; steel isn't terribly rare but yours is good quality. The black cloth-metal stuff is recognized as being artifacter in origin though people don't know the exact name. They call it "Adamant Weave" or things similar, though there is apparently a "Technical" term people in Fearce use. Apparently it is commonly found in "Braided cables". They offer 20 gold for it.
There are such institutions though they are often more suited towards luxury goods like art. They're an object of the wealthy. However, there are arms dealers who you could see about the guns.
Eat one of the magicoals - the one that I used to power the blue glowy thing. See if that doesn't kill me., or over saturate my stomach with mana.
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: 34
Materials: Porcelain, Black Flux, Force, Toxin, Weapon
Inventory:
Inhabited by a Spirit - a little shepherdess girl. Likes dolls. Adventurous. (Current request: nothing. She tired)
Scarab ghost - Request: a religious relic that has been buried with the dead for some time)
Catamaran sailboat
Ghost Charm
Doctor's Kit
Lantern, 2x Rope, Backpack, 15 ft collapsible ladder
1 pet carrier
1 pet harness with leash
1 prybar
1 rolling horse toy
1 kitten
shiny orb from the ruins on the lake (light blue glow. 3 mana invested. Additional mana (?) invested from magicoal)
haunted obsidian and wood knife (with cold, light metal box) Cursed, can't release until I kill a sapient. Can control spilled blood as if I had the Blood material
40 gold
The pieces are about the size of your fist or a bit bigger so you break one of them up before trying to eat it. Once you have a reasonably sized rock you swallow it.
[6v4]
For a few minutes nothing seems to happen, but then you suddenly sieze and collapse, bolts of green-blue electricity crackling across your skin. You lay on the ground, spasming painfully for several minutes, apparently being electrocuted. Eventually the sensation slows to a few jolts a minute and then stops. You lay on the cavern floor, exhausted.
[34 mana gained]
[word "Break" gained]
Hrm. Okay, robots are bust for now. Set them aside somewhere they're protected from the elements, probably inside the wreckage.
Look over the clockwork tools that were found in the ship and trivially removable. First things first, choose one tool that's redundant with another tool, preferably relatively simple, and qualifies for the "piece of clockwork machinery" part of Ekrov's sculpture. Set it aside somewhere protected, it is now just raw material and otherwise does not matter in any way.
Then, make a list of all tools and weapons that are small enough to be man-portable, and start removing them from the ship. Things that are loose or can be removed with a screwdriver/crowbar come out first. For anything that's bolted/welded/built-in, try to have Benedict rip the structure away from it, and then have the guard that was brought along help move the piece out into the open. I guess a day can be spent on this, prioritizing weapons once the easy stuff is out.
Once Ekrov has a nice collection of weapons and tools, he will start deconstructing them. Deconstruct at least one copy of each tool and weapon that isn't completely unique and obviously useful, drawing detailed schematics of all the internals. Cataloging and entirely understanding the designs isn't important right now, I just want to have them available for future experimentation, or possibly to sell. Up to two full days can be spent on this project, prioritizing weapons, then the tools starting from the heaviest ones. (Read: You don't need to tell me how many can openers of which varieties I get designs of, I'm happy with "You now have a pile of miscellaneous clockwork schematic sketches", "You fucked things up and destroyed almost all the tools, with only a few schematics to show for it", or even "haha no you'd need months to do that")
Once that is done, or time has run out, pull out a bomb, and... look at it. Try to figure out what triggers detonation, and whether it can be deconstructed safely. If the dice Ekrov decides that it can be deconstructed safely... yeah, do that. I want access to the explosives inside, because explosives are awesome.
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
Detailed but incomplete schematics of clockwork robot people.
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!
You carefully wrap them up and place them in the wreckage.
Okie dokie.
Alright so you got
1. A large number of tools (These are what you could call mundane tools like wrenches, screw drivers, plyers, and the like. There are a lot of them in different sizes and shapes but none are hugely rare or valuable on their own. Though they are admittedly well made.)
2. A pnumatic self heating rivet gun and the air compressor for it
3. Some sort of set of mechanical gauntlets that appear to be designed for use with the robots, to enhance their strength. Seemingly for bending metal.
4. A circular saw style cutter designed for cutting metal. The blade does not seem replacable and isn't sharp to the touch, but a test on metal pieces shows that it can indeed cut easily through metal.
5. A sort of "Jaws of Life" style combination spreader and cutter. Basically a massive pnumatic pair of plyers/snips.
6. 3 more working machine guns, and a half dozen that are broken in some way
7. About 10 or so big boxes of ammo (there are a lot of loose belts around so the amount isn't exact)
8. A welding system
9. Something that you're pretty sure is a weapon. It seems to be a straight bladed sword or something like that, but there's a slot on the handle for something to plug in. That something is missing.
We will assume you get schematics of any of the simple tools that have moving parts and of one of the machineguns. The other tools are effectively unique or at least singular. With Kno (or just enough time) you can disassemble and reassemble them, documenting as you go.
[8] You check the bomb over. You think they're impact based but their triggers are reliant on being "Primed" by a propeller like thing here on the rear. If that propeller is not spun, then impact system isn't activated and the bomb won't blow up. You use some of the tools you scavanged and Benedict to open the bomb up. The mechanisms are basically what you expected and the majority of the bomb is made up of small metal bomblets around a core of packed shaped explosives. This thing is a clusterbomb of sorts and quite a nasty one at that.
Author
Topic: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game (Read 365426 times)