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Author Topic: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game  (Read 365072 times)

Devastator

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2190 on: December 31, 2019, 02:45:35 am »
"Good, there should be lots of stuff we can find here.  We'll have to look into some of the smaller buildings if we can find the city core here."

Examine the black stone material.  Is it anything unusual or special?  Take a sample to add to the alchemy kit anyway, (Stone) might be useful.  Consider harvesting some of it if we need stone for construction later.

General rules for exploration are that nobody should go alone, always in pairs or more, and someone should be back here with our stuff at all times.  We can swap out to keep people from getting bored.

For the first day, lets see if we can get a basic overview of the layout of this ruin pile.  How many levels are there?  Is the interior mostly long hallways or lots of small rooms, or such?  Is it mostly right side up or are things sideways or upside down?  What sorts of purposes are the spaces for?  Workshops, living areas, etcetera.

We can explore some rooms as well if we've got time today, and if some seem sturdy enough.  I'll be keeping my ghost charm out, looking for any spirits.

Do be cautious, we've got weeks here and thanks to Ekrov, this seems like the most likely place for our goal.

"We've got lots of time, so be careful.  We can probably shore up some of these rooms or make lines or ladders to do this if they look unsafe.  What we are looking for is, ultimately, a human-sized crystal that is the core of this city's floating ability.  If we do find it, don't touch it, it's likely to be highly magical and we'll need to package it safely.

"We're also looking for other treasure.  Some of this stuff may be magic and might need special handling, so speak up when you find something so we can pack it away.  Everyone will be recieving extra pay from the value of what we find here, so don't worry about not recieving enough."

"Except Zavi.  Zavi paid a sizeable fare of gold to come along, and isn't recieving the base pay, so she can keep what she finds for herself.  I don't want to see any harassment about what she's picked out, there's an entire city here, and our ride can carry more than enough for everyone."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 01, 2020, 09:11:54 am by Devastator »
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syvarris

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2191 on: January 01, 2020, 10:39:25 pm »
Could the robots have their programming changed in a significant fashion (say, beying loyal to Ekrov) by enchanting them with "clockwork"?  Or are their minds far too complex to alter substantially without screwing stuff up?

The machine guns Saeko has been lugging around forever--what's their damage die?  If casting a know-based clockwork spell is necessary to know that, do so.

Join in on the exploration, and... I dunno, look around for loot and neat stuff?  Don't stray far from the mercs, and never leave with a group of less than three.

Spoiler: O.o (click to show/hide)
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Egan_BW

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2192 on: January 01, 2020, 11:10:11 pm »
Armor, sword, shield, catch pole, small bombs, manacles.

Also, go find loot.

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
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Radio Controlled

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2193 on: January 02, 2020, 12:33:13 pm »
Quote
As per guards, there are very few. At night there is basically only a single guard inside and a single guard outside.  The inside guard wanders about seemingly at random while the outside guard spends most of his time at the gate in and then patrols the perimeter every now and again. Neither seem terribly professional. Oddly the one inside never seems to enter the office with the lockbox.

On the night of the heist you can tell, even without the spell, that things are just as they always are. The man is outside, slouching against the wall next to the gate, while his compatriot is wandering inside, a lone light visible through the windows and door frames as he walks around.

Wait for a good moment during which the outside guard is away fro his post and will be for at least a bit (eg on patrol or taking a leak or something) and the inside guard is not near the front door. Then approach quietly and use the biometal to create a key to open the door. Should that work, enter silently and close the door behind us. Keep the front door biometal key apart from the rest of the biometal so we have quick access to it.

Then, assuming my senses don't pick up anything out of the ordinary or detect possible magical security measures, try to sneak up to the office. Should we lose track of the guards, use a viscera sensing spell to ensure we always know where the guards are.

Before entering the office, do an extra inspection to try and detect possible security measures, magical or otherwise.

Oh, and if there is a chance we could get spotted or stuck in a bad position, use my vacuum word to create an illusion (aka try to go for sense spell) of a small vacuum collapsing to create some just-audible noise, the idea being that the popping sound will distract the guard. 


Spoiler: Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)
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21:26   <XYZ>: I know nothing about this, but I have strong opinions about it.
Quote from: Yottawhat on February 07, 2018, 07:53:31 pm
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Ozarck

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2194 on: January 03, 2020, 06:44:00 pm »
Last I was here, Me and SpiderGwen Arachne were considering hunting at a sleazy snooty 'place of pleasure.' Let's locate some businesses that work with the posh pit - such as food service or outfitters or transportation, and see if we can't make some connections or at least get some more information. Additionally, let's go scout the place out personally and see what security is like - what hte grounds are like, how easy it is to move about on the campus, etc. Don't casually walk in if it's evident that I'd be out of place - that's what hte business connections are for. Just gettign the lay of the land, as it were.

Spoiler: Felix Testimony (click to show/hide)
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piecewise

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2195 on: January 04, 2020, 12:51:07 pm »
Quote from: Naturegirl1999 on December 30, 2019, 01:09:54 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Shoot an arrow fire at a boulder to figure out if they only act like this on living things or on any object
The arrow strikes the boulder and vanishes just as before. However, rather than detonating, the boulder shudders and then...gently floats off the ground and into the sky. It drifts away like a helium balloon.

Huh...

Quote from: Lenglon on December 30, 2019, 02:09:09 pm
Sounds good to me, am willing and ready to begin whenever you are.
Spoiler: Nina (click to show/hide)
Coolio. Lets see....Lets go Ulmin, Wismuth, Terebinth, Nihil, Gros, Alumen.  You can do that either forwards or backwards, but I suggest you do them in that order since they make up a big loop.

Quote from: Devastator on December 31, 2019, 02:45:35 am
"Good, there should be lots of stuff we can find here.  We'll have to look into some of the smaller buildings if we can find the city core here."

Examine the black stone material.  Is it anything unusual or special?  Take a sample to add to the alchemy kit anyway, (Stone) might be useful.  Consider harvesting some of it if we need stone for construction later.

General rules for exploration are that nobody should go alone, always in pairs or more, and someone should be back here with our stuff at all times.  We can swap out to keep people from getting bored.

For the first day, lets see if we can get a basic overview of the layout of this ruin pile.  How many levels are there?  Is the interior mostly long hallways or lots of small rooms, or such?  Is it mostly right side up or are things sideways or upside down?  What sorts of purposes are the spaces for?  Workshops, living areas, etcetera.

We can explore some rooms as well if we've got time today, and if some seem sturdy enough.  I'll be keeping my ghost charm out, looking for any spirits.

Do be cautious, we've got weeks here and thanks to Ekrov, this seems like the most likely place for our goal.

"We've got lots of time, so be careful.  We can probably shore up some of these rooms or make lines or ladders to do this if they look unsafe.  What we are looking for is, ultimately, a human-sized crystal that is the core of this city's floating ability.  If we do find it, don't touch it, it's likely to be highly magical and we'll need to package it safely.

"We're also looking for other treasure.  Some of this stuff may be magic and might need special handling, so speak up when you find something so we can pack it away.  Everyone will be recieving extra pay from the value of what we find here, so don't worry about not recieving enough."

"Except Zavi.  Zavi paid a sizeable fare of gold to come along, and isn't recieving the base pay, so she can keep what she finds for herself.  I don't want to see any harassment about what she's picked out, there's an entire city here, and our ride can carry more than enough for everyone."

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
The black stone has three properties that make it interesting.
1. It is extremely light, like pumice or aluminum, far lighter than what you would expect for its size
2. It is very robust. It doesn't scratch or chip or shatter despite some tests with hammers and chisel.
3. It moves slowly. Moving it is like trying to drag an umbrella through syrup; you can see no reason for this but every stone you try to move is this way,

The ghost charm is actually reading many different targets.

The first day of investigation charts out the basic outline of the large ruin section, walking around it and taking down detailed info. The back is smooth with no points of entrance and it seems as though the rough "Front" is actually a horizontal cut that has been twisted up to the vertical. Imagine a normal building, and that someone cut that building in half, horizontally. Then they took that section and laid it on its side. That appears to be what we have here: which means traversal is going to be more difficult. Hallways might be 300 foot semi-diagonal shafts while stairwells are twisted tunnels.

There are three entry points found; rooms or halls that are near enough the ground level as to be easily accessible. One is apparently a large but empty room with nothing in it: likely part of a larger section that was broken away. The second is a hallway that slopes upwards at about 35 degrees for 150 feet or so before "turning" and heading more straight up. Finally, there's a small room with a door, though that door is apparently locked, sealed, or otherwise barred because no attempts to move it are successful. However, next to it is what appears to be a hollow designed to hold a spherical or semi-spherical object about the size of a child's fist.

Quote from: syvarris on January 01, 2020, 10:39:25 pm
Could the robots have their programming changed in a significant fashion (say, beying loyal to Ekrov) by enchanting them with "clockwork"?  Or are their minds far too complex to alter substantially without screwing stuff up?

The machine guns Saeko has been lugging around forever--what's their damage die?  If casting a know-based clockwork spell is necessary to know that, do so.

Join in on the exploration, and... I dunno, look around for loot and neat stuff?  Don't stray far from the mercs, and never leave with a group of less than three.

Spoiler: O.o (click to show/hide)
You're pretty sure you could rebuild their minds, at least theoretically. Its all objective clockwork after all, there's nothing here thats arcane or beyond your capacity...but it is complex and it is very tightly engineered. Changing some small aspect would probably be relatively easy but anything wide ranging would require more than altering just a few gears; it would me remaking whole sections, and as such the connections to those sections and how they interacted and...you might be changing 50% of the brain just to make effective changes in 10%.

d12, if memory serves, though they often roll multiples.

[12+1]
You search around and help in the examinations. Near where they're mapping the first rooms you find something interesting. It appears to the the wreckage of some sort of machine; one of the old thaumic devices judging by the mechanisms and design. No clockwork here, just solid metal with mana channels.  What the machine was exactly you cannot tell, there's nothing left but the cockpit and some unidentifiable mangled  wreckage trailing it. There is a body within, now not much more than a skeleton in silk and a few shining silver armor plates. The interesting thing is what you find with the skeleton: A small sphere of sea blue crystal, polished smooth, but with complex gold mana channels twisted up inside it like a half dozen celtic knots laid one atop another.



Quote from: Egan_BW on January 01, 2020, 11:10:11 pm
Armor, sword, shield, catch pole, small bombs, manacles.

Also, go find loot.

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
The armor is d6 if memory serves, with a few enchantments woven into it to do things like track your location, prevent remote viewing or mind control, etc. For you, basically just armor. Sword and shield are mundane,  Catchpole is a catchpole but has a taser like effect on it.  Bombs are just bombs, the manacles however interfere with the production of spells, so anyone wearing them should be incapable of casting, or at least have an excessively hard time of it.

[6]
You search the wreckage with everyone else and, after digging in the sand for a while, discover a silver helmet. It has an almost ax blade like design, with a sharp ridge running along its apex. Its very plain, with no ornamentation or frills. Purely functional it seems.


Quote from: Ozarck on January 03, 2020, 06:44:00 pm
Last I was here, Me and SpiderGwen Arachne were considering hunting at a sleazy snooty 'place of pleasure.' Let's locate some businesses that work with the posh pit - such as food service or outfitters or transportation, and see if we can't make some connections or at least get some more information. Additionally, let's go scout the place out personally and see what security is like - what hte grounds are like, how easy it is to move about on the campus, etc. Don't casually walk in if it's evident that I'd be out of place - that's what hte business connections are for. Just gettign the lay of the land, as it were.

Spoiler: Felix Testimony (click to show/hide)
[5v4]

You do some research, smooze around a bit, and attempt to get into the social circles that revolve around that distant land of debauchery that lies somewhere on the horizon. You find that there is a large contingent of men and women who work, directly or tangentially for it. Of the ones you find you think your best bet would be the ones supplying food to the place. Transporters of all kinds are employed but the food workers seem to be the ones that can most freely move into and around the complex without arousing suspicion. They have to go to eateries, bars, even individual suites, etc and their coming and going is seen as less odd than say, a servant departing sometime in the middle of the night. It would be easy to get in and out, to be long gone before anyone would notice anything, and likely to be entirely overlooked.

Quote from: Radio Controlled on January 02, 2020, 12:33:13 pm
Quote
As per guards, there are very few. At night there is basically only a single guard inside and a single guard outside.  The inside guard wanders about seemingly at random while the outside guard spends most of his time at the gate in and then patrols the perimeter every now and again. Neither seem terribly professional. Oddly the one inside never seems to enter the office with the lockbox.

On the night of the heist you can tell, even without the spell, that things are just as they always are. The man is outside, slouching against the wall next to the gate, while his compatriot is wandering inside, a lone light visible through the windows and door frames as he walks around.

Wait for a good moment during which the outside guard is away fro his post and will be for at least a bit (eg on patrol or taking a leak or something) and the inside guard is not near the front door. Then approach quietly and use the biometal to create a key to open the door. Should that work, enter silently and close the door behind us. Keep the front door biometal key apart from the rest of the biometal so we have quick access to it.

Then, assuming my senses don't pick up anything out of the ordinary or detect possible magical security measures, try to sneak up to the office. Should we lose track of the guards, use a viscera sensing spell to ensure we always know where the guards are.

Before entering the office, do an extra inspection to try and detect possible security measures, magical or otherwise.

Oh, and if there is a chance we could get spotted or stuck in a bad position, use my vacuum word to create an illusion (aka try to go for sense spell) of a small vacuum collapsing to create some just-audible noise, the idea being that the popping sound will distract the guard. 


Spoiler: Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)
[10v8]
The plan proceeds as you predicted for the most part. You make it past the entry guard with no effort [-1 mana for the key] and avoid the second guard easily as well. They both seem pretty bored and aren't taking this very seriously judging from their body language. However, once you reach the door to the office you stop, hand hovering a few inches from the knob. You feel something, an electric tension in the air, the hallmark of a magical trap. Someone has put a powerful working on the door, maybe the outerwall of the whole office. You can't tell exactly what it does by sheer instinct, but you feel like its got a lot of energy behind it; like gently placing your finger on the trigger plate of a bear trap.



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Naturegirl1999

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2196 on: January 04, 2020, 01:18:01 pm »
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Is it heading in a direction other than just the wind? Find someone in the city who knows about various religions and ask them about small desert temples and what deities they could have been built for
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Egan_BW

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2197 on: January 04, 2020, 02:21:47 pm »
You mentioned something about the shield before which implies it's not mundane. What is its d6 for?

Seems like traversing the inside would be fairly easy if we used a lot of rope and had Salt fly up to places and attach it. Though it might be hard to find a place to attach, given we can't hammer anything into the stone here.

Fire a steel bullet from my explosion rifle into the stone. Is that level of excessive force enough to crack it?

"Why would their armor be made out of silver? Sure, it's shiny, but this isn't a decorative piece."

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
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Lenglon

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2198 on: January 04, 2020, 02:25:26 pm »
with a route like that would i also go to Regulus after Alumen then downstream to Mofette so I would check-in at Alkahest before taking the river down to Ulmin again? if so then I might as well have those added to the route officially so I can get a bigger reward per loop. if the route doesn't include a Alkahest check-in then where is the check-in point?
either way, I'm ready to begin, so I'll say my thanks, collect my things, get my briefings and letters of introduction / identification, and be on my way. with the river flowing North-to-South it makes sense to head to Ulmin by boat, moving with the current for swift and easy travel. I'm planning on land travel for most of course, but no reason not to use what I can.
Spoiler: Nina (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: Parisbre56 on February 18, 2013, 03:33:15 pm
((I don't think heating something that is right above us to a ridiculous degree is very smart. Worst case scenario we become +metal statues+. This is a finely crafted metal statue. It is encrusted with sharkmist and HMRC. On the item is an image of HMRC and Pancaek. Pancaek is laughing. The HMRC is melting. The artwork relates to the encasing of the HMRC in metal by Pancaek during the Mission of Many People.))

Ozarck

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2199 on: January 05, 2020, 11:00:27 am »
Let's find a smaller food service group in need of some help and get a job. Arachne can to if she wants, or she can attempt to get in with an entertainment service organization. If she does, Felix will act as her manager and talent agent.

Meanwhile, in Felix' spare time, he'll wander up north and poke around with teh ghost tracker to see if that moving ghost is still about.
Oh yeah, and he'll be looking for a crypt or mausoleum or abandoned cemetary or what have you. Gotta find that religious artifact that's been buried with the dead for a long time.
And does the shepherdess girl have any requests?

Spoiler: Felix Testimony (click to show/hide)
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Radio Controlled

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2200 on: January 05, 2020, 02:45:22 pm »
Quote
[10v8]
The plan proceeds as you predicted for the most part. You make it past the entry guard with no effort [-1 mana for the key] and avoid the second guard easily as well. They both seem pretty bored and aren't taking this very seriously judging from their body language. However, once you reach the door to the office you stop, hand hovering a few inches from the knob. You feel something, an electric tension in the air, the hallmark of a magical trap. Someone has put a powerful working on the door, maybe the outerwall of the whole office. You can't tell exactly what it does by sheer instinct, but you feel like its got a lot of energy behind it; like gently placing your finger on the trigger plate of a bear trap.

Anything else I can deduce about the magical trap, such as how it is activated/deactivated or to where it extends?

Are there any other entrances into the office that I can see? And when we saw the lock box earlier, was the office door just open, or is there a window we saw it through or something? And did we feel any magical shenanigans then?

Finally, consider if we could use the glass orb with the lotus inside to remove whatever spell is on the door, like how we could remove the necromancy from that rezzed fish.


Spoiler: Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)
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Quote from: Yottawhat on February 07, 2018, 07:53:31 pm
Fucking hell, you guys are worse than the demons.

Devastator

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2201 on: January 06, 2020, 01:04:05 am »
If Ekrov's small orb thing is the one that opens the sealed small door, explore that way.  Otherwise, explore through the other half of the big room.  Explore and examine as we go along.

Keep the ghost charm at the ready.  I'm willing to detour a bit if we find a spirit.

If syv gives no orders for Ekrov:

Investigate what the corpse is wearing, and closely examine the small ball.  Use a Human spell to get information on who this person was.  Name, occupation, information on the city, etc.  If it knows the location of the city gem, that's great, and if not, should at least be enough for a memorial, not to mention what those clothes are.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 08, 2020, 09:11:45 pm by Devastator »
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syvarris

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2202 on: January 08, 2020, 12:56:18 am »
Loot orb, and once done with other stuff, go test it in Saeko's door.  Go along with her when she explores that area, looking around for neat stuff.

Before that, though!  Sketch and know roll the thaumic machinery, get some lore about what thaumic machinery is, because I don't actually have much of any understanding of it.  Then, loot the body, have some helper grab it and bring it back to camp.  Yes, I know it's just bones and some armor plating, just have them drop it in a pile or something.

Cast a weak know spell on the body using "human", specifically to find out general information about who the person was, what that ball they had was for, and where the "city gem" would be.

Finally, wonder about the difficulty of summoning liquid blood of someone who's been long dead, through use of the human word.  Specifically, this long dead skeleton's blood.  I have no frame of reference as to whether that's a d6 because ownership of blood is simple, or d100 because it'd literally require stealing blood from centuries past.

Spoiler: O.o (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: January 09, 2020, 01:17:24 am by syvarris »
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Pancaek

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2203 on: January 09, 2020, 10:57:10 am »
Since it doesn't seem I can really help with anything Darwin is doing right now, just stand lookout to spot potential trouble and react accordingly

Spoiler:  Écalir Speedwagon (click to show/hide)
[/quote]
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piecewise

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2204 on: January 09, 2020, 01:30:04 pm »
Quote from: Naturegirl1999 on January 04, 2020, 01:18:01 pm
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Is it heading in a direction other than just the wind? Find someone in the city who knows about various religions and ask them about small desert temples and what deities they could have been built for
It appears to be entirely dependent on the wind and has since changed directions and started drifting quite quickly on some wind current higher up.

[8]
You ask around at the encampment at the river if anyone knows about religions and what a small desert temple might be for. You don't manage to find a priest or anything, but you do find another adventurer who claims that those desert temples are the shrines of an old god of mischief, who leaves tools of chaos in them for mortals to use. He says they appear erratically so the old god might still be around, or it might be a remnant of the old days before the gods departed.

Quote from: Egan_BW on January 04, 2020, 02:21:47 pm
You mentioned something about the shield before which implies it's not mundane. What is its d6 for?

Seems like traversing the inside would be fairly easy if we used a lot of rope and had Salt fly up to places and attach it. Though it might be hard to find a place to attach, given we can't hammer anything into the stone here.

Fire a steel bullet from my explosion rifle into the stone. Is that level of excessive force enough to crack it?

"Why would their armor be made out of silver? Sure, it's shiny, but this isn't a decorative piece."

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
Lets see here...Ah, if you put mana into it, it will consume d6 mana to produce a magical wall in front of you. Big magic shield thing. Useful.

You fire your rifle at a chunk of black stone. The bullet rebounds off like a skipped stone but sends a hairline fracture through the black rock, cracking it almost like glass instead of stone. It doesn't shatter or anything, but a few more hits like that might be enough.

Quote from: Lenglon on January 04, 2020, 02:25:26 pm
with a route like that would i also go to Regulus after Alumen then downstream to Mofette so I would check-in at Alkahest before taking the river down to Ulmin again? if so then I might as well have those added to the route officially so I can get a bigger reward per loop. if the route doesn't include a Alkahest check-in then where is the check-in point?
either way, I'm ready to begin, so I'll say my thanks, collect my things, get my briefings and letters of introduction / identification, and be on my way. with the river flowing North-to-South it makes sense to head to Ulmin by boat, moving with the current for swift and easy travel. I'm planning on land travel for most of course, but no reason not to use what I can.
Spoiler: Nina (click to show/hide)
Thats an entirely reasonable path, we could add Regulus to the route if you liked so you can get work there too, but Mofette and Alkahest aren't in need of your services.  Though of course checking in in Alkahest is how you'll get paid so thats fine.

You take your leave, newly attired and outfitted, and head for the river Hartshorn, passing through the sweltering volcanic pass under Alkahest and through to Mofette. You find a ferry heading south and quickly discover that your status as a Doctor for the kingdom allows you free travel and board, so long as you are on official business. You take the ferry south and make your way to Ulmin within a few hours and immediately make your way to the local authorities to ask about any issues that they've been having.

They tell you that something has been effecting fishermen and dockworkers recently, striking them down with bouts of exhaustion and listlessness, causing them to wade out into the river and stand staring at the sky as though in a trance.


Quote from: Ozarck on January 05, 2020, 11:00:27 am
Let's find a smaller food service group in need of some help and get a job. Arachne can to if she wants, or she can attempt to get in with an entertainment service organization. If she does, Felix will act as her manager and talent agent.

Meanwhile, in Felix' spare time, he'll wander up north and poke around with teh ghost tracker to see if that moving ghost is still about.
Oh yeah, and he'll be looking for a crypt or mausoleum or abandoned cemetary or what have you. Gotta find that religious artifact that's been buried with the dead for a long time.
And does the shepherdess girl have any requests?

Spoiler: Felix Testimony (click to show/hide)
[7]
You search for a job and quickly find one, talking your - and Arachne's- way in through a variety of bluster and hand gestures (You carefully keep that knife hand hidden). You both get jobs on the food prep crew that moves back and forth between the town and resort, you as a chef and Arachne as a server. She seems...oddly ok with this. When you ask her about it she states that "Men of that kind are particularly unguarded when it comes towards their actions around and with servants."  Basically, she seems to be of the mind that they will get handsy and she will then get finger food, as it were.

The moving ghost still cannot be found but...it seems to patrol. You catch readings of it at night, circling the north of the city like a comet orbiting the sun before shooting back off into the darkness and disappearing in to the sands. A very odd spirit; most aren't this mobile.

Some investigation reveals that there are old ruins and tombs along the banks to the north east; which are apparently not likely to cause outrage if you pry into them.

She seems to be sort of afraid of the knife and has been quiet lately.

Quote from: Radio Controlled on January 05, 2020, 02:45:22 pm
Quote
[10v8]
The plan proceeds as you predicted for the most part. You make it past the entry guard with no effort [-1 mana for the key] and avoid the second guard easily as well. They both seem pretty bored and aren't taking this very seriously judging from their body language. However, once you reach the door to the office you stop, hand hovering a few inches from the knob. You feel something, an electric tension in the air, the hallmark of a magical trap. Someone has put a powerful working on the door, maybe the outerwall of the whole office. You can't tell exactly what it does by sheer instinct, but you feel like its got a lot of energy behind it; like gently placing your finger on the trigger plate of a bear trap.

Anything else I can deduce about the magical trap, such as how it is activated/deactivated or to where it extends?

Are there any other entrances into the office that I can see? And when we saw the lock box earlier, was the office door just open, or is there a window we saw it through or something? And did we feel any magical shenanigans then?

Finally, consider if we could use the glass orb with the lotus inside to remove whatever spell is on the door, like how we could remove the necromancy from that rezzed fish.


Spoiler: Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)
Quote from: Pancaek on January 09, 2020, 10:57:10 am
Since it doesn't seem I can really help with anything Darwin is doing right now, just stand lookout to spot potential trouble and react accordingly

Spoiler:  Écalir Speedwagon (click to show/hide)
[/quote]
[5+1v2]
It appears that the trap is tied to the door, specifically the knob. Probably designed to trigger if someone who isn't the owner tries to open the door. As to where it extends...hard to say. The focal point is that knob but it might also cover the walls or ceiling to a lesser degree.

You originally saw the lockbox when you were lead into the office to discuss terms and conditions of your purchase; the box itself was out in the relative open, able to be seen by anyone in the office. There were no other entrances you saw, the office is set into the corner of the building, backed on two sides by solid brick walls. The other sides are the entrance, and then a wall with windows that overlook the actual warehouse area. The entrance door and those windows are the only ways in, at least the only ways that don't involve cutting in via a wall or ceiling. You felt no magical Shenanigans back then either, so the spell is either new, or only becomes active when the door is closed and locked.

That seems entirely possible. Perhaps a bit dangerous if you slip, but possible.

Quote from: syvarris on January 08, 2020, 12:56:18 am
Loot orb, and once done with other stuff, go test it in Saeko's door.  Go along with her when she explores that area, looking around for neat stuff.

Before that, though!  Sketch and know roll the thaumic machinery, get some lore about what thaumic machinery is, because I don't actually have much of any understanding of it.  Then, loot the body, have some helper grab it and bring it back to camp.  Yes, I know it's just bones and some armor plating, just have them drop it in a pile or something.

Cast a weak know spell on the body using "human", specifically to find out general information about who the person was, what that ball they had was for, and where the "city gem" would be.

Finally, wonder about the difficulty of summoning liquid blood of someone who's been long dead, through use of the human word.  Specifically, this long dead skeleton's blood.  I have no frame of reference as to whether that's a d6 because ownership of blood is simple, or d100 because it'd literally require stealing blood from centuries past.

Spoiler: O.o (click to show/hide)
You take the orb and stick it in your pocket, for later use.

[1+2v1]
 Thaumic machinery is the machinery of the old days, when magic was plentiful. Rather than relying on gears or mechanisms of any kind, solid objects were engraved or laid with what amount to "Wires" through which magic would be directed. This magic allowed the machines to perform actions and work despite having no "Moving parts" as it were. It would allow metal and stone to bend and flex, to give motive force to the inanimate, to allow things like golems to be made. A thaumic flying machine, which this might have been, would be little more than a simple cockpit with equally simple controls mounted on an iron bird statue that was laid with mana channels to bring it to life.  In the golden age of the kingdom, ambient mana would be enough to keep these machines running forever, but as the magic waned, magicoal (densely compressed thaum of a sorts) was incorporated as a fuel. Eventually even that ran out and the great machines of the past ceased to function, reduced to nothing but solid, unmoving forms or or collections of formerly incorporated pieces, now scattered without their connecting force. The art of creating Thaumic machinery is considered lost, except in a purely academic sense.

[3+2v4] -4 mana

You find out some generalities. The man was a soldier, a pilot apparently.  The orb is a key, allowing access to different sections of the city, though apparently there are many different kinds of these orbs and they don't all allow access to everything.  There is nothing here about a "City Gem" other than a vague connection to this orb and to why he was defending the city.

The easiest way would be to regenerate part of this corpse and then take the blood from it. But considering its age, that would be very hard.  Even just recovering a single finger would be on the d20 range. Maybe even higher.

Quote from: Devastator on January 06, 2020, 01:04:05 am
If Ekrov's small orb thing is the one that opens the sealed small door, explore that way.  Otherwise, explore through the other half of the big room.  Explore and examine as we go along.

Keep the ghost charm at the ready.  I'm willing to detour a bit if we find a spirit.

If syv gives no orders for Ekrov:

Investigate what the corpse is wearing, and closely examine the small ball.  Use a Human spell to get information on who this person was.  Name, occupation, information on the city, etc.  If it knows the location of the city gem, that's great, and if not, should at least be enough for a memorial, not to mention what those clothes are.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
You send workers off with the orb to try it on that locked door and after slotting it into place there is a momentary flash of blue green as light seems to trace the edges of unseen pathways before surrounding the door and opening it. It all happens in less than a second. Beyond the door the halls and rooms are in pitch darkness and the teams have to make use of lanterns and markings to find their way around, on top of ropes and climbing gear. There are many more closed doors, some open with the orb, some do not.  The crew returns with a loose map marking off sections by what they think their purpose was.  There are the following:

Crew quarters: Bunks and berths used by what are likely the crews that handled this lower section of the city. Judging by info and images uncovered in the city itself, the full structure was essentially a hemisphere of this black stone on which sat the "City", ie the towers and great buildings that are scattered in chunks along the path of the crash. The under structure is where the mechanics of keeping the population alive were handled, and where those lower classes tasked with that job lived.

Farms: Rows of now dried soil, artificial sun lamps, mummified plants, and an irrigation system. Vast stacks of the these indoor farms that must have supplied a great deal of food. Magic infused as well, for rapid growth.

Waste disposal: Large thaumic furnaces where waste seems to have been converted to Magicoal. There is still a good amount of trash in the area, apparently never seen to before the city fell.

Environmental regulation: A guess; there are heating systems here that are fairly straight forwards and pump power to coiled heaters higher up, but beyond that things get odd. Huge Thaumic machines that seem to do things like control wind, block storms, and the like. Explorers can only guess how they function, but there are duplicates of them set round the outer edge of the structure, so they likely formed a shield of sorts when engaged together.

Barracks: Soldiers rooms and training areas. There are what might be armories attached to them but they cannot be opened with this key

Hangers: These are along the very outer edge of the structure, and according to the maps, their far walls could open straight out into open air. These walls are closed, however, and the key doesn't work on them. In these hangers are thaumic flying machines, war machines specifically. The majority of them are in wreaked heaps, piled against the back walls of the hangers due to the orientation of the structure. However, a few of these machines were fastened down and now remain dangling from the floors turned walls, apparently in perfect or near perfect condition.

Storerooms: Rooms containing stores of metal and wooden boxes. A lot are smashed open, some are still closed, good deal of decaying organic things like food and seeds. Seems to mostly be related to the function of the lower sections of the city; ie purely practical and not the luxury goods of the upper city.


The workers report they've noticed a pattern with the doors: There are markings engraved on many doors and some match a marking on the key. Doors without markings and doors with a marking that matches the key can be opened by that key, as well as one other marked door that seems to lead to sections for laborers. They believe this key is a "Soldier" key, which can open doors of a certain "Level", while these other doors are levels above the soldier and need other keys.


Finally, and rather alarmingly, there are signs of combat in these areas. Long dead bodies, of course, but also mechanical soldiers of the sort found in the Artifacter's grave. They say there are signs of an invasion by these robotic forces. How far they got and what they did, still unknown.



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