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Author Topic: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game  (Read 367469 times)

Devastator

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2400 on: April 05, 2020, 05:12:46 am »

Saeko takes some time to examine the painting, holding it in her hands.  It's an excellent likeness.

"You know, I'd almost forgotten, it's been a while.  I don't really look the same way I did when I left Japan.  I'm.. taller, stronger.. I look different.  More capable.  Before I always felt like a support role, a person who belonged in an ensemble.

But seeing the new me like this, alone, in a portrait.. It's different.  I liked my life in Japan, but I think I'm liking my new life here, too.

As for animating it.. well, I've still got that noble in a box with me that I need to deal with.  It'd feel a bit odd having another me walking around, and I'm not quite sure what I think about that.

Right now, however.. well, we really could use another hand.  There's lots of stuff to disassemble, and we only have a few days left.  Another person could really help with that, particularly if she could return the king's key.

How about you animate the painting, Ekrov, but only temporary?  Say, for a few days or a week?  That way we can see how it works out, and she'll just return to the painting when finished."

"Also.. I think my ears are more pointy than that now."

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syvarris

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2401 on: April 05, 2020, 05:35:36 am »

"Oh, that makes sense.  Yes, I could do that!  It should make the spell easier, anyway.  I'll do it after we open the king's door, then."

"...And, ah, I could fix your ears for you.  It should be trivial to halt or reverse their growth without removing the spell that enhances them.  The extra length looks to be entirely cosmetic."

Devastator

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2402 on: April 05, 2020, 05:51:07 am »

"Mm.  Maaybe.  I kinda want it to show, though.  If I've got super-hearing, people should be able to see it, you know?"

"Plus ... I kinda like them like this."

"You can fix them if they get too big, right?  The spell I cast has a few more days running, so they're not done yet."
« Last Edit: April 05, 2020, 06:09:34 am by Devastator »
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Egan_BW

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2403 on: April 05, 2020, 05:56:51 am »

Let's open that door, gamers. If something dangerous presents itself, protect us with the spell in my shield.

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
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piecewise

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2404 on: April 05, 2020, 08:06:17 am »

looks like things worked out to me. Gather up my things and prepare to move on unless there's anything else for me to do while I'm here?


Spoiler: Nina (click to show/hide)
That's all there is here, you think. Its up to these people to actually follow your instructions.

You gather up your stuff and the villagers give you a few sacks of food and 25 gold, as thanks for your work.


Well then. Have the bugs sneakily inject their venom a little bit before the chokepoint. If, by the time they are at that point, not all of them are down or they are only starting to get drowsy, Ecalir can throw the rope nets to try and trap the others.


Spoiler: Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)
Well then. Have the bugs sneakily inject their venom a little bit before the chokepoint. If, by the time they are at that point, not all of them are down or they are only starting to get drowsy, Ecalir can throw the rope nets to try and trap the others.


Follow the plan.

Spoiler:  Écalir Speedwagon (click to show/hide)
You have the bugs go off and do their work. A few minutes later you hear sounds of distress. You sneak back and check out the situation. 7 of the 9 men are unconscious, but two of the guards are still up, though groggy looking. They're currently dragging their employer back out of the canyon. You note that though they have the man, they left his walking stick behind.



When Zavirus finds him, Ekrov is sitting in a rubble slide, with a nearby rock providing a flat surface that he's covered in papers, along with a few thaumic devices.  As she walks up to him, he's holding one of the silver shield rods close in front of his face, and is slowly turning it.  Only his third eye is open, but his other hand is rapidly sketching strange patterns onto a piece of paper in front of him.

He startles when Zavi pops up next to him, nearly dropping the rod he's inspecting.  He turns to glare at Zavi, but quickly masks that expression when he sees her, sitting up a little bit straighter and trying to look unperturbed.  "Err, yes, Zavirius?  What is it?"



Spend 40 mana to buff speed to +2, then eat 40 thaum to replenish the loss (all already accounted for).

Cast a quick Animate+Human+Clockwork scrying spell on the semi-animate clockwork armor, to confirm that the enchantments won't just make it kill/hurt Ekrov if he tries to wear it.  If it indeed is safe, wear it... with Saeko's help.  Just in case the scrying lies and Ekrov needs healing.  I'm paranoid, okay?

Be with Saeko when she opens the king's door.  Wield the clockwork machine gun, just in case there's something hostile on the other side.

Bonus action: Examine the key Saeko enlarged before, an aristocrat key I think.  Can the exact words that it uses be made out?  Could they be read and used by an invoker?  Could Ekrov create a copy key using the thaumic gear, without just ripping the pieces out manually?

And, uh, melt magicoal if nothing happens, I guess.


Spoiler: O.o (click to show/hide)
-6 mana.

Return to the expedition area.  Get the crew together, sans Benedict, and open up the King door.

Spoiler: Saeko Hirahara (click to show/hide)
Let's open that door, gamers. If something dangerous presents itself, protect us with the spell in my shield.

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
Saeko, Ekrov (in the prototype armor) and Zavi, along with the rest of the crew, head to the king's door.   Saeko presses the final lockstone into the small indent on the door and there is a sort of chime as it is accepted. A series of heavy locking pins slam home inside the door and then...the door vanishes.  It doesn't open or just disappear but instead shrinks  as though moving away into the distance and finally vanishing from sight. In its place is darkness. Not a room with no lights or a tunnel or something like that; it is a wall of black where light just seems to stop. There's a slight suction to it, air flowing past and into the newly opened doorway into nothing. There is an impression of flowing or movement of the blackness but nothing that can really be consciously pointed out. No one can see it moving or flowing, but they feel like it is.

Egan_BW

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2405 on: April 05, 2020, 08:38:01 am »

"I'd guess this is a magical gateway of some sort. But it might be a good idea to get information before stepping in. On the off chance this is some kind of magical darkness, I might be able to illuminate it with magical Sunlight."
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Egan_BW

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2406 on: April 05, 2020, 10:26:37 am »

I told PW that the painting is actually potentially important. He asked me to describe what it actually looks like. I did so. He told me to keep note of it myself, because he would not remember.

Spoiler: taking note (click to show/hide)
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Egan_BW

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2407 on: April 05, 2020, 12:46:10 pm »

Just for reference, currently.

Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
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Devastator

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2408 on: April 05, 2020, 01:04:47 pm »

Walk in.  After some more testing, enchanted items seem to be fine if carried along with the king key.  Bring all the non-loot.  Do note that the miniaturized fighter sparrow core thing counts as loot and isn't being carried through the barrier.

Don't hold hands or be touching anyone. Proceed alone and in a brisk manner.

Once in, quickly examine the room, and try to communicate outside, via speaking and that texting device Ekrov left me.  Check to see if the door is still open.


Hopefully, between that steel rod and the steel word, I should be able to make tools sufficient to get the core out.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2020, 03:33:29 am by Devastator »
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Radio Controlled

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2409 on: April 05, 2020, 03:12:34 pm »

((This is a bit of a long one, my apologies.))

Check the compass, see if that 'walking stick' is indeed the 3rd piece we need.

[1] If not: see if the compass points to the employerdude. If yes, proceed with plan KO 2.0. If no, proceed to [2].

[2]) If it is: wait for those guards to drag their employer away and out of sight (we want to avoid them seeing us when we go down). If they don't drag him away far enough for us to be able to safely go down, or if it takes too long, proceed with plan KO 2.0

Either way, once the coast is clear we go down (be sure to use our climbing gear to make going down the rope safe) and check the artifact. Check for any more defensive spell on it or it's container (in case that walking stick is an elaborate cover of sorts), if there are any remoev with lotus-staff.

Once we have the 3rd piece, see if there are any more stealworthy items around we can collect in the time we have left, then teleport away a ways into the desert away from any civilization.



Plan KO 2.0: have our spare mosquito inject his venom in one of the guards, while loading up one of the 'empty' bugs with a fresh load of stronger anesthetic for the other guard still conscious. If there is no stronger anesthetic left, but half a mosquito's worth (on top of the initial injection) is enough to fully knock out the remaining two, then have the one spare bug inject half its payload into each of them. If half a dose is not enough, have Ecalir do a small ranged electricity spell to try and taze them into unconsciousness.



Spoiler: Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)
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Devastator

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2410 on: April 05, 2020, 10:50:32 pm »

Spoiler: Saeko Hirahara (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: April 06, 2020, 03:50:57 am by Devastator »
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syvarris

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2411 on: April 06, 2020, 06:51:33 am »

Ekrov won't follow Saeko into the king's room.  After fretting in front of the doorway for a little while, he'll go head to the magicoal furnace, and start studying it.  The primary goal is to figure out how it captures mana and stores it, in hopes of replicating some part of the mechanism to passively drain mana from the unstable magicoal pile.  It'd be nice to also just get a general idea of how the furnace works as well, in case there's value to replicating it in the future.

Also, melt magicoal.  Because every one of my actions must end with that statement.


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

piecewise

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2412 on: April 07, 2020, 11:57:36 am »

((This is a bit of a long one, my apologies.))

Check the compass, see if that 'walking stick' is indeed the 3rd piece we need.

[1] If not: see if the compass points to the employerdude. If yes, proceed with plan KO 2.0. If no, proceed to [2].

[2]) If it is: wait for those guards to drag their employer away and out of sight (we want to avoid them seeing us when we go down). If they don't drag him away far enough for us to be able to safely go down, or if it takes too long, proceed with plan KO 2.0

Either way, once the coast is clear we go down (be sure to use our climbing gear to make going down the rope safe) and check the artifact. Check for any more defensive spell on it or it's container (in case that walking stick is an elaborate cover of sorts), if there are any remoev with lotus-staff.

Once we have the 3rd piece, see if there are any more stealworthy items around we can collect in the time we have left, then teleport away a ways into the desert away from any civilization.



Plan KO 2.0: have our spare mosquito inject his venom in one of the guards, while loading up one of the 'empty' bugs with a fresh load of stronger anesthetic for the other guard still conscious. If there is no stronger anesthetic left, but half a mosquito's worth (on top of the initial injection) is enough to fully knock out the remaining two, then have the one spare bug inject half its payload into each of them. If half a dose is not enough, have Ecalir do a small ranged electricity spell to try and taze them into unconsciousness.



Spoiler: Darwin Zeppeli (click to show/hide)

The compass appears to indicate that it is.

You and Eclair climb down using your climbing gear. Between the rope and Eclairs extendy arms, its quite easy. You look over the staff and poke it a bit, double checking the compass. It definitely seems to be the artifact. Finally, after a bit of trepidation, you grab it. Nothing happens. Whew. You and Eclair quickly search the unconscious men. Each has a rifle (d8) and a melee weapon, generally a sword (d8). You take them all (6 in total of both) and then spend 16 mana to teleport into the desert, far from any civilization.

Ekrov won't follow Saeko into the king's room.  After fretting in front of the doorway for a little while, he'll go head to the magicoal furnace, and start studying it.  The primary goal is to figure out how it captures mana and stores it, in hopes of replicating some part of the mechanism to passively drain mana from the unstable magicoal pile.  It'd be nice to also just get a general idea of how the furnace works as well, in case there's value to replicating it in the future.

Also, melt magicoal.  Because every one of my actions must end with that statement.


Spoiler: O.o (click to show/hide)
1 coal, 36 mana.

[8+5 v 19]

No luck this time, but it was a really bad roll.

Walk in.  After some more testing, enchanted items seem to be fine if carried along with the king key.  Bring all the non-loot.  Do note that the miniaturized fighter sparrow core thing counts as loot and isn't being carried through the barrier.

Don't hold hands or be touching anyone. Proceed alone and in a brisk manner.

Once in, quickly examine the room, and try to communicate outside, via speaking and that texting device Ekrov left me.  Check to see if the door is still open.


Hopefully, between that steel rod and the steel word, I should be able to make tools sufficient to get the core out.
You take a step into the darkness, holding the king's key on an outstretched hand. You move through that wall of darkness as though it were as thin as a sheet of paper and set onto the other side in a single stride. You note that the the pole that got thrown in here as part of testing is nowhere to be seen. What you can see, however, is far different than what you imagined. The area is spherical, maybe 40 feet in diameter, and resembles much less of a power core and more an avant-garde mansion. Gravity seems to follow the wall of the sphere, as all the buildings are built around with their "Floor" facing the outer wall, hanging sideways and upside down from your perspective. None of the rooms have roofs so you can just look into all of them from here. Marble walls, luxerious couches and beds, statues, a full pool, library, living spaces, even what looks like an amateur workroom or laboratory.  This wasn't just the core of the city...it was a panic room, a bunker for the king.

Hanging in the absolute center of this room, not connected to anything, just sort of hovering there a good 15 or 20 feet from all the open rooftops, is the core of the city. Its not an orb, as they said, instead its a diamond shape like two 3 sided pyramids stuck together at their bases. Its smaller too, maybe a foot and a half tall and a foot or so wide. It glows with a brilliant aqua marine light and spins very slowly on its axis. You look around a bit more closely and realize that both the wall of the sphere and the walls of the structures here are covered and filled with gold mesh. Its the size of a hair and woven denser than silk, barely visible laid into the rock and metal.

You attempt to communicate out, but it doesn't seem to work. You shout and nothing comes back. The wall of darkness is still there.

Egan_BW

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2413 on: April 07, 2020, 09:00:40 pm »

Cast a d8 Lightweight enchantment on Saeko's whole body and equipment, Permanent.

Absorb mana from magicoal one piece of at a time as many times as I can manage in this time period. If my mana goes above 100 at any time, immediately level up Will.

Look for runes in the golems in the golem hangers. I am willing to crack open golems to check out their insides, but make sure Ekrov isn't watching first, because that would make him cry.


Spoiler: Zavi (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: April 09, 2020, 10:07:48 pm by Egan_BW »
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Devastator

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Re: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game
« Reply #2414 on: April 07, 2020, 11:19:59 pm »

Experiments:
Dropping an enchanted item removes the enchantments.  They're only maintained while holding the king key.
Casting spells inside here works normally, unless close to the core.  If close to the core, the core absorbs it.
The core isn't noticeably changed by absorbing a (fairly weak) spell, even under close scrutiny.  (boosted vision.)

Leave the core, and brief the people and others about what it looks like and what it does.  Grab an armload of books and meet up with Zavi and Ekrov.  Tell the crew that I'll be taking most of the stuff out of the room personally, but that'll be tomorrow.. today I'm going to explore it in detail, and so I want them to continue excavating the palace.

Increase End to +4. (70 mana) Update on glowiness?

Give Ekrov the armload of books.  Ask Ekrov for additional mana for spells.  After receiving what's offered, (Asking for at least 50) cast the End boosting spell he's wanted, improving his end to d10.  Use a Permanent Grow Strengthen to have it happen over a few hours, also hopefully knocking the difficulty down to d10 from the unmodified Strengthen difficulty of d12.  Retry if needed.

Zavi is to recieve the spells as ordered, a d6 Strengthen Force spell intended to improve the "punch" of Zavi's energy projection attacks, cast on her hands.  Retry if necessary.  Do two, one on each fist.

Receive the lightening spell from Zavi.

Head back into the core room.  This time bring a few pieces of magicoal and some thaum.

Examine the core and the room in more detail for now, like where does the water come from, are the library books readable and if so, what they look like, what does the workshop and lab look equipped for, examine the tools, art pieces, and furnature in more detail.  If there is equipment that operates on thaum or magicoal, use small amounts of either to activate them and see what they do.

All the while, keep an eye out for any words.

In the evening cast a temporary Strengthen Grow Expand Bird spell so that Saeko will grow large bird wings from her back, along with making holes in her armour for said wings to poke through.  The spell is to last two days.  The wings are to be new bird material mated to her body, not bird-shaped human material.  After that, disrobe, drop the enchanted clothing outside the entrance, and go for a swim before bedtime, to help get used to the wings and new weight.  Spend the night inside the core room.


Spoiler: Saeko Hirahara (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: April 08, 2020, 08:40:27 pm by Devastator »
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