Turn 14: It's What's Inside That CountsHmm obvious hallway with doors that can slam down and trap us, or confused mess of other tunnels.
Use flesh magic to connect a fleshy tendril to one of my Jackals that lets me remote control him and see through his eyes.
Then walk that jackal down the hall with the open doors and glowing things. If anything jumps onto it or otherwise seems to be attacking it, sever the connection on my end. Don't want to have some mind control magic crawling back into me or anything.
[1] The tendrils work the wrong way, turning you from a jackal mothership to a jackal hivemind mothership.
Fortunately the jackals mostly want you to KILL so there's not much difference.
Your jackal fleet leads you down the main hallway, which despite their lack of caution (or rather, despite considering staying close to the mothership cautious) doesn't result in any sudden confinement. The chamber at the end is a little small, though, and contains a glowing pink... thing as you originally ascertained. What that thing is is a little harder to parse; it seems to be some kind of spherical container filled with sloshing pink fluid or sloshing pink energy gyrating in a spherical motion, but the bright light and rapid movement makes it hard to tell what the stuff is or what, if anything, is directing or constraining its movement.
+1 Flesh
Now Hivemind Carrier in addition to all that other stuffWhichever way appears to not be the critical path. Got things to kill and absorb, you know.
[4] You wriggle into a side passage, more of a navigable cubby hole really, and emerge into a sort of grimy alleyway. The walls and floor here are tarnished or soot-covered, and a moment later screaming faces begin clawing their way out of them and towards your succulent flesh. You'd guess they're spirits of some sort, but you feel like that counts for devouring purposes so mission accomplished!
Now that Jeffery has escaped immediate death and has calmed down somewhat, he quickly orders the metallic spearcrabs to attack the mossy blob.
While they do that, he observes the blob carefully, using his herbalism passion to augment his understanding. Is it just moss? Is it a specific kind of moss? Can the moss be used for anything other than stealing Icy Shards?
[5] The metallic spearcrabs have a pretty epic battle, really. They can't do a lot with their tiny spears, but they don't let that stop them, hacking and jabbing furiously at the beast's ankles, scaling its legs to get a better angle, recovering after being shaken off, and ultimately finding and exploiting the beast's weak spot in its frost gem. Which is about as large as they are, so getting it out of there is no small feat.
Of course, now they expect a reward for the completion of their glorious quest. You could let them keep the shard, but then you couldn't keep the shard.
[2] The moss collapses shortly thereafter, and appears to be of low quality. Whether that's because it's dead, because that other guy kept leeching alchemically reactive goo out of it, something to do with the gem or battle damage, or because it was always low quality shard thieving moss, you couldn't say.
Try to use my metal magic to open one of the boxes from a distance. I don’t know what might come out of them and I’d like to be safely distant from them before attempting to mess with them.
Consult my skeleton on present actions that may be worthwhile, using a - Statecraft? Tactician? Diplomacy? Maybe all of them - passion in doing so.
[4] You burst one of them like a very reluctant pinata, revealing...
[3] ...a couple lumps of green glass? You guess you could carve them into something neat...
[2] You ask your skeleton about potential courses of action, and it recommends cleansing the flesh from your allies to usher in a brilliant new world of calcium perfection. You amend that you were more thinking of which way to go, but it insists that what you
really want is calcium perfection.
You begin wondering if maybe you should pick a path before it starts picking your allies' tender meats.
+3 Raw Green Glass
One diplomacy, statecraft, tactician passions spent: All increase from +0 to +1!This combat-refining seems to be working, so let's keep going with that. I'm gonna make the first magic-ish bar of soap those peasants back home have probably ever seen. Heck, it may be the first bar of soap they've ever seen. 6 Alcjemy, 4 Herbalism, 4 Brawling, 1 Brawling Passion.
Continue whispering honeyed words to my mote to seduce it to help me out or defend me against the moss monster. 3 Seduction.
[5] Tiny metallic crabs pry the frost gem out of the moss beast, allowing you to lift it over your head and shout loudly as it dissolves into wispy junk moss and delicious moss essence, or whatever this stuff is.
[6] You keep seducing the mote, which results in accidentally cutting your tongue. On the bright side, you're getting pretty good at extracting tiiiiiiiny little glowing weapons from it.
+1 Alchemy
1 Brawling Passion Spent: No increase
Harvester's Grip 1: You're adept at holding down victims in a way that lets you harvest their delicious and valuable parts.
+1 Moss Stuff
+1 SeductionThe nerve. "Well, your behavior is reprehensible and highly unladylike. What can you even offer me in return for any benefits I can give you?" Devorae asked, gesturing for the crabs to keep looting.
Leadership: Have the crabs continue getting sweet loot for their master.
Keep talking to the fairy.
[2] The crabs bring you back a handful of iron coins, a live mouse in a gilded wheel connected to a rotating peg, and a massive but empty stone jar with an image of a fish carved on it. Your crabs look a little fat but insist the jar was empty when they found it. One burps while explaining that's all the boxes.
"Hmph! As if you'd know any ladies.
Naturally, I can heal and beautify those I deem worthy."+Iron Coins
+Strange Mouse Wheel
+Empty Large Stone PotWith the boxes looted (and the , the group has a few options.
They could, of course, turn around and go home.
They could go towards the wetter end of the cavern, likely leading to water.
They could go towards the dryer end of the cavern, which Devorae's crabs say leads to mossy caverns.
Ventaro Aureus (Beirus)
4/11 HP
[Tsundere Glowing Cobra: Best girl is winning!]
[Snakeblood: You've infused your own flesh with glowing snake venom. Now you don't have to worry about dying from glowing snake venom, and probably don't have to worry about side effects from this!]
[Purple Goo Tongue: It's sorta gelatinous?]
-
+6 Alchemy (2/6)
+4 Herbalism (1/4)
+4 Brawling (0/4)
+3 Seduction (1/3)
[1 Medicine Passion]
-
Slapdash Gumbo 1: You're adept at throwing whatever into a pot and hoping for the best. You can create potions with unpredictable effects out of highly questionable materials.
Harvester's Grip 1: You're adept at holding down victims in a way that lets you harvest their delicious and valuable parts.
-
Normal Clothes: Green tunic, brown trousers, black leather boots. Downright mundane!
Everfull Flask: Put liquid in, slowly replenishes that liquid! Empty fully to replace with new liquid.
Glowing Mote: This spherical object glows with a brilliant yellow light. You feel like there's more to it, but aren't sure how you'd check. You've managed to pull a glowing toothpick out with your tongue, though, so that's something.
Dusty Wraith Essence: Refined from Wraiths! Not Nightmares! Nobody said nightmares, it was always wraiths! Perfectly safe, cleans right up.
Strange Elixir: Deep purple sludge with a bit of sparkliness to it. Made from glowing toothpicks and tree goo. Intended to be a potent healing potion, unsure what it actually does. Missing a sip, a quarter, and a drop.
Pure Regenerative Slime: Only the finest of moss-monster essence has gone into this sticky neon green muck. It should prove an exceedingly potent regenerative ingredient.
2 Moss Stuff: Refined from moss monster. Feels like green soap.
Devorae the Devoted (Caellath)
11/11 HP
[Melded Taint: A terrible corruption lurks within you, too spread out and integrated to be immediately noticeable. What you can't see still occurs, however.]
[Peasant Mistrust: The peasantry sullenly thinks you don't value them as people. You're not sure how to persuade them to not take so much offense at the truth.]
[Necromantic Thermometer (-1 Necromancy): Keeps an eye on the taint suffusing you.]
-
+6-1 Necromancy (3/6)
+3 Leadership (1/3)
[LOCKED 3] +3 Enchantment (2/3)
+1 Maces (0/1)
[1 Throwing Passion]
-
Shackles of the Grave 3: Those who fall by your hand are cursed to wander the land under your thrall. Creatures you slay with necromancy tend to return as vengeful but enslaved revenants.
-
Noble Crimson and Gold Military Attire: Includes fancy hat so you know who to take orders from.
Fancy Scepter: Hardened to a proper weapon by an enchantment.
Mad Dosh: This fancy-looking chest is filled to the brim with gold coins bearing Devorae's benevolent face.
Prismatic Gem: This smooth crystal shifts through all the colors of the rainbow in beautiful cascades. You could swear the pattern's reacted to you a few times, but you're unable to repeat the event.
Penis: This mummified penis in a glass cylinder is probably valuable or something.
Iron Coins: Grimy and you don't recognize the markings. Probably not very valuable.
Strange Mouse Wheel: Includes live mouse! Wheel itself seems to be made of gold, the rest of the contraption you're less sure of.
Empty Large Stone Pot: Big enough to fit a person inside. Or a lot of food.
Tentacled Wight Crabs
-Fairly resilient
-Mournful tale of opposing the Dark One and falling
-Looking for hero to free them from their curse
Jeffery Kentwood (Coolrune)
4/11 HP
-
+6 Summoning (0/6)
+4 Spears (0/4)
+3 Metal Magic (0/3)
[1 Geology Passion]
[1 Herbalism Passion]
[1 Charisma Passion]
-
Douchebag Jacket: He's presumably wearing pants or something too, but GODS what an asshole.
Amulet of Farsight: Like a telescope but WIZARDS!
[USURPED?] Icy Shard: This bright blue crystal shard is ice cold to the touch. You get strange feelings of enthusiasm when holding it for too long.
Metallic Spearcrabs
-Small but fierce!
Erin Quill (Glass)
11/11 HP
[Maimed: Fallen Hero's Limp: You walk with a limp from that one time a horrifying flesh amalgamation went apeshit on your dramatically billowing in the wind ass. Mobility and inspiration suffer.]
[Protein-Calcium Consulate: You and your skeleton serveas dual consuls in joint rulership of your body.]
[Nine-Toed: You don't wanna talk about it.]
-
+5 Artifice (1/5)
+3 Metal Magic (2/3)
+3 Air Magic (1/3)
+2 Crystalguns (1/2)
+1 Diplomacy (0/1)
+1 Statecraft (0/1)
+1 Tactics (0/1)
-
Trickshot 1: You have a knack for hitting small objects at improbable angles. Not to deal damage or anything, just for knocking cards out of people's hands or lighting their cigar from a distance.
Dramatic Breeze 1: A gentle breeze seems to billow your hair and clothing dramatically. You are more inspiring to allies and more of a target to enemies.
Flenser 1: You're adept at striking across foes rather than through them, shredding flesh and rending soft tissues. You may deal more damage to soft targets.
-
Labcoat: Also pants.
Cloudstopper: This overly crystal-y gun-thing shoots shards of crystalline magic at targets.
Leaf Stone: This brown stone has what looks like an imprinted fern on one side. You're quite certain it's magical somehow, but it seems almost suspiciously unreactive to anything you've been able to expose it to.
3 Raw Green Glass: Kinda neat, but not exactly weapons grade.
Anna Greenbell (Sheyra)
8/11 HP
[Core Husk: Your body is just a husk. Your real essence lies in your heart. You can expand your life force out to restore your body to life, but any damage to your body while doing so will greatly damage your life force.]
-
+7 Vitamancy (1/7)
+3 Destruction (1/3)
+3 Protection (2/3)
+1 Exploration (0/1)
[1 Hammers Passion]
-
Smoldering Core 2: Your life force is concentrated in your heart, rendering you somewhat gaunt but resilient to injuries anywhere but your weak point.
-
Kimono-Thing: Somewhere between a shrine priestess and a vagrant you'll find this alluring number for all your vagrant shrine priestess needs.
Gravity Hammer: A giant rocket-propelled hammer. Shockingly, it's wielded by a mage.
Weight of the First Sin: This red crystal smolders with inner heat. Holding it makes you feel tired, hot, and nervous.
VonNost (pw)
11/11 HP
[Gnawed Cancerous Jackal Ball Broodmother Hivemind Carrier: You're a ponderous but lengthy lump of hideously warped jackalflesh. Jackal-things cling to you like leeches, gnawing mindlessly upon flesh until ordered otherwise by crude impulses, and more of them burst from your flesh from time to time. The jackals are connected to you by fleshy tendrils that allow them to communicate through and control you.]
-
+6 Transmogrification (0/6)
+3 Flesh Magic (3/3)
+3 Vitamancy (0/3)
[1 Savagery Passion]
-
Warflesh 1: You are adept at wielding your own flesh as a weapon. You can more efficiently convert and wield your flesh in weaponized consistencies and shapes.
-
White Lab Coat: Lots of good things come from men in lab coats.
"Necessity": An ominous looking syringe, seemingly forged from heavily tarnished iron in an unsettlingly organic design. Eternally filled with potent anesthetic.
Bloody Heart: This pulsing red gemstone is carved into a stylized heart. It's warm to the touch, but the surface feels like liquid blood despite leaving no residue.
Erntrinsticia "From" Frombollywhotsit, Lady-witch of magnificence! (Egan)
11/11 HP
[Living Weapon of Envy: Gain strength from defeating foes and consuming their essence. Must fight and consume regularly or suffer morale penalties. Greatly increased personal combat ability. Sweet green tint to eyes, skin, and claws.]
-
+5 Corvid Magic (1/5)
+3 Death Magic (0/3)
+3 Fashion (0/3)
[1 Haggling Passion]
[1 Animal Handling]
-
Fashionable Witch Outfit: All black, all hat.
Lady Irstivfell the Raven: Very wise! Hence the obsession with shiny objects and tasty food.
Empty Sparkling Bottle: This tiny glass flask used to contain a glittering emerald liquid. Now it's just really classy.
5 Whiskey Biscuits: You think they're made of cactus fruit?
If this proves too much to handle we may have EXCITING GAMES to win FUN PRIZES again, but I suspect we've bled off enough interest to not have to worry.
Archimedes (FallacyofUrist)
11/11 HP
[Maimed: Shattered Skeleton: Your skeleton's been fractured in an alarming number of places, rendering you even more of a decrepit old man than usual.]
[Living Skeleton: Your skeleton is moving of its own accord, taking you for the ride or requiring likely-traumatic resistance.]
[Medicinal Harmony: Your skeleton is largely reinforced and stabilized. Aggressive movement might damage this, while time and medicine may speed its progression to full recovery.]
-
+5 Returnamancy (1/5)
+3 Alchemy (0/3)
+4 Medicine (0/4)
[1 Butcher Passion]
-
Green-Painted Robes: Probably not an intentional dye job.
Mourning Ring: Black stone with a purple gem. Commemorates a lost loved one.
Dark Ice: This fist-sized chunk of crystal is a deep blue, fading to black in the center. It feels ice cold to the touch and you get a sense of vertigo staring into its depths.
5 Containerless Mystery Sludge: Probably a result of your Curse of Recompense, degrading the abomination into valuable parts as it damaged others. You're... not sure how this stuff is valuable. But then, you're not sure how you're going to store it, so what do you know!
Elen Farley (Hotfire)
11/11 HP
[10/10 Barrier: Nothing gets in or out!]
[Lifeloop: Life force being constantly cycled. Not immediately harmful, but certainly rather unnatural and strange.]
-
+5 Vitamancy (0/5)
+3 Flesh Magic (2/3)
+3 Fire Magic (0/3)
+2 Necromancy (0/2)
-
Dark Green Robe
Supersaver Potion Pack: This dubious looking sack is filled with dubious looking potions.
Ruby Vial: This faceted red crystal vial is filled with vibrantly glowing red liquid. You're unsure what it does, but smelling it made you ravenously hungry and alarmingly dizzy.
Evelyn "Auntie Adams" Adams (The Lupanian)
11/11 HP
[Embattled Jackal Queen: The jackals bow to you as their leader, and thus the one most responsible for acquiring them delicious meats. Several prominent Jackal Senators question your rule.]
-
+5 Life Magic (0/5)
+3 Flesh Magic (1/3)
+3 Bone Magic (1/3)
+1 Wrestling (0/1)
[1 Animal Handling Passion]
-
Normal Person Traveling Clothes
Super Savings Anaesthetic: This hefty jug of industrial-strength knockout drug raises some unsettling questions.
Everbloom: This ball of bronze roots or vines keeps sprouting delectable looking berries inside. You haven't tried one yet, but they smell fragrant and feel juicy.
Erik the Ninja (Maximum Spin)
11/11 HP
-
+6 Ninjaturgy (3/6)
+3 Lightning Magic (0/3)
+3 Shurikens (0/3)
[1 Leadership Passion]
-
Ninja Outfit: Kind of drab, so probably the mook kind.
Shurikens: A bag of pointy metal throwing stars. You'd like to keep them in something a little more dignified and ninjalike than a cloth sack, but belt pouches are too small to hold them all.
Ninja Artifact: A ninja sword fused to its scabbard. The nonfunctionality makes it extra spiritual!
Sandstone Charm: This palm-sized beige stone slate is dense with indecipherable heiroglyphics. You're certain it's an item of power, but your efforts to unleash it have so far proven futile.
Mordre Deepstone (Derm)
11/11 HP
[Flayed: Your skin has been scraped off by heavy stones. It's very painful but does not interfere with mining, drinking, or arsekicking, so you're not sure why you'd care.]
-
+5 Stone Magic (3/5)
+3 Masonry (2/3)
+3 Necromancy (2/3)
-
Sturdy Dwarf Attire: Boots and shoes, two trousers, and a deep blue tunic.
Heirloom Chisel: The chisel is made of trifle pewter. The handle is made of ilmenite. On the item is an image of Mordre's heirloom chisel in trifle pewter. On the image of Mordre's heirloom chisel is an image of Mordre's heirloom chisel in ilmenite.
Mossy Mushroom: You can smell the magic on this mossy, deep blue mushroom, but other than the moss constantly growing you're unsure what it does.
7 Sandstone
1 Crude Stylized Sandstone Statue. The statue depicts Mordre Deepstone being entombed alive.
Smith (Yottawhat)
11/11 HP
[Mildly Blinded: Afterimages of racks of metal tools make concentrating difficult.]
-
+6 Metal Magic (1/6)
+3 Animation (1/3)
+3 Blacksmithing (0/3)
[1 Negotation Passion]
-
Rusted Fancy Metal Armor: Nothing suspicious about this!
Formallic Hammer: An enchanted hammer that can pound ore into refined metal.
Whispering Heart: This deep purple gemstone makes your skin crawl when touched. You can hear a faint whispering sound when you hold your ear close, but can't make out what, if anything, it sounds like.
Pure Golemetal Spear: An excessively long pointed rod of bronzelike metal that seems to glow with an inner brilliance. The metal is resistant to impurity or corruption, and seems drawn slightly to living flesh.
6 Ragged Golemmetal Chunks
3 Mangled Golemmetal Chunks
Hrodpreht (RNG)
11/11 HP
[Incomprehensible Screaming Goo: Mixed with Doomcrow. It's not pretty.]
-
+5 Dagon Worship (3/5)
+3 Teaching (0/3)
+3 Summoning (0/3)
[1 Mining Passion]
-
White Robes: Good guys wear white, so you can trust him!
Idol of Father Dagon: For some reason none of the other mages are thrilled about this.
Seething Heart: This red stone blazes with an intense inner light. Staring into it consumes you with a terrible urge to feast on your fellows. You have thus far refrained from doing so.
Lord Doombeak the Annihilator (Eldritch Doomcrow)
6/6 HP
[RAVENING: MUST DEVOUR DELICIOUS CULTIST]
+6 Life Drain
Akari Elleison (Tiruin)
11/11 HP
-
+5 Protection (1/5)
+3 Life Magic (1/3)
+3 Glow Magic (1/3)
[1 Research Passion]
-
Traveling Scholar's Outfit
Heirloom Amulet: Translucent orb on a chain, handy for refracting and focusing light.
Eye of Shadow: This shadowy black sphere has indistinct edges, and feels soft to the touch. A green light sometimes appears, shifts across the surface, and then disappears, but you can't tell what it is or does.
-Unaffiliated-
Li Kao (Pancaek)
11/11 HP
[Terrible Omen: A mysterious spirit of the dead didn't seem to like you much. Could be a sign.]
[Shadow Grapple: It's got your leg!]
-
+5 Chi magic (2/5)
+4 Wuxia (1/4)
+3 Life Magic (0/3)
[1 Socialization Passion]
-
Whirlwind 3: You blow through lesser opponents like the wind blows through long grasses. You deal bonus damage against swarm type enemies.
-
Grey Martial Arts Outfit
Tea Set: A pot and two cups. No one's sure if the pot is enchanted or the old man is incredibly wily, but it's always full of delicious hot tea when needed.
Stress Ball: This leathery yellow ball is adorned with strange looking runes. You can squeeze it when angry.
-Unaffiliated-
Xiaoli Wind-Foot (Sir Elventide)
11/11 HP
-
+5 Pneumomancy (0/5)
+3 Enchantment (0/3)
+3 Archery (0/3)
-
Turquoise Robes
Eversprout Bow: This bow grows new arrows so long as it has water. Likes fertilizer too, if you're in a hurry.
Obsidian Censer: This heavy obsidian censer feels like it'd make a better weapon than religious instrument.
Author
Topic: Wizard Kingdom RTD [Turn 15: Items of Power] (Read 46924 times)