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[Roboson]

Turn One, Research Phase, New Moon

Twilight City, a town rich with lore, treasure, and power unlike any mere man could dream of. No, men can not dream dreams as dark and twisted as the terrors contained within. Yet still, they try.

The Aboleth Association is a a longstanding, albeit lesser known cult in Twilight City. Over the years they've grown into a small collection of hedge-witches, each of whom has varying degrees of the ability and knowledge, and have even managed to gather a few pieces of lore upon the black market. Based out of Riverfront Rises, the Aboleth Association is no mere social club, but has discovered something truly of power. Or at least, scraps of it, breadcrumbs leading them down a dark path. Yet, before you could see their quest to it's satisfying end, several hoodlums from the Keepers of The Dark swooped on and stole your precious prize! Swearing to get your revenge, the Aboleth Association declared war!

Spoiler: Starting Cult Units (click to show/hide)

•Acolytes (3): These are the lowest level of cultists, barely inducted into the world of the supernatural and more useful as test subjects and errand runners than anything else. (+0 to all rolls)

•Hedge-witches (3): These are individuals who have a small piece of the puzzle figured out, but can't see the big picture. A small spell here, an enchantment there, an exorcism once in a blue moon, minor spellwork abound. Generally has a fascination with crystals, pumpkins, black cats, and big hats.  (+10 to Minor and Novice spells, +5 to Lesser spells).

Spoiler: Starting Equipment (click to show/hide)

•Conjure flame: Summon a small jet of flame. Generally useful for close combat and starting fires. (+3 to close combat. +25 to arson).
•Minor Ward: Places a ward that alerts the caster to intruders. (+15 to stealth detection if assigned to a location)
•Detect Magic: Allows the user to see magic for a short while. (+15 in detecting magic)

The Aboleth Association is well suited and highly accustomed to high society. Almost all of it's members live in the Misty Manors district, the most affluent part of the city. It is their that their base of operations is currently located in, and they control one half of the district.

Of course, through many a schmooze at a an occult cocktail party, you have made several connections to shady businessmen and supernatural hobbyiests. Of them, Jonathon Moreau has become your most useful contact to the less than savory parts of the occult underbelly of the city. Often he has requests of your cults services, and often has goods and information much sought out, and rarely procured, to serve as payment. Recently he sent word of some quest and has a few tidbits of information to wet the tongue.

Spoiler: Information (click to show/hide)

•There's a lost treasure somewhere in the Grey Bay.
•Theres a bar named Camille's Court. Rumor has it, fairies have been spotted nearby.
•Dark shapes have been seen out the plains during the waning gibbous. Avoid this area at this time, or prepare for the worst.
•The Misty Manors are home to the rich and powerful, proceed with caution in this area.
• Martin Mortimer is planning an expedition.

Spoiler: Quests (click to show/hide)

•Locate the sunken treasure. (Moreau will pay nicely for it, but you could also find other buyers)
•Infiltrate Mortimer's expedition and learn the location he's planning to explore.

[Shadowclaw777]

Research Charm Person (Spell):
The magic-user makes a basic mind enchanting somatic and vocal gestures and the individual target of a humanoid stature will regard the caster of the spell caster as a fellow friendly acquaintance of theirs and the spell will form basic memories of the basic friendliness and diplomatic nature of the caster of how they are both friendly acquaintances with each other, therefore negotiations and tricks of deceiving and coercing are more effective when the target sees them nearly as a friend to them. However it is due to the nature of the enchantment more difficult to convince a person that their a friend when combat has already followed, during which combat is already taking place, making them more likely to resist the charming effects.

[Urist Mc Dwarf]

Research Seek Knowledge(Spell):

The magic user must kneel over a bowl of murky water, and shed blood into it while describing the knowledge they seek. The waters will clear to reveal some truth related to what they wish to know, although it may be couched in riddle and metaphor.

[Happerry]

I think Charm Person looks more immediately useful then Seek Knowledge, it'll help us make connections in general and should also be useful for the 'Infiltrate Mortimer's expedition' quest. I think we should try to get some pistols and a combat asset/unit/follower type sooner then later though, just in case. It can't be that hard to recruit some local thugs and tough guys and it'd let us actually do some combat type missions instead of having our best bet be to run away when violence happens.

(I know we have the Conjure Flame spell, but I don't really see the Hedge Witches as described being the sort to use what's effectively a short ranged flamethrower to come out on tip of any important fights.)

[Naturegirl1999]

Ptw

[Atomic Chicken]

Research: Morph Self (Spell):

This spell, recently discovered amidst the home remedies of a myopic hedge witch who used it to correct her eyesight, grants the caster some degree of control over their physical body structure. With some experimentation, we hope to develop it into a means of attaining mastery over one's appearance, with special focus given to the facial aspect, but also covering characteristics such as build, height, sex and skin colour if possible. In addition, it is believed that alteration of the caster's voice should also be fairly easy to achieve by morphing the laryngeal anatomy.

This ability would prove highly useful for all manners of subterfuge, and opens the door to further transformation-based magic. We might eventually be able to go the Face Dancer route, infiltrating and taking over entire organisations by assassinating key targets and replacing them with perfectly disguised witches.

[Roboson]

A member of your cult has become overshadowed by a twisted melancholy. A strange lingering of forces unknown haunt the corners of their eyes, small whispers in their peripheral vision, a smooth wet feeling behind the eyes. In the days following their condition worsens, and paranoia settles in their heart. Encounters with the Dark bubble to surface, dredged from their memories into the forefront of their mind by macabre hooks and slinking tethers. Perhaps embellished by their strange affliction or perhaps their experience is haunting enough without hyperbole, your acolyte sees something monsterous through darting eyes glazed and dull with sickness. What horrors do they see?

Spoiler: What is this? (click to show/hide)

A member of your organization has been visited by a dark and unknowable presence. Each team has the opportunity to write on a dark encounter of the Eldritch or supernatural variety. Whichever team writes a story/poem/prose which is more pleasing to the dark force which has stricken their unit will receive a dark inspiration in the form of a Reroll Credit, allowing for any one dice to be rerolled. The other team will watch in horror as one of their acolytes drowns in the dark terrors afflicting them.

[ConscriptFive]

I say we double-down on our high society women theme and become seductively charming women.  Courtesans and mistresses of the powerful, who cunningly slept their way to the top, exploiting the pillow talk of their lovers.  It's such rich theme to write within and can really amp up the narrative fluff that this GM seems to be looking for.

Charm Person seems like the basic foundation of this.  "She just loves hearing about my work with the boss.  She thinks I'm so interesting!  I mean, by "friends," that hot chick talking to me totally means "friends with benefits" right?"  We could even play with Victorian Fan Language if we really wanted to get nuts with the theme: https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/the-secret-language-of-fans

Morph self could really synergize with this: perfect disguises and/or getting seduced by an absurdly attractive man/woman.  Imagine charming a person while already disguised as their lover?  Sounds too easy.  I'd love to vote for some version of this in the future.  My only hitch is that this could be a difficult "major spell," whereas a weak charm is probably a "minor spell."  I rather our first spell be something easy, that we can still work with even if we roll badly.

Anyhow, time to get the votebox rolling:

Research Charm Person (Spell) (1): ConscriptFive
Research Seek Knowledge (Spell) (0):
Research Morph Self (Spell) (0):

[The Ensorceler]

Research Charm Person (Spell) (2): ConscriptFive, The Ensorceler
Research Seek Knowledge (Spell) (0):
Research Morph Self (Spell) (0):

[Shadowclaw777]

Research Charm Person (Spell) (2): ConscriptFive, The Ensorceler, SC777
Research Seek Knowledge (Spell) (0):
Research Morph Self (Spell) (0):

[Happerry]

Research Charm Person (Spell) (4): ConscriptFive, The Ensorceler, SC777, Happerry
Research Seek Knowledge (Spell) (0):
Research Morph Self (Spell) (0):

[Urist Mc Dwarf]

Research Charm Person (Spell) (4): ConscriptFive, The Ensorceler, SC777, Happerry
Research Seek Knowledge (Spell) (1): Urist Mc Dwarf
Research Morph Self (Spell) (0):

[Roboson]

Turn 1 Action Phase, Waning Half

Research: Charm Person (Partial Success, 42)
The allures of high society are often enough to draw an impressionable individual into the fold. Money, power, sex, fame, all are promised, and most are delivered. Yet some people need a bit of a nudge.

Several hedge witches, especially a woman by the name of Elaine Raltroph, have been expanding their powers towards understanding how magic can be used to extenuate these promises. Though it seems tapping into the darkness of the heart is no small feat, casting a shroud of familiarity would be a shorter method.

A few weeks of trial and error on the acolytes, much to their chagrin, you have managed to get a working minor spell working. Using a small magic circuit constructed through the use of verbal spell-speak would allow a spellcaster to lay this glimmer upon a nearby individual.

The spell is considered minor in difficulty when it comes to casting, and can convey to an individual that the caster is indeed a friend of theirs. However, the memory implantation is much trickier. Only vague feelings and rememberances can be imbedded in the preexisting memories of the target, though nothing specific. One may feel as though you had attended their Christmas party last year, though when critically analyzed or when contrary information is provided, the spellwork tends to fall apart.

Charm Person Researched
Can charm an individual at close range. If the individual is neither hostile or defended via magical means, they can be charmed. The charm convinces the target that the caster is a friend of theirs, and can be further convinced of this friendship through continued lies and guile, however when challenged with evidence to the contrary, the spell may fail. Upon spell failure an individual may believe they have you confused for someone else, or if they are schooled in magic, will realize they've been charmed.

[Shadowclaw777]

Mortimer’s Expedition Infiltration:
Acolyte
Hedge Witch: Conjure Flame, Detect Magic, Charm Person
Hedge Witch: Conjure Flame, Minor Ward, Charm Person

The Aboleth Association shall send members of our respectful party to infiltrate the expedition to learn the location he’s trying to explore and get the reward for ourselves.

Misty Manor Acquisition:
Acolyte x2
Hedge Witch: Conjure Flames, Detect Magic, Charm Person

The Aboleth Association shall acquire more territory of the Misty Manirs through socialization, cocktail parties, and “coercion” for those that resist.

[The Ensorceler]

Misty Manor Schmoozing, Boozing and Floozing:
Acolyte x2
Hedge Witch: Conjure Flames, Detect Magic, Charm Person
Infiltrate the powers-that-be of the Misty Manors through a neighborhood party thrown by one of our Acolytes. The goal is to pair up our attending members with susceptible individuals by planting the seeds of close personal relationships, platonic or otherwise. The Hedge Witch is to use the power of Charm Person to invite marks to the party and to be the perfect wingman, allowing genuine trust to form through nonmagical means.

Mortimers Expedition Infiltration (1): The Ensorceler
Misty Manor Acquisitions (0)
Misty Manor Schmoozing, Boozing and Floozing (1): The Ensorceler