Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ConscriptFive]

Okay, same resources as Shadowclaw's plan but a bit more detailed.

Mortimer Infiltrated, Inside and Out

Summary: Two personnel obtain employment at the Manor to gather intelligence on the expedition, setting up proper infiltration of the expedition by a third person.

One acolyte will seek basic employment at Mortimer's stables.  Ideally as a valet or driver, but even a stablehand would be useful.  From his employment at the stables, he is note all visitors and Messengers to the Manor.  Hopefully he may even be required to pack or otherwise prepare transportation for the expedition.

One witch is to charm the governess of the Manor to get hired onto the housestaff.  From her employment inside the Manor, she is to note all visitors and meetings.  She may make use of detect magic to identify any additional unusual goings-on as well.  If she finds opportunity to quickly intrude, she should utilize a ward before doing so.

These two personnel secretly communicate with a third person, another witch.  Analyzing the intelligence provided, this fresh face may charm who she sees fit to investigate the expedition.  At the very least, she should identify the leader, destination, and schedule of the expedition.  If possible, she may charm her way into employment with the expedition.  She may use detect magic to identify threats and items of interest.  Carries flame for self defense.

EDIT: Bolded equipped spells within context of the plan.

[The Ensorceler]

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

[ConscriptFive]

Mortimers Expedition Infiltration (0):
Mortimer Infiltrated, Inside and Out (2): The Ensorceler, ConFive
Misty Manor Acquisitions (0):
Misty Manor Schmoozing, Boozing and Floozing (2): The Ensorceler, ConFive

[Atomic Chicken]

Mortimers Expedition Infiltration (0):
Mortimer Infiltrated, Inside and Out (3): The Ensorceler, ConFive, AC
Misty Manor Acquisitions (0):
Misty Manor Schmoozing, Boozing and Floozing (3): The Ensorceler, ConFive, AC

[Shadowclaw777]

Mortimer Infiltrated, Inside and Out (4): The Ensorceler, ConFive, AC, SC777
Misty Manor Schmoozing, Boozing and Floozing (4): The Ensorceler, ConFive, AC, SC777

[ConscriptFive]

It was upon my latest laudanum ruminations that the most foul of visions came upon me.

I spied a girl, nay, a woman, of incalculable beauty.  This incarnation of Venus smiled at me, nude in her splendor.  Beguiled, I went to seize her, as any man would.  We embraced and kissed, first tenderly and then with the fires of passion.  Fully embroiled, I pushed her to the ground.  As I opened my eyes, I noticed a flash of deep purple in hers.  Her waifish flesh pinned beneath me surged in strength and broke my masculine grasp.  I leapt back as her light complexion sported dark winding tendrils, resembling veins of fine Italian marble.

Perhaps amused by my terror, she giggled in a strangely sonorous voice: human like a gifted Austrian soprano, yet otherworldly in vibrato. Her voice resonated within me, a treble pulse permeating my mortal being.  I felt a burning sting within my blood and gazing upon my hands, I could see my once ruddy complexion rapidly gaining a sickly pallor.

I looked back to her as her vibrato suddenly stopped.  She had arisen from the soil, her empowered form gracefully levitating.  She gazed upon me with her keen purple eyes, like an art collector assessing their next acquisition.  Her lips pursed in approval and she gave a slight nod.  The hunter now the hunted, I froze in terror as she touched my cheek.  With an air of condescension, she whispered slowly and deliberately into my ear, "manducamus libenter illos qui nos dominate."

[Shadowclaw777]

Written Excerpt Hidden in the AA’s Manor’s Vault, The Founder’s Memorandum

It’s been a long time since we unearthed that knowledge from Riverfront Rises, the struggling of the corrupt policing force and criminal thugs that contested our staged troupe there. It’s been a century since that inflammatory inciting moment. All we tried to do was bring happiness and culture to a downtrodden city but for them to burn down our own opera theater because we just tried to make a living and bring happiness to the world?, no wonder their will always be contention between both nobility and commoner. Many of our members of the Opera Co. left the following months to make their own place in the lives, but not us as we were so determined back then and that’s when we were pushed to our very limits, both physical and mentally. The Founders for the Aboleth Association were just a small ensemble back then but when pushed to our motivation and on a strange moonlight evening on our lowest, we heard an incoherent singing that sounded... beautiful yet mesmerizing. That’s when... we heard the vibrations of the sound, almost as it was entrancing us, even the leader of that group was saying he was having poetic words put inside his brain except the vocal tone was indescribable.

So we kept on, going from the access chamber to the entrance of the sewer canals, and then even in that sickly place we still felt at though we were in luxury. The water didn’t look tainted and the stone-brick walls of the canal didn’t have any signs of age or deterioration, as if we found a hidden gem of this kleptocracy of a city. We left no stone unturned, but we all followed the canal and the singing until it became more and more rhythmic and had more clarity, and that’s when we found the pristine citadel of our Great Old Ones. While their was only one, and we never had a good chance to see what it actually was.. however we were unworthy to even gain a glance on such a Elysian entity, to not even state the song of a god. Yes, for while our conversation was short we learned the reality of the true god, the unspeakable forthright truth that the “divine” gods and their followers have been so adept at hiding, they were never the first in this world no it was the Ancient Ones. We learned of the eternity of these ancient deities, that they were the first and that they remembered everything. From this encounter we beseeched our praise and gave the being our unworthy groveling. More on that note, is that our desires were put into our head as we spoke with our minds, our own words in our minds carried our voices and vocal tone but the god that came before us had an adaptive yet unidentifiable voice and we became their servants from henceforth.

With knowledge in hand of the Old Ones, we spent our years utilizing our powerful social charm and ability of long-term planning, organization, and manipulation to reach where we are now, the Misty Manors. Our Association has many deep roots in this archaic city, but our purpose is singular too...

[Roboson]

Turn 2 Research Phase, Waxing Gibbous

The night was alight with the fires of frivolity. The stars themselves had descended from the sky to avoid the oncoming gloom of the witching hour, drawing closed a swirling cirrostratus curtain across the gaping void. Their glory graced the manor, their voluptuous celestial bodies, clad in pearls, silk, and diamonds radiated heat as they moved through the crowd. Tonight belonged to the Aboleth Association. They bloomed in the lounges, and rose to the eastern dance floor. As they skimmed across the smooth slate, unbound by things as simple as gravity and sobriety, even those free of the glamour could not help but to notice. Through the dark they performed their song and dance, cohorts bellowing the flames in the hearts and minds of onlookers, until none could resist. The snow fell softly into perfect lines before it disappeared in an instant. Sleep pooled heavy and thick in tinctures, a pleasant weight upon the soul. By the time the sun arose to chase the stars away, few had not felt the strange pulls of this sacrilegious night. Only one had resisted, a patch of darkness in the fallen sky.

Yet, while the party was truly a success, little was learned. Friends had been discovered, bonds had been made and bridges built, even deep connections of the mind, or of the loins, had been forged in the fires of the evening of starfall. Yet, when the opiate fog cleared and dawn had passed, one could not help but to feel a shadow had crept among the light, unnoticed and shifting. Where the hedgewitches went, like the sun across a sundial, the shadow shifted from their view. Only glimpses remained. A woman laying on chaise longues, smoke ebbing from her lips. A man who left no tray untouched, not a drop of champagne remaining within his flute. A slinking smile, clad in veneer and intensely hollow, has slipped through your fingers.

Elsewhere tasks of less ambitious extravagance were assigned, and their fruition is brought to swift conclusion. Few found their infiltration to have any difficulties, for it seems their are no practitioners of the arts to oppose them within this expedition. In only a few short weeks, much had been learned, and little had been been revealed. From their serventile positions within the Manor, eyes and ears were allowed to hear and see all which one cares not to hide from the walls and the floors themselves. So little consideration on gives to the floorboards we walk upon, and who would be so rabid as to consider them capable of thinking of the hushed words uttered over a cigar. Onward to the Ruins of an Alkara cenobium the expedition would travel. Already the guards have been hired, and the workmen paid, yet there have been unforseen delays. In the dead of night their guide has vanished and the guards are less professional than that which are desired for an expedition of this magnitude. They depart for the cenobium upon the next waxing gibbous.

You watch in confusion as your afflicted acolyte floats, eyes wide with the sleep of an endless night, above his bed. Head twisted, mouth agape, the blanket a curtain as to the darkness holding them aloft. As strange words wheeze through their lips, your vision fades and you can feel a sense of utter weightlessness that lasts for eternity. Through the Dark you hear the words, Hssvvt xitdaeimcg tsbrzmmfg ruaikq stwz vv wqs crlyqvbwqbof. Mqxsehu rq owqc buzmg mwwg ibztu sq, sz vv mmbgpxva mmbwsxvb, wmjqfgoqm bs. At last you strike the floor, and with a jolt, return to your senses. Your acolyte's eyes focus and their mind clears. Whatever possessed them, has returned to whence it came. Yet, one cannot help but to feel it has left something behind those glittering eyes. 
 

Spoiler: Information (click to show/hide)

WIP

Spoiler: Quests (click to show/hide)

WIP

[ConscriptFive]

Hmm, partial successes but no disasters?  Looks like we won the writing challenge too.

So I'm assuming we want to chase those ruins.  Join or beat the new expedition?  I'm assuming the ruins are far off, and some sort of flying vehicle could make a huge difference.  Two seater broomsticks? Flying carpet?  Flying carriage?

[ConscriptFive]

So here's the most interesting way of getting us into the skies.  It may be almost too ambitious, but we do have a re-roll credit:

Research Proposal: Ravenshifters Unit (Re-roll Credit Used)

The night after our acolyte's episode, he underwent a metamorphosis.  While dreaming of flying, he awoke to see dark feathers painfully sprouting through his skin.  His clothes teared apart as he increased in bulk.  He attempted to scream for help, but his lips were now a long hardened beak.  Over the course of a few minutes, our acolyte was replaced by a man-sized Raven.

After the initial pain and terror subsided, the Raven responded to our queries via confused awkward squawks, confirming he had retained the acolyte's mind.  Eventually, the transformed man cawed in intense pain as his feathers retreated back under his skin.  His beak and talons dissolving to reveal human features.

After the shivering naked man covered his immodesty with a pillow, he begun to explain his situation.  After continued practice, our first "Ravenshifter" could transform at will, albeit painfully, to and from Raven form, and could tutor other men into doing so.  Fully capable of flight, a Ravenshifter could be fitted with a saddle to carry up to two riders across the skies.  It is recommended that a spare set of clothes be kept in the saddlebags, to accommodate Ravenshifter after his transformation back to human form.

So mechanics wise, we give our personnel a dedicated flight unit that can carry even non-magical passengers.  Doing it that way keeps our three equipment/spell slots open, as opposed to clogging them with a flight spell or item.  Plus, more interesting units are always more fun, but he can still do general human stuff in human form for when his massive bird skills aren't needed.  I know it's pretty radical, but it sure would be a good use of a reroll credit and does follow the narrative of the floating possession event decently.

I mean, witches riding gigantic birds that are actually men is the most interesting narrative I could spin for that.

[Shadowclaw777]

Pest Form: In terms of our arcane foundation of witchery and warlocks their has been a deviation and alteration of a ancient heresy that the Old Priests have used for the last millennia, that have been referred to many as druids, shamans, mystics, and what have you but with contacting and manipulation the magic through a transmutation process we have achieved a lesser form of self-imposed polymorph. Through a process of when the somatic and verbal components there is also a ritual that require specific material and runes to be created, a circle on the ground is created from chalk and with the specific connection to the arcane leylines the target can force the target to through a short metamorphosis that has a duration. The individual will feel contracted and twisted as their body becomes smaller and more animal like as the chalk forces arcane energy on the target, in the end result a manipulation of arcane and primal magic and the targets take the form of a tiny sized animal based on the incantations that were set. A rat for stealth, a crow for flight, a spider for wall climbing, and a pond loach for swimming. This allows for a greater ability of utility for our spellcasters to a further extent. The ability to transform into a tiny battle form will allow information gathering, stealth, and reaching positions that a normal human can’t be able to reach.

There are limitations to this form of basic polymorph magic, the first is while these forms can have some combat utility for a raven to try and scratch a man’s eye out or a venomous spider to inject venom, the actual combat effectiveness as being a “Pest” is quite limited and we even make sure to add a form of abjuration basic magic into the Pest Form. What this translate to is when the the polymorphed human in a form of a weak animal takes enough damage on their new body that it would be a lethal, instead the target comes out of a poof of smoke, and instantly contracted back to their human form though they are quite dazed after the process. Even more the spell has a duration before the arcane energy wears off, usually 6-8 hours and than the transmutation leylines in the body weakened (individuals with detect magic  would also see arcane energy around the small animal) and the body resorts and transmutes back to the same human body. This spell allows a gateway entrance into the art of transmutation magic as well as further research into more... combative and strange additions when you mutate your body in such a way.

Exploratory Research, Item Enchantment: (Reroll Credit Used)

We invest our arcane expertise of this city and spend our knowledge gathering on the most interesting of subjects, Magic Item Crafting. We explore the way we can insert both short-term and consumable magic into liquids like potions and solids, as well a more a sustained way of applying raw and untapped magical energy into objects allowing us to resonate with these objects into combat and exploration so that they can provide utility. Essentially we’re trying to set a framework of the basics on how we enchant magical items to be more effective and to make them seem dormant when not in use. Specialized woodmaking and evocation applying to a wand or staff there, embroidery for magical silken garments, and smithing and glass working or magical metal and other utilitarian items so than in which we can finally apply the ability to invest magical energy into all the other magic items we create more effectively, so that future magical items we can create can be more reliable and potent.

[Shadowclaw777]

Ravenshifters: (1) SC777

[ConscriptFive]

Ravenshifters: (2) SC777, ConFive

[Happerry]

Ravenshifters: (3) SC777, ConFive, Happerry