Turn 7: Hexes and Heroes
Gee, Eye. Jokes?
Gibeele upgraded Half the Battle, further improving its effectiveness and overall coverage of magic systems.
Name: Half The Battle
Primary actribute: Might
Effects:
+ Knows all about existing magics
+ ...And thus, how to counter them
- Difficult to read
Actribute Bonus: Might
Description: A thick tome bound in grey leather from an unknown creature. Its textual contents are constantly shifting, but it does try to actively help the holder.
narrowly avoided entering its war form this turn.
Possibly in retaliation for an associated proposal to progress to the Age of Magic, among other things,
Harvey Harvest created Transformnot Gourds, which render eaters immune to transformation and mutation. Of course, since
Harvey Harvest also created the overtly transformative MAXIMUM CORN, it may be a mere coincidence.
Name: Transformnot Gourd
Traits:
+ Makes the consumer immune to the effects of transformations and mutations
+ Can be grown/farmed easily
- Makes the consumer immune to the effects of transformations and mutations
Description: Transformnot gourds are a pink melon with yellow flesh. Eating this yellow flesh makes you immune to all transformation effects, preventing the consumer from transforming in any way mundane or magical.
Name: Dirt Tree
Traits:
+ Makes fertile dirt
+ One of the easiest plants to farm
- Most people can't eat dirt
Description: Dirt Trees are a type of plant that produces dirt. The entire tree is made out of dirt, and may be cut down to use the dirt in farming applications. This dirt is made from the air, and handily prevents creatures that eat the ground from eating all the ground ever.
Name: Dragon Fruit
Traits:
+ Is a dragon
+ Is a fruit
- Is a dragon
Description: Dragon Fruit is a type of fruit taken from a cactus. This fruit is a dragon, typically palm-sized but can grow larger with fertile enough soil. Said dragons are usually red and spiky with four legs, sharp scales, and wings capable of flight if they arn't currently attached to the tree. Their tales are their stems.
Name: MAXIMUM CORN
Traits:
+ Causes crops and animals that eat it to become significantly larger
+ Can increase crop and meat yields
- Large things need more food.
Description: MAXIMUM CORN (always capitalized) is a large species of corn. While it tastes good, its main ability is to cause anything that eats it to grow to gargantuan proportions. This can be applied to crops by grinding the corn and applying the powder to said crops, allowing for supersized crops in addition to cattle and other such animals.
Planar shenanigans
Lacking interesting things to do this age,
Qwitzikottle went ahead and created quasi-mortal Outsiders known as Uraflings in a microcosm placed over Tun'Goul.
Name: Uraflings
Affiliation: Qwitzikottle
Class: Outsiders
Traits:
+ Psychic hivemind; Uraflings are subtly connected by a psychic hivemind, causing them to occasionally experience the lives of other Uraflings through dreams, and generally express better growth in skills other Uraflings have developed- without actually having the ability to communicate through this connection.
+ compressed existence; There is a total of exactly 10 trillion Uraflings spread across the 'habitable' worlds within Qwitzikottle's Miniature universe, running through raising civilizations, and then destroying themselves in perpetuality, taking only ten minutes to to experience 10 thousand years of development and societal collapse simply because time and space are equally compressed there- giving them an interesting variety of unique cultures for someone to be plucked out of.
- Practically mortal; physically, and from a life expectancy perspective- Uraflings might as well be generic mortals- if it wasn't for new Uraflings eventually showing up for each that died- they would probably drive themselves extinct by tomorrow.
Description: surprisingly aggressive Hairless Humanoid monkeys that seemingly think their species is the center of the universe for whatever reason, seem to be obsessed with developing new ways of killing off their own species, and new ways of ensuring they don't have to do as much work to survive in Qwitzikottle's pocket universe.
also created Arko, a strangely forgettable snail-like creature with some capacity for reproduction with other gastropods. Although the results don't seem to be quite as potent as godly critters, they still seem to be a cut above basic animals, and some of Arko's progeny even share a greatly lessened anti-memetic quality.
Name: Arko
Affiliation: Qwitzikottle
Class: Creature
Traits:
+ hermaphrodite; Passively spawns 'critters' of the same basic species; eg 'Giant omnivorous snails covered in mushrooms'
+ anti-memetic spores; the 'Fungai' infesting Arko passively give off spores that cause animals big and small to simply ignore him
- moves at the speed of smell; Its a gargantuain snail, 'moving quickly' isn't within its bag of tricks
Description: A gargantuan snail that could be mistaken for a small mountain, covered with a forest of Fungal growths.
Grossly incandescent
With the Chariot finally restored to something resembling its old splendor,
C'thun sought to create something with which to blind the horrible
Eye, whose attacks would likely only escalate and damage more irreparable things in future ages. Unfortunately,
C'thun's proposal was shot down by the others on grounds of impracticality and/or unknown effectiveness.
Shinka had more success and managed to secure a donation from the Faceless Prince toward the creation of the First Step of the Gateless Path, an act-storing device that provides enLightenment. With contributions from Shinka (2 acts), the Faceless Prince (2 acts), Susan (1 act), and Harvey Harvest (1 act), the result is a lesser magic item with the ability to keep a soft act from decaying over the course of a turn. Per the agreement its creators implicitly agreed to, the
Faceless Prince will get to store an act of their choice this turn.
Susan will receive access next turn and will be followed by
Shinka. However, having failed to receive three points of Light, the First Step will not boost it.
Name: First Step of the Gateless Path
Primary actribute: Light
Effects:
+ Stores a soft act
+ makes you a bodhisattva
- costs way too much can only be operated by transcendent meditation in the wilderness
Description: The tao that can be described is not the true tao.
Meet Eater
The Flesh Conch of Screaming started the Singing Flesh Initiative, a mass region creation initiative. The inaugural region is, of course Singing Flesh, which borders and nibbles at most other regions one at a time and contains a province that gnaws away at the boundaries between planes and another that, despite being perfectly safe, wears away at mortal sanity.
Name: Singing Flesh
Neighbors: Yamayunqa (Texas, Murica, Land of Wizny, Farmaland, Central Garden, Pastures, Trunthia Multa, Rivers)
Traits:
+ The Flesh That Moves: The autonomic processes of the Singing Flesh causes it to cyclically drift closer to one of its neighbours through processes of wild fringe flagella flagellating and focused directional humming. It then eats a part of the neighbour before leaving behind scent markers and moving on to the next neighbour. The scent markers will keep the Singing Flesh away from an island for at least several decades before they fade enough for it to wander there again, unless some outside force were to remove them.
+/- Made of Meat: The Singing Flesh is made of flesh and music. Its flesh is very tasty and nutritious for meat-eating life, but not really suited for things like growing conventional plants. It is never quiet which may annoy some.
- The Flesh that Eats: Anything not made of meat, bone, or assorted other animal body parts, is assimilated/merged into the Singing Flesh and transmuted into flesh when it comes into contact. Thus stone buildings built on it would not remain stone for long, wood and non-meat plants are turned into meat, and other islands it bumps into would merge with it at the contact and start turning to flesh until eventually the Singing Flesh rips away from them to move on with a large chunk of stolen transmuted flesh.
Description: While not in any way a thinking being or self-aware, the Singing Flesh is very much a living organism, a landmass of flesh and bile and cartilage and fat and muscle, with a halo-fringe of waving tentacles around its edges, questing eternally in a blind idiot fashion for nearby land to connect to and turn into more Singing Flesh to merge back into the main body. Its senses are dull and mostly scent and touch based, linking to distributed clusters of nerves that mostly direct it towards nearby scented landmasses to consume parts of them. Beyond its mindless quest to feed, it simply exists, as land is wont to do, uncaring of creatures living on or around it, eating its flesh, paratizing on its veins of melody, building grand pyramids on its plateaus, ploughing through meat-fields to sow meat-plants or even slowly poisoning it in a quest to end its reign of terror against their homelands. That said, non-meat materials that come into contact with the Singing Flesh simply become more Singing Flesh, probably making architecture and agriculture a challenge.
The Singing Flesh is home to all sorts of meat-eating life, including parasitic meat plants that grow roots into its lymph nodes to feed themselves, hungry hyenas that gnaw through thick scabs of keratin and cartilage to get to the tastiest meat, Hazard vultures that devour promising looking tumours and gallbladders, decadent tigers that disdain eating the land itself, instead hunting only other animals, to name only a few members of the meat ecosystem.
Name: Wellsprings of Meatas
Neighbors: Meaty River Valley
Region: Singing Flesh
Traits:
+ Touch of Meatas: Any being that bathes in the hot springs of Meatas is granted the boon of turning anything they touch into meat, if it isn't already. Beings always count as touching themselves, if they are not yet made of meat somehow. They cannot turn this off, if they would want to for some reason. The effect is permanent.
+/- The Gate, The Key: The planar membrane is thin at the Wellsprings, making it exceptionally easy for outsiders to enter here, or be summoned here. Outsiders can stay in the world longer while remaining within the Wellsprings province. However, they always appear within the hot springs, meaning they always gain the boon and the curse of the Wellsprings. Mortals or animals may sometimes deliberately or accidentally wander into other planes through rips that do not persist longer than a few moments.
- Curse of Hunger: Any being that bathes in the hot springs of Meatas gains a great, but satiable on a daily basis, hunger for meat and flesh. Usually not a problem on the Singing Flesh, but if the the cursed resist their hunger too long their personalities will begin to warp and they will suffer from hallucinations and delusions. Their bodies will also begin to reject their souls until they give in, break the curse, or die from having their souls ejected from their bodies.
Description: A terraced mountain range of sickly greenish yellow hot springs welling up from some unclean depth of the Singing Flesh, filling the air with thick chemical scents. The springs are pleasantly warm, and will eat away dead skin, making them excellent as an exfoliant. The sound of fluids flowing from terrace to terrace as the pools overflow creates pleasing harmonies. These springs are actually digestive fluids of the Singing Flesh welling up from some misaligned digestive track or ulcerated stomach, but given that the Singing Flesh does not, cannot, digest meat, it is harmless to most beings that can safely inhabit the Singing Flesh and thus this is not really that important. The springs are full of cute rainbow coloured shrimp, who blow comforting bubbles and rapidly tap and drum on their own or each others exoskeletons to create tunes as mating rituals.
Meaty River Valley
Neighbours: Wellsprings of Meatas
Region: Singing Flesh
Traits:
+ Safe: There are no dangerous animals, geomeatical instabilities, risky weather patterns or other potential natural clamtastrophes in this area, making it the perfect place for some theoretical fledgling civilization to begin itself.
+ Vast: This province is pretty large, perhaps enough for two cities instead of one.
- Cognitohazard: The more generations of a particular group of mortals that live successively in the valley, the more prone their group are to paranoia and other strains of mental illness. Especially common is claims that the Singing Flesh speaks to them, despite the Singing Flesh being incapable of even understanding the concept of language. Cults and strange religious practices crop up like mushrooms after spring rain, many cult leaders calling themselves Cognito, and despising hazard vultures, for some reason. Strange and dangerous ideas spread more easily, and people begin to crave known cognitohazards, like Fruits of Forbidden Knowledge, suffering from a growing desire to eat or be effected by them.
Description: A large and peaceful valley of plenty located near the center of the Singing Flesh. Bees collect nectar from the fields and fields of pretty meatflowers, making delicious honey, red like blood. Carp play happily in the great river flowing through its center, a thick torrent of sweat, drool and effluvia from the Mountains of Meatas. Yet there is a hidden sinisterness beneath the image of meaty peace and bounty, a muttering echo in the subconscious that one cannot hear which suspects is there.
Unfortunately, no one else joins in the
Flesh Conch's project. The Singing Flesh also seems incompatible with Polis and the Old World somehow.
Voicers, Whisperers, Shouters?
The Wanderer created the Whisperers, keen trackers with four taloned limbs who, like the Voicers, can be summoned outside the Plane of Wandering.
Name:Whisperers
Affiliation (list all applicable gods, primary first):The Wanderer
Class: Outsiders
Traits:
+ Can know the way to a person or location by their name alone
+ have a very strong grip and can hold on for high speed
- small, and weak, and slow by themselves
Description: Small humanoids with bird talons instead of arms and legs
also created a terrible swift caravan leader in the form of a burning bird-like creature. Their fearsome, fiery appearance has scared off a large contingent of Voicers back through their portal.
Name:The caravan leader
Affiliation (list all applicable gods, primary first):The Wanderer
Class: Creature
Traits:
+ As fast as a runner: has incredible speed in any form of mundane movement
+ As scary as an army marching: Their image terrify all that stand oppose them
- As bright as a lantern, as load as a travel song: cannot hide, all in their surrounding know their location and movement their intention are clear to all that see or hear them.
Description: A large bird of red feathers and green fire.
Plot Twi-ist
Twi created a great many provinces throughout the Pastures and the Underneath.
Name: The Grasslands
Neighbors: The Forests, The Lakes, The Mountain Ring
Region: The Pastures
Traits:
+ Endless fields of tall grass to graze upon. Flowers of all colors in meadows of their own.
+ Very rich in nutrients, lush. Primary Region Feature.
- Disorienting to those who do not know the land. Easy to get lost if you do not know the way.
Description: [Free Province #1, The Pastures] The Grasslands are wide and range far, giving The Pastures their name. While it is naturally quite abundant, it is also devoid of water, simply plants for miles. While one can get their intake by eating these plants, those without the palette for them would do well to bring their own water to this ecosystem.
Name: The Forests
Neighbors: The Grasslands, The Lakes
Region: The Pastures
Traits:
+ Trees and underbrush abound, leaves shining in the sun and glowing in the night. These Forests never seem to sleep. And the trees come in many varieties.
+/- Due to the magic in the air, these forests are filled with dangers. The woods seem to grow back in days after being felled for their plentiful wood.
Description: [Free Province #2, The Pastures] An endless forest of life, filled with magic and nestled among the land in pockets. Be wary not to travel too deep lest you become part of the forest. For those lost may never be seen again. But the light and resources it provides to it's inhabitants is truly grand to watch. Preferable from outside The Forests.
Name: The Lakes
Neighbors: The Grasslands, The Forests, The Skies, The Underneath
Region: The Pastures
Traits:
+ Deep Lakes filled with life. Crystal clear lakes glimmering, light seen deep below.
+ Air Currents rising, bringing rain and cool winds to the rest of The Pastures.
- An ever present threat for divers, being swept into the undertow deep down. But down in the deeps rest ores and minerals, pearl and silver, amethyst and rose quartz, many others. They shine, tempting mortals and gathering life.
Description: The Lakes scattered throughout the Pastures connect to the Underneath. With crystal clear waters, the treasures below are easy to see, and add sparkle to what is already a prime location for life. It's a true show of the interconnectedness that make up the Pastures.
Name: The Skies
Neighbors: The Lakes, The Grasslands, The Mountain Ring
Region: The Pastures
Traits:
+ Clear Open Skies filled with magic waiting to be tapped.
+/-The Skies are one of the key ways to enter the Mountain Ring which surround The Pastures safely. Getting back on the other hand is much tougher, and will usually sweep you to the lower Pastures and Grasslands. The Forests have a habit of spawning natural disasters to those who think to fly above them.
Description: The open Skies, the clear blue, pink, purple. They are ripe for development and cloudshaping, and can technically get you anywhere in the Pastures, as well as being able to travel to them from anywhere. In practice, the Lakes are usually your best bet. Granted, you'd need flight to even get to this region, or a very tall tower that reaches the heavens. Which will likely break with the worst of the storms that fly above here from the Mountain Ring. Take Heed, here be nature untapped.
Name: The Mountain Ring
Neighbors: The Pastures, The Skies, Outer Regions
Region: The Pastures
Traits:
+ Filled with ore and housing tough greenery, it's peaks swirl with winds and create a barrier preventing casual access from the skies around, though The Skies currents are swept in as a result.
- Something bad. The winds spawn twisters, storms and rain, and occasional rockfalls to those within the Mountain Ring's valleys. Life is hard and hardy around here, and the only place you are safe is underground.
Description: The Mountain Ring. What more needs to be sad of this Region? It creates the stormwall and barriers which deny access to all but the most foolhardy of adventures, or the most prepared. This wall of winds even extends to cover the entirety of the Underneath in a bubble of calm. It's a tough place, The Mountain Ring, and it's mountain ranges difficult to transverse on foot, though such is much safer than flying.
Name: Caves of Light
Neighbors: The Lake, The Undergrowth. The Cloud Archipelago
Region: The Underneath
Traits:
+ Moss, lichen, mushrooms, and occasionally plants. They glow a gentle blue light. The rivers drain through the lake, and through the lake do minerals fall upon it's banks. Strange things can be found here, and strange dreams had.
+ Ore abounds among the seams, shining, promising more within. Magic runs deep within the stone and the rocks themselves are varied but precious.
- Extremely difficult to travel to The Lake. At times one can come to be disoriented by the Caves of Light.
Description: [Free Province #3] A series of caves and tunnels that is collectively referred to as the Caves of Light. Water drains through the open caves and tunnels, leading to a lot of moss, lichen, and mushrooms, and the rock and ore promise much pleasure and craft to those willing to take it.
Name: The Undergrowth
Neighbors: The Caves of Light, The Cloud Archipelago, The Mountain Ring
Region: The Underneath
Traits:
+ Trees! Granted, trees that make use of puff-seeds and grow their roots into the underside of the island region, but still. Evergreen, these trees bear the occasional floaty fruit among their number, but most choose to spread on the wind. Occasionally one of these seeds even manage to make it to the Mountain Ring, but most that fall end up in the Abyss below or the Cloud Archipelago, both of which tends to work out poorly for them.
+ The branches interconnect, with the trees having learned to share what light they can gather, though nutrients remain viciously hoarded. It's a careful balancing act.
- There isn't anything under you. Or is that above? Fall, and you die if you cant fly..
Description: [Free Province #4] The Undergrowth. A place where the forest floor is devoid of life, most taking place on the trees themselves or branches. This evergreen forest is a place of bounty, with occasional pockets of water within trees that have specialized in it's collection from the mists that spill from the waterfalls.
Name: The Cloud Archipelago
Neighbors: The Undergrowth, The Caves of Light, The Mountain Ring
Region: The Underneath
Traits:
+ Wispy cloud rives and solid cloudsoil. A unique ecosystem forms upon these many islands, cloudy oceans and flowing wisps.
(+ Magic flows free and clear upon the clouds, naturally forming islands and the many pieces upon which life is not only possible, but developed.
- The calm winds, the eternal wall, and the flowing, shifting lands. The old will drift as the new form, and collide with the Mountain Ring's wind barrier. The result of such is as obvious as it is sudden, slow as it is to approach. The shifting can also result in smaller islands ending up underneath a waterfall. Result is also obvious there, though it usually means more ocean and rivers forming in the aftermath.
Description: The Cloud Archipelago. White clouds, white rivers, white oceans, and white lands. The trees and plants are still green though, even if some are tinted black-violet. It is a land of plenty enough, and the rivers form to allow access to their neighboring provinces, though such can shift and still require a way to bridge the gap. The plants here take advantage of the mineral-rich water and magic which make up the clouds, allowing fruit, nuts, and cocoanuts.(Despite the name, cocoanuts contain a viscous toxin collected from the clouds, the trees themselves serving as a natural filter.) The mists which form from the falling waterfalls of the underneath are a gentle rain, though occasionally islands form as basins for a waterfall by moving under them and being solid enough, creating the largest islands.
Name: The Great Wind Barrier
Neighbors:
Region: The Pastures(Outer), The Underneath(Outer)
Traits: N/A
Description: The Great Wind Barrier, a curtain of clouds, stormwinds, stormbreaks, strombeaks, and hurricanes. Also the Stormfronts and Stormbacks. Lightning crashes, and the winds keep blowing. Sailing though unprepared is suicidal. And due to forming naturally, is a lot wilder than 'created' provinces. No telling what happens in here, or how it develops.
In unrelated news,
Susan spent her acts on creating the beautiful and highly deadly pearl Dagun in the Endless Blue and the comfortable yet dangerous lodge Arkan in the Old World in addition. Susan also attempted to create the yanuki, but lacking suitable parent critters with the ongoing investment of her Incarna spark in Bashur, they failed to materialize.
Name: Dagun
Neighbors:
Region: Endless Blue
Traits:
+ The souls of the dead are drawn here and then passed to the afterlife
+ Extremely magnetic
- Extremely radioactive
Description: A giant pearl deep deep deep within the Endless Blue, it contains within itself several compartments and corridors, each seemingly leading to another room with no observable utility. The surfaces within Dagun are a sterile white. There is nothing inside beyond this. The exterior of the pearl is highly magnetised and will in time, attract many metallic particles and objects to it. It is also, extremely radioactive. The souls of the dead are drawn here for processing into the afterlife - if they have not already been drawn elsewhere.
Name: Arkan
Neighbors:
Region: Old World
Traits:
+ Static location, as long as one performs the Goho Rite
+ Extremely comfortable
- Non-natives who linger too long will shed their mortal coil, their souls released from their body.
Description: A great and pristine lodge fitted with comfortable furniture and pleasing architecture, seemingly changing to suit the needs and wants of its visitors. Like the rest of the Old World, Arkan's location is a shifting concept and can only normally be found once by any person. However, should one perform the Goho Rite, they will be able to chart out a course towards Arkan and enjoy its amenities. However, one must be careful for if they stay for too long, they may lose their souls.
The Happiest Place on [name pending]
Shinka introduced two provinces to the land of Wizny, bringing it a few substantial steps closer to completion.
Name: Fairytale Kingdom
Neighbors: Animal Kingdom
Region: Wizny
Traits:
+ opulent accomodations
- exorbitant prices
Description: The Fairytale Kingdom is the centrepiece of Wizny, itself centred around a huge castle that, appropriately, looks like something out of a fairy tale. Maybe Cinderella, but we're not being overly specific here. As the central and most prestigious district of Wizny, it is obviously the most expensive.
Name: Animal Kingdom
Neighbors: Fairytale Kingdom
Region: Wizny
Traits:
+ beautiful vistas
+ every different kind of animal, even some that don't exist
- manufactured goods are strictly forbidden, enforceable by being eaten by a lion
Description: The Animal Kingdom is a miniature of Shinka's domain, a balance of biomes maintained carefully by the will of the Spirit of Wizny. At its centre is a giant, clearly artificial tree in which people can live if they really want to for some reason. Animals from all over the world are enticed to come live in the Animal Kingdom by promises of low rent and free wifi.
Having heard that lions will attack and eat those who dare bring manufactured goods to the Animal Kingdom, the
Flesh Conch of Screaming brought an ethereal paving brick from the Voicers' colony to the Animal Kingdom and was promptly assaulted by a thoroughly confused giant lion. (Un?)fortunately, the
Flesh Conch of Screaming managed to eat it back but not before the
Eye noticed something wrong. (target: 1, roll: 12, -1 Might, +Suspicion)
The Duality of Prince
The Faceless Prince defined two provinces in the Old World. The first, the Forest of Glass and Steel, contained only things complying with natural laws. On the other hand, the second, the Arcanist's Dream, seemingly contained only things that broke natural laws. Together, they will make the Old World more rewarding (and more dangerous) to explore.
Name: The Forest of Glass and Steel
Neighbors:
Region: The Old World
Traits:
+ Advanced Technologies: The goods that can be found in the Forest are significantly more advanced that elsewhere in the Old World, rendering them both more effective and more difficult to understand.
- Cold Iron Foundations: The entire district is a magic null zone; not only are none of the items that may be found there magical in any manner, but even magics from outside cease to work.
Description: A ruin filled with towering columns of - well, glass and steel, among other strange (yet wholly mundane) materials. Strange materials, in fact, may well be the defining feature of this district - many of the technologies on display here (be they to be looted or to prevent looting) demonstrate things that may not be possible with the current generation of mundane materials, but may be doable with the next. The creatures here, however, are generally less dangerous than their magical equivalents, lacking any extra arcane backing.
Name: The Arcanist's Dream
Neighbors:
Region: The Old World
Traits:
+ Wonderland: The Dream is exceedingly magic-rich, allowing for nigh-impossible geographies and constructions within its bounds. Careful study can unveil great secrets of arcanery.
- Wild Magics: The very magic-richness that renders the Dream and its contents so esoteric also set the locale in a constant state of flux, changing constantly and occasionally setting off dangerous spellwork.
Description: A twisting, winding domain within the Old World, nowhere is is anywhere near as... esoteric as the Arcanist's Dream. It truly is as unusual as its title suggests, and it is quite likely the single most hazardous location in the Old World - but as dangerous as the district is, the rewards are just as great, with the artifacts that can be recovered bearing powerful enchantments.
Author
Topic: Panopticotheon IC: Turn 8 [10/10] (Read 23934 times)