Forget the probably trapped treasure chest for a second its a free dagger!... Shanks wonders who leaves a perfectly good dagger in someone's back anyway?
As Shanks reaches the dead body, he hears a small click and feels the ground beneath him depress ever so slightly - pressure plate!Roll
Focus (Acrobatics):
3,
6+1-2 =
5Result: Success
A second dagger is launched directly at Shanks from a formerly hidden slot in the wall, but it's hardly so much as entered the air before Shanks is out of the way. Now Shanks has not one, but two daggers! Subsequent attempts to trigger the plate, however, are met with nothing more than the sound of an empty shutter and the whooshing of air. All good things, it seems, must come to an end.LootDagger (one-handed, 0.5 wound, deathblow)
Dagger (one-handed, 0.5 wound, deathblow)
Disregarding the corpse with a dismissive sniff and turn of the head, Arek tries to fiddle with the pendants and see if he can’t change them more to his liking.
Name - Arek the Butcher
Background - A desperate man with nowhere else to turn. A orphan who never knew his parents, Arek was often discriminated against because of his, ah, unique appearance. He learned at a young age that he could only really rely on one person, himself.
Born with a innate affinity for the Arcane, Arek was quick to pick up magic from observing traveling wizards and whatever he could pick up from what he read in stolen books. The resentment he had of his situation grew, and Arek quickly turned into a mage feared and reviled far and wide for his evil acts, having no qualms with sacrificing citizens for blood magic rituals or bargaining with demons for whatever scraps of power he could get.
Now well into the prime of his life, Incredible magical powers; valuable trinkets, plenty of servants and a town to terrorize for his amusement. Arek was living the life. There was just one problem.
People despised him. Arek was quite literally the stereotypical dark lord. It got to the point where the God’s had blessed a hero with the power to defeat him just to get people to stop whining about him. The hero stormed his castle, massacred the servants, and left Arek for dead.
But Arek had one last trick, he remembered reading about a magical tower others dare enter and figured it would be the perfect hiding place. Just one little problem… he collapsed right after he entered the tower and woke up fully healed with a bad case of Amnesia, forgetting all the spells he had learned.
Description - Arek was born mutated, possibly because of his affinity for mana. He would look like any normal human, were it not for the two jagged horns that extended from his skull and sharp red eyes, which had him labeled as a “demonspawn” which wasn’t helped by his strange habits and borderline sociopathic behavior.
Currently covered in a large red cloak inlaid with gold trim, offers him little to no armor but is quite stylish.
Statistics
Skill-at-arms - 0
Brawn - 2
Focus - 3
Conviction - 0
Wounds - 0
Arcana - 0
Inventory and Equipment:
Right Hand -
Left Hand -
Armor - Simple Clothing
Trinket -
Curative Charm (Active - The wearer may, at any time, gain 1 Arcana in order to remove 0.25 Wounds from themselves or any living target within arm's reach. Cannot be used at maximum Arcana.)
Nullification Charm (Active - The wearer may, at any time, gain 1 Arcana in order to end the effects of poison, venom, or any other intoxicating substance upon themselves or any living target within arm's reach. Cannot be used at maximum arcana.)
Perks:
Attuned - You are aware of the ebb and flow of the world's arcane current, and have the potential to tap into it. You may cast spells.
Scholar (Magic) - You are well-versed in your field of study. Pick your domain of study - it can be anything from history to alchemy to philosophy - and record it here. You have advantage in rolls to recall knowledge of your specified field. Additionally, you are literate.
Spells: None
Arek probes the charms - cheap trinkets with equally cheap magics bound to them. While the disadvantage is obvious enough, there is one advantage: weaker spells are easier to unravel, redirecting the flow of arcane energies through them to achieve a more desirable effect. Nonetheless, it is a difficult task for even experienced spellweavers, and failure runs the risk of the loss of all magical properties. Focusing on the green pendant first, Arek begins nudging the flow of energy within, twisting and pinching to add a quality of sharpness to the soft current.Roll
Focus (Magic):
1,
3+3-3 = 3
Result: Partial failure
The magic in the green pendant is stubborn and unmalleable, and despite Arek's best efforts, refuses to be shaped to his will. It is strong enough, at least, to survive the tampering intact, but just barely - any further dabbling with the already strained magics will have to be almost perfectly precise if the magic is not to unweave entirely. Turning his focus to the blue pendant, he once again tries to reshape the magic within, though this second attempt proves even more difficult than the first.Roll
Focus (Magic):
4,
5+3-4 = 4
Result: Partial Success
The second pendant proves a somewhat better target, and Arek now finds that the magic within, sure enough, is more to his taste. Cracks weave their way through the formerly clear blue crystal, and the metal of the pendant compresses, as if held under a great force.Nullification Charm (Active - The wearer may, at any time, gain 1 Arcana in order to end the effects of poison, venom, or any other intoxicating substance upon themselves or any living target within arm's reach. Cannot be used at maximum arcana.)Pullification Charm (Active - The wearer may, at any time, gain 1 Arcana in order to exert an extreme amount of pulling force on any target within 30 feet. The force is strong enough to cause harm (0.75 Wound) when directly applied, and is not mitigated by armor. This effect may be spread among any number of targets, but its force is divided equally among these.)
Apply Feet to Ghoul Heads.
Name - Mu
Background - A wildman of the West, his history is his to keep, but his motivation is better known; he seeks greater challenges than the men and beasts he once faught.
Description - a towering Giant of a man, with a wild mane of dark hair, and a body with naught an inch of skin uncovered by twisting tribal tattoos.
Statistics
Skill-at-arms - 2
Brawn - 4(3+1)
Focus - 0
Conviction - 0
You have 5 points to distribute among these stats, each point being a +1 to the result of rolls in that stat. You must have at least 1 brawn, and no more than 3 initial points in any one stat.
Wounds - 0
Arcana - -1
Your Wounds value will always start at 0. Your Arcana value starts at 0 if you are capable of spellcasting, and if not, it is -1.
Inventory and Equipment
(This is where your stuff goes. The primary goal of most tower-delvers is to fill this up with valuables and get out of the Tower alive. Many items can be equipped, for various benefits or utilities. While you may only equip one item to your Right Hand, Left Hand, and Armor slots, you may wear up to 8 trinkets, adding slots as needed. You do not start with any items other than simple clothes - nothing carried into the Tower is kept.)
Right Hand -
Left Hand -
Armor - Simple Clothes
Trinket -
(Any items not equipped can still be carried. Slotted items can only be used if equipped, while items that do not belong to a slot can be used at any time, at a limit of one item use per turn if in combat.)
Perks
(This is where your character's various talents, experiences and skills are recorded. The possible starting perks are shown below, along with their point value and required stats. You may select up to 8 points' worth of perks.)
Acrobat (1, requires at least 2 Focus or Skill-at-arms) - You are particularly adept at climbing, jumping, vaulting, and clambering. The first time in a turn a 1 is rolled for any such feat, it is instead rerolled.
Knight (6, requires at least 2 Skill-at-arms or Brawn) - Whether you are an errant knight or a non-inheriting child of a petty noble, you have received formal schooling in the knightly arts. You are literate, capable of administering medicine, and you may wear heavy armor. Additionally, Brawn +1.
Quick Hands (1, requires at least 2 Skill-at-arms) - You may switch your equipped Right and Left Hand items, even while in combat.
Spells
Ghosts."God's Verdict, Xing Xing."
Rush into combat with the ghostsghouls with a spinning sweep.
Name - Xing Xing
Background - An orphan to the Tower, taken in by the temple, and trained to deliver justice upon evil. The Friar has trained her in hopes of great gifts without the need to go in themselves.
Description - Black hair with a single braid down her black, her monkly robes are bereft of ormenintation. Her grey eyes are blinded by her faith, and her will is sharpened to the breaking point.
Statistics
Skill-at-arms - 0
Brawn - 2
Focus - 0
Conviction - 3
Inventory and Equipment
Right Hand - Staff
Left Hand - [Two-Handed]
Armor -
Trinket -
Perks: 1 Point Remaining
Devout - With every crushing blow, a whispered prayer. Attacks with any weapon are rolled with Conviction rather than Skill-at-arms.
Hardy - You are particularly resilient. Advantage to rolls against poisons and diseases.
Spells:
Debts
Staff (two-handed, 0.5 wound): 0/40 Crowns
"I don't have-"
She's cut off by the blood-curdling screech. The catkin flinches for a moment but quickly corrects, her ears shooting forward again.
"Lead the way, Siegrid. I'm right beside you."
Let Siegrid decide where we're going, but stay in the front.
Name - Isolde
Background - Gutter trash, no doubt. Certainly uncultured.
Description - Some sort of strange cat-human hybrid. Crimson eyes.
Statistics
Skill-at-arms - 0
Brawn - 1
Focus - 1
Conviction - 3
Wounds - 0
Arcana - -1
Inventory and Equipment
Right Hand -
Left Hand -
Armor -
Trinket -
Perks
Prophetic (6) - What the future holds is not entirely unknown to you. Voices, dreams, and symbols reveal glimpses of what is to come, either spontaneously or after purposeful divination.
Spells
The older man sighed shaking his head, then brandished his cudgel "My bets a traps ahead," corpse in the middle of the floor, weird arcane light? Yeah, he wasn't a fool "Ah well with me then, let's make sure those two morons don't die."
Follow Mu through the door, assess the situation then club a ghoul in the skull.
Name: Siegrid, the MercenaryBackground: Nothing of interest can be said for Siegrid's origins, his tale is anything but glorious and better left kept to himself with the rest of the horrors that war inflicts on the mind. To him the sword is a means to an end, and he has known nothing else in all his life. He works not to have a vast wealth nor the glory of combat, it is about getting the job done. Finished his contract working for a trade company operating within the Empire, Siegrid set his eyes on the tower as a means of employment. He'd offer his blade to those also braving the Tower.Description: Siegrid is a tired looking man, with short black hair and a close shaved beard touched by the greying of age. Possessing a stocky build and broad shoulders, even in his middle age he looks fit as he did in the service. His eyes are keen even if they look darkened by sleeplessness.Wounds + 0 // Arcana - 1
Statistics2 -
Skill-At-Arms1 -
Brawn1 -
Focus1 -
ConvictionInventory/Equipment(L) Hand-
Cudgel(R) Hand-
Armor-
Simple Clothing-
Padded LeatherTrinkets-
Perks- (4) Soldier You are endowed with a measure of battlefield experience. Your first roll in each combat is made with advantage if you fight with at least 1 ally in sight. Additionally, you may wear heavy armor.
- (3) Caravan Hand Time spent working for a trade company has taught you a number of valuable lessons. You receive +1 to rolls when price haggling, looting, and foraging.
- (1) Acrobat You are particularly adept at climbing, jumping, vaulting, and clambering. The first time in a turn a 1 is rolled for any such feat, it is instead rerolled.
Spells
"I don't have-"
She's cut off by the blood-curdling screech. The catkin flinches for a moment but quickly corrects, her ears shooting forward again.
"Lead the way, Siegrid. I'm right beside you."
Let Siegrid decide where we're going, but stay in the front.
Name - Isolde
Background - Gutter trash, no doubt. Certainly uncultured.
Description - Some sort of strange cat-human hybrid. Crimson eyes.
Statistics
Skill-at-arms - 0
Brawn - 1
Focus - 1
Conviction - 3
Wounds - 0
Arcana - -1
Inventory and Equipment
Right Hand -
Left Hand -
Armor -
Trinket -
Perks
Prophetic (6) - What the future holds is not entirely unknown to you. Voices, dreams, and symbols reveal glimpses of what is to come, either spontaneously or after purposeful divination.
Spells
Stay following closely behind Siegrid and Isolde without comment
Name: Meleria
Background: This teenage Foxkin really has no buisness being in the Tower, though she doesn't see things that way. She sees it as being about what she needs. Either she succeeds here, or she has no future, so she might as well try.
Meleria's a Foxkin, a type of beastkin, and a minority that is commonly viewed as subhuman. Her family worked as peddlers, performing odd jobs from place to place, and living a mostly self-sufficient life. Never staying in one place overlong, so no one place was ever motivated to actively drive them off. Of course, that means when their wagon was attacked on the road, there was nobody to look for them. Nobody to provide the urgent medical aid they needed. Nobody to make sure that when Meleria crept back to the wagon from her hiding spot she'd run too during the attack, she wasn't alone.
lacking the skills to repair her family's wagon, she had to leave both it and her family's remains behind, limiting herself to what she could carry on her back. She found herself in the city of the Tower, and also found herself with a choice. She didn't have the right skills to make a proper living in the city, and to her mind attempting to find someone to take her in would just result in her becoming enslaved. But the Tower represented an option she wouldn't have anywhere else. A risky option for sure, but... What's she got to lose?
Description: This small female Foxkin has tan skin, brown shoulder-length hair, green eyes, and orange-brown furred ears and tail. She has slight build and a nervous but focused demeanor, her eyes and ears flicking about in reaction to slight noises. She has a habit of holding her own tail when anxious, and when resting tends to curl up with it in her arms.
Statistics
Skill-at-arms: 0
Brawn: 1
Focus: 2
Conviction: 2
Wounds: 0
Arcana: 0
Inventory and Equipment
Right Hand:
Left Hand:
Armor: Simple Clothes
Trinkets:
Perks
Acrobat (1): You are particularly adept at climbing, jumping, vaulting, and clambering. The first time in a turn a 1 is rolled for any such feat, it is instead rerolled.
Attuned (6): You are aware of the ebb and flow of the world's arcane current, and have the potential to tap into it. You may cast spells.
1 Unspent perk point
Spells
None
Siegrid, Isolde, and Xing Xing rush into the fray, while Ekaterina and Meleria follow closely behind. Mu is the first to strike, lashing out with a lightning-quick kick to the face of the nearest ghoul.Roll
Skill-at-arms:
1+1-1 =
1Mu's kick is incredibly powerful, but he is unprepared as the ghoul bends backwards, its spine folding back at a 90 degree angle so that his kick passes directly over it. The mighty kick collides instead with the wall, shattering some of the stone and sending a spray of obscuring, gray dust into the air with a crack. Though the obscuring dust doesn't hide the silhouettes of the ghouls, it certainly makes it harder to discern them.
Xing Xing, undeterred, lets a spinning strike fly from her staff. She needs neither sight nor thought to guide her strike: her faith is both her bulwark and blade.Roll
Conviction:
3+3-2 =
4Xing Xing's strike rebounds off of the arm of the ghoul on the left with a satisfying crunching noise. The creature emanates another ear-piercing shriek as pieces of desiccated skin flake from the wound, revealing the decomposing flesh and bone beneath.
Siegrid, giving the beast no time to recuperate, follows Xing Xing's attack with a crushing blow of his own.Roll
Skill-at-arms:
4+2-2 =
4The ghoul shields itself with its good arm as Siegrid's cudgel falls upon its head. The cudgel, though a simple implement, gives good account of itself, the lacquered wood proving more than sufficient for shattering the creature's right arm. Both of its forelimbs now rendered useless, the foul creature lunges towards Mu, teeth snapping. It proves quite easy for Mu to divert the attack, and his quick reaction allows him to divert the ghoul's path into the wall, into which it slams, stunning it.
The uninjured ghoul leaps instead towards Xing Xing, claws outstretched. It manages to scratch her slightly, but the wound is superficial, drawing only a trickle of blood. Xing Xing receives 0.25 Wounds!Roll
Brawn (Resistance):
3,
5+2 =
7Result: Absolute success
Xing Xing feels the burn of the beast's venom as it enters her bloodstream, but she is unfazed - learning to resist and nullify poisons such as these was an essential part of her training. Were she unable to do so, after all, she would have died in the temple. Xing Xing calms herself, lowering her heartbeat to a faint murmur and halting the spread of the foul stuff through her blood, before contracting her muscles around the wound and expelling the majority of the tainted blood.
Isolde and Meleria, though unable to strike immediately at the ghouls, find themselves able to examine the area more thoroughly.Roll
Focus:
3,
4+2 =
6Result: Critical success
Aside from the wooden club clutched in a dismembered hand, the corpse in the room carries a handful of other objects of note - two silver rings shine on the fingers of the severed hand, while the belt around the mangled waist holds a string-drawn pouch.
Isolde and Meleria aren't the only ones to notice as a third ghoul skitters into the room on all fours, hissing its displeasure. Like the others, the mouth and claws of this one are caked with dried blood and other filth, and there seems to be only an animal intelligence behind its unblinking eyes.Look around. do i see anything that could be used as a weapon
Only that which is available at Mercator's loan-business.Shop of Lodovico MercatorArquebus (two-handed, 4 wound,
ranged,
armor-piercing,
unwieldy) 2000 crown debt
Broadsword (one-handed, 0.75 wound) 200 crown debt
Broadsword (one-handed, 0.75 wound,
imbued) 400 crown debt
Bardiche (two-handed, 1 wound,
cleave) 600 crown debt
Cudgel (one-handed, 0.25 wound) 20 crown debt
Dagger (one-handed, 0.5 wound,
deathblow) 200 crown debt
Hand Pavise (one-handed,
shield) 100 crown debt
Pike (two-handed, 0.75 wound,
reach) 250 crown debt
Poleaxe (two-handed, 1 wound,
armor-piercing) 600 crown debt
Rapier (one-handed, 0.75 wound,
deathblow) 450 crown debt
Staff (two-handed, 0.5 wound) 40 crown debt
Staff (two-handed, 0.5,
?) imbued with unknown magic. 600 crown debt
Staff (two-handed, 0.5,
?) imbued with unknown magic. 600 crown debt
Windlass Crossbow (two-handed, 1.25 wound,
ranged,
armor-piercing) 1000 crown debt
Padded Armor (light, 0.25 wound reduction) 150 crown debt
Maille Shirt (light, 0.5 wound reduction) 400 crown debt
Brigandine (heavy, 0.5 wound reduction, -1 penalty to attacker rolls) 800 crown debt
Black Crystal Pendant (
?) imbued with unknown magic. 400 crown debt
Hare's Foot Pendant (Nullifies negative consequences from critical successes) 300 crown debt
Armor-piercing - Ignores armor wound reduction.
Cleave - Attacks that strike down an enemy are capable of hitting another enemy within reach.
Deathblow - Critical strikes deal triple wound damage instead of the normal double.
Imbued - Attacks are rolled with
Ranged - Rolls Focus to hit, can be used from the backline and can hit targets in the enemy backline
Reach - Can be used from the backline, enemies attacking the wielder receive a -1 penalty
Shield - Enemies attacking the wielder receive a -1 penalty
Unwieldy - Attacking incurs a -2 penalty, enemies attacking the wielder receive a +1 bonus
Author
Topic: Tower of Makhios - I Lost Count of the Turns (8/8, waitlist open) (Read 11575 times)