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Tales of Battle
Mage Wars / Suri Kerrington
Between 14-Nov-21 06:00 PM and 21-Nov-21 11:00 PM
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Suri Kerrington 14-Nov-21 10:52 PM
So! I had two scout actions, correct? I would like to send my first group of rats off to the docks to scout out this Davey Bones guy, and be on the lookout for anyone else who might be scouting him out. In addition I would like to have a scout around the shopping district to see if I can't find me some poor mages working in Retail. I will suss them out, one way or another!
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Cindurion 14-Nov-21 10:55 PM
Great! What about your Servant?
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Cindurion 14-Nov-21 11:02 PM
(As it is its own character with its own actions. It could just stay near you to defend you I suppose!)
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Suri Kerrington 14-Nov-21 11:33 PM
Forgot about the servant!
I think I'll send Mr. Swarmy to poke around the Warehouses.
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Cindurion 14-Nov-21 11:35 PM
Of Mastic Walk I'm guessing?
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Suri Kerrington 14-Nov-21 11:35 PM
Ye
Wanna have that whole place covered!
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Cindurion 14-Nov-21 11:38 PM
All right, nice!
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Cindurion 15-Nov-21 10:23 PM
How does your nexus work? Do you basically "assume direct control" of rats in your area, or are you more gently nudging them with instructions and connecting them to a "hive mind" which you are the center of?
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Suri Kerrington 15-Nov-21 10:28 PM
I suppose it's somewhere in the middle. Think like they're connected to a sort of hive-mind type thing, and then given a directive/instruction which they would then follow to the best of their abilities.
While I watch. It's not creepy! (edited)
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Cindurion 15-Nov-21 10:40 PM
Right, I think I get it! Reminds me a bit about the Borg! I guess you can spend actions to increase your influence and be able to search even more areas in one action
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Cindurion 16-Nov-21 11:35 PM
As you use your telepathic link you send half of your rat swarm throughout the Shopping district, and the other half to the docks where the supposed Davey resides. You also send your servant to the warehouse district to find all Mages in the area. Your swarm in the Shopping District comes up negative. No Mages or Mage bases appear to currently be in the area, or there are some powerful protections in place blocking their mage sight. Your servant in the Warehouse district doesn’t see any sign of Mages either, though it does notice some Rats that are unaffected by any attempts to be linked to your hive mind, seemingly wandering around, looking for something. However, at the docks, your mage sight finds all manner of activity. During the search you locate not only the ship of Davey, but also find a container that has some signs of Mage activity, though there doesn’t appear to be any Mages currently in it. It seems guarded by a variety of creatures; Cats, a seagull and a dog. They clearly look undead. You also notice a Mage and a horrifying humanoid tentacle-monster who seems to be skulking around the area, scrawling things on walls and placing down objects. You get the impression that he has been doing this for a while by the time you notice him. (Due to Not a True Mage you cannot figure out what it is that he’s doing, but it doesn’t look good.) As parts of your hive mind observes Davey, you suddenly feel a tug, as if something is pulling at your swarm. Several of the rats starts moving towards the ship as it makes a weird siren-like noise, but you are able to give them new directives and stop them from being dragged into the ship. You then keep them at a distance where you are sure it cannot affect them using that ability again, and the ship seems to head out further into sea as a counter-measure.
After some time, you see some skeletons forcibly dragging civilians into one of the ship’s dinghies and taking them aboard The Immortal Tyrant. Davey seems to have kidnapped 12 people in total. However, you are unable to see what is going on now that it is further out to sea. What do you do for your night-time phase?
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 12:01 AM
Did I get any sense on why the rats didn't seem affected?
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Cindurion 17-Nov-21 12:03 AM
Hmm, not really. Maybe if you had watched through the swarm, but your servant was unable to make any heads or tails of it. They just seemed... different, in some way. Unreachable.
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 12:04 AM
I assume they didn't look any different?
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Cindurion 17-Nov-21 12:06 AM
Their movements looked a bit unnatural, but that's about all it could tell.
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 12:10 AM
Hmmm... Possibly some kinda puppeteering...
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Cindurion 17-Nov-21 12:12 AM
I will neither confirm nor deny
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 12:12 AM
Well, it's a working theory at least...
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 12:33 AM
What did that mage look like?
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Cindurion 17-Nov-21 12:35 AM
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 12:36 AM
Well, that's horrifying!
Could I keep one group of rats in the docks to keep an eye on things while I do something other than scouting?
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Cindurion 17-Nov-21 12:52 AM
Yes, but without the benefit of mage sight
And with the intellect of a rat, so don't expect super useful information, but it's certainly doable with a precise enough set of instructions
And what, it looks kinda cute! :P
That mage in particular is also wearing the garb of the local church.
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 02:00 AM
Okokokok. The seeds of a plan are forming. Would I be able to create a swarm of explosive rats with enough explosive power to potentially take out a gathering of mages? And would I be able to do so in time for a certain gathering of mages that will happen in the docks on the second day?
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Cindurion 17-Nov-21 10:43 AM
Hmm, that depends entirely on the nature of the meeting (what distance they are from one another) and how much of your swarm you are willing to sacrifice. However, taking them out in one fell swoop would not only be basically impossible due to last chance but you could certainly soften them up. The most cost-effective way would probably be to send waves of explosive rats rather than one large boom. (edited)
To create a couple of waves (3-5) of decently effective explosive (30 damage in a Near area) rats would not sacrifice enough of your swarm to impact any of your abilities and would take a single phase, so you could do it twice and send them off into the docks tomorrow night. To go for one large bang that would be large enough to almost trigger last chance on everyone in the area (up to 80 damage to the entire zone) you'd need all your rats and 2 phases. You would then be forced to conjure and find new rats to be able to use your telepathic nexus again, which would take time since you are starting from scratch at that point.
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Suri Kerrington 17-Nov-21 02:34 PM
Right, and it would also inform them to be wary of the rats... Hmmm...
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Suri Kerrington 18-Nov-21 03:28 PM
Could I make some more intelligent/independent rats that might be more resistant to the sirens call?
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Cindurion 18-Nov-21 04:20 PM
Hmm, you could probably get an upgrade for your "base" which would allow your rats to be immune to mind-affecting effects while controlling them
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Suri Kerrington 18-Nov-21 04:28 PM
That'd work. How long would that take?
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Cindurion 18-Nov-21 04:43 PM
Hmm, probably 1 or 2 phases depending on how well you roll. And it would be an upgrade tied to that location.
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Suri Kerrington 18-Nov-21 04:54 PM
Right, so if I wanted to do so in the docks it would ONLY work in the docks
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Cindurion 18-Nov-21 05:15 PM
no, no, it would only function while you are in your designated "base". Think of it like an up-link point, however you decide to theme it
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Cindurion 18-Nov-21 05:40 PM
So you could use that location to scout any other location with that benefit and other benefits like it. You could theme it as a sort of focusing incense you have scattered around your "home". or any other way you prefer to theme it.
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Cindurion 18-Nov-21 06:04 PM
Would that work for you or were you thinking something else? (edited)
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Suri Kerrington 18-Nov-21 06:40 PM
Yeah, that works!
I think I would like to do so, I wanna watch that meeting in the Docks without risk of loosing my rats... And it seems there's another rat puppeteer somewhere... Better safe than sorry...
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Cindurion 18-Nov-21 07:29 PM
Fair enough! How do you intend to theme it and how do you intend to acquire it? It's mostly a fluff-description but might be good in case someone discovers your base at some point and I can describe what they see! It also determines what stat you will roll to try and fix it up in a single phase (Stealth if you wanna steal something, etc) (edited)
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Suri Kerrington 19-Nov-21 05:39 PM
I would like to make an effigy of a rat with an enlarged head. Possibly made out of an actual rat.
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Cindurion 19-Nov-21 08:41 PM
Fair enough! Sounds like Verminmancy to me! Feel free to make the roll!
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Suri Kerrington 19-Nov-21 10:17 PM
Just pressing GM-roll, yeah?
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Cindurion 19-Nov-21 10:17 PM
Yup! Then I have to read it so let me know that you pressed it!
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Suri Kerrington 19-Nov-21 10:18 PM
I have pressed it!
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Cindurion 19-Nov-21 10:19 PM
Excellent! You rolled a 12, and the difficulty was 9+ so you will succeed during this phase... Unless you are attacked ;)
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Suri Kerrington 19-Nov-21 10:20 PM
Which should be rather unlikely! Hopefully.
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Cindurion 21-Nov-21 06:49 AM
And right, what does your servant do?
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Suri Kerrington 21-Nov-21 03:16 PM
I wanna see if it can safely disrupt some of those runes I saw set up in the docks
Like send off a small part of it to nibble at it while the rest hides behind a corner or something.
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Cindurion 21-Nov-21 03:27 PM
Hmm, interesting... Yeah, you could do that. It's not a hard thing to do, but you can tell that it's going to take time to find and destroy all the sigils. You can essentially spend an action to do exactly that, not requiring a roll, but allowing an Energy roll to see roughly how many sigils, carvings and other such totems are placed in the zone. There didn't appear to be any specific countermeasures after destroying the first one. Do you want to have it do that for its action?
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Suri Kerrington 21-Nov-21 03:28 PM
Yarr!
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Cindurion 21-Nov-21 03:29 PM
Excellent! Then I shall add that to your summary. Make me an Energy roll as well when you are able to.
(For your servant)
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Suri Kerrington 21-Nov-21 03:50 PM
Rolled!
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Cindurion 21-Nov-21 04:00 PM
You rolled a 5.
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Suri Kerrington 21-Nov-21 04:00 PM
Nay!
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Cindurion 21-Nov-21 04:00 PM
I mean, it'll give you something at least!
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Suri Kerrington 21-Nov-21 04:00 PM
Fair