Tales of Battle - kazztruul

Cindurion 02-Jan-22 10:11 PM

Daytime Phase day 8. You wake up, feeling refreshed and ready to open up shop. What do you do for your daytime phase?

Zamesi 02-Jan-22 10:31 PM

How many others can I feel alive?

Cindurion 02-Jan-22 10:31 PM

(Still 6.)

Zamesi 02-Jan-22 10:36 PM

(Welp, thats disturbing :P )

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 10:02 PM

(So, theoretically, if the pirate was currently in the phylactery, would his presence still be felt as alive?)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 10:45 PM

(He would be felt as dead)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:08 PM

(So I can safely assume he's found some way of surviving the curse then?

)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:09 PM

(With the timeline he should've died some time ago, but didn't, so he seems to have counteracted it, yes)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:27 PM

(Mmkay, so just to make sure, just how unstoppable is this curse? How lucky would you have to be to manage to survive it? xD )

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:29 PM

(Once it triggers, they die. No way around that really. Can't exactly stack damage reduction or something :P)

(But there are ways to purify curses before it triggers)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:34 PM

(Sure, but how lucky/skilled do you usually have to be to manage such a purification? If the weakness of the curse is that it can be dispelled using the blood of the caster, does that affect how easily it could otherwise be dispelled?

)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:36 PM

(Oh definitely a very hard thing that also requires very specific magic schools)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:38 PM

(So could I consider the pirate surviving the curse a statistical anomaly, or is it something I should expect to happen if I cursed him again? xD Statistically speaking with the info I have available ofc, without knowing any specifics of what the pirate did/rolled etc

)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:39 PM

(He certainly couldn't have done it if he didn't acquire the means to remove it. If he still has that or has an innate ability to get rid of it, you cannot know.)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:44 PM

(Aight, cool

Another theoretical, if the pirate for example was in the phylactery and was to take damage from Death or similar effects, what would happen?)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:47 PM

(Provided there's nothing else going on and nothing else occurs, the phylactery would take the damage and he would permanently die)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:47 PM

(Does the phylactery have a life total, or is it just any damage = kill?)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:48 PM

(They are famously very easy to destroy so most direct damage would kill it. AoE damage might not depending on the damage amount and type of damage)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:54 PM

(Ok, cool cool

Btw, I remember discussing with you that the idea was to rip the contract in two halves and only burning one since both halves were signed to get two activations out of it, but I can't really find it in the chat log so I'm thinking it might've been a verbal discussion

Do you remember this?)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:57 PM

(Mind you, Death will likely have a hard time actually killing someone. Even if someone is at 20 HP and they take 60 damage from Death they will often be left at 1 HP with a slight chance of actual death depending on a willpower roll, and a chance for death afterwards due to being in critical condition. But really you kinda need to follow it up with a proper attack somehow while they are low on HP)

Zamesi 03-Jan-22 11:57 PM

(Or rather, one activation and one counter activation if it was countered, but still)

Cindurion 03-Jan-22 11:59 PM

(Yes, I believe that was how you counter-activated if it was countered, but you haven't really had the curse countered back to you so I would say it doesn't apply in this case)

Zamesi 04-Jan-22 12:00 AM

(So I can't use the second half of the copy for a fresh activation even though it has the blood and whatnot?

)

Cindurion 04-Jan-22 12:01 AM

(I don't think so, as that wasn't what was discussed/paid for, but I'll sleep on it)

Zamesi 04-Jan-22 12:03 AM

(I meeean, tbf it wasn't really discussed that Death couldn't actually kill anyone or that the curse could be counteracted in other ways either xD )

Cindurion 04-Jan-22 12:06 AM

(I'm fairly certain I've mentioned multiple times that those types of effects are more for weakening targets and that you need to follow up with a final blow of your own to guarantee a kill, but I could be wrong. As for the curse, well, some schools of magic are just good against others. The priests for instance were basically brought into the game as a sort of hospital against curses and similar effects, but are generally costly)

Zamesi 04-Jan-22 12:29 AM

(I think you've mentioned that Death would have to be used in conjunction with something else when I've used it before, but my interpretation was that the damage of Death alone wouldn't be lethal or that it wouldn't be enough to kill the pirate through the phylactery xD )

Cindurion 04-Jan-22 08:55 AM

(Yeah, exactly. The damage of Death isn't necessarily non-lethal, since there are still 2 rolls the target needs to do to survive, but the rolls aren't super hard, and leaves them at 1HP, so it is recommended to follow up, either with you personally, or sending a hit on them or something. Just thought I would clarify that since you're new to the system)

Cindurion 04-Jan-22 09:02 AM

(And yeah, I've concluded that the curse mechanically is supposed to ping-pong between you and your target, but if it vanishes through other means you don't have enough of their essence to start a fresh new curse from the same contract. You could get that upgrade with enough CCPs but that isn't something you paid for at character creation.)

Cindurion 04-Jan-22 11:26 PM

(By the way, you haven't performed your action yet I believe?)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 12:18 AM

(Is correct, I will before I run out of time, just need to consider what to do and also get home first :P)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 01:08 PM

(If I was to delve into the spirit world and enslave the soul of the mage who died, could I then treat it as a companion and sending it out missions to scout, retrieve items etc? )

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 01:17 PM

´¨

(Cat :P)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 01:18 PM

(xD your cats would make excellent DMs)

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 01:20 PM

(So, communicating with a dead soul - pretty easy. Giving them access to your body for one specific task - doable, as you've seen. Creating a puppet and inserting a soul into it - time consuming but technically doable. Any form of full resurrection - incredibly time consuming and costly.) (edited)

(Which of these did you have in mind?)

(Or did you have another idea?)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 01:22 PM

(My main hope would be to just have the soul itself pulled into the world and flying around without a physical body, but im guessing thats not a thing?)

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 01:43 PM

(Hmm, I don't know if that really falls under the domain of Voodoo priests, feels more like pure necromancy to me, but if you have any examples I can certainly be swayed. Either way, they would either have their full control or you would have full control over them, at which point you really don't need that specific Mage, any old soul would do. In either case they would no longer have their own stats or abilities.)

(If all you want is to do remote viewings you can easily do that using a crystal ball or similar. If you want to do scout actions without spending the time yourself you could just create a puppet for it or hire the mercs for it I'd say.)

(The only reason I can see for involving dead Mages would be to get information from them. I don't really feel comfortable with you pulling another player back into the game only to basically be degraded to delivery boy, when any soul would be enough to do that, unless you have a very specific idea in mind, at which point it would be up to the player to accept.) (edited)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 02:19 PM

(Aight, fair enough :) )

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 03:53 PM

Determined to take this chance to find some information about his competitors, Zamesi decides to delve into the spirit world in search of the soul of the dead mage, intending to interrogate it

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 05:24 PM

You take a whiff of some incense which allows your spirit to travel to the underworld, where you are able to quickly find the soul you think belongs to the dead Mage. What do you say/do?

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 06:16 PM

(Hmm, not to rush you or anything, but you only have 3 hours and this action involves another player. Maybe you should do something else this phase and communicate with them next phase?)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 06:36 PM

(Yeah I've been occupied with other stuff, sorry for being slow :P It may kinda affect who I wanna target with stuff though, I promise till be quick xD Do I recognize the soul or have any idea of its identity?)

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 06:48 PM

(You do not. If you must do it this phase I suggest you make one large paragraph with all questions you want answered to limit the back and forth of the discussion!)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 06:58 PM

(That was indeed the plan ^^) Zamesi approaches the soul, smiling warmly. "Greetings, fallen Mage! You may call me the Avenger. As you are the first to have fallen in this War, the Powers that Be have sent me to offer you a chance at retribution and redemption, allowing me to be an instrument of your vengeance. If this is what you would desire, tell me all you can about the Mage that eliminated you. What's their name, how do they look, how did they kill, you, what other abilitis do they have? The more you tell me, the easier I can see to it that your death is avenged."

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 07:23 PM

(Just in case I don't get an answer in time, can I say that I would like to attempt to forcibly extract the information via a voodoo roll or so?)

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 08:36 PM

(Forcibly extracting information would be a separate action, and would be much harder against players/would give you far more limited or specific info)

Zamesi 05-Jan-22 08:43 PM

(Aight, gotcha)

Cindurion 05-Jan-22 09:41 PM

Nighttime Phase day 8. stuck in the underworld, you await the reply of the Mage that died… What do you do for your nighttime phase? (You may cancel the trance to perform any other action. If you are attacked you will immediately be drawn out of the trance)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 10:30 AM

"I do not know much about my assassin, he wore a suit both times i hade the unpleasure of meeting him, both due to an ambush, he seams to favor long distance fighting which he uses a sniper rifle with modified ammunition for extra impact, the second time he even hade several grenades, he has either bought or created these himself. He hides himself in a portable anti-magic field so what magical powers he has is unknown to me but if he's not bought these items he uses then he might posses strong creation magic. I never got to know his name or where he lives though."

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:17 PM

"Thank you, spirit, rest assured that your premature death will be properly avenged." With that, Zamesi exits the underworld, leaving the soul of the dead mage to enjoy eternity in the spirit realm.

(So a question about anti-magic shields, do they all work the same way as the one Eras has, or can I expect different results trying to penetrate different shields? Also do I know if they only work to prevent/reflect damage, or is it any kind of magical effect?)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:20 PM

(You're Not a True Mage, so

‍♂️ )

(Could possibly do some research on the subject but you have no inherent knowledge about it)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:24 PM

(Gotcha

Following the same trail but not really the same question, do I know what would happen if for example the Public Incident omen would be reflected to make me Famous? As in what exactly would the other mages get to find out?)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:26 PM

(Your modified trait would be added onto it, so they would get to know that you can do voodoo magic and possibly some more info depending on the nature of how you received it, up to fate)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:29 PM

(Aight, fair enough) The description provided by the soul gives Zamesi a sneaking suspicion of who the killer is, and he decides to test whether any such magical defenses are in place around this individual by once again shuffling up his tarot decks, scrying the fates of himself and the sharply dressed Walter.

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:30 PM

(Interesting! Let's see how it goes!)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:31 PM

(Mmmmkay, so do I have any idea how aggressive the Magus Organization dudes would be if they were sent out? xD )

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:33 PM

(Initially not so much. As long as the player does nothing suspicious and hasn't been the source of any widespread chaos they should be fine, but obviously if they react poorly to a sharply dressed man knocking on their door, things might escalate)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:34 PM

(Planning for worst case scenario, if this effect would backfire and they would come visit me, do I know anything about how much they know about my true identity etc?)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:35 PM

(You know that you are wanted, so they have a pretty good idea of who you are, so if it did backfire that could be pretty spectacular)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:38 PM

(Goootcha

Conversely then, if I chose Betrayal and it backfired so I would lose my non-existing companions, would I get some sort of message saying the effect happened but achieved nothing, or would I learn nothing?)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:40 PM

(Losing the contact would not be any info either player would find out about, but the next time they attempt to use it they would learn that the contact is no longer on speaking terms with them.)

(So you could always confirm that your contact is still available by going there in the next phase)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:41 PM

(Aight, cool ^^ Imma go with Suspicions and Invigorated, any rolls or so I need to do? xD )

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:47 PM

(None that you are aware of. Unlike last time with a very directed Death effect, this type of effect isn't something you would notice being redirected, so if you were expecting a power struggle like last time that would not be the case here. Do you still want to apply this effect?)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:48 PM

(Yeah, let's go with it regardless

Do I have any idea in what timeframe the Magus dudes will show up for either player?)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:49 PM

(Not really. Up to their schedules and what they are currently dealing with)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:52 PM

(Fair enough

) Feeling energized and refreshed enough to keep going, Zamesi shuffles up once again to read the fates of himself and Walter.

(Death it is I suppose xD And I'll go with Delayed Blessings as I don't really have any info on potential areas with mages)

(So power struggle or 5d20? x) )

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 12:57 PM

(Ah, no? Don't wanna take a random guess at a location and get identities of people there? Fair enough!)

(5d20)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 12:58 PM

(There's 27 different locations, I'm not liking those odds

73dmg anyways

)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 01:00 PM

(25, but yes, you really ought to do some scouting to narrow some bases down :P)

(Gotcha, no power struggle this time at least!)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 01:02 PM

(Ah yes, miscount ^^ Idk, I feel like I more have the role of an ambush predator in this game, not seeking out prey but letting it come to me

)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 01:03 PM

(Fair, you already have the identities of 3 of your 5 rivals I suppose!)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 01:04 PM

(In theory at least, I suppose I technically don't know whether any of them are red herring NPCs or not, but yeah ^^)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 01:04 PM

(Indeed)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 01:23 PM

(I think we established that writing a letter and sending it off would not count as an action, correct?)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 01:23 PM

(Yup)

(Oh, that's clever!)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 01:25 PM

(Hahaha, gotta have some fun you know xD Follow up question, seeing as Eras is part of the Magus Organization, can I expect him to be aware of my true identity etc?)

Cindurion 06-Jan-22 01:26 PM

(Presumably, yes)

(Ah, this is great. Exactly what I was hoping for with this Mage War ^^)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 01:29 PM

(Heheh, except the drawn out time I imagine? x) But yes, it does seem like a certain pirate does not appreciate having his goods confiscated...)

Zamesi 06-Jan-22 01:42 PM

Finished with the readings for the time being, Zamesi sits down and starts penning a letter. "Esteemed Count Rosendo of the House Eras, I write to you with a great deal of concern for the safety of the good people of Maineral. You may not hold me in high esteem, but rest assured I have never, and would never, take any action that would endanger the lives of civilians in our great city. However, it does not seem everyone in this year's Mage War agrees with these ideals. As I'm sure you're aware, there is a great plague spreading throughout Maineral with a mortality rate beyond unimaginable. I have reason to believe that this horrendous illness is created and deliberately spread by a mage known as Blake, whom you may also already be aware of, as she was recently featured in our local newspaper. I do not believe such actions to be in line with how a Mage in this prestigious event should act, and I believe the Magus Organization has a responsibility to step in and stop her before it is too late. Furthermore, I also have reason to believe another mage named Walter with very deliberate intent orchestrated the murder of the so called Envoy of the Gods, who was also nothing but an innocent bystander. Granted, his rhetoric very well may have contributed to the uprisings we're seeing across the city, but even so I do not believe it to be acceptable for mages to deliberately kill non-participants we do not like, regardless of their actions or opinions. As such, I believe the Magus Organization once again has a responsibility to stop this Walter fellow before he strikes again. In the spirit of friendship, and in the hopes of a mutually beneficial potential alliance, I also wish to let you know that I believe the dreaded pirate, Davey Bones, may be coming to you in the near future with hostile intent. I believe I may be able to provide you with more similar information in the future, and all I ask in return is that you use whatever means you can to keep me alive. -Zamesi"

Zamesi then puts a stamp on the envelope, addresses it to Count Rosendo Eras, Mage Tower on Craig Hill, and sends it off