Sorcery! Quest

[Moronis]

[X] You know how to work a phone and you know Blood's number. Call him.

 

[Pipeman]

Does anyone have meta knowledge of what's going on here?

Also, is 'bitterly cold' and 'warm' at the seriously dangerous level for people without our crazy constitution?

 

[nick012000]

[X] You know how to work a phone and you know Blood's number. Call him.

 

[Jiven]

Does anyone have meta knowledge of what's going on here?

Also, is 'bitterly cold' and 'warm' at the seriously dangerous level for people without our crazy constitution?

Click to shrink...

We Walked the Pattern. Either we stayed in the same world and only displaced ourselves, either we are in a totally different dimension.
For leading a Walk you need insane constitution, but any person going with you should be fine... if you don't go into a dangerous dimension, furthermore if you don't really know what you are doing like our protagonist.

[X] You know how to work a phone and you know Blood's number. Call him. Be discreet about it.
[X] Get Purple.

 

[Disminded]

We Walked the Pattern. Either we stayed in the same world and only displaced ourselves, either we are in a totally different dimension.
For leading a Walk you need insane constitution, but any person going with you should be fine... if you don't go into a dangerous dimension, furthermore if you don't really know what you are doing like our protagonist.

Click to shrink...

Close. You Walked a Broken Pattern, which is like the Pattern's homeless, meth-addicted baby brother. It'll let you Shadow Walk and do other things, but the flaws in the pattern always manifest themselves somehow.

 

[Silversun17]

[X] You have to get Purple to safety. Get her free and WALK away (Jason blood's home, we don't know any other safe place).
-[X] we will come back and make this bastard suffer.

 

[Pipeman]

[X] You know how to work a phone and you know Blood's number. Call him. Be discreet about it.
[X] Get Purple.

 

[Jiven]

Close. You Walked a Broken Pattern, which is like the Pattern's homeless, meth-addicted baby brother. It'll let you Shadow Walk and do other things, but the flaws in the pattern always manifest themselves somehow.

Click to shrink...

True, but for this situation I didn't feel it was necessary to differentiate the original Pattern and a Broken reflection.

 

[Disminded]

True, but for this situation I didn't feel it was necessary to differentiate the original Pattern and a Broken reflection.

Click to shrink...

Fair enough. I'm just happy someone figured out what the Broken Road was.

 

[iamnuff]

[X] You know how to work a phone and you know Blood's number. Call him.

killing whoever did this is obviously important, but not as important as making sure Purple (brown?) is ok.

also, i suspect that we travelled to another dimension.

calling blood would confirm that.


I don't have any meta knowledge to who might be downstairs, and with purple this badly hurt, I don't want to risk burning the place down.

call blood, if we can't get through, then grab Brown and broken path our way back.

 

[Disminded]

Phone a Friend​

Your first impulse is to kill whoever hurt your friend, get Purple out of here and burn the cursed place down as you leave. You feel rage flowing through your veins like fine wine, fiery and fierce and intoxicating.

You reign yourself in, with some difficulty. You are not some beast to be ruled by your instincts… And Purple is your friend. It would not do to harm her accidentally while in the thrall of your demonic temper…

You need help. There are too many unknowns for you to deal with on your own.

Fortunately, in this strange new world, help is just a phone call away. Unfortunately, you don't see a phone in this room.

With a silent glance of apology at the insensate Purple, you venture out to find a phone, remaining mindful of the other presence in the house.

You search two rooms before you find a phone in what looks like a bedroom. You crouch by a bedside, take a moment to make sure the other presence is far away, and then make the call.

The phone rings and you hold your breath as one ring follows another over what feels like an eternity...

Finally, "Jason Blood speaking."

"Blood. I need your help. Purple is hurt," you whisper, urgently.

"Who is this?"

"Have the years finally robbed you of your senses? This is Arrillo. I need help."

"I don't believe I know an Arrillo," he muses on the other end and you bite back a growl of frustration. Extraneous noises are not your friends right now.

"I do not have time for your sudden bouts of senility," you say to him. "Purple. Is. Hurt. I need you to get here quickly. Or better yet, send the Gargoyle. I believe you are allies."

He becomes more serious. "Purple? Who is Purple? And what Gargoyle?"

You groan at the questions and search your mind for the required names. "Brown," you say after a moment. "Purple's name is Brown." That still didn't make sense. "and the Gargoyle is called Batman." You add the last belatedly, an unimportant detail you only just remember.

Silence on the other end, and then. "Where are you?"

"I don't know," you say, scowling. "In a house somewhere in Gotham."

"How am I-"

"Are you a mage or aren't you?" Under other circumstances you would have screamed at him. As is, you settle for a low, hate-filled hiss that adequately conveys your frustration. "I am hellspawn. Track my demonic aura, if that is within your meager abilities."

More silence, then. "I'll be there soon."

The phone clicked off and you feel some measure of relief. Then you hear something from the room you had left: a low moan of pain followed by someone talking in a jovial tone.

The other presence in the house was with Purple and he was hurting her again…

[X] Stay put. As much as you hate it, it's better to wait for reinforcements to arrive before you intervene.
[X] Go in with spells blazing. You need to kill something. NOW. (Tactics? Default is "BURN!")
[X] Sneak up and survey the situation.
[X] You've done all you can. Walk away. (Where?)
[X] Write in.

 

[Jack Trade]

[X] Go in with spells blazing. You need to kill something. NOW.

 

[Silversun17]

[x] sneak up on her tormenter, grab his wrists and burn his hands off with hellfire.

 

[iamnuff]

[X] Sneak up and survey the situation.


I thought we would be using a mobile or something, I didn't realize that would mean leaving Brown alone.

oops.

first we should get into the room, so we can see what's actually going on, then we should sneak attack.

hurling fire at someone who's standing right next to our wounded friend is definately a bad idea.

 

[Jiven]

So we are in another dimension after all. Time for a little vocabulary.

Located in the depths of family castle, behind well-locked doors, lies the great Pattern of Amber.

Click to shrink...

The Pattern is an all-powerful physical manifestation of one the Great Powers That Be. It manifests under the form of a glowing labyrinth, with an entrance and a centre. Among the eternal sea of possibilities, the Pattern anchors reality, allowing Shadows to be reflected along the ripples. Shadows are Universes, Possibilities, Realities in themselves, places existing under the encompassing radiance of the Castle of Amber. Shadows can contain a single plane, a lonely planet, or an entire Universe like our own (IRL Earth is present in this continuity, with our own Universe around it, in one particular Shadow). Sometimes, a Shadow contains a subsequent Multiverse, with his own rules. For example, when a comic book protagonist go into another dimension, he doesn't go into another Shadow, because this privilege is reserved to ones who Walked the Pattern. He merely travel to another dimension encompassed in his Shadow's Multiverse.

Walking the Pattern was the greatest trial in your life, and also your greatest triumph.

Click to shrink...

Shadow Walking is a power you acquire (among others) once you Walked the Pattern. The trial of Walking the Pattern is an achievement in itself: you need insane endurance and strength of will (along with something else, spoilers spoilers) to merely survive, and succeeding is surely a defining moment for the rest of your life.
Shadow Walking is better explained as "Travelling through Shadow". Some people call it Hellride, but this name is better used for the "fast-and-dangerous" method of Shadow Walking.
Our protagonist Walked a Broken Pattern. At such, we effectively posses a 'lesser' form of Shadow Walking. We can journey to another dimension in a same Shadow, displace ourselves on the same Shadow and dimension, or simply Walk Away to another possibility. Your choice, players.

The Broken Road​

[...]

The only illumination is a glow from the center of the island. After your eyes brush against the rest of your surroundings, they fix on the source of that glow and you barely keep yourself from gasping and ruining the thunderous silence.

At the center of the bare stone isle glows a pattern, a two-dimensional labyrinth, a flowing gracefully into a spiraling circle that lead, inevitably to the center… The pattern smolders with golden light like molten honey. Except it was… marred. Black cracks shot through it in places. In other it's slashed and torn. In still others, it's dimmed and corroded, as if splashed by some strange acid.

It was warped, imperfect, broken…

"Beautiful," you whisper as its wrongness clicks with you.

Click to shrink...

The Broken Road is in reality a Broken Reflection of the Pattern.

A Broken Pattern is... something really strange. There is only one Primal Pattern, and many reflection of this One. Walking a non-Primal Pattern has the same requirements and effects than Walking the Primal One. But a Broken Pattern...
The Broken Pattern will manifest in our abilities, one way or another. We should still have a Shadow Walking capacity, so we will see.

Anything I didn't say about the Pattern, the Castle of Amber or the Shadow might be spoilers, and I would prefer the MJ to handle this part.

[X] Go in with spells blazing. You need to kill something. NOW.

 

[Pipeman]

[X] Go in with spells blazing. You need to kill something. NOW.

 

[Disminded]

*Applauds Jiven for an excellent summation of the Pattern.*

That said, you don't actually know any of that. After a moment's reflection, you'll probably realize you're Walking through dimensions and correctly trace the origins of this ability to having walked the Broken Road, but anything beyond that will require experience to discover.

Also, is 'bitterly cold' and 'warm' at the seriously dangerous level for people without our crazy constitution?

Click to shrink...

Eh. It was about as cold as a bad Winter's night. Not immediately fatal, but sticking around without protection is not recommended.

 

[nick012000]

So we're a member of the Royal Family of Amber? Huh.

[X] Grab him and toss him onto the Broken Road.

 

[Disminded]

So we're a member of the Royal Family of Amber? Huh.

Click to shrink...

You don't have to be a Royal to walk a Broken Pattern.

 

[Jiven]

*Applauds Jiven for an excellent summation of the Pattern.*

That said, you don't actually know any of that. After a moment's reflection, you'll probably realize you're Walking through dimensions and correctly trace the origins of this ability to having walked the Broken Road, but anything beyond that will require experience to discover.

Click to shrink...

I was Game Master for a Princes of Amber game. Was fun, if headache inducing.

But I will shut up for now before saying too much.

 

[Disminded]

Death​

Yeah, that's about as much self-restraint as you can reasonably be expected to show. Someone's hurting your friend. Someone has to die screaming.

You don't bother to try for stealth. You're not very good at it in any case. You stride back to the bloodstained room, stoking the hellfire in your belly until it roared in your ears. There's a man in that rooms, clad in a simple white shirt and black pants. His most striking attribute is a black, skull-like mask that adorns his face and the knife in his hand, stained red with… with…

You tear fire from the air with an inarticulate snarl of pure rage. It roars across the intervening space as you fling it at that wretch, only for him to duck out of the way of the main blast, swearing as small tongues of flame licked at his exposed skin.

"Another little girl who doesn't know her place," he says as reaches behind his back, pulls out a metal wand (gun, you remind yourself), and triggers it.

It buck and roars a short, chattering roar and you feel the bullets slam into your chest with shattering force, tearing through you and exiting out your back in great eruptions of flesh and blood and splintered bone.

You fall to one knee but fix him with an angry glare, gesture and make a noise that could charitably described as a word, if one makes allowances for the fact that a good portion of your lungs now adorn the wall behind you.

The man in the skull mask hesitates, shocked that you're still alive. It's enough. The flaming orb slams into him full force, sending him reeling back, wreathed in flame. You feel a brief spark of venomous hope.

Then the skull faced man, burned, smoking, rights himself and fires at you again. You roll out of the way for the most part, but the bullets chew into your leg, pulping muscle and bone. You scramble up as much as you can on your wounded leg, hissing a word of power and gathering fire in your hand.
Another stream of bullets slams into you, hurling you backward. You find that this time, you cannot rise.

It appears even your demonic vitality has its limits.

Your vision stubbornly refuses to fade even as your life flows away, so you see perfectly clearly as Black Mask stands over you and casually triggers his gun one last time…

Sorry, Purple, you think and hope Blood will get here in time to save her.

BAD END
​

Actions? 2 lives.
[X] End Game. The GM is obviously incompetent.
[X] Roll back to last scene. (-1 life, 1 remaining) – Choices?
[X] Roll back to second to last scene (-2 lives, 0 remaining) – Choices?
[X] Reincarnation Roulette. Because this life isn't going your way… (-1 life, 1 remaining).


Note:
You can take hellacious amounts of damage, but you are neither immortal nor the biggest badass on the block. Also? Default GM tactics are not guaranteed to be the best course.

If anyone's curious, Black mask is statted out as a lvl 3 rogue build. He critted in the first exchange for 20 HP, which is enough to take the wind out of even your sails. You connected with a few shots from your flaming orb, but in the end his machine pistol was enough to chew you up before you could bring him below half HP.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

[X] End Game

Because honestly all I felt when I saw this update was "Of course we died" and a feeling of *its just not worth it getting invested in this character*. The only thing that's even gone remotely well in our life is helping purple and that was limited. Staying with Blood might be on there but we were a prisoner more than anything there so... and with just one life left... the dice are going to screw us over again. With that its just not worth it to get invested at this point. Or rather get more invested.

The guy on the SpaceBattles version of this is... generic and bland in a way. Not bad... just... not something I'm emotional going to invest myself in. This one though... I like our character and can sympathize with her, perhaps a little to well at times. And Reincarnation could be an option, but like I said I'm invested in this one. I am assuming that reincarnation just means we go back to Char gen right?

... We should have asked for a Homunculus friend back at the beginning. A Gilgamesh-Enkidu type friendship would have been nice to try and build. If only for the insanity we could have raised between the two of us.

 

[Disminded]

[X] End Game

Because honestly all I felt when I saw this update was "Of course we died" and a feeling of *not really worth getting invested in the character*. The only thing that's even gone remotely well in our life is helping purple and that was limited. Staying with Blood might be on there but we were a prisoner more than anything there so... and with just one life left... the dice are going to screw us over again. With that its just not worth it to get invested at this point.

Click to shrink...

Fair enough.

I will say there were multiple ways to get out of that situation alive. Some of them even end with Purple being saved.

But the core criticism, that it is remarkably easy to die despite the character's freakish constitution, is perfectly valid. It's one of the core ideas of the game. The character has the potential to be something truly terrifying, but right now that potential is mostly unrealized. She is a very small fish in a very big pond and must tread carefully or be devoured. The key theme of the quest is the slow transformation of the character as she slowly gains knowledge and power, how she shapes and is shaped by the world around her.

That was the original idea, in any case. *Shrugs* But, eh, if that's not working I'll just go back to the drawing board.

The guy on the SpaceBattles version of this is... generic and bland in a way. Not bad... just... not something I'm emotional going to invest myself in. This one though... I like our character and can sympathize with her, perhaps a little to well at times. And Reincarnation could be an option, but like I said I'm invested in this one. I am assuming that reincarnation just means we go back to Char gen right?

Click to shrink...

Reincarnation means Arrillo dies and is reincarnated as someone else, a different character from a different series. So, basically, the quest becomes a Reincarnation Quest.

 

[Vindictus]

[X] Reincarnate

Eh. Why the fuck not.

 

[Silversun17]

its mostly a case of people assuming we can take anything in a straight fight. the fact Batman took us down in one move should have told people we have to fight smart. but no, we have to pull a Leroy Jenkins against an unknown threat.

what the fuck were you people thinking just charging in without any tatics?

would some caution kill you people?

[X] Roll back to last scene. (-1 life, 1 remaining)
-[X] move in close and hit the enemy with color spray. once he is down get purple and run.
--[X] if he doesn't go down to color spray take cover and throw hell fire at his weapons and feet.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

Fair enough.

I will say there were multiple ways to get out of that situation alive. Some of them even end with Purple being saved.

But the core criticism, that it is remarkably easy to die despite the character's freakish constitution, is perfectly valid. It's one of the core ideas of the game. The character has the potential to be something truly terrifying, but right now that potential is mostly unrealized. She is a very small fish in a very big pond and must tread carefully or be devoured. The key theme of the quest is the slow transformation of the character as she slowly gains knowledge and power, how she shapes and is shaped by the world around her.

That was the original idea, in any case. *Shrugs* But, eh, if that's not working I'll just go back to the drawing board.

Click to shrink...

It would work... if we had someone to keep us alive. That first death was our fault and the dice. This one... really, IC, what were we supposed to do, run and hide, we're a freaking demon-blooded. No this was... your idea has merit, but then we kind of end up with doing nothing but training to try and stay alive and pray the dice don't screw us over or we lose a life. Its like walking a tight-rope that you can't see the end of without a net to catch you.

Limited lives in this system was a bad idea without having back-ups, like having Jason pop in with a teleport in time to save us in this situation, in place. But it does make it more real and make us take it more seriously as well so... Its a good idea still.

Edit: I'm not saying to always give us an out... but to use our two deaths as examples, the first one no one could have really saved us from. that was just a high-risk option that bit us, the second though... we called Jason and a Demon-Blooded has to stand mystically, at least when your not on a Hell Plane, he should have been able to show up very quickly at least is what I'm saying.

Reincarnation means Arrillo dies and is reincarnated as someone else, a different character from a different series. So, basically, the quest becomes a Reincarnation Quest.

Click to shrink...

I might like the irony of coming back as a divine-blooded just for the lols... then again that would just show her how petty humans are as well... even in reincarnation we would have trouble getting a break.

 

[Bloodshifter]

[X] New Game
-[x]World choice

Seriously can we please leave now? I hate DC with a passion Deus Ex and Conveint Plot Devices are not a place to play as a infernal hellspawn.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

its mostly a case of people assuming we can take anything in a straight fight. the fact Batman took us down in one move should have told people we have to fight smart. but no, we have to pull a Leroy Jenkins against an unknown threat.

what the fuck were you people thinking just charging in without any tatics?

would some caution kill you people?

[X] Roll back to last scene. (-1 life, 1 remaining)
-[X] move in close and hit the enemy with color spray. once he is down get purple and run.
--[X] if he doesn't go down to color spray take cover and throw hell fire at his weapons and feet.

Click to shrink...

IC we really shouldn't be that cautious. We're Demon-Blooded, which means our instinct is pretty much MUDERMAIMKILL! and we have been told a lot that we should be able to take a good number of hits from anything and keep going. And no one "really lucky" punch wouldn't really get that fact into our skulls.

OoC we know that isn't the case but its pretty easy to get caught up in the characters flow.

 

[ShadowAngelBeta]

[X] New Game
-[x]World choice

Seriously can we please leave now? I hate DC with a passion Deus Ex and Conveint Plot Devices are not a place to play as a infernal hellspawn.

Click to shrink...

True but... a lot of the other places wouldn't be much better. DC was actually one of the safer one comparatively.

 

[Silversun17]

IC we really shouldn't be that cautious. We're Demon-Blooded, which means our instinct is pretty much MUDERMAIMKILL! and we have been told a lot that we should be able to take a good number of hits from anything and keep going. And no one "really lucky" punch wouldn't really get that fact into our skulls.

OoC we know that isn't the case but its pretty easy to get caught up in the characters flow.

Click to shrink...

IC the character knows that the bad buy has purple and going in hot could get purple killed.