Rowan Howl is many things: an engineering prodigy; a member of the Piltovan elite; a persistent thorn in the side of his family's enemies and, occasionally, his allies.
Yet when he is driven into the depths of the Undercity by a need for closure after a tragic accident, he begins to discover within himself the potential to become so much more.
Comments and criticism welcome
Yet when he is driven into the depths of the Undercity by a need for closure after a tragic accident, he begins to discover within himself the potential to become so much more.
Comments and criticism welcome
CYOA Doc by QafianSage
Pretty Face [100]: Good genes, good upbringing, good style - all of these go into a good look,and you've got that in spades. You have a naturally-beautiful, handsome or otherwise impressive appearance, in whatever form you desire. Turning heads as you enter a ball would just be natural, and you can probably expect to have a fair few admirers. As a bonus, you have an instinctive sense for the kinds of clothes which go well with your own appearance.
Artiste [100]: Piltover is renowned as a city of industry and innovation, yes - but also a city of art and beauty. You have all the skills required to adorn it with the jewels of human (or vastaya or yordle) artistry, being an excellent painter, sculptor, singer, poet and draughtsman. Moreover, you know how to make whatever you build or craft look good.
Bed, Board and Wardrobe [100]: It would be a shame if you were left to wander the streets of this fair city without a place to call home. With this item, you have a nice, one-bedroom flat in Piltover, rent and utilities all paid for, and with an excellent view of the City of Progress. It'd be a nice place to make a home, and the wardrobe is full of good-quality, if not necessarily the wealthiest, clothing in Piltovan styles.
Townhouse [400] (200): On the other hand, is a flat really enough? With this item, you own a magnificent townhouse somewhere in the better part of Piltover, a small mansion of your own, complete with gardens, receiving rooms, a ballroom, luxurious bedrooms and a small staff of servants to keep the place clean and tend to your needs, from cooking you high-class meals to keeping the garden just how you like it.
The Great and the Good (?) [600] (300): Not to put too fine a point on it, but Piltover is more or less an oligarchy, and in such a system it pays to be able to pay. Lucky for you, you've come into a not-inconsiderable amount of wealth, easily enough to put you in Piltover's top 1%. With this amount of money you could finance a good many businesses, live larger for the rest of your stay here, or maybe put your wealth to other uses.
Presentation! [200] (100): What's the difference between a ruthless industrialist and a pillar of the community? Why, presentation of course! You're a genius when it comes to public relations, self-presentation and what the crass might call 'propaganda'. You've got an eye for eye-catching and inspiring designs, and for how to go about hushing things up when you need some skeletons to stay in their closets. These skills apply from everything to poster design to organising events and celebrations to create just the right feeling in attendees. You could make the richest men in Piltover feel privileged to come to your party, and inspire downtrodden workers with visions of the future they're helping to build - and nevermind that that future will be one in which they're still working the assembly lines.
Man of Progress [600] (300): For thousands of years, magic was thought to be the domain of the few privileged to be born with the talent, or willing to mortgage their souls to demons or celestial beings. Now, thanks to Jayce Talis, that power has been democratised - somewhat, at least. You share the same kind of innovative ability of Jayce and Viktor, able to make scientific leaps and bounds while others creep along at a steady pace behind you. Whatever fields of research you involve yourself in, you'll find yourself making intuitive leaps, putting together disparate facts and seeing patterns where others only see noise. Besides your personal innovative abilities, you also have a knack for producing designs which can be adapted for mass production with relative ease and whose principles can be easily taught to others, so that you can uplift not only yourself, but those around you as well. Piltover is called the City of Progress, after all. Your scientific prowess is at its height when you're working based on some form of inspiration; perhaps trying to imitate some process seen in nature, or replicate spells and magic. Your inventions might not quite work the same as the original, but if you work long and hard enough, almost anything that can be done by natural or supernatural means can be measured, harnessed and controlled through the power of your scientific method.
The Arcane [600]: The City of Progress strives towards understanding of the world, and grows rich on the profits of its hextech advancements - but they only grasp and scrabble for facets of a greater, deeper truth. You are a natural user of magic, a wielder of the true arcane - the power which, long ago, shaped the world itself. Given a source of power from which to draw, you can shape and command that power through the medium of runes, bending reality itself to achieve grand acts of magic. Hextech may be more reliable, and able to be put in the hands of any, but this power can be commanded by nothing more than word and will, and the possibilities it presents are vast. It will take time to devise new spells based upon the runes you know and can discover, and you're still limited by the power sources you have access to. Your own internal energies will suffice for basic spells, but for grander works, such as long-distance teleportation, you will require equally-grand sources of power.
Hexcrystals [200]: Though beautiful in appearance, these blue crystals are worth far more than their looks. You have twenty of these blue, roughly-spherical gems, each of which has tremendous magical power locked inside them. These could each power large amounts of hextech, or perhaps be used for some other purpose. You may choose whether these gems are the unstable, natural variety or the more refined and stabilised kind used in later hextech, choosing for each gem, and each gem seems to be able to provide power indefinitely, though they each have a limit in terms of how much power they can provide at a time. While inside their case, the gems are held in place and you can be assured they won't detonate. The case will refill once per three months - so use your gems wisely.
Talent Scout [200] (100): You may or may not be a genius inventor yourself, but you have an eye for finding those who are. You've got a knack for finding just the right people for whatever job you want doing, snapping up talent just as it's beginning to show, and convincing such talented people that working under you is the best place to achieve their dreams, as well as yours. Moreover, you're good at managing different personalities, acting as a group coordinator to keep everyone working together on the projects that really matter, rather than wasting their energies on infighting and squabbles. Finally, you have the acumen to judge when someone can be trusted with a job, and when it'd be better to keep them away from the levers of power. After all, you don't want them embezzling from you.
Just a Man [+300]: The standard power-loss drawback. Lose all access to perks, powers and items from outside this jump, as well as your warehouse, though you retain your body mod and any skills you've gained from practice rather than simply purchasing.
Foes in High Places [+300]: Somehow, you've earned yourself the particular hatred of a member of Piltover or Zaun's upper class; perhaps a chem-baron, one of the seats on the merchant-council, or perhaps a certain Ms. Glasc. Whatever their identity, they'll do their best to ensure that you end up in a shallow grave, sending thugs and assassins when they can - and they have the influence to reach across Runeterra if they really want to, so don't think just leaving the big city will get you out of trouble - and interfering in your plans when they can't. You might be able to take them out permanently, but not without burning other bridges that'll leave you in more or less the same position, just with someone else determined to see you gone.
Mortgaged [+200; with 300+ CP in items only]: So, you know those items you bought? You didn't actually buy them. They actually belong to someone else, who has the last word on when and how you get to use them (though you might be able to keep them from noticing whatever it is you're doing). The one who owns them is fairly free with them, but they'll deny you access or even cut you off long-term or permanently if you displease them too much. Speaking of pleasing them, they'll often make 'requests' that align with their interests - working on such and such a project, producing this or that for them, tracking down a particular criminal and so on. If you don't do as they say, they might cut you off - or send some other agents of theirs to extract what they want from you. At the end of the jump, you receive all your items fully.
Pretty Face [100]: Good genes, good upbringing, good style - all of these go into a good look,and you've got that in spades. You have a naturally-beautiful, handsome or otherwise impressive appearance, in whatever form you desire. Turning heads as you enter a ball would just be natural, and you can probably expect to have a fair few admirers. As a bonus, you have an instinctive sense for the kinds of clothes which go well with your own appearance.
Artiste [100]: Piltover is renowned as a city of industry and innovation, yes - but also a city of art and beauty. You have all the skills required to adorn it with the jewels of human (or vastaya or yordle) artistry, being an excellent painter, sculptor, singer, poet and draughtsman. Moreover, you know how to make whatever you build or craft look good.
Bed, Board and Wardrobe [100]: It would be a shame if you were left to wander the streets of this fair city without a place to call home. With this item, you have a nice, one-bedroom flat in Piltover, rent and utilities all paid for, and with an excellent view of the City of Progress. It'd be a nice place to make a home, and the wardrobe is full of good-quality, if not necessarily the wealthiest, clothing in Piltovan styles.
Townhouse [400] (200): On the other hand, is a flat really enough? With this item, you own a magnificent townhouse somewhere in the better part of Piltover, a small mansion of your own, complete with gardens, receiving rooms, a ballroom, luxurious bedrooms and a small staff of servants to keep the place clean and tend to your needs, from cooking you high-class meals to keeping the garden just how you like it.
The Great and the Good (?) [600] (300): Not to put too fine a point on it, but Piltover is more or less an oligarchy, and in such a system it pays to be able to pay. Lucky for you, you've come into a not-inconsiderable amount of wealth, easily enough to put you in Piltover's top 1%. With this amount of money you could finance a good many businesses, live larger for the rest of your stay here, or maybe put your wealth to other uses.
Presentation! [200] (100): What's the difference between a ruthless industrialist and a pillar of the community? Why, presentation of course! You're a genius when it comes to public relations, self-presentation and what the crass might call 'propaganda'. You've got an eye for eye-catching and inspiring designs, and for how to go about hushing things up when you need some skeletons to stay in their closets. These skills apply from everything to poster design to organising events and celebrations to create just the right feeling in attendees. You could make the richest men in Piltover feel privileged to come to your party, and inspire downtrodden workers with visions of the future they're helping to build - and nevermind that that future will be one in which they're still working the assembly lines.
Man of Progress [600] (300): For thousands of years, magic was thought to be the domain of the few privileged to be born with the talent, or willing to mortgage their souls to demons or celestial beings. Now, thanks to Jayce Talis, that power has been democratised - somewhat, at least. You share the same kind of innovative ability of Jayce and Viktor, able to make scientific leaps and bounds while others creep along at a steady pace behind you. Whatever fields of research you involve yourself in, you'll find yourself making intuitive leaps, putting together disparate facts and seeing patterns where others only see noise. Besides your personal innovative abilities, you also have a knack for producing designs which can be adapted for mass production with relative ease and whose principles can be easily taught to others, so that you can uplift not only yourself, but those around you as well. Piltover is called the City of Progress, after all. Your scientific prowess is at its height when you're working based on some form of inspiration; perhaps trying to imitate some process seen in nature, or replicate spells and magic. Your inventions might not quite work the same as the original, but if you work long and hard enough, almost anything that can be done by natural or supernatural means can be measured, harnessed and controlled through the power of your scientific method.
The Arcane [600]: The City of Progress strives towards understanding of the world, and grows rich on the profits of its hextech advancements - but they only grasp and scrabble for facets of a greater, deeper truth. You are a natural user of magic, a wielder of the true arcane - the power which, long ago, shaped the world itself. Given a source of power from which to draw, you can shape and command that power through the medium of runes, bending reality itself to achieve grand acts of magic. Hextech may be more reliable, and able to be put in the hands of any, but this power can be commanded by nothing more than word and will, and the possibilities it presents are vast. It will take time to devise new spells based upon the runes you know and can discover, and you're still limited by the power sources you have access to. Your own internal energies will suffice for basic spells, but for grander works, such as long-distance teleportation, you will require equally-grand sources of power.
Hexcrystals [200]: Though beautiful in appearance, these blue crystals are worth far more than their looks. You have twenty of these blue, roughly-spherical gems, each of which has tremendous magical power locked inside them. These could each power large amounts of hextech, or perhaps be used for some other purpose. You may choose whether these gems are the unstable, natural variety or the more refined and stabilised kind used in later hextech, choosing for each gem, and each gem seems to be able to provide power indefinitely, though they each have a limit in terms of how much power they can provide at a time. While inside their case, the gems are held in place and you can be assured they won't detonate. The case will refill once per three months - so use your gems wisely.
Talent Scout [200] (100): You may or may not be a genius inventor yourself, but you have an eye for finding those who are. You've got a knack for finding just the right people for whatever job you want doing, snapping up talent just as it's beginning to show, and convincing such talented people that working under you is the best place to achieve their dreams, as well as yours. Moreover, you're good at managing different personalities, acting as a group coordinator to keep everyone working together on the projects that really matter, rather than wasting their energies on infighting and squabbles. Finally, you have the acumen to judge when someone can be trusted with a job, and when it'd be better to keep them away from the levers of power. After all, you don't want them embezzling from you.
Just a Man [+300]: The standard power-loss drawback. Lose all access to perks, powers and items from outside this jump, as well as your warehouse, though you retain your body mod and any skills you've gained from practice rather than simply purchasing.
Foes in High Places [+300]: Somehow, you've earned yourself the particular hatred of a member of Piltover or Zaun's upper class; perhaps a chem-baron, one of the seats on the merchant-council, or perhaps a certain Ms. Glasc. Whatever their identity, they'll do their best to ensure that you end up in a shallow grave, sending thugs and assassins when they can - and they have the influence to reach across Runeterra if they really want to, so don't think just leaving the big city will get you out of trouble - and interfering in your plans when they can't. You might be able to take them out permanently, but not without burning other bridges that'll leave you in more or less the same position, just with someone else determined to see you gone.
Mortgaged [+200; with 300+ CP in items only]: So, you know those items you bought? You didn't actually buy them. They actually belong to someone else, who has the last word on when and how you get to use them (though you might be able to keep them from noticing whatever it is you're doing). The one who owns them is fairly free with them, but they'll deny you access or even cut you off long-term or permanently if you displease them too much. Speaking of pleasing them, they'll often make 'requests' that align with their interests - working on such and such a project, producing this or that for them, tracking down a particular criminal and so on. If you don't do as they say, they might cut you off - or send some other agents of theirs to extract what they want from you. At the end of the jump, you receive all your items fully.
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