Ryumancer
Dragons Are Romance
Consider: Questers are something akin to an Overmind. We (generally) have control over a small number of characters in a setting otherwise controlled by others.
Tabula Rasa Quest
- Thread starter That-Random-Guy
- Start date
- Original
- Location
- Victoria
Uh. This is a very inventive line of thought which does in fact point in a very potentially productive direction, hence my insightful rating, but I just realized I should, for the sake of not effectively handing the playerbase a big red herring, specify that it's a useful thought with regards to a otherwise-obtuse semi-OOC lore puzzle unrelated to overmind-type things. Also, the subject and components of said puzzle are likely to appear onscreen,
like,
next IRL year. (At which point this thought will likely solve like 5/8ths of said puzzle, assuming someone remembers it and puts the pieces together.)
On a related note, I should go finish off the update—I'm planning on getting it out today, but...y'know. I'll try my best
Last edited:
Victory Against the Overmind; Reaching The Island — Strategic Decision Point
- Location
- Victoria
In a series of quick movements, you move into the next room, knock the inexplicable furniture in front of the entrance, and hop on a low table: The closest available thing to a podium or stage. The talent scouts come in, seeing one by one that you've ceased to run, and at the critical moment—right as the group's started piling into the room, and their speed has reached its nadir—you yell, scream even:
"WHY ARE YOU CHASING ME!"
After a single beat of silence, just enough for them to absorb the question, you continue. Over the course of perhaps thirty seconds, you rebuke them for their decision making, berate them for trying to chase someone for leaving conversation of their own free will, remonstrate against the hurts they've inflicted upon you, and—above all else—raised question after question as to their decision-making process. Then, finally, you issue an ultimatum: That they explain themselves, not to you but to each other, and themselves.
"WHY!!"
Then you start sidling towards the door, an expression of betrayal still affixed to your face.
Answer Fast, and Well ('Talent Scouts' Overmind): Automatic Major Failure
Exploit Weakness/Try to Salvage This(You vs 'Talent Scouts' Overmind): 3 vs. 1, Minor Success goes to You
The overmind freezes in shock, and its little narrative shatters around it. Concurrently, the talent scouts fall upon each other and you in accusation and argument—or so the overmind would wish. After all this running and shouting, most of your attention is tied up leaning against a wall and not falling over, but you can still deny its will well enough, and give its puppets the occasional poke in the right direction. Its anchorings remain—if you could break that, you would've wounded it into retreat about ten minutes ago—but its mental grip loosens, and its reality-warping ethereal tendrils wither one by one. (You're too tired to make a proper study of it, but it seems that it really needs the support of its puppet-minds and the backing of at least a little narrative to do that sort of thing.) The group's discussion circles towards leaving you alone and the denial of supernatural influences, and consider taking the win and leaving, but then—.
But then—.
The overmind tries something stupid: It lashes out with its remaining tendrils, seizes direct control of the talent scout closest to you, and goes on the attack. You see it happening, you yell and point, and the possessed scout gets dogpiled. There's a moment of stutter, as pseudo-authorial spite meets weight of flesh and fails, fails to the greatest possible degree. The overmind recoils, truly and personally (if slightly) damaged for quite possibly the first time ever. The talent scouts' opposition to it grows willful, barbed with quasi-resolution and imitation hate.
They are not persons, not truly, not even particularly good puppet-minds. This will not last, cannot last, this is ultimately just the outward manifestation of you recasting the overmind from author to antagonist, anything you could do to further hurt the overmind would turn its puppets against you, there's nothing left to do but run—but before you do, that closest talent scout (the one possessed) meets your eyes and speaks. "We'll do what we can, girlie. Good luck." You thank her, taking the sentiment in the spirit it was meant with, and leave.
As you close the door beyond you, taking care to jam a chair beneath the doorknob, you realize that the overmind probably enspelled her to see you as Katie Birch, for extra redundancy. You chuckle.
[Skill gained: Enhanced Communication (Basic). This represents skill in communicating through narrative- or spell-induced barriers, and the use of words and rhetoric to manipulate, disrupt, and reinforce narratives. Extends (with imperfect reliability) to attempts at clear communication (or rhetorical shenanigans) on a metaphysically level playing field.]
[The 'Talent Scouts' overmind will remember this, and talk about it. Once it regains control. And make its way to someone both willing to listen and able to rally the troops, metaphorically speaking. (The City is not a military place.)]
A short time later, you approach the other end of the passage: A door, which truesight tells you doesn't lead to another room, but instead an open-air place. Out of caution, you open it slowly, keeping your eye near the door crack, then quickly, because there's no-one there. You look around…
…and quickly realize that this place is not a Realm: Too small, too lifeless, and near-entirely devoid of the essence-flows of active narrative or the energy of magic. Then you stop entirely, to figure out where the term Realm came from. The following pops into your head: "The automatic knowledge that appears upon looking upon/thinking about something or someone is a form of natural and innate magic that comes from the conceptual association/interplay between your own mind-supporting Essence and whatever part of the world you're focusing on, including more abstract constructs such as this very mechanism, or the scholarly consensus on some subject."
"Wha-", you whisper to yourself, flinching. You aim your truesight at that answer, and it finds that there's something significant left unsaid there, with no idea of what. Obviously, that does not satisfy you: You scrunch your eyes shut, dedicate your full mental focus to this one question, and get nothing back but mental static. Maybe something's blocking you. Perhaps your mind isn't built to grasp this answer. It could be that your truesight simply doesn't suffice to ferret out that missing detail.
Whatever the problem, you have to move. Time burns. Looking around again, you quickly conclude that this place is a little island of sorts in the sea of chaos. It has a single landmark, a small hill, and the rest of it is covered by varying sizes and depths of broken rock and gravel. Some part of you (almost certainly the one that served up that inexplicable answer earlier) expects a few hardy weeds, but there are none in evidence. This is a lifeless place.
As you pick your way forward, it soon occurs to you that the top of the hill would be a good vantage point. You dimly recall that when you entered the passage, you had to navigate a messy series of non-euclidean hallways, but the boundary between this place and the murk between realms is far weaker: All you have to do is look.
Though you take care to avoid injury, you still reach the hill-top in good time: There turns out to be a path of manageable gravel, with the larger rocks pushed to each side, and the hill itself is of manageable steepness. At one point, you have to steady yourself with your hand, but there is never a moment of danger. (Though you are caught off guard by the novel sensation of grasping cold grit and rough rock—both truesight and that automatic knowledge mechanism had nothing to say about that.) The only real delay is when you get your first good look at the stars, which this nearly lightless place makes so visible. (The inter-realm Essence murk averages just a little bit of light emission per exposed square, and truesight does many things.)
The moment your feet are properly planted on the hill's top, you look around, starting with the island's outer rim. From this height, you can more-or-less look out 'over' the inter-Realm murk, and detect the parts of it that cover shielded passageways by (in essence) tracing out the areas where the concepts of distance and direction aren't quite so corroded. There's a surprising number of doors embedded in the island's rim, which seem like the place to start…
"...okay, so the passage that I know is passable because I just used it looks like that…and the extra high-floating murk between me and the farther areas distort what I see like so…"
You reach a conclusion and double-check it. There is a temptation to freeze up, to pointlessly triple and quadruple check out of disbelieving fear, but you know you can afford no such luxury.
"SHIT!"
After a moment, you decide that the one swear does not suffice, and work your way down the list. A moment later, you realize the list was provided by the automatic knowledge mechanism. (Then you resolve to stop wasting time specifically noting its actions, pending actual lasting safety.) Instead of trying to invent a few entirely new swear words, you refocus yourself on your predicament: That there's no path from this island to another Realm, besides the place you just fled from. This island has plenty of exits, to be sure, but for some (likely inane) reason, those paths either circle about the island (often meeting each other in the process), trail off into unmaintained and decaying nothingness, or arc back towards the larger tangle you can just about see surrounding the City. (That being the name of the Realm you just fled from, obtained by dint of lightly trueseeing its entire mass.) Come to think of it, it's unclear whether passages of this style could usefully connect Realms (all the non-cities ones are unambiguously quite far away), you noticed a bit of middle-section decay in the one that got you here—no. Contours of reality later, survival now.
For lack of another option, you narrow your focus to the City itself. (Succumbing to despair is hardly an option.) It's entirely too large for your truesight to usefully examine at once, to say nothing of the higher-floating inter-realm essence murk, but you soon find a range of different 'focuses' that, when added together, give a halfway-decent picture of the Realm's whole. One could pull quite a few insights from it, especially combined with literally any (trustworthy) ground-level experience, but only a few matter, the ones that together constitute hope. The first is that it's a deeply non-euclidian place, once one gets away from the points of power and major thoroughfares. The second is that it's divided: Different areas have different symbols, different aesthetics, different concept-tags of allegiance and occupancy. Then there's the related third: The empty spaces, unclaimed even by cobweb and dust. The details are pretty indistinct, with physical distance and metaphysical distortion translating into the unconventional truesight-use version of vague and blurry shapes, but—.
Gah. Enough. All this is corroborated by the auto-knowledge mechanism's comments on all the side areas that "haven't contained any events of note for a long time". Furthermore, you are starting to discover what a headache feels like. Contours of reality later, survival now.
You turn your gaze to the tangled passageways surrounding and connecting this island and the City. What you find…is opportunity. And a big decision to make.
———
What strategy does Tabula pick: How does she spend her time? Note that no matter the vote, Tabula will carry out the most cost-effective options for getting an edge, such as picking up a pointy-ended rock, and the more cost-effective options for 'lay a false trail'. Note that Tabula will be much more effective in general, what with being able to plan and prepare (instead of making shit up literally on the run). A moment's rest also goes a long way.
Also: You may want to start thinking about, discussing, and asking me about tricks and tactics Tabula could use. One of the vote categories for the next update will be 'toss in ideas for Tabula': Good ideas will translate into narrative and mechanical advantages. Feel free to @ me with your questions—I realize the descriptions in the update aren't exactly a labeled map
[X] Run the Blockade
Tabula knows the passageway network much, much better than anyone will expect, and it's all but certain that this next wave of pursuers will come from more than a few distinct factions, arriving at different times.* Furthermore, one of truesight's many competencies is the on-the-run spotting of hidden and non-obvious passages. Then there's their real ace: Tabula possesses a certain amount of real reality-shifting power, the laws of the world care about narratives, it's easy to make surface edits to a blank slate…it's plot armor time, or if not armor then at least the padded leather jacket afforded to cool-looking individuals doing cool things. If Tabula goes for this, they'll stand a very good chance of succeeding outright, without caveat or cost. The opposition fundamentally doesn't expect to encounter her so soon after setting out and so close to the City.
This strategy is built around speed, surprise, and a relatively small amount of stealth. The forward-running searchers will be deeply unlikely to walk stealthily or check hiding spots until they're close to the island (heck, they might even move at a dead sprint so as to reach the prize first). Similarly, anyone acting as the goalie, which is to say hanging about closer to City in case you slip the net, is likely to be unprepared at best.
(Of course, this means ignoring the island's opportunities.)
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
Tabula knows the passageway network much, much better than anyone will expect, including its underlying metaphysics. Furthermore, one trick available to tabula rasa(s) is to 'melt' into destabilized Essence, such as the murk between realms. That sort of thing comes with certain costs and risks, so they daren't do it more than once—and not just because if someone pokes the wall-gash or unwisely-opened door they're hiding in, Tabula would be unable to run. Still, if they were to hammer a hole in every weakened wall/ceiling/floor, open every door-that-leads-to-nothing, set up an obviously false trail and an inobvious false trail, that would translate that parlor trick into quite an advantage: Let the most everyone pass you by, miring themselves in the muck and chasing your false trails, then make your run for it when all that remains are the stragglers (slow and likely dispirited) and anyone camping the chokepoints (the main problem).
This strategy is built around trickery (mire-based crowd control to be precise), magic-boosted camouflage, and a bit of luck. As the QM, I guarantee you and Tabula will not be screwed over by absolutely no one wandering near Tabula and giving them an idea of how far the search parties have got (they know how to pick a good hiding spot with strong listening/peephole properties) or some ass with a 10-foot pole. (That sort of utility attachment doesn't handle inter-Realm murk well and also it'd be a massive dick move on my part.) That does mean Tabula won't encounter stronger opposition than in the other option: Even a vaguely prepared chokepoint-holder constitutes serious trouble for a fella whose big ace is basically a pointy rock. (That, and the chaos between realms isn't exactly cleansing skin lotion.)
This stratagem is unlikely to work out flawlessly, but it's much more unlikely to fail outright. I'm serious about Tabula being rather more capable going forward—more on this next update. Even if the dice do something godawful, one of my jobs as a QM is to make sure this Quest's story stays worthwhile and its game-aspects, engaging—in the end, we're all here to have fun. That, and this is pretty much the tutorial (for combative Events).
- [X] …you make sure to grab several rocks. They're rocks, yes, but they're also deeply non-magical and impressively real. Some of them are made of something other than Essence…
- [X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
- [X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
P.S. As you may have surmised, this is the sort of place that one returns to again and again, as one accrues knowledge, ability, and confidence that your enemies won't interrupt you mid-contemplation.
P.P.S. What with one thing or another, I seem to have ended up posting very late indeed—it's only the same day in the sense of not having slept. To be honest, this has probably impacted clarity. I expect to be around for question answering (albeit through the medium of my phone) for a shortish time, punctuated by my bedtime routine. Afterward, it'll be a while before I'm up again to answer questions—though please still ask them. Speaking of which: If there appear to be any continuity issues here, please let me know. I'm also willing to elaborate on the meaning of most any bit of prose, or vote description. Particularly the descriptions, I think they're where my first-time-QM status shows through the most.
"WHY ARE YOU CHASING ME!"
After a single beat of silence, just enough for them to absorb the question, you continue. Over the course of perhaps thirty seconds, you rebuke them for their decision making, berate them for trying to chase someone for leaving conversation of their own free will, remonstrate against the hurts they've inflicted upon you, and—above all else—raised question after question as to their decision-making process. Then, finally, you issue an ultimatum: That they explain themselves, not to you but to each other, and themselves.
"WHY!!"
Then you start sidling towards the door, an expression of betrayal still affixed to your face.
Answer Fast, and Well ('Talent Scouts' Overmind): Automatic Major Failure
Exploit Weakness/Try to Salvage This(You vs 'Talent Scouts' Overmind): 3 vs. 1, Minor Success goes to You
The overmind freezes in shock, and its little narrative shatters around it. Concurrently, the talent scouts fall upon each other and you in accusation and argument—or so the overmind would wish. After all this running and shouting, most of your attention is tied up leaning against a wall and not falling over, but you can still deny its will well enough, and give its puppets the occasional poke in the right direction. Its anchorings remain—if you could break that, you would've wounded it into retreat about ten minutes ago—but its mental grip loosens, and its reality-warping ethereal tendrils wither one by one. (You're too tired to make a proper study of it, but it seems that it really needs the support of its puppet-minds and the backing of at least a little narrative to do that sort of thing.) The group's discussion circles towards leaving you alone and the denial of supernatural influences, and consider taking the win and leaving, but then—.
But then—.
The overmind tries something stupid: It lashes out with its remaining tendrils, seizes direct control of the talent scout closest to you, and goes on the attack. You see it happening, you yell and point, and the possessed scout gets dogpiled. There's a moment of stutter, as pseudo-authorial spite meets weight of flesh and fails, fails to the greatest possible degree. The overmind recoils, truly and personally (if slightly) damaged for quite possibly the first time ever. The talent scouts' opposition to it grows willful, barbed with quasi-resolution and imitation hate.
They are not persons, not truly, not even particularly good puppet-minds. This will not last, cannot last, this is ultimately just the outward manifestation of you recasting the overmind from author to antagonist, anything you could do to further hurt the overmind would turn its puppets against you, there's nothing left to do but run—but before you do, that closest talent scout (the one possessed) meets your eyes and speaks. "We'll do what we can, girlie. Good luck." You thank her, taking the sentiment in the spirit it was meant with, and leave.
As you close the door beyond you, taking care to jam a chair beneath the doorknob, you realize that the overmind probably enspelled her to see you as Katie Birch, for extra redundancy. You chuckle.
[Skill gained: Enhanced Communication (Basic). This represents skill in communicating through narrative- or spell-induced barriers, and the use of words and rhetoric to manipulate, disrupt, and reinforce narratives. Extends (with imperfect reliability) to attempts at clear communication (or rhetorical shenanigans) on a metaphysically level playing field.]
[The 'Talent Scouts' overmind will remember this, and talk about it. Once it regains control. And make its way to someone both willing to listen and able to rally the troops, metaphorically speaking. (The City is not a military place.)]
A short time later, you approach the other end of the passage: A door, which truesight tells you doesn't lead to another room, but instead an open-air place. Out of caution, you open it slowly, keeping your eye near the door crack, then quickly, because there's no-one there. You look around…
…and quickly realize that this place is not a Realm: Too small, too lifeless, and near-entirely devoid of the essence-flows of active narrative or the energy of magic. Then you stop entirely, to figure out where the term Realm came from. The following pops into your head: "The automatic knowledge that appears upon looking upon/thinking about something or someone is a form of natural and innate magic that comes from the conceptual association/interplay between your own mind-supporting Essence and whatever part of the world you're focusing on, including more abstract constructs such as this very mechanism, or the scholarly consensus on some subject."
"Wha-", you whisper to yourself, flinching. You aim your truesight at that answer, and it finds that there's something significant left unsaid there, with no idea of what. Obviously, that does not satisfy you: You scrunch your eyes shut, dedicate your full mental focus to this one question, and get nothing back but mental static. Maybe something's blocking you. Perhaps your mind isn't built to grasp this answer. It could be that your truesight simply doesn't suffice to ferret out that missing detail.
Whatever the problem, you have to move. Time burns. Looking around again, you quickly conclude that this place is a little island of sorts in the sea of chaos. It has a single landmark, a small hill, and the rest of it is covered by varying sizes and depths of broken rock and gravel. Some part of you (almost certainly the one that served up that inexplicable answer earlier) expects a few hardy weeds, but there are none in evidence. This is a lifeless place.
As you pick your way forward, it soon occurs to you that the top of the hill would be a good vantage point. You dimly recall that when you entered the passage, you had to navigate a messy series of non-euclidean hallways, but the boundary between this place and the murk between realms is far weaker: All you have to do is look.
Though you take care to avoid injury, you still reach the hill-top in good time: There turns out to be a path of manageable gravel, with the larger rocks pushed to each side, and the hill itself is of manageable steepness. At one point, you have to steady yourself with your hand, but there is never a moment of danger. (Though you are caught off guard by the novel sensation of grasping cold grit and rough rock—both truesight and that automatic knowledge mechanism had nothing to say about that.) The only real delay is when you get your first good look at the stars, which this nearly lightless place makes so visible. (The inter-realm Essence murk averages just a little bit of light emission per exposed square, and truesight does many things.)
The moment your feet are properly planted on the hill's top, you look around, starting with the island's outer rim. From this height, you can more-or-less look out 'over' the inter-Realm murk, and detect the parts of it that cover shielded passageways by (in essence) tracing out the areas where the concepts of distance and direction aren't quite so corroded. There's a surprising number of doors embedded in the island's rim, which seem like the place to start…
"...okay, so the passage that I know is passable because I just used it looks like that…and the extra high-floating murk between me and the farther areas distort what I see like so…"
You reach a conclusion and double-check it. There is a temptation to freeze up, to pointlessly triple and quadruple check out of disbelieving fear, but you know you can afford no such luxury.
"SHIT!"
After a moment, you decide that the one swear does not suffice, and work your way down the list. A moment later, you realize the list was provided by the automatic knowledge mechanism. (Then you resolve to stop wasting time specifically noting its actions, pending actual lasting safety.) Instead of trying to invent a few entirely new swear words, you refocus yourself on your predicament: That there's no path from this island to another Realm, besides the place you just fled from. This island has plenty of exits, to be sure, but for some (likely inane) reason, those paths either circle about the island (often meeting each other in the process), trail off into unmaintained and decaying nothingness, or arc back towards the larger tangle you can just about see surrounding the City. (That being the name of the Realm you just fled from, obtained by dint of lightly trueseeing its entire mass.) Come to think of it, it's unclear whether passages of this style could usefully connect Realms (all the non-cities ones are unambiguously quite far away), you noticed a bit of middle-section decay in the one that got you here—no. Contours of reality later, survival now.
For lack of another option, you narrow your focus to the City itself. (Succumbing to despair is hardly an option.) It's entirely too large for your truesight to usefully examine at once, to say nothing of the higher-floating inter-realm essence murk, but you soon find a range of different 'focuses' that, when added together, give a halfway-decent picture of the Realm's whole. One could pull quite a few insights from it, especially combined with literally any (trustworthy) ground-level experience, but only a few matter, the ones that together constitute hope. The first is that it's a deeply non-euclidian place, once one gets away from the points of power and major thoroughfares. The second is that it's divided: Different areas have different symbols, different aesthetics, different concept-tags of allegiance and occupancy. Then there's the related third: The empty spaces, unclaimed even by cobweb and dust. The details are pretty indistinct, with physical distance and metaphysical distortion translating into the unconventional truesight-use version of vague and blurry shapes, but—.
Gah. Enough. All this is corroborated by the auto-knowledge mechanism's comments on all the side areas that "haven't contained any events of note for a long time". Furthermore, you are starting to discover what a headache feels like. Contours of reality later, survival now.
You turn your gaze to the tangled passageways surrounding and connecting this island and the City. What you find…is opportunity. And a big decision to make.
———
What strategy does Tabula pick: How does she spend her time? Note that no matter the vote, Tabula will carry out the most cost-effective options for getting an edge, such as picking up a pointy-ended rock, and the more cost-effective options for 'lay a false trail'. Note that Tabula will be much more effective in general, what with being able to plan and prepare (instead of making shit up literally on the run). A moment's rest also goes a long way.
Also: You may want to start thinking about, discussing, and asking me about tricks and tactics Tabula could use. One of the vote categories for the next update will be 'toss in ideas for Tabula': Good ideas will translate into narrative and mechanical advantages. Feel free to @ me with your questions—I realize the descriptions in the update aren't exactly a labeled map
[X] Run the Blockade
Tabula knows the passageway network much, much better than anyone will expect, and it's all but certain that this next wave of pursuers will come from more than a few distinct factions, arriving at different times.* Furthermore, one of truesight's many competencies is the on-the-run spotting of hidden and non-obvious passages. Then there's their real ace: Tabula possesses a certain amount of real reality-shifting power, the laws of the world care about narratives, it's easy to make surface edits to a blank slate…it's plot armor time, or if not armor then at least the padded leather jacket afforded to cool-looking individuals doing cool things. If Tabula goes for this, they'll stand a very good chance of succeeding outright, without caveat or cost. The opposition fundamentally doesn't expect to encounter her so soon after setting out and so close to the City.
This strategy is built around speed, surprise, and a relatively small amount of stealth. The forward-running searchers will be deeply unlikely to walk stealthily or check hiding spots until they're close to the island (heck, they might even move at a dead sprint so as to reach the prize first). Similarly, anyone acting as the goalie, which is to say hanging about closer to City in case you slip the net, is likely to be unprepared at best.
(Of course, this means ignoring the island's opportunities.)
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
Tabula knows the passageway network much, much better than anyone will expect, including its underlying metaphysics. Furthermore, one trick available to tabula rasa(s) is to 'melt' into destabilized Essence, such as the murk between realms. That sort of thing comes with certain costs and risks, so they daren't do it more than once—and not just because if someone pokes the wall-gash or unwisely-opened door they're hiding in, Tabula would be unable to run. Still, if they were to hammer a hole in every weakened wall/ceiling/floor, open every door-that-leads-to-nothing, set up an obviously false trail and an inobvious false trail, that would translate that parlor trick into quite an advantage: Let the most everyone pass you by, miring themselves in the muck and chasing your false trails, then make your run for it when all that remains are the stragglers (slow and likely dispirited) and anyone camping the chokepoints (the main problem).
This strategy is built around trickery (mire-based crowd control to be precise), magic-boosted camouflage, and a bit of luck. As the QM, I guarantee you and Tabula will not be screwed over by absolutely no one wandering near Tabula and giving them an idea of how far the search parties have got (they know how to pick a good hiding spot with strong listening/peephole properties) or some ass with a 10-foot pole. (That sort of utility attachment doesn't handle inter-Realm murk well and also it'd be a massive dick move on my part.) That does mean Tabula won't encounter stronger opposition than in the other option: Even a vaguely prepared chokepoint-holder constitutes serious trouble for a fella whose big ace is basically a pointy rock. (That, and the chaos between realms isn't exactly cleansing skin lotion.)
This stratagem is unlikely to work out flawlessly, but it's much more unlikely to fail outright. I'm serious about Tabula being rather more capable going forward—more on this next update. Even if the dice do something godawful, one of my jobs as a QM is to make sure this Quest's story stays worthwhile and its game-aspects, engaging—in the end, we're all here to have fun. That, and this is pretty much the tutorial (for combative Events).
- [X] …you make sure to grab several rocks. They're rocks, yes, but they're also deeply non-magical and impressively real. Some of them are made of something other than Essence…
- [X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
- [X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
P.S. As you may have surmised, this is the sort of place that one returns to again and again, as one accrues knowledge, ability, and confidence that your enemies won't interrupt you mid-contemplation.
P.P.S. What with one thing or another, I seem to have ended up posting very late indeed—it's only the same day in the sense of not having slept. To be honest, this has probably impacted clarity. I expect to be around for question answering (albeit through the medium of my phone) for a shortish time, punctuated by my bedtime routine. Afterward, it'll be a while before I'm up again to answer questions—though please still ask them. Speaking of which: If there appear to be any continuity issues here, please let me know. I'm also willing to elaborate on the meaning of most any bit of prose, or vote description. Particularly the descriptions, I think they're where my first-time-QM status shows through the most.
Ryumancer
Dragons Are Romance
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
When narrative holds weight and you have some influence over that, knowledge is power. It may avail us better hiding spots, at minimum... or tools we can leverage against our pursuers.
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
When narrative holds weight and you have some influence over that, knowledge is power. It may avail us better hiding spots, at minimum... or tools we can leverage against our pursuers.
- Location
- Pindorama
Hmm. Is this a former outpost? An observation deck? Or was it a former part of the City that detached itself. It seems connected to that Realm at any rate.
Frankly, the connection between the overmind and it's scouts was more fragile than I thought. Perhaps it was simply the bad roll, but they seemed much less like one entity and more like mentally restricted subordinates. Maybe the overmind simply had to work through it's own version of cognitive dissonance?
Also, narrative imposition and magic are technically different things in this world. This is likely important.
Anyway, my vote.
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
I actually wanted to go to the City immediately since this is kind of an great opportunity, but this more conservative approach is fine, I guess. Can we approval vote @That-Random-Guy ?
Frankly, the connection between the overmind and it's scouts was more fragile than I thought. Perhaps it was simply the bad roll, but they seemed much less like one entity and more like mentally restricted subordinates. Maybe the overmind simply had to work through it's own version of cognitive dissonance?
Also, narrative imposition and magic are technically different things in this world. This is likely important.
Anyway, my vote.
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
I actually wanted to go to the City immediately since this is kind of an great opportunity, but this more conservative approach is fine, I guess. Can we approval vote @That-Random-Guy ?
- Location
- Victoria
Yup! As in yes, you can approval vote.
(Also, the 'blockade run' option is technically the 'conservative' choice (what with being less risky to Tabula at the cost of not getting much out of the island). I'm guessing this is just a slightly different definitions thing, but I might as well mention it.)
Also, after my current life-induced preoccupation I'm going to update the character sheet, get some mechanics information into a reserved post, and do a temporary informational update elaborating on that 'write in ideas to give Tabula a leg up' thing next update: Specifically, the details of the passageway network and so on, so y'all have something to work with.
- Location
- 1
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
[X] Run the Blockade
I'm more inclined for 'Run the Blockade'-we can, apparently, return later, and this doesn't actually look like a hugely valuable place- but it doesn't seem likely to win at the moment; so, I voted for my preferred of the Trickery options as well.
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
[X] Run the Blockade
I'm more inclined for 'Run the Blockade'-we can, apparently, return later, and this doesn't actually look like a hugely valuable place- but it doesn't seem likely to win at the moment; so, I voted for my preferred of the Trickery options as well.
- Location
- Pindorama
[X] Run the Blockade
Well, time for a three way tie, and for running the blockade to have a chance!
Well, time for a three way tie, and for running the blockade to have a chance!
Solarstream
It's all in the cards
- Location
- Zombie World
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
- Location
- Victoria
To make a long story short, I'm finally available.
As of this writing, I've made a fair few edits to the character sheet—more than you may expect from the update, Tabula's has been able to get some introspection done by pure dint of "not currently being chased", and that means it's time to talk about what the Island is actually like, not to mention the arguably more relevant passageways between it and the City.
That reminds me: While I'm talking about this sort of thing, I should describe Tabula's current abilities in a bit more detail. Their greatest ability is of course truesight. Its functions include the ability to see and more or less understand anything she sees, ranging all the way from magic to will-be-done direct narrative manipulation. (Note that magic isn't exactly weak or inferior, this is more of a 'variety' range then a 'sorting algorithm of speshulness and power' range.) This extends to illusion-bypass (by dint of understanding that the Y is actually an X with illusion Z wrapped around it), enables full vision in dim conditions, and has a fair few unconventional uses like 'look at thick door, see the whole of the room it is gateway to, and from that discern who's inside and their general features'. See the character sheet for more.
In addition, there's Enhanced Communication (Basic), which-you know what? Copy-pasting the character sheet info, since it's not very long: This skill represents your talent for communicating through narrative- or spell-induced barriers, and the use of words and rhetoric to manipulate, disrupt, and reinforce narratives. Extends, with imperfect reliability, to attempts at clear communication (or rhetorical shenanigans) on a metaphysically level playing field.
Anyways, they also have a wee bit of their own capacity to directly edit the narrative, or in other words, warp reality. (They know it's a thing, they can watch their efforts in real-time with truesight, and they have no idea that its kinda a really special ability to have, by most standards.) Here are some (not-exactly-complete) rules of thumb:
- Real blatant reality warping in front of a hypothetical observer (or real specific person) watching the narrative's focus baaaaaaasically doesn't happen without a good justification. (Good justifications include horking around enough power to make it happen anyways, then leveraging that as precedent.)
- The overmind was able to do what it did in the OP because Tabula wasn't in the focus (it'd set the 'protagonists' as its posse, the hypothetical observer as itself-but-watching-its-minions).
- Facilitating the story boosts the story, which itself boosts doing things that facilitate the story. The more momentum the story has, the harder it is to edit or divert, and the more able it is to just kinda steamroll obstacles.
- It is very possible for someone to show up and do something in the physical and normal sense that doesn't go against the story but does heavily redefine what happens next. If there's no one at the helm, that person can send a lot of momentum in a whole new direction. If there is...that depends. But as a rule of thumb, the momentum of a story can't be used very effectively against someone who stays within the locus and acts in accordance with its rules and tendencies.
- Location
- Sea of Fragments
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
As much as Tabula wants contours of reality later survival now, we're eventually returning. As that's potentially not soon or could be under more rushed conditions, let's get a more detailed idea of this place before we go. It's connected to a lot of stuff and relates to other exits already. A better idea of what it does could help when we do need to start running around wherever.
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
As much as Tabula wants contours of reality later survival now, we're eventually returning. As that's potentially not soon or could be under more rushed conditions, let's get a more detailed idea of this place before we go. It's connected to a lot of stuff and relates to other exits already. A better idea of what it does could help when we do need to start running around wherever.
Eternal_0bserver
(Unverified Bookworm)
- Location
- Earth, Northern Europe
[X] Run the Blockade
- Location
- Victoria
Semi-Edit from TRG After Finishing This Post: Apologies, I know this is rather long and wordy and stuff (seriously ignore the stuff in the spoiler unless you really want to know about the island). Sorry about this. Seriously. By way of explanation, this is going up now instead of later but with proper editing because the later in question would be like 15 hours from now for logistical and class reasons. I will try to do better, even with the computer stuff mentioned below I could've avoided this. sigh
-----------------------------
First off, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the current two-way tie: Vote now, and you stand a reasonable chance of deciding a fairly significant choice!
Unfortunately, there's a reason why I'm saying 'reasonable chance' as opposed to "looking for tiebreakers, here's your chance to influence the course of this quest" is that the next update is gonna be delayed, and the reason for that is that my good computer has broken. (A bad case of looping start-crash-restart. Took most of the day and a bleepton of ultimately useless technical support calls just to get it backing up to a hard drive, so the factory reset doesn't delete all my stuff.) Also, online university classes. They ain't helping.
However...that does not mean I can't try and serve up something of significance, like that 'approximate details of terrain on and around the island including passageways to the City' minipost I promised. At this point this is probably totally redundant to say, but the reason I'm giving this info now is that part of the next vote is giving Tabula ideas for how to prep for whatever strategy wins the vote and what tricks they could use and so on, and we've reached the IC point in time where Tabula starts thinking about that.
-----
So! The island itself is a pretty barren and featureless place: The ground is a mixture of large and small shattered rocks, unworn by significant weather. They're kinda sharp, as a result: Tabula's main weapon is a decently grippable rock with...not exactly an edge, per se, but a pointy corner that works well with the most natural way to grip it. That, and pocket gravel. And the other pocket gravel. And the third mini pocket of minigravel, down near their ankles. They're pretty capable of going 'ah yes I totally had pockets this entire time no mx. universe i am not lying to you', and there's plenty of gravel about.
Moving on, the passageways. At the basic level, each one is a series of windowless small to medium-small rooms, with doors at the juncture between each room. In terms of shape, they're never square (outside of junctures) and reliably have 90-degree angles between floor and wall, wall and ceiling, bla bla bla you get the idea; they're rectangular prisms. Most of them are modestly furnished (and the walls and ceiling painted), in ways that vaguely point towards some purpose, except of course that the furniture has never been used. As you likely recall, many rooms have more than 2 doors. This is because any given passageway as seen from Tabula's "god's eye view" atop the hill is in fact two or more 'strands', strings of connected rooms that often touch each other. Each strand has slightly different decor, which is to say wall-paint color. In terms of normal Euclidian geometry, each strand forms a sensible 3d-map, which is not true of any 2 strands considered in relation to each other. Truesight helps, but not a lot. (Also, doors occasionally open into nothing but pure inter-realm essence murk, which promptly spills out.)
All in all, any given passageway contains a few different 'tracks' to progress among, and a potential for people to pop up (or slip by) in ways impossible by the standards of normal physics.
Passageway junctures, where two or more sets of room-strands meet, vary. Some of them have every strand meet at a single well-doored large room, some of them are chaotic clusterfucks, some of them are in between. Tabula has saw at least one of each during the first chase, but doesn't really know the proportions because this sort of detail isn't obvious from atop the hill, also they were busy not losing the chase.
Tabula is less worried about those single-room junctures than you'd think, recall that Truesight can be leveraged to learn at least a bit about the room behind a door, and junctures are real obvious. They're still a problem: If there's a pursuer(s) at their back, their only real option is to start inventively abusing their own malleability, then smash through (probably using a pursuer as club and meatshield).
Note that that sort of thing introduces a certain time limit before the 'save against unconsciousness' rolls kick in, ditto Wounds from overdoing it.
Gonna start summarizing a bit now because like I had a sensible plan for today with things getting done at sensible times, but then Computer Death.
The larger passageway network is like this: Noticeable tangle kind of circling all about the island, substantially decayed except for the bits pointing off towards the city. Small radial offshoots, but the murk has practically eaten them. The city has a much bigger tangle, honestly the inner bits are thick enough to just kinda be more city (also Tabula's planned place to disappear into, parts are totally disused). The routes between the city and the island (aka the important bit that took me 1000 words to get to, yay me I totally know what I'm doing) move fairly straightly from point a to point b, but move around enough for their to be a fair few junctures.
P.S. The passageways in general have issues with low-level murk leakage slowing everyone down unless they have some sort of reality-reinforce effect like overmind and its posse. Generally speaking, individuals will move pretty slowly, by the standards of combat, pursuit, that sort of thing.
-----------------------------
First off, I'd like to draw everyone's attention to the current two-way tie: Vote now, and you stand a reasonable chance of deciding a fairly significant choice!
Unfortunately, there's a reason why I'm saying 'reasonable chance' as opposed to "looking for tiebreakers, here's your chance to influence the course of this quest" is that the next update is gonna be delayed, and the reason for that is that my good computer has broken. (A bad case of looping start-crash-restart. Took most of the day and a bleepton of ultimately useless technical support calls just to get it backing up to a hard drive, so the factory reset doesn't delete all my stuff.) Also, online university classes. They ain't helping.
However...that does not mean I can't try and serve up something of significance, like that 'approximate details of terrain on and around the island including passageways to the City' minipost I promised. At this point this is probably totally redundant to say, but the reason I'm giving this info now is that part of the next vote is giving Tabula ideas for how to prep for whatever strategy wins the vote and what tricks they could use and so on, and we've reached the IC point in time where Tabula starts thinking about that.
-----
So! The island itself is a pretty barren and featureless place: The ground is a mixture of large and small shattered rocks, unworn by significant weather. They're kinda sharp, as a result: Tabula's main weapon is a decently grippable rock with...not exactly an edge, per se, but a pointy corner that works well with the most natural way to grip it. That, and pocket gravel. And the other pocket gravel. And the third mini pocket of minigravel, down near their ankles. They're pretty capable of going 'ah yes I totally had pockets this entire time no mx. universe i am not lying to you', and there's plenty of gravel about.
Speaking of which: The most walkable parts of the island are the gravel paths. At some point, the bits of the island trending towards smaller shattered rocks were connected together by dint of moving some of the big shattered rocks like one meter to the side. Tabula thinks those would help significantly in a footrace against someone unfamiliar with the terrain but, like...if they're still at the island when they're spotted, they're kinda done for. For the sake of completeness, the hill is as follows: Made of uninteresting grey rock, quite a few times taller than Tabula, (who isn't exactly short themself) climbable with little use of one's hands, and possessed of a few person-shaped indentations in its top plateau. (There's still a discernable peak that pokes out a good Tabula-height upward, but the top's still mostly flat plateau. Surprisingly smooth.) To be clear, the indentations are person-shaped in the sense of 'here's a good place to lie down', as opposed to 'a person could stand up in this, but it'd be a really close fit'.
Moving on, the passageways. At the basic level, each one is a series of windowless small to medium-small rooms, with doors at the juncture between each room. In terms of shape, they're never square (outside of junctures) and reliably have 90-degree angles between floor and wall, wall and ceiling, bla bla bla you get the idea; they're rectangular prisms. Most of them are modestly furnished (and the walls and ceiling painted), in ways that vaguely point towards some purpose, except of course that the furniture has never been used. As you likely recall, many rooms have more than 2 doors. This is because any given passageway as seen from Tabula's "god's eye view" atop the hill is in fact two or more 'strands', strings of connected rooms that often touch each other. Each strand has slightly different decor, which is to say wall-paint color. In terms of normal Euclidian geometry, each strand forms a sensible 3d-map, which is not true of any 2 strands considered in relation to each other. Truesight helps, but not a lot. (Also, doors occasionally open into nothing but pure inter-realm essence murk, which promptly spills out.)
All in all, any given passageway contains a few different 'tracks' to progress among, and a potential for people to pop up (or slip by) in ways impossible by the standards of normal physics.
Passageway junctures, where two or more sets of room-strands meet, vary. Some of them have every strand meet at a single well-doored large room, some of them are chaotic clusterfucks, some of them are in between. Tabula has saw at least one of each during the first chase, but doesn't really know the proportions because this sort of detail isn't obvious from atop the hill, also they were busy not losing the chase.
Tabula is less worried about those single-room junctures than you'd think, recall that Truesight can be leveraged to learn at least a bit about the room behind a door, and junctures are real obvious. They're still a problem: If there's a pursuer(s) at their back, their only real option is to start inventively abusing their own malleability, then smash through (probably using a pursuer as club and meatshield).
Note that that sort of thing introduces a certain time limit before the 'save against unconsciousness' rolls kick in, ditto Wounds from overdoing it.
Gonna start summarizing a bit now because like I had a sensible plan for today with things getting done at sensible times, but then Computer Death.
The larger passageway network is like this: Noticeable tangle kind of circling all about the island, substantially decayed except for the bits pointing off towards the city. Small radial offshoots, but the murk has practically eaten them. The city has a much bigger tangle, honestly the inner bits are thick enough to just kinda be more city (also Tabula's planned place to disappear into, parts are totally disused). The routes between the city and the island (aka the important bit that took me 1000 words to get to, yay me I totally know what I'm doing) move fairly straightly from point a to point b, but move around enough for their to be a fair few junctures.
P.S. The passageways in general have issues with low-level murk leakage slowing everyone down unless they have some sort of reality-reinforce effect like overmind and its posse. Generally speaking, individuals will move pretty slowly, by the standards of combat, pursuit, that sort of thing.
Ryumancer
Dragons Are Romance
Questions: Can we find any mirrors in the furnished rooms, preferably a small one we can easily fit in our pockets, perhaps 'conveniently' found in some drawer or other? Best case scenario, or Truesight works on anything reflected in the glass (which is almost effortless to test), but even worst case, it helps us peer around corners or behind us.
What other items might we find or 'find' in the furnished rooms?
What other items might we find or 'find' in the furnished rooms?
Last edited:
- Location
- Sun
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
bdun140
I have ideas. Sometimes they're even good.
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
Fuck off with your three way tie.
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
Fuck off with your three way tie.
- Location
- Victoria
In short, no, there aren't any mirrors hanging about the passageways, and summoning one up isn't really an option at the moment. The passageways are tubes through the chaotic murk between worlds, and that bumps the difficulty up in several different ways. The biggest issue is that though they're generally not collapsing anytime soon, the passageways aren't (the equivalent of) airtight: Enough of the stuff leaks and/or radiates inside that attempts to go 'this is the sort of place and sort of furniture-piece where one might find a face-mirror, in addition mumble mumble, therefore I have found a hand-mirror' runs straight into 'this is not the sort of place where hand-mirrors turn up, look at the stuff seeping and/or radiating through the walls!' The other issues include 'no one comes here ever', 'far away from the bustle and glitz of the City', but the biggest is definitely the chaos between worlds seeping (or possibly occult radiation-ing) through the walls.
As you may have gathered, the stuff cannot decide whether it's a liquid-ish physical substance (that is pain to walk through even at minimal thickness, because fuck you), or a free-floating 'gas' that somehow messes with movement attempts about as well as the liquid (because fuck you), or a sort of solid-penetrating occult radiation (that turns right back to gas when it hits open air, because fuck you). Note: Tabula's opinion of the stuff may be influenced by it being their first experience with annoyance and irritation. (There are genuine reasons interworld-murk acts the way it does, but Tabula hasn't had the chance to figure them, and there's such a thing as staying on-topic.) As it is, they're just glad it reliably disintegrates in the open air and only appeared as they moved away from the City.
Speaking of which, just about every aspect of the passageways I described in my above post is in some way the result of needing to hold up underneath and atop a thick layer of inter-world chaos murk for indefinite periods of time. That, and some mixture of advanced construction and total lack of maintenance. (Tabula really doesn't understand the walls beyond 'this section is weaker' and 'that door opens into elemental chaos', Truesight says things but they have no idea what those things mean. Regarding the total lack of maintenance, like, points at Truesight.)
Moving on: Mirrors haven't really appeared in Tabula's life yet, but since they're pretty common in the City where they're about to go I can say right now that Truesight applied to a mirror mainly returns "this is a mirror, this is what's shown by the light it's reflecting, this is what it's actually reflecting if it's illusioned in that way, and so on. Mirrors reflect light, and light isn't really what Truesight works off of: It'd say things about the mirror, and the light, but not the conceptual whole/inner nature of the reflected object. Of course, this is an ordinary mirror I'm talking about. Point truesight at a scrying mirror (or even a mirror enchanted to show the magics attached to whatever it reflects), and...it still won't be able to do its full truth-seeing thing to the target, but at it can say things like "this image is definitely a lie, something or someone is screwing with your scrying attempt".
The general rule for trying to extend Truesight is that it's a bit stronger than the 'weakest link in the train' because Truesight is like that.
To summarize a bit: Generally speaking, finding or 'finding' any items in the furnished rooms is a dead-end. Ordinary mirrors are quite obtainable, but only after you're at the city, and will give marginally more information then then the normal human eye when used to peek around corners.
With that said, one last thing since I think it's important to give as much protagonist perspective information as possible in a setting like this with a truesighted protagonist: One thing Tabula very much has in mind is using the furniture itself, since it isn't fixed to the floor. They're not very heavy, and generally aren't very wieldy for weaponry purposes (not many chairs, for instance), but they're not fixed to the floor, and can at least moderately bar a door.
P.S. Not locking the vote for a little while yet, for reasons including the current 1-vote lead, university restarting, and a desire to get ahead on everything that isn't predicated the result of this vote.
P.P.S. Don't ask me where all these words came from, I sat down to write something nice and reasonable and unlike my terrain post and then this happened.
- Location
- Victoria
Edit: When I first edited Mechanics and posted this, I made some significant copy/paste omissions in the Wounds section—don't ask me how. They are now corrected.
Hi, just letting everyone know that proper Mechanics and Lore Archive threadmarks have been created, the former of which contains significant new information on how this quest will works.
To make the alert word count on this more indicative of the actual amount added, here's the text for the Wounds section of the mechanics-the most interesting part, I hope.
If something confuses you, please, let me know.
Wounds are pretty freeform, especially since the Wounds the City inclines towards run the whole combinatorial gamut of possible appearances, self-images, behavioral habits, and more (in quite a few combinations), but there's one principle of how this particular take on Wounds works that bears mentioning.* In short, each part of the body and mental self can be roughly modeled as having its own 'damage track', in which higher levels of Wound have stronger effects and are more difficult to remove. Physical wounds of level MAX represent that a body part is gone, or so corrupted it's functionally an enemy mob that happens to be latched onto Tabula's skeletal system). Transformation wounds of level MAX represent that that transformation has become Truth: Tabula's base form (or a part thereof), or a genuine aspect of mind, or a deepest-level True Mental preference, or...
You get the idea. Level MAX Wounds will generally turn into character traits, and work as per their rules. (That having been said, those traits will usually have implications for how wounds work. Some individual alterations form parts of a set, and will try to induce the rest of that set.) This means, for instance, that undoing a 'Missing Arm' Level MAX Wound will require the regrowing of that arm, or the integration of a new one—neither of which are guaranteed to be up to the same standards as the original.
As you may be thinking, one person's Minor Wound can often be another person's reliable disguise, buff/upgrade, or pedestrian personality trait, especially in the generally nonviolent context of the City. Recall the note at the start of the mechanics.
*If you're wondering, the other take I'm referring to is Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, a very good TTRPG that helped me greatly in formulating this mechanic but also has very different needs from its Wounds Mechanic than this quest.
Tabula has not had an opportunity to properly examine and know themselves: For now, what they know is that specific physical maladies tend to dissolve into undefined slight weakness—diminishing's of their vitality and energy—and that-.
-and that Truesight, even of the Acute sort, doesn't really work within one's own head. They're not entirely sure what went on as they battled the personality-impositions of Johnnie Duncan and Katie Birch, but it probably wasn't normal, per se?
[This section is largely locked, pending Tabula's first sustained effort to know themself.]
Hi, just letting everyone know that proper Mechanics and Lore Archive threadmarks have been created, the former of which contains significant new information on how this quest will works.
To make the alert word count on this more indicative of the actual amount added, here's the text for the Wounds section of the mechanics-the most interesting part, I hope.
If something confuses you, please, let me know.
Wounds
Ah, that reminds me. Wounds, with a capital W. Each one represents a lasting unwanted effect inflicted on Tabula. This includes all manner of conventional bodily damage, of course, but in this world from the perspective of this player character that mainly means (lasting) transformations of body and mind. Recall the effects of Tabula Rasa, a short way up this page.Wounds are pretty freeform, especially since the Wounds the City inclines towards run the whole combinatorial gamut of possible appearances, self-images, behavioral habits, and more (in quite a few combinations), but there's one principle of how this particular take on Wounds works that bears mentioning.* In short, each part of the body and mental self can be roughly modeled as having its own 'damage track', in which higher levels of Wound have stronger effects and are more difficult to remove. Physical wounds of level MAX represent that a body part is gone, or so corrupted it's functionally an enemy mob that happens to be latched onto Tabula's skeletal system). Transformation wounds of level MAX represent that that transformation has become Truth: Tabula's base form (or a part thereof), or a genuine aspect of mind, or a deepest-level True Mental preference, or...
You get the idea. Level MAX Wounds will generally turn into character traits, and work as per their rules. (That having been said, those traits will usually have implications for how wounds work. Some individual alterations form parts of a set, and will try to induce the rest of that set.) This means, for instance, that undoing a 'Missing Arm' Level MAX Wound will require the regrowing of that arm, or the integration of a new one—neither of which are guaranteed to be up to the same standards as the original.
As you may be thinking, one person's Minor Wound can often be another person's reliable disguise, buff/upgrade, or pedestrian personality trait, especially in the generally nonviolent context of the City. Recall the note at the start of the mechanics.
*If you're wondering, the other take I'm referring to is Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, a very good TTRPG that helped me greatly in formulating this mechanic but also has very different needs from its Wounds Mechanic than this quest.
On The Subject of Wound Profiles
As you may currently be thinking, many attacks hits several different areas of the body, and many (most, really) transformations change more than one thing. The rule here is that effect has enough strength to tick every area at once, it does so, and the target receives a multi-area Wound. If it doesn't, the exact result depends on the context: One papercut is a footnote in a fight, but fifty is serious trouble. Here's a example, I'll add more when I get around to it.- Near the start of the chase that opened this story, the 'Talent Scouts' overmind tried to effectively one-shot Tabula with a big expensive 1-shot item that normally would drop 2-3 levels of 'become Katie Birch' onto its target. Of course, Tabula proved to be a very abnormal target, and it instead only managed the (fairly strong) 'become Katie Brich' status effectthat Tabula shook off partway through the OP. (It also planted an inefficient living spell with effect of the, you guessed it, 'become Katie Birch' variety in their head, but that's beside the point.
- At longer ranges, being hit by a water cannon is likely to simply result in being pushed back, soaked, all that stuff—but not wounded. Being punched with same total amount of force will, of course, barring some nontrivial mix of superhuman durability and protective clothing. However (and this is where I stop stating the obvious), being hit by that same water cannon at point-blank range definitely will inflict a Wound, that Wound would represent 'level 1' bruising across the entire body (come with maluses and narrative consequences to match), and heal notably slower because though those are separate tracks, the body itself has finite total ability to fix itself.
Tabula Rasa Interactions
For obvious reasons, the physical and spiritual anatomy of a being affects the nature of the Wounds they can receive, and their internal capacity to handle those Wounds. Beyond the usual healing speeds and such, this can manifest in unusual ways—for instance, the internal undefined blankness of Tabula Rasa.Tabula has not had an opportunity to properly examine and know themselves: For now, what they know is that specific physical maladies tend to dissolve into undefined slight weakness—diminishing's of their vitality and energy—and that-.
-and that Truesight, even of the Acute sort, doesn't really work within one's own head. They're not entirely sure what went on as they battled the personality-impositions of Johnnie Duncan and Katie Birch, but it probably wasn't normal, per se?
[This section is largely locked, pending Tabula's first sustained effort to know themself.]
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[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
- Location
- Victoria
Once again, the top two options for this vote are tied. To be clear, this is not a call for a tie-breaker, in the typical sense of the term—the next vote will not instantly decide the result—but, y'know, I'd rather the current tie be resolved by the addition of new votes, not the flip of a coin.
For reference, the current top two are
[E] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[E] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
and
[E] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[E] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
(Xs replaced to keep this post from confusing the vote tally.)
[E] Run The Blockade
is also only one vote behind, so by all means go ahead and vote for it, especially if you have an argument in mind with which to persuade other voters to vote for it. (The same goes for the un-voted-for "grab several rocks" sub-option, unless that argument entirely consists of "let's go for a 4-way tie!")
I'll be by to close this vote and call for dice rolls later today, which is to say at least 8 hours from now.
For reference, the current top two are
[E] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[E] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
and
[E] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[E] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
(Xs replaced to keep this post from confusing the vote tally.)
[E] Run The Blockade
is also only one vote behind, so by all means go ahead and vote for it, especially if you have an argument in mind with which to persuade other voters to vote for it. (The same goes for the un-voted-for "grab several rocks" sub-option, unless that argument entirely consists of "let's go for a 4-way tie!")
I'll be by to close this vote and call for dice rolls later today, which is to say at least 8 hours from now.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
-[X] …look at the stars. It is in the nature of Realms to make their own sky, and you have seen how the City folds in upon itself. This could be your only chance for a long time…and the memory of it would be a powerful motivation, among other uses.
ConfusedPotato
Unverified Verifier
- Location
- Australia
[X] Rely on Trickery, but first…
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!
-[X] …do just a little detective work. Seriously, why does this hill have person-shaped depressions in it!