To clarify on something that may be misinterpreted from the update: Everyone will be able to see the 'shells' of your shade. They will be simply mistaken for Familiars. Only shade bearers will sense their nature as a shade. Further, Familiars are very rare magical beasts normally found only in Incursion Zones which are bound to mages. They are eschewed due to the necessary and heavy investment in aura required to sustain them outside of their natural habitats.
Another aspect that I'm willing to divulge now: The general and overall value, capability, and competence of your Shade will be directly increased by the amount of quality fan works, discussion, and insightful posts that you all produce in this thread. Content that is deemed worthy by your not so humble GMs will be awarded Shade Points. SP can be spent by the player who earned them to allow the Shade to accomplish extraordinary feats. So feed both your Shade and your GMs with fruitful discussion!
Finally, you will have until tomorrow evening to vote! Plenty of time for a winner to be decided.
Adhoc vote count started by Mazrick on Mar 30, 2019 at 11:26 PM, finished with 11 posts and 10 votes.
Some really tough choices here. All of them are going to lead to a very very different playstyle.
[] Hydra-
Your shade can lay eggs inside of any living being with sufficient magical energy, which will hatch into larvae that consume their host's from the inside out, gaining a measure of its strength and taking on some of its characteristics. The full-grown offspring will require constant feeding, either by your aura or external sources. They can be trained and organized, and can even consume their siblings to grow further. Initially, these hatchlings will defer to you, however you will have to work to retain their loyalty.
The Hydra looks like it is going to play as a beastmaster style class. It exceeds Basilisk as the most inherently hostile to other magical beings (even assuming Pheonix does not permanently lower the magical potential of the beings it absorbs energy from) and thus picking this will lead to moral ambiguity. Good if you want to make Tough Choices as part of the quest, which can really add an air of desperation and excitement - I mean, I am assuming that we are not going to go full murderhobo.
The best one if we do want to go full murderhobo. I am going to assume that they can only be one generation old - they are born from the eggs of our shade, not born from eggs laid by creatures born from the eggs of our shade. Otherwise picking this may just accidentally the world. This power probably requires the most active investment if we wish to control it, but in turn also offers the best power curve from what I can guess. We may just manage to go full Sarah Kerrigan with this one. Is that a good thing?
[] Basilisk-
Your shade can possess other living creatures. It will inhabit others' bodies until there is not sufficient magical energy to sustain it. As a passive observer, it will use up minimal energy from its host and remain extremely difficult to detect. At a cost to yourself, you may experience the host's own perceptions. When trying to actively influence the target, it will eat through magic at an increased rate. Likelihood of detection will be a certainty. Assuming direct control will cost varying vast amounts of aura, with the exact amount based on the potency and proximity of the target. Whenever it has no host, you'll need to find something else to feed it…
This one is an interesting one. Things to note - the power of our shade is much more passive more of the time. Once it is in a viable target we can mostly leave it there, allowing us to focus more on other things. Possibly best with a single defined enemy, mostly in a social conflict or spymaster setting/play style. I suspect it will be a bitch to handle when we do not have it in someone else, meaning that while it will be the least draining to us when in passive use, it feels like it may be the most when not in use or when in active use. Basilisk feels like it is best for making a single, vital decision about who to put it in, then again when it is time to choose to use it. Almost certainly an all or nothing trump card given it will be detected once we do use it, and then we will be scrambling to find something to feed it after... As an alternative, as long as it is draining the host's magic when it attempts to influence them, we might have an incredibly potent combat weapon vs a group. Leap to one, immediately burn through maximum magic attacking its allies, leap to next target, repeat. If it drains our magic to influence then this tactic will not work, or at least will be incredibly draining. This is another weapon of terror, though of the faceless variety compared to the Hydra's monster horde.
[] Phoenix-
Your shade absorbs and retains portions and pieces of magic with which it has extended contact. The time it interacts with a piece of magic can determine its agency in using that magic. Its power is a significant drain on you, and the number and potency of abilities it can retain is directly dependent on the state of your aura. It will directly commandeer a portion of your mind for itself in order to ply its abilities, so the capability of the shade to use its purloined magic will be directly proportional to your own level of skill.
Somehow Phoenix is both as offensive moralistically as Hydra or the least offensive, depending exactly on if it permanently weakens its victims or can instead absorb surplus. The potential may exist to drain magical items, or spells cast at it, rather than have to be specifically on magical beings as the other two do. In return for this, we shoulder the burden of keeping it supplied with magic. Connected directly to our brain-meats, and that could be either a pro or a con. It certainly feels like the Shade most connected directly to us however. It almost sounds like a self-casting spell we are forced to keep charged that takes on the properties of the things around it. This option probably has the least moralistic choices to make, but goes hand in hand with requiring the most personal magical maintenance. (Hydra seems to require social maintenance and continuous victims instead) @Mazrick Do we keep unlocked abilities? Or do we absorb single or multiple charges that are used? Example: We drain some generic fireball spell. Do we then get 3 uses of fireball, or do we get Fireball as a skill until it is replaced/we run out of power?
Every instinct I have makes me want to go Phoenix, because I think it will play a fair bit like a Blue Mage - and those can be cool! All three of these options look like they would be very exciting. Maz has always excelled at creating three choices that create great debate, and its good to see this is continuing now.
So - Beast Master, Infiltrator or Blue mage? I am sure debate may sway me in the future, but for now...
[X] Hydra-
[] Basilisk-
[] Phoenix-
Simply because it is the more unique path, even though I would enjoy Phoenix more. After all, I did not think I would enjoy a wizard that could cast Punch, and that turned out great.
There is a lot of politics and secrets around here, and Basilisk does provide us with unique spying capabilities. Besides, it's just mastermind type of power, you know? Get plucky hero under your thumb and put spy shade into them.
One thing we could do with this is find ourselves a magic beast(Mazrick confirmed that familiars are a thing), so we could act in two place at one with ease. Like, Imagine us going to a gathering using feathered dragon as a medium? That's just super cool!
It took a while to decide, but Basilisk can prove interesting. There are probably lots of secrets to uncover, and Terrence is going to work for a company that has secrets research and what not.
To begin with, I think that we can draw certain amount of correlation between "aura" and general concept of the life force. In that sense, muggle whose energy is being drained will fall ill or perish as the result of losing his life force. As such, Basilisk can be use to make Blanks fall ill or die, if we should so desire
Basilisk is capable of affecting all living beings with minimal "aura drain". As such, we can assume that we can put it on normal people, although they will slowly waste away. Likewise, we should also be capable of targeting animals and plants, most notably critters such as birds or rats, allowing us another vector of infiltration
Our shade should have capability to "jump" between the hosts. As such, we can use above mentioned critters or stuff like janitors to smuggle it to the intended target. Maz confirmed on Discord that taking direct control over someone will increase drain on them, meaning that any such host will have short lifespan. On the other hand, that does allow us to literally walk people to their death, which is very useful
Don't forget that Mediums have finite mana pool that can't be regenerated. That is amazing opportunity for blackmail, as we can freely drain people of their mana pool if they refuse to comply. As an aside, do take a note that this works for other options as well, mainly Phoenix absorbing power from people. Neither ability can be used on Mediums we care about freely
Finally, given our ability to take control of magic living beings, and our riches, it's within the realm of possibility to acquire custom made hosts for our ability. This is more of a later in the game thing, but it's something to think about. Especially since even if enemy destroys the host we can still posses them with a shadow.
Bit late to the party, but it seems I'm not the only one: Terrence has finally awakened his aura. Pushed past death's door, something seeped into and transformed him, which has interesting implications. There were other tanks in the laboratory (at least there were, Terrence did just kill a bunch of people, a bridge that'll have to be crossed later), which makes me wonder if this setup wasn't an attempt at creating artificial mages?
The white fluid imbued with aura, inducing NDEs to prime the subjects somehow, severing them from the world. A mage's ultimate potential is usually detected right after birth; if you're 'reborn' under the right circumstances, is it possible to reset and alter that potential? This could be wrong, of course. It's possible that the magic was within Terrence all along, as his shade apparently was, perhaps serving as a cork to bottle up his power. Speaking of which, I wonder where he falls on the ranking system?
[X] Basilisk
It's probably possible to use Hydra ethically, targeting megafauna like the sandworms that are now the apex predators of the Sahara or working with the IRT, but it's a power lacking in subtlety that's useless in social situations. Phoenix is straight-up metamagic, eating the workings of others, and while there's potential there - for both powerups and making enemies - Basilisk is my preference. It not only allows Terrence to Assume Direct Control in true Harbinger fashion, but the spying gives Mazrick opportunities to let us peer into the lives of other characters, enriching the setting.
It's probably possible to use Hydra ethically, targeting megafauna like the sandworms that are now the apex predators of the Sahara or working with the IRT, but it's a power lacking in subtlety that's useless in social situations.
Nice catch. Not sure why I caught that with Phoenix but totally missed that with Hydra. You are completely right about it being useless in social situations - I'm guessing that there are no succubus equivalents to get the shade to lay eggs in, or if there is it will turn out very very different to how one might hope.
