In the World of Darkness, individuals of a certain enlightenment exist, Mages, Enlightened, Geniuses. Whatever you want to call them, this is the story of one such person and their life!
It's a frigid autumn midnight, snow coating streets and ice sheets slithering over sidewalks. The thrum of humanity continues ever onwards despite such things, cars running hot to beat back the cold as establishments cry out for customers, declaring their need in metal, paper and neon.
Beneath the skin of life hides the turgid internals of the city, filled to the brim with suffering mundane and unnatural, the drug-addled addicts scrambling desperately in alleys for their momentary reprieves. Nightclubs vibrating with the sheer power of speakers, inciting the commons to new heights of exhilaration and frenzied celebration at the behest of wealthy dilettante owners.
Within those darkened places of modernity lie creatures, feeding off, enjoying or simply existing inside the burgeoning energy and life of humanity. Sharp, gleaming eyes coming from cold, dead bodies to follow pulsating life. Intermixed with them are primal beings of ancient days, formed into human shape and melding into the crowd. And the odd ones out, seemingly human, but something more about them, rendering them mortal yet separate.
And in the bowels of that city, inside an alley littered with trash, the vague scent of humanity emanating from it, a chase is taking place, frenetic motion carrying bodies, human or inhuman, towards their goal.
But what is chasing, what sort of inhuman thing has made its goal a life?
[X] A creature of myth, Vampire, slighted in days, months or even years past, now they abound with all the fury and hate an immortal is capable of, its resources are marshalled as the city seems to turn against its target, mortals being driven to chase as more unnatural resources begin to respond.
[X] A creature of primaeval fury, Werewolf, fur and fang and fury incited somehow to chase and hound, slipping in and out of sight with supernatural grace and inhuman speed, seeking life and limb.
[X] Nearly a ton of metal, myomer and synthetic skin with perfection in its bones and targeting parameters that brook no failure. A Hyper-Intelligence Technologies Mark V. It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop until you are dead.
And then, of course, the quarry itself. What poor sod has ended up hunted like a dog in the streets.
[X] Winston Lyons, or at least that's the name they go by now. What they were originally no one, not even they know. Before Winston, there was Julian Smith, a cover name for his duty. As an agent of the New World Order, he did work many others would consider dirty, vile or downright inhuman. Eventually, it caught up with him, one too many assassinations for the greater good, one too many smear jobs on otherwise decent people broke him down beyond his loyalty. Using his years of training and experience, cutting all ties and remaking a life somewhere far away was doable and more than that, necessary. Now away from all that, life still doesn't stop hounding him. (New World Order, imagine Jason Bourne meets John Wick. Hyper-Lethal is an accurate description, with an Arete rating of 2 and the Spheres of Entropy, Mind and Life all at 2, this turns him from a simple hyper-lethal vector into a near-WMD of personal scale combat.)
[X] Maria Douglas, a woman born in Liverpool, moved to Seattle at the ripe old age of 18 on a scholarship and then completely fell out of her studies. Like a bad anti-drug commercial, a dash of acid turned into a life of debauchery for poor, innocent Maria. After burning out, crashing out of college and into a blur, it's only recently she came out of it, a burning realization at the end of a violent high sending her spiralling into days of rabid hallucinations and cosmic realization, coming back to reality dozens of kilometres outside of the city in the woods. Having turned 24 last August, she was exploring new skeins of the world, finding friends whilst doing it when a misspoken word got her into a world of hurt. Just another day in her life. (Cult of Ecstasy, specializing in altered perceptions and twisted states of reality in addition to her own personal charisma and magnetism. Imagine a mix of druggie and Doctor Strange. With an Arete rating of 3 to represent the rawness of her Awakening, she commands the spheres of Time and Correspondence at 3, allowing her to play with Space and Time with the right focus.)
[X] Aubrey Gray, born in San Francisco, was a model child, teen and then adult, high grades, good behaviour, excellent job as a surgical resident and then, a new interest arose. Occultism, a little bit of internet grade idiocy to start quickly followed by the real stuff. Now, the real stuff was books that cost far too much from websites that were far too shady. Then a strange man came into his life, gave no name or anything identifiable, and then dragged Aubrey kicking and screaming into a hell of their design. The revelations shattered their personality, twisting a high-functioning and successful adult into a barely functional wreck, carried by momentum and magick, very, very powerful magick. (Orphan, an independent magician taught dark secrets and powerful magic at the cost of their sanity, a mix between a wizard and a madman-whoops, tautology! With an Arete rating of 3 per their violent awakening, they command the Spheres of Forces, Matter and Prime all at 3, substantial might and control over the physical realm.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey hey hey! Welcome to a little experimental thing of mine in hopes of finding Sufficient Velocity a hospitable home for a Mage The Ascension quest!
If you are unfamiliar with MTA, that's excellent! You can learn along the way, if you are already familiar, I hope I can provide a reasonable Mage experience for you.
As for credentials, I have run Mage the Ascension in its table-top format for just a bit over a decade now and am generally considered skilled in running it on a voice basis. Text is somewhat newer, but I am not in-experienced running quests.
Now, finally, let us get to the nitty-gritty in the next few posts! Thanks for reading thus far!
Let's talk about Mechanics, I know, I know, keep the cheering to a minimum.
So, basic stuff, how rolls work
ROLLING DICE
Rolling dice is a fairly simple affair, you take an amount of D10 based on the capacity of the character and roll them with a certain result in mind, every die which equals or exceeds the desired result counts as a Success, the more Successes rolled, the more successful an activity is!
An Example.
John Courage wishes to punch an opponent.
He is very good at this action, incredibly so actually. He is as good as a human can be without an otherwise supernatural influence.
The roll appears as 10d10>6=[6, 4, 3, 6, 7, 5, 2, 7, 10, 10]
Which evens out to 6 Successes, an absolutely brutal strike that is going to ruin someone's day.
A secondary mechanic is Specialization, when a character becomes sufficiently skilled at something, they may specialize in a specific area, becoming incredibly good in that field. This allows them to reroll 10's and count the new rolls successes as additional.
What that means for John Courage is he would get 2d10 extra, if his specialization applies to punching people, which it does.
Those dice, if they end up as 10's can also explode! Exciting!
Now, failure is simply when you get no or insufficient successes on a roll, and well, it means the roll is a failure.
A botch, on the other hand, is when the number of 1's rolled outweighs the number of successes rolled, the action goes terribly wrong, in normal actions, this means it goes sideways, a punch breaks your knuckle or something. With Magick? Oh boy.
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Magick
Welcome, this is a Mage game, you do Magick, K is not optional!
Now, magick is a ton of different things, but as far as you need to know, it's a function of whatever the person believes. To take an example from above, agent John Courage believes himself to be a fantastic specimen of humanity with great knowledge of weapons, armour, hand to hand and plenty of other things in that vein. That may not seem like magick and to him, it isn't but at the end of the day, it's how he can fist-fight werewolves and surf an exploding car to safety.
Mechanically, you roll Arete, functionally a measure of your enlightenment and strength plus the lowest Sphere used, Spheres being a measure of knowledge about the topic and subject at hand. Thus, John Courage who wishes to heal himself would roll his Arete rating of 5 plus his Life Sphere of 4, a total of 9d10.
The difficulty, IE target number of the roll is variable, 3+Highest sphere used for a Coincidental effect, 4+Highest Sphere used for a Vulgar effect 5+Highest Sphere used for a Vulgar with Witnesses effect.
So in this case, John Courage is simply rubbing some dirt on the wound allowing him to ignore it and keep going, a coincidental effect that has a required Sphere of Life 2, making it a Difficulty 5 check. 9d10>5.
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Paradox
If Magick is changing the universe to what you want, Paradox is the universes immune system.
It is however based on the Effect itself, indeed there are three categories to Paradox.
Coincidental Effects are effects that are not suspicious, rubbing dirt on a wound to stem its flow can be used to heal a wound's deleterious effects, runes on a bullet making it strike with lethal force every time is indistinguishable from the effect of a normal bullet, etcetera.
Vulgar Effects are obviously mystical effects, the wound reknits itself due to stem cell injection, the bullet detonates into a fireball once it hits the target, etcetera.
Vulgar with Witnesses Effects are identical to Vulgar except for a normal human observing the impossible act.
Paradox is something that builds up as you cast and then must be slowly expelled, if you acquire too much in one go, it backlashes. A Paradox backlash is a bad thing, making the universe rail against you and punish, inciting mutations, doing damage and in the highest outcroppings of it, simply erase you from the universe.
Now, I can't go into too much detail as that information is mostly ST side, just know you want to avoid Paradox and without Prime, you can't know exactly how much you have.
Paradigm: The world is full of unnatural, powerful things who know secret magic and hidden ways, by bargaining with them for these secrets, I can do the impossible.
Long-form Paradigm: Aubrey is a product of careful and directed tutoring, his belief is that his path to power is predicated on the relationship with these entities and knowledge those same entities give him, allowing him to quite literally use advice as his instrument of choice. Uniquely, with The Shadow being a fixture in his life, any effects suggested by that entity are considered a personalized instrument, thus being easier to use. He hasn't developed much beyond this yet, Aubrey being very much an unwritten page.
Inventory: Clothes on his back, for now.
Effects Active: None for now.
Invocations-Aubrey can invoke words of power sourced from Shadow to cast effects on the spot, this is less useful for longer-term rituals but can be used in the moment effectively so long as communication with Shadow or, though Aubrey has never tried this, other entities of a similar nature that can provide those words.
Symbology-Aubrey can ask for designs and symbols of meaning from the Shadow to cast effects in a somewhat slower fashion, the extra care and time does mean that it is possible to acquire more successes than usual via rolling more than once, useful for rituals. As an aside for those unfamiliar with Mage, an effect cannot currently be stored up, if the artwork is to be made, the effect can be cast upon completion of the artwork utilizing stored up successes, or the artwork can be used on the spot as an instrument of the moment.
Gestures-Aubrey can channel his magick through gestures and actions with mystic significance provided by the Shadow, or theoretically other things, this allows him to achieve effects at great speed, but is significantly more difficult to manage than just repeating words, though theoretically it could also be used in a more long-term fashion by creating entire strings of gestures.
Personal Instruments: A long under-arm tattoo in the style of a western dragon, mouth ending at the palm seemingly breathing fire.
Forces: Forces is the sphere of physical force, ranging from fire to microwaves, sound waves to gamma rays, its use is in the perception, understanding and manipulation of those elements.
At one dot, you may perceive such things, hear a voice from across a room or sense the heat of the fire from half a mile away.
At two dots you may intensify and nullify already present forces, turning a scream into a bone-shattering sonic wave or nullifying the sound your feet make as they touch the ground.
At three dots, you may manipulate and convert forces into various shapes, turning heat into light or twisting light around you to turn invisible.
Matter: Matter is the sphere of the material world, it covers everything from concrete to plutonium and long-dead bones, it's use is in the perception, understanding and manipulation of those elements.
At one dot you can perceive material composition, whether it is pure or impure, what materials it contains and such things.
At two dots, you may enact simple transmutations, turning one contiguous material into another of the same physical state, such as lead to gold, or water to acid.
At three dots, you may transmute and manipulate properties of materials across states, increasing the hardness of something without manipulating its density, making wood as tough as steel or steel as light as air, whilst also allowing you to transmute water into ice or air into water.
Prime: Prime is the sphere of reality, the base building block of power that formed all there is, it's uses extend massively, from the simple perception of power, or more simply perception of Magick to the manipulation of ambient power, defence against hostile spellwork and finally, the removal of it from objects and matter to empower yourself.
At one dot, you may simply perceive such forces, picking out places, things, people and ideas of powerful mystic strength as well as detecting the spellcraft of others, in addition, with your understanding of how energies move and flow, you may store more inside yourself by means of compressing it.
At two dots, you may begin to manipulate this Quintessence, using the ambient energy of the universe to seemingly create something out of nothing or empower items and spells with devastating force or incredible protective capacity.
At three dots, you may direct the flow of Quintessence, enchanting the living to deal or take devastating, supernatural force, or drag the Quintessence from living sacrifices or inert objects. You may create objects to store Quintessence in larger quantities or create minor somewhat more permanent mystic workings. Finally, in times of great need, you may create weapons of pure Quintessence, horribly destructive things that can do terrible damage to anything they strike, but are massively vulgar.
I'm extremely interested in a nuanced take on the CoX, especially because, uhh, most of the Awakening books I saw didn't really have one. Then again, I never read the *book.
[X] A Hyper-Intelligence Technologies Mark V.
It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop until you are dead.
[X] Winston Lyons
OH COME ON, a Terminator with a vendetta and a possible Red Hood outlook on how to handle things? Sign me up!
[X] A Hyper-Intelligence Technologies Mark V.
It can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop until you are dead. [X] Winston Lyons
I'd rather have them than the NWO. I feel people gravitate towards them too much, and a lot of what'd be experienced is the norm for NWO players. Not that the ST can't explore new things, just feel this one has a lot more paths.
[X] Nearly a ton of metal, myomer and synthetic skin with perfection in its bones and targeting parameters that brook no failure. A Hyper-Intelligence Technologies Mark V.
[X] Winston Lyons, or at least that's the name they go by now. What they were originally no one, not even they know. Before Winston, there was Julian Smith, a cover name for his duty. As an agent of the New World Order, he did work many others would consider dirty, vile or downright inhuman. Eventually, it caught up with him, one too many assassinations for the greater good, one too many smear jobs on otherwise decent people broke him down beyond his loyalty. Using his years of training and experience, cutting all ties and remaking a life somewhere far away was doable and more than that, necessary. Now away from all that, life still doesn't stop hounding him. (New World Order, imagine Jason Bourne meets John Wick. Hyper-Lethal is an accurate description, with an Arete rating of 2 and the Spheres of Entropy, Mind and Life all at 2, this turns him from a simple hyper-lethal vector into a near-WMD of personal scale combat.)
[X] Nearly a ton of metal, myomer and synthetic skin with perfection in its bones and targeting parameters that brook no failure. A Hyper-Intelligence Technologies Mark V. [X] Winston Lyons, or at least that's the name they go by now. What they were originally no one, not even they know. Before Winston, there was Julian Smith, a cover name for his duty. As an agent of the New World Order, he did work many others would consider dirty, vile or downright inhuman. Eventually, it caught up with him, one too many assassinations for the greater good, one too many smear jobs on otherwise decent people broke him down beyond his loyalty. Using his years of training and experience, cutting all ties and remaking a life somewhere far away was doable and more than that, necessary. Now away from all that, life still doesn't stop hounding him. (New World Order, imagine Jason Bourne meets John Wick. Hyper-Lethal is an accurate description, with an Arete rating of 2 and the Spheres of Entropy, Mind and Life all at 2, this turns him from a simple hyper-lethal vector into a near-WMD of personal scale combat.)
Currently the votes have Aubrey and a Kindred just two votes ahead of Mr.Lyons and a HITMARK. It's still all tied up, give your votes and debate the others! I'll keep this vote open for another 12 hours.
Edit:Let's do a little while longer whilst I am occupied, one more hour starting now!
I mean hollow ones, are mainly Orphans. Who have a similar ideas, but don't agree on a proper paradigm. They mainly agree well. there is a lot out there. With all having some romantics. Hollow ones don't really have a 100% philosophy. Other then maybe being the opposite of Nephandi in Nihilism. But that is one view, and no one real can say for all of them.
Feet pounding against concrete, a group of grizzled men, hardened and deadly, chase in the winding alleys for a rapidly tiring young man. Trash parts to stumbling feet and laboured breathing as Aubrey nearly trips over himself from a quick turn into another slippery, icy alley.
"Why did I listen to you?!" He nearly shouts, restrained to a bare hiss at the last moment, towards a strange thing, it seemingly being a fidgeting shadow twisting in the air, all vague head and gleaming purple eyes on an otherwise horror movie-worthy silhouette. From everywhere yet nowhere, the thing responds, "Because, Gray, I usually give excellent advice." The sound of its voice is sent ricocheting around the alley, grating on the souls of everyone who hears it, bringing a flinch to Aubrey's young face.
Crashing boots become audible, sending ice crunching and water splashing just around the corner, announcing the oncoming presence of danger and sending sharp sparks of fear and panic up Aubrey's spine.
"Found em! Hey, stop fuckin running, starting to piss me off, kid!" Roars the head hunter, exhaustion overcoming the adrenaline in their quarry and allowing them to catch up. They motion their weapons at Aubrey, cold gunmetal glimmering under nearby lights and soft rain.
"Please help!" His mind cries out towards the shadow, desperate and needy. "With pleasure." It whispers sibilant and sweet as knowledge filters through their bond, providing a way out.
"I don't want to kill them!" Aubrey shouts, confusing the gunmen for a moment, the shade then responds "But they want to kill you, make a choice."
It's a long moment as the lead hunter opens his mouth to speak, demanding a quiet surrender, promising a quick end. Then Aubrey retorts,
"I'm sorry.Frigidum adhibeo!" A soft apology turns into a cosmic roar, shuddering the ground where it is spoken and sending invisible power forth. In a moment the living grow cold the heat in their bodies torn away with spellwork, frozen in place and welded to the ground they stay posed, some with mouths open, some pointing guns already burning holes in their frigid bodies with waste heat, yet providing no threat now.
Aubrey stares in horror, and then heaves onto the ground, a trail of vomit leaving his mouth and splashing onto the concrete of the alley, nearly immediately beginning to chill and freeze providing its own stark reminder.
"Run boy, lest you incite another incident of self-defence." It suggests, driving Aubrey back to action, twisting and turning down a maze of alleys, finally escaping his primary persecutors.
Eventually, he arrives at home, a small, dingy apartment in a small, dingy part of the town, pale lights spread by nearby porch-lamps and windows, the street lights gasp with life as they struggle with lack of maintenance.
Near collapsing through the front door, Mr Fredericks says something inane about rent, entering through one ear and exiting out the other in the exhausted frenzy of a survivor. The stairs seem to last barely a moment before the door presents its challenges, shaking fingers barely keeping purchase on an ice-cold key. After a few tries, it enters the keyhole, a twist causes the sweet sound of opening to click out, granting entrance to the bliss of a radiator-heated room.
Crashing onto the couch, Aubrey shudders on the spot, soft whines of panic and fear coming off him as the night crashes down, pushing off dreary remnants of adrenaline to leave only devastating pressure.
The entity seems to flicker out, leaving him alone to face whatever is happening.
—————————————————————————————————————————— Earlier That Night
"What the hell do you mean you won't teach me to turn things to gold?" Aubrey screams, indignant at the shade, which seems to smugly stare back, even if it doesn't have any of the appropriate features for that gesture.
"Because, mortal, you start selling gold wall chips to pay for your rent, you are going to get yourself killed... at best." It whispers, seeming to slide from one ear to another just as focus emerges. "You need a stable income source, and you can't hold a normal job." It gets cut off by Aubrey, "Yeah, and whose fault is that?" But a smooth response is forthcoming, "Yours, ingrate, it's your fault you can't bear the simplest facets of interaction or civilization simply because a bit of knowledge- cracked you open!" Cutting deep and silencing Aubrey as always, it continues, "I have an inkling where someone who would appreciate a personage of your talent may be, so get walking, I'll lead you to them."
"Can't we just fly?" Aubrey asks, attempting to avoid the exertion sure to come in the future, "I said get walking, Now." The shade commands, inciting Aubrey to a walk, if a bit stiff.
It's a blur of imagery around him, first a stairwell, another shout from Mr Fredericks about rent, third time this week, and then the cool air of the outside, a light rain seeming to be brewing.
The shade leads Aubrey down street after street, slowly coming towards a skyscraper, shining gloriously in the skyline, lights up and down it granting it an almost mystical regality in comparison to the detritus and decay around it, one of the seemingly clean portions of the world, but the Shade does no clean business so even here must be somehow tainted.
Nervously walking up to the front door Aubrey passes through it, a huge automated glass thing, easily 10 feet tall and dripping with minimalist modern opulence, all gleaming metal and futuristic silence.
Following whispered instructions, Aubrey walks towards the receptionist, a stunning young woman with curling blonde hair trailing loosely down her shoulders, accentuating the just barely modest button-down shirt she is wearing, the first two buttons left undone.
She greets Aubrey with a smile full of gleaming white teeth, glittering and bubbly before speaking in a pleasant, friendly voice "Hi sir, how can I help you tonight?"
It's a brief second of stark fascination, Aubrey staring at her openly, words lost in a slack-jawed moment before he stumbles for a recovery, "Hello-um, hi, I'm here to speak to-um," Aubrey swallows, pushing a hand through short black hair, "Mister Damien?" It comes out more question than confident assertion, but the receptionist takes it in stride, responding "Do you have an appointment? If so, I can slot you right in!"
Aubrey blinks, looks around nervously for a moment before saying "Uh, I don't-I mean I don't have an appointment. But if you tell Mr Damien that-um, my name is Aubrey by the way, if you tell Mister Damien that I have come to collect on ancient favours from his line." Finally getting it out, she stares at you for a moment, before slowly reaching towards her landline telephone and typing a message you can't see.
She says "Just a moment Aubrey! I'll get right back to you." All placating smiles and gentle motions.
It's a bare few seconds before she blinks, looking at the telephone with surprise in her eyes, "Mister Damien requests your presence, well." She pauses for a moment before continuing, "Alright, please just go up the elevator to the left of this booth, it's the top floor. Thank you for visiting Damien Ironworks!"
Aubrey gives her a shaky nod before standing awkwardly, suddenly realizing he has to move, he jolts into motion towards the elevator. Entering it, he turns around and presses the top button, it simply dings in response, the doors closing.
A minute of motion, a minute which leaves Aubrey alone with his thoughts, fragmented as they are. He begins in hushed tones "Okay, so I say that in exchange for….the events of 1688, I am to be fairly judged and measured for the honoured position of court wizard?" The sentence again comes out as a question, but there is no time for a response as the doors open.
Standing with his back turned to Aubrey is a large man, straight-backed and well-dressed in a high fashion suit. He speaks without turning, "Who are you to ask such things?"
Aubrey jolts again, starkly aware that he isn't ready for anything social. "Um, yes-I mean, I am someo-uh. Okay, my name is Aubrey, I-uh, know the Shadow, and he s-" Aubrey is suddenly cut off as the man-no, monster, turns. Too pale skin shows veins like brightly colourized webbing underneath the skin, skin drawn inwards to give an aristocratic veneer as his fanged maw makes that image turn dark.
"How dare you speak of that name here." The monster spits in an almost snarl, "You, a mortal with barely two decades on you dare to insult me so, tell me Aubrey, what sort of idiotic fervor would bring you here with that news?" It demands no answer, seemingly already knowing it. "For our bargain upheld, I allow you to leave my haven, tell your master-" A smashing furnace blast of indignation pulses through you as he says that, but is smothered by a burst of will. "That I have suffered it's presence long enough, consider this your final courtesy, our next meeting will be your end."
The last word spirals into Aubrey, rendering him stunned into silence, not knowing what to do he simply turns to the elevator, presses the ground floor button and watches the doors close in silence.
"What do I do." He thinks to his companion, a shade which only now once again appears, "Run." It states simply, as simple as it's horrid, scratching volumes can get when there is no reason to be kind with its tone.
—————————————————————————————————————————— Seattle
1:22AM
The shuddering and whining has turned to soft rocking and mild whimpering in the time since arriving at relative safety, but even that's cut short by sudden noises, the sound of smashing wood sends Aubrey ramrod straight, dragged back to focus even with the tear tracks on his face. Not even a moment of consideration is allowed as harsh footsteps seem to be coming up the stairway with vigor.
"Wha-Oh fuck, why now!" Aubrey cries as he stumbles off the couch, moving sluggishly, unaware of where to go or what to do.
"Calm down, trust in our preparations." Shadow intones deep within Aubrey's ear. Aubrey seems to accept that, nodding for comfort as he settles down a bit, still worried but his heart hammering lighter in his ribcage.
What are those preparations?
[X] It took effort to get it past the landlord, but beneath the wallpaper of Aubrey's apartment, there are runes and sigils of a dark kind, suffusing fell energies into the walls, doors and windows. They reinforce and toughen them significantly, wood as hard as iron and dry-wall more like actual concrete. (Matter 2 Hardening)
[X] An amulet made of a human collarbone, getting that cost Aubrey his surgical residency, but it was well worth it as the amulet, once finished, provided a protective field of magic that could deflect and absorb impacts, it is however quite noticeable, if portable. (Forces 2 Shield)
[X] A carefully made tattoo on the underside of Aubrey's left arm, seeming to be in the shape of a horned western dragon, its mouth ends at the palm, left open as if yearning to breathe flame. That is to the untrained eye, in reality, the entire dragon is made of carefully interlaced symbols of flame and destruction, creating a matrix for a powerful blast of Hellfire, capable of melting most everything. It does however require significant power to use. (Forces 3/Prime 2 Quintessence-Charged Fire Beam, requires 1 Quintessence a use.)
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Well, that was a doozy huh? Wrote this whole thing on my phone during a flight, coming fresh from Frankfurt instead of my usual locale! Hope you all enjoy it, however, before you go on ahead and vote, lemme lay out some rules.
FIRST, I declare a 3-hour voting hiatus from the time of this posting, this is to foster discussion.
SECOND, votes with argumentation for them will have greater weight, a single vote with no explanation will count as a single vote, if you include a few lines of your logic, it'll count as one and a half, if you give me a fairly reasoned idea on why this is the course of action to take, it'll count as two!
Nothing much else otherwise, feel free to settle in and enjoy Aubrey's journey!
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Summoning Cold-Arete+Forces>6-1 (Personalized Instrument)=[6 5 1 8 3 5]4 Successes, 8 Lethal Damage+1 from Forces effect, 9 Lethal Damage. Instant death for targets.
So, does anyone else want to shrink him down to pocket-sized? Just me?
For the options, I think the first one becomes obsolete the moment we give away our base. After all, it's just making things super tough so all they have to do is get in. The other two are portable. But which one to go????🤔
Paradigm: The world is full of unnatural, powerful things who know secret magic and hidden ways, by bargaining with them for these secrets, I can do the impossible.
Long-form Paradigm: Aubrey is a product of careful and directed tutoring, his belief is that his path to power is predicated on the relationship with these entities and knowledge those same entities give him, allowing him to quite literally use advice as his instrument of choice. Uniquely, with The Shadow being a fixture in his life, any effects suggested by that entity are considered a personalized instrument, thus being easier to use. He hasn't developed much beyond this yet, Aubrey being very much an unwritten page.
Mmmm This makes sense but at the same time. He is going to go mad when he sees others sling spells, when there like him. Also what in hells name is our Avatar at?
