[x] Offer to help them, if they let you go through to their side of the portal.
-[x] Offer to magically heal the half-elf boy's broken nose.
-[x] Offer to fight off the bullies who have been chasing them.
[x] Offer to help them, if they let you go through to their side of the portal.
-[x] Offer to magically heal the half-elf boy's broken nose.
-[x] Offer to fight off the bullies who have been chasing them.
...does it mean the cabinet the kids are in used to belong to another conspirator, and they were using the world as neutral grounds or a transportation hub?
unless the older kids can turn her into a newt or something, im confident elys could beat them in a fight and come out relatively unscathed. elys has proper battle experience, fight training from her adventurer parents and has divine strength from being a chosen (a mild amount as far as chosen go but still, more strength than a regular person would have)
Actually, after the Aspitis invaded Ismar and Windskil, Mishrak gave Elys a power-up. Now, she's on the same level as most other Chosen (or at least she would be if she were a fully-grown adult).
This seems to prompt a debate among the young mage apprentices on the other side of the portal. You don't know what they are saying, but you almost think that you can hear a faint susurration at the very edge of your perception. One of the magical abilities taught to you by your patron god and adopted uncle was 'Mastery of Sound', which enables you to control and manipulate sound waves. Perhaps you could use it to make the whispers coming from the other side of the portal more audible to you?
Or perhaps it's time to strike a bargain? They say that they are being 'chased by older students' who are 'out for blood'. Perhaps they are being bullied, perhaps their pursuers are seeking revenge for a mean-spirited prank, or perhaps there's some other perfectly reasonable explanation for why someone would want to hunt them down, but you're not particularly concerned with the morality of what you'd be doing: they are desperate and you are becoming increasingly desperate; in exchange for your aid and protection, they can let you through the portal and give you the information that you need. It would be a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Using one of the more esoteric magical abilities you have been taught, you are able to manipulate sound waves. On this occasion, you want to increase the volume of the very faint whispers you can hear through the portal, so that you can hear what the four young mage apprentices are saying to each other.
"…not human?" says the half-elf lad, a note of caution in his voice.
The weaselly-faced boy shrugs. "Well, she looks human enough. But looks can be deceiving."
"Is she only pretending to be human, is she part-human, or did her answer only seem misleading?" asks the dark-complexioned lass.
"That is the question," says the half-elf lad, looking contemplative. "Whatever she is, she must be a powerful mage: she can create illusions more quickly and easily than any of us."
"She's probably a fifth-year pupil, or the equivalent," says the goblin girl: she seems to think that you must be several years older than you actually are.
"Perhaps she'll agree to help us; perhaps she'll turn out to be a monster who wants to eat us," says the weaselly-faced boy, inflecting it like a joke. But you sense that he's not entirely joking: he is genuinely afraid that you might turn out to be a horror much worse than the bullies who are currently trying to hunt them down.
Trying to establish your good intentions, you conjure another message made out of illusory letters hovering in the space next to you. It says, "I can help you. I can heal your injuries. I can save you from the bullies who have been chasing you."
"What would you want in exchange?" the half-elf boy asks.
You don't reply immediately: you don't want them to know that you've been listening in to their conversations that they thought were private.
The goblin girl takes the time to create her own illusory message, saying, "What would you want in exchange?"
This is your reply: "Just let me come through the portal. I don't want to cut myself on the sharp edges."
"What do you think we should do? Trust her? Or not?" asks the weaselly-faced boy, whispering to his friends.
"What other choice do we have?" asks the goblin girl, a helpless look on her face. "She doesn't seem to need our permission to come through the portal, just an assurance that we won't try to kill her."
"We could run away again," suggests the dark-complexioned lass, although she doesn't seem enthusiastic about the prospect.
"Straight into the arms of those bullies who want to drain my blood? No thanks," says the goblin girl. "I say we trust her, up to a point."
"And what point would that be?" asks the weaselly-faced boy.
The goblin girl gives a small shrug. "Well, if she comes through the portal and immediately tries to attack us, we should flee, obviously."
Looking thoughtfully at you, the half-elf lad says, "All right, we'll accept her offer. Tell her that we won't stop her from coming through the portal if she doesn't do anything to harm us or our interests."
Unquestioningly, she converts the message he just gave her into another illusory message: "We won't try to stop you coming through the portal on the condition that you don't harm us or our interests."
"I accept your terms," you say, with words formed out of Sambian script, which appear almost solid and hang in the air for several seconds after you've finished speaking. "I will come through the portal now. Please take a step back and give me space to do so."
They follow your instructions. You take a deep, steadying breath and then step forward through the doorway-shaped portal, being careful not to touch the edges.
After another moment, you are through to the other side, in the dingy little storeroom. Back in the real world! Or, at least, back in your own world, the one you originally came from: you can't be sure how 'real' or not the world of the mirrors is or isn't.
"So… Elys, is it?" asks the weaselly-faced boy, looking you up and down. "Are you Quellonian?"
"I was born on a tiny island you've probably never heard of, which is currently ruled over by the Aspiti Empire," you say. "But yes, I'm of Queli stock."
"That's cool, I guess," says weasel face. "So… how do you feel about Sambians?"
"Are we in the Sambian Empire?" you ask, looking around eagerly, as if expecting to see something interesting in the shadows of this poky little room. "Well, unless you do anything to hurt me – or any of my friends and family – I have nothing against you."
"I could say the same," he says, offering you a hand, with what he probably thinks is a suave expression on his face. "My name's Philander Bidwell, at least temporarily. Pleased to meet you."
"Your name is 'Philander'?" you ask, taking his hand, giving it a brisk shake, and then releasing it. "Did your parents give you that name? And what do you mean 'at least temporarily'."
"Well, my father did," he says, grimacing. "Um… it's a long story."
"I'm Dorian Valens," says the half-elf lad, coming over to shake your hand.
The two girls do likewise. "I'm Venta," says the goblin girl.
"And I'm Isolia," says the dark-complexioned lass.
"I'm pleased to meet you all. Thank you for letting me out of the mirror. I'm not entirely sure what happened there, but…" You give an elaborate shrug. "I'm glad I was able to escape quickly. Now, I believe that the four of you are in a spot of bother, is that right? And you want my help?" Glancing at the half-elf lad, you say, "First off, I could fix your broken nose, if you like."
"With magic?" A complicated expression contorts his face. "I'd rather not. It'll heal naturally, right?"
"Probably," you agree. "Does it hurt very much?"
"Not really. I mean, it hurts, but I can ignore it," he says.
"Well, if you're sure," you say, wondering why he is so against the use of healing magic. A bad experience in his past, maybe?
Just then, the storeroom door is thrown open and four older students burst into the room. One of them is a stocky youth, dressed in expensive and bloodstained silks, another is a rough-looking young man who seems somewhat ill-at-ease, and the other two are a brother and sister who look very much alike, with almost identical black hair, pallid skin, and pointed features.
"Got you, you pestilential brats!" yells the silk-clad dandy, pointing a triumphant finger at your four new friends. Then, he catches sight of you, blinks, makes an effort to smooth his rumpled shirt, and says, "And who might you be?"
How do you reply to that? (Choose one)
[] "I'm Elys. Pleased to meet you. What's your name?"
[] "I might be a shapeshifting monster that just came through the portal behind me. Rrarrgh!"
[] "I am the mirror goddess. These four are under my protection. Back away or incur my wrath!"
[] Dragon breath!
[] Use Telekinesis to pick him up and smash him against a nearby wall.
[] Use Telepathy to take control of him and make him attack his teammates.
[] Use Mastery of Sound to afflict him and his friends with vertigo, making them too dizzy to stand upright.
[] Set up an Invisible Shield to protect Dorian, Isolia, Philander, and Venta.
is there anything wrong with saying she's mishraks chosen?
"I am miskhrak's chosen, and these four? they are under my protection. got a problem with that?"
idk, i cant get a beat on her personality atm. might have to reread tinpot princess.
edit: or perhaps
"me? only a very powerful mage, do you have business with my charges?"
so thats the wolverine and smug wizard approaches, what would a quelle knight approach sound like? whats the orthodox way to approach this for a quelle knight?and how much of that would elys know/ be able to put into practice?
[X] Use Mastery of Sound to afflict him and his friends with vertigo, making them too dizzy to stand upright.
-[X]"I'm Elys. Pleased to meet you."
--[X] Use Telekinesis to carefully move him and his friends so they don't keep blocking the door while they are dizzy.
what would a quelle knight approach sound like? whats the orthodox way to approach this for a quelle knight?and how much of that would elys know/ be able to put into practice?
Bear in mind that Elys is dressed in wizard robes, not the armour of a Quellonian knight. If she claims to be a Quellonian knight, it may not be very convincing.
[X] Use Mastery of Sound to afflict him and his friends with vertigo, making them too dizzy to stand upright.
-[X]"I'm Elys. Pleased to meet you."
--[X] Use Telekinesis to carefully move him and his friends so they don't keep blocking the door while they are dizzy.
[X] "I'm Elys. Pleased to meet you. What's your name?"
-[X]"By the way, I'm a very powerful mage, and these four are under my protection"
-[X] Set up an Invisible Shield to protect Dorian, Isolia, Philander, and Venta.
-[X] Use Mastery of Sound to afflict him and his friends with vertigo, making them too dizzy to stand upright.
[X] Use Mastery of Sound to afflict him and his friends with vertigo, making them too dizzy to stand upright.
-[X]"I'm Elys. Pleased to meet you."
--[X] Use Telekinesis to carefully move him and his friends so they don't keep blocking the door while they are dizzy.
I like this plan. Only needs two modifications:
1. [X] Set up an Invisible Shield to protect Dorian, Isolia, Philander, and Venta.
They are mages after all, so just in case they can counter the vertigo+telekinesis, nice to have a backup.
2. Remove the "carefully" part of that last statement.
Partly because screw these guys, but also because if we're gentle they might assume that's as much force as we can use on them.
They should really be glad Elys doesn't know just how awful they are yet, or I'd be in favor of telepathically making them attack each other (wow, I was not aware Elys could do that), and telekinetically bashing them against the walls.
i like the zizo/ iksk plan. i get like thrown off by the choose one in the vote bit, makes me think we cant write in composite votes.
[X] Set up an Invisible Shield to protect Dorian, Isolia, Philander, and Venta.
-[X] Use Mastery of Sound to afflict him and his friends with vertigo, making them too dizzy to stand upright.
--[X]"I'm Elys. Pleased to meet you."
---[X] Use Telekinesis to c̶a̶r̶e̶f̶u̶l̶l̶y̶ move him and his friends so they don't keep blocking the door while they are dizzy.
Well I mostly imagined as Elys just lighty pushing them out of way while they are trying to stand because she doesn't take them too seriously (and letting it clear to them as an insult). Also bashing them towards the walls seems too unnecessarily violent.
Like as far Elys knows violence between students is partially allowed but she wouldn't have the same "permission" to use violence on students and thus would get in problems with the local teachers, in place of just being allowed to dissapear back home without problems.
[x] "I might be a shapeshifting monster that just came through the portal behind me. Rrarrgh!"
[x] Set up an Invisible Shield to protect Dorian, Isolia, Philander, and Venta.
They should really be glad Elys doesn't know just how awful they are yet, or I'd be in favor of telepathically making them attack each other (wow, I was not aware Elys could do that)
The reason why I say "Choose one" is because I tend to combine more than one set of votes if I think it makes sense, and I don't want my readers to go overboard by voting for all of the options. But I will allow you some leeway if I think that your 'composite vote' is reasonable.
Just then, the storeroom door is thrown open and four older students burst into the room. One of them is a stocky youth, dressed in expensive and bloodstained silks, another is a rough-looking young man who seems somewhat ill-at-ease, and the other two are a brother and sister who look very much alike, with almost identical black hair, pallid skin, and pointed features.
"Got you, you pestilential brats!" yells the silk-clad dandy, pointing a triumphant finger at your four new friends. Then, he catches sight of you, blinks, makes an effort to smooth his rumpled shirt, and says, "And who might you be?"
"Hi, I'm Elys," you chirp. "Pleased to meet you. What's your name?"
At the same time, with a casual gesture of your hands, you erect an invisible shield to protect the four young mage apprentices: Dorian, Isolia, Philander, and Venta. If these older students turn out to be as vile as you've been led to believe, you won't give them a chance to harm your new… uh, friends? No, you shouldn't call them that yet. But maybe they could be your friends, if you got to know them a little better? You can only hope.
"I am Yulian Sagittarus, son of the richest and most powerful man in this city," says the dandified young man, as if he expects you to be impressed. "Kindly step aside and allow us to punish those four brats as they deserve!"
"Punish them for what?" you ask, seemingly in all innocence.
"He stabbed me!" Yulian points to the grisly wound in his side and then at Philander. Then, indicating Dorian instead, he adds, "And he threw a dead owl at me!"
You hear a horrified gasp from somewhere behind you, but you don't have time to investigate that right now. Instead, you ask, "But why did they attack you?"
The stocky, expensively-dressed young man hesitates, considering for a moment. Putting on his best impression of a winsome smile, he says, "Well, what else do you expect of the lower classes, my dear lady? Absolute savages, every one of them."
"Enough of this," his rough-looking friend growls. "Stop bandying words with her. She's an outsider: she's not even supposed to be here!"
"You're a long way from home, little girl," says the only female member of their little group in a sickly-sweet voice. "Are you lost?"
At that, Yulian gives a snort of laughter. "'Little girl'? She looks like she's our age, at least."
The pale woman cocks her head to one side, as if listening to a voice that only she can hear. A moment later, she says, "No, she's only eleven. Lost and all alone, in a strange place, hundreds of miles from home."
Her twin brother smirks at Yulian and says, "Still, if you want her, I doubt anyone would even come looking for her–"
"Don't be disgusting!" the dandy interrupts him, looking uncomfortable. "I'm not like that." He glares at you as if you have personally offended him by being much younger than he assumed you were at first.
"It's nice to hear that you have some standards," Philander says mockingly, peering out from behind a crate. "I'm sure Venta is delighted to know that you only intend to kidnap her and drain her blood, not anything worse than that. Really, since you are such perfect paragons of morality, I can't think why we ever objected to your–"
"Don't you ever shut up?!" the rough-looking young man yells at him.
"If my words weren't having any effect on you, maybe I would." Philander shrugs his shoulders. "But, since it's getting on your nerves, I'm gonna keep talking."
The pale woman hurls a shard of ice at him, which shatters against your Invisible Shield.
"Oh? You want to fight?" you ask, in a mild tone of voice. "Very well, then."
Using your magical Mastery of Sound, you send vibrations to disrupt the delicate balance of their inner ears, making them too dizzy to stand upright. At least, that is your intention.
Yulian immediately collapses to the floor, moaning and spraying vomit all over himself. However, his fellows are made of sterner stuff. The rough-looking young man grimaces, but remains upright: he lashes out with a telekinetic fist, but you sidestep out of the way and it smashes into your Invisible Shield, seemingly to no avail.
Speaking in unison, the pale twins utter the words of a mystical chant: unpleasant, guttural noises that have little in common with any language you've ever heard before.
All around the room, the shadows seem to come alive. You see red eyes glinting in the darkness. At first, they are mere silhouettes, but they quickly become something more. You see them flocking together in the corners of the room, stretching across the walls and ceiling: creatures with needle-sharp fangs and claws, leathery black wings, and tentacles that writhe and snatch at you…
What will you do next? (Choose one)
[] Ignore the illusion and keep fighting against the bullies.
-[] Dragon breath!
-[] Hit them with Telekinesis.
-[] Using Telepathy, attempt to take control of their minds.
-[] Using Illusions, attempt to terrify them into submission.
-[] Fly past them, bowling them over. Attempt to move this fight out of the storeroom and into the corridor.
[] Actually, it's not an illusion!
-[] I'd better blast the shadow creatures with a dragon breath!
-[] Using Telepathy, attempt to turn them against their summoners.
-[] Using Telekinesis, pick them up and throw them at their summoners.
[] Do something else (write in).
Instead of the complicated rule system I've used for all my other quests so far, in Chosen by the Dragon God I'm trying out something new. Rather than writing out long and detailed character sheets, I'm simply going to make a note of each character's Rank and any notable abilities they may have.
In the majority of situations where Elys or any other viewpoint character has a chance of failing, they will roll a number of dice equal to their Rank, with added bonuses or penalties depending on the circumstances, and have to roll higher than a pre-set Difficulty Score in order to succeed.
However, combat is different. In combat (or any other situation where characters are competing against each other), they will have to roll an opposed check: both sides will roll a number of dice equal to their Rank, with added bonuses or penalties depending on the circumstances, and whoever gets the highest total is the winner.
In this case, Elys is fighting against Yulian Sagittarus and his team. Her Rank is 3. Their combined Rank is also 3. Elys has a wide range of magical abilities that her enemies are likely to find very surprising, so I gave her a +2 bonus. Yulian's team is already somewhat tired and wounded, so I gave them a -1 penalty.
Elys rolled 3d6+2 = 11
Yulian's team rolled 3d6-1 = 9
(If the forum dice roller still worked, I would have rolled the dice here. But it hasn't been working for a long time, so I've been rolling dice offline. I hope you will trust that I'm being honest about what I've rolled.)
Elys scored a narrow victory in this round. In the next round of combat, Yulian's team will be fighting with an increased penalty. But it's not over yet.
EDIT: Um… I'm not entirely sure if that makes sense. Sorry, I'm surprisingly tired, despite the fact that it's only Monday, and I feel like most of what I'm writing is coming out as nonsense. Feel free to ask me questions about this new game system if you like.
"Her twin brother smirks at Yulian and says, "Still, if you want her, I doubt anyone would even come looking for her–""
as if we needed more reason to hate these people
dragon breathe time?
*nods*
dragon breathe tiem~
so, do we think this is an illusion?
the girl twin was talking to a as of yet unseen, third party entity. demon? these three feel a bit mookish for demonic interference but like, its not out of character for that school.
[x] Try to shove one of the summoners at the shadow creatures. Then you'll find out if it is an illusion or not.
-[x] Pick the pale twin who knew who you were.
If it isn't an illusion, her partner will dismiss the spell, if it can be dismissed, or attempt to get her our if it can't.
If they ignore it, we can likely ignore it too. Either way, it'd be hard for them to keep spellslinging if we keep shoving them into walls.
[j] dragon breathe the room, thoroughly burninating everyone but our new friends. (but not to death, just aim to incapacitate)
-take the vile teens hostage for later bargaining
--evacuate new friends and those close to them out of the nightmare hellhole called sambia
---kill philanders dad
----headmaster too for good measure, why not? bet the coded book implicates him as mystic path
--have kari/ samaya adopt greenflame
--give coded book and teleport book to the adults tm
---get mishrak to eat dumar
problems with this plan; none
(would need to evacuate every goblin in the city as refugees, humans suck)
[x] Try to shove one of the summoners at the shadow creatures. Then you'll find out if it is an illusion or not.
-[x] Pick the pale twin who knew who you were.
[x] Try to shove one of the summoners at the shadow creatures. Then you'll find out if it is an illusion or not.
-[x] Pick the pale twin who knew who you were.
[x] Try to shove one of the summoners at the shadow creatures. Then you'll find out if it is an illusion or not.
-[x] Pick the pale twin who knew who you were.
