MagiQuest (Failed)
- Thread starter Gear
- Start date
- Original
Hmm we've been given a number of free clues into the nature of magic on earth.
Daryl is the first person to have magic on earth.
Other people got magic at the same time as Daryl.
new ISIS offensive
Joan Langston and Terrance Langston are now dead, Their children, Jordan and Claire, are still missing.
What does this all add up to? Well it seems there's a good chance Jordan, Claire or both are mages and killed their parents. Alternatively this may be a red herring and the real issue is that ISIS has a crazy mage who probably believes his powers are divine gifts and is now abusing them horribly. There's also the possibility that both of these are true, which is also bad.
We also have a number of other standing questions and problems such as where did magic come from and why do certain people have it and how do we stop crazy mages abusing their powers and turning earth into a hellhole.
I doubt Daryl is actually equipped to tackle any of these problems but on the other hand his primary skills is social contacts and mind magic so maybe he can find other people who can deal with these problems and get them linked up.
As for the interlude, let's find out more about the world.
[X] Joan Langston
Daryl is the first person to have magic on earth.
Other people got magic at the same time as Daryl.
new ISIS offensive
Joan Langston and Terrance Langston are now dead, Their children, Jordan and Claire, are still missing.
What does this all add up to? Well it seems there's a good chance Jordan, Claire or both are mages and killed their parents. Alternatively this may be a red herring and the real issue is that ISIS has a crazy mage who probably believes his powers are divine gifts and is now abusing them horribly. There's also the possibility that both of these are true, which is also bad.
We also have a number of other standing questions and problems such as where did magic come from and why do certain people have it and how do we stop crazy mages abusing their powers and turning earth into a hellhole.
I doubt Daryl is actually equipped to tackle any of these problems but on the other hand his primary skills is social contacts and mind magic so maybe he can find other people who can deal with these problems and get them linked up.
As for the interlude, let's find out more about the world.
[X] Joan Langston
- Location
- 18th Century Victorian England duh
Agreed, but I don't think she's got anything interesting to show us right now.[X] Amy
Poor Amy.
Quest
The Great One
- Location
- Everywhere
Bah! Amy? Who likes a nerdy bookworm!Poor Amy.
Diomedea
A piece of the continent
- Location
- The interblag
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- 18th Century Victorian England duh
We've had like one omake of her and she's already the favorite character.
Quest
The Great One
- Location
- Everywhere
*Preens*
Interlude: The Lego Man
Gear
Set Moon to Ramming Speed!
I had debated on giving you such a blatant hint, but Daryl's kind of falling behind on the magical utility scale by going after big, expensive, 'all purpose' style spells, instead of going for the smaller, more specialized spells. So here's a bit of a preview of what enchanting can get you. Vote's locked for a Freya interlude as well, then we'll be starting chapter 2.
Also, I did it for the song.
Interlude: The Lego Man
He lifted his hand, and with a thought, a custom Lego piece appeared in his hand, a cylinder 2x2x3 with some decorations indicating that it's supposed to be a battery along the sides, with a blue lightning symbol and the numbers '25' along each of the cardinal sides. Putting the piece on his work bench, he focuses on the enchanting ritual, focusing his entire store of magic into enchanting this one piece with a single spell effect of holding up to 25 units of magic.
He takes the newly enchanted magic battery and plugs it into a magically conductive plate he had enchanted last week, alongside a near identical '5' battery, and a '5/D' engine piece. He'd be able to enchant a better generator the day after next.
Mana Spring (lvl 1, Magic, Creation)
Magically creates a spring of mana into the world.
Strength: 1 Magic/Day
Duration: One Minute
Area of Effect: One Target
Casting Range: Touch
Cost: 4 XP
Mana Battery (lvl 1, Magic, Manipulation)
Will hold magic as long as the spell is active.
Strength: 1 Magic Stored
Duration: One Minute
Area of Effect: One Target
Casting Range: Touch
Cost: 1 XP
Mana Conductivity (Lvl 1, Magic, Transmutation)
Makes an item capable of having magic flow through it without resistance
Duration: One Minute
Area of Effect: One Target/Few Inches
Casting Range: Touch
Cost: 2 XP
It's three o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Teaching Gin Rummy to his grandson
He says, "Son can you build me a memory
I'm not really sure how it's built
But it's big and it's white
And I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes"
Make us a build you're the Lego man
Make us a build today
Well we're all in the mood for a wondrous thing
And you've got us feeling amazed
Now John at the counter is a friend of mine
He gets me my kits for free
And he's quick with a joke or to ring up your sale
But there's someplace that he'd rather be
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me"
As a smile ran away from his face
"Well, I'm sure that I could go to college
If I could get out of this place"
Now Paul is a real estate intern
Who never had time for a girl
And he's talking with Davy, who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life
And the 40k'er is practicing politics
As the teenagers slowly get settled
Yes they're sharing a game they call loneliness
But it's better than playing alone
Make us a build you're the Lego man
Make us a build today
Well we're all in the mood for a wondrous thing
And you've got us feeling amazed
It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been coming to see
To forget about life for a while
And the build looks like a carnival
And the table smells like old snacks
And they sit at the table and put bread in my jar
And say "Man what are you doing here?"
Make us a build you're the Lego man
Make us a build today
Well we're all in the mood for a wondrous thing
And you've got us feeling amazed
Also, I did it for the song.
Interlude: The Lego Man
He lifted his hand, and with a thought, a custom Lego piece appeared in his hand, a cylinder 2x2x3 with some decorations indicating that it's supposed to be a battery along the sides, with a blue lightning symbol and the numbers '25' along each of the cardinal sides. Putting the piece on his work bench, he focuses on the enchanting ritual, focusing his entire store of magic into enchanting this one piece with a single spell effect of holding up to 25 units of magic.
He takes the newly enchanted magic battery and plugs it into a magically conductive plate he had enchanted last week, alongside a near identical '5' battery, and a '5/D' engine piece. He'd be able to enchant a better generator the day after next.
Mana Spring (lvl 1, Magic, Creation)
Magically creates a spring of mana into the world.
Strength: 1 Magic/Day
Duration: One Minute
Area of Effect: One Target
Casting Range: Touch
Cost: 4 XP
Mana Battery (lvl 1, Magic, Manipulation)
Will hold magic as long as the spell is active.
Strength: 1 Magic Stored
Duration: One Minute
Area of Effect: One Target
Casting Range: Touch
Cost: 1 XP
Mana Conductivity (Lvl 1, Magic, Transmutation)
Makes an item capable of having magic flow through it without resistance
Duration: One Minute
Area of Effect: One Target/Few Inches
Casting Range: Touch
Cost: 2 XP
It's three o'clock on a Saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Teaching Gin Rummy to his grandson
He says, "Son can you build me a memory
I'm not really sure how it's built
But it's big and it's white
And I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes"
Make us a build you're the Lego man
Make us a build today
Well we're all in the mood for a wondrous thing
And you've got us feeling amazed
Now John at the counter is a friend of mine
He gets me my kits for free
And he's quick with a joke or to ring up your sale
But there's someplace that he'd rather be
He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me"
As a smile ran away from his face
"Well, I'm sure that I could go to college
If I could get out of this place"
Now Paul is a real estate intern
Who never had time for a girl
And he's talking with Davy, who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life
And the 40k'er is practicing politics
As the teenagers slowly get settled
Yes they're sharing a game they call loneliness
But it's better than playing alone
Make us a build you're the Lego man
Make us a build today
Well we're all in the mood for a wondrous thing
And you've got us feeling amazed
It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been coming to see
To forget about life for a while
And the build looks like a carnival
And the table smells like old snacks
And they sit at the table and put bread in my jar
And say "Man what are you doing here?"
Make us a build you're the Lego man
Make us a build today
Well we're all in the mood for a wondrous thing
And you've got us feeling amazed
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Skewfiend
The Corruptor of All Things
- Location
- The Darkness Behind Your Eyes
Hmmm. Or perhaps we just aren't going big in the right way...
(The following hinges on the idea that converting mass to magic gives more magic than is used in a matter/creation spell)
Perpetual Motion Reactor (Level 3, matter/magic/mind creation transmutation x6, manipulation x2)
Creates a sphere of high-density metal that is immediately converted entirely into magical energy, part of which is channeled back into the spell to fuel the continued creation and transmutation, while any remaining energy is fuelled into the specified creature or object.
(1 matter creation element creates the 'fuel', which is converted into magical energy by two matter/magic transmutation aspects. A mind transmutation aspect gives the necessary control for a magic manipulation aspect to apply some of the energy output into the continual running of the spell, and three magic transmutation aspects are used to turn the creation and transmutation into continuous processes, while a further magic manipulation element transfers the generated magic to the desired person or object.)
We might have to spend a huge amount of energy reducing the magic cost and increasing the power of the fuel creation and conversion for it to actually make a profit, but when it pays off, it will pay off big!
Each casting would give us a powerful reactor that functions until disrupted. INFINITE ENERGY!
we could seuester ourselves somewhere and make as many reactors as we can then use rituals to make crazy powerful versions of our mental boosters, which we then funnel into more mindboosters, better reactors and tye enhantments needed to exploit the reactors without physically being there. Then we could pretty much just increase our magic generation and xp generation in r.eal time until we were basically a god
(yes, I know, it's probably non-viable, but a man can dream.)
(The following hinges on the idea that converting mass to magic gives more magic than is used in a matter/creation spell)
Perpetual Motion Reactor (Level 3, matter/magic/mind creation transmutation x6, manipulation x2)
Creates a sphere of high-density metal that is immediately converted entirely into magical energy, part of which is channeled back into the spell to fuel the continued creation and transmutation, while any remaining energy is fuelled into the specified creature or object.
(1 matter creation element creates the 'fuel', which is converted into magical energy by two matter/magic transmutation aspects. A mind transmutation aspect gives the necessary control for a magic manipulation aspect to apply some of the energy output into the continual running of the spell, and three magic transmutation aspects are used to turn the creation and transmutation into continuous processes, while a further magic manipulation element transfers the generated magic to the desired person or object.)
We might have to spend a huge amount of energy reducing the magic cost and increasing the power of the fuel creation and conversion for it to actually make a profit, but when it pays off, it will pay off big!
Each casting would give us a powerful reactor that functions until disrupted. INFINITE ENERGY!
we could seuester ourselves somewhere and make as many reactors as we can then use rituals to make crazy powerful versions of our mental boosters, which we then funnel into more mindboosters, better reactors and tye enhantments needed to exploit the reactors without physically being there. Then we could pretty much just increase our magic generation and xp generation in r.eal time until we were basically a god
(yes, I know, it's probably non-viable, but a man can dream.)
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I actually would like a spell that get us magic energy from heat or electricity. Perpetual motion the kind that breaks the setting is a pet peeve of mine.
Even if we get something like only 1 point of magic per 5 gallon gasoline or have to consume the same amount of electric power our house does in a dayf or another point the end result would be worth it.
Even if we get something like only 1 point of magic per 5 gallon gasoline or have to consume the same amount of electric power our house does in a dayf or another point the end result would be worth it.
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Skewfiend
The Corruptor of All Things
- Location
- The Darkness Behind Your Eyes
Consuming electricity or petrol is going to draw attention. Actually, using magic do build a crazy good electric reactor combined with a spell that lets us feed on electricity would be viable and largely unproblematic (bar visitors seeing it, etc.)
I would prefer to draw power from something that won't draw attention. Why not a spell that lets us gain magic from random junk?
Feed on Destruction (level 3, matter/magic transmutation x2 manipulation x1)
Turns a geometric region of matter directly into magical energy, which is fed to the caster's ,magical reserves.
@Gear, would that work? Or does it need more aspects to function.
Also, to be frank, we might be rube goldberging.
Consider this spell:
Assuming that 3xp gives it a daily duration, and that each XP spent on increasing its strength gives 1 magic a day, we could throw 3XP into the duration, and 23 XP into the strength, to get a cost 30 spell that creates a magical spring giving us 1 XP an hour for the next 24 hours, for a total of 24 energy regained.
Doesn't sound useful save with an enchantment, right?
Wrong!
We just need to throw 29Xp into it to bring its cost down to 1! Sure, we will have spent 59Xp on a level one spell at this point, but consider the following:
When we get up, we spend our entire reserves on casting Mana Spring 40 times. This gives us an effective hourly regen of 42 (including our current regen.) The next hour, we cast Mana Spring as soon as we can, another 42 times, bringing our effective hourly regen up to 84. The next hour, we cast it 84 times, bringing our effective hourly regen up to 168.
Here is what our hourly regen would be like if we kept this up for 24 hours.
| Hour: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | ... | 24 | |
| Hourly regen | 2 | 42 | 84 | 168 | 336 | 672 | 1344 | 2688 | 5376 | 10752 | ... | 352 million |
(all this from a level 1 spell, mind you. I can see what @Gear meant about not disregarding them now...)
We then feed it all into an enchanting ritual to give us absurd levels of IEU and mental boosts, giving us the mind of a god, which translates into utterly broken XP gain.
Hm. That is probably a win condition, actually.
+++++++++++++
So, yeah. The magic system here reminds me of that of Morrowind, in that it is fairly easy to break, and there is no sharp distinction between a competent practitioner of magic and a breaker of the magic system.
Sorry If I seem to keep trying to break the game, but breaking the game seems to be one of the end-goals of the quest, and all my attempts at intelligently harnessing the power at our disposal all seem to lead to nigh-infinite power.
That would be a good thing if it didn't completely destroy the narrative.
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Gear
Set Moon to Ramming Speed!
Pretty good @Skewfiend, but of course, same spells can't stack, best one 'wins', as it were. Because I don't want to have to keep a chart showing millions of spells, when their active, when they expire, their effects, etc.
Enchantments though, as Lego Man demonstrates, is a bit of a different matter.
Enchantments though, as Lego Man demonstrates, is a bit of a different matter.
Skewfiend
The Corruptor of All Things
- Location
- The Darkness Behind Your Eyes
Well then, so much for that then.
Setting my sights on a much lower level of breaking the game, I notice that the cost of enchanting a spell is unaffected by the power of a spell, is that the case?
Thus, if we made a version of mana well with the strength boosted up to obscene levels, say 100/day (total cost 103XP), it would still cost 100 magic to enchant, right?
Once we bought the spell and saved up several days for the ritual necessary to cast it, we enchant an object with Mana Spring(+100). Even without our normal regen, the day after enchanting the first, we could enchant a second. On the third day, we could enchant two wells. On the third day we could enchant 4 wells.
Since Enchantments are individually counted, this would seem to work.
| Day | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Mana regen | 100 | 200 | 400 | 800 | 1600 | 3200 | 6400 | 12800 | 23600 |
The rate of increase on such a method would be a lot less astronomical, so maybe that isn't a problem.
That reminds me:
@Gear is this viable?
Gear
Set Moon to Ramming Speed!
Please god, be a joke. If it's not, the answer is no.
Not quite, the 100 is for the enchanting process, you would need to cast the spell/effect your putting into an item as well. So more like 203 Magic.
Doesn't need the mind element, nor 'complex shapes' requirement' (That just doesn't make sense, really). Mechanically it's probably be like Mana Spring, but maybe tie the strength to the spells area of effect maybe?
Skewfiend
The Corruptor of All Things
- Location
- The Darkness Behind Your Eyes
I am really not sure how feed on destruction could work like mana spring, given that the former is an instantanous spell to give you a wad of mana, and the latter enchants an object to generate mana slowly over its duration.
As for its power, tying the amount of mana you ge to the amount of stuff consumed is a good idea, although you could choose to give it a limited amount up upgrades to how much mana you get per unit area, to represent the efficiency of he conversion.
The idea behind the mind element was to allow us to consume things without having to really worry about nearby things. To enable us to consume a pile of junk without endangering or having to work around the nearby furniture, or to turn an attacker's weapons and equipment into magical energy without endangering them. That sort of thing.
So sour, Gear. I guess Daryl will have to find the wizz-kid in himself for more mana huh?
Would that be a pretty crappy move?
Guess we'll need to sweat this one out?
Sorry, I'm done. Just had to get that out.
EDIT: Jokes aside.
Skewfiend, if we used Feed on Destruction on say 100 flashcards or 150 pages in a notebook, would Daryl think of each card and page as a distinct surface and object, letting him receive 100 mana or the 150 mana for the later because of the "geometric region" part of the spell?
If that's the case we'd really take off in potential mana capacity if we went to Staples for some packs of standard staples since each individual staple would be one geometric region and those packs can hold 1000-5000 individual staples.
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Gear
Set Moon to Ramming Speed!
I've changed my mind, no mass/energy/mind-to-magic spells.
Skewfiend
The Corruptor of All Things
- Location
- The Darkness Behind Your Eyes
What? That's daft!
If you are converting mass to energy, what is important is how much mass you convert, not how many arbitrary geometric regions you divvy it up into.
A 5kg book will give you the same amount of energy whether you convert it page by page or in one go. (4.5*10^17 joules, if you are interested.)
The increased control thing was so we could use it to selectively get rid of things without hassles, not to create some bizarre and arbitrary loophole.
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