Memories of Magic (Worm/??? Quest)
- Thread starter Iasnek
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- worm taylor hebert magic
- Location
- USA
[X] Talismans of magic, wielding power over the elements of fire, earth, metal, water, and wood.
I'm a sucker for the basics.
I'm a sucker for the basics.
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[X] Crafting and forging items of power, having a tool for every purpose.
Any of the three have potential. The talismans being more limited wouldn't be that big an issue, as this is Taylor Hebert, who in canon became a warlord of the Bay with bug powers. Now, this Taylor is under the control of the hivemind of SV, which... Could hurt as much as it could help, but still.
Reinforcement has the potential to be broken, even if it's just reinforcement. Most especially if it works on the powers of others. Imagine the Leviathan fight if, say, Shielder's shields were reinforced to be the shieldiest shields that ever shielded. Became able to completely no-sell his waves because to do anything less would make them less of a shield than they were conceptualized as.
But in the end, an arcane crafter just has too much potential to end up doing anything to dismiss. She wants to be an Alexandria package? Ring of flying, belt of giant strength, necklace of protection +10 with bracers of natural armor +10. Or whatever the equivalents would end up being. Want to be a blaster? Wand of fireball. And so on.
Any of the three have potential. The talismans being more limited wouldn't be that big an issue, as this is Taylor Hebert, who in canon became a warlord of the Bay with bug powers. Now, this Taylor is under the control of the hivemind of SV, which... Could hurt as much as it could help, but still.
Reinforcement has the potential to be broken, even if it's just reinforcement. Most especially if it works on the powers of others. Imagine the Leviathan fight if, say, Shielder's shields were reinforced to be the shieldiest shields that ever shielded. Became able to completely no-sell his waves because to do anything less would make them less of a shield than they were conceptualized as.
But in the end, an arcane crafter just has too much potential to end up doing anything to dismiss. She wants to be an Alexandria package? Ring of flying, belt of giant strength, necklace of protection +10 with bracers of natural armor +10. Or whatever the equivalents would end up being. Want to be a blaster? Wand of fireball. And so on.
- Location
- Vancouver
Thanks, don't know how I missed that.
Yeah, that's generally how I feel too. Tinkers are BS, magic tinker with few limitations and no need for specialties even moreso
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Crafting and forging items of power, having a tool for every purpose.
- Location
- Brazil
[X] Crafting and forging items of power, having a tool for every purpose.
Post 002
- Location
- Portland, Oregon
(QMN1: It seemed pretty obvious which way the vote was going, so I started writing early.)
[X] Crafting and forging items of power, having a tool for every purpose.
You open your eyes from your meditations. A small sigh of disappointment escapes you at the perceived uselessness of the ritual you just remembered. You quickly stamp down on that feeling, though. While you may remember almost nothing of whatever past life you had, one maxim you were told comes to mind: The greatest of rituals are built from the smallest of symbols.
That thought firmly ensconced in your mind, you head down to your kitchen. You now know a total of two rituals. The first ritual increases the toughness of whatever it is applied to, causing it to resist any force that works to change it. You run through the components in your head: iron shavings for strength, salt for preservation, and absolutely pure water for resistance.
While iron and salt are fairly easy to acquire, pure water is practically impossible to find. Luckily, that's where your second ritual comes in. From your memories, you have the impression that pure water is used in a multitude of ways, so the ritual to purify water is useful, if boring.
Well, not that boring, you think as you smirk to yourself. You figure that it'll be a long time before you can call any magic you perform boring. Getting to work, you fill a small pot with tap water and haul it outside to your old charcoal kettle barbecue.
The barbecue brings back bittersweet memories. You don't think it has been used since your mother died. So many things have withered in your family since she died, your relationship with your father being one of the greatest casualties. You shake your head, and get back to work. There will be time to fix your relationship with your father later. For now, science! Or magic. Whatever.
The ritual to purify water is fairly simple. As one of the four classical elements, all you need to do is remove the taint of the other three elements from your water. First you sympathetically link the fire, earth, and air in the water to similar elements outside of the water. In order to do that, you must forge a connection through magic.
Unfortunately, the only source of magic currently in existence, as far as you know, is yourself. Grimacing slightly, you pull a kitchen knife out of your back pocket. Until you make some tools with their own inherent magic, your own blood will have to make do as the source of magic.
Pricking yourself as lightly as possible on your fingertip, you squeeze three drops of blood into the water. You then place one drop on the charcoal in the barbecue, one drop on a dirty nail, and smear the rest of the blood onto your lips.
The painful part done, you light the charcoal and let it heat up. Once the water starts to bubble, you start the ritual.
"Fire to fire," you chant softly. The charcoal flares up into flames, and you move the suddenly ice-cold pot of water off the barbecue to the ground. You grab the nail from the ground and begin to stir the water.
"Earth to earth," you say, and watch as the dirt that had fallen off the nail into the water suddenly clump together and stick to the nail. You pull it out and throw it aside.
"Air to air," you breathe out over the water, causing ripples to form. Once you have emptied your lungs, you breathe in sharply, and the ripples disappear.
You stare at the pot of water, and a smile wider than any you have smiled in years spreads across your face. Making magically and physically pure water may be the lamest super power ever, but it is just the first step towards ... well, something. You will have to decide what you want your goal to be.
Suddenly eager to experiment more with your magic, you hurry indoors with your pot of water. Time to make something tough! After a little deliberation, you grab a ratty old black sweatshirt out of your closet. You lay it out flat on the kitchen table, and set up the ritual. A small triangle of iron shavings, surrounded by a medium-sized inverted triangle of salt, with a large triangle of pure water surrounding the entire design, all laid out on the sweatshirt.
Taking the same knife as before, you reopen the cut on your finger and drop a single drop of blood in the center of the symbol. Your eyes widen as the materials seem to sink into the sweatshirt. What were once triangles of iron, salt, and water are now shimmering lines of black, white, and blue.
You pick up the sweatshirt, and see if you can feel anything different about it. As soon as you touch it, you feel an echo in the back of your mind. The magic that you used to enchant the sweatshirt resonates with you, most likely because your blood was the catalyst for enacting the ritual. Interesting, but not what you were looking for.
Suddenly feeling brave, you lay the sweatshirt out over your left hand and take your knife up in your right. First lightly poking your covered hand with the knife, you soon are driving the knife down upon your hand with all your strength. Rather than a knife, it feels as if you are hitting yourself with a whiffle bat.
When you realize how you must look, insanely stabbing yourself over and over again, you blush slightly and quickly set down the knife. Despite your embarrassment, you can't help but feel proud of your accomplishment. You, Taylor Hebert, Enchantress extraordinaire, are going to make a difference if it is the last thing you do.
A quick look at the clock brings you back down to earth. While you may eventually craft weapons to slay Endbringers or trinkets that grant powers as strong as Eidolon's, for now you need to clean up the kitchen in preparation for your Dad coming home.
Dad. While you hadn't wanted to tell him about your magic before you had tested it (just in case it turned out that you were insane from the locker), now you needed to decide what, and when you wanted to tell him. It has only been a couple days since you were released from the hospital, and tonight will really be the first chance you will have had to tell him.
[] Tell Danny everything you know about knowing magic, which admittedly isn't much.
[] Tell Danny you can strengthen objects, and maybe more. Not the whole truth, but who'd believe "magic" anyways?
[] Tell Danny nothing. It's not like you've been talking to him lately anyways, and you can decide to tell him later when you have more proof.
Besides Dad, you also need to decide what you want to try next with magic. You have three main options to choose from. One, you can continue meditating, and hope you remember more of your past life and the rituals you used in it. Two, you can explore your magic by yourself, and see what you can come up with. Three, you can leave magic for another day, and do something else. You do have a pile of homework you need to complete ...
Whatever you decide, it will have to wait until tomorrow, as you can hear your Dad's car pulling up right now.
[] Meditate on your past life.
-[] Write in on a specific topic you wish to focus on.
[] Explore your abilities.
-[] Write in what you wish to attempt.
[] Do something else.
-[] Write in.
(QMN2: Quick explanation. Whenever you have time to practice magic, you'll have two choices. First is to meditate. If you meditate in general, you'll get a brief memory of your past life, and maybe a hint towards a new ritual. If you meditate on a topic, you'll get a hint regarding that topic, and maybe a brief memory. Second choice is to do whatever you want. Write up as complex of a plan as you want, and I'll decide what happens when you try it! (Mwahahahaha) I also reserve the right to mix and match multiple plans in some cases, like if the more popular plan causes an explosion on the first step and you need something else to do. Third is to ignore the Questmaster, and tell Taylor to go do something else.
Also, I hope I gave you a good start on figuring out what you can do. I tried to spread the magic out over symbols, materials, actions, and words. That way you can take what you like and ignore what you don't. The only hard limit I gave you was the use of blood, and even that I mentioned a way around by using magical tools. Though you may find other uses for your blood eventually...)
[X] Crafting and forging items of power, having a tool for every purpose.
You open your eyes from your meditations. A small sigh of disappointment escapes you at the perceived uselessness of the ritual you just remembered. You quickly stamp down on that feeling, though. While you may remember almost nothing of whatever past life you had, one maxim you were told comes to mind: The greatest of rituals are built from the smallest of symbols.
That thought firmly ensconced in your mind, you head down to your kitchen. You now know a total of two rituals. The first ritual increases the toughness of whatever it is applied to, causing it to resist any force that works to change it. You run through the components in your head: iron shavings for strength, salt for preservation, and absolutely pure water for resistance.
While iron and salt are fairly easy to acquire, pure water is practically impossible to find. Luckily, that's where your second ritual comes in. From your memories, you have the impression that pure water is used in a multitude of ways, so the ritual to purify water is useful, if boring.
Well, not that boring, you think as you smirk to yourself. You figure that it'll be a long time before you can call any magic you perform boring. Getting to work, you fill a small pot with tap water and haul it outside to your old charcoal kettle barbecue.
The barbecue brings back bittersweet memories. You don't think it has been used since your mother died. So many things have withered in your family since she died, your relationship with your father being one of the greatest casualties. You shake your head, and get back to work. There will be time to fix your relationship with your father later. For now, science! Or magic. Whatever.
The ritual to purify water is fairly simple. As one of the four classical elements, all you need to do is remove the taint of the other three elements from your water. First you sympathetically link the fire, earth, and air in the water to similar elements outside of the water. In order to do that, you must forge a connection through magic.
Unfortunately, the only source of magic currently in existence, as far as you know, is yourself. Grimacing slightly, you pull a kitchen knife out of your back pocket. Until you make some tools with their own inherent magic, your own blood will have to make do as the source of magic.
Pricking yourself as lightly as possible on your fingertip, you squeeze three drops of blood into the water. You then place one drop on the charcoal in the barbecue, one drop on a dirty nail, and smear the rest of the blood onto your lips.
The painful part done, you light the charcoal and let it heat up. Once the water starts to bubble, you start the ritual.
"Fire to fire," you chant softly. The charcoal flares up into flames, and you move the suddenly ice-cold pot of water off the barbecue to the ground. You grab the nail from the ground and begin to stir the water.
"Earth to earth," you say, and watch as the dirt that had fallen off the nail into the water suddenly clump together and stick to the nail. You pull it out and throw it aside.
"Air to air," you breathe out over the water, causing ripples to form. Once you have emptied your lungs, you breathe in sharply, and the ripples disappear.
You stare at the pot of water, and a smile wider than any you have smiled in years spreads across your face. Making magically and physically pure water may be the lamest super power ever, but it is just the first step towards ... well, something. You will have to decide what you want your goal to be.
Suddenly eager to experiment more with your magic, you hurry indoors with your pot of water. Time to make something tough! After a little deliberation, you grab a ratty old black sweatshirt out of your closet. You lay it out flat on the kitchen table, and set up the ritual. A small triangle of iron shavings, surrounded by a medium-sized inverted triangle of salt, with a large triangle of pure water surrounding the entire design, all laid out on the sweatshirt.
Taking the same knife as before, you reopen the cut on your finger and drop a single drop of blood in the center of the symbol. Your eyes widen as the materials seem to sink into the sweatshirt. What were once triangles of iron, salt, and water are now shimmering lines of black, white, and blue.
You pick up the sweatshirt, and see if you can feel anything different about it. As soon as you touch it, you feel an echo in the back of your mind. The magic that you used to enchant the sweatshirt resonates with you, most likely because your blood was the catalyst for enacting the ritual. Interesting, but not what you were looking for.
Suddenly feeling brave, you lay the sweatshirt out over your left hand and take your knife up in your right. First lightly poking your covered hand with the knife, you soon are driving the knife down upon your hand with all your strength. Rather than a knife, it feels as if you are hitting yourself with a whiffle bat.
When you realize how you must look, insanely stabbing yourself over and over again, you blush slightly and quickly set down the knife. Despite your embarrassment, you can't help but feel proud of your accomplishment. You, Taylor Hebert, Enchantress extraordinaire, are going to make a difference if it is the last thing you do.
A quick look at the clock brings you back down to earth. While you may eventually craft weapons to slay Endbringers or trinkets that grant powers as strong as Eidolon's, for now you need to clean up the kitchen in preparation for your Dad coming home.
Dad. While you hadn't wanted to tell him about your magic before you had tested it (just in case it turned out that you were insane from the locker), now you needed to decide what, and when you wanted to tell him. It has only been a couple days since you were released from the hospital, and tonight will really be the first chance you will have had to tell him.
[] Tell Danny everything you know about knowing magic, which admittedly isn't much.
[] Tell Danny you can strengthen objects, and maybe more. Not the whole truth, but who'd believe "magic" anyways?
[] Tell Danny nothing. It's not like you've been talking to him lately anyways, and you can decide to tell him later when you have more proof.
Besides Dad, you also need to decide what you want to try next with magic. You have three main options to choose from. One, you can continue meditating, and hope you remember more of your past life and the rituals you used in it. Two, you can explore your magic by yourself, and see what you can come up with. Three, you can leave magic for another day, and do something else. You do have a pile of homework you need to complete ...
Whatever you decide, it will have to wait until tomorrow, as you can hear your Dad's car pulling up right now.
[] Meditate on your past life.
-[] Write in on a specific topic you wish to focus on.
[] Explore your abilities.
-[] Write in what you wish to attempt.
[] Do something else.
-[] Write in.
(QMN2: Quick explanation. Whenever you have time to practice magic, you'll have two choices. First is to meditate. If you meditate in general, you'll get a brief memory of your past life, and maybe a hint towards a new ritual. If you meditate on a topic, you'll get a hint regarding that topic, and maybe a brief memory. Second choice is to do whatever you want. Write up as complex of a plan as you want, and I'll decide what happens when you try it! (Mwahahahaha) I also reserve the right to mix and match multiple plans in some cases, like if the more popular plan causes an explosion on the first step and you need something else to do. Third is to ignore the Questmaster, and tell Taylor to go do something else.
Also, I hope I gave you a good start on figuring out what you can do. I tried to spread the magic out over symbols, materials, actions, and words. That way you can take what you like and ignore what you don't. The only hard limit I gave you was the use of blood, and even that I mentioned a way around by using magical tools. Though you may find other uses for your blood eventually...)
- Location
- The Middle of the Howling Wilderness
[X] Tell Danny nothing. It's not like you've been talking to him lately anyways, and you can decide to tell him later when you have more proof.
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
Seems like as good a place as any to start.
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
Seems like as good a place as any to start.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
[x] Tell Danny you can strengthen objects, and maybe more. Not the whole truth, but who'd believe "magic" anyways?
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
- Location
- United States of America
[X] Tell Danny nothing. It's not like you've been talking to him lately anyways, and you can decide to tell him later when you have more proof.
[X] Mediate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
[X] Mediate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[x] Tell Danny you can strengthen objects, and maybe more. Not the whole truth, but who'd believe "magic" anyways?
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
As much as we won't be noticed by the traditional 'tinker give-aways' we still might need some abnormal stuff that Danny might be able to get us.
If he asks us about why we need all this wierd stuff we can just point at chevalier.
+ with the inclusion of blood in the ritual, Family probably means something and for all we know when we give Danny a watch that gives him regen he might get a similar echo that we did.
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
As much as we won't be noticed by the traditional 'tinker give-aways' we still might need some abnormal stuff that Danny might be able to get us.
If he asks us about why we need all this wierd stuff we can just point at chevalier.
+ with the inclusion of blood in the ritual, Family probably means something and for all we know when we give Danny a watch that gives him regen he might get a similar echo that we did.
Okay this first ritual is pretty valuable when you think about it. Making regular cloth knife proof and impact absorbent is pretty dang useful. We might want to sell that service to heroes.
- Location
- U.S.
tell him later after we confirm we need abnormal stuff.
Ghostdevil
The Devil of Ghosts
- Location
- United States
[X] Tell Danny nothing. It's not like you've been talking to him lately anyways, and you can decide to tell him later when you have more proof.
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
Fuck danny with a rusted spoon, after we conquer the world using magic THEN he can be told
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
Fuck danny with a rusted spoon, after we conquer the world using magic THEN he can be told
- Location
- Vancouver
[x] Tell Danny you can strengthen objects, and maybe more. Not the whole truth, but who'd believe "magic" anyways?
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
It's probably a good idea not to keep too much of this a secret from him due to potential supply issues and it just being a lot easier and better for our relationship with him to not hide it. Probably a good idea to not throw the word 'magic' around just yet, though (less worrying than the people who will think we are crazy are the ones that won't and will get very interested in us).
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Your abilities, the cons, the benefits, and any tips/hints
It's probably a good idea not to keep too much of this a secret from him due to potential supply issues and it just being a lot easier and better for our relationship with him to not hide it. Probably a good idea to not throw the word 'magic' around just yet, though (less worrying than the people who will think we are crazy are the ones that won't and will get very interested in us).
Rossum
Not a Cyberman
- Location
- Earth
[x] Tell Danny everything you know about knowing magic, which admittedly isn't much.
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Try to recall what you knew about alchemy. Perhaps something like the Philosopher's Stone? To turn base metal to gold, or raise the dead?
In D&D the Philospher's Stone is a minor artifact that can either turn 1,000 lbs of iron to gold (worth 50,000 gp) or when mixed with a healing potion act as a True Resurrection spell that can bring back any anyone who has died within 10 years per caster level.
I don't expect us to be able to whip up something like that with our current stuff... but knowing we've got a possible way to bring Annette back to life could make for a decent goal to strive for. Gather the resources to bring Mom back to life.
Well... that or necromancy... or a flesh golem. Animated constructs are probably different than necromancy.
[X] Meditate on your past life.
-[X] Try to recall what you knew about alchemy. Perhaps something like the Philosopher's Stone? To turn base metal to gold, or raise the dead?
In D&D the Philospher's Stone is a minor artifact that can either turn 1,000 lbs of iron to gold (worth 50,000 gp) or when mixed with a healing potion act as a True Resurrection spell that can bring back any anyone who has died within 10 years per caster level.
I don't expect us to be able to whip up something like that with our current stuff... but knowing we've got a possible way to bring Annette back to life could make for a decent goal to strive for. Gather the resources to bring Mom back to life.
Well... that or necromancy... or a flesh golem. Animated constructs are probably different than necromancy.
- Location
- Vancouver
That's... kinda a long term goal at best. Both for the reasons you mentioned (probably out of our current ability range) and for the fact that we'll want some serious levels of resources, support, backing, and personal power before we even look into that (for the same reason but on a far greater scale of why I didn't want to bring up magic yet), because that kinda puts us on everyone's radar. Like literally the radar of every human, parahuman, organization, conspiracy, group of murderhobos, and even the Endbringers, and also (oh shit) ZION.
For meta reasons we should probably stick away from trying that for
That option wouldn't be too bad, though likely not what Taylor would want for her mom.
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- Location
- USA
You can actually buy it in any supermarket (this is not for drinking, look for DI water)
It is far purer than anything found in ancient societies.
Deionized Water vs Distilled Water: What's the Difference
If you really wanted to, you could just buy the tools to purify it yourself at home fairly cheaply.
Maybe even go extreme and burn hydrogen to create the purest water
We better get a tetenus shot
I hear the wards give tinkers a budget
anyways, we are supposed to experiment first and ask for hints second... To come up with ideas to help the QM develop the system.
So I wonder if we can use the enchanted shirt or the magically pure water as a source of mana.
Or what would happen if we take some of our blood and either purify it OR enchant it to be more durable.
Maybe we can make a bloodstone type mana source gem by enchanting blood to be more durable?
Another idea is to try and use a branch on water with organic detritus in it and go life to life to pull out the bacteria in it
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- Location
- Portland, Oregon
Ah, someone's already poking holes in my writing! I'll just say that there's a difference between scientifically pure water and magically pure water. Yup, that's what I was thinking all along.
As for Tetanus, well, I'm sure we can find some excuse to meet up with Panacea before too long.
That said, I'm in the middle of pre-writing a dream sequence for our meditations. Just out of curiosity, how many ironclad rules of magic do y'all want? Right now I'm kinda torn between there only being one loose rule, or there being maybe a dozen do this, and this is the consequence rules. Any preferences?
I'll just say that there's a difference between scientifically pure water and magically pure water. Yup, that's what I was thinking all along.As for Tetanus, well, I'm sure we can find some excuse to meet up with Panacea before too long.
That said, I'm in the middle of pre-writing a dream sequence for our meditations. Just out of curiosity, how many ironclad rules of magic do y'all want? Right now I'm kinda torn between there only being one loose rule, or there being maybe a dozen do this, and this is the consequence rules. Any preferences?
- Location
- Vancouver
That's assuming we join the wards. I don't have particularly strong feelings about this one or the other, but I know some people really hate Wards!Taylor stuff. In any case, we seem to have a lot of freedom in this quest, so we should explore it for a bit before making any big choices. No matter what we pick though, Danny will be Dad so his support should be good.
I'd prefer the dozen. Makes it easier to plan around, gives us a bit of structure to work with to help focus our creativity, and a loose rule feels like it might be more annoying with how broad it is and how some cases might be difficult to tell if they infringe or not until it's too late/we've wasted our resources & time.
- Location
- USA
I am struggling to come with an IC reason not to.
canon taylor was playing idiot ball by wanting to "prove herself" first on her own before joining the wards. it was rather contrived and served only to allow for a bad first impression with armsmaster to keep her out of wards.
Although, I guess we could try to go rogue, at least for a while as we build ourselves up.
- Location
- Australia
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm usually all for the wards cuz it's the easiest way to get Taylor friends without breaking the law. However I worry that PRT rules and guidelines will stop us from maximum munchkinning.
I'm gonna say hard set rules because then we can make goals that fit within the rules and know for sure such a thing is possible, rather than continuous trial and error hoping that our plans land on this side of possible.
Main thing I want to do is go rogue and just start selling our reinforced clothing.