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[CYOA] Seven Wizards for Seven Apocalypses: Now with an ending slapped on
Mojo_Jojo
We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered User regular
We are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered User regular
I. Introduction
It took a special kind of arrogance to ignore the warnings of the Masters. It a special kind of myopia to never question why The Weir was secured with so very many chains, both literal and metaphorical. It took a special kind of fortune for almost every member of the Institution to be called away for the coronation of Czarina Beatrice on the very evening the third moon entered the House of Virgo opening the forbidden chamber containing The Weir. It took six apprentices working together to free The Weir from its prison. But it took only one to interrupt the final ritual.
The mass of crystallised power known as The Weir cracked and shattered. The seven apprentices, six perpetrators and one loyalist, were all damned together. They had said that inside The Weir there was another world. They said The Weir was responsible for the gradual fading of magic. They said that controlling The Weir would make you a god. They said a lot of things, but it turns out that, whoever this they was, they were right on all counts.
There was no trace left of the seven apprentices in that secret chamber. There were only bodies left elsewhere within the Institution when that first little apocalypse started.
When the Masters return it's unlikely they are going to be best pleased.
II. What is this?
This is a Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) game. It’s sort of like a Play By Post but more freeform and with no defined player list. Every turn I’ll post an update, with a few options and then you lot get to decide what you would like to happen. With your choices determining the fate of one of the power hungry wizard apprentices. Anybody can jump in and have their say on the direction taken by the colony in a given turn. I'll go for whatever gets a majority. There's also a little bonus per vote to encourage people to chime in even when there's a democratic landslide
I also encourage you guys to post little side stories, or drawings or whatever. I’m just arbitrating, you're the voices inside the wizard's head. Also, it helps me to know what you guys want so I can swing my options to fit that better.
In other words it's a bit like a fantasy version of Space Australia.
III. The Rules
I'll explain things as they emerge - and I'll update this bit as required. For now, just know that:
- If I need to roll some dice then I'll roll 3d6 and use the total. If this matches or beats the target number, then it's a success
- The exception is combat, here is the basic unit is the d10. A unit is defined is defined by a number of dice and a target of number. Units randomly select a target and then each round they roll their dice, count the number of dice which hit by passing the target and then remove that many dice from the target. When units have no more dice, they are dead.
- The basic vote bonus is +1 Mana. So for every vote, you'll get a bit more mana on the following turn. You may have/acquire other options, if so specify or I'll assume you want the mana.
IV. Can I play?
Yes, just look at my latest post and tell me which option you want. Do it in bold and red so I can see it.
For instance, if the last post ended with:
A - Explore [see the map, give a direction]
B - Build Peasant Shelters [+10 population cap, costs 10 resources and 5sp]
C - Build a Node Focus [+5 mana/turn, costs 15 resources, 10sp and 5 crystal]
D - Raise militia [produces a [Militia] unit, costs 5 resources and 5 peasants ]
E - Dark Ritual [+5mana, +5study, costs 5 peasants and 1 crystal]
F - Summon the Kraken [Difficulty 10, costs 50 mana and the Kraken Heart. Success produces a [Kraken] unit. Failure produces a hostile [Kraken] unit]
G - Cast Frostspear (specify target) [Costs 10 mana. Gives a free strength 5 attack on a random enemy unit in an area]
H - Hold Games of Skill in honour of B'tel The Fickle [Difficulty 15. Success ???. Failure ???]
You could say something like:
G[Raldar The Unforgiving's Fortress]: Let's have him know we're not going to just roll over and die
Bonus: +1Mana
V. How do we start?
Well, you need to decide which of the apprentices you were. There are two parts to this. I've got a list of seven backgrounds and seven roles. Backgrounds are mostly flavour, while the role will determine a bit more about your starting powers. Feel free to speculate on what you see the combination as being and I'll use this to steer me, for example The Undying Bonemancer (option C-C) could be a traditional necromancer type who turns his population into skeletons to save on food, while The Undying Pious servant of The Bound Giant (option E-C) is doing something more religious, for example, forging his peasants into an avatar of a gigantic and confusing god.
So post two letters in bold red. First letter here would be the background, second the role in this case.
Backgrounds
A: Fistcaster
B: Stormlord
C: Bonemancer
D: Mechano-Sage
E: Pious servant of The Bound Giant
F: Lavashaper
G: Spirit weaver
Roles
A: The Silver-tongued [Double trade income. Can choose +1 sp per vote bonus. Silver Pieces (sp) are cold hard cash and buy things]
B: The Foreseen [Wizard starts with [Lucky] combat trait. Can choose +1 Fortune per vote bonus. Fortune is used to cause good random events]
C: The Undying [Wizards starts with a Crystal Companion. Can choose +1 Transcendance per vote bonus. Transcendance frees your followers from the confines of the flesh]
D: The Warrior [Wizard starts with [First Strike] combat trait. Can choose +1 Expertise per vote bonus. Expertise is used to get free unit upgrades]
E: The Wanderer [Has the crystal caravan rather than a tower. Can choose +1 Step per vote bonus. Steps are used to instantly move over long distances]
F: The Possessor [Wizard knows the relative location of other crystal shards. Can choose +1 Dominance per vote bonus. Dominance is used to turn people/things over to your cause]
G: The Loyalist [Am I really cruel enough to have an option with no bonus?]
I aim to update something around daily. No set time or anything.
Wizards, start your rituals.
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
Mojo_Jojo on
+2
Posts
Let's be real, people. We can free people from the confines of flesh by incinerating them in a Space Volcano. This is the way to go.
Look, it's cool that you want to free people from the confines of the flesh, I'm just saying it might be better to do so by replacing the weak, pathetic, flesh with badass mechanical prosthetics as opposed to molten stone.
~Mechano-Sage the Undying.
Look, guys, two things. Lightning is cool, and lightning just happening to strike your foes is double cool.
Spirit Weaver, the Possessor
AKA gray matter, brain fucker, the purple man
Anyone can shape lava, but it takes guts to dance through an active volcano mid-eruption.
Decision
Background: B(Mechano-Sage)/F(Lavashaper) TIE - F wins the coin flip: Lavashaper wins
Role B: The Foreseen
Bonuses: +8 mana
Wizard Stats
Mana: 8 [+1/turn]
Fortune: 0/25 [+0/turn]
Combat: 4 dice, 4+ strength, Lucky
Vote bonuses: +1 Mana or +1 Fortune per vote
[Lucky] One reroll per round
Summary
Inside the Institute there had been dozens of major chapters, some sufficiently well known that even an outsider could name them. For instance, all knew The Pious Servants of the Bound Giant. Clad in bells and chains they'd shamble through the city at odd hours, all droning in a long dead language. Children who misbehaved were frequently threatened with the idea of having to join that grim parade. The Lavashapers were not such a sect and were almost unknown outside the ancient walls of the Institute. Even inside they were only a modest faction. Disciples of an element which had fallen out of fashion in academic circles, few paid them much attention. It was precisely that lack of scrutiny which led to their only apprentice playing a pivotal role in the first little apocalypse that swept through the Institute leaving no one living in its wake.
Within the heart of the world there was a star: A pulsing heart of magma. To the apprentice, it was obvious that the fate of the world could be divined from the motion of that heart. When combined with the motions of the celestial fires, she wondered how none of the others had come across this truth themselves. It took focus and meditation to perceive the faint spirals of molten rock below. And those paths that linked to her fate made it clear that the apprentice was not destined to rot away as the last adherent to a dying way. Her insights took her up one of the long-abandoned towers of the Institute, and to some dusty equipment in order to understand the motions of the stars above. Those stars, and even the moons, with their pathetic internal sparks had a role to play in reading the fate of the world. Plotting out the future had become a hobby for the apprentice until four days ago.
Four days ago she'd spotted a pale youth in a usually abandoned common room. He was busily working on some contraption that was belching out smoke, sparks and steam in equal measure. He must have noticed her staring because he stopped and looked up. Only then did she realise how young he was. Perhaps thirteen at the most? He'd looked at her with weak puddle-coloured eyes and asked her if she wanted to know a secret. The youth had told her of The Weir. She'd heard of it herself, of course, but he was the one who had gathered them all together through those days of planning. He led them down this damned path, with her working out exactly when that outer sigil would fail and let the six of them into the forbidden chamber. And with the Masters all being at the coronation it wasn't just coincidence, it was destiny.
Her own hacking cough woke her from the dark reaches of her own memory. A moment ago she'd been with The Weir, interrupted by some bare-chested idiot barging into the middle of the final ritual to unlock its vast powers. Now she was lying in the sand listening to the ocean rolling back and forth. And it was now the middle of the day rather than the eleventh hour of the night. Rolling onto her back, the apprentice realised that there was something very wrong with her shoulder. A three inch fragment of smouldering obsidian was planted firmly into it. She could feel the burning heat that was coming from it. A welcome sensation. Warm and powerful. And connected...
Getting slowly to her feet, the apprentice could see just what that connection was to. The bigger brother of that tiny shard was stabbed into the sandy beach. A lump of flaming coal nearly a foot across, with a narrow spike thrusting deep enough into the sand to hold it up. As she watched, the sand around that too-thin base began to flow and condense. It was melting. Fusing into glass. The crystal was hotter than a blacksmith's forge. The crystal was a piece of The Weir. Her piece of The Weir. Weaker than it had been, but even just standing near it, she could feel power greater than anything in her life radiating outwards.
Slowly turning around, the apprentice confirmed that she was indeed on the beach. Despite the Institute being at least a two week ride from the nearest coast. Beach wasn't really the right word, it was an island. A tiny spit of sand and rock in the ocean, no more than a few hundred yards across, with a waist-deep mass of hardy green scrub towards the centre. Across the blue expanse, an expanse that should have filled her with dread, there was a larger body of land. A rocky coast stretching away in both directions, the interior of that landmass seemed heavily wooden with unfamiliar trees. A twist of smoke caught her attention. Somewhere across the brine wood was being burnt. She could feel the pathetic embers from here.
Reaching out to the minor flames brought something far more important to her attention. Down beneath her feet there was something more impressive. The star at the heart of the world was now a supernova. And it was different in near every respect. This was fundamentally a different world. And a world that boiled with power. Huge corridors of flowing stone carved out intricate futures. Futures that were shifting at this very moment. Doubtless, those changes were something to do with the destruction of The Weir and the shard of it that was now gradually transforming this small, sandy island into something new.
The shock and awe of the change in the apprentice's circumstances were starting to fade. Her attention turned to her wound. To the knife of black material sticking out of her shoulder. It was also a piece of what was once The Weir. She reached up, amazed that the injury didn't see to be causing her pain and wrapped her hand around it.
Understanding crept into her mind. She had a choice to make. She could leave the splinter of her shard where it was. Slowly, the shard would immolate her body but this would not be death, just a joining. It would bring her so much closer to the crystal itself and the power it contained. Her body was not the only thing that the shard might burn, however. She could taste the incantation on her lips to drive that obsidian dagger into her very soul. To feed it with her humanity. Perhaps this would be unwise, but the temptation to give in was near overwhelming. The third option would take the most willpower, she could grip the sliver of crystal and pull it from both her body and her soul. She could take it, and impose a fate upon it.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number and specify Mana/Fortune for your vote bonus)
What to do about the dagger of magical crystal sticking out of you:
A - Let the crystal fragment immolate your body
B - Allow the crystal fragment to burn your soul instead
C - Pull the fragment free and bind it to its true destiny of servitude
And once you've dealt with that pressing need:
1 - Explore this tiny island before it is fused into a blob of molten glass
2 - Investigate the larger shard of The Weir planted into (and slowly melting) the island
3 - Leave the island to die and the crystal shard to do its business while you cross the sea to investigate the smoke
(also our apprentice could use a name)
Velara for a name
E: That's right, I forgot. +1 Fortune
+1 fortune
The crystal must learn it's place in the order of things. An order that we're on top of.
Sierra for a name.
C-2
Cinderella
Steam - NotoriusBEN | Uplay - notoriusben | Xbox,Windows Live - ThatBEN
A-2
Emberleigh
+Mana
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
Chandra
+Fortune
Her name was burned away, from place and memory, yet another part of the price she paid: a hole in her mind as smooth and black and featureless as the shard embedded in her body. No matter.
+Fortune
Lavelle
Slave to none. Master of all.
Let us not waste time or effort in reversing or limiting the potential power at our feet.
Inquisitor77: Rius, you are Sisyphus and melee Wizard is your boulder
Tube: This must be what it felt like to be an Iraqi when Saddam was killed
Bookish Stickers - Mrs. Rius' Etsy shop with bumper stickers and vinyl decals.
Decision
C-2: Pull out the fragment and investigate the crystal
Name: Cinderella/Velara tie. Cinderella wins the coin flip.
Bonuses: +5 mana, +8 fortune
Cinderella Stats
Mana: 14 [+1/turn]
Fortune: 13/25 [+0/turn]
Combat: 4 dice, 4+ strength, Lucky, Wizard, Ranged(short)
Equipment: Vulcanus
Vote bonuses: +1 Mana or +1 Fortune per vote
[Lucky] One reroll per round
[Ranged(short)] Make one attack without retaliation before melee
[Wizard] Must spend 1 mana per round or lose 3 dice
Artifacts
Grants Ranged(short) to the bearer
Intelligent(?)
Summary
The apprentice tightened her grip on the slim crystal blade. Now the heat was burning her flesh. Her crystal had its own desires and letting her go free was not among them. Still, she was stronger than some splinter of a damned artifact. She was a lavashaper. She was Cinderella!
Remembering her own name was what broke the spell. The fragment pulled free, leaving behind a scorched wound in her shoulder. She cast it down onto the sand at her feet. Cinderella would not be dominated; The crystal's power had aligned to her own and that made her the master. Arm outstretched, she focused her powers and gave the fragment a destiny of its own. Lines of fate that linked it to the greater crystal were stripped away. As each link was severed the wretched splinter twitched like a living thing while down below the magma at the heart of the world spasmed and shifted in response.
As the last connection to the parent shard was cut the fragment was suddenly stilled. And then it exploded outwards. A wave of heat and freedom. It lasted for barely a second and Cinderella easily turned it aside without a second thought. What had once been sand was now a glass crater in the beach. And across that curved glass surface rivulets of molten metal ran inwards towards the black knife. The liquid metal was harvested from the trace amounts in the sand and the stone, and now it gathered together into tiny streams to re-forge the fragment. They coated its form and spiralled around it, ending as a curved five pointed star with a burning centre.
The star rose into the air and the fire at its heart gained the form of an inhuman eye. A low rumbling laughter echoed from within it,
"VULCANUS SERVES THE FIRE MOTHER"
It danced around Cinderella, gliding through the air with ease, spinning as it moved. The lavashaper raised her hand and the thing came to her. Each of the five fingers was razor sharp and white hot but it didn't burn its Fire Mother. Experimentally, she let the Vulcanus-Weapon loose. It sped over the shallow waves, kicking out spurts of steam where its blades nicked the saltwater. Abruptly it changed direction, hurtling back towards Cinderella and coming to rest in one of hands.
[Cinderella spends 5 mana on a difficulty 8 check and successfully removes the fragment and reforges it into an artifact]
"VULCANUS!"
The artifact growled its own name - it had some measure of intelligence, but Cinderella was unsure just how meaningful any conversations might be. And now was not the time to find out. Her attention turned to the considerably larger black chunk of crystal embedded into what had been a peaceful beach a few minutes previously.
The sheet of glass stretched more than a yard away from where the crystal's talon had buried itself into the ground. The scraggly undergrowth at one edge had started to smoulder slightly in response to the growth of the magical furnace. The lavashaper strode confidently toward the crystal shard. Her boots cracked the thin edge of the fused sand at the edge as they touched down. The temperature was hard to bear even for a mage atuned as Cinderella was. Behind her, the cracks re-fused and became little more than greyish patterns in the expanse of black glass.
Defying all reason, she reached out and touched the heart of the burning crystal. And in that moment revelation and power flowed into her.
[Investigating the crystal gives +5 fortune and +5 mana]
In a town on a crossroads, a beautiful woman stands before a crowd. Behind her a silver crystalline lance rises from the soil.
Deep within a cave, a man sings a funereal dirge and jangles his chains. A fleshy growth with chains of its own covers the wall beside him.
A bare-chested, unarmed man does battle with a pair of mounted soldiers. On the muddy path, a glittering chunk of quartz lies neglected.
At the top of a castle's tower, an armoured figure screams into the coming storm. Embedded into the stone blocks is a frozen moment of lightning.
Ankle-deep in a swamp, a costumed lady sits atop a caravan of bones. Within the ribs of the wagon a shining heart pulses.
Amidst a blizzard, a pale-skinned boy huddles close to the warm glow of a spherical metal contraption. In his hands he holds a perfect crystal cube. And he looks up to meet Cinderella's eyes.
The seven lived.
...
Once again, the lavashaper found herself lying down on this tiny island. Although, now it was less of an island. The visions must have knocked her out for some time. The thin protrusion of rock and sand was no more. Now there was only a smooth column of black and grey glass. Cinderella must have been fifty feet above the sea which crashed around the slender base. At the top, the flaming coal remained, still with its one protrusion embedded downwards, anchoring it to the glass platform, only a few feet across.
Despite this, she could make out the lines of burning fortune that had gathered below, visible through the saltwater depths. Despite all that had happened, her destiny was still bright. And material wealth would soon find her. Now though, the sun was starting to set over the sea, and it picked out a fleet of three fishing vessels at the limit of her sight. They seemed to have dropped anchor for the evening and the glint of a looking glass caught her eye. Somebody out there on one of the decks was looking at her tower of glass. Turning toward the mainland, the air was filled with smoke and she could feel the residual embers. Not just wood now, but flesh too. From this vantage point, she could see the scorched scar amidst the trees. There had been a cluster of houses there only recently. Now there was only death. As for whatever mysteries the island had once held, they had now been burned away or fused into glass.
Before, she could ponder any further, Vulcanus flittered into view,
"FIRE MOTHER RETURNED!"
The living weapon danced in the air around her, its flaming eye expressing a primal joy. Cinderella wasn't sure what a sentient multi-bladed object might get up to when she wasn't there to supervise, and decided that now was not the time to dwell on it. This pillar in the ocean would not do, it was time to shape herself a true home and make sure that that shard of The Weir knew who was in charge. She advanced on the coal.
Decision Time
(A letter, a number and specify Mana/Fortune for your vote bonus)
Choose a wizard's tower speciality:
A - The Forge [all units have the [Armoured] trait]
B - The Lavapit [allows peasants to be sacrificed]
C - The Ashvent [prevents scrying of the tower]
And decide what to do next:
1 - Investigate the ship (costs 3 mana to cross the sea)
2 - Investigate the burned houses on the mainland (costs 1 mana to cross the smaller amount of sea)
3 - Investigate Vulcanus further
Fortune
Knowing the others are alive and that someone fucked with the ritual means there's a good chance someone is after us. Don't let anyone know what's going on here until we're good and ready for it.
Fortune
Also mana I guess.
Fortune
If someone's coming after us, I'd rather be prepared to fight them rather than hiding behind a veil of ash hoping they don't see me or atop a peasant's pyre. Besides which, there's got to be lots of ways to sacrifice a peasant. Doesn't mean we need that in our home.
It would seem prudent to learn what we can about our knife buddy. It'd be nice to know what it can do before we have to rely on it.
Edited: There might be treasure on those boats. Treasure that could be lost if they sink. Failing that, there might be peasants that could be put to work.
Fortune
I think we know what happened to those houses Vulcanus. But the question is why.
Fortune
The boats seem our most time limited option. None of the others are going anywhere.
Mana
And, although checking the ships might be prudent it seems more pressing to learn as much as we can about the shard as quickly as possible.
Feel free to speculate wildly in the additional hours
3
+Fortune
It's clear that at least one of the other initiates knows we're still alive; let's not give them the opportunity to learn anything more. The first thing we need to understand is our own abilities before we can put them to use.
PSN: Wstfgl | GamerTag: An Evil Plan | Battle.net: FallenIdle#1970
Hit me up on BoardGameArena! User: Loaded D1
3
+Mana
No peeking at our wizard tower.