Oh, and a quick note: Drawing takes me waaaayyyy longer than writing, so I'm behind on illustrations. Trying to find a balance. Anyway, squeaking it in here before the end of the weekend (and/or sliding it under the door) because I feel strongly that the character portraits (and some of their features) are important to have now. Will update as I shade them and complete their character sheets, but this will have to do for now. Cheers!
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Alice nods and continues with another sheet-swapping wave of her hand. “Thank you for getting us back on topic. Speaking of powerful artifacts, Runa Morrigan was the Royal Archivist, and the Influence of Preservation. Now she is Paranoia, and she wants to find and hide all the artifacts she can so that nobody else can use them.”
Runa Morrigan: Level 16 Lawless Apathetic Elf Thief.
Character Features: Combat Precision, Agile.
Spells: Hide, Hush, Hold, Haste, Hole, Hamper, Greater Ward, Scrye, Infuse Spirit.
Inventory: Sliver (dagger).
“How does Preservation turn into Paranoia,” Vector asks. “They don’t seem related.”
“Think self-preservation,” Alice says. “Or privacy. Like, you gotta make human connections, right? But if you just go around baring your soul to everyone, then you’ll not only alienate them, you’ll also get badly hurt. The extreme opposite of that is becoming over-private, too-guarded, and never letting anyone know anything important about you. And that’s where Runa’s at.”
“So is that, like, Ceena’s sister, then,” Phyr asks.
“No, she’s Ceena’s daughter. Well, one of them,” Alice says, waving her hand over the illusion yet again. “Which brings us to Dara Morrigan, Captain of the Royal Guard: she was Passion, and a true believer in the Har’tei regime. So much so that she left the Church of the Stars, and Ceena’s dream for her to become a high-ranking church official, to pursue a career closer to the throne. As the High Queen and King could well take care of themselves, the Royal Guard were less protectors and more elite shock troops. But then dissonance hit, Rayla and Aqu abdicated, and Dara became Fury. Her force isn’t nearly as large as Mephistopheles’, but she’s basically got a few dozen crack commandos behind her, who all think she’d be the best next High Queen.”
Dara Morrigan: Level 19 Lawbound Vengeful Elf Warrior.
Character Features: Furious, Stalwart, Berserker.
Spells: Greater Heal, Shield, Blast, Scrye, Etherblade, Infuriate, Hasten, Ward.
Inventory: Queen's Wrath (warblade), Queen's Honor (rapier), Queen's Embrace (armor).
“Big family,” Phyr says.
“Not even done,” Alice says with another Illusion-shifting handwave. “The youngest of Ceena’s daughters is Asha Morrigan, the Influence of Desire. She was the First Mage to High King Aqu, but when they fell, she became Insatiability. Locking herself in the Castle Har’tei library on Moristella, she grew obsessed with forbidden magic - and became a powerful bloodwitch.”
Asha Morrigan: Level 17 Impartial Evil Elf Bloodwitch.
Character Features: Blood Magic, Restless.
Spells: Blood Boil, Sacrifice, Greater Heal, Push, Hold, Puppet, Drain, Hamper, Ward.
Inventory: Duramen (staff).
Phyr says, “Bloodwitch? OK, so she’s a vampire.”
“No,” Alice says, “She’s a bloodwitch. There’s a huge difference.”
“Does she drink blood,” he asks.
Alice says, “I mean, consuming blood is a way for bloodwitches to restore their mana…”
“So she’s a vampire,” Phyr says smugly.
“No she’s not,” Alice insists. “For one thing, she doesn’t have a weakness to sunlight.”
“OK, so she’s a shitty vampire,” Phyr says. “What, does she fuckin’ sparkle, too?”
“She’s not a vampire at all,” Alice says heatedly. “She just uses blood as a power source and focus for her magic.”
“That kinda sounds like a vampire,” Vector says.
“UGH. Moving on!” Alice shuts her eyes and screws up her face for a moment before displaying the next character sheet. “Nathanael Thorn. As Humility, he sought to serve the regime without pursuing publicity or prestige, and became a powerful spellbreaker in the Order of the Hidden Hand. But dissonance turned him into Self-loathing, and after destroying the rest of the Order over the last several months, he now secludes himself in a derelict castle of the Forgotten Wastes.”
“Some ‘powerful spellbreaker’,” Phyr sneers. “He’s the lowest level of any of ‘em.”
“And you’re all lower level than him,” Alice swiftly points out. “Don’t underestimate him. He may be a lower level, but he is highly skilled. His Mana Manipulator feature allows him to cast spells on spells - and he uses it to great effect.”
Vector says, “I really don’t like those ‘Knows How You Think’ and ‘Knows All Your Moves’ features, either. I’ve got a bad feeling about this guy.”
Pannych says, “He’s been alone in a wasteland castle for months? I mean, sure, that sounds kinda loser-ish - but he’s been able to survive in a wasteland castle for months. Seems pretty tough to me.”
“Stars’ names, we are almost done,” Alice says in irritation. “Second to last, we have Lila Sherwood, the Influence of Harmony.”
“I knew it,” Phyr shouts. “I knew one of them had to be about music!”
“Not that kind of harmony,” Alice says. “Harmony with nature. Respect for the wilderness, conservation of the environment, that sort of thing. She served the regime as First Ranger of the Wild Protectorate, basically the EPA. But she corrupted to become Savagery, and returned to the Aguja-Piedra Mountains where she’s from.”
Lila Sherwood: Level 28 Wild Evil Giant Ranger.
Character Features: Giant, Berserker, Natural Intuition, Werewolf.
Spells: Purify, Battlecry, Hasten, Dispel, Ward, Scrye, Transform, Lunacy, Moonbeam.
“Wait,” Pannych says, “So she’s a giant and a werewolf?”
“Yup,” Alice says. “Big, fast, strong, and tough. Last, but definitely not least, is Garv, King of Dragons. As Pride, he rules the Rept Isles, an archipelago on the other side of the world and the only part of it that Rayla and Aqu didn’t conquer. He’s the only one who didn’t serve the regime in any way, and there was kind of a standoff where they didn’t make peace but couldn’t realistically pursue war, so things just kinda sat there. Now that the Broken Throne sits empty, though, it’s only a matter of time until he rallies his dragon hordes as Hubris and tries to conquer the rest of the world.”
Garv, King of Dragons: Level 19 Lawbound Despotic Dragon Warlord.
Character Features: Dragon, Stalwart, Vox Magno, Perfect Pitch.
Spells: Etherwing, Flame, Chill, Level, Battlecry, Inspire, Dread.
“Hold on,” Vector asks, flipping back a few pages, “How come the Rept Isles aren’t anywhere on the map?”
“They don’t exist right now,” Alice says, dismissing the illusion at last. “The world wasn’t created whole and complete - parts of it are just missing.”
“So you didn’t even make a whole world,” Phyr taunts, “Just most of one.”
“Yeah, that sounds like me,” Pannych says with a shrug.
“Strictly speaking, Pannych didn’t create the world at all,” Alice explains. “She’s just a part of Deirdre that’s playing in it, which is why she’s not all-powerful here. Because that wouldn’t be as interesting. But it looks like Pannych was still given an edge here and there: like a spell that pauses time, or an oversized mana pool.”
Vector says, “Or leaving out an entire nation of dragons until you get the hang of things.”
Alice continues, “Yeah, well, with part of the world missing, part of my life force is missing, so now I’m a zombie until everything’s back in place.”
Pannych says, “But at least that means Garv is out of the picture for the moment, right? I’d hate to get surprise-attacked by a buncha dragons.”
“Sure, great,” Alice says, “But food all tastes like cardboard to me, and I can’t sleep, and food & sleep are like my two favorite things in the world! So I hope you can appreciate that I am not the happiest right now.”
Pannych says, “So how do we fix it? I have a Summon World spell, do I just need enough mana to cast it?”
“Yes,” Alice says, “But you need to be physically out there yourself, since the spell has limited range. As for the mana, it’s gonna take like 14,000, and good luck getting it. The regime’s resources have all been sacked by the Influences, and pretty much everything else has been grabbed by whoever’s closest. Every mana potion production facility has made some kind of black market arrangement with one of them, so you’re gonna be hard-pressed to get your hands on any.”
Pannych says, “We could try Phyr’s mana generator idea? Maybe use a couple of them?”
Vector says, “We might be able to pull a favor with the magic guild here, since we killed Stewart and got those spellbooks back.”
Phyr says, “What about Vincent’s place? He had black market contacts, we might be able to find an in-road that way.”
Alice says, “Those are all pretty decent ideas, but there’s a lot of maybes in each of them.”
Vector’s shadow says, you could compete in Thorn’s unregistered tournament.
The adventurers draw their weapons and roll for turn order.
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