Tuesday, November 14, 2023

Talkin' Sticks, Incanting Staves and the Founding of the Silent College

The Founding of the Silent College

The twenty-year reign of Arch-Prelate Pavuul the Cruel was marked by a rising tide of intolerance and savagery.  His Inquisition first targeted the members of own faith, clearing out all opposition in the name of purging heresy.  They turned next to persecuting followers of other deities, driving them from the land and seizing their holdings for the Church.  His power and the power of the church and Inquisition grew, seemingly without limit.  

In his seventh year Pavuul declared a grand witch-hunt aimed at ending the practice of all "unholy" magic throughout the land.  This lead to countless hedge wizards, wise folk and village witches being forced to abandon their ways through the Holy Ritual of Silence.  The Silencing was a horrific ceremonial torture, with tongues cut out and teeth removed before a sentence of exile was imposed.  Any resistance meant death.  

Eventually the College of High Magics took notice, and their Masters came to Pavuul's stronghold to demand an explanation.  Overconfident and full of hubris, they were betrayed and treated just as their hedgecrafting fellows had been.  The lesser practitioners and students of the College fled or were taken and Silenced, and the facilities set to the torch, the ruins buried and the grounds salted.  The Church (under the Arch-Prelate's guiding hand) now reigned supreme, with even the royal family obedient to his every dictate.

Thus it remained for thirteen longs years.  On the anniversary of the Masters' betrayal and Silencing, they reappeared outside the temple of Pavuul in the fullness of their power, each bearing a long staff that incanted terrible magics that their ruined mouths could no longer utter.  Pavuul, his court, his god's temple, and every member of his Inquisition were swept away to other realms by a dreadful wind, and in that place rose a new and grimmer College.  The College of Silence, whose Masters had shown their own powers to be greater than Pavuul's cruelty.

Following the Masters' return, many other victims of the witch-hunts returned from exile as well.  They too had found ways to work around the Silencing, humbler ways but ones that let them teach the next generation the lesser ways of the craft and give the benefits of their wisdoms again.  While few survivors of the Silencing still live, their talkin' sticks are a common sight among those they taught and command respect in the small settlements where hedgecraft is most common. 

The Masters have never admitted it, but they had their revenge largely through building on the "little magic" practiced by a hedge-witch who created the first talkin' stick so she could resume giving advice to her countless nieces and grand-nieces.  To this day, even the haughtiest graduates of the College of Silence are bound by secret oaths to treat wise folks and hedgecrafters with respect and to remember always that the highest magic can spring from the humblest root.


Talkin' Sticks

Description:  These appear to be a simple walking stick, crudely cut from a suitable tree branch.  At the top of the stick is a small wooden plaque decorated with a stylized mouth, fixed in place with a single iron nail.  Even the most basic magical examination reveals a simple but robust aura of communications magic.

Powers:  While holding a talkin' stick, the user is in capable of making any sound with their own mouth, including speech, song, whistling, etc.  Instead, any sound they attempt to make issues from the "mouth" atop the the stick.  The stick grants no special abilities to most people (eg it uses your voice, can only sing as well as you could naturally) and cannot be used for verbal spellcasting, although it can trigger items that require simple command words.  About the biggest trick you can do with a talkin' stick is to make your voice sound like it's coming from a few feet away from your actual position by stretching the stick out, something that might actually be useful if you poke it around a corner or through a window without being seen.

People who were born incapable of speech (in a species that can normally communicate verbally as adults) or lost the capability during infancy will discover the voice they would have had when using a talkin' stick, and that voice will remain theirs even when using a different stick.  Speech impediments (regardless of cause) are "corrected" when speaking through a stick whether you want them to be or not, which may actually cause some problems in recognizing the speaker if listeners are familiar with their real voice.  Of course, you could always just let go of the stick and speak normally.  

Possible Origins:  Very much hedge magic, talkin' sticks are almost entirely used by people who've had their speech impaired or removed altogether through heritage, injury or magic.  They're effectively magical prostheses.  Unsurprisingly, the process of enchanting one of these things requires no verbal components at all.     

Complications:  For most users, you have to lug around a big stick with a board nailed to it if you want to speak clearly.  That can awkward.  Rumor has it there are fancier (and much more expensive) variations of this enchantment embedded in more convenient items like rings or amulets or necklaces, but those are for nobles and require far greater magical skill to produce.  The same rumors suggest that many of these are cursed in one way or another.


Incanting Staff

Description:  A six foot long staff made of smoothly-polished silverwood inlaid with a spiral of jet winding up its full length, topped with a disc of pure gold engraved with a stylized mouth surrounded by arcane symbols.  Simple detection magics will be nearly blinded by an intense aura of raw power surrounding the staff.  More sophisticated auguries will reveal the item is bonded to a single user at a time and provide clues as to how to re-weave that bond for a different individual.

Powers:  A spellcaster bonded to an incanting staff cannot make any sound at all with their own mouth, but can speak normally through the staff as though it were a mere talkin' stick and the staff's voice is unaffected by magic that would silence or alter it.  More importantly, the staff can be used for spellcasting, including both the user's own inherent magics and any scrolls or other items that require verbal components.

Possible Origins:  These are universally the product of the Masters of the Silent College, and they jealously guard the arcane formulae required for their creation.  That said, a few of them have been made as gifts for other wizards with need of such magic, usually in exchange for some great favor or quest.  At least two of the Silent Masters have perished and their staves bonded to new owners over the years as well.  

Like the talkin' sticks, the process of enchanting one of these things requires no verbal components at all, although these items requires enormous skill and power. by comparison

Complications:  If you have one of these and you weren't given it by the College of Silence, expect the Masters to take an interest in where you got it and how.  They don't take kindly to murder of their fellows and allies, and don't want anyone using an incanting staff to try to duplicate its enchantment. 


Design Commentary:  Inspired by a post about wizards with speech impediments, of all things.

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Trousers of Carcinization, A Riff On An Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets Post

This post was inspired by the Trousers of the Crab magic item over on the Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets blog, so you'll want to go read that one first to understand this one.  My sincere thanks to bät for something to riff on, as well as years of entertaining posts to read.

Trousers of Carcinization

Roughly 1 in 20 Trousers of the Crab are actually cursed due to a botched enchantments, producing Trousers of Carcinization.  These function identically to the normal version with two exceptions:

1) Any humanoid creature coming in contact with the transformed wearer must save vs. magic or undergo an identical transformation that lasts for 1-6 hours.  This probably has dire effects on one's wardrobe, which won't adapt to the sudden change the way Trousers of the Crab do.  This curse is contagious and can be passed on by victims through contact in the same way they were originally infected.

2) Upon removing the enchanted trousers (or at the end of the curse's duration for other victims) there is a 10% chance that the transformation spontaneously recurs 1-6 hours later, this time becoming permanent but thankfully non-contagious.  Only a Remove Curse or similar magic can end the curse once this occurs.

Further Notes

Rumors persist that even with properly-made Trousers the enchantment may spread to other items of apparel over time, making it dangerous to keep these things in a wardrobe, closet or backpack unless you enjoy surprise transformations when dressing.  Such tainted clothing results in crab-form mutations appropriate to the body part they're meant to be worn on, resulting in effects ranging from inconvenient to horrific.

Cestus/Gauntlet/Glove of the Crab

It's possible that these rumors may be the result of encounters a different magic item, the Glove (or sometimes Gauntlet or Cestus) of the Crab.  These are popular weapons/tools in some circles, albeit not without their drawbacks.

When worn by a humanoid creature, this magic item transforms the forearm and hand into a large crab claw until removed.  This claw can be used for fighting (dealing damage as a broadsword) and each claw improves your armor class or parrying ability by one (or 5% for d100 systems).  The claws are useless for fine manipulation, but can exert great crushing force (treat as 125% of the wearer's normal strength for that purpose only) and effortlessly retain a strong grip for hours.  

These are usually found singly, but if a pair are found (10% chance) they function only when both are worn at once.  This allows an extra claw attack and improves defenses as above, but the wearer will require assistance (or bare feet and some skill as a contortionist) to remove the gloves.

Tuesday, January 31, 2023

The Syracuse Seven - Bush League Hero Team for Tiny Supers

The Syracuse Seven are a very minor-league superhero team that operates out of Syracuse, New York.  They're government sanctioned and funded and act as something of a proving ground for newer supers to get some experience before being promoted to more important groups.  The current roster includes:

Agent Augur, nominal team leader, government liaison, and intrusive telepath

Justifier, mysterious mimic, crime-buster, master detective, and often AWOL on other business

KO Clown, living cartoon, team defender, enthusiastically violent in a kid-friendly sort of way

The Leaping Lizard, genius gadgeteer who turned himself into an anthropomorphic reptile

Meteoric, young mutant whose powers make her a living cannonball

Mister Corundum, quick-thinking alien brick, team's tactical coordinator

Scintillator, versatile energy manipulator whose powers are still developing


Agent Augur is pretty much the "team dad" guy with no personal life to speak of, and does all the paperwork needed to keep things going.  Justifier is absent so often they're barely an associate member, but provides a lot of the investigative skill and intel the rest of the team is light on.  KO Clown is just plain weird, but likes bonking bad guys and the younger team members love his cartoons.  The Leaping Lizard is the team science guy, good at coming up with useful gadgetry and competent in a fight too.  Meteoric is the team's flyer and speedster rolled into one, as well as being a backup brick.  Mister Corundum is extremely tough and as masterful at solving tactical problems as he is inept at understanding the finer points of human culture.  Scintillator is the team's ranged expert with a specialty in dealing with mobs of low-level targets.

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Agent Augur

"John Smith" had his old identity officially erased when he volunteered for the enhancement program that made him into Agent Augur, and there's little room in his new life for anything but his work now.  That work was meant to be as an intelligence agent, a super-spy who could use his induced telepathy to ferret out secrets and detect hostile schemes before they could come to fruition.  That plan went by the wayside.  He was still finishing his training when several new international agreements were signed and his kind of "work" was officially banned and disavowed.  

Making the best of a bad deal, the shadowy agency that had recruited him gave a new task - acting as government liaison and coordinator for the hero team he now works with.  This put him in the awkward position of needing to fight alongside (and against) supers who could bench press a car, breathe fire and bounce bullets off their chests, something all the mind-reading in the world wouldn't help much against.  Still, he keeps his head down and does his best, usually dealing with henchmen or squishier villains while his allies deal with the bigger threats.  He's also a good "face" for the team, dealing with local law enforcement, politicians and new media with some aplomb thanks to his casual and quite unethical mind reading.

Agent Augur habitually uses his mind-reading to say and do the right thing in social situations, but it's debatable how much of that stems from a desire to be liked and how much is just manipulation.  Whichever it is he's pretty subtle about it, although if he's ever forced to work without his psionic edge his teammates may wonder why he seems so "off" all of a sudden.  With villains he's much more open about his prying.

Description: Tall, powerfully built man of Irish descent, usually dressed in nondescript clothing appropriate to the setting.  He looks good in anything from a tuxedo to a old flannel shirt, but does his best to avoid drawing attention when he can.  When working with his hero team he adopts an unmarked set of urban camo fatigues with black combat boots.  He has a deep but soft voice normally, although he can do a fine "drill sergeant" routine when he needs to.

Gender: Male            Age: 32            Height: 6'1"            Eyes: Green

Hair: Red                   Skin: Caucasian, Heavily Freckled              Build: Athletic

Archetype:  Controller

Stress Capacity:  5

Power Traits: 

Brawler - When fighting Unarmed, you Evade with 2d6 rather than 1d6. 

Crowd Control - You can use any power that does not directly inflict damage on up to three targets rather than one.

Mind Reading 2 - As an action, you may read the mind of one target.  You gain Advantage on your next roll against them, and for one turn you may Evade their attacks without taking an Evade action.

Power Origin: Enhanced

Weakness: 

Disembodied Intelligences - Whether they're astral projections, ghostly spirits or beings of pure energy, immaterial mentalities are a jarring discordancy to his psionic senses.  Complains of headaches and nosebleeds when such entities are in the vicinity, which may give away their presence.  Artificial intelligences hosted on hardware like a computer or a robotic body don't cause him problems, though.

Trained Weapons (roll 2d6): Unarmed                                     

Mastered Weapons (roll 3d6): Karate Chops

Tactics

Agent Augur uses his telepathy to read his foes' weaknesses and avoid their strikes but physically he's still just a normal human and very fragile compared to most supers.  His fighting style relies on skill and precision rather than brute force, and he actively avoids heavily-armored enemies that he simply can't handle.  As a Controller archetype he can scan three enemies at a time, and he'll look for openings to use the Advantage gained for things other than just trading hits.  Sometimes talking an enemy down or intimidating them is more effective than simply fighting them.  Outside of a fight he's also very good at interrogations and negotiations, as you'd expect.

Advancements

He could expand his psionics in many directions, but really wants to take advantage of his Crowd Control trait when he can.  Strong choices include Healing 1, Invisibility up to 3, or adding Ranged proficiency followed by Snare at 2.  Other good "mentalist" powers include Telekinesis and Super-Senses, although they lack Crowd Control synergy.  You could also try adding Blast as a mental attack, although he's still not going to become a combat powerhouse.  If you wanted to break the mold, his further "super agent" enhancements could go down a more physical route, adding Super-Strength, Armor and Super-Speed to become a physical powerhouse as well as a mental one.

Among the regular traits Tough and Armor Master would help his fragility issues, Beastspeaker is a great "telepath" trait, and Perceptive, Eidetic Memory, Detective and Resolute are all quite on-theme.  Adding Stress Capacity might also be helpful, albeit not very efficient.

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Justifier

Justifier is largely a mystery even to their teammates, and to criminals they're a terrifying legend.  Whoever they are, their ability to infiltrate all but the most closely-knit gangs and operations drives crooks to a paranoid frenzy that probably does more damage to them than anything the vigilante could accomplish alone.  Much more of a lone wolf than a group player, Justifier does maintain a tentative membership on the local hero team for times when they've finished their investigations and decide that some backup is needed to deal with a supervillain threat or an unusually large or well-equipped gang.

It's pretty common for Justifier to vanish for long periods of time, and is really more of an associate team member at best - or shady ally at worst.  Most likely has other things going on outside of the local area.  Agent Augur may know more details (he's hard to keep secrets from) but isn't telling anyone else other than to vouch for Justifier as reliable. 

Description: Can look like anyone, anytime.  Uses stealth and imitation to infiltrate the enemy until ready to strike.  May mimic another hero to confuse and intimidate foes.  Often duplicates whoever they're speaking to.  Has a multitude of other forms for use as disguises, ranging from inconspicuous civilians to uniformed police to costumed criminal henchmen.  No one knows if there's a "real" form behind the masks.

Gender: Unknown            Age: Unknown           Height: Variable            Eyes: Variable

Hair: Variable                   Skin: Variable             Build: Variable

Archetype:  Expert

Stress Capacity:  6

Power Traits: 

Barfighter - You are proficient with Improvised Weapons.  Rather than Mastering one, when fighting with an Improvised Weapon you gain an extra action each turn.

Detective - Gain Advantage when searching for clues about the identity, motives or whereabouts of an individual.

Insightful - Gain Advantage when testing to determine whether someone is being truthful or lying.

Mastery - You may select two extra traits, but you may only take one power trait in total. 

Shapeshifting/Mimic 1 - As an action you can alter your appearance to that of another person.  Normal clothing can be imitated as well.  Gain Advantage on any attempt to pass yourself as someone else or deceive others as to your identity.

Sneaky - Gain Advantage when testing to conceal or move about without being noticed.

Power Origin: Magical

Weakness: 

Driving Goal - Protect the innocent at all costs, even if it means a criminal must go unpunished for now.  Bad at dealing with hostage situations and must always try to rescue endangered civilians.  Criminals get no such consideration, and can simply be left to their fate.

Trained Weapons (roll 2d6): Improvised Weapons, Unarmed                                    

Mastered Weapons (roll 3d6): Punches

Tactics

Justifier isn't much of a fighter by heroic standards, and relies heavily on stealth and trickery to stay alive in a fight while more powerful teammates deal with the actual supervillains.  They can hold their own against non-powered criminals and henchmen, often infiltrating their ranks and taking them out by surprise and using their own weapons against them.  Outside of a fight they're an excellent manhunter and good at breaching organizational security to work from within.  Much more of a vigilante "mystery man" than a cape and cowl super.  Justifier's sole power is a magical boon of some kind, and if it's somehow negated Justifer retains their current form but can't adopt a new one. 

Advancements

Traits, traits and more traits.  Maybe pick up Ranged, Light and Heavy Melee Weapon proficiencies and masteries to give him more options.  Once you've gotten Tough extra Stress Capacity couldn't hurt.  Armor Mastery might be a little restrictive unless you can get a "miracle molecule" supersuit that you can use without hindering Mimic.  You're always going to struggle to stand up to powered villains in a toe-to-toe fight, so don't do that.

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KO Clown

KO Clown started out as a character in the 1930s "Clown Town" cinematic cartoon series, where he mostly played the hero by showing up at the last moment to stop the scheme of Mister Mean by bonking him with a hammer.  The shorts weren't the most sophisticated humor even for their era, but became popular enough to get a newspaper strip and later a children's radio program and comic book.  In the late 1940s a young boy named Ricky Little somehow gained the ability to summon KO Clown into our reality by saying the magic word "Okaykayo!" and the two of them spent about five years bonking real-life mobsters, recalcitrant Nazis, mad scientists and Communist spies along with other peculiar Golden Age heroes.

Ricky disappeared when he was sixteen, the same night that a studio fire destroyed the original prints of the Clown Town shorts and that was the last anyone saw of KO Clown for decades.  Clown Town faded into obscurity by the end of the 1950s, and remained an obscure "lost media" curiosity until 2023 when a forgotten film reel was discovered by a film historian.  As luck would have it, that historian had a ten year old daughter and the magic word worked as well for her as it had for Ricky Little.  It took a while to explain concepts like "child endangerment" to KO Clown, but he eventually accepted that things had changed.  He now works with a minor superhero team rather than a unpowered preteen crimefighting partner.  Many villains hate him with a passion - getting beaten silly by an old-fashioned cartoon is embarrassing - but he's actually got his fans even in the supercrime community.

But no matter how busy things get, he still makes time to visit little Susie and always comes when she calls out "Okaykayo!"  Her father is still digging into KO Clown's past, and there are some things buried there that might be awkward for everyone involved.  If KO Clown can manifest here in the real world, why not other cartoon characters like Mister Mean?  And what happened to Ricky Little?

Description: A cartoon clown.  Tall, gangly, rubber-limbed, wearing bright blue pants, a canary yellow shirt with big red buttons, white suspenders and gloves, and enormous red clown shoes.  He carries a huge red mallet that's taller than he is, except when it's tucked away in hammerspace.  His clown makeup changes to reflect his emotions, which are limited to glad, sad, or mad most of the time.  Sometimes he goes all monochrome just for the sake of nostalgia.  Has a jolly voice and his movements are weirdly jerky, like early cel animation.

Gender: Male            Age: Clowns Are Eternal           Height: 6'2"          Eyes: Bright Blue

Hair: Neon Green Fright Wig       Skin: Pasty White Under The Clown Makeup     Build: Lanky

Archetype:  Defender

Stress Capacity:  9

Power Traits: 

Protector - Once per turn when an ally is hit, you can take that hit yourself instead.

Shapeshifting/Stretching 2 - Recover one Stress at the start of your turn.  Reduce all damage dealt to you by one, to a minimum of one.

Super-Strength 1 - You gain Advantage when rolling to do something with brute force.  Your Melee attacks deal one extra damage. 

Origin: Dimensional?

Weakness: 

"Kissy Stuff" - He's a character from a 1930s children's cartoon and has the mentality of a stereotypical ten year old boy.  Even mild displays of affection throw him off his stride, and explicit sexual displays are pretty much his Achilles' heel - assuming he even recognizes them for what they are.  He may express concern about catching cooties when fighting female supervillains.

Trained Weapons (roll 2d6): Heavy Melee                                       

Mastered Weapons (roll 3d6): Big Old Clown Hammer

Tactics

KO Clown's a melee beater who loves to throw himself in the path of attacks on his allies.  He'll usually try to block a high damage attack so he can reduce it a bit, but sucking up one point hits will still give his regeneration something to do.  He's very hard hitting himself, dealing three damage with his mallet or similarly oversized weapons, and his stretching gives him at least three times the reach of a normal human.  He doesn't have much to offer when it comes to ranged combat, although that won't stop him from trying if he's tempted by a display of pies or a set of juggler's clubs.  He technically lacks movement powers, but his super-stretchy legs and arms let him cover ground a bit faster than normal and makes him much better at climbing - at least when he doesn't pull a comedic pratfall and get all knotted up.

Advancements

First priority is to get that third tier of Shapeshifting/Stretching, which bumps him up to Armor 2 and Regeneration 2 and really lets him do a good job tanking.  After that he might want a tier or two of Super-Movement/Jump, and the Acrobatic, Tough, Nimble Fingers and Barfighter traits are all pretty useful early on.  He'd eventually like one or two more tiers of Super-Strength, some Immunities to reflect being a cartoon and a tier of Shapeshifting/Mimic so he can adopt a "normal person" look when he wants to be less noticeable.  Training in Unarmed Combat with the Brawler trait and buying extra Stress Capacity come somewhere even farther down the line, and there are always utility traits like Resolute or Lucky.

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The Leaping Lizard

Lawson Long was a child prodigy and polymath, patenting his first invention at the age of 13.  That would have been more remarkable if his parents hadn't been the mostly-retired genius heroes Longhair and Knack.  He decided early on that he wanted to follow in their footsteps, although they flatly refused to let him go the "sidekick" route and insisted he finish his formal education to at least a master's level before he even thought about entering the hero biz.  He was done with that by the time he was 15, but got distracted for a few years by doing a lot of at-home fringe science with his parents' lab equipment.  By the time he was 19 he'd developed a retroviral serum that he was confident would give him a useful set of powers, and opted to test it on himself without supervision.

His parents came home from vacation two weeks later to discover their son had turned himself into a lizard.  A super-strong lizard who could leap tall buildings in a single bound and heal the broken bones from a bad landing in minutes, but still...a lizard.  It was a bit much even for a pair of superheroes.  Lawson declined their offers to help "cure" him and, after much argument, convinced them that he was happy in his new form and mostly wanted their help getting into a proper training program for new supers.  They called in a few favors and sent their son the lizard off to a government-sponsored program.  He graduated with flying (or leaping, I suppose) colors and has been assigned to "small city level" hero team where he's building a rep under his new supranym, the Leaping Lizard.  His parents have quietly asked the team's handlers to keep an eye on Lawson just to make sure his proclivity for self-experimentation doesn't go too far.  Having a T-Rex show up for Thanksgiving would be awkward, the dining room is already pretty crowded for family get-togethers.   

Description: A long-tailed anthropomorphic lizard, covered in fine scales and generally naked except for crossed utility belts full of gadgetry.  Leanly muscular but with long and very powerful legs.     

Gender: None Apparent, Uses He/Him              Age: 22                   Height: 5'8" (+6' Tail)        

Eyes: Orange With Slitted Pupils        Scales: Brilliant Green          Build: Long-Legged

Archetype:  Gadgeteer

Stress Capacity:  6

Power Traits: 

Inventor - Once per day you may create a Power Gadget that can emulate any Tier 1 Power for one roll or use.  You may have up to three Power Gadgets at a time.

Regeneration 1 - You recover one Stress at the start of your turn. 

Super-Movement/Jump 1 - When you jump, you can cover several city blocks.  When you land from a jump, you may opt to deal everyone in Melee with you one damage.

Super-Strength 1 - You gain Advantage when rolling to do something with brute force.  Your Melee attacks deal one extra damage. 

Power Origin: Inventor 

Weakness: 

Cold - He's an ectothermic reptile and low temperatures really slow him down and leave him groggy.  He's invented some specially-fitted heated clothing that can keep him going in wintertime but they're bulky and constrictive enough to disadvantage him just as badly as freezing does.

Trained Weapons (roll 2d6): Unarmed                                       

Mastered Weapons (roll 3d6): Kicks & Tail Lashes

Tactics

The Leaping Lizard is strong and fast and heals even serious damage with amazing speed, but isn't particularly tough by superhuman standards.  He's still refining the genetic restructuring serums that caused his transformation so that may change over time.  In a fight he looks for clusters of enemies to leap into, hitting and running to keep them off balance.  Against single targets he relies on powerful kicks and lashing with his tail, and really tough enemies who can shrug regular hits off might get smacked with a lamp post or handy automobile after Focusing first.

He tries to keep an array of Power Gadgets on him at all times and uses them sparingly.  The most common gadgets emulate Summoning 1, creating 2-4 slender robotic minions that unfold from compact metallic capsules.  Other gimmicks include visual scrambler nodes (Invisibility 1 - that can last a while) and dimensional bypass modules (Phasing 1 or Teleport 1) for stealthy intrusion work, force projector wands (Telekinesis 1 - very short-lived but handy) and neuroprobes (Mind Reading 1 - mostly for digging out secrets).     

Advancements

Getting Super-Strength up to Tier 3 would help a lot with getting past damage resistances, and climbing the Armor tree would increase his durability.  Improving his starting Regeneration and Super-Movement/Jump to Tier 2 are slightly lower priority.  Acrobatic, Brawler, Educated, Opportunist, Tough and Vigilant are all attractive normal Traits, and you might add Wealthy if he does well patenting his strange inventions.

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Meteoric

Justine Cross is a young mutant whose powers manifested about five years ago, resulting in her permanent transformation into her biometallic form.  Her bigoted family immediately turned their back on her, but her high school teachers and friends helped her find counselling and support, culminating in several years of training in a specialized academy in upstate New York.  Since graduation she's gone on to join a small local super team as part of an outreach program intended to improve mutant relations with the broader supers community.  She's pretty well adjusted considering everything she's gone through and gets along well with her teammates.  They've become found family for her along with her former academy classmates.  Justine has become wary about involving her old high school connections with her new life out of fear they'll be targeted by villains and anti-mutant extremists, and has nothing to do with her biofamily.

Description: A slender young woman made of metal?  A robot built with a feminine human form?  Some kind of iron golem?  It isn't immediately clear.  Her voice is surprisingly deep with mechanical overtones, which just further confuses the issue of just what she is.

Gender: Female            Age: 20           Height: 5'4"            Eyes: Gunmetal Blue

Hair: None                  Skin: Dull Metallic Gray             Build: Boyish

Archetype:  Paragon

Stress Capacity:  6

Power Traits: 

Armored 1 - Reduce all damage dealt to you by one, to a minimum of one.

Flight 1 - You can fly, moving near the speed of sound at your peak.  It takes two actions to reach top speed.

Super-Speed 1 - On any turn in which you move, you count as having taken an Evade action.

Super-Strength 1 - You gain Advantage when rolling to do something with brute force.  Your Melee attacks deal one extra damage.

Power Origin: Mutant

Weakness: 

Electricity - Her biometallic form is an efficient electrical conductor, causing great pain even when she resists actual physical injury.  Needs to be careful around power lines when flying.

Trained Weapons (roll 2d6): Unarmed                                    

Mastered Weapons (roll 3d6): Punches

Tactics

Meteoric is a speedy flying brick who prefers to keep moving during a fight rather than get into toe-to-toe slugfests.  She's a threat to other flyers who rely on ranged attack and distance to stay safe, although she can also do flyby attacks on ground targets pretty effectively.  Her great strength lets her easily carry teammates when needed, and helps with evacuating civilians from a battle zone. 

Advancements

She's still young and growing into her full abilities, so climbing any of her four power trees is a good start.  Armor 2 is probably the first thing to take, followed by Super-Speed 2 and Flight 2.  After that it's a tossup which to improve next, but getting all of them to tier 3 can't hurt.  After that some Immunities or regular traits to fit campaign events would be helpful and on-theme.

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Mister Corundum

"Mister Corundum" is an alien refugee on Earth, rescued from a group of spacefaring slave traders when they attempted to raid Jersey City a few years back.  His real name is mostly outside of human hearing range, hence the "nickname" he's adopted.  While he's really a pretty average Tamfranian citizen, his natural advantages put him on par with many supers, so he's volunteered to join a small-time hero team while he waits for an opportunity to get back off world.  As a member of a long-lived species he figures he can spare a few decades playing do-gooder for these frail aliens,  It's a fair repayment for being saved from a one-way trip to the spice mines or galactic gladiatoral arenas.

Corundum is frequently bemused by Earth customs, and asks a lot of awkward questions about everything from biology to politics.  Fortunately he's a good-natured sort and rarely causes lasting offense.  He has faced some anti-xeno bigotry already and there's probably more to come, but it hasn't made him cynical yet.

Description: A tall humanoid figure made of blue crystals with pink and purple highlights.  Much broader across the shoulders than humans, has a top-heavy look with a microcephalic head.  His voice is high pitched and sounds like chimes.  If it wasn't already obvious that he's not a Terran native, the six-digited hands and three-taloned feet should make it clear.

Gender: What's That?            Age: 48            Height: 6'4"            Eyes: Dark Purple

Hair: Spikes Of White Crystal        Skin: Sapphire Crystal              Build: Multi-Faceted

Archetype:  Mastermind

Stress Capacity:  5

Power Traits: 

Armor 2 - Reduce all damage dealt to you by two, to a minimum of zero. 

Leadership - As an action, choose two of your allies.  They gain Advantage on their next roll.

Super-Strength 1 - You gain Advantage when rolling to do something with brute force.  Your Melee attacks deal one extra damage. 

Power Origin: Alien

Weakness: 

No Head For Heights - Seriously, he gets dizzy on a stepladder, not that most of them can support his weight anyway.  He stays well away from windows in skyscrapers, hates making rooftop patrols, and really dislikes flying.  The fact that he'd probably hurt the ground more than himself if he fell off a ten-story building doesn't matter, this is an irrational fear of his.

Trained Weapons (roll 2d6): Unarmed                                     

Mastered Weapons (roll 3d6): Bludgeoning Fists

Tactics

Mister Corundum is fairly average specimen of his species, which means he's inhumanly strong, fantastically tough if a little brittle, and very quick thinking thanks to his "brain" being a lattice of crystalline circuitry.  His natural advantages make him a decent brawler even by superhero standards, but he'll often skip trading punches to use Leadership on his allies.  If he runs into something as durable as he is he'll resort to Focusing and then grabbing something big and heavy to flail away with just to get some damage in.

Advancements

Earth's magnetic field, sunlight and atmosphere will supercharge his Tamfranian metabolism over time, so growing into Armor 3, Super-Strength 3, various Immunities, Regeneration 1, Super-Senses 1, Teleportation 1, Energy Control/Time and Elemental Control/Earth are all possibilities.  Go wild, he's an alien with a strange physiology.  Adding Eidetic Memory, Resolute and Tough as normal traits would also be reasonable.

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Scintillator

Asterope Jones is new to the hero scene, having begun developing her energy-based powers at age 18.  She spent the last four years growing into them under the aegis of a federal training program for young supers that also offered educational support in exchange for a tour of duty with a sponsored hero team.  Asterope had planned to go into community services and social activism after college anyway, but this seems like it might be an even better path for her and it's saving a fortune in student loans.  The idea of it being dangerous hasn't fully sunk in yet, and maybe it never will.  She's growing in power daily and the examiners who tried to categorize her were uncertain what her peak levels might turn out to be.  Her power source is definitely magical in nature, but it seems to be some kind of recessive heritage thing rather than the usual spell-and-scroll stuff, which Asterope has zero talent for.  Maybe there was a storm deity in her family tree or something?  She likes that idea.

To date her only real complaint is her supranym, which wasn't her first choice.  She'd planned to use her own first name (which is really on point for her power set) only to be informed that another US super was already using it - and her real name was Karen, of all things.  So unfair.  Scintillator isn't bad and sounds pretty catchy, but she still stumbles over it sometimes and tends to slip and use Asterope when she's not concentrating.  To put it mildly, she doesn't have a secret identity, and really isn't cut out for it.

Description: A lean, muscular young woman dressed in a snug red sleeveless bodysuit, white trunks and ankle boots, and a short white vest.  Her eyes literally give off sparks and she's accompanied by a faint smell of ozone.  She has a strong, clear voice with a faint Brooklyn accent, although you can sometimes hear an electrical buzz underlying it.

Gender: Female            Age: 21            Height: 5'8"            Eyes: Sparking White

Hair: Shaved Scalp                 Skin: Mahogany                    Build: Extremely Fit

Archetype:  Striker

Stress Capacity:  7

Power Traits: 

Energy Control/Electricity 2 - As an action you can generate a shock that deals one damage to any target you can touch.  This damage can be transferred to additional targets through conductive material at the GM's discretion.  As an action you can make a Ranged Blast Attack that deals one damage to up to three targets and never needs to be reloaded.  

Energy Control/Light 1 - As an action you can generate a brilliant flash of light.  Anyone who can see you must make a Save Test.  If they fail, they suffer Disadvantage on their next Action if it relies on vision in any way.

Powerful Blows - The damage you deal cannot be reduced below one.

Power Origin: Magical 

Weakness: 

Getting Soaked With Water - Whether she's actually immersed or just wet to the bone, she suffers painful feedback that seriously handicaps her until she dries out.  Habitually keeps an eye on weather forecasts and carries an umbrella when expecting rain, sometimes has a tote full of towels along for missions.

Trained Weapons (roll 2d6): Ranged                                       

Mastered Weapons (roll 3d6): Blast Attacks

Tactics

Scintillator is a ranged specialist and does her best to avoid getting in punch-ups, although she can hand out some nasty electrical shocks if hard pressed.  Doesn't even have to roll to hit if she's being grappled, and she'll happily use conductive materials to hit multiple targets that way.  For some reason she seems to wind up getting in fights near fountains, puddles, streams and swimming pools far more often than she'd like, so she might as well take advantage of that.  She prefers to blast away at multiple targets with her lightning powers, using her blinding flash trick to handicap return fire.  Her team has a codeword (usually "tunafish!" for obscure reasons) they use to call for a flash, and they know enough to look away from her or close their eyes when they hear it.  She's not especially tough but does deal with multiple foes well, and as a Striker she can push a little damage through even the most potent defenses. 

Advancements

Asterope is a young super whose powers are still growing, and her early choices are mostly between which of her two Energy Control "trees" to finish out and in what order.  Going with Electricity 3 would get her a damage two zap and that handy Teleportation power right away, but Light 2 would get her laser death rays for similar damage and set her up to get Light 3 next, which would give her Flight, Healing, and even better lasers as her highest damage attack option.  After working those out, Super-Senses/Vision would give her good insurance against visual camouflage and blinding effects.  Taking Resolute and the Absorption tree would be a good combo that plays into her overall power set, or she might expand her Energy Control into the Time tree as well.  She might also pick up Phasing and Regeneration as she gains greater control over her energized physical form.  Charismatic, Educated, and Insightful would all fit her personality and goals nicely.  And of course Tough and extra Stress Capacity are always helpful for veteran heroes, which she'll be someday if she survives.

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Sunday, November 6, 2022

Verdant Basilisk, A Sylvan Monster

Verdant Basilisk

Description:  An eight foot long hybrid of serpent and lizard, sporting ten short legs and a head like a short-snouted crocodile with saw-like teeth.  The creature is covered with leaf-shaped scales, and sports a frill of grass-like hair running down its spine and forming a tuft at the tip of its tail.  Its scales change color seasonally, ranging from brilliant green in the spring and summer to a motley of red, orange, yellow and brown in autumn to faded grayish-white during the winter.  

Abilities:  A verdant basilisk has the same physical attacks as "normal" basilisks do in your preferred game system, or if your game lacks basilisks of any kind it bites for about as much damage as a longsword swing.  They can swim adequately and are very good at climbing, often ambushing victims from the trees overhead.

The creature's petrification effect functions according the normal rules (ie try to avoid its gaze, or being bitten, or in some systems being breathed upon, and if you can't do so then you must try to resist using your sheer fortitude or magical defenses), but rather than turning its victims to stone a verdant basilisk's gaze (or bite, or breath) transforms creatures into young trees.  

A roughly human-sized creature twists and contorts into a tree roughly ten feet tall and six to eight inches in diameter, while smaller creatures become saplings.  These trees radiate an aura of transformative magic, and will grow swiftly over time if rooted in a suitable environment, reaching heights of about fifty feet within five years.   The lair of a verdant basilisk will usually be surrounded by dense thickets of these tress, which even mundane examiners may identify via their distinctive hastate leaves and scars from basilisk claws and bites.

A basilisk tree that perishes for any reason reverts to its original form in death, as does any equipment or treasure it was carrying when transformed.  Considerable amounts of random loot can be found amongst the leaf litter and mold of a verdant basilisk's territory, and ruthless adventurers might find more by resorting to axes or fire to "harvest" helpless victims.

Magic that reverses petrification has no effect on a basilisk tree, although most druids and some priests of nature deities have access to mechanically identical spells or rituals that can do the same job.  Even with such magic there's another danger not seen with "normal" petrification.  A verdant basilisk's victims remain dimly aware of their situation while a tree, and the longer one spends in that state the greater the chance that they'll go quite mad from the experience.  There's no danger within the first three months, but after that they have a cumulative 5% chance each season of being hopelessly insane if revived.  Bonuses to resisting madness or mind-affecting magic will decrease this chance.       

Behavior:  These creatures are technically herbivores, as they subsist entirely upon the foliage of their transformed victims.  Despite this, they display a keen hunting instinct and actively seek out those who enter its territory in order to add to the groves they feed in.  While only of animal intelligence their behavior is actively malicious, and they'll frequently "torture" transformed victims by clawing trunks and gnawing off smaller branches.  Verdant basilisks are most aggressive during the spring and summer, concentrating on gorging itself during the fall in preparation for winter hibernation.  They generally dig three or four separate dens deep among the roots of the largest of their trees, moving between them randomly from day to day.

Possible Origins:  Unclear, but some sages speculate that they may be a magical mutation of the more traditional basilisk species.  There are obscure myths claiming that all basilisks originated from a divine curse targeted at specific folk, with the verdant basilisk being aimed at elves and other sylvan races while the "normal" turn-you-to-stone basilisks are the bane of the Dwarves and mountain trolls.

Treasure:  None, beyond what you can find on the forest floor where victims have died and transformed back into their original forms.  Most mundane gear will be much the worse for wear thanks to exposure to the elements and loose coins will be time-consuming to find and collect, but magical gear is more likely to survive intact and easier to locate if one can detect arcane emanations.  

Chopping down the creature's victims will make collecting treasure much easier and it will be in better shape, but the majority of a basilisk's prey won't be carrying powerful magic or expensive gear or they wouldn't have become victims in the first place.  This approach may excite comment from anyone presented with evidence of what was done, such as accidentally attempting to sell a looted family heirloom to a relative of the now-deceased victim.

Tuesday, January 18, 2022

Ten Thousand Words For Green

A Truth About the Tongue of Dragons

Dragons have keener senses than lesser creatures, and their vision and hearing are particularly precise.  Because of this, the draconic language is full of subtleties of pronunciation unequalled even by the long-lived elven folk.  No humanoid can truly speak draconic well, and even with magical assistance their accents are atrocious.  Dragons do not take kindly to hearing their native tongue mangled by others, although their reactions vary from veiled contempt to immediate violence.  

When a dragon does deign to communicate with a humanoid, they do so in the latter's tongue, not their own.  If the dragon happens to use an archaic form of, say, Gnomish that they learned two thousand years ago, that's the listener's problem.  Criticizing a dragon's language skills is an excellent way to commit suicide, nor do they appreciate being asked to repeat themselves.

Ten Thousand Words For Green

Draconic vision is particularly good at differentiating between fine gradations of color.  Because of this, they ascribe a great deal of importance to precisely describing shades and hues, especially as they relate to their own coloration and that of other dragons.  This is further complicated by each dragon's (justifiable) conviction that their are unique and special individuals.  Certainly no two share the exact same color patterns, which (to dragons) is an obvious truth at a glance.  

Hatchling dragons choose their own names.  Part of the process is to coin a word that perfectly describes their own hue, which becomes part of their personal title.  These words are built on common roots for basic colors (eg "green") but add layer upon layer of subtle detail and nuance to make them truly unique.  As they age and their scales change in color, a dragon will retain their original hue-name but its meaning changes with its owner, always defined by their current appearance.

Because each new name is unique, draconic languages include thousands upon thousands of color words.  Each precisely (to a dragon, anyway) identifies a single dragon, live or dead, but they share many common elements with other dragons of the same breed.  To a non-native speaker, the subtleties of personal hue-names are largely a mystery, and many give up trying and just use the root color as though it were a simple title.  Anyone fool enough to do so while attempting to speak draconic will discover that dragons find this about as insulting as humans do the most vile racial epithets.  When speaking humanoid languages addressing a dragon with something as crude as "the Red" or "the Green" still rankles, but a dragon will generally choose to let it pass.  

The tongues of humanoids are far too limited to properly reflect the glory of dragonkind, after all.

Monday, January 3, 2022

Bestowal of Serpentine Digits, A Transformative Spell

Description:  A moderately complex spell involving complex gestures and posturing, a sibilant evocation, and powdered snake scales as ritual focus.  Most spellcasters of the Third Circle can manage it, although more elderly practitioners may find the motions involved are hard on joints stiffened with age.  As such, it has something of a reputation for being a magic for young and dashing types.

Effects: The Bestowal of Serpentine Digits can be cast in one of two ways.  First, it may be used on either the caster or an ally whose hand they can grasp.  This effects a transformation that turns the fingers and thumb of one hand into wriggling poisonous serpents about twice the length of their normal digits.  The altered hand can no longer be used to grasp or carry objects, but it allows an unarmed melee attack at a +10% bonus to strike.  On a hit, the target takes piercing damage equal to a dagger thrust and must attempt to resist the serpents' poison.  If they fail to do so, the victim is left weak and shaky for about five minutes, suffering a 50% reduction in their speed and melee damage, and a 25% failure rate on attack rolls and any feats of strength or dexterity attempted.

Second, the spell may be placed on any object the caster can lift in one hand.  This places a curse on the object that will be triggered by the next creature to handle it unless a password (established during casting) is spoken.  This curse effects a similar transformation to the one above, but the serpents attack the victim rather than being under their control, biting at any body part within reach.  Use the victim's own attack chance with the same +10% chance to strike.  If allies of the victim attempt to physically restrain the cursed hand they'll suffer the same attack instead (choose randomly if several people are wrestling with the serpents at once).

In both cases, an attempt resist the magic can be made when the transformation begins (although the first casting mode is generally used only on willing targets, who forego their resistance).  The transformation lasts until 1d6+3 melee attacks have been made or until about five minutes have passed, whichever comes first.  A cursed item can be triggered until the next sunrise or sunset, at which point the magic fades and the item is safe to handle again without use of the password.  Suitable countermagic can end the spell early as usual.

Possible Origins: The formula for this magic can be traced to the prehistoric serpent-folk civilization, and was originally recovered from some of their ruins by adventurers.  It remains somewhat obscure, in part because the archivists who maintain most arcane libraries tend to be of advanced years and regard the spell as undignified (and uncomfortable) to cast.

Complications:  You've got snakes for fingers on (presumably) half of your hands for about five minutes, or until their venom is drained during combat.  This can be inconvenient, and prevents any spellcasting that requires gesturing with both hands.  It's also likely to evoke comment from bystanders, and you may be suspected of being some kind of horrible mutant or shapeshifting serpent monster.

Design Commentary:  Most caster will probably prefer to use the "cursed object" mode rather than engaging in melee themselves.  You can absolutely pull shenanigans like (having said the password yourself earlier so it's safe for you to hold) handing a cursed coin to an unsuspecting victim, so its utility goes well beyond just protecting your wallet or setting static traps.  As long as a creature touches the object with their hand the magic will trigger, but watch out for (say) things with manipulatory tentacles or pincers.

Some other characters might actually get an upgrade in effectiveness by hitting things with a handful of snakes rather than a sword.  The poison effect is a really strong debuff, even if won't directly kill a target (although a bunch of snakebites might).  Things that are immune or resistant to poison are much harder to deal with, of course.  If you have this spell cast on you more than once you can attack with each transformed hand once per round, and if you somehow have more than two hands you can benefit from separate castings on all of them.

Sunday, January 2, 2022

Grandmother's Candies, Magically Delicious Treats

Grandmother's Candies

Description:  Brightly colored hard candies shaped like various vermin - mice, moles, spiders, slugs and snails, and a whole selection of peculiar beetles.  Roll 2d6 to see how many individual pieces there are, then roll that number of d8s to see which types are found.  Then roll the dice again to see what color each candy is, but honestly they all taste the same regardless - a bit like black licorice, if you must know.

Shape                  Color

1- Mouse             Red

2 - Mole               Pink

3 - Spider             Orange

4 - Slug                Yellow

5 - Snail               Green

6 - Bat                  Blue

7 - Beetle              Purple

8 - Big Beetle       Black 

Magical senses reveal nothing of the true nature of these things, although their unusual shape may well cause suspicion.  Some places have traditions about making regular candies that are visually identical.  Others have laws forbidding that sort of foolishness.

Powers:  Any creature that voluntarily places a piece of candy in their mouth is instantly transformed into a normal specimen of the appropriate type of vermin until the next sunrise.  A test to resist magic is allowed if desired.  The transformed creature retains its own mind and memories, although it may find its new body confusing at first.  Unlike some transformative magics any possessions are left unchanged, usually leaving a pile of clothes and gear with some verminous critter perched atop it.

The magic in these candies won't function if they're thrown, dropped, or forced into an unwilling victim's mouth, nor will licking trigger them.  They do function if they're accidentally eaten by an unsuspecting individual (perhaps hidden within other foodstuffs) but a resistance is still allowed.  If some greedy pig shoves several of them in at once, roll randomly to see which of the pieces decides the form of vermin, while the rest are simply wasted.  Only one save is made in this case, although if you consumed them one at a time you'd resist them one after another till you fail.

The candies can be dissolved, broken, or melted as though they were mundane treats, but their magic will be ruined in the process.     

Possible Origins:  Witches.  Of course it's witches.  Rumor claims Grandmother herself first created them, but she gets credit (or blame) for a lot of things.  Actual witches do sometimes share the alchemical recipe for these things, and some hedge wizards and mystic hermits can make them as well.  They require more than a little fresh human blood to make, which can be a problem.  With a few willing donors you could make a few on a sustainable basis, or you could bleed someone dry and get enough for couple of dozen.  On the plus side, they keep forever as long as they don't get wet or slowly devoured by ants or something.  

Complications:  Whoever eats one of these things is stuck in a tiny, fragile physical form till dawn.  If the transformation came as a surprise this can easily be a fatal experience.  Just carrying these things around can lead to some difficult questions, since there are plenty of stories about them being handed out to children by the evil-hearted on All Hallows' Eve.  More adult (and plausible) tales speak of wily spies and thieves using them to infiltrate strongholds and treasure rooms and the like.

There's also the small possibility that Grandmother is directly involved in making these things.  If so, stumbling across one of her "Special Batches" is always a possibility, and they'll have very different effects indeed.

Design Commentary:  Potentially a great tool for sneaking into places you shouldn't be or escaping pursuit, but risky since you'll be stuck in a form where a bird or housecat could be a lethal danger till the sun rises.  The candies do work just fine if you happen to carrying one or more of them when swallowed by some monstrous creature, which (assuming they fail their save) will leave them transformed and you covered in toothmarks and saliva but otherwise none the worse for wear.

Talkin' Sticks, Incanting Staves and the Founding of the Silent College

The Founding of the Silent College The twenty-year reign of Arch-Prelate Pavuul the Cruel was marked by a rising tide of intolerance and sav...