This Mythic game is based on a dream I had about a month ago. I had been reading the Discworld books (mainly Guards Guards and Thief of Time) and watching the movies (The Color of Magic and Hogfather). I also had just created my first Discworld character; a human wizard in training named Kaylor (The name came from the word Lore (I love to read, and as such, so does he), and I just added a few letters at the beginning while dropping the 'e' at the end.
That night I had a dream that I was a young wizard, leaning my craft while running an experiment at the Unseen University. Suddenly I realized someone was trying to kill me. Now at the higher levels, wizardry at the Unseen University is definitely cutthroat (literally), but I was pretty low level, like 3 or 4, so I was neither a threat to anyone nor an opportunity. A mystery was thus born, and I felt the best way to solve it was by making it a game session.
Now Mythic has some excellent rules for running a Mystery Game. However, I'm going to keep this pretty free form by just writing the story while make rolls when necessary. In the past, I've had stories develop on their own this way. But this time the dice will be helping, though I don't know yet if it'll be in a small or large way. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.
But first, I ended the previous session with Kaylor reaching Level 3, so I'm going to update his stats. He gains 2 more Ability points, so I'm going to go with 1 in Think and 1 in Talk. In addition, I'm converting latter to 3 Skill Points and placing them all in Question. After all, he's a student, so research is his area.
His current stats are:
Abilities: Do: 0, Think: +4, Talk: 0
Skills: Bluff: +3, Question: +3.
Spells:
1. Levitate (Lvl 0, takes 10 seconds to cast): Lift an object up to 50 lbs. and manipulate it. Lasts 10 minutes.
2. Danger Sense (Lvl 0, takes 10 minutes to cast): An alarm in the caster's head warns him of immediate danger. +3 to any Defensive rolls (physical or magical). Lasts for 4 hours or until Doubles are rolled out side of Fate Questions.
3. Helping Hand (Lvl 0, Takes 10 seconds to cast): A spectral hand appears and answers basic questions, including yes or no, and pointing out directions. On any roll of Doubles, the hand responds sarcastically instead. Lasts 10 minutes.
4. Forget me so (Lvl 0, takes 10 seconds to cast): Target forgets about caster's presence. If applied by touch, it lasts 10 minutes. If applied from a distance (up to 6 feet), it lasts 30 seconds.
5. Staff Strike (Lvl 0, takes 10 seconds to cast): Causes a staff, wand, or similar object to launch a magical blast of energy at one or more targets for +1 Damage. Lasts 10 minutes and requires a staff, wand, or similar object (Kaylor uses a club).
6. Lock/Unlock (Lvl 0, takes 10 seconds to cast): Locks a door, pocket, or similar object. Anyone attempting to break the lock magically must roll versus the caster's lvl. All others suffer a +3 to Difficulty. Lasts 10 minutes.Unlocking is immediate but only requires a roll versus the lock itself (or caster if magical).
Items: Kaylor wears normal clothing, including a jacket and carrying a backpack (when outside the university). He also found a large tree branch that somehow is strong enough to cause physical harm if it strikes someone. He got it modified into a slender club that he walks around with like a cane or exploration stick (for finding and nudging traps). The club provides a +1 Damage in melee combat and +1 in ranged combat when he casts Staff Strike.
New Spells:
Upon leveling up to Level 3, Kaylor gains 3 new spells, with 1 of them being at random. I'll roll it now, using the spell Effects table.
"Life," "Trap." I'm interpreting this to mean he can find and disarm traps to protect himself and anyone around him (thus bringing or rather protecting life).
So his new spells are:
7. Disarm (Level 0, takes 10 seconds to cast): Disarms a nearby trap. Works instantly.
8. Dictate (Lvl 0, takes 10 seconds to cast): Modifies Helping Hand to also write on a surface, such as a notebook, normal book, or scroll. Lasts 10 minutes.
9. Tell a Roam (Lvl 0, takes 10 seconds to cast): Allows caster to communicate with someone up to 100 miles away. Lasts 10 minutes. Range can be extended by raising the Spell lvl. Lvl 1 = 150 Miles. Lvl 2 = 200 miles. Lvl 3 = 400 miles. Lvl 4 = 800 miles.
And now, the adventure.
A year later, Kaylor stood alone in the laboratory, working on his experiment for class. Professor Prenk, still acting as the young man's mentor, allowed him the freedom of performing these experiments in place of class work. Also, Kaylor worked under relief knowing Prenk merely monitored his progress, rather than springing a surprise 'exam' on him again.
Before starting, he cast his Danger Sense spell, just in case.
(Magic) Does the spell work? (+4 vs. 0 Spell Lvl = Certain) X-Yes.
He managed to cast the spell much more successfully than usual and was relieved to learn it would last for 6 hours instead of the usual 4. With that in mind, he got to work.
Lately, Kaylor had become fascinated with spheres. Maybe it was because his world was flat but others existed that weren't and therefore followed different rules of physics. Or maybe it was just that the 3 dimensional round shape had some rather interesting effects on math, particularly measurements.
In a box on the desk were a bunch of spheres of various sizes, all cheaply made from cardboard, paper, or clay. He levitated it into the air.
(Magic) Does the spell work? (+4 vs. 0 spell lvl = Certain) Yes.
As it floated in the air, he extinguished the wall torch and picked up a hand lantern and closed the focusing lid so that a narrow circle of light shined on the floating sphere. Moving the lantern up, down, left, and right, he found the light shone around the sphere and struck the far wall, creating a round shadow. However, the shadow, he learned, was much bigger than the sphere.
Not wanting to forget his results, he cast a Dictate spell and pointed to his notebook which rested on the desk.
(Magic) Does the spell work? (+4 vs. 0 spell lvl = Certain) Yes.
The spectral hand appeared with a feather pen and floated above the notebook. As Kaylor spoke, it wrote his words into the notebook. Picking up a yardstick, he placed it between the sphere and the wall and measured the distance. He then approached the wall and measured the size of the sphere. As the spectral hand dictated his words, he grabbed a nearby scroll and made calculations for how the distance and the size of the shadow related.
After a few minutes, he picked up a different sized sphere and predicted the results before levitating it up in the air.
(Magic) Did the spell work? (+4 vs. 0 spell lvl = Certain) Yes.
This sphere, made of clay, was twice the size of the previous, and so he performed similar experiments with it. For several more minutes, he ran these experiments, making calculations and using his Dictate spell to take notes.
Dropping (CAREFULLY, it's made of clay, remember?) it into the box, he searched through and found his Mirror Sphere. This was basically a ball with its outer edges composed of a reflective surface so it resembles both a ball and a 3 dimensional mirror. Wizards used often mirror spheres as spell components, but Kaylor had something else in mind.
Casting Levitate again, he lifted it into the air.
(Magic) Does the spell work? (+4 vs. 0 spell lvl = Certain) Yes, Random Event.
(Event) "Break," "Harm."
(I'll admit, I deliberately kept making the rolls hoping to trigger the random event and seeing what would happen. That one is perfect!)
Shining the light at it, he found the light struck the ceiling at a 90 degree angle. He then shifted slightly downwards and noted how the angle changed. Slowly, he continued to move in a variety of directions, with the light shifting from the ceiling to one wall or another. Reaching forward, he then spun the sphere in place and stepped back to see if it had any affect on how the angle of the light -
The alarm in his head suddenly went off!
It felt like a sudden hangover, right in his face, and reflexively, he threw a magical field up.
The sphere exploded, sending shards of glass in every direction. The shards struck the box of spheres, sending it flying off the table, but luckily, they bounced off Kaylor's magical shield.
(Description) What is the explosion like? "Fragrant," "Rotten."
I'm going to play off the 'Harm' part from earlier.
Suddenly, Kaylor's eyes began to water, and he started coughing. A dark green noxious gas spread from the explosion and suddenly filled the room, rolling over the magical shield and seeking out the vulnerable young wizard.
Kaylor needs to get out of the room. I'll make it a Reflex (Do) roll. Fortunately, he gets +3 for his Danger Sense spell. Since someone is trying to kill him, I'll raise the difficulty just a bit.
(Q) Is the Difficulty +2? (Likely) Yes.
(Ability) Does Kaylor escape the room? (+3 vs. +2 Difficulty = Likely) No.
-1 RS. If he hits -3, well let's just say it's bad. VERY bad.
Kaylor stumbled back, but he missed the doorway and fell against the wall. Losing his balance, he collapsed to one knee. The screaming in his head forced him backwards, but he couldn't focus.
(Ability) Does Kaylor escape the room? (+3 -1 RS vs. +2 Difficulty = 50/50) Yes.
Head pounding until he thought it explode, Kaylor forced himself to his feet. He felt as though a voice shrieked inside, "TO THE LEFT! LEFT! LEFT!"
Finally reaching the doorway, he hurled himself backward, slamming the door shut. Luckily, the window on the door remained intact and one of the gas escaped.
Falling to a sitting position on the floor, Kaylor began coughing uncontrollably. Removing his coat, he wiped anything residual on his face, as well as any remaining tears from his eyes. After a few minutes, he could see again, and the coughing started to go away.
Kaylor was then aware of others around him, and he looked up to see a number of students and professors gathering around. Most tried to look through the window and into the room as the professors cautioned the students not to open the door.
Professor Prenk then appeared and stopped beside the young wizard. "Kaylor, are you okay?"
Kaylor weakly nodded.
The professor glanced at the closed door then back at him. "What happened?"
The younger man shook his head. "I don't know. I was levitating spheres for my experiment when one of them exploded."
"Bizarre." The professor helped Kaylor to his feet. "Let's get you looked at and then we'll get to the bottom of this." He looked back. "Lock that door until I return. I want to know Exactly what happened."
And so Kaylor survived his ordeal, though barely. Next, we need to find out what said ordeal really was. Once again, I'll be mixing narrative with rolls here and there where I see fit. I don't know if this is the same as RPG Journaling (I'll have to research that), but I figure it's the easiest way to play this sort of game.
Oh and BTW, I also deliberately wrote out at great length about his experiments so that they would possibly be boring to those uninterested in spheres. That way the sudden explosion would be more of a shock. That and, I'll admit I personally find spheres interesting, which is why I had Kaylor studying them.
No comments:
Post a Comment