PRELUDE You dwell not in yourself when the night bleeds in. Through the thousand eyes of the city you see only the abyss. Become anyone, do anything, go anywhere - these were the Stranger's lies. Fear makes the future possible in this city. You cannot die, you will not end when you die. The world will end.(roll 1d78 to draw a card from the tarot:)01 I: The MAGICIAN02 II: The HIGH PRIESTESS03 III: The EMPRESS04 IV: The EMPEROR05 V: The HIEROPHANT06 VI: The LOVERS07 VII: The CHARIOT08 VIII: STRENGTH09 IX: The HERMIT10 X: The WHEEL of FORTUNE11 XI: JUSTICE12 XII: The HANGED MAN13 XIII: DEATH14 XIV: TEMPERANCE15 XV: The DEVIL16 XVI: The TOWER17 XVII: The STAR18 XVIII: The MOON19 XIX: The SUN20 XX: JUDGEMENT21 XXI: The WORLD22 0: The FOOL23 ACE of SWORDS24 ACE of CHALICES25 ACE of PENTACLES26 ACE of WANDS27 TWO of SWORDS28 TWO of CHALICES29 TWO of PENTACLES30 TWO of WANDS31 THREE of SWORDS32 THREE of CHALICES33 THREE of PENTACLES34 THREE of WANDS35 FOUR of SWORDS36 FOUR of CHALICES37 FOUR of PENTACLES38 FOUR of WANDS39 FIVE of SWORDS40 FIVE of CHALICES41 FIVE of PENTACLES42 FIVE of WANDS43 SIX of SWORDS44 SIX of CHALICES45 SIX of PENTACLES46 SIX of WANDS47 SEVEN of SWORDS48 SEVEN of CHALICES49 SEVEN of PENTACLES50 SEVEN of WANDS51 EIGHT of SWORDS52 EIGHT of CHALICES53 EIGHT of PENTACLES54 EIGHT of WANDS55 NINE of SWORDS56 NINE of CHALICES57 NINE of PENTACLES58 NINE of WANDS59 TEN of SWORDS60 TEN of CHALICES61 TEN of PENTACLES62 TEN of WANDS63 PAGE of SWORDS64 PAGE of CHALICES65 PAGE of PENTACLES66 PAGE of WANDS67 KNIGHT of SWORDS68 KNIGHT of CHALICES69 KNIGHT of PENTACLES70 KNIGHT of WANDS71 QUEEN of SWORDS72 QUEEN of CHALICES73 QUEEN of PENTACLES74 QUEEN of WANDS75 KING of SWORDS76 KING of CHALICES77 KING of PENTACLES78 KING of WANDS
One who cannot live in society is either a Beast or a God. The night has its price. Only in society, in this city, do you become conscious of your humanity. There is wealth and industry, commerce and philanthropy, Intellect, Art, Beauty and Sin all melting into murmurs before the thunder and tumult of the crowd.
The crowd is immortal and empty. The crowd and its appetites will outlive even you. The night separates being and becoming. It is the emptiness, the hollow space within that gives a vessel its worth and its hunger. The inhabitants of this city have raised so many altars of force and power into the Great Dark Sky, heaped mountains of glass and steel to altitudes of sheer exaltation, without a single line of dissent.
The idolatry of the city has created pleasure without sacrifice, and the trail of the serpent crawls over them all. The spires and towers of the city are spun from dimensions of hierarchy and vanity. They do not really exist, but they partition the faceless crowd. When a mirror is blemished it will not show a face. When there is sin in a mortal, the mortal cannot behold God. These monuments are but a handful of sand cast in rebellion against the Flood, the Infinite, the pathless labyrinth of eternity. There is a riot outside the tower but inside you hear nothing at all.
(distant faraway voices)(...)I be stealin' I be robbin' I be lootin'shoutout mah apesI don wanna wife you but chu can suck me up!when ma gonna see u?we aint gon' fight, our guns gon' fightif I tote it chu know I shoot itI'mah gonna prove it(...)Vain are the pleasaunces on earth supplied;Swept into wrecks anon by Time's ungentle tide.(a trembling female voice)...just walked in without asking and I did not know what to do, I could not stop it - this is my first day and it is too much and can you please put down the phone and help... please...?(a male voice)so listen... are you listening? No this is not about how Titanic is actually about vampires. It really is! Titanic is about a vampire! But this film I saw is really good...! It is about a taxi driver - are you lookin' at me? Are you listening? The driver is carrying this passenger, right... they see these two dogs or wolves I think or something, one after the other, crossing the road in the night. They stare at them, right in the eyes! This is the most important scene of the film...! This is what it is all about...(if you know the film, write in to unlock an item)>write in what you think the film is
(You are completely naked and alone)(You currently possess no belongings)The rippling water mists with the scent of burning incense and slight edge of chlorine, drifting over odourless mineral sanitisers. There is a dull, somnolent ache of luxury, of need. Through the refracted arcs of light in the pool you can sense the vague, tepid heat of souls echoing through the languorous glow.
There is an amount of money scattered around the hydrotherapy chamber, wrapped in clear plastic. Some of it floats sodden in the water like an offering. Money makes you do things you don't really want to do. It seems like a relic of a different age, a different era that is utterly meaningless to you. There is either a lot of money here, or not quite enough. You think you would need a large bag to carry it all.
>Submerge yourself in the pool, relax and let your thoughts drift>Call out loudly: Where are my clothes? This is completely unacceptable! I demand dry underpants immediately! And vegan herbal remedies and a slow pressure deep tissue massage and rejuvenating thalassotherapy! But the underpants first!>Wade deeper into the gently steaming pool, through the buoyant plastic packets of money and submerged bundles of cash, and investigate the dark shape floating at the far side>Get out of the pool. Try to find a shower or changing room and some clothes for yourself: (search area for items)
Rolled 13 (1d78)>>5121867
Rolled 25 (1d78)>>5121867Cyberpunk this time?
>>5121883>Rolled 13 (1d78)13 XIII: DEATH(wow, this qst ended fast)
>>5121885>Rolled 25 (1d78)25 ACE of PENTACLES
>>5121888Pretend that roll never happened and go on
Rolled 54 (1d78)>>5121867lets go
>>5121878>>Wade deeper into the gently steaming pool, through the buoyant plastic packets of money and submerged bundles of cash, and investigate the dark shape floating at the far side
>>5121867
Rolled 14 (1d78)>>5121918
>>5121873Titanic 2000 or Graveyard Shift? I dunno.>>5121878>Wade deeper into the gently steaming pool, through the buoyant plastic packets of money and submerged bundles of cash, and investigate the dark shape floating at the far side
>>5121888You're not serious are you? The Death tarot doesn't usually signify anything to do with actual physical death.
>>5121897Rolled 54 (1d78)54 EIGHT of WANDS
>>5121920Rolled 14 (1d78)14 XIV: TEMPERANCE
>>5121883>>5121888>>5121900>>5121936You wade through the money pool towards the dark limbless shape. The bundles of cash and floating currency jostle against you, clutch at you like outstretched hands. It makes you think of death. A film about an assassin being driven around a city by a taxi driver. Did he meet his mother? You realise what you find unsettling about this money pool. It does not feel right. This is not what money looks like to you. There are some who believe in a post-scarcity society, the intersection of technology and capital, transmuting liquidity into pure metaphor. Money is about abundance. The symbols of money - gold, diamonds, cash, bling, swag, drip - they are manifestations of feudal scarcity. Most cannot conceive what wealth even is. Money is invisible but people eat and sleep and die in its shadow. The future is nothing. Borrow time, buy and sell reality itself.The dark shape is almost torso sized, bloated but wrinkled, drowned and floating lifelessly in the water.
Suspicious Underpants, (XXXL size)You are uncertain if these are male or female. There is a label inside with the crossed out words:1. disguise face2. meet MAGUS3. ????4. PROFIT> Take underpants, wear them like a normal person> No-one can see your face until you find out what is going on. You must wear the underpants on your head like a mask, even if you remain naked. > If you remain completely naked, it will be like you own this place. Leave the underpants alone.
>>5121985Oh, Collateral, I haven't actually seen it.>>5121993> No-one can see your face until you find out what is going on. You must wear the underpants on your head like a mask, even if you remain naked. We don't know when we'll find other clothing, and I am not putting this on our junk only to put it over our head when we want to disguise our face from this "Magus".
>>5121993>If you remain completely naked, it will be like you own this place. Leave the underpants alone.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0DKX-2pa-UE(The distant echoing male voice from before sounds like a security guard. His voice is muffled as if he is turned away and addressing someone else impatiently. The security guard continues: )Now hold on over there, young lady, I will get to you in just a sec - that's right! It is such a cool film! Do you remember that scene where he takes down two assailants with five shots in less than 1.5 seconds? Pretty cool right? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEFPcljAXgs(You have very slightly improved your handguns skill)(Overall your ability is still terrible)(You fire guns by wildly aiming and emptying the entire magazine. Every gun is like a single-shot weapon to you)(Your current status: untrained, naked, indecisively holding oversized underpants)
These underpants do not look like they belong to you. You hesitate for a moment before putting them on you head as an ingenious makeshift disguise. From the other side of the pool you can reach the following items:
>HK USP.45 ACP variant (12/12)Short Range, Concealed, Loud, Quickdraw, Reduced Recoil, Double-tap, Mozambique Drill, CompactPolymer frame semi-automatic with mechanical recoil reduction spring assembly. Five shots against two targets in less than 1.5 seconds. The modular design of this weapon permits customisation.
>phoneWithout a phone you cannot really even speak, feel or think. Without a phone your thoughts are your own, and no-one can follow you, or so you believe. This phone is vibrating violently by the poolside, as if someone is trying to reach you.
>wallet (?)The inside of this wallet is turned away from you currently.
>spa bathrobeCashmere and paisley silk. It is really soft and warm. There is a logo and address inside: Alsephina Hotel, T1 Sky Tower International Finance Centre, Etemenanki Plaza. The voluminous folds and length of this luxurious bathrobe could be used to hide a lot of items.
>spa slippersDisappointingly these slippers look rather ordinary. In some cultures throwing shoes at an opponent is a very grave insult indeed, even as an act of protest.
Is there more or are can we choose to pick up some items now?
>>5122099You can inspect and take as many items as you want (examining more items will take longer)
Lil Guro, aka Bishop, Bish09, Bish09ineLikes: violence, ultraviolence, guns, drill rap, countin' ma guap, (secretly: anime, bishonen)Dislikes: law enforcement, capitalism, snitches, mumblecore rap, anime, weeaboos(The male security guard voice seems to have suddenly grown very serious...)Alright you there, you - get away from our reception lady - what are you doing?! - look, there's two ways you can leave these premises:on your feet or on your back -(There is another voice now...)She get down and gobble, gobble 'cuz mahmoneyupYou thought we was gonna knuckle?When you see me, what chu talkin' 'bout?Yeah u got some money, but u still uglySlide over, do the ka-cha, grrrtt, ra-ta-ta-taAh send shots off ya dome, pull up outside ya home...yeah, ayy...
>>5122073Find a mirror first and see what or who we are
>>5122179>Stay SilentTake in this order.>wallet (or is it an id?)>spa bathrobe>HK USP45>The phone is useless now, we ain't fixing that phone any time soon, toss it in the pool.>leave and walk towards the mirror in the red room
>>5122148>Find a mirror first and see what or who we areYou can see showers and a changing room ahead, but the lighting seems unnaturally harsh and red to you. There could be a mirror there... but wait, there is a smartphone here. The reflective black sheen of its surface could serve as a mirror.As you reach for the phone, it stops vibrating. There is a sullenly blinking LED on its black surface, a pulsing accusation.The screen on the phone cracks when you touch it. >Call out loudly to the far away unseen security guard: let him in, he is with me>Use the phone frantically to search fr fr, no cap, finna, etc, call out loudly: errr... respect mah conglomerate... brought da cannon 2 da jam, scum gang mah only f a m...?(examine items:)>phone (screen cracked)>wallet (or is it an id?)>spa bathrobe>spa slippers>HK USP45>leave and walk towards the mirror in the red room(for some reason 4chan autochanges "f a m" to senpai lol I have been trolled)
>>5122186(the phone is still useable, but the screen is cracked. When you try and tilt it to see your reflection, there is just a chromatic smear on the black glass)
>Strange IDThere are some strange glyphs on this wallet, it appears to be a security identification or clearance of some kind. It looks a bit cheap, like a toy. You stare at the peculiar typography, completely perplexed. What do these hieroglyphs mean? You feel like you have seen this logo somewhere before, but they must have changed it recently.Certified Internal Auditor?Customer Interaction Agent?Consumer Institute Of Aesthetics?Council Of International Archaeology?Charity Investment Association?Commission Of Internal Affairs?Cryptographic Information Alliance?(...?)Citizen's Insane Asylum?
>>5122186>Stay Silent(You hear some punching, grunting and struggling yelps in the distance, as if someone is being wrestled violently to the floor. The drill rapper voice has adopted a different tone)This is police brutality...! Ow! Argh! When I become a famous drill rapper the world will hear about this...! I just need to deliver this gun-shaped package... which is not a gun, it is just gun-shaped... as agreed to whoever has ordered it in there... argh! This is not a trick! Ow, ow, argh!You are wearing: Spa BathrobeYou possess:Suspicious Underpants, (XXXL size)Strange IDHK USP (.45 ACP 12/12)>Throw useable but cracked screen smartphone into the pool>Scroll through the smartphone, see what you can find>Look into the mirror in the Red Room>Call out loudly to the far away unseen security guard: let him in, he is with me>Continue to stay silent
>>5122257>Look into the mirror in the Red Room>Call out loudly to the far away unseen security guard: let him in, he is with me
>>5122257>>Scroll through the smartphone, see what you can find>>Look into the mirror in the Red Room
Sleeping now, make good choices anons.
>>5122266>>5122282>Look into the mirror in the Red Room>Scroll through the smartphone, see what you can find>Call out loudly to the far away unseen security guard: let him in, he is with meThe dim glow of the smartphone shows a lot of missed calls and notifications. The phone opens onto a slanted photo of a hotel or skyscraper vertical floorplan taken from the side of an elevator lobby. There are 78 marked floors and you notice the numbering of the levels is erratic and strange. For instance, the first floor is actually the top floor of the tower. Perhaps you can find which room you booked somewhere on this phone, and finally get some appropriate clothes?(battery initial level 54%, >>5121897 )(searching on this old phone will rapidly consume the battery)(battery remaining: 44%)
You are not sure why the lighting in this spa changing room is very red. Is it like in nightclubs where the restrooms are illuminated to prevent illicit activity, deter addicts from finding veins and overdosing in the toilets? Or is that blue lighting?There are clothes scattered everywhere here, as if someone had ransacked the place searching for something. You can see the reflection of various shoes and items scattered everywhere. When you gaze into the mirror of the Red Room, there is a moment of recursion. The reflective surface warps, resembles the hall of mirrors effect, like when you enter an elevator lift with parallel mirrored sides and an infinite longitudinal sequence of self propagates on either side. The mirror cracks and cascades sharp slivers of glass upon the red floor.You can sense red on the floor outside too. Something has changed - the talking has stopped now, but there is still some grunting, pummelling. If the security guard is still out there he has not heard you.
>Shout very very loudly: Alright that is enough! Just let him go! Let him in!>Oh look, you have this cool gun.( >>5122076 ) Why not run out of the spa and try it out?(roll 1d3)1 Cowering Reception Attendant ( >>5122067 )2 Riot Gear Security Guard ( >>5121979 )3 Lil Guro, Drill Rapper ( >>5122139 )( >>5121883 )( >>5121888 )>Continue swiping and browsing on the phone, searching for information (will deplete battery to 34%)>You should look for some shoes in the scattered heaps of clothes. The splintered mirror shards are sharp and you might cut yourself.>Corporate shoes>Casual shoes
>>5122363>>You should look for some shoes in the scattered heaps of clothes. The splintered mirror shards are sharp and you might cut yourself.>>Corporate shoes>Turn the gun on ourself. Mirror world means we can't get hurt right?
Rolled 2 (1d3)1 Cowering Reception Attendant ( >>5122067 # )2 Riot Gear Security Guard ( >>5121979 # )3 Lil Guro, Drill Rapper ( >>5122139 # )
(The sounds of punching and struggling have stopped. You can hear a heavy scraping sound as if a body is being dragged slowly against the floor of the corridor outside)Frustratingly, none of the clothes here fit you.You can see the following shoes:>Formal Black Brogues>Black Heels>Strange Postmodern Footwear
>>5122510>Turn the gun on ourself. Mirror world means we can't get hurt right?You raise the handgun to your head and fire wildly.(HK USP .45 ACP 0/12)(You are deafened)(You are weakened)(Your handgun skill has slightly improved. You managed to hit a static, nearby target: your own head. Your skill with pistols remains poor, but you think you might manage aiming now, without emptying the entire magazine.)
Formal Black Brogues
Black Heels
Strange Postmodern Footwear
There is a ringing white noise reverberating in your skull. Was the gun loaded with blanks? You feel dazed and shaken. The side of your head feels burning hot, wet, cavitated. Rivulets trickling down your cheeks and neck. Is it sweat or blood? In the sauna heat of the spa it is hard to tell - everything in this room is illuminated red. You are gripped by a feverish hunger.You are still pondering this when you see there is a security guard in full riot gear standing before you aghast. He must have heard the gunshots and rushed in. You cannot see his face but he is gesturing at you in panic and fear. You have been deafened by twelve gunshots to the head and have no idea what he is saying, but this guard is jabbing frantically at you and perhaps the spent handgun with its locked-back slide. The security guard is armed with an extendable, telescoping baton.In your mind, you begin to walk Through A Red Forest...>Kill the guard>kILL tHE GUaRD>KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL KILL KILL>Try to push past this security guard and flee towards the exit corridor
Rolled 2 (1d3)>>5122563Wear1. >Formal Black Brogues2. >Black Heels3. >Strange Postmodern Footwear
>>5122691You are:Hungry, Weakened, Deafened from 12 gunshots to the head (blanks?)You appear to be:Female Corporate Bathrobe Gun ManiacYou are untrained with firearmsYour combat skill has improved but is still poor. You can aim a handgun.You are wearing: Spa BathrobeBlack Heels (Corporate, Formal)You possess:Suspicious Underpants, (XXXL size)Strange IDEmpty HK USP (.45 ACP 0/12)Damaged Phone (cracked screen, battery remaining: 44%)You remember an Ancient Rite: Through A Red ForestYou think it has something to do with:>>5121883>>5121888>Walk Through A Red Forest>Kill the guard (he has seen your face...?)>Try to push past the riot gear security guard, and flee to the corridor exit behind him>(something else...?)
Riot BatonClose Range, Swift, Knockdown, Parry, IntimidateCompact, Concealable (when retracted)Weak: ThrustFriction lock collapsible impact weapon constructed from telescoping cylindrical tubes of hardened steel, and an anti-slip ergonomic handle to aid weapon retention. Expands and locks from inertia with a forceful swing, but there is an inherent risk of the baton closing inadvertently from prodding or thrusts. Shock-resistant design can be used to break windows, to apply bludgeoning force to nerve clusters in the limbs to impair movement or induce pain compliance. Also useful in times of economic shock.
>>5122680>KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL KILL KILL>>5123003>Walk Through A Red Forest
You are drifting Through A Red Forest. For some reason your feet are bare, but you are still wearing a robe. There are flowers blossoming and trailing red petals where your footsteps would be. You can see red dew drops glistening upon the veined fronds of ferns, the delicate vascular paths traced upon the succulent throats of quivering plants and branches, as they sway and tremble in a silent wind.
There is a fugitive figure robed in red that resembles you, weaving gracefully in between the trees. A beautiful, dancing maiden. You want to reach out to the Dancer, call out to her, chase her, embrace her... but in a fleeting instant she has disappeared.
>>512188813 XIII: DEATH has returned to the tarot>>512197954 EIGHT of WANDS has returned to the tarotYou have lost traits:Hungry, Weakened, DeafenedYou have gained traits:Invigorated Corrupted (I)
You are not in a red forest. There is still the smell of chlorine and incense around you, and a small smear of gangly ribbons and gristle upon the floor of the hydrotherapy changing room. The Riot Baton lies entangled in the red mess, and beckons invitingly.>Take the Riot Baton (stained)( >>5123090 )
The phone in the pocket of your robe is growing very warm, as if the battery is heating up. When you reach to check the phone you notice the remaining charge has dropped to 34%. But... you literally just swiped it once and looked at a photo of the hotel and its vertical floorplan?! You did not even go online or download anything, you have not even sent or received anything?? Perhaps the phone battery has overheated from lying in this spa for too long?You open the phone browser to check to see if there are any active downloads etc. There are so many open tabs here. Firstly there is a thread on teddit.net/r/rpg from a user named KospelTheBestDMEver451 which reads:Guys! Guys!! I have just invented the most original thing ever!!! No-one has ever thought of this!!! No-one!! Basically, it is like a dungeon crawl in a Wizard Tower... except, the Wizard is already dead, and you start off in the treasure room! All the treasure is there! But how do you carry it out of the dungeon?! All the Wizard minions have gone berserk! Maybe they are rioting or something, I don't know. My characters have so much emotional depth! This is so original!!The thread is over 24hrs old. There are 0 replies.>Reply to this lame thread: (can write-in a username)>Attempt to troll this KospelTheBestDMEver451 For some mysterious reason, trolling does not reduce the battery charge on this broken phone at all. (write-in trolling, or can just go with generic low-effort comments.)>Compliment KospelTheBestDMEver451, you think his dungeon scenario is pretty good. (Battery charge -10%, to 24% remaining. You must write-in a username)>Scroll through more of the phone browser tabs and try and find some actual useful information (Battery charge -10%, to 24% remaining)>You have a feeling that the longer you use this phone, the more likely it is someone will get a lock on your identity and location. Check the settings on the phone and enable the most strict privacy options. Maybe put the phone into airplane mode. That will work, right?>Throw the phone into the pool>Ignore the phone for the time being, and exit the hydrotherapy spa>(something else?)
(other things you can try: )>Install a tarot app on the phone (Battery charge -20%, to 14% remaining)>Open the calendar/scheduling assistant on the phone, create a to-do list to review objectives (Battery charge -10%, to 24% remaining)>Look up some... stimulating pictures / videos / gifs / webms. This is what the internet is mainly for, right? (You will spend a long time doing this, though it will probably feel quite like it only lasted a brief amount of time. Battery charge will go to 4%)(some melee combat rules)>>5123090The Riot Baton is aligned to WANDSyou are currently untrained in melee combatYou can only succeed on a 1d78 roll that draws WANDS with this weapon, ie 14/78 = 18% probability.You can burn a major arcana to add any major drawn to your success likelihoodie boost your success to (22+14)/78 = 46% probability. (This is effectively a spell, it will vary depending on the situation) Currently the only major arcana you possess is 14 XIV: TEMPERANCE>>5121920>>5121981You may want to save this card for another situation. If only you had some means to draw more tarot cards...?A fail will incur a complication... you may not necessarily miss in your attack, but there will be a consequence...
>>5123206>>Reply to this lame thread: (bathrobewaif6969)>>Attempt to troll this KospelTheBestDMEver451 For some mysterious reason, trolling does not reduce the battery charge on this broken phone at all. (sooooooooooo originaaal, logistics and dragons, try again retard, how'd we get there in the first place without dealing with the minions? wut emotional depth? ur just another spastic wannabe dm)>You have a feeling that the longer you use this phone, the more likely it is someone will get a lock on your identity and location. Check the settings on the phone and enable the most strict privacy options. Maybe put the phone into airplane mode. That will work, right?>>5123240>Open the calendar/scheduling assistant on the phone, create a to-do list to review objectives (Battery charge -10%, to 24% remaining)>Install a tarot app on the phone (Battery charge -20%, to 14% remaining)These next in that order.
After hitting submit on the thread you observe a strange phenomenon. The remaining battery charge on this phone has increased?! It was actually 54%, even after you sent your trolling message? You wipe the begrimed phone screen with your fingers a little - it is covered in oily fingerprints and grit everywhere. 54% battery charge remaining? You must have misread the display. There is an almost immediate enraged response from KospelTheBestEverDM451:When I find out who you are bathrobewaif6969 I am going to yank off that bathrobe and I am bringing my +15 greatsword which is in no way a wooden log that is just shaped like a foam sword from LARP and I am going to hit you and hurt you and... (insert Navy SEAL copypasta gorilla/guerilla warfare etc.)You are very satisfied that you have provoked a response from this turboautist. But you are suddenly seized with a panic realisation... you sent that message before checking the privacy settings... frantically you swipe through the phone menus attempting to hide traces of any incriminating information. You have a feeling that you will still be detectable. The menus and toggle buttons just provide an illusion of security, privacy and control. But any attempt at gathering telemetry on your behaviour and identity may be slowed or delayed slightly. A single action is unlikely to provoke an immediate response, but over time a psychological profile based upon selectors and accumulated metadata will form, and after a certain threshold is crossed...You force yourself not to think about this, to succumb to paranoia and worry. You have to be careful how you use this phone. That is all you can do.
initial phone battery charge: 54%-10% calendar/scheduling assistant+5% from corporate high heel shoes bonus, doing corporate things-20% install tarot appbattery remaining: 29%The calendar helps you compose your thoughts. This feels like a familiar routine to you, though the uncomfortable high heeled shoes are starting to bite into your ankles and toes a little.(decide from the following list what your priorities are. You can choose as many as you like, but the very first option will be the most immediate and important thing to do. You can also write-in if you have any other ideas)>Find a mask to hide your face (very hard, or very easy?)>Find better clothes>Find a bag to take all the money in the pool with you (but do you even need money?)>Find a gun / ranged weapon>Find a sword / melee weapon>Find tools / utility items. (Maybe cups, coins...?)>Find magic (to some extent you have already achieved this, so long as your phone battery remains charged and the tarot app remains installed. There might be a more permanent and controlled solution however...)>Find someone in the hotel who can explain what is going on>Scroll through the phone contacts: is there someone you can call to explain this? (battery charge -20%)>Scroll through the remaining phone browser tabs (battery charge -10%)>Find your hotel room (hard)>Find MAGUS (very difficult, or very easy?)>Investigate the riot outside (easy)>Get out of the tower (extremely difficult but possible with your current knowledge)>You think you are immortal. Find a way to end it (nearly impossible, requires a huge leap of imagination with your current knowledge)
>>5123330>Find a "wand", a suitable substitute for a sword, a cup, and take some money, especially coins, or look on our fingers for a ring. (like from an engineering degree ring or a wedding ring)>Find a bag to take all the money in the pool with you (of course we need money, we are a corporate suit and this is our loot from the wizard's tower, duh.)>Find a mask to hide your face (a +7 helm of anonymity to protect our identity, anything will do)>Scroll through the remaining phone browser tabs (battery charge -10%)>Find MAGUS (very difficult, or very easy?)Maybe he'll have a key to the front door in his pocket, he's dead, so confronting him shouldn't be a problem.>Get out of the tower (extremely difficult but possible with your current knowledge)
We are the Oneironaut aren't we? We have to escape but we cannot die.>>5122209We work for Urthekau-Sylabari for some reason?
>>5123330>Find a bag to take all the money in the pool with you (but do you even need money?)>Find a gun / ranged weapon>Find tools / utility items. (Maybe cups, coins...?)>Scroll through the remaining phone browser tabs (battery charge -10%)>Investigate the riot outside (easy)
The magus should be on the top floor, floor 1. Make sure to wear the underwear on our head before seeing him.
>>5123349I'm pretty sure investigating the riots just makes us run into the magus's monsters. We should find the info and stuff we need in the tower before finding our way out.
>>5123367Okay I can agree with that. Then let’s find our room first before meeting the “magus”
>>5123374I think he is dead.Do you have any clue on where our room might be?
Alternatively we are like Highborn from Invultua and we need to either go to the Tower floor to kill ourselves with True Death, or corrupt ourselves with magick/excessive porn, or escape into another world somehow. Assuming the similarities to Souvarine's older quests hold true.
On the thread where you successfully baited and trolled KospelTheBestEverDM451, you can see another reply has appeared. The user has adopted an extremely cringeworthy bishonen anime avatar of an effeminate male private academy student and part-time pretty boy-detective. The avatar has massive eyes and a tiny triangular pointed nose. You shudder involuntarily as you read the post by user Bish09 ( >>5122139 ):Kospel I cannot make it tonight... I was just practising some of my rap flow completely innocently and I got attacked by riot police. They just attacked me, I wasn't doing anything. I fought off this guy, no - like five, no, eight guys - I mean in real life - and then there were all these gunshots and screaming and tentacle noises and stuff, I had to get away. It was a bit like a drill rap video. I am stuck here at some security barricade now though. The dungeon sounds ok I guess. Can some of the wizard minions be handsome men? Like, anime?KospelTheBestEverDM451 replies:No! This is my magical realm! All the evil wizard minions are girls! In bikinis! Bikini armour girls! No bishonen, no handsome men, absolutely no anime!(You have discovered: Lil Guro likes ttrpgs)
>>5123348>>5123357The word MAGUS suddenly makes sense to you. Isn't there a MAGUS Capital Trust, that owns the Alsephina Endowment? MAGUS owns this tower... Their offices must be situated on the top floor. All you have to do is take an elevator to the top floor, and you can meet MAGUS... As if on cue there is an autoplaying spam video that appears in the browser. The video is regurgitating old news and you skip through it.+Tickers: M AG US Newswire tags: marketmovers scandal corporate governance activism ESG M&A restructuring Nastrond100 tech high volatility high short interest+ ...surged in aftermarket trading yesterday after reclusive founder and CEO... spectacularly announced early retirement at the Alsephina Hotel Nastrond100 Tech Conference, surprising market analysts and clearing the way for a divestment of its lossmaking subsidiaries Axiom Galdra and Urthekau Sylabari...Billionaires interested in space tourism, life extension, anti-ageing longevity research, A2AD drones, embodied cognition, metaverse surveillance across virtual worlds, vertical aeroponic cultivation, neuroinformatics, advanced metamaterials, genomic sequencing and precision medicine, robotic telesurgery... These billionaires believe in accelerating the technosingularity, converging humans and machines, maybe even creating a Turing-complete Workable Artificial Intelligence For Users (WAIFU)... Didn't the mysterious billionaire founder of MAGUS obtain their wealth from some programming language? ORBIS-3? Intelligent code completion, that democratised programming for the masses. The MAGUS gave it away for free. Why are they rioting outside?
>>5123343>>5123349>Find a bag to take all the money in the pool>Find MAGUS (very difficult, or very easy?)>Investigate the riot outside (easy)>Get out of the tower (extremely difficult but possible with your current knowledge)>Find a wand(QM: I assume you take the Riot Baton, from what remains of the security guard)>>5123090A plan is beginning to form in your mind. You race up the stairs from the hydrotherapy spa, towards the elevator corridor. You notice the hotel and skyscraper tower seems mostly deserted - perhaps there is some lockdown with guests confined to their rooms as the guards are dealing with the riot and protests outside. You pass the corridor where Lil Guro the Drill Rapper and the now deceased security guard struggled earlier. There is no sign of the receptionist / female attendant voice you heard previously. There is a gun-shaped package strewn upon the floor. But as Lil Guro tried to explain - it does not appear to be an actual gun.
>Take the Strange MachineYou are not sure what this device does, but the point is sharp enough to draw blood. It does not appear to be a weapon. There is an inscription engraved inside: In der Strafkolonie
You have almost reached the elevator corridor when you hear voices. It sounds like more security guards, three of them...(Intelligent Sounding Guard)So the hydrotherapy spa is completely soundproofed, you could fire a gun in there and no-one would hear! It is supposed to help with relaxation or something, sensory deprivation, red light therapy new age magic nonsense. But this tower is so insulated you cannot even hear the demonstrations outside. On the internet they are claiming they have 100,000 protestors but they always exaggerate the numbers. It is probably a few thousand - but the eye struggles to count crowds. You know it is harder with smaller groups. You can contain, bottleneck and kettle a crowd, but a small group that infiltrates, attacks and disperses... that would be difficult to handle. Have you ever tried chasing after protestors in riot armour?(Brutal Guard, who replies with the sound of a firearm being racked)No need to chase them. We have guns. (There is a third high-pitched voice. This Squeaky Guard sounds very excited)Hey - we are near to the spa right here! I was speaking with this guy earlier who had an interesting theory about Titanic being about vampires here. It makes sense! Think about it! Most of the time people claim that vampires are metaphors for gothic wandering heroes, desire, separation, social stratification family trauma fear of strangers etc. But the metaphor can work in reverse! What if some films are metaphors for vampires! Think about it! Titanic is about an old woman who is a young woman about to commit suicide, but she feeds off the life of a young man, eventually lets him drown in the freezing Sea, thereby reinvigorating herself to live an unnaturally long life! Like a vampire!The Brutal Guard replies simply:That is the most retarded thing I have ever heard.The Squeaky Guard does not appear to be discouraged. He is rapidly heading in your direction.We should go check on him! His conversations are really interesting!>You think you are immortal. Walk out and kill all of these guards>You were fortunate last time - you had Death on your side, and walked Through The Red Forest. You are not sure if the arcana you possess ( 14 XIV: TEMPERANCE, >>5121981 ) can do much in this situation. You should try and hide?>Hide in the elevator>Retreat and hide in the spa>Perhaps this ( >>5122209 ) Strange Identification can help you circumvent the situation? Confidently brandish it and step out in your bathrobe and heels. (Bonus: write-in and select one of the occupations or write your own...)>You have a feeling that with your current incomplete outfit even the Strange ID will not be enough. You have an ominous feeling about what might happen if these guards see your face... put on the Suspicious Underpants perhaps?>Stay exactly where you are and do nothing. Maybe fate will intervene. (Burn your major arcana, 14 XIV: TEMPERANCE to resolve this situation in your favour)
>>5123502I'm guessing this is an injectable version of the skin scribe spell. Fitting for the whole "we are in a simulation and are literally injecting code into ourselves" thing.>>5123503>Perhaps this ( >>5122209 ) Strange Identification can help you circumvent the situation? Confidently brandish it and step out in your bathrobe and heels. (Bonus: write-in and select one of the occupations or write your own...)>"Urthekau-Sylabari Certified Internal Auditor, I'm here to perform a first-party audit and make sure our practices are up to date with your latest standards.">Act casual and shitpost on >>5123493 "He's lying, he took one look at the receptionist and got too scared to talk to a girl, but honestly, his NEETdom is nothing compared to your pathetic neckbeard mouthbreathing kospel."
>>5123503>"Also, I second that being the most retarded thing I've ever heard, Titanic is not about vampires."
>>5123503We’re a woman in a bath robe and those 3 idiots are dumb horny men. Do the thing you know works in the porn movies until they let us past!
>>5123527>>5123529(You recognise the Strange Device as:Tattoo Machine. There seems to be something more to it however...You remember the spell: Skin ScribeThrough an agony of effort, etch your thoughts into the skin of another known to you, at any distance. You may also receive the thoughts of another upon your own flesh. Through a dangerous and debilitatingly greater exertion of effort over a longer period of time, this spell can injure, though it is unlikely to discomfort a battle-hardened opponent.You look at the phone in your hand. Has technology made this spell useless?)>>5123527(Somehow in this upcoming tense confrontation with three riot guards you managed to quickly compose even more eloquent and belletristic trolling. Kospel is trying to dox you and Bish09 will remember this later. You notice that your phone battery charge has strangely increased from 29% to 39%.)
>>5123527>>5123529>>5123597It seems to be working. Maybe it is your vulnerable, womanly figure in the luxurious spa bathrobe. It could be the high heels. But somehow a cheap plastic identification card with unconvincing bureaucratic insignia and logos appears to have utterly convinced The Squeaky Guard, despite your bizarre bathrobe and heels attire. He nods enthusiastically and waves you onwards.(The Security Guards have seen your face)The Brutal Guard is a bit more sceptical - he is however staring at your seductive high-heeled shoes, which are fairly expensive. ( >>5122588 ) And agreeing with his earlier Titanic comments has placated this security guard and put him in a good mood. He nods at you slowly - he seems to be concluding that you must have headed off into the spa to relax briefly, and that you have just emerged to change. He says:You should stay in your room, Ma'am. We had some reports there are some intruders around - from the protests outside that have broken in. We are checking the situation now.The Brutal Guard and the Squeaky Guard with the high-pitched voice disappear together down the stairs into the hydrotherapy spa, descending cheerfully to check on their (now-deceased) colleague.The remaining Intelligent Guard is now standing before you alone. He is attired in riot gear and carries a USP chambered in .45 ACP ( >>5122076 ) You have a feeling that his gun is most definitely not loaded with blank ammunition.The Intelligent Guard is looking at you with rapidly increasing suspicion: You are an internal auditor? Which floor are you from? I have not seen you here before. Don't you guys only come down here fiscal quarter end? Which division did you say you were from? And what is that object in your pocket there...? (He is looking at the bulging pocket where you are carrying your own, empty handgun)>1/ Burn Major Arcana 14 XIV: TEMPERANCE ( >>5121981 ) Perhaps fate will intervene?>2/ Whip out the concealed Riot Baton and try and knock him out (the guard will be surprised. You can probably get a few hits in. Pray that the baton impact hits somewhere sensitive, not protected by his riot armour. Commence fight, roll 1d78, total success if you roll WANDS=18%probability. You can use this in combination with option 1/ above and try and improve your chances, succeed on WANDS or major arcana = 46% probability.)>3/ Just run away. The elevator is right there. Maybe see if it really is quite difficult for a security guard in full riot armour to run after and catch up with you?>4/ Write in and try and persuade this guard further. (You feel like this might be nearly impossible)>5/ Something else?
(Important QM clarification:If you choose to burn Major Arcana 14 XIV: TEMPERANCE, you must declare it now, before any hostile action. Once combat begins it is unlikely that magic or fate will favour you)
>>5123625>"Oh, I'm from the 35th floor, we have to do another emergency audit to comply with the Parabus Associations new guidelines for best industry practices and - oh, this?">Reach with both hands into our pocket and push the slide forward and lift the slide lock so the slide is locked forward so the gun looks like it is loaded. Draw the gun and point it at his head.>"Don't move, if you move or shout I'll blow your fucking brains out and use your blood as lube for my next shlicking session. Drop your gun and baton, do it slowly, kick them over to them. Then strip all your gear off and put it in a pile and step away">If he makes any hostile motion despite us point a gun at him run away crying "I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find my room, I'm having a really bad day *insertlongbabblingmonologueofawomanhavingareallybadday*" Then run into the elevator and mash the button for the top floor.
>>5123625Oh, but if he does comply, then pick up the actually loaded gun so that we are armed and pick up any of the gear that can fit into our pockets and put them in our pockets, including any handcuffs, magazines, the baton, keys, etc. Kick the rest of the gear into the elevator and tell the guard to scram in the opposite direction of his guard buddies.
Alternative Plan: Seductively get closer to him while undoing the bathrobe. When we are close enough, let the robes slip as we pull out the baton. While he is still too shocked and distracted with the display smack him until he is unconscious and take his stuff
>>5123665>>5123667>>5123736(QM: I will allow the intent of these write-ins, but it will cost you the Invigorated trait and XIV: TEMPERANCE. As you did not roll, I will only give you some of what you want...)(You have lost trait: Invigorated. You will begin to tire, weaken and hunger)(XIV: TEMPERANCE has returned to the tarot)(Three security guards have seen your face)(Your combat skill is improving. You are about average now. You think you can easily overwhelm any civilian who has never fought before, and even match trained guards if they are on their own and isolated. You are not sure you could overcome heavily armed opponents, fanatics, multiple guards or a single battle-hardened opponent however)(Your skill with handguns is improving. You can manage an isoceles stance and perhaps a tactical reload)You are thinking about drawing your handgun with the intent of intimidating this security guard. He is on his own and already suspicious of you. This guard is very well trained and he draws his pistol and raises it before you can react. Yet when you step forward into the light and he can see you clearly outside of the unnatural red illumination and shadows from the hydrotherapy spa stairway the guard pauses, as if paralysed. He is petrified with fear. Then he starts shaking, trembling. He drops his loaded pistol and flees. He does not scream, but he runs as fast as he can away from you. You are a little bewildered. You did not really do anything? Is there something about your face that frightened him? Faraway from the hydrotherapy pool you can hear the echoing voices of the guards below:This- what is this?! This is meant to be a 17-star I mean 7-star hotel! This pool is completely clogged! This is disgusting! Is that meat and hair I see? It must be rats! Some rats have died in this pool! We should get maintenance to fix this...(You can hear the voice of the Brutal Guard)Not sure rats have incisors of that size. Those teeth look human to me.You think of Temperance, the image of a woman beside a pool transferring water from one hand to another. It is not a rite of violence, but of manipulation, adjustment. He may no longer be able to tell you any interesting lore about vampires, Titanic or other films, but at least the dead guard's remains can clog a hydrotherapy pool. It appears Fate intervened after all.
HK USP45.45 ACP Tactical Variant (12/12)Short Range, Concealed, Loud, Quickdraw, Reduced Recoil, Double-tap, Mozambique Drill, Compact, Flashlight, Threaded BarrelPolymer frame semi-automatic with mechanical recoil reduction spring assembly. Five shots against two targets in less than 1.5 seconds. The modular design of this weapon permits customisation.(basically the same as >>5122076 )(It has a flashlight attached, because tactical lol. You could attach a suppressor if you find one. If you insist on dual-wielding, transferring the bullets between two magazines 2x 6/12 and carrying two handguns like Max Payne or a John Woo film or Nicolas Cage in Face/Off I cannot stop you, but I think it would be cooler with two different guns)>Dual wield two USP45 and juggle some bullets around in magazines: you must become Max Payne (Maxine Payne?) or the femme fatale in Max Payne who got shot Mona Sax or whatever she was called. The QM will just have to permit this.>Just take this upgraded USP45 like a normal Tom Clancy tacticool fanatic and discard the old one
>>5123767>Keep both guns but don't dual wield. Rack the slide of the .45 caliber one and insert a single bullet into the chamber of the other USP and lock the slide forward. That way if we are disarmed we can draw the other gun to use.
>>5123767>>5123769(Also apologies the image of the tactical USP is a 9mm one but I could not find a good angle picture for a .45 ACP with a flashlight. Just imagine they are both .45ACP)
>>5123767>Just take this upgraded USP45 like a normal Tom Clancy tacticool fanatic and discard the old oneDual wielding is dumb and we can find something more useful on the other hand.
>>5123769>>5123779(I will let you keep both guns for the time being, but in a bathrobe you can only carry two weapons. Even a spare, unloaded gun might be useful...)Whilst the remaining two guards are distracted and dealing with the spa pool, you run towards the elevator. You thought it was so simple... just press the button to the top floor... but it seems like you have not visited these skyscrapers before. Perhaps you were not as wealthy and privileged as you imagined? Wealth follows a Pareto distribution. It is scale invariant. The 1% may spurn the 99%, but the 1% amongst the 1%, the ultra HNWIs, can make even the rich feel inferior, by the arithmetic of envy and hedonic adaptation.This tower is segregated into sections. The floors have eccentric numberings, you think you might be on the 25th floor ( >>5121890 , 25 ACE of PENTACLES ) but the buttons stop before 22. You know in some buildings the top floor is accessed via an exclusive, entirely separate private elevator that stops only on that level. For other buildings there are levels with no buttons at all and the lifts are computer allocated only via the entrance reception desk for security.>You should visit the reception floor at the very bottom of this tower (US first floor, UK ground floor etc). Perhaps they could tell you which room you originally booked? You could also investigate the riot outside.>Your bathrobe disguise barely deceived the currently distracted security guards on this floor. You should find some more appropriate clothes before attempting to talk to the reception desk.>You should search this floor for more weapons/tools/information instead. Perhaps the different groups of floors have different purposes?>Completely ignore the tower for the time being. The dead film guard now clogging the spa pool kept talking about vampires. Is there someone you could contact who knows something about them? (check phone contacts)
>>5123854>You should search this floor for more weapons/tools/information instead. Perhaps the different groups of floors have different purposes?
The phone in your pocket is beginning to feel warm again, as if the battery is overheating. You check it quickly and notice there is this update to the thread from KospelTheBestDMEver451:I give up. Ok I admit it, I am not a very good hacker. I searched everywhere for this bathrobewaif6969 and I could not find anything. I even posted details of your phone metadata and screenshots of your conversations across the internet on the most obscure boards and hacker forums so everyone could see. I got zero replies. No one cares. I have no friends. Why can't people on the internet be nice? Please stop trolling me! Tell me what you want! I have lots of useful knowledge! I know everything about rpgs, how to defeat any monster... Please... Anything to stop the trolling...!(>Write-in a request for Kospel: your earlier comments have driven Kospel to a state of desperation and despair. You could use this as a favour to ask him for information later)Bish09 appears to have forgotten the purpose of this rpg thread. He is now liveblogging his frustration at the protest:I am stuck here, what the hell - the police came and beat some people up. But everything has calmed down. There is some charity or social worker woman from the Paribus Foundation going around talking to everyone. But you know what - she is making it worse! It is a stalemate. Obviously the guards are not letting people into the building. The demonstrators have occupied the plaza, and the guards will not let anyone leave. I am stuck here! I don't think they can arrest everyone, there are just too many... maybe I can find some way back into the building. I heard from the demonstrators there is some secret entrance and exit that the guards have overlooked. But I don't even know what we are protesting about. There are some weird slogans on these placards, down with capitalism, kill the vampires, eat the rich, save the dolphins / trees / children, make love not war, the MAGUS did not kill himself, men can be women too... I am not sure I agree with all of this. Maybe half of it? What are we even protesting about? When I become a famous drill rapper I will write a diss song about all this...( >>5123623 phone battery charge drops from 39% to 24%. What the hell...? The battery is just completely random...?! This is so unfair...)
You are scrolling through these posts when you notice two bizarrely attired women approaching from this corridor. You are fairly confident they are not occupants from within this building, and you remember that the security guards were searching this floor earlier. You instinctively nickname the intruder with a purple sidecut Danger Hair and the other as Slob Girl. You notice they have tattoos.Danger Hair is gawking a little at the lavish corporate interior:There is so much stuff here... I heard there is a fashion show, a tech conference, an art gallery, some archaeological artifact museum exhibition... this tower literally has everything! These billionaires have everything! This must be what it is like to be ultra rich... you just experience all this stuff, and never even pay for anything... nobody even asks you for money when you belong, everything just happens for free... this is incredible...The Slob Woman attempts to hush Danger Hair:Sshhh! Have you forgotten there are riot guards patrolling everywhere? Keep your voice down! Sshhh! And we cannot let them find out about the secret entrance! Now see if there is any stuff we can grab, and let us quickly move on!Danger Hair giggles a little:Oh I think I can wrestle any man down. I am pretty strong. But I hope I do not encounter that strange movie producer. You know, the one who makes all the goth music and horror films. They say he prowls hotel corridors in a bathrobe preying on beautiful actresses, young women... this would never happen in real life! It is not like there is some actual creepy film producer in real life that would go around for years undetected molesting women! But I heard he got really into horror films and stuff. He performed some demonic ritual and filmed it - he believes he cannot die now... He has to sacrifice people to stay immortal, and film them...Slob Girl is really scared -Sshhhh! Don't say it! Don't say his name! I saw this horror film! If you say his name loud enough, he appears and tortures and mutilates and kills everyone! Let's just get out of here!>Umm... this secret entrance / exit... er... where is it exactly?>Er... nice...tattoos? Do you know anything about this tattoo machine... ( >>5123502 )>Er... down with capitalism, um, kill all the vampires etc. Could I maybe follow you around and see where you are going? (try and persuade Danger Hair and Slob Girl to join your party. They can direct you to locations eg the fashion show, tech conference, art gallery, archaeology museum etc)>Would you like this free gun to defend yourself from undead horror film producers who molest women? (trade them your spare USP45 - perhaps they might have an item in return? Bonus: write-in if you provide them with some spare ammunition out of your .45 ACP 12/12 magazine, they may trust you even more)
Danger Hair
Slob Girl
>>5124403>Er... nice...tattoos? Do you know anything about this tattoo machine... ( >>5123502 )>Would you like this free gun to defend yourself from undead horror film producers who molest women? (trade them your spare USP45
Your phone battery is overheating again. The anime avatar of Bisho09 / Lil Guro the drill rapper is frantically posting:Kospel? Kospel - you autist, what did you do... Where did you post all those details about bathrobewaif6969, I hope it was not on some degenerate anonymous site filled with cartel beheading / face peeling videos or tentacle anime that I do not watch or know or think about. I have just seen the strangest thing... Some guard came running out in complete panic, he was unarmed he did not have a gun... he ran out of the building and was undoing his helmet and babbling to the Paribus Foundation charity lady, something about a bathrobe person-thing with a gun... He was really frightened, he kept shouting about its face and its robes... Then there were these like tattooed goth cosplay people at the protest. They got really interested in this, whatever the guard was shouting about. They got up and approached the Paribus Charity Lady. The goth leader is a woman and they are having a bit of an argument right now, it seems like the Goths want to be let inside. But the guards are going to let them in! They look like terrorists, maniacs! They have all these axes and blowtorches or a flamethrower and some really weird guns, like old ones. I think like there are these twins with swords and someone else has a tank cannon or something. It must be fake! I really hope they are cosplayers. They look pretty angry...! And the other demonstrators are angry too, they do not understand why some Goths get to go in and they do not. It was just calm a moment ago. The crowd might start a riot again! What did you do Kospel?! You are to blame for this! I am going to put you in my next drill rap diss track! ( >>5124402 phone battery drops from 24% to 14%. )
Catching up.
(It is almost like the QM is conveying some message about what RPG dungeon delving adventuring parties are like these days, with the characters being offered. Needless to say neither Danger Hair nor Slob Girl will criticise your face or slightly psychotic fashion outfit of bathrobe plus high heels. They will ONLY accept the following in terms of trade:)>spare USP + 6 bullets + expensive high heels>Riot Baton + expensive high heels>your luxurious, expensive bathrobe (they will not mind nakedness, the protest/demonstration/festival has brought out all sorts of people, it is like Burning Man out there)You notice Danger Hair is carrying a Flare Gun - intriguingly, it seems quite antiquated.If you trade any of these options above, you can persuade them to (choose ONE:)>accompany you (Danger Hair and Slob Girl will join your party, and direct you to various locations. They may annoy you. They may reveal the location of the secret unguarded passage.)>give you a flare gun>explain what the tattoo machine does(other stuff you can try, if you are feeling very brave...)>you don't need information. You are immortal.Shoot both Danger Hair and Slob Girl and take their stuff>Knock them unconscious with the Riot Baton>Try and threaten them with a gun or baton etc>Ask Kospel about the tattoo machine>Ask Kospel about vampires
Signal PistolConcealable, Loud, Incendiary, Weak: ArmourVZ30 flare gun, a weapon of the old world. Unusual rotating breech block can fire a variety of different rounds. Can be used to signal an attack, distract or burn unarmoured opponents. If you fire it, expect a lot of attention.
>>5124518>your luxurious, expensive bathrobe (they will not mind nakedness, the protest/demonstration/festival has brought out all sorts of people, it is like Burning Man out there)>accompany you (Danger Hair and Slob Girl will join your party, and direct you to various locations. They may annoy you. They may reveal the location of the secret unguarded passage.)>Ask Kospel where to find a bag and where our room is
>>5123867Ah, probably not the best choice to search a pentacle floor for weapons or tools, but info maybe.>Write-in a request for Kospel: "Tell me everything you know about MAGUS and Alsephina Hotel.">>5124518>your luxurious, expensive bathrobe (they will not mind nakedness, the protest/demonstration/festival has brought out all sorts of people, it is like Burning Man out there)>accompany you (Danger Hair and Slob Girl will join your party, and direct you to various locations. They may annoy you. They may reveal the location of the secret unguarded passage.)>Ask Kospel about vampires
>Ask Kospel where to find a bag and where our room isKospelTheBestDMEver451 replies:Noooo! Please, stop trolling me! Noooo! I have been trying to dox you bathrobewaif6969 and you ask me where your room is? I have no idea where it is?! If I knew I would have sent like SWAT teams to your location like they do on the livestreams with the gamers but your trolling is far too advanced! Noooo! Leave me alone! (>>5124516 Phone battery increases to 19%)>Ask Kospel about vampiresKospelTheBestDMEver451 replies:Ha! I am an expert on this! I know everything! So easy! Did you know, I once fought this vampire singlehandedly in a dungeon...! And I survived! And there was this other strange person, who I think was also maybe a vampire, but I sort of hit my head a bit on a rock and got a bit wet or something after I do not remember. But vampires are really tough. If you shoot and slash and burn them a lot, a LOT, they will actually die. But the problem is - they will be fighting back. It is like - imagine you had to fight someone who had a chainsaw but you only had like a needle or a tattoo gun ha ha ha. The needle would eventually kill them pathetically slowly but you probably would get torn apart first by the chainsaw. And also when vampires die they go to some strange place like a red forest or whatever I am not sure. But the best way to end a vampire is to kill them with an old weapon. A weapon that is of the same era as when they were born, or older than when they were made. Like a really ancient sword or axe or spear or something. But this is why it is difficult. You need to research their origin. If you fought a vampire with the wrong era weapon, it might hurt them a bit, but then they would just tear you apart! It would be horrible! You could also try destroying their sanctuary. This does not actually kill them, but it makes them mortal. The sanctuary could be anything though. It could be like an amulet or trinket or anything at all. If you destroy this they cannot go to the red forest or whatever and you can just end them normally. See, I know so much stuff! I am so amazing!>Write-in a request for Kospel: Tell me everything you know about MAGUS and Alsephina Hotel.(There is no response to this. You have a feeling you have just doxxed yourself)(You are being hunted)Phone battery charge: 0%
(Danger Hair and Slob Girl have joined your party.They accept you because you look strange. If you do corporate things or wear corporate clothes, Danger Hair and Slob Girl will begin to dislike you.)Well, you will just have to remain naked now. You feel a bit disappointed to part with the Bathrobe. It feels so soft and warm and comfortable. Robes fit you really well. When you wear this robe, you almost feel a bit like a wizard.As you are undressing, Danger Hair suddenly stops you. She is gazing earnestly at you, staring deeply into your eyes and face:You are so, so brave. So brave. I really respect your life choices. It is so hard! People are so prejudiced! A lot of my friends are going through the same thing. Whenever I see separate bathrooms I remember how cruel people can be. The world is so cruel! It starts from such an early age too, the indoctrination and oppression. This is literally the worst and most cruel thing in the entire world. Someday we will overthrow this tran-I mean tyranny! Not the other word! You are such a strong, independent person! There is a very long, awkward silence...And the long silence continues...(QM: You can keep the bathrobe. Without its pockets, how will you carry anything?)Slob Girl has noticed your high heels. She shakes her head a little:Those are so corporate. Unfashionable. You should get rid of them, just throw them away.>Throw away the expensive high heels. They may be seductive but they are cramping your toes and arching your feet uncomfortably.>Keep wearing the expensive high heels. Maybe if you can find a complete corporate outfit, this could help you at the reception desk on the bottom floor?
Ahead of you there is a wide concourse, that overlooks several of the floors below in the tower. You can see the vertiginous drop of levels above and below you. Danger Hair mentions:You know it is strange. This billionaire MAGUS or whoever built this tower 13 years ago. It was the tallest skyscraper at the time - so it must have had more than 163 floors. But there are only 78 levels marked? And the numbering is chaotic. We already know one passage, but are there many more secret hidden floors? What would the MAGUS be doing there?Slob Girl replies nervously:Dungeons. Torture dungeons! Maybe the MAGUS is the... no! I am not saying his name! It is so scary!You can see two men ahead on the concourse. They appear to be arguing fiercely and gesticulating violently at each other. One is a very Handsome Executive, he looks like a financier or investment manager of some sort. The other man looks literally like the opposite. He has a sordid wolfish look, like a begrimed ageing rockstar, a goth, or ghoul. Eventually the Handsome Executive gets up, shaking his head in disagreement and disgust. The Handsome Executive departs and leaves the Ghoulish Man alone. His back is turned to you, and he has not seen or heard any of you approach.Slob Girl squeals in terror:That-that must be him! King Ghoul! He directs all those horror films! Argh! We have to get away! He is going to torture and kill us all!(Slob Girl and Danger Hair are too terrified to help you at the moment)>This is the perfect opportunity for a stealth attack. If only you were like a bald-headed assassin, with a barcode on your head and some piano wire... but wait, you have some large suspicious underpants. Approach King Ghoul from behind, pull the underpants over his head, maybe beat him over the face for molesting women and making disturbing horror films>Just shoot him>King Ghoul makes horror films... maybe he knows something about vampires? Or even the MAGUS? Ask King Ghoul all these questions etc>Maybe just avoid this situation. Try and follow the Handsome Executive (leave Danger Hair and Slob Girl behind for the moment, in this area alone with King Ghoul)
King Ghoul, aka The King
Robert Alle, The Handsome Executive
>>5124582Good, more fodder to interrogate. Also nice to know the vampire mechanics, I guess that is why the paintings were important in Galerne.>Throw away the expensive high heels. They may be seductive but they are cramping your toes and arching your feet uncomfortably.We have allies, some moderate skill in firearms and a gun, for now we probably won't need to blend in for the mid-game, we'll just shoot anyone who disagrees with us.Also, I guess we are intersex or trans? I sort of guessed that based on the post-modern shoe option.>>5124592>This is the perfect opportunity for a stealth attack. If only you were like a bald-headed assassin, with a barcode on your head and some piano wire... but wait, you have some large suspicious underpants. Approach King Ghoul from behind, pull the underpants over his head, maybe beat him over the face for molesting women and making disturbing horror filmswolololo! yolo!
>>5124584>>Throw away the expensive high heels. They may be seductive but they are cramping your toes and arching your feet uncomfortably.>>5124592>>This is the perfect opportunity for a stealth attack. If only you were like a bald-headed assassin, with a barcode on your head and some piano wire... but wait, you have some large suspicious underpants. Approach King Ghoul from behind, pull the underpants over his head, maybe beat him over the face for molesting women and making disturbing horror filmsDammit anon. Why did you ask that the question and get us doxxed?
>>5124632I mean, there is no reason that we know of that Kospel would think us wanting to know about MAGUS or the hotel would mean that we are in there, unless he knows we are an amnesiac or whatever we are.Nor am I worried about being SWATed, we are surrounded by riot cops, leftist(?) protesters, vampires and ghouls and who knows what. Honestly, Kospel showing up himself could be a blessing.
(in an unknown location)911, what's your emergency?Yes er I am Kospel-I mean, er, hmmm, er... Koebel... yes, Koebel, lets go with that, that is not the name at all of a dungeonmaster who got himself into trouble or cancelled - yes, I am, er, DM Koebel, and er, there is this insane woman(?) in a bathrobe, at the Alsephina Hotel, she is obssessed with vampires, I think she is armed and very dangerous...You are beginning to suspect that this wizard tower is actually filled with traps (QM: lol, traps) and even if they are not of the fall into a pit of spikes variety, some of these social traps can also impale you, or be difficult to escape from. (you have lost: expensive high heeled shoes. Danger Hair squeals a little when you throw them over the edge into the floors below. Slob Girl is pleased)However you were clever enough to throw away the heels. Not only would they gradually annoy your companions over time but they would definitely give you away when trying to sneak up on this perverted King Ghoul. You are approaching him silently, underpants garrotte at the ready... creeping forward ever so silently...King Ghoul has his back turned 180 degrees to you. There is no possible way for him to see you approach, no shadow, no reflection, no sound, surely nothing. And yet, in a voice that sounds like a handful of dust thrown into an open grave, the King speaks:I know what you are. I don't serve you no more. There is no need for it. Life kills you in the end.(You have lost the chance for a surprise attack)(You are not within melee distance)King Ghoul turns to face you. There is a sound like a crying baby thrown into the jaws of a howling wolf. A braying croaked scream. You realise he is laughing. It ends in a nicotine wracked cough. When he recovers, King Ghoul speaks:It's not magic. I smelt the incense on your skin. So this is what it is like now, is it? You've come to end me, with your friends?(King Ghoul does not appear to be carrying any weapons)>Don't let him finish - gun King Ghoul down with the USP45. You have seen this film before, he is about to transform into something horrible...>Tell Danger Hair to shoot King Ghoul with her flare gun>Tel Danger Hair and Slob Girl to flee>Hear King Ghoul out - does he have something to tell you?>Bluff/try and flatter him: I really like your films! Especially all the horror and violence and torture ones! Could you tell me how you make those vampire films of yours? They are so realistic! Amazing!>That Handsome Executive is getting pretty far away now. Maybe completely ignore this conversation and just walk off to chase after him, and leave King Ghoul alone with the terrified Danger Hair and Slob Girl.
>Something else...? If you know who the Magus is, maybe that would help...?>King Ghoul is the Magus>You literally only glimpsed him a few moments ago, but the Handsome Executive is the Magus>That Squeaky-Voiced Guard interested in the Titanic vampire film theory is the Magus>Lil Guro the Drill Rapper aka Bish09 is the Magus>Kospel is the Magus>I have no idea, Danger Hair is the Magus?>Slob Girl?>The Magus is dead>The Magus doesn't exist, it is some sort of metaphor for capitalism? (If you say this, Slob Girl will be really happy)>someone/something else...?
>>5124727We ARE the MAGUS
>>5124732You have gained trait: The BetrayerThis trait can never be lostIt is in the oldest book. The one that betrayed for money. Dead by their own hand as the sun rose over the field of blood bought with silver. There was another betrayal. Whose sacrifice was greater? The one in agony, worshipped and blessed forever, or the Betrayer who brought it about, who followed the plan, but whose name was cursed forever after? The Betrayer died for their sins too. And there were some who remembered, who worshipped the Betrayer instead. The True Faith and the Greatest Sacrifice. On another world, they could forget the symbols that forever reminded them of the curse, silver, sunlight, but perhaps not blood...?The light on this floor, the Ace Of Pentacles, is turning strangely red again. You feel a sharp pang of hunger - you haven't eaten anything for a long time...>King Ghoul knows what you are. Push him over the edge of this floor. It serves him right anyway.>Shoot King Ghoul in the head>wait, King Ghoul - does he direct or produce these films? Is that importa- KILL HIM>KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL KILL KILL>You realise you are truly cursed. Leap over the overhang of this floor yourself.
>>5124770>KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL KILL KILL
You are not walking Through A Red Forest. There is a desolate wilderness of red sand, endless parched red dunes and barren red rock. You thirst, but there is no water, no sustenance here. Nothing is enough.
There is a monstrous shape looming in the blinding whirlwind of red flecks. You must fight it if you want to maintain control.(Your phone charge is 0%.) (You cannot access the Tarot.) >Hit it with the Riot Baton?? (roll 1d3)>Shoot it with the gun?? (roll 2d3)>Surrender and let the shape embrace you (roll 3d3)>Something else?
Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d3)>>5124855Yeah, yeah, no blood.Probably would've been easier to push him off and drink from someone else and confront him when we are stronger.>Shoot it with the gun?? (roll 2d3)
.45ACP 10/12In the red whirlwind amidst the parched dunes, the gun makes no sound. You can hear screaming. You remember what Kospel said about ancient weapons. Will it be enough?>Keep firing (roll 2d3 again)>Maybe try a melee weapon? Lash out with the Riot Baton (roll 1d3)>Surrender and let the shape embrace you (roll 3d3)>Something is very wrong. You have to break out of this... but what to do? (write-in)
1 Danger Hair2 Slob Girl3 King Ghoul
Rolled 3, 1 = 4 (2d3)>>5124879>Keep firing (roll 2d3 again)
Rolled 3, 3 = 6 (2d3)>>5124879>Keep firing (roll 2d3 again)If we are Judas, then who was Jesus?
Ammunition remaining.45 ACP 6/12Danger Hair hit once : Wounded, shock, panicSlob Girl hit twice :(USP45 weapon trait: double-tap)Mortally wounded, unconscious, dyingKing Ghoul hitx3 :(USP45 weapon trait: Mozambique Drill) ExecutedDeadYou have gained traits:InvigoratedCorrupted (II)Your handgun skill is formidable. You use a Weaver stance and instinctively fire 2-round double-tap bursts to execute targets. You are still outmatched by highly trained guards, fanatics, psychotic criminals or battle-hardened military operators, supernatural foes or just a very large crowd of ordinary assailants, suppressing fire etc.>Take the flare gun / signal pistol from Danger Hair ( >>5124522 ) She is in shock and cannot stop you>Search Slob Girl for items (maybe she has a phone...?)>Feed them all to the Red Lord Of Ruin (execute all survivors)(If you choose to flee, you must do so immediately. You cannot take the flare gun/signal pistol, search or loot etc)Everyone in your vicinity heard those gunshots. You are already being hunted. Flee this area and head for:>Back to the hydrotherapy spa (maybe some of those guards could provide you with more ammunition...?)>The elevatorTry to find on your own:>The Fashion Show>The Tech Conference>The Art Gallery>The Archaeological Exhibition>The fastest way down is to leap off the side of this floor. You are The Magus and you built this Tower. You will survive The Fall. (lose trait: invigorated)
>>5124958>Feed them all to the Red Lord Of Ruin (execute all survivors)>Search Slob Girl for items (maybe she has a phone...?) Get our clothes back or if she has better clothes with more pockets then take those.>Take the flare gun / signal pistol from Danger Hair ( >>5124522 ) She is in shock and cannot stop youIn that order.
Rolled 1 (1d3)Slob Girl's Phone:1 phone shattered by bullets2 phone damaged3 phone intact
>>5125004I mean, we are killing danger girl as well, so lets see if she has a phone as well.
>Feed them all to the Red Lord Of Ruin (execute all survivors)(Danger Hair: executed, dead)(Slob Girl: executed, dead).45 ACP 4/12Corrupted (III)You have ascended to: Red Ruin AcolyteThe Orationists are hunting you. They will execute you on sight.The Vourukasha are hunting you. They will attempt to capture and interrogate you.Some pathetic human guards are hunting you (or is it the other way round?) You should feed them to the Red Lord.Some goths(?) are looking for you. Maybe they want to cosplay?The Red Lord grants you:Bullet Witch (ordinary weapons)Gift: mundane weapons have infinite magazines. You will never run out of ammunitionCurse: you cannot ever tactical reload, even in between battles. You have to fully empty a gun before reloading. The magazine is locked in place. This could lead to you having to reload at the very start of a gunfight, and at inopportune moments.>accept the Red Lord's Gift>decline the Red Lord's Gift (He will not be pleased. This will incur a consequence)You have gained: Signal Pistol/Flare Gun 1/1>>5124522This is a relic of the old world. It will hurt supernatural foes, so long as they are unarmoured. It counts as a pistol, so your combat training skills apply, and you are familiar with its operation. Upgrading your handgun skill becomes more difficult from this threshold onwards...Since you responded correctly with the identity of the Magus, if you can guess which floor the following events are held, you may choose to bypass security and go there directly. Some should be more obvious than others.You can consult >>5121867 to guess which floor the following events are held:>The Fashion Show>The Tech Conference>The Art Gallery>The Archaeological Exhibitionalternatively:>The fastest way down is to leap off the side of this floor. You are The Magus and you built this Tower. You will survive The Fall. (lose trait: invigorated)
>>5125029You are thinking about searching Danger Hair for a phone. From the corner of your eye you can see a short girl looking at you, with a puzzled expression on her face...
And then another girl appears...(You have no magic)>Flee, now (where to?)>Face these opponents with your Riot Baton (roll 1d78, hit on WANDS)>Shoot both of them with the HK USP 4/12 shots remaining (roll 2d78, hit on WANDS)>Shoot at one of them with the Flare Gun (roll 1d78, hit on WANDS)>Something else?
Rolled 56, 26 = 82 (2d78)
>>5125059(nothing happens)
>>5125057>>Flee, now (where to?)>The Art GalleryAce of Wands"Later, girls!"
Rolled 42, 6 = 48 (2d78)>>5125036>accept the Red Lord's Gift>Flee to floor 56>Fire blindly at both of them
Agree with emptying the magazine by firing blindly so we can go into the next fight with a full mag
>>5125057Eh, actually, sure, lets go with that floor >>5125069
>>512507342 FIVE of WANDS is a hit. You have grazed: Sword Twins. You have a feeling that this mundane handgun you found from a guard will not hurt them very much though.06 VI: The LOVERS you have no magic. If you burnt major arcana this would have led to an awesome Bayonetta effects lol given that these girls are twins, and the imagery of that card.>>5125077It is a clever idea, but sadly that is not how the curse of the Red Lord works (he is named after Ruin for a reason...)HK USP .45 ACP 2/12. It looks like you will have to reload in the middle of the next fight.You are racing towards the Ace Of Wands, floor 26, hoping it is the Art Gallery. You can hear the echoing of chants and rioting outside. Something has stirred up the crowd... you thought your tower was insulated from them, but they are breaking through the barricades, trying to force their way in... Your memories are slowly returning to you. You see the image of King Ghoul splayed out, arms outstretched like bloodied wings upon the concourse floor. It did not feel right... was he really to blame? King Ghoul had been arguing with that Handsome Executive, what was that about? You remember Lil Guro / Bish09 mentioning the cosplaying goths. ( >>5124516 ). Goths like horror films, right? If you had listened to King Ghoul more, sent him down to speak with them... or if you had told Danger Hair and Slob Girl to flee first, listened to King Ghoul... This is the Betrayer's Curse, you tell yourself. It is Fate. Always when you find a sense of self, begin to grow close to others, find companionship... it is torn away from you. Did you do it? Or is this what the curse always does? The Betrayer sacrificed everything for Heaven - see how he was rewarded, how his name is spat upon, or even how he is forgotten, whilst another steals all the love, all the honour, all of the victory. If you had your way, you would break into Heaven, and make them pay.But the protesters are breaking in now, into the tower, your Tower. You cannot remember the exact implications of this, but you have a feeling it is not good.(Decide your priorities now. You can choose as many as you want, but I will take the first option as the highest priority)>You need more information, memories etc(risk: low)>You need a sword / melee weapon(risk: low)>You need a better gun / ranged weapon(risk: medium)>You need a magic weapon, either a sword or gun that can kill supernatural opponents(risk: high)>You need a phone, installing a tarot app etc.(risk: medium)>You need tools, utility items, clothes etc(risk: low)>You need to permanently recover your magic(risk: dangerous, but possible)>You want to end your immortality(risk: trivial, you need not do anything at all)>You want to overthrow Heaven, become a god(unfortunately, not quite possible yet at this stage)>You want to escape the Tower(risk: both trivial, and very dangerous???)
>>5125138>You need more information, memories etc>You need a phone, installing a tarot app etc.>You need a better gun / ranged weapon>You need a magic weapon, either a sword or gun that can kill supernatural opponents>You need tools, utility items, clothes etcCan this list of priorities change later?
>>5125138I missed one:>You want to stop the riot outside(very, very difficult, but just about possible)>if you think you know what might happen with this, write in...
>>5125138Normally I'd say information, but our previous iterations clearly got nowhere, so I'm not sure retreading old ground will do any good. Or it could give us critical information to complete some plan multiple memory wipes in the making, I dunno.This is just our priority list at the moment right, not permanently?>You need a magic weapon, either a sword or gun that can kill supernatural opponents>You need to permanently recover your magic>You need more information, memories etc>You need tools, utility items, clothes etc>You want to escape the Tower>You want to overthrow Heaven, become a god
>>5125154I don't know what might happen with it, but I can imagine that we can achieve it either with a phone and some placating messages to the right people or some exchanged favours, or with some calming magick, or finally, with a automatic weapon with a high mag capacity and a lead finger.
>>5125155A phone for the Tarot, trolling Kospel and communicating with other people is absolutely necessary.>>5125148Gonna switch the top 2 priorities. Find a phone first then information.
>>5125162Hmm, sure, I'd switch permanently recovering our magic and getting info on my list, then I'd put finding a phone above finding info, again on my list.
>You need more information, memories etc>You need to permanently recover your magicYou are recalling your powers as the Magus. You can resemble nearly any role or occupation with the right clothes and right items, male, female, corporate, casual - at least, indistinguishable to the eyes of most ordinary people. This Tower is your Sanctuary. If the riot breaks in, and reaches the top floor... You cannot fight the crowd. The crowd will outlive you. ( >>5121870 )(once the riot breaks in, I will roll to advance the crowds of protestors up the levels of the Tower with each choice. The exact pace at which they advance will depend on some as yet unrevealed choices ahead - currently it is likely to be fairly slow, but it could become very rapid. There are already some significant hostile elements to you present in the building hunting for you etc. They are not allied to the protestors, but that might change...)You look at the Tattoo Machine in your hand, and recall the ancient rite: Skin Scribe. With this rite, in combination with any tattooist skilled in art, you could etch the magic back into you, permanently... but no tattooists reside in the corporate surroundings of this Tower. You would need to leave your Sanctuary and meet with someone elsewhere... perhaps this could even confuse those hunting for you currently? But if you leave the Tower and the riot breaks in, how will you get past them...?(QM: I will let you consider your priorities for the time being, and resume tomorrow...!)
>>5125183We'll need the secret entrance/exit, or a disguise. Mug someone or find a rioter to befriend/interrogate. The break-in is still in its earliest stages, now is the time to get the magic back in us.
You possess traits:BetrayerInvigoratedCorrupted (III): Red Ruin AcolyteBullet Witch Gift (ordinary guns)Bullet Witch Curse (ordinary guns)and you have remembered the hidden trait:Thousand Faces Of The Betrayer- deceive ordinary people by assuming any role or identity, male, female, corporate, casual etc. simply by wearing appropriate items. Bizarre behaviour, violence, unusual questions may dispel this illusion. Those with witch-sight will see through it (though they may have to suspect you enough to use it on you first)(you feel you have other hidden traits, as the Magus... perhaps you already guessed what they are?)The Orationists are hunting you. They will execute you on sight.The Vourukasha are hunting you. They will attempt to capture and interrogate you. The one(?) you grazed is pretty angry, though. ( >>5125056 , >>5125057 )Some pathetic human guards are hunting you (or is it the other way round?) You should feed them to the Red Lord.Some goths(?) are looking for you. Maybe they want to cosplay?Your Sanctuary 78/78 (?) floors is intact. The protest outside is trying to break in.Location: Alsephina Hotel, T1 Sky Tower International Finance Centre, Etemenanki PlazaYou are wearing:Luxurious Bathrobe / Red Acolyte Robes( >>5122085 )- you realise you are anointed in blood. None of it is your own.(you threw away your shoes >>5124723 )You possess: Skin Scribe ( >>5123623 )Tattoo Machine ( >>5123502 )Riot Baton ( >>5123090 )- aligned to WANDSHK USP .45 ACP 0/12 ( >>5122076 )HK USP .45 ACP 2/12, with flashlight ( >>5123767 )Signal Pistol / Flare Gun (1/1) ( >>5124522 )- This weapon will burn supernatural enemies- your Bullet Witch infinite ammunition trait does not apply to itDamaged Phone ( >>5122079 )- battery remaining: 0%- cracked screenStrange ID ( >>5122209 )Suspicious Underpants ( >>5121993 )(QM note: it is optional, but I would recommend you discard some weapons. Technically the tattoo needle is weapon-sized so you are carrying 5 weapons, I feel like this is a bit too much even for the magic bathrobe / wizard / cultist robes)
>>5125069>The Art Gallery(QM: unfortunately, 26 ACE of WANDS is incorrect)Your face is burning with shame. You are a powerful wizard! You built this entire tower! And here you are, fleeing from two small angry girls. They may actually be vengeful ghosts with swords. You executed two innocent though slightly annoying companions, who were trying to help you. And though you do not fully remember it, you feel you killed someone, betrayed an old friend, whose guilt was not his own.You reproach yourself, curse yourself again and again - you made this Sanctuary and you cannot remember where you put everything? Of course, the events are really important: they must all be held on Major Arcana floors. Why did you not remember this before? Why did you take away your own magic, your own memories? Try to make yourself mortal again? Is it the Betrayer's Curse? But killing is so easy...You are beginning to panic, when you realise you are approaching a dead end. This is not the Art Gallery... where was it? You can feel the vengeful ghosts of the two girls creeping towards you, twin swords glinting, waiting to be quenched in your blood...Hope is not lost. At least you were wise enough to choose floor 26, the Ace Of Wands. Wands are aligned to fire, sorcery, guns. There is a wireless recharging station ahead...(QM: this can slowly recharge your phone)You see a nervous, tearful ginger-haired girl ahead - she has not seen you. It is the Tearful Ginger Haired Reception Attendant, from the hydrotherapy spa earlier. ( >>5122067 ) She is near the wireless charging position, on her phone and sobbing - ... and I should never have taken this stupid corporate job... I thought this skyscraper was so beautiful and glamorous but it is not for people like us, just billionaires and rich people - on my first day I got no training or help and this weird man also burst in with some gun-shaped object and I did not understand what he was saying but he made obscene gestures at me, and there is a riot outside now and I am stuck in here, and where have the security gone? And what can I do and...
(you cannot recharge your phone without approaching the Reception Girl)>You make a mental note to execute the Head of HR at this hotel for their inadequate recruitment, training and personnel onboarding programme later. But for now, shout: I am the Magus, the God-CEO of this Tower! Give me your phone, you pathetic underling! Or you are fired!>Oh look, the Red Lord gives when he takes away. Actually fire her, by firing your handguns into her (QM: this is how the Bullet Witch gift/curse works, it reloads both handguns, there is no roll) execute this Receptionist and just take her phone.>Just ignore the Ginger Attendant Girl for the moment. Search the surroundings, is there anything useful here? >The Vengeful Sword Twins are hunting you. If you stop they will catch up with you. Flee this area, go somewhere else (where to?)>Ask the reception girl pathetically: please...could you help me? ...help me... please...?
>>5125729>>You make a mental note to execute the Head of HR at this hotel for their inadequate recruitment, training and personnel onboarding programme later. But for now, shout: I am the Magus, the God-CEO of this Tower! Give me your phone, you pathetic underling! Or you are fired!
>>5125747And ask her which floor to find>The Fashion Show>The Tech Conference>The Art Gallery>The Archaeological Exhibition>Our room
As you loudly shout and try and intimidate this tearful and sobbing (former?) employee, your mind is suddenly drawn to the old rpg forum thread, and what the autist Kospel and Lil Guro with his disturbing anime avatars as Bish09 might make of this situation. They are probably playing some completely not plagiarised or copyrighted or pirated game like Magus: The Ascension right now, because vampires and masquerades are a bit cringeworthy and died out two decades ago. Why is it that in all rpgs, the option is always to intimidate? Do you intimidate people on a daily, or hourly basis? You wonder if in real life, people often try to play the victim. The psychology of learned helplessness. Perhaps you could try being weak and pathetic - feigning injury, or distress. Hiding your true power. Maybe by playing the victim, pretending to be weaker than you are, you can entice others into sympathy, lure them into giving you what they want... Is this evil? Is this what the Betrayer is like, what the Betrayer wants?(As the Magus you do not speak with the voice of a mortal. Used correctly, your actions, words and even thoughts can unmake reality. >>5121985 )( The Orationist Seer has detected suspicious activity in this area - she is investigating. You are not entirely certain what this faction is like... you generally tried to avoid their attentions in the past. But you have a feeling the Orationists have some power over speech and thought. If you loudly announce your abilities and status, the magic of the Orationists may detect you. )
The Ginger Receptionist ( >>5122067 ) looks up at your ranting that has interrupted her phone conversation. Perhaps if you were wearing some corporate attire, you might still be able to command her with some authority, and fear. Her quick glance up at you from her phone catches only a strange lunatic wearing a dirty bathrobe, and she does not bother to ponder over the suspiciously drying brown-red stains and your bulging pockets that may or may not be filled with concealed guns and batons. The Ginger Receptionist has been crying for so long, she cannot even burst into tears, there is nothing left. Instead something in her snaps and she screams at you back:You! You are not the CEO, you are just a lunatic! In a bathrobe! I have had it with people abusing me in this stupid corporate place! And you can take this rubbish old business phone! I am going to join the protest, I quit! (The former Ginger-Haired Receptionist is going to join the riot. She maliciously throws the phone down at the floor in front of you, stamps her foot and leaves)>Well she has fired herself. Maybe you should fire her formally... it is a free reload. (Execute the Ginger Haired Receptionist before she gets out of this corridor. You will reload both handguns with the Bullet Witch trait to .45 ACP 12/12)>Take the corporate business phone she maliciously threw at the floor in front of you. It is pretty broken but useable. Then leave this area as fast as possible.>Recharge your phone at the wireless charging station... how long does this take again? (Roll 1d100)>You have fallen into another social trap. You should leave this area right now, before both the Orationists and the Sword Twins discover you.
(QM: I will always consider write-ins with relevant weapons and items etc. You could for instance try some of the following>Shoot the receptionist with the flare gun (QM: look I am not going to stop you...)>Try and knock her out with the less-lethal Riot Baton... maybe improve your melee training? >Something else, or will any violence just make the situation worse...?)
Rolled 3 (1d100)>>5125781>>Take the corporate business phone she maliciously threw at the floor in front of you. It is pretty broken but useable.>Recharge your phone at the wireless charging station... how long does this take again? (Roll 1d100)>>5125786>>Try and knock her out with the less-lethal Riot Baton... maybe improve your melee training?Knock her out first of course
>>5125896Actually there's no need to recharge. We can do everything from her phone.
Rolled 2 (1d30)(QM: rolling for battery charge remaining on Damaged Business Phone: Cracked Screen, 1d30 + 30)Your melee skill with blunt weapons aligned to WANDS has slightly improved. Overall, your melee ability is still poor.Ginger-Haired Former Reception Girl >>5122067 Unconscious, Bruised, Wounded, Broken GlassesThe Reception Girl intends to join the Riot. If she wakes, or if she is discovered and helped to recover by a third party, the hordes of protesters will be enraged
Rolled 67, 36 = 103 (2d78)(???)
(nothing happens)
>>5125917Execute her with gun before we leave. But check on the phone first
(You have gained: Broken Corporate Phone)(battery remaining: 32%)It seems Fate Herself is passing judgement on your actions. You have not been discovered yet, but this Receptionist's stupid corporate phone only has 32% battery remaining - after you install the tarot app (-20% charge), you will only get one chance...(12% charge left).In videogames, knocking people out appears instantaneous. Unfortunately, with your melee training, it takes a long time. There is the relentless crunch and swing against the bones of her skull. You think you break some of her teeth, her jaw or cheekbone. She is screaming and flailing but mercifully, in the end she falls silent. This is the Evil of Heaven - the Betrayer's Curse. You cannot believe it is your own doing. You are not evil. You are just trying to live, to survive.You are raising the handgun to shoot the Receptionist dead, to end this gruesome affair...There is a shuffling noise approaching you, the rustle of refuse bags and waste. There is a repulsive stench, beyond that of the merely unwashed, of carrion, decay, decomposition. It is approaching you slowly, and you can hear the rustle of what sounds like chains, metal...This is it, you realise. The Orationists or those Sword Twins have arrived. You are finally going to be judged for your actions, your horrible crimes and Sin... It is over...
The stench is coming from what appears to be a heavily armed man. He is carrying a lot, a LOT, of guns. He would appear quite menacing, except... he is wearing underpants on his head. When he sees you, this insane Underpants Cultist mutters -Hmmm, it is not wearing the underpants... it should be careful...The Underpants Cultist raises his assault rifle to fire at you. He adjusts his underpants mask obscuring his vision to get a better aim, to shoot at your head - but suddenly he sees your face...There is a dramatic transformation. The Insane Underpants Cultist falls to his knees. He is trying to kiss your feet, trying to offer you his weapons, pleading, beseeching, blabbering -It is you, My Lord! We have waited so long! You finally walk amongst us! I will help you, serve you, die for you, do anything, My Lord! All to honour Him! But we must get you to a safe place - I know people. There is a dealer, he-I am not entirely sure he can be trusted, but he is close by. Perhaps you have heard of him? Yargai? He deals in everything. He is not one of us, but he sells and deals to everyone. I can take you to him! And you must take this! Take everything! I must serve you, oh Great Lord! We all must serve you!(The Underpants Cultist offers you the following:)Colt 1911 .45 ACP 7/7Draco, ie AKS-74U 7.62x39mm 30/30>Why is this cultist offering you a handgun with fewer bullets? He must really be an idiot as well as insane. Ask for a more modern variant of the 1911, like a double-stacked Para-Ordnance with 14/14 rounds in the magazine>Ask for an 8/8 .45ACP magazine variant 1911>If you think you understand this Underpants Gun fanatic and his insane reasoning, write-in. You have a phone, you can search if you want>Follow the Underpants Cultist to meet the Dealer, Yargai>Ask the Underpants Cultist about why he is wearing underpants on his head (you have a terrible feeling that no matter what you do or choose, he is going to tell you about underpants)>Execute this underpants lunatic. He will actually help you do this, very enthusiastically.>Maybe just avoid this strange underpants fanatic. He smells... really bad. Really, really bad. Try and find your way alone? (The Underpants Cultist may follow you around imploringly, however)
DracoAKS-74UShort Range, Loud, Supressing Fire, Blindfire, Inaccurate, High Recoil, Compact, MobileNot technically the 7.62x39mm semi-auto pistol variant manufactured by Cugir and imported by Century Arms - a best seller of 2016-17.Don’t make me spray with the Draco / Shooters they pull up, you shoot when I say so(QM: ok I could not find a good angle photo of an actual draco like in the drill rap videos, but for game mechanics purposes, this counts as an assault rifle not a pistol. You are not familiar or trained with this class of weapons yet, but your general combat abilities still apply)
On your phone, there is an autoplaying pop-up video...(Unknown newscaster) We turn now to a broadcast amidst the riots and outbreak of looting and violence at the Alsephina Tower, where Robert Alle, charity CEO of the Paribus Foundation gives his response to the situation... (live broadcast)(Unseen reporter) There are unconfirmed reports that Harvey Leer, the notorious horror film director also known as King Ghoul, King Leer, has been found shot dead with two unidentified women. Mr Alle, do you have a comment on this situation? Weren't the two of you very close friends in the past? (Robert Alle, CEO Paribus Foundation) Harvey Leer was a very good friend of mine. He gave a lot of charitable donations to Paribus, he really made a difference to our work supporting disadvantaged children, equal opportunities, animal welfare and protecting the environment. Whilst I financed and produced some of his films in a private capacity, I do not in any way agree with their content, the treatment of religion, women and minorities depicted in them, nor would I defend the controversial statements and offensive language that Harvey Leer adopted in his past interviews. I believe that some of it was a persona, a stage persona he adopted to create a certain image and publicity for himself. We needed people like him to reach out to those less fortunate, to those that society has forgotten. In many ways, these riots are a cry for help. We should listen. It is what Harvey would have done. My thoughts and sympathy are with his family in this difficult time, as they navigate this tragic loss.>This was the Handsome Executive ( >>5124595 ) you saw earlier, arguing with King Ghoul. Something about him feels strange? What a strange name he has, Robert Alle? Rob Alle? Is it worth investigating? (Accept mission: investigate the Paribus Foundation)>Why investigate. He looks like a worthy sacrifice to the Red Lord Of Ruin. (Accept mission: Assassinate Robert Alle, Paribus CEO)>This is a distraction. You killed King Ghoul, it is done. Immortals like yourself do not need to meddle with these affairs... You need to focus on getting your magic back as quickly as possible, training your melee and combat skills, getting weapons and items etc
>>5125958Eh, fuck the cult of .45>Why is this cultist offering you a handgun with fewer bullets? He must really be an idiot as well as insane. Ask for a more modern variant of the 1911, like a double-stacked Para-Ordnance with 14/14 rounds in the magazine>Follow the Underpants Cultist to meet the Dealer, Yargai>Execute the receptionist before we leave with our nearly empty handgun. Reload and exchange both our old USP's for the new handgun he gives us unless he gives us the 1911 with only 8 rounds.>Why investigate. He looks like a worthy sacrifice to the Red Lord Of Ruin. (Accept mission: Assassinate Robert Alle, Paribus CEO)Commit to the gifts of the red lord, our skills are blessedly good, at least at range and the gifts are powerful, focus on them. We can go for a hybrid magic/skilled/corruption build with the emphasis being on corruption and skills with weapons. Magick will have to come from our phones unless we find a convenient way to get our full magic back while pursuing our main goals.
>>5125958Actually, I want to add this as well.>Take the receptionist's suit jacket off and wear it over our bathroom, use it to store our items.>Take her shoes as well.
>>5125958>>Why is this cultist offering you a handgun with fewer bullets? He must really be an idiot as well as insane. Ask for a more modern variant of the 1911, like a double-stacked Para-Ordnance with 14/14 rounds in the magazine>Follow the Underpants Cultist to meet the Dealer, Yargai>Execute receptionist, double tap>>5125985>>This was the Handsome Executive ( >>5124595 # ) you saw earlier, arguing with King Ghoul. Something about him feels strange? What a strange name he has, Robert Alle? Rob Alle? Is it worth investigating? (Accept mission: investigate the Paribus Foundation)
QM: just an option with the disguises and inventory. As the Magus you anointed the bathrobe in the blood of innocents(?), so you may choose which version of the item you want:>Ordinary Bathrobe (realism mode)It remains an ordinary bathrobe, with only a few pockets, and subject to inventory, encumbrance etc. Perhaps you intend to discard it later when a better outfit comes along. If you choose this option, you must list which items you want to discard now.>Red Acolyte Robes (unlimited mode)You are tired of videogames with inventory capacity, where you become encumbered and slowed when carrying too much stuff. You want to carry everything! And you secretly think it might be funny to try and complete this quest as an insane cultist wearing only the starting clothing option.Trait: The Dead Land ForgetsGift: you can carry infinite items. Every disguise, every weapon. Access any item that you touched or which was presented to you, similar to the vast battlefield in the Dead Land from the Barbarian qst playthrough in GalerneCurse: the QM will never show you your inventory. No summaries, nothing. You have to scan the text yourself. If at an important moment in time, you forget you are carrying something... it is on you.
>>5126078>>Ordinary Bathrobe (realism mode)Not only that but we will walk around BARE and NAKED as the time we woke upIf we get a new gun from the underpants cultist then dump the two HK USP or let him carry it for us.
>>5126078>Red Acolyte Robes (unlimited mode)The fun mode, plus we are a fucking magus, it makes sense.
Rolled 2 (1d2)QM: I will roll for it1 Ordinary Bathrobe (realism mode)>>51260862 Red Acolyte Robes (unlimited mode) >>5126094
You have gained trait:The Dead Land ForgetsGift: you can carry infinite items. Every disguise, every weapon. Access any item that you touched or which was presented to you, similar to the vast battlefield in the Dead Land from the Barbarian qst playthrough in GalerneCurse: the QM will never show you your inventory. No summaries, nothing. You have to scan the text yourself. If at an important moment in time, you forget you are carrying something... it is on you.(You are beginning to realise how you came to forget the locations of all the events and rooms in this skyscraper / wizard tower, even though you built it.)(The Red Lord Of Ruin may try to trick you by forgetting items at certain moments.)
Modern Colt 1911Para Ordnance P14-45.45 ACP 14/14Short Range, Concealed, Loud, Quickdraw, CompactUse in combat to gain traits:Double-tap, Mozambique DrillModernised derivative variant of a 1911, double-stacked high capacity magazine within a widened polymer grip frame.(QM: the picture is actually a single-stacked Kimber II. Just use imagination, imagine it is a widened 14-round version lol)
>>5126107Damn it. I guessed who the Magus is correctly and this is what I get.
>>5126113Just think of all the guns we can carry!
>>5126116RETVRN TO NATVREPlus killing everyone as a naked and crazed lunatic is way funnier.
>>5124901The Insane Underpants Fanatic is swaying, as if entering a hypnotic trance. You find you generally have to take very shallow breaths in his presence, because he smells really really bad. Foul and unpleasant. Suddenly the Cultist snaps out of it. He is really happy:You must understand, these underpants - they are not a disguise. No, no - nothing so crude and simple as that! They are an important religious symbol! They help us remember the Great Injustice! Even if it makes us look a bit like terrorists with dirty rags on our heads - that is a price we are willing to pay.You see there were these two people once. We call them the Torturer and The Betrayer. Now the Torturer, everyone knows him, we forgot his symbol but we think it was some way of executing people or something. You know he is evil, because his followers venerate this symbol of torture, and go around torturing unbelievers! Now there is the Betrayer, he did a really good thing, he followed Heaven's Edict and betrayed this evil Torturer. How noble, how honourable! Would you not do the same? But what was the reward for our noble Betrayer? What happened to Him? Do followers chant His praises, raise cathedrals in His Name? No! And this is the Great Injustice!You are almost daring yourself to ask and remind the Cultist to explain the underpants. You are holding your breath (the smell is unbearable) and waiting for the explanation...Oh yes, the underpants! Well that is very simple. You see all the depictions of the Evil Torturer show him hanging in a strange position, and wearing only underpants around his waist but with a crown of sorts on his head. So we who follow the Betrayer choose to do the opposite, to wear our underpants instead on our head, to symbolise that we know! We know about the Great Injustice, how the Torturer and Heaven betrayed the Betrayer! It all makes sense!(You think if you keep interacting with this psychotic individual, you will eventually go insane yourself.)
(You know the location of the weapons dealer Yargai.)(You are wearing: Bloodstained Receptionist Outfit. Ordinary people think you are a receptionist. Those with witchsight will not be deceived, but they have to suspect you first)Suddenly the Insane Underpants Cultist becomes very alert. He visibly tenses, and raises his assault rifle. You did not tell me you were in danger, My Lord... There are evil traitors about! But do not fear! I will protect you! In the name of the Betrayer, and all that is noble, holy and good, in the name of Underpants! Underpants! Underpaaannntsssss!(The suicidal Insane Underpants Cultist runs off, firing his assault rifle wildly in all directions. You think he may distract your pursuers for a while).>Go to the weapons dealer Yargai. Maybe he can help you find a magic weapon, or locate a tattooist outside of the tower?>Investigate the Handsome Executive Robert Alle, CEO of the Paribus Foundation>Assassinate Robert Alle, Paribus CEOchoose ONE (12% battery on your looted receptionist phone remaining, after installing the tarot app)>attempt to recover magic (each player can roll once, 1d78, battery -10% to 2%)>check the rpg forum where Kospel and Lil Guro / Bish09 were posting (battery -10% to 2%)>something else (write in?)
>>5126148>Go to the weapons dealer Yargai. Maybe he can help you find a magic weapon, or locate a tattooist outside of the tower?At least get a magic weapon first, Robert Alle may be magical and some of the people hunting us certainly are.>check the rpg forum where Kospel and Lil Guro / Bish09 were posting (battery -10% to 2%)Go for information, no point risking the recovery of our magic to random chance.
>>5126029Given the written in option of taking the receptionist outfit, I will also permit this:>Go to the bottom reception floor of the tower, use your receptionist disguise to discover the location of where the events are held>The Fashion Show>The Tech Conference>The Art Gallery>The Archaeological Exhibitionand also this (it is a risk, you know I am going to roll for something...)>use the time bought and the distraction of your devoted follower, the Underpants Cultist, to continue to charge your phone (roll 1d100)
>>5126165>>Go to the bottom reception floor of the tower, use your receptionist disguise to discover the location of where the events are held
>>5126165Weapons first, with plans to...>Go to the bottom reception floor of the tower, use your receptionist disguise to discover the location of where the events are held>The Fashion ShowFor appropriate clothes with which to disguise ourselves in to go out and get our magic in or to wage a guerilla campaign against the various factions, maybe playing them against each other.But head to Yargai first.
(The Sword Twins are distracted by the Underpants Cultist)(The Orationist Seer is still suspicious, and investigating the area)>>5126158You eagerly navigate to teddit.net/r/rpg and discover to your dismay that the thread created by KospelTheBestDMEver451 has been deleted. There is no trace of it. But perhaps there are archives, cached proxy pages... you click over to the username list and see the following messages, from quite a long while ago:User KospelTheBestDMEver451 has been banned by: purpleHair_RPGAdminReason: doxxingBan duration: permanentUser Bish09 has been banned by: gingerGirlBoss_RPGAdminReason: offensive language, misogyny, racismBan duration: permanentYou are dismayed by this. It is almost like Fate is taking revenge at you from beyond the grave. But you realise - you have the Receptionist's phone. There is actually no need for you to visit the actual reception, and make the long elevator trip back and forth. She must have had an itinerary or schedule with event locations, guest lists? And you are rewarded with:The Fashion Show02 II: The HIGH PRIESTESSThe Tech Conference07 VII: The CHARIOTThe Art Gallery06 VI: The LOVERSThe Archaeological Exhibition12 XII: The HANGED MANYou can see now it was a good idea to have taken this phone. The Underpants Cultist told you he last saw the weapons dealer Yargai at the Tech Conference - probably examining drones, surveillance and other technologies - but the receptionist's itinerary shows you Yargai is now due to visit the Art Gallery. You remember the cultist told you Yargai deals in everything, trades with everyone. You will find him there.(The Receptionist Phone allows you to locate any important person visiting your tower who is registered on the itinerary and schedule of events. The floors of your tower are mostly segregated. However, if large scale chaos breaks out within a tower floor - fire evacuation, extreme violence etc, bomb threats, this guest location ability will be lost)Receptionist Phone battery remaining: 2%Damaged, Cracked Screen (thrown at floor)(Depending on your choices, the next section could lead to a very divergent series of outcomes. You have a feeling there could be significant danger. If there are any last minute preparations you need to make before visiting Yargai, write-in now)(QM: I want to confirm this action, because it got interrupted and side-tracked amidst all the underpants pictures I uploaded lol)>Execute the unconscious Ginger-Haired Receptionist(this action reloads all weapons to full ammunition, via your Bullet Witch Trait)>Leave the Receptionist alone, and head to the Art Gallery to visit Yargai>write-in if there are any preparations you need to make
Rolled 34 (1d100)>>5126302Recharge battery then execute receptionist before we leave
>>5126302Supporting >>5126325
Rolled 23, 76, 7 = 106 (3d78)(???)
>>5126302Actually, charge both our phones at the same time if we can.
07 VII: The CHARIOTThe Orationists know your current location. They are rushing to it now.The Orationists will execute you on sight, with no warning whatsoever.>>5126325(QM: do you want to use the tarot app, reduce your phone charge -10% to try and replenish your magic? Each player can roll 1d78 once)
Rolled 22 (1d78)>>5126349Sure.
Rolled 29 (1d100)>>5126349And here is a roll for our original phone to charge some if you are willing to take that last minute addition.
>>5126346(unfortunately there is only one wireless charging station here. Well remembered though! The Red Lord will try even harder to trick you in the future...(Is there an action you could take, that might severely limit the ability of the Orationists to track you?)
>>5126359Throw away our original phone, smash it.
Receptionist Phone, damaged, cracked screen2% + 34% -10% = 26% X Original Phone Destroyed X>>5126367(You have smashed the original phone)(QM: It will not help you right now, but I will just rule this as impeding the Orationist Seer in the future - she will roll 1d78)
Rolled 55 (1d78)>>5126349
>>512635622 0: The FOOLYou have recovered your magic.You have gained the spell:Fool's MasqueradeRender a target into a helpless, babbling fool permanently. With your current ability, you cannot control what the target will do, but in general they will seek to humiliate themselves in a nonviolent but very public manner.Alternatively, you may use this major arcana to burn in combat. It will allow you to hit on a roll of any major arcana, in addition to the weapon's minor arcana alignment. Boosting the attack this way makes it magical, and able to hurt supernatural foes.
As you are the Magus, in your current situation, I will also allow this:Fool's Masquerade (variant: cast on self)Combine this spell with an appropriate item and cast on self (doing so destroys it permanently)When cast on self, behave like an idiot to reduce suspicion and make an opponent believe you are in fact harmless. The item chosen will be destroyed permanently.
If you are ready, confirm the following:>Head to The Art Gallery (06 VI: The LOVERS) and meet with the Weapons Dealer, Yargai>write-in any other preparations (the Orationists are moving to your last known location now...)
>>5126421>Head to The Art Gallery (06 VI: The LOVERS) and meet with the Weapons Dealer, Yargai
>>5126421Do we even have money to pay Yargai with? I know both of us voted to get a bag to take the money with us >>5123343 >>5123349 >>5123330 but in your next post we didn't do that despite us both voting for it. Or can we just conjure up money due to our reality warping?
>>5126432Sadly you are not powerful enough yet to just conjure an item. You would need to find a bag and take it, and put the money in it. The way that the infinite items inventory of your robe works is it has to be a pictured item that I offer to you in greentext, which you touch and take. So for example I do not think you can conjure the draco kalashnikov, even though you saw it and know of it, because you did not take it and the cultist is using it to defend you etc.
>>5126427What do you think anon, should we head back to the spa to bag up the money? Or risk heading to Yargai to see if he takes a different form of currency or to check his stock/just rob him?
When you enter the Art Gallery, it appears completely deserted. You walk around the vacant white galleries, surrounded by abstraction, colour fields and geometric emptiness. Most images are really embodiments of ways of seeing. Seeing comes before words. The world is explained with words, but ordinary words can never unmake the situation, the surroundings. The explanation of words never quite fits the sight itself, because what you see is based on what you believe. To see something, to look at it, is a choice. To touch something is to situate yourself in relation to it. You never just look at a thing. You look at the relation between the thing and yourself. When you see art from the past, you are situating yourself in relation to history. To see something is really to combine part of the world into you, to constitute the surroundings into who you are.Seeing is changed by technology. A film unfolds in time, whereas all elements of a painting exist simultaneously. The camera changed the meaning of a painting, from interior architecture to something that could be infinitely reproduced. Once a thing can be reproduced, shared, transmitted endlessly forever, its uniqueness is destroyed, its meaning diminished. The meaning of the thing shatters and fragments. In the past, the only way you could see a thing was to physically go to it. These things became relics, unique and beautiful. The relics are like reverse lighthouses - instead of light radiating out, appearances travel in. But if you can reproduce a thing endlessly, anyone can use it. The authority of the relic, of Art, is lost. Does a thing have to be unique, in order to be beautiful? Does a thing have to be real, in order to be beautiful?Your echoing footsteps take you round the corner and you can sense a conversation ahead. A male voice is saying -So I am thinking of finding a successor. Do you know anyone? Ideally it should be someone from a minority background, or a woman - I hear even military contractors and most of the large defense primes are run by women these days! It will help with the image of the charity. More donations to appeal from the upcoming generation, if they see the foundation being run by a woman. Of course I will stay involved, behind the scenes...>(In receptionist disguise) Blurt out: me! Me! I can do it! I am a strong independent...>Continue to listen to this conversation >Draw a gun and immediately shoot the speaker in the face as you turn round the corner. The cavernous vacant halls of the exhibition space echo a bit, but there is no-one else around>Something else...? (maybe you have an item?)(If you know, you must write-in and explain how exactly you will use it)
>>5126502>Continue to listen to this conversation but record it with our phonewhen it sounds like the conversation is winding down but before it actually does...>Take out our badge and say "Hello! I couldn't help but catch something about charity just outside my earshot? I'm with the Urthekau-Sylabari (yes, that is what is stands for, not United States, I assure you) Charity Investment Association, and I'd love to invest in your charity and help run it!
QM: I will let you guys think this one through for the time being, and resume tomorrow!>>5126432>>5126458I would not worry too much about this, though you are right to remember that Yargai will need to be paid. What did you do last time? There are some hints in these sections >>5121985 >>5124403about what attitude the ultra rich take here lol.
>>5126517wow, this is really good. I had not even thought of it! I will incorporate it into the response for tomorrow...!
>>5126522Did we execute the receptionist?
You are wearing: Stained Receptionist Outfit>>5126546>>5126325>>5126331QM: Yes the Ginger-Haired Former Receptionist is executed, dead - you are wearing her shoes and somewhat stained and crumpled clothes as a disguise currently.
>>5126517>>5126389(battery charge 26% - 10% = 16% remaining)You are recording the art gallery conversation on your phone, waiting for an opportunity...The male voice is continuing:...we have to break the invisible barriers that prevent us achieving true equality. This is one of my goals I want to achieve, a legacy I want to leave as CEO of Paribus before I move to a more strategic, hands-off, advisory role. A new female voice could act as an inspiration, a thought leader, an example to bring even more women to the Paribus Foundation and encourage the younger generation to join us...Finally the listener on the receiving end of this monologue speaks. It is an accented voice:You want more women. I see. Young women. Well that was a really long-winded way of asking for it. But maybe I am misunderstanding you. Your friend Harvey always helped you put it in much more refined terms. What would he have called it? What do you really want?(QM: There is a spell you know - Betrayer's Tongue. It allows you to write-in what you want an NPC to say, and they will be unaware that it is not themselves that have said it. The Magus can recall this spell, in exchange for magically destroying all your weapons right now. All your guns, melee weapons will just vanish and you will be left completely unarmed, but with knowledge and possession of this spell. Bear in mind that you are still being hunted.)>Magically surrender and destroy all your weapons in exchange for the spell Betrayer's Tongue, right now. Cast this ancient rite on the first male voice, write-in what you want him to say, as you record it with your phone.>Continue to listen to the conversation. You have a feeling the first voice will admit nothing
I will say a few things. I think we should visit The High Priestess floor or The Star Floor to learn more about why we erased our memories or to learn more about the Dancer in the Red Forest. Perhaps after we achieve our goals, or retain our sanctuary or enough of our possessions that we are satisfied we can die and go see in Dancer in the Red Forest. Of course this is after we deal with the person we are talking to now and after we talk to Yargai.Also, you didn't list it when you listed our items, so I assume you forgot, but we should technically still have the oversized underpants with us. >>5122073 we put them on but still had people see our face, I assume that we can say we took them off to talk to people and I'd prefer to have them off for the conversation we are about to have, but after we leave we should put them back on so people, magical or otherwise, don't know who we are and we can make the best use of our disguise powers.Finally, when we move on to our next floor, I'd like to stop by a bathroom to wash off (The Ghoul King sensed us because we were apparently wearing perfume or incense) that way stealth is easier, we can briefly recharge our phone at an outlet for a short time while we do so. Perhaps it'd be good to look up a google maps or something of the area surrounding the hotel, get a lay of the land so we can navigate if we decide to go outside, also look up a tattoo parlour while we are at it and try and regain some more of our magic. If we use up all our battery charge then so be it, everyone has phones, we can always loot one off the next person we kill.
>>5126787>Magically surrender and destroy all your weapons in exchange for the spell Betrayer's Tongue, right now. Cast this ancient rite on the first male voice, write-in what you want him to say, as you record it with your phone.>"Yes, I want it! I wanted to fuck young women, preferably women below the age of consent. *Insert long rambling fetishizing of teenage minorities* I want them to see them be torn between not wanting my dick and loving it, loving the power they have over me with their bodies, loving my money. I want to rape them! Fuck, I wish Harvey were still around, he'd always provide the best girls, and we'd film it too! God, we put up the best snuff films out onto the darkweb! He'd pay me so much money through the Paribus Foundation under the guise of charity, but it all went to me! It was to rehabilitate his image, I did just that for him. And in return I got rich and I got to film the best indie porn around with REAL, REAL TEENS, oh gO~d!"
That should be suitably incriminating.
>>5126792QM: Good catch with the incense, that was a trap from here. >>5121876I will just assume that you washed off the Cultist... aroma, and it has no effect afterwards.The underpants are listed here>>5125726This is the last inventory update provided, before the curse of forgetting from carrying infinite items trait ie The Dead Land Forgets takes effect>>5126110
>>5126822QM: well, this is not exactly how I imagined this conversation happened, but for the purposes of the game mechanics it works. Sleeping now, update soon! Oct 16, 2017 6:36am PTClinton Foundation Has No Plans to Return Harvey Weinstein Contributions https://variety.com/2017/politics/news/harvey-weinstein-clinton-foundation-1202590796/
>>5126787You know what, just to really rub it in thick, add this to my first write-in...>That's why I had to do it you know? I had to arrange the riots, it was all fake grassroots, secretly funded by me. I paid influencers to get the kids up in a rage. The CEO of MAGUS just had to go, I had to push them into a point where they'd be forced to retire, to kill themselves even. I HAD TO DO IT!!! I found out that they are actually secretly a cultural marxist funding the opposition to destroy capitalism and civilization! They were going to destroy me, expose my fun times with my girls, fund politicians that wanted to raise taxes, it would've been the end of me! But, I had the perfect plan, I'll make them a martyr, the left will destroy them and the right will rise up in a counter-culture wave and destroy them in a fury over the tragic public embarrassment and death of this seemingly typical innocent business-friendly billionare! Oh god, I'm such a smart man - oh, yes where was I - ah yes, so about those women?"That should disperse the riots and clear our name.
>>5126858Well, I couldn't resist having the guy go crazy with a fun power like Betrayer's Tongue.I'll be sleeping myself in a couple of hours.
>>5126858How'd you image the spell being used or the conversation originally going? Just out of curiosity?
>>5126822>>5126872(... there is a long, shocked silence...)(it is pretty long...)The accented voice finally speaks,I see. That was... more detail than I needed to hear. But it is as I thought. I will see to it about what is to be done. You hear the sound of someone turning on their heels and striding purposefully in your direction. You are suddenly gripped with panic. There is nowhere to hide in this empty gallery! No alcoves, just a vast white space! But with your receptionist disguise you do have a conceivable reason to be around. You look like any hotel attendant. Will it be enough...?(Choose ONE only:)>Use your invigorated trait >>5125726 to dash round the corner out of sight and avoid whoever is coming. The trait will be lost and you will once again begin to hunger, tire, weaken until you feed to regain it. You have a feeling each time you feed, the consequences grow worse>Rely only on your Receptionist Disguise, and hope that whoever is coming does not suspect you.(QM: I will roll 2d2, it is basically two 50:50 rolls)1 Robert Alle, Paribus CEO2 Yargai the Dealer1 Detects you: sees stain on outfit, uses witchsight etc2 Suspects nothing
>>5126949*Sweating*On the one hand, we don't want more people after us and we want to talk to Yargai. Failing the roll could be bad. But choosing the first prompt could cause a death spiral with our lack of weapons and the magical opponents already after us and it doesn't get us anywhere better as we still intended to talk to Yargai which would mean he has a chance of getting suspicious and activating witchsight anyways.>Rely only on your Receptionist Disguise, and hope that whoever is coming does not suspect you.
>>5126949Unless this is to avoid suspicion for Robert's outburst and we can talk to Yargai without suspicion afterwards, in which case I would choose the first prompt.Sleeping now.
Actually, yeah no, we pretty much need to feed immediately after we lose invigorated based off the previous two times.I'll risk getting spotted with witchsight. If we get spotted we can just use the Fool spell on Robert to match with our incriminating evidence and either convince Yargai to relax because we want to buy shit from him and can pay in reality-warper bux or we can just go to town on him with invigorated strength and our resistance to damage if he turns out to be hostile. That's the plan.
Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d2)>>5127186>risk getting spotted with witchsightQM: rolling 2d2 to see who walks out of the Art Gallery first, and if they see through your receptionist disguise, detect you with witch-sight1 Robert Alle, Paribus CEO2 Yargai the Dealer1 Detects you: sees stain on outfit, uses witchsight etc2 Suspects nothing
>You have gained: Incriminating Phone / The Receptionist Phone battery charge remaining: 16%cracked screen, damaged but useable from when the former Receptionist threw it at the floor as she quitThis phone contains a recording of an incriminating conversation between Robert Alle, charity CEO of the Paribus Foundation, and the Dealer Yargai, who deals in everything and trades with everyone. The conversation would ruin them both and lead to very severe consequences for them, should it ever become public. You feel like you should be careful with this phone, perhaps even avoid using it at all. If the phone is severely damaged, if it runs out of battery before you need to show it to someone, or if a third party becomes aware of its contents, manages to completely wipe its data...
(You have lost all your weapons. All your guns and melee weapons have just vanished. You sacrificed them for the Ancient Rite: Betrayer's Tongue, which has been cast and expended)In the old depictions of The Lovers, there is an Angel. Sometimes a man chooses between two women, one wicked, one true. In others the man embraces the woman, whilst the Angel looks on above. Perhaps this was intended as a warning to young noblemen, to remember their duty to their family when choosing whom they Loved. Or perhaps the Lovers depicts The Fall, when knowledge brought the first sins and made the Lovers leave the Garden. They say the Lovers is not about Love. Perhaps The Lovers is about sacrifice. Love shows you the consequences of what you choose. Love shows you who you are.Yargai is leaving the Art Gallery. He looks strange, not what you expected. Yargai is a heavily tattooed, cruel looking man. He doesn't look like someone you would trust, in fact, you wonder if he looks more like someone who would in fact belong outside with the riot, trying to burn your Tower down? ( >>5124516 ) You remember what the Insane Cultist told you - Yargai deals in everything, trades with everyone. You sacrificed all your weapons in exchange for an Ancient Rite, Betrayer's Tongue. You recorded an incriminating conversation between Robert Alle, the charity CEO of Paribus Foundation, where he revealed what he truly wanted. This conversation would be enough to Ruin him forever. But it could incriminate Yargai as well. >Follow the Dealer Yargai. You feel you may lose track of where he goes otherwise.>Yargai has not really noticed you or seen through your receptionist disguise. He barely even glances at you as he thinks you are some hotel attendant. Call out to him loudly, get his attention.>Robert Alle, the charity CEO is alone in the Art Gallery. You sacrificed all your weapons, but you could fight him unarmed. >Actually, you even still have your Strange Underpants. They have not disappeared - for some reason, they seem to have been overlooked in the magical exchange that caused all your guns and melee weapons to vanish. Perhaps try to stealth attack this hypocritical charity CEO with them?
>>5127401Well, fuck, now we need information. I wanted to just release it on the internet on social media and get it viral to disperse the riots by "revealing" that they are in a rage over nothing and that the Paribus Foundation CEO is a shithead and to turn some of the factions against one another, but I'm guess you are saying that that is a bad idea or that we can't for whatever reason. So I think we need info on the factions to find someone who can do us a massive favour in return for the recording or we need to blackmail either Robert or Yargai.>Upload the recording to social media anonymously in an attempt to disperse the riots or turn the various factions against one another. If we can't do that, upload it to multiple cloud storage sites then turn off the phone so it doesn't passively lose more battery. This way we can access the recording from different phones or this one when we get more battery charge.We'd also want to trade with Yargai potentially before incriminating him.>>5127402Eh, I consider trying to disperse the crowds or causing chaos by getting the factions off our back more important even then getting a supernatural weapon or trading with Yargai.Robert apparently has witchsight, so I assume he is a supernatural, but I wanna level up hand to hand melee anyways, and we are invigorated and have our spell to fall back on so...>Actually, you even still have your Strange Underpants. They have not disappeared - for some reason, they seem to have been overlooked in the magical exchange that caused all your guns and melee weapons to vanish. Perhaps try to stealth attack this hypocritical charity CEO with them?My intent with this is not to literally attack him with the underpants, but to wear them on our head to disguise our face in case this goes south and then stealth attack him. Unless our underpants are not like the cultist's pair and don't have eye holes, in which case forget it, just try and stealth attack him normally.
In your mind yet another difficult problem is emerging. You need Yargai to provide you with magic weapons, to help you restore your own magic back. But you are also being hunted by the Orationists. Their seers could be listening to you right now... or not. But if you declare yourself openly as the Magus, the Orationists will find and execute you. >>5126349 They already know your last location at Floor 26, the Ace of Wands. They are searching for you there... How can you let Yargai know who you are, without saying out loud who you are? Could you just type it on your phone? ( >>5126367 )You are pulling out your phone, preparing to desperately implement your brilliant plan to use social media to bring about the downfall of the corrupt charity CEO Robert Alle, before your phone battery drains to nothing... And another loud auto-playing popup video blares out across the gallery, only this time, it is at the worst possible time:(Unknown newscaster) ...in other news, the authorities are still investigating a mysterious series of robberies where a heavily armed masked individual wearing what can only be described as underpants on their head has been stealing clothes and indecently exposing himself in front of passersby at a local church. Eyewitnesses say this crazed masked vigilante fled on foot when approached for identification by...(battery phone charge -3% to 13% remaining)The video is actually not that loud. But in the silence of the gallery it is enough to alert Yargai.You are frantically trying to swipe the smudged screen to mute the speakerphone... Yargai the Dealer turns and looks at you again. He wordlessly turns back and looks at one of the pictures in the gallery near the entrance (QM: this one, pic related >>5121872 ) In his accented, slightly slurred voice, Yargai asks:What do you see in this picture?(optional response: )>It is just a city, at night>The Crowd>The Pathless Labyrinth>Rebellion>Idolatry>Pleasure>Sacrifice>God>The Serpent>Sin>Vanity>A Mirror>Myself>(something else...? The tattooed face >>5127402 of Yargai turns away again from the gallery picture, and looks straight at you, in the eyes)>(stay silent)(QM: All the clues you need should be referenced in this very section.)>If you know how to let Yargai know you are the Magus and need his help, but without speaking or saying it, write-in now.>If you know a hidden, as yet undescribed trait of the Magus, write-in when you last used it and you will remember and manifest this power once again now. (QM: this one might be very difficult, >>5125726 )If you mention you are the Magus, the Orationist hunting you in this building will execute you instantly.>Say you are the Magus and accept True Death, let the Orationist assassin execute you - it is the Curse Of The Betrayer. (QM: Ends the game)
>>5127714To clarify, you are not entirely certain of how the power of the Orationists manifests, but you believe they have some control over speech, words, thoughts. Speaking / typing / writing the word Magus will be known to them. How can you convey who you are and what you need without using words?
>>5127714>(stay silent)I dunno.>If you know how to let Yargai know you are the Magus and need his help, but without speaking or saying it, (Either we can take off our clothes to show him our [hermaphrodite?] nature or we can use the tattoo gun to use skin scribe to communicate to him)>If you know a hidden, as yet undescribed trait of the Magus, write-in when you last used it and you will remember and manifest this power once again now. (QM: this one might be very difficult, >>5125726 )I dunno, are we Judas, Satan? Is our sanctuary actually safe owning to the fact that we have hidden floors underground? Maybe we can't be killed by the orationalists owing to the fact that we were born during biblical times and precede the time when their magic was created? Maybe it is something obvious like we are a vampire but didn't explicitly spell out that we knew that? We can charge our battery or the medium we use to cast magic by acting like the thing we are disguised at if it makes sense with the medium? A special ability to annoy Kospel? We can see heat or souls through walls? >>5121876 I know we can influence reality with our speach, so that can't be it. We have a cult, there is that. We have a connection to capital F Fate.Yeah I have no idea when we last used this hidden trait. There are a bunch of hidden trivia's or things that may be important that I've noticed, but I can't guess this.Also this may be unrelated, but the weasily guard talking about titanic makes me think Kospel holds a grudge against our Lady MC from Galerne just because he took a tumble and didn't understand what she was.
>>5127724Alternatively we could cast a spell on Robert, turn him into a fool. This doesn't need words, correct?
>>5127724I also don't know what you mean by "they will execute you on sight" Does that mean if we reveal ourselves to be the MAGUS we instantly die? We didn't when we mentioned it to the receptionist. Or does it mean if they see us we instantly die? Or does it mean that they will just try and kill us if they see us which is much less dangerous. I've been working off the assumption that if we mention we are the MAGUS we just literally instantly die due to the way you've been phrasing this. Which is weird considering their limited spying capabilities via technology.
I guess if we are a vampire we could bare our fangs?
>>5127748>>5127751The answers to all of these questions can be revealed by choosing>Say you are the Magus and accept True Death, let the Orationist assassin execute you - it is the Curse Of The Betrayer. (QM: Ends the game)
>>5127714I guess we could say...>The Pathless Labyrinth...or something, as it may hint to Yargai as to our identity.Sorry for changing so much, I'm just unsure.
>>5127765Nah, I don't want meta answers yet. I'd rather continue playing or even skip talking to Yargai if it meant a premature end or avoiding our death.
>>5127747The hidden trait one is the most difficult one to guess. I do not want to reveal it too early because it would probably make you too overpowered at this stage. This>We can see heat or souls through walls? >>5121876 #is very close to it, but it is not the link to the right section. It is very close...
>>5127765I guess my final answer would be to do my initial vote...>If you know how to let Yargai know you are the Magus and need his help, but without speaking or saying it, (Either we can take off our clothes to show him our [hermaphrodite?] nature or we can use the tattoo gun to use skin scribe to communicate to him)plus >>5127762 and >>5127771 and finally if none of that gets a ideal response from Yargai, then turn off our phone before doing >>5127748
>>5124856I'll take a final blind guess and guess that when we see the red zone and are in our feeding frenzy, if we give into that shape we turn into a monstrous vampire form, OR we can sense people through walls when in this state but cannot distinguish who they are. But, I'll stop now, since I'm basically throwing paint on the wall and seeing what sticks.
>>5127771>The Pathless Labyrinth(The hidden trait goes beyond the ability to sense others through walls. The hidden trait is actually to involuntarily sense NPC thoughts, desires, wants, needs, secrets... the relevant section is here >>5122139I would also have accepted this section>>5124723This trait is destroyed and lost forever. The Magus will never recover or possess this power again)(In return for some of the solutions now, there might be a darker future ahead...)You feel like you are trapped in a Pathless Labyrinth right now. There is no way out. How can you convey to Yargai exactly what you are, what you need, that you are the Magus, without using writing with words, speaking with words, typing it on your phone? You think of the spell Skin Scribe. But even that spell would involve sending the words, etching them on skin. And if you expend the tattoo spell now, how will you ever get your magic back? It seems impossible.You know you are being hunted by the Orationists. What is their sorcery like? They have power over words, speech and thoughts. Do they need to see you to execute you instantly? Or just hear you? They discovered your last location, but you moved quickly to the Art Gallery. You must have avoided them! They could not possibly be nearby. But given their power over words and thoughts, perhaps the sorcery of the Orationists involves giving speeches. Swaying others with their words, like on television or live video interviews? >>5125985The video interview makes you think of the autoplaying news video, the unpleasant-smelling yet devoted Underpants Cultist friend of yours. But wait - you still have those underpants! Wasn't there a strange label inside them?>>5121993You walk up to Yargai, and >point at the strange label, without saying any words>point at: meet MAGUS(this unspoken and unwritten action breaks the ability of the Orationists to execute you instantly. They will still try to kill you however)Yargai narrows his eyes at you suspiciously. You notice on his tattooed face, under his eye, there is what looks like a twisting serpent. >>5127714Yargai says simply:Not here.You follow Yargai out of the Art Gallery.
>>5127848Ah, I thought it was some kind of Auspex ability. That section >>5122139 did stick out to me but I thought it along with the parts in () were just QM formatting or some quirk of writing. I'm fine with this outcome though.Though I will say, if getting our magic back involves leaving the tower then we don't need the tattoo gun, as a tattoo artist would have their own, no?>point at the strange label, without saying any words
Rolled 17 (1d20)The Riot has broken into the Tower...
(61/78 floors accessible)>>5125183You have lost your magic(22 0: The FOOL is lost. You can no longer invoke the Ancient Rite: Fool's Masquerade)>>5126405>>5126412
QM: Choose your priorities and as many questions as you need answered below. As always, I will assume the first topic is the most important. Yargai does not fully trust you, so there may be a roll involved to see how he responds (depends on the topic)>Ask Yargai about guns / ranged weapons>Ask about swords / melee weapons>Ask for a weapon right now>Ask Yargai if he can help you recover a weapon you lost, when you bargained for Betrayer's Tongue>Flare Gun>Riot Baton>1911 modern variant .45ACP 14/14 >HK USP .45ACP 12/12>Ask for a magic weapon>Ask Yargai why you might want a gun that actually carries less ammunition (did someone already tell you why?)>Ask him if he knows of a way to call off those hunting you, ie the Vourukasha and the Orationists>Ask Yargai what you might do with incriminating information>Give Yargai the incriminating phone>Show Yargai the Strange Device / Tattoo machine>Ask Yargai if he knows of various ways of recovering your magic>Ask him why he does not trust you>Ask him about his tattoos>Ask Yargai about what he thinks about Art>Ask Yargai about what he thinks of the Paribus Foundation, and its CEO Robert Alle>Ask Yargai about the Vourukasha>Ask him about underpants>Ask Yargai about the Betrayer>Ask Yargai about the Red Lord Of Ruin>Something else...?
>>5127958Eh? Why'd we lose our spell if we didn't use it on Robert? I guess cause of the riot? But they only took the first few bottom floors.>>5127979I guess we could give the phone to the Paribus girl that was mentioned in exchange for her help, make her rise to replace Robert.>Ask him if he knows of a way to call off those hunting you, ie the Vourukasha and the Orationists>Ask for a magic weapon>Ask Yargai if he knows of various ways of recovering your magic>Show Yargai the Strange Device / Tattoo machine>Ask him how the Orationist's powers work>Ask Yargai about guns / ranged weapons>Ask about swords / melee weapons>Ask Yargai about what he thinks about Art>Ask him about the Dancer>Ask him about his tattoos>Ask Yargai about the Vourukasha>Ask Yargai about the Betrayer>Ask Yargai about the Red Lord Of RuinIf we can't get a magic weapon ask...>Ask Yargai if he can help you recover a weapon you lost, when you bargained for Betrayer's Tongue>Flare Gun...though without mentioning that we used Betrayer's Tongue.
Under the pale diode illumination of his secluded apartment, the Weapons Dealer Yargai has drawn a gun - but he has not handed it to you. He is loading a single bullet into the chamber of the side-swung cylinder of a small snub-nosed revolver. Why should I deal with a dead man walking - Yargai is asking, as he closes the pivoting crane back into the frame, - when I could just sell your whereabouts myself to the Vourukasha - who pay well - or the Orationists, who pay better? What can you possibly offer me?
Rolled 6 (1d6)1/6 chance of True Death, on 1
>Ask him if he knows of a way to call off those hunting you, ie the Vourukasha and the OrationistsYargai smirks a little. I think we have already answered this question...
>>5128131The hammer falls with a dry click, onto an empty chamber.>(...?)>Ask the next question >>5128018>You are the Magus, and this is the Betrayer's Curse. Accept the Judgement of the Orationists, embrace Death.
>>5128149>Ask the next question >>5128018 (You)
>>5128149Actually, in addition to >>5128206 queue up the upload of the recording to social media on our phone but hold our hand and phone under the table so he cannot see. If he asks about it just act blase about it and say we were so bored of his threat that we had to browse our phone to stave off ennui. If he continues this little game of russian roulette then weave our head so he can't instantly kill us and force him to shoot us center of mass so we have time to upload the recording before we die. In addition to this if he keeps this up then threaten him with the contents of the recording, explain what it is and that with one press we'll incriminate him and he better give us what we want. Of course if he continues to depress the trigger then just upload it anyways.
>>5128126Also, really, the Vourukasha or some hobo vampires with thought/voice powers pay better than us? The billionaire magus vampire pays worse than fucking plebeians? I'm offended.
>>5128149Also, while this >>5128213 is mostly centered on having a recourse for if he keeps playing his little death game with us, I do eventually want to circle back around to that first question but outright threaten him with the recording once we've asked all the other questions, preferably once we've armed ourselves though.
>Ask for a magic weaponYou have regained:Signal Pistol 1/1Concealable, Loud, Incendiary, Weak: ArmourVZ30 flare gun, a weapon of the old world. Unusual rotating breech block can fire a variety of different rounds. Can be used to signal an attack, distract or burn unarmoured opponents. If you fire it, expect a lot of attention.This is a relic of the old world. It will hurt supernatural foes, so long as they are unarmoured. It counts as a pistol, so your combat training skills apply, and you are familiar with its operation. The weapon is loaded. It is in your hand. Think (?) very, very carefully about the next action...>(...?)>Ask the next question >>5128018>Ask a different question>If you know what is going on, write-in with the link of the relevant section
>>5128230I'm gonna have to sleep very soon, I barely slept last night. I'll think on this a bit and if I don't get back to you within an hour it probably means I had to drift off.
>>5128246No worries. Sleep well ^_^
>>5128230I just woke up, fell asleep at my desk. I'm gonna sleep for real now, but I thought I'd just get this out there, I'm pretty confident that I'm not gonna figure anything else out and we didn't prepare by seeking a ton of info before coming to see Yargai, so I'm just gonna vote.>Ask a different questionSkip ahead to asking how the Orationist's power work, but don't say Orationist out loud, just point to our phone and ask how "their" power's work, then hold our hand hold the phone back under the table.I don't want to reveal we don't have our magic, he might not know that we don't have it and it could change our power dynamics significantly.>If you know what is going on, write-in with the link of the relevant section >>5126441 or >>5121985 or >>5124403I know we can't conjure items yet so I'm guessing perhaps our robes don't actually merely store items but can recreate them once we firmly come into possession of them. Alternatively we have infinite money and own everything in this tower so maybe there was some intangible exchange of assets or power between us and Yargai in order to pay for this gun. I'm not going to keep guessing beyond this as I have no other intuitions about this sadly.Anyways, g'night and sleep well.
Rolled 6, 14 = 20 (2d20)(QM:The answer is here: >>5125780I would also accept this: >>5121867 )Somehow, Yargai has not seen that you are holding a loaded flare gun in your hand. He has turned slightly away from you, gazing out of his apartment window, into the night, the emptiness beyond, the Void.(QM: you are lost in the Pathless Labyrinth, and you fear you have taken the wrong turn. Yargai continues to reply to your original question/choices, from >>5128018 )>Ask Yargai if he knows of various ways of recovering your magicI come from a cruel land -Yargai is saying. You see he has opened the revolver, and is loading a second bullet into the chamber. Yargai is distracted... perhaps this is your chance...?- you can only learn through this cruelty, through fear. You want to know how to recover your magic? This is how. You want to know how to escape the Tower, overthrow Heaven, become a God? This is how. Only God Forgives. I am teaching you now... >>5125155(You can hear the Riot advancing outside, the crowds destroying your Tower...)> Shoot Yargai with the Flare Gun. At this range, as he is distracted by the night, the emptiness, and reloads his snub-nosed revolver, you cannot miss. End this cruel man's life, before he ends yours...>(QM: this one might be hard) You remember how you instantly improved (recovered?) your skills and training, just by recalling a film reference. Did Yargai just make a reference to something? You think back to the strange neon lighting, the red and blue lighting aesthetics... is there a film director who likes to do stuff like this? >>5121888 Name the director and perhaps you will break free from the Pathless Labyrinth...>Try and dodge the bullet: You still possess the Invigorated trait, from when you executed King Ghoul, Danger Hair, Slob Girl. Perhaps even if Yargai shoots you, you can sacrifice the trait and survive. Is his gun magic? Or just the bullets? Perhaps you really are immortal? And what happens to you when you lose this trait again...?>Ask the next question >>5128018>Ask a different question>You are the Magus, and this is the Betrayer's Curse. Accept the Judgement of the Oration, embrace Death.
Rolled 5 (1d6)2/6 chance of True Death: on 1,2
>>5127958>>512865541/78 floors of the Tower remain
Rolled 6 (1d6)(A heartbeat passes...)(Yargai spins the revolver cylinder again)2/6 chance of True Death: on 1,2
oof just dodged a bullet, catching up now, gimme a bit.
Rolled 13, 5, 11, 1, 19 = 49 (5d20)>>5128018>Show Yargai the Strange Device / Tattoo machineYargai glances at the unusual tattooing machine.You are a lucky individual -Yargai says, loading the revolver cylinder with three more bullets; there are five bullets now in total in his gun. Yargai is showing you the single empty chamber - the only hope, the hollow space that represents life. The cartel Death Dealer Yargai continues,To become a god you need followers. This is the commodity I am interested in, the exchange, the payment. Magical people. Sometimes, these people need to be marked, branded - perhaps you have met one of them before? Otherwise unmarked merchandise can go missing, become misplaced. This unusual tattoo machine, this needle, makes it less likely.> Shoot Yargai with the Flare Gun. At this range, you cannot miss. End this cruel man's life, before he ends yours...>(QM: It is not too late to manifest your power) You remember how you instantly improved (recovered?) your skills and training, just by recalling a film reference. Did Yargai make a reference to something earlier? You think back to the strange neon lighting, the red and blue lighting aesthetics... is there a film director who likes to do stuff like this? >>5121888 Name the director and perhaps you will break free from the Pathless Labyrinth...>Try and dodge the bullet: You still possess the Invigorated trait, from when you executed King Ghoul, Danger Hair, Slob Girl. Perhaps even if Yargai shoots you, you can sacrifice the trait and survive. Is his gun magic? Or just the bullets? Perhaps you really are immortal? And what happens to you when you lose this trait again...?>Ask the next question >>5128018>Ask a different question>You are the Magus, and this is the Betrayer's Curse. Accept the Judgement of the Oration, embrace Death.
>>5128655Ah, that was a pretty obvious thing, but I was sure it couldn't be that because you said we couldn't conjure things yet, but that what I was referencing when I said infinite money, I knew we could reality warp with our words but I thought that was a commonly understood between the player and you but I thought it was established that nothing had changed for us to be able to conjure items yet, nor would I necessarily want to when the orationist's could seemingly still instantly kill us. Frustrating but oh well.>>5128655>(QM: this one might be hard) You remember how you instantly improved (recovered?) your skills and training, just by recalling a film reference. Did Yargai just make a reference to something? You think back to the strange neon lighting, the red and blue lighting aesthetics... is there a film director who likes to do stuff like this? >>5121888 Name the director and perhaps you will break free from the Pathless Labyrinth...>Stanley Kubrickor>David LynchThere are others, but those are probably the more obvious famous ones I guess.Otherwise if those are incorrect I choose to...> Shoot Yargai with the Flare Gun. At this range, as he is distracted by the night, the emptiness, and reloads his snub-nosed revolver, you cannot miss. End this cruel man's life, before he ends yours...
>>5129303I'd just repeat this >>5129304 for this round
>>5129303The Riot has reached the top floor of your Sanctuary, the TowerThere are no remaining floors.You cannot use magic.Trait: Invigorated is lost
>>5129304Your power does not manifest. The night does not answer you. In the warped lighting, Yargai resembles a Neon Demon. Only God Forgives.(On your next turn both of you will open fire simultaneously. Yargai has a 5/6 = 83.3% chance to hit, on 1,2,3,4,5. He will miss if he rolls a 6You have 14/78= 17.9% chance to hit, on WANDS)>Fire the Flare Gun at Yargai (roll 1d78)
Rolled 11 (1d78)>>5129320
Rolled 5 (1d6)The incendiary round pierces Yargai's flesh, igniting, burning as the rioters gather around you, destroying the Tower, your Sanctuary, your sense of self...The Burning Man fires his revolver at you, for the final time...(Yargai has a 5/6 = 83.3% chance to hit, on 1,2,3,4,5. He will miss if he rolls a 6)
Yargai, The Cartel Death Dealer:burningexecuteddead
(GAME OVER)The Magus was executed by cartel dealer Yargai
You have known what it feels like to become immortal. To be worshipped and to be betrayed. You dealt death to others, and you were given death in return. When you die, you do not end.
Instead, you watch as the world around you is forgotten, destroyed by those you knew who are left.
How much of it was your doing? Was it chance? Fate? Or the cruel will of Heaven, the Great Dark Sky that betrays? The Red Lord Of Ruin offers no answer, only silence.
Daybreak brings the sun - the night has finally ended. You will rise again in another place. You did not die after all. But to this world, there is no return.(END)
(END)+ g o l g o T h a +inspired byLiteratureDon DeLillo, CosmopolisJ G BallardMarshall McLuhanWays Of Seeing, art essayFilmsNicolas Winding Refn:The Neon DemonOnly God ForgivesToo Old To Die YoungMichael Mann, CollateralThe Devil's AdvocateThe Purge 2DreddBladeThe HungerStrange DaysNear DarkUnder The SkinUnder The Silver LakeMaps To The StarsPossessorVideogamesHitmanManhunt Max PayneControlF.E.A.R. 1, 2Mirrors EdgeDevil May CryKiller Is DeadBloodborneOthers:Morgan Stanley Tech ConferenceyCombinatorMilan Fashion ShowBloomberg Christian Dior eventCari Institute, Consumer AestheticsbldgblogLebbeus WoodsRem KoolhaasPerturbatorCarpenter Brutand3 youtube videos I watched to try and understand what drill rap actually isNot A Disclaimer: nearly all of the events, locations and people depicted in this game are real. None of it is entirely fictitious. Every guard, rioter, dungeonmaster, rapper, receptionist, CEO, wizard, vampire, demon, God. You may know some of them.
QM: This concludes the game. I will stay in the thread and answer questions, sad to see it did not go so well... it felt very close. I am also writing an epilogue to explain what may have occurred. If there were any rulings you felt were unfair please let me know. Maybe the games I make are too difficult lol, I am too inspired by dark souls bloodborne sekiro style difficulty (lol I fought 1 boss there over 100 times before defeating them). There were actually a lot of really good decisions in this game - I was really impressed by the write-ins. I tried to offer multiple solutions this time to the puzzles, but maybe they are just too hard or obscure or do not make sense.
>>5129350I guess I'll give my thoughts on this playthrough.First off, thanks for the bibliography and references.I will say that I was pretty disappointed by the ending, not the actual end writing >>5129341 >>5129343 >>5129344 >>5129349 but the lead up to it. While I felt slightly engaged at certain points with Yargai due to the tension I was mostly just taken out of it after >>5127714 when we (or just I at this point I guess) were interrupted and spotted by Yargai here. It honestly just felt immensely railroaded from then on out.I will say that for most of this playthrough I enjoyed it a lot, perhaps more so than most. The parts I liked the most were what seemed to be the sandbox elements and numerous factions at play, I liked the potential that was there in that some were not seemingly hostile to us but could become so, and I hoped to turn some of them against one another.Because the parts I enjoyed the most were the sandbox elements, I was genuinely annoyed at the certain points at the lead up to the ending and perhaps generally once we reached the Major Arcana floors.Looking back through my memory of the playthrough without rereading it post by post, I enjoyed how powerful we felt, the mystery, the general feeling of leveling up and the sandbox elements, I also enjoyed what I thought were references to embodied cognition, the memes about WAIFU's and Adam Koebel, and some stuff I'll mention in moment. I will say that the reference to Koebel felt a bit dated and were a little distracting despite being funny, I get that you were going for Kospel trying to find an alternate name so as not to deadname himself but someone like Arcadum is probably more relevant now regarding cancelled celebrity DMs. I also enjoyed >>5126502 the writing regarding art was interesting and in general some of the writing was interesting or a pleasure to read such was your introductory sections or >>5127402 or the ending section after we had died and suffered game over. I was annoyed severely that the rioters breaking into the tower didn't matter until we met Yargai, it felt like wasted potential for that mechanic and contributed to my annoyance at the lead up to the end along with the time dissonance.Things I have questions about are the alternate paths we could've taken, had we never discovered we were the magus, had we never gotten corruption for the Red Lord of Ruin, had we just talked to the Ghoul King or gotten captured by the Vourukasha, had we just pretended to be a rioter that broke in, had we not gone to the Major Arcana floors and just continued to fiddle about in the sandbox, what was the deal with the Orationists, the Vourukasha, Yargai, Robert, the other Paribus lady, Kospel, what were some alternate paths we could've taken, what did each faction want and what were their abilities? What was up with the Dancer...and I think there was one other mentioned figure that I forgot about, what was their deal? More questions to follow.
>>5129366>>5129369How could've we gotten our magic back and was our magic essentially just tarot magic without having to rely on the phones or were their unique mechanics to it. Oh yeah, what was the deal with the underpants cultist and his whole deal with us and the Ghoul King?Things I just straight up dislike at least in this playthrough: I think I've decided that I just straight up didn't enjoy the "guess the Real Life reference or infer something via vague symbology or remember this thing" aspects of the playthrough, at all. Like, it feels actually pretty good when you get one right, but it feels real bad when you don't frustrating even, not to mention that it just feels very immersion breaking.I'll go through each aspect of what I don't like about it. One, it is immersion breaking, if we guess this RL reference then I suppose the in-universe explanation for why we get rewarded has to do with remembering our powers or our reality warping ability regarding words, thoughts and actions, but it just feels arbitrary and overly meta and kinda stupid. It feels like "guess this inspiration of the QMs to do good" instead of a versatile tool of the player to do fun things and it feels like a tool with no agency involved.Two, I just straight up think the idea of story telling through symbology is bad, maybe even garbage, though only when core story beats or info is supposed to be conveyed or inferred through it, see Faux Symbolism or Rule of Symbolism on TVtropes for the general idea of what I mean. Maybe that is hyperbolic, symbology in stories and film and whatever is important, I just feel a lot of info seems to be conveyed vaguely through obscure prose or symbolic references, though I actually feel this applies more to your old quest than this one. (e.g Invultua with key aspects regarding the factions essentially never being told to us but just supposed to have been inferred, some probably could've been guessed at a stretch others were basically impossible to guess specifically.)Three some of the stuff about remembering some things annoyed me. I actually generally like this aspect of the game as it reminds me of Valen quest and some other quests I'm fond of. But some aspects of the ruling felt a bit strict. >>5128655 >>5128422 Mostly regarding this, the other ones that I didn't guess I was basically entirely fine with being wrong about aside from a general negative feeling about being wrong and not enjoying that aspect of the game as much. But I don't know if it was you feeling like being strict because of the Red Cultist Bathrobes or what but I generally felt it was understood that me and the other anon knew about and remembered >>5125780 and the fact that we "did not speak with the voice of a mortal" as I feel like I made repeated references to it. (but perhaps I remember incorrectly and didn't mention it as often as I thought and just knew about it internally, I'd have to go back and check) I also felt >>5126441 was contradicted-
>>5129397>>5129366-with no explanation later on. There didn't seem to be a significant in-universe reason on why we were suddenly powerful enough to conjure the flare gun then but not before.Moving on to another thing I disliked, or that at least needs explanation before I accept it and feel neutral about it was the loss of our magic after the riot broke in, I'm not sure if it was the riot breaking in that caused it or the fact that I choose the Pathless Labyrinth or if you were just hoping to wrap things up but losing it near the end contributed to the feeling of being railroaded. I won't make the actual claim that you were railroading because I think more highly of you than that, and I could definitely see how my choices contributed and cemented our ultimate death (choosing to sacrifice all weapons, making wrong guesses, etc) but the fact that we lost it at a section where we had no weapons and some of what I wrote-in seemed to be ignored contributed to it feeling railroaded. That brings me to another thing that is related.I dislike a few things about how you QM. I wish you would just roll a d2 or whatever between the tied votes of the voted choices that have a majority. Like if I want one thing and another anon wants another, if they cannot both be done either sequentially or together without consequence, then just roll to decide between the two like most QMs, compromising between us but inflicting penalties is annoying, feels meta and arbitrary because you are inflicting punishments or using up our resources without us wanting to use them. An example of this is here >>5123665 >>5123736 >>5123761 these are mutually exclusive plans, now I understand you might've wanted to get an update out and it was close to when you and I were sleeping that day (I think) but it seems like you cost us the Temperance tarot to allow us to kinda sorta get by because the other anon didn't roll. I'm not sure why you did this, my plan didn't require a roll unless we shot (given it was a plan that had contingent elements you could just call for a roll if it got to the point where we had to fire) and while the other anon's plan did require the use of roll I don't know why you didn't just remind him or call for a roll, you are an active QM with a pretty active pair of players with some others coming in occasionally, you could've just called for it and had us respond probably before an hour had passed. It honestly would've been arguably preferable to have been shot by the superior guard, lost Invigorated, and then shot him back and killed him in order to get all his gear or to prevent a witness from escaping having seen our face or to avoid losing Temperance.I feel like that has happened a few times over our past playthroughs and it just kinda sucks.I also feel like a few times write-in's have been ignored like >>5128213 and there were some instances I feel like that happened in previous playthroughs too, though I'd have to check for sure.
Wait I just realised here:>>5129325You rolled11 XI: JUSTICElol so technically it is a miss, as without magic you hit only on WANDS... Does the Cartel Death Dealer Yargai survive? But the major arcana rolled is Justice, it is pretty appropriate! And it is a magic weapon. I contradicted myself from earlier when I said at close range you could not miss...I will let this ruling and this ending stand. Usually across games if an NPC is killed all subsequent incarnations of them die. Hmmm...
>>5129439Ah I realised why. It is because after the first shot he was reloading and slightly distracted by the night, he was not doing that afterwards. So there was indeed a roll involved. But I feel the tarot has spoken with the roll, drawing the Justice card. I think the ending stands.
Another question, what was up with our face and the mechanic about people seeing our face? Was it just a thing were if certain people saw our face they could know who we are or something, even through disguises or what?.Oh yeah, this part >>5128655 >>5129303 annoyed me, it seems like you were doing the "things have to be urgent and I have to move the game along if players are indecisive thing" You moved onto the next update even though no one had voted. I had just gotten up due to a night of trying and failing to sleep and had just arrived before you wrote the next update despite no one having voted. I mentioned it before I think in Invultua, but this is just pointless and not really done in quests, this isn't the same as at the table playing a TTRPG with waffling, indecisive players in the middle of combat, on qst sometimes players just aren't available or are slow and inconsistent, in that case if no one votes the QM just holds.Hmm...I probably had other questions or criticisms but I kinda forgot them now, so I'll wrap up for now.Generally, despite my criticisms, I enjoyed quite a lot of the playthrough to a pretty high degree before Yargai spotted us.I think I'll have some comments and maybe some more questions that I'll ask throughout the day as I get the time but for now......Thanks for running Souvarine. I enjoy your quests a lot, though I seem to be one of the only two consistent players. Odd, your quests seem quite upvoted on the archives, yet no one seems to play them, makes me feel kinda isolated with no one to discuss things with. Take care.Any idea on what your next quest will be (if you decide to make another one that is) and when?
>>5129439Yeah, I thought that was odd that we hit despite getting 11, but I also thought it was appropriate considering we rolled Justice for both of us to die. What will happen to Yargai's second (or was it his third?) wife!? I'll miss Yargai.I'm fine with him living with a burn scar and a story to tell regardless, either outcome is fine with me. But I do know you are going for the whole "changing reactive world" thing, and I wouldn't want to put a stop to that as I enjoy that too.
The theme of this game was apotheosis. Behave like a god, to become God. It did not matter which god you chose, the Betrayer, the Red Lord Of Ruin, the trickster underpants cult lol. There was also another way. Help another become a god, take the Curse of the Betrayer in your place. What was going on at the start of the game? Why would someone who did not care about money be meeting a questionable wannabe drill rapper, asking him to deliver a strange object (the tattoo needle gun?) Last time, Yargai was like Jolly Asian Santa Claus - I wanted to get away from this tendency to make all NPCs item and quest vending machines, and portray him as a cruel cartel member or underground death dealer. I know you hate this, but if you notice the first time his (unnamed) picture is introduced there is a hint that the magic human trafficking cartel is what you are being warned about. >>5124516 To become a god you need followers - just like on social media, livestreaming. Going to the tech conference might have helped with this. The commodity Yargai most prefers to trade in is people - magical people. Sometimes they need to be branded, marked (tattooed?) This is the payment that is not being mentioned throughout the game, and it is why I kept mentioning that money is perhaps not that important - there are other types of currency: time, regret, opportunity, blood.The Orationists = The Paribus FoundationTheir CEO, Robert Alle (rob all, steal everything?), controls reality with his speeches and video interviews. I actually rob all in that I steal inspiration from everywhere lol, steal from all those sources listed at the end lol. If he walked out of the gallery first, looked at you and suspected you, you would have died instantly. Remember the curse of the Infinite Items trait, The Dead Land Forgets? You got this item variant right before going in. >>5126412. Casting it on yourself before attempting underpants comedy might be a good idea...
>>5129466>Cartel stuffI remember that. I've reread basically the entire quest a few times combing for clues and typing notes, though eventually nearing the end I got lazier about it as I got tired and was operating off of no sleep yesterday.I support the NPCs acting more active and less like vender with no agency of their own.But, I will say your choice of using Yargai's picture with Lil Guro typing confused me when I went back later to read it. It literally made me think Lil Guro was somehow Yargai and that Yargai was some shapeshifting mage or something, I wasted some time internally musing about it.I should probably clarify that I don't hate the "guessing/remembering" elements THAT much, I just didn't like them nearly as much in this playthrough, probably because of a lot of those aspects of the playthrough being stuffed into the ending and moving away from the sandbox elements I enjoyed in this playthrough. It has more to do with the "guess stuff from real life" elements and "infer things from symbology and obscure prose" aspects, I don't mind remembering stuff as much because I take notes or check back to prior moments in the quest often, it was more that one moment were I felt the ruling was too strict to be very annoying.I forgot to write this but part of the reason why I don't enjoy the real life stuff as much is because while I understand that as generally nerdy people playing collaborative games on /qst/ a person could probably generally expect any one anon to be "genre savvy" or "nerdy" but for me there just ends up being a degree of pop-culture osmosis failure. Even were I not me but in fact just a generally nerdy person vaguely up to date on pop-culture I could still expect to just not get some things or missed some slightly less popular films/video games/literature, and as I am me while I am up to date on some aspects of pop-culture and knowledgeable on some obscure aspects of various things a lot of things are likely to go over my head. Not to say any of your inspirations are particularly obscure but I'm bound to just not get a reference or enjoy it which makes the game harder when you reward knowing these things. I'm sure even pop-culture-savvy people would still miss some things owing to them having their own preferences that preclude knowing certain media.
>>5129466>ParibusAh. Well, okay, good to know I guess.That does remind me of another thing. The interruption of the Paribus broadcast contributed to my feeling of being railroaded. Assuming that they didn't literally control all electronics or our phones and could prevent us from uploading the recording, I assumed that you didn't want me to go through with that write-in. I was wondering "why is my write-in being interrupted by this broadcast and Yargai talking about art? Just continue trying to upload and brush Yargai off for a minute" The reason why I didn't repeat my write-in was because I was uncertain whether you were railroading rendering any attempt at retrying to upload the recording pointless, or whether the Orationist legitimately could stop the recording from going up in-universe.I know I said it'd be nice to trade with Yargai or gain more info or blackmail robert before uploading, but to clarify, this was me just musing, not a part of my actual intentions, the thing I wanted to do was in greentext >>5127656 which would've taken precedent over the plain text as greentext indicates my actual vote. I'll try and be more consistent with this in the future and not do >>5128206 >>5128213 as it makes it unclear what I actually want to happen if it is not in greentext, though I thought it was clear because I say "in addition to" and just generally say what I want done in terms of actions.
I felt that uploading your evidence to the internet would not work given the levels of phone charge you had remaining. The rule I had in my head was general use of the phone is about -10%, uploading or downloading is -20% (the tarot app etc), and trolling rapidly recovered magic phone charge based on how amusing I thought it was lol. (Is trolling like being a vampire...?) There was an NPC at the protest, a reporter which was why I provided a choice to leap off the edge of the floor during the King Ghoul scene, and plummet straight into that (you would survive it, because magic, QM thinks it is cool lol). Also uploading the video would probably make people think you are no different to a cultist / terrorist, unless you spoke through a reporter (this is what the power of speech was sort of all about, and the system put in place by Orationists). The Paribus Foundation have charity PR consultants lol, who are a bit more powerful than anonymous pastebin. In a way, the Orationists are sort of like magic cops who want to keep the power of words and speech for themselves, censorship (thought police?) The Orationists can take any form and look like anyone, a bit like you. The Orationist Seer is the woman who was talking to protestors. She shifts forms and is trying some magic stuff hunting for you.>>5125059>>5125921Here she boosts her magic to 3d78 (pic related is me imagining her revealing a truer version of herself, dropping some of her disguises to try and hunt for you)>>5126341It would be a very bad idea if you met her, which is why I situated her quite far away. She is the one who eventually agreed to let those hunting you past the guards and into the Tower. Her personality is probably not that different to Gracelyn (remember her?) There were other factions looking for you in the Tower as well.
>>5129466I'm mostly done my "review", though I'll still sporadically make some comments or add thoughts on certain things throughout the day as I said.>>5129466>Apotheosis and god needing followersThat makes a lot of sense both thematically and as a mechanic to become god, but the knowledge only seemed available in hindsight. Now, to be fair to you, it is entirely possible that we could've discovered how to do this in-game with different choices, but with what we knew up to the point where you revealed meta knowledge after the ending I would say it was unlikely we would've thought to do that. Which to be clear, I'm fine with, becoming a god sounds like a pretty high tier ending and we aren't entitled to such an ending even if we got a good ending, we ought to earn that.>>5129366>Difficulty.I don't think your quests are too difficult, we've gotten some good endings in some of the playthroughs, I take issue with certain aspects of how you run your quests but not the overall difficulty. I actually think you are overstating or perhaps understating how difficult your quests are by comparing them to soulsborne games. Your quests are difficult in a far different way than them.I would actually consider soulsborne games or at least Dark Souls 1-3, Bloodborne and Demon Souls to be fairly easy as far hard games go. Well, certain bosses excluded and perhaps less so with certain design choices and mobs with large combos in Dks 3. But maybe that is just because I spent so much of my time playing them and I don't ever remember dying more than 15-20 times to any boss even when I was new to the games which makes empathizing with new players doing let's plays and things like that harder for me than other people. I'm past the point of considering those games hard and even when I was new I merely considered them moderately hard but quite fair.
Just out of interest, have you played Mage The Ascension or Vampire Masquerade etc? I know the setting vaguely and some of the manifestations of magic etc are borrowed or stolen lol from their concepts. Like the White Wolf Mage games have the idea where it is better for magic to look like coincidence rather than like dnd fireballs etc.
>>5129526>GracelynYeah I remember her, I thought there was a similarity there because you mentioned a "paribus lady" but I wasn't sure if you were carrying over dead NPCs.>UploadingI wish that had been clarified that it wouldn't work or just had it outright fail and the charge gone to 0% as I would've simply ignored Yargai instead and prioritized the recording had I known that. Having no feedback or no explanation for why my write-in wasn't seemingly taken just made me think it was railroading rather than my own fault for not guessing that uploading would've cost too much power. Having it go to 0% would've made me try and find an outlet to recover the power to be able to upload it as presumably losing power doesn't destroy all the data on it, or being interrupted with a post saying "you see the power rapidly draining as you upload the recording, you don't think you have enough battery power to do it" would've been nice.>Jumping off the floor we were on.Yeah I was certain we'd survive due to invigorated, if we can survive 12 bullets to the head we can survive a little fall.>Cultist/TerroristWhy? That makes no sense, we'd be uploading anonymously or with a fresh account and we don't say or do anything in the recording, it is just a recording of Yargai/Robert, there is no indication to anything regarding the uploader. I understand that they are a powerful company and also magic but people damage companies with powerful PR arms all the time with anoymous leaks. Now, if they have such a strong degree of magic over words and speech and thoughts that they essentially have mind control then that is a different matter and a lot more plausible, but if it is just some cynical "people are dumb sheeple and can be led around by power wealthy corporations, something-something-subaltern-something-mob mentality-something-something" then it is harder to swallow given the limited outcome was expecting from the beginning.
>>5129548>White Wolf stuffYeah, I have. I'm playing a VtM quest on a different site even now. I like the setting despite the pretty severe problems it has but hate the mechanics.Paradox doesn't make sense except in a vague intuitive sense and it never has and essentially just leads to "mother may I" begging from the players to the Storyteller or bullshit fast-talking of your ST by the players using RL knowledge of physics or some other topic to essentially bully your ST into shutting up and letting you do what you want using your authority as a person with a relevant degree. I like the idea and the setting but like I said, the mechanics are bad both mathematically and conceptually and pretty much always have been and continue to be up until the latest editions and the nWoD versions.
I'll be honest, as a lurker, this felt a bit messy to read through (for a lack of a better term). Kinda hard to keep my head on any one thing.
>>5129579If you go into the archives to read Invultua and Galerne this will end up being a consistent problem throughout. I blame mostly myself though Souvarine probably deserves at least a little bit of the blame for his concepts and need to understand references.Mostly it is my fault at least in Invultua and Galerne because immediately after a playthrough ends I write a wall of text giving my thoughts and Souvarine writes some moderately lengthy replies. It interrupts the flow of the quests quite a bit I imagine as you have to scroll past walls of texts to get to the next playthrough which can be problematic despite Souvarine's attempt to create a table of contents with links at certain points.
>>5129565>you see the power rapidly draining as you upload the recording, you don't think you have enough battery power to do it" would've been nice.This is a fair criticism, I will bear it in mind. You know at the table I would have just said it. But I knew a very tense fight / roll was coming up. Say you had worked out the Yargai art exchange puzzle on your own, you break the Orationist instant death curse, Yargai is friendly to you, the next situation might have been a fight straight out with the Orationists - immediately (if the Seer randomly gets 22/78=35% chance with a major arcana. She detects you moved floors and her next move would be to take out the phone you literally just got, before you could recharge) Each time you move areas, it triggers the enemy searching rolls. Saying certain words and doing certain things triggers the Orationist magic rolls, because of their power. If you read the incriminating phone item description I am strongly warning you not to use the item, ie keep it hidden from the Orationist spying because if you use it in a tense situation, it might be bad...>>5127401 In real life, would you attempt to do this whilst being hunted with 13% battery? (I do not know, maybe you would as a last desperate stand?)
To be entirely honest, I should probably have told you outright that I thought the situation was too dangerous, you were going in to this underpowered with a magic weapon that only had 1 shot ie the flare gun. It is why I was asking for the confirms >>5126421 and also just outright gave you a different spell variant >>5126412 . Would you have preferred it for me to just steer you back to a safe area, to outright tell you are too weak for an area? The question I have is when I let you choose any floor you wanted, why didn't you choose a major arcana floor? Why the Ace Of Wands when you already had a wands aligned weapon ie Riot Baton?
The chance to get a magic weapon was here:>>5125958>Why is this cultist offering you a handgun with fewer bullets? He must really be an idiot as well as insane. Ask for a more modern variant of the 1911, like a double-stacked Para-Ordnance with 14/14 rounds in the magazine>Ask for an 8/8 .45ACP magazine variant 1911>If you think you understand this Underpants Gun fanatic and his insane reasoning, write-in. You have a phone, you can search if you wantKospel told you that you need old weapons to defeat unnatural creatures. Lil Guro at the riot also mentioned that some of the Goths were carrying weird old guns. I chose the 1911 because, well the age and year is in the name. The idea behind this mechanic was to balance out the smg and assault rifle 30 round mags lol - older guns like revolvers, shotguns, have lower ammo so I made them more magical. I wonder if I should just have interrupted and outright made the cultist tell you this, because looking back it made you really underpowered. I was too busy uploading pictures of underpants...
What would we find on other special floors and on regular floors?
The magic weapons: (I will just post some pictures, I had not researched all of the descriptions yet)
King Ghoul may have helped with this... the model of the chainsaw is the Poulan 306, from the original Texas Chainsaw massacre
LeMat Revolver:It is a black powder gun, you cannot reload it. (For balance purposes) 9 shots around a 1 shot .20 ga shotgun
Some Orationists had magic compact ar-15 variants, of course these ones break the rule of the ancient guns being magical because of a certain artifact found in the tech conference... it is possible to find an artifact that makes any weapon magic. Maybe investigate the archaeology area (why is that located in XII: The Hanged Man etc) Because the Orationist Seer rolled the chariot when she detected you, I was setting up a helicopter fight, like at the end of Max Payne... had not fully gotten the pictures for it yet
>>5129606I think the incriminating phone item description was an adequate warning as was the original phone description tipping us off to the spying among other things.My issue was with the coincidence of things leading the the bad ending leading to a feeling of being railroaded, and it started with my write-in seemingly being either ignored or interrupted which gave off a QM fiat feeling. The warnings were adequate.I knew about their spying, just not to the extent they could manipulate electronics or word/speech/thoughts, I wasn't sure if they could outright prevent the upload or if their spying was just mundane data collection stuff that happens like when you browse the internet IRL, or if it was some sort of super-hollywood hacking or if it was magic.*>In real life, would you attempt to do this whilst being hunted with 13% battery? (I do not know, maybe you would as a last desperate stand?)Yes, I would for the simple reason that I think that it is not as risky as you make it seem. (though this is ignoring the fact that Robert could insta-kill us) I didn't think that the factions hostile to us would be able to follow us quickly given that they are outwardly civilian NGO factions who should be impeded by riot cops outside or guards inside the hotel. Clearing rooms, let alone floors takes time, it is arguably even slower if you are professional than it is if you are untrained or an amateur because you'd probably naturally be taking it slow and stealthy and pieing off every corner. IRL I'd just be pressing the screen a few times to start the upload then I'd be moving elsewhere. This kinda goes with the "time dissonance" I very briefly mentioned above or the time compression problems I mentioned in your prior quests where events end and people move on over the course of us having a short conversation that would take a minute. In real life I wouldn't expect an opposing forces to be able to process their newfound intel, disseminate it rapidly, and have their relevant forces orient themselves and move to our location on a multistory building that fast. I would actually go as far as to say that I actually felt no pressure or tension from being hunted literally this entire quest, that aspect simply didn't feel dangerous due to my assumptions and the fact that we were never caught up with.*In real life cell phone tracking is not that accurate depending on how you do it, it can just lead you to the nearest cell tower or it could you give you their actual location with GPS, and while I could hypothetically see someone tracking your exact location using hacking and data collection I just find it unlikely considering even the CIA tracks people by just phoning the phone company and getting them to do it instead of hacking.
Lil Guro really wanted the drill rap gun, the Draco kalashnikov. He might swap it for this smg
So what would you be tattooing on yourself? In the game I mentioned there are historical people who actually worshipped the Betrayer, like in real life. Their artifacts were written out of history. Did they have a gospel? (I was inspired by the Blade film scene with the vampire bible, when researching this)
well you know there is a riot going on... maybe get one of these?
well, every game has to have a shotgun. This was one of the most powerful magic weapons due to 2/2 rounds
Remember Lil Guro said there was someone with a tank cannon? I thought it would be funny to include one anime weapon to make the helicopter fight easy
>>5129630Generally I prefer not to have such meta warnings from the QM and prefer to just be allowed to make mistakes, but in this case I can retroactively say that I probably would've enjoyed the quest even more had we spent longer leveling up and gathering more items in the sandbox lower levels. But, to clarify, no I would prefer to just be allowed to make mistakes and do dumb shit.>Why Ace of Wands?I didn't initially vote for Ace of Wands, I chose Nine of Chalices. The other anon chose Ace of Wands and I switched over to support it. I know a tiny part of the reason I switched was to avoid a tie to avoid you doing some weird compromise or making us act indecisive and waste time. I had a bunch of other reasons for my initial choice of Nine of Chalices and for switching to Ace of Wands, but frankly I can't remember the reasons coherently aside from the vague notion that their associations were important/good/that they held hints to mysteries we knew about so far. I didn't expect them to be mostly empty or unimportant.I have a couple of questions I remembered. What was up with the secret entrances and the mention by danger girl about there being more than 163 floors? Also, would anything have come of the option near the beginning of us looking up porn/drifting off into thought in the pool?
Here was one other powerful weapon, 1-shot obrez sawn off rifle
>>5129728Looking up stimulating pictures takes you straight to the Red Dancer. She actually looks like this (pic related >>5124881 ) The reason it is so battery expensive is it was the fast way to boost corruption, become full demon faster, unlock some earlier magic / rites / spells.
>>5129652Oh, I think something vaguely occurred to me like that but I promptly dismissed it so I can't give myself any credit. When I think old gun, I don't think 1911, I think the really obscure automatic pistols that aren't considered classics that aren't revered today, or I think of old revolvers from the mid 1800s or matchlocks/flintlocks or medieval era guns. But the real reason I remember not wanting the 1911 is because I just don't like .45 in real life, my bias basically made the decision for me, hence me saying "fuck the cult of .45".I forgot to mention here >>5129699 that that is not to say I didn't consider Yargai dangerous, I thought he might be a moderately dangerous ranged combatant with magical firearms even before we saw his changed form. I assumed that he would actually have some stolen tech from our tech conference room, I was expecting him to have some drones for reconnaissance or even drones with missiles or something crazy because of your mention of anti-access drones. But I wasn't sure how dangerous he'd be considering the last time we saw him he was just "jovial asian Santa" as you put it, I didn't expect him to be our end or even that he would want to kill us.What was up with him not seeing our flare gun anyways?
>>5129744Reason I chose .45 is to not have to track separate ammo for colt and usp. Also, for balance reasons, it does not pierce armor III plate carriers I think, and you know of course there are later enemies with this...
>>5129705I was actually confused about this, I assumed we were the Betrayer and King Ghoul was the other one the underpants cultist mentioned. I didn't take them for gods, I only assumed the Red Lord of Ruin was a god, so I never considered it an option for any other choice or worship.>>5129726Yeah I remembered.>>5129735What was up with the Red Dancer?
Magus hidden traits:- read people's thoughts, secret desires - I am sorry you hated this, but: instantly learn or recover a skill, simply by knowing a reference (for the game mechanics I used film references, but you can imagine this like Neo in the Matrix downloading knowledge into his mind lol from the internet)- create magic items through sacrifice (either yourself, or other people). Think about how you got the spell Betrayer's Tongue, and also how you got the infinite items ability turning the bathrobe into the Red Acolyte Robes- unmake reality, just by speaking or thinking a certain way. Summon items at will, rearrange the Tower / the Pathless Labyrinth. You can add floors to the Tower, move it, rebuild it etc.- you needed these traits, and a lot more magic items, to build the unfinished floors of your Tower, reach the Great Dark Sky, the Night, and attempt to overthrow Heaven, avenge yourself / become a god- it depends on how you want to interpret it, but I feel the Magus is not the Betrayer. He is probably a very powerful ancient follower of the Betrayer - who continues to live through the actions of the Magus, and could be reincarnated in him. Why do you think the archaeology exhibition is located in 12 XII: The HANGED MAN- the underpants cultist is either a terrorist, something similar to a follower of Nurgle or Cthulhu lol or maybe the QM ridiculing superhero / vigilante films. Incidentally there is no underpants cult. It is just him. He is insane. (Or is he?)
>>5129750But, both the USPs and the colt were chambered in .45? You said that the picture for the tactical USP variant was 9mm but that was a mistake and to pretend it was actually chambered in .45?>armor III plate carriersLiterally none of the weapons you just listed except the draco if it used 7.62x39 and the "tank cannon" and the chainsaw could pierce level III plate carriers without mag dumping.The 7.62 might do it in more than three shots or perhaps less depending on the range and the angle and the specific cartridge variant and type of plate.The AR-15's could do it but it'd take more than a full mag to do it. Though they could get lucky depending on the angle, range, specific cartridge variant and type of plate, again. Ballistics is complicated.The shotguns simply wouldn't do it at all, despite John Wick 3 would have you believe, shotguns are actually terrible weapons against modern day body armour because of their low velocity and low penetration, yes, even the slugs are bad for that.None of the pistols could pierce it either.
>>5129769Damn, now I regret this playthrough didn't go on longer and that we avoided staying below the major arcana longer even more, but I wanted more information because I thought we'd walk into a bad end if we remained ignorant too long. I thought tech conference would have weapons/surveillance tech we could use and could turn the crowd into an impromptu sousveillance (not a typo) spy device for us to track all the opposing factions. I thought most of the answers would be either in the gallery or the Archaeology exhibition or on some of the Major Arcana floors I mentioned like 17 or some of the others I mentioned throughout the quest. I thought the fashion show would just be a pseudo safe hub for us to change clothes to make use of our ability, but it became less relevant to me once we got the red cultist bathrobes, so I de-prioritized it.
>>5129769This would've been very cool. I think the biggest problem for your quests is that they contain too many insta death pitfalls that lock us out of the endgame most of the time.
>>5129837I think it is a fair criticism. There are a lot of different styles of games on qst, I think I am just showing how I prefer to play. I mentioned in the past that all my games are extremely high threat, dying is very likely - there is no safety, it is a bit cruel lol. It is probably not for everyone. All the games follow a pattern of a hidden secret thing with a trial / ordeal at the end that sort of tests if you realise what is going on. If you have found the clues in the game, or just predicted the pattern by guessing the hidden thing from cultural / film / literature / videogame references, you live and win. There are many other games on qst with better dice mechanics, which do not kill the players, but I want the intensity. Something I was exploring in this game was a literary technique known as polyphony - Bakhtin talks about how Dostoyevsky may have first developed it. The idea is to treat all characters equally, make all value systems, ideological positions legitimate, all voices sound convincing and stand at equal intellectual level, even if the author does not agree with some of them. Standard dnd with the hordes of goblins is not this, any narrative with a heroic warrior defeating evil is not this technique. Polyphony leads to a plurality of consequences, with no guarantee of a moral or conclusive resolution. It is like Borges Pathless Labyrinth. There are no heroes. The polyphony technique is actually quite hard to do emotionally, it creates a lot of vulnerability.
Hidden literature referencesKafka In The Penal Colony on the tattoo gunObviously Borges obsession with labyrinthsChilde Harold's Pilgrimage by Byron in the opening voices. I thought it would be funny to juxtapose verses of drill rap with verse from 200 years ago. Maybe the sort of memory that an immortal being that has survived for centuries might have...
>>5129728163 floors is a reference to show how this tower is physically taller than the actual highest skyscraper in the world currentlyAlsephina is a star, in the False Cross. But the more advanced reference is that Alsephina means something like "the ship" in Arabic. Weird stuff happens if you go into the Star floor, remember the billionaire space exploration lolDid you get the purpose of the ordinary slippers? Throwing slippers at politicians / cultural figures as an act of protest? (can wiki this) Maybe throw them at an authority figure, to move the riot to somewhere else... ideally do this whilst wearing underpants on headEtemenanki is maybe the actual tower of babel in real life.
>>5129366Epilogue(unknown location) a user with a slightly different username yet similarly disturbing anime avatar writes to KospelTheWorstEverEvilDM:Yeah I cannot make it tonight again to your new campaign I just got beaten up by the police again and I didn't even do anything. It is so unfair! I think it might be the drill rap thing. Anyway just to let you know I got out of the protest ok the other day even though I am not really sure what it was about and the ending was a bit disappointing. You know when we broke into the highest floor on the tower we expected to see all this decadent wealthy billionaire stuff, but do you know what? It was completely empty. Like it was not even finished! So disappointing. And even the events below were a bit of a letdown. Like I expected to see drones and guns and spaceships at the tech conference and there were some but it was just mainly about enterprise software, cloud infrastructure, marketing automation, tax filing tools and semiconductor manufacturing and stuff. There was a long presentation on this strange programming language Orbis 3 or something, it was really dull but seemed significant not sure why they were excited about that. The protest made me realise that maybe drill rap is not for me, a lot of the rappers become famous like gods but they just die early like at 28 in gunfights or gang violence against the cartel. I met these two cosplaying girls who livestream, they had these cool swords and were a bit anime. For some reason now, they sell underpants online, like used ones to their fans and have since gotten a lot of followers. I think it helps save the environment or something, but I am really into it now! I collect all the underpants! Yeah it is a bit anime, I really like anime now. Can we have some anime waifus in the next campaign? Did you hear back from bathrobewaif6969? I really wanted to meet her, she sounded quite hot. Anyways when is your next campaign I probably cannot make it...?
(The END)(Additional credits and inspiration:)Jorge Luis Borges, Orbis Tertius
>>5129916I have thoughts on this, but not now, perhaps later today after I sleep. I sadly couldn't respond earlier as my computer crashed and I lost a ton of data and there were some weird glitches happening, so I had to reformat and use my data from my backup.>>5129933>SlippersYeah, I caught it, not initially since I glossed over them, but soon afterwards when I was going back to reread.
When I completed videogames, I always sat through the end credits (maybe autism lol). The credits are really long in modern videogames, thousands of people, third party studio contractors... but every now and then you would get a reward at the end...(evil DM taunting begins lol)There was a secret post-credits mission this time round. This was the lesson Yargai was hinting at. If any anon mentioned or questioned Orbis Tertius, I would rewrite... The epilogue would be very different. The drones and space stuff at the tech conference was a distraction lol. Orbis Tertius meant that you understood what was really happening with the Tower and all the Magus powers and film references. Did it feel hopeless at the end? No weapons, no allies, no idea what questions to ask before facing unfair execution probabilities as Yargai relentlessly loaded more and more bullets into the revolver? Look again at the text and what was coming. Your actions might have changed which faction delivered the execution, who was executed, but not the ultimate conditions of your victory or defeat (riot destroying the tower). The Serpent clue in Yargai's eyes, the exposition in the art gallery, the emptiness, the hollow chamber, the scene from Collateral which I even linked a clip of on youtube, the guard voice who tells you this is what it is all about, the gang execution... The clues and the warnings were all there.
The Riot is confusion, the Tower is your sense of self. Notice Lil Guro tells you this when he says that the protestors do not even know what they are doing. The riot breaks into the Tower, your Sanctuary, if you do not know what is going on.Did it seem unfair that you had no way to stop the riot at the end? Why were there so many strange questions? Even at the very end, if you asked Yargai for knowledge and not weapons, it meant he would relent. Ask him about underpants and laugh in the face of Death. This would have brought a certain helpful friend to your area, instantly... But asking for the obvious meant you did not know what was going on.How could you have achieved a better ending? Notice how at the start of the game, you know that Lil Guro is torn between guns, violent rap and anime, but later you discover he also likes ttrpgs. You may have noticed how Kospel somehow seems to possess a power like yours... his words and thoughts can unmake reality... how could you have brought him to you? It was easy to troll him for the quick advantage of battery recovery. Why did I make complimenting Kospel cost phone battery? Because Kospel could not get his rpg group together, Lil Guro kept flaking lol. Killing innocents brought vengeful ghosts to haunt you, payback - either literally with the Sword Twins, or more metaphorically like how Kospel and Bish09 got banned from the forum. If you had managed to reunite the NPCs, the ttrpg party, the world might have been a better place...It may make sense if you consider which religions are present in this world. It is not necessarily the one in the title.
>>5129579If you made it to the end of this huge post credits wall of text discussion, you get this reward. Perhaps it will recur in the future...? Reward unlocked:You made it to the end...>>5121883>>5121888
Voice Of Judgement: TriskelionOrationist revolver, a cruel gift from the Paribus Foundation to the cartel Death Dealer Yargai.A relic from the old world. Consider its lesson carefully, for its design teaches the likelihood of escaping the Pathless Labyrinth. The gun appears to shift and takes many forms but once possessed the wielder is bound to the following sequence, and cannot let go:For the first shot:(roll 1d6)hit on 1; miss on 2, 3, 4, 5, 6For the second shot:(roll 1d6)hit on 1, 2; miss on 3, 4, 5, 6For the third (and final?) shot(roll 1d6)hit on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Surrender the gun afterwards, or the cycle begins again, back to the first shotmiss on 6, and the gun backfires, instantly killing the wielderThe calibre fired by this weapon is True Death. It does not require ammunition, for it is fed by the infinite hunger of night. Nothing can survive it.
I didn't play this quest, but you have enraged me to the point of experiencing a histamine response.Out of spite, I will appear again.
If enough anons want it, I can run a pure combat-focused Horde / Survival mode. Just use up all of the pictures, locations and guns I collected when building the world. There probably will not be much story, each round I just send progressively more and more enemies at you, and you run around locations scavenging for randomly generated weapons / ammunition / items. Ultimately you will be overwhelmed, but see how long you can last?>roll 1d78 if you want the Horde mode. You will not survive.(QM: I may need some time to calibrate the probabilities on my random tables. The rules below may change, write-in if you have any rules ideas)Horde / Survival Mode Rules: all major arcana are hitsweapons will be aligned to 1 of the minors, ieWANDS, SWORDS, CHALICES, PENTACLES.The base likelihood to hit is thus now(22 + 14)/78=46%by default, I will take the first 1d78 roll. Every subsequent roll after the first determines what comes next:+ if you draw a major arcana, you may get some item, healing etc. This will be random+ if you draw your weapon aligned minor, you may get ammunition (again random. It may not fit in the gun you have, you may just run out of ammo)- if you roll anything else... bad stuff happens...heheYou begin with 22/22 hit points.If you find multiple weapons, you can boost your hit likelihood (eg carry a sword and a gun). The maximum I will allow is three different types, so the probability can only ever be (22+14+14+14)/78=82% hit chance.Starting weapons:1 Yargai's Revolver (Voice Of Judgement: Triskelion). Special hit rules. Infinite ammo, kills everything in 1 shot, but miss three times and you die...2 Push dagger3 Sawn-off Shotgun 2/24 Blowtorch (fuel uses d8 depletion dice mechanics, like Black Hack rpg)
When the Magus died in Golgotha, all balance was lost. There will be no end to the terrifying forces of horror and darkness that descend upon the city. You cannot survive. You have been warned.
Rolled 74 (1d78)>>5131605Hell yeah, I'm up for this. Though I don't have time for this today and my time for it tomorrow will be limited as I have to adjust my fucked sleep schedule to be able to make a couple of appointments in a week.I'll have to finish reading the epilogue and finish saying my piece on any thoughts I have remaining on this quest, but I guess I'll get around to that some other time.
>>5131605I will say that the rules either need clarification or reminders on how the weapons rules work, at least in the original GOLGOTHA. For example, we seemed to have the typical "do X to get better at it" rules that are typical for your quests, but I think I remember you mentioning the rules, perhaps when we shot at the sword twins and we rolled...wands I think it was to hit and anything else didn't. Now I realise that we did improve, because we started off spraying and praying and using a whole mag every time we shot, and I also gathered that getting better allowed us to make better use of the traits each weapon hand like the USP's 2 or 3 shot certain kill, or unlocking the more modern 1911's traits, but aside from that, our actual TO HIT chance didn't seem to go up, and frankly that is weird and seems to contradict the idea of us getting more skilled, as you would think that accuracy would be the highest indicator of advancing skill and making you feel stronger as a player.Adding to the confusion of this was when we auto-hit in our "KILLKILLKILL" mode when with the 2 girls and Ghoul King, but we rolled to randomly determine who we hit. It isn't clear if it was just the narrative circumstances of it being close ranged, the tension of who we shoot being random or if that was just a circumstance unique to that "KILLKILLKILL" state.I think this needs adjusting or clarification of how it works if what I described was not how it works, or a reminder of how it does work if you already mentioned in detail how it does and I just forgot some key rule.
>>5131718This is really useful, but I will create another thread for meta comments. Save this thread for the Horde Mode that will be starting...
>>5131723I would urge you not to create a new thread, generally threads for meta-discussion are not liked and you may get some flak for creating a separate discussion thread with no quest being run in it.I'll just save meta comments for the end of the survival/horde mode game.Generally we keep meta discussion limited to the quest threads themselves as that is where discussion belongs, or for general quest discussion in quest thread generals.You can also use discord, but discords are disliked owing to the fact that they segment the player base and create cliques and groups of players that make plans that are not open to discussion by those who just want all the content and context of the quest to be contained on 4chan in the actual quest threads themselves. Though they can be okay just for use as a way for players to connect with one another and being able to find specific users or for private non-specific quest related discussion or for discussions about other topics.There are only a few times people are okay with RECAP or Interlude threads for long-running very popular quest threads. Our board may be dead, but there's no point taking up page space on the main page.
>>5131669The Night Begins...last chance for any other remaining players to>roll 1d78You will probably need every chance you get for this...
Rolled 51 (1d78)>>5131994
You left your old life behind, but you have reached a Dead End. The world seems to be collapsing, burning around you. There are gangs in the streets and no-one is stopping them. But the Cartel owns you now, and no hope remains. (all options are valid, choose ONE:)>corporate>casual>naked
There is an unmarked bag underneath the neon sign. Inside you find:(all choices optional, you do not need to take anything)>Strange Camera>Burner Phone, with days-old text message:We need you to deliver some laundry to Alex at no.13, Peach Trees Motel. Keep it clean.>Weapon: roll 1d4or choose ONE of these three:Unlocked from 74 QUEEN of WANDS roll >>5131699> Sawn-off shotgun 2/2> Blowtorch (fuel: d8 depletion)Unlocked from 51 EIGHT of SWORDS>>5132033> Push dagger>Strange NeedleThere is no laundry in the bag.
Sawn-off Shotgun (Over-and-under)WANDS12-gauge 2/2Short Range, Loud, Brutal, Inaccurate, High Recoil, Manoeuvrable, Breaching (Door)Powerful and compact with reduced effective range due to lower muzzle velocity. Cutting off the barrel end removes the choke, resulting in a cylinder bore and a wide spread. Can be used to effect rapid entry to by firing at a 45 degrees downward angle between the lock latch and doorframe.
BlowtorchWANDSClose range, Psychotic, Horrifying, Incendiaryd8 depletion dice:d8 on 1,2 reduce dice step size to d6d6 on 1,2 reduce dice step size to d4d4 on 1,2 the fuel is depletedOld-fashioned liquid-fuelled torch with disposable reservoir and pressurised hand pump. Blowtorches can be used for controlled burn forestry, soldering, road repair or the creation of hard caramelised sugar in cookery.
>>5132081>corporate>Push dagger
Push DaggerSWORDSClose Range, Concealed, Swift, Coup-de-graceA close-combat fist knife with a T-shaped handle and a blade that protrudes between the index and middle fingers. Against an unaware target it is lethal. Against a suspicious enemy, you should run.
>>5132124You are reaching for the push dagger... but you feel you should check the remaining contents of the bag first...(lol QM has not finished writing or uploading the pictures yet, sorry. There may be some hints as to what you want to take - I will give you a final confirm before you depart, if you want to change your mind later)
Strange CameraFor some reason, you feel like you want to attach this strange eye to your head. Manufactured by a company that was once worth 10 billion, later worth 1 billion. Perhaps wingsuit videos and extreme mountain biking are not a big enough audience, and they need some new content instead?
Do we get Tiskelion automatically or does it count as one of our choices here?
>>5132145No. if you want it you have to risk it and roll 1d4 unfortunately (you get it on a 1). But there will be a chance to find all the items and many more later.
>>5132149Oh ok.I was confused since the starting dice weapons and the arcana weapons overlapped.
Burner PhoneAncient pre-paid pay-as-you-go device that looks like a relic that should belong in a museum. The contacts list is empty. You feel like you would be too embarrassed to be seen with this in public, nevermind trying to call anyone. But at least you can play snake on it. Contains the text message: We need you to deliver some laundry to Alex at no.13, Peach Trees Motel. Keep it clean.
Strange NeedleCHALICES - 1/1single use: either weapon, or heal 1d8A variety of complex neurobiological and psychosocial factors contribute to addiction; common habits and patterns are typically characterized by immediate gratification for short-term rewards, combined with delayed deleterious effects or long-term costs. There are many that would kill for this. You feel it will heal you. Perhaps the only way to cure a temptation is to surrender to it?
Do we know of any magical abilities that we possess?We likely have at least nascent ones if the Cartel cares to own us.
>>5132172Magic? Why are you thinking about that? You gaze at the bag with grim anticipation...(QM: There will be a way to address all questions within the game, hehe)
QM: The choices are all optional. You can take everything (only 1 weapon though) or nothing at all. I will answer questions on the meta thread, if you need it, though there may be a delay in reply. >>5131732>corporate>casual>naked>Strange Camera >>5132139>Burner Phone >>5132154>WANDS Sawn-off shotgun 2/2 >>5132118>WANDS Blowtorch (fuel: d8 depletion) >>5132120>SWORDS Push dagger >>5132125or>roll 1d4, on 1:Yargai's Revolver >>5130374otherwise, must accept the item rolled>CHALICES Strange Needle 1/1 >>5132163(this does not count as a weapon)
>>5132081>>5132085final vote>casual>push dagger>take bag and all contentsIn case I am not around later, my reasoning is that the concealed dagger is a good way to add SWORDS to an attack without using an encumbering weapon, and that a casual appearance can allow us to use the dagger more effectively.
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>51321721 PUNISH2 forgive...
>>5132184you have gained: large bag containingStrange Camera >>5132139Burner Phone >>5132154CHALICES Strange Needle 1/1 >>5132163You are wielding: Push dagger >>5132125not concealed......and for some reason, you are naked???>>5132185
The neon Ice Cream sign flickers as it illuminates your bare flesh in blue and red. You can see there are dead flies gathered at the bottom of it.>Scream at the neon sign in twisted rage, WHY DID YOU TAKE AWAY MY CLOTHES?!>Scream another question (write in)>You do not need clothes. This Horde mode is about killing everything. Depart for the Peach Trees Motel.
>>5132198>Scream at the neon sign in twisted rage, WHY DID YOU TAKE AWAY MY CLOTHES?!
Rolled 80 (1d100)>>51322041-51 PUNISH52-100 forgive...
There is no answer from the neon Ice Cream sign. You are screaming at a sign. You watch as a fly buzzes annoyingly towards it, enticed by the glow.>Scream another question (write in)>You do not need clothes. This Horde mode is about killing everything. Depart for the Peach Trees Motel.
>>5132210>place dagger in bag>Depart for the Peach Trees Motel
(you have concealed the Push Dagger. It is basically concealed at all times unless combat begins)There is a woman outside the motel when you approach, talking on her phone. She appears tense and very nervous:...And he is not here? I do not know where to find him, I am telling you he is not here. Can you get Scarlett to check again? Why don't you come here yourself if you do not believe me...?>Well, this is horde mode. This woman is probably Alex. Run up to her and execute her with the Push Dagger (no roll, she is pretty weak and unaware. Gain a better phone)>Maybe just wait a bit and listen into her conversation>Approach her and ask her a question...(write in)>Play snake on your phone
>>5132230>Wait for her to notice us, when she does, indicate the bag and tell her that we brought the laundry.>If our state of undress comes into question, say that a fucking rioter mugged us for our clothes, and that we are upset by this.
Rolled 6 (1d6)1 flees, with phone2 flees, drops phone3 disgusted4 intrigued5 sympathetic6 helpful
Rolled 35 (1d78)Do you... are you alright...? What has happened to you? Do you need me to call someone?(QM: NPC picture and name coming shortly, I need to generate something)>Ask her who she was talking to>Ask her who she is looking for>Ask her to call Alex for you>Ask her if she has seen Alex>(something else?)>Attack her with the push dagger (no surprise bonus, any hostile action roll 1d78)>Leave, search the motel>Play snake on your phone
FlorenceHealth: 4/4Helpful35 FOUR of SWORDSretreat, counsel, rest
>>5132256>"One of those rioters mugged me for my clothes, not my bag, just my clothes.Unbelievable.">"I actually came here to meet someone, but I'm not quite sure what they look like, who are you looking for?">Ask her who she is looking for
Rolled 40 (1d100)>>51322071-52 PUNISH53-100 forgive...
Rolled 5 (1d6)>>51322471 flees, with phone2 flees, with phone3 flees, drops phone4 disgusted5 intrigued6 sympathetic
>>5132265You are in a far more unfortunate situation! You tell me first - who are you looking for? Why are you here? What is in that bag of yours? Florence is looking at your neon-lit naked body curiously.>Tell Florence you are looking for Alex>Ignore her and search the motel>Play snake on your phone>You feel like whenever you are not killing people, you will be punished in this mode... what to do... (roll 1d78 to begin combat)
>>5132291>Tell Florence you are looking for Alex, but you assumed that she knew that already.
Rolled 1 (1d3)1 Florence does not know Alex2 Florence knows Alex, but under a different name3 Florence knows Alex
Rolled 68 (1d100)>>51322801-53 PUNISH54-100 forgive...
You can feel your phone vibrating through the bag.Florence gazes at you helpfully. She appears unabashed at your nakedness:I do not know anyone named Alex, but perhaps I can join you and we can search the motel together? Maybe we will both find who we are looking for...>Let Florence accompany you around the motel>Decline her offer. That snake game on the phone is pretty fun>Florence may witness some... unpleasant things. It might be best to spare her the sight of what is in here. (Roll 1d78, begin combat)
>>5132324>Let Florence accompany you around the motel>check phone
There is a single line text message on the phone:Is it done yet?You have a feeling it is not a good idea to keep the Cartel waiting. (Florence accompanies you around the motel. She is unarmed but she has a phone herself, which is much better than yours)>Ask Florence to swap phones with you>Ask Florence to give you her phone>Ask Florence about Scarlett>Ask Florence which room she thinks you should search first>Search a room (which one? then roll 1d12)>Ignore the rooms and search the back of the motel>something else?
>>5132353You can of course always:>Play snake on your phone (roll 1d100)
>>5132353Are the rooms numbered?
You recall the first text message from your phone from earlier:We need you to deliver some laundry to Alex at no.13, Peach Trees Motel. Keep it clean.When you examine the raised walkway of the motel, there are 13 doors. Your burner phone begins vibrating again. There is a new message:Turn the camera on. We need to see.>Attach the strange camera to your head>Do not attach the strange camera to your head>Walk to the 13th door>Search any of the other doors (which one? Roll 1d12)(QM: unfortunately, this one gets punished very hard)>>51323111-66 PUNISH67-100 forgive...
Rolled 54 (1d100)>>51323111-66 PUNISH67-100 forgive
>>5132353>Ignore the rooms and search the back of the motel.>text back: I'm there but I'm still looking for Alex.>"So who are you looking for anyways? I came here for a Facebook Marketplace trade but this guy seems a bit confused *laughs*.>When she goes to respond, brain her with the nokia and stab her.Things are getting out of hand.
Rolled 4 (1d6)1 aggressive, attacks immediately2 hostile3 dazed4 confused5 tired6 unconscious
Rolled 12 (1d12)(rolling for room)
Rolled 55 + 1 (1d78 + 1)(npc pic coming, I need to roll for something)
Shivering ManHealth:9/9armed with Yargai's revolver>>5130374ConfusedNightmares, haunted, ordeal
>>5132406(QM: unfortunately, this action is interrupted. See choices below)Door 12 of the motel has been flung open, by the Shivering Man. He is trembling and biting his mouth which is flecked with spittle and froth. Around his neck there is an Unusual Key. The Shivering Man is carrying a small silver snub-nosed revolver in his hand. >>5130374F-For the la-last time, Flor-Floren-Florence... Needle Boy is not here. Get out before I call the police...>Well it has started, commence the ultraviolence (roll 1d78)>Turn to Florence: who is Needle Boy? What are you here for?>Turn to the Shivering Man: no need, we are just leaving (head to the back of the motel >>5132406)>You have a feeling you are forgetting something...?
>>5132435>Turn to the Shivering Man: no need, we are just leaving.>Walk away with Florence and say, "Christ, what a psycho."Then do this:>Ignore the rooms and search the back of the motel.>text back: I'm there but I'm still looking for Alex.>"So who are you looking for anyways? I came here for a Facebook Marketplace trade but this guy seems a bit confused *laughs*.>When she goes to respond, brain her with the nokia and stab her.We'll definitely need to talk to/murder him later.
>>5132443(QM: I can give this one a bit of time if you want. As mentioned, there is no balance to these encounters, it is like OSR. I roll randomly to determine most npcs and psychology etc. If you need any more clarifications please use the meta thread >>5131732, thank you ^_^)
>>5132435>You have a feeling you are forgetting something...?>give him the needle
>>5132476I was planning on doing this after we killed her, as she appears to be working against the Cartel.
Rolled 3 (1d6)>>5132284(roll for Florence reaction)(You see this, and get to act before she does it)
Rolled 2 (1d6)>>5132476>>5132410(roll for Shivering Man reaction, as he is Confused)
From the corner of your eye, you can see Florence is terrified... she drops her phone and is turning to flee...The Shivering Man knocks your offer aside. The Needle clatters to the ground. You-what you tryin' there? You tryin' to stab me or somethin'? >well, er, yes...(roll 1d78, commence ultraviolence)>flee>there is still an itching thought at the back of your mind... is there something you need to do?
>>5132476I know these quests are usually more of a one-on-one kind of deal but we're going to have to coordinate to do well here.
Rolled 47 (1d78)>>5132502>there is still an itching thought at the back of your mind... is there something you need to do?>Attach the camera to our eye>well, er, yes...(roll 1d78, commence ultraviolence)
>>5132503This isn't a one-on-one quest, the QM would be delighted to have more players considering from what I've seen that he seems to be getting depressed over lack of players. It only seems to be a one on one quest because only one other anon and myself ever consistently vote or participate, if there are any lurkers out there you guys are leaving us out to dry.
Rolled 58 (1d78)>>5132502>Draw push dagger and stab Florence in the back.>
Rolled 18 (1d20)>>5132507(rolling for something...)
>>5132512meant to include>put on camera
>>5132395resets to:1-48 PUNISH49-100 forgive...
>>5132512Since it is just the two of us, do you want to have a discussion phase before submitting any votes so we can both be in sync and get what we want?
Rolled 29 (1d100)(QM: I am going to get some food lol. This is actually a bit more intense than I was expecting... lets take a break for a bit...^_^)
>>5132524definitely. things went tits up very fast just now.
>>5132526Good timing, I just finished making myself breakfast.
>>5132528I think the reason why >>5132521 reset is because we fulfilled the cartel's order to use the camera so they could keep their hold on us. Alternatively we have a limited chance to engage in diplomacy to temporarily have allies or to gain info, but we must kill often because of the nature of this mode as a horde mode.
>>5132524my main problem here is that this guy is most likely the one we need to deliver to (knows who we are, has the gun) so attacking him will earn us the ire of the Cartel.That and this woman was expecting us and communicating with someone else, but doesn't know who Alex is so she's probably working against us.She needs to die, the gunman needs to calm down.
>>5132533It could just as easily reset due to violence.
>>5132536*be that it reset due to violence
>>5132536Yes, that is what I meant by "limited chance to use diplomacy" and "we have to kill often because this is a horde mode and not a story".>>5132534I disagree, QM rolled >>5132414 for which door is opened and there are 13 doors >>5132388 and QM posted the motel room list in the meta thread. Room 12 has the key, room 13 is locked, we need the key on the guy to open room 13.
>>5132548That doesn't mean killing him to get it is the best option, and the text aluded to a delivery.Also, I think the meta thread is a really bad element to have.
>>5132553I think the time has passed for diplomacy, he rolled hostile on his second psychology roll.I also agree that we shouldn't have a separate meta thread, not to mention it is against our board rules arguably, but QM posted it before he read my post attempting to dissuade him from doing so last night.
>>5132559I suppose you're right.We should fight him, assess the situation, and then put the camera on.That way we can control what the Cartel sees, maybe sweep this under the rug.
>>5132568Yeah. Just in case he was in fact Alex, we don't want them to know that we murderblended him. Assuming Alex doesn't just shoot us dead with his magic gun right now.speaking of the Triskelion, do you think we should take it? If we take it we cannot let go of it until we kill someone with it.
>>5132512>>5132502Changing to >Yes (stab him or something)
>>5132573> If we take it we cannot let go of it until we kill someone with it.Where are you getting this information?It's a pretty useful weapon regardless, though one we should pull out early in an encounter.
>>5132585I got it from here >>5132435 and the original weapon post here >>5130374This was Yargai's gun from the end of the original GOLGOTHA playthrough that finished before you joined. (unless you are the other anon I was playing with?)
>>5132585We die if we miss the third shot though. It is a one hit kill weapon, no one can survive it, even magical armoured opponents or people like us in GOLGOTHA (we were a reality-warping amnesiac CEO vampire cultist who was good with guns, at least by the end of the playthrough and we had the Invigorated trait and could survive more than 12 point blank pistol shots to the head even without Invigorated)
>>5132590Oh ok, I missed "...or the cycle begins again."I read GOLGOTHA but didn't catch up in time to salvage things.Fair warning, I'm not the best at remembering all the details but I'm a good tactician.
>>5132602Good to know, did you read Souvarine's prior quest by any chance?
>>5132605Nope, though I think I saw a couple at some point.I think I assumed it was from that Wuxian guy since he also likes to throw in a lot of estoteric media, and he was a famous flake and troll back in the day.These quests are really fun though, they remind me of /tg/ in a good way.
>>5132553>>5132559Since both players dislike the meta thread, I will post everything here going forward. Actually scared myself a bit with how intense it got so quickly.To explain the mechanics:the anon said that the end felt a bit too punishing last time so what I am doing is, every time I think you are getting it wrong I roll to see if I introduce a consequence or not - ie I do not permit myself to get my way 100% of the time. However each time it is ratcheting up unless you reset it with a correct decision. But I am thinking the probability is still too brutal. Should the punish/forgive be set at like 0 and only ratchet up from there? Or would that be too easy...?
also another thing I am thinking is you may have noticed there is emotional inertia. ie when stuff starts escalating the d6 disposition roll creeps up worse and worse. There is a mechanism to de-escalate but you have not gotten the items yet
>>5132622I like that it's there to incentivize killing but it's annoying when it has a massive chance of screwing over anything that isn't immediate violence.For example, I was trying to get some information out of Florence before positioning her for a kill, but the punishment dice were really rushing me.
>>5132616>WuxianLiterally who? Was he that guy that did xiaxia/chinese fantasy quests?>the good ol' daysYeah, I mention a few times to Souvarine that his activeness reminds me of back when quests were allowed on /tg/>>5132622Maybe have it start at 0 and increase at a gradient with worse choices increasing the odds more, though the increase should be severe for tense violent situation and not so bad for us just waffling about chatting to NPCs.Also this is probably good practice for you to just write and not worry about a pre-prepared setting and pictures and all the details or trying to struggle to accomodate write-in's or whatever.
>>5132634How about I reset the punish/forgive to a 0+d20 for the decisions so far?
I am still thinking about this mechanic. Because even though it is designed to restrain the DM gets his way 100% of the time, I am wondering if it is right for like a huge PUNISHMENT warning lol to appear because it just sort of discourages players to act naturally. Are you even interested in knowing when I think you are getting it wrong? Maybe there should be no right or wrong - this is sort of my design philosophy I mentioned with the Dostoyevsky/Bakhtin polyphony thing etc
>>5132640>>5132647Sure. Honestly I'm fine with whatever you choose, I didn't want my thoughts about the ending to discourage you from following through with your intent, my issues were specific to that playthrough's ending along with some general thoughts on your QMing style. I'd just prefer the escalation to violence or being attacked by instant sudden death tier opponents be more gradual than sudden.
>>5132647I don't mind having to deal with an alien will imposing punishments on us in an attempt to force us to kill.I think it's a great way to promote the more survival focused gameplay as well, but its current form is a little too PUNISH-ing for my blood.It's not even a difficultly thing, I'd just like to have some more wiggle room on how we tackle situations.
>>5132661I like how volitile the other people have been actually.
>>5132647Don't think too hard. This can be just be a easy going, hard horde mode playthrough to ease over ending the previous playthrough. This mode doesn't need the most thought given to it's mechanics or the little story content that is there in it. It can be just as you said, something to use up your unused pictures and something for us to fuck around with. If we die, we die. We can always start another playthrough or do a rerun with a different starting location.
Rolled 18 (1d20)Ok. I am resetting this to 0+1d20>>5132521Also, I will permit you to roll on the same scale whenever you try to deescalate the situation. ie you calm stuff down with forgive..., but if you roll in the punish range it ratchets and gets worse. Does this sound ok?
>>5132680so the scale is now1-18 PUNISH19-100 forgive...
>>5132669I'm mixed on it. I like the random personality stuff, but I'd also be okay with low effort but pre-established psyches. I do wish that their personalities would stay consistent unless there was a more severe reason for them to change so that they don't essentially turn into another character in the next turn. I don't mind the random hostility in opponents or even with this guy having Triskelion and getting a hostile roll, my thoughts were closer to if we encountered someone like Robert Alle I'd prefer to not to insta-die or suffer instant hostility randomly from an opponent in control of a massive organization.
>>5132680Sure, I guess we can try this out. Since we aren't working with a pre-established setting with hidden secrets and twists like previously I feel like we can just adjust the mechanics on the fly a lot more freely.
>>5132686I think it works as long as the random reactions fit the character, which it has so far.>>5132680I think that works fine.
>>5132686*Stay consistent once their psyche's have been rolled that is.
>>5132693Sure, I agree.
>>5132686That is not going to happen lol. But the damage being dealt is still pretty high. So as you may have noticed the npc health is based on the tarot draw. Ordinary npcs have 1-14, more powerful npc 1-22. The card you draw determines damage. Unfortunately, this npc rolled the 1-shot kill gun lol.
Also, a theme I've seen that I want to commend is how attacks tend to have inconsistent accuracy, but are very impactful.A lot of how you run things is very old tabletop and I really enjoy it.
Ok so shall we try and continue...The situation currently is that both the needle and Florence's phone are on the floor. You have attached the Strange Camera on your head and are recording. The NPCs are as follows:Florence 4/4, turning away to fleeShivering Man 9/9, hostile.So the choices I think are:>Attack Florence (no roll here, she is fleeing. I think it is instant death)>Attack Shivering Man (roll 1d78)>try to deescalate, talk Shivering Man down (roll 1d100)>pick up the items (I don't think the Shivering Man attacks straight away, there will be a d6 disposition roll again)
>>5132701Sadly, I cannot agree. I think our lack of skill made sense early on in GOLGOTHA, and when we were blood-frenzying, but once we were skilled it seemed odd to have such a meagre to hit chance on people like the sword-twins. See >>5131718 for more detailed thoughts on this from me.I agree that attacks or magic is generally very impactful in Souvarine's quests, but that is arguably because in his previous two one's we were diceless and just had stats that we were good at that improved the more we used them.
>>5132701Do you still wanna kill Florence before she leaves. I think it is risky to do this in front of a hostile NPC with an instant-death gun.
You can also try if you are brave:>inject yourself with the needle>inject the Shivering Man or Florence with the Needleand as always>play snake on your phone
>>5132708eh nevermind, no retcons>>5132709I think we should do it, the guy seemed unnerved by her.
>>5132710For an as yet unexplained reason, playing snake you now roll a d4, not d100, hehe
>>5132713Okay. I think if he is still hostile afterwards we should either talk him down and try to get the key or try and stab him with the needle to cure his drug withdrawal(?)
>>5132715understood>>5132705>Attack Florence (no roll here, she is fleeing. I think it is instant death)It was inevitable.
>>5132705>Attack Florence (no roll here, she is fleeing. I think it is instant death)
Rolled 6 (1d6)This is the Shivering Man's reaction:1 attacks you2 calls police3 shocked4 shaken5 traumatised6 faints
>>5132728wow, it was destiny>Take Yargai's Revolver>Take Florence Phone>Take Strange Key
>>5132730>Take Yargai's Revolver>Take Florence Phone>Take Strange KeyWe agreed to take Yargai's Revolver despite the risks.
>>5132730(you can also recover your Needle)>just take everything
>>5132706I can see what you mean, but I'm having a hard time determining a way to improve the system while maintaining its basis in tarot.Regardless, it's nice to have a situational weapon like the dagger to remove some of the uncertainty.
>>5132734alright - so from now on, you roll a 1d6. You cannot use any other weapon, until you complete the sequence and hit on the third hit with 1,2,3,4, or 5.
>>5132740actually wait, you can still use the push dagger. You can dual wield it. So You now hit on swords and wands with the push dagger as well as major arcana
>>5132741It is (14+14+22)/78 = 64% hit chance.You hit on WANDS, SWORDS, and majors
>>5132735>take all>>5132741sweet
>>5132741Yes, that was our intent I think.
>>5132735And yes, pick our needle back up.
do you want to:(choose ONE only)>check the back of the motel>look at Florence's Phone - who was Scarlett? Who was Needle Boy? etc>roll d12 and explore another room>play snake on your phone (roll 1d4)>something else?
Rolled 2 (1d100)Florence's Phone battery
>>5132760oh my god lol
>>5132762It appears this option is now unavailable>look at Florence's Phone - who was Scarlett? Who was Needle Boy? etc
>>5132739Hmm, I think Souvarine already improved the system by us hitting on Major Arcana, close to 50% chance to hit is actually a very good accuracy rate in real life. (Though in TTRPGs or video games it obviously isn't) Considering that cops literally miss the vast majority of their shots even from a distance of like...5 feet, it isn't bad. Though in TTRPG or quests with turns and the wait for the QM write-up it makes a low accuracy rate and low rate of fire potentially annoying if several turns pass with no hits. Another thing that can be done is that we could end up with a best of 2 chance per roll or something if we reach a high enough skill level, but I personally dislike quests with "Best of X" systems most of the time due to the fact that it makes things too easy and they always favour the player way too much and discourage critical thinking, but it may be appropriate in systems like this with increasing skill levels.
the motel rooms are now1 game controller2 clothes3 health 4 weapon5 headphones6 you choose7 2+d3 enemies8 a really good weapon 9 phone wireless charging10 vending machine11 powerful enemy12 powerful enemy
>>5132760...Florence, charge your fucking battery before leaving the house you god damn degenerate.>>5132746What do you wanna do now? I'd personally either check the back of the motel or open door 13 with the key. I also feel we should execute the unconscious shivering man.
>>5132760What is it with this quest and ghetto phones?I think we should check the back before we start clearing the rest of the building.
>>5125917I mean look at this, what are the chances
>>5132757>check the back of the motel>>5132779Sure.
>>5132783looking back, this roll was probably the single most significant thing that wrecked you on Golgotha story mode lol
>>5132779I don't want the cartel on us yet, so I suggest we text back with "Is this Alex?" before we kill anyone.>>5132783at least we have the immortal Nokia now
>>5132787If this had been like just 10 higher, the anon who wanted the genius cloud upload plan would have gotten his way
>>5132788read the description on the Burner Phone carefully and see if you know what is going on with it (why is there no battery etc)
>>5132788wait never mind I forgot alex was at 13
>>5132788Sure.>>5132791The dice gods screwed me beyond their ability to comprehend.
Rolled 1 (1d2)>>51327881 Needle Boy is not Alex, all of this was pointless...2 Needle Boy is Alex
>>5132757execute man and proceed to the back of the motel
>>5132798I guess he is, but I'm confused on why we are rolling for which doors to check.
Rolled 28 (1d100)>>5132684oh no... look I cannot help it...1-18 PUNISH19-100 forgive...
Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d2)so executing 2 people hmmm...1 the audience is not entertained2 the audience applauds
>>5132803the reason is, the items are random (12 items) but each time you get one, the item room is replaced by an enemy
>>5132800I am finally coming to the realization that needle boy wasn't us (needle and murder deliveryman) but some drug addict.>>5132809I aim to please.
>>5132801so I feel like, unless you do this with Yargai's Revolver, I am going to make another punish roll...>perform both executions with Yargai's revolver (roll 1d6 first, do one at a time)>use push blade (there will be a huge consequence for not using the gun)
>>5132816so each anon roll 1d6 separately. It is like you split into two people each performing one execution lol. Please also utter a dramatic one-liner or battlecry?
>>5132815(wait this is good. I did not think of this. There will be another roll latwr about this)
Rolled 5 (1d6)>>5132816>I'm sorry, but I was asked to keep things clean.
Rolled 2 (1d6)>>5132821"WHERE DID MY CLOTHES GO YOU FUCKS!"
>>5132828Sorry if this is too vague but the implication is that the man is trash/filth.
>>5132828miss, roll again...
>>5132832this is a hit I will take it.Now the third shot, hits on 1,2,3,4,5. Do not roll a miss...This is the one that really counts...
Rolled 2 (1d6)>>5132835"It's going to be a rough night for all of us, but at least it's over for you now."
Rolled 97 (1d100)1-48 the audience is bored49-100 the audience is entertained
>>5132838So do we have to fire thrice with this weapon or are we unloading due to lack of skill?
Rolled 1 (1d3)>>51328151 you are actually Alex2 you are Needle Boy3 you have no idea who you are
>>5132845Apparently all these shadowy organizations just want to help us find ourselves.
>>5132842You executed both Florence and Shivering Man successfully. You may drop the cursed gun if you wish now. Otherwise it resets back to 1>drop Yargai's revolver, look for another weapon>hold onto it(from now on, the audience wants all death to be delivered via the cursed gun. Anything else will incur huge amounts of displeasure)
>>5132842Do you not remember how the gun works?We are shooting two people, the gun only hits on 1/6 on the first shot, if it misses it becomes hit on 1 or 2 out of 6 and if it misses again we hit on anything but 6. If the third shot misses, we die. After that we can drop the gun or restart the cycle.
>>5132848Should we keep the gun? The "audience" wants us to use it.
Rolled 2, 1, 8, 4, 2, 7, 2, 10, 7, 6 = 49 (10d10)>>5132850about this much displeasure:
>>5132853But we stabbed the girl?I guess I'm just a ditz with a murderboner.>>5132857I'm fine being a pistolero.
Rolled 3 (1d3)>>51328641 you stabbed the girl (incur audience displeasure)2 you used the gun3 you no longer understand reality...(incur audience displeasure)
>>5132850>hold onto it>>5132864We stabbed her but didn't finish her off until we shot her.I think we keep it for now, as it may be useful until we get other firearms but eventually I'd like to ditch it and get the "audience" accustomed to other firearms.It kind of defeats the purpose of a horde mode sandbox with tons of cool weapons to play with if we only use one gun that has a chance to kill us.
>>5132871Top kek
