Twenty years have passed since the gate to hell has opened up, and the demon's influence has spread across the world like hellfire... quite literally. The land transformed beneath their feet, becoming twisted and corrupted, slowly poisoning any who tried to live off of it. Most have fled from the demons, hoping to find salvation on the seas. They were never heard from again. Now, only a few precious strongholds remain, where the last survivors of humanity desperately try to survive.
Once again, I will be using the Xd6 Advanced TRNG from random.org to determine the outcome. For most actions, there will be two rolls, one for skill and one for luck. Depending on the complexity of the action, rolls will mean slightly different things:
Simple Action(Does not correlate to a skill)
0-2: Failure
3-6+: Success
Looting, picking stuff up from the ground, drinking something, etc. If you're trying to drink a healing potion, a 1 or 0 might mean you drop it and it shatters, but nobody will be killed.
Standard Action(Usually correlates to a skill)
0: Epic Failure.
1: Critical Failure.
2: Standard Failure.
3: Stumble.
4: Standard Success.
5: Epic Success.
6: Overshot.
7+: Critical Overshot
That should look familiar to most who have played an RTD before. 3 and below may inflict injuries, depending on the action. Lower rolls will have more serious injuries, more often. 0 almost always inflicts mortal injuries. 4 & 5 are the best rolls. 6 and above carry additional effects; these effects depend on what the action is.
Difficult Actions(Correlates to a difficult task with an untrained skill; Positive Modifiers halved, negative modifiers doubled):
0-1: Epic Failure
2: Critical Failure
3: Standard Failure
4: Stumble
5: Standard Success
6: Overshot
Similar to standard rolls, but with a higher chance of failure and injury. Much harder to pull off. Summoning planets, destroying the world, and hitting a target the size of a copper piece from over 9,000 yards away fall into this category. High luck and skill rolls are needed to succeed.
There are still 8 schools of magic, though they have expanded since the first one. Magic has become more practiced and well-known since the demon invasion, so you all know what they are this time around:
Elemental Magic – The base elements of earth, air, ice, fire, water and lightning fall into this school. Manipulation of these elements has a myriad of uses and can be the source of tremendous power. This is the most common school of the world, as well as the one that shows up in stories more often.
Summoning Magic – While most magic utilizes the ethereal flow, this school directly uses the flow to bring otherworldly objects and creatures into this world.
Rune Magic – Most magic if fleeting; once cast, it only lasts so long. Rune magic changes this by inscribing spells into physical objects, extending the duration of the effect for much longer than would normally be possible. Also known as enchantment, practitioners of this field carve runes and glyphs into various objects to give them magical effects.
Alchemical Magic – Instead of evoking power from otherworldly ether, Alchemy deals with the magical essences already flowing throughout the world. Various items can be combined to create potions with various effects, which are in high demand during these troubled times.
Life Magic – Once limited to healing, recent studies have expanded this field of magic into one that encompasses all aspects of life and the body. Because of this, both healing and enhancement spells now factor into this school.
Death Magic – Unlike life magic which encompasses the body, this school utilizes magic of the soul. Those who practice this school bind the souls of the deceased to various object, imbuing them with powerful abilities. Due to the fact that most souls are obtained unwillingly, this school was often branded as evil in the past, but the desperation of the current age has led it to become more acceptable, especially compared to Fell Magic.
Fell Magic – Originally known as Demonology, this school of magic uses human souls as a power source, rather than the ethereal flow. With the rise of the demons, knowledge of this school has greatly increased, both among the servants of the demons and those who would do anything to thwart them.
Metamagic – Spells that deal with the fluctuation of magical energy rather than manipulation of a particular sphere fall into this domain. The essence of this school is change, for good or worse, for enemy or ally; the effects depend solely on how this fluctuation is used.
They were in the first one, but seemed to have a very, very minor part. Not my design, players just largely ignored them. We'll see how it turns out for this one. Divine powers could be considered a magic 'school', even though it isn't technically a school.
Stories tell of a giant colossus serving the demons, who resides in the spires of hell. Like a juggernaut, some say nobody has been able to scratch, much less defeat him.
Refugees tell of a demon who drives men mad merely by the sight of him. He is barely a manifestation in the physical world; His powers are varied, but all warp the mind or crush the spirit.
Torillerb, the Lord of Balors, guards the Demonic Gate deep in Schalade. Most say that he is the strongest creature on this planet, but some swear he serves a higher power.
Kicen, the Fell Archmage, is the man who originally summoned the demons into this world. He intentions are unknown, but the demons allow him to do whatever he wishes. He seems to be staying out of the war, holing up in his tower located among the Spires of Hell.
The Burning Lock is said to be an impenetrable fortress were some prisoners are taken to be turned into demons themselves, rather than be slain or tortured like most. It resides deep in the Hellfire Plains, a cruel desert with embers for sand and flames dancing over the surface.
Almar's Keep is the last great stronghold of man. Priests of the God of Order, Mandatum, have found a way to keep the lands of Hell at bay... for now.
Port Shalot was once a bustling trade city, but now it's few inhabitants have been forced into a corner. Oddly enough, demon raids on this town have stopped.
Maradin is the southernmost human city, barely surviving while the demon's attention is on Almar's Keep. They try to send as many resources up to Almar was they can.
Hurray for 5-minute drawings!
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Topic: Arcanum Octet II: Forbidden Lore [Turn 81] (Read 233215 times)