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A War Story

Started by ArtDrake, January 13, 2012, 10:34:16 PM

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Steelfist

Hmm. While I'm not certain if it's a good idea to tell him about the portals, I'll go along with it. After all, it might be related to the skeletons.

Ertxiem

I agree. Let's keep the ears open. The Lieutenant may end up mentioning the portals by himself... Asking what happened is generic enough.
Ert, the Dead Cow.
With 2 small Mandelbrot sets as the spots.

ArtDrake

You ask the Lieutenant, "Is there anything I can do to help?" He replies, "Just get rid of those forbandede skeletons for me. I can handle them myself, but they're a real nuisance when you're flying a ship."

Then, you ask the Lieutenant, "What exactly happened here, anyway?", and he says, "A ruthless sorceress in the pay of the Third Reich attacked this airship. The crew and passengers were burned alive from the inside, victim to her terrible magics. Some were pulled apart as if by wild horses, and still others dropped dead where they stood, their faces turned black from their lifeless blood. I was ... lucky -- if you can call it that -- enough to be having a midnight snack in the galley refridgerator when the arcane assault began. I almost suffered the same fate as the rest, but every fiber of my being was stretched, twisted, and corrupted until I became what you see before you. My legs were pulled out to six feet and split to the bone to double their number, and to my arms the same, though I still have two. I feel... so old.

Then she ressurected the dead whose bodies were intact, denying them peace and dignity in death. They stand guard throughout the ship, surely damning any who might think to stop this ship crashing. This is the HMS Vinternat (Note: it's pronounced "VEEN-tah-Net"), arms transport vessel for the Danish Resistance Force, and it was headed straight for Reykjavik in Iceland. Had it crashed, the ship's magazine would have gone up with a bang, killing thousands.

Any questions?"

Ertxiem

#93
(Interesting...
The ceremonial sword may be useful against the sorceress... but let's keep this for ourselves... and there is still the other portal to the cell to explore...)

Say "I'll be glad to help.". Ask for advice on weapons and tactics against the skeletons and ask where is the sorceress now.
Ert, the Dead Cow.
With 2 small Mandelbrot sets as the spots.

Steelfist

Get more information on this evidently unusual world - it's history, how it's different, if the sorceress is responsible for the portals, more on magic (Especially more on magic - could we use it as a weapon?). Also, inquire about the location of weapons and armor on the ship, and what kind of weapons this world contains (Gunpowder, swords, modern?). Also inquire as to the number of skeletons and if anyone survived.

ArtDrake

You ask the lieutenant about tactics against the skeletons:

"Well, once they've grabbed a hold on you, they can be a bugger to get off, but I've found that the most effective way of combatting them is to break their bones with a blunt weapon; you'd dull a sword far too quickly if you consistently used it to smash through skeletons. A pipe or a baseball bat like you have is just about perfect for that. If you were a bit stronger, I'd say that a longer blunt weapon would keep them at range, like a metal pole or the back side of a long axe -- but those take a bit of practice and strength to pull off. I have just my legs, but I can kick a skeleton further than most, and they don't exactly land well."

Then, you inquire as to the whereabouts of the sorceress:

"Oh, she's probably flown back to Berlin to recieve her payment, but it's common knowledge that she lives in Cologne. Forbandede collaborators. She was originally Polish, but when Poland was annexed by the Third Reich, her family became Nazi instead of fighting with honor."

(Don't worry, Steelfist. I'll get to yours in a bit)

bugfartboy

Ask if there's any more advice he can give you.

ArtDrake

You ask about the history of this world:

"What, you don't know what's been happening? Have you had your head under a rock for the past forty years? We've been locked in war with the Axis for the better part of half a century. To think they used to call our first war with Germany the "Great War". All of our attempts at liberating France have failed; one time, we organised an invasion force to land on the beaches of Normandy, where the enemy least suspected us to strike. But on the way over, most of the ships sank, due to a sudden storm. The United States reinforcements never came at all. They thought they were so great, with their "atom bomb". It never worked, of course. Did they really think they could harness the power locked inside glowing rocks to rain terror on the enemy?"

Duskling

Ask if there is any way you can help


bugfartboy

Or ask why the glowing rocks didn't help.

Steelfist

Hmm. He evidently doesn't know about the portals. So we oughtn't mention them, for now.

Aside from that (And the history question), ask the questions from my previous post.

ArtDrake

Don't worry. I'll get to it eventually, but right now I'm kind of... taking care of piled up stuff in my life.

ArtDrake

Asking the Lieutenant about weaponry:

"Well, we have rifles, machine guns, cannons, anti-aircraft turrets, lightning catalysts, shoulder-fired railguns, packs of frost runes, spell scrolls, and some pink glop in a bucket in the back of the armory.

If you're interested in magic, you could head over the the ship's library; they've got some spellbooks that'll actually help you cast the things, but it'll cost you. After all, it takes work to make a good spellbook, and once it's used, it's no longer useful."

About the glowing rocks:

"Who knows? Those Americans were messing with some stuff that was strange as hell before we lost contact with them. None of our expeditions over to reach them have come back yet."

bugfartboy

Ask why spellbooks are so fragile, and if they're even worth the effort of getting to.

ArtDrake

You ask why the spellbooks are so fragile, and whether they're even worth the effort of getting into:

"Oh, y'see, the problem is not that they're fragile, but that they only have a certain amount of psychomagnetic potential in them... and basically it's like a one-use thing, because the next person who picks it up won't get much from it. Maybe they'll feel a small trace of the spell, but for the most part, the imprints are flattened as soon as one guy's mind blunders along and squishes them.

"Highly skilled arcane researchers, like the ones we have at the University of Reykjavik, can read spellbooks and retrieve their information while preserving the imprint, but it's all a matter of delicacy. Anyway, we can mass-produce them for the war, now that we can record the psychomagnetic impulses of a high mage in our arcane presses, and reproduce that impulse approximately with machines. Or at least, we can do that with simpler spells. It's like the difference between copying a simple design, like a cross, in a pixel based format, and copying a Rembrandt with pixels. You get the idea of the cross plain and simple, but you lose the brushstrokes that you could analyze with the Rembrandt.

"Then, we came up with another idea. If our approximations were too crude at a small scale to capture the essence of a spell, then perhaps if we, so to speak, increased the size of the photograph, we could reproduce it more exactly with our 'digital' format. So now, if a spell is quite complicated, it can take up many pages in a spellbook, and you have to hold the imprint in your mind while you read the book, a skill not quickly learned.

"Lastly, there are spells so intricate in their reasoning and process that they simply cannot be recopied onto a page. Liken it to a fractal. These spells must be learned through a spellbook created by hand by a high mage, and even then, it isn't easy.

"As to your other question, a bit of magic never hurts. Some people simply don't have the aptitude for it, I'm afraid, and even the simplest spells escape them. Perhaps one in six of our soldiers has learned with some competency a few spells that are applicable in the field: light spells, enchants for accuracy on his rifle, and a spell to fortify his strength before engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Our medics can take specialized courses in regenerative spellcasting, though only the Nazis would deprive human life of sanctity to such an extent as to reanimate the dead. If you think you can do it, go right on ahead. You should be able to find some money on the dead you find to buy books. Don't worry; they won't need it.