Immediate changes: as of now, I'll finally get around to using that weight set I bought (every other day, "morning" and "evening" for a half-hour each). Also, stretches before and after my park training to keep up flexibility (but not of level two caliber, so no effect anyway given my 1@10 Flex), and jogging around town for an hour every other day. I figure this is coming out of the time I've been spending on ritual for the last three weeks and am now not.
Level one strength, level one stamina. I'll be surprised if it goes uninterrupted for long enough to score an intensity in this world.
Next disruption: after about two weeks, I figure I'll cave and plan another trip to Round Valley State Park. Like before, I'll plan it as a day trip via bus (bringing the same materials as before - I'll find the post and paste it here), but I'll warn my boss that I'll be out during the day and may, if something goes wrong on my trip, not be back for work. I assure him that I should be there and that I'll call him as soon as possible if anything comes up, and that this warning is just me being over-cautious.
Since my intent in this is to seclude myself from spying minds whilst I experiment with psionics, I doubt any further projection of my routine would be worthwhile in ignorance of the trip's possibly-botchful outcome.
__
Edit: public transport information is in this post; my equipment brought will include a plastic grocery bag, my spiral notebook and mechanical pencil, my Spanish-to-English Dictionary (With Grammar!), both of my padlocks, my usual pocket contents (including five loose wingnuts), and my holy symbol (worn). Attire is as usual (T-shirt, shorts, sandals).
Fares are the same, and the same scheduling problems arise. When you reach Clinton you learn that you just missed the connection to the park, so it will be at least an hour before you can catch that next bus. Assuming that you go with the 6.45 round trip ticket and don't specify a different return date, I'm good with continuing at the park--unless you want to use your time in Clinton for something else.
--M. J. Young
Time at Clinton is spent devising a magical Hail Mary pass to avoid detection by Onii-san. (That phrasing is out of character; V-me has seen very little Japanese television.) Dictionary is deployed, the spiral notebook becomes the repository for deliberately incomprehensible (to others) translation notes, and the resulting ritual - which I do not yet perform - is below.
Caster mutters the following in Spanish (sound necessary): "El sonido de un abancio, mientras enfria; el poder de una locomotra, mientras viaja; el trabajo de un mago, mientras asombra; ¿qué calidad comparto con éstos, por ahora? / Los cuatro estan mejor cuando desapercibidio.", which roughly translated means, "The sound of a fan, as it cools; a locomotive's power, as it travels; a magician's labor, as he astounds; what quality do I share with these, for now? / All four are best, unnoticed." On the final line the caster raises four fingers of his right hand in front of his face, then draws his hand to one side as he turns his face to the other side and casts his eyes downward. Prevents casters activities from being noticed by others not directly involved, lasts for the current situation or no more than two hours, TF 0:24, -? SM
My hope is that this will deflect any prying psionic eyes for the duration of my experimentation - after all, detecting my psionic activity does no one any good if the detector doesn't realize he's got a read. I realize that I'll initially have very little idea of whether or not this spell has worked once I cast it; I'm hoping it'll stay that way.
__
I'm hoping that when I arrive, the park will be quasi-empty like it was last time. I'll try to find a relatively secluded area again. If I do, I'll get out my psionic experimentation materials, ready to begin experimenting, and cast my spell.
__
Notes on the arcane spell: looking through the book, I'm thinking a special M5@1 Psuedo-Invisibility or a seriously off-baseline M10@1 Diversion. (I hope it's just my in-character tendency toward low-key magic that's resulting in all my experiments being @1, and not out-of-character knowledge of the trees. It's hard to tell.)
Either way, I'm looking at a 1:10 duration of four minutes doubled 4 and 7/8 times for -49. I'm hoping I can get a mitigating bonus for the "until end of situation" provision, because that has the potential to end the spell early. (For example, if I cast the spell to get away with shoplifting, and then fifteen minutes later I want to eavesdrop in the tavern without folks noticing that I'm on my laptop, I'd have to cast the spell again because the first duration ended when I was a few blocks away from the store, done with my shoplifting.)
For ritual factors, I've got +12 verbal (appropriate magical language, sound necessary) and maybe +3 for somatic if you feel like crediting me for involving the head and eyes.
Total, that's -34, plus whatever I get for situational duration. Also, there might be some skill-specific modifiers:
* For M5@1, it's not the caster per se who's becoming psuedo-invisible; it's his activities. I intend for this to cover detections of such activities. However, a Detect Life or even a pair of eyeballs would be completely unhindered by the spell - users of such skills would be free to notice the caster's presence. They just wouldn't notice that he was doing much of anything. That might be a wash, or it might be a bonus or penalty, and I don't feel it's my place to make that call.
* For M10@1, this is very different from the effect described, so there's probably an ad-hoc sit-mod of some kind in here somewhere.
* For any other bias listing, the whole question's moot.
I'm ready to move on to the psi stuff, but I figure this spell and the park's crowdedness or lack thereof are probably enough for one post.
The back of my mind says that it's August, or maybe early September, and that it's not likely that the park would be empty at that time of year. However, I'm tracking so many calendars that it's entirely possible that it's November/December, which would be rather sparse times. If it's October, I'm going to need a GE roll for the weather--a good day will bring people to the park, but less promising (foggy, drizzly, rainy, even threatening) weather will keep them away. To save time, the GE roll is 21, so if it's October the bad enough roll means good weather and a good turnout. If it's not October, the roll will still mean that things are not as you desire, but the baseline is shifted as noted.
I concur with a M5@1 variant, and think that the concept "terminates automatically at the end of the current situation" is good for +10, provided that the caster specifies (in his mind, and thus to the referee) what constitutes the "current situation" in terms of what task(s) must be attempted in that time (e.g., escape from current location, acquire specific object, test particular skills). Pseudo-invisibility is like SOP anyway, so the notion that they can see you is perfectly in keeping with it--they see you, but they don't register what you're doing because you don't matter.
I also agree that using your head and eyes in that way is worth three points as a body part. There are many other tasks you could not do if you had to turn your head and avert your eyes--targeting a weapon is one of them, reading a sign is another, and safely operating a vehicle is a third, and those seem likely enough to matter that they should qualify this.
You also did not specify whether this is holy or arcane. I know most of your magic is arcane, but you did just create a holy symbol, which would be useful as a focus for holy magic, so I thought you might be rethinking this.
The sit-mod is then -24. I'm assuming you aren't going to attempt it until you are in a secluded part of the park and ready to begin your psionic experiments, so let's get to that point.
--M. J. Young
It's two weeks after the 20th of August, so let's call it Monday, September 3rd. I imagine that means good weather, stifling turnout. Bother.
All right. I'm going to tear a corner off of one page in my spiral notebook, write "mine" on it with my pencil, and shallowly bury it near the bus stop. That should give me a return vector, so I don't need to worry about being able to find my way back during this next step.
Next, I'm going to wander as far off the beaten trail as necessary until I am sufficiently secluded. I'm willing to devote the better part of an hour to losing myself in the wilderness (or what passes for wilderness). Part of the point of a park is to protect natural habitats and such, so I'm hoping there is at least one area to be found that's not riddled through with trails (and thus with people).
If I can't lose myself in an hour, I'm not sure what I'll do. I'll think of something.
__
The spell is arcane. I apologize, I thought I mentioned that. If I employ holy magic, it will mostly likely be in English, and I'll mention the holy symbol if it is involved. I'll try to remember to specify in the future, though.
You take some time wandering, and work your way up a hillside. You do find a place far from the maddening crowds--a lovely place on the side of what might be considered a mountain in some parts of the world, overlooking the lake below. You're far enough up that you couldn't be identified, but you would be in plain sight to someone with binoculars, as the trees here are sparse, recovering apparently from a fire within the past five to ten years.
Just to be clear, you've not yet said that you are casting that spell, so I have not yet rolled for it.
--M. J. Young
Perfectly satisfactory. In sight won't matter if my actions are unnoticed, and the distance is worth something in itself.
I'm glad you didn't roll the spell yet; I was considering knocking my expected maximum duration down to one hour. That seems almost too short to me now, though, as if it would reduce the limitation from the situational restriction. I think I'll compromise and set the maximum duration at ninety minutes (1:30:00), bringing the sit-mod to a slightly more doable -19:
Deflect Notice M5@1* Caster mutters the following in Spanish (sound necessary): "El sonido de un abancio, mientras enfria; el poder de una locomotra, mientras viaja; el trabajo de un mago, mientras asombra; ¿qué calidad comparto con éstos, por ahora? / Los cuatro estan mejor cuando desapercibidio.", which roughly translated means, "The sound of a fan, as it cools; a locomotive's power, as it travels; a magician's labor, as he astounds; what quality do I share with these, for now? / All four are best, unnoticed." On the final line the caster raises four fingers of his right hand in front of his face, then draws his hand to one side as he turns his face to the other side and casts his eyes downward. Prevents casters activities from being noticed by others not directly involved, terminates automatically at the end of the current situation, maximum duration 1:30:00, TF 0:24, -19 SM
I will cast this spell. Then, presumably unaware of its success (the numbers tell me learning is no-fail), I will for my first trick attempt to devise a new clairsentience for detecting the presence of magic. I do not want to detect things which have magic or are magic unless that magic is doing something at the current moment.
From what I can tell of this world, the only magic I should detect if this works would be my own spell, so I don't need to make the detection any more specific than "yes there is active magic here / no there is not". I'm thinking a ten yard radius to start, possibly centered on an otherwise-detected point other than myself (although centered on myself this time). I'm expecting that to be roughly baseline, but I haven't looked anything up.
Everything else I have must necessarily wait on the spell and its verification.
There is a very powerful magical effect at your location at this moment.
You may proceed.
--M. J. Young
Powerful! Good. Looks like I'll be able to rely on this in the future, as well. That's comforting. (Either that, or my understanding of this universe is powerfully flawed and that's not my spell I'm detecting. I'm deliberately ignoring that possibility.)
Third order of business: light manipulation again. I'm going to attempt to cause any light striking my body to pass through it in the same way in which it passes through the air. This is not a body control; this is a light manipulative. I'm preventing the light from reflecting and refracting in the usual manner and instead forcing it to continue behaving as it was when it was passing through the air, immediately prior to striking my body. The skill continuously targets photons which are about to strike my body, and it continues to affect a given photon until it has passed through to the other side.
I do not think I attempted this exact skill on my previous visit. If it is successful, I hope to apply the same concept (later) to a skill which would allow me to psionically complete an electrical circuit by forcing the electrons to cross a gap, as for example would exist in a car's ignition if the key were missing. This skill comes first, though.
Fourth order of business (if the above anything-but-botches) is to sit down with my padlock and attempt once again to pick it with a combination of Clartactile Imaging and MulTK. It occurs to me that a major advantage of tactile clairsentience is that it is not attached to bulky, inflexible fingers.
Two at a time is enough for me at present; I'll post more once these are resolved. Long lists of experiments seem to attract botches.
Oh, and every half hour or so I'd like to recheck with my (psionic) magic detection. I've a fair idea of how long I expect this effect will last, but I've no guarantee I'm right.
How will you know if the skill works? Oh, I know--you are still casting a shadow.
I recall you tried this lock trick before. Do you recall whether you were able to image the interior of the lock last time? (If not, I suspect this might be new use, but I'm not sure what you've done with it before, so enlighten me.) You succeed in doing so this time, but you cannot focus on moving the parts at the same time at this point. It seems like something that will require practice, not an impossibility in itself.
Next?
--M. J. Young
Actually, I just thought about it for a second longer and realized that if the skill worked, I'd be effectively blind - no light hitting my eyeballs. But even if I allowed light to hit my eyes (thus casting retina-shadows which the observant might notice), I could tell that it had worked because I wouldn't be able to see myself. Invisibility was kind of the point.
Immaterial, though, because it didn't work. As for the lock thing, yes I've tried it before, I've just never succeeded. I'm thinking there might be a new use for unlocking a padlock with MulTK, once I eventually succeed. I have, in the past, succeeded at feeling out the inside of the lock, so if it was ever worth a use on my clairsentience, you've probably already marked it down.
Next: two skills. First, I want to make my right hand (this time, but potentially my whole body at a later date, possibly at a penalty) extremely resistant to damage from heat. If I can control my body's properties to such an extent that I can become insubstantial, I do not expect making myself impervious to burns to prove prohibitively complex.
Once this is done (read: not obviously botched), I will pluck a piece of dried grass and hold it between my thumb and forefinger.
Second, I want to focus on my hand in its role as a heat source and psioncally amplify its heat output. I expect to feel this, and I hope to generate a powerful enough effect to ignite the dry grass.
(If the body control failed, I expect pain, and my response to that pain will be to reverse the skill to bleed off excess heat, after which I will assess which method is best for repairing any tissue damage I was too late to prevent.)
These might seem odd questions, but I need to ask them.
- Is this a resistance or an absolute immunity?
- Does it protect against heat from the outside, or heat from the inside, or both?
--M. J. Young
Both inside and outside, and a resistance. I was envisioning it as a structural change perhaps on a cellular level, which wouldn't care about the direction of the heat source. As a character it's difficult for me to envision that sort of protection being absolute, even though as a player I know that's possible, so it's a resistance.
I'm thinking even a single damage category penalty ought to be enough to protect me against the heat required to ignite dry grass. For the record, I can tell the difference between "ouch that's hot" and "ouch that burns," and will only backpedal (as described above) in response to the latter.
You do feel as if your hand is warming slightly, and that it is resistant to the damage caused by heat, but you are unable to project heat through it into the grass.
--M. J. Young
I wasn't attempting to psionically move heat anywhere, merely to amplify the heat my hand ordinarily radiates; nonetheless, it's apparent that despite my successes, I wasn't able to ramp up my body heat sufficiently to ignite grass on contact.
Still, I warmed my hand. This is progress. Now, if I could only replicate this with another source of heat ...
Ah.
[Second Edit: I would never be crazy enough to do this; please disregard the part I've put in blockquote. See next post instead.]
Maintaining my resistance, I'm going to target the sun with my heat-source amplification. I'm going to do this very carefully, with the least effect I can achieve while still producing a detectable effect.
No. First, new skill: I want a clartactile heat sensor (temperature only) with much more finely grained perception (perhaps 10x) than my biological heat sense. I want to position this sensor perhaps ten yards above me, between myself and the sun. I'll wait perhaps a minute to get a feel for how much the temperature is fluctuating naturally at that point. (If it's fluctuating by enough to foul up this next step, I don't proceed.)
Then I want to attempt a slow increase in the sun's heat output, quitting as soon as my new sensor detects an increase.
This could be educational.
Edit: so I see from behind the screens that all I have here is the perception of a minimal success from what in fact was a close failure. That's okay; the sun experiment works just as well as a second attempt at skill learning.
As I contemplate mentally stoking the fires of the sun, I get that feeling the pit of my stomach that always comes when I realize that I just seriously considered jumping over a thirty-foot high railing to see what the fall would be like. No no no, bad idea, very bad, NOT blowing up the sun by accident. In fact, let's leave energy manip alone for a while; it's giving me crazy ideas.
What else can I do? I've neutralized hot peppers in my mouth; could I perhaps synthesize something in my saliva? Let's try that, something innocuous at first. I'll try to produce sugar from my salivary glands. If my spit tastes sweet, I'll know it worked - and I'm sure I'll be able to think of more useful things to excrete from my mouth than sugar. (New uses, all! Muahaha.)
Oh, and how am I doing on time? I still intend to detect for magic every half-hour; just let me know when during my experiments I hit those marks. I intend to keep going until I'm out of ideas for personal expansion or my detection comes up empty (or fails).
I am twice confused. First, I had perhaps assumed that your heat trick was a pyrogenesis variant, but it occurs to me that it might have been something more like focusing existing heat. Second, I am confused because I know that you can do that by magic but not whether doing it by psionics is different from pyrogenesis--I don't recall anyone ever attempting it before. If I misunderstood, I will gladly go back and look for an energy manipulative that is not an energy generative, and redo the attempt based on the existing roll--assuming there is a way to do that which is not pyrogenesis. You did succeed in protecting your hand against the heat.
I am inclined to think that ten minutes per skill attempt is a good estimate. I would say five to fifteen, to be less precise, but we'll go with ten. I recall three skill attempts since the detection, so we'll count that half an hour.
You detect nothing at this time.
--M. J. Young
I think I was going more for a P7@2 Control Energy Source kind of skill, the sort of thing that one would use to amplify the light output of a lamp or the electrical output of a battery, but applied to heat. If a distinction can be drawn between that and pyrogenesis, then perhaps a redo would be best.
If I had to try to draw a distinction, I would say that a 7@4 Pyrogenesis could be used to ignite a dry leaf on the ground, because it works by exciting preexisting molecular motion, but a 7@2 Control Heat Source could not, because the leaf is undergoing no process which would emit heat energy. However, a 7@2 Control Heat Source could put out a fire*, because it works by controlling the energy emitted by an exothermic process, but a 7@4 Pyrogenesis could not, because its only function is to excite molecular motion (thereby increasing temperature).
In this case, the attempt was to increase the heat output of the exothermic processes which continually occur in my hand. The hand of a dead person would be an invalid target for the skill. An incandescent light bulb would be a valid target, because the filament's resistance to electrical flow generates heat and thus the filament qualifies as a heat source. Lava from a volcanic eruption would not, I think, be a valid target, because the heat in the lava is residual; the molten rock is a heat repository, not a source, and will cool if left alone.
That's my take on it.
__
*Or, at any rate, it could render a fire's heat output null, which I imagine would quickly halt the expansion of the flames to the rest of the fuel base and render the circumstances ill suited to the combustion of oxygen, effectively resulting in the death of the fire. (And looking to the book, a P7@2 skill can, at baseline, extinguish an energy source, in contrast to a P7@1 Diffuse Energy, which cannot.)
On reflection, the bias is only two points lower, and I gave you a bonus for pyrogenesis based on necessity of contact, which would not apply to a skill which was designed to increase the heat in the hand, so it's a failure either way.
But at least we're clear about which skill failed....
As I recall, you failed to detect any magic. What's next?
--M. J. Young
Next, I hope desperately that no one saw that, recast my concealment spell, then sit down with my dictionary to devise a spell that will last a bit longer than half an hour.
You perform the ritual again.
--M. J. Young
Next I invent a new spell that I can be sure will last for a few hours. I'm aware that perhaps the detection failed, the magic is working, and I'm safe; however, it's also possible that I botched my first detection attempt, the magic never worked in the first place, and I've been working in the open this whole time, so my unreliability as a detector is scant comfort.
For this spell - arcane, by the way - I will use my circle of five wingnuts. That requires that I sing, preferably in something minor-ish, and the tune to God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen suits the syllable pattern surprisingly well. I'll use two tricks to ensure a longer duration: first, I'll specify a numerical time measure in the incantation (two hours), as I recall Stile did when refining his spells in the Adept series; and second, I'll lengthen the spell itself by adding a second verse (which seems appropriate).
Deflect Notice (Enhanced Ritual) M5@1* Caster sits crosslegged in a circle of five wingnuts and sings the following in Spanish (to the tune of God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen) (sound necessary): "El sonido de un abancio, mientras enfria; el poder de una locomotra, mientras viaja; el trabajo de un mago, mientras asombra; ¿qué calidad comparto con éstos, por ahora (por dos horas)? / ¿qué calidad comparto con éstos, por ahora? / La presencia de un mayordomo, mientras sirva; las cuerdas de un títere, mientras baile; la telaraña de un araña, mientras espere; ¿qué calidad comparto con éstos, por ahora (por dos horas)? / ¿qué calidad comparto con éstos, por ahora? /. . . Los sietes estan mejor cuando desapercibidio", which roughly translated means, "The sound of a fan, as it cools; a locomotive's power, as it travels; a magician's labor, as he astounds; what quality do I share with these, for now (two hours)? (question repeated) / A butler's presence, as he serves; a puppet's strings, as it dances; a spider's web, as it waits; what quality do I share with these, for now (two hours)? (question repeated) / All seven are best, unnoticed." On the final line the caster raises seven fingers in front of his face, then draws his hands to one side as he turns his face to the other side and casts his eyes downward. Prevents casters activities from being noticed by others not directly involved, duration 2:00:00, TF 1:00, +7 SM
After that, psionic detection again. If and only if that comes up empty, I'll try a magical detect. (I would try the magical detect first, as it's less risky if my concealment were to have failed, but I'm not sure that whatever detect I try might not end up detecting itself, and I'd like to avoid the headache.)
Question. Since I'm unaware of any @1 magical skill that could possibly inform me of the presence or absence of a magical effect (M7@1 Magical Writings can only go so far, and even M1@1 Ceremonies NOS have limits), would we just say that I try several variations on some unspecified ritual, as has been my demonstrated behavior pattern, before giving up after X attempts over Y minutes/hours? Or would I actually design several doomed rituals, which we would proceed to not roll?
__
Sit-mod talk. My math is based on adjustments to the original spell.
Time factor/duration ratio goes from -49 to -35, net +14
Lose "ends with situation" bonus, net -10
Add song, +3
Add both legs and other hand, +9
Add five wingnuts, +10
Total change: (14-10+3+9+10=) +26
New sit-mod: (26-19=) +7
Second post: this doesn't have anything to do with my character's current situation, but as I went back into the archives to find my old equipment list, I came across this bit of text from behind the screens:
I find myself wondering whether Scott is going to attract attention in any way, and the thing that comes to mind is his training program in the park. I would expect someone jumping out of trees every other day to become interesting to someone. However, a 7 GE roll plays strongly in his favor there, so with better than expected I’ll give him sixty days of practice before there’s any problem.
That makes me think that I'm probably due for attention attracted (whether or not I would notice), and that any further GE rolls about my park training at this point would be, um, whatever the opposite of double jeopardy is. An unfair delay of misfortune.
I only mention this because it's been quite a long time since that seven was rolled - over a year, I think - so it's quite likely to have been forgotten, and I know you prefer not to roll things twice.
As an absolutely meaningless aside, the title is actually God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen, "Merry" as an adverb describing how God is asked to rest the gentlemen. It is rather archaic, and comes to something like "May God put your minds at ease."
You cast the new ritual, and your detection tells you that there is magic working presently.
I think for future reference that in most cases I would be satisfied with a statement of how much time you lose playing with different rituals if you are attempting to do the impossible. I would, however, suggest that we first agree that what you are attempting to do is impossible under the bias. That's trickier for holy magic than for arcane (since with holy magic it is not impossible for the deity to tweak "what you asked" into "what I can do"), but it should be considered for what you're attempting nonetheless.
I'm assuming that since you detect the presence of magic now, you're not going to experiment with magical detections at this point.
Thanks for the note. Of course, you're not jumping out of the tree at the park right now, but maybe I'll bear that in mind later.
--M. J. Young
Thank you, that title makes a lot more sense. I hadn't realized that had been bothering me until you corrected it.
I think for future reference . . .
Acknowledged. I thought it best to ask before the post that might deal with it, so as to avoid having to guess at how to proceed.
I'm assuming that since you detect the presence of magic now, you're not going to experiment with magical detections at this point.
Indeed. And it's unlikely that I would screw up the detection that badly twice out of three attempts, so it's quite likely that at least one of my spells is working and most likely that the two-hour circle variant is in place.
Next new skill. If I can psionically turn my body immaterial, maybe the Complete Psionics Handbook was on to something. If I eventually run afoul of armed goons, some manner of defense may come in handy, so I'm attempting to imitate the psychometabolic discipline Flesh Armor (from 2nd edition AD&D), toughening and hardening my outer flesh to such a degree that it will absorb and deflect blows in the manner of a full suit of armor (from hard leather to plate, depending on how well I do). I'll even mimic what I remember of the Handbook's description of general psionic method - visualize my chi as warmth or light diffused throughout my body, gather it into a single point (usually the forehead, heart, or a fingertip), and pass my will through that point to achieve my desired effects. Or something like that, it's been a while since I read the book.
I will gently bite my hand before and after the attempt as a test of its effectiveness.
__
Mechanically, this interests me. The effect I'm envisioning would probably be best expressed as some cover value, but I'm not sure if it's a variant P5@2 Immunity to Externals (bonused for only partial "immunity" via sit-mod, penalized for generality of attack form protected against), a specialized P5@5 Density Control, or a very specific P5@9 Shapechange/Morphing.
As a ballpark figure, I'm thinking a -11 to -30 sit-mod on opponent attacks (based on thumbnail calculations of full-body armor in the density range from leather to steel), but if the baseline ends up being vastly different or if you think the effect would be better expressed another way, I'm open to that.
My inclination is to treat it as a 5@1 resist damage from externals--kinetic, piercing, and cutting. That it is achieved by altering the body is well within the bias principles of level 5, and the skill description is general enough to cover any means of reducing damage to the body. The standard mechanics would convert to RS=DC, which means that you would reduce all damage roughly by half on rolls up to 50, and half again to 80, and half again above that.
If you would prefer to treat it as cover value, I can justify RS=SM on the same skill, I think. That means there would probably be quite a few rolls in which the benefit is minimal, but there would also be occasional rolls for which the opponent's chance to hit would be eliminated completely (depending, of course, on the skill of the opponent and what other defenses you were using). Either way, I would make it a low-concentration skill, so you could maintain it and use other skills unimpeded. If it is the SM variant, it would have to be rolled at the beginning of each minute (because it affects initiative); the DC variant would be rolled for each successful attack (because it goes directly to damage, not to whether you were hit).
I think you must have missed the 5@1 skill, which is on the previous page, but given what you say about the 5@2 skill, I think you would have mentioned this one instead.
--M. J. Young
That was the first skill I thought of, really, but the description implied a very narrow resistance (inertials or cutting or piercing) and I apparently couldn't muster the mental flexibility to convert a damage resistance to a penalty against attack success, somehow viewing an immunity as easier to convert. I was thinking of the P5@1 briefly while I was upstairs, but when I got back down to my computer it slipped my mind.
In general I much prefer the damage category mechanic, but for this skill I'd like to go with cover value out of fondness for my example skill.
An idle thought: would this usable in conjunction with a similar resistance that worked through DC penalties, or would the activation of one replace the other?
My feeling is that this would conflict with another psionic skill which protected you against attacks by toughening your skin. It would not conflict with another skill that was not psionic which also toughened the skin, and it would not conflict with another psionic skill which reduced inertial categories of damage by some means other than toughening the skin, if you could devise such a thing.An idle thought: would this usable in conjunction with a similar resistance that worked through DC penalties, or would the activation of one replace the other?
Also, the statement of categories there which includes "inertial, piercing, cutting", does not mean that piercing and cutting cannot be inertial, but that a protection that falls into this category should be carefully defined in terms of exactly what sort of protection it affords. Toughening your skin in this way will not protect against fire or laser, for example. The same narrowing of category would apply to the immunity skill as well.
So are we agreed that you are going to attempt psionically to harden your skin against inertial/physical attacks including piercings and cuttings (as well as blunts and similar inertials), to be expressed in RS=SM?
--M. J. Young
Yes. As mentioned, I'll assess its effectiveness by a gentle bite to the hand before and after the attempt.
You bite yourself hard enough to feel it, then focus your mind on changing the protective hardness of your skin, and bite yourself again. It seems that you have managed to toughen your skin sufficiently to reduce the force of your bite.
--M. J. Young
I was reading through my very first game threads to help me get back in character more fully, and I came across a bit near the end where I was watching Tad's mental processes while he tried all sorts of crazy tricks. I didn't successfully observe many of his skills, but I did get a good read on something called Psionic Focus (P1@0). I'm not bothering with links because there are practically no numbers for it; it didn't matter at the time, so all it has in the way of description is the bias and that it's "similar to [another character's skill, 'Tummo something or other']." Tad's SAL wasn't listed. The skill it was similar to provided a +RS/10 sit-mod to the next psionic skill attempted. (It also had a verbal component that gave a bonus, but Tad's skill lacked that.) I think it was probably assumed to take about a minute to do, but like I say, a lot was going on and in context it was irrelevant and justly ignored.
So, that's probably its effect, and I have an example of it at Tad's unspecified SAL. Tad's SAL doesn't matter though, because even if it's 1@1, 11+21+71-10 = 93, plus the world bias level which must be at least 7 based on my own skill use. More important is the fact that I've seen it done; thus, whatever it is and however it works, I'm about to try it.
It occurs to me that what I'm doing here is, from a certain perspective, largely useless. I'm developing skills which would help me to fight The Man directly - but if I were willing to risk fighting him directly, I wouldn't have to go to such lengths to do all this in secret. I need to sit back, re-evaluate my priorities, and develop a new approach to life in this world based on that.
However, I am a stubborn little critter, so before I go home and soul-search, I'm going to give one last all-out college try to the one skill I've repeatedly and consistently failed to develop (the light-manipulative invisibility thing). Taking a cue from my record, though, I'm going to invest some time and skill in preparations to enhance my chances. Actions are as follows.
One: attempt to replicate Tad's Psionic Focus skill.
Two: Regardless of success or failure at One (though I expect success), develop a new psionic skill. I want to temporarily reduce my Willpower and my Resistance, and I want those reductions channeled directly into an equally temporary increase in my Persuasion. The theory is that my stubborness and psionic resiliance may be impeding my own efforts at innovating difficult skills; if I can reduce these factors, I may be able to more freely channel psionic power, and if I can redirect personal energies that would otherwise be wasted on resisting my own efforts into enhancing my ability to mentally manipulate the world (i.e. increased Persuasion), I've killed two birds with one shell.
Three: If Two succeeds, re-attempt Psionic Focus in preparation for Four.
Four: If Two succeeded (but regardless of Three), re-attempt the skill outlined here ("third order of business") - hopefully with both the Persuasion boost and Focus bonus lending me a hand.
Five: Regardless of success or failure of One through Four, go home.
You can feel the psionic focus, and you turn your attention to altering your attributes.
However, your attempt to alter your attributes has not worked as intended. You feel a loss of confidence in your persuasive abilities, but an increase in your determination and your general well-being. You're not sure why that happened.
Are you proceeding with the other steps?
--M. J. Young
Oh. Oh, well, okay. I, uh, I guess that skill is still a feasible idea? For later.
No, not proceeding with the other steps. I think I'll consider myself lucky that I did not instead reverse the spatial relations between my brain and my skull and go home.
Not trying anything else until after work (i.e., tomorrow). I've the beginnings of a scheme, but I'd like to get Alice's cooperation briefly, and I'd prefer for this effect to wear off before I try.
The effect lasts only about an hour and a half; it is gone by the time you have returned home.
Alice is always willing to cooperate with your ideas, as she is able. If memory serves, though, you both work the night shift.
--M. J. Young
Yes, we do. I was expecting an effect on the order of hours or days, and was thinking I might get back in the late afternoon before supper. Tomorrow is best anyhow; it will give me time to look up and memorize the appropriate incantations from the Principia (which I have in a Word document on my laptop, date modified: 10/5/2003).
My scheme, broadly, is this. I want to move up in the world, improve my social and economic standing. Not being an official person limits my options in this. Until I hit upon an acceptable method of becoming an official person (which I haven't yet), I need to work within those limitations. One option would be to ascend vicariously through Alice in a sort of socioeconomic symbiosis. Another option would be to sidestep the usual channels and employ my special talents to make progress in whatever creative ways I can devise.
These options are not mutually exclusive, but the second one is quicker to set in motion.
I mentioned a scheme. What of my skills are marketable? My raw labor pulls in a dreary $252 per week in tax-free, benefit-free, wearying cash. I have neither occupational skills nor proof of education, which leaves my paranormal abilities. Psionics are illegal and detectable, and thus are excluded also. That leaves my magic, which is limited in possibility, and detectable also - but given the circumstances, I'm assuming no one will think to look. I would also be limited not only to what I am able to do, but what I am able to do without it looking psionic. (Of course it won't be psionic to detection, but any suspicion is bad suspicion.)
Fortunately for me, I have an idea that fits the bill.
My Block Pain spell is not quite it. I devised it for my brainburn, but I'm sure it could 'treat' all manner of unwanted pain, and back home there was quite a market for anything that could even claim to do even a fraction of what my spell does. Problem is that it's self-only (I'd have to devise a variant), and that it's pretty obviously arcane; the pentagon and chanting would be hard to explain to customers, let alone cops.
However. By AD&D school, my Block Pain ritual is a necromancy. Many low-level spells, especially necromantics with quasi-curative function or anything with a hint of moral slant, were reversible - that is, they had roughly-equal and opposite counterparts (memorized separately). While the opposite of this spell would be useless to me (if people wanted to pay for pain, Calvin's swift-kick-in-the-pants stand would have taken off by now), it inferred possibility implies to me the possibility of an opposite along a different axis.
Why not an Induce Pleasure/Comfort, disguised as some sort of massage?
This is where Alice comes in, as a test subject. I'd do it on Iggy, but I'm not confident I could get him to tell me if it worked. I'll devise this plan and the spell overnight, and I'll present it to Alice in the morning.
I have a ritual planned out, but I'm driving out of town early in the morning and I'm a bit tired already. I'll get it down later. My next post will have something you can respond to.
Edit: Oh, here's something. I've been meaning to do this at home, actually; we'll say I thought of it on the bus back or something.
At work, I will once - just once, while no one is looking, preferably during a moment when I'm alone in the kitchen (while the Spanish-speaking dishwasher is taking out the trash or something) - attempt to clean a knife with my Cleanliness (Other). This is a proof of concept (and a new use?); the thought is that if I can clean a sinkfull of dishes in six seconds at home, the time saved is all profit, so to speak - gained leisure time.
And I've established a habit of keeping five wingnuts in my pockets all the time, so the material component shouldn't be a problem.
Your experiment with cleaning the knife works.
--M. J. Young
If the ritual below (and the mechanical data I've laid out for it) is fine, I want to try it out on Alice in the afternoon of the day after I get back from the park. I won't tell her what to expect, only that I want to "try something" and that it "should be safe." I'll have her lie face down on the bed to make the somatic portion easier.
I have a ritual planned out, but
- here it is.
Induce Pleasure/Comfort M13@1+ Caster places his holy symbol atop the target's head and, in each hand, holds a wingnut while forming the numeral V sign; he then lightly pokes the target all over with both hands while pronouncing specific passages* selected from the Principia Discordia. The caster then snaps the fingers of both hands in the target's ears, saying, "There; feel better?" Target remains comfortable and feels pleasurable sensations for RS/20 days, which over time may result in +1 bonuses to all skills and attributes (including, additionally, averaged attributes) at the referee's discretion; sound necessary, TF 2:00, +44/+49 SM
As near as I can make out, these are the adjustments:
Verbal: magical language (Sanskrit), sound necessary; +7
Somatic: both hands, +3
Material: two wingnuts (value 2 each), holy symbol (required, 10); +14
Range: touch, +20
Appropriate component: +5?
I would argue that the time factor and duration should be a wash. The description lists a TF of "five or six minutes," lasting "as many days." I'm not sure what math I used to arrive at the duration for my Block Pain spell, but if we take that as correct (which gave RS/5 hours for a TF of 0:20), then this spell should have at baseline a duration of RS/5 x6 hours for a TF of 2:00. I admit that RS/20 days gives me the benefit of rounding up, but I'll bow to whatever your wishes are on the matter.
I'm not sure if the words or gestures are appropriate. The words might be because of the final phrase, but I think that's stretching it. The gestures might be because the poking is reminiscent of an odd sort of massage; that's more plausible to me because I mean to use massage as a cover story for the effects of the ritual. If either of these counts as appropriate, that's worth +5, bringing the total to +49.
___
* The selected quotes go as follows:
Momomoto, Famous Japanese, can swallow his nose.
SRI SYADASTI SYADAVAKTAVYA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADASTI CAVAKTAVYASCA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVATAVYASCA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVAKTAVYASCA.
Mr. Momomoto, famous Japanese who can swallow his nose, has been exposed. It was recently revealed that it was Mr. Momomoto's brother who has been doing all this nose swallowing.
Commonly called just Sri Syadasti, his name is Sanskrit, and means: All affirmations are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense.
The recent expose that Mr. Momomoto, Famous Japanese who can swallow his nose, cannot swallow his nose but his brother can, has been exposed! It IS Mr. Momomoto who can swallow his nose. He swallowed his brother in the summer of '44.
SRI SYADASTI SYADAVAKTAVYA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADASTI CAVAKTAVYASCA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVATAVYASCA SYADASTI SYANNASTI SYADAVAKTAVYASCA.
Despite strong evidence to the contrary, persistent rumor has it that it was Mr. Momomoto's brother who swallowed Mr. Momomoto in the summer of '44.
If you'd prefer, I can relist the skill with the entire incantation included. I thought I'd save you the space on your character sheets, though.
Two posts:
It occurs to me that the effect of this spell may not be conducive to bonuses after all, but may in fact result in the same penalties as the original long-term Cause Pain or Discomfort. This would be due to distraction. (Though, it could be argued that the comfort aspect would actually remove distraction, nullifying this justification for a penalty.)
However, the original listing blames those penalties on failure to get adequate rest (following a failed difficult stamina check), and it could be argued that a person under the effect of this spell would instead experience superb, high-quality rest that would justify the very small, yet sweeping, bonuses.
Personally, I'm less concerned with the mechanical function of the spell than I am with the color, because it's the color I intend to market as a service. Still, it's interesting, and we need something to put on the sheet.
I agree with the appropriateness of the final statement; I know it's a bit of a stretch, but it is part of the ritual, and it does indicate the ritual's function in a way that would reasonably increase expectation (both in the caster and the target, "you're supposed to feel better now".
Have I to this point mentioned what the world affiliation is? If not, I'm going to have to figure it out.
--M. J. Young
You have not - I'd assume anarch or neutral, but that's basically a guess. I'm also not sure we've established my affiliation. I listed the skill as Alliance, but that's also a guess. I imagine more people think they're on the right side than actually are, and I'll accept your ruling on the matter with no complaint whatsoever. (Although I'd raise my eyebrow at an "anarch" ruling.)
Edit: By my math, I can't botch on this, regardless of the affiliations. That's both odd and comforting. (2@6 + 49 + 20 + 2@2/2 -10 = 96)