Storyverse 69 Subplots: Tania's Tale

[Grognardsw]

Storyverse 69 Subplots: Tania's Tale

Being the sub-plots of the fighter/magic-user elf.

~•~•~

Gilgad the Disturbing sits before Tania. His skin glistens with sweat and his body exudes an odor of rotting vegetables. The wood elf wrinkles her nose, wondering if this apprenticeship is worth it. Gilgad's skunk familiar slinks along Tania's leg; she tries to ignore it. Her branding tattoo is still a little sore. Sometimes Tania thinks the ink writhes.

"Summoning and conjuration is a powerful school of magic," utters Gilgad, his voice grating, alternating between atonal and high-pitched. "It carries commensurate risk. I will begin with the first circle of influence. The most basic of summonings is that of calling your familiar. You are ready?"

[jakegreenxxxx44]

yes master, i am ready. I want to find my familiar. (curious to what it may be)

[Grognardsw]

Tania is counseled by Gilgad to go that night to a certain grove of trees southwest of the city. There, bereft of clothes and bearing the instruments and components of the summoning spell, Tania begins the lengthy chant.

- Please roll 1d24 and 1d20
- Find Familiar (Conjuration/Summoning)
Level: 1 Components: V, S, M Range: 1 mile/level Casting Time: 1-24 hours Duration: 1 turn/level Saving Throw: Neg. Area of Effect: As spell range

Explanation/Description: A familiar is of certain benefit to a magic-user, as the creature adds to the spell caster's hit points, it conveys its sensory powers to its master, and it can converse with and will serve as a guard/scout/spy as well. However, the magic-user has no control over what sort of creature will answer the summoning, or if any at all will come, and the power of the conjuration is such that it can be attempted but once per year. At such time as the magic-user determines to find a familiar, he or she must stoke up a brass brazier with charcoal, and when this is burning well, add 100 g.p. worth of incense, herbs (basil, savoury, and catnip for sure), and fat. When these items are burning. the spell caster begins his or her incantation, and it must be continued until the familiar comes or the casting time is finished. Your referee will secretly determine all results. The magic-user has absolutely no control over what sort of a creature appears to become his or her familiar. This will be determined on the table below:
Die Roll (d20) Familiar Sensory Powers
1-4 cat, black excellent night vision & superior hearing
5-6 crow excellent vision
7-8 hawk very superior distance vision
9-10 owl, screech night vision equals human daylight visual ability, superior hearing
11-12 toad wide angle vision
13-14 weasel superior hearing & very superior olfactory power
15 special - see sub-table below for details
16-20* no familiar available within spell range
* Subtract 1 from the die score for each 3 levels of experience of the spell caster, and if the score is 15 or less roll again using d16, and if a 16 is rolled then the result is final.
If a score of 15 is rolled, use the table below for a special familiar:

Alignment of Magic-User Result of Special Familiar
chaotic evil or neutral chaotic quasit (see AD&D, MONSTER MANUAL)
chaotic good, neutral, or neutral good pseudo-dragon (see AD&D, MONSTER MANUAL)
lawful neutral or lawful good brownie (see AD&D. MONSTER MANUAL)
lawful evil or neutral evil imp (see AD&D, MONSTER MANUAL)
Normal familiars have 2-4 hit points and armour class of 7 (due to size, speed, etc.). Each is abnormally intelligent and totally faithful to the magic-user whose familiar it becomes. The number of the familiar's hit points is added to the hit point total of the magic-user when it is within 12" of its master, but if the familiar should ever be killed, the magic-user will permanently lose double that number of hit points.

If a special familiar is indicated, details of the powers it conveys are given in ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, MONSTER MANUAL for all except the brownie. This creature becomes a friend and companion to the magic-user, and he or she will gain dexterity equal to the brownie's (18) and the advantage of never being surprised, as well as +2 on all saving throws. Note that special familiars are entitled to a saving throw versus magic when summoned by the spell, and if they succeed, they will ignore the spell, and NO familiar will be available that year to the caster.

A familiar will fight for the life of the magic-user it serves only in a life-and-death situation, and imps and quasits will be 90% likely not to do so at the risk of their own life.

[jakegreenxxxx44]

[1d4] = 1
[1d20] = 10

does that mean I'm naked under the trees?

[Grognardsw]

Tania the elf thaumaturgist chants an exhaustive seven hour chant. Her mind and mystical spirit reaches out into the green of the forest. Several animals pass through the grove.

An owl stays.


It is night when Tania ends her chant. The owl is perched on a low branch in a nearby bush. It looks quixotically at her. Tania realizes she has night vision, seeing the dark like it was daytime, and her hearing is preternaturally sensitive.

Tania find familiar spell chant duration [1d24] = 7 7 hours. You had rolled 1d4 instead of 1d24.
- Yes, Tania is bereft of clothes during the ceremony.
- Owl stats: 4 HP, AC 7, Int. 3, attack c/c 1-2/1-2, her HP is added to Tania's when within 120'.

[jakegreenxxxx44]

do i need to roll anything, sorry I misunderstood?
admires the owl for a few minutes and tests and gets used to her new senses. She goes over to her pile of clothes and finds a hidden pocket and pulls out a mouse and gives it to her owl in a sign of friendship as she reaches up and scratches it behind the ears.

[Grognardsw]

The owl hoots and eats the mouse.

Tania is tired from her first successful summoning. She returns to Vancia and the house for rest. Tomorrow Gilgad will want a report.

[jakegreenxxxx44]

She tells her owl to stay on the outskirts of town in the woods and I will summon her when needed. Keep a lookout for anything unusual and report to me if you believe any danger is afoot. keep safe my feathery friend and hidden out of eyesight. She gathers her clothes and heads back to Vancia.

[jakegreenxxxx44]

continues waiting patiently decides to clean her room and look around

[jakegreenxxxx44]

after some time, she reports to Gilgad about her familiar summoning and tells him about the screech owl that has befriended her.

[Grognardsw]

Gilgad nods his head knowingly at Tania's report. He is eating a rotten fruit that looks like a black bananna. He burps.

"An owl can be a powerful ally when leveraged correctly," he says. 

"During the ceremony, did you feel any inner emanations from the second soul within you?" he asks. A look of discomfort passes his face as he breaks a mighty wind.

[jakegreenxxxx44]

nearly gags, vomits in her mouth at the smell of rotting fruit and bad gas, it makes for a horrible stench. Master Gilgad, I have not noticed anything from my 2nd soul, no inner feelings or anything to really let me know that I have two souls. hopefully this 2nd one will be a benefit to me and not handicap.

[jakegreenxxxx44]

walks over to a window and cracks it to help air out the room, smelling some flowers from outside the window, don't these flowers smell wonderful she asks?

[Grognardsw]

That evening Tania sleeps heavily, her mystic studies taking a toll on her mental arcanquilibrium. A candle of purple beeswax emits a relaxing light and drowsy scent.

Tania dreams of a savage barbarian, a blood soaked reaver, who slashes and hews her friends. His blade weaves a wall of steel that deflects her spells. He reaches Tania, ripping her open. He peels back her skin to reveal the barbarian himself. They meld, split, flow in symbiotic soul-twining.

Tania wakes with a start. She is standing at the door to her room. Her body is bruised.

[jakegreenxxxx44]

she rushes to find her master Gilgad and tell him about her dreams and show him all the bruises she received while sleeping. What does all this mean she asks.?

[jakegreenxxxx44]

she tells Gilgad of her dreams of the savage barbarian, a blood soaked reaver and gives him the detailed details of her dreams. She rubs her wounds hoping the pain goes away from them.

[Grognardsw]

A distraught Tania visits her mentor after the strange dream. She finds him in the middle of yet another disgusting ceremony. Gilgad the Disturbing grasps a drugged cat by the scruff of its neck and pokes a stick down its throat. As the cat vomits he points its heaving maw at a bowl. “I must collect copious amounts of feline bile for a certain dweomer,” he says.

Tania tells her dream-tale.

“Fascinating,” says Gilgad. “I was expecting the second soul to eventually make contact with you, but the physical bruising indicates motor control of your body. You say you were not aware of moving? Was there evidence in your room of altercation?”

The wizard takes a closer look at Tania’s bruises. The man has profoundly bad body order, poorly masked by cologne. His touch is cold and clammy. Does he dwell too long there on her thigh?

“I would hazard a guess these are self-inflicted. Deep was your sleep not to be awakened by the force necessary to make them,” explains Gilgad. “At least I hope this is the case. The alternative is you are carrying over meta-physical wounds trans-dimensionally, which has troubling extra-planar ramifications and puts your… soul, if we may call it that, at some risk.”

Tania is not sure she follows him.

“The next time you have such a dream, you must resist and fight for control,” Gilgad continues. “This barbarian must be physically tamed within the context of your dream, so that the id submission flows into your shared bodily dominion.”

Gilgad tosses the cat he still holds into a nearby cage. He takes a deep whiff of the bowl of vomit and bile, then smiles.

“Now Tania, if you’d be so good as to collect more bile for me,” he says, pointing to a cage of six drowsy kittens and handing the elf a throat stick. “They’ve been drugged, so don’t worry about getting scratched.”

[jakegreenxxxx44]

she does as she is told, collecting 6 containers of feline bile. After she is done, she re-opens the windows that Gilgad closed and airs out the house. she' walks into town and buys some fresh scented flowers to help. She ponders her dreams more and asks Gilgad how she can how she can gain control of her dreams and fight for control of them. Any suggestions would help her with the 2nd soul.

[Grognardsw]

Gilgad answers Tania's question: "Try to subdue the barbarian in dream battle. You could try reason, but I doubt he is that type."

[jakegreenxxxx44]

she goes to bed after a long day, prepared to face the 2nd soul. She'll try all her spells to try and subdue him the first one being sleep. She'll battle him and try to force him to join her or at the very least outlast him. She falls asleep hoping for the best, preparing for the worst.