Changer's Granddaughter (Summer 1243)

Vibria will find a safe place and nap as she can during the day, so that she's relatively rested when the night comes.

She is going to lie in wait for whatever's...stalking her, following her, making her afraid of the dark. She's not willing to be prey. She's the dragon, she is The Predator, she will not allow herself to feel defenseless, and she will make anything regret that they ever considered easy pickings.

Her Awareness roll would be Per 0 + Awareness 3 (+ Keen Vision/Sharp Ears 3) + (Die roll of 1, followed by a die roll of 6) 12 = 15 (18 if it's vision or hearing).

Her Hunt roll is Int 1 + Hunt 0 + die roll of 0 (botch check comes up 5, 7, and 4, so not a botch) 0 = 1. Lovely.

Hum... lemmesee.

Is it her newfound resolution and confidence? Vibria's sleep goes well, without any nightmare and, when she awakes, she feels fine and rested, a warm fire burning through her body.

Night falls, and the forest comes to life. More than ever, Vibria realizes this ain't a normal forest, not totally. Some plants are too red, too choleric in a way, as do the animals, when they aren't some weird hybrids like the rabbits she already saw.

She could, she should, have relaxed her vigilance over time, but somehow, that fire keeps her alert through the hours, which may be why she realizes first that something is coming through the woods, as the forest grew quieter and quieter.
A moment later, all animal life around her calms down. In the eerie silence that follows, Vibria once again feels fear trying to seize her, but its icy grip fails to quench her flame.

Then, she sees it. A dark, long tailed yet stocky, 4-legged beast circling her place. She recognizes its red eyes, 4 in number, watching her, looking for a weakness... which it doesn't find. But it is clearly conscious of Vibria's awareness and, be it fear or caution, it doesn't dare approach her, staying away from the young maga. After a moment, it huffs a little, and then lets out a high-pitched, piercing cry, before running away.

And when, whether at night or in the morning, Vibria goes and tries, she finds no trace that it was ever here.

What does she do next?

Vibria think about the creature, trying to see if she recognizes it or knows what it is. (Int 1 + Magic Lore 5 + die roll of 8 = 14)

She suspects that it's probably something that doesn't appreciate her coming into his territory. Well, tough. She's a dragon, by gumby, and she's going to prove that she not only belongs, but that the forest is hers.

She will lay down to sleep as she did before, but she will refuse to nod off. She keeps her eyes and ears open for any hint of the creature coming back. And when it does, she will pounce. (Per 0 + Awareness 3 + (Die roll of 0 (of course)...and the Botch check is an 8) 0 = 3.)

Oh my... You're so unlucky... I hate dices.

The creature is some kind of animal/dragon hybrid, just like those few Vibria has seen before, but based on a boar instead. If so, it should combine the beast's base abilities with at least some of a dragon's powers, which could make it a very dangerous opponent for a weapon-less, magic-less Vibria.

Based on its 2 primary templates, it is clear that, indeed, it sees itself as the apex predator of that forest, with the young maga being at best a competitor, at worst a prey. Its behavior, however, betrays its cunning: It has stalked vibria, and avoided contact until now, only coming closer and closer as needed. It thus seems probably it'll act as some kind of ambush predator, attacking vibria when it feels she is vulnerable.

Vibria feels strong, assured and rested, energy coursing through her body.
But this newfound strength almost proves her undoing, as she gets so absorbed by the fire in her midst that she almost misses the creature's approach until it's too late.
Maybe the spirit of this place looks down favorably on her? While rushing at her, the beast almost falls down clumsily to a hidden branch*, which not only slows its attack down**, but also alerts her just in time to warn her

  • I rolled 2 zeroes on 4 rolls, including stealth
    ** Init 4, attack 10, defense 12

((believe me, my luck is even worse with physical dice. It got to be a running joke in my old D&D/Marvel SuperHeroes/Ars Magica game group.))

Alrighty, then. Let's show this firepig who's boss.

Initiative: Qik 1 + (Idie roll of 0, botch check is 3) 0 = 1.

Her first round, she is going to try to grab a hold of it, to keep it close enough for her to use her Fire Breath power.

Attack roll is Dex 0 + Finesse (Ignem) 3 + die roll of 8 = 11.

Defence roll is Qik 1 + die roll of 2 = 3.

If she wants to grab and hold it, that'll use brawling. That's a purely physical action that uses her body, not her flame. Breathing is another matter entirely.
I'll assume that's what you wanted, correct me if I'm wrong.

But first, the attack.
As vibria tries to dodge, she notices a slight shift in her balance. She didn't notice it while faking sleep, but she appears to be taller 1 and... different 2
The surprise at this change is enough to slow her, which gets her skewered 3.

Despite the pain, Vibria tries to grab the monster 4.
Despite it, or because of it? All the while, she can feel her body changing 5

1 She has +1 size
2 She has +1 to a physical stat of your choice. Also, you may chose to have one of her physical stats be lowered by 1 to raise another by 1.
3 Base damage is 14 - her stamina of 2 - Leathery Skin 1 = 11. This may be lower if either your Qik or Sta are raised, or if you spend confidence to raise your defense roll. As it is, this is a Medium Wound, and would need to get down to 6 to be light. Difficult, but possible.
4 Dex 0 + Brawl 5 + die 8 - wound 3 = 10. Normally, a failure, but she may succeed. Note that once she's grabbed it, the combat shifts, which may be a good thing for Vibria, or not.

5 Ok, you've surprised me a little there, but the wound increased your tally enough to trigger the change. I never finished my notes :blush: although I know where I'm headed.
She gains the skill "Dragon Form" at 01
She must chose her primary "not yet a dragon" form. I'm using Mark Shirley revised rules on beasts in Sub Rosa 18.

  • Humanoid: May use items, may make arcane gestures for magic. Gains claws, teeth, horns and a tail.
  • Quadruped: Use quadruped as a mode of movement. May use the Pounce, Overrun, Rend attacks. May not make magic gestures. Gains claws, teeth, horns and a tail.
  • Winged: Like a Wyvern: May glide, but has no hands per se, so may not make magic gestures. Gains Teeth, horns and a useless tail (she needs it for balance).
  • Aquatic: Use fish as primary mode of movement, serpent as a secondary mode. Can breathe underwater. Gains Swim 4, Teeth and a tail. May use the Constrict attack. May not make magic gestures.
  • Serpent: Gains a thicker hide (+1 protection), Large teeth and a tail. May use the Constrict attack. May not make magic gestures. Gains burrowing as a secondary mode of movement.
    She must choose 2 qualities in SR 18, to modify and customize her form. Write up how all of this manifests

Sorry, gotta go!

I was imagining her using her Brawl to grab and hold the critter so it couldn't dodge her Flame Breath.

I'm going to add 1 to her Strength, giving her a Str of +2.

I'm going with "Winged: Like a Wyvern: May glide, but has no hands per se, so may not make magic gestures. Gains Teeth, horns and a useless tail (she needs it for balance)." That's the one that I imagine her being.

Which, I'm assuming, means that she (in her semi-pseudo-dragon form) has the Teeth and Horns weapons from Houses of Hermes: Mystery Cults (in the Bjornaer creature-creation section).

Looking over the list, I would choose:

  • Awe-Inspiring. This would fit in well with both herEnvied Beauty and her Judged Unfairly in that she's memorable and people have a reaction to her one way or the other. With Awe-Inspriring, she can use that to her advantage.
  • Night Vision. It goes with her Ignem based powers and her Keen Vision, and I think dragons should be able to see in the dark.

If she's able to take an Inferiority to balance out a Sympathy as well, I would like her to take the Cold-Blood Inferiority (because she's heat-based and already hates the cold, and this would just give her another reason to do so), and use the point on another Night Vision to give her a net +6 to offset darkness penalties.

Back from hollidays, yeah!

Let's get back to this.

Vibria moves her arms to seize the beast, which is when she notices she no longer has normal human arms, but actual wings! Like this!

While she doesn't manage to grab and pin the thing, she's close enough to unleash her flame breath at near-pointblank range (roll a stress die for damage)

Yes.

Not yet :laughing: She's still too close to humanity.

But, to spill the beans, this is in the gears: When her "Dragon Form" ability increases by 1, she gets to chose 1 more quality. She can also add an inferiority, in order to buy more qualities.
This is the "beast" part of the dragon, building a powerful physical form. I intend it to synergize with her future "full dragon" form, so that the more she focuses on being a dragon, the better she'll be at it.

Her damage is 25 + die roll of 9 = 34.

Wow, nice roll. It is resistant to fire, but this should still hurt it nicely

Great, coyote roller doesn't work now... Used unseenservant.com/default.asp?do=sand and... Oh.

Insanely hot, Vibria's flame engulfs the creature, which disappears under the deluge of fire spurting from the maga.

The creature shrieks briefly, its cries soon burnt to oblivion.

Vibria quenches her fire, only to have her senses assaulted by the pestilence of charred flesh. Whatever it was, her enemy is just a blackened carcass now, more dead than alive, with darkened holes where once where its eyes.

What do you do?

Blech. Well, the creature looks and smells too charred to be edible. That doesn't mean other creatures won't disagree.

So, she lurks. Looking around (and up), she finds a good sturdy branch that would offer some concealment and flies up. She settles in and watches patiently, waiting for something to come check out the dragon-pig's body.

If/when it does, she will swoop out of the trees, catch it unawares, and kill it before it knows what hit it.That's the plan, anyway.

Initiative is 1 + die roll of 2 = 3.

Attack roll (if it comes to that) with her flame breath, which has a 25 pace range and a range increment of 5 paces, is 3 + (die roll of 1, followed by a die roll of 3) 6 = 9.

Defence roll is 1 + (die roll of 1, followed by die roll of 8) 16 = 19.

Damage is 25 + die roll of 3 – range.

Hum... It is roasted, but in a bad way, like too cooked on the outside, not so much on the inside.
And it smells, enough to make your stomach revolt.

You've also forgotten Vibria's medium wound. It hurts, too much for her to do much, and it bleeds, although she's seen grogs survive worse. Any strenuous activity is flat out of the question. As glorious as her new form may be, she's in a bad shape.

(How did you manage to save your dice result??? I can't find a way. Ah, silly me, it is written, you must log in.)
(A reminder, though: in this "not yet a dragon", vibria can glide, not yet fly. Picture her as a baby wyvern, if it helps.)

Yeah, I did forget the wound. So...

She will eat what she can of her kill, and find a good out-of-the way place to recover. She's probably not in any shape to take on any other predators, so she will try to avoid conflict if possible.

While she licks her wounds, she will work on changing from her human to her demidragon form

(Sorry for the delay, lots of trouble at work)

Days fly by. Changing is pretty rare, erratic and difficult at first, but, as she practices, Vibria begins to get the hand of it.

By the end of the season, changing just becomes a matter of time.

That is when, in his terrifying majesty, her grandfather comes to visit, his great wings cowing the trees

Hello, daughter of mine. I see you have survived the change, proving that you are, indeed, my worthy descendant. This is good, really. None have done so in ages, and I am proud of you. If you keep at it and don't falter, one day, you shall have it all.
Now, shall we get back to your lair?


Make a recovery roll for your wound.

As I recall, as a reminder:

  • Vibria gains the skill "Dragon Form" at 1. By rolling it with Stamina against an EF of 9, she can change.
  • When transformed, she gains +1 Strength, +1 size and +01 soak
  • She gains Brawl 4, Awareness 4 in her form, unless her own scores are higher
  • When transformed, she becomes Winged. She may glide, but has no hands per se, so may not make magic gestures. She gains natural weapons: Teeth, Horns and a useless tail
  • When transformed, she becomes Awe-Inspiring. This works like a Faerie Sympathy, in that it can replace any specialty by +3. This can also be used to force Morale checks or instill awe.
  • When transformed, she gains Gain the Night Vision +3 Sympathy which adds to all rolls to do with seeing in darkness (this actually offsets the penalty that other creatures suffer in darkness, so that she gets -3 on a typical night instead of -6).
  • When her "Dragon Form" ability increases by 1, she gets to chose 1 more quality. Whenever she increases her skill, she can also add an inferiority, in order to buy more qualities.

Crap I had forgotten: You're supposed to gain a flaw, but I never settled on one (Or I did but forgot?). I was hesitating between Fury (her animal nature released), or a Restriction.
I think a combination of Animal Blood (RoP: M flaw), the flaw that makes your gift worse with animals (they sense something is wrong with you) and another minor one might be better. I'm open to any and all suggestions

I wanted initially to have her wake up inside a cocoon, with the idea that this may have been a dream while she changed, but I relented. Maybe I should have

Vibria's Recovery roll is Sta 2 + die roll of 3 = 5...just shy of the Stable ease factor. So, I will use a Fortune to stabilize it...or four if the roll has a Wound Penalty.

[hr][/hr]
Vibria runs to her grandfather and wraps her arms around him (gingerly) as best she can. [color=red]”Thank you, Grandfather! I won't let you down!”

[hr][/hr]
I can't find Animal Blood anywhere. But I'll make a new page for her Dragon form.

Animal Blood, see RoP: M 49, Monstrous Blood. It exists in 4 flavors.
The animal one means you get a (useless) feature usually associated with animals, such as wings, scales, gills... that give a -3 penalties to appropriate activities.

I'm a little disconnected on this, but I think we are done, anything you want to wrap up or discuss with grandpa?

I think it's safe to say we've done here. XP?