its been a long time since i did a post about flying cities, inspired by the nation of Netheril from the Dungeons and Dragons setting the Forgotten Realms. Now i am back with more Netherese inspiration. The Nether Scrolls.
For those not familiar, the Nether scrolls were scrolls (duh) that contained pretty much all the secrets of magic known to a powerful, ancient and long dead race. Reading one immediately improved the readers magic (giving them another level in that games mechanics).
For my own homebrew campaign and setting i am thinking of introducing something similar, some thing very powerful and hence an excellent hook for magi to quest for and for enemies to try and take off them.
But i am stumped on how to implement it in game. i already have the plot all worked out, but not the effects of studying the scrolls.
The canonical scrolls gave insight into various subjects depending on what scroll was found. Since my players will find only one, i'd like some way for them to have a different experience depending on what they want to study. I did think about maybe making it an excellent quality tractatus on an art of their choice or in magic theory, but that doesn't sound terribly mythic and super whizzy.
How about the scroll triggers Twilight or something? Twilight experiences can be both positive and hallucinogenically cool, and they're typically tailored to the exact circumstances of the trigger (usually, but perhaps not in this case, Warping). Actually, maybe the scroll should just cause two Warping points - there are canonical spells that do it for that matter - reading the scroll should take a little mystical toll, perhaps.
Just following Gribble's demands here :mrgreen: We ran a saga where we got around 40-60XP per year, so not far from the mark here. Remember the other thread: power does not remove problems, it just creates different ones. A twilight adventure can be a good way to simulate the "you just got more magic in you than you can really handle. Will this be good or will you develop the hyper-blatant gift?"
I remember the thread wherein someone had a player study vis and got like 1,700 or something on their xp roll with a exploding die, hahahah.
Suddenly the character had a Creo of 60 or something. The idea for what the Order would do after that was interesting.
There often are not enough consequences and follow through for PC's on the stuff they do in game. Often because things are so hectic but sometimes I think there is a hesitancy to, as the SG to blatantly create a conflict for a player who doesnt seem interested in playing out that part of the story. ((wow sorry for the thread tangent there))
The most basic variant, superquality Tractatus gives maybe 100XP(or maybe a lot more depending on how you want it to work).
Scroll gives +50% to XP already in Art, with a minimum of maybe 50-150.
Scroll gives a smaller XP bonus, but gives Puissant, Deft Form(/Technique) and lets say a Side effect based on the Art (or maybe just Affinity).
You could have the scroll give the HR Virtue "Matched Arts", that gives +10(i think it was?) to a single TeFo combination(sorry don´t remember who came up with this Virtue originally).
Based on DW comment: the scroll gives Affinity with (Art) [whichever you want/are thinking of atm] and gives you an extra 50% on xp already accumulated there. Some sort of retcon/retrofit of the Virtue, as if you'd always had it.
Of course, smart munchkin will want to go through a summa before using the scroll...
Gerg! Loving the twilight idea. I can throw them the usul warping points but have a predetermined twilight result. It fits neatly with the idea that this is simply too much magical enlightenment for the human mind to handle. Great idea.
I like the idea of a big dollop of xp in an art and maybe throwing a virtue in too with a choice of puissant, deft or affinity.
I'm thinking that after the initial reading, the scroll could be reread as an unlimited use tractatus and would give a much more modest (but still useful) xp award, 15 or so. This would make it useful to continue studying and could introduce more reasons to hang onto it once the PCs have all had a read, not to mention make losing it or having their access threatened even nastier (and hence story-licious).
One - if you use The Mysteries then have the scroll describe a mystery cult initiation, which requires a unique quest that can't be repeated, a few more quests and being in the right time and place, and sacrificing a copy of a mystery ritual. Upon reading the scroll you realise the quests listed are ones you've already done to get to this scroll and you are in exactly the right location. By setting fire to the scroll you get a big enough sympathy bonus that even with a mystery cult lore of 0, you get a minor virtue for completing the ritual.
Two - using the rules for significatio from Covenants, reading the scroll gives you the same effect as studying vis and substitutes for the vis required, however you still need a season reflecting on the experience to get the xp. This represents gaining insight from a moment's knowledge, but still fits in the seasonal study mechanics of Ars.
I quite like darkwing's ideas, with bonus points for not needing extra rules to implement. Though I'd still trigger Twilight on the unsuspecting reader, because it just feels like it fits the theme of the scrolls so well...
A twilight adventure can be a good way to simulate the "you just got more magic in you than you can really handle. Will this be good or will you develop the hyper-blatant gift?"