Erik Amundsen's Blog, page 19
February 25, 2013
The Beast Fears Fire - Money Spiders
Money Spiders [Want 2]
Impulse - Money Spiders gonna... Spide... Money?
Spiders are pretty self-sufficient creatures, and, generally speaking, the only two things they need are respect for their hunting grounds and what food they can catch off of same. Only one of these things relies on other spiders. They developed society as a response to encroachment on their territory, but an economy was kind of slow in following. Spider histories are pheromonal, and humans can't interpret them, but what we know of the development of spider economy is that it started with a lot of arrangements along the lines of "I'll let you eat this thing I caught so you don't eat me or drive me out of here."
The Spiders claim that a cannibalistic society is a polite society.
Spider economy, as it stands, is more of a labor-barter system, transferrable through pheromone tags and somewhat rudimentary, but there is a class among the spider population that has grasped onto the abstraction of economics, and, in spider fashion, has bound it up and tried to suck all the juices out of it. Sorry, been involved in a couple of deals with money spiders and come out a little sore. I'll stop editorializing.
Money spiders are a little bigger and stronger than most, a little hairier and with a thicker carapace. When you see them, they are usually carrying bundles of their wares harnessed to their abdomens or encased in webbing. Some of them in Crickton affect straw hats, held to their heads with silk, after the fashion of local peddlers. They have a rudimentary vocal system that allows them to sort of speak, a weird polyphonic sort of voice that isn't any more reassuring than the standard spider hollow hiss. Money Spiders enjoy talking, loudly, and they have the uncanny ability to speak entirely different conversations at one time, in multiple languages of the sea. Unlike most spiders, they enjoy making loud declarations in Pelagic while simultaneously cutting them down in Littoral or even Neretic (the last of which Cricks rarely speak or know more than 50 words).
Harm - 2/Peril [Poisoned or Sick] Money Spiders are bigger and usually better suited for martial pursuits than a lot of their brethren, this being mostly because their vocation puts them into contact with a lot of other species, and occasionally because banditry is not entirely beyond the money spider remit. People who study the spiders tend to hold that marauders are basically money spiders who aren't good at math. As such, their jaws and venom are fairly formidable, but they rarely go in for the less proven modifications that marauders prefer.
Money spiders are also quite adept at rhetoric and haggling, can hold multiple conversations at once and have such disorienting and disquieting vocal apparatus that their bargaining style almost counts as a martial adaptation. If you are bargaining with a money spider on anything, however mundane or well within your resources to just purchase, you must always face Want.
If you are a Money Spider, you have the ability to confuse other creatures (even other spiders) with your speaking style (hell, you're actually harder on other spiders, because you can use your palps and pheromones on them).
What Was I Saying?
When you want to confuse and browbeat someone into doing what you want or giving you a better deal, face Want.
On a Hit, you can choose one of the following (Sweeten the Deal | Unnerve or Dismay Target | Send them off Muttering and Confused | Make them Forget the Details)
On a Hard Hit, choose 2.
On a Miss, immediately roll a Walking Man's Road, -1 Hit Forward. You have totally unnerved your trading partner.
You can save that for the birds and bees
Money spiders understand the idea of trade as an intellectual construct, mostly, but they pursue it with the emotional content of a predator trying to get a meal. They are no one's favorite merchant, but they are the only game in town for most spider-made goods. Also, there are some unscrupulous characters who enjoy selling debt they own (or threatening to sell debt they own) to money spiders, as money spiders aren't upset or intimidated by collection negotiations. They upset. They intimidate. Selling debt to spiders (or anything that is not a physical good) is technically illegal in Crickton, but law enforcement is not what it once was, so it does happen.
Goblins find money spiders endlessly amusing, and some money spiders do tend stalls at goblin markets, but these spiders tend to be the ones down on their luck. Goblin amusement tends to be abusive and injurious in the long run, and spiders who make a habit out of interacting with goblins tend to end up worn down and basically enslaved.
Impulse - Money Spiders gonna... Spide... Money?
Spiders are pretty self-sufficient creatures, and, generally speaking, the only two things they need are respect for their hunting grounds and what food they can catch off of same. Only one of these things relies on other spiders. They developed society as a response to encroachment on their territory, but an economy was kind of slow in following. Spider histories are pheromonal, and humans can't interpret them, but what we know of the development of spider economy is that it started with a lot of arrangements along the lines of "I'll let you eat this thing I caught so you don't eat me or drive me out of here."
The Spiders claim that a cannibalistic society is a polite society.
Spider economy, as it stands, is more of a labor-barter system, transferrable through pheromone tags and somewhat rudimentary, but there is a class among the spider population that has grasped onto the abstraction of economics, and, in spider fashion, has bound it up and tried to suck all the juices out of it. Sorry, been involved in a couple of deals with money spiders and come out a little sore. I'll stop editorializing.
Money spiders are a little bigger and stronger than most, a little hairier and with a thicker carapace. When you see them, they are usually carrying bundles of their wares harnessed to their abdomens or encased in webbing. Some of them in Crickton affect straw hats, held to their heads with silk, after the fashion of local peddlers. They have a rudimentary vocal system that allows them to sort of speak, a weird polyphonic sort of voice that isn't any more reassuring than the standard spider hollow hiss. Money Spiders enjoy talking, loudly, and they have the uncanny ability to speak entirely different conversations at one time, in multiple languages of the sea. Unlike most spiders, they enjoy making loud declarations in Pelagic while simultaneously cutting them down in Littoral or even Neretic (the last of which Cricks rarely speak or know more than 50 words).
Harm - 2/Peril [Poisoned or Sick] Money Spiders are bigger and usually better suited for martial pursuits than a lot of their brethren, this being mostly because their vocation puts them into contact with a lot of other species, and occasionally because banditry is not entirely beyond the money spider remit. People who study the spiders tend to hold that marauders are basically money spiders who aren't good at math. As such, their jaws and venom are fairly formidable, but they rarely go in for the less proven modifications that marauders prefer.
Money spiders are also quite adept at rhetoric and haggling, can hold multiple conversations at once and have such disorienting and disquieting vocal apparatus that their bargaining style almost counts as a martial adaptation. If you are bargaining with a money spider on anything, however mundane or well within your resources to just purchase, you must always face Want.
If you are a Money Spider, you have the ability to confuse other creatures (even other spiders) with your speaking style (hell, you're actually harder on other spiders, because you can use your palps and pheromones on them).
What Was I Saying?
When you want to confuse and browbeat someone into doing what you want or giving you a better deal, face Want.
On a Hit, you can choose one of the following (Sweeten the Deal | Unnerve or Dismay Target | Send them off Muttering and Confused | Make them Forget the Details)
On a Hard Hit, choose 2.
On a Miss, immediately roll a Walking Man's Road, -1 Hit Forward. You have totally unnerved your trading partner.
You can save that for the birds and bees
Money spiders understand the idea of trade as an intellectual construct, mostly, but they pursue it with the emotional content of a predator trying to get a meal. They are no one's favorite merchant, but they are the only game in town for most spider-made goods. Also, there are some unscrupulous characters who enjoy selling debt they own (or threatening to sell debt they own) to money spiders, as money spiders aren't upset or intimidated by collection negotiations. They upset. They intimidate. Selling debt to spiders (or anything that is not a physical good) is technically illegal in Crickton, but law enforcement is not what it once was, so it does happen.
Goblins find money spiders endlessly amusing, and some money spiders do tend stalls at goblin markets, but these spiders tend to be the ones down on their luck. Goblin amusement tends to be abusive and injurious in the long run, and spiders who make a habit out of interacting with goblins tend to end up worn down and basically enslaved.
February 24, 2013
The Beast Fears Fire - Marauders
Marauders [Violence 2]
Impulse - Marauders gonna Maraud.
Modern species of spider, as it turns out are a lot more modern than most people expect. About 1000 years ago, there was only one species of great spider that learned how to change forms over the course of a generation or two in order to meet certain challenges. How they go about this is something that the spiders don't like to advertise; it does involve application of magic in some aspects and requires the spider to molt (an exhausting, often dangerous process that a great spider has to do several times during life), occasionally multiple times.
It's possible, also, for a spider to change their form significantly over the course of their lifetime, though it is difficult. In modern times, the most common form that individual modifications take on is in the form of marauders.
Marauders are more common among spiders who have significant contact with other communicative races, particularly those who observe the martial traditions of those other races. Marauders are enthusiastic self-experimenters with a bent toward developing beneficial martial adaptations. It's hard to say exactly why marauders go in for this; it's too widespread to simply be individual expression, but the adaptations tend to be highly personalized and probably not of greatest strategic value to the spiders as a whole (tactical values can be variable as well). The most satisfying explanation is that this is some sort of spider version of a fad. There is evidence that they've done similar things before.
Harm 2/Peril [Varies] or 3 Marauders are much stronger than most other spiders and develop nasty fangs first and foremost. Venoms and other more esoteric excretions come next, and these can vary by the methods the spider used to alter its physiology and the aptitude for applying these methods. As always, these adaptations are individual.
The following are a list of the more common adaptations that marauders exhibit.
Might as well Jump
You can jump great distances, allowing you to reach some inaccessible areas without facing Disaster or Hardship. Additionally, you can use your leaping ability in a violent confrontation. If you do this, face Violence.
On a Hit, you can cause Harm to a distant or inaccessible target, take up a distant or inaccessible position, or become a distant or inaccessible target to your opponent.
On a Hard Hit, you can cause Great Harm or Dismay enemies as well.
On a Miss, suffer Harm and a Soft Move as you screw up your jump and and in a worse position.
Say it and Spray it
You can spit venom, acid or a combustive fluid at people you don't like. Face Violence.
On a Hit you cause harm to your opponent, as well as an appropriate Peril (Poisoned, Sick, Melting, On Fire).
On a Hard Hit, you cause Great Harm or Harm and Dismay to your opponent as well as an appropriate Peril.
On a Miss, things backfire a little and you suffer the Peril.
Spider Light
You have bioluminescent glands that allow you to illuminate areas (not really terribly useful to you, but if you've sight dependent allies, they might be grateful), and the ability to strobe briefly in a fight, which, again, kind of bright for you, but can really mess up sight dependent enemies. If you decide to use them as such, face Violence.
On a Hit, you can either inflict or avoid Harm and bestow the Peril Blinded on all sight-dependent creatures in your immediate vicinity (you are also blinded, for what little that is worth).
On a Hard Hit, you can choose not to blind up to three people in the area, if you want.
On a Miss, you overstimulate yourself and end up dazed for a moment while your enemies inflict Harm on you.
Refined Weapons
You have concentrated on making the defensive capabilities you already had more potent. You gain an additional 3 die steps to augment your carapace, silk and venom.
Is he strong? Listen, bud...
The really odd thing about marauders, to the view of outsiders is that they seem to think that developing personal weapons makes them easier to relate to for outsiders. Marauders tend to be, even more than money spiders, the sort who are interested in interacting with other species for their own sake, and tend to be the spiders most likely to develop relationships with individuals of other races.
I'm not saying they are often successful at it, but they do try.
Impulse - Marauders gonna Maraud.
Modern species of spider, as it turns out are a lot more modern than most people expect. About 1000 years ago, there was only one species of great spider that learned how to change forms over the course of a generation or two in order to meet certain challenges. How they go about this is something that the spiders don't like to advertise; it does involve application of magic in some aspects and requires the spider to molt (an exhausting, often dangerous process that a great spider has to do several times during life), occasionally multiple times.
It's possible, also, for a spider to change their form significantly over the course of their lifetime, though it is difficult. In modern times, the most common form that individual modifications take on is in the form of marauders.
Marauders are more common among spiders who have significant contact with other communicative races, particularly those who observe the martial traditions of those other races. Marauders are enthusiastic self-experimenters with a bent toward developing beneficial martial adaptations. It's hard to say exactly why marauders go in for this; it's too widespread to simply be individual expression, but the adaptations tend to be highly personalized and probably not of greatest strategic value to the spiders as a whole (tactical values can be variable as well). The most satisfying explanation is that this is some sort of spider version of a fad. There is evidence that they've done similar things before.
Harm 2/Peril [Varies] or 3 Marauders are much stronger than most other spiders and develop nasty fangs first and foremost. Venoms and other more esoteric excretions come next, and these can vary by the methods the spider used to alter its physiology and the aptitude for applying these methods. As always, these adaptations are individual.
The following are a list of the more common adaptations that marauders exhibit.
Might as well Jump
You can jump great distances, allowing you to reach some inaccessible areas without facing Disaster or Hardship. Additionally, you can use your leaping ability in a violent confrontation. If you do this, face Violence.
On a Hit, you can cause Harm to a distant or inaccessible target, take up a distant or inaccessible position, or become a distant or inaccessible target to your opponent.
On a Hard Hit, you can cause Great Harm or Dismay enemies as well.
On a Miss, suffer Harm and a Soft Move as you screw up your jump and and in a worse position.
Say it and Spray it
You can spit venom, acid or a combustive fluid at people you don't like. Face Violence.
On a Hit you cause harm to your opponent, as well as an appropriate Peril (Poisoned, Sick, Melting, On Fire).
On a Hard Hit, you cause Great Harm or Harm and Dismay to your opponent as well as an appropriate Peril.
On a Miss, things backfire a little and you suffer the Peril.
Spider Light
You have bioluminescent glands that allow you to illuminate areas (not really terribly useful to you, but if you've sight dependent allies, they might be grateful), and the ability to strobe briefly in a fight, which, again, kind of bright for you, but can really mess up sight dependent enemies. If you decide to use them as such, face Violence.
On a Hit, you can either inflict or avoid Harm and bestow the Peril Blinded on all sight-dependent creatures in your immediate vicinity (you are also blinded, for what little that is worth).
On a Hard Hit, you can choose not to blind up to three people in the area, if you want.
On a Miss, you overstimulate yourself and end up dazed for a moment while your enemies inflict Harm on you.
Refined Weapons
You have concentrated on making the defensive capabilities you already had more potent. You gain an additional 3 die steps to augment your carapace, silk and venom.
Is he strong? Listen, bud...
The really odd thing about marauders, to the view of outsiders is that they seem to think that developing personal weapons makes them easier to relate to for outsiders. Marauders tend to be, even more than money spiders, the sort who are interested in interacting with other species for their own sake, and tend to be the spiders most likely to develop relationships with individuals of other races.
I'm not saying they are often successful at it, but they do try.
Stone Telling 9: Menagerie is HERE!
Originally posted by
rose_lemberg
at Stone Telling 9: Menagerie is HERE!Originally posted by
rose_lemberg
at Stone Telling 9: Menagerie is HERE!Dear Friends of Stone Telling,
After many delays due to overwhelming life circumstances beyond our control, the ninth issue of Stone Telling is finally LIVE! It features JT Stewart with five poems, an introduction by Eileen Gunn, and a review by Amal El-Mohtar (tithenai); it also includes poetry by Dominik Parisien (
domparisien
), Alyza Taguilaso, Lisa M. Bradley (
cafenowhere
), Mat Joiner (
ashlyme
), Bogi Takács (
prezzey
), Brianna Belle Sulzener, Ishita Basu Mallik, Michele Bannister (
selidor
), Minal Hajratwala, and Neile Graham (
neile
), as well as an article by Kari Sperring (
la_marquise_de_
), a review by Mike Allen (
time_shark
) and a roundtable led by Julia Rios (
skogkatt
).
As always, enormous thanks to my teammates Shweta Narayan (
shweta_narayan
), Jennifer Smith (
dormouse_in_tea
), and Julia Rios (
skogkatt
) for their tireless work.
Starting on March 1, 2013 we will be reading for Body. From the guidelines: "We are hoping to feature such themes as (dis)abilities both physical and mental, neuroatypicality, queerness, aging, body acceptance, perceptions of beauty, as well as many others. If you are not sure if something fits, please try us. We are also at this time accepting non-fiction proposals to fit this theme."
Again, if you are unsure, please send us it. :)
rose_lemberg
at Stone Telling 9: Menagerie is HERE!Originally posted by
rose_lemberg
at Stone Telling 9: Menagerie is HERE!Dear Friends of Stone Telling,After many delays due to overwhelming life circumstances beyond our control, the ninth issue of Stone Telling is finally LIVE! It features JT Stewart with five poems, an introduction by Eileen Gunn, and a review by Amal El-Mohtar (tithenai); it also includes poetry by Dominik Parisien (
domparisien
), Alyza Taguilaso, Lisa M. Bradley (
cafenowhere
), Mat Joiner (
ashlyme
), Bogi Takács (
prezzey
), Brianna Belle Sulzener, Ishita Basu Mallik, Michele Bannister (
selidor
), Minal Hajratwala, and Neile Graham (
neile
), as well as an article by Kari Sperring (
la_marquise_de_
), a review by Mike Allen (
time_shark
) and a roundtable led by Julia Rios (
skogkatt
).As always, enormous thanks to my teammates Shweta Narayan (
shweta_narayan
), Jennifer Smith (
dormouse_in_tea
), and Julia Rios (
skogkatt
) for their tireless work.
Starting on March 1, 2013 we will be reading for Body. From the guidelines: "We are hoping to feature such themes as (dis)abilities both physical and mental, neuroatypicality, queerness, aging, body acceptance, perceptions of beauty, as well as many others. If you are not sure if something fits, please try us. We are also at this time accepting non-fiction proposals to fit this theme."
Again, if you are unsure, please send us it. :)
February 22, 2013
Fortunes Told!
I've been meaning to do this for a while, but nothing like good, old-fashioned financial hardship (it's not catastrophic - jump in car insurance, jump in internet, short month full of bad weather leading to Kate losing a week's work) to get me off the fence.
I am officially hanging out my shingle for tarot readings! I'm pretty good at it, I like doing it, I can travel, but mostly I work online.
Decks DC Vertigo Tarot (Illustrations by Dave McKeon) and Light Grey Art Lab Tarot (Illustrations by a lot of folks). At some point, I'll pick up another Rider-Waite deck, or make another deck of my own.
Rates $20/hour (1 hour minimum for a 10 card spread / 30 minutes minimum for a 3 card-with-crosses spread) online. Same thing in person + gas money (depending on distance, worked out in advance - I can travel to most anywhere in southern New England). I can do some barter as well. If you want a reading, but are strapped for cash (I know that feeling), let me know and we'll work something out. If I have read for you for money before, we'll keep to those rates. Paypal accepted.
Arrangements Gchat, generally. Address bound to this LJ account. Contact me on LJ or at my email and we'll work out a time. I'm pretty flexible. Also, I can send you images of any cards that jump out as particularly significant during the reading. Unfortunately, they will probably be taken on my camera phone until I can figure out what happened to the cable for my little point-and-shoot. At some point, I may go to Skype.
Questions? Let me know.
I am officially hanging out my shingle for tarot readings! I'm pretty good at it, I like doing it, I can travel, but mostly I work online.
Decks DC Vertigo Tarot (Illustrations by Dave McKeon) and Light Grey Art Lab Tarot (Illustrations by a lot of folks). At some point, I'll pick up another Rider-Waite deck, or make another deck of my own.
Rates $20/hour (1 hour minimum for a 10 card spread / 30 minutes minimum for a 3 card-with-crosses spread) online. Same thing in person + gas money (depending on distance, worked out in advance - I can travel to most anywhere in southern New England). I can do some barter as well. If you want a reading, but are strapped for cash (I know that feeling), let me know and we'll work something out. If I have read for you for money before, we'll keep to those rates. Paypal accepted.
Arrangements Gchat, generally. Address bound to this LJ account. Contact me on LJ or at my email and we'll work out a time. I'm pretty flexible. Also, I can send you images of any cards that jump out as particularly significant during the reading. Unfortunately, they will probably be taken on my camera phone until I can figure out what happened to the cable for my little point-and-shoot. At some point, I may go to Skype.
Questions? Let me know.
The Beast Fears Fire - Masqueraders
Masqueraders [Malevolence 2]
Impulse - Masqueraders gonna Masquerade
It's kind of hard to tell how many masqueraders there are in Crickton. When persuaded to admit to their existence in the first place, the spiders say they're pretty rare, and since their missions take them into human dominated territory for years and years, a lot of masquerader children grow up entirely ignorant of and unable to tap in to their heritage.
No one ever finds this of great comfort, and I cannot blame them. Masqueraders are shape changers, like corbins and silver coats, they have two entangled bodies, one constantly out of phase with the world and one constantly here. Their spider bodies tend to be a little sleeker and smaller than even weavers are. Their other body, at least the ones people in Crickton are aware of, is human.
Masqueraders are meant to be spies, descended from a group or species of weavers who took up shape-shifting as a means of keeping tabs on their sapient neighbors and, where possible, keeping them away from spider settlements. It's not unreasonable to expect that there might be masqueraders that pose as other communicative species - rukh, wolves, ghouls, goblins; possibly even less active shape changers like silver coats. That said, the only documented masqueraders found in Crickton and surrounding countries have had human forms.
Harm 1/Peril [Poisoned] and/or Variable Masqueraders aren't significantly weaker than weavers, though their silk glands and spinning aptitudes have fallen by the evolutionary wayside. Their venom causes both mild tissue destruction (if you can call it mild) and lethargy, but it isn't very potent. Masqueraders prefer to fight in their more resilient and easy to heal human bodies, but, unlike most other shape shifters, both the body in phase and their body out of phase can act independently, and the masquerader can change which one is in or out of phase at a moment's notice. Masqueraders who find themselves in violent conflict tend to defend themselves in their human body while their spider body gets around behind for a quick change and a bite.
Arms all Around, Tongue in my Eyes
When you face a masquerader in a violent confrontation, face Malevolence
On a Hit, you become aware of the out-of-phase spider body and can choose to suffer Harm from it or from the human body.
On a Hard Hit, you anticipate the change and harm the spider body, which will usually prompt the masquerader to flee or surrender.
On a Miss, you get hit from all sides. Suffer all Harm from both bodies.
It's much to late to get away, turn on the light
Whatever their numbers are, there's a sense that masquerader populations are declining rather rapidly, with only a handful of generations before they become extinct. The reason for this is pretty simple. For the spider body, sex is the most dangerous, fraught and unpleasant aspect of their existence. For the human body, well, it can be dangerous and fraught, but it doesn't have to be, and it's regarded as one of the most pleasant aspects of human existence. Children born to a human parent or conceived by two masqueraders in human form are human children with, usually, very undeveloped and often undiscovered vestigial spider bodies which they have to learn how to manifest and use. These hybrid children don't have the greatest reputation with either species, since the spiders can't really trust their loyalty and humans are pretty freaked out by giant spiders, no matter what, and don't have the greatest regard for shape changers. It's not hard for these kids to pass as normal people, though, even if they have developed a spider body.
Spider Other Thanks to your masquerader heritage, you can manifest a spider body. When you want to take on spider form, face Malevolence.
On a Hit, you can take spider form, losing access to your human possessions, and gaining the ones available to a Weaver Spider. You do not have their wilk-related moves.
On a Hard Hit, you can take on spider form and resolve a Peril or Harm in doing so. When you resume human form, you can resolve a Peril or Harm again.
On a Miss, you suffer the Harm your spider body causes in feedback as you fail to change form.
People who take Spider Other can also learn spider Abilities, which they can only access in spider form.
Impulse - Masqueraders gonna Masquerade
It's kind of hard to tell how many masqueraders there are in Crickton. When persuaded to admit to their existence in the first place, the spiders say they're pretty rare, and since their missions take them into human dominated territory for years and years, a lot of masquerader children grow up entirely ignorant of and unable to tap in to their heritage.
No one ever finds this of great comfort, and I cannot blame them. Masqueraders are shape changers, like corbins and silver coats, they have two entangled bodies, one constantly out of phase with the world and one constantly here. Their spider bodies tend to be a little sleeker and smaller than even weavers are. Their other body, at least the ones people in Crickton are aware of, is human.
Masqueraders are meant to be spies, descended from a group or species of weavers who took up shape-shifting as a means of keeping tabs on their sapient neighbors and, where possible, keeping them away from spider settlements. It's not unreasonable to expect that there might be masqueraders that pose as other communicative species - rukh, wolves, ghouls, goblins; possibly even less active shape changers like silver coats. That said, the only documented masqueraders found in Crickton and surrounding countries have had human forms.
Harm 1/Peril [Poisoned] and/or Variable Masqueraders aren't significantly weaker than weavers, though their silk glands and spinning aptitudes have fallen by the evolutionary wayside. Their venom causes both mild tissue destruction (if you can call it mild) and lethargy, but it isn't very potent. Masqueraders prefer to fight in their more resilient and easy to heal human bodies, but, unlike most other shape shifters, both the body in phase and their body out of phase can act independently, and the masquerader can change which one is in or out of phase at a moment's notice. Masqueraders who find themselves in violent conflict tend to defend themselves in their human body while their spider body gets around behind for a quick change and a bite.
Arms all Around, Tongue in my Eyes
When you face a masquerader in a violent confrontation, face Malevolence
On a Hit, you become aware of the out-of-phase spider body and can choose to suffer Harm from it or from the human body.
On a Hard Hit, you anticipate the change and harm the spider body, which will usually prompt the masquerader to flee or surrender.
On a Miss, you get hit from all sides. Suffer all Harm from both bodies.
It's much to late to get away, turn on the light
Whatever their numbers are, there's a sense that masquerader populations are declining rather rapidly, with only a handful of generations before they become extinct. The reason for this is pretty simple. For the spider body, sex is the most dangerous, fraught and unpleasant aspect of their existence. For the human body, well, it can be dangerous and fraught, but it doesn't have to be, and it's regarded as one of the most pleasant aspects of human existence. Children born to a human parent or conceived by two masqueraders in human form are human children with, usually, very undeveloped and often undiscovered vestigial spider bodies which they have to learn how to manifest and use. These hybrid children don't have the greatest reputation with either species, since the spiders can't really trust their loyalty and humans are pretty freaked out by giant spiders, no matter what, and don't have the greatest regard for shape changers. It's not hard for these kids to pass as normal people, though, even if they have developed a spider body.
Spider Other Thanks to your masquerader heritage, you can manifest a spider body. When you want to take on spider form, face Malevolence.
On a Hit, you can take spider form, losing access to your human possessions, and gaining the ones available to a Weaver Spider. You do not have their wilk-related moves.
On a Hard Hit, you can take on spider form and resolve a Peril or Harm in doing so. When you resume human form, you can resolve a Peril or Harm again.
On a Miss, you suffer the Harm your spider body causes in feedback as you fail to change form.
People who take Spider Other can also learn spider Abilities, which they can only access in spider form.
February 15, 2013
The Weekend Fears Fire
I might not be around for the weekend until Monday night, so the beasts will have to wait a while. Once the spiders are finished, there are only a handful of categories left over. Those are:
Those from the Mountain - There is a tiny chain of high mountains in the middle of Crickton, more a knot than a chain, and a major transportation challenge. Some of the higher mountains were covered by a glacier, but over the years since the climatic shift caused by the Gulf of Catastrophe, that glacier is starting to retreat and reveal deep caves with something inside...
Aspects of Senlin Teigou - The dark forest in the northeast, where the canopy blocks out all sun and feral gods still wander, crazed with blood withdrawal. Many believe the Teigou to be an entity in its own right, with its own capabilities, wants and designs.
The Local Demigods - Six beings of great power sometimes appear in Crickton; the Lying Philosopher, the Knight, the Maiden, The King of Pine, The Queen of Sunflowers and the Broken-Necked God. Each has their own territory and their own aims, none of them are terribly friendly.
The Walking Dead - Raising up a corpse is not all that hard to do. The problem is, no one ever stops at one, and there's a set of very specific consequences that follow raising the dead. None of them are zombie apocalypse, but none of them are a lot of fun.
Leftovers - The ancient, waterbound dead of the Oaks, the Greater Otterleys, Fire Custodians that did not become Elves, Eyeless Sorcerers that still serve the Queen of the Ugly Birds, Witch's Oven Trees, Fallancs, stuff I didn't have a place to put or got booted for something more interesting.
So, what should I do next?
View Poll: #1896746
(Saving the dregs for the bitter, bitter end).
And before I get to the dregs, I want to do one more category, so that I have 18 categories total. I'm not sure what I want to do, so I will kick it back to you - suggest a category of monster you want to see me take on.
View Poll: #1896747
Those from the Mountain - There is a tiny chain of high mountains in the middle of Crickton, more a knot than a chain, and a major transportation challenge. Some of the higher mountains were covered by a glacier, but over the years since the climatic shift caused by the Gulf of Catastrophe, that glacier is starting to retreat and reveal deep caves with something inside...
Aspects of Senlin Teigou - The dark forest in the northeast, where the canopy blocks out all sun and feral gods still wander, crazed with blood withdrawal. Many believe the Teigou to be an entity in its own right, with its own capabilities, wants and designs.
The Local Demigods - Six beings of great power sometimes appear in Crickton; the Lying Philosopher, the Knight, the Maiden, The King of Pine, The Queen of Sunflowers and the Broken-Necked God. Each has their own territory and their own aims, none of them are terribly friendly.
The Walking Dead - Raising up a corpse is not all that hard to do. The problem is, no one ever stops at one, and there's a set of very specific consequences that follow raising the dead. None of them are zombie apocalypse, but none of them are a lot of fun.
Leftovers - The ancient, waterbound dead of the Oaks, the Greater Otterleys, Fire Custodians that did not become Elves, Eyeless Sorcerers that still serve the Queen of the Ugly Birds, Witch's Oven Trees, Fallancs, stuff I didn't have a place to put or got booted for something more interesting.
So, what should I do next?
View Poll: #1896746
(Saving the dregs for the bitter, bitter end).
And before I get to the dregs, I want to do one more category, so that I have 18 categories total. I'm not sure what I want to do, so I will kick it back to you - suggest a category of monster you want to see me take on.
View Poll: #1896747
The Beast Fears Fire - Investors
Investors [Ignorance 2]
Impulse - Investors gonna Invest
Investors aren't a species. They aren't a group of similar species. They are a calling. Their numbers are few, but include individuals from every species of great spider. We don't really understand how they do the things they do, or even what, exactly it is that they do, except by tracking its consequences.
A non-spider will have a hard time telling an investor apart from other individuals of its apparent species. Spiders know pretty much immediately, and their reaction to investors can range from suspicion to outright awe. Investors seem like magicians to other species, with powers similar to those of the Lying Philosopher, though their powers are considered weaker and more constrained. Spiders view investors as scientists, though there are many who apply their science more than spider society appreciates.
Harm - Variable Investors have the usual natural armaments of their various species, and will use them when threatened or provoked. The real threat they pose foes or chosen targets is in their powers of investment. Investors are able to create spiders, not the kind of spiders any spider with working genitals and a partner kind, but spiders that have no real physical presence, existing only as ideas. Memetic spiders, which, in a way are similar to sprites, though they do not have a visible locus of energy. They invest individuals (any form of life that can react to stimuli is susceptible to investment) by communicating with them, either through sign, writing or speaking. Once invested, the individual starts feeling the effects of the spider's intended design.
Once invested, the subject of the investment begins to display new behaviors, capabilities and disabilities, depending on the intent of the memetic spider. These changes cannot drastically alter the form or nature of the subject, but they can radically alter the behaviors. The change affects targets on the physical level, usually through neurological or hormonal means. Not always. Investors can make tomatoes (a local staple) as poisonous as their deadly nightshade cousins, or make them produce beneficial proteins, caffeine or glow in the dark. They can cure or cause a lot of different diseases (investors often give their enemies diabetes or cancer, let them know they have it, and then give them a chance to mend their ways for the cure). They can rewire a person so they perceive pain as pleasure, are incapable of eating meat, or unable to behave aggressively towards the investor's person. These alterations are usually permanent, save through further investment. That said, certain individuals are so set in their natures (by this we mean player characters) that investment doesn't quite stick. In these cases, the body responds with shock, shaking off the investment eventually, but at a cost.
Returning the Investment
When an investor targets you with a memetic spider, face Ignorance
On a Hit, you can choose whether the alteration persists for the Scene, or shake it off and suffer 1 Harm and a Peril of the Moderator's choice.
On a Hard Hit, the investment fails entirely, but the information contained in the spider is still in you and provides you with 1 Insight.
On a Miss, you can choose to allow the alteration to be permanent, or have it persist for the Scene, suffer 3 Harm and a Peril of moderator choice.
The Grabbing Hands Grab All they Can
It's hard to tell if there are more investors or spider witches. Spiders tend to be even more suspicious of magic than they are of investment (actually, they aren't suspicious of investment at all, so much as they are of the motives and ethics of investors, and when spiders get concerned about ethics, there is serious cause), but witchcraft is less demanding and time-intensive. Investors risk backlash when they try to form memes on the fly, and each one has to be tailored to its target, lest it not work. That said, investment is extremely powerful and broad in its abilities, so if a Moderator does not want to let any players have the ability, they shouldn't.
Technically, there is no reason why another species entirely cannot learn investment, and occasional stories exist of at least one human who picked it up.
Pay Attention, This is Science
When you wish to form a memetic spider to invest in a target, face Ignorance.
On a Hit, you create the spider but choose 1 (Harms You | Affects You | Temporary | Perilous to You | Takes Time | Moderator Soft Move).
On a Hard Hit, you can choose that it does not have any of the Hit drawbacks above, or has two effects on its target.
On a Miss, choose one of the above and I choose 1. The spider fizzles and does not invest its target.
Investors are the first stop for those in the know trying to cure hopeless diseases. Memetic spiders can be written down and stored indefinitely, often folded (origami style) into paper spiders.
Impulse - Investors gonna Invest
Investors aren't a species. They aren't a group of similar species. They are a calling. Their numbers are few, but include individuals from every species of great spider. We don't really understand how they do the things they do, or even what, exactly it is that they do, except by tracking its consequences.
A non-spider will have a hard time telling an investor apart from other individuals of its apparent species. Spiders know pretty much immediately, and their reaction to investors can range from suspicion to outright awe. Investors seem like magicians to other species, with powers similar to those of the Lying Philosopher, though their powers are considered weaker and more constrained. Spiders view investors as scientists, though there are many who apply their science more than spider society appreciates.
Harm - Variable Investors have the usual natural armaments of their various species, and will use them when threatened or provoked. The real threat they pose foes or chosen targets is in their powers of investment. Investors are able to create spiders, not the kind of spiders any spider with working genitals and a partner kind, but spiders that have no real physical presence, existing only as ideas. Memetic spiders, which, in a way are similar to sprites, though they do not have a visible locus of energy. They invest individuals (any form of life that can react to stimuli is susceptible to investment) by communicating with them, either through sign, writing or speaking. Once invested, the individual starts feeling the effects of the spider's intended design.
Once invested, the subject of the investment begins to display new behaviors, capabilities and disabilities, depending on the intent of the memetic spider. These changes cannot drastically alter the form or nature of the subject, but they can radically alter the behaviors. The change affects targets on the physical level, usually through neurological or hormonal means. Not always. Investors can make tomatoes (a local staple) as poisonous as their deadly nightshade cousins, or make them produce beneficial proteins, caffeine or glow in the dark. They can cure or cause a lot of different diseases (investors often give their enemies diabetes or cancer, let them know they have it, and then give them a chance to mend their ways for the cure). They can rewire a person so they perceive pain as pleasure, are incapable of eating meat, or unable to behave aggressively towards the investor's person. These alterations are usually permanent, save through further investment. That said, certain individuals are so set in their natures (by this we mean player characters) that investment doesn't quite stick. In these cases, the body responds with shock, shaking off the investment eventually, but at a cost.
Returning the Investment
When an investor targets you with a memetic spider, face Ignorance
On a Hit, you can choose whether the alteration persists for the Scene, or shake it off and suffer 1 Harm and a Peril of the Moderator's choice.
On a Hard Hit, the investment fails entirely, but the information contained in the spider is still in you and provides you with 1 Insight.
On a Miss, you can choose to allow the alteration to be permanent, or have it persist for the Scene, suffer 3 Harm and a Peril of moderator choice.
The Grabbing Hands Grab All they Can
It's hard to tell if there are more investors or spider witches. Spiders tend to be even more suspicious of magic than they are of investment (actually, they aren't suspicious of investment at all, so much as they are of the motives and ethics of investors, and when spiders get concerned about ethics, there is serious cause), but witchcraft is less demanding and time-intensive. Investors risk backlash when they try to form memes on the fly, and each one has to be tailored to its target, lest it not work. That said, investment is extremely powerful and broad in its abilities, so if a Moderator does not want to let any players have the ability, they shouldn't.
Technically, there is no reason why another species entirely cannot learn investment, and occasional stories exist of at least one human who picked it up.
Pay Attention, This is Science
When you wish to form a memetic spider to invest in a target, face Ignorance.
On a Hit, you create the spider but choose 1 (Harms You | Affects You | Temporary | Perilous to You | Takes Time | Moderator Soft Move).
On a Hard Hit, you can choose that it does not have any of the Hit drawbacks above, or has two effects on its target.
On a Miss, choose one of the above and I choose 1. The spider fizzles and does not invest its target.
Investors are the first stop for those in the know trying to cure hopeless diseases. Memetic spiders can be written down and stored indefinitely, often folded (origami style) into paper spiders.
Winter 2013 issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!
Originally posted by
tithenai
at Winter 2013 issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!O most fortunate folk wot fancy fruit, feast your eyes upon this flavishness! (That's lavishness but with an EFF for FLAVOUR)
This is a frosty issue fraught with blackbirds, husbands, and weariness, and containing poems by Shweta Narayan, Rose Lemberg, Sally Rosen Kindred, Mathew Joiner, Andy Humphrey, Jennifer Jerome, Charlotte Bhaskar, Ada Hoffmann, Alicia Cole, Laura Lee Washburn, and Phyllis Holiday. The gorgeous art is courtesy of the inimitable Betsie Withey, who also provided the art for last year's Summer issue.
I love it very much, and hope you do also.
tithenai
at Winter 2013 issue of Goblin Fruit is Live!O most fortunate folk wot fancy fruit, feast your eyes upon this flavishness! (That's lavishness but with an EFF for FLAVOUR)
This is a frosty issue fraught with blackbirds, husbands, and weariness, and containing poems by Shweta Narayan, Rose Lemberg, Sally Rosen Kindred, Mathew Joiner, Andy Humphrey, Jennifer Jerome, Charlotte Bhaskar, Ada Hoffmann, Alicia Cole, Laura Lee Washburn, and Phyllis Holiday. The gorgeous art is courtesy of the inimitable Betsie Withey, who also provided the art for last year's Summer issue.
I love it very much, and hope you do also.
February 13, 2013
The Beast Fears Fire - Frighteners
Frighteners [Hardship 2]
Impulse - Frighteners Gonna Frighten
People don't tend to meet frighteners on purpose. These spiders are not social, even amongst their own species or other spiders, let alone entirely different phyla of creature. These are the ones that stay away from everything, the ones with bristles and warning coloration, the ones with bio-luminescent glands and elaborate threat displays. Some people aren't put off by the great spiders (I don't know how they manage), but everyone is afraid of the frighteners. They, meaning the people and the spiders both, can't really help it.
Frighteners are strong contributors to the defense of their communities. Though they are capable of doing other things, their main contribution is the creation of pheromones. Frighteners have amazing senses of smell, which is a good thing because their vision is poor even by spider standards and their hearing isn't as good as most of their brethren. Their bodies can generate pheromones that can affect a wide variety of creature, from the very sharp nosed to the decidedly not. They can tailor their mixtures to the creature they mean to repel and encode complex messages in the chemicals they leave about. Unfortunately, humans can't decipher these messages, even if they are able to stick around where they are left. They generally tell us GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT.
Harm 2 or Peril[Terrified, Lured, Drowsy or Panicked] Frighteners don't tend to have strong fangs, either, and their venom, while tissue destroying, is not terribly strong. Their main mode of defense is pheromonal. These pheromones, depending on the mixture, will cause certain neurological effects in those who smell them (humans, rukh, goblins, elves and corbins cannot detect any scent to these pheromones, but wolves, ghouls, silver coats in opossum form, and other spiders can). A frightener can tailor a pheromone to a certain species and a certain effect, or leave it broad. Accomplished frighteners can create pheromones that affect spirits other than elves (elves are as affected by these pheromones as humans because of their closeness to humanity, most spirits, even those of the dead, aren't). Frighteners use lure pheromones to attract prey (whatever's handy), drowsy ones to help subdue it and fear-related ones to drive off rivals other predators.
Encountering frightener pheromones requires a Hold Steady Against Adversity. If someone wishes to play a Frightener and brew up their own pheromones, they can use the following:
Smelt it/Dealt it
When you want to make someone or something come hither, go thither or take a nap while you bite them because of something they smell, face Hardship
On a Hit, choose one of (Everybody/Certain Species) and one of (Terrify/Panic/Lure/Drowsy/Message [Spiders Only])
On a Hard Hit, combine up to 5 choices above anyway you want (e.g. Frighten Humans and Wolves, Lure Rabbits and Deer)
On a Miss, choose as for a Hit, but I choose something else your pheromones do (e.g. Lure Trolls).
The Spiders that Bite May Find You Tonight.
Some frighteners can get truly creative with their pheromonal concoctions (feel free to make up new Abilities for interested players of frighteners). many of which end up in goblin markets as perfumes, repellants and other, less ethical things. Money spiders also carry more limited stocks (for political purposes, mostly. If goblins sell something evil, well, a spider can hardly control what the goblins will do...) Some frighteners are also able to throw different colors of bioluminsecent fluid into the mix, and some can get very artistic in their applications.
Frightener Player characters have The Laboratory in my Abdomen instead of Silk. While they do produce silk, it's not terribly useful like other spiders'. If a frigthener has the Fictional Science ability, they can use their own bodies as workspace.
SCIENCE
Workspace – You have a scientific workspace with sciencey equipment which you can use to do FICTIONAL SCIENCE, which is a lot more like magic than real science. You can use this workspace to make things or analyze samples and evidence to get clues. This workspace counts as Gear equal to your Nature against Ignorance to help you Look For Clues, and also, if you want to make a thing, name the thing and…
Face Want
Hit You can make the thing, but you choose 1 and the Moderator chooses 1 (Takes Time | Need a Fuckton of Jingle | Need Something Hard to Find | Need Help to Make | Works Only Once | Not Exactly Stable).
Hard Hit You choose 1.
Miss You chose 1 and the Moderator chooses 2.
Impulse - Frighteners Gonna Frighten
People don't tend to meet frighteners on purpose. These spiders are not social, even amongst their own species or other spiders, let alone entirely different phyla of creature. These are the ones that stay away from everything, the ones with bristles and warning coloration, the ones with bio-luminescent glands and elaborate threat displays. Some people aren't put off by the great spiders (I don't know how they manage), but everyone is afraid of the frighteners. They, meaning the people and the spiders both, can't really help it.
Frighteners are strong contributors to the defense of their communities. Though they are capable of doing other things, their main contribution is the creation of pheromones. Frighteners have amazing senses of smell, which is a good thing because their vision is poor even by spider standards and their hearing isn't as good as most of their brethren. Their bodies can generate pheromones that can affect a wide variety of creature, from the very sharp nosed to the decidedly not. They can tailor their mixtures to the creature they mean to repel and encode complex messages in the chemicals they leave about. Unfortunately, humans can't decipher these messages, even if they are able to stick around where they are left. They generally tell us GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT.
Harm 2 or Peril[Terrified, Lured, Drowsy or Panicked] Frighteners don't tend to have strong fangs, either, and their venom, while tissue destroying, is not terribly strong. Their main mode of defense is pheromonal. These pheromones, depending on the mixture, will cause certain neurological effects in those who smell them (humans, rukh, goblins, elves and corbins cannot detect any scent to these pheromones, but wolves, ghouls, silver coats in opossum form, and other spiders can). A frightener can tailor a pheromone to a certain species and a certain effect, or leave it broad. Accomplished frighteners can create pheromones that affect spirits other than elves (elves are as affected by these pheromones as humans because of their closeness to humanity, most spirits, even those of the dead, aren't). Frighteners use lure pheromones to attract prey (whatever's handy), drowsy ones to help subdue it and fear-related ones to drive off rivals other predators.
Encountering frightener pheromones requires a Hold Steady Against Adversity. If someone wishes to play a Frightener and brew up their own pheromones, they can use the following:
Smelt it/Dealt it
When you want to make someone or something come hither, go thither or take a nap while you bite them because of something they smell, face Hardship
On a Hit, choose one of (Everybody/Certain Species) and one of (Terrify/Panic/Lure/Drowsy/Message [Spiders Only])
On a Hard Hit, combine up to 5 choices above anyway you want (e.g. Frighten Humans and Wolves, Lure Rabbits and Deer)
On a Miss, choose as for a Hit, but I choose something else your pheromones do (e.g. Lure Trolls).
The Spiders that Bite May Find You Tonight.
Some frighteners can get truly creative with their pheromonal concoctions (feel free to make up new Abilities for interested players of frighteners). many of which end up in goblin markets as perfumes, repellants and other, less ethical things. Money spiders also carry more limited stocks (for political purposes, mostly. If goblins sell something evil, well, a spider can hardly control what the goblins will do...) Some frighteners are also able to throw different colors of bioluminsecent fluid into the mix, and some can get very artistic in their applications.
Frightener Player characters have The Laboratory in my Abdomen instead of Silk. While they do produce silk, it's not terribly useful like other spiders'. If a frigthener has the Fictional Science ability, they can use their own bodies as workspace.
SCIENCE
Workspace – You have a scientific workspace with sciencey equipment which you can use to do FICTIONAL SCIENCE, which is a lot more like magic than real science. You can use this workspace to make things or analyze samples and evidence to get clues. This workspace counts as Gear equal to your Nature against Ignorance to help you Look For Clues, and also, if you want to make a thing, name the thing and…
Face Want
Hit You can make the thing, but you choose 1 and the Moderator chooses 1 (Takes Time | Need a Fuckton of Jingle | Need Something Hard to Find | Need Help to Make | Works Only Once | Not Exactly Stable).
Hard Hit You choose 1.
Miss You chose 1 and the Moderator chooses 2.
Erik Amundsen's Blog
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