160. To the first party to develop a magic item that can be used by a mundane, I leave the medium-sized chunk of orichalcum I keep in my sock drawer at Lake Louise.

---

So here is what I came up with, but I am open to other Ideas...

1) Based on the anime "Outlaw Star" Caster gun, Uses Enchanted Shells with stored spell (anchored) triggered by the Gun, the gun uses Blood magic to transfer the drain to the holder of the gun, same as in regular blood magic rules, so firing a shell with a force 8 manabolt would drain 8 boxes of health from the user of the gun. --

Draco Foundation would be very unhappy giving reward for this as it uses blood magic (which they offer a reward for turning in users of) but might be stuck giving it out anyway... and might hire SRs to stop it's demonstration so as not to have to support blood magic.

--- Comments? better Ideas? problems?

-Mike R.

I kinda think the Draco Foundation wouldn't look too kindly on the use of Blood Magic.

Yes, the Draco Foundation would be unhappy about giving the reward to Blood Magic Users...until they turned in the user/creator of said device to collect the bounty on Blood Magic Users and deposited that 1m right into the Corporate coffers...

In earthdawn there was blood magic that was not inherently evil. Some magical items were powered by a sacrifice of a few hitpoints by thier user. There were a couple types of armor like that. Blood pebble armor I think one was called. Little magical pebbles were implanted into the persons skin at a cost of 5 maximum hitpoints (a charachter would usually have on the order of 50-100 hitpoints). If the armor were removed you would get the hitpoints back. There were various other charms and rituals that would reduce max hitpoints and give an ability until used, or for a year and a day, or even permentantly. I don't recall it saying you had to be an adept to use them, but earthdawn rules don't really concern themselves with non adepts much. I think there were also some items that would take hitpoints from the user (not max hitpoints though) for a one time effect much like what you are discussing.

So yea, get your reward... but uh do it somehow so they won't know where you are after they give it to you.

Removing the moral overtones, there is a historical precedent for magic based on pain and suffering. It's similar to fueling rituals with orgies -- feeding on the energy generated.

For that matter, someone with a masochistic bent or a fondness for getting cut might cheerfully agree to participate in traditional blood magic as described for the Azzies.

-Siege

I'm the GM for this game and was thinking of this as a run idea for the players... hunt down the creator/testor of this to stop DF from having to give the orichalium to a blood mage, and pick up the 1mil as payment...

but I wanted to make sure that the concept was sound before I introduced it... after all, the PCs will likely end up with the prototype and a set of irreplaceable (without much legwork) shells if they pull it off...

glad to hear that there is at least a ED precedent...

I am trying to bew harsh on them with the wounds, so it would be unlikely to be used lightly...

-Mike R.

Reaver had a pretty good idea about this and it was pretty similar to what you're talking about, IIRC. Check the threads for "Technomancy", I believe.

On second thought...wait right there.

There we are. Have fun!

Caster Shells, are those the ones that create small black holes? If so, they could work against Horrors...

they were actually kinda multi-purpose in the Anime series, numbered, like 1-25, some were more common then others, like #8 and #12... they had different magical effects and would wallop the caster so that using the powerful ones could easliy kill you if you were not careful...

I think that one did cause a black hole like effect, used near the end of the series... but it's been a little while since I saw the series...

-Mike R.

I read that thread and even posted in it myself.. I was thinking of expanding the idea a little more ehre since that was a little different. though the issues brought up there were still relevant...

limiting factors on this caster gun idea....
1)would need to bond the gun to a user like a focus (costs karma)
2)each shell would be an anchored spell (costs creator karma)
3)each use would injure the weilder directly with no chance of avoiding the damage. (makes using that force 10 Powerball rather unlikely... since you would need immediate medical attention to get up afterwards)
4) limited to LOS combat/elemental manip. spells only. (within reason)
5) would require a pistols test to hit intended target... spell goes off even if you miss... (no staging this is a hit/miss)
6) illegal almost everywhere because of blood magic involvement.

other side effects it might cause...
temporary background count, Leaves weilders astral signature blatently, vulnerable to astral attack, spent shells as ritual link...

-Mike R.

Ya know, a blood mage who did this would really be rich. Could turn in the 'caster gun' for the mundane magic item reward, then turn himself in for the blood mage reward!

A slightly safer run Idea is to just make a run on Dunkies sock drawer. Apparently in the absence of socks he put all kinds of neat stuff in there.

who wants safe?

I figured Draco Foundation would be a better freind (to this group) than enemy (from a GM perspective) lot's of nice hooks there....

besides, a rouge Blood mage enchanter making a Mundane usable magic Item is just strange enough to grab there attention.

they come away with (if they are lucky) 1mil, plus goodwill from Drac found.

if they are unlucky or unwise, they end up very very dead.

sounds like a good high yen run to me...

the point of this thread was more: do I have a balanced enough thingy (thats a technical term!) or does it need more tweeking.

-or-

has anyone else come up with any neeto ideas for Mundane usable magic items...