Wednesday 27 December 2023

Grimoire, and Custom Fireballs

Bandwagon! 

Bandwagon!

  1. Visitor - Summon a ghostly entity. It resembles a human shape made of black fog. It has [sum]HP and can only be harmed by lightning. It has three physical hands which can be destroyed by weapons or fire, that have the same strength as your arms. It can fly at 300mph, enter any space smoke can, cannot enter water, and can scream.

  2. Smoke Reading - Smelling smoke, answer [dice] questions about the thing being burned to produce it.

  3. Dream Lotus - You create a multicoloured lotus containing [dice]+1 doses. Anyone who consumes it will have powerful, vivid dreams containing up to [sum] elements of your choice.

  4. Joint - Add [dice] single-axis joints to metal, wooden or stone object you can touch.

  5. Cup of Theophany - With a golden cup worth at least a thousand gold, perform an hour-long ritual to conjure a dose of mirror-shell liquid theophany. The manifestations of a god of your choice occur as soon as you drink it.

  6. Creation Machine - With an hour’s ritual, summon a 20’ tall mechanical device, mostly made of living parts resembling complicated vegetable matter. It can produce up to [dice] tons of cheap copper crafts, and nothing else, because it’s broken. There’s only one. It breathes.

  7. Scyphozoa - You are enshrouded in the tentacles of a great spiritual jellyfish. It exists above your head for [sum] rounds. You can make attacks at +[dice] to sting others, dealing 1d8/1d10/1d12/2d6 damage and forcing a save vs. mental paralysis. You can control the bodies of mentally paralysed creatures as long as the Scyphozoa’s tentacles remain in contact with them. Creatures attempting to physically approach you must also save against damage and mental paralysis, as they walk through the Scyphozoa’s tentacles. The Scyphozoa can also touch ghosts.

  8. Witchwords - Choose [sum] words. Target is unable to speak them or sentences containing them, until they fulfil a condition set by you, or [dice] years pass.

  9. Summon the Green Grimoire - In a puff of marijuana and a crack of white light, you summon a green-covered grimoire once owned by an ancient sage. It has [sum] points. You can spend a point to identify a herb, summon a dose of a herb you have previously identified with the grimoire, turn a dose of herb into a tincture instantly, turn a dose of herb into a decoction instantly, or spend 10 points to create fucked up hybrid fusion herbs from two living herbs you can see.

  10. Combat Origami - Target creature you can strike with some force is folded along up to [sum] creases. Unwilling creatures may save. If folded into a creature with an ability inherent to its form, the creature can use it - origami fish can swim, origami birds can fly, origami hippos can go absolutely feral on a motherfucker. Origami creatures take [dice] extra damage from weapons and max+[dice] damage from fire.


MORE HOTROD FIREBALLS


Here’s a little minigame for regular readers of the blog: can you guess which settings these are all from?

This minigame is explicitly unfair for a number of reasons, but I’ll give you hints:
  • No repeats.
  • Two of them are from someone else’s setting.
  • One of them is really, really obscure
First person to get 9 out of 10 gets to pick my next post.


1 Mirembe’s Fireball
R: Theoretically Infinite T: A point visible to the caster. D: Instant.
A thin beam of light connects the caster’s hand and the target point, bending up to [dice] times at an obtuse or reflex angle. A catastrophic explosion occurs at the target point, consuming everything within 30’ in glittery purple fire that deals [sum]+[dice]+[dice] damage, save for half - multiplanar creatures may not save. The explosion stops dead at 30’ due to spatial warping.


2 Kemuel’s Fireball
R: 120’ T: A Point of Choice. D: [sum] minutes.
A snake-shaped bolt of searing orange fire spits from the caster’s hand to the target point and coils there, forming a shape like an eagle with its wings drawn in, roughly a sphere 10’ across. Anything flammable that passes through the sphere is rendered into ash over the course of seconds. At any time during the duration, the caster can command the sphere to explode for [sum + dice] damage to everyone within 100’, save for half.


3 Aifric’s Fireball
R: 50’ T: A Living Creature D: Instant
A thin line of red light lances from the caster’s outstretched finger into the stomach of a target creature. Target creature of [dice] or less HD must save or painfully explode in a spray of hot bone, guts and burning gas, killing them and dealing [sum] damage to creatures within ~15’. Creatures with non-flesh biology are immune.


4 Cadwgan’s Fireball
R: 50’ T: Any visible point. D: [sum] hours.
A will-o-wisp, sickly green and giving off [sum]*500 lumens, appears in the target point with a faint clicking sound. It follows the caster as closely as they desire, silent but bright. At any time during the duration, the caster may choose to have the fireball fly to any point within 100’ and explode into a 100’ tall, 10’ wide cylindrical pillar of green fire, dealing [sum] damage and obliterating all wood it contacts instantly.


5 Skåll’s Fireball
R: Infinite until Stopped T: Any point along a straight line from the caster. D: [sum] years.
A ball of fire shaped like a flaming skull with a pair of reaching hands launches from the caster’s outstretched hand with a meaty whump and goes shrieking off at 100’ per round. It will fly until it is stopped by something stronger than a pane of glass, or until the duration passes, upon which it explodes into a 100' radius cloud of dull-red flame laced with negative energy. The flames resemble dancing skeletons. This deals [sum]+[dice] damage to all non-undead creatures, no save.


6 Arundel’s Fireball
R: 1000’ in England, 50’ elsewhere.. T: Any 1000 cubic feet of air. D: Instant.
A red sphere forms in the caster’s hand, then vanishes with a loud cracking noise. The targeted air is instantly filled with white fire that deals [sum + dice] damage, save for half, and ignites without a save. The fireball does double damage to witches, Frenchmen, freemasons, demons and the Irish.


7 Venoch’s Fireball
R: 1 Mile T: An area the caster has personally been to. D: [dice] days.
A flaming sphere leaps upwards from the top of the caster’s head and rises into the sky, slamming down [sum] rounds later onto the targeted area. It splashes into a 50’ radius sphere of fire and smoke, igniting everything in the area and producing a huge cloud of choking smoke. The fire spreads as normal, but cannot be extinguished by any means except divine intervention until the end of the duration.


8 Senator Cardvire’s Fireball
R: 300’ T: A point visible to the caster. D: Instant.
A bead of green light flies from the caster’s outstretched hand and slowly rolls to the target point, expanding as it goes and igniting everything in a widening cone between caster and target. Upon reaching the target point, it explodes with a low whump, spraying the surroundings with sticky green fire that burns for [sum] rounds even if immersed in water. Only sand or foam can extinguish the flames.


9 Myrsen’s Fireball
R: 50 Paces. T: A point on the ground visible to the caster. D: Instant.
A streak of yellow light corkscrews from the fingertip of the caster and buries into the target point like a glowing worm. A second later, it explodes. Everyone nearby to the targeted point takes [sum + dice] damage, no save, and the ground is torn up in a massive upheaval, toppling walls, hurling automobiles and shattering ankles. The blast punches a hole into the Fog - the crater rapidly fills with it, serving as a crude gateway beyond. It may allow Foglings to enter the world.


10 Burning Crown Detonation
His personal name is Jajador, which he howls when invoked.

He resembles an immense, muscular man with orange-red skin and thick thighs, who wears nothing but an extravagantly patterned cloth-of-gold loin-cloth. His face is a set of tall golden teeth, which he gnashes and bites with often. His tongue is large, blackened, and covered in glowing cracks. He has shiny gold fingernails. The top of his hollow head burns with a painfully bright golden flame. He is howling, maniacal, and destructive.

Detonation makes things explode, quite simply. Choose [dice] objects in your line of sight – they violently detonate, dealing [sum + dice] damage to everything and everyone near them, save for half.

Detonation likes it if you do something flashy like snapping your fingers or shouting his name when you invoke him.


2 comments:

  1. 6 and 9 I recognise--Penny Dreadfuls and that one Ghibli wizard subclass respectively. Not sure about 8 but I would like to know more.

    ReplyDelete
  2. #10 is a stand from the Jo-Jo series. #3 is Fist of the North Star. #6 is penny dreadful, #9 the Ghibli wizard subclass. #5 is a Haduken from street fighter.

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