Diabolism and the Post Apocalyptic World

[Iron Bonny Shades]

here's yet another thing I sent into the rifter.

If you like it, let them know
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Diabolism and the Post Apocalyptic World

Inside the hallowed halls of the famed Academy of Learning, a magic from another world has been discovered and is being experimented on: That of Diabolism - the art of the mystic symbols.

While only a small faculty dedicated to the study of a magic from another world, its participants are enthusiastic and have made much progress in the study of this magnificent art.

What follows is the results of their research:

Note: While it is assumed that technology can speed up the process of drawing, but all wards must be drawn manually. Even the Etching Printer must draw the different lines on the parchment manually and even then there is a chance of failure.

Modern techniques of the post-apocalyptic Diabolist.

Gel Pens: Using a compilation of various chemicals and the element of choice , a series of Gel pens have been developed. Each marker has a "rollover head" and is good for about 1 month of constant use. These allow for easy drawing of the wards (takes about ½ the time the using "traditional" techniques:

costs:
Wood pen: 80 credits
Iron Pen: 120 credits
Quicksilver: 200 credits
Silver Pen: 250 credits
Gold Pen: 300 credits.

The Pure Beeswax pen is effectively a glorified chapstick that costs 200 credits and can last for up to a month before it goes bad.

Precision Chalking Gun: By putting a solution of chalking with a heavy mixture of either wood shavings, beeswax, iron, silver, or gold, the diabolist can spread the solutions to make large wards quickly. Each chalking tube comes with a cap and is good for about 5 uses.
Costs:
Chalking material
Wood chalking: 120 credits
Pure Beeswax: 230 credits.
Iron Chalking: 130 credits
Quicksilver Chalking: 200 credits.
Silver Chalking: 300 credits
Gold Chalking: 500 credits

Chalking guns
Hand powered: 150 credits,
Air compressed chalking gun: 300 credits; 15 credits per small air tank (good for 300 uses).

Thermal Cartridge: can be used in conjunction with the calking gun. The Cost of a cartridge is 3x the container of the baggy, but is airtight and environmentally protected, with the added bonus of being 1/3 the size and weight.

Fake tattoos - Plastic sheets that are sticky on one side and when used in conjunction with the other materials, can create easily applied wards. Once they are prepared (in normal time, they can be slapped onto any surface and activated in a single melee action. However, because they must be drawn on the sticky side in reverse, they have a
10% chance of failing (non cumulative).
Costs: 1 credit for every 100 sheets (letter size) - one can make about 8 wards from each sheet.

Metal suspension screen: This screen has been split into five sections. Inside each section is a mixture of metal and liquid. The exception to this is the wood filled screen. This is filled with wood shavings that have been extremely fine enough to be attracted by an electrical charge. To draw a ward on each section, one uses a magnetic pen to pull the metal (or wood shavings) to the surface of the solutions). The screen has then a series of suction cups that allows the screen to be stuck on to virtually any surface. After it has been used, it is simply shook to wipe away previous wards. It can be used again and again. It is roughly 2 feet by 2 feet in diameter, although larger ones have been known to exist.
Costs: 1,400 credits.

Paper making Set: This series of molds and dreckle, a portable blender, roughly tubs of varying size, a portable strainer and jars (for excess pulp) that are used to make paper: Costs: 800 credits.

Breastplate mold: To shape the parchment tabard and to allow variation in size for man-sized humans: cost: 1,000 credits.

Diabolism for Dummies 1.0, for use with Portals 102.1 (a popular Operating system that was developed in Lazlo): A program that allows the drawing of wards on the computer - and can be used to analyze any new Diabolist symbols. It adds +15% when detecting new wards (either using Magic: Lore or Principles of magic), but only if the practitioner has Computer Operations.
Additionally, the software package has the ability to create the appropriate symbols by clicking on the toolbars and/or pressing the hotkeys, speeding it up dramatically.

It is fully compatible with the etching printer and can use any scanner to get a image of the object to be created.

This novel piece of equipment is specialized and costs 4,000 credits.

Etching printer: This printer has a series of grease pins implanted into it that can be used to draw out wards. It is designed to adjust to print out on virtually any medium. However, each ward has a 15% percent chance of failing. It costs: 15,000 credits and includes a complete set of solution pens and its own adjusting table

Stencilbook: For those who are still learning the proper method of drawing the various markings, a stencilbook containing the most common wards is available. It is also the only viable way for a non diabolist to draw the wards on the diabolist's behalf, but it takes twice the normal time. However, realize that the diabolist still needs to activate the wards. It costs 35 credits and allows a diabolist help drawing all wards. You can also puchase singular stencils (roughly letter page size) for 5 credits apiece.

Air pen:, a small compressed air gun shaped in the form of a pen. By pressing the button on its side, it releases a blast of air. It is commonly used by diabolists to weave out a shape from a mixture. Cost: 100 credits plus 10 credits per mini-cartridge. Each cartridge is good for about 20 uses before needing to be replaced.

T.W. Diabolist Tools

As the center of techno-Wizard devices, is it any wonder that eventually began to combine the two to make it much more effective in practicing the art.

While these tools have made diabolism all that more effective, both the Splugorth and the refugees from the Palladium world wonder if the secrets of Rune magic are really all that far away.

Stupid diabolist tricks

Most of these trick if they are allowed are ultimately up to the G.M.

The parchment tabard: Developed using their knowledge of modern parchment techniques and is woven into a single piece that is meant to cover the main body. Against any non-bludgeoning attacks that hit below the A.R. of 12, they only do half damage. This has been a popular market item that is believed to be marketable in the near future: Costs: 20,000 credits.

Skills of note:

Technical - Paper/parchment making skill: This is the skill of making and preparing paper and shaping it into unusual shapes. A parchment maker with the papermaking set can make 1D4 pieces of paper in about a day without a roll. Attempting to make more sheets or complex designs (such as the tabard require a roll. A failed roll means the paper is flawed and is unsuitable for its purpose. Base Skill: 30% +5% per level of experience.

Domestic - Origami Skill: This is the skill of folding a single sheet of paper or parchment to a desired affect. While it can usually be used to make objects of an ascetic nature, In the Diabolist's hands it can be used to make temporary tools and weapons. Base Skill: 30% +5% per level of experience.

Art skill: This skill is extremely useful to the Diabolist and allows him some dramatic flare while creating his wards. He gets an additional +1 to spell strength of his ward if he possesses this skill, but only if it relates to painting or sculpture (and is being made accordingly).

Note About Modern medicine: When attempting to attach a permanent ward, using modern surgery techniques, it only takes about 1D4 hours and is virtually trouble free.

[Iron Bonny Shades]

New Wards:
These wards are not normally known to the diabolist, - one must learn them before one can use them.

As a result, for the first 10 uses, there is a 20% chance of not being made properly.

Barrier: When this ward is triggered, the victim is ensnared in a magical immobile force field. The field is air tight and all physical actions are blocked by this field. Normally the force field becomes just large enough to barely contain the creature who contained it, up to 10 feet (3.0 m), but when an area affect ward is used in conjunction, the field can cover an area much larger (as per the area affect ward).
Note that the field blocks both ways.
Damage: None, purely a defensive precaution.
Penalties: Basically stuck within a force field. The field has 25 S.D.C./H.P. (M.D.C. in an M.D.C. World) per level of the diabolist. It renews itself 25 S.D.C./H.P. (M.D.C. in an M.D.C. World), per melee round.
Duration: 10 minutes per level of experience
Ward Used with: Inflict, Protection by infliction, area affect
Power Words: Acba yin Aco
Protection From: In inscribe on a person, the protection is a mere 10 S.D.C. per level of experience (M.D.C. in an M.D.C. World). It renews at 5 S.D.C. Per minute (M.D.C. in an M.D.C. World). If completed destroyed, so is the ward. Only one of these ward combinations can be used on recipient at a time and it cannot be linked with another.
P.P.E. Cost: 1 P.P.E. plus the cost of the other runes
Inscribed with: Drawn with gold combined with a resin or binding agent; must be 64% gold.
Time to inscribe: Drawn or painted 2 melee rounds (30 seconds).

Blade: This ward generates an invisible blade of magical energy that begins to attack the person who disturbs it. When used with the area affect ward, it becomes in affect, a blade barrier.
Damage: 1D6 per level of the Diabolist. The mage can regulate the exact amount of damage in increments of 1D6 or go with his current maximum.
Duration: One slash per melee round (per person if an area affect). The ward remains active for one melee round per level of the Diabolist
Ward Used with: Inflict, protection by infliction, area affect and protection from.
Power Words: Acba yin Ya-ahk-met
Protection From: This ward provides protection again all bladed weapon. All slashing weapons do half damage.
P.P.E. Cost: 1 P.P.E. plus the cost of the other runes
Inscribed with: Drawn with iron filings combined with a resin or binding agent; must be 64% iron.
Time to inscribe: Drawn or painted 2 melee rounds (30 seconds).

Electricity: A bolt of electrical energy fires from the ward and at the person who disturbed it. If combined with the area affect ward, everyone who fails to save verses magic is zapped.
Damage: 1D6 per level of the Diabolist. The mage can regulate the exact amount of damage in increments of 1D6 or go with his current maximum.
Duration: One blast per melee round (per person if an area affect). The ward remains active for one melee round per level of the Diabolist
Ward Used with: Inflict, protection by infliction, area affect and protection from.
Power Words: Ya-ahk-met yin Cherubot-kyn
Protection From: Protection from Electricity means normal electrical attacks do one-third normal damage and magical electricity (including elementals) does ½ damage.
P.P.E. Cost: 1 P.P.E. plus the cost of the other runes
Inscribed with: Drawn with quicksilver combined with a resin or binding agent; must be 64% quicksilver.
Time to inscribe: Drawn or painted 2 melee rounds (30 seconds).

Insanity: Activating this ward causes the person who disturbed it to hallucinate. Everything in sight, including themselves is seen as something monstrous writhing tentacles, slobbering mouths, glaring eyes, etc. Although it is only in the victim’s head they will appear as fairly real.
Damage: None
Penalties: Victims with a M.E. of 10 or higher, will be able to understand that this is an illusion, but will become paranoid, jumpy and easily startled and confused: Penalties: -20% on skill performance, -3 on initiative, reduce speed by 25%, reduce attacks per melee round by one and cannot recognize real monsters.
Victims with an M.E. of 9 or less, suffer double the penalties noted above and may come to believe their delusion is real! Roll to save verses insanity; failure to save results in one insanity as determined by the Random Insanity table.
Duration: 1 minute (4 melee rounds) per level of the Diabolist.
Ward Used with: Inflict, protection by infliction and area affect.
Power Words: Ya-blik yin Netosa.
Protection From: Protection from Hallucination means that the character gets a +3 to save verses insanity.
P.P.E. Cost: 5 to create
Inscribed with: Drawn with quicksilver combined with a resin or binding agent; must be 64% quicksilver.
Time to inscribe: Drawn or painted 2 melee rounds (30 seconds); carved and glued, three hours.

Teleportation: This ward actually consists of two (2) wards, one to transmit and one to receive. When the transmitting ward is activated, the disturber of this ward is instantly transported within 3 feet (0.9 m) where the receiving ward is located.
The two symbols must be put within 2 miles per level of experience of the diabolist. Any further will make the wards unable to function.
A common use of these wards is to use them in conjunction with a permanency ward, and then use the portal.
Note that these wards cannot be put on movable objects; they must be anchored to the earth to work properly.
Damage: Not applicable
Penalties: Special; see above.
Duration: Instantaneous.
Ward Used with: Inflict, protection by infliction, and in some cases, permanency.
Power Words: Lo-kum yinYa-ahk-met
Protection From: The Protection from Teleportation
P.P.E. Cost: 15 for each ward.
Inscribed with: Drawn with quicksilver combined with a resin or binding agent; must be 64% quicksilver.
Time to inscribe: Drawn or painted 2 melee rounds (30 seconds); carved and glued, three hours.

[Iron Bonny Shades]

Special Wards*

Wielder: The unique ward has only been recently been approved by the Academy of Learning. It is extremely revolutionary and defies many of the rules that normal Diabolism follows.
This is the ward that when subscribed on a condition can actually be inscribed on objects and thrown. For example, a coin with the wards of wielder and fire will literally have a fire grenade that will be set off when it hits a solid object.
Limitations: Despite this possible uses of the object, it does have some severe penalties.
- The wielder ward, when used in conjunction with other wards, makes the sequence extremely unstable. If the diabolist is struck while carrying object inscribed with the wielder, he must make a successful roll with blow. Failure to due so means that every ward sequence inscribed with the wielder ward has a 01-60% chance of going off.
- Unlike normal wards, the Diabolist is not normally immune. He must make a saving throw against his own ward abilities. If he fails, he takes half damage or effect from his own wards.
- If the wielder ward sequence goes off, it will set off all other wards within a 10 foot radius. They will go off as per normally with the exception of ward sequences that include the Protection from sequence. These wards will simply disperse without activating on the target.
- The wielder ward cannot be used in sequence with the following wards: area affect, Protection from, Protection by infliction, permanence, power ward, evil, good, numbers, mystic energy drain, or any of the triggers.
- The wielder ward can only have one condition on it. It also requires to be used with the inflict ward.
Damage: Dependent on the other wards.
Duration: Instantaneous when set off, other part of the duration is dependent on the other wards.
Ward Used with: Agony, Blind, Burning Pain, Cold, Confusion, Dark, Death, Despair, Energy, Fear, Fire, Hate, Light, Sleep and undead. The ward sequence must always have an inflict ward in its sequence as well.
Power Words: Xy yin Acba yin Kym-Nark-mar
Protection From: Not applicable.
P.P.E. Cost: 10 P.P.E. plus the cost of the other runes
Inscribed with: Drawn with blood from the diabolist (loses 1 S.D.C./H.P.) and iron filings combined with a resin or binding agent; must be 65% iron.
Time to inscribe: Drawn or painted 2 melee rounds.

Companion: This ward is extremely rare and is only rarely used, except when the diabolist has become extremely close to someone and wishes him (or her) to be with her always, even when practicing the art of diabolism. This ward makes the recipient of it completely immune to the effects of the Diabolists magic as if he (or she) was the diabolist itself.
Limitations:
- In order for the ward to be effective, the Diabolist requires both his true name and the true name of the “companion- that will be inscribed onto the ward itself.
- It must be done in conjunction with the permanency ward, meaning that even if the couple later breaks up, the companion will always be immune to the diabolists wards.
- When the companion is placed on the recipient, the Diabolist halves the number of Wards that he is able to energize. Thus it is a pact that cannot be entered into lightly.
Damage: Not Applicable
Penalties: Not Applicable
Duration: Permanent
Ward Used with: Permanency, The true names of the recipient.
Power Words: Agu yin Acba yin Tao-bo
Protection From: Not Applicable
P.P.E. Cost: 50 plus the cost of the other wards.
Inscribed with: must be carved from the bone of a dragon, demon, godling or god; the bone must be big enough to inscribe permanency on the same bone. Then the bone must be sewed into the companion in such a way that it doesn’t hinder the companion.

Time to inscribe: 120 hours for the companion ward, plus 120 hours for the permanency ward.

Time Wards: These wards which represent seconds, minutes, hours or days can be used to time when a ward goes off. They must be used in conjunction of the numbers wards. By connecting them in conjunction with each other, a ward can become a time bomb.
Duration: depends on the time set. maximum of 1000 seconds, minutes, hours or days. Usually done in increments of 10 and rarely exceeds 50, due to time and cost considerations
Ward Used with: Any
Power Words:
Protection From: Not applicable.
P.P.E. Cost: 1 per second, 2 per minute, 5 per hour, 10 per day. These costs are cumuliative with the numbers used.
Inscribed with: a mixture of sawdust and beeswax
Time to inscribe: 1 melee round per "unit" of time. This is on top of any numbers drawn.

Invisible script: This special ward turns a ward invisible immediately after its created. While this ward and the wards that connect it are invisble to infared, ultraviolet and most sensory equipment, it can still be detected by sense magic, and see the invisible abilities. Note that this does nothing to disguise the other senses, such as smell. It also adds a 10% chance of disrupting the other wards, causing the ward to not be setup.
Damage: Dependent on the other wards.
Duration: 30 minutes per level of the caster
Ward Used with: varies
Power Words: Acba yin Lo-kum
Protection From: Not applicable.
P.P.E. Cost: 10 P.P.E. plus the cost of the other runes
Inscribed with: Drawn with blood from the diabolist (loses 1 S.D.C./H.P.) and iron filings combined with a resin or binding agent; must be 65% silver.
Time to inscribe: Drawn or painted 2 melee rounds.

Notes on old wards:

Protection from+Cold: While this combination is in place, this ward makes the recipient immune to frost bite during its duration.

Protection From +Numbers: This combination when used, can be used to give the recipient a complete sense of time for as long as the wards are activated. This means that they can accurately measure the passage of time to within 1D4 seconds.

[Slag]

NICE!!!

Thanks, Shades-man.

I've kicked around some TW-Diabolist ideas:

Ward Locks: an integration of a ward sequence with a TWed-out gold lock-and-key system. Any type of manual key-lock or computerized/electronic lock will work. Causes ward sequence to only be "active" when lock is engaged, hence for a ward-covered door integrated into the door lock (say a dead-bolt) the wards will be inactive (as if uncharged) when the dead-bolt lock is disengaged (unlocked). Once the lock is engaged the wards become active and will go off if the door is disturbed by anyone besides the Diabolist and TW(s) that made it and anyone whose true name is not in the ward sequence.