Salt 2024/02/20(Tue)18:56 No. 1083843 ID: eb314c
File 170848419221.png - (2.17MB , 1600x1200 , cc.png )

Your name is Vestrit. You are a purple dragon - an offcolor chromatic dragon, with the unique property that your body is filled with anti-magic, and your breath can be used to corrode magic and stop certain spells. You've long heard of your lineage's legacy, enchanted items from lore devoured, entire fields of magic now extinct. You wish for your actions to rival those of your predecessors, and perhaps even exceed them someday.

You are fairly young, and have primarily spent your years growing stronger, establishing and defending your modest territory, and being a boon - or doom - for various adventurers passing through.

Now, however, you have finally grown strong enough in your own magic that you may change shape. Though your natural form is, naturally, superior, you fear a more direct approach to your goals will only make you an obvious target for angry mobs, and you are still only a young son in your family's eyes, not proven enough to be worth protecting. To take on one of these weaker, fleshy forms will provide you with an advantage in gaining access to the magic you long to possess and devour, and you have the patience to work the long con.

You have the ability to change your shape at will to that of a humanoid, the appearance of which you may choose. You have traveled to the edges of your territory to a small port town, host to a variety of the two-legged creatures, and from there may assess where you want to go and what tactics you may wish to use. You have coin, and will be able to purchase what supplies you need in town.

What form and identity will you take?

Gynomorph catfolk
You will take the guise of a travelling merchant, freely marketing the very items you plan to devour. When you're done with your cover identity, you can simply wander into the woods one day and rip your caravan apart, cashing out on the magical items while giving a justification for how you disappeared.

Female lizardfolk. Familiar, but blends in. You'll call yourself an adventurer, and ask about local points of interest such as ancient ruins and rumors of treasure. If there's an adventurer's guild that can get you in contact with a variety of bipedals, some of whom are likely magic-users.

For an identity, how about a traveling snake-oil salesman. Even better if you're a snake person

Male birdfolk
Pass yourself off as a scholar/mage , seeking records of ancient magics and artifacts.

>>1083856
This sounds like a good idea.

>>1083856
This is good. Familiar enough for you but exotic enough that any quirksnor mistakes will be accepted easier.
.consider adopting the role of a loremaster or journeyman mage.
Engaged in a period of travel as part of the traditions of your distant and entirety fictitious school.
The sort of person who, due to an implied need for funds, could be convinced to identify magical treasures for adventurer parties for a smaller fee than other, local services..

A robot.

"You mean a gole-"

No, a robot. With a boxy metal chassis and electrical wiring and a lightbulb on top of your head, all the bells and whistles.

You are anti-magic because you are a product of facts and logic, not whimsical make-believe.

>Young son.
Guys being shapeshifted into girls is HAWT!


But let's not do that, let's do the robot thing instead.

>>1083864
I like this one!

Oh the dragon's male. Well, whatever their preference I suppose.

For the purpose of gaining the thrust I would suggest a form that evokes innocence and childishness at first glance.
A bit of knowledge of local demographics and stereotypes would help. For example: a halfling could be a good option unless they are infamous for thievery.
So small, child like and with puppy eyes. Depending on the culture it could be: humanoid (halfling, gnome, feyling...), small cat (felis, eluran, tibbit...), small owl (owlin, owlfolk)... You get the idea.

Form of purple dragon, you COWARD.

>>1083866
Like some kind of owl, a scholar of magic, but without much experience of the world outside of books. The "lost my glasses again" sort of scholar. Of course you don't need glasses, but nobody will suspect a thing if you play to the stereotypes of the sheltered scholar lost outside of his library. And this way it won't shock as much if you ask things everybody should know. You just don't get out much.

Salt 2024/02/23(Fri)20:51 No. 1084381 ID: eb314c
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Of course, you would love to maintain your true form, as no other could hope to compare, but unfortunately your large size makes traversing the kinds of labyrinths that hide arcane treasures difficult. Not to mention that wizards are loathe to let a creature with anti-magic breath anywhere near them or their beloved hoards.

You consider some sort of avian-like form, which would grant you wings, but learning to fly in a body you already aren't used to using would probably cause you to stand out. Eventually, you decide to change shape into that of a lizardfolk: a form like an inferior mockery of your own, but at least it's some comfort to still have scales instead of fragile mammalian skin.

After changing, you spend some time adjusting to your new perspective and the balance and maneuvering of this body. The world seems huge and strange, and you wonder at how these little ones manage to have so much arrogance despite their diminutive forms.

Eventually, you don your robes, which you obtained, mostly-intact, from a wizard who had crossed through your territory. You also gather the assortment of random gewgaws collected from various encounters which seemed potentially useful for trading for supplies you need.

Finally you head out, making the trek which seemed so trivial in your true form but took you the entire morning and a fair portion of the afternoon. Irritating as it was, you didn't want any of the town's inhabitants to notice a dragon poking around too closely to their walls.

Few people are entering the port town from the direction you are, and you're noticed by a guard as you enter the gates. You tell him that you're a student of magic with a possible interest in finding an adventuring party, he rolls his eyes and points you towards a couple of locations that may be of interest.

Evidently there is a bar popular among aspiring adventurers called the Broken Drum, where people will likely welcome new members to their party. Another option would be the River Bend, a somewhat more respectable establishment where people are more likely to be proven, but less inclined to welcome a greenhorn and liable to see through any poorly-planned lies you have.

You have greater ambitions than nabbing the occasional magic item, but even grand plans have humble beginnings. Aside from trying to join a group, you can always look around, try to swindle some people, try your luck as an impromptu merchant, or something else.

>>1084381
Why don't we check out the markets first and see where we can pawn a few items for more usable coin.

Does consuming/whatever an item make you stronger, or is it just an achievement?

The markets are a fine idea.

It will be best to practice interacting in this new guise before attempting anything mission-critical. Trying to requisition some basic adventuring supplies should be a reasonable trial of this body—waterskins and provisions, a walking stick, rope, that sort of miscellany. Thus equipped, the cover story of of aspiring adventurer will be all the more believable.

>>1084383
You need coin before you can visit the bars, need to be able to buy folks drinks to ingratiate yourself with any potential adventuring parties.

How does magic work? Can we con some wizard into doing the hard work of collecting magic for us?

Should you find anyone in here clad in holy armor, approach them immediately. It's a risk for an "evil" dragon, but think about it. People like that are always stumble onto cursed or evil artifacts on their adventures, and love to have somebody on hand to dismantle them. Just make sure they don't ask questions about how, make up whatever excuses you can, and resist the temptation to taste any holy artifacts.

>>1084393
That's not a bad idea. They do need to be adventures so we should look for them in the bar instead of a temple.


I'm in agreement with this emerging plan o going for a diplomatic trial run in the marked followed by a visit to the River Bend.

Salt 2024/02/28(Wed)13:29 No. 1084824 ID: eb314c
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> How does magic work? Can we con some wizard into doing the hard work of collecting magic for us?

Magic is an energy, often intangible to the naked eye (though it can take physical form) which can manipulate or be manipulated. Some people and creatures have a natural affinity for it, though, with enough practice and willpower, most can learn to channel it to at least a small degree. It can be contained, enhanced, muffled, or more easily used with the use of certain arcane objects.

You would very much like to con a wizard - or several - into producing magic for you. You've toyed around with the concept of taking control of a wizard academy to encourage the discovery and creation of new magic that, unknown to the wizards, was for you to then possess and consume. It may be easier to just found your own unwitting mage school, but you wouldn't even know where to begin when considering the logistics.

> Does consuming/whatever an item make you stronger, or is it just an achievement?

It's done merely for its own sake. Though theoretically there could be a type of magic designed to be consumed, this generally isn't the case.

> Check out the market

You decide to forgo the taverns for now, and instead make your way to the market, following the distant sounds of merchants hawking their wares. It's quite lively, and you see a variety of vendors - most selling fish, mussels, and pickled goods you can't identify. It's difficult to sort out all of the smells you're experiencing; some kind of spiced meat pie frying, dough on a stick being grilled, the aroma of spices from one of the stalls. Among them you see a leatherworker, who appears to be repairing a set of gloves from behind their table of leatherworks. A chandler offers a variety of candles, and is touting the benefits meant to come from inhaling their smoke. Several places offer purportedly enchanted items to benefit adventurers on their travels, with one place offering to buy cursed objects. Many people seem to be targeting adventurers needing to refresh their supplies.

The majority of those you see are human, though among the shoppers you catch glimpses of dwarves and an orc.

It's difficult to know where to begin.

We are an adventurer looking to refresh his supplies. This is the place to concentrate our efforts. A pack and waterskins should be the first order, and rations following that. If you'll be unable to sleep in this body without some additional comfort, you might look also for a bedroll. If you desire any sort of weapon or armor to defend yourself with, or to be useful to the adventurers you seek to join, I would place that as the final priority. Traveling clothes, you're already wearing, and additional baubles, while potentially useful, can be left to the worldly tramps already used to adventures.

What do you have to trade? If you don't have money but have some loot go to a general merchant with similar items to barter. If you have some coins buy food and try to start a friendly talk with the merchant about the city and the market.
The goal here is general information and to learn how well you can interact. You should only buy magical items after getting a grasp on the relative value of money around here and if you have enough to spend.

>>1084824
The adventurer-targeting stalls might be willing to barter with the non-coin items you've got, and you can at least ask them where you can sell your stuff.

New long term goal: Found a mage school, with the express goal of inventing and refining wholly new types of magic and recreating lost fields of magic from first principles.

After all, renewable resources and sustainable agricultural practices are all the big thing these days, aren't they?

Another quick question, does your species get along well with other types of dragons? Are various types of dragons interfertile and socially compatible in general? What cognitive and cultural barriers are there to dragons cooperating and coordinating long term?

Another another quick question, are there any weird sorts of supernatural empowerment or willworking paradigms which exist but are not typically considered 'magic', either semantically or by your own nature? Stuff like psionics, ki, spirit or soul manipulation that's wholly distinct from what necromancers or conjurers get up to, that sort of thing?

What magic can you perform? Simple illusions and light tricks are good for impressing the public if theyre not used to magic, but itd also be good to know if you can unleash fireballs or the like.

Consideration of larger, longer-term goals should be put on the backburner for now, broad strokes aside. At present the priority needs to be on acquiring contacts and a revenue stream. Affiliating with common adventurers is a plebeian debasement, but potentially lucrative and suitable for one who otherwise lacks an established background in the local burghs. Institutions of magi are of interest, yet they are also places most liable to host wizards powerful enough to see through this masque and threaten a being of our grandeur; it would be dangerous to set out for them directly, at least for now. Proclaim ourself an adventurer hailing from distant lands and inquire about; state that we search for comrades-in-arms in whichever place as they are like to congregate, with a speciality and eye towards subjugating malevolent sorcerers and their ilk.