{"id":37207,"date":"2019-10-31T22:16:21","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/blog\/zloklyucheniya-chyornogo-edinoroga\/"},"modified":"2019-10-31T22:16:21","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:16:21","slug":"zloklyucheniya-chyornogo-edinoroga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prohoster.info\/en\/blog\/news\/zloklyucheniya-chyornogo-edinoroga","title":{"rendered":"The Adventures of the Black Unicorn","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

A tale of how a 'wicked' wizard and a 'good' party almost drove a 'democratic' master to his limits. But in the end, the game was enjoyable despite everything.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n<\/a><\/noindex>
\nAt the beginning of this story, there was no unicorn, and it wasn't even anticipated. It all started with an invitation to participate in one of the role-playing games, where our master wanted to try out a new system (called True20). It was the year 2014, and by that time, our party had accumulated several years of experience playing D&D (mostly 3.5) and other systems (such as the episodic World of Darkness).<\/p>\n

So, based on the realities of the proposed setting, I created a character of a ratman, to avoid being just a boring human. His name was Fry Skaven<\/b> and by the end of the game, his fate turned out to be quite complex. According to the backstory I provided, he was a human living in a mining settlement where locals extracted some glowing stones. It soon turned out that these stones caused mutations, and so the locals became rat-people. In fact, the character's last name is a nod to the fantasy Warhammer (you get it).<\/p>\n

Chapter One. Fireflies for Karla <\/h3>\n

\nAt the beginning of the game, the ratman, along with the other participants (who were just regular humans), joined the magical guild 'Heart of the World.' It's worth noting that the master created quite an interesting world, with memorable inhabitants, but the annoying D&D-like system True20 was chosen as the foundation.<\/p>\n

What I dislike about True20? Quite a bit. To put it briefly, it's the unnecessary rolls. It has always felt excessive in D&D for me, and here you even have to roll for fatigue. When taking damage, you need to roll for toughness. Useless crits, a sea of stun locks, twisted 'pyramids' instead of hit points (never liked that), and so on.<\/p>\n

The concept of exhaustion is particularly burdensome mentally. Or rather, its implementation. Whether you're at the first level or the 20th, the chance of getting fatigued after casting is roughly the same. If you accumulate 4 points of fatigue, you're essentially finished. Additionally, each point of fatigue penalizes your agility, which means a lower chance to successfully cast spells. Moreover, if spells are cast one after another, a penalty accumulates that increases the likelihood of exhaustion. Furthermore, an enemy mage can unexpectedly 'exhaust' you prematurely. Is it worth mentioning that the spell drain vitality<\/b> is an absolute must-have for any mage. It drains fatigue from another person through touch, requiring a hit roll and a roll to measure willpower. This effectively turns a battle against a mage into a game of endlessly exchanging blows, while a fight with any warrior becomes about catching stuns and subsequently knocking them away.<\/p>\n

Not everything is as dreadful as it seems. No, good heavens, what am I writing \u2014 it's an absolute nightmare! There are convictions that allow you to break out of stuns and do other nice things. But fundamentally, they don't change the picture of the world. Even powerful enemies have them. There's a decent way to deal with almost anyone \u2014 draining fatigue while being supported by a team (though in my case, since the rest of the team are NOT mages, that's not so simple). But, putting my hand on my heart, if our master hadn't canceled some rules and supplied us with certain cheat-like overpowers, this game simply wouldn't exist.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Next, as new guild members, we had to undergo a sort of trial. Our curator, a rather unpleasant fellow, sent the party to catch a whole bunch of fireflies in the local forest. A cart with jars for the fireflies came with the assignment. Along the way, we were joined by a lizard smoking some kind of pipe, resembling a masterful character. Our bard tried this pipe and earned a powerful curse that we struggled to remove (and it seems we never fully did).<\/p>\n

Initially, things did not go well with the fireflies, especially since some eerie mushrooms appeared in that glade: the fireflies either froze or simply died from the spores. Fortunately for us, these spores seemed to be harmless to the heroes themselves, so by using them, we managed to gather the necessary amount of fireflies. However, on the way back, we were attacked by bandits. They started to beat us quite harshly. My rat-man had already figured out that from him elemental strike<\/b> the enemies felt neither hot nor cold, so he diligently drained fatigue. In our group, we referred to the use of this truly vile spell as a 'session of black magic'. I won\u2019t say it helped much in the battle, but it contributed in some way.<\/p>\n

It's amazing, but we actually managed to fend them off. Oh, you should have seen how our bard tormented the surviving captive. It's kind of his special trait: always running around as a 'neutral,' but in moments like these, he magically becomes 'pure evil.' He tortured the captive to death... and, what\u2019s especially horrifying, he didn\u2019t even use songs.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t exactly remember how everything ended with the bandits; I think we eventually buried them all. But I do remember that our group planned to take the bodies to the city, even though I said it was a really BAD idea.<\/p>\n

Chapter Two. The Elvish Apples of Discord<\/h3>\n

\nAfter a while, we brought back the fireflies and learned from the astonished carly that, actually, this was a typical mock test for novices, which all proper neophytes fail. Poor guy, if only he knew what we did to the bandits\u2026<\/p>\n

Next, the guild leader took care of us, telling us about some cool and wondrous elvish apples that he desperately needed. We had no choice but to head to the elves. Moreover, it was to some disputed lands, where the elves do not let anyone in. Reaching the border human village and crossing the river, we entered forbidden elven territories.<\/p>\n

There was some ancient abandoned forest. By that time, my Fry had learned the spell sense minds<\/b>, which allows sensing intelligent beings. With its help, the rat-man scoured the forest, picking up just one foreign mind somewhere ahead.<\/p>\n

After wandering a bit, we found a tree with magical fruits, picked them, but triggered a force field and some sort of guard creature. We managed to deal with the monster, but not with the field. After a while, an elf appeared (it seems like it was his mind that Fry sensed earlier) and offered to let us out in exchange for the apples. Naturally, the team did not want to give up their loot, so the elf was initially sent on his way. However, he appeared again later and we decided to trick him: to catch him when he passed through the field. That's how it turned out; the elf spilled some kind of potion on himself, and the force barrier became permeable for him. Once inside, he fell for our trap and... it was time for another round of torture courtesy of the bard.<\/p>\n

It turned out that the elf was deceiving us and the means to pass through the barrier wouldn\u2019t be enough for everyone. However, he had some strange potions in a box. There wasn't much to do, and the elf refused to explain what those potions did. My rat-man wanted to test one of them on the elf, bluff and see his reaction. But he encountered a wall of misunderstanding from the party's main warrior.<\/p>\n

This is definitely some very special role-play that is beyond my comprehension. You say your character wants to do something, and suddenly a teammate lunges at your hero, grabs him, and knocks him out. What is this? Is it ratophobia, as if mean wizards cursed them in childhood? It\u2019s unclear.<\/p>\n

At the same time, he had no hidden motives, just some vague, unreasoned \"I don\u2019t want you to do that\" from another player. So what now? Should I thank him for not finishing me off? And most importantly, how is my hero supposed to react to his teammate in the future? He must react. He has to! At the very least, he should lay a trap.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chapter Three, in which the rat battles the narrative tracks.<\/h3>\n

\nThen a jar with black potion shattered, and the dark substance seeped into the rat-man. When Fry woke up, the elf army was just coming out of the forest. After his ally's antics, Fry didn\u2019t want anything to do with that person, so the rat-man pretended to be a victim too, trying to escape from the warrior. And, in principle, that was indeed the case.<\/p>\n

But the elves, led by their haughty queen, seem to be all telepaths and psychics, as they struck us with sleep arrows and threw Fry and the warrior into the same cell. There were no questions about it; we were summoned for interrogation with a hundred percent certainty that we were part of the same gang. Fry's attempts to present himself as a victim were ignored. In the end, we were compelled to fight in a tournament against the elves.<\/p>\n

Okay. Let's incorporate more role-playing, whether we\u2019re in a role-playing game or not. Fry started to firmly insist that he wouldn't fight and didn't want to (with such allies). Besides, he was a deeply unhappy being with the difficult life of a mutant, and such noble elves (as they presented themselves in their speeches) shouldn't stoop to mocking such helpless creatures (and I didn't mention that the hero was a mage). The master's reaction \u2014 ignore it. You will fight, end of story.<\/p>\n

I grasped why this should not be done from my own experience as a master. Two or three years ago, in my game, I intended to send the heroes to an arena where they would have to fight each other using special pets. I thought they would enjoy it, as it was planned as quite an enjoyable competitive event. However, the players were very reluctant to go when they learned about the prospect of entering a battle arena guarded by a creature that watched over their cell. Well, I then accommodated them by allowing them to escape from the cell before that time. It wasn\u2019t any divine intervention; I just kept an eye on what the heroes were trying to do, and they managed to free themselves.<\/p>\n

Here, we were dragged by the scruff of our necks to the only correct next scene. Such is the freedom of choice. I even understand what prompted this \u2014 the master wanted to showcase his storyline beautifully, but in such situations, it doesn't work that way.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Alright. Fry promised the elven queen in conversation that she would regret it. The elves only laughed at him. Then we were once again briefly thrown into the cell. Which, of course, was entirely anti-magic and in every other sense 'bulletproof.' Fry did not seek revenge on the warrior ally, as he had somewhat different problems now, and there was nothing really to do that with.<\/p>\n

They eventually led us to the arena. This is where, in the arena (interesting, why?), one can cast spells \u2014 the master informed me. The rat-man resisted until the end: he didn't take up arms and refused to do anything, saying, well, if you want to slaughter the defenseless \u2014 go ahead. Then a couple of elves were released onto us with the warrior.<\/p>\n

But. Fry didn\u2019t want to fight at all. Even now, when we were left with the one and only option. It should be noted that my rat-man possessed illusion magic. And I decided that it was time to use it (I could have simply thrown an ice arrow at the main elf lady, but it was clear that she would definitely have some protective barrier around her throne, given all the anti-magic chambers and visions).<\/p>\n

So, Fry decided that he had nothing to lose and needed to go all-in. He snapped at the elf queen (saying she asked for it) and declared to the whole arena that now all the elves would see who truly ruled them. An illusion of the completely naked main elf lady with sores in intimate places appeared on stage. The master was stunned for a minute!<\/p>\n

Later, in another gaming session (we played this game for a total of two to three sessions), the master delved into the rules and said that I couldn\u2019t have done that \u2014 the local illusion only works on one target. But it was too late to regret it; what was done in that situation was done.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chapter Four, in which the rails strike back <\/h3>\n

\nAfter the \u2018reboot,\u2019 the master revealed that the elf lady (unexpectedly) had a ring that purposefully dispels magic. Right then, with a wave of her hand, the main elf lady destroyed the illusion. And she became quite furious. Fry tried to create a force barrier to shield himself from the attackers, but it seemed to be dispelled as well. The approaching enemies began to kill him.<\/p>\n

Well, I can understand many moments, but such a response... In my opinion, that's a serious master fail. Especially unexpected from someone who plays quite interestingly, who is praised for beautiful descriptions, with an immense number of games behind him.
\nI don't know, something needed to be done more subtly, rather than crushing a rather creative initiative with such a heavy-handed plot device out of nowhere. But what can you do, the exit found \u2014 that\u2019s the exit found.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The situation was mostly resolved by the master himself: the mentor of our guild arrived, contacted by one of our party members (who hadn\u2019t been captured). The rat was nearly dead, but the black filth he had spilled on himself intensified his state. It was some kind of mega-curse. Sensing the power, Fry started to fight off the attackers, but they still somehow managed to restrain him and throw him into the dungeon.<\/p>\n

The guild mentor managed to persuade the elf to release everyone except for the rat-man. Later, while talking with the party, he suggested the following plan \u2014 one of us would sneak into the cell with Fry and stab him with a special needle that extracts the soul. Afterward, my hero would die after some time, and the soul trapped in the needle would be reincarnated into a new creature. That\u2019s exactly what we did.<\/p>\n

Chapter Five. Knight's Move<\/h3>\n

\nI was offered to be reborn as a human or through a random table. I chose the latter because I originally didn\u2019t want to play as a human. I ended up being a knight (not surprising in the year of the horse!). However, I tweaked my appearance a bit and became a black unicorn with yellow eyes (the same eye color as the rat-man). His ability to speak was lost, and moreover, the rat's night vision was gone. On the bright side, he gained telepathic communication and some perks from his black blood (which didn\u2019t disappear), such as increased resilience.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the rebirth, I had a reason to elegantly 'reset' my character's motivation, forgetting about the disagreements of the former rat and warrior. <\/p>\n

Next, we defended a border village from a punitive elf attack. I vividly remember the image of Fry grabbing our bard, throwing him over his shoulder, and racing towards our allies who had engaged in battle. When we approached, the bard began to bolster the team, while my horse reared up, casting an ice arrow.<\/p>\n

The village was set on fire, and we had to retreat. After us chased some particularly dangerous berserker elves. We dealt with them, and it was again time for our bard's off-theme passion: torture and killing.<\/p>\n

However, the master remembered our method and decided to play differently. The captive felt no pain! And he was not afraid of death; he didn't care. A hopeless mortal, devoid of any meaning in life. You can't even imagine how the party resolved this issue. They put this elf on drugs!<\/p>\n

That was an epic moment. Ironically \u2014 to give the elf a sense of life through drug addiction. Our herbalist concocted a potent substance and administered it to the captive until he went through withdrawal. This made him more compliant; he revealed what he knew and, most importantly, he stayed alive (which is rare for those who have encountered our bard).
\nIn short, neither the imperfections of the system nor the failures of the participants can prevent players from enjoying the game and creating cool story scenes.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chapter Six. Rest in the Snowy South <\/h3>\n

\nHaving sorted this out, we returned to the guild and participated in some guild competition. We had to escort a cart with a rare collection of clothing. There were several such carts (three, I think), and we needed not only to reach the destination but also to intercept all competitors to safely deliver the entire collection from the local couturier. Wait, but how can it be safe if we have to fight for it? There\u2019s a high chance something could get damaged in the process. In the end, we managed it, after giving the rival guilds a bit of a beating.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, our bard was getting worse and worse. And he shouldn\u2019t have been smoking those strange hookahs. The thing is, he attracted some evil spirit that haunted him at night and occasionally bit him (so much so that visible marks were left in reality). Under the influence of all this nonsense, the bard gradually lost his human form \u2014 fur grew, a tail, and so on. Even the guild leader didn\u2019t know how to sort out the situation, but he managed to arrange a group session of journeying into the unconscious: the entire group entered the bard's dream, and we helped him deal with the spirit. Partially, at least. But he felt a little better.<\/p>\n

Then a new problem arose \u2014 the daughter of the guild leader was kidnapped. A large black sphere appeared in the city as well. We were sent through a teleport somewhere far to the south (so far that it wasn't even south anymore \u2014 it was winter) to search for an ancient dragon ritual that could banish the darkness. By that time, Fry had learned to fly, and thanks to that, we avoided some dangers, as my hero was transporting the others.<\/p>\n

We encountered aggressive giants, which we eventually ran away from and stumbled upon a pack of wolves led by a special magical wolf (or was it a snow leopard? I can't remember exactly). The pack surrounded us during our camp. Fry telepathically negotiated with the pack leader that 'we will give you food, and you do not bother us.'<\/p>\n

Thus, we reached the orc settlement and entered negotiations with them. They were not particularly welcoming, but the leader decided to meet us halfway and make a deal: we bring him a dragon artifact, and he shows us the place we need. However, we needed that artifact ourselves, so we promised to bring it but had no intention of giving it away. The orc leader had an aggressive brother who initially snorted at us but then suddenly suggested we give him the artifact in secret. What he was counting on was unclear. At first, he made it obvious that he hated us, and then he comes up with some proposals?<\/p>\n

In the end, they led us to where we needed to go: some caves where we dealt with a guardian golem and managed to squeeze into a secret room that had everything we needed for the quest. There was also a secret exit. So, all the cards were in our hands: if we wanted, we could fly away immediately, or we could go back and hand the artifact to one of the brothers. We wanted to play them for all they were worth since Fry knew how to create illusions. But then I don't quite remember how it went. It seemed like we had plans, but in the end, we just ditched them and flew away from there to avoid complicating things and continue the main storyline.<\/p>\n

Chapter Seventeen, in which everyone comes to the black sphere. <\/h3>\n

\nAs we were returning, we teleported a bit off course: we ended up at a meeting with the already familiar disgusting Carla, our 'sort of still' curator. He suggested that we hand over the scroll with the dragon ritual to him, and in return, he would give us a lot of money. We inquired about what the guild leader would think about this, and where Carla suddenly got all this 'lots of money'. Carla assured us that he would work things out with the guild leader, and that the rest was no problem. Our bard was outraged by all this vagueness and asked Carla in detail: what, how, and why. Carla stumbled over his words and obscured the truth; he was generally unsympathetic to us throughout the game (he was truly disgusting, the master did a great job portraying this character). We decided to agree that he should come back later to the black sphere, and there we would hand it over. And bring the money.<\/p>\n

No need to say that no one was planning to give him anything. However, Carla stated that we didn't know everything about the guild leader. If he performed the ritual on himself, it would lead to big problems. After some consultation, we decided to go to the guild master and expose Carla completely. Said and done. We decided to keep the scroll for ourselves, saying we would perform the ritual since we couldn't trust anyone else. We told the guild master that it was no longer possible to conduct the ritual on anyone other than ourselves and demanded he bring us the necessary ingredients for it. He wasn't too pleased and seemed to want to convince us otherwise. But the bard insisted that he should come to the black sphere. Later. There, we would hand him over, and bring the ingredients.<\/p>\n

Then we tried to read the scroll. Actually, Fry attempted, as he was the only full-fledged mage in the team. The scroll opened. Suddenly, the unicorn felt ill \u2014 knowledge poured into its head, its body froze for a few moments, and the dark curse that affected the hero almost dissipated (the scroll banishes darkness, after all). The master proposed to decide \u2014 does Fry accept the banishment of darkness or resist it. I thought, let it be with the darkness, otherwise I would end up with an unplayable character, and I'm already used to it. As a result, the internal darkness intensified, and the unicorn became infernal: leathery wings appeared (along with the innate ability to fly, not through a spell), dark flames instead of a mane, an onyx horn, and its eyes glowed red.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, our bard made arrangements with two more important guild members using the standard scheme: 'come to the black sphere.' One gave in, the other did not.<\/p>\n

And now it's time. We are at the sphere. I already understand that Fry can pass through this darkness without any rituals since he has that thing inside him. As the hero approaches the sphere, vibrations appear on it. Yes, he needs to go there. But for now, I step back and wait for the right moment. First, the guild leader appears and says that not all the ingredients have been found. The bard asks him to hide for now. The guildmaster goes invisible. Then another guild member arrives and also hides. After that, Karla appears and brings a large gemstone.<\/p>\n

The funniest thing is that this gem was needed for the ritual. Karla did not know this, so he stole it from the guild leader.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The bard hands the scroll to Karla, and we have a few moments while he is stunned by the information pouring into him from the scroll. He gets caught by disintegration (it seems from the suddenly appeared guildmaster), and we say goodbye to our disgusting and foolish 'still sort of' curator. A lot of events occur simultaneously: a second guild member appears, and people from Karla shoot at us from somewhere on the side. Taking advantage of this, Fry slips away towards the black sphere and enters it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the guild leader gets hit by an arrow, and the assistant tries to save him. But it's too late; our bard was also not very fond of the guild leader, and pretending to help, he pushes the arrow deeper. What a treacherous bard we have. Amen.<\/p>\n

Fry found himself in a black sphere. Here he learned that at the center were bound girls (including the guild master's daughter). One of them was destined to give birth to a dark messiah. My hero was offered to oversee this process and become the right hand of this being that would lead the dark hordes. The infernal unicorn decided to think it over for now.<\/p>\n

There weren't many options here. I can't play against the party \u2014 these are secret deals, and I'll be caught immediately. Besides, there aren't any particular motives \u2014 well, they offered to join. Who knows how many people get such a proposal? I didn't see any good reasons to necessarily join the dark messiah. If the rest of the group wants to, then we'll think about it. Or if they force Fry into this step by turning against the unicorn: 'What\u2019s with you, sir, dressed out of season? Everyone's in dark, and you're not?'<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Chapter Eight. Hello, you have an incoming dark message.<\/h3>\n

\nThe guild members asked the group not to leave the city until all circumstances of the incident were clarified. Without wasting time, they performed a ritual, and one of our heroes gained the ability to exorcise darkness.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, the party members received a 'dark sms'. This was my Fry finally surfacing from the dark sphere and telepathically contacting his teammates, and then he himself flew to the meeting.<\/p>\n

Next, we reached the sphere and managed to create a passage inside. Fry obviously didn't go into it but instead into the dark wall of the sphere. Just in case, as the passage was made with light magic.<\/p>\n

Inside, the picture didn't change much. Besides the girls, there were also some special structures with people frozen inside. To get closer to the center of the sphere, it was necessary to free these structures from dark forces.<\/p>\n

First, we approached some kind of tent that looked like a circus. We couldn't get through the black entrance. After a magic knowledge test, the master reported that this place was something like a portal to somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Everything here seemed to follow its own peculiar rules; after purchasing tickets from the cashier at the entrance, we managed to go inside... and ended up in a cage with tigers. Behind this cage was a demonic-looking tamer, casting various unpleasant spells. While our fighters dealt with the tigers, I dispelled the tamer's nasty spells a couple of times, and then it turned out that we could shoot through the cage. By the end of the fight, Fry cast Disintegrate on the cage wall, and our warrior jumped out and took down the tamer. The remaining tigers immediately dispersed, and we returned. Thus, we freed one building.<\/p>\n

Next was some building with a large mirror blocking the entrance. We couldn\u2019t go in there either, and if you stood and looked inside, eyes would start to appear in the mirror. Thank goodness we were smart enough to step back and approach the mirror one at a time. It created our duplicates!<\/p>\n

This was also quite an interesting and memorable moment. The master redrew our character sheets to use our abilities and stats.
\nAt least we could pull our clones' strings as we wished, and they wouldn\u2019t criticize us for it. Convenient.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dealing with the warriors was relatively simple, especially since we then began to remove all our enhancing gear in advance. Taking down Fry's twin turned out to be trickier. I decided to play it safe and created a force barrier around us so the twin wouldn\u2019t fly away. But my hero exhausted almost all his energy on spells. Overall, the fight went something like this \u2013 the unicorns attempted to drain each other's energy with varying success, while the warriors gradually beat down one of them. Until they finally took it down. This is how we freed the second building. <\/p>\n

Chapter Nine. Consume these mirrored mazes and drink the dark blood.<\/h3>\n

\nAfter the mirror was destroyed, the second building was not freed, as I thought; a passage to a tent simply opened up. That\u2019s where our group headed. Inside, we discovered a mirrored labyrinth. After wandering around a bit, we emerged into a round hall with mirrors lining the perimeter. From one of them stepped a black lion with violet glowing eyes, its body seemingly covered with a thin layer of mirrored shell. The battle began.<\/p>\n

It turned out that he blocks or reflects direct attacks and magic, but you can attack his own reflections in the mirrors, which we tried to do (for some reason, we couldn't break the mirrors and frames). Fry was trying to siphon off the lion's fatigue through the reflection, as the disintegration shot reflected from the mirror and the damage was pretty minimal. Meanwhile, the lion froze in place and became invulnerable, summoning various dead people to the battlefield who emerged from the mirrors. Our fighter killed them, after which the lion was freed. At this point, the bard was tired of this prolonged battle and cast a temporal stasis spell on the lion from a scroll. And the lion froze, as if forever.<\/p>\n

It turned out that we couldn't get back. There was nothing to dispel the spell. We tried to break through the ceiling of the hall; darkness was swirling there. When the bard tried to reach out into it, he got burned. It seemed that only Fry could penetrate there without harm. My character climbed into that darkness and flew up until he felt an obstacle. The thrown disintegration made a hole, and my hero flew out of the tent.<\/p>\n

By that time, another player had joined, who plays a warrior. This warrior turned out to be outside the tent, and we exchanged a few words. After that, it occurred to me that the others could be rescued if I spilled the black blood of my unicorn on them.<\/p>\n

The master called me into another room to tell me that the darkness inside the unicorn was pleased with such an idea and we needed to convince the others to agree to it. Fry went inside through the regular entrance and bumped into glass, behind which the other group members were visible. It was impossible to break this glass, so the infernal unicorn had to come out and return through the hole in the tent. There, he suggested the option with the black blood, but the companions refused, looking for other options. Eventually, I suggested a trip to the city for a dispel magic scroll, and we settled on that option. Fry flew again through the hole in the tent, looked at the warrior who was loitering around, and flew to the edge of the black sphere. It turned out that now the sphere wouldn't let the unicorn back in.<\/p>\n

The Master called me back and said that the darkness revealed to the unicorn a way to lift the stasis spell: they needed to infect at least two more with darkness, then together they could break this magic. I mentioned that it had already been suggested, but the others clearly refused, so why try to sow discord among the party? It has long been obvious to everyone that Fry is the dark horse. And all these private conversations only serve to turn the party further against the hero.<\/p>\n

In general, we returned and the Master decided to sort things out himself again. The darkness slipped off Fry, seeping into the mirrors, and in the guise of an infernal unicorn began to insistently persuade the others to accept it. My hero fainted for a moment, taking the form of an ordinary horse with a horn.<\/p>\n

The party refused the proposal. Just then, a warrior approached from outside, pressing his face against the glass. The darkness addressed him, and he decided to accept it, after which he convinced another party member to do the same (more like pressured him). Both received some initial dark bonuses, and then the darkness returned to Fry's body. The spell was lifted, and the black lion was killed.<\/p>\n

Chapter Ten. Oh, you spider... daughter <\/h3>\n

\nAfter that, we headed to the third structure, which seemed to be just some sort of arch or portal. Upon entering, the party found themselves in a city square filled with people. They greeted us as victors. As we moved further, we discovered our guild master (alive) and his daughter. It became clear that everything around was an illusion (which we had already suspected, considering it was under a black dome), and our fighter attempted to kill the guild master. In response, his daughter transformed into a gigantic spider, and the crowd rushed at us.<\/p>\n

The battle began; while my party members fought the crowd, the spider climbed up an almost invisible web, thus escaping the range of close attacks. The bard cast enhancements on some allies, but the spider still remained out of reach. This monster had two attacks per turn and started bombarding us with webs.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that the web plunged into a nightmarish sleep after a failed throw on Charisma. Upon awakening, the hero lost as much as 2 fatigue! But what is this self-initiative? Nobody prohibits homebrewing, but one shouldn't hack the system so abruptly. In True20, there are no powers that remove 2 fatigue at once. Additionally, sleep in True20 is tied to a Will saving throw. I'll add that thanks to our bard, we were all under the effect of immunity to fear, but the master dismissed this point \u2014 claiming that nightmares in your sleep still frighten you.<\/p>\n

As I understood it, the master handed us something previously created for D&D but converted it quickly, breaking the game mechanics for his own purposes. Thus, some out-of-system imbalance fell upon our heads, which was not too realistically overcome with systemic means. The master, of course, is generally on our side, but let's agree that it's much more interesting to solve problems with our own strength than to live solely thanks to the master's interventions.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is no need to say that Fry's attacking spells turned out to be useless as always (you get it, non-munchkins in this game wouldn't even risk going out for bread) and I was thinking about other options. It seemed to me that it would be good to blow the spider down with gusts of wind and I used wind shaping<\/b>. A stream of wind appeared, but the spider clung to her web, swaying from side to side. <\/p>\n

After getting caught in the web once, Fry earned 2 fatigue and had accumulated a total of 3. After that, the hero stumbled to search for the remaining people to drink some fatigue from someone. He found only one (even though there were crowds of them, and the party didn't kill nearly all. Master, what the heck?) and spent two turns draining fatigue from him.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the fight made no progress, and the spider crawled out of the wind. And once again, she threw her web. Fry was getting fed up with this. He surrounded himself with a protective mana wall<\/b> (like a barrier) to avoid being blown away by the wind. After that, he increased the wind to its maximum, and a tornado began, sending the spider flying happily, slamming against the walls. The other party members were significantly increased and the effect didn\u2019t seem to lift them into the air. At this point, my pony failed the saving throw for sleep and the tornado ended. The spider fell down, where it was finally dealt with. By the end of the fight, each party member had 3 fatigue hanging over them.<\/p>\n

Final chapter. When leaving, turn off the light, all white. <\/h3>\n

\nWe returned and saw that we could now approach the girls who were about to give birth to the dark messiah. At that moment, a black portal appeared behind them, from which chains burst forth. They grabbed the expectant mothers and dragged them inside. Our fighter surged ahead, slashing open the girls' bellies (uh, and this was the most 'light' member of the party, the only one who had dismissed the darkness). A few were pulled inside, and we followed into the portal.<\/p>\n

Regarding the characters' motivations, role-playing, etc., honestly, I don't understand why we kept going towards the main boss when the entire party had already become dark. What's the point? This dark messiah was in the way under these circumstances. Did they want to save a girl? It didn't seem so.<\/p>\n

By the way, in our party, we had players who didn't enjoy discussing the game after it was over and only wanted one thing \u2014 content. Anything, just something new. In D&D, this was ensured by diving into new books and building effective character builds endlessly. Sometimes, creating a character took an entire game session, and that was more interesting than the actual adventures.<\/p>\n

However, it would be beneficial to discuss the game and take it more seriously, as the lack of reflection would lead to jumping between systems and subsequent disappointment in each of them. After all, 'the problem is definitely not us.' <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Inside was a huge black crystal that absorbed the remaining mothers and transformed into something like a golem. Everyone infected by darkness had to make saving throws every turn to determine whether they were fighting on the golem's side or not. Naturally, I wanted to make neutral movements when the darkness seized Freya during her turn: for example, to protect the golem by surrounding it with a mana wall. However, the master insisted on aggressive movements specifically against our teammates, so I couldn't cheat. Well, that was fine, especially since I could completely wear myself out with the mana wall. The only acceptable option left was to drain exhaustion (single or mass). On his turn, Freya flew closer to the others but was still not close enough.<\/p>\n

Then our bard cast a dance effect on me and the warrior, forcing us to fall back every turn. Meanwhile, the golem was slowly being dealt with. Having distanced himself from both effects, Fry decided to fly away from the others while he could, so he wouldn't have to impose fatigue on his allies. After flying away, he again became an ally to the golem, but at that moment, the rest of the party finally dealt with the enemy.<\/p>\n

And that's how it ended. Our party found itself in the middle of a huge round pit \u2014 the place where the black sphere once was. We were greeted by people and other beings peering down from above. Then there was a long spiel about how we were welcomed and awarded. The end.<\/p>\n

At that moment, the master gathered our character sheets and suddenly announced that we were no longer playing True20. Ever. And he dramatically tore them up. What a twist. Well, nobody really objected, although we could have kept the sheets.<\/p>\n

And you, black-maned one, I ask you to stay. <\/h3>\n

\nWell, I decided that such a character shouldn't be lost and converted Fry (no longer Skayven, just Fry) to my system. Twisted Terra<\/b>. To avoid complicating the hero's backstory, I modified it slightly:<\/p>\n

\"Once, Fry was a snow-white wild creature. Days and nights he wandered carefreely in the silence of the Golden Forest until one day the peace of the sacred grove was disturbed.<\/p>\n

There were two \u2014 a hunter and his prey. A swift elven archer and a rat fleeing from her.<\/p>\n

When the elven arrow flew toward the fugitive, it shattered against the wall of darkness, failing to find its target. The rat made a gesture, and the tree trunks cut black furrows, rushing towards the archer, but she dodged to the side with lightning speed.<\/p>\n

Fry watched in horror, hiding behind golden leaves. The combatants destroyed everything around until finally, the wounded elf finished off the rat with an enchanted dagger. The archer took the stolen wondrous apple from the dead. As she left, she read an ancient scroll, as instructed by the elven lord. No one was to discover the body, soaked in cursed black blood. The ground trembled, coming to life.<\/p>\n

When the elf left and the ground stopped shaking, Fry peeked out from behind the trees again. Curiosity led him to the body of the defeated rat. The rat's black blood seeped into the unicorn, awakening the dormant possibilities of his mind and imbuing it with magical properties.<\/p>\n

Realizing what was happening, Fry, now turned black, discovered that a part of his beloved forest had been lifted into the air by an elven spell. It seemed that the time had come to leave familiar places.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, the backstory in my system is optional \u2014 what is important for the game are the foundational traits of the biography<\/b> of the character. For Fry, I have highlighted the following set of traits: \"black unicorn,\" \"eyes glowing with orange light,\" \"psychic,\" \"cursed black blood,\" \"dislikes elves and rats.\"<\/p>\n

These are all certain \"seeds\" that can yield \"crops\" during the game, developing into special rules. For example, I specified the trait \"cursed black blood\" into two starting special rules \u2014 \"magic of black blood\" and \"infernal hurricane.\" It is quite possible that the properties of black blood hold some other potential that will be revealed to the hero later during his adventures.<\/p>\n

When redesigning the hero, I wanted to roughly maintain the style of play he had in the True20 system. Thus, the global mechanics fatigue<\/b> and the spell drain vitality<\/b> in my system have transformed into a personal mechanic called \"magic of black blood\" \u2014 Fry can drain a portion of life force from various beings, placing accumulating weakening shadow scars<\/b>, while gaining shadow charges<\/b>, which can be spent on various useful tricks involving dark blood. Later, based on this, I created mechanics for the vampire character, as the principle fits perfectly with the concept of vampirism.<\/p>\n

A couple more special rules reveal the trait of \"psychic.\" These are \"telepathy\" (Fry can telepathically communicate with any intelligent beings he sees) and \"illusion manipulation\" (twice a day, Fry can create any illusion for a duration of 5 minutes). But this is not the only application of the trait. \"Psychic\" can, for example, allow Fry to attempt to erase someone's memory, sense a place's aura, seek a lost object, and so on, depending on how the game develops and what situations arise.<\/p>\n

Later, I adapted the unicorn for my tactical game. Monster Hunter<\/a><\/noindex>. The pre-installed heroes are designed like folding postcards with game parameters. So in the end, it was not a misadventure, but rather an additional character in the collection along with a dramatic, educational story.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n
\nBlack Unicorn Fry, character sheet<\/a><\/noindex><\/p>\n

That's all, may you have creativity in your games and understanding; then any systems will not scare you.
\n
Source: habr.com<\/a><\/p>","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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