or, even more MP shop items for you folk to run around with
1 MP. What Is A Perfectly Generic Object? This short essay is a +2 Tool towards using Void magic to summon Perfectly Generic Objects.
1 MP. Anti-Flashlight. One-time-usable alchemization instructions for an "anti-flashlight". Instead of casting light, the "beam" of this flashlight casts darkness. The battery in it lasts for about six hours.
1 MP. How To Move A Land Bed. Following these instructions will let you move a Land Bed - a rectangle of bedrock that's surprisingly comfortable to sleep on - to a place of your choice, as a miracle, once. (Many people move their Land Beds to their Homefree.)
2 MP. Atmospheric Noise Recorded In A Skaian Summoning. While listening to this track, you can remove the extra +2 Obstacle for borrowing magical techniques from Sburban Dreams Magic and using them with your own Sburban magics. (The Obstacle listed for the technique still applies, though.) You can do this three times, after which the magic is permanently expended.
2 MP. Universal Silencer. This program, written in ^CAKE, imposes an Obstacle 2 on hearing you or anything you do. (You must have it running on a computer that is on your person.)
2 MP. Void and the Metaphysics of Solidity. This treatise is a +1 Tool towards using Void-magic against inanimate objects. (This includes - among other things - dungeons and Gates.)
4 MP. Data Wiper. Draw a circle on the ground, run the program inside the circle, and any and all information within that circle will be erased, as a level 5 miracle. This includes documents, hard drives, the minds (and DNA) of Consorts, Carapaces, or Players, and this program itself (which is why you have to pay for it every time you use it). Note that PCs and important NPCs may take Wounds against this.
8 MP. A Consultation On Stat Nullification. Jake Talon will write a program that will null out one of your stats, resulting in a level 3 Affliction representing this null that you will keep until you next pass through the Door. Technically, the first 4 MP pays for an extended interview and information-gathering session with Jake Talon, and then another 4 MP pays for a specialized program that he will modify to do the actual stat-nulling, but you really want the full effect.
It is the nature of those native to the Void that they know better than anyone when things are not real --
Wait a second, that's Nobilis and this is a Chuubo's character. Let me try again.
Jake Talon is a Ward of Void. The Null loves him, and he loves it back; and knowing how easily it clings to him, how much it's erased, he is quite aware that he is a game construct. I mean, it destroyed his mangrit score in his first session, and his ability to make any noise whatsoever in his fourth.
But he says knowing that he is a game construct isn't all bad. He says that it's started him on the first steps towards using his powers when not a Void player or when not in a session. And he's already alarmingly good at taking advantage of the nulled stats he has.
But that doesn't mean that he's made his peace with it. Because once you've accepted that you yourself are a product of Sburb... what hope do you have for a life outside the Game?
Name: Jake Talon
Handle: discretionaryCommentary
Native Classpect: Ward of Void
Age: 25
Session Count: 11
Sylladex: Null-Terminated String
Specibus: cankind
Academics Skill: Good
Sports Skill: Good
Favorite Foods: carrot sticks, chips, spicy beef jerky
Lifeplant: bromeliads
Current Arc: Mystic (Visionary) 1+
Basic quest: “Oh, hey.” (Red/Melodramatic): You take full advantage of your soundlessness by showing up in amusing poses right behind coplayers, inside cabinets, astride Ogres, and so on and so forth. Then you give the coplayer in question a casual wave and chew on your carrot stick while they freak out. Emote a casual greeting from an implausible or ridiculous position up to once every fifteen minutes for a bonus XP.
Bonus XP emotion: Putting My Faith In You, probably. Either that or a sort of dazed speechlessness at his antics (the latter is more likely in a Techno game).
Inherent
Skill: Shenanigans 3 (“How did you do that?” “Shenanigans.”)
Skill: Sburban Survival 2
Skill: Sburban Void Magic 2
Skill: Communication Through Gestures 1
Bond (2): [I know someone who knows that.]
Affliction (1): [Nothing I do makes any sound.]
Perks
(Superior) Vitality 2 (from Indomitable)
Bond (2): [I’m definitely a bit of a showoff. Maybe more than a bit.]
Sburban Light Magic 2
Arcs:
Indomitable 2
a reproduction of a Character-Building series
Jake Talon has (as any character on Indomitable) a “curse” (air quotes). Nothing he does makes any noise whatsoever. He is mute - or, rather, he can speak but the words will never leave his mouth. He does not play instruments because they don’t do any good. But he’s also a fantastic sneak, and computers and IM mean that he never needs to talk to be a perfectly good player.
(While in presessions, he uses his default-gear laptop as an assistive communication device. People don’t notice, or don’t comment on, the sound thing.)
Paralyzing Fear (Miraculous Action, +0MP/once/chapter, +1MP/2+/chapter): Jake’s ability to assert himself does not need sound. In fact, the soundlessness of it probably even helps. He has his principles, and he will stick to them, and anyone who gets in the way is going to be terrified out of their wits.
Keen Ears (Miraculous Action, 0MP): Living without a sound has sharpened Jake’s hearing far, far beyond normal. He can hear anyone in his dwelling spire even if they’re fifty floors apart, he can casually eavesdrop on about half of Derse’s moon from inside his dream tower, and he knows when the Reckoning’s beginning by the ultra-low-frequency sounds it makes. (Even with this, though, he still can’t hear himself.)
Vitality Bonus (Special): A perk of (Superior) Vitality at the Arc level. Because the Null loves him, it seems to have accidentally erased his Mangrit score. He is now absurdly strong.
Inhuman Strength (Miraculous Action + [Arc] strike): One of the consequences of an erased Mangrit score. The way that the Game attempts to fix an erased score is by replacing it with… something. (In Mangrit’s case, it is usually [SO STRONG]… yes, a string, in a variable that’s supposed to hold a float. Apparently at least this part of Sburb isn’t in a strongly typed language.) The effect is that [SO STRONG], when compared to anyone else’s mangrit, seems to mean “strength so far off the charts that he could punt a broken-prototype Black King, which has strength [3.4028e+38]”. Yeah, that happened.
Tribulation (Miraculous Action, Bleak[, XP Action]; 0MP/1-2x/book, 1MP/“tug”, 4MP/3+/book): Jake’s grasp of the Null is of a different caliber than the “Accursed”-type Void player. He specializes in nulling out specific stats in other Players and game constructs. This won’t work on anything that isn’t a game construct - essentially, it’s useless outside Sburb - but it’s pretty good.
But in any case… when you reach into the right place and null out a stat in someone (it doesn’t have to be mangrit - it could be something else entirely… but I’ve got a writeup coming that’ll have a selection of effects that come from other nulled stats), sometimes the Game tries to get it back. The “shiny regrowth” mechanism often restores nulled stats - sometimes sensibly, sometimes less so. You’ll have to figure out when you need to null it out again. It can turn into a tug-of-war if you’re not careful. Have fun.
Inconspicuous Form (Miraculous Action, 1MP): You don’t make noise on a regular basis anyway, but this means you’re actually trying at sneaking around, taking full advantage of your soundlessness.
Visionary 1
Sense Falsehood (Miraculous Action, 0MP, free strike=Arc): You know if something is a game construct. This is not terribly useful while playing Sburb because everything is a game construct inside the Game, but it does help with identifying important places, people, and objects in presessions.
Magic (Magical/Superior Skill): Jake has access to Sburban Void Magic even though he is not Awesometier. The Null just likes him that much, I guess.
Illusions of Emptiness (Miraculous Action, n/a): Jake can pull all sorts of Voidy shenanigans, occasionally even in presession, because he knows what game constructs are and knows that his paradoxbirth makes him, arguably, a game construct himself.
Blessings (Imperial Miracle, 0MP/1-2x/book): You run an MP shop. I’ll give some examples for things in the MP shop tomorrow...
