A Test of Chaos - Genericum Test Game (Inactive)

Game Master JonGarrett

There was a bustle to the crowd, the energy of expectation, as people from all walks of life and background gathered in the town square. The fleshly laid stone was crowded and the air filled with voices speaking a dozen tongues. But every eye would, at least occasionally, move towards the stage of fresh-cut wood dominating one side of the square.

Morning continued, with the sun rising in its golden splendour across the sky. Less glorious was the heat - many in the square wore impressive-looking suits of armour that were not nearly as comfortable beneath the sun's merciless glare, and a roaring trade in cold drinks was soon booming among the nearby vendors.

An hour before noon a tall, scruffy-looking man in dark clothes walked onto the stage. Despite his somewhat worn look, every eye quickly turned towards the stage. Perhaps it was the confidence with which he moved. Perhaps it was the fact he was the first person to appear in hours. Or perhaps it was the wyvern that stood shoulder height following him, dark scales glistening in the sun as it turned to watch the crowd.

Taking the centre of the stage, the man turned and looked around the square. "Good morning, applicants. As most of you likely already know I am Zanatos Kell, Guildmaster Black of the Prismatic Chapter of the Adventurer's Guild. Today we will be recruiting the most skilled of you to join us. It won't be simple, but membership will be worth it for those of you who wish a life of adventure."

Pausing, he glanced down at some notes for a second. "The Festival of Joining is a sacred right, long designed to-" The tall man paused, looked at the notes, and stuffed them in a pocket. "Enough with the pleasantries. The Festival is simple. Throughout the city there are seven tests. You need to best at least four of them. Take your party, or form one if you need, and head out. There's a map showing the location of four of the tests, which I strongly suggest you all check out - The Test of Skill is in the Guildhall, Test of Diplomacy is in the Merchant's Quarter, Test of Valour is by the Northern Gatehouse and Test of Cunning is in the docks. The Test of Grace and the Test of Knowledge you'll need to find, as part of the test. And finally, the Test of Survival will find you. Bring four of the seven tokens from these tests back to the Guildhall and you win membership. Bring more to get noticed. The Festival begins when the bells strike Noon and ends at the next Sunrise. Good luck."

The tall man steps down from the stage, and the murmuring begins.

Zandora smiled. This should be interesting. She didn't have a team yet, but could likely get one easily. She could get up on stage, but a winning team was not necessarily the team that would be attracted to her because of her looks. She needed people more versatile than that.

Spotting a giantborn, she headed in that direction. That would likely be a good start.

Cathirix spots a woman heading his way, it was easy since most of the crowd only came up to his elbow. Nudging his Lizardfolk companion, Jeremy, "hey looks like we found another person for the group."

As the woman gets closer he greats her in a booming voice, "Hail, do you seek partners for the tests?"

Weakness: She is tempted to lie when she meets people.

Willpower: 1d100 ⇒ 69

Unable to resist the temptation to boast, she smiles and says Indeed I do. ... I'm sure that I could take on most of these challenges unaided, but you know, I'll allow you to join my team since you seem excessively competent. It will improve both our chances.

Perhaps a few others? If you spot them from your superior vantage point, I can likely convince them.

Jeremy leans casually on his spear next to Cathirix as he studies the dispersing crowd. When nudged, he stands up straighter and cranes his neck until he sees the approaching woman. After Cathirix says hello, Jeremy opens his maw wide and emits a series of clicking noises from his throat by way of greeting.

I'm sure that I could take on most of these challenges unaided, but you know, I'll allow you to join my team since you seem excessively competent. It will improve both our chances.

"Yes."

A young woman of obviously foreign origin watches this exchange with interest. She wears a simple, wrap of dark, sheer cloth over baggy black pants and a one-shouldered black top. She carries no weapons, but holds her small, youthful form very confidently. She doesn't approach the group yet, but she is not hiding her interest as she watches.

Zandora, scanning the crowd, notes the young woman staring at them. She motions her over.

Willpower: 1d100 ⇒ 14

You there. Come join us. You look intelligent. And, you know, if you aren't, you'll do for balance. Human, right? That will lend us a touch of normalcy, which we will need to get the audience on our side. My name is Zandora.

She then glances up at the Giantkin. Spot anyone else, or should we proceed? What trial do you want to do first?

She looks at the lizard and the human as well, indicating (she hopes) that they are included in the query.

Ah, thanks, she says with an accent as she joins the small group. She folds her hands in front of herself and bows slightly as a greeting.

My name is Shada.

I suspect the Test of Grace would be my forte, but we do not yet know how to find it. Perhaps Valour or Cunning first?

"Despite how much cunning prey I have eaten, it is not my 'forte.'

"But I will support us in any test we take."

Jeremy emits another series of clicking noises from his throat. Perhaps to convey excitement?

Are we waiting on the Ashmerain character, or moving on?

Valour sounds like a good start. Shall we?

She starts towards the Northern Gatehouse, still scanning the crowd for any other likely candidates.

Ashmerain studies the assembled crowds. There had to be at least a few competent adventurers among this rabble.

Goblin riding a pig…no, that won’t do. That group of elves…no, they seem to large already.

His eyes fall on the group with the human, the nephilim, the giantborn, and the lizardfolk.

Interesting. Seems promising.

A tall human man strides towards the group, unarmored with two swords sheathed on his back. He wears simple clothing, and tattoos of intricately detailed lines run from his temples down to his hands.

He nods, ”My greetings. I am Ashmerain, a disciple of the Way of the Unbound Blade. It seems as if you lack a warrior who’s mind is as sharp a weapon as their blade. Now, you have one.”

Willpower: 1d100 ⇒ 40

Come along then. I'm Zandora. You'll fit in with the other human, Shada. We're doing the Valour test first.

She doesn't introduce Cathirix or Jeremy because I don't think we actually got names that first time.

As the group began to form it was clear that the same was happening with several others.

Some people were also quite noticeable, for one reason or another. A gnome has climbed up onto one of the stands, despite the trader's protests, and is busy doing...something complicated and telling her allies to do something accordingly. A small, skinny looking man is standing alone, apparently having created a personal zone in the crowd of people with pure personality. Or perhaps the unreasonably large axe on his back. Another man in ornate armour and white-blonde hair is chatting with a dark-skinned, pretty woman. And three men in robes are smiling at everyone, handing out potions to people that they chat with.

The map board stands to one side of the stage and has quite a lot of people checking it out for clues, and Kell himself stands nearby fielding questions about the event.

In short, those are the obvious things to do here. You can absolutely wait and just go do the first test you wanna, or you can engage with one of the NPC groups, check the map for clues or ask Kell any questions you can think of.

"My name is Jeremy," Jeremy says, introducing himself. "It was not always my name. But one day a man came to my tribe in the swamp. I liked his name better, so I killed him and ate him so that I could have his name.

"Oh look! They are giving out potions! Let's go get some!"

Zandora makes a mental note to get far away from Jeremy as soon as the contest is over.

Great idea, Jeremy. Grab some potions.

Why are people just giving away these potions? Are those people related to the contest? Can we trust those potions?

Zandora makes a mental note to get far away from Jeremy as soon as the contest is over.

Why would he want Zandora's name when he has 'Jeremy' as a name? It's much better than his last name.

Jeremy walks stalks over to the three men in robes.

"Hello. What are those potions?"

Why would he want Zandora's name when he has 'Jeremy' as a name? It's much better than his last name.

It's more about the murdering/eating because he just decided he likes something and thinks murder is totally cool so he can have what he wants. :) She doesn't think that he wants her name, or they would probably already be having a personal conflict.

Jeremy. wrote:

Why would he want Zandora's name when he has 'Jeremy' as a name? It's much better than his last name.

It's more about the murdering/eating because he just decided he likes something and thinks murder is totally cool so he can have what he wants. :) She doesn't think that he wants her name, or they would probably already be having a personal conflict.

Well, there's more to the story than what Jeremy has said. And I will think of what that is so that it paints Jeremy in a sympathetic light. Any day now.

"I am Cathirix," he says as Jeremy heads to the people handing out the potions, "I really wish he wouldn't lead with that story."

Cathirix suspiciously eyeballs the potion dealers.

Jeremy was also delicious.

The three men turn to the Lizardfolk and smiled. "Ah!" the middle one exclaims. "Welcome, friend. My friends and I are looking forward to working with you all in the future, should our membership to the Guild all be granted. We thought that perhaps we could get ahead in both relations within the Guild and our own alchemist business by giving out some free samples of healing potions. Sure to be a boon on a day such as this, eh?"

"It's a long term investment," the shortest added with a smile and a gesture to the crate behind them, "But one we hope will pay dividends in the weeks to come."

Shada moves tentatively up to the potion purveyors as well. She was still dubious, but it couldn't hurt to have one on hand, as a last resort.

"I always appreciate an extra healing potion," Jeremy says. If any potions are offered, he will give one a long sniff and a short lick before stowing it away. Not because he can glean much about it from doing that. It's just habit.

"Are you relying on your generosity for entry into the Adventurer's Guild, or will you be completing any of the tests?"

The shortest one passed out a potion to Shada with a warm smile as the tallest explains, "No, no, we'll be doing the Tests as well. This is simply a way to make connections with those that will be passing as well, assuming that we make it through. Adventurer's always need potions, and we hope to get the first pick of the rarer materials as well. A mutually beneficial arrangement, yes?"

Zandora walks over to Shada and asks to examine the potion.

Okay, at this point how do I roll to see whether the potion is completely legit, or if they added something to it, or if it is just colored water or whatever, to make sure it won't harm her as we move forward?

Just as a wild guess, I am thinking that my Knowledge Magic talent applies, but at rank one it just grants no penalties, not a bonus, so... maybe intelligence, just a flat roll?

identify potion (intelligence=30): 1d100 ⇒ 54

And then, since I rolled over my competence level, I can't tell... doing this right or wrong?

Zandora shrugs and returns the potion to Shada, not taking one herself.

OK, so the thing here is you want to roll low. With 30 Int anything from 1-30 is a success unless modifiers apply, and anything higher is a failure. Think of it as the opposite of D&Dfinder - high bad, low good.
For this, I'd allow a few rolls - ones related to brewing potions, magic knowledge, alchemy or healing could all be used to identify the potion. Deception could also be used to tell if they're deceiving you.

I will start throwing in suggestions for what to do in a spoiler box if there's anything you can try mechanically and you don't have a better idea for the first part, I think. Since I wrote this it never occurred to me that people wouldn't be familiar with what sorta roll you can make. This won't be a comprehensive list, though - as a rule, if you can argue something makes sense you can probably do it. I've tried to leave a little more player agency in than the standard d20, so if you wanna try something, give it a shot. Sound good?

The potion has a shade of red that usually corresponds to healing potions, and it looks to be about right for a dose - maybe a little larger than one you'd see in a store, but not by much. Of course, different alchemists and different techniques meant that potions were not exactly standard.

I'll try your suggestion. Deception check to see if they're deceiving me. I have Deception Rank 1

Fellowship 30: 1d100 ⇒ 52

No clue.

The trio seemed open and honest to Shada. It's possibly not the soundest strategy to give out so many potions, but it's not the worst one either if they can drum up enough business among the sort of people most likely to knock them back often enough to find out if they come in cherry flavour.

Anyone else wanna check out the poor, maligned merchant trio, investigate one of the other points of interest, or wait for the go?

Yeah I knew I failed... that's why I said I rolled over my competence. Only a 30% chance of anything. Looks like I might do better if I roll for healing, since you said that could work as well.

potion good? (willpower (healing)=50): 1d100 ⇒ 57

Nope, still clueless.

Zandora continues towards the Northern Gatehouse, hoping that the potions were legit, but not really knowing.

... it is a little frustrating trying to find different talents. Healing talents, for instance. I look at the menu and think, is that a combat or a social talent, go through the menus, and turns out it isn't either, but it is under race for me. I miss just having a list of skills so that I can just fill in what my roll/bonus is for each one, bad or good, and then glance at my sheet for it when it comes up. The player agency idea is good... but with no list of what attributes correspond to what it is hard to know what you are rolling against. Also, what is the penalty if you don't have a talent in that area and you still want to roll something?

You can still roll, but it's usually half of whatever attribute you would roll normally. Would a master list of talents be useful for that?

Yeah, that would be useful.

Anyone else wanna check out the poor, maligned merchant trio, investigate one of the other points of interest, or wait for the go?

Shada, being not particularly perceptive of the sorts of things they'd need to figure out any "clues" from the map, and wwith the group already having chosen a starting goal, is just waiting to be told when they can start.

Perception: 1d100 ⇒ 33
So I hit under the 43 I need for perception, right?.

Ashmerain studies the map, his keen eyes picking out any more detaile.

It doesn't take Ashmerain long to spot that some of the street names are comically misspelt, with one of the letters in most words clearly out of place. It doesn't take long to note down the odd letters.

O-S-T-D-N-H-A-N-E-A-O

Int: 1d100 ⇒ 72

Ashmerain points out the misspelling but can’t make heads or tails of what they might mean.

I'm assuming Jeremy was also given a potion. Let me know if that's incorrect.

Having gotten what he can from the robed alchemists, Jeremy throat-clicks a farewell, and wanders over to the excitable gnome to see what he is so excited about.

Huh.

Says Zandora, thinking...

I wonder if it is an anagram. Maybe the letters spell where we need to go for one of the other tests?

Let's see...

EAST is in there, and NOON, but then only HAD left over... which not sure that makes much sense.

Intelligence (30): 1d100 ⇒ 86

Hmm... DONATE ON ASH could be meaningful, but only if it were a scavenger hunt leading us to a temple on ash street or something... ON ASHEN TOAD could work if there were a gray statue of a toad somewhere. HAD OATS NONE... a starving horse? HEADS AT NOON... is there going to be a beheading? No, no that doesn't make sense... AHEAD NOON ST... is there a noon street? Maybe noon is all wrong. STONE HAND... no, A and O left over on that one. Darn. I just don't know. Too many possibilities.

Do the letters match any of the places on the map maybe?

Anyone who wants a potion can have a potion.

Zandora's line of thinking does indeed point out the odd letters are clustered, forming three distinct groups.

S-D-H-A-E
T-A
O-N-N-O

Still working on the strange puzzle, Zandora says

Wait, there is a definite grouping here... huh. SHADE AT NOON! That has to be it, right? ... But what does that even mean? Is there a sundial in this town? Or maybe something with eclipse in the name? That's one way to have shade at noon. Other thoughts?

A quick look suggests that, at noon, the way the stage has been constructed will cast a shadow somewhere on the map. The shadow is already partway onto the map, a dot slowly heading across the town.

It's probably not too difficult to work out where the Shadow will be at noon, using...math. It's also possible to wait for noon, and you could talk to some of the others while you wait.

How much time do we actually have... could we do a different challenge and then get this one at noon? What would I have to roll to do the math? Rolling intelligence below, but let me know if it is different.

Intelligence Check (30): 1d100 ⇒ 25

Made it! Yeah.

The shadow will fall on a shop called the Great Wrym's Horde.

It's a 'depends on what you guys wanna do scene'. If you wanna talk to everyone you'll have time, so long as it's not dragged out too much. But not everyone here will be helpful.

So, the shadow is going to fall on that shop over there. Do you guys want to do that challenge first instead, or talk to more people, or... I mean, I think I just want to go to the shop before anyone else figures it out. What do you say?

Sounds fine to me, my new friend.

It's a 'depends on what you guys wanna do scene'. If you wanna talk to everyone you'll have time, so long as it's not dragged out too much. But not everyone here will be helpful.

Jeremy had walked over to talk to the excitable gnome.

Apologies, I wrote the post and then either didn't post it or it was eaten by the dark mysteries of the interwebs. Thankfully, Grammarly saves all my stuff now.

The little gnome looked over from the top of the merchant's stall upon which they sat as Jeremy approached, waving cheerfully. The stall owner looks up in obvious frustration but has given up trying to remove the gnome from their perch. Whatever they're doing involves several pieces of parchment.

Jeremy tries to notice what sort of merchant stall he is approaching, but otherwise, all he's interested in is the gnome.

"Hello. Are you excited by the Festival, or is it something else?"

The merchant seems to be selling snack food or at least making an attempt. Most of the people around them seem to be more interested in the gnome than in their mercantile wares.

The gnome glances down at Jeremy. "Huh? Yeah, it should be fun. Right now I'm working out the best way to do all the tests. I think they'll, like, rank us higher if we get a better score, right? Like, four is a pass, but seven is gonna get people's attention, and that's a good thing. Shows you can do better jobs. So then you get the better jobs and get the better rewards which means you can do the even better jobs and get the best stuff. It's an endless cycle that can start right now. But I'm still not sure where the Test of Grace is or how it'll work. I think I know what the others will be, or roughly what they'll be. But that's one's all 'hey, you need to feel things' and I'm like 'yeah, I feel stuff!' and they're all, 'no, feel them for other people and that seems dumb unless they're a friend, right? I'm Vee, by the way."

"I am Jeremy. Will you share with me what you've figured out about the other tests? I will buy you your choice of this snack food in return. I am an expert at eating things, and this seems like very edible food."

"Hmmm? Sure. Whatcha got to trade?" The little gnome titled their head. "Info is good, money works too."