Ptolus: 165 Vock Row

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ptolus' infamous Vock Row -- or as most people call it, Dweomer Street -- in Oldtown caters to arcanists of all types. The various establishments here sell spell components, obscure books, alchemical equipment, and far stranger things. And it's also the most fashionable residential neighborhood in the city for wizards and sorcerers alike.

Every morning at Kunstlerhaus begins much the same. Gallesini, the first of the three emperors of the dawn, rules the 24 Gods of the Hours when the household staff beneath 165 Vock Row begins to wake.

The kitchen staff begins preparing the lord of the house's elaborate morning meal, creating simpler meals for the staff and Erac Kunstler's apprentices closer toward the end of Gallesini's reign.

The maids destroy the mouse's death threats when they can find them and prepare the house for the day, including running to the market to restock the house with fresh food, with butler Argus Blackmore timing them, for both their sakes.

The gardener and some of Master Kunstler's apprentices lock the topiaries away for the day and get medical attention for any of the neighbors whom the plants hurt over night.

Under the eye of head apprentice Cicero Brackenbury, the apprentices give the basement libraries a final scrubbing before assembling in the library to await their master descending from his quarters on the top floor.

Marlachasan, the final emperor of the dawn, is at the end of his reign in the 8th hour of the day when Kunstler arrives on the main floor of Kunstlerhaus, and woe to his staff and apprentices if every aspect of his house is not to his liking -- and it rarely is entirely to his liking.

Erac Kunstler is an experienced adventurer and evoker. Magically powerful, politically ambitious, rude and callous of all human life save his own, some can't imagine a worse fate than working for him.

His apprentices can, though.

This is not a recruitment thread - Players have already been recruited for this game, sorry!

FIGHTER:
Mairan, CN female human fighter (Fyrie)
Alternate: To Be Determined

CLERIC:
Thurst "the TechPriest" Steamhammer, LN male Grailwarden dwarf cleric of Teun (Wool)
Alternate: Paddy Murphy, NG male human cleric of Hannan (Vdou)

SKILL-MONKEY:
Aeshen Jhil'meon, LN male Shoal elf rogue (Mr. Fyrie)
Alternate: Weldin, CG male human bard (Nadiar)

WIZARDS:
Mata Lodstari, CG female Grailwarden dwarf wizard (Voca)
Ella Windsor, NG female human wizard (Vdou)
Valana Wavecrest, NG female Shoal elf wizard (Filthy)

Alternate: Ghaark Halfaxe, LN male half-orc wizard (Mr. Fyrie)
Alternate: Shisha Shironiku, NG male gnome sorcerer (Fredre)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

House rules

The Ptolus Players Guide: Learn it, love it, live it.

We will not be using a battlemap, or a grid or any similar tools. Any maps you make will be your own and will be your responsibility. If a description is unclear on my part, ask me to clarify and I'll gladly do so.

We will be using almost no Attacks of Opportunity, other than moving through an enemy's space or casting spells within melee range.

Initiative order is based on how fast you post: By the time I return to the post to add the enemy's action during combat, anyone who posted will be going first and in the order that they posted. If you didn't get there before me (and I will be allowing a few hours between combat posts, except when everyone has already posted), then your action will take place after the enemy's. This isn't intended to penalize people who get busy in their offline lives, but it's to encourage people to check regularly. Empty placeholder posts don't count as posts, although posts consisting of readying an action do.

Wizards and sorcerers can have their familiar for free, although owning a familiar incurs another 100 gold piece debt to Kunstler, who paid for the materials used in the binding ritual.

I will do all the rolling and post successes and failures, along with a running damage tally.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Background information

Erac Kunstler is an experienced adventurer and evoker living on Vock Row -- better known to some as Dweomer Street -- in Ptolus.

He is tall and thin, and taller than he claims to be. He has receding black hair and gray eyes, thin lips and a nose sometimes described as "beaklike." His voice is nasal, commanding and notoriously carries a great distance.

He's also fond of vile cigarettes, adopting the custom from an Imperial general he once saw smoking them. Similarly, although he has never been a member of the military, he dresses in clothes that suggest a military uniform, including high leather boots, tight-fitting pants and high-collared jackets of tan or olive and immaculate white shirts.

Prior to the death of his fiance, Erac Kunstler was known for his humor, whimsy and compassionate matter. All that changed within the depths of The Dungeon, however.

Sharp-tongued at the best of times, he is infamously short-tempered and harsh with both his staff and apprentices. The few friends he has defend him, saying he is tough but ultimately fair, and expects even more out of himself than he does his apprentices. Kunstler is famously honorable, even with those he holds in contempt (almost everyone, in other words).

Today, he is politically ambitious and mixes his adventuring in The Dungeon below the city with jockeying for political power among the city's elite, now that this son of a herbalist has the economic wherewithal to move among them. His apprentices and staff suspect he intends to buy a noble title from House Abanar in the near future.

For reasons he has never explained, he believes his cousin seeks to have him killed.

Kunstler has an open contempt for many other gods and their followers, although he has allowed his servants to create a small shrine to Lothian in an unused basement storage room for their personal spiritual needs.

The son of a member of the Herbalists Guild, Erac Kunstler grew up in Midtown. He and his cousin both showed an early aptitude for magic, and their fathers sent them to study under the ghostly tutors of the Kirdkrane Haunt. Today he constantly reminds his beleagured apprentices that things could be worse: "Or maybe I'll start my own school full of undead wizards. Any volunteers?"

Kunstler is an experienced Delver -- he was one of the guild's first members, in fact, and holds the rank of Master Delver today. He famously spent a month trapped in the Room of Stars in the Dungeon before divining the secret of the room, carrying out the goods of the adventurers who had died there before him. He is not yet a member of The Inverted Pyramid, although again, his apprentices suspect he will be seeking admission sooner or later.

It was not the first time the wizard had escaped death: His first adventure in The Dungeon ended with almost all of his party, including his fiance, being lost within The Black Well. Their corpses were never recovered and Kunstler at times has suggested he believes some of them might still be alive.

The large townhouse of the wizard Erac Kunstler on 165 Vock Row in Ptolus. (Street numbering is just one of many ideas that the wizards of Vock Row have come up with, some of which catch on with the city at large, some of which mercifully quietly die and are never heard from again.)

The house has a wood and stone facade, which is partially overgrown with ivy. A brass number sign beside the front door displays the house's name and address, and a notice that solicitors will vanish, never to be seen again.

Kuntslerhaus has three visible levels and an outdoor garden and greenhouse in the back yard.

Kuntsler lives on the top floor, which is locked and sealed with magical protections. Other than the master of the house, only one maid and the butler have the keys that allow safe access to the top floor.

The wizard's large number of apprentices live on the ground floor, where they are responsible for tending his garden, working in his library and seeing to his experiments in the below-ground laboratories.

Kuntsler's large domestic staff -- including bodyguards, a scribe, a translator and other specialized workers in addition to his cook, maids and butler -- live in the basement level of the townhouse, which gets some of its light from windows set almost at the ceiling level. A below-ground servant's entrance allows the staff direct entrance from Vock Row without going through the wizard's foyer on the main level. The basement level includes a small shrine to Lothian established by and for the domestic staff in a former storeroom.

The wizard has forbidden his apprentices and staff to comment on rumors of deeper levels of his townhouse, possibly including portions of The Dungeon itself.

Kunstler maintains a large domestic staff and teaches an unusually large number of young wizards.

The wizard employs maids (upstairs and downstairs), a cook, a translator, a scribe, a gardener and other domestic staff. They are all ultimately managed by his butler, Argus Blackmore.

When a staff member dies in the course of his duties, Kunstler will pay to have them raised from the dead, docking their pay until the fee for the spell has been paid back in full.

Like a cat-hater attracting an endless parade of cats, Kunstler is constantly asked to take on the children of various Oldtown and Midtown merchants as apprentices. He treats them harshly but as he actually has some unusual magical insights to share, many of them stay on despite the harsh treatment. He typically rewards good service with knowledge of a rare spell that he only teaches to a given apprentice.

When an apprentice dies in the course of his duties, Kunstler will only pay to have the more advanced ones raised from the dead, who then owe him the cost of the spell.

The apprentices are managed by Kunstler's head apprentice, Cicero Brackenbury.

Once a sleepy residential street in the Oldtown district of Ptolus, Vock Row has become the most fashionable neighborhood for wizards, sorcerers and the like and has been nicknamed "Dweomer Street."

The street today is host to wizards' towers and homes, including Kunstlerhaus, all of them prominently displaying the arcane mark of the owner. Most homes have been converted to house a laboratory or workshop as well as living quarters. (As a result, house fires are common hazard, and quite often, the flames are of an unnatural hue or resist the efforts of the Fire Brigade to put them out.)

Dweomer Street also is host to a number of shops that sell spell components, alchemical substances, laboratory equipment, specialized tools, raw materials for magic item creation and other things a wizard might need.

Rumors run rampant concerning the strange and mystical qualities of Dweomer Street. It's said that ratmen avoid The Dungeon beneath the street, because of all the magical runoff from failed potions and alchemical experimentations poured down the drain. Instead, the sewers are supposedly filled with odd magical effects and magically mutated creatures.

Posted around the neighborhood, one will find signs and bills (some animated or equipped with sound) advertising positions for laboratory assistants, used wands and a variety of services and opportunities tailored toward spell-casters.

For other details about Ptolus, please see The Ptolus Players Guide.

 

[Filthy]

We will be using almost no Attacks of Opportunity, other than moving through an enemy's space or casting spells within melee range.

What about ranged weapon use inside melee range?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

What about ranged weapon use inside melee range?

That would pull an AOA attack. Good question.

 

[Wool]

You mentioned questions about additional background information, well I thought of one, maybe.

How much technology does Erac Kunstler employ in his household? I'm not sure how important this is, it might just determine what Thurst will complain about.

I would expect someone in Erac's position to have access to whatever he wants; the question is, what does he want? A few mechanical nicknacks that won't keep Thurst very occupied? A large number of mundane machines? Or maybe Erac likes to lace them with magic "throwing off their balance in order to enhance their power". How about a boiler?

You get the point, that is, if I have one.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

He has a harpsichord, a grandfather clock, indoor plumbing (lots of Ptolusites have this, but Erac has hot water as well) and general "curiosities."

And yes, a techno-magical boiler is exactly the sort of thing he'd have. Lucky for the staff, it's kept on the bottom floor where they live as well.

 

[Wool]

The idea that the staff live in fear of the crazy dangerous boiler (and Thurst by association) amuses me greatly.

I can picture some poor scullery maid lieing awake in her bed/pallet, bordering on tears, as she hears the unmistakable sounds of a very drunken dwarf banging on the boiler with his heavy mace.

Hey, it works man!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Especially given that the boiler isn't just dwarftech, but also has a probably quite unhappy fire elemental bound to it ...

 

[Vdou]

This is going to be fun.