Tome of the Pyromancer: Darkflame's Grace Part 7
The site exploration continues, going against all odds of a very stubborn d4.
Site Exploration
Area 8
They met a knight in an elaborate silver armor. Stained in ash, his cloak was embroidered with the symbols of the Pallid Flame.
His hand went to his sword as soon as he saw the bubblefish. “Stay where you are, creature.”
The bubblefish froze, its many eyes blinking.
The knight’s gaze shifted to Aquilia. “And you, servant of the Darkflame. Another defiler.”
Aquilia raised a hand and declared her purpose.
“I’ve been fooled before,” he said. “False clerics and priests. Men who wore holy symbols while serving the Thousand-Eye. I will not make that mistake again.”
Sara glanced toward Aquilia. “He thinks we’re heretics.” She turned to him. “We’re helping a cursed friend, inquisitor. And trying to cleanse this place while at it.”
Aquilia showed him the Dark Taper, then endorsed Sara’s story. They meant to preserve the teachings of the Somber Darkflame, cleanse the corruption from the temple, and seal it so that no one could profane it again.
The knight listened, though he never sheathed his sword. At last, he drew a deep breath and stepped back. “I shall believe you, witches. For now. But I want nothing to do with this place or its secrets.”
Aquilia nodded and gave him directions toward the exit.
The knight moved past them, then paused and lowered his sword. “Perhaps I was wrong about you. I hope I was.”
He lowered his sword slightly, lingered for a moment, then left.
UD4: 4, no change
Exits: 2
Area type: NPC > Knight
Reaction: Friendly
Triple-O Dynamics: Suspicious
Sparks: Extravagant, Deceive, ClericAn inquisitor hunting heretics. He’s been deceived by people pretending to be clerics. Good hearted, but wary now.
d6 Discipline: 4 = Furtive Pallid Flame
Oh, he’s hunting those serving the Thousand-Eye!
He steps back when he notices the bubblefish.
Presence check: 8, success!Aquilia shares her philosophy. How does he react?
Advance, Environment
He wants nothing to do with me, just wants to move on.
Does he attack? No, but... he draws his sword and is ready.
I let him go, telling him we intend on sealing off the abandoned temple so no one can get in anymore. I give him instructions to the exit.
Area 9
A woman stepped from behind a broken pillar, daggers already in hand. Pallid markings crawled across her skin, converging around eyes that seemed too large for her face.
She smiled when she saw the bubblefish. “Well, aren’t you fascinating?”
It drifted backward, hiding behind Aquilia. Shadow snarled, but kept a safe distance.
The rogue’s smile widened. “There are so many stories about the Thousand-Eye. Immortality proves to be of the real ones as well.” She tilted her head. “I wanted power enough to overcome someone who stood in my way. But what you have, little fish... what you have is beyond mere power. It’s everything.”
Her fingers tightened around her daggers. “It shall be mine, one way or another.”
The rogue lunged, but the Darkflame Spine burned with cold fire, meeting her daggers with sparks.
The rogue lunged.
Steel rang across the chamber as they traded strikes. Sara waited for openings to bludgeon the enemy with her staff, but couldn’t get past her quick defenses.
The bubblefish darted between them, attempting to help. The rogue caught it with vicious slashes, sending the cursed creature crashing against the stone.
Aquilia’s expression hardened. She picked up the pace. Her intense training quickly overpowered the opponent. The rogue stumbled, blood running from her wounds.
She looked at Aquilia’s murdering visage, stained by blood and eyes burning with fury, and backed toward the exit. “Have your victory, witch. This isn’t worth dying for.”
The rogue fled into the darkness.
Aquilia dropped her sword and rushed to the bubblefish, her heart pounding. It slowly righted itself, its countless eyes blinking, alive once more.
Immortal, after all.
UD4: 2, final room! Finally.
Area type: NPC > Rogue (Vigor 13, AR 1, atk d6+1, Morale 8)
Reaction: Angered
Triple-O Dynamics: Admiring
Sparks: Strange, Assist, PallidA rogue who has also been cursed by the Thousand-Eye.
Why? Rivalry. To gain power against a foe or rival, maybe. She killed them and is now searching for more information about the cult.
She admires the bubblefish, for she isn’t immortal herself. Wants to take it and dissect it.
The battle went long! Sara managed to miss all her 6 attacks, fumbling the first one. I’ve been randomizing who the enemies attack. The rogue hit the bubblefish twice for 11 damage, killing it. Luckily, it’s immortal hahah.Since this is the final room, we’ve also found Griff the antiquarian’s notebook. Reading gives Aquilia insight into the Thousand-Eye.
Gather information about the Thousand-Eye to help the ashen bubblefish: +20% Headway (20%)We leave the abandoned temple and seal the entrance with broken statues, huge rocks, and debris.
Night
They camped near the entrance to the temple. Exploring it took its toll on all of them, and they sat exhausted near the bonfire.
Aquilia sat with the annotated Tome resting on her knees.
She knew the cost of deciphering a Tome without the guidance of a Sage. Still, she could not leave Monza’s teachings locked within its pages. The book called to her.
Aquilia opened it. Her fingers trembled under its weight. She felt the words searing her brain, dancing and burning across the pages.
Heat rushed through her body, and her skin burned. Flames erupted across her flesh, scorching her hair away in an instant. Aquilia clenched her teeth and continued reading, forcing herself to focus as the Inner Fires rose within her.
The words blurred. The back of her throat blistered and scratched, her teeth rattled, and then the sky burned away.
All the surroundings disappeared. Aquilia found herself standing somewhere familiar, though she could not tell whether it was a memory or a dream.
The old temple of Master Monza was whole again. Shelves bent under the weight of books, and candles and lamps burned along the walls.
Somewhere nearby, Monza’s voice instructed the novices. Aquilia ran toward it, but the more effort she made, the more she seemed to drift away. She slipped through the floor and her vision dissolved as darkness swallowed her.
Aquilia awoke sometime later. The tome lay open in her lap. Shadow, Sara, and the bubblefish stood nearby with concerned expressions.
A massive headache hammered her skull, but the knowledge had settled into her mind.
As she expected, there was no great revelation, no forgotten masterwork of pyromancy, only the fundamentals of the Darkflame Weapon. The same technique Monza had taught her as a fledgling.
But Aquilia held a different grasp of it now. She raised her hand. Somber fire crawled along her fingers, then flowed over her longsword. The black flame burned brighter than before, cold, beautiful, and powerful.
Aquilia smiled. Her master’s first lesson still lived within her, stronger and brighter.
I took this opportunity to read the annotated beginner’s Tome found in the temple.
Of course, there are rules for deciphering Tomes for ourselves instead of asking sages, and the cost is high.
Inner Fires Degree: +5 (7 = Momentary Full Body Flame up. All hair is singed away.)
Spirit check: 9, success!
Let’s say this basic Tome has a Potency Level of 1. I’ll roll on the Pyromancy Tome Effect Table with a +2.
2d6+2: 8 = Fall into a dreamlike state until your next visit.
Monza’s tome has been deciphered! It only contains knowledge of the most basic Darkflame pyromancy, Darkflame Weapon, but Aquilia improves her proficiency with it.
Darkflame Weapon can now be cast with a difficulty of 7! Or at 8, imbuing the weapon with +2 damage instead of +1 (still ignoring only 1 Defense).
That’s a cool use for other Tomes found in the game, right?-1 Ration (4)
I won’t roll for Encounters, but also won’t recover Vigor or Inner Fires.
Notes
End of session here. +1 XP (1). Some ways to go before the next Level.
Deciphering a Tome grants a Level and increases Spirit by 1, but I forfeited it here as the one I found was a beginner’s.
This made me think: should a level up from a Tome reset the XP to zero? I’m gonna rule that no. This will avoid ‘gaming’ the system, waiting for when I’m at 0 XP to decipher it. I think this avoids XP FOMO.
This was probably my favorite session so far. I really enjoyed improvising this beginner’s Tome, and creating lore for Monza and the Darkflame in general is always a blast.
This is such a great adaptation of soulslike. I love Dark Covenant Invader because it does so much with so little, but ToP is on a whole other level.
Tome of the Pyromancer is available on Itch.