You live in the world continent of Aletheia. Magic exists, but it is reserved for the truly gifted - even a genius can only learn maybe one or two proper spells in a lifetime. Two of the greatest geniuses used to study together in the tower of their master in the city of Graak. After the city was attacked by demons and their master killed, they couldn't decide who was going to be his successor and so they did battle. Archagoras, a master of the dark arts, blinded his rival, Hekabe, with a curse so potent she couldn't get rid of it with her healing magic. She infused herself with potent life magic and then charged at Archagoras. Wounded, he turned into a shadow and disappeared.

You're Hekabe's apprentice. Her lieutenant Darius the Brave found you in a village called Zorn, which had once been conquered by lizardfolk. You were toiling at the mines when he liberated the village. Something in you caught his eye and he decided to take you to Hekabe. She determined you to have great potential for magic and took you as apprentice.

She let you copy one of her grimoires, though even with this help it will take you a lifetime to master spells at her level. You became a sage, working for her in her library, aiding in research, learning some magic when you can. You learned that she's pursuing a cure for the curse that blinded her, a hex so devilish it continues to crawl under her skin and spread long after it was cast, causing immense pain.

"My worthy apprentice. I might not be long in this world. You will have to defeat Archagoras! If you don't, he will plunge this world into a thousand years of darkness!"

Not too long after that, she was assassinated in her tower by invisible assassins send by Archagoras. In her will, read by Darius, he himself assaulted by the assassins, managing to survive only thanks to a charm Hekabe gave him that reinvigorated him after taking lethal damage, she legated her tower and grimoires to you "on the condition that you find a worthy apprentice within ten years, leave everything to the apprentice in your own will, and instruct them to do the same for perpetuity."

Darius implies that she did not forbid you from having more than one apprentice, though you must choose only one to inherit everything.

And thus a new magical order was created!
> Choose name and gender for MC
> Choose name for the magical order

And for your first choices, decide:
> Send Darius to find a worthy apprentice
> Accept the best minor wizard of the tower as your apprentice for now
> Accept all the fifty minor wizards of the tower as your apprentices for now
> Write in

You only know one spell, it is a ritual called Binding. If you use it on a mana source, you can redirect it to your tower through the planet's magical leylines and use it to power rituals. But the spell is very easily disturbed, so the site must be guarded from sabotage.

What's the first spell you're going to research? Name it and describe its powers.

Also, there is the risk the Necromancer steals Hekabe's corpse and use it for heinous purposes! What are you going to do with it?
> Burn it
> Give it to Darius to hide
> Put knights guarding her tomb
> Secure it in the inner sanctum of your tower
> Write in

>>6273222
>Ana, female

>Accept the best minor wizard of the tower as your apprentice for now

>Empower: Increase the vitality and strength of the target
will accept tweak suggestions since I don't know how things will work here.

>Secure it in the inner sanctum of your tower

>>6273222
> Accept all the fifty minor wizards of the tower as your apprentices for now
Maybe we can overwhelm Archagoras with quantity

>Copy spell - grants all your knowledge of a spell and how to cast it to a willing recipient

> Secure it in the inner sanctum of your tower

>>6273222
>Ashtar Zornabel
>Order of The Bright Tower(not sure if we are still located in the tower that was mentioned but seems like a good reference to our master’s heritage)
.-//

> Accept the best minor wizard of the tower as your apprentice for now

There is something to be said for fifty apprentices but the degree of backstabbing that could be encouraged by that isn’t a road I want to probe. And I’m afraid it could spread out teaching thin. Best to put our efforts into grooming the most exciting candidate. Better return.

>First Spell: Final Repose, causes a dead’s body to combust if it becomes the victim of necromancy

If it was brought up as a danger, may was well nip it in the bud

>Secure it in the inner sanctum of your tower

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6273247
>>6273329
>>6273364


Alright name of the order is

Order of The Bright Tower

Rolling for name

1 - Ana
2 - Ashtar Zornabel

Then I'll roll for spell

Rolled 3 (1d3)

1 - empower
2 - copy spell
3 - final repose

"Ana, it is time you learn about the forces you now command.", says Darius.

"The tower, as you know, is massive in width, if not in height. It has three levels above ground and two basements. It was designed to serve as a conduit for the planetary magical ley lines. Rebuilding one of those would cost at least 50,000 gold, and could take years."

"The tower houses the Order. A total of 50 magicians, in teams of four to six... well, a few teams have less members due to recent losses."

"In combat they are capable of hurling a magical firebolt three times a day. They never had time for proper physical combat training with having to study all the time, so if an enemy closes in on them they will be very dead."

"They can also prepare a spell as a team to cast it once a day. The only spell they currently know is Fireball. They use a variety of the Binding ritual to channel the magic between them, so any of the six can cast the spell, but it depletes the energy of all of them to fuel a single casting."

"The surrounding city has two walls. The wizards are trained to defend the inner wall. The outer wall is manned by the Knights. We have 30 knights defending the city. We also have 80 archers and we can call upon the militia to defend the city, which is another 700 men, though they do not leave the city very far to pursue enemies in fear of ambushes. The archers don't usually leave the city, for fear of it being ungarrisoned if an enemy lays in siege. The levy allows us to require the city to provide 70 armed men for us to take wherever we want, which could even be the archers, though they always claim they don't have enough and don't send a full compliment."

"About twenty thousand people live in this city. It has all the amenities of a large capital, including well stocked magical shops and alchemists. It is possible to buy a magical weapon for as little as 1,000 gold, and to have one temporarily enchanted for a fraction of that price. Most of the casters of the entire region flock here, so we have an over abundance of casters. Usually, you can't find more than one for each thousand people, and even then they only know a cantrip."

>>6273420
"Now I'll leave you with brother Sirael, the Tower Keeper."

Brother Sirael is an elderly man with a martial posture and a body covered in scars - he was once a man at arms turned scholar, once the old weapons became too unwieldy for an aging body.

"Greetings, Mistress Ana! The first level of the tower is the guest area, the first basement is storage, the second basement is magical storage, the second level of the tower is the apprentices area and the uppermost level of the tower is the master's quarters and the ritual chambers. We can summon things within the tower for some degree of secrecy, as it has a permanent circle etched on stone, or we could have the apprentices spread silver powder outside to draw a summoning circle. It usually costs about 5,000 gold in silver powder to do it, but it can be done anywhere in the world, we just need to send the apprentices with the equipment there first, what can take a few months. Let me lead you to the third level."

You've rarely been in the third level before.

"Here is the private collection of magical tomes. It is protected by powerful wards, an ethereal spirit bound to the tower. Only the master of the tower can touch them, anyone else receives a powerful psychic backlash by the magical spirit of the tower. If you mark someone as your apprentice, they can touch the tomes as well, though they cannot take them out of the tower, because if they try the tome will disappear and reappear into the bookshelf. It isn't teleportation, it is the spirit of the tower snatching the tome, turning it ethereal, and putting it back in its place. Dispelling this spirit is nigh impossible, but it cannot leave the tower either."

"Now the spell we've been working on. It is called 'Final Repose', causes a dead body to combust if it becomes victim of necromancy. It is almost finished!"

>>6273421

"Our finances are solid. We have 50,000 gold stockpiled and a surplus of 5,000 gold per month to spend on magic. Some of this comes from tithe, some from selling magical services."

Some projects we've been working on:

> In the nearby forest of Nerzud there is a Monstrous Spider that guards a powerful mana source. If we defeat it, we could increase our magical energies significantly! By our order, we'll send our forces there (determine forces).

> The villagers keep complaining about bandits robbing the caravans, there is wild rumors about a witch aiding them. We could send someone to investigate the rumors, perhaps Darius.

> The lizardmen of Kelthorad continue to raid in the southern wastes, reports of more villages being taken. The king is overwhelmed, but unwilling to admit it and call in the levy in the entire kingdom to deal with mere lizardmen. Still, if they gets to our city it could be problem, as we are closes to the wastes than the capital.

> We've been developing the blueprints for a wand that casts fireball up to four times and recharges one charge per day. We estimate it is going to cost something around 300,000 gold to procure all the needed materials and perform all the necessary rituals to enchant it. Give the word and we'll start it.

> We heard of an ancient library to the south where magical tomes can be copied from monks that kept them for thousands of years. The problem is it is past lizardmen territory and into lamia territory. The monks have some sort of arrangement with the lamias and they allow them to live there.

> A Mountain Giant is roaming the southern wastes, stealing cattle to eat. It could be wise to slay it before it causes too much trouble, or at least drive it away.

> We have located the tower of Archagoras. It is on the opposite side of the continent, about 5,000 miles away. Even if he started conquering land like crazy, we would still have a few years before he got here. Still, as it was shown, his magical assassins can occasionally slip by unnoticed. He probably has a summoning circle not too far from here. If we could find it and destroy it, it would be a great setback for him.

> Write in if there is something else you want to do

>>6273431
>In the nearby forest of Nerzud there is a Monstrous Spider that guards a powerful mana source. If we defeat it, we could increase our magical energies significantly! By our order, we'll send our forces there send the 10 best minor wizards

>>6273431
>We heard of an ancient library to the south where magical tomes can be copied from monks that kept them for thousands of years. The problem is it is past lizardmen territory and into lamia territory. The monks have some sort of arrangement with the lamias and they allow them to live there.

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>6273440
>>6273548


1 - spooder
2 - bookz

Rolled 67, 3, 54 = 124 (3d100)

>>6273630


"Gatherers and local adventurers have reported giant spiders roaming the forest of Nerzud. They get bigger and bigger the deeper you go, some believe the magic of an uncontrolled mana source is making them grow unnaturally.

Darius volunteer to go check it out.


Farzael, your apprentice, the best of the minor mages, says the success of the mission relies on antidotes, as the spiders can poison people.

But Darien he says he will either need a fuckton of antidote, or very disposable troops.

A vial of antidote is selling for 200 gold (usually it is only 50, but there is very high demand that can't be met fast enough).

Select forces and how many antidotes you want to send with them.

> 50 apprentices
> 30 knights
> 70 levy
> Write in

Money: 55,000 gold

Farzael also says "Ma'am, we could capitalize on the surge in prices of the antidotes by making a large batch from our stockpiles and selling them to meet the demand. We believe we could make them for 25 gold and sell an arbitrarily large amount of them for 100-150 gold instead of 50. But each apprentice takes one week to make a batch of six. Of course, we could also use the antidotes ourselves, but the apprentices will be busy making them and won't be able to go into the mission."

Once you make your choices, roll me 3d100. The DC will vary depending on how many troops you send. One success is required to find the spiders, and two to vanquish them.

I'm rolling for the spiders, their DC range will probably be 40-60 depending on what you choose to do.

Rolled 71, 9, 17 = 97 (3d100)

>>6273634
>Take 40 antidotes
>The twenty-five best apprentices
>6 knights
>15 levy

>>6273672

You send in a multitude of apprentices and relatively few soldiers. Though in the early encounters the apprentices fare well, there's simply not enough soldiers to cover them. Worse still, once you get deep enough into the forest, the giant spiders start targetting them specifically with their webs.

The antidotes sure do help, and you use them all - but they're not nearly enough! Lots of people die from poisoning.

When they get exposed and flanked by creatures, they begin to die in droves.

In the final confrontation with the Monstrous Spider, your remaining apprentices unleash their fireballs! Though they are as effective as it was expected, there is still securing the area in the heart of the forest, still filled with giant spiders and other dangerous wildlife.

You lose 20 apprentices, 4 knights and the whole levy.

One knight return reporting the dire news. He says the other knight and the remaining 5 apprentices are setting up the mana collection ritual, but beg you for more assistance or they're all going to die.

Month 2

52,000 gold

30 apprentices (5 on the field)
24 knights (1 on the field)
can take 65/70 levy (amount replenishes by 10 every month)

After the catastrophic loss of your prized apprentices, you ponder what should you do next.

"There is a priest, sire, in the city, he is called High Priest Meroch. He can revive people! It will cost about 25,000 gold per person though.", says Farzael.

> Revive one apprentice and vouch to revive them all
> Hold a symbolic burial to all those who died in the field
> You don't have time for that, send more people to secure the mana source
> Write in

>>6274405
> Hold a symbolic burial to all those who died in the field
> You don't have time for that, send more people to secure the mana source
Dang those giant spiders targeted the mages that quickly? Smart. Maybe they can be reasoned with.

>>6274405
> Hold a symbolic burial to all those who died in the field
> You don't have time for that, send more people to secure the mana source

Send everything. Kill spiders. Stomp on spiders.

How strong is our MC anyways?

Rolled 1, 72, 39, 92, 90, 8 = 302 (6d100)

>>6274754
>>6274923


You hold a symbolic burial to the fallen and the next morning you send all your forces to stomp on the spiders.

Roll 3d100 to onslaught the spiders.

Also roll 3d100 to defend against the assassins that will be sent to you now that you are alone.

Rolling for spiders and assassins, 3d100 for each.

Rolled 87, 72, 19, 92, 27, 50 = 347 (6d100)

>>6275012
Oh shit those assassins rolled well

Rolled 95, 54, 8, 25, 10, 83 = 275 (6d100)

>>6275012
Lol when I said send everything I'd figure we went with the army, which is why I asked how strong our MC is.

Presuming I also have a chance to roll here

>>6275243
>>6275257

Your men secure the mana source! There are still many giant spiders and other mutated fauna in the forest, but the structure that siphons mana has been built, and it all is now being beamed through the magical leylines straight to your fortress!

However, the assassins got to you when you were undefended. You got killed!

The assassins stole 30,000 gold.

Your apprentice Farzael takes over the tower.

Month 3

27,000 gold + 5,000/month

750 mana + 750 mana/month from the magic source

29 apprentices
24 knights
can take 70 levy

"We got a large influx of mana now! We could start using it to research new spells."

Which new spell do you want to research?
> Giant strength - target becomes much stronger, dealing more damage in battle (4,000 mana)
> Disrupt - destroys a section of a wall (2,000 mana)
> Endurance - target moves much faster (3,000 mana)
> Guardian wind - target becomes immune to ranged non-magical attacks (4,000 mana)
> Recall hero - you can summon back one of your champions from wherever he or she is at any time to your tower, to your person or to your summoning circle (17,500 mana)
> Write in

A wandering merchant offers you a charm called Vallael, it is a "+1 defense charm of water walking", it lets the wearer walk over water, it asks for 7,500 gold.

Darius has a Charm of Healing, it casts a healing spell on you if you are down.

Determine what you want to do next:
> Investigate the bandits robbing caravans
> Aid the king against the lizardmen
> Develop the fireball wand
> Go visit the ancient library
> Go deal with the mountain giant
> Search for Archagoras summoning circle
> Write in

>>6276745
> Endurance - target moves much faster (3,000 mana)
sped

> Search for Archagoras summoning circle