DM-Nastics #43: Who Really Grinds My Gears!
Dec 8, 2015 20:44:36 GMT
dm_mainprize, Tesla Ranger, and 1 more like this
Post by joatmoniac on Dec 8, 2015 20:44:36 GMT
I was going back and forth about what to do for this one, and also wrote it and lost it because my browser shut down, but alas here we are! I thought do exactly what the guys suggested and Google some steampunk stuff and put it in here, but felt like we have had enough of those recently that something else would be a better idea. The better idea I came up with was to build out a steampunk type guild in the world for Dayeimbe!
1. Guild name: Cogsworth Club: Factions - The Flamehorn Group, Arcane Athenaeum, Beer & Bomb Brigade
2. Guild logo:
3. Guild structure: sell to highest bidder, advancements given to all, etc
4. Races: Primary, secondary, exceptions
For some reason I would expect that the guild would be neutral to race/gender. Admissions would be based on a review of the artificer's ability (or perhaps compulsory if a craftsmen is deemed a risk if left unsupervised). Anyone who can show up, convince the judges/officers of their potential/ability, and pay any potential duties or fees would be admitted regardless of race, gender, or the potential presence of a soul (Warforged). If they can build it, they can come.
5. Main leader:
The wild and untamed Gizzy Whirltoplle, current leader of the guild has a passion for inventing crazy things and using said gadgets for that great adrenaline rush! She doesn't really care about running the guild, but she's extremely Charismatic and is great at uniting guild members to work on a large project or simply motivating members. She knows most everyone by name and takes time to get to know the new members, if only through a letter from a Secondary Leader. Gizzy's extremely confident, reckless, brash, inventive and cheerful.
She usually insists on testing the best new weapon/contraption/vehicle/etc. herself. It's considered a huge honor for Gizzy to test out your gadget even though she'd willingly test every single one. Unfortunately, she's been known to get into trouble because she's too eager and tests a gadget before it's ready or safe. Because of this, during her early days in the guild, she accidentally blew her left arm off when a mechanical sword exploded. Her best friend, one of the Secondary Leaders, made her a robotic arm which she loves. As well, her hair is often singed and at the moment, she's burned off an entire pigtail.
She hates paperwork, preferring to get her hands dirty or do a field test. When not allowed to tinker or test devices - for instance, while attending a guild conference or on doctor mandated bed rest - she grows increasingly restless and groans loudly until someone brings her something to tinker or gives in and lets her go about her business.
Her alignment is Chaotic Good. She worships Ren and Yak, the Lightning Twins, although only casually. Her personal symbol is a radically drawn dragon curled around a cog. She stamps/emblazons this on all of her own inventions. She's middle aged but acts like a child. She seems genuinely enthusiastic a bout every single invention someone brings to her, especially the newbies.
She has a great liking for Fenago and was one of the first to test out his "cogbombs."
6. Secondary leader(s):
a) Fenago Cogblast is a Gnomish Tinkerer. He is quite the trickster within the group. He has found a way to make bombs that use cogs as their timer. He is often seen wandering the hall way juggling some of his "Cogbombs" as they have come to be known. He often pulls small pranks on his friends. No one can figure out how his Cogbombs work and so he uses these to his advantage. He will often place them within his friends cupboards or closets with a string attached. When the door is pulled the string is released and his friends hear the infamous ticking of his work. Most of his prank bombs are simply filled with confetti though that upon exploding discharge a large amount all over the room.
He is very highly sought after by many assassins as well because of these "Cogbombs". They sell on the black market for a very pretty penny.
b) Sirena Sunsinner: Half-Elf Elemental Sorcerer. She acts as the second in command to Brun. She is stoic and dedicated to the study of the arcane arts & its application in emerging technology. Originally grandfathered into the guild on the back of her much more famous mother she continuously tries to prove her own worth by finding new & more efficient ways to work the elements with emerging technology. A scandal occurred where her full elven mother (Aleaf Sunsinner) turned her back on the guild later in life stating that technology would be the death of the natural & planar dimensions. This was put down to Soot Sickness but the scandal continues to play on everyones mind, they think perhaps there is a chance of history repeating itself with Sirena.
c) Hoarfire Dagarkin, Road foreman & master engineer. Hoarfire is a gifted smith and mechanical genius. His innovations have doubled the carrying capacity of the freight lines and made him a celebrity in the coastal cities. He has no love for the empire, but loves his work, so he keeps his mouth shut on political issues. While gruff and loud, He is a loyal and compassionate person who cares about those who work under him. He is insistent on safety in both his workplace and in his designs.
d) Loraleth Meadowbright. Chief Arcane researcher and summoner. Loraleth is loyal to the old empire and sees her job as her way to see that it receives the goods that it needs from Tessix. She is Haughty and looks down upon those who have embraced the new ways of this land. She seldom leaves her offices, and rarely concerns herself with any guild matters other than her own research.
e) Callahan Longhouse. Human male, Guildmaster. While A Wizard and Artificiar of moderate skill, his talents lie in the administrative and political dealings of operating the most influential guild in Tessix. While Ruthless & cunning, he is smart enough to restrain himself from making himself a target to the empire taking less than he is capable of & remaining content with that. For now anyways.
f) Brun Blackpowder: Dwarven Artificer & blacksmith. He has operated in the guild for the last 14 years. Having joined the guild some 100 years ago he rose in status with the successful creation & implementation of many new inventions. He has a gruff manner, having not forgotten his roots but is happy to have risen from his previous status as Common folk. His name is a reference to a family inheritance that was squandered by his great grandfather, they were the first dwarven family to work with the Black Powder (Gun Powder) & refine its use. Originally a stolen technology from a local goblinoid clan his family had a long running feud with, Brun has since spend the vast majority of his time in the guild trying to distance himself from his clans blood thirsty & ruthless past. He has used his influence to extend an invitation to the guild to some Goblins from that clan. A brilliant artificer he has created many useful items from an engine to drive airships to a time piece that he wears on his wrist.
7. Notable non-leader members:
a) Sharn Silverforged is a dwarven tinkerer who tirelessly spends his days working on his next invention. Some are amazing, some seem useless, but Sharn doesn't really care as long as he can keep tinkering. He has been working in the guild for longer than most can remember, and should have some sort of important role, but he simply won't stop working long enough for that to happen. His signature is that everything he makes is lined in silver filigree, or simply made from silver.
b) Garaf (pronounced Gar-aph (as in "Gar"age and "Aff"able))
No one's quite sure where Garaf came from. His youth seems to have been spent on the backstreets of Rockport as one of the myriad street urchins pinching goods for a living. He quickly garnered more official attention in his mid-teens when he hijacked an airship and took it for a joyride across half the kingdom. By the time the airship was finally brought down he had somehow modified it en route to dramatically increase its speed and maneuverability. The upgrades were destroyed during his capture (which involved a dramatic crash landing that narrowly missed the Birchyard city limits) and a judge declared Garaf to be a public menace. He was remitted to the Cogsworth Club so that his abilities might be made to serve the public good.
Garaf may be unique in the guild (depending on how artificery works in this setting) in being utterly and uniquely devoid of any magical ability. While his cohorts build devices that rely heavily on arcane underpinnings, Garaf's creations are entirely mechanical in nature (or at least they don't ping to Detect Magic). Even so, he seems to have the ability to intuitively understand complex systems, recreating or augmenting them as the situation calls for it. Among his most notable inventions a small, clockwork companion he assembled over years, mostly in his sleep. Dubbed "Arc" or "Archy" the construct communicates through clicks and chirps and is capable of transforming into various small animals. Garaf also built the Supreme Mecha Wonder Toaster and Percolatron in the Guild cafeteria.
Perhaps due to his background, Garaf's candid attitude towards others often comes off as abrupt or even arrogant to newcomers to the Guild. He seems to be well meaning but he doesn't place much stock in things like formality or authority. It's generally acknowledged that he probably would've struck out on his own a long time ago if not for a court-ordered device that delivers painful shocks if he spends too long away from guild property. Whether he likes it or not, Garaf is stuck with the Guild for the foreseeable future.
Gizzy Whirltoplle - Garaf's relationship with the guildmaster is professional enough, if not exactly warm. He's never been particularly comfortable with her insistence on testing every new invention and the matter nearly came to blows after he built Arc. Still, she's earned a measure of his respect and he rarely directly contradicts her.
Galyss - The warforged blacksmith and Garaf are good friends and have collaborated on numerous projects. Galyss's sheer capability in the forge and Garaf's mechanical intuition have together resulted in a number of dynamic innovations.
Fenago - The Prank War that erupted between Fenago and Garaf shortly after the latter's arrival at the Guild has since become a matter of legend. At the climax of the "war" the HQ building was nearly leveled between cogbombs and more... improvised explosives. The risk:entertainment factor was deemed unacceptable at that point and the Prank War ordered concluded by the GuildMaster, several magistrates, and the local ruling lord (who was, it seems, tired of seeing sandals flying over the city). No one knows how but somehow nobody was seriously injured during the entire affair.
Zorrash - Garaf's loose tongue and general not-impressedness by authority has caused more than a little friction between him at Zorrash. It doesn't help that he at least seems to be human. Or that Zorrash was a frequent "casualty" in the aforementioned Prank War.
c) Zorrash Bloodclaw is a Sargent in the beef-line militia. He leads a platoon of mostly non-human type beings, tieflings, half orcs & a few Dragonborn. A Blue dragonborn himself, he doesn't concern himself with the conflicts in the areas assigned him unless it directly involved guild business. He won't help a farmer that's being terrorized by gnolls, but will have a railroad track vandal executed. He dislikes human types, and does his best to get them out of his unit whenever they are assigned.
d) Aleaf Sunsinner: Former member - She turned her back on the guild & chose to live her life free of technology, returning to the diminished woods of her childhood to live out her final days. The guild reported her as entering convalescence with "Soot Sickness" a modern illness that even clerics have not been able to cure. This leads to feeble mindedness, hooping cough & greatly diminished life spans.
8. Main city of operation:
Rockport - Formerly a small seaport town, after the invention of the skyship engine this town grew into a bustling industrial sky city. Keeping the name Rockport it is home to a number of rival guild which leads to political & corporate intrigue.
9. Secondary cities of operation:
Lynchtree, a small town on the edge of the badlands near the prairie. While not a railyard, it has a large stockyard, and is an important station on the Beef-line.
10. Notable technological advancements:
a) The Guild (name pending) keeps the secrets of two noteworthy inventions created by the brain trust at the center of the organization: “Mutative and Capacitive Mana-Infused Material Bonding Fluid” (commonly known as spell ink) and “Automated Magical Rune Application Device” (commonly known as the arcanograph). Frustrated with the pace and cost of arcane craft and construction, the guild set their collective minds toward finding methods to ease the practices of magic in the same ways the locomotor eased the challenges of travel. To that end, the liquid that came to be known as “spell ink” was developed. Through a combination of relatively cheap alchemical reagents (10 ml. ettin venom, 6.5 ml. emulsified oozes, 7 ml. salamander bile, additional trace elements…) and common spell components (blink dog fur, doppleganger eye, consecrated water), the guild’s alchemists synthesized a fluid with the capability to absorb un-patterned mana via a transmutative ritual. The ritual, the secrets of which are tightly-guarded by the guild’s wizards and highly-desired by the guild’s competitors, bonds magic to the solution in such a way that its effects can be “written” simply by shaping the ink itself, just as the magically-inclined shape spells through their words. By correctly inscribing the ink on a surface, anyone, regardless of their arcane aptitude, can cast a spell! However, the ability to utilize the spell ink is gated by the knowledge of the runic script through which the magic is activated. Poor rendering of the runes could render an investment worthless, while misspellings or grammatical errors could lead to disaster.
Enter the arcanograph.
The “Automated Magical Rune Application Device” was conceived after the fifth guild scribe utilizing spell ink in so many weeks accidentally lit the library annex on fire (thank goodness for the long-standing elemental wards or far more precious knowledge may have been lost!). It was decided that the use of spell ink needed to be heavily regimented via a predictable and extensible mechanical implement. After weeks of toil, a device of shining brass and ivory keys was presented to the guild by the master machinist. At the center of the machine sat a sealed spirit, whose ectoplasm possessed a powerful resonance with the spell ink components, allowing the machine to perfectly sync the keys’ designated symbols with the images that would be printed in the ink by the spirit. The spirit also provided a built-in safety for the spell ink writing; it retained enough intelligence to avoid printing potentially lethal (at least, to the arcanograph user) spells. Now, all one needed was a vial of spell ink, an arcanograph, and a comprehensive dictionary of magical runes (also available from the guild) to possess the powers of a wizard at a fraction of the cost or time invested in mystical study.
While the guild gained incredible notoriety (and profit) from these inventions, it has also accrued its fair share of opponents. Religious sects have decried the guild's use of spiritual energy in such a mundane implement. Wizard colleges have raged endlessly about the lack of mortal influence (and collegiate oversight) over the steadily-growing “magical” community. And, most of all, countless double agents, trespassers, and thugs have crossed paths with the guild, hoping beyond hope to steal their trade secrets and use them as their own.
tl;dr - typewriter/printing press that prints spells and magical effects #ThePenIsMightier
b) Most remarkable is the development of locomotives, which involve the binding of fire elementals, & the creation of the engineering infrastructure to create track and rail-cars. These trade secrets are closely guarded by the guild, and their details are carefully warded and kept hidden by the main rail-yard, lest another guild emerge to rival them.
c) Blackpowder Skyship Engine. Book: Arcane Treaties of Emulsified Elemental by Aleaf Sunsinner. Various patents to other technologies leased to companies throughout the land. These two technologies & the funds they collect from licencing patents is the guilds main source of income.
11. Anything else:
The guild is a play of intrigue & subterfuge, especially when it comes to election years. They continuously have to fight off other guilds who try to steal their technology but also have to deal with internal strife, satellite chapters & both piracy & mutiny on their skyships. The current leaders have their own agendas that they don't seem to share with each other although this in itself is a subterfuge as both Brun & Sirena are very close. Both actually believe that Aleaf was correct & the Elemental fuel they use is sapping the other dimensions of power, something they have been investigating covertly in order to confirm. With expanding technology the Emulsified Elemental fuel is in high demand but what is the cost?
I'm pretty excited for this one, and most excited to see what people put in the "notable technological advancements" section.
1. Guild name: Cogsworth Club: Factions - The Flamehorn Group, Arcane Athenaeum, Beer & Bomb Brigade
2. Guild logo:
3. Guild structure: sell to highest bidder, advancements given to all, etc
4. Races: Primary, secondary, exceptions
For some reason I would expect that the guild would be neutral to race/gender. Admissions would be based on a review of the artificer's ability (or perhaps compulsory if a craftsmen is deemed a risk if left unsupervised). Anyone who can show up, convince the judges/officers of their potential/ability, and pay any potential duties or fees would be admitted regardless of race, gender, or the potential presence of a soul (Warforged). If they can build it, they can come.
5. Main leader:
The wild and untamed Gizzy Whirltoplle, current leader of the guild has a passion for inventing crazy things and using said gadgets for that great adrenaline rush! She doesn't really care about running the guild, but she's extremely Charismatic and is great at uniting guild members to work on a large project or simply motivating members. She knows most everyone by name and takes time to get to know the new members, if only through a letter from a Secondary Leader. Gizzy's extremely confident, reckless, brash, inventive and cheerful.
She usually insists on testing the best new weapon/contraption/vehicle/etc. herself. It's considered a huge honor for Gizzy to test out your gadget even though she'd willingly test every single one. Unfortunately, she's been known to get into trouble because she's too eager and tests a gadget before it's ready or safe. Because of this, during her early days in the guild, she accidentally blew her left arm off when a mechanical sword exploded. Her best friend, one of the Secondary Leaders, made her a robotic arm which she loves. As well, her hair is often singed and at the moment, she's burned off an entire pigtail.
She hates paperwork, preferring to get her hands dirty or do a field test. When not allowed to tinker or test devices - for instance, while attending a guild conference or on doctor mandated bed rest - she grows increasingly restless and groans loudly until someone brings her something to tinker or gives in and lets her go about her business.
Her alignment is Chaotic Good. She worships Ren and Yak, the Lightning Twins, although only casually. Her personal symbol is a radically drawn dragon curled around a cog. She stamps/emblazons this on all of her own inventions. She's middle aged but acts like a child. She seems genuinely enthusiastic a bout every single invention someone brings to her, especially the newbies.
She has a great liking for Fenago and was one of the first to test out his "cogbombs."
6. Secondary leader(s):
a) Fenago Cogblast is a Gnomish Tinkerer. He is quite the trickster within the group. He has found a way to make bombs that use cogs as their timer. He is often seen wandering the hall way juggling some of his "Cogbombs" as they have come to be known. He often pulls small pranks on his friends. No one can figure out how his Cogbombs work and so he uses these to his advantage. He will often place them within his friends cupboards or closets with a string attached. When the door is pulled the string is released and his friends hear the infamous ticking of his work. Most of his prank bombs are simply filled with confetti though that upon exploding discharge a large amount all over the room.
He is very highly sought after by many assassins as well because of these "Cogbombs". They sell on the black market for a very pretty penny.
b) Sirena Sunsinner: Half-Elf Elemental Sorcerer. She acts as the second in command to Brun. She is stoic and dedicated to the study of the arcane arts & its application in emerging technology. Originally grandfathered into the guild on the back of her much more famous mother she continuously tries to prove her own worth by finding new & more efficient ways to work the elements with emerging technology. A scandal occurred where her full elven mother (Aleaf Sunsinner) turned her back on the guild later in life stating that technology would be the death of the natural & planar dimensions. This was put down to Soot Sickness but the scandal continues to play on everyones mind, they think perhaps there is a chance of history repeating itself with Sirena.
c) Hoarfire Dagarkin, Road foreman & master engineer. Hoarfire is a gifted smith and mechanical genius. His innovations have doubled the carrying capacity of the freight lines and made him a celebrity in the coastal cities. He has no love for the empire, but loves his work, so he keeps his mouth shut on political issues. While gruff and loud, He is a loyal and compassionate person who cares about those who work under him. He is insistent on safety in both his workplace and in his designs.
d) Loraleth Meadowbright. Chief Arcane researcher and summoner. Loraleth is loyal to the old empire and sees her job as her way to see that it receives the goods that it needs from Tessix. She is Haughty and looks down upon those who have embraced the new ways of this land. She seldom leaves her offices, and rarely concerns herself with any guild matters other than her own research.
e) Callahan Longhouse. Human male, Guildmaster. While A Wizard and Artificiar of moderate skill, his talents lie in the administrative and political dealings of operating the most influential guild in Tessix. While Ruthless & cunning, he is smart enough to restrain himself from making himself a target to the empire taking less than he is capable of & remaining content with that. For now anyways.
f) Brun Blackpowder: Dwarven Artificer & blacksmith. He has operated in the guild for the last 14 years. Having joined the guild some 100 years ago he rose in status with the successful creation & implementation of many new inventions. He has a gruff manner, having not forgotten his roots but is happy to have risen from his previous status as Common folk. His name is a reference to a family inheritance that was squandered by his great grandfather, they were the first dwarven family to work with the Black Powder (Gun Powder) & refine its use. Originally a stolen technology from a local goblinoid clan his family had a long running feud with, Brun has since spend the vast majority of his time in the guild trying to distance himself from his clans blood thirsty & ruthless past. He has used his influence to extend an invitation to the guild to some Goblins from that clan. A brilliant artificer he has created many useful items from an engine to drive airships to a time piece that he wears on his wrist.
7. Notable non-leader members:
a) Sharn Silverforged is a dwarven tinkerer who tirelessly spends his days working on his next invention. Some are amazing, some seem useless, but Sharn doesn't really care as long as he can keep tinkering. He has been working in the guild for longer than most can remember, and should have some sort of important role, but he simply won't stop working long enough for that to happen. His signature is that everything he makes is lined in silver filigree, or simply made from silver.
b) Garaf (pronounced Gar-aph (as in "Gar"age and "Aff"able))
No one's quite sure where Garaf came from. His youth seems to have been spent on the backstreets of Rockport as one of the myriad street urchins pinching goods for a living. He quickly garnered more official attention in his mid-teens when he hijacked an airship and took it for a joyride across half the kingdom. By the time the airship was finally brought down he had somehow modified it en route to dramatically increase its speed and maneuverability. The upgrades were destroyed during his capture (which involved a dramatic crash landing that narrowly missed the Birchyard city limits) and a judge declared Garaf to be a public menace. He was remitted to the Cogsworth Club so that his abilities might be made to serve the public good.
Garaf may be unique in the guild (depending on how artificery works in this setting) in being utterly and uniquely devoid of any magical ability. While his cohorts build devices that rely heavily on arcane underpinnings, Garaf's creations are entirely mechanical in nature (or at least they don't ping to Detect Magic). Even so, he seems to have the ability to intuitively understand complex systems, recreating or augmenting them as the situation calls for it. Among his most notable inventions a small, clockwork companion he assembled over years, mostly in his sleep. Dubbed "Arc" or "Archy" the construct communicates through clicks and chirps and is capable of transforming into various small animals. Garaf also built the Supreme Mecha Wonder Toaster and Percolatron in the Guild cafeteria.
Perhaps due to his background, Garaf's candid attitude towards others often comes off as abrupt or even arrogant to newcomers to the Guild. He seems to be well meaning but he doesn't place much stock in things like formality or authority. It's generally acknowledged that he probably would've struck out on his own a long time ago if not for a court-ordered device that delivers painful shocks if he spends too long away from guild property. Whether he likes it or not, Garaf is stuck with the Guild for the foreseeable future.
Gizzy Whirltoplle - Garaf's relationship with the guildmaster is professional enough, if not exactly warm. He's never been particularly comfortable with her insistence on testing every new invention and the matter nearly came to blows after he built Arc. Still, she's earned a measure of his respect and he rarely directly contradicts her.
Galyss - The warforged blacksmith and Garaf are good friends and have collaborated on numerous projects. Galyss's sheer capability in the forge and Garaf's mechanical intuition have together resulted in a number of dynamic innovations.
Fenago - The Prank War that erupted between Fenago and Garaf shortly after the latter's arrival at the Guild has since become a matter of legend. At the climax of the "war" the HQ building was nearly leveled between cogbombs and more... improvised explosives. The risk:entertainment factor was deemed unacceptable at that point and the Prank War ordered concluded by the GuildMaster, several magistrates, and the local ruling lord (who was, it seems, tired of seeing sandals flying over the city). No one knows how but somehow nobody was seriously injured during the entire affair.
Zorrash - Garaf's loose tongue and general not-impressedness by authority has caused more than a little friction between him at Zorrash. It doesn't help that he at least seems to be human. Or that Zorrash was a frequent "casualty" in the aforementioned Prank War.
c) Zorrash Bloodclaw is a Sargent in the beef-line militia. He leads a platoon of mostly non-human type beings, tieflings, half orcs & a few Dragonborn. A Blue dragonborn himself, he doesn't concern himself with the conflicts in the areas assigned him unless it directly involved guild business. He won't help a farmer that's being terrorized by gnolls, but will have a railroad track vandal executed. He dislikes human types, and does his best to get them out of his unit whenever they are assigned.
d) Aleaf Sunsinner: Former member - She turned her back on the guild & chose to live her life free of technology, returning to the diminished woods of her childhood to live out her final days. The guild reported her as entering convalescence with "Soot Sickness" a modern illness that even clerics have not been able to cure. This leads to feeble mindedness, hooping cough & greatly diminished life spans.
8. Main city of operation:
Rockport - Formerly a small seaport town, after the invention of the skyship engine this town grew into a bustling industrial sky city. Keeping the name Rockport it is home to a number of rival guild which leads to political & corporate intrigue.
9. Secondary cities of operation:
Lynchtree, a small town on the edge of the badlands near the prairie. While not a railyard, it has a large stockyard, and is an important station on the Beef-line.
10. Notable technological advancements:
a) The Guild (name pending) keeps the secrets of two noteworthy inventions created by the brain trust at the center of the organization: “Mutative and Capacitive Mana-Infused Material Bonding Fluid” (commonly known as spell ink) and “Automated Magical Rune Application Device” (commonly known as the arcanograph). Frustrated with the pace and cost of arcane craft and construction, the guild set their collective minds toward finding methods to ease the practices of magic in the same ways the locomotor eased the challenges of travel. To that end, the liquid that came to be known as “spell ink” was developed. Through a combination of relatively cheap alchemical reagents (10 ml. ettin venom, 6.5 ml. emulsified oozes, 7 ml. salamander bile, additional trace elements…) and common spell components (blink dog fur, doppleganger eye, consecrated water), the guild’s alchemists synthesized a fluid with the capability to absorb un-patterned mana via a transmutative ritual. The ritual, the secrets of which are tightly-guarded by the guild’s wizards and highly-desired by the guild’s competitors, bonds magic to the solution in such a way that its effects can be “written” simply by shaping the ink itself, just as the magically-inclined shape spells through their words. By correctly inscribing the ink on a surface, anyone, regardless of their arcane aptitude, can cast a spell! However, the ability to utilize the spell ink is gated by the knowledge of the runic script through which the magic is activated. Poor rendering of the runes could render an investment worthless, while misspellings or grammatical errors could lead to disaster.
Enter the arcanograph.
The “Automated Magical Rune Application Device” was conceived after the fifth guild scribe utilizing spell ink in so many weeks accidentally lit the library annex on fire (thank goodness for the long-standing elemental wards or far more precious knowledge may have been lost!). It was decided that the use of spell ink needed to be heavily regimented via a predictable and extensible mechanical implement. After weeks of toil, a device of shining brass and ivory keys was presented to the guild by the master machinist. At the center of the machine sat a sealed spirit, whose ectoplasm possessed a powerful resonance with the spell ink components, allowing the machine to perfectly sync the keys’ designated symbols with the images that would be printed in the ink by the spirit. The spirit also provided a built-in safety for the spell ink writing; it retained enough intelligence to avoid printing potentially lethal (at least, to the arcanograph user) spells. Now, all one needed was a vial of spell ink, an arcanograph, and a comprehensive dictionary of magical runes (also available from the guild) to possess the powers of a wizard at a fraction of the cost or time invested in mystical study.
While the guild gained incredible notoriety (and profit) from these inventions, it has also accrued its fair share of opponents. Religious sects have decried the guild's use of spiritual energy in such a mundane implement. Wizard colleges have raged endlessly about the lack of mortal influence (and collegiate oversight) over the steadily-growing “magical” community. And, most of all, countless double agents, trespassers, and thugs have crossed paths with the guild, hoping beyond hope to steal their trade secrets and use them as their own.
tl;dr - typewriter/printing press that prints spells and magical effects #ThePenIsMightier
b) Most remarkable is the development of locomotives, which involve the binding of fire elementals, & the creation of the engineering infrastructure to create track and rail-cars. These trade secrets are closely guarded by the guild, and their details are carefully warded and kept hidden by the main rail-yard, lest another guild emerge to rival them.
c) Blackpowder Skyship Engine. Book: Arcane Treaties of Emulsified Elemental by Aleaf Sunsinner. Various patents to other technologies leased to companies throughout the land. These two technologies & the funds they collect from licencing patents is the guilds main source of income.
11. Anything else:
The guild is a play of intrigue & subterfuge, especially when it comes to election years. They continuously have to fight off other guilds who try to steal their technology but also have to deal with internal strife, satellite chapters & both piracy & mutiny on their skyships. The current leaders have their own agendas that they don't seem to share with each other although this in itself is a subterfuge as both Brun & Sirena are very close. Both actually believe that Aleaf was correct & the Elemental fuel they use is sapping the other dimensions of power, something they have been investigating covertly in order to confirm. With expanding technology the Emulsified Elemental fuel is in high demand but what is the cost?
I'm pretty excited for this one, and most excited to see what people put in the "notable technological advancements" section.
