Wyrstorms

[Rasyr]

As part of Anwyn, one of the things I was planning was to have some unusual effects happen in Tuist Rhion because of the high concentration of magic in that region.

While watching a recent vid, the creator of a setting called Final Age, talked about something he named Ghost Storms (which create/summon undead of various types) which happen if there is too much magic use, and that got me thinking about how the Bladelands setting (a continent on Shadow World) had Bladestorms, and the rest of Shadow World had flow storms.... and thus I was inspired.....

And since I was already going to have Tuist Rhion be highly magical, I got to thinking that something similar could happen in Anwyn as well....

And what we have are the Wyrstorms (pronounced: WEER storms). I am still working out the details, but in short, they are filled with red and green lightning, they last anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours (20 + (2d10 x 5) minutes). And during a Wyrstorm, random portals to other worlds and planes can open, pulling almost anything through. If a Wyrstorm happens in the presence of a portal, like those found in the Esker Highlands, those portals will automatically activate.

so the mechanics I have worked out so far look like this......

1) Anytime a spell is cast, if the dice roll  is double sixes, then the GM checks for a Wyrstorm

2) The GM rolls 2d10 (open-ended), and adds in the Tier of the spell. If the result is 20 or higher, a storm forms over the course of the next 2d10 minutes., the area covered by the Wyrstorm is 1-10 mile radius

3)  The more magic items you have or active magic going, the more likely you are to attract lightning strikes (which otherwise happen randomly  -- I need to work up a table of possible effects. there will be chances that the party takes a lightning strike or that a creature of some sort is portaled in

4) After the storm is over, all spells receive a -4 to casting for 24 hours and any magic items may also have been altered (either weakened or made stronger a 2d20 roll for each item, 2-5 = item weakened or perhaps made non-magical; 17-20 item made more powerful; 6-16 = odd: item drained for 24 hours, even: no effect

In the cities, they have created Storm Rods for these storms to redirect any lightning strikes into the ground - just a long metal pole with a crystal at the top, that is stuck in the ground  - cheap and easy to make, but every town and village has them....

[Fidoric]

Nice twist.
Do you intent to implement those storms instead of magical resonance? Add I see it, if ambient magic is potent enough to coalesce into storms, it should mask most spell castings in the area.

[Rasyr]

Nice twist.
Do you intent to implement those storms instead of magical resonance? Add I see it, if ambient magic is potent enough to coalesce into storms, it should mask most spell castings in the area.

I was thinking of in conjunction with. The Magical Resonance is more of a system thing, while the Wyrstorms are more setting based. And yes, a Wyrstorm would make it impossible to track casting in the area during, but right after one, I would give +4 to any Resonance rolls due to the lesser levels of magic, any spell cast would make a bigger ripple....

but only if the big bad is watching...

[Dimirag]

1) Anytime a spell is cast, if the dice roll  is double sixes, then the GM checks for a Wyrstorm

This is a 1% chance, go higher, its a cool effect that will rarely appear this way, specially because there is a second check (A Tier 10 Spell has only .5% chance of causing a Wyrstorm)

Use:
A total of 6 on 2d10 for 5% chance.
Any doubles for 10% chance.
Any 6 in any of the d10 for near 20% chance.

Or you could use the second check directly, or use the spell check result against the Wyrstorm chances

[Rasyr]

Hmm. we could just make it be checked for on any Doubles in casting a spell..... I am okay with that, since if a Wyrstorm is not triggered, there is still the possibility of Magic Resonance if the doubles were below the spell's Tier.

Then on the GM's check, we add in double the Tier of the spell, which makes it less likely for lower level spells, but much more likely for more powerful spells....

(remember you are supposed to have triple Tier in ranks to cast safely (with ASF))

[Rasyr]

Ok, my current take on Wyrstorms

Wyrstorms

These are storms of magical energy that sometimes occur if too much magic has been cast too recently in a given area.

When a character casts a spell, and doubles are rolled on the dice, the GM needs to check to see if a storm is immenent.

GM rolls 2d10 and adds double the Tier of the spell cast. If the total is 20 or higher, w Wyrstorm will form in 2d10 minutes, with a size of 1d10 miles. The storm will last for 20 + (2d10 x 5) minutes. If there is a storm, there is no chance of Magical Resonance, or of magically tracking anything within the area of the storm until the storm has passed (all traces from prior to the storm are erased).

During the storm, any attempt to cast a spell has its CF range increased by double the Tier of the spell being cast (i.e. a Tier 3 spell has a CF range of 2+(3 x 2) (i.e. 2-8).

During the Storm there is a 6% chance of lightning striking near the PCs (i.e. a roll of 18-20). If it does, GM rolls 1d10 to determine how many strikes.  Characters take 5 Hits of damage for each near strike unless they are under cover (solid cover).

Potential Random Effects include:

Roll 2d10
2             Random Item total destroyed       
3-5          Random Item permanently reduced in power
6-16        Odd: All Magical Items  drained for 24 hours; Even: Nothing happens
17-19      Random Item double in power for 24 hours
20            Random Item permanently has power increased in some fashion

There is a 55% chance of the storm opening a rip or tear in reality to a random location and pulling something through to where the PCs are (10 or higher on 2d10). This is more often than not going to be hostile.

If there are any magical portals in fixed form (i.e. such as the ones dotting the Esker Highlands), there is a 100% chance that the storm will activate them, and pulling something through.

Once the storm has passed, any attempts to cast spells receive a -4 for 24 hours, as the ambient magic of the region replenishes....

[Rasyr]

Ok, here is a screenshot of the finalized Wyrstorm, and as a bonus, I upated the Circle of Magic image (cause I finally remembered how I did it for Libram Arcanis...

Wyrstorm.jpg
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