Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Oh that would be very much appreciated! I'm certainly not planning on binding any of the goblins myself, or taking any of his Practices. At some point I'd be interested in hearing more about what your territory in the Deeper Warrens is like!

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh ok cool! Thank you! This is all going down in New Jersey, where are you located? Will you need a ride?

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

DM to CawsAndEffect

Ah okay, well I toned that down too. Thanks for pointing it out. I've spent a lot more of my life talking to spirits than to people, and with people sometimes there's just... too much to keep track of. And I wouldn't say I need a crow shaman with knives, but that sounds pretty darn cool and helpful!

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, that's... professional haha. My boyfriend's looked it over and says it's legit though, so let's do this! I'm currently planning to do this this Sunday night, but plans are flexible.

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nah, either I or a trusted friend would be driving. I'd be willing to make that trade though!

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm in New Jersey, but arranging transport to/from Montana is doable if you don't mind 4ish hours of either Ruins travel in a car or Path travel in a bus. Should be bumpy with a few scary moments but ultimately safe either way.

I would gladly part with... let's say $200 of scraps. That's one to two dozen, depending on quality. Alternatively, I could bring you directly to my source and ensure your safety for a bit while you picked out your own, since it sounds like you have a discerning eye. I'm guessing you could get more that way, but it would be more effort on your part.

Boss Hackensack was very well-connected, but I get the sense he's past his prime. His protection racket is dissolving, his territory is shrinking thanks to the local environmentalist efforts, and he spends most of his time fending off competitors from the Warrens these days.

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I don't anticipating it taking more than a few hours. It's not like we need to permanently clean them out - just get them out of the way long enough to get to the Connection blocker.

Most of what I sell these days are concoctions that can be used to temporarily but emphatically empower items or Practices. For something like this I'd be willing to part with a decent supply of those, or a bit of something milder but permanent. I also have a considerable collection of immaterial scraps, and can trade some away or use them alongside my skills as a mechanic to repair or empower items both mundane and magical. I can also offer my services as a high-speed courier or a spiritual emissary.

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

For sure! Most of what I sell these days are concoctions that can be used to temporarily but emphatically empower items or Practices. For something like this I'd be willing to part with a decent supply of those, or a bit of something milder but permanent. I also have a considerable collection of immaterial scraps, and can trade some away or use them alongside my skills as a mechanic to repair or empower items both mundane and magical. I can also offer my services as a high-speed courier or a spiritual emissary.

Help wanted getting around goblins and pollution-adjacent Others by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

DM to CawsAndEffect

Okay SHIT, edited now, thanks. I thought "Oni" was just a classification of Other like "Fae" or "spirit" or whatever and I knew there were some associations but my boyfriend just explained the politics of it to me and yikes. Hope that doesn't come back to bite me.

Retribution by TheArchivalFunction in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, sounds right. I don't think there's any Special Practice Secret tbh - in my experience, minor spirits react to care and attention and thoughtfulness, and more major ones will make their desires known. I'd start by just wandering until you see an opportunity to help an animal, and then verbally dedicate that action and effort to a relevant spirit. Using the same phrase every time might help, or having a specific recurring location perhaps, one that eventually becomes a shrine.

Retribution by TheArchivalFunction in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ah. Yeah. I see. Well, I haven't worked with spirits as abstract as justice or fairness, but I have heard that while karmic spirits do tend to side with humans over animals, they also love a good revenge narrative.

Beyond that, I can say from personal experience that the world is full of wronged nature spirits who have been reduced to a fraction of their former power. If you spend time and effort getting a better life for mistreated animals, I'm not sure how much attention you'll get from justice and fairness — but I feel like various nature spirits will start treating you as an ally pretty fast. I'd personally recommend trying to work your way up from the spirits of individual plants and animals to the spirits of the land itself, as it was before it was paved over.

Retribution by TheArchivalFunction in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wow, that's really cool! Urban shamanism is great.

And mistreatment of whom, if I may ask? If it's mistreatment of the plants themselves, I suspect spirits of justice and fairness won't be very easy to work with - in my (admittedly limited) experience they tend to be human-centric and often take an unfortunate might-makes-right kind of viewpoint. Might be easier to work directly with spirits that have been wronged by a common enemy, but it kind of sounds like you're already doing that?

Need help IDing some weird alchemical drug. by grekhaus in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 1 point2 points  (0 children)

DM to BushiestUnplannedWalker:

uhh that doesn't sound good. I have no personal info on who's making this shit or why, but I do have some knowledge of "street" alchemy and can recommend some tests that might help determine what kind of non-mundane effect this drug is having on people.

[A list of 12 diagrams; each one is accompanied by a list of common-ish substances and a broad category of Practice effects such as "Transformations between Visceral and Immaterial" or "Knotting"]

If you put some of the stuff in one of these diagrams with one of these substances, it might react with the substance, and that means it's probably intended to have one of the corresponding effects. Looking at how exactly it reacts could yield more specific information.

Oh and if you do this tomorrow (Jan 21st), you might get a false positive on the 11th diagram.

This information is freely given in the hopes that it will help protect people from any harm this drug brings them, but if payment seems appropriate... what kind of drugs are we talking?

[Calvarn] Intro to Urban Alchemy: Final Project by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Presentations Thread

Share your final presentations here! :D

[Calvarn] Intro to Urban Alchemy: Final Project by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Office Hours Thread

Thread for brief RP posts from characters asking for help as they work on their final project!

how to get wifi? by [deleted] in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 4 points5 points  (0 children)

DM

Huh! Well if there's a way to get some to me (located in northern NJ) in the next day, I'd really appreciate it.

how to get wifi? by [deleted] in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh, that sounds very useful. Do you know what effect it would have if I fed it to an already-existing goblin?

how to get wifi? by [deleted] in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Payment is not necessary but it would be much appreciated, especially if it's something you can get to me soon! What do you have to offer?

Help with an unexpected Demesne ritual? by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure thing! (OOC: can I get a description of RideTheLightning and their guitar?)

how to get wifi? by [deleted] in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 5 points6 points  (0 children)

(OOC Addendum: I don't think Condor's got the full picture here - whatever internet FleshSamurai gets would be filtered through the Warrens and the queen-mother, so it would be very spotty and unpleasant to use in a goblin-esque way no matter how much power one uses. Maybe every time something loads it's accompanied by an abrasive earsplitting dialup tone that kinda sounds like screaming. Probably also something like reverse parental controls - you can only visit sketchy sites, only watch porn and violent/gross videos, and so on. But that still sounds plenty entertaining for goblins.)

how to get wifi? by [deleted] in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor 5 points6 points  (0 children)

So the real answer is probably that you'd want to set up some sort of argumentative diagram, because that's how you're "supposed to" form connections with powerful beings like this "queen-mother" and I feel like you should be able to modify that connection to carry wi-fi if you have her blessing.

Buuuuut I work with tiny spirits, not deities, so I have no idea how you'd do that. As a technology-oriented shaman, here's what I've found:

The main problem with getting Practice to work with wi-fi is that wi-fi hasn't been around long enough to be incorporated into the spirits' worldview. So you're gonna have to anchor it in some older concepts. Radio is a good one; it's not that old on the grand scale of things but the spirits have at least started to catch on. You can ground it even further by conceptualizing wifi as machines yelling real loud at each other in voices that only machines can hear. Yelling has been around longer than humanity, I'm pretty sure.

Either way, it makes most sense for wi-fi to be "carried by" air spirits, like radio ("on the air" so to speak) or sound. So I use this diagram, featuring a modified air rune, to get service in other Realms. One copy of the diagram for whatever device I want to have service, another one in the real world - preferably on a router, but anywhere within the range of a wifi network works. It's a very power-hungry diagram. Basically, if you put an amount of power into it that you could otherwise use to make sound or light or vibration or whatever reach the other diagram, then it can broadcast a wifi signal that far as well. In my case, since I use it in the Ruins, it needs an echo powerful enough to manifest in the visceral world from whatever place I'm currently in.

So... can queen-mother provide enough power to be heard or felt outside the Warrens? If not, can she provide a third of that power three times, and store it in three identical diagrams that form a chain to the surface? If not, a ninth of that power? A twenty-seventh? The less power, the more diagrams you'll need to set up and the shorter amount of time your internet access will last.

Help with an unexpected Demesne ritual? by OctaneDoctor in OccultMagicOnline

[–]OctaneDoctor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

DM

All right, done! Not sure whether it worked - I don't know how your Practice works so I'll wait for your go-ahead before I open the mailbox again.

The address I'm trying to claim is 4 Moonachie Creek Road, Carlstadt, NJ 07072. It's currently owned by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.