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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 27, 2022 19:44:12 GMT -5
16) Honey harvested from termites. 17) Cave adventure hook with practical mining task. 18) Occasional phenomenon where night sky looks like a lava lamp. 16) In this world, do termites take the place of bees as pollinators? Do these termites harvest something other than nectar to make the honey? If so what? Do they sting? 17) While mining they cut their way into existing tunnels, these tunnels have six inches of dust and there are fresh tracks in the dust that look like human feet only longer and more narrow. 18) How many moons are there in the sky? Does this effect happen when all the moons are visible at the same time? Does this effect happen everywhere or just near the poles?
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 27, 2022 19:48:37 GMT -5
19) Teleporting turtles. 20) A house built from a gigantic acorn. 21) A potion that causes the drinker to glow in the eyes of all who have less power 19) How large are turtles? Are they intelligent? Are they trainable? Are they antagonistic or friendly? 20) Are the insides edible? How large are the trees >1,000 feet tall? >100 feet in diameter? What else do we know about the trees and the acorns? Do we live in the trees? Do we harvest the acorns in the tree or only after they fall? 21) Are there any other effects? Do this put a target on the back of the drinker? Or does it elevate their status? Is this used as a test?
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 27, 2022 19:55:33 GMT -5
22) Gazing into a flower is the key to planar travel. 23) Rain oozes up from the ground itself, though snow still falls from the sky. 24) A sentient throne. 22) Any flower or specific flowers or specific types of flowers? Do you have to carry the same flower with you to get back? Or do you have to carry a similar, but ungazed flower with you to return? 23) Similar to how Genesis describes it, except for the snow part. Does this have a bearing on the setting? It is early in the timeline of the world? 24) On which only the One True King may sit and live! And if you put forward a claim to the throne, you must sit and live or die, if you refuse to sit you are executed.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 27, 2022 19:59:47 GMT -5
25) The heart is a vestigial organ since magic has sustained everyone for so many generations. 26) A curse that prevents the body from sleeping, although the mind still needs to. 27) The Hall of Rain, a structure where it rains whenever the skies are clear outside. 25) Magic is starting to weaken and as it does people grow weaker! Can magic be restored? Or can the heart be reawaked? Will human kind survive? 26) Insanity prevails! Can anyone focus long enough to overcome the curse? 27) A place of great magic! A fierce place that only the bravest and truest souls can survive! One of the great trials that prospective Paladins must face!
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 27, 2022 20:06:07 GMT -5
28) [x] causes bones to become briefly very soft. 29) The attribute of Insight with mechanical functions. 30) Tower of Optics. 28) This curse has caused many terrible deformities as the bones become hard again in awful shapes that leave paralysis in its wake and horrible pain. Can anyone learn how to use [x] to reverse this without falling victim to it to? 29) Do you mean the Insight has a mechanical function? Or does it enable a mechanical function? Does it grant an ability to manipulate the world similar to what a machine could do, but without the machine? 30) The great artifact used for Scrying, but very dangerous and often those who dare, perish in its use. Some thinks it takes a life, every time it uses a set amount of power and energy. Is that how it maintains it power?
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 20:14:15 GMT -5
On this thread, I will try to come up with mini-hooks. If you want to riff on or develop one, please feel free to post! Or if you want to post your own mini-hook. I'm allowing basically anything that fits into a reasonable sentence or sentence fragment (this is just a rule for myself). OK, I am going to go through all of the mini-hooks and look at them closer. I may make comments on some of them or ask some questions on some of them or something else. I am very likely not going to comment on everyone or at least I do not expect to. I am going to respond to some of your responses, but likely not all. If anything gets too extreme, of course we can spin it off into another thread, but I don't think most responses will warrant that. Of course these are just my ideas now and don't have to be taken along with the original mini-hook.
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 20:14:18 GMT -5
Original hook: 2) Question: Have you ever been in this forest before? Were you expecting a storm at the time you went to sleep? Hmm, how long did you sleep? Did you sleep one night or many night? How large are the trees? No, never, this is when you are travelling just outside of your known world. You were not expecting a storm and heard nothing. It seems you slept only overnight, but who knows. It must not have been years or the whole character of the place would have changed, you think. The tree you are in is a white pine. The tree is as twenty tall men, but you the glorified stand with walls that you call the treehouse is only about forty feet up. Edit: There are black gum and red maple nearby as well. ( The Perilous Dreamer )
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 27, 2022 20:18:03 GMT -5
2) Question: Have you ever been in this forest before? Were you expecting a storm at the time you went to sleep? Hmm, how long did you sleep? Did you sleep one night or many night? How large are the trees? No, never, this is when you are travelling just outside of your known world. You were not expecting a storm and heard nothing. It seems you slept only overnight, but who knows. It must not have been years or the whole character of the place would have changed, you think. The tree you are in is a white pine. The tree is as twenty tall men, but you the glorified stand with walls that you call the treehouse is only about forty feet up. May I suggest keeping the original mini-hooks in your response to my response so that people can follow along?
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 20:20:24 GMT -5
6) In what ways do they differ from the rats that we know? How do these rats and humans get along? Are they subservient to humans? Or are they equals? Why or why not? They are still scavengers and do well wherever humans are around. In this way they differ from us because they always have enough to eat and little concern for posterity. They have no drive to make their mark on anything. They are however intelligent, can speak, and will usually keep their word. It may be lack of natural stressors (cats are a problem for them, but they have developed defenses) that has allowed them to develop their unusual rat-magic. To cast spells they must be in a group of at least three rats, holding paws. Their spell-like abilities might be called Find Settlement, Play Dead, and Penetrate Defenses.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jan 27, 2022 20:25:12 GMT -5
6) In what ways do they differ from the rats that we know? How do these rats and humans get along? Are they subservient to humans? Or are they equals? Why or why not? They are still scavengers and do well wherever humans are around. In this way they differ from us because they always have enough to eat and little concern for posterity. They have no drive to make their mark on anything. They are however intelligent, can speak, and will usually keep their word. It may be lack of natural stressors (cats are a problem for them, but they have developed defenses) that has allowed them to develop their unusual rat-magic. To cast spells they must be in a group of at least three rats, holding paws. Their spell-like abilities might be called Find Settlement, Play Dead, and Penetrate Defenses. hengest, are the cats human-sized as well? Are the cats intelligent?
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 21:32:17 GMT -5
They are still scavengers and do well wherever humans are around. In this way they differ from us because they always have enough to eat and little concern for posterity. They have no drive to make their mark on anything. They are however intelligent, can speak, and will usually keep their word. It may be lack of natural stressors (cats are a problem for them, but they have developed defenses) that has allowed them to develop their unusual rat-magic. To cast spells they must be in a group of at least three rats, holding paws. Their spell-like abilities might be called Find Settlement, Play Dead, and Penetrate Defenses. hengest , are the cats human-sized as well? Are the cats intelligent? Intelligent for cats, but not making pulleys or anything. They are a little larger than a lynx and two or three of them may gang up on a lone rat.
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 21:46:38 GMT -5
22) Gazing into a flower is the key to planar travel. 23) Rain oozes up from the ground itself, though snow still falls from the sky. 24) A sentient throne. 22) Any flower or specific flowers or specific types of flowers? Do you have to carry the same flower with you to get back? Or do you have to carry a similar, but ungazed flower with you to return? 23) Similar to how Genesis describes it, except for the snow part. Does this have a bearing on the setting? It is early in the timeline of the world? 24) On which only the One True King may sit and live! And if you put forward a claim to the throne, you must sit and live or die, if you refuse to sit you are executed. 22) Specific types keyed to specific planes. Seeing the flower is not enough, it must be concentrated gaze. It cannot happen by accident (or is very unlikely). For example, the Baby Blue Eyes (pictured below) will transport you bodily to a blue-green plane just shifted from your prime plane in which human artifacts and humans themselves under 80 years old are intangible and mostly invisible. In effect you skip to a world where many artifacts are absent and the only people who are fully present and can see and hear you are elderly. 23) I thought of that after I wrote it but left it anyway. It is indeed similar to the description in Genesis. The world is no longer new, but when it was, "rain" fell from both directions (oozing and falling). Now temperatures are very often in the zone that generates snow, so in effect liquid water oozes and snow falls from the sky. All strange ramifications may be worked out by the ref.
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 22:13:37 GMT -5
18) Occasional phenomenon where night sky looks like a lava lamp. 18) How many moons are there in the sky? Does this effect happen when all the moons are visible at the same time? Does this effect happen everywhere or just near the poles? Two moons. They are often visible at the same time and both act as "attractors" for the unmixing colorful swirls. The effect is not like the auro aborealis and can happen anywhere. It is possible that the sky is not the same sort of thing our sky is.
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 22:21:54 GMT -5
19) Teleporting turtles. 20) A house built from a gigantic acorn. 21) A potion that causes the drinker to glow in the eyes of all who have less power 19) How large are turtles? Are they intelligent? Are they trainable? Are they antagonistic or friendly? 20) Are the insides edible? How large are the trees >1,000 feet tall? >100 feet in diameter? What else do we know about the trees and the acorns? Do we live in the trees? Do we harvest the acorns in the tree or only after they fall? 21) Are there any other effects? Do this put a target on the back of the drinker? Or does it elevate their status? Is this used as a test? 19) An adult's shell is about the size of an adolescent cat curled up. They are trainable but can be somewhat stubborn. They respond only to positive reinforcement. Neither antagonistic nor especially friendly to humans, we are not food for them and they are usually not food for us. They can teleport to any place they have already been (even if they did not crawl there on their own but were carried there). Each has an extremely detailed 3D mental map of the spaces they have been to. They never come in high or low. 20) The acorn meat was edible but somewhat bitter. Cooking may help. No known tree has grown from such an acorn. These acorns are rare and are among a class of strangely-sized objects that are (perhaps this is not known to most) from a scale mismatch between this realm and a parallel realm that are rubbing against each other. 21) Apart from the glow, there is no magical effect. The glow could be interpreted in various ways: as a target or as a sign that the glower is "special" or important. In other words, a cult leader of mid-level or mid-power range could use it to impress underlings, while someone working with an assassin might use it, gaining the confidence of a target who thinks himself to be incognito but now is not, despite his best efforts.
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Post by hengest on Jan 27, 2022 22:36:40 GMT -5
15) A race that bleeds flowers. 15) What kind of flowers? Is there something special about the flowers? Do they have special powers? Are they used in potions or poultices? Are they a spell component? (not that I use such things. ) The race is humanlike externally but does not have blood in the usual sense. Their insides are an extremely compressed set of plant life of various kinds fed by the inner light of the being that suffuses all tissues. So injuries that would make humans bleed result in the escape and expansion of some portion of plant, often a flower. No known magical uses, but they are super-flowers: very fragrant and some are unexpectedly nutritious.
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Post by hengest on Jan 28, 2022 12:41:25 GMT -5
11) River runs the other way sometimes. 11) Does this happen near the coast as a response to tides? Or does this happen where there is a significant elevation change, such as rapids or a waterfall? (And yes, The Perilous Dreamer, of course I should have been including the original text as well, thank you!) 11) Not near the coast, no. It is a local time dysfunction that might be harnessed for some purpose. So it does not so much "flow" backwards as it flows "in reverse." There is a reason the locals avoid boating and only fish from the banks. They just laugh if you ask what would happen if a boat were on the river when "that" happened. Of course, you do not know exactly how travellers would respond to the dysfunction.
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Post by hengest on Jan 29, 2022 14:27:38 GMT -5
328) Magical sacks that are smaller on the inside.
329) A ghost that can pass only through stone and earth.
330) Mini-skunks.
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Post by hengest on Jan 29, 2022 16:41:01 GMT -5
331) Three fish rule this pond.
332) Someone sure would appreciate it if you took care of that caterwauling.
333) Goats running towards the city.
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Post by hengest on Jan 31, 2022 16:08:13 GMT -5
334) Clay henchman dolls for sale that become real henchmen when they hear the magic word.
335) A monarch who transforms into an eagle for a state holiday once a year.
336) Clearly human person who speaks with a "cat" accent you have never heard before.
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Post by hengest on Feb 1, 2022 17:49:22 GMT -5
337) The say the city was carried off by two gigantic eagles.
338) A creek runs through the throne room.
339) These chunks of ice in the cave have fish frozen inside them.
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Post by hengest on Feb 8, 2022 22:54:31 GMT -5
340) A gigantic pickaxe, a hundred times bigger than normal, falls to the ground not far from the city.
341) Trap door in the bed of a creek.
342) It is known that the queen can split into two people and send one on diplomatic missions.
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Post by Dartanian on Feb 26, 2022 23:04:56 GMT -5
hengest this thread blows my mind. You are up to 342 mini-hooks and some are not so mini. Have an exalt.
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Post by hengest on Feb 27, 2022 12:17:16 GMT -5
hengest this thread blows my mind. You are up to 342 mini-hooks and some are not so mini. Have an exalt. Ha, thank you! 343) Panicked elephants trying politely to get into a northern city in winter. 344) Bathhouse that is always hot in winter, always cold in summer. 345) The smell of heated metal pervades this uninhabited cavern.
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Post by hengest on Mar 4, 2022 18:43:02 GMT -5
346) "Take a swig of this and those ghosts won't stand a chance!"
347) Flying hearts.
348) Lava-filled geodes.
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Post by hengest on Mar 15, 2022 18:24:14 GMT -5
349) Hot wildflowers melting their way through the recent snowfall.
350) Their only weapon is their sharpened metal teeth.
351) A mudslide heavily flecked with white gold.
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Post by hengest on Mar 15, 2022 20:21:39 GMT -5
352) A vine whose fragrance makes you want to lie down and choke yourself at its root.
353) Stone sentinels that sweat garlic.
354) A metal that is deadly sharp even when dull.
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Post by hengest on Mar 16, 2022 21:44:20 GMT -5
355) This gourd is much softer and more yielding than it looks, although it resumes its former shape when you stop touching it.
356) A local holiday celebrates "the poisoning of the well."
357) You were sure this area was completely unpopulated until you fell into this underground kitchen, to the cook's dismay.
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Post by hengest on Mar 26, 2022 17:02:49 GMT -5
358) "Sister dearest, sister mine / Gi' me just a bit o' twine"
359) Semispherical pit on the well-worn road to the next village.
360) As you raise your weapon, every joint cracks from your shoulder to your fingertips
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Post by hengest on Apr 1, 2022 23:16:24 GMT -5
361) Those closest to the queen seem to do menial labor as recreation.
362) A simple tea that assists in healing from combat but causes hiccups that last for far too long.
363) Only the bathhouse has none of those tiny gargoyles at its entrance.
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Post by hengest on Apr 2, 2022 10:44:43 GMT -5
364) Royal fountain filled with flowers.
365) Strength and brain of a horse for a day.
366) A slow lava flow has rerouted all foot traffic in the capital.
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