Tohya's journal

Witch Trials!

Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:17:26 GMT

Last night was the autumn Lancre Witch Trials, organised by the lovely Phoibe Womblesworth this time around. As you can see, I went and bought some new clothes; a short furry Witch's dress and some leather thigh boots, but what you can't see are my new Glowsticks that I've had for a few weeks now, and make excellent weapons.

This time around there were three categories; a short freestyle freestyle, a long freestyle, and pumpkin themed, using channeling and cursing. I didn't take part in the short competition, but submitted tricks for the long freestyle and the pumpkin competition.

My freestyle trick was called "the coldest day of the year", and went like this:

Tohya StompyWitch draws her cloak around herself, and curses the bitter cold on this day.
Tohya StompyWitch chants a few soft words under hear breath, as little icicles form around her clothes.
A somewhat translucent, but very warm-looking, sphere of fire appears and begins to fly around Tohya StompyWitch with a charming little whooshing noise.
Tohya StompyWitch looks somewhat happier as she begins to warm up, but the little sphere appears to rapidly cool even as it flies through the air.
The sphere turns a pale blue colour, before flying into an astonished Tohya's arms to warm itself up again. She yelps in surprise, now even colder than she was before.

My pumpkin themed trick was wrote before I realised it had to use my channeling and cursing skills, but fortunatly it only required one slight change to fit the channeling in there. The restriction was that it had to involve a pumpkin or pumpkin-based object at some point; it was called "what the hell is this" for want of a better name.

Tohya StompyWitch picks up and studies the large pumpkin intently, before sighing and throwing it up into the air.
Tohya StompyWitch spins around and, with her eyes closed, throws a knife at the pumpkin, leaving a trail of fire behind it as it goes.
Tohya StompyWitch opens her eyes, and curses as she sees just how much she missed the pumpkin by. She goes over to collect her knife from where it landed.
Unbeknownst to Tohya StompyWitch, the pumpkin, having been thrown, had a dagger fly by it, and been burnt by the following trail, finally gives up. It channels it's rage into a small explosion, launching it's insides up to the sky.
While cleaning her knife, Tohya turns around and looks confused at the now deflated pumpkin. At that moment, the innards fall straight onto her head, covering her in pumpkin guts.

Sadly, I didn't win anything, but the standard of tricks was even higher this time than previous contests, and a few Witches told me they really liked what I had came up with, so I think I did well.

Congratulations go to Nemaine, Frazyl, and Aramel for coming second in the respective categories, and everyone else who placed! Details have been written up on the wiki, and hopefully people will add their own tricks to the pages soon enough.

Now to prepare for next year!

Birthday

Mon, 27 Mar 2006 23:41:01 GMT

Hurrah! - yes, today is my birthday, which I intend to celebrate with copious amounts of scumble and, hmm, ice cream. And strawberry jelly. And possibly even both sausage and vegetable rolls, if I remember to go down to Dysfunctional Goat and buy them.

My place, tonight, everyone is invited!

(Except for glassstrider, somewhat obviously, the lazy fool)

My Trials trick

Sun, 05 Feb 2006 01:29:15 GMT

Aelyn Somniac says like a Witch Trials announcer: And for our next trick: Tohya's A Tale of Another World. Tohya, if you please?
Aelyn Somniac beams brightly.

Miss Tohya StompyWitch coughs softly
Miss Tohya StompyWitch speaks in a harsh whisper
Miss Tohya StompyWitch says in Morporkian with a Morporkian accent: I shall tell you a story...
Miss Tohya StompyWitch sings a tale of men of steel, women of stone, and the works they produced to bind their world to them: towering buildings, eternally busy machines, and the assurances that theirs was the only path they could ever follow.
The air around Miss Tohya StompyWitch begins to thicken, just as their cities conquered the air around them as they devoured the world, protecting their trembling inhabitants from everything that is outside and destroying it so they will be troubled no more.
Miss Tohya StompyWitch tells of a people who noticed too late what they had built and what they had destroyed. She whispers quietly of the fears that overcame them, and the fires that raged as they fought each other for the remains of what they could once have had.
Miss Tohya StompyWitch falls to the darkened earth around her, shattered, broken, and ruined, as did the once-mighty towers and machines after their final triumphs over both the land and each other.
You stand quietly, thinking about the story that you have just been told, almost not noticing small, mournful little purple flowers growing around the exhausted body, in silent defiance of those who wanted to take a world for themselves.
Miss Tohya StompyWitch stands up
Miss Tohya StompyWitch bows.

Aelyn Somniac says like a Witch Trials announcer: Thank you, Tohya, that was lovely.

I only ended up with time to write one trick - I didn't have enough inspiration for a valentines themed one. it was originally going to be based on The Logical Song by Supertramp, although then I ended up listening to Be, and things ended up taking a far, far darker tone. I had to cut this down quite a bit from the originals, as the poor little stone was getting hideously bored during recording it.

The Trials were, as ever, great fun, obviously, and hopefully a good time was had by all! There were a lot of great tricks this year,and I'm glad I wasn't able to vote, as it would have been far too hard to pick. Everyone who competed (And even a few members of the audience!) put in a huge amount of effort to help everyone enjoy themselves.

Sat, 07 Jan 2006 04:27:46 GMT

Re:#6 A possible spell idea maybe?
Note #25 by Waterfall at Fri Jan 6 20:10:40 2006 on board witchesguild

On Fri Jan 6 20:03:34 2006, Phoibe wrote:

> extended periods of time? A sword named Emerald Icicle should still look
> like a sword if you want to use it as such, in my opinion. Yeah, it should
> probably be green but, it should still look like a sword.

Yes, but its not about your opinion :) Its about what players want to make them feel more in character. Its another level of realism to a fantasy game.

And If I want to stab people with a ruddy great cicile like shard of sapphire, then I sodding well will, whether you think its unreal or not.

And besides, whos to say I wouldnt describe it as a big sword made from a shard of magic ice? Or some other sort of thingy wotnot?

-Waterfall- Ideaing it anyway.

2/15! :D

Sun, 15 May 2005 15:26:29 GMT

You advance your skill in magic.spells.misc from 203 to 300 for 3395358 xp and LC 98|2|11 1/4.

"A considerable amount of magic has been used here."

Sun, 15 May 2005 02:53:07 GMT

Yeah, that was me.

When I idle, I idle hardcore.

Honey Points

Thu, 12 May 2005 03:14:56 GMT

* I Am Not A Taxi. I am going to have to be more forceful about this rule to a few people who seem to think otherwise.
* I think it's getting on for three months that I have spent idling in this orchard. And, yes, I am now a much more experienced Witch - ask my new friend Aznin about how much more experienced :) - but it does get a little boring... I should go out training one day, but I still have sucky weapon skills, so combat can get a bit too exciting sometimes, like the last time I went fighting :)
* I have 2.5mil xp on me right now. :)
* Either spell skill checks or Focus Tea is broken.

This is the type of thing we get up to

Sat, 07 May 2005 02:02:54 GMT

(Witches) Peppe's wispy voice comes from the wooden ring, saying: where do i aquire seeds?
(Witches) Rella's wispy voice comes from the wooden ring, saying: the roof!
(Witches) Peppe's wispy voice comes from the wooden ring, saying: the roof?
(Witches) Rella's wispy voice comes from the wooden ring, saying: that sounds like it could be a song...
(Witches) Xandria's wispy voice comes from the wooden ring, saying: is on fire?
(Witches) Tohya's wispy voice comes from the wooden ring, saying that she states that she doesn't need no water
(Witches) Aeval's wispy voice comes from the wooden ring, saying: I think we should let the wossname thing burn

Better now

Mon, 02 May 2005 03:11:38 GMT

After a number of encounters with the lovely Aznin, I'm now very close to the level where I think I can offer my Deluding services to the general public (So that's a maxed out chance, then - the higher my skills in it get, the pickier I feel about it). I've got a few nifty toys myself, so far - my daggers (Passion and Opera), armour (Gothic War Dress), hat (Kitty Ears) and floater (Force Orb - this is more my player's toy, though, than mine, and I don't quite get the reference) - and done some things for other people, but dealing with the public is a bit more worrying, because they're not as forgiving if it takes a while. You also need to set proper prices and such :(

What else? Other than that, I've pretty much just idled for the month - I know that there's some exciting things in development, but the planning office will bar me if I mention them. I'm planning the next outfit I'll acquire, but no firm decisions quite yet.

My player is tired and wants to sleep, so I shall leave you here for tonight. Goodnight!

Lancre Witch Trials 2005

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 04:54:39 GMT

Wow.

WowwowwowWOW!

I hadn't expected quite the turnout we got for these, it was amazing to see so many other Witches from around the world there. It started off a little oddly, with people getting there an hour early, but everyone seemed happy to hang around - in total, we had some people's attention for four hours, which is really quite something.

As for the tricks - ah, they were brilliant. I was up until 4am last night working on my tricks, and I think they were the best I've ever done - I'll post them in a sec. Everyone put a lot of effort into the tricks, and it was great to see what people had came up with to represent themselves. A good time, as they say, was had by all.

Behind the scenes, everything went off pretty well - we didn't have any particular problems, and everything went off roughly as we'd anticipated. After we started it (Well, after people started turning up...) the entire thing took on a life of it's own, and we could have practically left people to it.

Now, my tricks. I'm not going to post the entire >convince strings, because there's a few things that I'd rather remained secret about them.

Tohya's Watery Visions
Tohya StompyWitch opens the bottle, and looks at the water inside. Satisfied, she softly says a few words over it.
Tohya StompyWitch removes her silver ring and holds it in the air with one hand; with the other, she carefully pours a few drops from the bottle. They hang in the air, forming a pool inside the ring.
Tohya StompyWitch gazes into the small pool of water, as if looking for something. Suddenly her eyes flicker, following something that only she can see.
You lean in to look into the pool, but Tohya looks up just before you can see anything. She smiles sweetly at you and blows into the water, reminding it of gravity. It falls to the floor, splashing on your feet.

This a simple, almost more druidic approach to scrying - the rationale is that I'm asking the water to tell me where I can find another person, or bag of water. It's not even quite a scrying pool. As for what I was looking for? Well, like I said...

If You Come Closer
Tohya StompyWitch sits on the ground, gazing wistfully into the distance. It looks like there are tears brewing in the corners of her eyes.
A single tear falls from Tohya StompyWitch's eye, and splashes upon the earth.
Tohya StompyWitch looks down at the drop of water: it is, she realises, everything that she has lost.
Tohya StompyWitch turns around and walks away from the tear, and begins to sing a soft, enchanting song, to herself.
Tohya slowly walks to Unlucky Charlie and kisses him gently, her worries washed away.

This turned out differrently to how I'd intended, and it took by far the longest to finish (Granted, that is with the change of focus). There's not much I can say about it, so I shall say nothing, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

I hadn't actually intended to use water quite as much, by the way. Some of the stages would have been easier without needing to fit skill words in, really, but you can't do that.

Your skills have improved, Fox!

Fri, 08 Apr 2005 05:10:01 GMT

I can now cast Delusions of Grandeur about 50% of the time, which is getting to the realm where I consider it a good enough skill to sell (ie, put it in my .refer info, instead of just doing it for people that I know). I'm not quite sure how to price it, though. With friends, you can trust them to be fair about things, and I've had some fantastic donations before now, as a result of only doing it for friends I guess (Last night, for example, a few Pragi scrolls, which it turns out I can cast - it's a lot of fun, even if it is low-damage at the moment), but I know I can't trust random players to be quite as cool. I may well just stick with the old HAGS rate: I've never had a problem with their numbers before, really, so it's cool, I guess. The only problem is that it's variable, and that doesn't sit well with me. I'm sure people would like to know how much they're going to be charged. I know I do.

On the subject of HAGS, I'm also now their publicity officer, and in charge of translation for the Witch Trials this weekend. A message to the boards about this has resulted in three volunteers to translate: bizarrely enough, all Pishite priests, which I found quite amusing.

1. Your name spelled backwards: ayhoT
2. Where were your parents born: Ankh-Morpork, I guess
3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer: Music
4. What's your favourite restaurant: I tend to just grab food from wherever I happen to be, but I do like the Assassin's canteen.
6. Have you ever been in a schoolplay: Er, no
7. How many kids do you want: None. At all.
8. Type of music you dislike most: Excessively heavy stuff, excessively light stuff, and R+B. There's a distinct band of "good music", even if it is quite wide.
9. Are you registered to vote: Yep, I guess
10. Do you have a car: No, but I've got a broom, which is better!
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped: Nope
12. Ever prank call anybody: Not really, it gets too confused.
13. Ever get a parking ticket: I've been toad... :(
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving: A few times. IT HURTS.
15. Furthest place you ever travelled: Bes Pelargic, to the samurai estates there.
16. Do you have a garden: Not myself, no
17. What is the size of your bed: Witch-sized.
18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem?: Er... (So, yes, then :) )
19. Bath or shower, morning or night: Shower, whenever I have the time and energy to manage it.
20. Best movie you have seen in the past four months? I haven't seen any recently
23. Have you ever broken any hearts: Nope
24. Premarital sex: I'm not planning on marrying: make of that what you will.
25. Are you a good cook: Eh. Sorta.
26. Orange or Apple Juice: Apple
27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine: Trauma, on lollipops in Sto Lat
28. Favourite type of drink: Wiiiiiiine. Red. (Yes, I know Scumble is traditional.)
29. Best thing in the world: Mrs Cosmopolite :D
30. Have you ever broken a bone: Yes, my legs, a few times :(
31. Have you ever won a trophy: No :(
32. What is your favourite board game: Go.
33. What are your dream cars: Anything with a good amount of space and good mileage: whatever works, basically.
34. Ever order an article from an infomercial: Ha ha. No.
35. Coke or Pepsi: Coke
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work: No, other than the hat (But that's a matter of STYLE)
37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy: Hag stones
38. Who are you going to marry: My SO, I presume.
39. Who would you like to meet:
40. Do you believe in love at first sight: Er, no. Yes, I had that beaten out of me by the world too.
41. What features do you find most attractive in other people: Being cool people, basically. Being able to speak right and fingz.
42. Where would you go for a romantic evening? ~~Under a desk~~ Probably Krull, or Cori Celesti, to see the thaumatahoojitserwotsit field.
43. How many pairs of shoes do you own: A few, but not very many (Memo to self, have new clothes made)
44. Last song stuck in your head: The Gatherring / Monsters
45. Any pets: Icicle! Although she's less of a pet and more of a travelling companion really :)
46. What's one thing you would like to learn: Enchanting. And lots of it.
48. What do you do when you are bored: Cast spells, mainly...
49. What are 2 things you would want someone to appreciate about you? Perhy bounciness, and being good at being a Witch.

I do remember that I've got this thing sometimes

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 03:39:17 GMT

Yesterday was my birthday: I'm over a year old now, which sounds somewhat strange to you people, but is getting towards old for us. The strange thing, though, is that nothing much really changes for us: no matter how "old" I technically am, I'll still remain at about the same "age". I'm sure many actresses would like to learn my secret: it's quite simple really, and it's to be a fictional character. No, not to play one (Although my player would like to state that he knows some people for whom trying that wouldn't be much of a change), but to be one. I'm going to be... however old I currently am (Another thing my player has neglected to tell me. I do wish he'd get on with it.) for the rest of my life.

Immortality's great fun, isn't it?

But, I didn't actually post here to be mopey (Although this is a good song for being mopey to, quite frankly), but to announce my birthday, and that I've learnt all the Brewing Esme is willing to teach me, ending up with a 355 BWB, which is pretty good, really. I'm also getting slightly more consistent with my Deludes these days, although still not fantastic, and still not good enough that I'm taking orders from strangers yet, either.

Update

Mon, 28 Feb 2005 03:54:16 GMT

I can now cast both Delude and Bees(aaaargh, add a's depending on how PK you are), which are (arguably) the two highest spells that we have. I am also in possession of a fruitbat, the lovely Icicle, who has proven herself a valued companion.

This journal has been, rather, a complete waste of time, I'm afraid - I forgot all about it, so any achievements that I could write about will be pointless now.

What next? Well, I'm still far from an expert at things (The only Delude request I've done took me an hour to complete), so there is always improvement to be made, not to mention making better tea. I've recently been getting into tricks, which are sortof pretend spells, for the uninitiated. They look very cool, which is the important thing, and I see them as the next challenge to go for. I've got a few ideas that I'd like to try running through.

>Write LJ entry

Sun, 25 Apr 2004 02:07:15 GMT

Things in the guild go well. I'm getting pretty good at brewing, well, slowly, and am now starting to sell healing tea to others around the Disc. I've submitted a few bottles to the Witch's Guild shoppe, but they're going to get refused (As I closed the bottles), so I'll just open them and send them in again.

Other than that, I haven't done much. I went to Death's realm to indulge in a spot of fishing, which was fun, although I feel I should have taken a few beers with me, just for tradition's sake. I also got to watch a master Assassin at work, which is possibly the most boring thing ever- you see, the thing about master assassins, is that you don't see them. You just see a knife suddenly appear in their target's back, and the target decides that it would be a good time to have a nice lie down to think about this startling new development. There are, I am sure, more amusing ways to spend a friday night.

Daughter of The Man

Fri, 23 Apr 2004 20:44:29 GMT

I haven't been around for a while, but tonight I've started my commercial career by selling some Healing Tea to a guy named Junitar.

I also bought a red dress, which reduced my profit somewhat, but hey. It's pretty. :)

Let's make a "Songs of the WCW" album

Sun, 18 Apr 2004 02:47:01 GMT

Tonight I was talking to the Isabella, a new girl who was curious about the guild. I showed her a few websites and answerred a few questions, and we now have a new wet henne :)

So, what else have I done today? I think I've pretty much sussed brewing, now it's just getting a high enough skill to sell and working out how to fill the last few drops of space in a bottle, if it's possibe.

I also went to the Assassin's Ball with Grissom, which meant buying a new dress. Unfortunatly, when there, I got overwhelmed by the amount of people, and then stood in the corner being shy. Oh well.

The current talker discussion is about rap music.

Newbie Witch Tip: Brooms are fun, but I really could have used all those XP for other things...

Or you can take the orange pill

Sat, 17 Apr 2004 16:24:14 GMT

(Witches) Chama's wispy voice comes from the broomstick, saying: eek! the orange pill lowers health!
(Witches) Tohya's wispy voice comes from the broomstick, saying: Did you eat the drain cleaner I put in the chest?
(Witches) Chama's wispy voice comes from the broomstick, saying: DRAIN CLEANER! Arrrggghhh!

Tohya's Observations Over The Past Evening

Sat, 17 Apr 2004 16:22:43 GMT

(TOOTPE. Not the catchiest of abbreviations.)

Brewing Tea (Healing, to be precise)

1. More herbs means more tea.
2. Too much, or not enough, herbs means you'll end up with either herbs or water left over, neither of which seem desirable.
3. There's definitly a magic number of pinches of each herb to put in.
4. It's a good job practising this is free.

Enchanting

1. If you're holding too much Yarrow, it doesn't work.
2. Other than that, it seems fairly reliable.
3. I'm going to have to practise a lot to get past lvl 1 enchanting.

Today I've learnt some new things about divining and charming, while practising casting Hag's Blessing. I've also been enchanting some friend's weapons, enchanting my clothes (Mainly for practise, but it's fun to sparkle lke an octarine christmas tree).

Last night I managed to break my legs, and had to call Taxi to get to a doctors. Fortunatly, I landed just south of the Wizzie's guild, so I was easy to find.

Typical.

Fri, 16 Apr 2004 20:44:18 GMT

Tonight I've managed to work out the secret of the herb gardens, and thusly equipped with some stalks of Yarrow, I would like to practise casting Mother Twinter's Yarrow Enchantment. However, none of my friends are around at the moment.

Fortunatly, Clover mentionned Dane wanted something enchanted. So, I flew to him. It took three tries (And all the Yarrow I'd gatherred), but I managed to enchant his cloak to an occasional pulse of octarine light, and made four Djelian telents out of it.

:)

Kararaina asks loudly: Why don't you and Tohya be friends then, little broomstick?

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 02:24:23 GMT

Kararaina has just BOnded my broom to me, which means it recognises me as it's proper owner.

Also, while refuelling it, I scored a ma.po TM.

Hag's Blessing :)

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 02:01:36 GMT

Went to Granny's and advanced a lot of skills, in particular enough to cast Hag's Blessing, and I should be able to cast Mother Twinter's Yarrow Enchantment, just have to find me some Yarrow first.

Oh! I have also advanced my Brewing quite a lot. When I get the hang of the herb garden, I'll practise that too.

Pull up a chair and call the cat a bastard

Thu, 15 Apr 2004 00:55:13 GMT

Wotcher, this is my journal. Thank-you to Alexis for setting it up for me.

My curent life story isn't very interesting. I am a Witch, a member of by far the most useful group on the Disc. Currently, I'm skilled at flyto's- not the most directly useful of skills, true, but I'm able to get around the Disc far easily than most others. My next skills set is going to be slightly more useful.

I currently wear an antique black dress, occult amulets, and a flower necklace. I have yet to find a witches hat, although may soon purchase a custom one. I have a pair of blue-tinted sunglasses, which are both practical and very, very cool. When i am outside, I wear a black trenchcoat.

I would like to introduce a few of my friends on the Disc. The Assassin, Grissom, gave me my trenchoat and sunglasses, and has helped me at various points when getting started. Severa is a Thief, who I have not een for a while, but she's good at what she does. Lindsey is a soon-to-be-priest of Gufnork, which suits her perfectly. I would also like to thank Jaramarfor his help over the last few days. Last, but far from least, Clover and Sera, Witch and Which's respectively, whose tomes of knowledge have been very useful for me.

My plans for this evening are to get some more training- I recently deliverred a parcel, for $100. Hopefully I should be able to master the art of Enchanting with this sum, and then aid others- in return for financial gain, of course.

Yes, I have a very un-witchlike taste in music, but you shall have to deal with that.