Suit Court

If there's one thing that's been learned in Wizard City jurisprudence, it's that proving beyond reasonable doubt is 100% impossible when wizards are involved. In Wizard City, there is always a reasonable doubt. Thus was thrown out the jury trial in criminal proceedings in favor of instituting The Secret Police, the Office of Intellectual Property, and The Dean.

Civil proceedings, however, do not require reasonable doubt. In fact, they only require the disregard of most doubt. Say... 50% of the doubt? A much easier standard to achieve when wizard matters are involved.

And so the institution of the Civil Court was preserved. And it has evolved into what is now called The Suit Court - where one brings any sort of litigation involving MONEY. Where fortunes are broken and stolen! Where slaves are made of men and men are made free!

Though, BEWARE! 

For it is in the Suit Court that the judging of suits and the judging of suits shall take place.

Make sure your suit is iron and your suit is ironed.

That your facts are crisp and your pants even crisper!

For in one misstep of either will your hard-earned gold be forfeit.

And the loser of facts and fashion may become indentured.

THE SUIT COURT

The Judge is accompanied by a Court stenographer and a host of bodyguards duty-and-money-bound to 'protect the sanctity and integrity of the Judge's person and mind'. Often pulled from the Secret Police as cushy prestigious late-stage career options, these Dread Bailiffs are trained to detect the faintest whiff of enchantment, of anything of a magical nature which may compromise the mind and body of the Judge. They will tackle you if you approach or cast at the Judge without permission, hence dirtying your suit, and drastically hurting your chances.

Your case in court will be judged on the presentation of your outfit first and the facts of the case second. 

The more expensive, the more dignified, the more presentable your outfit, the greater the chance the Judge will rule in your favor. Hence, the worse your opponent's outfit is: the dirtier, the creasier, the more splattered with ketchup from lunch, the worse their chances.

The Court does not recommend sabotaging your opponent's clothes with 'childish food fight antics', 'paint explosions', or 'accidental projectile vomiting'. But it's not like this is a criminal proceeding: the Secret Police aren't going to throw you into a volcano for strategically spilled milk. And sometimes things beyond anyone's control happens! The Bailiffs aren't responsible for your safety during recesses. They certainly aren't responsible for what happens just outside the courtroom...

(Note: Your lawyer's outfit is just as important as yours is. Both must be presentable!)

All clothing being equal, however, it then comes down to facts, precedent, and logic. As argued by your lawyers.

You must merely convince the Judge with argument: that you have been dealt some great injustice and that your opponent's arguments have no merit. There is no jury to coerce. Only one rather old wizard.

After facts have been presented and final arguments have been made, the Judge will deliberate and a ruling will be issued. Typically judgements impose fines upon either the defendant or the accuser: amounts of spell-gold to be paid in lump sums or payment plans, to be negotiated by the Court Accountant (an underrated position in terms of power).

Judging Criteria

• Cleanliness and Crisp
• Confidence and Correct Fit
• Complementary Colors, Designs, and Patterns
• Complementary Outfits Between Lawyer and Defendant / Plaintiff
• Thread Count
• Exoticness of Fabric Materials
• Style and Coherence With Present Fashion Trends

Typical Fines:

Theft: Value of the Items + dX% Interest

Murder of a Loved One: 1000 spellgold x Age of Victim (in Years) x dX

Intellectual Property Violation: Estimated Value of Theft + 100% Interest, and Recommended to Patent Police for Criminal Proceedings.

Injury to a Person: Cost of Medical Treatment at Victim's Doctor of Choice + Lawyers' Fees

Injury to a Person Resulting in Lost of Work Hours: Cost of Medical Treatment at Plaintiff's Doctor of Choice + Lost Productivity Costs to Plaintiff's Employer + Lawyers' Fees.

Injury to a Person's Property: Fraction of Item's Value proportional to Damages.

Inability to Procure Liquid Assets: Indenturement until Debts Paid.

Judges

Judge Lawstab:

All dX's are 3d4's.

• Lawyer, tinker, tailor, mage. A quadruple threat in his heyday. 
• Keeps his outfit traditional - wizards robes and pointed hat. Magical and potentially very deadly ties.
• Smokes a pipe in court. Aggressively punctual with the smoke rings.
• Gives no fucks - sassy and sarcastic. Will call attention to non-clothing-related details in the case that are particularly egregious.
• Carries the Staff of Law, which strikes those who attempt to charm or Fear him with clothes-incinerating fire.

Judge Taff:

All dX's are 1d10's.

• Rotund robber baron. Made his fortune in textile manufacturing.
• Wears magic tailored suit that is somehow flattering. Magic likely involved.
• Smokes cigars in court. Huge fan of exotic tobacco.
• Susceptible to bribes, particularly extravagant ones. Deflects critique of corrupt rulings by declaring subjective nature of suit judging.
• Nasty cough. Demands court grinds to a halt while he has coughing fits. During this time he is not paying attention while he coughs into a filthy handkerchief.

Judge Hathaway Press:

All dX's are 1d20-4's. If the result is negative, then Plaintiff must pay Defendant. If zero, Judge dismisses the case at conclusion.

• Wears robes pressed so smooth and crisp that it forms an impenetrable magic barrier on her person.
• All the lawyers are scared of her. For good reason.
• Will examine clothes literally under a microscope for perfection.
• Mean. Snarky. Critical. Perfectionist. Will destroy the unprepared.
• Professor of Law. Two PhDs.
• Will berate the finest flaws in your suits for hours. Down to the last unwanted microscopic crease.

Lawyers

All lawyers will argue for Defendants and Plaintiffs both.

Mr. Suit: 

• Is a living, breathing, animated suit. It's hard to beat that! 
• Keeps himself meticulously clean, though he can be a bit old-fashioned.
• Makes snappy concise arguments that get right to the point. 
• Fighting a reputation that he can't keep up with the times what with the fashion scene evolving and his literal being being tied to this particular suit.

Ms. Darling Reed:

• Darling of the court. Most of the Judges like her, treat her like a daughter.
• Keeps up with the latest fashions. Employees a tailor to make new suits for nearly every trial.
• Rhetoric that tries to impress: bombastic, far-flinging, extravagant, dramatic.
• Frequently enters the Well without asking and is given leniency by the Bailiffs and Judges to do so. Because they like her.
• Expensive.

Carl McGoo

• Not a great lawyer. Which is to say, he dresses like an academic: oversized suit, checkered pattern. Pants don't match. Ugly tie. A doom to your case.
• Might get pity points from the Judge.
• Will defend you for a ham sandwich.
• Stutters when he gets nervous, which happens in court a lot.

Dexter Vox

• Young, snappy, and attuned to the personalities of the judges. The hot new lawyer on the scene.
• Perfect hair.
• Employees seamstresses and tailors which he may or may not be dating.
• Not that great at arguments. Most devolve into talking about himself. Never prepared to actually talk about the case.
• Tries to keep all attention on him (and not his clients).

Black Crater

The Black Crater is a landmark within Wizard City. It itself is the product of a magical mishap the approximate size of six city blocks. To this day, nobody is exactly sure what happened, though it has now resulted in site of pilgrimage for those visiting whispering prophecies of the Pit of Portents and/or those wanting to throw things down the bottomless pit.

The entire desolation is a spongy black-as-soot waste. Nothing grows in it. Nothing can be built on it. Anything spending inordinate amounts of time standing still in the Black Crater simply sinks into the ground at a pace of 4cm / hour. This has given rise to the speculation that the Crater is in fact a portal to another dimension, and that might be true.

MAGICAL MISHAPS

d20	There Is A(n)...	And It’s...	And On Top of That...
1	Mystical Vortex locally randomizing space and time.	Coming this way!	Some kids are poking at it.
2	Familiar giving out their master’s secrets like candy at a parade.	Minding its own damn business.	The Secret Police are keeping everyone at a distance, secretly.
3	Street brawl running in reverse.	Got the same physical properties as a game of freeze-tag.	The Wizard Police are here, and they’re definitely making it worse.
4	Thing which really shouldn’t have consciousness that has very recently obtained it.	Definitely your problem now.	Some stock brokers are already trying to cash in on the phenomenon before the markets adjust.
5	Plague going round. Rather quickly.	Melting! Melting! Aaaaaaah it’s melting!	Someone decided this was a great place to have a raging party.
6	Mathematician who is mathing way too hard.	Going to sound way dumber when people describe it later.	It’s drawing the attention of some opportunistic gangsters.
7	Glitch in the matrix.	Broken through the quarantine.	Some construction workers are carrying a fragile piece of glass across the street.
8	Big bloody orb of flesh floating mid-air.	Clearly edible.	For some reason, everyone is glowing now.
9	Animated Object that has illegally self-actualized.	Attacking the city!	Someone called the bomb technicians and they don’t know it’s a prank.
10	Ooze.	Slowly vaporizing.	Magical possibly-time-traveling insurance agents have come to pre-emptively assess damages.
11	Remarkable admonishment that there are more dimensions out there than we can perceive.	Infinitely more confused about this situation than you are.	The medieval equivalent of a school bus full of children is careening straight for it.
12	Fiend, Fey, Monstrocity, Undead, Elemental, Aberration, or quite possibly all of the above.	Your responsibility by some outstandingly impossible Butterfly Effect / Rube Goldberg mechanism.	There has already been a religion established to worship this particular thing… And it’s not a very nice religion.
13	Spot where Gravity is evidently having a time-out.	On the cusp of a groundbreaking philosophical conclusion.	Some dumb wizard is already trying to get high off of it.
14	Very Naked Wizard.	Chaotic Stupid	The acid rain is coming in early today.
15	Screaming Book.	Leaking magic like a 1982 Toyota Pickup on its last legs.	The Fire Brigade is here. Shit.
16	Explosion	Continuously Exploding	It’s about to explode!
17	Adorable Puppy	Broken through the sound barrier.	An overconfident wizard is about to go apeshit on this thing.
18	Evil Twin.	Really, really pathetic. Really.	There’s a reward for capturing it alive.
19	God.	Going to talk your head off. Possibly literally.	Magic doesn’t work for some reason!
20	Combination of two of the above. (Reroll twice)	Simultaneously doing two things: (Reroll twice)	Oh look! There’s another one… (Reroll everything an additional time)

The Hothouse

Not more than three stones-throws from The Low Moon in Wizard City lies the labyrinth of alleys, store fronts, and greenhouses that encompass the city's necromantic and horticultural hub. These interconnected attractions are collectively known as The Hothouse, and it is the principle base of operations of The Dead Janes.

"You want it hot, or you want it cold?", ask the gatekeepers at the neighborhood's entrances, dressed like psychopomps and smelling of romantic flowers masking embalming fluid.

If you want it HOT, the following attractions are available...

• Madame Exuberance runs a "Body Boudoir". Don't like your present body and want to try on a few before you commit to a purchase? Privacy and client privilege is guaranteed. A variety of options are available: skinsuits, facemasks, transplants, and full-bodies. Decapitation included free with full-body purchases.

• A sauna is available for special customers. As a connected service they'll sell you scented waters to throw on the stones which often produce 'interesting effects' when vaporized.

• The Mangnoliodoma, an extensive greenhouse maintained meticulously by Charlie the Fox (so-called for her frequent snickering laugh), contains a variety of rare Rosa species. Most spectacular among these is the Millennium Corpse Flower, seed of the very one which famously ended the Crawmon Dynasty.

Beggar's Pricker: A parasitic bramble thorn typical in desert climates. Catches on to mammals and slowly siphons off the blood as a water and nutrient source. Produces a toxin which causes its host ignore it. Rending wounds caused by the thorns often get infected and untreated, eventually causing severe illness and death.

Dead Man's Bouquet:  A purple rose species, preferring damp cavities. If planted within the eye sockets of a fresh corpse it will bloom into the visage of the last thing the dead person saw while alive.

Lichefinger: The matured stamen of this species are needle-thin, sharp, and virtually indestructible. While historically used to make jeweler's tools, it's now most frequently used for surgery and assassination.

Killer Queen: Red petals, black stems. One prick of the thorn contains enough neurotoxin to put the unfortunate person into a semi-permanent coma. They say true love's kiss will dispel it, but that's a villainously-crafted lie. Very convenient for preserving bodies and luring rivals' true loves.

Widowguard: Black rose crossed with strangling vines. The roots will worm its way into nearby muscular-skeletal structures and animate them for its own defense. Capable of delivering strong pulses of electricity like a jellyfish.

If you want it COLD...

• Frankie oversees the organ market. The entire alley is cold as ice, and everything from spare limbs, livers, hearts, spleens, kidneys, to extra eyes can be bought and bartered. Don't worry, they finance!

• Adjacent lies Whole Bodies: your one-stop shop for healthy skeletons and zombies. Their signature product is Rose Water - which is in fact rose-scented formalin (not for living consumption!).

• The Slab can get you all the mob-doctoring you'd need, at the pleasure of Dwight Rightwight. He isn't a doctor, or even really a man. They take bodies in place of hard currency, no questions asked.

If you want it SMELLING LIKE A ROSE...

• Fiona the Clean sells anonymized bodies by the bushel. All ID removed: fingerprints, teeth, eyes, tattoos, and scars. Animation comes at additional fees. Prices are criminal.

• Wet Sally will personally dissolve, absorb, or turn into fertilizer anything provided its modestly organic. Unless it's particularly hot (drawing secret police attention) she'll do it for free, too.

Accessing Infinity - Electric Googoloo

Part 0 - Accessing Infinity 
Part 1 - More Accessing Infinity

The previous Accessing Infinity posts lay down the groundwork for the creation of an Infinity Hotel campaign: an essentially epic level campaign full of nihilistic disco dancers, crazy mathematicians, numerological goblin warlords, and a infinite hotel.

Since then, I have discovered the Googology Wiki, and the grand list of absolute gems of numbers, including some absolute gems such as:  googolbang, zootzootplex, grangoldudexigong, septasexahexar, godsgodeus, monster-giant, ohmygosh-ohmygosh-ohmygosh, BIG FOOT, Fish number 7 and sasquatch.

The best part is the names. It turns out that if one is in the business of inventing absurdly high numbers,  incredibly silly names are absolutely required.

This List provides a virtually infinite number of potential hubs within the Infinity Hotel, and the notations one would use in order access them.

Pictured: a virtual map of very very very big numbers.
I have no idea what the axes mean.
Source

Many of the "islands" within the Deep Hotel are found by plugging in infinitely-repeating numbers into the Mystic Elevator. However, a brand new frontier has opened with not-infinitely-repeating numbers, which are very very very very very very big numbers that are not infinite. These numbers are an infinity distance apart from any infinite numbers, and are virtually infinite apart from any other non-infinite numbers.

Because these numbers are not infinitely deep, it's possible that someone or something could spontaneously arrive at these locations from the hotel entrance, having journeyed the entire way. Things that travel for so long and so far tend to be extraordinarily dangerous, powerful, fast, or patient. They are often best avoided or left alone.

Such things include accelerated elder trolls, proto-goblin relic arcs, unstoppable forces, perpetual motion automatons, robots of infinite emotions, rocket shells, and evolved oozes. 

~~~~~

A number of googologists, have established domains in these very very very very very very-far-but-not-infinite places. Their notation systems become the essential basis for 'keys' that one would plug into the Mystic Elevator, allowing one to reach them.

These domains are guarded jealously by their creators, and they frequently attempt to hedge out rivals in ways similar to how wizards traditionally establish their tower domains in the wild.

THE MATH WIZARDS 

AND THEIR RECURSIVE DOMAINS

THE TOWER OF POWER

All who would come to learn of the great masters of infinite googology must first make pilgrimage to the TOWER OF POWER, within which the great art of POWER TOWERS flowered.

A power tower is thus: 3^3^3^3... Three to the third, to the third, to the third. Potentially forever.

The TOWER OF POWER leans like Pisa. It's crooked, recursive, shooting askew of straight up like a plant reaching for the sun. It's height is a series of incomprehensible segments, each compounding in orders of magnitude.

The Tetrated Realms are a neverending wizard's tower, ever-extending crookedly into the stratosphere seemingly forever. It curves around like a single-stranded helix, occasionally bridged by ropes cast like spider strands and roadblocked by tower-wizards staking claim. One must be sure to have access to flight, for the fall from the tower is very very far indeed. Hazing wizards enjoy punishing newcomers for their rookie mistake by casting them from the helix, sending them plummeting for days, years, or even centuries. The base of the Tower is littered with terminal-velocity mush, and hazarded by falling garbage. Gravity is the great master at the TOWER OF POWER and every wizard knows it.

It is the home of Matthew, Keeper of the Recursive Arrow and Archmage of the Compounding Tower.

CANNIBAL 3

A wizard made an animate method of recursion to devour other notation systems. He named it CANNIBAL. Cannibal 1 and 2 aren't terribly large numbers, but Cannibal 3 is incomprehensibly massive.

This is accompanied by the aptly-named AUTOCANNIBAL function, which appropriately devours itself recursively.

The realms of the CANNIBAL and AUTOCANNIBAL functions are caulked to the brim with frogs. Big frogs, little frogs, frogs as big as Jupiter and some many many orders of magnitude bigger. The biggest of these has no name, for it has devoured anyone who would've named it. One day this frog, ever-increasing in size, will burst forth from the Infinity Hotel and devour the entire Universe in an instant. Fortunately for the Universe, the CANNIBAL function is very fast-growing, and it will be quite a while before the great frog grows big enough to escape it.

It is the home of Ronaldo, Bearer of the Fractal Mind and Devourer of Annotations.

FUNCTION JUNCTION

If there ever was anything mythical and mysterious, then at some point it has crossed through Function Junction and been integrated into the mathematical schemes of its grand master.

The Junction lies at the intersection of the UNICORN, MANTICORE, and HYDRA base functions. It's also a zoo. It even has a little train you can ride. The admission is steep. In order to gain access, a group is required to contribute a mythical creature for an exhibit. The tradeoff is that it can be quite informative. Any number of potential hazardous creatures are kept here for observation, including a good number that can be found in the Deep Hotel, such as hydraplexes, math wizards, dread beavers, spontaneous gods, thermodynamic impossibilities, robots of infinite emotions, and FEET.

It is the home of Cavier, the Crystal-Set Algebraic Oodle-Meister, Master of the Mythical Math Menagerie.

Spells of Summer's End

 The following is a list of magic spells that can become available to the players in the Everlasting Summer. Utilizes the Underneath system.

Costs remain hidden from the Players. You (the GM) know what they are, but the players should not. If the spells are ever reduced to a simple cost/benefit analysis, then they shall cease to seem dangerous, scary, and unknowable.

BANISHMENT OF THE NORTHERN WIND

(To postpone the threat of the Old God for a period of 47 Years, this ritual must be performed. Descriptions of the ritual can be found in the Wizard's Observation Tower, the Lighthouse, the Witch's Hut, or the hidden safe within the Devart Mansion.)

The Banishment Requires the following reagents:

• One who is to be betrothed, anointed with the Ritual of Purity.
• Thirty three Petoskey Stones, arranged in a circle containing a triangle. Twenty seven form the circle. Six form the triangle.
• Three wind chimes made from goats bones, hoisted on branches of wind-fallen trees and arranged at the points of the triangle.
• An ordained priest if on land, or a ship's captain if on the water, who is to speak the magic words of the ritual: "A'aqur harbath..." 

The Ritual of Purity requires powdered alicorn, the unicorn's horn, mixed with fresh human blood. This can either be obtained by: 

1) Slaying / trapping / mutilating The Unicorn. 

2) Harvesting/Stealing the Unicorn's Horn mushroom from the Witch's Garden. 

3) Diving deep into Lake Superior and dredging up the Alicorn-Coral.

4) Powdering narwhal tusk.

This mixture is painted upon the person who is to be betrothed, who is to be a woman who has had at least one period, and who has not had children, chanting the words "A'aqur harbath... A'aqur harbath... A'aqur harbath..." Once complete, the betrothed may enter the ritual circle. If she has not been purified, then she will vaporize on the spot, along with all nearby observers.

If successful, winds will blow during the ritual setup. Thunderstorms will appear. During the final chanting of the incantation a rope tornado will descend from the sky and pick up the betrothed, who will forever disappear into the sky. The banishment will then be complete.

((Secret Fact: The Ritual of Purity can actually be performed on anyone of any sex, age, or disposition successfully. The gendered nature is a holdover from the very first successful use of the ritual, which just so happened to use a young woman. It has not changed since nobody has been willing to experiment with a ritual that, if done incorrectly, results in the deaths of the caster and all nearby observers.))

WINDS OF A'AQUR

A'AQUR, that which chases the flashpoint of the end. The great entropic force bears winds of incalculable destruction. To wield just a tiny fraction is shattering. The winds of the North bear such heat and force as to turn its target to ash.

Costs: 1 Instinct and Body for every Day that's eclipsed since the start of the Everlasting Summer.

Effect: Deal 3 Hits to the target.

Requires 1 Round of preparation and chanting.

If this reduces the target to 0 Hits, it disintegrates, leaving nothing but black ash on the nearby terrain.

FORESIGHT

Invoke the Middle Eye. See what the future holds.

Costs: Roll one 1d6 per times used. Takes one 1) Resolve 2) Instinct 3) Body 4) Empathy 5) Insight 6) Nothing

Effect: The Game Master rolls the next random encounter and shares with you, and only you, the result. You immediate gain knowledge of it - it's Name, Appearance, and Attacks (if any).

IMPRISONMENT OF THE UNICORN

To capture the unicorn and harvest its magical flesh requires one who is pure of spirit and one whose soul is black as nothing.

Required Materials: A noose of cold iron or of gold, attached to a sturdy chain, fashioned by one of ancient royal blood.

Costs: The Hunter: 3 Maximum Empathy. 

The Pure: 2 Maximum Resolve.

Effect: The one pure of spirit places the noose upon the unicorn, entrapping it. When this happens, it cannot use magic or resist its captors in any way. It can, however, speak.

THE POISONED APPLE

A favorite product of banished horticultural witches. The effort and careful long term preparations of this spell make it very difficult to produce: if the sprouting apple tree is not fed with blood for even a single day then the brew will simply be poisonous and produce no charm.

Required Materials: An apple tree, fed with the blood of the caster every day until it sprouts fruit. The brew which it is dipped in requires Hemlock, Giant Hogweed, and Deadly Nightshade.

Costs: Reduces number of remaining years by half. (Halves Body)

Effect: Produces a bountiful red apple of pristine quality and comeliness. That which eats the apple will become charmed. It will operates under your commands in a despondent fugue for three days, after which it shall enter into an endless coma.

BANISHMENT OF THE TROLL

The Troll is an enduring creature. Its regeneration ensures that even the smallest pieces will eventually reform into the great totality.

Required Materials: A Flame of Alexandria (Simply, any flame made by burning books, scrolls, or magical incantations.) Approximately three gallons of grease derived from pigs, cows, or fish.

Costs: 1 Resolve per Meat consumed during Adventure.

Effect: The Troll must first be slain or incapacitated by reducing it to 0 Hits in Combat. Then every one of its pieces must be collected, mixed with the grease, then lit on fire by bringing it to 310 C using the Flame of Alexandria. Once this is done The Troll will evaporate and be permanently destroyed.

THE BODY ELECTRIC

A development of Arthur Conrad, Third Keeper of the Cult Electric. In order to cast the spell, the caster must undergo a conscious electroconvulsive therapy session. This procedure is excruciatingly painful, and can easily result in the deaths of frail individuals.

The procedure always changes a person's personality, often in opposing ways: if they were kind they may grow cruel, if they were lazy they may grow obsessively motivated, if they were dissociative they may become sober, or vice versa.

Required Materials: An electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) machine, four metal pylons arranged in a parallelogram around the to-be caster's head. A series of five lightbulbs in parallel, which the person undergoing the procedure is to stare at.

Costs: Initial procedure costs 2 Body. Each cast costs 1 Empathy per switch explicitly flipped since the procedure was instituted. Resets every time the player explicitly discharges static electricity. (min. 1)

Effect: Allows the caster to 'read' electrical equipment by touching exposed wires, giving them an innate sense of the extent of the networks involved, who might be observing them, and what might be contained within them. 

The spellcaster may also do one of the following tasks:

• Overload the network, tripping circuit breakers and shutting down all power within a city block's distance.
• Gain vision of an entire security network's cameras. If desired feed false images into the security feed.
• Audibly hear any cell phone calls and texts within 1 mile.

REVEAL

Pierce your own eye. Unleash the iris-colored fog that will sweep across the hidden and unveil the truth.

Costs: 1 Eye, still attached. (-1 Instinct, -1 Body)

Effect: Exposes the true forms of anything within the immediate area. Low Insight Thresholds are disregarded, hidden objects and doors are revealed, and illusions are dispelled.