Opus in Undercity

LORE

Long ago the Magnum Opus fell from the stars. The first Opus , a giant orb, which crashed into our world and caused the Calamity.

Humanity was almost wiped out, had it not been for the Bastion Corporation and their floating city.

The Calamity also seeded the world with Opuses, and created monsters that now inhabit the surface of the world.

It is many years later and the events of The Calamity are beyond living memory, The Bastion Corporation are heralded as the "savours of humanity" and they rule over what remains. Their floating city is reserved only for the wealthy, the important and other employees or those that are lucky. The surface is dotted with small villages of those not so fortunate. Those who have to ward off monsters to survive.

Occasionally bits drop off the floating city, or things are dumped off of it. This is known as Scrapfall and people on the surface rush to find it, in the hopes of finding valuable salvage.

OPUS

An Opus is a small orb, around the size of a marble. They come in different colours and they each glow slightly.

Found underground as small raw crystals, known as Unattuned Opus or Raw Opus they are given power by attuning them with a specific word.

This allows them to be used for magic based upon the word they are attuned to.

Also known as an Opus, these spells can be chained with up to three Opuses to become more powerful and to have different effects.

One and two word Opuses cost 1PP, three word Opuses cost 2PP

For example:

"Ball": Costs 1PP and will generate an orb of force that is launched at a target and it pushes it backward.

"Fire-Ball": Costs 1PP and will generate an orb of fire that is launched at a target and will deal fire damage with a change to set the target ablaze.

"Explosive-Fire-Ball": Costs 2PP and will launch an orb of fire at a target which explodes on contact, dealing damage to an area around the target with any caught in the blast having a chance to be set ablaze.

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Furthermore, multiple elements cannot be stacked. You also cannot use the same word twice, however you can intensify the effect by stacking different words that have the same meaning.

For example: "Fire-Burning-Blaze"
or: "Hound-Dog"

Additionally, there are some Opuses that only work in conjunction with others. And some combinations simply do not work.

By having an object (usually a weapon) as an Opus, when using it in a spell you can enchant that object.
For example: "Fire-Sword" will give you +1 dice and a chance to set enemies ablaze with your sword for x number of turns.

Finally: A person can only have five Opuses equipped at once. They can mix the Opuses to create spells on the fly.

ARMs

Asset Recovery Managers or ARMs are elite operatives of the Bastion Corporation.

Seen wearing black suits, or some variant of them, they officially exist to recover objects and people of value to the corporation that have been lost or stolen.

Unofficially, however, they perform the dirty work of the Bastion Corporation. It is rumoured that they have killed, kidnapped and sabotaged. They are frequently sent in to act as enforcers of Bastion Corp's will.

ARMs are equipped with Opuses and weapons of their choosing, no two ARMs are the same. They also tend to have several... "quirks", whether it was a by-product of their work or a factor in them being hired is unknown.

BESTIARY

tinyurl.com/57z9jw38 (Google Sheets link)