After Homeworld

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After Homeworld

Post by virgil »

The idea is for a conversion of Steven Universe to the After Sundown ruleset. For those who don't know what Steven Universe is, refer to this thread.
Shatner wrote:Premise in 30-words-or-less: a boy is being raised/trained by a trio of aliens who are working to clean up the mess their own people made thousands of years ago.
Now, why After Sundown, you ask? Simple. I'm lazy and self-aware enough to not think myself capable of writing a core system, as I consider Parabellum & Pagliacci to be failures. But I'm also crazy and deluded enough to think I could eventually & successfully do a major conversion. After Sundown is a proven system for what it does, and is one of the few that doesn't totally screw up its attempt at social mechanics and personality drivers. The combat system feels like it would recreate SU's combat flow reasonably well. What concerns me the most is whether I can successfully identify what needs to be addressed in this conversion.

The Crystal Gems should be considered our En Media Res power level, which is rather potent in comparison to After Sundown's En Media Res. The specific powers need to be written up, and undoubtedly will be the lion's share of the word count. The different gem models seem reasonable analogues to the various supernaturals, including standard abilities each type start out with. Amethyst, Peridot, and Pearl are actually excellent examples for how nominally standardized models can differ from each other while still following an otherwise standardized build.

Fusions of various types should at least be considered, because what group of players isn't going to have at least one person desire to be a Garnet or Steven? For campaign purposes, it should be assumed that any player who chooses to play a fusion like Garnet must be the product of low-power gems, whether it be a standard low strength like a Ruby or a runt like an Era 2 Peridot. While the mechanics would undoubtedly be similar, there is and should be a distinct difference between Garnet and Opal at the table - as the first is played by a single player while the second is a potent battle tactic reserved for special occasions between two or more players.

Due to lack of information, the conversion is going to be focused on Earth (after the rebellion) and players are Crystal Gems. To avoid the frustrating issues surrounding canonical NPCs, I'm just going to nip that problem in the bud and outright state that this is an alternate timeline where the characters in the show are not assumed to exist.
Last edited by virgil on Wed Jan 18, 2017 5:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by momothefiddler »

I will be following this thread obsessively.
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Post by OgreBattle »

Is SU kinda like Adventure Time in its sense of humor/physics?
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Post by Prak »

Not quite, given what little of AT I've seen. SU's humour is, in general, a bit more on the fish-out-of-water theme, with Pearl (usually) or Amethyst (occasionally) or Peridot (not as often as I'd like) dealing with human "weirdness" or Steven learning new Gem weirdness.
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Post by shinimasu »

Having seen both, SU is more grounded in "reality" while adventure time is more balls to the wall weirdness. Both are relatively light hearted comedy romps, but later seasons of SU go a lot harder on the plotlines.

Both have a lot of coming to terms with the idea that your parents aren't perfect people, but in Steven's case it's more dealing with having grown up with the gems idealized version of his mother where Rose was a wise and true leader who did no wrong ever. Current seasons are exploring what happens when he interacts with the people to whom his mom was an irredeemable villain.
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Post by virgil »

Baseline Gem Abilities I'm going to list each power as presented on the show, and include several options for representing them in the rules.
Image
Strength With obviously large variations; even the weakest known Gem, an Era 2 Peridot, is at the upper end of human strength. Durability seems to follow this pattern. PC-scale strength only goes up from there...
[*] Minimum Strength of 3+ (easiest)
[*] Purchasable Vigor & Devastation Power

Fortitude Gems don't need to sleep, eat, or breathe. Unless they replicate the necessary organs, they actually can't do those things; but Rose encouraged the Crystal Gems do so to better empathize with humanity. All Gems are unaging and possess a variety of After Sundown's Restoration. Damage sufficient to kill them simply causing their bodies to *poof*, at which point their gems begin to process and eventually spawn a new body. Destruction of this gem will permanently kill the character, and even cracking it will cause instability. Generating a new body generally takes a scene (couple hours). A Gem can take less time, but that kind of rush guarantees that the body will be near useless. It could also take as long as two weeks, but that is purely optional for no real benefit other than showing off how detail oriented you are.
[*] Patience of the Mountains & Restoration, required
[*] Revive the Flesh, optional

Image
Fusion Every Gem can fuse, even already fused gems. This is an exceptionally powerful ability, creating a single Gem (with its own personality) that's more powerful than the sum of its parts. The fusion's ability to retain its form depends on how in-sync its constituents are. It's generally used as a narrative for relationships in all its forms in the show.
[*] Perchance use frenzy mechanics to sustain, with modifiers appropriate to any conflicting taboos
[*] No clue at the moment what should be used to keep PCs from pulling the fusion card the instant combat music thinks about starting
[*] For temporary fusions, it's difficult to not see a fusion not be at minimum where each stat uses the highest of the set, some kind of bonus to Potency, AND an extra power or two

Bubbling Gems can generate a neutrally buoyant, fragile, stasis bleb around inanimate objects (including unformed gems) that can then be used to warp it and its contents to where the Gem considers 'home'. Steven is the only known instance of the inanimate exception, and honestly I think that unless it's used more, it's easier to not let that be an option. As even Peridot has been shown this ability, it's presumed to be a universal trait. Range is up for debate, but I'm going to go ahead and set it for intra-planetary.
[*] While not major ability, it's not hard to give it a basketball size limit and cost a single power point (Opal's mass bubbling be a special exception)

Shapeshifting With the exception of Era 2 models, all gems can shapeshift. Like Beastboy, their colours don't change, and maintaining a shifted form for an extended period of time can be damaging. The power seems purely utilitarian, as it doesn't give any advantage in strength or durability, and only the strongest shifter (Amethyst) has even bothered using it in combat.
[*] Amethyst is the only shapeshifter that's reliably used this power for more than changing clothes, playing Steven Tag, or other RP-only uses. It should therefore have an 'advanced' purchase option that lets the Gem use it like Amethyst, which will have its uses in stealth (mouse) and movement (flying animals).

Hammer Space While not presumably universal, every Gem but Peridot has shown the ability to store & draw a single weapon from inside their gem. It's not solely a part of them, as they can be upgraded by others. At the minimum, it also acts as a set of pockets.
[*] More of an aesthetic to whatever 'attack' powerset they give themselves

Photogeneration Not really a power per se, but Ruby, Pearl, and Peridot Gems have all shown the ability. As the power is so minor, and Gems are hard light constructs, I see nothing wrong with just assuming it to be a universal trait.
[*] It's a freakin' flashlight. Next.

Factory Model Aside from Pearls & Diamonds, Gems of the same model are identical in color scheme and are physically comparable to siblings. Notable variations in size/build (Amethyst vs Jasper) are usually indicative of differences in strength.
Last edited by virgil on Wed Jan 18, 2017 10:24 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Prak »

Remember there are two forms of fusion- When gems of the same sort fuse, the result is a particularly large example of that gem with multiple gems:
Image.

When gems of multiple types fuse, they create a new kind of gem.
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Post by Lokathor »

Here's my advice: Don't give out initiative passes. Don't do it. If you have to be fast, find some way to do it that doesn't give people different numbers of turns.

Every other AS fix is window dressing.
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Post by shinimasu »

I think fusion is what makes SU hard to translate to tabletop. Since it's hard to figure out what limits (if any) there should be on when it gets used, and there's a clear conflict between narrative use and game use. In the narrative fusion is something you do when you like and trust your partner enough that you're willing to mash consciousnesses together. In the game it's a way to get your numbers higher.

Also how do you model the fact that putting aside differences allows otherwise incompatible gems to fuse? Pearl and Amethyst are like night and day. And in the beginning of the show they've lost the ability to fuse because they just don't like each other that much. Later fusion becomes incredibly easy for them because they've more or less reconciled. Neither of their values or taboos has changed, pearl is still a neat freak perfectionist and amethyst is still party slob, but they've become more accepting which allows them to maintain opal for longer.
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Post by virgil »

Yes, fusion is a difficult element to work around for many reasons. Off the top of my head, it might work to have it be fairly difficult as a baseline, and have it be a Background or Quality (or other resource) to make it easier between two Gems. It would still need an additional restriction to keep players from using it with every battle.
Image I am now detailing the powers exhibited by individual characters. It is unknown how many of these powers are baseline (or even restricted) and how many are self-taught, but it is a fact that Pearl has picked up at least one power normally denied to her model, and all of the Crystal Gems have been independent from Homeworld for thousands of years.

Pearl Specific Powers
Water Walking Kind of obvious
Holographic Projection Able to project blue & white animated images
Holo Clone Able to create at least two duplicates (if obviously artificial) with martial capability and little else, seemingly with the ability to fuse
Sand Bending May be aesthetic, as she's only done it once for a handful for educational purposes
Cloud Bending Can create an obscuring mist, and make a convincing Mufasa-impersonation
Advanced Hammer Space Pearl has stored an entire room's contents in her gem, which fits her caste's role of carrying their master's stuff
Engineering Able to craft a spaceship or a battlemech in an afternoon with a box of scraps, in a barn.

Amethyst Specific Powers
Advanced Shapeshifting From a mouse to a fully functioning helicopter (with her face), this hasn't ever been used for more than utility, not seeming to grant any kind of advantage in combat
Spin Dash Essentially a Sonic the Hedgehog maneuver

Ruby Specific Powers
Fire Immunity What it says on the box
Heat Touch Can set things on fire with a touch, presumably able to add a flaming feature to attacks

Sapphire Specific Powers
Ice Touch Can lower the temperature around an area, potentially able to freeze targets in ice
Running Can run notably faster than a typical human
Future Vision Holy crap, I have no freakin' clue how this could be reasonably represented in a game. It's obviously unable to give an advantage in combat & explicitly doesn't negate free will, as it only gives possibilities. It provides intense amounts of foresight, however, and is presumably the primary method of the group's ability to find monsters.

Garnet Specific Powers
Electric Touch Able to add electricity to attacks, and can power electric devices when in touch range.
Super Strength While all are exceptionally strong, Garnet takes it to comic book level.
Bestow Future Sight Unknown whether Sapphire can do this, but it lasts for a little while

Bismuth Specific Powers
Fire Immunity Duh
Weapon Augmentation Has been able to add upgrades to a Gem's personal weapons

Steven Specific Powers
Dream Communication Essentially astral projection, able to communicate with others on the planet while both are unconscious; and individuals inside a fusion count as unconscious
Possession Only shown to work on humans, allows Dream Communication to achieve full bodily possession
Healing Tears/Spit Restores bodily damage to the target touched with your magic juice, including myopia in humans; though full-on resurrection isn't possible
Animate Flora Able to create/grow an arbitrarily large number of semi-independent warriors from seeds, though their martial capability seems about on par with a human
Bubble Shield Essentially an impermeable force field of rather surprising durability
Super Feather Fall Not only enhanced jumping, but able to adjust falling speed from normal to essentially zero

Lion Specific Powers
Roar A decent AoE sonic attack
Warp Jump Full-on intra-planetary teleportation. Technically, it can be used to reach the Moon, but that is nominally an expensive use
Advanced Hammer Space Likely similar to Pearl's Advanced Hammerspace, this is essentially an arbitrarily large storage area with a nice decor
Water Walking What the name says

Peridot Specific Powers
Engineering As per Pearl's
Ferrokinesis TK, but with metal

Gem Weapons
While not powers, per se, Bismuth's modifications indicate they can be viewed as semi-independent constructs bonded to each Gem; able to be called upon from their gem at will and reformed if broken or lost. Whether it's a sword, shield, whip, giant gauntlets, or energy-blasting spear; they are generally pretty potent weapons. Several of the 'tactics' are qualitatively different enough to justify representing a learned power.
Last edited by virgil on Thu Jan 19, 2017 9:10 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Lokathor wrote:Here's my advice: Don't give out initiative passes. Don't do it. If you have to be fast, find some way to do it that doesn't give people different numbers of turns.

Every other AS fix is window dressing.
This is both a massive deal; efficient or overpowered action economy masters games of limited actions.

As well as not the biggest bogeyman of the game. Franks once stated that a Bagheera killing 3 skeletons a round, is not really going to effectively stop a necromancers army.

The real issue is mostly one of player boredom. Having, and not having combat powers feel powerful for combat bores one, or an other, type of player.

The other side being that the players who are generally Celerity using creatures; tend to only care about combat; and are bored by the entire rest of the session. I tend to throw one combat encounter at most; usually at the end of the session. However; that's only if there's particularly combat-hungry players at the session. Combat being the most boring part of RPGs, and After Sundown having mechanics for so many other forms of conflict resolution.
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Post by virgil »

Image Corrupted Gem Powers
Corrupted gems are incredibly diverse, essentially serving as the origin story for virtually any monster we would want. As they were originally Gems, presumably any particular power possessed by the named characters are selectable options, and vice versa. I'm largely not bothering with most of their special attacks like acid spit or sonic roars, as it's very likely to be representable as an integrated Gem Weapon.
Burrowing Able to swim through earth like a rabbit
Sand Bending Construct buildings, generate storms
Minion Making Produce large numbers of dog-sized monsters at roughly human strength
Air Breath Sustained throw-back in area
Invisibility
Petrification Able to turn creatures into glass
Density Control Can turn incorporeal
Giant Size
War Form
Telekinesis
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Post by virgil »

Image
Skills
A thing to consider is the skill list. After Sundown's was designed with the basic model of a horror movie, where supernaturals attempt to live among humanity on their own terms. In the SU setting, there is no Masquerade, and the Crystal Gems live completely independently of humanity. An SU campaign is simply going to be structured more closely to that of D&D by dint of their hierarchy of needs working outside the reach of society's control, and therefore its skill list needs to reflect this.

Physical Skills Athletics, Driving (includes Riding), Combat, Perception, Stealth
Social Skills Animal Ken, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Persuasion
Technical Skills Artisan, Operations, Rigging, Sabotage, Tactics

Bureaucracy, Larceny, Survival, Electronics, Research, & Medicine are honestly better incorporated as backgrounds than full-fledged skills. The technical skills are presumed to be compatible with gem technology, and I suspect Peridot is the only character in the show thus far who might have points in Sabotage and Operations, since gem technology is so user-friendly. I wanted the number of skills in each category to be equal, and Tactics was the easiest to justify.
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Post by shinimasu »

Pearl's tactics skill is probably pretty decent. Steven's animal ken is likely also very impressive given how he manages to tame a corrupted gem.
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Post by virgil »

Attributes I’m aware the future 2nd edition of After Sundown is aiming to raise the range for attributes to 4-9, adjusting thresholds up by 1 accordingly. I do not feel the need to do that here, as representing ranges below human is a lower priority when dealing with higher power Gem challenges. We are, however, going to go ahead and include a +3 Strength to all Crystal Gems to represent their baseline strength and durability compared to humans.
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Post by phlapjackage »

Just binge-watched all of Steven Universe...I had planned on only watching 1 or 2, and then holy crap, where did my Saturday go? And NOW I am also obsessively following this thread...

A few thoughts:
- A Pearl's powers shouldn't include engineering, that's just a skill this specific Pearl has learned...
- Garnet also seemed to show electricity immunity/reflection
- Era2 peridot all were fitted with cyber augmentations, right?
- Steven's bubble shield started showing a lot of extra powers, like spikes and the ability to create 2 bubble shields etc...
- How about a Jasper? Kinda boring though, just strong, tough and quick...
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Post by Omegonthesane »

Jasper's just a Quartz build. Even when as-intended Amethysts appear in the show they're more like mass production soldiers than the Crystal Gem Amethyst in appearance and presumed combat style.

The limb enhancements are items. Balancing a character around having items isn't the best idea.
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Post by phlapjackage »

Omegonthesane wrote:Jasper's just a Quartz build. Even when as-intended Amethysts appear in the show they're more like mass production soldiers than the Crystal Gem Amethyst in appearance and presumed combat style.

The limb enhancements are items. Balancing a character around having items isn't the best idea.
Yeah, I forgot that Jasper is basically a souped-up Amethyst.

Limb enhancements don't need to be a balancing factor, maybe they can be available options only for Peridot gems.

There needs to be a Jumping/Flying discipline, as the Crystal Gems can all jump really high and maybe the Advanced/Elder power allows feather fall etc.

I think all Pearl Gems should get a bonus to Logic. They have to be detail-oriented in their roles as assistants, and this is probably what helped our Pearl become so good at engineering.
virgil wrote: Sapphire Specific Powers
Future Vision Holy crap, I have no freakin' clue how this could be reasonably represented in a game. It's obviously unable to give an advantage in combat & explicitly doesn't negate free will, as it only gives possibilities. It provides intense amounts of foresight, however, and is presumably the primary method of the group's ability to find monsters.
The Discernment discipline, Elder power = divination? Need some tweaking to allow it to be bestowed on others, but seems close enough...
Last edited by phlapjackage on Sun Feb 19, 2017 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Prak »

So, thinking about it, Sapphire's future vision doesn't actually have a ton of use, since in general, she gets possible futures. The main time it is a certain thing is when it's used for "I knew you'd do that" gags. In game, I could see it being a very minor power that lets a Sapphire find separated party members, or know what kind of opposition to prepare for.
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Post by phlapjackage »

Prak wrote:So, thinking about it, Sapphire's future vision doesn't actually have a ton of use, since in general, she gets possible futures. The main time it is a certain thing is when it's used for "I knew you'd do that" gags. In game, I could see it being a very minor power that lets a Sapphire find separated party members, or know what kind of opposition to prepare for.
Yeah, it seems mostly just for gags, also Garnet seems to have some combat bonuses from it but it's not that crazy powerful.
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Post by virgil »

phlapjackage wrote:A few thoughts:
- A Pearl's powers shouldn't include engineering, that's just a skill this specific Pearl has learned...
I shouldn't think so, and that's why I never said pearls should include engineering in their baseline powerset. The Pearl's powers were in reference to the specific one in the show as an indication of what they can provably be able to gain, whether via automatic or personal growth.
- Garnet also seemed to show electricity immunity/reflection
Yeah, that was a poorly worded thought on my part, but the idea should be a gem should be immune to whatever energy effect they can generate.
Prak wrote:The main time it is a certain thing is when it's used for "I knew you'd do that" gags. In game, I could see it being a very minor power that lets a Sapphire find separated party members, or know what kind of opposition to prepare for.
That's the thing, single author fiction can get away with that, but the examples of how it works when Steven's been given it are incredibly powerful to a group of players. Any rules we give are going to fundamentally not work the same as it does in the show because of the potential abuses.

When it comes to Limb Enhancers, they didn't really do more than make Peridot about on par with a regular gem, but with the flaw of being something she can lose. For a PC, there would need to be an implied background trait or Engineering to let new ones be built should the originals be damaged, and they would be superfluous on a regular gem since they've got comparable abilities and it's easy to say they're either keyed to a specific individual or requires training to know to use worth a damn.

I do not think pearl models should get a Logic bonus, they are treated as less personal assistant and more arm candy, which implies Charisma is a more suited stat. Earth's Pearl is just that much of a PC to break all of the rules, and the other Crystal Gems are sufficiently different from base models that I don't think splats like we see in After Sundown are appropriate. Something more free-form is probably better. Other than maybe have some of the powers have prerequisites (fire immunity for flame breath, for example), the characters are too eclectic to even justify having segregated sorceries as seen in AS.

Currently, here's the current idea behind designing standard gems with a sample.

Ruby
Bonus Stat +2 Strength
Starting Powers
[*]Fire Immunity: Immune to high temperatures, whether it’s fire or magma
[*]Hot-Blooded: The gem can increase their corporeal form's tempeature sufficiently to burn objects (Delay 2)

When it comes to power points, near as I can tell, all gems will function on the Continuous recharge schedule.
Last edited by virgil on Tue Feb 21, 2017 4:12 am, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by virgil »

The Irony of Too Many Steves
Image
I think I have a rough idea of a handle on Fusion, and I've got a couple ideas for ways to handle Garnet's Future Vision. However, I started looking at the scope of the characters, the monsters, the 'magic'...and while it's all fairly easily extrapolated for how they work, the design-space is huge and rather unrestricted. Every monster is a Steve. Frankly, outside of Homeworld, every character is a Steve. The Crystal Gems are individuals unrestrained from being put in the box of classes or race-packages, and this is in fact a major theme in the show. This is a design problem, and I'm not 100% certain how to resolve it.
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Post by Prak »

Focus less on powers by gem type, and more on powers by gem group, so quartz's have certain powers, and Jasper's, Amethysts, Rose Quartz's, etc all get the same power set, and then PCs get more options, while Homeworld Gems always have the same template and the same skills and all that.
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Post by Judging__Eagle »

Prak wrote:Focus less on powers by gem type, and more on powers by gem group, so quartz's have certain powers, and Jasper's, Amethysts, Rose Quartz's, etc all get the same power set, and then PCs get more options, while Homeworld Gems always have the same template and the same skills and all that.
That's a good idea to start with.

Carbon:
-Diamond
-Fullerene
-Graphene

Corundum:
-Sapphire (Blue-Green-Purple)[Leader]
-Ruby (Red-Pink)[Warrior]
-Padparadscha (Orange-Yellow)

Pearls:
-Cultured (Most Predictable; assigned to Leaders)
-Wild (Less Predictable; very rare)
-Baroque (Totally Unpredictable; impossibly rare)

Quartz:
-Amethyst
-Rose
-

Olivine/Peridot
-Tephroite
-Monticellite/Kirschsteinite
-

Lazurite
-Lapis lazuli/[Sar-i Sang?]
-[Lapis armenus?]
-

Jasper:
-Biggs
-Kaleidoscope
-Orbicular

Agate:
-Crazy Lace
-
-[Dendrite?]

Pnictogen:
-Arsenic
-Antimony
-Bismuth

Beryl:
-Goshenite/Colorless
-Aquamarine/Emerald
-Heliodor/Morganite/Pink/Golden

Not listed here:
-The warden of the space prison; I can't recall what gem type they were
-All of the various corrupted gems Jasper catches
-What sort of gem Centipedle is/was
-The various sized cluster gems
-The planet-killer cluster

It's not a finished list; but it's a start; based on what I can recall from the series; plus some extrapolation for other potential types of gems that have never been show (Beryl/Emerald). One should also keep in mind that the "bubble" room in the Gem's temple is full of an enormous variety of gems shapes and colours.
Last edited by Judging__Eagle on Tue Feb 21, 2017 8:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Prak
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Post by Prak »

Note- Jasper is a type of quartz (apparently mixed with other stuff)

The warden was a Holly Blue Agate
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