Turogzot

A gnomish mage who wields vonzot to create, alter, control, or otherwise interact with complex, often abstract systems. Though it is technically possible for those who are not gnomes to use this power, few ever figure out why the fuck they do it.

Notes

Turogzot and gnomes in general are intended to be effective characters who add a large dose of whimsy to the game. Play accordingly.

Seeing the System

To be a turogzot, one must be able to see actual and abstract systems. This is as simple a matter as seeing the cause-and-effect relationship between multiple factors at once. Gnomes can do this seemingly naturally, but others must train to do it. Once the system is seen and understood, the invisible lines of its connections and actions are known.

For example, consider a cafe. One's initial interaction with the system within the cafe is simply to enter and observe. One will see workers, customers, a building, and materials such as coffee, cups, and so on. Behind the scenes are more workers, a boss, and other materials (croissants, for instance, and the materials to make them). Behind those scenes are a landlord who rents the cafe space out to the boss, the farmers and distributors of the coffee beans, the makers of the cups, the people who made the clothes worn by the workers, the bank who keeps their funds, etc. This expands all the way out to the stars that produced the elements everything is made of, but at some point, it stops being the cafe system and starts being a larger system. The point is, there are a thousand different parts of the metaphorical cafe machine, and one must be able to see them all. But if one can see them, which is no easy task, or at least, enough of them, one can see the lines within it - the line between farm and coffee cup, the line between farm worker, distributor, boss, barista, and customer. The line between busboy and a broken cup that is filled by an errant customer, an obscured bathroom sign, and a swinging kitchen door.

These lines are vonzot. Tweaking them alters the system, and thus, reality.

To put it another way, a turogzot sees cause-and-effect multiple steps down the line and can predict well enough to alter a condition here and now to change the result ten steps later, but, because the turogzot must disrupt the system in order to do this, their methods seem (a) unecessarily complicated, (b) kind of out of the way, (c) weird, and (d) insane.

Ellozam Olyog

Ellozam olyog is the art of seeing the system and changing it. It is not as simple as, for example, leaving a cup in the right spot to make a busboy see it at the right time to walk into a customer looking for the bathroom, but rather, actively accessing the energy lines within the system. Vonzot has very powerful inertia - it does not want to change course. It requires something with its own vonzot to interact with it in order to create an entirely new system, one which the turogzot has control over. This requires special machinery.

Hinbinalzohog Machines

Hinbinalzohog machines are Rube Goldberg devices. They are contained systems that are completely under control of the turogzot. And when they are used to interact with or imitate another system, they give the turogzot the ability to control or alter the other system. There are two main examples of this:

1. At the cafe, a barista delivers coffee to the turogzot. Rather than drink the coffee with their hands, they introcuce their hinbinalzohog machine. They pull a string, which lifts a lever, which lifts a ramp, which causes an egg to roll, which hits a series of dominos, which fall upon one another until the last one hits a small plank, which flips and catapults a pebble, which hits a bell, which vibrates a string such that it wakes up a hedgehog, who grabs a hammer and smashes the egg, which drips onto a scale, which lifts very slightly a plate of pecans, which is then eaten by the hedgehog, which causes the scale to dramatically drop, which splashes egg yolk into a saucer, which wobbles and drops a cookie into the coffee cup and moves a plank that hits another lever, which causes a gear to spin, which pulls a string, which sends another string on a gear swinging, which has a hook that grabs the coffee cup handle. Meanwhile, the saucer stops wobbling just as the hedgehog finishes eating, meaning the hedgehog drops the remnants of the pecans back on the scale, causing the plate to lift much higher, so that the plank moves back into place, causing the lever to switch back to its original spot, which reverses the gear spin, which spins another gear the other direction, which lifts the hook. This absurd system is so intricate it has its own vonzot, which now interacts with the cafe system, and if the turogzot then changes their machine, the entire cafe system responds in a resonant and sympathetic way.
2. OR the turogzot spends time studying the cafe, sketches out its system, then goes back to a lab or garage or secluded apartment covered in press clippings of their heinous crimes. There, they use a similar hinbinalzohog machine to replicate the cafe system metaphorically. Beans, cups, and water are all involved, but people and money and shoe-leather are replaced by marbles, electricity, and gears. In other words, it is a complex machine that replicates the movements of the cafe system without actually replicating the system literally. If it is attuned well enough, the turogzot will be able to alter the cafe system by altering their sympathetic system.

The former method requires three things: (a) a dramatically convoluted machine, (b) an inexplicable element (the hedgehog with the hammer), and (c) a very patient cafe staff. The latter staff requires an impossible level of perfection that has never been attained, but is theoretically possible.

The Inexplicable

The crucial part of any hinbinalzohog machine is the inexplicable element. There must be some part of it that is counterintuitive and whimsical, as this is what actually allows it to tie into the vonzot present, as vonzot is paradoxical energy and the only way to interact with such energy is with something that is a little bit off from the rudiments of reality. A practiced turogzot is keenly aware of what reality is, of what is "normal", but thinks so far outside of it that "normal" seems inexplicable. Thus, they are able to insert the inexplicable with ease while struggling with the explicable bits. In other words, the hedgehog with the hammer is the normal part, the rest required some thinking. In fact, most hinbinalzohog machines start with the metaphorical hedgehog with the hammer and expand from there.

Effects

Theoretically, a powerful, patient turogzot could control the world this way. This has never happened. Rumor is, a Srisian agent once suggested this. Their body hangs outside the Temple of Ettuttu in the Srisian capital with signs of extensive torture still present on it, thousands of years later. The effects of a turogzot's efforts are usually surprisingly subtle. They may move their hedgehog so that its hammer smashes the whole saucer, and suddenly, a barista may become more efficient at making coffee. They may change the weight of the hammer and make the boss forget to fire the busboy. They may use a smaller egg, and suddenly the customer finds the bathroom on the first try. The cause and effect is rarely explicable, as it is a matter of altering the flow of the vonzot, which is like altering the movement of a rubber band that has just been snapped.

In game mechanics, there are five rolls: the roll to see the system, the roll to design the machine, the roll to build the machine, then the roll to start the machine and thus tie it to the system, and then finally the roll on changing the machine to see if its use will alter the system. The first determines if the machine is even designable. The second determines if it is buildable and how good it will be. The third adds bonuses or penalties to the last two rolls. The fourth sees if the machine will be able to access the system. The final roll is the casting of the spell.

The player rolls to observe the system, then describes the machine. They may have to roleplay gathering materials. They will definitely need to roleplay interactions with the cafe staff. But it really comes down to, they tell the GM the effect they want and the change they intend to make to their machine to achieve it. The GM determines difficulty based on the degree of change to both systems - trading the hedgehog for a rooster is a bigger change than changing the number of pecans, for example, and changing the timing of the delivery of a coffee cup is easier than changing the entire species and nation of the customer. Anything is possible, nothing makes sense, but reality is stronger than your gnomish imagination. Roll well.

Unintended Effects, Accidents, and Apologizing to the Barista

Here's how the effects break down by roll:

Roll	Effect
Exceptional failure	The machine explodes and the system is changed very dangerously
Special failure	The machine breaks and the system is changed more unpleasantly
Normal failure	The machine fails and the system is changed in a way you don't want
Tie	The machine fails and the system is unchanged
Normal success	The machine succeeds and the system changes how you wanted, but maybe not to the degree
Special success	The machine succeeds and the system changes exactly how you wanted
Exceptional success	The machine succeeds and the system changes better than you expected

One may also accidentally set off the machine (a simply nudge or bump may set it off), and if done with no effect in mind, a random effect is rolled on a d100:

Roll	Effect
1-5	Disastrous
6-10	Very bad
11-15	Miraculous
16-20	Very good
21-25	Bad
26-30	Good
31-35	Neutral
36-40	Good but minor
41-45	Bad but minor
46-50	Big but neutral
51-55	Bittersweet
56-60	Completely bizarre
61-65	Nearly impercetible
66-70	Extremely strange but goes unnoticed
71-75	Relatively minor but causes a stir
76-80	Good for you, bad for them
81-85	Good for them, bad for you
86-90	Only you change
91-95	Everything but you changes
96-00	Player's choice

Now apologize to the barista for turning her boyfriend the busboy into a purple chicken.

External Energies

Other esoteric energies can affect a turogzot's magic. Notably, Cacophony will disrupt an entire system and cause their machines to fail without having an effect, and entropy will do the same but cause random negative effects. Misfortune will cause the effects to always be bad, even if the rolls succeed, and fortune will cause positive effects no matter what is rolled. Fate locks in effects after the first time the spell is cast. Eldritch energy causes inevitable failures and disasters. Gossamer light can be used to subtly alter a system as well, and liberation power will positive alter the effects on a system such that the system is no longer tied to the machine. Shavev mashkalran can draw a system back to its base state, ethereal essence can connect systems, complexity can give access to more complicated systems, and possibility can allow for safe experimentation of their magicks. All forms of aether can allow the machine to affect nature, though this is dangerous and anyone trying this with temporal aether will be killed by watchers. Gebvel can block it, shebv heya can neutralize it. Ujjval aatma can equalize a system, and banaru and yahas can act as positive versions of ethereal essence, while imperium acts as a negative version. Stravomenos will drain it of its power, and psionic energy can tap into it. Flux, of course, will alter it, and momentum speeds it up. Unfugl will have surprising effects, and poioumenon can alter the story of the machine.

Materials

Some materials make for better hinbinalzohog machines than others:

• Aahuatla: wood good for building things.
• Banyan: any part of the banyan tree is good for bonds.
• Blueschist: good for strong connections.
• Chayayih: marble good for using in buildings things.
• Cinnabar: good for fast moving parts.
• Complex metal: liquid metal good for complex computers.
• Coltan: good for electronics, computers, and devices.
• Conglomerate stone: good for boundaries.
• Copper: good for retaining order.
• Cuprum: a better form of copper.
• Fashioned hiriwa: metal good for making things.
• Fig: good for bonds.
• Figwood: good for bonds.
• Genesis pine: wood, needles, cones good for making things.
• Glass: good, strong, heat-resistant glass is crucial.
• Great Banyan: an axis mundi whose parts are the best bonding material there is.
• Harthreik: rare, ancient oak good for stability.
• Hydrargyrum: pure quicksilver good for moving parts.
• Iunctabaca: a unique sapphire that is connected to the universe.
• Jidhiry: metal used for creating bonds.
• Kawpek: granite good for using in buildings things.
• Lapis lazuli: stone good for making things.
• Lapis primus: a lapis so profoundly empowered by Genesis it makes making things easier.
• Maer-stan: border stones.
• Magnacopper: the best form of copper.
• Magnumvirtrum: the best glass for experiments.
• Maratakam: a unique emerald of the Navaranta that contains movement itself.
• Mufambite: unstable quicksilver, great for moving parts, bad for stability.
• Muto mutsvuku: cinnabar with momentum in it.
• Nomqot: glass made via hinbinalzohog machines, giving it a lot more vonzot than other forms of glass, and therefore great for use in such machines.
• Pekp'ax: quartzite good for using in buildings things.
• Pekxam: basalt good for using in buildings things.
• Pusparajam: a unique yellow sapphire of the Navaratna that contains the order of all things within it.
• Quickelectrum: the best metal, a liquid metal that can be molded into any kind of system.
• Quickpalladium: liquid metal good for complex devices.
• Quicksilver: liquid metal good for moving parts.
• Ruddy copper: easily shaped copper.
• Sacratempite: a sapphire good for computational systems.
• Sakjachinak'pek: slate good for using in buildings things.
• Samahi'pek: sandstone good for using in buildings things.
• Saqpek: alabaster good for using in building things.
• Sascab: limestone good for using in buildings things.
• Seb': clay good for using in building things.
• Sengu sebz: a malachite replete with shavev mashkalran that can retain its shape. Good for keeping a machine from breaking.
• Steli: very good steel.
• Tzuulpek: travertine good for using in buildings things.
• Vysos: a flux-infused gem that makes alterations easier.
• Whiteschist: good for any systemic replication.

Essentially, any material - animal, vegetable, fungal, or mineral - with vonzot, shavev mashkalran, ethereal essence, gebvel, menab'e, cu'ucuch'ik, momentum, Foundation, complexity, or possibility are great for these machines.

Specializations

There are many specializations of this science within gnomish society:

• Ahuzorry: a turogzot who connects their machine to a specific person's life, with their consent, in order to tweak it such that their mental health improves.
• Degozo: an unscrupulous turogzot who uses their machines to trick, con, or otherwise bilk people for monetary gain. Criminalized even in gnomish society.
• Durrit: a turogzot who uses their machines to deliver messages. This is the gnomish postal service.
• Fampitaovana: a turogzot who uses their machines to adjust, coordinate, or otherwise affect logistical issues. They are highly respected in gnomish society.
• Gningzot: a turogzot who has retired and keeps an archive of their materials. A respected source of inspiration, information, and incineration.
• Minugzo: a turogzot who uses their skills to create peformance art. Considered the greatest artistic geniuses in the world.
• Nekogzog: a turogzot who uses their skills to create games, puzzles, and toys.
• Vuug: a turogzot who combines their machines with gardening, often also engaging in numerology to create the most complex, intricate gardens in the world. They often use this to affect other environments.
• Zodfor: those who use this for engineering projects. Steer clear. Save yourself. May god have mercy on our souls.

Non-Gnomish Variation

Non-gnomish turogzots are called systems engineers, often confused with the mundane type because they serve the same purpose in society.

Societal Role

Gnomes face extreme repression and prejudice in other societies, and turogzots experience the brunt of that if they go elsewhere. In gnomish society, they are very common and respected members of every community.

Skills

Any skill is possible and useful, but these are common enough:

• Engineering
• Repair
• Mechanical skills
• Building
• Smithing
• Masonry
• Glassblowing
• Animal care
• Botany
• Gardening
• Bicycle repair
• Computers
• Physics
• Metaphysics
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Cooking
• Caretaking
• Mathematics
• Puzzle solving
• Memorization
• Knitting
• Weaving
• Plumbing
• Electrical engineering
• Firefighting
• First aid
• Hydroponics

Stats

Modifiers from base of nation/species:

PRO +1
ATH +2
STR -3
AWA +6
WIL +1
STH +1
PRS +/-3