Examples: Competitive Praxis and Invoke

A dread power has wakened beneath the dormitory at Georgetown University. It is spreading its tendrils through the power system and dorm phones. When the spark sprite Calandra Celestine catches on (it was the wobbly feeler coming out of the phone jack that gave it away), she makes a connection to it.

Her first few attempts at a connection fail; she's not very good at tracking down eldritch horrors. Days pass while she tries to figure out what's going on. But finally she makes a breakthrough—she finds its mobile brain in the steam tunnels beneath the dorm. It escapes into a vent, but it's too late: they're now in the same scene, and in three rounds she'll be able to do something about it.

Round 1
Calandra begins forging a connection to the creature.

The creature finishes up its dread action, whatever that may have been, and thinks about what to do about this interloper. It makes a simple Praxis declaration: "Before the day is out, I will trap you in a locked utility closet to dwell helplessly in darkness and my presence while my power spreads."

It also explains the first part of this: "I am going to try both herding and tricking her to get her there."

Calandra isn't having any of it. She uses her free action on Invoke, invoking her lightning spell. "I weave the spell into uncontainable devastation. Nothing's going to trap me without getting its tentacles burned." Sadly, she only rolls an 18: her control of the spell isn't adequate. At best she would have woven her spell into uncontainable devastation.

Round 2
The creature finishes up its dread action.

Round 3
Calandra's action is finishing.
She will be part of the scene in round 4.
The creature begins a Praxis action and spends its round on it.
Calandra makes an Invoke action and fails.

Calandra joins the scene and wins initiative. That means that she has a full two rounds in which to prevent the creature's action from coming to pass. She starts with a low-end Invoke action: "I'm not an idiot! I'm staying out of lockable rooms." She rolls a 15, which isn't enough. The GM observes dryly, "Oh, yeah, you're never that kind of idiot."

Round 4
Calandra is part of the scene.
The creature continues its Praxis action.
Calandra makes an Invoke action and fails.

Calandra is in an awkward position going into round 5. She is about to be locked in a utility closet, in the dark, and she can't even argue that her character is making a sincere effort to avoid this fate. In fact, it seems likely that she's just come to the cunning realization, "I bet that if it's trying to take over the power system, I can do something about it—in the utility closet, with the circuit breakers!"

So she abandons the attempt to avoid this fate, and instead goes for a competing use of Praxis: "I'm going to run so much power through the system that it'll fry you!" Shortly afterwards, the creature rolls its Praxis, getting 3, 6, and 9—squeaking by with a success.

Round 5
Calandra begins a Praxis action.
The creature locks her in a utility closet, in the dark.

It is now part of the is that she is trapped in a utility closet to dwell helplessly in darkness and its presence while its power spreads. However, unfortunately for the creature, while everyone looking at the scene would agree that she is in fact trapped and for that very purpose, it does not mandate that she is in fact helpless.

(Part of this is Calandra's player trumpeting a phrasing "gotcha." But even had the creature left out the to in to dwell helplessly, it would have been difficult to mandate with Praxis that she would stay helpless for very long—its plan was to trap her in a utility closet with the terror of monstrous tendrils in the dark, and to let her own weakness keep her there, meaning that she would have been able to recover quickly at the player's option regardless.)

This all means that the creature now must begin to consider how to keep her from frying it. It weighs two options: one, to seize her limbs or knock her unconscious; two, withdrawing from that part of the power system and in fact cutting it off entirely. The first option strikes the GM as getting a bit hentai, so the creature opts for the second. It withdraws. The creature has an available free action, so it attempts this with Invoke, achieving a quite bad 14.

That's silly, thinks the creature, so it just tries again, rolling a 1 and 3 and getting a 13. It burns a point of fairy fortune, and rolls another 1—finally! 21! The GM can't be entirely objective on whether the creature is reasonable when it attempts to withdraw from this part of the power system, but even erring towards a strict evaluation, it seems like something the creature could do it if put its whole heart into the matter.

Round 5 (continued)
Calandra begins a Praxis action.
The creature locks her in a utility closet, in the dark.
The creature fails its Invoke.

Round 6
Calandra continues her Praxis action.
The creature withdraws.

At the beginning of round 7, Calandra rolls her Praxis. She gets a pair of 3s, for a total of 23. Unfortunately the creature has withdrawn. She would have fried it—but that doesn't mean she did. Her lightning blasts into the power system underneath the dormitory, and everywhere in the building machines turn on and lights glow super bright. She could easily argue that it reaches the creature despite its withdrawal from and even cutting off of this part of the system—but it's still taken an action to interfere, so her frying it isn't part of the is. The GM decides that she would have fried it, but instead she just hurt it; and it begins a new action of its own . . .