The Starry Void: In the beginning there was an asshole of a Dark One...

[Dracos]

Shadow slid back slightly, the area around him remaining quite dark, the floor wooden beneath his feet as it resembled the back corner of an inn.  He sized up the other spirits, taking in their personal quirks and habits.  The girl seemed the most dangerous, her reaction earlier instinctual and quick, bespeaking years of habit.  But none here were normal, to be sure.

[Carthrat]

For her part, the girl seems most comfortable when left alone, sitting cross-legged on a bank of dying grass. Autumn leaves float past her from time to time, and she seems to be murmuring to herself, as if in practice. In reality, she's concentrating on seeing the things before her as people, which is a marked turn from seeing most people as things until now.

[Merc]

Nobody seemed like they were interested in causing trouble, well at least with him anyhow (that one man certainly looked like he didn't care if those girls decided to take out any frustrations on him), which is really what mattered most to Varian. Still, no reason to stop being cautious, but at the very least he could greet them and see if there was any more information to be shared between all of them. Seemed everyone was in the same boat?

"So is it just the six of us here?" the mage asks the other in a friendly and firm voice as he tries to make conversation that didn't involve pelvic thrusts.

[Ebiris]

Flasheart seems momentarily dumbstruck, as if the mere concept of a woman not being awed by his overwhelming masculinity had never occured to him.

It doesn't take long for him to rationalise it away, however. "Got to keep up decorum even in a place like this, I see," he nods to Euphie in approval, before leaning close and jerking a thumb towards the others, "Don't worry, we'll ditch these losers soon enough."

Well... maybe not the wild looking foreign girl.

[Anastasia]

As the various souls talk, a wave of rippling power passes through the void! It gets your attention like a whip to your back! Without a doubt, the Dark One has made his will known to you:

You can now create avatars! See the rules thread for details, but here's a summary of your currently allowed parameters:

Hit points: Max at level 1, 50% every level after.

Stats: Standard point buy as per page 170 of the DMG. You have 15 points, as per the low powered campaign variant.

Races: Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Half Elves, Half Orcs, Halflings.

Classes: NPC classes only: Adept, Aristocrat, Warrior, Commoner, Expert.

Feats: SRD standard feats, minus leadership and item creation feats. See banned feats in the house rule section.

Character level: 3.

Skills: As per normal. There's just no good way to speed these up, I recommend buying them in blocks as much as possible.

Gear: There is no starting GP. You may select any masterwork weapon from the SRD and any non masterwork armor besides full plate. As you explore the dungeon and find new items and magical items, these will become available to select on character generation. As of now you have no access to magical items or anything not listed below:

Any SRD masterwork weapon or weapons, limit 3.

Any SRD non masterwork shield or armor, limit one set of armor and one shield.

Backpack
Bedroll
Winter blanket
Chalk
Empty Flask
Flint & Steel
Mirror
10 foot pole
Iron pot
Rations
50ft Hemp Rope
Soap
Torch
Waterskin
Whetstone

Holy Symbols/Foci for clerics or any other class that needs them for spellcasting.

Spells:

Spell access will be controlled. All first level SRD spells are available right now, with the exception of any spells on the banned/altered list. Otherwise, all spells above that level must be found in the dungeon. Fast casting progression classes like Ur-Priest are theoretically hosed by this, but I don't plan to allow them in for awhile anyway.

Wizards and other spellbook based casters 5 spells+int mod spells for each level for now. I'll slap something more coherent together when you have enough spell slots to make it matter.

BANNED/ALTERED SPELLS:

Wizard/Sorc:

Glitterdust: BANNED
Invisibility: Now a third level spell. Note that it is not available now currently, as you do not have any third level spells available. Plus you're only level 3 anyway.
Rope Trick: BANNED.

Cleric/Favored Soul:

Aid: Now a 1st level spell since Aid fucking blows.

Druid:

Barkskin: Duration decreased from 10 minutes/level to 1 minute/level, AC bonus lowered to 2 plus 1 for every 6 levels (max +5 at 18th level)

Bard:

Glitterdust: BANNED.

First level spells found:

All SRD.

Floor 1 is The Wheel. As you are pathetic new souls who can barely comprehend how to form a body, this will be sickeningly simple.  Reach the center of the wheel and manage to escape! There are four starting points: North, East, South, West. Choose whichever you wish, they're all so easy that it will be pathetic if you fail from any of them. All of you must go in at the same time.

Any items, magical weapons and magical trinkets you find in the dungeon will be available for the next round of avatar making. You can't have more than one copy of a found item, unless you find a duplicate. When an avatar dies, all magical items on them vanish back to the void, able to be reselected.

Hint: Some like it slippery.

Goals:

If you achieve certain measures of competency the Dark One will deign to give you a reward. They are:

1. Survive the floor without dying.(Single person, each is assessed.)
2. Be the one to kill the Knight of the Marshes!(Single person)
3. Do not trigger a single trap(Group)

I'll have an avatars topic up shortly. Try to get them done in a day or so, we'll begin once all avatars are done. Also talk and decide teams and which vaguely defined starting points you'd like to use. This level is very much a test run.

Note that Gate's character is suspended until Gate returns, assume Ranmaru's off perfecting her trap-fu or whatever.

[Ebiris]

Lord Flasheart's form solidifies as he grasps the nature of how reality works in this place. He doesn't look that much different from his spiritual form - perhaps a bit more svelte, and now with slightly pointed ears. A shiny rapier hangs off his belt and the glint of chainmail is seen beneath his doublet, now. He doesn't seem thrilled, however. "Bah, this vessel is hardly fitting. No doubt he fears my true prowess!"

Stewing in that for a moment, Flasheart resumes his previous bluster. "Right, I'll take the two ladies and we'll go..." he briefly eyes Sacchin, her oriental features vaguely seen even in her spectral and bestial state, "To the East! The rest of you losers can go and get killed horribly."

[Dracos]

"That have spoken.  It's possible one or more is hiding and watching," Shadow remarked simply, cautious.


"...Truly arrogant and bored."  He ignored Flasheart entirely as he focused, analyzing the situation.

He eyed them.  "From the north."

[Corwin]

Euphemia does not look particularly different when the change comes, although she glares at her blood-splattered dress, apparently unable to will it clean, though she attempts the next best thing as a suit of armor settles over it. "The East it is," she agrees, standing up, as the flowers beside her elongate into sharpened bolts, flowing into a bandoleer that materializes over her dress. A crossbow settles in Euphemia's left arm, and she frowns at its unfamiliar weight. Such primitive weapons....

[Carthrat]

Sacchin's form ripples and twists and disperses into a thousand inky motes, all reforming into a metallic, jagged humanoid, slightly taller than her original form. As her body stabilizes, it becomes clear that she's wearing armour of some kind; uncomfortable looking chain, seemingly riveted together with spikes and bones stuck in for good measure. Her face becomes even more feral, complete with overbite and fangs. A thick, curved sword is held in one hand, a number of chains dangling from the hilt, whilst assorted other weapons are strapped to her back.

"Sacchin... kill all enemies," she growls. "East..."

[Merc]

Varian makes a face as he sees what that girl becomes as her form settles, but considers the merit of selecting a form not native to them (or at least, he hopes that's not what that girl normally looks like. He'd almost feel sorry for the blowhard if that's what he ended up stuck with). Concentrating on the tasks at hand, his own form changes, shrinking as he becomes smaller and, hopefully, harder to target, he hopes. Looking at the form over, he nods. Like the girl, his form wasn't pretty either, but it should certainly be good for hiding, he thought.

Looking over at Lord Flasheart, Varian snorts quietly. "Such arrogance..." he mutters under his breath, before smiling slightly. He had no plans to die again any time soon. Picking a direction separate from the man would probably be safest. Still, given the 'objectives' given...

"Do you really think it wise to separate? As a group, we are expected to not trigger any traps. Hard to stop someone from a foolish mistake such as their eyes being glued to a girl's body instead of the environment if there's nobody to stop him," the gnomish avatar states baitingly.

[Carthrat]

Sacchin slams her sword into the ground with a clank; the attached chains rattle ominously, and her breath sounds very loud.

"We go east. You go north. No arguments."

[Anastasia]

For the sake of getting this moving I'm going to move you guys into game topics now. Topics incoming.

[Anastasia]

Ah bugger, that hurt! Being squished under a giant flaming chunk of junk is no fun, even when it's not a man's junk! Flasheart so appears in the Starry Void again, alone and quite ghostly.

You can monologue, rant or whatever here as you like. No one else is here right now so there's not much of anyone to talk to.

[Ebiris]

"So, you want fire, do you?" Flasheart rambles to himself as his form solidifies into a skinny human figure in leather armour with a crossbow on his back. "Come, Sparky!" he declares as a shiny golden hawk appears from nowhere and alights on his outstretched forearm, "Lets give them all the fire they can handle!"

Laughing cheerfully, he heads back into the fray so he can rejoin his companions on the Eastern approach.

[Anastasia]

Fresh off death from a shark rider, Ranmaru appears in the Starry Void once more. Ow, that hurt! No one else is here - no one else seems to be dead right now.

See my post to Eb about what you can do here if you wish.