I need another day or so to get all the DM's work for this game done. In the meantime I'm going to open up the floor for basic IC intro stuff and to let you guys get your feet wet. Treat these first few posts as a chance to warm up. This should sync with all of your spirit writeups, if not, just roll with it and I'll make any corrections if you point them out. Thanks.
Pain. Agony. Suffering. All these and far many more are the last things all of you remember. The triumph of the Dark One, the end of everything you knew as your lifeblood spilled out from your shattered bodies. Some of you were sane, some of you were insane. Some of you didn't know it was coming just then, some of you faced your end with courage and doomed conviction. But does any of it matter? For right now you are in the utmost agony. It is as if you are being torn apart by a thousand rending nails!
This feeling passes. Awareness comes flooding in, awareness and sanity. In a Starry Void you float in, the place where your spirits rest. A place where thought morphs the shape of this sky-void, for what little it truly matters; your goal is not here. Word from the Dark One will come soon, you are certain of this. Your instructions and the understanding of how to create yourself - your Avatar - and attempt to reach the Dark One's throne. Such understanding is as clear as day to your intellect. But it's not yet, for this is a time to become aware of those the Dark One has condemned to this journey of the damned as well. For in your heart you know that they are like you, lost souls adrift in HIS power.
In this void you have a faint, shadowy body of what you once were. It flickers like an ethereal ghost, yet is solid enough to work here. The beginning of your task looms ahead.
Feel free to intro yourselves to each other. You understand that you can shape the void to whatever surroundings you like with a few thoughts if you wish for a less inhuman void to exist in. You're aware of the basic premise that you've died and that the Dark One beckons you to reach his throne, where you can receive a wish...and perhaps a chance to rest, escape or even confront him. Basically you know everything in writeup in the recruiting topic.
Good luck in Eisenschloss! You'll need it.
Sacchin's spirit shimmers in the blankness, only visible by the stars it hides. It has little form to it, perhaps even less than the others, initially. What can be seen is the outline of a young girl-creature, with deformed claws for hands and unkempt hair; so long that it could serve as a defender of dignity, if there was any need for such things here.
She puts a hand to where her chest used to be out of instinct, expecting pain, but something surprises her.
"I'm... not h-h.. hun-gry," she murmurs in an odd guttural, as if unsure how to properly speak, and for the first time in years, instinct takes a back seat to reason.
Flasheart appears much as he did in life, a man of slim build with a rather bouffant hairstyle piled atop his head. He wears a pair of tight pants and sturdy leather boots, with an elaborate and rigid-looking jewelled doublet around his body, half open to reveal a thick ruffled shirt. Despite the horrible tortures he has endured, he nonetheless wears a confident smirk upon his handsome face, eyes twinkling with amusement.
"Well you must be in heaven," he remarks to the messy-looking vampire girl, "Because Lord Flasheart is here! Woof!" he punctuates his statement with a pelvic thrust in her direction.
At the sound of another's voice, Sacchin's face twists into a hideous visage, and she lunges for the source, beclawed hand plunging through his heart-
-she should've known that it wouldn't work in this place, though, as her arm passes harmlessly through his incorporeal body. The crunch of bone and the comforting splash of blood feel like distant memories. As if her actions are merely a misdemeanour, she pulls the hand back and makes a disgruntled face.
"Form is nothing... heaven, this is not," she intones, disconsolantly floating away and staring at her ineffectual palm.
Another stood there, his form ephemeral as he floated, darkness wrapping around him, more as a shield than as a true part of him, a way to approach the world and keep it at bay. His features were completely obscured, human certainly, but of what age or what nationality or anything else was quite hard to tell.
"Hell would be a more apt description," Shadow said coldly, appraising the other two. He did not recognize them. He must be the only one that was brought here. But for what purpose did he still remember? They could be shades of his power, only there...for what purpose? The Dark One had shattered his world with ease. Mockery seemed pointless in such avenues.
"Well, that was thoroughly unpleasant," Euphemia notes, brushing imaginary dust off her blood-splattered white dress. The void around her is an eyesore, and she conjures a grassy patch to seat on, surrounded by beautiful flowers.
As Ranmaru faded in, his(or is it her?) form was as stable and visable as Shadow and Sacchin were vague. Obviously dressed for battle in some fantasy land where leg protection was for the weak, he(he?) wore gold and purple armor on her(or is that his?) chest and arms, with a purple vest loosely belted around the outside with a golden cord. His(?) legs were protected by nothing other the sandals, some shinguards, and shorts, leaving the thigh area exposed, and somehow strangely unscarred. Her(?) hair was dark black, and kept in a high ponytail by a pair of golden pins.
"Hell? You mean the land the demons hail from?" Ranmaru snorted, "Fitting then, that they should invade our world only for us to now invade theirs."
Having a quick thought, he looked the others over for a moment, "Except...we aren't all from the same world, are we? I'm getting just a bit sick of getting wrenched out of one world and dropped in some hodgepodge collection of another by some all powerful monster."
Varian remains silent, not willing to extend his trust out to these strangers just yet. If anything, he appears more preoccupied with checking himself over and trying to make sense of this state of existance that has been thrust upon him, not to mention these strangers around him.
"Not.. hell. No. Chance at wish," argues Sacchin, head darting around from person to person to person and then back to the first again. Her form starts to shudder, emitting ripples as if a pebble was thrown into a lake.
"A chance at a wish? Whatever," His eyes were cold, not that it meant much to Sacchin. "I see... The monster has become bored with simply destruction and now uses men as toys."
"So he would use us for amusement?" Ranmaru's eyes narrowed, though he quirked the beginnings of a small smile, "This Dark One reminds me of Orochi already. And like that foul snake, he may end up regretting giving us this chance."
He turned to the others, "My name is Ranmaru Mori, a warrior of Wu. I cannot strictly say I am pleased to be here, but it is always best to know that one is not alone, no matter how bleak things have gotten."
"Regret? W-why?" stammers Sacchin; the word has an uncomfortable level of bearing on her wish.
"Death. If it is even possible for a creature of such magnitude." He said shortly.
"Bah," Lord Flasheart waves dismissively, seemingly unperturbed by Sacchin's attack on him. "Whatever this Dark One's game is, he'll regret the day he trifled with Lord Flasheart! I suppose he expects me to lead you lot and hopes I'll be slowed down enough by it to give him a chance..." he eyes the group speculatively before settling on Euphemia. "Well now, it looks like I'm not the only one with proper breeding around here after all!" Sauntering closer to the blood-spattered princess, he gestures lewdly to his crotch, "Am I pleased to see you or did I just put a canoe in my pocket?"
"You are being terribly rude, I will have you know," Euphemia says sternly, looking up. "Lord Faintheart, was it? Do you have any business with me?"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
QuoteHit 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.
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."
"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."
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....
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..."
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.
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."
For the sake of getting this moving I'm going to move you guys into game topics now. Topics incoming.
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.
"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.
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.
Waking up in the Void once more, Ranmaru chuckles at his fate. "The Knight of the Marsh. Well, now I know where to find you. And having already proven unable to defeat you alone, there will be no shame in attacking you all at once..."
As Ranmaru ponders this, there is a poof! Lord Flasheart appears by him, dusty and a little fried. Just like he got shocked or something! Thus two are now in the Starry Void!
You two can chat or whatever.
Blinking as another appears in the void with him, Ranmaru smiles at his new company, "Heh, I see you ran afoul of some bad luck as well. You are...Lord Flasheart, are you not? Forgive me if I am incorrect on this, I'm still learning everyone's names."
"An electrified door! Of all the ill-mannered effrontry!" Flasheart rails in irritation at failing to have shared any fire on that last run through. Spotting that he has company, he turns to the oriental peasant and nods. "That's right! And I'll need to get back out there or else those two girls are dead!"
He pauses just a fraction of a second before barking out a laugh, "Because they'll kill themselves without me around!"
Ranmaru nods, "Yes, I believe that staying together is the best option. Listen..." he pauses, considering whether or not to tell Flasheart what he found, but decides that it is indeed for the best, "I found the Knight of the Marsh. Alone, I was no match for him, he is truely a warrior of great might. But even with the help of his vicious mount, he would surely fall to all of us. What say you, lord?"
"Bah, he can't be any worse than that barbaric Prussian statue of steel and fire!" Flasheart makes a dismissive gesture. "He'll certainly get his comeuppance soon enough!" Focusing for a moment, his form solidifies, again looking more or less the same as the last two times except now he has ugly slanted eyes - much like an oriental savage - and some sort of skin condition that hints at scales but could be really bad eczema. "The others should summon me back soon enough, and I'll tell them to bring you along as well."
Ranmaru nods, "We should meet with lords Varian and Shadow as well. And I would not presume to know anything about this statue you speak of, but I caution you not to take the Knight lightly. He rides upon a shark and forces a confrontation in the water. Such an advantage is not easily overcome."
As the two talk and wait, they notice a rather bedraggled Sacchin appears in the Starry Void as well. My, dying seem to be the cool thing to do lately!
Sacchin drops to her knees and pounds her fist against the ground, once, twice, three times, before lying on her stomach and bursting into tears.
Ranmaru's eyes widen as another figure appears, "Welcome back, I suppose. If I may ask, what happend with you miss...ah, forgive me I seem to have forgotten your name."
"Shut up!" snarls Sacchin, between muted sobs. "I'll get my wish!"
The environment seems to twist around her, until she's lying in the shades of a desolate, bloodstained alleyway.
"Ah...erm...I...I'm sure you will, yes." Ranmaru backs slowly away from the raging insane woman.
Woosh! Just like that, Sacchin is gone from the Starry Void!
---
So that's what it's like to be eaten alive! Ranmaru has gained an exciting insight into the ways to die as he reappears in the Starry Void!
"Ugh, back here again, am I? I can't seem to stay away for long."
Sitting down, he meditated on what form he would take next to best serve his allies in this mad quest. "Hmm, I hope the others escaped before that demon got to them. Though something tells me it was only after me..."
Today's lesson: People die when they fall. Paladins beware! Lord Flasheart appears in the Starry Void once more, the memories of a massive impact fresh in his mind.
"This is becoming depressingly familiar... perhaps I'm overthinking things out there?" Flasheart considers this conundrum before inspiration strikes. "Perhaps a more simple-minded approach is called for!"
And so he concentrates on forming his next avatar, waiting till he is summoned into the fray once more...
Overthinking? Underthinking? Either could be debated. The point is that Flasheart is as unlucky as a two tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. How'd he end up here again? All he did was try and climb down a rope! This Dark One fucking sucks.