Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


Brother Braewyn of the Forgotten Monks posted:

It seems strange to me that so many of us know how we got here, but so few can agree on where we came from. I remember my own death clearly: raiders in a monastery, a door splintering, an axe taking my head from my shoulders. I woke up here, expecting to be rewarded for my devotion to my god, and finding feces and vermin and mud and dust and blood and suffering, worse than anything I remember from my home. Am I in hell, or is this something else, some other place I have been brought to? And when my time here ends, where will I go next?



Setting Summary

We have all heard it said that Death comes for everyone, no matter who. It's true, of course, and sure enough, Death did come for you. Whether you died on the battlefield or in childbirth or at an old age or as a child, you died, and when you did, you came here. Wherever "here" is. Some sort of strange purgatory, full of the ruins of dead empires long forgotten, scraps of blighted land fought over by others who found their way here. Why did you come here, and not others? Not even the wisest among us can say for sure.

Here, everything seems just a little worse than where you come from. Diseases last just a little bit longer. Injury heals just a little bit slower. Pain feels just a little bit worse, and hunger bites just a little bit harder. But nevertheless, it is here that you stake your new claim on life, and here that you live now. What will you make of this twist that fate has given you?

System/Character Creation

We will be using Apocalypse World: Fallen Empires, a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy reskin of Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker. For the most part, Fallen Empires uses base Apocalypse World rules; changes to the basic moves and reskins of eight playbooks are available through Vincent's Patreon at any price tier. If you're familiar with either first or second edition Apocalypse World most of the rules will feel familiar, but be sure to check out in particular Establishing and Exchanging Harm in the Battle Moves section of the conversion booklet, as this works differently from core Apocalypse World. Make your rolls on Orokos. We'll use this thread as an OOC chat thread once the game starts.

While I recommend submitting a playbook from the Fallen Empires booklet, feel free to reskin any other of the second edition standard or extended playbooks as you see fit. If you do this, be sure that your reskin fits a dark fantasy tone. Maybe you have a clever idea of how a Landfall Marine fits into this setting, but be sure to make it clear.

I'm looking for 4-5 interesting PCs to inhabit this dark place. Pictures are nice, as are bios that leave plenty to be explored later. In addition to your playbook, please answer these questions:
1. Do you remember how you died? If so, what happened? If not, what do you imagine happened to you?
2. Do you remember where you were before? If so, what was it like? If not, how are you faring with being in a dark and strange place with no memory of what came before?
3. Where do you call home now, if anywhere?


Edit: Recruitment is reopened for a fifth character! Details are here.

Game Thread: The Next Life

quiggy fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Mar 27, 2018

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

Hello :black101:

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Siroko, the Seventh Thunder, the Sword Master


I was betrayed by those I had called friends. Called family. The seven of us had set out to change the world, and we did. We set ourselves against the might of the Alabaster Throne, to win freedom for our peoples and glory for ourselves. To do such a thing we needed to be ruthless and ambitious. For this they called us the Thunders, for our greatness resounded even to the vault of the sky.

We found victory in the end. We broke the power of the Empire and took it for ourselves, and upon our own heads we placed crowns. We had ushered in a new age. And in the moment of our triumph, they struck me down. The one who had lead them, who had fought the hardest and longest. Even as my life blood flowed out of me, I swore vengeance.

Now I find myself in this strange place. It is as hard as our homeland, maybe harder. A place of shadows, with little life or light. But the cold, the stone, the cutting winds, those I know from old. And on those winds I have heard names. The names of the six who turned on me. Here before me, somehow, and settled into places of power or influence. I find myself in a familiar place, alone, seeking refuge in the ruins of an ancient fortress, preparing to set myself against terrible strength. Good. This, I have done before.

I do not know what gods have given me this chance, but I will take it. Soon they will know that Siroko, the Seventh Thunder, has come for them. And in the end, I will be the First Thunder again.

The Sword Master posted:

Name: Siroko
Look: Woman, dark skin, battled old armor, blunt face, raging eyes, hard body

Stats:
Cool+1
Hard+2
Hot-2
Sharp+1
Weird+2

Moves:
Battle-hardened: when you go into danger, roll+hard instead of roll+cool. When you bait a trap, hunt prey, or escape a hunter, roll+hard instead of roll+cool.

Knight-killer: in battle, when you’re on foot, mounted enemies don’t get their usual +1/-1 advantage over you. When you’re fighting outnumbered, reduce your enemy’s advantage by +1/-1.

Gear:
Warspear (deadly: on the field & vs mounted)
Shortbow & arrows (at range, deadly: aimed)
Fighting knife (deadly: in quarters)
Brigandine, vambraces, boots (2 armor)
Coin or goods worth 2 keep.

Sword Master Special:
If you and another character have sex, you take +1 forward. At your option, they take +1 forward too.

History:
Xíe, Who Walks Again-2
Pentaviso+3
"Drowned" Tikorn-2
Mistral-1
Albrecht Donnerfeldt+2

Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Apr 10, 2018

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage



Mistral, the Bonepicker

It is easy to take a man apart. A light touch with a fine blade sends life and essence alike splashing into the muck. No, indeed, it is harder still to put one back together. I studied with the Gray Ones of the old world, before my advent unto this dark mirror, and it was there that I learned the ways of life and death and everything between. For all that this new realm is immeasurably worse than that which proceeded it, my work is no less in demand. Perhaps even more so. The Salve of Unawakening is one of the few things that can still dull the pain that plagues even the slightest wound.

I have established something of a temple within the settlement. I may not have the sheer power of the Hold's Master nor the puissant strength of arms that many can claim, but I have a power all my own. It is by my hand that those who fade may be rekindled, by my hand that life floods back into emptied veins. I do not relish holding that over others but in a world such as this... Even one sworn to heal must be willing to do what needs to be done.

1. Do you remember how you died? If so, what happened? If not, what do you imagine happened to you?

It was the one thing I was not prepared to heal: my own child was born still, my womb torn by his passing. The midwives did their best to help, of course, but they were no more than aides and attendants. They did not know the ways of Cauter and Incense, so their failure was nothing more than an inevitability. I cannot hold it against them and, indeed, did not even as the life fled my body.

2. Do you remember where you were before? If so, what was it like? If not, how are you faring with being in a dark and strange place with no memory of what came before?

I remember naught much more than snatches of a life well-lived. A childhood in the mountain monasteries of the Gray Ones. A desperate fight against a plague that swept a kingdom. Love, once, though it was forbidden to the Sisterhood. It does not matter much now. I am no longer a Sister of the Gray, but the Bonepicker. The one who decides life and death in a world ruled by the latter.

3. Where do you call home now, if anywhere?

As I mentioned, I have created a space of healing and ceremony within the local center of trade. In the bleakness, it has proven a light that draws travelers together. I do not care to challenge the Master's power and, indeed, will help them to keep the peace... so long as my own freedom to treat the wounded and unfortunate is not trampled upon.

quote:

Name: Mistral
Look: Woman, Light Skin, Sturdy Gray Robes, Kind Face, Caring Eyes, Compact Body

Stats:
Cool +1
Hard =0
Hot +1
Sharp +2
Weird -1

Devotion:
Your devotion allows you to speak life to the living and death to the dying. The trappings of your devotion include some or all of:
—The cauter
—The misericorde (deadly: intimate)
—The gray bird’s wing
—The blindfold
—Bandages, knives, split-twig clamps, needles, a glass blade
—The seven salves: awakening, blood-stop, bone-set, leaping-heart, proof-against-pain, unwakening, and wound-knit
—The four incenses: against grief, against fear, against despair, and against reluctance

When you are fully rested, prepared, and initiated, you have a measure of 6 devotion. When you attend yourself to the wounded, you choose how much of your devotion and endurance to give them, measured as 0–3 devotion “spent.” You begin play with your full measure of 6 devotion. At need, you can spend 1 keep to recover 2 devotion, if your circumstances allow you the time to rest, prepare and renew your initiations.

When you devote yourself to someone with 1–3 wounds, don’t roll. They choose: you spend 1 devotion, and they spend their recovery time salved against pain and fear; or else you spend none and they recover in agony like everyone else.

When you devote yourself to someone with 4–6 wounds, roll+devotion spent. On a hit, you heal them down to 3 wounds, and choose 2 (on a 10+) or 1 (on a 7–9):
—They fight you and you must apply unwakening. How long will they be out?
—The pain, incense, and salves make them babble the truth. Ask them what secret they spill.
—Their body is eager to be healed. Recover 1 of the devotion you spent, if you spent any.
—They’re at your complete mercy. What do you do to them?
—Their course of recovery teaches you something about your own devotion. Mark experience.
—They owe you for your time, attention, and spent trappings, and you’re going to hold them to it.
On a miss, they are dying. Speak death to them or defy your devotion.

When you speak death to the dying, whisper the words and deliver mercy.

When you devote yourself to someone who has just died, spend 2 devotion. They come back, but you choose how they come back. Choose from the regular list, or else choose 1:
—They come back in your deep, deep debt.
—You and they both come back with +1weird (max weird+3)

Moves:
Still-room: you get a still-room, a ceremonial space (cf) of healing. Bring your patients into it and you can contemplate, understand, and transform them like a mystic can contemplate and transform reality.

The second devotion: burn incense against reluctance, whisper someone’s name to the world’s psychic maelstrom, and spend 0–3 devotion. Roll+devotion spent. On a 10+, choose 2. On a 7–9, choose 1:
• The world’s psychic maelstrom whispers back whether they are alive or dead.
• The world’s psychic maelstrom will protect them from harm, if it is able.
• The world’s psychic maelstrom will do them harm, if it is able.
• The world’s psychic maelstrom whispers back who they are with and what they are doing.
• Recover 1 of the devotion you spent, if you spent any.
On a miss, ask the MC what the world’s psychic maelstrom whispers to you.

Gear:
The trappings of your devotion, without an acolyte.
Fighting Baton (deadly: in the yard)
Coin or goods worth 2 keep.
Bonepickers' Garb

Bonepicker Special:
If you and another character have sex, they choose 1:
—You get +1 to your history with them, and they get +1 to their history with you.
—You recover 1 spent devotion, but they get -1 to their history with you.
—You recover 1 spent devotion, and you must answer any one question they ask.

History:
Go around again for history. On your turn, ask 1, 2, or all 3:
—Which one of you do I see as doomed to self destruction? For that character, write history-2.
—Which one of you put a hand in when it mattered, and helped me save a life? For that character, write history+2.
—Which one of you has been beside me all along, and has seen everything I’ve seen? For that character, write history+3.
For everyone else, write history+1. You keep your eyes open.

Tricky fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Apr 6, 2018

Alehkhs
Oct 6, 2010

The Sorrow of Poets
A little bit Riverworld, a little bit Revival?

Yes, please!

Will put together an character for The Wolfshead

Alehkhs fucked around with this message at 23:00 on Jan 10, 2018

bump_fn
Apr 12, 2004

two of them
will it be a little bit riverdale

Sax Battler
Jul 31, 2007

Another bloody customs post,
Another fucking foreign coast,
Another set of scars to boast,
We Are The Road Crew.

Making a strongholder.

Sax Battler fucked around with this message at 00:18 on Jan 10, 2018

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


bump_fn posted:

will it be a little bit riverdale

If you’re lucky it might be a little bit Genghis Khan

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...
Definitely interested. Got my character concept all ready--would be a Barbarian in Dungeon World; I'll look over the playbooks for this and pick an appropriate one and then do stats &etc. Probably a Child of Battle or Sword-Master. Or a Wolfshead. I liked how the DW Barbarian was a personal badass but with some social moves like Khan of Khans. Child of Battle is basically the Battlebabe, so it seems to be more independent and unattached-y, but on the other hand, Like the Viper fits perfectly and so does Ice Cold.


Xíe, Who Walks Again






An aeon and half an aeon has passed since Xíe, Who Was Undefeated, was laid down to sleep the Great Sleep upon the shield of a conquered foe. Mourned and celebrated by her people, in sorrow and glory she was put to rest; the wake lasted a week and a day and left a dozen wounded and five others fallen to their own Great Slumber, to lie in biers on the stairs of her grand tomb. She slept in glory, content, without awareness of time passing, as all the great heroes of her people did.
She slept for an aeon, and half an aeon, and then, suddenly, she woke into a dark and hungry world that was neither that of her people nor the Lands of Glory that was said to await her people when their death-slumber ended. She is greatly diminished--her strength sapped, her wyrd greatly reduced, her presence no longer a physical force that can break blades and turn arrows. She can't crack flagstones with her gaze or pin men to the ground with the force of her displeasure, crush them with her will.
But she was always more subtle than she seemed, and wild as the world's edge, and though she can no longer match muscled giants blow for blow or run on air, though she can not balance on a tree branch or strike hard enough to shatter stone, she is still a terrible enemy to make.

Xíe, Who Stands Astride the World, has slain men and beasts, taken and spent coin, and made proud men and women bow before her. She has tasted the flesh of animals that were not yet formed when she lived, and she has learned that though the measure of the men and women of this strange place is less than it once was, their nature is no different. She has learned the languages and ways of the barbaric realm she has awoken in--but make no mistake: as she recovers her full strength, she will tame it, and place her foot on its throat, and she will found once again the Shining Kingdom of her people and lift the dark world up to glory.

Xíe, Who Walks Again, is silk over steel: in her is something of the stalking panther, the towering thunderhead, the blade clearing its sheath. The intensity of her dark eyes is like a physical weight, and she goes from stillness to motion without the twitch of muscle or shift of gaze as warning.
Her features are regal and resemble no people known under the sun: taller than the men of the diminished days of this dark realm, strong-shouldered, with lean whipcord muscle over bone, dusky skin, the pointed ears of elves, the hardiness of dwarves, and long, graceful limbs. She has high cheekbones, a cruel mouth, a surprisingly delicate chin, and tightly-woven night-dark curls that seem as difficult to restrain as she herself is. She is striking by any measure, but very few would describe her as beautiful. If they did, they would not mean the prettiness of a woman to be wooed, but the killing beauty of the sea at storm and sunset, or the tundra under the stars.

Those who get to know her see that she is a study in contrasts. She is decisive and unflinching once she is in action, but indolent and hedonistic when taking her rest. With her enemies, she is relentless, even cruel, but with those who please her she is generous and kind-hearted. Like all the great heroes of her long-ago time, she has gigantic melancholy and gigantic mirth, enormous appetites for glory and power and pleasure and conquest, a disdain for the weak and the craven . She laments how far this world has fallen, the crude and corrupt state of things--tiny holds, selfish magistrates, petty lordlings, people whose talents and ambitions and lives seem diminished compared to the great Shining Kingdom her people once built. At the same time, she takes joy when she sees the seeds of greatness among them: bold heroes, great inventors, far-traveling explorers.
Whatever her mood, whatever she is doing, she is larger than life, fiercely present, her attention a bright focus that often overwhelms its recipients.

---

Questions:

1. Do you remember how you died? If so, what happened? If not, what do you imagine happened to you?
Gloriously, beautifully--I fought through the great sorcerer Abi-Shigal's monstrous minions, spilling rivers of blood. Less than half man, he was--half his body a ruin surrounded by platinum strands of wild magic that responded to his will. He had raised a great horde in the Chaos Beyond to besiege the Shining Kingdom and bend it to his will, and he had pierced our walls.
He had not reckoned on me. I could not match him spell for spell, but the cold-iron touch of my staff-sword cut through his magics as fast as he could weave them. I came towards him, and with every step he knew his doom--he would die there in the high passes of the Singing Mountains, on the border of the Chaos Beyond, with miles of air behind him and to his left, hard stone to his side, the sky a cacophony of colors above us, the bodies of mad beasts broken and ruined all around us. It was only at the last, in desperation, that he took the power out of his defenses, drained his remaining minions, and used their power to bind his life to mine. He believed that I would not strike, that I would return to my palace and the men and women of my harem and brood and drown the sorrow of my defeat with wine, that I would let him live to lay his plans and try to sunder the Shining Kingdom in a year, or ten, or a hundred.
He was wrong.

2. Do you remember where you were before? If so, what was it like? If not, how are you faring with being in a dark and strange place with no memory of what came before?
How could I forget? The Shining Kingdom was not the first civilization to tame the Chaos Beyond, but it was the grandest. Our spires and buttresses reached skyward; our artists and sculptors and musicians created works of unparalleled beauty; our magistrates oversaw a perfect bureaucracy. Our heroes could split stone with their bare hands, battle armies, slay demons and godlings. The exceptional among us could do anything we bent our will to; we guarded against the Chaos Beyond and reigned over a time of wealth and glory.

3. Where do you call home now, if anywhere?
Where in this world could be worthy of me? I am Xíe, Who Walks Again! Truthfully, I hope there is an answer to this question, that I will find such a place and make a new glory out of it, a new Shining Kingdom to stand against the great darkness that weighs so heavy on men here.
And if I do not, I will make one.


---


Name: Xíe, Who Walks Again
Look: Woman - dark skin - ancient ur-silks - striking face - arresting eyes - muscular body
Stats: Cool +3, Hard +0, Hot +1, Sharp +1, Weird -1
Moves:
-All basic
-All battle
-Ice Cold (use +cool to fly at someone, or +history with a PC)
-Perfect Instincts: when you read a charged situation and are acting on the answers, get +2 instead of +1

Equipment:
-Coin and jewelry worth 4 keep
-A long-bladed sword-spear (distinctive hand weapon): +1 roll, ignores armor, antique. To hold - Staff, To strike - heavy blade, striking head.
-A magical spell that strikes her enemies with the force of her presence: thrown, area, ignores armor
-A variety of hidden blades, spikes, and garrottes (Deadly: In Quarters)
-Heavy armor (2 armor)
-A sword with an eye engraved in the hilt (Deadly: In the Yard)

History
Siroko: Hx -2 -> -3 -> 0
Pentaviso: Hx +2 -> +3
Albrecht: Hx -2
Drowned Tikorn: Hx +2
Mistral: Hx -2

Keep
4 3 4 3

XP: ●●●●○

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 01:31 on Apr 13, 2018

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'



Pentaviso, the Nightshade

pre:
Man, Light Skin, Luxurious Clothing, Striking Face, Arresting Eyes, Quick Hands, Toned Body
Cool-1, Hard=0, Hot+2, Sharp+2, Weird-1

Radiant passion: 
When you make a show and display of passion—anguish, desire, fury, any—
No one who can see you can do anything but watch. 
You command their absolute attention. 
If you choose, you can exempt individual people, by name.

Hypnotic: 
When you have time and solitude with someone, they become fixated upon you. 
Roll+hot. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 2. 
They can spend your hold, 1 for 1, by: 
• Giving you something you want.
• Acting as your eyes and ears. 
• Fighting to protect or champion you. 
• Doing what you ask them to do.
 For NPCs, while you have hold over them they simply can’t act against you.
 For PCs, instead, any time you like you can spend your hold, 1 for 1: 
• They distract themselves with the thought of you. They’re going into danger. 
• They inspire themselves with the thought of you. They take +1 right now. 
On a miss, they hold 2 over you, on the exact same terms. 

A magical spell that strikes your enemy’s heart as with skewers of glass (thrown, ignores armor)
A slim and jewel-hilted sword (deadly: in the yard)
A magical spell that, cast in darkness, hides you from the view of both friend and enemy, until once you speak aloud.
A polished silver mirror, backed with cavorting figures in inlaid gold.
Coins or goods worth 2 keep.

Siroko +1
Xie +1
The Captain +1
Albrecht Donnefeldt +2
I believe I was at the court of the Duke of Erinlyes, a noble of some renown in whatever empire or nation used to exist. Hmm. No, I was not part of his family directly, I don't believe. Perhaps I was a guard, a battlemage standing sentinel? The magic seems right, as does the sword. But no, I was no true combatant, though I was far more powerful...I think. I seem to recall being well-liked before my execution. A quick fall from grace. Had I become an embarrassment? Caught in an indiscretion with the more powerful members of the court? Sort of. Yes, this seems right. Caught in a quarrel, a triangle, a power struggle. It was not truly my fault, though I certainly had become involved with the wrong player. I am quite sure there was no correct choice, though. And so I am dead. And so I am here, it seems. I am an illusionist, entertaining the guests of a powerful ruler* here; finding myself in court intrigue again. No, it is not as opulent. But hopefully this time, I'll keep my head!

*Maybe this is one of the other PCs, maybe it isn't.

Captain Foo fucked around with this message at 22:10 on Jan 19, 2018

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...
OK, I think I'm all done, honestly. Hopefully the concept's a good fit. I'm using the preview version of the playbooks, but I backed the patreon so I should get access to the full rules soon.

Tardzilla
Aug 31, 2006


The Lady in Grey, the Child of Battle

WIP

Child of Battle posted:

Name: The Lady in Grey
Look: Woman, pale skin, fanciful clothing, striking face, frosty eyes, slim body

Stats:
Cool+3
Hard-1
Hot+2
Sharp+0
Weird-1

Moves:
- Ice cold: when you fly at an NPC, roll+cool instead of +hard. When you fly at another PC, roll+history instead.
- Like the viper: when you enter into a charged situation, roll+hot. On a 10+, hold 2. On a 7–9, hold 1. Spend your hold 1-for-1 to make eye contact with an NPC present; they freeze or flinch and can’t take action until you break it off. On a miss, your enemies immediately identify you as their foremost threat.

Gear:
- Distinctive armor (2-armor): Brilliantly ornate.
- A distinctive sword: Deadly (In the yard), graceful hilt, enchanted light blade.
- A variety of hidden blades, spikes, and garrotes (deadly: in quarters)
- Coin or goods worth 4 keep

Child of Battle special:
If you and another character have sex, you annul their special move. Whatever it is, it doesn’t happen.

History:
Go around again for history. On your turn, ask the other players which of their characters you can trust.
• For the characters you can trust, writehistory -1.
• For the characters you can’t trust, write history +2.
You are indifferent to what is safe, and drawn to what is not.

Tardzilla fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Jan 11, 2018

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


Xíe, Who Walks Again

When you woke up here, you knew you must carry on your legacy as a great hero of the Shining Kingdom and complete a grand quest in this cursed land. What was the quest you set for yourself, and why haven't you finished it yet?

Pentaviso

You didn't lose your head this time, thankfully, but you did recently upset someone powerful enough that you were in real danger until your employer stepped in. Who was it that you offended, and what did you do?

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

quiggy posted:

Xíe, Who Walks Again

When you woke up here, you knew you must carry on your legacy as a great hero of the Shining Kingdom and complete a grand quest in this cursed land. What was the quest you set for yourself, and why haven't you finished it yet?
To find and conquer a man or woman of honor and skill; to place my foot on their throat and have them swear to follow me. What is a great warrior without her xiōng dě, her blood-band, those who pledge fealty to her? How am I to raise the Shining Kingdom again without help, without warriors and sorcerers and capable administrators and builders, sages to anticipate the weather and judges to keep the peace and mete out justice?

As for finishing it... hah! This is a dark and sullen place, and those who people it are much diminished from even the common men and women of the Shining Kingdom. I have slain, and I have plundered, and I have spent gold coins like copper; I have feasted and reveled, and I have wept and mourned what was. I have driven enemies before me and heard their wailing and gnashing of teeth! But I have met very few who aspire to greatness, who forge it out of the squalor around them, and none of the ones I have met suitable for my xiōng dě.
But they exist. Perhaps I am not the only warrior of the Shining Kingdom to awaken from long slumber. Perhaps the world after us produced greatness while we slept, a shadow of the Shining Kingdom, that like me has come to walk this world. I will find them.

Or, perhaps, I will build something glorious and let them come to me.

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Jan 10, 2018

Alehkhs
Oct 6, 2010

The Sorrow of Poets


"Drowned" Tikorn, Captain of the vessel Amphosie

Why would a man - whose last memories before this forsaken place are of drowning - choose a life on the dark sea? "It's been the death of me once before, you can't say I'm not familiar with it."

Journal of Tikorn Zanderi
Harvest 16?, 1245
I can't be certain what day it is, though it's been eight days since I woke on the shore. I can't be certain of many things - where am I? Where is Captain Earit, or the rest of the crew? And what of Borentin and his fleet? Why was I not taken prisoner? I felt the water in my lungs and the blackness...
[...]
Feast 5, 1245
There is a village in the next valley. I will approach tomorrow and see what nation I have been lost in. I will need to be careful however, as I do not know where the war has wandered.

Feast 6, 1245
The dream I've had, of the water filling my lungs after the sinking... Was it truly death? These villagers claim that all that inhabit this land are dead, from different realms and kingdoms, brought here by some greater design. But then, is this heaven? Or perhaps one of the hells?
[...]
Day 56
A man named Woyet Orkel has granted me a berth on his trading barge. We depart for the city tomorrow.
[...]
Day 4543
It's finally paid off. I am now a captain of my own ship! If Earit could only see me now!
[...]
Day 5161
The merchant Harxl said something that caught my ear today: A politician he did business with on his travels. A stout man, with stripes of strawberry red in his otherwise white hair, and who goes by the name of Botentin... After all this time, could the only person I know in this afterlife truly be that damned bastard? What of Captain Earit? The crew? What of my wife and children? I wonder, can the sins of the past life still call for retribution in this world?

Day 5163
I must find Botentin.
[...]
Day 5448
There are 15 who have chosen to remain at my call. Their loyalty is admirable, but I regret that I have lead them towards my own revenge. The sea was their home - our home - and there is no place for men of the sea on the backs of these hooved animals. Fortunately, I did not have to sell the Amphosie after all (though perhaps I should have so as to afford better steeds), and she now rests in the old cove. We set out into this continent tomorrow for Botentin and his stronghold.

quote:

Name:
"Drowned" Tikorn, Captain of the vessel Amphosie

Look:
A light-skinned man of middle age. His sturdy body is adorned in functional clothing soaked with salt. His rugged face is set with calculating eyes that constantly scan the horizon, looking for both threat and boon.

Stats:
Cool +1
Hard +2 [Highlight]
Hot =0
Sharp +1 [Highlight (Xíe)]
Weird -1

Moves:
Bloody-crowned
When you try to impose your will upon your war-band, roll+hard. On a 10+, all 3. On a 7–9, choose 1:
  • They do what you order (otherwise, they refuse).
  • They don’t fight back over it (otherwise, they do fight back).
  • You don’t have to make an example of one of them (otherwise, you must).

Foragers and thieves
When you have your war-band search their pockets and saddlebags for something, roll+hard. It has to be something small enough to be carried. On a 10+, one of you has just the thing. On a 7–9, one of you happens to have something similar, that will perhaps serve. On a miss, one of you used to have just the thing, but come to discover that now it’s missing, likely stolen in turn.

All Basic

All Battle

Goals:
Until recently, I was making a path for myself and my crew on the sea. Rumors of a familiar man have brought me further inland than I'm accustomed to, along with some of my more dedicated crew. Is it actually him?

Mount: Leiet
An ugly and half-wild horse (fast+1, strong+1, hungry+1, temperamental)

War-Band: What remains of the crew of the vessel Amphosie
Fifteen salty sailors armed with an eclectic assortment of arms and armor. Savage Sell-disciplined against surprise, and self-sufficient ("rich"). 2 harm, 1 armor
Mounts are in bad shape and need constant attention (vulnerable: undermounted)

Equipment:
Oiled-Leather coat, helmet, boots (1 armor)
Fighting knife (deadly: in quarters)
Sword (deadly: in the yard)
Battle-Axe (deadly: on the field)
Coin or goods worth 2 keep
Pocketed leather harness

Wolfshead Special:
If you and another character have sex, they immediately change their history with you to +3. They also choose whether to give you +1 or -1 to your history with them.

History:
  • I recognize this man, Pentaviso - but then, who wouldn't remember one with his looks? I remember he served aboard the ship for a short while, and seemed to be liked among the rest of crew. He did his tasks well enough, and touched his brow when needed, but I never shrugged the feeling it was more a pleasure cruise for him. A man who likes the flavors of life. [Pentaviso: History +1]
  • The one who calls herself thunder? Goes by the name Siroko. She seems to constantly be sizing up everyone around her, but she's not necessarily looking for a fight. She's saving herself for some battle not yet arrived, though she certainly has the fire to fight a hundred. [Siroko: History +2]
  • Xíe? The soaking ghost I faced across my own deck stands before me again! And I'm not certain if I'm any less uneasy to see them now in the light. I don't mean she's rough on the eyes - no sir - but the way she moves draws your eye whether you want to look or not. Like a cat: Muscle sliding over muscle. The power can be perceived, but the true motivation and potential stays beneath the surface. For now. I'll need to keep an watch on this one. [Xíe: History +3]
  • I've never met Albrecht Donnerfeldt face-to-face, but I hear the man cursed my name when I took the Amphosie from his docks at Broken Tooth. As a fellow man looking out for others in his charge - many more than my small crew and half again as disciplined - I'm certain his mind lies on matters beyond my petty past trespass. [Albrecht: History -1]

1. Do you remember how you died? If so, what happened? If not, what do you imagine happened to you?
I was a deckhand on the warship Reisand, sunk in conflict in the Sea of Poreq against the Serenth fleet. Our hull was carved in by Botentin's own flagship, and my last memories are of being pulled beneath the waves by the main rigging, my leg having been ensnared.
2. Do you remember where you were before? If so, what was it like? If not, how are you faring with being in a dark and strange place with no memory of what came before?
The war had been on for seven years. Many cities smoldered at the time of my death, though my dedication to the service was fueled by the death of my wife and two children in the burning of Typhet in the third winter.
3. Where do you call home now, if anywhere?
The land brought me the greatest sorrow I've known, and these past 19 years (hells, has it truly been that?) at sea have set me in rhythm. When the coast fades from sight, I am sure I will be lost - but this world has seen fit to deliver me another chance at Botentin, and I must take it.

Alehkhs fucked around with this message at 22:06 on Jan 19, 2018

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...
Err, I have a quandary. Looking at the updated edition of the FE rules, it looks like from the preview, it eliminated the last part of "Ice cold: when you flyy at an NPC, roll+cool instead of +hard. When you fly at another PC, roll+history instead. When you make a battle move that calls for you to roll+hard, you can roll+cool instead." Without +cool instead of +hard for battle moves, I'm left with a Glorious Hero (in the ancient-greek sense, not the paladin sense) who can escape and set traps well but can't actually fight like a hero.

The Sword-Master seems to have kept "roll +hard instead of +cool in basically all the situations you'd want to roll +cool" as a move, so that sort of thing is apparently okay, but the Child of Battle has lost it.

Should I rework Xíe, Who Walks Again, as a Sword-Master, or is using the older version of the move OK, or...?

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jan 11, 2018

Sax Battler
Jul 31, 2007

Another bloody customs post,
Another fucking foreign coast,
Another set of scars to boast,
We Are The Road Crew.

Albrecht Donnerfeldt, Mercenary Captain



"I am not a man to bandy words. Hear me now, and know I speak the truth.
I am Albrecht Donnerfeldt, and here, I am lord.
I am no noble, and do not reach further than I can grasp, but should someone slight you, stay your hand.
If someone wrongs you, come to me, and I will see it made right.
If you bring harm to my people, you will find a shallow grave.
I've ruled here for three years now, abd in that time my fief has doubled in size, the number of my people tripled.
When they find a lord who can be trusted not to sacrifice them to some heathen god, to not strip them to their very bones, that is a rare thing in these parts.
There are still problems, of course. I was never taught ruling or such, and so I remain a practical man, fond of practical solutions.
I am fonder of the blade than the whip you see.
Still, I do wish you a pleasant stay."

quote:

Name: Albrecht Donnerfeldt

Look: Light-skinned, distinctive clothing, stern face, commanding eyes, massive body

Stats:
Cool+1, Hard+2, Hot+1, Sharp+1, Weird-2

Moves:

Leadership: when you have to order your war-band to advance, regroup, hold
position, hold discipline, or put their damned backs into it, roll+hard. On a hit, they
do it. In battle, this means that they’re fighting in ranks (cf). On a 10+, they snap to:
take +1forward. On a miss, they do it, but you’ll hear about it from them later.

Wealth: When your stronghold is secure and your rule unchallenged, at the
beginning of the session, roll+hard. On a 10+, you have plenty at hand and available
for the needs of the session. On a 7-9, you have plenty, but choose 1 want. On a miss,
or if your stronghold is compromised or your rule contested, your hold is in want. The
precise values of your plenty and want depend upon the details of your stronghold.

Stronghold:
Your subjects are many, 100–150 souls (plenty: 2 keep, want: hunger, disease).
It’s protected by simple ditches, fences, and low fieldstone walls (one advantage for defenders)
It musters and regularly drills around 50 warriors, and it has an armory of mixed and makeshift weapons and simple armor (2 harm, 1 armor, drilled against surprise)
Your stronghold defends a coastal landing (plenty: +1 keep, want: raiders).
Your subjects include skilled tradespeople (plenty: +1 keep, want: idleness)
Your stables keep mounts for 8 warriors, plus pack animals; horses (fast+1, strong+1, hungry+1, temperamental)

Your subjects are uncivilized and rude in their habits (want: disease).
Your war-band is a pack of bloody hyenas (want: savagery)

Equipment:
Dagger (deadly: in quarters)
Sword (deadly: in the yard).
Mail coat, helmet, boots (2 armor).
Clothing suitable to your look (ragged military).

History
Xíe, Who Walks Again +2
"Drowned" Tikorn +3
Pentaviso +1
Siroko, the Seventh Thunder +1


1. Do you remember how you died? If so, what happened? If not, what do you imagine happened to you?
There was a siege. We, The Eisenfaust were under contract with a duke, out for the lands of another duke. Neither of them are worth remembering.
We were leading the final assault when we were betrayed, and attacked from both sides.
We died fighting, and I truly hope the bastard cursed himself after the toll we took.
Personally I took a lance right through the sternum. A good charge, for all it helped him.
I saw my second put a crossbow bolt through him before the darkness came.

2. Do you remember where you were before? If so, what was it like? If not, how are you faring with being in a dark and strange place with no memory of what came before?
It was a grand empire once, forged in blood and flame. It lasted barely a hundred years, before blood and flame brought it low again.
That was thirty years ago, and I had been campaigning ever since.
Every man able to scrape some coin together began calling himself a noble, no matter blood nor deed, and leading raids against each other.
Good coin to be made, if you've got the stomach for it.
Anyone with sense had left long ago. I supposed I loved the land, in my own way.
Planned on settling down eventually, but so it goes.

3. Where do you call home now, if anywhere?
We found a ruined keep, my new companions and I, by the coast of a war-plagued land.
Broken Tooth, we've come to call it, because of how it juts unevenly towards the bay.
We were beginning to become too many to easily travel by then, burdened by a train of refugees, and so we settled down, and haven't left.
It was not what we were expecting, but so far it has worked, with only rare intrusions from the east and north by raiders and brigands.
It's only a matter of time, though, before the loccal "Lords" take notice and start demanding things.
I'm not sure what will happen then.
We have all had enough of being pushed around.

Sax Battler fucked around with this message at 13:31 on Jan 19, 2018

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


LogicNinja posted:

Err, I have a quandary. Looking at the updated edition of the FE rules, it looks like from the preview, it eliminated the last part of "Ice cold: when you flyy at an NPC, roll+cool instead of +hard. When you fly at another PC, roll+history instead. When you make a battle move that calls for you to roll+hard, you can roll+cool instead." Without +cool instead of +hard for battle moves, I'm left with a Glorious Hero (in the ancient-greek sense, not the paladin sense) who can escape and set traps well but can't actually fight like a hero.

The Sword-Master seems to have kept "roll +hard instead of +cool in basically all the situations you'd want to roll +cool" as a move, so that sort of thing is apparently okay, but the Child of Battle has lost it.

Should I rework Xíe, Who Walks Again, as a Sword-Master, or is using the older version of the move OK, or...?

Don't use the older version, but you can repick moves or switch playbooks or w/e while I'm still taking applications. Just let me know what you decide :)

Takanago
Jun 2, 2007

You'll see...

Attia, the Mesmerast

WIP

The Mesmerast posted:

Name: Attia
Look: Woman, light skin, fine clothing, eerie face, warm eyes, stiff body

Stats:
Cool =0
Hard =0
Hot +1
Sharp =0
Weird +2

Moves:

Plumbing Psychic Depths: When you have time and physical intimacy with someone—mutual intimacy like holding each other in your arms, or 1-sided intimacy like kneeling over them while they’re bound—you can reach your mind into their soul. Roll+weird.
On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7–9, hold 2. Spend your hold 1 for 1 to ask their player questions:
• What was your character’s lowest moment?
• For what does your character crave forgiveness, and of whom?
• What are your character’s secret pains?
• In what ways are your character’s body and mind vulnerable to me?
On a miss, you inflict 1 harm upon your subject, ignoring armor, to no benefit.

Unworldly Senses: When you read someone, roll+weird instead of roll+sharp. Your victim has to be able to see you, but you need not interact in any way.

Mesmerast Trappings:
Incense: against reserve. Burn it where your subject will breathe it.
While someone is breathing the smoke of incense against reserve, if you read them or use a mesmerast move on them that gives you hold, you get +1 hold—see reading a person, psychic delve and sorcerous puppet strings.

Violation glove. Wear it.
For your purposes—see plumbing psychic depths and sorcerous puppet strings—merely touching their skin with your violation glove counts as time and intimacy with them.

Other Equipment:
Antique Dagger (deadly: in quarters)
Coin or goods worth 8 keep.
Clothing suitable to your look. (Stark white clothing)

Mesmerast Special:
If you and another character have sex, you immediately plumb their psychic depths, whether you have the move or not. Roll+weird as normal. However, the MC chooses which questions to ask.

History:
On your turn, ask 1, 2, or all 3:
• Which one of you has slept in my presence (knowingly or unknowingly)?
For that character, write history+2.
• Which one of you have I been watching carefully, in secret?
For that character, write history+2.
• Which one of you most evidently dislikes and distrusts me?
For that character, write history+3.
For everyone else, write history+1. You have weird insights into everyone.

Takanago fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Jan 11, 2018

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

quiggy posted:

Don't use the older version, but you can repick moves or switch playbooks or w/e while I'm still taking applications. Just let me know what you decide :)

Yeah, I just gotta figure out what fits. It's a shame, because everything else about the class fits so well. I guess I can always hope to pick it up the "lock eyes and they can't look away" move with an advance.

e: Wow, this is pretty frustrating; the concept worked in the preview and doesn't with the full rules. It's basically half and half. I guess I'll go Sword-Master and pick up the Child of Battle move with an Advance later.

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 04:43 on Jan 11, 2018

Alehkhs
Oct 6, 2010

The Sorrow of Poets

quiggy posted:

Don't use the older version, but you can repick moves or switch playbooks or w/e while I'm still taking applications. Just let me know what you decide :)

:ohdear: I'm done for now, but I've not yet received my access to the playbooks via the Patreon yet, so if there's any changes for the Wolfshead, I'll have to fix that when I get it.

Alehkhs fucked around with this message at 09:55 on Jan 11, 2018

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


Alehkhs posted:

:ohdear: I'm done for now, but I've not yet received my access to the playbooks via the Patreon yet, so if there's any changes for the Wolfshead, I'll have to fix that when I get it.

No worries :) It hasn't even been 48 hours since I posted this thread, so you've got time. If I get a chance later today I can read your app in more depth and see if there's anything that doesn't match the playbook, sound good?

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


Alekhs, I compared your app to the playbook and it's like 99% the same. Few small fixes and you'll be good to go.

-your horse also has "hungry+1"
-your knife's tag is "deadly: in quarters"
-your sword's tag is "deadly: in the yard"

Also there's actually an inconsistency in the Wolfshead playbook I just noticed, where the equipment says in one place you get 2 no-nonsense weapons, but also the list of no-nonsense weapons says to choose 3. I'll let you have 3, weapons are cool :v:

Alehkhs
Oct 6, 2010

The Sorrow of Poets

quiggy posted:

Alekhs, I compared your app to the playbook and it's like 99% the same. Few small fixes and you'll be good to go.

-your horse also has "hungry+1"
-your knife's tag is "deadly: in quarters"
-your sword's tag is "deadly: in the yard"

Also there's actually an inconsistency in the Wolfshead playbook I just noticed, where the equipment says in one place you get 2 no-nonsense weapons, but also the list of no-nonsense weapons says to choose 3. I'll let you have 3, weapons are cool :v:

Excellent, thanks! I've made those changes.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT
If you're still taking apps, I'll post interest.

E: Here goes!


Argenti - The Nightshade
(some mood music)

I was born in the sprawling slums of Magna Imperia, my name was Voya then. After it was discovered I was a Fortunati - one of the few blessed with talents for wielding the occult powers of my world. I spent years in study and then later served with honor as one of the Emperor's Telum, an Arrow. Spying, Assassination, Fomenting uprest in enemy (or rival) holdings, thievery-of a higher purpose...all facilitated by my talents.

I remember flashes of my last days; a threat to my Emperor, some senator with plans to usurp my lord. I was assigned to truthfind and eliminate such a threat if one existed, I was unprepared for the traitor to have several of my fellow Telum, comrades and friends, in his service. I was taken, questioned, and disposed of in a hovel not far, ironically, from the district in which I was born. It...was not a pleasant death, I prefer not to dwell on it.

My next memory is awakening here, wherever here is...It's been only a few days, I'm left completely at a loss as to how I should proceed. I take some small comfort in that the cantamen I know have not abandoned me, so I have not yet been completely forsaken in this place. As Praeceptor Claudius always stressed in his lessons: "It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be defeated in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will taste defeat in every single battle."

So here I am, taking my first steps into this new world, and I must seek to know my enemies...

quote:

Look:
A light-skinned, androgynous, woman appearing to be in her mid-20s to early-30s. Her slim body is adorned in dark, understated, clothing chosen to draw as little attention as possible so long as she keeps her striking face covered by mask and hood. Above that dark veil, her unnaturally blue arresting eyes distract many folks from her quick hands seperating them from their valuables before she disappears into the night.

Armor: 1 (via spell)
Harm: 0

Cool +1
Hard +1
Hot +2
Sharp +1
Weird -2

Gear:
  • Sturdy, simple, stealthy black clothing.
  • Cantamen: Strages - A deadly bolt of entropic darkness, which unravels the thread of an enemy's life (thrown, ignores armor)
  • Cantamen: Averto - Glowing glyphs tattooed on her hand, which summon a shield of light that turns an enemy’s blade aside at the last instant (1 armor)
  • Cantamen: Tego - A spell that, with a crook of the hand and a whisper, cast in darkness, hides you from the view of both friend and enemy, broken when once you speak aloud.
  • Cantamen: Venator - A magical spell that, cast in a high and exposed place, calls to you the spirit of its wild wind. Ask the spirit three questions about what it has touched.
Keep: 2

History:
TBD

quote:

Nightshade Moves
Hypnotic
when you have time and solitude with someone, they become fixated upon you. Roll+hot.
On a 10+, hold 3.
On a 7-9, hold 2.
They can spend your hold, 1 for 1, by:
  • Giving you something you want.
  • Acting as your eyes and ears.
  • Fighting to protect or champion you.
  • Doing what you ask them to do.
For NPCs, while you have hold over them they simply can’t act against you. For PCs, instead, any time you like you can spend your hold, 1 for 1:
  • They distract themselves with the thought of you. They’re going into danger.
  • They inspire themselves with the thought of you. They take +1 right now.
On a miss, they hold 2 over you, on the exact same terms.

Lost
when you whisper someone’s name to the world’s psychic maelstrom, roll+weird.
On a hit, they come to you, with or without any clear explanation why.
On a 10+, take +1 forward against them as well.
On a miss, ask the MC what or who the world’s psychic maelstrom brings to you instead.

Special
If you and another character have sex, choose 1:
  • You take +1 forward and so do they.
  • You take +1 forward, but they take -1 forward.
  • They must give you a gift worth at least 1 keep.
  • You get +1 history with them; at your choice, they get +1 history with you.
  • You can hypnotize them as though you’d rolled a 10+, even if you haven’t chosen to get the move.

Error 404 fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Jan 15, 2018

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


Error 404 posted:

If you're still taking apps, I'll post interest.

Definitely! I'm planning on keeping apps going at least through the weekend, probably cutting them off on Monday or Tuesday. If you're still working on something, take your time, but be sure to finish it up sooner or later so I can ask you some questions!

Mistral

Several moons ago, a woman calling herself Eona sought treatment at your temple for injuries sustained in a fight. You recognized her immediately, as she has been wanted for some time by the lord of this settlement for crimes unspecified. Did you treat her, and how did you react when the lord's thugs came knocking and looking for her?

Drowned Tikorn

Of the fifteen who have followed you from the sea in your quest for revenge, which would you trust most with your life -- and which would you trust least?

Argenti

While you awoke here alone, it did not take long to stumble across a small party making their way across the wastes. They offered to help bring you to a nearby settlement, where you could begin building your new life here. Which of their party were you immediately drawn to, whether for good or for ill? Did you accept their offer of aid, or did you scorn them and decide to forge on ahead alone?

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

quiggy posted:

Pentaviso

You didn't lose your head this time, thankfully, but you did recently upset someone powerful enough that you were in real danger until your employer stepped in. Who was it that you offended, and what did you do?

Garillo's son, Antu, is an idiot. After a shared meal between the Houses of Entremar and Telbatin, where I did my standard party routine, I took to my seat next to Antu. We began speaking of various siege tactics and alternative methods of breaching fortresses. I took him for a tactician, and he took me for an innuendo-spewing rake. Now, I suppose one could have gotten the wrong idea after the sorts of bawdy gags being played earlier in the evening, but I'm a professional.

Regardless, as dessert wrapped up, and people made their plans to retire, I rejected Antu's much more overt proposition. This (un?)expectedly blew up; as far as I can tell Antu complained that I had insulted his honor and pride and that I was being disgraceful. Shouting ensued and eventually my patron at the meal, Vecun Telbatin, stepped in. And while she trusted my version of the story, what was supposed to have been a step in the right direction between the squabbling factions had degenerated into swords and accusations.

The Lady Telbatin gave me the rest of the month's pay and told me to get the gently caress out of Telbatin lands.

Tricky
Jun 12, 2007

after a great meal i like to lie on the ground and feel like garbage


quiggy posted:

Mistral

Several moons ago, a woman calling herself Eona sought treatment at your temple for injuries sustained in a fight. You recognized her immediately, as she has been wanted for some time by the lord of this settlement for crimes unspecified. Did you treat her, and how did you react when the lord's thugs came knocking and looking for her?

Of course, I treated her. I will treat anyone who crosses the threshold, yet has not broken the Pact. This is what I have sworn to do, what I am sworn to do. I will fan the flames of life where embers still smolder and, should those fires go out, I will usher them to their final passage with dignity and respect. It is not my role to judge. Leave that to the lord and his men, leave that to those who seek dominion through words or deeds. While a patient is under my roof, under my care, I will not allow violence to be done to them. I will not consider their identity, past that of a pact-breaker, for the Sisters of Gray taught that the supplications of life and death are blind.

So when the lord's thugs came to me, I told them what I would tell any: I had not seen the one they spoke of, for I see nothing but wounds to mend. I barred their entry, surely enough, for the only blade that may grace my temple is the misericorde. The only ones that may enter are supplicants. They resented my traditions in that moment, but did little but bluster and make empty threats. They know as sure as not that it will be them seeking Cauter and Salve, them breathing the sacred Incense, and it would be a shame to break the Pact on their lord's orders.

She left some time later. I know not what happened to her after she left my protection. I imagine that the lord's men could well have waited outside and followed her, for that would not be in violation of our Pact. I did not see malice in her heart of hearts, when unawakening took her inhibitions and sense both, so I suppose I hold some hope that she escaped their pursuit.

Error 404
Jul 17, 2009


MAGE CURES PLOT

quiggy posted:

Argenti
While you awoke here alone, it did not take long to stumble across a small party making their way across the wastes. They offered to help bring you to a nearby settlement, where you could begin building your new life here. Which of their party were you immediately drawn to, whether for good or for ill? Did you accept their offer of aid, or did you scorn them and decide to forge on ahead alone?

Yes, it was a small trading caravan, they seemed like good and honest folk, and they were on their way to market, so I joined them. For days we passed the time and distance with talk of this place, its local holds and dangers. I was drawn to an old woman, who the rest of the group called Grandmother. She wove strange cantamen in her tattooed hands, and displayed great power against the beasts and highwaymen of the wilds as we traveled. Though I was shocked at first that she had no Mark, the dazzling blue eyes that all Fortunati like myself bear as sign of our power. She was kind to me. They all were. She explained that the 'Magicks' of this world and the one she had lived in before did not work the same way as mine, it gave me much to think about in quiet moments. I stood with Grandmother, wielding my own cantamen in defense of the group, as we traveled together.

We parted ways on friendly terms once we reached the holding of Taravay and it's market.

Alehkhs
Oct 6, 2010

The Sorrow of Poets

quiggy posted:

Drowned Tikorn

Of the fifteen who have followed you from the sea in your quest for revenge, which would you trust most with your life -- and which would you trust least?

The first part of that question - who I trust the most among my crew - is the easiest for me to answer, and perhaps the easiest for a passerby to see. Did that young woman there not seem out of place among this band?



Cerlen Orkel is easily the best negotiator among us, able to read rooms and cut deals where most of us just lose our heads, and she is also a fantastic sailor. Her uncle Woyet was actually one of the first people I encountered upon arriving in this place. He agreed to take me aboard as a passenger early on, but upon reaching our destination and still seeing nothing of my old world, I requested to remain as a deckhand. Cerlen was working aboard during that time as well, though she was mostly a cabingirl due to her youth. Her parents had passed some time before and Woyet had taken her as her only family. She was a rambunctious girl even then, and full of spirit. Does it seem to you as well that those who are born naturally to this land are more alive than those of us who awoke from our own deaths? She certainly does seem that way. I think she knows it as well: It was actually her that began teasing me as "Drowned" Tikorn. Woyet nearly drowned himself from coughing his ale when she first gave me the prefix, and so of course it stuck.

Ah, Woyet. The old man died a couple years ago, and I was truly sad to hear the news. He was my closest friend in all this and, though I had managed to... er, procure a ship of my own only a short time before then, but we had kept in contact by means of our overlapping routes. I had reached out to Cerlen with my sympathies, and was surprised when she met us at the dock in our next port! We spoke over drinks for a while of Woyet and our paths, and I was again surprised when she broached the topic of working aboard my vessel. Her uncle's barge had apparently gone to some trading post as part of a debt agreement, and she was looking to get back out to sea, so I took Cerlen up on her offer, and well - here she is. My second-in-command she is today! It was really a wonder to watch that woman work the deck, rough as the men and not afraid to bark an order. Truly has the blood of her uncle.

So it is her I most trust and respect most in this venture, though I also feel she was the most reluctant to leave the waves for this inland venture. I'd even offered to leave the Amphosie in her charge rather than just moored, yet she declined to leave my side and even procured us our mounts - not the greatest of animals, but she seems to have a way with them.

Perhaps she senses something among the other men who've come along...

-----

A few of these men have been with me nearly as long as Cerlen, though most are of a more free nature and path. They follow gold where its likely, and I suspect the idea of confronting a politician, and seizing the holdings he may have, are what glimmers to them now. I care not for what riches Botentin may have - I'm simply driven toward him by the faces of my wife and children. If there is a man among us most likely to cause trouble for the chance of personal profit, it would likely be that cheerful-looking fellow there:



Hashaet Porelle is a kind enough soul as crew goes, and been with me longer than most in this band, but I've seen the glimmer turn his hand. Never fully against me or his mates, but I'm not sure how much it would take. He gladly accepted my payment that I offered the rest of the crew when I moored the ship and made clear my intentions, but he also decided to tag along. Hashaet always seemed to be the one most interested in my tales of Botentin, though never in the evilness of the man, but simply in his power. Perhaps he truly only seeks what riches Botentin may have, but perhaps there is something there...

Alehkhs fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Jan 19, 2018

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...
e: quiggy - I thought about it a lot but I'm staying with Child of Battle because the Sword-Master is kinda boring and because it has no Hot, and if I'm going to get people to follow my banner I need to manipulate them, right?. I tweaked my stats so I at least have Hard 0, and will improve it when I get the chance; I also added some fluff about being weakened and no longer capable of the superhuman, Exalted-style poo poo the heroes of the Shining Kingdom did. With Cool +3, she'll be good in all kinds of danger, and will try to guide things towards risky competition, to lead people into traps, etc instead of direct battle. "There is fighting, and then there is fighting", right?

I'm torn between Like a Viper and Perfect Instincts. Both are flavorful and appropriate; the former seems more useful for having your allies murder someone while you hold their attention, which isn't really the character's style--but an arresting gaze is definitely fitting...

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Jan 12, 2018

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


LogicNinja posted:

e: quiggy - I thought about it a lot but I'm staying with Child of Battle because the Sword-Master is kinda boring and because it has no Hot, and if I'm going to get people to follow my banner I need to manipulate them, right?. I tweaked my stats so I at least have Hard 0, and will improve it when I get the chance; I also added some fluff about being weakened and no longer capable of the superhuman, Exalted-style poo poo the heroes of the Shining Kingdom did. With Cool +3, she'll be good in all kinds of danger, and will try to guide things towards risky competition, to lead people into traps, etc instead of direct battle. "There is fighting, and then there is fighting", right?

I'm torn between Like a Viper and Perfect Instincts. Both are flavorful and appropriate; the former seems more useful for having your allies murder someone while you hold their attention, which isn't really the character's style--but an arresting gaze is definitely fitting...

Alright I'm gonna give you some advice, which obviously you can take or leave.

In my mind, Apocalypse World sings when the characters are interesting. This isn't D&D where you need to make sure you're taking the right feats at each level so you don't get outclassed by monsters and fall behind a power curve. Hot is useful for manipulating people, sure, but literally all of the stats have moves that can find you allies (or, at least, underlings). So my advice would be not to pick Child of Battle or Sword Master based on which gives you a numeric advantage, but rather based on which one makes Xíe an interesting character. Is Xíe someone who flows gracefully around a battlefield and defeats her enemies by striking them with awe as much as by actually killing them? If so, build her as a Child of Battle. Or is she more of a hardened warrior, using the biggest and baddest weapons because they're efficient at taking a life? If so, build her as a Sword Master. Remember, these are reskins of playbooks from the base game: the Child of Battle is just the Battlebabe, and the Sword Master is the Gunlugger. While both are good at killing, the way in which they kill couldn't be more different.

As for your move choices, same thing. Don't compare the mechanical benefits and opportunity costs of taking one move or the other, think about how Xíe fights. Like a Viper and Perfect Instincts aren't just things you can do, they're statements about what kind of fighter she is. Build an interesting character you want to play, not a good character constructed for mathematical strengths.

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

quiggy posted:

Alright I'm gonna give you some advice, which obviously you can take or leave.

In my mind, Apocalypse World sings when the characters are interesting. This isn't D&D where you need to make sure you're taking the right feats at each level so you don't get outclassed by monsters and fall behind a power curve. Hot is useful for manipulating people, sure, but literally all of the stats have moves that can find you allies (or, at least, underlings). So my advice would be not to pick Child of Battle or Sword Master based on which gives you a numeric advantage, but rather based on which one makes Xíe an interesting character. Is Xíe someone who flows gracefully around a battlefield and defeats her enemies by striking them with awe as much as by actually killing them? If so, build her as a Child of Battle. Or is she more of a hardened warrior, using the biggest and baddest weapons because they're efficient at taking a life? If so, build her as a Sword Master. Remember, these are reskins of playbooks from the base game: the Child of Battle is just the Battlebabe, and the Sword Master is the Gunlugger. While both are good at killing, the way in which they kill couldn't be more different.

As for your move choices, same thing. Don't compare the mechanical benefits and opportunity costs of taking one move or the other, think about how Xíe fights. Like a Viper and Perfect Instincts aren't just things you can do, they're statements about what kind of fighter she is. Build an interesting character you want to play, not a good character constructed for mathematical strengths.
Oh, I absolutely get that, and I want to emphasize that I'm trying to embody the character and look at how the stats/abilities map to the fiction rather than rack up bonuses or whatever. My problem is that the character is basically halfway between the archetypes as I envisioned her, and there are a bunch of things about the character I want to emphasize, so I'm deciding about which aspects I want to start play with and which ones to leave by the wayside (or save for later). Like the Viper and Perfect Instincts both fit, it's just a matter of picking one and emphasizing the powerful presence/arresting gaze or cunning insight and understanding. Still waffling back and forth on that one, but leaning towards Perfect Instincts given the slightly modified fluff (she may not have the powers she once did, but she is very familiar with and thrives on charged situations).

I'm not trying to compare Like the Viper and Perfect Instincts for mechanical bonuses so much as for whether they fit what the character is going to do. Also, I'm coming from some experience running Dungeon World but no experience with AW itself, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the mechanics--I thought that Cool roughly covers the Defy Danger type moves, whereas all of the "do battle" moves that involve doing actual Harm use Hard. If I'm wrong on that, so much the better.

I basically ended up tipping her off the balance point with the idea that she's greatly diminished since her time, when heroes could casually do wuxia poo poo. Without the justification for not being so badass in a standup fight anymore, I feel fine about taking Hard 0 and focusing on the death-defying, awe-inspiring, fluid warrior stuff that Cool covers. That is, "Flows gracefully around a battlefield and defeats her enemies by striking them with awe" fits the character a lot better than "efficient hardened warrior" stacking bonuses and having a deadly weapon for any occasion, which is why I wound up going with Child of Battle over Sword Master.
(Basically, the concept called for Cool and then for both some Hard and some Hot, only Child of Battle doesn't get any Hard and Sword Master doesn't get any Hot, which is why I had to tip the concept in one direction or the other.)

Hopefully that makes sense. I'm into the character, I've been wanting to play an "ancient hero-in-the-Greek-sense risen from her tomb into a diminished world" type for a while, and want to figure out which mechanics do the concept justice, rather than looking for straight up bonuses (in which case I'd just go Sword Master and take the boring options). If you take her, I'll definitely aim to keep things interesting! (I think Battlebabes need to do that anyway, since they don't have some of the obvious push-button-for-trouble hooks like Hardholders or what-not.)

LogicNinja fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Jan 13, 2018

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


LogicNinja posted:

Oh, I absolutely get that, and I want to emphasize that I'm trying to embody the character and look at how the stats/abilities map to the fiction rather than rack up bonuses or whatever. My problem is that the character is basically halfway between the archetypes as I envisioned her, and there are a bunch of things about the character I want to emphasize, so I'm deciding about which aspects I want to start play with and which ones to leave by the wayside (or save for later). Like the Viper and Perfect Instincts both fit, it's just a matter of picking one and emphasizing the powerful presence/arresting gaze or cunning insight and understanding. Still waffling back and forth on that one, but leaning towards Perfect Instincts given the slightly modified fluff (she may not have the powers she once did, but she is very familiar with and thrives on charged situations).

I'm not trying to compare Like the Viper and Perfect Instincts for mechanical bonuses so much as for whether they fit what the character is going to do. Also, I'm coming from some experience running Dungeon World but no experience with AW itself, so maybe I'm misunderstanding the mechanics--I thought that Cool roughly covers the Defy Danger type moves, whereas all of the "do battle" moves that involve doing actual Harm use Hard. If I'm wrong on that, so much the better.

I basically ended up tipping her off the balance point with the idea that she's greatly diminished since her time, when heroes could casually do wuxia poo poo. Without the justification for not being so badass in a standup fight anymore, I feel fine about taking Hard 0 and focusing on the death-defying, awe-inspiring, fluid warrior stuff that Cool covers. That is, "Flows gracefully around a battlefield and defeats her enemies by striking them with awe" fits the character a lot better than "efficient hardened warrior" stacking bonuses and having a deadly weapon for any occasion, which is why I wound up going with Child of Battle over Sword Master.
(Basically, the concept called for Cool and then for both some Hard and some Hot, only Child of Battle doesn't get any Hard and Sword Master doesn't get any Hot, which is why I had to tip the concept in one direction or the other.)

Hopefully that makes sense. I'm into the character, I've been wanting to play an "ancient hero-in-the-Greek-sense risen from her tomb into a diminished world" type for a while, and want to figure out which mechanics do the concept justice, rather than looking for straight up bonuses (in which case I'd just go Sword Master and take the boring options). If you take her, I'll definitely aim to keep things interesting! (I think Battlebabes need to do that anyway, since they don't have some of the obvious push-button-for-trouble hooks like Hardholders or what-not.)

Fair enough, just wanted to make sure because you sounded like you wanted Hot for mechanical reasons, not for story reasons!

LogicNinja
Jan 21, 2011

...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

quiggy posted:

Fair enough, just wanted to make sure because you sounded like you wanted Hot for mechanical reasons, not for story reasons!

Cool, happy to address that.

Sax Battler
Jul 31, 2007

Another bloody customs post,
Another fucking foreign coast,
Another set of scars to boast,
We Are The Road Crew.

Posted the rest.

Captain_Indigo
Jul 29, 2007

"That’s cheating! You know the rules: once you sacrifice something here, you don’t get it back!"


Hades the Hocus

I remember the old world. I remember things as they were, without the rose-tinted lenses that blind others' eyes. I remember the world of injustice and famine and pestilence. I remember the starving and the enslaved figthing one another for scraps of dead body to feast upon. I remember the golden empire and the towers and the aristocracy grown obese, their lips dripping with the fat of their serfs. I was once a high priest, a magician, a courtier and a vizier. I saw how the royalty lived. I smelled the death and loathing on them. I went out into the world and gathered those who were downtrodden and we began our holy war against the exploiters.

1. Do you remember how you died? If so, what happened? If not, what do you imagine happened to you?
I was captured and burnt in the courtyard before the royal palace. The nobles jeered and teased me as the flames licked at my flesh, and I held from screaming for so long. When I could not keep tight-lipped a second longer, I screamed and bellowed that the days of kings and queens were over. That the days of the many were to come. That soon, the sun would rise on a just world, a world of chaos and kindness.

2. Do you remember where you were before? If so, what was it like? If not, how are you faring with being in a dark and strange place with no memory of what came before?
I was in a place of golden spires and bone towers. The sands were golden and the sky was rose. The men wore long black robes fringed with crimson. The women wore gowns of white silk. The serfs wore rags and tattood themselves with animal blood when they were grown too sick of drinking it in place of real food.

3. Where do you call home now, if anywhere?
Hadestown is a place, and a group, and a state of mind. It is a deep, dark underground place, trickling with energy from the maelstrom. Hadestown in the place, where Hadestown gather. They shed their weak, false shells and devolve into their true forms.


pre:
Look: Concealed gender, dark skin, tattered vestments, masked face, burning eyes, lanky body 

Stats:
Cool+0, Hard+1, Hot-1, Sharp+1, Weird+2

Moves: 

Fortunes: fortune, plenty, and want all depend upon your followers. At the beginning
of the session, roll+fortune. On a 10+, your followers have plenty. On a 7-9, they have
plenty, but choose 1 want. On a miss, they are in want. If their plenty lists keep, like 1
keep or 2 keep, that’s your personal share, to spend for your lifestyle or for what you
will.

Frenzy: when you speak the truth to a mob, roll+weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9,
hold 1. Spend your hold 1 for 1 to make the mob:
• Bring people forward and deliver them to you.
• Bring forward all their precious things.
• Unite and fight for you as a war-band (size appropriate, 2 harm, 0 armor).
• Fall into an orgy of uninhibited emotion: coupling, lamenting, fighting, sharing,
celebrating, as you choose.
• Go quietly back to their lives.
On a miss, the mob turns on you.

Charismatic: when you try to manipulate someone, roll+weird instead of roll+hot.

Hadestown
Around 20 followers, loyal to you but not fanatical.  
(fortune +1, plenty: 2 keep, augury. Want: hunger, savagery).
Your cult
When you travel, they congregate in their own communities.

Your followers are devoted to you (plenty: +1 keep, and want: hunger instead of
want: desertion).
 Your followers, in ceremony, can reach into the world’s psychic maelstrom
(plenty: augury)
 Your followers are decadent, perverse, and violent (want: savagery).

Equipment:
Dagger (deadly: infighting)
Coin worth 4
Clothing suitable to your look (bone mask and tattered robes).

Comrade Gorbash
Jul 12, 2011

My paper soldiers form a wall, five paces thick and twice as tall.
Finally finished. Hope its okay that I played up some of the weird, mystical side of it to justify Siroko showing up after the people who killed her did.

Alehkhs
Oct 6, 2010

The Sorrow of Poets
I was given access to the updated playbooks, and I have made slight changes as a result:
  • Changed war-band from "nomadic" to "self-sufficient," which gives the tag "rich." They're able to provide for themselves by scavenging (and, uh... occasionally raiding).
  • War-band is now well-disciplined against surprise: Many things can go wrong on the sea, and keeping an eye out for all possible mishaps has made them alert to the unexpected.
  • Added Wolfshead Special.

Additionally, the preview playbook I had listed "about 15" as the default war-band size, and the updated book now says "around a dozen," so I've left it at a flat 15.

Alehkhs fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Jan 14, 2018

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

quiggy
Aug 7, 2010

[in Russian] Oof.


All: I'm going to shut down new applications tomorrow at midnight, eastern time (about 34 hours as of the time of this posting). You've got a little bit more time than that to answer extra questions, especially if I haven't gotten to ask you them yet, but make sure the three basic questions, bio, and playbooks are done by then.

Comrade Gorbash posted:

Finally finished. Hope its okay that I played up some of the weird, mystical side of it to justify Siroko showing up after the people who killed her did.

Yeah definitely, I intentionally didn't define any of the metaphysics of how this actually works in order to admit some flexibility into the story.

Alehkhs posted:

I was given access to the updated playbooks, and I have made slight changes as a result:
  • Changed war-band from "nomadic" to "self-sufficient," which gives the tag "rich." They're able to provide for themselves by scavenging (and, uh... occasionally raiding).
  • War-band is now well-disciplined against surprise: Many things can go wrong on the sea, and keeping an eye out for all possible mishaps has made them alert to the unexpected.
  • Added Wolfshead Special.

Additionally, the preview playbook I had listed "about 15" as the default war-band size, and the updated book now says "around a dozen," so I've left it at a flat 15.

Sounds good to me :)

  • Locked thread