[D&D 5E] Prophecy of Altaris

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slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid
I feel like I am where I belong, like I was chosen to be here, or chose to be here. the bite marks are shallow and narrow, only token resistance. Am I a sacrifice? Or being hazed? Or do I just like being captured and then escaping? I just don't remember.

quote:

Human Druid 2

16 Wis*
16 Dex
14 Con
10 Str
08 Int*
08 Cha

17 HP
13 AC

8 Initiative

Background: Trueborn Visirian

Sometimes called the souless or the lost, trueborn Visirians came into this world under the influence of the Plague. It provides them with a morality and purpose, but it is foreign. If cured, trueborn are adrift in the world, with no prior morality or history to rely on and no remaining ties to Visiria. They are childlike in many ways, and both their naivete and their undoubtedly violent life in Visiria can lead to persecution and condemnation from Altarans. Those who persevere can offer their unique insight into the Plague.

Skills: Animal Handling, Insight
Languages: Sylvan, or one of your choice if you already speak Sylvan.
Trait: Trueborn have an intimate understanding of the Visirian Plague. They know how it spreads, how it changes people, and how it can be undone. They can sense those under its influence and help them through the difficult recovery process.

Trained: Animal Handling, Herbalism Kit, Insight, Perception, Stealth, Survival

Languages: Common, Druidic, Elf, Sylvan

Feat: Alert
Always on the lookout for danger, you gain the following benefits:
� You gain a +5 bonus to initiative.
� You can�t be surprised while you are conscious.
� Other creatures don�t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being hidden from you.

Spells,
2/2* Level 0
Magic Stone, Produce Flame
3/3 Level 1
Entangle, Detect Poison and Disease, Ice Knife, Goodberry, Speak with Animals

Wild Shape
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your action to magically assume the shape of a beast that you have seen before. You can use this feature twice. You regain expended uses when you finish a short or long rest. Your druid level determines the beasts you can transform into, as shown in the Beast Shapes table. At 2nd level, for example, you can transform into any beast that has a challenge rating of 1/4 or lower that doesn�t have a flying or swimming speed.

2nd level No flying or swimming speed, e.g. Wolf
4th level No flying speed, e.g. Crocodile
8th level No limitations, e.g. Giant eagle

You can stay in a beast shape for a number of hours equal to half your druid level (rounded down). You then revert to your normal form unless you expend another use of this feature. You can revert to your normal form earlier by using a bonus action on your turn. You automatically revert if you fall unconscious, drop to 0 hit points, or die.
while you are transformed, the following rules apply:
� Your game statistics are replaced by the statistics of the beast, but you retain your alignment, personality, and Intelligence, wisdom , and Charisma scores. You also retain all of your skill and saving throw proficiencies, in addition to gaining those of the creature. If the creature has the same proficiency as you and the bonus in its stat block is higher than yours, use the creature�s bonus instead of yours. If the creature has any legendary or lair actions, you can't use them.
� when you transform, you assume the beast�s hit points and Hit Dice. when you revert to your norm al form, you return to the number of hit points you had before you transformed. However, if you revert as a result of dropping to 0 hit points, any excess damage carries over to your norm al form. For example, if you take 10 damage in animal form and have only 1 hit point left, you revert and take 9 damage. A s long as the excess damage doesn�t reduce your norm al form to 0 hit points, you aren�t knocked unconscious.
� You can�t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of your beast form. Transforming doesn�t break your concentration on a spell you�ve already cast, however, or prevent you from taking actions that are part of a spell, such as call lightning, that you�ve already cast.
� You retain the benefit of any features from your class, race, or other source and can use them if the newform is physically capable of doing so. However, you can�t use any of your special senses, such as darkvision, unless your new form also has that sense.
� You choose whether your equipment falls to the ground in your space, merges into your new form, or is worn by it. Worn equipment functions as normal, but the DM decides whether it is practical for the new form to wear a piece of equipment, based on the creature�s shape and size. Your equipment doesn�t change size or shape to match the new form, and any equipment that the new form can�t wear must either fall to the ground or merge with it. Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.

Circle of the Moon
Druids of the Circle of the Moon are fierce guardians of the wilds. Their order gathers under the full moon to share news and trade warnings. They haunt the deepest parts of the wilderness, where they might go for weeks on end before crossing paths with another humanoid creature, let alone another druid.
Changeable as the moon, a druid of this circle might prowl as a great cat one night, soar over the treetops as an eagle the next day, and crash through the undergrowth in bear form to drive off a trespassing monster. The wild is in the druid's blood.

Combat Wild Shape
When you choose this circle at 2nd level, you gain the ability to use Wild Shape on your turn as a bonus action, rather than as an action.
Additionally, while you are transformed by Wild Shape, you can use a bonus action to expend one spell slot to regain 1d8 hit points per level of the spell slot expended.

Circle Forms
The rites of your circle grant you the ability to transform into more dangerous animal forms. Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Wild Shape to transform into a beast with a challenge rating as high as 1 (you ignore the Max. CR column of the Beast Shapes table, but must abide by the other limitations there).
Starting at 6th level, you can transform into a beast with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down.

Gear
sling, handmade. 17 rocks
scimitar jawbone
leather armor
shield, lignum vitae cabinet door
staff, diamond willow
bone dice with skulls for sixes
explorer kit

slydingdoor fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Jul 28, 2016

# ¿ Jul 10, 2016 21:36

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:59

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid

I lie all the way back on the large stump and stretch out my arms and legs, then roll to both sides, bending and twisting my spine like a cat. I got a crick in my back and don't stop until I get that satisfying pop. It's a good pain. I sit back up when and take the wooden cup the woman offers. Before I drink from it, I scratch its lip with my fingernail, give it a sniff and a nibble. I sip the water, swish it and open my mouth and inhale over it to make it bubble and get the smell. Never know, could be bad wood, or bad water�on purpose or not. You can't be too careful with something you didn't make or draw yourself. Once I'm satisfied, I throw back the rest all in one gulp. I sure am thirsty. Now that the water's gone I flop back onto the stump. Sitting up isn't nearly as comfortable.

She tells me to take deep breaths and remember home. "Okay," I yawn. Then I close my eyes and have a nap.

I hear the gentle sounds of the wilds: birds chirping happily, the rustles of squirrels through the trees and the broader sound of a breeze through the leaves. I feel a rushing pulse as I pursue game, hunting prey through a forest. I feel alive, at home, fulfilled - and then I catch up to my prey. It's a human woman, desperate and out of breath, terror etched on her face. The birds land in the trees nearby, patient as carrion, and look towards me expectantly. Their eyes are all red...

"It isn't a game this time," I mouth silently, the words only echoing in my mind. "You thought you could swallow it and run. That it'd buy you some time if I caught you. You thought wrong. I don't have the time, so your time is at an end." I draw my knife, and the light it reflects flashes across her face.

Then the woman wakes me up. My heart's still pounding. I'm still smirking. She wants me to tell her what I remember.

"Hehe, don't get scared, but I dreamed I was chasing you through my woods. It was fun and exciting, all the forest creatures were egging me on, laughing with me."

While I talk I play with the rope, entwining my fingers and thumb and winding it around my hand, wrist and forearm.

"But it wasn't a game. When you got tired and I caught you, I said you had something I needed right away but you had swallowed it and ran. That's why I was chasing you."

I run out of rope, so I fold the leather gag in half and start chewing on it, in the middle, where the wetness and shallow teeth marks from before are. Tastes savory, smells smoky... it's good. I continue talking with my mouth full.

"Anyway then the their eyes turned all red. They were telling me to hurry it up. I said 'oh I'm gonna kill you and get that thing,' pulled out a knife, mirrored some light into your eyes with it, then woke up. Weird huh?"

I stop chewing the middle of the gag and draw it through my fingertips, straightening it out until I'm holding the end, which I start tying it around my birdie.

"Actually, it makes sense. Your face is the only one I really know right now, so I have to dream about you until I remember more, right? Then I can have creepy dreams about them instead."

Once the knot's tied, I fold the gag in on itself and start swinging it lazily back and forth. Helps me think. I snap my fingers, turn over and look the woman in the eyes.

"Ah! Can I have more water, but In a bowl or something? I want to see my face."

# ¿ Jul 12, 2016 06:41

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid

My leather scraps smell bad, so I take them off and let them air out and sun wash, then sit back down on my stump. The guards gave me some more rope because I was bothering them for it, but it was too thick, so I unraveled it into cords. I loop the cords around my toes and start aweaving, humming as I go, singing a made up song to myself. It's boring here otherwise. "Making moccasins~" It's pretty mindless work, so I try to remember more about Magar. He smelled of poo poo because he stress ate too much before battles. No one can talk about it because of his rank, but I like to manage myself a little better so I show how I'm better than the other youths not yet come of age. I ignored the smell that most of those stupids probably didn't even know about and waited to see who got the blood this time. My heart was beating like the one I took from that woman last night. You can remake a person from their heart, and no one likes having to kill someone twice�

The half-man asks a loud question to everyone. He wants to know the color of the carapace, "White!" Everyone knew that, It blended in with the snow that way of course. "Before It got all bloody you know."

slydingdoor fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Jul 12, 2016

# ¿ Jul 12, 2016 20:19

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid

I finish a hemp shoe and move onto the next one after giving my toes a stretch. I wonder why everyone else is waiting so long to air out their leathers. I start going into a work-trance and remembering. Or making up, I don't know!

An important thing is to cut out as many dead enemies' hearts as you can, impale them with a quick carved spear into the dirt beneath the snow, and oil them so they can be burned all at once later, after the number of hearts is matched to the number of bodies that the Counter�elder who can count the fastest�counted before we threw them in the pile. I would have gotten the most of that done but I thought I could find that shield maiden who tried to cut that one in half, swallow it and run. Normally we'd capture them, but if just the heart came back out it might get rescued at night or something. Getting a whole person out of their ropes and stuff on top of how hungry and thirst we keep them meant they'd be easier to chase down than that one fresh woman who fled the battle carrying just a heart when we were tired from fighting.

I hope that getting the woman and the heart to Magar before someone else did makes up for having to kill her instead of capturing her. And for the heart's being in half, so she could swallow it. I don't know if those things matter but they might. I should just make myself useful while I wait. I'll keep staking hearts and hoping.

***

I finish another sole, pretty sure I did get to drink the blood in the end. I hope I didn't make that part up.

The other still are wearing their rags, which are getting damper and smellier by the minute. And they're going to stub their toe or step on a thorn if they don't make some shoes. No handwraps either. If they have to climb their palms and fingers are going to get all burned. They're either dumb or lazy. Or maybe they forgot how to be useful when whatever happened happened. Next I start looking for good stones. You can suck on one to feel less thirsty, skip them across a pond, and who knows what else. I can't quite remember why, but I should. Knowing why we do things is for elders to know and figure out. For a youth, just doing the right things is what's expected. And if you want to live to be an elder, you do them. Then you can learn and figure out the whys.

I still haven't gotten my water to see myself in. I'm probably going to have to find a pond myself when they let me go.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2016 23:46

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid

"Maybe you're siblings! Or mates! Not both though, haha!

"Did you all forget how to clothe yourselves? What if you step in something? Slicky or sticky, poison, that'd be bad."

# ¿ Jul 13, 2016 02:00

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid

"Sip. And I gotta say we don't remember enough yet to piece together anything that can hold water. The woman will help us, but it takes time to heal. Like any wound.

"I'm filling in the blanks myself, and it's probably just daydreaming thanks to my active imagination. But it passes the time. Like making yourself useful!"

Everyone thinks they'll be a great hunter one day and be able to come home to chores and stuff already done, but there just aren't enough animals in the woods for there to be that many hunters. Gotta learn to pitch in. The best hunters know when they'll get more done that day doing chores at home, too.

These people struck me as townsfolk, who didn't even know how to darn their socks without a seamstress, or eat a decent meal outside a tavern. Maybe they don't even know how to fight. I look at my upturned shirt-bag full of stones. Everyone can throw a stone in a pinch.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2016 03:49

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid

"Deep." I say, mouth full of the middle of the gag again, while gathering more pebbles. I think I can bite a recess that could hold a stone into the thing. And it tastes good.

# ¿ Jul 13, 2016 06:16

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid

"Oooh," I see a beautiful little jawbone club-axe. a row of teeth all across the inside of the curve, honed bone blade on the outside. Chop and slice with one end, saw with the other. It's mine. Then there's a boiled leather coat I can wear over my sunwashed leather scraps, and an odd, lone cabinet door. It's heavy, and dark...! I give it a sniff. It's lignum vitae! I squeak at the find, then clutch it to my chest before anyone else gets their paws on it. This is a treasure. The hardest wood, so dense it sinks in the water, self lubricating so it won't rot... it still has it's handle pegged into it so it'd be perfect as a shield.

I could grab a leather sling with stones but I already made one out of the tasty gag and gathered some while everyone else was being useless. Someone else lucky enough to get this free stuff can take the other one, which probably isn't even as good as mine. I sift through the stones in the bag though for anything pretty and find two weird dice with skull symbols where six pips should be... Cool! I put them in the backpack I take at the end of the line. Looks like the most useful one, because it has a bedroll. You won't catch me sleeping on cold, wet ground, or hot sand, or pointy rocks. That'll make you sick and give you bad dreams. By the smell of it there's bug repellent in the stuffing too. It's lightweight, and only big enough for me, so no one will think of stealing it or trying to snuggle up. It'll be much better than the stump I've been curling up on.

The dragonman almost takes the wrong pack at first, but then he takes the bedroll pack too like the rest of us. "Smart move, you're enorrrrmous and have rough skin. No one's gonna snuggle with you. Maybe the devilman, I can't tell his skin from just looking at it. Doesn't matter anyway everyone so far has bedrolls. It's good."

scimitar, shield, staff, explorer pack

slydingdoor fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Jul 14, 2016

# ¿ Jul 14, 2016 03:38

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

P.d0t posted:

Vilnius

As the group rushes into the temple, following the mysterious woman, Vilnius seemingly instinctively grabs Sylmae around the wrist, tugging her along hurriedly. Catching himself after the fact, he mumbles an apology about being so forward. Clearly, it was some sort of protective instinct at work; whether or not it was directed at her specifically (or something about her more generally) was unclear.

Sip, the Druid

Way in the back I see the halfman yanking the halflady around and throw a rock at him. "Don't pull people around you weirdo!"

# ¿ Jul 14, 2016 04:35

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 11:59

slydingdoor: Oct 26, 2010; Are you in or are you out?

Sip, the Druid
I bound ahead of all the other dummies without rope shoes, and I feel like dropping down and running with my hands too. On all fours, as they say. "Hm," something that normally happens doesn't happen. I can't even remember what. "Oh well."

Disappointed I'm not going faster, I look around at all the redness. I think I put it together. He was gonna drink the blood, but he didn't want to, because he'd rather be a dead dwarf than a crazy barbarian who kills whoever he wants with cool animal parts like ours. But that doesn't make any sense either, because we drank the blood but got rescued or something, probably after only killing a few people ourselves. At least one lady probably for me. He was just being negative. At least the bow lady is a good shot. I could make a bow and arrows but wish I could shoot one, a big bow like hers. If I knew how to do that, I wouldn't even have to hit them in the head like with rocks. Just ehh stand way back over here, bend this piece of wood and ffft, straight through the heart. Or anywhere's good. The guts or whatever.

The hobbit and the devilman exchange scaredycat fake wisdom on how to run faster. While I use the power of shoes to pass them by

"You run to get just past somewhere you want to go, as fast as you can. Don't look back, not even with your brain�there's nothing behind you. Otherwise you'll mess up your breathing from panicking, or stumble and fall down, then you'll either get left behind or make someone else have to stick their neck out to help you back up. Won't be me!"

# ¿ Jul 15, 2016 17:38

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