Welcome one, welcome all to the Roads to Madness... I hope your travels are rewarding!
Please read the appropriate spoilers below; I've tried to not overstep my bounds as a DM, but if I've done something to your character that you deem unreasonable, let me know on the discussion thread, and we'll see what can be done about it.
Galad & Madda:
Spoiler:
The spring breeze is refreshingly cool tonight, and you'd be exceedingly surprised if it didn't carry another evening's worth of rain on it's shoulders. The clouds already tumble and roil over Estered's Square just ahead of you, and above the murmur of the thronging pilgrims faint peals of thunder can be heard. Showing Galad the monument dedicated to Ioun's favourite saint is only the first item on your evening's agenda: according to local gossipmongers, the Dragonborn Sundered Heart, an old friend, has just bought into the Spitting Cockerel, down on the Riverfront, and you'd planned to drop in to help celebrate.
The ancient, empty monolith that is the Mindspire looms to your right side, and the Blue Plate, a highly-regarded eatery squats shale-roofed to your left as you approach the square. The first drops of rain kiss the well-kept cobbles of Saint Street as your idle chatter is interrupted by a sudden, raucous tide of frantic noise. Above the clamor, a strident voice heavy-laden with spite and venom rises, trilling in the writhing syllables of Deep Speech.
It is here, it is near! The tear, the tear! Find it, snatch it! Search wood, search stone, search blood, search bone!
As you blink the shock from your countenances, the mingled crowd in the square becomes first a trickle, then a panicked flood as pilgrims and citizens alike strive to flee, their efforts driven by the wet screams of some slower to react.
Perception and Initiative from the both of you, please!
Sundered Heart & Karnn:
Spoiler:
You sit taking your ease on the porch of the Blue Plate, one of Wellspring's best eateries, having just visited the Town Hall to make your partnership with Madigan Tye officially binding. Her bulk fills the rocking chair across the table from the pair of you – she insisted on buying the first of the celebratory drinks and the Plate was far closer than the Cockerel, a fact that your new partner irritably points out. “Can't get the best custom if we ain't close t' all the best happenins! We'll never...” The first, heavy drops of the spring evening's inevitable rain spatter tap-tap-tap on the porch roof, and the remainder of Madigan's complaint is lost in a sudden, panicked swell of noise from the crowd of pilgims and hawkers in Estered's Square, just to your north.
Above the rising din you hear a venom-laden voice, shrill and grating, shout unfamiliar syllables, punctuated by a spate of all-too-human screams.
Tye sighs, downing her drink with a resigned gulp.”Now that ain't gonna be good fer business!”
Perception and Initiative please!
Setil:
Spoiler:
You stand with no little disappointment in the early evening chill that pervades Wellspring's bustling town square. The Mindspire, the ancient temple of Ioun where you had hoped to find an answer - at least a clue! - to your dilemma, is naught but an empty shell, a holy place with but faint echoes of former sanctity. In that, you think sourly, I and the 'Spire are much alike.
Your glum introspection is spoiled by the sound of approaching footsteps. Reluctantly pulling your attention up from your dusty boots, you see a short, vaguely pretty woman in clad in the simple blue vestments of an Iounic mendicant. She offers a hesitant smile, flicking her green eyed gaze betwixt you and the heavy brass doors behind you.
“Dierdre,” she says, as the evening's first drops of rain patter heavily down. Her smile returns, but the helpless laughter that follows it is drowned out by a grating, warbling call, full of spite and venom, that carries from the pilgrim-thronged square in front of you.
It is here, it is near! The tear, the tear! Find it, snatch it! Search wood, search stone, search blood, search bone!
Sudden screams bubble up out of the square's busy drone, as citizens and pilgrims alike begin to scatter, panicked.
[ooc]Whomever shouted used the Deep Speech. Perception, Insight and Initiative please!
Post at your leisure, folks – I can only post haphazardly on weekends, and this being a holiday as well, the odds of a major reply before Monday are low. Your forum icons correspond to your character placement, while the pink shaded squares are pilgrims, citizens and merchants in various states of panicked flight. These crowds can be moved through, but count as Difficult Terrain.
Beyond the mortal world, somewhere outside the bounds of the Astral Sea, the Far Realm yawns immeasurable. Beyond the reality of gods and mortals, this plane is a realm of contradictions, a mad place of fevered creation checked only by pointless extinction. The Outside is a sea of diseased possibilities, where the stuff of madness seethes in a soup of the incomprehensible and the unnamable — shuddering, squirming, and sentient.
Who sets out to learn the secrets of the Far Realm, to master its horrid powers? Truly, such efforts are the province of the insane and the soulless. Each breaching of the planar bounds enables more of the Outside to ooze forth, weakening reality’s integrity, threatening to sunder the divine work. Only the truly mad seek such an end, and there is no shortage of the truly mad...
We're looking for ONE player, game will be starting next week, after characters are finalized. The party as configured so far is short a Defender, so willingness to take on that role would be helpful, but not strictly necessary.
If you're interested, toss your concept out and we'll see what we've got - I tend to lean towards interesting concepts/stories rather than OMFGAwesome!!1! stats, so I will more than likely narrow down players that way, then let the dice decide who fills the final spot.
This will NOT be a fast-paced game, though I'll do my best to keep it moving.
Beyond the mortal world, somewhere outside the bounds of the Astral Sea, the Far Realm yawns immeasurable. Beyond the reality of gods and mortals, this plane is a realm of contradictions, a mad place of fevered creation checked only by pointless extinction. The Outside is a sea of diseased possibilities, where the stuff of madness seethes in a soup of the incomprehensible and the unnamable — shuddering, squirming, and sentient.
Who sets out to learn the secrets of the Far Realm, to master its horrid powers? Truly, such efforts are the province of the insane and the soulless. Each breaching of the planar bounds enables more of the Outside to ooze forth, weakening reality’s integrity, threatening to sunder the divine work. Only the truly mad seek such an end, and there is no shortage of the truly mad...
Welcome one, welcome all, ye travellers on the Roads To Madness!
Basics: We'll be trying out a Paragon Tier PbP adventure - if it goes well enough for all involved, we'll continue our explorations.
Specifics: I'd like 5 - 6 characters, starting at level 11. I'd strongly prefer Heroic types, with Races/Classes from PHB/PHB2. Paragon Paths/Feats/Powers from other canonical sources are open for discussion.
Pitch me a concept first, and we'll attempt to get a balanced selection of Roles before we start tossing numbers about.
Pacing: I am a stay-at-home dad to a 5-month old, so my free time is nothing close to regularly scheduled. Due to this priority, I shall proceed as fast as is feasible, but if you're looking for a multiple post-per-day game, I do not think this is it.
Most of this is memory now
I've gone too far to turn back now
I'm not quite what I thought I was but
Then again I'm maybe more
The blood-words promised, I've spoken
Releasing the names from the circle
Maybe I can leave here now and, O
Transcend the boundaries
For now I'm standing here
I'm awaiting this grand transition
The future is but past forgotten
On the road to madness
Times measure rusts as it crawls
I see its face in the looking glass - stop
This screaming laughter hides the pain of its reality
Black, the door was locked I opened
And now I've paid that price ten-fold over
Knowledge - was it worth such torment, oh
To see the far side of shadow?
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