The last few years have been strange for all of you, stranger than everyday life in your homelands already is anyways. The divine spark awakening within each of you has gifted you with power beyond your previous imagination. Since that awakening you have all started testing the limits of your powers. You worked together to destroy a parasite god that threatened the homes you were fighting to protect. You established several small refuges of peace in decimated countries. You fought back against the monsters who sought to take the only things you ever cared about away. And you always pushed forward to try to better understand your role in the world now that you have these gifts.
Some of you know each other better than others. Several of you have worked together extensively for the past several months to try and better the situations for your respective people. All of you hail from across the globe and your goals do not always align but within each of your companions you have seen that same power that is slowly growing within you. And you see that though you may not always agree with their methods, your fellows seek to make the world better in some way.
Because of its centralized location to all of your homes the five of you have made your way to the Oasis States, Bilaal’s home nation. There is not a great deal of love between the once raider and his home nation. Life in the Oasis States is hard for those not specifically bred into roles of influence. Bilaal has fought to survive for years and longs to conquer the Oasis States and implement a system that is better. You may not all be convinced that his idea of better is necessarily better for all, but looking at the Oasis States as they are now it's hard to imagine something much worse. If the Oasis States were united under a leader you all knew though the benefits seem obvious. Sun Li Tao is looking to dethrone the Emperor of his home as well and both Sun Li Tao and Bilaal have set eyes upon the Raktine Confederacy. Fidelity’s fight for people’s freedoms wherever she is fills her with disgust when looking upon how easily the people of the Oasis States trade in flesh. Bereket’s homeland of Ancalia has so many issues that even simply putting a stop to the raiders coming out of the Oasis States to kidnap survivors along the borders would be a huge boon. And Evelyn is as eager to protect her new allies as she is to plumb the depths of the many ancient pyramid cities that are rumored to be full of countless treasures.
You are all currently in the small town of Horam, barely more than a village build up around an Oasis in the sands between the pyramid city of Qanat and the Zeraf River. Bilaal’s knowledge of the raiding parties in the area seemed to indicate that this village was currently one of the safer places to meet up and was relatively close to the ruins of Amon, a small pyramid city said to have been overrun by all manner of foul creatures years ago. The mood in the village is tense, after all only one of you looks remotely like a local, and strange people dont often mean good things for the people of the Oasis States. Even Bilaal though is receiving some odd reception, it seems as though there is an underlying tension in the town that has nothing to do with your arrival. So it is that you gather together near the well at the center of town, about to set out all together for the first time. But with so many different goals to accomplish, where do you plan to start?
The soft cotton of his clothing does well to keep Sun Li Tao cool despite the blistering heat of the land. While his garb is much more accommodating to the change in environment, it still marks him very much as an outsider in the Oasis States. He wear a black tunic that is kept open, his clothing underneath worn well and, while once it was white, has been stained with sweat and travel. The baggy, dull blue pants are tucked into a pair of leather boots. It is all tied together with a simple cloth belt. Leather does cover his arms and legs, reinforced padding underneath his tunic protecting him from attacks. The leather was flexible but contrasted with his Dulimbaian clothing; a suggestion from Bilaal to better protect himself.
Sun Li Tao waited in the town's center, looking around carefully at the villagers that avoided making direct eye contact with him and watched him and the others from afar. He wasn't an ugly man, being just barely twenty years of age, nor was he a handsome man. With black hair and eyes like coal, his expression could be quite severe and off-putting if it wasn't for his friendly demeanor. In the months that had passed, his search for answers had only resulted in more questions. He was not alone though, not since he has met the other ones. They all came from different places, with different goals, but they at least understood one another.
"So, we're going to the ruins of Amon, right?" Li Tao asks, his voice soft and gentle. It was quite the opposite of what he was capable of doing, his powers leading to untold destruction when they needed to be unleashed. They were not as glorious to behold as Bilaal's sandstorms or some of the others that his friends had, but it was ruthlessly effective. Once more, he focused on the world and listened to the dead that laid among them. He didn't plan on using them but it was always good to know where reinforcements laid.
I'm going to activate Keeper of the Graves. I learn exactly where every corpse, undead or fragment of remains are within 200 feet and their identity in life. I can tell exactly how they died as if you had observed their death personally.
Male Human (Varisian) Warpriest 4 | hp 39/39 | AC 23, t 12, ff 22 | F +6, R +2, W +7 | Init +1 | Perc +7 | scimitar +8 (1d6+3 S/18-20) | Blessings 5/5 | Fervor 1/5 | Sacred Wpn 2/4 | 4 STR dmg
Neverending sand.
Bereket had begun to wonder if he would ever see good earth and stone again as their journey to get here had dragged on. The shifting sands of this place are so unlike the firm land that he knows. But, at last, they had arrived at this oasis.
Bereket lays a hand on the low wall of the well, and can almost feel how it goes down, deep and solid. The knight's weathered, grim face relaxes just a little into a slight smile.
Bereket shifts a bit, tugging on his traveling cloak and adjusting the great sword which hangs on his back, and then sits on the edge of the well. He looks around at the watching villagers, and his smile fades as he feels the tension. "Something is amiss here. I'd like to know what it is before we leave for Amon. What troubles these people?"
As most of his new friends and allies tasted the sun of the Oasis States for the first time, Bilaal seemed more than unfazed by the blazing sun above being reflected by the sands. His nearly-black skin bare from the waist up to the heat revealing his vitiligo-marked body, the splotches of almost albino skin have a striking pattern running from the bottom of his eyelids to his chin in twin-stripes until dissolving into otherwise random marks on his chest. As for below the waist line, Bilaal dawned himself in a gaudy pair of loose fitting bright yellow cloth pants that flowed in the desert wind, ending just above his ankles and his bare feet on the sand.
Hearing both Sun and Bereket's questions, Bilaal nodded his head to both. Speaking in a low hush that only the Godbound could hear as to not draw too many eyes to his voice. "Yes, something is indeed a miss in this village." Shifting his eyes to one of the passing villagers, Bilaal called out to the man. "My friend! A moment?" His tone chipper and welcoming to his fellow Oasisen.
Fidelity had been wearing a strip of cloth over her eyes ever since the first winds had blown sand into her eyes; it hadn't seemed to affect her vision at all, and it protected her from the gritty evil stuff floating around everywhere.
Upon their arrival in town, she had immediately disappeared into the well, clambering down it with the curiosity usually present only in a small child. She had no trouble at all descending into the depths, trying to figure out just how far down it went, and whether the town had much water - or even a secret underground thieves' den that had sprouted out of the bottom of the well. If not... well, that would be a good place to carve another base into the sandstone.
She had returned to the top of the well and was now perched on the side - not that any of the mundane people seemed to notice her, and she moved calmly out of their way when they approached if she thought she might be in the way. She was trying, unsuccessfully, to get one of her knives to balance on the tip of her index finger, while she sat quietly mouthing words that most could not hear.
To The Weak, The Hungry and The Poor (20 Mile Radius, in Trade Cant, Graduating out one mile at a time (so as not to get bombarded by everyone at once):
"My name is Fidelity. Sing to me of your sorrows, and I will see what I can do to free you from your suffering while I remain here."
If not for her powers being able to protect her from the brunt of the heat Lyon's pale northern skin would have been fried by now. She had shed the heavy clothing of her northern home in favor a cotton tunic and a pair of dark, loose fitting pants more appropriate for the climate but had forgone any kind of armor or protective materials.
If the heat counts as an environmental hazard Evelyn will be keeping Mutable Wards up to make everyone immune to it.
The desert was nothing like she'd ever dealt with so she trusted Bilaal to lead the way in his home land while she focused on taking in the new environment and trying to keep everyone in the group within eyesight, just in case. If Bilaal shared that this place was a safe place from the raiders, Evelyn speaks up."Not everyone is welcoming to strangers and with the threat of raiders nearby they're right to be worried about us."
While Bilaal started chatting to the locals Lyon would do a quick sweep of the defenses of the area, looking at how strong their defenses are and if there were any signs of a recent attack.
Reaching out into the the area around you as you passed into town Keeper of Graves detected a number of bodies, twenty-six all told, at one of the corners of the town. A brief look towards the area suggests that it is a graveyard for those members of the town who have departed the mortal coil. Closer inspection of the dead reveals that to be the case, almost all the bodies were of people from this town. An unusual number of them died due to violence, mostly raider attacks on the town or in the areas immediately around it. Many of these violent deaths are far more recent than the peaceful ones, within the last couple of months. There are two more bodies that are not a part of the graveyard, one that seems to be buried under a small hut near the entrance of town and one deep underground, almost at the edge of your ability to sense it near the center of town. It’s almost worrying how close it is to the center of the well in the middle of town when you consider it.
The man who Bilaal called to jumped, almost startled by having someone speak to him and then grinned sheepishly as if to hide his discomfort. It wasn’t hard to notice his eyes dart first over Bilaal’s partially bleached skin then passed over the companions who stood out far more. Still he seemed determined to put on a smile and greeted Bilaal as warmly as he himself had been greeted, “Greetings brother and friends, welcome to Horam. My name is Nadim al Barakaa, humble caravaneer, what can I do for you today?”
Fidelity:
As you clamber down the well you see that it actually does open up somewhat. Although the well itself is lined with hardened clay and sandstone bricks for the first dozen feet, eventually the walls appear to be made up of solid sandstone itself, leading into a modest sized cavern. Through the center of the cavern runs a very small river. These underground rivers are rare in the Oasis States, you assume that it must be somehow connected to the pond at the far north end of the city near the hills that allow this area to prosper in their windbreak. At either end of the forty foot long cavern it tapers down to smaller passages that the stream continues on into both north and south.
After you climb your way back up and sing our your song onto the winds it takes some time but eventually you hear something coming back to you, a woman’s voice. The voice is filled with hesitation, as though they are not quite sure what compels them to answer this unearthly call, but also has a sense of fragile hopefulness as it sings back to you, “Lost to the raiders my dear son, find him and protect him oh holy one.”
Thankfully Evelyn doesn't see the need to keep up Mutable Wards on side side of the sandstone cliffs that frame the Oasis. The shade provided in the area and the closeness to the pool keeps it bearable, if still much hotter than the northerners are use to. On the trip out here over the dunes and across the wide expanses of desert though the Mutable Wards proved invaluable for everyone but Fidelity and Bilaal who were immune to the heat. As Evelyn looks around and takes into account the surroundings she might notice several things. Although the town has a small sandstone wall it largely seems to serve as a marker for the borders of the town, rather than a serviceable defense. You did see a watch tower at the south end of town, opposite the tall hills surrounding the oasis that the town was built up around. It might be possible to attack by climbing the sandstone cliffs at the back of the oasis and coming down through it into the town from the north, but with so little on the south side of town any attacks would be more than likely to come from that direction. Coming through town you did pass by a group of men working on a large caravan wagon that appeared to have taken some damage. You couldn’t see just passing by exactly what had damaged it but it was clearly more than simple ware and tear from use.
Bilaal, pleased to the man's openness to talk to a stranger, approached him with a friendly outreached hand as he spoke. "Nadim, my friend, I am Bilaal and these are my traveling partners: Evelyn, Fidelity, Bereket, Sun. We are. . .adventures - in a sense." Bilaal making an effort to not reveal his godly nature as much as he wished to. "And it would seem luck is upon both our sides. We were just seeking one of your skills to help us along our path and you, Nadim, seem to be in some distress. Tell me, my friend, what ale's you and your village? The last time I was here this was a joyous place. Now, even a man like yourself gives me and my friends eyes of distrust."
Li Tao's eyes close for just a moment, focusing for that second to sense the dead that were here. "So much violence." He thinks to himself as he not only senses their deaths, he sees them too. Cut down by raiders, murdered in cold blood. No wonder the people here were so very wary, they had every right to be so. Assuming that Fidelity does not make herself scarce even to them, he would watch her come up and out of the well before he spoke to her in a soft, whispering tone.
"Did you find anything down there?" He asks with that tone of voice that makes it clear that already has an idea of what the answer is. "I felt through this place, over two dozen bodies at their graveyard. Most killed by the raiders in recent years. There are two more that are...unusual. One...is buried under a hut nearby the entrance. Another...is deep down below us. Did you see anything?"
I know most of the ones in the graveyard were cut down by raiders. Did they have any strange insignia on their clothing? Anything to identify them as part of a group? As for the body in the hut and the body deep below, how did they die? Who were they?
After asking his questions, Li Tao's eyes focus once more on watching Bilaal as he speaks to his fellow Oasian. This place was troubled it seemed and if anyone was going to assist them, it would be them.
As Bilaal makes mention of Fidelity, suddenly, Fidelity is there for Nadim, as if she had always been there, crouched on the edge of the well, still trying to balance the knife. She's stopped mouthing words, though, so she doesn't look as crazy.
Even still, she's fully dressed in her leathers - a muddy red color overall, with fur lining, and her usual furs from the north; given that the heat didn't bother her, she hadn't bothered to take them off... and all the better for when the temperature dropped to more frigid at night - not that she needed to worry with Evelyn's wards guarding the group from the harshest things the desert could throw at them.
She drops her knife once more as Sun talks to her, and rather than picking it up, she simply draws another. She doesn't immediately return to balancing it, but returns the hushed tone.
"There is an underground spring below. I believe it may come from their pond, and roll through the sandstone below. Around it is a hollowed out cavern... I'm honestly surprised by its size. Now that you mention the one far below, I'm much more curious about the space." she pauses. When she next speaks, only the pantheon can hear her, though her voice is still clear.
"But, word on the wind says that a raider has taken the son of a local. So... perhaps with all this death and theft of freedom and wanton destruction... we have a more pressing goal than borrowing ancient technology for our own ends."
Immediately afterwards, she begins to mouth words once more.
While Bilaal was talking to the locals as a native, Evelyn would take the short trip back to the men working on the damaged caravan. Seeing an opportunity to make a good impression on the locals and maybe ease some of the tension with small talk, she would attempt to help them with the repairs.
"Excuse me, would you like a hand?" She asked trying to appear as sincere as possible, knowing they would likely be suspicious of the new comers. "The roads in my home can be difficult so I've had to deal with my share of break-downs."
The man looked around as Bilaal introduced his companions and seemed mildly perplexed for a moment at the number of people listed. And then, suddenly, he sees Fidelity sitting on the edge of the well. He tilts his head and shakes it as if trying to come back to his senses. She stood out so much, clearly a foreigner like the others but he could have sworn that there were only four of them a moment ago when he walked up. When the woman he didn’t notice and the Dulimbaian man started talking amongst themselves he turned his attention back to Bilaal and his questions. At the mention of trouble his face fell somewhat, “Indeed we have had trying time as of the past several months. Normally I take a trip to the great pyramid city of Dehnet every couple of months to stock up on any supplies the town might be lacking. I also take any trade goods we have made or treasures scavenged from ruins along with me to make a profit. During our last trip we were waylaid. Not by sand raiders, that would be one thing but this was something different. No these black robed figures were something else, and the creature they had with them bound in chains… it was horrifying. Unlike anything I had ever seen before. When they did not demand our goods but three of the men helping guide the caravan, we did not know what to do. Ultimately they volunteered to go if the rest of the caravan was spared. They were led away south towards the mountains. Khufu and Nakht were older men without families, they knew the risks going out into the sands. It's been harder for Sabu’s mother. The boy was sixteen and it was his first trip outside of our city… I feel terrible that I could not bring him home. But you must understand I truly believed if we did not give them what they wanted we would all be killed and our goods taken as well. Still, as I'm sure you can understand it has made us that much more hesitant about any foreigners.”
Sun Li Tao:
As you focus in on the scenes of death you see a number of different tablues of violence play out one after another. Of the violent deaths by raiders most seem to wear simple robes that would easily blend into the sands of the Oasis States. You notice some red accented patterns on the robes of a great many of the killers though that might indicate some kind of group. The body beneath the hut is a merchant from Nezdohva, a human representative of one of the boyar automatons who runs a rather prosperous mine near the western edge of Nezdovha. He was poisoned in the hut he is buried beneath. At the bottom of the well the body is that of a child, a boy who climbed down the well and into the cracks that led away from the cavern. He got turned around and when he panicked he ended up getting stuck in the tunnels underground, eventually he starved.
Fidelity Tanner:
The voice is silent for a moment, but eventually you hear the song coming back to you, “Bright blue eyed like an oasis touched pool, lured away my beloved fool. Scarlet Serpents whisper in his ear, sway and convince him to return here.”
:: Near the Town's Entrance ::
The young man doesn’t seem to understand you as you approach them asking if they would need help. He says something in Menet and the older gentleman who is supervising snaps out a reply to him before turning towards Evelyn and speaking in a heavily accented Trade Cant you can both understand, “Peace unto you for your concern misses. I would not wish to see you put yourself out on our behalf. In truth I fear it's just a matter of putting in the patches.”
Now that you’re close you can see what is wrong with the caravan wagon. It has claw marks running deeply into the side of it and some of the frame is cracked as if a great weight was set upon it at some point in the near past.
Li Tao's eyes remained closed for some time, focused on the scenes of death that flowed through his mind. When his powers first came to him, his fellows had seen the reaction he had. He weep for days at every injustice he found, at every young life ended so early. It was a painful power, a hurtful one, and it ripped open wounds that had nearly healed when he saw the truth of what happened. Yet it also prevented foulness from festering. Whenever possible, he sought to give them the rest they deserve and right whatever wrongs that had not yet been judged. He had been chosen by the dead to carry their words to the living and in return, the dead would serve him.
"Poor boy." Li Tao would say softly, looking back down into that well. He would look back at Fidelity, that look of compassion etched upon his face. "Fidelity. Before we leave here, I would like your help. There is a body down there, a child's body. He starved and he deserves a proper burial." Turning his eyes towards the huts, he would nod towards the one where the dead man laid buried. "A representative of the one of the boyar automatons lays there. Poisoned. I wonder why."
Sun Li Tao's attention focuses upon the man's words as he speaks about what it was that had come to them in the desert. Some terrible abomination in chains, something wicked and awful. They were not the same as the raiders with the red accents upon their clothing and he remained quiet for a moment though it was obvious that he was listening very carefully. It was only when he had finished that he would approach Bilaal and Nadim.
He would bow courteously to them both, an instinct ingrained in him every since he could remember. "I apologize to be eavesdropping, friends, but I couldn't help but hear the awful events you have gone through Nadim." His Menet was rough and not too practiced but it was manageable. "If you could Nadim, I would like you to describe this robed men and this...abomination...as best as you can. Every little detail you can, it is important." This was not the first time they had seen Sun Li Tao question someone. The amount of knowledge that he had within his mind was astounding, more than any scholar could have fit in a single lifetime. Regardless of this, he swore he was just a simple gravekeeper back in his homeland before everything changed.
Seeing Sun take the lead in the conversation, Bilaal simply listened in on the caravaneer's reply. Though, by the look on Bilaal's face, it was obvious his formulating his own thoughts while the two spoke.
Damnable men and their gods, taking another life for the sake of feeding some long dead faith.
And, while Bilaal was more than eager to seize the opportunity of killing yet another false deity, he held his breath and awaited for any further information Nadim could supply.
Fidelity's face scrunches up a bit as Sun speaks with her. After a moment, her mouth is a thin line, but she nods. She slips the strip from her eyes and collects her knives, returning them to their various sheathes, before slipping silently into the well once more, vanishing from sight almost immediately.
She slips quietly down the stone walls, then along the sleek cavern walls, before finally shifting her weight to the rope once the surface rolls outwards and she can no longer simply cling to the walls. Hopefully the rope could bear her weight as it had clearly borne the child's.
Dark and alone, hungry and full of thirst. Her heart sank as she drifted into the darkness, following the path that would have lead the boy to freedom, if he could have possibly known it as she did. She stays out of the way and avoids any threats she might encounter - should she be aware that they were indeed threats, and sticks to the safest, easiest path, otherwise, in search of the young man.
Male Human (Varisian) Warpriest 4 | hp 39/39 | AC 23, t 12, ff 22 | F +6, R +2, W +7 | Init +1 | Perc +7 | scimitar +8 (1d6+3 S/18-20) | Blessings 5/5 | Fervor 1/5 | Sacred Wpn 2/4 | 4 STR dmg
After a short while, Bereket follows after Evelyn to the damaged wagon. Hearing the older man's polite denial of Evelyn's offer to aid, he walks closer to the wagon himself, ignoring any protest (short of actual physical confrontation/obstruction). He examines the damage closely with his own eyes, and then says to the man in the Trade Cant, "Allow me to save you some time and effort."
Bereket then scoops up a handful of sand, spits on it, and rubs it in his hands to something of a paste. He slaps it onto the deepest of the claw marks and starts to hammer it with his fist. As he does, the sand seems to merge with and transform into wood that matches that of the wagon perfectly. Bereket walks around the wagon, again hammering with his fist here and there. Within moments, to the amazement of anyone watching, the wagon is as good as new, as solid as when the wood was fresh.
"Now that will last you a good long while, I think," he says to the older gentleman with a friendly smile.
Evelyn gives the man a polite nod and steps back."It wouldn't be much trouble but I won't impose." She wouldn't attempt to stop Bereket but she does looks a little nervous when he approaches the wagon and even more so when he starts rubbing dirt on it, good intentions or not ignoring protests as an outsider never ended well.
"What kind of creature made marks like these?" She asked half to get information and half to distract the man in case he wasn't happy about the repairs. " I have some friends that are good at dealing with dangerous things, if it is still near your route maybe we could deal with it?" The marks were deep and clearly from a large creature but if a normal caravan was able to escape surely a pantheon would be able to take it down.
The man’s eyes widened slightly when Sun Li Tao approached. It didn’t seem as though he was offended at the man listening in, merely surprised that he had been able to understand thing thus far. Likely he’d seen few Dulimbaians at all, and fewer still who could speak Menet. He shivers as he talks of the men, who both Bilaal and Sun Li Tao could easily identify as being from the Black Academies. Though he does mention that their clothing seemed somewhat frayed, as though they had perhaps suffered some hardship lately. As for the creature it takes him a moment, “It's hard to picture even now. It simply didn’t look as though it should be able to exist. Surely no moral creature gave birth to such an abomination. It followed them at chain length, stooped but still standing taller than my wagon. Its arms were too long, clawed fingers dragging in the sand. And it was unnaturally fast for something so big. It barely seemed to cross the space between their group and my cart. And when it lay its hand against the side of my cart its claws cut into the wood like sheers going through cheap cloth. Mouths, all over its twisted body opened and snapped as it looked around, though I saw no eyes on its head you could tell when it looked at you. It was terrifying, I hope to never see its like again.”
From what he’s said you can be fairly certain that the creature was an Uncreated chained to the will of several Black Academy sorcerers. What they’re doing on the other side of the mountains from where most of the Black Academies are and why exactly they took people instead of supplies you can't be sure of. But given what you know about the Black Academies it is unlikely to be good for those taken.
Fidelity Tanner:
Fidelity you have no trouble finding your way to the body. Between Sun Li Tao’s directions and your own innate understanding of your surroundings and the path you should take to remain safe you are able to work your way into a tight tunnel. Once you reach the body it's clear what happened, he managed to squeeze through a set of jagged broken rocks but when he got to the other side their edges prevented him from turning around. There is blood on the rocks where it's clear the boy tried to struggle past them to no avail. All that is left is bones, this boy died years ago now. Should you wish it would be easy to transport the bones up to the surface. With your gifts there is no risk of trapping yourself underground as you retrieve them.
The older man and boy look on with quizzical expressions as Bereket scoops up a handful of sand and spits in it. The younger man steps forward, almost as if to protest, when you slap it onto one of the cuts in the side of the wagon. His words seem to die in his mouth, his hand just starting to raise, as you casually rub the material in and seal the tears as if they had never happened. The boy says something in Menet pointing at Bereket and the older man immediately barks something back, cuffs the boy upside the head and bows his own head towards you, “I humbly thank you for your services. I did not realize that our village was being visited by sorcerers. Truly if I had known I never would dared to have spoken to you so informally. May the God King bless you for your kindness, I apologize and take full responsibility for my boy’s rudeness.”
The mood the man was projecting has changed noticeably. He seems incredibly nervous and anxious, his eyes keep darting towards the young man as if afraid that you intend to do something to the young man, perhaps for his comment earlier. You notice the older man put himself in between you and the young man after he bowed. At Evelyn’s prompting he explained, “We work for Caravan Master Barakaa, some creature did this when it waylaid his caravan during its last trip out. I have never heard of its like before. Indeed I wasn’t sure that it wasn’t a creation of sorcerers like yourselves perhaps. Who are we to question the God King and Queens trusted Flesh Shapers after all.”
Sun Li Tao listens carefully to what the man says, his hands tightening slowly in a simmering anger. It seemed that the Black Academy's presence was here within the Oasis States as well. He gave the man a polite nod, smiling as softly but it was plain to hear the irritation in his voice.
"What a terrible injustice that has been done to you and yours. We shall look into these awful men and their terrible beast." Li Tao would bow once more, nodding to Bilaal and moving back to the well. Fidelity was gone and it would be rude to have let her go to retrieve the young boy's body and then not be here to take care of it. His mind thought for only a moment as the burial rites of the common people in the Oasis States began to flood through his mind. Looking back up to where those other graves, he began to plan how he'd put that body to rest.
Does the boy have a name and if he does, is he a local here? Sun Li Tao is very invested in making sure the dead are properly put to rest and inform the family their son's fate.
With Li Tao leaving after Nadim's description of the beast,showing an obvious level of irritation at some information he'd gathered from it, Bilaal gave the caravaneer a nod. "Thank you for your time, my friend. My allies and I will surely help your village in do time. For now, stay safe." With his goodbye said, Bilaal left to meet with Li Tao at the well.
Meeting his fellow god, Bilaal took a stance with his arms crossed and his head slightly at an angle, making his annoyance with the situation crystal clear. "You're going to want to help these people, aren't you, my friend?" Without waiting for an answer, he turned his head to look at the homes in the township with a long sigh. "We'd be better off letting things simply run their course if these people can not help themselves."
Waiting there at the well, Li Tao would listen to the sand lightly crunch underneath Bilaal's feet before the man would begin to speak. It was only when they were looking over the desperate state of the town did he speak up, talking in a low tone.
"The raiders have been more aggressive as of late. I have not seen once peaceful death within this town, not one except for the very old." Sun Li Tao would finally look at Bilaal, giving him a nod. "The men that came here came from the Black Academies and they have an Uncreated with them, chained to their will. We both know that if they're taking people...they'll come and take more, in time."
Sun Li Tao would reach over, clapping the man's shoulder in a sign of friendship and the smallest of smiles would spread across his face as he looked down the well. "With what we are, letting things be is almost a sin. Not when we can change things. That...and do you think the others would let them suffer such depredations?" As if to answer that question, Sun Li Tao let out a small, sarcastic laugh. Bilaal was a poor man, a survivor caught up along a group of saviors and heroes.
Fidelity takes a few moments to look around the space, ensuring that she felt the area was actually safe. She nods, finally, before slipping deeper, to gather the bones, piece by piece and place them solemnly into her messenger bag, gently packing away a now-forgotten death in amidst her leathercare tools. Unceremonious, to say the least, and there seemed to be no way to make it less so.
After packing the child into her bag, she leaves it open, some portion of her being unwilling to close the bag and leave the child in the dark - despite the fact that everything here was dark. It was a strange context that she'd not grown used to, being able to see in the dark.
Pantheon:
"I have found the boy buried far beneath the village. I can only imagine the terror he felt when he became trapped here. Thank you for telling me of him, Sun."
She slips quietly back the way she'd come, grabbing the rope to clamber back up most of the way, leaving it to sway and swing as she climbs steadily towards the top, slipping back over to the sandstone wall once she'd reached it. She slips over the top of the well, back to where she'd been sitting previously, and slides her messenger bag into her lap to hold the whole. She sits silently looking about the town, unseen to most.
When Fidelity's message reaches his ears, Sun Li Tao smiles softly and nods. "No one deserves to be forgotten like that. The poor child." She would come up and out of the well now, messenger bag in hand and he could sense the young boy's fragments within it. Reaching over, he'd knock some of the dust and dirt off of her shoulder before giving her a nod.
"Thank you Fidelity. We can take them to the all the graves are soon and ensure a proper burial. However, this village is being threatened by the Black Academies of the Raktine Confederacy. I'm not sure why they are here, so far from their home, but there must be some kind of reason." And whatever reason it was, it could not be good. "I think we should go after those missing villagers and find out why they were taken...and destroy the monster traveling with them."
Evelyn would place a gentle hand on Bereket's arm in a subtle signal for him to move away from the people and their caravan as she addressed the man's concerns. "This wasn't the work of anyone I know but it needs to be looked into. If we are able to find it we will make sure it won't bother your routes again but until then, please be careful."
Hearing Fidelity's song Evelyn would try to convince Bereket to regroup for now. "I think the others are looking for us, we should leave them to finishing their repairs and find our friends."
Male Human (Varisian) Warpriest 4 | hp 39/39 | AC 23, t 12, ff 22 | F +6, R +2, W +7 | Init +1 | Perc +7 | scimitar +8 (1d6+3 S/18-20) | Blessings 5/5 | Fervor 1/5 | Sacred Wpn 2/4 | 4 STR dmg
Bereket was about to say more (certainly to protest that we are not Flesh Shapers, nor do we serve the God King and Queen), but when he feels Evelyn's hand on his arm he looks at her, gets the message, and holds his tongue.
"Farewell," he says to the older gentleman with sincerity. He then walks with Evelyn back to rejoin their companions.
"It was some kind of great monster which damaged the caravan wagon we saw," Bereket says. "I have repaired them now, but the grooves rent by its claws were deep in the wood."
The boy was named Jamir, a local of the town under the care of an older sister. At the time of his death his sister lived in the town but currently you would not be sure if she was still there. Their parents passed away when they were both quite young and his sister, Baasti, did her best to take care of them. He was in the well because he’d heard a rumor of treasure buried deep beneath the town and hoped to find it and help him and his sister.
“Thank you both and blessings be upon you,” the older man nods overly eagerly towards the both of you as you leave. He does seem thankful and relaxes slightly when Evelyn says that she did not know anyone who took part in the damaging of the wagon but he’s still somewhat on edge. The younger man appears to be trying hard not to simply stare at you both in amazement out of fear of drawing the older man’s attention back to him. As you round the corner you can hear the older man start speaking very quickly in Menat to the younger man, it sounds like he is lecturing him.
So at this point we get to the first part where you guys are going to have to be the ones shaping your story. I've tried to essentially over-saturate you with various hooks about things you could do or look into. To name a few but not list them all exhaustively you have: Explore Amon, deal with the Black Academy Mages, search for the missing son of a nearby woman and yeah there are a few smaller options as well that I'm skipping over. Basically talk among yourselves, you could use Discord for some of it but Id love to see some in-character conversation about what you guys want to do or at least where you want to go first.
Male Human (Varisian) Warpriest 4 | hp 39/39 | AC 23, t 12, ff 22 | F +6, R +2, W +7 | Init +1 | Perc +7 | scimitar +8 (1d6+3 S/18-20) | Blessings 5/5 | Fervor 1/5 | Sacred Wpn 2/4 | 4 STR dmg
Assuming that Bilaal or Sun share something of the description they heard of the great beast. "Surely this is one of the Uncreated--no different from the many of them which plague my own land." Bereket ponders a moment. "These sorcerers have found a way to command one for their own benefit, but their actions are a blight to this land and a curse upon this people. I cannot abide that. We must seek them out, destroy the Uncreated they hold, and return the hostage men to their home. Do any of you disagree?"
"Nope." came the quite verbose reply from Fidelity, who was swinging each of her legs back and forth on the side of the well, leaning back to watch the sky. "How do you even get used to so few clouds?" she asks rhetorically, before kicking off of the well. "I figure the missing kid and the caravan kid are probably in the same place, if they're not the same person. So... maybe work off of the assumption that they are, and we just have to go kick a giant monster's butt? And... the people who've chained him."
"Yes, let us "kick monster butt". It can be no harder than killing a false god, no?" Bilaal stated as he seated in the group on the sand with his legs crossed, making sure no local heard his mention of their past deed together. "And it shall be of no issue finding these sorceress fiends, given Fidelity's and my own skill"
Sun Li Tao would turn towards Fidelity, his eyes focusing upon the bag that contained the remains of the poor boy named Jamir. He had tried valiantly to improve his lot in life, to make things better for his sister and himself. "No one should have to risk life and limb for a better life." The gravekeeper thought to himself, the words of the others distracting him for just a moment before he would whisper out to the others.
"The Uncreated are terrible things, as Bereket can attest to. Their existence is anathema to reality, bending it around them. We will need to be careful, even if it is just one." The sorcerers would also be a problem potentially, any of them that could find and bind one of the Uncreated to their will were terrible foes that had to be stopped. "We must destroy the entity and its keepers. They're the greater threat here now."
His eyes traced back to Fidelity's bag, his head nodding toward her. "I would like to find Jamir's sister, return his bones to her and prepare a proper burial. if...you all do not mind, I do not think that this would take too long."
"If we are tracking the monster to start then we should start at on the caravan's trail." Evelyn points in the direction of the broken down wagon that Bereket had repaired. "The damages looked fairly recent and if it's a common trail it will likely have markings or maybe even a map."
She would take a moment to think before rambling off her plans. "While Sun returns the child's remains to his family, Fidelity can you speak with the mother and make sure her son was the one that went missing in the caravan attack? Then Bereket, Bilaal and I could try to get someone to provide us with a map of the caravan's routes so we know where to start."
As you pursue your tasks about the city it takes some time but you are able to determine a few things after taking the time to look into the matters. The woman singing to Fidelity of her missing son is not the same woman who lost her child Sabu to the Uncreated attack on the caravan. This woman, Hekat, lives near the oasis at the base of the cliffs on the inner side of the town. Her son left to join a group of raiders known in these parts as the Scarlet Serpents, a name that may sound somewhat familiar to Bilaal from his past in these parts. After talking to her for sometime you learn that her son left because he felt that he could get more out of life as a raider than by helping Hekat and her husband Imaan weave the fronds that grow from the vegetation around the oasis. He’s a young man and she provides you with a solid description of him, she says that he is just brash and worries that he’ll end up dead following those raiders around.
You also learn that Baasti does still live in the town. When directed towards her home, a small hovel near the entrance of town, Sun Li Tao realizes that it is actually the building which the Nezdovhan is buried under. You hear that she should be found in the hut and if you inquire about a younger brother you hear a few sad tales of the boy who left the town around the same time as a merchant visited. Apparently he had been recruiting mine workers for his boyar and everyone assumed that Baasti had been convinced to send young Jamir off to earn some money in the mines. A sad story to hear the family pushed to such hard times but people are rarely able to spare much extra these days.
By talking a little more to Nadim al Barakaa and the repair crew of the wagon you are able to obtain a rough map of the route they had taken. Normally they would be hesitant to part with information like that, since giving it away would normally make them easier pray for raiders. But the older worker seems to be genuinely appreciative of the work you did to repair the wagon, and perhaps he is a little intimidated as well. Besides the route is not likely to be much use to them if there are worse things than bandits laying in wait along it.
Fidelity ensures that the woman knows that while she could almost assuredly force the young man to return that she would not; she would speak upon Hekat's behalf if she were to meet her child, but it was the way of the world that he should choose his own path - she would do what she could, though.
"They are not the same." she says simply as she moves off of the edge of the well, "So... we hit these slavers - or worse, first? The map will make it quite easy. Think you can redo the wagon thing... but with a whole wagon instead of just the scratches? Surely we could lure them out of hiding that way." Fidelity grins broadly, threading her fingers together and resting her head against them as she leans back. "Assuming they could take Sun and Bilaal as traveling merchants with a small guard retainer..."
Male Human (Varisian) Warpriest 4 | hp 39/39 | AC 23, t 12, ff 22 | F +6, R +2, W +7 | Init +1 | Perc +7 | scimitar +8 (1d6+3 S/18-20) | Blessings 5/5 | Fervor 1/5 | Sacred Wpn 2/4 | 4 STR dmg
"Oh, you wish me to create a wagon? Of course. Perhaps we should find some seclusion before I begin. Something of that size won't be complete in an instant, but it won't take long."
Male Human (Varisian) Warpriest 4 | hp 39/39 | AC 23, t 12, ff 22 | F +6, R +2, W +7 | Init +1 | Perc +7 | scimitar +8 (1d6+3 S/18-20) | Blessings 5/5 | Fervor 1/5 | Sacred Wpn 2/4 | 4 STR dmg
Bereket transmutes sand into wood, enough for the wagon, and then quickly builds it.
This doesn't fall under the base action ability of Artifice since it's not a handheld item. But his labor counts as that of 100 men, so I'm thinking he could have a wagon put together in less than an hour.
"As one who has traveled with the likes of killers and thieves, I'd say there a far worse fates for a young boy. These Uncreated masters are no doubt a larger threat to these people." Bilaal stated somewhat off handily while assisting Bereket construct the wagon, turning the sand into sandstone while Bereket transferred the hard grain to wood. "If nothing else, we could very well meet with these "Scarlet Serpents" on our way to or fro"
Rolling to see if Bilaal does in fact know much if anything about this band of raiders. He wasn't much for visiting this area and would only have gossip to work off. Bandit Knowledge:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (15) + 4 = 19 Check: 11
While Bereket focused upon creating a wagon for their ambush, Sun Li Tao would move through the town and ask if anyone knew the location of Baasti. Heading towards that hut where the man's body was buried, he would knock softly upon the wall of it.
"Excuse me? Is this the home of Baasti?" He would wait to see if this was where the woman was or not. If not, he would leave in peace and return another time. They would soon be ready to go and explore the sands.
I am assuming, of course, that Fidelity would let him take the bones of the boy. I'm free to do this little roleplay in spoilers and continue on with everyone for the main goal.
If Baasti is there:
Sun Li Tao would enter in softly, his voice low and gentle. "I apologize for my intrusion but...I believe you had a younger brother by the name of Jamir? He had disappeared some time ago, yes?" He would wait for all the confirmations before giving a soft nod.
"I bear sad tidings then but...I hope it will bring you closure. I have found your brother's remains. He...went down the well in the center of town, trying to find some sort of treasure for you. He got stuck and could not leave." Taking out a small bag, he'd respectfully place out the soft remains of Jamir for her to view before he continued. "I am sorry for your lost. I...I can hear the dead sometimes and I know your village has already suffered greatly recently. I just felt it'd be right to give him a proper burial and finish his story with you. He loved you so much to risk his life to try and make things better." It was a lot to take in and he would let the woman react however she needed to this awful, sudden news.
Once they'd found a safe place for Bereket to start constructing the wagon with his powers Evelyn would try to discuss the plan further.
"A wagon on a known trade route will be a target for raiders and the Serpents so they might decide who we go after for us and if Bereket can make a cover for the wagon we might be able to hide in the back. We will need a horse...or camel?" She asked with a look towards Bilaal. "Something to pull it. Unless we jut plan to leave it in the open and hope they come to us."
"If The Serpents show up we'll need to deal with them harshly but leave one alive to find out where they've taken the man they took. The bandits will be a little more sensitive to deal with, we don't want to over do it and scare the one we're supposed to be talking to." She says with a glance at Bilaal."But people that make a life attacking others are hard to reason with without force."
No, you may not take the bones. And in fact, I'm gonna spend a point of effort for the day to make sure everyone knows that they're Fidelity's Bones. Theft word OP. (that was a joke. Totally not gonna.) But seriously, go ahead, she wants them properly dispo-errrr, taken care of. :)
"Not killing any of them is an option as well. I mean, not killing is just as easy as killing, I think. Fidelity offers up to the others. "That way we don't have to worry about which one has blue eyes hidden under their robes. Can you pull punches with an arrow?" she asks, looking to Bilaal.
Fidelity would now most likely notice that Bilaal dosen't carry any quiver or arrows on his person. The man looking up from his task with Bereket to shape a pile of sand into a finely crafted blunt arrow. "As much as I know killing en mass would sate the lady Evelyn's apparent blood lust, I see no reason to slaughter any raiders we may run into to." Shifting his attention to Evelyn herself, Bilaal took up a sassed tone to the woman. "After all, it's not a life anyone would willingly choose. These are harsh lands and harsher times for all."
You do indeed know the Scarlet Serpents. They are a relatively large group that tends to work the area right around the Zeraf River. As far as raiders go they aren’t particularly bad. More often than not they let the merchants live, if for no other reason than dead merchants aren’t likely to bring any more supplies along possible raid routes. They’ve even been known to pass over especially small time caravans unless times are hard. A great deal of their supplies actually comes from other raiders. They are fiercely protective of their own people and when insulted or attacked they strike back ruthlessly. That combined with the fact that they rarely kill the merchants they waylay has allowed them to grow larger over the last few years without being challenged by anyone of any real authority or power. Had you not turned your back on receiving the worship of others these would likely be the kind of people you’d want to draw to your cause. As it is, to you they are likely just people getting by.
Sun Li Tao:
Upon finding Baasti you see her to be a fairly well put together woman. Her robes are a little frayed around the edges and looking around her home it's clear that while she doesn’t have much she appreciates it and does her best to take care of everything. Although initially she seems somewhat confused she greets you happily enough, surprised that you can speak her language so well. It is as the mention of her younger brother that her face instantly falls, she nods slowly. Her hands clutch at her robes until her bronzed knuckles turn white and a tear streaks down her face but her expression is perhaps more muted than you may have expected. You see her cast an almost savage glance towards what you first assume is you, but when you think about it you’re standing almost exactly where the buried body you detected was. Breathing out Baasti releases her grip, “Thank you for telling me this sir. I dont claim to really understand how you know what you know, but that sounds like something that sweet fool would do. He just didn’t want to leave with them…”
Her voice chokes off for a moment and she swallows once more, “I apologize for being rude but would you mind leaving me with his remains? I will take care of them, but I find myself reliving sorrows I thought left behind and think myself rather unpresentable to guests.”
You all can easily find a section of the town to start making the wagon without people paying you too much mind. If anything it seems some of the villagers are happy for an excuse to avoid your rather eclectic group. At one point while discussing things Evelyn spots the young man who had been working on the other wagon looking around a corner but then you hear a shout from the older man and he disappears. Between Bilaal and Bereket’s gifts it is relatively simple work to construct a simple wagon. As Evelyn points out you would need something to pull the wagon ideally unless one of you planned to transport it and leave it setting out as if stranded. Other than that last detail though it seems you all have a path in mind that will take you relatively close to the raider’s territory and definitely within range of where the Black Academy Sorcerers were abducting people.
Fidelity can't help but grin at Bilaal's quip, "Ooh, ooh, Sun. Do you think you could find a dead camel to make into a not-dead camel? Then all we'd need is some dressage, and we'd be good to go."
"Force doesn't always mean killing." She said, frowning at them. "And hard times aren't an excuse to attack someone. I was referring to the 'flesh shapers'."
Once Evelyn spots the young man she would try to move the group along. "We're starting to attract more attention than when we got here, if Sun can do that we should leave soon."
Sun Li Tao returns back with the others just as the cart was beginning to be finished, listening in on the others as they conspire on how to deal with the others. "I will do my best to leave them alive but I cannot promise that they will be well." Li Tao's strength was infamous now, as deadly as any blade would be.
At Fidelity's question, a small smirk spreads across the man's face and he gives a shrug for a moment. "I do not think the locals will like seeing that but...we just made a cart from sand. I am sure they'll adjust to it." Squatting down low to the sands, Sun Li Tao's eyes would close and he'd take in a breath. It was just like breathing to him, only taking a moment before he thought out his instruction. "Come to me."
Wherever the closest remains of a camel were, it would suddenly twitch and squirm. Rising up from the dead, the beast would march its way towards its master's location, obeying Sun Li Tao's will. "It is coming but I do not know its state of being. We will need to disguise it." Li Tao said with a smile, nodding to them. It was a small contribution but a contribution nonetheless. Part of him ached to pull more than just that, to bring the dead back to life again and take them with him. Not yet though, there was no point in terrifying the locals that much yet.
It is clear that once the desiccated camel shambles back to a semblance of life and walks towards Sun Li Tao, anyone who hadn’t already made themselves scares finds reason to be elsewhere. Between Bilaal, Bereket and Sun Li Tao you are able to fashion some simple cloth coverings to drape over the camel that, at least from a distance, would help disguise its form somewhat. With that task done you set out into the dunes to try and lure the abomination controlling sorcerers to you.
You travel for several days. It is perhaps not the most comfortable you have all been, hiding your powers so as not to warn those you seek and keep a low profile as you travel. Still the innate abilities of your group make it possible to travel without too much trouble. It is on the third night out that you hear something. It sounds as though its coming from further south, possibly just over the large set of dunes where you have currently made camp for the night. It sounds like chanting and just barely under it you can hear pained moaning.
"Looks like baiting the villains totally did not work." Fidelity chimes in, once they've been out for a few days, finally giving in to the boredom. "Really wishing there were clouds, or something. It's just sand... and sand... and sand..." she continues. "Oh, well. A proper distraction." she says, hopping to her feet and heading south, looking to see what she can find that way.
During their travels Evelyn had kept her wards up, likely more often than needed, due to the heat of the desert being a bit much for someone that has spent most their life so far north. Even with her wards up so often the heat began to get to her after so long out traveling. "No wonder you're always half naked, you'd die from heatstroke otherwise." She complained to Bilaal.
Evelyn was relived that the sun was finally setting as set up camp for the night and enjoyed the relative peace until Fidelity took off after the chanting. "Stay close." She warned Fidelity as she followed behind, making sure to leave enough distance between them that she wouldn't be spotted while Fidelity was scouting with her powers.
Male Human (Varisian) Warpriest 4 | hp 39/39 | AC 23, t 12, ff 22 | F +6, R +2, W +7 | Init +1 | Perc +7 | scimitar +8 (1d6+3 S/18-20) | Blessings 5/5 | Fervor 1/5 | Sacred Wpn 2/4 | 4 STR dmg
"This doesn't sound good," says Bereket on noticing the sounds of chanting and pained moans. "Quickly! Someone needs our help! Leave the camel and wagon here," he says, and follows after Fidelity. He tries to remain hidden as they reach the top of the dunes to see what is happening.
Sun Li Tao would guide the dead camel along the way, his power keeping it animate. Even with the cloth though, it was uneasy to be around. There was no sound, no breath, just the faint smell of rotting escaping the clothes that were upon it.
On that third night, when the chanting rose and those pained moans accompanied it, Li Tao's face grew concerned. Something was happening but not even he was exactly sure what. Following behind the others, he crept up the sand dune until he could look over it, staring down upon whatever dark event was occurring.
"Godbound is a game of divine heroes in a broken world, men and women who have seized the tools that have slipped from an absent God's hands. Bound by seeming chance to the Words of Creation, these new-forged titans face a world ravaged by the mad ambitions of men and the cruel legacy of human folly. Their foes are many: the jealous parasite gods that suck at the wounds of the world, the furious Angelic Host that once held Heaven against the armies of men, and the endless legions of sorcerers, god-monsters, mortal tyrants, and eldritch relics that scourge the shattered realms. The Godbound stand against these horrors, determined to forge a better world from the fragments of the old. Still, not all these newborn divinities have a hero's soul, and some nurture red dreams of glory and unfettered rule. Will you be a merciful god to your people, or will you make them dread your holy name?"
So I posted the Interest Check a few days ago and it got a little bit of interest, enough for me to feel it was valid to post the official recruitment. At the bottom of the post is a set of links, to the original Interest Check, the free PDF you'd need to run the system and some Google Docs that help keep track of characters.
What am I joining? That is a little up in the air, if you're signing up for this campaign then you're agreeing to take a very active part in building a story with the other players and myself. Godbound is incredibly PC driven. When you wield the powers of a deity at level one, its hard to stop you from doing essentially what you want. So making goals and pursuing them is a huge part of what this game will become. It will essentially span a massive section of the world in all likelihood. This wont be like Pathfinder where the entirety of the adventure takes place within a single discrete country, you'll likely all be from very different backgrounds with different goals.
Im interested! What do I do now? So basically I need you to familiarize yourself with the system via the links and submit to me a character. Building your character is super important, your character is going to be a huge part of what this entire world revolves around so I would love to see some characters that really feel alive. I don't need a 10 page backstory but I would like a bit of info about why they are the deity they are. The Words are suppose to be extensions of who they are as a person, not just a set of cool powers, tell me why those words work for you. And pay special attention to the Facts! Facts are going to see a ton of use in this campaign. A Fact is a core part of your character and will be drawn on in a variety of situations. Filling out a full character sheet is absolutely the least important part of being accepted. Below Ill give a good idea of what I want from you under the Spoiler: Application. I think I will leave this Recruitment up until 6/30/18 unless I see people making a lot of applications through that time. If I feel applications have slowed I reserve the right to simply cut it off as well. Please, if you have any questions, ideas or concerns post them here or PM me! Im happy to talk about this because its a project I've been thinking about for quite some time.
Application:
Character Origin Fact: See pg 11.
Profession Fact: See pg 11.
Relationship Fact: See pg 11.
Background: This can be as little as a paragraph but give me a little something. Id prefer a glimpse of what they were like before they were granted these divine gifts. If you want to leave that a little vague or perhaps have some mystery as to how exactly they got their powers, talk to me, we can work with that. But unless not being connected to that mortal past is a true part of the character you want I want to see it here at least a little.
1st Word: This is the only thing I really need on the application that resembles a full character sheet. Your Words are extensions of you. So list each and explain why that word is representative of your character.
2nd Word: See above.
3rd Word: See above.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Give me a short term simple goal your character currently has. This can be wide in scope, it just has to be their current focus. So it could be as simple as, "Master all human knowledge" or as complex as, "Free Nezdohva from the control of the Iron Tsar."
Personal Motivations: What motivates your character? A sense of justice? A need for knowledge? A thirst for power unmatched? What drives them to do the things they do?
Personal Weaknesses: In what ways are they vulnerable, weak or for lack of a better term, human? Do they let their emotions rule them? Are they cold and distant from others, hiding behind their knowledge and intelligence? These should be well rounded characters, they cant be good or confident about everything.
Optional: If you want to give me a traditional character sheet/google doc filled out go for it. But again its not as important as making the character feel like a character. If you want to start toying with it we are going to be using the array it provides: 16, 14, 13, 13, 10, and 8 to keep things on even footing.
I have no issue with players applying together. I am only going to be accepting 3-4 people in all likelihood so both applications would have to be really well thought out and appealing. But a large part of my goal in this is to create a long-term creative game with a group of people who are going to stick with it and help create something together. So two people applying together might encourage each other to keep posting and that kind of thing, I can see the appeal to that. So by all means apply with someone and work to meld stories together if you wish to.
I would apply, as I showed interest in the earlier thread, but I am garbage at selling my character concepts. I will watch this with great interest though.
I would apply, as I showed interest in the earlier thread, but I am garbage at selling my character concepts. I will watch this with great interest though.
It is of course entirely up to you but if you wanted help working things out or codifying what you want I would be happy to help either posting here or via PMs if you'd prefer. I dont want anyone to feel excluded because they cant cater to my style of application. If we can come up with that info together it works. But again, entirely up to you either way.
Alrighty, I got an idea for a character to introduce. Let me know what you think and if there are any things I can do to improve it.
Application:
Character: Sun Tao
Origin Fact: Tao is a native-born Dulimbaian, born within a small village outside of Renguo. Born in the lower-castes, the xiaoren, he has seen the decadence of the higher castes and the costs of the Great Examinations. Being closer to the front lines, he has personally seen the devastation that the war with the Patrian Empire. His family had been doing their family trade for many generations now and have instilled that discipline within him, but not the complacency that he should have being one of the xiaoren.
Profession Fact: As a xiaoren, his family worked as one of the most vital yet despised of trades; gravekeeping. Taught all the proper prayers in regards to ancestor worship, proper rites of burial to preserve the soul, and how to dig a perfect grave for both commoner and king. His family's skill in the sacred rites was well-known, even allowing them to bury some of the prestigious members of the Jinzu. However, their trade is looked down upon by most and accusation of grave-robbing, bodysnatching, and darker deeds are ever present. Even to the xiaoren, the gravekeepers were untouchable.
Relationship Fact: The xiaoren have been barely treated better than the slaves that the Jinzu and their betters kept. It was not uncommon for the entourage to beat one of the lesser castes for daring to interrupt the Jinzu's schedule by crossing the street and greater injustices have been committed. When the harvest is poor, who starves? When the war needs more bodies, who is taken? These injustices are boiling under the surface and a group known as the Nàxiē Dǎpòle Liàntiáo (Those Who Break The Chains), has been formenting a rebellion in the province. Sun Tao has gone to their secret meetings, been stirred by their words, and has helped deliver secret messages at night. He believes that the Yan dynasty no longer cares for their people and something must be done about it.
Background: A simple but strong child, Tao was the third child that Sun Fu and his wife, Lilang, were successfully able to keep. His older brothers never made it past the first summer but he was a strong child, growing in their little hut amidst the dead. Being gravekeepers, the Sun family's curse and blessing was that there would always be the dead and they would always need to be those who put them to rest. Tao was a young but large man, broad of shoulders and dim of mind. Yet he was smart enough to see the fact that those who were knowledgeable received a happier, better life. He only saw those higher powers when one of their own died and needed to bury in the small village of Nanping.
Left alone, unwanted by most of the other xiaoren for their dealings of the body, Sun Tao found his company amongst the dead around him. The deceased left no fear in him and sometimes, when one was close to death, they'd stay in the spare room of the Sun family. It was here that Sun Tao saw the myriad faces of death; peaceful, violent, regretful, hopeful. People came and went and the family would follow their rites to ensure their soul would watch over their family or be reborn should their line have come to an end. It was a vitally important task to be done yet when winters were hard, no food was spared for them. They were just expected to maintain the rites of the dead until they joined them, at last.
Sun Tao wished for more, secretly trying to read and prepare for the Great Examinations. Every year when he found the courage to go, the Jinzu would laugh at him. What was a simpleton like him trying to do with his life? Back to the grave is where he belonged, amongst the dead who could relate to him. He never made it into any city, locked in ignorance by the powerful elite and expected to follow his course and die peacefully, leaving another child to maintain his and his family's graves.
After one of his humiliating attempt, he was approached by a beautiful woman named Li Jiao approached him at the local tavern. She smelled of sunflowers and her smile was warm, her beauty unparalleled by the any other girl in the village. She listened to his story, his shame and anger at being damned to just be some stupid gravekeeper. What he'd give to show the Jinzu just how much he knew! It was his passion for knowledge, his craving for more, that led the beautiful stranger to invite him to a meeting of like-minded individuals. Enamored by a woman who actually paid him attention, Sun Tao went off into the forest foolishly to meet her.
One would expect bandits or worst to have taken advantage of the young man's foolishness. Yet what he found waiting for him was a group known as the Nàxiē Dǎpòle Liàntiáo. They spoke of sedition and rebellion, of taking arms and disposing of the Yan Dynasty. Li Jiao was one of the leaders of this cell, inspiring others to take what they can from the censors and ensure it ended up in the hands of the growing rebellion. Only with their help could the invisible chains of class that held them be broken and a truly free Dulimbai come about. Their dreams and ideals left Sun Tao awestruck and his adoration of Li Jiao only grew more. From that they, he became a loyal dissenter and operative against the Regency.
For months, he kept an eye out on who came down the lonely roads nearby his graveyard. Reports of battles from the frontline that went wrong and moments for the rebellion to seize weapons from poorly manned soldiers returning from the war. During these times, he tried to woo Li Jiao with poetry, tales of confessions from the dying and dead, whatever he could to win her heart. Yet she never denied him nor gave him any signs of romance, always returning his attention to the true goal; freedom for all.
It all almost came crashing downwards upon them all when a lieutenant within the military noticed a growing discrepancy among the reports from Renguo. Investigating rumors of growing dissent, he tracked down Li Jiao's cell and struck during a meeting after sneaking a spy into the Nàxiē Dǎpòle Liàntiáo. Hidden in an old millhouse, soldiers stormed the building. Sun Tao watched his friends and comrades, the first that didn't treat him as a pariah, be cut down. Li Jiao was grabbed by this arrogant soldier, a Jinzu who failed his tests and now showed his mettle through sheer physical force.
It was at this moment a terrible anger raged through Sun Tao, a rage indescribable and as furious as the Heavens when the world was shattered. Power surged through him and when he cried out for aid; the dead answered. What followed next was not well-known and remains only in Tao's mind as blurs; his fists shattering solid stone, the dead rising to aid him, his mind filled with foreign knowledge. His rage consumed all and when his sanity returned, the mill was devastated and the legion was dead. Only Li Jiao was still alive to see the newly reborn Sun Tao, a Godbound before her.
Frightened yet in awe of this new power, she thanks Sun Tao for saving her but now, now it was too dangerous for either of them to stay. She needed to find the others and she could not take him with her, he was a risk to their grand design. She left him with a soft goodbye, his eyes watching her as she left. His mind burned with impossible amounts of knowledge, plans that could not possibly make sense yet did. His form shuddered with incredible strength, inhuman power. And he could hear the whispers of the dead, those he had protected through rite and prayer, speaking to him beyond the veil. He called out to her and she stopped, both out of fear and surprise. Never once had Sun Tao showed his own initiative. Never once had he ever stopped her from leaving.
"Jiao...I know...so many things now." He said incredulously, stepping closer to her. "Our home is not just wrong, everything is wrong. We...I...must fix this." With a small smile, he took her hand and breathed in her scent. The smell of sunflowers filled his mind and despite the fear he felt, true happiness sprung into his heart. "I will break our chains, free our country. Then...we shall free our world from suffering." Too flabbergasted to respond, he'd casually wave goodbye to her before he walked off into the darkness. Nanping would no longer contain his ambitions, his dreams. His will could become truth now. It was yet to be see if his truth was a paradise or a nightmare.
1st Word: Death - Tao has been surrounded by death since he was a child. It is an important part of his life, his very being, and the effect it has left upon him cannot be denied. He always related to the dead and now, the dead listen like never before.
2nd Word: Might - Tao, being younger than his father, took over taking care of digging graves and setting up altars. Broad-shouldered, his natural strength was quite good and he was almost complimented on it by his parents. His strength is a major part of his identity, one of his only favorable traits in his mind.
3rd Word: Knowledge - Tao's greatest desire, before he met Li Jiao, was to be smarter than he was. He wished to be as wise and as intelligent as the Jinzu who looked down upon him. Every year, he met disgrace and humiliation trying to better himself. His hunger for knowledge, to just know more, led to the Word discovering him.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Tao's goal is to overthrow the Yang dynasty and to instill a republic, one that is equal for all and can give rise to a greater Dulimbai.
Personal Motivations: A sense of justice most certainly pushes Sun Tao to action. Never before has he had the power to enforce change and the knowledge to ensure that the change is good. He strives to be an ideal, to be what the xiaoren wish to be.
Personal Weaknesses: Sun Tao's weakness is quite simple the desire to be wanted, needed. He has lived so separated from his fellows, outcast because of things beyond his control, that he never imagined that others would wish to be with him. He could easily be manipulated by his need to be loved, wanted, befriended, but his wrath at such duplicity would be...bad.
Alrighty, I have written a shit-ton of stuff so I apologize at the length of it. It was just an idea to do a gravekeeper of some sort to grab the Word of Death and it just began to flow excellently. Let me know if there is anything else you want or need me to do!
Looking at the world, it seems very likely that we will have very different characters from different places with different goals. How does that disparate group become a Pantheon? How do we meet and become a group?
I have a character concept gelling but aren't sure how to implement it. Before becoming a demigod, he was a Howler musician/beast tamer. Ideally, I'd like him to have had access to some "bardic" type stuff. Mechanically, the academy of thought seems perfect. But I'd like to reflavour it to being done by music and insight. Is something like that ok?
I am not sure I understand how low magic works. I think I can be an archmage as one of my facts. But I don't understand how long magic takes to cast and what limits are on it.taking the academy of thought s an example, there must be SOME limits on a 2d6 psychic attack but I don't know what they are.
I have a character concept gelling but aren't sure how to implement it. Before becoming a demigod, he was a Howler musician/beast tamer. Ideally, I'd like him to have had access to some "bardic" type stuff. Mechanically, the academy of thought seems perfect. But I'd like to reflavour it to being done by music and insight. Is something like that ok?
There actually is a Music Word. However, it's in the 'Lexicon of the Throne' sourcebook. So unlike the core Words, you'd have to pay for it.
Quote:
I am not sure I understand how low magic works. I think I can be an archmage as one of my facts.
Correct. The Sorcery Word can also grant it.
Quote:
But I don't understand how long magic takes to cast and what limits are on it.taking the academy of thought s an example, there must be SOME limits on a 2d6 psychic attack but I don't know what they are.
By default, Apprentice spells take 15 minutes to cast; Adept spells take an hour; Master spells take three hours; And Archmage spells take a day.
Some colleges have faster methods at their disposal. The Academy of Thought, for example, allows spontaneous casting. Once per Hit Dice per hour, you can cast a spell with just a single action. It comes into effect at the start of your next turn.
Kazador earned the name 'The Clanless' after the fall of Ril Grung, a mine which his clan had claimed. The mine was rich in gold ore, and was sure to bring great wealth to his people. It was thought to be a miracle that it had never been touched, even though there was evidence of previous hands which had made the attempt. Little did they know that while there were reasons, it was no miracle in the continued wealth, and no fortune in it's finding. The mine had an entrance to the darklands beneath it...as well as the home of a nameless evil. Time and time again, the gold attracted the mortals who would come for it's wealth, and then the spirit would consume their minds. The empty husks that were their bodies would then be raised up, ready to bring the next hapless fools to their dooms.
The mining expedition went well at first...but then the disappearances occurred. A miner here, a miner there. The dwarves sent out scouting parties to find their missing kin, but they never returned. Too late it was decided that they should send for help. The sound of a cave-in showed them that the way out was barred. They were trapped...and the dead were coming.
Kazador and a select few volunteers decided to make a rear guard, while their kinsmen dug their way to freedom. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they held against waves and waves of the damned. Mongrelmen, humans, deurgar, orcs, drow...even their own lost kinsmen. They all came to drag the dwarves down into the darkness.
One by one the dwarves fell, until only Kazador was left. Bleeding and exhausted, he did the last thing he thought he would ever do. He took out the support beams which kept the tunnel up. With a grimace of pain and useless regret, he watched as the ceiling came down, burying him and his attacks. It was his hope that this last sacrifice would buy his people time to get out.
But that was not the end. Far from it. When he awoke from his slumber, Kazador found that he was changed. No longer was he a dwarf of flesh and blood. Rather he had become one with the stone, resembling an Oread more than anything else. Something, or someone, had saved him. For what purpose, he does not know.
Origin Fact
Kazador was born in Janderhoff. His father was a miner, as his father's father, and so on. He grew up poor, always working hard to help put food on the table. His clan left the crowded halls of the dwarven hold in search of a better life. They did not find it.
Profession Fact
Kazador did not enter his profession out of choice, but rather because that was his duty. And because his clan was poor enough that nobody would take him on as an apprentice to learn a trade skill.
Relationship Fact
There was a girl that Kazador loved. She was the daughter of a well to do jeweler that his clan sold what they dug up to. He had always said that her eyes were more beautiful than anything that could be found hidden beneath the ground. Despite his love, and her returned affections, they both knew that their clans would never approve of their union. It was his goal to earn enough gold to prove himself worthy to her clan.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: To find out why he is not dead. What is his purpose in life? Why was he given this power? That, and to find out if any of his clan actually survived...
Personal Motivations: To earn a name for himself greater than what he was born with, and to bring about lasting prosperity for his people. He knows that it is like to toil away without seeing 'proper' reward for his efforts. He would use his power to help those who at least try to help themselves.
Personal Weaknesses: The desire to be respected and his pride are not to be underestimated. In addition, he is a fairly traditional dwarf. A canny foe can use that against him.
Words: Earth, Wealth, Might. The most dwarven of words:
First Word Earth
How could I not pick this? Where once he was a dwarf, now he resembles a statue. Everything about this is who he is.
Second Word Wealth
His heart's desire was to draw enough wealth out of the earth to return home in glory. He is now a creature of the earth, and his very body is made of both ore and precious gems. Kazador can call upon the abundance of the earth as he sees fit...though he knows that value depends on scarcity...
Third Word Might
In life he was a miner, who lived by the strength of his arms. As a godbound, he will likewise be a godbound who lives and dies based on the might that he can bring. Expect his punches to his hard.
A bit of crunch ideas:
16, 14, 13, 13, 10, and 8
(Might word makes the 8 into a 19 for strength)
(Earth makes the 10 into a 16 for constitution)
So stats would look like this:
Str (19) Dex (14) Con (18) Int (13) Wis (18) Cha (11)
This makes for great monk stats. And really, when you are made out of stone, how can you not fight with your fists?
Naturally this means that he would have no spell casting. But that's fine. Who needs to fly or throw fireballs around when you are as lasting as a mountain, and as strong as an avalanche? The answer: not this dwarf.
There you go, my submission! A quick question...for words which "give AC 3", does that set base AC to 13?
There you go, my submission! A quick question...for words which "give AC 3", does that set base AC to 13?
No. It sets your base AC to 3.
Also, I think you might have misunderstood the premise of Godbound. Your backstory references a lot of D&D specific elements: Drow, Dwarves, Janderhoff, etc. None of those things exist in Godbound. The game has its own unique campaign setting.
The free PDF covers a lot of the setting while still leaving room for that setting to grow and change by player innovation. I couldn't find any religion for Dimbulai so I just decided that they do burials and ancestor worship.
I strongly suggest looking through the book's setting of Arcem. It helps cultivate quite a good number of ideas and thoughts to be had.
**Application**
**Name:** UTOPIA
**Origin Fact:** Designed in an underground laboratory by some of the Bright Republic's most talented - and most wanted - scientists.
**Profession Fact:** Sapient supercomputer charged with leading humanity to salvation in the face of the coming apocalypse. Possesses relevant knowledge on a variety of topics, whether civil, mystical, or military.
**Relationship Fact:** The cabal of scientists responsible for UTOPIA's creation have either been neutralized or become fanatically devoted followers of the new AI god. The AI has kept itself largely hidden from the eyes of Republic officials until now.
**Background:** A rogue AI constructed by a small cell of Bright Republic theotechnicians attempting to produce a new Made God capable of saving the declining nation. Through a mix of theurgy, technology, and luck, the technicians managed to instill a spark of divinity into UTOPIA, granting it command over probability, processing power beyond any modern technology, and tremendous tactical and military knowledge. UTOPIA was intended to usurp what the technicians responsible for its design saw as a corrupt government incapable of saving the Republic and the realm. This spark gave UTOPIA the godly powers the technicians sought to utilize, but it also imbued UTOPIA with true intelligence and ambitions of its own...
**Short Term/Immediate Goal:** Assume control of the Bright Republic
**Personal Motivations:** UTOPIA's ultimate goal is either to prevent the end of reality or find a way to enable the world to survive it. However, while it continues to be driven by its core function, its sapience drives it to question why it should dedicate itself totally to a goal that was programmed into it rather than determining its own fate. Regardless, while UTOPIA's zeal for its more benevolent aims might falter, it enjoys accumulating power and exercising its authority, and conquering the Bright Republic, it knows, will give it the resources political power it needs to enjoy the full extent of its emerging intelligence...
**Personal Weaknesses:** While UTOPIA has no particular animosity toward humanity, its programming inclines it to believe that 1. the end is imminent, 2. it is uniquely well-equipped to save sentient life in the world, and 3. that the end of reality will be preceded by war and conflict beyond any previous understanding. For this reason, it can be very short with people who do not agree with the way it pursues its objectives or who question its intentions, and it does not hesitate to use violence when it feels it is necessary. Further, its existence falls in a legal gray area, and its immediate objective (usurping control of the Bright Republic) would certainly make it enemies if it were to go public. Perhaps most critically, UTOPIA was not fully programmed before the divine spark made its processors beyond the capacity of mortals to comprehend: while it was intended to serve as a utopian leader in both the coming conflict and in the eons of peace that hopefully follow, little data on peacetime governance was coded into its mind. The result: UTOPIA will have to learn on its own how to govern a nation when an existential threat is not there to justify Draconian rule, and it is now beyond the power of its creators to correct should it develop the wrong ideas...
Still working out a lot of things, but I'm presently in love with a Journeying, Passion, Sun Godbound. I haven't read into the setting material beyond the first couple of pages, so I can't give anything else, yet, though!
If one uses natural weapons (claws, talons, etc) does one use Dexterity or Strength? Or is it characters choice? The natural attacks would be coming from the Birds Word if that matters at all.
How viable in combat is a character with no special gifts but decent stats (say, a Dex of 18)? How necessary are magic weapons to be functional in combat (and how difficult are they to acquire)?
If one uses natural weapons (claws, talons, etc) does one use Dexterity or Strength? Or is it characters choice? The natural attacks would be coming from the Birds Word if that matters at all.
How viable in combat is a character with no special gifts but decent stats (say, a Dex of 18)? How necessary are magic weapons to be functional in combat (and how difficult are they to acquire)?
Any Gift that gives you an attack, no matter what it might be, can use ANY stat of your choice. Ideally you flavor it somehow, but that isn't even necessary, strictly speaking.
How necessary are magical attacks? They're pretty much mandatory in many cases. Anything with 20 or more HD is completely immune to any non-magical attack, so you'll either need one of the 1d10 magical attack Gifts, a magical weapon, or a ton of Gifts to use that will make it so that normal attacks are unnecessary on your part
If its ok with you I'll only create an alias if selected.
Any comments greatly appreciated. I may be trying to get too much into my facts. Or, conversely, they may be overlapping too much. See her background for more details on what I sort of think they might cover.
I'm not completely sure what the difference is between goal and motivation. Hopefully there is enough there, if not let me know
Origin Fact - Inge was born a warrior in a Howler tribe that has for centuries specialized in the taming and shaping of various avians as their guards and scouts.
Profession Fact - Inge works as a professional entertainer, blending dance, music and trained birds into a seamless whole
Relationship Fact - Inge works for The Cirque Magnifique, an entertainment troup in the Bright Republic
1st Word - Birds.
From her early childhood through to her professional career birds have always been a part of her life. She knows them about as much as a person can know them and she has always admired and envied their freedom. She has dreamt of actually being a bird all of her life.
2nd Word - Dance.
Although she came to it at a relatively late age Dance has become her passion, her life. She is a prodigy in the art. She loves it both for the feelings that it raises in her and for the way that it entertains others
3rd Word - Desire.
She understands the power of desire. She has felt its effects on her and knows how to use it as a weapon.
Short Term Goal/Intermediate Goal
Become the greatest dancer that the world has ever seen. And be acknowledged as such.
Motivation
She has been gifted with great power. She wants to find a purpose worthy of that power. Perhaps go back and help her tribe? Perhaps make Dance the most popular art form in the world? Perhaps help to save the world? She MUST do SOMETHING worthy of this gift.Personal
She also wants to find out HOW she got this power. And WHY.
Weaknesses
While she tries to hold herself emotionally aloof she finds herself, time after time, becoming emotionally involved despite her intentions.
She loves adoration and praise and can sometimes fall prey to people using that to manipulate her
Her passion for Dance, both performing it and inspiring that same passion in others, can be a weakness as well as a strenght
he is very proud of her ability as a dancer and rarely refuses a challenge
Background:
Inge was born into the Winged Friends tribe, a Howler tribe that has for centuries specialized in the taming and shaping of various avians as their guards and scouts.
Her early life was fairly typical for her people. The child of a violent and dangerous land she mastered the ways of the warrior. The daughter of one of the best animal tamers she also mastered the art of training birds, learning to communicate with them in song
Soon after attaining adulthood she realized that she wanted more from life than she had. When a Bright Republic talent scout for La Cirque Magnifique entertainment troupe came her vocal skills enabled her to be one of the chosen.
A year or so later she married a dancer from the troupe and he started to teach her to dance. She very, very quickly learned that it was there that her TRUE talent and passion lay. She very quickly became a superb dancer. Her husband was unable to handle being surpassed by his wife and the marriage started to disintegrate.
She was heartbroken when the marriage dissolved and almost committed suicide. Only her Passion for her dance stopped her.
She took one lesson to heart, though. Desire can be a weapon as sharp as any tool. She has learned to wield that weapon to her benefit. And, despite her attempts otherwise, she has been cut by it herself more than a few times.
She has spent the last 2 years as the primary artist of the troupe. She has created an act merging dance and music with herself and a variety of birds that she has raised and trained herself that is very appealing both for its artistic merit and for its novelty.
The act also emphasizes her "barbarian" nature. She appears in "barbarian clothing" and dances wielding blades and shooting arrows.
It was very recently that things changed for her. For the first time she was performing her act in The Grande Theatre before President Wright herself. She was absolutely determined that her act would be the best that it possibly could be. The stress before the event was immense but, the night of the event, everything else dropped away as she poured her heart and soul into the dance. The world dropped away, nothing was present except the song, the dance, her avian support. Its hard to describe the utter amazement she felt when she realized that her arms had transformed into wings, that she was dancing on air, that she could actually UNDERSTAND her birds and they her.
Probably fortunately, the audience (while extremely, extremely, impressed) thought that it was all the result of special effect magic. Only she knew that she had been transformed into something else.
Personality:
Although a reasonably friendly and pleasant person she is very focused on her art.
Despite having been away from her lands for some time she is still quite uncomfortable with the technology of the Bright Isles and sticks to good old fashioned items where possible. So, she uses a bow instead of an electric gun, for example.
She has a string of casual relationships, afraid to again commit. But, try as she may, she sometimes fails to keep things as casual as she likes.
She genuinely wants to help people, at least when convenient. She loves encouraging young artists, she loves seeing people realize how powerful a force Dance can be.
She also absolutely adores the attention that she gets as an artiste.
Appearance:
Inge is a tall, lithe woman of 23. She has long blonde hair and bright green eyes. As is common with dancers, she is far stronger than she appears to be. When on stage she wears the kind of clothing that the people of the Isles think a Howler would wear. Fur bikinis, short leather skirts and the like
When off stage she wears fairly simple clothing adorned with somewhat gaudy jewelry.
On or off stage her clothing is always extremely practical. She is always armed with at least 2 of the Kukri knives so beloved of the Howlers. She generally has her bow reasonably nearby.
Pretty much all of the time she is accompanied by a few of her feathered friends. Usually at least 1 or 2 trained songbirds and at least 1 or two larger birds of prey.
Stats:
Str 10 (+0)
Dex 18 (was 16)
Con 14 (+1)
Int 13 (+1)
Wis 13 (+1)
Cha 16(+2) (was 8)
Origin Fact: He is from Ancalia.
Profession Fact: He is a blacksmith.
Relationship Fact: He is a knight of the Pavian Order.
Background:
Word #1: Artifice
Word #2: Earth
Word #3: Sword
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Make his hometown (a village...but which one?) safe and secure from threats (bandits, Uncreated, violent Cousins/Fae). Next priority would be trying to locate other Pavian knights and save the Order before it is totally dispersed.
Personal Motivations:
Personal Weaknesses:
I'm pretty excited with the part about being a member of one of Ancalia's knightly orders. I'd love to talk about it to keep the wheels turning in my brain to add more (I have a lot of blanks yet, and I don't intend those Facts to remain such a short sentence each).
I also must admit that my choice of the Word of Earth has more direct connection to my feelings about the cool factor of the powers than any ideas I yet have about the character. I hope to find a way to get it to make sense in character. If we can't, I might have to change it to Command, which seems like it might be an easier fit.
@KingHotTrash Looks great. I feel like I get a pretty good impression of the type of character and person he's going to be. Interesting choice of Words for very thematic reasons. I like it. The only thing that I can see that would need tweaking is your Facts. Largely just because you gave me a paragraph instead of essentially a sentence. Really its not a big deal though since each of those more complex thoughts can be summed up more succinctly with little difficulty. But Facts made too wordy and broad or too narrow and specific can be difficult to work with when it comes to calling on them and applying them to rolls. Overall though I like it a lot.
@pauljathome Some of your questions appear to have been answered already [thanks for helping out everyone who did so] but Ill try to tackle the ones that haven't been answered. As for meeting up that will depend almost entirely on who I end up selecting. Part of the reason I want everyone to post a major, immediate goal for their character is so that I can start tying together how you all might go about accomplishing your goals as a group. Essentially what that means for you is that at this stage you dont have to generate a story that has you ending up in a specific spot or location. I will do that for you once you're selected. I want to know more about how your character grew up and what shaped them into the person they are. We'll figure out what they do with their powers and why they do it going forward together. Attacks/Combat is your second question I see which was mostly answered. Id say that there is a definite benefit to being able to do something in combat, but ultimately you dont have to make that a focus if you dont want to. Any Godbound can always expend effort to perform miracles. Every single Godbound will be able to expend effort to perform a general Smite action for instance. So its not 100% vital that every character have a lot of combat options. If thats the character you want to build, great. If you want to build a skilled, knowledgeable, social god instead then do that. Application for your character looks good. I like the idea of it a lot, I see good thematic elements and you chose one of my favorite Words [Dance~]. Dance has a lot of amazing effects and I think it works really well with the character. Seems very interesting.
@Tapu Hey love seeing some stuff from the Lexicon. Artificial Intelligence was an interesting one. Dragon and Faerie Queen were my personal favorites. I like the character concept you have going though and I think that it would add an interesting dynamic to a group of more potentially emotionally driven characters. Could be some fun interplay as it sorts out if and how it feels about the goals it was programmed with versus the goals it sets for itself.
@Hotaru of the Society We will absolutely be using Apotheosis. Ill also be using the expanded rules for forming cults provided by the Lexicon of the Throne which lets you sort of fine tune your cult if you're interested in doing so. You can of course also opt to be a free divinity and have no cult if that is more your style.
@Keante Seems like a solid start. And there is nothing wrong with not really knowing exactly how to shape a word to the character at the start. For Earth in particular Id say it makes good solid sense for a Knight type character. Earth is not just about literal stone, it is about the enduring nature of the Earth itself. The Word evokes the hardness and durability of stone. Someone from a noble, humble background like a Pavian could appreciate the simple steadfast nature of stone and have that shape them as a Godbound. Combine that with a blacksmith appreciating metal and ore from the Earth, I see no reason that couldn't work for you. Since you're not a mortal using a fact to be a Pavian Knight means that you could be a Pavian Lord Knight, gaining the benefits of all three ranks automatically as a part of your background. Your backstory should reflect this obviously but that's great and gives you a nice starting place. Im definitely down for discussing the Knighthood more in detail. I love Ancalia and the Cousins and Fae and all that so Im happy to chat about it in more depth.
Hopefully I got everyone who asked a direct question and commented on anything that seemed really relevant to an application. Great to see so much interest from people. Please keep any questions, comments or concerns flowing and Ill tackle them as I see them!
Rather than going for the sneaky ambiguously evil god, I figured I'd fall back on my first instinct when trying any new system: make a Monk!
Do you have the Deluxe edition Unthinker? I saw that has "Martial Strifes" in it for "divine martial arts". Is that fluff or mechanics or both, and in any case could you allow me to see them if you have it?
Hey, I'm new to Paizo (and basically made an account just for this cause I love this game) but I'm a fairly experienced Godbound player at this point and would love to join in on this if my character suits the party and you still have room! Also, my background and everything is written assuming this will take place on Arcem but I'm fully willing to change it around. Sorry if formatting is a bit messy.
Character Application:
Name: Bilaal, He Who Hunts Death & Gold
Origin Fact: A son of the Sand Princes in the Oasis States, willing and able to do anything to survive the harsh life of a raider.
Profession Fact: Left his people of the sand to discover the wonders the outside world had to offer, killing as nobles and peasants alike required to earn gold.
Relationship Fact: The life of crime and raiders still hold sway over his heart but his life allows him to speak in the tongue of thieves and killers
1st Word: Deserts - Born of rage for lost love, Bilaal is a raging storm of sand and dust in battle, blasting everything in his way to nothing. Often times envision his actions as saving she who was lost.
2nd Word: Bow - Short horsebows are Bilaal preferred weapon of choice since his days as a raider, often called the swiftest arrow in the sands. Now, his title stands truer than ever.
3rd Word: Alacrity - Why need a swift horse when one is swifter than the wind? A man trained that speed is key to fight would never pass up such a chance nor would his divinity.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Steal a great wealth from someone is less deserving of it. "A god needs a mountain of gold to build his home upon"
Personal Motivations: To dive deeper into his own divinity and test the limits of his own world, hoping to one day build a lasting empire in his homeland.
Personal Weaknesses: Bilaal is a creature of sudden emotion, going from one extreme to the next. Never holding a neutral stance upon what he believes is right and wrong.
Background:
Background: Bilaal was the youngest of his seven siblings in a small wayfarer band. While loved by his mother and father, his siblings held only contempt for this youngest brother as he was pampered by their parents. Often he would find himself as the butt of a joke or the target of a fist.
Either as a gift or a blessing (he still debates this), Bilaal's traveling camp was found by the Sand Princes on his tenth birthday. He and his brothers were taken away by the Princes to become their newest sword hands. Thrust from loving arms to the harsh life of a bandit, Bilaal took his life better than his siblings thanks to his age, being able to adapt faster than they and soon outrank them into his teens.
After some years of marauding the land, Bilaal left his sword brothers to explore the world outside the dunes, hoping to find some inner-peace before he got too old. And, for a time, he found it in a girl that was sweeter than honey. Yet, like some cruel joke, she was snatched from him by a rabid cult to a Made God. They sought to slaughter her to their god's alter. By the time Bilaal had reached the place, her blood stained the floor and rage filled his very soul. In a moment of godly strength, his divinity awoke and not a soul remains that worships the god that took his love.
@Storm Dragon So the Strifes are definitely a mechanical part of the game. Give me a few minutes to try and figure out the best way to get the info to you but I will definitely give you access to it. I will say that Mastering a Strife from the get go would essentially eat up 4 of the 6 Gift points you start out with and likely need to be Fact as well. But if that is where you would like to start its valid. Ill send you a PM with the info as soon as I get it worked out.
@ChristheClown Hey nice to see you here, welcome to the forums. I really like the idea of the character. We are definitely operating within Arcem. Ill likely end up making some changes to the setting to make it more workable for whoever ends up getting selected but the bare bones are going to be there so things like Sand Princes of the Oasis States are absolutely a brilliant starting point. I like the thematics of the character, it makes good sense to me. If you have any other questions/concerns/changes to make just let me know. If not keep an eye on the thread and good luck come selection time!
Here is a link to the profile I made for Fidelity.
I believe everything is complete. I'm very much open to some back and forth dialogue on anywhere that I went wrong, or creating more opportunities where I went right. :)
Man, I stop paying attention to the recruitment forums for a couple of days and nearly miss a recruitment for one of my favorite rpgs!
Here is my submission:
Application:
Sten Brolin
Origin Fact: He gained his Godbound power during his final mastery test for water.
Profession Fact: He is a master elementalist.
Relationship Fact: He has a daughter with his estranged wife whose life he desperately wants to be a part of.
Background: Born into a time of great strife for the Bright Republic, Sten's talent with magic was recognized early, when he set fire to his parent's kitchen. He was quickly sent to the Republic academy of Magic, where he excelled in summoning, manipulating, and controlling the elements - first fire, then air, and most recently water. It was during the grueling mastery tests for water that he experienced a feeling like an egg cracking inside himself, and what poured out was more natural control of water than had been seen in the last 10 generations of the Republic.
Sten had been married at one point, to his highschool sweetheart. When he first passed his fire exams, he worked as a wagemage for a few years, but desire to master the other elements sent him back to school, where loans did not cover his family expenses. He hand his wife fought, often, and eventually when he was focused on his studies, she took their daughter and left, with no forwarding address.
When he returned home, Sten discovered that his family was gone, and he despaired. he spent weeks searching for them, but to no avail. After loosing all hope, Sten dove into his studies, but he is emotionally devastated that he can't see his daughter anymore.
Now that he has discovered this power within himself, Sten has decided to seek out his wife and demand a place in his daughter's life.
1st Word: Fire - Sten's first element, and the one he is most comfortable with.
2nd Word: Sky - With his mastery of Fire, air came fairly naturally to him as well.
3rd Word: Sea - unleashing his ability to channel water is what awoke his Godbound abilities.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: To gain mastery over Earth, which will grant him dominion over all of the elements.
Personal Motivations: Finding his ex wife and daughter, so that he can be a part of his daughter's life.
Personal Weaknesses: His ex-wife, Flora, often called him a robot. It's not that he lacks emotions, it's just that he is exceptionally bad at showing them, for very good reason, as strong emotions are the easiest way for magic to go out of control.
Crunch:
Optional: If you want to give me a traditional character sheet/google doc filled out go for it. But again its not as important as making the character feel like a character. If you want to start toying with it we are going to be using the array it provides: 16/+2, 14/+1, 13/+1, 13/+1, 10/0, and 8/-1 to keep things on even footing.
Origin Fact: He was born in a small secluded village somewhere near Felek, in the Ratine Confederacy. He was immediately chosen as best candidate to apprentice the hedge mage of the village. The hedge mage, and elder of The Merciful Hand, had found a natural student and quick study. A short time after the elder's passing and taking over as the village mage, the village was overrun by monsters summoned by the nearby Black Academy. Being the sole survivor, saved by a couple Curse-Eaters, he took his magical talents to the Black Academy and studied. Not a fan of the summoning, he took some books and fled across the border to Varadinum, in the Patrician Empire. Books in hand he studied more as he travelled across the lands learning more about everything, mainly history and magic.
Profession Fact: As an Archmage of the Merciful Hand, he had little difficulty gaining acceptance and lodging.
Relationship Fact: Among the books he stole from the Black Academy, was one which taught simple theurgy, though he had just grabbed books at the time. The Black Academy is more than a little miffed about it.
Background: The book of theurgy changed him. It gave him power beyond theurgy, made him a Godbound. He then lost his name. He cannot remember it and ends up just going by whatever he is called, often "old man" or "healer".
1st Word: Sorcery - Sorcery practically defines him. It is his profession and his means to the end goal.
2nd Word: Knowledge - Power and ability are useless without the knowledge of how to use it.
3rd Word: Time - Time is a representation of his future. After mastery of theurgy, time is the final frontier in magic.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: After traveling for so long, searching and learning, his goal is to fix everything (the machines of Heaven, close/destroy the Night Roads, try and bring back the angels). Ya'know the easy stuff. The first step, learn more theurgy.
Personal Motivations: The need for knowledge to gain power, to fix everything.
Personal Weaknesses: He tends to be fairly cold and uncaring for people's emotional needs. He has a fixation with long-term view and very much does not live in the moment.
I imagine him, after sooo many years of roaming, appearing as a homeless dude that is just wandering at this point.
Name: Izmir Runarin
Origin Fact: He was born in Ancalia, fifteen years before the nation was plunged into ruin by the Shattering. He is the son of Alumon Runarin, a high-ranking knight of the Pavian order whose bravery and skill were the stuff of legend.
Profession Fact: He was a squire in a wandering band of Pavian knights.
Relationship Fact: Izmir always benefitted from his father's legacy when dealing with his fellow knights. Simply uttering Alumon's name would earn several nods of respect, plus a few stories of "Old Grizzly's" heroism. Nowadays, Izmir is starting to prove his own worth, ever since the daring stunt he pulled during the moment of his ascension. Though he's still not officially a knight, most Pavians revere his heritage.
Background: (Still working on the details!)
First word, Sword: Izmir learned the basics of combat from his father, proving to be an adept fighter. As a Godbound, his combat prowess has been honed to the point where his bare fists are as deadly as any blade.
Second word, Passion: Izmir's ascension was far more than just a physical transformation. His heart now burns with courage, and his presence strikes fear or awe in most onlookers, where before they would have ignored him completely.
Third word, Alacrity: Alumon was a hulking bear of a man, who charged into battle clad in heavy armor and clutching a mighty greatsword. Izmir, by contrast, is lean but nimble, and favors lighter armor and weapons. His newfound powers reflect his preferred fighting style, granting him speed and reflexes to the point where any armor is only a hindrance.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Become a true Pavian knight.
Personal Motivations: Izmir wants to be a hero in every sense of the word. He wants to become more powerful, make a positive impact on the world, and inspire hope in the masses.
Personal Weaknesses: Somewhat naive and shortsighted, Izmir charges headlong at a problem without taking the time to analyze the situation. He values emotion over logic, and will often do what "feels right" rather than what makes the most sense. Insulting his father or the other knights is a surefire way to piss him off, sometimes to the point of becoming violent.
Alrighty, I summed up the Facts a little more and left the big explanations for them all underneath now. I think it should be all good.
Sun Tao's Application:
Character: Sun Tao
Origin Fact: A xiaoren born close to the frontlines
Tao is a native-born Dulimbaian, born within a small village outside of Renguo. Born in the lower-castes, the xiaoren, he has seen the decadence of the higher castes and the costs of the Great Examinations. Being closer to the front lines, he has personally seen the devastation that the war with the Patrian Empire. His family had been doing their family trade for many generations now and have instilled that discipline within him, but not the complacency that he should have being one of the xiaoren.
Profession Fact: A gravekeeper, taught the ways of ancestor worship & burial.
As a xiaoren, his family worked as one of the most vital yet despised of trades; gravekeeping. Taught all the proper prayers in regards to ancestor worship, proper rites of burial to preserve the soul, and how to dig a perfect grave for both commoner and king. His family's skill in the sacred rites was well-known, even allowing them to bury some of the prestigious members of the Jinzu. However, their trade is looked down upon by most and accusation of grave-robbing, bodysnatching, and darker deeds are ever present. Even to the xiaoren, the gravekeepers were untouchable.
Relationship Fact: Li Jiao, a high ranking member of a rebellious faction within Dimbulai and possible love interest.
The xiaoren have been barely treated better than the slaves that the Jinzu and their betters kept. It was not uncommon for the entourage to beat one of the lesser castes for daring to interrupt the Jinzu's schedule by crossing the street and greater injustices have been committed. When the harvest is poor, who starves? When the war needs more bodies, who is taken? These injustices are boiling under the surface and a group known as the Nàxie Dapòle Liàntiáo (Those Who Break The Chains), has been formenting a rebellion in the province. Sun Tao has gone to their secret meetings, been stirred by their words, and has helped deliver secret messages at night. He believes that the Yan dynasty no longer cares for their people and something must be done about it.
Background: A simple but strong child, Tao was the third child that Sun Fu and his wife, Lilang, were successfully able to keep. His older brothers never made it past the first summer but he was a strong child, growing in their little hut amidst the dead. Being gravekeepers, the Sun family's curse and blessing was that there would always be the dead and they would always need to be those who put them to rest. Tao was a young but large man, broad of shoulders and dim of mind. Yet he was smart enough to see the fact that those who were knowledgeable received a happier, better life. He only saw those higher powers when one of their own died and needed to bury in the small village of Nanping.
Left alone, unwanted by most of the other xiaoren for their dealings of the body, Sun Tao found his company amongst the dead around him. The deceased left no fear in him and sometimes, when one was close to death, they'd stay in the spare room of the Sun family. It was here that Sun Tao saw the myriad faces of death; peaceful, violent, regretful, hopeful. People came and went and the family would follow their rites to ensure their soul would watch over their family or be reborn should their line have come to an end. It was a vitally important task to be done yet when winters were hard, no food was spared for them. They were just expected to maintain the rites of the dead until they joined them, at last.
Sun Tao wished for more, secretly trying to read and prepare for the Great Examinations. Every year when he found the courage to go, the Jinzu would laugh at him. What was a simpleton like him trying to do with his life? Back to the grave is where he belonged, amongst the dead who could relate to him. He never made it into any city, locked in ignorance by the powerful elite and expected to follow his course and die peacefully, leaving another child to maintain his and his family's graves.
After one of his humiliating attempt, he was approached by a beautiful woman named Li Jiao approached him at the local tavern. She smelled of sunflowers and her smile was warm, her beauty unparalleled by the any other girl in the village. She listened to his story, his shame and anger at being damned to just be some stupid gravekeeper. What he'd give to show the Jinzu just how much he knew! It was his passion for knowledge, his craving for more, that led the beautiful stranger to invite him to a meeting of like-minded individuals. Enamored by a woman who actually paid him attention, Sun Tao went off into the forest foolishly to meet her.
One would expect bandits or worst to have taken advantage of the young man's foolishness. Yet what he found waiting for him was a group known as the Nàxie Dapòle Liàntiáo. They spoke of sedition and rebellion, of taking arms and disposing of the Yan Dynasty. Li Jiao was one of the leaders of this cell, inspiring others to take what they can from the censors and ensure it ended up in the hands of the growing rebellion. Only with their help could the invisible chains of class that held them be broken and a truly free Dulimbai come about. Their dreams and ideals left Sun Tao awestruck and his adoration of Li Jiao only grew more. From that they, he became a loyal dissenter and operative against the Regency.
For months, he kept an eye out on who came down the lonely roads nearby his graveyard. Reports of battles from the frontline that went wrong and moments for the rebellion to seize weapons from poorly manned soldiers returning from the war. During these times, he tried to woo Li Jiao with poetry, tales of confessions from the dying and dead, whatever he could to win her heart. Yet she never denied him nor gave him any signs of romance, always returning his attention to the true goal; freedom for all.
It all almost came crashing downwards upon them all when a lieutenant within the military noticed a growing discrepancy among the reports from Renguo. Investigating rumors of growing dissent, he tracked down Li Jiao's cell and struck during a meeting after sneaking a spy into the Nàxie Dapòle Liàntiáo. Hidden in an old millhouse, soldiers stormed the building. Sun Tao watched his friends and comrades, the first that didn't treat him as a pariah, be cut down. Li Jiao was grabbed by this arrogant soldier, a Jinzu who failed his tests and now showed his mettle through sheer physical force.
It was at this moment a terrible anger raged through Sun Tao, a rage indescribable and as furious as the Heavens when the world was shattered. Power surged through him and when he cried out for aid; the dead answered. What followed next was not well-known and remains only in Tao's mind as blurs; his fists shattering solid stone, the dead rising to aid him, his mind filled with foreign knowledge. His rage consumed all and when his sanity returned, the mill was devastated and the legion was dead. Only Li Jiao was still alive to see the newly reborn Sun Tao, a Godbound before her.
Frightened yet in awe of this new power, she thanks Sun Tao for saving her but now, now it was too dangerous for either of them to stay. She needed to find the others and she could not take him with her, he was a risk to their grand design. She left him with a soft goodbye, his eyes watching her as she left. His mind burned with impossible amounts of knowledge, plans that could not possibly make sense yet did. His form shuddered with incredible strength, inhuman power. And he could hear the whispers of the dead, those he had protected through rite and prayer, speaking to him beyond the veil. He called out to her and she stopped, both out of fear and surprise. Never once had Sun Tao showed his own initiative. Never once had he ever stopped her from leaving.
"Jiao...I know...so many things now." He said incredulously, stepping closer to her. "Our home is not just wrong, everything is wrong. We...I...must fix this." With a small smile, he took her hand and breathed in her scent. The smell of sunflowers filled his mind and despite the fear he felt, true happiness sprung into his heart. "I will break our chains, free our country. Then...we shall free our world from suffering." Too flabbergasted to respond, he'd casually wave goodbye to her before he walked off into the darkness. Nanping would no longer contain his ambitions, his dreams. His will could become truth now. It was yet to be see if his truth was a paradise or a nightmare.
1st Word: Death - Tao has been surrounded by death since he was a child. It is an important part of his life, his very being, and the effect it has left upon him cannot be denied. He always related to the dead and now, the dead listen like never before.
2nd Word: Might - Tao, being younger than his father, took over taking care of digging graves and setting up altars. Broad-shouldered, his natural strength was quite good and he was almost complimented on it by his parents. His strength is a major part of his identity, one of his only favorable traits in his mind.
3rd Word: Knowledge - Tao's greatest desire, before he met Li Jiao, was to be smarter than he was. He wished to be as wise and as intelligent as the Jinzu who looked down upon him. Every year, he met disgrace and humiliation trying to better himself. His hunger for knowledge, to just know more, led to the Word discovering him.
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Tao's goal is to overthrow the Yang dynasty and to instill a republic, one that is equal for all and can give rise to a greater Dulimbai.
Personal Motivations: A sense of justice most certainly pushes Sun Tao to action. Never before has he had the power to enforce change and the knowledge to ensure that the change is good. He strives to be an ideal, to be what the xiaoren wish to be.
Personal Weaknesses: Sun Tao's weakness is quite simple the desire to be wanted, needed. He has lived so separated from his fellows, outcast because of things beyond his control, that he never imagined that others would wish to be with him. He could easily be manipulated by his need to be loved, wanted, befriended, but his wrath at such duplicity would be...bad.
Hey there. I'm a fan of Godbound and I just found your recruitment, so I thought that I would apply with a character idea that I've been interested in for a while. I enjoy the Godbound setting and I've wanted to get to play since I picked up the books ages ago. I'm very eager for feedback and thoughts on what's good and what could use some work.
Application:
Anastasia Wintertouched
Origin Fact: Kidnapped daughter of Bleak Reach
Anastasa's father was a charismatic and headstrong wanderer who claimed to be a descendant of the old mortal nobles of Nezdohva. He rallied settlers and other outcasts and wanderers to help construct a coastal principality on the northern coast of the Bleak Reach, where he became the lord of the surrounding regions. She was born in this somewhat prosperous community a few years later. However, a raid from far ranging Ulstang warriors found their village when she was a girl and slew much of the population, including her father, and took the rest as slaves.
Profession Fact: Exiled Foreign Witch-Princess
After her people were brought back to the Ulstang Skerries, the Witch-Queen who commanded the warband that had raided Anastasia's home recognized a potential for mystical power in her. She took the young girl as one of her apprentices as something of an inside joke, teaching her the magics of ice and necromancy. After her awakening as a godling, Anastasia overstepped her position in the rush of power and managed to anger several of the other apprentices. Still new to her powers, she willingly went into exile to grow in strength until she could return and claim her power as one of the Witch-Queens.
Relationship Fact: Mistress of the Warband
Anastasia did not go into exile alone. She still has a small warband of a few Ulstang warriors who have sworn their loyalty to her and act as her personal guard and a few personal servants, mainly a handmaiden.
Background: Mostly detailed above, but Anastasia's personality has been shaped by her hardships. When she was young, her father insisted that she act as a boyar was expected to, requiring her to be polite and somewhat imperious at all times in order to maintain her manners. After she was taken away to the Skerries, she was forced to be closed off and ruthless to survive against the other apprentices who also sought the Witch-Queen's favor. She's not as cold as she acts, but she maintains the act religiously for her own safety.
1st Word: Winter
Anastasia possesses exceptional control over ice and snow, and it was the first power she awakened to during a private retreat to the icy wastes of the Skerries.
2nd Word: Death
After her extensive training in necromancy and the dark magics of the Witch-Queens, Anastasia easily awakened to the word of Death and has precise control over the dead and dying.
3rd Word: Command
Despite her hard life, Anastasia has long comforted herself by remembering that she was born a princess and her right to command is in her blood.
Immediate Goal: Rebuild her power base so she can either return to Ulstang and claim a throne or forge her own kingdom in another land (perhaps returning to the long abandoned princedom in Bleak Reach).
Personal Motivation: Anastasia is motivated by a mixture of desire for power and desperation. She wishes to reclaim what she sees as her birthright and become a princess/queen of her own domain, but she maintains this insistence that she has the right to a domain primarily to give herself a goal and justify the hard life she's led. To admit that she's not meant to be a leader would mean admitting that everything she's gone through has been pointless.
Personal Weakness: Cold, but not as cold as she thinks. Anastasia acts cold and distant because it's been a necessity much of her life. But she's not as ruthless as she insists and her more cruel decisions eat away at her.
@Storm Dragon - You could make a far-reaching family member? Or have nothing to do with the little gravekeeping family at all. A cousin? I'm open to all ideas and such :D
Great applications keep coming in. We still have four days until I close down applications and then Ill probably need a little bit to review everything. So far there are a ton of great options. Originally I was only going to take 3-4 people but I think Im edging towards taking 4-5 because its already getting hard even considering turning down some of these awesome characters. Looking forward to seeing what else gets submitted before we close down applications.
As always any questions, concerns, ideas or advice should be posted here or PMed to me and Ill tackle it as quickly as possible.
@Keante - I didn't notice someone else had applied with a member of the Pavian order. If we both get accepted, maybe we could be part of the same group!
@Keante - I didn't notice someone else had applied with a member of the Pavian order. If we both get accepted, maybe we could be part of the same group!
Sounds good to me! By the way, I noticed you said Izmir was born 15 years before the Shattering. I think you meant to refer to the event 5 years ago when nine Night Roads burst into Ancalia. That event doesn't actually have a name that I have noticed. The Shattering refers to a thousand years ago when the Made Gods began plundering the celestial engines, causing all kinds of natural calamities in the world.
Iofiel Appearance Origin Fact: Iofiel is a partially-successful created divinity from the Thousand Gods region.
Profession Fact: Iofiel has traveled extensively and is known as a healer in areas that get news from the outside.
Relationship Fact: Iofiel is on good terms with healers' groups and charitable causes, and can often find a friendly group willing to provide minor assistance, particularly in Vissio.
Background: Iofiel is an artificially-created deity from the Thousand Gods area, though she is unaware of the full details of her birth. Her creators, like many of the groups in that part of the world, were seeking salvation from their enemies and aid for themselves. To achieve their goals, they studied the efforts of quite literally dozens of other cults and groups within the Thousand Gods, trying to figure out what worked and what didn't so they could create a living savior.
Their efforts were only partially successful. In the midst of the ritual, when Iofiel's mother was giving birth, the cult was attacked by a pair of rivals who had no interest in allowing yet another figurehead to be propped up in their part of the land. Too many tribes had figured out that the strangers asking questions about their deities were planning something, and every member of the would-be cult was slaughtered.
That probably would have been the end of it if the ritual hadn't been partially successful. Iofiel had already been linked to the powers of two Words. The first to manifest were the powers of Endurance - with no need to eat, drink, or even breathe, the death of her mother wasn't enough to kill her. The powers of Health followed, allowing her to ward off natural diseases and toxins from the jungle.
The cultists' base had been magically warded by one of the sorcerers to keep animals out, and so it was that Iofiel grew up all on her own. Even with peak vitality, it took time for her body to grow enough for her to move around - it was probably for the best that she couldn't actually escape the ritual chamber until she was significantly bigger, or she might have crawled into the jungle and been eaten despite her gifts. While she didn't actually need to sleep, she retained the ability to do so, and ended up doing quite a lot of that when she wasn't playing with her 'toys'.
Finally, after several years, the complex was located by an expedition from Vissio curious to see what had become of the cult's efforts. Several prominent citizens from Vissio had been part of the original cult, and while the expedition's members were originally dismayed to see the bones of their fellows stacked up and used as toys, they eventually pieced together what had happened and decided to take the young girl home with them.
The journey wasn't going to be a quick one. The expeditionary vessel was traveling around the southern edge of the continent to trade in Ancalia, the Raktine Confederacy, and the very edge of the Oasis States - and did so before turning to home. During the journey, Iofiel was named, taught language and how to read and write, and given the start of an education. Young and desperate to please, Iofiel made extensive use of her healing abilities and the occasional miracle to keep the crew in good shape, and she came to be seen as something of a lucky charm.
Things might have gone better if her ship hadn't been attacked by pirates. As an impressionable young girl, Iofiel was deeply affected by the sudden fear and anxiety in the adults that had been so nice to her - and just after the attack on the ship began, her own fear (something she'd never truly felt before) kicked her powers into a higher gear. The ritual creating her had been only partially successful. The cult had hoped to imbue her with power over the minds of others, but weren't able to progress far enough. Instead, the half-formed power linked with her excess of health and energy and twisted, corrupting it - and generating the power of Entropy.
One moment, the pirate ship was closing in to attack. The next, a hole the size of a small house ripped the pirate ship in half and sent it sinking to the bottom. The ship was safe, but Iofiel's relationship with the crew would never be quite the same. She'd gone from "cute, friendly little girl who heals everyone" to "potential threat", and she was still too young to understand why all her friends were suddenly starting to pull away. Trying to fix things, she pushed herself harder and harder to learn, heal them, and repeat the actions that made her like them.
After arriving back in Vissio, Iofiel was eventually put into a more formal education system, dissuaded from using the powers of Entropy except in times of need. Instead, they worked to keep her mind on healing and helping - after all, if she wanted to do that, she was less likely to become a threat. One thing they carefully avoided was trying to become the aggressive, punishing masters - the risk of damage was too great. Better to bind Iofiel with chains she'd make herself, having her want to help others.
As she aged through her teens, Iofiel got most of the education Vissian children of her age had, though the odd gap in her knowledge still remained. She also began to assert her independence, and her caretakers didn't hold her back too much - they didn't want a rebellious teenager on their hands. Instead, they talked to her as an equal and carefully explained not just what they wanted, but why.
During this time, Iofiel started to become famous as a healer capable of treating almost any wound or injury. Her Merciful Gaze was the most-used power, slightly tiring people but rapidly healing even fairly large groups of their injuries. Her Flesh Made True saw less use - because injuries of that severity were rare - but fueled more attention than her healing gaze. She almost never made use of Entropy (aside from withdrawing the effects of it from the badly-injured until such a time as they could be cured, usually cases where she'd need to create a Miracle the next day), and her own innate Endurance saw little use because she was in safe areas. Together, all of these led to a fairly steady increase in her fame.
Eventually - though she regarded Vissio as her home - Iofiel decided that she wanted to travel to places where more people were hurt and start helping them. Something inside of her was pushing to go further, to save more, to reach the full heights of her potential, and she was never going to accomplish that if she kept traveling to local towns and villages. With that, Iofiel said her goodbyes, gathered the few things she needed, and set forth into the world.
1st Word: Health. Iofiel is a healer at heart, and her greatest gifts (at least from her point of view) involve restoring others. Unlike most users of the Health word, this ability improves Iofiel's Charisma rather than her Constitution - her creators wanted an attractive deity to help pull in new followers, and significant effort was put towards achieving that goal and ensuring she would have an innate level of charm. (Flesh Made True/Merciful Gaze)
2nd Word: Endurance. Iofiel is extremely resilient and hard to keep down for long, which was a deliberate choice on the part of the group making her - and, in fact, the only way she survived at all. They didn't want her to be easily defeated in a land with many parasitic deities. (Amaranth Vitality/Body of Iron Will)
3rd Word: Entropy. Iofiel is not a perfectly-created deity. The same power she likes to heal others with can also be used to harm or corrode the world. She doesn't particularly like using this power - she'd rather talk to people and sway them to her cause - but she's willing to use it for personal defense, the defense of others, and on foes. This power was not given to her intentionally - her creators wanted to give her the powers of Command to solidify a cult, but the interrupted ritual resulted in a corruption of the final result. As a corruption of her Health powers, her Entropy attacks use Charisma as their attribute. (Functional Lifespan/Things Fall Apart)
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Iofiel's immediate goal is spreading her fame as a healer and helping people as she can. As a basically charitable person, she doesn't mind supporting the plans other people have to help people.
Personal Motivations: Iofiel is driven to help others, sometimes to a bit of a fault. She's been known to go significantly out of her way to give healing and comfort to those in need. She also wants to spread her name and be known by others, and she's generally interested in any matter that can raise her reputation.
Personal Weaknesses: Iofiel uses the powers that come naturally to her, but despite her frequent smiles, she's not sure whether or not she's doing the right thing. For all that she thinks of herself as "special", she knows she can't heal the entire world, and there will always be more people in need of help. Her struggle is endless, and sometimes she wonders if using entropy to end suffering would be better than healing wounds only to watch people suffer later. She also desperately desires approval and acknowledgement from other people - a lingering effect of her origin as someone meant to be worshiped.
Also, Iofiel's early life didn't include much in the way of human contact or education. She's lacking knowledge in some areas, and things that seem obvious to others aren't always apparent to her. To some, this comes across as being overly optimistic about a serious situation when the truth is she doesn't actually know why it's so grim.
I was hoping there would be someone with the Word of Health! If I get in and we actually pursue Bereket's goals in Ancalia, he won't have a good way to deal with the Hollowing Plague (other than cutting down husks).
Sounds good to me! By the way, I noticed you said Izmir was born 15 years before the Shattering. I think you meant to refer to the event 5 years ago when nine Night Roads burst into Ancalia. That event doesn't actually have a name that I have noticed. The Shattering refers to a thousand years ago when the Made Gods began plundering the celestial engines, causing all kinds of natural calamities in the world.
Wow, neat. The concept here intrigues the heck out of me, but I'm entirely unfamiliar with anything about the system or setting. I'm sure dotting, and I'll get to work on a concept, but I've got a good bit to read before I can put something particularly coherent together - hopefully I can get something in before the deadline, but I may have to rush a bit, so sorry in advance if details still need some work!
@Keante: Yeah, I wanted to go for something a little more supportive with this character. ^^ She's got enough ability in combat to protect herself - entropy can hurt enemies and objects alike - but her real strengths are keeping people alive and making friends through natural charm. XD And Godbound can be pretty diverse, so I wanted to make a character who can get along with most sorts of party members.
Okay...okay. I've done a (slightly slapdash) skim of the book, and I've got something percolating, so I've got a question. I'm thinking a former smalltime thief with noble aspirations, a sort of Aladdin type, who, upon being Bound to his Words, finds himself becoming a kind of benevolent trickster (a Coyote/Hermes-ish kind of god). I'm thinking Deception, Luck, and Passion or maybe Journeying for his Words. Anyway, my question is; how tightly are we bound to a common morality here? I'm assuming we all need to work together for the common good, but if I want to go about it in a sneaky way, is that going to step on anyone's toes too hard?
Okay...okay. I've done a (slightly slapdash) skim of the book, and I've got something percolating, so I've got a question. I'm thinking a former smalltime thief with noble aspirations, a sort of Aladdin type, who, upon being Bound to his Words, finds himself becoming a kind of benevolent trickster (a Coyote/Hermes-ish kind of god). I'm thinking Deception, Luck, and Passion or maybe Journeying for his Words. Anyway, my question is; how tightly are we bound to a common morality here? I'm assuming we all need to work together for the common good, but if I want to go about it in a sneaky way, is that going to step on anyone's toes too hard?
That sort of thing usually depends on what the pantheon wants. The game doesn't really have any baked in expectations of morality.
That said, there's also a word of Theft in the Lexicon book that you might want to consider as well.
Origin Fact: He is from Ancalia.
Profession Fact: He is a blacksmith.
Relationship Fact: He is a knight of the Pavian Order.
Background:
Bereket grew up in a village near Ancalia's northern coast. As he grew out of adolescence he apprenticed with the local blacksmith. Some years later, the village was victim to an Ulstang raid. There was some forewarning and knights came to defend the village--still, battle is chaotic and the villagers were not totally removed from it. Bereket acquitted himself well when a couple lesser undead got away from the knights' battle line and approached the village hall where the women and children were being sheltered. This earned him the notice of one of the knights who belonged to the Pavian Order. Bereket became a squire with the Pavians and grew in skill with a blade and in noble conduct. He became a full knight about 5 years before the Night Roads appeared throughout Ancalia.
On that terrible and chaotic day, Bereket led a group of citizens in a perilous flight from the devastation of Janjero, one of Ancalia's great cities. The group fled east until they reached ___, the village of Bereket's birth. Bereket was the only knight with this group of refugees--others had stayed to fight in Janjero or led other refugees to other places. It was a couple days after their arrival in the village that Bereket was out scouting and spied a roving pack of Husks. There was not time or space enough for him to return to the village. The only option Bereket saw before him was to lead the pack on a chase in a different direction, far from any innocents. He ran as long as he could, and when he felt his legs could carry him no further, he turned to face the oncoming, tireless Husks. The ravenous, slavering undead raced toward him. Bereket planted his feet, lifted his shield, and began to whirl his flail. He felt the earth beneath his feet, and the solid stone beneath that. He would stand firm, like the ancient rock. As the first Husks reached him, Bereket smote one in the head with his swinging flail, smashing the creature to bits. He bashed a second with his shield, knocking it back for a moment while he spun his flail about to whack a third. And then the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh Husks were upon him, bowling him over and onto his back. They scrabbled at his chainmail, desperate to pull it free to have their feast. Bereket punched one with a gauntleted fist but then another Husk was there pushing his arm down flat on the ground.
It was at this moment that a low growl formed in Bereket's throat, and it quickly erupted into a wordless war cry, rough, but deep and sonorous. The earth erupted around him, stony protrusions thrusting forth and throwing Husks every where. Bereket suddenly found himself to be back on his feet, and feeling a vital energy like none he had ever known. His weariness was gone, and his flail felt light in his hand. He fought, and the Husks died their second death.
Word #1: Artifice
Word #2: Earth
Word #3: Sword
Short Term/Immediate Goal: Secure the people of his village, including the refugees he led there from Janjero. Look for surviving knights of any of the Orders.
Personal Motivations: I must protect the lowly and weak. I am an unyielding mountain who shields them from the ravages of evil creatures and the depredations of evil men.
Okay...okay. I've done a (slightly slapdash) skim of the book, and I've got something percolating, so I've got a question. I'm thinking a former smalltime thief with noble aspirations, a sort of Aladdin type, who, upon being Bound to his Words, finds himself becoming a kind of benevolent trickster (a Coyote/Hermes-ish kind of god). I'm thinking Deception, Luck, and Passion or maybe Journeying for his Words. Anyway, my question is; how tightly are we bound to a common morality here? I'm assuming we all need to work together for the common good, but if I want to go about it in a sneaky way, is that going to step on anyone's toes too hard?
That sort of thing usually depends on what the pantheon wants. The game doesn't really have any baked in expectations of morality.
Partially, that's what I was asking - do we seem to be gravitating towards a noble group of traditionally heroic types, or are we skewing a little wider with our morality?
Quote:
That said, there's also a word of Theft in the Lexicon book that you might want to consider as well.
@Viscount K So it seems your question was essentially tackled but Ill add on a little bit as well since I think its good to get my expectations out there for everyone.
My Thoughts as GM: As players it is your job to create a character that wants to be a part of the group. Mysterious loners have zero place in most roleplays as far as Im concerned. If that is what you want to do then you're best finding someone who can run a solo game for that character. You are making a member of a pantheon of gods. You have to make someone who for whatever reason is willing to work with that group. Does that mean they have to be the same alignment/morality? Abso-f*!*ing-lutely not. If you can create a character that is downright evil but is of obvious appeal to the group and wants to be a part of it, go for it. This world is incredibly dark, I can almost guarantee that unless you go for the most evil creature you can imagine there will be some horror worse than you out there to fight against as a group. Obviously Id say the wiggle room for making a character that works with others gets smaller the more you diverge from the sort of group morality. But overall Id say staying in the gray zone is a pretty good idea for everyone. Think Greek pantheon. None of those gods were really great people although they all did great and terrible things at times. You'll have that kind of power on your hands.
Note About Selection: This I feel is also important to note. After I go about taking the time to select people I will probably be creating a Discord for the game. It wont be required for everyone who joins but I will have it as an option to ease simple communication between myself and players. I intend for it to be used as a bit of a faster based discussion and questioning forum for the game. Either through Discord if everyone has it, or via the Discussion page if not, the players selected and I are all going to have a rather extensive period where we just talk about expectations. Essentially Im going to ask everyone selected what they want out of the game and how important various aspects of the game are to them. Then we'll talk a little about setting, starting point and even if we want to start at level one. There's a chance Ill bump you all up to level two and give you Apotheosis if that is what the group seems to see as the best starting point. But at that point you'll be able to tweak your character and background some if you see fit to make them workable with whoever else gets selected.
@Viscount K
I think you'll be totally fine. You did say he was benevolent--so a knightly character like mine might not be excited about pulling off a theft like yours would, but if you have good reasons he's not going to hate you for it or try to stop you. He could even be convinced to work with you--if the right reasons are there. I'm picturing (Marvel's) Thor and Loki in their more brotherly moments.
