Melodramatic enough title for an OOC thread?
I plan to create a second recruitment thread that's a bit more organized up front to continually recruit new characters to weave into our web. That way when people disappear into the mists of the interwebs, we don't have to stop to hunt for replacements, and since we're playing p6 (e6 for pathfinder, beta found here) there may be characters of different levels but not much more so than you'd find at a PFS table.
The story begins at dawn of the first day of a festival in Levkarest, capitol of Borca. It is a two week celebration of the Sefeasa's wedding, which will happen on the seventh day. Most of you will be on the road leading to Levkarest, except those of you whose backgrounds specifically locate you as residing in Levkarest.
At this point, my roster of characters is:
Bliznap
Isabeau
Sergei
Stanrick
Others can be added in as they finish their applications. Gameplay will probably start Wednesday.
Reporting in.
Hiya Bliznap and Bane
Bane, can you add your statblock to your profile, and your basics (hps, AC, CMD, saves, initiative & perception) to your class line (the way that Bliz has done) for ease in play?
Many thanks.
If you click on the "my account" link at the top of the site it will bring you to your account details page.
Under "Messageboard Aliases" on the left hand side(3rd box down), select "create new alias".
Alright lets try it out.
Well Done.
*Bows* Only with your help good Sir,
Checking in too.
Hurrah! I'm excited to see things moving along. ^_^
I'm going to work on background a bit more. Could someone point me to a wiki with some more info on the faiths and regions? Also what sort of reasons might we have for attending the wedding? Is it a public thing or are we invited for a purpose?
This Ravenloft wiki religion page has some basic information. There's a great deal of general setting information at Fraternity of Shadows.
As far as the wedding, I think it's like a festival for two weeks with the ceremony in the middle. I didn't pay attention to the latest British Royal wedding but plenty of people took the day off, had parties, waited outside the Palace and Westminster Abbey to catch a glimpse of the royals.
In my background I wrote that my druid master in a younger son of a noble Levkarest family. So that's why Stanrick is returning to Levkarest. They are bringing gifts, but I didn't think he'd actually go to the wedding ceremony.
If you're an investigator, maybe you're hunting down someone trying to use the festivities to disappear, to escape your pursuit. Perhaps you're after a merchant smuggling contraband. Maybe a minor noble family hired you to escort one of their more brutish members around to minimize any trouble he or she may cause. Just some quick ideas.
Checking in.
Sergei may be trying to find an academic or historian who can tell him anything about his homeland's history. He might also be looking for information on the sightings and legend of the Sword of the Firstborn.
In the mean time, he's probably working as a short-term laborer who's been hired to prepare for the festivities.
Would it be possible to get a gameplay thread up?
If we make a placemarker post in Gameplay, and then delete it, the site still records the post and attaches it to our Campaigns tab. That makes keeping track of updates a lot easier.
@ Isabeau: Religion in RL is a funny thing. In Ravenloft, there is a nebulous entity or entities known as the Mists or the Dark Powers or the GM that meddles with things. It powers curses, it tempts and corrupts, luring people to evil and punishing them for it. It is also supposedly unknown to the people of Ravenloft. Divines do not get their power from their gods, but from these Dark Powers acting in response to the individual's faith. So while the gods available in the setting are relatively limited, you can pretty much go with any god and get any domains as long as you, the player, can justify why your character believes that.
Stanrick has the right idea about the royal wedding. It is a two week holiday in Borca, but it is attracting the nobility from the whole world. And their courts. And camp followers. Merchants and tradesmen because the world's wealth and power will be concentrated in Levkarest those weeks in a way it never is, normally. Anyone who can make the journey, because it promises to be unlike anything else this world has ever seen.
Isabeau might go because she heard rumors that Rake was there, or she might go because it's going to be fun, or she might go because she seeks a wealthy patron, or... for any number of reasons.
So it looks like we're starting with six, unless more people get characters up soon. I'll start the gameplay thread for dotting purposes, and hopefully in the next day or so I'll get a big, fat intro post up. In the meantime, ask questions, get comfortable with one another, etc
Perhaps Bliznap was hired as a musician for the wedding? Not many humans would probably invite a gnome to their wedding, unless they really knew them. But if they knew about how awesome my musical talents were, they might hire me.
I meant to ask you Bliz, where in the city's musical hierarchy you are, whether you played in taverns or on the streets or in the palaces of the nobility.
We'll say that a friend of yours got you in the door to play with his quartet at some of the parties. You're good, exceptional really, but your reputation is still definitely local one. You're not a star, yet, but nearly every musician in town is playing at the wedding itself. Plus, aren't you from there?
Also:
Where to Stay in Levkarest
Affluent visitors should turn to the Rosebud's Thorn at the Sunset Gate; the inn boasts an extensive selection of liquors. Desfraya Manor is an aristocratic townhouse turned boarding house. Camille Boritsi favored the Desfraya family, but their fortunes fell with her. Debts shriveled their holdings to this manor, but the eccentric ex-aristocrats seem to enjoy their lesser station. Staying here is as close as most folk will come to staying as the guests of nobility. Patrons of lesser means can stay in the old servants' quarters, or they can cross the Luna to the Sun's Peak in Caina, which caters to the Barovian tastes in both decor and cuisine. Last and least is the Dark Maiden, a squalid gambling den near Sunrise Gate that apparently adopted its current name (and lurid sign) in a cynical--yet successful--bid to attract Lady Ivana's patronage when she and her entourage go slumming.
They'll need a good rat catcher, to avoid embarrassing moments - in the storerooms and cellars...
How, exactly does one go about adding the header?
Edit: duh. Nvm.
I see Bliz as being above playing in taverns and on the street for money, but still not good enough to sell out a theater. He might be part of an orchestra, maybe even first chair, but definitely can't bring in full crowds by himself.
Hopefully over the course of the campaign, he could sell out coliseums and attract Planar enthusiasts.
Simple motives work well for me, she's always looking for Rake and this sounds like just the sort of party he'd like to crash. (Plenty of marks in the crowd!)
I'm looking at either having her come through the mists as a child with her father and grew up in Barovia, or has come through the mists herself as a young woman in search of Rake. The latter may explain any cultural ignorance her player may demonstrate, lol!
And I think the Cult of the Morninglord sounds like a good match for the faith she was raised to, but now rejects.
Bliz - that's about what I imagined.
Isabeau - Could she have simply grown up in Barovia? I ask because I'm trying hard to not have anyone have any firsthand experience of the mists, aside from travelling through known mistways if they aren't from the core. I prefer for the characters to be relatively innocent of the workings of the Dark Powers at the beginning, because the revelation of them is part of the story I'm hoping to tell. For all purposes, there is nowhere but Ravenloft.
If she's from Barovia, there's a possible tie-in with Sergei.
Sure, we could go that way too. She and Sergei could have worked together in the past, since Isabeau would also be the type to take on odd jobs where she can find them.
Is there such a thing as private investigator or bounty hunter in Ravenloft? I had imagined she'd try to take on tasks like finding missing people to hone her skills. Information brokerage is another option too since the best way to hear a rumor is to have your proverbial ear to the ground.
That sounds like exactly the sort of person Sergei would want to pal around with. He's not much of an adventurer yet, but he's strong and pretty well armed, and has a vested interest in tracking down bad guys.
Checking in. So my brain has been working on overtime thinking about this game. I am a huge fan of horror (i.e. Call of Cathulu, gritty shadow run games, dark Pathfinder APs like Carrion Crown, though I never got a chance to finish it.) and have gone kinda crazy... So, if you are at all interested, I had typed out a portion of my characters approach into the city. Mind you this is just a play on an intro. I wanted critiques on it from anyone willing to read a bit of a lengthy post, but also wanted to know if this was the kind of reaction and atmosphere you were looking for in the game. and with that... :D
Halt miss. Please pull off your hood and be recognized.
She pauses and looks up at the guard. Her pale green eyes pierce through the shadow of her hood scrutinized him. Hesitating a moment, she slowly drew back her hood. A gasp escaped the guards lips as he watched the red/gold hair rolls down her neck and chest like a cascade of fire and sunlight. Her face is a haunting picture of near perfection. There was that bag though. The guard was nothing if not cautious. Well, cautious AND suspicious.
Miss. Can you please remove your cloak. I will have to inspect it
The hesitation lasted longer this time. Her greatest fears were being realized.
Is he going to turn me away from the city? Worst yet, is he going to beat me like the others did?
She produces a piece of parchment and holds it out to the man. The guard glares at her and snatches the parchment. His eyes dart to the bottom of the page with no immediate regard for the contents quite yet. The parchment holds a seal of her church with the signature of the attending priest who will be performing the marriage ceremony at the festival. His brow furrows more at the recognition as he looks to the top and begins reading.
Right hand to the attending priest are ya?
A moment passes as she merely stares at him.
What's wrong. You a mute now too? Well I really am sorry for this miss, but I am still going to have to check your bag. Policy and all. We can't be having people walking in here with weapons, or designs to out one of the visiting nobles now can we.
She looked to either side as she watched other travelers just arriving walking right past them unhindered. She sighs softly to herself and lowers her head. She looks up at him pleadingly and shakes her head disapprovingly as she reaches for the clasp of her cloak. As the cloak falls off, a pair of black appendages could be seen jutting up over her shoulders.
They resembled a pair of giant birds wings that had been brutally torn off at the joint, the beautiful golden feathers were tainted with red tips as if dripping with blood. As if that was not enough, her tail reaches around her and takes her cloak and threads it into the lower straps of her bag to hang snugly but not drag on the floor. The man takes a sudden step back and draws his sword.
It was your fault for being too curious. I came here to work.
Her voice took on a triple toned reverberation, her own soft feminine vocalization; a higher beautifully melodic angelic song; and a deeper, almost seductive and sinister whisper. It was both enthralling and unnerving to hear.
The guards scowl deepened as he gathered up his courage and stepped forward threateningly. She knew that look. She knew if she stayed she would probably be beaten again. Or maybe worst this time. She threw up her hands and backed away slowly until she was a safe enough distance from him that she could walk off.
Once she was out of sight in the woods, she tucked her wings downward (a severely uncomfortable and almost painful angle) and wrapped her tail around her waist like a belt. She focused to keep all her appendages as still as possible which felt incredibly unnatural. The feeling was like trying to walk without swinging your arms. She pulled her cloak over and around herself, wrapping and knotting it such that it gave the illusion of a dress. She then slings her bag over her back and approached the city once more. She paid particular to the guard that drew on her sped past when he looked away.
I love it! Really paints a picture, I can almost hear her strange voice. It sort of sings, hums and hisses all at the same time in my head. ^_^
I enjoy good descriptive characterizations, so you can count on me to read them. ^_~
@ Isabeau: there are certainly professional bounty hunters in Ravenloft, though most often 'bounty hunter' is just a euphemism for assassin. People disappear quite often in Barovia, though there are few who would dare to ask for help finding them. Most Barovians know that it is better for those who disappear to remain lost. Exceptions to that rule are usually found among followers of the Morninglord, and it is from the priests at his temples that any such work would be found.
@ Lucia: How can I fault that enthusiasm? I love how you're portraying her voice. Very eerie.
I also found it kinda odd that I found a picture with a very similar hair color to the character in question. To add, I think the portrait is supposed to be a deity. lol.
Edit: And thank you for the compliments. I am glad you liked the descriptions. (also. had to change the portrait again)
Garold, just so you know I changed the orphanage's name to Lord Walbert's Gardens for Children. I think that sounds better than Children's Gardens.
@ Stanrick's question from the Gameplay thread: Levkarest has mild summers and rough winters, but there's a great deal of geothermal activity which may or may not impact the growing season. Regardless, I don't think a peach tree will break the game. Nectarines, though....
So, I haven't made it all the way though all the posts, but is anyone involved with the church? And also, I may have missed it, but was there a resource for Ravenholdt setting that I can reference for like the common faiths, general information, some of its history, and a better feel for the setting?
I believe Bane is an Inquisitor of Ezra, though not from around these parts. For info on the setting, there are a couple of pretty good wikis. Fraternity of shadows has one and there's another called ravenloft sd or something.
I also found it kinda odd that I found a picture with a very similar hair color to the character in question. To add, I think the portrait is supposed to be a deity. lol.
Edit: And thank you for the compliments. I am glad you liked the descriptions. (also. had to change the portrait again)
Yep, that is Shelyn, goddess of beauty, art, and music. I found the full version of that portrait too.
I'm glad they didn't make her look anorexic.
Back story if anyone cares to read it, pretty long...
Monsters came out at night, and he had been a hunter since boyhood. The sounds of the swamp overcame him bugs and animals splashing in the murky water, that warm pungent smell of rotting grass and mud. He started off down the trail toward the main road on his way into the city.
Souragne at night was foggy and warm with the stink of close quarters. Bane stayed in the shadier parts of town where the criminal element was sometimes perpetrated by the monstrous.
Under the flickering dim of street candles he made his rounds, taverns, back alleys the docks on the swamp, anywhere the unsettling might congregate.
Often he felt nauseous being here and even more so that his wife Almaade insisted on going here sometimes. He sighed at the thought of his wife, troubled lately at his renewed dedication to Ezra, something she herself was not so zealous about despite, in his opinion, her resemblance to the Lady in the Mists. Putting marital issues out of his mind, he spotted what he had been looking for, several men gathered in an alley. “Time for the test.” Walking up to the three of them, Bane produced a small vial and dripped a metallic liquid onto the tip of his glove. The first one was the largest and most scarred so he started there. Pretending to stumble drunkenly down the alleyway he brushed the silver tipped finger against the man. The skin began violently reacting and the man gasped in pain, casting aside the charade bane whipped out his hand crossbow and leveled it at the wincing man’s two cohorts. “Gentlemen I suggest you lower your weapons.” Reluctantly the two smaller men set daggers on the ground and kicked them away.
“Good.” Bane said reassuringly, and with a quick motion and fluid deadly grace he shot the large man through his eye, dropped his crossbow, grabbed the two living men by the throat and slammed them to the ground. Holding his palms to each of their foreheads, they screamed in agony as a brand appeared, marking them as evil doers and men who conspire with ‘thropes and other creatures of the night. Leaving before they could recover, Bane slipped back onto and down the road.
His last stop, a tavern on the outskirts of town on the road back to his small dwelling. He stopped here often on a growing suspicion that one of the regulars was a vampire. The man was the son of one of the local plantation owners, beautiful and charming, he often had the ears of the girls at the tavern or in the city, and Bane had no trust for a man like that. stepping across the threshold into the dimly lit room of the tavern common room, he did a quick scan. It was very late and there weren’t many patrons left, and the man was not among them. “Likely at home or up in a room already.” he thought with disgust. Turning he stepped out into the fog and headed for home.
As he approached his humble abode, he was surprised to see light still coming from the window of his bedchamber, usually his wife was asleep by this time of night. Bane stepped into the dark of the front room and made his way down the hall to his bedchamber, and silently opened the door. His wife was in bed with another man. Neither of them noticed, lost in the throes of pleasure, and Bane stood watching for a moment as his eyes adjusted to the light. His pain and sadness quickly dissolved into rage as he was able to identify the stranger so earnestly groping his love, the plantation owner’s son. Steeling himself for what came next and taking the opportunity to test his theory, Bane spoke in a clear commanding voice. “I rescind your invitation.” His wife let out a shriek that only grew louder as the man she had been with turned and hissed at him before diving out of the window without clothes on. Bane turned heading for the door, his daughter stepped out of her room wiping the sleep from her eyes. “What is it daddy?” she asked. Without stopping, “Go back to sleep Baandeli.” as he strode past her out into the night.
Bane broke into a sprint, he was athletic and enjoyed to run, but tonight his speed was fueled by hatred and vengeance. Running through the swamp in the direction of the man’s father’s plantation for that is were he would likely go, Bane cursed himself silently as he realized he had forgotten his hand crossbow on the table and continued cursing himself when he ran for a good mile with the man in view thirty yards ahead of him. Eventually the light of pre dawn started to turn the night grey and he could see the main house clearly as he pursued the man up the pathway. pulling out a bolo Bane managed to trip the monster, falling on it with two open vials, alchemical silver, and holy water, as the monster suffered, Bane drew his dagger and repeatedly stabbed it in its unbeating heart ‘til it ceased to move. Standing and grinning with satisfactory vengeance, Bane saw an older man standing in a window with a lit candle, the plantation owner. Bane turned and ran back into the swamp.
Coming now with the light of dawn he burst into his own house. His wife waited in hall past the kitchen that was at the entry of his home. She had covered herself at least. “How many times?” he said coldly. “I swear this was the first.” she pleaded, an obvious lie, she had always been terrible at lying. Bane lost his composure and his voice seethed as he saw red. “Liar! How could you let that monster, that abomination into our house? Into our bed?” She didn’t respond for a long time, couldn’t he realized after a moment, his gloved hands were wrapped around her throat and she was gasping for breath, the tears in her eyes mirroring his own. Unable to force himself to stop, he held her after she had stopped struggling and finally fell with her to the floor, his breath coming in strangled rasps. “Blessed Ezra, Our Guardian in the Mists, She who sacrificed Herself to fill the Hollow, Healer of the sick, protector of the weak, guide to the lost, To You we pray. Watch over us, Your people. Take us under Your protection, Show us the light when we are lost in darkness, defend us when the Legions of the Night draw close, Lead us to our place in the Grand Scheme, and bring us through the night to the shelter of peace.” He breathed out through strained gasps.
Bane turned and saw his beautiful daugter, nearly twelve, standing sobbing. He held his hand up to her as he sat on his knees. She held in her shaking his hand crossbow, leveled at him. “Baandeli” he pleaded. “NO!” she screamed and turned running out into the morning light. Bane stared after her for what seemed like days before standing and running out after her shouting her name. He didn’t find her that night, and after he buried his wife he continued to look everyday, all day for three months and still he couldn’t find her. He had searched everywhere in the city, and now he walked over the hill and saw Levkarest. This was the largest gathering in the land. She would be here, she had to be here.
@Bane: That was really good. I liked it alot! I really enjoyed the fact that he prayed to her after he strangled her. It was really dark. And damn fitting! I honestly half expected his daughter to pull the trigger, but shoot herself cuz she was holding it the wrong way... Wow, now I am being dark. :D Bravo.
Why thank you! This is one of the dark character concepts I've come up with ever, I'm looking forward to roleplaying him.
I'm looking forward to your character pulling a crossbow on mine. LoL. She IS after all a filthy Tiefling. As bad if not worst than a, what did he call em. 'thrope? :D
That was an awesome read Bane. Thanks for sharing!
Nicely done, Bane.
And yes Lucia I'm a inquistor of Ezra cool stuff here http://ravenloftsd.wikispaces.com/Ezra
A slight worry I have, the P6 beta only has core class epic feats...
We'll figure something out by the time we hit 6th level. Off the top of my head, I would say caster feats similar to what the bard gets (same spell progression, yeah?), extra use of judgement per day, and probably Second Judgement as a Signature Feat. I'm open to suggestions for other things.
Or, you're doomed to forever live without epic feats, Ravenloft's punishment for selecting a non-core class.
No!!! I'll work up some suggestions that feel balaced. off the top of my head I could Homebrew some addtional teamwork feats for the Solo tactics class feature but there is other stuff two. Am I reading correctly in that we can take any attainable feat it doesnt have to be the epic lvl ones right?
Lucia's latest post in recruitment got me thinking that some of the core mechanics of Ravenloft need explained to those who don't know:
Alignment: It is impossible to detect evil or good. Any class abilities (inquisitors and paladins, maybe others) that do this can detect chaos or law instead, AND paladins can use this to detect Innocents. Paladins can still smite evil, protection from evil still works, etc, but the powers of Ravenloft mask such things from detection.
Innocents: A person who is good-aligned and has never, ever done anything that would call for a powers check can be an Innocent. This gives them a +3 to saves against spells, SLAs and supernatural abilities used by evil creatures, and a -2 on Horror saves and Sense Motive checks. If any good players want to be Innocent, they should let me know and make a note of it on their profile.
Powers Checks: when you're bad, the Dark Power's of Ravenloft take note. Bad, in this case, falls into three major categories: The Criminal (lying cheating stealing torturing killing assaulting threatening etc) The Unholy (not following your religion, breaking vows, desecrating holy sites or artifacts, etc) The Magical (using evil or necromantic spells or magic items, laying curses, etc). Every time you do such a thing, there is a % chance that the dark powers will take notice. The worse the act, the higher the %, except for Acts of Ultimate Darkness, which are auto-fails. Most torture falls into this category, defiling places sacred to good deities, murdering innocents, etc. A character like Tatiana, whose class abilities are all rooted in necromancy, is at the top of a very slippery slope, but she knows it, so that's ok. When you get their attention, they give you a little pat on the back. This takes the form of a curse and a blessing. Mechanically, the benefits outweigh the curses, but they are designed to play to your character's moral weaknesses, to encourage more bad behavior. They get progressively stronger each time you fail, until you fail the 6th time, when you are completely corrupted, and are made utterly a puppet of the Dark Powers. Your character becomes an NPC, and you (may, if you wish) roll a new character. Most of this I'll be handling behind the scenes, so you don't need to worry about it, unless you're being bad.
Thanks for the quick and dirty!
Bane - my mistake, you slipped through my fingers. I'll work your character into the Gameplay tonight.
Garold's innocence - If your backstory was conveniently located in your character profile, I could see the particulars and tell you if the incident with the bully would rob you of your innocence.