I like the movie trailer style.
I'd like to have the uniform submission with links to all our characters, and have individual backgrounds in each of our character sheet.
I'd also like to see a brief description of everyone:
Daen -- The leader. Cynical, intelligent, strategic... Yet prone to social ineptitude and moments of great uncertainty. Swift with blade and magic and always decisive.
Kassie -- Charming, flirtatious and fast. A cheerfully acrobatic swashbuckler of noble blood always willing to swing into action.
Grimold -- The reformed criminal turned knight, and man with underground connections.
Zohruk -- The first half-orc Knight of Ozem, a rogue of many talents, and former spy in Urgir.
Rataji -- The newcomer. A former diplomat's daughter, both cursed and blessed the the squabbling spirts of her dead ancestors. She brings divine magic and the powers of the heavens.
If you don't include the movie trailer text in your submission, I will find you and punch you.
Fantastic job pulling all this together, man. I'll have Zohruk up tonight.
Rataji, I like it. That could go in the notes section instead of a larger background.
I've let the DM know that we're almost done in the other thread. I've got to go to work; I'll be back in about 6 hours. Hopefully everybody sees this and can get their submission up this evening.
Having just compiled the list of the other official submissions, I think our cohesiveness is definitely our biggest advantage.
EDIT: Thanks Zohruk! I hope I didn't micromanage too much; I'm glad we could get all this together so quickly.
I am throwing together the spirit council for my stat block now, and am working on the detailed backstory.
I am glad you liked my character summaries. I loved reading Long Vigil's gameplay. I feel like I know all of you already!
BTW, does the statblock without the Spirit Council look right?
Hold on, are we doing ABP, *and* standard WBL?
Yep. We are.
Here's a draft of a submission format. It's just a thought, open to any changes suggested.
Personnel file, for immediate consideration of assignment to Belkzen
Name:
Race:
Class:
Physical description:
Personality:
Notes:
______________
Are you suggesting this as a way of formatting our posts submitting our characters, or our character sheets in our profiles?
I'd have thought the former.
Okay, that makes sense. Can someone look over the backstory I have posted in my alias so far???
Looks good so far, but you misspelled Belkzen a few times.
Name: Rataji aka "Taj"
Race: Half-elf of Mwangi descent, raised in a dozen different nations
Class: Spirit Guide Heavens Oracle
Petite girl with chocolate brown skin and big brown eyes. Always looks like she has a joke that she wants to share with the rest of the class.
Quirky sense of humor, strong will, tendency to bad puns. She constantly intermediates amongst the merry chorus of mad ancestors that haunt her.
Civilian asset (caster specialist) attached to Belkzen Strike Force. Is rumored to have a psychic bond linking her to another member of the team including: Daen, Kassie, Grimold and Zohruk. Has a pet monkey and an ever shifting set of abilities and spells. Allegiance to Vigil as yet unverified.
Are we all down with chipping in on the two wands and the gloves?
I think that would be 1,500 per person if people are amenable. My submission is ready except for gear purchases like ammo and scrolls. Should I wait until the group application to submit it to the main thread?
I think I'm ready too...
Name: Zohruk, of the Burning Suns
Race: Half-orc
Class: Warder (dervish defender) 1/Rogue (unchained, rake) 4
Looking good! I especially like your physical description. It's so much more interesting than mine!
Thanks! And I have zero doubt Taj'll come into focus much sooner than later.
*Nods*
You four have the advantage on me of a really detailed and intertwined character history. How is poor Taj going to compete with that? But once I get posting with you all in character, I will definitely come into focus.
Rataji, if it helps, I originally thought of the descriptions as being written in a way that it might be in a military dossier on an agent profile. Minimalistic, austere, detached descriptions.
Hmm... do I need to make my post tighter? More military?
I wouldn't think so, she's not military. Down the road she might pick up some habits, hanging around the lot of us, though...
Grimold, are we ready to post? And again, thanks for taking point on this, and herding all these cats. :)
Happy to do it! I'm really glad we were able to get so many of us on board. And I probably wouldn't have thought to do so if you hadn't gotten the ball rolling those months ago. As for submitting, I'm still getting my ducks in a row. I'll need an hour or two to get the final descriptions written. If you guys are ready, feel free to post; I'll get my post up before I go to bed.
The alternative to 'military' is to pretend you're writing for The A-Team :P
Alright boys and girls, it's zero-hour. Zohruk and I have submitted. See you all on the other side.
Grimold, one thing. Those super-long lines of characters, like you did with "=", if you make them without spaces in them, they make mobile browsers render the page in eye-killingly small text. Be kind to the geezers. :-)
Zohruk
EDIT: cool news indeed...
I WILL BE TAKING TWO TABLES, ONE SELECTED FROM INDIVIDUAL APPLICANTS AND ONE COMPRISED OF THE GROUP SUBMISSION.
I will get the group submission game thread rolling as soon as they are ready.
For everyone else Submission Deadline Is Thursday Feb 4th. Selections announced Thursday night or Friday depending on how the reviewing goes.
We're in, but let's get our submissions in anyway! Rataji has submitted as well.
Just in cse any of you don't have enough to do... :)
The way all of this has gone down, what with Grimold's movie trailer, and the way Zohruk and Rataji's concepts started coming together as almost an homage to 70s/80s detective shows ("Together, they fight crime."), in the rather crowded spaces of my mind, I've got pieces of the season-opening-recap-montage going through my head.
"Previously, on Knights of Ozem..."
We all watched Mad men, right?
If, and only if you have time to help me calm down this stupid brain of mine, pick out, let's say three lines/moments with your character. Some tips:
- Give me one from your earliest appearance.
- They can be actual quotes from TLV, "deleted scenes", or stuff that hadn't yet happened by the time TLV ended, as long as it's good characterization.
- Taj, I've already got yours. :)
It never ends up here...
Zohruk
Hey, we get background skills!
So... What are good languages for a diplomat's kid to pick up?
Taj, I've already got yours. :)
Oh? Which are my three? Is one of them me with my knife at your throat?
The current edit in my head only has Taj with one speaking line, but it's the closer, so I think that evens it out. :) But in addition to that, yes, I do have the scene where she has a knife to Zoh's throat.
As far as languages, Zoh speaks Goblin, Giant, Dwarven (potentially useful in, for instance, the undercity of Urgir), and Hallit (that's fairly regional, no?).
Do I have to shake the line out of you?
A little suspense is a good thing...!
You don't want to see which of my creepy ancestors I bring out next...
Great job everybody!
Grimold, one thing. Those super-long lines of characters, like you did with "=", if you make them without spaces in them, they make mobile browsers render the page in eye-killingly small text. Be kind to the geezers. :-)
Sorry about that. It doesn't seem to make a difference on mine, but I'll remember it for the future nonetheless.
I'll work a little bit on your supercut request. I've had a number of similar fantasies. My favorite right now is a Breakfast Club parody (which works damn near perfectly if Zohruk is the Sport and Grimold is the Criminal). And what the heck do you mean Zohruk and Rataji are the buddy-movie partners? She hasn't even been introduced in-game and I'm already the third wheel :P
I'm very pleased that the naming structure of the games is so similar. Knights of Ozem: The Last Vigil. Knights of Ozem: The Last Light. Knights of Ozem: The Last Aerokineticist.
No, Zohruk and Grimold are buddy-cop movie partners.
Zohruk and Rataji are he's-a/she's-a 70s TV detective partners.
BIG difference...! :)
I'll never make you a third wheel, Grimold. I'm really hoping that we can do the scene where Rataji gets introduced in a sort of pre-gameplay. I need to know how you all reacted to the new arrival that Zoh dragged to your door.
"Please can I keep it? It followed me home!"
Possible busted [/spoiler] tag for Rataji, look at the end of "Excerpt from Assessment in Vigil Personnel file".
EDIT: Also, the end of the meeting with Zohruk could use something to the effect of, "With that, he pointed with one of his weapons toward the doorway, in which stood two warriors of Grask Uldeth's Empty Hand..."
Rataji, you're horning in on my man and stealing my arguing-with-the-voices-in-my-head shtick. The third-wheeling is happening :P
In all seriousness, I really like the Spirit Council and I'm excited to see what you do with it. I'm amused that Zohruk and I basically made the same character, but Zohruk came out with better stats across the board.
I also have a question about your Bonded Mind feat. As I have an ability that will allow me to share that feat as well for the duration of an encounter, do you have an idea of what that would mean for the narrative? I can simply avoid doing picking that feat to share if it poses a problem, I just thought I'd bring it up.
Since we're talking tactics, I've got a spell-storing dagger. Between Daen's always-useful magus spells and Rataji's ability to cast from a scroll without using it up, there are some potent possibilities there. I'm trying to build for debuffing rather than straight damage (which is really hard; there are so many sexy damage-boosting maneuvers that I had to pass up), so I could deliver spells that inflict conditions like blindness/deafness. Zohruk, I've got a stance that grants allies flanking against an enemy when they're adjacent to each other, so it should be pretty easy to get sneak attacks off when we need to.
Rataji, since this thread got moved to the PbP discussion, I can connect a game thread to it if need be.
Good catch on the busted spoiler, Zoh.
Grimold, I didn't mean to horn in on your boy toy. Maybe we could work out a time share? Just keep in mind that whatever you do with him, I get to watch. (Ooh, that went to the creepy place fast. Wow.)
As for the stealing the arguing with the voices in your head schtick... You're right! I'm sorry! I did it without even realizing! I am looking forward to the Spirit Council as well. Between haunted and Spirit Guide Archetype, it just seemed a good way of explaining the ever changing abilities.
Regarding Bonded Mind, whoa. That would be quite a moment. My feeling on this is let's only do this if we can find a suitable plot macguffin for it? And maybe somehow hook it up to story and character development in a reasonable way? I think it could be made cool from a narrative perspective if we give it the right treatment, but I don't want to do this unless we can have a powerful story moment out of it. Does this make sense?
I don't know how your spell storing dagger works, but if there is a spell from one of my spirits that you want in it, let Rataji know.
________________
Timeline stuff
1) When he and I first come back to Vigil, we're not a couple. But we've spent two weeks not only living in each other's pockets, but in each other's heads. There's definitely a link there.
2) I'm still trying to figure out how I get invited to join you.
Maybe we really do need to a pre-gameplay gameplay thread? What do you all think?
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(Zohruk comes in drinking another glass of Darguun Stout, catches the conversation. Spit-take ensues.)
"GAH! OWWW!!! That's it, I have to stop drinking this stuff..."
Grimold, what disciplines were you gonna use? I can't recall right off the top, but the stance you mentioned sounds like a Golden Lion thing. My plan was to just "skim" enough levels of Warder that I could pick up a few key bits of Thrashing Dragon, and turn TWF from "fun, flavorful combat option" to "adamantine deli slicer". Whether it works out that way, well, we'll see.
As for Taj's eventual addition to the team, I mean, it could just be a matter of Zohruk telling our commanding officer, "Look, she bested me in a fight, maybe having her along might be worthwhile. What? Don't look at me like that, she'd have gotten you, too! Would so!"
You're right, it's Golden Lion. I'm mostly taking stuff from Thrashing Dragon and Broken Blade, and you're right about turning into an industrial food processor. But I've got a couple of tricks from Solar Wind to boost my ranged attacks when we need it and a little bit from Golden Lion for party support.
Rataji, I hear you loud and clear about Bonded Mind. And don't worry about the shtick. Characterization marches on and it's time from Grimold to drop it. I'm trying to imagine what it would be like for Zohruk and Rataji to have front-row seats to Grimold's mental puppet show. As for how you ended up joining us, it sounds like the Bright Crusade needs all the help it can get, so it shouldn't have really been that hard.
I'm starting to get a little worried about Daen and Kassie; but that's probably me just getting obsessed with this game again.
Zohruk, I'm working on that supercut, but having re-read a large portion of the game at this point, it looks like most of the good stuff was in description rather than action. I do have the line for his intro picked out, though.
Daen''s alive. He's likely just swamped with work. I keep seeing his character sheet rise to the top of my recently edited google docs files...
EDIT: And he's just submitted to the recruitment thread. Yay!
And Grimold, also don't forget you'll end up with a far deeper bag of tricks initiator-wise than Zohruk will. The multiclassing* I'm doing will result in a lot fewer toys, but really, everything I get after Battle Dragon's Stance is sweet, sweet gravy. :)
*Heresy!
Could one of you PM Kassie and see if she's alright?
I just fired one off.
The GM opened the gameplay thread for us to ninja-dot...
The turrets of Vigil rise in the distance.
Rataji sits by the fire she and Zohruk made together, cradling her knees to her chest. She’s shivering. Her monkey Babu twitches agitatedly on her shoulder. No wonder. Her head is a swirling mass of emotions, her gut feels ill, but not the kind of ill where you can just throw up and get rid of it. No, this is the kind of pain that stays. Her dad. Her ambassador dad who had taken her all over Golarian, taught her languages, been there for her... He sold her out to pay for orc troops. He sold her.
The past two weeks are a blur. The half-orc knight at her window in Urgir. The warning he gave her, once she removed her blade at his throat. The spell. Them fleeing on foot, with barely any supplies.
And then there’s Zoh. She can feel him, all the time. Carefully sidestepping around her. Watching her. She’s never been this acutely aware of anyone like this before. She’s had other people in her head since she was a small child, but none of them had actual bodies. She can feel him breathe. She knows instantly when he wakes up, when he stretches. This awareness is like an itch she can’t scratch, tingly and ever present.
Zoh is big, male, vibrant and funny... yet so awkward. She caused them to be linked like this, because she couldn’t believe. Zoh didn’t ask for this. Didn’t want this. And if she thinks his name any harder, he’ll be there again, answering her. At her beck and call. What has she done?
Zoh’s a great guy. Solid. Who else goes into a fort full of enemies to rescue someone he’s never met? Who else continues to be a gentleman after the girl not only puts a blade to his throat, but blasts his mind open so that he’ll never have privacy again? He is trying so hard not to make this awful, which somehow makes it worse.
She wishes she can tell him what she feels, but she doesn’t fully know herself. What if it’s the spell that’s making her feel this way? she hears Shivaji laughing in her head.
Shut. Up. She cannot listen to Great Uncle Shivaji’s encounters. Not now.
She needs to distract herself. “Zoh.” It feels odd, speaking his name out loud. Her voice sounds a little rusty to her. “You saved my life. By Mwangi tradition, I have to accompany you until I get to save you in return.”
Then she grins. Yeah, I’m lying through my teeth, or wishing I could. There’s no Mwangi tradition for that. But I would like the chance to... She pauses, her brain freezing. The chance to do what?
Shivaji asks, helpfully. The spirit is laughing again.
She ignores the spirit, resolutely looking into Zoh’s eyes. ...to help you. To pay forward. Is there anything in Vigil I can do? What’s awaiting me there?
This was me, trying to see how the post might look, since I cannot post it in gameplay...
We just had proof-of-life from Kassie. :)
Yay! Now let's hope the thread gets fixed.
We're fixed! Time to dot and delete gameplay!!!!