What other races exist besides tombdog and dreambug?
What is a "remnant" as opposed to a "not-remnant"?
Is there any non-ghost magic?

>>71975
In order: Life Lizards, Demon Birds, God Men, Dream Bugs, and Tomb Dogs

Every continent is a "remnant" of a world from a different universe, five of which collapsed into one. The exception is the Dream Bug Remnant, which exists in as a Dream.

Presumably, since Demons, Gods, Reincarnation, and Dreamwalkers exist for the other races.

I are a good loremaster.

>>71978
You forgot walk plants which have no remnant, physical or otherwise.

Yes, there is non-ghost magic. Each race has it's own boons. Boiled down, Dogs have an afterlife haunting their corpse and can ghost stack. Dreambugs can predict the future and affect minds. Humans must pray to gods but get magic from them and an afterlife. Lizards reincarnate and can call on the memories and skills of past lives, they can also become dragons eventually. Birds make pacts with spirits and get access to magic and other benefits but no afterlife. Plants are doppelgangers which assume the lives of those they replace with non-detection magic.

Whoa! You guys are on top of this!

There are a bunch of remnantless races who couldn't bring their worlds with them when they escaped. Some of them are still around in big numbers, like dreambugs, who you can still count on seeing around no matter where you are. Some are basically endangered. Walkplants are pretty rare, and even if you can get past their magic to spot them, you can go your whole life looking for and never finding one.

There aren't many more races beyond what's been mentioned, though. The four remnant peoples make up an overwhelming majority of the world's races, with only a very small number of other races filling in the rest.

For remnantless races, it's hard to find a place to fit in. Over generations they either work their way into a little pocket of acceptance in this remnant or that, or resign themselves to a nomadic lifestyle. A lot of the ones in the tombdog remnant stick to the coast, too, because it's really hard for strangers to be accepted deep in the traditionalist tombdog lands. If Sabby had gone north to hide in Geofahn lands she would have ran into a few new races. (In general a lot of remnantless people like the coasts of all the remnants, because the cultures there are usually more cosmopolitan and accepting anyway.)

The further you get away from big centers of civilization the more likely you're going to find a remnantless people huddled up, hiding from the majority culture, too, though.

Soooo something that just came to mind
Say a dog gets a 10 ghost tower going, and then another dog with 20 or so ghosts explodes the 10 ghost dog.
Do the ghosts explode with him?
*note to self* as awesome as 'OVER 9000!!!!' Tower would be, it'd probably take out a Remenant long before such a tower could form, am I right?

You know what I realize with the revelation that the plant people exist? They would have been a real boon as a party member, either as a doppelganger to have left behind at the beginning of our escape or even to have right now.

>>72029

I mean, exploding isn't like, they aren't going to make them blow up like an fireball with flames and smoke and stuff. They might cut him into chunks and smear him across the landscape? It's up to the reliquaries if they protect the relics well enough or not if the ghosts are ok from that.

Getting over 20 ghosts starts making things around you get really weird.

>You know what I realize with the revelation that the plant people exist? They would have been a real boon as a party member, either as a doppelganger to have left behind at the beginning of our escape or even to have right now.

If Sabby was lucky enough to find a walkplant and convince it to take her place her life deffo would be a lot easier.

I wouldn't be surprised if we met one already if they can blend in so well.

>>72035
>Getting over 20 ghosts starts making things around you get really weird.
The laws of physics start breaking down?

Why do ghost towers explode? Are they actually imploding?

>“I did not enjoy allowing you to kiss even a figment of my dream. You are betrothed to my house. I do not feel proud.”

I do wonder how our betrothal relates to him.

I initially misread it this way: "I did not enjoy allowing you to kiss even a figment of my dream. You are now betrothed to me. I do not feel proud."

>>72103
Hahaha! Can you IMAGINE all the shit this guy's seen? He's a dreamstalking mercenary, whose job is to hunt people down by spying and infiltrating their deepest and most secret thoughts. And we made him feel shame. HAH!

>>72103
I think he basically was upset that he allowed Sabby to make out with someone who wasn't her arranged husband.

>>72109
>>72117
You are both right.

In all the centuries that this dreambug has been around, he has never seen a tombdog kiss a mantis, or with such passion, repeatedly!

>>72117
And that someone was HIM.

Also, tombdog game tomorrow. #tombdogs @ irc.rizon.net if you're interested in peeking in.

Seventh tombdog campaign session is here:
http://pastebin.com/6G2YC5Ra

It has pirates.

Wow that butler looks badass and ridiculous.

Good job Coracleboat

What is this 'tombdog game'?

>>72272
I am running an IRC-based pen & paper RPG set on the tombdog remnant, northeast of where Sabhaxlia is right now. It is using my own personal system that is geared to be somewhat unforgiving and realistic. The relevant IRC channel is #tombdogs @ irc.rizon.net.

>>72288
So players won't really be able to suplex all enemies to death in this system?

correct

>>72310
Well, you might receive a khopesh in the gut for your troubles, but you're welcome to try.

>>72338
Khopesh are for fighting shield users. Ironically, it should be EASIER countering them without a shield, since their broad curves will be less effective versus parries than larger shields such as those used by infantry circa The Old Kingdom.

I feel like sabhaxlia's gonna die. Bird demons are fucking scary.

>>72344

You know, I think this is like, the one quest where this could legitimately happen.

Most quests would just have to end or 'reload' at protagonist death, so it never really happens.

But here, Sab would be a ghost after dying, and at this point in the quest we could probably convince McTrinkets to carry her around for zany ghost-merchant adventures. Like, even if we go down in this fight, as long as our guys win we could still help with the whole overthrowing the house thing.

>>72349
I wouldn't be so sure. Crypts are important for long-term ghost stability, and we don't even have any sort of spare reliquary for Sabhaxlia, let alone anyone versed in the rites and rituals required to preserve a ghost (other than maybe Sab herself, who would be otherwise preoccupied with suddenly being dead).

>>72354
Why would that be the case? She would materialize as a ghost and would then have plenty of time, probably days if not weeks, to get McTrinkets or someone else to preserve her before she rots.

Coaracleboat how do you handle writing these big weird long names? I mean seriously, there's weird x's and f's and l's everywhere along with the i's and it's hard for me just as a suggestor so christ how do you handle it in addition to all the drawing and plotting and reading and writing the other stuff that isn't the names?

Do you make up the names, put 'em in a big word .doc jar and copypaste for every single time to have to writ the whole name? Iaxio and McTrinckets are the only easy names to remember! Sabhaxlia's easy too because of how the syllables are but every other name is a mucky mess of consonants and weird syllables.

>>72406

One of the things I tried to do was give each faction and main character a differently shaped name, with different starting characters. Even if you get the spelling wrong you won't confuse Doxedn for Geofahn. The only similarity that's obnoxiously close is Laikadehn and Lairehfsis, I think.

You don't need to know the names of any cities, either. I had Sabby basically outright say to never worry about those.

You're free to give characters nicknames, too. The people who actually matter--Sabby, Iaxio, McTrinkets, Maexiks--I kept their names short and simple or gave them nicknames.

Tombdog names are also easier to remember if you know the atoms they're made up of. The names have rules I try to stick to when making them, so they're not really random. I'm not a linguist, I mean, so a lot of this isn't super-excellent, but it's the rules I do try to stick to.

There's a lot of vowel+h or h+r+vowels, for starters. There are only a few endings, too.

Laikadehn and Lairehfsis are pretty good example names. Both start with the syllable "Lai." The "Ka" is just hard consonant+vowel combo which is a usual filler sound. The "vowel+hn" is a common ending in tombdog names, along with "vowel+dn." House Fauhredn and House Geofahn both use them, although Fauhredn stands out a bit by making the "dn" a seperate sylabyl from the vowel--but that's because the e belongs to the "hre" sound which is also common.

Kehfn is basically everything going, with an "vowel+h" and a double consonant ending with "fn."

"hre" is a reoccuring sound too. Fau+hre+dn

His sister Akilfhren is made of "A," and then the same "kil" in Madohkikil's name, and then the "hre" in Fauhredn with an f on top for "fhren."

Madohkikil has a vowel+h going, too, with the "oh" for Ma+doh+ki+kil.

Maexiks is actually a not-totally-by-the-rules name because she's not really integrated into tombdog culture. Her name sounds weird to tombdogs. It mixes the southern k with a northern x--it should either be Maexix or Maeksiks.

Tashikoxix has an uncommon "shi" in the middle, but the Ta, ko, and xix are common things that reoccur through names.

You sometimes get "consonant+i+vowel" like in IaXIO or TaLIAxix or SabhaxLIA.

I think those are all the parts I use for names?

It's still obnoxious sure I mean. It takes me a minute or two to remember the names, but it helps to say them outloud/type them out a few times while remembering what parts they're made of.

I still consider myself morally superior to people who name things like K'Na-Dur'l'Fa okay.

I'll cut up some names so you can see where they share parts, and that they're more predictable than just mashing the keyboard. I am seriously so not a linguist but I try to only draw from a limited number of pieces to assemble a name. You could probably pick pieces apart from this and make up your own authentic-sounding tombdog names no problem.

Names that don't follow the rules you can assume probably do stick out as less-common names for tombdogs too. By example, Geofahn's "Geo" is really rare and meant to stick out, because they're an upstart coastal house and lots of dogs worry they're too tainted by foreigners.

Sab hax lia

Ia xio

Mae xix

Lai ka dehn

Lai rehf sis

Ma doh ki kil

Keh fn

A kil fhren

Ta lia xix

Ke kah kik

O freh kik

Me an dra xix

San bak sis

-

Ta shi ko xix

Geo fahn

Fau hredn

Do xedn

He fehx n

Ai fix

Anonymous 2013/06/17(Mon)13:41 No. 72416 ID: 01531c
File 137150169233.png - (24.39KB , 120x120 , delete.png )

>>72413
>You could probably pick pieces apart from this and make up your own authentic-sounding tombdog names no problem.

Kekilkahxix

>>72411
Cool
Just wanted to know how you handled it, maybe even get a little of the why.
I like the naming style, just hard to say, read and remember is all. Fauhredn I've always pronounced Fauh-dren for some godawful reason.

Yes, you're morally superior to them. God knows I'm guilty of the apostrophe name sin. Shit, I did that with regular names like Benjamen into Ban'zah'min or some shit like that. God forgive my young mind. Then again, he was a shadowrun richboy elf, he was supposed to have a terrible personality. A terrible name goes with it.

Fuck elves.

>>/quest/517589
>When I open my eyes, the demon is eating Chelcahxix’s ghost. Just. Swallowing him whole. Like a fish. Chelcahxix still looks bored. I don’t. I mean. I don’t know.
>Then the bird catches on uh. Fire. And burn away. Sure.

I suppose that this segues into HOW each of the Five Main Remnants managed to save their bit of reality.

Tombdogs must've constructed a massive Ghost CERN to power their escape.
Humanity must've cult'ed it up with a few specific gods, so they could power up the Holy Lands for the trip.

Could you fill me in on the rest?

I'm also not clear on if how each races old world ended had to do with 'the world ended' or 'heat death' or 'the great magical fuckup'

>>When I open my eyes, the demon is eating Chelcahxix’s ghost. Just. Swallowing him whole. Like a fish. Chelcahxix still looks bored. I don’t. I mean. I don’t know.
For some reason I found that part hilarious.

>>72426
Yeah. And I'm still wondering just what happened to his ghost there. Was he digested, destroyed, made into something, or what?

>>72427
The price of a demon is your soul + payment for use of it's abilities.
Chel was paying for the former part, that is why birddemons have no afterlife.

>>72426
I think he paid for the service of the demon by selling his emotions AND his ghost.

>remnants

Most people today don't actually know much about why the remnants' original worlds were destroyed, how the remnants themselves escaped, or what this place they escaped to is. Something "bad" happened and they managed to slip one of their continents out of the destruction into the place it is now.

There's a single island with an artificial tower in the sea between the 4 remnants that was here before any of them, but it's the only thing that was there before the other remnants came on in. Remnants get to keep their own native skies, too, so it's not like they're all just, like, plopping their landmasses down in another "planet's" ocean. They kept all their stars and moons too.

I seriously never remember how long ago it happened and I'm just gonna say no one else remembers for sure either. It was at least 3,000 years ago, which is long even by tamdag standards.

The only things around who remember first-hand or second-hand what happened would be a few really old tombdog ghosts, the human gods that survived to make it over, the lifelizard dragons who completed before the whole shebang happened, and maybe all the bird's demons?? Who knows what's up with the demons. The birddemons don't even know what's up with their demons.

There might be chances to find out more about it in the quest somewhere along the road.

>demon munchies

The demon eats the bird-soul when a birddemon dies--that's how the birddemon "afterlife" works. Somehow Chelcahxix manage to finagle a demon onto him, so he got both afterlives. He got the tombdog be-a-ghost, and the birdemon have-your-soul-eaten.

Souls demons eat are effectively destroyed, just like if a ghost lost all its memories and went dead. He's completely gone.

>>/quest/517699
It's actually closer to two days.

>>72434
I do like how someone found an excuse to slip a "show everybody your tits" suggestion in there. Stay classy.

Also, she did literally just wake up from a nap.

I like how I suggested Mado at first because it sounded tactically viable and help Sabbs be alive (which she is, so maybe I was right! Sure, we lost one but Sabbs could have died in Lair's place!), but changed my mind to be with Lair so we could girl talk and how dating a ghost is like and how they met and gushy stuff while we wait.

still ended up with Mado. But girl talk would have been neat.

>>72436
I bet Sabhaxlia writes the best girl talk.

>>72436
I said then and say now that picking a partner based on dating game logic or cuteness is a terrible idea. How many times does shit have to go down in the quest before people realize that?

Like I said, Lairehfsis was the weakest flank. If we hadn't been there, Madohkikil might have had a little trouble with the speardog, but I can't imagine him not being fine in the long term. Whereas Lairehfsis had only her javelins and, what, a knife? It was basically a suicide gambit for her to distract the butler long enough for us to take care of him. Whereas, if both we and McTrinkets had been there, it was already shown that he had difficulty dealing with three people at once. The sword user was down, and got shot in the head without anyone else's intervention, really, so Madohkikil would probably easily have been able to take out the spear user, and then join the fight against the butler, turning it into a 4v1 that we could easily have won the same way we won it in reality.

I'm just saying, it feels like a senseless waste of life that resulted from us not really thinking out our actions in the long term. If you want to hang out with Lairehfsis and do girl talk, fine, but there's a time and a place, and voting because you want to do it before a battle starts is inappropriate, at least in my opinion.

>>72444
But dating game logic dictated that we actually hang out with Lairehfsis. Because Sabby's totally lesbo.

>>72444
So I made the right vote for the wrong reasons is that so bad?

Also, again, we're completely unsure of how that would play out. Because I think Mado saved our life just by being bitchin' in battle. Remember it was the butler demon that killed Lair, not any of the normal people. Butler was going to focus on us because we both were the weakest melee attackers and our attack hadn't come into real focus until AFTER Lair was hurt and the normies were dead. Lair's good and she's got a good ghost, but she failed simply for being the weakest side. That could have been our guts spilled on the ground, the butler would have powerhoused the completely living side, probably killing us both because he was able to focus on one living side at once. Mado is a tank, and the Butler knew that, he wouldn't go after him first, he'd reduce numbers as quick as he could. Logically, that means his attack would go Sabby -> Lair -> Mado or try and go for McTrinckets and Laika to reduce range advantage.

With Doxedn's help we can make Lair a corpsebound if she wishes, or she can probably choose to live in the city crypt while she has ghost adventures by having one of her bandit compadre's or us take a relic. The city will gladly take the hero who sacrificed her life for the good of ghosts everywhere afraid of being made into paste. Probably, or we could ship her to wherever she wants to go.

There's not much she can't do as a corpsebound if not better besides have children, but she was dating a ghost anyway. Unless tombdogs can have ghost babby's, she can be fine and live a normal life.

>>72455
>she was dating a ghost anyway. Unless tombdogs can have ghost babby's, she can be fine and live a normal life.

Ghosts seem to interact with ghosts pretty physically.

Sabhaxlia, do ghosts just pass through each other, or is it only the weaker ones that do that?

To cut the argument short, the battle was decided by how much info the Geofahn bug gave (against how much Sabby gave up for it), who she

>Sabhaxlia, do ghosts just pass through each other, or is it only the weaker ones that do that?

For ghost-on-ghost action? They could stand on one-another's head. Two ghosts can bang all the time no problem. Ghosts can force parts of them to "clip" through one another but it's really unpleasant and they instinctively pull away from that if even slightly possible. Ghosts also can't go through walls or nothing. They generally respect all surfaces, from doors to people to other ghosts.

The only exceptions are in ghost binding or ghost towering, where the ghosts overlap one another.

If you hit a ghost with something it'll flinch, and if you stab something through a ghost it might feel some pain. If you try to impale a ghost to a wall with a spear they might act like they're "pinned" before just walking off the spear. They might also just act like the spear shoved them off to the side, too, though.

Ghost-on-person sensation is more of a person-side thing. The ghost touches the person and it isn't the ghost really exerting pressure on it, so much as the dog feeling the pressure. It's like a pressure without a weight to it?

In a more direct way of putting it, think of a ghost touching a living person as a psychosomatic thing more than the ghost actually having an effect on a living thing. A ghost can slap you and you might feel it, but it'd only be because you were expecting to feel it. It works better with powerful ghosts and ghosts you personally know well, and especially ghosts you're related to.

If a ghost pushes at your lips and tries to pull them up, it's not the ghost pulling your lips so much as your lips peeling up in response.

And that is how you can have sex with a ghost.

...did McTrinkets ever give us her real name?

>To cut the argument short, the battle was decided by how much info the Geofahn bug gave (against how much Sabby gave up for it), who she

Haha i forgot to finish typing that sentence. Whoooooops.

Lairehfsis survives better if Sabby goes along with her but Sabby is in a bit more danger. The fight also goes better the more you give up to the Geofahn bug. Sabby trying to be a hero or not also counted for stuff.

Secret Double Vote Time! Sabhaxlia 2013/06/21(Fri)16:04 No. 72587 ID: 8fb35b
File 137185587313.jpg - (32.91KB , 392x338 , sabbysmaller.jpg )

Okay, everyone kind of freaked out at the mention of a brothel, and some people think Lairehfsis' House has connections to Geofahn.

The choice was really meant to give me time to plan out which branching path of adventures she'd take; voting was mostly meant to be about which set of adventures sounded more fun/more interesting to go for.

Some people are seeming like they wanted to hold off really saying for sure until they have more information, and I don't really want to start thread 3 and clog up the opening with grilling McTrinkets and Lairehfsis about deets, so I'll lay down more info, and if anyone wants to change their vote, they can go ahead, before I start up the thread and finish plotting out the course we take.

These are basic things you can assume Sabby and McTrinkets and Lairehfsis' ghost chatted out on the carriage ride, so!

--

Lifelizards--They're a pair of lifelizard merchants who run an import/export/exotic goods business in the middle of a city. McTrinkets sold honestly-not-stolen-or-shady trinkets for them and while they probably get up to some shenanigans, it's probably not super illegal like corpse-paste is.

Brothel--It's run by a skeleton corpsebound and all of the prostitutes are ghosts. It's in a hidden crypt nestled a bit away from everything else. It IS shady because sex outside of marriage is super-taboo in the tombdog remnant but Sabby shouldn't be in any danger of sex slavery.

This route requires Sabby to travel without any allies except Iaxio. It goes along the same main river-road Sabby has been traveling on, but she'll move more quickly. Half-way down the road she has to acquire her own means of travel.

--

Lairehfsis--Her house is a small house that was born from a larger one splintering. The two successor houses have been feuding over legitimacy. Lairefhsis' boyfriend belongs to the other house. They're too far away to be under Geofahn's thumb.

Prayermen--A group of prayermen immigrants whose grandfathers came to the tombdog remnant. They live mostly outside of any tombdog authority. They will not sacrifice Sabby to their gods.

This route has Sabby tavel with Lairehfsis' ghost and her boyfriend's ghost too. It's not the path Sabby was directly following earlier, but it's a longer side-track south and you have to deal with Lairehfsis' issues along the way. She either needs Lairehfsis' house to supply transport further south, or find her own means of travel.

--

Okay! I mean, both routes are also entirely valid and excellent, but I don't want anyone making their choice based on the idea that the brothel means immediate sex slavery. I really did not expect so many people to make their fear of it the central issue of their vote, so!

If anyone has any changes they wanna make to their vote or talk about the vote there's still time before I actually plan the path we take out. Otherwise we are doing Lairehfsis--Prayermen which is still perfectly OK.

Both paths are equally full of danger and excitement, don't worry. It's just what flavor of excitement you want.

>>72587
voting Lairehfsis-->Prayermen route.

Lizards and 'choots.

I vote Lairehfsis route.

I vote lizards.

>>72587

I think that sticking around the town and getting to know people for like, 2 days before leaving with Lairehfsis and taking the housedog-prayermen route. She's nice, and cute, and she helped you in the battle. So you should help her.

Besides housedogs are more likely to be better friends, and you can go see the brothel later if you really want.

>>72587
>Brothel--It's run by a skeleton corpsebound and all of the prostitutes are ghosts.

ERROR:DOES_NOT_COMPUTE

How does ghost sex work!? Does it have to do with Ghost Stacking? Does the word 'brothel' or 'prostitute' mean something else in Tombdoggia?

THIS IS VITAL INFORMATION.

>>72593
You can have sex with ghosts the same way Iaxio and Sabby can touch each other. It is quite kinky like that.

>>72587
If we let things progress without interfering it sounds like the two ghosts will be separated. I have a great idea.

Let's steal one of Lair's relics and also keep ahold of one of her boyfriend's relics. They can be together with Sabby after we leave!

>Sabby shouldn't be in any danger of sex slavery
...if it's a brothel of ghosts doesn't that mean the risk is getting murdered and entering an unlifetime of sex slavery? :V

I have to admit seeing Iaxo's reaction to this would be pretty awesome. And I'm kind of interested to see what the character design of a skeletal madam would look like.

Still think Liar's route seems safer though, and it might be nice to help her with whatever her issue is after getting her killed.

Shoot, did I forget to post the eighth session? I guess I did. It's here:

http://pastebin.com/cgpcy7dV

Anonymous 2013/06/27(Thu)13:48 No. 72931 ID: a01b62
File 137236613111.png - (200.75KB , 708x651 , tombdogcities.png )

Here's a frame of reference for the campaign relative to the area the quest covers. The cities listed are all ones that the campaigndogs have or will have been to or heard mentioned. Lakehxixehdnehohsis-em-a is probably the closest the campaign will ever get to the area the quest takes place in.

Which city does that campaign take place in?

>>72932
The city that House Kaliaxix, the House the campaign is centered around, controls is Tadnohxehdnihrsis-em.

>>72935
are the quest and campaign taking place at the same time or no and also if either side does something big enough will the other side hear about it? (example- Sabhazlia set half of the forest on fire trying to escape some people hired by house what's it's name and players in the campaign heard someone bitching about it once they hit some town)

I'm mentally wondering how'd that go down if there were a cross-over.
I mean, on the one hand, they could go 'hey, let's totes turn Sabby in for major Moolah!'
Or, they might decide to help her. And then there's the chance that Sabby's players might distrust them when they're being nice/ trust them when being evil and what not.
It would be an EPIC feat of DMing from both Samuel&Coracleboat if you guys could pull it off...

>>72937
They are taking place. Whether the quest mentions anything the players do is entirely at the discretion of coracleboat, but Sabhaxlia's deeds may come up in the campaign. No character from the quest will feature in the campaign. I don't think coracle has any plans to do a crossover.

But since it's come up, the game is on #tombdogs @ irc.rizon.net.

>>72945
taking place at the same time*

>>72944
It seems unlikely they'd turn anyone in to Geofahn. They're a rival merchant house. Screw those guys!

I'm not keeping up with the deets of the campaign that's going on supermuch, so anything that happens in it isn't going to show up in the quest or anything.

But he's done a good job keeping the setting mostly on-target, though, and he does a lot of checks with me to make sure his own ideas fit, so like

it's basically approved EU

Ninth session is up here:

http://pastebin.com/GQj3bg4c

Could still use another player for tombdog campaign, by the way.

Tenth session is here:

http://pastebin.com/dyCZ153E

http://tgchan.org/kusaba/quest/res/529070.html

Third thread started!

Yaaaaaaay.

Eleventh session is here:

http://pastebin.com/GU6C7T68

Progress is made!

Progress!

Also, I'd still like to get a fourth player in here, so you know, if you like tombdogs, and like the sessions so far, the IRC channel is #tombdogs @ irc.rizon.net.

@Samuel
2 questions:1 when can I expect a Tombdog session to be had?
2-how to work IRC chat to get there?

Game is on Tuesdays.
Use any IRC client. Here's one: www.Mibbit.com

...Zaealix almost half-sounds like a tombdog name as is.
Zaehralixia sound workable?

We can discuss names if you start building a character. The campaign info is here: http://rubyrpg.x10.mx/downloads/tombdogs.htm I'll give you the system PDF in IRC.

Ok, there's two seperate remnants potentially clashing, and we don't know how that will work out.
Like, Tombdog ghosts gets eaten by Birddemon Demons if the two collide, suggesting that a Tombdog literally leaves behind his soul when he dies, but once that soul is detached from the world, he's gone for good.
Birddemons, we don't know enough about, but the gist is, you sell your soul for power. But you kinda need more power to sell to a better demon to get more power from the demon, so I imagine that Birddemon society is probably kinda meritocratic-if you prove yourself versatile and useful, better Birddemons will approach and try to make a deal with you. But what happens to Birddemons who don't make a deal? Do they turn into the 'demons' that Birddemons deal with? And if so, why NOT just forgo making a deal with a Birddemon if you're not gonna fight?
And Dreambugs, well, that's weird too, but in a different manner...
Hrm. So basically, the thing is, Tombdogs and Birddemon afterlives flow into each other, and in my opinion, probably are better together than apart. A Tombdog has a choice-he can become a normal ghost, and trust in his town/house/ whatever, to basically keep him around, and make use of him.
Honor your ancestors, and they will aid you. I think sums the normal course up. But throwing Birddemons into the mix makes thing interesting! Now the Tombdog can trade his ghost afterlife, for a birddemon, and thus gain more power while alive, as well as powers that aren't even normal for Tombdogs, like the wingshield thing. BUT when you consider how much the ghost thing plays into Tombdog society...It makes it rather like being a satanist or something in our world- just letting people KNOW you did something like this could seriously tarnish your reputation maybe, like making Corpse-paste could.
This is a REALLY engaging setting, I gotta say.

>>74500

Admittedly dooming your own soul to a momentary torment and then oblivion is a lot less upsetting than dooming a thousand souls to unimaginable pain and suffering as their dead bodies are ground into a fine powder.

>so I imagine that Birddemon society is probably kinda meritocratic-if you prove yourself versatile and useful, better Birddemons will approach and try to make a deal with you.

It isn't the most egalitarian place, but it works a lot like that, yeah. The more you have to offer, and the more you're capable of, the more more powerful demons want you. Demons have their own agendas, and the more powerful you are, the most useful you are to them. And of course, the more powerful your demon is, the more powerful you are, so it feeds back into itself like that.

Birds have to meet certain requirements to keep their demons happy. Tiny demons the size of your palm who can only pass the salt for you only want simple things like the occasional treat. Demons who can do a neat thing or two might have more restrictive demands.

If you have a powerful demon who can let you fly and reads minds for you, though, it's going to demand you play your part in its own politics with other demons. This could mean, like, having to ruin another bird's life just because your demon told you to.

Upper-birddemon society is a mix of bird agendas and demon agendas cooperating and clashing. At that level what friends you have have to be vetted by your demon and all their demons too. Demons who are friends will want to make pacts with birds that are already friends, or will try and steer their birds into becoming friends. Demons who are enemies do the opposite.

If you have a powerful enough demon and it demands you ruin another bird's life or business, the demon is within its right to eat your soul then and there for not cooperating.

>But what happens to Birddemons who don't make a deal? Do they turn into the 'demons' that Birddemons deal with? And if so, why NOT just forgo making a deal with a Birddemon if you're not gonna fight?

There are almost no birds who don't make a pact with demons. Demons can do a lot more than just make you fight better. Parents make contracts on behalf of their unborn children for a demon who will look after the baby, so most birds don't even have a choice in the thing. As you grow up, and as your interests and life changes, you change your previous demon for one more suited to you. Since all demons want to be the one to devour your soul, but also want to be the one you want to let eat your soul, they try to be friendly and helpful, and you'll always find one that will fill the role you want them to.

For lesser demons it isn't that hard to end a pact and start up a new one, so if you're like, a carpenter, and your demon has a hammer for a beak, but then you become a baker and you want a demon who can heat biscuits in his mouth--your original demon can only ask a little payment from you to discourage switching to the new demon.

For more powerful demons, the requirements to end a pact with them can get pretty much impossible to fulfill, ensuring that they get to be the ones to eat your soul.

There's a big cultural urge to always have a demon, and birds without demons have demons swarming around just out of the corner of their eyes bugging them to sign with them. It is super beyond rare for a birddemon to die without an actual demon bound to them waiting to eat their soul. Rare in the sense of like, "I'm sure it happened at some point but I haven't heard any rumors of it even" rare.

>Now the Tombdog can trade his ghost afterlife, for a birddemon, and thus gain more power while alive, as well as powers that aren't even normal for Tombdogs, like the wingshield thing. BUT when you consider how much the ghost thing plays into Tombdog society...It makes it rather like being a satanist or something in our world- just letting people KNOW you did something like this could seriously tarnish your reputation maybe, like making Corpse-paste could.

Tombdogs usually can't, though. The different powers of the different remnants usually don't cooperate with each other like that. Demons have no real interest in making pacts with non-birds; prayerman gods don't care about other peoples and they can only get things from the gods if a priest is paid to pass their own blessings on to them temporarily; tombdog ghosts are really uncomfortable binding to a non-dog; lifelizard reincarnation is totally inaccessible by any non-lifelizard. The dog having a demon is totally weird and he probably pulled some weird stuff in his life to even have the opportunity to do that.

Tombdog ghosts can do some neat things that haven't shown up in the quest yet, too. Having a certain amount of ghosts bound to you at once defends you against unaided attacks anyway--the sheer wall of ghosts can just make a blow slide right off you sometimes.

The tradeoff is that tombdog ghosts can learn a bunch of little powers, and give other dogs bonuses to their strength and skills, while birddemon demons can have one or two solid powers but can't do anything else outside of that.

For the record, lifelizards can recall past memories to get skills/abilities their past lives had; prayermen can call on their gods for blessings and favors. The 4 remnants are balanced along two scales: one is how easily the average person can access their remnant's magic, the other being what the upper limit of the remnant's power is.

Tombdogs have the second widest access to magic powers (everyone can access ghosts) but the second weakest maximum potential for power (you need to stack crazy-ghosts to get super-powerful, and even then you aren't the biggest power in the world).

Birddemons have the most universal access to special powers (every single bird has a demon), but also have the weakest upper limit on those powers (the most powerful demons still aren't much on their own).

Lifelizards as a race have the second weakest access to powers (they can all recall skills of their past lives, but for most of them it isn't really anything special) but the second highest ceiling (lifelizard completed dragons are entirely immortal).

Prayermen have the worst access to their powers (they pray to their gods and sometimes they might even listen a little) but the highest limit to their powers overall (prayermen demigods are basically gods that can act at will in the world).

Hunh...
Yanno, maybe it's just me, but I feel like the four remmnant reflect different belief systems.
Tombdogs are Ancestor worship.
Birddemons have the 'devil's deal.' thing going.
Prayermen have the 'pray to god' thing.
And Lifelizards do reincarnation.
Sound about right?

That's pretty neat. Good worldbuilding.

I really want to see what happens when a bird dies without a demon really bad now, thanks coracleboat. I'll never get to see it.

Have you planned other potential quests for the other races before you made your choice on what to stick with and you just went with the tombdog one? Or are the tombdogs your favorite race and so you never considered having a quest in the other remnants at the start?

I also want to see a demigod and dragon in this world eventually but I probably never will.

Have you also seriously considered pre-remanant catastrophe stories as well? Or is exploring the concept actually possible in Sabb's journey in a form? (Archology Ho! After Capitalism Ho!)

>Yanno, maybe it's just me, but I feel like the four remmnant reflect different belief systems.

The idea was for each of the main peoples to have different afterlives.

Tombdogs have ghosts; lifelizards have reincarnation; prayermen have a heaven; birddemons have oblivion.

When I first started coming up with the setting meeting the requirement of "different afterlives for each people" was my starting point for each of them all.

>I really want to see what happens when a bird dies without a demon really bad now, thanks coracleboat. I'll never get to see it.

It is one of those rare mysteries that probably has a really boring answer. Maybe nearby demons just fight over who gets to eat it. Borrrrriiiiiiing.

>Have you planned other potential quests for the other races before you made your choice on what to stick with and you just went with the tombdog one?

Tombdogs were the most developed race first off. When I started the quest I had very little work done on the lifelizards at all. The quest forced me to do a lot more worldbuilding and get everything settled in quick and solid.

>I also want to see a demigod and dragon in this world eventually but I probably never will.

Sabby probably won't, but I do want to draw those guys. I have sketches and doodles of a few of the gods/demigods and the dragons but I am not really happy with the dragons at all yet.

>Have you also seriously considered pre-remanant catastrophe stories as well? Or is exploring the concept actually possible in Sabb's journey in a form?

There is a possibility of something something spoiler spoiler :y

Oh my god you guys I just realized something. I was thinking about the middle ages and how marriage was important and shit for alliances (because I was thinkin' bout game of thrones of course and crusader kings 2), then I made the realization that middle age tradition of marriage is basically animal husbandry with nobles.

Then you add in this quest with it dog marriage alliances and it's basically word for word animal husbandry because it's dog people. Only instead of making puppies for genetics it's making puppies for house alliances.

Goddamn son it's fucking puppy quest up in this literal bitch for these families.

 

Also yayifications if we can get Zoidberg as a party member. We got crazy optimistic ghost lady and pervert uncle ghost, now we need a fourth! A physical being!

Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop Whoop

>>74819
Technically we're getting grumpy Kehkakik as a member/telephone.

Twelfth session is here:

http://pastebin.com/CJS220v0

Hrm.
So on the one hand, Maexiks did get Sabby to run off. But on the other hand, she was doing it with the knowledge that Sabby was unhappy with it anyhow! All Maexiks did was instill the plan, it seems. And for that matter, she overestimated Geofahn's power, and the hits the House took because of Sabhaxlia's escape cost them big time, and now the town won't let them get her.

>>75187
>"She was going to jump anyway! I just pushed them over!"

What Maexiks says also kinda conflicts both at the start of the quest and in the prequel Sabby awakes from 'bad' dreams she doesn't remember. Pleasant endings indeed.

Thirteenth session from last week is here:

http://pastebin.com/mzCDFLB4

Lehkurehn plays some miniatures with Haeliksis, a couple bandits get slaughtered, there is a lot of dice rolling. Probably not much of interest.

Fourteenth session is here:

http://pastebin.com/t1GwKyvz

Trouble in Trader Town

i'm on a short break here for now while i take care of some stuff!

we'll be back at it in a little bit

The fifteenth session was sort of short. Mostly negotiations. Here it is:

http://pastebin.com/YQFw3yGs

As a bonus, here's the sixteenth session too:

http://pastebin.com/j3RCa29p

So what's Sabby been up to since the quest stalled ou-- Anonymous 2019/04/21(Sun)13:52 No. 129191 ID: 688dd6
File 155587997652.png - (576.64KB , 975x916 , 1525135365_coracleboat_shes_a_great_girlfriend.png )

In case anyone was unaware (I certainly was!), this quest is actually technically completed. Here's the ending, from the author's page:



Oh.

Sabby helped Lairehfsis get her body corpsebound by her family. Helped patch up things between their Romeo and Juliet-butt families mostly by accident and got on both their good sides. Carried on a bit further down south. Helped Doctor Mantis become accepted for the medical GENIUS he clearly was. Finally convinced the Geofahn bug to get off her butt through speechifying and appealing to his own insecurities.

Eventually arranged for a dream conversation with Tabaxian. Sabby was always being pushed by suggestions towards seizing control of her own life and living on her own terms and answering to no one. Being her own dog. She was done running.

Explained she was taking her own route in life. He accused her of being selfish. She said having to give up her life for everyone else was basically the same. They argued. They finally stopped arguing. And he let her go. House Geofahn backed off. House Geofahn absorbed House Tashikoxix by artifact of their expansion anyway, so most of the ghosts were saved, although Sabby's mother didn't end up with any kind of real political clout and is still pretty miserable.

And with that sorted out, she and Maexiks sorted out their own problems. Most of Sabby's suggestions were understanding if a little creeped out. She eventually forgave Maexiks and encouraged her to ditch that fart-butt town if she hated it so much and stop being a depresso and come hang out.

She did.

McTrinkets, Sabhaxlia, and Maexiks, traveling merchant team, getting into hijinks and problems. Occasionally teaming up with Lairehfsis and her gang. Eventually kicking Madohkikil out because he was a huge stinky rotting butt. Eventually Lairehfsis and her team went from strangers to part of the wandering merchant team. Fairly big upgrade in terms of reputability, even if Sabby and McTrinkets were still constantly wandering strangers.

But they did well. For years, they did well. And better. And better.

Until Sabhaxlia decided to follow some of the earliest suggestions in the game and just out and out start her own house. She's now Sabhaxlia Sabhaxliaxix. With no House seat, they decided to take after McTrinket's Southdog traditions and make their crypt a wagon they carted around with them. (In the south they have massive crypt sleds, same thing really!) Somewhat more legitimized, they got somewhat more legitimized business, and soon their noses were out of trouble and into money instead.

Not crazy money, but decent money.

Sabby remains mostly loyal to bugwife, but she and McTrinkets have a few flings. It's not really possible to marry a bug honestly, but Sabhaxlia was able to tweak the rules and get Maexiks a mantle without bars. A solid mantle. Full member of House Sabhaxliaxix, a place finally, finally made real in the waking world for the sad mantis.

Eventually Iaxio gets back up north and adds a chunk of his mother's corpse to their crypt-cart. Grandfather skullface is super delighted to see Iaxio has made something serious of himself. Iaxio still bothers Sabby constantly. His corpse is taken off the crossroads and divided up. No longer just bound to Sabhaxlia, he takes serious advantage of his now increased locationality and bothers everyone he knows, constantly, all at once, no matter how far away they are. He is the happiest he's ever been.

Lairehfsis has a Romeo in Ahrufek but, well. Sabby was routinely suggested to hit on basically every girl, so it's not surprising they ended up as Good Friends.

A decade passes. Sabby turns 27, a comfortable-if-not-rich merchant.

Her discomfort of traveling to other worlds is gone after a lifetime of adventure, and she travels to the other remnants, getting up in trade and shenanigans. Always, she is where she chooses to be.

Another decade passes. Sabby turns 37. This is starting to hit middle age for a living creature, but as a tombdog, there are ghosts and corpsebound walking around twice, thrice that age. She doesn't feel old at all. She's set aside enough funds to become a corpsebound herself when it's time. McTrinkets' is older than Sabby, but she's OK with being a ghost someday. Looking forward to it, actually.

House Sabhaxliaxix is still kind of a joke-House. It isn't any real political thing, but by now she has more members than just the original friends from her first poorly-planned adventure. She's traveled all the remnants, even visited the great Tower-City at the center of the 4 remnants. Even traded there! She's... still an unorthodox dog who doesn't care that much about traditions, but as a remnant wandering merchant, that's expected. And she's respected. And it's disorienting as falling into a fartbutt mudpond, but she likes it.

Following stupid dumb ideas that enter her mind constantly, Sabby decides to take their merchant enterprise somewhere new. The Tower in the Middle, the thing that all four remnants were drawn to as their original worlds were destroyed, everyone knows it's full of monsters and maybe connects to other worlds. Well, they know that for sure. High level busters are kept on retainer to beat up anything bad that comes through the Tower.

Remnants residents rarely leave their home, but it's not NEVER been done before. It isn't like Sabhaxlia was the first to try to cross through one of the starry portals and into another, unknown world.

Sabhaxlia's entire story has always been about deciding things for herself, on her own terms. No matter what life threw at her, she took every option she had, looked at them, and sometimes came up with her own anyway. No matter what options she had, she only ever picked the ones that kept her free and in charge of her own life.

When she left the world she was born in and her authorial line was cut off from the Remnants setting, instead of letting it attach to the City in the Middle's world consciousness, she looked up. Realized how vulnerable she was to the influence of something greater than her. Realized how much of her life had been influenced and controlled by something beyond her, even in her escape from such things.

She decided to not be like that anymore.

Your authorial line is supposed to connect to the world you're in, so that world can better fit you into it. So you can be a part of its own Story. So you can create Story for it, and it can feed excess back to you. So it can better direct you to be what it needs you to be to make you work as an organelle for the world.

Sabhaxlia's authorial line loops back around into herself now. According to the City in the Middle, her legal species is "World."

Becoming a corpsebound is expensive and it takes a long time. Sabby was really happy to realize she could recycle those funds now that she accidentally blundered her way, as is fitting for her, right into immortality. Good job, Sabhaxlia. You are literally an unkillable concept with the power to veto any outside influences on you. Mission. Finally. Accomplished.

Being metafictionally active and independent hasn't really changed Sabby's outlook or anything, though. She doesn't have an infinite well of Story to draw on, she isn't Tabrix--as far as metafictional entities go she's real far down the list of anything impressive. But! She doesn't really need it.

She has friends, family, bugwife, occasional-girlfriends, a successful career, and the freedom to go wherever, and be whoever, she wants.

And that's the canon ending to Sabhaxlia's Terrible Life.

Her Pretty Okay Life continues at the paces she sets for it.

>>129191
Hah, it's like the Fool's Journey. I'm no good at literary analysis, I wonder if there are other Major Arcana in the story?