Please do not Take these Organs
| Please do not [T]ake these Organs by JamesLeng |
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You all met in a tavern in some no-name logging town out on the frontier. Scruffy prospectors, scheming merchants, disgraced minor nobles, and deranged veterans from thousands of miles away converged on rumors of a ruined fortress from the Old Empire and the priceless treasures within. Seemed like a great way to get rich, make a name for yourself, or at least keep busy while avoiding the big cities for whatever reason.
You assembled a team, planned an expedition, set out for one of the better-known cavern entrances... then things started to go wrong. Currently you're deep underground, separated from the rest of the expedition and known paths to the surface by a sliding-wall trap, and the way forward is blocked by some ridiculous chess puzzle. Engraving on steel plaque, on a low stone pedestal covered in smudged-out chalk notes, reads
"Life is a dirge of shadow and light
A terrible chore ‘ere blessed sleep
Resting in peace of eternal night
A knightly prize for those who would leap
Into the fray knowing their right
A foolish whim whose meaning is deep
Fraught with the force of clerical might
A bound to the left and so we shall reap
Yet stay the true course in blooded sight
A castle falls east in a weatherworn heap
Then comes freedom to victors of peril-fraught fight
And journey continues with prize one can keep.
Seek the prize within the eightfold field.
Orcus watches and cheers the struggle.”
In other words, an old school dice-based dungeon crawl. Rebooted!
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Act 2 Character Roster:
Active Characters
Maru Red
Tiefling Townie
Specialization: Skald
High/Low Ambitions: Fame, glory, and the perks that come with it / Craving for pipeweed
Phobia: Being forgotten from this world/dying without becoming famous
Mutation: Filed down horns protruding from her forehead
Vulnerability: Much like a reptile, gets sluggish in the cold, and will become comatose if she is in extreme cold for extended periods of time
Ability: She can summon forth a two-handed, spectral ax, fueled by blood, which sings a battle dirge to inspire her allies and intimidate her foes
Bio: Maru was conceived via rape, and was largely unwanted and resented by her mother. Her mother had demonic blood in her ancestry, and Maru inherited these traits. After running away from home, a group of towns people from a nearby village found her, and filed her horns down in an attempt to purge the demonic influence from her body. Not long after a group of "orc" bandits raided the town, and ended up taking her in and nursing her back to health. She joined them, and some time later was put on trial for the murder of her father, of which she was proudly guilty. She escaped the custody of local law enforcement, albeit on her own, and made her way out to the frontier to get a clean start and make a new name for herself. She entered the ruins hoping for gold glory and inspiration for a epic to be told through the ages, but after being cut off from the main expedition force, a rare voice of reason tells her that perhaps a hot meal, soft bed and cheap wench would be preferable to starving to death in a crumbling fortress. And so, she now attempts to get un-lost, and hopes that the others can figure out the riddle behind this puzzle because she is stumped.
Player: Santova
Hore Wutashi
Gnoll-Human Hybrid Hedge Witch
Specialization: Outsider Shaman
High/Low Ambitions: Go 'Home' / Murder-Sex. Endless. Murder. And. Sex. At the same time.
Phobia: Fear of the unknown, mostly anything that can kill her without showing itself.
Mutation: Canine Features. Ears. Tail. And yes, Gnoll *censored*
Vulnerability: Mental instability
Ability: Plasma Beam - Based on her mother's broken plasma pistol, this signature spell allows Hore to fire a concentrated beam of generated plasma at any opponent. She has been working on plans to modify the quantum wave pattern of the plasma, which would change the beam's special strength from armor piercing to enchantment piercing.
Bio: Twenty years ago, a magic experiment performed by the chieftain of a generic gnoll tribe accidentally latched onto a quantum portal energy signature from another world. As you can guess, one of the staff from the lab was sucked in and fell into the arms of a really lucky gnoll. She wasn't even one of the scientists, just an intern from the biology department! But then, all the actual scientists that went through the portal fell in less fortunate places and died in a matter of seconds. So after five rapes, a few medical miracles, and one really loud childbirth later, Hore was born into a tribe of rapists with a deity-figure as a mother and showered with all the attention of a classic chosen one. She learned much about mathematics, biology, natural sciences, and basic quantum mechanics from whatever her mother could still retain.
Then her mother died in a freak accident when she was ten. Perforated by falling bull horns. Go figure.
After fighting her way out of her own paranoid psychopathic tribe, Hore wants to know more about her mother's world and if she could have a place there. Barring that, like any among her tribe she has a lust for murder and rape matched only by her desire to create a working system for endless murder and rape.
Player: kome
Decaro Vos
Eel-man Soldier
Specialization: Grappling
High/Low Ambitions: Protecting the weak / Bedding other sentient species
Phobia: Any dry and excessively dusty environment, thorny plants, mummified corpses, scorpions, and powdered silver (or silvery metals, but not, for example, liquid mercury, silver coins, or iron filings), or apparent unnaturally-accelerated erosion of stone
Mutation: Big eye on chest
Vulnerability: Big weak point on chest
Ability: Flesh growth - can touch a creature to cause a horrible mutation
Bio: Vos was born of noble parents, the fourteenth hatchling in his clutch. He was raised steadfast in the teachings of his deity, and one day decided to leave his village to spread these teachings and give aid to the many other people of the world. During his travels he heard tale of a dungeon full of secrets and possibly evil, so he joined forces with a band of attractive people to investigate. Vos is now lost and a little bit scared, but he knows his faith will protect him. He was never much for poetry and does not know how to play chess, so instead he attempts to force his way through whatever door/obstacle is in his path.
Player: strngy
Davina
Human Rich Bastard
Specialization: Fencer
High/Low Ambitions: Legacy (explained / elaborated on in character bio) / Ladies. Doesn't help with establishing a family legacy, but hey, dad had mistresses too.
Phobia: Shares parasite's fears
Parasite: Extra-planer / extra-dimensional / incorporeal parasite that makes her metaphysically less here than she should be, and her position in our reality less stable.
Vulnerability: Vulnerability to banishing or abjuring effects ordinary mortal creatures lack. Also makes teleportation / spacial effects targeting her unreliable.
Ability: Reaching out to her connection to the parasite and exploiting her instability to change location within a short range. (limited control blink)
Seriously Expensive Thing: Ancestral sword, appropriate to style.
Bio: The daughter of a noble house (or at least a rich and successful one with a good history), Davina benefits from an upbringing where she had everything that was needed to prepare her to face the world. She was the heir to and recipients of these advantages as part of her legacy. A legacy that no longer exists, as her house has fallen.
She's now on a quest to restore that legacy. Nothing so trite as taking back her exact family holding- this isn't about a right to rule or a territory. As far as she's concerned, she's a link in a chain, and she will not be the point where it breaks. Before she dies, Davina wants a reestablished power base or holdings to see that the next generation of her family gets at least as good a shot as she did.
Player: mageykun
Eric Grimwald
Human Rich Bastard
Specialization: Commanding others.
High/Low Ambitions: To become a lich and rule a mighty kingdom. / To lead others.
Phobia: Monophobia - Fear of being Alone/Without companion.
Mutation: Bouts of Trismus.
Vulnerability: Due to a weak fortitude, Eric tends to pass out if he feels enough pain.
Ability: Eric is able to command undead creatures of a lesser intelligence to follow basic commands. If Eric becomes incapacitated, any creature under his command shall be free to act as they please.
Seriously Expensive Thing: Necromancer's Amulet. Grants the ability to raise a defeated creature back to the mortal coil that is life.
Player: GB
Casualties
None yet!
Act 1 (Pre-Reboot) Character Roster:
Active Characters
Marijke
Hedge Witch
Specialization: Suggestion / Mental influences
High/Low Ambitions: Greed / Wealth
Vulnerability: Allergy to shellfish
Spells:
* "Free Samples" allow for these spells to be cast once per person per day, independent of prepared spell slots. Minor (4 slots): staunch bleeding, resume bleeding, sense poison, gum-fire, whisper-web, bestow fool's luck, green milk curse, footsore curse, experimental miscellany First circle (4 slots): spit fire, least true healing*, least true spite, bestow shadow armor, bite-the-pinecone curse, friendship curse*, first servant invocation (specify type), appraise, rhyme of mending, lightning lecture atemi Second circle (3 slots): demand gift, spit spiders, tesserflecked, penalty clause, least astral courier
Ability: Gemstone Familiar
Player: mageykun
"Sir" Garaile
Soldier
Specialization: Single combat
High/Low Ambitions: Renown / Collecting trophies
Mutation: Unusually-jointed
Player: Tunic
Nico Nashville
Townie
Specialization: Bluff / Acting
High/Low Ambitions: Occult secrets / Costuming
Phobia: Memory loss
Parasite: Babel worm (distracting universal translation)
Vulnerability: Unusually receptive to magic
Innate Power: Uncannily adept method actor, can convince observers of blatant untruths and take on aspects or abilities of his persona; believes it while acting.
Player: CalimariGod
Than
Soldier
Specialization: Sharpshooter
High/Low Ambitions: Purification of insane undead / Verifying hostiles are indeed dead
Phobia: Being cornered
Mutation: Heterochromia (blue eye can tell if someone is lying, but not the truth itself; red eye can see enemy vitals)
Vulnerability: Violent deaths within 5 yards will momentarily leave her incapacitated or paralyzed
Innate Power: Wields a trick weapon spirit bow that can be summoned and desummoned at will
Dimitry "the White Snake" Nicola
Townie
Specialization: Stealth, assassination, thievery
High/Low Ambitions: Reversion of numerous changes to his biology, so he can live comfortably / Fetish for bring mind controlled
Phobia: Arachnids / being labelled as an outcast, being shunned
Mutation: Cursed, black, soulless-looking and reptillian-like eyes which are really sensitive to light, but adjust easier and see further in the dark. Deathly pale skin. Female physical traits
Vulnerability: Affected by many alteration spells. Vibrant to Detect Magic, appears more appetizing to magic-absorbing/eating creatures, less likely to gain positive effects from further alteration spells
Innate Power: Sociopathic. Remains calm and keeps a clear head in stressful situations, and is unfettered morally
Letkra
Rich Bastard
Specialization: Spear-dancing
High/Low Ambitions: Find a way to return to her home dimension / Large impalement, self or otherwise
Phobia: Being trapped in a ward or summoning diagram (Psychologically incapable of freeing herself from perceived restraints in a deliberate fashion)
Mutation: Is a golem-construct composed of semi-homogenous inorganic material, with freely detachable limbs and head; automatic self-repair is slower than human healing
Vulnerability: Requires a pint of oil every 6-8 hours of activity, rather than food and water
Innate Power: Generates an adjustable force field around herself, which can act passively as a small shield or actively as a large barrier
Player: Mitsukara
Riv
Hedge Witch
Specialization: Alchemy / Artificing
High/Low Ambitions: Eternal life / Pursuit of knowledge
Phobia: Fear of own mortality
Mutation: Four arms
Vulnerability: Partially mummified: weakness to both fire and water, but resistant to physical damage; unusual blood clots at one-tenth speed, but also bleeds out at one-tenth speed
Innate Power: Tinkering (Rapid prototyping of mad science gadgets)
Player: Santova
Ravenous Llyr
Soldier
Specialization: Tracking / Hunting
High/Low Ambitions: Finding true love / Eating freshly-killed raw meat
Phobia: Completely inorganic creatures, such as metal golems
Mutation: Superpowered digestive system: can't be harmed by anything ingested, and consuming meat in particular triggers a temporary surge of rapid bodily regeneration based on how much was eaten
Vulnerability: Highly gullible, with little-to-no understanding of social subtleties; easily tricked by even simple deception
Innate Power: Were-shark, shifting reflexively based on context: full human on dry land, shark in deep/salty water, grotesque shark-faced biped in shallow/fresh water, heavy rain, on a beach, or when coated in blood; strenuous and itchy to use the 'wrong' form
Player: Tunic
Stone
Hedge Witch
Specialization: Spirits
High/Low Ambitions: Break his family's curse / Tuning out the spirits through drug use
Phobia: Drowning / Deep water
Mutation: Left leg up to just above hip is made of stone
Vulnerability: Tendency to be possessed, even by spirits that wouldn't normally be able to
Innate Power: Context-sensitive postcognition: spirits of ancestors can be called upon to recite a target's spiritual condition and history
Player: Santova
Casualties
Sgt. Nick
Soldier
Specialization: Intuition
High/Low Ambitions: Redemption / Fascinated by ghosts
Phobia: Disease and rotting corpses
Fate: Left for dead in diseased pool with a corpse in it
Yeven Surgis
Rich Bastard
Specialization: Demons
High/Low Ambitions: Revenge / Groom themselves frequently, and be impeccable
Phobia: Claustrophobia
Mutation: Blind, but with 10-meter Blindsight
Vulnerability: Spells affect her as if she were a demon; symbols of holy faith or purity are injurious
Innate Power: Lesser gravity control
Player: Bad transetor
Fate: MIA; wandered off into labyrinthine caves
