ChasmOfOrganicMatter
High Priest of Depravity
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CS THREAD
(contains the CS format)
LORE/SETTING DETAILS
OFFICIAL DISCORD
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We're currently open with currently four people (myself the GM excluded) in the party! Just put your character sheet in the CS thread if you'd like to join.
We may cap it at around eight unless interest grows even further. Feel free to ask me any questions here or in the discord!
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The year is 4048 and for the residents of the planet Chalgheol, one of the crown worlds of the Frontier Worlds, it is the beginning of the ending of a decade and a half of internecine warfare propped up by powers foreign and local. What began as a civil war of where a the iron-handed junta of the Dolsilvec Regime (DR) against the system-spanning yet locally grown insurgent group known as the Carnazir (CZR) spiralled out of control, attracting the attention and military presence of the two reigning superpowers, the corporate expansionist Unified Celestial League (UCL) and the techno-collectivist Zrovreni Solar Revolutionary Pact (ZSRP). Proxy militaries and deniable operators eventually gave way to boots, claws, tendrils, and hover-pads on the ground as national and intergalactic interests were threatened and built up under the obscuring fog of war.
Whatever reason this conflict started in the first place quickly became lost as the larger power games swallowed whatever reasons noble and vain there were for the first bullet to be fired. Yet the war could only continue for so long: gradually, the great powers hungering beyond the stars to expand their grasp and the local regimes struggling to carve their own kingdoms out of the bloodshed came to a grim understanding. For everyone's sake, it is best if they finally decide which slice of land will fall under those iron heel. Alliances are strained to the limit as true motives emerge from under the veneer of ideological purity and the ever-valuable resource of power is divided amongst the most powerful and the established. Peace is coming but is a peace enforced under the reign of empire and army.
There was another war being fought during this time: one whose motives were not so much political as they were technological. Chalgheol was home to a series of hidden archaelogical sites, carefully guarded at first by the independent Gnosis Eater Sect (GES) research organization, containing strange and eldritch technology and knowledge beyond the current understanding of the void-manpulating occult sorceries of each grand faction. The Sect, using its diplomatic connections to the political elite across the stars, was able to protect most of these sites from plunder or denial-via-destruction, utilizing a mixture of its own armed forces and soldiers assigned from the rivaling organizations.
However, in recent years a number of these sites have gone dark and information shared (or stolen) from multiple intelligence groups suggests that this is an organized movement, executed by a strange unidentified group of seemingly robotic entities. Worse, they are known to be working in tandem with Dolsilvec, Carnazir, ZSRP, and UCL forces of their own and somehow under everyone's noses. Their technology, tactics, and the strange unearthly powers they manifest have made them unstoppable yet no government will admit their existence. This is where you entered the picture.
As a member of a GES team, whether recruited from the great interstellar powers, contracted as a smuggler, mercenary, or of another "unofficial" channel, or specifically trained from within the organization, you were sent to the Carcosa province of the planet; the area where even in the waning years the fighting is at its most savage. Your job was to secure and check on on a series of research and execavation sites that went dark amidst reports of strange metereological and otherworldly phenomena affecting the region.
The problem is that the stealth transport you were travelling in was just shot down, crashing deep into hostile territory, and all you know is that your enemies are closing in. Lost in the ruins and wilderness of what was once the capital region of the country, hunted by an enemy that seems to know how to manipulate your allies, amidst strange creatures and unusual environmentla phenomena, and someone higher up must have stabbed you all in the back. Survival, revenge, the mission - in the worst part of the planet you could ask to be, you're going to need to make tough decisions and go through even tougher battles if you want to accomplish any of these things.
Someone high up was betting on your survival as unlikely.
Prove the bastards dead wrong.
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Prove the bastards dead wrong.
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In Buried Deep in Damnation's Heart, you play as a member of a specifically assembled team caught between a rock and too many hard places to name, forced to survive in an active warzone as the march of history and of countless deadly armed forces threaten to crush you underneath. You are being hunted by an enemy that will give you little respite and few safe places to hide with the looming horror that the powerful technology they could acquire could spell disaster for you, the planet, and everything beyond its borders. You will encounter forces aligned with all four of the major factions and the GES but be wary; you may wear the same colours but out here, there's no way to tell if they're actually on your side, if someone else is pulling their strings, or more monstrous aspirations are guiding their every move. Be careful of who you choose to trust.
You are not obliged to spill more blood than this planet has already seen. You can potentially recruit NPC's controlled by yours truly, negotiate with them for safe passage, obtain intelligence and equipment and other such options if you're sharp enough. The machine forces that crushed your own however, are unlikely to listen to you and the faction-forces they've swayed under their control might... if it means they can pull you into a trap later. More than a few entities you encounter will be out for your head but some with careful negotiation, manipulation, trickery, or other such methods can be convinced to take your side. Violence is inevitable but there will be opportunities to fight smart or simply not fight at all. Stealth, deception, misdirection, and distraction among other methods are also at your disposal.
I shall be the GM throwing various scenarios in the way and leading the player party through various environments, split up into "chapters" that each will take you to a distinct region of Carcosa with its own unique appearance, characters, enemies, and items. Each section can be thought of as a series of "levels" that require you to navigate their problems. Some may revolve around interacting with neutral NPC's, whether trying to suss out possible double agents trying to sabotage your mission or convincing them to share vital information concerning GES bases in the area. Others can be more combat oriented; you may to deal with a massive sentient biomecha attempting to destroy the party or forced to defend an exccavation site from a massive enemy ambush. In some cases, it may be a simple issue of navigating areas where the dimensions layered on top of your own are bleeding into reality itself or you may find yourself stalked by dangerous creatures; not necessarily hostile but far from petting zoo fare.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the choices the group makes as a whole will impact future story developments. Whether through conscious decisions or incidental action, how your party is perceived by others as well as even the grander background events and lore playing out can and will be affected. You can sour your relationship with the various factions you will encounter far more easily than you can improve them. Enemies you spare may reappear later, potentially less hostile than when first encountered. Areas you may have explored and scoured for supplies or secrets may be discovered by friendles or hostiles attempting to track your location. Know how to survive in the moment but think ahead as well as to how you and your groups' action might make things harder or easier (or both) in the long run.
You are not obliged to spill more blood than this planet has already seen. You can potentially recruit NPC's controlled by yours truly, negotiate with them for safe passage, obtain intelligence and equipment and other such options if you're sharp enough. The machine forces that crushed your own however, are unlikely to listen to you and the faction-forces they've swayed under their control might... if it means they can pull you into a trap later. More than a few entities you encounter will be out for your head but some with careful negotiation, manipulation, trickery, or other such methods can be convinced to take your side. Violence is inevitable but there will be opportunities to fight smart or simply not fight at all. Stealth, deception, misdirection, and distraction among other methods are also at your disposal.
I shall be the GM throwing various scenarios in the way and leading the player party through various environments, split up into "chapters" that each will take you to a distinct region of Carcosa with its own unique appearance, characters, enemies, and items. Each section can be thought of as a series of "levels" that require you to navigate their problems. Some may revolve around interacting with neutral NPC's, whether trying to suss out possible double agents trying to sabotage your mission or convincing them to share vital information concerning GES bases in the area. Others can be more combat oriented; you may to deal with a massive sentient biomecha attempting to destroy the party or forced to defend an exccavation site from a massive enemy ambush. In some cases, it may be a simple issue of navigating areas where the dimensions layered on top of your own are bleeding into reality itself or you may find yourself stalked by dangerous creatures; not necessarily hostile but far from petting zoo fare.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the choices the group makes as a whole will impact future story developments. Whether through conscious decisions or incidental action, how your party is perceived by others as well as even the grander background events and lore playing out can and will be affected. You can sour your relationship with the various factions you will encounter far more easily than you can improve them. Enemies you spare may reappear later, potentially less hostile than when first encountered. Areas you may have explored and scoured for supplies or secrets may be discovered by friendles or hostiles attempting to track your location. Know how to survive in the moment but think ahead as well as to how you and your groups' action might make things harder or easier (or both) in the long run.
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Buried Deep in Damnation's Heart takes place in a far future sci-fi setting where humanity has expanded across the stars along with countless other races. Conflict followed and so did the formation of grand alliances as the known cosmos settled into a tense power struggle between massive power blocs emergent and entrenched. The level of technology and general aesthetic vibe ranges across a number of sources: somewhere between the new Doom games (2016 and Eternal), the lower end of Warhammer 40000, Infinity (Wargame), Neil Blomkamp's films (District 9, Chappie, and Elysium), Phoenix Point, and the XCOM reboot series. Powered armour, rail guns, interstellar travel, synthetic biomatter creatures, even smaller mecha - a wide array of sci-fi technology familiar and unusual inhabit the domain from technology as gritty and down to the earth as the Aliens and Edge of Tomorrow setting all the way up to something you might see in Section 8, Titanfall, and Apex Legends.
While it is primarily military science fiction, there is a more fantastical aspect to it present in the form of "magic" though this is closer to a midway point between 40K's warp and the biotics of Mass Effect known as etherealism. Ether, in this case, is the setting's "magic" but rather than being a wholly mystical force, it is an energy source that has been studied and analysed by major scientific groups yet still allows for a degree of strange, eldritch power albeit not entirely accessible to all. It is a power that is evoked from a strange dimension lurking beneath the flesh of our own known as the Abzu, filled with monstrous eldritch creatures akin to gigantic plankton and microscopic invertebrates made massive, kept separated from realspace by a foul and festering domain known as the Abyssic Plain that feeds off of its excesses.
While it is primarily military science fiction, there is a more fantastical aspect to it present in the form of "magic" though this is closer to a midway point between 40K's warp and the biotics of Mass Effect known as etherealism. Ether, in this case, is the setting's "magic" but rather than being a wholly mystical force, it is an energy source that has been studied and analysed by major scientific groups yet still allows for a degree of strange, eldritch power albeit not entirely accessible to all. It is a power that is evoked from a strange dimension lurking beneath the flesh of our own known as the Abzu, filled with monstrous eldritch creatures akin to gigantic plankton and microscopic invertebrates made massive, kept separated from realspace by a foul and festering domain known as the Abyssic Plain that feeds off of its excesses.
The setting can be thought of a cold war partially heated up between the four previously described factions where the polarization of various powerful planets has created an environment where warfare erupts through various proxy conflicts or is fought in the shadows. As this happens covert and concealed forces whether belonging to the major four or independent groups such as the Gnosis Eater Sect fight battles of their own for the secrets laying hidden on distant worlds or kept locked up by governments, corporations, and rogue armies. Mercenaries, pirate gangs, and warlords sprout up to take advantage of the uncertainty of the times while their shadowy backers manipulate state and non state actors to further their own ambitions. There is a heavy air of paranoia, distrust, and disillusion coexisting with wild fanaticism, brilling conviction, and heels-dug-in-the-dirt loyalty in a time when it seems the whole galactic order is turning on its head.
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1) I'd prefer it if you were all literate. Two paragraphs per post is the desired minimum but on occasions where there's less to do, one may suffice.
2) This isn't a fully realistic RP but it's not completely off of the rails either. Your characters should generally fit with the setting and its atmosphere.
3) I'd like to have weekly posting if possible. If you cannot post for an extended amount of time, please let me know.
4) You are allowed to control up to a maximum of three different characters but they must not be overpowered (which still gives you quite a bit of leeway).
5) You are allowed to contribute your own lore to the setting though it will have to go through myself and likely the gorup as well to ensure everyone is okay with it. If you wish to contribute lore, please make it clear how it could actually pop up later in the RP beyond just being cool background reading.
6) With some exceptions, NPC's will remain under GM control but it is possible to acquire them as player characters depending on your in game performance.
2) This isn't a fully realistic RP but it's not completely off of the rails either. Your characters should generally fit with the setting and its atmosphere.
3) I'd like to have weekly posting if possible. If you cannot post for an extended amount of time, please let me know.
4) You are allowed to control up to a maximum of three different characters but they must not be overpowered (which still gives you quite a bit of leeway).
5) You are allowed to contribute your own lore to the setting though it will have to go through myself and likely the gorup as well to ensure everyone is okay with it. If you wish to contribute lore, please make it clear how it could actually pop up later in the RP beyond just being cool background reading.
6) With some exceptions, NPC's will remain under GM control but it is possible to acquire them as player characters depending on your in game performance.
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I'm down to try this out! :3
