Darkening Skies - Q&A

Standard Character Creation, all Paths open, no more than 7 points of Flaws.


Please try to logically connect your Flaws to the things on which the points are spent, unless that just isn't feasible. I'm sure people will run things by me, anyway.
 
query: how many would Lámnia get for the whole wrenching her soul by using powers greater than she has bit?
 
Let's call it 10.


And -7 Health - she'll be recovering for a week, 1 Health back per 24hrs.
 
YD - Year of Dominion


YD 0 - The War of Three Dragons comes to a close as Djuke Imperus annihilates his two eldest daughters for contesting his throne. Within months, Imperus has formally established the Inquisition and given them the authority to police his peers and the Magi. Even he himself is not immune to this edict. The Houses settle into an uneasy peace, allowing their mortal neighbours to flourish for the first time in a century.


YD 7 - Desolator Olimak Czeslaw is formally contracted by Stormlord Bronwyn to end her war with Stormlord Ollanius. This is the first instance of a House being employed by any but themselves. Ollanius Spire and its line are reduced to ash on the winds of history.


YD 10 - The First Seed. A fragment of the Awakened Wood attempts to spread beyond the Interface. The Burning Marshal and her lover Lybar Katarina destroy it after months of heavy conflict with Elemental guardians.


YD 13 - Rat Heartwright and native of Carandus Hold creates the first Constructed Intelligence outside The Awakened Wood.


YD 15 - Dellebron Castor inadvertently murders most of the elders of the House in an elaborate series of double-crosses gone horribly right. Djuke Imperus names him outlaw.


YD 16 - Dellebron Sarkaan instigates the War of Tears, murdering Djuke Leopold. Dellebron Castor claims it to be reprisal for naming him outlaw.


YD 20 - Hulbrad Noros presents proof that Sarkaan acted alone. Dellebron is saved on the brink of extinction. Meanwhile, the City-Engines opens trade with Trollhaven.


YD 21 - The Curse begins consuming communites in Eastern Imeria. Carandus Hold is the first to go dark.


YD 24 - Houses Olimak and Lezek establish The Bulwark to contain the Curse, with the assistance of Hulbrad Noros.


YD 27 - Hulbrad Noros presents a metaphysical sympathy between the Infernal Houses and the Priesthood of Vasnok.


YD 28 - Hulbrad Noros dies in a freak gardening accident and his library mysteriously burns down.


YD 32 - Djuke Mandalthraxus retreats into Shaydensea. Meanwhile, The Second Seed lands south of the Wood. Bodhisattva Irenicus and the Deepswell Enclave band together to destroy it.


YD 38 - The philosopher Huron Long calls this the most peaceful period in known history.


YD 40 - The Gaurish Massacre. Heartwright Skepsis compels the inhabitants of Gaurish town to commit mass suicide.


YD 41 - The War of Flat Notes. The City-Engine inadvertently provokes the Trolls by teaching a Goblin to sing.


YD 43 - The War of Flat Notes ends with the assistance of House Lybar. A series of negotiations opens to ensure hostilities do not resurge.


YD 48 - The Communer Jessup Fink breeds Panacea Fruit. This is immediately stolen by Djuke Mandalthraxus and Jessup killed. Only one tree remains, in the possession of the Inqusition.


YD 50 - High Energy Research Facility AXON is lost in a mysterious accident, high in the Hell’s Teeth Mountains. The area is quarantined, later to be known as The Valley of the Fallen Sky.


YD 54 - The Storm War. The lords of the Stormcircle break the peace in a catastrophic conflict that will last ten years.


YD 64 - The Storm War ends. The Stormlords begin the method of intermarriage and warding that will turn them into a cartel.


YD 67 - Lezek Hideo returns from an expedition to the far South. Leads some of his siblings and many warriors on a war of conquest. They are never heard from again.


YD 70 - The Third Seed. Djuke Imperus personally intervenes and begins negotiations with th Awakened Wood to end this.


YD 75 - A prototype skyship is completed by the Sandus Brothers - Ivan, Sergei, and Artyom. A complex combination of Conflagrant, Stormlord, and Guardian techniques.


YD 77 - The City-Engine begins trade with The Spire Cartel.


YD 80 - Hulbrad Una performs the first Infernal tattoo, learning from Shadow Lina Vera.


YD 82 - The Rat Ernesto Juervo composes ‘Music of the Sphere’, and the symphony - involving magical instruments such as galvanic guitars - sweeps the ballrooms of the elite.


YD 86 - The Kromsian Offensive. Forces from the Iron Tower attempt to subjugate the lands of Ironheart Spire. They are driven back within two years.


YD 90 - The Midnight War. House Hulbrad and the Conspiracy of Ravens - a cabal of Shadow Magi - devastate Eastern Imeria in a series of clandestine skirmishes that leave the surviving non-combatants mentally broken.


YD 93 - The first skyships begin to be produced in the Spires. Rare and expensive, the Stormlords use them to coerce surrounding lands under their rule. This is tolerated.


YD 100 - Gold’s Folly. House Yrva attempt to invade the Awakened Wood. The conflict continues for three years before they are driven out.


YD 105 - The Spire Cartel attempts to circumvent City-Engine traders and deal directly with Trollhaven using their Skyships. A fiece diplomatic debate rages for years under threat of war.


YD 117 - Dryad Matriach Zia uses her Heartwright powers to goad Vyrs Spire into war with House Yrva. The Heartwood Council proves that she acted without their knowledge, but the casualties are steep.


YD 120 - A Skyship is shot down over the City-Engine. War is narrowly avoided.


YD 126 - The War of Sun and Bones. At the pleas of the Hierophant of Vasnok, Djuke Imperus commands House Lezek to force an armistice from Kaer.


YD 130 - Commercial skyships become available. The Stormcircle immediately conspires with all allies to present Djuke Imperus with a trade agreement. Imperus imposes rules enforced by the Inquisition, and allows them their tariffs and tolls.


YD 135 - Yrva Lelka’s ex-lover, Garett von Curze, and his associates reveal the first manatechnical implants.


YD 140 - Orcish rifles are deployed, for the first time, against the pirate Osric Aubert.


YD 142 - Djuke Imperus overrules pleas from Magi to outlaw firearms.


YD 146 - The Necromancer Morticia leads a cult of follows into the World Without Sun.


YD 148 - The Cryolyte Annette Deepswell murders Olimak Tarantus. House Olimak descends on Deepswell Arcology with the force of an angry god. No one is spared.


YD 150 - Olimak Patricia is executed for giving the kill-order on Deepswell. A fanatical Olim suicide bombs Inquisition HQ. A generation of Olimak children are warded to other families in penance.


YD 153 - The Chronomancer Edward Magnusson accidentally erases himself and the town of Haffenstar from history. The only record remained in the Hulbrad Library, and it took months of confusion before it was found.


YD 160 - Trollhaven opens consideration of a Foreign Quarter.


YD 162 - Using Orcish rifles, a community of mortals rises up against their Stormlord rulers. Djuke Xiang and Lezek Nuala commend their bravery and ambition.


YD 167 - Graffen & Sons Shipwrights build a skyship that will carry them to the moon. The source of their funding is of great interest. Two years later, the maiden flight is sabotaged.


YD 170 - Tollet Spire and Yrva Richter become embroiled in a bloody feud when Voivode Rose Tollet breaks up with him for Dellebron Tatiana.


YD 171 - Yrva Richter and Dellebron Tatiana end a duel in their mutual death. Everyone’s family blames everyone else.


YD 175 - Lezek Andrea and her close friend Eoin Lightshield lead a second war of conquest South. They are never heard from again.


YD 177 - The Celestine and her crew are declared outlaw.


YD 180 - The Ghostspeaker Rebellion plunges the Iron Tower into crippling internal conflict.


YD 184 - The eccentric and outcast Djuke Rashid dies on the steps of the Eotran Temple with the blood of a hundred monks on his claws, blaming them for the rebellion that claimed his Savaan lover.


YD 186 - The first Dark Shard is encountered on the north-western coast. Only rumours make it out, but the are terrifying if true.


YD 190 - Rat watchmaker Stefan Hawke publishes A Brief History Of Timekeeping. It is immediately suppressed when the first copy inspires Hulbrad Ventus to build something terrible.


YD 194 - The Heartwright Jared Toulon comples The Mindweb, a complex collection of arcane links between population centres that allows them to share knowledge and communication through purpose-made terminals.


YD 199 - The Darkening War.
 
XP Costs:


Attributes: 15, 20, 25


Skills: 6, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18


Specialities: 6
 
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Facet - less a month, more a reset period usually lasting ten days, but it's down to a select group of Chronomancers to determine how long it will last and to make prophecies regarding the coming year and the number of days in each month. It is usually taken up with festivals, and is considered outside of the normal calendar. As such, anything that happens between the second and final days of Facet is considered not to have happened by many people. Imperus has tried and failed to quash that tradition - people like their no-guilt adultery too much. However, Facets have been known to last only three days, so most people confine their debauchery to day two.


Foresight - the Month of Consideration. Much of Imeria is too cold or stagnant for activity during this month, so it is felt to be an auspicious time for plans and forethought. Popular opinion holds that Seers are more powerful during this month.


Foundation - the Month of Construction. Considered an auspicious time to build, and the weather is comparatively mild if a little cold.


Greentide - the Month of Shipwrecks. Travel is considered inauspicious in this month, even though sea travel is less common now. Coastal regions are wracked with storms.


Stormtide - the Month of Storms. Stormcircle is especially dangerous during this month, and its storms spill out into the surrounding regions.


Sunsear - the Month of Light. Not the hottest month, but very bright and pleasant. Popular time for travel and celebration.


Flameburst - the Month of Trials. Oppressively hot. Olimak often go to war in this month.


Glassmonth - the Month of Contemplation. The weather is calmer, but still bright and clear. Pilgrimages happens around this time.


Silverspan - the Month of Births. The statistics do not lie. This mild month sees a dramatic upswing in births, especially to single parents.


Heartswatch - the Month of Love. Considered an auspicious time to go courting, but also to be charitable or otherwise be kind.


Memento - the Month of Death. This is also a popular period for parties, but also funerals, and offerings to the dead. Many exhibitions, concerts, festivals, and other celebrations of life take place in this month, in a deliberate act of defiance at the idea of mortality. Imperus himself is said to host private parties during this month where he showcases his haiku collection.


Nightfall - the Month of Endings. The close of the year.
 
Feedback:


We have taken your game of high flying adventure, and are instead making it into a game about mercantile interests and romantic misadventure.


Pray we do not alter it further.
 



  • Current Inventory:

    • 8513 Gems
    • Cache of Rubies, Mundane, Gem Worth: Unknown
    • Red Gem Amulet, Magical, Gem Worth: Unknown
    • Cannister, Metal, Contents Unknown, Gem Worth: Unknown
    • Book, Signed, Hand-Written, Djuke Salazhar's The General, Gem Worth: Unknown, Assumed High
    • Mage Body, Preserved, Gem Worth: Not for Sale
    • Skeleton, Vampire, Full, Interred inside Brass Strongbox, Gem Worth: Not for Sale
    • Holograph Manatech Device, Presumed Heartwright Construction, Gem Worth: Unknown
    • Imperial Wedding Ring, Gem Worth: Not for Sale
    • Food Supplies: 154.4 Gm
    • Weapon Supplies, Munitions: 1000 Gm
    • Craft Supplies, Metals, Leathers, Coal: 450 Gm


    Total Assets Worth: 10117.4 Gems


    Specialist Crafting Inventory:

    • Steel, Quality: 3891 lbs
    • Steel, Ensorcelled: 1 Ton
    • Copper, Wire: 10, 460 ft
    • Cobalt: 4.5 lbs
    • Sapphire, Good Quality, Large: 1
    • Beastship Skull, Large: 1



    Trade Cargo:

    • Tea, 1 Ton


    Debts Outgoing:

    • 10k to House Olimak Paid in Full


    Debts Incoming:

    • 10% of Master Colby's Sales
    • 2000 Gems from Ko for next journey
    • 4000 Gems from Burnsley Tea Company upon delivery of 1 ton of Tea to Puddleglum Spire


 
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Can we get a clarification of the XP expenditure rates? I'm not sure if the one that Fuzz put up is valid anymore?
 
Edited the chart Fuzz posted to the current build.


Since the penultimate thread and finale were absolute monsters, expect more XP before Issue 2 begins.
 
Ok, couple of questions?


There's still a discrepancy between the other table and this one. Is the table in this thread, the one you edited into my post (thanks!) the full and accurate one that we should be using?


Because it says Specialties are 5 XP, but the other chart sez 6.


Also, is that 15 XP for the second Bar of an Attribute, 20 for the third, and 25 for the fourth?
 
If someone is wanting to have a match, pick an opponent and a venue, and if you're really wanting to spice things up, some variations from the armory.


Please be aware of the level of opponent you're picking, as well as how both your character and the opponent will fare in the arena chosen. Death is a very real possibility, but even if it seems like an inevitability, please play the match to the end. You can learn a lot about your character by understanding how they act in the face of death.


ENEMIES:


Low level:


These enemies have relatively low stats, and little to no magical abilities. For the most part, they serve as baseline mooks, bit part players, and grist for the mill of character progression.








    • After failing his final exam for psychoanalytic biochemistry, Thug unfortunately turned to a life of petty larceny and running as a hired muscle. He's not particularly good at it.





 
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Mid Level:


These enemies have relatively decent stats, or some sort of above average supernatural ability. These would be on par with most basic to mid level player characters.








    • Age: 23


      Olimak Quad is a toned man, slim yet muscular, standing at near six foot tall. Large bushy eyebrows lie above a sharp, vulpine face and a pair of brownish-red eyes. A broad, leaf mustache curls around a wide, infectious grin, and a pointed goatee. All of this is framed by dark brown, shaggy hair, constantly brushed back.


      A few tattoos lace his form. Letters in Urd cross each of his knuckles save the thumbs, (They say “MOST RAD.” or whatever the cheesy equivalent is in Urd.) while the Olimak crest is upon the left side of his neck, beneath his ear.


      Quad's preferred mode of dress is a sleeveless half plate jerkin, coupled with thick trousers and strong leather boots. Often, he will sport fingerless leather gloves and a variety of holsters and straps. When not on the job, he'll instead exchange the jerkin for an armless shirt, occasionally with a short jacket.


      When he moves, he's fast. When he draws, he's faster. But it's his wit that's the fastest. Every other word out of his mouth is a smart assed comment, and while Quad is far from intelligent, or even what someone would consider wise, he's crafty. In a word, cunning. That deviousness, coupled with a blatant disregard for his own, and others safety, make him a very dangerous individual when working.


      Quad is a mercenary for hire, participating in anything ranging from kidnap and assassination, to theft and sabotage. What funds he gains that he does not spend on the upkeep of his weapons or send back to the House, is spent on “good times”, invariably being gambling, alcohol and women.


      Preferring ranged weaponry, Quad sports a hellforged pistol, a large, Conflagrant missile launcher, and an assortment of explosives. That said, he is still an Olimak at heart, and enters close combat with large knives, including thrown, using his pistol in concert.


      Of small note, though he is ambidextrous, he is originally left handed.





 
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High Level:


These enemies have high stats, powerful supernatural abilities, or some combination of the two. They are above or equal to most player characters, and are not to be taken lightly.








    • Age: 39


      Hyrokkin, known as the Great Grey Wolf, is not what one would expect of a Hulbrad. There is nothing about her that speaks of any sort of scholarly pursuit. No, instead she cultivates the air of something intelligent yet primal, that of a hunter. A beast of prey.


      Standing at roughly five and half feet tall, and exuding an immense solidness of frame despite her only slightly more muscular than average physique, Hyrokkin moves with a languid grace, an every present toothy sneer lacing her lips. Her hair is like that of some ancient canine, rough, slick back, and grey, pouring down her back like some petrous waterfall, and sheer black eyes sparked with an predators glare glint warily above a maw of jagged, stony fangs. Some scars marr her pale flesh, ugly rugged things made by no sharp blade, but by the harshness of an animals cruelty.


      The Hulbrad's beastial nature becomes more apparent when she changes. Hyrokkin can transform into the form of a monstrous grey wolf, shifting instantaneously as if wrenched forwards into a different shape. In her wolf form, she retains her black eyes and craggy teeth, the wispy trails of the unreal clinging to her limbs and back.


      Her chosen mode of attire is that of simple leathers and furs, preferring the color grey, though it is not unusual to find Hyrokkin completely naked at times.


      Hyrokkin was not always like this. In her younger years, she was quite the stereotype of Hulbrad sensibilities. Bookish, slightly introverted, but near obsessive about her research. It was these qualities that led her to overcome her social anxieties and become a Chronicler. Her chosen area of research? The Worldcap, and its denizens.


      She departed there with a group of Indentured, determined to uncover the secrets of that vast, untamable place. The first few months were informative enough, but time and the elements took their toll on her group. Indentured fell, one by one, but Hyrokkin would not budge. Eventually, she was the last left alive, alone, deep within the wilderness beneath the Worldcap.


      The research came in slowly at first, through Hyrokkin's Chronicler Tome, but it steadily increased in frequency and detail. Accounts of the Elementals, of their ways of living, of the beasts that roamed the lands there, it trickled in at first, but soon began to pour in. The reports became excessively detailed, growing more and more frequent, until suddenly, they stopped. It was confirmed that her Tome had been destroyed, consumed in the use of its final protective measures.


      Nothing was heard from Hyrokkin after that. Weeks passed, then months, and eventually a year of silence. By that point, it was accepted that she had been killed in the line of duty. Funeral rites were performed, and her memory was honored as one who had died pursuing a Chroniclers dream. Her family mourned, accepted, and moved on. In time, she was forgotten.


      Imagine their surprise, when nearly seventeen years later, Hyrokkin returned, a scarred survivalist, clad in pelts and leathers, infant quintuplets in tow, and a humungous Spawn wolf padding in her footsteps.


      Now she serves as the House expert on the Worldcap, on Elementals and Treekin, as well as roundabout oddjobs that fall into her sphere of expertise. On occasion, she will help her brother Murai, fetching for him scarce and delicious meats from animals difficult to track and hunt, or herbs from gardens rarely seen by the eyes of men.





 
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Boss Characters:


These characters are, quite bluntly, bullshit OP. They carry incredibly high stats, and powerful and unique supernatural abilities. It is not recommended to engage these characters singly, but in numbers of at least two or more. Even then, death of one or more players is not simply likely, but expected. You have been warned.








    • Sarkaan cuts an intimidating figure. Though slender, he looms at near eight feet tall, on digitigrade legs, a thin, lashing tail curled about them. Great horns jut from a white haired skull, shimmering crystal antlers, and he stares on with slitted, pale emerald eyes. Scales matt his body, thick plates, all a sharp white, like freshly fallen snow, and wings hug his back, the membrane that same yellowish green. A painful gash trails from the bottom of the left side of his chin, across his lips, and continuing across his right cheek. It is completely unhealed, not even scabbing, but the flesh about it is frozen, twisting Sarkaan's expressions.


      His garb is thick half plate, a shimmering white, emblazoned with large emeralds at the centre of the chest, the hands, the hips and the feet.


      When his Pinnacle Expression is activated, he slowly shifts to his original form in a matter of seconds, becoming that of a thin, handsome man in his early forties, clean shaven, with long white hair and piercing emerald eyes. The wound upon his face thaws and bleeds freely, but his expressions seem that much freer.


      Nicknamed "The White Dragon", Sarkaan is a rogue Dellebron, nearly two hundred years in age. He goes where he can, trying to cause as much damage to Djukanim lands and works as possible, and holding especial spite towards Imperus himself. The man is clever, and while willing to put himself in harms way, is so very wary of the opponent that he has chosen.


      Often he works with others, especially those with anti-Djukanim sympathies, even those with Anti-Infernal ones, determined to bring down the establishments that he believes that Imperus has built around himself.


      Long ago, Sarkaan was a rising son of the Dellebron, but came into a conflict with one of Imperus' sons. Eventually, Imperus himself had to decide the conflict, and ruled in the Djukanim's favor. Sarkaan, who had been so certain of his own righteousness, killed the Djukanim in a fit of rage, and was wounded by Imperus while trying to escape.


      Since then, he has slowly become consumed by his envy and hatred for Imperus, and dedicated himself to destroying Imperus, and the entirety of House Djuke with him.





 
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LOCATIONS:


These are the standard arenas in which to do battle for life and limb. In addition to providing differing scenery and backdrops to different duels or missions, each tends to have different environmental issues to deal with or take advantage of. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and if there is a particular kind of place you'd like to see or spill blood in, please, tell me, and we'll work something out.





  • The rain beats down like some tribal war drum, pushed by the howling winds, and punctuated by the deafening crack of lightning. The spiretop is a flat square courtyard, paved with thick stone tiles, now slick with fallen rain. Four spearlike steeples jut out of the corners, pulling the constant lightning into themselves, the tenacity of their powerful humming permeating the air.


    Mechanics:

    • Open Skies: Resonant area for Stormlord Sorceries; +1 to all rolls pertaining to such.
    • Wet n' Windy: Poor conditions for fire. -1 to all rolls that involve mundane flames.
    • Slick: Footing can be lost if one isn't careful. Any athletics based roll risks flooring a character with failure, and adds a -2 to difficulty.


 
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