Onikmey
The wise fool
Arrtani Ocean - Day 22
The sea was quiet. The taste of salt hung in the frigid air as the twin suns ascended above the horizon. And as the suns awakened, so did the Stormrider. Sails unfurled as a tiefling climbed into the crow's nest. Below decks, a halfling set to repairing a sail as Caolan the druid conjured up their daily rations. The Stormrider was a merchant ship, carrying valuable cargo to the northern Isle of Kal'Haem. Enough food to feed a small city was hiden beneath it's decks, tucked away in barrels and boxes. This would be the last shipment of the year, before the Winter's Run sealed itself in ice and snow.
Captain Shae Perdita scowled in her quarters. They were at least three days from the jagged spires of Winter's Run. Three days. And in the meantime, black clouds gathered on the horizon. Every year she swore she'd retire, but every year she found herself right here. The prize was just too good. Storms would come, ratwings would gnaw, bandits would boast, and winter would bite. But come spring, her ship left port filled with arcane crystals from Gorak Dum. Enchanted Rathi bonework would fill the spaces in between.
And she wasn't the only one seeking the fortune of Kal'Haem. Among her usual crew were six newcomers. A high elven passenger rested in his cabin below, a mage of some sort by the name of Eldoril. A tiefling named Kaz watched for trouble from the crow's nest. And a group of four was hired on as extra help. The four had known each other for years, and agreed to work for Shae until arrival at the port-town of Haemstead.
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Interested?
Hey! I'm Onikmey and I'm looking for 4 people who'd like to make a story together. I love D&D 5e, so that's what I'm planning on using. But if i'm honest I like D&D more as a collaborative storytelling device than as a game. I find that rolling dice for outcomes helps to prevent obnoxious plot-armor that we all know and love to hate. If you're down to do some detailed group storytelling, and are ready for a slow but consistent pace, this might be the story for you. I know there's a lot beneath here, but I like to share as much as I can so you have an idea what you're getting in to.Interested?
What You Can Expect From Me
As a DM I love to worldbuild, and I'm going to try to incorporate your backstory into the world itself. I'm a firm believer that all actions have consequences, and some aren't known ahead of time. That being said, I promise to do my absolute best to respect y'alls player agency. As your GM, I am not against you. I promise, I'm not here to win against your characters. But I do hope to challenge your characters. As I see it, it's my job as your GM to set the stage and give you the opportunity to shine. I'll do my best for that. That being said, I reserve final say on any weird technical disputes that come up (here's hoping it never comes to that) As far as frequency goes, I am currently very busy learning many new things in the real world. I honestly can't promise a post more than once every week or maybe every 2 weeks if it's a rough time of the year. That being said, I swear that I will continue with this story as long as you all will. I'll also try to let y'all know when I can post ahead of time. That's not to say that I'll be completely silent- I fully plan to read the OOC and communicate with y'all once every day or two. It just takes me a few hours to write anything interesting for the story and I want to give y'all at least semi-quality writing.
What I Expect From You
You must be able to play nice with others. I'm committing to do my best to keep this story going. If you can't work with your fellow adventurers and storytellers than this is going to be a long and uncomfortable story. I'd like to avoid that. As far as writing goes, I want details! Specifics are good. You don't have to write down the name of every street and town that your character has been to, but If I ask you for details you should be able to tell me what your character knows of it or why they don't know of anything. Grammar is important. And as this is a detailed story, I'm expecting a couple paragraphs at minimum for most posts. If you would like to collaborate on a post I wholeheartedly approve but it is not a requirement by any means. As far as posting frequency, I don't expect any more than I can give (so I expect to see a new post from you once every week or two). Communication is far more important to me. If it gets to be three or four days since the last post and I haven't heard from you I get a bit concerned. Please don't do that to me.
Setting and Technicalities
The story is set in Atherai, a fantasy world of magic and adventure. At the start of our campaign, there is no central antagonist or great evil. Instead, there are many groups and factions across the world- each with different ideals and goals. Good and evil are still ideas held by almost all peoples, it just means something different for each group. What is good for the dragons may not necessarily be good for the villagers, and vice versa. While I do use an alignment system, none of you will know your alignments.
The world is vast and diverse, and I'd love it if you helped to make this world with me. Your stories will be incorporated into the universe, so you have a lot of freedom when making your character's backstory. That being said, there are some restrictions. I'm only allowing published materials (so no unearthed arcana), and I'd like all of your rolls to be made on-site. I'm also declaring that there are no "chosen one" stories at the start. You will not be the one foretold hero of the world. You are not the last of your species. You are not the child of a great and powerful otherworldly being. The reason being that it detracts from the group storytelling and makes it about the individual.
I look forward to writing stories with you all! If you have any questions feel free to ask.
