lostdreamer

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

@Experiment 249btw, I love the details on your CS. The pack contents are great.

Arn't they just?

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Right, there is an ooc thread for sarcasm and public plotting, so I figure I may as well do some.

Footnotes from IC post 2

I'd kinda intended to make it to the tavern, but I held off putting his up last night as I felt it was too soon after my previous post and enough happened in the alley that I decided I should probably put my head in.

No, the constable isn't expecting me (or the local priest), but Saul intends to get there before the priest turns up so it will all work out nicely. What could possibly go wrong?

I don't know if I need to claim NPC's or anything, but as far as I am concerned the urchin is just a nameless mook and fair game for any/everyone to do with as they wish.

The leg wound isn't that serious - it's still hidden under clothing and isn't slowing him down that much. However, it was added as an excuse for characters with first aid skills to introduce themselves, so don't be afraid of using it for that.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Saul Kent

Location: A shadowy street corner then some rooftops over a popular alleyway.
Interacting With: A local urchin, three suspicious figures in a back alley.

The roads in town were Salarn were busier than the road to it, but that wasn't saying much. A few drunks who had made an early start on the festivities, street urchins who should be home, grumpy militia men on patrol.

He shuffled past an outfitters, now shuttered for the night. Replacing his missing pack would have to wait a while then, unless he wanted to break in. He stopped for a moment, glanced around to see if anyone was watching – then ran a finger down the door jamb feeling it out. Then called himself an idiot for seriously considering robbing some guys home and business just because he was having a bad day. There was no reason shopping couldn't wait until morning.

There were other matters to attend to, anyhow. The pressing matter of a tavern that he needed to locate before it was drunk dry by revellers for example. So he strode on through the streets, trying to ignore the growing ache in his leg from that recent wound.

He paused at a street corner, noticing the way the streetlights threw shadows here. A man could just stand there and be almost out of sight, if he felt the need to wait for someone. He paused a minute longer, weighing the advantages of an ambush in his mind vs his need to get to the tavern and dull the pain in his leg and his increasingly dry throat. Then he stepped into the shadows and started to wait.

He didn't have to wait as long as he had expected before an urchin came wandering by. Poor kid, ragged old shirt, ragged old trousers, and an equally ragged and torn wool blanket wrapped around him to keep out the night. No shoes. Every town had them, the orphans that luck and gods had left behind. The little guy nearly jumped out of his skin when Kent laid a hand on his shoulder from his hiding spot in the shadows.

“Argh!”

“It's ok.” The weathered dark haired figure spread his arms wide to show he wasn't armed and ment no harm. It didn't occur to him that the the stained tunic he wore was almost as scruffy as the urchin's own. “Shouldn't you be home with your mamma?”

The kid spat on the street. Kent just looked at him, as that answer didn't tell him if the kid even had a home to go to. “Mamma's drunk, better off out here.”

“Wanna make some money?”

“I told 'em, I ain't no thief.” Young boy stood maybe half as high as Kent did himself, and here he was trying his best to stand up before him. Granted, there were still enough people and witnesses around that Kent probably wasn't going to do anything here – but it took a bright kid to realise that. “Might not have much mister, but I got my pride. I ain't gonna rob someone just cause you will beat me if I don't.”

“I'm not looking for a thief.” Kent considered assuring the boy that he wasn't thieves guild either – his reply suggested he had been troubled by them already. “I'm looking for an honest kid, can carry a message.”

“Honest work?” The boy brightened up a bit at the thought.

“Honest work.” He reached into his purse and pulled out a couple of coins. It was a bit too dark for the boy to see them clearly, but both were silver and of good size.

“Awright.”

“One is for the head priest at the temple. Tell him the constable would like to see him in an hour.” Kent held out both coins to the boy, whose eyes widened somewhat on seeing them. “The other is yours for the trouble.”

“Thas a lot of money mister. For me, I mean. Priests do like their silver.” He was almost reluctant to take the offered money, almost not believing his luck. But almost doesn't stop you when someone offers you a chance to buy a whole new set of less worn clothes in return for a brief errand.

“You know there is a war on, yeah?” Kent answered as he started to walk away. “I might die in a battle tomorrow. Figure I can at least buy a young boy some new breaches before I die.”

“I'll see the priest gets your message sir.” Said the boy as the two parted ways in the night. “An Thank ye!”

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It wouldn't have taken him long to reach the Crossed Swords where promises of strong drink and song awaited him for the slightly less than an hour he had before his meeting with the constable and priest. But something happened. There he was, limping down the road and – for once – mostly minding his own business when he heard shouting from an alley. He couldn't make the words out, and he couldn't hear the distinctive sound of steel on steel on steel on flesh but it was late at night, and a warzone about to be destroyed by undead. Any form of back alley altercation was probably something he wanted to at least know about.

So he ran over there. It wasn't far away so didn't take long.

Two figures at the end of the alleyway.
One armed, the other a minstrel or entertainer or some kind.
A crusading priest – or a man pretending to be one – at his end, with his back to Kent.
And...something in the shadows right at the back.

Kent didn't break stride as he ran round the corner and almost straight past Sundos. He leapt for the bottom of the roof of the house on that side, coming up a little short because of the bad light and jumping a bit too soon. He hung here from his fingertips for a moment scrabbling before he managed to get a foothold and push himself up. He also didn't scream from putting all his weight on his injured leg doing it.

Then he sprinted across that roof, leapt onto the next from which he could finally see the critter hiding in the shadows. Which was a dire wolf, sitting on it's haunches looking somewhat bemused. Well, only about half a dire wolf actually – it must have been quite young.

He looked down at the three figures gathered in that alley.

“Hi.” He tried to shrug nonchalantly. “...Err, would someone mind filling me in on what whatever it was I clearly just missed?”

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Glad you like.

A lot of it is a bit ott and cliché, but... I don't actually have a huge problem with that.

I like my characters larger than life and with twice the angst because, well, if I wanted to write a story about an office worker I wouldn't have signed onto something about armies of undead and evil artefacts.

And clichés have become clichés because they are storytelling devices that work.

That said, I am rapidly realising how rusty a writer I am, and I have accidentally signed onto something that clearly has some very strong contributors.

So please do not be afraid of PMing me with suggestions, or calling me out if I'm getting carried away / going in a stupid direction / whatever.

I'm both going 'squee!' and really keen and 'Eeep! What were you thinking?' at the same time!

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

I want this character to get meta and ask for a drink that requires a Con save.

@Experiment 249

Given part of the reason for his drinking problem is to try and drink himself unconscious enough to sleep, I kinda like that idea.
...and voluntarily failing the save is quite likely!

But, that said, the reason I saw Amalthea's post and went 'Oh hell yeah' wasn't because it read like a three stooges skit, but because so much of the CS was entries like 'Flaws & weaknesses:' or 'Supporting cast:' or 'Additional plot hooks:'

Characters arn't defined by their strengths - they are defined by their weaknesses. Buy what they can't do, not what they can.

Anyways, first post is up.
I've been away a long time so I'm very rusty.
Feeback/further plotting etc is more than welcome.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Saul Kent

Location: The graveyard, then later Salarn town gate.
Interacting With: Some empty graves and the unhelpful guard who has been on duty all day.

The leaf fall squelched under foot as he walked through the graveyard. Dew already glistened on the bushes and shrubs as night fell and a grey mist started to close in. The air was stiller here, sheltered by the trees.

The figure walking through the graveyard pulled his cloak tighter more out of habit than any real reason. This felt bad. He was limping slightly on his left leg, the result of a recent skirmish with some soldiers. He had managed to repair his chain mail, but the wound just didn't seem to want to close up properly so blood trickled slowly down the outside of his leg under his armour. Nice, happy graveyards where everyone was resting in peace didn't feel like this. He remembered old rumours of an secret coven of nymphomaic leggy blondes hidden in the woods.

That had turned out to be a trap created by soul sucking faeries.

Why was it that rumours of hundreds of sex starved girls normally turned out to be lies, but rumours of people raising armies of corpses to kill everyone normally turned out to be true?

There was something unfair there, he felt.

He came to the first of the empty graves, knelt down beside it. He pulled a glowing rock from a belt pouch to help him see and looked over the hole in the ground. He reached into the loose earth with a suntanned hand, and ran it through his fingers. He raised his fingers to his lips, sniffed the gravedirt. licked his fingers, tasted the gravedirt. It tasted like mud. Kent stood up, shaking his head sadly.

He pulled himself to his feet and walked across the graveyard to the next empty grave leaving a trail of footprints in the early evening dew. This grave he also knelt down beside and checked. This grave he also wasn't happy with what he found. He stood up, brushed the dirt off on the side of his equally grubby cloak. His eyes scanned the graveyard again, trying to put a finger on exactly what was wrong here. Of course, he had his suspicions. He, like everyone else, had heard things. But hearing them and seeing, touching and poking them were two different things. So the figure in the muddy cloak spent over an hour nosing around the graveyard, occasionally scraping ivy off a tombstone so he could read it better or moving a bramble out of the way to see what was under it.

Then he limped back out of gate, down the path and back to the road towards the guards and the gate.

The road was quieter now and he was able to make reasonable time, despite the darkness. Most folks had pressed on to try and get to town before this late hour. He didn't really blame them for that, what with the night smelling of burnt orc an all. But then most folks hadn't spent most of this morning looking for their thrice-cursed-now-missing backpacks, or felt the need to go poking cemeteries just to confirm that there were, infact, undead there.

He soon made the town gate, and threw back his hood as he approached. The gate was closed.

“Oi!..”

The traveller yelled.

“Who goes there?” A faceless voice replied from the other side.

“My name is Saul Kent. I seek shelter, and food.”

“I know no man called Kent! Begone from here!”

'Well, that went well' Kent thought to himself. “I can earn my shelter!”

“We have enough farmhands!”

“I'm no farmhand! I am a carpenter!”. Well, it wasn't really a lie. He had never been apprenticed to anyone, but was fairly sure he could make a passable chair or whatever if he had to.

A lantern blinked on at the top of the fence, it's beam wavering down the path a bit until it shone in his eyes and made him squint. The gate creaked a bit as it swung open.

“You are welcome, Saul Kent. There is a tavern in the centre of town where you may find shelter.”

“Thank you” Kent nodded as he walked into town. It was often an interesting test of the mood of a place, he found – did they react better to an offer of gold, or to the offer of skilled help?

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Saul Kent

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Saul Kent

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Character Summary

Name: Saul Kent
Aliases: Cpt Kent
Age: 53
Race: Human
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Place of Origin: Morthloran
Gender: Male
Class: Bard

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Stats

Strength: 10
Dexterity: 16
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 11
Charisma: 11

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Physical Attributes

Played By:Nick Cage channelling Hawkeye Pierce from MASH.
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 176lbs
Build: Used to be lean and wiry, but there is a bit of a beer belly these days.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Long dark brown with grey streaks. Tied back in a loose pony tail
Skin Tone: Weathered
Racial Abilities: N/A
Tattoos/Scars/Piercings: Imperial army brand on the back of left arm. Orcish clan tattoo on right shoulder. Numerous scars, including an impressive one across his throat.
Day To Day Attire: Worn wool cloak, once something other than mud coloured. Leather trousers and a faded silk tunic over a light chain shirt. Very easily confused with a vagrant or travelling tradesman.
Strengths: Blood bonded with trolls. Dirty fighter. Luck of the Devil.
Weaknesses: Nightmares. Sucker for a sob story/ pretty face. Adrenaline Junkie.

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Psychological Attributes

Iron Will * Heroic * Drunkard * Nefarious

Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single with history of tragic demises/horrid deaths. Not a safe person to know.
Personality: Loyal almost to fault, bitter and cynical. He tends to often look for the worst in a situation. Which somewhat contradicts his natural tendency to want to build a better world.
Quick to anger and sometimes rash to act, he is happy to fight tooth and nail for the people & country he swore to protect – and is prepared to get his hands dirty doing it. No stranger to the concept that the ends justify the means, Kent is prepared to burn a baby alive if it means almost everyone else lives.
Habits: Restlessness, both in eyes and in movement.
Hobbies: Drinking and travelling.
Fears: Going to sleep at night, because he will probably have nightmares. Noncorporeal undead, because they can come through walls and floors and that's a scary thought. The thought of dying feeble, alone or unarmed.
Likes: Uncomfortably strong drink and the thrill of adventure. Also easily distracted by pleasant ladies, tall tales, good music and dancing.
Dislikes: Cowards. Injustice. Evil Monsters. Sleeping in a comfortable bed / the same place for too long. Being expected to dress smartly, wear a sword and mind his manners. Using swords, platemail or similar knightly arms/armour.

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Skills

• Simple Weapon Proficiency (master: Dagger) All simple weapons such as club, dagger, gauntlets, staff, spear, crossbow, etc. Especially dangerous/skilled with knives.
• Unarmed Combat Proficiency Punches, kicks, wrestling, sweaps, throws and general brawling.
• Improvised Weapon Proficiency: Skilled in the combat use of all manner of items that probably shouldn't be used as weapons in the first place.
• Martial Weapon Proficiency: All martial weapons such as bows, whip, flail, mace, swords, axes, etc. Finds a lot of them heavy, slow and clumsy.
• Ambidexterity Able to stab you with both hands.
• Armor Proficiency Light: Can wear light armors without it hindering movement or weapon usage
• Armor Proficiency Medium Can wear medium armors without it hindering movement or weapon usage
• Shield Proficiency: Alble to use a shield effectively in battle.
• Endurance: Ability to continue on fighting or running past the usual drop point
• Unsportsmanly Conduct Skilled at fighting in a manner considered ungentlemanly, unfair or dirty.
• Dodge Agile and readily able to avoid an opponents blows.
• Sleight of Hand (master) The ability to pick pockets or perform feats of misdirection.
• Hide Proficiency: Sneaky.
• Move Silently see: Proficiency: Sneaky.
• Listen Able to hear trouble coming.
• Spot Able to see trouble coming.
• Toughness Tough, resilient and resistant to pain/discomfort.
• Tactics Understands small unit and large scale battle tactics.
• Leadership An officer, if not a gentleman. Can lead and inspire people.
• Scouting A skilled scout, used to nosing around where he shouldn't me.
  
  Bardic Skills:
• Jack of All TradesHe may not be a master, but there are few skills Kent can't turn his hand to if the need/occasion presents itself.
• Hedge MagicsWhilst not what most people would call magic per se, Kent does know a lot of the basic superstitions, rituals and rites. Also able to recognise proper magic when he sees it.
• Bluff/DiplomancyTo call him charismatic would possibly be overly generous, but he can be surprisingly charming if he wants to be.
• Knowledge(lots) Well travelled and seasoned, the chances are high he knows something useless about almost anything, including a halting understanding of many languages.
  
  Languages:
• Common
• High Common
• Ork
• Thieves Cant
• Scout/Trail signs
• Words Of Creation (crude) People think that the world is shaped by your will, defined by their desire. Others say it is not will that gives the world shape, but words. It is words the gods used to define and describe the world. There are words that hold true power, the ability to shape reality to fit their meaning. His pronunciation is somewhat off and his vocabulary very limited, but Kent has a passing knowledge of the language of the gods.

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Magic

• Cantrip/Prestidigation. The basic parlour tricks many with a passing familiarity with magic can perform.
• Charm. His voice can carry true power that can sway a persons will more than words possibly should.
• Stun. A word on the wind - not powerful enough to stop someone or even hurt them. But enough to slow them for just a moment. Quick and easy to cast.
• Lesser cure. Magical healing, for when strong drink and bandages just ain't enough.
• Stay With Me.Part morale effect, part magical force. This is the supernatural ability to encourage other people to push themselves harder than they would have otherwise been able to. Handy for bringing people back from the brink of death/unconciousness, dealing with fear effects, etc.

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Possessions

Possessions Generally On Person:

• Normal Clothing. Clothes, mostly as described above. Probably also includes underpants, but you don't really want to read a description of them do you?
• Several pouches of handy things. Several belt pouches (and a couple of concealed pouches) containing the various oddments it's useful to keep close to hand.
• Princes Seal:The princes coat of arms, and proof of Kent's military rank.
• Lightstone. A bit of rock, glowling suprisingly brightly. Normally wrapped in leather.
• Coin Purse. Hanging on his belt. Contains a handy scorpion.
• Coin Purse. Hanging around his neck inside his shirt. This one has his spending money in it.
• A handful of high value trade items:Some gems or jewlery or magical trinkets profited from his latest escapade.

Weapons: Personal weapons, no magically enhanced items

• A couple of daggers on his belt.
• A couple more daggers on a bandanna across his chest:normally worn only if expecting trouble.
• Several more daggers hidden about his person:One can never have too many daggers!

Armor: Base armor only, no magically enhanced items

• Light chain shirt:Concealed under normal clothes. Includes greaves.
• Place Mail Bracers:Again, concealed under normal clothes.
• Masterwork leather boots:Everyone should own a pair of good boots.

Animals:

• None.

Pack Contents:

• None: He lost his travelling pack recently.

Magical Items:

• A pouch of shadowy goo. The sort of blackness that sends shivers down peoples spine, in a handy bag. Might actually be made of nightmares or the souls of sinners or something. He has a limited control over this stuff if he concentrates really hard.

Potions:

• A flask of strong drink:Charisma Potion
• The diluted tears of an angel:Healing/Restore Potion
• A vial of cursed dwarf blood:Stamina poison, some of which is currently applied to one of the daggers concealed about his person
• Scroll of Summon Tarnesh, General of the Damned Fourth Ashen Legion Of Hell:This involves several hours, drippy candles, live sacrifices and a big cgi budget. He stabbed someone who was trying to cast this once, and only just stopped the summoning. This is several pertinent pages of the tome that was used. It also contains pretty much no way of, you know, controlling or binding said Demon General once he arrives. Using this is a Bad Idea(tm), but it seems to be resistant to just being thrown in a fire so Kent has kept them and tries to ignore the voices telling him that it's entirely possible sooner or later he will end up in a position where an apocalyptically bad idea is still the best of the remaining options.

Creation Materials: Anything used to brew potions or for alchemy

• An inexplicable ability to obtain more strong drink. The likely hood of him discovering half finished bottles had forgotten about, or buying more booze off stage, or having talked some passing farmer into sharing some of his moonshine are all quite high.

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History

Parents: His father was a falconer at the palace, his mother a lady in waiting he took as a bride. They lived well enough, but his father eventually died of some horrific disease. His mother went missing a couple of years after that, and is presumed dead.
Siblings: Some, all younger than himself. He didn't pay much attention to them as he was growing up – he was a bit too distracted by tales of knights and dragon slaying and damsel saving. They could be anywhere now.
Childhood: : Raised in and around the palace, Kent had a privileged childhood. His heart full of tales of adventure, it was easy for him to find a knight to patron him and to join the army.
Adulthood: Serves as an officer in the Crown Prince's Cavalry, which grants him a good degree of leeway in his duties. Sometimes he serves as a scout or a military advisor, but mostly he is allowed to travel as he sees fit as an adventurer.
...also a sworn member of a large orc tribe.
Special Moments:After a long and particularly nightmarish vampire hunt he ended up freeing a troll that the vampire had been using to feed on for years. In gratitude/drunkeness, he and the troll ended up blood bonded afterwards – this is the scar across his throat.

Burned a village to the ground. Upon discovering that a mining village had been worshipping a demon for generations (they thought it was a local fire god) and that everyone there was demon tainted, Kent and the other adventurers with him took the hard decision to kill everyone and destroy it. This is one of the prime causes of his drinking and nightmares.

...more to follow I'm sure!
Current Events: He is currently fighting/skirmishing alongside the orcs. He counts Trolls as kin, and he doesn't think anyone should have to watch their children be killed – even if they are orcs. He is in town to return keepsakes taken from the soldiers, resupply – and get drunk. Maybe even get laid...

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Relations

⚜ High Ranking * ☯ Neutral * ☮ Friends * ♥ Crush * ⚤ Significant Other * ☠ Enemy

• ☠ Sgt Bill Varrant: This is a man Kent has previously ordered tied up, and then personally beaten to a bleeding pulp as punishment for raping a town girl. He has since recovered, and might have a teensy little grudge.
• ⚜ Prince Cerius Gossett : To call them friends would be overstating the point, but Kent does technically serve as an army captain answerable directly to the prince, and the prince does actually know who he is.
• ☮♥☠ Laurelli Andriatti:Laurelli was one of the other adventurers who fought alongside him during the unfortunate 'butchering a village full of innocent demon cultists' incident and she has never entirely forgiven him for it. She retired afterwards, but remains a powerful seer and will sometimes contact him to ask for aid / give advice – or he ask her to scry for him. The two of them have always been close, but the fact that she hates him for turning her into a child murdering monster complicates the relationship somewhat.

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Extras

Character Quote: “And when you get to hell, tell the Devils it was Saul Kent did send you.”
"Can't say as I like the idea much either. But I can't say as I have a better one."
Theme Song: Jon Bon Jovi – Blaze of Glory
Aura Color: A dark grey, shot through with rain like a thundercloud.
Scent: Mud, stale sweat and cheap rum.

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Just putting finishing touches on character now, hope to have first IC post up tomorrow if everything goes to plan.

In other news, dead happy with how some of it has turned out:

"Skills: Unsportsmanly Conduct"
"Might actually be made of nightmares or the souls of sinners or something."
"...an apocalyptically bad idea..."
"the fact that she hates him for turning her into a child murdering monster complicates the relationship somewhat."

...I'm really rather looking forward to this!

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

Excellent!

I'll get started on a character now then

How do you feel about bards of dubious backstory?

🦄 Duplicity - D&D Style Fantasy Rp Adventure (Completed)

So, I wander back to this place thinking I might like to try some forum based RP again.

...and I see a character sheet like that.

Ok. I'm sold.

Is there by any chance room for another?