Mokley

Moonfiend

As you can see, my character is pretty mundane. I'd like to explore how he, as a regular Joe, will deal with his world as he knows it being shook up. I'm really hoping that you'll use his backstory in a way that I can play off of...

Also, I guess another request, when you want to have an NPC show up that our characters should recognize -- for example, my character Emmitt's wife -- could you perhaps post that information in the OOC with a mention to the people who need to know, or maybe send out PMs?

EDIT: I'm really looking forward to this! I hope I'll be able to participate and not get swamped... Eh, I should be fine as long as things don't move too fast.

@Smertless

I would love to use everyone's backstories! Once we've got a groove going, hopefully each steady character will have their time to shine. Character development is totally key.

The beginning of the RP is probably going to move quickly as everyone gets in their first posts, but I guarantee it will slow down before long -- you might have to bear with it for a bit, but please do stick it out. :) One story-post a week to 10 days is a maintenance goal, I think, with players posting as much as they want in-between.

Whenever I introduce a new NPC, I usually try to also post a CS in the NPCs section that tells what everyone should know about them. If only certain characters would know them, I'll poke you in the OOC. Good call!

Moonfiend

I'm also interested to know about the driving force behind the Grit (maybe a little more background on this?). As far as Grit-NPCs are concerned, I'm not entirely sure where this is going. It seems as though they will be a mix of undead, ghouls and other monster-types...mostly humanoid. Also, any more info on the city's authority figure?

@Archimedes

I'm totally psyched as well! Thanks! :D I'm considering posting up a few more NPCs before we begin, one of which would be the queen. She's only the queen of this one city, which I guess technically makes her a mayor, but don't tell her that. She's benevolent, but a little off.

The Grit I imagine to be more of varying degrees of chimaera -- some might be kind of fuzzy-adorable, and others are downright fugly. Their backstory right now is mixed up in popular books and movies in Periphery that depict the Grit as common terrible monsters to be defeated by heroes, or scarily intelligent humanoid-animals hellbent on destroying the world. A common horror movie scene is probably the Grit climbing over the wall and eating babies and raising the dead. Fun times.

I haves a question can a sigil create a familiar or is it just elemental magic?

@Eodwyn Aether

It CAN, technically -- but that sigil would have to be enormous, extremely complicated, and requiring of a few people touching it at once to work it. Those ambitious spells are generally reserved for the mages who spend their lives studying sigils.

That's if you mean creating life. If you mean capturing an animal and binding it to yourself as a familiar, that's more of a job for rune magic and enchanting. A mage could place a piece of his soul into a collar, for example, and the animal that wears the collar could then be bound to him. A lot of mages would rather enchant robots, though -- having an animal familiar does absolutely nothing for the mage, but at least a robot is useful. :)

I feel like I'm rambling. Rambleramble....

Lantern

Anise put up her defenses harder than ever before. No. I have friends. Anise thought of the spirit of Tyaelaem that was still following from a distance. She thought of Reus whom chose to defend her against the Lord of Shadow despite his own lack of power. I am not alone. I am a protector, not a destroyer. I am a light in a dark cold place. She reopened her eyes with a fierce determination. I am the Lady of Light and I will protect those that cannot protect themselves. I will help those lost in the darkness and as soon as I find a way to return home I will guide the lost ones back to where they belong. Those dead and living. She projected this determination through the lantern as if to make a point that she was bound and determined to make her wishes a reality and in order to cleanse the darkness in her thoughts.

The emptiness stared back at her. The Dragon's spirit was still and dark -- but she had its attention.

The Lantern's blue light shifted to violet, then red, then green, then blue again.

Meanwhile, Morly leaned on his stick and had his fingers jammed under his mask to scratch his nose. He stopped suddenly, and he stared into the woods on the dark shore opposite Reus; gray shimmering forms stepped out of the forest shadows. Four, then ten, then a dozen human-shaped forms flickered closer to the edge of the water. Their gray shapes sometimes darkened, then flashed gray, and then were black as coal. They were coming closer.

Something in the back of Morly's mind connected the color-changing Lantern to the ghosts that were after them now.

"Hey lady," he spoke up in warning, never taking his eyes off the approaching spirits. "Hey lady, whatever you're doin', you should prolly not do it I think, okay?"

And then -- in response to Anise's declaration -- the Dragon spoke. Its voice rumbled in her chest and trembled in her bones. The Lantern flashed white.

WHY?

A strangled sort of yelp escaped her lips and Artemis swung blindly with the only weapon she had: the glowing red Lantern. Not pausing in her movement. She scrambled up onto the shore and dashed under the wolf's legs. Her heavy, sodden skirts made her clumsy and slower than she cared for, but all she could think was she had to escape.

In the moment Artemis chose to use the Lantern as a weapon, several things happened all at once:

Reus' jaws opened wide in a yellowed snarl.

The cloth around the Lantern caught fire.

Roaring, white-hot flames exploded out of the Lantern and filled Reus' open mouth, billowed over his face, ignited his fur. The light of the fire illuminated the water and the raft, brighter than even the blue Lantern. The wolf made no sound, scraping frantically with his paws at the fire that engulfed his face -- and Artemis scrambled clumsily between his feet, unseen and unharmed.

Reus -- his entire head crackling and bright with grotesque flame -- finally threw himself into the river. The splashing waves threatened to capsize the raft, and Morly struggled with the stick to keep them afloat.

The spirits on the opposite shore flickered and disappeared.

Moonfiend

@MsChimeric Katrina's pretty damn cool! Love the tech and the use of sigils. Absolutely copy her over to the Characters tab. :)

@XLegs Thank you!! I can definitely focus on planning for those paths, and make sure to present choices that lead down one path or the other.

I have an idea for what Moonfiend actually is, but it's sorta endgame -- and we can only hope we'll get there. xD

@rechonq Thanks for the confidence! But I just killed a steampunk RP by dropping the PCs down a surprise elevator and into a cave with a sleeping t-rex -- out of the blue, in the middle of a masquerade. You guys need to kick me in the pants of I pull something out of left field for the sake of being crazy, haha!

This one might take a bit longer than usual to set up, because you guys have inspired me to actually take it seriously. I've got that map to draw, and a plot to kick into shape, and NPCs to flesh out.

Suggestions always welcome!

Lantern

Pffff I'm not sure how much I've got besides general flailing but I'll post! XD stay tuned!

Moonfiend

@MrSkelly@Riptide Davis and Reina both look pretty damn cool! Awesome! Approved! Please do carry them over to the characters tab. :)

Another question for everyone: what do you hope to do or accomplish in this rp? What sort of stuff are you excited about? The one thing that kills my rps most often is the fact that a lot of my crazy nonsensical plot twists are never as awesome as I think they are, haha! I want to do this one justice, and make sure that this game at least attempts to be everything you expected! So lemme know you expectations -- it'd help write a lot. :)

Moonfiend

@XLegs Elliana is quite excellent! A great addition to the team! Totally approved. :D

Moonfiend

@Archimedes Otto's pretty neat! Totally approved. :D

To everyone: I've also done some heavy edits to the first post of the OOC and the images I used in the Characters tab, to try and simplify things and keep to the style we seem to be developing here. :3

Moonfiend

You say that a character could just be a curious citizen touring the top of the wall, so I'd like to ask exactly how that's handeled. Is the wall open to the public for free, or is it payed, scheduled tours only? Or something else?

@XLegs

Why hello again! :D Awesome meeting you here!

I haven't really thought into that much detail -- I'll leave that up to you and I'll run with whatever you decide! ;) The only thing is that there's building going on all the time, so some parts of the wall will be dangerous.

Moonfiend

@MsChimeric Absolutely you're very welcome to hop in! :)

Good question! I think it's in everyone's best interest if PCs were not Grit. Most of the beginning of the plot centers on the popular opinion of the Grit and the mystery about what's happening -- a PC Grit would have a terrible time navigating the story. However, there is one PC so far that is a Grit sympathizer, if you like the idea.