The Harbinger of Ferocity

D&D 5e - Hoard of the Dragon Queen

The hunter, now in greater company again, offered a nod to the two as they acknowledged their small collective. As it was prior, the aged man had been elaborating more on the nature of the enemy they faced in this Tiamat and its role as a queen of dragons. The man was... senile, at times, but his current lucidity suggested to Brannor there was more to be known and done. This was unquestionably confirmed with what the governor and his martial escort had to say in turn.

"It was a risky move, but the knowledge we gained for it may well have been worth it. But what do we do with said knowledge? I've already shared my thoughts with sergeant Longwater here... what would you say?"

The voice of Nighthill said to the party present, to which the wilder of sorts instead looked out over the city from the keep's stone parapets. He leaned atop them, hands against the stone and thinking for a few long, silent moments. The only thing that disturbed the calm of the night in the wake of the attack were the voices of the occasional guardsman speaking in the distance, the rest seemed to be the rolling breeze of the evening.

"There are only a few things we can do." Brannor said, not taking his eyes off the horizon beyond or what few stars were still visible tonight, "There's little doubt that we need to find their camp and destroy it, later on if not at the same time we need destroy the eggs as well."

"But for your town? You have no army and whoever you owe your pledge to is unlikely to come soon enough." The man paused, his leather guarded knuckles tightening against the stone and his jaw gritting some. His fierce eyes followed suit and he thought again before speaking, attempting to work his way through the mire that was the concerns of normal people.

Greenest needed to mount some sort of defense, the positive news being that there seemed to no longer be a reason for the enemy to return here - at least not now - as all they were doing was creating some "hoard"; whatever that meant beyond anything valuable thrown into a pile. But what could they even do? They found these small scaly things and their worshippers to be an overwhelming threat. There was no way they could fend them off and they would be totally unwilling, knowing the average peasant and their concerns, to abandon the town for safety at a near one under the same noble domain.

"That leaves you with... us, at best, and whatever else you and your master can muster here in the days and weeks to come."

The outlander transitioned conversation slightly, "But I know, at least for myself, we would be at our best hunting the enemy rather than awaiting them here to return, whenever or wherever that might be."

@Hekazu@Ryonara@Lucius Cypher@Gordian Nought@Norschtalen

"You Are Your Avatar"

The frenzy of scoring a blow turned what was an attack into an all out assault; the second and third strike came wildly after the first, claws crossing one another in their slashing as they drove with earthen weight down toward the ground, hoping to rip the entire being down with them. They rent and raked, seemingly uncaring to create more of the ink and further the cycle of wild wrath. When it then sought to establish a hold, it then moved after to go for the coup de grace. If there wasn't any resistance to be found, as it hadn't earlier, it was going for the literal and figurative throat of the matter - but not first without wrestling it to the ground.

The dark liquid that made up the uncanny shapes was a matter to come, the first and foremost was to not break the siege or fail the executioner's strike of the jaws; the Harbinger knew well to finish one enemy off before another, at least what it seemed to be, could take shape. While for the time being it was a physical thing, it had no confidence that this would be for any length of time. After all, the beast of myth had dispersed once already, but it was willing to do so again and again; eternity was what it had, but it doubted they would trade such blows for so long. Something else was already happening with the sickly ink.

It drew back its jaws, seized its forelimbs and sought to drive the two ivory, lethal points home.

@BrokenPromise

Roleplaying in Video Games (Your Characters)

The majority of the time I do actively roleplay these characters out in the same settings and games, in that I try to find a mode of operation for them and things they will simply do or not do. Many of the choices I make, as less than optimal as they tend to be with these games because there's no remote semblance of balance, favors just trying to be clever or different with them. What I mean is, purposefully trying to stick to a single character above all else is not only difficult, but quite rewarding if you can manage to get it to work.

I have a single khajiit mage in Skyrim who is well into level 40 or so with the long, and I do mean long, journey of Skyrim being a huge backing force as to how I managed to focus on such a character. To date, I have managed to avoid stealing anything and getting involved with the greater conflict, so it feels much more like a game of a lone adventurer just going about hunting bandits, solving ancient puzzles and doing quests - a more traditional roleplaying experience. No less, being a mage that focuses extensively on alteration and destruction spells, it leaves a fairly pure experience as to what one can or cannot do. It feels very earned and sincere, at times frustrating beyond all reason, but as though this character actually has a story; mostly ignoring the dragonborn elements except for the obvious times.

I think I managed to find myself at the point where the character is just the archetypal adventuring mage who has somehow made way by himself and as a race not too beloved by the nords of Skyrim. It helped some that my motivation was to make him as least a khajiit as possible, but I would by lying if I did not mention how useful claws are when you are out of magicka.

Announcements and Notifications

Notification to All Expanding Horizons Participants
The previous character submission topic, the singular topic rather than the subforum, will be deleted by this Friday the 23rd of June. If you have characters there that you have yet to migrate to a new submission, please do so before this deadline otherwise they and the topic will be deleted. The Staff in the near future will also be conducting a scrub of similarly defunct topics and doing general reorganization as well as some elaboration.

If you have any questions, please contact the Expanding Horizons Staff.
- @The Harbinger of Ferocity

"You Are Your Avatar"

The road that had gave under the imposter's effort now found itself careening through the air at great speed and with perhaps greater force behind it, propelled by monstrous strength. When the two collided, the target and projectile, they together were sent hurtling into the burned out shell of a car. Bits of crunching metal and breaking glass filled the air as the vehicle turned side over side and came to a stop against the ruined bricks of a building, little more than a bent hull now. It remained unsettlingly quiet thereafter in the grey intersection, disturbed only by a few bits of debris clinking from the aftereffects of a small shockwave. Several more long moments passed without reply or reprisal, perhaps that the fight was already over before it truly had begun.

This remained true until the settling dust began to move in a wave away from the impact by an unseen force, washing across the ground like the sea with a coming tide. Next came rolling pebbles and the scattered glass in the growing windstorm, all of which tumbled end over end in wild teetering and loud racket, followed hastily thereafter by bricks, stones and wrenched steel. The car and accompanying stone were flung violently across the street the very moment to follow and plowed through the face of an opposing building; bits of sheared metal and busted pavement exploded out, hurled even more fiercely than they were in the first place and left to bounce across the roadway.

The bleak dust ceased its animation and a ghostly image reformed where it stood last.

"The difference is..." The ethereal maw replied, "... some of us have already paid those dues."

It took body again, the aurora of shimmering white and green winking out, a primal thought being returned to corporeality.

"And then there are those, like you, whose kind have not."

From standing even at its distance, it lunged. Its entire body, without the aid of the unnatural, covered several distances its own length and sprouted massive, hooked claws from the tips of its pawed digits. It moved with thousands of pounds of force in its swing, accompanied by a shattering roar, the same weight and power that could wrench down beasts that early men needed canyons to fell. This was not done as a show of course, but just an inherent quality. That it could, even without the aid of the other side, still prove a mortal threat despite however extinct it was.

And it did.

@BrokenPromise

Help/introduction

@Drazah, there is also a tabletop channel on the Roleplayer Guild Discord. Assuming you go there at a busy time of day, you are likely to receive a great number of answers at a fairly rapid rate. There is also a "battle dome", where you can actually roll dice and in rare cases, see people actually playing instances of Dungeons and Dragons. I myself tend to patrol that territory, so your questions are not far off from receiving answers.

ᴡᴏʟғʀᴀᴍ ʜᴏᴡɪᴛᴢᴇʀ

@ChickenTeriyaki
The only portion preventing me from approving this character is the fact that the "Life Station" is not explained. We need to have a general idea of what it can or cannot do and leaving that out from the Staff. If it does exactly what it says in the description, there's no issue. If there is more to it, we need to know.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

I have to admit, I keep finding myself beat to my responses, but in all honesty I am not one to complain about that. A lively discussion is better than the reverberations of old ones held off to the side with the same audiences we are all familiar to. Especially so when their reaction is going to immediately nod and agree. It also is worthy to note that this topic, as charged as some opinions have been, is still open which is positive in its own light.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@NightinGem

The moral of my story is not the fact that I am extremely dissociative to human beings and have difficulty in seeing their emotions, or the meanings behind them, but that people are too swift to judge on that side of the argument. The majority I find myself a component of really are indifferent to those issues, not because there's no heart, but because they are overblown. Again, while I do feel bad for the situations you have explained, I cannot allow it to cloud good judgment. A small proportion of the United States that has predominantly minor grievances should not dictate to the majority really anything. Their role should be awareness and convincing, not compelling, others to why they are right.

Because the fact of the matter is, orientation aside, they are all still people biologically and beyond question. I state again that I do not care who or what you are, but when you impose upon me your belief system, I can no longer be idle with my patience.

For myself, trading stories are miss after miss. They have not the emotional impact or force to them on either front, be it yours or mine. I can only argue from the points that I can observe or am aware of, namely being that I have not seen any significant levels of concern on this front. If we were all say, in the Middle East, I might have to concede that the violence and hatred against non-traditional sexuality is overwhelming. Here in the United States, the most I can note are the odd people being needlessly cruel and the vast majority being indifferent - a factor little different from anything else in life.

To continue, yes, you speaking about your stories shows the same bias mine would if I were speaking to exotic feline conservation and how counter-poaching needs to be increased as a mortal deterrent. We are loyalists to our own sections, so we are not about to fool anyone there we are unbiased parties that should be listened to as the head of reason. We ended up on different sides of the spectrum, but not for a moment will I lie to you and say, "I knew you were going to have some sad story to share."

In reality, to help you understand my perspective, I viewed your remarks at face value and literal interpretations. The only way I can or should; sometimes a weakness can be a strength, as is with this case.

And yes, I do care. That is the part I find most amusing about this, because I have no qualms or second thoughts about defending someone else at the cost to my own person, even under threat of injury or death. In many ways, my life choices reflect this and my mentality does as well. There would be no question that if I encountered a man assaulting a transsexual person that I would immediately intervene. I might disagree spiritually and personally with a transsexual, but they are free to live their lives - especially without threat to life or limb.

Lastly, can you please refer to me what form of legislative discrimination against non-traditional sexualities is being put into draft? Rather, any at all discriminatory legal documentation in process? To my current awareness, this is not an issue here in the United States.

Frokane's Mildly Politcal Hangout Thread

@NightinGem

Find another way is always my first reaction. I had to for my own personal challenges, it is not the end of the world. Regardless, I am not going to address each one of these individually with solutions because they are an appeal to emotion. You are asking me to compromise my beliefs on the ground of, "That's really sad, right?" You will find me an uncompromising, largely emotionless figure in that regard because I have seen my fair share of what I believe to be legitimate human suffering. I needn't say anything more than that.

You can carry on with your anecdotes as you wish, but they are not exactly supporting your argument, which I say for the following reason. You have a perceptual bias by being involved in that community to see that information favorably, especially if first hand from your own life or second hand as a proxy. I am sorry, but your few experiences do not make up the majority of what everyone else has experienced in their life, to include those of us who have also suffered other forms of discrimination. This is not some special unique story that only certain people are going to experience in life. The reality is, is that most never do or will and there's not time or room to give special concessions out to anyone and everyone.

You get as much basic respect as anyone does. The people who discriminate against you or others are the outliers to the norm. If you want to trade stories about it, I will raise you one that I am currently supervised by a lesbian couple and the majority of my leaders as of recently are females who are non-white in a male dominated field of occupation. The end result? No one cares. But when we do care is when we sit through a four hour briefing on "diversity awareness" and are told how we are the ones wrong for assuming a man is a man or a woman is a woman.

No, we are really not. And the best part about this story? Those two women aren't the first non-traditional orientations I have had interaction with. I've supervised them and had peers of them. The reason no one had issue with them is because it never was brought up. It was when other people wanted to make it an issue did everyone suffer.

As for my approach, people should be allowed to hold bigoted opinions or views and voice them. The issue I take is when they cease talking and start acting on it. When they start forcing their paranoia that all transsexuals are secretly perverts and are trying to rape people, that's when I tell someone to go sit down and shut their mouth. When someone starts forcing me to memorize a lexicon of terms and procedures for interacting with less than five percent the population of the entire Earth - not caring that I myself have a social disability because this is their personal expectation of me - then branding me a "homophobe" and "bigot", that's where they get the same speech too.

I do not care which side of the argument you are on.

And an edit because of @mdk's comment being particularly funny to me to. Yes, I too technically qualify for a wealth of oppression points despite being a Right leaning Centerist.