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10 mos ago
Current Attn teeny boppers: You realize adbots aren't ppl, yes? They randomly generate login info, then execute pre-programmed posts. Your rage-spam goes unheard by the machine. And is equally annoying.
4 likes
10 mos ago
*Loads gun* I will instantly kill anyone who says "cream."
3 likes
10 mos ago
Thank you, completely unnecessary forced software update, for BREAKING FUCKING EVERYTHING I was doing.
1 like
11 mos ago
If you're going by UK conventions of knighthood/nobility, yes. It also would be pronounced like the "dam" in "madame," rather than like a Dick Tracy "daym."
1 like
11 mos ago
Me: "Goku, thank God you're here!" Goku: "I heard a really strong guy was here! Lemme at him!" Me: "He's right there!" *Points at my Writer's Block* Goku: "... Sorry bud you're on your own."
8 likes

Bio

On CST time, United States. Working from home now, so I can typically get at least one response out per week if not more depending on how things are flowing.

Most Recent Posts

Name: Arden Barnett
Age, Gender: 25, Male

Appearance:
An even six feet tall and rather handsome, Arden strikes a noble figure. His hair is a dark brown, his eyes a vivid green, and the steel of his armor burnished lightly with a dark blue gloss. Signs of wear here and there are a testament to his experience, but he keeps his equipment well maintained. He has a slight pallor of the face, but is otherwise hearty and hale.

He often wears a grim countenance, and his gaze seems far away. But when they return to the present, more often than not it is with a kind of intense focus that makes meeting his eyes a daunting task. When he does smile, it doesn't quite reach his eyes.

Personality: Despite his gloomy demeanor, Arden is what one might call a "perfect example" of the chivalrous and honorable nature of a knight. He does what is right no matter the cost to himself...and sometimes, to others. This is his primary flaw: he sees the world in stark contrast between good and evil, and values the order of law above the more realistic concerns of the common man. Against a direct threat, meeting the forces of the Night in the pitch of battle, he is a stalwart ally. But often he misunderstands the plights of others, and his attempts to help are too heavy handed. Nor is he quick to forget a grudge, and when his ire is roused he acts without thinking and--hypocritically--takes the law into his own hands. One might say, however, that he has another flaw of being too generous. Despite his hard stance on evil, he treats others well. He often refuses a reward for a good deed, and is willing to give what he can to those in need. Often times this leaves him with an empty purse, or lets others take advantage of him.

Backstory: The son of a noble knightly lineage going back for generations, Arden held himself to a standard set impossibly high by his forbears. Their line had loyally served the Kingdom and the Church for centuries, and long ago had been given a mission they carry out to this day: delivering the righteous judgement of the Crown upon those deemed to be oathbreakers, those most foul of nobles, knights, and other men of high standing whom the lesser magistrates could not bring to trial. In cases where the watchmen could not seize a criminal of this standing, or when the King could not risk a civil war, the men of House Barnett would seek honorable challenge, or serve the Crown's interest in Trial by Combat. It is for this they are not well liked by the rest of the nobility; those who call them friends merely try to stay within their good graces with honeyed words, and those who have too much pride for such groveling decry them as no better than assassins or hired thugs.

Not long after Arden came of age, he married a beautiful young woman named Diantha. They were deeply in love, but as time went on Diantha never became pregnant. Arden didn't love her any less for it, but with such a standing as his it was vital that they conceive a child. They tried many medicines by the royal doctors, visited the cathedrals all over the kingdom to receive blessings and prayers, and did as best they could. Still Diantha remained barren. She began to fear that Arden would leave her, or else take a mistress. No matter how much he reassured her, the gazes of his relatives from their lofty arrogance bore down on her more and more heavily.

Late one evening, though she feared the Night, Diantha covered herself with hood and cloak and made her way to a lonely cottage to speak with an old, withered woman. When she returned, before Arden could ask where she had been she coerced him to the bed. Within weeks they came to know that she was with child. For a time the two could not be happier, though Diantha began to make trips out into the town on errands later and later. Soon Arden began to fear that she would encounter some foul Nightkin if she stayed out any later, and he left in pursuit when she had not returned by sunset one day.

He found her, dancing in circles in the forest around an alter covered in blood, alongside others all dressed in black. Crying out to her, he charged forward with drawn sword in hand to strike down those that had kidnapped her. Though he felled one, the others all fled. They screamed for Diantha to follow them. Arden reached out to her, though only now did he see that she had begun to change into something horrible. With a wicked smile she embraced him, kissing his cheek.

He screamed as he felt her lips brand him. He pushed her away, and pointed his sword at her. Each saw the betrayal in the other's eyes.

Arden hesitated. Diantha ran. And so the quest began...

Equipment: Arden wears armor of plate steel and chain mail, along with a thick gambeson and a tabard bearing his family crest. Slung across his back is a wooden heater shield, also bearing the coat of arms, reinforced with strips of metal along its edges.

Theme: Ron Morina - The Fallen

Other: Arden has quite the reputation as a warrior, and a rumor about him says that he once fended off a dozen armed men on his own when a treasonous knight tried to have him killed before the trial set later that day.
Out of curiosity, what is the reward for defeating our monsters? Do we gain a power of what which we have overcome?


I honestly hadn't considered it. Given that one of the original concepts was seeing how players would overcome supernatural forces without any special powers of their own, and that players will probably either work together or at least cross paths with each other, I don't really think granting power-ups would work out--whoever defeated their enemy first would have an advantage that would make overcoming their next party member's obstacle easier, and in the end it would also undermine that concept.

If you have other ideas I'm certainly willing to hear them out, though, because I agree that having a reward of some sort might be worthwhile.
Well my original idea was to create a character that had an unhealthy obsession with the pale mist lady.

Then I thought this guy was trying to purposely get himself marked. He be a supremely paranoid guy. He'd study how people got marked and interview them about it. He'd engineer methods of ways to avoid being marked by anything else. If he were to get marked, I'd imagine he'd be furious about it. However because he knows the basics of being marked he'd know that they'd come to him. Then he would viciously kill them. Like how dare they try to take him from from the object of his love and obsession? HOW DARE THEY!!?

But then I thought that might be boring so I had a different idea. What do you think?


Having a Mark is akin to being a target of the Nightkin, and it sounds more like your idea would befit a cultist of some sort, or someone who just wanted to become part of the Night. I wasn't really planning on letting people play as the creatures of the Night--vampires, werewolves, witches, etc--because even though they may still look and act human, they are deeply twisted and most certainly evil, even if they don't think they are in their own heads. It's not a Twilight situation where it's just a helping of superpowers with some ridiculous angst to attempt justifying it. This setting is more akin to the horror stories of the middle ages where people sold their souls and never came out the better for it, no matter what they attempted.

So I don't really think being obsessed with the Nightkin would be something you'd want to do. If any townspeople found out they'd burn him as a witch, if he offered himself to the Nightkin he'd either be killed or turned into a monster, so on and so forth. It doesn't really sound like a fun time to me.

If you're really really interested in playing it from that angle, though, you could PM me and we'll discuss it.
Night of the Marked






In the beginning, there was Day, and there was Night. The ancient men prospered under the light of the sun, and cowered beneath the pale moon. They dared not venture into the Night, for the darkness was fear and fear brought death. The creatures of the night hated the day, and mankind. They sought the blood of humans for their feasts, and dark rituals, and all manner of vile purposes. Under the pale moon they were stronger, faster, and more impervious. With their nightcraft they weaved terrible curses and alluring enchantments to ensnare their prey. Men could do naught but shudder in fear...

Until, during the Day, men found fire. Fire was light, and light was life, and hope, and courage. With fire men faced the Night, and drove it back. With fire men forged steel to do battle. And with steel men chopped wood and chiseled stone, to build great walls and keep the Night at bay.

Yet the pale moon rises, and the Night draws closer once more. They seek out their victims and place upon them a brand, a disgusting stigma upon the flesh. The Marked fear even their own shadows; for the dark forces flock to them no matter where they run.

But hope is not lost. If the Marked slays that which branded him, he will be free. Until the sun sets once more, and the Day begins to fade...










This RP is a Dark Low-Fantasy inspired by Berserk, the Souls franchise, and dark fairy tales. There are two principal ideas. First, how will players overcome supernatural odds without magic or other superhuman abilities? Secondly, what can players create when the story is up to them, rather than the GM? Every player in this RP will be Marked by the creatures of the Night. The players choose what marked them and why. Then it's up to the characters to deal with these monstrosities when they come to make good on their marks. I control the random creatures--those not involved with player backstories--attracted by the Mark, and work with players on the storylines to run things smoothly. As long as it's reasonable, fair, and most of all interesting, anyone can introduce plot threads.

Please post your Character Sheet Submission in this section. When it's approved you can move it to the Character tab. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! If you would like to add locations to the map, lore, or other things, just let me know and we can discuss it.


Fo sho. I'm working on them right now, and they're sort of a mix of mongols and highlanders. As for the mushrooms they essentially enable his "Rage", and while he has a few they don't grow native to the area and taking more than one weakens the effect. He only has three to start with, so he would only use it in a situation that is dire, like being outnumbered or facing off against a powerful animal (Or even the succubus herself). Though if you don't mind I'd also like to take some liberties writing about the tribals of the Shadow Vale, who are unrelated to the Plaanescape or Kharnate (Though some have origins from there). They're more like the orks from Warhammer, albeit civilized enough to not kill everyone on sight.


Alright, that should be fine then. As for the tribals, would you mind terribly if they're a pretty rare sight away from the borders of the kingdom and are considered "savages" that are routinely "driven away from our lands" and such by the knights of this as-yet-unnamed kingdom that the Vale is part of?

@Lucius Cypher
If possible, could I get some more info about the Planescape and the Kharnate? His backstory's fine and I don't really have a problem with anything aside from maybe the mushrooms--I'd like to be sure that he can't use them to just beast through everything in his way--but I like the ideas about the tribals/wildmen and some of their similarities to Mongols (from my perspective anyway). Otherwise he's accepted.

@Loco
On one hand, as a Monster Hunter fan, I'm into things like this in games. But on the other hand, as bleak as this world is and as strongly as magic is linked with the Night, I think the materials you would be using from the monsters might be too tainted, both literally and in the eyes of the setting's society, to really use such an idea. A weapon made from the bones of foul beasts would probably be seen as demonic in its own right, even if it didn't contain the essence of the creature it was made from; and other things might be too outright poisonous or corruptive to be handled by humans.

I'm pretty strongly on the fence on it. Do you have any ideas or examples of the items you planned on creating?

OOC should be up in just a bit, soon as I finish dinner.
Sweet, quick question(s) though. Can a single creature give out multiple marks, as in mark a family or village?

And do the creatures have any level of magic? Perhaps necromancy or illusion etc?


I hadn't thought of that. I think it would be best to have the rule that a Nightkin can only Mark one person at a time. If the person is killed/unmarked in some fashion, then they can Mark another.

Yes, the Nightkin have magic. Most of it would be their typical supernatural abilities--vampires can use eye contact to hypnotize, fairies might use an elf-arrow to put someone into a magical sleep, a spriggan can disguise itself as a tree. Some of them that are more powerful or more closely tied to magic, like true Witches (as opposed to human women who are just misunderstood herbalists) and demons, could do other things like divination or curses.
So if and when the creature that actually put on the mark shows up, I would play them?

Sorry if I seem like an idiot, just confused xD


Yes, whatever creature serves as your character's "antagonist" is up to you. And no problem, this is probably going to be a confusing concept to a lot of people because the general formula has the GM controlling all the bad guys that challenge the heroes.

Are you playing all of the creatures of the night?


Only the "random encounters" that would be drawn as a result of the Mark--creatures that just happen to be in the area. A person's personal enemy is up to them, unless they would specifically like my help with it. It doesn't count as a full character on its own, as I don't really want to go into depth and "humanize" the monsters unless doing so directly helps the human characters' development. Even then they shouldn't be "redeemable."

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