As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
[D&D4e Eberron (RECRUITMENT)] The Unfortunate Wizard of Sharn
Scribe
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Unfortunate Wizard of Sharn
The Captain scanned the deck of his small skiff. It was a decent day with a few small pick-ups that went off without any hitches. He liked it when things went according to plan--it made his life so much easier.
That very thought, however, just happened to coincide with a rather massive explosion high above in the Everbright district.
"What in Khyber?" the Captain looked up, shock etched across his face. It took him only a moment to discern the plummeting, smoking body that was now falling towards his ship.
The air crackled with magic as various sentry posts unleashed their attempts to catch the falling object, all of them seemingly ineffective. The old man's eyes narrowed as he watched for a moment before shouting out a sudden order.
"Hard to starboard," he called, realizing the body was going to hit them if he didn't do something. "Now!"
It was too little too late, unfortunately, as the charred body hit the railing hard--smashing it to pieces--before bouncing off and continuing its rapid descent. The Captain winced painfully, as he knew that if the man hadn't been dead before, he surely was now.
The entire crew rushed to the shattered railing, peering over the side in amazement. No one seemed to notice the pale, nude figure now sprawled out on the deck. The form was a bit fuzzy at first, a bit transparent and ghostly, but as moments passed, it seemed to manifest more completely.
"Come on," the Captain growled, assessing the cost of the damage in his head, "back to your po--"
Silence overtook the small skiff, as the crew's eyes all came to rest of the pallid figure drawing shallow breaths. Where had he come from? They had all seen the body bounce off, hadn't they? And... what was that mark burned into his chest?
The Captain scanned the deck of his small skiff. It was a decent day with a few small pick-ups that went off without any hitches. He liked it when things went according to plan--it made his life so much easier.
That very thought, however, just happened to coincide with a rather massive explosion high above in the Everbright district.
"What in Khyber?" the Captain looked up, shock etched across his face. It took him only a moment to discern the plummeting, smoking body that was now falling towards his ship.
The air crackled with magic as various sentry posts unleashed their attempts to catch the falling object, all of them seemingly ineffective. The old man's eyes narrowed as he watched for a moment before shouting out a sudden order.
"Hard to starboard," he called, realizing the body was going to hit them if he didn't do something. "Now!"
It was too little too late, unfortunately, as the charred body hit the railing hard--smashing it to pieces--before bouncing off and continuing its rapid descent. The Captain winced painfully, as he knew that if the man hadn't been dead before, he surely was now.
The entire crew rushed to the shattered railing, peering over the side in amazement. No one seemed to notice the pale, nude figure now sprawled out on the deck. The form was a bit fuzzy at first, a bit transparent and ghostly, but as moments passed, it seemed to manifest more completely.
"Come on," the Captain growled, assessing the cost of the damage in his head, "back to your po--"
Silence overtook the small skiff, as the crew's eyes all came to rest of the pallid figure drawing shallow breaths. Where had he come from? They had all seen the body bounce off, hadn't they? And... what was that mark burned into his chest?
So! I'm looking to start a one-shot PBP Eberron game I'm calling The Unfortunate Wizard of Sharn, which is going to be a very pulp noir-style adventure. There will be detectives, dames, and gang warfare.
What you can see above is essentially the intro for what is going to bring all of you together.
This will be a game for five level 8 characters, with all of the usual stuff that that entails in terms of starting it:
SUBMISSIONS:
one level 9 item, one level 8 item, one level 7 item, and 2,600gp. (If you want to break any of those individual items down into gold, that's fine as well. No buying an item over level 10 though.)
22 point-buy.
Free Expertise.
Backgrounds ok.
We can work any of the races/classes in, as this is taking place in Sharn.
Flavor is totally flexible--if you can figure out how to turn a Shaman's powers into a Necromancer, then go for it.
Special Submission Notes:
This campaign will require 2 "set" character types.
1) The Inquisitive/Detective: One character will need to bear the Mark of Detection (Not for free. You'll need to burn a feat for it.). This is the Detective in our Noir, and so pretty important. Should be a Half-elf.
2) The Unfortunate Wizard of Sharn: One character will need to be a Revenant Wizard who has no idea who he is or what happened to him. You will have an Aberrant Dragonmark of unknown classification--it will have no abilities as of the beginning of the game. You do not have to spend a feat for this Dragonmark. On top of that, since you start out.. separated from your body, we're going to do gear the following way:
1) You can select the appropriate Boons in place of magic items.
2) Anything remaining you can spend/select the items you'll want, and you'll acquire them decently early into the adventure.
As for the other characters, fitting them to the Pulp Noir style of this adventure is going to give you the best shot of making it in. Tying your characters together is even better.
For instance, if one of you makes the Detective and another makes his lovable Warforged sidekick.
Pesky reporters, femme fatales, ex-cons, mercenaries--pretty much anything that really jives with the feel of the adventure is going to score you a lot of bonus points.
You can submit up to 2 characters for consideration, though you can remove one from the running to add another once if you like. (So, if tons of people go for the Detective, you can pull your entry for it and add a third character.)
Deadline for Character submission... let's say early Friday. I'll pin it down more when it draws closer though.
Scribe on
0
Posts
I love noir so much
I want to be the detective. I have watched Chinatown about 900 times and would love to reprise Jack Nicholson's role.
Let me whip something up.
Feel free to reject me because I am playing in THREE games here, and should really share the love.
I like this one! What level is this going to run to?
I'm not sure, to be honest. I've got the first portion of the game laid out so far, but not all of it, as it could swing pretty drastically depending on the player's choices. I would say don't build a character that relies on gaining levels to be effective, just in case.
Edit: Edited the OP to indicate that you can submit up to 2 characters for consideration. Also, you can remove one character from the running to add a third, but only once. So if a ton of people go for Detective, you can remove your own Detective submission to submit something else.
It was that time of year again. The rain never stopped, and 4E games were littering the sidewalk like drunken hookers trying to forget their miserable lives. And here I was, in my office, up to my eyes in work.
I couldn't spare the time to get in on this latest gig, no matter how much I wanted, and that riled me. This was a level eight job, for cryin' out loud!
3DS FCode: 1993-7512-8991
I'll try a Detective and a book-smart Sidekick to counter the Detective's street smarts...
But one thread, one was different. I clicked on it with a sense of dread anticipation, that strange emotion split between hope and despair, always on the precipice between what is and what may yet be.
As I read through the quick, one line paragraphs written in an unmistakable style, I knew what I had found, why it was different.
It was what I was searching for, without knowing it. Noir
I wasn't sure if you wanted the Mark to be a free feat or not, so it's free currently on the sheet so I can remove it easily if he is not in fact the Detective.
Background:
"Why do you do this? Search for people, kill people?"
"Damn, Doc, what do you want me to say? 'Because I can't find myself?' I bet plenty of changelings have that issue. I've been in this form for so long that sometimes I forget that I can be someone else if I wanted. Except in the middle of a job - then it becomes instinct. I don't even think about it - I see some chumps guarding a girl they took. Kill one of 'em. Become him - he don't need it anymore."
Hars laughs for a bit before he looks at the man interviewing him and that stern look. Hars clears his throat and continues. "Most of the time I forget, you know - scare the $%&# out of that girl because I still look like one of the guys that took her. Of course, changing to this fellow in front of you before her eyes does no favors."
Hars is currently a human male, brown hair, average looks. Easily innocuous.
"I know you were paid to get a look into my mind, make sure that the men in charge can continue to let me do some dirty work for the greater good. Make sure I don't snap and become... I don't know, the mayor? He's got enough problems for me to take that on, but I see the reasoning behind the inquiry here."
Hars then changes into the man interviewing him.
"How's that for a mind$%*&, eh? Let's get down to the Freudian @#$% now."
Only reason I'm hesitant to cast him as the Detective is because having a Mark of Detection but not being a member of the House Medani would probably cause you problems, especially if you were flaunting it by being an Inquisitive.
I'm guessing you're not familiar with Eberron, which is fine. Let me give a quick rundown of how the Houses work for anyone else who might not be.
There are the Twelve Dragonmarked Houses. Each House is pretty much a set of related families of one race. So everyone with the Mark of Detection is a half-elf. Now, that's not 100% true, as there are occasionally other races that will develop one of the Twelve Dragonmarks. However, if you are of the proper race, the House will attempt to bring you into the fold, as you are obviously somehow related. But if you're some other race, they'll likely kill you.
Aside from the Twelve main Dragonmarks, there is a Thirteenth that is virtually extinct (the Mark of Death) and then there are other Dragonmarks that seems to appear randomly, called Aberrant Dragonmarks.
The Twelve Houses actually declared war on anyone with an Aberrant Dragonmark, basically attempting to wipe them all from the face of Eberron. They failed in that goal, but they did manage to shatter them and now they are basically all fugitives.
So, while your Changeling could have a Dragonmark in theory, its unlikely that he would let it be known, as it could pretty easily get him killed.
Nothing in terms of background, as it is going to be a major part of the plot. But definitely feel free to flesh out the personality and how he is dealing with his amnesia and being a Revenant in a world where they have pretty much never been heard of before--so, essentially, he doesn't even know what he is, let alone who. And on top of that, he has an Aberrant Dragonmark, which only adds to his predicament.
Sounds like it could lead to some interesting bluff rolls, if when need the changeling to be "Dragonmarked"
Enigma
That was the first thing he felt, his oldest memory. Pain like a thousand hammers banging into his body, beating a rhythm on him.
The second thing he felt was little pinpricks on his skin. After the sharpness of the pain dulled he was able to make it out - rain. He hated rain, but why could he feel it hit him?
The third thing he felt was cold. A strong breeze with something that unusual in the air... what was it called... ah yes, brine. At sea then and not wearing anything.
The first thing he thought was "where am I?" but that lasted only momentarily as he made, or rather didn't make, a connection.
The proper question was "who am I?"
He opened his eyes and sat up. Looked around, drank in his surroundings. The smashed railing. The staring sailors. The Captain. The rocking boat. Utter silence as they all stared at the man who didn't die.
He struggled to speak, just two simple words, but a vital question.
"What. Happened."
His voice was his own yet he had never heard it before. He tried to remember something, anything, in vain, while one of the sailors yelled out "a body fell into the water and you appeared. Why aren't you dead?"
Dead? He looked down at his skin, a gray pallor to be sure, but was that normal? He didn't know. A body they said? If he was dead, it would explain his memory loss.
What did catch his eye was the massive scar on his chest. No, not quite a scar, it was too well done to have been a scar... or accidental. A marking then, but what did it mean? Was it good?
Or did what happen to him happen because of it. That seemed more likely.
His reverie was interrupted by the Captain, who had regained his senses and yelled out "I don't know who or what in Khyber you are but you're going to pay for the damage you caused to my..."
The Captain never got to finish. He didn't know how he did it but as he thought about it, a giant ball of fire appeared over the Captain's head and he said "I don't know who or what I am, but as you can see, I'm a little out of money at the moment."
"Wizards." the Captain growled. "Okay, okay. Don't burn my ship and I'll drop you off where you want and then that's it, I don't want to see you again."
Wizard. He rolled the word around in his head until it started becoming nonsense, just random sounds that don't form any intelligible word. Yes, that word stirred up some vague memories, though they slipped away like phantoms when he tried to catch them. He was a wizard.
At that moment something did come back. Names of spells, how to conjure fire and frost, lightning and thunder. Spell after spell. But his name? Nothing. What happened? Even less.
Nothing is more maddening than not knowing who or what you are.
The Captain let him off at a nearby secluded pier and gave him a set of clothes so he wouldn't stand out too much. Grateful for at least some assistance, he thanked the Captain and set off into Sharn.
He needed a name, something to call himself by.
As he walked down the dark, cramped street of Sharns in the rain, he hit upon the answer. Enigma.
He was himself a riddle, an unknown searching for an answer.
There is always work for a wizard in Sharn, some is reputable, some not quite so much. But the pay was decent. He wasn't proud of everything he did, but you have to survive, you know?
He never showed the mark on his chest to anyone, trust was hard to come by in the city and if you trust too many people you eventually get burned.
Many people asked about his grayish pallor, his almost deathly look, but he simply stared at them and said "I don't talk about it." They usually got the hint, many in the underbelly of the city had secrets of their own, things they didn't want to talk about.
Those that didn't got a fireball. Either way, problem solved.
Still, the questions gnawed at him, like mice at a piece of cheese, eating away a bit at a time. Wait too long and it's gone; you're gone. He needed to know who he was, what had happened to him and why and soon.
Pieces to a puzzle with no discernable fit. A crash landing on a boat. A dragonmark of unknown type. A wizard with no memory. A missing body, possibly his own.
He needed a Detective and House Medani would be a good place to start. A dead man looking for his body and past, there should be someone who will take that case.
You might want to add that to the main post then, that the "detective" character should be half-elf.
I was in the middle of making a non half-elf character for detective roll as well. (I've never played Eberron before either)
Hrm, now to see if I can make it work with a half-elf.
Pretty shortly. It'll vary slightly depending on what characters I end up going with, but its fairly shortly after.
Also, yes, the hook between the Wizard and the Detective is the Wizard trying to find his past and his body. Someone on the skiff probably would have mentioned that they had seen the Wizard go bouncing down into the Firelight District below.
Nope. I pointed out that the body bounced off and continued to fall whereas he materialized on the deck afterwards for a reason.
Sorry about all the little bits that are unclear. I didn't think of all these possible issues beforehand. Never run an adventure with quite this sort of hook/setup before.
Totally want to submit a Battlemind ex-military turned cop who's bored with his now considerably less exicting life.
When you say backgrounds, do you mean PHB2, or even the semi-overpowered Scales of War ones?
Edit: Also...for the wizard should we give him gear? From the sounds of the story he's naked (obviously) and that his home is destroyed in the blast.
Wizard Mark: The Wizard gets his for free. Detective has to use up a feat.
Wizard Gear: Oh. Good question. Let's go with Boons if there's some stuff that you want immediately. Anything else, go ahead and pick it, but you'll acquire it a tiny bit into the adventure.
Will add both those things to the OP.
Yea, I'm an investigator. Detective. No, you can't call me Jack. It's Gites. Detective Gites to you.
Introduction:
Stubbing out his cigarette, Gites rubs his forehead and shakes his head. "I don't take free cases," he tells the spook. "I'm real sorry about your body, I am. I know that must be tough. I lost my keys for a whole week one time. Couldn't even get into my office. But look, somebody's gotta earn some money around here. The rest of us ain't made out of spirit matter or whatever you are. I gotta buy food every day, you know how it is!" Unmoved, the revenant just keeps looking at him. "I mean c'mon, just you sittin' there lookin' at me, it's raising the little hairs on the back of my neck, ya know? I don't like it. Ain't natural. No offense."
"Mr. Gittes, sir, I apologize for interrupting, but I just think you should see this," his secretary begins, handing him the Sharn Inquisitive. "He's front page news. Taking his case could be good for business. We're not very busy right now..." her voice trails off as she looks around the bare office. It's kind of a dump, and it doesn't take a genius to see that the detective doesn't have a full case load.
"Why didn't you say so before?" Gittes explodes. "Of course we'll take the case. Better than the usual crap anyway." He shoots a dirty look at his assistant when he thinks the revenant isn't looking. He'd love the press, but he wasn't going to love the case, and he'd have to talk to her about her comments about business. Not in front of the damn clients! he thinks to himself.
Background:
Gittes is a member of House Medina, who worked for the Sharn Watch. He was assigned to the lower levels of Sharn, where he was regularly witness to corruption and ineptitude. He eventually left the Watch after an innocent girl died, despite his best attempts to protect her. Evidence pointed to another colleague on the Watch--a big bruiser named Menico. Unable to prove Menico's involvement, Gittes ended up confronting him, an incident that earned him a scar on his cheek and a few broken fingers. Gittes nurses old wounds now, keeps his nose clean, and wears his hat tipped forward.
Sheet:
http://4e.orokos.com/sheets/2305
And just a note for posting bits of what happens between what I posted and when the game starts, I'm totally for it, but its not necessarily going to be canon if your character gets picked. Its a great way to show your character's personality and such, I just want everyone to know I reserve the right to change things so that I can bring the whole party together. :P
scribe:
yea, definitely! I was just trying to give an example of Gittes in action, as opposed to writing the beginning out
I also threw in some hooks for you with his story. Yours to use or ignore as you see fit, and if you have other hooks, feel free to drop me a PM and let me know & I'll add them to him.
As for everything else, as more characters get posted we can brainstorm on how to tie them all together in the case.
"Wraith"
I also gave him this feat:
Title: Aberrant Dragonmark
Description: This strange dragonmark appears on your body. It is of an unknown origin and has unknown powers
Image:
The first thing that I remembered was seeing the last remnants of a fireball curl as it fights against it's own nature of destruction as it gasps for life. When I stood up I noticed that each of my legs felt like sandbags; heavy and loose. My chest burned like fires of Khyber, and my skin tingled like I was standing in the middle of a lightning storm. I looked at my body; pale and gray, it was cold to the touch...and oddly naked. There was also a very strange symbol burned into my skin.
I heard the murmur and clamor as a group of sailors all turned in unison and stared.
Yes, I was naked. Yes, I had no idea of who I am or where I was. All I knew at that moment in time was that I was naked, I had a group of men staring at me, and it was colder than the tip of The Devourers trident. The first word out of their mouths were "Wraith!" as they yelled at me, and I had a hell of a time convincing them I wasn't there to hurt or kill them.
Now I'm on a mission. I have to find my old body, so I can figure out what happened to me, who I am, and what turned me into this thing.
Motivation:
House Medina is actually kind of a loner house. They don't particularly care for the others--they only even became a part of the official Twelve via threat, really. But all of the Houses are connected in some way. Not that you need to have a Dragonmark.
But a human or half-orc from House Tharashk with the Mark of Finding could potentially be useful to a Detective.
And it's difficult to jump in level 8, lol.
Posting the meathead muscle ally of the detective tonight.
I want to apply to this but I just recently got into two other games and I don't want to take on too much.
tumblr | instagram | twitter | steam
Concept:
Assassins are widely thought of as merciless death dealers, but I actually like the thought of an assassin who uses it as a means to an end, and so Devlin Darkrump was born. He's actually a high-class thief by trade. Assassins are thought to be masters of planning and approaching a situation, and Devlin's supposed to be the same, but murder isn't his ultimate goal. He's got Hedge Wizard's glove to help him in his thievery and Alchemical Launchers installed in his bracers that can give him the edge in a sticky situation where he just has to get away. Shadow magic lets him be stealthier, which is helpful for a thief. As a Ki user, Devlin can pick up literally god damn anything and hit people with it, which is also helpful for someone more focused on getting away than hunkering down and fighting. Conceptually, I like the idea that Devlin mostly knocks out his victims instead of killing them, since that's an option in the Player's Handbook (enemies reduced to 0 hit points can be unconscious instead of killed), which is another level of his professionalism as a thief that crops up - sure, he can kill just about anyone who gets in his way, but he doesn't have to. In fact, he specifically makes a point of not killing people despite his training.
Background:
While not inherently brilliant, Devlin is incredibly keen and perceptive, and he has a silver tongue and dramatic flare uncommon in the normally brooding ranks of assassins. He learned his shadow trade from a school that studied the Bleak Discipline, and has killed in the past, but finds it distasteful. Instead of keeping a cloth with smears of blood on it, Devlin takes a coin from their purses, shaves a sliver of metal off of it, and pockets it into a small pouch he keeps on his belt next to the Forgebellow family sigil. Whatever reflection this offers him seems significant enough to satisfy his training in the discipline, but many other professional killers think of him as weak willed or prissy. It's a dangerous misconception. Incredibly talented with the vast array of weapons common to dwarves, Devlin is a force to be reckoned with in a fight, but its his flair for the artistry of his thieving craft that makes him a real asset on a team. He thinks of burglary as a job, not a crime, and, in his mind, the craft of picking locks, disabling alarms, and disarming traps is as solemn a commitment to model his life after Onatar as any dwarven smith's. He thinks of places he's stolen from as installations of art, frozen in time, a commentary on dwarven and particularly Kundarak's fixation on material goods.
He is largely antisocial with dwarves, preferring other mortal races at any turn. He has no known surviving family members, which is probably why he's not more buddy-buddy with other dwarves. He's incredibly full of himself and thinks of his craft as almost artistic than banal and criminal. He's even spent some time learning to play a 7-string lute and has been experimenting with a musical style he thinks of as and has heard called "shards," but is actually just jazz. His clever hands combined with his roguish bravado make him a passable musician, and he's picked up a thing or two from bards he's hung out with in seedier taverns and bars throughout Sharn, especially those that participate in semilegal-at-best herbal and alchemical enhancements.
However, Devlin's not a flawless criminal genius. Just over three years prior to the Unfortunate Wizard of Sharn's arrival, the Detective was hired by Kundarak to put a stop to Devlin's nonsense after he robbed his third money safehouse in the span of a week. It was a nearly three month game of cat and mouse, but ultimately, with the help of the Watch, the Detective arrested Devlin and turned him in, though noted that, in defeat, the ne'er-do-well dwarf could not have been more gracious. Rather than traditional jail time, Devlin was sent to one of Kundarak's private holds, prisons the house keeps for those that get particularly far off to its bad side where they can abuse and torture their prisoners in relative peace and safety from the watching eyes of the other Houses and governments.
After three years in his cell, Devlin has been released because of faulty procedure by the Watch during his incarceration. Essentially, evidence was tampered with and, since the Detective didn't catch him red-handed, he's being released back into the world. Having spent three years studying the Detective who finally caught him, Devlin has become deeply enamored with the man. He wants to try his hand at apprenticing himself to the Detective, living on the other side of the law, while sticking it to Kundarak in any way he can. Plus, there's the matter of what happened, precisely, to all that wonderful loot he scattered throughout Sharn before the detective brought him in. The city isn't the type of place where valuable secrets stay secret for very long, and Devlin will need some help re-acquiring his rightful possessions...well, maybe not rightful, but his nonetheless.
Collecting his only worldly belongings (weapons and gear) at the Warden's desk on his way out, Devlin sets off to find the Detective and offer his service as an expert in the seedier side of Sharn.
Appearance:
I don't know if we're playing off of already submitted characters, but I particularly like the idea that Gites put Devlin away the first time, but Menico f***ed up the evidence and now Devlin is back on the street. This could equally work for whomever makes it as the Detective, but Gites' brief bit of story and intro writing spoke to me specifically. I think Devlin desperately wants a Moriarty/Holmes relationship with someone on the other side of the law, but he's just not sinister enough to pull off being the Professor and he's not brilliant enough to pull off being Holmes. Devlin isn't meant as a star, by any means, but I think works as a part of the detective's crew - an ex-con the Detective wants around for his expertise in getting in places that aren't mean to be gotten into and so the Detective can keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't get up to his old tricks again.
Streever, with your permission, could I use Gites a bit to write up a mini intro for Devlin?