The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
[D&D4E] Eternal: TLotLN IC/OOC - rocks fall, everyone lives
Jacobkosh
Gamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
Gamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderator mod
Star that gleams on a moss-grey stone
Graven by those who love me -
There I would lie alone, alone,
With a single pine above me;
Pine that the north wind whinnys through -
Oh, I have been Life's lover!
But there I'd lie and listen to
Eternity passing over.
- Robert Service
Chapter 1: Travelers and Magicians
Chapter 2: A Whiff of Brimstone
What is Eternal, you say?Eternal, is what your mother called the world once when you asked her. Your town of Everwood has always been besieged by snow. No seasons, just the unending drive of snow and sleet, the hasty work of chopping down trees in the forest on the lighter days, and birthing new goats in the barns when you were shut in for months. You traded with the men in mail that took the long North Road one way or the other, and the dwarves and the dragonborn who lived in their ember holds in the next valley. You've never talked to an elf, but you've seen them, deep in the forest at the edge of your ribbon-train. And now the caravans have stopped, the snow is harder, and you can see strange lights from beyond the North Road's mountain pass. Lights that your grandfather, the oldest person in the village, has never seen. Lights that call to you.
Since then, your dreams have been filled with the lights. You've spoken to your mother and your grandfather, and they're letting you go to find them. They warn you though - no one has ever left and come back to the village. When you left, the cold biting at your cheeks and the snow landing on your nose, you found five others had come to the same spot on the edge of the North Road. You didn't speak, but you continued north - all of you.
Welcome, everyone! Due to the sheer volume and depth of interest, Arivia has really graciously given me the opportunity to choose a second group of adventurers for Eternal and run with it parallel to her own game. This is something we have been talking about for some time now and while our games will almost certainly not be entirely identical in tone and focus, her premise struck a chord in a lot of us, myself included, and I'm going to try and deliver the best Eternal experience that I possibly can.
Our doughty band of wanderers currently includes
Iron Weasel - Moxidas, Goliath Fighter URL="http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=147212"]sheet[/URL
3clipse - Alek, Human Warden URL="http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=147196"]sheet[/URL
mikedanger - Heriot Anaed, Drow Cleric URL="http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=147084"][SIZE="1"]sheet[/SIZE][/URL
psolms - Forgrom, Dwarf Shaman URL="http://4e.orokos.com/sheets/1026"]sheet[/URL
Bogart - Pennywise, Gnome Sorcerer URL="http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=147152"]sheet[/URL
interrobang - Jouet, Elven Ranger URL="http://4e.orokos.com/sheets/1029"]sheet[/URL
The goal is to begin the game on Monday, although I realize people may not be available to read any of this for the remainder of the weekend so I will cheerfully push back that start date up to a day if necessary. I've PMed all of you; if anyone doesn't think they can commit to this, or has gotten a better offer elsewhere ( :P ) please let me know ASAP, either by PM or in this thread.
The usual pbp small print applies; character sheets at Myth-Weavers, rolls at Invisible Castle. We also have a handy campaign wiki at Obsidian Portal; I'll be posting setting and NPC information there as well as here in the main thread, and in the hopefully unlikely event of another protracted PA forum outage we can use the campaign forum there to continue play uninterrupted. Humor me on this one and sign up for OP if you haven't already; it just seems prudent to have a channel of communication outside the forums.
Being from the village of Everwood or its immediate environs, all characters are assumed to have at least some baseline competence in the fine art of not freezing to death. That said, keep an eye on your food; it will be tracked, as will encumbrance. At any (reasonable) time, the party will be able to request a skill challenge to hunt, fish, find berries, and otherwise replenish their stores.
Arivia made a good post about coinage and money in her game, and I'm going to shamelessly swipe from it. This is now official writ:
A note on money for the players in my game:
I don't intend for stylistic reasons to use actual coinage in Eternal. It implies time and sovereignty, which aren't concepts that are necessarily applicable. Instead, I'll be handing out art objects, precious metals and gems, and some trade goods. (and providing their values out-of-character for tracking purposes - it's a narrative change, not a mechanical change.)
Because of that, if you're starting with some leftover gold, I'd like you to choose something to represent that gold. Some examples might be:
- a small, fine wooden carving of a local animal (or one that figures highly in your character's backstory)
- a very small pouch of gold flecks
- a rough, beaten silver ring
- a shard of a larger gem, or a larger, obviously flawed and glassy gem
That sort of idea. Don't feel constrained by what's there, but it should be notionally appropriate - if you have a bolt of silk somehow, how are there silkworms in a northern climate?
...with the slight addendum that, in this game, circumstances may well find you in possession of quantities of coinage from places and eras unknown. Figuring out where and how to spend it will be part of the fun.
(Also: another way of carrying your character's wealth, as per both historical vikings and the 2E DMG, is "hacksilver," or bracelets and rings of soft precious metals from which bits could be hacked off with which to buy things. If your character has seen wealth before, this may well be the form it has taken.)
I like all of your stories a lot, and I'll talk with each of you one-on-one about where you want to go with it. In the meantime, let's have a paragraph from everybody about what your characters are thinking and doing as they set off on their voyage.
Jacobkosh on
0
Posts
Pennywise drew his thick fur about him as the stinging wind swirled snow into his eyes. If he truly was on a quest of some kind, this was an inauspicious beginning. No sooner had he set out from Everwood than a sudden snowstorm had blown up, making it almost impossible to see more than five feet in front of him. No matter. He knew the way to the northern crossroads well enough, and trusted his feet to guide him where his eyes could not.
As he reached the crossroads the wind and snow suddenly died down. Thankful for the respite, Pennywise loosened his furs and drew dseveral deep breaths. Now, the lights in his dreams had signalled that he should go that way, but perhaps it would be wiser to scout the journey by going parallel for a while? He hadn't travelled further than this crossroads before, though he'd often been up here idly daydreaming about the world beyond. Idly, his fingers played with the beaded length of cord in his pocket, lingering over the evenly spaced 26 shining beads. There had been 50 beads not so long ago. The missing ones had bought him the contents of his pack and the small crossbow he had holstered on his hip.
As he pondered the likely direction of his steps he thought back to his mother in the village. Probably drunk by now, but happier than usual, convinced that her son was fulfilling some destiny her confused mind knew nothing about other than the fact that it must be better than the life he'd found in the village. He shook his head of such thoughts and tried to focus on the journey ahead. Drawing the deck of cards that always occupied the inside pocket of his tunic next to his heart, he absent-mindedly shuffled them and sent one twirling over the back of his hand with practised ease. Dipping into each knuckle and then being passed under the hand by a clever thumb back to the forefinger to twirl again, the cards travelled quickly.
A discreet cough behind Pennywise jerked him out of his reverie, and the card fluttered to the floor. Forcing himself to remain calm, he slowly retrieved his card and turned around as nonchalantly as he could. He bowed.
"I am Pennywise Melchitt, lately of the village of Everwood, where I am known for my consumate skill as a magician and sorcerer of no little repute." He raised an eyebrow at the stranger. "And you are?"
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
"Clearly a sign from the Queen," said Master Anab, perhaps the oldest of them, whose skin had begun to draw tight over his face like a drumskin long ago.
"Clearly," agreed Master Moir, who was just as old--if not older.
"There are some records of lights before," began Master Iosis, the youngest, in a patient tone.
"Yes," said Master Moir, rocking back a little bit. "I believe that was the Year of the Falling Moons..."
"you should have seen it, they fell right into the west entrance, never seen..." Anab began before a stern look from Iosis stopped him. The sages-in-waiting practically drooled all over themselves. While they did not practice the vendettas and assassinations of their deep-down brothers, the drow of the Exequy had still held onto the old ideals of cutthroat rank advancement, and every one of the sages hungered for the day that one of the masters died and had to be replaced. Anab's sudden descent into anecdote was a bad sign for him.
Eventually, an agreement was reached among those present that someone had to be sent. Heriot had volunteered over the protests of the funests, and the masters had granted permission.
He wrapped his cloak about him tightly and shifted his spiderhide boots. He was still somewhat cold, but everywhere was somewhat cold. The rings, the old pollincts about his neck, clinked and rattled like chattering teeth as he walked. Each was worked in the shape of a raven with wingtips touching behind its back in a circle: a sign of gratitude to the "death elves" in some places--only a funest was allowed to remove them after death. Some of the other trainees had spoken of great vaults of pollincts down below the caves of the masters, but others said they were just telling tales and the surface world had forgotten the pollincts long ago. Heriot preferred them to the strange, flat coins that some of the elder sages used from days when they had travelled to strange places--they were somewhat easier to conceal by just wearing them under one's gloves, and he was fairly certain he could fit the ones made for dwarves and the dragonmen around his big toes in a pinch.
The snow began to fall, and Heriot continued to move towards the light in introspective silence. A raven flew overhead and perched in a tree nearby. It inspected him as he moved and then landed on the road ahead. Heriot did a small bow, smiling at the appearance of one of the Queen's messengers. This seemed somehow satisfying to the bird, and it flew away towards the light.
The first tenet of the Queen, he thought: All lights must fade in their due course.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Also, if you'd like me to use the images from your applications as your character tokens, or if you have something else you'd like used, let me know. I've got a pretty big image stockpile of my own to use if it comes down to it.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
So psyched for this to start.
That's kind of what I was thinking too. The front page of CF makes my eyes glaze over.
Moxidas Fel'Druchanion.
Re: wealth: the Goliaths occassionally stumble across precious and semi-precious stones in the foothills around the Ghostwood, which they trade with travelers or other tribes. Moxidas has a handful of quartz, malachite, and jasper in his pocket.
Background (now with better sentence structure and fewer typos):
"Thank you, father."
"You did well today."
"It was not difficult, father."
"Don't be so smug, boy - moving the Stone only shows that you are strong enough to be Tested. The real challenge lies ahead."
"I'm sorry, father. You're right."
"Indeed. Now, put this on."
"A blindfold?"
"Yes. Come on now, put it on. Good - can you see anything?"
"Just the shadow of a crazy old man."
"Who's old? You're lucky you're about to leave, or I'd show you a thing or two! Now stand up and turn in a circle a few times."
"I feel like an idiot."
"You bleat like a hungry goat, Lundar. That's enough turning. Now: which way is East?"
" ... "
"The wind is howling in your ears, boy! The snows rise above your knees and the White shrouds everything! You must find the Fangspire even if you can't see it! Which way is East?"
"... That way."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes."
"Take off the blindfold and sit back down. You've learned well."
"I've learned all that the tribe has taught me, father."
"Yes ..."
"... Father?"
"It's four days to the Fangspire, but you can get there in two if you stop for neither food nor rest."
"Father ..."
"You can make it, Lundar. There’s no shelter along the way, but the mountain will shield you while you regain your strength before the climb."
"Father ..."
"When I was Tested, I found a cave halfway up; look for it near th-"
"Father - stop. Please. You know that is forbidden; I must live or die alone."
"I'm sorry, Lundar. I ... you are all I have left."
"I must be Tested, father - but I will succeed. I will return to you, I promise."
"An oath given must be fulfilled, Lundar. I will hold you to your word."
"I must leave now; the Testing will not wait. I will see you soon, father."
"I will keep my fire burning for you."
"I love you, father."
"And I you, my son."
Lundar collected his gear and headed East towards the Fangspire. In moments, he vanished into the swirling winds and driving snows.
Moxidas never saw his son again.
Lundar’s brief life was marked on the tribe’s Great Totem, the line of his life abruptly ended next to those who had gone before him. In public, Moxidas was stoic, as his people demanded. But privately he wept; it was too much to bear. His first-born, Khor, had fallen to monsters in the high passes; little Saiini had succumbed to illness when she was still small. His sweet Na’uta had died birthing Lundar, who had in turn been Tested and found wanting. Moxidas yearned to leave his yurt and disappear into the driving snows, to join his family by their fire in the afterlife ... but honour demanded that he serve his living tribe as long as he was able. Only when he was too old or too ill to be of use could he take The Long Walk.
There are lights in the mountains now, and none now living in the tribe know what they mean. The shaman has decreed that someone must go and investigate, and he has chosen Moxidas for this task. Either he will find his way again, or he will find the release he seems to desire.
Appearance:
http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh78/IronWeasel/Moxidas2.jpg
And IC stuff:
It would be so easy, he thought, so easy to stumble, to slip and to lie broken until the cold carried me away ....
He lunged for another ledge, but immediately realized that he'd misjudged the distance. His instincts screamed and his huge hands reached out and found snow and rock. A stone broke off in his left hand and suddenly he was hanging by one arm above a chasm. Wind-driven snow swirled beneath him and swallowed falling debris.
With a grunt, Moxidas heaved his other arm up and dug his fingers into the frozen earth. Straining against his own considerable weight, he hauled himself up on to solid footing and paused to catch his breath.
Did I miss?, he wondered, ...or did I miss? He cast a longing glance skyward. He missed them so.
Moxidas shook the thought away and focused on the task at hand. Nothing in life was easy - why would death be any different? If he was to die, he'd come by it honestly and honourably, as had his wife and children and the whole line of his fathers. He stood, shook the snow from his shoulders, and drove on towards the Road.
An hour later, he leaped down from the steep hillside in a shower of snow and dirt and stepped onto the Road for the first time since before Khor had been born. He knew that the village of Everwood lay to the south, though he had not seen it since the days of his youth. He pulled his cloak close and turned north. Shadows moved on the road in the distance ...
I have no objection to a unified OOC/IC thread. Marked spoilers for OOC stuff sounds like it would work to me.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
North. Jouet cocks her head, turning her eyes to the canopy, and holds her breath. Road, the voice says. Jouet knows her next destination. The wind never speaks much, and it has never once explained or justified its whispers, but the White is infinite, wise, eternal. She does not question, for it knows.
Leaning forward, she slices off the hare's other leg with a quick swipe of her knife and hastily devours it, filling her belly as much as she can before her departure. She snaps the bone into two halves, and sucks the marrow out of each, wasting nothing. She kneels in the snow and shovels handfuls of it onto the fire, extinguishing and concealing her tiny camp before she stands, pulls what is left of the hare from its spit and hurls it overarm into the forest, as hard as she can, in the direction opposite that which she intends to travel.
She tucks her knife back into its sheath, shoulders her bow, and sucks the tip of her finger to wet it, holding it up to discern the wind's direction. Then she follows it without hesitation. She knows the wind blows north, because the White wills it so. It will guide her.
tumblr | instagram | twitter | steam
3clipse, do you want to give us any more insight into Alek before things kick off? It's not strictly necessary, but it may help me get a handle on the opening narration and subsequent events.
Speaking of which! Things will kick off about noonish tomorrow (which is to say, Monday 8/17). And just so you know, this isn't going to be a super-duper combat-heavy game, but when there is, I might take a couple of pages from the Aegeri book, so be warned.
His upbringing was pretty standard, except for the whole "he could talk to trees" bit. That part was weird, but he's not a weird/alienated kind of person, and he likes the company of other people. He has never known anything other than his village. Because he spent so much time in the forest outside of his village, he didn't form many strong attachments there, so leaving wasn't really a big deal for him, and now he's just trying to find the lights.
For him, living is more about taking care of nature then it is about adventuring, or surviving even, so when he saw the lights and the trees told him to follow them, he did it without question.
Chapter 1 - Travelers and Magicians
The Crossroads
Day 1, Morning
It was while standing at the crossroads that you realized that you had company.
A gray morning under a lowering sky and even the rhythm of your even breath had taken on a distant quality, as if it were coming from somewhere behind you; and you realized - not with a start, but gradually, like inching ever so cautiously into a hot bath - that you were not alone at all. Questions formed on your lips and died there. Why were you not surprised? Should you really find it reassuring that others had been seized by this same...compulsion? Glancing back, you saw a figure, or maybe more than one, gazing ahead with the same clarity of purpose you imagined you possessed. The same light in the eyes.
The North Road, the men of the south call it, but to you and everyone you know it has always been simply The Road, the only one worth mentioning; the lifeline of the valley, carrying furs, wood and precious metals south and bringing food and tools and animals in return. Its many winding branches carry it to every village in the valley, east from Everwood to the small dwarf settlement of Coldfast below the hills, northwest to the Ghostwood and the tribes of elves and goliaths who call the ancient pines home, southwest to the frozen marshlands of the dragon-men and points unknown - and finally north through the treeline and the High Pass through the mountains and whatever lies beyond.
So many directions, so many branches and turnings, but all the same road in the end (or is it the beginning? Privately, you wonder if your elders would have an answer for that one; these thoughts might have been alien to you a moon ago, but a moon ago you were a different person). And with all that branching and joining, perhaps it simply makes sense that six wanderers setting off in the same direction would eventually happen across each other; and yet you can't shake the feeling that there is significance in this.
Behind you, a few turns back, lies the village of Everwood; the noise of human activity, the echoes of chopped wood and the cries of livestock, have long since faded, and even the white chimney smoke grows harder to make out against the slate-gray sky. Ahead of you the trail plunges into the shadows between the trees of the northern spur of the Ghostwood, ancient pines bowed beneath the weight of snow; and just visible over their tops, the ice-blue tips of mountains, the mountains beyond which no one has ever ventured even in tales and stories.
You look up for a moment to gaze at them. The morning seems to stretch into a perfect, infinite moment of bracing silence, without a whisper of wind or birdsong or the crunch of footfalls, just the rise and fall of your breath and the comforting weight of your pack straps pushing into your chest.
And then one of your companions speaks.
"So, Jouet. Where have you been this past week? I've missed seeing one of the only other outsiders in the village."
Finding no reply to his question, Pennywise decided, perhaps optimistically, that this was tacit assent to continue.
"Probably out on a hunting expedition, eh? Can't say as I blame you. Still, the woods are nice enough, but I'll bet they can get awful lonesome. I'd miss people if I were away for too long. Oh yes, I love company, me. No doubt you've seen one of the magic shows I put on in the inn. No? Well, goodness, you're in luck, as I've everything I need to show you a thing or two as we walk. Now, see this deck of cards?"
Pennywise noticed that Jouet's hand kept straying to the knife at her belt as he continued to talk, and that her eyes seemed to dart into the surrounding woods as if seeking an escape route.
"Well," he said, shrewdly guessing that the young elf was perhaps not in the mood for magic and pocketing the cards. "Perhaps not right now."
He paused, looking into her eyes and mulling over what sort of comfort he could offer this quiet creature of the forest. He thought deeply on the matter, and then brightened, almost clicking his fingers in delight over the flash of inspiration that had struck him.
"How about a nice sing-song while we walk? 'Ninety-nine trolls on the castle wall' should keep us cheery while we're walking, eh? I'll start." He drew a deep breath and launched into a full-throated rendition of his mother's favourite drinking song.
Jouet looked into the woods, and wistfully pondered the chances of a bear attacking the party.
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
"Excuse me," he rumbled, speaking over the diminutive singer and cutting off troll number ninety-six, "Do any of you know anything about the lights beyond the pass? It would save an old man a lot of trouble."
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
He looks down at the gnome quizzically, not quite sure what to make of this...entertainer.
"Still, there's something about them, isn't there?"
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
"Yes, they are very strange," he agreed. "I have been asked to learn more about them."
The goliath paused a moment before addressing the group in general. "It has been many years since I walked the Road," he said, "and I recall it being a much lonelier journey; are there many travelers passing through these days?"
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
He reaches beneath his cloak and removes the symbol of the Queen. "I forget my manners. I am Heriot Anaed, of the Exequy, Funest-in-Training, bound to the service of the Queen of Ravens." The feathers hanging from the silver disk quiver in the breeze.
"Forgive me; it has been some time since I travelled beyond my village. I am Moxidas fel'Druchanion, a warrior."
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
"For those who don't already know me, I am Pennywise Melchitt. Magician, sorcerer, entertainer and singer of no mean talents, as you have heard for yourselves."
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
He gives a short nod to the party in general, not to a specific person.
"And here I assumed I was in the presence of a mere master bard. Surely you are a creature of many talents, Pennywise Melchitt."
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
An expression of intense concentration creases the face of the young gnome as he brings his hands up in front of his face. Eldritch symbols are formed in the air, and he utters words in a strange tongue. And then, with a sudden grasping motion of his fingers, a single rose appears in his right hand.
"Took me ages to learn how to do that," he announces proudly. "'Course, it's not actual magic. It's just sleight of hand."
Casually, he snaps his fingers, and a thin plume of fire ascends from the palm of his hand. "That's real magic." He closes his hand and the fire vanishes. "To be honest, it takes longer to learn how to do the tricksy stuff with the rose."
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
"Maybe we should eat Pennywise and see if we get his powers?"
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Pennywise shrugs. "I like to think I bring a certain panache to it, but in my experience real magic isn't something you learn. It's something you are."
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
"I find it strange that no one seems to know what these lights are. That neither holy men nor forest spirits understand them worries me." Moxidas looks around at his travelling companions and seems to come to a decision.
"Though we are still strangers to one another, I suggest an alliance: we can certainly learn more in a shorter time if we work together."
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Outsider. Stranger.
As he walks, Urasi, his polar bear companion walks behind him, pausing to look into the trees, or to sniff the ground where another animal had been. He acted so real, even if the truth was that he was the spirit of a bear, and the protector sent by the earth-mother. Forgrom thought he was content to follow and watch.
Outsider. Stranger.
Suddenly Ursai growled at something. The rest of the party looked back; some shocked to see a dwarf and bear they had not noticed before, some thinking the bear was attacking. Well, no way out of it now.
"Er.. hello. Don't mind Ursai, hes as friendly as the day is long. And I go by Forgrom."
Then he sees and hears the slighty embarassed-looking dwarf standing next to the bear.
Moxidas releases his sword and raises his hand in greeting. "Hello, Forgrom. I'm Moxidas fel'Druchanion. Feel free to walk with us; we are all quite pleasant travelling companions. May I ask where you are headed?"
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
edit:
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
"The White." When she speaks, her voice is strained, hushed, and seems to cause her discomfort. If it were not as quiet as it was she probably would not have been heard at all. "It is... the White." Jouet pauses briefly, and takes a few breaths. "We follow the lights... because that is... what the White wills." Another pause, another set of breaths, and then she is quiet.
tumblr | instagram | twitter | steam
At the point where it dives between the trees, two tall wooden totems stand vigil on either side of the road, their carved faces depicting the stylized features of the peoples of the valley; the left pole is topped with an angular pair of antlers and from the right extend the outstretched wings of an eagle. Nothing about them suggests anything about their builders, but as you grow nearer you can see the poles are askew; the ground has turned beneath them and they no longer stand entirely vertical. The faces are losing their shape and moss grows in their recesses. Both poles are, however, remarkably free of snow.
Passive perception DC 20: Forgrom notices that set around the base, barely visible, are a series of faint and almost-fully-eroded runes.