AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
edited April 2019
Gergo, the Reckoner
Iron -1
Glass 1
Sulphur 0
Mercury 1
[Corruption: 1/3]
Looks: Masculine, Spindly, Hungarian
Covenants: One of you nursed the other back to health (with Peter; Gergo was caught in a mine collapse and badly injured by the time he dug himself free), You're hunting down a lost treasure together (w/ Egos)
Gear: Conveniently-Available Lanterns (Lingering, Thrown), an old map (sacrifice for 2 Travel the Labyrinth hold), chalk paints and dyes to mark paths, as many rations as necessary.
Moves: True Sight (You can always recognize an illusion or deception, advantage on See Clear rolls), Reshape Chaos (Travel the Labyrinth hold can be spent for additional effects)
Death Move: Either give the rest of the team permanent advantage on Travel the Labyrinth this generation, or lock the Regent and Acolytes into their wards for good.
If you like a Choirs book, don't let the observation stop you. The difference is definitely there, but not huge. Knight and Medic - at least- have some definite merits. Especially if you really want to claim the Grail; Knight has very good access to corruption / Blood gains via doing things you'd do anyway.
Given that Henry's the Regent now, the most-important question is where he'd have put the castle.
Curious is the main issue with Joker that they are basically a watered down version of another playbook? Assassin and Mascot strike me as the "weakest" in Choir. Though Assassin has some cool Blood moves and Mascot adds something unique to the narrative.
Captain is more...like a walking team buff (which I'm not sure if that's bad?)
Egos on
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
The general trend is that the Core playbooks get things like automatic advantage or better results on particular skills, whereas the Choirs ones have things like "on a 12+, go nuts," and additional ways to get yourself into trouble. I really think they're all playable, the Core ones are just tighter designs and less conditional which in PBtA-style games translates to "more powerful." It's not a quadratic wizards-linear fighters scale gap.
If you like a Choirs book, don't let the observation stop you. The difference is definitely there, but not huge. Knight and Medic - at least- have some definite merits. Especially if you really want to claim the Grail; Knight has very good access to corruption / Blood gains via doing things you'd do anyway.
Given that Henry's the Regent now, the most-important question is where he'd have put the castle.
Curious is the main issue with Joker that they are basically a watered down version of another playbook? Assassin and Mascot strike me as the "weakest" in Choir. Though Assassin has some cool Blood moves and Mascot adds something unique to the narrative.
Captain is more...like a walking team buff (which I'm not sure if that's bad?)
I mean, Mascot's there so you have a clear playbook choice for Scooby-Doo
Hey folks, quick additional book keeping point. Everyone who didn’t take the grail last gen (meaning everyone except Discrider) gets Spoils, which is on the same page as Grail Gnosis. You can choose from the Blood 0 options!
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
Hey folks, quick additional book keeping point. Everyone who didn’t take the grail last gen (meaning everyone except Discrider) gets Spoils, which is on the same page as Grail Gnosis. You can choose from the Blood 0 options!
Edited it into my bloodline choice, but:
Gnosis Spoils
Your bloodline works to heal the wounds
left in this community by the castle.
Name an alliance you've made, and
get advantage when you call on it
for Reinforcements.
Raphael made sure to send The Golden Signal back to Hungary as soon as possible after the Castle disappeared. Due to their efforts to help those displaced where the Castle had been, they gained the appreciation of the hunting guild that had formed in the area. Originally a collection of those who would seek out food for their village/for selling, they had morphed into a group of danger-ignoring monster hunters who attempted to fight the Castle's corruption on their own (with varying levels of success)
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
Demetrius got the Society a relic. Obviously. But you can never quite have enough of those, now can you?
Let's say his crippled leg didn't stop him from smuggling several occult tomes, other rare books, and arcane equipment out of the Castle before his emergence in the aftermath of the battle with Avaloc, and the price of their resale to other Society members funded his life as a reclusive scholar and supported the development of a number of mining craft-guilds throughout the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, and the scattered hinterlands of the Byzantine Empire...
Zalan, the Bonded
Iron ±1 Glass ±0 Sulphur +1 Mercury -1 Looks:Masculine, lithe , Caucasian
Bound to a Revenant
Gear:
War Club (Hefty, Unstable)
Spiritual aura (advantage on attacks against intangible foes).
Survivalist gear
as many rations as you need.
Covenants:
Hunting for a Lost Treasure with Gergo (TBD). One of you is teaching the other to fight (with discrider).
Moves:
Soul Blade
Your spirit has its own weapon: give it a perk and a flaw. When the spirit fights, roll+Sulphur to Strike and Face the Horde. If you have Astral Projection, the spirit can fight while you take independent action
Spiritual Fusion
When you fuse with your spirit, roll +Sulphur. On a 7-9 hold 2, on a 10+ hold 3. On a 6- hold 1 but mark contamination. Spend a hold to use the spirit's power; work it out with the GM, but it should be about the level of a spell from Drink Deep. This power is draining: to use it again, you must use Shelter or Rest and Recreation.
Blood Gifts:
Death Move:
As your life fades, the spirit and the castle
fight for your soul. Pick one:
• You come back to life: you're immune to
harm, but die at the end of the fight.
• The spirit vows to continue your
mission, aiding the other explorers.
• Heal fully, but be damned. From then
on, mark contamination instead of
taking harm.
Stats
Iron +2 Glass ±0 Sulphur ±0 Mercury -1
Looks: Lithe, bound leathers overlapping a chainmail inner, a face set in stone.
Refuge: The town of Lons-on-Dale itself
Breach: A grandmother's opened smouldering grave
Drive: To push the darkness back from inside the town
Covenants:
Rachel and Peter are long time Monster hunting pals (increase covenant when protecting each other, decrease when you embrace corruption (assuming willing corrupting here, not sure how this works))
Gergo had come to Lons-on-Dale for training, given the large standing army, or at least sizeable proportion of guards and police that the town maintained at all times.
The town on its part happily accepted the Bonded, as one marked much as it's own.
Rachel was assigned to mentor the Hero, having exceeded her peers in experience, and also having used similar weaponry.
Gear:
Compound Hammer (Hefty/Close, Ranged/Ammo)
Mail shirt (1 Armour).
Pick two pieces of utility gear:
torches and fire lighting kit; as many rations as you need.
Slayer Moves
Regain Momentum
Flesh and blood is less important that
confidence. When you land a successful
Strike, heal the last Harm you took.
Trick Weapon
Your weapon is versatile, enchanted or a
marvel of engineering. Pick two perk/flaw
sets for it: you can switch between the two at a moment’s notice.
Half-damned:
Supernatural Agility: Advantage on dodge, and can leap great distances.
Blood Gifts
Frenz y
When you roll a miss on Strike, you can
mark contamination to immediately
make another Strike.
Lupine
Your teeth and fingernails gain a keen
edge. You always have access to them, as a
weapon with Piercing/Close.
Burning Blood
Your blood burns as it leaves your body.
You may mark contamination to create
a wall of fire most monsters won’t
willingly cross.
Voice of Command
When an Adversary is bearing down on an
ally, you can mark contamination to force
them to target you instead.
Death Move
As the final blow comes down you choose
not to defend yourself, instead using
your attacker’s momentum to drive
your weapon home. Now it’s lodged in
them, slowing them down and creating
a weakness your allies can use to take
revenge. Until the embedded weapon
is used as an Opening, your allies take
advantage on Dodge and Confront.
Context for Zalan Refuge: The Hog's End - A tavern run by Birger , a burly man in his 60's with a walrus-like mustache and one bad eye, who has ties to the Keepers of the Flame. Drive: Prepared from an early age to "stop" the Castle before its corruption spreads. Breach:A high wall and a knotted rope.
Gnosis Spoils
Your bloodline works to heal the wounds left in this community by the castle.
Name an alliance you've made, and get advantage when you call on it for Reinforcements.
Aella's work to purge corruption from Europe earned her quite a few followers. After she disappeared, they formed their own vigilance group- who to this day still holds the Paladin in some reverence.
*will expand on this a bit, but wanted to get things moving <_<
Egos on
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
The Hidden Hand
Refuge: The manor of Graf Torok, a mysterious Hungarian nobleman.
Drive: Extraction of a relic of The Castle's previous incarnation.
Breach: Ancient, forgotten sections of the castle lost to history... but not to the Society.
@Egos, you want to make up a treasure to hunt or should I?
Peter, The Golden Signals
Refuge: The Carmelite Monastery
Drive: Raised to heal, Peter ventures to the castle to try and redeem those who might have fallen into corruption's embrace
Breach: A side gate, an old forgotten servant's entrance, painstakingly found and cleared to allow entrance
And so, several explorers gathered. The Castle had not truly manifested in reality yet, but it's presence weighed heavily as they drew closer to the Hungarian Border. They had time, but not much.
Peter, a healer from the Golden Signal had heard tales of a new Christendom rising near Lons-on-Dale, and had been dispatched a nearby monastery which the order was on good terms with. Rumors were spreading wide of a King in the East promising to help hold the Holy Land and the Temple he had risen.
Zalan, a convert to the Keepers of the Holy Flame with a unique gift, knew it was his destiny to stop the Castle when it encroached once more. The Unseen had told him so. It was whispered of a garden, wild and untamed, and how to scale it's wall.
Gergo, a treasure hunter in service to the Society, had been retained by the Graf Torok to seek the Castle's ruins and recover a lost relic; Agrippa's Skull. He was to be paid handsomely for his trouble. The Society provided an old set of maps which purported to lead into an ancient vault.
Rachel of Lons-on-Dale felt the tug all her people did, but in a most weighty way. One night, the town was roused as a conflagration caught in the church yard. Her Grandmother Amelia's grave had combusted open, with a cooling metal ladder leading down into it's depths. With more of the townsfolks vanishing night by night, it could only mean the return of their darkest secret....
Feel free to choose a refuge to meet and establish your characters, and agree on an intial breach to use
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
I don't think the particular breach matters too much to be honest, beyond what refuge makes a good meeting spot both for the story and for any refuge powers before we enter
I don't think the particular breach matters too much to be honest, beyond what refuge makes a good meeting spot both for the story and for any refuge powers before we enter
yep, but if I were a vampire slayer I'd totally follow the maps .
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
edited March 2019
Prior to accessing the Castle, Gergo will consult with the Graf Torok and his agents to find out what the Society's members can tell him about what they're walking into...
Geth roll 2d6+1 for Reinforcements
I believe I'm entitled to 2, thanks to our Web of Influence, and though I'd be happy to snake another relic, let's hear rumors about the Grave's acoltye and the Ruins' acolyte, please.
I’ll give you the double info this time, but generally with the options, you’re supposed to only pick each option once per roll, at least as far as I know.
A group of bandits, fleeing justice, sought refuge in Amelia’s Grave. Torok’s retainers tracked down but one survivor that journey. Once plied with drink, his tongue loosened to a tale of monsters beneath the earth, led by a priest of dark majesty who claimed to be the voice for the King in the East. The bandit seemed frightened this priest would find him, no matter where he hid.
Through correspondence with the Society, Gergo also learns that something of a shadow war has been occurring between Daedalus and another group called the Order of the Golden Hand. A captured agent confesses during interrogation that their leader demands pieces of power and wealth from all over the world, and already possesses at least one divine artifact, claiming it for a greater power.
Zalan and Peter may also take prep actions if they wish, but the Regent will not wait much longer. If The Castle is not entered by the end of the day Friday, then the Regent’s clock will advance by 1.
"Go down, kick ass, and set yourselves up as gods, that's our Prime Directive!"
Peter had found Rachel by accident. Both had been out pursuing a rather sinister shade that had been spawned when a local witch had drawn on powers she couldn't control. Rachel had been injured when a wall collapsed on top of her, and Peter helped to heal her back to health. The Masked Healer said little, but around Rachel he was slowly able to open up, building a friendship that Peter didn't experience with others, as detached as he tended to be.
Rachel's fingers drummed impatiently on the head of her hammer.
The fortune-seekers had directed her to wait at this guardtower on the outskirts of nowhere.
As much as the town owed this group of shadowy financiers, she was well aware of the troubles her folk were suffering back home.
It seemed a bit of an insult that the elders then had sent her away to complete the terms of a decade-old deal.
Sitting at a, recently vacated, old wooden table, Rachel continued to study the activity happening around her.
Scholars were hastily shifting paperwork to and from the temporary shelves pushed and stacked against the standard guardpost stonework.
They appeared to be attempting to find space for the pile of books and curios that had been occupying the table before her.
Rachel had not yet spied a single guard.
Letting out a soft sigh, she wondered how these bookish people could hope to help push back the darkness once more.
Perhaps they were relying entirely on the town to do that?
Rachel downed the last of her cup.
At least they had reasonable wine.
That Night
Zalan laid on a cot, his eyes wide open. The room he found himself in was cramped with only enough room to maneuver from the entrance to the cot. There was a small table to his side, on it a piece of parchment and a still burning candle which cast a light on the nearby wall. Zalan looked to the wall to see the shadows dancing irregularly around the fringes of the light that the candle cast. He turned away and gulped.
Closing his eyes momentarily and then rubbing them with his hand; he opened them again and turned back to the light - now seeing nothing irregular. He sighed and wondered if his compatriots were as restless as he was.
Peter entered the guard tower silently, taking care to enter slowly enough that he wouldn't surprise anyone who had arrived before him. The Medic had a tendency towards silence, the mask covering the bottom half of his face emphasizing that fact. His mallet resting on his shoulder, Peter nodded towards Rachel, who seemed to be the only other one who had arrived. The two of them had worked together before successfully, and Peter was at least content that she was capable for a fight like this.
The others who were meant to join them still had to prove that, but The Medic was true to his name. He would patch them up, get them back into the fight, and together they would clear the corruption of this place once again.
Posts
Iron -1
Glass 1
Sulphur 0
Mercury 1
[Corruption: 1/3]
Looks: Masculine, Spindly, Hungarian
Covenants: One of you nursed the other back to health (with Peter; Gergo was caught in a mine collapse and badly injured by the time he dug himself free), You're hunting down a lost treasure together (w/ Egos)
Gear: Conveniently-Available Lanterns (Lingering, Thrown), an old map (sacrifice for 2 Travel the Labyrinth hold), chalk paints and dyes to mark paths, as many rations as necessary.
Moves: True Sight (You can always recognize an illusion or deception, advantage on See Clear rolls), Reshape Chaos (Travel the Labyrinth hold can be spent for additional effects)
Death Move: Either give the rest of the team permanent advantage on Travel the Labyrinth this generation, or lock the Regent and Acolytes into their wards for good.
The lanterns are a weapon. Got it.
Captain is more...like a walking team buff
There are definite advantages to all of them.
Gnosis Spoils
Your bloodline works to heal the wounds
left in this community by the castle.
Name an alliance you've made, and
get advantage when you call on it
for Reinforcements.
Raphael made sure to send The Golden Signal back to Hungary as soon as possible after the Castle disappeared. Due to their efforts to help those displaced where the Castle had been, they gained the appreciation of the hunting guild that had formed in the area. Originally a collection of those who would seek out food for their village/for selling, they had morphed into a group of danger-ignoring monster hunters who attempted to fight the Castle's corruption on their own (with varying levels of success)
Let's say his crippled leg didn't stop him from smuggling several occult tomes, other rare books, and arcane equipment out of the Castle before his emergence in the aftermath of the battle with Avaloc, and the price of their resale to other Society members funded his life as a reclusive scholar and supported the development of a number of mining craft-guilds throughout the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, and the scattered hinterlands of the Byzantine Empire...
Iron ±1 Glass ±0 Sulphur +1 Mercury -1
Looks:Masculine, lithe , Caucasian
Bound to a Revenant
Gear:
Covenants:
Hunting for a Lost Treasure with Gergo (TBD). One of you is teaching the other to fight (with discrider).
Moves:
Your spirit has its own weapon: give it a perk and a flaw. When the spirit fights, roll+Sulphur to Strike and Face the Horde. If you have Astral Projection, the spirit can fight while you take independent action
Blood Gifts:
Death Move:
fight for your soul. Pick one:
• You come back to life: you're immune to
harm, but die at the end of the fight.
• The spirit vows to continue your
mission, aiding the other explorers.
• Heal fully, but be damned. From then
on, mark contamination instead of
taking harm.
Stats
Iron +2 Glass ±0 Sulphur ±0 Mercury -1
Looks: Lithe, bound leathers overlapping a chainmail inner, a face set in stone.
Refuge: The town of Lons-on-Dale itself
Breach: A grandmother's opened smouldering grave
Drive: To push the darkness back from inside the town
Covenants:
Rachel and Peter are long time Monster hunting pals (increase covenant when protecting each other, decrease when you embrace corruption (assuming willing corrupting here, not sure how this works))
Gergo had come to Lons-on-Dale for training, given the large standing army, or at least sizeable proportion of guards and police that the town maintained at all times.
The town on its part happily accepted the Bonded, as one marked much as it's own.
Rachel was assigned to mentor the Hero, having exceeded her peers in experience, and also having used similar weaponry.
Gear:
Compound Hammer (Hefty/Close, Ranged/Ammo)
Mail shirt (1 Armour).
Pick two pieces of utility gear:
torches and fire lighting kit; as many rations as you need.
Slayer Moves
Regain Momentum
Flesh and blood is less important that
confidence. When you land a successful
Strike, heal the last Harm you took.
Trick Weapon
Your weapon is versatile, enchanted or a
marvel of engineering. Pick two perk/flaw
sets for it: you can switch between the two at a moment’s notice.
Half-damned:
Supernatural Agility: Advantage on dodge, and can leap great distances.
Frenz y
When you roll a miss on Strike, you can
mark contamination to immediately
make another Strike.
Lupine
Your teeth and fingernails gain a keen
edge. You always have access to them, as a
weapon with Piercing/Close.
Burning Blood
Your blood burns as it leaves your body.
You may mark contamination to create
a wall of fire most monsters won’t
willingly cross.
Voice of Command
When an Adversary is bearing down on an
ally, you can mark contamination to force
them to target you instead.
Death Move
As the final blow comes down you choose
not to defend yourself, instead using
your attacker’s momentum to drive
your weapon home. Now it’s lodged in
them, slowing them down and creating
a weakness your allies can use to take
revenge. Until the embedded weapon
is used as an Opening, your allies take
advantage on Dodge and Confront.
Refuge: The Hog's End - A tavern run by Birger , a burly man in his 60's with a walrus-like mustache and one bad eye, who has ties to the Keepers of the Flame.
Drive: Prepared from an early age to "stop" the Castle before its corruption spreads.
Breach:A high wall and a knotted rope.
Gnosis Spoils
Name an alliance you've made, and get advantage when you call on it for Reinforcements.
Aella's work to purge corruption from Europe earned her quite a few followers. After she disappeared, they formed their own vigilance group- who to this day still holds the Paladin in some reverence.
*will expand on this a bit, but wanted to get things moving <_<
Refuge: The Carmelite Monastery
Drive: Raised to heal, Peter ventures to the castle to try and redeem those who might have fallen into corruption's embrace
Breach: A side gate, an old forgotten servant's entrance, painstakingly found and cleared to allow entrance
Peter, a healer from the Golden Signal had heard tales of a new Christendom rising near Lons-on-Dale, and had been dispatched a nearby monastery which the order was on good terms with. Rumors were spreading wide of a King in the East promising to help hold the Holy Land and the Temple he had risen.
Zalan, a convert to the Keepers of the Holy Flame with a unique gift, knew it was his destiny to stop the Castle when it encroached once more. The Unseen had told him so. It was whispered of a garden, wild and untamed, and how to scale it's wall.
Gergo, a treasure hunter in service to the Society, had been retained by the Graf Torok to seek the Castle's ruins and recover a lost relic; Agrippa's Skull. He was to be paid handsomely for his trouble. The Society provided an old set of maps which purported to lead into an ancient vault.
Rachel of Lons-on-Dale felt the tug all her people did, but in a most weighty way. One night, the town was roused as a conflagration caught in the church yard. Her Grandmother Amelia's grave had combusted open, with a cooling metal ladder leading down into it's depths. With more of the townsfolks vanishing night by night, it could only mean the return of their darkest secret....
Also, if we're doing that, probably need to meet at Lons-on-Dale or possibly the Tavern if there was a "don't worry the townsfolk" goal in mind
Random stuff for context:
Graf Torok is a vassal of Ottokar III, Margrave of Styria, who is based in Graz. Torok oversees land closer to the Hungarian border.
It's Herod Agrippa's skull, to be a little more specific.
Map of Hungary in 1190
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Hungary#/media/File:Europe_mediterranean_1190_cropped.jpg
Geth roll 2d6 for Lons-on-Dale forward party
1-hold from residents who have already gone down the ladder
Geth roll 2d6+1 for Reinforcements
A group of bandits, fleeing justice, sought refuge in Amelia’s Grave. Torok’s retainers tracked down but one survivor that journey. Once plied with drink, his tongue loosened to a tale of monsters beneath the earth, led by a priest of dark majesty who claimed to be the voice for the King in the East. The bandit seemed frightened this priest would find him, no matter where he hid.
Through correspondence with the Society, Gergo also learns that something of a shadow war has been occurring between Daedalus and another group called the Order of the Golden Hand. A captured agent confesses during interrogation that their leader demands pieces of power and wealth from all over the world, and already possesses at least one divine artifact, claiming it for a greater power.
Peter had found Rachel by accident. Both had been out pursuing a rather sinister shade that had been spawned when a local witch had drawn on powers she couldn't control. Rachel had been injured when a wall collapsed on top of her, and Peter helped to heal her back to health. The Masked Healer said little, but around Rachel he was slowly able to open up, building a friendship that Peter didn't experience with others, as detached as he tended to be.
The fortune-seekers had directed her to wait at this guardtower on the outskirts of nowhere.
As much as the town owed this group of shadowy financiers, she was well aware of the troubles her folk were suffering back home.
It seemed a bit of an insult that the elders then had sent her away to complete the terms of a decade-old deal.
Sitting at a, recently vacated, old wooden table, Rachel continued to study the activity happening around her.
Scholars were hastily shifting paperwork to and from the temporary shelves pushed and stacked against the standard guardpost stonework.
They appeared to be attempting to find space for the pile of books and curios that had been occupying the table before her.
Rachel had not yet spied a single guard.
Letting out a soft sigh, she wondered how these bookish people could hope to help push back the darkness once more.
Perhaps they were relying entirely on the town to do that?
Rachel downed the last of her cup.
At least they had reasonable wine.
Zalan laid on a cot, his eyes wide open. The room he found himself in was cramped with only enough room to maneuver from the entrance to the cot. There was a small table to his side, on it a piece of parchment and a still burning candle which cast a light on the nearby wall. Zalan looked to the wall to see the shadows dancing irregularly around the fringes of the light that the candle cast. He turned away and gulped.
Closing his eyes momentarily and then rubbing them with his hand; he opened them again and turned back to the light - now seeing nothing irregular. He sighed and wondered if his compatriots were as restless as he was.
Rachel was waiting in the Hand's refuge above, waiting to head into the Ruins
The others who were meant to join them still had to prove that, but The Medic was true to his name. He would patch them up, get them back into the fight, and together they would clear the corruption of this place once again.