13th Age: Dark Empire (Revised setting ideas)

Started by eternaldarkness, June 18, 2015, 03:19:23 AM

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ShadowFox89

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Katherine Kazuoto is a lesson in contradictions. She is a monk, yet her vows encourage sexual activity. She hails from the Jade Empire, yet the brilliant ivory horns upon her brow and the red tail poking out from just above her butt show she is indeed not a Holy One, but quiet the opposite.

Daughter of the daemon prince Graz'zt, Katherine inherited her father's lust. It was the tantric monks of the Four Winds Temple, however, who helped teach her to channel that energy into something more positive. Despite her infernal heritage, Katherine has little interest in death and destruction. Indeed, more to the chaotic nature of her blood does she side. And it is that chaotic nature that compels her to spit in the face of her father's plans whenever she is able, going so far as to take vows of vengeance against the daemonic forces of the world.

Born to a mortal mother, a priestess of incredible power who was captured and raped by Graz'zt, Katherine escaped being raised directly by her father when a group of daring heroes rescued the priestess. Her mother was taken to the Four Winds Temple, where the wards and protections of the holy grounds ensured fiendish forces could never enter.

Not that that meant Kat never left the temple. Thanks to her fiendish heritage.... and the encouragement of the tantric sect of monks from the temple, Katherine often ventured into the nearby towns and villages to sate her hunger for the pleasures of the flesh. Male, female, elf, orc, human, it didn't matter to her. Her blood meant she aged slower and would live longer than most, so why not enjoy it?

But her peaceful days would not last too long. During one of her visits to a satellite temple, the Temple of the Southern Gale, a fierce storm struck. A dark, unholy tempest, with lightning that flashed green and rain of blood. Katherine could feel the evil in the air, it tasted all too familiar and almost familial to her. Demons by the dozens fells upon the temple. Katherine aided the monks as best she could, but eventually the defenders were overwhelmed. They retreated to the inner sanctum, and there performed a ritual. It teleported Katherine away from the temple, but had no guidance to it.

She awoke, unknown as to how much time had passed and to where she had landed. But Kat knew one thing, she had to return to the Temple and warn the monks.
Call me Shadow
My A/A

schnookums

Bah...it's easy to find many foxgirl or kitsune pics...but finding just the right one is proving to be much harder then I thought it would be.

ShadowFox89

 Maybe a physical description first?
Call me Shadow
My A/A

Galick

Room for one more, maybe? I can have a character concept in about 14 hours after I get back from work.

eternaldarkness

Quote from: Galick on July 18, 2015, 03:50:52 AM
Room for one more, maybe? I can have a character concept in about 14 hours after I get back from work.

Yep. One player dropped,  so we have a spot open.

ShadowFox89

Call me Shadow
My A/A

schnookums

Family is in town for vacation, I had hoped to have been done prior to this but at felt I should do the basic background.

Nanako
It seemed like strange happenstance that lead to Nanoko's discovery. A villager out foraging had heard the unmistakable cry of an infant. Upon searching he discovered the strangest of sights: a fox den, with newly whelped cubs...and a humanoid child. A girl, bearing the features of both humans and foxes. Deciding that such a strange child should be brought amongst the humans the villager took the girl to raise as his own. As she grew it became clear she had a strange power about her, something that could almost be described as preternatural luck. She brought fortune to the village and was celebrated greatly...but nothing of this sort could last. And when the luck turned the blame was placed directly on her shoulders. It soon became unbearable and she found herself fleeing. For years she wandered, sometimes welcomed but only for her power, and soon cast aside when the "luck" ran out. Growing to adulthood she finally grasped the essence behind this "luck", a chaotic magic that she has been instinctively using. It was not a magic that could be mastered, but she managed to gain enough control that the magic would work only at her will and not out of her subconscious. She had not been made so bitter as to eschew helping others...but now help would only be given on her terms. 

eternaldarkness

Closed for now due to lack of interest.

schnookums


ShadowFox89

Call me Shadow
My A/A

eternaldarkness

I'm not completely abandoning the idea, but I would like at least one more player. I'll revise and revisit it later.

schnookums

Yay! It's rare not only to find someone who matches my interests but also references one of my favorite games of all time

eternaldarkness

#37
My revised setting. I'm going to let the players decide beforehand whether they want to start as rebels, agents of Midgard, freelance adventurers or something else. I'm leaving it open for all previously-listed race and class choices, and I'll set a deadline of Monday to express interest and submit characters.  I'll start then whether I have one player or ten.

The best part is you don't need to write a ten-page background, just a few paragraphs or less will suffice, as long as you feel it adequately conveys who your character is. This being 13th Age, you can invent and alter the setting as-needed to accommodate your background and your Backgrounds (note the difference).

When making your characters please be descriptive, be interesting, be over-the-top. Don't be afraid to go for broke - this is the setting to do big things in. Use the icons and what little information I've given, and build on it, or even contradict it if you like.



Icons
the Archmage
Heironymus Brand is technically the imperial archmage and an ally of the High King, but it is a poorly-kept secret that the Archmage is less than thrilled with the High King's new policies and has distanced himself from his monarchs inner circle, rarely appearing at imperial functions and preferring to remain in his tower in Horizon pursuing the High Arcana rather than engaging in politics. Still, the archmage knows that an orderly and well-run kingdom is more conducive to the scholarly pursuits than a chaotic mess, and the High King doesn't dare antagonize the powerful wizard for fear of losing the crucial magical wards and High Arcana that keep nature firmly under the empires yoke. The High King knows that the Archmage is secretly assisting the Crusaders forces in defeating the empire - he just can't do anything about it.

the Crusader
The champion of the Dark Gods seems an unlikely hero, but it comes as no surprise that he defected from the kings service along with his sizeable armies when the Priestess came to power and declared all followers of the dark gods to be heretics, and even less surprising considering that he is madly in love with the now-enslaved Elf Queen  Sidera, and he is one of the High King's deadliest enemies.

the Diabolist
Shak-ti is the pre-eminent expert on infernal magics, having traded her soul and many other even dearer things to the powers of Hell in exchange for her great power. Rumor has it that the Diabolist can give you anything your heart desires if you are willing to pay the price, though reaching her or her agents can be both difficult and dangerous.

the Dwarf King
Tyr Hammerhand is the King under the Mountain, the ruler of all Dwarves in Midgard and a powerful warrior and keen general. His kingdoms resources are inexhaustible and his subterranean strongholds and mountain citadels seemingly unassailable. His people, while still officially allies of the kingdom of Midgard, have grown cold and distant toward their human neighbors, and there are unsubstantiated rumors that the dwarves are secretly aiding elements of the resistance against the High Kings forces.

the Elf Queen
Queen Sidera is the High Kings wife, and some say his slave, turned evil when her Dark Elves rose to power in the Court of Stars at the beginning of the 12th Age. She is the emperors right hand, and her dark elf spies are feared throughout the land for their cruelty and zealous pursuit of enemies of the queen and the kingdom as a whole.

the High King
Jori Dragonsbane is the High King of Midgard and a real villain's villain, having gained the throne by murdering his parents and siblings to ensure his rule, enslaving the dragons and two-thirds of the Elven race, and making his people's ancient allies the dwarves become more politically distant than they have been since the late tenth age.

the Great Gold Wyrm
Driven mad by despair and countless ages of consuming demonic essence, the Great Gold Wyrm has taken up residence in a hellhole called Oblivions Maw at the mouth of the Abyss and become a demon-devouring nightmare, sending forth his corrupted Hell Knights to scour all life from the land in the belief that the only way to save the world is to destroy it utterly.

the High Druid
From the deepest forests and hidden wilderness sanctuaries, the followers of the High Druid Tio Aman wage a brutal guerilla war against the kingdom of Midgard and its allies, emerging from the forests to strike before retreating once more into the wilds. Many people consider the High druid to be the leader of the rebellion against the High Kings new tyrannical regime, and common people from all walks of life have flocked to the green banner in search of freedom and a new way to live. The enmity between the High Druid and the Archmage is legendary, as the two are magic-users of immense power with very opposed ideologies - the Archmage controls nature and forces it to conform to patterns beneficial to the kingdom as a whole, while the High Druid uses his magic to destroy the established order and bring about a world where nature is free and untamed, which does not sit well with the Archmage.

the Lich King
Hakon Dragonsbane is the lord of the dead and an undead tyrant who was the previous ruler of the Kingdom of Midgard, once known as the Wizard King. He was knocked off of his throne and forced to retreat to his island stronghold, where he has been biding his time and building his unholy forces, awaiting the day when he could strike back at those who stole the kingdom he believes is rightfully his and make the orcish hordes pay for their role in his downfall.

the Orc Lord
With the balance of power shifted in Midgard, the Orc Lord sees an opportunity to finally bring his ravening hordes to bear and topple the corrupt civilization once and for all, and with the High King and Elf Queen both surrounded by enemies he has a chance to settle an ancient greivance with the elves as well.

the Priestess
Keket Aman was once a servant of light, and while she is still holds to her faith in the gods of light and remains pious and incorruptible, she has been sized by madness and become a ruthless inquisitor who seeks out enemies of Midgard and followers of 'false' gods alike, dealing out harsh punishments to those she deems sinners or heretics, and reserving a special hatred for followers of her brother Tio.

the Prince of Shadows
As always, the legendary thief known as the Prince of Shadows remains aloof from the events around him, his motives mysterious and his identity unknown. Some people even believe that there is no such being as the Prince of Shadows.

the Three
The Three used to be considered villains by default, but with the Great Gold Wyrm falling into madness and their hated enemies The High King and the Elf Queen turned tyrants they seized the opportunity set before them and rallied the members of their kind who yet remain free against the High King, declaring the Blue's city of Drakkenhall a free and independent city-state and allying with the Dwarf King and the High Druid to fight back against the empire and finally gain vengeance for the enslavement of their kind and the death of the White, free the Green from the Elf Queens clutches, and break the spells used to bind their kin into the High Kings service.

The Red dragon Cthur is a living engine of destruction.
The Blue dragon Ula is a sorceress, perhaps even the  original mother of all sorcery.
The Black dragon Xela is queen of shadows and assassins.

ShadowFox89

 Do I need to make an edit to Kat's history?
Call me Shadow
My A/A

eternaldarkness

Quote from: ShadowFox89 on July 28, 2015, 09:33:13 PM
Do I need to make an edit to Kat's history?

Nope, not unless you want to. Soon as I get character sheets and some decisions on what you want to do from you and Schnookums I may just start early.

eternaldarkness

A note about assigning Icons: when you pick your icon relationships, you are essentially telling me what elements you want to see most prominently in the story, not necessarily how important that icon is to your character. You could be the High Kings only child, but by taking all your icon points with the Archmage you are telling me 'Dealing with the Archmage is what's important and fun to me'.

Next, I think I'll ease the process of getting the game going by narrowing the plot a bit: You pc-types will initially be working for the Lich King. Seems like that can't possibly be a good thing, right? Well as it turns out, his missions aren't as unsavory as you'd think: your first mission will be to rescue a young woman from the Orc Lord's slave camps. Why you are being sent to do this is not known to you, but what you do know is that the Lich King is offering you a rather large favor for doing so successfully, and there's certainly nothing objectionable about killing orcs and saving an innocent life - right?

schnookums

I presume my background was acceptable as well?

eternaldarkness

Quote from: schnookums on July 29, 2015, 02:00:05 AM
I presume my background was acceptable as well?

It was quite good and acceptable.

schnookums

Still working on the character, work jerked me around with a new schedule but I should be done by this weekend

eternaldarkness

Travel in the Kingdom of Midgard

Getting from one place to another quickly in Midgard can be tricky at times, but there are a number of ways to do it if you have the money, the connections, and the resources, aside dfrom the usual methods one might expect such as walking, traveling by ship, riding, etc.

Sky Warps/Cloud Koru: Sky Warps are naturally-ocurring phenomena that appear in random locations all over the world, usally at high points rich in magic such as mountain peaks, the tops of very high towers, and windswept valleys. Entering a sky warp will instantly lift you up on magically-empowered winds into the Overworld, where you can then use a Cloud Map, a special type of minor magical item that tracks the movements of Cloud Koru, air-dwelling cousins of the land-based Koru Behemoths, to reach your destination by hitching a ride on the backs of the massive flying beasts to another Sky Warp whereupon you can descend back to Midgard at that warps origin point. Cloud Maps can be purchased at great expense (Around 1,000 gold in most major cities, or less if the map is purchased on the black market), to travel from place to place via moving cloud islands. The High King and other powers of Midgard try to tightly control access to known Sky Warps and Cloud Maps, but some Sky Warps are hidden away in far-flung locations that are not frequented by civilized folk, and many more are completely undiscovered.

Travel via Sky Warp and Cloud Koru is also rather hazardous for the unprepared, as storm giants, air elementals, hostile tribesfolk living on the backs of the Cloud Koru, and other hazards can claim the life of a traveler.

Teleportaion Circles: Available at any Mage's Guild, a teleportation circle can transport a number of people and their belongings from one portal to any other keyed portal across vast distances instantly, but gaining use of a teleportation circle requires that you be a member in good standing of the Royal Mage's Guild and pay a fee of approximately 100 gold per person to cover the costs of maintenance, staffing, and the expensive ritual components required for the cabals of guild mages who run them to activate the portals. There are rumors that certain shady organizations and private individuals have their own teleportation circles as well, and that some can even send travelers to portals they are not keyed to, but noone knows for sure if these rumors are true.

Koru: Koru Behemoths travel not just on and above the land, but below it s well, and those who can first find places to board and then are willing to brave the lightless insides of a subterranean Koru can travel in secrecy by riding along on or inside one of the great beasts' bodies. This is exceptionally dangerous, though, as other passengers tend not to be friendly, and in addition if you do not know or have some way to anticipate the migration patterns of a specific koru you could be stuck inside of or on top of it for a very long time indeed.

schnookums

I'm still not entirely finished...I'm a bit stuck on the backgrounds and picking a feat, and there's number crunching that still needs to be done, but I'm close. I'll post what I have for right now and update it when I finish.

schnookums

#46

Quote: No matter how often I wish to be left alone, fate keeps pulling back in to the thick of things. So maybe I need to teach fate itself to leave me alone..

Race: Kitsune
Class: Chaos Mage
Level: 1
One Unique Thing: Is the only kitsune in the world

Ability Scores
Str: 8 (-1)
Int: 12 (+1)
Dex: 16 (+3)
Wis: 12 (+1)
Con: 12 (+1)
Cha: 18 (+4)

Combat Stats
Init: +3

Basic Melee Attack
At-Will. +0 vs. AC Dagger
Hit: 1d4-1
Miss: Damage equal to your level

Basic Ranged Attack
At-Will. +4 vs. AC
Hit: Weapon + Dexterity Damage
Miss: -

AC: 12 
PD: 12 
MD: 13

HP:  21
Recoveries: 8
Recovery Dice: D6

Backgrounds:

Lived amongst the intelligent beasts: 3
Attuned with Chaos: 5




Icon Relationships:

The Lich King 1 (Positive)
The Orc Lord 1 (Negative)
The Diabolist 1 (Conflicted)

Racial Features

Once per battle when you are targeted by a nearby enemy, make a close attack using your highest ability modifier plus level vs the MD of the attacker. On a hit the target is dazed until the start of their next turn.


Class Features/Talents

Class Features
Arcane Implements
Some campaigns/GMs might decide that chaos magic is actually
divine, but as a default, call it arcane. As a chaos mage, you use
wands and staffs to improve your attacks, not holy symbols.
Common Spell Roster
Unlike wizards and clerics, chaos mages don’t choose the spells
they know. Instead, a chaos mage of a given level can access all
the spells in a category that are their level or lower. That sounds
like it might offer a large number of choices but the reverse is
true: each category only contains two or three options.
The category of spell you’ll cast on your turn isn’t up to you:
it’s random. On the other hand, you get to decide how many of
your resources you’ll use. You have a limited number of daily and
once-per-battle spells, so each turn you must decide whether
now is the time to use one of the powerful spells in the category
you’re casting from or whether you’ll stick with an at-will spell.
You don’t have many different once-per-battle choices.
Those spells are mainly for the attack and defense category,
powerful options that are often available to you

Spell Determination
You use the six stones in the bag to determine the next type of spell
you’ll be able to cast. Each time you draw a stone, leave it out of
the bag until only one stone remains to be drawn, then refill the
bag with all six. In other words, you don’t draw the last stone, but
instead refill the bag when there is only one stone left. (You also
refill the bag at the end of a battle; you’re not required to hold on to
your next available spell after combat or between game sessions.)
There are three frequently occurring moments when you’ll
draw a single stone from the bag to determine the next type of
chaos magic spell you can cast during your next turn:
• When you roll initiative, to set up the spell you can cast your
first turn.
• At the end of each of your turns, to set up the spell you can
cast during your next turn, or with your next action if you get
a standard action somehow before the start of your next turn.
• As required during your turn if you somehow get an extra
standard action (with elven grace, for example).
The next step varies depending on which category of spell you’ve drawn.
Attack: The next chaos mage spell you cast during the battle
must be an attack spell, but you won’t have to choose which spell
you are going to cast until your turn. Use the time before your
turn to figure out which attack spell you want to cast and how to
put yourself in position to make the most of it.
Defense: The next chaos mage spell you cast during the
battle must be a defense spell, but you won’t have to choose
which spell you are going to cast until you take your turn.
Iconic: The next chaos mage spell you cast during the battle
must be an iconic spell, but before you cast it you must determine
which of twelve icons is associated with that spell. If you have one
of the twelve-sided icon dice, roll once to determine the icon whose
power you’ll draw on. The Emperor has nothing to do with chaos, so
if you roll the Emperor, translate that result as the Prince of Shadows.
You could also use one of the 13th Age icon spinner rings from
Crit Success. If you’re using the ring, respin if you get the Emperor.
If you don’t have an icon die or a ring, roll a d12 and use the
table below:
Adventurer Feat: Once per day when you cast an iconic daily
or once-per-battle spell from an icon you have at least a onepoint
relationship with, roll a normal save. If you succeed,
you don’t expend that spell, allowing you to cast it again, or
another daily/once-per-battle spell.
Champion Feat: Once per day when you draw an iconic spell,
before rolling, choose an icon you have at least a one-point
relationship with. The spell you cast next will be from that icon.
Epic Feat: You can use the champion feat power a second time,
but only if you choose an icon that you have at least a twopoint
relationship with.
1: Archmage
2: Crusader
3: Diabolist
4: Dwarf King
5: Elf Queen
6: Great Gold Wyrm
7: High Druid
8: Lich King
9: Orc Lord
10: Priestess
11: Prince of Shadows
12: The Three
Letting you prepare for your next turn ahead of time
is good for you and good for the rest of the table. Use
the time between turns to consider your options and
figure out a rough plan.
Chaos and Forethought
After establishing the icon whose magic/power your spell will
draw from, you can wait to choose which of the icon’s spells you
will cast during your turn. Every icon has at least one at-will spell
and one daily or once-per-battle spell, so you’ll generally have a
choice depending on your level.

Not a Ritual Caster
Not only do chaos mages not know how to cast rituals, they aren’t
allowed to take the Ritual Casting feat. That’s not how chaos
magic rolls.

High Weirdness
There’s something uncanny about chaos mages. Some flaunt
this high weirdness, dressing crazily and carrying themselves
like punk rockers in a Renn Faire world. Other chaos mages
hide their colors, passing themselves off as more-or-less normal
spellcasters until the shock of battle gives them no choice.
Look at the huge table of random psychedelia below. Each
effect, referred to as a “weirdness,” lasts until a new weirdness
occurs or until the end of the battle. Some weirdnesses have
immediate one-time effects, while others have lingering effects,
and many weirdnesses affect everyone in the battle, not just you.
In case you’re wondering, there’s about a 50% chance that a
weirdness will be good for you or your allies. There’s about a 30%
chance that it’s going to be a random effect that will be global
and affect everyone; sometimes that’s good for the PCs, though
more rarely not. There’s a 10% chance that the weirdness will be
cosmetic with no real effect. And finally there’s a 10% chance that
it will be somewhat bad for you or your allies, but not really bad.
As a chaos mage, you don’t have to pay that much attention
to high weirdness unless you want to. If you’re a player who
enjoys the chaos mage’s random mechanics but doesn’t want to
have to deal with frequent bizarre weirdness, that’s fine: ignore
the adventurer feat for this class feature and you’ll only have to
worry about the weirdness effects when an enemy crits you. If
you do want to create random effects in most every battle, then
the adventurer feat is for you.
But first, here’s the basic High Weirdness rule that affects
each chaos mage.
Get critted, roll high weirdness: When an enemy scores
a critical hit against you, you must roll on the High Weirdness
table. Some weirdnesses have immediate effects that only happen
once, but their special effects continue.
Outside of battle, high weirdness effects are usually strange
special effects rather than powerful magical events. In other
words, things are sometimes strange around your chaos mage.
But not all the time, because that would be the new normal, and
therefore predictable.
Standard action to roll a new high weirdness effect: If you
hate the effect you’re experiencing and want to change it, you
can use a standard action to reroll a new effect. We’re not going
to make you burn your standard action and fail to escape the
weirdness you hate so badly, so if you get the same result you’re
presently experiencing, ignore it and roll again.

Talents
Stench of Necromancy
You gain a random spell from the necromancer class. Whenever
you take a full heal-up, randomly choose a necromancer spell of
the highest level you can cast. For the rest of the day, you know this
necromancer spell and can cast it according to its normal usage
pattern—at-will, once per battle, recharge, or daily—when that
option comes up during your chaos mage spellcasting sequence.
If the necromancer spell refers to Intelligence, you can
replace that ability score with references to Charisma

Trace of the Divine
You gain a random spell from the cleric class. Whenever you take
a full heal-up, randomly choose a cleric spell of the highest level
you can cast. For the rest of the day, you know this cleric spell and
can cast it according to its normal usage pattern—at-will, once
per battle, recharge, or daily—when that option comes up during
your chaos mage spellcasting sequence.
If the cleric spell refers to Wisdom, you can replace that
ability score with references to Charisma

Touch of Wizardry
You gain a random spell from the wizard class. Whenever you
take a full heal-up, randomly choose a wizard spell of the highest
level you can cast. For the rest of the day, you know this wizard
spell and can cast it according to its normal usage pattern—atwill,
cyclic, once per battle, recharge, or daily—when that option
comes up during your chaos mage spellcasting sequence.
If the wizard spell refers to Intelligence, you can replace that
ability score with references to Charisma.





Feats



Equipment

Wealth:

Bio
Bio
It seemed like strange happenstance that lead to Nanoko's discovery. A villager out foraging had been forced by circumstances to go far deeper in the forest then he would have liked. To his shock he discovered what appeared to be a human child playing amongst the animals. Well, it appeared to be a human at first until the villager noticed the tail and ears. The girl had the features of both humans and foxes. Deciding that such a strange child should be brought amongst the humans the villager took the girl to raise as his own. Despite being taken from her home she didn't seem to protest or struggle. As she grew it became clear she had a strange power about her, something that could almost be described as preternatural luck. She brought fortune to the village and was celebrated greatly...but nothing of this sort could last. And when the luck turned the blame was placed directly on her shoulders. It soon became unbearable and she found herself fleeing. For years she wandered, sometimes welcomed but only for her power, and soon cast aside when the "luck" ran out. Growing to adulthood she finally grasped the essence behind this "luck", a chaotic magic that she has been instinctively using. It was not a magic that could be mastered, but she managed to gain enough control that the magic would work only at her will and not out of her subconscious. She had not been made so bitter as to eschew helping others...but now help would only be given on her terms. 

eternaldarkness

#47
Don't sweat the feat too much, just pick one that seems cool, like a racial Feat. You can anyways change it later. As for backgrounds, try my method: one background that describes something you did: lived among the beasts is good, raised by sentient animals is better. Pick another background that describes something you can do: as a chaos mage, something that describes your magical powers of their source is a good one. If you need a third, one that describes a connection to some facet of the world is a good one.

Well start as soon as you're done, and others can join later.

schnookums

I'm holding out for the feat for now as I just couldn't find anything I liked (or rather, I did like but I don't qualify because they're champion level feats, like the Fox Form racial feat). I did decide on the 'human but with fox ears/tail' look for her. Actually, the look that caught my eye was something like Horo/Holo from Spice and Wolf, especially with the cloak to conceal her ears/tail. (yes, I know she's a wuff and not a fox but the look still works). I also tweaked my background a bit, made her older when she was found to match the background. I hope this all is alright, let me know if I need to change anything.

Image

Image2

ShadowFox89

 Oh look, it's the Wolf half of Spice and Wolf :P
Call me Shadow
My A/A