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Iron Gods (Closed)

Started by Dakkon, February 12, 2015, 01:34:57 AM

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Dakkon

Numeria. A wasteland on the banks of the Sellen River that is best now for these as trying to fleece every last coin off of the Crusaders heading north to fight the Worldwound. A land crushed under the heel of the Technic League, with every town and city forced into crippling taxation.

A land soon to be know for its Iron Gods.



The town of Torch has built itself on its namesake, a purple fire that burns hot enough to all smiths to work the region's rare skymetal. When the flame atop the hill goes out, everyone starts to worry. Without the flame and the skymetal, no one will be able to pay their taxes. When the beloved Town Councillor and wizard, Khonnir Baine, vanishes with his second expedition under the Black Hill to try and reignite the flame, worry threatens to become fullblown panic. The rest of the Council has put out a 4000 gold bounty for any group who can return his body, and Khonnir's 19-year old adopted daugher, Val, has offered a scroll of resurrection to anyone who can return her father alive and has offered her father's tavern as a base of operation for anyone mounting a rescue operation. 

All could be for naught, of course, if Torch's flame does not return. On his first expedition, Baine found a strange construct, part man, part spider, like so many scattered across the wastes. He feared something might been hidden under the town that is only now waking up.

Hoping to help the town, and hearing that another group has already entered the mound, you seek out Val to see if you can lend your aid...

As one of our players seems to have lost interest in this game, we are looking for a new player to join us playing an arcane character. The game is already in progress, but it still extremely early on, and a new PC can easily be added in.

Iron Gods Player's Guide: Found here. Please make sure you download it and read it, there is important information there, and its free.
Setting: Golorian - Numeria.
Genre: Science Fantasy. Expect laser guns to be shooting and chainswords revving right along side of the classic fireballs and battle axes.
Number of Players: We are looking for one more player. Currently we have an oracle, a bard, and will be gaining either a monk or slayer as one of the players retools his character.
Level: 1st
Character Age: 21+, or racial equivalent
Posting Rate: I don't expect daily posts, since I know few people who can keep that rate up, however if you are gone 72 hours without posting in the game thread with no prior notice, I'll be checking in via PM. If that's going unanswered, or happening multiple times, I'll be opening the game back up to someone who can post more regularly (much like this). I don't want to be a hardass, but that's what it takes to keep forum games going I'm afraid.
Character selection: Once the first character sheet gets posted, I will leave this topic open for one week, then select a character that I and the other characters think will be an appropriate fit with the group.

The Fluff

Rating: Exotic, Bondage
Alignment: Iron Gods does no presuppose any alignment, so this game will be open to all of them With that said, everyone in the group need to be able to get along. Asshole evil, preachy good, lawful templar, and chaotic jerk characters should be avoided. I’m uncomfortable running a party that is south of neutral, however, so please take that into account. There can be a token evil teammate, but I prefer stories that involve you (usually) being heroes.
Background: Iron Gods starts with a few assumptions. The entire first story takes place in the town of Torch, and starts with a party already formed, so after character selection we will do a bit of a team build to establish connections between characters. The best types of backgrounds will be of characters from Torch itself, travellers who regularly pass through the town and have some connection to it. Others could exist, but are less likely, although I bet a kind-hearted crusader may work well too. 
Personality: As I said above, your character needs to be trusting enough to work with others without trying to screw them over (… screw them on the other hand…). Keep a game cohesive on the boards is hard enough with characters getting sarcastic with one another. Likewise, I respectfully ask people to avoid "lone-wolf" or "reserved" personalities in their characters. Those can and do work for in person games, but on boards, I find that it leads to a lack of participation, intentional or not, when not in combat.
Appearance: As you please, although a picture is required so that I can use it with our maps, although it doesn’t have to be a perfect representation of your character.
Sexuality: Just like in my Wrath of the Righteous game, don’t expect sex to be a given here, you will have to work for it a bit, just like real life. That said, feel free to create NPCs that you already have a connection to in your background! I am open to telling a story with any genders/orientations.
Info about Torch
Coinage: Numeria uses and accepts the standard denominations of coins used in the surrounding countries, but they also have a unique aspect in the silverdisks. These are silvery disks made of strange skymetal alloys and traced with strange geometric patterns. These silverdisks are valued at the same amount as a platinum piece, although rarely someone finds a silverdisk within the Numerian ruins that glows with the light of the candle. These stranger silverdisks are worth ten platinum to those who deal in technology.

The Crunch

Books: All Paizo. Dreamscarred Press' Path of War. Abandoned Art’s Amazing Races and Class Acts. Kobold Press’s Deep Magic. Legendary Game’s Gothic Campaign Compendium. Just give me a heads up for anything outside of Paizo, since I don’t have every last thing memorized. 
Classes: We are currently looking for a character to take the arcanist slot, although I will be open to characters from the Occult Playtest.
Races: The Core Seven, plus Android, Changeling, Dhampir, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Orc, Ratfolk, or Skinwalker.
Ability scores: 20 point buy
Equipment: Average starting gold
Traits: Two traits at character creation, one of which must be a campaign trait from the Player's Guide. It is okay for more than one PC to have the same trait. No more by any means.
Initiative: I use a version of initiative where everyone roles Init, but then the first person to post each round acts at the highest Init rolled, the second at the next highest and so on. I find this speeds up combat considerably.


Where faith, magic, and technology mix, new heroes will be born. Will you be one of them?

Muse

I applied with this gal the last time someone set up a game of Iron Gods.  Perhaps you'll find her pleasing as well? 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B56Nlj5-hHgKfiBNmAHgHZ2q2q72-3Y6yCfgvX51bKQ/edit
A link for all of us who ever had a shouting match with our muse: http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

How to set this Muse ablaze (O/Os)

When the little angel won't appear no matter how many plum blossoms you swirl:  https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=135346.msg16474321#msg16474321 (Major update 5/10/2023)

Dakkon


eBadger

#3
I might need to tweak her for the campaign - at work, haven't had a chance to read the download yet - but let me know if this is on the right track. 


   
Soma Blacktorque, Last Errant of the Great Machine
Skald 1



Appearance:  Soma is young, but her serious mien and intensity of will lends her gravitas even in the grip of uncontrollable emotion.  Her eyes in particular are haunting, usually the black of charcoal but flaring into a brilliant fire orange when her passions are aroused; not an uncommon occurrence, for both rage and desolation are quick to surface.  A gnome, she is barely over 3' tall, thin and wiry but with strength and stamina that reveal her fey heritage. 

In normal dress, Soma tends toward the utilitarian - although she can rarely refuse the small touches of design and material that mark fine craftsmanship.  She denies vehemently, however, that such arise from any sense of vanity. 


Background:  Soma's great-great-grand dame, the matriarch of the clan Onilla Blacktorque was a master of the mechanical in a way perhaps unseen for a half millenium before or since.  Her works were not merely gears, but machines that spanned planes and functioned beyond understanding.  In the final months of her life, as her mind began to break apart from her knowledge, enhanced by injections of celestial elixir, she imagined a machine capable of creating the very stuff of divinity.  While she crumbled and broke, Onilla committed the Schematic of the Great Machine to print for her clan to build after her passing. 

The Blacktorque clan descended beneath the wastelands and began to build.  Each master, as they gained understanding of the Machine, felt their mind begin to fracture and eventually slipped into madness.  They could speak only of beauty, light, and the inevitable perfection of the Machine's function.  Under the guidance of the mad, the Blacktorque labored for five centuries, until at last the Machine was approaching completion. 

Soma spent her childhood apprenticing within the clan, learning engineering and metalworking by working on the Machine.  For years she thought to do nothing more until she began her master work on a journey with her uncle to the violet flames in Torch.  It wasn't the city itself that drew her - it was humble enough, dirty and disturbingly above ground - but the reality of its existence: by the time Soma had finished forging her skymetal hammer she was seized with wanderlust.  So much lay beyond her clan's caves that it was unfathomable she never see more of it. 

Therefore, her apprenticeship complete, Soma joined the Errants: the few Blacktorques who would travel abroad to locate parts, information, or specialists not available within the clan.  Soma was away on one of her first journeys when disaster struck.  Returning to the Machine she found her clan slaughtered - torn asunder by some sort of machinery, a few alien pieces left like a blood trail to hint at some sort of mechanical creature.  At last, lacking any other hope of completing the Machine, Soma opened the Schematic and began to read.  Continuing the work on the Machine, however, depends upon re-igniting the flame or finding a suitable alternative.  The rumors of metal creatures also attracted her attention; Soma tells herself she is above the pettiness of revenge, but it's a lie. 


Personality:  Under the dual blows of tragedy and slow work of the Schematic, Soma has already begun to feel her rationality thinning.  Her rage grows like a force of magic, erupting in the midst of combat as a soul piercing litany of celestial mathematics.  Soma realizes the change, as well as the inevitability of eventual madness and self destruction, but she refuses to abandon her legacy.  Each night she reads another page of the Schematic. 

Those around her, unknowing of her troubles, find Soma melancholy or volatile; she is eloquent and driven but indecipherable.  When able to control her emotion Soma is quiet, humble, polite and formal.  At other times she experiences great joy, hatred or sorrow.  For her part, Soma holds the lives of those who aid her above all else, save only the Machine itself.  They are, after all, her new clan and though they don't know it, they carry on the prophetic word of Onilla toward Divinity. 


Sexuality:  Unknown.  If asked, she notes the superiority of a finely crafted tool to meet one's own needs.  Probably a virgin - at least technically - she realizes the impossibility of a relationship; it would be doomed to a tragic end.  If she were to take a lover it would be forceful and fleeting. 


Sheet:  Link

Dakkon


Dakkon

Okay, just a heads up, the melee character being retooled has been settled upon, it is a female ratfolk slayer.

TheGlyphstone

Does a summoner count as an arcane caster? I can always re-submit Gannack the Half-Man.

Dakkon

Quote from: TheGlyphstone on February 13, 2015, 11:43:36 PM
Does a summoner count as an arcane caster? I can always re-submit Gannack the Half-Man.

Summoner certainly could count.

Rajah

Does it have to be an actual arcane caster, or could something refluffed as an arcane caster (say, a harbinger who thinks he is something like a magus) count for the slot? 
"They say even the proudest spirits can be broken...with love."

-The Beldame (CORALINE by Neil Gaiman)

Dakkon

Quote from: Rajah on February 14, 2015, 01:01:07 AM
Does it have to be an actual arcane caster, or could something refluffed as an arcane caster (say, a harbinger who thinks he is something like a magus) count for the slot?

I'd personally prefer an actual arcane caster, unless you're pulling something from the occult playtest, since the classic party is an assumption by game designers, so I'd have to go through and retwig the treasure rewards for all six modules if we venture too far from that.

TheGlyphstone

#10
Gannak Half-Man
Human Male Summoner (Synthesist) 1
Campaign Trait: Local Ties
Appearance: Dresses as nicely as he can afford, generally in secondhand finery, and generally maintains his personal appearance as best he can. Hides his prosthetic leg inside his trousers, but has to wear his prosthetic arm (much cruder than the image) openly to manipulate it.

When bound to his eidolon, his true form is semi-visible beneath the translucent form of a Kolyarut, a golem-like Inevitable of obsidian clockwork and golden plate armor. The construct-spirit supports him, giving him the strength and agility of a healthy man and bolstering him from harm.

Personality:Exhuberant, cheerful, and  outgoing often to the point of unnerving strangers. Even without his eidolonic shell, his demeanor is of one permanently enthused with what life has to offer, completely at odds with the arthritic and clumsy movements of his crippled limbs. If he cannot simply survive having half his body roasted away by the violet flames, but regain his old dexterity and more via mechanics and magic, he can surely overcome anything else fate might choose to throw in his path. People who succumb to anything less as obstacles aren't worth paying attention to.

Background:
Gannack Smeltman was a smith, son of a smith and grandson of a smith. His grandfather had been a Khellid tribesman with a talent for ironworking, and was among the first to set up shop around the Torch when it burst into the sky. He made his family prosperous in the blacksmithing business, and each son of the line followed in his footsteps. Gannack's own father took up the forge-cart from his father, and Gannack in turn took it from him. But disaster struck not long after Gannack's twentieth birthday; seeking to finish a particularly difficult piece of work, he impetuously lingered just a few moments too long - rushing to avoid the fire, he tripped. He was still alive when others returned to the hilltop, albeit unconscious with his left arm and leg cooked to blackened meat and hideous burns along the flesh of his side. Through luck, will, and the skilled care of the local apothecary Jhestine, Gannack survived, though many thought death would have been more merciful to the former smith.

Unwilling to settle for the life of a beggar, dependent on his family or the charity of others, Gannack set to repairing himself the best he could - knowing tribal lore would not be up to the task, he immersed himself in the world of mechanics and machinery, studying the functions of devices he had forged parts for but never regarded with interest. Even magic was no longer off-limits, and he found access to both types of knowledge in the hands of two men. Khonnir Baine saw in him a fascinating combination of charity case and experimental subject, taking on Gannack's education as a sort of pet project while giving him access to a library's worth of mechanical and engineering texts that were rare treasures in the wildlands of Numeria. Joram Kyte, the elderly priest of Brigh, saw only a horribly injured young man seeking to understand mysteries that were the domain of The Whisper in the Bronze, and let him use the temple's workshop and material free of charge. In the process, he successfully converted Gannack to the worship of Brigh, and oversaw Gannack as he painstakingly crafted limbs of brass and leather to replace the amputated ones of flesh. Controlled by what remained of his shoulder muscles, neck, and hip, the intricate devices restored to Gannack a haunting shadow of mobility; still dependent on a cane, but with the semblance of a man's shape again at last.

Emboldened by this small success, Gannack was nonetheless at the limits of what mundane machinery could provide him, and so he turned to mysticism for further progress. Now he read texts of arcane theory from Khonnir's archives, and prayed regularly to Brigh in the temple for a miracle. And yet again, both sources delivered in their respective fashions; concurrent with studying a book on extraplanar summons, an emissary of Brigh physically manifested in the temple as Gannack was finishing a plea. The inevitable offered him a deal, in reward for his dedication and ingenuity -while Brigh would or could not restore him to true health, by her leave the inevitable could seal a pact with Gannack and bind to him, through his prosthetics, a portion of his spirit. While calling upon the power of this pact, he would bear the kolyarut's strength inside a echo of its form -but the pact could be temporarily severed by injury, and would require time to repair itself. Joram was overjoyed by the revelation; the humble worshipper in his care had become a partial avatar of his goddess. Khonnir was fascinated as well, intrigued by the arcane means and methodology that formed the foundation of this otherwise divine bargain. Gannack himself, though, saw only victory, the deserved reward for persevering against all odds.

Relationships: Gannack is single. His father died years ago, leaving his mother and several children - Gannack's younger brother inherited the family forge when Gannack was injured, and his sister married out into one of the nomadic tribes. Among the townsfolk, most were either repulsed by his hideous injuries, or unnerved by first his home-built prosthetics and then the otherworldly overlay of his eidolon pact. Joram proved to be one of his few steadfast friends, his relationship with Khonnir something halfway between tutor and test subject. The Baine household in general was in general a uncomfortable place for Gannack - while he appreciated Val's attractiveness, the thought of alienating his mentor by making an expression of his interest kept him silent.

Dakkon

Alright, one of the Players just reminded me that he was planning to go into Theurge mode later on (although I don't recall if he's actually using that PrC), so we could take a divine caster as well. So yes, Muse, you can use your previous submission now.

Bibliophilia

Rakah Dreadspawn
Changeling Female Witch Level 1




Background: The neighbors whispered and wondered why Kallah and Urok took in the strange girl child left on the doorstep of their humble home, when the burden would only further stretch their limited resources.  It was true, though, that they had yet to have a child of their own, but the child was clearly not normal and some murmured that she would prove the couple's doom.  Her oddness caused some of the people to avoid her, and some of the children to treat her somewhat roughly, but only until she learned how to use her sharp little fingernails to maximum effect.  Her parents never treated her as anything but their own daughter, though there were times she noticed her mother's gaze on her and thought she sensed something lurking behind those dark eyes.

Rakah grew up strong and beautiful, but somewhat feral.  Her parents lived on the fringes of Torch among the rough-hewn homes where poverty ruled and people had little time or inclination to concern themselves with all the niceties of civilization.  Fighting among the children was only stopped when blood was drawn, and it was rarely, if ever, seen as a reason to enact punishment or censure.  Despite this, Rakah never caused serious injury to those she was forced to fend off with her claws, never maiming the other children out of an innate sense of temperance.  She understood that to return their childish bullying with a permanent scar would be wrong and the idea of seeing a child who'd been blinded in one eye or otherwise mangled over something relatively minor gave her a twinge.  So, she shouldered the blows until she had little other option but to strike back, and she found that, over time, the children ceased to bother her...or talk to her at all.

Her loneliness and unhappiness drove her to spend a large portion of her time outside of the city, where she could forget about her troubled life and enjoy the peace of the barren landscape that surrounded the town.  It was during one of these exploratory walks that she first came across Ndidilatwangurlop, or Didi for short.  At first, the skunk merely followed her at a distance, and she didn't notice, but once she realized it was there she grew curious about its unusual actions.  Sometimes animals grew sick and this made them behave strangely, but the skunk wasn't aggressive and it kept its distance at first.  Then, as time went on, it grew bolder and openly trundled nearby as she roamed through the unforgiving lands around Torch.  Finally, one night it walked right up and settled against her side as she lay on the ground staring up at the stars.  After that, it always awaited her when she left Torch to wander the wilds, and Rakah felt that for the first time she had a friend.

Of course, the first time the skunk spoke to her, she realized that this was no normal animal and Didi informed her that she was no ordinary girl.  Rakah moved out of her parent's home at the age of fourteen and began to live in the wilds she'd loved since she was a child.  In a small shack outside of Torch, she began to discover the powers conferred upon her by her relationship with Didi, and whatever it was that had led the beast to her.  Her longing to know where she'd come from began as gradually as her relationship with the skunk, sneaking upon her in the moments before sleep, and while she lay beneath the stars imagining worlds beyond.  Didi did not know, or would not reveal, the origins of Rakah's birth, or the reason she'd been chosen for the powers she, Didi, facilitated.  As a result, Rakah began to wonder if she was even from Numeria...or, indeed, Golarion at all.

When, on one of her infrequent visits to town to resupply, she learned of the failed expedition and discoveries made beneath Torch, a fire was ignited within her.  Perhaps in those depths there was some truth about her waiting to be discovered.  If she was not from Golarion, and if her connection to Didi came from beyond, then there might be hints to this in the strange constructs and writings that lurked below her home.  So, she found her way to Val and volunteered to join the search for her father, hoping to settle the many mysteries that shadowed her life.

Personality: Despite living like a recluse, Rakah is not introverted or anti-social.  She welcomes the company of others, as long as they do not vex her with their prejudices or treat her with ill-will.  There's a notable lack of refinement to her manners and her social skills have become quite rusty after so long spent with only the company of her familiar, but she has an even temper and open curiosity about others.  She is fiercely protective of Didi, and by association, protective of others whom she views as allies.

Appearance:  Rakah's beauty is feral.  Her eyes, one silver as moonlight and the other as clear blue as a summer morning, hold secrets and questions which never pass her lips.  Her dusky skin is noticeably paler than that of other Kellids, and she stands taller than most women of her people.  Her long hair, shorn short on one side, is so dark that it shines with a blue cast and tumbles carelessly across her face and down her back.  She bears the marks of a life lived in poverty and violence, but her muscles are lean and well-honed from years spent on her own in the wild.

Familiar
Ndidilatwangurlop, Didi
Skunk Familiar (Sage Archetype)











Dakkon

Since we haven't had any new posts of interest in the last five days, and both I and the players want to get things rolling. I'm going to call this one early.

Welcome aboard Bibliophilia playing Rakah Dreadspawn! Please post your character sheet in our OCC thread, and I'll get a post going to introduce you in game!