Seeking DM for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (D&D 5E)

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Name: Malus "Rexy" Rex
Race/Class: Half Orc Tempest Cleric
Sex/Gender: Male
Age: 29
Sexuality: Rex is polysexual and prefers women, transwomen, futas, and very pretty men
Kinks: O/Os. Some highlights: Flirtation, Romance, Humanoid monsters, Breeding/Breeding Play, Lactation, Unusual Pupils, Nuns, Body Worship, Group Sex (depending on circumstance)
Offs: NonCon, DubCon (unless it's pretty clear all parties are into the act), Pegging/bottoming, Receiving Humiliation, Sexual Competition (unless it's partners trying to make the other(s) cum first), Bathroom Play, Bloodplay,
Maybes: Subbing, S&M

Note: I'm down for kinky stuff happening in downtime or encounters when it feels natural, resulting from flirtations, crushes, seduction and the like. He would not like to be in a position of voyeur at all, but wouldn't mind being watched. Sometimes he finds himself oddly attracted to brutally powerful (even evil-aligned) people as long as they aren't cruel or violent towards him.

Brief Description: Malus Rex (or Rexy to close friends) is a half-orc standing at 6'6, and quite strange by any standards. He is truly touched by the Devourer (or so he claims), giving his once-green skin a blue tinge akin to lightning. Whether or not he is touched, it is the elemental power he dares to wield that alters his otherwise orcish form. The savagery of nature is indelible, it's mark clear to all who see it. And yet once one finds their way past its effects they will find a man whose energy is more akin to a puppy than a lightning storm. He thrives on fun and laughter; love, lust, and companionship. There are darker--even deviant--leanings within him, mostly learned through his years of study with the Church, but he maintains a more cavalier nature than a wild, destructive one.

Background: Rex grew up in a backwater hamlet in the Eldeen Reaches, on a farmland home where one could go all their lives without ever setting foot on a train or experiencing the wonders of magical living. He was a middle child and farmed alongside his parents and siblings until his mid-teens, when he decided that this life so tied to agriculture and nature was Hellishly boring, that his people's longstanding service to the primal forces of this region were not at all for a curious and wandering mind like his, and it was better to take a chance exploring more of the world on his own. So he left, his only goodbye being to his elder brother Dorne who prayed for his success on a venture he himself could never work up the courage for.

He traveled Eastward into Aundair, the "fancypants country" his parents and their people despised. The Reaches had separated from the cities of Aundair to live on their own, but having had enough of solitude, Rex was ready for the wider world. Little did he know how necessary 'fanciness' was in this new nation. He was largely ignored and spat upon in his first weeks there, and so he learned to do what any urchin would do: steal and swindle for a living. He was a quick learner, and the the nice clothing he stole worked in tandem with his folksly farming knowledge to trick many a poor sucker out of their coin.

Unfortunately he was eventually caught, by a noble lady with a hate for thieves, no less. She challenged him to a duel which he'd thought he'd win, given his largeness and strength. The problem was, she was much nimbler than him, and leagues more skilled. She defeated him handily by the time the guards came by to haul him off to prison. And only through a wandering, ashen skinned priest's intervention was he saved .

If only he'd known what that would cost him: a direct trip to an even more backwater town than his home, years of servitude towards nature's primal forces, and a big godsdamned war to top it all off.

But despite it all, the day that he was finally touched--the day he gained the power he now wields--was one of...scary exhilaration.

What was your character doing during the Last War?: Rex served as a medic and when truly needed, a battle cleric. He put his heart and soul into keeping soldiers alive, and yet it was not enough. It would never be enough. War takes its toll, despite ones efforts, and at times his best use was to turn his powers on the enemy. But he doesn't like thinking about any of that! He'd rather relax and enjoy the more flavorful aspects of life. He was asked, after all, to enjoy all the life he had left. And when a friend whose learned and fought beside you makes a dying wish, you have to follow it. Them's the rules.

Why are you on a train to Sharn?: He's supposed to be setting up hidden shrines to the Traveler for a friend to the church, but he only volunteered in order to explore Sharn and meet new and interesting people. He doesn't get out much, at least when not on a mission for the church. Who knows, maybe he'll be able to find one of those life changing quests that are all the rage among adventuring types?

[Blinkin]

Hmmmm... This could get complicated, so very complicated.

Since the backstory is one of both a real girl and a false woman, let me see what I can do to answer the question.

First, I didn't answer the original question about what the characters were doing during the war. Natasha was, as her story goes, busy trying to produce an heir, and spare, for her husband during those days.  she was Probably not allowed to participate physically in the war, but may of been a scribe for her husband and his commanders near the battlefield.

Dasha, on the other hand, would of been acting, in whatever small ways, against those who had caused the death of her family, but unlikely to be on the battlefield so much as sewing disinformation and mischief wherever she could.

On to the question at hand...

The story of Natasha's being pursued by people wanting her, and her baby, if she had one, because she threatens the hold on her dead husband's title. The story is a fraud to cover the very real pursuit of Dasha in the event that anyone ever appeared for her and, hopefully, defend her because of Natasha's situation. That pursuit may well become a factor as she may of, and will likely cause some sort of mischief in her pursuit of revenge. So, Who's actually after her? Probably the assassins, probably.

Clear as mud?

As for how far she would go for her revenge could be a very dark path indeed as she would stop at nothing to achieve it; perferrably in a way that will also humiliate him as well. I could easily see Natasha worming her way in close and into his bed for some time before the time was right.

[Vreski]

Vreski - That's a lot of horse cock in that spoiler. Can't say I'm terribly fond of that style but I'm not the type to kink shame. Only request is that you keep any such images in spoilers if you feel the need to post them for a situation you're in and label them as such and if possible tone down any descriptions of it please.

For the background you've provided we can work out how it can fit into Eberron - With the war going on for a hundred years there would have been a lot of orphanages where Victoria could have ended up, and a lot of conflicts that could have seen the end of her parents as Orcs are more... druidic balance-keepers in this setting.

Do you fancy being from one of the Five Nations?

Thrane is the seat of the Silver Flame religion and the only of the five to be a Theocracy rather than a Monarchy
Karrnath was known to have used a lot of undead soldiers in the Last War and is currently a dictatorship
Breland is a mix of open farmland, woodland, and sprawling metropolises
Aundair is full of farmland but also happens to be a seat of arcane learning which includes the University of Wynarn and the floating city of Arcanix.
Cyre is Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Movie, the end of the Last War was brought about by its complete and total destruction four years ago. As no living thing can survive there (probably) it's currently the stronghold of the Lord of Blades and his army of Warforged.

Then there are the other nations of Khorviare; the Goblinoid country of Darguun, the druidic Eldeen Reaches, the pirate archepelago of the Lhazaar Principalities, the dwarven nation of the Mror Holds, the jungles of Q'Barra, the Gnomish Zilargo, Halfings' Talenta Plains, the Elven Valenar, the swamplands held by the Orcs in the Shadow Marches, and the monster nation of Droaam.

In any case, you've said Vic is going to Sharn looking for work. Does she have anything lined up or is she going to apply in the Clifftop Adventurer's Guild or the Deathsgate Explorer's Club? Is she looking to be more a bouncer, a town guard or a thug for one of the crime families? Perhaps being a bailiff for one of the detective agencies would be more her speed?

Will do! I can also tone it down a bit.

I've been looking into Eberron a bit and I have decided that I want to be from Aundair, and Victoria would have grown up in the city of Fairhaven.

Applying to join the Clifftop Adventurer's Guild sounds like a very good idea to Victoria! Did not know joining an adventurers guild was an option in Sharn. All of those other jobs sound like good back up plans if she doesn't get into the guild.

[Revelation]

Changingsaint - The fluff of Calemi's patron being a Couatl is perfectly fitting for a believer in the Silver Flame, what did you do for their eyes to fall on you and provide you with your weapon? If you're looking to properly learn and practice magic have you made any contact with either the Esoteric Order of Aureon or the Guild or Starlights and Shadows - have you had correspondence with anyone in Morgrave University regarding research on your divinely gifted blade and the abilities it's unlocked for you? Being another medic who participated in the Last War, did you ever see someone who looked like Rexxy across the battlefield also tending to the wounded on his side?

Thanks for the input, Ershin! I was thinking Couatl if I went with a celestial patron, though we could maybe finagle it into something along the lines of Calemi having always wanted to possess/use magic but never having the raw talent for it, nor sorcerous blood within him. I think Calemi would have an interest in protecting other people, perhaps having trained to defend himself as part of being a medic (Especially on the battlefield). Perhaps he was given his magic and gift by a couatl. Or perhaps he thinks it's a gift from the Silver Flame - only to realize it might come from a darker power source, so to speak - perhaps something of a conflict of faith/interest to him? He would be interested in training in magic properly once he found out, so perhaps he would have written letters to the Guild of Starlights/shadows. He probably wouldn't have gotten in to Morgrave U.

As for Rexxy, I imagine the two could have crossed paths, so to speak. If there was an armistice between the two nations, the two could have mingled for a time. Calemi would hold no real ill will towards others in the war given he was only in it for a brief while. Unlike Rexxy, Calemi's medical training would be all natural (IE: Medicine skill) as opposed to potentially magical like Rexxy's.

[Muse]

Muse - As you mentioned being an ancestral worshipping elf previously, is Linnea her original name or the name of the ancestor she wishes to venerate? How closely are you following their path or have you diverged wishing to be your own person? Does her cousin Siona venerate the same ancestor, an ally of that ancestor or a rival?

Oh, erm..  That was the other concept.  Would you like me to work it in?  Linnea is more about being a relatively ethical and compassionate woman who's family want her to be an assasin. 

Oh, lord...  And i was just griping at myself for being so Emo.  ^_^;; 

[Blinkin]

I have a question or two, just to make sure that I'm in the right frame of mind.

The coin of the realm is still actual coin? Or have they made the leap to certificate and paper money, or some other form of currency?

Is the standard coin, the coin in which prices are set is the gold piece, or silver piece?

Does a banking system exist, or do people still hord their coins in bags and hidden under floor planks? IE: large sums of currency is carried by another person in a chest?

Can we spend our little reserves of coin before game play begins? I want to purchase a couple of things for Natasha.

Are there guilds, or have the houses taken control of under-world resourses? ie: are their thieve's guilds or is it more organized like "The families" of mobsters?

I'm asking things like this so that I can understand what options and/or opportunities may exist for Natasha. Contact with a local thieve's guild could go a long ways to her ultimate goals.

[Muse]

Blinkin, obviously Ershin knowes more about this than I do, but in the 3.5 setting book one of the Dragonmarked Houses was big into banking.  I didn't see reference to paper money, but you could get letters of credit. 

[Blinkin]

Using the alternate options from Tasha's Caldron, I've made the following swaps for Natasha.

Taking the skill versility for Elven Weapon Training,

Swapped prof. in Long sword for Prof. in Whips.
Swapped Prof. in Shortsword for Prof in Calligrapher's kit.
Swapped Prof in Longbow for Prof. in Jeweler'sTool Kit.

two of the three changes are to support Natasha's backstory. as the daughter of Jeweler's, it stands that she should know something about the trade. As the wife of a noble, she should be able to act as his scribe near the battle field. As for whips... they're just cool as hell and useful in so many ways.

If there aren't any objections, I'll make these changes on the sheet.

[FoxgirlJay]

House Kundarak, Dwarven house with a focus on banking and security in general. Ebberon generally uses the standard Copper -> silver -> gold -> platinum set up for it's money.

[Chulanowa]

The coin of the realm is still actual coin? Or have they made the leap to certificate and paper money, or some other form of currency?

Khorvaire still exchanges hard metal-based currency; House Kundarak (and only House Kundarak) offers letters of credit on deposits within its banks, but there is not a modern "paper money" system.

Coinage is still largely based on the currency of the Kingfom of Galifar; while the Silver piece is the most common bit of currency, the gold piece is still the basis of trade (i.e., prices are measured by gold)
The copper crown (1cp), which depicts the crown of Galifar on one face
The silver sovereign (1 sp), depicts the face of the ruler at the time of minting; these are the most common coins in use for the average person, representing about a day's work for a general laborer.
The gold galifar (1 gp), depicting the face of Galifar I
The platinum dragon (1 pp), which depicts a legendary dragon on one of its faces. Most people never see these coins.

The second face of the coins largely depend on which of the five nations minted them (or for really old coins, whatever was there during the Kingdom of Galifar)- however regardless of origin, they have a shared value based on the Galifar system of exchange. It stands to reason that given the very, very long dominance of the Galifar system, other nations in Khorvaire have the same exchange rates and recognize the coinage as legal tender (i.e., you can probably pay for services in Zilargo or the Ironroot mountains with gold galifars without a problem.)

Additionally some nations have their own coins; Breland issues a Double crown (2 cp) and Cyre minted a silver thrown (5 sp) coin before the Mourning. These probably have less value outside their respective nations.

Does a banking system exist, or do people still hord their coins in bags and hidden under floor planks? IE: large sums of currency is carried by another person in a chest?

House Kundarak manages the banking system; you can take a letter of credit on your deposit (notarized and recorded by the House; forgery is next to impossible for arcane reasons) and give it to someoen else to exchange for an equal amount of coinage at another Kundarak bank. However this obviously only works when you're looking at raw coin monetary value; if someone needs something specific (a particular gemstone, or a chest of pre-war golden Galifars) then that still needs to be transported the old-fashioned way.

Most people of means will probably keep their "bulk" wealth (coins, gems, precious metal bars or whatever) in the bank, but you can probably expect a pretty plump personal purse, or a stash of 'emergency cash" in their estates or whatever. Plus of course all the jewelry, fine art, magical items, clothes, furnishings...

Are there guilds, or have the houses taken control of under-world resourses? ie: are their thieve's guilds or is it more organized like "The families" of mobsters?

none of the Dragonmarked houses have any direct influence over the criminal world; after all, it would undermine their actual interests in legitimate bueiness, and threaten their legal monopolies! of course, any given Dragonmarked House member can be as shady as they want. There are LOTS of criminal organizations. Lots and lots.

For instance, four big ones in Sharn are...

• The Boromar Clan: Operates as a traditional 'immigrant ethnic mafia," in this case Talentan Halflings. They have nearly a monopoly on smuggling and gambling in the city. They are so entenched that htey are almost a legitimate part of the city's structure. But that's being hcallenged by...

• Daask: is formed mostly by Droaamite immigrants and other criminal elements from the Khyber gate and the Cogs (basically the city's sub-basement.) They're aggressive, violent, with a focus on protection rackets and assassination, but have been moving into the Boromar's areas of influence in what has amounted to a gang war for the last two years.

• House Tarkanan: is Sharn's collection of burglars and assassins. They survive among the other criminal organizations due to an agreement to not target anyone in the leadership of these other groups. They take their name from the semi-legendary "House Tarkanan" formed of Aberrant Dragonmarks prior to the War of the Mark; in fact the leader of the organization actively recruitssuch people to lend her guild a bit of oomph both in terms of power and clout.

• The Tyrants: are informants, identity thieves, and all sorts of other services geared towards the abilities of changelings and dippelgangers (they have a pretty good lock on prostitution in Sharn for instance.) They are also somethign of a cult dedicated to The Traveler.

[Blinkin]

Thanks for the run down and answering my questions. It helps me to shape my character to better fit into the world and work within it.

As I understand things, a letter of credit is only redeemable at a bank? You could not exchange a letter of credit with a merchant for services rendered on larger purchases? Something like the original US   paper currency was based upon? As an example, the original dollar was a silver note, or a gold note. They literally represented a dollar's worth of gold or silver. If you look hard enough, you may occasionally find such a note as late as the 1920's. A silver note for a dollar issued in 1920 would, of course, be worth a lot more than a dollar today. These notes were often passed from merchant to merchant, supplier to manufacturer and so forth. They could go to a federal bank and turn it in for actual silver, of course, or just pass it on at the value of services given. This  isn't possible within the individual houses?

For quite a while, several weeks at least, fake $10 bills were being passed everywhere, even though they were easily detectible; as a $10 bill didn't have George Washington on the face. What someone did was to get some rag paper, fold the corners of a $1 bill down, place that over a $10 bill and then run the rag paper through a simple copier and printer. You have a fake bill that passed enough to equal several thousand dollars and no one noticed it. That actually happened in the mid 1990's.People were being told to watch for fake 20's, but few people even looked at a 10 dollar bill.

[Ershin]

Sorry all, but I'm going to have to withdraw from this game.

My dad got out of hospital the other day after having surgery to remove a cyst from the bridge of his nose (luckily he was able to get this done before it got infected). While I knew in advance he was going to have this removed (he's had it for a good long while and had been awaiting this procedure for a number of weeks), what no one in the family expected was how big of a cut would be needed to remove it and that a result of this he's partially lost his sight - first due to the blood because he stubbornly kept putting his glasses on where the stitches are, and now due to the swelling / bruising from the incision. As such I'll be taking time away from Elliquiy to better look after him while he's recovering.

I apologise for not being able to give you all as much attention as I should have since coming on board and hope you can forgive me for abandoning the game before it even got on its feet. Moreover I hope someone will be able to step in run Dragon Heist for you.

[Rummy Tum Tum]

Jesus that's awful. I hope he gets well, or close enough to it, very soon. Good luck to you both.

[Chulanowa]

No, hey, it's perfectly alright. I hope your father gets better, and want you to take care too!