Swords and Darkness

Swords and Darkness

A pbp game using Jaws of the Six Serpents (Prose Descriptive Qualities) by Silver Branch Games[1], and Mythic GM Emulator serving as the GM[2].

IC Thread[3]

OOC Thread[4]

Characters

Karesh

Karesh is a thin dark-skinned Nilsomarian swordsman. He has shed his traditional veil, revealing a smooth clean-shaven face and smooth bald scalp to represent his self-reliance and straightforwardness. His chosen mask is instead a perpetual smile of amusement. He wears a white flowing ankle-length coat under his flared shoulder mantle, and carries the thin scimitar given to him by his mentor.

Backstory

Karesh grew up one of the lucky ones—an orphan of the vast and decadent city of Nilsomar who received the attentions of a kind old merchant named Yoosehd. Karesh followed the old man around and performed odd chores, living in the old dusty shop that sold brass trinkets, crystal objets, and books. During that time, young Karesh learned many things—the art of dealmaking, managing a business, and obscure booklore including some modest secrets of arcane nature he found in those old forgotten tomes.

As he grew older, it seemed that Karesh would one day inherit the old bachelor’s business. However, Yoosehd became deranged in his old age, oft possessed of paranoid ravings. One day, he blamed Karesh for stealing from him and cast him out, cursing him a hundredfold for evil deeds and conspiracy against his many kindnesses.

Saddened, Karesh returned to the ruthless world of the street, coming full circle to his life in days half-remembered when he eked out an existence as a cutpurse. However, the old gang would not have him back, being strange in their eyes and possessed of odd knowledge and displaying a fierce independence. In the end, his so-called friends framed him, selling him out to the authorities for evils he did not commit. He found himself suddenly in this familiar and unpleasant position for the second time in his young life.

He was cast into the arena where he learned to survive through quickness of foot and a good deal of luck. A famed fighter, Mufahd Halfhand, took an interest in him, and rather than slaying him, spared him and taught him the art of swordplay, especially of the flashy and stylish Benghareen school of fencing, used by the feared soldiers of Selmé’s temple, with their long flashing curved scimitars. Mufahd had long since won his freedom, but remained in the games for sport and to seek new recruits; he was a contractor of sorts, getting paid by anonymous masked lords or wealthy merchants to send young talent on suicide quests to assassinate their rivals for reasons petty and personal. The intrigues that they played in secret were time-honored games among the elite of Nilsomar.

Karesh served on one such mission in exchange for his freedom. He was sent to his target, but was set up to be ambushed by the palace guards. By luck, he learned of this and altered his plan of escape, never reaching the mark. He instead escaped the city, but not without a price on his head, and the enmity of both Mufahd and the sword master’s employer.

Strengths:

Good [+2] Peoples: Trade
Good [+2] Faculty: Quick Wits
Good [+2] Driver: Keep His Past Behind Him
Good [+2] Thief
Average [0] Charm: Pyrotechnical Display*
Good [+2] Bengarheen Fencing
Good [+2] Knowledgeable
Good [+2] Acrobatic

Weaknesses:

Poor [-2] Impulsive

Fortune Points: 1

Learning Points: 0

Karesh’s Charm can produce minor and flashy effects, including the alteration of existing open flames. These can take the form of colorful flames that dance for the duration, a single bright flash that snuffs out the flame, creating smoke (and causing all within the area to resist the TN or suffer Failure Ranks in temporary blindness), or burning sparks that may shower one target within a short distance (resisting TN for damage).

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Mahon; aka Mahon the Bear, Mahon Kinslayer

Mahon had no exuse, no answer. Of course he regretted what he'd done in a red rage, but the fact remained that his brother Tain the Bull was dead, and Mahon the Bear had murdered him.

At the age of 20, the fraternal twins had become skilled hunters, and came to the autumn meet at Bryhope laden with furs and salted meat. They sold their stock quickly and commenced drinking. They spied a girl at the same time and quarreled over her until Mahon, blind drunk and furious, bashed Tain's head against a tavern table until his brother stopped moving. Later, at the Branding, Mahon saw the girl again; they must have been drunk, because she weighed nearly as much as he did and had a lazy eye to boot.

Mahon was brought before the meet. He had killed before, in raids against rival clans and in arguments turned ugly, sometimes for trivial reasons, but this was different. He knew it, and everyone else did too. The Earth Tribe elders pronounced sentence, banishment from the Kalet lands. Then Mahon was held down and a glowing brand placed against the side of his face, so that all who saw him would know him as Kinslayer. Then he was driven with sticks and thrown rocks to the edges of the Kalet lands, where he could never return to on pain of death.

He wandered in the forest for a long time, until alone, miserable, and mourning the loss of his brother and his home, decided to stop eating. He became delirious with hunger, and had a vision of Hursa, the Earth Goddess. Hursa forbade him from a coward's end, and commanded him to go forth and seek renown for her, his people and himself. He was to show that Hursa's chosen people were worth any three southerners.

Armed with hope and purpose, Mahon wandered west to Narrowhome. He despises the place and the people, but has become known and feared as assort of freelance enforcer in Narrowhome's criminal underground.

Mahon is tall and muscular, with long black hair. He was handsome once, until he was branded on his face as exile and murderer, and now has a spiderweb of scar tissue on his cheek, pulling his face into it like a black hole. He dresses in leather breaches and a vest,and does not seem to feel the cold. He loves to have the sky above his head and so hates Narrowhome, and takes his hatred out on those that cross him and his employers. He has little need for money, and has taken up the mantle of thug and leg breaker as an outlet for his misery and self-loathing.

Strengths:

Expert [+4] Warrior
Good [+2] Fearsome Presence
Good [+2] Redeem Himself in His Goddess's Eyes
Good [+2] Hunter
Good [+2] Stealth
Good [+2] Improvising
Good [+2] A Barbarian's Hardiness

Weaknesses:

Poor [-2] Fearsome Presence

Fortune Points: 1

Learning Points: 0

Mythic Scene Tracking

NPCs:

1. Jidi Craggly—Mahon & Karesh’s current criminal employer

2. Styno the Buzzard—Jidi’s chief rival

3. Constable Jonah Tanner—the law in Narrowhome

4. Silas Feather—the guy the PC’s are after at the start of the story

Threads:

1. Extract a sum of money from Silas Feather on behalf of Jidi craggly (open)

Chaos: 5

Scene 1 Setup: The PCs have learned about the whereabouts of Silas Feather, who has been in hiding for weeks, avoiding their calls. He’s been holed up in No. 33 High Crag street with a cousin. Karesh and Mahon are paying him a visit at night when it’s expected he’s there. Altered? No