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Monster Cavaliers C

2026-05-07T06:20:06Z

Leliel: /* History & Setting */

== History & Setting ==

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The year is 3044 by the Selenite calendar - about 5190, by the formerly heretical Gregorian calendar - and the world has died, reborn, and died again.

The first death was what mortals call the Nightfall, though the Conclave of the Sangrealian Church called it the end of the Third Synodic Era. It was partly nukes that did it - dwindling resources and the greed of old men in power do not mix well. But there was surprisingly little in the way of actual nukes - no, what really did the world in was bioweapons. Mortals tried to use the power of curses to control the spread of the Sand Plague, even as it enhanced the viral crystal spread, rendered it even possible. Entire swaths of the world were turned to desert, alien landscapes filled with portals to the Outside and unstable Liminalities.

The Accursed saw it coming. Some of them had even worked on the early form of the Sand Plague, only to watch in horror as it was treated as a weapon of war than deterrence. So they spent over a decade saving as much as they could in Epochs, in Battlegrounds, even in a couple Shattered Spaces. That plan, at least, worked. The planet was devastated, but it had the perfect set of tools to rebuild. And saved population.

Thing was...the Accursed also had prime access to those tools. And all Damnations feed on humans in some way, or at least need them.

It did not take long for saviors to become rulers - and founders. The Lineages lent themselves well to a new aristocracy structure, with the Families becoming new Houses of nobility. The saved humans became the core of a serf population, and occasional source of new Accursed as elevated knights - a hope of some social mobility. It took the better part of a millennia, but in time, the world was built anew - in the image of the Peerage of the Gloaming, the nobility of monsters.

And they were magnificent. Terrible, yes, but magnificent. The Founders were the greatest scientists and magicians among the night people already, and their descendants and students only progressed more. With the power to tame curses, merging the power of magic and technology into the great Mystic Sciences, and not only did the technical base of the world recover, but passed a singularity - ecologies were easily replaced, great castle-cities arose in the ruins for singular nobles, and space became just another place to explore for the great guilds.

It was terrible for the mortals, of course. At best, they were second-class citizens - candidates for elevation into knighthood as Accursed, but little more. At worst, especially intelligent cattle - while not all Hungry vampires feed on any form of flesh to supply their power, they all need blood - and the certainly didn't care overmuch if a few unproductive kine were vulnerable to creations of the other Houses, or bandits. The Fourth Synodic Era was a world of wonders, but ones exclusively enjoyed by the lords of the night.

They really should have seen the growing resentment of the lesser monsters coming.
Decadence preys on all, as does stagnation. The Peerage grew ever more ossified and cruel, but the elevation from cattle to Accursed didn't stop - magic does not care, and curses take complacency as a challenge. And the thing is, one does not forget being a mortal - or often, that mortals cared for you more than your ostensible lords, even after your "ennobling".

The Nightbreak - the turning to the Fifth Synodic Era - ended much like the Fourth at its beginning, as the Gloaming turned on each other - but its ending was much different, as their ostensible vassals had been stewing in resentment and planning for more than a century at that point, building their own alliances for a mass revolt, and finding those few among the Peerage that had grown tired of their way of life for support. This was not something they ever comprehended could happen, and so the forces of Chalice, the Capitol of the World, were overthrown, and the entire world as it was collapsed.

Now the world is a wild frontier - in particular, the place where you live, the Crystal Scar, the great wasteland which still has remnants of the Sand Plague's decay ecology as it primary one. It's not nearly as lethal - the pressures of evolution selected for the Plague's own survival over lethality, and it rarely transmits to organic life that is not a product of it warping the curseweave in some way, and thus symbiotic. The new, mortal-lead government of Chalice attempts to keep order, but their authority does not extend far beyond the arcology's borders - and many outer settlements prefer it that way. The Scar in particular is a place where the remnants of the old Peerage hide, still clinging to their old holdings and dreams of turning the Era back, and that leads to many mercenaries, monsters, and bandits hiding behind the remnants' old power. The settlements who live there - ironically mostly descendants of escaped serfs - face constant danger, both from the remnants and from greedy tech hunters after the ruins of the Gloaming's study facilities of the Scar, and their magnificent mystic tech.

Which is why the old monstrous knights of the Peerage, impoverished and finally free, have a new profession - that of monster hunter, and more than that, explorer. The old devices of the Gloaming were made for Accursed after all, and whatever ability to insulate the defecting knights from using them against their lords was lost with the Chalice. More than that...thousands of years is a long time to be the literally monstrous ruling class. Fighting against the old night's monsters is one of the few ways to gain trust in the face of cultural trauma, and to feed the Damnation without feeding on mortals.

So it is with you. Sally forth, young Cavaliers of the Night.
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{{Collapse top | id=setting_info | Click to View Terminology | bg=#333 | color=white | border=#333}}
Those with a bullet point are unique to this chronicle.

Accursed: People who have a Damnation, a powerful curse that causes them to become more than human as a sort of cosmic balance, and granting them the power of magic.

Battleground: A plane of the Outside that is effectively a zone where the Outside is trying to aggressively impose its laws on Earth's reality. Only Accursed can enter them safely at all.

*Cavalier of the Night: Formerly a term for Accursed who were knights and lesser vassals of the Peerage, often the middle class of their highly stratified society. Now a term for those Accursed who are also venators, due to the vast majority of Cavaliers siding with the Nightbreak rebellion.

*Chalice: The vast arcology that used to be the holy city of the Peerage of the Gloaming and the Sangreal Church. Now the heart of human order in the world, though it's notoriously prone to sacrificing freedom for security.

Curse: The mystic waste heat of entropy, "what could have been" given a will. The basis of all magic. The sum total of all curses is sometimes called the curseweave, as greater entanglement in it results in greater power.

Damnation: A powerful curse that transforms a mortal into an Accursed - also the basic way they feed their magical reserves, like the alternate feeding form a Hungry needs or the emotion a Dead most enjoys. Depleting yourself of magic causes a "fall to Damnation", a starving state where the Accursed goes mad with need (many compare it to their blood set on fire) until they feed. "A beast I am lest a beast I become", since a starving Accursed is unable to think in the long term from agony and/or controlling their powers.

Epoch: A Liminality born when a major historical event causes time to fracture, creating an alternate world that time itself seems to regard as a splinter, making them very dangerous as the continuity tries to unmake it. Presumably use of them would allow for actual time travel, but even the Peerage didn't figure out how to do it - or wanted to.

Family: A subdivision of a Lineage that share similar traits, especially their particular form of Damnation. The Raptors of the Primal Lineage are legacy-obsessed werebirds, for instance, Reeves of the Sorcerer Lineage are necromantic druids, Chimeras of the Outcast Lineage are mad doctors whose true forms resemble abstract angels, the Egyptian pantheon, or both.

Interstitial Space: A sentient Liminality that manifests as a pocket in space, and a notoriously clingy one that desires to be lived in. That being said, they aren't Shattered Spaces - it's hard to leave, but they make sure residents are safe, leading them to be filled with colonies in the modern day, if rather insular-by-necessity ones.

Liminality: A place where potent curses have caused the area to become more like an Outside, ie a haunted place. The Crystal Scar is rife with them, as the Sand Plague was already a curse-based form of life.

Lineage: The five general types of Accursed, as far as Accursed know - Dead (body-riding ghosts who bask in emotion to remind themselves of life), Hungry (vampires, who have rarified and particular tastes other than blood), Outcasts (half-Outsiders constantly trying to connect with the world despite knowing instinctively their ancestors were banished to mortal form and suffering generational sentences for it), Primals (werebeasts with a Creature, an id-born animal personality that loves them, but feels the need to imprint itself destructively on the world), and Sorcerers (wizards addicted to magic in the same way one gets addicted to food - they need to cast to survive, and they must sacrifice to control and feed their powers). In the Fifth Synodic Era, Primals are generally the most accepted by mortals (as it's very hard for them to extend their lifespans, and what techniques there are often depend on metaphysical cannibalism, meaning most Primals had a grudge against elders and were often elevated from mortal populations), and Hungry most disliked (as immortality, and distance from the quick, is kind of inherent to the undead condition - and Dead have a Damnation that forces at least functional empathy).

Outside: Sometimes Outsides, any plane that isn't Earth's native one. A notorious source of troubles due to curious and hungry inhabitants crossing over, plus ruling archons who want to exploit Earth in some fashion.

*Peerage of the Gloaming: The Accursed nobility that owned most of the world (and abused it) during the Fourth Synodic Era after they rebuilt it, very close to being a modernized neofeudal system more akin to the Holy Roman Empire except worldwide. Their fall was the Nightbreak, and today, the remaining Peerage is a source of perils in the world in order to destroy the new world or bring it back to their time.

*Sand Plague: The curse-based bacterial bioweapon, meant as an environment destroyer, that destroyed the Third Synodic Era when it was combined with limited nuclear war. So called because it crystallizes biomass, causing areas ravaged by it to become deserts of colorful, crystalline sand with odd outcroppings. May possibly be semi-sentient, but what mind it has is thankfully more interested in survival than being a bioweapon - it seemed to help quarantine itself once it discovered how to delay death so it could reinfect potential hosts. People infected by it often report conversing with figures that claim to be Death in fever dreams or delirium, though whether or not this is proof of the Church or the Plague using a common myth to communicate is a subject of much debate.

*Sangrealian Church: The dominant religion of the Peerage and the Fifth Synodic Era, albeit much less organized and far less snide towards mortals. A mix of Abrahamic religions, especially Catholicism, with somewhat Buddhist ideas of reincarnation and a lot of knowledge worship. They hold that Accursed are fundamentally beings who would have been born in different realms, but are born human to learn the joy and sorrow of it before remembering their powers. The Peerage claimed this made them inherently better, but the Church's lay members grew to resent the cavalier way they were treated, mortal and Accursed alike. The modern Church is quite unlike the Peerage's idea, with most settlements - and the Capital - pushing the idea that Accursed and mortals have much to teach each other, and so should be equals. (As a side note, the modern Church looks very askance at immortality - they say it's self-torture in the long term, and the only truly eternal being that isn't God is Death, who is a capricious entity who is by turns cruel and kind due to being unable to perceive anything except the world changing around them - and even Death dies to be replaced by a new Death on occasion.)

*Selenite Calendar: The Sangrealian Church version of the Gregorian Calendar, dating back to the official founding of Chalice - and back in the days of the Gloaming, the Pontifex that ruled the religion.

Shattered Space: A Liminality that has turned predatory in some fashion, and sentient enough to seek food, often because of a portal to a hostile Outside. A frequent non-Peerage enemy of Cavaliers, especially since Outside invaders often use them as symbiotic beach heads and bases, and they sometimes come to an understanding with bandits.

Venator: A monster hunter, mortal or otherwise. Tend to either be the noblest people around, bandits with self-righteousness, or both.
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== Crew Roster & Goals ==

{{Collapse top | id=crew_roster | Click to View Crew Roster & Goals | bg=#333 | color=white | border=#333}}

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; margin-bottom: 15px;"
! colspan="10" style="background-color: #333; color: white; text-align: left; font-size: 1.2em; padding: 5px;" | [[Monster_Cavaliers_C:PC1 | Sera Cross (Battlefield Angel) ]]
|-
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | Progression
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Contacts
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | PC Bonds
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | NPC Bonds
|-
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Entanglement:''' 1 '''EXP (Unspent/Total):''' 0 / 0
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Jane Faraday:''' +2 (Archive, Security) '''WO Gideon Rusk:''' +1 (Mentor) '''Tessa "Coyote" Vane:''' +2 (Dangerous, Sneaky)
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Diana:''' +X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''NPC''' +X
|-
! colspan="6" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 60%;" | Torments
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Aspirations
|-
| colspan="6" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Lineage:''' Like Flies to Shit (Giving in summons a hostile Shiver adversary to the Area) '''Personal:''' Escalate directly to physical violence ('''Trigger:''' Seeing a close bond demeaned or abused)
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[S]''' Impress hard ass CO (and maybe get him off my ass!) '''[S]''' Knock XXXX warlord down a peg '''[L]''' Discover what happened to mother
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; margin-bottom: 15px;"
! colspan="10" style="background-color: #333; color: white; text-align: left; font-size: 1.2em; padding: 5px;" | [[Monster_Cavaliers_C:PC2 | Template ]]
|-
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | Progression
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Contacts
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | PC Bonds
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | NPC Bonds
|-
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Entanglement:''' X '''EXP (Unspent/Total):''' 0 / 0
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[Name]:''' +X '''[Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[PC Name]:''' +X '''[PC Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[NPC Name]:''' +X '''[NPC Name]:''' -X
|-
! colspan="6" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 60%;" | Torments
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Aspirations
|-
| colspan="6" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Lineage:''' [Lineage Torment] '''Personal:''' [Personal Torment] ('''Trigger:''' [Trigger condition])
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[L]''' [Long Aspiration]
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; margin-bottom: 15px;"
! colspan="10" style="background-color: #333; color: white; text-align: left; font-size: 1.2em; padding: 5px;" | [[Monster_Cavaliers_C:PC3 | Template ]]
|-
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | Progression
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Contacts
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | PC Bonds
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | NPC Bonds
|-
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Entanglement:''' X '''EXP (Unspent/Total):''' 0 / 0
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[Name]:''' +X '''[Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[PC Name]:''' +X '''[PC Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[NPC Name]:''' +X '''[NPC Name]:''' -X
|-
! colspan="6" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 60%;" | Torments
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Aspirations
|-
| colspan="6" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Lineage:''' [Lineage Torment] '''Personal:''' [Personal Torment] ('''Trigger:''' [Trigger condition])
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[L]''' [Long Aspiration]
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; margin-bottom: 15px;"
! colspan="10" style="background-color: #333; color: white; text-align: left; font-size: 1.2em; padding: 5px;" | [[Monster_Cavaliers_C:PC4 | Template ]]
|-
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | Progression
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Contacts
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | PC Bonds
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | NPC Bonds
|-
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Entanglement:''' X '''EXP (Unspent/Total):''' 0 / 0
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[Name]:''' +X '''[Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[PC Name]:''' +X '''[PC Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[NPC Name]:''' +X '''[NPC Name]:''' -X
|-
! colspan="6" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 60%;" | Torments
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Aspirations
|-
| colspan="6" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Lineage:''' [Lineage Torment] '''Personal:''' [Personal Torment] ('''Trigger:''' [Trigger condition])
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[L]''' [Long Aspiration]
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; margin-bottom: 15px;"
! colspan="10" style="background-color: #333; color: white; text-align: left; font-size: 1.2em; padding: 5px;" | [[Monster_Cavaliers_C:PC5 | Template ]]
|-
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | Progression
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Contacts
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | PC Bonds
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 20%;" | NPC Bonds
|-
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Entanglement:''' X '''EXP (Unspent/Total):''' 0 / 0
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[Name]:''' +X '''[Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[PC Name]:''' +X '''[PC Name]:''' -X
| colspan="2" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[NPC Name]:''' +X '''[NPC Name]:''' -X
|-
! colspan="6" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 60%;" | Torments
! colspan="4" style="background-color: #555; color: white; width: 40%;" | Aspirations
|-
| colspan="6" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''Lineage:''' [Lineage Torment] '''Personal:''' [Personal Torment] ('''Trigger:''' [Trigger condition])
| colspan="4" style="vertical-align: top;" | '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[S]''' [Short Aspiration] '''[L]''' [Long Aspiration]
|}

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Daxton "Wells" Robins

2026-04-30T00:57:54Z

Leliel:

'''Daxton "Wells" Robins'''

Novice Male Human, XCOM Support

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d6, Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Drone Operation d4, Hacking d8, Healing d8+2, Notice d6, Psionics d6 Persuasion d6, Repair d6, Science d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d4

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 4

Hindrances: Curious, Greedy (minor), Vow (minor, See that humanity gets to space.)

Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Bureaucrat (setting), Healer, Level Headed

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Weapons: LM2 Laser Rifle (with Reflex and Laser Sights), Light Pistol, 1 Frag Grenade, 1 Stun Grenade, 2 M8 Smoke Grenades, Combat Knife

Other Gear: X-COM Combat Armor, Radio Headset. 2 Assault Rifle magazines, 2 Pistol Magazines, 5 Chemlights, 1 Flare, Tool Kit, bolt cutters, Field Medical Kit, Advanced Medical Kit, Night Vision Goggles, canteen, MRE (1 day), Tactical Universal Unmanned Vehicle Controller

Special Abilities

Psionics (Power Points: ?)

Powers: Havoc, Healing, Mind Reading

Dr. Daxton Robins, a child of politician parents, joined the Canadian Armed Forces largely to look better for a full political career, which he fully admits - his family is equal parts military and bureaucrats, and while "Wells" was always more of a sci-fi geek than social butterfly (hence his nickname - it's "well" and "HG Welles" in one), he believed fully in both sides of his heritage and decided to turn his fascination with medicine into both. He really didn't expect there to be an alien invasion - on multiple levels. A technological optimist, the idea that starfaring races would need resources from a habitable world - as opposed to say, land - is something he finds deeply perplexing. Part of the reason he agreed to join XCOM, and expose himself to actual danger as opposed to field medic work, is he really, ''really'' wants to understand the aliens.

[[File:Combat medic image.png|360px]]

Curseborne Crows Of Justice

2026-03-02T01:16:22Z

Leliel: Created page with "''Night in Picia Bay. One for sorrow, two for joy.'' ''By all rights, this city should not exist. The river that gives it the nominal port does not bend towards it in any other place, and the boat passage there should not be that smooth. The magpies that give it its name should not travel this far East. But it is, and the founders of the settlement of the city didn't question it as it became a trading center and shipbuilding port, and then later an organ of worldwide ca..."

''Night in Picia Bay. One for sorrow, two for joy.''

''By all rights, this city should not exist. The river that gives it the nominal port does not bend towards it in any other place, and the boat passage there should not be that smooth. The magpies that give it its name should not travel this far East. But it is, and the founders of the settlement of the city didn't question it as it became a trading center and shipbuilding port, and then later an organ of worldwide cargo transport and agricultural shipping.''

''Maybe they should have. Maybe the impossibility was what drew the occultists among them. Because the impossibility is because it is a...special place. A thin place between worlds. Picia is a nexus between rivers and between planes, an ideal stop when hopping between realities...and where there's travel, there's trade. Where there's trade, there's money, and when one is a stopping point between realities itself, that means there's an incredible amount of money involved, and relatively little the legitimate authorities are aware of...and those that are, are often in on it. Picia has been rated in the top ten Most Underfunded and Most Corrupt Metropolitan Police Department in many independent statistics for five years going, and there's been major hints that is only because people are brave enough to talk about it now.''

''Quite simply, Picia a city riddled with crime. And more than that, it's a city rife with Accursed, and secret societies eager to exploit the magic of the so-called Shallows, both the portals themselves and what unique finds they bring, to say nothing of mundane smuggling and the other forms of organized racketeering it supports. Worse, however, is that ever since the 60s, certain Accursed crime lords - starting with a the Masque of the Fifteen, a local Brood of the Faceless, to ritually dissociate their identities from their capers and assist in their ritual sacrifice of notoriety gains from it, but quickly spreading to their allies - started dressing in costumes and donning identities of showy, pulpy masterminds and thieves, figures of both dread and grudging respect.''

''Quite simply, they became supervillains. Their schemes simultaneously build an ideal environment for their other criminal endeavors as they become notorious figures known for particular tricks, and the ritual play of being powerful, tempting, and terrifying outsiders who others simultaneously fear and wish to be make the Bay ritually primed to harvest massive amounts of curse dice. Ideal for both showing off Heirloom gadgets to potential buyers too - and the fact the ritual dance of the grand caper often also results in the gang walking away with a huge score helps.''

''And you're sick of it.''

''This may not be a comic book - not all the so-called Masquers are outright awful people, and many of the more amoral ones are aware that the citizens turn a blind eye mostly to those who provide services the legitimate authorities don't - but let's be honest, it's narrow at best to hope and pray that this gang leader is going to be some kind of friendly chap who just occasionally needs to beat people up, especially when it doesn't mean squat for fixing the city's systemic issues. Hell, the Masquers want it to continue - as long as the cops are on the take, they more or less rule with impunity. To make change in this city - real change - you need to show there's a better way than the villains. That the villains cannot just rule forever.''

''You are not the first Crows to steal the city's Masques away, but you intend to be among the last...and the city wants you to win. Crows have taken flight before, and no matter how many times they're shot down, they hatch again.''

ToG Necessary Evil - Count Umbre

2025-12-12T14:59:51Z

Leliel: /* Abilities */

[[ToG_Necessary_Evil| Back to Main Page]]

'''Power Level:''' 10

'''Power Points:''' Abilities 58, Defenses 0, Skills 3, Advantages 15, Powers 70 = 146

== Abilities ==

Strength 6, Stamina -, Agility 10, Dexterity -2, Fighting 10, Intellect 0, Awareness 10, Presence 2

== Defense ==

Dodge 10, Parry 10, Toughness 6, Fortitude -, Will 10

== Offense ==

Initiative +10

'''Unarmed Strike:''' close attack +10, Toughness DC 21

'''The Hunger:''' grab-based Weaken Stamina 10, Fortitude DC 20

; Bat Swarm
: Rather than a single creature, this is a swarm of bats, represented as a single entity. The swarm is immune to direct physical attack, although area effects and energy attacks still work against it. It attacks by engulfing targets and using its Affliction, which represents numerous bites. Targets Immune to Fortitude effects or with any rank of Impervious Toughness can ignore the swarm's attack. A bat swarm that is incapacitated if dispersed.
: '''Abilities:''' Strength -, Stamina 0, Agility 2, Dexterity –2, Fight 0, Intelligence -5, Awareness 2, Presence -3 ''(no effective Strength due to Insubstantial effect)''
: '''Defense:''' Dodge 2, Parry 0, Fortitude 0, Toughness 0, Will -
: '''Offense:''' Initiative +2, Affliction in 120ft radius sphere vs. Parry DC 20 (Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated)
: '''Powers:''' Affliction 10 (vs. Parry, Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated; burst area 3), Insubstantial 2 (swarm; permanent, innate), Flight 6 (120 MPH)

== Skills ==

Expertise: History 6 (+6)

== Advantages ==

All-Out Attack, Benefit 4 (Wealth 4), Favored Environment (the dark), Fearless, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Languages (English), Move-by Action, Power Attack, Tracking, Trance, Uncanny Dodge

== Powers & Devices ==

; Nocturnal 4pp
: Senses 2 (Darkvision; linked to Concealment)
: Concealment 2 (normal vision; limited to shadows, linked to Darkvision)

; Nosferatu 36pp
: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects; linked to Protection)
: Protection 6 (linked to Immunity)

; Supernatural 13pp
: Flight 4 (subtle 2, alternate effect 3)
: Alt - Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2)
: Alt - Insubstantial 2 (gaseous form; increased action to Move)
: Alt - Morph 2 (nocturnal animals)

; Swarm 17pp
: Summon 1 (active, controlled, horde, mental link, multiple minions 6 [64], slow [takes 10 rounds to arrive], alternate effect 2)
: '''Alt - The Hunger'''
: Weaken Stamina 10 (vs. Fortitude; grab-based, linked to Regeneration)
: Regeneration 10 (limited to Weaken, linked to Weaken)
: '''Alt - Domination'''
: Affliction 10 (vs. Will, Entranced/Compelled; Perception area [sight], selective, limited degree, unreliable [only 5 uses daily])

== Equipment ==

Commlink (gained in-game)

== Complications ==

'''Motivation: Control'''

'''Addiction: blood'''

'''Enemy: aliens'''

'''Power Loss''' - being staked through the heart

'''Reputation''' - murderous criminal

'''Weakness''' - 10 turns of direct sunlight can destroy him completely

== Backstory ==

'''Cupar Sandru d'Umbre''', The Cupbearer of Darkness, is someone who regards the typical idea of a vampire as an Eastern European aristocrat with a strong accent and a widow's peak as mildly quaint - that is not a popular hairstyle in Romania and he enjoys his mustache, thank you very much. But it's too accurate for him to find it more upsetting than Mexicans do Speedy Gonzales, it's actually rather endearing.

Technically a boyar meant to ensure his superiors were not poisoned rather than a count (it came from a pun and mishearing on his actual title that he found rather funny - Umbre is no technophobe and he loves classic horror movies as ironic tragic comedies, growing quite impressed with Lugosi), Umbre is a fairly typical mildly elder vampire by his own admittance. His whole purpose in life is to help maintain, and occasionally expand, his line's domain, and secure enough mortals and contacts to support them.

True, vampires are more distinctly linked to magic than they are to some mysterious power of undead blood, and creating another (especially one with a soul as opposed to a shambling near-mindless corpse) is a bit more involved, but the Karnstein clan - what many Europeans would consider to be "classic" vampires - are indeed classy, predatory sorts that mostly recruit from old money, or people they don't mind sharing old money, and consider themselves to be natural feudal lords of the mortals around them. If you ask them, they don't even qualify as "evil", which is why they aren't repulsed by holy symbols and have reflections. They simply have an extra requirement to their sharecroppers when seeing a share of their crops. That the world has ceased to acknowledge the planet is a chaotic, dangerous place that requires the strong to rule the weak to protect them is not their problem, which is why Sandru d'Umbre got so very frustrated when that irritating little vagabond, Nick Wilde the Gunsmoke Mage, started harassing his family and lands when pursuing a business partner of theirs, and followed him home on occasion to vent his displeasure at the intrusion.

Really, he wasn't even that upset with Wilde - the more he realized the man was more akin to a knight-errant and wandering adventurer than a bandit, the more he came to respect him as a fellow noble protecting his people, albeit one on a rather lower social stratum than himself. That the Gunsmoke Mage was one of many, many victims of the V'sori deeply upset him - the man deserved to die heroically defending the weak or at least being offered patronage into the Karnstein clan, not stabbed in the back by alien treachery! Thus, even beyond the fact he recognizes his herd will be put in danger by the ultimate invasion and that in the upheaval a good portion of Star City is prime to he seized by his house, he also seeks to avenge his old rival's honor.

The vampire is a monster of the night, after all. Traitors and mutineers have long since strayed into it.

__NOTOC__

ToG Necessary Evil - Count Umbre

2025-12-11T21:16:48Z

Leliel:

Count Umbre

PL: 10/150

Motivation: Control

Fighting: 10

Dexterity: -2

Agility: 10

Strength: 6

Stamina: -

Intellect: 0

Awareness: 10

Presence: 0

58

Dodge: 10

Parry: 10

Toughness: 6

Fortitude: -

Will: 10

0

Offense:

+10 Initiative
Unarmed Strike: +10, DC21
The Hunger: DC20 Weaken (Stamina) vs. Fortitude
Bat Swarm: DC20 vs. Parry
[spoiler=Swarm]STR —* STA 0 AGL 2 DEX –2 FGT 0 INT -5 AWE 2 PRE -3 Powers: Burst Area 3 Affliction 10 (Resisted by Parry; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated), Insubstantial 2 (swarm, Permanent, Innate), Flight 6 (120 MPH). Offense: Init +2. Defenses: Dodge 2, Parry 0, Fortitude 0, Toughness 0, Will —. *No effective Strength due to Insubstantial effect* Rather than a single creature, this archetype is a swarm of bats, represented as a single entity. The swarm is immune to direct physical attack, although area effects and energy attacks still work against it. It attacks by engulfing targets and using its Affliction, which represents numerous bites. Targets Immune to Fortitude effects or with any rank of Impervious Toughness can ignore the swarm's attack. A bat swarm that is incapacitated is dispersed[/spoiler]

Powers & Devices:

Nosferatu: Immunity 30 (vs. Fortitude effects, linked ) + Protection 6 (linked ) 36PP
Swarm: Summon 1 (active, controlled, horde, mental link, multiple minions 6 [64], slow [takes 10 rounds to arrive]) 17PP
The Hunger: Weaken 10 (Stamina, vs. Fortitude, grab-based, linked ) + Regeneration 10 (linked & limited to successful Weaken, AE of Swarm)
Domination: Affliction 10 (vs. Will, Entranced-Compelled, area-Perception [sight], selective, limited degree, unreliable [only 5 uses daily], AE of Swarm)
Nocturnal: Senses 2, Darkvision (linked) + Concealment 2 (normal vision, limited to shadows) 4PP
Supernatural: Flight 4 (subtle 2) 13PP
Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2, AE)
Insubstantial 2 (gaseous form, increased action - Move, AE)
Morph 2 (nocturnal animals, AE)
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Benefit 4 (Wealth 4), Favored Environment (the dark), Fearless, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Languages (English), Move-by Action, Power Attack, Tracking, Trance, Uncanny Dodge 15PP

Skills: Expertise: History 6 (+6) 3PP

Equipment: Commlink (gained in-game)

Complications: Addiction (blood), enemy (aliens), power loss (being staked through the heart), reputation (murderous criminal), weakness (10 turns of direct sunlight can destroy him completely)

Backstory: Cupar Sandru d'Umbre, The Cupbearer of Darkness is someone who regards the typical idea of a vampire as an Eastern European aristocrat with a strong accent and a widow's peak as mildly quaint - that is not a popular hairstyle in Romania and he enjoys his mustache, thank you very much. But it's too accurate for him to find it more upsetting than Mexicans do Speedy Gonzales, it's actually rather endearing. True, vampires are more distinctly linked to magic than they are to some mysterious power of undead blood, and creating another (especially one with a soul as opposed to a shambling near-mindless corpse) is a bit more involved, but the Karnstein clan - what many Europeans would consider to be "classic" vampires - are indeed classy, predatory sorts that mostly recruit from old money, or people they don't mind sharing old money, and consider themselves to be natural feudal lords of the mortals around them. If you ask them, they don't even qualify as "evil", which is why they aren't repulsed by holy symbols and have reflections. They simply have an extra requirement to their sharecroppers when seeing a share of their crops. That the world has ceased to acknowledge the planet is a chaotic, dangerous place that requires the strong to rule the weak to protect them is not their problem, which is why Sandru d'Umbre got so very frustrated when that irritating little vagabond, Nick Wilde the Gunsmoke Mage, started harassing his family and lands when pursuing a business partner of theirs, and followed him home on occasion to vent his displeasure at the intrusion.

Technically a boyar meant to ensure his superiors were not poisoned rather than a count (it came from a pun and mishearing on his actual title that he found rather funny - Umbre is no technophobe and he loves classic horror movies as ironic tragic comedies, growing quite impressed with Lugosi), Umbre is a fairly typical mildly elder vampire by his own admittance. His whole purpose in life is to help maintain, and occasionally expand, his line's domain, and secure enough mortals and contacts to support them. Really, he wasn't even that upset with Wilde - the more he realized the man was more akin to a knight-errant and wandering adventurer than a bandit, the more he came to respect him as a fellow noble protecting his people, albeit one on a rather lower social stratum than himself. That the Gunsmoke Mage was one of many, many victims of the V'sori deeply upset him - the man deserved to die heroically defending the weak or at least being offered patronage into the Karnstein clan, not stabbed in the back by alien treachery! Thus, even beyond the fact he recognizes his herd will be put in danger by the ultimate invasion and that in the upheaval a good portion of Star City is prime to he seized by his house, he also seeks to avenge his old rival's honor.

The vampire is a monster of the night, after all. Traitors and mutineers have long since strayed into it.

ToG Necessary Evil - Count Umbre

2025-12-11T21:15:40Z

Leliel: Created page with "Count Umbre PL: 10/150 Motivation: Control Fighting: 10 Dexterity: -2 Agility: 10 Strength: 6 Stamina: - Intellect: 0 Awareness: 10 Presence: 0 58 Dodge: 10 Parry: 10 Toughness: 6 Fortitude: - Will: 10 0 Offense: +10 Initiative Unarmed Strike: +10, DC21 The Hunger: DC20 Weaken (Stamina) vs. Fortitude Bat Swarm: DC20 vs. Parry [spoiler=Swarm]STR —* STA 0 AGL 2 DEX –2 FGT 0 INT -5 AWE 2 PRE -3 Powers: Burst Area 3 Affliction 10 (Resisted by Parry..."

Count Umbre

PL: 10/150

Motivation: Control

Fighting: 10

Dexterity: -2

Agility: 10

Strength: 6

Stamina: -

Intellect: 0

Awareness: 10

Presence: 0

58

Dodge: 10

Parry: 10

Toughness: 6

Fortitude: -

Will: 10

0

Offense:

+10 Initiative
Unarmed Strike: +10, DC21
The Hunger: DC20 Weaken (Stamina) vs. Fortitude
Bat Swarm: DC20 vs. Parry [spoiler=Swarm]STR —* STA 0 AGL 2 DEX –2 FGT 0 INT -5 AWE 2 PRE -3 Powers: Burst Area 3 Affliction 10 (Resisted by Parry; Dazed, Stunned, Incapacitated), Insubstantial 2 (swarm, Permanent, Innate), Flight 6 (120 MPH). Offense: Init +2. Defenses: Dodge 2, Parry 0, Fortitude 0, Toughness 0, Will —. *No effective Strength due to Insubstantial effect* Rather than a single creature, this archetype is a swarm of bats, represented as a single entity. The swarm is immune to direct physical attack, although area effects and energy attacks still work against it. It attacks by engulfing targets and using its Affliction, which represents numerous bites. Targets Immune to Fortitude effects or with any rank of Impervious Toughness can ignore the swarm's attack. A bat swarm that is incapacitated is dispersed[/spoiler]
Powers & Devices:

Nosferatu: Immunity 30 (vs. Fortitude effects, linked ) + Protection 6 (linked ) 36PP
Swarm: Summon 1 (active, controlled, horde, mental link, multiple minions 6 [64], slow [takes 10 rounds to arrive]) 17PP
The Hunger: Weaken 10 (Stamina, vs. Fortitude, grab-based, linked ) + Regeneration 10 (linked & limited to successful Weaken, AE of Swarm)
Domination: Affliction 10 (vs. Will, Entranced-Compelled, area-Perception [sight], selective, limited degree, unreliable [only 5 uses daily], AE of Swarm)
Nocturnal: Senses 2, Darkvision (linked) + Concealment 2 (normal vision, limited to shadows) 4PP
Supernatural: Flight 4 (subtle 2) 13PP
Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2, AE)
Insubstantial 2 (gaseous form, increased action - Move, AE)
Morph 2 (nocturnal animals, AE)
Advantages: All-Out Attack, Benefit 4 (Wealth 4), Favored Environment (the dark), Fearless, Improved Grab, Improved Hold, Languages (English), Move-by Action, Power Attack, Tracking, Trance, Uncanny Dodge 15PP

Skills: Expertise: History 6 (+6) 3PP

Equipment: Commlink (gained in-game)

Complications: Addiction (blood), enemy (aliens), power loss (being staked through the heart), reputation (murderous criminal), weakness (10 turns of direct sunlight can destroy him completely)

Backstory: Cupar Sandru d'Umbre, The Cupbearer of Darkness is someone who regards the typical idea of a vampire as an Eastern European aristocrat with a strong accent and a widow's peak as mildly quaint - that is not a popular hairstyle in Romania and he enjoys his mustache, thank you very much. But it's too accurate for him to find it more upsetting than Mexicans do Speedy Gonzales, it's actually rather endearing. True, vampires are more distinctly linked to magic than they are to some mysterious power of undead blood, and creating another (especially one with a soul as opposed to a shambling near-mindless corpse) is a bit more involved, but the Karnstein clan - what many Europeans would consider to be "classic" vampires - are indeed classy, predatory sorts that mostly recruit from old money, or people they don't mind sharing old money, and consider themselves to be natural feudal lords of the mortals around them. If you ask them, they don't even qualify as "evil", which is why they aren't repulsed by holy symbols and have reflections. They simply have an extra requirement to their sharecroppers when seeing a share of their crops. That the world has ceased to acknowledge the planet is a chaotic, dangerous place that requires the strong to rule the weak to protect them is not their problem, which is why Sandru d'Umbre got so very frustrated when that irritating little vagabond, Nick Wilde the Gunsmoke Mage, started harassing his family and lands when pursuing a business partner of theirs, and followed him home on occasion to vent his displeasure at the intrusion.

Technically a boyar meant to ensure his superiors were not poisoned rather than a count (it came from a pun and mishearing on his actual title that he found rather funny - Umbre is no technophobe and he loves classic horror movies as ironic tragic comedies, growing quite impressed with Lugosi), Umbre is a fairly typical mildly elder vampire by his own admittance. His whole purpose in life is to help maintain, and occasionally expand, his line's domain, and secure enough mortals and contacts to support them. Really, he wasn't even that upset with Wilde - the more he realized the man was more akin to a knight-errant and wandering adventurer than a bandit, the more he came to respect him as a fellow noble protecting his people, albeit one on a rather lower social stratum than himself. That the Gunsmoke Mage was one of many, many victims of the V'sori deeply upset him - the man deserved to die heroically defending the weak or at least being offered patronage into the Karnstein clan, not stabbed in the back by alien treachery! Thus, even beyond the fact he recognizes his herd will be put in danger by the ultimate invasion and that in the upheaval a good portion of Star City is prime to he seized by his house, he also seeks to avenge his old rival's honor.

The vampire is a monster of the night, after all. Traitors and mutineers have long since strayed into it.

Curseborne Occult Lawfare

2025-12-09T00:00:05Z

Leliel: /* Players */

''In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorneys.''

=Curseborne: Occult Lawfare=

OOC: [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669028]]

IC: [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932788/#post-25674563]]

=Players=

(With thanks to Kittlefish)

Kittlefish - [[Lydia Maples, esq.]]: Flashy Vampire lawyer, wants to be the public face of the branch and is the fiery courtroom orator.

Daxian - Zenith "Zen" Meridan [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669145]]

Jeremy Kopczynski - Lola Umbra [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669032]]

[strike]Donan - [[Lisa Jenkins]] Delver into records, seeker of secrets. Also a Sphinx Primal and good at sneaking.[/strike]

mysstic101 - [[Earl Grey]], alien technologist hiding as SM&M's IT Manager

==History of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison Consulting Limited==

We at SM&M pride ourselves on our four virtues: our willingness to hire and defend anyone regardless of origin or creed, our honesty and dedication to our clients, our sincere dedication to legal ethics, and our ability to strategically apply the correct persuasion to get judges to accept that supernatural evidence is valid. (Please refer to the employee contract 4-C-200 for the reminder that supernatural evidence itself must be valid for it to be considered valid for massaging). Founded in 1938 in Los Angeles in the wake of the Varney case wherein it became clear that the local dock labor union needed legal representation of a more particular kind in order to evade the fact that the notoriously abusive work conditions were partly caused by a mindbending vampiress and her crew and evidence needed to be found and properly presented, and later that a prominent leader needed to be protected from a psionically empowered frame job for murder, our Senior Partners realized that a true legal aide required a certain amount of...specialized talent. Also recognizing that many in law enforcement were Accursed with special needs, they saw a perfect solution to both.

As a professional associated with our firm, you will not just be defending our clients in court, but investigating the occult cases that nobody else can solve, and giving them the best possible legal aide in both trial and civic areas. Justice may be blind, but with SM&M, it doesn't need eyes to see!

==Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich==

The World of Curses is much like our own, but...weirder. Such as here, where you were hired by a months-old branch office in a city that, were it not for magic and divination, probably would not exist.

"The Misty City", "Boston's Oddball Sister", and sometimes "Miami of the Snow", due having a similar climate to its southern neighbor, and having the uh, eccentricity of Florida at times, Norwich is sometimes also called "Salem, but urban and with gargoyles." It has a pretty good art scene, but it's well-known it was founded because of ecstatic visions more than anything about the north of Boston having useful material, and then, infamously, was the Greely Trial, which would have been the Norwich Witch Trials, except the second trial was of Patience Warren, wife of the extremely popular Elder Malcolm Warren, who flatly refused to believe the allegations against his spouse. What happened next turned the inherently tragedy of a witch hunt into an absolute farce as witnesses recanted their accounts, several tests were openly deemed heretical by religious authorities, a missing child was found alive and well (because he was a notorious runaway), and eventually, it came out that the primary source of the accusations, Luke Greely, was an adulterer, thief and scammer, who had accused the first woman largely to cover up an affair, as revealed by his own wife. While the fallout was not nearly as clean as the sanitized version of history where the Puritans realized how silly there were being and ran him out of town (in fact, a good quarter tried to counter-riot upon the declaration that he needed to leave), it did set the mood of the town, and later entire city going forward - Salem and Norwich seem to embrace witches as mascots, with Norwich being the place where "the place the Devil won his day in court."

This has led to it also being a place that also got permanently magnetized for curses - it's an open secret among Accursed it only exists due to magic influencing people, but the occult symbolism of the Greely Trial of "the holy managing to get its lawsuit tossed out for malicious prosecution" permanently made it a magnet for the Outside...which is good for the tourism board. Lots of news of the weird to put on the brochures.

Also, ever since the Snake Room "opened", it's been a magnet for Outsider refugees. And the social tensions that come with any refugees. So, uh, no pressure.

==Locations==

'''New Grave'''

New Grave is a neighborhood in Norwich with its own distinct character. Originally an independent township, it was later fully absorbed into Norwich upon the latter's expansion to its current size. During Dutch rule over "New Netherland" in the 1600's, New Grave was the third largest population center of Dutch colonists, after the 2,500 people living in New Amsterdam (now New York), and the 1,000 residents of Fort Orange (now near Albany).

The settlement's original name was "Des Nieuwe Gravenhaege" (The New Hague, basically). However, a shift toward more English pronunciation and spelling during British rule eventually had residents calling it "New Grave 'n Hag". This was eventually just shortened to "New Grave", which it remains today.

At first, New Grave was both literally and figuratively a swamp. Literally, being founded upon boggy marsh not far from Norwich Harbor, but figuratively for being a stronghold of Dutch Vodnici immigrants who made it into a Family-held "Swamp" in Accursed terms. As time passed, the marsh was eventually drained to make room for more agriculture and housing, but some measure of its original character still remains: canals.

Lots and lots of little canals. New Grave is riddled with them, an extensive network running parallel to most of the surface streets and sidewalks, with the water coming right up to the buildings' facades in some cases. This gives any Vodnici living there unparalleled freedom to move about unseen, most anywhere in the neighborhood, spying or striking from the shadows as needed. In addition to the tiny waterways, a much larger commercial canal connects Norwich Harbor to New Grave's local docks and warehouse district, giving the neighborhood a decent economic interest into the world of ship-borne commerce (and smuggling).

In pursuit of tourist dollars, New Grave also enthusiastically participates in Norwich's overall "witch-y" atmosphere with its own particular flair. All the surface water in the neighborhood causes fog to be a common sight, both mornings and evenings. Great for skulking! (If one is so inclined). And great for creating a spooky atmosphere, too, which draws in visitors for ghost tours or to see the centuries-old gothic Dutch architecture firsthand. The Centrum, formerly the town square, is a popular gathering point for such excursions, and many of the district's oldest and most picturesque buildings nestle around it.

There are rumors that underwater passages lead to and from some of the buildings, or even out to sea . . . but what purpose would that serve? Nah. Surely just an urban legend.

'''Bell Hill'''

Originally part of the mill town of Carston, Bell Hill used to house the mansions of the wealthy owners. Long after the mills closed and Norwich crept out to absorb the town, the manors remain, but not the money. Heirs cling to hair-thin investment portfolios and ancestral properties in a plot that would be ripe for redevelopment - or at least renovation to pass into the hands of newer money - were it not for the desperate pacts made to cling to the last vestiges of past glory.

You'd think the Addams Family would be right at home here, but they'd be worth more than the whole neighborhood combined and vastly more friendly.

Except for Dr. Waite

is definitely not the first appelation this wizened Ascetic has gone by. It's unlikely he actually bears any relation to the Waite line that built the mansion he resides in. Conflicting accounts say that he is the registrar for the pacts and curses binding Bell Hill into its state of not-quite-collapse, or the only one capable of keeping what lurks within from spilling out. Perhaps both are true.

For the 'hermit of Bell Hill' - so-called because he puts on affectations of being withdrawn and reclusive, despite a social calendar that sees him lurking at high-society events more nights than not - knows things. He knows many things. Often, things that might be best forgotten. Things that people want forgotten. But often very useful things.

If he doesn't know some piece of esoterica, he probably knows where to go or who to kill to find or learn it. Conveniently, that is also often the price he asks for remembering things.

'''The Stakehouse'''

The Stakehouse is regarded as a tourist trap by uninformed locals, a honey trap by uninformed venators, a carefully curated hunting ground for local Hungry (and some Dead and other compatible families), and a fucking embarassment by more old-school and stick-in-the-mud members of the Lineage.

The establishment consists of an expensive and touristy gothy nightclub and bar on the main level, a much less publicized S&M club in the basement, and VIP areas that cater to the tastes of the guests there. Not the tastes of the Hungry, the guests. Enterprising Bathorite Lilith Desjardins (who just happens to be Lydia's progenitor*) founded it in the late 80s as vampire fiction and fandom went on the upswing and she noticed that of course would-be vampire groupies were visiting Norwich and poking around.

The majority of patrons just go for the atmosphere, spend a little too much money and mill about in fits from Hot Topic or whatever the mall-goths establishment du jour is. 'Get bit here' isn't advertised openly, mostly seeded through networks of the people who are already fantasizing about the allure of the creatures of the night. A special waiver, an NDA, a red velvet wristband, and an extra cover charge are the bare minimum for that kind of tourist.

Most of the Hungry who hunt its shadows are on the payroll in some fashion, with access to their necessary nightly sip being one of the perks. But they are service providers, and the ones getting bitten are the clients. VIPs pay for a guaranteed bite and more involved experiences like being pursued in a mock-hunt or getting bled in an elaborate and probably fake dark ritual. Lilith is up front about the arrangement being functionally (or outright) sex work. There are some less expected staff roles, too; Raven, an Ascetic, is a licensed therapist who helps bite addicts and people who've been abused and enthralled by less scrupulous Hungry return to normal lives.

Anyone else allowed to 'hunt' here serves the club or community in some fashion. Lydia, for example, is on retainer as The Stakehouse's legal representative and has also helped forcibly remove uninvited monsters.

"Drink responsibly" is the staff motto and this is enforced viciously. Any sort of lasting or undesired harm hurts not just the client but the business. For obvious reasons, most Hungry's Damnations are right out; they just get to keep the edge off. Getting fired and trespassed is getting off lightly. In all the Stakehouse's years of operation, there has been one death of a client; Lilith keeps the ashes of the perpetrator in an urn prominently on her desk to remind staff of the consequence. She holds herself to this standard too, of course; if she's bathed in anyone's blood in the last four decades, it hasn't been on-premises.

*Say 'sire' and at least one of them will stab you; say 'maker' and they'll roll their eyes; try to be cute and say 'dam' and they'll roll their eyes and then stab you.

'''The Snake Room''' (and the Uhrmann Gallery)

To understand the Snake Room, and why it's located where it is, one has to understand three people - Franklin Uhrmann, Gordon Stark, and Leopold Wilcox. The latter two much more, because they made it - and may or may not have killed each other over it. Hard to tell. But long story short, Stark was the head of Arcana Amusements, a toy company that became well-known for its action figures, its multimedia properties, and shameless ruthlessness in the 50s and 60s, largely due to Stark. Man was one of the last great robber barons, who had to be at least respected for their genuine work ethic even if for nothing else. Also quite the adventurer, which is why he hired Wilcox to paint his study during an extended Safari with a mistress (he famously said that marriage was for more honest and older men than he once). Think is, Wilcox was very much someone who does crop up around "bohemian" art communities - which is to say, a bit of a druggie. Made his art really unique, but, well, he could be quite the flake, which Stark accepted...he didn't realize that Wilcox would have a particular trip that would cause him to go way too into it.

It didn't help that it was also during the Killer Sun of 64, one of the most notorious disasters in Norwich history due to bad emergency services during a bizarre localized heatwave that was almost certainly partly the result of an attempted Archon aggression from the Outside. And also, Wilcox had gained some very distinct and unique species of weed that drove him to have visions, and become convinced that the jungle mural he was hired to paint was speaking to him, and it was demanding to have more snakes added to combat the sun. And more. And more. Until when Stark got back, the entire room was covered in very detailed, very surreal images of myriad ophidians, wall to wall, ceiling to floor - even the furniture that was nailed down. He was quite upset with this, and chased Wilcox into the room, ignoring the angry mob enforcers seeking payment for the truly massive debt Wilcox had acquired to get material to commune with the snakes. Both vanished that day, assumedly killed by the mob and vanished to avoid prosecution, but people say the largest two anacondas grew fatter - and the heat wave broke in the rain.

Curiously, nobody who interacted with the Snake Room wanted to tear it down - despite the fact that people feel very small within it, like early man lost in a very deep heart of the jungle, and strange disappearances and sightings of chimeric beasts linked to it - plus a noted increase in the level of Outside portals that let in creatures from planes that generate refugees for whatever reason, both the refugees and the reasons they are fleeing. People who do so suddenly feel dread like cobras showing their hoods to them, and those who persist have strange accidents related to animal attacks or being poisoned. Uhrmann was an exception to damaging it - because Uhrmann, a noted eccentric and art historian who has some...interesting opinions on the inherent intersection of fear and desire (short and tactful answer as possible: he is sometimes known as the Patron Saint of Teratophiles) went into the room, spent three full days soaking it in, and came out with a plan to make it the center of his magnum opus. The study was literally torn out of the Stark mansion and merged into a new art museum dedicated to his philosophy.

The Uhrmann Gallery is known for its sinister reputation and the oddity of its patrons, and likes it that way. You don't get founded by someone like that and don't learn to be chill with people whose tastes involve the phrase "now hear me out". Of course, the Snake Room is almost certainly a Shattered Space, but it also seems to be a rather tame one - because it seems the snakes are extremely vain, and they are a centerpiece no matter the current exhibition of the museum. They enjoy being admired more than eating people, it seems, and at worst just spook people who probably were looking forward to that anyway and deliberately went into it at night. But the more chaotic the world outside grows, the more active they get - because the snakes also seem to despise disorder and especially nihilistic violence. If the world does not resolve itself, they will - and their method needs them to be well-fed, and their method is a bit...blunt anyway. As in, spontaneous neurotoxin in people's veins blunt or randomly opening portals to make a worse problem to team up against, blunt.

Curseborne Occult Lawfare

2025-12-08T14:39:07Z

Leliel: /* Curseborne: Occult Lawfare */

''In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorneys.''

=Curseborne: Occult Lawfare=

OOC: [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669028]]

IC: [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932788/#post-25674563]]

=Players=

(With thanks to Kittlefish)

Kittlefish - [[Lydia Maples, esq.]]: Flashy Vampire lawyer, wants to be the public face of the branch and is the fiery courtroom orator.

Daxian - Zenith "Zen" Meridan [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669145]]

Jeremy Kopczynski - Lola Umbra [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669032]]

Donan - [[Lisa Jenkins]] Delver into records, seeker of secrets. Also a Sphinx Primal and good at sneaking.

mysstic101 - [[Earl Grey]], alien technologist hiding as SM&M's IT Manager

==History of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison Consulting Limited==

We at SM&M pride ourselves on our four virtues: our willingness to hire and defend anyone regardless of origin or creed, our honesty and dedication to our clients, our sincere dedication to legal ethics, and our ability to strategically apply the correct persuasion to get judges to accept that supernatural evidence is valid. (Please refer to the employee contract 4-C-200 for the reminder that supernatural evidence itself must be valid for it to be considered valid for massaging). Founded in 1938 in Los Angeles in the wake of the Varney case wherein it became clear that the local dock labor union needed legal representation of a more particular kind in order to evade the fact that the notoriously abusive work conditions were partly caused by a mindbending vampiress and her crew and evidence needed to be found and properly presented, and later that a prominent leader needed to be protected from a psionically empowered frame job for murder, our Senior Partners realized that a true legal aide required a certain amount of...specialized talent. Also recognizing that many in law enforcement were Accursed with special needs, they saw a perfect solution to both.

As a professional associated with our firm, you will not just be defending our clients in court, but investigating the occult cases that nobody else can solve, and giving them the best possible legal aide in both trial and civic areas. Justice may be blind, but with SM&M, it doesn't need eyes to see!

==Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich==

The World of Curses is much like our own, but...weirder. Such as here, where you were hired by a months-old branch office in a city that, were it not for magic and divination, probably would not exist.

"The Misty City", "Boston's Oddball Sister", and sometimes "Miami of the Snow", due having a similar climate to its southern neighbor, and having the uh, eccentricity of Florida at times, Norwich is sometimes also called "Salem, but urban and with gargoyles." It has a pretty good art scene, but it's well-known it was founded because of ecstatic visions more than anything about the north of Boston having useful material, and then, infamously, was the Greely Trial, which would have been the Norwich Witch Trials, except the second trial was of Patience Warren, wife of the extremely popular Elder Malcolm Warren, who flatly refused to believe the allegations against his spouse. What happened next turned the inherently tragedy of a witch hunt into an absolute farce as witnesses recanted their accounts, several tests were openly deemed heretical by religious authorities, a missing child was found alive and well (because he was a notorious runaway), and eventually, it came out that the primary source of the accusations, Luke Greely, was an adulterer, thief and scammer, who had accused the first woman largely to cover up an affair, as revealed by his own wife. While the fallout was not nearly as clean as the sanitized version of history where the Puritans realized how silly there were being and ran him out of town (in fact, a good quarter tried to counter-riot upon the declaration that he needed to leave), it did set the mood of the town, and later entire city going forward - Salem and Norwich seem to embrace witches as mascots, with Norwich being the place where "the place the Devil won his day in court."

This has led to it also being a place that also got permanently magnetized for curses - it's an open secret among Accursed it only exists due to magic influencing people, but the occult symbolism of the Greely Trial of "the holy managing to get its lawsuit tossed out for malicious prosecution" permanently made it a magnet for the Outside...which is good for the tourism board. Lots of news of the weird to put on the brochures.

Also, ever since the Snake Room "opened", it's been a magnet for Outsider refugees. And the social tensions that come with any refugees. So, uh, no pressure.

==Locations==

'''New Grave'''

New Grave is a neighborhood in Norwich with its own distinct character. Originally an independent township, it was later fully absorbed into Norwich upon the latter's expansion to its current size. During Dutch rule over "New Netherland" in the 1600's, New Grave was the third largest population center of Dutch colonists, after the 2,500 people living in New Amsterdam (now New York), and the 1,000 residents of Fort Orange (now near Albany).

The settlement's original name was "Des Nieuwe Gravenhaege" (The New Hague, basically). However, a shift toward more English pronunciation and spelling during British rule eventually had residents calling it "New Grave 'n Hag". This was eventually just shortened to "New Grave", which it remains today.

At first, New Grave was both literally and figuratively a swamp. Literally, being founded upon boggy marsh not far from Norwich Harbor, but figuratively for being a stronghold of Dutch Vodnici immigrants who made it into a Family-held "Swamp" in Accursed terms. As time passed, the marsh was eventually drained to make room for more agriculture and housing, but some measure of its original character still remains: canals.

Lots and lots of little canals. New Grave is riddled with them, an extensive network running parallel to most of the surface streets and sidewalks, with the water coming right up to the buildings' facades in some cases. This gives any Vodnici living there unparalleled freedom to move about unseen, most anywhere in the neighborhood, spying or striking from the shadows as needed. In addition to the tiny waterways, a much larger commercial canal connects Norwich Harbor to New Grave's local docks and warehouse district, giving the neighborhood a decent economic interest into the world of ship-borne commerce (and smuggling).

In pursuit of tourist dollars, New Grave also enthusiastically participates in Norwich's overall "witch-y" atmosphere with its own particular flair. All the surface water in the neighborhood causes fog to be a common sight, both mornings and evenings. Great for skulking! (If one is so inclined). And great for creating a spooky atmosphere, too, which draws in visitors for ghost tours or to see the centuries-old gothic Dutch architecture firsthand. The Centrum, formerly the town square, is a popular gathering point for such excursions, and many of the district's oldest and most picturesque buildings nestle around it.

There are rumors that underwater passages lead to and from some of the buildings, or even out to sea . . . but what purpose would that serve? Nah. Surely just an urban legend.

'''Bell Hill'''

Originally part of the mill town of Carston, Bell Hill used to house the mansions of the wealthy owners. Long after the mills closed and Norwich crept out to absorb the town, the manors remain, but not the money. Heirs cling to hair-thin investment portfolios and ancestral properties in a plot that would be ripe for redevelopment - or at least renovation to pass into the hands of newer money - were it not for the desperate pacts made to cling to the last vestiges of past glory.

You'd think the Addams Family would be right at home here, but they'd be worth more than the whole neighborhood combined and vastly more friendly.

Except for Dr. Waite

is definitely not the first appelation this wizened Ascetic has gone by. It's unlikely he actually bears any relation to the Waite line that built the mansion he resides in. Conflicting accounts say that he is the registrar for the pacts and curses binding Bell Hill into its state of not-quite-collapse, or the only one capable of keeping what lurks within from spilling out. Perhaps both are true.

For the 'hermit of Bell Hill' - so-called because he puts on affectations of being withdrawn and reclusive, despite a social calendar that sees him lurking at high-society events more nights than not - knows things. He knows many things. Often, things that might be best forgotten. Things that people want forgotten. But often very useful things.

If he doesn't know some piece of esoterica, he probably knows where to go or who to kill to find or learn it. Conveniently, that is also often the price he asks for remembering things.

'''The Stakehouse'''

The Stakehouse is regarded as a tourist trap by uninformed locals, a honey trap by uninformed venators, a carefully curated hunting ground for local Hungry (and some Dead and other compatible families), and a fucking embarassment by more old-school and stick-in-the-mud members of the Lineage.

The establishment consists of an expensive and touristy gothy nightclub and bar on the main level, a much less publicized S&M club in the basement, and VIP areas that cater to the tastes of the guests there. Not the tastes of the Hungry, the guests. Enterprising Bathorite Lilith Desjardins (who just happens to be Lydia's progenitor*) founded it in the late 80s as vampire fiction and fandom went on the upswing and she noticed that of course would-be vampire groupies were visiting Norwich and poking around.

The majority of patrons just go for the atmosphere, spend a little too much money and mill about in fits from Hot Topic or whatever the mall-goths establishment du jour is. 'Get bit here' isn't advertised openly, mostly seeded through networks of the people who are already fantasizing about the allure of the creatures of the night. A special waiver, an NDA, a red velvet wristband, and an extra cover charge are the bare minimum for that kind of tourist.

Most of the Hungry who hunt its shadows are on the payroll in some fashion, with access to their necessary nightly sip being one of the perks. But they are service providers, and the ones getting bitten are the clients. VIPs pay for a guaranteed bite and more involved experiences like being pursued in a mock-hunt or getting bled in an elaborate and probably fake dark ritual. Lilith is up front about the arrangement being functionally (or outright) sex work. There are some less expected staff roles, too; Raven, an Ascetic, is a licensed therapist who helps bite addicts and people who've been abused and enthralled by less scrupulous Hungry return to normal lives.

Anyone else allowed to 'hunt' here serves the club or community in some fashion. Lydia, for example, is on retainer as The Stakehouse's legal representative and has also helped forcibly remove uninvited monsters.

"Drink responsibly" is the staff motto and this is enforced viciously. Any sort of lasting or undesired harm hurts not just the client but the business. For obvious reasons, most Hungry's Damnations are right out; they just get to keep the edge off. Getting fired and trespassed is getting off lightly. In all the Stakehouse's years of operation, there has been one death of a client; Lilith keeps the ashes of the perpetrator in an urn prominently on her desk to remind staff of the consequence. She holds herself to this standard too, of course; if she's bathed in anyone's blood in the last four decades, it hasn't been on-premises.

*Say 'sire' and at least one of them will stab you; say 'maker' and they'll roll their eyes; try to be cute and say 'dam' and they'll roll their eyes and then stab you.

'''The Snake Room''' (and the Uhrmann Gallery)

To understand the Snake Room, and why it's located where it is, one has to understand three people - Franklin Uhrmann, Gordon Stark, and Leopold Wilcox. The latter two much more, because they made it - and may or may not have killed each other over it. Hard to tell. But long story short, Stark was the head of Arcana Amusements, a toy company that became well-known for its action figures, its multimedia properties, and shameless ruthlessness in the 50s and 60s, largely due to Stark. Man was one of the last great robber barons, who had to be at least respected for their genuine work ethic even if for nothing else. Also quite the adventurer, which is why he hired Wilcox to paint his study during an extended Safari with a mistress (he famously said that marriage was for more honest and older men than he once). Think is, Wilcox was very much someone who does crop up around "bohemian" art communities - which is to say, a bit of a druggie. Made his art really unique, but, well, he could be quite the flake, which Stark accepted...he didn't realize that Wilcox would have a particular trip that would cause him to go way too into it.

It didn't help that it was also during the Killer Sun of 64, one of the most notorious disasters in Norwich history due to bad emergency services during a bizarre localized heatwave that was almost certainly partly the result of an attempted Archon aggression from the Outside. And also, Wilcox had gained some very distinct and unique species of weed that drove him to have visions, and become convinced that the jungle mural he was hired to paint was speaking to him, and it was demanding to have more snakes added to combat the sun. And more. And more. Until when Stark got back, the entire room was covered in very detailed, very surreal images of myriad ophidians, wall to wall, ceiling to floor - even the furniture that was nailed down. He was quite upset with this, and chased Wilcox into the room, ignoring the angry mob enforcers seeking payment for the truly massive debt Wilcox had acquired to get material to commune with the snakes. Both vanished that day, assumedly killed by the mob and vanished to avoid prosecution, but people say the largest two anacondas grew fatter - and the heat wave broke in the rain.

Curiously, nobody who interacted with the Snake Room wanted to tear it down - despite the fact that people feel very small within it, like early man lost in a very deep heart of the jungle, and strange disappearances and sightings of chimeric beasts linked to it - plus a noted increase in the level of Outside portals that let in creatures from planes that generate refugees for whatever reason, both the refugees and the reasons they are fleeing. People who do so suddenly feel dread like cobras showing their hoods to them, and those who persist have strange accidents related to animal attacks or being poisoned. Uhrmann was an exception to damaging it - because Uhrmann, a noted eccentric and art historian who has some...interesting opinions on the inherent intersection of fear and desire (short and tactful answer as possible: he is sometimes known as the Patron Saint of Teratophiles) went into the room, spent three full days soaking it in, and came out with a plan to make it the center of his magnum opus. The study was literally torn out of the Stark mansion and merged into a new art museum dedicated to his philosophy.

The Uhrmann Gallery is known for its sinister reputation and the oddity of its patrons, and likes it that way. You don't get founded by someone like that and don't learn to be chill with people whose tastes involve the phrase "now hear me out". Of course, the Snake Room is almost certainly a Shattered Space, but it also seems to be a rather tame one - because it seems the snakes are extremely vain, and they are a centerpiece no matter the current exhibition of the museum. They enjoy being admired more than eating people, it seems, and at worst just spook people who probably were looking forward to that anyway and deliberately went into it at night. But the more chaotic the world outside grows, the more active they get - because the snakes also seem to despise disorder and especially nihilistic violence. If the world does not resolve itself, they will - and their method needs them to be well-fed, and their method is a bit...blunt anyway. As in, spontaneous neurotoxin in people's veins blunt or randomly opening portals to make a worse problem to team up against, blunt.

Curseborne Occult Lawfare

2025-12-08T04:31:04Z

Leliel: /* Players */

''In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorneys.''

=Curseborne: Occult Lawfare=

OOC: [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/|OOC]]

=Players=

(With thanks to Kittlefish)

Kittlefish - [[Lydia Maples, esq.]]: Flashy Vampire lawyer, wants to be the public face of the branch and is the fiery courtroom orator.

Daxian - Zenith "Zen" Meridan [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669145]]

Jeremy Kopczynski - Lola Umbra [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/#post-25669032]]

Donan - [[Lisa Jenkins]] Delver into records, seeker of secrets. Also a Sphinx Primal and good at sneaking.

mysstic101 - [[Earl Grey]], alien technologist hiding as SM&M's IT Manager

==History of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison Consulting Limited==

We at SM&M pride ourselves on our four virtues: our willingness to hire and defend anyone regardless of origin or creed, our honesty and dedication to our clients, our sincere dedication to legal ethics, and our ability to strategically apply the correct persuasion to get judges to accept that supernatural evidence is valid. (Please refer to the employee contract 4-C-200 for the reminder that supernatural evidence itself must be valid for it to be considered valid for massaging). Founded in 1938 in Los Angeles in the wake of the Varney case wherein it became clear that the local dock labor union needed legal representation of a more particular kind in order to evade the fact that the notoriously abusive work conditions were partly caused by a mindbending vampiress and her crew and evidence needed to be found and properly presented, and later that a prominent leader needed to be protected from a psionically empowered frame job for murder, our Senior Partners realized that a true legal aide required a certain amount of...specialized talent. Also recognizing that many in law enforcement were Accursed with special needs, they saw a perfect solution to both.

As a professional associated with our firm, you will not just be defending our clients in court, but investigating the occult cases that nobody else can solve, and giving them the best possible legal aide in both trial and civic areas. Justice may be blind, but with SM&M, it doesn't need eyes to see!

==Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich==

The World of Curses is much like our own, but...weirder. Such as here, where you were hired by a months-old branch office in a city that, were it not for magic and divination, probably would not exist.

"The Misty City", "Boston's Oddball Sister", and sometimes "Miami of the Snow", due having a similar climate to its southern neighbor, and having the uh, eccentricity of Florida at times, Norwich is sometimes also called "Salem, but urban and with gargoyles." It has a pretty good art scene, but it's well-known it was founded because of ecstatic visions more than anything about the north of Boston having useful material, and then, infamously, was the Greely Trial, which would have been the Norwich Witch Trials, except the second trial was of Patience Warren, wife of the extremely popular Elder Malcolm Warren, who flatly refused to believe the allegations against his spouse. What happened next turned the inherently tragedy of a witch hunt into an absolute farce as witnesses recanted their accounts, several tests were openly deemed heretical by religious authorities, a missing child was found alive and well (because he was a notorious runaway), and eventually, it came out that the primary source of the accusations, Luke Greely, was an adulterer, thief and scammer, who had accused the first woman largely to cover up an affair, as revealed by his own wife. While the fallout was not nearly as clean as the sanitized version of history where the Puritans realized how silly there were being and ran him out of town (in fact, a good quarter tried to counter-riot upon the declaration that he needed to leave), it did set the mood of the town, and later entire city going forward - Salem and Norwich seem to embrace witches as mascots, with Norwich being the place where "the place the Devil won his day in court."

This has led to it also being a place that also got permanently magnetized for curses - it's an open secret among Accursed it only exists due to magic influencing people, but the occult symbolism of the Greely Trial of "the holy managing to get its lawsuit tossed out for malicious prosecution" permanently made it a magnet for the Outside...which is good for the tourism board. Lots of news of the weird to put on the brochures.

Also, ever since the Snake Room "opened", it's been a magnet for Outsider refugees. And the social tensions that come with any refugees. So, uh, no pressure.

==Locations==

'''New Grave'''

New Grave is a neighborhood in Norwich with its own distinct character. Originally an independent township, it was later fully absorbed into Norwich upon the latter's expansion to its current size. During Dutch rule over "New Netherland" in the 1600's, New Grave was the third largest population center of Dutch colonists, after the 2,500 people living in New Amsterdam (now New York), and the 1,000 residents of Fort Orange (now near Albany).

The settlement's original name was "Des Nieuwe Gravenhaege" (The New Hague, basically). However, a shift toward more English pronunciation and spelling during British rule eventually had residents calling it "New Grave 'n Hag". This was eventually just shortened to "New Grave", which it remains today.

At first, New Grave was both literally and figuratively a swamp. Literally, being founded upon boggy marsh not far from Norwich Harbor, but figuratively for being a stronghold of Dutch Vodnici immigrants who made it into a Family-held "Swamp" in Accursed terms. As time passed, the marsh was eventually drained to make room for more agriculture and housing, but some measure of its original character still remains: canals.

Lots and lots of little canals. New Grave is riddled with them, an extensive network running parallel to most of the surface streets and sidewalks, with the water coming right up to the buildings' facades in some cases. This gives any Vodnici living there unparalleled freedom to move about unseen, most anywhere in the neighborhood, spying or striking from the shadows as needed. In addition to the tiny waterways, a much larger commercial canal connects Norwich Harbor to New Grave's local docks and warehouse district, giving the neighborhood a decent economic interest into the world of ship-borne commerce (and smuggling).

In pursuit of tourist dollars, New Grave also enthusiastically participates in Norwich's overall "witch-y" atmosphere with its own particular flair. All the surface water in the neighborhood causes fog to be a common sight, both mornings and evenings. Great for skulking! (If one is so inclined). And great for creating a spooky atmosphere, too, which draws in visitors for ghost tours or to see the centuries-old gothic Dutch architecture firsthand. The Centrum, formerly the town square, is a popular gathering point for such excursions, and many of the district's oldest and most picturesque buildings nestle around it.

There are rumors that underwater passages lead to and from some of the buildings, or even out to sea . . . but what purpose would that serve? Nah. Surely just an urban legend.

'''Bell Hill'''

Originally part of the mill town of Carston, Bell Hill used to house the mansions of the wealthy owners. Long after the mills closed and Norwich crept out to absorb the town, the manors remain, but not the money. Heirs cling to hair-thin investment portfolios and ancestral properties in a plot that would be ripe for redevelopment - or at least renovation to pass into the hands of newer money - were it not for the desperate pacts made to cling to the last vestiges of past glory.

You'd think the Addams Family would be right at home here, but they'd be worth more than the whole neighborhood combined and vastly more friendly.

Except for Dr. Waite

is definitely not the first appelation this wizened Ascetic has gone by. It's unlikely he actually bears any relation to the Waite line that built the mansion he resides in. Conflicting accounts say that he is the registrar for the pacts and curses binding Bell Hill into its state of not-quite-collapse, or the only one capable of keeping what lurks within from spilling out. Perhaps both are true.

For the 'hermit of Bell Hill' - so-called because he puts on affectations of being withdrawn and reclusive, despite a social calendar that sees him lurking at high-society events more nights than not - knows things. He knows many things. Often, things that might be best forgotten. Things that people want forgotten. But often very useful things.

If he doesn't know some piece of esoterica, he probably knows where to go or who to kill to find or learn it. Conveniently, that is also often the price he asks for remembering things.

'''The Stakehouse'''

The Stakehouse is regarded as a tourist trap by uninformed locals, a honey trap by uninformed venators, a carefully curated hunting ground for local Hungry (and some Dead and other compatible families), and a fucking embarassment by more old-school and stick-in-the-mud members of the Lineage.

The establishment consists of an expensive and touristy gothy nightclub and bar on the main level, a much less publicized S&M club in the basement, and VIP areas that cater to the tastes of the guests there. Not the tastes of the Hungry, the guests. Enterprising Bathorite Lilith Desjardins (who just happens to be Lydia's progenitor*) founded it in the late 80s as vampire fiction and fandom went on the upswing and she noticed that of course would-be vampire groupies were visiting Norwich and poking around.

The majority of patrons just go for the atmosphere, spend a little too much money and mill about in fits from Hot Topic or whatever the mall-goths establishment du jour is. 'Get bit here' isn't advertised openly, mostly seeded through networks of the people who are already fantasizing about the allure of the creatures of the night. A special waiver, an NDA, a red velvet wristband, and an extra cover charge are the bare minimum for that kind of tourist.

Most of the Hungry who hunt its shadows are on the payroll in some fashion, with access to their necessary nightly sip being one of the perks. But they are service providers, and the ones getting bitten are the clients. VIPs pay for a guaranteed bite and more involved experiences like being pursued in a mock-hunt or getting bled in an elaborate and probably fake dark ritual. Lilith is up front about the arrangement being functionally (or outright) sex work. There are some less expected staff roles, too; Raven, an Ascetic, is a licensed therapist who helps bite addicts and people who've been abused and enthralled by less scrupulous Hungry return to normal lives.

Anyone else allowed to 'hunt' here serves the club or community in some fashion. Lydia, for example, is on retainer as The Stakehouse's legal representative and has also helped forcibly remove uninvited monsters.

"Drink responsibly" is the staff motto and this is enforced viciously. Any sort of lasting or undesired harm hurts not just the client but the business. For obvious reasons, most Hungry's Damnations are right out; they just get to keep the edge off. Getting fired and trespassed is getting off lightly. In all the Stakehouse's years of operation, there has been one death of a client; Lilith keeps the ashes of the perpetrator in an urn prominently on her desk to remind staff of the consequence. She holds herself to this standard too, of course; if she's bathed in anyone's blood in the last four decades, it hasn't been on-premises.

*Say 'sire' and at least one of them will stab you; say 'maker' and they'll roll their eyes; try to be cute and say 'dam' and they'll roll their eyes and then stab you.

'''The Snake Room''' (and the Uhrmann Gallery)

To understand the Snake Room, and why it's located where it is, one has to understand three people - Franklin Uhrmann, Gordon Stark, and Leopold Wilcox. The latter two much more, because they made it - and may or may not have killed each other over it. Hard to tell. But long story short, Stark was the head of Arcana Amusements, a toy company that became well-known for its action figures, its multimedia properties, and shameless ruthlessness in the 50s and 60s, largely due to Stark. Man was one of the last great robber barons, who had to be at least respected for their genuine work ethic even if for nothing else. Also quite the adventurer, which is why he hired Wilcox to paint his study during an extended Safari with a mistress (he famously said that marriage was for more honest and older men than he once). Think is, Wilcox was very much someone who does crop up around "bohemian" art communities - which is to say, a bit of a druggie. Made his art really unique, but, well, he could be quite the flake, which Stark accepted...he didn't realize that Wilcox would have a particular trip that would cause him to go way too into it.

It didn't help that it was also during the Killer Sun of 64, one of the most notorious disasters in Norwich history due to bad emergency services during a bizarre localized heatwave that was almost certainly partly the result of an attempted Archon aggression from the Outside. And also, Wilcox had gained some very distinct and unique species of weed that drove him to have visions, and become convinced that the jungle mural he was hired to paint was speaking to him, and it was demanding to have more snakes added to combat the sun. And more. And more. Until when Stark got back, the entire room was covered in very detailed, very surreal images of myriad ophidians, wall to wall, ceiling to floor - even the furniture that was nailed down. He was quite upset with this, and chased Wilcox into the room, ignoring the angry mob enforcers seeking payment for the truly massive debt Wilcox had acquired to get material to commune with the snakes. Both vanished that day, assumedly killed by the mob and vanished to avoid prosecution, but people say the largest two anacondas grew fatter - and the heat wave broke in the rain.

Curiously, nobody who interacted with the Snake Room wanted to tear it down - despite the fact that people feel very small within it, like early man lost in a very deep heart of the jungle, and strange disappearances and sightings of chimeric beasts linked to it - plus a noted increase in the level of Outside portals that let in creatures from planes that generate refugees for whatever reason, both the refugees and the reasons they are fleeing. People who do so suddenly feel dread like cobras showing their hoods to them, and those who persist have strange accidents related to animal attacks or being poisoned. Uhrmann was an exception to damaging it - because Uhrmann, a noted eccentric and art historian who has some...interesting opinions on the inherent intersection of fear and desire (short and tactful answer as possible: he is sometimes known as the Patron Saint of Teratophiles) went into the room, spent three full days soaking it in, and came out with a plan to make it the center of his magnum opus. The study was literally torn out of the Stark mansion and merged into a new art museum dedicated to his philosophy.

The Uhrmann Gallery is known for its sinister reputation and the oddity of its patrons, and likes it that way. You don't get founded by someone like that and don't learn to be chill with people whose tastes involve the phrase "now hear me out". Of course, the Snake Room is almost certainly a Shattered Space, but it also seems to be a rather tame one - because it seems the snakes are extremely vain, and they are a centerpiece no matter the current exhibition of the museum. They enjoy being admired more than eating people, it seems, and at worst just spook people who probably were looking forward to that anyway and deliberately went into it at night. But the more chaotic the world outside grows, the more active they get - because the snakes also seem to despise disorder and especially nihilistic violence. If the world does not resolve itself, they will - and their method needs them to be well-fed, and their method is a bit...blunt anyway. As in, spontaneous neurotoxin in people's veins blunt or randomly opening portals to make a worse problem to team up against, blunt.

Curseborne Occult Lawfare

2025-12-07T20:29:24Z

Leliel: /* Curseborne: Occult Lawfare */

''In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorneys.''

=Curseborne: Occult Lawfare=

OOC: [[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/|OOC]]

=Players=

(With thanks to Kittlefish)

Kittlefish - [[Lydia Maples, esq.]]: Flashy Vampire lawyer, wants to be the public face of the branch and is the fiery courtroom orator.

Daxian - something sorcerer-y?

Jeremy Kopczynski - lawyer, expert witness-wrangler and speaker for the dead

Donan - [[Lisa Jenkins]] Delver into records, seeker of secrets. Also a Sphinx Primal and good at sneaking.

mysstic101 - [[Earl Grey]], alien technologist hiding as SM&M's IT Manager

==History of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison Consulting Limited==

We at SM&M pride ourselves on our four virtues: our willingness to hire and defend anyone regardless of origin or creed, our honesty and dedication to our clients, our sincere dedication to legal ethics, and our ability to strategically apply the correct persuasion to get judges to accept that supernatural evidence is valid. (Please refer to the employee contract 4-C-200 for the reminder that supernatural evidence itself must be valid for it to be considered valid for massaging). Founded in 1938 in Los Angeles in the wake of the Varney case wherein it became clear that the local dock labor union needed legal representation of a more particular kind in order to evade the fact that the notoriously abusive work conditions were partly caused by a mindbending vampiress and her crew and evidence needed to be found and properly presented, and later that a prominent leader needed to be protected from a psionically empowered frame job for murder, our Senior Partners realized that a true legal aide required a certain amount of...specialized talent. Also recognizing that many in law enforcement were Accursed with special needs, they saw a perfect solution to both.

As a professional associated with our firm, you will not just be defending our clients in court, but investigating the occult cases that nobody else can solve, and giving them the best possible legal aide in both trial and civic areas. Justice may be blind, but with SM&M, it doesn't need eyes to see!

==Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich==

The World of Curses is much like our own, but...weirder. Such as here, where you were hired by a months-old branch office in a city that, were it not for magic and divination, probably would not exist.

"The Misty City", "Boston's Oddball Sister", and sometimes "Miami of the Snow", due having a similar climate to its southern neighbor, and having the uh, eccentricity of Florida at times, Norwich is sometimes also called "Salem, but urban and with gargoyles." It has a pretty good art scene, but it's well-known it was founded because of ecstatic visions more than anything about the north of Boston having useful material, and then, infamously, was the Greely Trial, which would have been the Norwich Witch Trials, except the second trial was of Patience Warren, wife of the extremely popular Elder Malcolm Warren, who flatly refused to believe the allegations against his spouse. What happened next turned the inherently tragedy of a witch hunt into an absolute farce as witnesses recanted their accounts, several tests were openly deemed heretical by religious authorities, a missing child was found alive and well (because he was a notorious runaway), and eventually, it came out that the primary source of the accusations, Luke Greely, was an adulterer, thief and scammer, who had accused the first woman largely to cover up an affair, as revealed by his own wife. While the fallout was not nearly as clean as the sanitized version of history where the Puritans realized how silly there were being and ran him out of town (in fact, a good quarter tried to counter-riot upon the declaration that he needed to leave), it did set the mood of the town, and later entire city going forward - Salem and Norwich seem to embrace witches as mascots, with Norwich being the place where "the place the Devil won his day in court."

This has led to it also being a place that also got permanently magnetized for curses - it's an open secret among Accursed it only exists due to magic influencing people, but the occult symbolism of the Greely Trial of "the holy managing to get its lawsuit tossed out for malicious prosecution" permanently made it a magnet for the Outside...which is good for the tourism board. Lots of news of the weird to put on the brochures.

Also, ever since the Snake Room "opened", it's been a magnet for Outsider refugees. And the social tensions that come with any refugees. So, uh, no pressure.

==Locations==

'''New Grave'''

New Grave is a neighborhood in Norwich with its own distinct character. Originally an independent township, it was later fully absorbed into Norwich upon the latter's expansion to its current size. During Dutch rule over "New Netherland" in the 1600's, New Grave was the third largest population center of Dutch colonists, after the 2,500 people living in New Amsterdam (now New York), and the 1,000 residents of Fort Orange (now near Albany).

The settlement's original name was "Des Nieuwe Gravenhaege" (The New Hague, basically). However, a shift toward more English pronunciation and spelling during British rule eventually had residents calling it "New Grave 'n Hag". This was eventually just shortened to "New Grave", which it remains today.

At first, New Grave was both literally and figuratively a swamp. Literally, being founded upon boggy marsh not far from Norwich Harbor, but figuratively for being a stronghold of Dutch Vodnici immigrants who made it into a Family-held "Swamp" in Accursed terms. As time passed, the marsh was eventually drained to make room for more agriculture and housing, but some measure of its original character still remains: canals.

Lots and lots of little canals. New Grave is riddled with them, an extensive network running parallel to most of the surface streets and sidewalks, with the water coming right up to the buildings' facades in some cases. This gives any Vodnici living there unparalleled freedom to move about unseen, most anywhere in the neighborhood, spying or striking from the shadows as needed. In addition to the tiny waterways, a much larger commercial canal connects Norwich Harbor to New Grave's local docks and warehouse district, giving the neighborhood a decent economic interest into the world of ship-borne commerce (and smuggling).

In pursuit of tourist dollars, New Grave also enthusiastically participates in Norwich's overall "witch-y" atmosphere with its own particular flair. All the surface water in the neighborhood causes fog to be a common sight, both mornings and evenings. Great for skulking! (If one is so inclined). And great for creating a spooky atmosphere, too, which draws in visitors for ghost tours or to see the centuries-old gothic Dutch architecture firsthand. The Centrum, formerly the town square, is a popular gathering point for such excursions, and many of the district's oldest and most picturesque buildings nestle around it.

There are rumors that underwater passages lead to and from some of the buildings, or even out to sea . . . but what purpose would that serve? Nah. Surely just an urban legend.

'''Bell Hill'''

Originally part of the mill town of Carston, Bell Hill used to house the mansions of the wealthy owners. Long after the mills closed and Norwich crept out to absorb the town, the manors remain, but not the money. Heirs cling to hair-thin investment portfolios and ancestral properties in a plot that would be ripe for redevelopment - or at least renovation to pass into the hands of newer money - were it not for the desperate pacts made to cling to the last vestiges of past glory.

You'd think the Addams Family would be right at home here, but they'd be worth more than the whole neighborhood combined and vastly more friendly.

Except for Dr. Waite

is definitely not the first appelation this wizened Ascetic has gone by. It's unlikely he actually bears any relation to the Waite line that built the mansion he resides in. Conflicting accounts say that he is the registrar for the pacts and curses binding Bell Hill into its state of not-quite-collapse, or the only one capable of keeping what lurks within from spilling out. Perhaps both are true.

For the 'hermit of Bell Hill' - so-called because he puts on affectations of being withdrawn and reclusive, despite a social calendar that sees him lurking at high-society events more nights than not - knows things. He knows many things. Often, things that might be best forgotten. Things that people want forgotten. But often very useful things.

If he doesn't know some piece of esoterica, he probably knows where to go or who to kill to find or learn it. Conveniently, that is also often the price he asks for remembering things.

'''The Stakehouse'''

The Stakehouse is regarded as a tourist trap by uninformed locals, a honey trap by uninformed venators, a carefully curated hunting ground for local Hungry (and some Dead and other compatible families), and a fucking embarassment by more old-school and stick-in-the-mud members of the Lineage.

The establishment consists of an expensive and touristy gothy nightclub and bar on the main level, a much less publicized S&M club in the basement, and VIP areas that cater to the tastes of the guests there. Not the tastes of the Hungry, the guests. Enterprising Bathorite Lilith Desjardins (who just happens to be Lydia's progenitor*) founded it in the late 80s as vampire fiction and fandom went on the upswing and she noticed that of course would-be vampire groupies were visiting Norwich and poking around.

The majority of patrons just go for the atmosphere, spend a little too much money and mill about in fits from Hot Topic or whatever the mall-goths establishment du jour is. 'Get bit here' isn't advertised openly, mostly seeded through networks of the people who are already fantasizing about the allure of the creatures of the night. A special waiver, an NDA, a red velvet wristband, and an extra cover charge are the bare minimum for that kind of tourist.

Most of the Hungry who hunt its shadows are on the payroll in some fashion, with access to their necessary nightly sip being one of the perks. But they are service providers, and the ones getting bitten are the clients. VIPs pay for a guaranteed bite and more involved experiences like being pursued in a mock-hunt or getting bled in an elaborate and probably fake dark ritual. Lilith is up front about the arrangement being functionally (or outright) sex work. There are some less expected staff roles, too; Raven, an Ascetic, is a licensed therapist who helps bite addicts and people who've been abused and enthralled by less scrupulous Hungry return to normal lives.

Anyone else allowed to 'hunt' here serves the club or community in some fashion. Lydia, for example, is on retainer as The Stakehouse's legal representative and has also helped forcibly remove uninvited monsters.

"Drink responsibly" is the staff motto and this is enforced viciously. Any sort of lasting or undesired harm hurts not just the client but the business. For obvious reasons, most Hungry's Damnations are right out; they just get to keep the edge off. Getting fired and trespassed is getting off lightly. In all the Stakehouse's years of operation, there has been one death of a client; Lilith keeps the ashes of the perpetrator in an urn prominently on her desk to remind staff of the consequence. She holds herself to this standard too, of course; if she's bathed in anyone's blood in the last four decades, it hasn't been on-premises.

*Say 'sire' and at least one of them will stab you; say 'maker' and they'll roll their eyes; try to be cute and say 'dam' and they'll roll their eyes and then stab you.

'''The Snake Room''' (and the Uhrmann Gallery)

To understand the Snake Room, and why it's located where it is, one has to understand three people - Franklin Uhrmann, Gordon Stark, and Leopold Wilcox. The latter two much more, because they made it - and may or may not have killed each other over it. Hard to tell. But long story short, Stark was the head of Arcana Amusements, a toy company that became well-known for its action figures, its multimedia properties, and shameless ruthlessness in the 50s and 60s, largely due to Stark. Man was one of the last great robber barons, who had to be at least respected for their genuine work ethic even if for nothing else. Also quite the adventurer, which is why he hired Wilcox to paint his study during an extended Safari with a mistress (he famously said that marriage was for more honest and older men than he once). Think is, Wilcox was very much someone who does crop up around "bohemian" art communities - which is to say, a bit of a druggie. Made his art really unique, but, well, he could be quite the flake, which Stark accepted...he didn't realize that Wilcox would have a particular trip that would cause him to go way too into it.

It didn't help that it was also during the Killer Sun of 64, one of the most notorious disasters in Norwich history due to bad emergency services during a bizarre localized heatwave that was almost certainly partly the result of an attempted Archon aggression from the Outside. And also, Wilcox had gained some very distinct and unique species of weed that drove him to have visions, and become convinced that the jungle mural he was hired to paint was speaking to him, and it was demanding to have more snakes added to combat the sun. And more. And more. Until when Stark got back, the entire room was covered in very detailed, very surreal images of myriad ophidians, wall to wall, ceiling to floor - even the furniture that was nailed down. He was quite upset with this, and chased Wilcox into the room, ignoring the angry mob enforcers seeking payment for the truly massive debt Wilcox had acquired to get material to commune with the snakes. Both vanished that day, assumedly killed by the mob and vanished to avoid prosecution, but people say the largest two anacondas grew fatter - and the heat wave broke in the rain.

Curiously, nobody who interacted with the Snake Room wanted to tear it down - despite the fact that people feel very small within it, like early man lost in a very deep heart of the jungle, and strange disappearances and sightings of chimeric beasts linked to it - plus a noted increase in the level of Outside portals that let in creatures from planes that generate refugees for whatever reason, both the refugees and the reasons they are fleeing. People who do so suddenly feel dread like cobras showing their hoods to them, and those who persist have strange accidents related to animal attacks or being poisoned. Uhrmann was an exception to damaging it - because Uhrmann, a noted eccentric and art historian who has some...interesting opinions on the inherent intersection of fear and desire (short and tactful answer as possible: he is sometimes known as the Patron Saint of Teratophiles) went into the room, spent three full days soaking it in, and came out with a plan to make it the center of his magnum opus. The study was literally torn out of the Stark mansion and merged into a new art museum dedicated to his philosophy.

The Uhrmann Gallery is known for its sinister reputation and the oddity of its patrons, and likes it that way. You don't get founded by someone like that and don't learn to be chill with people whose tastes involve the phrase "now hear me out". Of course, the Snake Room is almost certainly a Shattered Space, but it also seems to be a rather tame one - because it seems the snakes are extremely vain, and they are a centerpiece no matter the current exhibition of the museum. They enjoy being admired more than eating people, it seems, and at worst just spook people who probably were looking forward to that anyway and deliberately went into it at night. But the more chaotic the world outside grows, the more active they get - because the snakes also seem to despise disorder and especially nihilistic violence. If the world does not resolve itself, they will - and their method needs them to be well-fed, and their method is a bit...blunt anyway. As in, spontaneous neurotoxin in people's veins blunt or randomly opening portals to make a worse problem to team up against, blunt.

Curseborne Occult Lawfare

2025-12-01T00:32:14Z

Leliel: /* Curseborne: Occult Lawfare */

''In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorneys.''

=Curseborne: Occult Lawfare=

[[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/curseborne-occult-lawfare.932613/|OOC]]

=Players=

(With thanks to Kittlefish)

Kittlefish - [[Lydia Maples, esq.]]: Flashy Vampire lawyer, wants to be the public face of the branch and is the fiery courtroom orator.

Daxian - something sorcerer-y?

Jeremy Kopczynski - lawyer, expert witness-wrangler and speaker for the dead

Donan - [[Lisa Jenkins]] Delver into records, seeker of secrets. Also a Sphinx Primal and good at sneaking.

mysstic101 - Earl Grey, alien technologist hiding as SM&M's IT Manager

==History of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison Consulting Limited==

We at SM&M pride ourselves on our four virtues: our willingness to hire and defend anyone regardless of origin or creed, our honesty and dedication to our clients, our sincere dedication to legal ethics, and our ability to strategically apply the correct persuasion to get judges to accept that supernatural evidence is valid. (Please refer to the employee contract 4-C-200 for the reminder that supernatural evidence itself must be valid for it to be considered valid for massaging). Founded in 1938 in Los Angeles in the wake of the Varney case wherein it became clear that the local dock labor union needed legal representation of a more particular kind in order to evade the fact that the notoriously abusive work conditions were partly caused by a mindbending vampiress and her crew and evidence needed to be found and properly presented, and later that a prominent leader needed to be protected from a psionically empowered frame job for murder, our Senior Partners realized that a true legal aide required a certain amount of...specialized talent. Also recognizing that many in law enforcement were Accursed with special needs, they saw a perfect solution to both.

As a professional associated with our firm, you will not just be defending our clients in court, but investigating the occult cases that nobody else can solve, and giving them the best possible legal aide in both trial and civic areas. Justice may be blind, but with SM&M, it doesn't need eyes to see!

==Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich==

The World of Curses is much like our own, but...weirder. Such as here, where you were hired by a months-old branch office in a city that, were it not for magic and divination, probably would not exist.

"The Misty City", "Boston's Oddball Sister", and sometimes "Miami of the Snow", due having a similar climate to its southern neighbor, and having the uh, eccentricity of Florida at times, Norwich is sometimes also called "Salem, but urban and with gargoyles." It has a pretty good art scene, but it's well-known it was founded because of ecstatic visions more than anything about the north of Boston having useful material, and then, infamously, was the Greely Trial, which would have been the Norwich Witch Trials, except the second trial was of Patience Warren, wife of the extremely popular Elder Malcolm Warren, who flatly refused to believe the allegations against his spouse. What happened next turned the inherently tragedy of a witch hunt into an absolute farce as witnesses recanted their accounts, several tests were openly deemed heretical by religious authorities, a missing child was found alive and well (because he was a notorious runaway), and eventually, it came out that the primary source of the accusations, Luke Greely, was an adulterer, thief and scammer, who had accused the first woman largely to cover up an affair, as revealed by his own wife. While the fallout was not nearly as clean as the sanitized version of history where the Puritans realized how silly there were being and ran him out of town (in fact, a good quarter tried to counter-riot upon the declaration that he needed to leave), it did set the mood of the town, and later entire city going forward - Salem and Norwich seem to embrace witches as mascots, with Norwich being the place where "the place the Devil won his day in court."

This has led to it also being a place that also got permanently magnetized for curses - it's an open secret among Accursed it only exists due to magic influencing people, but the occult symbolism of the Greely Trial of "the holy managing to get its lawsuit tossed out for malicious prosecution" permanently made it a magnet for the Outside...which is good for the tourism board. Lots of news of the weird to put on the brochures.

Also, ever since the Snake Room "opened", it's been a magnet for Outsider refugees. And the social tensions that come with any refugees. So, uh, no pressure.

==Locations==

'''New Grave'''

New Grave is a neighborhood in Norwich with its own distinct character. Originally an independent township, it was later fully absorbed into Norwich upon the latter's expansion to its current size. During Dutch rule over "New Netherland" in the 1600's, New Grave was the third largest population center of Dutch colonists, after the 2,500 people living in New Amsterdam (now New York), and the 1,000 residents of Fort Orange (now near Albany).

The settlement's original name was "Des Nieuwe Gravenhaege" (The New Hague, basically). However, a shift toward more English pronunciation and spelling during British rule eventually had residents calling it "New Grave 'n Hag". This was eventually just shortened to "New Grave", which it remains today.

At first, New Grave was both literally and figuratively a swamp. Literally, being founded upon boggy marsh not far from Norwich Harbor, but figuratively for being a stronghold of Dutch Vodnici immigrants who made it into a Family-held "Swamp" in Accursed terms. As time passed, the marsh was eventually drained to make room for more agriculture and housing, but some measure of its original character still remains: canals.

Lots and lots of little canals. New Grave is riddled with them, an extensive network running parallel to most of the surface streets and sidewalks, with the water coming right up to the buildings' facades in some cases. This gives any Vodnici living there unparalleled freedom to move about unseen, most anywhere in the neighborhood, spying or striking from the shadows as needed. In addition to the tiny waterways, a much larger commercial canal connects Norwich Harbor to New Grave's local docks and warehouse district, giving the neighborhood a decent economic interest into the world of ship-borne commerce (and smuggling).

In pursuit of tourist dollars, New Grave also enthusiastically participates in Norwich's overall "witch-y" atmosphere with its own particular flair. All the surface water in the neighborhood causes fog to be a common sight, both mornings and evenings. Great for skulking! (If one is so inclined). And great for creating a spooky atmosphere, too, which draws in visitors for ghost tours or to see the centuries-old gothic Dutch architecture firsthand. The Centrum, formerly the town square, is a popular gathering point for such excursions, and many of the district's oldest and most picturesque buildings nestle around it.

There are rumors that underwater passages lead to and from some of the buildings, or even out to sea . . . but what purpose would that serve? Nah. Surely just an urban legend.

'''Bell Hill'''

Originally part of the mill town of Carston, Bell Hill used to house the mansions of the wealthy owners. Long after the mills closed and Norwich crept out to absorb the town, the manors remain, but not the money. Heirs cling to hair-thin investment portfolios and ancestral properties in a plot that would be ripe for redevelopment - or at least renovation to pass into the hands of newer money - were it not for the desperate pacts made to cling to the last vestiges of past glory.

You'd think the Addams Family would be right at home here, but they'd be worth more than the whole neighborhood combined and vastly more friendly.

Except for Dr. Waite

is definitely not the first appelation this wizened Ascetic has gone by. It's unlikely he actually bears any relation to the Waite line that built the mansion he resides in. Conflicting accounts say that he is the registrar for the pacts and curses binding Bell Hill into its state of not-quite-collapse, or the only one capable of keeping what lurks within from spilling out. Perhaps both are true.

For the 'hermit of Bell Hill' - so-called because he puts on affectations of being withdrawn and reclusive, despite a social calendar that sees him lurking at high-society events more nights than not - knows things. He knows many things. Often, things that might be best forgotten. Things that people want forgotten. But often very useful things.

If he doesn't know some piece of esoterica, he probably knows where to go or who to kill to find or learn it. Conveniently, that is also often the price he asks for remembering things.

'''The Stakehouse'''

The Stakehouse is regarded as a tourist trap by uninformed locals, a honey trap by uninformed venators, a carefully curated hunting ground for local Hungry (and some Dead and other compatible families), and a fucking embarassment by more old-school and stick-in-the-mud members of the Lineage.

The establishment consists of an expensive and touristy gothy nightclub and bar on the main level, a much less publicized S&M club in the basement, and VIP areas that cater to the tastes of the guests there. Not the tastes of the Hungry, the guests. Enterprising Bathorite Lilith Desjardins (who just happens to be Lydia's progenitor*) founded it in the late 80s as vampire fiction and fandom went on the upswing and she noticed that of course would-be vampire groupies were visiting Norwich and poking around.

The majority of patrons just go for the atmosphere, spend a little too much money and mill about in fits from Hot Topic or whatever the mall-goths establishment du jour is. 'Get bit here' isn't advertised openly, mostly seeded through networks of the people who are already fantasizing about the allure of the creatures of the night. A special waiver, an NDA, a red velvet wristband, and an extra cover charge are the bare minimum for that kind of tourist.

Most of the Hungry who hunt its shadows are on the payroll in some fashion, with access to their necessary nightly sip being one of the perks. But they are service providers, and the ones getting bitten are the clients. VIPs pay for a guaranteed bite and more involved experiences like being pursued in a mock-hunt or getting bled in an elaborate and probably fake dark ritual. Lilith is up front about the arrangement being functionally (or outright) sex work. There are some less expected staff roles, too; Raven, an Ascetic, is a licensed therapist who helps bite addicts and people who've been abused and enthralled by less scrupulous Hungry return to normal lives.

Anyone else allowed to 'hunt' here serves the club or community in some fashion. Lydia, for example, is on retainer as The Stakehouse's legal representative and has also helped forcibly remove uninvited monsters.

"Drink responsibly" is the staff motto and this is enforced viciously. Any sort of lasting or undesired harm hurts not just the client but the business. For obvious reasons, most Hungry's Damnations are right out; they just get to keep the edge off. Getting fired and trespassed is getting off lightly. In all the Stakehouse's years of operation, there has been one death of a client; Lilith keeps the ashes of the perpetrator in an urn prominently on her desk to remind staff of the consequence. She holds herself to this standard too, of course; if she's bathed in anyone's blood in the last four decades, it hasn't been on-premises.

*Say 'sire' and at least one of them will stab you; say 'maker' and they'll roll their eyes; try to be cute and say 'dam' and they'll roll their eyes and then stab you.

'''The Snake Room''' (and the Uhrmann Gallery)

To understand the Snake Room, and why it's located where it is, one has to understand three people - Franklin Uhrmann, Gordon Stark, and Leopold Wilcox. The latter two much more, because they made it - and may or may not have killed each other over it. Hard to tell. But long story short, Stark was the head of Arcana Amusements, a toy company that became well-known for its action figures, its multimedia properties, and shameless ruthlessness in the 50s and 60s, largely due to Stark. Man was one of the last great robber barons, who had to be at least respected for their genuine work ethic even if for nothing else. Also quite the adventurer, which is why he hired Wilcox to paint his study during an extended Safari with a mistress (he famously said that marriage was for more honest and older men than he once). Think is, Wilcox was very much someone who does crop up around "bohemian" art communities - which is to say, a bit of a druggie. Made his art really unique, but, well, he could be quite the flake, which Stark accepted...he didn't realize that Wilcox would have a particular trip that would cause him to go way too into it.

It didn't help that it was also during the Killer Sun of 64, one of the most notorious disasters in Norwich history due to bad emergency services during a bizarre localized heatwave that was almost certainly partly the result of an attempted Archon aggression from the Outside. And also, Wilcox had gained some very distinct and unique species of weed that drove him to have visions, and become convinced that the jungle mural he was hired to paint was speaking to him, and it was demanding to have more snakes added to combat the sun. And more. And more. Until when Stark got back, the entire room was covered in very detailed, very surreal images of myriad ophidians, wall to wall, ceiling to floor - even the furniture that was nailed down. He was quite upset with this, and chased Wilcox into the room, ignoring the angry mob enforcers seeking payment for the truly massive debt Wilcox had acquired to get material to commune with the snakes. Both vanished that day, assumedly killed by the mob and vanished to avoid prosecution, but people say the largest two anacondas grew fatter - and the heat wave broke in the rain.

Curiously, nobody who interacted with the Snake Room wanted to tear it down - despite the fact that people feel very small within it, like early man lost in a very deep heart of the jungle, and strange disappearances and sightings of chimeric beasts linked to it - plus a noted increase in the level of Outside portals that let in creatures from planes that generate refugees for whatever reason, both the refugees and the reasons they are fleeing. People who do so suddenly feel dread like cobras showing their hoods to them, and those who persist have strange accidents related to animal attacks or being poisoned. Uhrmann was an exception to damaging it - because Uhrmann, a noted eccentric and art historian who has some...interesting opinions on the inherent intersection of fear and desire (short and tactful answer as possible: he is sometimes known as the Patron Saint of Teratophiles) went into the room, spent three full days soaking it in, and came out with a plan to make it the center of his magnum opus. The study was literally torn out of the Stark mansion and merged into a new art museum dedicated to his philosophy.

The Uhrmann Gallery is known for its sinister reputation and the oddity of its patrons, and likes it that way. You don't get founded by someone like that and don't learn to be chill with people whose tastes involve the phrase "now hear me out". Of course, the Snake Room is almost certainly a Shattered Space, but it also seems to be a rather tame one - because it seems the snakes are extremely vain, and they are a centerpiece no matter the current exhibition of the museum. They enjoy being admired more than eating people, it seems, and at worst just spook people who probably were looking forward to that anyway and deliberately went into it at night. But the more chaotic the world outside grows, the more active they get - because the snakes also seem to despise disorder and especially nihilistic violence. If the world does not resolve itself, they will - and their method needs them to be well-fed, and their method is a bit...blunt anyway. As in, spontaneous neurotoxin in people's veins blunt or randomly opening portals to make a worse problem to team up against, blunt.

Curseborne Occult Lawfare

2025-11-20T02:47:27Z

Leliel: /* Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich */

''In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorneys.''

=Curseborne: Occult Lawfare=

=Players=

(With thanks to Kittlefish)

Kittlefish - [[Lydia Maples, esq.]]: Flashy Vampire lawyer, wants to be the public face of the branch and is the fiery courtroom orator.

Daxian - something sorcerer-y?

Jeremy Kopczynski - lawyer, expert witness-wrangler and speaker for the dead

Donan - [[Lisa Jenkins]] Delver into records, seeker of secrets. Also a Sphinx Primal and good at sneaking.

mysstic101 - Earl Grey, alien technologist hiding as SM&M's IT Manager

==History of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison Consulting Limited==

We at SM&M pride ourselves on our four virtues: our willingness to hire and defend anyone regardless of origin or creed, our honesty and dedication to our clients, our sincere dedication to legal ethics, and our ability to strategically apply the correct persuasion to get judges to accept that supernatural evidence is valid. (Please refer to the employee contract 4-C-200 for the reminder that supernatural evidence itself must be valid for it to be considered valid for massaging). Founded in 1938 in Los Angeles in the wake of the Varney case wherein it became clear that the local dock labor union needed legal representation of a more particular kind in order to evade the fact that the notoriously abusive work conditions were partly caused by a mindbending vampiress and her crew and evidence needed to be found and properly presented, and later that a prominent leader needed to be protected from a psionically empowered frame job for murder, our Senior Partners realized that a true legal aide required a certain amount of...specialized talent. Also recognizing that many in law enforcement were Accursed with special needs, they saw a perfect solution to both.

As a professional associated with our firm, you will not just be defending our clients in court, but investigating the occult cases that nobody else can solve, and giving them the best possible legal aide in both trial and civic areas. Justice may be blind, but with SM&M, it doesn't need eyes to see!

==Welcome To Sunny(?) Norwich==

The World of Curses is much like our own, but...weirder. Such as here, where you were hired by a months-old branch office in a city that, were it not for magic and divination, probably would not exist.

"The Misty City", "Boston's Oddball Sister", and sometimes "Miami of the Snow", due having a similar climate to its southern neighbor, and having the uh, eccentricity of Florida at times, Norwich is sometimes also called "Salem, but urban and with gargoyles." It has a pretty good art scene, but it's well-known it was founded because of ecstatic visions more than anything about the north of Boston having useful material, and then, infamously, was the Greely Trial, which would have been the Norwich Witch Trials, except the second trial was of Patience Warren, wife of the extremely popular Elder Malcolm Warren, who flatly refused to believe the allegations against his spouse. What happened next turned the inherently tragedy of a witch hunt into an absolute farce as witnesses recanted their accounts, several tests were openly deemed heretical by religious authorities, a missing child was found alive and well (because he was a notorious runaway), and eventually, it came out that the primary source of the accusations, Luke Greely, was an adulterer, thief and scammer, who had accused the first woman largely to cover up an affair, as revealed by his own wife. While the fallout was not nearly as clean as the sanitized version of history where the Puritans realized how silly there were being and ran him out of town (in fact, a good quarter tried to counter-riot upon the declaration that he needed to leave), it did set the mood of the town, and later entire city going forward - Salem and Norwich seem to embrace witches as mascots, with Norwich being the place where "the place the Devil won his day in court."

This has led to it also being a place that also got permanently magnetized for curses - it's an open secret among Accursed it only exists due to magic influencing people, but the occult symbolism of the Greely Trial of "the holy managing to get its lawsuit tossed out for malicious prosecution" permanently made it a magnet for the Outside...which is good for the tourism board. Lots of news of the weird to put on the brochures.

Also, ever since the Snake Room "opened", it's been a magnet for Outsider refugees. And the social tensions that come with any refugees. So, uh, no pressure.

==Locations==

'''New Grave'''

New Grave is a neighborhood in Norwich with its own distinct character. Originally an independent township, it was later fully absorbed into Norwich upon the latter's expansion to its current size. During Dutch rule over "New Netherland" in the 1600's, New Grave was the third largest population center of Dutch colonists, after the 2,500 people living in New Amsterdam (now New York), and the 1,000 residents of Fort Orange (now near Albany).

The settlement's original name was "Des Nieuwe Gravenhaege" (The New Hague, basically). However, a shift toward more English pronunciation and spelling during British rule eventually had residents calling it "New Grave 'n Hag". This was eventually just shortened to "New Grave", which it remains today.

At first, New Grave was both literally and figuratively a swamp. Literally, being founded upon boggy marsh not far from Norwich Harbor, but figuratively for being a stronghold of Dutch Vodnici immigrants who made it into a Family-held "Swamp" in Accursed terms. As time passed, the marsh was eventually drained to make room for more agriculture and housing, but some measure of its original character still remains: canals.

Lots and lots of little canals. New Grave is riddled with them, an extensive network running parallel to most of the surface streets and sidewalks, with the water coming right up to the buildings' facades in some cases. This gives any Vodnici living there unparalleled freedom to move about unseen, most anywhere in the neighborhood, spying or striking from the shadows as needed. In addition to the tiny waterways, a much larger commercial canal connects Norwich Harbor to New Grave's local docks and warehouse district, giving the neighborhood a decent economic interest into the world of ship-borne commerce (and smuggling).

In pursuit of tourist dollars, New Grave also enthusiastically participates in Norwich's overall "witch-y" atmosphere with its own particular flair. All the surface water in the neighborhood causes fog to be a common sight, both mornings and evenings. Great for skulking! (If one is so inclined). And great for creating a spooky atmosphere, too, which draws in visitors for ghost tours or to see the centuries-old gothic Dutch architecture firsthand. The Centrum, formerly the town square, is a popular gathering point for such excursions, and many of the district's oldest and most picturesque buildings nestle around it.

There are rumors that underwater passages lead to and from some of the buildings, or even out to sea . . . but what purpose would that serve? Nah. Surely just an urban legend.

'''Bell Hill'''

Originally part of the mill town of Carston, Bell Hill used to house the mansions of the wealthy owners. Long after the mills closed and Norwich crept out to absorb the town, the manors remain, but not the money. Heirs cling to hair-thin investment portfolios and ancestral properties in a plot that would be ripe for redevelopment - or at least renovation to pass into the hands of newer money - were it not for the desperate pacts made to cling to the last vestiges of past glory.

You'd think the Addams Family would be right at home here, but they'd be worth more than the whole neighborhood combined and vastly more friendly.

Except for Dr. Waite

is definitely not the first appelation this wizened Ascetic has gone by. It's unlikely he actually bears any relation to the Waite line that built the mansion he resides in. Conflicting accounts say that he is the registrar for the pacts and curses binding Bell Hill into its state of not-quite-collapse, or the only one capable of keeping what lurks within from spilling out. Perhaps both are true.

For the 'hermit of Bell Hill' - so-called because he puts on affectations of being withdrawn and reclusive, despite a social calendar that sees him lurking at high-society events more nights than not - knows things. He knows many things. Often, things that might be best forgotten. Things that people want forgotten. But often very useful things.

If he doesn't know some piece of esoterica, he probably knows where to go or who to kill to find or learn it. Conveniently, that is also often the price he asks for remembering things.

'''The Stakehouse'''

The Stakehouse is regarded as a tourist trap by uninformed locals, a honey trap by uninformed venators, a carefully curated hunting ground for local Hungry (and some Dead and other compatible families), and a fucking embarassment by more old-school and stick-in-the-mud members of the Lineage.

The establishment consists of an expensive and touristy gothy nightclub and bar on the main level, a much less publicized S&M club in the basement, and VIP areas that cater to the tastes of the guests there. Not the tastes of the Hungry, the guests. Enterprising Bathorite Lilith Desjardins (who just happens to be Lydia's progenitor*) founded it in the late 80s as vampire fiction and fandom went on the upswing and she noticed that of course would-be vampire groupies were visiting Norwich and poking around.

The majority of patrons just go for the atmosphere, spend a little too much money and mill about in fits from Hot Topic or whatever the mall-goths establishment du jour is. 'Get bit here' isn't advertised openly, mostly seeded through networks of the people who are already fantasizing about the allure of the creatures of the night. A special waiver, an NDA, a red velvet wristband, and an extra cover charge are the bare minimum for that kind of tourist.

Most of the Hungry who hunt its shadows are on the payroll in some fashion, with access to their necessary nightly sip being one of the perks. But they are service providers, and the ones getting bitten are the clients. VIPs pay for a guaranteed bite and more involved experiences like being pursued in a mock-hunt or getting bled in an elaborate and probably fake dark ritual. Lilith is up front about the arrangement being functionally (or outright) sex work. There are some less expected staff roles, too; Raven, an Ascetic, is a licensed therapist who helps bite addicts and people who've been abused and enthralled by less scrupulous Hungry return to normal lives.

Anyone else allowed to 'hunt' here serves the club or community in some fashion. Lydia, for example, is on retainer as The Stakehouse's legal representative and has also helped forcibly remove uninvited monsters.

"Drink responsibly" is the staff motto and this is enforced viciously. Any sort of lasting or undesired harm hurts not just the client but the business. For obvious reasons, most Hungry's Damnations are right out; they just get to keep the edge off. Getting fired and trespassed is getting off lightly. In all the Stakehouse's years of operation, there has been one death of a client; Lilith keeps the ashes of the perpetrator in an urn prominently on her desk to remind staff of the consequence. She holds herself to this standard too, of course; if she's bathed in anyone's blood in the last four decades, it hasn't been on-premises.

*Say 'sire' and at least one of them will stab you; say 'maker' and they'll roll their eyes; try to be cute and say 'dam' and they'll roll their eyes and then stab you.

'''The Snake Room''' (and the Uhrmann Gallery)

To understand the Snake Room, and why it's located where it is, one has to understand three people - Franklin Uhrmann, Gordon Stark, and Leopold Wilcox. The latter two much more, because they made it - and may or may not have killed each other over it. Hard to tell. But long story short, Stark was the head of Arcana Amusements, a toy company that became well-known for its action figures, its multimedia properties, and shameless ruthlessness in the 50s and 60s, largely due to Stark. Man was one of the last great robber barons, who had to be at least respected for their genuine work ethic even if for nothing else. Also quite the adventurer, which is why he hired Wilcox to paint his study during an extended Safari with a mistress (he famously said that marriage was for more honest and older men than he once). Think is, Wilcox was very much someone who does crop up around "bohemian" art communities - which is to say, a bit of a druggie. Made his art really unique, but, well, he could be quite the flake, which Stark accepted...he didn't realize that Wilcox would have a particular trip that would cause him to go way too into it.

It didn't help that it was also during the Killer Sun of 64, one of the most notorious disasters in Norwich history due to bad emergency services during a bizarre localized heatwave that was almost certainly partly the result of an attempted Archon aggression from the Outside. And also, Wilcox had gained some very distinct and unique species of weed that drove him to have visions, and become convinced that the jungle mural he was hired to paint was speaking to him, and it was demanding to have more snakes added to combat the sun. And more. And more. Until when Stark got back, the entire room was covered in very detailed, very surreal images of myriad ophidians, wall to wall, ceiling to floor - even the furniture that was nailed down. He was quite upset with this, and chased Wilcox into the room, ignoring the angry mob enforcers seeking payment for the truly massive debt Wilcox had acquired to get material to commune with the snakes. Both vanished that day, assumedly killed by the mob and vanished to avoid prosecution, but people say the largest two anacondas grew fatter - and the heat wave broke in the rain.

Curiously, nobody who interacted with the Snake Room wanted to tear it down - despite the fact that people feel very small within it, like early man lost in a very deep heart of the jungle, and strange disappearances and sightings of chimeric beasts linked to it - plus a noted increase in the level of Outside portals that let in creatures from planes that generate refugees for whatever reason, both the refugees and the reasons they are fleeing. People who do so suddenly feel dread like cobras showing their hoods to them, and those who persist have strange accidents related to animal attacks or being poisoned. Uhrmann was an exception to damaging it - because Uhrmann, a noted eccentric and art historian who has some...interesting opinions on the inherent intersection of fear and desire (short and tactful answer as possible: he is sometimes known as the Patron Saint of Teratophiles) went into the room, spent three full days soaking it in, and came out with a plan to make it the center of his magnum opus. The study was literally torn out of the Stark mansion and merged into a new art museum dedicated to his philosophy.

The Uhrmann Gallery is known for its sinister reputation and the oddity of its patrons, and likes it that way. You don't get founded by someone like that and don't learn to be chill with people whose tastes involve the phrase "now hear me out". Of course, the Snake Room is almost certainly a Shattered Space, but it also seems to be a rather tame one - because it seems the snakes are extremely vain, and they are a centerpiece no matter the current exhibition of the museum. They enjoy being admired more than eating people, it seems, and at worst just spook people who probably were looking forward to that anyway and deliberately went into it at night. But the more chaotic the world outside grows, the more active they get - because the snakes also seem to despise disorder and especially nihilistic violence. If the world does not resolve itself, they will - and their method needs them to be well-fed, and their method is a bit...blunt anyway. As in, spontaneous neurotoxin in people's veins blunt or randomly opening portals to make a worse problem to team up against, blunt.

Curseborne Occult Lawfare

2025-11-06T00:39:34Z

Leliel: Created page with "''In the legal defense system, there are two important roles. The first is the ability to defend clients in a trial, and consulting others in legal matters outside of a trial so that it never comes to that. However, when the occult is involved, and reality warps in ways that mundane law can comprehend, only one company steps up to help its clients regardless or race, creed, or dimensional origin. These are the case files of Smith, Michaels, and Morrison, the Curse Attorn..."

Ryoji Torakai

2025-11-05T15:27:58Z

Leliel:

[[Twilight_Requiem| Back to Main Page]]

{| style="border: solid 1px; width: 700px"
|-valign="top"
|
''"I'm a delinquent, not stupid - and I can tell you, this is wrong."''
|-
|
{|
|-valign="top"; style="margin-left; auto; margin-right: 0px;"
| [[File:RyojiTorakai.png|350px|center]] || [[File:Moto.png|350px|center]]
|-
|}
|}
{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|-valign="top"
|
{|class="wikitable";
|-
|'''Name:''' || Ryoji Torakai
|-
|'''Role:''' || Delinquent Engineer
|-
|'''Rank:''' || Novice (0)
|}
|

{| class="wikitable"; style="text-align:center"|
|-
|+Attributes
|-
|AGI||SMA || SPI ||STR||VIG
|-
| d6|| d8|| d8|| d4||d6
|}
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="text-align:center;"|
|-
|+Derived
|-
|Pace||Run||Parry || Size ||Tough
|-
| 6"|| d6|| 5|| 0||5
|-
|colspan="5"| Ranged attackers use Parry as TN
|}
|}

{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="width: 710px";
|-valign="top"
|
|+Skills
|-
| Academics || d6 || Athletics || d4 ||Common K. || d4 || Driving || d4
|-
|Fighting || d6 || Focus || d8 || Intimidation || d4 || Notice || d6
|-
| Persuasion || d6 ||Repair || d8+2 || Ride || d6 || Stealth || d6
|-
|}
|}

{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|-
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="width: 710px";
|-
|+Edges
|Arcane Background (Gifted)
|-
|Mr. Fix It
|}
|}
{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|-
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="width: 710px";
|-
|+Hindrances
|Heroic
|-
|Loyal
|-
|Quirk (Acts out when bored in school)
|}
|}
{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|-
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="width: 710px";
|-
|+ Powers
|-
|Entangle (Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition p161; Shadowy limbs and webs Trappings)
|-
|}
|}
{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|-
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="width: 710px";
|-
|+ Equipment
|-
|Spiked Fists (Str + d4, min. Str d6, weight 1, cost 5, special +1 to Str roll vs. disarm)
|}
|}
{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|-
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="width: 710px";
|-
|+ Moto (Demon Warhorse)
|-
|
*Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d12+2, Vigor d10
|-
|
*Skills: Athletics d6, Fighting d8, Notice d6, Focus d6
|-
|
*Pace: 8; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10; Power Points: 15
|-
|
*Edges: Fleet Footed
|-
|
*Hindrances:
|-
|
*Special Abilities:
**Kick: Str+d4, to the front or rear as desired.
|-
|
*Powers: Fear
|}
|}
{| border="1"; style="width: 720px";
|-
|
{| class="wikitable"; style="width: 710px";
|-
|+ Bio
|-
|
Bio here!
|}
|}
[[Twilight_Requiem| Back to Main Page]]

Sawl Mathias

2025-11-04T04:09:24Z

Leliel: /* Fabula Points */

== Basic Information ==
'''Name: Sawyl Mathias'''

'''Pronouns:''' He/Him/They (Maera tend to revert to neuter when meditating or sleeping, saying you cease to be entirely yourself when asleep)

'''Identity:''' Alienated Maera Naturalist Turned Hidden Dissident Author

'''Theme:''' Hope

'''Origin:''' Naturalized Prezyantine Citizen
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' d6

'''Insight:''' d10

'''Might:''' d6

'''Willpower:''' d10

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' 35 '''Max:''' 35

'''MP - Current: ''' 60 '''Max:''' 60

'''IP - Current: ''' 10 '''Max:''' 10

'''Initiative Modifier:''' 0

'''Defense:''' 6

'''Magical Defense:''' 10

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Esper - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Mind Points increase by 5
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Part of Psychic Gifts.
|-
| ''Psychic Gifts (Reassuring Presence)'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Wanderer - level 3
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Faithful Companion'' || SL 3: a massive forest beast, believed to be spun from a nightmare of giants roaming the world, with high HP that protects Sawyl and can counter attacks
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Tinkerer - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Projects, IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Potion Rain'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' 5

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' 270 + 9 x 10 = 360

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor ||Sage Robe||
|-
| Main Hand ||Tome|| Ancient medical text
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Special - Brainwave Clock times 5 || ally || on Guard || Ally recovers 10 + (number of filled sections in Brainwave clock times 5) MP, if focus, they heal one of dazed, enraged, or shaken status effect of their choice.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==

Quirk: Agitator Sawyl has been quietly publishing seditious literature and muckracking when doing his studies of interesting life for years, and he's gotten a lot of contacts among both Prezyantine objectors and exterior allies who'd love to see the Imperium destroy itself - and he's got a sense for picking out hidden tensions.)

Equipment: Tome (an ancient medical text), sage robe, 265 zenit.

Sawl Mathias

2025-10-07T21:41:35Z

Leliel: /* Fabula Points */

== Basic Information ==
'''Name: Sawyl Mathias'''

'''Pronouns:''' He/Him/They (Maera tend to revert to neuter when meditating or sleeping, saying you cease to be entirely yourself when asleep)

'''Identity:''' Alienated Maera Naturalist Turned Hidden Dissident Author

'''Theme:''' Hope

'''Origin:''' Naturalized Prezyantine Citizen
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' d6

'''Insight:''' d10

'''Might:''' d6

'''Willpower:''' d10

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' 35 '''Max:''' 35

'''MP - Current: ''' 60 '''Max:''' 60

'''IP - Current: ''' 10 '''Max:''' 10

'''Initiative Modifier:''' 0

'''Defense:''' 6

'''Magical Defense:''' 10

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Esper - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Mind Points increase by 5
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Part of Psychic Gifts.
|-
| ''Psychic Gifts (Reassuring Presence)'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Wanderer - level 3
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Faithful Companion'' || SL 3: a massive forest beast, believed to be spun from a nightmare of giants roaming the world, with high HP that protects Sawyl and can counter attacks
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Tinkerer - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Projects, IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Potion Rain'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' 4

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' 270 + 9 x 10 = 360

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor ||Sage Robe||
|-
| Main Hand ||Tome|| Ancient medical text
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Special - Brainwave Clock times 5 || ally || on Guard || Ally recovers 10 + (number of filled sections in Brainwave clock times 5) MP, if focus, they heal one of dazed, enraged, or shaken status effect of their choice.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==

Quirk: Agitator Sawyl has been quietly publishing seditious literature and muckracking when doing his studies of interesting life for years, and he's gotten a lot of contacts among both Prezyantine objectors and exterior allies who'd love to see the Imperium destroy itself - and he's got a sense for picking out hidden tensions.)

Equipment: Tome (an ancient medical text), sage robe, 265 zenit.

Sawl Mathias

2025-10-06T04:28:18Z

Leliel: /* Backpack & Notes */

== Basic Information ==
'''Name: Sawyl Mathias'''

'''Pronouns:''' He/Him/They (Maera tend to revert to neuter when meditating or sleeping, saying you cease to be entirely yourself when asleep)

'''Identity:''' Alienated Maera Naturalist Turned Hidden Dissident Author

'''Theme:''' Hope

'''Origin:''' Naturalized Prezyantine Citizen
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' d6

'''Insight:''' d10

'''Might:''' d6

'''Willpower:''' d10

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' 35 '''Max:''' 35

'''MP - Current: ''' 60 '''Max:''' 60

'''IP - Current: ''' 10 '''Max:''' 10

'''Initiative Modifier:''' 0

'''Defense:''' 6

'''Magical Defense:''' 10

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Esper - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Mind Points increase by 5
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Part of Psychic Gifts.
|-
| ''Psychic Gifts (Reassuring Presence)'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Wanderer - level 3
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Faithful Companion'' || SL 3: a massive forest beast, believed to be spun from a nightmare of giants roaming the world, with high HP that protects Sawyl and can counter attacks
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Tinkerer - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Projects, IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Potion Rain'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' 3

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' 270 + 9 x 10 = 360

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor ||Sage Robe||
|-
| Main Hand ||Tome|| Ancient medical text
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Special - Brainwave Clock times 5 || ally || on Guard || Ally recovers 10 + (number of filled sections in Brainwave clock times 5) MP, if focus, they heal one of dazed, enraged, or shaken status effect of their choice.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==

Quirk: Agitator Sawyl has been quietly publishing seditious literature and muckracking when doing his studies of interesting life for years, and he's gotten a lot of contacts among both Prezyantine objectors and exterior allies who'd love to see the Imperium destroy itself - and he's got a sense for picking out hidden tensions.)

Equipment: Tome (an ancient medical text), sage robe, 265 zenit.

A Sky of Strife and Storms

2025-09-06T00:47:26Z

Leliel: /* Player Characters */

This is the page for the Fabula Ultima campaign A Sky of Strife and Storms. WIP

== Links ==
[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349 Planning Thread]

== Player Characters ==
''Add them here!'' 
[[Eilwen Glynn]]

[[A_Sky_of_Strife_and_Storms:Stren_Halbrott| Stren Halbrott]]

[[Sawl Mathias]] (Player will return after ban, don't worry!)

[[Nikeon Exypnos]]

[[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/A_Sky_of_Strife_and_Storms/The_Dread_Pirate_Virel_Thornwake | The_Dread_Pirate_Virel_Thornwake]]

[[ Politsyamekki Ndaikkuta]] ("Polly" for short)

== Setting ==
Once, the land was unified, but some ancient cataclysm shattered it. The land is now scattered in smaller fragments, littered with the ruins of the civilizations that predated the disaster, with nothing approaching the size of a continent. Some of these islands lay on the ocean's surface. Others hover kilometers in the atmosphere. Their positions aren't fixed—new islands rise into the sky and older islands descend from the heavens, driven by the formation or destruction of mana crystals. As mana crystals are a powerful energy source for transportation, industry, and warfare, this must be carefully managed to avoid catastrophe. Enterprising or desperate individuals can even take advantage of this by hoisting a sail on a small flying island as a form of transportation.

For other, wealthier individuals, air travel is as simple as boarding an airship. The distribution of technology is almost as fragmented as the land itself, so the form that these take is often idiosyncratic, depending on which culture formed them. Large-scale, fast air travel is mostly the domain of wealthier and more cosmopolitan individuals. This also leads to a bit of an inherent class structure, with the very poorest individuals often living at sea level with little access to travel.

The world has dozens of seasons, and they sweep across in distinct bands, with no fixed schedule. Some are common, and others might be once-in-a-lifetime events. They aren't even strictly weather-based—one might bring an almost destructive abundance of plant growth, while the next is simply mild and sunny. At times, regardless of season, the weather can also manifest as powerful magical storms. These have unpredictable effects. Some can absorb items (or entire islands) from their surroundings, making them apparently vanish into thin air. Others will eject those unlucky passengers, with little relation to their original location—they can be left on the other side of the world, or even in a different time. Perhaps more commonly, these storms can warp the lifeforms that they pass over, transforming humans into new kiths or giving rise to unique and powerful, often giant, beasts.

In places where an island is overshadowed by a relatively stationary, large counterpart, a shadowland can form. These are areas where it's permanently dark, and the stagnant flow of mana can lead to the creation of strange creatures and phenomena.

== Magic and Technology ==
Souls are made of magical energy, and there's no firm dividing line that defines a 'soul'. Many inanimate objects can develop internal energy structures that are hard to distinguish from souls, and in the right circumstances souls can conglomerate or be changed by ambient magical energy. Like other magical energy, souls can be channeled, directed, or stored, including things like trapping them in receptacles to animate undead or constructs. Reincarnation is a known phenomenon, and the souls of the sufficiently enlightened are known to ascend into the heavens after they die, removing them from the cycle. This reinforces beliefs that those who live at higher elevations are more worthy.

There are no entities that are universally recognized as 'gods', but there are plenty of fairly unique and powerful beings, from sapient animals to entities formed of pure magical energy. Some of the most powerful can't directly manifest in the world without causing disasters, but they aren't really a separate category of being. Anybody can become god-like if they accumulate enough power, and presumably the god-like beings can be brought low with the right attack.

As a result of all of this, approaches to magic are varied and often idiosyncratic, ranging from channeling the abilities of powerful entities, to directing the flows of magic through one's body with specialized tattoos. Practitioners are often self-taught, but some of the more centralized or bureaucratic societies have formalized magic schools, or even forced registration of people with magical ability.

Magic and technology are often combined; the best technology incorporates magic, and some schools of magic use technological components to enhance their capabilities. Simple tech and magic are fairly ubiquitous, with more complex and powerful variations of the two being used by the larger empires. Rural areas tend to have the means to live at a comfortable pre-electricity standard of living, and typically use sustainable and low-impact forms of magic and technology. More destructive and resource-hungry forms of these things are usually reserved for those with imperial aspirations, and often rely on secrets from the ruins. The most powerful of these (so far) are the kinds of things that can threaten castles or small settlements, but not entire islands or cities.

Just as these things are pretty regional, methods of travel vary a lot by area, society, and tech level.

== Kith ==
=== Aracu ===
A kith of monkey-like plant people, with the ability to photosynthesize in lieu of eating, and an affinity for work that uses their agility. They range in size from something small like a Capuchin to something like a very large chimpanzee. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25486365 Link]

=== Beast-born ===
People with features and some of the abilities of (usually domestic) animals, usually born to otherwise baseline human families. Typically caused when an animal is reincarnated as a human. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25487934 Link]

=== Cadmoi ===
A long-lived kith born of the remains of dragons, with an affinity for elemental magic and warfare, but many more scholarly members in its diaspora. Tend to have dragon-like features, but they're often fairly subtle. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25488127 Link]

=== Maera ===
A reclusive forest-dwelling kith born from plants, with an affinity for fear and the ability to temporarily adopt monstrous forms. Formed as shock troops for an ancient war, and still harboring cultural fears of being enslaved again. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25488162 Link]

=== Manakin ===
Stray souls housed in bodies made of a nearby element or human-shaped construct, created spontaneously with no family or memories. Hardy and durable, but often taken advantage of since they start life with little knowledge. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25487609 Link] and also: [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/page-11#post-25488078 Link]

=== Vespergen ===
Humanoid bat people, of widely varying size, with a tendency toward a nocturnal lifestyle and living in dark areas, and limited flight ability. Their affinity for the darkness often sees them living on the edges of shadowlands, and some Vespergen communities have historically specialized in exploring and exploiting them. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25488412 Link]

== Nations ==
=== The Aetherian Concord ===
A competitive and meritocratic society based on the pursuit of magical power and knowledge, with day-to-day concerns handled by constructs, and a literal underbelly full of desperate exiles. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25506043 Link]

=== The Llewedhynn Comities ===
A loose federation of small communities that depend on sustainable technology and magic, mostly collectivist and egalitarian, with religious beliefs focusing on personal enlightenment and cultivation. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25494893 Link]

=== The Marakavan Alliance ===
A loose alliance of city-states with the means to forge the souls of the dead, and a commensurate skill at blacksmithing and rocky relations with their neighbors. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25491320 Link]

=== Matrado, Nyara, and Trinyo ===
Matrado and Nyara are a pair of surface-level islands, isolationist and relatively low-tech, but with diverse magical traditions. Trinyo, the sky island, is forbidden to outsiders (by force at times) but seems to be a lush hermetic retreat. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25497218 Link]

=== The Prezyan Imperium ===
One of the most powerful nations, fueled by capitalism and colonialism, with a robust transportation system and (air) naval might thanks to their industrialization and access to ancient knowledge. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25491372 Link]

=== The allied nations of the Ronanrian region ===
A large collective of semi-autonomous smaller nations and city-states, with a robust transportation network and trade, and fairly varied although culturally related to one another. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25491941 Link]

=== The city-state of Spathos ===
A militaristic feudal society, relatively conservative and isolationist, ruled by Cadmoi and armed with weapons made from the strange animal corpses strewn throughout the land. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25492535 Link]

=== The Under City and environs ===
A vibrant, multi-cultural society in the ruins along the undersides of a sky island, ruled by an alliance of pirates and known for violence. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25493201 Link]

== Maps ==
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
Political map
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:A Sky of Strife and Storms - Political Map.png]]</div>
</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
Terrain/elevation map
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:A Sky of Strife and Storms - Combined Map.png]]</div>
</div>

== Historical Events ==
* '''Millennia ago - the war machine''': Before the cataclysm, a powerful, massive instrument of war sank into the ground... defeated, but not fully disabled. Much more recently, it was rediscovered in what is now the Llewedhynn Comities. It's now inhabited and known as Rhyfelwr, treated as some combination of a city, a trade center, and a fortress. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25513015 Link]
* '''Millennia ago - the cataclysm''': Long ago, all of the land was at sea level, and powerful societies lived upon it. Whatever catastrophe they unleashed, it split the land and left a world of floating islands covered in ruins.
* '''~100 years ago - the Origins of the Cult of the Drowned One''': After amassing a wealth of power and arcane knowledge, the pirate Zeviek was sentenced to drown for his crimes. His power was too great, though, and he still lives at the bottom of the sea, effectively a god and feared by every sailor and seaside community. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25512906 Link]
* '''75 years ago - the dissolution of the Monster Hunting Guild''': For centuries, an worldwide monster-hunting organization protected settlements from the monstrosities left by magical storms. 75 years ago, it was dissolved, and soon after replaced by a bureaucratic and inefficient puppet organization. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25512204 Link]
* '''~60 years ago - the Haunting of Duchess Sharpe''': The Sharpes founded a trading empire that made them one of the most powerful forces in the Prezyan Imperium, until the grisly assassination of the husband. In the aftermath, the Duchess fell into fear and paranoia, turning their estate into a three-dimensional labyrinth that almost seems alive. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25513130 Link]
* '''30 years ago - the fall of Lyonet''': Lyonet was a colony of the Prezyan Imperium, which slowly but steadily fell from the sky. Its millions of citizens were evacuated, and now form an often-desperate underclass in many surrounding nations. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25509501 Link]
* '''30 years ago - the Battle of the Numei Dam''': The three nations of Numei Island dammed the river that fell from it, altering the ocean ecosystem below and disrupting trade routes through the entire area. The Prezyan Imperium launched an attack on them to retaliate for this, but was driven back, setting an example for other small nations. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25523087 Link]

== Mysteries ==
* '''Pre-cataclysm ghost airship(s)''': Over the past few years, there have been numerous sightings of mysterious airships of apparently ancient design. These appear and disappear suddenly, and since having such technology would be a huge advantage, many militaries and organizations would be interested in capturing one. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25523463 Link]
* '''The Fiery Widower and The Jealous Dungeonkeep''': The Jealous Dungeonkeep lives away from the sun, underground or in ruins, with no sight but a preternatural sense of smell, and is rumored to be raising a subterranean army. The Fiery Widower is a mysterious man(?) who commits grand acts of arson on remote islands, always sparing one victim to spread the tale, seemingly searching for something or somebody... which may be the Dungeonkeep. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25524057 Link]
* '''The Missing Crown Jewels of the Preyzan Imperium''': The Crown Jewels of the Prezyan Imperium are said to house powerful, unknown magics, but at some point they were stolen and replaced with replicas, by a party whose identity and goals are unknown. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25526849 Link]
* '''The Phantom Port''': A strange port sighted in multiple places at times, rumored to be Orkporte, whose location was known only to the late Captain Kindle and its mysterious inhabitants. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25526928 Link]
* '''The Rukh City''': A nation-sized bird, carrying a settlement on its back, always spotted high in the sky, but leaving strange visitors in its wake. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25526950 Link]
* '''Island Wars''': A wildly popular magical card game. Nobody knows where it came from, who made it, or what all that magic is actually doing... [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25520814 Link]

== Threats ==
* '''Dream moss''': An unusual magical moss that can cover an entire small island in a week, growing on even other plants and animals. When it firmly establishes itself on a human, it alters their behavior, making them adore the moss and want to spread it, while feeling increasingly unsympathetic toward the uninfected. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25528879 Link]
* '''The Blood Syndicate''': A large pirate group that functions as an empire fueled by conquest and tribute, with no interest in governing its territory and enough power to challenge the navies of actual nation-states. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25528943 Link]
* '''The Transport Guild''': An organization working toward a monopoly over all civilian transport and logistics, inserting itself into those industries through whatever means it can find and spreading bureaucratic corruption. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25528958 Link]
* '''The Brewing War''': The Prezyan Imperium has begun moving troops and equipment into position around The Llewedhynn Comities, claiming to be a peacekeeping operation to seize the dangerous war machine in Rhyfelwr, but seemingly making preparations for a full invasion. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25529089 Link]
* '''Shadow of Dawn''': After recent leadership changes, the Dawn Trading Company, one of the main engines of Prezyan colonialism, has been acting more and more against the interests of the empire, increasing tensions between the two organizations. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25529240 Link]
* '''The Grand Conch''': A massive monster of a snail, impossible to stop and flattening everything in its wake, but at least it isn't very fast. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25529418 Link]
* '''The Red Order''': A militant youth movement within the Prezyan Imperium, advocating for wars of conquest, enslavement of the empire's enemies, and total monarchy, boasting the Crown Prince as one of its members and possibly planning a coup. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25530630 Link]

== Character Sheet Template ==
Create a page for your character.

Copy the code below to give you your character sheet template.

Fill out the necessary information. Feel free to add/remove rows from tables where needed.

When you're done, please link the sheet in the section above.

If you run into problems, see the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting Formatting Help] page for the wiki, or ask me in the thread.

<nowiki>
== Basic Information ==
'''Name:'''

'''Pronouns:'''

'''Identity:'''

'''Theme:'''

'''Origin:'''
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' dX

'''Insight:''' dX

'''Might:''' dX

'''Willpower:''' dX

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''MP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''IP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''Initiative Modifier:'''

'''Defense:'''

'''Magical Defense:'''

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class X - level X
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Makes you punch good or something.
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Some Skill'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' X

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' X

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor || ||
|-
| Main Hand || ||
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Example'' || 0 MP || X || Y || Some spell.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==</nowiki>

Rekin's Refuge

2025-09-05T18:00:55Z

Leliel: /* Player Characters */

[[File:Rekins Refuge world map.png|500px|caption]] 
''Daggerheart maps available as a free download at [https://www.daggerheart.com/downloads/ the Daggerheart website]''

==Setting Details==

Nature and the "civilised world" have often been at odds, vying for territory and resources. Almost a century ago the nobleman-druid '''Rekin Rainwalker''' thwarted tradition by letting his lands go back to the wilderness. On his death he left those lands to the creatures that occupied them, instead of his heirs. Rekin's Refuge was born.

Tended by a guild of caretakers known as '''Wildwardens''', Rekin's Refuge is a sanctuary for wild creatures that live in the untamed places. The Wildwardens guard against trespassers, treat sickness and blight, and keep their charges from straying into the territory of the local towns. They guide visiting academics and travellers, and liaise with the few small communities that still live in the Refuge.

However, sanctuary does not mean safety. Politics reaches even here. The towns of '''Cadun''' to the north and '''Frewich''' to the south are ever-expanding, their merchants wanting to send ever more trade caravans through Rekin's Refuge instead of by sea or the longer mountain route. Many nature lovers believe even the Wildwarden's intervention is too much. Poachers and trophy-hunters are an ever-present threat, as are Rekin's heirs who seek even now to reclaim what they see as the birthright that was stolen from them.

==Player Characters==
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Player'''
|'''Character'''
|'''Ancestry'''
|'''Class'''
|'''Community'''
|'''Hope'''
|-
|colspan="10"|
|-
|Leliel (who will still play when the ban's done with!)
|'''[[Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester]]'''
| Variant Katari (Therianthropic Human)
| Nightwalker Rogue
| Seaborne
| 2
|-
|Garyfury
|'''[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Persephone_Lapis Persephone Lapis]'''
| Faerie
| School of Knowledge Wizard
| Wildborne
| 2
|-
|Seandemonium
|'''[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Cambrian_Clank_Druid Cambrian]'''
| Clank
| Warden of the Elements Druid
| Wildborne
| 2
|-
|Unka Josh
|'''[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Rube_Vambrace Rube Vambrace]'''
| Hybrid Clank Human
| Stalwart Guardian
| Wanderborne
| 2
|-
|Talisman
|'''[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sjSSZpw-Ral21Px5ioSDoyQ-QvewnG6mm4-fbhnIJt8/edit?usp=sharing Éfthymos]'''
| Faun
| Divine Wielder Seraph
| Wildborne
| 2
|-
|Civil Savage
|'''[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nVPFBCXGz1xZJA3Nw9-RXLPDeZmLxv5q4Tl1-5kmo9U/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4d13xhqnzl00 Zynvarvolnes (Zyn)]'''
| Infernis
| Wayfinder Ranger
| Ridgeborne
| 2
|-
|! scope="row" colspan="12"|
|-
|! scope="row" colspan="12"|
|-
|'''GM'''
|''strange behaviour''
|! scope="row" colspan="2"|
|'''Fear'''
| 6
|}

==Notable NPCs==
* '''Rekin Rainwalker''' (deceased) - a druid of noble birth, who founded Rekin's Refuge to protect the wilderness from the encroachment of civilisation.
* '''Ren Trefaran''' - a highly placed academic and sorcerer among the Clearharbor faculty. He has a wide range of contacts among the commercial interests that threaten Rekin's Refuge and has a number of projects in the works for ways to domesticate and exploit the Refuge, reshaping or destroying the natural habitats of many creatures in order to harvest them. ''Rival of Persephone Lapis.''
* '''Luke Vatten''' - a baron's son and ''Zeke's former best friend'', last seen studying to be a Seraph at Clearharbor. His sister was accidentally infected with therianthropy by Zeke, and Luke believes he can make a cure from Zeke's person.

==Notable Locations==
*'''Cadun''' - a large port city to the north of Rekin's Refuge
*'''Clearharbor''' - a town dominated by a center of higher learning, located across the mountains to the southeast of Rekin's Refuge.
*'''Cormorant's Point''' - a village in the mountains just outside Rekin's Refuge, near an old wizard's tower now known as the House of Magpies. In the past there was a magical accident which now means the fae are drawn there. The area is the source of a plague of therianthropy, which the fae use to manage the threat of rabies.
*'''Frewich''' - an expanding town to the south of Rekin's Refuge, known for its trade in carpentry and lumber from the forest at the Refuge's borders.
*'''The House of Magpies''' - formerly the wizard's tower on the outskirts of Cormorant's Point. When the magical accident blew the top of the mountain the tower became a place of t strange attraction to otherplanar energies. It's now a nesting ground for an unusual number of corvids.
*'''Sky-Root''' - a huge tree at the north-west point of Rekin's Refuge. It goes up as far as anyone can see and no-one has ever reached the top. It stands between the forest of Rekin's Refuge and a sheer drop into the ocean and is the home of the Great Golden Moth.

==Notable Creatures==
The following are creatures that may be sighted within Rekin's Refuge:
*'''Great Golden Moth''' - a large species of moth, with wings that give off a faint golden light. Rare because not only does it only eat the leaves of Sky-Root, but it also only emerges from its cocoon in years with a Blue Moon (13 full moons in the calendar year, so every 2-3 years). No one knows how or why the moth tracks this.
*'''Log Crab''' - Large crabs analogous to hermit crabs. They live in fallen logs, often hollowing them out to use as shells. Can use their big claws to cut down trees to ensure that they have a new home if no fallen trees are available.
*'''Shimmerwolf''' - a largely solitary wolflike creature that creates small illusions to lure prey. Due to a largely placid nature they are easily tameable making the cubs a particular target for poachers looking to sell them on as pets, as owning one is a sign of status among the elite of Cadun.
*'''Vulpix''' - Tiny tree-dwelling foxlike creatures that are both exceedingly cute and extremely deadly. Think a fennec fox with tiny antlers that hunts in packs and can take down an owlbear.

==Character Generation==
The Daggerheart Core Rulebook and hybrid rules.

Playtest resources from The Void are off limits.

House-ruling is open to discussion.

==House Rules==
===Therianthropes===
The setting includes humanoids infected with Therianthropy, a condition which gives them animal features (eg cat people, dog people, etc). Although not were-creatures thir animal side is heightened during the full moon given access to new skills and effects. 

'''Therianthrope - Cat''' 
''Animal Instinct:'' When under the influence of the full moon, you can mark a Stress to add +2 to an Instinct or Agility roll. 
''Flight, Flight, Freeze:'' When under the influence of the full moon, if you gain the Vulnerable condition or mark a Hit Point while Vulnerable, your animal instincts perceive everything as a threat. You gain the temporary condition Skittish, can attack only in self-defence and must flee in search of a place of safety. 

===Inititative System===
TBC

==Table Etiquette==
===Post Frequency===
This will be a slow game, potentially 1-2 posts a week, as all parties including the GM are new to the system.

===PVP===
Any PVP requires consent from all parties involved. It's up to the player being acted against to decide if they're going to let it stand, act it out IC, or make the other player roll for it. If they say no to PVP, no PVP.

===Absences===
Please keep an eye on the Absences Thread, as I'll post there if I'm not going to be able to update the game (even if I don't get to it on the OOC). If you won't be able to post please post in the Absences Thread if you can.

===Alerts===
Invoking other players (@forumhandle) doesn't work. Additionally, if you get an alert and don't check the thread you won't get another one for new posts until you next check in with the thread. Please keep an eye on the threads either by checking them manually every so often, or via the Watched Threads page.

Any issues, please feel free to bring them up on the OOC thread, or DM me.

==Game Threads and Resources==

===Threads===
:[https://forum.rpg.net/threads/closed-recruitment-daggerheart-tbc-session-zero.929871/ Recruitment/Development Thread]

:OOC Thread

:IC Thread

===Resources===

:[https://www.daggerheart.com/ The Daggerheart website] - includes free downloadable resources including the SRD.

:[http://orokos.com/roll/?action=roll Orokos] - Online Dice Roller.

:[https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?709532-Grand-Central-Absences-Station Absences Thread]

Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester

2025-08-26T20:24:47Z

Leliel: /* Secondary */

'''Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester'''

=Identity=

==Nightwalker Rogue==

===Rogue’s Hope===

Rogue’s Dodge: Spend 3 Hope to gain a +2 bonus to your
Evasion until the next time an attack succeeds against
you. Otherwise, this bonus lasts until your next rest.

===Cloaked===

Any time you would be Hidden, you are instead Cloaked.
In addition to the benefits of the Hidden condition, while
Cloaked you remain unseen if you are stationary when an
adversary moves to where they would normally see you.
After you make an attack or end a move within line of sight
of an adversary, you are no longer Cloaked.

===Sneak Attack===

Gain a permanent +1 bonus to your damage thresholds.

===Shadow Stepper===

Shadow Stepper: You can move from shadow to shadow.
When you move into an area of darkness or a shadow cast
by another creature or object, you can mark a Stress to
disappear from where you are and reappear inside another
shadow within Far range. When you reappear, you are Cloaked.

==Spellcasting==

Uses Finesse

==Therianthropic Human (Katari/Human Halfblood)==

===Adaptability===

When you fail a roll that utilized one of your
Experiences, you can mark a Stress to reroll.

===Feline Instincts===

When you make an Agility Roll, you can spend
2 Hope to reroll your Hope Die.

==Seaborn==

===Know the Tides===

You can sense the ebb and flow of life. When you roll with Fear, place a token
on your community card. You can hold a number of tokens equal to your level. Before you make
an action roll, you can spend any number of these tokens to gain a +1 bonus to the roll for each
token spent. At the end of each session, clear all unspent tokens.

=Attributes=

Agility +1

Strength -1

Finesse +2

Instinct 0

Presence +1

Knowledge 0

==Secondary==

Evasion 13

HP 6

Stress 6

Hope 2

Armor 3 (Flexible)

Thresholds 7/13

=Experiences=

Partly a Cat Monster +2, Good Knowledge of Supernatural Nature +2

=Equipment=
Torch, 50 feet of rope, Basic supplies (tent, bedroll, tinderbox, rations, etc.), Minor Stamina Potion, Handful of Gold, Grappling Hook, Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8+1 phy - One-Handed), Small Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8 phy - One-Handed - Paired: +2 to primary weapon damage to targets within Melee range) Gambeson Armor (Thresholds 5/11 - Score 3 Flexible: +1 to Evasion)

=Domains=

==Midnight==

===Uncanny Disguise===

Level 1 Midnight Spell

Recall Cost: 0

When you have a few minutes to prepare, you can mark a Stress to don the facade of any humanoid you can picture clearly in your mind. While disguised, you have advantage on Presence Rolls to avoid scrutiny. Place a number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait on this card. When you take an action while disguised, spend a token from this card. After the action that spends the last token is resolved, the disguise drops.

==Grace==

===Enrapture===

Level 1 Grace Spell

Recall Cost: 0

Make a Spellcast Roll against a target within Close range. On a success, they become temporarily Enraptured. While Enraptured, a target’s attention is fixed on you, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice. Once per rest on a success, you can mark a Stress to force the Enraptured target to mark a Stress as well.

=Fluff=

==Details==

He/Him. Human-green and hazel eyes with cat slit pupils. Hair the same color as his black-and white pointed ears and tail, and tuxedo patterns on the fur he grows. Wears old fisherman's clothers under his armor and a scarf. Generally shows a standoffish personality except to those he trusts. Occasionally shows cat habits, and if people notice, he starts exaggerating them to dare them to comment. Fascinated with magic and monsters, especially illusion magic and fae-related monsters.

==Background==

• '''What did you get caught doing that got you exiled from your home community?'''

"It's more what I am. I was infected with therianthropy when I was nine and have spent my life since then just...being the outsider. There's a lot of us in Cormorant, but most of them are beggars or mostly woodsmen to get away from the way people look at us with pity or fear. But it also gives a touch of fae magic - and unfortunately, showing you're embracing your fae side makes people superstitious. Such as, well, learning how to shadowstep or communicating with illusion monsters with those shadows. Some still think a therianthrope who does that is turning into a fae beast, especially an intelligent one like a cu sith. So I decided, screw it, I might as well make my monster side my profession."

• '''You used to have a different life, but you've tried to leave it behind. Who from your past is still chasing you?:'''

"My friend turned worst bully, Luke Vatten, because he couldn't understand why I was coming to make peace with my ears - and never forgave me for infecting his sister when I was still delirious from fever. He thinks he can make a cure from me. He needs to get I'm not sick, I just look weird. But last I checked, he was studying to be a Seraph down south at Clearharbor - that was the only way he could be a doctor and inherit knighthood. Oh yeah, I forgot, he's the son of the baron. Should've started with that."

• '''Who from your past were you most sad to say goodbye to?'''

"My family. They never exiled me like the village did, they realized it wasn't my fault. But I can't stay there anymore - I'm closer to fae than human now, and really, this way is better for them."

==Connections==

• What did I recently convince you to do that got us both in trouble?

• What have I discovered about your past that I hold secret from the others?

• Who do you know from my past, and how have they influenced your feelings about me?

Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester

2025-08-25T14:12:26Z

Leliel:

'''Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester'''

=Identity=

==Nightwalker Rogue==

===Rogue’s Hope===

Rogue’s Dodge: Spend 3 Hope to gain a +2 bonus to your
Evasion until the next time an attack succeeds against
you. Otherwise, this bonus lasts until your next rest.

===Cloaked===

Any time you would be Hidden, you are instead Cloaked.
In addition to the benefits of the Hidden condition, while
Cloaked you remain unseen if you are stationary when an
adversary moves to where they would normally see you.
After you make an attack or end a move within line of sight
of an adversary, you are no longer Cloaked.

===Sneak Attack===

Gain a permanent +1 bonus to your damage thresholds.

===Shadow Stepper===

Shadow Stepper: You can move from shadow to shadow.
When you move into an area of darkness or a shadow cast
by another creature or object, you can mark a Stress to
disappear from where you are and reappear inside another
shadow within Far range. When you reappear, you are Cloaked.

==Spellcasting==

Uses Finesse

==Therianthropic Human (Katari/Human Halfblood)==

===Adaptability===

When you fail a roll that utilized one of your
Experiences, you can mark a Stress to reroll.

===Feline Instincts===

When you make an Agility Roll, you can spend
2 Hope to reroll your Hope Die.

==Seaborn==

===Know the Tides===

You can sense the ebb and flow of life. When you roll with Fear, place a token
on your community card. You can hold a number of tokens equal to your level. Before you make
an action roll, you can spend any number of these tokens to gain a +1 bonus to the roll for each
token spent. At the end of each session, clear all unspent tokens.

=Attributes=

Agility +1

Strength -1

Finesse +2

Instinct 0

Presence +1

Knowledge 0

==Secondary==

Evasion 13

HP 6

Stress 6

Hope 2

Armor 3 (Flexible)

Thresholds 6/12

=Experiences=

Partly a Cat Monster +2, Good Knowledge of Supernatural Nature +2

=Equipment=
Torch, 50 feet of rope, Basic supplies (tent, bedroll, tinderbox, rations, etc.), Minor Stamina Potion, Handful of Gold, Grappling Hook, Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8+1 phy - One-Handed), Small Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8 phy - One-Handed - Paired: +2 to primary weapon damage to targets within Melee range) Gambeson Armor (Thresholds 5/11 - Score 3 Flexible: +1 to Evasion)

=Domains=

==Midnight==

===Uncanny Disguise===

Level 1 Midnight Spell

Recall Cost: 0

When you have a few minutes to prepare, you can mark a Stress to don the facade of any humanoid you can picture clearly in your mind. While disguised, you have advantage on Presence Rolls to avoid scrutiny. Place a number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait on this card. When you take an action while disguised, spend a token from this card. After the action that spends the last token is resolved, the disguise drops.

==Grace==

===Enrapture===

Level 1 Grace Spell

Recall Cost: 0

Make a Spellcast Roll against a target within Close range. On a success, they become temporarily Enraptured. While Enraptured, a target’s attention is fixed on you, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice. Once per rest on a success, you can mark a Stress to force the Enraptured target to mark a Stress as well.

=Fluff=

==Details==

He/Him. Human-green and hazel eyes with cat slit pupils. Hair the same color as his black-and white pointed ears and tail, and tuxedo patterns on the fur he grows. Wears old fisherman's clothers under his armor and a scarf. Generally shows a standoffish personality except to those he trusts. Occasionally shows cat habits, and if people notice, he starts exaggerating them to dare them to comment. Fascinated with magic and monsters, especially illusion magic and fae-related monsters.

==Background==

• '''What did you get caught doing that got you exiled from your home community?'''

"It's more what I am. I was infected with therianthropy when I was nine and have spent my life since then just...being the outsider. There's a lot of us in Cormorant, but most of them are beggars or mostly woodsmen to get away from the way people look at us with pity or fear. But it also gives a touch of fae magic - and unfortunately, showing you're embracing your fae side makes people superstitious. Such as, well, learning how to shadowstep or communicating with illusion monsters with those shadows. Some still think a therianthrope who does that is turning into a fae beast, especially an intelligent one like a cu sith. So I decided, screw it, I might as well make my monster side my profession."

• '''You used to have a different life, but you've tried to leave it behind. Who from your past is still chasing you?:'''

"My friend turned worst bully, Luke Vatten, because he couldn't understand why I was coming to make peace with my ears - and never forgave me for infecting his sister when I was still delirious from fever. He thinks he can make a cure from me. He needs to get I'm not sick, I just look weird. But last I checked, he was studying to be a Seraph down south at Clearharbor - that was the only way he could be a doctor and inherit knighthood. Oh yeah, I forgot, he's the son of the baron. Should've started with that."

• '''Who from your past were you most sad to say goodbye to?'''

"My family. They never exiled me like the village did, they realized it wasn't my fault. But I can't stay there anymore - I'm closer to fae than human now, and really, this way is better for them."

==Connections==

• What did I recently convince you to do that got us both in trouble?

• What have I discovered about your past that I hold secret from the others?

• Who do you know from my past, and how have they influenced your feelings about me?

Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester

2025-08-24T20:20:49Z

Leliel: /* Rain of Blades */

'''Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester'''

=Identity=

==Nightwalker Rogue==

===Rogue’s Hope===

Rogue’s Dodge: Spend 3 Hope to gain a +2 bonus to your
Evasion until the next time an attack succeeds against
you. Otherwise, this bonus lasts until your next rest.

===Cloaked===

Any time you would be Hidden, you are instead Cloaked.
In addition to the benefits of the Hidden condition, while
Cloaked you remain unseen if you are stationary when an
adversary moves to where they would normally see you.
After you make an attack or end a move within line of sight
of an adversary, you are no longer Cloaked.

===Sneak Attack===

Gain a permanent +1 bonus to your damage thresholds.

===Shadow Stepper===

Shadow Stepper: You can move from shadow to shadow.
When you move into an area of darkness or a shadow cast
by another creature or object, you can mark a Stress to
disappear from where you are and reappear inside another
shadow within Far range. When you reappear, you are Cloaked.

==Spellcasting==

Uses Finesse

==Therianthropic Human (Katari/Human Halfblood)==

===Adaptability===

When you fail a roll that utilized one of your
Experiences, you can mark a Stress to reroll.

===Retractable Claws===

Make an Agility Roll to scratch a target
within Melee range. On a success, they become temporarily
Vulnerable.

==Seaborn==

===Know the Tides===

You can sense the ebb and flow of life. When you roll with Fear, place a token
on your community card. You can hold a number of tokens equal to your level. Before you make
an action roll, you can spend any number of these tokens to gain a +1 bonus to the roll for each
token spent. At the end of each session, clear all unspent tokens.

=Attributes=

Agility +1

Strength -1

Finesse +2

Instinct 0

Presence +1

Knowledge 0

==Secondary==

Evasion 12

HP 6

Stress 6

Hope 6

Armor 3 (Flexible)

Thresholds 5/11

=Experiences=

Partly a Cat Monster +2, Self-Taught Illusionist +2

=Equipment=
Torch, 50 feet of rope, Basic supplies (tent, bedroll, tinderbox, rations, etc.), Minor Stamina Potion, Handful of Gold, Grappling Hook, Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8+1 phy - One-Handed), Small Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8 phy - One-Handed - Paired: +2 to primary weapon damage to targets within Melee range) Gambeson Armor (Thresholds 5/11 - Score 3 Flexible: +1 to Evasion)

=Domains=

==Midnight==

===Rain of Blades===

Level 1 Midnight Spell

Recall Cost: 1

Spend a Hope to make a Spellcast Roll and conjure throwing blades that strike out at all targets within Very Close range. Targets you succeed against take d8+2 magic damage using your Proficiency. If a target you hit is Vulnerable, they take an extra 1d8 damage.

===Uncanny Disguise===

Level 1 Midnight Spell

Recall Cost: 0

When you have a few minutes to prepare, you can mark a Stress to don the facade of any humanoid you can picture clearly in your mind. While disguised, you have advantage on Presence Rolls to avoid scrutiny. Place a number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait on this card. When you take an action while disguised, spend a token from this card. After the action that spends the last token is resolved, the disguise drops.

==Grace==

===Enrapture===

Level 1 Grace Spell

Recall Cost: 0

Make a Spellcast Roll against a target within Close range. On a success, they become temporarily Enraptured. While Enraptured, a target’s attention is fixed on you, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice. Once per rest on a success, you can mark a Stress to force the Enraptured target to mark a Stress as well.

=Fluff=

==Details==

He/Him. Human-green and hazel eyes with cat slit pupils. Hair the same color as his black-and white pointed ears and tail, and tuxedo patterns on the fur he grows. Wears old fisherman's clothers under his armor and a scarf. Generally shows a standoffish personality except to those he trusts. Occasionally shows cat habits, and if people notice, he starts exaggerating them to dare them to comment. Fascinated with magic and monsters, especially illusion magic and fae-related monsters.

==Background==

• '''What did you get caught doing that got you exiled from your home community?'''

"It's more what I am. I was infected with therianthropy when I was nine and have spent my life since then just...being the outsider. There's a lot of us in Cormorant, but most of them are beggars or mostly woodsmen to get away from the way people look at us with pity or fear. But it also gives a touch of fae magic - and unfortunately, showing you're embracing your fae side makes people superstitious. Such as, well, learning how to shadowstep or communicating with illusion monsters with those shadows. Some still think a therianthrope who does that is turning into a fae beast, especially an intelligent one like a cu sith. So I decided, screw it, I might as well make my monster side my profession."

• '''You used to have a different life, but you've tried to leave it behind. Who from your past is still chasing you?:'''

"My friend turned worst bully, Luke Vatten, because he couldn't understand why I was coming to make peace with my ears - and never forgave me for infecting his sister when I was still delirious from fever. He thinks he can make a cure from me. He needs to get I'm not sick, I just look weird. But last I checked, he was studying to be a Seraph down south at Clearharbor - that was the only way he could be a doctor and inherit knighthood. Oh yeah, I forgot, he's the son of the baron. Should've started with that."

• '''Who from your past were you most sad to say goodbye to?'''

"My family. They never exiled me like the village did, they realized it wasn't my fault. But I can't stay there anymore - I'm closer to fae than human now, and really, this way is better for them."

==Connections==

• What did I recently convince you to do that got us both in trouble?

• What have I discovered about your past that I hold secret from the others?

• Who do you know from my past, and how have they influenced your feelings about me?

Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester

2025-08-24T20:17:20Z

Leliel: /* Enrapture */

'''Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester'''

=Identity=

==Nightwalker Rogue==

===Rogue’s Hope===

Rogue’s Dodge: Spend 3 Hope to gain a +2 bonus to your
Evasion until the next time an attack succeeds against
you. Otherwise, this bonus lasts until your next rest.

===Cloaked===

Any time you would be Hidden, you are instead Cloaked.
In addition to the benefits of the Hidden condition, while
Cloaked you remain unseen if you are stationary when an
adversary moves to where they would normally see you.
After you make an attack or end a move within line of sight
of an adversary, you are no longer Cloaked.

===Sneak Attack===

Gain a permanent +1 bonus to your damage thresholds.

===Shadow Stepper===

Shadow Stepper: You can move from shadow to shadow.
When you move into an area of darkness or a shadow cast
by another creature or object, you can mark a Stress to
disappear from where you are and reappear inside another
shadow within Far range. When you reappear, you are Cloaked.

==Spellcasting==

Uses Finesse

==Therianthropic Human (Katari/Human Halfblood)==

===Adaptability===

When you fail a roll that utilized one of your
Experiences, you can mark a Stress to reroll.

===Retractable Claws===

Make an Agility Roll to scratch a target
within Melee range. On a success, they become temporarily
Vulnerable.

==Seaborn==

===Know the Tides===

You can sense the ebb and flow of life. When you roll with Fear, place a token
on your community card. You can hold a number of tokens equal to your level. Before you make
an action roll, you can spend any number of these tokens to gain a +1 bonus to the roll for each
token spent. At the end of each session, clear all unspent tokens.

=Attributes=

Agility +1

Strength -1

Finesse +2

Instinct 0

Presence +1

Knowledge 0

==Secondary==

Evasion 12

HP 6

Stress 6

Hope 6

Armor 3 (Flexible)

Thresholds 5/11

=Experiences=

Partly a Cat Monster +2, Self-Taught Illusionist +2

=Equipment=
Torch, 50 feet of rope, Basic supplies (tent, bedroll, tinderbox, rations, etc.), Minor Stamina Potion, Handful of Gold, Grappling Hook, Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8+1 phy - One-Handed), Small Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8 phy - One-Handed - Paired: +2 to primary weapon damage to targets within Melee range) Gambeson Armor (Thresholds 5/11 - Score 3 Flexible: +1 to Evasion)

=Domains=

==Midnight==

===Rain of Blades===

Level 1 Midnight Spell Recall

Recall Cost: 1

Spend a Hope to make a Spellcast Roll and conjure throwing blades that strike out at all targets within Very Close range. Targets you succeed against take d8+2 magic damage using your Proficiency. If a target you hit is Vulnerable, they take an extra 1d8 damage.

===Uncanny Disguise===

Level 1 Midnight Spell

Recall Cost: 0

When you have a few minutes to prepare, you can mark a Stress to don the facade of any humanoid you can picture clearly in your mind. While disguised, you have advantage on Presence Rolls to avoid scrutiny. Place a number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait on this card. When you take an action while disguised, spend a token from this card. After the action that spends the last token is resolved, the disguise drops.

==Grace==

===Enrapture===

Level 1 Grace Spell

Recall Cost: 0

Make a Spellcast Roll against a target within Close range. On a success, they become temporarily Enraptured. While Enraptured, a target’s attention is fixed on you, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice. Once per rest on a success, you can mark a Stress to force the Enraptured target to mark a Stress as well.

=Fluff=

==Details==

He/Him. Human-green and hazel eyes with cat slit pupils. Hair the same color as his black-and white pointed ears and tail, and tuxedo patterns on the fur he grows. Wears old fisherman's clothers under his armor and a scarf. Generally shows a standoffish personality except to those he trusts. Occasionally shows cat habits, and if people notice, he starts exaggerating them to dare them to comment. Fascinated with magic and monsters, especially illusion magic and fae-related monsters.

==Background==

• '''What did you get caught doing that got you exiled from your home community?'''

"It's more what I am. I was infected with therianthropy when I was nine and have spent my life since then just...being the outsider. There's a lot of us in Cormorant, but most of them are beggars or mostly woodsmen to get away from the way people look at us with pity or fear. But it also gives a touch of fae magic - and unfortunately, showing you're embracing your fae side makes people superstitious. Such as, well, learning how to shadowstep or communicating with illusion monsters with those shadows. Some still think a therianthrope who does that is turning into a fae beast, especially an intelligent one like a cu sith. So I decided, screw it, I might as well make my monster side my profession."

• '''You used to have a different life, but you've tried to leave it behind. Who from your past is still chasing you?:'''

"My friend turned worst bully, Luke Vatten, because he couldn't understand why I was coming to make peace with my ears - and never forgave me for infecting his sister when I was still delirious from fever. He thinks he can make a cure from me. He needs to get I'm not sick, I just look weird. But last I checked, he was studying to be a Seraph down south at Clearharbor - that was the only way he could be a doctor and inherit knighthood. Oh yeah, I forgot, he's the son of the baron. Should've started with that."

• '''Who from your past were you most sad to say goodbye to?'''

"My family. They never exiled me like the village did, they realized it wasn't my fault. But I can't stay there anymore - I'm closer to fae than human now, and really, this way is better for them."

==Connections==

• What did I recently convince you to do that got us both in trouble?

• What have I discovered about your past that I hold secret from the others?

• Who do you know from my past, and how have they influenced your feelings about me?

Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester

2025-08-24T20:16:39Z

Leliel:

'''Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester'''

=Identity=

==Nightwalker Rogue==

===Rogue’s Hope===

Rogue’s Dodge: Spend 3 Hope to gain a +2 bonus to your
Evasion until the next time an attack succeeds against
you. Otherwise, this bonus lasts until your next rest.

===Cloaked===

Any time you would be Hidden, you are instead Cloaked.
In addition to the benefits of the Hidden condition, while
Cloaked you remain unseen if you are stationary when an
adversary moves to where they would normally see you.
After you make an attack or end a move within line of sight
of an adversary, you are no longer Cloaked.

===Sneak Attack===

Gain a permanent +1 bonus to your damage thresholds.

===Shadow Stepper===

Shadow Stepper: You can move from shadow to shadow.
When you move into an area of darkness or a shadow cast
by another creature or object, you can mark a Stress to
disappear from where you are and reappear inside another
shadow within Far range. When you reappear, you are Cloaked.

==Spellcasting==

Uses Finesse

==Therianthropic Human (Katari/Human Halfblood)==

===Adaptability===

When you fail a roll that utilized one of your
Experiences, you can mark a Stress to reroll.

===Retractable Claws===

Make an Agility Roll to scratch a target
within Melee range. On a success, they become temporarily
Vulnerable.

==Seaborn==

===Know the Tides===

You can sense the ebb and flow of life. When you roll with Fear, place a token
on your community card. You can hold a number of tokens equal to your level. Before you make
an action roll, you can spend any number of these tokens to gain a +1 bonus to the roll for each
token spent. At the end of each session, clear all unspent tokens.

=Attributes=

Agility +1

Strength -1

Finesse +2

Instinct 0

Presence +1

Knowledge 0

==Secondary==

Evasion 12

HP 6

Stress 6

Hope 6

Armor 3 (Flexible)

Thresholds 5/11

=Experiences=

Partly a Cat Monster +2, Self-Taught Illusionist +2

=Equipment=
Torch, 50 feet of rope, Basic supplies (tent, bedroll, tinderbox, rations, etc.), Minor Stamina Potion, Handful of Gold, Grappling Hook, Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8+1 phy - One-Handed), Small Dagger (Finesse Melee - d8 phy - One-Handed - Paired: +2 to primary weapon damage to targets within Melee range) Gambeson Armor (Thresholds 5/11 - Score 3 Flexible: +1 to Evasion)

=Domains=

==Midnight==

===Rain of Blades===

Level 1 Midnight Spell Recall

Recall Cost: 1

Spend a Hope to make a Spellcast Roll and conjure throwing blades that strike out at all targets within Very Close range. Targets you succeed against take d8+2 magic damage using your Proficiency. If a target you hit is Vulnerable, they take an extra 1d8 damage.

===Uncanny Disguise===

Level 1 Midnight Spell

Recall Cost: 0

When you have a few minutes to prepare, you can mark a Stress to don the facade of any humanoid you can picture clearly in your mind. While disguised, you have advantage on Presence Rolls to avoid scrutiny. Place a number of tokens equal to your Spellcast trait on this card. When you take an action while disguised, spend a token from this card. After the action that spends the last token is resolved, the disguise drops.

==Grace==

==Enrapture==

Level 1 Grace Spell Recall Cost: 0 Make a Spellcast Roll against a target within Close range. On a success, they become temporarily Enraptured. While Enraptured, a target’s attention is fixed on you, narrowing their field of view and drowning out any sound but your voice. Once per rest on a success, you can mark a Stress to force the Enraptured target to mark a Stress as well.

=Fluff=

==Details==

He/Him. Human-green and hazel eyes with cat slit pupils. Hair the same color as his black-and white pointed ears and tail, and tuxedo patterns on the fur he grows. Wears old fisherman's clothers under his armor and a scarf. Generally shows a standoffish personality except to those he trusts. Occasionally shows cat habits, and if people notice, he starts exaggerating them to dare them to comment. Fascinated with magic and monsters, especially illusion magic and fae-related monsters.

==Background==

• '''What did you get caught doing that got you exiled from your home community?'''

"It's more what I am. I was infected with therianthropy when I was nine and have spent my life since then just...being the outsider. There's a lot of us in Cormorant, but most of them are beggars or mostly woodsmen to get away from the way people look at us with pity or fear. But it also gives a touch of fae magic - and unfortunately, showing you're embracing your fae side makes people superstitious. Such as, well, learning how to shadowstep or communicating with illusion monsters with those shadows. Some still think a therianthrope who does that is turning into a fae beast, especially an intelligent one like a cu sith. So I decided, screw it, I might as well make my monster side my profession."

• '''You used to have a different life, but you've tried to leave it behind. Who from your past is still chasing you?:'''

"My friend turned worst bully, Luke Vatten, because he couldn't understand why I was coming to make peace with my ears - and never forgave me for infecting his sister when I was still delirious from fever. He thinks he can make a cure from me. He needs to get I'm not sick, I just look weird. But last I checked, he was studying to be a Seraph down south at Clearharbor - that was the only way he could be a doctor and inherit knighthood. Oh yeah, I forgot, he's the son of the baron. Should've started with that."

• '''Who from your past were you most sad to say goodbye to?'''

"My family. They never exiled me like the village did, they realized it wasn't my fault. But I can't stay there anymore - I'm closer to fae than human now, and really, this way is better for them."

==Connections==

• What did I recently convince you to do that got us both in trouble?

• What have I discovered about your past that I hold secret from the others?

• Who do you know from my past, and how have they influenced your feelings about me?

Ezekien "Black Zeke" Forester

2025-08-24T18:53:17Z

Leliel: Created page with "To be put up, need a template."

To be put up, need a template.

Rekin's Refuge

2025-08-24T18:52:57Z

Leliel: /* Player Characters */

Rekin's Refuge

2025-08-24T18:52:41Z

Leliel: /* Player Characters */

Sawl Mathias

2025-07-22T01:51:05Z

Leliel:

== Basic Information ==
'''Name: Sawyl Mathias'''

'''Pronouns:''' He/Him/They (Maera tend to revert to neuter when meditating or sleeping, saying you cease to be entirely yourself when asleep)

'''Identity:''' Alienated Maera Naturalist Turned Hidden Dissident Author

'''Theme:''' Hope

'''Origin:''' Naturalized Prezyantine Citizen
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' d6

'''Insight:''' d10

'''Might:''' d6

'''Willpower:''' d10

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' 35 '''Max:''' 35

'''MP - Current: ''' 60 '''Max:''' 60

'''IP - Current: ''' 10 '''Max:''' 10

'''Initiative Modifier:''' 0

'''Defense:''' 6

'''Magical Defense:''' 10

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Esper - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Mind Points increase by 5
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Part of Psychic Gifts.
|-
| ''Psychic Gifts (Reassuring Presence)'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Wanderer - level 3
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Faithful Companion'' || SL 3: a massive forest beast, believed to be spun from a nightmare of giants roaming the world, with high HP that protects Sawyl and can counter attacks
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Tinkerer - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Projects, IP Increases by 2
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Potion Rain'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' 3

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' 270 + 9 x 10 = 360

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor ||Sage Robe||
|-
| Main Hand ||Tome|| Ancient medical text
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Special - Brainwave Clock times 5 || ally || on Guard || Ally recovers 10 + (number of filled sections in Brainwave clock times 5) MP, if focus, they heal one of dazed, enraged, or shaken status effect of their choice.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==

Quirk: Agitator Sawyl has been quietly publishing seditious literature and muckracking when doing his studies of interesting life for years, and he's gotten a lot of contacts among both Prezyantine objectors and exterior allies who'd love to see the Imperium destroy itself - and he's got a sense for picking out hidden tensions.)

Equipment: Tome (an ancient medical text), sage robe, 270 zenit.

Sawl Mathias

2025-07-17T04:29:20Z

Leliel:

== Basic Information ==
'''Name: Sawyl Mathias'''

'''Pronouns:''' He/Him/They (Maera tend to revert to neuter when meditating or sleeping, saying you cease to be entirely yourself when asleep)

'''Identity:''' Alienated Maera Naturalist Turned Hidden Dissident Author

'''Theme:''' Hope

'''Origin:''' Naturalized Prezyantine Citizen
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' d6

'''Insight:''' d10

'''Might:''' d6

'''Willpower:''' d10

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''MP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''IP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''Initiative Modifier:'''

'''Defense:'''

'''Magical Defense:'''

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Esper - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Psychic Gifts
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Wanderer - level 3
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Makes you punch good or something.
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Faithful Companion'' || SL 3: a massive forest beast, believed to be spun from a nightmare of giants roaming the world, with high HP that protects Sawyl and can counter attacks
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Tinkerer - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Makes you punch good or something.
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Potion Rain'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' X

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' X

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor || ||
|-
| Main Hand || ||
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Example'' || 0 MP || X || Y || Some spell.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==

Quirk: Agitator Sawyl has been quietly publishing seditious literature and muckracking when doing his studies of interesting life for years, and he's gotten a lot of contacts among both Prezyantine objectors and exterior allies who'd love to see the Imperium destroy itself - and he's got a sense for picking out hidden tensions.)

Equipment: Tome (an ancient medical text), sage robe, 270 zenit.

Sawl Mathias

2025-07-17T04:28:32Z

Leliel: Created page with "== Basic Information == '''Name: Sawl Mathias''' '''Pronouns:''' He/Him/They (Maera tend to revert to neuter when meditating or sleeping, saying you cease to be entirely yourself when asleep) '''Identity:''' Alienated Maera Naturalist Turned Hidden Dissident Author '''Theme:''' Hope '''Origin:''' Naturalized Prezyantine Citizen == Attributes & Status Effects == '''Dexterity:''' d6 '''Insight:''' d10 '''Might:''' d6 '''Willpower:''' d10 {| class="wikitable" styl..."

== Basic Information ==
'''Name: Sawl Mathias'''

'''Pronouns:''' He/Him/They (Maera tend to revert to neuter when meditating or sleeping, saying you cease to be entirely yourself when asleep)

'''Identity:''' Alienated Maera Naturalist Turned Hidden Dissident Author

'''Theme:''' Hope

'''Origin:''' Naturalized Prezyantine Citizen
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' d6

'''Insight:''' d10

'''Might:''' d6

'''Willpower:''' d10

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''MP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''IP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''Initiative Modifier:'''

'''Defense:'''

'''Magical Defense:'''

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Esper - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Psychic Gifts
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Reassuring Presence'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Wanderer - level 3
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Makes you punch good or something.
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Faithful Companion'' || SL 3: a massive forest beast, believed to be spun from a nightmare of giants roaming the world, with high HP that protects Sawyl and can counter attacks
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class Tinkerer - level 1
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Makes you punch good or something.
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Potion Rain'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' X

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' X

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor || ||
|-
| Main Hand || ||
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Example'' || 0 MP || X || Y || Some spell.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==

Quirk: Agitator Sawyl has been quietly publishing seditious literature and muckracking when doing his studies of interesting life for years, and he's gotten a lot of contacts among both Prezyantine objectors and exterior allies who'd love to see the Imperium destroy itself - and he's got a sense for picking out hidden tensions.)

Equipment: Tome (an ancient medical text), sage robe, 270 zenit.

A Sky of Strife and Storms

2025-07-17T04:20:49Z

Leliel: /* Player Characters */

This is the page for the Fabula Ultima campaign A Sky of Strife and Storms. WIP

== Links ==
[https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349 Planning Thread]

== Player Characters ==
''Add them here!'' 
[[Eilwen Glynn]]

[[A_Sky_of_Strife_and_Storms:Stren_Halbrott| Stren Halbrott]]

[[Sawl Mathias]]

== Setting ==
Once, the land was unified, but some ancient cataclysm shattered it. The land is now scattered in smaller fragments, littered with the ruins of the civilizations that predated the disaster, with nothing approaching the size of a continent. Some of these islands lay on the ocean's surface. Others hover kilometers in the atmosphere. Their positions aren't fixed—new islands rise into the sky and older islands descend from the heavens, driven by the formation or destruction of mana crystals. As mana crystals are a powerful energy source for transportation, industry, and warfare, this must be carefully managed to avoid catastrophe. Enterprising or desperate individuals can even take advantage of this by hoisting a sail on a small flying island as a form of transportation.

For other, wealthier individuals, air travel is as simple as boarding an airship. The distribution of technology is almost as fragmented as the land itself, so the form that these take is often idiosyncratic, depending on which culture formed them. Large-scale, fast air travel is mostly the domain of wealthier and more cosmopolitan individuals. This also leads to a bit of an inherent class structure, with the very poorest individuals often living at sea level with little access to travel.

The world has dozens of seasons, and they sweep across in distinct bands, with no fixed schedule. Some are common, and others might be once-in-a-lifetime events. They aren't even strictly weather-based—one might bring an almost destructive abundance of plant growth, while the next is simply mild and sunny. At times, regardless of season, the weather can also manifest as powerful magical storms. These have unpredictable effects. Some can absorb items (or entire islands) from their surroundings, making them apparently vanish into thin air. Others will eject those unlucky passengers, with little relation to their original location—they can be left on the other side of the world, or even in a different time. Perhaps more commonly, these storms can warp the lifeforms that they pass over, transforming humans into new kiths or giving rise to unique and powerful, often giant, beasts.

In places where an island is overshadowed by a relatively stationary, large counterpart, a shadowland can form. These are areas where it's permanently dark, and the stagnant flow of mana can lead to the creation of strange creatures and phenomena.

== Magic and Technology ==
Souls are made of magical energy, and there's no firm dividing line that defines a 'soul'. Many inanimate objects can develop internal energy structures that are hard to distinguish from souls, and in the right circumstances souls can conglomerate or be changed by ambient magical energy. Like other magical energy, souls can be channeled, directed, or stored, including things like trapping them in receptacles to animate undead or constructs. Reincarnation is a known phenomenon, and the souls of the sufficiently enlightened are known to ascend into the heavens after they die, removing them from the cycle. This reinforces beliefs that those who live at higher elevations are more worthy.

There are no entities that are universally recognized as 'gods', but there are plenty of fairly unique and powerful beings, from sapient animals to entities formed of pure magical energy. Some of the most powerful can't directly manifest in the world without causing disasters, but they aren't really a separate category of being. Anybody can become god-like if they accumulate enough power, and presumably the god-like beings can be brought low with the right attack.

As a result of all of this, approaches to magic are varied and often idiosyncratic, ranging from channeling the abilities of powerful entities, to directing the flows of magic through one's body with specialized tattoos. Practitioners are often self-taught, but some of the more centralized or bureaucratic societies have formalized magic schools, or even forced registration of people with magical ability.

Magic and technology are often combined; the best technology incorporates magic, and some schools of magic use technological components to enhance their capabilities. Simple tech and magic are fairly ubiquitous, with more complex and powerful variations of the two being used by the larger empires. Rural areas tend to have the means to live at a comfortable pre-electricity standard of living, and typically use sustainable and low-impact forms of magic and technology. More destructive and resource-hungry forms of these things are usually reserved for those with imperial aspirations, and often rely on secrets from the ruins. The most powerful of these (so far) are the kinds of things that can threaten castles or small settlements, but not entire islands or cities.

Just as these things are pretty regional, methods of travel vary a lot by area, society, and tech level.

== Kith ==
=== Aracu ===
A kith of monkey-like plant people, with the ability to photosynthesize in lieu of eating, and an affinity for work that uses their agility. They range in size from something small like a Capuchin to something like a very large chimpanzee. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25486365 Link]

=== Beast-born ===
People with features and some of the abilities of (usually domestic) animals, usually born to otherwise baseline human families. Typically caused when an animal is reincarnated as a human. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25487934 Link]

=== Cadmoi ===
A long-lived kith born of the remains of dragons, with an affinity for elemental magic and warfare, but many more scholarly members in its diaspora. Tend to have dragon-like features, but they're often fairly subtle. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25488127 Link]

=== Maera ===
A reclusive forest-dwelling kith born from plants, with an affinity for fear and the ability to temporarily adopt monstrous forms. Formed as shock troops for an ancient war, and still harboring cultural fears of being enslaved again. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25488162 Link]

=== Manakin ===
Stray souls housed in bodies made of a nearby element or human-shaped construct, created spontaneously with no family or memories. Hardy and durable, but often taken advantage of since they start life with little knowledge. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25487609 Link] and also: [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/page-11#post-25488078 Link]

=== Vespergen ===
Humanoid bat people, of widely varying size, with a tendency toward a nocturnal lifestyle and living in dark areas, and limited flight ability. Their affinity for the darkness often sees them living on the edges of shadowlands, and some Vespergen communities have historically specialized in exploring and exploiting them. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25488412 Link]

== Nations ==
=== The Aetherian Concord ===
A competitive and meritocratic society based on the pursuit of magical power and knowledge, with day-to-day concerns handled by constructs, and a literal underbelly full of desperate exiles. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25506043 Link]

=== The Llewedhynn Comities ===
A loose federation of small communities that depend on sustainable technology and magic, mostly collectivist and egalitarian, with religious beliefs focusing on personal enlightenment and cultivation. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25494893 Link]

=== The Marakavan Alliance ===
A loose alliance of city-states with the means to forge the souls of the dead, and a commensurate skill at blacksmithing and rocky relations with their neighbors. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25491320 Link]

=== Matrado, Nyara, and Trinyo ===
Matrado and Nyara are a pair of surface-level islands, isolationist and relatively low-tech, but with diverse magical traditions. Trinyo, the sky island, is forbidden to outsiders (by force at times) but seems to be a lush hermetic retreat. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25497218 Link]

=== The Prezyan Imperium ===
One of the most powerful nations, fueled by capitalism and colonialism, with a robust transportation system and (air) naval might thanks to their industrialization and access to ancient knowledge. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25491372 Link]

=== The allied nations of the Ronanrian region ===
A large collective of semi-autonomous smaller nations and city-states, with a robust transportation network and trade, and fairly varied although culturally related to one another. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25491941 Link]

=== The city-state of Spathos ===
A militaristic feudal society, relatively conservative and isolationist, ruled by Cadmoi and armed with weapons made from the strange animal corpses strewn throughout the land. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25492535 Link]

=== The Under City and environs ===
A vibrant, multi-cultural society in the ruins along the undersides of a sky island, ruled by an alliance of pirates and known for violence. [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25493201 Link]

== Maps ==
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
Political map
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:A Sky of Strife and Storms - Political Map.png]]</div>
</div>
<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
Terrain/elevation map
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">[[File:A Sky of Strife and Storms - Combined Map.png]]</div>
</div>

== Historical Events ==
* '''Millennia ago - the war machine''': Before the cataclysm, a powerful, massive instrument of war sank into the ground... defeated, but not fully disabled. Much more recently, it was rediscovered in what is now the Llewedhynn Comities. It's now inhabited and known as Rhyfelwr, treated as some combination of a city, a trade center, and a fortress. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25513015 Link]
* '''Millennia ago - the cataclysm''': Long ago, all of the land was at sea level, and powerful societies lived upon it. Whatever catastrophe they unleashed, it split the land and left a world of floating islands covered in ruins.
* '''~100 years ago - the Origins of the Cult of the Drowned One''': After amassing a wealth of power and arcane knowledge, the pirate Zeviek was sentenced to drown for his crimes. His power was too great, though, and he still lives at the bottom of the sea, effectively a god and feared by every sailor and seaside community. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25512906 Link]
* '''75 years ago - the dissolution of the Monster Hunting Guild''': For centuries, an worldwide monster-hunting organization protected settlements from the monstrosities left by magical storms. 75 years ago, it was dissolved, and soon after replaced by a bureaucratic and inefficient puppet organization. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25512204 Link]
* '''~60 years ago - the Haunting of Duchess Sharpe''': The Sharpes founded a trading empire that made them one of the most powerful forces in the Prezyan Imperium, until the grisly assassination of the husband. In the aftermath, the Duchess fell into fear and paranoia, turning their estate into a three-dimensional labyrinth that almost seems alive. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25513130 Link]
* '''30 years ago - the fall of Lyonet''': Lyonet was a colony of the Prezyan Imperium, which slowly but steadily fell from the sky. Its millions of citizens were evacuated, and now form an often-desperate underclass in many surrounding nations. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25509501 Link]
* '''30 years ago - the Battle of the Numei Dam''': The three nations of Numei Island dammed the river that fell from it, altering the ocean ecosystem below and disrupting trade routes through the entire area. The Prezyan Imperium launched an attack on them to retaliate for this, but was driven back, setting an example for other small nations. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25523087 Link]

== Mysteries ==
* '''Pre-cataclysm ghost airship(s)''': Over the past few years, there have been numerous sightings of mysterious airships of apparently ancient design. These appear and disappear suddenly, and since having such technology would be a huge advantage, many militaries and organizations would be interested in capturing one. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25523463 Link]
* '''The Fiery Widower and The Jealous Dungeonkeep''': The Jealous Dungeonkeep lives away from the sun, underground or in ruins, with no sight but a preternatural sense of smell, and is rumored to be raising a subterranean army. The Fiery Widower is a mysterious man(?) who commits grand acts of arson on remote islands, always sparing one victim to spread the tale, seemingly searching for something or somebody... which may be the Dungeonkeep. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25524057 Link]
* '''The Missing Crown Jewels of the Preyzan Imperium''': The Crown Jewels of the Prezyan Imperium are said to house powerful, unknown magics, but at some point they were stolen and replaced with replicas, by a party whose identity and goals are unknown. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25526849 Link]
* '''The Phantom Port''': A strange port sighted in multiple places at times, rumored to be Orkporte, whose location was known only to the late Captain Kindle and its mysterious inhabitants. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25526928 Link]
* '''The Rukh City''': A nation-sized bird, carrying a settlement on its back, always spotted high in the sky, but leaving strange visitors in its wake. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25526950 Link]
* '''Island Wars''': A wildly popular magical card game. Nobody knows where it came from, who made it, or what all that magic is actually doing... [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25520814 Link]

== Threats ==
* '''Dream moss''': An unusual magical moss that can cover an entire small island in a week, growing on even other plants and animals. When it firmly establishes itself on a human, it alters their behavior, making them adore the moss and want to spread it, while feeling increasingly unsympathetic toward the uninfected. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25528879 Link]
* '''The Blood Syndicate''': A large pirate group that functions as an empire fueled by conquest and tribute, with no interest in governing its territory and enough power to challenge the navies of actual nation-states. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25528943 Link]
* '''The Transport Guild''': An organization working toward a monopoly over all civilian transport and logistics, inserting itself into those industries through whatever means it can find and spreading bureaucratic corruption. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25528958 Link]
* '''The Brewing War''': The Prezyan Imperium has begun moving troops and equipment into position around The Llewedhynn Comities, claiming to be a peacekeeping operation to seize the dangerous war machine in Rhyfelwr, but seemingly making preparations for a full invasion. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25529089 Link]
* '''Shadow of Dawn''': After recent leadership changes, the Dawn Trading Company, one of the main engines of Prezyan colonialism, has been acting more and more against the interests of the empire, increasing tensions between the two organizations. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25529240 Link]
* '''The Grand Conch''': A massive monster of a snail, impossible to stop and flattening everything in its wake, but at least it isn't very fast. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25529418 Link]
* '''The Red Order''': A militant youth movement within the Prezyan Imperium, advocating for wars of conquest, enslavement of the empire's enemies, and total monarchy, boasting the Crown Prince as one of its members and possibly planning a coup. [https://forum.rpg.net/threads/semi-closed-recruitment-fabula-ultima.927349/post-25530630 Link]

== Character Sheet Template ==
Create a page for your character.

Copy the code below to give you your character sheet template.

Fill out the necessary information. Feel free to add/remove rows from tables where needed.

When you're done, please link the sheet in the section above.

If you run into problems, see the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting Formatting Help] page for the wiki, or ask me in the thread.

<nowiki>
== Basic Information ==
'''Name:'''

'''Pronouns:'''

'''Identity:'''

'''Theme:'''

'''Origin:'''
== Attributes & Status Effects ==
'''Dexterity:''' dX

'''Insight:''' dX

'''Might:''' dX

'''Willpower:''' dX

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Status effects
|-
! Status !! Active? !! Stat Impacted (-1 die size)
|-
| Slow || || DEX
|-
| Enraged || || DEX + INS
|-
| Dazed || || INS
|-
| Weak || || MIG
|-
| Poisoned || || MIG + WLP
|-
| Shaken || || WLP
|}

== Hit Points + Derived Stats ==
'''HP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''MP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''IP - Current: ''' X '''Max:''' Y

'''Initiative Modifier:'''

'''Defense:'''

'''Magical Defense:'''

== Class Information ==
'''Character Level:''' 5

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Class X - level X
|-
| '''Free Benefits:''' || Makes you punch good or something.
|-
! Skill Name !! Skill Description
|-
| ''Some Skill'' || Does some stuff, probably.
|-
| ''Some Skill 2'' || Does other stuff.
|}
== Fabula Points ==
'''Points:''' X

'''Gaining Fabula Points:'''
: ''+1 if you have none at the start of a session.''
: ''+1 when a Villain makes an entrance.''
: ''+1 when you fumble a Check.''
: ''+2 if you surrender at zero HP.''

'''Spending Fabula Points:'''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a trait to reroll one or both dice.''
: ''Spend 1 point after performing a Check to invoke a bond and add its strength to the result.''
: ''Spend 1 point to alter the story. If you alter an existing element, you need permission from whoever introduced it.''

== Experience Points ==
'''XP:''' 0

''At the end of each session, you automatically gain 5 XP. Then:''
: ''Gain X equal to (Fabula Points spent by the group / # of Player Characters).''
: ''Gain XP equal to (Ultima Points spent by Villains).
: ''Finally, if you have 10 or more XP, lose 10 XP and gain 1 level.''

== Bonds ==
''Only one emotion from each pair per Bond; a single emotion can be added or moved every time a Bond is updated.''
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Person !! Admiration or Inferiority? !! Loyalty or Mistrust? !! Affection or Hatred?
|-
| ''Placeholder'' || || ||
|}

== Equipment ==
'''Zenit:''' X

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! !! Martial Armor !! Martial Shields !! Martial Melee Weapons !! Martial Ranged Weapons
|-
| '''May Equip:''' || || || ||
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|+ Equipped Items
|-
! Slot !! Item !! Description
|-
| Accessory || ||
|-
| Armor || ||
|-
| Main Hand || ||
|-
| Off Hand || ||
|}

== Arcana & Spells ==
{| class="wikitable" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: 0px;"
|-
! Name !! MP !! Targets !! Duration !! Description
|-
| ''Example'' || 0 MP || X || Y || Some spell.
|}

== Backpack & Notes ==</nowiki>

NX PC03

2025-07-07T01:36:23Z

Leliel: /* Stats */

[[Neon_Xtinction| Back to Main Page]]

==Marko Mandl/Cytokine==

Marko Mandl/Cytokine

Novice Male Human, Human/Kaiju "Prince" Hybrid And Mother's Science Project In Survival

Quote: ''Never fear, Cytokine is responding! ...Damnit, that doesn't work, need better biology puns...''

==Background==

In many ways, Marko "Mark" Mandl's story is actually the story of his mother, Dr. Eva Mandl. Or, as the world knows her now, Mitochondria, the Cell Queen. Originally she was known as one of the first superheroes before TITAN, as she seemed one of the only people who saw the kaiju coming, and outlined several important standard procedures in evacuation and analysis. Unfortunately, as people would later discover, she also felt humanity deserved the kaiju on some level - an anarchist and environmentalist both, her writings grew increasingly misanthropic and distrustful of her supposed friends in the government, even beginning to show a growing envy of the simple motives of kaiju, and increasing dismay at the infighting between her team and superiors. At one point, after something known as "the Kīlauea Incident", heavily classified, she apparently lost faith in humanity's survival altogether and vanished with her son - and several samples of kaiju blood from a creature described as "a great amoeba."

Marko doesn't know what happened between the year he vanished and was impromptu dumped at the prototype council that would later become Gilgamesh with a note on how to take care of him and his new requirements as a "new race of man." What is known is that shortly thereafter, the renamed Mitochondria revealed herself and announced she was in full revolt against the governments of the world as "poor stewards of human evolution" and that she was engineering a new species of mankind to survive a world that no longer had a place for Homo sapiens, starting with herself - as shown by how she, like her son, had become a humanoid protist. She has since become one of the world's supervillains - but the authorities are slow to arrest her, as she also provides order and medical care to her base in the destroyed remnants of Hamberg and still shows up to help fight the kaiju, often with her engineered beasts. As for her son - well, on some level he pathologically acts human to confirm that he isn't a kaiju hybrid, even though like his mother he can easily birth smaller beasts from his back. He has the kindness she seems to have forgotten in the face of her increasingly insane dreams, but above all else, he wants to know why she went from a heroine to a monster queen - and if that is fated to happen to him.

==Description==

Like his mother, Marko is a hyperadvanced organism resembling something between a protist and a humanoid. His flesh isn't truly a single cell or even cells, though - he's more akin to a strange form of pseudo-matter called psiplasma. This enables him to have a lot of powers one might call "psychic", but his most notable is the ability to undergo rapid budding to release the "brood", smaller organisms resembling plasmic lifeforms such as birds. In addition, he only breathes normally when speaking - something about his new biology makes it easy for him to synthesize oxygen from trace elements in more than enough quantities that he only needs to inhale every few hours, and he can hold his breath for more than three days, though he gets queasy after the first couple "intervals". Do not ask why Gilgamesh knows this.

==Stats==

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Focus d8, Intimidation d6, Language (English, Native is German) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Research d8+2, Science d6, Stealth d6

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5

Hindrances: Alien Form, Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing), Heroic, Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju)

Edges: Common Cause, Investigator (custom), Rich

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Language: Native (native, d8)

Current Wealth: $500

==Special Abilities==

Languages Known: English d8, German (native) d8

Telekinesis: Moves objects with the hero's mind. - Focus 3, Range 2

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form): The character's body can change into a different substance.

Levitation (Flight): The hero can fly and is harder to hit at higher levels.

The Brood (Minions): The character has allies under his control. - Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged): Distance Attack - Cone 1

Doesn't Breathe: The hero has no need to breathe.

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Heals wounds. - Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Manipulates energy, by Power Type. - Selective 2, Requires Activation -1

==Super Powers==

Telekinesis (5): Fine Control 3, Range 2

The Brood (Minions) (3) (13): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Levitation (Flight) (4)

Chitinous Membrane (Armor) (2)

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Fatigue 2, Requires Touch -2

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2,

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)

Brood Contamination (Poison) (2): Strong 2, Contingent (Enemy must be hit with a Plasma Burst or Plasma Manipulation) 0. (4)

Doesn't Breathe

Current Load: 0 (21)

Books In Use: Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition, Super Powers Companion

Setting Rules: Super Hero!

Supers Campaign Level: Heavy Hitters

Validity: Character appears valid and optimal

Daxton "Wells" Robins

2025-06-25T18:39:47Z

Leliel:

'''Daxton "Wells" Robins'''

Novice Male Human, XCOM Support

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d4

Skills: Academics d6, Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Drone Operation d4, Hacking d8, Healing d8+2, Notice d6, Psionics d6 Persuasion d6, Repair d6, Science d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d4

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 4

Hindrances: Curious, Greedy (minor), Vow (minor, See that humanity gets to space.)

Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Bureaucrat (setting), Healer, Level Headed

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Weapons: LM2 Laser Rifle (with Reflex and Laser Sights), Light Pistol, 1 Frag Grenade, 1 Stun Grenade, 2 M8 Smoke Grenades, Combat Knife

Other Gear: X-COM Combat Armor, Radio Headset. 2 Assault Rifle magazines, 2 Pistol Magazines, 5 Chemlights, 1 Flare, Tool Kit, bolt cutters, Field Medical Kit, Advanced Medical Kit, Night Vision Goggles, canteen, MRE (1 day), Tactical Universal Unmanned Vehicle Controller

Special Abilities

Psionics (Power Points: ?)

Powers: Havoc, Healing, Mind Reading

Dr. Daxton Robins, a child of politician parents, joined the Canadian Armed Forces largely to look better for a full political career, which he fully admits - his family is equal parts military and bureaucrats, and while "Wells" was always more of a sci-fi geek than social butterfly (hence his nickname - it's "well" and "HG Welles" in one), he believed fully in both sides of his heritage and decided to turn his fascination with medicine into both. He really didn't expect there to be an alien invasion - on multiple levels. A technological optimist, the idea that starfaring races would need resources from a habitable world - as opposed to say, land - is something he finds deeply perplexing. Part of the reason he agreed to join XCOM, and expose himself to actual danger as opposed to field medic work, is he really, ''really'' wants to understand the aliens.

[[File:Combat medic image.png|360px]]

Daxton "Wells" Robins

2025-06-25T18:31:43Z

Leliel:

'''Daxton "Wells" Robins'''

Novice Male Human, XCOM Support

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d4

Skills: Academics d6, Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Drone Operation d4, Hacking d8, Healing d8+2, Notice d6, Psionics d6 Persuasion d6, Repair d6, Science d6, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Survival d4

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 4

Hindrances: Curious, Greedy (minor), Vow (minor, See that humanity gets to space.)

Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics), Bureaucrat (setting), Healer, Level Headed

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Weapons: LM2 Laser Rifle (with Reflex and Laser Sights), Light Pistol, 1 Frag Grenade, 1 Stun Grenade, 2 M8 Smoke Grenades, Combat Knife

Other Gear: X-COM Combat Armor, Radio Headset. 2 Assault Rifle magazines, 2 Pistol Magazines, 5 Chemlights, 1 Flare, Tool Kit, bolt cutters, Field Medical Kit, Advanced Medical Kit, Night Vision Goggles, canteen, MRE (1 day), Tactical Universal Unmanned Vehicle Controller

Special Abilities

Psionics (Power Points: ?)

Powers: Havoc

Dr. Daxton Robins, a child of politician parents, joined the Canadian Armed Forces largely to look better for a full political career, which he fully admits - his family is equal parts military and bureaucrats, and while "Wells" was always more of a sci-fi geek than social butterfly (hence his nickname - it's "well" and "HG Welles" in one), he believed fully in both sides of his heritage and decided to turn his fascination with medicine into both. He really didn't expect there to be an alien invasion - on multiple levels. A technological optimist, the idea that starfaring races would need resources from a habitable world - as opposed to say, land - is something he finds deeply perplexing. Part of the reason he agreed to join XCOM, and expose himself to actual danger as opposed to field medic work, is he really, ''really'' wants to understand the aliens.

[[File:Combat medic image.png|360px]]

Rafael Cordova

2025-06-20T00:30:05Z

Leliel: Created page with "Rafael Cordova de Almaraz "el Rata de Cocinar" Profession: Pharmacist and Cook Age: 35 Nationality: Originally Spanish, Now A Temple On Mars And Also Spanish Adjectives: * Bitter * Compassionate * Curious * Obsessively cleanly Drives * Revenge on my old crew and college for abandoning me * Live in peace * Fully revive new species * Discover as much as I can about myself and the rattakan Education: Medical College/Memories of Ancestral Ghosts Health 7, Mora..."

Rafael Cordova de Almaraz "el Rata de Cocinar"

Profession: Pharmacist and Cook

Age: 35

Nationality: Originally Spanish, Now A Temple On Mars And Also Spanish

Adjectives:

* Bitter

* Compassionate

* Curious

* Obsessively cleanly

Drives

* Revenge on my old crew and college for abandoning me

* Live in peace

* Fully revive new species

* Discover as much as I can about myself and the rattakan

Education: Medical College/Memories of Ancestral Ghosts

Health 7, Morale 11

Allegiances: Ally: Prehuman Races 2, Ally: Commoners 1, Enemy: Old Academy 1 (If available he's also Ally: Sorcerous Societies 1)

Social Abilities: Charm 1, Liar's Tell 1

Ancestral Abilities: Rattakan 2

Sorcerer Abilities: Corruption 3, Leechcraft 2

General Abilities: Bind Wounds 7, Preparedness 7, Sorcery 9, Stealth 3, Sway 4,

Spheres:

Rats (Imbue self with even more ratlike traits or control the mundane kind)

Disease (Manipulate pathogens through a combination of mundane knowledge and alien understanding of biomancy)

Ghosts (Attack Sphere - Call on ancestral spirits of the original rattakan and pull rank on more modern dead, overwhelm enemies with alien memories and spirits to attack Morale)

Gear:

Medical Tools, Cleaned of Rust: They were covered in scabral and mold while he was trapped on Mars, but for both practical and ethical reasons he's sterilized and restored them - but keep the same ones to remind himself he was once human and it's best to live at a reasonable distance from them rather than conquer/ruin them.

Martian Scabral Crystal: His doom as a human but salvation as something else, this alien bit of Corruption pseudo-technology contains the genetic memories of the original rattakan species before Mars became uninhabitable due to war and drought - and infects humans close to it with their nature, becoming vulnerable to holy symbols of conventional society to drive them to accept their "new family" and genetic remaking into a rattakan/human hybrid. He sleeps with it most nights, trying to figure out what he is now, and his adopted species.

Herbal Pack, Always Prepared: Because whether it's treating people or being the chef, it's useful to have a supply of medicine and spices both. If anything, he's a better chef now that he has more of a sense of smell.

A Burning Grudge: You don't get deliberately backstabbed by colleagues who became aware you knew and were not pleased with their reckless smuggling business and trapped in an underground prehuman temple, only surviving by becoming a hybrid of yourself and its builders over the course of terrifying, agonizing weeks that only allowed you to escape because you can shrink down to mundane rat size, and also not be human anymore without developing a very large skepticism of exploration missions and the royals who back them - which syncs well with what the ghosts in him want, if a significant portion of their backers are incapable of exerting power that's a perfect place to begin rebuilding their prehuman, murine culture from fellow angry rebels.

Ghostly Voices In His Blood: The alien natives of Mars were not solely giant sorcerous rodents, but they are the most prominent among the choir of alien languages in the back of his mind, reminding him of the beauty of a once-lush world and the anger at the invaders who destroyed it - and the shame at having been part of the reason it is red now. They mostly sing, it seems, and are surprisingly sanguine about any humanitarian causes and cleanliness - rats aren't actually naturally dirty or selfish animals, just clannish and prone to survival at all costs, and that goes for the bipedal ones too.

Antediluvian Playing Cards: Rafael likes gambling on low stakes, and finding these while remembering how to play them introduced him to rattakan solitaire - which helped him fight the boredom after he was done starving and now had enough breath to realize how lost and frustrated he was in the catacombs. And then got a bunch of sailors looking for a cook and ship doctor very fascinated with a brand new way to lose their wages while hobnobbing and convincing them his creepiness did not outweigh his usefulness and adherence to never betraying like he was betrayed (he told them everything about being screwed over by his fellow Spaniards and escaped a temple a sorcerer, just leaving out the fact he is also now a wererat).

SwordsoftheStars

2025-06-20T00:29:48Z

Leliel: /* Crew */

'''Swords of the Serpentine does Solar Punk'''

===Links===
* [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/interest-recruitment-swords-of-the-serpentine-stars-game.922168/ Recruitment Thread]
* [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/ooc-swords-in-the-stars.923052/ OOC Thread]
* [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/ic-swords-in-the-stars.923053/ IC Thread]

===Crew===

{| class="wikitable"
! Player !! Character !! Position !! Wealth !! Lifestyle !! AP
|-
| [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?members/potted-plant.24190/ Potted Plant]||[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Arm_Candy Arm Candy] || Quartermaster, gambler, and swordswoman of excellent breeding || ? || ? || 0
|-
| [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?members/eplov.229812/ Eplov]||[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Eliza_Hawke Eliza Hawke] || Sorcerous ship's surgeon, good luck charm, and agent of chaos || ? || ? || 0
|-
| [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?members/dersen-lowery.72493/ Dersen Lowery]||[https://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Cardamon_Jones Cardamon Jones] || Silver tongued ship's navigator -- fearless and loyal to her crew || ? || ? || 0
|-
|}

Working: Leliel, [[Rafael Cordova]]

===Metacurrency===

:Refresh Tokens Available: '''0'''

====Refresh Token Generation====
*'''Defeating foes''': Dropping a Mook immediately creates a 1-point refresh token that goes into a bowl at the center of the table. Dropping a named foe or a non-Mook enemy adds 3 refresh tokens to the bowl; a big bad, 5 tokens; and a massive and truly memorable foe, 7 tokens.
*'''Solving non-combat challenges, such as a riddle or tactical problems'''
*'''GM Discretion''': Before the end of a scene where no combat occurred but significant amounts of General ability points were spent (such as a chase or a burglary), the GM can toss 2-3 refresh tokens into the bowl for every player who was active during that scene.
*'''Off-duty time''': A significant non-adventuring period of at least eight hours spent carousing, sleeping, studying, and the like (as appropriate to your Hero) adds 5 refresh tokens per off-duty Hero to the bowl. This only occurs once per period of rest; a week spent carousing, for instance, adds 5 refresh tokens per Hero and not 35.

===Empires and Colonies===

British Empire

Spanish Empire

Portuguese Empire

Aleksy "Boartusk" Sitko

2025-05-18T03:41:43Z

Leliel:

Aleksy was born to fly - his grandfather was a fighter pilot in WWII, and his father was a test pilot for various firms in advanced aviation. Little Alek was raised on a steady diet of glorious stories from his ''dziadzio'', and he wanted nothing else than to be a hero like him, or even an outright ace - which was helped by inherited his own father's hyperactive and sometimes borderline death wish personality. On some level, he's actually happy aliens invaded - this is the glorious, justified war that he gets to be a proper hero in, actually helping people via risking his life.

'''Concept:''' Semi-Bloodthirsty Aerial Jouster

'''Decompression:''' Spirited, Friendly Competitor/Adrenaline Junkie

'''Free Aspect:''' Living His Own Action Movie And Loves It

'''Great (+4):''' Pilot

'''Good (+3):''' Tactics, Discipline,

'''Fair (+2):''' Provoke, Gunnery, Shoot

'''Average (+1):''' Rapport, Fight, Athletics, Technology

'''Mediocre (+0):''' Investigate, Empathy, Sneak

'''Stunts:'''

''Look at Me, Moron:'' +2 on Tactics rolls Create an Advantage in engagements based on distracting the opposing pilot and getting them to focus on him.

''Dodge Tank:'' Can use Pilot instead of Tactics to shake a tail.

''Grandad's Old Revolver:'' Gain Weapon:1 on successful Shoot attacks.

'''Current Modules:'''

Defense Matrix, Boost Matrix

Aleksy "Boartusk" Sitko

2025-05-05T22:16:24Z

Leliel:

Aleksy "Boartusk" Sitko

2025-05-05T22:16:09Z

Leliel: Created page with "Aleksy was born to fly - his grandfather was a fighter pilot in WWII, and his father was a test pilot for various firms in advanced aviation. Little Alek was raised on a steady diet of glorious stories from his ''dziadzio'', and he wanted nothing else than to be a hero like him, or even an outright ace - which was helped by inherited his own father's hyperactive and sometimes borderline death wish personality. On some level, he's actually happy aliens invaded - this is t..."

Aleksy was born to fly - his grandfather was a fighter pilot in WWII, and his father was a test pilot for various firms in advanced aviation. Little Alek was raised on a steady diet of glorious stories from his ''dziadzio'', and he wanted nothing else than to be a hero like him, or even an outright ace - which was helped by inherited his own father's hyperactive and sometimes borderline death wish personality. On some level, he's actually happy aliens invaded - this is the glorious, justified war that he gets to be a proper hero in, actually helping people via risking his life.

'''Concept:''' Semi-Bloodthirsty Aerial Jouster

'''Decompression:''' Spirited, Friendly Competitor/Adrenaline Junkie

'''Free Aspect:''' Living His Own Action Movie And Loves It

'''Great (+4):''' Pilot
'''Good (+3):''' Tactics, Discipline,
'''Fair (+2):''' Provoke, Gunnery, Shoot
'''Average (+1):''' Rapport, Fight, Athletics, Technology
'''Mediocre (+0):''' Investigate, Empathy, Sneak

'''Stunts:'''

''Look at Me, Moron:'' +2 on Tactics rolls Create an Advantage in engagements based on distracting the opposing pilot and getting them to focus on him.

''Dodge Tank:'' Can use Pilot instead of Tactics to shake a tail.

''Grandad's Old Revolver:'' Gain Weapon:1 on successful Shoot attacks.

Savage X-COM

2025-05-05T22:05:07Z

Leliel: /* Pilots */

<center>“'''Two possibilities '''exist: '''either we are alone '''in the Universe or '''we '''are not. Both are equally terrifying.” - Arthur C. Clarke</center>

= X-COM: UFO Defense =

In 1947, Army Air Corps personnel from the 509th Bomb Group report the crash of a "flying disk" in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico. Some reports claim that there were two objects, and that one actually housed three alien beings: two dead and one alive. Before the end of the day, Army Air Corps officials retract the story, claiming that the object that crashed was actually a weather balloon. The existence of alien beings is categorically denied. 

All of the "weather balloon" debris and other physical evidence of the "Roswell Incident" are quickly whisked away to Wright Airfield in Ohio. 

X-COM was initially founded in the 1959. Originally created as an American counter-intelligence organization, aimed at providing a rapid response unit against a communist invasion, the agency was retasked to counter extra-terrestrial incursions by Director Faulke during the Outsider Incident [DETAILS REDACTED BY ORDER OF THE COUNCIL OF FUNDING NATIONS]. 

Following the successful resolution of the incident, X-COM was reformed into an international agency that would have jurisdiction over all extraterrestrial affairs, named the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit. The Council of Funding Nations was quickly formed by international treaty to govern X-COM, and then quickly sank into obscurity. X-COM was mothballed and remained a hidden relic of the cold war. Despite the events of 1962, the nations of the world still believe that aliens pose no true threat to the world and that global unity against a common foe is hardly required. The details of the incident, X-COM and the CFN are buried and kept hidden from the public. The Cold War proceeds for another thirty-nine years. 

The Council of Funding Nations, throughout this time, maintained a few X-COM bases under the guise of being national military bases and keeps its eyes on highly qualified individuals in the event that the program needs to be reactivated. Each year, the members of the Council meet and update their recruit list. The goal throughout the rest of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries is to have a list of experts ready, so that the X-COM project can be reactivated within days of a decision. The Council members are keenly aware that humanity is no longer alone in the universe, and that they will one day return. 

In 2017, Unidentified Flying Objects started appearing with disturbing regularity in the night skies. Reports of violent human abductions and horrific experimentation strike terror into the hearts of millions, and began to spark mass public hysteria. While at first, these are just regarded as rumors and urban legends, the sheer scale and public nature of these incidents means that by 2019, the majority of the public believe that aliens are real and are active on earth, and there are documented cases of human abduction commonplace through sparsely populated regions. Every major news organization has reporters dedicated full time to tracking and reporting on cases of alien attacks, though the specifics behind the aliens remain unknown to the public. All attempts by national governments to cover up the crisis fail horribly, and only spark more public outcry. Confused denial does nothing to stem the tide of panic. The tipping point is Maine. A high profile abduction of three hundred people in a small, coastal town in 2018 is live streamed to the internet by several citizens, and an embedded reporter with the National Guard unit that responds to the attack. After this, the government denials stop. 

The Council proposed the reactivation of X-COM following their initial report into UFO activity in 2017, but at that time, the individual nations of the world feel that the situation is containable, and a leak of the X-INT report to the public resulted in confused denials on a political level. 

The scientific community attempted to make contact with the aliens on several occasions, but receive no response. Though the disappearance of the scientists who attempt to walk into landed UFOs could be seen as a kind of reply. 

Many countries initially tried to deal independently with the aliens. In June 2019, Japan established an anti-alien combat force; the Kiryu-Kai. Equipped with Japanese-made fighter aircraft, the Kiryu-Kai certainly looked like a powerful force. However, after 5 months of expensive operations, they have yet to intercept their first UFO. Other national agencies had a similar lack of success. The lesson was clear: this was a worldwide problem which could not be dealt with by individual countries. 

Intelligence agencies and military organizations around the world quickly discovered that these aliens were not working alone, numerous organizations had quietly cut deals with the aliens outside the providence of national governments. Criminals, cults, and syndicates were quietly operating with the aliens behind the scenes on an international scale. 

An answer had to be given. While national agencies were preparing their own responses, old treaties were being called upon and an agreement was being reached. 

On December 11, 2019, representatives from the world's most powerful countries met secretly in Geneva. After much debate the decision was made to authorize the Council of Funding Nations to reactivate the X-COM project. Following the meeting, the Council immediately begins calling in the names on its list, recruiting the finest military, scientific and engineering minds on the planet, and start recruiting the best soldiers and pilots to serve as humanities front line. The initial briefing to these recruits was given on New Year’s Eve. 

X-COM officially reactivated on January First 2020, with a mandate to preserve human life and protect earth from the new alien incursion. 

Several military bases around the world are being reassigned to X-COM for their usage. Our story begins at a little known base known as Area 51, which has been partially requisitioned for X-COM's North-America West operations... 

===Setting Rules===
* '''Best of the Best:''' Payers start with 16 skill points instead of 12, and get an extra attribute boost and edge at character creation; to represent being drawn from the world's best units. 
* '''Creative Combat:''' When making a successful Test check in combat and getting a raise, roll on the Creative Combat page on page 137 for the extra benefit 
* '''Elite Forces:''' Characters can spend a Benny to gain the one-time use of a Combat Edge. They have to meet the Rank and any Edge requirements as usual but can ignore Trait requirements. Multiple Bennies can be spent in one round for multiple Edges, either for different effects or in order to meet a needed requirement to gain another Edge. If duration matters for the edge, it lasts until the start of their next turn. 
* '''Gritty Damage:''' Whenever a Wild Card takes a Wound, roll on the Injury Table and apply the results immediately (but roll only once per incident regardless of how many Wounds are actually caused). A hero who takes two Wounds from an attack, for example, rolls once on the Injury Table. Injuries sustained in this way are cured when the Wound is healed. Injuries sustained via Incapacitation may be temporary or permanent as usual. A Shaken character who’s Shaken a second time (from damage) receives a Wound as usual but does not roll on the Injury Table. 

===House Rules===
*'''Initiative:''' Initiative in Savage Worlds uses playing cards, which has trigger various edges and effects (such as the Joker). We will still draw cards (rather, I'll draw cards and tell you what you get) to determine these effects, but the actual initiative will be using popcorn. First a PC goes, then a NPC (or group of identical extras), then a PC, etc. etc. and switch back and forth until everyone has gone. The reason for this is because, in my experience, it makes play by post games go much faster instead of having to wait for individual people's turns to come up. People can go when they're available, instead of waiting for both their turn to come up and for them to be available. 

===Character Creation===
Character creation will use the standard Savage Worlds rules. Characters must be human (at the start of the campaign) and go through the regular creation process, with the exception that money is not involved. 
 
For gear, as members of a military unit, X-COM operatives, obviously, do not have to buy their own guns. Instead, they can take any items they want from the list of X-COM equipment, up to their maximum carrying capacity. At the start of the game, only human gear is available, but in unlimited quantities. Eventually, more advanced gear will become available and there may be restrictions on how much can be taken into the field. All weapons and equipment should be selected from the list in the wiki, as opposed to the core book. If you feel something is missing, let me know, and I may add it if I agree. 
 
In the event that access to money becomes relevant for the plot, any X-COM operative can be assumed to be have a few hundred dollars or the local equivalent. Rich and Very Rich characters will have access to much more. A character with the poverty hindrance will never have enough money if they need it for some reason. 

==Characters==
[[Daxton "Wells" Robins]]

[[Ivy Winters]]

[[RH Walker]]

[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vvcAQQfaeaMOTrcYP7x9b3awARoOxUL7olqWzeegiIw/edit?tab=t.0 Isabella Hernández]

[[Jia_Sin_Se | Jia Sin Se ]]

====Former Squadmates====
[[Diego "Papa Bear" Montoya]]

[[Abraham Boone]]

[[X-Com:_Mac | MacKenzie 'Mac' Leigh]]

[[Mireille Dembélé | Mireille "Ombre" Dembélé]]

[[Erebus Matheson]]

==Links==
* [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1X7gQctsnRB37saMGjhcZ4JQNNdt3jb9Cx-ydNQV6J0Q/edit?usp=sharing Combat Tracker]
* [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/recruitment-x-com-area-51-savage-worlds-adventure-edition.915810 Recruitment Thread]
* [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/x-com-area-51.915927/ OOC Thread]
* [https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/x-com-area-51.916002/ IC Thread]

==Setting==
[[Savage_X-COM: XCOM Structure|X-COM Structure]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Area 51 Dramatis Personae|Area 51 Dramatis Personae]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Timeline|Timeline]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: UFOPaedia|UFOPaedia]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: After Action Reports|After Action Reports]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Armory|Armory]] 

==Character Creation==
[[Savage_X-COM: New Hidrances|New Hindrances]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: New Skills |New Skills]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: New Edges|New Edges]] 

==Equipment==
Weapons are listed with generic stats and a series of examples. As Tier One operators, X-COM Sword Team operatives have wide personal latitude in choosing their weapons. And since they came from a wide variety of military backgrounds and units, X-COM command feels that the comfort of using preferred weapons outweighs the logistical disadvantages of multiple different weapons, primarily since X-COM teams aren’t expected to spend long times in the field away from the base. Shield teams have a more standardized base of equipment, using MP5s, Mossberg 590A1s and G36Cs as primary armanents; with P220 and P226s for sidearms. They also wield a mean stun baton. 
 
[[Savage_X-COM: New Keywords|New Keywords]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Armor|Armor]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Primary Weapons|Primary Weapons]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Secondary Weapons|Secondary Weapons]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Melee Weapons|Melee Weapons]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Expendable Weapons|Expendable Weapons]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Weapon Mods|Weapon Mods]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Drones|Drones]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Personal Gear|Personal Gear]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Vehicles|Vehicles]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: MEC Gear|MEC Gear]] 

==Other==
[[Savage_X-COM: New Combat Rules|New Combat Rules]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: X-INT Operations|X-INT Operations]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Gene Mods|Gene Mods]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: MEC Troopers|MEC Troopers]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Downtime Actions|Downtime Actions]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Allied NPCs|Allied NPCs]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Squads|Squads]] 

= X-COM: Tachyon Squadron=

It is currently May of 2020, and X-COM has been waging a brutal battle on land and air across all the continents of Earth for the past four months. Despite initial setbacks against a technologically superior foe, X-COM air and ground forces have begun to make serious successes. The Raven interceptor has allowed X-COM to obtain notable successes against UFOs in the sky, and small teams of operatives have successfully raided crashed UFOs and fought off numerous abduction attempts. Research and development have begun reverse engineering captured examples of alien technology, and new weapons and armor have begun seeing deployment against the invaders. However, the aliens keep escalating their attacks, including several massive attacks on urban regions; and new alien life forms and weapons keep appearing. 

You are all members of Tachyon Squadron, a flight of interceptors based out of Andermatt Base Station, the a recently established X-COM base under Castlehorn Mountain in Switzerland. You're the first line of defense for X-COM. Every UFO that is brought down is one that isn't abducting citizens, bombing cities or performing research on humanity. Every UFO brought down is a chance for the tactical teams to defeat the enemies in brutal close combat, a chance for the research teams to uncover new technologies, and materials for the engineers to build new weapons. In order to win this war, X-COM must win the skies back. 

The fighter pilots of X-COM have become the old breed, with skills and tactics dating back to the flying aces in World Wars I and II, ironically because of the technology that once led to their disappearance. The simple reason is that conventional fighter jets are next to useless against UFOs. They fly too fast and are too maneuverable for the fight to be fair. And the UFO hull simply cannot be targeted by modern BVR missiles. They can't be detected by conventional radar and have no notable heat signature. The only plane that can keep up is the XFS-105 Raven Interceptor. And even then, the most reliable method to date remains to get as close as possible, engage in a dogfight and make the kill with cannons. 

==Pilots==
*
[[Bakary Salou]]
* [[Aleksy "Boartusk" Sitko]]

==Rules Modifications==
Mechanically, this game will be played with FATE Core and the Tachyon Squadron rules. The mechanics won’t need to be modified for the different setting, though there will be some change to gear. 

The main mechanical difference will be in defensive checks. In order to speed up things in a PbP setting, instead of the target rolling the FATE dice, they’ll be assumed to roll a 0, so the target number will just be the skill value for the defensive skill (which will be made available on the combat tracker). 

Players and NPCs will be able to spend FATE points and invoke aspects retroactively to turn a hit into a miss per the usual rules. For instance, if your fighter is targetted by an alien plasma cannon, and the alien rolls and hits by 1; after my post, the player would be able to spend a FATE point and invoke an appropriate aspect to increase the defence by 2; and retroactively turn the hit into a miss. 

==Equipment==
[[Savage_X-COM: Tachyon Squadron Planes|Interceptors]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Tachyon Squadron Equipment|Equipment]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Tachyon Squadron Locations|Locations]] 
[[Savage_X-COM: Tachyon Squadron People|People]]

Neon Xtinction

2025-04-01T14:57:51Z

Leliel: /* The Heroes */

[[File:NX_background.png|center]]

==History==

As far back as records have been kept, there have always been those with extraordinary abilities. Heroes and demigods, legends and myths, their exploits are woven through history. They are supers, men and women born with - or gifted - incredible powers, to be used for good or evil as they see fit.

Likewise, monsters have always been a part of human history - enormous beasts, terrible predators, and hybrids that belong to no sane world. Some were clearly allegorical, representing fears, sins, and natural disasters, but some truly existed, endangering humanity with their terrible power. But when a monster threatens, heroes rise to stop it.

In 1954 the first kaiju, Dakkuma, emerged in Japan and proceeded to lay waste to the city of Okinawa. The monstrous reptile-arthropod hybrid was soon engaged by Captain Cosmic, the world’s preeminent (and most powerful) superhero. Their battle lasted for three days, covered hundreds of miles, and ended with Captain Cosmic tired but triumphant and Dakkuma apparently dead at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Since then, the kaiju have become a constant threat to humanity: building-sized monstrosities resembling no form of natural life, but with traits of reptiles, insects, crustaceans, and stranger things, possibly massive strength, limitless endurance, and strange and alien powers. They appear without warning, often from the sea or from large stretches of wilderness, and seem driven to crush and destroy the cities of humanity. Since the appearance and fall of Dakkuma there have been many more, and of late their attacks have increased in frequency and intensity.

Coinciding with the rise of the kaiju, supers - always a rare presence in the world - have become more common, and have demonstrated increasingly potent powers. Though none has yet come to light who can match the powers of Captain Cosmic, the masked vigilantes and super-athletes of old have given way to supers with far greater powers, including flight, elemental control, strength and toughness almost equal that of a kaiju, and more exotic abilities.

Project Gilgamesh was founded to make use of these young heroes and their talents. The brainchild of TITAN, the Tactical Initiative for Threat Anomaly Neutralization, Project Gilgamesh recruits teenagers who demonstrate extraordinary superhuman abilities with the aim of training them into a fighting force capable of defending humanity against the increasing threat of the kaiju.

The first recruits for Project Gilgamesh have been gathered.

This is their story.

==The Heroes==
[[File:NX_silhouettes.png]]
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Character''' '''Codename''' ''role'' player name || '''Pace'''||'''Parry''' || '''Toughness''' || '''Edges''' || '''Hindrances''' || '''Attributes''' || '''Super Powers'''
|-
|[[NX_PC01| '''Gavin Lawrence Reiher''']] '''Lionheart''' ''super-knight'' Elfwine || 8" || 8 || 22(12) || AB: Super Powers Combat Reflexes Dodge Frenzy Iron Jaw Nerves of Steel (Improved) Take the Hit || Code of Honor Hot Tempered (Minor) Loyal Stubborn Suspicious (Minor) || Agility d8 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d10 Vigor d12 ||Armor +12 Fearless Healing (Requires Touch. Refresh. Selective) Leaping (4" horizontal/8" vertical) Melee Attack (see sheet) Mind Shield Pace (Strider) Super Attribute (+1 Agility, +1 Spirit +2 Strength, +2 Vigor) Super Edge (Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Frenzy, Improved Nerves of Steel, Iron Jaw, Take the Hit) Super Skill (Athletics +2, Fighting +3, Focus +1, Intimidation +1) Toughness +2 
|-
|[[NX_PC02| '''Hayley Elliot''']] '''The Electrician''' ''electricity manipulator'' ferretribution || 6" || 2 || 5 or 13(8) with equipment || AB: Super Powers McGyver || Driven (Major) Curious (Minor) Big Mouth (Minor) Bad Eyes (Minor) || Agility d6 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Damage Field Energy Control (electricity) Env. Resistance (electricity) Illusion Interface Invisibility Machine Control Ranged Attack Wall Walker
|-
|[[NX_PC03| '''Marko Mandl''']] '''Cytokine''' ''minion commander, plasma'' Leliel || 6" || 5 || 5 || Investigator (custom) Team Player || Alien Form Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing) Heroic Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju) || Agility d4 Smarts d8 Spirit d8 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Telekinesis (5): Fine Control 3, Range 2 The Brood (Minions) (3) (13): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3 Levitation (Flight) (4) Chitinous Membrane (Armor) (2)
 Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1 Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Fatigue 2, Requires Touch -2 Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2 Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form) Brood Contamination (Poison) (2): Strong 2, Contingent (Enemy must be hit with a Plasma Burst or Plasma Manipulation) 0 (4) Doesn't Breathe
|-
|[[NX_PC04| '''Millicent 'Mills' Astor''']] '''Frostfire''' ''blaster, elementalist'' Stormraven || 6"/180" || 2 || 21 (16) || AB: Superpowers Attractive Scholar (Academics) || Curious Heroic Phobia: Claustrophobic Quirk: Speaks in gaming terms || Agility d6 Smarts d10 Spirit d8 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Armor 8 Dodge 5 Energy Control (cold) Env. Resistance (cold, fire) Flight Obscure Ranged Attack 4d6, AP 10
|-
|[[NX_PC05| ''' 'Jane Doe' ''']] '''Wraith''' ''melee ghost'' Kaiya || 6" || 7 || 17 || Brawler || Distinctive Appearance Heroic Mute Thin-Skinned || Agility d10 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d8 Vigor d8 || Flight (1,200 MPH) Regeneration (1/round; Regrowth) Intangibility (Affect Others) Toughness (+8) Undead Melee Attack (+3d6; Heavy Weapon) Super Attribute (Agility +1) Ageless Mind Shield
|-
|[[NX_PC06| '''Sloan Snyder''']] '''Kid Kaiju''' ''growing brick'' mysstic101 || 6" or 10" || 6 || 8(2) or 10(2) or 16 or 18 || AB: Superpowers Berserk Best There Is (Grow) Frenzy Improved Frenzy Iron Jaw Menacing || Loyal: teammates (minor) Ruthless: makes hard calls (minor) Shamed: past collateral dmg (major) Ugly: looks like a kaiju (major) || Agility d8 Smarts d4 Spirit d8 Strength d6 (or d8) (or d12+7) (or d12+8) Vigor d8 ||Growth 10: 63' tall, 125 tons, Stomp attack Altered Form 3: No fall dmg, 1/2 collision, 1/2 knockback Hardy 2: 2nd Shaken doesn't Wound Leaping 3: 8" vertical/16" horizontal (Bounce, Death From Above) Melee Attack +3d6 (Claws +2d6), +2 climbing, Heavy Weapon Super Attribute 2 (Agility d6->d8, Vigor d6->d8) Super Edge 2 (Frenzy, Improved Frenzy)
|-
|}

==Other Characters==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other Recruits and Retired Heroes
|-
!Character Codename role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Matteo Centori ''' '''Hotshot''' ''Big guy'' || Blond, handsome, thousand-dollar smile || Arrogant, petty, charming || Pilots a kaiju-sized mech || Famous, wealthy, glory-hound
|-
|'''Jaylinn Hart''' '''Heartfire''' ''Fire elementalist'' || Short blonde hair, sharkish grin || Confident, competitive || Heat projection, fire manipulation|| In a one-sided competition with Mills
|-
|'''Rebecca 'Becky' Fairfield''' '''Backfire''' ''Luck manipulator'' || Dark hair and eyes, withdrawn, rarely smiles || Lonely, bitter || Incredible luck and accuracy, bad luck to enemies || Convinced she causes bad luck to others
|-
|'''Patrick Anderson''' '''Panorama''' ''Time/space warper''|| Brown hair, wholesome jock features || Outwardly happy, inwardly jaded and fatalistic || Time/space warping, cannot inflict direct damage
|-
|'''Honey Sue Beauregard''' '''Southern Bell''' Sonic projector || Pretty, dark blonde hair, freckles || Flirty and casual || Powerful sonic shrieks and sound manipulation
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Project Gilgamesh Staff
|-
!Character role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Notes
|-
|'''Director Charles Sexton''' ''Director of Project Gilgamesh'' || White male, late 50s, cross between a military officer and a corporate CEO || Professional, reserved || Wealthy and influential
|-
|'''Sachiko Brooks''' ''Communications Officer'' || Half-Asian female, late 20s, green eyes, brown hair, very pretty || Friendly, extroverted || Endlessly cheerful and optimistic
|-
|'''Victor Rand''' ''Chief Engineer'' || White male, late 60s, scarred and weathered, walks with a cane due to severe limp || Blunt and surly || Absolute wizard with anything mechanical
|-
|'''Dr. August Frey''' ''Psychiatrist and counselor'' || White NB, late 30s, long angular face || Calm and non-judgmental || Willing to talk about anything, any time
|-
|'''Dr. Elena Voss''' ''Head scientist'' || White female, late 40s, severe features and graying hair || Crisp, professional, occasionally harsh || Brilliant scientist, relentless enemy of kaiju
|-
|'''Commander Samuel "Ironclad" Kessler''' ''Tactical Advisor'' || Black male, late 50s, scarred but unbroken, always wears reflective aviator glasses || Brusque, no-nonsense || Ex-military head of training and tactics
|-
|'''Kiana "Wavebreaker" Torres''' ''Pilot and aquatics specialist'' || Hawaiian/Latino female, late 20s, always smiling || Upbeat and enthusiastic || Low-tier superpowers, formerly the minor hero Wavebreaker
|-
|'''Captain Fiona Harkness''' ''Chief of Security'' || White female, mid-30s, flaming red hair and freckles, never wears makeup || All business except when drinking or singing, then gets very emotional || Concerned with base security above all else
|-
|'''Keiko Nakamura''' ''Chef and quartermaster'' || Japanese female, late 50s, short and pudgy || Mothers ''everyone,'' no exceptions || Very competent and utterly fearless
|-
|'''Amara Singh''' ''Training coordinator'' || Indian female, mid 30s, tall and athletic || Cautious but encouraging || Former Olympic athlete, has a slight limp due to a kaiju attack
|-
|'''Dr. Maxim Vostrikov''' ''Xenobiologist'' || White male, early 30s, black hair and hunched posture || Socially awkward, slightly arrogant || Assistant to Dr. Voss, fascinated by kaiju
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other NPCs
|-
!Character Codename role !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Daniel Rutherford''' Captain Cosmic ''The Man of the Future'' || Confident, heroic. || Flight, invulnerability, super-strength, energy blasts || World's most powerful superhero
|-
|}

==Known Kaiju==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|'''Name''' ''status''|| '''Description''' || '''Known Powers''' || '''Notes'''
|-
|'''Dakkuma''' ''deceased'' || Monstrous, hexapedal hybrid of insect and reptile || Sonic roar, laser eye-beams || Defeated by Captain Cosmic, left in the Marianas Trench
|-
|}

==Rules==

===Setting Rules===
*'''An Arm And A Leg:''' If a Wild Card has no bennies, they can still choose to make a Soak roll. Regardless of the results of the Soak roll they immediately gain an appropriate hindrance: One Arm, One Eye, or Slow (Major). This Hindrance lasts until the end of the next session and cannot be healed otherwise.
*'''Combined Attacks:''' Support an ally’s attack to deal +2 damage, +4 with a raise
*'''Comic Book Combat:''' Combined Attacks, Knockback, Power Stunts, Synergy
*'''Conviction:''' Heroes gain Conviction Tokens that can be used to add a d6 to all Trait and damage rolls for one round.
*'''Expanded Conviction:''' In addition to the standard uses, Conviction can be spent to:
**Reroll a Critical Failure.
**Force an enemy to reroll a single Trait roll and use the new roll.
**Negate a Benny used by another character.
**Conviction may be gifted to another character who is Trusted (see below) for immediate use.
*'''Death & Defeat:''' A Wild Card who is incapacitated by lethal damage gets an immediate Vigor roll to potentially recover.
*'''Larger Than Life:''' Wild Cards may take one additional Major or Minor hindrance, gaining points for it normally. This extra hindrance must be a mental/social hindrance.
*'''Mega-Destruction:''' Superpowers and kaiju attacks cause massive property damage.
*'''More Skill Points:''' Heroes start with 15 skill points instead of 12.
*'''Never Surrender:''' Incapacitated Wild Cards are dealt initiative cards normally. On a Joker they regain consciousness and rejoin the fray.
*'''No Finishing Moves:''' Downed Wild Cards are immune to Finishing Moves
*'''Popcorn Initiative:''' Players may post in whatever order, as they are available to do so. The GM will have NPCs act whenever it makes sense. The edges Quick and Level-Headed, and the hindrance Hesitant, do not exist. Cards will still be drawn for the sake of Jokers and complications.
*'''Throwdown:''' Ignore the Unarmed Defender rule.

===Stress===
When characters become severely upset or emotionally hurt they may become '''Stressed.''' Stress is a mental status effect that applies whenever it is logical - whenever a character receives terrible news, experiences a traumatizing event, or suffers a great emotional blow. The GM may declare that a character has become Stressed as appropriate; the player may voluntarily choose to become Stressed as well. If the player chooses to become Stressed, they gain a benny.

A Stressed character subtracts 1 from all Smarts- and Spirit-based Trait rolls, and cannot spend bennies to unshake - they must succeed on a Spirit roll to do so.

If a character would become Stressed when they already have the Stressed status, they instead gain a temporary hindrance appropriate to the situation and their personality. This hindrance persists until removed; see below.

Stressed is a special status effect in that it does not fade naturally; instead, a character must make a '''Spirit roll at -2''' to clear it. This roll can be made only once per day, after a period of rest (typically in the morning after a night’s sleep).

There is a second way to clear Stress: with the help of a friend. Another character (who is not Distrusted) can spend time with the Stressed character, helping them relax and work through their issue. This can take a variety of forms, from a conversation to guided meditation to recreation of various sorts, and takes about an hour. At the end of this time the Stressed character makes a '''Spirit roll at -2''' while their friend rolls to '''Support.''' This can only be attempted once per 24 hours. If the Spirit roll is a critical failure, the Stressed character gains a temporary hindrance if they did not already have one!

If a character is afflicted with both Stress and a temporary hindrance, a success on the Spirit roll removes the Stressed condition but not the hindrance; a raise removes both. If the Stressed condition is removed, the hindrance can be removed the same way (but not until the next normal opportunity). The hindrance remains until removed, and if the character becomes Stressed again, that status must be cleared before they can attempt to remove the hindrance.

===Trust and Distrust===
The characters in Neon Xtinction may work together, but that doesn’t mean they always like or trust each other. The heroes are emotional teenagers figuring out how things work, and relationships can be important. To reflect this, each character may decide which of their teammates and colleagues they trust, distrust, or have no strong opinions on.

'''Trust:''' When you trust another character, you feel positively disposed toward them. In general, you will prefer to spend time with them, value their opinions, and trust them with your secrets.

When someone you trust makes a test to Support you, or any Intimidation, Persuasion or Taunt roll to influence you, they add 1 to the Trait roll. In addition, a character you trust can give you bennies as if they had the Common Bond edge.

'''Neutral:''' The default state, with no bonuses, penalties, or special rules. Unless otherwise noted, all characters are assumed to be Neutral toward one another.

'''Distrust:''' When you distrust another character you are negatively disposed toward them. You prefer to avoid them and have little faith in their opinions or abilities; you certainly won’t share your secrets with them.

You gain no benefit from Support tests by a character you Distrust, cannot accept bennies from them (even if they have Common Bond), and they subtract 2 from all Persuasion rolls made to influence you.

Note that the choice to trust or distrust someone is wholly up to the individual, and can be changed for any reason or none. Note also that trust is not automatically reciprocated; it is entirely possible for one hero to trust another, but the second hero regards them neutrally or even distrusts them.

A character may decide to change their opinion on another character at any time, but not more than once per day.

NX PC03

2025-04-01T14:34:36Z

Leliel: /* Super Powers */

[[Neon_Xtinction| Back to Main Page]]

==Marko Mandl/Cytokine==

Marko Mandl/Cytokine

Novice Male Human, Human/Kaiju "Prince" Hybrid And Mother's Science Project In Survival

Quote: ''Never fear, Cytokine is responding! ...Damnit, that doesn't work, need better biology puns...''

==Background==

In many ways, Marko "Mark" Mandl's story is actually the story of his mother, Dr. Eva Mandl. Or, as the world knows her now, Mitochondria, the Cell Queen. Originally she was known as one of the first superheroes before TITAN, as she seemed one of the only people who saw the kaiju coming, and outlined several important standard procedures in evacuation and analysis. Unfortunately, as people would later discover, she also felt humanity deserved the kaiju on some level - an anarchist and environmentalist both, her writings grew increasingly misanthropic and distrustful of her supposed friends in the government, even beginning to show a growing envy of the simple motives of kaiju, and increasing dismay at the infighting between her team and superiors. At one point, after something known as "the Kīlauea Incident", heavily classified, she apparently lost faith in humanity's survival altogether and vanished with her son - and several samples of kaiju blood from a creature described as "a great amoeba."

Marko doesn't know what happened between the year he vanished and was impromptu dumped at the prototype council that would later become Gilgamesh with a note on how to take care of him and his new requirements as a "new race of man." What is known is that shortly thereafter, the renamed Mitochondria revealed herself and announced she was in full revolt against the governments of the world as "poor stewards of human evolution" and that she was engineering a new species of mankind to survive a world that no longer had a place for Homo sapiens, starting with herself - as shown by how she, like her son, had become a humanoid protist. She has since become one of the world's supervillains - but the authorities are slow to arrest her, as she also provides order and medical care to her base in the destroyed remnants of Hamberg and still shows up to help fight the kaiju, often with her engineered beasts. As for her son - well, on some level he pathologically acts human to confirm that he isn't a kaiju hybrid, even though like his mother he can easily birth smaller beasts from his back. He has the kindness she seems to have forgotten in the face of her increasingly insane dreams, but above all else, he wants to know why she went from a heroine to a monster queen - and if that is fated to happen to him.

==Description==

Like his mother, Marko is a hyperadvanced organism resembling something between a protist and a humanoid. His flesh isn't truly a single cell or even cells, though - he's more akin to a strange form of pseudo-matter called psiplasma. This enables him to have a lot of powers one might call "psychic", but his most notable is the ability to undergo rapid budding to release the "brood", smaller organisms resembling plasmic lifeforms such as birds. In addition, he only breathes normally when speaking - something about his new biology makes it easy for him to synthesize oxygen from trace elements in more than enough quantities that he only needs to inhale every few hours, and he can hold his breath for more than three days, though he gets queasy after the first couple "intervals". Do not ask why Gilgamesh knows this.

==Stats==

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Focus d8, Intimidation d6, Language (English, Native is German) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Research d8+2, Science d6, Stealth d6

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5

Hindrances: Alien Form, Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing), Heroic, Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju)

Edges: Investigator (custom), Team Player, Rich

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Language: Native (native, d8)

Current Wealth: $500

==Special Abilities==

Languages Known: English d8, German (native) d8

Telekinesis: Moves objects with the hero's mind. - Focus 3, Range 2

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form): The character's body can change into a different substance.

Levitation (Flight): The hero can fly and is harder to hit at higher levels.

The Brood (Minions): The character has allies under his control. - Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged): Distance Attack - Cone 1

Doesn't Breathe: The hero has no need to breathe.

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Heals wounds. - Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Manipulates energy, by Power Type. - Selective 2, Requires Activation -1

==Super Powers==

Telekinesis (5): Fine Control 3, Range 2

The Brood (Minions) (3) (13): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Levitation (Flight) (4)

Chitinous Membrane (Armor) (2)

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Fatigue 2, Requires Touch -2

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2,

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)

Brood Contamination (Poison) (2): Strong 2, Contingent (Enemy must be hit with a Plasma Burst or Plasma Manipulation) 0. (4)

Doesn't Breathe

Current Load: 0 (21)

Books In Use: Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition, Super Powers Companion

Setting Rules: Super Hero!

Supers Campaign Level: Heavy Hitters

Validity: Character appears valid and optimal

NX PC03

2025-04-01T14:30:24Z

Leliel: /* Super Powers */

[[Neon_Xtinction| Back to Main Page]]

==Marko Mandl/Cytokine==

Marko Mandl/Cytokine

Novice Male Human, Human/Kaiju "Prince" Hybrid And Mother's Science Project In Survival

Quote: ''Never fear, Cytokine is responding! ...Damnit, that doesn't work, need better biology puns...''

==Background==

In many ways, Marko "Mark" Mandl's story is actually the story of his mother, Dr. Eva Mandl. Or, as the world knows her now, Mitochondria, the Cell Queen. Originally she was known as one of the first superheroes before TITAN, as she seemed one of the only people who saw the kaiju coming, and outlined several important standard procedures in evacuation and analysis. Unfortunately, as people would later discover, she also felt humanity deserved the kaiju on some level - an anarchist and environmentalist both, her writings grew increasingly misanthropic and distrustful of her supposed friends in the government, even beginning to show a growing envy of the simple motives of kaiju, and increasing dismay at the infighting between her team and superiors. At one point, after something known as "the Kīlauea Incident", heavily classified, she apparently lost faith in humanity's survival altogether and vanished with her son - and several samples of kaiju blood from a creature described as "a great amoeba."

Marko doesn't know what happened between the year he vanished and was impromptu dumped at the prototype council that would later become Gilgamesh with a note on how to take care of him and his new requirements as a "new race of man." What is known is that shortly thereafter, the renamed Mitochondria revealed herself and announced she was in full revolt against the governments of the world as "poor stewards of human evolution" and that she was engineering a new species of mankind to survive a world that no longer had a place for Homo sapiens, starting with herself - as shown by how she, like her son, had become a humanoid protist. She has since become one of the world's supervillains - but the authorities are slow to arrest her, as she also provides order and medical care to her base in the destroyed remnants of Hamberg and still shows up to help fight the kaiju, often with her engineered beasts. As for her son - well, on some level he pathologically acts human to confirm that he isn't a kaiju hybrid, even though like his mother he can easily birth smaller beasts from his back. He has the kindness she seems to have forgotten in the face of her increasingly insane dreams, but above all else, he wants to know why she went from a heroine to a monster queen - and if that is fated to happen to him.

==Description==

Like his mother, Marko is a hyperadvanced organism resembling something between a protist and a humanoid. His flesh isn't truly a single cell or even cells, though - he's more akin to a strange form of pseudo-matter called psiplasma. This enables him to have a lot of powers one might call "psychic", but his most notable is the ability to undergo rapid budding to release the "brood", smaller organisms resembling plasmic lifeforms such as birds. In addition, he only breathes normally when speaking - something about his new biology makes it easy for him to synthesize oxygen from trace elements in more than enough quantities that he only needs to inhale every few hours, and he can hold his breath for more than three days, though he gets queasy after the first couple "intervals". Do not ask why Gilgamesh knows this.

==Stats==

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Focus d8, Intimidation d6, Language (English, Native is German) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Research d8+2, Science d6, Stealth d6

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5

Hindrances: Alien Form, Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing), Heroic, Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju)

Edges: Investigator (custom), Team Player, Rich

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Language: Native (native, d8)

Current Wealth: $500

==Special Abilities==

Languages Known: English d8, German (native) d8

Telekinesis: Moves objects with the hero's mind. - Focus 3, Range 2

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form): The character's body can change into a different substance.

Levitation (Flight): The hero can fly and is harder to hit at higher levels.

The Brood (Minions): The character has allies under his control. - Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged): Distance Attack - Cone 1

Doesn't Breathe: The hero has no need to breathe.

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Heals wounds. - Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Manipulates energy, by Power Type. - Selective 2, Requires Activation -1

==Super Powers==

Telekinesis (5): Fine Control 3, Range 2

The Brood (Minions) (3): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Levitation (Flight) (3)

Chitinous Membrane (Armor) (2)

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Fatigue 2, Requires Touch -2

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2,

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)

Doesn't Breathe

Current Load: 0 (21)

Books In Use: Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition, Super Powers Companion (2014)

Setting Rules: Super Hero!

Supers Campaign Level: Heavy Hitters

Validity: Character appears valid and optimal

NX PC03

2025-04-01T14:26:29Z

Leliel: /* Stats */

[[Neon_Xtinction| Back to Main Page]]

==Marko Mandl/Cytokine==

Marko Mandl/Cytokine

Novice Male Human, Human/Kaiju "Prince" Hybrid And Mother's Science Project In Survival

Quote: ''Never fear, Cytokine is responding! ...Damnit, that doesn't work, need better biology puns...''

==Background==

In many ways, Marko "Mark" Mandl's story is actually the story of his mother, Dr. Eva Mandl. Or, as the world knows her now, Mitochondria, the Cell Queen. Originally she was known as one of the first superheroes before TITAN, as she seemed one of the only people who saw the kaiju coming, and outlined several important standard procedures in evacuation and analysis. Unfortunately, as people would later discover, she also felt humanity deserved the kaiju on some level - an anarchist and environmentalist both, her writings grew increasingly misanthropic and distrustful of her supposed friends in the government, even beginning to show a growing envy of the simple motives of kaiju, and increasing dismay at the infighting between her team and superiors. At one point, after something known as "the Kīlauea Incident", heavily classified, she apparently lost faith in humanity's survival altogether and vanished with her son - and several samples of kaiju blood from a creature described as "a great amoeba."

Marko doesn't know what happened between the year he vanished and was impromptu dumped at the prototype council that would later become Gilgamesh with a note on how to take care of him and his new requirements as a "new race of man." What is known is that shortly thereafter, the renamed Mitochondria revealed herself and announced she was in full revolt against the governments of the world as "poor stewards of human evolution" and that she was engineering a new species of mankind to survive a world that no longer had a place for Homo sapiens, starting with herself - as shown by how she, like her son, had become a humanoid protist. She has since become one of the world's supervillains - but the authorities are slow to arrest her, as she also provides order and medical care to her base in the destroyed remnants of Hamberg and still shows up to help fight the kaiju, often with her engineered beasts. As for her son - well, on some level he pathologically acts human to confirm that he isn't a kaiju hybrid, even though like his mother he can easily birth smaller beasts from his back. He has the kindness she seems to have forgotten in the face of her increasingly insane dreams, but above all else, he wants to know why she went from a heroine to a monster queen - and if that is fated to happen to him.

==Description==

Like his mother, Marko is a hyperadvanced organism resembling something between a protist and a humanoid. His flesh isn't truly a single cell or even cells, though - he's more akin to a strange form of pseudo-matter called psiplasma. This enables him to have a lot of powers one might call "psychic", but his most notable is the ability to undergo rapid budding to release the "brood", smaller organisms resembling plasmic lifeforms such as birds. In addition, he only breathes normally when speaking - something about his new biology makes it easy for him to synthesize oxygen from trace elements in more than enough quantities that he only needs to inhale every few hours, and he can hold his breath for more than three days, though he gets queasy after the first couple "intervals". Do not ask why Gilgamesh knows this.

==Stats==

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Focus d8, Intimidation d6, Language (English, Native is German) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Research d8+2, Science d6, Stealth d6

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5

Hindrances: Alien Form, Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing), Heroic, Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju)

Edges: Investigator (custom), Team Player, Rich

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Language: Native (native, d8)

Current Wealth: $500

==Special Abilities==

Languages Known: English d8, German (native) d8

Telekinesis: Moves objects with the hero's mind. - Focus 3, Range 2

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form): The character's body can change into a different substance.

Levitation (Flight): The hero can fly and is harder to hit at higher levels.

The Brood (Minions): The character has allies under his control. - Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged): Distance Attack - Cone 1

Doesn't Breathe: The hero has no need to breathe.

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Heals wounds. - Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Manipulates energy, by Power Type. - Selective 2, Requires Activation -1

==Super Powers==

Telekinesis (5): Fine Control 3, Range 2

The Brood (Minions) (3): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Levitation (Flight) (3)

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Requires Touch -2

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2,

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)

Doesn't Breathe

Current Load: 0 (21)

Books In Use: Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition, Super Powers Companion (2014)

Setting Rules: Super Hero!

Supers Campaign Level: Heavy Hitters

Validity: Character appears valid and optimal

Neon Xtinction

2025-03-29T14:37:09Z

Leliel: /* The Heroes */

[[File:NX_background.png|center]]

==History==

As far back as records have been kept, there have always been those with extraordinary abilities. Heroes and demigods, legends and myths, their exploits are woven through history. They are supers, men and women born with - or gifted - incredible powers, to be used for good or evil as they see fit.

Likewise, monsters have always been a part of human history - enormous beasts, terrible predators, and hybrids that belong to no sane world. Some were clearly allegorical, representing fears, sins, and natural disasters, but some truly existed, endangering humanity with their terrible power. But when a monster threatens, heroes rise to stop it.

In 1954 the first kaiju, Dakkuma, emerged in Japan and proceeded to lay waste to the city of Okinawa. The monstrous reptile-arthropod hybrid was soon engaged by Captain Cosmic, the world’s preeminent (and most powerful) superhero. Their battle lasted for three days, covered hundreds of miles, and ended with Captain Cosmic tired but triumphant and Dakkuma apparently dead at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Since then, the kaiju have become a constant threat to humanity: building-sized monstrosities resembling no form of natural life, but with traits of reptiles, insects, crustaceans, and stranger things, possibly massive strength, limitless endurance, and strange and alien powers. They appear without warning, often from the sea or from large stretches of wilderness, and seem driven to crush and destroy the cities of humanity. Since the appearance and fall of Dakkuma there have been many more, and of late their attacks have increased in frequency and intensity.

Coinciding with the rise of the kaiju, supers - always a rare presence in the world - have become more common, and have demonstrated increasingly potent powers. Though none has yet come to light who can match the powers of Captain Cosmic, the masked vigilantes and super-athletes of old have given way to supers with far greater powers, including flight, elemental control, strength and toughness almost equal that of a kaiju, and more exotic abilities.

Project Gilgamesh was founded to make use of these young heroes and their talents. The brainchild of TITAN, the Tactical Initiative for Threat Anomaly Neutralization, Project Gilgamesh recruits teenagers who demonstrate extraordinary superhuman abilities with the aim of training them into a fighting force capable of defending humanity against the increasing threat of the kaiju.

The first recruits for Project Gilgamesh have been gathered.

This is their story.

==The Heroes==
[[File:NX_silhouettes.png]]
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Character''' '''Codename''' ''role'' player name || '''Pace'''||'''Parry''' || '''Toughness''' || '''Edges''' || '''Hindrances''' || '''Attributes''' || '''Super Powers'''
|-
|[[NX_PC01| '''Gavin Lawrence Reiher''']] '''Lionheart''' ''super-knight'' Elfwine || 8" || 8 || 22(12) || Arcane Background: Super Powers Combat Reflexes Frenzy Iron Jaw Nerves of Steel Take the Hit || Code of Honor Hot Tempered (Minor) Loyal Stubborn Suspicious (Minor) || Agility d8 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d10 Vigor d12 ||Armor +12 Fearless Healing (Refresh, Selective) Leaping (4" horizontal/8" vertical) Melee Attack (see sheet) Mind Shield Pace (Strider) Super Attribute (+1 Agility, +1 Spirit +2 Strength, +2 Vigor) Super Edge (Combat Reflexes, Frenzy, Improved Nerves of Steel, Iron Jaw, Take the Hit) Super Skill (Athletics +2, Fighting +3, Focus +1, Intimidation +1) Toughness +2 
|-
|[[NX_PC02| '''Hayley Elliot''']] '''The Electrician''' ''electricity manipulator'' ferretribution || 6" || 5 || 5 || Arcane Background: Super Powers McGyver || Driven (Major) Curious (Minor) Big Mouth (Minor) Bad Eyes (Minor) || Agility d6 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC03| '''Marko Mandl''']] '''Cytokine''' ''minion commander, plasma'' Leliel || 6" || 5 || 5 || Investigator (custom) Team Player || Alien Form Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing) Heroic Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju) || Agility d4 Smarts d8 Spirit d6 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Telekinesis (5): Fine Control 3 Range 2 The Brood (Minions) (3): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3 Levitation (Flight) (3) Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1 Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Requires Touch -2 Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2 Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)
|-
|[[NX_PC04| '''Millicent 'Mills' Astor''']] '''Frostfire''' ''blaster, elementalist'' Stormraven || 6" || 5 || 5 || Edge01 Edge02 || Hindrance01 Hindrance02 Hindrance03 Hindrance04 Hindrance05 || Agility d6 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d6 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC05| ''' 'Jane Doe' ''']] '''Wraith''' ''melee ghost'' Kaiya || 6" || 5 || 5 || Edge01 Edge02 || Hindrance01 Hindrance02 Hindrance03 Hindrance04 Hindrance05 || Agility d6 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d6 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC06| '''Sloan Snyder''']] '''Kid Kaiju''' ''growing brick and mimic'' mysstic101 || 6" or 10" || 6 || 8(2) or 10(2) or 16 or 18 || Berserk Best There Is Frenzy Improved Frenzy Iron Jaw Menacing || Loyal (minor) Ruthless (minor) Shamed (major) Ugly (major) || Agility d8 Smarts d4 Spirit d8 Strength d6 (or d8) (or d12+7) (or d12+8) Vigor d8 ||Growth Copycat Altered Form Hardy Leaping Melee Attack (Claws) Super Edge
|-
|}

==Other Characters==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other Recruits and Retired Heroes
|-
!Character Codename role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Matteo Centori ''' '''Hotshot''' ''Big guy'' || Blond, handsome, thousand-dollar smile || Arrogant, petty, charming || Pilots a kaiju-sized mech || Famous, wealthy, glory-hound
|-
|'''Jaylinn Hart''' '''Heartfire''' ''Fire elementalist'' || Short blonde hair, sharkish grin || Confident, competitive || Heat projection, fire manipulation|| In a one-sided competition with Mills
|-
|'''Rebecca 'Becky' Fairfield''' '''Backfire''' ''Luck manipulator'' || Dark hair and eyes, withdrawn, rarely smiles || Lonely, bitter || Incredible luck and accuracy, bad luck to enemies || Convinced she causes bad luck to others
|-
|'''Patrick Anderson''' '''Panorama''' ''Time/space warper''|| Brown hair, wholesome jock features || Outwardly happy, inwardly jaded and fatalistic || Time/space warping, cannot inflict direct damage
|-
|'''Honey Sue Beauregard''' '''Southern Bell''' Sonic projector || Pretty, dark blonde hair, freckles || Flirty and casual || Powerful sonic shrieks and sound manipulation
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Project Gilgamesh Staff
|-
!Character role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Notes
|-
|'''Director Charles Sexton''' ''Director of Project Gilgamesh'' || White male, late 50s, cross between a military officer and a corporate CEO || Professional, reserved || Wealthy and influential
|-
|'''Sachiko Brooks''' ''Communications Officer'' || Half-Asian female, late 20s, green eyes, brown hair, very pretty || Friendly, extroverted || Endlessly cheerful and optimistic
|-
|'''Victor Rand''' ''Chief Engineer'' || White male, late 60s, scarred and weathered, walks with a cane due to severe limp || Blunt and surly || Absolute wizard with anything mechanical
|-
|'''Dr. August Frey''' ''Psychiatrist and counselor'' || White NB, late 30s, long angular face || Calm and non-judgmental || Willing to talk about anything, any time
|-
|'''Dr. Elena Voss''' ''Head scientist'' || White female, late 40s, severe features and graying hair || Crisp, professional, occasionally harsh || Brilliant scientist, relentless enemy of kaiju
|-
|'''Commander Samuel "Ironclad" Kessler''' ''Tactical Advisor'' || Black male, late 50s, scarred but unbroken, always wears reflective aviator glasses || Brusque, no-nonsense || Ex-military head of training and tactics
|-
|'''Kiana "Wavebreaker" Torres''' ''Pilot and aquatics specialist'' || Hawaiian/Latino female, late 20s, always smiling || Upbeat and enthusiastic || Low-tier superpowers, formerly the minor hero Wavebreaker
|-
|'''Captain Fiona Harkness''' ''Chief of Security'' || White female, mid-30s, flaming red hair and freckles, never wears makeup || All business except when drinking or singing, then gets very emotional || Concerned with base security above all else
|-
|'''Keiko Nakamura''' ''Chef and quartermaster'' || Japanese female, late 50s, short and pudgy || Mothers ''everyone,'' no exceptions || Very competent and utterly fearless
|-
|'''Amara Singh''' ''Training coordinator'' || Indian female, mid 30s, tall and athletic || Cautious but encouraging || Former Olympic athlete, has a slight limp due to a kaiju attack
|-
|'''Dr. Maxim Vostrikov''' ''Xenobiologist'' || White male, early 30s, black hair and hunched posture || Socially awkward, slightly arrogant || Assistant to Dr. Voss, fascinated by kaiju
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other NPCs
|-
!Character Codename role !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Daniel Rutherford''' Captain Cosmic ''The Man of the Future'' || Confident, heroic. || Flight, invulnerability, super-strength, energy blasts || World's most powerful superhero
|-
|}

==Known Kaiju==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|'''Name''' ''status''|| '''Description''' || '''Known Powers''' || '''Notes'''
|-
|'''Dakkuma''' ''deceased'' || Monstrous, hexapedal hybrid of insect and reptile || Sonic roar, laser eye-beams || Defeated by Captain Cosmic, left in the Marianas Trench
|-
|}

==Rules==

===Setting Rules===
*'''An Arm And A Leg:''' If a Wild Card has no bennies, they can still choose to make a Soak roll. Regardless of the results of the Soak roll they immediately gain an appropriate hindrance: One Arm, One Eye, or Slow (Major). This Hindrance lasts until the end of the next session and cannot be healed otherwise.
*'''Combined Attacks:''' Support an ally’s attack to deal +2 damage, +4 with a raise
*'''Comic Book Combat:''' Combined Attacks, Knockback, Power Stunts, Synergy
*'''Conviction:''' Heroes gain Conviction Tokens that can be used to add a d6 to all Trait and damage rolls for one round.
*'''Expanded Conviction:''' In addition to the standard uses, Conviction can be spent to:
**Reroll a Critical Failure.
**Force an enemy to reroll a single Trait roll and use the new roll.
**Negate a Benny used by another character.
**Conviction may be gifted to another character who is Trusted (see below) for immediate use.
*'''Death & Defeat:''' A Wild Card who is incapacitated by lethal damage gets an immediate Vigor roll to potentially recover.
*'''Larger Than Life:''' Wild Cards may take one additional Major or Minor hindrance, gaining points for it normally. This extra hindrance must be a mental/social hindrance.
*'''Mega-Destruction:''' Superpowers and kaiju attacks cause massive property damage.
*'''More Skill Points:''' Heroes start with 15 skill points instead of 12.
*'''Never Surrender:''' Incapacitated Wild Cards are dealt initiative cards normally. On a Joker they regain consciousness and rejoin the fray.
*'''No Finishing Moves:''' Downed Wild Cards are immune to Finishing Moves
*'''Popcorn Initiative:''' Players may post in whatever order, as they are available to do so. The GM will have NPCs act whenever it makes sense. The edges Quick and Level-Headed, and the hindrance Hesitant, do not exist. Cards will still be drawn for the sake of Jokers and complications.
*'''Throwdown:''' Ignore the Unarmed Defender rule.

===Stress===
When characters become severely upset or emotionally hurt they may become '''Stressed.''' Stress is a mental status effect that applies whenever it is logical - whenever a character receives terrible news, experiences a traumatizing event, or suffers a great emotional blow. The GM may declare that a character has become Stressed as appropriate; the player may voluntarily choose to become Stressed as well. If the player chooses to become Stressed, they gain a benny.

A Stressed character subtracts 1 from all Smarts- and Spirit-based Trait rolls, and cannot spend bennies to unshake - they must succeed on a Spirit roll to do so.

If a character would become Stressed when they already have the Stressed status, they instead gain a temporary hindrance appropriate to the situation and their personality. This hindrance persists until removed; see below.

Stressed is a special status effect in that it does not fade naturally; instead, a character must make a '''Spirit roll at -2''' to clear it. This roll can be made only once per day, after a period of rest (typically in the morning after a night’s sleep).

There is a second way to clear Stress: with the help of a friend. Another character (who is not Distrusted) can spend time with the Stressed character, helping them relax and work through their issue. This can take a variety of forms, from a conversation to guided meditation to recreation of various sorts, and takes about an hour. At the end of this time the Stressed character makes a '''Spirit roll at -2''' while their friend rolls to '''Support.''' This can only be attempted once per 24 hours. If the Spirit roll is a critical failure, the Stressed character gains a temporary hindrance if they did not already have one!

If a character is afflicted with both Stress and a temporary hindrance, a success on the Spirit roll removes the Stressed condition but not the hindrance; a raise removes both. If the Stressed condition is removed, the hindrance can be removed the same way (but not until the next normal opportunity). The hindrance remains until removed, and if the character becomes Stressed again, that status must be cleared before they can attempt to remove the hindrance.

===Trust and Distrust===
The characters in Neon Xtinction may work together, but that doesn’t mean they always like or trust each other. The heroes are emotional teenagers figuring out how things work, and relationships can be important. To reflect this, each character may decide which of their teammates and colleagues they trust, distrust, or have no strong opinions on.

'''Trust:''' When you trust another character, you feel positively disposed toward them. In general, you will prefer to spend time with them, value their opinions, and trust them with your secrets.

When someone you trust makes a test to Support you, or any Intimidation, Persuasion or Taunt roll to influence you, they add 1 to the Trait roll. In addition, a character you trust can give you bennies as if they had the Common Bond edge.

'''Neutral:''' The default state, with no bonuses, penalties, or special rules. Unless otherwise noted, all characters are assumed to be Neutral toward one another.

'''Distrust:''' When you distrust another character you are negatively disposed toward them. You prefer to avoid them and have little faith in their opinions or abilities; you certainly won’t share your secrets with them.

You gain no benefit from Support tests by a character you Distrust, cannot accept bennies from them (even if they have Common Bond), and they subtract 2 from all Persuasion rolls made to influence you.

Note that the choice to trust or distrust someone is wholly up to the individual, and can be changed for any reason or none. Note also that trust is not automatically reciprocated; it is entirely possible for one hero to trust another, but the second hero regards them neutrally or even distrusts them.

A character may decide to change their opinion on another character at any time, but not more than once per day.

NX PC03

2025-03-29T14:35:25Z

Leliel: /* Super Powers */

[[Neon_Xtinction| Back to Main Page]]

==Marko Mandl/Cytokine==

Marko Mandl/Cytokine

Novice Male Human, Human/Kaiju "Prince" Hybrid And Mother's Science Project In Survival

Quote: ''Never fear, Cytokine is responding! ...Damnit, that doesn't work, need better biology puns...''

==Background==

In many ways, Marko "Mark" Mandl's story is actually the story of his mother, Dr. Eva Mandl. Or, as the world knows her now, Mitochondria, the Cell Queen. Originally she was known as one of the first superheroes before TITAN, as she seemed one of the only people who saw the kaiju coming, and outlined several important standard procedures in evacuation and analysis. Unfortunately, as people would later discover, she also felt humanity deserved the kaiju on some level - an anarchist and environmentalist both, her writings grew increasingly misanthropic and distrustful of her supposed friends in the government, even beginning to show a growing envy of the simple motives of kaiju, and increasing dismay at the infighting between her team and superiors. At one point, after something known as "the Kīlauea Incident", heavily classified, she apparently lost faith in humanity's survival altogether and vanished with her son - and several samples of kaiju blood from a creature described as "a great amoeba."

Marko doesn't know what happened between the year he vanished and was impromptu dumped at the prototype council that would later become Gilgamesh with a note on how to take care of him and his new requirements as a "new race of man." What is known is that shortly thereafter, the renamed Mitochondria revealed herself and announced she was in full revolt against the governments of the world as "poor stewards of human evolution" and that she was engineering a new species of mankind to survive a world that no longer had a place for Homo sapiens, starting with herself - as shown by how she, like her son, had become a humanoid protist. She has since become one of the world's supervillains - but the authorities are slow to arrest her, as she also provides order and medical care to her base in the destroyed remnants of Hamberg and still shows up to help fight the kaiju, often with her engineered beasts. As for her son - well, on some level he pathologically acts human to confirm that he isn't a kaiju hybrid, even though like his mother he can easily birth smaller beasts from his back. He has the kindness she seems to have forgotten in the face of her increasingly insane dreams, but above all else, he wants to know why she went from a heroine to a monster queen - and if that is fated to happen to him.

==Description==

Like his mother, Marko is a hyperadvanced organism resembling something between a protist and a humanoid. His flesh isn't truly a single cell or even cells, though - he's more akin to a strange form of pseudo-matter called psiplasma. This enables him to have a lot of powers one might call "psychic", but his most notable is the ability to undergo rapid budding to release the "brood", smaller organisms resembling plasmic lifeforms such as birds. In addition, he only breathes normally when speaking - something about his new biology makes it easy for him to synthesize oxygen from trace elements in more than enough quantities that he only needs to inhale every few hours, and he can hold his breath for more than three days, though he gets queasy after the first couple "intervals". Do not ask why Gilgamesh knows this.

==Stats==

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Focus d6, Intimidation d6, Language (English, Native is German) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Research d8+2, Science d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d6

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5

Hindrances: Alien Form, Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing), Heroic, Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju)

Edges: Investigator (custom), Team Player

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Language: Native (native, d8)

Current Wealth: $500

==Special Abilities==

Languages Known: English d8, German (native) d8

Telekinesis: Moves objects with the hero's mind. - Focus 3, Range 2

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form): The character's body can change into a different substance.

Levitation (Flight): The hero can fly and is harder to hit at higher levels.

The Brood (Minions): The character has allies under his control. - Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged): Distance Attack - Cone 1

Doesn't Breathe: The hero has no need to breathe.

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Heals wounds. - Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Manipulates energy, by Power Type. - Selective 2, Requires Activation -1

==Super Powers==

Telekinesis (5): Fine Control 3, Range 2

The Brood (Minions) (3): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3

Levitation (Flight) (3)

Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1

Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Requires Touch -2

Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2,

Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)

Doesn't Breathe

Current Load: 0 (21)

Books In Use: Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition, Super Powers Companion (2014)

Setting Rules: Super Hero!

Supers Campaign Level: Heavy Hitters

Validity: Character appears valid and optimal

Neon Xtinction

2025-03-29T04:46:25Z

Leliel:

[[File:NX_background.png|center]]

==History==

As far back as records have been kept, there have always been those with extraordinary abilities. Heroes and demigods, legends and myths, their exploits are woven through history. They are supers, men and women born with - or gifted - incredible powers, to be used for good or evil as they see fit.

Likewise, monsters have always been a part of human history - enormous beasts, terrible predators, and hybrids that belong to no sane world. Some were clearly allegorical, representing fears, sins, and natural disasters, but some truly existed, endangering humanity with their terrible power. But when a monster threatens, heroes rise to stop it.

In 1954 the first kaiju, Dakkuma, emerged in Japan and proceeded to lay waste to the city of Okinawa. The monstrous reptile-arthropod hybrid was soon engaged by Captain Cosmic, the world’s preeminent (and most powerful) superhero. Their battle lasted for three days, covered hundreds of miles, and ended with Captain Cosmic tired but triumphant and Dakkuma apparently dead at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Since then, the kaiju have become a constant threat to humanity: building-sized monstrosities resembling no form of natural life, but with traits of reptiles, insects, crustaceans, and stranger things, possibly massive strength, limitless endurance, and strange and alien powers. They appear without warning, often from the sea or from large stretches of wilderness, and seem driven to crush and destroy the cities of humanity. Since the appearance and fall of Dakkuma there have been many more, and of late their attacks have increased in frequency and intensity.

Coinciding with the rise of the kaiju, supers - always a rare presence in the world - have become more common, and have demonstrated increasingly potent powers. Though none has yet come to light who can match the powers of Captain Cosmic, the masked vigilantes and super-athletes of old have given way to supers with far greater powers, including flight, elemental control, strength and toughness almost equal that of a kaiju, and more exotic abilities.

Project Gilgamesh was founded to make use of these young heroes and their talents. The brainchild of TITAN, the Tactical Initiative for Threat Anomaly Neutralization, Project Gilgamesh recruits teenagers who demonstrate extraordinary superhuman abilities with the aim of training them into a fighting force capable of defending humanity against the increasing threat of the kaiju.

The first recruits for Project Gilgamesh have been gathered.

This is their story.

==The Heroes==
[[File:NX_silhouettes.png]]
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Character''' '''Codename''' ''role'' player name || '''Pace'''||'''Parry''' || '''Toughness''' || '''Edges''' || '''Hindrances''' || '''Attributes''' || '''Super Powers'''
|-
|[[NX_PC01| '''Gavin Lawrence Reiher''']] '''Lionheart''' ''super-knight'' Elfwine || 8" || 8 || 22(12) || Arcane Background: Super Powers Combat Reflexes Frenzy Iron Jaw Nerves of Steel Take the Hit || Code of Honor Hot Tempered (Minor) Loyal Stubborn Suspicious (Minor) || Agility d8 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d10 Vigor d12 ||Armor +12 Fearless Healing (Refresh, Selective) Leaping (4" horizontal/8" vertical) Melee Attack (see sheet) Mind Shield Pace (Strider) Super Attribute (+1 Agility, +1 Spirit +2 Strength, +2 Vigor) Super Edge (Combat Reflexes, Frenzy, Improved Nerves of Steel, Iron Jaw, Take the Hit) Super Skill (Athletics +2, Fighting +3, Focus +1, Intimidation +1) Toughness +2 
|-
|[[NX_PC02| '''Hayley Elliot''']] '''The Electrician''' ''electricity manipulator'' ferretribution || 6" || 5 || 5 || Arcane Background: Super Powers McGyver || Driven (Major) Curious (Minor) Big Mouth (Minor) Bad Eyes (Minor) || Agility d6 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC03| '''Marko Mandl''']] '''Cytokine''' ''minion commander, plasma'' Leliel || 6" || 5 || 5 || Investigator (custom) Team Player || Alien Form Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing) Heroic Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju) || Agility d4 Smarts d8 Spirit d6 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC04| '''Millicent 'Mills' Astor''']] '''Frostfire''' ''blaster, elementalist'' Stormraven || 6" || 5 || 5 || Edge01 Edge02 || Hindrance01 Hindrance02 Hindrance03 Hindrance04 Hindrance05 || Agility d6 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d6 Vigor d6 ||Telekinesis (5): Focus 3 Range 2 The Brood (Minions) (3): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3 Levitation (Flight) (3) Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1 Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1 Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2, Requires Activation -1 Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)
|-
|[[NX_PC05| ''' 'Jane Doe' ''']] '''Wraith''' ''melee ghost'' Kaiya || 6" || 5 || 5 || Edge01 Edge02 || Hindrance01 Hindrance02 Hindrance03 Hindrance04 Hindrance05 || Agility d6 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d6 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC06| '''Sloan Snyder''']] '''Kid Kaiju''' ''growing brick and mimic'' mysstic101 || 6" or 10" || 6 || 8(2) or 10(2) or 16 or 18 || Berserk Best There Is Frenzy Improved Frenzy Iron Jaw Menacing || Loyal (minor) Ruthless (minor) Shamed (major) Ugly (major) || Agility d8 Smarts d4 Spirit d8 Strength d6 (or d8) (or d12+7) (or d12+8) Vigor d8 ||Growth Copycat Altered Form Hardy Leaping Melee Attack (Claws) Super Edge
|-
|}

==Other Characters==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other Recruits and Retired Heroes
|-
!Character Codename role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Matteo Centori ''' '''Hotshot''' ''Big guy'' || Blond, handsome, thousand-dollar smile || Arrogant, petty, charming || Pilots a kaiju-sized mech || Famous, wealthy, glory-hound
|-
|'''Jaylinn Hart''' '''Heartfire''' ''Fire elementalist'' || Short blonde hair, sharkish grin || Confident, competitive || Heat projection, fire manipulation|| In a one-sided competition with Mills
|-
|'''Rebecca 'Becky' Fairfield''' '''Backfire''' ''Luck manipulator'' || Dark hair and eyes, withdrawn, rarely smiles || Lonely, bitter || Incredible luck and accuracy, bad luck to enemies || Convinced she causes bad luck to others
|-
|'''Patrick Anderson''' '''Panorama''' ''Time/space warper''|| Brown hair, wholesome jock features || Outwardly happy, inwardly jaded and fatalistic || Time/space warping, cannot inflict direct damage
|-
|'''Honey Sue Beauregard''' '''Southern Bell''' Sonic projector || Pretty, dark blonde hair, freckles || Flirty and casual || Powerful sonic shrieks and sound manipulation
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Project Gilgamesh Staff
|-
!Character role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Notes
|-
|'''Director Charles Sexton''' ''Director of Project Gilgamesh'' || White male, late 50s, cross between a military officer and a corporate CEO || Professional, reserved || Wealthy and influential
|-
|'''Sachiko Brooks''' ''Communications Officer'' || Half-Asian female, late 20s, green eyes, brown hair, very pretty || Friendly, extroverted || Endlessly cheerful and optimistic
|-
|'''Victor Rand''' ''Chief Engineer'' || White male, late 60s, scarred and weathered, walks with a cane due to severe limp || Blunt and surly || Absolute wizard with anything mechanical
|-
|'''Dr. August Frey''' ''Psychiatrist and counselor'' || White NB, late 30s, long angular face || Calm and non-judgmental || Willing to talk about anything, any time
|-
|'''Dr. Elena Voss''' ''Head scientist'' || White female, late 40s, severe features and graying hair || Crisp, professional, occasionally harsh || Brilliant scientist, relentless enemy of kaiju
|-
|'''Commander Samuel "Ironclad" Kessler''' ''Tactical Advisor'' || Black male, late 50s, scarred but unbroken, always wears reflective aviator glasses || Brusque, no-nonsense || Ex-military head of training and tactics
|-
|'''Kiana "Wavebreaker" Torres''' ''Pilot and aquatics specialist'' || Hawaiian/Latino female, late 20s, always smiling || Upbeat and enthusiastic || Low-tier superpowers, formerly the minor hero Wavebreaker
|-
|'''Captain Fiona Harkness''' ''Chief of Security'' || White female, mid-30s, flaming red hair and freckles, never wears makeup || All business except when drinking or singing, then gets very emotional || Concerned with base security above all else
|-
|'''Keiko Nakamura''' ''Chef and quartermaster'' || Japanese female, late 50s, short and pudgy || Mothers ''everyone,'' no exceptions || Very competent and utterly fearless
|-
|'''Amara Singh''' ''Training coordinator'' || Indian female, mid 30s, tall and athletic || Cautious but encouraging || Former Olympic athlete, has a slight limp due to a kaiju attack
|-
|'''Dr. Maxim Vostrikov''' ''Xenobiologist'' || White male, early 30s, black hair and hunched posture || Socially awkward, slightly arrogant || Assistant to Dr. Voss, fascinated by kaiju
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other NPCs
|-
!Character Codename role !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Daniel Rutherford''' Captain Cosmic ''The Man of the Future'' || Confident, heroic. || Flight, invulnerability, super-strength, energy blasts || World's most powerful superhero
|-
|}

==Known Kaiju==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|'''Name''' ''status''|| '''Description''' || '''Known Powers''' || '''Notes'''
|-
|'''Dakkuma''' ''deceased'' || Monstrous, hexapedal hybrid of insect and reptile || Sonic roar, laser eye-beams || Defeated by Captain Cosmic, left in the Marianas Trench
|-
|}

==Rules==

===Setting Rules===
*'''An Arm And A Leg:''' If a Wild Card has no bennies, they can still choose to make a Soak roll. Regardless of the results of the Soak roll they immediately gain an appropriate hindrance: One Arm, One Eye, or Slow (Major). This Hindrance lasts until the end of the next session and cannot be healed otherwise.
*'''Combined Attacks:''' Support an ally’s attack to deal +2 damage, +4 with a raise
*'''Comic Book Combat:''' Combined Attacks, Knockback, Power Stunts, Synergy
*'''Conviction:''' Heroes gain Conviction Tokens that can be used to add a d6 to all Trait and damage rolls for one round.
*'''Expanded Conviction:''' In addition to the standard uses, Conviction can be spent to:
**Reroll a Critical Failure.
**Force an enemy to reroll a single Trait roll and use the new roll.
**Negate a Benny used by another character.
**Conviction may be gifted to another character who is Trusted (see below) for immediate use.
*'''Death & Defeat:''' A Wild Card who is incapacitated by lethal damage gets an immediate Vigor roll to potentially recover.
*'''Larger Than Life:''' Wild Cards may take one additional Major or Minor hindrance, gaining points for it normally. This extra hindrance must be a mental/social hindrance.
*'''Mega-Destruction:''' Superpowers and kaiju attacks cause massive property damage.
*'''More Skill Points:''' Heroes start with 15 skill points instead of 12.
*'''Never Surrender:''' Incapacitated Wild Cards are dealt initiative cards normally. On a Joker they regain consciousness and rejoin the fray.
*'''No Finishing Moves:''' Downed Wild Cards are immune to Finishing Moves
*'''Popcorn Initiative:''' Players may post in whatever order, as they are available to do so. The GM will have NPCs act whenever it makes sense. The edges Quick and Level-Headed, and the hindrance Hesitant, do not exist. Cards will still be drawn for the sake of Jokers and complications.
*'''Throwdown:''' Ignore the Unarmed Defender rule.

===Stress===
When characters become severely upset or emotionally hurt they may become '''Stressed.''' Stress is a mental status effect that applies whenever it is logical - whenever a character receives terrible news, experiences a traumatizing event, or suffers a great emotional blow. The GM may declare that a character has become Stressed as appropriate; the player may voluntarily choose to become Stressed as well. If the player chooses to become Stressed, they gain a benny.

A Stressed character subtracts 1 from all Smarts- and Spirit-based Trait rolls, and cannot spend bennies to unshake - they must succeed on a Spirit roll to do so.

If a character would become Stressed when they already have the Stressed status, they instead gain a temporary hindrance appropriate to the situation and their personality. This hindrance persists until removed; see below.

Stressed is a special status effect in that it does not fade naturally; instead, a character must make a '''Spirit roll at -2''' to clear it. This roll can be made only once per day, after a period of rest (typically in the morning after a night’s sleep).

There is a second way to clear Stress: with the help of a friend. Another character (who is not Distrusted) can spend time with the Stressed character, helping them relax and work through their issue. This can take a variety of forms, from a conversation to guided meditation to recreation of various sorts, and takes about an hour. At the end of this time the Stressed character makes a '''Spirit roll at -2''' while their friend rolls to '''Support.''' This can only be attempted once per 24 hours. If the Spirit roll is a critical failure, the Stressed character gains a temporary hindrance if they did not already have one!

If a character is afflicted with both Stress and a temporary hindrance, a success on the Spirit roll removes the Stressed condition but not the hindrance; a raise removes both. If the Stressed condition is removed, the hindrance can be removed the same way (but not until the next normal opportunity). The hindrance remains until removed, and if the character becomes Stressed again, that status must be cleared before they can attempt to remove the hindrance.

===Trust and Distrust===
The characters in Neon Xtinction may work together, but that doesn’t mean they always like or trust each other. The heroes are emotional teenagers figuring out how things work, and relationships can be important. To reflect this, each character may decide which of their teammates and colleagues they trust, distrust, or have no strong opinions on.

'''Trust:''' When you trust another character, you feel positively disposed toward them. In general, you will prefer to spend time with them, value their opinions, and trust them with your secrets.

When someone you trust makes a test to Support you, or any Intimidation, Persuasion or Taunt roll to influence you, they add 1 to the Trait roll. In addition, a character you trust can give you bennies as if they had the Common Bond edge.

'''Neutral:''' The default state, with no bonuses, penalties, or special rules. Unless otherwise noted, all characters are assumed to be Neutral toward one another.

'''Distrust:''' When you distrust another character you are negatively disposed toward them. You prefer to avoid them and have little faith in their opinions or abilities; you certainly won’t share your secrets with them.

You gain no benefit from Support tests by a character you Distrust, cannot accept bennies from them (even if they have Common Bond), and they subtract 2 from all Persuasion rolls made to influence you.

Note that the choice to trust or distrust someone is wholly up to the individual, and can be changed for any reason or none. Note also that trust is not automatically reciprocated; it is entirely possible for one hero to trust another, but the second hero regards them neutrally or even distrusts them.

A character may decide to change their opinion on another character at any time, but not more than once per day.

NX PC03

2025-03-29T04:41:47Z

Leliel: /* Stats */

[[Neon_Xtinction| Back to Main Page]]

==Marko Mandl/Cytokine==

Marko Mandl/Cytokine

Novice Male Human, Human/Kaiju "Prince" Hybrid And Mother's Science Project In Survival

Quote: ''Never fear, Cytokine is responding! ...Damnit, that doesn't work, need better biology puns...''

==Background==

In many ways, Marko "Mark" Mandl's story is actually the story of his mother, Dr. Eva Mandl. Or, as the world knows her now, Mitochondria, the Cell Queen. Originally she was known as one of the first superheroes before TITAN, as she seemed one of the only people who saw the kaiju coming, and outlined several important standard procedures in evacuation and analysis. Unfortunately, as people would later discover, she also felt humanity deserved the kaiju on some level - an anarchist and environmentalist both, her writings grew increasingly misanthropic and distrustful of her supposed friends in the government, even beginning to show a growing envy of the simple motives of kaiju, and increasing dismay at the infighting between her team and superiors. At one point, after something known as "the Kīlauea Incident", heavily classified, she apparently lost faith in humanity's survival altogether and vanished with her son - and several samples of kaiju blood from a creature described as "a great amoeba."

Marko doesn't know what happened between the year he vanished and was impromptu dumped at the prototype council that would later become Gilgamesh with a note on how to take care of him and his new requirements as a "new race of man." What is known is that shortly thereafter, the renamed Mitochondria revealed herself and announced she was in full revolt against the governments of the world as "poor stewards of human evolution" and that she was engineering a new species of mankind to survive a world that no longer had a place for Homo sapiens, starting with herself - as shown by how she, like her son, had become a humanoid protist. She has since become one of the world's supervillains - but the authorities are slow to arrest her, as she also provides order and medical care to her base in the destroyed remnants of Hamberg and still shows up to help fight the kaiju, often with her engineered beasts. As for her son - well, on some level he pathologically acts human to confirm that he isn't a kaiju hybrid, even though like his mother he can easily birth smaller beasts from his back. He has the kindness she seems to have forgotten in the face of her increasingly insane dreams, but above all else, he wants to know why she went from a heroine to a monster queen - and if that is fated to happen to him.

==Description==

Like his mother, Marko is a hyperadvanced organism resembling something between a protist and a humanoid. His flesh isn't truly a single cell or even cells, though - he's more akin to a strange form of pseudo-matter called psiplasma. This enables him to have a lot of powers one might call "psychic", but his most notable is the ability to undergo rapid budding to release the "brood", smaller organisms resembling plasmic lifeforms such as birds. In addition, he only breathes normally when speaking - something about his new biology makes it easy for him to synthesize oxygen from trace elements in more than enough quantities that he only needs to inhale every few hours, and he can hold his breath for more than three days, though he gets queasy after the first couple "intervals". Do not ask why Gilgamesh knows this.

==Stats==

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Focus d6, Intimidation d6, Language (English, Native is German) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Research d8+2, Science d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d6

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5

Hindrances: Alien Form, Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing), Heroic, Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju)

Edges: Investigator (custom), Team Player

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Language: Native (native, d8)

Current Wealth: $500

==Special Abilities==

Languages Known: Native (native, d8)
Telekinesis: Moves objects with the hero's mind. - Focus 3, Range 2
Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form): The character's body can change into a different substance.
Levitation (Flight): The hero can fly and is harder to hit at higher levels.
The Brood (Minions): The character has allies under his control. - Summonable 4, Super Powers 3
Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged): Distance Attack - Cone 1
Doesn't Breathe: The hero has no need to breathe.
Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Heals wounds. - Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1
Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Manipulates energy, by Power Type. - Selective 2, Requires Activation -1

==Super Powers==

Telekinesis (5): Focus 3, Range 2
The Brood (Minions) (3): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3
Levitation (Flight) (3)
Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1
Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1
Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2, Requires Activation -1
Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)
Doesn't Breathe
Current Load: 0 (21)

Books In Use: Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition, Super Powers Companion (2014)

Setting Rules: Super Hero!

Supers Campaign Level: Heavy Hitters

Validity: Character appears valid and optimal

Neon Xtinction

2025-03-29T02:08:16Z

Leliel: /* The Heroes */

[[File:NX_background.png|center]]

==History==

As far back as records have been kept, there have always been those with extraordinary abilities. Heroes and demigods, legends and myths, their exploits are woven through history. They are supers, men and women born with - or gifted - incredible powers, to be used for good or evil as they see fit.

Likewise, monsters have always been a part of human history - enormous beasts, terrible predators, and hybrids that belong to no sane world. Some were clearly allegorical, representing fears, sins, and natural disasters, but some truly existed, endangering humanity with their terrible power. But when a monster threatens, heroes rise to stop it.

In 1954 the first kaiju, Dakkuma, emerged in Japan and proceeded to lay waste to the city of Okinawa. The monstrous reptile-arthropod hybrid was soon engaged by Captain Cosmic, the world’s preeminent (and most powerful) superhero. Their battle lasted for three days, covered hundreds of miles, and ended with Captain Cosmic tired but triumphant and Dakkuma apparently dead at the bottom of the Marianas Trench.

Since then, the kaiju have become a constant threat to humanity: building-sized monstrosities resembling no form of natural life, but with traits of reptiles, insects, crustaceans, and stranger things, possibly massive strength, limitless endurance, and strange and alien powers. They appear without warning, often from the sea or from large stretches of wilderness, and seem driven to crush and destroy the cities of humanity. Since the appearance and fall of Dakkuma there have been many more, and of late their attacks have increased in frequency and intensity.

Coinciding with the rise of the kaiju, supers - always a rare presence in the world - have become more common, and have demonstrated increasingly potent powers. Though none has yet come to light who can match the powers of Captain Cosmic, the masked vigilantes and super-athletes of old have given way to supers with far greater powers, including flight, elemental control, strength and toughness almost equal that of a kaiju, and more exotic abilities.

Project Gilgamesh was founded to make use of these young heroes and their talents. The brainchild of TITAN, the Tactical Initiative for Threat Anomaly Neutralization, Project Gilgamesh recruits teenagers who demonstrate extraordinary superhuman abilities with the aim of training them into a fighting force capable of defending humanity against the increasing threat of the kaiju.

The first recruits for Project Gilgamesh have been gathered.

This is their story.

==The Heroes==
[[File:NX_silhouettes.png]]
{| class="wikitable"
|'''Character''' '''Codename''' ''role'' player name || '''Pace'''||'''Parry''' || '''Toughness''' || '''Edges''' || '''Hindrances''' || '''Attributes''' || '''Super Powers'''
|-
|[[NX_PC01| '''Gavin Lawrence Reiher''']] '''Lionheart''' ''super-knight'' Elfwine || 8" || 8 || 22(12) || Arcane Background: Super Powers Combat Reflexes Frenzy Iron Jaw Nerves of Steel Take the Hit || Code of Honor Hot Tempered (Minor) Loyal Stubborn Suspicious (Minor) || Agility d8 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d10 Vigor d12 ||Armor +12 Fearless Healing (Refresh, Selective) Leaping (4" horizontal/8" vertical) Pace (Strider) Super Attribute (+1 Agility, +1 Spirit +2 Strength, +2 Vigor) Super Edge (Combat Reflexes, Frenzy, Iron Jaw, Improved Nerves of Steel, Take the Hit) Super Skill (Athletics +2, Fighting +3, Focus +1, Intimidation +1) Toughness +2 
|-
|[[NX_PC02| '''Hayley Elliot''']] '''The Electrician''' ''electricity manipulator'' ferretribution || 6" || 5 || 5 || Arcane Background: Super Powers McGyver || Driven (Major) Curious (Minor) Big Mouth (Minor) Bad Eyes (Minor) || Agility d6 Smarts d8 Spirit d10 Strength d4 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC03| '''Marko Mandl''']] '''Cytokine''' ''minion commander, plasma'' Leliel || 6" || 5 || 5 || Investigator (custom) Team Player || Alien Form Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing) Heroic Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju) || Agility d6 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d6 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC04| '''Millicent 'Mills' Astor''']] '''Frostfire''' ''blaster, elementalist'' Stormraven || 6" || 5 || 5 || Edge01 Edge02 || Hindrance01 Hindrance02 Hindrance03 Hindrance04 Hindrance05 || Agility d6 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d6 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC05| ''' 'Jane Doe' ''']] '''Wraith''' ''melee ghost'' Kaiya || 6" || 5 || 5 || Edge01 Edge02 || Hindrance01 Hindrance02 Hindrance03 Hindrance04 Hindrance05 || Agility d6 Smarts d6 Spirit d6 Strength d6 Vigor d6 ||Power01 Power02 Power03 Power04 Power05 Power06 Power07 Power08 Power09 Power10
|-
|[[NX_PC06| '''Sloan Snyder''']] '''Kid Kaiju''' ''growing brick and mimic'' mysstic101 || 6" or 10" || 6 || 8(2) or 10(2) or 16 or 18 || Berserk Best There Is Frenzy Improved Frenzy Iron Jaw Menacing || Loyal (minor) Ruthless (minor) Shamed (major) Ugly (major) || Agility d8 Smarts d4 Spirit d8 Strength d6 (or d8) (or d12+7) (or d12+8) Vigor d8 ||Growth Copycat Altered Form Hardy Leaping Melee Attack (Claws) Super Edge
|-
|}

==Other Characters==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other Recruits and Retired Heroes
|-
!Character Codename role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Matteo Centori ''' '''Hotshot''' ''Big guy'' || Blond, handsome, thousand-dollar smile || Arrogant, petty, charming || Pilots a kaiju-sized mech || Famous, wealthy, glory-hound
|-
|'''Jaylinn Hart''' '''Heartfire''' ''Fire elementalist'' || Short blonde hair, sharkish grin || Confident, competitive || Heat projection, fire manipulation|| In a one-sided competition with Mills
|-
|'''Rebecca 'Becky' Fairfield''' '''Backfire''' ''Luck manipulator'' || Dark hair and eyes, withdrawn, rarely smiles || Lonely, bitter || Incredible luck and accuracy, bad luck to enemies || Convinced she causes bad luck to others
|-
|'''Patrick Anderson''' '''Panorama''' ''Time/space warper''|| Brown hair, wholesome jock features || Outwardly happy, inwardly jaded and fatalistic || Time/space warping, cannot inflict direct damage
|-
|'''Honey Sue Beauregard''' '''Southern Bell''' Sonic projector || Pretty, dark blonde hair, freckles || Flirty and casual || Powerful sonic shrieks and sound manipulation
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Project Gilgamesh Staff
|-
!Character role !! Appearance !! Personality !! Notes
|-
|'''Director Charles Sexton''' ''Director of Project Gilgamesh'' || White male, late 50s, cross between a military officer and a corporate CEO || Professional, reserved || Wealthy and influential
|-
|'''Sachiko Brooks''' ''Communications Officer'' || Half-Asian female, late 20s, green eyes, brown hair, very pretty || Friendly, extroverted || Endlessly cheerful and optimistic
|-
|'''Victor Rand''' ''Chief Engineer'' || White male, late 60s, scarred and weathered, walks with a cane due to severe limp || Blunt and surly || Absolute wizard with anything mechanical
|-
|'''Dr. August Frey''' ''Psychiatrist and counselor'' || White NB, late 30s, long angular face || Calm and non-judgmental || Willing to talk about anything, any time
|-
|'''Dr. Elena Voss''' ''Head scientist'' || White female, late 40s, severe features and graying hair || Crisp, professional, occasionally harsh || Brilliant scientist, relentless enemy of kaiju
|-
|'''Commander Samuel "Ironclad" Kessler''' ''Tactical Advisor'' || Black male, late 50s, scarred but unbroken, always wears reflective aviator glasses || Brusque, no-nonsense || Ex-military head of training and tactics
|-
|'''Kiana "Wavebreaker" Torres''' ''Pilot and aquatics specialist'' || Hawaiian/Latino female, late 20s, always smiling || Upbeat and enthusiastic || Low-tier superpowers, formerly the minor hero Wavebreaker
|-
|'''Captain Fiona Harkness''' ''Chief of Security'' || White female, mid-30s, flaming red hair and freckles, never wears makeup || All business except when drinking or singing, then gets very emotional || Concerned with base security above all else
|-
|'''Keiko Nakamura''' ''Chef and quartermaster'' || Japanese female, late 50s, short and pudgy || Mothers ''everyone,'' no exceptions || Very competent and utterly fearless
|-
|'''Amara Singh''' ''Training coordinator'' || Indian female, mid 30s, tall and athletic || Cautious but encouraging || Former Olympic athlete, has a slight limp due to a kaiju attack
|-
|'''Dr. Maxim Vostrikov''' ''Xenobiologist'' || White male, early 30s, black hair and hunched posture || Socially awkward, slightly arrogant || Assistant to Dr. Voss, fascinated by kaiju
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|+Other NPCs
|-
!Character Codename role !! Personality !! Powers !! Notes
|-
|'''Daniel Rutherford''' Captain Cosmic ''The Man of the Future'' || Confident, heroic. || Flight, invulnerability, super-strength, energy blasts || World's most powerful superhero
|-
|}

==Known Kaiju==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:left"
|'''Name''' ''status''|| '''Description''' || '''Known Powers''' || '''Notes'''
|-
|'''Dakkuma''' ''deceased'' || Monstrous, hexapedal hybrid of insect and reptile || Sonic roar, laser eye-beams || Defeated by Captain Cosmic, left in the Marianas Trench
|-
|}

==Rules==

===Setting Rules===
*'''An Arm And A Leg:''' If a Wild Card has no bennies, they can still choose to make a Soak roll. Regardless of the results of the Soak roll they immediately gain an appropriate hindrance: One Arm, One Eye, or Slow (Major). This Hindrance lasts until the end of the next session and cannot be healed otherwise.
*'''Combined Attacks:''' Support an ally’s attack to deal +2 damage, +4 with a raise
*'''Comic Book Combat:''' Combined Attacks, Knockback, Power Stunts, Synergy
*'''Conviction:''' Heroes gain Conviction Tokens that can be used to add a d6 to all Trait and damage rolls for one round.
*'''Expanded Conviction:''' In addition to the standard uses, Conviction can be spent to:
**Reroll a Critical Failure.
**Force an enemy to reroll a single Trait roll and use the new roll.
**Negate a Benny used by another character.
**Conviction may be gifted to another character who is Trusted (see below) for immediate use.
*'''Death & Defeat:''' A Wild Card who is incapacitated by lethal damage gets an immediate Vigor roll to potentially recover.
*'''Larger Than Life:''' Wild Cards may take one additional Major or Minor hindrance, gaining points for it normally. This extra hindrance must be a mental/social hindrance.
*'''Mega-Destruction:''' Superpowers and kaiju attacks cause massive property damage.
*'''More Skill Points:''' Heroes start with 15 skill points instead of 12.
*'''Never Surrender:''' Incapacitated Wild Cards are dealt initiative cards normally. On a Joker they regain consciousness and rejoin the fray.
*'''No Finishing Moves:''' Downed Wild Cards are immune to Finishing Moves
*'''Popcorn Initiative:''' Players may post in whatever order, as they are available to do so. The GM will have NPCs act whenever it makes sense. The edges Quick and Level-Headed, and the hindrance Hesitant, do not exist. Cards will still be drawn for the sake of Jokers and complications.
*'''Throwdown:''' Ignore the Unarmed Defender rule.

===Stress===
When characters become severely upset or emotionally hurt they may become '''Stressed.''' Stress is a mental status effect that applies whenever it is logical - whenever a character receives terrible news, experiences a traumatizing event, or suffers a great emotional blow. The GM may declare that a character has become Stressed as appropriate; the player may voluntarily choose to become Stressed as well. If the player chooses to become Stressed, they gain a benny.

A Stressed character subtracts 1 from all Smarts- and Spirit-based Trait rolls, and cannot spend bennies to unshake - they must succeed on a Spirit roll to do so.

If a character would become Stressed when they already have the Stressed status, they instead gain a temporary hindrance appropriate to the situation and their personality. This hindrance persists until removed; see below.

Stressed is a special status effect in that it does not fade naturally; instead, a character must make a '''Spirit roll at -2''' to clear it. This roll can be made only once per day, after a period of rest (typically in the morning after a night’s sleep).

There is a second way to clear Stress: with the help of a friend. Another character (who is not Distrusted) can spend time with the Stressed character, helping them relax and work through their issue. This can take a variety of forms, from a conversation to guided meditation to recreation of various sorts, and takes about an hour. At the end of this time the Stressed character makes a '''Spirit roll at -2''' while their friend rolls to '''Support.''' This can only be attempted once per 24 hours. If the Spirit roll is a critical failure, the Stressed character gains a temporary hindrance if they did not already have one!

If a character is afflicted with both Stress and a temporary hindrance, a success on the Spirit roll removes the Stressed condition but not the hindrance; a raise removes both. If the Stressed condition is removed, the hindrance can be removed the same way (but not until the next normal opportunity). The hindrance remains until removed, and if the character becomes Stressed again, that status must be cleared before they can attempt to remove the hindrance.

===Trust and Distrust===
The characters in Neon Xtinction may work together, but that doesn’t mean they always like or trust each other. The heroes are emotional teenagers figuring out how things work, and relationships can be important. To reflect this, each character may decide which of their teammates and colleagues they trust, distrust, or have no strong opinions on.

'''Trust:''' When you trust another character, you feel positively disposed toward them. In general, you will prefer to spend time with them, value their opinions, and trust them with your secrets.

When someone you trust makes a test to Support you, or any Intimidation, Persuasion or Taunt roll to influence you, they add 1 to the Trait roll. In addition, a character you trust can give you bennies as if they had the Common Bond edge.

'''Neutral:''' The default state, with no bonuses, penalties, or special rules. Unless otherwise noted, all characters are assumed to be Neutral toward one another.

'''Distrust:''' When you distrust another character you are negatively disposed toward them. You prefer to avoid them and have little faith in their opinions or abilities; you certainly won’t share your secrets with them.

You gain no benefit from Support tests by a character you Distrust, cannot accept bennies from them (even if they have Common Bond), and they subtract 2 from all Persuasion rolls made to influence you.

Note that the choice to trust or distrust someone is wholly up to the individual, and can be changed for any reason or none. Note also that trust is not automatically reciprocated; it is entirely possible for one hero to trust another, but the second hero regards them neutrally or even distrusts them.

A character may decide to change their opinion on another character at any time, but not more than once per day.

NX PC03

2025-03-28T17:18:05Z

Leliel:

[[Neon_Xtinction| Back to Main Page]]

==Marko Mandl/Cytokine==

Marko Mandl/Cytokine

Novice Male Human, Human/Kaiju "Prince" Hybrid And Mother's Science Project In Survival

Quote: ''Never fear, Cytokine is responding! ...Damnit, that doesn't work, need better biology puns...''

==Background==

In many ways, Marko "Mark" Mandl's story is actually the story of his mother, Dr. Eva Mandl. Or, as the world knows her now, Mitochondria, the Cell Queen. Originally she was known as one of the first superheroes before TITAN, as she seemed one of the only people who saw the kaiju coming, and outlined several important standard procedures in evacuation and analysis. Unfortunately, as people would later discover, she also felt humanity deserved the kaiju on some level - an anarchist and environmentalist both, her writings grew increasingly misanthropic and distrustful of her supposed friends in the government, even beginning to show a growing envy of the simple motives of kaiju, and increasing dismay at the infighting between her team and superiors. At one point, after something known as "the Kīlauea Incident", heavily classified, she apparently lost faith in humanity's survival altogether and vanished with her son - and several samples of kaiju blood from a creature described as "a great amoeba."

Marko doesn't know what happened between the year he vanished and was impromptu dumped at the prototype council that would later become Gilgamesh with a note on how to take care of him and his new requirements as a "new race of man." What is known is that shortly thereafter, the renamed Mitochondria revealed herself and announced she was in full revolt against the governments of the world as "poor stewards of human evolution" and that she was engineering a new species of mankind to survive a world that no longer had a place for Homo sapiens, starting with herself - as shown by how she, like her son, had become a humanoid protist. She has since become one of the world's supervillains - but the authorities are slow to arrest her, as she also provides order and medical care to her base in the destroyed remnants of Hamberg and still shows up to help fight the kaiju, often with her engineered beasts. As for her son - well, on some level he pathologically acts human to confirm that he isn't a kaiju hybrid, even though like his mother he can easily birth smaller beasts from his back. He has the kindness she seems to have forgotten in the face of her increasingly insane dreams, but above all else, he wants to know why she went from a heroine to a monster queen - and if that is fated to happen to him.

==Description==

Like his mother, Marko is a hyperadvanced organism resembling something between a protist and a humanoid. His flesh isn't truly a single cell or even cells, though - he's more akin to a strange form of pseudo-matter called psiplasma. This enables him to have a lot of powers one might call "psychic", but his most notable is the ability to undergo rapid budding to release the "brood", smaller organisms resembling plasmic lifeforms such as birds. In addition, he only breathes normally when speaking - something about his new biology makes it easy for him to synthesize oxygen from trace elements in more than enough quantities that he only needs to inhale every few hours, and he can hold his breath for more than three days, though he gets queasy after the first couple "intervals". Do not ask why Gilgamesh knows this.

==Stats==

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6

Skills: Academics d4, Athletics d4, Battle d8, Common Knowledge d4, Fighting d4, Focus d6, Intimidation d6, Language (Native) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Research d8+2, Science d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d6

Pace: 6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 5

Hindrances: Alien Form, Driven (minor, Needs to understand what his mother is doing), Heroic, Outsider (minor, Looks like a small version of an infamous kaiju)

Edges: Investigator (custom), Team Player

Weapons: Unarmed (Range Melee, Damage Str)

Language: Native (native, d8)

Current Wealth: $500

[h3]Special Abilities[/h3]

Languages Known: Native (native, d8)
Telekinesis: Moves objects with the hero's mind. - Focus 3, Range 2
Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form): The character's body can change into a different substance.
Levitation (Flight): The hero can fly and is harder to hit at higher levels.
The Brood (Minions): The character has allies under his control. - Summonable 4, Super Powers 3
Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged): Distance Attack - Cone 1
Doesn't Breathe: The hero has no need to breathe.
Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Heals wounds. - Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1
Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Manipulates energy, by Power Type. - Selective 2, Requires Activation -1
[h3]Super Powers[/h3]

Telekinesis (5): Focus 3, Range 2
The Brood (Minions) (3): Summonable 4, Super Powers 3
Levitation (Flight) (3)
Plasma Burst (Attack, Ranged) (3): Cone 1
Plasma Reconstruction (Healing): Restoration 2, Requires Activation -1
Plasma Manipulation (Energy Control): Selective 2, Requires Activation -1
Kaiju Physiology (Altered Form)
Doesn't Breathe
Current Load: 0 (21)

Books In Use: Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition, Super Powers Companion (2014)

Setting Rules: Super Hero!

Supers Campaign Level: Heavy Hitters

Validity: Character appears valid and optimal