Artra, the Overlord

An NPC in the PbP Fellowship - Blade of Ruin.

None knows from where the powerful sorceress Artra comes. All that they know is she first came from the East, clad in golden armor and wielding terrible magics. The strange golden flowers that spread from her crystal citadels bear a cloying spell, one that transforms the lands and its inhabitants into her pawns.

She hunts this world, claiming temples and shrines, her minions seizing places of power for her own. Her purpose is a mystery, but there is no doubt.

She is a Threat to the World.

Playbook

Look

Glowing Eyes, Imposing Armor, Unassuming Figure, Menacing Aura

Agenda

Create Opportunities To Do Good

The world is filled with people who need the help of the fellowship. Give them people to save. Give them a broken world and see how they fix it.

Play To Find Out What Happens

The world is constantly changing and you can never truly know what happens next. Roll with it. Let the game evolve naturally. with everyone's input. Don't plan anything outside of what the Overlord is doing.

Place Wonderful Things in Jeopardy

To gain your power, you must take it from that which has power. Find the wonderful things in this world - the great dragons, the elven homelands, the dwarven treasures, the orcish hivemother, anything of great importance is in your sights. Put them in jeopardy, threaten to destroy or change them forever. And then follow through with it.

Armies

The Scourge

You and your armies spread corruption and blight, and those tainted by it join you and your cause. Those things touched by blight tend to develop golden stripes and lines and flowers with golden stems and black blooms grow. Infected ares grow slowly, but minions of your army can cultivate new blights with only a few cuttings of the strange blossoms. Your blight leaves corrupted zones, corrupted creatures, and undead warriors wherever it touches.

Core

Cut Them Real Bad

When the Overlord is physically present, your Cuts can always be as hard as you like.

Ovelord Stats

• Powerful: You are inhumanly strong and resistant to harm.
• Dark Magic: You have vast arcane skills that let you manipulate and reshape the world.
• Corruptive Will: You can transform people and things into your minions.

The fellowship knows each of your stats, and they will need to form a counter-plan against every single one of them. Your undamaged stats are immutable truths that cannot be contradicted by any means.

When you Advance your Plans, you may heal a damaged stat instead.

When you seize a new Source of Power, gain a new stat of your choice. When you gain or lose a Source of Power, write down which stat that Source of Power is tied to - if you lose or regain that Source of Power in the future, it takes the stat with it. You can start the game with as many as three Sources of Power, or as few as zero. Which of your stats is tied to which Source of Power is not mentioned until the Source takes that stat from you, either from the fellowship using a new Source of Power against you or taking away a Source of Power you were drawing power from.

My Only Weakness!

You have a Weakness. There is a single material, item, charm, ritual, or spell that you are vulnerable to. This is your Weakness.

The Song of Binding

An ancient tune. Whistled, secret, its power is antithetical to the Overlord’s stolen magicks.

The other players will know your Weakness, but the fellowship they are playing as does not. Unless they have something that tells them your Weakness, they will need to discover it through play.

When you are exposed to your Weakness, one of your stats is immediately damaged, their choice. Your stats and your moves cannot protect you from your Weakness, but it can only hurt you once per scene.

Overlord Damage

You are difficult to harm, but it is not impossible. When you would take damage, they must first pay a price for each undamaged stat you have. If you would be destroyed, instead damage one of your stats at no cost to your attacker.

If you take damage or are destroyed while none of your stats remain, you are finally defeated, once and for all.

There is no coming back for you.

Your supreme power comes with some downsides. Most notably, they can harm you without ever being near you. If the fellowship seizes a Source of Power, they may use it to erase one of your stats forever. You can never get that stat back unless you can take control of that specific Source of Power.

When the fellowship Recovers, heal one of your damaged stats.

Master Plan

The Overlord has a basic plan for what to do with this world, but you do not need to know all of the details. The fellowship can attempt to learn your plans, but this should require them to capture a General, undertake a sneaking mission, or earn it through great peril.

All plans start at stage 0.

Whenever the fellowship Recovers or the Overlord Levels Up, you advance your plans. When the fellowship has A Little Downtime, you may advance your plans during your turn, but the fellowship will immediately hear about it if you do. When you could Advance Your Plans, you may recruit new General or heal one damaged Overlord Stat instead.

When you Advance Your Plans, you choose one of them and move it one step forward. You will always have two plans going at once - whenever you have only one plan left, write a second new plan immediately.

1. Create A New Plan: Name a Source of Power you wish to seize or a community you wish to destroy, and write it down.
2. Begin The Plan: Your forces move into position to act upon your plan. At this point, the fellowship hears that you are up to something, but not what you are doing or where your forces are.
3. Execute The Plan: Your forces take action. The fellowship hears about what you are up to, but stopping you now would be very difficult.
4. Victory: You seize the source of power, or destroy the community. A destroyed community no longer grants Fellowship.

Gear

You do not need to eat, and you do not want for companions. When the fellowship Recovers, you also Recover your Gear.

Weakness

The Song of Binding

An ancient tune, whistled, secret, its power is antithetical to the Overlord’s stolen magicks.

Custom

You do not start with any custom moves, and you must gain them by leveling up.