Fate of Duskengrim

A play-by-post game of Fate Core by Evil Hat, set in a world inspired by Vandel Arden's cartography of the same name. We shall herein invent the world.

Players & Characters

• Civil Savage playing Captain Vlenn
• MrPrim playing Ricker Melwich
• Muskrat playing Eagle's Shadow
• Verenes Aoene playing ???
• roryb -- GM

Links

• RecruitmentDiscussion Thread

Issues

The Second Coming of Heavenfall (Impending)

Three thousand years ago, Duskengrim eked its way out of a cataclysm through acts and deeds of a few. Now, as fragmented civilizations continue an uneasy peace, signs of a second Heavenfall are here. Balls of fire fall from the sky filling folk with dread. Worse terrors are rumored to pervade the area where these star fragments crack the earth. The earth trembles and there is talk of angered gods. Compel for troubling events that can radically and suddenly destabilize a situation, as well as when panic can affect crowds.

Ideals as Multied as the Color of Its People (Current) — subject to player approval

The Valley of Ashen Dreams is peopled by a hodgepodge of cultures and factions — survivors of many wars. A tenuous alliance of traders and merchant families exists, but it is a region filled with almost constant strife and turmoil and overrun by ideological and religious fanaticism — fighting for the supremacy of trade and watercourses amid constant primal perils present in the vast wilder-lands and threat of piracy, where life is difficult and only by clinging bitterly to ages-old feuds will someone climb to heights of power and influence and achieve a sense of worth. Mercenary companies hire out to the highest bidder, and neighboring cities can break out into war at the slightest provocation. Compel to show the devisive nature of the region’s many inhabitants.

Magic

For magic use in general, we use the Schools of Power extra from the Fate Core book. Two considerations: (1), magic does not provide access to attack or defend actions or the school’s most powerful abilities without a stunt that provides that capability under a more narrow circumstance, and, (2) instead of Lore being the basic default casting skill, you can designate whatever skill seems most appropriate as your school’s default (Rapport/Provoke for wheedling-type of invocations, Will for innate force of presence/inborn talent casters, etc). If it seems necessary, we can also create a more necessary skill that will do the job, but I think the default list mixed with stunts will do it.

The Ascending

The Ascending are a school of magic (if we do decide to use Schools of Power, could easily be written up that way) with a long history. They seem to have begun out of a devotion to learning and advancing magical knowledge, but over time they have become more insular and more dedicated to seizing power for its own sake. They might have caused the meteor storms (deliberately or as an unintended side effect of dangerous experiments), or they might just be trying to seize control of them for their own purposes. Their teachings over time have become more religious tinged and cult-like, with reports that they think they can become gods by gathering enough power--at least, those at the top of the order. (Credit: Civil Savage)

Incubomancy

Masters of illusion, manifestations and control systems through fear, Incubomancers can read and manipulate dreams. Their most demanding powers include creating solid objects and creatures that fade away after a short time, as well as transforming the caster into a phantasm, either ghostly wolves or birds, and cause real mental harm with illusory weapons. (Credit: MrPrim)

• Aspects. Your Works are as Ephemeral as Dreams, Masters of Fear and Illusion, There is Truth in Visions
• Skills.
  • Create +4
  • Learn +3
  • Change +2
  • Destroy +1
• Stunts.
• Casting Skill. Provoke or Empathy
  • Make Firm. Your powers of vision and dream are so strong, you can actually make them manifest into tangible reality. Once per session create advantage with Create to summon medium objects. These last one scene. Session-lasting ephemera can be generated through a more arduous ritual involving a Challenge.
  • Dream Fiend Incarnate. You can make real your most hideous nightmares for a brief time. Once per session, you may use your school’s Create skill to summon a being of your imagination that disappears at the end of the scene. On a tie, create an Average (+1) nameless NPC, two Average (+1) or one Fair (+2) On a complete success, three Average (+1) or one Good (+3) on a success with style. You may forgo your own actions to control theirs, or provide teamwork bonuses, but may never roll more than one action per turn.
  • Horrific Transformation. Once per session, you may use your school’s Change skill to create a Phantasmic Wolves or Ghostly Birds aspect on yourself. You cannot affect or be affected by physical attacks while in this state, but you may engage in mental conflicts.
  • Despair. As long as you have planted some seed of nightmarish horror appropriate to your victim, you may make mental attacks with Destroy.

The Intercessionist Order of Exorcists

Intercessionism is a religion that believes God is unknowable by mortals and that it is hubris for mortals to direct their prayers directly to God. Instead, they direct their prayers to the Blessed Dead, those who have transcended the cycle of death and reincarnation to achieve sainthood and dwell with God in Heaven. The clergy of the Intercessionist Church are mediums, who commune with the spirits of the Blessed Dead, delivering messages of wisdom from them to the living. They are, as a result, generally skilled at dealing with the spirit world.

One arm of the Intercessionist Church is the Order of Exorcists, who focus their medium abilities on dealing with spiritual problems and threats, such as ghosts and demons. Their work ranges from helping ghosts resolve problems they could not resolve in life so they can pass on to their next rebirth to combating malign spirits attacking people. They also have the traditional ability of mediums to commune with the spirits of the dead in search of answers to questions and to seek wisdom. The mediums of the Intercessionist Church also possess the following abilities: They can read people’s auras—while this does not allow them to read people’s thoughts, they can sense their emotional states, get a sense of their intentions, as well as other things, such as whether they are lying. They can physically heal people by drawing on the spiritual power of their souls. And they can spirit travel, leaving their physical bodies to travel to distant physical locations or other planes. Such travel is time consuming and leaves their bodies defenseless. Someone spirit traveling can immediately sense if physical harm comes to their body, but they must take the time necessary to travel back to it.

In the recent civil wars, the Order of Exorcists found themselves opposed and even persecuted by several different factions, since they actively opposed the summoning of demons and other malign spirits as instruments of war. The Order still survives, but in much reduced numbers and socially marginalized in many places. As a result of both their marginalization and the excesses of the civil wars, there has been a proliferation of the unquiet dead and malign spirits wandering the land. The persecution the Order suffered means not only are they reduced in numbers, but fragmented and disorganized, with any organization above the regional level wiped out. Despite this, members of the Order believe they can never refuse to deal with a problem requiring their skills, even if it means helping one of those who persecuted them. (Credit: Muskrat)

• Aspects. Warrior-Mediums of the Intercessionist Church, Binders and Banishers of Supernatural Threats, A Broken Order
• Skills.
  • Destroy +4
  • Change +3
  • Learn +2
  • Create +1
• Casting Skill. Will
• Stunts.
  • Ghost Touch. You can physically interact with noncorporeal beings. This includes using Fight and Shoot to inflict stress and consequences on noncorporeal beings that normally be immune to physical damage.
  • The Second Sight. Use Investigate and Notice to observe the supernatural, including things that would normally be invisible to mortal eyes.
  • Spirit Trance. +2 to any of the Order’s skills when in a trance communing with the Blessed Dead—something that requires an extended period of time and requires one round to withdraw from. This is not an ability that can normally be used in the middle of combat.

Soul-Binders

So long ago, people learned how to bind themselves to a Primal. This binding is not done easily or lightly. It takes great preparation to be able to do it at all, and it is a heavy burden. It is called soulbinding, and the connection is that heavy. The Primal has access to the mage's thoughts and feelings, and can speak directly into the mage's mind. In times of stress, the Primal might try to break free. The mage can compel the Primal to act, but every soul-binding has its own operations: in some, the commanding is all about will. In others, it's a continually negotiated relationship. Some Primals value the word highly and are extremely literal in their obedience. All of them use their access to the mage's mind to their own purposes, arguing, cajoling, mocking, interfering, looking for advantage. (Credit: Civil Savage)

• Aspects. Power Must Be Controlled, Leave No Door Ajar, My Life for the Good of All
• Skills.
  • Destroy +4
  • Change +3
  • Learn +2
  • Create +1
• Stunts.
  • Primal Obedience. You begin with Primal portfolio to power your supernatural abilities. Choose one narrow array of influence to narrate uses of your School of Power's casting skills.

The Thaumaturgical League. (Credit: Verenes Aeone)

• Aspects. Understanding Gives You Power, Magic Is Not Quite Science, Tools That Bend Reality.

Culture

The Blade Oath is a widespread cultural touchstone that has transcended political borders by being celebrated in songs and epic poems. It's similar to noblese oblige--the idea being that anyone who picks up/wields a weapon by doing so is also picking up an obligation to defend those who cannot do so (too poor to own a weapon, too old/young/weak to wield one, etc.). In some of the poems it's a literal oath sworn the first time a weapon is picked up. More commonly it's a notion that people "ought" to behave that way--though of course, people respond in the full range from openly scoffing at how stupid it is, to ignoring it, to feeling guilty when they don't, to trying, to really committing. (Credit: Civil Savage)

Places

East Vornduhn

• Cursivad
• Felinor Mountains
• Ruins of Kargedokien

Jehrad Valley

• Daranward

Salamander Rim

Heshat Wilderness

Crimson Lake. A blasted land. Crimson Lake is relatively new, created in the apocalyptic event that destroyed the Duchy of Melarin. Those Melaren's who survived the devastation are scarred and haunted by the devestation snd erasure of everything they ever knew. Now the other nations have to wonder... who will be next? Credit: MrPrim

• Nevior. The dreams of Nevior are unquiet, it is a furtive place, huddled on the haunted shores of Crimson Lake. It is an ill-omened land, rumored to be home to saltwitches, gravespeakers, devilsnatchers, and, of course, incubomancers. Worshiping the Whispered Brothers, entities which only they seem to be aware of, incubomancers are respected if given a wide berth. The special teas they brew help to ease the haunt-plagues that ripple through Nevior each summer, an they are renowned as exorcists and wardens. They are also feared and mistrusted by those outside of Nevior, for their connection to the darkest recesses of the mind are dangerous. Incubomancers are said to be able to bend minds, to arouse fear and confuse the senses, to walk in dreams. Some say they can even make themselves like unto dreams or pull nightmares into reality. (Credit: MrPrim)
• Neraque Crater

Sachsnann Peaks

• Dessat

Wendiris Swamp

Stillwater Swamp

• Sandared
• Vanderghast

The Titan’s Abdomen

• Red Watch
• Bonshire. Capital of the Bonshire Thalassarchy. Historically, this empire controlled most of the lands the Titan's Abdomen and Bloodbay, as well as much of the territory inland from them, with the Free Cities the main hold out to its rule. A series of civil wars over the last century have left it considerably weakened. While it still controls a good deal of territory, many of the lands it once controlled are now independent. Its control of the sea is now challenged by growing numbers of pirates. (Credit: Muskrat)
• Telomen
• Grisgard
• Shirin

Erindor Forest. Land of the FAE. (Credit: Verenes Aeone)

• Lornathdur

Dorn Monastery

The Abbess of Dorn Monastery has been dead for three hundred years but still pulls the strings in the world beyond her island fortress (Credit: MrPrim). None have been seen leaving the old monastery, but someone must current reside within. A custom of different folk is to take a pilgrimage to the island and beg the occupant(s) to bless their endeavors, crops, families. Prophetic messages scrawled on stones are eventually cast down from a high broken window by an unseen tosser, most of which are said to come true. Recently, however, these messages are filled with doom and portend the coming of the next Heavenfall.

Bloodbay

The Free Cities. Not truly all cities, the territory includes a number of towns and villages as well. All are fiercely independent, from each other and from outsiders. They are united in a loose mutual defense confederacy that has kept them free from the Bonshire Thalassarchy and other would-be rulers. The free cities are variously republics, democracies, meritocracies, and kritarchies. Most of the free cities tend to think their own form of government is the best, but tolerate their neighbors' forms of governments as amusing eccentricities. What unites them is a rejection of the hereditary aristocracies that rule the Bonshire Thalassarchy and many of the other neighboring polities and a belief in the equality of all their citizens, though what exactly that equality means varies from free city to free city. (Credit: Muskrat)

• Titan’s Bridge
• Malachi. The city and the territory immediately around it are controlled by an exiled branch of the same dynasty that rules from Bonshire. They claim to be the rightful rulers of the Bonshire Thalassarchy. In truth, the matter is somewhat complicated, in that the Malachi branch of the dynaasty is descended from an older son of than that of the Bonshire branch, but the older son was an illegitimate child fathered by the king on a peasant woman. (Credit: Muskrat)
• Ohrimat
• Ferenach

Trummerdale

• Advallon

People

Hashati

The Hashat Wilderness is inhabited by a people (the Heshati) with a fairly egalitarian, democratic tribal society. The Heshat had a culture and language quite distinct and unrelated to the other peoples of the region. Over the span of the wars and slave revolts over the past few centuries, they have absorbed many refugees--runaway slaves, deserting soldiers, religious heretics fleeing from persecution. The Heshat retain much of their traditional culture, but it has been enriched by the traditions these newcomers brought and their language has absorbed a substantial foreign vocabulary.

(For point of reference, the inspiration here is the Seminole Indians, originally of Florida (now mostly in Oklahoma, who were displaced Creek Indians (from what is now Georgia) who also took in substantial numbers of runaway African-American slaves.)

The Heshat are good at living in harmony with the surrounding wilderness, practicing low impact agriculture and hunting and gathering. The wilderness, however, is inhabited by a number of large, dangerous animals, some of which are found nowhere else. Many of these animals are tribal totems, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous. Credit: Muskrat

The Fae

Fae are bound by laws, yes. Just as many as the mortal beings and objects. But their laws are different, based in story and contract, and the mixing of Fae and Mortal laws can be powerful indeed, giving mortal heroes of tale and legend items of great power, made with impossible material. But not all the tales and legends speak of glory. Some speak of the price paid for them.

The Fae do not take mere gold or silver, such things is worthless to them. They take what is hard or impossible for them to make. Mortal magic, both the arcane power of spells and the gentle warmth of memories, sell very well. Such things as True Love, or the Power of Friendship, they have little experience with making. But if you are willing to sell, you can buy items of such power.

A sword carved from a monster's tooth, harder and stronger than steel, and invulnerable to the magical rusting of a wizard or the invisible attraction of the metal lodestones a tinker or a thaumaturgist makes. A cloak woven of starlight and moonbeams can render you near invisible, and channels spells quite well. Bottled emotions can be used as the material component for powerful spells, making them less tiring to cast. A blade quenched in emotion attains extraordinary attributes and abilities.

Just be mindful of the cost. For many a mortal has made the trip to Erindor Forest, through land or trod, only for a misspoken word or poorly planned bargain to bind them into permanent service, or sell half their remembered life for a shiny trinket. (Credit: Verenes Aeone)

The Stoneborn

The stoneborn are giants carved from stone, with runes on their skin giving them life. They were originally created as servants for an ancient empire, but rebelled and gained their independence. Their masters had tried using them in war, but creating beings who were, for the most part, gentle giants who dislike violence. Though no human knows the secret of making them, they retain this secret and this is how they "reproduce"--carve a new stoneborn from the rock, bringing them to life by carving the proper runes onto their skin. Although physically mature, when first created, they have the same pscyhological maturity as infants and must be nurtured into adulthood. Fortunately, their gentle natures keep most of these super-strong infants from being a danger to others. Though it seems like, being made of stone, the stoneborn should be largely invulnerable, this is not the case. Damaging the runes carved on their skin harms them and doing enough damage to the runes can kill them. That said, given time to heal, the runes regenerate on their own. (Credit: Muskrat)

Bowsers

Bowsers are dog-people, created by ancient mages as servants. In the more backward polities, they are effectively slaves, but in more enlightened ones, they are free, or at least as free as humans. They are generally quite glad to live among humans and can make intensely loyal followers or charismatic leaders.

For some reason, the same mages who created bowsers, also thought it would be a good idea to create gnolls, hyena-people. No one is sure why. They certainly don't make good servants. By human standards, their emotions are hyper-strong and can change rapidly--they can go from manic excitement to deep depression or moath-foaming wrath or feeling bleeding-heart compassionate in a matter of minutes. Not all gnolls act on these emotions—some have more self-control than others—but all feel them passionately. They tend to live in small groups at the margins of human society in occupations that let them wander--as bandits and mercenaries, but also as merchants, thieves, diplomats or religious pilgrims and mendicants. They can be cunning and greedy, are always easily over excited, but can also be also adventuresome and curious. (Credit: Muskrat)

The Supernatural

Primals

The Primals are powerful creatures, not at all understood. They are not gods, but their power is vast, at least equal to the Titan of legend who once walked the earth. They all seem able to become invisible (or intangible?) at will, coming and going as they please, and able to work powerful magics within their realms of control. Unfortunately, while they are not necessarily malicious, they are careless about the impact of the wonders they work, so they can be dangerous to humans, bowsers, and gnolls — and even the stoneborn. So long ago, people learned how to bind themselves to a Primal. This binding is not done easily or lightly. It takes great preparation to be able to do it at all, and it is a heavy burden. It is called soulbinding, and the connection is that heavy. The Primal has access to the mage's thoughts and feelings, and can speak directly into the mage's mind. In times of stress, the Primal might try to break free. The mage can compel the Primal to act, but every soul-binding has its own operations: in some, the commanding is all about will. In others, it's a continually negotiated relationship. Some Primals value the word highly and are extremely literal in their obedience. All of them use their access to the mage's mind to their own purposes, arguing, cajoling, mocking, interfering, looking for advantage. (Credit: Civil Savage)