The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ic=The Oracle's Answer]One.

The footstep shattered the tired soliloquy of the wind.

Two.

The second fell as the first, sharp and staccato against the eolian susurrus.

Three. Four. Five.

The footsteps continued –unhurried, unconcerned by the now-wroth wind that whipped and wailed with childish impudence.

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.

A cadence emerged, a clockwork rhythm of footfalls that warred with the senseless, icy song of the stair.

Thirteen.

Bruised and breathless, the sky sighed against the slopes of the Slouching-Devil Mountains, surrendering to the relentless storm of steps. Unmoved and unsurprised by its victory, the traveler continued.

***

Elsewhere, a lone Watchman stood. The manic city whirled about him, a frenetic kaleidoscope of skin, silk, and steel. For a brief moment, he stood apart from the incessant bedlam, sheltered by half-shattered wings of stone. He stood silently, a mute supplicant staring into the sculpted face of a forgotten justicar-saint. Its visage, veiled in shadow, was stained with rain-smeared graffiti, a glossolalic tattoo covering its time-worn frame. The man's face was almost a mirror, a grim countenance crossed with scars and age-etched creases. The creases deepened as the man frowned, his brow cracking as his thoughts laid heavy on his mind.

"So often I have sought your guidance," the man whispered to the broken seraph. "Will you deny me now, after all we have been through together, after all we have done?"  

The statue stared down with hollow eyes. Its splattered lips remained still.

"Why?" the man demanded. "What fetters your wisdom? Where is reason in that!?"

His breath, raw and ragged, was his only reply.

The man closed his eyes, berating himself for his foolishness. He sighed, willing his fury to pass. In its wake, silence once more settled upon the dispassionate shadows.

Off in the distance, the Palace of Chimes awakened from its hourly slumber, a brazen chanticleer proclaiming its chronographic symphony with unquestioned authority. Hearing its clockwork call, a million lesser chimes answered in mass mimicry. Among the disquiet sycophants was the guard's pocketwatch. For a fleeting moment, he ignored the tiny termagant, but the shrewish ticks hounded him. Sighing once more in resignation, the man reached for the argent device. With a practiced turn of a key and series of tired clicks, he silenced the apparatus –at least for another hour.

His mind, however, remained disquieted. He turned back to the despoiled saint, pleading it would answer him, but knowing it would not. Reason had robbed him of such foolish hopes. Nevertheless, his feet were rooted, laden by troubled thoughts. Meanwhile, his fingers traced his watch's filigree with the tenderness of an aged, absent-minded lover. Something in the wiry curves nonetheless caught his attention. He looked down, glancing at the watch's cover and its cloisonné insignia: a gauntlet clasping a pair of scales. Not for the first time he wondered –was the hand raising the scales, or crushing them? It was a question the watch would not answer. Nor would the statue.

Bitterly, the Watchman broke from the saint's shadow. He stowed his watch, gripped his glyph-scribed sword-stave, and stepped out into the Clockwork City. It consumed him without thought or satiation.

***

Five-score and four-fold.

The traveler continued.

It paid no heed to the other passers-by, ignoring the lonesome pilgrims that shared its winding stair. A pair of jatayi swapped fables, songs, and scraps of rotted flesh as they flitted, half-flying, half-traipsing the sculpted steps. A turbaned ghul hawked alabaster plumes, embalmed gris-gris, and other alleged apotropes. A sextext of liveried soldiers hefted an ornate palanquin, its threadbare curtains revealing the pain-wracked form of an elderly magistra in the throes of the Slow Plague. Her demonic familiar, a putrescent, hackle-barbed feline, clung to the palanquin's canopy with its prehensile tail, hissing and wailing in harsh syncopation with its mistress's moans. Behind them, a group of tramp-mercenaries uneasily smoked, bantered, and climbed. A mustachioed bravo swaggered, brandishing a wheellock pistol, and bragged of his erotic conquests. A bespectacled hagman anointed herself with a glyph-scribed aspergillum, while a graftpunk scholar cradled a sutured skull, debating the merits of electrography and corpuscularianism with a black-furred, cigarillo-smoking zerda.

The traveler ignored them all. They had been weighed, of course, but they had been found wanting. They were inconsequential to its calculations.

Six-score and four-fold.

One by one, the traveler surpassed them. The clouds fell away. The air became brittle. Gelid veins clung miserly to the mountains. But the traveler's pace neither quickened nor lagged. It was a metronome, measuring out time. Tick. Tick. Tick. The echo of past steps merged with the present, creating a phantasmal legion of footfalls, a sempiternal centipede of isochronous perfection.

Seven-score and four-fold.

***
Inside the chitinous cupola of the Collegia Tho-Lladrim, silk draperies hung in elaborate patterns, each stained with eldritch dyes in sweeping pentacles and prolix seals. Piquant tapers of virgin tallow and bizarre unguents burned, filling the room with perfumed smoke and pools of shadows. Waxen tears flowed down cunningly-cut channels in the marble floor, creating sevous sigils that squirmed and slithered with fell animacy. A monstrous bell-jar, etched with frosted glyphs and anchored with argent chains, dominated the immense chamber. Dangling from the same silver web, twelve gibbets swung, their ebon bars embracing a dozen opium-addled guttersnipes. Nigh-insensate, the children mewled and twitched their naked, henna-marked bodies in feeble protest.

Chancellor Phelipas Luan-Viardot basked in the malevolent opulence. He savored each rustle of chain, each whimper, each flicker of flame. His emerald gaze, rimmed by a mask of milk-white ivory, caressed the tallow, the silk, the seals. He scrutinized every minutia, purveying it like a sumptuous banquet. Years of preparation had brought him to this point, and now, at the precipice of triumph, he was torn by heady anticipation and reluctant indulgence.

Beside him, his familiar Caacrabolas whined. Sensing its master's indecision, the canine-like demon flexed its corvid wings and began to lick its tumorous body with manifold tongues. A fleck of spittle landed on Phelipas' robe, singing the baroque affair of ruffled silk, cloth-of-gold, and embroidered satin. Arching a masked brow, the Chancellor tightened Caacrabolas' silver leash, instantly bringing the familiar to heel.

So satisfied, Pheliphas turned his attention to his other servants. Sixteen eyes, brimming with desire, returned his own all-too hungry gaze. Like him, they wore the dress robes of the Collegia –although their raiments marked them as subordinate professors and pupils. Each wore the powdered wig and half-mask of Skein's nobility, just as each was accompanied by a fettered fiend. Seeing his cabal so arrayed, Pheliphas could not help but smile –a salacious grin that reflected the candlelight like cold adamant.

Triumphantly, the Chancellor broke the silence with a grandiose gesture. "It is time." He relaxed his familiar's chain, plunged an ichor-filled syringe into his veins, and stepped into the summoning diagram. His disciples followed him without thought or hesitation.

***
Seven-score and five-fold.

The traveler stopped.

Milk and incense infused the air. Bronze bells tolled softly, their tintinnabulation mingling with the tranquil movements of tongueless monks and whispering snow. Something else, however, defined the Shrine of the Sighing Wind. A majesty pervaded the ancient temple. Mysterious and massive, it was the sublime presence of immortality.

Shaaltelathiel. Last of the shedim.

The daeva was immense. Its panoply of wings cradled the firmament, veiling the sun behind a lattice of alabastrine plumes. Its leonine body enveloped the alpine sanctuary. A multitude of basins, chalices, and bowls surrounded the shedim, creating a mandorla of glimmering rosewood, jade, and pearl. Even in slumber, its human-faced head towered over the traveler, its countenance one of consummate serenity. Deep in reverie, the daeva breathed koans beyond mortal ken.

The traveler waited.

Dusk fell. Stars undressed against the dark canopy of twilight, baring their naked radiance. Under the shameless luminance, Shaaltelathiel stirred. Its eyelids slowly parted like curtains of pale velvet. Twins orbs of turquoise, awash with salt-tears and dream-sweat, gazed upon the nocturnal vista. As Shaaltelathiel awoke, its face transfigured, metamorphosing from that of a fathomlessly old sage to a newborn child's, pristine and brimming with wonder. Curiosity shimmered across the shedim's eyes at it regarded the lone traveler.

To the side, a tasseled monk motioned to a pair of basins –one slick with milk-frost, the other draped in prayer-stitched muslin.

But the traveler carried neither milk nor meat.

Instead, the traveler reached into its chest and drew forth a fist-sized apparatus. Its craftsmanship was intricate as it was inexplicable. Tubes, tiny gears, spindles and circuitry threaded through a chassis of brass, orpiment, and iron. For all its complexity, however, the object remained inert.

Unconcerned, the traveler produced a scrimshaw key, faded and cracked with age. Thirteen times, the traveler turned the key. Twelve times, the instrument remained lifeless. The thirteenth time, however, it awoke.

Lapidary cogs began to spin in delicate pirouettes. They locked teeth with their peers, turning them until the entire entire machine was engaged in a tortuous, exquisite minuet. Opaque runes glistened with oil, rotating and intersecting in a protean pattern. Valves contracted in precise syncopation, pumping quicksilver through arterial veins of glass and gold. It was a grand masque, performed by machinery on a minute scale. It was a spieldose heart.

Seeing the spectacle, Shaaltelathiel's eyes grew wide with awe. There was meaning behind the microcosmic dance, symbolism in the clockwork symphony. The shedim instantly perceived it –but it was difficult, even for the daeva, to fully fathom. Slowly, comprehension began to dawn on the daeva's face, causing its once-innocent visage to atrophy with age and understanding.

Shaaltelathiel opened its mouth, as if to speak, but just then, the spieldose heart began to violently spasm. Tubes cracked, spurting mercurial fountains. Crystalline cogs gnashed one another with gyrating cannibalism. The chassis groaned, crumpled, and finally, in one horrible last crescendo, shattered like spun glass.

The traveler just watched. Unconcerned, uncaring, yet still expectant. Shaaltelathiel looked on in confusion and creeping dread. Its massive face twisted and creased. Once more, it opened its mouth to speak –and once more its voice was stolen. The floodgates of revelation finally burst in the shedim's mind –understanding rushed in. Horror followed in its wake.  

The immortal quailed, trembling with terror. It gasped, then choked on its words. Flecks of blood fell to the ground, staining the basins a bright crimson.

Monks rushed in mute panic, hoping to aid the convulsing, frothing oracle.

The traveler ignored them all.

It had asked its question.

The answer needed no translation.

Patiently, the traveler turned. It stowed its bone-scribed key, looked out upon the world beneath it, and took its first step –knowing that many would follow.[/ic]  

[ooc=Skein]The City of Silk, the Clockwork City. A place where demons walk the streets with men, led on leashes by masked nobles, and none bat an eye; a place where beings of cunning gearwork patrol the promenades and tend to the needs of their masters; a place where the impoverished masses hopelessly toil in factories while their overseers look down from spires of unholy flesh, living monoliths plucked from the plains of Hell itself. Where other Twilight Cities are anarchic pits of bickering factions and ruthless souls, where might makes right and corrupt authorities barely maintain control, Skein is eminently civilized, enlightened, and arrayed with opulent splendor. Yet, behind its gilded mask, Skein conceals a heart of darkness, riddled with secrets both deadly and depraved. Listen closely, and you will hear it... The Clockwork Abattoir calls...[/ooc]

I'm hosting a game for those interested. Here's the rundown:

[ooc=Campaign Summary]Setting: The Cadaverous Earth (http://"http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,56772.0.html%22). Thanks once again to Steerpike for creating the setting in all its baroque viscerality, and for letting me run a game in it, particularly here on CBG.
Region: Skein. In contrast to Blood & Bewitchment's focus on Macellaria, this game will be centered in Skein and its surrounding environs. During the following weeks, I will be providing additional information about the city (e.g., currency, calendar, slang, factions, etc.), but in the meantime, I can field specific questions (although I will ask people to first read Skein's entry in the CE pdf). Characters do not need to be natives of the Clockwork City, but they should have reason(s) to be there at the game's onset -and have reasons to remain there.  
Rules System: Penumbra (http://"http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,210050.0.html%22). Questions or comments about the system in general should be posted on the linked thread. However, I will definitely be seeking player feedback about the rules, and should we feel certain changes might help gameplay, we will try them out. That said, my primary focus will be the campaign, not the rules system.
Format: Play-by-Post. Initially, the game will be play-by-post (pbp); come May, however, I will be able to run IRC sessions if players are interested (either instead of, or concurrent with, pbp).
Number of Players: 3-6. As soon as we have three players ready to play, we will begin. Other players can join in after that, but once we have six, I'll have to make a waitlist.
Races: Any of those detailed in the Penumbra rules. When you create your character, do keep in mind that Skein is far from a racially egalitarian culture. Humans dominate, gravespawn are comparatively rare and ostracized, and nonhumans don't fare much better, all things being equal (which they usually aren't with PCs).  
Archetypes: Any. If we end up with 6 witches, that's ok. All rogues or warriors, equally fine. A diverse mix, just as good.
Dispositions: Any. However, I'd prefer that people try picking a variety of dispositions.
Foci: Forthcoming. For now, create your character's flavor, and I/we will build a focus that fits it. You are also free to choose any of the ones already detailed (e.g., mechanical augmentation would fit a gearborg member of the Brass Skulls syndicate, diabolism could work for a magister's scion or Collegia student or faculty).[/ooc]

I'll be happy to answer any other questions.

[ic=Dramatis Personae]
Alisandre Mei-Vourne: esthetic female human witch (necromancy) 1 (played by False Epiphany)
Decarabia Saturnine: frenetic shade warrior (gunslinging) 1 (played by Superbright)
Catena: stoic female human warrior (bloodletting) 1 (played by Steerpike)
Hadric Beyam Phel-Nirian: frenetic male shreeva warrior (phytology) 1 (played by theMeanestGuest)
Mr. Nix: furtive male ghul witch (diabolism) 1 (played by Seraflumph)
Xavier: shrewd male human rogue (assassination) 1 (played by Ghostman)
Phrixia Gronne: graceful female human rogue (way of the blade & pistol) 1 (played by Superbright)
[/ic]

[ic=Visited Locales]
Eastern Cemetery
•   Canopic Gardens: Hedge-maze bordering the Ebon Ward, notable for its organ-shaped topiaries, and clandestine site of Xedric Mei-Vourne's illicit fighting ring.  
•   Grande Sepultura: Crypts of House Mei-Vourne

• Belphia's Crypt: Resting place of Belphia Mei-Vourne and residence of her daughter, Alisandre.
  

•   Mosswine Barrows: Ancient tumuli-filled region of the tomb-lands.

Ebon Ward
•   Black Souse (also known as the Tarnish, formerly the Burnish): Once part of the Copper Ward, now a ruin of rusty, abandoned factories and toxic discharges from Copper Ward factories.

• The Flensery: Situated at heart of the Black-Souse Tarnish, a nigh-automated slaughterhouse funded by House Phan-Laru and developed and run by artificer Rel-Shan, later destroyed by mob of Ebon-Ward knackers.

•   Chigger Lane: Road from Sepia Ward that snakes through the Mooncalf Tangle, where it borders a Watchmen blockhouse with Red Mei's office.
•   Harrow-House: A half-finished, now-ruined, disease-infested palace built in Harlequin-Gothic style, home to drug-addicts, revolutionaries, and pox-afflicted. Site of the Voracious Quill's printing press and redoubt of the Soldiers of Skin.  
•   Ktenologists' Quarter: Primary home of Skein's executioners, gibbet-men, and poisoners.
•   Maggotorium: Makeshift bazaar at the confluence of the Ebon, Indigo, and Cemetery wards, where dirge-witches, vermeologists, coffin-makers, tombstone-librettists, and back-alley morticians do business.

• St. Qaspiel's Gate: Acid-pitted barbican and helminthoid palisade that controls passage into the Eastern Cemetery.
  

•   Mandible Clubs: Part gang-dens, part fighting-rings where Repoussé Boys and lesser guttersnipes scrap and swagger to earn the favor and attention of the Brass Skull higher-ups.

• Sutured Cabaret (the Scabaret): A Mandible Club run by Yves, a Brass Skull underboss.

•   Meat-Moulde Slums: Crumbling residential area bordering the Eastern Cemetery.

• Lissome Blowfly: A rundown pub and apocryphal brothel frequented by Cemetarians and Watchmen who patrol the tomb-lands.

•   Mongrelle Run: Ecletic ghetto of Skein's alien residents, spilling into the Indigo docklands -disreputable even by Ebon Ward standards.

• Consulate of Kisses: One of the ward's tallest tenements, 'attended' to by its leechkin super, Two-Smiles, and home to Red Mei.

•   Mooncalf Tangle: Nigh-forsaken region underneath the Northern Rail and its elyctromechanical platforms, affected by bizarre structural injuries.
•   Painted House: Unofficial title of the large prison in the Ebon Ward, having earned its sobriquet from its verdigris-streaked exterior.
•   Rot-Briquet Slums: Formerly a middle-class residential and commercial district, now a fire-burnt ruin haunted by ashgeists.

• Baggerskin Street: Cobblestone street, home of rag-traders, trash-pickers, and second-hand clothiers.

•   Sad-Reaper's Lane: Street bordering the Eastern Cemetery, notable for its black-spiked gates and gaudy scythe-lamps.
•   The 'Salvers (more properly, the Quacksalvers' Sink): Series of sewer-sunk alleys near Black Souse where dubiously skilled and morally bankrupt chirurgeons and chymists operate.  
•   Swinehowl Alley: Street near Black Souse known for its knackeries. Former base of the Oddsauger.

Copper Ward
•   Ravel Row: Middle-class tenements of variegated brick, barred windows, and patinated balusters. Xavier's home and private workshop.

Crimson Ward
•   Coistrels' March: Street that connects the Brimestone Market and Myrmidon Souk, known for establishments catering to mercenaries.
•   Great Souage: A wide boulevard that cuts across the western city, flanked by shackled and bladed statues of St. Camnus, justicar-saint of bondage and bloodshed.  
•   Myrmidon Souk: Market that specializes in the sale of servants, both martial and mundane, located at the intersection of the Souage and Coistrels' March.

• Choler Exchange: Section that contains offices of the Gold-Vambrace and Widow-Wright merchant companies,  training yards, Centaur stable, and a Pale Legion's contract-shop.
• Fetterglove's: Elite store that sells custom-tailored livery and skin-brands that compel obedience akin to Marainein's Sigils of Servitude.
• Gilded Poleyn: Tavern that features elaborate fencers, sword-swallowers, & knife-jugglers as entertainment.
• Petite Joug: Sells neck-shackled Ebon Ward waifs as servants, run by Qiao-Fae.
• Ratibor's Emporium of Manciples & Vadelects: Finds, trains, and connects skilled house-servants to wealthy patrons.
• Sanguinary Fillet: Red-ribboned serving-staff known for its cheap meat-cuts, glazed ribs, and pepperwine.
• Sexasgesimal Arms: Shop offering mercenary demon-binders, conjured otherworldly servants, goetic tomes, and argent collars.

•   Ossein Court: Prominent courtyard near the Brimestone Market where merchant companies involved in ur-bone extraction and trade -such as the Night Marrow merchant company- have their headquarters.

Indigo Ward
•   Glass Carousel: A local 'jail' where prisoners work off petty crimes and debts by walking a massive rattle-wheel that powers various machinery like canals, dry docks, and dredging.
•   Gravid Boudoir: Dockside drug- and pleasure-den run by Madame Zamorra (aka Beldam Mouldegill)
•   Hullsgrave: Southerly region full of broken ship-slums.

• Varegous Idol: Derelict slave-galley from Marainein, reputed home of the Communion of Cagastric Rapture
  

•   Impregnated Stallion: Brothel-bar below flophouse run by Sacheverell

Saffron Ward
•   Paedarchs' Boulevarde: Connected to a larger avenue lined with fragrant persimmon trees, Paedarchs' Boulevarde is the product of technolatry, a playground of boutiques specifically catering to child clientele –or more precisely the permissive, affluent parents who spoil them.

• Amorce: Whose wheellock cap-pistols and elaborate toy flare-guns fill the air with perfumed smoke and percussive symphonies, each lovingly crafted by Qishen, the alleged bastard and apprentice of the famed Val Corvan.
• The Auturgic Circus: A clockwork toyshop selling trinkets, baubles, and gewgaws made by an unseen sweatshop of mantid tinkerers who answer to Ringmaster Serell, known for his toy train that winds around his top-hat's brim, his handlebar mustache greased with ever-buzzing aerugo-flies, and his organ-grinding monkey of argent manufacture.
• The Moth-Prince Menagerie: Run by Sogni, a pygmy thremmatologist from the Collegia Vlerinn-Phoi, who sells miniature animals, bred like bonsai trees for the fancy of petulant, if prosperous, jackanapes.
• Phalerate Dollhouse: Run by Tsin-Leirre, who sells celadon-faced dolls adorned in delicate dresses of ruffled lace, dyed silk, and embroidered velour.
• Phengge's Emporium of Confectionaries, Candies, & Childish Delights: Known for its prolix candy presses and the eponymous Phengge, with her sweetmeat-speckled hoopskirt and sugar-powdered periwig.
• The Prescite Palm: A palmistry shop run by the eyeblight-infected Madame Volar, whose chirosophic arts and veiled legerdemain captivate young and old alike.
• The Scutestage Drollic: A massive chelonian shell imported from Marainein whose hollowed interior houses a troupe of black-furred zerda who perform elaborate shadow-puppetry under the direction of Yağmur Sahif, better known as Messeuir Marionette, a dark-skinned Erebh expatriate who pretends he's a shade, complete with pitch-black fez, cassock, parasol, and shadeglass spectacles.
• Tragematopolis: A confectionary run by the witch-spinster Hortense whose hexed candies, ensorcelled alphenics, and bitter rivalry with Phengge are a legend of the Boulevarde.

Tangerine Ward
•   Brinesaddle: Otto Shamgarr's mid-sized trawler filled with caged beasts and crew of blooded hunters.

Violet Ward
•   Gadfly's Trammel: A street bordering the Viridian Ward, filled with clubs and cafes patroned by aristocratic scions and wealthy Collegia students.

• Blannery Wallows: A sculpture-terraced bathhouse purportedly with ties to the Nine-Eyes syndicate.
  

•   Hadric's Home: A former bordello and warehouse for now-milden play props.
•   Sateen Comte: A semi-exclusive pleasure-club frequented by parliamentarian bureaucrats and would-be-mistresses of magisters.[/ic]

[ic=Featured Aristocracy]
Luan-Viardot
•   Pheliphas: Current patriarch, Chancellor of Tho-Lladrim

•   Caacrabolas: Pheliphas' familiar

Lucor-Rrem
•   Cyrille: Alisandre's former betrothed, twin brother of Proserpine

Mavroudis

Mei-Vourne (black & midnight blue)
•   Belphia: Alisandre's deceased mother, daughter of Cadmus Phel-Nirian
•   Caraumonde: Current patriarch
•   Delepitore: Caraumonde's fifth wife, deceased
•   Faustine: Xedric's wife, formerly of House Lurot of Mulcatra
•   Lenora: Symus' wife, formerly of House Gervas of New Gromlech
•   Patrois: Alisandre's youngest half-brother, famed trapmaker
•   Proserpine: Minor daughter of Lucor-Rrem, Caraumonde's newest bride
•   Symos: Alisandre's half-brother, former worshipper of Weeping Lady
•   Xedric: Current scion, Alisandre's eldest half-brother, Pallid Mummer

•   Fayre-Delun: Former bodyguard-valet of Symos, infected with blanchphage
•   Lucretius: Xedric's lupine-equinine hybrid mount-pet
•   Madame Fontanelle: bricoleur governess
•   Zorjub: Alisandre's decapitated, mummified familiar

Petrifax
•   Orlando: Deceased patriarch, the Mad Magister, creator of Macellaria's Watchdogs

Phan-Laru (red & black)
•   Jeanne: Current matriarch

Phel-Nirian (white & maroon)
•   Alphosine: Alisandre's half-sister, married to Seivert
•   Cadmus: First-son of Claudius
•   Claudius: Current patriarch, Hadric's maternal uncle
•   Cybille: Hadric's deceased mother
•   Seivert: Second-son of Claudius
•   Umptor: Third-son of Claudius

•   Nibs: Hadric's unbound familiar
•   Prince Fugard: Alphosine's ailing cinder-ape butler
•   Tatiana Chemoley: Hadric's servant-girl, orphaned daughter of Virdal and Kravec Chemoley
•   Ulle-Shi: Hadric's barrister
•   Zeernebub: Alphosine's familiar

Quin (burgundy & lime)
•   Pyrach-Quin: Current patriarch
•   Aubrey-Quin: Pyrach's heir, parliamentarian, associate of Xedric

Rasch-Lurot (black & orange)
•   Elphias: Nascent patriarch
•   Ylphine: Elphias' deceased mother
•   Xalmas: Elphias' maternal uncle, missing

•   Guin: Elphias' bodyguard and Night-Marrow agent

Sedaracs (bruise purple-red)
•   Luqin
•   Lucilius
•   Lemerre

Taim (purple & grey)
•   Sarah: Current matriarch

Verra-Qior[/ic]

[ic=Collegia]
Lais-Arcume
Quan-Serell
Shann-Irim
Tho-Lladrum
•   Phelipas Luan-Viardot: Chancellor
Vlerinn-Phoi[/ic]

[ic= Criminal Syndicates]
Brass Skulls
•   Annealed Brethren
•   Guyall-Sinn, the Sutured Kingpin
•   Bosses

• Lanjou
• Preyll-Shui
• Sidot
• Xann-Carlu

•   Underbosses

• Yves (aka Aerugo Attercop)

•   Repoussé Boys

• Shiqq
• Tohno
• Yomi

Nine Eyes
•   Harpy-Hand
•   Mustachioed Queen
•   Sog-Boys

• Blacksocks
• Bolefinger
• Bruisegut

Orchid-Eaters
•   Ngo-Shenn
•   Sacheverell (aka Dr. Sach): Drugdealer-pimp, runs Impregnated Stallion
Yellow Dragons
•   Byleth
•   Diet of the Jaundiced Assembly (aka Byleth's Diet)

Criminals, Affiliations Unknown
•   Jun-Moise: Tattooed-faced courier, assistant to Nicodemius
•   Nicodemius (aka Midnight Papillion): Black-market art dealer
•   Pieng-Luc: Fence, last seen with Xalmas
•   Tandy Suckle: Ghul streetwalker, works for Dr. Sach, last seen with Xalmas[/ic]

[ic=Government Officials]
Bureaucrats
•   Antoine-Ru: Former secretary to Chief-Magistrate Lian and erstwhile employer of Mr. Chen
•   Tumais-Shinn: Associate of Aubrey-Quin
Cemetarians
•   The Undertaker: High-pitched grave-digger that frequents Belphia's crypt
Stewards
•   Chief-Magistrate Lian: Previous chief-magistrate
•   Chief-Magistrate Shenn: Current chief-magistrate, head of 12 Stewards
Watchmen
•   Delune: Sergeant under Red Mei
•   Jeun: Patrols Saffron Ward
•   Red Mei: Expatriated freewoman, crooked lieutenant
•   Yushen: Bigoted captain, favored by Verra-Qior and the Ambergris Debutante, accidentally killed by Catena[/ic]

[ic=Mercentile Personae & Enterprises]
Mercenaries:
•   Jarrow Slake: Subdued by Catena
•   Kravec Chemoley: Tatiana's father, died fighting with the Sons of the Wolf during the Adumbal War
•   Sharp Jasper:
•   Tarpaulin Tlex
•   The Ossifragant: Ghul killed by Jarrow Slake
•   Usha:
•   Xar-Qay:

Merchant Companies
•   Gold Vambrace: Trains & loans armigers, shield-bearers, and other custrels
•   Hell's Teeth: Arms manufacture and trade, including ur-bones
•   Night-Marrow: Ur-bone extraction, refinement, and trade as well as mundane arms dealing
•   Widow-Wright: Hiring of mercenaries and alleged assassins

Merchants & Proprietors
•   Farelige: Technically two hairdressers with the same name, differentiated by their monikers of Carmine and Perse. Victims of Otto's capricorn diabolus
•   Madame Zamorra (aka Beldame Mouldegill): Runs pleasure-pier in Indigo Ward, Gravid Boudoir, controls monopoly of Cerulean Bliss
•   Monsieur Lerrard: Hairdresser of high-class courtesans
•   Otto Shamgarr: Crepuscle hunter and trader of bizarre beasts
•   Qiao-Fae (aka Mother Manacle): Owns Petite Joug, collects Ebon Ward urchins to sell as pliable house-servants
•   Ratibor: Runs Emporium of Manciples & Vadelects
•   Tsin-Leirre: Dollmaker, runs Phalerate Dollhouse
•   Two-Smiles: Leechkin landlord/super of the Consulate of Kisses in the Mongrelle Run[/ic]

[ic=Newsrags]
Brazen Chaunticleer
Voracious Quill
•   Remmy: Head editor
•   Maryse-Liang: Female human gearborg, former Brass-Skull[/ic]

[ic=Political Factions & Revolutionaries]
Black Ague Socialites
Faminites
•   Soldiers of Skin
Isocrats
Miscegenationists
Sansculottes[/ic]

[ic=Religious Societies & Theosophic Cults]
Communion of Cagastric Rapture: Heretic cult of Yzch
Pallid Mummers: Run Chrysanth Ring
•   Florist of Gasps
•   Grey Lanterneer[/ic]

[ic=Other]
Balfor Vitarrese: Art-critic and ally of Alphosine
Feodor Chemoley: Eldest born of Ludovic, died during Northern Uprising fighting against Revenants
Galkin Chemoley: Tatiana's surviving uncle, landless noble in Northern Baronies
Harne-Fei: Old paramour of Cybille Phel-Nirian
Ludovic Chemoley: Noble seditionist painter and former patriarch of Chemoley of Old Gromlech
Meng-Yao: Balfor's hansom-driver
Rel-Shan: Artificer who designed and ran Black Souse's Flensery, sponsored by House Phan-Laru, killed by local mob
Nian: Missing man from Brass Skull's turf
Sampati: Jatayu fabler living near Gadfly's Trammel
Virdal: Tatiana's mother, machinist, went missing in Brass Skull turf[/ic]

I'm all in, barring any sudden scheduling catastrophes.

This sounds like a lot of fun.  Not absolutely committing, but I am definitely interested.

I'm going to give a most likely in, as I join yet another game! :D

Wunderbar! Let me know what concepts you're fancying.

Since this is a PbP I might be able to participate, so long as my involvement wouldn't be disconcerting.

The opening flavour text is quite intriguing!

Quote from: Steerpike
Since this is a PbP I might be able to participate, so long as my involvement wouldn't be disconcerting.

Disconcerting? Nay, I'd be honored!

QuoteThe opening flavour text is quite intriguing!

Thank you; I definitely hoped it would capture the interest of prospective players (and also capture a good portion of the area's ambience). 

With 4 potential players, I look forward to beginning as soon as players are ready. In fact, I have a couple of potential 'preludes' to the first 'group' adventure, so even if 1 player gets his/her PC ready, we can start, if said player desires.

To that end, Superbright, Seraphine_Harmonium, Steerpike, & Xathan, I would love to hear what character concepts interest you.

Also, for anyone else interested, we have 2 more slots.

I am interested in participating, and since it is a PbP, I think I could manage it time-wise.  I am interested in playing a Ghul, with a mechanical bent.  I am thinking the "Technothaumaturgy" route as a Theurge.  I'd want to be a bit "mad-scientist" with some manic eccentricities and wild-eyed tendencies.  I liked the sound of

QuoteOr perhaps you belong to a Robber Guild, scavenging the Shatters to decipher the mysteries of its slumbering Behemoths and the broken machine-gods of Cullys and Suchol.

I am thinking that I may have belonged to a machine-cult, and uncovered a major artifact I didn't understand--something huge and obviously very important.  But I could never figure out how to make it work.  Scavenging and living in essential poverty, I contracted a deady disease.  Desperate, I infected myself with the ghul-worm intentionally, hoping to extend my time.  However, I lost my memories of everything I learned about the machine, but the sense of its importance remained, and the obsession crossed the boundary of undeath.  I may have acquired some of the information from notebooks and journals and so forth. 

That sounds deliciously perfect, SH. I'm mid-way through finishing the Diabolism focus; after that, I'll post the Artifice focus, since that seems to be what you're describing.

Oh yeah, Artifice sounds perfect!

I might play as a psychopathic warrior-girl, a former slave of the lilix who butchered her captors and escaped servitude, fleeing to Skein and working as a bodyguard and/or tough-for-hire.  Scarred by the whip and by the fangs of her esrtwhile masters, she'd likely specialize in unarmed (and unarmoured) combat and improvised weapons (strangling with chains or rope, clubs, concealed blades).  She might have some aptitude for stealth.  I'd imagine her as semi-feral and pitiless but also quite capable of following instructions when it suits her.  Definitely will take the Stoic Disposition.

Evocative concept. Would she be one of the lilix's albino slaves?  Are you leaning towards warrior or rogue as your archetype? Bloodletting might be an appropriate focus, so I'll move that up the list. Alternatively, Assassination might apply. Or if neither of those seem to fit, I could create a focus that revolves around using improvised weapons/unarmed combat.

Yes, former slave of the lilix; probably a Warrior Archetype, Inherent Traits, with No Need for Weapons and Trained Without Armour.  Bloodletting sounds potentially promising.

Actually, I read the Diabolism and am now totally inspired to go a different route with my Ghul Theurge.  Think of it as "Faust: the Sequel."  I'd say I was once a healer, a doctor of divine medicine, (an exorcist, basically) who studied demonology with every intent to do good, yet as I delved into the mysteries, and learned to command demons, the power became addicting.  I made a bargain with a fiend, thinking that my skill and my faith would protect me, and that I could see it through.  The pact was, as it always is, for my soul.  As I approached the end of my illustrious and decadent life, I became desperate to find a way out of the bargain.  Some loophole: anything.  I infected myself with the Ghul worm.  The death that entailed was surely a mere technicality, and I would never have to face the consequences of that bargain.  I had cheated hell, as it were.  But the thing they do not mention in the scriptures is that it is not at the last moment when the demons take what is theirs; oh no, they are much too subtle and cunning for that.  No, they take your soul piecemeal, bit by bit as you call upon their aid.  I did not know that my soul was already theirs to torment, even in undeath.  Somewhere in hell, Demonic dukes toy with me for my amusement while the amnesiac ghul wanders the Cadaverous earth, wracked by their mental tortures.  I know not who I am.  I only know, from the fevered scratchings I made decades ago on my very skin, the source of my power.  They are incomprehensible sigils written in a glyphic code that only I know--or knew, most of it has left my memory--how to read.  Yet, every so often an event in my un-life stirs a lost memory of my forgotten power and damnation.

I'm thinking of playing a roguish, eclectic bravo and former corsair originally hailing from the City of the Lamprey, who's wandered north to Skein in search of fresh opportunities for fucking and fighting. Definitely channeling such charming sociopaths as Isabela from Dragon Age II and Bronn from Game of Thrones. In game terms, she's a Graceful Rogue; Trained Without Armor gives her an incredible edge when it comes to dodging attacks bare-breasted, and Gutter-Witchcraft hints at a talent for sorcery that she's very keen on honing. She typically fights with a basket-hilted broadsword in one hand and a revolver in the other, so I'm keen on hearing more about the Way of the Blade & Pistol Focus.

Ask and ye shall receive...

Artifice, Bloodletting, and Way of the Blade & Pistol are now posted for your viewing pleasure. Let me know if they work for you. If not, let me know why, and we can see what other foci might better fit your intended concept.

Steerpike,

I had already drafted Bloodletting's mechanics before your PC pitch, so I was really surprised to see how well they fit (at least from my perspective).

SH,

Both concepts are great, and both work equally well with a Skein-based campaign. That said, I'd suggest reading over the Artifice focus before making a final choice, just for comparison's sake. Either one is equally excellent for my purposes.   

Superbright,

Likewise a nice concept. I can see some interesting interactions between your bravo-corsair and SH's ghul & Steerpike's ex-slave. Let me know what you think about the posted focus. Eventually (tier 3), you'd be able to use a broadsword and revolver at the same time without penalty, but not at tier 1. You could, however, with the focus use a derringer/snubnose revolver/holdout pistol/mousegun and a lighter blade (or even a broken broadsword you intend to fix). Or you could stay with using a broadsword and revolver from the beginning, either switching between rounds or accepting penalties).  If that doesn't suit you, let me know what concept(s) might (e.g., piracy, libertinism). 

Depending on your interest and your PC's age, she could have fought in the Adumbral War between Skein and Crepuscle. Skein hired a mass of corsairs -most of which were defeated by Crepuscle's own mercenaries (specifically the Order of the Mandrake). The war could have been what brought you to Skein. Your crew/captain/ship might have been one of the many that were decimated in the war's decisive battle. Since then, you could have worked as a river-bandit or psuedo-privateer against Crepuscle ships along the Radula and Sinew.

Such connections might better tie you to the Clockwork City, rather than [ijust[/i] traveling there to rut and kill new people.

Which is something I'll reiterate to the rest of the gang as well. When drafting your character, please try to come up with one or two reasons why your character is in Skein and likely to stay (or return) there. The campaign events will certainly add other reasons, but pre-existing ones are helpful.

[ic]You strain your eyes through the gloom, unsure of what you saw.  Was that a man?  You can't be sure.  You stare into the inky streets of the Ebon Ward, straining your eyes for your contact.  "It's looking for us, isn't it?"  You almost gag as the smell of halitosis assaults you, overpowering even the stench of necrosis that clings about the gravespawn.  Spinning round, you see a black tricorn hat perched over an unadorned black half-mask that obscures most of the more telling facial features, though you can see the edges of old scars along his jaw.  A black silk cravat protrudes from the front of a high-collared black frock coat which covers most of his body.  Only his hands are visible, and they are covered with many intricate scars--very distinctive ones at that: Arcane-looking sigils of no code you are aware of, and what looks like a word in hellspeak, but he folds them neatly behind his back before you can read further.  So this is him, then: your contact.  Were his ensemble more colorful, he might have been among the nobility, but this monochrome darkness of his dress and lack of ornamentation shows him for what he is: a nobody.  The Nobody, to be precise.  No one knows his real name, and many say he does not know it himself.  They call him "Mr. Nix."

"It doesn't know where else to turn, so it looks for us in dark allies."
"Are you Mr. Nix?"
"It can call us that if it wants."
"I have a job for you."
"We know."[/ic]

The man called "Mr. Nix" does not know his name.  The ghul-transformation erased his memory of his former life, but sudden flashes of insight, and the grim diary scrawled into his skin provide him clues.  Many of them are clearly in some diabolical code worked out by his former self--symbols operating on metaphors and shorthand; acronyms, riddles, and pictographs that contain volumes of information waiting to be unlocked--if the voices in his head don't drive him to raving madness first.

Mr. Nix is tormented by demons.  They worm their way into his mind, to which they seem to have ready access--why?  None of the other Ghilan in the Ebon Ward have this affliction.  Or they are lying to him.  He can't be sure.  He certainly doesn't trust them.  Perhaps they are responsible for his present condition.  Maybe that was the message he had tried to leave himself.  Or perhaps not.  Nevertheless, there are answers here in this city.  That's what it said.  "Skein." He'd carved it into his own skin (anyone with sense would know those wounds were self-inflicted) so it must have been important.  What secrets is this city hiding from him, with its decadent ways? 

His only ally is a hellhound familiar called Vex, whom he simultaenously loves, hates, fears, and abuses.  In his mind it is an entity trying to control him, even while he commands it.  Vex is his avenue to infernal power--his intermediary with the dukes of hell who grant him power.  Vex has been with him for as long as he can remember--manipulating him, helping him, and steering him towards either his destiny or his doom.  Or both.  He often acts out against the demon's advice, though he is always afraid the beast is more cunning than he, and is playing him.

Every so often, Mr. Nix feels the wracking pains of the eternal torture of hell, having hung on to the barest piece of his soul in undeath.  Most often, however, he feels crushing ennui, and disconnection with the world and even more horrifyingly, from himself.  His driving impulse is to discover himself: his past, his identity, and his soul. 

[ooc]The following is currently my best estimate on stats, but this will be subject to change between now and the game beginning as I understand the system better.[/ooc]

Mr. Nix
Furtive Ghul Theurge with a focus in Diabolism

Might Pool: 7
Agility Pool: 12 (Edge 1)
Intellect Pool: 15 (Edge 1)

Grit: 1

Skills
As grave-spawn, ghilan have mastery in defense rolls against diseases and poisons.
You have expertise in one of the three main categories of theurgy (i.e., witchcraft, technothaumaturgy, and psionics) can attempt to understand and identify its properties.
You also have expertise in tasks to perceive, identify, and persuade demons. Enabler.
You have expertise in all stealthy tasks.
You have expertise in all interactions involving lies or trickery.
You have expertise in all esoteries or special abilities involving illusions or trickery.

Dowse (2 Intellect points): You scan an area equal in size to a 10-foot (1-meter) cube, including all objects or creatures within that area. The area must be within short range. Successfully dowsing a creature or object reveals its level (a measure of how powerful, dangerous, or difficult it is). You also learn whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the matter and energy in that area. For example, you might learn that the wooden box contains a device of orpiment and ivory. You might learn that a glyph-scribed glass cylinder is full of poisonous gas, and that its copper stand has a voltaic field running through it that connects to a clockwork apparatus in the floor. You might learn that the creature standing before you is a grave-spawn. However, this esotery doesn't tell you what the information means. Thus, in the first example, you don't know what the orpiment and ivory device does. In the second, you don't know if stepping on the floor causes the cylinder to release the gas. Many materials and eldritch fields prevent or resist dowsing. Action.
Mind Strike (1 Intellect point): You attack a foe using energies that assail his mind. To use this esotery, you must be able to see your target. This mental attack inflicts 2 points of Intellect damage (and thus ignores Armor). Some creatures without minds (such as automatons) might be immune to this variant. Action.

Familiar: A level 2 demon of your size or smaller accompanies you and follows your instructions. You and the GM must work out the details of your familiar and you'll probably make rolls for it in combat or when it takes actions. The familiar acts on your turn. As a level 2 creature, it has a DC of 2, 6 health, and inflicts 4 points of damage. In addition, your familiar has expertise in any skill of your choice and has one of the following attributes: AC 1, a short-distance ranged attack that deals 2 points of damage, a level 2 poison, or flight. Its movement is otherwise based on its anatomy (e.g., fins, legs, vermiform body, etc.). If your familiar dies, you can summon and bind a new one in 1d6 days (i.e., the time required to collect the necessary powders, unguents, and so forth for the ritual). Enabler.
Infernal Scholar: You have fluency in Hellspeak. You also have expertise in tasks to perceive, identify, and persuade demons. Enabler.

SH,

Thanks for posting your PC!  I love the IC flavor blurb. More specifically, I really like the inclusion of his rancid breath, monochromatic attire, and his Gollum-esque manner of speaking (sans precious). I also very much like the name. And as said before, but which bears repeating, his race, nature, history, and habitat will work wonders for the first adventure.  

A couple of questions (that don't need including in your character 'sheet'), but would help me further picture Mr. Nix:
1. The half-mask -besides being black and unadorned, what is its shape? For instance, many Skein masks, as worn by nobles, are shaped to resemble something (e.g., a quilled owl, mutated spider, five-eyed mephit). Granted, his mask could be more plain, like a black Phantom of the Opera, zorro mask (sans bandana), or venetian long-nosed mask. Regardless of the answer, I'd love to know.

2. Vex. Could you describe what it/he/she looks like? Any distinguishing features, mannerisms, appetites? (e.g., has a still-attached, gangrene-ridden umbilical cord that it wraps around its neck like a shawl, quotes poetry, and drinks hellcream from a tea cup painted with commemorative scenes of failed uprising).
Mechanically, which skill and which ability (i.e., flight, ranged attack, poison, AC) are you choosing for Vex?  
Finally, I might suggest that Vex is a moniker you have given the demon, and that it's original name would be something more along the lines of Caarcinolas, Marchosias, etc.

I'll comment more on the stats, but many of my remarks are likely to be generally applicable, so I'll first do the blow-by-blow on Bartleby.

Thanks so much for posting your character -he's awesome!

Rose, do you think I can trade in one of my character's starting weapons for some heavier medium armor?

Absolutely. Just make sure to note the Agility reduction and Might cost/hour.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
SH,

Thanks for posting your PC!  I love the IC flavor blurb. More specifically, I really like the inclusion of his rancid breath, monochromatic attire, and his Gollum-esque manner of speaking (sans precious). I also very much like the name. And as said before, but which bears repeating, his race, nature, history, and habitat will work wonders for the first adventure.  

A couple of questions (that don't need including in your character 'sheet'), but would help me further picture Mr. Nix:
1. The half-mask -besides being black and unadorned, what is its shape? For instance, many Skein masks, as worn by nobles, are shaped to resemble something (e.g., a quilled owl, mutated spider, five-eyed mephit). Granted, his mask could be more plain, like a black Phantom of the Opera, zorro mask (sans bandana), or venetian long-nosed mask. Regardless of the answer, I'd love to know.

2. Vex. Could you describe what it/he/she looks like? Any distinguishing features, mannerisms, appetites? (e.g., has a still-attached, gangrene-ridden umbilical cord that it wraps around its neck like a shawl, quotes poetry, and drinks hellcream from a tea cup painted with commemorative scenes of failed uprising).
Mechanically, which skill and which ability (i.e., flight, ranged attack, poison, AC) are you choosing for Vex?  
Finally, I might suggest that Vex is a moniker you have given the demon, and that it's original name would be something more along the lines of Caarcinolas, Marchosias, etc.

I'll comment more on the stats, but many of my remarks are likely to be generally applicable, so I'll first do the blow-by-blow on Bartleby.

Thanks so much for posting your character -he's awesome!

For the mask, I am currently trying to choose between
(http://images2.vividgemz.com/sales/13749/products/01695009_black_1.jpg) and (https://img0.etsystatic.com/024/0/5503862/il_570xN.509137454_jvyf.jpg)
Both looks are pleasing to me. 


As for Vex, imagine a big emaciated hairless dog, with visible entrails, an exaggerated bone structure, and no skin on its grinning muscle-and-bone face, which is constantly dripping blood.  It's eyes burn a phosphorescent green.  It's three rows of shark-like teeth contain a deadly venom.  When "Vex" bites, one of the teeth typically breaks off into the victim, releasing the toxin into the wound.  Mr. Nix has forgotten Vex's real name, and hasn't bothered storing it in his long term memory.

Either mask-style is fine by me. Steerpike might be able to add if there is any significance the choice might create.

Thanks for describing Vex's appearance and ability. Looks good (in a CE way). Does Vex have any notable mannerisms or endorsed gender?

Just wanted to comment that I'm still planning on playing, working my way through the CE material that I've been stalling on, and then I'll get a character up.

If there's not too many players already, I'd also like to join this game. I'm interested in playing a human assassin, possibly a member of one of the crime syndicates of Skein.

Xathan, thanks for the update. Any thoughts as to what type of PC you'd like to play?

Ghostman, there's definitely still room at the table. A human assassin tied to one of the four crime syndicates would be a great fit. I will work on two focus that might best represent that concept (i.e., assassination and thievery). Do you have a preference for any of the 4 syndicates? That is, Brass Skulls, Orchid-Eaters, Nine Eyes, or Yellow Dragons?

The following questions are for both Rose-of-Vellum and Steerpike: I was thinking that Mr. Nix would most likely be trying to fill the void left by his lack of soul.  Would a Ghul get the same experience from drugs as a human quick?  If he were to seek out a drug to either try to reconnect with his soul, or just fill in that emptiness, what CE drug would best fit that bill?

Just FYI, I've decided to withdraw from playing. I hope you all have fun, and if things and Vellum permit, I may join in at a late entry at some point. :)

I've been inconsistent with whether drugs affect grave-spawn.  My general rule-of-thumb is that arcane/eldritch drugs do and mundane drugs do not.

From a mechanical perspective, Penumbra rules give ghilan mastery against against disease and poison -with drugs and physiological substance dependency fitting into both. Consequently, ghilan are automatically immune/unaffected by level 3 or lower drugs, poisons, diseases. So a bottle of gin or hookah of hashish isn't going to addle them.

Level 4 or higher level drugs (which includes all the eldritch ones to my knowledge), can affect ghilan -although even then, they are more resistant to them than the quick are.

I thought this reflected the mechanical stance of Blood & Bewitchment, as stated by Steerpike:

QuoteThough many drugs don't work for grave-spawn, just as the majority of poisons don't -arcane or alchemical toxins and drugs still affect most grave-spawn, but grave-spawn still get a +2 bonus to resist deleterious effects and kick addictions.

But to answer your question, SH, about what specific kinds of drugs might affect a ghul, here's a cursory list:

Ghostgrass
Hellcream
Lyssa
Madwine
Nector
Quarinah
Shadowmilk
Thrum

Can't say that any of them immediately strike me as ones that would help Mr. Nix find spiritual stability. Perhaps a specific cocktail or madwine, asherat, and/or mindwrack? Like an alchemical amalgamation of electroconvulsive shock therapy and LSD. But Steerpike might be able to clarify any of the above.

Also, SH, let me know when your stats are ready for review (as checking them mid-revision might be less efficient).

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Do you have a preference for any of the 4 syndicates? That is, Brass Skulls, Orchid-Eaters, Nine Eyes, or Yellow Dragons?

There doesn't seem to be much information on them. Going purely by names the Nine Eyes has a nice ring to it though.

Anyway, here's a (tentative) description of my character:
[spoiler=Xavier]

[ooc]
I fully admit to taking inspiration from Batman and the Thief games.
[/ooc]

QuoteXavier fights cautiously. Xavier fights dishonorably. And Xavier kills.

Xavier is a professional hit man, an artist of cold-blooded murder. Although slaying men is his business, he doesn't consider himself a warrior. He never engages his targets in combat if he can avoid it, prefering to dispatch them via more effective means. He favours methods that are contemptible, dishonorable and decidedly unfair: poison, arson, planted explosives, orchestrating "accidents", strangling sleeping victims in their beds, etc. As long as he performs his job correctly his targets will never even know what got them, let alone have any chance to fight back. Should his plans go awry he won't hesitate to flee; he feels no sense of pride nor honor that could compel him to stand and fight. He is a ruthless pragmatist that kills without mercy, though never without reason.

Xavier is neither tough nor very strong. He is agile and possessed of lightning-fast reflexes, keen perception and sharp intellect. Although his movements are swift and precise, they are also completely devoid of grace and flair. He has no interest in the pompous showmanship of buffoonish swashbucklers, no time to waste on fancy flourishes.

His greatest expertice lies in stealth and acrobatics; he blends into the shadows and slips through the dark alleys of Skein with the ease of a ghost, dashing silently across rooftops and scuttling through the narrowest of windows and hatches. Few are the locks that can hold him out. When he isn't out on the field stalking his next victim Xavier tinkers in his laboratory, mixing deadly poisons or constructing various gadgets ranging from simple tools to intricate clockwork mechanisms and alchemical aids.

Xavier is a man of average height, with a wiry athletic build and pale complexion. His sleek coal-black hair is cut short, oiled and combed back. His face is clean shaven and narrow with sharp features. A deep scar runs from his right cheek to his forehead, interrupted by a mechanical clockwork orb that replaces his lost right eye. Xavier usually hides this device under a black eyepatch while in public, primarily because it gives him a disturbing countenance that attracts unfavourable attention from the population of Skein, but also because the preternatural vistas this eldritch mechanism reveals can be unsettling even for someone as cold-blooded as him. His left eye is of icy blue color, in contrast with the blood-red hue of it's artificial pairing.

His clothing is of quality suitable for a middle-class skeinite, albeit without the slightest hint of the typical pretenses to imitate the flamboyance of the nobility. We wears a brown shirt, black trousers and a cowled gray cloak. On his feet are boots augmented with clockwork enhancements, on his hands leather gloves similarly improved. His belt supports a sheathed sabre on his left hip, a holstered pistol on his right, and an array of strange little tools and vials between. The lower half of his face is covered, in accordance with customs of Skein, under a veil of black silk.

Weapons:
* Sabre
* Pistol
* Blowgun; shoots poisoned darts
* Several concealed daggers and throwing knives
* Garrotte wire

Special Tools:
* Rectractable metal claws embedded in his boots and gloves enable him to scale walls.
* Smoke bombs fill an area with thick black smoke that obscures vision.
* Flash bombs blind briefly anyone who stares directly at the flash.
* Searing powder inflicts agonizing pain on contact, though it doesn't actually cause any damage.
* Explosive mines triggered by tripwires can be used to set up an ambush or trap an escape route to stop pursuers.

[/spoiler]

Ghostman,

I'll doctor up a post for each of the syndicates (I've already run a rough draft by Steerpike).  

As for Xavier:

I like the name. Does he have a surname or additional moniker?

The description is also well-written. I also highly approve of him concealing his mechanical graft -as such are stigmatized in Skein. I also really like how you have him dressed as a nondescript middle-class citizen, as sumptuary laws will play heavily in certain wards. With the description of him tinkering, you'll want to consider picking Artifice as a focus or selecting skills in crafting.

With weapons, have you considered a sword-cane?

For your listed special tools:

The claws/boots can function as expertise in climbing. (or you can wait till you have the money and time to actually craft them as a permanent theurgic device that would act as a benefaction on climbing tasks).

A smoke bomb could be a theurgic device. Same with a flash bomb, dose of searing powder, or explosive bomb. Just remember the limited number you begin with.

I look forward to seeing his stats.

I really like both of the characters posted so far.  Incredibly true to the setting.

Xavier reminds me a little bit of Corvo Attano from Dishonoured (which I've been replaying recently).  Very cool.

Mine is on her way.  I got a little carried away with her storiette.

I await with bated breath.

Phrixia Gronne, the Rogue Bravo

A former corsair and bravo from the City of the Lamprey, Phrixia Gronne has always had a talent for violence, having killed her first man in cold blood (and under less-than-honorable circumstances) while still a girl. Possessing a ruthlessly amoral philosophy that cherishes nothing but her own survival and seemingly devoid of ambition beyond satisfying her appetitive urges for blood, sex, and coin, she carved out a comfortable niche for herself in Lophius' cutthroat society without ever swearing fealty to someone other than herself. It was almost by accident that she discovered her nascent ability for witchcraft, but her general unwillingness to focus meant that she has yet to learn more than a handful of petty incantations, but that does not dissuade her from referring to herself as a "spellsword" when boasting of her skills. When she answered Skein's call for mercenaries during the Adumbral War, she did so only because she thought she could profit off of the bloodshed without putting herself in any real danger; when the odds of victory turned against the corsairs during their first engagement with Crepuscule's mercenaries, Phrixia jumped ship and swam for shore as quickly as she could. She then spent the remainder of the war traveling the length of the Radula as a freelance sellsword, joining the battles just long enough to loot what she could and disappearing as swiftly as she could. She settled finally settled down in the Clockwork City only because she'd made fewer enemies there than in either Crepuscule or Lophius; she considered Skein's rigid class hierarchy stifling and dull, but found herself sufficiently entranced by its wealth of fineries and arcane lore to not seek opportunities in another of the Twilight Cities; originally planning to flee down the Radula River as soon as she was sure most of those who knew her face had gotten themselves killed, as the years went by, she has become increasingly comfortable with her labyrinthine, smog-choked surrounding, the acrid aroma of industry now nearly as pleasing to her nose as the stench of swamp muck. No longer as piratical as she once was, she mainly finds employ as a freelance sellsword and bodyguard for Skein's many competing merchant factions. There is little lost love between her and the local criminal cartels: while she affords them the barest modicum of respect, she also kills those underlings who cross her path without a moment's hesitation.

Phrixia is an exceptionally-tall, long-limbed woman whose substantial curvature does not fully distract from her powerful, tightly-corded physique. She is darkly complected even for one from Lophius, with deep-set olive green eyes (often ringed by thick smearings of white kohl) that seem to flash at the promise of violence and oily raven hair that spills down around her broad shoulders in a tangle of loose curls, kept out of her face beneath a colorful bandana. Her nose is shapely, her jawline chiseled, and there is an almost feline quality to the curl of her lips made all the more prominent when she smirks in mirth or anger. Virtually every inch of her body, from her feet to her throat, is covered by tattoos intricately etched in black and gold ink; the designs are largely geometric arabesques, incorporating a great many clutching tentacles and leering death's heads. The majority of her thick scars are self-inflicted decorations, the most notable exceptions being several circular arrangements of deep puncture wounds along her forearms, "love-bites" earned while dueling leechkin. A natural dancer as well as a killer, she moves with a supple, almost predatory grace, seemingly always balanced effortlessly on her toes as she spins about. She speaks Shambles with a distinctive, Glatch-infused accent, and she always seems to reek of liquor, cigarette smoke, and the heady floral perfumes she anoints herself with to the point of excess.

Her distinctive, colorful garb marks Phrixia as much a foreigner as her swarthy complexion: a pair of knee-length leather maiden boots; close-fitting, high-waisted trousers with a brocade sash worn round her waist as a belt; strips of black cloth wrapped about her palms and wrists; a loose, open-breasted tunic of pale damask beneath a richly-embroidered brigandine jack so perfectly tailored to her form that it does not seem to weigh her down in the slightest; and numerous pieces of gaudy jewellery gracing her hands and throat, nearly all of them plundered. In deference to Skein fashion, she also dons a simple rectangular mask of dark lacquered wood. Always at her hips are her two closest companions: a swept-hilted rapier she's named "Blackwand" and light, nimble revolver called "Salamandrine."

[ooc=Phrixia Gronne: Graceful Human Rogue (Way of the Blade & Pistol) 1]
XP: 0
Benefits Gained:
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 10, Agility 14 (1), Intellect 12
Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (expertise)
AC: 2 (medium); Might Cost: 0; Agility Penalty: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Alleyspeak, Shambles

Lifestyle: Decent. Phrixia rents a single spacious and well-appointed room in a boarding house on the periphery of the Indigo Ward, an establishment more often frequented by travelers from Lophius than by members of Skein's established criminal community.

Senses: none to speak of

Skills: balance (expertise), persuasion (expertise), physical performing arts (expertise), running (expertise)

Attacks:

• Blackwand (light bladed)


• Salamandrine (light ranged)

Tricks:

• Armor Proficiency: She can wear any kind of armor. She reduces the Might cost per hour for wearing armor and the Agility Pool reduction for wearing armor by 2. Enabler.


• Gutter-Witchcraft (1 Intellect point): She can perform small invocations: temporarily change the color or basic appearance of a small object, cause small objects to float through the air, clean a small area, mend a broken object, prepare (but not create) food, and so on. She can't use gutter-witchcraft to harm another creature or object. Action.

Flaws:

• Prideful: a roll of 1 on any Agility task leaves her dazed for one round due to shock and shame.
• Taste for Madwine: Phrixia can go a number of days equal to her Might Pool without taking madwine. After that, she must make a Might defense roll (DC 3+1 per previous check) or lose 2 Might, Agility, and Intellect points per day until she takes the drug. Until then, or until she overcomes her addiction, she cannot recover points in her pools and shifts down one step on the damage track.

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities:
  
  • The Red Hag: an eldritch tattoo of a hagfish inscribed in vivid carmine, which ceaselessly wriggles and squirms its way across her skin of its own accord, occasionally disappearing into a black and gold arabesque only to reemerge somewhere else on her body. Close inspection of the animate illumination reveals it to be a tughra (a stylized signature) formed of curling Glatch script.

• Theurgic Devices:
  
  • Doppelganger's Defensive Ring: An iron mourning ring engraved with hellish glyphs, containing a single bound imp of exceptional rascality. On command, the ring disintegrates and releases the demon within, who assumes a form identical to Phrixia and grants her a benefaction to Agility defense actions for ten minutes.
  • Oil of Viciousness: A small glass flacon containing an ugly, viscous mixture comprised of a dead soldier's blood and yellow bile and the ichorous effluvia of a Sallow Seas demon. When the oil is used to anoint the edge of a weapon, every wound blackens and sizzles from the eldritch cruelty, inflicting an additional 2 points of damage. The effect lasts for 28 hours, at which point the oil's potency evaporates.
  
  Mundane Possessions: Blackwand, Salamandrine (12 bullets), custom-fitted brigandine jack, clothing, cigarettes (12), bottle of brandy, bottle of madwine, matchsticks (10), , 60 crowns.
  

[/ooc]

Quote from: SuperbrightI'm not quite done with her, but here's my mostly-finished character. What do you think of her so far?

As with the other characters' crunch, I'll wait to review it till you're finished. As for the flavor, I like it a lot. I especially like the names of her weapons, and her overall appearance (especially the white kohl, dark skin, and olive eyes).

In terms of background, I would suggest adding a line or two that mentions (a) how/where she picked up witchcraft, (b) a corsair captain or piratical faction she previously sailed under, and (c) what she 'does' in Skein currently (or how she supports her hedonistic lifestyle). For example, does she 'work' as a river-pirate, lead a dock-gang, serve as a tramp-bodyguard to merchants, or something else?

On one more general note to everyone who has posted -what's up with the 'X' parade? Mr. Nix, Vex, Xavier, Phrixia. Any chance I might ask someone to mix their name up a little (besides Mr. Nix, since it's a title as much as name, and changing the spelling would render its meaning moot). Tis a minor, but by no means mandatory, request.

Also, Ghostman, I sent you a pm with a cursory outline of the syndicates.

It took me forever and a day to come up with Phrixia, so I'm pretty intractable on that.

Understandable.

On another front, I posted a statblock template.

I will consider renaming Vex.  That one's not as crucial to the character design as "Mr. Nix" and was chosen on a whim.  What if I called him "Pest" instead, and maybe reflavored his poison attack into a fast-acting form of pneumonic plague?  Or something.  Actual pneumonic plague may be too contagious to be mechanically comparable. 

Up to you, SH, about the name. Either moniker describes the demon as a bête noir. And you can change the cosmetic description and even mechanical function of the poison, but it cannot be changed to a disease, as a disease requires multiple rolls. But the symptoms could be akin to what you describe -even if not as lethal as pneumatic plague (which has like a 95-100% kill rate, IIRC). 

I've gone and tweaked her description somewhat, but I'm utterly stumped when it comes to oddities and theurgic items.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Up to you, SH, about the name. Either moniker describes the demon as a bête noir. And you can change the cosmetic description and even mechanical function of the poison, but it cannot be changed to a disease, as a disease requires multiple rolls. But the symptoms could be akin to what you describe -even if not as lethal as pneumatic plague (which has like a 95-100% kill rate, IIRC).  

Actually it was only about 85% (as if an 85% kill rate is terribly low for a disease).  And I was going off of reports that the pneumonic plague could kill its victims in a few hours, whereas other forms of the plague took much longer.   But I get what you are saying about diseases functioning differently and that is fine.  I could also just say that the venom imitates the effects of plague, and is easily mistaken as such.

Just realized that Phryxia is just a shade away from a Bastard from Bastard's Bastards.  Which is awesome.

Thanks for the additions, Superbright. As for potential eldritch items, here's a couple of ideas (which are by no means exhaustive):

A clockwork respirator/aspirator that allows you to breath air/breath water for a period of time (say 10 minutes) -which could be useful either when trying to swim, or cross noxious or lethal gases (e.g., Skein's sewer-pipes).

A porcelain doll, dressed in a miniature dress of pristine, ruffled silk, satin, and lace -if poisoned or diseased, its owner can kiss the doll, attempting to breathe the sickness into the siphoning doll, allowing you a 'reroll' against the poison/disease. If successful, the dress blackens and shrivels with rot, and cracks form over the doll's face. Either way, the doll can only be used once before losing its potency.

An ensorcelled earring, formed from the body of a jeweled beetle, which sings lewd tunes on command (Phirexia is the proper name for jewel-beetles).  

A memento from Lophius, a drooling idol of one of the countless Driftwood Gods.

A hexed tattoo that allows you to disguise your appearance for a minute.

An eldritch tattoo of an sirae that dances, flies, and cavorts across your skin, weaving through the arabesque gold and black markings.

A shrunken head that spurts nursery rhymes if you put a coin in its mouth.

A clay talisman looted from a member of the Order of the Mandrake, which when commanded, unleashes a ear-splitting scream, dealing 2 points of damage to living creatures in short range. After the scream, it crumples to dust.

A hip-flask covered with the filleted, sutured tongues of cacklegeists. The tongue-leather squirms when liquid is poured into the flask, and laughs incessantly when the hip-flask is empty.

A music box with seven tiny clockwork figurines that chase, whirl, and ultimately behead one another, reassembling when you rewind its key.

Obviously, some of those are potential oddities, and others are potential devices. Personally, I use the opportunity to flesh out my characters' backgrounds -mementos from past loves, defeated foes of significance, reminders of abandoned faiths, etc.

SH,

Yes, as a level 2 poison, it's not likely to have such lethality -but feel free to use the RL preliminary symptoms as springboards.

Steerpike,

I concur, on both points.

[ic=Catena]Fungi and obscene graffiti mottled the decaying brickwork of Swinehowl Alley, one sigil proclaiming the crooked side-street the domain of the Nine-Eyes, another image depicting the Magistra Jeanne Phan-Luru (identifiable by double-headed raven heraldry) fornicating with a clockwork paramour.  The lurid drawings competed for wall-space with faded bounty notices and posters urging citizens to get tested for harrowflux infection.  The alley was clotted with refuse: overflowing garbage-bins, corroded gears and other machine parts, a mildewed heap of pamphlets calling for the expulsion of ghilan from the city.  A bedraggled man twitched nearby, lips black from shadowmilk.  The sound of clanking chains and creaking wood emanated from the nearby docks, alongside the dull cacophony of the Jewelled Monstrance.  Swinehowl Alley was dark, even at noon, the buildings to either side shrouding it in gloom.

The rancid odours of the Radula curdled the air, mingling with the other multifarious reeks of the Indigo Ward – tar, blood, wine, semen, sewage, smoke.  Catena ignored them all, unperturbed by their pungency: she had grown up in the slave-caverns of the lilix surrounded by the omnipresent stench of sweat, piss, and excrement, the fetor of a thousand men and women crammed into a too-small pen.  She turned a corner, following the zigzagging alley to its point of termination where a grubby leechkin slouched beside a wooden door.  The creature wore a fine waistcoat and trousers, along with a shabby top-hat shadowing its mouthless visage; its toothy palm-maws hissed as she approached.

"I'm here to see the Oddsaugur," she said simply.  Her voice bore a sibilant accent.  "Eaters' business."

The leechkin looked her up and down suspiciously, its yellow eyes narrowing.  "Surrender your weapons," it croaked, after a moment's consideration.

"Other than these I'm unarmed," she said, holding out her chains.  "Search me if you want."  She stepped forward, putting both hands on the back of her smooth, hairless head.

The leechkin took the chains and dropped them into a nearby barrel, then patted her body with slimy, long-fingered hands.  She wore a sleeveless vest of red leather, black hose, and hob-nailed boots; the creature investigated her garments, its breath hot on her skin as its palm-mouths exhaled.  Satisfied, it opened the door, stepping aside to let Catena enter.

Inside, the old knackery had been outfitted with benches and tables where a handful of men and women lounged, watching two women with stiletto knives circle one another inside one of the rusty cages where horses and pigs were once slaughtered for rendering.  Catena ignored them, threading her way towards the door to the backroom where another two guards – humans, armed with cudgels and wheellock pistols - surveyed the room.  These searched her a second time before, reluctantly, admitting her to the chamber beyond.

Inside sat a hunched and bloated figure, swathed in rags beginning to mildew.  The swollen corpse's flesh twitched and fluctuated beneath the faded cloth wrappings as the shade controlling it like a macabre marionette quivered and pulsed.  It tapped at the glyph-etched keys of a rusty machine, a scrap-fashioned, bastard twin to the grander Sortilege Engine of the Copper Ward, built from scavenged scraps and castoffs.  The machine was a mass of exposed gears, pumping pistons, and steaming valves, cobbled together in an ugly mass of metal.  The corpulent grave-spawn bookmaker adjusted a pair of round spectacles and squinted at the readout the churning machinery regurgitated.  The windows of the room had been carefully boarded up and swathed in curtains so that no sunlight could enter.  One wall was dominated by a huge painting liberated from some nobleman's household, an erotic sinscape of demonic and human flesh commingling in the moonlight.

"Yes?" the Oddsaugur rasped with its ruinous voice, not looking up from its work.

"I'm here to collect," Catena declared flatly.  "You owe the Eaters a lot of chitin, augur."

The creature waved a bony hand dismissively.  "I'm good for it," the shade insisted.  "Should have it be next Molting.  Early Ashwick at the latest.  Tell your drugged-up employers they needn't worry.  I've worked out all the kinks; my calculations are flawless this time."

"I don't think you understand," Catena continued.  "This is your last chance.  You have to pay now.  As in, open the safe I know you have behind that painting and give me what's inside it."

"Or what?"  The Oddsaugur chuckled.  "The Orchid-Eaters didn't even bother coming themselves.  Too strung out on their pollen to get off their pimpled arses!"

"I assure you, my employers take this matter very seriously."

"Then they shouldn't have sent a pale little girl to do their dirty work.  What're you going to do?  I've got two men outside with hand cannons and half a dozen more in the room outside.  Go back to your drugged-up masters and tell them to be patient."

"This is your last chance," Catena said patiently.  "I urge you to take it."

"You make these old bones shake, kid," the Oddsaugur said, looking up at her for the first time.  "But seriously, fuck off back to the Greenhouse or I'll have Hardskull and Blisters out there send you back in pieces."

Catena sighed, then moved.  Bursting forward fast in a blur of sudden motion (like a spider, suddenly scuttling in a single, jerking spasm of movement) and grasped the shade by its long, mouldering hair, pushing its face down towards the exposed machinery of the engine so that its rotting features were mere inches from the churning gears.

"The combination," she said flatly as the grave-spawn thrashed, trying to free itself from a grip like iron.

"Guards!" It croaked.  "Get in here you bastards!"

Catena sighed again, flinging the shade away into a corner and springing rapidly towards the door as it swung open.  Seizing the first tough by the wrist she twisted, hard, producing a sickening snap.  The man howled in unexpected pain as his pistol clattered to the floor; she kicked the man hard in the solar plexus, knocking the air from his lungs and sending him barreling backwards into the second thug behind him.  With a smooth motion she plucked the man's wheellock from the floor, took half a breath to aim carefully, and then fired a bullet at near point blank range through the skulls of both guards, spattering the room behind them with blood, brains, and fragments of skull.

She remembered once, seeing a lilix forewoman take care of two subordinate slaves in much the same way, lining them up one next to the other.  Two slaves were worth only one bullet, she'd said, her mouthparts chittering in the spiderfolk equivalent of laughter.

There were shrieks, grunts, curses, and cries of alarm.  A gutter-witch was barking some incantation, weaving strands of numina into a mass of glowing eldritch worms, congealing between his fingertips.  Catena growled and hurled the pistol at his face, shattering his nose, while others in the room drew daggers and rapiers, advancing towards her.  Unarmed again she dodged the sword-thrust of the first to step over the bouncers' corpses, then rammed an open palm up into the man's face, driving bone and cartilage up into his skull.  He staggered backwards, blood spurting from his nostrils, and she was still moving, keeping low to avoid the crossbow quarrels now whistling overhead.

The smell of blood and smoke filled the air, reminding her of the stench of the pits, of the mines deep in the Chelicerae Mountains where men and women, her kindred, died by the dozens, while the lilix snapped their whips and snarled orders.

More quarrels thudded into the wooden walls as Catena snatched up a half-full bottle of wine.  A burly man hefting a hatchet and a lithe, tattooed women with two daggers - – one of the girls from the cage – came at her.  She flung out her arm, sending a stream of wine into the eyes of the man, then side-stepped a dagger-swipe and smashed the woman in the head with the bottle, braining her.  The knife-fighter toppled and Catena stomped hard on her throat – once, twice, thrice.  Blood welled beneath her hobnails as Catena grabbed the discarded daggers, just in time to parry an overhead blow from the recovered tough's hatchet.  She plunged the second blade into the man's belly, just above his groin, and hugged him close, twisting; two crossbow bolts hit him in the back.  She shoved the dying man into the second pit-fighter.  The witch, recovered, spat a second hex, manifesting as a glob of caustic bile.  The acidic vomit hurtled through the air, nearly searing her hairless scalp.  She hissed softly and threw her remaining knife, embedding the blade in the magus's chest.

She had learned early in life what theurges could do, when she'd watched a lilix priestess torture a heretic to death in a public square in Chenzirr, weaving a cat-cradle sigil out of cobwebs between her fingers, a criss-crossed pattern that sliced the screaming dissident into half a hundred parts, the cuts clean and neat, like the work of some slaughterhouse mechanism.

The crossbow-wielder was reloading.  She came at him bare-handed and covered in blood as he fumbled for quarrels.  Wrenching the mechanism from his hands she slammed the butt of the repeating crossbow into his face, breaking his jaw and spraying teeth across the floor.  He'd loaded two of the quarrels already; raising the crossbow slightly she put both bolts into the chest of the leechkin bouncer at the door.

Those left in the knackery fled as Catena returned to the backroom where the Oddsaugur was still picking its gas-bloated bulk up from the floor.   Calmly, Catena finished reloading the crossbow and fired three bolts, aiming carefully, pinning the grave-spawn to the floor.  Then – slowly, deliberately – she threw back the curtains, revealing the boarded-up windows.

"The combination, Oddsaugur," she said in the same unruffled monotone she'd used before.  "Unless you're eager to work on your tan..."[/ic]

Catena was born in the black pens of Dolmen, one of the albino slaves of the lilix.  Bred for endurance and stamina, such "subhuman" labourers live a life of squalor and pain, competing with one another for food, space, and light.  It was here, in the sweaty, pallid press of bickering flesh, that Catena (then known only by her designation, Zyrix-Mhalofneshea) first learned to fight, sparring with other children and with adults, breaking arms and noses to keep herself fed.  A frequent troublemaker as a child and young adolescent, she was whipped mercilessly by her arachnid overseers after killing several slaves in self-defence, snapping one's neck with her bare hands, beating another's head into the ground till his skull cracked, tearing out the neck of a third with her teeth.  She spent a period in the lightless mines of the Chelicerae Mountains and another in the factories of Xelschemyr before being purchased by a freedwoman with a manse in Illhillisz to work as a servant.  She performed her duties well and would soon have earned her freedom, but before she could an assassin sent by a rival freedwoman merchant broke into the manse of her mistress.  She killed the assassin with a hatpin to the throat, but also destroyed the venomous spider the assassin planned to poison her mistress with.  Since slaying a spider is a capital crime in Dolmen Catena knew she would be publicly and gruesomely executed if she remained in the manse.

Quickly, Catena devised a plan to escape her fate.  One of the Ladies Revenant, Genevieve, had sent a vessel to Dolmen in order to purchase corpses, raw material for the necrotheurgic experimentation of the Revenants.  Fleeing through the streets of Dolmen (dispatching several patrolling guards as she went) she made her way to the docklands of the Foreigner's Quarter and crept onto the boat, concealing herself in the foul mass of cadavers stored in the hold.  The corps-barge was bound for the spires of Somnambulon before her crime was discovered, and Catena was able to slip over the side and escape into the wilds of the north.  Wandering the Baronies, the Slouching-devil Mountains, and Barrow Scrub, Catena worked as a mercenary and bodyguard, honing her skills and learning Shambles.  Eventually she found her way south to Skein, where she began hiring herself out as a freelance enforcer and tough.

Physically, Catena is a short, sinewy woman with alabaster-pale skin, huge reddish-pink eyes, and a hairless scalp (she can grow hair – unusually thick and perfectly white – but keeps her head hairless).  Her back is a mass of scar-tissue from the whips of the lilix and her neck and wrists are riddled with small puckered scars where overseers fed on her blood.  She is extremely strong and semi-feral, with finely honed reflexes and killer instincts.  Capable of fighting without weapons, she nonetheless favours a long chain that she uses to strangle, whip, and bludgeon foes.  She is utterly without mercy and has no discernable moral compass, doing whatever she needs to survive.

[Stats to come!  Just a few details to work out.]

Love it! The storiette was great, and I especially appreciated all the local references (the day, Jeanne, chitin, spores, etc.). Catena's history is likewise solid. I look forward to seeing her stats.

Is there anything any of you still need from from me, in order to complete your characters?

One thing -which doesn't need to be part of your character stat-block, is a residence. If you want, I can create one, but if you have something in mind, please let me know. When thinking of where your PC usually calls kip, factor in your wealth. I don't need a lot of details (but I'll never complain if they're provided) -something simple as a paramour's tenement in Ebon Ward, a seedy hostel in Indigo Ward, or flea-bitten tenement overlooking the Eastern Cemetery, etc.

I'll flesh out the details later, but I'm tentatively placing Phrixia in a boarding house in the Indigo Ward, it being the part of Skein that reminds her most of home.

Also, I've noticed that every one of the characters seems to be a different flavor of ruthlessly self-serving. We really need a fifth player to make a Chaotic Good character, just to throw off the curve...

Quote from: Superbright
I'll flesh out the details later, but I'm tentatively placing Phrixia in a boarding house in the Indigo Ward, it being the part of Skein that reminds her most of home.

Perfect.

QuoteAlso, I've noticed that every one of the characters seems to be a different flavor of ruthlessly self-serving. We really need a fifth player to make a Chaotic Good character, just to throw off the curve...

Or a self-sacrificing templar of law, altruism, and orphaned kittens.

Eldritch Oddities:

• Lashing Tongue: This foot-long appendage appears to be the still-living tongue of a demon.  Mr. Nix keeps it in a bag, where it worms and thrashes around eerily but ineffectually.  It is slimy, and drips saliva constantly, and it is covered in ugly boils and blisters.  Anyone who dares to put it in their mouth will instantly be able to speak Hellspeak, but can only manage to shout profanity and curses.

Theurgic Devices:

• The Dark Glass: The edge of this jagged shard of obsidian has been carefully engraved with glyphs of seeing.  Upon command, the glass will display an image.  "Show me ____" will always be obeyed, but the exact nature of the image is uncertain.  Everything looks smoky and slightly indistinct.  The vision lasts for one minute, and at the end, the vision fades, and the glass becomes ordinary obsidian.  The last thing you can see in it is the reflection of your eyes—No wait, who's eyes are those?  Who was watching me through this thing?
• Glutton Worm: Mr. Nix keeps this sluglike creature in a small ivory box.  The worm secretes a powerful, unique acid which can dissolve virtually anything, but has no effect whatsoever on flesh or other organic matter.  The creature gobbles up the dissolved material around it, and in a matter of rounds, eats until it explodes.  It can be used to eat through a lock, disable a clockwork device or a trap, or otherwise damage or destroy an object, but it can never be used to damage a living (or gravespawn) creature.
• The Wailing Bottle: A bottle carved with mourning, screaming faces, the lid is stoppered up, and sealed off with clay.  If this bottle is smashed open on the ground, it releases the damned souls in torment that were trapped inside.  They instantly start to be pulled down into Hell, and they will reach, pull, and claw at the closest living creature to try and remain in this world.  A horde of spirits assaults the subject of this bottle, making all action rolls two steps harder for 1d6 rounds.

I figured Mr. Nix would be squatting in an abandoned flat in the Ebon Ward.  He wouldn't exactly pay rent as such, but would periodically have to repair something, buy off someone who would report him or otherwise take care of matters. 

SH,

Love the tongue.

I like the Dark-glass as well. The one change I will have you make is that it requires an Intellect check to make it work, with the DC based on the familiarity you have with the intended target. So, gaining a glimpse of your squatter's hole would be a DC 0. Glimpsing an associate you have worked with several times might be a 1 or a 2. Asking to see a magistra you've never met might be a 5, and seeing the bottom of Abysm (if such even exists) would be a 10.

Glutton-Worm is also awesome, though I'll have you temper the 'item's' effect, such that it can only dissolve inorganic material of level 3 or lower. Larger or hardier specimens might exist that could devour harder materials. Also, rather than exploding and outright dying, I would suggest that the creature devours the material, curls upon into an ephemeral cocoon, then explodes, releasing a cloud of tiny cog-midges/oil-flies, a species of diminutive flies that feast on grease and gear-rust, making them a local pest and nuisance in Skein. Also, I'd have it such that glutton-worms, otherwise known as gear-gorgers, rustmouthers, and their more scientific name of aerugo larvae, enter a state of torpor or stasis when they are cut off from food sources -hence the ivory box. Also, this would explain how they came to Skein, where they previously only infested the ruins of Cullys and Suchol, and are awakened by travelers who disturb their hibernation in otherwise barren stretches of the Slaughterlands.  

Hmm, now I want to write up a full blurb on these beasties, including how they plague the Painted House, Skein's patina-crusted prison in Ebon Ward, and how they prey upon the Brass-Skulls, even while some gearborgs use aerugo-flies as a form of mechanical maggot therapy, since the midges only eat rusted metal.

I love the wailing bottle as well. The flavor once again is terrific. I'll tinker with the mechanics, however, and say that the effect has an immediate range (and so one would need to make an attack roll to make sure one's aim was correct, even if the DC is low). Also, I'll say that different 'proofs' of wailing bottles exist. A 'distilled' bottle would reduce the victim's actions by 2 steps. Weaker 'vintages', however, only reduce actions by 1 step. Since this is a starting-level theurgic device, your bottle is one of the weaker ones.

Once again, amazingly evocative items, SH. Truly.

QuoteI figured Mr. Nix would be squatting in an abandoned flat in the Ebon Ward.  He wouldn't exactly pay rent as such, but would periodically have to repair something, buy off someone who would report him or otherwise take care of matters.  

Likewise perfect.

Also, Ghostman, could you let me know which syndicate you want your PC to be attached to? I'm trying to finalize how all your motley PCs come together, and that piece is vital.

I've settled for the Brass Skulls as the most fitting syndicate for Xavier.

Selecting a Focus is proving a headache though -- I'm torn between Artifice and Assassination. The tier 1 of Artifice and it's additional equipment are very fitting for the character concept, but the further tiers feel like they go way beyond mere tinkering. All the automata-related benefits in particular seem inappropriate. Assassination OTOH presents a feasible progression through all tiers.

Is it possible for a character to gain tiers from different foci?

Another solution could be adding a new Rogue Trick similar to Gutter-Witchcraft that represents a rogue dabbling in clockwork without making it his primary pursuit.

Quote from: Ghostman
I've settled for the Brass Skulls as the most fitting syndicate for Xavier.

With his mechanical acumen, augmentation, and seeming amorality, I would say that fits well. Thanks for getting back to me.

QuoteSelecting a Focus is proving a headache though -- I'm torn between Artifice and Assassination. The tier 1 of Artifice and it's additional equipment are very fitting for the character concept, but the further tiers feel like they go way beyond mere tinkering. All the automata-related benefits in particular seem inappropriate. Assassination OTOH presents a feasible progression through all tiers.
Is it possible for a character to gain tiers from different foci?
Another solution could be adding a new Rogue Trick similar to Gutter-Witchcraft that represents a rogue dabbling in clockwork without making it his primary pursuit.

Based upon your posts, I would recommend picking Assassination. Then, as your first-tier human and/or archetype bonus skill, choose engineering and/or crafting (explosives, bombs, etc.). Due to your syndicate allegiance, I'll allow you to switch starting gear -taking Artifice rather than Assassination (since disguises and poisons are less Brass Skull m.o. compared to brute force and mechanisms).

But no, one cannot take benefits from different foci for different tiers. The tiered benefits are not balanced in that regard.  And while I might contemplate rules for multi-focusing akin to multi-classing, I would rather avoid such for this game, as we are de facto playtesting the Penumbra rules.

A clockwork prestidigitation or mechanical legerdemain ability might be possible. I'm struggling however to find a way to make it work, as items are generally benefactions and/or expendable things. So, I don't see such an esotery/trick doing the same things as gutter-witchcraft. But I'm open to proffered wording.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
SH,

Love the tongue.

I like the Dark-glass as well. The one change I will have you make is that it requires an Intellect check to make it work, with the DC based on the familiarity you have with the intended target. So, gaining a glimpse of your squatter's hole would be a DC 0. Glimpsing an associate you have worked with several times might be a 1 or a 2. Asking to see a magistra you've never met might be a 5, and seeing the bottom of Abysm (if such even exists) would be a 10.

Glutton-Worm is also awesome, though I'll have you temper the 'item's' effect, such that it can only dissolve inorganic material of level 3 or lower. Larger or hardier specimens might exist that could devour harder materials. Also, rather than exploding and outright dying, I would suggest that the creature devours the material, curls upon into an ephemeral cocoon, then explodes, releasing a cloud of tiny cog-midges/oil-flies, a species of diminutive flies that feast on grease and gear-rust, making them a local pest and nuisance in Skein. Also, I'd have it such that glutton-worms, otherwise known as gear-gorgers, rustmouthers, and their more scientific name of aerugo larvae, enter a state of torpor or stasis when they are cut off from food sources -hence the ivory box. Also, this would explain how they came to Skein, where they previously only infested the ruins of Cullys and Suchol, and are awakened by travelers who disturb their hibernation in otherwise barren stretches of the Slaughterlands. 

Hmm, now I want to write up a full blurb on these beasties, including how they plague the Painted House, Skein's patina-crusted prison in Ebon Ward, and how they prey upon the Brass-Skulls, even while some gearborgs use aerugo-flies as a form of mechanical maggot therapy, since the midges only eat rusted metal.

I love the wailing bottle as well. The flavor once again is terrific. I'll tinker with the mechanics, however, and say that the effect has an immediate range (and so one would need to make an attack roll to make sure one's aim was correct, even if the DC is low). Also, I'll say that different 'proofs' of wailing bottles exist. A 'distilled' bottle would reduce the victim's actions by 2 steps. Weaker 'vintages', however, only reduce actions by 1 step. Since this is a starting-level theurgic device, your bottle is one of the weaker ones.

Once again, amazingly evocative items, SH. Truly.

Thanks!  I am happy with all of those edits.  I especially like how you really ran with the glutton worm.  The extra details are really fun and cool. And yes, I did mean for the Wailing Bottle to have an immediate range (and thus require an attack roll).  I was in something of a hurry posting this, and forgot to mention those details explicitly.

I'm working on my character stats. Xavier will be Trained Without Armor, but his starting equipment from the Rogue archetype includes light armor. Can I swap this for a different item? Also, can money be spent to purchase additional gear?

If its not too late, I'll be cooking up a character this weekend.

SH,

Let me know when you're ready, and I'll give Mr. Nix's sheet a final review. I'll create a character thread shortly thereafter -or would people prefer I do that now?

Ghostman,

Yes, you can 'cash' in unused armor. Theurges and rogues can do so, gaining 25 additional pence, while warriors gain 50 pence (since they can start with medium armor), if they so choose. You can pool your money to buy additional gear. For instance, for 100 pence, you can purchase your clockwork-toothed boots and gloves, that count as a benefaction for climbing tasks.

MeanestGuest,

By all means, we'd be happy to have you join our digital soiree! I'll post the following on the first page, but just so everyone is made aware, the party currently consists of:

Phrixia Gronne: Graceful human rogue (way of the blade & pistol) 1 (played by Superbright)
Catena: ? human warrior (bloodletting) 1 (played by Steerpike)
Mr. Nix: ? ghul witch (diabolism) 1 (played by Seraphine_Harmonium)
Xavier: shrewd human rogue (assassination) 1* (played by Ghostman)

*Belongs to Brass Skulls syndicate.

What type of character are you thinking of playing as, MG? I ask as I'm trying to finalize hooks and connections, and I want to make sure I'm not creating things contrary to your intended PC.

There are also grappling hooks and rope.

True, more mundane gear exists that act as benefactions for climbing tasks. Granted, clockwork-barbed boots and gloves win out on style. ;)

I'm thinking of playing a Frenetic Sheevra Warrior named Hadric Beyam Phel-Nirian. Roughly a century old. Father was an itinerant vagabond, mother was a magistra of Skien. She attempted to raise her son properly despite his moody and ill-focused nature, and he loved her dearly. I am uncertain how she died yet, but she did, and Hadric was consumed by sorrow for quite a long time, flunked out of the College, and generally let his family's estate waste away. He vanished for a few years, and returned seemingly freed from his despondency - or at least better able to hide it - and has since become a somewhat unusual feature of Skien's upper society, well known, but not well thought-of, due to the continuing near-bankruptcy of his estate, and his involvement in unusual and unsavory incidents, usually as a result of attempting to pay his bills at the last instant. I imagine he has a rather hostile relationship with the family of his mother's younger brother, who to this day desire his inheritance. I'll have him up today or tomorrow.

Edit: Actually, only 50 or 60, so his uncle is a bitter and obsessed scheming old man.

Edit: Archetype specialization things will be biothaumaturgic modification, and it will somehow be plant related, as he'll have skills in botany and bio-engineering (assuming that's ok. I can't figure out how many starting skills you get). I'm also not sure what foci to pick.

PM sent your way, MG. Let me know what you think.

Just to let you know, Xavier's full typification will be Shrewd Male Human Rogue (Assassination) 1

Thanks, I'll add it asap.

[ooc=Xavier]Shrewd Male Human Rogue (Assassination) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained:
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 10 (0), Agility 14 (1), Intellect 12 (0); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (expertice); AC: 0; Might Cost: 0; Agility Penalty: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Hellspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Senses: Improved vision in darkness due to grafted clockwork eye.
Skills: Crafting: bombs (expertise), Poison (expertise)
(expertise in all interactions involving lies or trickery)
(expertise in defense rolls to resist mental effects)
(expertise in all tasks involving, identifying or assessing danger, lies, quality, importance, function, or power)

Weapons:

• Sabre (medium bladed weapon)
• Blowgun (light ranged weapon)

Combat Maneuvers/Tricks/Esotiers: 

• Trained Without Armor: You have expertise in Agility defense actions when not wearing armor. Enabler.

• Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. You make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if your weapon has a sharp point. Action.

Flaws: 

• Shrewd: You were never good at studying or retaining trivial knowledge. The difficulty of any task involving lore, knowledge, or understanding is increased by one step.

• Animal Enmity: For some reason, Xavier never feels quite comfortable around animals of any kind. The feeling seems to be mutual, as many common beasts become jumpy or even outright inimical when he tries to interact with them. It might simply be that the creatures are sensing his own uncertainty, or perhaps there is a more esoteric reason behind his troubles. The difficulty of any task involving interaction with animals is increased by one step.

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities: 
  
  
  
  • Venomous Verses: One of Xavier's many victims was an infamous eccentric poet, a young man said to be possessed of a preternatural talent for composition and recital. He must have been possessed by something alright, for when the youth exhaled his last breath and the sparkle of life in his eyes dimmed as he lay broken by the feet of his killer, that indescribable something escaped from his lungs... and entered Xavier's. To this day Xavier hasn't figured out just what the devil that thing was, merely that along with it came knowledge of an odd poem he'd never heard before. It is a harsh piece of wordplay, in a language long since lost or perhaps not from this world. Though obviously not fit for human tongues, the unnatural words come out almost effortlessly when he chooses to utter them -- and they seem to always invoke powerful, albeit unpredictable emotions in those who hear them. Sometimes they make the listerners uncomfortably aroused, other times they inflict feelings of melancholy, yet other times give rise to wrathful urges and anger. Xavier himself finds reciting these eerie verses a somewhat unpleasant experience, as the very act disorients his senses and causes his mouth to bleed.
  • Spy's Eye: This is an artificial eyeball of eldritch clockwork construction, implanted in Xavier's right eye socket after he lost his natural eye in a vicious confrontation with a Nine Eyes syndicate enforcer. The device does more than merely restores his stereoscopic vision: the dark of night hampers his perceptions less than it used to. However, the orb's bewitched gaze sometimes falls upon vistas not meant for the sight of mortal men, revealing glimpses of nameless hells and aberrant realms beyond the fabric of the corporeal world. Such revelations, though usually mercifully brief, can be more than a little disturbing. The mechanical nature of the graft is also readily apparent.

• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  
  • Smoke Bomb: A small globular, grenade-like device. It is armed by removing a safety pin and detonates on impact after being dropped or thrown. Rather than an explosion it bursts in a billowing cloud of very thick black smoke that quickly spreads about, obscuring visibility. A smoke bomb might be used to enable a retreat from a fight, or to create a smokescreen against snipers, etc. The smoke is affected by wind and will dissipate over time.
  • Flash Bomb: Similar to a smoke bomb, but instead of a burst of smoke it generates a flash of light so bright that it will momentarily render blind anyone who stares directly into it. Such blindness is a temporary debility that fades away fairly quickly as the victims regain their vision.
  Mundane Possessions: Clothing, sabre, blowgun (12 darts), a bag of light tools, the tools needed to make your first-tier crafts, any normal item (of level 1 or 2) that you can make with your skills, a garrotte wire, lockpicks, a pack of cigarettes, a lighter, a pocket watch*, 15 pence.
  

[/ooc]

(*) I figured that these items are fairly cheap and could be assumed based on a decent lifestyle.

(Incidentally, the Nine Eyes enforcer also survived the confrontation, and is something of a personal nemesis to Xavier.)

[ooc=Hadric Beyam Phel-Nirian]Frenetic Male Sheevra Warrior (Phytology) 1

XP: 0; Benefits: None
Grit: 1
Pools (Edge): Might: 13 (1), Agility: 14 (1), Intellect: 9
Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Expertise in Intellect defense rolls against witchcraft-produced effects
AC:1, Might Cost: 0 , Agility Penalty: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6 +1/ Rolls Left - 4

Languages: Shambles, Hellspeak, Hextongue
Lifestyle: Decent. Property and majority of remaining assets currently held under attachment pending court decision vis-a-vis appeal regarding declaration of death in absentia.
Senses: Sight-based perception (expertise). Dim illumination is no hindrance.
Skills: Initiative (expertise), Jumping (expertise [or would it be mastery?]), Running & Athletics (expertise), Persuasion (expertise), Sense & Identify Witchcraft (expertise), Botany (expertise)

Weapons

My Leaf-Bladed Kneaf: heavy bladed weapon
Grent & Grisham Special 8 Revolver: medium ranged weapon

Combat Maneuvers, Esoteries and Tricks

Thrust (1 Might point): This is a powerful melee stab. You make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if your weapon has a sharp edge or point. Action.

Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. You make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if your weapon has a sharp point. Action.

Gutter-Witchcraft (1 Intellect point): You can perform small invocations: temporarily change the color or basic appearance of a small object, cause small objects to float through the air, clean a small area, mend a broken object, prepare (but not create) food, and so on. You can't use gutter-witchcraft to harm another creature or object. Action.

Hexsight (2 Intellect points): This invocation causes a sheevra's eyes to glow more brightly, but allows them to perceive, and potentially identify aetheric auras. Scanning an item or creature requires concentration, and each use of this ability can last up to one minute. Scanning a target reveals whether it can perform witchcraft, and if so, its level. It also reveals whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the aether in that area. Many materials and eldritch fields prevent or resist this hex. Action to initiate and sustain.

Lugent Vessel (2 Intellect points):  Although a sheevra's skin and eyes constantly produce dim illumination in the immediate distance surrounding them, they can temporarily amplify and even transfer some of this radiance to another object, person, or place. To do so, a sheevra must touch the intended target. If successful, the target sheds bright illumination up to a short distance for ten minutes. Action.

Placate Plant (2+ Intellect points): With a successful roll, you convince a plant that is within immediate distance to refrain from attacking you for one minute. Instead of applying Grit to decrease the difficulty of this esotery, you can apply Grit to protect more targets, with each level of Grit causing the affected plant to ignore up to two additional targets. You must be able to see and speak with said targets to provide this protection. Action to initiate.

Flaws

#1: Fast, but not quite graceful. The difficulty of any task involving balance or steady movements is increased by one step.
#2: The difficulty of any task that requires staying still or quiet for extended time is increased by one step.
#3: Hiding debility. Sheevra have slightly luminous eyes and skin, making it hard to conceal themselves.

Items

Eldritch Oddities:

Cybille's Locket: A silver locket given to Hadric by his mother when he was a boy, and one of the few remaining mementos of his childhood. The locket holds two tiny daguerreotype portraits: one of his father, and one of his mother. His mother's portrait is evidently ensorcelled by some means, rendered in living motion - flashing a smile or blowing a kiss, or simply reading a book [almost always Rest for the Wicked, and other stories of Treachery & Romance by Skien's own Vibius Beeze]. Cybille's portrait has spoken to Hadric on some few occasions, whispering words of caution, advice or love when he has needed them most. His father's portrait - a dark and blurred profile against a hazy background - seems to have been captured unknowingly, and has so far proven itself to be nothing more than an ordinary daguerreotype.

The Magnificent Lens: A small lens made of hardy glass mounted in a bronze frame. Catching a strange glint out of the corner of his eye while wandering the markets of Crepuscle, Hadric purchased the lens from a trinket-vendor who seemed unaware of its unusual eldritch properties. The world transforms when seen through the Magnificent Lens, superimposing a bizarre and surrealist landscape over the mundane, a landscape peopled by a tiny and mischievous folk possessing large teeth, bright clothes, and strange hats. The folk seem to be aware of Hadric's attention and often wave or wink at him, or huddle in small groups while throwing the occasional glance his way. The lens seems completely ordinary to anyone else that Hadric has had peer through it, who report only a slight magnifying effect. Hadric has come to suspect the Magnificent Lens to be an artifact of Ker-Iz, or to have otherwise been crafted by another Sheevra. A source of occasional amusement or inspiration.

Theurgic Devices:

Rosenhound Bulb: A desiccated and peeling bulb smelling of cardamom and vinegar. Hadric cultured several specimens of this plant during his time in the laboratories of Shann-Irim, and this one has at last reached maturity. When the inner flesh is exposed to light, a startling transformation is initiated. Petaled stalks twist from within, quickly forming themselves into the semblance of a squat quadruped. A thorny maw glistening with sap juts from one end, its head-petals arranged into the floral mockery of a grinning predatory visage. A Rosenhound will viciously attack and consume any nearby organic matter, heedless of its own safety, until it has filled its belly. It blossoms for a few brief moments, shedding pollen. Its lifecycle completed the Rosenhound will wither and die, leaving an immature bulb behind.  

Paralytic N2: A fine grey powder kept tightly sealed in a small vial. The second iteration of the fourteenth entry in a long series of pesticidal compounds developed by Hadric. Paralytic N2 enters through the breathing apertures of a given arthropod, thereby infiltrating the hemolymph of the affected creature. Through a method still poorly understood by Hadric himself, the compound hinders or prevents entirely any muscle contraction in arthropodal species. Effect on the locomotion of molluscs is mild by comparison, and requires further study. Rendered inert in mammalian or other body systems.

Mundane Possesions: Clothing, live ardlilly coat (light armor), My Leaf-Bladed Kneaf, Grent & Grisham Special Eight revolver, 12 rounds broad #8, phytologist's tools, stainless steel canteen, a pouchfull of oat cakes, leather coin purse, 40 crowns

Other

Drowsy: Like cats, Sheevra require large amounts of sleep. Sheevra require twice as much time to rest in order to make recovery rolls (i.e., 2 rounds, 20 minutes, 2 hours, and 16 hours of rest to make their daily first, second, third, and fourth recovery roll, respectively).

Fey: Sheevra occupy a liminal space between mortals and oneiroi. Consequently, effects designed to specifically target mortals or oneiroi may affect sheevra, whether for good or ill.

Omnivorous: Sheevra can digest both meat and plant matter, but also draw nourishment from emotions, dreams, and other esoteric substances.[/ooc]

Born in the city, and brought up among its privileged class, Hadric nonetheless has never felt much more than a tenuous connection with Skein, feeling a deep longing in his heart for someplace else. He never knew his father, and his given name is the only bond the two share. The elder Hadric departed from Skein shortly after his son's conception, leaving the pregnant Cybille Phel-Nirian to raise Hadric Beyam on her own. Hadric's mother spoke seldom of his father, saying only that he was quite charming, and a witch of prodigious talent. Fortunately (or unfortunately) orphaned, Cybille Phel-Nirian was in full control of her family's estate at the time of Hadric's birth, and kept the Sheevra child secluded within her familial spire for several years. Though his mother saw to his proper tutelage in both the arcane arts and social etiquette, and foisted numerous toys and several clockwork companions upon him, the young Hadric would nevertheless spend hours staring longingly out the windows at the bustling streets below with an intense sadness in his green-gold eyes. The boy seemed to exude misery, and Cybille found herself at a loss for what to do. It would be cruel, she thought, to raise a human child in such isolation, and Cybille knew she did not fully comprehend the effect it might have on one with Sheevra blood. For bearing a child out of wedlock - and one of impure human stock at that - her name and that of her whole family would be besmirched, and indeed, her title itself might be put in jeopardy. But she loved her son, and she resolved that she could not bear to see him suffer another day. She took him by the hand and led him out into the sun. Her familiar on one arm, and her child upon the other. Hadric cheered immediately, and seemed to bask in the excitement of the city, his skin glowing brighter than it ever had before. A hundred shocked or disapproving stares and glances fell upon the masked Magistra and the Sheevra boy, but Hadric seemed to pay them no mind, and so neither did Cybille. With purpose she strode through the Azure Ward, and to the Stewards' Hall. With the unmistakable light of motherly pride lit in her eyes, she declared Hadric her true son and heir before a slack-jawed and startled clerk. The declaration would not go uncontested.

Cybille's brother - the Magister Claudius Phel-Nirian - had always desired her inheritance, and had borne a powerful envy of his elder sister's arcane talent since childhood. He saw in this the perfect opportunity to seize what was his rightful due, and placed a case before the Court. He claimed that his sister's designation of her non-human bastard child as her heir was unlawful, and furthermore that it had done grievous injury to the family's reputation. Thereby, he argued, she had demonstrated a lack of fitness to administer the family estates, and indeed, even bear her noble title. Cybille demured. While acknowledging Hadric's bastardry, she argued that - as established by precedent in no less than seventeen cases in the past century alone - the right of a legitimized bastard child to inherit had been upheld by the Court. Further, she raised question to contest Claudius's claim that Hadric was indeed non-human, and in turn accused him of slander. She had borne Hadric in her own womb, she said, and pointed out that it was common knowledge that there were no full-blooded Sheevra left on the face of the Cadaverous Earth. Thereby, Hadric's blood must in the majority be human.  The Chief-Justice himself agreed that the existing legal definitions of the distinctions of species in the Corpus Juris could not apply cleanly in this instance, and called upon the esteemed Dr. Niddeus Nival, professor of xenobiology at the Collegia Tho-Lladrim, to stand before the Court and deliver his expert opinion.

The doctor concurred with the argument of the Magistra Cybille. The boy, he said, could be judged human if his blood was so in its majority portion. Indeed, he declared, many prominent families of the city are known to carry traces of the demoniac in their blood, and by the application of sensible biology (or the law, of course) one could not designate them se'irim. And so before the Court, the Chief-Justice, and an increasingly red-faced Claudius Phel-Nirian, Dr. Nival draw a sample of young Hadric's blood and dripped it most carefully onto an alchemical paper. It puffed a puff of purple smoke, and the doctor peered at the small slip intently. "No less than seven-tenths in its proportion human, and no more than two and three-quarter tenths in its proportion of the lineage of the ancient city of Ker-Iz." he said. Chief-Justice Girauld brought down his gavel, and ordered the case dismissed, having been satisfied that the boy had been proven to meet a certain legal definition of humanity. Claudius stormed out in a rage, and mother and child returned to their home.

With Claudius's departure, life proceeded happily for some years, though Hadric was given to fits of moodiness. He eventually enrolled in the Collegia Tho-Lladrim, studying botany, xenobotany, and applied alchemy & cantrips. Hadric was an avid student, but the necessities of sleep caused him to miss lectures frequently and earned him the ire of several of his professors. However, his enthusiasm for learning was undeniable, and he seemed possessed of irrepressible drive and energy, routinely exceeding the academic achievements of his peers. It was perhaps this, in conjunction with his evident if not legal race, that encouraged his classmates in their enmity and various torments. This bullying shortly induced in Hadric another fit of profound misery, and his mother's sympathy seemed to do nothing to alleviate it. But abruptly his misery seemed to morph to determination and anger. Awaking early one afternoon feeling strangely light and joyful, he holstered his revolver, and immediately proceeded to the Tho-Lladrim campus at a trot. There, on the quad, he sought out and challenged Shenn Adrien - the son of a powerful and storied family of Magisters, and Hadric's chief tormentor - to a duel, demanding satisfaction for the many slights delivered against him. A crowd was gathering, and Shen was laughing. Hadric could tell it concealed an inner nervousness. Hadric knew Shenn couldn't refuse - the two belonged to rival shooting clubs, and Shenn made no secret of his antipathy for Hadric. Shenn seemed to hesitate for a moment, but nodded his head in assent. Seconds quickly volunteered, and a firing lane cleared. The duel commenced; ten paces, and Hadric turned, drew, and fired his revolver twice. The first round went wide, embedding itself in a nearby tree. Nonetheless, Shenn had barely put his hand on his own pistol when the second bullet struck him in the chest. The crowd fell into a stunned silence, and gradually dispersed. Hadric was briefly detained by the Watch, but was quickly release after a cursory investigation confirmed the duel had been lawful. Hadric's classmates maintained a respectful distance thereafter. Shenn recovered from his wound, but was troubled by a persistent wheeze into old age.

Then Cybille Phel-Nirian died. It was a carriage accident, they said. Consumed by a furious grief, Hadric refused to leave his rooms, moping in the darkness. He eventually dropped out of the Collegia entirely. Years passed in this way. His servants came to wake him one evening, as they always did, but he was gone. Days turned to weeks and then to months, and it seemed the Sheevra had disappeared. Hadric was declared legally dead, and Claudius gained the estate. On an unremarkable day a worn and scarred man with glowing gold-green eyes stepped off a barge in the Indigo Ward. Tall, he bore unruly locks of blonde hair. Bedecked in some kind of living coat of ever-moving flowers, he bore a razor-edged green sword crisscrossed with veins upon his shoulder, and it resembled nothing so much as an enormous leaf. Returning to a certain spire, the man found it locked up and in ill-health, its upper floors having been surgically removed. So began Hadric's odyssey to prove that he was, in fact, himself, and that he was, in fact, alive. Three years later the case remains before the courts, and Hadric finds himself wearied by the strange legal limbo he has found himself in.

Nibs

On his fifteenth birthday - as is right and proper for a young magister - Hadric summoned and bound his first and last familiar. The rigorous pomp and ceremony of the day had somehow simultaneously bored him and filled him with trepidation. Hadric had to steady his shaking hands and swallow down rising bile as he drew the summoning circle and spoke the words. His demon appeared in an unceremonious and thin wheeze of blue smoke, and resembled nothing so much as large constricting snake, save that it was covered in a rich plumage of brown feathers, and bore the shining yellow eyes of a cat. It gave its name as Nibs, and made no secret of its delight at having been summoned by 'one of the great dead city under the sea', exclaiming that it had been several milennia since it had conversed with such a being. Nibs revealed itself a cheerful and loquacious creature over the course of the following weeks, and Hadric was well-pleased by this new companionship, seeming much happier than he had seemed in several years. But a strange guilt began to gnaw at him. A memory crystallized in his mind: clutching a stuffed toy in a tiny hand, and staring out at Skein's spirescape from his bedroom window with a feeling he couldn't then describe, but now knew to be the intense longing of freedom. Seemingly without any consideration of consequence or propriety, Hadric struck the silver collar from about Nibs' neck, and unbound the spell that bound the demon to him.

Nibs stared at Hadric with a look of eminent concern writ plain upon his serpentine features, and for his part, Hadric seemed flummoxed. "Ah, young masssster, why have you done thiss?" Nibs hissed, motioning to the slack chain with the end of its tail. Hadric sputtered and gestured meekly with his hands, eventually managing to explain his reasoning. Nibs grinned a snakey grin. "I am free to choose then." it considered "Sso I choosse to stay here." Nibs answered, finality evident in its tone. The event was deemed scandalous by Skein's upper society, and even Hadric's mother made her disapproval evident. Nevertheless, the two became fast friends, and have maintained their unusual relationship over the course of years. Though Nibs comes and goes on jaunts to various Hells, he has always returned to Hadric's side, and the pair have shared several harrowing near-death experiences, which Nibs gleefully refers to as "Adventuresss'. Their bond is a bond of ages, and is stronger than any silver chain.

Progress looks good, gents. I'll review the stat blocks as soon as possible.

Ready for review
[ooc]"Mr. Nix"
Furtive male Ghul Witch 1 (Diabolism)
XP:    ; Benefits Gained:
Grit: 1
Pools (Edge): Might 7 (0), Agility 12 (1), Intellect 15 (1); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Gravespawn defense against disease and poison (mastery), immune to aging and death effects; AC 1
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1   ; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Hellspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Senses: See in the dark (100 ft), Perceive demons (expertise)
Skills: Witchcraft (Expertise), Demonology: perceive, identify, persuade (Expertise), Stealth (Expertise), Deceit (Expertise), Invocations of Trickery or Deceit (Expertise)

Esoteries:

• Dowse (2 Intellect points): Through a brief calling and binding ritual, Mr. Nix commands demons to scan an area equal in size to a 10-foot (1-meter) cube, including all objects or creatures within that area. The area must be within short range. Successfully dowsing a creature or object reveals its level (a measure of how powerful, dangerous, or difficult it is). He also learns whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the matter and energy in that area. For example, Mr. Nix might learn that the wooden box contains a device of orpiment and ivory. He might learn that a glyph-scribed glass cylinder is full of poisonous gas, and that its copper stand has a voltaic field running through it that connects to a clockwork apparatus in the floor. He might learn that the creature standing before him is a grave-spawn. However, this esotery doesn't tell him what the information means. Thus, in the first example, Mr. Nix won't know what the orpiment and ivory device does. In the second, he won't know if stepping on the floor causes the cylinder to release the gas. Many materials and eldritch fields prevent or resist dowsing. Action.
• Soul's Torment* (1 Intellect point): Mr. Nix attacks a foe by opening a miniature portal which allows Hell's demons to assault his enemy's spirit. To use this esotery, Mr. Nix must be able to see his target. This mental attack inflicts 2 points of Intellect damage (and thus ignores Armor). Some creatures without minds (such as automatons) might be immune to this variant. Action.

*Mind Strike, reflavored for Mr. Nix

Flaws:

• Carnivorous: Ghilan can only digest meat.
• Light Sensitivity: Ghilan are dazed in direct sunlight.
• The difficulty of all tasks that require swift movement, such as running, is one step higher for you.

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities:
  
  
  • Lashing Tongue: This foot-long appendage appears to be the still-living tongue of a demon.  Mr. Nix keeps it in a bag, where it worms and thrashes around eerily but ineffectually.  It is slimy, and drips saliva constantly, and it is covered in ugly boils and blisters.  Anyone who dares to put it in their mouth will instantly be able to speak Hellspeak, but can only manage to shout profanity and curses.
• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  • The Dark Glass: The edge of this jagged shard of obsidian has been carefully engraved with glyphs of seeing.  Upon command, the glass will display an image.  "Show me ____" will always be obeyed, but the exact nature of the image is uncertain.  Everything looks smoky and slightly indistinct.  The vision lasts for one minute, and at the end, the vision fades, and the glass becomes ordinary obsidian.  The last thing you can see in it is the reflection of your eyes—No wait, who's eyes are those?  Who was watching me through this thing?  it requires an Intellect check to make it work, with the DC based on the familiarity you have with the intended target. So, gaining a glimpse of your squatter's hole would be a DC 0. Glimpsing an associate you have worked with several times might be a 1 or a 2. Asking to see a magistra you've never met might be a 5, and seeing the bottom of Abysm (if such even exists) would be a 10.
  • Glutton Worm: Mr. Nix keeps this sluglike creature in a small ivory box.  Properly known as Aerugo Larvae, the glutton worm secretes a powerful, unique acid which can dissolve inorganic material of level 3 or lower, but has no effect whatsoever on flesh or other organic matter.  The creature gobbles up the dissolved material around it, and in a matter of rounds, eats until it curls up into an ephemeral cocoon, then explodes, releasing a cloud of tiny cog-midges.  It can be used to eat through a lock, disable a clockwork device or a trap, or otherwise damage or destroy an object, but it can never be used to damage a living (or gravespawn) creature.
  • The Wailing Bottle: A bottle carved with mourning, screaming faces, the lid is stoppered up, and sealed off with clay.  If this bottle is smashed open on the ground, it releases the damned souls in torment that were trapped inside.  They instantly start to be pulled down into Hell, and they will reach, pull, and claw at a single living creature within immediate range to try and remain in this world.  Upon a successful attack, a horde of spirits assaults the target of this bottle, making all action rolls one step harder for 1d6 rounds.

Mundane Items: Voulge Chirurgeon derringer pistol (12 shots), worn spider-silk cuirass, Tricorn hat, 5 smoke powder capsules, Frock Coat (with hidden sleeve pocket), Mask, Chalk, 9' knotted measuring cord, tallow candles, matches, ornate ceremonial knife, votive silver chain, 40 coins (less the cost of the items here).

Vex: Hellhound (DC 2), Health 6, Attack: Bite 4 points of damage + Level 2 poison, Skills: Tracking (Expertise)
[/ooc]

The coat and hat look like this:(http://xenebatos.webs.com/hwycoatlg.jpg) The Mask looks like this: (http://masqueboutique.com/content/uploads/2012/11/Black-Ducal-Mens-Leather-Masquerade-Mask.jpg)

And Vex: (http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs11/i/2006/239/1/0/Hellhound_by_Vacalline.jpg)

Review forthcoming. One quick question though: last we spoke, you described Mr. Nix as being a de jure squatter, a denizen of an abandoned, ruined building in Ebon Ward. Is that still the case? If so, how do you see that jiving with a Decent lifestyle?   

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Review forthcoming. One quick question though: last we spoke, you described Mr. Nix as being a de jure squatter, a denizen of an abandoned, ruined building in Ebon Ward. Is that still the case? If so, how do you see that jiving with a Decent lifestyle?  

You're right, that's probably more fitting of a poor lifestyle.  I was thinking decent because he might have done some upkeep to turn into something a little more comfortable than how he found it--somewhere he could still study the occult, and spend time deciphering the coded messages and spells on his body.  

And I recalled another question, regarding Ghul light-sensitivity: If they stay in the sunlight for hours at a time, do their eyes adjust and stop penalizing them, or does this last for the duration?  Wanting to know just HOW vulnerable I would be in the daytime.

SH,

Regarding lifestyle, it all depends on how you want to spin it. Squatting in an an abandoned warehouse in the Ebon Ward would likely be indigent or poor. The difference between the two could be a matter of perceived 'legitimacy' of your occupancy of the warehouse/building. For instance, you might pay rent to a sleazy landlord or pay a similar fee to a criminal syndicate for living in their turf. A Decent lifestyle would definitely include one of the above -and include the upgrades you suggested.

Regarding ghilan light sensitivity -they remain dazed as long as they remain in direct sunlight. Thus, they do not acclimate. However, there are a variety of things that can obstruct direct sunlight. Parasols, tinted glass, beshadowed alleys, awnings, even heavy cloud-cover. Also, remember that the dazed condition in Penumbra is not the same as in D&D (i.e., you can still act, but with a one step increase in all task DCs). So it isn't that sunlight burns them -even though it does bother them. Consequently, ghilan generally avoid direct sunlight.

[ooc=Xavier]Shrewd Male Human Rogue (Assassination) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 10 (0), Agility 14 (1), Intellect 12 (0); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (expertise), Intellect vs mental effects (expertise); AC: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Hellspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Senses: see
Skills: flex skill (expertise)*, crafting bombs (expertise), crafting poison (expertise), deception (expertise), disguise (mastery), stealth (expertise), identifying or assessing danger, lies, quality, importance, function, or power (expertise)

Weapons:

• Sabre (medium bladed weapon)
• Blowgun (light ranged weapon)

Tricks:  

• Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. Xavier can make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if his weapon has a sharp point. Action.

• Surprise Strike: If attacking from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before an opponent has acted, Xavier reduces the difficulty of his attack by one step. On a successful hit with this surprise attack, he inflicts 2 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Flaws:  

• Animal Enmity: For some reason, Xavier never feels quite comfortable around animals of any kind. The feeling seems to be mutual, as many common beasts become jumpy or even outright inimical when he tries to interact with them. It might simply be that the creatures are sensing his own uncertainty, or perhaps there is a more esoteric reason behind his troubles. The difficulty of any task involving interaction with animals is increased by one step.

• Trivial Ignorance: lore and knowledge (defect).

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities:  
  
  
  
  • Venomous Verses:
  • Spy's Eye:

• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  
  • Smoke Bomb:
  • Flash Bomb:
  Mundane Possessions:
  

[/ooc]


The above is an edited version of your sheet, with minor typos and formatting problems fixed. The following issues, however, require a bit more thought and explanation:

Lifestyle: Where did you imagine he lives? In a Brass Skull's safehouse, his own terrace, or something else?

Senses: I'll cover this in my comments on items.

Skills: Remember you have a flex-skill. You can denote it with an asterisk.

Flaws: Where is you human foible? Is it animal enmity? If so, I'll ask for something more for 2 reasons. First, a foible is severe, i.e., it imposes a debility rather than a defect. Second, handling animals in a highly urban campaign isn't likely to be too relevant -unlike if we were playing in the Southern Swamps. Even then, 'normal' animals in CE are much rarer than in typical fantasy settings.
That said, feel free to keep the flaw, but you'll need something more for your foible.  

Items, however, are the only section where significant work remains.

The Verses is a rich, creative idea. However, it is a bit beyond the scope of an eldritch oddity. Namely, eldritch oddities are inherently able to affect others. I mean, yes, Bartleby could throw his bleeding trophy at someone but that's a stretch. So, if you wanted to tweak the 'item', you could have it so that when Xavier recites the poem, or a stanza from it, that his breath turns to indigo smoke that dances like a salacious sylphid or forms leering, vaporous faces. You can maintain the disorientation and orifice bleeding if you wish.

Eye: A clockwork eye is perfect for your syndicate ties. However, eldritch oddities are usually curios, not sense or skill-enhancers, and theurgic devices are temporary. So, what to do? Here's a few options:

The eye might be a miniature gaslamp globe. You can ignite the gas, creating light for some 10 minutes. After that, you would need to have the eye 'refueled'. Thus, the clockwork eye has an effect that functions as a theurgic device.

Or, I'll let you swap out a skill (e.g., crafting poison), and I'll let you instead gain the following sensory ability: unhindered by very dim illumination. Later, you could 'spend' another skill to gain ability to see in darkness up to short range. Or, you could just select sight-based perception as a skill expertise.  

Theurgic items:

Smoke bomb needs its mechanics spelled out more, namely distance, duration, and degree. As a level 1 item, I would suggest it only fills an immediate distance, and that it decreases the DC of all perception checks by 2 steps for one round, then only 1 step for the following minute. Higher level bombs could have affect bigger areas for longer durations or more severe degrees.

Same need of mechanical clarification for the flash bombs. Area, duration, etc.?

I'll also suggest snazzifying the names for the bombs a little.

Mundane Possessions -you need to pick whether you have tools to make bombs or make crafts and delineate them accordingly. Especially since you then also get to have a level 1 or 2 poison or bomb of your making.

A garrote would be a weapon (heavy).

Lockpicks are 50 pence. Attempting lockpicking tasks without them impose a hindrance.

A cheap lighter is about 10 pence. You might consider making one of your eldritch oddities function as a lighter.

Although even a plain tin or spelter pocketwatch would cost more than 1 pence, you can start with one.

SH,

Your sheet is up next for review (as I think you are the only one otherwise done?)

Superbright,

I noted you are filling in your sheet -let me know when you're done and ready for review.

MG,

Same thing, although I'm still waiting to hear what kind of focus interests you.  Bioengineering? Dueling? Governance? Something else?

Steerpike,

Anything you need from me for your forthcoming stats?

How much does lyssa cost?

Quote from: Rose-of-VellumSteerpike,

Anything you need from me for your forthcoming stats?

Just a pocket dimension where time runs at a slower rate.  But I'm actually almost done.  Basically just oddities and items left to go, I think.

Lyssa is 400 pence a hit. It's is one of the most expensive drugs in CE, in part because it is combination of two already eldritch substances: ghostgrass and hellmold. Consequently, feel free to change your PC's addiction is the price tag makes you leery.

As for time-slowing micro-dimensions... I definitely need one as well.

 
[ooc=Mr. Nix]Furtive Male Ghul Witch (Diabolism) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 1
Pools (Edge): Might 7 (0), Agility 10* (1), Intellect 15 (1); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: disease & poison (mastery), aging & death effects (immune); AC 1; Might Cost: 1; Agility Penalty: 2*
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Hellspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Poor
Senses: See in the dark (100 ft.), perception of demons (expertise)
Skills: deception (expertise), demonology and persuasion of demons (expertise), illusion- & deceit-based invocations (expertise), stealth (expertise), witchcraft (expertise)

Weapons:

• Derringer (light ranged weapon)

• Knife (light bladed weapon)

Esoteries:

• Emonomancy (2 Intellect points): Through a brief calling and binding ritual, Mr. Nix commands demons to scan an area equal in size to a 10-foot cube, including all objects or creatures within that area. The area must be within short range. Successful emonomancy of a creature or object reveals its level. He also learns whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the matter and energy in that area. However, this esotery doesn't tell him what the information means. Many materials and eldritch fields prevent or resist emonomancy. Action.
• Soul's Torment (1 Intellect point): Mr. Nix can attack a foe's mind, filling it with harrowing, phantasmagoric images of Hellish landscape and denizens. To use this invocation, Mr. Nix must be able to see his target. With a successful check, this mental attack inflicts 2 points of Intellect damage. Some creatures without minds (such as automatons) might be immune to this variant. Action.

Flaws:

• Carnivorous: Mr. Nix can only digest meat.
• Light Sensitivity: Mr. Nix is dazed in direct sunlight.
• Slow & Certain: swift movement (defect)

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities:
  
  
  • Lashing Tongue: This foot-long appendage appears to be the still-living tongue of a demon. Mr. Nix keeps it in a bag, where it worms and thrashes around eerily but ineffectually. It is slimy, and drips saliva constantly, and it is covered in ugly boils and blisters. Anyone who dares to put it in their mouth will instantly be able to speak Hellspeak, but can only manage to shout profanity and curses.
• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  • The Dark Glass: The edge of this jagged shard of obsidian has been carefully engraved with glyphs of seeing.  Upon command and with a successful roll against the target's DC, the glass will display an image, albeit smoky and slightly indistinct. The vision lasts for one minute, and at the end, the vision fades, and the glass becomes ordinary obsidian.
  • Glutton Worm: Mr. Nix keeps this sluglike creature in a small ivory box. Properly known as aerugo larvae, the glutton worm secretes a powerful, unique acid which can dissolve inorganic material of level 3 or lower, but has no effect whatsoever on flesh or other organic matter. The creature gobbles up the dissolved material around it, and in a matter of rounds, eats until it curls up into an ephemeral cocoon, then explodes, releasing a cloud of tiny aerugo-flies.
  • Wailing Bottle: A bottle carved with mourning, screaming faces, the lid is stoppered up, and sealed off with clay. If this bottle is smashed open on the ground, it releases the damned souls in torment that were trapped inside. They instantly start to be pulled down into an otherworldly Hell, and they will reach, pull, and claw at a single living creature within immediate range to try and remain in this world. Upon a successful attack, a horde of spirits assaults the target of this bottle, increasing the difficulty of all its actions by 1d6 rounds.

Mundane Items: Voulge Chirurgeon derringer pistol (12 shots), ornate ceremonial knife, spider-silk cuirass, clothing (tricorn hat, frock coat with hidden sleeve pocket, mask), chalk, 9' knotted measuring cord, tallow candles (5), matches (5), votive silver chain, 12 crowns.
[/ooc]

[ooc=Vex]
Familiar: demon; Level: 2
Health: 6; AC 0
Attack: bite (4 damage) plus poison (level 2, 4 damage)
Skills tracking (expertise)
[/ooc]

I couldn't tell whether you were suggesting Voulge Chirurgeon is the name of the type of derringer he uses, or the name he has specifically given his gun. If the latter, feel free to replace 'derringer' with its name in the Weapons section.

Also, I'm assuming your silk cuirass is light armor, thus granting you AC 1. However, remember that light armor imposes 1 Might damage/hour, and a 2 point reduction to your Agility pool so long as you wear it. I've modified your sheet accordingly.

Also, I wasn't sure which item you were considering your 'free' esoteric talisman. Knife? Votive chain? Either way, a knife is also a weapon, so I listed it in your weapons section. However, if you were thinking the knife is so ceremonial that it is nonfunctional in combat, feel free to clarify and remove it accordingly.

I subtracted the funds to pay for your items. I wasn't sure what you meant by smokepowder capsules. But if you meant smoke-bombs like Xavier uses, then they count as theurgic devices and cost more crowns than you have at the moment. But maybe you have bought some from Xavier -or the syndicate he belongs to- in the past, and might do so again in the future.

The pictures help quite a bit, so thanks for sharing them.

Other than the above questions/changes, your PC is ready to go. I'll create a character thread asap. Post Mr. Nix's full sheet (photos not necessary) at your convenience.

I've finally got Phrixia's theurgic items up, so that should be all for her.

Wunderbar; I'll review her stats asap.

Thanks again to everyone for their excellent submissions.

Re:Lifestyle: Xavier probably lives in a tenement in the Copper Ward. He should be able to blend in easily with all the artificers in that neighbourhood.

Re:Flaws: I missed the difference between debility and defect. Anyway, I'll have to scrap the animal thing and come up with a better replacement flaw.

Re:Theurgic items: Given that the primary function of a smoke bomb is to enable a quick retreat, how would reducing perception check DCs accomplish this? Can it be assumed that NPCs would be required to make perception checks if they wanted to attack or prevent the PCs from retreating under the cover of the smoke? As for flash bombs I'd propose immediate distance, one round duration.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
The Verses is a rich, creative idea. However, it is a bit beyond the scope of an eldritch oddity. Namely, eldritch oddities are inherently able to affect others. I mean, yes, Bartleby could throw his bleeding trophy at someone but that's a stretch. So, if you wanted to tweak the 'item', you could have it so that when Xavier recites the poem, or a stanza from it, that his breath turns to indigo smoke that dances like a salacious sylphid or forms leering, vaporous faces. You can maintain the disorientation and orifice bleeding if you wish.

I'm unable to see what you're getting at. How is it that changing the effect from random feelings to a visible puff of smoke would make a difference? It's not like there's any game mechanical effect to it either way.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Eye: A clockwork eye is perfect for your syndicate ties. However, eldritch oddities are usually curios, not sense or skill-enhancers, and theurgic devices are temporary.

Simplest solution would be to just drop the low-light vision part of it entirely. Of course, he's still going to be half-blind like a mindgrub when ever he's wearing the eyepatch.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
A garrote would be a weapon (heavy).

Now this here creates a BIG problem. Strangling is intended to be Xavier's favored means of killing (when not using poison), but being a rogue he can only use light and medium weapons without penalty. Got any suggestion on how to solve this dilemma?

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Lockpicks are 50 pence. Attempting lockpicking tasks without them impose a hindrance.

Ok. Looks like Xavier won't be doing much of break & entry after all.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
A cheap lighter is about 10 pence. You might consider making one of your eldritch oddities function as a lighter.

That'd actually make a good replacement for Venomous Verses.


I'll hopefully get around to posting a revised character sheet soon-ish.

I think instead of making the garotte a heavy weapon in and of itself, you shouldn't distinguish it from Xavier's light unarmed attack. It's like how Night's Black Agents handles grappling: if you can deal enough damage to kill the target in a single attack (and with the Swift Death ability and some Grit, that's a possibility) then you've gotten the wire around their throat and successfully strangled them. If you don't, then they've gotten free, your hand slipped, etc. Specific grappling rules are the bane of systems like this and, as we've seen, can completely deflate a character concept.

I figured the smoke powder capsules would function thusly:  they create a momentary cloud of dust that only momentarily obscures vision.  The idea being that when among people who can see him, he can toss one to create a distraction that helps him to hide.  More misdirection than anything else.  It would provide a one time benefaction on a stealth roll, but would not otherwise hamper the enemy's vision.

Come to think of it, it doesn't make sense that you could wield a garrote like an ordinary weapon. It should be something that only works on a successful surprise attack or if the target is otherwise defenseless for some reason.

With a handful of exceptions, weapons in Numenera are just a matter of flavor, so that should work out.

Ghostman,

Re: Lifestyle: Copper Ward tenement sounds good.

Re: Flaws: Understandable miscommunication. Also, as said before, feel free to keep the bestial handicap if you'd like for further character development.

Re: Smoke Bombs: You're absolutely right, NPCs don't roll, only PCs do. Consequently, smoke bombs would count as a benefaction to visual-based stealth tasks, provided the affected area was between you and the target you are hiding from. Such tasks would have their DC reduced by 2 steps for one round, then only reduce the DC by 1 for the following minute. Smoke bombs would similarly raise the DC of sight-based tasks (e.g., perception, attacks)

Flash bombs could temporarily blind an opponent, or group of opponents, in an immediate-distance (centered around wherever you throw the bomb). You would make an Agility roll against their DC. If successful, they are blinded for 1 round (higher level bombs would last longer). Against blinded foes, the DC of defense rolls and attack rolls is reduced by two steps. Action.   

How does that sound?

Re: Verses: The salient difference is that emotion-affecting words inherently and explicitly states that the oddity directly affects other creatures. Small wisps of dancing, eldritch smoke do not. The former implies a mechanical effect, or certainly imposes a narrative one.

Re: Eye: Your call. Although, now that I consider you are taking on a voluntary defect with your eyepatch, how about we say the clockwork eye negates 1-step hindrances due to dim illumination.

Re: Garrote: I'm open to suggestions –and I quite like the ones already provided. It would require two free hands, but otherwise, I'm fine with your just describing it flavor-wise as part of your surprise strike, and switching 'weapons' if the attack fails to slay the foe. The only mechanical issue is whether we consider it a light or medium attack. This not only affects the DC of the attack roll, but also determines its damage. I lean towards medium, as a successful garrote attack is quite lethal, but it also isn't an 'easy' weapon/strike like a jab or knife slash. Thoughts?

Re: Lockpicks: Something to buy, steal, or bargain. You could even assume you usually do breaking & entering, but say your picks just recently became damaged, and/or are being repaired in a syndicate shop.

Re: Lighter: Your call.

Let me know when you're good for round 2 review.

SH,

As described above, your smoke capsules seem to describe Ghostman's smoke bombs. Or is there some distinction, conceptual or mechanical, that I'm missing?

Not to sound too pushy, but how long until Phrixia gets reviewed?

Ask and ye shall receive...

Phrixia's stats looks great. I only have a few minor questions/comments:

1. Anything notable to the look/design of her mask? (full, half, etc.?)  You don't need to change the text, I'm just wondering what it looks like.
2. Does she have any present or past sobriquets or aliases? Not only does notoriety tend to bring such, but I also wanted to ask in light of her double-dealing in the War and subsequent attempts at avoiding retribution. Once again, tis not something that needs to be added to her 'sheet', but I was curious.
3. Foible looks good. As an addict of madwine, her lips would be stained yellow.
4. I fixed a few tiny formatting issues.
5. The theurgic items seem just a tad too powerful for a level 1 item (I have a slightly different tier calibration than Numenara). Consequently, I suggest the following changes:
a. The Ring's power only lasts 1 minute (change made to sheet).
b. The Oil's effect lasts either 1 hour (and does 1 extra damage) or 1 minute (and does 2 damage per wound). Your call (although I made the former change for convenience).

Other than those, your history, description, stats, items, etc., look great. Really solid character. I look forward to seeing her in play. Post her on the dedicated thread at your convenience.

[ooc=Phrixia Gronne]
Graceful Female Human Rogue (Way of the Blade & Pistol) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 10, Agility 14 (1), Intellect 12; Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (expertise); AC: 2 (medium); Might Cost: 0; Agility Penalty: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Alleyspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent. Phrixia rents a single spacious and well-appointed room in a boarding house on the periphery of the Indigo Ward, an establishment more often frequented by travelers from Lophius than by members of Skein's established criminal community.
Skills: balance (expertise), persuasion (expertise), physical performing arts (expertise), running (expertise)

Weapons:

• Blackwand (light bladed)
• Salamandrine (light ranged)

Tricks:

• Armor Proficiency: Phrixia can wear any kind of armor. She reduces the Might cost per hour for wearing armor and the Agility Pool reduction for wearing armor by 2. Enabler.
• Gutter-Witchcraft (1 Intellect point): Phrixia can perform small invocations: temporarily change the color or basic appearance of a small object, cause small objects to float through the air, clean a small area, mend a broken object, prepare (but not create) food, and so on. She can't use gutter-witchcraft to harm another creature or object. Action.

Flaws:

• Prideful: a roll of 1 on any Agility task leaves her dazed for one round due to shock and shame.
• Taste for Madwine: Phrixia can go a number of days equal to her Might Pool without taking madwine. After that, she must make a Might defense roll (DC 3+1 per previous check) or lose 2 Might, Agility, and Intellect points per day until she takes the drug. Until then, or until she overcomes her addiction, she cannot recover points in her pools and shifts down one step on the damage track.

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities:
  
  • The Red Hag: an eldritch tattoo of a hagfish inscribed in vivid carmine, which ceaselessly wriggles and squirms its way across her skin of its own accord, occasionally disappearing into a black and gold arabesque only to reemerge somewhere else on her body. Close inspection of the animate illumination reveals it to be a tughra (a stylized signature) formed of curling Glatch script.

• Theurgic Devices:
  
  • Doppelganger's Defensive Ring: An iron mourning ring engraved with hellish glyphs, containing a single bound imp of exceptional rascality. On command, the ring disintegrates and releases the demon within, who assumes a form identical to Phrixia and grants her a benefaction to Agility defense actions for 1 minute.
  • Oil of Viciousness: A small glass flacon containing an ugly, viscous mixture comprised of a dead soldier's blood and yellow bile and the ichorous effluvia of a Sallow Seas demon. When the oil is used to anoint the edge of a weapon, every wound blackens and sizzles from the eldritch cruelty, inflicting an additional 1 point of damage. The effect lasts for 1 hour, at which point the oil's potency evaporates.
  
  Mundane Possessions: Blackwand, Salamandrine (12 bullets), custom-fitted brigandine jack, clothing, cigarettes (12), bottle of brandy, bottle of madwine, matchsticks (10), 60 crowns.
  

[/ooc]

Also, since we have a madwine addict among us:

Madwine
Hallucinogenic liqueur; overdose can cause permanent lunacy.  Stains the lips yellow.
Initial Effects: Mild buzz, hallucinations, which increase the DC of all sensory-affected tasks by 1 step. A user can attempt an Intellect defense roll (DC 3 + the number of glasses consumed) to ignore the hallucinations and their penalty for one round.
Secondary Effects: Intellect defense roll (DC 3 + the number of glasses consumed) or become deranged for 3d6 rounds and take 1d6 points of Intellect damage.
After-effects: Stains the lips yellow.
Overdose: A user can drink a number of glasses of madwine per day equal to half their Intellect before overdosing. If exceeded, imbiber must make an Intellect defense roll (DC equals the number of glasses consumed) or permanently have your Intellect Pool reduced by 1d6 points.
Cost: 10 bones for a bottle (decent quality).

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Re: Verses: The salient difference is that emotion-affecting words inherently and explicitly states that the oddity directly affects other creatures. Small wisps of dancing, eldritch smoke do not. The former implies a mechanical effect, or certainly imposes a narrative one.

Thanks for the clarification. Anyway, I'll be swapping the oddity for a different one anyway, so this won't be an issue.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Re: Eye: Your call. Although, now that I consider you are taking on a voluntary defect with your eyepatch, how about we say the clockwork eye negates 1-step hindrances due to dim illumination.

Sounds agreeable.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Re: Lockpicks: Something to buy, steal, or bargain. You could even assume you usually do breaking & entering, but say your picks just recently became damaged, and/or are being repaired in a syndicate shop.

That's a pretty good idea. I think I'll go with the explanation that they were lost/broken when he tried to pick a spell-warded lock.


Revised character sheet is almost done, just need to solve the matter of the garrotte. I propose the following rules to handle it:

• Categorized as a medium melee weapon
• Must be used two-handedly (and thus becomes an exception to the rule that two-handed weapons are always heavy weapons)
• Is only effective against an organic creature that has a single head and a neck (hence an anthropophagus cannot be garroted)
• The targeted creature must either be completely helpless (ie. unconscious, paralyzed...) or it must be unaware of the attacker
• A creature that has been hit by a garrotte attack can be attacked again on the following round even though it has by then become aware of the attacker (this represents continuing the strangle -- if the attack misses though, the victim has managed to struggle free and the strangulation can't be continued in this manner)
• A creature that has been hit by a garrotte attack will be unable to move for one round (they can't simply run away until they've freed themselves from the strangle or killed the attacker) -- and neither can the attacker, without forfeiting the opportunity to continue strangling next round

Admittedly that's not the most elegant piece of rules but I think it'd be simple enough to be feasible in game.

How much would a garrotte cost? Anything more than 15 pence means I'll have to swap the sabre for it, since I'm definitely keeping the blowgun.

Those rules are fine. In terms of money, list the garrote and reduce your remaining crowns to 5.

[ooc=Xavier]Shrewd Male Human Rogue (Assassination) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 10 (0), Agility 14 (1), Intellect 12 (0); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (expertise), Intellect vs mental effects (expertise); AC: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Hellspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Senses:
Skills: flex skill (expertise)*, crafting bombs (expertise), crafting poison (expertise), deception (expertise), disguise (mastery), stealth (expertise), identifying or assessing danger, lies, quality, importance, function, or power (expertise)

Weapons:

• Sabre (medium bladed weapon)
• Garrotte (medium melee weapon)
• Blowgun (light ranged weapon)

Tricks: 

• Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. Xavier can make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if his weapon has a sharp point. Action.

• Surprise Strike: If attacking from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before an opponent has acted, Xavier reduces the difficulty of his attack by one step. On a successful hit with this surprise attack, he inflicts 2 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Flaws: 

• One-Eyed: Xavier is half-blind whenever his clockwork eye is covered, and suffers social repercussions if he leaves it uncovered in public.
• Foible: A hedge witch he killed managed to curse Xavier before succumbing to poison. This eldritch malediction deprived him of his once formidable poker face, along with some other useful "streetwise" talents. The difficulty of any task involving con artistry, gambling, haggling, persuation, or sleight-of-hand tricks is increased by two steps.

• Trivial Ignorance: lore and knowledge (defect).

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities: 
  
  
  
  • Vomitignus: This appears to be a small petrified creature, some manner of chimeric hybrid of insectile and reptilian features. Small enough to fit in a pocket, the many-limbed figure is curled in what resembles a fetal position, suggesting that it might be an unborn - or unhatched - spawn of a much larger beast. What is truly odd about it is that despite it's microlithic condition, there seems to be some kind of ineffable life left in the thing: if so much as a single drop of fresh blood is sprinkled on the creature, it's gaping mouth will belch forth a tiny flame of fire - barely more than a sparkle, but enough to light a cigarette. The blood staining it's form will immediately disappear, as if absorbed by the being. Xavier bought Vomitignus from a curiosity shop whose owner claimed it had been found in the Slouching Devil Mountains.
  • Spy's Eye: This is an artificial eyeball of eldritch clockwork construction, implanted in Xavier's right eye socket after he lost his natural eye in a vicious confrontation with a Nine Eyes syndicate enforcer. The device restores his stereoscopic vision, but only when he isn't wearing an eyepatch over it. When ucovered it also negates 1-step hindrances due to dim illumination. The orb's bewitched gaze sometimes falls upon vistas not meant for the sight of mortal men, revealing glimpses of nameless hells and aberrant realms beyond the fabric of the corporeal world. Such revelations, though usually mercifully brief, can be more than a little disturbing. The mechanical nature of the graft is also readily apparent.

• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  
  • Smoke Bomb: Detonates in a cloud of thick black smoke that fills a volume in the immediate distance. The cover of the smoke screen grants a benefaction to visual-based stealth tasks, provided the affected area is between you and the target you are hiding from. Such tasks have their DC reduced by 2 steps for one round, then only reduce the DC by 1 for the following minute. Smoke bombs similarly raise the DC of sight-based tasks (e.g., perception, attacks). Action.
  • Flash Bomb: Detonates in a bright flash of light that temporarily blinds opponents in an immediate-distance, centered around wherever the bomb is thrown. You must make an Agility roll against their DC; if successful, they are blinded for 1 round. Against blinded foes, the DC of defense rolls and attack rolls is reduced by two steps. Action.
  Mundane Possessions: Clothing, a bag of light tools, bomb making tools (first-tier), one additional smoke bomb, a pack of cigarettes, a pocket watch, 5 crowns.
  

[/ooc]

Vomitignus is perfect.

The foible, however, has a problem. The flavor is great (dying hex by a slain witch). However, here's the issue:

Quote from: Penumbra RulesCharacters cannot gain expertise or mastery in a skill in which they already have a defect or debility.

So, your character has expertise in deception, but the foible imposes a debility on con-artistry and sleight-of-hand tasks -both of which fall under/involve deception. So, having the curse impose a debility on another skill or equivalent handicap would be fine.

For instance, maybe your dreams are haunted by the witch, or the involuntary viewing of your clockwork eye while you sleep/rest, meaning you only recover 1d6, rather than 1d6+1 points, on a recovery roll.
Or, maybe the curse was from a leechkin shaman, giving you a defect to all interactions with leechkin, as if the entire race is driven by a collective unconscious motivation to mistrust, hate, and harm you.
The witch cursed you with a weakness against the same weapon you used to fell him/her -i.e., poison, and thus you have a debility on defense rolls against poison.
Or perhaps you seduced the witch, and so she cursed you that the 'gentler sex' would no longer be gentle or vulnerable to your wiles. Thus, you have a debility when trying to charm, seduce, or court females.
Or something like that.

Finally, I'd argue that no mere hedge witch imposed a permanent life-debilitating curse.

Also, for the smoke bombs, just list that you have 2 like so:

Smoke Bomb (x2):

Q: Would you consider a garrote a bashing or bladed weapon? It matters for future tricks you can apply to garrote attacks. Neither fits very well, so just pick one.

Quote from: Rose-of-VellumI couldn't tell whether you were suggesting Voulge Chirurgeon is the name of the type of derringer he uses, or the name he has specifically given his gun. If the latter, feel free to replace 'derringer' with its name in the Weapons section.

Also, I'm assuming your silk cuirass is light armor, thus granting you AC 1. However, remember that light armor imposes 1 Might damage/hour, and a 2 point reduction to your Agility pool so long as you wear it. I've modified your sheet accordingly.

Also, I wasn't sure which item you were considering your 'free' esoteric talisman. Knife? Votive chain? Either way, a knife is also a weapon, so I listed it in your weapons section. However, if you were thinking the knife is so ceremonial that it is nonfunctional in combat, feel free to clarify and remove it accordingly.

I subtracted the funds to pay for your items. I wasn't sure what you meant by smokepowder capsules. But if you meant smoke-bombs like Xavier uses, then they count as theurgic devices and cost more crowns than you have at the moment. But maybe you have bought some from Xavier -or the syndicate he belongs to- in the past, and might do so again in the future.

The pictures help quite a bit, so thanks for sharing them.

Other than the above questions/changes, your PC is ready to go. I'll create a character thread asap. Post Mr. Nix's full sheet (photos not necessary) at your convenience.

'Voulge' was meant to be the name of the maker (Brand name), and 'Chirurgeon' the model.

You were right that the cuirass is light armor, and I had forgotten to reduce the agility pool.

The knife might technically be able to cut with, but if he's going to get up close in a fight he's not going to bother with it: he's going to bite or use his claws instead.  It's not really meant to be an actual weapon. 

About the powder capsules, taking the time to look through them, I guess they are for the same purpose and basic effect as Xavier's smoke-bombs, it's just that since they are not magical at all, it's really weird thinking of them as a theurgic device.  But I can go without them for now.  I like the idea that I've purchased some from Xavier in the past, though, as it ties us together somewhat.  Perhaps it is his syndicate I have to pay off to avoid trouble in my squatter's hole, too.  Hell, maybe I even freelance for them from time to time (probably when I am behind on a payment)

All that works well for me, SH.

I forgot about your natural weapons. Please list them beside your other 'weapons'. As for theurgic devices, theurgy doesn't have to 'witchcraft'. Think Clarke's 3rd Law.

That said, post away (with the above changes)!

Work in progress, but please let me know if anything looks wrong or incomplete or whatnot!

[ic=Catena]Fungi and obscene graffiti mottled the decaying brickwork of Swinehowl Alley, one sigil proclaiming the crooked side-street the domain of the Nine-Eyes, another image depicting the Magistra Jeanne Phan-Luru (identifiable by double-headed raven heraldry) fornicating with a clockwork paramour.  The lurid drawings competed for wall-space with faded bounty notices and posters urging citizens to get tested for harrowflux infection.  The alley was clotted with refuse: overflowing garbage-bins, corroded gears and other machine parts, a mildewed heap of pamphlets calling for the expulsion of ghilan from the city.  A bedraggled man twitched nearby, lips black from shadowmilk.  The sound of clanking chains and creaking wood emanated from the nearby docks, alongside the dull cacophony of the Jewelled Monstrance.  Swinehowl Alley was dark, even at noon, the buildings to either side shrouding it in gloom.

The rancid odours of the Radula curdled the air, mingling with the other multifarious reeks of the Indigo Ward – tar, blood, wine, semen, sewage, smoke.  Catena ignored them all, unperturbed by their pungency: she had grown up in the slave-caverns of the lilix surrounded by the omnipresent stench of sweat, piss, and excrement, the fetor of a thousand men and women crammed into a too-small pen.  She turned a corner, following the zigzagging alley to its point of termination where a grubby leechkin slouched beside a wooden door.  The creature wore a fine waistcoat and trousers, along with a shabby top-hat shadowing its mouthless visage; its toothy palm-maws hissed as she approached.

"I'm here to see the Oddsaugur," she said simply.  Her voice bore a sibilant accent.  "Eaters' business."

The leechkin looked her up and down suspiciously, its yellow eyes narrowing.  "Surrender your weapons," it croaked, after a moment's consideration.

"Other than these I'm unarmed," she said, holding out her chains.  "Search me if you want."  She stepped forward, putting both hands on the back of her smooth, hairless head.

The leechkin took the chains and dropped them into a nearby barrel, then patted her body with slimy, long-fingered hands.  She wore a sleeveless vest of red leather, black hose, and hob-nailed boots; the creature investigated her garments, its breath hot on her skin as its palm-mouths exhaled.  Satisfied, it opened the door, stepping aside to let Catena enter.

Inside, the old knackery had been outfitted with benches and tables where a handful of men and women lounged, watching two women with stiletto knives circle one another inside one of the rusty cages where horses and pigs were once slaughtered for rendering.  Catena ignored them, threading her way towards the door to the backroom where another two guards – humans, armed with cudgels and wheellock pistols - surveyed the room.  These searched her a second time before, reluctantly, admitting her to the chamber beyond.

Inside sat a hunched and bloated figure, swathed in rags beginning to mildew.  The swollen corpse's flesh twitched and fluctuated beneath the faded cloth wrappings as the shade controlling it like a macabre marionette quivered and pulsed.  It tapped at the glyph-etched keys of a rusty machine, a scrap-fashioned, bastard twin to the grander Sortilege Engine of the Copper Ward, built from scavenged scraps and castoffs.  The machine was a mass of exposed gears, pumping pistons, and steaming valves, cobbled together in an ugly mass of metal.  The corpulent grave-spawn bookmaker adjusted a pair of round spectacles and squinted at the readout the churning machinery regurgitated.  The windows of the room had been carefully boarded up and swathed in curtains so that no sunlight could enter.  One wall was dominated by a huge painting liberated from some nobleman's household, an erotic sinscape of demonic and human flesh commingling in the moonlight.

"Yes?" the Oddsaugur rasped with its ruinous voice, not looking up from its work.

"I'm here to collect," Catena declared flatly.  "You owe the Eaters a lot of chitin, augur."

The creature waved a bony hand dismissively.  "I'm good for it," the shade insisted.  "Should have it be next Molting.  Early Ashwick at the latest.  Tell your drugged-up employers they needn't worry.  I've worked out all the kinks; my calculations are flawless this time."

"I don't think you understand," Catena continued.  "This is your last chance.  You have to pay now.  As in, open the safe I know you have behind that painting and give me what's inside it."

"Or what?"  The Oddsaugur chuckled.  "The Orchid-Eaters didn't even bother coming themselves.  Too strung out on their pollen to get off their pimpled arses!"

"I assure you, my employers take this matter very seriously."

"Then they shouldn't have sent a pale little girl to do their dirty work.  What're you going to do?  I've got two men outside with hand cannons and half a dozen more in the room outside.  Go back to your drugged-up masters and tell them to be patient."

"This is your last chance," Catena said patiently.  "I urge you to take it."

"You make these old bones shake, kid," the Oddsaugur said, looking up at her for the first time.  "But seriously, fuck off back to the Greenhouse or I'll have Hardskull and Blisters out there send you back in pieces."

Catena sighed, then moved.  Bursting forward fast in a blur of sudden motion (like a spider, suddenly scuttling in a single, jerking spasm of movement) and grasped the shade by its long, mouldering hair, pushing its face down towards the exposed machinery of the engine so that its rotting features were mere inches from the churning gears.

"The combination," she said flatly as the grave-spawn thrashed, trying to free itself from a grip like iron.

"Guards!" It croaked.  "Get in here you bastards!"

Catena sighed again, flinging the shade away into a corner and springing rapidly towards the door as it swung open.  Seizing the first tough by the wrist she twisted, hard, producing a sickening snap.  The man howled in unexpected pain as his pistol clattered to the floor; she kicked the man hard in the solar plexus, knocking the air from his lungs and sending him barreling backwards into the second thug behind him.  With a smooth motion she plucked the man's wheellock from the floor, took half a breath to aim carefully, and then fired a bullet at near point blank range through the skulls of both guards, spattering the room behind them with blood, brains, and fragments of skull.

She remembered once, seeing a lilix forewoman take care of two subordinate slaves in much the same way, lining them up one next to the other.  Two slaves were worth only one bullet, she'd said, her mouthparts chittering in the spiderfolk equivalent of laughter.

There were shrieks, grunts, curses, and cries of alarm.  A gutter-witch was barking some incantation, weaving strands of numina into a mass of glowing eldritch worms, congealing between his fingertips.  Catena growled and hurled the pistol at his face, shattering his nose, while others in the room drew daggers and rapiers, advancing towards her.  Unarmed again she dodged the sword-thrust of the first to step over the bouncers' corpses, then rammed an open palm up into the man's face, driving bone and cartilage up into his skull.  He staggered backwards, blood spurting from his nostrils, and she was still moving, keeping low to avoid the crossbow quarrels now whistling overhead.

The smell of blood and smoke filled the air, reminding her of the stench of the pits, of the mines deep in the Chelicerae Mountains where men and women, her kindred, died by the dozens, while the lilix snapped their whips and snarled orders.

More quarrels thudded into the wooden walls as Catena snatched up a half-full bottle of wine.  A burly man hefting a hatchet and a lithe, tattooed women with two daggers - – one of the girls from the cage – came at her.  She flung out her arm, sending a stream of wine into the eyes of the man, then side-stepped a dagger-swipe and smashed the woman in the head with the bottle, braining her.  The knife-fighter toppled and Catena stomped hard on her throat – once, twice, thrice.  Blood welled beneath her hobnails as Catena grabbed the discarded daggers, just in time to parry an overhead blow from the recovered tough's hatchet.  She plunged the second blade into the man's belly, just above his groin, and hugged him close, twisting; two crossbow bolts hit him in the back.  She shoved the dying man into the second pit-fighter.  The witch, recovered, spat a second hex, manifesting as a glob of caustic bile.  The acidic vomit hurtled through the air, nearly searing her hairless scalp.  She hissed softly and threw her remaining knife, embedding the blade in the magus's chest.

She had learned early in life what theurges could do, when she'd watched a lilix priestess torture a heretic to death in a public square in Chenzirr, weaving a cat-cradle sigil out of cobwebs between her fingers, a criss-crossed pattern that sliced the screaming dissident into half a hundred parts, the cuts clean and neat, like the work of some slaughterhouse mechanism.

The crossbow-wielder was reloading.  She came at him bare-handed and covered in blood as he fumbled for quarrels.  Wrenching the mechanism from his hands she slammed the butt of the repeating crossbow into his face, breaking his jaw and spraying teeth across the floor.  He'd loaded two of the quarrels already; raising the crossbow slightly she put both bolts into the chest of the leechkin bouncer at the door.

Those left in the knackery fled as Catena returned to the backroom where the Oddsaugur was still picking its gas-bloated bulk up from the floor.   Calmly, Catena finished reloading the crossbow and fired three bolts, aiming carefully, pinning the grave-spawn to the floor.  Then – slowly, deliberately – she threw back the curtains, revealing the boarded-up windows.

"The combination, Oddsaugur," she said in the same unruffled monotone she'd used before.  "Unless you're eager to work on your tan..."[/ic]

Catena was born in the black pens of Dolmen, one of the albino slaves of the lilix.  Bred for endurance and stamina, such "subhuman" labourers live a life of squalor and pain, competing with one another for food, space, and light.  It was here, in the sweaty, pallid press of bickering flesh, that Catena (then known only by her designation, Zyrix-Mhalofneshea) first learned to fight, sparring with other children and with adults, breaking arms and noses to keep herself fed.  A frequent troublemaker as a child and young adolescent, she was whipped mercilessly by her arachnid overseers after killing several slaves in self-defence, snapping one's neck with her bare hands, beating another's head into the ground till his skull cracked, tearing out the neck of a third with her teeth.  She spent a period in the lightless mines of the Chelicerae Mountains and another in the factories of Xelschemyr before being purchased by a freedwoman with a manse in Illhillisz to work as a servant.  She performed her duties well and would soon have earned her freedom, but before she could an assassin sent by a rival freedwoman merchant broke into the manse of her mistress.  She killed the assassin with a hatpin to the throat, but also destroyed the venomous spider the assassin planned to poison her mistress with.  Since slaying a spider is a capital crime in Dolmen Catena knew she would be publicly and gruesomely executed if she remained in the manse.

Quickly, Catena devised a plan to escape her fate.  One of the Ladies Revenant, Genevieve, had sent a vessel to Dolmen in order to purchase corpses, raw material for the necrotheurgic experimentation of the Revenants.  Fleeing through the streets of Dolmen (dispatching several patrolling guards as she went) she made her way to the docklands of the Foreigner's Quarter and crept onto the boat, concealing herself in the foul mass of cadavers stored in the hold.  The corps-barge was bound for the spires of Somnambulon before her crime was discovered, and Catena was able to slip over the side and escape into the wilds of the north.  Wandering the Baronies, the Slouching-devil Mountains, and Barrow Scrub, Catena worked as a mercenary and bodyguard, honing her skills and learning Shambles.  Eventually she found her way south to Skein, where she began hiring herself out as a freelance enforcer and tough.

Physically, Catena is a short, sinewy woman with alabaster-pale skin, huge reddish-pink eyes, and a hairless scalp (she can grow hair – unusually thick and perfectly white – but keeps her head hairless).  Her back is a mass of scar-tissue from the whips of the lilix and her neck and wrists are riddled with small puckered scars where overseers fed on her blood.  She is extremely strong and semi-feral, with finely honed reflexes and killer instincts.  Capable of fighting without weapons, she nonetheless favours a long chain that she uses to strangle, whip, and bludgeon foes.  She is utterly without mercy and has no discernable moral compass, doing whatever she needs to survive.

[ooc=Catena]Stoic Female Human Warrior (Bloodletting) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 13 (1), Agility 12 (1), Intellect 7; Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (mastery without armour), Might (expertise), Intellect vs emotion-altering effects (expertise) AC: 1
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+2; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Chattelchatter, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Skills: balancing (expertise), climbing (expertise)

Weapons:

•   Chain (medium bashing weapon)
•   Dagger (light bladed weapon)
•   Hand Crossbow (light ranged weapon)
•   Unarmed Strike (light or medium bashing weapon)

Combat Maneuvers:

  Always Armed: Catena can turn nearly any object into a deadly weapon, from a broken bottle to a silk sash. Consequently, attacking with an improvised weapon is not a hindrance for her. Enabler.
  Bloodlust: When she wishes, while in combat, Catena can enter a state of frenzy. While in this state, she can't use Intellect points, but she gains +1 to her Might Edge and her Agility Edge. This
  effect lasts for as long as she wishes, but it ends if no combat is taking place within range of her senses. Enabler.
  No Need for Weapons: Whenever she makes an unarmed attack, Catena can choose for it to count as a medium weapon instead of a light weapon. Enabler.
  Trained Without Armor: Catena has expertise in Agility defense actions when not wearing armor. Enabler.


Flaws:

  Arachnophobic: Due to her upbringing in Dolmen's slave-pens, Catena is haunted by a lingering dread of spiders. Consequently, she suffers a debility in any task involving arachnoid creatures or devotees of Verlum.

 Stoic: Emotional displays, reciprocity, and empathy (defect).


Items:
•   Eldritch Oddities:
o   Cheater's Coin: Taken from the corpse of an itinerate gambler Catena was charged with eliminating as a message to other deadbeats unable to settle their debts, the Cheater's Coin seems to be a small, Lophian drachma, but close inspection reveals that it has been stamped with unfamiliar sigils.  While the coin is balanced perfectly, it reads the thoughts of any who flips it such that a coin-toss is always resolved in the flipper's favour.
•   Theurgic Devices:
o   Clockwork Doll: Created by the artificers of Skein as automaton bodyguard-toys for the children of magisters and merchant princes, these dolls seem like nothing more than children's playthings unless wound a certain number of times, at which point they move to protect their charges by expelling a puff of noxious gas from their mouths in the direction of any threatening their wards. Upon activation the doll releases a level 1 poison that does 2 points of Might damage to all living creatures in an immediate distance.
o   Thrum: Though not addicted to the stuff Catena is an occasional user of the eldritch drug known as Thrum, which causer the affected individual to quiver rapidly while enhancing their agility.
•   Mundane Possessions: clothing, chains, dagger, hand crossbow (12 quarrels)[/ooc]

Thanks for posting. Overall, it looks great. I fixed a few minor formatting issues. The only outstanding issues/questions are as follows:

1. With a decent lifestyle, where do she call kip (and if it's in syndicate-controlled territory, on who's turf does she reside)?
2. Brusque is sketchy. The flavor is completely appropriate. However, there is a significant mechanical overlap with your stoic flaw. Basically, one shouldn't double-dip on a disposition flaw and a human foible. That said, you did broaden the task enough that I think it's permissible, as etiquette and deception don't always include emotional displays. Also, diplomacy and big enough skills that the penalty is significant (rather than having overlapping penalties on basket-weaving and sewing). But as a foible, the flaw has to be a debility, so it's a 2-step increase to DC. If you don't want to so severely penalize her on all those tasks, feel free to change or create another foible.
3. Cheater's Coin is good.
4. The Clockwork Doll is likewise great (in fact, I already had a foe with a very similar device). I especially love the concept of brusque, brutal Catena carrying around a delicate-looking doll. As for the mechanics, here are 2 options. 1, it could release a level 1 poison that does 2 points of Might damage to all living creatures in an immediate distance. Alternatively, it could release sickening gas that impairs all living creatures in an immediate distance. You have to make an Agility roll against the foes' level(s), and if you succeed, they are sickened (decreasing DCs to dodge, resist, or attack them by 1 step). Your call. Higher tier dolls could include more toxic poisons and/or fumes that nauseate foes for longer durations.
5. Thrum. Here's my mechanical take on the substance. Let me know what you think:

THRUM
Combat drug which enhances agility and causes the user to quiver rapidly. Highly addictive.
Initial Effects: 1-step benefaction to Agility-based tasks
Secondary Effects: Might defense roll (DC 6) or take 1d6 Intellect damage.
After-effects: Sickened after use for 1 hour.
Overdose: Using thrum more than once a day requires a Might defense roll DC 6 or suffer 1 permanent Agility damage as nerves fray.
Addiction Rating: Overwhelming (Might DC 7).
Satiation: 1 day.
Withdrawal: 1d6 Agility damage due to violent tremors.
Cost: 150 pence.

[ooc=Catena]Stoic Female Human Warrior (Bloodletting) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 13 (1), Agility 12 (1), Intellect 7; Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (mastery without armour), Might (expertise), Intellect vs emotion-altering effects (expertise) AC: 1
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+2; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Chattelchatter, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Skills: balancing (expertise), climbing (expertise)

Weapons:

•   Chain (medium bashing weapon)
•   Dagger (light bladed weapon)
•   Hand Crossbow (light ranged weapon)
•   Unarmed Strike (light or medium bashing weapon)

Combat Maneuvers:

• Always Armed: Catena can turn nearly any object into a deadly weapon, from a broken bottle to a silk sash. Consequently, attacking with an improvised weapon is not a hindrance for her. Enabler.

• Bloodlust: When she wishes, while in combat, Catena can enter a state of frenzy. While in this state, she can't use Intellect points, but she gains +1 to her Might Edge and her Agility Edge. This effect lasts for as long as she wishes, but it ends if no combat is taking place within range of her senses. Enabler.

• No Need for Weapons: Whenever she makes an unarmed attack, Catena can choose for it to count as a medium weapon instead of a light weapon. Enabler.

• Trained Without Armor: Catena has expertise in Agility defense actions when not wearing armor. Enabler.

Flaws:

• Brusque: Sweet, subtle words are not Catena's forte. She has a debility in any task involving diplomacy, etiquette, seduction, or deception.

• Stoic: Emotional displays, reciprocity, and empathy (defect).

Items:
•   Eldritch Oddities:
o   Cheater's Coin: Taken from the corpse of an itinerate gambler Catena was charged with eliminating as a message to other deadbeats unable to settle their debts, the Cheater's Coin seems to be a small, Lophian drachma, but close inspection reveals that it has been stamped with unfamiliar sigils.  While the coin is balanced perfectly, it reads the thoughts of any who flips it such that a coin-toss is always resolved in the flipper's favour.
•   Theurgic Devices:
o   Clockwork Doll: Created by the artificers of Skein as automaton bodyguard-toys for the children of magisters and merchant princes, these dolls seem like nothing more than children's playthings unless wound a certain number of times, at which point they move to protect their charges by expelling a puff of noxious gas from their mouths in the direction of any threatening their wards. [Uncertain how this should work]
o   Thrum: Though not addicted to the stuff Catena is an occasional user of the eldritch drug known as Thrum, which causer the affected individual to quiver rapidly while enhancing their agility.  Upon use, a syringe of Thrum grants the user an Agility benefaction for 1 minute.
•   Mundane Possessions: clothing, chains, dagger, hand crossbow (12 quarrels)[/ooc]
[/list]

SH,

Thanks for posting your stats -would you please add your IC storiette & background. Same for others who post; please include both fluff & crunch. Look for a post soon, after which, you'll be cleared to start posting/playing. I'll create intros for others as soon as they are likewise ready.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum

Quote from: Penumbra RulesCharacters cannot gain expertise or mastery in a skill in which they already have a defect or debility.

So, your character has expertise in deception, but the foible imposes a debility on con-artistry and sleight-of-hand tasks -both of which fall under/involve deception. So, having the curse impose a debility on another skill or equivalent handicap would be fine.

Dang. These broad skills sure are difficult to dance around :P
I'll look to some alternatives then.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Finally, I'd argue that no mere hedge witch imposed a permanent life-debilitating curse.

Ironically, I had originally written that it was a magister he'd killed, but changed it to a hedge witch because I thought it was too powerful of a target.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Q: Would you consider a garrote a bashing or bladed weapon? It matters for future tricks you can apply to garrote attacks. Neither fits very well, so just pick one.

If I have to pick one I'd make it bladed, though I'll never try to use poison with it.


EDIT: here's a fixed character sheet
[spoiler]
[ooc=Xavier]Shrewd Male Human Rogue (Assassination) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 10 (0), Agility 14 (1), Intellect 12 (0); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (expertise), Intellect vs mental effects (expertise); AC: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Hellspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Senses:
Skills: flex skill (expertise)*, crafting bombs (expertise), crafting poison (expertise), deception (expertise), disguise (mastery), stealth (expertise), identifying or assessing danger, lies, quality, importance, function, or power (expertise)

Weapons:

• Sabre (medium bladed weapon)
• Garrotte (medium bladed weapon)
• Blowgun (light ranged weapon)

Tricks: 

• Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. Xavier can make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if his weapon has a sharp point. Action.

• Surprise Strike: If attacking from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before an opponent has acted, Xavier reduces the difficulty of his attack by one step. On a successful hit with this surprise attack, he inflicts 2 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Flaws: 

• One-Eyed: Xavier is half-blind whenever his clockwork eye is covered, and suffers social repercussions if he leaves it uncovered in public.
• Foible: A witch he killed managed to curse Xavier before succumbing to poison. This eldritch malediction deprived him of many of his "streetwise" talents. The difficulty of any task involving forgery, gambling, haggling, persuation or intimidation is increased by two steps.

• Trivial Ignorance: lore and knowledge (defect).

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities: 
  
  
  
  • Vomitignus: This appears to be a small petrified creature, some manner of chimeric hybrid of insectile and reptilian features. Small enough to fit in a pocket, the many-limbed figure is curled in what resembles a fetal position, suggesting that it might be an unborn - or unhatched - spawn of a much larger beast. What is truly odd about it is that despite it's microlithic condition, there seems to be some kind of ineffable life left in the thing: if so much as a single drop of fresh blood is sprinkled on the creature, it's gaping mouth will belch forth a tiny flame of fire - barely more than a sparkle, but enough to light a cigarette. The blood staining it's form will immediately disappear, as if absorbed by the being. Xavier bought Vomitignus from a curiosity shop whose owner claimed it had been found in the Slouching Devil Mountains.
  • Spy's Eye: This is an artificial eyeball of eldritch clockwork construction, implanted in Xavier's right eye socket after he lost his natural eye in a vicious confrontation with a Nine Eyes syndicate enforcer. The device restores his stereoscopic vision, but only when he isn't wearing an eyepatch over it. When ucovered it also negates 1-step hindrances due to dim illumination. The orb's bewitched gaze sometimes falls upon vistas not meant for the sight of mortal men, revealing glimpses of nameless hells and aberrant realms beyond the fabric of the corporeal world. Such revelations, though usually mercifully brief, can be more than a little disturbing. The mechanical nature of the graft is also readily apparent.

• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  
  • Smoke Bomb (x2): Detonates in a cloud of thick black smoke that fills a volume in the immediate distance. The cover of the smoke screen grants a benefaction to visual-based stealth tasks, provided the affected area is between you and the target you are hiding from. Such tasks have their DC reduced by 2 steps for one round, then only reduce the DC by 1 for the following minute. Smoke bombs similarly raise the DC of sight-based tasks (e.g., perception, attacks). Action.
  • Flash Bomb: Detonates in a bright flash of light that temporarily blinds opponents in an immediate-distance, centered around wherever the bomb is thrown. You must make an Agility roll against their DC; if successful, they are blinded for 1 round. Against blinded foes, the DC of defense rolls and attack rolls is reduced by two steps. Action.
  Mundane Possessions: Clothing, a bag of light tools, bomb making tools (first-tier), a pack of cigarettes, a pocket watch, 5 crowns.
  

[/ooc]

[/spoiler]

For the Foible, it may help to consider a non-skill debility. Especially since the concept of a Batman/Thief assassin who is downright pathetic at intimidation or persuasion doesn't seem to make much sense.

As for the witch responsible for the curse, a magister might be too powerful a target, or at least without a lot more background development.

The One-Eyed blurb looks good. Remember that among the counter-culture of the Brass Skulls, mechanical augmentations aren't frowned upon, but are embraced. 

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
SH,

Thanks for posting your stats -would you please add your IC storiette & background. Same for others who post; please include both fluff & crunch. Look for a post soon, after which, you'll be cleared to start posting/playing. I'll create intros for others as soon as they are likewise ready.

Yes, of course, I will add those on. 

SH, your IG intro is up. I look forward to your reply. 

Alright, I've gotten Hadric as finished as I can. All he needs now is a focus. I'm honestly not sure what it should be, as he's kind of niche, having only been a student of botany, a travelling sellsword, and a harried victim of Skien's byzantine legal system so far in his life.

As for his living situation, I imagine that he lives in what remains of his mother's vivisected (the top floors having been removed and grafted onto Claudius Umptor's own spire) and thoroughly plundered spire, having been granted the right to live on the property by a judge due to 'compassionate circumstances' until his case has been resolved before the courts. His decent lifestyle represents various odds and ends and a few pieces of furniture spread throughout the dusty and unhealthy expanse of the spire.

Edit: Perhaps the monthly expense (aside from his basic necessities) represents his attempts to stop the tower from dying completely (maybe grafting it with various climbing plants - giant leaves spilling out the windows - that share their sap and fluids with the tower, giving it much needed sustenance) or some kind of holding fee he has to pay to the court.

Excellent, MG. I may wait to review the sheet until you've settled on a focus (or not if I have time otherwise).

As for focus, it is your call. Barratry doesn't strike me as an appropriate focus, as he seems more a victim of law, rather than a master of it. His sellsword abilities seem aptly represented by his warrior archetype. But botany is largely missing from his mechanics, despite it being a major part of his description and history. Perhaps you can tell me a bit more about where you see your PC going (as opposed to where he has been). Do you see him remaining a mercenary, or do you see him rejoining high society? Answers to such might help define what you'd like his focus to be.

Overall, I'm also curious about where the botanical aspect is coming from. It's cool, no doubt and different, but it's not something one primarily associates with magisters or the Collegia (as opposed to diabolism, artifice, engineering, etc.). It moreso reminds me of Moroi's Glass Quarter. 

Hadric's mother was a pretty permissive parent - owing to her son's emotive and changeable nature - and encouraged him to study whatever he most wanted, which just so happened to be botany. Perhaps he was fascinated by plant-life at a young age, having grown up in a city mostly devoid of it. I'm not sure it has to come from anywhere in particular.

Hadric really has no idea where he's going with his life currently. Aside from having his legal status as a living person affirmed, he really doesn't have any particular goals aside from keeping on keeping on.

I suppose that's not particularly helpful, but in the end I'd think botanist or something closely related is likely the only appropriate focus for him.

Oh that's actually quite helpful. To clarify though, my question was more OOC rather than IC, meaning I'm curious where and why you as a player came up with the botanical theme.

I dunno. It just popped into my brain.

As far as where I see him going OOC, I don't have anything particular in mind, due to the fact that Hadric himself has nothing particular in mind. Hence his future will mostly be reactive, rather than proactive. Perhaps he will develop further goals as events unfold, and as he changes as a person.

Sounds good; I'll try and get a botany-based focus asap.

Hopefully this will be the final revision of Xavier's character sheet. The curse on him is now pretty much a random collection of tasks, selected not to form any sensible category but rather 1) to be significant enough to justify a debility and 2) to be compatible with the character's concept and skills.

[spoiler=Xavier]

Xavier is a professional hit man, an artist of cold-blooded murder. Although slaying men is his business, he doesn't consider himself a warrior. He never engages his targets in combat if he can avoid it, prefering to dispatch them via more effective means. He favours methods that are contemptible, dishonorable and decidedly unfair: poison, arson, planted explosives, orchestrating "accidents", strangling sleeping victims in their beds, etc. As long as he performs his job correctly his targets will never even know what got them, let alone have any chance to fight back. Should his plans go awry he won't hesitate to flee; he feels no sense of pride nor honor that could compel him to stand and fight. He is a ruthless pragmatist that kills without mercy, though never without reason.

Xavier is neither tough nor very strong. He is agile and possessed of lightning-fast reflexes, keen perception and sharp intellect. Although his movements are swift and precise, they are also completely devoid of grace and flair. He has no interest in the pompous showmanship of buffoonish swashbucklers, no time to waste on fancy flourishes.

His greatest expertice lies in stealth and acrobatics; he blends into the shadows and slips through the dark alleys of Skein with the ease of a ghost, dashing silently across rooftops and scuttling through the narrowest of windows and hatches. Few are the locks that can hold him out. When he isn't out on the field stalking his next victim Xavier tinkers in his laboratory, mixing deadly poisons or constructing various gadgets ranging from simple tools to intricate clockwork mechanisms and alchemical aids.

Xavier is a man of average height, with a wiry athletic build and pale complexion. His sleek coal-black hair is cut short, oiled and combed back. His face is clean shaven and narrow with sharp features. A deep scar runs from his right cheek to his forehead, interrupted by a mechanical clockwork orb that replaces his lost right eye. Xavier usually hides this device under a black eyepatch while in public, primarily because it gives him a disturbing countenance that attracts unfavourable attention from the population of Skein, but also because the preternatural vistas this eldritch mechanism reveals can be unsettling even for someone as cold-blooded as him. His left eye is of icy blue color, in contrast with the blood-red hue of it's artificial pairing.

His clothing is of quality suitable for a middle-class skeinite, albeit without the slightest hint of the typical pretenses to imitate the flamboyance of the nobility. We wears a brown shirt, black trousers and a cowled gray cloak. On his feet are boots augmented with clockwork enhancements, on his hands leather gloves similarly improved. Attached on his belt is an array of strange little tools and vials, and a sabre rests sheathed by his side. His other weapons are kept concealed until needed. The lower half of his face is covered, in accordance with customs of Skein, under a veil of black silk.

Xavier is a member of the Brass Skulls syndicate, working as one of their hitmen in addition to crafting some of the simpler mechanical gadgets. He lives in a tenement in the Copper Ward where he also keeps his smallish workshop-lab, taking advantage of the proximity to the artificer population and the local market for parts and raw materials.


[ooc=Xavier]Shrewd Male Human Rogue (Assassination) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 2
Pools (Edge): Might 10 (0), Agility 14 (1), Intellect 12 (0); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Agility (expertise), Intellect vs mental effects (expertise); AC: 0
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Hellspeak, Shambles
Lifestyle: Decent
Senses:
Skills: flex skill (expertise)*, crafting bombs (expertise), crafting poison (expertise), deception (expertise), disguise (mastery), stealth (expertise), identifying or assessing danger, lies, quality, importance, function, or power (expertise)

Weapons:

• Sabre (medium bladed weapon)
• Garrotte (medium bladed weapon)
• Blowgun (light ranged weapon)

Tricks: 

• Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. Xavier can make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if his weapon has a sharp point. Action.

• Surprise Strike: If attacking from a hidden vantage, with surprise, or before an opponent has acted, Xavier reduces the difficulty of his attack by one step. On a successful hit with this surprise attack, he inflicts 2 additional points of damage. Enabler.

Flaws: 

• One-Eyed: Xavier is half-blind whenever his clockwork eye is covered, and suffers social repercussions if he leaves it uncovered in public.
• (Foible) Cursed: A witch he killed managed to curse Xavier before succumbing to poison. This eldritch malediction thwarts his efforts on an arbitrary variety of activities. The difficulty of any task involving demonology, forgery, gambling, haggling, riding or swimming, as well as any task involving interacting with demons, is increased by two steps.

• Trivial Ignorance: lore and knowledge (defect).

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities: 
  
  
  
  • Vomitignus: This appears to be a small petrified creature, some manner of chimeric hybrid of insectile and reptilian features. Small enough to fit in a pocket, the many-limbed figure is curled in what resembles a fetal position, suggesting that it might be an unborn - or unhatched - spawn of a much larger beast. What is truly odd about it is that despite it's microlithic condition, there seems to be some kind of ineffable life left in the thing: if so much as a single drop of fresh blood is sprinkled on the creature, it's gaping mouth will belch forth a tiny flame of fire - barely more than a sparkle, but enough to light a cigarette. The blood staining it's form will immediately disappear, as if absorbed by the being. Xavier bought Vomitignus from a curiosity shop whose owner claimed it had been found in the Slouching Devil Mountains.
  • Spy's Eye: This is an artificial eyeball of eldritch clockwork construction, implanted in Xavier's right eye socket after he lost his natural eye in a vicious confrontation with a Nine Eyes syndicate enforcer. The device restores his stereoscopic vision, but only when he isn't wearing an eyepatch over it. When ucovered it also negates 1-step hindrances due to dim illumination. The orb's bewitched gaze sometimes falls upon vistas not meant for the sight of mortal men, revealing glimpses of nameless hells and aberrant realms beyond the fabric of the corporeal world. Such revelations, though usually mercifully brief, can be more than a little disturbing. The mechanical nature of the graft is also readily apparent.

• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  
  • Smoke Bomb (x2): Detonates in a cloud of thick black smoke that fills a volume in the immediate distance. The cover of the smoke screen grants a benefaction to visual-based stealth tasks, provided the affected area is between you and the target you are hiding from. Such tasks have their DC reduced by 2 steps for one round, then only reduce the DC by 1 for the following minute. Smoke bombs similarly raise the DC of sight-based tasks (e.g., perception, attacks). Action.
  • Flash Bomb: Detonates in a bright flash of light that temporarily blinds opponents in an immediate-distance, centered around wherever the bomb is thrown. You must make an Agility roll against their DC; if successful, they are blinded for 1 round. Against blinded foes, the DC of defense rolls and attack rolls is reduced by two steps. Action.
  Mundane Possessions: Clothing, a bag of light tools, bomb making tools (first-tier), a pack of cigarettes, a pocket watch, 5 crowns.
  

[/ooc]

[/spoiler]

Xavier looks 99.9% done. One final tweak is needed for the foible, however. Flaws, like other abilities, should enhance flavor and provide a sense of conceptual coherency, so an explicit arbitrary jumble of task debilities isn't desired. Also, you have given yourself such a large number of affected skills; no need to penalize yourself so severely (at least not without evocative flavor to justify). Consequently, here are two revisions to your Curse. Feel free to pick one, add it to your 'sheet', then post in the character thread.

Infernal Curse: A diabolist, slain by Xavier, cursed the assassin before succumbing to poison. This eldritch malediction marks Xavier as an enemy of demons and their devotees. As a result, any task involving diplomacy against demons or demonologists has its DC increased by 2.

Beast-God's Curse: Before succumbing to Xavier's poison, a witch-priest of a Beast-God cursed the assassin. This eldritch malediction marks him an enemy to aquatic domains and their denizens. The difficulty of any task involving swimming or interacting with any aquatic creature, including attack and defense rolls, is increased by 2 steps.

In the former case, the mark could have been a magister's familiar, a diabolist-student of the Collegia, or a rival demon or demonologist tied to the Yellow Dragons.
In the latter case, it could be any cultist of any Beast-God, such as a hagman, leechkin, or human devotee to Draukyr the turtle-god, Basatan the Lord of Crabs, Thoggu the Slimy, Shuddegoth the Barnacle-God, etc.

Ghostman and I were talking about having maybe worked together in the past.  Infernal curse seems like that would make such an arrangement...difficult, since Mr. Nix is a diabolist (I'm working on my post, by the way.  Valentine's Day kinda got in the way of my being able to write up a response) and Vex is so much a part of his identity.  Now if the Foible were just applying to demonology and demons themselves, I could see Mr. Nix being amused by how uncomfortable Xavier made Vex, and choose to be around him for that precise reason (as he is afraid Vex is controlling him subtly, and Xavier's presence would distract the familiar) But it doesn't seem likely they'd work together if it applies to interactions with diabolists and demonologists too.

It would certainly affect the relationship, but the curse wouldn't prohibit you having a past, present, and future relationship of working together. You could like Xavier, even if Vex doesn't like him -it might make you like Xavier even more, as you pointed out. Moreover, he won't have to roll checks with interacting with you, so the curse would affect Xavier-NPC interactions rather than Xavier-PC interactions.

Infernal Curse seems the more fitting option given the flavour of Skein. The curse could be something that happened maybe a year or two ago, while Xavier's acquaintance with Mr. Nix goes back further? (I don't know how long Nix has been a Ghul and present in Skein.) That would explain why they can work together even if there's now some tension between them.

Indeed. That does bring up a query for everyone. Approximately, how old are each of your PCs? For Mr. Nix, the question is how long since his 'death'.

I've decided Hadric is about 40 (though obviously more youthful than that, being Sheevra), having studied at the Collegia until he was about 25, then spending a bit more than a decade wandering about doing mercenary work, and having returned to Skein 3 years ago.

Xavier is 36. He was born in Skein and probably hasn't ever ventured far beyond the city's limits.

Mr. Nix has only been dead a few years.  Most of that has been spent in Skein, after he found out that a secret from his past life could be found here.

Thanks for the answers thus far.

Ghostman, Xavier's intro post is up.

SH, I likewise replied to your post (well done, sir, on portraying Mr. Nix's madness). Also, please remember to edit your character thread post with your IC blurb & background.

Superbright, your intro post will be up next. Still waiting on you to post your character to the thread (not I'm waiting on that before I post your IC thread, just wanted to remind you).

Steerpike, any update?

MG, I'll work on a potential focus as soon as I finish Superbright's intro-post.

Am I missing anything?

Apart from figuring out how the Clockwork Doll works and perhaps tweaking/replacing Brusque, is there anything you can see that I have to do?

I haven't re-reviewed your sheet, so you may have addressed some of these already. Otherwise, here's what I posted last time

1. With a decent lifestyle, where do she call kip (and if it's in syndicate-controlled territory, on who's turf does she reside)?

2. Brusque is sketchy. The flavor is completely appropriate. However, there is a significant mechanical overlap with your stoic flaw. Basically, one shouldn't double-dip on a disposition flaw and a human foible. That said, you did broaden the task enough that I think it's permissible, as etiquette and deception don't always include emotional displays. Also, diplomacy and big enough skills that the penalty is significant (rather than having overlapping penalties on basket-weaving and sewing). But as a foible, the flaw has to be a debility, so it's a 2-step increase to DC. If you don't want to so severely penalize her on all those tasks, feel free to change or create another foible.

3. The Clockwork Doll is likewise great (in fact, I already had a foe with a very similar device). I especially love the concept of brusque, brutal Catena carrying around a delicate-looking doll. As for the mechanics, here are 2 options. 1, it could release a level 1 poison that does 2 points of Might damage to all living creatures in an immediate distance. Alternatively, it could release sickening gas that impairs all living creatures in an immediate distance. You have to make an Agility roll against the foes' level(s), and if you succeed, they are sickened (decreasing DCs to dodge, resist, or attack them by 1 step). Your call. Higher tier dolls could include more toxic poisons and/or fumes that nauseate foes for longer durations.

4. Thrum. Let me know what you think of the mechanics I posted for the drug.

Just those items, and she is done and ready to go.

Also, Superbright, your intro is up. Post at your convenience.

I like the Thrum mechanics for sure, and I like the Might-sapping gas for the doll.

Sounds good; what of her residence and foible?

For a residence I'm thinking she probably has spartan but cleaner quarters somewhere in the Indigo Ward: private chambers and not a hovel, but not luxurious either.

For a foible, I'm less certain, but I'll try to think up something creative.  I'm thinking maybe some kind of lingering religious dread connected to spiders, given that slaves would know never to touch or hurt them.  Is that kind of foible easy to model mechanically?

That would be perfect. How's this:

Arachnophobic: Due to her upbringing in Dolmen's slave-pens, Catena is haunted by a lingering dread of spiders. Consequently, she suffers a debility in any task involving arachnoid creatures or devotees of Verlum.

OK, I udpated my character sheet on page 7 so she should be done.  With your permission I'll post her up to the Characters thread (should I include the vignette or just her background?).

Very much enjoying your writing in the game proper so far.

Quote from: SteerpikeOK, I udpated my character sheet on page 7 so she should be done.  With your permission I'll post her up to the Characters thread (should I include the vignette or just her background?).

Go for it.

QuoteVery much enjoying your writing in the game proper so far.

Thanks. I greatly appreciate the feedback (and am doubly pleased for its positive nature)! Beyond aiming to make the writing, characters, and plot interesting/intriguing, I've also been striving to stay true to the setting's flavor, even as I'm inevitably proposing new elements.

So, I have a question: Since our characters are, at the moment, advancing separately, is there any reason why I should wait for progress in the other PCs' storylines before I continue with Mr. Nix?

I am also very interested to see how our stories end up weaving together.

By all means, keep posting at whatever pace works best for you. I figured players would finish their PCs at different times, so I wrote the individual 'adventures' for that purpose -and also to help players settle into their characters. But fear not, the paths shall converge...

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
By all means, keep posting at whatever pace works best for you. I figured players would finish their PCs at different times, so I wrote the individual 'adventures' for that purpose -and also to help players settle into their characters. But fear not, the paths shall converge...

Cool.  Will do.

[ooc=Hadric Beyam Phel-Nirian]Frenetic Male Sheevra Warrior (Phytology) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 1
Pools (Edge): Might 13 (1), Agility 14 (1), Intellect 9 (0); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Expertise in Intellect defense rolls against witchcraft-produced effects; AC: 2, Might Cost: 0, Agility Penalty: 1
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Shambles, Hellspeak, Hextongue
Lifestyle: Decent. Property and majority of remaining assets currently held under attachment pending court decision vis-a-vis appeal regarding declaration of death in absentia.
Senses: Sight-based perception (expertise). Dim illumination is no hindrance.
Skills: Initiative (expertise), Jumping (expertise [or would it be mastery?]), Running & Athletics (expertise), Persuasion (expertise), Sense & Identify Witchcraft (expertise), Botany (expertise)

Weapons:

• My Leaf-Bladed Kneaf (heavy bladed weapon)
• Grent & Grisham Special Eight Revolver (medium ranged weapon)

Combat Maneuvers, Esoteries, and Tricks:
 

• Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. Xavier can make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if his weapon has a sharp point. Action.
• Thrust (1 Might point): This is a powerful melee stab. You make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if your weapon has a sharp edge or point. Action.
• Gutter-Witchcraft (1 Intellect point): You can perform small invocations: temporarily change the color or basic appearance of a small object, cause small objects to float through the air, clean a small area, mend a broken object, prepare (but not create) food, and so on. You can't use gutter-witchcraft to harm another creature or object. Action.
• Hexsight (2 Intellect points): This invocation causes a sheevra's eyes to glow more brightly, but allows them to perceive, and potentially identify aetheric auras. Scanning an item or creature requires concentration, and each use of this ability can last up to one minute. Scanning a target reveals whether it can perform witchcraft, and if so, its level. It also reveals whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the aether in that area. Many materials and eldritch fields prevent or resist this hex. Action to initiate and sustain.
• Lugent Vessel (2 Intellect points):  Although a sheevra's skin and eyes constantly produce dim illumination in the immediate distance surrounding them, they can temporarily amplify and even transfer some of this radiance to another object, person, or place. To do so, a sheevra must touch the intended target. If successful, the target sheds bright illumination up to a short distance for ten minutes. Action.
• Placate Plant (2+ Intellect points): With a successful roll, you convince a plant that is within immediate distance to refrain from attacking you for one minute. Instead of applying Grit to decrease the difficulty of this esotery, you can apply Grit to protect more targets, with each level of Grit causing the affected plant to ignore up to two additional targets. You must be able to see and speak with said targets to provide this protection. Action to initiate.

Flaws:
 

• One: Fast, but not quite graceful. The difficulty of any task involving balance or steady movements is increased by one step.
• Two: The difficulty of any task that requires staying still or quiet for extended time is increased by one step.
• Three: Hiding debility. Sheevra have slightly luminous eyes and skin, making it hard to conceal themselves

Items:

• Eldritch Oddities:  
  
  
  
  • Cybille's Locket: A silver locket given to Hadric by his mother when he was a boy, and one of the few remaining mementos of his childhood. The locket holds two tiny daguerreotype portraits: one of his father, and one of his mother. His mother's portrait is evidently ensorcelled by some means, rendered in living motion - flashing a smile or blowing a kiss, or simply reading a book [almost always Rest for the Wicked, and other stories of Treachery & Romance by Skien's own Vibius Beeze]. Cybille's portrait has spoken to Hadric on some few occasions, whispering words of caution, advice or love when he has needed them most. His father's portrait - a dark and blurred profile against a hazy background - seems to have been captured unknowingly, and has so far proven itself to be nothing more than an ordinary daguerreotype.
  • The Magnificent Lens: A small lens of hardy glass mounted in a bronze frame. Catching a strange glint out of the corner of his eye while wandering the markets of Crepuscle, Hadric purchased this oddity from a trinket-vendor who seemed unaware of its unusual eldritch properties. The world transforms when seen through the Magnificent Lens, superimposing a bizarre and surrealist landscape over the mundane, a landscape peopled by a tiny and mischievous folk possessing large teeth, bright clothes, and strange hats. The folk seem to be aware of Hadric's attention and often wave or wink at him, or huddle in small groups while throwing the occasional glance his way. The lens seems completely ordinary to anyone else that Hadric has had peer through it, who report only a slight magnifying effect. Hadric has come to suspect the Magnificent Lens to be an artifact of Ker-Iz, or to have otherwise been crafted by another Sheevra. A source of occasional amusement or inspiration.


• Theurgic Devices:
  
  
  • Rosenhound Bulb: A desiccated and peeling bulb smelling of cardamom and vinegar. Hadric cultured several specimens of this plant during his time in the laboratories of Shann-Irim, and this one has at last reached maturity. When the inner flesh is exposed to light, a startling transformation is initiated. Petaled stalks twist from within, quickly forming themselves into the semblance of a squat quadruped. A thorny maw glistening with sap juts from one end, its head-petals arranged into the floral mockery of a grinning predatory visage. A Rosenhound will viciously attack and consume any nearby organic matter, heedless of its own safety, until it has filled its belly. It blossoms for a few brief moments, shedding pollen. Its lifecycle completed the Rosenhound will wither and die, leaving an immature bulb behind.
  • Paralytic N2: A fine grey powder kept tightly sealed in a small vial. The second iteration of the fourteenth entry in a long series of pesticidal compounds developed by Hadric. Paralytic N2 enters through the breathing apertures of a given arthropod, thereby infiltrating the hemolymph of the affected creature. Through a method still poorly understood by Hadric himself, the compound hinders or prevents entirely any muscle contraction in arthropodal species. Effect on the locomotion of molluscs is mild by comparison, and requires further study. Rendered inert in mammalian or other body systems.

Mundane Possessions: Clothing, live ardlilly coat (medium armor), My Leaf-Bladed Kneaf, Grent & Grisham Special Eight revolver, 12 rounds broad #8, phytologist's tools, stainless steel canteen, a pouchfull of oat cakes, leather coin purse, 40 crowns.  

Other:

• Drowsy: Like cats, Sheevra require large amounts of sleep. Sheevra require twice as much time to rest in order to make recovery rolls (i.e., 2 rounds, 20 minutes, 2 hours, and 16 hours of rest to make their daily first, second, third, and fourth recovery roll, respectively).
• Fey: Sheevra occupy a liminal space between mortals and oneiroi. Consequently, effects designed to specifically target mortals or oneiroi may affect sheevra, whether for good or ill.
• Omnivorous: Sheevra can digest both meat and plant matter, but also draw nourishment from emotions, dreams, and other esoteric substances.

[/ooc]

Alright. This should be complete and review ready. It needs a few corrections to be in line with the other sheets (flaw names and stuff), as well as a clarification on whether taking my warrior skill in jumping is mastery, due to existing Frenetic expertise in "other swift forms of movement-related actions".

Thanks for reposting the most current version, MG. Checking your PC's stats is the next thing on my itinerary, especially as...

Steerpike, your intro is up.

Ghostman, I'll need a roll before I can reply (see thread).

Speaking of rolling, Superbright sent me a pm about rolling, and I figured it would be most beneficial to answer here.

Thus far, we haven't established how we want to handle rolling. If this were tabletop, we'd have our physical dice; if it was IRC, we'd have the program roll. And while our posting option has a dice roll option, I want to see how people want to handle rolls. I'm okay using the honor system and allowing people to use whatever method they want (e.g., physically rolling at home, using a site like Invisible Castle, etc.). But how do the rest of you feel? Any alternative suggestions?

Also, since we seem to be on the subject, I wanted to share some thoughts about PbP, at least for this game.

First, because players do all the rolling, it's better to include too many rolls than too few. Meaning, if you aren't sure if some action requires a roll (scoping out a site, searching for a poison-merchant, etc.), it's better to roll and include the results in your OOC portion of your post. If it applies, I can use it right away without having to ask for it; if not, we can just disregard it.

At the same time, mark your rolls. Don't just post 12 rolls. If you think you might need to make a perception, jump, attack, and defense roll, designate which roll goes with which task, please.

Speaking of Defense rolls; always assume you need to make 1 roll per present foe in a battle. It saves time.

Unless you know the DC/level/health/etc. of a foe, don't assume you hit or kill a foe in combat. Instead, describe IC the attempted attack.

If you do know the DC/level/health, and you know whether you hit or missed said DC, go ahead and describe the outcome. In some cases, I may even tell the DC for that very reason. This is more likely to happen with general or known foes (e.g., I might tell you that the DC of a pirahna rat is 1, or clarify that an attack DC just increased by 1 due to tight quarters). First-time or novel foes won't generally have their DC revealed from the get-go.

Outside of combat, many of the same guidelines apply.

In the interests of narrative flow, it's okay to make certain assumptions about NPC actions/reactions. But try not to go overboard. Especially refrain when dealing with new and non-generic NPCs. Assuming a common drug-addict or thug will be afraid of your demon is fine. Assuming a newly introduced drug-lord or mercenary is not. Assuming anyone will manifest such fear by running away in terror is also not okay -unless of course, you have rolled an intimidate check, know you hit the DC, and know the specific result of success.

The above guidelines aren't to correct any extant problems; instead, they are meant to be preventative, to make the proverbial boat sail smoothly.

If anyone has any questions about the above or additional or alternative suggestions on how to make things run more efficiently, I'm all ears.

Just noting that I decided the ardlilly coat was medium armour instead of light. I didn't fully understand the arm our rules and thought the agility penalty was per hour like might, instead of flat. As far as I can tell there aren't any other penalties to wearing medium over light armour for Hadric, correct?

As long as one is proficient in an armor (which as a warrior, Hadric is), the main penalties are the static Agility Reduction and hourly Might damage. Armor might also impose a hindrance to certain tasks (e.g., swimming), with the severity of the hindrance dependent upon the heaviness of the armor (e.g., swimming with a jack less hard than swimming in plate mail), but generally armor doesn't directly affect task DCs. 

Quote from: Rose-of-VellumIn the interests of narrative flow, it's okay to make certain assumptions about NPC actions/reactions. But try not to go overboard. Especially refrain when dealing with new and non-generic NPCs. Assuming a common drug-addict or thug will be afraid of your demon is fine. Assuming a newly introduced drug-lord or mercenary is not. Assuming anyone will manifest such fear by running away in terror is also not okay -unless of course, you have rolled an intimidate check, know you hit the DC, and know the specific result of success.

Have I been taking too many liberties/making too many assumptions about NPC actions?  Just wanted to get an idea of whether the way I've been posting is tenable in the long run.

And as long as the internal dice feature is there, I say we might as well use it.

SH,

You've definitely been bruising that border, but I wouldn't say you've actually crossed it, in part because Shiqq has a long-standing 'work' relationship with you. If it was another, new veteran thug, he or she might violently object to being touched, dragged around, or thrown into demonic summoning circles. But Shiqq's more tolerant -which is a large part of why he's the one sent to deal with Mr. Nix. No one else wants the job of dealing with the mad ghul.

Speaking of madness though, your writing has been fantastic! For such excellent characterization, give yourself 1 XP. I'll not hand out such rewards very often, but I think your last two posts warrant it.

Also, a reply is up.

Steerpike,

I'm still waiting on your reply since you beat the DC. Let me know if you're waiting on me for something.

Superbright,

Same thing. Tis your move.

Ghostman,

I'm drafting your reply.

MG,

I'm reviewing your sheet. Feedback to come.

Everybody,

Until I hear from everyone concerning their dice-rolling preference, just use whatever you wish -but include the result in your ooc box.

Also, just to make reassure/forewarn everyone, the intro posts are quite long. Subsequent posts -and player replies- can be much shorter. So there's no pressure to write a storiette for every post. Often, a line or two will suffice.

Quote from: Rose-of-VellumSH,

You've definitely been bruising that border, but I wouldn't say you've actually crossed it, in part because Shiqq has a long-standing 'work' relationship with you. If it was another, new veteran thug, he or she might violently object to being touched, dragged around, or thrown into demonic summoning circles. But Shiqq's more tolerant -which is a large part of why he's the one sent to deal with Mr. Nix. No one else wants the job of dealing with the mad ghul.

Ok, from now on I will have more respect for NPC sovereignty, and dial it back a touch. 

Quote from: Rose-of-VellumSpeaking of madness though, your writing has been fantastic! For such excellent characterization, give yourself 1 XP. I'll not hand out such rewards very often, but I think your last two posts warrant it.

Also, a reply is up. 

Awesome!  On both counts.  I'll get my next move up when I can.

SH,

No worries.

Ghostman,

Post is up.

MG,

Here's a format-tweaked copy. Overall, Hadric looks great. As with the others, I have a couple of question/issues:

1. You had listed an expertise in Athletics. Where did that come from?
2. Jumping wouldn't automatically count as running/swift movement. Swift-movement tasks would include things like chasing down someone, running ahead of a rolling boulder, leaping through a closing trap-door, etc.. So if the task focuses on the distance of the jump, you just have expertise. If the task focuses on the swiftness of the jump, you'd have mastery. I'll let you know when it's the latter situation.
3. Leaf-blade. I'd like to develop this a bit more. If you have extant ideas, let me know; otherwise, I'll pitch some ideas as to its origin and nature (e.g., it was harvested from the Fecundity, or looted from a Screamwood blightling).
4. Rosenhound -how big is the bulb -and the predatory stage? From my reading, it does not appear you have any automatic control over the thing. Is that intentional? Granted, you have your Placate Plant ability, but the answer will help me determine how long the level 1 plant creature 'lasts'.
5. Paralytic -I 'translated' the name (Qaun=14, Devu=2). N2 sounded (to me) a little too modern/sci-fi-ish. I also added the actual mechanics. Let me know if they seem to jive with your intended flavor.
6. live ardlilly coat (medium armor). I'd like to make this a bit more CE-ish, if possible. Meaning, a bit more grotesque. For instance, what if we made the armor a floral version of vampiric plate. For example, you've managed to graft and cultivate a tangle of pulsing crimson leaves and lashing tendrils from Molehk-Tree/Bloodwood saplings/cuttings. Or perhaps the graft is like a translucent cocoon, as if the thing is entirely trying to devour/birth you, requiring your continual pruning.

Otherwise, mechanics are reviewed and approved. I need to go through the backstory again to finalize those details.

[ooc=Hadric Beyam Phel-Nirian]Frenetic Male Sheevra Warrior (Phytology) 1
XP: 0; Benefits Gained: none
Grit: 1
Pools (Edge): Might 13 (1), Agility 14 (1), Intellect 9 (0); Damage Track: Hale

Defenses: Intellect vs witchcraft-produced effects (expertise); AC: 2, Might Cost: 0, Agility Penalty: 1
Recovery Rolls: 1d6+1; Rolls Left: 4

Languages: Shambles, Hellspeak, Hextongue
Lifestyle: Decent. Property and majority of remaining assets currently held under attachment pending court decision vis-a-vis appeal regarding declaration of death in absentia.
Senses: sight-based perception (expertise), sense witchcraft (expertise). Unhindered by dim illumination.
Skills: botany (expertise), identify witchcraft (expertise), initiative (expertise), jumping (expertise), persuasion (expertise), running & swift movement (expertise)

Weapons:

• My Leaf-Bladed Kneaf (heavy bladed weapon)
• Grent & Grisham Special Eight Revolver (medium ranged weapon)

Combat Maneuvers & Esoteries:

• Gutter-Witchcraft (1 Intellect point): Hadric can perform small invocations: temporarily change the color or basic appearance of a small object, cause small objects to float through the air, clean a small area, mend a broken object, prepare (but not create) food, and so on. He can't use gutter-witchcraft to harm another creature or object. Action.
• Hexsight (2 Intellect points): This invocation causes Hadric's eyes to glow more brightly, but allows him to perceive and potentially identify aetheric auras. Scanning an item or creature requires concentration, and each use of this ability can last up to one minute. Scanning a target reveals whether it can perform witchcraft, and if so, its level. It also reveals whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the aether in that area. Many materials and eldritch fields prevent or resist this hex. Action to initiate and sustain.
• Lugent Vessel (2 Intellect points):  Although Hadric's skin and eyes constantly produce dim illumination in the immediate distance surrounding him, he can temporarily amplify and even transfer some of this radiance to another object, person, or place. To do so, Hadric must touch the intended target. If successful, the target sheds bright illumination up to a short distance for ten minutes. Action.
• Pierce (1 Agility point): This is a well-aimed, penetrating ranged attack. Hadric can make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if his weapon has a sharp point. Action.
• Placate Plant (2+ Intellect points): With a successful roll, Hadric can convince a plant that is within immediate distance to refrain from attacking him for one minute. Instead of applying Grit to decrease the difficulty of this esotery, he can apply Grit to protect more targets, with each level of Grit causing the affected plant to ignore up to two additional targets. Hadric must be able to see and speak with said targets to provide this protection. Action to initiate.
• Thrust (1 Might point): This is a powerful melee stab. Hadric can make an attack and inflict 1 additional point of damage if his weapon has a sharp edge or point. Action.

Flaws:

• Drowsy: Hadric requires large amounts of sleep. He requires twice as much time to rest in order to make recovery rolls (i.e., 2 rounds, 20 minutes, 2 hours, and 16 hours of rest to make his daily first, second, third, and fourth recovery roll, respectively).
  
  • Jittery: Staying still or quiet for extended time (defect).
  • Radiant: Hiding (debility). Hadric has slightly luminous eyes and skin, making it hard to conceal themselves
  • Tremulous: balancing & steady movements (defect).
  
  Other:
  
  • Fey: Sheevra occupy a liminal space between mortals and oneiroi. Consequently, effects designed to specifically target mortals or oneiroi may affect sheevra, whether for good or ill.
  • Omnivorous: Sheevra can digest both meat and plant matter, but also draw nourishment from emotions, dreams, and other esoteric substances.
  
  Items:
  
  
  
  • Eldritch Oddities: 
    
    
    
    • Cybille's Locket: A silver locket given to Hadric by his mother when he was a boy, and one of the few remaining mementos of his childhood. The locket holds two tiny daguerreotype portraits: one of his father, and one of his mother. His mother's portrait is evidently ensorcelled by some means, rendered in living motion - flashing a smile or blowing a kiss, or simply reading a book (almost always Rest for the Wicked, and other stories of treachery and romance by Skien's own Vibius Beeze]. Cybille's portrait has spoken to Hadric on some few occasions, whispering words of caution, advice or love when he has needed them most. His father's portrait -a dark and blurred profile against a hazy background- seems to have been captured unknowingly, and has so far proven itself to be nothing more than an ordinary daguerreotype.
    • The Magnificent Lens: A small lens of hardy glass mounted in a bronze frame. Catching a strange glint out of the corner of his eye while wandering the markets of Crepuscle, Hadric purchased this oddity from a trinket-vendor who seemed unaware of its unusual eldritch properties. The world transforms when seen through the Magnificent Lens, superimposing a bizarre and surrealist landscape over the mundane, a landscape peopled by a tiny and mischievous folk possessing large teeth, bright clothes, and strange hats. The folk seem to be aware of Hadric's attention and often wave or wink at him, or huddle in small groups while throwing the occasional glance his way. The lens seems completely ordinary to anyone else that Hadric has had peer through it, who report only a slight magnifying effect. Hadric has come to suspect the Magnificent Lens to be an artifact of Ker-Iz, or to have otherwise been crafted by another Sheevra. A source of occasional amusement or inspiration.
  • Theurgic Devices:
    
    
    • Rosenhound Bulb: A desiccated and peeling bulb smelling of cardamom and vinegar. Hadric cultured several specimens of this plant during his time in the laboratories of Shann-Irim, and this one has at last reached maturity. When the inner flesh is exposed to light, a startling transformation is initiated. Petaled stalks twist from within, quickly forming themselves into the semblance of a squat quadruped. A thorny maw glistening with sap juts from one end, its head-petals arranged into the floral mockery of a grinning predatory visage. A Rosenhound will viciously attack and consume any nearby organic matter, heedless of its own safety, until it has filled its belly. It blossoms for a few brief moments, shedding pollen. Its lifecycle completed, a rosenhound will wither and die, leaving an immature bulb behind.
    • Qaun-Dveu: A fine grey powder kept tightly sealed in a small vial. The second iteration of the fourteenth entry in a long series of pesticidal compounds developed by Hadric. This level 2 poison enters through the breathing apertures of a given arthropod, thereby infiltrating the hemolymph of the affected creature. Through a method still poorly understood by Hadric himself, the compound hinders or prevents entirely any muscle contraction in arthropodal species, effectively paralyzing affected victims for 1d6 rounds. Effect on the locomotion of molluscs is mild by comparison (dazed for 1 round), and requires further study. Rendered inert in mammalian or other body systems.
  Mundane Possessions: My Leaf-Bladed Kneaf, Grent & Grisham Special Eight revolver (12 rounds board #8), live ardlilly coat (medium armor), clothing, phytologist's tools, stainless steel canteen, pouchfull of oat cakes, leather coin purse, 40 crowns. 
  [/ooc]

1. I just wrote athletics instead of 'swift movement', as I wasn't quite sure what it entailed.
3. We can go with the leaf-blade being cultivated from some kind of cutting taken from the Fecundity.
4. The bulb would be a rough handful, maybe the size of your average spanish onion. The Rosenhound itself I was imagining being the size of a moderately large dog, hence how it earned its name. You are correct that I wasn't intending Hadric to have any sort of direct control over it.
5. The name is good, much better than N2.
6. A floral version of vampiric plate is good with me. I'd prefer it actually continue to have flowers, however, as opposed to being cuttings from a tree or what have you. I was imagining it as being a a tangle of flowering vines, essentially. Primarily white blossoms, but occasionally yellow.

I'll post Hadric in the character thread once you're through with your background review.

Big private message sent you way, MG, relative to PC background.

Character posted with discussed changes incorporated.

Hello everyone! Is there any room left in this game? I love the Cadaverous Earth setting; it (and the rest of Steerpike's stuff) was a big part of what brought me to this site. I don't know all the details of the world and Penumbra is all new to me, but I'd love to play if I can. Anyway, I've taken the liberty of writing up a character sheet and background, though I am of course willing to adjust anything you want me to. I think I've followed all the rules, but it's entirely possible I've missed something, so let me know if anything's wrong with my build. I've made up a tentative tier for a new focus (Oneiromancy), and I've tried to make it both flavorful and useful without being overpowered, but don't really understand the intricacies of the system, so any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks! Anyway, here it is:

[ooc=Somnus]

XP: 0 Benefits Gained: None Grit: 1
Pools (Edge): Might 8 (0), Agility 8 (1), Intellect 16 (1)
Damage Track: Hale Recovery Rolls: 1d6 + 1 (2 Actions) Rolls Left: 4
AC: 0 Defenses: Expertise in Intellect rolls vs. Witchcraft

Languages: Shambles, Hex-tongue / Witch-speak, Hellspeak

Lifestyle: Affluent

Senses: Sight based perception. He can see in dim light, has Hexsight, and his eyes always glow.

Skills: Erudite: Oneiric, Aetheric, and Witchcraft Lore, Sheevra: Divination, Persuasion

Flaws: It is harder for Somnus to hide, since his skin and eyes glow with an amber light.

He is always drowsy, and sleeps for at least nine to twelve hours a night, plus many catnaps throughout the day, and requires more time to recover.

He is less adept at social situations due to his otherworldly dreaminess and tendency to yawn and nod off.

His Oneiric blood and nomadic lifestyle result in some discrimination in Skein, among other areas.

He not only needs to breathe and drink and eat and sleep (a lot), but also needs to feed on a steady diet of the dreams of other beings. Preferably, fresh from a sleeper's psyche, but he can eat a person's dream as long as they still remember it. This does have benefits. When he eats a dream, he experiences it instantaneously as though he had dreamed it himself. He can also eat stories, fantasies, hopes, myths, memories, legends, and even tales made up on the spot can nourish him. But they're a little like the appetizers and sauces for the entree: there's nothing like a good dream. Because he can consume dreams, he is sometimes asked to eat a client's nightmares. He usually offers this service pro bono: he likes to help people, and besides, nightmares are the delicious savory contrast to the sweeter dreams.

Items:

Mundane Items: Clothing (Loose and earth-toned, mostly silk, with some cotton and a little leather). A blackthorn walking stick with a brass handle. His father's fountain pen.

Eldritch Oddities and Theurgic Devices: A Book of Dreams (A leather-bound notebook containing spells, notes, sketches, poems, and records and interpretations of his own dreams and those of others). Three Dream Bottles (can capture and store dreams for later use or consumption, and can even trap some Oneiric entities). Lastly, his Library, which is stored within his main Theurgic item: a winged caravan, which is also his home.

Weapons: None, really, except his walking stick.

Esoteries

Sheevra

Hexsight/Dreamsight (2 Intellect points): This invocation causes Somnus' eyes to glow more brightly, but allows him to perceive and potentially identify aetheric and oneiric auras. Scanning an item or creature requires concentration, and each use of this ability can last up to one minute. Scanning a target reveals whether it can perform witchcraft, and if so, its level. If the target is asleep, it reveals how deeply and whether it is dreaming. If it is dreaming, it supplies some information about their dream: important images and emotional content. It also reveals whatever facts the GM feels are pertinent about the aether or oneiros in that area. Many materials and eldritch fields prevent or resist this hex.

Gutter-Witchcraft (1 Intellect point): Minor telekinesis and telepathy, various practical prestidigitations, cantrips, glyphs, sigils, charms, hexes, wards, transmutations, conjurations, divinations, and obfuscations. This also includes sleight-of-hand and mundane "magic" tricks and mental manipulation techniques, supplemented by some spells. Somnus mostly learned this magic from his mother, a Gutter (and Hedge) Witch.

Lugent Vessel (2 Intellect points): Although a Sheevra's skin and eyes constantly produce dim illumination in the immediate distance surrounding them, they can temporarily amplify and even transfer some of this radiance to another object, person, or place. To do so, a sheevra must touch the intended target. If successful, the target sheds bright illumination up to a short distance for ten minutes.

(Oneiromancy - Witchcraft and/or Psionics): Tier 1

Lullaby (1 Intellect point): This functions like a Mind Strike, except that the effect of a success is that the target falls asleep instantly, though if they are in the middle of a battle, they will likely wake up again quite quickly. At higher tiers, it can affect many people simultaneously, and the sleep can become much deeper, even permanent.

Daydream (1 Intellect point): This allows the Oneiromancer to create illusions, and is again a type of Mind Strike. These phantoms can be much more complex and detailed than those created by Gutter-Witchcraft, and can also draw on the subject's subconscious mental material to add realism and emotional impact. They can even fill and obscure the target's entire visual field and/or deafen him with phantom voices. However, they are always temporary and can affect only the visual and auditory senses (because they are insubstantial). This power can also be used to alter the Oneiromancer's appearance, and to make them invisible, both achieved by altering not the caster's own form but the way they are perceived in the minds of others. However, impersonating specific people is still quite difficult, and an invisible Oneiromancer can still be detected by other means.

Dreamwalking (1 - 3 Intellect points): This has several effects. First, it allows the Oneiromancer to dream lucidly at will. Second, they may move quickly and easily through the Oneiros. Finally, they may enter and alter (though not completely control) the dreams of another person. However, altering dreams costs more Intellect points depending on the degree of change, and to enter the dream of a particular person, they must physically touch the sleeping body (though this is not necessary at higher tiers).

The Gates of Horn (2 Intellect points): This gives the Oneiromancer limited oracular abilities. In waking life, they can read fortunes and divine answers to questions with relative reliability, through various methods of augury. And while asleep, occasionally (and unpredictably) they will have prophetic dreams.[/ooc]

Somnus is a very tall man, at a hair over seven feet, with long, willowy limbs and a large but slim head and torso. He face is well-sculpted, yet there is something uncanny about the length and lines of his limbs and face, an impression which is strengthened by the soft golden glow of his tawny skin and his eyes, which look like twin pools of molten amber. But what is strangest about Somnus is his genuine kindness and happiness. Even though he lacks many social graces, and often drifts off in the middle of people's sentences, and even while awake often seems to be lost in a world of his own, even though he is often preoccupied with the Oneiros and his own thoughts over the everyday world, he doesn't have a malevolent bone in his body. He's no fool, but his good nature, so out of place in the Cadaverous Earth, has gotten him both into and out of trouble many times before. Most people assume he must be putting up a front, or working some angle, but he isn't. He's just a sincerely nice, generous person. Bizarre, huh?

Not that Somnus hasn't been through his share of hardship. He was an orphan, found on the streets of Somnambulon and adopted by another Sheevra, a fortune-telling gutter-witch, who gave him his name after the city and the fact that he was fast asleep in a trash-filled gutter when she found him. He was raised by her and a band of travelling performers, tinkers, and traders, who travelled between cities and settlements, scraping by on what they could scavenge and sell and steal, surviving the myriad dangers of the wild. Until they didn't. One day, as they were crossing the Slaughterlands, they were beset by abominations. All were killed save Somnus, who escaped in the flying caravan, into which his adoptive mother had pushed him after a thing that looked like the mutant child of a squid, a spider, and a shark had closed its monstrous maw around her legs. Even high above, he could still hear the screams. Sometimes, he still hears them in his dreams.

Somnus is also a very passionate, driven person, as all Sheevra are, although it may not be apparent at first glance. It is simply that all his desire and passionate intensity is focused inward. His purpose and pleasure is to explore the Inner World, and to learn as much as possible about it. He delights in the pleasures of the physical senses, as all do, but his deepest satisfaction comes from seeing and tasting the worlds inside him and all the others around him, the aetheric sea of subconsciousness just on the other side of sleep, from whence all magic flows. Though he also enjoys exploring and learning about the waking world, it is not his home. Somnus feels his true home is the Oneiros, that dreams are just as (if not more) real than the Cadaverous Earth.

Today, in his waking life, he runs a small but somewhat successful business out of his caravan, selling books and various curios and arcane trinkets, and telling fortunes, mostly through interpreting dreams. The caravan is bigger on the inside than on the outside, about seven times bigger, to be precise. It looks like a tiny cottage with a thatched roof and walls made of ancient stone and wood, inlaid with intricate arcane patterns in amber and burnished metals, all partially covered in ivy and lichen. But most of the interior is a huge seven-sided room, big as a cathedral, and with similarly vaulted ceilings, these painted with images of the Oneiros and Ker-Iz. The room is filled to the brim with shelves of books and odd objects, with a single large and chaotically cluttered round table in the center, surrounded by several soft chairs, which Somnus uses for eating, for reading and writing, occasional naps, and for all his transactions and divinations.

There are also a large number of other comfortable chairs, cushions, and couches scattered about the room. Somnus can often be found snoozing on one of these, most often sprawled out over several and partially buried by books and the sphinx-cats that appear in the house and then disappear just as mysteriously, though there are always at least a few slinking around, they come and go as they please. The whole atmosphere of the place is peaceful, sleepy, and even cozy despite the large space; it is partitioned by the many shelves and seats. Dust drifts lazily through colored beams of sunlight refracted through the shining windows. The air smells of ancient paper and spiced smoke and waxed wood. It is almost perfectly silent, the noises of the street dampened by walls and wards, a rare island of tranquility in the cacophony of the city.

Behind and above the shop is a small apartment, with a compact kitchen and bathroom, secure storage areas, and a spacious and comfortable sleeping loft. The caravan but it is well-warded, and it is moved and guarded by an Oneiric spirit, which calls itself, alternately: "Bird Brain", "Baba Yaga", "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" and "The Parliament of Rooks" and "Cat Lady". It can cause the little house to grow large feline or avian legs and wings like those of a raven or a bat, which let it move from place to place. It feeds on the dust, detritus and waste in the house, and so the spirit also keeps the place clean and tidy. The spirit can speak to Somnus and anyone else in the vicinity of the house through the sphinx-cats (who otherwise only ever speak in whispered riddles), and it has a rather... idiosyncratic personality, though it (usually) behaves around guests.

Many of the books and items in the caravan are for sale, but Somnus keeps the relatively rare and powerful tomes and objects in a private section at the back, for perusal but not removal (unless the price is right). Most of the buyable books are either mythology, fiction and folktales, or on the lore of the Other Worlds, the Oneiros and the Aether, as well as other generally Occult and esoteric subjects, though there are rarely any texts at all on techno-thaumaturgy or gearworking.

There is a sign which hangs by the door, words in serifed script formed by gold and amber inlaid on an ebony board:

This weekend is quite busy for me, so I apologize in advance if I'm slower in replying to messages & posts.

MysterMe,

I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done updating the extant players' threads.

Hey, no problem, I completely understand. Reality is ever so irksome, isn't it?

By the way, I'm aware that Somnus doesn't quite fit the tone of the rest of the characters (or the Cadaverous Earth in general, for that matter). He's just too nice, and would be "Neutral Good" in D&D terms. But I wanted to clarify that this was intentional: I was trying to create an interesting contrast with the party and setting. I'm not sure how he'll get involved with the plots of this motley of rogues and assassins, but it ought to be fun to find out :-D

That said, I also have another idea for a character: an Intuitive Jatayi Rogue who works as a messenger and courier, who would be more dynamic and possibly easier to work into the story. Though that's a lot of Rogues.

Not sure about any other considerations, but from a meta-game standpoint, it might be helpful to have a character around who isn't utterly self-serving.  Though I don't know if the rest of the party would want anything to do with a "do-gooder"

Haha, yes, I thought I'd throw an altruistic monkey-wrench into the proceedings. Speaking of which, perhaps Somnus helps one or all of them out somehow? Or failing that, maybe they walk into his shop, and he recognizes them from a dream? The thing is, he's not exactly a "do-gooder", in that he doesn't seek out situations so that he can do good, and doesn't really even make many moral judgements. Rather, he's just generally kind and helpful to the people he happens to meet, unless they try to kill or torment him, of course. But even then, he's not the vicious or vindictive type, and will just send the person to sleep or distract them with daydreams, while he makes his escape. Anyway, on another note, here's a character sheet for the Jatayu courier. I'm still working on the story, but I can post it when it's finished if you're interested in the character. I'm equally interested in playing either one, and could even potentially play both.

[ooc=Rook]

XP: 0 Benefits Gained: None

Grit: 1 Pools (Edge): Might: 10 (0), Agilty: 14 (1), Intellect: 12 (0)

Defenses: Rook has expertise in Agility defense actions when not wearing armor. Due to their nomadic lifestyle, all Jatayi have expertise in Might defense rolls against starvation, exposure to hot climates, and other environmental hazards.
AC: 0 Might Cost: 0 Agility Penalty: 0
Damage Track: Hale Recovery Rolls: 1d6 + 1 Rolls Remaining: 4

Movement: Jatayi can fly with speed and skill, but less so if encumbered.
Languages: Jatayi, Magpie / Shambles, Jangle, Alleyspeak, Flicker / Fingerspeak,
Lifestyle: Indigent. Rook sleeps in various nooks and crannies in the heights of the city, and scavenges for his supper, generally eating what the restaurants throw away, or simply picking up various corpses from the streets.
Senses: Jatayi have avian eyes that can perceive magnetic fields and are not hindered by even very dim light.

Skills: Storytelling, Perception, Persuasion, Discerning, Discovering Deception, Tracking, Navigating, Investigating
Flaws: Rook is Illiterate and Necrophagic, as Jatayi do not read or write, and only eat decomposing meat. Because he values intuition over knowledge, he generally avoids laborious studying; the difficulty of tasks that involve academic discussion, didactic instruction, or rote memorization are one step higher for him.

Weapons: Eldritch bow (all arrows it shoots can mentally controlled by the archer while in flight), with 12 arrows (fletched with my own feathers), and 2 ensorcelled arrows (one explosive, one that will lead me to a named target). An ancestral obsidian knife, which resembles a large black feather.
Items: Light and loose but durable leggings (he goes without armor, shirt or shoes, they just get in the way). Leather quiver and bag strapped over his back, between the wings. 80 Crowns.

Tricks:

Eidetic: Due to a combination of innate qualities and cultural upbringing, Jatayi have memories bordering, if not transcending, the eidetic. They have expertise in tasks that that involve remembering or memorizing things they experience directly. Rook is particularly skilled at this due to his Intuitive Disposition, able to recall every moment of every day of his life with perfect clarity. He also knows many facts and rumors and stories, and knows all the Stories by heart.

Flex Skill: At the beginning of the day, Rook gains expertise in any one skill for the rest of the day.

Pierce (1 Agility point): Rook inflicts 1 additional point of damage with shots from his bow. Action.

Trained Without Armor: Rook has expertise in Agility defense actions while not wearing armor. Enabler.[/ooc]

"Rook is Illiterate"

Good trait for a trustworthy courier :P.

My thoughts exactly ;-D

Unless mistaken, I'm all caught up with everyone's threads (i.e., MG has an intro post, and everyone else has a reply). Remember, everyone, to please post your rolls (or potentially needed rolls) as well as your current stat pools at the end of every ooc post. Please let me know if any meta issues need resolution.

MysterMe, as promised, I'll respond next to your query/submission. Short answer is yes, a sixth and final slot is open for the game. After that, a wait-list kicks in. Long answer about your character submissions will be forthcoming.

OK, fair 'nuff. Thanks; I eagerly await your reply :-)

I have updated all the threads and have sent a pm to MysterMe.

Still no reply from Superbright though.

Threads caught up. I'll respond to MysterMe's PMs and MG's rules question next.

Sorry for the delayed responses this weekend. Just some minor illness in the family, but such that I'm backlogged. I'll post asap.

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Sorry for the delayed responses this weekend. Just some minor illness in the family, but such that I'm backlogged. I'll post asap.

No worries - and don't push yourself too hard for my sake at least, I don't mind waiting.

Thanks, Ghostman. :)

I hope all is well, Vellum! I just wanted to post a link to something I found which I imagine you would all be interested in. It's a platform for story-games called StoryNexus. Their seminal work is called "Fallen London", and shares a very similar style with the Cadaverous Earth, set in a Gothic and grotesquely surreal Dickensian cityscape. Another really good one is "The Black Crown Project", which (like CE) is full of surreal, grotesque body horror, though the genre is different.

Links!

http://storynexus.com/
http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/
http://www.blackcrownproject.com/

Thanks for all the well-wishing, gang, and my apologies for my longer than anticipated absence. Family is back in ship-shape, and I'm (nearly) caught up with all my professional responsibilities. However, I did just update all the threads, and so now I really, really owe MysterMe another response about his character submission(s).

As for London Fallen and the Black Crown Project, I was unfamiliar with both, so I appreciate the information. Both look quite interesting, and I would welcome a thread to chat about either/both if others are interested.

EDIT: Recently, one of my kids has been requesting a nightly bedtime story of my own devising rather, and so I've spent the past fortnight describing a different establishment along Praedarchs' Boulevarde during each night's bedtime routine.

MysterMe, you have a pm. My apologies for the truncated conversation. I have, however, reviewed your sheet and have provided some more concrete, and less metaphysical, feedback.

SH, MG, & Superbright,

Is there anything you need from me before you're able to reply? 

To all of the players,

I may have the time to run an IRC session this week or weekend. Would this spark any interest? If so, who might be available? I know it's short notice, so no pressure either way.

Ah! Sorry. Completely forgot. Will reply ASAP. An IRC game would be awesome, imo.

Normally I'd be good with IRC but this weekend I am pretty swamped.

I'll wait to see how the others weigh in, and then decide. I certainly won't penalize anyone for not being able to play. 

Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
SH, MG, & Superbright,

Is there anything you need from me before you're able to reply? 

To all of the players,

I may have the time to run an IRC session this week or weekend. Would this spark any interest? If so, who might be available? I know it's short notice, so no pressure either way.

No, I don't need anything from you, I've just been busy.  As to IRC, in priciple I like the idea, but I am unfortunately booked solid this weekend until Wednesday.

Just to clarify, based on people's feedback, I think we shan't have an IRC session this weekend. But come summer, or the end of spring, I'll be free to offer said sessions on a regular basis. Unless the beast-gods devour me in their sleep.

Just saw that I missed Ghostman's post. I'll reply asap. Is anyone else waiting on me for anything?

I'm good, will have a post up soon.

I've been pretty busy with end of semester essays and stuff, but that's all done now! So I'll have a post up for Hadric today or tomorrow.

No worries, comrades. I have a similar seasonal rush right now. I just wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something (else besides Ghostman's post 3 days ago).

FYI: Major project of mine ends this Thursday, so after that, I'll be back to typical posting pace.

Sorry for my long posting hiatus.  I have been a mix of very busy and preoccupied with other things.  

QuoteI have been a mix of very busy and preoccupied with other things. 

Instead of Forums, SH now posts at Things.

http://www.thingsites.com/what-is-a-thing
http://www.arild-hauge.com/elov.htm

Sadly, it seems like I've fibbed to all you as well as my bosses (i.e., I'm still working on the project that was due last Thursday...)

Not to worry, I haven't posted a response in weeks.  Sorry about that.

Quote from: Light Dragon

QuoteI have been a mix of very busy and preoccupied with other things. 

Instead of Forums, SH now posts at Things.

http://www.thingsites.com/what-is-a-thing
http://www.arild-hauge.com/elov.htm

We are preparing to go i viking.  Our skeidrs will travel up the Los Angeles river to strike against Beverly Hills any day now. 

In my regrettable absence, I hope SH's skeidrs were successful.

In all seriousness, I apologize for being MIA so long, but I'm back and definitely able to play for the summer at the very least. If people are still interested, I'm eager to resume the campaign. Pursuant to such, I've replied to all outstanding posts on the IC thread. I may also be able to begin some IRC sessions if previous or prospective players are interested (but I'm fine continuing php as well).

Sweet!

I'll happily take that as an 'aye'.

Glad to see this back!  I will have to update Mr. NIx!

Excellent!!!

Ghostman, MeanestGuest, Superbright, & MysterMe -what say ye? I'd absolutely love to have you resume playing as well. Either way, though, let me know what you're thinking.

I was just thinking about this the other day, actually. I'd like to continue. I'll get on a Hadric response soon.

Hurrah, so glad to hear!

1.5 months later...

I received a pm from a new site member (a former gaming friend from another site) who expressed interest in 'joining' this campaign. I'm glad to resume any and all the plot-threads, but I first want to see who is still interested and free to play. Beyond continuing/resuming pbp, I would like to run 1-3 IRC games between now and September. Although the goal of all the plot-threads has been for the PCs to meet and work together, any IRC game would necessitate having PCs together from the essential get-go.  

So, as I'm working with this new player on character creation, it would really help to know who is still interested and available (for pbp and/or IRC), and who is not. So please, let me know regardless of the answer or its reason.  

'Current' players have priority, but I'm also open to new players/PCs so long as we don't have more than 5 players total actually playing. New players would pick up as part of one of the ongoing group 'plots' -i.e., finding Xalmas Rasch, solving the Black Souse disappearances, or helping Beldame Mouldegill with the Cagastic Rapture.

 

I actually definitely do, but I'm still in Panama until the 11th of August.

Definitely glad to hear of your interest, TMG! If you have access and time, feel free to post on the pbp thread (since you're 'it'). Also, if you wish, we can 'fast-forward' through some of Hadric's individual scenes or play them out in sequence (e.g., goat-thing, haircut, servant-shopping, etc.).

This summer, I am typically available from around 12 or 1 to 7 pm Pacific.

Danke, Seraflumph, and so glad we'll be seeing more of Mr. Nix!

I am definitely up to continue the PbP.

Awesome! 

Ball's in your court(s), gents, for the pbp; I'm ready and waiting to reply.

As for IRC, I'll look at my schedule for the next week, and see what might work for everyone who's yet expressed interest.

Still waiting on Ghostman and Superbright, though.

I'm up for continuing the forum game. IRC depends on when it'll be hosted -- I've in the past had trouble joining games that start late hours (east of Atlantic)

Great! I'll create a doodle calendar or something similar and see what works. In the meantime, post away!

Wow, I love all the posting! I'll reply asap to the posts -and Steerpike, please note I have edited my OOC reply to your post.

I'm still working on an IRC schedule.

Question for the players. In an attempt to facilitate speed of play, we've tried a few things (like including prospective rolls in one's post). Now, I've also tried to add in some DC results like in my replies to Catena. Do people find this approach helpful? Or does it limit things for you as a player? Let me know what you all think -or any other suggestions or feedback please.

I didn't feel limited.  I assume I can attempt other things; this just speeds up the process of asking, like, "do I see a place to hide"?

Quote from: SteerpikeI assume I can attempt other things

Definitely.

QuoteThis just speeds up the process of asking, like, "do I see a place to hide"?

Glad to hear its intent is translating well.

Sorry for this week's absence, folks (I ran a week-long training that took more evening time than I predicted). I'm back, and I updated the thread. Still waiting on Hadric's reply to Otto and Mr. Nix's next post.

The two prospective players are still in the process of finishing their characters; hence the lack of IRC news.

Just to clarify, Steerpike, since you rolled a 4 on your Intellect check, Catena knows all the info in the second spoiler, and you can take your turn accordingly.

Thanks for posting, False Epiphany! PC's already been vetted, so I'll draft up an intro post for Alisandre asap.

Ok, FE, your intro post is up and awaiting a reply (likewise for the other players).

Hey! Sorry for the delay. I will have a Hadric post up by the end of the day.

Awesome, and thanks for letting me know!  Long silences make me wonder if players have died, or at least their interest in the game. While I'd like to avoid both, let me know if the latter is threatening and what I might do to remedy such a demise.

EDIT: Also to let you know, MG, Belphia Mei-Vourne was formerly Belphia Phel-Nirian, daughter of Hadric's uncle, making Alisandre and he related (first cousins, twice removed, to be exact).

Ghostman, I updated/expanded my ooc post for Xavier to include potential results of your roll (that way, you don't have to wait for me, but can declare his next move based on what he discovers). For every hour you spend investigating, you can roll another die.

Seraflumph: What's Mr. Nix up to?

I'm really pleased with how this is going, and with your portrayal of Skein. It is still a bit uncanny to play in a world primarily of my own devising and not be GM, but it's really gratifying (and flattering) to do so.

Thanks, Steerpike, I really appreciate the praise. I'm really happy with everyone's posting: great characters and writing, from all. But hearing that someone else is enjoying it means a lot. Metagame discussion has been extremely sparse, so I've been flying somewhat blind in terms of feedback, hoping players are enjoying themselves, but not sure, especially when it comes to specific elements (e.g., degree of sand vs rails, 'purple-liness' of prose, NPCs, locales, plots, rate of posting, etc.). Not to mention the whole rules system, since the game was in part envisioned as a playtest.

And yes, I'm constantly asking myself questions like, "What does Steerpike think of that name, does it match the linguistic flavor or tone he's set for Skein? Does this locale mesh or clash with some unposted setting info or idea?" And so forth.

So, strange on both ends, but definitely enjoyable for me.

Full and honest disclosure: I lifted/adapted a lot of the Chrysanthemum Ring from the Ring of Roses by Alexis Kennedy.

To help everyone (myself most of all) remember all the various locales and NPCs, I posted a bunch of condensed information on the beginning of this thread (second post, actually). A Dramatis Personae, noted locales, featured NPCs, etc. I'll continue to add to it as needed.

Additionally, I wanted to see if there was still interest/availability to run an IRC session, sometime either next week (Thursday or Friday) or the week thereafter. Thursday would need to be either morning-early afternoon EST or late evening EST. Friday can be anytime EST. I could potentially do late Mondays instead.

Finally, bronze medals for all the players! IIRC, Clockwork Abattoir is the third-longest pbp game (content-wise) here at CBG. I've really enjoyed everyone's posts and look forward to continued participation and enjoyment.

Regarding a group IRC session: we definitely won't run one tonight or tomorrow. Next week (or a week thereafter) is still a possibility. I've spoken with most of you via pestering PMs, annoying IRC ambushes, and so forth, but I'm still waiting to hear from a few of you.

Please let me know if either of those days, and what times (EST), work for you, and we shall see when most people can play.

EDIT: Also, just to clarify, I'm not planning for IRC sessions to be regularly held. Consider it a set of supplementary one-shot sessions. So I'm not asking for a weekly availability, just a week and time where you're free for 4 hours or so.

Sorry for delay in getting back on times! This week's been hectic.

Late Mondays would be ideal. I'm gone for most of the day on Thursdays, but could swing a late evening time (9 EST or later). Fridays aren't so good, as I have another game then.


On another note, having just wrapped up (or nearly so) the first big step of Alisandre's arc, this seems like a good time to provide some feedback on the game thus far.

First, getting to play in another pbp game of yours is a treat, regardless of the setting or game system. All your trademark touches of evocative writing, richly dscribed environments, compelling characters, and so forth are there. Compared to BCtB, you've gone for shorter descriptions and summarized more actions. This makes updates faster, so it's definitely a change for the better. My only nitpick is that Xedric's initial physical description got lost in the shuffle (though that's since been covered in subsequent posts).

Special mention goes to how you've inluced likable, amusing, and otherwise lighthearded characters in addition to the disturbing, violent, and not-so-nice ones.  It would've been easy to play CE's setting as a pure crapsack world, all doom 'n gloom, and the contrast better serves to keep players emotionally invested.

I'm enjoying Alisandre as a character. She's a definite departure from Ashir and Alyssa, who were a big strong warrior and social butterfly, respectivly (also, what the heck is with all my PCs having A-names?). In general, I actually prefer cerebral characters over physically- or socially-inclined ones, so it's nice to finally play my "type."

The Mei-Vourne family's morbid culture was a lot of fun to think up together, but I've also been making an effort to play A as more than just a death-obsessed necromancer, and hopefully that's shown. I think she even has a sense of humor, albeit an ironic and understated one.

The interrogation sequence was a lot of fun, with Alphosine's illusion doing much to contribute to the scene's awesomess (so glad I rolled a 6). I should see if I kin get me any o' dat, especially after Alisandre's shown a penchant for using subterfuge and guile to achieve her ends. I hadn't anticipated her using those kinds of tactics at first, but upon reflection it makes sense--her brothers hold more cards (though certainly fewer now that Xedric's broken).

The revelations spilled by X were all quite juicy, and I enjoyed learning more about Caraumonde's past wives as well. The revelation of Belphia's death by suicide was a twist--we didn't spend as nuch time developing her together as other stuff, so I look forward to discovering what else you've brewed up.

Xedric's character has exhibited a surprising number of facets in the short time I've known him. He started out as an oaf (falling asleep during stepmom's funeral, flipping out during the card game), then got seriously scary/dangerous (abducting Alisandre, participating in the ritual combat, putting up a real fight even naked, unarmed and half-dead), then broke under torture, and now finally... he's just a son who did his duty and wants what's owed to him. If it weren't for how cruelly he treated Alisandre when he thought she was just a maid, I'd feel pretty sorry for the guy... and even that might've been the madwine doing some talking.

In a way, Xedric's story parallels Alisandre's--he started the game as daddy's heir, top of his world, only for a jealous sibling to see him scandalized, crippled, and tortured. As you've said, he likely won't be waking up the same man tomorrow, if indeed he wakes. I hope he does--after all he's been through with A, he'll make a great recurring character.

That, and I also plan to blackmail him with what he's spilled (I know, haven't I done enough to the man already!). Being able to call in favors from the current Mei-Vourne scion could come in handy, should he acquiesce.

Mechanics-wise, I'm greatly enjoying Penumbra's rules so far. Comparing the many differences between them and PF would take way too long to list right now, but in short, I'm loving the greater storytelling possibilities/flexibility of actions they open up to players and GMs alike. Alisandre the level 1 wizard (necromancer) probably would've flubbed her Sleight of Hand check to drug Xedric, if the mid- to high-level fighter didn't just succedd on his Fortitude save. (Of course, I had awesome luck on that roll, so maybe the dice gods would've smiled upon me anyway.)

The only significant tweak I'd make is to have players factor bonuses/penalties into their rolls instead of leaving it to GMs. Saves work for the latter, and is more intuitive for the former to see skilled characters rolling bigger numbers.

Updates, updates! I love all the recent activity, folks! Welcome (again), Superbright to the game, and I look forward to seeing Decarabia in action.

To reply to FE's most gracious and appreciated feedback:

Quote from: False EpiphanyLate Mondays would be ideal. I'm gone for most of the day on Thursdays, but could swing a late evening time (9 EST or later). Fridays aren't so good, as I have another game then.

Steerpike said that Fri & Thur don't work for him either. So let's try people telling the group when time might work. Once again, this isn't a regular thing. We are just scheduling a one-shot group session. About 4ish hours.

QuoteFirst, getting to play in another pbp game of yours is a treat, regardless of the setting or game system. All your trademark touches of evocative writing, richly dscribed environments, compelling characters, and so forth are there. Compared to BCtB, you've gone for shorter descriptions and summarized more actions. This makes updates faster, so it's definitely a change for the better. My only nitpick is that Xedric's initial physical description got lost in the shuffle (though that's since been covered in subsequent posts).

Thanks! I did indeed forget to paint a picture of his appearance, so my apologies for that. Especially since magisters are such fun to detail.

QuoteSpecial mention goes to how you've inluced likable, amusing, and otherwise lighthearded characters in addition to the disturbing, violent, and not-so-nice ones.  It would've been easy to play CE's setting as a pure crapsack world, all doom 'n gloom, and the contrast better serves to keep players emotionally invested.

I appreciate this as well. Steerpike can certainly comment more on his intentions, but I have tried to follow some of those elements executed in his game, namely horrible things, plus humorous ones. Of course, what's horrible and humorous is a subjective matter, so I'm glad things are translating well for you.

Quotewhat the heck is with all my PCs having A-names?).

And Albree from Beyond the Last Recourse. It's time for an intervention. But at least you know recognize the problem. ;)

QuoteThe Mei-Vourne family's morbid culture was a lot of fun to think up together, but I've also been making an effort to play A as more than just a death-obsessed necromancer, and hopefully that's shown. I think she even has a sense of humor, albeit an ironic and understated one.

I look forward to seeing her interact with non-family members, particularly the PCs (even though one of the PCs is technically family).

QuoteThe interrogation sequence was a lot of fun, with Alphosine's illusion doing much to contribute to the scene's awesomess (so glad I rolled a 6). I should see if I kin get me any o' dat, especially after Alisandre's shown a penchant for using subterfuge and guile to achieve her ends. I hadn't anticipated her using those kinds of tactics at first, but upon reflection it makes sense--her brothers hold more cards (though certainly fewer now that Xedric's broken).

As we've spoken about via AIM, you have certainly reaped the rewards of bold, good strategies backed by bold, good rolls. If the former had lacked the latter... she would be in a much, much worse position. Maybe even irreversible. So glad the dice-gods loved you. They favor, however, is fickle, as you well know.

QuoteThe revelations spilled by X were all quite juicy, and I enjoyed learning more about Caraumonde's past wives as well. The revelation of Belphia's death by suicide was a twist--we didn't spend as nuch time developing her together as other stuff, so I look forward to discovering what else you've brewed up.

Double, double toil and trouble;
    Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

QuoteXedric's character has exhibited a surprising number of facets in the short time I've known him. He started out as an oaf (falling asleep during stepmom's funeral, flipping out during the card game), then got seriously scary/dangerous (abducting Alisandre, participating in the ritual combat, putting up a real fight even naked, unarmed and half-dead), then broke under torture, and now finally... he's just a son who did his duty and wants what's owed to him. If it weren't for how cruelly he treated Alisandre when he thought she was just a maid, I'd feel pretty sorry for the guy... and even that might've been the madwine doing some talking.

I'm glad you've enjoyed such -I've definitely tried to put some depth into the NPCs, even if most interactions are acceptably shallow. For example, I'm glad Steerpike picked up on Red Mei's adoption of Skeinite culture. There are reasons for all that, which hopefully can allow for dramatic conflict, secrets, rewards for roleplaying, etc. (Mei, for instance, sure isn't a Chattelchatter name, but a Hellspeak one).  That said, if Catena kills Mei with a crossbolt to the head next scene, I'm good with that too. Dead men (and women) sometimes can tell tales. Even if not, that's part of the fun of choosing options. You open up new stories and close others.

QuoteMechanics-wise, I'm greatly enjoying Penumbra's rules so far. Comparing the many differences between them and PF would take way too long to list right now, but in short, I'm loving the greater storytelling possibilities/flexibility of actions they open up to players and GMs alike. Alisandre the level 1 wizard (necromancer) probably would've flubbed her Sleight of Hand check to drug Xedric, if the mid- to high-level fighter didn't just succedd on his Fortitude save. (Of course, I had awesome luck on that roll, so maybe the dice gods would've smiled upon me anyway.)

I definitely appreciate the praise of the system; I'm enjoying it too.

QuoteThe only significant tweak I'd make is to have players factor bonuses/penalties into their rolls instead of leaving it to GMs. Saves work for the latter, and is more intuitive for the former to see skilled characters rolling bigger numbers.

Glad you mentioned this; this is something I want to change to the rules, as motivated by some tabletop play tests as much as this pbp. With the former, I've already implemented it. Before I do so with the latter, I want to see what the other players think. If I don't hear opposition by week's end, I'll enact it and edit it on the posted rules.

Taking a page from sparkletwist: http://doodle.com/8iuttah8kywfu2yg

Submitted my (sadly limited!) availability - feel free to play without me if another day works better.

Thanks, TMG, F_E, & Steerpike for replying to the doodle calendar! So far, it seems that Monday 22nd, starting at 8:30 pm EST works for all four of us.

Superbright, Ghostman, & Seraflumph, what say ye?

The only times I could manage are when nobody else is available.

Bummer. Did you complete the doodle anyways? If so, perhaps we can have a solo PC or partial group IRC session at a time that works for you. With more advance notice, hopefully the entire group can 'meet'.

Good news, gang: Superbright confirmed Monday, the 22nd, starting at 8:30 EST.

Four players is amply sizeable. See y'all on the 22nd.

Indeed. If Seraflumph wants, Mr. Nix can join us as well. Next time, though, we'll make special effort to work around Ghostman's schedule.

Ok, gang. All posts have been replied to.

1 week to first IRC session. 4 days since last post. I know I need to reply to FE's and that TMG has become Swamp-Thing, but is anyone else needing anything specific before replying?

Actually, I am realizing that I am unlikely to actually participate.  I think you've probably come to that realization on your own, but I just wanted to (finally) say it.  Maybe Mr. Nix will make a cameo at some point down the line, but at present he will not be an active participant.

Due to the extended radio silence, I assumed as much. However, sad though that news may be, I am really, really grateful for you letting all of us know.

I hope to see Mr. Nix again, be it pbp or IRC.

Being that it's less than 3 days till our first scheduled group IRC session, I'm a bit dismayed at the lack of communication, IC and/or OOC. Steerpike, it's been 9 days; TMG, 2 weeks since your last IC post. What's up?

Basically, I need to hear from those scheduled to play.

I realize RL demands are plentiful and compelling, but I was counting on this week's pbp to resolve/set things up for the group session (which I've shared). Moreover, I've spent a lot of time prepping for the session, but at this point I'm not sure spending further time is a wise investment.

Regardless of whether you can or cannot play on Monday, please post by Saturday's end on this thread (IC posts are obviously welcome as well). 

I've been both ill and unusually busy, so I've found it quite difficult over the past couple weeks to sit down and engage a roleplaying frame of mind. Additionally, I expect better of myself for a PbP game than I do for a live game, so I can't just spit something out when I have the opportunity to do better.

That said, I honestly hadn't realized it had been two weeks, and I'll try to post today. 

Thank you for posting, TMG. I'm sorry you've been ill. Beyond the unpleasantness of sickness, the backlog of work it creates can be really stressful. So, best wishes with both 'recoveries'. Please let me/us know whether Monday still works for you, health- and schedule-wise.

As for posting for pbp vs IRC, I share the same sentiment. Yet, as my wife often reminds me, "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good." Everyone's writing has been so stellar; A dip in 'quality' for an increase in quantity (and less player stress) is a win in my book.

Also, and far less importantly, I created the following thread: http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,210144.msg229077.html#new

For the timeline, I tried to go off my notes and memory for Hadric's dates, so I can change them as TMG wishes. I'll also gladly add any relevant dates for Catena, Xavier, Mr. Nix, & Decarabia as their players desire (e.g., current age of PCs would be nice, as would the year when Catena came to Skein and Decaraba returned).

Just tossin' in (publicly) I'm still good to go for Monday.

Thanks for replying, FE.

One of my classes was actually rescheduled, so I wouldn't be there until a little bit after 9 PM EST.

Thanks for posting, TMG, on both threads. 9 pm EST is fine by me... assuming we still play. Still haven't heard back from Superbright or Steerpike.

I'm still available at that time, but I haven't had much of a chance to post and don't know if I'm in the best place to join into a group IRC game?

Thanks for replying, Steerpike.

So far, Steerpike & FE have confirmed for today; TMG has likewise done so, but for 9 pm start. No word from Superbright (she sent me a pm last Wednesday saying she'd been ill). She might still be free, might be still ill. Either way, that's at least 3+ players, which is plenty to do a group session.

However, at this point, I'm not sure the plot progression warrants it. My long-stated goal was to do the group session once the PCs were joined up together (or most were -here's looking at you, Xavier & Mr. Nix). That way, we can all play in the same channel rather than me running separate 'rooms'. I had definitely thought we were going to get there before today, in terms of plots, and people are close.

To justify those expectations, consider this: in the last 10 days, we've had 3 posts from players total. Compare that to the 10 days prior when we had 19 posts from players (once again, excluding mine).

To clarify, I'm not upset. I'm especially sympathetic to TMG and Superbright who were/are sick. I also know I put FE on pause to let the other players catch up, and I know Steerpike has always been up front that he has limited time to play (hence the appeal of pbp).

Right now, I'm just trying to readjust plans and openly communicate our aspirations as a group.

At this point, here's what I'm thinking:

Cancel the group session. Resume pbp. Once 3+ PCs are ready (i.e., their plots have directly intersected) we can (re)schedule for a group IRC session. After that, players/PCs would be free to go their own route or remain playing together via pbp and the infrequent, as convenient, group session.

But that's just my preference. Alternatives could include:    

1. Have the session today. The goal would be to advance PCs who are 'behind' others in terms of being ready to meet up and tackle the originally planned 'adventure' as a group. This might be especially helpful to Catena's current situation, since combat-interactions are far more swiftly resolved via IRC than pbp.

2. Have the session today. The goal would be to run an 'adventure' with those PCs most ready to meet up together (likely Alisandre & Hadric, with Decarabia if Superbright shows). However, I wouldn't run the originally planned 'adventure'. This would just be a 'filler' I'd be creating last-minute (I have a couple of contenders).  

Neither is particularly ideal to me. In part, because both give at least 1 player the short stick. In part, because I'm not as ready for either.  I have the 'original adventure' all typed up, with room, attack, hit, & miss descriptions ready and waiting to copy & paste. Due to all that prep, and the nature of the encounters, I'd really like to run that 'encounter/adventure' as a group IRC session, so I'm fine with waiting till it actually works out for 4+ players and their PCs.

To summarize, we can (a) cancel, resume pbp, and reschedule when everyone is ready; (b) play today to catch up certain PC plots (namely Catena, maybe Hadric); or (c) play with those PCs most ready (Alisandre & Hadric, maybe Decarabia) in a 'filler adventure' I'll have to run with little prep time.

(a) is my preference. I'm happy to do (b). I least prefer (c) because it places the greatest burden on me as a GM, even if I'm willing to entertain it all the same.  

That said, we're a bunch of friends trying to play a game for fun, so please let me know what you think of the above options.

Your preference (a) sounds good to me.

My availability for stuff, including posting, tends to come in waves, depending on how much writing etc I have to do in a given week - last week I had lectures to prep ("I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," Medea, Stross' "Lobsters"... lots of fun) and a writing group deadline and the ever-present dissertation (usually the only constant).

I'm likewise down with (a) - whatever works best for the GM's plans. Here's to having that session sometime soon.

Steerpike, I'm in a similarly wave-rocked graduate boat.

When the week's surf is particularly nasty, though, I would greatly appreciate players letting me know (via pm, OOC post). Keeps me from bugging you and helps me adjust things as necessary on my end. I'll try and provide the same courtesy to you all as well.

Now, since 2 players and the GM are good with option (a), let's go with that.

If a. is your preferred option, then I think we should go with it.

Sounds like (a) it is. However, I'll likely be online tonight if any of you are interested in a little of (b). Just let me know.

Appropriately enough for the necromancer PC, the game -at least for Alisandre (as per False Epiphany's invitation)- has been "reanimated." I'll gladly do so for any of the other past players and their PCs. Or new ones for that matter. Just give the word. 

After a month+ of silence, I assumed the game had died, Steerpike. That said, I'm happy to revive it all the same. Perhaps true to its setting, it lurches onward -not healthy or with any real vitality- but not fully claimed by death either. It's just 'mostly dead'. :)

It's a beautifully written game. So long as you keep posting I will play, even if my responses are slow.

That's a mighty fine compliment, Steerpike, and well-appreciated.

Ironically, I started the game primarily to play-test the Penumbra rules, but that plan never really materialized (i.e., multiple players being run through a specific adventure) and has since lost its salience (as I've already used the rules to run about a dozens tabletop sessions with 4 different groups of players). In retrospect, I should have just run a one-shot IRL game, and/or run a pbp that better invited and tailored to players' interests (e.g., Erebh vs Skein, urban vs wilderness, etc.). Admittedly, I tend to over-plan plot and setting elements, particularly when tailoring individual PC plot lines that flexible connect with meta-plotlines. Even with most of those plot-lines sitting fallow with the loss of the other players, a lot of them remain viable.  

That said, Steerpike (as the last man standing), do you have any preferences related to the game? Specifically, do you have certain goals or objectives for Catena (beyond presumably finishing her contract with Guin)? For example, do you, as a player, want to play a primarily urban campaign, remain in Skein, travel elsewhere, advance a certain faction, etc.?

   

At the moment, no. I think that would depend on how things with Guin plays out. I like Skein quite a bit, but don't feel you need to plan out anything extensive.

How did your tabletop sessions work out?

Quote from: Steerpike
At the moment, no. I think that would depend on how things with Guin plays out. I like Skein quite a bit, but don't feel you need to plan out anything extensive.

Well, I have plenty of Skein material already prepped, so that works for me (just let me know if you want to jump city for a more drastic change of place).

QuoteHow did your tabletop sessions work out?

Amazingly well. The players ended up being very varied. 14 total: 9 guys, 5 girls; 2 teens, 10 adults; 4 couples, 2 parent-child dyads. Previously, my gaming crew was nearly all 3e/PF gamers, but since moving (and doing the 'play-tests'), I've been playing with different folks. 3 of them had never played any kind of RPG before (excluding video games). 2 had only played PF. 2 were Iron Kingdoms devotees. 2 were 2e-3e gamers. 3 were 3e-PF-4e gamers. And 2 had played 1e-5e as well as Numenara. Diverse bunch.

I ran the first two groups through an identical adventure (with one group continuing to play). Another was a separate one-shot with some of my old crew during a summer trip, and the last group plays irregularly during holidays. The adventures were pretty varied as well: exploration/retrieval, classic dungeon crawl, murder mystery, urban espionage, etc.

Without exception, I got rave reviews -though it's hard to tease how much of the praise was due to the rules versus the setting (thanks once again), adventure, GMing, and inter-player dynamics.

Character creation still took a while, but no more than typical for 3e/PF/4e, but maybe a little more than 5e. Some of that time, though, was due to player unfamiliarity with both CE and the rules. The Penumbra Rules include a fair bit of flavor as well as crunch, so players grappled with (but then loved) learning about sheevra, shades, jatayi, etc. I also gave all the players a slightly updated/edited CE pdf (only format was edited; no content was altered) to read. A little less than half (6) actually read it, but that's pretty typical in my gaming experience. The other part that took a lot of time with character creation was having players come up with their own eldritch items. The Numenara players had no problem with it, but most players were not used to having that kind of flexibility. About half of them really loved it, though, and it helped flesh out all of their characters. Still, having a table of sample oddities and devices would be helpful, I think.

From the GM's perspective, the rules are a blast. The intuitive nature of DCs and simplicity and flexibility of 'monster' and trap crunch is fantastic. Whenever I GM'd in 3e-5e, I spent a ton of time working on the crunch of the monsters/NPCs/traps. It was a major time-sink, one that inevitably prevented me from spending more time on flavor, plot, and setting.

Actual gameplay was similarly terrific. It's so swift. Players and GMs were allowed to focus on role-playing, while still being able to enjoy rolling dice, having strategic and tactical choices and the thrill of luck -good or bad. There was never a single rule that caused a game to grind (unlike what happens in 3e). The players also all thought the rules were fair, and it didn't seem to produce unbalanced PCs. People especially loved the way dice exploded (1s, 5s, and 6s).

The play test did reveal one flaw (and quick solution): the reduction of DCs was onerous for about half the players (adding is inherently easier than subtracting). So we changed it to bonuses to the rolls (e.g., expertise grants +1 to your d6 roll). Everyone was happy with the change, and it sped up gameplay without any actualized (or at least observed) drawback.

Besides that one easily fixed issue, the only other minor criticism was that several of the players missed rolling their other dice, particularly the d20. Said feedback was more sheepish than sincere, but it is true that people have an attachment to the d20, and there is a certain joy at having a beautiful set of dice. Penumbra doesn't facilitate that.

All in all, it was like running a randomized clinical trial (RCT) and having all your hypotheses supported with statistical and clinical significance. Which is rare, but an awesome feeling.

Of course, all those games were set in CE, so there's a confounding variable. :)

That's great!

I know what they mean about d20 attachment. I'm playing in a game right now that uses 2d6 and it's a little weird.

Were all the adventures set in Skein?

Perhaps surprisingly, none of the games (save this one) have been set in Skein. Instead, all of them have been set in, from, to, or near a home-brew town called Sarantos.

Also known as the Vagrant's Asylum, Sarantos is a nascent flash-pan settlement nestled at the confluence of Dour Erg's dunes, the Firesong's saguaro-strewn scrublands, and the obsidian plateaus of the Shadeglass Steppes. Populated by deserters and quasi-heretics of the Branded Crusade and other outcasts of the Twilight Cities, the region serves as a caravanserai for zerda and mantid nomads, a trading post for Crepuscular guilds and Macellarian cartels, a miasma depot for Skeinite dirigibles, and an irresistible temptation for genie-sworn banditos, fetch-hordes, and worse. Sarantos is built atop, beneath, and around the ruins of a thrice-damned city and the fumarole-riddled caldera called Trephine Hill. It lies a half-day's ride to Rheumwood, a parasitic dock-town along the River Stye that provides Sarantos with a tenuous connection to the Gland's riparian trade.

Sarantos is ruled by a violently fluid oligarchy known the Consortia, a collection of bosses that vie for dominance over the Barrios, including the geist-blossomed opulence of Blackbriar; the cestoid-carved depths of Neverwick; the raw, rough-hewn saloons, knackeries, and bordellos of the Splintered Bowery; the slave-ghorfas and gleet-forges of the Termitary; and the pestilential masses and flaystorm-buried porphyry of the Red Palimpsest. Numbered among the Consortia are the Viceroys, a pair of shade representatives from Erebh's Penumbral Ministry; the Triumvirate, a trio of Crepuscular tortiloquists who run the Blatherskite Carnival; the Schismarchs, a sectarian melange of Yzch-worshipping hierophants that include the Manged Papess of the Sarcoptic Communion and the mephit-tongued Archimandrite of the Lugent Cauldron; the Skeinite merchant companies that run the thaumoindustrial Blisterwerks; and more.    

Wow, sounds like a great location!

Are the Schismarchs Pestilentialists or Malignants (http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,56772.msg208060.html#msg208060)? Or neither?

Glad you like it! Admittedly, Sarantos is a hodgepodge of the Twilight Cities (although Dolmen and Somnambulon have minuscule presences). However, my goal wasn't so much originality as it was inclusion of many CE elements, a place where players could easily play a host of different races from different locales.

As for the Schismarchs, they are both. Conflict is the mother of adventure (hooks).

Pestilentialists include:

The Orthodox Contagionites are led by Eparch Bhael (the same one shot by Eareg in Chymalea), assisted by Diaconite Mizpah. True to their name, they are the most orthodox sect, and have the best relations with mercantile traders and the upper class.

Hierosybil Hagar-Sarrat is the prioress of the Abscess Sisterhood, a group of mendicant sybil-nuns riddled with prophetic pustules that they nurture and rupture to perform their auguries.

Schismarchs tied to the Malignants include:

Neerajit, the Manged Papess -the zerda leader of the Sarcoptic Communion, a populist sect favored by the poor that ritually shares its wealth (of which, diseases count). The Papess' most-favored disciples form the Scabietic Hand, who are part akin to a religious thieves' guild.

Crucifer Sarpan-Tsaauth, the naghini leader of the Order of Gangrenous Salvation. The Crucifer is tied to a cross and milked for his venom and pus and carried through the streets as both banner and exemplar of suffering as 'they' preach the duality of pain & pleasure, life & death, recovery & decay. For those make the appropriate 'donation', they bless the righteous with the service of the Order's assassin-monks.

Archimandrite Ibaz Dirnacus is the abbot of Lugent Cauldron, inhabited by the Mephitic Friars, who ritually sleep on beds of hot nails and wear cages over their heads. The Lugent Cauldron is poised on the precipice of Trephine Hill, and is a frequent haunt for sadists, masochists, and the bored and decadent.



More recently, Inquisitor Xathrites of the Inquisition has shown up, sent by the big-wigs in Marainein to cull the heretics from the true believers, just as the maggots eat his left leg in self-inflicted bedridement. He is assisted by Prelate Chemosh and his subordinate putrefactors.

While the Schismarchs war (spiritually and politically, when not physically) amongst themselves, they are the masters of Scabtown, the Barrio otherwise known as the Red Palimpsest, which is the largest and most populous region of Sarantos. The urchin-gangs of Scabtown, such as the Crimson Peelers and the Bruise-Rats, at times oppose and predate on these sects, but they generally serve, unwittingly or unknowingly, as lackeys and recruitment-grounds for the Schismarchs.

EDIT: After seeing the last two replies, maybe I should take some time to draft some proper posts on the locale. I would happy recieve input from you and the rest of the crew.

That's wonderfully detailed. I'd love to see a write-up.

Thanks!

Besides their names, did you have any additional info on the Orthodox Contagionites, Abscess Sisterhood, Order of Gangrenous Salvation, or Mephitic Friars?

I don't think I wrote anything down about them. I like the prophetic pustules angle for the Abscess Sisterhood.

I imagine the Mephitic Friars swing noxious censors, and use alchemical vapours to induce visions and mystic ecstasies.

The Order of Gangrenous Salvation... perhaps they nourish a state of advancing sepsis kept barely-in-check through drugs and witchery, with rank indicated by the number of unclosed wounds they possess.

I think the Orthodox Contagionites would be pretty textbook Pestilentialists, as you suggest.

Perfect -thanks for the extra info! As usual, it's wonderfully evocative and visceral. I'll update Ibaz and the other monks at the Cauldron. Same with the Crucifer and the Order.

FE & Steerpike,

Thanks for the rapid replies from both of you. I've greatly enjoyed reading your posts, and hopefully I've repaid in kind.

FE, to which health-related rule are you referring?

The following:

QuoteIn addition to taking damage from their Might, Agility, or Intellect Pool, PCs also have a damage track. The
damage track has four states (from best to worst): hale, impaired, debilitated, and dead. When one of the PCʼs stat
Pools reaches 0, she moves one step down the damage track. Thus, if she is hale, she becomes impaired. If she is
already impaired, she becomes debilitated. If she is already debilitated, she becomes dead.

...

IMPAIRED: Impaired is a wounded or injured state. When an impaired character applies Grit, it costs 1 extra
point per level applied. For example, applying one level of Grit costs 3 points instead of 2, and applying two levels of
Grit cost 6 points instead of 4. An impaired character ignores minor and major effect results on his rolls. When an
impaired PC takes enough damage to reduce one of his stat Pools to 0, he becomes debilitated.

Hmm, I had totally forgot about that rule. I'm of the mind to scrap it, as its narratively appropriate, and personally enjoyable, for dramatic PC comebacks to occur, and impaired and debilitated PCs being denied minor and major effects would hinder that. I still like the extra Grit cost, though.

Thoughts?

As someone currently playing an impaired PC hoping to make a dramatic comeback (and who's rolled a bevy of 5s and 6s), I do have to admit some degree of bias...

...but having something special happen when you roll a 5 or 6 is fun, and having that happen less often is less fun. On a broader tangent, I also think it's preferable for game mechanics to add new twists and turns to the narrative than it is to take them away. So, in keeping with the rule's original spirit that "things don't go your way when you're hurt," I might suggest having 2s introduce minor new complications when you're impaired. Kinda the way 5s already introduce minor benefits, but karmically reversed.

Ok, consider that negation of minor and major benefits negated and its rule revised. As for 2s creating minor complication when you're impaired, I'm open to the change, but I'd like to get feedback from some of my tabletop Penumbra players first.