Low Magic Fantasy Sign-Up

[IHateMakingNames]

Opening Story: Lord Von Terrence is hiring anyone willing to protect him on a convoy. He is taking a large amount of fine goods to some nobility. However, because of the unusually high price he is offering, and the fact that he is going himself, rumors have spread that he has something of great value with him. Many have taken his offer to receive their small fortunes for being guards. Others have decided to try and go for the full fortune and steal from him during the convoy. A particularly greedy thief, Hohem Flor, is hiring his own force to rob the entire convey, taking the bigger prize for himself.

Further Story: PCs will be the guards or the robbers. It doesn't particularly matter after the opening act, since circumstances will heavily suggest the two work together. The group will be stranded in harsh, probably magical, environments and will probably want to survive; possibly dealing with other issues.

Examples include unfortunate encounter with a pair of trolls during bandit raid, resulting in Terrence getting taken, with obvious hefty reward for a joint rescue. Attack happening in a spirit infested forest, and damage during the fight enrages forest spirit. Secret cargo includes nobility child, and nobility is looking for him with an army. No decision yet on what will quite happen, but will probably be a mix of things to create choices.

Magic: Low magic setting, within people. Most magic exists in the form of common potions and powders, created through parts of magical creatures. These potions or dust can range from healing minor wounds to creating love to creating an explosion. Magically inclined humans can enchant objects with magical properties with parts of magic creatures. Rarer, more magically inclined people can create things like a burst of light or a fireball.

Alchemist are people who make the potions and powders. They aren't magic in any way; they just know what to mix to get desired results. Enchanters are people who enchant items. Combining their own little magic with magic creature bits they can give objects temporary magical properties. Wizards are people who can do their own magic. They can do much better enchanting, and weak unaided magic.

Enchants are things like bursting into flames, increased hardiness, creating a sound, basically anything that isn't too much. No 50 foot flamethrowers, but a sword can catch on fire or create bursts of flames. Objects can have more than one enchantment at a time, but putting too much magic into one thing will create bad results. Enchantments only last for a certain amount of time because of this; either used a certain amount of times, or magic just wears out after awhile. You can expect a full adventure out of a freshly enchanted items from a good Enchanter. Anyone can use an enchanted item, not just magically inclined people. For activation, you will it to do it's enchantment. People can feel if an object is enchanted or not by feel.

The above also applies for potions, except their decay over time is much less.

Mythical Creatures: Most of the mythical creatures are a mix of two or more normal animals with some sort of magical property. These creatures are created by natural spirits for certain tasks. Some of these breed and spread on their own. Most of these are very regionally based. These are the most common ingredient for magical items.

Natural spirits are things like the embodiment of a forest, lady of the sea, or protector of the raccoons. They exist through some natural source (The forest, the sea, big ol' group of raccoons) and will die if their source is destroyed. Have control over it, as well as magical powers. These spirits are sentient and can understand all creatures. Most encounters between spirits are humans results in the death of one of the sides. Humans want the resources that the spirit exists around. Spirits are rare, so most village and cities don't settle near them, but a few exist when the spirit and humans make a deal, or the spirit feels unthreatened.

None spirit related creatures exist, but are equally as rare. These are more powerful creatures, like ogres, trolls, cocktrice, manticore, and other creatures of legend. When people venture into unexplored regions, they may encounter one of these. If it is a passive creature, they bring back stories about a glimpse of the beast. When it's aggressive, any survivors bring back warnings. On top of these creatures are dragons, which are considered the most powerful creatures in the world. Most are animal life, but dragons are intelligent and can understand humans. For the most part these creatures avoid human contact, either by running or killing any that try to settle near their nests. While dangerous and rare, they are highly valued for creating magical items.

90% of people do not encounter anything past the mix of animals. 5% are the people who live in areas trading with a spirit. The other 5% are hunters who seek out magical creatures for profit.*

*Figures are made up to represent point.

Technology: Medieval times, with castles. Along with medieval technology, due to magic potions and dusts often replace other tools, like burning powder instead of flint. Middle age Europe is the base for anything I'll make. Common technology from anywhere in the world at that time (Up to early teen-hundreds) is acceptable.


Characters: Note before the sheet. Story calls for working together despite starting on opposite sides, but both sides are initially working for money. Also we don't need both sides, just figured I'd offer up both for more variety. Just don't be a super vigilant defender of justice, or a crazy violent highway bandit. If going for bandit preferably get hired by Hohem, though coincidental independent robbery is fine.

Name: What they call you
Gender: Innie or outie
Age: Number of years after birth
Appearance: What you look like.
Guard/Bandit: Which one are you for the opening.
Occupation: Do something besides guard for hire/highway bandit?
Skills: What are you good at?
Equipment: What you brought for the trip. Note that guards are provided with a horse and their own supplies, while bandits aren't provided anything.
History: What happened before the heist.
Extra: Something else you want to add.

[Inbred Chocobo]

Name: Icarus Crovat
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Appearance: Icarus has leather armor on, simple slacks, hunting boots, definitely worn in for comfort, a hunting cloak. As for how he looks, his hair has been bleached a bit from a few choices things he has taken, so its now a bright blonde. His eyes are still brown however, so things look a little off. There is also the whole thing with him looking a bit older than he is, but its not as bad as one might think. Also, for weapons an items, bow and quiver on back, sword at hip, and pouch of drugs on the other side.
Guard/Bandit: Bandit
Occupation: Hunter... of sorts
Skills: He is good with both a bow and a sword, and he has the ability to perceive things in a way most cannot. He reports that he can literally see mad and sad, hate and rage, and love and hope. He can spot the weakness of a creature, and has at points said he could see through walls. Whether its all true is another story.

Oh, poisons and toxics tend not to work on him. He has done way to much stuff to get killed by a little cyanide.
Equipment: A bow, with a quiver full of arrows. A longsword hangs at his belt. Leather armor with a thick cloak. There are also a couple pouches full of stuff made by alchemists, wizards, mages, whatever they called themselves, to be smoked, snorted, drunk, and eaten.
History: Icarus was originally a hunter, going after not really mythical creatures, but more along the lines of bounties. Sure he hunted some creatures, but only when someone was paying a price for them. He did this for a while, making a good fortune and being decently recognized for it. He racked up a good bit of gold as well.

Then things got interesting. He found an alchemist who reported making a powder for a pipe that could remove all pain when smoked. It didn't actually remove all pain, just made it less noticeable. This got Icarus curious about drugs, and soon as he journeyed through town after town, he was hitting up each person with some drug or promise of magical potion mix, and Icarus hit it up, smoking it, snorting it, drinking it, and eating it. Magical residue starting building up in his system, and everything starting mixing together, causing some weird effects. He reported hearing thoughts randomly, or maybe even voices. He could see things that weren't there, and see things about people they tried to keep hidden.

This however affected his behavior. He became more eradict, and crazy in some cases. His substance abuse was starting to become famous with him, and soon his hunter lifestyle wasn't working, as people weren't willing to help or pay someone as crazy as him. He has talked about joining the guards for money, now being close to broke, but they wouldn't have him. So he joined Hohem, hoping to gain something out of this robbery.

Extra: His personality can change at any moment. He can be calm and caring, and saying something in an odd tone could cause him to draw his longsword and charge you. Sadly enough though years of being like this has taught his body how to fight without worrying what state of mind his brain is in, so while speechcraft and personality skills are affected, his fighting skills are not.

[Overcast]

Name: Andre Morse
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Appearance: Andre stands at about five foot nine with an even build and has been called just a bit feminine by a few of his peers. He has deep forest green eyes and shortly cropped aubrun hair that tends to stand on end all on its own. His most noticeable feature is the immense scar across his neck showing off exactly what lengths it took to repair him even to the degree that he is at now. He tends to vary between the theatrical and the aloof both paying tribute to the absence of his voice, and it all seems to come together to make an attractive and mysterious man.
Guard or Bandit?: Guard
Occupation: Courier
Skills: Skilled in use of sword, a very fast runner with unreasonable stamina and experienced horseman. He is also known to be incredibly quiet when he moves at more comfortable speeds than his typical all out dash.
Equipment: Scimitar at his hip, a light leather cloak, chain-mail and thick cotton clothes.
History: Andre has been carrying messages essentially his whole life. Whether you count his childhood days delivering messages through his village or as he grew to a man running miles between towns spreading the word of the nobility. He was a smart young man, who could read well and known to be well spoken, often put on display by those he delivered to for broadcasting such theatrical deliveries. A great amusement to all.

Though then a small band of savages came around his small hamlet and after months of attrition he was sent to deliver the will of those above him. The situation did not end very well, the captured him and held him at ransom to those back home. When they did not pay they slit his throat and left him to die, and he had to be saved by a passing witch who had come over his collapsed body. She granted him a sword of her design, foreign and strange to his eyes and told him to return and exact his revenge.

He would have responded accordingly, but could no longer speak.

He returned in silence and slipped his way into the tent of the leader, murdering him in his sleep and stealing away with his head in the creeping darkness of the witching hour. He presented it to his lord and was ceremoniously celebrated for what little he had accomplished.

He spent years afterward continuing to deliver messages and people across the land, slowly gaining mastery over the witch's gift and becoming a fairly competent mercenary of sorts. And so when the job opened up to escort Lord Von Terrace and his expensive cargo he jumped at the opportunity.

After all he doesn't really know how to do much else.
Extra: Despite the terrible muteness Andre does have a fairly theatrical nature through the years of being a messenger that can convey the jist of what he is trying to say. Though it isn't very specific and more often than not if he doesn't have the means to write it out it isn't unusual for gross misinterpretations to occur.

[Astral Harmony]

Name: Paulleth Vugzby (real last name is Velderaign)
Gender: Female
Age: 22
Appearance: Paulleth has fiery red hair and differently colored eyes, the right being violet and the left being blue. She stands at five feet and five inches and wears large, round rimmed glasses whenever she needs to read something from afar. She has a birthmark on her right buttock in the shape of a one-string harp, a birthmark passed down through the direct female descendants of the Velderaigns. She's very pretty, and has blossomed into a radiant young woman.
Guard or Bandit?: Bandit
Occupation: Freelance Songstress, Musician, and Sneak Thief
Skills: Knife Combat, Singing, Ocarina Use, Quiet Movement, Pickpocketing, and Acrobatics
Equipment
- Steel Dagger: A dagger you can buy just about anywhere. Long lasting and effective.
- Bandit Armor: Stitched leather and cloth armor popular among female thieves. Easy to move around in and fashionable, but a far-cry from real protective gear.
- Einsler Dagger: A birthday present from the betrothed she ran away from, and one of the few precious treasures she keeps close. She wouldn't think of using it in combat, and the steel dagger is more effective anyways.
- Silver Pendant: A picture of her family is in it. She keeps it wrapped around the Einsler Dagger instead of around her neck. A stray beam of sunlight might reflect off of it and give away her presense.
History: Paulleth is one of those silly creatures. She's a girl from a noble family who ran away from that life because she didn't want the destiny her parents picked out for her, even if it was certain to be happy. She realizes that she should probably go back home and accept her fate since she doesn't really care about being free anymore, but her stubborn nature bids her remain true to her heart. It's been almost five years since she began her journey towards independance, and thanks to her skills, she's able to earn a living for herself.
Extra: Her songs are pretty good, despite the fact that she can't sing and play the ocarina at the same time. She's also crazy about animals, especially kittens, and it's often easy to get her to do something for you if you give her a kitten to play with.

[IHateMakingNames]

All three thus far are fine. Inbred, just make sure to keep up the high-or-magic, and don't go straight magic.

[Aerozord]

well I enjoy screwing convention, and especially since this is low magic, could I go mechanist route, using Da Vinci-esque clockwork technology. Repeater crossbows, hidden blades, ect

[Bard The 5th LW]

I'll get a sheet up. Probably go with a mage guy.

[IHateMakingNames]

Aero, both those things existed in the middle ages somewhere, so I'm going to say yes, though if you go to far with something I'll just veto it.

Bard, just remember that you can't be blasting shit. Magic people are most known for enchanting items.


Slight update to Magic and Technology section. A bit more on magic people for the former, and saying it's the Middle Ages for the latter.

Also added a Guard/Bandit section for the character sheet, for easier identification. And an Appearance since I forgot that.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Alright, I got a character in mind. Before I do it, can you give me an example of just what can be done with Enchantments? I have an idea in mind for a trap guy.

[krogothwolf]

Name: William McClarren
Sex: Male
Age: 22
Appearance: William is a well built man, with piercing blue eyes and black hair. He's about 6'0 and many would call the man handsome though he doesn't really care about that to much. He is generally clean shaven. He wears Armour plus a Royal Blue surcoat.
Guard
Occupation: Hired Muscle
Skills: Is extremely skilled with polearm's as well as swords. He is also incredibly strong.
Equipment:
Glaive of Lightning: His main weapon of choice. It is an enchanted Glaive, which when activated causes the blade of it to have lightning running over it, causing anyone to be hit by it to be momentartly zapped by lightning. Extremely effective against armoured opponents. Has a maximum of 1 hour of life, can be activated and deactivated at will.
Short Sword: Secondary weapon used for tight quarters.
Armour: Wears a hauberk along with a breastplate over top and plate greaves and gauntlets. Has a visor less bascinet for a helm. Has a blue surcoat overtop.
History: William is a traveling Merc, he hires on for everything and anything. He generally likes to sign on to jobs that would have a greater change of combat occurring as he detests boring jobs. He started up as a Merc at the tender age of 16 after he had to quickly leave his home town after killing a man in a duel. Though he won it fair and square the man was well liked by others who swore vengeance on him. Not liking the idea of being stabbed in the back he left town and signed up with any merc group he could. Doing odd jobs and the likes.
Extra: William has a soft spot for small animals.

[IHateMakingNames]

Enchants are things like bursting into flames, increased hardiness, creating a sound, basically anything that isn't too much. No 50 foot flamethrowers, but a sword can catch on fire or create bursts of flames. Objects can have more than one enchantment at a time, but putting too much magic into one thing will create bad results. Enchantments only last for a certain amount of time because of this; either used a certain amount of times, or magic just wears out after awhile. You can expect a full adventure out of a freshly enchanted items from a good Enchanter. Anyone can use an enchanted item, not just magically inclined people. For activation, you will it to do it's enchantment. People can feel if an object is enchanted or not by feel.

The above also applies for potions, except their decay over time is much less.

So yeah, a glaive can burst into flames. But at one time you can only have like 2 hours of glaive burning before it has to get re-enchanted. Or have a stone that will release a sleep powder next time pressure is put on it.

Edit - More magic notes. Potions are much more common than enchants since you don't need magic ability to make a potion, plus they require less ingredients, and last longer. Enchanted items are fairly uncommon, and per effect can be rare. Since most magical creatures are regionally based, most enchantments are as well. So if you take your fire glaive past the mountains, out of the Firefox's area, it's harder and more costly to get another fire glaive.

[Astral Harmony]

Creating a sound? I can imagine there's this point in the tale where we meet a merchant who's several rolls short of a picnic basket that sells enchanted weapons. The enchantment? Wacky sound effects are emitted when the weapon strikes something.

Warhammer: "Bonk! Boink! Bonk!"
Paulleth: "Ha ha ha. That's funny all day."
William: "Sure, when you're not the one whose dignity is lowered everytime they smash someone's skull in."

[Julford Hajime]

Alright, sounds interesting. I'll write something up when it ISN'T four in the (funking) morning.

[Dracorion]

Name: Frayson "Fray" Ashtear
Gender: Outie
Age: 25
Appearance: Frayson stands at six feet, with dark messy hair and blue eyes. His build is neither built nor slender, just somewhere in-between. His body below the neck is riddled with the scars of many missions. He wears a simple dark grey hooded cloak over his armor. the longsword is sheathed on his belt, the bow and quiver slung around his back, and the knife is hidden in a small sheath inside his greaves.
Guard/Bandit: Guard
Occupation: Greywolf Guild Mercenary
Skills: As a high-ranking mercenary of the best mercenary guild in the land, Frayson is a jack of all trades. Aside from being a master swordsman, he's trained in the use of axes, knives, bows and polearms. He is an expert tactician and good getting by unnoticed, as well as being an experienced horseman. His battle-hardened reflexes are especially sharp and have saved him time and time again.
Equipment: - Enchanted Longsword: Frayson's longsword is enchanted to cause an explosion whenever he wills it to, leaving the sword undamaged. Fray uses this mainly for creating a quick escape route. The enchantment is good for 15 uses.
- Shortbow and a full quiver.
- Steel knife.
- Armor: A black breastplate and shoulderpads, as well as black greaves and gauntlets, and a hauberk underneath.
- Potion of Speed: The drinker's running speed is increased greatly.
- Potion of Invisibility: A person can rub this on something to turn it invisible for five minutes.
History: Fray was raised from birth to be a mercenary by his father, who was a member of the Greywolf guild. This is how he has gained so much experience and many scars in the short twenty-five years of his life. Frayson is always concentrated on the mission at hand, and prides himself on always completing an assignment. His varied skills allowed him to rise quickly up the ranks. When Lord Von Terrence hired Greywolf to protect his convoy, they sent one of their best.
Extra: Nuthin'!

[krogothwolf]

Updated my guy.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Name: Simon Vinova

Gender: Male

Age: 28

Appearance: TBA

Guard/Bandit: Bandit

Occupation: Wizard. Fancies himself a tactician, but he's really kept around for his magical abilities.

Skills: Simon is an incredibly gifted Wizard. Since day one he has shown prodigious abilities with magic. He can do some of the typical enchantments you would find, but what he specializes in are his self-procalimed 'curses and hexes.' He sets his enchanted items mostly as traps. He can prepare a door to detonate when one touches the knob. Or make a flash of light. Bad luck surrounds people who make him angry. He also dabbles a bit in alchemy, so he has some knowledge surrounding the subject. Lastly he knows some navigation

Equipment:


Rope: He's not into bondage, he swears!

Pole: Just an iron club he carries around. About 2 1/2 ft long. He has no real skill, but he can make some use of enchantments with it.

Slingshot: The thing in itself is only a minor threat. Its his enchantments to the shots that show actual threat. He is only a mediocre good shot though. He cant really hit small targets.

Telescope: This kind (http://static.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/209606-bigthumbnail.jpg). He thinks it is elegant, so he carries it around. Probably stole it.

History: TBA

Extra: TBA

---

I'm just waiting for an OK before I add other things. I felt that his enchantment was a bit OP, so he isn't really going to be good at anything else to balance things out.

[IHateMakingNames]

A bit more magic than I wanted popping in. Original idea was normal people dealing with magical problems, but with options to use it themselves. When I got into explaining I made it sound more common than I intended, so going back to fix that up.

korg, lightning glaive charge is about an hour max.

Drac, invisibility potion works by touch not ingestion. Whatever it gets rubbed on turns invisible (or a couple feet of invisibility in thick things). You can up the sword's charge a bit if you want. (Edit) Alternatively, the invisibility can work by ingestion, but then it only works on the person, and not clothes or anything.

Bard, remember that you need a catalyst to enchant. If you want a door to cause blinding light you need a piece of tooth from the Illuminating Otter-Turtles of Nottingham or something.

[krogothwolf]

Okay, that's alright, was going by the 8 hour thing you had posted then figured to fix it with what you said anyways.

You know, if he drank the invisibility potion it would turn is insides and maybe his blood invisible, that would be creepy shit for the guys cutting him if he didn't bleed when slashed.

[Dracorion]

Drac, invisibility potion works by touch not ingestion. Whatever it gets rubbed on turns invisible (or a couple feet of invisibility in thick things). You can up the sword's charge a bit if you want. (Edit) Alternatively, the invisibility can work by ingestion, but then it only works on the person, and not clothes or anything.

Fifteen charges sound about right?

And I think I'll have Fray use the invisbility potion by touch. Though that does bring up it's own set of problems. How much of it does one need to use to turn themselves (including clothing), invisible? Do we have to douse ourselves or will a small drop do? Do things connected to whatever we're turning invisible turn invisible as well? (that is, if Frayson turns his armor invisible does the rest of him turn invisible?)

Finally, are things inside or underneath invisible objects hidden as well? That is, if Fray turns his cloak invisible and then covers himself entirely with it, is he invisible too or does he look like some fool wrapping an imaginary cloak around himself?

[IHateMakingNames]

Going with one foot contact spread from point of contact of decent sized drop. So he'd want to dab it on his chest plate, then reach in and dab it on his chest, then rub his back for full torso invisibility. Since it's a liquid it would spread through cloth and such. If you soaked a cloak then wrapped it around yourself, for the most part that should turn some one invisible unless they are pretty thick.


Also, the standard size of a potion is a pint.

[Julford Hajime]

Sorry this took so long, but HURRAY FINISHED!

Name: Jasper
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Appearance: Wears a set of simple peasants' clothing, a dark green shirt and a pair of brown pants. Despite the simple clothing, his weaponry is obviously more expensive than a typical peasant could afford, as is the jeweled pendant he wears on him at all times.
Guard/Bandit: Guard
Occupation: Traveling mercenary.
Skills: Extremely skilled close-combat fighter, though he lacks any tactical prowess or clarity of thought during a combat situation; he simply attacks until all of his opponents have been defeated.
Equipment: His sword, a typical Basket-hilted claymore (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claymore), along with a kite shield (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_shield) made of iron and with a simple yellow cross marking on the front.
History: Taken into a mercenary company as a small child, Jasper was made comfortable with weaponry at a young age. At the age of thirteen, an incident resulting in the disbanding of the mercenary guild left Jasper without a place to feed him, so he took up traveling to search for odd jobs that would help him earn some cash. During this time, he refined the fighting skills he'd learned as a member of the mercenary band and took jobs that promised a good fight. Accepted the guarding position for Von Terrence due to the high price offered as well as the high likelihood of a fight somewhere along the lines.
Extra: Usually aims to disarm his opponent, offering an unconditional surrender. Should they refuse to accept, he aims to permanently disable his opponent's limb(s). Should they still come after him, he strikes to kill. NOTE: This isn't a strict code that he follows, and so if circumstances don't allow him time to deal with opponents individually, he won't hesitate to kill.

[IHateMakingNames]

I'll start this mid-day tomorrow.

[Krylo]

Name: Marcus Lariat

Gender: Male

Age: 30

Appearance: Well muscled man, generally wearing little on his upper body. Short black messy hair and clear blue eyes. Heavily tanned.

Guard/Bandit: Bandit

Occupation: Merc with a heart of gold.

Skills: Marcus wields a large two handed sword with a berserker's countenance. He's extremely strong and surprisingly fast with it.

Equipment: Big ass sword.

History: Marcus used to be a military man, and though he was a great soldier in so much as you could point him at something and he would break it/kill it/burn it to the ground, he never had the discipline for command, and so was ever the grunt. This fit fine with him, for awhile. Until a new lord came into power, and raised taxes until the poor couldn't afford to eat, and then used the military to put down peasant revolts. It wasn't long until he deserted and became a mercenary--though he refuses to work for self-important nobles. As such, he's not a very successful one.

He signed on with the bandits believing they, and those they would spread the wealth to, were in more need of these niceties and the money than the merchant or the nobles.

Extra: Though Marcus is generally a good person, he's got a very... violent method of fighting. Let's just say I've been playing some AoC and it might color my combat posting (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc).

[IHateMakingNames]

Everyone whose made a sheet thus far is fine.

Started it up here (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=38419). In roughly 24 hours I'll turn it to night; giving time for intro posts.

I figured I'll set times between GM posts, depending on how much time I think players need. Of course if everyone posts quickly, or are posting regularly doing their own thing, times will be shortened and extended.