Frontiers of Alusia OOC thread.

This thread is to serve as a place to post information about characters, setting, plot for the role play, Frontiers of Alusia. It will also serve to be a place for discussion and coordination for the writers involved in the story.

The situation and cast:

Situation: A male paladin leads a group of adventurers of various professions through a series of adventures which gain them fame and fortune, and at the same time, bestow justice and mercy to the downtrodden that they aid. There is no shortage of opportunities to spread their legends throughout the frontier. But other than the paladin, the rest of the members of the group are all female, and have one other thing in common: they've all had some sort of relationship with him at one time or another, or perhaps even currently. Each member is an accomplished heroine in her own right, and sometimes they are more than the paladin can handle, especially when they work together.

Characters/writers:
Allytherian, healer/Annisthyrienne.
Breed, hunter/Ranger/Annisthyrienne.
Jayce Stromguard, Paladin/jack80
Mae Van Duran, barbarian/rogue/HotKittygirl
Darya, bard/sorcerer/Cheska
seductress/rogue/cmky

Still needed: A mage who disguises herself as male due to restrictions in her culture preventing females from learning magic, Perhaps another type of magic using character or fighter.

The Setting:

Setting: The adventures take place on the frontiers of a human colony province established on a newly discovered continent called Alusia. The ruler of this colony is a prince, given this responsibility because he is a third son of the king. He is not in line for succession to the throne, so was given this colony to rule instead. But he doesn't travel very far into the interior, and avoids the more rough areas of the frontier lands.

As with many human colonies, the humans came to the continent and claimed the land and all upon it for their home kingdom about 80 years before. Never mind the other races who already lived there and had towns, kingdoms of their own, etc. The humans don't let a little thing like that stop them. After all, they 'discovered' this new land.

There are all manner of races present in this new land: elves, halflings, dwarves, orcs, andaman, drow, even some giant races. (A note on Andaman races: in this land, the types of animal hybrid races most common are jackal-people, called gnolls. Less common, but still native are wolf-people. Deeper in the interior of the continent, in some wilder areas, leopard people, tiger people, and lion people can be found. These are more rare, being almost unheard of even among the native races in the colony.)

The first adventure takes place in a frontier town called Rockbridge. This town is about 80% human, but other races live in lesser roles, often even being treated as inferior beings. Those of elvish blood are almost accepted as more or less equal with humans, especially if they are half elves. In fact, very few full blooded elves are seen, as the elves of this continent tend to be conservative and somewhat xenophobic after their early experiences with the invading humans. But there are always those curious individuals who defy custom and hook up with a human. The result are the half elves, and those usually end up in human society, as more or less accepted persons.

In Rockbridge, there are town constables, and also a troop of ranger type soldiers of the crown. (Think of the town constables like a sheriff and his deputies, or a marshal and deputies in a frontier town of the old west. And think of the ranger troop as sort of like a cavalry troop who patrols the wilds outside of town. They may be stationed in the town, but they are not part of the law enforcement within the town limits unless called upon by the constable. Think also of the non-human races like the indians of the old west, sometimes feared, sometimes loathed, but mostly looked upon as uncivilized and not equal to humans.)

The frontiers are not well tamed, and many areas of lawlessness abound. In fact, outside of a city, you are pretty well on your own, though established trade routes are usually patrolled by the rangers fairly regularly. Still they cannot be everywhere at once. Within the towns, the constabulary may or may not be corrupt. Some try to do a good job, some are for sale to whomever wants the authorities on their side the most.

Slavery is legal in the realm, and most slaves are non-human, though a considerable population of human slaves from conquered enemy lands, indigent peasant children sold to raise money for their families, and unfortunate convicts of justice who may be sentenced to slavery as punishment do exist. What is not legal though is the mistreatment or neglect of slaves to the point of harm. Punishment of slaves is understandably necessary and accepted, but a practice like pitting slaves against each other in fights to the death are obviously prohibited. Still, the slavers guild is a powerful economic and political force, and tangling with them is not usually a wise thing to do. Often local guildmasters hire private fighters to provide security for their assets and interests, some guild properties and slave facilities are almost like fortresses.


Surrounding Rockbridge is an area of rolling farmland for some miles to the west. Isolated farms can be found as far as a day and half ride outside of town. To the north, just at the edge of town is a river that turns southward around the eastern edge of town, then travels on into what is thought to be elvish lands to the south. Beyond the river to the east is rougher terrain, not suitable for farming. The main road travels through Rockbridge, entering from the southwest and turning up to exit across a rock bridge that spans the river at the north edge of town. The bridge is the landmark for which the town gets its name.

(More to come as needed.)

As we assemble our team of writers and characters, I encourage everyone to post a synopsis of your character here in this one central place for reference. I realize that you may have posted more information elsewhere and that's fine. You can just link to it if you'd rather.

I'll start off with Breed. This will be the character that will come into the group at the end of the first adventure that will focus on breaking up an illegal slave pit fighting ring.



Name: Breed
Race: Andaman (Leopard)
Gender: Female
Profession: Slave pit fighter (Before being captured in the wild, she was a hunter.)
Level: 4th
Alignment: Neutral, but wild, potentially violent due to mistreatment and cruelty in the slave pits.

Height: 4'-10"
Weight: 143 lbs.
Eye color: Amber-green
Hair Color: Tawny fur, with spotted rosettes
Age: 14 in chronological human years, adult biological maturity for her race/species.

History/synopsis: Breed was a hunter for her tribe until she was captured by slave traders and brought to the Frontiers of Alusia. At first, she was claimed as the guildmaster's exotic pet in his mansion in Rockbridge. But he tried to force himself on her sexually in his perverse need to possess everything of his wholly and completely.

She fought back. He barely escaped, but sent in his thugs to break her. When he saw how she fought them, he decided she was too dangerous to keep as a pet but decided to use her in the fighting pits instead. He figured that either she would win him a lot of money, or be killed. He wouldn't mind winning the money at all, and if she was killed, he would consider it just revenge for defying him.

His thugs treated her cruelly, making her mean and vicious through abuse and pain. They kept her hungry and angry all the time. Soon it got to the point that they could not handle her directly, and could only tip her cage up to dump her into the pit when fight time came. She grew to live for the feeling of flesh rending under her claws and teeth, and the heady scent of blood being spilled by her own hands.

This is the state in which she enters the story. Her victories in the pit have made her the champion to beat if a suitable challenger can be brought forward to fight her. Often the matches amount to nothing more than a slaughter/execution of some slave who failed to please their master.

When the slave pit fighting ring is busted, will she be able to be redeemed?


Full character information can be seen here.

http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/043/7/c/bday_sketch__etna_sinclair_by_wen_m-d4phw5t.jpg


Name: Darya [Never uses last name]
Age: 21
Race: Human, Djinn ancestry.
Height: 6 feet 2 inches.
Eyes: Deep blue.
Hair: Black.
Class: Bard 3 / Sorcerer: 3 [Marid Bloodline]
Alignment: Lawful Neutral. [Chaotic leanings.]
Str: 12
Dex: 18
Con: 16
Int: 18
Wis: 15
Cha: 17

Back ground: Darya should have lived a quiet and normal life, were it not for her ancestry. Legend told of a great hero in her family, a brave adventurer who saw many great things and did many wondrous things.
That he also had the most beautiful wife of his time, what legend does not say, is that he had captured the heart of one of the Marid, the water Djinn.
And it was this, that would send young Darya, so named by her grandmother, running through the night for fear of her life and into the arms of a young man. It was he who guided her to safety and a teacher, one who might be able to teach her better use of her strange gifts.
Gifts that could end her life among the people she thought of as kin and ally.
Learning the ways of the bard to better hide her natural talents, Darya has made it a point to be secretive about her self and her past.
She views most people with a kind but weary heart and rarely shares more than her name and her bardic skills with anyone.

Quirks:
While very open and friendly, she hides much and most notice this in the way she answer certain questions.
Loves to sing and dance, loves to play the flute which she is very good with or the Mandolin.
Collects Music that she has never heard, even questionable tunes.


The Marid.
[May edit with more.]

Cheska said:

I have an idea for my character and I just want to know if everyone is cool with it.

Using this as a base Character image. I would like to create a dual class bard/Sorceress.

Based on the idea that Sorcerers can't help but do magic, they are not taught, but born with it an have to learn to harness what they have by trial and error.

I think they would have more of a stigma than female Wizards because they are born magic an female.. there can be male Sorcerers of course..their stigma is just less than the females.


any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I like it. People fear what they don't know or can control, and someone born with such powers (thinking like mutants, or someone with an ancient bloodline) would be hard to control. And if it was in a male dominated society, of course they would fear a woman more. Would unbalance things.

Does also have a pet dragon as well? Heh.

jack80 said:

I like it. People fear what they don't know or can control, and someone born with such powers (thinking like mutants, or someone with an ancient bloodline) would be hard to control. And if it was in a male dominated society, of course they would fear a woman more. Would unbalance things.

Does also have a pet dragon as well? Heh.

Click to expand...

Might be a Familiar or some such.. or just local fuana..

Cheska said:

I have an idea for my character and I just want to know if everyone is cool with it.

Using this as a base Character image. I would like to create a dual class bard/Sorceress.

Based on the idea that Sorcerers can't help but do magic, they are not taught, but born with it an have to learn to harness what they have by trial and error.

I think they would have more of a stigma than female Wizards because they are born magic an female.. there can be male Sorcerers of course..their stigma is just less than the females.


any thoughts?

Click to expand...

I think it's fine. And it has a very practical benefit of filling two needed roles. We really didn't have any magic power in our group yet, except for the divine magic the paladin might have. I don't count the healing abilities of my character as magic, since she uses her own life force to power her actions. It would almost be like a class of mental abilities, except affecting the body/or bodies of other willing recipients.

So given the stigma angle, is this the one who disguises herself as male?

The general idea:

The general idea: We want this story to be an ongoing roleplay in the vein of a campaign gaming session where a core group of characters develop friendships, relationships, even love interests over time.

We aren't planning to actually play this as a game. It will be a story/role play, but we want it to be like an ongoing campaign with the same characters. The slave pit fighting ring adventure would only be the start. We'd go on from there as a party to have other adventures. I was thinking that since we are all experienced gamers, it would be good for each of us to bring an adventure idea from our character's past to take the group through.

The slave pit idea is from my gaming past, and I think it could be fun as a backdrop for gelling our group personalities in the story. As such, while not actually acting as a game master, I'd post information about the setting, NPC actions, situations, etc., sort of guiding the story along as the plot unfolds. Then each of us could take over that role as we move into their adventure from their character's past.

What we hope to find in our writers:

We are looking for writers who are former or current gamers, specifically people who have learned the fun of taking a character and building the depth of their personality through various adventures over time, through their interaction with their comrades, and through the victories and hardships they face.

As I said, we aren't going to be rolling dice and determining outcomes like that. But I think that all of us so far have similar gaming backgrounds. My game of choice was Arcanum, which is similar enough to DnD to be compatible. But the system doesn't matter except as a familiar context for you to think of your character in. Each person would write their own character's actions, including their successes and failures. We're all mature enough to realize that an occasional failure is what makes the story dramatic and interesting.

We want writers who understand that real character building comes from one's failures and adversities every bit as much as from one's triumphs. A story where a character wades through every situation with easy success makes for a boring story and a two dimensional character. We want writers who are willing to make their characters suffer to give them depth, so that when the victory eventually does come, it's all the sweeter and more triumphant. We do not want characters with near god-like abilities who can never be harmed and never fail. We do not want characters with some magical artifact that makes everything they do an instant success. Make your character a person with motivating feelings and an interesting back story, and you'll be just what we're looking for.

Towards this end we have been personally selecting writers we believe would be good for our story. If we can find enough to fill all the roles we need, this is how we will continue. If not, we may reluctantly need to post an open call.

Annisthyrienne said:

I think it's fine. And it has a very practical benefit of filling two needed roles. We really didn't have any magic power in our group yet, except for the divine magic the paladin might have. I don't count the healing abilities of my character as magic, since she uses her own life force to power her actions. It would almost be like a class of mental abilities, except affecting the body/or bodies of other willing recipients.

So given the stigma angle, is this the one who disguises herself as male?

Click to expand...

She doesn't hide as a male, she hides behind being a Bard.

Pace of Posting:

Pace of Posting: We also understand that writers may post at different frequencies due to their real life commitments or time constraints. So any writers on this thread must be willing to be patient with the others and with the story pacing. We hope to have each character post at least once per week. If a writer feels like they would want to post more often, we hope to make use of flashback scenes to allow character's back stories and prior memories of previous adventures to be explored.


Flashbacks: All of the female characters in the party either had at one time, or still have an ongoing relationship with the paladin. It could be a fling that went back to platonic. It could be a past serious relationship, it could even be a current relationship, or just casual sex buddies at times. This doesn't preclude the characters from having relationships or affairs with others too. It will be a sexual role play, so play your character as you see them.

And in some of these cases, we would cover the past relationships in flashback scenes in the writing, so that people involved in the thread could post at their own pace. I tend to post once or twice a week, so this thing will move at a relaxed pace most likely. I like the idea of flashbacks to show how they met/established their relationships. I like it for a few reasons. One, it gives a possible break for players who might need a break because of real life issues, but don't want to leave the story entirely. The other characters could go on writing the flashback scenes.

Two, it gives everyone a chance to write one-on-one inside of the larger context of the group story too. They could explore their relationship with the paladin, and also with other characters.

Three, for people who are slower posters, like me, who usually manage once or twice a week, it lets other writers post more often without ruining the timeline.

Sex, sex, sex! Yay!!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I mean to have sex. Males, females, humans, whatever.... So we need to have a way to deal with it in a group setting. Wait. That didn't come out quite right. I meant we need to be able to handle sex scenes between two or more members of the group without having it isolate and sideline the whole group, and bring the story to a halt while everyone else waits for the sex to be over.

Sex Scenes: Inevitably, when group threads are tried, two or more characters hook up for a sexual encounter and the remaining characters are compelled to wait while the scene plays out. We need to come up with an idea about how to handle this situation so that it doesn't become a thread killer. One method I have seen used is to divert private scenes into a short spin-off thread for the encounter, which can then take place independent of the main story pacing. When a scene is about to take place in the main story, a sort of 'fade to black' takes place in the main thread. Then the scene continues in a private thread for the participants. I'd love to have input as to your opinions of this.

Cheska said:

She doesn't hide as a male, she hides behind being a Bard.

Click to expand...

That works for me. Jack had mentioned something about a female magic using type who disguised herself as male because of some stigma preventing females in her land from learning magic. But this works instead.

I am a little confused on the Women being banned from magic thing.
Is this just so we can get one character to dress as a dude? or what?

If it's to help generate drama, I would rather have it be more defined.

Ie; Women shall not be "Wizards" but divine spell casting, druids, etc is A-Ok.
Edit: And is it all over the place or just in certain kingdoms?

Bards would fall under a arcane/Divine magic as it does come from part of the inner spirit.


This is just me thinking out loud.

Cheska said:

I am a little confused on the Women being banned from magic thing.
Is this just so we can get one character to dress as a dude? or what?

If it's to help generate drama, I would rather have it be more defined.

Ie; Women shall not be "Wizards" but divine spell casting, druids, etc is A-Ok.
Edit: And is it all over the place or just in certain kingdoms?

Bards would fall under a arcane/Divine magic as it does come from part of the inner spirit.


This is just me thinking out loud.

Click to expand...

I think I've led you to a misunderstanding. I'm sorry, my friend. It's one of the character ideas that had been discussed before we got this far with the group. It was one of the ideas for a party member Jack had mentioned. I don't think any of us are married to it, so no worries. It would have been just a background detail from that character's homeland, not something that applies to where the party begins the adventure.

I can't speak for the setting when someone else runs the plot idea for their adventure, but I hadn't thought of any particular cultural bias that way for this area. The only biases that I have in mind are all racially based. The humans tend to think every other race is less than they, and the purebred elves in this part of the realm tend to be isolationists and a little xenophobic, at least concerning humans. The reason why has to do with the background of the healer character I'm still working on. She'll be half-elvish, so her human side isn't really welcome among the elves. Now there is a stigma!

Allytherian, half-elvish healer.



Name: Allytherian. Most just call her Ally.
Race: Half-Elven. She claims to have been raised by elves, though most elvish communities are known to reject those with 'impure blood', banishing such individuals from the moment of their birth. She thinks of herself as elvish.
Gender: Female
Profession: Healer
Level: 4th
Alignment: Good

Height: 5'-1"
Weight: 103 lbs.
Eye color: Indigo
Hair Color: Blond, usually worn loose to mid back, or in single or double braids
Age: 65 human years, but appears to be around 22 in biological maturity.

Strength: 11
Speed: 12
Dexterity: 14
Constitution: 14
Intelligence: 12
Will: 16
Charisma: 16
Perception: 15
Appearance: 14
Luck: 13

Weapon proficiencies: As a healer, Ally prefers never to cause injury to others, but she was taught the basic skill of handling certain weapons purely to be able to defend herself. Among these are: quarterstaff, dagger, and short bow. Like all elves, she is skilled in archery, though she pursues it as a sport, not so much as a combat skill. Still, if she has to use it as such, she can be formidable.

Special Abilities: One of the most basic of her special abilities is an Empathy sense that allows her to 'feel' what her patients feel, both physically and emotionally. This allows her to excel as a healer, and allows her to be understanding of the feelings that motivate those she deals with. It has one drawback: she tends to have difficulty separating what others feel for her as their feelings rather than her own. This has often led to misunderstandings when someone develops a crush on her, or attraction to her. She tends to mistake it for her feelings towards them, rather than knowing it is their feelings for her.

Personality traits: Generous, loyal, playful, mischievous, hedonistic, loving, merciful, kind.

Ally is constantly broke financially, due to giving far too much of her resources away to those in need. Yet somehow, someone always seems to be there to take care of her basic expenses too. About the only thing she manages to remember to spend her money on before it's all gone are what few herbs she needs for her healing skills that she cannot find growing wild. Typically her clothing is less than expected from a healer; decent, but not in the best repair due to her never having the money needed to buy better things.

Still, she is always among the first to give or help any in need. Her companions tend to overlook her seemingly eternally destitute status since she is always right there offering to soothe their pain, or heal their wounds. She could easily be considered a burden on the group if not for this trait. Her combat skills are just enough to keep danger at bay long enough for a more experienced and aggressive fighter to step in. Some suspect she could be more formidable than she is, if she would just apply herself. The truth that she keeps to herself is that her Empathy sense makes her at least partially aware of the pain she would be causing her opponents, and it holds her back from being as aggressive as she would need to be. Sometimes it gets exasperating for the fighters in the group that they always seem to have to save the healer's ass. But they usually forget their frustration as soon as her soothing gentle touch eases away their aches and pains after the fight.

Ally lives without care, loves unconditionally (both genders), and gives until it hurts. (literally) Because the power to accomplish her mystical healing abilities is drawn directly from her own life force, the more difficult feats of healing tend to drain her. She often needs to sleep or at least rest after using her more advanced healing abilities. If she isn't stopped, she has been known to keep trying to help until she collapses from exhaustion right over her patient.

Ally doesn't talk about her past much, and it is something of a topic of conjecture for some. Rumors abound, especially when some total stranger claims to recognize her, even in a place she claims she's never been before. One such incident led to some raised eyebrows when an innkeeper fainted when he first saw her enter his establishment. He later came to apologize, and surprised everyone in earshot when he knelt and referred to her as 'Your Highness'. Of course she quickly bade him to rise and tried to pass it off as a case of mistaken identity, but the tell tale blush detected on her face by those near enough to see left many questions unanswered.

Heya everybody,

I'm still working on my character's background and such. Hopefully should have something up soon. I like what I am seeing so far.

Well here is mine. Not as detailed as most but hope it's decent enough. Lemme know what ya'll think.

Name: Mae Van Duran
Race: Human
Gender: Female
Class: Barbarian/Rogue
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 156 lbs.
Eye color: Jade
Hair Color: Red
Age: 24



Stats:
Str - 18 (mostly due to her magically enhanced gear)
Dex - 16
Con - 17
Int - 10
Wis - 8
Cha -15

Special Abilities: Mae is a consummate warrior with most known weapons, though her skill with an axe is far superior. She has the ability to challenge her rage in feats of incredible strength and devastation, though at a considerable cost of her humanity. Some call it beserking, though whatever the name is she comes near-invulnerable to pain. This does not give her any special ability to shrug of damage and when she finally comes down she could very well pass out or die from her wounds. She’s also proficient in stealth and other subterfuge (mostly lock-pocking).

Personality traits: Smart ass, thick headed, hedonistic, fickle.

Background: Known in many mercenary circles as the “Crimson Lioness”, Mae earned her title in the blood of her enemies. Who exactly is her enemy at any particular time depends entirely on what contract she was working. She could easily be found on one side of the conflict one week and the other the next; much to the joy of Mae’s money pouch.

Her line of work lead her in many interesting and exotic locals, not all of which were battlefields. She was just as adapt at protecting a wealthy merchant (though she found being a bodyguard to be a horrible boring job) as delving into a forgotten tomb for relics. If it was dangerous and profitable, Mae was there. Besides her mercenary background, her origins are a mystery. Exactly where she hails from she will not say. Those who push the matter typically invoke the barbarian’s quick rising ire. Her beauty was on par with that of a princess or other nobility, as was the way she held herself. She preferred her attire clean and gleaming, her hygiene as well bespoke of someone use to modern conveniences, not the bloody thirsty barbarian she more often than not displayed on and off the battlefield. She might just be able to pass for nobility on looks alone that is until she opened her mouth...

I think Mae is looking pretty good. Her rogue skills and tendency for seeking out the risky opportunities will work perfectly for this first adventure. I need someone who can get in good with some local scoundrel, and learn of the illegal fighting ring through this would be suitor. And Mae just might find more trouble than she's looking for.

Well she's a perfect candidate for such. She's use to getting down and dirty and usually more than what she's bargained for. ;P

Character added, scroll up to my first post.

Thanks, Cheska. She looks just fine.

I also heard from cmky today. She's got some real life things to handle that might take a couple days, but when she can, she said she'd post and definitely wants to play with us. She plans to play a Seductress/Rogue Which puts me in mind of an Arcanum profession I might try to look up later tonight.

This will give us five writers and eventually 6 characters. What say you all? Is this enough? Do we want one or two more?

So far we begin the story with a human paladin, a half elvish healer, a human barbarian/rogue, a (human?) seductress/rogue, and a human/djinn bard/sorcerer. We'll be adding an andaman (Leopard woman) hunter at the end of the first adventure.

I should ask if any of the players have in mind to bring in other characters during this first adventure or others to come later. If so, maybe we have enough to get started, knowing we'll fill in any gaps later.

I am good to go... was tempted to actually roll for some magic items since most of us are at least 3rd level or higher.

Actually, I hadn't thought of that. I just assumed that most people were playing their favorite characters, perhaps at some earlier level in their career, but even then, they'd have some items from their past. Even with this group, the idea is that there is some past between the members. (Which is going to be challenging for us all to play since we've never written or gamed with each other before.) So really, it would be perfectly normal for each character to have some things brought with them.

Given that each of us are using characters from our own favorite game systems, we'll just have to describe the items they have as part of their descriptions when we start writing. The only thing I ask is that let's not make our characters unreasonably powerful. I think we are all capable of deciding what is unreasonable for ourselves.

Obviously when the leopard woman comes into the game, she will have really nothing except perhaps if they gave her a weapon to use in the pits, or maybe some armor bits.

My healer might reasonably have a few potions or mixtures, salves, or poultices, etc. Maybe a mortar and pestle and some dried herbs on hand with which to treat patients. Other than those things, I've already mentioned in her description that she never seems to have much wealth. I might give her a few items that former patients could have gifted her with as payment for healing services, most likely some kind of defense enhancing item. An amulet of protection or something to help her dodge attacks and stay alive, maybe.

Thanks for bringing up the point, Cheska.