LL - The Hordes of the Blight (why yes, we are recruiting)

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:Re:Wizardry;

If I inscribe a rune, does its effect activate immediately, or can/is it stored in some way? Are there specific "activation" runes that, when inscribed, cause the effect in question to occur? How many times can a "sequence" of runes be used before they no longer have any effect?

Fury of the Tempest wrote:

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:The problem is, he's creative.

That's all you really need in the end, isn't it?

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:Say, pickpocketing would depend more on Mechanics than Stealth, right?

I mean, Stealth would be great too to avoid getting caught, but Mechanics is what lets you do the actual thing, right?

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:<LE PO>

When you say "inscribed", I know the literal definition is to write or draw something OR to etch something into something else, but most people when they hear the word are thinking of the colloquial meaning, which is etching only.

In which way are you using the word? In other words, does writing a sequence of runes down work just as well as actual carving?

Marona wrote:
I don't have a name for this race as I'm pretty bad with them. I can come up with one if you really want but I thought you might want to handle it yourself to have it be in keeping with your sense of things.

My idea is that they're a race of mutants (for what they are anyway). They're spawn of spawn of other spawn of creatures created by the Brood Mother. The reason they're mutants is that they're born without the infection of the Blight. Maybe this is just random or maybe they're resistant or wholly immune? There aren't enough of them to have any real culture as they're just born in clutches of 4-20 at a time somewhat randomly in time and location (and perhaps even random in which kinds of monsters they are spawned from). They tend to be either very much a pack with their other clutch-mates or incredibly independent by the time they reach their adult stage. In their larval stage (birth to 6 years) other monsters sense them as monsters and leave them alone. In their juvenile stage (6-12) this wanes and they take on a more humanoid appearance (though they scuttle around on all four limbs). In their adult stage (13 and older) other monsters no longer sense them as monsters and instead as humans and other races. In the adult stage they walk upright like a human.

As adults their appearance is different from a human as follows: their head is covered in chitin is mask like and almost featureless aside from their insect mandible-like mouths (that close up to only leave faint lines in the "mask"), their four almond shaped single color eyes (a pair where humans normally have eyes and another right above those), they still however have hair but, they also sometimes have a few small spikes crowning their heads, they have small holes instead of ears and they use these to detect scents as well as sounds. They have insect-like wings (various types such as moth, wasp, dragonfly, beetle, etc.) on their backs and they have chitin around the base of the wings that also runs down their back. They have chitin on the out facing sides of their arms, though not their hands, though the fingers end is hard points compared to a human's. Their legs also have chitinous plates from the knees down and their feet are clawed with only three digits. They have a black devil-like tail that has a rounded end when closed. It's actually hollow and has two tubes inside. One which they use to make webbing and another to spray acid.

Even though I said they don't have much culture, here is some ideas. They have names based on the color of their chitin or eyes or the shape of their horns or such other clearly distinguishing physical feature coupled with a name that is based on their job in the pack or personal skillset. As such this second name is sometimes changed (the first one too if the feature used no longer is true). The other bit is that they pretty much have to distance themselves from monsters when they hit the juvenile stage and when they hit the adult stage they're basically living on the run or in hiding if they're deep in monster dominated areas. They also make clicking and chirping noises to express themselves instead of human grunts and such sometimes, though they can make the later as well.

Here's my idea for their GE setup: Expert Skill (2), Clever Tail (1), Acidborn (1), It's Almost Like Flying (1), Scent Tracker (1), Webspinner (2).

There might be other types that instead of having wings might have extra (spider?) limbs or such. Or maybe some of them have wings and some have extra limbs.

Dusk Raven wrote:Interesting... you seem to have come up with a fair bit of lore for them. I only have a few concerns:

They may or not be treated as monsters by humans and the other non-blighted races, though this likely varies from tribe to tribe. Depending on the party setup, I'll likely place the group near a tolerant tribe anyways, but still.

More urgently, my main concern is their ability to survive against the monsters of the Blight... I don't doubt some would, but there may not be enough of them even for what little culture you've given them, and they may have to seek refuge amongst the more tolerant tribes.

Otherwise, though, it seems like a promising concept. I dub them the Blightscorned. I'll be interested to see what sort of character concept you end up creating... which will influence my final decision, but for now I'd say the race works... to an extent. Their main problem will be becoming numerous enough to become considered a race rather than a mutation. A worthy goal for your character...

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:Okay, that's actually fair. Is coming up with the "right kinds of materials" an exercise in roleplaying on my part, or are there specific things I should keep on me roleplay-wise if I'm gonna be doing (pretty mild) wizardry?

EDIT: Sorry to be asking so many questions, but I have(what I hope) is a very creative concept for utilizing a wizard's powers in mind, and I want to make sure as a tradeoff that nothing I do breaks the letter of your world's laws of eldritch physics.

Caden2112 wrote:Alright, meet Bellator Rabiosum, the Lokira! Weaponmaster build and made of crazy besides. And yes I intend on taking the Staff of the Stars later on, but that's later. Perhaps when they're closer to this side of sane.

Dusk Raven wrote:Looking good! I do have to know where you got that picture from, though... anyway, this is going to shape up to be quite an interesting band of heroes.

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:It's like the Society for Creative Anachronism in reverse!

Meet your new best friend, Aparix the wizard/pickpocket Lokira!

...I understand that having a relatively advanced weapon like that show up suddenly in the prequel of your lore kind of sets things up to be...strange later on, so I understand (and expect) that, should my little criminal survive until the end of this game, he'll then be killed off unceremoniously and take the secret of his invention to his grave.

That's the way you gotta play it, man