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BGM ~ Overture
Dragon Quest Valor
Ten years ago, the world of Valonius was thrown into chaos with the advent of Dark Lord Velga. Under the power of a dark curse, monsters everywhere were bound to her power, acting as an army led by her four dark generals. None could stand up to her wrath... until the rise of the Hero.
Elika was a humble farm girl, but when the monsters came, she took up a sword and fought to protect the weak. Swiftly, her power grew, and four mighty warriors became her stalwart companions. Elika became the symbol of hope itself as she crossed the world, facing Velga's dark generals in life or death battles. With the Shield of Light she protected her friends from danger, and with the Sword of Light she cut down the forces of evil. One by one, the dark generals were slain, but one by one, her allies fell as well, until Elika and Velga had their final duel atop Death Isle for the fate of the world.
Nobody knows exactly what happened in that fateful battle, but the aftermath is known. Velga's dark castle now lays in ruins, but she and Elika were never seen again, with the only memento remaining from the battle being Elika's sword and shield. With the defeat of the Dark Lord, peace returned to Valonius, monsters once again free to mostly leave humans alone, the occasional skirmish or random encounter aside.
Ten years have passed since the fall of Dark Lord Velga. While no new evil master has announced their presence, the curse of darkness has returned to Valonius. Monsters are losing their minds, turning to brutally attack humanity at every turn. Who is behind this new invasion? Will a new hero rise to stand against them?
So Yeah
It's a Valor campaign. Standard rules, 1-20, five PCs. I'm not ready to pick a party yet, but I will at some point.
More Details
- The full world map isn't ready to be revealed, but the majority of Valonius is dominated by two large continents - Helenia in the west, and Yamatonia in the east. Death Isle is in the sea between the two, surrounded by ship-crushing reefs. The campaign will probably start in Helenia.
- Monsters are everywhere in Valonius, but they aren't usually as hostile as they are now. Monsters don't get along with humans well, so they mostly keep away from human settlements, only occasionally attacking towns or isolated travelers. Monsters also differ from humans in that they lack our aversion to death - for most monsters, being defeated and spared is considered a greater insult than being killed.
- The Curse of Darkness is an innate power of the Dark Lord, which covered the world when she arose. The curse covered the entire world, and turned nearly all monsters into her unwavering servants. However, some random monsters were spared by chance, and areas of powerful magical significance shielded any monsters there from her control. The new curse seems to operate on the same rules.
- Dragons, the strongest race of monsters, are immune to the Curse of Darkness, but many of them served Velga willingly, because one of her generals was a powerful Elder Dragon.
- Velga was not the first Dark Lord to attack Valonius. It seems that something like this happens every century or two. They have varying degrees of success, some even establishing dominion over the world briefly, but all of them have met their demise at the hands of human heroes.
- Elika's coming was not prophesized, nor was she of any great lineage. What made her the Hero, the source of her incredible power, is a mystery. Perhaps it was a natural consequence of her powerful, pure heart. The world is looking for a new Hero, but the truth is that nobody knows exactly what that means.
- The majority of Valonius adheres to the same religion, a Christianity-like order following an unnamed Goddess. Odds of it being a secret evil doom religion are surprisingly low.
- Elika had four party members, Velga had four dark generals. All eight of them are probably dead, and I'm declining to describe them, because those are some rich plot hooks.
Interested?
Yeah you are. Hit me with this in a comment:
1. Name or handle
2. One or more character ideas
3. Tell me about one of Elika's party members or one of Velga's dark generals
no subject
2. A young mage with big dreams! She wants to invent new forms of magic to make the world a better place. She is a strong believer in magic being used to help the world, and thinks magic is much more useful to people than a sword. She has a heart full of Justice and Love and wants to help the world. However, her primary problem is that by trying to fulfill the mage party role- a cool-headed tactician who finds the enemy weakness and gives party strategies- she forgets empathy, and becomes too focused on victory.
Other idea: A sword and board hero in ~mysterious armor~. A full armored figure whose face has never been seen, but is looking for some kind of ancient legendary magic to remove a curse more powerful than any other ever seen.
3. Dark general: The GREAT EMPEROR KING SLIME. The unquestioned lord who rules over all Slime-type monsters. Could freely change form to take on aspects of Slimes, Bubble Slimes, Healslimes, but his greatest threat was his ability to freely become a Metal Emperor King Slime. Elika's party needed to take a special quest in order to obtain a technique that could even cut down a Metal Slime.
no subject
Name: Badge
Character Idea: SLIME HERO with all the required puns involved. Goo-ey.
Dark General Idea: Lessee... someone who wanted all the beauty so they took every beautiful person in the kingdom they took over and mentally controlled them to worship them. Defeated when a single scar by the hero put them into an intense rage.
no subject
2: I have one concept because I've been thinking about them for ages now:
The legendary knight who trained a member of Elika's party is growing old now, and with his previous protege dead he has decided to train two new proteges. One of them has vanished mysteriously, but the OTHER, a guy named Max, became a knight for $KINGDOMNAME and did his best to uphold the name of his teacher and himself.
Max was forefront in an attack against what was believed to be the location of the new Dark Lord, as determined by generals analyzing the movements of various dark forces and saying "if I was commanding my army like this I'd probably be doing so from HERE."
Unfortunately the attack was a disaster. The entire army was wiped out with nary a survivor. At least, not until a full week later when Max staggered out of the woods by himself. He says he doesn't know how he survived. Some people are saying that it was the awakening of his power as The Hero™ that let him survive, others say he's a shapeshifting spy from the dark army. All he knows is that he was DEFINITELY killed in the battle. He doesn't know what force brought him back from the dead, or if it will save him again, but he does know he has to keep fighting.
Str/Mnd frontline bruiser. Themes of Dark Souls but like through the lens of Dragonquest.
3: As I eluded to previously, one of Elika's companions was a knight who was also trained by Max's mentor (who is now an old man.). I'm gonna say this knight was a huge buff lady of the kind who makes lesbians lose their minds. Always perfectly in control, noble at heart, handsome, the whole package.
no subject
2. slams hands on the table. i wanna play a frog princess of some kind. "sable, you mean like an actual toad--" no. frog person kind of ala animal crossing. there's this one picrew i found a long time ago that let you make frog people and the idea of playing a tiny, dignified, spirited and haughty little frog princess from another land tickles me positively PINK.
and i'd probably make her a physical attacker of some kind this time. wielding an umbrella that packs a lot more hurt than it first appears. maybe with a projectile...?
failing that, though, i could absolutely just swing her as a normal princess who's first instinct is to fight fight fight--
3. One of the Heroes in Elika's party was a very accomplished mage; studious, very sweet and kind of a nerd. But they had a secret, in that they were in fact a Dracky who was piloting a very convincing human marionette that was created by their magic. They were secretive, but eventually revealed what they truly were to the party; they had originally been afraid of Elika and her gang, but they had also been afraid of Velga and what she was doing to their fellow monster kind. Once they revealed their secret, they were pretty happy being themself, and eventually put the marionette to rest and decided to fight as themself. Unfortunately for them, it also meant that they were the least physically equipped to take on the Dark Generals when the time came and their MP ran low, which resulted in their death.
no subject
Emily
2. One or more character ideas
I've waved poetic about her before, but Princess Astrid (name subject to change.) But see, there's a twist:
Princess Astrid was actually Prince Alexander, the only prince of the Ilion Kingdom. Although more scholarly than his older sister, Princess Elana, he was well-loved for his good temperament, his refined elegance, and his habit of getting to know everybody he met.
But one day he came across a monster and was cursed - to take the form of a princess, robbing the kingdom of their crown prince. And worse, it even robbed him - her - of her memories, making her believe she'd always been Princess Astrid.
Her kingdom wept, but the King asked the people to play along with these false memories, afraid that challenging them might break his child. The people agreed, and so the entire kingdom helped keep up the lie, so that Astrid could remain ignorant whilst her sister, the much more combat-oriented Elana, went to defeat the monster that placed this curse and thus reverse it.
Except there was one issue: Astrid's memories were fine. Although there was some confusion over what had happened at first, she'd never had fake memories or lost her old ones. Instead, she found that she enjoyed being a girl, and didn't want that to end. And more to the point, by the time she realized this, it felt way way too late for her to come clean about things.
So now she has an issue. If her sister succeeds on her quest, Astrid will go back to being Alexander. So what's a princess to do?
Relating to her role in the party, she can fill a lot of roles so long as it's not a big beefy attacker - something traditionally princess, such as a magic fencer, a Sage, a bard, a buff/debuffer, or some sort of archer are all possible. (Basically, she can work in any combination of Dex/Int/Aur, with a bunch of possibilities under that umbrella.)
Backstory is able to be adjusted as needed for the game, of course. (I envision the monster that cursed her to be one of the new Four Dark Generals or whatnot, but also possible it's an apprentice of a former one, a witch, or something else, etc.)
3. Tell me about one of Elika's party members or one of Velga's dark generals
The Cleric of Elika's was actually Astrid's uncle, a prince who gave up his line for the throne in order to go into the church. He bravely took the call to join Elika and stand up to the Dark Lord, and paid the ultimate price. Astrid's father talks about him fondly, so she grew up hearing stories about him and his youth.
(He used to be a heartbreaker, according to her father - but inadvertently, because he wasn't interested at all in romance despite being incredibly attractive. That may have influenced him to join the Church, funny story.)
no subject
2. Flavia was, due to as of yet undecided Circumstances, taken in and raised by some monsters as an infant, which went south pretty badly when Velga's dark curse hit. Her family turned against her, and, still but a child, Flavia fled for her life to the nearest human settlement rather than fight back.
The shame of fleeing instead of putting her family down herself like they surely would've wanted her to do has haunted her the past ten years, and she has spent that time training hard to become strong enough to never face such shame again. And now that the curse is back, Flavia's fucking pissed and determined to put an end to it herself.
3. One of Velga's dark generals was a Wight King who had served the previous Dark Lord in a much less undead capacity. Lots of "back in my day" and "you brought me back for this?" type of belly-aching.
no subject
2. Rina, a meek city girl whose greatest aspiration is to become an adventure log cleric. Or, if you ask her when she's particularly vulnerable, to find her dad, who left on a quest to stop Velga before Elika came into the picture and never returned... but there's no way that she's strong enough to venture out into the world to track him down, so Rina contents herself with hearing about other peoples' adventures.
That is until she got into a fistfight with a jerk who insulted her parents, then discovered in short order that her old "imaginary friend" Raze (played by Lily) was first, very real, and second, good in a scrap. The day after, Rina woke up with a host of new dragon-y bits and a vulnerability to the curse spreading among monsterkind. And so, with no other choice, Rina and Raze set out to put a stop to the curse...
3. Kyros, a foppish prince from a wealthy kingdom who clashed with Elika a great deal. Eventually, they settled their differences, but Kyros became the first casualty of Elika's party soon afterwards.
no subject
2. Meet Raze, who's... honestly, Raze is still fuzzy on who, exactly she was. There are a few fractured impressions: immense power, immensely cruelty. A great battle against two lowly humans. A heart pierced straight through, along with a basic desperation to not die, not yet, not now. A shooting star entering the heart of a lonely girl who wanted a friend.
Everything's clearer after that. The burning rage and desperation within Raze was at first stoked by the sheer indignity of having to live behind the eyes and over the shoulder of a meek, lowly human, even though she lacked a frame of reference for why she was so indignant. But through witnessing the everyday life of a shy girl who nonetheless did her best to show kindness to everyone she met, the simple joy of dinner with her mom, the grief of her dad never being at the table brought the blaze down to a smolder. It was finally snuffed out with all the tales of heroes in the adventure logs that Rina so loved, and replaced with a fierce fire of protection.
Raze was there for Rina when she felt the loneliness keenly, and slowly backed off as she grew into a... well, not confident young woman, but at least grief weighed less heavily on her shoulders. Raze was content to sit and watch until Rina finally snapped and confronted a man disparaging her mother, who would've snapped her in half like a dry reed if not for Raze's intervention. Unfortunately for both of them, this manifestation had consequences, as my dear sibling just outlined, and Raze views herself as responsible for Rina's predicament- and is all the more determined to protect her.
3. Strike, a human battle freak who was willingly augmented into a monster solely because she wanted to fight the greatest foe: the Hero of the age. Think lesbian Zenos.
no subject
2. The Legendary Guardsman: Many times on Elika's journey, her party crossed paths with a humble guardsman, in kingdom after kingdom. Every time, this simple foolish guard was caught up in some adventure of the hero, and every time, his foolish and oafish nature caused an Incident which lead to him being fired. After one final encounter, Elika went to her destiny, and the guard went back to his kingdom of origin to re-apply to his old job, with much more job experience.
Ten years on, as a Guard Captain, he's starting to worry that as a Great Expert on Elika's journey, any hope of defeating a new Dark Lord might require his help. He's been training for ten years to move from 'ordinary guardman' to something stronger, but will his training have paid off? Or are his claims of power and expertise delusions?
3. Dark General Suffurous (Suffering+Sulfurous) was, it was said, Velga's only true friend. A huge dragon, they were an equal partner in this conquering the world thing. Velga sometimes rode them into battle, and the Suffurous took payment in the treasures of kingdoms to do work on the side for the other Dark Generals. Suffurous most delighted though in terrorizing specific humans, wrecking their lives and watching them break down over and over as their fortunes steadily turned worse and worse. Sometimes they targeted princes and champions with dark curses, sometimes they singled out a single thatched cottage to burn each night where one human was staying. Watching in delight as they were ostracized from their lives and happiness, Suffurous was never more happy than seeing such people despair as they revealed it had all been for sport.
no subject
Character concept: Kiyoshi (tentative), a Yamatonian ninja who serves as a bodyguard for the child of a feudal lord (are they feuding over there? is Yamatonia in a Sengoku-but-it's-a-pun era?). Her charge is currently studying abroad in Helenia and has either been kidnapped or chosen to accompany the party as an NPC, who's to say.
Kiyoshi is one of the adults in the party, in a 20something capacity. Stoic and cool-headed but earnest; not an edgelord but a Consummate Professional. Her hypercompetence may be slightly misdirected, as her commitment to being the best retainer/adjutant she can be involves putting a lot of effort into what amounts to butlering that could more profitably be spent on all the being-a-deadly-shadow business. If there's a designated Hero/leader of the party, and her young master isn't physically present, she may pledge an oath of loyalty to that person for the duration of the adventure
so that they can be a consistent focal point for this comic relief bit.Dark general: A cunning and sadistic kitsune, also from Yamatonia (are we making room for dramatic parallels? probably not but). Made heavy use of illusion and disguise, preferring to lure the hero's party into elaborate traps rather than fight them head on.
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2. Sceotrand, a nasty old man and a powerful sorcerer who doesn't believe in trust or relying on others or justice, none of that nonsense! He has been cursed by one of his fellow magic associates who wanted to make a point about asking for help and he's been trying and failing to fix it for the last five years while making the curse even worse! Currently looks like a Frogface, but with a grumpy old man face instead of a demon face. He's absolutely got some sort of key item in his horrible swamp hut that he would grudgingly lend to a group of assorted heroic types in exchange for an escort.
3. Hellknight Leiro, a centaur who charged into battle with poisoned arrows. He shot a princess and challenged the heroes to come fight him for the antidote. They got his ass. The princess is probably alive and well as a ruling queen by now.
SIGNUPS
1. Who are you?
2. Would you be able to make a time slot on Monday?
3. Would you be able to make a time slot on Sunday?
Re: SIGNUPS
1. I am Hannah
2. yes
3. yes, once happy forever ends
no subject
2: yes, as long as it doesn’t interfere with Curse Eater
3: yes, but preferably after 3:30pst
no subject
2. Yes, assuming no clash with Curse Eater which I assume there won't be because you are the GM and it would be very difficult both logistically and tone wise to run these two games at the exact same time!
3. Yes, any time after 4pm EST
no subject
2.
well you see i'm in this game called curse eater, i don't know if you've heard of ityes, I'm available any time you would be3. yes
no subject
2. I get home by 3pm ET and need to be in bed by 11pm ET, but anywhere in between is good.
3. Any time Sunday works, excepting between 6-8pm ET when I drive my kiddo back to his other parent's place. Preferably ending before 11 ET.
no subject
2. Deeply unlikely; I work 2-10pm and I don't see that changing.
3. Mmmmmaybe. I typically work 4:30-10pm, so if it's somehow in the morning/afternoon I could, but. Due to being EST, I'm not entirely sure.
Re: SIGNUPS
2. Yes
3. Yes but we'll have to clever clogs dinner and I always call my mother at 9:30 CST
no subject
2. ye
3. I'm gonna say no this time honestly
no subject
2. Yes
3. Yes
Re: SIGNUPS
2. Yeah!
3. Yeah!