[Sorcerer S&S Charnel Gods] As the hands turn...

[Old_Scratch]

Far from these torch-lit conspiracies though is Praag.

While Praag is distant from the capital and the machinations of the Thearch's and their servants, it is where the end of the world will begin. Its liberal atmosphere and the heresies bubbling beneath the surface is inviting to those who find the Fell-weapons.

Young nobles duel over honor with rapiers...

The only ones allowed to wield swords are the clergy of the Vigil and their loyal servants such as the Sword Monks and the Knights of the Order Vigilant. All others are forbidden to use any swords – but rapiers do not meet the traditional definition of a sword and in the last twenty years young nobles and the merchant class have taken up dueling and the possession of rapiers as a sign of their growing power and influence. Praag itself has become the capital of dueling with the most famous dueling teachers and half a dozen rival schools of fencing.

...and blackpowder pistols in the city's squares,

And blackpowder firearms are a product of the alchemy practiced in Praag. The use of cannon and firearms has dramatically increased the power of Praag's armies. Nearby cities and towns have quickly allied with Praag and clamor against the capital, using the alchemical marvels as a means of resisting the Empire's legions. Many have refused to give tribute, and war seems to be brewing between proxies of the two factions. But so prevalent is gunpowder that many of Praag's young rakes have taken up master-crafted pistols as a status symbol.

...merchants ply their goods in the city's colorful market places,

While Aramantheum is the political and spiritual capital of the world, Praag has become the commercial and mercantile capital. Its nearby mines provide it with considerable mineral wealth and the trade up and down the river gives it extensive power throughout the region. The six Merchant Princes of Praag together wield considerable power and even the Prince of Praag listens carefully to their needs. Many believe that it is the Merchant Princes at the forefront of the sedition against the capital of the Empire.

...and scholars hunch over crumbling texts...

While the Hall of Repose has considerable knowledge, much of it has been shaped by the edicts and ideology of the First Thearch. Yet in Praag, none are bound by such constraints and their discoveries have become quite controversial, and many are afraid to speak out publicly about their philosophies, still fearing the Inquisitors that have appeared again on the streets of Praag.

...and strangers arrive, bearing both monstrous truths and weapons.

There are those carrying marvelous weapons who have been seen in the livery of the Merchant Princes.

And as the Empire convulses at the impending heresy and civil war...

To the south, two proxy cities have come to blows over the pretext of a boundary dispute, but in truth it is a clash of ideologies. After a quick victory on the battlefield, the allies of Praag have besieged their rival city, and great siege cannon have been dug into emplacements around the city, and many believe it is a matter of days before the city falls and the Empire will be shaken as the power of the Empire is openly challenged.

...old enemies await within the forests on the borders of the Empire....

Beyond the fertile farmlands and tamed countryside lies a great expanse of wood populated by savages. Ignorant of the Faith, they raid and pillage the lands, and to halt this, the Empire has built fortresses along the treeline and carries out campaigns deep within the murky forests, carrying on a feud hundreds of centuries old. In his later years, the first Thearch joined the Empire's army on a crusade to the north in a remarkable campaign where the forests were uprooted and the villages of the savages raised, with the captured savages nailed to the few trees still standing amidst the smoking ruin. The campaign only ended when a leader of the savages known as der Skaul slew the aged Thearch in combat and drove the Imperial legions south. Since then, these wildmen have named their greatest leader der Skaul and the atrocities continue on both sides.

[Forest Wildman Warrior: St 3 Will 4 Livelihood: Inhuman Berserker 3 Humanity: 2]

...their inhuman eyes greedily awaiting their time to seethe forth and swallow civilization whole.

The truth of der Skaul is different, it is not a title of a leader, but the name of an object. The first Thearch journeyed north when he sensed the existence of another fell weapon – der Skaul. The aging First Thearch  met with der Skaul's wielder on the field of battle and as the Thearch attempted to break the binding, he was slain in combat and his body mutilated. Der Skaul has continued to be a source of power and infamy among the forest tribes. Its most recent wielder, adopting the traditional name of der Skaul has brought great power and tragedy to the forest tribes: he has slain a great Nameless one that haunted the woods, and in his victory him and his warriors devoured the heart of the Nameless one to acquire its power, and they have been transformed. With the power they have gained, they have converted, sometimes with force the other tribes. Those who have partaken of the feast, drinking the potion adulterated with the blood of the Nameless one turn pale, with some taking on almost albino features, and all have their eyes clouded over with a pale white mist. The forest peoples, with their new power, have again turned their eyes to the south, and it is only a matter of weeks before hordes of pale warriors, drunk on the blood of a monstrosity sweep over the unsuspecting communities to the south.

[Those dozens of tribal warriors who have eaten souls have acquired the power of the Sorcerer to channel their Will to overcome injuries. Those who have merely drank the blood have become something less than human – they lose a point of humanity but gain a point of Will.]

[Old_Scratch]

Well, I've got three PCs so far, and I'm hoping some people might have some ideas for Bangs...

Herr Bukkerot

A tall, gaunt and pale figure with long black hair that reaches to his waist, tied into intricate know work
Sta – 3 Rural Upbringing on the Steppes north of Praag
Will – 4 Angry and driven by rage
Lore –3 A Whispering Voice, carried on the wind, has guided him to his destiny
Cover – 3 Former scout for local lords
Price – 1 Brutal
Humanity – 3
Telltale – Runes scarred into chest & arms during a ritual, but due to his possession of the artifact they glow blue and cold when he is angry.

It was during an initiation ritual, one of the last traditions his people has adhered to since being absorbed by the Empire, that Bukkerot discovered the Fell-Weapon. While venturing out onto the steppes alone, to live there for weeks, Bukkerot was caught in a blizzard and wandered wildly about, guided by only a whispering voice, when the ice broke beneath him. Struggling in the dark, he broke through the ice onto a plain littered with carnage – the bloated rotting bodies of gods and monsters alike, their corpses still locked in some fierce battle. It was there, on an icy body of something... something terrible with horns that he found the axe – it was a peculiar object there – amidst all the terrible weapons, there was a simple wood-axe. He drew it, fled from the Charnel Fields, and dove back into the pool of blood – the axe was like it was made of ice and brought him back to the surface.

Frost – Wood Axe Fell Weapon
Binding Strength: 2 in Frost's favor
Telltale: Aura of frost – icy to the touch, chills room when handled, floats like ice
Appearance: Single headed axe appearing as if made of ice.
Desire: Hopelessness and Desperation
Need: To be used when angry (typically chopping wood but other possibilities exist)

Abilities: Link, Special Damage Lethal: Draws Heat from the living, Protection from Cold, Shapeshift: Morphs user into White Wolf, One other ability undecided as of yet.

Sta – 10  Will – 11 Lore – 5 Power – 11

Herr Bukkerot's Kicker: He is working a job as a mercenary within the city of Praag when the window shutters blow open and in flies the family's pet raven, bearing in its talons Bukkerot's father's family heirloom – an amulet prized within the family

Darius (Given name at birth – changes names frequently)

There is nothing distinctive about Darius – he is of an average height and weight, his eyes seem to adopt whatever color of clothing he wears, and he seems perfectly ordinary and average – almost unnaturally so (I've decided that Darius is the most common name in the Empire and I'll use this to name every other NPC just to fit in with this character concept).
Sta – 4 Unnatural vitality from sources unknown
Will – 3 Driven to possess knowledge and discover mysteries
Lore – 3 A Whispering Voice that has tormented him and turned him near unfeeling
Cover – 4 Court Body Guard / Agent Provocateur
Price – 2 die penalty to inspire, motivate, befriend, or intimidate others
Humanity – 4
Telltale – Looks utterly mundane

It seems Darius is destined for terrible acts despite his perfectly normal appearance and history. The only thing that made Darius different was the voice that was a mixed blessing, one he paid little wisdom to until on the day of his wedding, it announced that he must personally slay his bride at the wedding – horrified at what he heard and fearful of what he might do, he threw his whole life away, fleeing from the voice that taunted him. After running ragged for days, he found himself upon a cliff, and despairing he threw himself down...

...only to explode into a bloated corpse of a god. Crawling from the rotting entrails and organs, Darius suddenly heard two voices in his head, different voices, urging him on. Following the voices, Darius found the body of a mortal, standing, pinned to a god. The corpses hands were on the pommels of a parrying dagger and matching fencing sword that the mortal had apparently driven through its own neck in a last act of suicide. Darius grasped the blades and a battle of the wills began, and Darius won, but only after the two blades had leeched out every last ounce of feeling and emotion from his body, leaving him a near empty husk (this seems at odds with the character's high-ish humanity – so I'll talk with the player about it, but I assume that the player's humanity suggests a desire to reclaim that which was lost – a theme we can explore through the adventures).

Since then, Darius has served as a spy, guard, and even assassin for those who need a dependable but near-invisible person to carry out their tasks.

The Obsidian Sisters: Matching Rapier and Dagger Fell Weapons
Binding Strength: 1 in Darius' favor – after costing him a portion of his humanity
Telltale: Lights and colors dim when the blades are drawn.
Desire: Ruin
Need: Secrets to be revealed before it.

Abilities: Armor: the blades move with unnatural speed to block incoming attacks, Perception: Acute hearing and vision in the dark, Cloak – blades are undetectable before they strike, Travel: the ability to move through and merge with walls, Special Damage Lethal: Wounds by the blade blacken and rot, Travel: Blades always return to each other

Sta – 9  Will – 10 Lore – 7 Power – 10

Darius' Kicker: Hired by the Prince of Praag himself to spy upon the Tetrarch's of Praag's council, Darius, using the power of his swords conceals himself within the wall and watches the meeting with two acolytes, and then notices a shadowy figure approaching the back of the Tetrarch of Praag with blades drawn...

Not Named Yet: NNY
Lean and wiry, with a white streak in the left eyebrow, this character is androgynous and known as a messenger and courier for those within Praag. Witty and resourceful, the character has climbed up from the gutters by itself.
Sta – 3 Survived the Streets of Praag
Will – 4 Brush with the Unknown – Granted a Gift by the gods themselves
Lore – 3 Dream Visitations
Cover – 4 Escort/Courier
Price – 1 Hubris and over-confidence when trying to control the Fell Weapon
Humanity – 4
Telltale – Not written down – I'll have to ask again (Perhaps strangle marks about her throat?)

Not Named Yet (NNY) lived a hard life at a village not far from a major road. Tragedy struck when a fire swept through their modest house, killing her mother. Her father, enraged, blamed NNY and began strangling her, as she struggled to gain consciousness she saw flashes of her father's face replaced by a flash on a monstrous gods face and suddenly she was sprawled amidst the gore of the Charnel Fields, where the massive lumbering bulk of a god, rotted and dead, slowly rose and shambled closely to her, handing NNY a blade, a finely crafted sword and as she clutched the blade, she found herself alone in a forest, far from the village. She then fled to Praag, where she lived on the streets, believe that NNY had lived solely by wits, when in fact the Fell Weapon itself had assisted. NNY believes that the blade can be controlled, but the blade knows better...

Bastard Sword Fell Weapon
Binding Strength: 1 in NNY's favor
Telltale: Emanates visible pulses of energy when touched
Appearance: A finely crafted Bastard Sword whose form seems to waver
Desire: Spite (The weapon hates its creator and desires to destroy not only its own creator, but creativity itself)
Need: To destroy the creative means (eg: to cut out a poet's tongue, a craftman's hands, etc...)
Abilities: Link (see through one another's eyes), Special Damage Lethal, Protection from Fire, Cloak: hard to perceive and lightweight, Travel: to move between shadowed or dark spaces.

Sta – 9  Will – 10 Lore – 6 Power – 10

NNY's Kicker: Long trusted to carry out tasks of dubious legality or of urgent necessity, NNY has served many of the rich, powerful, and influential of the city, and has never failed when charged with such a task until now... While delivering a parcel to an important alchemist, an accident happens and the package is dropped just outside the door of the alchemist's lab and a strange powder is released, showering the character. Putting the parcel back together, the character enters the alchemist's lab, whose eyes widen when he sees the dust on NNY's body, and he moves to place the desk between them, his eyes widening, as he looks aghast and yells: "What have you done?!?!?"

I've got a few ideas for Bangs, but as this is my first game running Sorcerer, I'd appreciate any comments on characters or in particular, Bangs to get this game rolling. I'll try and post my own shortly...

Looking forward to your bangs! Thanks in advance!

[hardcoremoose]

Scratch,

This stuff is great.  I like how their Lore descriptors are all somewhat connected - whispers and visions - and give the Epoch its own distinctive flavor.  Was that on purpose?  If not, when you write this up for public consumption, your list of Descriptors should definitely be along those lines.

I like the bit about Darius and how it's the most common name in the Empire.

The one thing that jumped out at me was Frost's Need - it doesn't seem very dynamic to me.  I'd try to find something that plays off of the character's inherent anger a little differently - a Need that renders it inert, or compromises it somehow, or creates situations that are interesting in play.  I have a couple ideas, but I'm not going to throw them out just yet.

More later...now it's off to work.

- Scott

[TonyLB]

I'm with Moose that Frost's Need is too unconfrontational.  The character doesn't have to make any decisions in order to fulfill the need.  Now if it were "Needs its possessor to bottle up his anger" or "Needs its possessor to release his anger in violence" or something like that, it would be a different story.

And I'd definitely punch up Darius's kicker a little bit.  Right now it seems like the only reasons he has to react to it at all are metagame reasons (must reveal myself or there will be no story).  That's unsatisfying.  If, on the other hand, somebody attacks the Prince of Praag with weapons that are the twin to Darius's own, and he is the natural fall-guy, that adds some more angles.

So there's my two cents.  Hope it helps!

[Old_Scratch]

Scratch,

This stuff is great.  I like how their Lore descriptors are all somewhat connected - whispers and visions - and give the Epoch its own distinctive flavor.  Was that on purpose?  If not, when you write this up for public consumption, your list of Descriptors should definitely be along those lines.

I like the bit about Darius and how it's the most common name in the Empire.

The one thing that jumped out at me was Frost's Need - it doesn't seem very dynamic to me.  I'd try to find something that plays off of the character's inherent anger a little differently - a Need that renders it inert, or compromises it somehow, or creates situations that are interesting in play.  

I did write up the Lore Descriptors, and those are what were chosen out of the ten or so. I decided to adopt the idea of whispers and dreams as a theme in the game - it fits well with the madmen and dreamers that fill the courts and create the wonders for which Praag is known. I'll post the descriptors laters.

Frost's need was a let-down - I didn't note what it was until after character creation when I was typing it up. I've spoken with the player and he's thinking on it a bit more. I reminded him - think of something intriguing which makes you wonder to yourself - do I really want to fulfill this need?

And TonyLB, thanks for the bit about Darius' kicker. As it is now, there's very little to encourage Darius to act. While there are a few tweaks I can do, I'd rather have the player tweak it. If not, then I'll have the assassin approach the Tetrach, who then turns around and addresses the figure, demanding that the figure seek out the agent of the Prince of Praag that has been such a problem. But I've emailed the player and hopefully they'll work on their Kicker and get back to me shortly.

Thanks for all the comments - and if you have any Bangs, don't forget to post them, I can use all the help I can get!

[Old_Scratch]

Here are some of the tenative Bangs I brainstormed up this morning. They all need a bit of work and some of them need a bit of setting up, but its a start. Again, any comments or ideas on these, or ideas of your own Bangs are greatly appreciated.

Herr Bukkerot

I think thematically I want to focus on Bukkerot's adventures on the margins of civilization and the lives of those on the periphery. There's a lot of opportunity for exploring the tensions existing there – there is the potential to get caught up in the warfare between the church and the people of the forest.

-Arriving at his parent's homestead (his own father once a scout) he sees the area occupied by Knights Vigilant escort of an Inquisitor who are picking about the ruins of the house. (There are at least two or three different directions this could go – it could have been burned by the Forestfolk, the church, or the local landlord.

-His father is alive and held by those who burned the house – be using him as a hostage and a bargaining chip for the amulet – the amulet itself was that worn by the First High Thearch when he died in battle. It fell off and formed the basis of a secret cult on the periphery – it perhaps allows one to enter the Charnel Fields or perform some ritual such as exorcism with a good chance of success.

-Sees members of his old scouting unit riding down the children of the forest folk, playing with them as a cat plays with a mouse.

-Some of his father's friends approach him, inviting him to join the Warrior Cult, the Society of Thorns. To formally join the organization, one must offer up a human sacrifice to the archway of thorns which leads on to the otherworld.

-On a cold night, he sees a group of refugees, cold and ragged, attempting to cut down a sacred tree to build a fire to warm themselves. Perhaps it was the tree planted by his father to celebrate his own birth. Only since he has acquired the Fell Weapon has the tree suddenly withered and turned dry and twisted.

-Comes across a band of his own countryfolk holding up a merchants' caravan, times have turned tough and they have resorted to banditry – a merchant's caravan that perhaps he has been hired to guard or guide.

-He encounters a mad hermit, roaming the area, and his ears have been cut off. Turns out they were self-inflicted, and the inner ear has been savaged as well – maggots and flies linger about the bleeding wounds. He screams about the voices in his head, the whispering that never ends even though his ears are gone.

-Finds a wolf being tormented in a cage by local people, including children. Despite its tormentors, it raises its head and stares only at Bukkerot.

Darius

It seems like Darius' character wants to get involved in intrigue between the church and the Prince of Praag – currently he is on the side of the Prince, so I might use him to stress the rift growing between Praag and Aramantheum. Key to the use of this character might be to develop his relationship with his patrons.

The Whispering Lord (the chief agent of the Prince of Praag) what's Darius to intercept a report from the Tetrarch of Praag's office to Aramantheum.

Two twin sisters, dressed in black and with black hair and black eyes seem to follow him about. When he approaches them, they try to speak, but their tongues have been cut out.

The Old Voice that was supplanted by the new voices returns, and starts issuing him directions. If he follows them, they lead him to a market where he sees his ex-fiancé at the market with her husband selling beautifully crafted goods. The voice whispers "You know what you must do..."

Darius returns to his abode, to find that his servant is raving mad, armed with two knives, and if unstopped, he will try to impale both through his throat, pinning himself to the cupboards behind.

He is hired to whisper an address into the ear of a nobleman. Hours later, the nobleman is accused of murdering his wife and her lover, another nobleman. In a twist, perhaps he is approached by the dead man's family to be hired as a champion in the duel of honor that results.

He is hired to abduct the child of a nobleman. When he arrives, he discovers that the child has already been murdered (see arch-enemy below).

Darius sees the most recent Inquisitor to arrive in town, and he is the spitting image of Darius.

Darius' archenemy is another Fell-Weapon bearer, one who holds a blade that allows the rival to hear anything whispered nearby. The whispering Darius' blades constantly perform allow this foe to follow and hunt down Darius.

Darius is hired to pull a Guy Fawkes – to smuggle in gun powder beneath the Vigil Cathedral in Praag to blow it sky-high.

I'd also like some sort of Bang involving a Defenestration – someone being thrown out a window – perhaps his employer that he is returning to or a close ally – or maybe he is expected to toss a lady of the court out the window, preferably a beautiful stain glassed one, a shower of color as the body strikes the square below on a crowded day. This might be used for dramatic purpose as the climax of one of the other bangs.

Not Named Yet (NNY)

NNY can be used to explore the themes of everyday life in the world, the lives of those who live in the city and seek out the simple things in life, those most often trampled by the rich and powerful.

First there is the issue of the Kicker – what is the White Dust?
   The ground bones of one of the Charnel Gods?
   The ground bones of the First Thearch?
   An alchemical solution that kills?
   The powdered essence of a virulent plague?
   Some sort of reactive material that mutates and changes those around?
   The powdered ritual material used by the Forest Wildfolk to transform their own into the mindless slaves of the Unnamed?

An old friend of NNY, who housed and cared for NNY asks help – some of the young children have gone missing – their bodies are being used by an alchemist to replace the worn and tired organs of the rich.

That same friend is later accused and whipped publicly by Inquisitors before being marched off to be imprisoned and questioned later.

A close friend of NNY asks her to find him some drugs or medicine to sleep – he's been having terrible nightmares. Overtime the drugs seem to do little good and the friend disappears, only to return bearing a Fell Weapon and being wholly possessed by it, as the drugs have reduced the friend's Will Power to naught.

NNY is asked to deliver a package, one that is squirming. If opened, it is the squirming body of a fetus, one who opens its ancient eyes and speaks in an unknown language to NNY.

She delivers a strange parchment to a Theurge, only to discover that the parchment is used in the mouth of a golem that runs amok in the city, killing street children and pregnant mothers (it despises the childhood it never had and its own sterility).

I would like some Bangs that might tie NNY into the local prophets and street preachers that might start a sort of revolution on their own – or scholars and demagogues opposed to the religion.

[Old_Scratch]

Again, another plea for Bangs, if any of you have any ideas you want to share.

I'd also like to mention three film inspirations that sort of triangulate where I want the feel of this game to be: City of Lost Children - The Name of the Rose - The Duelists

The City of Lost Children - Mainly because of its strange visuals and wierd science - imagine that film set back four hundred years ago and you've got the sort of wierd science technology feel that I'm aiming for. I want Praag's intellectual community to be full of madmen dreaming the impossible.

The Name of the Rose - no, I haven't read the novel - still trying to get through Foucault's Pendulum, but the strange happenings and suppressed secrets at a distant monastery go a long way towards reflecting the haunted past and religious zealotry going on in this world in the stark contrast to the innovation and wild imaginings within the city of Praag.

The Duellists, a Carradine film (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075968/) on two French Duellists during the Napoleonic era gives a feel for the duelling and honor and swordplay that I want imbued in the setting.

I visualize this game fitting somewhere between those three points, and I want my Bangs to be flavored with the essence of these three films.

A couple other things:

I haven't mentioned the Sword Monks yet, but I plan on introducing them later before the Charnel God appears. While they aren't anything compared to the Fell Weapon bearers, I want their imagery to be cool and when they make an appearance, I want the players to still get a chill, to be both elated and saddened after an encounter - sort of Bruce Lee meets Mad Martigan from Willow (I'm saying that partly tongue-in-cheek). If you've seen the Nausicaa anime or manga, I want these Sword Monks, who have devoted their lives to perfecting the use of the weapon that their god introduced to the world to fight like Master Yupa does in Nausicaa - the sort of flashy, but swift and brutal swordplay that appears in the Miyazaki films such as Nausicaa and Princess Mononoke.

I was also thinking of an encounter with a toy maker, and a significant one, but not one where his puppets come alive or that they act as voodoo dolls, but something fresh and original involving one - I mention this because I remember the little puppets and other toys for sale in the alley behind the Prague Castle. So does anyone have any ideas on this sort of thing?

Again, I'm looking forward to any feedback or Bangs you folks may have! Thanks in advance.

[Judd]

Old Scratch,

There is so much setting stuff to sort through that I'm rather dizzied and intimidated to touch these bangs but I want to help and know how much I enjoy hearing other's bangs when I post these threads, so here we go.

Herr Bukkerot’s Kicker: He is working a job as a mercenary within the city of Praag when the window shutters blow open and in flies the family’s pet raven, bearing in its talons Bukkerot’s father’s family heirloom – an amulet prized within the family

* Bukkerot comes across a carriage, a church pew or a gallows pole, something made of wood that is a symbol of civlization.  The wooden thing seems to reach out to attack him him.

If he hacks the wood apart the attack stops but he has destroyed property and will have to deal with those consequences.

If he stays his hand and uses Lore to carefully assess why he is hallucinating, he will realize that it was his axe that chopped the wood down that created this thing.  The tree was a holy and noble thing and now it is a dead tool of the Empire.

* The raven says strange things when the axe is drawn.  "Feast!"  "God's Meat!"  "God's Eyes!"[/list:u]

Darius’ Kicker: Hired by the Prince of Praag himself to spy upon the Tetrarch’s of Praag’s council, Darius, using the power of his swords conceals himself within the wall and watches the meeting with two acolytes, and then notices a shadowy figure approaching the back of the Tetrarch of Praag with blades drawn…

* A child approaches Darius with her last treasure on earth, a lock of hair from her mother, asking him to kill the heartless woman who killed her parents.  Her older sister was the culprit, not wanting anyone to know her lowborn birth.

* When Darius kills he discovers that whenever he kills someone with the swords, a double of himself kills someone else in the city who corresponds somehow to his victim.  Killing with the swords opens the way for a doppleganger to take his form and spill blood.

The more he kills the more real the doppleganger becomes until it becomes sure that it is the real Darius and the player is the doppleganger.[/list:u]

NNY’s Kicker: Long trusted to carry out tasks of dubious legality or of urgent necessity, NNY has served many of the rich, powerful, and influential of the city, and has never failed when charged with such a task until now… While delivering a parcel to an important alchemist, an accident happens and the package is dropped just outside the door of the alchemist’s lab and a strange powder is released, showering the character. Putting the parcel back together, the character enters the alchemist’s lab, whose eyes widen when he sees the dust on NNY’s body, and he moves to place the desk between them, his eyes widening, as he looks aghast and yells: “What have you done?!?!?”

* The dust was said to be able to kill gods.  NNY finds that wherever he/she/it goes the faith of those around it erodes.  Priests will enter into theological discussions with NNY and eventually question their own faith in the course of seemingly casual conversation, becoming shattered at their own sudden alchemical aetheism.

* The alchemist, distressed that the dust was dropped, demands NNY completes an errand for him.  He was going to use the dust to destroy the faith of the high muckety muck of the city.  The alchemist is something of an anti-religious anarchist.  When the high priest has forsaken his faith, the Alchemist will hire Darius to kill him.

I hope something here is usable.

Please post how the game goes and good luck.

[Old_Scratch]

Old Scratch,

There is so much setting stuff to sort through that I'm rather dizzied and intimidated to touch these bangs but I want to help and know how much I enjoy hearing other's bangs when I post these threads, so here we go.

Yes, I seem to be sliding away from the rough sketch work proposed in Sorcerer and Sword and the examples epochs in Charnel Gods. <sigh>

* Bukkerot comes across a carriage, a church pew or a gallows pole, something made of wood that is a symbol of civlization.  The wooden thing seems to reach out to attack him him.

If he hacks the wood apart the attack stops but he has destroyed property and will have to deal with those consequences.

If he stays his hand and uses Lore to carefully assess why he is hallucinating, he will realize that it was his axe that chopped the wood down that created this thing.  The tree was a holy and noble thing and now it is a dead tool of the Empire.

* The raven says strange things when the axe is drawn.  "Feast!"  "God's Meat!"  "God's Eyes!"[/list:u]

I'm currently trying to get the character to shift his need, so the first one may or may not be applicable, but I was thinking instead of it reaching out, perhaps a monstrpus face appears, mocking the character - a face that only he perceives.

The raven one, I like, and I know the player will like - we're both big fans of A Song of Ice and Fire and I could use it as an homage - thinking here of Mormont's Raven - this one serves as a counterpoint to the character's brutality though.

* A child approaches Darius with her last treasure on earth, a lock of hair from her mother, asking him to kill the heartless woman who killed her parents.  Her older sister was the culprit, not wanting anyone to know her lowborn birth.

* When Darius kills he discovers that whenever he kills someone with the swords, a double of himself kills someone else in the city who corresponds somehow to his victim.  Killing with the swords opens the way for a doppleganger to take his form and spill blood.

The more he kills the more real the doppleganger becomes until it becomes sure that it is the real Darius and the player is the doppleganger.[/list:u]

Yes, I'll certainly be using the first one - and the claimant can only offer a little money - but states that the whispering voices told her to come to him. I suspect that a lot of people might know of Darius through the whispering voices.

The second one, I'm mulling over - I like it, but I want to plug it directly into the setting - I'm thinking Darius might not even be human, but could be some sort of vat grown creation by some alchemist. His Doppleganger could be a clone - as the game progresses, he sees an awful lot of people who look like him wandering around the world.

* The dust was said to be able to kill gods.  NNY finds that wherever he/she/it goes the faith of those around it erodes.  Priests will enter into theological discussions with NNY and eventually question their own faith in the course of seemingly casual conversation, becoming shattered at their own sudden alchemical aetheism.

* The alchemist, distressed that the dust was dropped, demands NNY completes an errand for him.  He was going to use the dust to destroy the faith of the high muckety muck of the city.  The alchemist is something of an anti-religious anarchist.  When the high priest has forsaken his faith, the Alchemist will hire Darius to kill him.

Hmmm... The first one - said to kill the gods - I suspect its the powdered essence is that of the Nameless one, its bones or something. Perhaps the Nameless are drawn to it as a result, or the character, having ingested it through the lungs, the character might have all sorts of bizarre dreams and visitations and might even periodically be affected by the Taint that comes from the powder.

By the way, NNY is now named Pietskiy - the character goes only by its last name and the player asserts that the character is androgynous, nobody is sure if the character is male or female - he or she is passably either.

I'm playing Sunday, so if anyone has any other ideas, please share them! I might post a few more ideas later today. Thanks again!

[Old_Scratch]

The Puppet Maker
On a winding alley behind Praag Castle and Praag Cathedral stands a small, dark, and crowded small toy-shop and its master craftsman. While a vast array of wooden toys lie on shelves and hang from ceilings, his specialty is a marionettes. Although few know of his shop, many at the court have individually found themselves in the shop, commissioning their own marionettes. Imbued with his Lore, the marionettes have a modest power. When one holds the marionette, with a Lore test they may be able to get a sense of the state of mind of the person the marionette resembles. If the Marionette is crafted after someone who has a Lore skill, a Lore test versus the Humanity +1 of the person the image represents will reveal their level of humanity.

Jaroslav the Toymaker
Sta – 1 (Elderly with a weak heart) Will – 5 (Seeks Perfection in Form) Lore – 1 (Had a Glimpse of Something Greater and More Terrible than Humanity) Livelihood – 5 (Master Toy Craftsman)

The Prinz Josef Bridge
Spanning the river that cuts through Praag are a series of bridges, but one is the most beautiful and prominent of them tall. Crafted from etched red and white bricks is the Prinz Josef bridge which links the city's main market square on the south-east side with the road that approaches Praag's main square opposite the hill that Praag Castle stands. Prinz Josef bridge is also known as Princes Bridge, since statues of the city's princes line bridge at regular intervals, their somber and sorrowful faces silently judging those who walk along the bridge.

Praag Cathedral
Nestled within the walls of Praag Castle are the myriad spires of Praag Cathedral. Some of the city's more fashionable artists consider this towering, winding, gargoyle-pocked black Cathedral a grotesque testament to religious sentiments. Built as an elaborate monument upon the death of the First Thearch, it is an anguished and imposing building, rivaling only the Hall of Repose in its artistry. It is said that its architect was driven mad upon the death of the First Thearch and lived only long enough to design the cathedral before he committed suicide off of the Prinz Josef bridge.

Praag Castle
In contrast to the cathedral it is embraces, Praag Castle with its white walls and red stone tile roofs is a pleasure to the eyes. Climbing ivy with its stunning blooms creep along its outside, and small angelic figures gilt in gold and silver play along the eaves of the building. For centuries its many rooms lay dormant, but with the rise of the Praag court many nobles and thinkers have arrived, seeking the patronage of the Prince of Praag. It is said that the wonders of the court have no rivals, many amazing inventions have been demonstrated in the court and great poets have performed some of the greatest works before this admiring audience. Yet great conspiracies are afoot here as well, ambitions have awakened and many come to court armed with whispers and intrigues.

The Clock Maker
Praag's artisans are unrivalled, and it was in Praag that the mechanical clock was first invented and all mechanical clocks within the Empire and out come from Praag, whose Clockwork guild has a monopoly on the clocks. While not the most powerful or influential in the guild, Master Vaclav is certainly the most accomplished of the clockmakers. While famed in skill but modest in ambitions, many of his apprentices have moved beyond the trade and now construct automatika in the court of the Prince, Master Vaclav is content to merely construct the finest clocks imaginable.

There is nothing extraordinary about the clocks, unless a Fell-Weapon Bearer enters the shop. If anyone with less than Humanity 3 enters, the clocks will reflect their entry – they may all chime at the same time, the clocks may freeze up, or the hands may move in reverse, or the broken and half-assembled clocks in the workroom may start function while the Fell Bearer remains.

The Thaumaturge
Jakob Belohlavic is one of the oldest practitioners of "magic" in Praag. While most hail themselves as men of science and adopt the title "alchemist" to demonstrate their new and modern approaches, Jakob adheres to an earlier title, one steeped in mystic traditions, that of "Thaumaturge". An ancient figure, none alive remember him as a young child. His decaying manor house at the southern edge of the city, next to the river, is feared by many locals. Despite his fearsome reputation, he is not without a sense of civic duty so common in the city now, often giving charitably to a women's hospital, a nearby orphanage, and to a local group who feeds those less well-off.

The Opium Den
Not far from Aramantheum are the great plantation farms owned by the Emperor, administered by the nobility that cling to the Emperor like leeches. While these provide much of the food demands of the capital, many of the nobles have switched their production over to the bright blue flowers that produce the opium drugs so widely consumed now within the capital. The craving for the "blue emotion" as the drug state is now known is spreading widely through the Empire, and has reached the city of Praag. While many of the mystics and seers of the court partake of the Poppies, the poor indulge in it as well, and there is an increasing number of people with the tell-tale blue-tinted lips, hunched over in alleys or staring numbly in the distance. This community of drug addicts is focused on a riverfront boarding house that has become a drug den in the last year, run by Mother Strognoy, a fierce but calculating woman, this opium den continues to provide its poison to the desperate.

The Asylum
The Vigil has always dealt with those who acted different in a peculiar manner – after being interrogated by the invigilators, they were either executed, imprisoned, or welcomed into the Faith as mystics. As yet another act of resistance to the influence of the Vigil, the enlightened Prince of Praag has insisted that a new and scientific means of caring for the mentally ill be instituted.

So on a nearby hill, in an abandoned monastery of the Vigil, the Praag Asylum has been created to care for unable to do so for themselves. A routine has been instituted, and its well-tended grounds are there to sooth and give peace to the disturbed individuals. While the intentions of all involved were good, recent rumors about the Asylum have proved troubling...

[Old_Scratch]

We didn't get around to playing last Sunday, but we did get another character. Hopefully we'll play this weekend...

Herr Grimm (the character hasn't been named yet – so I'm just making up a suitable placeholder name).

Sta – 4 The Vitality of the Grave
Will – 3 Crossed the line between Genius and Insanity
Lore – 3 The Inner Secrets of the Mind and Body
Cover – 3 Doctor of Internal Alchemy
Price – 1 A Monstrosity, -1 penalty to all casual interactions
Humanity – 3
Appearance – Graveborn, a deathly pallor, lifeless eyes, ragged hair, cold to the touch, with embalming tubes and scientific apparatuses still driven into his flesh and held there by brass rivets
Telltale – Constant presence of flies by day, rats by night

Herr Grimm was a genius if eccentric doctor and experimenter, carrying out a successful practice in his clinic near the river in Praag. Yet his genius and curiosity was not tempered by wisdom or compassion, and he sought the answers in those dying moments, often controlled by him – some would have their deaths prematurely instigated by him and then their demise painfully extended so that he could linger over the processes and experience. When his apprentices objected, they became the next stage in the experiments, the suspension of the death cycle.

As his last apprentice expired, strapped into a baroque chair of brass and steel and pinned there by hoses and valves, Herr Grimm finally triumphed: a second after the last apprentice died, his eyes flicked open. His delight turned to horror however, as the dead apprentice burst forth with unnatural strength, seized the doctor, and pinned him to the chair, driving all manner of probes and hoses into him, nailing him to the chair with spurs and nails without rhyme or reason and then switching the arcane device on, and Herr Grimm watched his own blood and life seeping away through the tubes as a thick concoction of his own making sluggishly pumped into his arteries, until everything went black...

...and he awakened in hell – a land of the dead – where the giant bodies of gods and monsters lay scattered about after some catastrophic melee. His first sense was of something cold passing over him, and he noticed a ghostly shadow drifting past. Numb and confused, he noticed these apparitions floating one after the other, in one particular direction. Picking through the battlefield, Herr Grimm fell in line and marched with them, arriving at some bizarre mausoleum tower that reached up into the clouds, a building comprised of solely of bones bound by preserved entrails and sinew. As the specters entered the building, Herr Grimm sought to follow them, only to be blocked by the two giant guardians wielding axes, two massive skeletons with dog skulls. Discovering that this was not his time to join the dead, he staggered off, wandering, until he was drawn by an emotion, one of despair, which drew him to a fallen body – that of one of the giant dog-skulled skeletons that lay amidst the carnage. Clutched in its hands was the source of the despair – a bone mace whose spikes were the ribs of heroes and villains alike. He reached for the weapon, drawn to it by the sole fact that it was the only source of any kind of emotion in a dead world. Clutching it, he staggered about until he somehow found his way back to Praag.

Now he lurks about in Praag, after dark, in graveyards, sewers, dark alleys, abandoned buildings, seeking to undo what he has done. Yet his genius is gone, and he seems unable to replicate or reverse-engineer his own experiments, and finds himself unable to approach his old clinic, so he creeps about on the margins, torn between the despair of being entombed in his own corpse and his desire to be fully alive again.

The Bone Mace (Player still hasn't given a name for it yet either...)
Sta – 8
Will – 7
Lore – 6
Power – 8
Type: Bone Mace
Binding Strength: +1 to Herr Grimm's favor
Telltale: Comprised of inhuman bones
Desire: Hopelessness
Need: Not yet decided (!!!)
Abilities: Boost Stamina, Command (Vermin: Rats, Bats, and the like), Taint, Vitality (unholy vitality, by drawing upon the energies absorbed by the special damage), Special Damage (Devour the Souls of the living), Armor (Unholy vitality and bones of steel – perhaps spurs and ridges also appear while Armor is being used)

Herr Grimm's Kicker: While Herr Grimm is lurking about the cemetery, seeking out corpses for continued experimentation, he is driven to hiding as some figures appear nearby, tossing a body in the grave that Herr Grimm is hiding in. As the body rolls over, he discovers much to his surprise that the corpse bears the very same experimental tell-tales his own experiments once bore – he realizes that someone else has continued conducting his experiments!

Some Notes: On Resurrection in Charnel Gods
Now about the character, he is neither living nor dead, and again it seems that I have violated one of the precepts of Charnel Gods: "The fact is, though, that much of the game's power lies in the absolute finality of death. There is no way to commune with the spirits of the dead or to resurrect lost loved ones. A powerful supernatural creature might have some way to animate a corpse for use as a mindless servant, but Necromancy itself simply does not exist in Naur Tier."

Now I hope Scott will forgive me, but I don't consider this formal necromancy and I'll make this the exception to the game. This is the story the character wanted and I think it makes for an epoch defining element – not bringing back the dead to life, but trapping someone through science and alchemy between life and death.

Herr Grimm's Bangs (again – suggestions are welcome)
I like this character, he's got a different feel, almost a pulpy feel in some ways and he really plays off the alchemy perspective with a bit of comic book feel, the player has jokingly referred to the character as "FrankenSpawn". I'll be using the themes of the dark side of the city and science and the occult to generate this character's kickers.

-While lurking in the graveyard, Herr Grimm notes some grave robbers sneaking in, and if he approaches closer, discovers that they are not digging up coffins, but putting one in the ground. Getting closer, he will note that the occupant in the coffin is not so keen on this midnight burial, and is banging away, screaming for help

-Herr Grimm approaches his clinic to discover it well-lit and cared for, and apparently still occupied by himself! An impostor has taken over his clinic, pretending to be Herr Grimm and has reintroduced himself into society – the real Herr Grimm will no doubt be surprised to find out that he is in some demand in the social scene right now.

-His rival Archibald has an extensive selection of ingredients and experimental equipment that Herr Grimm could use, and it turns out that Archibald's patron is having a costume ball at his palatial estate where both Archibald and the patron reside.

-Herr Grimm discovers the younger brother of his murdered apprentices out on the streets begging for money – after the death of his brother, the young boy had no income and had to resort to begging.

-Herr Grimm's Last Apprentice is still about and quite mad. An alchemically fuelled half living hald dead madmen, he lurks about the darkness as well, seeking to continue Herr Grimm's experiments on the living and still hates Herr Grimm with an unholy passion.

-Someone else shares the night with Herr Grimm and the Last Apprentice: the Night's Court, the Praag underworld which deals in many of the illegal substances that the alchemists and theurges of the court crave. Not knowing Grimm's true state, the Prince of the Night demands an audience with this night-time lurker they think is a burglar or beggar.

On a different note:
   Someone noted how the whispers and dream visitations gave the epoch a certain feel (Scott?), and I've noticed that the desires of the weapons are somewhat similar: two center on Hopelessness, one on Ruin, and the last on Spitefulness towards Creativity. This seems an interesting counterpoint to the splendors and wonders of the court. There could be a really cool tension there, perhaps the promise of these mechanical and alchemical wonders are superficial, and nothing but mere diversions and distractions for the pampered elite, while the poor choke on the fumes from the furnaces and gag at the river water poisoned by experiments. Or on the other hand, maybe these devices offer a real improvement to the lives of others, but there promise will never be fulfilled due to the activities of the Fell Weapons and their bearers. Thus, I'd like to flavor a few of the bangs to play about with this ennui during an age of wonder.

Problems with the Fell Weapons Needs
Two of my players have had real problems coming up with the needs for their demons/fell-weapons. I've offered them ideas, but they haven't snatched at any of them. This was entirely unexpected. The one person that has NEVER role played came up with a great desire (Spite for the creative process) and a great need that really plays on the "Not can I fulfill its need, but do I want to fulfill its need" with the "Must destroy the creative means". Has anyone else experienced this problem before?

"It's a lot of work!"
This surprised me as well – the last player to make Herr Grimm is one of my longest running players, we're talking well over ten years. The player has made characters for MERP, WFRP, Underground, Conspiracy X, SLA Industries, Chill, D&D 1/2/3, Kult, Call of Cthulhu, Fading Suns, and others... All games which require more time, writing, and book referencing than Sorcerer. Yet for the first time, this player complained that this was really hard and that it's a lot of work! This totally blew my mind. I guess he felt that the was really forced to think more than he normally is, even though the Sorcerer character sheet is fairly threadbare. And I was really helpful with the character, discussing ideas and speculating with them and really guiding them through the process.

I haven't really had a chance to unpack this yet, but I think my players have become creatively passive over the last couple of years, relying upon me as the GM to compel them through the plot, and having character driven plots is a challenge to them. I hope they're up for the challenge...

[Old_Scratch]

Yeah, we actually got around to playing! Our first time as a group playing Sorcerer, Sorcerer & Sword, and Charnel Gods. A few changes were made to the characters, and we got underway. The street kid became "Pike" and the scout Bukkerot became a female scout named "Angil". The Darius player didn't make it, and the half-dead experimenter known previously as Herr Grimm is the monster recently called the Hell Gaunt, who once was the Doktor named Albrecht. Here's a bit of the Actual Play...

The story begins with the players in Praag, carrying out their attendant tasks.

Note: the stories do not take place concurrently, they are a day or two off at times.

The Hell Gaunt (formerly the Internal Alchemist and Scientist Albrecht)
Kicker: While the creature once known as Doktor Albrecht is lurking about the cemetery, seeking out corpses for continued experimentation, he is driven to hiding as some figures appear nearby, tossing a body into the cart. The figure gathering the bodies is peculiar, when much to his surprise he notes that the grave robber bears the very same experimental tell-tales his own experiments once bore – he realizes that someone else has continued conducting his experiments! As the last body is thrown in, he notes, beneath the bodies, a young woman, bound and gagged, looking horrified. Their eyes meet for a moment, she is desperately pleading for rescue!

The Monstroust Hell Gaunt/Doktor Albrecht glides through the graveyard, lurking from tombstone to tombstone as the cart with its grisly cargo and driver make exit from the crumbling graveyard. Hell Gaunt watches the cart clatter down the street, pausing at the threshold of cemetery for only a moment, before he springs to the nearest building, digging his pale white fingers, more like talons, into the stone, climbing swiftly to the top with inhuman speed and strength. Once upon the rooftops, he sprints along the tiled slopes, his clattered cloak and clothing trailing about behind. People below turn fitfully as their sleep turns to nightmares, and a small child, seeing his silhouette pass by the moon, rushes up to close the window.

He halts behind a chimney, watching as the living experiments, with tubes and brass rivets and bolts gathers two or three corpses up and heads into the building, leaving the bound woman behind in the back.

Seeing his opportunity, the Hell Gaunt leaps silently off the building, landing on the ground and sprinting low to the cart. He throws back the tarp, and the figure looks relieved for a moment, until she beholds the former docktor's deathly visage. She backs away, and he reaches out a twisted pale hand and grabs her, throwing her over his shoulder and gets ready to leave...

...when suddenly a shadow appears in the lighted doorway, as the inhuman cart driver returns for the girl...

Pike
Kicker: Long trusted to carry out tasks of dubious legality or of urgent necessity, Pike has served many of the rich, powerful, and influential of the city, and has never failed when charged with such a task until now... While delivering a late-night parcel to an important alchemist, an accident happens and the package is dropped just outside the door of the alchemist's lab and a strange powder is released, showering Pike in a fine white powder. Putting the parcel back together, the character enters the alchemist's lab, whose eyes widen when he sees the dust on Pike's body, and he moves to place the desk between them, his eyes widening, as he looks aghast and yells: "What have you done?!"

Pike is startled, and starts to back away, dropping the parcel on the ground. The alchemist quickly grabs a cloth and covers his mouth with it, and his face twists into a horrified grimace. Pike continues to back away, and the alchemist screams "Thief! Seize the thief!"

At this point, Pike is reaching back for the door, which opens and a servant is standing there in the doorway with a nightcap for his employer. Pike bumps into him and a small cloud of dust rises, and he begins coughing, but throws down the drink and tries to grab at Pike. With the reflexes of a street urchin, Pike dodges the clumsy grasp and throws the servant's weight, he flies across the room, striking a table and falling senseless – perhaps even dead. Pike rushes out the back door, into the garden of the estate, sprinting down the stepstone path and seeking the back door in the ivy-covered wall. She fumbles with the door before throwing it open. The cries of "Thief!" seem distant, and she begins to lope down the alleyway, when ahead of her the Alchemist appears on a horse, and sighting her, renews his frantic cries! He brings the horse towards her, and windows start to open in the neighborhood and the hue and cry is raised.

Pike stops, grabs her Fell-Blade she wears on her back, and turns running straight into the shadows. As she hits the shadows, she commands her blade to teleport her and she disappears into the shadows. The Alchemist rides up, puzzled, looking about in the darkness for someone who has disappeared into thin air, dissolved into the night.

Angil
Kicker: She was sent forth from her village to seek an audience with the Prince of Praag on behalf of her people, who are sorely beset by a band of wandering nomads known as the Tilter Horde, believed to be operating under the power of a nearby lord who seems intent to do away with her people.

She has just returned from successfully arranging a private audience with the Prince of Praag, when a dark form appears over her, then landing upon her shoulder in the marketplace. It is familiar: the family's pet raven, her father's constant companion, bearing in its talons Angil's father's family heirloom – an amulet prized within the family, one he would never part with – and one covered in blood – presumably her fathers!

For Angil, there is no dilemma – her family needs her! What good is the word of the Prince of Praag if her family is slain! Setting aside the thoughts of meeting one of the most powerful men in the world tomorrow, she begins to make her way through the crowd to return to the inn she is staying at. She feeds the raven a handful of corn, but many at the marketplace have noted the raven landing on her should and saying "Blood! Blood!", and begin to hiss at her, for the raven is a sign of ill-omen and death. As the nearby crowd becomes uneasy, Angil flees the market, towards her inn, trying to come up with a means of acquiring a horse.

As she arrives at the inn, a well-dressed nobleman walking by looks at her twice, before approaching her. He hails her as one of the border clans, and greets her, holding out a hand. As he does so, she pulls back from the handshake in surprise, for as they shake hands something upon his wrist pricks her. Looking at his wrist, she sees he is wearing a most unusual piece of decoration, a bracelet of dried thorn-brush weaved together, and beneath that the hint of a tattoo of thorns.

Suspicious, he apologizes, urging Angil to follow him, for the people of the border clans are not without friends in the city. Following carefully, she arrives at Radovic's manor house, where he offers her wine and chats with her. He listens earnestly and seems genuinely moved by her plight. He suggest that a friend of his, Zitek Nemecek, a merchant, is leaving today for the border clans and would eagerly loan her a horse if she should serve as guide and guard for his cart. Furthermore, he'll appear tomorrow on her behalf to seek an appointment at a later date and briefly introduce the issues to the Prince of Praag.

Radovic, her new friend, asks only one favor of her. "You see, there is a rare form of plant that grows in your area, and I would beg of nothing in return but a small piece of this thorn. It can be identified by its black and red flowers". Pike agrees to the bargain, and leaves, joining up with the merchant Zitek for the journey from Praag to the border along the old forest, haunted by the forest folk.

The Hell Gaunt (Once Doktor Albrecht)
...when suddenly a shadow appears in the lighted doorway, as the inhuman cart driver returns for the girl...

Sickly green fluid pumps through the veins of Hell Gaunt, and brass valves open within his body and he springs into action – leaping away from towering figure in the doorway, the young woman thrown over his shoulder insignificant in light of his great strength...

...when with shocking speed the shadowy figure slams into the Hell Gaunt, clutching him in a vise-like grip while screaming in a hoarse voice back towards the house.j

Setting aside his surprise, the thing that once was Doktor Albrecht shakes the grapple of the monster and he reaches up and drawing upon power unknown to mere mortals, rips off the jaw of the experimental human-monster above him, and green fluids comes gushing out of the horrific wound.

Still clutching the girl, Hell Gaunt then spins out from beneath the alchemical fiend and lands on its back, driving his fingers deep into its eye sockets, and the creature feebly spins over, clutching at the dark pits where its eyes once were...

Leaving an opening, and striking a blow with all the power of the pneumatic hammers displayed in the court of the Prince of Praag, the Hell Gaunt drives his fist deep into the brass-laced rib cage of his enemy, tearing out its heart in a shower of green-hued viscera and clutching a heart no longer human, but with brass valves and strange devices embedded within. Yet he has little time to examine it, the light from the doorway has been snuffed out by the shapes crowding at it and still clutching the girl, Hell Gaunt runs off, laughing, and as he looks back, he sees a familiar figure in the doorway, the twisted and transformed face of his last apprentice, the one that strapped the good Doktor to his own device and subjected him to his own experiments.

Uneasy, the Hell Gaunt sprints, and leaps up onto the rooftops using some walls and barrels and disappears into the night with his squirming burden.

Pike
As commanded, Pike's demon has brought them both to the house of one of Pike's patrons, a woman of the noble class. She is in the richly decorated bedroom, but her patron is nowhere to be seen, but she does hear voices, raised in argument, outside the doorway – a man and a woman's.

The voices near! Pike rushes to hide behind the door, just as it is flung open. The voices are raised, screaming. Pike hears a slap, and then a louder blow and she sees her patron land on the bed. A man rises above her, drops down on her sitting on her belly and with a voice mad with rage screams at her and clutches the pearl necklace the noble woman wears, and begins to strangle her with it before it breaks. He rises in disgust, and the woman rolls off the bed, onto the floor, clutching at her throat and weeping. The man rises, still yelling curses at her, and grabs a beautiful painting on the wall, tearing it off the wall and driving it down on a nearby sculpture, wreaking the painting and sculpture both before he turns to a concealed vault on the wall just now revealed, and as he reaches in...

Pike leaps forth from behind, leaping onto his back. He flies into the wall, seems stunned, and then quickly grabs at Pike, throwing her off his back.

He draws forth a knife from his belt and in response, Pike pulls out her bastard sword from behind her back, and the warm seems to warp with energy. The man flees the room, rushing downstairs with Pike in pursuit. As he reaches the ground floor he rushes to his belt and grabs at it, Pike rushes down and halts...

...when the man spins about with a pistol aimed at Pike on the stairway. Pikes ducks as the pistol is fired, smoke fills the stairway and a piece of the ornate handrail explodes in splinters. Pike begins to continue her rush downstairs when she stops...

...Shhiiinnk! The man has just drawn a rapier and assumed a fencing stance at the base of the stairway. Pike turns and runs, rushing towards the window. The man carefully climbs up the stairs, but Pike has disappeared into the gardens below, heading to another alchemist with whom she has worked before, Basilius, hoping that he might be able to tell her something of the powder.

Angil
A day has passed and she nears the land of her people. The merchant Zitek has proven pleasant company and they share a wineskin as they journey through a small bit of woods when the raven takes to the air and Angil quickly dashes off the road into the foliage, while the merchant on his cart looks on in surprise, a wineskin poised to be poured into his mouth.

Five hard, dangerous looking fellows have appeared carrying the intricately carved spears of the Border Clans. They yell for Angil to appear and for the merchant to get off his cart, for his cart and merchandise, as well as both horses are now theirs. Angil emerges, and recognizes one of her cousins, hailing him.

"Let us pass Wulfenar! You know who I am!" Angil demands!

Wulfenar replies with disgust: "You'd rather stand by a leech rather than your own kin! You disgust me Angil!" and he spits in her direction.

The merchant pleads with Angil to do something! To defend them!

Angil replies "Our people are under attack! I have come from my father's instructions to seek the help of others, and yet we resort to robbery! What have become of my people, no Wulfenar, we will pass".

The two stare at one another for a few moments, their wills locked in battle, when Wulfenar looks away from a mere girl half his age.

"This is our road. 'tis the law that you must pay a toll to ensure that the road remains safe and open and accessible. Merchant, you must pay two gold to pass, but Angil, since you are of our own kin, this road is yours too, you may pass for free." Wulfenar announces, looking down, and then upon concluding staring flinty-eyed at the sweating merchant. The merchant pays the two gold and proceeds on, while Angil stays behind to talk to her kin about the recent occurrences.

She catches up with the merchant, and at a nearby village they part ways. She rides towards her clan's homestead, and as she nears a rise, she sees smoke coming from the direction of her home. She spurs her horse onwards towards her home, fearing what she may find...

[Old_Scratch]

The Hell Gaunt
Again, the Hell Gaunt flees across the rooftops of Praag, skimming the rooftops, his feet barely touching the tiles. In a matter of minutes, he has crossed parts of the city and arrived at the docks to a hideout, a ruined warehouse on a pier. Some of the structures have collapsed and the building hovers dangerously over the water – a lightning strike had destroyed and set fire to one corner of the building, the end he leaps to and lands upon. He drops into the darkness within.

Rats scurry about in the darkness. A low glow comes from one wall were all sorts of pipes and tubing fill giant vessels with experimental material drifting within. All manner of medical instruments hang on one wall, and he hurls her down into a different corner where all manner of corpses and dismembered limbs lay heaped. He turns his back, grabs an instrument and picks her up again...

...and holds up a gleaming scalpel which he holds to her throat...

...and in one quick flash he cuts...

...her gag off. She gasps. She's young, about 19 years of age. She begs and pleads for her life, assures her that her father is wealthy, and then, looking about the chamber, says he is a powerful alchemist and could offer him many pieces of experimental equipment...

The Hell Gaunt turns... and asks "Just who is your father?"

The young woman replies "The Alchemist Master Archibald!"

Hell Gaunt hisses! This was his chief rival! A man that criticized his work and mocked him in the court, cost him many of his patrons! A plan crystallizes in his twisted mind.

He stuffs a gag back in her mouth, hangs the womans bound arms up on a meat hook, and then pulls on some chains, lifting her up above the floor. He lights some candles, and only then does she see the ring of rats, hundreds of them, that stare greedily up at her.

He pauses to write a note.

He clambers up the burnt and fallen beam that leads up to the hole in the roof and disappears into the night.

Its not long before he reaches the well-lit and impressive mansion of the Master Alchemist Archibold. Lurking about the estate, he hears, despite the late hour, some sort of late-night entertainment, someone is giving a speech of some sort. Hell Gaunt leers about, peeking in through the windows, his clawed hands leaving muddy smears.

Circling about, he hears the sound of vomiting in the garden. He hunches over, and steps quietly forward. A drunk servant is in the garden vomiting, throwing up his insides and the smell of cheap alcohol wafts upon the air. The voluminous shadow that is the Hell Gaunt swoops over him and an arm pierced with the sins of science reaches down, grabs his neck, and breaks it. He produces his note from his body and sticks it in the shirt of the dead servant. He scoops up the dead servant and throws it over his shoulder, and looks up towards the roof of the building and agilely climbs to the roof, drawn by the glow of warm lights emanating from a large sky-light window.

Standing there, looking down on the warm and cozy room below as a storm gathers above him, the Hell Gaunt bides his time...

...Below a young and handsome poet is performing some stirring poem and young women of distinction in the first row seem close to swooning, as they fan themselves and sigh at the beauty of the words. The poet moves from behind the podium, his voice rising as his poem reaches its conclusion, and Master Alchemist Archibald grunts in pleasure at the performance...

...the poet pauses...

...the room is filled with the sound of polite clapping and the sighs of love-struck women...

...the poet smiles...

...and the world explodes! CRASH! Glass showers down from above and a body plummets into the room, smashing to the ground before the shocked poet, his golden face turned to a mask of disgust and horror!

Screams erupt from the room and many an unblemished face is not ruined by glass and blood...

...when laughter explodes from above. The room goes quiet except for that horrible and mocking laughter and everyone looks up to witness a most degenerate sight, that of someone half-human, half-monster, laughing from above. Lightning flashes across the sky, and the figure is gone, but the laughter remains until it fades into nothing.

Then the note is found. It states that if Archibold desires to see his daughter alive again, he will bring a ransom of gold to the cemetery – alone, and will dig up the grave of one former rival of his, Albrecht, and place the gold within the casket. His daughter will then be returned to him.

As the nobility and gentry flee the house, rumors spread of a monster, a gaunt from hell who has come to wreak vengeance upon the people of this fair city.

Pike
Fleeing from the scene of a fight, Pike wanders the city, heading to one of her various bolt-holes throughout the city. It is not long before she arrives near one on the waterfront. Yet as she is getting ready to enter it, she notes the glimmering of light from the old ruined warehouse.

Intrigued by this, Pike heads over. There are no windows, but she carefully climbs over the side and through a hole in the roof, descending through the means of a fallen beam. She cares not for the sound of rats, and starts to explore this realm of the macabre. She peers into strange vials and jars and vessels, until the sound of clinking chains draws her attention, and she discovers a woman or girl hanging in the air. After piling up some corpses, she is able to get the woman down and pulls off her gag and cuts her bindings.

The woman gasps in horror: "We have to leave! It may be back, its one of those monsters, those creatures! Quick, please!"

Pike tries to reassure her, but the girls eyes widen and stare past her and she shakes and Pike turns about to see a large shadow looming over both of them...

Angil
Seeing the smoke rising from the place of her clan homestead, Angil drives her horse onwards and as she nears, she sees the smoking remains of her family home and some figures lying on the ground. Standing amidst them are three figures with three horses.

As she nears, she sees that they are not from the Tilter Horde, but from the church! Two Knight Vigilants and a Vigilator Inquisitor. The Inquisitor, in green and gold robes has stooped down to look at one of the bodies, while the two Knights look on, leaning upon their swords.

Angil thunders down towards them, her axe held aloft, the wind chilling about her and her breath turning to steam in the sudden chill.

She thunders up and the three figures turn in surprise, the Inquisitor rising to stand.

Angil screams out "What are you doing here in my village?!?!"

The Inquisitor, hearing her, calls out: "She must be one of these heretics! Arrest that girl!"

The two Knights, seemingly unburdened by their plate armor easily swing their blades up and advance upon her...

She charges forward, her axe held aloft but the two veterans split, one to each side of her and as she swings her axe...

...one of the knights catches it on his blade and the two weapons meet, muscles shaking and quivering as the weapons lock...

...when the other Knight swings his blade flat and strikes Angil a glancing blow who falls from her horse... only to grab at her axe and swinging from a prone position yet two more blows from the Knights subdue her and her axe flies from her grasp, landing near the Priest.

Having lost her home, her family, her axe, and now the battle for her honor, Angil lies there, as the two Knights, untouched, their faces hidden by their visors, their cold eyes staring, level their sword points at her throat. The Inquisitor, curious, reaches forward towards her axe...

[Old_Scratch]

Hell Gaunt (as the good Doktor Albrecht is now known in Praag)
Having left his rival's party in disarray and horror, Hell Gaunt flees back across the rooftops as bats flutter alongside towards his warehouse. Leaping from one roof onto the destroyed corner of the warehouse, he hears conversation below, one voice frantic. Crawling down the beam on all fours, the Hell Gaunt approaches two figures talking, one of them his hostage, the other a small figure with its back turned.

Drawing upon the power of his unholy weapon, he commands it to swell his body with its foul energies. The hostage sees him, her eyes widen and the other figure spins around...

...and asks "...albrecht?"

Hell Gaunt pauses, doesn't recognize the figure, but with inhuman strength grabs the intruder and hurls her with remarkable force into the pile of corpses. Before the hostage can react, he snatches her up, dashes up the beam and lands back on the rooftop. Again he flies across the rooftops towards his other hideaway – an abandoned steeple at the church in the graveyard. Ever since his return from the grave, his nocturnal activities have frightened the groundskeeper who now resides outside the cemetery.

Still in control of his hostage, the Hell Gaunt continues with his plans. Gagging the girl again, he hangs his struggling and pleading hostage upside down from the ropes that once held the bell, and he creeps down below into the cemetery, in search of a coffin...

...while in the graveyard, he hears the appearance of a small band carrying a coffin. He ducks behind a gravestone, and nearby a small band of people appear, moving about the cemetery furtively. Digging a grave, they begin to lower it when the Hell Gaunt notes that the occupant inside the grave isn't so eager to return to the soil. It shakes as someone within struggles and beats against the sides and top, and the Hell Gaunt can hear screams coming from within. The occupants lower the coffin and throw dirt upon it. Their work finished, they grunt and turn, exiting the cemetery.

Hell Gaunt moves forward, and begins to dig up the coffin. After a few minutes it is unearthed and he tears the top off the coffin – inside is a young nobleman. Frantic. His cry of joy turns to horror as he sees the living corpse that was once Doktor Albrecht. The man's first thoughts is that he is dead and in hell, but the good doctor has little time for this... shaking and threatening the man, Hell Gaunt learns that the man was a member of the Order of the Ivory Sun and that a number of talismans had been thrown into the coffin to see him to the afterworld. What piques Hell Gaunt's interest is that what seemed to be harmless dabbling in the arts of alchemy have turned much darker – experimenting with a white dust, the Order of the Ivory Sun has been using this material to transform the living into mindless automatons, but their ultimate intention is to somehow extend one's life through the use of the powder. Abhorring these experiments, the young man was going to report the order's misdeeds to the civic authorities, but found himself in a coffin being buried instead. The Hell Gaunt demands the location of the order, and it turns out they have been using the large estate of a powerful lord who seems to have gone senile in his old age. The Hell Gaunt lets the man free, but only after informing him that the Hell Gaunt demands a deed in return for the rescue.

Pike
As the girl's eyes widen in surprise, Pike spins about and sees a terrible figure towering over her... Pike looks at the figure and recognizes it as someone Pike used to deliver goods to...

"...albrecht?" Pike asks in a small voice, but there is no flash of recognition upon the transformed face. Instead the figure, with inhuman strength picks up and hurls Pike across the room, slamming Pike into a pile of corpses, and in the seconds it takes to recover, Pike is alone in a warehouse where the rats begin to creep closer...

Painfully, Pike rises and heads up the beam and exits the building, staggering about the night streets of Praag to another bolt-hole. Its not long before Pike decides to stop by an alchemists and find out about the white powder Pike is covered in. It is dark, so Pike retreats to the cold and wet cellar of a closed business to sleep.

Angil
With the swords of the Knights Vigilant pointed at her throat, Angil desperately reaches out to her weapon with her mind, linking with the blade – commanding it to transform into the Wolf of Winter and she will fulfill its need (to destroy something of importance). As the link is made, the weapons glows from within and the grass below ices over and the Inquisitor reaching for the curious weapon discovers that this is one of those heretical weapons that challenge the Faith. Stopping just short of touching it, the Inquisitor turns around to his Knights Vigilant and commands them: "Bind the heretic! She is the most dangerous of foes!" and turns back to the axe...

...to discover that the axe is missing...

...it its place, towering over the Inquisitor is a giant wolf nearly the size of a horse. Ice crusts its fur and icicles of drool have frozen about its giant gaping maw. It snarls out frozen air and the Inquisitor can only scream as the Wolf of Winter lunges forward, seizing his torso in its great teeth and flinging him about wildly – blood sprays about.

The two Knight Vigilants turn from Angil and look on in horror at the scene of violence. Despite their fear, their training kicks in and both start to back off towards their panicking horses with the stalwart swords held before them.

Angil commands Frost Fang to attack the Knights and in a leap and a bound Frostfang is upon one of them. Yet before Frostfang can strike, one of the Knights, crying out to his god leaps forward and attacks Frostfang, bringing his blade down upon Frostfang's head and cutting a gash. Enraged, the Wolf attacks, its great teeth punching through and tearing open the armor as if were mere flesh and wildly tears apart at the screaming Knight's entrails.

The other Knight is upon his horse and fleeing as the Wolf feasts. Looking at the fleeing Knight, Angil tells Frost Fang that his work is complete, but Frostfang nods in the negative – its was promised that its need would be fulfilled. Frostfang looks about...

...and lopes over to where the bodies are. Angil looks over and is horrified. There lie many of her folk, dead. Her father and twin sister are absent, but her beloved mother and younger sister lie there dead. Frostfang, desiring to destroy something valuable to the living, looks over the bodies, and begins to drag off the corpse of Angil's mother and younger sister, and devours both of them while Angil looks on in horror.

Angil grapples within over the horror she has unleashed on the world, but recognizes that her mother and sister are dead and have passed on...

Turning to examine the corpses, she notes that those menfolk with the tattoos of thorns about their wrists and arms have been dragged aside by the knights and Inquisitor. Looking closer, she realizes that the body the Inquisitor was examining was her uncle's – and he is still breathing! Apparently the Inquisitor was speaking with him when she rode up. Turning to him, she offers him water and questions him.

She learns that her village was not attacked by the three whom she assaulted – they arrived later, but were attacked by the Tilter Horde whom she had been sent to Praag to seek aid against. Angil's father and twin-sister were taken away by the horde, towards the east, in the direction of the local lord's keep. Her uncle dies, and Angil picks up Frost Fang who has resumed the shape of an axe and rides off to the east, her axe in hand and the grass coated in frost in her wake.

[Old_Scratch]

Hell Gaunt / Doktor Albrecht
Having slept through the day, Hell Gaunt awakens as the sun sets and begins his task for the evening.

Three hours before midnight he heads down to his grave and digs up his grave (for the second time!). The note said to dig up the grave, place the money in the coffin, and the girl will be returned to her father. Yet now we learn that Hell Gaunt may be less human than we even imagined...

He gathers up a coffin, places the girl in the coffin, and buries her alive! He knows that in three hours, her father, his rival, will come to dig up a coffin to place within a bag of gold and will discover the body of his own daughter – long expired from suffocation! Ignoring the young woman's banging on the coffin, Hell Gaunt carries out this terrible deed, and leaves the cemetery, seeking out the abode of this senile old man who harbors the Order of the Ivory Sun.

Pike
Pike awakens, damp and cold, to the smell of fresh baked bread. Awakening, Pike heads over to the bakery across the street, buys a fresh roll and begins to enjoy it. Before long, a close friend of Pike's, a young street orphan named Dobrin arrives, and they share a bite the bread in the street. After washing it down with some juice, Pike and Dobrin part ways and Pike heads over to Pike's alchemist friend – curious about the powder that Pike had been covered in. However, the damp cold of the morning had done something to the powder, and it was no longer visible or seemingly present.

As Pike arrives, the alchemist is overjoyed to see Pike. Before Pike can inquire about the powder, the alchemist asks if Pike will pick something up and deliver it back to the alchemists. Pike acquiesces and heads out, pleased at the opportunity to make some money. Its not long before Pike arrives at the place: The Theurge. A man with a black reputation and considerable powers, Pike is a little daunted by entering this business of ill repute. Pike enters into a room with a high ceiling and a large U shaped counter. Behind on countless shelves reaching up the ceiling are all manner of ingredients in jars, boxes, and brass containers. Three overworked apprentices are carrying out tasks.

One of the apprentices looks askance at Pike's appearance, but Pike convinces them to give over the delivery. It's a paper-box parcel that they stress should be carefully handled. Pike carries it out the door with exaggerated precaution and once the door is closed, drops it in Pike's sack.

Pike continues along the way, but then notes that the pack seems to be shifting... as if something were alive in the rucksack. Pike pauses, looks at the bag, and panics. Pike sprints to the shadows and then uses her sword's ability to teleport through shadows – Pike pops into one shadow and arrives in the shadows of the square that the alchemist-friend lives at. Pike begins to trot to the door, rucksack in hand when Pike notices that a small hand is reaching out of the rucksack. Pike runs to the door, drops the rucksack on the ground, bangs loudly on the door and runs away!

Its not long before Pike returns back to the market where the bread was purchased earlier, but there's some sort of activity going on, a crowd has gathered. Near the ancient clock and old woman rushes up to Pike, telling Pike that dear young Dobrin is in some sort of trouble! Both rush forward to discover as the crowds part that Dobrin is in the hands of an Inquisitor.

The Inquisitor has Dobrin tied up to a stake, has torn the child's shirt off, and is lashing the child with a scourge! The hooded inquisitor is screaming questions at the child and Pike turns to a neighboring person in the crowd. Pike asks: "What has Dobrin done to deserve this?"

The neighbor replies: "Dobrin? Apparently this Dobrin is consorting with heretics! Why just this morning Dobrin was seen feasting with a heretic, a young man or woman... the stories are unclear, who not only has the affront to wear a sword which only those of the church may wear, but apparently assaulted one of the faithful last night!" The woman begins to turn away but then notes, in surprise, the sword that this street kid is wearing! Pike notes the woman's glance and gets ready to act but the woman opens her mouth and screams: "Here! Here is the heretic! Right here amongst us!!!"

The crowd gasps and parts, and the Inquisitor spins around, sees Pike and the pommel of the sword, points with one hand and commands "Seize the heretic!" The other hand still holds the scourge, and Dobrin's blood drips down onto the cobblestones of the square.

Angil
Enraged Angil rides across the countryside but pulls up when she notes some of her kinfolk in pursuit. Riding up, she hails them. Bearing spears, they wave their spears and encourage her to join their pursuit. They're hunting a wolf bitch and cubs from the forest! They launch down into the gully and Angil rides ahead to the end of the gully, and begins riding up it...

...only to encounter a woman of the forest folk with her three children! This is the "wolf bitch and cubs"! The woman is holding a shaking blade of bronze at Angil. Angil reassures them, urges them onwards, but before leaving, the woman presses into Angil's hand a pendant, one of an ebony half-moon.

Angil rides up and encounters the three Clans folk. They seem startled at her appearance and the disappearance of the children, but Angil suggests they must have hidden and backtracked, and three men turn about and begin retracing the trail. After a few minutes, Angil bids them goodbye and continues upon her way.

Angil feels positive about her act of compassion, but her axe grumbles discontentedly on her back, unnoticed by Angil.