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Need Realistic Barbarian Village
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<blockquote data-quote="Iron_Chef" data-source="post: 3082152" data-attributes="member: 4530"><p>Chad--or anyone else: Any new NPCs for me? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p>As to the motivations of the other two captives... The baroness was kidnapped on her wedding night--right after her marriage was consummated, luckily. The marriage should hold up in court. She is young, naive and sheltered but well-educated. She is afraid of displeasing and dishonoring her father. She looks down on the bodyguard a lot (calling her stupid and useless behind her back to the witch) and looks down on the witch a little but believes the witch was "sent by the gods" to her in her hour of need. She worships a goddess of fortune and coin (one the witch claims to share). The baroness has some good ideas from time to time, but most of the ideas and 99% of the implementation are provided by her lady-in-waiting (the witch). She has started adopting some haughty mannerisms lately that grate on the witch's nerves, but the witch has said nothing and merely smiled, curtseyed and kissed her ring as requested. "Yes, Milady. Ye be a fine mistress, ye are!" She is scared and furious at being betrayed and kidnapped and faced with such an unpleasant fate.</p><p></p><p>The bodyguard (like the witch) had a hard life, but hers was spent in the Arena, fighting for her life. She was sold to pay her father's gambling debts. She is a bit too tall, too muscled, and heavily scarred to be pleasing to the eye. She says little but has a "good heart." She finds joy only in battle and in protecting her friends and employer. She has found out she has some psionic powers as well (clairvoyance, object reading and healing). This has created a bond between her and the witch. The bodyguard thinks being a "witch" makes her even more of a freak, but the witch is trying to convince her that her mind is a weapon as good as any sword--aye, even better, for tis invisible and cannot be disarmed! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>The bodyguard is aware of the witch's affiliation with the death cult but has remained neutral and silent on the matter. She has always followed the fire god herself, but their religions are not completely opposed. She would probably choose her friendship with the witch over loyalty to her employer although whether she'd convert to the witch's religion is anybody's guess. The witch says it's up to the bodyguard to decide which god to follow and has encouraged her to "keep her eyes open" in case the death cult and/or her mentor (or even herself!) might be getting her into trouble. That's partially because the witch has a number of mental illnesses to varying degrees (megalomania, phobias, etc.) and doesn't trust herself completely, AND she is justifiably paranoid that her own mentor/religion might be setting her up for some unpleasant fate in the future... but the temptation for power and fellowship is usually too strong to resist.</p><p></p><p>The witch and bodyguard are "bloodsisters" (meaning they shared each other's blood in a solemn friendship ritual)--this, combined with their shared clairvoyance, means they are especially adept at knowing the location of the other and if they are in danger or not (which has saved the witch's life on two separate occassions in the past week!).</p><p></p><p>The witch is motivated by her greed and ambition/lust for power (behind the scenes, since it's unlikely she'll ever sit a throne being a baseborn bastard daughter in a patriarchal world), and a thrilling but frightening sense of destiny based on scraps of prophecy she's has seen in her visions or others have confirmed. However, love and acceptance are extremely important to her, not having grown up with any. And she never knew her father, so she's got that whole issue to deal with. She obsessively latches on to just about anyone who expresses any interest in her--which led to two spectacularly failed romances with older gentlemen who used and betrayed her (coincidentally, neither believed in her psychic powers). But her greed, ambition and destiny tend to get in the way of her friendships sooner or later, making them short-lived (or at least her stay in any one place). On the one hand, she craves peace and love and stability and on the other, something inside her drives her away from these things. A dark, complicated character, but not beyond redemption. She does do good deeds (though often for selfish or "evil" ends) and justifies it by saying her motives don't matter, the ends justify the means, look how happy I made these people-you don't see them complaining, now do you?, etc. She does seem incapable of long-term loyalty, particularly as she comes more and more under the influence of the death cult, and as some she thought were her friends betray her. Her biggest fantasy is giving up her destiny for love and running off to live a normal life somewhere far away from her troubled past (and present). There's probably no way this is ever going to happen for her, LOL, and deluding herself that she has free will only gets her into more trouble, as she's learning (painfully).</p><p></p><p>BTW: The psionics aren't described in character as psionics but as "Powers," "Voices," and "Visions." Due to the flexible game mechanics, the player states their intentions, then rolls for success (and the level of success or failure, critical or moderate) combined with the GM's desires to advance the plot. These three factors determine the result with the "standard" description (rules) serving as the creative starting point for what might happen. Use of the psionics are only limited by the amount of fatigue the invoker cxan withstand before passing out. Each use gives 1 Fatigue level, successful or not, and the witch isn't that sturdy (average), meaning she can only use her psionics maybe 3-5 times before knocking herself out. Critical failures on psiunics skill rolls may result in all kinds of bad side effects for her and those around her (like headaches), including loss of all psionics to her for up to 24 hours. Passing out or taking on too much fatigue (which penalizes combat and physical skills like running or sneaking away) is bad. All this combined with the fact that while using it, you're more vulnerable to attack, and how long it takes to power it up and fire it off, makes psionics more of a "wild card" you use once or twice if you're lucky per battle--providing you are hidden or have allies in the fray keeping enemies from getting to you. You have to succeed on a skill check to use it, and if it targets another, they get a mental conflict roll (save) to resist. Psionics start off with a low chance of success and are hard to increase except through actual use which means putting yourself at risk. The psionics, plus the death cult bone pendant are the party's only aces up their sleeve. The baroness is unaware of either, BTW.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Iron_Chef, post: 3082152, member: 4530"] Chad--or anyone else: Any new NPCs for me? ;) As to the motivations of the other two captives... The baroness was kidnapped on her wedding night--right after her marriage was consummated, luckily. The marriage should hold up in court. She is young, naive and sheltered but well-educated. She is afraid of displeasing and dishonoring her father. She looks down on the bodyguard a lot (calling her stupid and useless behind her back to the witch) and looks down on the witch a little but believes the witch was "sent by the gods" to her in her hour of need. She worships a goddess of fortune and coin (one the witch claims to share). The baroness has some good ideas from time to time, but most of the ideas and 99% of the implementation are provided by her lady-in-waiting (the witch). She has started adopting some haughty mannerisms lately that grate on the witch's nerves, but the witch has said nothing and merely smiled, curtseyed and kissed her ring as requested. "Yes, Milady. Ye be a fine mistress, ye are!" She is scared and furious at being betrayed and kidnapped and faced with such an unpleasant fate. The bodyguard (like the witch) had a hard life, but hers was spent in the Arena, fighting for her life. She was sold to pay her father's gambling debts. She is a bit too tall, too muscled, and heavily scarred to be pleasing to the eye. She says little but has a "good heart." She finds joy only in battle and in protecting her friends and employer. She has found out she has some psionic powers as well (clairvoyance, object reading and healing). This has created a bond between her and the witch. The bodyguard thinks being a "witch" makes her even more of a freak, but the witch is trying to convince her that her mind is a weapon as good as any sword--aye, even better, for tis invisible and cannot be disarmed! ;) The bodyguard is aware of the witch's affiliation with the death cult but has remained neutral and silent on the matter. She has always followed the fire god herself, but their religions are not completely opposed. She would probably choose her friendship with the witch over loyalty to her employer although whether she'd convert to the witch's religion is anybody's guess. The witch says it's up to the bodyguard to decide which god to follow and has encouraged her to "keep her eyes open" in case the death cult and/or her mentor (or even herself!) might be getting her into trouble. That's partially because the witch has a number of mental illnesses to varying degrees (megalomania, phobias, etc.) and doesn't trust herself completely, AND she is justifiably paranoid that her own mentor/religion might be setting her up for some unpleasant fate in the future... but the temptation for power and fellowship is usually too strong to resist. The witch and bodyguard are "bloodsisters" (meaning they shared each other's blood in a solemn friendship ritual)--this, combined with their shared clairvoyance, means they are especially adept at knowing the location of the other and if they are in danger or not (which has saved the witch's life on two separate occassions in the past week!). The witch is motivated by her greed and ambition/lust for power (behind the scenes, since it's unlikely she'll ever sit a throne being a baseborn bastard daughter in a patriarchal world), and a thrilling but frightening sense of destiny based on scraps of prophecy she's has seen in her visions or others have confirmed. However, love and acceptance are extremely important to her, not having grown up with any. And she never knew her father, so she's got that whole issue to deal with. She obsessively latches on to just about anyone who expresses any interest in her--which led to two spectacularly failed romances with older gentlemen who used and betrayed her (coincidentally, neither believed in her psychic powers). But her greed, ambition and destiny tend to get in the way of her friendships sooner or later, making them short-lived (or at least her stay in any one place). On the one hand, she craves peace and love and stability and on the other, something inside her drives her away from these things. A dark, complicated character, but not beyond redemption. She does do good deeds (though often for selfish or "evil" ends) and justifies it by saying her motives don't matter, the ends justify the means, look how happy I made these people-you don't see them complaining, now do you?, etc. She does seem incapable of long-term loyalty, particularly as she comes more and more under the influence of the death cult, and as some she thought were her friends betray her. Her biggest fantasy is giving up her destiny for love and running off to live a normal life somewhere far away from her troubled past (and present). There's probably no way this is ever going to happen for her, LOL, and deluding herself that she has free will only gets her into more trouble, as she's learning (painfully). BTW: The psionics aren't described in character as psionics but as "Powers," "Voices," and "Visions." Due to the flexible game mechanics, the player states their intentions, then rolls for success (and the level of success or failure, critical or moderate) combined with the GM's desires to advance the plot. These three factors determine the result with the "standard" description (rules) serving as the creative starting point for what might happen. Use of the psionics are only limited by the amount of fatigue the invoker cxan withstand before passing out. Each use gives 1 Fatigue level, successful or not, and the witch isn't that sturdy (average), meaning she can only use her psionics maybe 3-5 times before knocking herself out. Critical failures on psiunics skill rolls may result in all kinds of bad side effects for her and those around her (like headaches), including loss of all psionics to her for up to 24 hours. Passing out or taking on too much fatigue (which penalizes combat and physical skills like running or sneaking away) is bad. All this combined with the fact that while using it, you're more vulnerable to attack, and how long it takes to power it up and fire it off, makes psionics more of a "wild card" you use once or twice if you're lucky per battle--providing you are hidden or have allies in the fray keeping enemies from getting to you. You have to succeed on a skill check to use it, and if it targets another, they get a mental conflict roll (save) to resist. Psionics start off with a low chance of success and are hard to increase except through actual use which means putting yourself at risk. The psionics, plus the death cult bone pendant are the party's only aces up their sleeve. The baroness is unaware of either, BTW. [/QUOTE]
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