The Last Bastion: A D&D story (Signup / OOC / Interest Check)

[Xavier Akafur]

The lone castle stood tall upon the high peaks of the mountain. Banners, ragged with age and wear, fluttered atop the cloud-scraping turrets. Within the white-stone walls a city bustled, though the people here were haggard... hungry and many wore little but rags. Soldiers, equipped with little more that wooden clubs or twice-repaired axes stood at ease within the halls, idly monitoring the flow of foot traffic into and out of the castle courtyard as the daily food distribution was underway. This was how it had been for centuries, now. Food here was limited to what little the people could farm atop the harsh stone mountain, and whatever the scavengers could manage to get from the forest below. Such was the state of Arkenfeld. A once great city, built by the combined efforts of dwarves and humans. Now its walls were crumbling and its people starving. The wilderness below the mountain had reclaimed all other cities at the end of the last Age. Only Arkenfeld remained.... and Arkenfeld survived. Starving, desperate, the city grasped at life with what little strength it had left.

But....there were rumors, a spark of hope. The king was considering an Expedition. Something that had not been attempted in nearly 200 years. A group of the strongest and most able-bodied citizens would be sent down the mountain, into the jungle.... and try to find a way out. Try to find others. Try to get help.

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First of all, I'm back. Finally.

Second, I'm ready to get back into making the high quality fantasy stories that everyone (I think) loves!

This one is based in a D&D universe called Ainor. We will be a party of adventurers from an isolated city in the heart of some of the most hostile wilderness in the world of Ainor. The objective is, with extremely limited equipment and supplies, find a way out of the seemingly infinite expanse of Jungle... or locate another city where we can find relief for Arkenfeld before it's too late.

If interested sign up below with a character sheet!

Also note: The setting is D&D centric but I am leaning away from using dice rolls and other D&D rules. I prefer a more free-form RP style. However, if enough people express interest in using dice rolls and the like I am open to giving it a try.

--Standard Character Sheet--


Name:
Age:
Race:
Class:(does not need to be D&D standard)
Gender:

Physical Description:

Abilities:


Equipment: (I'm going to keep this very limited given the economic state of Arkenfeld)

History:

(I'll post up my character when I get more free time! ^^)

[Wilco Whiteheart]

Name: Wilco Whiteheart

Age: 20

Race: Wolf

Class: Rouge


Gender: Male


Physical Description: Wilco stands at 6'8, being a standard size among most towns, yet a giant among others. His fur is jet-black, with a blue tail and a grey chest, with two-tone brown ears.


Abilities: Being a wolf, he has the standard primative instincts as everyone of his species. He also can banter, steal and pickpocket anyone with skill. He also is a master with daggers and knives, choosing knives over daggers for reasons of reach and speed. Because of his fur colours, he can use shadows with ease. He knows places once coming across them, though he may forget them sometimes.


Equipment: a few Iron knives of poor quality, a cloak of poor quality that he only uses in public, and a cowl.


History: Born into a middle class family in Arkenfield, Wilco had a good life, but an incident at 5 left him and his family homeless. He and his family were treated like beggars, until he was 10, when his parents were taken for slave labour by the king. He escaped, and lived on the streets for ~8 years, becoming the leader of the local thieves guild. He then went after the people who destroyed their home. He was caught trying to assassinate the leader, and now is in jail, awaiting his fate.

[Naval]

I’m really interested with this! So i have a question before I make anything. But how do magic classes work with your setting? Like wizards, druids, etc. Being most of them require a spell book and such. So I was wondering if the magic is really weak or it would be better to play classes that don’t need fancy tools. Sorcery and a bards songs. Just curious as I feel a cleric or Druid would work wonders in this setting. 

[Xavier Akafur]

Hi guys! Sorry for the late response, the thread didn't get a hit for awhile and I just forgot to check back in! I'm still alive and monitoring the thread, though. Hopefully we can get more interest sparked.


Wilco: You will want to edit that format, friend. It's very hard to read. Also if you could elaborate a bit more on your character it would be appreciated! I'm rusty but I like to do multi-paragraph posts if possible. With that in mind the more character description you can provide the better idea we have of who you are and how to interact with you!

To answer your question Grendel, any sort of caster would have adequate tools to perform their spells, though they may not look fancy. Like a wizard's spell book would probably be old parchment and charcoal rather than a fresh book and ink. Basically, don't feel the need to play into the setting to the point where it limits your class options

Here's my actual D&D character I used for this setting just recently. He's a bit basic but I'll develop him as we go along, we only got one session in and I didn't get to RP much.

Name: Bannor Tharn
Age: 22
Race: Mauzin (Anthro mouse, roughly 1 foot tall)
Class: Fighter (Dervish)
Gender: Male

Physical Description: Bannor stands at a rough 1'3", perhaps an inch more if you count his large ears. The Mauzin wears a set of battered scale mail and a small, ratty, blue cape. A matching felt hat that looks like it was likely once meant for a child's toy sits atop his head. A pair of slightly curved swords rest at a belt around his hips, sabers of some sort, sized to fit the tiny creature. He wears simple brown trousers that reach near to his ankles,  the knees sewn in with tiny metal plates for additional protection. Beneath the clothing he had chestnut brown fur, much like a field mouse, though it was typically messy and matted.


Abilities: Despite their small size Mauzin are excellent fighters, and even larger creatures typically don't fare well against a trained Mauzin fighter. They use their agility and small size to their advantage, often clinging onto foes and cutting them to ribbons. Dervish are known for their ability to fight multiple opponents simultaneously, and have immense agility on a battlefield.
-Trained in most weapon types
-Highly mobile and agile
-Fearless
-Fights better against multiple opponents




Equipment: (I'm going to keep this very limited given the economic state of Arkenfeld)
Copper scale mail
Two sabers (roughly 4.5 inch blades)
Hat and cape (poor quality)


History: Mauzin are a species who originate in the jungles of Lyndor, the region around Arkenfeld. They are fairly few in number, but are renown for their bravery and thirst for adventure. Bannor is no different. His family had moved into Arkenfeld a long time ago, fleeing the jungles in search of a safe haven. Mauzin were adept survivors, but the forest had since grown dark and dangerous even for the most adept fighters. Bannor grew up within the safety of the walls of Arkenfeld, though in keeping with the traditions of his people the fighting style of his ancestors was still passed down to him from his father. Since he was a small child Bannor has wanted to leave the city and explore the world, though until the Expedition was mentioned doing so would mean almost certain death. Venturing into the jungle alone was a fool's errand. However, with a few able bodies by his side, Bannor believes he can finally escape the mountain top that has held him captive for so long.

[Wilco Whiteheart]

I fixed it, hopefully... 

[Naval]

  Well I’ll stay working on my character then and hopefully help this get going being I totally forgot about it xD


Name: Elmwick
Age: 173 ((which is sorta young xD))
Race: Treemen. (Similar to Treants but far smaller and more humanoid.)
Class: Druid
Gender: Both? ((As plants tend to be both male and female at the same time.))


Pyshical description: There entire body is covered in rough bark, that has light moss and the occasional leaf spout on in. As his legs are thicker with stumpy like appearance to them. He doesn’t have any toes , but assortment of small roots towards the bottom and front of the feet. While his arms have similar appearance to those of normal human arms. With the exception that his fingers are pointed at the fingertips. While bony twigs. As his body is shaped in a unisex fashion, having no strong resemblance to woman or man. As his face is covered with a long leaf beard, that also makes for a almost mane of hair. While his eyes are blank with no pupils , but glow with a soft light. Much of mushrooms in dark caves. While the color of the bark is a dark brown with green stripes that seem to have a crack like pattern. As the leaves are a littler green. Height of 5.7ft 


Abilities: As a Druid the wild becomes fair game to them. While being a treemen does provide its own benefits. As a whole though, being made of bark and magic has its issues. Along with Druid spells having to work the wilds.
+Has increased strength then most other druids.
+Spells focus around healing, along with using the elements found in nature.
+Great with wildlife and plant life being attuned to it.
+Survival is easier with the knowledge of the lands
- Fire is a strong repellent, as it can hurt Treemen with great effectiveness.
- Slow movement, given the stiff tree like structure
- Drained if not feeding with sunlight and water.
- Cannot use armor or heavy weapons made from metal , as it goes against the Druidic code.


Equipment:
A hide satchel, filled with assorted herbs.


History: When sprits of The animal kingdom or even humanoid life closely [size=78%]die. It is said that there Spirts are moved onto a new life a new perpose as you will. And on some rare occasions Spirts if the dead get a new body. More often then not with memories of the past. However Elmwick was a spell caster of there past, though with little memory other then some there name and attunment to nature. As his new life lead to understand the mist of the jungle and surrounding mountains. It learned to coexist with the residents of Arkenfeild and has since gained a trust with them. As he was still young going to understand the world and gather every bit of wisdom. It has made no attempt to make it back to the jungle as there heart gets home sick to the town he has found peace in. However the call of nature is getting too strong to ignore and a small ripple of disturbance within the life force has worried them. So gathering the strength it has, Elmwick knows it’s time to finally move and ready himself for the journey he must make to grow..and help the poor people who are in need of the land....[/size]

[Xavier Akafur]

No worries! I had also forgot about it temporarily. Haha.

Wilco: Looks better, it's readable now.

I am willing to start a thread with 3 people, and perhaps more will join as we establish a little more of the story.

[Ara Av-Toa]

Name: Hor'kuu Ice
Age: 267
Race: Leviathan
Class: noble
Gender: male

Physical Description: Leviathans are serpents of 3.5m long, with scales all over their bodies. They have .25m long arms with three-fingered claws on the end. Those are on .6m from the head on the body. The wings, on .5m from the head, have a fan-like structure with an angle of 60 degrees total and a total wingspan of 1.5m. This fan structure is mimicked by multiple thin spikes. Their heads look like snakeheads, but have five spikes on the back and end in a pointy nose. The eyes also stand more forward.
Hor'kuu in special has a dark blue bellyside, and a white back. His wings alternate between blue and white, with white being the main colour. His eyes are bright blue.

Abilities:
Ice breath, knowlegdeable, but without flight and relatively slow.
Claws aren't much use.

Equipment: none

History: Hor'kuu is a local Leviathan leader who lost his child by famine. His wife died in the forests. He had seen the last explorations fail. He himself was somewhat saved from the economic crisis. Still, he clung on to hope. Often he gazed over the vast forest, believing there had to be something. Most of the time, however, he spent in the local library, reading the old perkaments. Here he found his wisdom and knowledge. He always tried to help others to not let the spirit of Arkenfield fall. Determined to give the next generation the life they deserved, he would do anything to help and get help.
(Hope it's ok with you)