Savinien

The Central Spire As able as he can von Remmen moves in a direct line towards the central spire. It was the thing that struck him from the shore, so it must be the destination of his quest..the oracle and answers to his plight and worry. He bares his teeth trying to repress thoughts and desires that are so contrary to his teachings and his outward appearance, that of a Puritan. But is it not the heart that drives us? Martin grunts bringing him back to this reality to focus on the task at hand and the primeval surroundings. The sheer size of the clearing is what strikes him, the massive spire of aged rock plunging into the heavens above. He strode uneasily past the ruined mounds of ancient stone, barely acknowledging they once must have served some purpose. The blunderbuss was held steadily in his hands and his eyes were peeled for further aggression. If the pygmies attacked again it wouldn't be from cover of the wood as this central clearing was three to four times the last one. Now, he stood at the base of the spire, unable to ignore the oppression of the centuries that must weigh on the aggreived stone. Cracks riddled the surface, mostly hidden by slowly creeping vegatation. There was a symmetry to the place, the spire appeared to be a square, and the mounds surrounding the outer edge of clearing spaced evenly about. Further inspection of the clearing was precluded by height, though Martin had noticed similar swaths of open grass heading off in both diametrically opposed directions to his left and right. This wall of the spire was at least ten men's armspans across and showed no means of egress. Moving about the entirety of the tower proved similar until the Puritan found a niche in the center of the opposite wall. It was ten feet high and at least that wide, with something like a door jamb depressed into the cracked stone two hands deep. A depression within the center of the stone door was a wide-legged cross. The legs ending in circles forming a balanced cross with a central circle spanning the perpendicular axis. Martin examines the cross that is wedged into the niche. He reluctantly puts his blunderbuss down about waist high on a nearby tumble down. He makes sure, still looking around, that nothing is going to rush him. Then with two hands he tugs at the strangely-shaped object that bars his way in. Seeing that he cannot pull, Martin pushes. Then he steps back and looks at the depression. He pushes at the circles, all at the same time with his hands, his head, and his foot or knee. Martin von Remmen has found himself at the base of a tall Spire, towering towards Amaan with little means of egress other than a strange stone door lacking hinge or handle. The Lonely Isle spreads away from him on all sides and he surmises he is directly in the center of an odd, ancient ruin of symmetrical proportions. These facts are all secondary to the Puritan, as he must find the Oracle. All else means little and the age of this place is no concern. It was many moon cycles past now that had forced this trip to the Lonely Isle. He'd happened upon a pack of heathens, lead by a Wudatan half-giant in the ramshackle warrens outside of Ravensdurn on the Eastern shore of Eastlake. The Wudatan had seer blood within him and had written a Prophecy of Ill concerning the Tri-Lakes and possibly all of Aerth. It fell upon Martin von Remmen to dig what truth he could of the heretical Prophecy of Doom. He had to find the Oracle of Lonely Isle. He tried combinations of pressure upon the sigil on the door to little fruition. The great disk beat upon the clearing and the Puritan removed his wide-brim hat to wipe his brow and closer inspect this new barrier. The cross-like depression had no give to anything he'd tried thus far but Martin felt it must serve some purpose... Some sort of key to grant egress into the ancient tower. Unless, it was merely a symbol, an altar to heathen gods and entrance was gained by other means? Martin searches his knowledge of religion, well his anyway, for a clue on how to get past the door. Does it require a blood sacrifice? He wipes some of the blood from the wounds of his recent battle with the pygmies on the portal. "By all that is Pure! This is maddening..." His voice echoes on the ancient stones. Pondering the strange shape, Martin notices some indentations he'd previously missed. At one point, the Puritan surmises precious stones may have been set in a pattern, one familiar to von Remmen. The patterns are those of the old Gods. He also realizes this clearing and those along each compass point bear a striking resemblance to this symbol. The whole of this Island must be devoted to the Old Gods! Each clearing a shrine. It made some sort of sense that an Oracle, bearing suspicious powers would take his home among the ruins of a long gone age. If only he could recall more information on the ancient religion, or find something in these ruins perhaps... Martin bangs his head against the portal a few times in frustration {but not so hard to hurt himself}. There is no time to go searching through these ruins! "Oracle! Where are you? I need to speak with you!" he bellows Martin picks up a loose stone from the ground and hurls it into the tumbled structures, hoping that something will jar in his memory.

Meeting the Natives Martin curses himself for not having his blunderbuss leveled. Instead he has to settle for firing his pistol. He aims and lets a blast rip at the closest of the little, sharp-toothed creatures, while at the same time backing into something defensible, maybe one of the ruins of a stone hut, where he has time and a chance to bring his blunderbuss to bear. von Remmen, a bit taken aback by the sheer vehemence of the onrushing pygmies rushes his shot and stumbles backwards. The pistol doesn't fire right away, possibly due to the sodden powder. When it touches off though, the explosion shakes the stillness of the wood. Smoke and fire belch forth harmlessly, but enough to give the encroaching beasts pause. The Puritan takes the moment to turn and hedges behind the strange stone hut, pulling the blunderbuss from his shoulder and beginning to prime it. A few of they green-skinned pygmies come about enough to slash at Martin with bits of flint and gnasing teeth. The cover and Martin's movements are enought to keep him from harm, though. In the heat of battle, von Remmen hopes that he does not lose his composure. Already, the pistola had betrayed him, but he tries to breathe steady despite pounding in his heart and the onslaught of these strange island natives. He steadies his hands and loads the blunderbuss. Martin von Remmen does his best to ignore the Emerald pygmies for now and works to load his blunderbuss with shot. It is a tricky business in average circumstances and fending the slicing attacks of flint-knife and sharp teeth doesn't help matters. Martin casts aside his blunderbuss and makes himself linear, giving the sharp-toothed pygmies little room to flank and surround him in the space hollow ruin that he finds himself within. With resolve Martin defends and defends for his life, hacking and slashing and pounding any pygmie demon/cannibal that comes forward. He hopes that his indomitable will can win the day. The battle is a long affair and before it is over, martin von Remmen is soaked to the bone with sweat, greenish icor, and his own blood welling from numerous wounds. The pygmies died as they fought, silent and in droves. The Puritan had cut in wide swaths with his sabre, cleaving the devils like wheat. And, now, suddenly surprising, their attack had ended and the only sound is the heavy breaths of the man in black. VonRemmen for the first time in a while slumps his shoulders, fatigued and even a little sickened by the carnage. He proceeds to try and scrape some of the ichor from his blade. He removes his had and wipes his sweaty brow, and sits if he can, tearing strips of cloth to bind his wounds. Eventually, he steps back out of his redoubt and looks around at the ruin. He looks for a way out and hopefully up. The moss covered stones prove slippery, but nothing untenable for the iron-willed Puritan. His various injuries also prove overcomable and eventually, Martin von Remmen finds a spot atop the dolmen high and stable enough to give him a better view of his surroundings. He is in a circular clearing two ship-lengths across and bearing a half-dozen hill-like cairns arranged about in a near circle. Beyond his position a wide track of cleared land leads deeper into the island and a towering spire is visible in the center. Behind him, he can hear the trees shift and rustle once more. Taking a deep breath and studying the cyclopean ruin before him, Martin heads down towards the wide track. When he gets to the base, he takes the time to load his blunderbuss finally, and keep it handy. He reloads his pistol, and belts it along with his sword. Finally, he heads down the path, keeping an eye out to both sides, wary and ready for slithering shadows to take on more substantial form...and be blown to bits. The Puritan's steely eyes rove to either side of the grassy track as the treelines weave in an existential wind. Martin knows there are likely more creatures shadowing him within the leafy greens of the Wood. Still, von Remmen is struck by the particular placements of each ruin in the clearing behind and before him as he reaches the central hub. More of the moss-covered, lichen hiding ruins of tumbled stone. These are a bit larger, but still dwarfed by the Central Spire. For whatever reasons, the Pygmies have yet to regroup and attack once more.

Re: Star Hero:? That's why we play Star Hero. You can use the system to build all those interesting ones from TV, Movie, and books. Make mine HERO.

Re: What cities do you use in your game? Quite right. I'm using the New Crobuzon model for Ossenhaven in my Age of Reason game. Both wikipedia and Curufea's site have been invaluable!!!

Re: Weapon Damage in Traveller Hero What the hell is a 'challenge' and all the definitions for the abbreviations you guys are throwing around?

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero

Re: Old Enemies Shaylarra, Sorceress of Shileen - She fell in love with one of the Father's of the group and incessantly plague the party trying to steel him away and seduce him. Crimson Cabal - Secret Cult bent on returning the Mad God of the Crimson Eye to the Prime Material Plane

Re: Post-Apocalyptic Hero No competition. There can be only one.

Re: Fourth Age Revisited Update! The combat is over! Six months later, the players have prevailed. Mortilmir's player has returned just in time to be saved and the game is now truly afoot. There are alot of corpses, two sinking ships, and a bloody mess to unravel. I'm extremely curious to see what the characters decide to do and what comes of information exchange.

Re: Adventuring company name What? This has to be the only thing E84 has ever won!

Re: Tuala Morn questions Which maps are we talking about as not good? Savi "Backing up my boy" nien

Re: Metahuman Tactical Response... Add the regional/city designator to your abbreviation. This is pretty close to what I've used before: HMRT: Houston Metahuman Response Team

Re: Gurps Deadland Hero : Husckster Nice. Now run a good, long-lasting pbp game at Hero Central. Get it? Got it? Good.

Re: Tuala Morn questions I have to agree with Hermit. I was very excited about the book, but it was too well styled and niche for me. I was intimidated and lost by all the Celtic stuff that I thought I had an idea about. I didn't. If you do... This book is for you. If you don't, I'd suggest Turakian Age, Valdorian Age, or Lost Dominion.

Re: Building Intrugue Into a Game This seems like the integral statement of your campaign situation: now these blood families are all descendants of an emperor and his empire long gone, and they all want to have power, but it is the Thornbloods that have the best (to date) credentials for the thrown. and for the sake of peace the other bloods swear allegiance to him. What are the credentials that the Thornbloods have? Can the other families refute any of these claims? Does the populace of this country follow the Thornbloods and agree with these credentials? Are there any other political powers than the Blood families? What peace does the allegiance avail? Are there other countries nearby that are enemies? Do any of these other countries want the lands of this one?

Re: Help me fill in the plot holes Maybe they'd call him 'Brownstaff'. Indicating... Well, I'll let you figure it out.

Re: Online Hero Games?? I have played Fantasy Hero, Blackpowder Hero, and D&D 3.5 on the HeroCentral chat engine and enjoyed it immensely. The actual game names would be: Sharn: City of Towers Musket and Sabre The Savage Tide Fun, fun, fun.

Re: Telling YOU about the RCU! I have an idea percolating. I'm wondering how many people would be interested in playing in a new/restarting Champions campaign at Hero Central. http://www.rcuhero.net/ The setting would be the RCU and the team would be the American Rangers. There is nearly a score of pre-generated characters to choose from and a couple players could possibly create their own. Tweaks to the pre-gens are okay (mechanically and personality-wise). The American Rangers have long been an NPC team, but I've been talking with the RC Universe creator and we hatched this plan to give the American Rangers some play time. Have a look at the subject material and weigh in whether or not you'd be interested. I'm cross posting this to Player Finder, too. Wanted to give you guys that like reading about the RCU a good shot, though.

Re: Online Hero Games?? Depends. If you write like that, yes it would be boring. But, like someone before me said... Depends on GM and players. Have a look around, perhaps you can drum up some interest in a play by chat game.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... In one of the upcropping D&D 3.5 games on Hero Central, I play a Duergar Psion, Ectopic Adept to be precise. The party consists of prisoners of a massive Illithid prison in the Underdark. Our memory is fragmentary and we happened upon a Devourer's minor artifact which could Mind Switch. My character decides he can use this contraption to piece some memories together and possibly help us escape the prison. The device attaches to a steel table and he asks for volunteers and actually get one. Not thinking I posted this: "Well done, Human. Jett, did you say your name was?" It was passing strange to see such emotion from the universally dour Duergar, but there it was nonetheless. Denethes affixes what straps there are on the metal table, "Musn't have you jerking off when the process begins. There will likely be some... repercussions of the Mind Delving." Life will never be the same.

Re: My Failed Project This doesn't take into account the 'olympic level' athlete syndrome, does it? Seriously, I feel similarly, but as with all things, 'Everything is relative'. If your 'supers', albeit we're dealing with weaponmaster types, are only in that range, how low are your normals? Is there enough granularity in the HERO system this way? You should have a look at Honor Guard at Hero Central, maybe?

Re: The Messiah, The Golem, The Amazon, and The Brotherhood Laudenem is AWESOME!!!

Re: Adventuring company name *sigh* I didn't make the first cut. Oh well! Good luck!

Re: Volley Fire Here you go: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=55481&highlight=muskets Spence wrote the treatise and there are links to other good threads on this forum as well.

Re: Volley Fire I seem to remember this discussion occurring at least once, previously. Somebody even wrote up a lengthy treatise concerning the subject. I'll search around a bit.