[D&D-5e] When Oren met Gallindan (New name TBD)

[Bhelogan]

Applications are now Closed!
We will be reviewing applications and making a decision on who to bring in over the next couple of days.

Current Game Name: When Oren met Gallindan - Note: This will be updated when we accept 2 new players. (Unless we really only like 1, or we really like 3 instead, but the plan is to add 2 currently)

Looking to join an existing game? Feel inspired by starting at Level 6? Want to change out with such famous players as mountainbound and zebedee, even if that means putting up with a sub-par DM like Bhelogan? Well, I have an opportunity for you!

Ok, Bhelogan, You've got my ear, but what is this game about?

About the Game:
This is a LONG running game, dating back to 2017 (Read, sometimes it will move a little slow, but consistently progresses over the long run). It began as a solo game mountainbound had with one of my favorite DMs Homestarbaby, about a Warlock (Oren) who went rescue A Damsel in Distress. I think Homestarbaby may still run this for other players, so I won't spoil the details. Anyway, in mountainbound's version, Homestarbaby had gone on a short hiatus after the Damsel had been rescued from a Dragon, so mountainbound went and found a new DM. Somehow, that ended up being me. Without any idea of what Homestarbaby would have done with the story, I picked up and ran with it. The Damsel got sucked into a portal, and Oren had to find a way to rescue her, which involved the fighting of an invasion of Devils, a short trip to the Abyss to see firsthand the battle lines between the Devils and Demons, making a friend out of a Dryad who was later polymorphed into a Tiefling, and after saving the day, dealing with the aftermath when the young Damsel had been influenced by Fiorna herself.

Then, we decided to add a second player, zebedee, who created a Paladin, Gallindan, who served the order of the Hooded Lantern. Their objective was to seek out and destroy any influence, or forces from the Nine Hells that sought to enter the realm. Hearing about some of the things that happened in Oakcrest, Gillindan was sent to investigate. They found and destroyed a Devil who was trying to corrupt the local church. Dealing with that, Gillindan was sent a pupil to study under him, Adelaide Darkdraft.

Shortly after that, word came that Gillindan's mentor had been slain, as a small village further north, Tribblefork, was overrun by Demons. A young farmer boy, who survived sought out the Paladins to bring them a message from their mentor. The group decided to leave Oakcrest for the time being, and traveled to Tribblefork. They eventually teamed up with a mercenary band, the Knights of Neomosis, whose leader and a few members called Tribblefork their hometown. Together they fought off the demons, and closed the portal that brought the demons into the material plane.

Important NPCs in the Party:
Daybreak - The Dryad turned Tiefling Druid that is bonded to Oren.
Lux - an Imp familiar of Oren's (heavily influenced by Luci in Disenchantment)
Adelaide Darkdraft - Planadin student of Gillindan's in the Hooded Lantern.


That is a quick summary of what has happened. There is obviously a lot not covered. But, to add some more life to the campaign, we are looking to add two more players! You have the option of picking up one of the existing NPCs, or creating your own character to add to the existing story.

About the Setting:
This is kind of being built as we go along. So far we have only really fleshed out the world directly around Oakcrest and Tribblefork. There is plenty of world-building that can happen, and stories that can tie in beyond those borders. This game is taking place in a homebrew Forgotten Realms-ish type setting.

About Character Creation:
This is the important bit. New characters will start at level 6, using standard point buy. Any official WoTC materials are fine to use (Please ask for a review of any Unearthed Arcana materials). We are looking both for interesting characters that can help add to and drive the story, and dedicated players who are good to jump into an existing game.

If you want to play one of the NPCs, they have existing stat blocks and will require a bit of discussion to pick up where they currently are in their journey, personality, and such.

Feel free to ask questions in this thread, to determine if you would like to play, to get more information about the game, or the players. This will be a collaborative process between myself, mountainbound, and zebedee. No set deadline. When we find the right players, we will move forward.

Edit: in your applications, please include links to a few posts that show off your play style.

Edit 2:
Just a couple of notes on things my players have brought up:
- We would love to see some tie-ins to the existing story. Yes, I know this might require a bit of reading to do.
- We would prefer to avoid exotic races (preference to stick towards dwarf/elf/gnome/halfling/human)

[mountainbound]

Bhelogan is a pretty humble dude and an excellent DM. He's kept the fires of this game burning for several years and added a ton of story elements along the way. Conditions are right for this to blow into an epic campaign, we just need a slightly bigger crew.

[Azure Nokori]

You had me at Bhelogan...and level 6.
I'd like to put something forward, and have a plan brewing with something based on Buffy the Vampire slayer. It sounds like you could do with a bit of prep and sas.

[PopCultureBard]

Hmm. The wheels are turning. This hits a lot of buttons on the switchboard of 'what I like in a game'. I have thoughts that may become ideas. Is there any structure or specifics on what you want to see in an application here or is this more of a 'present how you'd like' situation? Feels like the latter but it never hurts to check in.

[ProjectLazarus]

Like the others posting here, this is hitting home on a lot of things that sound appealing -- not the least of which is the sound of loose time constraints; RL is a drag sometimes, but definitely has to come first.

I have something special in mind that I've been keeping in my back pocket for something that sounds like a good fit. That might be here, but it could come with some extra input/effort from @Bhelogan. Wondering if I should write it up...

[Bhelogan]

Originally Posted by PopCultureBard

Hmm. The wheels are turning. This hits a lot of buttons on the switchboard of 'what I like in a game'. I have thoughts that may become ideas. Is there any structure or specifics on what you want to see in an application here or is this more of a 'present how you'd like' situation? Feels like the latter but it never hurts to check in.

Applications must be written in 2nd person, contain exactly 567 words, contain 2 hiakus, and hand drawn portraits of your character drawn with a #2 pencil and colored with Crayola crayons.

Or, whatever you feel is pertinent. No sheets needed, just character concept and start of a background. We can make fleshing out the details a collaborative process to make sure everyone blends together.

Edit: in your applications, please include links to a few posts that show off your play style.

[Dikata]

Alright, all caught up on the story.
Making something fun to join. Hopefully, you'll enjoy it too.
Should be updated soon.
Update 1 is a good start... Gotta finish the character sheet and the fully flesh out the backstory, but I'll definitely have that done by the 15th.
Oof. A busy weekend. @.@: Almost missed the deadline!

Appearance

Geraldine Name: Geraldine Quickwit Race: Human (Mark of Making) Background: College Dropout I’ve reworked this a little as described in the PHB. Skills replaced with Stealth and Investigation. Languages replaced with Tool Proficiencies. More exposition in the Backstory. Class: Artificer(Armorer): 6th Personality: Geraldine is quick-witted and generally merry. Not everyone understands her sense of humor, which can be dark, lewd, and outright disgusting at times. She generally tends to get along with most of the people she meets. She can be fiercely competitive, even if nobody else is actively competing with her. Although she has a brilliant mind and can devise a way to make nearly anything she wants, her common sense is constantly lacking. “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” ~ Dr. Ian Malcom, probably talking about Geraldine. Backstory: Geraldine had a fairly normal childhood, though she always seemed to find herself outside of social circles. That fact never really seemed to bother her, she was always looking for the next thing to learn about. As it happened, she would start inventing things at a very early age. At first, it was small things; simple mechanical toys, noise amplifiers, and music boxes that put on a light show. By the age of twelve, inventing was something that was already quickly becoming something of a distraction from her daily chores and learnings at school. Sums and differences hardly mattered. Geraldine often found herself looking for something new to make. She dabbled into alchemy, carpentry, masonry, leatherworking, woodcarving, and even some smithing to find her own talents. Childhood developed into young adulthood, and Geraldine found herself moving away from her home town and heading for new horizons. With steady work through her teens, she had been able to save enough to enter a semester at an esteemed academy where she could potentially learn more and maybe be granted a scholarship to continue her education once the money ran out. The academy it turned out, was not a place for free thinkers and those prone to abstract thought. It was rigid training in a number of disciplines. After the first semester of what felt like wasted money, Geraldine would return to her own musings, working as much as she could to put away money for her inventing. With time, her minor inventions would become profitable and before long she began selling her inventions in the city market. She was, of course, always experimenting at her home on the outskirts of town. In her experimentation, she developed a suit of mechanical armor that would assist her with lifting heavy objects for future experiments.

The Road to Tribblefork "Have you ever been told not to do something, but you've never done it before and you've never seen someone do it, so you wonder, why don't people do the thing? Well, I've done just that, far too many times. This last time, it was just a bit too much. but it opened up a whole new world to me." Geraldine could talk to anybody about anything. Though usually she wasn't talking to anyone in particular, it just helped to hear her own voice. It allowed her to manually dissect the things she was saying instead of a being an abstract thought. "So you know in the academy, they tell you that putting a bag of holding into another bag of holding is a bad idea, but they never tell you why. So I just had to do it. You know? Like, if I don't see it for myself, it's like it's not even real. I gotta KNOW why it's a bad idea, and hey, even if it's a bad idea, it might have some uses down the line." Geraldine paused to take a breath, but it was clear to the young man pacing next to her that there was not going to be any quiet during this leg of the journey. "Anyways, I had to do the thing, right? Because everyone said don't. So I get to my lab and I grab a couple of the bags, and plop! One right into the other. Not sure how it worked, but the extradimensional space of both bags vanished, and with a pop a portal opens up. So I think to myself, "This is super cool," but right as I'm about to pat myself on the back, I get sucked in. What a nightmare." At this point the boy beside her starts to pay attention. Even if the woman was crazy, she could spin up a decent story. Crazy people often could, and it was by far better than being bored on the road. "So whatsit happened after that? "Well, I had to figure out how to get back to the material plane of existence. I'm not sure which plan I was on, but it was a plane of suck. Most of my lab got sucked through the portal, and I was able to engineer a way home, but now I gotta know how these portals work. I gotta get my hands on one that ain't gonna suck me throug when I'm close enough to examine it. I heard there was one that opened up out this way, and since it was close by, I'm gonna try to get there and see what I can find out." The boy was pretty disappointed that the ending of the story was so anticlimatic, but not everyone could be a bard. They continued to trudge on the road. He didn't know where she was headed, but they should be getting close to Oakcrest before too long. He was looking forward to seeing his parents again in Tribblefork.

Sample Character Posts Post examples: Jared Talos Morigan

[Torack]

Application Name: Rovonef (or simply Rovo) Trel Race: Human Class: Cleric - War Domain Background: Fisher   Rovo was born in the small town of Nollem to a long line of fishermen, and he was more than happy to pickup the trade. His formative years were spent learning the tricks his father had learned from his own father, and he became incredibly skilled at it as he grew. It was a modest life, but it was honest and he enjoyed the peace the water brought on a calm day. By the time he was twenty-one, he was married and within three years he had two healthy half-elf children. Life was peaceful short of the occasional pirate crew causing trouble or a few fights here and there between fishermen. By the time he was in his thirties, strange things started happening in his village. People were disappearing, ships that attempted to dock would crash and sink, pirates never even bothered docking on their shores anymore. Strangest of all, people were starting to have nightmares. While out fishing one day, a deity manifested its avatar on his small craft and informed him devils were responsible for the disappearances and that the Temple within the village needed to be cleansed. Rovo said he wanted nothing to do with it, but the deity gave him a sword and said his family would die at the hands of the devils if he didn't act. Rowing back to the village, he tracked the devil to a nearby ruins and slew it. Then, under orders of the deity, he investigated the acolytes of the village's temple and discovered they had summoned the devil, seeking infernal powers. The deity commanded him to execute them, but Rovo refused. He imprisoned them instead and took over the temple for several years, fighting off and leading expeditions into the surrounding forest to drive off potential infernal invaders. And as his son and daughter grew, Rovo trained them how to fight and defend themselves, both his children becoming capable warriors. His son ventured into the wilds, ranging and scouting for the village while his daughter followed in his footsteps and became an acolyte of the temple. Then, he was contacted once more by the deity. He was told to go to Oakcrest and take over the chapel and set his daughter as its high priestess. He helped her settle into her new role, teaching her all the rites and introducing himself and his daughter to the local population.   Honest: Rovo grew up in a household that valued honesty, and he adopted those values for himself. He's the type of person to try and avoid lying if he can, and will always choose to tell the truth so long as it doesn't put him or those he's with in a nasty situation. Although he's not one to lie, he will often omit certain truths if he feels its prudent. Easy-Going: Rovo is a very calm individual, despite his troubled past. He laughs easily and doesn't take anything too seriously, so long as it doesn't put his life or the lives of his companions in jeopardy. He does, however, have a dark sense of humour. Tense: Underneath his easy-going nature is a tenseness, as though he's ready to pounce on anyone or anything at any given moment. This is mostly due to the trauma of his past, and he's ready to spring into action and kill within seconds. Rovo isn't exactly paranoid, but his muscles are always taut, as though from severe stress. Blunt: His father and grandfather were both very blunt individuals. He's adopted this for himself and tells things how he sees it. Coupled with his honesty, it has caused him to get into a few fist fights, and he knows it can be aggravating to others, so he tries to curb it a little. 1 - First RP Link 2 - Second RP Link 3 - third RP Link

[Bhelogan]

Important note, we are evaluating the players as much as the character concepts. I’ve added to the notes above, make sure to include a couple of links to posts of yours to show off what kind of a player you are. Thanks!

[Zangul]

COMPLETE

Application Name: Wrenn Folkore Race: Rock Gnome Class: Rogue 4/Ranger 2 Subclass: Arcane Trickster/ Horizon Walker Background: Sage Specialty Librarian   Wrenn is the youngest of 4. Unlike his 3 older brothers, didn't take joy in building things or blacksmithing. He found his joy in reading tomes, scrolls, and books. He loved learning about history, artifacts, relics and magic items. Books on portals and dimensions and the arcane arts. He would always be found in the library archives or in the museum. As Wrenn got older he managed to land a job in the library. Then one day while straightening up for the night, A shady figure entered the library, and started going to the archives room. Wrenn followed making sure to remain unseen. The shady figure starts rummaging through the scrolls and tomes. Wrenn noticed that the figure had grabbed a purple tome. To Wrenn's memory That Tome is Tome of Armageddon. Which in the wrong hands could mean up most disasters to ever happen it could also mean total world annihilation. Knowing this Wrenn jumps out from hiding. The figure draws a dagger, Wrenn starts chanting and waving his hands and arms in a mythological way, the smell of lavender and the color of purple start to form. The figure charges at Wrenn in a desperate attempt to end the chanting. It's to late the spell is cast and as the figure is in mid charge is hit with the purple lavender mist dropping him to the floor. Wrenn ties the man up, as another figure enters the room. "Wrenn Folkore, I am Osato, One of the Elders of the secret order of Librarians. You have past the test. Come with me and join our ranks. Tell no one of our existence." Without hesitation and a loss for words. Wrenn goes with Osato. He begins his training. After a few years Wrenn is sent back out to the world to protect the libraries and museums throughout the land. When a library or museum is in need of the order Wrenn being an agent will be sent, a task that can't be turned down. Elder Desmond "Wrenn your are being task with finding a member of the Hooded Lantern, a paladin named Gallindan. You are to assist him with his investigation. You are our expert in the field of demons, fiends and devils. He will be expecting you as we contacted The hooded Lantern to let him know you are coming to meet with him." Elder Desmond then vanishes. Wrenn acepts the mission and makes his way to Oakcrest. PERSONALITY: Wrenn is very passionate about learning new things, and discovering new artifacts and relics. His mind is always curious. He also believes in preservation of the history and knowledge of the past, and will give his life for such a cause. His specialized knowledge is in fiends, demons, devils, and portals

Post samples

Burick

Angus

O'Malley

[ElderOblex]

Wooo! Wish you all the best! Sadly I don't think I can commit to a long-term game right now. But I super dig the story elements so far as well as a tempting combo of DM+players!

EDIT: Super tempted to eat my words and actually apply... I've a concept percolating in my head for a halfling wizard...

[Azure Nokori]

Is it ok to use Tasha's rules for variety racial stats?

[Bhelogan]

Originally Posted by Azure Nokori

Is it ok to use Tasha's rules for variety racial stats?

With Tasha's, and MoTM, in addition to rules in AL, this has become the standard. (Any race gets +2 to one stat and +1 to another OR +1 to three stats, all of your choice)

[Torack]

Added a few RP links!

Just a heads up, though, I went on a massive hiatus back in 2019 due to university and recently came back! Just in case you wondered why all the posts are so old

[Bhelogan]

Originally Posted by Dikata

How do you feel about the Raven Queen warlock patron?

This will be a discussion with the group, but I suspect we may not want to be doubling up on Warlocks in the party.

Originally Posted by Dikata

How much does the class system matter to you?

I'm not sure what you mean by this exactly. Could you give some clarification?

Originally Posted by Dikata

Would the party like a burglar or a cowboy to join the ranks?

If we have a good reason to tie them into the existing world/party, I think either could be a viable option.