Portal to D&D IC - Jeriah

[Rizban]

Spoiler

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I'm here! I'm here! Sorry, I had to work late. I see you got started without me.

Spoiler

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Letitia was an avid gamer, though only RPGs and board games. The clatter of dice on a wooden table was music to her ears. Sadly, Leta, as her friends called her, rarely got to play D&D, her favorite. She was always stuck as the DM, because nobody in her peer group was ever willing to give it a go, and the few she had talked into it gave up after a single session.

It was okay though, she still got to play weekly, at least until scheduling conflicts brought her game group to an end. Then she started DMing at the local geek store in their weekly League meets, until the creepos hitting on her drove her away. But she at least still got to buy pretty dice anytime she felt like it. Her dice collection slowly growing along with the emptiness in her gamer's soul, a longing that could only be filled with games!

When the D&D VRMMO was announced, she was Backer #7 on the Kickstarter and opted for the all in mega package, spending two months pay on the option to get the very first machine, pick it up in person, and be the first player to log in. IT. WAS. GLORIOUS.

At least at first. Bouncing from guild to guild as players came and went became the norm. The game became polarized between the power gamers with maxed gear running only end game raids while the casuals would get halfway through building up their guild bases before growing bored moving on to the next game. She found that she spent more of her time helping new players grow and learn the game, only to watch them disappear to the next big thing or join the raids mindlessly running the same content over and over again, trying to perfect their runs and get those rare drops.

Leta wanted an experience, not merely a boring MMO. Her hopes and dreams had been reduced to a series of empty quests for pointless loot drops. She had played it all, and even a new expansion wasn't likely to do more than give more of the same with slightly changed text, a higher level cap, and slightly better drops to so players will waste even more time on raids for that elusive drop with +1% better damage.

She meticulously traveled to every town, every village, trying to strike up conversations with NPCs, hoping to uncover something new she hadn't seen before. Surely there was something somewhere that she had missed. Surely.

It was as she was having her fortune told by the old gypsy for the fortieth time in her life that things went off script.

"I see that you're seeking more from life. You are soon to have a great opportunity offered only to those whose desires are for things greater than themselves. Your whole world will change, and you will finally find fulfillment, Letitia."

Leta just stared in shock, unable to respond. How did this thing know her name? She'd never used her real name in the game, let alone her given name. That wasn't even on the credit card she used to pay for the game. Now this was something interesting!

The gypsy wagon begins to fill with smoke, which causes you to feel slightly drowsy. Your eyelids droop once before snapping back open to find the world around you frozen. The scene glitches slightly like a paused VHS tape as a popup fills your vision.

Greetings, Player!
You have been offered the chance to remake yourself anew!
Do you accept this offer?
| Yes | No |

Spoiler: If Yes

Show

The popup closes, a second taking its place.

Warning!
This action will delete your current character, forcing you to restart at level 1.
Do you wish to continue?
| Yes | No |

Spoiler: If Yes

Show

The popup closes, as a third popup appears.

Final Warning!
Note that this action cannot be reversed.
Are you ready to leave your life behind and enter a new realm?
| Yes | No |

Spoiler: If you ever select "No"

Show

The popup closes, and the smoke clears. The gypsy bids you good day, and you exit the wagon. Nothing changes, and the game goes on.

Life goes on as usual.

Game Over

[Jeriah]

"YES! YES! YES!"

She slams through the choices and only barely skims the pop ups. She is so ready for this.

[Rizban]

Pain courses through your entire body, pain which should be blocked or at least reduced by the game's pain filters. You have them set to minimum, after all.

The taste of rainbows fills your ears as the sensation of being turned inside out and sucked through your toes overwhelms your senses, causing you to black out.

You awake an unknown period of time later and find yourself numb, completely unable to feel your body. Your ears hear nothing, and only a black emptiness meets you as you try to open your eyes.

Just as panic begins to set in, a popup appears. You feel relief at knowing that you're still in the game. You attempt to open a menu to determine your status, but nothing happens. The popup vibrates at you, as if somehow angered that you're ignoring it.

Welcome to your New Life+
Click below to begin character creation.
| Below |

You find yourself unable to do anything but interact with the popup mentally, just as you would with any popup in the game.

Spoiler: After clicking the button...

Show

After clicking the button, a series of numbers, symbols, and random words fly across your vision faster than you can read. You feel an almost intrusive sensation in your mind, as if someone or something is peering deep within.

Suddenly, a visual representation of dice scatter across your screen. The final result of each becoming large enough to fill your vision for a brief second.

(1d100)[5]
(1d100)[100]
(1d100)[77]

(1d20)[4]
(1d20)[2]

[Rizban]

Congratulations!
You have received one [1] Epic Boon.
You have received one [1] Moderate Boon.

Please choose your race.

A representation of the major races appears standing nude in front of you. Or rather, you see yourself in front of you, slightly altered to appear as each of the major races. A hazy line of individuals stretching off into the distance, which you intuit to be subraces that would be available for selection after making your choices.

Your available choices are

Human

__

Dwarf

__

Elf

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Halfling

__

Lizardfolk

There is a pair of buttons hovering in front of each which reads

Select Race

Information

Almost obscured near what you would expect to be the floor, if such a thing existed, are two nearly invisible buttons which read

Apply Epic Boon to Race

Apply Moderate Boon to Race

There is no further information about the two buttons.

Before you click anything, you feel a foreboding sensation that any and all choices you make at this time will be permanent.

[Jeriah]

'Screw it,' she thinks to herself as she jabs the Epic Boon button.

[Rizban]

You feel a deep sense of loss as your Epic Boon is consumed, forever gone.

The race representations in front of you change drastically and have new names appear along with them.

Ancient Human

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Azer

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Half-fey

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Shadowkin

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Dragon

There is a pair of buttons hovering in front of each which reads

Select Race

Information

Neither boon button is visible.

[Jeriah]

She clicks 'Information' on every single race.

[Rizban]

Ancient Human

Humans are the most common race through most of the realm. They are far more adaptable than any other; however, they tend to have poor relations with the non-human races. High Human is a Tier 2 race. You are everything that a human is, but more. Your adaptability and potential for growth is greatly improved. Ancient Human is a Tier 3 race. You are human perfectly formed from the beginning. Generations of genetic drift, crossbreeding, and general decay do not affect you.

Azer (Dwarf)

Dwarves are industrious craftsmen who typically live deep underground. They have a warrior heritage that honors fallen heroes of old in a form of ancestor worship. Dwarves have a high resistance to magic of all types, which unfortunately makes it difficult for them to use most magic themselves. Azerblood Dwarf is a Tier 2 race. Azerbloods have an outsider within their bloodline which grants them many benefits, most of which are related to crafting. Azer is a Tier 3 race. You are an outsider distantly related to dwarves. You share many of the same traits and passions, but you have abilities unique to your race that most dwarves can only dream of.

Half-Fey

Elves are the longest lived mortal race in the realm. They have a trace of fey blood in their veins, which leads them to be chaotic and haughty. All elves must select a subrace. While elves tend to get along well with members of other humanoid races, they are almost always hostile towards other elven subraces. Feytouched is a Tier 2 race. Elves who have manifested aspects of the fey seen only once in a generation are known as feytouched. Your fey attributes are more powerful than normal, and you are treated as a fey for most purposes. Half-Fey is a Tier 3 race. One of your parents was of the fey courts. Your innate magics are beyond the ken that of any mere mortal, but your fey nature affects you more than you might expect.

Shadowkin

Haflings are a small and oft overlooked race. They are jovial and friendly travelers, but they are also skilled burglars. Wispling is a Tier 2 race. Wisplings are halflings touched by Shadow. Their stealth abilities are greatly enhanced, but their soul is touched by Darkness. Shadowkin is a Tier 3 race. Accepting Darkness into their very souls, Shadowkin become one with shadow, often able to manipulate it to suit their whims.

Dragon

Lizardfolk are thought to be, in some way, descended from dragons. Although that is many, many generations past, if true at all, they take pride in their heritage. They are an industrious people known for building massive cities in the jungles and plains of their homelands and for having a fiery temper that often leads to war. Drake is a Tier 2 race. Your draconic heritage is true, and you manifest some of the traits of your ancestor. The most common traits are wings and the ability to breathe fire. Dragon is a Tier 3 race. You are a true dragon, or so you claim, though you don't seem to look all that different from a drake. Your potential for growth is limited only by your lifespan, but there are many who would gladly claim the title of Dragon Slayer and would never reveal that the slain dragon was a mere hatchling.

[Jeriah]

Leta eliminates Dragon as an option. As desperately as she wants to choose that, the comment about dragon slayers is enough to make her pass on it.

Ancient human is very interesting, but it just seems bland. Yay to more feats and skills, which is the only more humany thing she can think of, but that's pretty boring.

Azer sounds really cool, or hot as it were, but she's never been much of a crafter. That seems like a fantastic race for crafting things, but... no.

Her only real choice is between Half-Fey and Shadowkin. Both seem like they're going to have a lot of baggage associated with them. The elf one is going to have elf and fey politics to deal with. The halfling one is going to have to deal with Darkness in her soul, which frankly sounds metal as hell but also somehow incredibly scary.

Mentally, she tosses a coin, watches it land on tails, and jabs the Shadowkin button before she can second guess herself... again.

[Rizban]

As soon as she touches the button for shadowkin, all of the other race representations disappear. You find yourself able to customize the appearance of the Shadowkin to you liking, including changing the sex. Unfortunately, all of your options are dark in some way, with no options for pale or light-colors in skin, hair, or eyes. Most options are shades of gray and dark blue or purple.

When you're finished, your point of view shifts instantly, and you find yourself in the character you just shaped. You once again have feeling, the numbness gone. However, you still feel weightless in the black nothingness around you.

An extremely sparse character sheet appears in your vision. (Link sent to you via discord)

You find yourself able to fill in a few minor blanks. You also have 3 points to spend on your ability scores, increasing any chosen score by 1. However, you can't assign more than 1 to the same ability.

[Jeriah]

Let's keep it simple. Leta adjusts it until it matches my current forum avatar as closely as possible.

She applies her points to Con, Int, and Cha.

Leta decides to just stick her own name in the "Name" space. After all, the gypsy called her by her real name...

[Rizban]

As Letitia confirms her name, a slightly queasy feeling fills her gut. Motion sickness. Definitely some sort of motion sickness. Maybe.

Anyway.

As you finalize your point distribution, you receive a notification that you will receive 3 points to spend on any ability score at each future level.

Your vision blurs again as you are given a choice of classes, basic gear sets appearing before you, representing each class option.

Duskblade

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Ninja

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Rogue

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Shadowcaster

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Spellthief

Select Class

Information

Apply Moderate Boon to Class

[Jeriah]

Leta decides to go with the one option she's never actually played before: Spellthief.

[Rizban]

You select spellthief, and the starting gear appears equipped on your body.

Your character sheet appears again, and begins to fill itself out.

You have the option to select two feats. Your choices are anything you qualify for from the Player's Handbook or Complete Adventurer.

You also gain Stealthy as a bonus feat due to your race.

Apply Moderate Boon to Feats

[Jeriah]

Leta selects Improved Initiative and Open Minded as her two feats.

[Rizban]

Your selected feats populate to you list, changing other values that they affect automatically.

A new set of popups start to appear but are immediately interrupted by swirling darkness.

Choose Your Path

Cloak of Shadows Ebon Whispers Eyes of Darkness Umbral Mind Night's Long Fingers Dark Terrain Touch of Twilight Speed of the Night

[Jeriah]

She looks for the button to apply her moderate boon and clicks it.

[Rizban]

You find no such button. This choice seems different than the others somehow, and the option to apply boons to it does not seem to be available.

[Jeriah]

If she can find an Information button, she clicks that on everything. Otherwise, she picks Cloak of Shadows.

[Rizban]

Your Choice is Made. The Path is Set.

---

Your selected feats populate to your sheet, changing other values that they affect automatically.

When that completes, a selection of skills appears, and you are informed that you have 24+5 Skill Points to assign. Clicking through a few of the skills, you discover that the Spellthief has the same class skills as usual and cross class skills still costs two points. So, nothing has changed with this process as far as you can tell.

Apply Moderate Boon to Skills

[Jeriah]

I put Appraise 4, Concentration 4, Decipher Script 2, Disable Device 2, Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Geography) 2 CC, Knowledge (Local) 4, Search 2, Speak Language 3, and Spellcraft 2.

I need to know which languages I can add with Speak Language.

[Rizban]

As you finalize your skill point distribution and consider the Speak Language skill, you realize that you haven't learned any new languages, nor have you been given any options of languages to learn. However, you do feel as if you have gained the ability to learn new languages you encounter more easily.

Your character sheet fades away.

System Notice
Character generation completed.
One [1] available Moderate Boon remains unspent.

Do you wish to retain this boon for future use or immediately convert it into one [1] Greater Perk?

| Save | Convert |

[Jeriah]

Leta chooses to save the boon for later.

[Rizban]

You feel a sharp pain in your head as you are suddenly forced to relive memories from your real life outside of gaming. Several aspects of your character sheet change during this process.

You receive an "Occupation" which first appears as Student but is infected by tendrils of black fog which transforms it into Shadow Scholar.

Shadow Scholar grants you a +1 bonus on Decipher Script, Knowledge (Arcana), and Knowledge (Religion) and grants you the Arcane Skills feat as a bonus feat.

---

You hear the clatter of dice in the background...

(5d100)[96][3][1][95][35](230)

As your sheet begins to fade away from your vision, you notice two additional abilities appearing on your sheet.

---

Your vision goes completely black.

You feel something cold and hard on your back, the air around you damp and cold.

You are surrounded by silence, broken only by the sound of your own breathing.

You realize that you are lying on the ground, your eyes closed.

[Jeriah]

Leta immediately opens her eyes and looks around for threats. Assuming she's safe, she opens her character sheet and examines everything closely.

[Rizban]

You have awoken in what appears to be a prison cell, complete with bars on the wall. Just beyond the rusted bars, a the structure has completely collapsed, making the exit impossible to take. You do notice that one of the large blocks making up the back wall of the cell has shifted significantly, and you see a tunnel hidden behind it.

In the center of the cell floor is a pool of crystal clear water not quite an inch deep and about 2 feet across.

The cell's former occupant lies huddled in one corner, little more than cracked, yellowed bones.

You realize that there is no light within the cell whatsoever, but that doesn't impede your vision at all. Unlike normal darkvision which is only shades of grey, your darkvision seems able to distinguish color to some extent.

[Jeriah]

Leta takes 20 to Search the entire room, inspecting and attempting to Appraise everything she encounters. She'll take 10 on any relevant Knowledge checks, if possible, for Arcana, Geography, Local, and Religion (the ones she has trained).

[Rizban]

Inspect
Rock

It appears to be a rock.

Inspect
System Wall

The wall is a wall, as are the bars to your cell.

Inspect
Sacred Pool

It's a pool of water.

Inspect
Bones: Humanoid

The bones are humanoid, and you suspect Halfling.

Inspect
Hearthstone

A small obelisk apparently carved from a chunk of obsidian sits near the tunnel exiting this space. You feel drawn to touch it, but you note nothing else abnormal about it.

Inspect
Dust

There's a bit of dust collecting in the corners.

Inspect
Obsidian flakes

You have found a few flakes of obsidian. You estimate the collection of flakes to be worth about 15 cp.

[Jeriah]

Leta examines the bones more closely, hoping for a femur sturdy enough to use as a makeshift club or a rib she can sharpen into a kind of knife.

She'd wear the skull as a helmet if it was large enough for that.

[Rizban]

You do find an intact femur that looks like it will hold up for a few hits, but it doesn't look like it will last long.

The skull has long since shattered, and the ribs are all cracked and broken.

Skill Improvement
Through repeated use, you have gained a +1 Competence bonus to Appraise.

Achievement: Equipped a Weapon
You have equipped your first weapon. Gain 10 experience.