D&D In Another World - MornShine

[Rizban]

D&D In Another World OOC

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Spoiler

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Spoiler: IRL

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Ted Williams is a graduate student and junior researcher at the bioengineering department of his university. Though he's only been at this university for about a year, he's made fast friends with many of the other grad students and a handful of the researchers, bonding over shared suffering.

Notable friends include Bill, the technically-more-senior researcher in the same lab who sort of took Ted under his wing initially; Millie, whom he literally bumped into at the campus coffee shop when both had had a combined total of six hours of sleep that day; and Sam, who broke up with Ted two days ago.

Together with a few acquaintances, and Prof. Ytterby from the Physics Department, they form the Guild of Blood and Science. (Ted has a hypothesis that D&D nerds magnetically attract others of their ilk.)

Ted is on good terms with his family, but they're several hundred miles from where he lives, and Ted has never been good at keeping in touch. Still, he enjoys the semi-monthly video conversation with his step-mother Susan de Tagyos, volunteering accountant (who, in the tradition of mothers everywhere, manages to be incredibly annoying and still sweet); and absolutely crushing his father Adam Williams, theoretically retired programmer, when they play Settlers of Catan during Ted's visits on the holidays.

(His step-brother Drew, who inevitably gets dragged into these games, insisted that they switch from Risk three years back. Ted thinks that it's perfectly understandable that a financial analyst would have enough of Risky business; Drew thinks that Ted isn't funny.)

Spoiler: IC

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Ted plays Brianna the Knight/Warblade, the primary tank and secondary melee of the G.o.B.a.S. Despite the mechanical difficulty, Ted chose to be a Watery Half-Orc because, to him, the story of a tough warrior winning respect with her blood and sweat was compelling… and because tusks looks cool.

Brianna is and always has been a member of the Guild of Blood and Science, the in-person organization of this college, as Ted specifically created her to work in concert with Prof. Ytterby’s support-Wizard and Minnie’s well-practiced rogue. Still, Brianna has grown to be Ted’s favorite character so far.





Spoiler: “The Bridge”

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When your S.O. dumps you for an actual paying research position in France, it’s depressing.



When it starts to storm during the LAN party Bill organized in the lab’s basement, it’s irksome.

When your hand-build PC zoinks out just as you and your fellow Blood-and-Sciencees enter the Dragon King’s chamber, it’s frustrating.

When a stray corner slices open your thumb when you open up the PC to check the cables, it’s infuriating.

When lightning strikes a man with a badly-grounded power cable in one hand and a blood-smeared CPU in the other, things get weird.





'Well, that was a shocking turn of events,' Ted thinks as he rubs his eyes. He feels blind as all he can see is a bright, white light.

He rubs his eyes again, blinks a few times, and looks around. He can still see nothing but endless white. He then notes just how quiet it is, the thunderstorm having completely stopped... or perhaps he's gone deaf! Just as he starts to panic, his system receives another unexpected shock.

System Notice
Welcome Back to The Realms!
Error:	No saved character profile on file.
Action:	Contact Realm for character data.
Error:	No associated Realm on file.
Action:	Load recent player data.
Error:	No player record on file.
Action:	Read embedded player data.
Error:	No player data embedded within this entity.
Action:	Begin player integration system.

System Notice
Welcome to Creation and Integration!
Would you like to customize your integration options?
If you decline this choice, your starting choices will be randomized based on your lineage, past deeds, and projected development path. If you fail to make a choice, you will be deemed non-sapient and treated as if you had declined this choice—options for non-sapients may become limited.
Yes No Representative

[MornShine]

The Realms!

Ted looks down at himself, and looks back up with a huge, only slightly mad grin. This is going to be fun!

I hope the Blood-and-Sciencees can take the Dragon King without Brianna, though. Ted chuckles: One way or another they'll live up to the name; there's either going to be a lot of spilt blood, or a lot of hasty science. Maybe I'll run into them.

His aside over, Ted re-examines the boxes in front of him and frowns; with no player data, how can they randomize based on, well, my past? Unless... somehow my Earthly life isn't considered 'player' data?

Well. My last computer screwed me, so.

Ted leans slightly forward and intones,

'Yes.'

[Rizban]

System Notice
Player Registration
Name:	Ted Williams_
Age:	27
Occupation:	{Select One}

You find that you can edit your name but not your age. When you focus on Occupation, you get a selection of three possible options: Academic, Apprentice, or Experiment.

You feel an overwhelming sense that any decisions you make here will be permanent and irreversible.

[MornShine]

It's going to be me in these realms, not a character. I'll stick to Ted— I can claim it's short for Edward. Or Teddoric.

But I need some adventuring flair. I will— or, I won't Will. Why be a Williams in the Realms?

"Name: Ted Garrick. Occupation..." Ted hesitates.

Occupation?

I don't like the idea of being an Experiment. I prefer to be the experimenter.

I suppose that IRL, Academic would be accurate— but I wasn't planning on going into academia. Besides, Apprentice is probably more useful. Maybe...

"Engineer?"

Spoiler: Presumably That Doesn't Work

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Ted shrugs. Worth a try.

"Occupation: Apprentice."

[Rizban]

System Notice
Player Registration Complete

System Notice
Beginning Integration
Action:	Selecting starting Realm.
System Message:
Welcome to Endless Acres
Action:	Loading Realm attributes and requirements.
Action:	Integrating attributes with player.
Error:	Realm-Entity Attribute Incompatbility. ERR_012a.
Action:	Rectifying . . .

Intense pain flows through your body and mind, like fire burning away the impurities. Spasms wrack your body as little bits of what make you yourself are ripped away, foreign energies jammed in to fill the tiny voids left behind.

You gasp one last time, struggling to resist blacking out. Then the pain is gone.

System Notice
Integration Complete
Begin Character Creation

Realm Notice
Welcome to Endless Acres!
As a recently established Frontier Realm, Endless Acres is largely unknown and unexplored. This Realm contains many of the standard fantasy elements one would expect from a High Fantasy Realm, but there seems to have been a significant divergence from the norm at some point in the not so distant past.
Warning! The rules and conventions of Endless Acres are in flux as the Realm continues to be established by The System. Players may be presented with System Choices that modify the underlying systems governing the Realm.

Spoiler

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(5d6)[5][3][2][5][6](21)
(5d20)[4][11][5][1][11](32)
(5d30)[25][7][4][20][4](60)
(5d100)[25][29][38][40][12](144)

[Rizban]

Realm Notice
Congratulations!
You have received four (4) Moderate Boons
You have received one (1) Epic Boon

A representation of the major races appears standing nude in front of you. Or rather, you see yourself in front of you, altered to appear as each of the major races but still clearly yourself.

Realm Notice
Select Your Race
Athik Dwarf Gnome Select Information Select Information Select Information Goblin Halfling Kobold Select Information Select Information Select Information _ Apply Boon to Race

[MornShine]

Ow! ****!

Ted eyes the boxes with new wariness. Whatever that was, it had hurt, a lot. If choosing a race is going to hurt as much, I'm not sure I want to.

But... choices are permanent. I don't think I can back out now, and that's without getting into the terrifying prospect of whatever happened to me in the 'real' world.

It's best to make the most of this.

Resolved, Ted glances at the racial options. Short it is. Oh well.

What's an Athik? I don't think that I've seen one before.

I wonder what Gnomes are like in Endless Acres. Mad inventors? Burrowing hippies? Powerful wizards? Halflings wearing facepaint?

Curious, Ted declares,

"Information: Gnome. Information: Athik."

[Rizban]

Gnome
Gnomes are brilliant tinkers, builders, engineers, and artificers, always seeking to discover the underlying principles that govern the world around them and then using those principles to create something new.

Athik
Athiks are very ant-like in nature and maintain a powerful devotion to their hive, which drives an athik’s every action. Cooperation is fundamental to their nature, and all have strong empathy and helpful attitudes towards one another, strengthened by the patial hive mind they all share.

[MornShine]

Oh my god. Scientist Gnomes— no, Engineer Gnomes.

Ted very nearly choose Gnome right then, but some vestige of common sense (an all-too-rare commodity in Ted's mind) urges him to at least consider the other options.

Athik is interesting, but... I really don't like the idea of an involuntary devotion to the hive, much less a hive mind.

Huh. If gnomes are the engineers of this Endless Acres, what role do the Dwarves play? They're usually depicted as excellent crafters. And goblins, if they're not cannon fodder, tend to also be the crafty ones, if with slightly more explosives.


"Information: Dwarf. Information: Goblin."

[Rizban]

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 some forms of magic themselves.

Goblin
Goblins are often viewed as pests or monsters by other races. They are physically weak but have sharp wits and an unbreakable will to survive. They live on the fringes of society but are able to make do with even the barest of essentials, enduring where others would falter.

[MornShine]

Cool Dwarves, and Magic Resistance might be useful, but not quite my flavor. Holding onto the past, but not being dictated by it... I wonder if they have ancestor-based classes.

I like the idea of living on your wits and through sheer willpower, but I'm not so sure about being reviled by other races.

Either Gnome or Goblin, then...

Ted ponders for a while. And then some more.

While Gnome is too much like my actual— my Earth job, it's still amazing.

"Select: Gnome."

[Rizban]

The other races disperse into mist, which beings to swirl around the Gnome. A powerful force draws you inexorably into the figure, until you find yourself looking out through its eyes. Intense body dysmorphia makes you incredibly uncomfortable for a few seconds, made worse when the body becomes pliable and... fluid. The flesh warps and shapes itself to match your internalized ideal for the character until you find yourself perfectly at home in your new avatar, perhaps even a bit more comfortable than you ever were in your own skin.

Realm Notice
Assign Your Ability Scores
You have two (2) Ability Points.
Strength 9 Dexterity 10 Constitution 10 Intelligence 11 Wisdom 10 Charisma 10

[MornShine]

Ted inspects himself, marveling at his new gnomish body.

Ted looks at the ability score menu and frowns. Base of 10? I really hope that there's some way to increase these in the Acres other than level-up. As it is, well, twelve is hardly enough to do anything.

Normally, I'd focus on one score, but I think the first priority right now is not dying.

Ted grins. But let's do a bit of experimenting while I have the opportunity.

Ted clears his throat, then commands the system:

"Remove one Ability Point from Strength.

Merge two Moderate Boons. Split the resulting Boon. Split one of the other Moderate Boons. Split one of those Boons again.

Merge one—" Lesser? "— Lesser boon with one Moderate boon.

Record the results of each step."

And, well, I did get Isekai'd, I might well be the protagonist. Let's go for it.

"Create Stat: Luck."

[Rizban]

You remove a point from Strength and find that you can't reduce it below 8. You now have 3 points to spend.

The system shudders at your rapid fire requests to "muck about."

Rather than generating a lot of individual popups, you just get a single message window that changes its text as you do your thing.

You merge 2 Moderates into a Greater then split them apart again into 2 Moderates. You get a sense though that they aren't "happy" with being merged and then split, and you vaguely worry you might break something if you keep messing around with them.

You split a different Moderate into 2 Minor. They seem less annoyed with you, since you've only manipulated them once, and you're a bit glad that you decided to split a different one rather than one of the two you've already annoyed.

Your attempt to merge a Minor with a Moderate fails, and you get a distinct sense that you've made a significant mistake...

Unfortunately, no Luck stat is created. (Pun!)

[MornShine]

Um. Okay. Let's... be careful here. That seemed very bad.

Mentally turning away from the boons, Ted looks at his stats.

Int's probably the primary stat for what I need.

Dropping Strength netted me a point; anything else I can drop?

... Dex and Con, if I can't find a tank ... don't really want to tank Cha ... ignoring Wisdom on a gnome seems like it would lead to mad, lethal science.

Ted assigns one point to Intelligence and two points to Constitution.

[Rizban]

One to Int, two to Con.

Realm Notice
Select Your Class
Bard Psion Stalker Select Information Select Information Select Information Summoner Warlord Wizard Select Information Select Information Select Information _ Apply Boon to Class

[MornShine]

Ooh! Is that Pathfinder Stalker and Summoner? And Unchained or Regular?

... And Warlord? Presumably it's something like Marshal?

Actually, if there's Pathfinder material, which Wizard?

"Information: Stalker, Summoner, Warlord, Wizard."

Presumably Endless Acres has the typical fantasy taboos, and being a Wizard would be fine, but...

"Information: Endless Acres."

[Rizban]

Stalker
Combining stealth with martial arts prowess, the stalker is a trained warrior and assassin.

Summoner
This practitioner of the summoning magic forms a close bond with an eidolon, who gains power as it serves the summoner.

Warlord
Always leading from the front, a warlord is an inspirational commander and powerful warrior.

Wizard
Through great effort and study, a wizard learns to cast arcane spells. Though their potiential for growth is neraly unlimited, the time dedicated to research often seems overwhelming.

[MornShine]

That... doesn't really answer any of my questions.Class is going to be pretty important... might as well spend a boon on this. I'll save the big one.

"Apply Lesser Boon."

"Expand on Summoner, Wizard, Warlord?"

[Rizban]

The System assumes you meant "Minor" Boon, since "Lesser" Boons don't exist.

Realm Notice
Minor Boon Applied
One or more class features of your chosen class will be improved.

Realm Notice
You possess one (1) Lesser Boon
You possess three (3) Moderate Boons
You possess one (1) Epic Boon

Realm Notice
Select Your Class
Bard Psion Stalker Select Information Select Information Select Information Summoner Warlord Wizard Select Information Select Information Select Information

[MornShine]

So the System can assume.

Well, better than a genie, I suppose.

Ted looks over his shortlist of classes. I'd rather not be a frontliner again, especially given my height... and I think Summoner might be more fun than Wizard. It does limit Mad Science! potential, but...

I wonder if I could select a class not on the list? Eh, I'm happy.

"Select: Summoner. Show available Archetypes."

[Rizban]

You hit the summoner button.

Realm Notice
Select Your Skills
You have two (2) Skill Points
	Class Skills: Academics Arcane Lore Handle Animal Linguistics Profession Theology	Cross Class Skills Acrobatics Arms Lore Athletics Deception Engineering Heal Insight Intimidate Natural Lore Perception Perform Persuasion Psi Lore Stealth Streetwise
_ Apply Boon to Skills

Poking around, you discover that the maximum skill rank is 1. One rank in a class skill costs 1 skill point while it costs 2 skill points for a rank in cross class skills. Perform and Profession have a seemingly endless list of sub-skills for nearly every imaginable possibility.

[MornShine]

No Archetypes, oh well. Should I have specified before picking a class? Maybe they'll unlock?

Ted shrugs and puts one point into Arcane Lore and one point into Handle Animal, hoping to synergize with the Gnomish speak with animals. Not too many skill points, I'll consider putting a boon into this once I get some experience with this world.

[Rizban]

Realm Notice
Character Creation
Name: Brianna Williams_ Race: Gnome Class: Summoner

You find that you are able to edit your character name and appearance, if you so desire.

Realm Notice
Your Apprentice Occupation provides a +1 bonus on the following skills
Academics, Engineering

Realm Notice
You gain one (1) Feat.
_ Apply Boon to Feats

The list of possible feats is... extensive. In fact, it seems that new feats are added to the list as you consider possible feats. You can select any feat you can meet the prerequisites for.

[MornShine]

Ted feels a pang reading the name. Brianna.

If I make this character... is Brianna gone?
Potentially my last link to the GoBaS, and to my life as Ted Williams.

The end of an era.

But... better to live in the present. I'll keep the name as a memento.

"Name: Brianna Theodoric."

Ted leaves his appearance at the default, deciding to let nature— or the algorithms imitating it— run its course.

As for the feat, well, I am a summoner... and I need it for prerequisites.

"I choose Spell Focus (Conjuration)."

[Rizban]

Realm Notice
Select Your Summoner Spells
You learn four (4) 0-level cantrips
You learn two (2) 1st-level spells

Realm Notice
Select Options for your Eidolon

Spoiler

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Summoner Spells
Also select from the Unchained Summoner list, but some spells may be modified or banned if not already on the Aldhaven site.

Summoner Eidolon

[MornShine]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Took forever. Hopefully the last time, especially now that I can use two hands to type again.

Angel is a interesting subtype, but it's not quadrupedial in PF, so it doesn't have access to any natural attacks. Wielding a weapon without arms is dubious, and, well, doggo.

Besides, Stormhound is just an awesome mental image.

Hmm... Ted flicks through the presented spells. Huh, no mage armor? Odd.

I do love utility spells, damage cantrips being near-worthless.
"Cantrips: Mage Hand, Message, Detect Magic—"And, being a protagonist, why not stack the deck a little?

"— Guidance."A surprisingly limited spell list, too. "Add the spell Grease."

"Lesser Infernal Healing? Rejuvenate Eidolon? No? Compel Hostility, then."As for the eidolon...

There are fewer subtypes than I'm used to, but I could see making an eidolon out of any of these. Don't want to be too restrictive with the actions I can take though, Endless Acres clearly isn't standard.

Ted pauses as something occurs to him. If I'm here, and this is immersive... will my eidolon also be actually sapient? And... hm.

Ted hesitates; so far he's been avoiding thinking about the implications of being, living— if I'm really still alive— in this strange world. He didn't recognize this new realm. Would he be the only real person there? If so, he would truly be alone in a strange world.

Or if the inhabitants also were sentient... never mind if they were also from earth, binding a sentient, sapient mind as an eidolon—

Ted pushes this thought away.

Still, he was without friends or companions, save this eidolon. So...

Something loyal, companionable. Nothing evil, I might not have the mental state for that.
Abberation, no. Archon, and Psychopomp, I don't want to limit my options so harshly. Being Good is good, but sometimes one has to compromise.

Inevitable? No, has to be something fluffy.

A dog! Definitely a dog. One of those big adorable mops.

A Stormhound!

"I'd like a Quadrupedal Eidolon, Medium. Storm Elemental. Additional Class Skills, Athletics.And... Heal?" I don't suppose Profession (Stormhound) would exactly make sense. Herding the clouds? Profession (Farmer)?

"A point in Perception, Stealth, Insight, and Heal.

"As for the evolution, how about Claws. Feat, Power Attack."

Not a Good boy, but a good boy.