Young Writers Society

You stand in the center of a large office next to the other members of the heist you had done in this very building a few weeks ago. Before you, sitting like a principal about to dole out punishment, is the Archmage Arkemyr, flanked on the one side by a flying Imp, and on the other by a Bronze Construct.

“So you must be the fools who not only broke into my severely guarded manor, twice, but also managed to make it into my highly intricate safe, just to steal a very old stone tablet.” the Archmage’s eyes seem to pierce all your minds, as he watches you all. “I do not know why you decided to steal that tablet, but the rules of my house are simple. I kill any who come in uninvited.”

Rising, he hands an envelope to the Imp, who promptly flies through a nearby window overlooking Nekateka and disappears from view.

“Now, I could have simply incinerated you all wherever you were hiding,” Arkemyr continued, “but something else of much more significance has happened, or at least might happen, and I will need a team of highly skilled and discrete individuals to be at the center of these events.

“Therefore I have decided, instead of just killing you and being done with it, I will offer you a job. You managed to break into an Archmage’s home without triggering any magical alarms, or hurting or damaging any of my property, so I know you must possess some skills that might prove useful. You will also be paid generously once the job is complete, and, of course, I won’t kill you.”

Before any of you can speak up, he claps his hands twice, before speaking again. “I sense you all accept, which is good. You will find a ship waiting for you down in the harbour. My apprentice, Fassina, is already down there, and will have some of the details on the job. She’ll also be accompanying you on this job. Please make sure she doesn’t get killed. Finding good talent is so difficult in this archipelago.”



Ahoy everyone! And welcome to the first SB in what we hope will become a series of SBs (or just one long continuous SB). For those familiar with the Pillars of Eternity game series, yes, this is based on the games’ lore. For those unfamiliar with it- no worries! See this as a fun, new, and potentially exciting fantasy SB.

As the introduction suggested, the characters of the SB had been hired to perform a heist for a magical artefact that was in the vault of one of the most powerful Archmages in the world. Instead of killing the characters, he has decided to hire the characters for an, at the moment, unknown quest (We are intentionally not making the job known now, since that might influence your character creations, and also spoil some surprises)

Below, we shall briefly explain some of the essential lore of the world, including the races, regions, and classes (any other lore can be added at another time as relevant)

The Deadfire
Though the world of Eora is much larger than the following map (and more... continentey), this SB shall primarily take place in the Deadfire Archipelago (southeast of most of the continents). Our characters could come from other parts of the world, but most of the major nations/organisations of the other continents have a base or presence in the Deadfire (since it's the last frontier)


Races

As in any fantasy story, there a multitude of sapient races in Eora (that’s the name of the world). The main races are Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Orlans, Aumaua and the Godlike.

Humans


Elves

Dwarves

Orlans

Aumaua

Godlike


Classes
Seeing as this SB will be an adventure/quest like SB, characters could probably need a class (it is, however, not compulsory. If you want a more scholarly/crafty character who won't really fight or use magic, then you can always discuss it with us. Here follow the classes available:




Character Roles and Sheet

Given everything mentioned above, remember that your character was originally hired to be part of a team to perform a heist on an Archmage's vault, so your characters might not have known one another before the heist. Also, they don't have to be greedy/bad people because of their heist hiring. Maybe they were blackmailed, or just wanted a new challenge, or secretly wanted to steal something else in the manor, or are actually after one of their own team. For the moment there are six slots available, but feel free to add NPCs if you want to (we can always meet them in the plot, who knows)

Character slots
Explosives- Jerrano il Messo (@ThePatchworkPilgrims)
Lock specialist- Emile Fierro (@RavenLord)
Trap expert/Scout- Kritanta Langley (@winterwolf0100)
Infiltrator- Virgil Artemis (@EvieEcco)
Character 5- Open
Character 6- Open

Character sheet

Code: Select all

[u]Name:[/u] (your actual name)
[u]Alias/Nickname:[/u] (Optional. In case your character is known by another name to the other characters at the start of the SB)
[u]Gender:[/u]
[u]Race:[/u]
[u]Class:[/u] (In case you're a Priest, state the deity. In case you're a Wizard, state your specialization. In case you're a Ranger, add two more categories for your animal companion's name and species)

[u]Age:[/u] (most races don't live longer than 110yo, except Elves/Dwarves who both live up to 250-300yo max)
[u]Appearance:[/u] (if you are unsure about an appearance, just ask us in the DT or PMs)

[u]Personality strengths:[/u]
[u]Personality flaws:[/u]

[u]Backstory:[/u]

[u]Preferred Weapons:[/u] (If Wizard, you can describe your spell tome here. If Druid, you can also describe your werebeast form here)

[u]Useful Skills:[/u]
[u]Skills you should never try:[/u] (because no one likes a Mary Sue)

[u]Reason they joined the Tablet Heist:[/u] (as mentioned earlier, this can be anything really)

Rules and other tidbits

-Even though this is an adventure SB, please keep violence and language PG13 (PG16 at most, after clearing it with us)
-No sexual scenes
-Any questions about lore can be asked at any time, and lore can be changed to better fit our characters/the story.

"This is why I hate wizards."

Jerrano and the remainder of the heist team left Arkemyr's manor onto the streets of Neketaka. Around them, the district of Periki's Overlook (named so for the magnificent view it had over all of the city that was not the palace) was bustling with wealthy looking traders and citizens. Most of them were of the Huana, the Aumaua native to the Deadfire, but there was also a high density of Folk, and to a lesser extent orlans, Dwarves and Elves. All were here to visit the Bathhouse, Watershapers' Guild or the variety of expensive stores, or on their way to the palace.

"You accidentally get involved with them just a smidge, and they start teleporting you around and demanding you go on suicide missions. At least this had the courtesy to teleport our gear and belongings with us when we were... summoned." Jerrano continued, adjusting his satchel strap over his shoulder. "Most of them are too up their own grimoires to even do that."

Seeing several passersby either covertly or overtly staring at them, Jerrano suddenly became aware how odd they must look, even in this city. Two priests dressed in black, a very unique-looking Death godlike Orlan, a guitar carrying human, and... Looking around Jerrano noticed that two of their original team were not with them.

"Were there not six of us just a moment ago?" He asked.

"There are supposed to be." the Chanter Virgil said, looking around at the closest people on the street. "Maybe they went back inside?"

"More likely they saw their chance and ran." The Death Godlike added, his crow plucking at its wing on his shoulder.

An imp came flapping over to where they stood. "EH? MASTER ARKEMYR TOLD FLESH BAGS TO GO TO SHIP! WORTHLESS IDIOT WAS SENT TO KEEP EYE ON YOU TILL HARBOR."

Shooing the imp away with his quarterstaff, Jerrano beckoned for the remainder of his party to follow him. This was, after all, his city of birth, so of the remaining four, he knew the streets the best. By his best guess, they could reach Queen's Berth, the district where the general harbour was, in about four hours, but he was hoping the imp wouldn't know that.

"Alright. It will take us at least five hours to reach the harbour, so go tell whoever it is who's waiting for us we'll arrived just after dusk, imp." He said, watching as the fiend flew off, cursing to itself as it went. Then, turning to his companions, he added. "I lied to him. Since, I don't know about any of you, but I have some heist money to spend before going on an archmage's suicide mission."

Quickly drawing a rough map of the city for each of his remaining comrades on some spare paper he had, he made off towards the Bathhouse for one last meditative soak.

Virgil took himself by surprise when he was the one to answer the question. He kept his eyes cast down after that trying not to notice the looks they are all getting.

He only looked up for a moment when he heard the sound of the imps wings above them.

He stared blankly at it taking in for the first time the type of people he’d gotten himself involved with. He rubbed his temples with annoyance before starting to grip the rose encrusted rapier at his hip for comfort.

He went back to staring at the ground after that, he’d glance up every once and while to see where they were headed; but it’s not like it would help him at all. He didn’t know anything about this city. He didn’t know anything about most of the cities he passed through. He only knew enough to quickly look for any signs of his lover and get a gig, then he’d just move on to the next town.

When the group stopped he almost ran into one of the members. His stomach sank having expected something to happen but found that everything was fine.

When Jerrano put the piece of paper in his hand he looked up at the man confused. Virgil didn’t catch what he said as he walked away from the group.

He sighed, getting annoyed again, muttering under his breath “We should just head to the damn harbor…” before shoving the paper in a random pocket.

Looking at his new ‘party’ he waited for one of them to say something, which ever seemed the most reasonable he’d follow so he could at least find the group again.

Emile had never been partial to imps. They stunk like anything and bred like guppies. This one was gone quickly, thankfully, but the stench hung in the air like an ill-timed joke.
"I'll meet you all there," he informed the group. Four hours plus some could be spent seeing the sights, getting to know the lay of the land. If Emile ever found himself back here, he wanted to be familiar with the city. "I won't be late." Giving a short bow, he strode off in a random direction. Emile often found that getting lost was the best way to acquaint himself with a place; he just had to make sure he found his way to the harbor with enough time to spare.

The city was bustling with activity as Emile made his way down the winding street. He didn't have too much trouble navigating, though; most of the vendors and shoppers leaped to make way for him. He was a giant among them, after all, standing at well over six feet and sporting muscles that could bend a steel bar in half.
This was a slightly more upper-class area of residence, mostly meant for merchants and the like to peddle their overpriced wares. The scent of expensive perfume curdled in Emile's nostrils, and as fur coats and fine silk brushed past him he found himself tamping down a righteous rage.
Skaen give me strength, he thought, clenching a fist tightly around Diana's necklace. The richness of this area brought him such strong nausea; he needed to find an area of the city more deserving of his and Skaen's sympathy.
Emile shoved past a group of hagglers and ducked into a narrow alley. It was emptier than the main streets and wound around a corner. He would go where it took him.
Now that he had space to breathe air that wasn't corrupted by money, Emile found his mind wandering to the unexpected heist he had suddenly found himself in. It certainly hadn't been part of the plan, and he was halfway inclined to leave the party behind to return to his employer. He hadn't retrieved the Tablet, but perhaps she would show a bit of sympathy and tell him where Diana was anyway.
Unlikely. Emile pulled his cloak tighter about him, gritting his teeth at the thought of his wife. Perhaps this new heist was a path that Skaen himself had set him on. Perhaps it would lead him to his family. Emile had long felt that he had been looking too hard in all the wrong places, and now here he was being led off somewhere he had never intended to go. It certainly made sense.
The alley led him further and further away from Periki's Overlook, and the scenery began to change. The alley, which had been dark to begin with, now took on a grimy look. A few hundred feet after the change began, Emile found himself standing at an intersection. The alley forked off in three different directions here. One was blocked by a pile of broken crates and other garbage, but the other two were fairly clear. Emile looked between the paths for a few moments, reflecting. Then he strode over to the blocked path and leaped over the barrier.

Kritanta could already tell this mission was going to be awful. For one, they had already failed what they were originally out to do. Kritanta signed up for a one-time deal, not a long mission for some crazy mage. Secondly, the other members of the group, consciously or not, were avoiding her like the plague. Just another perk of being "blessed" by one of the Death gods, she supposed, though she preferred to think of herself as profoundly cursed. Every living thing seemed to want to steer clear of her. People liked and worshiped the Pallid Knight because death in battle was glorious; in most cultures, it meant you were remembered as a hero. In battle, you went in knowing you might not survive. But the Usher, the god who took you away only when you were old, weak, too frail to resist him? That was who scared people the most. And he just so happened to be Kritanta's... well, he had told her before she could think of him as a father, but seeing as she hated him and the never-ending bad luck he had brought down on her, she viewed him more as... a nuisance.

"Nirnasha," Kritanta murmured to the crow currently resting on her left shoulder, "you should fly ahead to the docks. If there's anything dangerous that we should be aware of, I'd prefer to know beforehand."

Nirnasha narrowed his eyes and opened his beak, as if to argue, but instead let out a throaty caw. As if the sound didn't already clue her in on his annoyance, he said, "Why do I have to go? You have five hours! Walk yourself!"

"I can't fly," Kritanta retorted to his caws. She knew, no doubt, the other team members thought she was crazy, talking to a crow. Nirnasha had made it clear since he first started traveling with her that no one but her would be able to interpret his calls into words. Nirnasha was the only thing the Usher had given Kritanta that she wouldn't immediately return if given the chance. He had given Nirnasha to Kritanta when she turned eighteen, and after ignoring him for two months, she finally realized he wouldn't stop following her around and perpetually talking her to death so she gave in.

"You don't need to fly!" Nirnasha responded incredulously. "It's a dock!"

Kritanta rolled her eyes. "You can go unnoticed! I attract attention wherever I go! And if I'm looking for a trap, don't you think people would see me and hide it?"

"You think I go unnoticed? I'm a crow!" Nirnasha exclaimed. "People feel the excessive need to point me out to their little bastard children every time I fly overhead!"

"That's rude. You don't know those children were born out of wedlock," Kritanta argued. Nirnasha narrowed his eyes again and pecked her a little on the her hand. She scowled. "Ow."

"It doesn't matter if they were born out of wedlock. All children are bastards," Nirnasha said matter-of-factly, as if there were no room for discussion. "And that didn't hurt you. You're wearing your leather glove for a reason."

"I wear it for you to land on, not so you can peck me." Nirnasha ruffled his feathers a bit, then turned his head around to scratch one of his wings with his beak.

The human with the white hair-- Virgil, Kritanta thought he called himself-- said hesitantly, "Olive?" Kritanta blinked, then smiled, a bit amused. She had forgotten she told them that was her name, back when she thought this was going to be a simple get-in-get-out kind of job. You never gave your real name on those, in case someone was caught and ratted you out. She always found it funny to think of someone calling her "Olive" when she was a death god-like, since Olive sounded so close to "alive".

She looked around and noticed, with a bit of confusion, that the other two seemed to have disappeared.

"Yes?" She glanced over at him, then turned to glare at Nirnasha, who was steadily tightening his claws on her shoulder with impatience.

"What?" He squawked innocently.

"Go," Kritanta said firmly. "If you're so impatient, fly to the docks. You already said we've got five hours to burn." She used her right arm to grab one of his legs and yank it off the the shoulder pad on her left arm.

Nirnasha grumbled a little, making a snapping motion at her with his beak, but took off, and Kritanta looked back over at Virgil. "Yes?" She repeated.

He frowned and watched Nirnasha fly off. "You... you do realize that's a bird."

She raised her eyebrows at him and blinked a few times. "Wow, I hadn't noticed. And he was a crow too! And here I thought I had an octopus sitting on my arm."

Virgil scratched at the back of his neck. "Yeah, well, I just... why were you talking to it?"

"Him," Kritanta corrected, studying Virgil for a moment. For a man in his thirties, he seemed awfully... young. "I'm a ranger. When I turned 18, Nirnasha was gifted to me by the Usher." Even saying his name left a bitter taste in her mouth, so she moved past it quickly. "He's from a god so he can talk, though most rangers find ways to communicate with their companions either way."

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Kritanta said, "You know what? That was snarky of me. I started on the wrong foot. Hi," she held out her hand. "Nice to meet you-- Virgil, right?"

Virgil nodded and shook her hand. "Likewise."

Kritanta nodded, then turned to look in the direction of the docks, where she could see Nirnasha nearing it. She watched as he circled a few times then landed. "Where did the other two go?" She asked, turning back to him.

"Well, technically there were four of us. I haven't seen two since we were actually with the mage. Then the others both just... walked off."

"Ah," Kritanta said blandly, then questioned aloud, "I wonder if it was my aura. That happens sometimes."

"Your... aura?" Virgil took a step back. "You mean like death? Does being around you make you die quicker?"

Kritanta fought off the urge to glare at him. "Yeah, and since I'm an Orlan, you're going to start growing hair out of your ears." Virgil's cheeks turned pink, and he opened his mouth to, no doubt, deny the jab, but she cut him off. "I'm cursed by the Usher. Do you think the Usher would give me the gift to kill people around me? He just gave me an intense fear of dying young and a reluctance to kill things that aren't old. If I were you, I'd be more worried about the priests. They'll sell their soul just to get some "blessings" from the gods, and we've got a death priest and a torture priest. Don't fear the person who was born with the power. Fear the person who'll do whatever it takes to get their hands on it."

Virgil opened his mouth to reply, but a caw cut him off. Kritanta extended her arm and Nirnasha settled onto the glove on her hand.

"You landed. What did you see?" Kritanta asked, taking another look at the shops around them--most filled with the usual boring, fancy, unnecessary pieces of clothing that seemed to fill all stores-- before turning to look at Nirnasha.

"Nuts," he said simply. "Dead mouse. They were both delicious." Kritanta stared at him.

"If you flew all the way back just to tell me the only thing you looked for there were nuts and mice..."

Nirnasha shuffled, poking his beak into his left wing and shaking it a little before turning his head back to look at her. "Don't be ridiculous. I landed so the bastards would stop shouting at me. And then I took off so the bastards would stop trying to touch me." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "Oh, and traps. No traps. No suspicious groups. In fact, the only suspicious group in this place seems to be ours." His eyes twinkled and his beak opened slightly, his version of a smile.

"Great," Kritanta sighed. "No traps, no suspicious groups, and we're missing four members, two of which we haven't seen in an hour." She turned to Virgil. "Unless you've got some sort of shopping craze you need to go on, I suggest we just head down to the docks and wait there for them."

Or, a voice whispered in her head, even better, we could leave them behind. Group missions had never been Kritanta's thing, and she was tempted to leave them behind. But she could already tell Virgil felt lost without the whole group, and Kritanta definitely couldn't lead another person on a mission meant for six people.

Virgil nodded. "The harbor sounds best."

Nirnasha croaked, "maybe there will be more nuts. And mice."

"More bastards, too," Kritanta pointed out, and Nirnasha clacked his beak in disapproval.

Virgil seemed to choke on air. "Excuse me?"

"Nothing," Kritanta said nonchalantly. "Now then. Let's go down to the docks."