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QuoteA sailor sits by his lonesome at the Krak des Roses, served by the good man Jodfry. Nursing a wine cheaper than water, the sailor attempts numerous times to strike up a conversation with the Master of Wines, but the latter proves no good company to someone penniless and smelling of strange smoke, old salt and cheap spices. At long last he instead turns to you for company. Within minutes, the sailor's silvered tongue uncoils and enraptures not just you, but an audience nearby. He speaks with the practiced cadence and charismatic confidence of a man whose only purpose in life up until this point seems to have been to meet with you, here, tonight, solely so that he could tell you these words.
Do you listen?
QuoteStrange Sailor: The Sea of Pearls holds many mysteries. Rare ruins lost below her azure and emerald waters and terrors of the dark even lower beneath where sunlight finds no purchase. Dark things lay there, anchored and awaiting, darkly dreaming. Furious things there slumber with too many eyes and too many teeth. But those are not the tales to be told to you tonight. No, instead, I shall spin you another yarn.[/hide]
Strange Sailor: Tell me... have you heard of the Dead Siren? They say that the black ship is so fast on the open waters that it may outpace even death itself. Three-hundred years have her black sails terrorized the shine of our seas, helmed by the captain Liva Trazant. Ceaseless, they call her. Undying. Immortal.
Strange Sailor: And her treasure, you ask? Stolen from a sultan ages ago, but said to never have been spent. Which means it must still be out there, somewhere...
At that point the sailor smiles to show salt still lingering his lower lip, even so far away from the nearest port. He pulls out what appears to be an ancient fragment of a map and holds it out for you for you to take a better look, but only for a moment: he seems quite possessive of it. You catch a glimpse of the name of an island, somewhere amidst the Sea of Pearls. Luca Ferra. The sailor turns to face you, catching your gaze and holding it with his own. He raises an eyebrow as crooked as his smile.
Strange Sailor: So. Will you help me look?
QuoteThe wind whirls, the sands scour. To the backdrop of beleaguered refugees wandering into Ephia's Well we hear of ancient things finding themselves upturned and rumors of a Cup, hidden amidst the wastes, waiting to be found. Weary as you may yet be: rest as in your home here, strangers. Live and drink.
QuoteThe Story Thus Far
The King is dead.
After the Ringfall, all that separated his once disparate people has collapsed. The threat of the endless tide of the Nothing has been eliminated, but it has completely destroyed many of the former Outer Rings. Yet the Great Ash Desert remains and the jewels of great cities such as Ba'zeel, Kha'esh and Ephia's Well still stand. What's left of the world is a barren wasteland, but there may yet be hope for restoration as many search for a way to restore life to the sands. How hard must a heart be to survive in a world where water is more valuable than gold?
The King is dead. His world is dying. Who can save it?
QuoteMs. Yucky Lucky:
[A sultry, exotic voice] Spinning Groat's gone, ain't that a shame? But - a-ha-Ha-HA! - we all know who's to blame. No matter, no foul, for Lucky's on the prowl! I'm announcing tomorrow's grand opening of Yucky Lucky's Gambling Grotto!
Dice and dicin', slots and slicin'. Come drink, come dance, bring your blades, your groat, try your littlest chance! Do you have what it takes do put on the line the highest stakes? Dare you gamble with your life?
Remember, my vainglorious friends... it's pay to play at Yucky Lucky's Gambling Grotto!
And the winner... well, the winner takes all, right? See you tomorrow!
QuoteIn the wake of recent events, the Pallid appear to have redoubled their ceaseless incursions, pale portals having been encountered flashing even insofar as the recesses of Ring 98. A three-way duel of domains - king, count, prince - appears inevitable.
Scouting parties have entered the Bonelands, bringing with them tales of a preparation of all-out, never-ending war by the Prince's forces.
The drill continues to be defended by the brave, but courage is counted in moments, not, as the Pallid's endless forces seem to threaten, forever.
Woeful winds reign, clouds clot together, and skeletal figures patrol the road all the way to Ring 92. Proximity is the Pallid's only prerequisite to distinguish friend from foe... and Ring 99 has never seemed nearer to the ceaseless danger the Prince beyond the pale seems to pose.
Concerned souls have begun to gather, in open and in secret, planning their part in the plays to come., whilst elsewhere a clock tick-ticks away, whiling away the hours..
QuoteHere henceforth then the rules of that oldest game of games and kingliest of traditions, WIZARD'S CHESS.
GAME RULES
1. Pieces may not step on the board until the game begins. Pieces may not cast spells, use abilities or otherwise use items on themselves or others in preparation for the game. During set up, pieces must set their color to ally and their opponent's to hostile and make certain subdual mode is activated (/c subdual subdual).
2. Wizards at play may never step on the board. Wizards may prepare their pieces prior to game start via the casting of natural spells only (i.e. only spells cast from spellslots). Moves must always be announced clearly and concisely by the wizards ("Red Queen D2 to D7") and when this is announced, must immediately press their timer. The opposing wizard must wait out the timer's cooldown before announcing their next move. Wizards may forgo a turn to move in favor of casting a single spell which must be cast from their throne of play.
3. The game is won by whichever wizard subdues the other's King.
4. Basic movement for each individual piece is the same as in the boring and mundane variant of 'normal' chess. Pieces can move only through their own color's, excluding the Knight, who can pass through both colors freely.
5. Pieces may not cast spells, use items, or use any other ability on themselves until either an ally's or an opponent's piece enters their square for any reason.
6. Pieces may use natural abilities, use items on, cast spells at, or attack any pieces (ally or enemy) entering their square.
7. Summoning spells are banned from play, as are the following spells: Acid/Incendiary Fog, Evard's Black Tentacles, Virulent Plague spells, Mislead-type spells.
8. Pieces, when moved, must always be either walking or running on their way to their destination.
9. Pieces may only be moved to either an empty square OR a square that has an opponent's piece on it. If a piece enters their destination square with an opponent's piece on it, battle is joined between those pieces until one piece is defeated or a piece is moved by a wizard on their turn. Pieces may use anything at their disposal except summons and banned spells. Pieces may not move from their destination square. Once one piece lies defeated, the victorious piece can no longer take any further action (e.g. no healing after the fight).
10. Periodically runes of stored spells may spawn onto the board.
PIECE RULES
PAWN: Pawns can only move forward. On their first move, they can move one or two squares. Afterwards, they can move only one square at a time. They can participate in any ongoing battle diagonally in front of them and can otherwise attack any enemy piece by moving one square forward diagonally. Pawns regenerate slowly.
When a pawn reaches the other side of the board, they can reintroduce any of their wizard's taken pieces at the pawn's discretion or otherwise exchange their helmet for any other chess piece's (excluding the King, and only a Queen's if there is no other in play for their color). If a Pawn chooses to return a piece, they must return to the farthest unoccupied square on the row they're currently standing on ("reset the row").
A wizard may declare a Pawn Royale on their turn (once per game for each wizard), during which all pawns are free to move about the board in a massive free-for-all for 3 minutes (wait for the timer to start) and may attempt to take out any other hostile pawns. Once the timer ends, all action must cease immediately and any remaining pawns must retake their previous position on the board.
BISHOP: Bishops can move any number of squares diagonally. Bishops have True Seeing and access to several supporting spells which they can use at any time along the diagonal lengths they are standing on.
KNIGHT: Knights can move only in an L-shape, one square up and two over, or two squares over and one down, or any such combination of one-two or two-one movements in any direction. Knights can unleash a powerful burst of magical power.
ROOK: Rooks can move any number of squares, up and down and side to side. Rooks are exceptionally sturdy.
QUEEN: Queens can move any number of squares along ranks, files and diagonals. The queen can use all their natural abilities, spells, and any item other than healing on themselves at any point. Queens are Hasted.
KING: Kings can move one square at a time in any direction up to as many times as their wizard has pieces (excluding himself) remaining on the board, in a row. When threatened by a hostile piece ("king in check") the King must either move or otherwise be defended by an allied piece through either blocking access to the King or engaging the piece in hostile combat. If a hostile piece enters the King's square, he may flee in the nearest safest direction up to his maximum allotted movement provided he did not move the previous turn. If he is trapped, he must stand and fight and be defeated as any other remaining piece on the board. Kings are situationally survivable.
QuoteDM Shout
Suddenly, scintillating light is maddeningly sucked inward unto itself somewhere above where Ticker Square once stood. The sky becomes crenulated, layered with kaleidoscopic colors that distort the passage of heaven.
For a few brief moments, the silhouette of a ship sailing across the sky can be seen: its planesick-speckled hull battered, broken, barely kept aloft. Colormottled, it steers a violent course deeper inwards.
A solitary hooded figure can be seen hurriedly crossing the deck, briefly scanning what passes for the city below. Before the ship nears the Ring Door, there's another sudden flash of colors beyond earthly spectrum.
The ship vanishes as violently and suddenly as it appeared, leaving little but grievously colored eyes and guts churning with planesickness in its wake. But those who know, know.
The Whipping Griffon rides again.
QuoteSo far I have dipped my toes in only planar puddles, but come week's end I go to drown in a million droplets: the enormity of sea.
I go unto a place hitherto never traveled by mortal means, but the Whipping Griffon needs manning by the brave. I need a crew, again, to help me withstand whatever the worlds may throw at me.
Will you help?
QuoteOne night in Ring 99: bone meal on the wind like ash after a wildfire. The grinding of molars signifying skeletal laughter from voiceboxes long since atrophied. Accompanying this is sent out a letter to live ringrunners who have caught glimpse of the pale city on the horizon, titled AN INVITATION TO THE TRANSIENT TRESPASSER. It is written in black ink stained here and there with ochre-colored flecks of blood: the dried spills of a macabre meal... Inside it, what appears to be a copy of a passage derived from a holy book of dread.QuoteBehold ye, beyond the loom of an unlit horizon of a grandly still world,
There rises such sight of a magnificent edifice of bleached bone,
The path guarded by a many-ribbed gate with carnelian hinges,
Ye look upon the vista of a city beyond the pale serving as seat to a great prince,
Marvel, ye visitor, and despair, for woe to your bones if ye have come unannounced...
BOOK OF PALE 1:1
It seems this mysterious letter may serve as an invitation to a strange and otherworldly court...
QuoteA young Doorkeeper, looking sleepless and frazzled, can be seen staking in a wooden sign near the King's statue in the Commons, before hurrying his way back to the clock tower in Ticker Square. The sign reads:
"Sought: Capable Ringrunners & Brave Adventurers for Distant & Dangerous Mission towards Far Outer Rings. Sizable Reward for Services Rendered. Seek out Doorkeeper Isaiah by No Road."
QuoteFor generations now two minor peerage families- the Redwheats and the Halemonts - have squabbled bloodily with one another, each one proclaiming themselves to be the descendants of one of the cadet branches of one of the Great Houses, touting a single vested ancestor, Embeth Stirck - supposedly Dorvant the Daring's grandson - as their family's patriarch. Now, after almost a century, there appears finally the opportunity to put this red-riven vendetta between the two families to rest. The question then remains: whom do you call 'father'?
