Nascent Goddess Quest

Character Sheet(s)

Mechanics-y Stuff:
Your health is split into categories. You have a set amount of Mana that is used to cast your spells and Ambition Points that are used to manipulate ambitions. Mana refreshes after sleeping. Some Ambition Points are lost upon sleeping. Status is for listing various buffs and debuffs.

Health Categories:
Perfectly Fine
Minor Damage
Light Damage
Moderate Damage
Heavy Damage
Critical Condition
Last Chance

Fighting at Critical Condition imposes a -10 to rolls

When at Last Chance you have one last round of acting before you die, healing items can be used but not healing spells.

Being untrained in a weapon imposes a -20 penalty to rolls, this reduces as you use it and will be eliminated if you are trained.

For combat you select one of five styles:
Full Offence - attack the enemy without trying to defend yourself
Offence - Focus on attacking at a penalty to defence
Balance - both attack and defend, with no bonus
Defence - Focus on defending at a penalty to attacking
Full Defence - avoid enemy attack, either via dodging or blocking at the cost of not attacking

During each round of combat you roll 1d100 for attacking and defending (as does your opponent), if an attack roll if higher than an opposed defend roll, it hits. Should the defend and attack rolls be the same the attack roll wins. Rolling an attack that is 50 over an opponent's defence roll results in a critical hit, dealing bonus damage.

Full Offence: +30 to hit, increased damage, no defence roll
Offence: +26 to hit, -26 to defence roll
Balance: no bonus/penalty
Defence: +26 to defence roll, -26 to hit
Full Defence: +40 to defence roll, no attack

All spells can be used in any of the five strategies. A spell may only be used once per combat round.

Items can only be used in the Defence and Full Defence styles.

Parrying: In any combat round you can opt to parry and riposte an attack. Parrying requires that you succeed on both the attack and defend rolls. Parrying negates penalty from the Full Offence, and Full Defence modes down to a penalty equal to their bonus (-30 and -40 respectively). If a parry succeeds you both damage the opponent and avoid being hit, alongside this you also knock the opponent off balance, giving them a -15 penalty to their rolls next round. If you fail either roll you either get hit, fail to hit or both (depending on which roll fails) and also get knocked off balance, suffering a -10 penalty to rolls next round. During a parry the Offence styles do not offer bonus damage. Some attacks cannot be parried (like a giant fist about to crush you or a fireball). A parry cannot be used in the round after a parry has been made. Parrying requires an appropriate weapon (can't parry a greatsword with your hands).

Armour and weapons can deteriorate if damaged enough. Armour will only take a blow if you fail to dodge. You can still fail to dodge but succeed on the defence roll; if your defence roll without the armour bonus beats the opponent's attack roll, you dodge; if your defence roll needs the armour bonus to beat the opponent's attack roll, your armour takes the blow and you do not; if you fail the defence roll you and your armour taken damage. The Defence and Full Defence styles apply half their bonus to dodging and half to armour.

Ambition Points can be gained by draining ambition from others or by achieving important goals you set. The more difficult the goal is, the more points you get upon its completion. When you have lots of Ambition points they slowly drain away at the end of each day, the amount lost goes up depending on the amount you have.

Corruption: As you make choices you will build up Corruption within yourself, making you more paranoid and willing to do villainous things to achieve your goals. Getting Corruption too high results in a bad end. Corruption is raised by villainous decisions (even "for the greater good" ones). Virtuous actions can reduce Corruption, but it is easier to gain Corruption than lose it. Things like allying with a kingdom that is right and wrong in several aspects against a similarly imperfect nation will not influence Corruption (unless your plan for ending the conflict involves killing a bunch of innocent people from a third nation or something).

Status effects:
Burn: Roll (DC depends on intensity of fire, subsequent infliction of Burn lower DC) to see if the target takes 1 health category of damage. To be clear: chance of Burn being inflicted stays constant, chance of it dealing damage changes. Goes out 2 rounds after the most recent Burn effect, or when you spend time to pat it out.
Freeze: One of the target's limbs is frozen. Frozen hands prevent weapon usage (but can be used as gauntlets), frozen legs reduces defence. Melts after 2 rounds, or if you spend time to smash the ice. Neither effect nor duration stack with additional uses.
Minor Poison: -10 to rolls with a chance of taking 1 health category of damage each round for 2 rounds. Chance of damage does not stack like Burn, duration is renewed with each application.
Paralysed: Cannot act for the next round. Strong targets can shrug it off and take a -20 penalty to rolls. Very strong targets can shrug it off entirely.


For non-combat rolls a 95-100 is a crit success and a 1-5 is a crit fail.

Winning votes:
[w] Yes, I'd like to ask about
-[w] The Elder Cultists
-[w] The Blackfire Assassins
-[w] Other Gods

---

Tobias lets out a long sigh as you ask your questions. "Well, I suppose it makes sense that you would want to know about the more dangerous individuals around. The Elder Cultists are a broad group, with a sect for each Abomination that has been heard of. No one knows how many Abominations exists, but it is theorised that there is one to oppose each God, though that doesn't address the fact that there have been multiple Abominations with the same powers; there are three known Abominations of Fire for example. The principles of each cult differs depending on the Abomination they choose to worship, but the core idea remains the same: Spread ruin and chaos throughout the world, for that is the inevitable conclusion and there is no reason to prolong it." Tobias lets out a dismissive hiss, "As for why they choose not to worship Etorr, the God of Chaos or Xena the Goddess of Destruction, it is likely because they teach that Chaos and Destruction can be used to progress, while the cultists want society to collapse!" Tabias rears back a fist to slam it down one more, but glances at you and stops, instead continuing his lecture with a little embarrassment, "Despite this some sects have managed to convince the authorities in some territories that their worship is not illegal, though this usually happens in Atruona, where enough money would let you publicly execute someone. I have no doubts however that these so called 'legal' cults would jump to crime and attempt to harm you if they learn of your true nature"

"As for the Blackfire Assassins, there are more rumours than fact, so I do not know how much is true. What I do know about them is that they are an organisation of murderers that stretches across all the territories, if you want someone dead and have enough money, they'll get in touch. Their members all carry what is called an Ash Dagger, no one outside the Blackfire Assassins has been able to make one, the dagger leaves a trail of hot ash along its path, limiting the movement of their target as well has causing immense pain to anyone cut by it, some have been reported to even cut off a God's natural healing abilities. The ash does not sear nerves as it burns the flesh, ensuring constant pain. There has never been a chance to study one of these daggers in great depth because they explode when their wielder dies, and these assassins are very much willing to die rather than expose their secrets. The daggers are said to be made only by those at the highest level of the organisation, a widely spread rumour is that the Blackfire Assassins have captured an Abomination somehow and use the ashes of its flesh in their daggers. There have been attempts to infiltrate the Assassins, but by the time anyone reached a position powerful enough to do anything, they had been indoctrinated. The Blackfire Assassins scar both their victims and their members, the more scars a member has, the more powerful he is. Despite the rumours of them having an Abomination, the Assassins do not worship one, though they have the same goal as the cultists: make society collapse. The organisation's ranks are filled with sadists, arsonists, anarchists and other scum, they are equally likely to ask you to join them as they are to kill you if they meet you, but if they knew of your nature and situation? You would be hunted down and killed in one of the most painful ways known to mortals."

"As for the other Gods, there are too many for me to list, but there is thought to be a God for each aspect of the world. The most important god to know of is Galtar the God of Divinity, the first God and thought to be the creator of the other Gods, his worshippers are by far the most powerful and influential religious figures. As I have said there are Gods with domain that are considered destructive, but all Gods works towards, and teach their followers to, seek the betterment of society. This is not to say the Gods are perfect, some Gods have been known to become corrupt and paranoid over time, but they usually return to their normal mannerisms quickly. There are several Gods that you should know of, though you should be able to remember them all when your memories return. First, the Cultivation Trio; Aiden, the God of the Sun, Morgan, the god of the Sea and Petra, Goddess of the Land. These three Gods provide us with all we need to survive: warmth, water and food; as such they have many worshippers. There are also several Gods your domain opposes that you should know of; Nistos the God of Apathy, Pavel the God of Humility and Ashlyn the Goddess of Relaxation. Those are the important Gods you need to know about." Having answered your questions Tobias rises from the ground and folds up the map.

"So, what are we doing next?" you ask.

"Next," he says, while leading you through a new corridor, "we are going to teach you how to fight." After walking for a short while you arrive at what appears to be an arena of some sort. Seeing your look of confusion Tobias explains, "Every God has a weapon they favour, all their followers are taught to fight with this weapon." He pauses to walk over to a glittering box, pulling out a thin blade. "This is your weapon: a rapier. Light enough to maneuver past an opponent's guard yet sturdy enough to deflect an attack if you have the right finesse. Much like how an ambitious person must be able to evade and deflect obstacle in their path while striving towards their goal."

As Tobias hands you the sword, you notice that the blade and handle have been engraved with various patterns, carefully done as to not upset the balance nor weaken the integrity of the weapon. You glance away from the marvelous looking instrument and up at your caretaker, Tobias stands in the center of the arena and beckons you. Stepping in you note that he also holds a similar blade in his hand, though much less fancy.

"Let us begin."

oOo

Of course Tobias beats you again and again, but you improve at an incredible pace, getting the upper hand several times in your most recent bout. You are taught that a rapier should not be used for directly blocking, but for deflecting a blow to the side and then stabbing through the opponent's open guard and that only the thicker bottom of the blade should be used for this. The rapier feels like another part of yourself, you can feel exactly how long it is and precisely how to turn it to deflect a blow. {Got the 'Rapier Training' Perk}. By the end of the day you feel confident that you might be able to beat Tobias.

"My Lady, the sun is beginning to set, we should have time for one last match."

[] Skip the fight (outcome will be decided by a single roll)
[] Do not skip the fight

If 'Do not skip the fight' is chosen, vote for combat as well.

Weapon
[] Fists (-20 to rolls) melee against a guy with a sword?
[] Rapier (no bonus)

Styles
[] Full Offence: +30 to hit, increased damage, no defence roll
[] Offence: +20 to hit, increased damage, -40 to defence roll
[] Balance: no bonus/penalty
[] Defence: +26 to defence roll, -26 to hit
[] Full Defence: +40 to defence roll, no attack

Parry?
[] Yes
[] No