Dawn and reality break together.
Space twists; trembles; tears. A tiny hole appears in the air and rapidly doubles in size, twice, thrice, five times, ten times. Around it the grass begins to wither, and the stones begin to crumble, and the very color begins to leach out of the sky, and only then do the first demons appear. They pour out of the gate by their dozens, then by their hundreds: monstrous figures of billowing smoke, solid only in their jagged teeth and sickle claws, capable only of destruction in this foreign realm. And then, after them, the first of their greater brethren begins to emerge, a chaotic swirl of color gaining clarity and shape by the second.
Across the open field, a smaller twist in space, and a man appears. He is still for a brief moment, and then with a gesture and a shouted word, his magic pours forth to seal that which should not be open. The portal's expansion slows and then stops entirely; the greater demon, only half-formed, struggles, freezes, and then rapidly withdraws; the flood of lesser demons slows and becomes a mere trickle.
Leaving only the few thousand already on this side for Anathon Grier to deal with. And he can feel the portal testing its restraints: left to itself, it will reopen.
He cannot do this alone.
With another incantation and an expression of will that leaves him gasping, he expands space surrounding the horde, forcing them to cross hundreds of new yards to reach any target. But there is no time to recover; with this bought minute, he focuses his mind and sends messages across the world, to spirit mage after spirit mage, asking, imploring, begging for help. The first responds
Yes, and he tears open a spatial rift suitable for intercontinental travel as his pulse beats loud in his head. He reaches in, clasps the hero by their wrist, and pulls them through.
Sweat beads across his skin and his hand has already begun to tremble. He ignores it. As his ally rushes to battle, Grier layers another seal on the Hellgate and then tears the world open again to draw forth another hero. There is no question of doing enough; only the question of how much time he can buy before he can do no more. His fate is sealed.
Forgive me, Miella.
Orolin is a world of magic and mystery, where geomantic engines power the neon lights of shining glass-and-chrome cities, where heroes channel the surging power of their own spirits to perform wondrous deeds. It is a world beset by danger and intrigue and war, as worlds so often are.
And now it is being invaded by the demons who dwell amongst the stars. This is not a minor incursion, such as has happened before. It is not a single demon or a small pack of them, not even a little easily-contained portal. A Hellgate of unfathomable scope -- an occult passageway leading to dozens or hundreds of inter-linked demonic other-worlds -- has appeared right outside the resort town of Vindar, on the coast of the world's farthest-flung and most poorly-explored continent.
Had the Hellgate been left unsealed, even for so long as an hour, it might have worked evil untold. It might, perhaps, have ripped the very world asunder. But it had not existed for more than a few instants before it was discovered by the legendary magus Anathon Grier, the foremost master of spatial magic in the history of mankind.
Grier placed countless sealing-spells and wards upon the Hellgate. They would not last forever -- would not even last a few weeks -- but they would last long enough, he hoped. The demonic portal would open slowly, in bits and pieces, not all at once.
Then he sent his thoughts outward to great heroes, the mightiest spirit-mages of Orolin. He begged them to offer up their aid, to drop everything, to come fight the demons and save the world. And if they assented, as many did, he tore open a passage in the aether and brought them straight to Vindar.
Over and over he did this, until his spirit could no longer take the strain of it, and he died.
You are one of those heroes. You stand now far from home, far from everything you thought you cared about, in a fantastically-luxurious seaside resort somewhere near the back end of nowhere. You are surrounded by living legends. And soon enough, Grier's sealing-spells will begin to crumble, and the demon-realms will begin to press into the world.
You will be ready to fight, when that happens. You must be.
Welcome to the Hellgate Hotel.
What sort of hero has answered Grier's call? First, a question of mundane identity:
[][GENDER] Write-in
And the second issue to be decided today: with what magic does your own spirit overflow?
[][MAGIC] Ancestral Scion
Ancestral scions can conjure forth spiritual entities that appear to be the ghosts or phantoms of their own genetic predecessors. These ancestor-ghosts can fight on behalf of the mages who summon them, and -- sometimes -- offer up their own skills and knowledge. As a scion grows in power, their ghosts will display more coherence-of-personality and more capacity for independent action. Scholars are divided as to whether these entities are genuinely the spiritual remnants of deceased humans, or merely psychic projections of the summoner's imagination; scions themselves tend to have strong feelings on this issue. All known ancestral scions come from a few famous lineages, which manifest this form of magic with great regularity; the most noteworthy of these is the royal line of Gavis.
[][MAGIC] Beast Soul Adept
Some mages find that their empowered spirit takes the form of an "inner beast" of some kind -- a true spiritual self that is animalistic, or monstrous, and that can be partly unleashed into the world through the expenditure of power. This is one of the very most common and widespread kinds of spirit magic, although it can take many different forms, since an "inner beast" can be practically anything. It is also, usually, one of the most straightforwardly physical kinds of magic. Beast Soul Adepts can temporarily give themselves features of their totemic identities: claws, fangs, wings, whatever is appropriate. They can often employ the senses, or the instincts, or the unusual abilities, of their beasts. At the heights of their ability, they can fully transform into bestial shape.
[][MAGIC] Body Savant
Body savants' magic focuses on control and manipulation of their own physical forms. At a basic level, most mages of this kind are effortlessly healthy and fit, and resist most nonmagical diseases. Those who choose to hone this power develop an intuitive familiarity with the thousand intricate interconnected systems of their own bodies -- a familiarity usually supplemented by intensive, long-term study -- to better understand their limitations, and then push those limitations as far as possible. Body savants are ever surefooted and poised, capable of delivering precise and shattering blows with their bare hands and feet, and can control their adrenaline and serotonin levels to modulate their instinctual reactions or keep themselves awake and on their feet far longer than normal. Masters of this discipline can reshape their body on the macro-level: creating backup organs, coaxing spikes of bone to serve as armor or weapons, and even healing from mortal wounds.
[][MAGIC] Echo Caller
Echo Callers make for excellent scholars and researchers in arcane fields, for their power allows them to perceive magical phenomena directly -- synesthetically "seeing" the flows and patterns of the aetheric forces -- like no one else can. They are most famous, however, for their ability to make their own magic conform to the patterns that they "see." Which is to say; during the brief moments when the residue of a spell or magical effect lingers in the world, an echo mime can often cast that same spell or create that same effect, regardless of its origins.
[][MAGIC] Mnemonist
Many mages of many kinds possess at least some small measure of psychometry: the ability to sense echoes-of-the-past that are strongly connected to a particular person, place, or item. Those who choose to focus on this power can often learn to experience and interpret these echoes with greater clarity. Although perceptible ambient memories are rare, and generally appear only in connection with moments of great emotion or spectacular amounts of magic, a master mnemonist can go searching for a particular event or moment of the past -- experiencing it through multiple perspectives, and even turning themself into an amplifier to transmit their understanding directly to others. Mnemonism is not a particularly combat-oriented kind of magic, but mnemonists who do take up arms learn to capitalize on their ability to gather valuable information about their enemies' capabilities and weaknesses.
[][MAGIC] Purifier
Purifiers wield the magic of the purging flame, which they generally perceive as burning eternally inside their heart, waiting to be unleashed on the world. Purifiers are known for their skill with the obvious combative applications of fire, but the purging flame is also capable of much subtler applications. Applied with careful skill, it can purge poison from food, or disease from a living body. Applied with very careful skill, it can purge memories -- or even entire aspects of personality -- from the mind of someone who is willing to be so changed. As a rule, this kind of magic manifests among people who have a deep-seated desire to change the world around them.
[][MAGIC] Shadow Dancer
This brand of spirit magic revolves around solidifying, and manipulating, shadows. The most fundamental shadow dancer techniques mostly revolve around the mage turning their own shadow into a capable, empowered ally -- a scout and spy and combat partner, perfectly in synch with its master's thoughts, perfectly silent. Shadow dancers can also manipulate ambient shadows, transforming them into temporary weapons or hiding-places. Shadow dancers are uncommon even by spirit-mage standards, and they tend to be extremely secretive.
[][MAGIC] Silver Knight
A mage of this kind can conjure forth, at will, a suit of armor and a weapon -- uniquely individual in its form, but always gleaming silver -- shaped from pure magic force. It is said that a silver knight's arms and armor are physical manifestations of their very soul. Their weapon can strike with unnatural force, but is practically weightless in their hands, and can be intuitively maneuvered with great skill; their armor is nigh-impervious, but does not hinder their movement at all. Silver knights are found all over the world, and often make lives for themselves as elite soldiers, for many armies prize them above all other kinds of mages.
[][MAGIC] Stormchild
Storm magic is among the most widespread kinds of spirit magic, and for many people, the stormchild is the absolute classic archetype of the magician. Stormchildren can soar through the air like birds, and they can unleash blasts of lightning from their hands. Their skills are, of course, prized by armies -- they make for excellent scouts, and are unmatched as air-artillery -- but as a rule they are free-spirited and rebellious. They often live restless and nomadic lives, although there are a few Nivvean martial sects with traditions of helping stormchildren discipline themselves and channel their power.
[][MAGIC] Stonelaw Enforcer
Though Stonelaw Enforcers are visible on the battlefield for the walls they raise, the terrain they manipulate, and the boulders they hurl, their true power does not rest in mere manipulations of soil and rock. Rather, they wield the conceptual essence of the earth: the principles of weight and mass, of absorption and solidity, are theirs to command. While found all over the world, they are most prized in Morleas, for the tense peaces and wary alliances of that continent are ever in need of those who can help raise fortresses and suppress raiding parties.
Welcome, SV, to a reboot of my first quest. Hellgate Hotel is an online RPG that was run for my friends during COVID lockdown, to give us something to do as a community when we couldn't gather in person. Three and a half years ago, I attempted to adapt it to a quest format; I rapidly realized that I had bitten off way more than I could chew and, sadly, discontinued it. Last year, I ran
I Walk In Dreams, a quest that successfully concluded a few months after it began. Now with some actual experience under my belt and a way more stable situation (my job is on solid footing! I got married! I have
@mirror_lock, one of the original authors, helping me out!), I am ready to take another swing at it -- I felt that tying the resumed quest to the old character was unreasonable, hence the new thread and fresh start. The character creation votes should look fairly similar to what came before, and the lore drops as well, but there might be differences, and anything in the old thread that is not in this one is not necessarily canon!
Important notes:
- Votes will be approval and not by plan unless otherwise specified. I strongly encourage people to approval vote all the options they like!
- This quest will be fairly mechanically lightweight but not zero mechanics. The action will revolve around hanging around a hotel with your fellow summoned-from-far-away heroes, getting to know each other, forming political and personal relationships, and sometimes delving into arcane rifts to fight demons. You know, if you have time.
- I've got a ton of setting information ready to go, but I will be posting it in digestible chunks, generally after votes close, rather than whacking you all with the Lord of the Rings appendices by way of a hello. That said, if you have specific questions, I am happy to answer.
- Character creation should span three votes -- this one, and then two more -- and then we will launch into the start of the quest. That said, because of the importance of spirit magic for establishing the character, I may hold a run-off vote between the leading options of the [MAGIC] task, if there are a couple of strong contenders and no runaway leads.
- There will be multiple viable ways to approach this quest's plot, but I feel it important to emphasize that there will be no Golden Path I am laying hints for that gets you the Bonus Secret Best Ending. Different paths will be different.
If you are still with me, thank you very much for your time and attention. Orolin awaits you, hero.
