Spartans, on a place like Earth they were an extreme war-like people that would throw baby's off mountains for any imperfections that they could see. On a place like Terra? They took the extreme to the extreme.
This is about a young Spartan who will become an adventurer in a fantasy world, who will go on quests from the local adventurer guild.
Spartans, on a place like Earth they were an extreme war-like people that would throw baby's off mountains for any imperfections that they could see. On a place like Terra? They took the extreme to the extreme.
Instead of looking for just physical imperfections, they also looked for mental ones as well, for instance whether or not we could adapt to our environment. They didn't kill any babies at birth, they threw them into what is essentially an arena of death when they became 12 years old.
Why 12 years old? Because even the best smarts, body, and adaptability would struggle at any younger of an age. I was taught for as long as I can remember, probably before that even, how to fight, wage war, and adapt to both my environment and my enemies.
Who are you?
Name and number?:
[]Write in?(A 1 word name and a 4 digit number following it.)
Gender?:
[]Man
[]Woman
You were trained how to fight for your whole life, what weapon do they give you?
What weapon do you get?(The weapon you were trained with):
[]Shield?: A shield and a shield alone. A shield when wielded right can become a fearsome weapon and a fierce protector.
[]Gladius?: A smaller sword meant for slashing and stabbing. It is a good weapon when used right and paired with a shield. Too bad I don't have a shield also.
[]Short spear?: A spear meant for stabbing or throwing. It's good for when penetration is needed and if necessary can be thrown to finish off an enemy.
[]Write in?(Pick another weapon. Must be melee.)
Now came hell, the grey forest, a forest that is lapped in ash covering most of the forest. The forest to Spartans was both a blessing and a curse, as apparently two gods gave this to the Spartans, one cursed it making it extremely hard to survive inside due to monsters and the environment. The other blessed it giving any person who is under 14 that survives its depths for 1 day or fells an enemy, a blessing of combat.
What does the blessing of combat do? I don't know. I'll hopefully find out soon.
Any character made has a chance of dying inside this forest, in which case we will start again and remake the character. We do this as many times as needed until we succeed.
Any character who succeeds will get a skill related to their choice of weapon. The power of said skill depends on if you stayed for 1 day or the power of the enemy you slayed. The stronger the enemy the better the skill.
[x]Shield?: A shield and a shield alone. A shield when wielded right can become a fearsome weapon and a fierce protector. [x]Man
[x]Name: Lysander 3939
This will be where we keep our personal knowledge of monsters we encounter. Monsters are essentially anything that is ranked from F- to A+ on the danger scale.
Example:
Bunny rabbit? No rank.
Horned rabbit? F- rank.
Twin headed wolf? E rank.
Rankings or detailings of these monsters can be more diverse than "Just danger" they can show rarity, value, whether or not they are friendly towards humans, etc.
Example:
Horned rabbit: A horned rabbit is the lowest ranked monster and least dangerous monster on the danger scale. It's only advantage is that it's horn can be broken off after stabbing into an opponent. It does this incase it gets stuck while stabbing its opponent.
Danger rank: F-
Value: Averages around 2-3 coppers for a body.
Rarity: Extremely common, can be seen in most places normal rabbits can be seen. Current known dictionary:
Forest of death goblins: Essentially goblins that have been weakened in both strength and numbers, so that the initiates of the Spartans can fight and possibly survive against them.
Danger rank: F+
Note: Monster ideas are always welcomed. I'll try to put them in the story if I can.
It's your brand. Spartans(In this world at least) don't give you a full name, instead they go full military giving you a number that represents you. On any documentation they have, instead of your full name, you will have your number or possibly if their nice, your name and your number.
If you want a full name, you have to earn it.
Also yes I'm not counting your votes unless their plans.
[X] Plan: Revolt or die
-[X]Man
-[X]Short spear
-[X]NAME:Cinadon 5161
I was brought out of the barracks, essentially a giant jail that was made to breed soldiers into being, the place I've been in for all my life. Of course I've gone outside, they needed to as any blood spilled from the spars was better to go onto the ground than onto the floors.
The place I lived in was Sparta, I knew literally nothing else about its location besides that the planet I'm on is named Terra. It's hard to imagine how big the planet is, when I've spent all my life within 10~ miles worth of space. Those 10 miles were entirely for running, drills, training, spars, with a single hall for where the food is made. We weren't even allowed to eat there, something about it would "Make us too comfortable and soft."
Anyway I was now walking outside of this small space, riding with my instructor on a horse. I saw the world for what it was, or at least my surroundings. There were people who walked around, more people than I've ever seen. Sure there was about 50-60 of us in the barracks, but there were 100s on the streets, the farther away we went the more people I saw.
Until we passed the apparent 'town' that we needed to go through to get to the forest of death. Without any words, only a gesture by my instructor, I got off the horse and walked to a very old man.
He was sitting down looking at the forest with his back turned to me. He spoke "Hello child… I'm not allowed to give you too much information on what's in there, nor do I really want to. I will give you this however, the forest in all of its death and monsters, has a rhythm to it. Everything in there follows it's own rhythm regardless of what you do. That is all."
He than gave me a weapon that I have trained with and succeeded best with. A short spear, specifically a wooden short spear with crude metal on its tip. It could probably still cut things but it's fragile.
Wooden initiation spear: It's quality is surprising, not in the way it's a good weapon, more in its purpose. It's meant to have a weakness and a strength, hopefully the initiate that wields it can find them out. Stats: 1d3 for slicing, 1d4 for stabbing, +1 attack if opponent is armored. No more information is available. Strength and weakness unknown.
Old man: "I will guide you into the forest, you will feel dizzy for but a moment, no monsters will be too close, from there you must either survive for 24 hours or slay a monster of some strength. Axiol!!!"
My vision blanked out before I registered that I was now in the forest, surrounded by-
???
-trees that were grey in color, scratch marks all over them, some looking as if they were stabbed. On the ground of one of the trees, there were a couple small teeth, canines, that were covered in blood and ash. A terrifying sight, yet it was something I could use.
Monster Book:
???: Creature who made these marks has claws of some kind, they seem long enough to poke 2 inch holes into the trees. Most likely a meat eater, possibly injured as evidenced by the teeth however unsure if they were the ones injured or their prey was the one who was injured.
Current info:
Every direction you look, there are trees. You can't see more than 20 meters ahead of you due to falling ash and the trees. There seems to have been a recent fight in the area. The ash on the ground is up to your ankles.
What do you do? Choose as many actions as you want, however the more you choose the less focus you can dedicate to said actions:
[]Track down the unknown monster?: It's injured and the faster I kill something the more likely I am to survive.
[]Inspect the short spear?: A short spear like this is intentionally made with not only weaknesses but also strengths, taking a bit to inspect it and find out those weaknesses/strengths seems like a good idea.
[]Write in?(Train? Track down something? Pick a random direction and start walking? Up to you!) Use plans! Unless you literally pick one option, in which case ok.
Wow I can't say much without changing your odds of survival, good luck!
There are gods, but you will have to roll knowledge for said gods. In this case the prayer to the god of the hunt would be… Dc 40/85. Our character would most likely know the gods of war, victory, and hunt due to being a Spartan. The Dc is mostly whether or not you know a prayer for said god, with the second Dc being whether or not you get blessed with no tribute.
[X]Plan spartaness is next to holyness
-[X] Inspect the short spear
-[X] pray to appropriate gods
-[X] Track down the unknown monster
Inspect the short spear: 84!
I inspected the spear, I quickly noticed that the spear tip is quite sharp, yet extremely fragile. The tip of your weapon being fragile would be horrible on most weapons, except for two in particular. The dagger and the short spear.
If you stab with a short spear there's a chance the end of your spear gets stuck into your opponent, if you can't pull your spear back and your opponent isn't wounded enough to not retaliate, than your in trouble. Very simple problem which is easily solved, although with a small downside.
If the tip of your spear is fragile, you can break it off into your opponent allowing you to withdraw your spear and leave something to cause more damage. If you get good at this there will be no moment of weakness from getting your spear stuck. The downside being you can only do this a number of times before your spears tip is gone or blunted. Most likely the tip will become so small that it will be ineffective in combat.
Strength: If your spears tip is stuck, you can break it off into your opponent allowing you to withdraw your spear! Deals 1d2 damage per round while inside the opponent. Can do this 2-3 times before the spear becomes ineffective.
Weakness: Your spear is made for short and fast, close combat encounters, unlike most short spears this spear is not made for throwing. Extended combat makes your spear more likely to break. Throwing Dc increased by 20. Spear has a small amount of durability. Pray to appropriate gods, Dc 40/85: 94!
For some reason I felt as if I should pray. It was an interesting thought, I had never prayed before. My instructor taught me about them as if they were an obstruction to man, instead of being capable of helping us. He never asked us to pray and we were either too tired to think of praying or in a coma from fighting or spilling our blood.
There was one god, well family of gods that I learned about, prayers included. That would be Artemis and her descendents. There were four in total with Artemis being the leading god.
Artemis: She is the goddess of the hunt and the wilderness. She is very difficult to talk to and is the head of her family/pantheon. Her symbol is a bow and arrow.
Lazros: He is the son of Artemis. He represents battle and ferocity. He is known to give minor blessings to Spartans, as he considers Spartans a perfect representation of him. His symbol is a spear and shield.
Asenta: She is the first daughter of Artemis. She represents the glory of hunting, patience, and wisdom. She is known to support most hunters as long as they use all of what they hunt. Her symbol is a bear trap with a severed foot.
???: I can't seem to remember the final one of the family. Dc failed.
Who do you pray to? What do you pray for?:
[]Write in?(List who you pray too and what for.)
-[]Prayers content?(Optional. Gives extra bonus depending on how good it is. I'll give minor details of the gods on request) Track down the unknown monster?: 26! Fail! Does a monster encounter you? Dc 40: 12! No monster encounters you.
I tracked down the monster with the few tracks I could find, but the sheer amount of ash on the ground made it impossible, the longer I looked the more ash filled the tracks.
Where are you? 1d3: 2!
I managed to find what looks like a tent of some kind, in a small clearing next to the forest. I found footprints on the ground, with a small dagger nearby. Goblins. Not the strongest thing out there but the problem is numbers. In the forest of death they travel in groups of 3-6, this was made true by the gods that made this place.
I'm sure as long as I wait around the place, I'll encounter them. The question is, do I believe I can kill 3-6 goblins?
What do you do?:
[]Wait for the goblins?
[]Make some traps or obstacles?
[]Write in? Finally! I was trying to make up basic backstories for the gods, before realizing that would take basically forever. So I cut it down to bare basics. I am willing to give you some details of said gods on request! Just ask!
[x]Plan - Pray, Hunt, Kill
-[X] Pray to Lazros - May this hunt bring glory to the spartan people and glory to you mighty lazross. Help me strike down the foes of our people through ferocity, cunning and guile.
-[X] Make some traps or obstacles.
[x]Plan - Pray, Hunt, Kill
-[X] Pray to Lazros - May this hunt bring glory to the spartan people and glory to you mighty lazross. Help me strike down the foes of our people through ferocity, cunning and guile.
-[X] Make some traps or obstacles.
