Dark Designs in Krevborna
The normal folk of Krevborna know their land is dark and cursed. They even know something of the dooms that haunt it. Those queer souls who take on the darkness directly end up marked by it.
You are such queer souls as those, each with your own history, secrets, and curses, but you have found company with each other and a cause in pushing back against the darkness.
You and your friends are creating characters that know each other and are part of an adventuring company, vigilante crew, or mercenary band. Talk about what sort of crew you are before you begin.
Start with 0 in Ferocity, Duplicity, and Sorcery. Roll roll 4d6 and assign each die to one of the Character History questions. You can ignore one roll and choose the result you want. Record traits (including duplicate traits) and increase attributes as indicated (never beyond +3).
In addition to your other traits, each character has one queer charm that has kept you connected to the larger world around you, despite your strange ways. Choose one: Smoldering Eyes, Innocent Face, Commanding Presence, Enchanting Voice, Flirtatious Grin, Seductive Confidence, or some other charming feature. List your queer charm with your traits.
Despite your talents and charms, there is something visible that sets you apart and marks you as someone destined to encounter dark powers or terrible secrets. Choose one: Bestial Features, Haunted Eyes, Odd Pallor, Pact Scar, Grave Glare, Mirthless Presence, or some other mark of your encounters (or impending encounters) with the supernatural. List your curse mark with your traits.
Choose an affectation: a velvet cloak and ornate pin, the favor of a lost love, dramatic tattoos, expensive and compelling clothes, a fine felt hat and scarlet scarf, the holy amulet of a forbidden or forgotten god, or something else.
Choose one thing you cannot normally resist: Mournful Cries, Innocent Eyes, Fine Gifts, Direct Pleas, New Pleasures, Unseemly Tales, or something else.
Choose a given name. Many in the cities of Krevborna go by names that would sound to us to be Brittish or Celtic (Breton or Manx). But in this world, Krevborna is located in a silk-road area much like the northern Mediterranean, with ports and travellers from across all over. Krevbornan adventurers might have names that look like those from the southern Mediterranean (Amazigh or Tuareg), the Caucuses (Armenian or Azerbaijani), the Near East (Kurdish or Turkish), Eastern Europe (Hungarian or Romanian), or South Asia (Sanskrit or Persian).
State what pronouns your character will use.
Roll 6+1d6 for hit points.
Choose a form of sorcery: Oracles & Visions, Alchemies & Herbs, Transformations & Transitions, Summoning & Binding, Glamors & Seemings, Life & Death, or Mists & Storms. You gain this in addition to any form of magic you learned from answering your four character history questions.
Roll | What station did your family hold? What of theirs do you still have? | ||
1 | Town Clerks. +1 Duplicity and the trait Eagle Eyed. A set of family connections useful in most cities and some towns. | ||
2 | Bureaucrats of the Saintly Blood. The traits +1 Duplicity and Disciplined. A small black book of angelic names in a saintly and sacred alphabet. | ||
3 | Rural Craftsfolk. The traits +1 Sorcery and Folkways. A mundane dog or cat with occasional bursts of strange cunning. | ||
4 | Foreign Expatriates. +1 Ferocity and the trait Hardy. A black powder pistol with a pouch of shot (1d6+1 damage). | ||
5 | Exiled Lamashtuan Nobles. The traits +1 Ferocity and Fearsome. A servant or companion who will not abandon you. | ||
6 | Hemlock Merchants. +1 Sorcery and Summonings & Bindings as an additional form of magic. A set of silver glyphs on a chain that may have deeper meaning than you’ve been able to discern. | ||
Roll | What took you from your home? | ||
1 | Wanderlust. +1 Sorcery and the trait Far Wanderer. An old staff of ash wood (1d6+1 damage) that you found. With whom did you leave your heart when you parted company? | ||
2 | A Strange Invitation. +1 Sorcery and the trait Destined. A sword you found in a ruin (1d6+1 damage). Who was your strange companion? How long ago did you part from them? Why? | ||
3 | Sibling Rivalry. +1 Duplicity and the trait Secretive. A small thing you took so that they could not have it. What was the rivalry over and why do you think they still hunt for you? | ||
4 | Service. +1 Ferocity and the trait Disciplined. Were you conscripted or did you enlist? What of home do you miss? | ||
5 | Forbidden Love. The traits +1 Duplicity and the trait Stealth. A rosewood casket and silver dagger. Why was your love forbidden? How long ago did you part? | ||
6 | Hedonistic Scandals. +1 Ferocity and the trait Debauched. A silver chain with two decorated vials of poison. What incident finally saw your friends and families turn their backs on you? | ||
Roll | In what trade did you labor before you banded together with your companions? | ||
1 | Fortune Telling. +1 Sorcery and Oracles & Visions as a form of magic. What painful, private truth did you see but could not bear to say? Who had asked you and what did you tell them instead? | ||
2 | Music. +1 Duplicity and the trait Performer. A lute or mandolin. Who stopped you from finding a patron for your music? Why do you believe they opposed you? | ||
3 | Sailing. +1 Ferocity and the trait Enduring. A lucky charm that you wear on an earring or chain. What happened on your last ship so that you could not return to it? | ||
4 | Pleasure. +1 Duplicity and the trait Seductive. The favor of a distant noble. Why did you leave your pleasure house or why did they throw you out? | ||
5 | Scholarship. +1 Sorcery and the trait Insightful. A book of maps only half of which are places you have seen. Why were you asked to leave the university without a degree? | ||
6 | Burglary. +1 Duplicity and the trait Burglar. The Cant of the crews of the cities and towns. What failed heist made you give up your life of crime? Who do you miss the most from those days? | ||
Roll | What is the nature of your secret curse, trouble, or bane? | ||
1 | Binding Taboo. +1 Duplicity and the trait and Dark Destiny. One thing you must never refuse and one thing you must never accept on fear of a long penance or harsh doom. Who do you fear has learned your taboos? | ||
2 | Haunted. +1 Sorcery and the trait Watchful Ghost. A blood-starved shade who haunts your dreams and your companions, possibly feeding from you or them. How and why did your soul and the shade’s become entwined? | ||
3 | Strange Heritage. +1 Sorcery and the trait Immortal Ancestry. An immortal vampiric, demonic, angelic, fey, or saintly ancestor who has expectations of you, as do their minions, devotees, and foes. Who is your ancestor and how have you already defied them? | ||
4 | Bonds of Loyalty. +1 Ferocity and the trait Oathkeeper. A true oath you made to not abandon another specific character. What lead you to make this oath? | ||
5 | Familiar Spirit. +1 Duplicity and the trait Familiar Spirit. A spirit in animal form that accompanies you but makes strange demands and sometimes feeds from your blood. How did you come by this companion and what has it been promised? | ||
6 | Baleful Beast. +1 Ferocity and the trait Inner Beast. Between the rising of the moon and the next rising of the sun, you transform into a great beast both feral and hungry with few memories of your daily life. Do you change into a panther, a lion, a wolf, or a bear? Is it the full moon, the new moon, the touch of silver, the touch of iron, or the taste of living blood that causes your change? | ||
When you do something risky or evade danger, roll 2d6 and add Ferocity (aggression, intimidation, or violence), Duplicity (trickery, charm, or lies), or Sorcery (magic, technology, or lore).
When someone you want to save is in certain trouble, say why they matter and take a big risk to save them before they suffer the full consequences. On a 7-9, you diminish or redirect some of the consequences. On a miss, both of you are in terrible trouble.
Your traits are skills, abilities, and aspects of your character. If a trait applies to what you are trying, explain how it helps in this situation and share a memory of where you learned it or where you first used it. Then check off the trait to do any of the following:
You cannot use a trait while it is checked.
Everyone knows at least one form of sorcery. When using spells of your own (or items that use magic or technology), roll with Sorcery.
Applicable traits affect spells the same way they affect everything else.
You begin play with 6+1d6 hit points. When you lose your hit points, you are out. If your companions can get appropriate treatments to you very quickly, you can stabilize, rolling 2d6 for your new hit points. If your companions can take your broken but intact form to safety, they may try to make arrangements for revivification by means of artificery, alchemy, or necromancy. Ask the GM what it costs and what the upsides and downsides are. If they cannot bring you back somewhat intact, they may each go to your ghost once after they return to comfort and safety for either laughter, arguments, or tears.
When you get off your feet and rest your eyes for a spell, tell us about the real or metaphorical shadows that haunt your dreams, daydreams, or nightmares. Then roll 2d6. If the total is higher than your hit points, this is your new hit points. You also uncheck 1d6 of traits.
When you return from danger to a place of comfort and safety (at least for a time), say who you go to after your return. Do you look to them for laughter, tears, arguments, or pleasures? Agree with the GM or player on how it goes. Once your night together is done, that character will give you a choice between two advancements and say why. When you next wake, choose one and say what you remember of that night and why it changed or defined your relationship. Then roll 6+1d6 hit points and uncheck all of your traits. Advancements include:
Everyone starts with 60 coins of Chancel silver in addition to whatever equipment you take when you set out and personal possessions you have. Use this for nights out, nights in, places to stay, or bribes of officials.
Knives, clubs, and hatchets do 1d6 damage. Add +1 for sabers or pistols or +2 for rifles, polearms, and heavy weapons.
When you go out for a job, an adventure, or a mission, you may take any of your items or mementos or weapons that you normally have (within reason). You must then choose whether or not you take a pack.
If you do not take a pack, it’s assumed you’ll normally move lighter and faster than anyone who does. Your movement will be “Very Fast.”
If you do take a pack, you will have the food and candles you need. In addition, you can choose 4 needful things for a Light Pack (fast), 6 needful things for a Normal Pack (normal), and 8 needful things for a Heavy Pack (slow). You do not need to say which needful things you are bringing until you use them, but once chosen, you may not change them.
Typical needful things include Journal with Ink and Pens, 20 feet of Rope, Lockpicks, Crowbar, Flint & Steel, Knife, Grappling Hook, 10 Iron Spikes, 5 Wooden Stakes, Bedrool, Tent, Hatchet, Shovel, Pick Axe, Collapsing 10' Pole.
In addition to their pack, each character can carry 5 personal items (including weapons). To carry additional treasures or items found, they will need to increase the size of their pack and possibly drop needful items that they had.