Busting Out of this Fresh Hell

Busting Out of this Fresh Hell
A re-imagining of Hellscapers

Premise

        A soft 'clink' fills the room as Barkeep sets down the glass he was wiping. The amiable looking man gives you a once-over. "Sucks I have to get you guys to help me." He says, twirling some sort of pistol in his hand as he speaks. "But I'm pretty much holding down the fort here at the bar single-handedly. I can help break Betty out, but you guy's 'll need to do the rest. Well, I'm sure I can rope some people to help us out, but you people will need to do a majority. I'll be sure to hop in at the end to claim my ticket out, but just in case this falls through, I'm stickin' here. Thank you all for your help." 

After he's finished his speech, he sends some info to your slab. A blueprint of the asylum you'll be breaking into, complete with Betty's cell number, guard routes, and vents. He senses your befuddlement before you can open your mouth to speak. "Yeah, when I was alive I got a Psyche degree. I moonlit as a sort of torturer/psychiatrist there. Let me get my hands on this stuff." He says, tapping the screen. Again, there's a pause, before he raises some form of alcohol up. "Now, want something to drink? You're in for the long haul, so it's on me. Feel free to look grateful."
Overview

Basic Plot

Out of all the demons in hell, no one was as unremarkable as Betty, except maybe in her ability to drink. For most she was simply a nuisance or a fairweather friend. That was until a friend of hers, called by all as simply "Barkeep," was made aware of a unique ability of hers. She had a spell that allowed her to open portals, seemingly without taxing her that much. Barkeep was convinced this ability would allow him out of hell. Unfortunately, she was recently kidnapped by the Cambion Nefas. Even then, it's doubtful this stuff would stay underwraps forever. To get her safely from the jail cell to opening the portal, you've been assigned. Either it was the ticket out of hell that enticed you, or something more, but either way, you need to protect this girl.

The Hellscape

Hell, being populated by modern humans, actually is quite scientifically advanced. The land can actually support an ecosystem With stuff like flesh, fungi, and plants. There are also workable materials like obsidian, brimstone, carbon, rusted metals, etc. This allows stuff like homes, forges, and labs.

As for the general environment, it fluctuates. Like earth, it seems to have certain biomes. There are obviously the sections of hell where the ground is a hard obsidian, and all that flows is lava. Of course, there's also other areas. Common ones include muddy-flesh pits full of bizarre plants and fungi, frozen lakes and craggy rock formations, and even snow-covered spires. It's a surprisingly diverse place, and it seems Demons and Lost Souls are willing to set up anywhere, cities and the such.\

Manus

Magic is used by pulling ambient energy, called manus, from Hell itself. This, naturally, damages the soul. Humans have fairly weak souls compared to demons, whose souls can be built for magical use just as their body can be built for strength. Spells are how said ambient energy is applied, focusing that ambient energy through the soul and out into the world, built to do a specific thing, like throw a huge friggin fireball or healing a wound. Of course, focusing something through the souls is painful, as mentioned, so people have a tendency to say some gibberish or gesture as they cast.

To craft new spells, one must first get their thoughts out of their head. Magus's write out exactly what the spell is and what they want it to do. Each Magus has a fairly unique process for this, some choosing to display this as a mathematical formula, some as a drawing, some even as modern art pieces. While it is possible for other mages to learn these spells, it's an incredible challenge, requiring personal guidance from the original creator. 

Spells are always generated to produce a specific effect, be that effect "launch a ball of flame from my hand" or "Produce a pulse of energy from my body that accelerates healing." Once that concept has been written out an memorized, one must simply focus on it and use their soul to pull ambient energy from hell and force it through the paradigm. Once done, the effect is immediately achieved. How powerful said spell is (I.E. how big the fireball is or how powerful the slowing effect) is dependent on how much energy is focused through the soul. More energy, more hurting, more powerful spell. Said pain feels like a pit in the chest, a genuinely painful guilt.

Luckily, souls regenerate over time. Botched spells also generally fizzle out and the hell energy just disperses back into the air. Doesn't mean they don't still hurt though. Soul expended on botched spells takes a toll on the soul, and even leave "soulscar," hampering the soul's regenerative process.

manus can be solidified. This allows both 'enchanted' items (Items made with manus in them, giving them special effects like a boomerang that always returns to its user) and 'charms' (items that, once broken, release stored manus energy, like a paper tag that, when torn, generates an explosion.) These are both very serious sub disciplines of magic, and huge businesses. After all, one doesn't need to harm their soul to use either of these, while still getting use of magical effects. 

Manus, truly, isn't actually magical. The Soul's ability to manipulate it is. As such, Manus can't move through objects, or directly affect someone without endangering them. One could create a buff spell that increases rapidly increases muscle generation in an area, or to whoever is hit, but trying to directly affect a being's cells is impossible, instead making a horrifying mess. This is why enchanted items must be forged with Manus, and can't be enchanted afterwards.

Rules

All the standard stuff, no god-modding, no power-play, meta-knowledge, etc.
Although I'll admit, sometimes I can be stupid, and you fully have the right to defend any decisions you make, I have the last say.
Half-demons are rare, and so are Spirits. 1 of both at max.
No historical figures as Human PCs. Want to save those for cool cameos.
That CS might be changed so feel free to suggest additions to it.
I want a funny game, but not one that can't be serious. Don't go to edgy or to laughable.
One to two paragraphs about once a week.
PCs are about a little above average in terms of general prowess
Injuries in hell aren't lethal unless your soul is taken out of your body. If I blow someone's arm off, it can and will be grown back, don't worry.

This was taken from the source material, and all credits to Kafka Komedy as the creator.

I am Banana. The old GM of this series had to drop out of continuing this series due to writers block among other things, and the various players (myself included) hated to see this go. As such, I decided to take up the role of a GM on this series, attempting to keep it alive in his name. This Interest Check is purely to see if anyone else browsing the folds of this website cares to join up in this fun time. If this gets enough traction, I'll make another saga of this.

Either way, here's a quick summary of the posts in the original source material's IC.
So the crew of the Hellscapers had to invade this prison in order to get this lizard girl, Betty, out of the prison. The original crew had consisted of Jennifer Light (Once John Light, it's a Joan of Arc type thing), Grog Lawson (An explosive drunk), Deprave (A murderhobo, rapey cambion), Old N (Mirelurk Esquire), Villiam (A spirit made from pollution and such), Toby Skinner (A one-armed thief who's going to get an arm), and Kritch (Player wanted to drop out, so we'll do something with him). The NPC's at the time were Barkeep, Betty, and Weaver (a driver of an RV).

The posts consisted of the prison having several walls being destroyed, a riot breaking out to destroy Nefas, a guy being destroyed by teleporting arm death, and Deprave attempting to recruit an army to eventually conquer all of Earth once the crew had made it out. Jen was revealed as herself, and the posts ended at everyone crowding into an RV to go to the next mission.

All future character sheets shall be posted if this gets any traction. Those old players know the setting and are more than welcome to repost their old character sheets onto this IC. All future players, should we continue down the story of the original source material, are assumed to have joined the crew while Deprave was recruiting his army.

Anyway, who wants to get out of Hell?
Busting Out of this Fresh Hell

Gardevoiran The Forbidden One

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Skinner35 One-Sided Thief.

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