[OOC] Out-West: Chronicles of Cryptic Valley

𝒪𝓊𝓉 𝓌𝑒𝓈𝓉, 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓎 𝓈𝒶𝓎, 𝒶𝓃 𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓂𝑒𝒹 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓇. 𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓇𝒾𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓈 𝓇𝓊𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝓇𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝒸𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓇𝒾𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓈, 𝓌𝒽𝒾𝓁𝑒 𝓂𝑜𝓃𝓈𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝒾𝓇 𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒𝒹𝓎 𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓎. 𝐹𝑜𝑜𝓁𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹𝓎, 𝐼 𝓈𝒶𝓎, 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒. 𝒪𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝓇𝒶𝓋𝑒, 𝑔𝓇𝑒𝑒𝒹𝓎, 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝓅𝑒𝓇𝒶𝓉𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒻𝑜𝑜𝓁𝒾𝓈𝒽 𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓅 𝓉𝓇𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒. 𝒴𝑒𝓉 𝓅𝑒𝑜𝓅𝓁𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝑔𝑜. 𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝑜𝓁𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓌𝑒𝒶𝓇 𝓈𝒽𝑒𝑒𝓅'𝓈 𝒸𝓁𝑜𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓁𝓁𝑜𝓌 𝓉𝑜𝑜. 𝒪𝓊𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒, 𝒶𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓁𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝒢𝑜𝒹'𝓈 𝒢𝓇𝒶𝒸𝑒.

Welcome to Cryptic Valley. A vast region west of the Mississippi where tall tales roam as old as the trees and mountains. Roughly including modern-day Texas, the story takes place in the late 1860s. A newly unionized America fresh out of the civil war, still in shock over the decade's events. The Bloody war, the struggle of the freedom of slaves, the continued mistreatment of slaves, the terror of the dead rising to feast on the living, and the witches that spite mortal men.

Wait, what?

That's right, this isn't your ordinary western tale. This is a supernatural take on the western Genera. Mythical beasts lurk in the untamed wilds. The occult has a heavy hand, and with the growing power of the inquisition across the Atlantic, The wild frontiers of America's West are one of the last refuges away from the church's influence. For the most part, in broad strokes history is more or less the similar to our own, for simplicities sake, with some notable exceptions:

Magic is real! Yeah, crazy right? And...other gods too but we'll ignore that for now. Just know that while magic takes different forms in different cultures across the globe, all follow the rules of the pentacle system, which we will get into later. Shamans, Druids, Witch-Doctors, for the most part, practice what is deemed as 'white magic', while malevolent spellcasters practice 'black magic'. The catholic church and other related powers used to view all forms of magic (besides priestly miracles) as evil. (Sorcery, as we'll get into later, is considered 'neutral' magic, since it only manipulates one of the five basic elements.) Modern Reform, However, have been gradually more lenient towards white magic and sorcery. Broadly speaking, for what humans that are able to and practice magic, can only practice white magic. It often takes wicked sacrifices or exploitations of other dark powers for a human to be able to practice black magic; and those that too are forever unable to cast white magic in turn.

There are creatures as well, monsters from myths and legends, cryptids too. By this era of civilization most have been extinct or reduced to small populations, but in less-habited lands such as the west, they still dwell. And boy can some of them be scary. Its dangerous work, but it also allows for outlaws to escape the law more easily, so long as they don't become prey to the supernatural as well. Monster Hunters are a popular, albeit, dangerous occupation, more so then your typical bounty hunter.

In the oldest tales, there are said to be three children of the moon. All draw their power to it, and all share some connection to the Goddess of the Moon herself, Hecate. All are to be feared. The two younger siblings is the Beast Child and the Night Child. Werewolves, skin walkers, they go by many names, but these are the accursed shapeshifters that take the form of many beasts and prey upon mankind with ruthless savagery. The Night Child. The vampires. Forever Denied the morning sun, they stalk the shadows, and consume their prey with the grace of an assassin; unlike their more violent sibling.

The oldest, and most feared, however. Is the Heir to Hecate. The First Child and Daughter. The witches. While they too, feed upon mankind, they wield the full power of magic at their whim. It is said to earn the spite of a witch is a fate worse then death itself. 

This RP will act as a sort of series of one shots with a healthy mix of optionally slice-of-life. The town of Copper Springs and its general surroundings act as a 'HUB' of sorts for players to socialize or do whatever with when there isn't a main story taking place. The main stories, meanwhile, will act as 'ideally' short and optionally events that should be open enough for everyone to join at their leisure for the main events. 

Most of the stories will also take place either in the town itself, or relatively close enough to town to allow the cast of players to join at their leisure. Of course 'free-roam' collabs don't need to be all wholesome fluff socializing for any that are interested in more inter-player dramas and actions, or mini action-oriented events like fighting a bandit, just whatever y'all wanna do while I'm not hosting anything major. I'm also open for player-themed events for players that have their own ideas for group rp events.

Regarding locations too, y'all can come up with your own stuff like a specific store in a town, a nearby home for a monster-pc, etc. Won't be too strict on historical accuracies are anything either since its a casual experience. Just like characters though, try to run it be me with whatever you wanna make in terms of locations or maybe even major plotlines so I'm on the same page.

 Ideally the RP will be as active as the cast so there isn't any pressure for deadlines with exceptions to the main story events and personal preferences amongst your own collabs. Speaking of the town meanwhile..

𝒞𝑜𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓇 𝓈𝓅𝓇𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈, 𝒷𝒶𝓈𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑒𝓇.

The town of Copper Springs sits neatly between Texas's Eastern woodlands and the drier plains and deserts to the west. Making it an ideal location for settlers to brave its dangers while being close to a source of water and food. This however, also means that the town sits between two territories of the various monsters that prefer the woods or the dry, open plains. Its fair population, religious worship, and fair amount of guards are believed to keep monsters at bay. But in truth, the rabid spooks and cryptids rarely mess with the prey of any moon-child, and all three have some secret stake to this town. The roughly 40 year-old village may seem like a safe bastion from the terrors outside, but it is merely a peaceful meadow to satisfy the lambs before slaughter.

That summarizes the gist of the plot. Next I'll get into more about magic and potentially playable stuff. I'd expect most people to just go with human to fit in more with the ideas of horror, but of course players are more then welcome to make monster-pcs too. There isn't really a character limit either so make however many characters you want and use them at your leisure.

Hecate is considered the Goddess who would discover and bind magic into a universal form, which other lesser gods not of the one faith also seem to inspire across various cultures. Though they are conveyed in different forms, the more widely accepted practice is through the pentacle.

There are five elements to magic and the world itself. Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Spirit. Everyone is born with a natural affinity towards one of these elements, though it should go with out saying that despite people having a natural affinity to one of these elements, few are capable of actually using magic by their own means. We'll get more into the types of humans that can magic later, as it revolved around the types of spells.

While not universally true, most born affinities arise from what season they are born in. Spring is associated with the earth, Summer Fire, Autumn Wind, and Winter Water. Spirit meanwhile isn't tied to any season, but seem most common to occur under being born on the same day as some celestial event. Such as a full moon or even an eclipse. 

Sorcery refers to spells derived from any one element. Most fire spells can be assumed to just be fire sorcery for example. For humans, its actually more rare to practice basic sorceries as opposed to evocations or even invocations, since Sorcery requires a specific talent and trait all on its own. Human or not, those that practice sorcery are only able to use the element they are born with. Someone with a fire affinity can only perform sorceries through fire.

A sort-of important note is that there are also 'compound elements'. These only exist within the context of sorcery, as they are not necessarily involved in other types of magic. Compound Sorceries refer to an element born from the merging of two compatible elements. So far these include Lightning (Fire and Air), Metal (Fire and Earth), Wood/Plant(Water and Earth), and Ice (Water and Air).

Regarding Compound Sorceries, they can be a sorcerer's natural affinity instead of a normal one. For example a sorcerer with a fire affinity could have metal or lightning sorcery instead of fire. This trait is determined at their birth ofc with what element, compound or not, they are able to use. 

Spirit sorcery is naturally the most rare and powerful sorcery. It involves general manipulation of raw magic, which depending upon use, can be used to create walls or swords of magic, shoot raw magical blasts, or wrapping mana around objects for telekinetic or levitational purposes.

The 'Wheel' or Wheel-casting, refers to spells derived from three of the five elements, arranged in a triangle among a pentacle. There are two types of wheel-casting, invocations and evocations. Black and White magic respectively. Both compromise of Five schools of magic, with black magic being an inversion of white magic, for a total of 10 schools. 

There are two notes with wheel-casting. The first is that you must have an affinity with one of the involved wheels, or schools, of magic to learn and cast spells deriving from it. The second is that, with exception to witches, using dark magic prevents you from casting white magic. Humans are naturally unable to even use black magic without dark and ritualistic methods to gain such power, losing the rite to white magic in exchange. 

Spells can be both learned or invented. For wheelcasting, sometimes the affinity of the caster may influence how the spell appears. For example a simple cure wounds spell may appear as either a healing form of fire or water with a fire or water affinity in particular. Additionally, while spells have set functions, their actual power varies with how much mana is put into it. A weak caster for example, may only heal a small cut with cure wounds, or a tiny soccer-ball sized fireball for...fireball sorcery. Whereas a strong magic user like a witch could cure almost any physical injury and engulf an entire town-square in a fireball.

For examples, I'll provide three dnd-spell equivalents for each school to give an idea of what kind of spells you can make in these categories.

Water, Spirit, Fire

Healing magic. Restoration generally includes the well, restoration of things. However this isn't exclusive to just treating injuries and undoing wounds, they can also mend broken objects, or treat mental anguish too. 

Cure wounds:  Healing literal flesh and blood wounds.

Mending: Fixing broken man-made objects.

Therapy: Limited temporary treatment to mental trauma.

Growth: Magically aids and grows plant-life.

Spirit, Air, Earth

Refers to spells that divine knowledge and information. This varies widely, and more-often-then-not employ physical objects as part of the spell to properly function. 

Telepathy: Direct Mental communication or probing between minds.

Clairvoyance: Revealing an image or view in a crystal ball or some other reflective surface like water or a mirror (depending on spell variations) to reveal a location. Variations of this spell can include seeing through the eye of an assigned creature like a familiar, or simply conjuring an 'invisible eye' to the desired location, person, or object to spy upon.

Wheel or Woe: Using some form of medium, like a deck of tarot cards, to divine information about the past, present, or potential future in broad measures. Not always accurate when regarding to the future, as they only refer to potential outcomes or broad interpretations.

Water, Earth, Fire

To put it simply, this category refers to anti-magic, or spells that directly counter and destroy other spells. The power needed for an Abnegation spell is compared between Mana, but generally it takes more Mana to resist Abnegation then for Abnegation to destroy a spell, thus for the most part Abnegations can reliably undo spells of equal power and lower albeit with some situational exceptions.

Counter spell: Stop a spell from being cast.

Dispel Magic: Destroy an active spell effect

Remove Curse: Undoes a Curse.

Spirit, Earth, Fire

Alteration are spells that change properties, usually to a targeted individual or object. Alteration spells can only change one property, and cannot physically transform things. Alteration spells are limited to either enhance or reduce attributes through magic and magic alone. The effects are therefor, not permanent by design and end when the spell does. The exact strength of alteration spells, like all spells, vary on the mana put into it.

Iron Skin: Increases a target's durability, making their flesh more Durable.

Slow: Decreases the speed of a target, slowing their perception of time as well.

Swift-footed: Drastically increases the speed of a target, both by movement and even by reactionary if logistically necessary.

Berserker: A powerful spell that increases the physical prowess of the target, but also limiting other forms of magic as a result. While they also become resistant to foreign forms of magic, they lose the ability to cast spells while under this spell if they had such capacity before.

Water, Air, Earth

Abjuration can be a bit confusing with Abnegation and Restoration. So here's a good way to look at it; If we were to compare magic to diseases and treatments; Restoration Cures the effects or symptoms, Abnegation destroys the source of the disease, Abjuration meanwhile, prevents the disease from happening. Like a vaccine. 

Spells under the abjuration School act as charms and protections, often from the supernatural. Due to its powers, it often relies on being bound to physical items for best results.

Magic Circle: A magical circle drawn in the shape of the magic pentacle. Various supernatural beings, such as witches, spirits, demons, and the undead as examples cannot enter the circle from the outside, or leave the circle if they are trapped within it. 

Arcane Absorption: Specifically designed to ward away curses and similar uses of magic from the sanctioned individual. The spell breaks after having absorbed such magic.

Alarm: A barrier that alerts the wielder or the affected area when something crosses its physical threshold. The alarm spell can be drawn with various means for a 'barrier', and can often be customized to alert for specific types of trespassers.

Fire, Spirit, Water

Death magic, The inversion of Restoration. These spells deal with magical afflictions and poisons, the undead, and decay and rot. 

Circle of Death: Creates a circular space that rots organic matter within it.

Reanimate Dead: Creates undead, such as simple zombies and skeletons, to either serve its caster or run rampant.

Poison Spray: Ejects a magical cloud of poison from the caster, that disorients those that breathe its toxic air.

Earth, Spirit, Air.

The inversion of knowledge is deception. Spells of this school invoke powers of illusion and trickery. These spells target the brain to imitate false realities. More powerful illusions can even affect multiple people.

False Image: Creates an illusionary object.

Inflict Pain: Forces the target to experience an illusionary pain.

Phantasm: Conjures an illusionary object or creature of fear to a target, manifesting as a temporary nightmare.

Enthrall: Temporarily enchants a target to be more susceptible to influence.

Earth, Air, Water

Fire, Earth, Spirit

Earth, Air, Water

Actual spellcasting-

Then there are the witches. Blessed, or Cursed some would say, by the Goddess Hecate herself. The Goddess of the Moon and mother to all Witches. Unlike humans, Witches are immortal, and are free to cast Both Black and White magic. They're natural affinity to magic has made them a source of terror throughout history.

[OOC] Out-West: Chronicles of Cryptic Valley

BayRat Oh No

BayRat Oh No