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.
For this setting, Villiam and Kritch's players have dropped out, and so we'll continue along the path of Hell without them. Or with. Depends on how I'm feeling.
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.
Ayy. Let's repost Deprave's sheet in OOC, just to confirm it's still good. And, uh, newcomers, try not to take him as an example of how everybody in Hell acts, because unlike most people, he totally deserves to be down there.
Deprave, a.k.a. The Depraved One
Appearance: Deprave is a tanned humanoid with dark neck-length hair who stands at around three meters tall, with a highly muscular figure to match; this excessive size is about the only obvious indicator of demonic heritage, other than a constant grin of sharp yet unassuming teeth, an impossibly long and girthy prehensile tongue, and a rather deep brow that seems to shadow his eyes and bleach them a sickly off-white regardless of the lighting, with no obvious irises, and occasionally no visible pupils either. Under normal circumstances, he dresses lightly in the traditional dress of his people, essentially upsized versions of a loincloth, shoulder-spanning cape, and a reasonably ornate crown signifying his position as a king, plus earrings just for flair, though as of recent technological advances he has added holsters and sheaths for his weapons and equipment on his person, as well as carrying ammunition on him as needed.
The human who would become Deprave was born thousands of years ago, to a moderate-sized tribe of proto-Mayans in the Americas. In those days, the culture amongst these peoples was little better than tribal, but it had nonetheless advanced to the point where one leader could find themselves in charge of a fairly large group of people, if they played their cards right... and as it happened, Deprave was born directly into a role where he'd inherit power over the entire tribe. It was just bad luck (so it was claimed, anyway) that his father, the current ruler, was struck down by a most foul killer in Deprave's early twenties, and that Deprave himself was now in a position to heavily abuse his power, and possessed a mindset that encouraged him to do so... and so he did.
At first, it was merely warmongering. Where he could, he had his tribe invade the lands of other, smaller tribes, subjugating their people under his own, and when necessary picking out the choicest samples of human cruelty to twist into his minions, a sort of bodyguard for what was to come. As his tribe captured other tribes, so did it grow, and so did it gain the capacity to capture yet more tribes, and so did the cycle continue, until the manpower he commanded was easily the greatest unified force within a great spread of land. Indeed, this conglomeration may have been the initial source of more recent Mayan civilisation, and the great stylised cities of the Classical era of the Mayan empire. Yet it was not at no cost: even at this stage, the leader of this multi-tribal culture had begun performing terrible torments on his lessers, often having his cronies kidnap common folk to gruesomely torture them, and as the population grew, so too did the degree to which he could engage in such behaviour without severely impacting its numbers.
This situation only escalated further over time, and it wasn't long before the first of many attempts to slay him were enacted, barely held off by his guards at the time. After that, he chose to heighten his security, and at the same time announced himself and all his future descendants as being the offspring of the gods, to be considered the highest of rulers and to be treated with the corresponding respect. Naturally, his more moral servants were outraged, one even going so far as to call him a great number of names, including "The Depraved One". To this, he laughed, ordered a girl child sent to his bedchambers to show how depraved he could be, then executed the woman when she failed to refer to him by his new name, the very same insult she had just flung at him.
From that day forward, he would become more and more sadistic, conquering ever more peoples and ending the lives of many of those subjugated, and ever more assassins found themselves brought to heel by his loyal henchmen, subsequently tormented and tortured in the most vile of manners, in a cycle that seemed endless. This would be the time in a story where a great hero would step up and kill the mad god-king that claimed leadership; unfortunately, real life is not so kind, and the Depraved One ruled his kingdom for more than fifty years before eventually succumbing to the natural cycle of aging, brought low by what modern humans know as a heart attack. Naturally, the people rejoiced, and the Depraved One's heir, knowing full-well that he might be less lucky than his father, denounced the man, demanding that all record of his rule be erased from history, never to be spoken or written of again, and all his positive accomplishments attributed to the ruler before him, as well as the heir himself; the prior proclamation of deific blood certainly helped ease people into that mindset, and helped keep them from rioting in his own lifetime, since conditions had undeniably improved after the change of leadership.
Long before European settlers ever found their way to the New World, the Depraved One had been forgotten by time, a relic of an age all but forgotten. However, his story markedly did not end there: for obvious reasons, his soul was sent to Hell, in a time well before demons had forsaken torture as being too much hard work, and so he was trapped and tortured for century after century, millenium upon millenium, until some time in the 16th century. This was a good three hundred years after the general halt of demonic torture, but the Depraved One was still on note as being especially fun to subject to his own methods of murder, and a particular group of demons had made sure to keep him chain up for their own fun.
Yet these demons had grown lax, the chains holding him had grown weak, and the Depraved One, never shying away from his nature as a total monster, had long ago started making in-roads to freeing himself. One day, when only one demon was "on duty", he made his move, abruptly pulling himself free of the wall he was attached to, catching the demon in the chains still locked firm to his wrists and ankles to prevent it from fighting back against him, then having his way with it for several days before escaping. The demon's fellows found it thoroughly broken in both body and spirit; however, the Depraved One was free again, and immediately began a campaign of terror against humans, demons, and to some extent spirits, which would span a good two centuries on and off, remaining in hiding whenever he wasn't preying on the weak, before anybody so much as knocked him down a peg.
By this, the 1700s, he had become well-known for his activities, and a gang of demons and humans decided to take him on, using one of their less-liked members as bait to draw him out, then ganging up on him and at least partially succeeding in subjugating him, though he dealt injuries out to many of their number that would take a great amount of time to heal. Even so, this was enough to convince them that he could be useful, and they decided he would be used as a frontguard for their men, once again trapped by his chains out of battle, yet using them to devastating effect when their gang faced off against others. That said, the Depraved One did not hold leadership over a small empire for fifty years without being highly charismatic, and he ever so slowly wheedled his way into first their acceptance, then their trust, and ultimately their loyalty, essentially forcing himself into a position of leadership within a few decades through sheer force of charisma.
And there, ten years after reaching the top of their group, he made his announcement: their gang was destined not to merely feed on scraps, but to ultimately grow, and grow, and finally to reign supreme over all of Hell, toppling even the so-called "Mr. President" who claimed to be the master of that dimension, no matter how strong he supposedly was. Though some of the gang were sceptical, the Depraved One had done enough to turn his key supporters into practical fanatics, enforcing his will over this gang much the way his subjugates had done over his tribe and empire in life. And so things were for another few centuries: though the gang grew but slowly, they had effectively infinite time to become an army, and his initial followers only became more fanatically loyal as time passed, enforcing the state upon any newcomers to the group, in much the way a cult of violent thugs bent on conquering Hell itself might do, something only enforced further by the tortures of the Depraved One - who eventually shortened his title to just Deprave, reflecting the changing times as technological advancement accelerated in the realm of the living - until some point in the late 1990's.
By then, the gang was about 150 souls strong, and human biological research had advanced quite far within the real world. Yet aspects of Hell had allowed it to advanced much further, and experiments were already being put into the creation of Cambions on a genetic level, rather than having demons merely magically enforce the state upon humans. Of course, somebody knew somebody who talked to somebody else, and one day, Deprave was approached by a human scientist, lacking in morality and seeking to produce only the strongest of beings, beings physically stronger than any demon. And who better than the mini-legend simply called Deprave? It took but a moment of thought for the would-be god-king to accept: he'd never been much good at magic anyway, and what could be better than immense strength for a man like himself?
Long story short, the procedure turned Deprave into what he is now: a hulking humanoid monstrosity, whose expansion in size shattered the manacles that had held his wrists and ankles for so long, and granted him absurd strength and durability, as well as an enhanced rate of healing when he did suffer injuries. Beyond this point, he has mostly continued his acts of incredible violence with his gang under his heel, with not much change other than a growth in power. However, current events seem to have granted him a new path: though taking over Hell is ultimately an unrealistic goal, as he has reluctantly admitted to his minions, conquering Earth is a more than viable option, and unlike a takeover of Hell, it is something that could perhaps be achieved within weeks or months, rather than centuries or millenia.
Thus his current situation: breaking a certain portal-generating demon out of her prison, and escorting her to somewhere or other. His minions, hanging back, will be both his prophets and his army, gathering new recruits and fighting under Deprave where needed; Deprave himself plans to do some conversion of his own, turning these other humans and demons who also wish to leave Hell into yet more loyal minions of himself, perhaps even forming a new set of generals to work as his power base over the other inhabitants of Hell, and ultimately those of Earth, if the whole thing hasn't just been utter bollocks from the start.
Personality: Deprave is nothing short of cruel. Mentally speaking, he is very unrestrained in terms of what he enjoys and allowing himself to enjoy them. In another universe, maybe this would have caused him to be a wholesome person who bettered the world greatly for the time he lived in; in this one, it led him to become a sadistic, gruesome individual who considers torturing a person to be a fun way to pass a few hours, violent murder a cheap laugh, and prolonged sexual assault against humans, animals, and sometimes even children to be somewhat vanilla preferences. This has not been lessened by thousands of years of torture turned against him, if anything heightening his gory ways whilst in Hell, especially since such harm now cannot kill his victims. Even so, he retains a certain degree of charisma (and in some circles a serious reputation for what he does) that, generally speaking, keeps him from being attacked on sight, at least until he makes his own moves to harm others, and at times even gives him the facade of being a brilliant leader figure.
Greatest Sin: Lust - Though he is certainly incredibly sinful in many ways and in great measure, Deprave's biggest weakness has always been to indulge himself in the worst excesses of human nature, be it cold-blooded murder, prolonged torture, or extreme sexual vice. The very fact he chose to rename himself after this fact, on a whim no less, only plants him more firmly within this sin's boundaries.
Motivation: Deprave sees an opportunity to reclaim what he once had in returning to Earth: where he once ruled over but tens of thousands, he now has the opportunity to claim leadership of millions, if not billions of souls, and with his enhanced physique (and perhaps the opportunity to gather the demonic and damned alike to his armies), he figures he has a realistic possibility of taking the civilised nations of Earth by storm and planting himself as a sort of God-Emperor, for eternity if at all plausible.
Skills: As far as mutations go, Deprave's powers as a Cambion are largely restricted to physical abilities that turn him into a walking tank, with massive strength even for a Cambion, great durability and stamina, and much faster regeneration than normal humans possess; these are all relatively simple on their own, but make for a tough combination to deal with as a whole. Additionally, through long study of the relevant techniques throughout his life, he is a highly capable torturer, and only mildly less capable as an interrogator, making him more than able to draw from a person any answer to any question he likes, including, if he really must, the truth of a matter, something only enhanced by his newfound strength and the near-immortality that most humans and demons possess in Hell.
What really makes him stand out from a mere brute, though, is a form of twisted intelligence and charismatic ability. For starters, he was skilled enough a leader of men to conquer and annex a great many Mayan civilisations into his own in his time; and, even considering that he claimed lineage from the gods of his culture, most of the reason he survived to a natural death as a mortal was his capacity to pick out from a crowd those who were easily moulded to suit his needs, or better yet already shared his disturbing worldview, and twisting them into utterly loyal henchmen who would follow his orders gladly, and were more than willing to spend their lives in his defence. With no lack of cruel men and women in Hell, of course, he believes rebuilding his forces should be comparatively simple overall.
Gear: AA12 shotgun, 2005 model - The classic automatic shotgun, a staple and a lifesaver. Well, moreso a range enhancment tool, but it is good for kneecapping both a person's legs off with relatively long-range frag grenades, "stapling" them to the nearest wall with a lead slug, then blasting their face off with a point-blank 12-gauge buckshot round, thus saving your own life, kind of. Slightly modified so that Deprave's giant fingers can pull the trigger properly, and holstered on his left hip. Another AA12 shotgun, 2005 model - Because when you're strong enough to fire an automatic shotgun like it's an air pistol, why not do it with two? He has the ammo to maintain that sort of fire rate in stockpile, at least. This one has also been modified so Deprave can fire it properly, and is holstered on his right hip. Blackgore - An elaborate custom macuahuitl around three meters long, designed several years after Deprave's conversion into a Cambion with his egregious strength and advancements in modern science in mind: it is constructed entirely out of an extremely hard and dense substance, tungsten carbide, save for three rows of obsidian blades running round the outside edges, and it can be used as both a blade and a club, wielded in either one hand or two, with the capacity to deal out substantial damage as painfully as possible. Normally, these obsidian blades would be fairly brittle and require frequent replacement, but the entire weapon has been enchanted in production to be extremely durable, meaning that blade maintenance is essentially unnecessary, and dealing significant damage to the main portion of the weapon appears to be impossible. This is typically sheathed diagonally across his back in a metallic custom sheath designed specially for the blade to be pulled perpendicular to the sheath, as it won't fit anywhere else and would be difficult to draw cleanly from a standard sheath. Chains - A set of four quite hefty iron chains about a meter long each, these are the very same bonds that held him for thousands of years, put to use as weapons for another half a millenium, and only disconnected from his body upon his transformation. Nowadays, these are not frequently used, being that Deprave has better options- though heavily enchanted to provide durability enough to resist the ravages of time, particularly against rust and direct attempts to break them, they have certainly seen better days- but they can still be combined with Deprave's strength to practically cut humans in half as easily as restraining them. Stored in a holder over his left-hand lower back. Dataslab - A good old commonplace slab of data, larger than usual to account for his own size. This is used by Deprave for communicating with his gang/army, playing a few games when for some reason he has to trick himself into avoiding being a murderous sickening bastard (Mr. President forbid), and very little else. Because it is important, he stores it in a fairly thick metal box lined with cotton, which is then stored in a holster on his right-hand lower back, conveniently lying beneath Blackgore's ultradurable "blade" whilst the club is sheathed.
