Enter the Dark Realm - A Castlevania/Bloodborne Inspired Dungeon Crawl

[Vlad Tepes]

~"Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make."~

-Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897)

For many years, the kingdom of Gransylva has lived in peace, but that all changed the day a mysterious castle rose from the chilling mist, bringing with it a terrible curse. Darkness spread throughout the land as corruption leeched from its walls into the nearby towns and cities, turning people into undead monstrosities and unleashing demons from the very depths of Hell. Gransylva is now plagued with this evil. The kingdom faces a losing battle. The only way to bring an end to this madness, this horror, is to enter the castle itself and destroy whatever evil lies beyond its unhallowed walls. Alas, none, not even the kingdom's bravest knights dare to venture into such an unholy citadel.



That is where you come in. You and a band of other mercenaries for hire have come to Gransylva, on behalf of the king, seeking your fortune and much, much more. The king has offered to grant you whatever request you make, whether it be money, power, or whatever your heart desires. In return, you must travel beyond the kingdom and face the horrors of the dreaded castle. Will you work together to save Gransylva from this ever consuming evil? Or will you let your lust, your greed take hold of your heart, betraying your fellow comrades for personal gain?

One thing is for certain: Alone, you will not survive. The castle holds many dark entities. Terrifying monsters, deadly traps, twisting corridors and passageways. And of course...there is the mysterious lord of the castle, whose face has never been seen but his evil presence is felt throughout the land.

Time is of the essence. Every moment you dawdle, the darkness is rising. Gather your gear and prepare for the adventure of a lifetime as you cross the threshold between light and dark, good and evil, and enter...

-THE DARK REALM-

"The Darkness calls out to you, beckoning you to come forward..."

---

So the gist of it is this: We are a band of mercenaries entering a spooky, evil castle to kill who the *quack* knows what inside! There is a plot to all this, but it will reveal itself the deeper we venture inside...eh the castle I mean, not...nevermind!

You'll face many monsters, some probably familiar because I lack imagination and just ape whatever I *quack*-ing find to be cool and badass for my roleplays, and there will be plenty of traps to duck and dodge as we push our way through several rooms and locales. Along the way, will you make friends with your fellow mercenaries? Or will you be a douche and stab them in the back? Hopefully they're not wearing back armor, but if they are...well you're *quack*-ed.

Anywho, with that all said, who's up for an adventure?!

*cricket noises*

Anyone?

Bueller?

Well if you are, you know what to do. I'll be busy trying to get my life back together. So I'll see you soon-ish.

[Zeroth]

Potentially interested! Did you have any particular limits in mind for what characters should be capable of, or any more details about the setting that would be relevant to character creation? For instance, does magic exist, and if so are there any rules on its usage? Are characters expected to be normal humans, or do elves, werecreatures, other races and so forth exist?

Personally I'm thinking of making a character associated with some sort of church or other spiritual order, so if there's any healing magic, witchcraft, etc going around I'd probably have to address their take on it.

[Vlad Tepes]

Master! You have a visitor!

Shut it, Renfield! I'm trying to get some sleep here! Pfft! Thralls...

But Master! Someone posted to your interest check!

WHAT?!! *falls out of coffin*

@Zeroth FINALLY!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW-

Ahem! I mean...hello there! 😊

Unfortunately I can't answer all of these questions in full details since I'm on my phone right now and it's a *quack* to type, but I will do my best.

The setting I have in mind is inspired primarily by the Castlevania games and Netflix series with a bit of Van Helsing and Bloodborne in the mix, so yes magic does exist, but it is primarily used by those who practice magic, and it depends on what type. For instance, elemental magic is used by witches and sorcerers. Necromancy is only for necromancers and is restricted mostly to raising undead. Clerics, who are of the Church, the supreme religious authority of Gransylva, practice holy magic or "miracles" such as healing, repelling undead and other evil abominations, blessing water to turn it holy, and casting protection spells such as forcefields or enchanted circles.

Furthermore, the Church looks down on all other forms of magic. They're hypocrites who boast their power comes only from God. All other magic users are of the Devil and must be destroyed. So yeah witch burnings and all that fun stuff.

As far as the second question, there are were-creatures that exist, but they are primarily lycans. I could allow for other types of transformations, but nothing as outlandish as draconians or werecrocodiles (yeah those are a thing). As far as other fantasy races, sadly no. Elves, dwarves, anything of that sort do not exist in this setting. I'm sorry.

The only races that do exist are humans, vampires and dhampirs (half human vampires), were-creatures (though most full blooded werewolves are feral), and (I was toying with this idea after Lies of P) automatons.

Which leads me to my next explanation. While this at its core a medieval setting, science is actually quite advanced. Automatons and machines exist in this universe, but they are primarily steam driven. Guns exist as well, but more along the lines of firearms from the 1500s to 1600s, so mostly muskets, muzzle loaders, black powder rifles and flintlock pistols, etc.

Anywho, hope that answers everything. If there's anything else, let me know.

[Zeroth]

Master! You have a visitor!

Shut it, Renfield! I'm trying to get some sleep here! Pfft! Thralls...

But Master! Someone posted to your interest check!

WHAT?!! *falls out of coffin*

@Zeroth FINALLY!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW-

Ahem! I mean...hello there! 😊

@Vlad Tepes

*standing calmly amidst scattered piles of demon corpses and burning undead. Several pieces of furniture have been destroyed*

Oh hi! Sorry if I woke you up, but these guys kept acting like they didn't understand my questions!" *wipes a blood spatter from the rim of my glasses*

The setting I have in mind is inspired primarily by the Castlevania games and Netflix series with a bit of Van Helsing and Bloodborne in the mix, so yes magic does exist, but it is primarily used by those who practice magic, and it depends on what type. [...]

Clerics, who are of the Church, the supreme religious authority of Gransylva, practice holy magic or "miracles" such as healing, repelling undead and other evil abominations, blessing water to turn it holy, and casting protection spells such as forcefields or enchanted circles.

Furthermore, the Church looks down on all other forms of magic. They're hypocrites who boast their power comes only from God. All other magic users are of the Devil and must be destroyed. So yeah witch burnings and all that fun stuff.

[...]

All of that's perfect for what I needed, thanks! I kinda figured that's what you would be going for given the Castlevania influence but I just wanted to make sure!

The idea I had for my character would be that he grew up in a Church-run orphanage, but faced abuse from a corrupt, evil individual hiding behind a "public image" associated with the Church. Despite this my character takes strongly to the teachings of the Church and thus manifests "miracles," which end up being used to kill the abusive clergy but in the process also destroys the orphanage (I'm currently thinking the "holy barrier" ability being used to make geometric shapes, such as a giant millstone to enact Matthew 18:6). This prompts an investigation by some sort of inquisition-esque/black-ops organization within the Church, and upon finding evidence of what had been going on they end up inducting the character into their own chapter.

Committed to the work of the Lord, yet broken by the sinful nature of Man, the character now gives alms to the poor while wearing a warm smile distorted by scars--and then laughs maniacally as he tears his way through the demons, both mortal and supernatural, who are responsible for creating individuals like himself.

Would that work, or would some aspect need to be tweaked/changed entirely?

[Metal Head]

This is bad ass , I'm definitely interested.
I play DnD , and this reminds me of Ravenloft.

[Vlad Tepes]

@Zeroth

Oh....goddammit, I knew I should've installed that new security system. Renfield, get the mop!

Should I get the vacuum too, Master?

What? No! It's too damn early for that noise!

The idea I had for my character would be that he grew up in a Church-run orphanage, but faced abuse from a corrupt, evil individual hiding behind a "public image" associated with the Church. Despite this my character takes strongly to the teachings of the Church and thus manifests "miracles," which end up being used to kill the abusive clergy but in the process also destroys the orphanage (I'm currently thinking the "holy barrier" ability being used to make geometric shapes, such as a giant millstone to enact Matthew 18:6). This prompts an investigation by some sort of inquisition-esque/black-ops organization within the Church, and upon finding evidence of what had been going on they end up inducting the character into their own chapter.

Committed to the work of the Lord, yet broken by the sinful nature of Man, the character now gives alms to the poor while wearing a warm smile distorted by scars--and then laughs maniacally as he tears his way through the demons, both mortal and supernatural, who are responsible for creating individuals like himself.

Would that work, or would some aspect need to be tweaked/changed entirely?

Holy sh-*quack*! *pun intended* This is one badass church dude! I also love the little Biblical reference you incorporated. I could definitely see the holy barrier "miracle" being manipulated to that degree. Maybe he (or she) is the only individaul capable of this manipulation, hence why the Inquisition would be interested in inducting them into their ranks. Furthermore, I'm wondering what if your character's abuse by the clergy was part of some secret plan by the Church to create like their own superweapon, a clergyman capable of manipulating "miracles" to be used more offensively and with better results. Think Anderson from Hellsing, this badass preacher slaughtering demons while throwing out scriptures with a psychotic grin on his *quack*-ed up face. Anywho, this character sounds dope and I can't wait to see how they play out

...as soon as we can get some more people interested. *considers kidnapping*

@HEAVY METAL

Hell yeah, dude! Curse of Strahd is the sh-*quack*! Welcome aboard!

[Metal Head]

So is it any race or just human only ?
I was thinking of playing Dhamphir Fighter.

[Vlad Tepes]

@HEAVY METAL Dhamphirs are definitely welcome. Any races are welcome actually within reason. As soon as the OOC is up, I'll have more details about the different races, classes, magic, etc.

[Zeroth]

Holy sh-*quack*! *pun intended* This is one badass church dude! I also love the little Biblical reference you incorporated. I could definitely see the holy barrier "miracle" being manipulated to that degree. Maybe he (or she) is the only individaul capable of this manipulation, hence why the Inquisition would be interested in inducting them into their ranks. Furthermore, I'm wondering what if your character's abuse by the clergy was part of some secret plan by the Church to create like their own superweapon, a clergyman capable of manipulating "miracles" to be used more offensively and with better results. Think Anderson from Hellsing, this badass preacher slaughtering demons while throwing out scriptures with a psychotic grin on his *quack*-ed up face. Anywho, this character sounds dope and I can't wait to see how they play out

@Vlad Tepes

Nah, my take on it was going to be slightly less cynical towards the idea of organized religion as a whole. The abuser in charge of the orphanage doesn't represent the "dirty underbelly of the church" or anything. They're an example of an evil person who has managed to fool others around them so that they can put themselves in a position of influence from which they can satisfy their own urges. Just like so many serial killers who were "never suspected" by their neighbors, this person faked a life of holy devotion so that others wouldn't notice their true intentions.

To give more detail on the manipulation of holy barriers, my thoughts were that whereas most people would probably value that ability for its defensive nature--in other words, make it "harder to break," or make it "bigger, so it can protect more people," this character instead thinks about it like a childish (traumatic, right?) art project: folding paper or stacking blocks. So instead of making a magical brick wall in front of him, maybe he turns that wall at a different angle and makes it really thin instead:



The reason the Inquisition decides to take him would probably be more along the lines of "He's like 12 and was able to crush a man's bones to dust with two big grinding wheels made of prayer. And he's only a little crazy! Let's train him for about 10 years then turn him loose on some heretics!" XD

[Vlad Tepes]

@Zeroth Ah, ok. That makes much more sense than my previous assumption. All in all, I think the barrier manipulation is an interesting idea, and with his (or her) mental scarring due to the abuse, I wonder if they will have some sort of psychotic breakdown at one point and how it may affect the other characters, especially if some of those characters are "heretics" per say.

Either way, I love the character concept altogether and can't wait to see how it plays out

...As soon as we can get more people on board that is. Renfield, print more fliers damnit!

@Zeroth@Metal Head

On a side note: After I decided to give my old Curse of Strahd gamebook another readthrough, I just noticed I made a serious mistake considering the races. As of now, I am currently including the following races next to the usual (boring!) humans. Ahem!

-Dwarves
-Elves
-Dusk Elves
-Dawn Elves
-Orcs
-Tieflings
-Goblins
-Dwarves (Wait, I already said dwarves damnit!)
-Beastkin (There's *quack*ing minotaurs and fish people in Castlevania lore, so why can there not be beastkin, amirite?!)

Sub-races will include but may not be limited to:

-Vampire
-Dhampir
-Lycan
-Undead (Yes I know vampires are technically undead, but I'm referring more to zombie type undead)

[Zeroth]

I am currently including the following races next to the usual (boring!) humans. [...]

@Vlad Tepes

I'm assuming Dusk Elves, Orcs, Goblins, Beastkin, Vampires, Lycans, and Undead would be considered "evil" by the rest of humanity or the church? With Tieflings and Dhampir being in a sort of gray-area but probably not liked too much by the general masses?

[Vlad Tepes]

@Zeroth Definitely yes on the vampires and lycans being on the Church's sh-*quack* list. Dusk Elves are primarily hated due to their affinity to darkness. Orcs, goblins and beastkin are more or less viewed as outsiders by the whole of Gransylva.

Dhampirs are still shunned for being half vampires, both by humans and pure blood vampires. Tieflings are viewed as incredibly undesirable and live on the fringe of society, especially after the Church massacred most of them due to their cursed heritage (still working on how to incorporate them since I'm deviating from their D&D counterpart)

Oh and the Undead are definitely targets for "purifying"

[Lexisheeps]

I'm interested in this. I'm just worried as I'm not nearly as much of a lore nerd as I feel this may require. But it's Castlevania though! Ugh. I'm conflicted! lol

[Vlad Tepes]

@Lexisheeps Don't worry so much about the lore. It's not really necessary to join this RP. Welcome aboard! 😊

[Lexisheeps]

@Vlad Tepes
If that's the case, count me in! :'D
Not sure if I wanna be a boring human or try something else.

[Vlad Tepes]

@Lexisheeps There's plenty of options available aside from boring humans. Once I get the OOC up, I'll have more details about each race

[Lexisheeps]

@Vlad Tepes

I definitely will be around to check that out!