Abandon All Hope: An Old-fashioned Dungeon Crawl.

[The Grey Dust]

Just quick check of interest in a concept.

It's a Players x DM style thread where the PC's are demigods seeking ascension to godhood.

The demigods are from all walks of life, but all have been elevated to demi-godhood by a patron god by somehow earning the favour of said God. Be the PC a former saint or martyr, perhaps a champion of the God or simply some bloke who earned the attention of a God, they have all gained a spark of divinity, endowed by their Patron Deity and part of their Patron Deity. Unfortunately, to ascend to true Godhood and stand alongside the Gods, they must venture into Hell to fetch the Stone of Ascension stolen from the Gods.

It's a simple Dungeon crawl and a tour through the 9 layers of Hell to finish a go fetch quest.
Sounds easy enough right?

[The Grey Dust]

Below is an general outline of the Layers of hell.

SPOILERS

Void: Ancient Norse: Ghost
Winter King
Pride: Ancient Japan: Golem
Glorious Emperor
Lust: Ancient Arabia: Ghoul
Pleasure Sultan
Greed: Ancient Egypt: Mummy
Golden Pharaoh
Wrath: Ancient Rome: Werewolf
Wolf Caesar
Gluttony: Gothic Russia: Vampire
Tsar of Blood
Sloth: Mesoamerica: Gargoyle
Ancient Idol
Envy: Victorian England: Lich
Grand Archmage
Chaos: Burning Island: Demon
Lord of Damnation

[The Grey Dust]

Call me what you will, a ferryman of souls, I am the spirit of the river. They have called me many names throughout the ages, but I simply carry the damned to their damnation. The Judges Three deem them mine, and tell me where each soul must go for their punishment. And for a single golden coin, placed into the mouth of the river, I shall guide you too. All fresh souls enter me, and through me leave to live within their assigned hell.

Into the Cave, follow the path of the frozen river, the ice cracking beneath your feet, into the First Layer of hell…

The First layer of hell is cold and barren, known to mortals as Limbo. It is where the souls of the dead who had neither a strong desire in life nor faithful devotion to the any of the Gods enter and remain for all eternity. It is in this layer where the “sin” of Void is embodied in the incorporeal spirits which haunted the frozen woodland shores unable to grasp the physical world around them. For they were deemed empty in life, now their purpose shall be emptiness in death. Although they are able to take control of a soulless husk, a temporary vessel of shambling flesh, they cannot hold on to this brief meaningful existence for long before their vessel freezes solid in the unyielding winter of the void. The Duke of this realm is known as the Winter King, a powerful specter who is able to possess more than just an empty husk, taking a body for his own to control as the sole authority of this layer.

Where the Ice begins to melt and the frosted leaves turn to green pines, the slow river shall deliver you into the Second Layer of hell...

The Second layer of hell is cool and lush, seemingly pristine in natural beauty. It is where souls of the dead who placed aesthetics and the self above all else go to view their wickedness in their own reflections. It is in this layer where the sin of Pride is embodied by the beautiful citizens who are seemingly free to live throughout the realm. They are attractive in physical appearance with few blemishes or flaws, and yet beneath the wondrous exterior lies the rotten souls which are revealed in their reflections upon a mirror or water’s surface. Their punishment is to never see their beauty for themselves, and though their ageless bodies never decay and are preserved for all to gaze upon in splendor, they will never see themselves as truly beautiful. No, for in this layer of great artists and fine nobles, amongst the perfect mockery of heaven in the lush Zen gardens of perfection and shrines of tranquility, everyone shall be revealed by the truth of a reflecting pool. There is absolutely nothing natural about this layer, everything is forced into an aesthetic work of art, the stones, the bushes, the trees, the flowers, everything is set to appear natural although far from it. The Duke of this realm is known as the Glorious Emperor, a majestic amalgam of the best-looking souls patched together as an unnatural golem of flesh, unquestionably the most beautiful thing in this layer as he beheads anything else more attractive to add to himself.

Follow the quiet river to where the unnatural flora end, where the leaves which fall into it are no longer cut and fabricated to where the warm sands meet your toes in the shallow waters, welcome to the Third Layer of hell…

The Third layer of hell is warm and arid, exotic and enchanting. It is where the souls of the dead who gave into their carnal lusts and sought pleasures of the flesh far too much are committed to their indulgent punishment. Here in the mecca of pleasures, the flesh markets sell slaves and dismembered parts of slaves for bidders who swap them for other slave and parts. The still-feeling parts, where pleasure and pain become inseparable physical torment. Deviants from both sides of each extreme, the slavers and the enslaved, everything carnal imaginable done here within this layer. Bodies heavily modified by the flesh trades, monstrosities of intimate pleasures made from the butchery of hundreds of bodies, each connected to the original owners sewn together to become a machine of absolute carnality. That is their punishment and fate, for they so openly gave themselves up to so many others, so to shall their bodies be torn apart into as many pieces and experienced by many. The Duke of this realm is known as the Pleasure Sultan, a ghoul who literally feast upon the flesh of his harems to take their forms as he pleases, taking their identity all the while letting them feel their slow digestion as they become part of him and add to his repertoire of bodies to choose from.

Follow the warm waters and sands along the path, to where the sands become gold which taint the waters into a murk, and the air no longer bears the perfumed scent it did, there amongst the golden sands enter the Fourth Layer of hell…

The Fourth Layer of hell is hot and unrelenting, but rich in wealth beyond description. It is where the souls of the dead who pursued wealth for its own sake go to lose their worth and value. Another marketplace is found in the sun-baked city, one where precious jewels and metals are easily found displayed on the streets as thieves and traders eye their wares carefully plotting against each other to amass the greatest hoard. Here too maintaining the order are sell-swords and mercenaries, and others who sold their personal skills for great gains, alongside the bankers who run the only currency fit for a place where gold is abundantly found: drinkable water. Yet all the treasures found here turn to sand within a day to be scattered upon the desert winds, as the curse of this layer forces new mines to scour the desert for caches of gold, silver, and gems hidden within the sand as fitting punishment for those who sought to possess material goods. The Duke of this realm is known as the Golden Pharaoh, an ancient mummified ruler who was buried with all his possessions in the grand pyramid which the marketplaces surround, controlling all the sand of his afterlife dominion as an extension of himself as he claims all the treasures beneath.

Where the tainted metal waters end, and the sands turn to solid stone, where the river continues now entrenched upon the high marble pillars, the stone markers alongside the aqueduct will tell you how far you must walk to arrive into the heart of the Fifth Layer of hell…

The Fifth Layer of hell is temperate, but filled with music of battle and fanfare. It is where the souls of the dead who were pugnacious go to join the never-ending fray. The realm is filled with flying crows feasting upon the still-living fallen in the paved streets where constant skirmishes pit soldiers and generals against barbarians and warlords. Despite the constant fighting, the architecture of the realm still manages to remain, great stone blocks and pillars of marble stand scattered around the paved roads which lead towards the middle of the layer. Within the center of all the war camps lies the arena, a grand stadium filled with the best warriors who survived the constant wars outside, only to be pit against each other in combat for nothing more than sport. The rules of this realm make the battle eternal, for the fighters never die, but instead are submerged in the pool of bodies and blood once they can no longer fight as the river of souls is directed to wash over the Arena every hour and drain into the next layer picking up all the blood of war. The wrathful here are preserved in blood split by so many, as a representation of the blood they helped shed in life. The Duke of this realm is known as the Wolf Caesar, a werewolf who oversees the arena upon his throne in human form, though he unleashes the inner beast when he bores of simply watching.

The bloody river ends in the sewage drain, a metal sieve to strain the gurgling bodies from entering the next layer which presents itself as a stinking pit, where the sunlight fades and the waters fall into the swallowing night, enter the Sixth Layer of hell…

[The Grey Dust]

res

[Natsucooldude]

Interested... very much so sir. I am giddy to see what you have in store for us.

[Rhymer]

Well I'm in too. I like your style Grey Dust. I'll be around.

[The Grey Dust]

Well that's two so far. This is good. I'll try and see if I can get everything Drafted by the end of the week. Most of it will be done through the RP itself but the immersion's going to be on my part to create the fantasy realm and set the tone hopefully.

Everyone else is free to contribute along as well for the ride. Although since we are starting out as Demigods, I expect everyone to be "reasonably unreasonable" with their characters, so feel free to let your creativity run wild. They are after all going through Hell, so pack accordingly. The Dukes of each layer have the ability to corrupt a normal soul easily, but a demigod will have some protection.

It would be great to have every Demigod have at least one character flaw which may or may not be exploited in the layers of vice if not by your fellow roleplayers...

[Scarifar]

I could be interested.

[Crimson Raven]

Consider me interested

[Wraithblade6]

Looks like a job for... ECLIPSE!

[Invictus]

This could be interesting.

[Anvil]

Looks great. Very interested

[The Grey Dust]

Quite a few interested. This is good.

[Tyki]

i think i'll hop in as well *pets grey with a cactus* :P

[The Grey Dust]

@Tyki@Natsucooldude@Anvil@Invictus@Wraithblade6@Crimson Raven@Scarifar@Rhymer

Okay, given that we have 8 people seemingly interested, I've written up a skeleton CS.

-------------

Name:
Title(s):

Patron God:
Patron’s Domain:

Aspect of Patron’s Domain:

Appearance:

General Apparel:
Armor/Weapons/Equipment:
Magical/Divine Abilities:

Personality:

Likes:
Dislikes:
Fears:
Aspirations:

Relationships:

Allies:
Enemies:
Loyalties:

History:

[Rhymer]

Maybe something up tonight. Probably tomorrow tho..

[Tyki]

Name: Kalico
Title(s): Demon wind, ominious one, The hated one, i think he just stole my wallet!, mother fucker

Patron God: Typhon, titan of calamity
Patron’s Domain: As the father of all monsters and herald of all things apocalyptic, his gifts convey the total control of all things monstrous (excluding the undead and things of an eldritch nature because that would be retarded) as well as control over storms, earthquakes, flaming goats falling from the sky, pretty much anything along those lines.

Aspect of Patron’s Domain: Calamity and monsters

Appearance:

Black feline beastman (furry basically because i'm pulling him from elsewhere) of around 5'11, thin with a bit of muscle, yellow left eye and blue right eye, though most can't tell as he always appears to have them closed.

General Apparel: Black jeans, loose t-shirt, and a red trench coat with layered armor built in

Armor/Weapons/Equipment: Armored trench coat, dual metal fans

Magical/Divine Abilities: Wind/storm magic mostly, earth/destruction magic rarely, Eyes of domination (Explanation: the only divine ability he has, any monster locked in his gaze cannot disobey a given order even after the gaze has been broken) almost never unless something really pisses him off.

Celestial hatred: all other gods hate him. all of them. from every pantheon. ever. typhon is the only being in the celestial plane that likes him and it's specifically because he hates all the other gods too. so much celestial hate causes him to have so much bad luck he's had to learn wind and earth magic so he can prevent meteors from falling on him at the age of 12

Personality: logical and blunt. When he hates something, you will know it.
Likes: Honesty, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, Men, and wrecking the ever loving shit out of assholes.
Dislikes: gods, assholes/dueche bags, and dishonesty
Fears: the encroaching effects of stupidity and ignorance on society at large.
Aspirations: becoming a god so he can punch zues in the dick. no shitting you, he literally just want to punch most gods in the dick personally.

Relationships: None
Allies: Typhon, and Most sentient monsters
Enemies: Every pantheon ever. Seriously. he's pissed all of them off at some point or another.
Loyalties: nope

History: Kalico was born to a poor family, the thirteenth child and also a seventh son of a seventh son, putting him in an odd posistion where the village elder was torn on whether to have him executed to trained as a priest, so he did a mix of both: he discommunicated him at the age of three days old and booted him out of the village. At the age of twelve he came back, beat the shit out of that elder's replacement, realized it was the wrong elder, and went to go beat the shit out of THAT elder and actually managed to kill him due to his old age and Kalico's talent for magic. After killing his previous elder, kalico took some time to go through the small, rural village he'd been born into and personally smacked all of the stupid ones upside the head, defaced their idols, and told them and all they worshiped to kiss his ass. As you can probably guess, this is about when the first meteors started falling. Ever since then it's been pretty much the same old story of him coming across a village, fucking it's priesthood (sometimes literally depending on the priests *looks vaugely at the slaaneshi precepts*) and then defacing their idols, pretty much becoming a hated demon in the eyes of most people. In his travels he came across the large amounts of "adventurers" that were little more than genocidal maniacs with giant, throbbing murder boners for monsters. He very swiftly expanded his swathe of destruction to included adventurers, earning him the respect and adoration of most any sentient monster and even the non-sentient ones in some occasions, causing him to become truly noted by Typhon, which personally possesed the nearest satyr, gave him a hug, and gave him his blessing, naming him his next great prophet. After a few years he got pointed in the direction of hell and told "go in there, get some orb satan stole, and you can punch the gods right in the dick personally" so off he went. i'm not good with bios. i don't like them and i find them to mostly be unneccessary info dumps that are dry and boring to read. hope you found this one at least sort of enjoyable :P

[Rhymer]

Name: Kalico
Title(s): Demon wind, ominious one, The hated one, i think he just stole my wallet!, mother fucker

Patron God: Typhon, titan of calamity
Patron’s Domain: As the father of all monsters and herald of all things apocalyptic, his gifts convey the total control of all things monstrous (excluding the undead and things of an eldritch nature because that would be retarded) as well as control over storms, earthquakes, flaming goats falling from the sky, pretty much anything along those lines.

Aspect of Patron’s Domain: Calamity and monsters

Appearance:

Black feline beastman (furry basically because i'm pulling him from elsewhere) of around 5'11, thin with a bit of muscle, yellow left eye and blue right eye, though most can't tell as he always appears to have them closed.

General Apparel: Black jeans, loose t-shirt, and a red trench coat with layered armor built in

Armor/Weapons/Equipment: Armored trench coat, dual metal fans

Magical/Divine Abilities: Wind/storm magic mostly, earth/destruction magic rarely, Eyes of domination (Explanation: the only divine ability he has, any monster locked in his gaze cannot disobey a given order even after the gaze has been broken) almost never unless something really pisses him off.

Celestial hatred: all other gods hate him. all of them. from every pantheon. ever. typhon is the only being in the celestial plane that likes him and it's specifically because he hates all the other gods too. so much celestial hate causes him to have so much bad luck he's had to learn wind and earth magic so he can prevent meteors from falling on him at the age of 12

Personality: logical and blunt. When he hates something, you will know it.
Likes: Honesty, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, Men, and wrecking the ever loving shit out of assholes.
Dislikes: gods, assholes/dueche bags, and dishonesty
Fears: the encroaching effects of stupidity and ignorance on society at large.
Aspirations: becoming a god so he can punch zues in the dick. no shitting you, he literally just want to punch most gods in the dick personally.

Relationships: None
Allies: Typhon, and Most sentient monsters
Enemies: Every pantheon ever. Seriously. he's pissed all of them off at some point or another.
Loyalties: nope

History: Kalico was born to a poor family, the thirteenth child and also a seventh son of a seventh son, putting him in an odd posistion where the village elder was torn on whether to have him executed to trained as a priest, so he did a mix of both: he discommunicated him at the age of three days old and booted him out of the village. At the age of twelve he came back, beat the shit out of that elder's replacement, realized it was the wrong elder, and went to go beat the shit out of THAT elder and actually managed to kill him due to his old age and Kalico's talent for magic. After killing his previous elder, kalico took some time to go through the small, rural village he'd been born into and personally smacked all of the stupid ones upside the head, defaced their idols, and told them and all they worshiped to kiss his ass. As you can probably guess, this is about when the first meteors started falling. Ever since then it's been pretty much the same old story of him coming across a village, fucking it's priesthood (sometimes literally depending on the priests *looks vaugely at the slaaneshi precepts*) and then defacing their idols, pretty much becoming a hated demon in the eyes of most people. In his travels he came across the large amounts of "adventurers" that were little more than genocidal maniacs with giant, throbbing murder boners for monsters. He very swiftly expanded his swathe of destruction to included adventurers, earning him the respect and adoration of most any sentient monster and even the non-sentient ones in some occasions, causing him to become truly noted by Typhon, which personally possesed the nearest satyr, gave him a hug, and gave him his blessing, naming him his next great prophet. After a few years he got pointed in the direction of hell and told "go in there, get some orb satan stole, and you can punch the gods right in the dick personally" so off he went. i'm not good with bios. i don't like them and i find them to mostly be unneccessary info dumps that are dry and boring to read. hope you found this one at least sort of enjoyable :P

@Tyki

I don't understand.

[Tyki]

@Rhymer

elaborate?

[Rhymer]

@Rhymer

elaborate?

@Tyki

Well. Using the tone from the OP I was planning on playing something like



Your guy is all 'kick'em in the dick' I was expecting a somewhat serious RP but it's all good.