culot

Call of Cthulhu: Sea of Nightmares

Guys I'm really sorry for not posting yet. Real life is doing its thing and I've been super busy the last couple days. Post going up now/soon!

New Haven

I'm interested! Working on a character concept/sheet now.

Call of Cthulhu: Sea of Nightmares

I went ahead and posted my CS in the Characters tab; let me know if that's okay. Hope I get approved!

Call of Cthulhu: Sea of Nightmares

Basic information:
Name: Harold Campbell
Age: 49
Profession: Mechanic. Owns and operates his own repair shop, assisted by his two oldest sons.
Useful skills:

• auto repair: He has a natural aptitude for understanding machinery. Most of his work is with automobiles, but when more relevant experts are unavailable or too costly he occasionally secures work on boats and industrial machinery.
• driving: An amateur racing driver in his younger days, Harold has experience keeping the cars of the day in one piece and moving forward even at high velocity, and in less-than-perfect driving conditions.
• modest ability with firearms: cultural familiarity, as he grew up in the rural South. Some hunting and trapshooting experience with rifles but no serious firearms training and scant experience with pistols.
• conversation: friendly and likes to talk. Tries to resolve conflicts verbally.

Unskilled in:

• combat (esp. hand-to-hand): Harold is a small guy, and he learned long ago not to rely on his fists to solve problems. No brawling or melee weapon experience.
• managing responsibilities: Somewhat childish in this regard, Harold tends to shirk responsibilities, especially with regards to finances. His auto-repair business is suffering for this reason, although continued demand for his services is keeping the place afloat for now.
• conflict resolution: Harold is nonconfrontational in most circumstances. Additionally, despite his outgoing nature he is not especially persuasive.
• athletics: Not a fast or long-distance runner, not especially strong, has mild chronic foot pain that precludes vigorous exertion.

Appearance
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 135
Eye color: Brown
Hair color: Brown
Skin color: White
Description: Harold Campbell is short but wiry, made resilient through a life of physical labor. His skin is brown and leathery, and his hands and arms bear the scars of a tradesman: the pedigree of decades spent repairing automobiles. He feels lucky to have retained all of his fingers through years of accidents large and small, but residual pain from a crushed foot ten years ago gives him trouble in the mornings and on cold days. His hair is not yet gray, but it will be soon. He is a smoker.

Personality: He is naturally gregarious and enjoys the interpersonal as well as the technical aspects of his work. A hardscrabble life has made him cautious, but he is often less suspicious of strangers than would be wise. He avoids conflict whenever possible. He treasures his family above all else, but his inability to manage money and frequent disinclination to discipline his children has led to resentment between him and his wife Louise. Harold holds hard work to be the highest of virtues, and he is proud that all of his children held jobs from a young age. He is moderately religious. Technology fascinates him, and he spends his little free time tinkering with various mechanical projects, but the rapid technological progress in the modern world is beginning to outpace and concern him. Harold prefers to believe that most people are fundamentally good, despite numerous disappointments and cases to the contrary over the years.
Likes: People, tinkering, giving advice, going to church, FDR, listening to the radio
Dislikes: Responsibility, dealing with finances, interpersonal conflict
Fears: old age, the crumbling of his marriage, vulnerability, going to the dentist
Aspirations/goals: To see his children live a more prosperous life than his own; to open a second auto shop; to buy his own tow truck
Family:

• wife Louise (48)
• sons Walter (28), Roy (26), Edward (19)
• daughters Dorothy (25), Josephine (20), Mary (11)

Mental state: Normal

Equipment list:

• pack of cigarettes
• lighter
• pair of heavy-duty workman's gloves
• Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless pistol, issue year 1905, fully loaded with 8 .32 ACP rounds
• 30 spare .32 ACP rounds
• deerskin jacket, sturdy but well-loved
• small notebook and pencil
• miniature copy of the New Testament, King James version. A small family photo from about ten years ago is tucked between the pages.
• wallet containing $16.54 in small bills and coins
• canteen containing one day's worth of water
• three days' worth of beef jerky

Call of Cthulhu: Sea of Nightmares

Question: what does "Mental state" mean?

Call of Cthulhu: Sea of Nightmares

I'm interested! Working on a CS now.

The Birth of Naroe ~{(!-!)}~

Okay, here's what I have so far! Sorry that it's rough and maybe a bit overboard in some parts. I did my best to give the Mist an interesting and well-thought-out history, and to think through their strengths and weaknesses as a group. I welcome any feedback from anyone :)

The Mist

Overview

The Mist is a cult of approximately ninety elven druids living in the foothills of the continent's northern mountain range. Their religion is animistic. They disapprove of departures from the natural order such as urbanization, technology, and even domestication. The members of the Mist live singly, in pairs, or in small family groups, gathering for seasonal celebrations and to defend their territory, which they guard jealously. Their archers and fire mages are renowned in the region, and the cult has become regionally infamous for the spectacular arson of a medium-sized town that was sending raiding parties after their members. The cult has joined with a nearby tribe of treants for military purposes.

Core Beliefs

The Mist are fiercely individualistic, valuing self-sufficiency and freedom above all. The cult live alone or in small groups most of the year, except for seasonal gatherings for the sharing of non-urgent news, worship, and games of skill and strength. The cult will also gather in order to defend the group's territory; jurisdiction over one's own land is considered sacred, especially when outsiders are involved.

The religion of the Mist is animistic, emphasizing the worship of and dialogue with nature spirits small and large. These spirits inhabit trees, streams, hills, animals, and other entities of the natural world.

As a druidic order, the Mist despise civilization, urbanization, technology, the domestication of animals, and other aberrations from the natural order. Members will go out of their way to destroy these abominations when possible and practical, although they do not typically venture outside of their claimed territory to do so.

Magic

The Mist practice druidic magic, including the expected suite of nature-focused magic. Practitioners may share special bonds with animals or bend trees and plants to their will. The Mist sustains itself by hunting and magically-supplemented gathering of edible plants.

The Mist's most infamous offensive magic is their ability to command fire. Early cultists (80 years before present) were nearly killed off by forest fires set by invaders; therefore, the ability to extinguish and redirect fire is especially prized among the Mist. Many among the Mist bear burn scars due to the practice of this art. Experts at elemental fire magic are unlikely to be skilled in traditional druidic magic due to the intense training required to master fire.

Fighting Style

Mist warriors prioritize stealth due to their few numbers. Armor is well-camouflaged for their forest environs, and as elves are naturally lightfooted, they tend to have good success with guerrilla tactics when fighting in their home territory. Familiarity with the terrain is key to these tactics, however, so when they are forced to fight in unfamiliar areas they can have difficulty organizing and conducting attacks. If the element of surprise is lost, or if Mist warriors are forced to fight in rigid formations, their fighting abilities suffer significantly.

A Mist warrior crafts his or her own armor, under the tutelage of an experienced elder, using primarily wood and leather.

Non-mage fighters are typically archers, armed with cult-made longbows and a long knife.

History

The cult was founded by a group of six elven druids about eighty years before present (B.P.) who believed that existing societies, elven and human, had been corrupted by disregard for the natural state of the world. The Mist found a home in the foothills of the Northern Mountain Range, and soon attracted a modest following of like-minded druids. Their communal gathering place was in a great valley, so the cult named itself the Mist: for the mist vanishes in its mysterious way, but gathers in the low places when the season is right.

Word of the cult's activity spread after a few years to the nearby towns. The cult's practice of slaughtering domesticated animals (as abominations against nature) led to wildly speculative rumors of demonic pacts and animal sacrifice. Militias from these settlements joined to burn the cultists out; the dry forest with its abundant underbrush was overdue for a serious fire. The blaze claimed many cult members' lives.

The remaining cultists appealed to the reclusive treants living in nearby territory. The treants, concerned about their own dwindling numbers, extended an alliance to the cultists on the condition that a treant would be the chief of the joint tribes. Despite the elven belief that it is undignified for an elven society to be led by a non-elf, the cultists accepted this proposition.

The Mist, due to their practice of killing travellers and settlers near their territory, attracted the ire of a few nearby towns which were the sources of these expeditions. Beginning 50 years before present, bounties were set on the lives of Mist members, causing groups of adventurers and small raiding parties to incurse on Mist territory, claiming the lives of several cult members. The Mist responded by burning the nearest town to the ground in 48 B.P., and killing as many fleeing townspeople as possible, as retribution not only for the recent bounty murders but also for the Great Fire three decades earlier.

This was considered an act of war by the confederation of towns and small cities in the region, which assembled an offensive force to wipe out the cultists once and for all in 47 B.P. The resultant series of battles devastated the Mist and the treants, but they eventually carried the day and drove the invaders out of their territory, having killed two in three of the enemies soldiers while losing half of their own. In this final battle, the treant chief was killed.

Despite the victory, the heavy losses led to high tensions between the treants and the Mist. A new treant chief was chosen: Noor, over 200 years old, was not the oldest of the treants, but her skill in diplomacy and great wisdom was judged to be vital in this tumultuous time.

After the war against the confederacy of human towns, the cult swelled again in numbers as druids across the region heard of their victory and their unswerving dedication to nature and their beliefs. Since that time, the cult has weathered internal religious disputes of varying severity and fluctuating dissatisfaction with treant control of the cult, but has experienced relative peace with its other neighbors.

However, as the great battles become a more distant memory. young members of the Mist are becoming bolder in venturing forth into new territory, and human explorers and settlers are gingerly probing the limits of proximity that the Mist will allow.

The Birth of Naroe ~{(!-!)}~

On it, boss!

The Birth of Naroe ~{(!-!)}~

@Pripovednik Something on the scale of the cult you asked for above would be neat!

The Birth of Naroe ~{(!-!)}~

Hi @Pripovednik! I'd like to join if that's okay with you.

Could you give me a small assignment to get me started? I have a grand idea brewing but it's still pretty nebulous.