TheWizardLizard

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Tobias stepped up next to his companion to observe the village in front of them, a yawn escaping from his mouth. A lot of things perplexed him about Fiona - her blind trust, her foolhardiness, her bizarre sense of moral imperative, how her hair seemed to always look good even if she was tramping through the woods or swordfighting bandits - but her penchant for traveling in the morning was one thing he felt he would absolutely never understand.

Truth be told, he couldn't put a finger on why he'd even followed the girl to this place. It wasn't like he owed her anything - she'd saved his life, he'd saved hers. Square. That would have been the end of it, if it weren't for all the damned 'conscience' feelings that came from the thought of sick orphans and his 'friend' on her own. Feelings were always making his life difficult.

The thief surveyed the village before him briefly before nodding sharply. "I don't trust it. Too quiet and nice looking. Demon cults, definitely demon cults. Most of the people are probably part demon. Especially the ones who're polite, they're the demony ones. I bet they have organized crime, too. You could cram an entire gang war in a corn field. I've seen it happen." The thief stalked off to pick up his bags.

"Also, I still think this 'job' is a trap and we're both going to die. Just so we're clear on that. That's still where I am." Shouldering his possessions, the rogue set off towards the village, grinning widely. "Your turn on the horse, Angel of War. Let's get on with it."

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

I don't know @Dragoknighte. I don't know. Ask D&D 4e- apparently it has rules for it. They're called Shifters, and they come in half-werewolf and half-weretiger flavors.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Yeah, I'd rather see too many humans as opposed to too few. Diversity is important, but when everyone's special, nobody is.

Hell, Tobias as a character originated as a desperate effort to inject some normalcy into a party consisting of an elf, a gnome, two half-werewolves and a tiefling.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

@Luminosity That'd probably work. Tobias isn't the sort to routinely stick his neck out for other people, but your character could probably convince him (especially considering it's orphans at stake, which he has a soft spot for). I mean, expect him to bitch your character out near-constantly when the peril starts mounting, but it'll be... mostly in fun.

If you're game, we can work out the circumstances of their meeting. Thanks!

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Quite the roster we have so far. We've got a very well-rounded support cast for Fiona (who is tripping every single one of my 'protagonist' radars - looking forward to seeing how she develops). An older badass, a mysterious spell-casting woods lady, a hyper-lawful monk badass and a hyper chaotic thief, an experienced adventurer lady, a woods person with a huge axe AND a magic elf in one character... we've got it all! And no Chaotic Evil Necromancers tagging along trying to kill all the NPCs for giggles!

Incidentally, still hoping someone'll take me up on my offer of 'dragging Tobias into the adventure'. Again, not necessary for me to play, but it's usually been fun and a source of interesting character dynamics before. So, yeah.

The Gifted: A Fast Paced Superpower RP (Relaunch)

The Monster

The woman's heart was pounding in her chest as she sprinted through the desiccated halls of the abandoned tenement building. It was the kind of place anyone should be afraid to be in, especially at this hour - dark, unsafe, filled with disreputable characters. But that was not why she was in such great terror.

Charles stepped after her, slowly, methodically, not matching his frantic quarry in pace nor demeanor. The woman - the creature - had seen the face of the monster, the Thing mothers warn their children about when they tell them to be good, eat their vegetables, go to bed without a fuss.

Her fear was intoxicating, and the grim faced man breathed it in and steadily willed his body to grow.

The thing in front of him stole a glance back at her pursuer, and the sight of the tall, strange, almost-human thing steadily following her drove her to new heights of terror - and speed. That was fine. He'd catch up when he caught up.

Finally, their terminal dance reached a close when the woman, the thing, rounded a corner and smacked into a cement wall. This section of the tenement had been cordoned off, and she was cornered by the beast.

Hands shaking, voice letting out small, involuntary whimpers, she turned to face her pursuer and saw only darkness, stretching into the hall through which she had run seemingly forever. As she tried to control her breathing, her eyes and forearms began to glow orange, hands generating small, sputtering balls of fire.

"I'm not afraid of you, do you hear me? I'm not afraid!"

Those were the words she chose to fling at the shadows, as so many had before. As usual, they were lies.

All was still for a moment, and then it tore out of the darkness.

It was maybe nine feet tall, sinuous and strange. It undulated like a snake as it sprinted, its foot-long claws like warped, bladed fingers dragging on the ground. It's face was a grim mockery of humanity - white, staring eyes and a mouth full of jagged fangs. It shrieked, just once, the sound of a wounded animal, of a knife in the dark, of everything the woman did not know.

And then Charles Metzger was on top of his quarry, and all that was left was the wet work. Inhuman, he thought as his claws tore flesh and bone. Insect, he thought as he sank his fang's into the screaming woman's shoulder. Disease, he thought as his prey's mortal struggling slowed and finally, stopped.

Charles stepped back from the body, already twisting back to his facsimile of humanity. He did not deserve to wear this, this mask of normalcy, of purity - but as long as he had work left to do, he would have to endure the guilt.

When his transformation was complete, the grim man pulled a smartphone from his blood-spattered suit pocket, snapped three pictures of the grisly scene in front of him, and put it back. Then, whistling no particular tune, Charles turned to exit the tenement building, making his way to where his car was parked outside.

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Tobias, 'He who runs and hides'

Name: Tobias
Age: 22
Alignment: Chaotic Good-ish
Race: Human
Class: Thief
Appearance/Clothing:

Minus the sword and the scar, bottom picture is the clothes he's currently wearing

Skills: Bluff, Acrobatics, Charm, Athletics, Sneak, Theft, Streetwise, Knife-Wielding, Knife-Throwing.
Natural Abilities: The power of average-ness.
Magic/Spells: Not a scrap of it.
Additional Information: Tobias isn't the strongest fighter, being far more suited to running, hiding, or bluffing his way out of situations (he's capable by normal person standards, of course - just not really what you'd expect from an adventurer). He's also a massive pathological liar with trust issues a mile wide.
Weapons: He has three knives - one on his belt, one on his back, and one in his boot.
Possessions: Leather armor, basic adventuring supplies (rope, flint and steel, etc.). His hood is enchanted to make it very hard for someone who sees him with it up to remember his face. He also has a magic grappling hook enchanted to not make a sound. Four potions of invisibility, each lasting fifteen minutes.
Personality: Tobias is glib, smart-alecky, cowardly, and tries his absolute best to be self-centered. Though he'd feverishly deny it, he's a fundamentally good person underneath the assumed selfishness. He tries not to let anyone get close to him, and often uses snark and flat out lies as armor in social interaction.
History: Getting the truth out of him about his personal history is extraordinarily difficult, but it's possible to determine that he's an orphan who grew up on the streets and has spent his life so far living in cities and alternating between pickpocket, con-man and cat burglar in order to survive.

Oscar the Corpse

Name: Oscar
Age: Interesting question for someone in his situation, but he's been how he is now for about three years.
Alignment: True Neutral
Race: Corpse
Class: Undead Juggernaut
Appearance/Clothing: His body is that of a clean-shaven man, aged 20-25, with short brown hair that doesn't grow anymore. His skin has grown taut and gray, pulled thin over the bones in his face. He never, ever blinks, so as a result dust has scratched his eyes until his iris and pupil are barely visible in the white. Physically, he's not very imposing - his body is actually distinctly weedy, at about 5'10" and looking to be around 130 pounds. He's still wearing the clothes he was when he woke up three years ago - the burial suit of a respected gentleman. However, constant use has worn it down considerably, making it stained and splotched where it isn't torn altogether.
Skills: Hand-to-Hand Combat (none of that fancy martial arts - Oscar does pankration), Intimidation, Brute Force.
Natural Abilities: Inhuman Strength, Inhuman Durability, Inhuman Speed (In a straight line, that is - if he can build up momentum and doesn't have to turn at all, Oscar can actually move pretty fast, more to the tune of 20 to 25 mph. He can't do this for longer than about two minutes, however, as his abysmal motor control will eventually catch up with him and he'll trip, converting his body into an undead missile of disaster)
Magic/Spells: None at all.
Additional Information: Oscar is half blind and deaf, has the motor control you'd expect of a dead body, no reflexes whatsoever and is about as maneuverable as a whale on land. This is counterbalanced by the fact that he barely feels pain, is immune to poison, is extraordinarily difficult to actually harm (without fire), and can punch holes in stone walls/tear people's limbs off. For help imagining his voice, try listening to these.
Weapons: None. He has his hands.
Possessions: The clothes on his back and a locket with a picture of a dark-haired woman inside. It's the only thing that calms him down when he starts berserking.
Personality: Oscar guides himself on one moral principle - bodies must be buried. He's generally very quiet and unperson-able, owing to the fact that he has no social skills. He has the potential to be very caring towards those who befriend him, not that that's really come up in his life yet. If someone managed to strike up a conversation with him, they'd find him... odd, always saying things that almost make sense. When threatened or surrounded by violence, he can plunge into a berserk fury of roars and snarls and dismemberments, acting largely on instinct.
History: Oscar woke up in a shallow grave three years ago with nothing but his clothes, his locket, and a head full of questions and half-faded memories. Since then he has wandered, trying vaguely to discover who he was and how it was he came to die, and what it was that called him to this dim, dismal half-life. He has hurt people who threatened him, and tried to help a few that didn't, but mostly he has kept to himself, going from place to place without really knowing why, seeking a purpose in his unlife.

The Gifted: A Fast Paced Superpower RP (Relaunch)

Cheers. I'll get a post up in as him tomorrow. Also, should I post as Alex, or wait for the timeskip?

Cinder Sickness - A DnD style classic RP

Edited knife skills in, though I'll leave out the magic - just doesn't seem to make sense with his backstory.

Oh, by the old by, when I'm playing this character I tend to find it easier to work him into the 'quest' story if he's being dragged into it by another party member, seeing as how he doesn't much have the stomach for adventuring of his own accord. The first time, he'd been arrested and was released into the custody of the party leader as 'public service'.

If nobody wants to, I can think up a reason, but if someone'd like to volunteer to be strongarming Tobias into this little shindig, that might be fun.

The Gifted: A Fast Paced Superpower RP (Relaunch)

The Monster

Name: Charles Metzger
Alias(s): The Monster
Age: 31
Affiliations: Independent.
Factions: Independent.
Description: In his standard form, he is a tall, pale man with brown eyes and crew-cut black hair. His face is smooth, unmarked, and 100% expressionless - his eyes stare straight ahead coolly, his mouth set in a hard line. He's pretty much never seen without some kind of business suit on, which are pretty much always in perfect condition or spattered with blood and shredded to high hell, depending on what he was doing a few minutes ago.

When his powers are active, he can look like... pretty much anything, though he's incapable of simulating clothing or mimicking other people.

Powers: Fear-powered shapeshifting. When Charles causes someone to feel anxious, paranoid, nervous, or afraid, he gains energy to fuel his transformations, being able to reshape his body in just about any way he sees fit, from growing claws and sharp teeth and wings to adding feet to his height or thickening his hide to withstand punishment. The more fear, the more drastic his transformations can become - he makes someone a litte nervous, he can maybe grow and inch or two. He makes a few people absolutely terrified, he can become an almost inhuman monster. There's no upper limit on this power, though the amount of fear required would make becoming S-level only theoretically possible. When he runs out of fear (which can happen if the person he was drawing from calms down or dies) he starts to revert back to human form.

Skills: Charles speaks several languages fluently (German, French, English), is a talented investigator and practiced hunter - stalking, breaking and entering, sneaking around, and associated skills are old hat to him.
Equipment: A massive inherited bank account, a wardrobe of fine clothing, a Rolls Royce, and absolute moral insanity.
Ranking: Averages at Upper B Rank, though it's hypothetically possible for him to go much higher.

Biography: For now, it's enough to know that he obsessively hunts other metas. Further backstory may be revealed as he is developed.