Soul Stealer

[Prince Toad]

Neioris, the land of your birth, is a dark and terrible place. It is ruled by the corrupt and powerful, whoever can connive their way to the top. There is an iron-fisted government that quells all rebellions, but despite the fact that those leading it will do anything to stay there, they are often murdered and a new despot or council is installed in their place. What roads exist are plagued with bandits, disease rots the earth and destroys the populace, and each man's rights are only what he can reinforce by his own might.

Among the institutions in this foul place is the Penance. While crime is rampant in the fields, the government only arrests those who they feel threaten them, who a leader has a grudge against, or some similar notion. When they are arrested, they are stripped of all possessions and taken to a gateway flanked by a wall made of black, swirling energy. This wall encompasses an enormous area dedicated to "keeping the peace," though truly it is just a punishment for some transgression, major or otherwise, real or imagined. Those within are serving the Penance, and to date nobody is known to have escaped.

You have been incapacitated, bound, and dragged off kicking and screaming to this area. Your memory has been wiped of your name, history, and relations. As you stood before the gate, they tore everything except your barest garments away from you and gave you one single object: a small ring with a ruby-red stone in it. This stone is a Lifedrinker, a gem that can steal the very essence of the newly dead and transport it to the ring's wearer. However, as one steals the essence, their own body ages as well, to compensate for the new power and experience flowing through their being, and there is more than one case of men mad with power killing themselves in such a way. The new essence also drives them to this madness-- several souls in the same body conflict and distort reality until the original can bear it no longer and loses what sanity remained.

You have been thrown into the gate with nothing more than a stick, mockingly tossed in your direction-- how gracious of us, we'll give you a weapon!-- and as you dust yourself off, you find a few others nearby in the same situation, all sporting the same scruff of clothing, the same stick (not even really a staff), and the same ring. You arise and must now decide your next move.

Ally with them, and risk backstabbing for a temporary safety net? Attempt to sneak away and deprive yourself of what could be your easiest kill? Or attack them, and risk your life right now in return for long-term survival-- but eventual madness? It is all in your hands.

Sign-up sheet:

Name: Call yourself whatever. You don't remember your original name.
Sex: Male or female.
Age: Your character won't know this, but just to give an idea.
Stats:
Split 50 between HP and MP.
HP: Determines how many hits you can take.
MP:
Split 100 between Strength, Endurance, Intelligence, Willpower, and Speed.
Strength: Determines how much damage you do in melee.
Endurance: Has a minor effect on resisting physical damage, and determines how far you can run or swim without getting tired.
Intelligence: Determines effectiveness of spells, as well as how many spells you can hold.
Willpower: Determines resistance to magical effects, as well as resistance to insanity.
Speed: Determines how fast you are.
Spell: You get one spell to start with, but you can't use it until either you make your first kill or you've spent a day in the Penance. If it's too strong you might not be able to cast it until you've made several kills.

There is water, but food is unnecessary-- you get sustenance from stealing souls.

You can release souls if you wish. That lessens your power, but also brings back some of your control and sanity. The soul leaves immediately and cannot be taken by anyone, or called back by you. When you make a kill and steal their soul, you can choose to steal only the original victim's soul, or all souls they've stolen. In very rare cases, such as if the person you've killed has the soul of a famous warrior, you can steal the famous person's soul instead of the one you've killed.

If there are questions, ask. If not, sign up. I still have to make the mechanics, so it might be a bit before your topics are up.

[ April 11, 2005, 10:42 PM: Message edited by: Prince Toad ]

[[sage]]

Name: Onus
Sex: M
Age: ~17
Stats:
HP: 20
MP: 30
Str: 20
End: 0
Int: 25
Wil: 25
Spd: 30
Spell: Soul's Shadow. Creates an illusion that blocks him out from senses. Originally starts out as just sight, but with more souls will become Hearing, smell, magical detection and touch. With enough souls he can completely not exist to the world if he wills (going through walls, etc) even doing it as a free action.

[ April 11, 2005, 10:58 PM: Message edited by: Marth ]

[KirbyBoy2000]

Name: Kagami
Sex: Female.
Age: Young Adult, ~21
Stats:
HP: 30
MP: 20
Strength: 15
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 20
Willpower: 30
Speed: 20
Spell: Mirror- Absorbs an attack and sends some of damage it would have dealt back. With extra souls it sends the damage it would have dealt back at multiplied power; it eventually will also deal damage based on the power of the attack instead of the damage that it would have dealt.

[ April 14, 2005, 11:27 PM: Message edited by: KirbyBoy2000 ]

[Parrakarry]

Name: Bobbo
Sex: Male
Age: ~17
Stats:
HP: 30
MP: 20
Strength: 15
Endurance: 20
Intelligence: 25
Willpower: 25
Speed: 15

Spell: Fireblast - Does damage to the enemy, and also stuns them for x turns, giving Bobbo extra attacks.

[Dux is not you]

Name: Stickman
Sex: Male
Age: About 25

STATS

HP: 30
MP: 20
Strength: 15
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 25
Willpower: 25
Speed: 20
Spell: Spark - A small lightning attack.

[ May 09, 2005, 10:28 AM: Message edited by: A Singularity of Spacetime ]

[Prince Toad]

Oh, holy crap. I didn't see you, sorry. I'll post your topic.

Except you split 100 between HP and MP. It's supposed to be 50. Fix that and I'll get your topic up.

[ May 08, 2005, 07:33 PM: Message edited by: Prince Toad ]

[Prince Toad]

^Alright, he's dealt with.

Some new stuff about souls.

First off, you're continually losing the "points" that make you go insane. They're translated into sustenance. However, each soul you take gives you more "points" than the last one, so people don't generally live that long even with this occurring, unless they're extremely careful. The stats gained from the soul get a little lower as you lose "points", but you still keep most of the benefits, and you never lose the spell.

Second, you can release souls for a one-time free discharge of their spell. The appropriate stat loss occurs, and you lose the spell permanently (unlike when a soul normally leaves/is let go), but well... it's free, and you use your pre-discharge stats.

Third, this was always true, but I'm just gonna say it right here. If you start going insane, you may lose control over some of your actions and do random violent ****. So will other people, if that happens.

That's all I can think of right now. I mighta had more, but that's fine for now.

[Seraph]

Name: Mateus
Sex: M
Age: Early 20's
Stats:
HP: 30
MP: 20
Strength: 25
Endurance: 15
Intelligence: 25
Willpower: 10
Speed: 35
Spell: Devoid Breath: Absorbs energy around self into body, then releasing it as a stream-line breath attack from the mouth. The energies absorbed can change the basic element of the spell (if there happens to be an abundance of fire in the immediate area, for instance). As own power increases the longevity (length of time the breath lasts) increases as well as the area of space that energy is absorbed from. Obviously, if this attack is used in the same spot twice or near to the same spot, with the lack of energy, the attack will, as a result, be much weaker.

[ May 15, 2005, 03:39 AM: Message edited by: Seraph ]

[Seraph]

Hey, quick question, is it possible to sacrifice a soul for HP or MP restoration? How static or freeplay are the battles? Like "Press A button to punch" one-liner move battles or descriptive VGF Battlefield type manuvers? Just curious, really. ^^

[Prince Toad]

Pretty much static. You'd have liked Marth's "The Arena". That was mostly description-based. I think A Soldier's Life might be sort of similar. But yeah, in this it's attack, use spell, use item, etc. You can run around or whatever too, but mostly battles work like that.

I'm gonna throw you in with Singularity, since he's just started and not much has happened, plus player-to-player interaction is probably more interesting than player-to-me-as-NPCs interaction.

[Seraph]

How does HP+MP restoration work? Do you gain some mp back every turn like in FF:Tactics? Or a walking MP-regen? When you take a soul does your HP and MP restore? Or is the only way to restore HP or MP be in resting in some "hotel/center/inn" like deal?

[[sage]]

Not that it really matters, but you don't get MP back each turn in FFT.

[Prince Toad]

You get some HP and MP for stealing souls, and some regenerates if you have long idle periods like resting, or a little just over time.