Rym: Sunlight
A journal of a role-playing game campaign.
Last Updated: 2010.10.12
Summary: A band of young heroes gain power from the last surviving goddess, fighting to save the world from an army of necromancers.
Current Players: 3
Main GM: Kris Schnee (GM hat shared)
System: Freeform
Location: IRC
Background info: link collection, races, "movie trailer" re: distant backstory
Campaign style: World-spanning adventure with a mix of combat, character development, and silliness.
Contact: "Snow" on irc.anthrochat.net #thezoo
Background:
This game began around early 2009 and has run dozens of sessions with a varying cast. The heroes began as teenagers with almost no adventuring experience, afraid of their own shadows. Through many adventures they became famous heroes and replacement gods for a world seemingly doomed but now finding hope again.
Characters:
Active
Hazel: God of Shadow
Hazel was a street thief in the city-states of Erdanis before getting sent to a miserable abbey orphanage. As a wandering adventurer she focused on her stealth and wits to defeat foes. She worried about her connection to the apparently evil cepn race, and as a new-minted goddess seeks worshipers through a broad appeal to dreams.
Weapon: Halberd
Forms: Human F, Cepn F
Domain: Dream, Shadow, Death
Rollo: God of Earth
Rollo was a lizard-like koba born in a remote town hit by a curse. He would have been affected by the same evil magic, if a quick-thinking wizard hadn't turned into a human to lock the effect away. Once Rollo gained the power to become a koba, thinking he was human by birth, the "evil seed" slowly drove him mad and was only purged by returning to his cursed town to slay a monster.
Weapon: Fists
Forms: Human M, Koba M, Dragon M
Domain: Earth, Plants, Smithing
Harek: God of Water
The timid Harek dreamed of becoming a heroic wizard as in the books he'd read. He was happy to risk any danger with his friends for the sake of getting to live that life, though when frightened he could turn desperate and violent. Harek studied magic at every turn and became skilled with water especially.
Weapon: Sword
Forms: Human M, Lutrai F, Water Elemental
Domain: Water, Knowledge
Inactive
Ryker, Swordsman of Justice
Even as an orphan boy he was dedicated to honor and justice. He traveled the world with his friends, toppling villains with his size, strength and array of swords. Despite being a warrior he was also charismatic and often sought to appeal to enemies' better nature. Unfortunately, his rivalry with Rollo and urgent need to investigate matters on the continent of Freilu led him to leave the party and seek adventures on his own.
Skala, Shipwrecked Hoomiku
The heroes found this genius alien cat in a tree on an island. She struggled to appreciate the primitive, ignorant people who'd rescued her. When an invasion fleet based itself in her hometown of Southwind Cove, the heroes' actions devastated the town and she fled in dismay. She helped organize an evacuation that created the Touenwood Alliance, and died defending the civilians of that forest from an undead horror.
Aeia, Mysterious Girl
This lutrai always seemed energetic and cheerful, and had a strange natural command of magic that distorted time and space. No one knew where she was from, even herself. The heroes looked to her as a refreshing reminder that good exists in Rym, in contrast to the all-devouring nightmare of the Spiral's black hole.
Nikon
A bizarre incident transported a human soul from another world to a scout robot's body in Rym. Although Kij was hesitant to deal with one of the Creators' machines, Nikon convinced her she had no connection to their actions. Nikon helped protect what she thought of as younger kids.
Keith
The heroes found this young city guard and brought him home to the city of Veccas. In the process, Keith was blessed by Kij and hoped to use his power to inspire others.
Triskelion
This hoomiku woman traveled briefly with the party before going to live in the tropical village of Morningside.
The World of Rym
Thousands of years ago an advanced magitech civilization, the Creator Empire, offended the gods with the creation of artificial intelligent races. Spurned by the gods, the Creators built their own god-level computer, the City Mind, and declared war on the heavenly Golden Moon. The war devastated the planet, ruined civilization, and killed all but the youngest, weakest god -- and an insane City Mind. The refugee god, Kij of the sun, slowly began to repair the world's ecosystem.
Much later, the Spiral came. They were drawn by sensing the death and destruction of the Creators' war. They were necromancers seeking suitably dead worlds to exist on, or living ones to sacrifice to the Eater, a black hole they worshiped. On seeing that Rym was somewhat intact, the Spiral began terraforming the world by burning away its life energy to power deliberately polluting factories. Kij helped raise a kingdom of paladins, the Solinar, to oppose them. But the Solinar lost.
So it was that the world was doomed again. No organized resistance stood against the Spiral, who needed only to wait while their three black towers poisoned the planet and disrupted all life. Between the oppressive Tamaran Empire with its slave-driven economy, the drug-crazed czath beastmen, the random thrashing of the City Mind and its huge avatar Nigh, and the disruption of the world's magic and nature, it seemed there was nothing to do but wait for the world's death. But one day something changed...
Places
Continent of Erdanis: The whole of Erdanis is divided into three parts. This story takes place mainly in its southwestern third, called Midland. This region was ruled by the distant Tamaran Empire, which allowed the local collection of squabbling city-states to largely do as they pleased. Even so, the area proved ripe for rebellion. In Southwind Cove the heroes detonated a ship packed with explosives that had been meant for invading Cekus, forcing the town's evacuation. In the city of Keipan the same heroes exposed a child-murderer and were thrown in jail for their trouble by the unstable baroness, who proved to be a dragon in disguise. The people rebelled and were persuaded to form a truce with her. In Veccas the young, spoiled Baron Koto was an early ally, but was overthrown by cynical rabbit Overlord Aden. Keipan and Veccas led a rebellion against the Tamaran Empire and pressured other city-states to join. Meanwhile, survivors of Southwind Cove's natives joined forces with a band of orphans, a force of vulpine forest bandits, and an ancient factory AI to establish a bizarre new civilization in a haunted forest. A rogue Spiral agent named Ophiel warily agreed not to fight the heroes in exchange for cover as he tried to carve his own empire out of Erdanis.
Continent of Cekus: The nicest place on Rym. This tropical island chain boasts beaches, dolphins, friendly otterfolk, rum drinks (now with ice), brain-infesting fungus, frequent slaver raids, pirates, callous fairies, and until recently a demonic spear. The heroes spent plenty of time here to train, gain experience, and master the Cure Hangover spell.
Outside the World: The heroes visited the ruined elemental realms of three dead gods (water, earth and shadow) and began to take charge of them. On the Golden Moon, Zunat, they visited a divine palace and saw the wreckage of an ancient battle. And in Solaria, realm of the sun goddess Kij, they finally saw their patron in person and began serious training for their new divine role.