DarkheartOne/TheLastDay

The Day Everything Went Wrong

[Depressing storyfic coming soon~]

The Last Day: Mortal Survival in the Age of Sorrows

It's been seven hours since the Ovum of Dolorous Refrain was opened, and seven hours since the thousands of trapped voices within began to sing their chorus of despair and torment upon the fabric of the city. It, and its immediate surroundings, is now a shadowland unlike any Creation had ever seen; while infested with the Dead, it has also been warped on the spiritual level, the very spirit of the city weeping at the Refrain. Reality has twisted, the city practically rearranged like a child's scattered building blocks... and a dim sun, more like the moon than anything, has risen in the darkened sky above.

With high cliffs and peaks penning in most of the city, the only way out is north. Until the Exalted come, the city is damned. It may even remain damned after that. But right now, you could care less. Survival is all that matters now.

You have to get out.

The Place: 'The City'

[An intentionally-nameless city, and why it is trying to kill you.]

The Situation: Corpse-Ash Devourer and the Ovum

[Why a loopy Abyssal used his shiny black egg to make all hell break loose.]

The Victims: You

If there were Exalted here to deal with the situation, they've either failed or have already vacated the city. Many, many people died within the first six hours, adding to the mass of walking dead and hungry ghosts lurking about. As to how you survived... luck, perhaps. Luck, skill and a touch of desperation.

Funny what impending doom can do to sharpen your nerves.

How To Become One of the Nameless

TLD player character generation follows the normal rules for 1st Edition Heroic Mortals, with the following notes, exceptions and alterations.

• Attribute spreads are 6-5-4.
• Three favored Abilities instead of 1. Otherwise, all non-favored abilities cannot exceed the highest favored ability.
• 7 dots in Backgrounds. The following Backgrounds are the only ones allowed by PCs, and are affected differently by the setting:
  • Allies: There is almost no chance that any suggested Allies with essence-using abilities will be allowed, so take this into account. Allies outside of the area of the Dolorous Refrain's reach generally either cannot or will not enter the area of effect.
  • Backing: Acceptable, but useless unless it's to a group active in the area that hasn't been wiped out.
  • Contacts: Usable, and assumed that said Contacts have managed to stay alive. This could change, however...
  • Experience: Each PC starts with Experience 5 for free, but only the BP bonus. The PC's Flaw limit remains at 10.
  • Followers: Limited to three dots.
  • Influence: Only effective if the setting falls within the PC's area of influence.
  • Mentor: Again, if the Mentor is not in the area, he's no use to the PC. Limited to three dots.
  • Resources: Purchasable up to 10 dots, with each dot only costing one Bonus Point even above 3; initial gear is purchased through Resources directly, so that buying a perfect knife and breastplate consumes 5 dots. Heavy-duty gear, thaumaturgical goods and alchemical stuffs are allowed, but will be subject to review in order to make sure that the PC has a good reason for having such unusual objects. Purchasing food won't be neccessary.
• 6 Virtue dots.

Alternative Means of Survival

The following Merits and Flaws are acceptable for use, along with a few additional Merits and Flaws (in italics) specially built for the setting. Note that merits and (more closely) flaws will be reviewed.

• Physical Merits
  • Ambidextrous
  • Acute Sense
  • Double-Jointed
  • Pain Tolerance (3- and 5-point only)
  • Large Size (4-point only)
  • Legendary Attribute (no more than 3)
• Mental Merits
  • Internal Compass
  • Eidetic Recall
  • Prodigy (both types)
  • Virtue Specialty (good for explaining how a PC's hardened themselves to their surroundings)
  • Driving Passion (most likely 'to survive', and will only activate in times of danger)
  • True Love
  • Jack of All Trades
• Social Merits
  • Born to Rule
  • Enchanting Feature
  • Favor (should the person owing the favor still be inside the setting area)
• Property Merits
  • Safehouse (3-dot merit. Your character has a place where they can lie low and recover, and is generally safe. Perhaps it's warded from various things, well-guarded, or just out of sight.)
• Supernatural Merits
  • Alternative Divination
  • Priest (1-point only)
  • Second Chance (5-point merit. Allows for a single, wide-scale dramatic edit of a situation, such as avoiding the blade that would certainly end the character's life, or saving another from certain doom or worse. May not be purchased more than once.)
  • Lucky (with the nature of the game, the rerolls granted are all the PC will ever have to use)
  • Prescient Dreamer
  • Uneasy Feeling (3-point merit. The character gets an uneasy feeling, like skin crawling, when something potentially dangerous is nearby. Detecting where it's coming from isn't quite possible until the character is closeby the source.)
  • Daredevil

• Physical Flaws
  • Unusual Apperance
  • Mute
  • One Eye
  • Small
  • Diminished Attributes
  • Diministed Sense
• Mental Flaws
  • Derangement (initial 3-point only)
  • Amnesia
  • Superstition
  • Vice
  • Callous
  • Nightmares
  • Unskilled
• Social Flaws
  • Secrets (pertaining to the setting, more than likely)
  • Enemy/Rival
  • Wanted (normally should not be above three points, although exceptions are possible)
  • Child
• Property Flaws
  • False Safehouse (2-point flaw. You have a safehouse somewhere... unfortunately, it's either been compromised, or is somehow easy to compromise. You most definitely don't know this, however...)
• Supernatural Flaws
  • Unbidden Oracle
  • Unlucky