Planescape: Smoke and Mirrors

[Eldan]

This is the OOC for Smoke and Mirrors. Please give a short post to show me that you're here. Dice thread and ingame will be up later this evening.

[Dreamshifter]

Here I am. And I'll take Royal Blue as my color, I think.

Oh, and I'll try to get some more background on Sarsast's world done later, too. Donno how much, though, since apparently I'll be moving all the office stuff around...

Dratted physical labor.

[Deathslayer7]

Why do i get the temptation to say "My sword is bigger then yours."

Taking dark green

[Sedgewood]

I'll choose purple.

Working on a touch more detail for my backstory as well, and I'll have that up by tomorrow.

[Dreamshifter]

An incredibly brief (and likely slightly incoherent) history of Sandris, Sarsast's homeworld.

Spoiler

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At one time, the world of Sandris was like so many other worlds. Full of magic and monsters, adventurers and dungeons, and divided into little kingdoms based mostly on race. And what races there were! Hundreds of sentient species, with little in common other than their degree of intelligence. But ten thousand years ago, all that changed. And no one, not even the gods, saw it coming.

Though, perhaps someone should have. It started off innocently enough, with an increase in the number of shooting stars. But most species were worried more about what was around the corner, behind the tree, or across the field than what was in the sky. And those worried about above, worried about the creatures, not the pretty stars, falling or otherwise. But eventually, even the unconcerned started noticing that these falling stars were happening almost every night, and it wasn’t long before they stopped being streaks in the sky, and became destructive balls of fire that destroyed homes. But still, they lived on, unaware of the whys of the situation, for the most part. Then, it happened.

Fortunately for life on Sandris, the gods did, at the last moment, finally understand what was happening, and managed to save many people. Not pockets of life, either, but whole sections of land, shielded from the storm. Of course, calling massive rocks hurtling down all over the planet a storm might be stretching the definition of storm some, but still, it had to be called something. Much of the world was changed, more of it submerged beneath the oceans, but enough was left for the world as a whole to survive. Much of the divine energy that once fueled wars and inspired the people went into making sure that life could survive in this new, harsh world.

Harsh though it was at the time, Sandris recovered quickly. Still, there were many more mountains than in the past, and most were now around craters, some a dozen miles across. In many cases, due to the height of the peaks on the rims, little rainfall made it into the largest craters, creating vast deserts. Some of these the gods blessed, and placed their people in, making them fertile enough to sustain the people. But not all craters were inland.

The largest impact, by a meteor composed mostly of mithril, occurred on the shoreline. As well, this particular meteor was close to missing the planet entirely, but was dragged down in the end. Had it been composed of a less durable metal, it likely would have detonated in the sky, but it was tough enough and light enough that it detonated on impact at a very shallow angle. Thus, it created more of a half crater, with particularly high peaks on the inland side. Nature, and a helpful new warm current, did the rest. These lands became a huge jungle and saltwater swamp, and perhaps the richest deposit of mithril that any world has ever seen. This valley (if one can call it that) was first discovered by a band of dwarves, who were only really interested in the mithril in the mountains. But word of their mines became world famous, which in the end spelled their doom.

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All of the above information is common knowledge on Sandris. But there is another side to things, one that most people have never heard, or even know exists. That side of the tale is the story of the Dragons, who managed to outsmart the gods themselves, and end up ruling one of the largest kingdoms on Sandris. For while others failed to notice the incoming disaster, the Dragons were not so oblivious. They saw the pattern, understood it’s meaning, and made plans. Or, perhaps they were the ones to cause the disaster in the first place (though even those in the know doubt this). Whatever the truth, they didn’t act in desperation at the last moment. Instead, they spent months planning, first as individuals, then as a group. For the first time, a truce was called between all Dragons, chromatic, metallic, and gemstone alike.

This great council talked among themselves for a while, then made the decision to withdraw from the world, at least until a single plan could be agreed upon. There was no sense of urgency, for they knew that the people of Sandris would survive in some way or another. And if they didn’t, well, there were other worlds where people could be found and transplanted to repopulate Sandris. So they left, holed up in a rather large pocket dimension, and debated. While the skies burned, they debated. While the seas boiled, they debated. While the gods rebuilt the battered world as best they could, they debated. When they grew old and died, their progeny debated. But eventually, even Dragons can only argue so long. Especially when they are stuck in a dimension that travels much faster than the world who’s fate they were debating.

On Sandris, the Dragons were gone for almost 2500 years, but the Dragons had debated for more than ten times that amount of time, and the dragons who had left were long since dead. Perhaps in that time there had been some interbreeding of the species. Perhaps the nature of the dimension had changed them. Perhaps they had finally debated (and yes, fought, Draconic debates often end in fights) out their differences. Whatever had happened, the Dragons had changed. They saw the people and their gods as failures, and set about seeding the world with the species they had created. When they saw the Dwarves mining mithril on the edge of a huge fertile area, full of rivers that would fit their chosen people perfectly, the Dragons struck.

Placing their least creations, the Kobolds, in the mines, they moved down into the jungles and swamps, and set up colonies of Lizardfolk of assorted types. Some prospered, some failed, all evolved at a rate unheard of among other species. They spread out, some faster than others, and slowly they carved out their niches, all under the careful guiding hand and eye of the Dragons. The Kobolds, considered little more than slaves, began to elevate themselves by providing mithril for use in weaponcrafting, and in turning the mines in which they lived into giant deathtraps the likes of which no sane creature would ever enter.

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Generations have passed since the Dragons have returned. The Ancients, the Dragons who actually lived in the pocket dimension, are now all gone. Their war with the world as a whole has flared and faded a dozen times, all to little effect. And the last Ancient did not die by the enemy’s hand, but at the hands (or at least, claws) of other Dragons. The alliance that held for so many years has started to crack, as individuals seek either personal power, or their own path toward a Draconic worldly paradise. But those cracks are still small, and with the recent counter alliance hammered out by the humans, it will likely be a long time before anything comes of those cracks.

I'll likely add a lot more to it, but I'll be posting it elsewhere.

[HeavySleeper]

I think I'll go with what is apparently called "Dark Slate Blue." Eh, sounds good.

It's good to get this started.

[Lonna]

Since Erin is mute, she won't be talking in the traditional sense - she'll be writing stuff out on a slate. Still, I'll use bold for what she writes and the usual italics for her thoughts.

[Eldan]

Well, then.

The Dice

and

The Ingame

[Gorgondantess]

Eldan has decided to let me join this game, so I'll be taking Bold dark slate grey for my speech.

[Dreamshifter]

Feh! Biggest waste of a 20 ever!

[Dreamshifter]

Ok, I am officially dropping the typing out of the triple s thing. Not only does it anger my spellchecker, but it gets annoying sounding everything out to figure out if it's needed. It should still be read as a hissing s, though.

[Lonna]

See,that's one of the advantages of playing a mute character. I don't have to worry about what her accent sounds like.

[Dreamshifter]

See,that's one of the advantages of playing a mute character. I don't have to worry about what her accent sounds like.

I never bother, usually, but it seemed fitting in this case. At least until it gets annoying.

[Lonna]

Not to pressure you or anything Eldan, but I'm pretty sure we've all posted and are just waiting for your next DM post.

[Gorgondantess]

....yep.

[Eldan]

I think many of you might already have guessed it, but I need to finish this game. First of all, let me apologize for wasting everyone's valuable time by making them write characters that never had the change to really develop.

I have tried to motivate myself to continue this game, but somehow, the story doesn't seem to be working, it's not moving along, and I feel uninspired whenever I try to write a post. Therefore, instead of letting this game drag itself along for a few more weeks before dying, I'm ending it.

Sorry, everyone. I'll try to run another game sometime later this summer, with a pre-written adventure that gives me something to build around.

[Gorgondantess]

*headdesk*

[Lonna]

Maybe Erin is just cursed... this is the 4th game I've attempted to use that character for only to have the game die.

[Gorgondantess]

Maybe Erin is just cursed... this is the 4th game I've attempted to use that character for only to have the game die.

My friend, I've had the exact same thing happen to me on multiple characters. It happens.