Band of Fate {closed/Beata plays DnD}

He had been setting this up for a while. Well, campaign and physical. The studio, Shepard had confirmed with his father that he was free to use. A large table was set up with enough places for everyone to sit. However, the dungeon master took up an entire side. A large DM screen took up the shorter end of the rectangle table, which was pushed close to a wall--Shepard's side of the room. On his side of the DM's screen sat a large notebook and multiple D&D handbooks. Small sticky notes were stuck to the inside of his DM screen, and a large bag of dice in front of them.

On the other side in the middle of the table sat a slick board with many squares on it. A bad drawing of what an inside of a tavern would look like was drawn crudely into the many squares. It would be obvious to his players that Shepard was not an artist. Satisfied, The blond returned to his seat and awaited the others to arrive. His stomach rumbled.

---

ooc; Cross into Shepard's side of the table/room and you will be killed instantly.

• Just post as your characters arriving, what they bring and what they set up.
  
• Include a link to their character sheet in your post
  
• Make sure your character is set to level 2
  
• PM me 5 rumors about your D&D characters. (2 good, 2 bad, 1 false)
  
• PM me your D&D character's background.
  
• Make sure to roleplay your D&D characters how your own characters would. I know it's hard but try.
  

Carolina...Honestly couldn't surprised that she had agreed to this, mostly because she already knew, that without a doubt, she was going to be the oldest person there - it had taken her a while to even find where the studio was in the school as she had never stepped foot in here before today. But...She needed to hang out with people more and remembered Shepard rather fondly from their missions together, even if he had given her a nasty sun burn.

She stepped into the room, her backpack slung over her shoulder as she nodded toward Shepard and took one of the seats right across from Shepard - she wasn't afraid of no Dungeon Master. She pulled her backpack onto her lap, taking out a small binder with her character sheet and for note taking and her dice. The binder wasn't anything exciting, having just a simple black cover while the dice were in a small black dice bag with a skull on it, energy coming from the left eye - Venca, the unholy lich of D&D legend himself. Setting them down in front of her, she pushed the backpack onto her feet, safely tucked beneath the table as she waited for the other players to arrive.

Aideen's Character Sheet

Outside of the studio room, a figure in a grey hoodie stalked back in forth. In just their demeanor, they practically radiated nervous energy as they stood before the door, reaching out and then stopping themselves. This is so lame. People are gonna think you're so lame. But like, these are your friends. And nobody really thinks like that anymore, right? If this was your old school, this would kill your reputation. But it's not your old school. You haven't even played in years. But this is also like, the only good experience you have with your dad so it's precious to you. You deserve a break after everything that's happened to you recently.

If you don't do it, you're weak.

Determined, Eliza stepped into the room, holding tight to the straps of her backpack as she sat down. Gathering her stuff with red tinted cheeks, not meeting anyone's eyes, she murmured, "'Sup."

Aargin's character sheet

Oliver was (trying) to hide in the shadows of the room as others entered. He was starting the in-character work early. He nearly stumbled, however, and stifled his laughter when he recognized who had come into the room, hiding like she was going to a drug deal. He never took Eliza to be the one to play Dungeons and Dragons, but he didn't judge her. It was just hilarious seeing her try to be discrete as she came into the room. He remained quiet as he waited for the session to start. And yes, he is That Nerd™ that goes all out for his character.

Aleksandar's Character Sheet

"Whose ready to die?"

Joanna scuffled up towards the middle of the room, picking a seat for herself and setting all her items down eagerly onto the table; her sheets, her spell cars, her water bottle, and a giant bag of gummy bears. She had been ready for this for days. After all the shit they'd been through lately, they could use a fun game to get things off their minds.

"Because fair warning, I can't promise the heals will always be provided," she smiled and pulled herself into a chair. "It's pronounced all-ahn-nia, okay? Okay."

Allannia's Character Page

Revere really hoped he wasn't late - that wouldn't start things off on the right foot with his new 'friends'. He really hoped they'd be his friends, shuffling in quietly behind the girl who had just threatened death to everybody present. Normal stuff. "Hey..." he greeted awkwardly, much less attention-grabbing. Instead, he busied himself with setting up what he had brought: dice, his character sheet, a re-used bottle, now filled with home-made lemonade, and a bag of flaming hot cheetos, which he slid to their dungeon master as if it was an offering to a god. It was, technically.

Kiseise's Character Sheet

While her cousin looked like her head was about to retract into her shoulders from the shame, Cailin followed along encouragingly, balancing a broad foil-tented platter on top of her books and papers. She eased the platter onto the table in front of her as she slid into her seat, picking off the top to reveal a dozen small pinwheel sandwiches, lovingly rolled and arrayed in a spiral around Preston's branded sauce cups. "Let me know if you have any allergies..." The tray took up most of her personal space on the board, competing for room with Shepard's grid-map, and she was forced to shuffle her character sheet and thick, heavy guides around in her lap, a disorganized jumble of paper and dice.

LINK: Aneirin

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Shepard beamed at them "Alright! Thanks for showing up on time everyone, I appreciate it." He accepted the offerings, through left them on the other side of the DM screen if anyone else wanted to snack on some food too. "All-ahn-nia. Got it." The DM made a note before looking back up at the group. "I'm assuming all of you have your characters ready. If you don't--" He gave them a look with narrowed eyes. "--I won't be a nice DM. Cool? I'll help you level up when you get there. By our pace, I'll have everyone level up at the end of each session." Shepard opened his notebook and pushed his dice to the side. "Don't be afraid to ask questions or ask for rolls."

Shepard looks up at the group. "The two countries in their own respective continents. Tesnia to the west and Asa to the East." He paused to take a glance back at his notebook, looking back up at the group. "The gods are known to be mettlesome. The countries will often take a god as their patron in order to earn their favor, and as a result, the other country will take the opposite god as their own patron." Shepard folded his hands.

With his little speech done, the blond cleared his throat, blue eyes skimming his notebook. "The forest is illuminated in blue, moon casting its gently rays down into the grassy clearing. In front of you stands a small Drow boy, who stares up pleadingly with wide silver eyes. His long silver hair hangs limply in the stale air.

"Please!" "The child begs, holding up a golden ring toward you. "Please take this to the temple in the city of Icopool, in Tesnia. I trust you to please our god." The ring leaves the boy's hand, hovering inches from your face. It is a thin gold ring with floral decorations etched into the band. As the ring floats toward you the large moon behind the boy begins to sink into the horizon. Suddenly looking fearful, the boy steps away into the shadows as the sun arcs overhead. Then, just as fast as the sun rose, the boy vanishes. However, as you go to look for the ring you see not the golden ring but a fractured and broken version of it imprinted onto the back of your left hand with a blistering cold burn.

As the sun reaches you, you awake to the light of the sun coming through the window of the room you rented for the night.  You currently are in the large harbor city called Onuset in Asa. It is here where many races participate in trade. Ships of every size occupy the water's edge. From this city, you can head west toward Tesnia, or up a river to the east further into Asa.

Each of your characters wake up. What do they do?"

Oliver sets down the few bags of unpopped microwave popcorn as he listens to Shepard describe the scenery and officially begin the campaign. As soon as the blond boy finishes, he opens up a bag and uses his heated firecracker hands to begin popping one of the bags. "Alek is sulking in a corner, his cloak hood is pulled up to hide his facial features. His eyes are frequently darting around to try and get a feel for what's going on around him. I'd like to make a perception check." He looks at the die. "What a way to start a campaign. That's a 3."

The member 'Wild' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'd20' : 2

Slightly startled with each pop of the bag, Revere goes next, raising his hand weakly to draw attention to himself. "Kiseise heads down as well, and goes to get himself some tea - don't you dare give him alcohol. Does he see any new mark on his skin, one that wasn't there?" he asks, propping his chin on his palms and eyeing the rest. He was definitely wearing make-up just because he was immersing himself in his character's persona.

Carolina leaned back in her chair, taking a random dice from her bag - a d8 by the luck of it - and rolling it around in her fingers as the others declared their character's actions...Although something was bothering her as she glanced at Oliver and Joanna...Did both of their characters' names start with an 'A'? She leaned forward as she glanced at her character sheet, a slight smile flickering across her face as she barely restrained a laugh at the fact that half of the party had names that started with an 'A'...At least Revere's character had a 'K' name.

"Aideen is going to gather all of her things and head down, a bit shaken by the dream...She is going to try to get a table by herself if she can and just...Try to figure out what that dream was about." She thought about doing a roll but...Nah, she would wait for the other soon-to-be party members to get down and see what Shep had in store for them.

Cailin had already stuffed a whole pinwheel sandwich into her mouth, fumbling for a pencil as she listened dutifully to Shepard's introductory descriptions. She found one in the mix of books, papers, and dice, jotting down a few quick keywords. West, into Tesnia. Icopool. "Um..." As she found her opening to speak, she found the words start to falter in front of all these new eyes, but she pushed forward. This wasn't her first rodeo, but playing with family was one thing. Now, she felt a little like her cousin Eliza. "After Aneirin going to find a place away from the rest of the party, and use her disguise kit to put on a fake goatee." She had to start off right.

Eliza had gotten her materials from her bag, and was subtly arranging them as Shepard began, as a way to combat her nerves. Her character sheet was laid out neatly before her, with a blank piece of paper and a pen with one of those little fluff balls on top set beside it. She took a sip from her water bottle, but once Oliver began talking, she sputtered a bit in surprise. It had taken her an embarrassingly long time to notice her best friend was there as well. Having composed herself by the time her cousin had finished talking, she seemed to gain a confidence not previously present. Now she was focused on the game. "Alrighty. Aargin wakes up, kind of flustered by the dream, but she really doesn't put much thought into it and quickly moves on to what's important - finding the nearest source of alcohol. Which she'd find downstairs, I'm guessing. She notices the strange mark on her skin, but she's used to random scars, and is more like, 'Eh, whatever.' Eliza uses a gruff voice, getting into it.

Joanna scribbled down a few notes as the others got their character actions out of the way, taking the free time to stuff several gummy worms into her mouth and reaching for a mini-slider. How bless they were for such bountiful food. She managed to scuff one of the burgers down before starting off with her cleric, cheeks still a bit full. "Allannia is going to wake up and immediately look down at her hand and start to try scrubbing it off, wincing because - ouch - she didn't exactly expect to get a Tattoo in the middle of her sleep," she swallowed the rest of her food and leaned forward eagerly. "So Alla- I mean, I'm going to think on the dream, and I'm like a religious scholar, right? So would I know about anything in this temple in Icopool? Or this ring symbol?"

"... nine."

The member 'Ebony' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'd20' : 6

Shepard could hardly suppress a smile as Oliver rolled low, amused by his luck for the first roll of the campaign. "So, for our first roll of the night...Alek sits in a corner, looking over the tavern as carefully as he can." Shepard places a miniature in the corner of the tavern he had drawn. "Your eyes catch on a particularly busty barmaid and you can't take your eyes off of her."

He turned towards the next player--Revere. "The maid you asked for tea from looks at you oddly."I'm sorry, but we don't serve tea here sir." And, as you look down, you see a fractured crescent shape on the back of your hand from your dream. The skin around the mark looks calm--as if it has been there for a while."

Then to another party member, Carolina. "While you sit by your self and ponder the dream, you notice the mark on your hand from before. However, this time you see closely the beautiful details of the fractured ring. Some roses seemed alive, others wilted." Satisfied with his answer, he then turned to Cailin.

"Aneirin is out of her room already?" Shepard asked. "Would you rather she put on her disguise in her room? It wouldn't be worth much if people see her put it on in front of them." He explained, rolling a pair of d20s in his hand thoughtfully. "Whatever you decide I'll give you the roll, I assume she has been putting on the beard for a while."

"Okay Eliza, Aargin lumbers downstairs and knows to head right to the bar. You sit next to Kiseise, who was just told that they didn't sell tea at the tavern. The busty barmaid turns to you and offers you a smile in greeting."What can I get ya darlin'?"" Writing something down, Shepard turns to his best friend.

As she spoke, he nodded to her comments, pulling a few gummies and a slider his way. It was when the players talked that he got a chance to eat. "A nine?" Shepard asked as he managed to finish his bite of food, looking down at his notebook with a tilted look. "Despite your educated background in religion, you don't remember what Icopool worshiped. Perhaps it was too early in the morning. However, you do remember a story about a ring bringing balance between two sides of a war. Though you don't know anything other than that."

Shepard made a roll, then made another note in his book. "Aargin, as you wait on your beer, you notice Kiseise's hand adorning the same mark as your own."

ooc; Basically when you want to do something ping me on discord, I will tell you what to roll. You roll it on here and let Shepard know what you got with your modifiers added.

"Okay, wait" Carolina spoke up the first second she could, the moment after Shepard had finished talking. She had been making notes of the other characters' names, doing her best to figure out the spellings and while she had noticed the start of it before... "Do nearly all of us have 'A' names for our characters?" she questioned sharply as she stared down at the make-shift list she had worked on. Everybody but one started with the same letter, what was the chances of that?

There was a few seconds before she just shook her head with a laugh of disbelief, leaning back on her chair as she tried to get back into character. A mark huh? She had figured the part about it imprinting on the back of the hand in the dream had been maybe a bit of a symbolism thing...Huh. She glanced down at her character sheet, trying to think of if she had anything for her character to do..."A-Anyways...Aideen is pretty surprised to see the mark...Mostly because of it has imprinted on her scales which is a pretty good sign it isn't normal..." she drifted off there, frowning as she read over her character sheet again. Did she really have a negative one in perception? That was going to make noticing the mark on the other characters' hands harder...

"She is going to pull out her chained book and open it, only to be disappointed as its still empty. Upon realizing this, she is just going to commit the mark on her hand to memory." She didn't have to wait for Shepard to know that the book was empty - it was going to remain that way until her next level and while she was pretty sure this thing with the ring wasn't connected with her backstory...But she also knew that Aideen had no idea. She sighed, glancing at the others and hoping that...Er...Aargin, was it? Would make a scene about noticing Kiseise's mark...

"Right-o. The mark, Kiseise just finds it funny and doesn't think too hard about it." he replied, before clearing his voice and giving it a slightly more breezy and feminine tint when he spoke again. "How about hot water? Do you have any?" he does his best impressions of his character, before reverting back to his normal self - not all that big of a difference. "When Aargin comes to sit next to him, he's immediately going to turn to her and smile. A good, friendly boy, he is." Revere added, giving a small wave to the girl playing Aargin. "Did you know they don't have tea here?" the boy copies his character once again, doing the one thing Kiseise does best - bother strangers.

"And, does he notice the mark on her palm as well? Rolled a fourteen."

The member 'Bun' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

---

'd20' : 13

Shepard smiled at Carolina. "Everyone except Kiseise." He told her, nodding his head toward Revere. Then as she makes a moment about memorizing it he nodded. "You spend the next few minutes memorizing every detail of the symbol on your hand. It's rather pretty you'd say."

"The barmaid looks exasperated."Hun, we sell beer and other spirits here."She tells you." Shepard nodds after telling him to roll. "Yeah, that's enough. You do notice the mark on Aargin's hand. It looks just as new as your's."

"Nice one, Kiseise." Joanna mumbled sarcastically, slipping in between the conversation between Carolina and the beloved dungeon master.

She signed a little in frustration at her low-roll, hoping it didn't mean a string of bad luck for her future and sitting up a little straighter. "Right, I'm just still super tired, haven't had my caffeine yet." Jo clasped her hands together. "Then I will pull out a stick of incense and a handful of dried flower petals, light them on the window-sill and do my morning prayers...  grab my things and head downstairs and - I'm going to walk up to the first empty seat I find next to this intimidating dragonborn lady and say, 'Excuse my rudeness, mind if I share the table with you?"

Eliza focused intently on Shepard as he spoke, getting a quick feel for what her character would do. "Aargin makes sure to check out the barmaid as she goes to get her beer. When she notices Kiseise's mark, she frowns, immediately thinking that he was up to something." As Revere waved at her, her lips quirked up in amusement. "Aargin smiles back but it's not exactly a pretty smile - or a happy one, per say. 'Ya outta get a beer instead, then. The hell is that there, on your hand?' She gets straight to the point, and is looking at Kiseise with distrusting eyes."

"Spirits...!" he whispered at Shepard, before cracking up and turning to Eliza instead. "We're matching! Look! Look! Are you my long lost sister?" "By this point, Kiseise is just... waving his hand in her face. Right up in there, because I don't know what you'd be expecting from this guy, really."

Oliver sighed with a smile. ”Alek is gonna smack himself. His training should have kicked in instead of being namored by a busty barmaid. He continues to sit in the shadows, but has now turned his focus on the group forming where people seem to be staring at one of their hands. He hops up off the chair he was sitting on and walks up to the bar. ‘What’s going on over here? Maybe I could lend a hand?’” Gotta get Alek in there somehow, right?”