Please do not Take these Organs

Please do not [T]ake these Organs by JamesLeng
Act 1 Thread 1 Thread 2 Thread 3 Act 2 Thread 1
Discussion thread 1 Discussion thread 2

You all met in a tavern in some no-name logging town out on the frontier. Scruffy prospectors, scheming merchants, disgraced minor nobles, and deranged veterans from thousands of miles away converged on rumors of a ruined fortress from the Old Empire and the priceless treasures within. Seemed like a great way to get rich, make a name for yourself, or at least keep busy while avoiding the big cities for whatever reason.

You assembled a team, planned an expedition, set out for one of the better-known cavern entrances... then things started to go wrong. Currently you're deep underground, separated from the rest of the expedition and known paths to the surface by a sliding-wall trap, and the way forward is blocked by some ridiculous chess puzzle. Engraving on steel plaque, on a low stone pedestal covered in smudged-out chalk notes, reads

"Life is a dirge of shadow and light
A terrible chore ‘ere blessed sleep
Resting in peace of eternal night
A knightly prize for those who would leap
Into the fray knowing their right
A foolish whim whose meaning is deep
Fraught with the force of clerical might
A bound to the left and so we shall reap
Yet stay the true course in blooded sight
A castle falls east in a weatherworn heap
Then comes freedom to victors of peril-fraught fight
And journey continues with prize one can keep.

Seek the prize within the eightfold field.
Orcus watches and cheers the struggle.”

In other words, an old school dice-based dungeon crawl. Rebooted!

Act 2 Character Roster:

Active Characters

Maru Red
Tiefling Townie
Specialization: Skald
High/Low Ambitions: Fame, glory, and the perks that come with it / Craving for pipeweed
Phobia: Being forgotten from this world/dying without becoming famous
Mutation: Filed down horns protruding from her forehead
Vulnerability: Much like a reptile, gets sluggish in the cold, and will become comatose if she is in extreme cold for extended periods of time
Ability: She can summon forth a two-handed, spectral ax, fueled by blood, which sings a battle dirge to inspire her allies and intimidate her foes

Bio: Maru was conceived via rape, and was largely unwanted and resented by her mother. Her mother had demonic blood in her ancestry, and Maru inherited these traits. After running away from home, a group of towns people from a nearby village found her, and filed her horns down in an attempt to purge the demonic influence from her body. Not long after a group of "orc" bandits raided the town, and ended up taking her in and nursing her back to health. She joined them, and some time later was put on trial for the murder of her father, of which she was proudly guilty. She escaped the custody of local law enforcement, albeit on her own, and made her way out to the frontier to get a clean start and make a new name for herself. She entered the ruins hoping for gold glory and inspiration for a epic to be told through the ages, but after being cut off from the main expedition force, a rare voice of reason tells her that perhaps a hot meal, soft bed and cheap wench would be preferable to starving to death in a crumbling fortress. And so, she now attempts to get un-lost, and hopes that the others can figure out the riddle behind this puzzle because she is stumped.
Player: Santova

Hore Wutashi
Gnoll-Human Hybrid Hedge Witch
Specialization: Outsider Shaman
High/Low Ambitions: Go 'Home' / Murder. Bloodshed, dismemberment, and death get her going like nothing else, provided she can see it coming and isn't exclusively on the receiving end.
Phobia: Fear of the unknown, mostly anything that can kill her without showing itself.
Mutation: Canine Features. Ears. Tail. And yes, Gnoll *censored*
Vulnerability: Mental instability
Ability: Plasma Beam - Based on her mother's broken plasma pistol, this signature spell allows Hore to fire a concentrated beam of generated plasma at any opponent. She has been working on plans to modify the quantum wave pattern of the plasma, which would change the beam's special strength from armor piercing to enchantment piercing.

Bio: Twenty years ago, a magic experiment performed by the chieftain of a generic gnoll tribe accidentally latched onto a quantum portal energy signature from another world. As you can guess, one of the staff from the lab was sucked in and fell into the arms of a really lucky gnoll. She wasn't even one of the scientists, just an intern from the biology department! But then, all the actual scientists that went through the portal fell in less fortunate places and died in a matter of seconds. So after five rapes, a few medical miracles, and one really loud childbirth later, Hore was born into a tribe of rapists with a deity-figure as a mother and showered with all the attention of a classic chosen one. She learned much about mathematics, biology, natural sciences, and basic quantum mechanics from whatever her mother could still retain.

Then her mother died in a freak accident when she was ten. Perforated by falling bull horns. Go figure.

After fighting her way out of her own paranoid psychopathic tribe, Hore wants to know more about her mother's world and if she could have a place there. Barring that, like any among her tribe she has a lust for murder and rape matched only by her desire to create a working system for endless murder and rape.
Player: kome

Decaro Vos
Eel-man Soldier
Specialization: Grappling
High/Low Ambitions: Protecting the weak / Bedding other sentient species
Phobia: Any dry and excessively dusty environment, thorny plants, mummified corpses, scorpions, and powdered silver (or silvery metals, but not, for example, liquid mercury, silver coins, or iron filings), or apparent unnaturally-accelerated erosion of stone
Mutation: Big eye on chest, which can detect and size people up based on their auras.
Vulnerability: Dehydration
Ability: Flesh growth - can touch a creature to cause a horrible mutation

Bio: Vos was born of noble parents, the fourteenth hatchling in his clutch. He was raised steadfast in the teachings of his deity, and one day decided to leave his village to spread these teachings and give aid to the many other people of the world. During his travels he heard tale of a dungeon full of secrets and possibly evil, so he joined forces with a band of attractive people to investigate. Vos is now lost and a little bit scared, but he knows his faith will protect him. He was never much for poetry and does not know how to play chess, so instead he attempts to force his way through whatever door/obstacle is in his path.
Player: strngy

Davina
Human Rich Bastard
Specialization: Fencer
High/Low Ambitions: Legacy (explained / elaborated on in character bio) / Ladies. Doesn't help with establishing a family legacy, but hey, dad had mistresses too.
Phobia: Spoor of those bodiless hounds which lurk in the corners of time, such as deep yet bloodless wounds in otherwise normal flesh, stringy blue caustic-alkali slime, locked-room murder mysteries, sharp corners on convex architectural elements (especially when filled in with something more smooth and round which has cracked or been left incomplete), and ill-conceived efforts to directly observe the distant past.
Mutation: Appears normal when calm, but becomes blurry, and thus harder to sense or strike, when in the grips of passion, including most combat situations. 'Clipping' through solid walls or out of manacles is possible, but usually involves heroic exertion and a risk of injury. Berzerk rage, paralyzing grief, blind panic, etc. result in total intangibility for the duration of the insanity, which may be a lifesaver or a debilitating inconvenience depending on context. Clothing and other equipment comes along with, if it's touching and she honestly thinks it's rightfully hers. Also, odd dietary requirements and downright bizarre (though consistent) distortions of smell and taste, ever since a childhood incident that shifted some birthmarks around and made her left-handed.
Vulnerability: Bags of Holding, portals, and other technological exceptions to Euclidean geometry are treated as if wrapped in razorwire, though she'll need something far more exotic than heavy gloves for safe handling, and banishing or warding effects never treat her as 'one of the locals.'
Ability: Teleport anywhere within line-of-sight, including through windows, and even around corners with the aid of an appropriately-angled reflective surface, but no more than a few hundred yards per hop. Requires a fine sword with which to cut a hole in the air (or at least some edge sharp enough to cut paper, but the very thought of using any tool lesser than her ancestral sword feels gross and wrong on an instinctive level) and the tunnel stays open for a minute or so, allowing partners or pursuers to follow unless they're considerably larger than her. If her feet are glued to the floor or she's broken her spine or something, she might be able to open a hole and then fail to propel herself through it, but can't reliably do that on purpose. If she wants to open a tunnel while staying in place, or for that matter, teleport several times in rapid succession, there should be some surface solid enough for her to kick off of as part of changing direction.
Seriously Expensive Thing: Ancestral sword, appropriate to style.

Bio: The daughter of a noble house (or at least a rich and successful one with a good history), Davina benefits from an upbringing where she had everything that was needed to prepare her to face the world. She was the heir to and recipients of these advantages as part of her legacy. A legacy that no longer exists, as her house has fallen.

She's now on a quest to restore that legacy. Nothing so trite as taking back her exact family holding- this isn't about a right to rule or a territory. As far as she's concerned, she's a link in a chain, and she will not be the point where it breaks. Before she dies, Davina wants a reestablished power base or holdings to see that the next generation of her family gets at least as good a shot as she did.
Player: mageykun

Eric Grimwald
Human Rich Bastard
Specialization: Commanding others.
High/Low Ambitions: To become a lich and rule a mighty kingdom. / To find a suitable bride.
Phobia: Monophobia - Fear of being Alone/Without companion.
Mutation: Jaw is slightly deformed which greatly altered his diet. This leads to difficulty chewing solid food, combined with willingness and ability to eat stuff that's badly rotten, and resistance to poison in general.
Vulnerability: Conventional healing magic causes problems for Eric. Agonizingly painful, sometimes makes the wound worse instead of better. Alchemical potions work fine, though.
Ability: Eric is able to reanimate and command undead creatures of a lesser intelligence to follow basic commands. If Eric becomes incapacitated, any creature under his command shall be free to act as they please.
Seriously Expensive Thing: A magic quiver that can transmute any dry bones found lying around into more crossbow bolts.
Player: GB

Yisheng Ji
Half-Avian Hedge Witch
Specialization: Healing / Medicine
High/Low Ambitions: Become immortal and eternally youthful / Make money
Phobia: Being crushed to death
Mutation: Feathers growing from arms, legs, and back that passively help regulate body temperature in non-extreme conditions, and ward off damp, but are obviously somewhat disturbing to look at
Vulnerability: Consuming birdflesh makes him incredibly sick
Ability: Frictionless, lightweight movement - He can treat non-solid surfaces as if they were perfectly solid and rigid, and move as if he were near-weightless. For example, walking across the surface of freshly-fallen snow without leaving any trace of his presence, walking across water without causing it to ripple, jumping into long (albeit quite slow) glides like 90s/00s wire fu movies, and slow-falling in the same fashion.

Bio: An ancient, divine spirit beast came down from a celestial realm on business, taking human form when it arrived. (Specifically, its true form was a celestial rooster.) However, before it returned home, it encountered and was infatuated by a village maiden who happened to pass by, and inevitably seduced her. Yisheng Ji was the product of that pairing, although his father left before he was born, likely to never return. Due to this unusual heritage, he enjoys some measure of divine power, not granted by an external source. As he gets more experienced, he'll naturally unlock more and more of that bottomless divine potential. (aka standard level progression) He was apprenticed to, and eventually became a local doctor when he grew up. However, he felt his quiet life was too stagnant to allow him to truly grow, so he set off on his own to master both his medical skills and innate power, hoping to eventually cheat death and the passage of time itself.
Player: Tunic

Maria Agate
Human Hedge Witch
Specialization: Purifying Light (Basically the use of magical light to burn and kill enemies)
High/Low Ambitions: The destruction of Great Evil / The destruction of those she sees as "impure"
Phobia: The taste of blood
Mutation: A tongue that can split in half, turning into two fully ambulatory tentacles.
Vulnerability: Magical darkness causes her to suffer symptoms similar to sunburn.
Ability: Knots which hold the soul as well as the body. Tie someone to a chair and prevent them from lying, bind a door and ghosts can't walk through it, sufficiently elaborate macrame and some demon can't escape until improbable conditions (of her choosing) are met, that sort of thing. Self-bondage to reinforce self-control, too.

Bio: Maria is a descendant of the Agate line, a series of holy men most known for their unparalleled command of what they identify as the "Purging Light", light powerful enough to burn and even kill those caught in it. She grew up learning the techniques, and when she came of age she set out to do battle with evil. She considers purity very important, though she finds temptations lie stronger than she'd expected...
Player: The Archivist

Daniel Agate
Human Hedge Witch
Specialization: Purification, removal of negative status effects and minor healing
High/Low Ambitions: To do good / Men, men, men. A sufficiently attractive man can easily distract Daniel, and he finds it difficult to resist their advances.
Phobia: Large, feral dogs
Mutation: Square pupils, with greatly enhanced depth perception and low-light vision
Vulnerability: Magical darkness causes him to suffer symptoms similar to sunburn.
Ability: An aura of light centered around himself that can be expanded and contracted at will. Causes mild burns and can occasionally be accidentally triggered by unwanted touches. At max power he's standing in a golden bonfire which might be visible miles away on a clear night, but it never provides useful illumination outside the actual radius of effect. As a side benefit, so long as the aura is extended beyond his skin (and thus visible) he doesn't have to worry about penalties to balance, climbing, grappling, etc. for slippery surfaces, nor diseases and poisons that work by breath or skin contact. It acts like a forcefield, pushing nasty sludge out of the way. Very handy in a plague environment. Corrosives could still be an issue, or anything ingested, or pressed right into an open wound.

Bio: Maria's younger brother, Daniel was the "black sheep" of his family. Rather than his family's abilities of Purging Light, Daniel was born capable of the art of Purification, being capable of "burning away" curses and illness, along with minor wounds. Combined with his homosexuality, he proved unpopular in his traditional family. The day he turned of age, his loving sister Maria brought him along as a travelling companion, determined to treat him better than the rest of her family had.
Player: The Archivist

Djan Seriv
Elf (Orc) Soldier
Specialization: Slinger
High/Low Ambitions: Secure a quiet, peaceful life for as many people as he reasonably can / Revenge on those who caused his desertion
Phobia: Swans, as they were depicted in the insignia of the noble who commanded his army
Mutation: Mostly vestigal second set of jaws in throat
Vulnerability: Aversion and nausea when gold is present in sufficient quantity to smell (which has the side benefit that he's supernaturally able to "smell" gold at all, which shouldn't be physically possible given it's extremely low room-temperature vapor pressure and lack of chemical reactivity), then painful blisters and eventual bleeding sores from skin contact.
Ability: Bei Fong-style metalbending: Anything a smith could do with proper tools, he can do with his bare hands, usually faster and easier since he avoids the inefficiency of swinging a hammer around. Making useful items requires a roll against the relevant craft skill, since he still needs to understand what he's trying to do. It's easy to temporarily rubberize, say, some iron bars he wants to slip between and then leave seemingly undisturbed, but permanently reshaping stuff requires energy, which has to come from either his own body (fatigue), or oxidation of the item he's shaping. Accordingly, it's harder to work on anything corrosion-resistant, or in an oxygen-poor environment, or with an item he want to keep pristine and rust-free, but those problems don't stack. Twisting a sword into rusty scrap is just about the easiest thing in the world... provided he can grab it and concentrate for a second, which the sword's wielder might not cooperate with. Gold, platinum, moonsilver, pure lead (pewter and mundane silver are fine), and maybe a few other rarities or exotic alloys don't respond at all, no matter how hard he pushes. Along with, of course, anything nonmetallic, or not in contact with his skin. It's possible to reshape a large item far away by extending a thin wire over to connect to it, but anything more than he could plausibly lift with one hand (whether because of total mass or bad leverage) requires going very slowly, and even then is imprecise, like clenching a pool cue between his teeth and trying to write legibly with a half-dead ballpoint pen taped to the opposite end.

Bio: Djan Seriv had the fortune to be born in a relatively quiet, rural region, so even if he was born fairly ugly for an elf he didn't attract much notice working on his family's farm. He grew strong chasing after sheep, lugging crops, and plowing fields, and when his next stroke of misfortune hit as a war flared up, he was soon drafted into the local lord's army. When he was young and afraid, a fervent anger at the nobility, the enemy, and the world burnt within him, making him an effective soldier. As the years beat him down, he became too weary to sustain his hatred and with little more than what he carried, finally decided to desert his army when the war dragged without any sign of ceasing. He doubts his old allies have much time or energy to spare tracking down one deserter, but just to be sure he's gone all the way to these ancient ruins to shake off pursuers and get something that could let him live a quiet life at last. He doesn't have much and earning his status as a veteran soldier has left him less handsome than ever, but he's tough and determined.
Player: DanZapman

Casualties

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None yet!

Act 1 (Pre-Reboot) Character Roster:

Active Characters

Marijke
Hedge Witch
Specialization: Suggestion / Mental influences
High/Low Ambitions: Greed / Wealth
Vulnerability: Allergy to shellfish
Spells:

* "Free Samples" allow for these spells to be cast once per person per day, independent of prepared spell slots.

Minor	(4 slots):	staunch bleeding, resume bleeding, sense poison, gum-fire, whisper-web, bestow fool's luck, green milk curse, footsore curse, experimental miscellany
First circle	(4 slots):	spit fire, least true healing*, least true spite, bestow shadow armor, bite-the-pinecone curse, friendship curse*, first servant invocation (specify type), appraise, rhyme of mending, lightning lecture atemi
Second circle	(3 slots):	demand gift, spit spiders, tesserflecked, penalty clause, least astral courier

Ability: Gemstone Familiar
Player: mageykun

"Sir" Garaile
Soldier
Specialization: Single combat
High/Low Ambitions: Renown / Collecting trophies
Mutation: Unusually-jointed
Player: Tunic

Nico Nashville
Townie
Specialization: Bluff / Acting
High/Low Ambitions: Occult secrets / Costuming
Phobia: Memory loss
Parasite: Babel worm (distracting universal translation)
Vulnerability: Unusually receptive to magic
Innate Power: Uncannily adept method actor, can convince observers of blatant untruths and take on aspects or abilities of his persona; believes it while acting.
Player: CalimariGod

Than
Soldier
Specialization: Sharpshooter
High/Low Ambitions: Purification of insane undead / Verifying hostiles are indeed dead
Phobia: Being cornered
Mutation: Heterochromia (blue eye can tell if someone is lying, but not the truth itself; red eye can see enemy vitals)
Vulnerability: Violent deaths within 5 yards will momentarily leave her incapacitated or paralyzed
Innate Power: Wields a trick weapon spirit bow that can be summoned and desummoned at will

Dimitry "the White Snake" Nicola
Townie
Specialization: Stealth, assassination, thievery
High/Low Ambitions: Reversion of numerous changes to his biology, so he can live comfortably / Fetish for bring mind controlled
Phobia: Arachnids / being labelled as an outcast, being shunned
Mutation: Cursed, black, soulless-looking and reptillian-like eyes which are really sensitive to light, but adjust easier and see further in the dark. Deathly pale skin. Female physical traits
Vulnerability: Affected by many alteration spells. Vibrant to Detect Magic, appears more appetizing to magic-absorbing/eating creatures, less likely to gain positive effects from further alteration spells
Innate Power: Sociopathic. Remains calm and keeps a clear head in stressful situations, and is unfettered morally

Letkra
Rich Bastard
Specialization: Spear-dancing
High/Low Ambitions: Find a way to return to her home dimension / Large impalement, self or otherwise
Phobia: Being trapped in a ward or summoning diagram (Psychologically incapable of freeing herself from perceived restraints in a deliberate fashion)
Mutation: Is a golem-construct composed of semi-homogenous inorganic material, with freely detachable limbs and head; automatic self-repair is slower than human healing
Vulnerability: Requires a pint of oil every 6-8 hours of activity, rather than food and water
Innate Power: Generates an adjustable force field around herself, which can act passively as a small shield or actively as a large barrier
Player: Mitsukara

Riv
Hedge Witch
Specialization: Alchemy / Artificing
High/Low Ambitions: Eternal life / Pursuit of knowledge
Phobia: Fear of own mortality
Mutation: Four arms
Vulnerability: Partially mummified: weakness to both fire and water, but resistant to physical damage; unusual blood clots at one-tenth speed, but also bleeds out at one-tenth speed
Innate Power: Tinkering (Rapid prototyping of mad science gadgets)
Player: Santova

Ravenous Llyr
Soldier
Specialization: Tracking / Hunting
High/Low Ambitions: Finding true love / Eating freshly-killed raw meat
Phobia: Completely inorganic creatures, such as metal golems
Mutation: Superpowered digestive system: can't be harmed by anything ingested, and consuming meat in particular triggers a temporary surge of rapid bodily regeneration based on how much was eaten
Vulnerability: Highly gullible, with little-to-no understanding of social subtleties; easily tricked by even simple deception
Innate Power: Were-shark, shifting reflexively based on context: full human on dry land, shark in deep/salty water, grotesque shark-faced biped in shallow/fresh water, heavy rain, on a beach, or when coated in blood; strenuous and itchy to use the 'wrong' form
Player: Tunic

Stone
Hedge Witch
Specialization: Spirits
High/Low Ambitions: Break his family's curse / Tuning out the spirits through drug use
Phobia: Drowning / Deep water
Mutation: Left leg up to just above hip is made of stone
Vulnerability: Tendency to be possessed, even by spirits that wouldn't normally be able to
Innate Power: Context-sensitive postcognition: spirits of ancestors can be called upon to recite a target's spiritual condition and history
Player: Santova

Casualties

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Sgt. Nick
Soldier
Specialization: Intuition
High/Low Ambitions: Redemption / Fascinated by ghosts
Phobia: Disease and rotting corpses
Fate: Left for dead in diseased pool with a corpse in it

Yeven Surgis
Rich Bastard
Specialization: Demons
High/Low Ambitions: Revenge / Groom themselves frequently, and be impeccable
Phobia: Claustrophobia
Mutation: Blind, but with 10-meter Blindsight
Vulnerability: Spells affect her as if she were a demon; symbols of holy faith or purity are injurious
Innate Power: Lesser gravity control
Player: Bad transetor
Fate: MIA; wandered off into labyrinthine caves