A Life of the People

>>1700871
Hello everyone! After having been on the board for a few months and heartily enjoying many of the quests that others have made, I decided to try my hand at creating one myself. This will be a collective decision quest, with board voting for the actions of the PC.

Please keep in mind that this quest can and eventually will kill the PC, be it by bad decisions or the end of the life span of the PC's body. But fret not, as that does not mean the end of the quest. You will simply be born once more into whatever world it happens to be. You will not, however, retain any experience from your previous lives, or knowledge from any other world.

Thank you all for your and I hope you enjoy this quest!

>>1700889
>>1700871
i like the intro

>>1700871
The physical shock of birth, alongside the sensation of having a body, causes you to lose control of your being, and you find yourself suddenly having to figure out how to navigate the new world you inhabit.

A sound cries out, and suddenly you

>know exactly what to do
>cry out in surprise
>move towards it in a faint sense of recognition
>remain perfectly still

>>1700909
>know exactly what to do

>>1700889
Oops, forgot to mention that I will be calling votes every 15 minutes, and will only count votes that are in greentext.

Additionally, Write-ins will ONLY count if there is an option for them.

>>1700909

> Cry out in surprise.

It's not surprise, it's just sudden awareness of new circumstances.

>>1700909
>cry out in surprise

>>1700909
>>know exactly what to do

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>1700926
>>1700910

>>1700919
>>1700916

The tie means that voting remains open for another 5 minutes. In the event of another tie, I will use the roll on this post.

1- Know
2- Cry

>>1700927
Called and writing
>know exactly what to do

File: Warforged.jpg (44KB, 382x742px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1700939
>>1700926
>>1700910

As you come to awareness, you realize that you know what to do, what you ARE. You are a warforged, a being made to fight and die. You know nothing else, save for combat and conquest.

You step off the platform you and your squadmates were made on and take in your surroundings, the rest of seemingly everyone not caring. As you turn your head about the cavern, the light flares forth once more, and you realize that a massive machine that was your origin is the source. As the light shutters out, you realize that combination of fire, molten steel, and some substance that seems to ripple in its existence dance together to blaze and burn. A steam whistle screams out, and a whisper in the back of your mind tells you to march forward in ordered pattern. You continue to absorb every sense and sight that your surroundings are willing to divulge, the dark stone and steel hallways lit with glowing stones spaced at regular intervals that make up the passages surround, you going on without end.
Marching around these hallways, you notice that the passages begin to shrink in size, slowly constricting your movements to the strict patterned form that the rest of the sea of bodies follows. The hole you were shoved through opens up into tile floored cavern, with rows upon rows of more beings standing at the ready, still and statuesque. Once more, the whisper at the back of your mind sways you to be still, like your brethren. You comply, the first few seconds peaking your interest, everything new and adding to what is You. However, the seconds turn into minutes, the minutes turn to hours, and your mind slowly begins to dull.

You wake, and no longer feel the need to be still. You try to move, and find your body stiff and slow to respond, much unlike the crisp clean movements you remember. After straining at the syrupy response of your shell, you finally begin to move and explore the area. Coming across fallen and closed off passageways, you eventually find a room that you instinctively know is the armory, you begin to gather items together to move out.

Picking up a few sacks that seem to be in a serviceable condition, you pick up the nearest few items on the floor.

Choose 4:
>a box with a metal latch shut and locked, with a small key that looks to fit lying next to it
>a short sword and shield
>a great maul
>a leather case that lies open, full of vials and tools that you do not know, some full of liquids and powders
>a crystal set into a rod
>a bow with a quiver full of arrows
>a backpack full of seemingly random gear
>(write-in)

You stand up and grab the

>light
>medium
>heavy

Armor and a cloak on the wall and begin to prepare for what you were made for.

War...and possibly something else?

Something more?

>>1701005
>a leather case that lies open, full of vials and tools that you do not know, some full of liquids and powders
>a backpack full of seemingly random gear
>a crystal set into a rod
>a box with a metal latch shut and locked, with a small key that looks to fit lying next to it

Grab the
>light
Armor

>>1701005
>a leather case that lies open, full of vials and tools that you do not know, some full of liquids and powders
>a backpack full of seemingly random gear
>a crystal set into a rod
>a box with a metal latch shut and locked, with a small key that looks to fit lying next to it
Grab the
>heavy
Armor

>>1701005
>a backpack full of seemingly random gear
>a great maul
>a box with a metal latch shut and locked, with a small key that looks to fit lying next to it
>a leather case that lies open, full of vials and tools that you do not know, some full of liquids and powders
Grab the
>heavy
Armor

>>1701051
>>1701033
>>1701009

>a leather case that lies open, full of vials and tools that you do not know, some full of liquids and powders
>a backpack full of seemingly random gear
>a crystal set into a rod
>a box with a metal latch shut and locked, with a small key that looks to fit lying next to it

>heavy
Armor

wins, writing

File: Where Am I.png (1MB, 1300x489px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 1300x489px

>>1701071
As you gather up the items on the ground, you begin to search for an exit. The now treacherous cave system acts as a natural maze, with collapsed tunnels and no map to lead the way causing you to get lost quite often. You come to several doors that seem to lack any sort of key, when the crystal you had found earlier begins to hum. Taking it out, you see now that the doors glow when the rod is close enough to them. Preparing yourself for whatever lies beyond, you begin to push on the door, before it smoothly, and slowly, opens before you. The passageway beyond it is far more ruined than the tunnel system you were in previously.

Passing through the aperture, the stone slides back into place behind you, seemless to your eye. Had you not come from the other side, you would have thought that nothing was lay beyond. Trekking forth from the now sealed passage, you find that the farther you go, the more riddled with plant life the earthen channel becomes. After a few hours of climbing and traversing the increasingly wild passage, the ceilings disappears, leaving you staring at this vast openness above. You stand in awe of the titanic scale of this space above you, not realizing the passing of time. As the light in the sky *Sun the voice whispers* falls to the right of you, the darkening sky gives way to millions of pinpricks of light. *Stars* You watch, as the cycle repeats itself, a dance of power and beauty before you. The rock you were standing on shifts beneath you, and you and jarred from your trance.

Once more, you set out, now into this wilderness of the unknown, the same voice whispering all the while to you the names of items and beasts that you had never seen before. Your trek eventually leads you to a clearing of this jungle, allowing you to see something constructed for the first time since leaving the place of your creation. Before you lies

>a tower, twisted and ancient like the trees that seem to avoid it, the ground surrounding it cracked and dry.
>a hut, small and made from the materials of the forest, given space to be by the forest and seeming to be a part of the earth itself.
>a cabin, defiantely carving its own place into this land, with the earth around it tilled and organized.

As you approach with caution, not knowing what lies within, you see within a being, a

>(Write-in, include what they wear and any items that you might see)

>>1701168

> Tower

> Orc, clutching a halberd and wearing plate armour so old it's more rust than metal now.

>>1701168

> Tower

> Orc, clutching a halberd and wearing plate armour so old it's more rust than metal now.

>>1701180
>>1701190

> Tower

> Orc, clutching a halberd and wearing plate armour so old it's more rust than metal now.

>>1701180
>>1701190
>>1701192

Called
Tower and Orc
Writing

File: Old Man at the Tower.jpg (340KB, 609x738px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1701206
As you look in, you see a tall humanoid, with tusks and wrinkled olive green skin Orc, seeming to wear rust and shriveled leather. He sits on a stone chair, asleep and clutching a halberd that seems to gleam with the shine of an unpresent sun. You circle the clearing, looking for any other people that might be around, and finding none save the Orc at the lone entrance, you approach him. As you move closer, 30 feet away, 20 feet away, 10 feet away, your armor shifts and clanks loudly, waking him from his rest. He jumps up out of his rest and upon seeing you lunges forwards with the polearm shouting an unintelligible noise in surprise.

His attack seems to veer towards your head, before the blade suddenly drops down into the dust-like earth. Your gaze shifts from the blade at your feet, up the wooden body of the weapon, to the end, and you see that his jolting awake cased the rusted over boots he wore to break, causing him to trip and miss you. He lies before you stunned and lying on his back.

>What do you do?
>If you try and speak with him, give me a d100 and 3d20

>>1701241
Help him to his feet?

>>1701241
Help him to his feet?

>>1701241
Greet the orc in a cordial manner, completely ignoring his previous hostile and embarrassing actions.

>>1701241
Help him to his feet.

"Bad feet?"

Rolled 84 (1d100)

Here's the dice.

>>1701290
>>1701289
>>1701288
>>1701270
>>1701266
Called
Alright, help and greet the orc it is. I may have to take a break to get some food, but I will be
Writing
now!

>>1701299
Staring at the Orc on the ground, you wonder what made him attack. Regardless, you should help him, right? Right! You walk up to him and kneel down to help the elderly warrior to his feet. You begin to gather the items that he dropped, or that fell off him from the sudden movement in what appears to be the first time in years. Grabbing the halberd, you feel the weight of the weapon and finally get to take a closer look at it. The wood of the staff seems to almost writhe in your grasp, making holding it, let alone using it, difficult. You place the items gathered onto the lap of the still stunned orc, and wait for him to come to. Minutes pass, and the now aware being looks at you before jumping back in what appears to be fright. Not seeing the polearm in his grasp, he huddles back in his seat,, closing his eyes, and seeming to cower before you.

Realizing that he has no idea of knowing what you’ll do, you stop yourself from touching him. You have to somehow convey what you mean to him. Speak comes forth in your mind, a new voice that is far more soothing than the other. What is Speak? you think back. The voice doesn’t respond, but an image, no, an idea forms. You begin to follow it, not realizing that you are physically beginning to when

“Feet….bad?” clangs our, your voice evoking the sounds of grinding gears and rumbling stone and steel striking steel. One eye creaks open at the sound of your voice.

“Feet bad?” you ask again, more confident in the act of speaking.

The tension in the Orc’s body seems to loosen into curiosity as you speak. His body shifts from the cowering into a forward leaning intrigue. His eyes, no longer clouded by surprise and fear, inspect you, picking apart each detail of your personage, one at a time, slowly working their way down your stannic form. His eyes slink back up your body, meeting yours in their direction, making You, the mind within, the target.

(1/2)

>>1701373
“Didn’ know yer kind could help, let alone speak” his voice rumbles out. “Though, with the las’ one of yer kind being seen a few years ago, who knows wha’kind of things you’ be doing.” He stands, gathering the items in his lap with a natural motion before looking down and sighing at the state of them. He moves to door on the side of the tower, before shifting the jumble of now waste to one side. He brings his left hand to his mouth, suddenly ripping it on the left tusk in a smooth and practised action, before pressing it to the door. Upon the blood being placed on to the door, the thin space between frame and stone glows faintly before the entryway shudders open. He enters, and you stand waiting for an answer. A few minutes pass before he exits, now in cloth shirt and trousers.

“Wha’er ya waitin’ fer? Follow me” he inquires. You decide to ask once more.

“Feet bad?” He looks at you with a look of confusion before sighing.

“Ma feet ‘er fine. Now come in” He walks towards the tower, stopping at the entrance and looking back to make sure you are following this time. As you enter, you see

>Write-in

(2/2)

>>1701374

> The universe.

File: Angry Owl.jpg (121KB, 600x338px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1701379

>>1701374
The orc's home.
A little run down, and messy.

>>1701374
a infinite world with no curvature its like a flat world that never ends?

Guys, gotta go to work and then sleep, gonna leave the vote open over-night and then write first thing I can tomorrow.

thanks for running

>>1701374
More orcs.

Hey guys, I am so sorry for the delay, I have to find a new to place to live because my lease is up in a few weeks and my complex decided to start remodeling.

>>1705263
Doesn't matter much since I have to go to bed soon anyway, but does that mean you're running now?

>>1705270
No, just that I had planned to, and still haven't finished the post from yesterday. I will try to run from 10am to 5pm EST tomorrow.

ok

>>1712335
Sorry for the delay, but on the bright side, I have an apartment and a job now!
>>1701379
>>1701415
>>1701519
>>1704166
As you step through the entryway, the stone frame explodes into brilliant color, and your vision is suddenly clouded over by something else entirely. Your sight shifts into focus, and you look out over an endless plain of wheat, like a golden sea that gently sways with the wind and blanketed by a deep amber sky. You begin to walk forward in confusion, but there is nothing beneath you, no ground to stand on, and you fall through the earth itself. You slam into ash-covered stone and as you try and rise, you find that most of your strength has left your body. You shuffle your body, fopping your head into a spot where you can see a ledge underlit by a pulsing red glare. Trudging forward, you can glance over the edge, only to see a horde of figures, some draped in dark armor, others seemingly overgrown by scraps of trash and waste, but all with weapons of war. You try and leave, but the ground quakes, and you tumble into a pool of molten rock.

As you plunge into what you assume to be your end, the interior of the pool is different from the surface’s image, and you find yourself suspended in nothing, looking out over a vast blackness. You rotate, trying to find something, anything to validate that you still are. N After the panic passes, your vision adjusts and you look out over planets, moons, stars, celestial beauty and unspeakable horrors. You find yourself looking at EVERYTHING. You turn, searching for more, only to see an emptiness, and feel the pull of gravity once more before you

**SLAM**

You find yourself on the floor, a look of surprise on the Orc’s face as he rushes over to you.

“An’ here I thought your kind was suppose’ to take a beating before going down. Seems I can’ much say anythin’ is true bout you, now can I?” he grunts out as he drags you into the building. Once inside,you see cascades of books, shelves and colorful vials all about, The orc looks around before selecting one that is a deep crimson with a sphere of scarlet that seems to slowly circle within. He peers between two cases and yells “Horace! Get yer lazy ass down here, we have a visitor” before turning back to you. “This should patch ya up. Sorry bout that stint out front, I’m Ralsheth. You are?”

>Name your character

>Bulwark
>Nealon
>Stone
>Uxim
>Gauth
>Write-in

File: Libaray in the Forest Tower.jpg (612KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1713125
Shit, forgot pic.

>>1713125
>>Bulwark

>>1713125
>>1713162

> Bulwark's good.

>>1713125
>>Gauth

>>1713125
>>Bulwark

>>1713295
>>1713166
>>1713162

Bulwark it is! Writing

>>1713361
“Not know.”

Ralsheth looks on in confusion. “What do you mean ‘not know’, ya have to have a name, don’t ya?” You shake your head in denial. “Alright then, you’re a big fellow, solid build, plenty a armor. How about Golem? No, too...monstery. How about Bulwark?” While the name doesn’t mean much to you, the sound of it is comforting, something defining, something your own.

“Bulwark.” You nod your head in agreement. You point to yourself “Bulwark,” and then point to Ralsheth, “Ralshit.” The orc’s smile drops just as you hear a high pitched wheezing rang out behind you.

“Ralshit, that’s a good one!” You turn and see a cloaked being of small stature walk forward through the shelves. The words can barely make it out of the cloak’s hood between the gasps for air and peals of laughter. “I thought I came up with all the insult a long time ago, but it looks like the best one just slapped me on the face!” The hood on the cloak drops back and a halfing face is shown. “Horace Haberdeen, artist, artisan, and paramour extraordinaire at your service,” he quips, extending a hand.

>Take the hand
>Look on, doing nothing
>Speak (Write-in)

>>1713474

> Speak (Hor-ass)

>>1713474
>>Speak (Write-in)
>Whore's Ass

>>1713474
>>Take the hand
>"Horass."

>>1713474
>Take the hand
>"Hor ass."

>>1715467
>>1715328
>>1713975
>>1713498
Just woke up and it seems the people have spoken. Thanks for voting! Writing.

>>1715836
Just about to go to bed...

File: Horace.jpg (48KB, 564x744px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1715836

You look down at the diminutive hand extend to you, and reach forward with your own. As you grasp it, enveloping the halfling’s hand and forearm with your palm, you look him in in the eye and state his name as best you can.

“Whore-ass.” A look of concern and realization hits as he tries to leave when you hear deep bellows of laughter come from Ralsheth.

“Even with someone you just met sees how you really are ya little ass!” he barks out as he buckles from the force of his own laughs. Horace looks on unamused and tries to go over to Ralsheth’s writhing form before being jerked back by your grip on his arm. He looks over and grimaces out:

“Would you mind letting me go?” You tilt your head in confusion. He gave you his hand, why does he suddenly want you to let go. Horace, all the meanwhile, continues to attempt to pry himself free. You let go, and the sudden loss of resistance lands him on his ass. He grunts, and dusts himself off as he picks himself off.

“Anyway,” he starts “it’s Hor-’iss’ not ‘ass’.” He moves over to the still prone form of the laughing orc before roughly kicking him to seemingly little effect. “Get up you oaf, it wasn’t that funny.” The laughter continues for a few more minutes before finally dying down.

“That was good, first time we speak to anyone new in years an’ they give me better comedy than you ever have Hal.” Ralsheth looks to you before speaking. “If ya want, you can call me Ral and Horace, Hal. Rest o’ the party did at any rate.”

You look at them questioningly before they take you over to a stack of books and teach you the basics of language, or at least communication. This tutoring lasts for hours, and includes several lessons on what ‘proper’ and ‘real’ comedy are, and Horace’s, or Hal’s, expense and Ral’s delight. The lessons make you weary, and you slowly drift from consiousness with the sounds of lighthearted conversation lulling you to sleep.

You begin to dream of

>the place where you were born The Forge
>the forest outside the tower The Sylvan Sanctuary
>a place made of lots of things like the tower, with many shapes and sizes Sharn
>someplace else (Write-in, but nothing from other planes or overly high level, you guys are Tier 1, level 1.5 right now.)

>>1716250

> The Forge

Because forges are cool.

>>1716332
And that's where we could get upgrades.
And seconding.

>>1716402
>>1716332
Oops, didn't see that second vote before I got caught up with other things. Called and writing.

>>1717157
Your mind drifts and reaches out to grasp at something, anything. You know that what is happening to you shouldn’t, that the physical realm is all you should know, that it is all that awaits. Yet the Void reaches out for you with slender hands to caress, to ease you away from existence. You decide to focus on what you know, on where you are from, that cavern in the earth that birthed you.

THE FORGE. The voice in your mind that had been teaching you screams out, seeming to be in the throes of death and fighting to endure this dissolution into nothing. You focus, deepening your concentration on the cavern, the machine that was your first sight.

You reach out, and find purchase in the memory, and suddenly, you are there, in the passages, the broken earth interweaving with neatly kept tile, fading in between the two like the surface of the sea. You take an experimental step, testing to make sure that this time the ground will support you. Finding that it does, you begin to explore the earthen passages, winding back to the heart of the complex, the machine, the Forge. As you look on, the tides of change weaving back and forth around you, you watch as everything in the cavern alters, the floor gaining and repairing pockmarks, the walls crumbling and rebuilding like the day they were made. Everything, except the pulsing, fiery heart that sits in the center.

You feel compelled to approach, the fire’s roar a game’s thrill, a general’s order, a lover’s beckoning, giving you a choice that you gladly accept. As you approach the aperture that is the fire’s border, you reach out, knowing that you are being given a gift, a burden, a blessing and a curse all the same. As your hand plunges into the fire, you hear a new voice, simultaneously a deep, fatherly rumble and a caring, motherly sigh.

Ah, a child returns to me after all these years. One who has the gift to Hear me. One who even has a Name. I see that I am not the only One you Hear. Forgive me child, for you do not have much time in this realm, and I can no longer keep you here, as you now live in the Material, outside my heart. Know that you can achieve greatness if you try, that you can bring peace to where you stand, so long as you have the power to do so, that you are destined not for War as the One who used me intended, but Greatness in all its glory. I therefore offer you a choice of what you will be given, to obtain the ability to take what is needed to be truly whole. For you were born incomplete, and outside Their grasp, while still blessed with Curiosity and the ability to Love and Think. These are rare among those of Your form. Tell me, what will you use? What will you master in your Search for More?

Choose 2:

>Might
>Power
>Speed
>Empathy
>Knowledge
>Presense

>>1717495
>>Might

>>1717495
>>1717509
Didn't see the 2 for some reason.
>Power

>>1717495
>>Power
>>Empathy

I'd rather this didn't die...

>>1718573
>>1717520
>>1717509
Hello there second vote! Why does /qst/ not like showing you in my updates?

Called, writing.

>>1719860
It won't die, I will at a minimum do a session a week. Just been nasty the last few days with trying to get a job and apartment.

>>1719918
Guess who isn't dead and only just recovered their data after getting sick! This guy.

As you speak the words, you find only one can can out.

“Power”

You feel a twinge of concern from the Forge, as it slowly alters your being, giving you the gift you have beseeched of it. You feel your body swell, the armor that you had put on before filling out. You realize that while you could wear it, you weren’t utilizing it. Strength flows through you and experiences not your own flood your mind. You are now More than you were, your form filled with the ability to make its own way in the world.

Your name is Bulwark, but you will make walls seem like paper, mountains like glass. You will endure, you will prevail. As you look on, you notice more lights seeping into you, more than the reds and oranges of the eternal fire of the Forge, but bright, soft yellows and greens as well. You feel compelled to give a voice, a name to this newfound power flowing into you. Words for in your mind and you speak in a tongue unfamiliar to you, yet you somehow knew what was echoing around the cavern.

I will hold the line.
In front of me, Oblivion, for I am Slayer of the Foul.
Behind me, Sanctuary, for I am Defender of the Meek.
My watch unflinching,
My guard unbreaking,
My vigil unending.
I am the line.
And the Line will not fall.

As you speak, the light increases until it is blinding, and you have to close your eyes from the sheer force of it. The lights dims, and you open your eyes to find Ral and Horace staring at you with faces of wonder. Horace moves towards you before lightly tapping on your form.

“Hey, buddy, you okay? What was that?”

You look down and say

>I saw my birthplace
>I received a gift
>I have no idea
>Write-in

You are now a level 3 Paladin, Oath of the Ancients. You have proficiency in all weapons and armor, have slight spellcasting abilities, can Lay on Hands, and Smite. You know the languages of Common, Orcish, Gnomish, and Sylvan. I am going off of 5th Edition, so all information can be found there. This class choice is from a spreadsheet I had, with different classes depending on where you chose and which traits were selected. Your stats are now STR 18, DEX 8, CON 15, WIS 12, INT 10, CHA 15

>I received a gift

>>1723892
>>I saw my birthplace
>>I received a gift
I guess this is our new party? Might as well share.

By the way, I'd advise against going too crunch-heavy, OP. Thread's slow enough as it is, we don't need it bogged down by a hundred rolls a round.

>>1724145
Do you mean choices? or actual rolling? Because a lot of the rolls will be happening behind the DM screen.

>>1724145

Blueanon seems right.

>>1724197
I mean, don't make us worry about numbers and shit.

>>1724352
That first roll was for what languages you would know and whether you could speak. Rolling will occur in the quest, but I am not gonna ask you for chargin.

>>1724362
I wasn't complaining about anything you did, just warning you about not turning this into an actual D&D session. The rolls so far are fine.

>>1724481
Oh, yeah, I am setting this in a D&D world, but I am not running a D&D session. That's for Discord and roll20.