Back and Behind the Woods
is a Play-by-Post roleplay on The Roleplayer's Gazebo board.
Taking place in a world that is an amalgamation of Toril and Golarion, Back and Behind the Woods chronicles the adventures of an unlikely group as they make their way through the world beset by one hardship, mishap, and unlikely coincidence after another. The main characters are as follows; Zarae, a rebel drow shadowdancer; Lily, a socially awkward human archivist; Amrin, a veteran sellsword tiefling fighter; Gilrean, a moon elf sorceress on a quest; Damien, a young fighter/sorcerer looking for the truth of his past; and Bob, an unusual drow fighter who's Seen It All.
The game is played by loosely following the Pathfinder rules system, with some 3.5 in for good measure. However, the story is put before the dice, and the characters focus on the writing.
The website has since been deleted, and no archive of the roleplay has been found.
Back and Behind the Woods contains examples of:
- Artifact Title: Originally referring to the home of a group of ogres that the group was hunting, the title has since become this, given that the group isn't even in a forest anymore, and that their quest is leading them from one city to another.
- Contrived Coincidence: How the group meets; five of them independently converge on a camp of ogres and decide to travel together afterwards.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The party manages to slaughter the ogres in short order; this is because the party is made up of characters level 16-18, where as the ogres were CR 5-6.
- Family Theme Naming: Both Amrin and Lily come from families that practiced this; Amrin's father and all of his brothers had names starting with the letter A. Lily's father, mother, and brother all have names starting with the letter L.
- Hillbilly Horrors: The ogres that act as the villains of the first arch are very much in the Pathfinder model; one plays a banjo while the others dance on captured humans and has an incestuous relationship with his sister.
- Just Friends: Amrin and Lily. Gilrean thinks they have feelings for each other, but they insist that they're just pals.
- Mage Tower: The group comes across one out in the woods that wasn't there a few days ago. It's home to at least four extremely powerful wizards who recruit the group to track down a thief for them.
- Put on a Bus: Axslav, the dwarf bard/barbarian, leaves the group after they divvy up the bounty from slaying the ogres. His ultimate fate is unknown.
Characters
Amrin
Played by: Former_Fiend
A tiefling fighter, veteran sell-sword, and defacto leader of the group.- BFS: Wields a bastard sword as his primary weapon.
- Black Swords Are Better: Both of his swords are made of adamantine, which is jet black.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Amrin is the bastard son of a nobleman; his childhood was actually somewhat idyllic, but then his father was betrayed by an ally and his whole family was slaughtered, leaving him alone in the world. He's surprisingly well adjusted.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Wears black, spiked armor. Wields a black sword. Has glowing red eyes and a general fiendish appearance. Overall, fairly decent guy.
- Flaming Sword: The bastard sword is a Flaming Burst weapon.
- Horned Humanoid: Amrin's tiefling heritage manifests with several fiendish traits, among which are a pair of ram-like horns.
- Genius Bruiser: Amrin is one of the most intelligent members of the group and acts like it, thinking out his decisions and planning his actions in advance.
- Lightning Bruiser: Amrin is incredibly fast and agile as well as strong.
- One-Handed Zweihänder: Can wield his bastard sword one handed thanks to his exotic weapon proficiency.
- Only One Name: Amrin's family name is Aryn, but being a bastard, he feels he doesn't have a right to it.
Lily Vaan
Played by: Avernus
A human archivist and death delver, Lily is the brains of the outfit.- The Artifact: She's one of two characters, along with Zarae, built on the 3.5 system instead of Pathfinder, due to neither of her classes being adapted (or adapted well) for Pathfinder, and that Avernus is too lazy to do it themselves.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She was murdered and resurrected, but the resurrection went wrong, and she came back looking like a three day old corpse. This caused a scandal with her family, who disowned her. Her brother, who was supposed to be protecting her when she was killed, eventually abandoned her when he could no longer take the nagging guilt of his failure.
- The Smart Guy: Smartest member of the group, with most all of her knowledge skills maxed out.
Zarae Zyne Kilanatlar
Played by: Zarae
A rebel drow noble roge/shadowdancer/wizard, whose habit of mischief making and recklessness tends to land the group in hot water.- The Artifact: She's one of two characters, along with Lily, built on the 3.5 system instead of Pathfinder.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- She carries more magic items than anyone else in the group, many of which boost her hide and move silently checks to insane degrees. All well and good until someone casts Detect Magic, a 0-level spell, and sees her glowing like the sun.
- Bob is of the opinion that her whole fighting style is this; too flashy, too energetic, and useless in tight spaces.
- Black Swords Are Better: Like Amrin, her swords are made of jet-black adamantine.
- Meaningful Name Zarae Zyne means "Shadow Dancing Hunter"; Zarae is a shadowdancer.
- Named Weapons: Moonshadow and Stealthwhisper.
- Stealth Expert: Her hide and move silently checks are insane.
Gilrean Elensar
Played by: Xont
A moon elf arcane bloodline sorceress who stumbles upon the group quite by accident. Not at all shy, not at all afraid to speak her mind.- What the Hell, Hero?: Chews out Amrin for making a pass at her when she believes Amrin and Lily have feelings for each other.
Sir Bob of the Swinging Gallows
Played by: General Sam
A drow fighter and old friend of Amrin's, so badly mangled that he doesn't even look like a drow anymore, and so old that his memories are muddled and fading.- Black Swords Are Better: His sword is made of umbrite, a black metal almost as strong as Adamantine, that helps its weilder remain unseen.
- Combat Pragmatist: One of Bob's defining traits is that despite his breadth of experience, he's really only average when it comes to skill and physicality, so in a fight he relies on his dirty tricks.
- Covered with Scars: Bob's body is essentially a mass of scar tissue.
- Does Not Like Magic: To the point that he doesn't like having even beneficial spells cast on him, and that he refuses to use magical equipment so long as he has a choice. He has a particular dislike of necromancy for some reason, which is part of the reason he doesn't like Damien.
- I Have Many Names: Bob changes his name every few years when he gets bored of the one he has. He's also given a new name twice so far by other characters; Cephas names him Hank for violating the One-Steve Limit, and the sword Homar gives him names him Lola to demonstrate its dominance over him.
- Named Weapons: Discipline.
- Self-Proclaimed Knight: Fully admits that he made up the Knight of the Swinging Gallows moniker.
- Sentient Weapon: Bob was given a sentient sword by Homar Highspell to keep him on task.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He and Damien really don't get along.
Damien Mathias Varomere
Played by: wraithblade6
A young fighter/undead bloodline sorcerer who grew up in a temple to Iomedae; he ran away to find the truth behind his family name and bloodline, stumbling upon the group along the way.- Dark Is Not Evil: Long black hair, pale skin, black leather outfit, long black cloak. Alignment: Neutral Good. It's lessened later on when he's given a pink crystal breastplate.
- Made of Iron: Is able to take a hell of a beating from Amrin in a sparing match; his blood line gives him DR 10/- against nonlethal damage.
- Naïve Newcomer: He's the least experienced out of the group, having spent his whole life in a temple with very little exposure to the outside world.
- Real Men Wear Pink: He's given a breastplate and shield made of blended quartz, a special material that reduces arcane spell failure. This specific pair is a sparkling cloudy pink quartz. Damien wears it without much complaint.
