Elemental Doom is a D&D Game played at the University of Pittsburgh.We started if as a merry band of misfits only let out of jail to cleanse a mine of goblins. Unfortunately for us, and even more so for the soldiers with us, the Air Elemental's declared war. Now our dwindling party must find allies, and defeat the Elementals for the sake of Anætheron.After a year and a half of playing we have now learned that our true enemy is the mad god Tharizdun. Our heroes now in the second incarnation of For Justice fight to stop Tharizdun and his minions not only to save Anætheron but also the entire Multiverse. We even have our own Wiki.Check out the character page for all the old PCs, villains, and other notable characters.
Elf, daughter of Drusilia and Thamior Liaden, who trained at Dalmasca school of Witchcraft and Wizardry, trained by Basch Fon Ronsenburg of Dalmasca. She's a wizard. Her charisma is on the low side, leading to some interesting character traits. She was turned into a drow by an über-elf god increasing her Charisma and Intelligence. She is currently the most senior member of For Justice
The Dark Side: She hasn't fallen to the Dark side, but her morality has been compromised enough times to trigger her change from Lawful Good to Lawful Neutral.
Deadpan Snarker: She tries, but her timing isn’t that great.
Defrosting Ice Queen: Maybe. She recently admitted that just because she acted like a bitch, didn't mean she wanted to actually hurt anyone.
During a battle with a Dwarven Eldritch Abomination she got beat around pretty badly, even falling into negatives twice. In the end though, she was able to overcome the monster by disintegrating its head. As she did so she screamed "Burn in Hell, asshole!". This is quite unlike her usual cold and detached demeanor.
Knight Templar: Verges on this on occasion, especially when dealing with Cymoril and the Erinyes
The Lancer: She's this for Frankie. She's effectively second in command of the party, has the intelligence that he doesn't, though lacks his wisdom. And she's willing to make the tough morally gray decisions that Frankie is unwilling to. She's also willing to jump into combat, whereas Frankie is more hesitant.
Utopia Justifies the Means: See above. But it's more like "Preventing the Apocalypse Justifies the Means"
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Sort of. In the end she was willing to destroy an entire nation to save Anætheron and stop Tharizdun,
Frankie Macgregor
From the tree of life I just picked me a plum.
Sir Francis Albert Crocetti Macgregor, Human Cleric, Cousin to Connery. A survivor of a horrible massacre on the front lines. Ever since then, he retreated far back into Anatharon. He's sick of war, and and only wants some peace out of life. He's probably not gonna get it though.
The Medic: Hugely this. He's a pretty powerful healer too, the issue being that he's also one of our better front-liners.
Mighty Glacier: Frankie's got the best armor class in the party. His damage output while buffed is also insanely high. The thing is, he's slow. His heavy armor gives him a 20 ft per round move speed. This is somewhat alleviated with access to dimension door and the travel domain.
He's tough enough to survive walking through a prismatic sphere.
Naked People Are Funny: Frankie was naked after being whipped around during the failed elves subplot.
Now or Never Kiss: Kisses Darla before he walks through a prismatic sphere.
Only Sane Man: Though in a party with Sinfjotle it's not that hard to be this.
Power Tattoo: Has his holy symbol of Pelor tattooed on his chest, after being brought back by the Church of Three it now has stylized runes around it.
Psychic Nosebleed: He get's one when he absorbs all of the knowledge from a Dwarven Ledger.
Roma: While it doesn't come up much, Frankie's mother was a gypsy, in fact he lived in a traveling caravan until Pachino discovered his existence. Frankie goes by Macgregor while in Anatheron but he was born Francis Crocetti.
Human Mom, Non-human Dad: Reversed on Gromnom's case, his mother was an orc and his father was a human.
Lactose Intolerant: Why isn't this a trope?
Lightning Bruiser: With our enemies as tough as they are, Gromnom's 144 hit points quickly demote him to a Glass Cannon.
Somewhat averted, after becoming Frankie's protege his armor class has gone up by about ten.
Morality Chain: Before joining the team Gromnom mentioned being mostly a hired gun and murderer. After hanging around with Frankie his actions are much closer to Chaotic Good.
A warforged that Frankie had built by the Church of Three. He looks like Goldar from Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Right now, he has a very bland personality, but Frankie is shaping him into a Neutral Good Dean Martin Expy.
First he was afraid He was petrified Kept thinking he could never live without his party by his side But he spent so many nights thinking how things went so wrong He grew strong He learned how to carry on and so he's back from the outer planes He just 'ported in with us here To feel the sun upon his face He should have never come with us He's under Vampire's lock and key If he had known for just one second he would have stayed in the dwarf quarry
Go on now go sprint out the door don't turn around now 'cause you've seen an Atropol wasn't he the one who tried to kill you with his eyes? Did he think you'd crumble? Did he think you'd fall down and die? Oh no, not you You will survive as long as your not Loki I know you'll stay alive You've got a long life to live You've almost made it back to civ and you survived You did survive
It took all the strength he had not to fall apart kept trying hard to mend his sanity down in the unending dark and he spent oh so many nights deep down in that dungeon He used to cry But now he can hold his head up high and we see him somebody new He's not chained up underground still waiting to be rescued and so he left that horrid place and he can finally walk free now he's taking off his pants to pledge into new group mysteriously
Go on now go sprint out the door don't turn around now 'cause you've seen an Atropol wasn't he the one who tried to kill you with his eyes? Did he think you'd crumble? Did he think you'd fall down and die? Oh no, not you You will survive as long as your not Loki I know you'll stay alive You've got a long life to live You've almost made it back to civ and you survived You did survive
These Times They are a-Ending
Sung to bob Dylan's "These Times They are A-Changin"
Gather round people Wherever you roam And admit that the evil Around has grown
And accept it that soon You'll be flayed to the bone If your soul to you Is worth fixin'
Then you better convert Or you'll end up a gnome For the times they are a ending
Come doom and sooth sayers Who prophesize for your kin Drink the black liquid The chance won't come again
Convert now or soon For the wheel of fate spins And there's no tellin' who That it's namin
For the father will come And the perfect will win For the times they are a-ending
Come nobles and kings Please heed the call Don't sit in your castles Don't wait in on your balls
For he that's imperfect Will be he that has stalled There's a battle outside And it's ragin'
It'll soon shake your lives And devour you all For the times they are a-endin'
Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land Convert now So you may understand
Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is Rapidly fadin'
Please get out of the new one If you won't lend a hand For your times they are a-ending
The line it is drawn And the curses are cast The ranks right now Will later be vast
As the present now Will later be past The order is Rapidly coming
And the perfect now Will be the only to last For the times they are a-ending
Connery's Tale
The Start of Connery
I was eleven years old. My brother Brando had just returned from his first year at the Military Academy and we had all gone to my Uncle’s house to celebrate the holidays. He lived above a coastal town in a grand mansion that overlooked the ocean. It was very beautiful, but behind the estate was a rugged wilderness, yet untouched by Anatharan. This forest had unnerved me since I was a young child and Brando had grown sick of my attitude. Now that he had become a Warblade he said that he would take me out behind the mansion and show me that there was nothing to be afraid of. He had no sooner switched from “White Raven” to the “Tiger Claw” stance and we were off. Though I should mention that he was only in the “White Raven” stance in the first place because he liked to steal away any of the local girls I took a liking too.
He took me into the wilderness. The Forest floor was completely black. Great and gnarled trees blotted out the sun with their looming eldritch branches. I barely knew how much time was passing as we walked, it could have been minutes or hours and I would have not known the difference. I was already more than nervous when we came upon an old burned out reliquary. A blasted heath sacred to some long forgotten god I’m sure. I wanted to go back, but Brando pushed me onward, stating that I must see the inside to finally get over my fear.
He shoved me onward and I climbed up the rotted-out stairs into the temple. Inside it was dank and murky. Brando struck a tindertwig. Its shadowy light did nothing to ease my nerves. The way the shadows flickered and dances was not of this earth, they seemed to reach out for us and then slink away. The walls were covered in runes, one’s that I would make no attempt to research later at the seminary, and the floor where it wasn’t covered in soot and detritus seemed to be completely covered in intersecting eight sided tiles.
Brando ventured further inside and I stayed close by his side. The wind’s moans got louder as we went deeper. Once I had nearly forgotten about the sun outside we came upon a worn down rock pile. At first I thought it was a gravestone, but as I grew closer I felt a sickly warm and wet draft emanating from down below.
“It’s only a well an old well” Brando tried to reassure me. I wanted to run as fast as I could back to the mansion, back to the sunlight, but I couldn’t, I wouldn't, not with my brother right there.
“Give me a coin” Brando smiled.
I had only one gold piece to my name at the time, and I wasn’t about to give it up, but Brando was bigger than me, and wrestled it out of my grasp. He dropped the coin into the well, after what seemed like an age. I heard a tiny splash and my heart began beating again.
There’s nothing to be afraid of here, it’s just an old well”
No more than a second had gone by when a gust surged from out of the well and dousing the Tindertwig. I was blind without the light of the match but I felt dark shadows reaching from the well. I cried out in terror and looked for Brando. But he was already running away faster than I had ever seen him. I felt a formless tendril reach out for me. It brushed my neck but I darted away following Brando before it could grip me. I trailed Brando praying to see an exit when I heard an awful voice ring out from inside my head I am Bob-Shaggoth what fools dare disturb me? The horror spoke out in some unspeakable tongue. I knew not the language but I understood all the same. Its voice, if you could call it that, writhed and twisted through my brain.
I could feel abomination getting closer to use, I knew it was only a half step behind when I saw a sparkling light out before us. It looked like the moon shining through the door of the exit! I dived for it, falling onto the temple stairs. That's when saw her. In the full moon stood a glowing female form, she was more beautiful than anything I have ever seen. She was holding the hand of my sister Emily, whose eyes were glowing with the same intensity as the radiant beauty besides her.
Emily outstretched her hand and I heard the horror’s scream ring out in my head. I turned to look back and saw only ash. The woman set my sister down, and fled, agile and more graceful than any mortal could. Brando and I grabbed Emily and we didn’t stop running until we were in our Uncle’s mansion with the doors bolted behind us.
Emily woke the next morning with no memory of this event. Brando told me to never speak of it, he said it was better left as a half remembered nightmare. I knew though that is was Artemis who saves us. For the next year I mailed letter after letter hoping to join her seminary and serve as her priest. Cleric’s of Artemis though cannot be men, an no exceptions can be made. My solution was to become a servant of Artemis’s twin Apollo. Six months after I had been saved, I went to study the Sols Sapientum.
Kaiden's Tale
Back when I was a young half-dragon, I lived with my mother back on the old continent in a small village called Larell. Despite the fact that I typically disguised myself when being with my friends in town, there were many people who had theories on my true parentage, which generally made life difficult for my mother. My father, disguised as an elven cleric, came when I was twelve and asked my mother if it would be easier for him to take care of me. As soon as he arrived, I already knew I’d be leaving, so I quickly went to say goodbye to my best friend Emily, a local half-elf girl.
I spent a majority of my time learning wizardry with the help of my father. When I wasn’t studying I was reading everything I could find in my father’s extensive library. After years of training, I decided I should leave my father’s lair and find an adventuring group. My father gave me a ring of transformation, so I could change my shape as I saw fit to better disguise myself amongst the population. I took the form of a half-elf, reflecting my father’s typical humanoid shape of an elf.
I travelled to the nearest town to look for a group of adventurers to join up with. No longer than an hour after I had arrived, a party that had recently lost their sorcerer passed through town. I quickly offered my services to them, and we all set off in the morning. We ventured for many years, growing powerful as we went. At one point I learned of the way of the nine swords, and started training as a swordsage, and eventually discovered my heritage as a Mage of the Order of the Jade Phoenix.
In a large city, our fighter heard rumors of an old dragon to the north that was bound to have many treasures for our taking. We ventured to the north, and entered the mouth of a large cave. As we moved through the cave, I slowly realized that I had been here before. It wasn’t long before we reached a large cavern with an ornate castle adorned with gold—the lair of a gold dragon.
I ambivalently entered, discovering what I had feared to be truth. I had adventured into my father’s lair with a party of evil adventurer’s set to kill him. My father was sitting at his desk writing spells, just as I had left him, and was certainly planning to talk my party out of attacking him. I quickly slipped off my ring of transformation and shadow jaunted to my father’s side.
The party was enraged at my betrayal. There was no talking them out of attacking my father, but before they killed him, they would kill me. I managed to take the cleric out before they killed me, but I quickly perished thereafter. My father swiftly changed into his true form, an impressive and fearful sight that stunned the remaining adventurers. They tried to run, but their feet failed them as they stumbled to the ground to meet their demise.
I was soon after revived by my father, who handed me a silvery potion that restored my memories. Despite this, I no longer controlled the powerful wizardry that I had employed mere hours ago. I expected anger from my father, but he was calm and understanding—almost proud that I lead the evil adventurers to him. With that, I soon began training again with high hopes of seeking out evil and destroying it.
We turned the stone to slabs of smeat. Gromnom thought the smeat was neat. The smeat, he thought, looked good to eat. But eating smeat's a frightening feat. A frightening, ghastly, nastly feat.
... ah, fuck it. I'm not Dr. Suess. Shouldn't Sinfjotli be the one trying to write this?
Big Badass Wolf: The one that beat the hell out of Mononoke, subverted with Mononoke herself.
The Frost Giant Barbarian King, a were-Thrym Hound
Thrym Hounds in general
Big Damn Heroes: Kaiden and Connery get a shred of this when they save Meina from the Red Capp subverted with Kaiden in that he immediately got dropped to -9 upon arrival
ʡə'ɗa attempts and fails at this when she ran through the prismatic sphere.
Brain Bleach: Meina's character's plan for April Fools Day
You're going to have to ask her about it, I'd probably get thrown off the site if I tried to explain it
Breather Episode: The group actually decided to put off the climatic battle of the Dwarven Dungeon to sit around a campfire, feast, get drunk, and tell stories.
for Massive Role Playing Experience!
Brick Joke: When the Church of Three asks For Justice if they wanted any minions Frankie offhandedly asks for a "Dean Martin Goldar"
Dino mentions his hatred of gnomes in his introduction song.
Cannon Fodder: Anyone remember our squad of Soldiers who's only purpose was to get massacred by the Orc?
Lee, Murphy, Green, Johnson, Brown, Atra'k'ti, Chang, Kowalski, and JENKINS!
Connery: Somewhat averted. Connery stays devoutly good throughout, however he becomes more jaded, world-weary, and grim.
Loki: Goes from a psychopathic serial killer who's primary goal is the murder of children to misinformed religious zealot convinced about the emptiness of the world.
Darla: Starts as a Lawful Good Knight Templar convinced of her own power and righteousness. As the dire nature of the story progresses she falls into a mind set of "The Ends Justify the Means". Eventually falling to Lawful Neutral. Her ego and superiority complex also decline (though though they don't disappear)though this might have something to do with being turned into a Drow.
Frankie: He's pretty gutless the first time we meet him. He's lost his nerve, has abandoned the front line, and in his first fight gets easily dispatched by a Storm Elemental in a single round. During his time on camera, he's found new determination via the death of Connery. Slowly he's working though his PSTD, taking more risks in battle, and even becoming willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
Sinfjotle: He was never a nice person, but he basically started out as a generally good (if curmudgeonly) librarian. After finding the Book of Vile Darkness he develops paranoia, loses interest in his friends, and destroys any morality he might have had left. Eventually this leads him to betray the party to the Frost Giants.
Grommnom: A former thug and killer for hire. He was brought onto the team as nothing more than a redshirt but after a few sessions and some help from Frankie he becomes one of the most staunchly good aligned characters we have.
Conservation of Competence: Frankie's player can play Frankie pretty well. Frankie's player playing Frankie, Gromnom, Dean Martin Goldar, and Chew-Alore is much more jumbled.
Cool Sword: The Cold Iron Sword of Humanbane, nuff' said.
Crutch Character: Arguably the original Kaiden was this. He had had decent armor, hit points and a nasty 6d10 breath weapon at level one. Unfortunately with his actually unnecessary level adjustment he became one of the less powerful members of the party the dwarven dungeon.
Meina too in a way. Though she would have regained a lot of power if she had leveled a few more times.
Everyone Is Related: Kaiden especially. He's a distant cousin to Avalokiteshvara as well as the the father of the deities Bahamut and Tiamat, and the brother-in-law of Connery due to quantum reincarnation.
Filler: self inflicted, and we're usually hit with Divine Lighting for it too.
We start of the game with Piss off the Cleric Hour followed by Piss off the DM hour then possibly a random encounter (always a bad decision) and by the time the end of the session comes everyone wonders why they didn't level up
Flanderization: A minor example with the Macgregors. They started off a pretty typical Noble family, with Connery being a good aligned exception. But after a few years we start to see more members of the family: Emily, Brando, Scorsese, and Frankie. Eventually it became that the Macgregors are known throughout the country as a major Good-Aligned family.
They've seen to have become more than Minor Nobles as well.
Though it's important to remember that Tropes Aren't Bad.
Implacable Man: Ogdren (the Orcish Half Air Elemental Frenzied Berzerker Eye of Gruumsh, the Harbinger of Grand Empire of the Air Elementals) is very much this. Once he enters a frenzy he will continue to fight no matter how many injuries he sustained. If you cut off his head, his body would keep going.
Medieval Stasis: averted, it's a high magic world so civilizations have the tendency to be nuked to nothing every couple hundred years, thus the bureaucracy of Anatheran
Morality Chain: Averted pretty hard, in theory the Saint should keep everyone on the straight and narrow but he has had noted trouble with this
Somewhat played straight with Connery and Loki, in that because of Connery's knowledge of religions has helped change Loki from Chaotic Evil to something close to Lawful Neutral
A little with Sinfjotle and Frankie, given that he immediately betrayed the party after being split up.
Nakama: For Justice when it consisted of Kaiden, Connery, Loki, and Meina. Since the death of Loki and Connery, then the betrayal of Meina things haven't quite been the same.
We even have membership rings.
The group of Frankie-Sinfjotle-Darla-Gromnom had shades of this too.
Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Let's see we have a girl raised by wolves, an amoeba, [[strikethrough: an exiled Queen]], a spoiled noble brat, a Buddhist, an ADHD pixie, and Kaiden.
A failed soldier, a mad scholar, a slutty cat, a bitch elf, some guy with a ukelele and Kaiden.
Ravenloft: Where Meina, Melody, and Mononoke currently reside.
Red Shirt: The Nine Soldiers who were initially traveling with us.
Jenkins wore armor that was literally painted red.
his Mom thought it was pretty.
Harakaka, she also wore red full plate.
Reliable Traitor: There is one traitor church in the Holy Alliance. Hmmm, let's see was it Vecna?
Please let it be Heironeous!
Religion of Evil: This being Dungeons and Dragons there's quite a few, but special props to the Church of Tharizdum
Seven Deadly Sins: The Seven Viziers of Anatharon are all thoroughly and remorselessly evil. The DM likes to describe them as having their own each distinct flavor of evil.
The Blue Vizier is almost a Reasonable Authority Figure but doesn't mind sending millions to die at war or issuing the genocide of an entire people.
The Orange Vizier is a Mad Scientist who experiments on everything and anything, living or not. However he has helped the party on two occasions. First against the Black Rock Triskelion and then again during the second Obsidian Spire battle. Both times though he gained immense elemental power
The White Lady is basically decadence personified. To the degree that the DM said that dealing with her is tantamount to dealing with Satan. She is a "Favorite of the King" and has a tendency to take a shine to the high charisma members of the party.
The Green Vizier is madness and only knows madness. She is possibly the least evil, but the most unpredictable.
The Red Vizier is a bloodthirty humanitarian who wants revenge on the White Vizier more than anything else.`
Connery's Character "Alright I roll a diplomacy check on the town guards...does a 34 do it?"
DM "Was it a natural twenty?"
Connery's Character "um...no"
DM "Ah, well then it doesn't work"
Connery's Character ">_<"
Example Two
Connery's Character "Ok, I roll a diplomacy check on the Gnome Merchant, let's see 28?"
Loki's Character "Gnomes!?! My guy hates gnomes! I attack! does a 19 hit?"
DM "It does you kill him, on the upside though Connery's check would have failed anyway"
Connery's Character "God effing Damn it!"
Mononoke's Character "Great Piss of the Cleric Hour this week you guys!"
Example Three
Connery's Character "Alright so the rolls on converting the hobgoblins are 35, 36, 40, and 45"
DM "Your persuasive ways convinces each one completely that everything they have ever believed is wrong. In despair they bite their own tongues committing a bloody suicide"
Connery's Character: (mouth open in horror) "That...was bad"
Wide Open Sandbox: This is probably the worst aspect of the game. Anatheron tries to be this, but with a stringent time table and no plot direction this becomes a major problem.
Worf Had The Flu: This happens when a player cant show up for some reason, a specific example would be when Kaiden (usually our heaviest hitter), spent an entire battle firing magic missiles.
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