This is the place for any out of character (OOC) discussions.

Ok folks, here's the place to start giving me your backstories and figuring out where/how/when this is going to start.

Not sure how much info you want for backstories so here's a barebones one for now:

The Wildspell Clan are relatively well known for their merging of smithery and artificery, creating a variety of weapons and tools for those that can afford their wares along with an ongoing contract with the kingdom's military. Brynn was on his way to taking his place amongst his clans skilled crafters, showing a natural talent for artificery and a drive to understand how magic and technology work. His life took a turn for the worst when his parents were killed during a routine trip to the capital, it threw Brynn into a downward spiral as he threw himself into any distraction and started to ignore his duties to the clan.

One day while avoiding his duties in a small border village he was suddenly at the centre of a vicious bandit attack, as they ransacked the village Brynn was knocked unconscious by an explosion and buried under the rubble of a collapsing building, but not before he recognised the weapons the bandits were using were those crafted by his clan for the kingdom's military. Fortunately, he survived but by the time he regained consciousness he found the village in ruins and most of the inhabitants dead. He learned from the survivors as they tended to his wounds that similar attacks had been happened to other small villages outside of the kingdom's protection. After investigating the ruins of those villages and discovering more evidence that the 'bandits' were using his clan's creations he had a new purpose. To find those responsible and take back what was his clan's.

That's a good start. I'll try to get some of those ideas incorporated into the story personally for you. Please add the short notes about it in your character sheet so I can reference it later.

To everyone,

If we play in real time with an established meet time/day per week, we'll be using AboveVTT. It's a free Chrome extension. If there's anybody that has issues with Chrome or anything or doesn't want to do that, please let me know and we may be able to work out some alternatives. 

AboveVTT pulls literally everything from DnDBeyond, including your characters and all with zero hassle. Please consider it.

Rynria Greatfall - Age 20

Raised in a large home in the eastern side of the Castle Ward of Waterdeep, Rynria was born to a long line of priestesses of the god Torm. Rynria’s mother was a priestess before her, and her mother’s mother was a priestess before her. Everyone knew who she was, and she had friends everywhere she went.

Rynria took her studies very seriously. She was known for high intellect and charisma, the temple had high hopes for her to become the head priestess someday. She would move into the infirmary of whatever monastery she was assigned and help with all sorts of mundane tasks in addition to learning from the masters there.

Rynria became a Fighter after horrible monsters descended on the farmland community outside the keep's walls, killing not only farmers that donated wheat and vegetables to feed the poor of the temple, but also children of an orphanage (where a high priestess of Torm was visiting). Being only 12 years old, Rynria was unable to heal greater wounds or resurrect any of the injured or fallen. By the time the healers and soldier arrived, the winged and burrowing creatures where already gone. Though 1 fighter and 1 barbarian stood on a small pile of 4 dead gricks and 2 slain vrocks. Rynria thought that maybe as a fighter, should could destroy the world's evil before they attack the innocent, so that she would never be late to heal anyone again. She decided to take up arms as a fighter to destroy those creatures and others of a similar nature.

Rynria has a very strong moral compass. She has always focused on helping others. She can also be greatly swayed by peer pressure. Her peers will try to talk her into bad decisions, but she will often refuse to budge until her peers present more persuasive arguments.
Rynria can be extremely protective of her friends. She is quick to rush to their defense. She can also be extremely blunt at times of criticism. Her directness can be a bit hurtful at times, but it's typically because she was afraid they'd get hurt if she didn't show how serious of a matter it was when they did something wrong.
She believes in the power of the individual to make the right choice, but she will often go along with whatever the group thinks is right. Rynria is very skeptical about the Eye of Justice and its members. She keeps tabs on them and knows almost every single worshiper at their temple. Rynria is extremely protective of companions much larger than her. She believes the larger they are, the dumber they are. She tries her best to keep them safe.

Rynria is short and lean, with long amber hair that is flowing down, except for her right side, which dons a tied braid.

She has 2 older siblings; A well-known, successful gem cutter and a famous stone mason. Both are alive & well and friendly towards her.

She fought her first battle against the acolytes of Zan, and while she didn’t win, she was instrumental in helping bring down a powerful necromancer and his undead ally. Rynria hopes to one day become an empress of her faith, bringing peace and prosperity to all of the Sword Coast and beyond.

Likes: Affection, small streams of water, educating the poor, caverns, rocks, gems, learning languages, chicken liver and sweet wines.
Dislikes: Liars, extreme heat, evil beings which have bad intent towards the innocent, spikes, deep & dark waters, heretics, worms and winged monsters.

No prob. That's me added them tot he Notes section of my character sheet.

Osmorn is a 30 yr old wood half elf.  He had been in a temple for Myrkul for as long as he could remember.  There were rumors as to why he was there but he had never known his parents and just did the day to day chores to get by.  Osmorn never truly understood the reason of worship for a god of death.  Everything ended in death and it seemed redundant to worship for something that was guaranteed.  In his years of growing up he had read books and understood the writings of Myrkul but half of it seemed like fiction, walking skeletons, zombies, sprits.  All of this seemed like old wives tales to scare kids into staying in bed.  Osmorn continued to do his duties and lead others to believe he was a believer but never truly followed the stories.  This was until he was sent to clean one of the hallways that was rarely visited and in cleaning he stumbled across a hidden room in the temple.

Upon entering the room he found a black raven who began speaking to him about the preaching’s of Myrkul and how there were those that were actively working to subvert death.  Osmorn struggled to believe these things so the raven shape shifted to multiple other animals and finally ending on a grey squirrel.  Osmorn now recognized that this was a Deva of Myrkul.  The Deva offered power and abilities to stave off this threat if Osmorn would make a pact with it to actively destroy any undead or any working to live forever.  Osmorn weighing the current dull life he had quickly accepted the offer and immediately felt a burning sensation all over his right arm.  As he looked down his arm appeared to have been branded up and down with various marks culminating in a giant human skull on the right shoulder. 

He immediately had knowledge of new powers and how to utilize them in the most effective ways.  The deva then told him he needed to head towards Bryn Shander where he would find the first of his tasks.  Osmorn then took what he could, “procured” some gold, and snuck out.  He’s stopped here and there on his trails, he’s had visions and a pull to be amongst the celestials and is ever working to rid the world of the undead and aberrations he read of throughout his life in the temple. 

A good start for those that posted.

Anybody want to test out Above VTT with me today within the next few hours?

Sure!

What timezone are you in? I'm looking for in about 2.5 or 3 hours from current time.

I tested yesterday. It worked. I can also test again around 5edt. So like 2 hrs from now. 

Doing a live test right now.

We were there at 5pm est. Sorry we missed you, DM

Yeah I was on till about 5:30 eastern then needed to run a few errands. Looks like we just missed each other

Looks like one person dropped. Are we any closer to determining a time to start?

I'd love to play soon as well

I have somebody interested. Do you all want to roll with three, or add a fourth?

Either way, let's work out whether we want to do forums or use AboveVTT. If we want to go virtual table top, I'll want to do a test run first.

Let me know what times GMT you're available so we can all sync up.

I might do a live test today in about 2 hours. Anybody interested?

You'll need this extension for Chrome Browser:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/abovevtt/ipcjcbhpofedihcloggaichibomadlei?hl=en

I'm down for above vtt.  I start a new job in a week but can be available at various times this week.  I'm on EDT which is -4 GMT.  Evenings work best for me but if we were to play on a Sat afternoon so it isn't as late for you I can make that happen as well.  Otherwise after this week it will be something like 12am to 4am GMT.