[LFP][PAID] The Rot of MartyrCrest [5.5E][15$ USD][Sun-3pm CST][High Fantasy]

Sorry about the super long post! Info is up here at the top followed by the lore pitch to hopefully get you interested.

Information:
Day - Sunday
     Time - 3pm to 7pm CST
(Day and time are flexible though!)
Slots - Ideally looking for 4-5 players, my hard limit is 6
     Game is expected to be 45% RP, 30% Combat, 25% Exploration/Travel
Game is expected to be a high fantasy theme with a feeling of looming doom
     Game is 18+ with mature/explicit themes
Game will (Ideally) be from level 1 to level 20 (but i may change that to start at level 3 depending on player feedback), multiclassing is fine.
     2024 Ruleset with certain exceptions!
Anything homebrew not introduced by myself should be ran by me first
     Mic required, video is not (as I will not be using it)
My only language is English so I'm expecting that from my players
     We will mostly use theatre of mind for combat, important combats will be done through owlbear rodeo, using token stamp for character icons.
I have many homebrew rules and rulings. I enjoy creativity and rule of cool. I will always allow at least an attempt to talk your way out of certain situations or combats and reward on the spot improvising.
     I love character driven storytelling and will bounce off what the party does to create a compelling and interesting story. As such I try to keep a party together as much as possible, if you die it will be because you were stupid or seriously unlucky, I do not enjoy killing characters and would prefer to see a level 1-20 through, if you want to swap characters, I will find an alternative for your character unless you are adamant on killing them.

     My enemies are smart. Keep that in mind. I also believe in karma and my world has a system that delivers just punishment, so I suggest not being too gung-ho, murder hobos will be smote and you will not get a refund.

     Fair warning, I do not own a lot of books, most of what I will earn from this campaign will be put right back into the campaign to buy books or pay for bills, I use a secondary campaign owned by a friend for a fair bit of my content until I can pay for it myself, so we may need to do some campaign hopping.

     Payment - As insurance, session 0 will be a flat 5$ per person, as a heads up, my session 0's often form into full sessions as long as time permits. Subsequent sessions will be 15$ per person per session, I will run for as long as everyone wants to play, roughly 4 hours, additional hours are an additional 5$, hard limit for sessions is 6 hours. (for a hard total of 25$)
     Payments will be sent via paypal/cashapp, I'm not flexible on that for personal reasons. You don't have to pay for sessions you don't attend, if you have to miss a session for whatever reason I will only run the session if said missing player is ok with it being ran without them, on the same note, please try to give as much of a heads up as possible to your absence.
     If you cannot pay for a session but have previously been good on payments, I will give 3 chances in order to be paid back, if after 3 sessions I remain unpaid then I must put you/your character on a hiatus, once paid you may rejoin the game.
     Side/private sessions are not something I want to ask money for, if I pull you aside privately to discuss something out of game time then that's free, you only pay for sessions during the scheduled time.
     I would also like to hopefully have a bit of a get together before session 0 so the party may meet one another to ensure we all get along.
     If you become a problem, I have every right to remove you, I use a 3 strike system similar to my payment grace.

     Also, you're the main characters, I'm going to make you feel like main characters, that's just something I like to do, everyone will get their spotlight moment at one point or another, if you feel like you're being left behind please talk with me about it as I sometimes don't realize when I'm focusing too much on an individual!

     I am an artist and a queer person, I hope to foster a safe environment for others seeking a game, my game is an AI free zone and a safe space for lgbtq+ individuals, even if you’re not part of that demographic as long as you can be accepting and understanding, we’ll have no issues, as there will be many queer npcs of all varieties in the game.
     This world has been hand crafted by myself sporadically over the last couple of years, starting out as a small idea I've slowly snowballed into a larger project, and now I think I finally have enough to actually make this a real game, sporting a variety of unique gods within the pantheon as well as some of the more familiar ones, certain gods have been replaced with my own versions but will still fill the same roll, a few examples of such gods were mentioned by titles in the lore letter below as you’ll soon read, I do hope you’ll consider interacting with these factions, cults and new divine as I put a lot of love and effort into them. (can you tell I have a special interest in religion)

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     The Territories of MartyrCrest.
What once was a land of promise, wealth, trade and peace after the fall of the Army of the Nine, has become an almost hell of a place, how it got from point A to point B is any one scholars guess, a wave of corrupt nobles and government officials, a surge in banditry, a tsunami of monsters appearing from gods know where, the deaths of any good soul who may have been able to combat it, but worst of all, the vanishing of the Hero and their party from the world, everything has finally boiled over, the scales have tipped beyond the point of no return. The land falls into chaos, the age of peace, brought on by the victory of the Hero and their party, is over.

What’s worse is the sudden appearance of a strange illness that manifests in those of great magical prowess, seemingly out of nowhere, mages and wizards of all kinds find themselves at the mercy of a necrotic illness that eats away at the weave that flows within them, from the study of wizards to the blood of sorcerers, all who command magic, to any notable extent, find themselves unable to cast even the most basic of spells, very few have been spared, and in an age where monsters and evil lurk at every corner of the world, the final great weapon of mortal kind seems to be fading away, its last embers clinging to a few congested pockets of the world, coveted and well guarded by those able to do so. One of these pockets, know as the Territories of MartyrCrest, is where your story begins, fan the flame or try to extinguish it to return the world to peace, the choice is now yours.

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“A diviner has called it “Mana Rot”, a high priestess of the Church of Carnal Desire, good people, lustful though they are. Attached you’ll find a conversation Argus and I overheard between the high priestess, Sister Larae, and Lord Uldin of Shalwen. I send this to you, my king, in hopes the information may be useful in keeping your young daughter and her great powers safe. -L.P.”

-“Mana Rot, The Goddess has made me aware of what the other divines are calling it, at great risk to herself.”
-“So even they do not know of its origin?”
-“It seems not, Lord Uldin.”
-“If it is not a plague sent by them, then one of other origin perhaps?”
-“I do not know, my lord, but The Goddess is doing her utmost to find a cure
with the aid of her sister, The Mistress of Medicine, many of her daughters are priestly
and even our divine magic is not safe from such an accursed thing, did you hear of Priest Olo of the Frost Bearers?”
-“Bedridden, yes, I hurt for him.”
-“I do my best to stay out of the way of others, but I have duties among the people, I fear it will
take me eventually as well. Please, when that happens and no doubt it will, do not weep for me.”
-“If that is your wish, Sister Larae, I will shed no tears for you, but I will for your mother,
for she will have lost a great disciple and amazing daughter.”
“-Thank you, Lord Uldin, I am sure my mother will appreciate the sentiment…
She has lost too many of us already, I know she hurts deeply. As do I.”
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If, after all that, you still find yourself interested in this game you can DM me on Discord @screm (all lowercase), post a comment, or send me a pm, i look forward to playing!

Weekly bump! Still open!