Song of Stone

Concept

Basic concept: beneath the great archtrees, within the ruins of the long-lost fortress-city, a group of adventurers descends to slay the last of the dragons.

Deep beneath the world, the great archtrees stand, their roots washed by the black, primordial waters, surrounded by white sand. On their great bulk, the world above rests, with its kingdoms and wars and gods.

The legends tell of the birth of the gods – that they crawled out of the primordial waters, like all life, but grasped something unique that gave them the power to change the old world and build a new one on top of it.

The legends also tell of that which existed before the creation of life – the dragons, silent and everlasting watchers amidst the mist-covered archtrees, untouched by mortality. They were the masters of the old world, and the gods cast them into the abyss as they claimed dominion over it. There are beasts that some call dragons on the surface even now – but compared to the beasts of legends, they are mere shadows, animals formed from their scraps. A true dragon is a monster of myths, and whenever one of them appears, even wounded and broken, it is truly a transcendent challenge. Nobody has seen one in centuries, however.

It is said that just as the dragons are immortal, never touched by the spark of life that is bound to one day dim and fade away, they have the power to share that immortality; shards and chips of their bodies turning men into strange, everlasting things, transcending their inevitable fate.

The legends speak of a fortress and of a city, or perhaps both at once, raised by those who have sought the dragons, raised far below the world, amidst the same endless waters and sands that once gave birth to life. In time, however, the city faded away from memories, forgotten, its final fate unknown. Some say that yet darker forces have turned their attention to it, some that the gods struck it down, their now-dim flame burning once more, and some that so far away from the divine light, space and time itself started to unravel, slowly returning to the indistinct, misty haze of the time of the dragons. Who can truly tell, now, after so long?

However, its echoes have now surfaced again, and tales are told in whispers of what lies within the ancient fortress.

A dragon.

A group of adventurers gathers, each a veteran in their own right, and descends through the great archtrees into the world below – to seek the citadel and what lies within it. For what purpose, though, only they can answer.

Rules and Chargen

There are four basic stats:

• Strength
• Dexterity
• Intelligence
• Integrity

Strength is the stat of raw power – it is rolled for both physical defence and attacks with heavier weapons, such as greatswords or hammers.
Dexterity is the stat of agility – it is rolled for dodging attacks and attacks with both ranged and precise weaponry, such as rapiers and spears.
Intelligence is the stat tied to both general knowledge and magic, and is rolled for both. (for clerics, paladins and such, faith fuels the powers they wield, but in mechanical terms, it is also represented by this, for simplicity’s sake)
Integrity, in turn, offers magical defence – as well as defence against the myriad other more unusual threats that one might encounter. It also represents general mental endurance.

Each character has 31 points to divide between the stats, and one specialty that reduces the difficulty on the related rolls that they make by 1. (so the target difficulty for them is 5)

Each character also gets half their stat’s value, rounded down, in autosuccesses – assuming a certain basic amount of competency and experience, as well as certain basic quality of gear. These successes can be traded at chargen – heavy armour can increase the ones it gets for Strength rolls to resist damage, but at the cost of the ones one would have for dodging from Dexterity, for instance. STR autosux are for damage, DEX for hitting, and the same applies – a heavy greatsword that can deal great damage is harder to land blows with, while an estoc is not going to cut a knight and his horse in half with one strike. Anyone can have access to magic of some sort; sorcery, miracles and associated wizardry is fairly broad in scope, so don’t feel particularly constrained here.

Ooooooor on second thought let's ignore that for now! Still keeping this on page for future reference, though.

Also, PM me the reason why your character descends down into the citadel. What drives them forwards to seek the dragon in the ancient ruins, so far away from their world above?