Death Crusades

• Main
• Wikipedia
• All Subpages
• Create New

A D&D roleplay that kinda stops pretending it's set in the D&D universe halfway through and starts becoming some weird mishmash of Heroic Fantasy and Gensokyo and a whole lot of miscellaneous tropes. You can find the exploits of the party as they venture forth here.

---

Tropes used in Death Crusades include:

General Tropes

• Black Comedy: Quite a bit of it.
• Fan Disservice: Seeing the mutilated corpses of well endowed women would kill the libido of most men.
• Foregone Conclusion: The first Encounter of the game was this.
• Noodle Incident: No one outside of the people involved in the session will know what happened after Rissien got pulled into the bushes. And it is much better left unsaid.
• Rule of Cool / Rule of Funny: The game runs on these tropes.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The Cultists lead by the Death Knight and Lucanar certainly seem to be aiming for this goal.
• Bar Brawl: Rock'em Sock'em drunks!
• Last Stand: We're fighting a huge army of undead, and probably who knows what the Cultist's are trying to raise.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Chunky Chunky Salsa~
• The GM Is a Cheating Bastard: Vincent's done a bunch of stuff to make the campaign more fun.
• Shout-Out: Too many to count.
  • Reference Overdosed: TOO FUCKING MANY TO COUNT, MAN.
• Wham! Episode: David, our quirky and love struck leader got killed by a Death Knight.
• Mood Whiplash: We go from the Black Baron (stop starin') trying to pimp smack all of us to David pulling a Heroic Sacrifice against a Death Knight...
• Lost Forever: Could've made that Popeye joke...
• Incredibly Lame Pun: Pun-tastic.
• Wrong Turn At Albuquerque: This is how they arrived at the port.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: It's been doing this since David died, but a few elements try to remain of the silly.
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Apparently Lycanthropy gives them Little Bit Beastly qualities when in their human form.
  • Rissien: "FUCKING TAIL"
• Drinking Contest: This came up during dinner in a dwarven fortress. You know, like every night in a dwarven fortress.
• Our Demons Are Different: Some are loyal to the Gods and some work for the local Satan analogue.
• Bit Part Badguys: Most of the "Seven Deadly Sins" bar Illivar and Vincent.

Heroes

David Mc Carthy / Dredge

• Chivalrous Pervert: Apparently he has lewd drawings of Millet. Of course, when a drunk fool tried something during Millet's act, he was just about ready to run him through.
• Spoony Bard: It's his class, and he's also a Chivalrous pervert. Someone that is completely true to the name, perhaps?
• Combat Medic: He's a healing swordsman.
• Let's Get Dangerous: Once he stopped insulting undead he kicked ass and took names.
• Incredibly Lame Pun: It was so bad that he forced a zombie to kill himself for hearing it.
• Berserk Button: For some reason, he's fine when any other girl is insulted. However, when someone insults Millet, he gets serious...
• Hannibal Lecture: ... And he delivers a Heroic version of this to the Valkyrie who dared insult Millet.
• Compelling Voice: Used it to buff up his allies.
• Groin Attack: Happens fairly often, and David wishes that it didn't happen the first time.
• Never Live It Down: He can't take back what he said, drunk or no. Averted when he was forgiven.
• Taking the Bullet: He got in the way of a Death Knight to save Millet.
• Who's Laughing Now?: He was kind of a Butt Monkey among the group, although respected. As Dredge, he almost killed Dag.
• Came Back Wrong: He's an undead that only wants to see Lucanar's final breath of agony.
• Came Back Strong: Naturally becoming undead has made him much more powerful.
• Pay Evil Unto Evil: He acquired several of Lucanar's undead slaves with which to exact revenge on him.
• Revenge Before Reason: Dredge will see Lucanar dead, no matter the cost.
• Start of Darkness: Dredge seems to be going into this territory.
• Byronic Hero: Dredge is this, David not so much.
• Taking You with Me: Dredge very nearly did this to Dag.

Rosemary Mc Carthy

• Actual Pacifist: She gets sick at the sight of violence.
• The Empath: She can manipulate minds and emotions.
• The Chick: Pacifist that hates violence, the only physical attack she has knocks her enemies out.
• Love Triangle: She seems to be developing a crush on Rissien...
• Look Behind You!: She uses Jedi mind tricks combined with this to fuck with people.
• Break the Cutie: She can't take the killing anymore!
• Yandere: Has certainly been heading that way.
  • Oh she certainly hit that point now.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: She may seem stable, but she's definitely not right in the head.

Dagnyryan Viscarian, Paladin of Nathan

• Stupid Sacrifice: Tried to hold of three undead heroes and a cultist when he really didn't need to.
• Stone Wall: He held off three undead heroes and a Cultist when he really didn't need to.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: He got by just about everything thrown at him to beat Illivar to a pulp.
• Cutting the Knot: Stopped a swinging log by using his sword instead of letting the Rogue handle it.
• Berserk Button: Never insult his family or loyalty. Or his sexuality, for that matter.
• Mighty Glacier: Just ask David.
• An Axe to Grind: He waded through a group of enemies just to get it back.
• Manly Gay: Obligatory comment on toughness, manliness, and homosexuality.
• Critical Failure: How he lost his axe.
• Pimp Duds: Partially why his title is now Gnoll Baron (stop starin').
• Badass Grandpa: He's damn old as far as Gnolls go. Just see the Stone Wall entry for the Badass portion of this trope.
• Made of Iron Damn. First he Stone Walls against the undead heroes and now he's survives through getting crushed between the ceiling and steel, which squished a paladin at the same time!
• Colossus Climb: Dag did this to get in the face of a giant practically naked woman and punch her in the snout to establish superiority.
• Improvised Weapon: *insert Indiana Jones theme here*
• The Paladin: Of course.
• Knight in Shining Armor: Dag does like the sparkle of polished armor.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Only natural when you pass out drunk.
• I Am Not My Father: What father? DAGNRYAN HAS NO FATHER.
• Archnemesis Dad: Raid.

Arthiel

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Arthiel was one of the elves brainwashed by Illivar.
• Straight Arrow: Careful not to get in her sights. She doesn't miss.
• Bounty Hunter: Before she met the group she chased down and turned criminals in. Too bad it resulted in her brainwashing.
• Lightning Bruiser: First round she's shooting you from thirty yards away, next round she's lobbing of your head. It's useless.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: She used a mage's lightning attack to charge her arrow and electrocute an enemy priestess with it.
• Evil Laugh: When Illivar was finally pinned she did this.
• You Can Run But You Can't Hide: Arthiel would chase Illivar to the ends of the earth to get her revenge.
• Berserk Button: Illivar. Period.
• Improvised Weapon: Arthiel used Illivar's Peregrine Falcon's beak, as well as the rest of the animal, to inflict some of the more unsavory tortures upon him.
• Blown Across the Room: Arthiel can do this with her arrows.
• Badass Arthiel doesn't miss. EVER.
• Memetic Badass: The Goddamn Arthiel.
• Eye Scream: Arthiel seems to rather like the phrase "An eye for an eye."
• Eyepatch of Power: Gotta get something to cover the hole where the eye she ate was.
• Suddenly Sober: Happened when she recounted a bit of her past while drunk.
• Ignored Confession: Talking a bit about her past is what led her to becoming suddenly sober.
• Bi the Way: As her revelation of the past while drunk shows.
• Lady of War
• Genre Savvy: Arthiel's been the only one to see through Lucanar's plans for the most part, causing him to slip up before.
  • Meta Guy: An example of Type B.

Rissien

• Fragile Speedster: Natural affliction of being a Rogue.
• Nice Guy: He was the only one to be hospitable to David after the Bar Brawl.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Rissien was used as a greatclub.
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: He looks really feminine. Enough that even women mistake him as female.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: It's really too bad for Rissien that everyone regards him as this.
• The Power of Love: Rissien used this to snap Vhara out of being Brainwashed again.
• Love Triangle: These two are the main pair, with Rosemary acting as the third angle.
• Enemy Within: Rissien contracted Lycanthropy during a fight with werewolves.
• The Pollyanna: No matter what happens he seems to keep positive.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Only natural when you pass out drunk.

Millet Belferes

• An Ice Person: Self explanatory.
• Action Girl: She's a woman performer that froze a guys dick off, and froze several zombies not long after.
• Squishy Wizard: She's a wizard. Of course this applies.
• Knife-Throwing Act: One of her tricks was throwing an illusory knife towards a wall, make it disappear and return it to her hand.
• Berserk Button: Calling her flat or insulting the now deceased David will end very badly for the speaker.
• Unstoppable Rage: An elven Archer hit Millet twice with arrows. Millet responded by beating her within an inch of her life with her bare hands.
• Ice Queen: She both uses ice and tends to be pretty callus to her fellow workers.
• Tsundere: Basically how she is towards David.
• Boom Stick: I've got the magic stick...*smack* Ow! Fine, fine, I'll stop.
• Heroic BSOD: She became really unresponsive right after David's sacrifice, but was temporarily snapped out of it when the Priest badmouthed David.
• Badass Boast: After the Priest badmouths the recently deceased David, she goes into a tirade, asking them if "you feel the chill of death creeping into your bodies?"
• Tranquil Fury: Oh, by the way, her entire tirade is spoken in a monotone voice, and barely even flinches when she gets slammed into the ceiling by the same attack that squished a paladin.
• Heroic BSOD: David died to save her and well... She's been kind of off for a while.
• Heroic Safe Mode: Millet's been in this state ever since the fight with the priest.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Mira's the fighter, Millet's the mage.
• Unable to Cry: She's like this for some time until she goes into a tirade of all the horrible things that have happened to them since they first arrived at the half-elf village where the place started.
• Hoist by Her Own Petard: Ludical's Invert Resistance sure did turn her Mass Resistance around on her.

Mira Belferes

• Blood Knight: "Can't we just get to the fighting already?!"
• Blade on a Stick: She uses a Glaive as her preferred weapon.
• Shock and Awe: Lots and lots of Lightning.~
• Combat Medic: Someone's got the pick up the slack with David and Donarr gone.
• Kicking Ass and Taking Names: She took down a large number of the miniature army that Illivar had built up this time.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Only natural when you pass out drunk.
• Polar Opposite Twins: Mira's the fighter, Millet's the mage.
• Double Knockout: Mira and the Duke were the last two still drinking, and both passed out at the same time.

Vhara

• Freak-Out: Vhara, when it was revealed that she is apparently a Succubus.
• Carry a Big Stick: Vhara uses a Mace.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Vhara was one of the elves brainwashed by Illivar.
• Fragile Speedster: Natural affliction of being a Rogue.
• Faux Action Girl: Vhara really hasn't done any fighting.
• Horny Devils: She's a Succubus. Don't get much more horny than that.
• Ascended Extra: Vhara became Rissien's Girlfriend due to a certain incident.
• Fourth Wall Observer: Vhara's quickly become this for the GM.
• Can't Hold Her Liqour: It didn't take long for Vhara to pass out drunk.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Only natural when you pass out drunk.
• Cuteness Overload: HNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!

Armok

• Unstoppable Rage: This is how he kills things in a glance.
• Drop the Hammer: He'll Maul ya.
• The Berserker: That's part of his power.
• Made of Iron: This is actually a major understatement. Considering what they had to do to contain him in Erathis, he may or may not actually be made of Indestructium instead.
• Blood Knight: Let's get to fighting!
• Mighty Glacier: He is a whirling dervish of death.
• Beergasm: When he starts feeling the "lifeblood of the dwarves" in his veins.
• The Alcoholic: It's a perfectly natural thing for dwarves.
• Fastball Special: Armok threw Vice right over the heads of a pack of Werewolves to help stop the ritual that was taking place.

Duke Desertstings Sandstone of House Sandstone

• Dynamic Entry: And what an entry, bludgeoning a dragon!
• Big Damn Heroes: he shows up to deliver the beat down on Xanfire right after he becomes a dragon.
• The Alcoholic: It's a perfectly natural thing for dwarves.
• Double Knockout: Mira and the Duke were the last two still drinking, and both passed out at the same time.

Donarr

• City Guards: Only authority in the town before hell broke loose.
• Knight in Sour Armor: He's a good guy, but very cynical.
• Breath Weapon: He's a Dragonborn, all of which have one of these.
• Thanks for the Mammary: Groped an elven valkyrie to shove her in Dag's way.
• Bus Crash: It's believed that he was driving a Delorean at the time.

Villains

Illivar and The "Resistance"

• Gainaxing Illivar's minions sure have some bounce to them.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Illivar genuinely means well. Too bad he's batshit insane.
• Mass Hypnosis: Illivar pretty much did this to all of his elves.
• You Shall Not Pass: One of the elves said it during the battle.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Turns out all of the female elves were like this.
• Dirty Coward: He ran when things turned for the worse.
• Creepy Crossdresser: Looting his tent, we found woman's clothes.
• Verbal Tic: The Fanatics have this problem, Zam.
• Made of Plasticine: An Archer fell and got bloodied by it.
• Depraved Bisexual: Illivar. So much so that his soul is going to be used as the aspect of Lust for the seven deadly sins by a cult.
• You Can Run But You Can't Hide: Arthiel would chase Illivar to the ends of the earth to get her revenge.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Arthiel, Vhara, and Millet ensured that not even a remnant of a remnant remained of the sick bastard that was Illivar.

Priest Lucius, High Judicar Halvard and The Church of Erathis

• Religion of Evil: Intolerant of other gods, and kept throwing adventurers at a group resisting the church.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Guards are twice our level and can OHKO us.
• Jerkass Fucking Priest pisses everyone off and ruins everything.
• Blackmail He stresses that it isn't blackmail to say that we won't go to jail if we kill the anarchists!
• Extra Ore Dinary: The Priest uses earth and metal based attacks.
• Dishing Out Dirt: See Extra Ore Dinary.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: The priest started talking badly about David, and royally pisses of everyone that knew him...
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Which pulls Millet out of a Heroic BSOD to go on a rampage against him and his followers.
• Heel Face Turn: Halvard basically calls Lucius a giant prick and renounces him. Shortly thereafter a great amount of cheering was had.

Alice Alberta It was Alice after all!

• Expy: She seems eerily like a certain Touhou character...
• People Puppets: I've no strings to hold me down...

Sepian The Pirate King And Pirates

• Stuff Blowing Up: Big badda boom...
• Lightning Bruiser: Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee~
• Implausible Fencing Powers: He deflects arrows...Into his arm.
• Blow You Away: Wind powers. Yeah.
• Razor Wind: Tends to go hand in hand with the two above.
• Non Sequitur: Thud "How much is that dog in the window?"
• Stay in the Kitchen: The Gnoll Thugs don't seem to respect women much...Until said women obliterate their manhoods.
• Rasputinian Death He just wouldn't go down.
• Made of Iron: Why won't you die?!
• Talk Like a Pirate: Yar, Har, Feedle dee dee!
• Villainous Valor: If there's one thing Sepian did until the end, was that he didn't try taking a cowards way out.

Lucanar(?) The Fire Mage, Vincent The Death Knight, And The Death Crusade Cult

• Cult: That's them!
• Running Gag: How do you even pronounce his name?!
• Playing with Fire: Hell fire, to be exact.
• Faux Affably Evil: Lucy to a t.
• Knight of Cerebus: Death Knight of Cerebus.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He's an efficient fucker, that Lacanur!
• Magnificent Bastard: He all too often pulls shit on the party, like tricking them into fighting Dredge and Vice.
  • Chessmaster: Lucanar is certainly an excellent trickster.
• Big Bad: The Death Knight is certainly built up to appear so. Turns out he wasn't, though.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Lucanar has been the one fucking with the party the whole time. The only time we've seen his boss the Death Knight was when he heralded in the Cerebus Syndrome.
  • Man Behind the Man: Turns out he was this all along. And Vincent didn't know a thing.
• Orcus on His Throne: The Death Knight really isn't interested in the party, is he?
• Hellfire: This is Lucy's signature weapon.
• Glass Cannon: As it turns out, Lucifer was quite brittle!
• Marathon Boss: Not because of Lucifer having a billion HP, but because the opening attack by a Player targeted ALL OF THE ENEMIES. In the end it all added up to be around 6 hours.
• Hope Spot: Lucanar's demise.
  • Faking the Dead: Did I say demise? I was wrong.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: The ultimate goal of Lucanar.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Vincent.
• Fallen Angel: Lucanar, as it turns out. Seems Lucifer wasn't so off in the name department.
• Fallen Hero: Vincent used to be a righteous Paladin of justice. Then he rose up again as a Death Knight.
• Disney Villain Death: Vincent died from falling to the ground after getting shot off of his dracolich by the resident Badass Arthiel.

Xanfire the Dragonborn worshiper of Tiamat

• Dirty Coward: This guy is such a pansy that the moment the group confronted him he called on Tiamat to save his sorry ass.
• Fake Ultimate Hero: This guy managed to bluff well enough to convince the city he was in that he was a great hero, and Arthiel an evil villain.
• One-Winged Angel: He only actually became threatening after he did this.
• Scaled Up: Apparently Tiamat liked the coward enough to turn him into a dragon when he cried for help.

Sidheach, The Slothful Werewolf

• Little Bit Beastly: Wolf ears and tail, courtesy of being a Werewolf in this setting.
• Mook Face Turn: The females when confronted by the sexiness of Vice.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Why, he's prettier than Rodbert!

Warlord Raid Viscarian & Minions

• Archnemesis Dad: To his son, Dagnyryan.
• Parental Betrayal: Dag had said that his family was dead. Turns out it was his father that did it.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: It's implied that most Gnolls are like this, but Raid especially.
• Fate Worse Than Death / I Cannot Self-Terminate: The demons that the gnolls enslave are the unfortunate victims of the torture.
• Fake Ultimate Mook: Jarlic and the Demonic Liaison. That poor poor Liaison.

Supporting Characters

The Travelling Merchant

• Noodle Incident: You don't talk about the town that the group met him, lest you want to get turned into an icicle.

Atmos, Paladin of Erathis

• Real Men Wear Pink: He was affectionately petting a cat when the group met him.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: He looks human but he's really a Warforged.
• Big Damn Heroes: He saved our asses from Raid and his army.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: He carries around a kitten in his chest cavity. and it looks like CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!

Rodbert & Anarchists

• Cool Shades: We dunno where Rod got them. But everyone wants them.
• Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Nin-nin!
• Musical Assassin: Rod kills one of his own guys trying this.
• Critical Failure: It's why Rod kills one of his own guys.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Rodbert to a T.
• Worf Had the Flu: It's the reason why Rodbert seemed to be getting pretty banged up in the Asylum.
• Anything That Moves: If a tree had a skirt on Rodbert would flirt with it.

Loki And Company Plus Drunks

• Blessed Are the Cheesemakers: Urist, the dwarf. He uses it as a weapon.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Roibeard used Rissien as a greatclub.
• Bifauxnen: Loki always dresses as as a guy.
• The Ladette: Loki prides herself on being an asshole.
• Samus Is a Girl: None of us saw it coming...Not even the guest that used Loki.

Nathan The God Of Sexiness

• Rule of Cool: It is the life blood of this recently ascended being.
• Pretty Cool Guy: About 3 times every turn the anarchists told us this.
• So Cool It's Awesome: Damn he's popular.
• Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: He became a god due to his sexiness and popularity. Damn.
• Ascended Extra: he was just another rogue before he attained godhood.
• Memetic Sex God: Well he is the god of sexiness.
• Divine Intervention: Nathan aided the group when they had to confront an evil dragon.

Julius

• Nightmare Fuel: Don't ask Julius to take his mask off. Just don't.

The 7 Dwarves Of The Port Town

• The Alcoholics: Yes, all of them are.
• Dark and Troubled Past: And it was such a nice place to build, too...

Captain Motherfucking Murasa And Crew

• Expy: Just missing Danmaku.
• Running Gag: "Shut up, Nazrin."

Vice, Dredge's Second in Command

• Designated Villain: He figured that the best way to take out Lucanar was to listen to Dredge.
• Off with His Head: Arthiel shot his head clean off at twenty paces.
• Harem Seeker: Able to woo a group of Wolf Girls in a single flex!
• Mr. Fanservice: This one's for all the ladies~
• Ascended Extra: This guy got in via bribery.
• Memetic Sex God: So much so that he got a Wolfgirl harem and became Nathan's first paladin.

Kyoto, The Cutest Soul Eating Doll You'll Ever See

• Team Pet: Yeah she was pretty much thrown in.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: She played with Atmos' kitten (CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!) while Atmos talked with the group.

Bintira

• An Ice Person: She used a giant hand of ice to pin down Xanfire.
• Playing with Fire: Most of her repertoire is made of this.

Crowning Moments

• Crowning Moments Of Awesome:
  • Arthiel used a mage's lightning attack to charge her arrow and electrocute an enemy priestess with it.
  • Rissien threw a shuriken at an undead hero, and it acts like a boomerang and hits both the undead and a cultist. Then he does it a second time, hitting the cultist first and then the undead. This kills the Cultist and beheads(but not kill) the undead.
  • In one encounter Millet out Rogue's the Rogue, Rissien, by acrobatically dodging most of the attacks headed her way, going so far as dancing on the edge of a giant's sword after it was slammed on the ground.
  • Arthiel killed a Boss in one round by making his head a pincushion.
  • An archer shot an arrow into one of Arthiel's eyes. Arthiel simply laughs, pulls out the arrow with her eye. and eats her own eye. Then she uses the arrow that shot out her eye and fires it back at the archer, hitting him in the eye with it.
  • The Death Knight, now revealed to go by the name Vincent, rushes in and beats the shit out of the party and brings one member really close to death. What happens next? Dag charges right back in at him and proceeds to DOUBLE CRIT and beat him down in a righteous charge. He also full heals himself from Bloodied as a side effect of the crits.

• Crowning Moments of Funny:
  • The big mean scary Demon comes up, gets ready to swing! And then trips on a branch! Following that, Vhara proceeds to beat him up with various pieces of foilage and finally take a large branch right to where it hurts the most!