[COMBAT INFORMATION]

[Lazarus Carter]

C O M B A T

Most combat will be taking place in Inferis - it's Hell, and essentially just one great infernal battleground. Demons will and can be found just about anywhere. There will be some combat itself outside of Inferis, but this will be slightly more scarce, and usually limited to Templars and Ritualists, as we like to see Demon Hunters being somewhat more limited outside of Inferis itself.

We like to leave combat mainly player-determined so you can hash it out between yourselves, but, be warned, if things are getting a bit heated OOC, staff may step in to help resolve the problem. There aren't many combat restrictions and guidelines here, but we do urge you to play your characters for who they are, and not what they do. Combat-specific characters who don't show any development can quickly become wooden and two-dimensional.

C O M B A T / E A R T H

Combat on Earth is as would be envisioned: typically it culminates in gunfights of some sort, with Templar or modern soldiers pointing and pulling the triggers. Occasionally there are short hand-to-hand battles, and of course the odd sparring match or two, but realism should be a priority if your characters are fighting on Earth; the dimension is far more restrictive than Inferis. Please keep this mind when roleplaying fights on Earth.

C O M B A T / I N F E R I S

Combat on Inferis is far more expansive. Honestly? Anything goes. Anime-logic physics and timing allows for dilation of realism; you might not be able to dodge bullets, but superhuman agility and jump height might fly. In Inferis, your character's passive and physical attributes are completely up to you.

I expect battles in Inferis to be far more spectacular and flashy naturally; but there is the opportunity to truly make them transdimensionally EPIC if you feel the requirement to - we, as the staff, wholeheartedly endorse it. Go nuts.

C O M B A T / N P C

We strongly endorse you cutting through NPC Demon upon NPC Demon as much as you may like in a thread with you and another Hunter, or perhaps fighting your way up to a named Demon themselves; after all, the many legions of Inferis were only really intended as Hunter cannon fodder. That said, with Deus Mortuus, we introduce a mechanic which may be a new idea to some of you.

If you look under the Demons usergroup, you will see two accounts named "NPC Demons" and "NPC Elite Demons". In any combat-geared thread inside Inferis, there is a chance that one of these accounts will enter your thread controlling a group of NPC Demons which will be treated as if they were player characters, typically unnamed. These accounts are controlled by the staff, and players with an account marked as being "Beastmasters", who are responsible members we trust with the privilege of playing the NPC accounts.

They will approach your character, and you can have them run away or stand their ground and fight. If they kill all the Demons, then you will be given an extra point reward upon the cessation of the thread dependent upon how the staff thing you've done, typically somewhere between ten and twenty five points. Typically, the staff will consult or inform you prior to entering a thread to give you some warning - but this is part of the risk associated. Don't worry, though - the NPC Demons accounts scarcely ever kill, and we're always fair with them. If your character is defeated, we will provide a window of opportunity for them to crawl away or escape - or maybe even turn the tide of battle! The Beastmaster player - will also receive an equal reward, provided it has been one Beastmaster (as sometimes it may be multiple within a thread).

If you're Level 3 or 4, there's a high chance that you may well encounter the NPC Elite Demons variant. Typically appearing alone or flanked by groups of lesser Demons, the NPC Elite Demons should be treated as minibosses and the fights against them will be tougher, but the point rewards will often be greater, sometimes up to fifty points if you have performed admirably!

If you truly wish for no Demon intervention in your thread, then simply inform us before we enter and we'll change our mind - but this won't always work. There's always a risk when it comes to being in Inferis - oh, and, if you're a Demon or a bonded Ritualist, this doesn't exempt you, either! NPC Demons are quite often feral and will attack anything they can see. However, on the other hand - if you're really raring to go and desire that point reward, you can request that a staff member enters your thread under the guise of the NPC Demons or NPC Elite Demons (choose which) but be warned that you shouldn't do this lightly, and once it starts, there's no going back!

Escape or defeat will result in an automatic forfeit of any point rewards.

Bottom line: battles with NPC accounts are part of the fun of Deus Mortuus, but should not be treated as your regular mook encounter. They're NPC, which means killable, but you're not permitted to autohit. This should be treated as a user-user encounter, and you should play it out as such.

UPDATE! As a rarer occasion, on Earth, should you want a more gritty combat encounter, we also have an NPC Humans account. Sometimes for Inferis, as well. For small cabals of Ritualists, gangs of unruly and unscrupulous characters, confused police officers should you be more inclined to the darker side of things: they operate in exactly the same manner, just typically with more rarity and being less defensible, though better-armed. Please take into account that human-on-human battles on Earth typically happen a lot faster.

UPDATE! With the inclusion of Angels, there are now an advent of two additional NPC accounts – which are almost exclusive to Demons or those more hostile dwelling in Inferis. These are the NPC Angels and the NPC Elite Angels, who function under the same rules and with the same point rewards for each encounter respectively – look under the Angels usergroup for more details. It will undoubtedly, however, be a far greater difference to that of a typical NPC Demon battle!