My dear reader, I want to thank you for indulging my fantasies. This particular story originates from a heavily homebrewed Dungeons and Dragons campaign and the main character was originally from a Legend of the Five Rings campaign setting who's story was adapted to the Dnd campaign. For those who are interested in the mechanics of this story, the mechanics are explained after this message.

As a player of these games I take no credit for any of the settings and themes, nor was I the game master and this story is written from this campaign purely from my perspective and game play experience. I have taken some creative liberties to fill in the gaps in characters and stories to make it a more fluid reading experience. No players' names or personal information besides their character are revealed in this writing.
           Additionally, I would like to add that this story has some explicit content and themes that some readers may find uncomfortable, such as societal injustices, racism, violence, and sexual scenes, etc. I also do not promote the support of such activities at the gaming table or in real life and such themes or content are not a reflection on the games listed above or any other game as far as I'm aware in ttrpgs. All parties consented prior to gameplay involving the level of maturity and potential themes or situations presented in the game. I encourage any readers who wish to explore sensitive topics in their table top stories to establish good table top etiquette and safe space measures to ensure that all parties participating are comfortable and enjoying themselves. 
           There are also cultural themes, religions and languages used from and inspired by real cultures in our world today or in the past. This setting is entirely fictional and is not entirely based on any real life places cultures, religions or people. Nor is this book an accurate representation of the settings from Dungeons and Dragons or Legend of the Five Rings.
Reader/Viewer/Listener discretion is advised.

Mechanics Summary

We used DND5e (pre-2024) as our foundational system, we did not yet have access to the 'Adventures in Rokugan' l5r-dnd5e adaptation, which would have definitely been more appropriate for the character(s) who are from Rokugan. Instead we chose to stylize the dnd mechanics to the rokugani culture. This did make some inconsistencies mechanically, which were instead thematically lumped into the character's cognitive lapses. Additionally dnd5e did not have a good system in place for handling lycanthrope transformations or possessions, we instead homebrewed a lion equivalent lycanthrope using the mechanics from the Grimm Hollow campaign setting and basing it from the Lion stat-block and were-wolf pack tactics. When the character was initially made, the gm left all of the home-brewing of the character to me and I worried that the mechanics were to powerful. I opted to lean into some of the major drawbacks that Grimm Hollow presented and toned down the potential benefits of the transformations so as not to take away the spotlight from other PCs. Many of these adjustments ended up moot as I was not prepared for the hero-level of play this story would eventually lead down, which I should have anticipated when the GM did not limit my character creation choices. From a player's perspective my effort to lessen the powerful nature of the lycanthrope ended up creating an unnecessary level of complexity that could have been avoided. 

There were a lot of litrpg inspirations involved in this story, some story or mechanics elements may be directly taken from their works. Some Inspired by them. The GM is an avid listener of the "Defiance of the Fall" series by JF Brink and the 'He who fights with monsters" series by Shirtaloon, Travis Deverell on Audible. There is surely other works that pieces of inspiration or mechanics were taken from, and this is a reminder that we take no credit for any content which may be owned by other publications. This book is purely a work of entertainment to be shared for enjoyment and not profit.

Each character was eventually given the option to absorb essences. A total of 4 essences could be absorbed during gameplay. The players and characters had no idea what the essences would give them once absorbed. Each essence had 4 slots which could be awakened with an awakening stone. Again, the name of the awakening stone only hinted at what it could do, and two individuals with the same essence and same awakening stone could get different results. This gave a character 20 Abilities once all slots and essences were absorbed. The players got no say in the results, which were rolled privately by the GM and then themed according to the player's character intentions and character concept goals which were regularly disguised between player and GM. These changes were also permanent, and essentially tied the characters to the Dragon's game and it's rules. Once all level 1 abilities were unlocked the character became a magical creature that needed to consume magic to exist. Leveling up these abilities eventually unlocked new stats, ranks, Soul Points, and special mechanics tied to the Dragon's game. Leveling up character level and these essence mechanics and dragon's game mechanics were not tied together. A character could be level 4 and be silver rank... though not likely, just like the character could be level 20 and be iron rank, though probably not for long.

This was a long spanning, role-play heavy, mechanically heavy champaign. Some of these chapters took six months or longer to get through because of the depth and minute by minute play. Some of the battles took multiple sessions because of all the mechanics involved. This was not a bang the waitress, break down the door, kill the monster, get the treasure campaign. This play style offered a lot for those of us that enjoy this level of detail, it is not for everyone. Some of the players that started the story with us have moved on, and that's ok. We were glad to have them when we did and we miss them now. It took months to see some of these plot hooks to fruition, and with so many NPCs, hooks and dangers, it was easy to lose track of what was going on. We played once a week, every week, for 3 years as of the time I began writing this story.

I decided to begin writing this story, because we took a break. Real life has interrupted, as it usually does. I am a little obsessed with this character's story, and gaming is my primary outlet. So in hopes the story picks back up when our schedules realign again, this will act as my campaign re-cap. If it doesn't, which is still a possibility, I will not let this story end on a cliff hanger because I honestly don't think I can handle that. I will find a way to finish it if not simply for this publication, or for my own sanity.