Prince of Perils is a Dungeons & Dragons campaign created in 2017. It features a party of heroes on a quest to save a prince named Nex who went missing two years ago. With the death of his father, the Pharaoh, it becomes all the more important that he be found as quickly as possible.
Version 2 originally had a party consisting of Normal “Norm” Lamron, a tiefling warlock; Petaline Drake, a halfing warlock/paladin; Brioche Chantilly, a half-orc bard; Saros, child of Mizar, a half-orc sorcerer; and Mica ‘iiman, a Earth soul genesai bard. Future developments resulted in the removal of Brioche and the potential additions of Theodore "AROL 5" Onion, Scoria Wildfire, and Xamvius Dezmondi.
The campaigns are organized into arcs as detailed in the Frequently Asked Questions
page of the official blog.
There is currently only one on-going version of Prince of Perils: v2.
Prince of Perils provides examples of:
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: As the party has a tendency to split up, action often cuts between wildly different scenes and characters—Saros working as a nurse and bantering with Jolnos to Petaline and Norm panicking over Cordelia.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Fairly typical of warlock pacts, but exemplified in Normal Lamron, who agreed to work with a god of chaos for a chance to bring back his daughter.
- Arranged Marriage: How Petaline met Prince Nex.
- Back-Alley Doctor: Jolnos has a degree, but he's working in the resistance hub which means he has to be somewhat creative with the limited supplies he has available.
- Big Bad: The True Pharaoh Zuri
- Big Damn Heroes: The party minus Saros has made their way to the seventh floor of Zuri's castle in order to free their loved ones and escape with the also freed Audio Cadog, but they are soon found and cornered by the A.R.O.L.s 3, 5, and 6. There seems to be no way out barring outside intervention. Lo and behold, Saros blasts the building with lightning from outside and creates an enormous opening in the roof through which to escape. Then, to no useful effect, his Wild Magic Surge kicks in and creates a Fire Ball blast that deals 32 damage to herself and surrounding Iron Force soldiers.
- Birth-Death Juxtaposition: When the Queen's Chosen raid Zuri's Palace, Norm steals a baby, and Audio dies.
- Cast Full of Gay: There wasn't a single heterosexual in the party to start in version 2. Many of the NPC's are also LGBTQ.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Saros has developed shades of this in more recent arcs.
- Cloudcuckoolanguage: Sar frequently uses unusual words to the confusion of Mica in particular, leading Mica's player Becca to speculate that either the slang terms Sar employs are unique of her home of Ursina or else Sar is just weird.Becca: Mica isn't sure what you meant by "clocked" in that situation.
- Cute Little Fangs: The half-orcs are often depicted this way.
- Darker and Edgier: The City of Light arc has a darker tone than the previous arcs.
- Deal with the Devil: The Warlocks each have a contract with chaos gods, specifically Set and Apep.
- Delicate and Sickly: Nirli "Cordelia" Pryss
- Distressed Dude: Prince Nex
- Uton Nobik
- Domed Hometown: Alyssum is enclosed by a dome as it's located on the moon where there is no oxygen. On the other hand, there's the City of Light, Caldera, which is entirely cut off from the rest of the planet by its own dome.
- Doomed Hometown: Eflone is ravaged by plague before Norm leaves it, and in the intervening time since, it has been completely evacuated.
- Dr. Jerk: Jolnos' is very skilled, but his bedside manner leaves much to be desired.
- Elemental Powers: Several of the magic users have these. Sar prefers fire, and Norm prefers lightning. Mica, as an earthsoul genasi, and Scoria, as a firesoul genasi, also have the corresponding powers.
- Subverted as long as Xamvius and Scoria are both allegedly straight.
- Farm Boy: Saros was envisioned as this, although the extent to which her hometown actually farms is up for debate.
- Find the Cure!: Petaline becomes quite determined to cure Cordelia of the Pharaoh's disease.
- Five-Man Band: V2 fits this roughly as there are five party members. The exact assignment is up to some debate though it is generally agreed that Norm is The Leader and Sar is The Smart Guy.
- Harmful Healing: Curing Cordelia of the Pharaoh's disease makes her other dormant diseases flare up.
- Hollywood Healing: Gleefully averted by Norm, who gains a considerable amount of scars after the fight with Cyclone.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: Played straight with Petaline. Averted in most other cases due to a high level of magic users.
- Important Haircut: So many. Nex, Petaline, Norm, and Brioche have all had significant haircuts to date.
- Inciting Incident: The prince is missing and the pharaoh just died.
- The Intern: Sar becomes this to Jolnos.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Normal Lamron has a tendency to get off on the wrong foot with people, but he's ultimately well-intentioned, loyal, and has a strong sense of morality.
- Kill the Cutie: In version 1 of the campaign, Cordelia is killed by Xamvius.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Saros is frequently guilty of this.Saros: Isn't that your character tag, sir?
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Several. Norm and Brioche definitely count before they get haircuts.
- Saros could technically qualify, although she is bigender, and Rapture definitely does.
- Meaningful Name: Many of the tieflings have these. Similarly, the Earth soul genesai's names are mostly rock puns.
- Mook Horror Show: Hearing from the perspective of one of the Iron Force members injured during Sar's attack on the castle implies the event had shades of this. Not exactly a good publicity moment for the Queen's Chosen.
- My Girl Back Home: Saros' player envisions Andromeda, Sar's ex-girlfriend, as this, but his various family members back home could also apply.
- Nice Guy: Sar and Mica are, by most counts, nice people to be around.
- Uton "Crouton" Nobik is another example of a genuinely nice dude.
- Nominal Hero: Norm and Brioche, specifically.
- Noodle Incident: Invoked when the new party with the additions of Scoria and Theodore is heading to the train station. Norm mentions a time he was babysitting for a guy who later stabbed him and to the confusion of Scoria and Theodore, who weren't there, Sar asks if this was the "poison incident". Everyone who was there affirms this was in fact part of the poison incident.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Saros is either invoking this before heading off on a secret mission to the dentist's or genuinely thinks he's going to the grocery store.
- Mission to the dentist's then results in this later interaction between Gilk and Norm.
Gilk: Your friend from Ursina, who's very dim.Norm: Sar? Sar is very bright. - Only Sane Man: Invoked. The party frequently comments on one of the other characters being the only competent member of the party, but the member varies.
- Open Heart Dentistry: Jolnos is a cardiologist, but that doesn't stop the party from coming to him for help with everything from battle wounds to rare diseases.
- Rebellious Princess: Played with. Petaline has shades of this though in most regards she's more Princess Classic.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Despite being a princess, Petaline fights with the rest of the party.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After Jolnos refuses to take care of himself to the detriment of his patients one too many times, Saros hits him with one of these.Saros: You're being a shitty doctor right now—I'm out.
- Socially Awkward Hero: While most of the party (minus Brioche) could be argued for this, Saros tends to typify it by doing things like completely missing a girl flirting with him, going off on tangents about alien conspiracies, and asking everyone if they need anything from the grocery store (which doesn't exist).
- Exaggerated when Sar goes to Gilk's Club I and immediately fails to convince anyone she belongs there. Hilarity Ensues.
- Sudden Downer Ending: Everything was going well during the party's escape from the castle (see Big Damn Heroes above) until Audio Cadog was fatally shot by A.R.O.L 6, the former Xamvius Dezmondi. Petaline especially did not take this well.
- Working-Class Hero: Saros had a part-time job at a general store before joining the quest, and Mica is a palace musician.
