The Shadow
Hero
Heard during our latest game:
One of our characters, Timios, is a master of disguise. It would not be fair to say he lives a double life; he lives five or six lives at a time, at least.
In his original identity, he's a minor noble named Neos married to his NPC childhood sweetheart. She has the aspect, Ditzy yet Insightful and has come dangerously close at times to figuring things out. At times the rest of the group has been recruited to help keep her off track.
This latest session, however, things got kicked up a notch.
She waits for him with folded arms, foot tapping. "Neos. What is going on?"
"...What do you mean, dear?"
"There is a letter for you. From the governor." (A notorious political mastermind. Scary dude.)
"Oh, is there?" He reads it. "It's, uh, nothing serious. He just wants me and my, ah, business associate to stop by and visit."
"That man NEVER wants people to just 'stop by and visit'! You haven't gotten in trouble, have you?"
"No, dear. He rather likes me, you know. He pardoned me last year for that little unpleasantness from my past, as you recall."
She snaps, "Which business associate is to accompany you?"
"Ah, Kyril." (My character.)
"Kyril. So this clearly isn't just a social call, is it?"
"Whatever do you mean, dear?"
"I'm not a fool, Neos. That redhead? I don't believe she's your mistress... but I also don't believe she's your secretary. Kyril... for an antiquity dealer, he seems to do precious little dealing in antiquities. And he's too dangerous-looking by half for a merchant. And Iskander! He's a wonderful man, but if he's a businessman, I'm a toad! ... He's, he's not a sorcerer, is he?"
"No dear, he's a wizard." (Sorcery carries the death penalty. Neos, Kyril, and the redhead are all sorcerers, but thankfully she didn't ask that.
"Well, good. But still! What is really going on?! And I won't be put off this time!"
Neos sighs. "All right. I'm actually helping organize a secret war against an ancient evil that's trying to take over the world."
She pauses for a long moment to take that in. Then she asks, "Neos! You're being careful, aren't you?!"
We had to pause for a long time after that one to catch our breaths.
It's amazing how far this game has come, by the way. We started while the Fate Core Kickstarter was still going, and in this last session we finally broke the skill cap up to +6.
Our first adventure was a sorcerous thief, a con-artist, and a merchant-wizard off to do a bit of tomb-robbing for fun and profit.
Over the last year and 9 months, we've morphed into criminal masterminds who control most of the underworld in our city, who also did do-gooding on the side against cultists and the like.
And thereby we have been sucked in to dealing with a threat to the entire world. They've literally taken over several continents (that we didn't even know existed!) and have designs on ours. This last session, we dissolved a good chunk of our criminal empire to train into soldiers against this menace.
It's been quite a ride!
P.S. I might add that while all this is going on, the Empire we live in (which is the dominant power on the continent) is heading toward a succession crisis and civil war, and there's a good chance we may be poised to act as kingmakers. (We've already scotched the chances of one contender whose politics we very much didn't like.)
You've come a long way from tomb-robbing, baby!
One of our characters, Timios, is a master of disguise. It would not be fair to say he lives a double life; he lives five or six lives at a time, at least.
In his original identity, he's a minor noble named Neos married to his NPC childhood sweetheart. She has the aspect, Ditzy yet Insightful and has come dangerously close at times to figuring things out. At times the rest of the group has been recruited to help keep her off track.
This latest session, however, things got kicked up a notch.
She waits for him with folded arms, foot tapping. "Neos. What is going on?"
"...What do you mean, dear?"
"There is a letter for you. From the governor." (A notorious political mastermind. Scary dude.)
"Oh, is there?" He reads it. "It's, uh, nothing serious. He just wants me and my, ah, business associate to stop by and visit."
"That man NEVER wants people to just 'stop by and visit'! You haven't gotten in trouble, have you?"
"No, dear. He rather likes me, you know. He pardoned me last year for that little unpleasantness from my past, as you recall."
She snaps, "Which business associate is to accompany you?"
"Ah, Kyril." (My character.)
"Kyril. So this clearly isn't just a social call, is it?"
"Whatever do you mean, dear?"
"I'm not a fool, Neos. That redhead? I don't believe she's your mistress... but I also don't believe she's your secretary. Kyril... for an antiquity dealer, he seems to do precious little dealing in antiquities. And he's too dangerous-looking by half for a merchant. And Iskander! He's a wonderful man, but if he's a businessman, I'm a toad! ... He's, he's not a sorcerer, is he?"
"No dear, he's a wizard." (Sorcery carries the death penalty. Neos, Kyril, and the redhead are all sorcerers, but thankfully she didn't ask that.
"Well, good. But still! What is really going on?! And I won't be put off this time!"
Neos sighs. "All right. I'm actually helping organize a secret war against an ancient evil that's trying to take over the world."
She pauses for a long moment to take that in. Then she asks, "Neos! You're being careful, aren't you?!"
We had to pause for a long time after that one to catch our breaths.
It's amazing how far this game has come, by the way. We started while the Fate Core Kickstarter was still going, and in this last session we finally broke the skill cap up to +6.
Our first adventure was a sorcerous thief, a con-artist, and a merchant-wizard off to do a bit of tomb-robbing for fun and profit.
Over the last year and 9 months, we've morphed into criminal masterminds who control most of the underworld in our city, who also did do-gooding on the side against cultists and the like.
And thereby we have been sucked in to dealing with a threat to the entire world. They've literally taken over several continents (that we didn't even know existed!) and have designs on ours. This last session, we dissolved a good chunk of our criminal empire to train into soldiers against this menace.
It's been quite a ride!
P.S. I might add that while all this is going on, the Empire we live in (which is the dominant power on the continent) is heading toward a succession crisis and civil war, and there's a good chance we may be poised to act as kingmakers. (We've already scotched the chances of one contender whose politics we very much didn't like.)
You've come a long way from tomb-robbing, baby!
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