stonegod's Expedition to Castle Ravenloft: Ch. I [OOC]

[James Heard]

To be honest I'm really not sure at all how to handle vignette #3. The way I'm seeing it, Janis probably feels some real affection toward Selase and perhaps even some fondness of familiarity toward Daellin despite their near polar opposite viewpoints on many apparent issues. The group of Flamers though? Janis doesn't seem like one of those people who'd just "like" someone without a clear motive.

Maybe if we introduced a cardboard character to tie them together? A character whose whole reason for existing is to act as a glue to keep the other character sheets bound together before he/she dies in some noteworthy fashion off stage? Someone who would be appealing to Janis but also be appealing to Thrane priests and such? We did it a little bit for extra pushing in some of the Reconquista stuff, with older brothers who were dallying romantically with the other players and my character Mavic even has an armsman that gets killed in one of the first vignettes to pave the way for his current cohort.

So anyways, Janis is much less of a do-gooder than anyone else in the party. She needs a selfish reason or a reason of familiarity/comfort to hang out with a lot of people. Hell, she probably needs more of an excuse to adventure in the first place than everyone else because she's becoming pretty placid and reactive in general in her writeups. I'm getting a picture of someone who doesn't do much proactively, but once she comes to a decision she can be a force of nature.

Daellin and Janis could be companions because they've reached a sort of truce built upon mutual respect. Selase has her oh so appealing philosophy of self-empowerment. I'm just having trouble coupling the two vignette paths very well in my mind. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[stonegod]

Maybe if we introduced a cardboard character to tie them together? A character whose whole reason for existing is to act as a glue to keep the other character sheets bound together before he/she dies in some noteworthy fashion off stage? Someone who would be appealing to Janis but also be appealing to Thrane priests and such? We did it a little bit for extra pushing in some of the Reconquista stuff, with older brothers who were dallying romantically with the other players and my character Mavic even has an armsman that gets killed in one of the first vignettes to pave the way for his current cohort.

Here are a couple of suggestions (left to the PCs to determine which one fits best), feel free to adapt/mangle/come up with something new:
- A former ir'Sadal vassal/peasant/servant/something that fled to Thrane after the Day of Morning, became a squire or servant of one of the Flamists who was reunited with Janis at Thaliost. Second constant letters to Janis discussing how Flamic charity could benefit displaced Cyrans; Janis saw this as a way to undermine Wyngarn while assisting the people of Cyre at the same time. Through this association got to know the Flamic characters better (she decided to help coordinate the charity). Was killed in the Rekkenmark plague assisting some Cyran underclass displaced to Karrn.
- An older ir'Sadal scion (perhaps the same uncle in vignette #1) fled to Thrane and bought himself enough influence with the Church with money and a psuedo-conversion (the Church isn't wholly incorruptible). Brought his niece/relative to his home at the Thaliost incident and had his Church connections bring the Flamists to see who had saved his kin and then pulled strings to have the Flamists assigned occasionally to "missions" with her when she got one of her "notions" in her head and it was feasible.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Maraat will have a +3 on Listen/Spot due the Alertness granted to him by his familiar. I have updated that and corrected his action points on his sheet to 11.

I have also realized, having just acquired Complete Mage, that Maraat would be eligible for the Enlightened Spirit PrC at level 5. Would it be possible for me to adjust Maraat to be a warlock 5/Enlightened Spirit 1, or would you rather do that in-game?

Vingette #1: Maraat cursed the dancers under his breath and reached deep inside himself for the Khyber-tainted power that had saved his life time and again. Purple light skittered around his fingers and lashed out at the dancers' hearts, joining arrows in seeking their lives. "Light out of darkness, cleanse their wicked ways!" he cried, throttling down the sick rush of joy that accompanied his powers. He only had to stop them, he didn't have to enjoy using his abilities, he just had to protect the Flamers' back, he had to prove his worth...

Vignette #2: The Chronicle would have made much of Sir Feral's involvement, or indeed, almost any member than Maraat... or Selase. Maraat hid his strange hair with his magic, and did what he did best, blast the creature from afar. His aim was good, and he had almost been able to convince himself he was nothing more than a strange archer. Duck, dodge, roll! Get on the other side, don't hit Feral! Make them think Janis is the one they need to take out, then come in from an unexpected quarter. Watch his movement, he's devilshly quick...

The Chronicle might have said, in short: Rampaging Elemental Brought Down in Dramatic Lightning Rail Battle! ~A freak accident on the Thaliost lightning rail station today accidentally loosed the bound air elemental on the crowded station full of travelers. Several heroic fellow travelers leapt into action to protect the innocents. Archers and arcanists helped forced down the rogue elemental to the reach of a one Sir Feral, who dispatched the crazed creature. Only minor injuries were reported due to the crush of the crowd. House Orien scions were closemouthed as to the cause for this, but have assured all that they were taking "stringent measures" to prevent a repeat.

Vignette #3: Maraat had been afraid of Selase ever since they had met. While she was not exactly evil, she had strange ideas and odder beliefs. Yet there was something about her that was honorable. For example, calling us to her to help track the plague was something my tribe might have done.

While I could not follow people from the shadows, or talk easily to some members of society, I could force a raport I did not feel. My own dark powers guided my tongue as we tracked the disease through the lives the survivors. But it was my own Anuine, my white rat familiar, that gave us the final clues. The rat holes, she told us, the live rats were gone, long gone, and replaced with the stink of undeath. I could not cure the madness of the man who had made this disease, but I could burn out the cause of it. The madness itself would take far longer to burn from his mind...

~~~~

Sorry, that's my first stab at these kind of vignettes, I hope they're ok.

 

[stonegod]

Maraat will have a +3 on Listen/Spot due the Alertness granted to him by his familiar. I have updated that and corrected his action points on his sheet to 11.

I have also realized, having just acquired Complete Mage, that Maraat would be eligible for the Enlightened Spirit PrC at level 5. Would it be possible for me to adjust Maraat to be a warlock 5/Enlightened Spirit 1, or would you rather do that in-game?

Fine by me.

The vignettes are good. They are there to help flush out character motivation and such. And to help iron out the kinks in bringing characters together (like Janis). The first and third vignette helped to tie in with Maraat's otherworldiness, which helps move the concept along.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Done and done.

Hope to update my own games tomorrow morning.


For real this time.


Seriously.


I mean it!

 

[drothgery]

[Level 5-6]

How did the intrepid six track down the mysterious nature of the disease? Once found, how did they breech or infiltrate the former Jorasco compound where the disease originated? And how did they deal with the insane halfling Jorasco heir who created and spread the disease through undead rats?

That day in Thaliost, when there'd been something obvious to fight, had succeeded in reminding him that something mattered again, after he'd lost so much on the Day of the Mourning. And he knew, intellectually, that he was being foolish. Chasing after rumors. Hunting down any that might have had a connection to what had happened on that day. But so little else had seemed to matter, until something happened that he could not ignore.

And that was why he had not backed away when the others had sought him out from time to time; he knew he needed those reminders. Finding out who had destroyed Cyre, and how -- he had his theories, but hardly a spec of proof -- was important, but could consume him if he wasn't careful.

And so he'd found himself in a place where no self-respecting elf noble would be -- tracking undead rats in a sewer -- not long after he'd answered Selease's message.

 

[GwydapLlew]

Sorry, that's my first stab at these kind of vignettes, I hope they're ok.

Me likee! The advantage of the vignettes is that you can be as detailed as you want, or as vague as you want. Personally, I'm taking information other people put forward in the vignettes and building it into my character background. I like how it balances out!

I have also realized, having just acquired Complete Mage, that Maraat would be eligible for the Enlightened Spirit PrC at level 5. Would it be possible for me to adjust Maraat to be a warlock 5/Enlightened Spirit 1, or would you rather do that in-game?

I was reading my Complete Mage last night, and I was going to post that PrC for your consideration. Glad to see you beat me to it.

 

[stonegod]

I'll be out of town w/o books until Sunday; looks like we should get the last of the vignettes wrapped up by then when we can find the "glue" for Jannis. Feedback on my suggestions or new suggestions welcome.

 

[Doomhawk]

Vignette 3: Daellin was already out of the room by the time Selase could ask what was happening. Pulling on a robe, she shuffled down the hall to Maraat's room, muttering a few unkind words about elf nobles and trying to get the sleep out of her eyes. Light, I'll be glad if we can finally solve this puzzle, but did it have to be in the middle of the night?
Jarrith was warming himself by the fire, and shot her a dirty look as she came through the door, as though this were somehow her fault. She pretended not to notice; it wasn't worth the effort, and besides, he was civil to her most of the time now. Maraat was sitting cross-legged on his bed, listening intently to a series of squeaks coming from the ball of white fur cupped in his hands. "Did we find something?" Maraat pointed distractedly to the corner of the room and a clearly dead rat with all of its legs broken. And it was still squirming like an animal in a trap. The fire-haired man mumbled something about sewers.
Selase could feel the pieces falling into place in her mind, and her eyes went wide. Then it occurred to her that she had been alone in her room, and there had been no boots by the other bed. "Janis is gone!"

 

[James Heard]

Rats in the Sewers

It was almost as if they were following her, Janis decided. Since Thaliost they’d been there, every corner she turned, every inn she stayed at. At first she’d considered the possibility that they might be agents of the Prince, but except for the elf the possibility seemed unlikely. Selase was a comfort occasionally, even though her casual sincerity and the random way she interacted with strangers bothered Janis. She was made more plain by the trio from Thrane, paladins, priests, petitioners of that cold usurper religion and king-slayers. So dedicated, so earnest – so certain of their own self-righteousness, a younger, less pragmatic Janis would have been appalled. Janis was no longer young though, and she had become the very soul of pragmatism.

And so they found each other, separated, apart, without notice or reason, coming together in the strangest and most unlikely places and finding themselves in common stance upon enemies, and sometimes friends. A cousin in Lessyk, slain while still uttering her chilling proclamations of the power of the Blood of Vol caused the three from Thrane to look sidewise at Selase upon parting, but Janis found the notes of the involvement of other members of her family and destroyed them before the kingsman Daellin could discover. While in Vathirond Janis studied the behavior of the living spells that plague Old Cyre, only to find herself scooped up reluctantly to destroy them before she had completed her studies. It was only bad luck, she supposed, that brought the creature to consume the village in such a way that the culprit was clear; and Janis smiled and nodded as appropriate while seething inside as they watched the last of the arcane essence disappear into the depths of Khyber.

Then she found herself in Rekkenmark, asked to come to Rekkenmark, scowling in barely kept contempt and self-inflicted frustration at being so close and able to respond. Sometimes she was tempted to destroy one or another of them, simply to see if their destinies would force her then into the realms of the afterlife to follow them; but she dismissed such angry thoughts with her Cyran meditative chants and struggled back to her center.

Janis watched and aided her companions in “locating” the source of the disease, a Jorasco heir named Palanko and the very contact Janis had journeyed to Rekkenmark to talk to. Janis didn’t particularly care for his fetish or his filthy breath, but he had already made the trade of the rat-chewed spellbook when Selase’s message arrived. Now Janis was faced with the prospect of having to slay the very person who had just aided her, and at least part of her rankled at that necessity inside.

The ratkin and undead were slain. The rest of her companions were good at that. Instead of joining in though, Janis slipped ahead.

Palanko had thought to enlist her aid. He sought to bribe her. He threatened her, and in the end he even dared to equate their circumstance and station. By the time her companions caught up with her, the halfling had gnawed off two fingers on her left hand. That was the one she used to silence him as she battered him with arcane power until the life fell from his eyes as Jarrith’s blade came past her abdomen and skewered him.

It had nearly killed her to silence him, and she had perhaps gained even more regard in the eyes of her companions. But did it bring her family back? Did it restore her family honor? Perhaps not, but was it safety and security she was looking for? She was as she was, she thought, watching the skyline of postwar Rekkenmark after the battles. Sometimes she felt as if she were being pressed to change, to adapt; but to what? Her contacts were filth and dying, what would she do if her companions discovered that behind her uneasy smile and unkempt hair Janis Stormhand lacked the empathy and regard for her fellow men that came so easily to them?

---------------
I'm not certain if this is a too dark vignette really, or if it works? I tossed the "glue" idea, because once I started rolling with it I decided that this way probably doesn't need any glue. It makes it more of a weird, creepy fate thing (at least to Janis) that everyone in the party is always bumping into her. That could be spun into something interesting though, dark and sinister or hopeful and uplifting, or even the simple fact that everyone might actually be following each other for some reason or hidden agenda?