glibglobb

Urban Fantasy/Sci fi slice of life.

Thanks for the detailed reply Gisk. I'm not really attached to spirit magic, I was just probing my options.

Folks need to understand that from a GM perspective, a shoehorn character is like a slap in your face. It's like preparing an awesome dinner for your friends and one of them ignores it and orders out for pizza instead.

I'll have to think a bit about a character, Gisk, and whether I have time. I always made the mistake on old guild of joining too many games and over extending myself. Don't want to do that on new guild.

Blight [OOC]

So every major faction has now been introduced. You have the human government of Drezlen embodied in the Mayor and the councilman some of whom are industrialists (new money) and others of whom are highborn patricians (old money). In the Blight you have the Unseelie Court, a criminal gang united loosely by Donovon, aka the Prince, a dangerous yet charismatic figure; the Wyldlings, lead by the madman Adin, who are based in their metal ringed junkyard and control much of the glam trade; the Seelie Court, an organized, almost feudal, organization bent on returning the world to the old order and ruled by child Queen Juliana, the Queen of Souls, a powerful high elf sorceress; and finally the FLF (Faery Liberation Front) a terrorist organization composed of both fae and human activists (leader unknown).

Other groups may arise as the story progresses, but these will remain the major factions for a good while. One might also think of the common fae who's haven is the Boggart's Hole as a neutral faction.

Urban Fantasy/Sci fi slice of life.

It's an interesting concept. You don't often see the magic scifi mix in an early type 2 civilization. Usually it's advanced type 3 or primitive, industrial or information age.

Some questions:

1) What's the deal with dolphins. Are we talking cyber cetaceans like in Jonny Neumonic who swim around in digital space or is this merely a political extension of animal rights and dolphins in this world are the same as dolphins in our world.

2) What are the solar politics. Is there a solar system level state or are the extraterrestrial colonies independent. What about earth, is it unified or are there still warring nationstates?

3) Are there spirits? AKA organisms of a purely magical nature?

4) What is the means of extraterrestrial transport. Are we talking ships or dimensional portals? Is transport technological in nature, magical or both?

Blight [OOC]

The Queen of Souls

Cabriel walked unevenly down the alley, his slender elf legs still shaking from his trip through the Junkyard and its maze of steel and iron. A flock of faery children, noticing the rapier at his side, scattered from their play. They left behind them chalk scrawlings of flowers, trees and sidewalk games. Oddly innocent doodles for the oppressive despair of the Blight. Along with them was a familiar image, a ring of two dimensional mushrooms, drawn in a circle upon the cracked concrete. Checking all dark corners for unwanted eyes, Cabriel stepped into the center of the chalk fairy ring and pulled a vial from his buttoned coat. One slender drip fell from the tube and struck the ground between the high elf's polished boots. The concrete, previously stable, wavered like the asphalt roads on a hot day and consumed the faery like a bed of quicksand. The moment his blond head vanished beneath the ground, it stabilized leaving no evidence of the doorway but the chalked mushrooms which encircled it.

The high elf shielded his eyes as he walked from the dark passage into the atrium. Under the warm, enchanted light of magical crystals the highest of the highborn lounged. Courtiers and courtesans, some busied themselves with rare delicacies, magical grapes and roasted cockatrice, while others played with their human toys, vapid, beautiful addicts of magic who laid at their feet like dogs and purred like cats as they were stroked. Cabriel walked quickly past the degenerates. He held his Queen in the highest regard for her sole concern was the continuance of their race, but he could not understand why she insisted on keeping those decadent elves around. Two knights in full mithril plate, relics of an age long past, stepped aside for their senior. Cabriel watched them move fluidly in their metal skins, doing justice to his training. Mithril armor was not like the crude, clunky iron or steel suits human soldiers wore. It molded to the body and hindered it less than even simple leather. Sadly these two suits and his own, were among the last in existence.

Beyond the mindless chatter and giggles of the court, Cabriel found Juliana where she spent most of her days. Beneath the glow of the overhanging prisms, bathed in magical radiance, her face buried in the pages of an ancient tome far older than even Granny Oak. While she read, pixie and wisp servants flew about her like a swarm of bees about their nest. While the wisps provided clear light for her reading and whispered their scholarly opinions in her ears, the pixies made over her appearance, twisting red hair into braids and applying pink nail polish to dainty spread toes and slender fingers.

"The meeting went well?" came the Queen's voice, ageless and wise, from behind the scuffed cover of her book.

Cabriel fell to a knee and bowed his head, eye level with his majesty's ongoing pedicure, "yes your highness. The 'boss' of the wyldlings has agreed to your terms and yielded the location of the changeling."

The book fell revealing a face which couldn't be older than twelve but which contained eyes that had seen centuries. "Well done, my brave knight." She placed a soft small hand upon the high elf's head and warm magic flowed into him, driving away the last pangs of the iron sickness like the heat of a hearthfire upon cold bones. When her voice came again it was close, intimate and for his mind only. He met Juliana's all knowing eyes, as her calm, determined voice penetrated his thoughts. 'You are to go with a pair of knights to the Boggart's Hole. Be discreet and if possible convince her to come of her own volition. Use your glamer to touch her with betrayal as you tell her the truth about Adin and how he has turned on her.'

Cabriel wasn't remotely surprised the Queen already knew all he did about the changeling and her location. There were no secrets, neither of heart nor mind, in the light of her legendary glamer. That's how she got her name on the streets after all, the Queen of Souls. 'My lady I still don't understand... this changeling, why not just kill her and be done with it. I know a goblin assassin who could....'

'NO,' despite being only in his mind, the force of the word hurt his ears, 'the changeling is essential.'

'....But they are just freaks?...'

A clever smile curled across Juliana's youthful cheeks and Cabriel followed his lady's eyes up to the glowing crystals which studded the ceiling. 'Do you know how I created the phoridia, the star stones?'

'Your books....'

A shadow passed Juliana's face and for a moment Cabriel could feel the weight of a horrific memory pressing on the other end of the telepathic bond. 'That's right, my knight,' she placed a hand upon the ancient tomes and gestured to its many brothers and sisters stowed in shelves about the study. 'Records of the ancient time, forgotten alchemy and lost history, saved from the fires of the human rebels at the fall of our people centuries ago, passed to my grandmother from her mother, from my grandmother to my mother and from my mother to me... I have read them all, many times over and others procured by your valiant efforts in the the underworld, Cabriel,' She gave her loyal knight an appreciative smile and he felt a pride enhanced by her glamer burn in his chest. 'Under the life extending light of the phoridite crystals I have learned much. For example.... I now know what the wizards were.'

'Wizards? But they are a human myth, the ugly ones can't bend magic to their will, they can only vomit it from their bowls like those abominations in the junkyard.'

'Changelings have more control, do they not?'

'An anomaly.'

'And so many think, but I've learned differently. Cabriel what I tell you here must not pass from your lips for it will endanger all my plans. I tell you only so that you know what's at stake and why the changeling must be preserved at all costs.'

'My liege you have my oath as always, my true name is yours to call.'

'As you say Kynerell. But first, let me ask you this: what is a changeling?'

'The spawn of some enchanted reprobate obviously.'

'And how did humans live before the War of Broken Names?'

'In their rightful place as our enchanted servants.'

'Well think, my knight, for centuries we bred enchanted humans as livestock. A changeling like this Claire creature is first generation. Those who lived in our courts and from whom the first wizards arose were tenth or twentieth generation and with each magical birth their control over the arcane became greater. The wizards, Cabriel, were changelings.'

'.... that's impossible.'

Juliana looked once more to her books, 'it's all on those ancient pages written in the elegant hand of our ancestors. Wizards are extinct only because humans chose iron and steel over magic. It vanished from their blood over the generations until they returned to the barren state in which we found their savage ancestors living so many ages ago.'

'But if this is true... why not kill her. She's a danger to us all.'

Juliana smiled a knowing smile. Her almost divine confidence flowed across the bond until Cabriel thought he might float off the floor, 'not if she and her progeny are our allies and I mean to make sure they have no other choice in the times to come.'

Blight [OOC]

Alright no rush. Quality > Quantity. I'm just making sure we don't loose track of any subplots.

Blight [OOC]

@Elsa You do realize there are two iron police banging on the front door, right. There's a lot going on right now, so I wouldn't be offended if you had somehow missed it. Reaction posts should be comparatively easy compared to character introduction. What do you do when the gestapo are at the door? You can either comply with their demands, make a run for it, or attempt to hide the person you think they're looking for. Fighting could be an option, but I'm not sure if it's the best one for your character, unless you want to take her and Fallon in an outlaw direction.

Perhaps just as the knock comes, one of the girls finds something the scratched customer had left.... it's a badge, the badge of an Iron Policeman. Then comprehension of the danger would dawn on you and you could react more strategically to the threat. Just a thought. She might be able to put 2 and 2 together without the badge though she may not realize the man was actually an officer until it's too late.

@Febuari I'm counting on one more scene with you and the Prince, the one you told me about in PMs. Once you write this scene I'll have Torbil return to the estate so that you can both learn from him the whereabouts of the fomori and the changeling. That should serve to put most of the PCs on a collision course.

Blight [OOC]

Boggart's Hole

Delphi's song twisted through the Boggart's Hole like a wraithly serpent, largely unnoticed as it slipped through the unconscious of patrons leaving unbidden memories in its wake. The satyr bard who'd been providing music from his lute, found his fingers improvising new notes, unintentionally providing backup for the secret melody. The notes eventually drifted over to the torn ears of the giant troll Grogdar who momentarily froze, startling the pixie girls he'd been drinking tea with. Before his eyes wavered an image of a rain soaked alley where a younger version of himself staggered, drinking his winnings away on human rum. Through the eyes of his younger self he saw the pixie pull the bottle from his feeble hands while others flew in cardboard to shelter his shivering body from the rain. Unaware of the music which had touched him, Grogdar wiped away a single tear before returning to his daily tea time ritual. The melody even reached Auntie who nearly tripped over a table leg as a vivid memory of smoke and screams hit her like a charging line of heavy lancers. Slowing from a streak to a blur, Auntie redirected her course to Manx, that penniless satyr bard she'd been foolish enough to hire. With a practiced motion the frumpy dirtgnome clapped him on the back of his horned head. Visions of her people racing toxic fumes as they swept through the burrow still assaulted her, but Auntie pushed them back, even the one that involved her mother...

"Manx you worthless goat," she snapped, "I told you not to work no glamer on the customers unless I gave the okay."

"But Aunty I...."

"But nothing, pack up your lute, goat-boy, you're through."

Net Neutrality Under Threat

I'm not sure if you guys know but a recent ruling here in the US has eliminated net neutrality, the feature of communications law which prevents ISPs from charging differing rates for bandwidth and allowing sites with large financial backing to shoulder little sites like roleplayerguild to the curbside. The internet literally depends on net neutrality and it is now gone which means all this may also be gone in the near future.

For those interested in helping to fight this and who live in the US, I'll leave a link to the current Whitehouse petition to get this decision overturned.

Petition

For everyone else, please do what you can if you understand what net neutrality is and realize how vital it is to a healthy and innovative internet. Spread the word, this concerns us all.

Blight [OOC]

@All Everyone take note of cthulu's last post, this is one of the first times an event has the possibility of directly affecting multiple players. Delphi's song is a really good opportunity to start to bind the PCs together.

Blight [OOC]

No need to kill yourselves on the posts people. Everyone's well ahead of the minimum as far as I can tell and I don't want anyone to burn out.

A word of caution on Grey Elves. They are to this setting as Agents are to the Matrix. That super intimidating antagonist, that the heroes know they must eventually face but dread doing so. That's why I am making an effort to build them up. It's not a GM ego trip and I fully expect the PCs to face them and survive as the game continues. They are not Gods and they have weaknesses, weaknesses that one PC in particular is aware of.