Update: Quoll and I have a post in mind, we're just trying to find time, somehow managed to get roped into several parties this weekend, so sorry for acting like Parry in advance.
"That's great, Parry, but I still don't understand why we have to wear these party hats? I've never heard of tinfoil hats improving the visual quality of Japanese movies before..."
And, using the work @Aleranicus had us do with creating spots in the city, what places do you think it's best to start this in? I think, given the large numbers, we need at least a couple.
Any place that allows characters to discreetly meet seems good in my book, unfortunately/fortunately that means most of the locations written up would be good options. :D
Also, for the purposes of the RP, I want a clear sense of why your characters are opposed to Nemsemet.
Humorously, Violet might share a similar motivation to @Utrax's Stella, Nemsemet looks unlikely to good bad for her business, protecting the park. I also imagine dryads, well-connected to nature as they are, have at least a slight aversion to the undead or at least with the idea of the undead suddenly gaining enough influence to take over the city (death is after all part of the natural world). Violet was not a huge of fan of the late Count or the status quo of the supernatural world, but she's also a big believer in maintaining balance in the world and a mummy based dictatorship is not very balanced.
In addition, while Violet may not primarily be concerned with mortals, she also doesn't hate them or really view them as lesser, if anything she simply views them as misguided children (with a unfortunate habit of harming nature). In a terrible comparison, she's a bit like the elves of LoTR, in that she still thinks human beings have potential and she's more of a fan of discreet/subtle guidance than using violence to force others to change.
With that being said, her main concern is the trees she protects, so a lot depends on how Nemsemet chooses to act.
If anyone is around, we can set up a collab or whatever.
I'm on a lovely break (for the next couple of months), so I'll be on in some capacity consistently throughout the week, when not busy with social things (I can have a life again!). :)
Location of Note: Fairfax & Medani, LLP. Notable Person: Miriam "Mia" Medani, a silver-tongued half-elf, respected as much for her talents as a lawyer as for her mastery of the arcane arts. Her partner in the law firm is the much feared Revenant, Albert Fairfax. A well-known lawyer before his death, he claims that he has returned in order to protect the rights of the humble citizens of New Camden from the jackboot tyranny and gulag magic tricks of the powers that be. A fact everyone knows about this place:
Established in 1815, Fairfax & Medani is one of the premier law firms in the city of New Camden and the Northeastern United States. Representing primarily supernatural clients, the pair have nonetheless been known to represent those mortal clients with deep enough pockets and connections to retain their services.
Virtually undefeated in the courtroom, both Fairfax and Medani are willing to use any means available to them in order to attain victory for their clients, provided it is legal of course. The pair maintain a strange devotion to the rules of the land and follow the law to the letter, even if it means losing a case.
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@Utrax Another lovely and very amusing character (please don't stab me!).
@MancerNecro Everything you wrote about Violet and Allard Park looks great to me.
I really liked the way you described how their friendship developed (Celest wandering in because of calming/nice energies and at first not knowing about the dryad).
Related, the "energy" of the park as something calming/nice is a great idea that I didn't really think about. It would provide a wonderful explanation for why mortals/supernaturals find the park increasingly pleasant to visit!
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Also, I really like the latest characters!
Although I'm terrified to see that we have both a eldritch tax collector and an arcane accountant!
All we need now is a lawyer... :3
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If anyone needs help establishing random connections, feel free to send me a PM, I'm friendly, promise!
Violet is a social creature and sees life as an adventure, so she's likely to wander into all manner of places.
I'll probably do some light editing in the coming day, but mostly in regards to spelling/grammar/formatting or tweaking sentences to make things flow better.
Name: You can call me Violet, it's what my mother always called me. Dryad's don't really have last names, but my father's last name was Atwood, so that's what I go by. Age: I'm...I'm 25! Although I haven't really changed much since I turned twenty, it's dryad thing, we don't really age once we are mature. Gender: Female, no surprise there! All dryads are female, you knew that right? Breed/Species/Type/Lineage: I'm a dryad! A type of fey, a faerie, a...What do you mean that doesn't make any sense? Well, basically I'm a tree spirit. I guard the forests and woodlands. Greenpeace? Who? No, I don't know them, are they another fey? Maybe they're a forest troll? There are always trolls wandering around.
Physical Description:
Tall, willowy, and made of light brown bark, nah, seriously, that would suck, I'm a tree spirit, not a piece of wood, my skin is only a little bit barky. It's soft, I promise, here touch my arm. See! It's soft, right? It's even warm to the touch! I have green eyes, they match the forest, which makes me happy.
Wait! Let me tell you about my hair! It's great! It looks like it's made of leaves and it changes color based on the season! I'm told it's very regal. In spring and summer, my hair is lush green, there are even flowers in it! How cool is that!? In fall and winter, my hair turns red and eventually brown! You can't imagine how much I save on hair dye.
Most people seem to find me pleasing to look at, I have delicate features, I think, I'm not exactly sure what that means. Some woman I met last night said I looked very "sensual", she was very nice, she bought me so much Absinthe while we danced!
I've never had trouble finding a date if that's what you're asking.
Apparently that's what we, dryads, are supposed to do, attract an attractive enough mate, a male, a male who loves nature, to produce offspring and to act as our guardian. I'm not really into that though, it's 1985, I'm a strong independent dryad, I don't need some puppy-eyed mortal following me around and getting in the way.
What? Am I free on Friday?
Oh! Look, I'm flattered, truly, but I've got this thing to do on Friday, fey stuff, important stuff, you know?
What am I doing on Saturday?
Saturday is kind of a bad day as well, I have to meet a friend or well he has to meet me, he's very sick you see, and he needs more medicinal herbs. Poor, Parry, he's always so sick. It's ok though, I have this new plant, very potent, it should fix him right up!
Sunday?
I'd love to, but I can't, I've got to meet with the tax collector. I know, total bummer, but what can you do? I heard from a close friend, a hedge witch, that there's apparently going to be a tax on new leaves, so I need to nip this one in the buds before I end up owing a fortune in taxes.
No more Miss Nice Dryad, no, I have to protect the forest from the tax collector!
Talents:
My friends say that I have a green thumb, I mean, I don't, my thumb isn't green, but I'm good with plants. Also, I can sing, I like singing, the trees always ask me to sing to them! I know! I can sing you my favorite Siouxsie and the Banshees song!
Oh, ok, maybe later then.
You know, once I got used to it, I realized that my wife being a dryad had some real perks. For one thing, she never gets older, it's been fifty years, and she still looks exactly like she did when I met her.
Better still, talk about bedroom potential, you don't get bored of sleeping with the same woman when she can cast an illusion spell to make her look like a different woman every night. Something about a Deceptive Veil, but who cares, all I know it's fantastic for spicing up our love life. Plus, take it from me, dryads know how to have a good time, know what I'm saying?
I grew up in sticks, so I know a bit about nature, but my wife? Man, she's on a whole other level. She can talk to animals and plants, like really talk, like full blown conversations, it's kind of weird, I never thought about talking to my apple tree. Still, she's taught our dog how to make me margaritas for Christ's sake, how can you beat that? You can't, that's how.
Being a living plant, the misses is mean gardener as well, she can get just about anything to grow and our house is practically surrounded by a small forest. I don't mind though, she's happy when she's gardening, grows all sorts of herbs. And brother, let me tell you, we've got some quality product in our garden. The sort of magically infused stuff that will blow your mind straight past Pluto, straight out of the fucking Solar System.
She says she has some Oaken Vitality, not sure what she really means, but she barely needs to eat, hell, she doesn't even sleep, she just meditates for a couple of hours in the sunlight. Photosynthesis is a beautiful thing.
Dryads are a type of fey or faerie, specifically they can be understood to be tree spirits, that often act as the protectors and guardians of forest and trees. Remarkably, precious little research has been recorded concerning the nature of dryads. In this short summary, I would like to briefly highlight some of the extraordinary abilities that dryads appear to posses.
In my experience dryads are generally quite benign, for a species of fey, and will at first attempt to warn off intruders in their forests. However, if the forest or trees which they protect are threatened they often respond with great violence.
Like many other types of fey, dryads appear to be innate spellcasters and possess a number of spell like abilities that fall loosely into the domain of nature magic.
Likewise, dryads are unhindered by trees, underbrush, plants, or natural growth. Despite my best efforts and a failed series of experiments, I have yet to see one trip over even the most well hidden of roots.
Sharing an unrivaled bond with the natural world, dryads are able to step into various forms of plant life, both for protection and to acquire needed nutrients. Although I have been unable to observe it myself, it has also been claimed that these strange creatures are able to open magical portals between trees. Vanishing into one tree, only to emerge shortly thereafter from another tree. I have classified this as ability as a type of spell, naming it Tree Stride at the suggestion of a close friend.
Famed for their wisdom and intelligence, dryads are not remarkably strong, especially when compared to other supernatural creatures. However, despite their fragile appearance, dryads can take a surprising amount of damage. They are quite woody after all. If severely wounded, they also appear to be able to assume the form of a medium sized tree, providing a further degree of protection and greatly enhancing the speed of their recovery.
I would also be remiss if I did not warn other budding botanists about the magical charms that dryads possess. Few other species, excepting, perhaps other fey and demons, can so easily enrapture the hearts of men and lead them, willingly even, into servitude. Over the course of my long years of research, I have unfortunately lost more than one promising assistant to the charms of a dryad.
Predictably, like the very forests that spawned them, dryads are particularly weak to fire and generally go to great pains to avoid any living flames.
Finally, dryads, like all fey, are immune to aging. However, a peculiarity of dryads is that they are all magically bonded to a single tree. At once, both the life force and home of a dryad, they are understandably fiercely protective of their bonded trees. If the tree of a dryad is cut down or destroyed, then the dryad will perish along with their tree. Similarly, a dryad that strays too far away from her bonded tree will also die.
History:
Where did I come from? The woods, duh, where did you think I came from? Do I look like a city girl to you
Naturally, my mother was a dryad and I grew her root tree. Like I said, we lived in the middle of the woods! Not too far from here, but you wouldn't know it, not a lot of humans ever pass by there. She took care of me and raised me, taught me the ways of my kind, and a bit about humans as well, my father was a mortal after all, I think, at least that's what she told me. I've never met him though, he left on some heroic journey before I was born, I was told he was headed to Berlin.
Eventually though, just like my father, I felt like I had a task to accomplish, something important to do, and an entire world to see. Mother said that wanderlust had taken root in my heart, she seemed a bit sad, but encouraged me to go, so with a seedling from her tree in tow I left the forest where I grew up.
I traveled around for a couple of years, hopping from city to city, forest to forest, and park to park. It was a lovely time! I met so many nice people and saw so many exciting things! After a time, my tree and I felt like settling down though, so we headed towards New Camden, I'd heard they had quite the music scene and I love music.
When I finally got there, we stopped in Allard Park, it was chaos! I found vampires preying on joggers, trolls demanding bridge tolls, and a band of kobolds trying to create a sewer fiefdom...nothing unusual really, but it was problematic, the trees were unhappy, they asked me to stay and help, so I did.
And that's when the real trouble started...see I thought I could lay low, protect the trees in Allard Park, and enjoy life in the big city. Instead, some creep with a cape showed up, said that there were rules in New Camden, and he said that I had to follow them or else. I wasn't quite sure what the "or else" would entail, but judging by the amount of leather his werewolf lackeys wore, it wasn't going to be anything fun.
Yeah, it was Count Caradoc de Lacy, you know him?
Well either way, he was a cruel and unfair monster. He perpetuated inequality throughout the city, stole and even murdered with impunity. Worse, he probably forgot to water his plants! In short, he was nothing like the honorable nobles my mother had told me about...I'm sure he wasn't even a real count.
He ruled the city with an iron fist, but he owned the Court, so there wasn't really much I could do about it. Besides, we had an understanding, an agreement even...at least at first, he and his smelly minions stayed out of my park, and I provided him with...well, we can talk about that later.
But then...then he started making demands. Apparently, I owed him money, I owed him a lot of money, just like every other supernatural being in the city. Go figure. I didn't have any money though, why would a Dryad need money? So instead, he said I could do him a solid, help him out as it were. He wanted me to grow plants for him, mostly harmless ones, useful for making potions, but he also wanted dangerous plants, plants that could only be used to make poisons.
What choice did I have? He threatened to burn down every tree in my forest if I didn't...my bonded tree was there...the bastard knew just how to get to me...like I said, the Count was not a nice man. Still, now he's a pile of ashes, good riddance.
This new guy, the mummy guy, Nemsemet, seems kind of like a bad guy, but that Count wasn't exactly a great guy either. None of them are, sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't just poison all of them. Kidding! Kidding! That would be very rude. I'd never be rude...unless they were rude first, but then...then I'd have justice on my side.
What? The mortals in the city are in danger?
Listen, that's sad, but my duty is to the forest, and to the forest alone. I'm the guardian of all the trees in Allard Park, and I'll do what I have to in order to protect them! The mortals will have to take care of themselves! They've got guns and the Terminator, I saw it in the movie theaters, I'm sure that guy can save them.
Psychological Profile:
Why do you need to know about my personality? Is this some sort of test? Who do you work for!?
Relax, I'm just kidding, scared you though didn't I? Oh, come on, admit it, you were scared...
First of all, I'm very patient! I'm part tree after all...that was a joke.
I'm passionate, well, at least about things that interest me, I'm a punk rocker through and through, I also really like this new genre, gothic rock! It's great, even if it makes me a bit sad!
I like to think of myself as a people person, I'm great at reading people, and I love spending in the company of others, especially if they have interesting stories to tell. I sure I'm friendly enough, I make new friends all the time, they even buy me gifts or ask me to sleep in their beds! Of course, I don't need a bed, but it's a very sweet gesture.
I've been accused of being naive, but I'm simply an optimist. I think I could have been a wonderful hippy, I'm open-minded, freethinking, and not adverse to having some fun! I'm also incredibly spontaneous. See! I just turned that lumberjack into a pine tree!
People seem to think that I'm some sort of pacifist, maybe because I'm so friendly? However, I'm not, I just don't believe in senseless violence. My duty is to protect my forest and I'll do whatever I have to in order to keep it safe. The trees in my forest say that I am very fierce and brave, they're very old, so I trust them.
Possessions:
I have some clothes! Dresses, skirts, jeans, blouses, t-shirts and more! Mostly to blend in with the mortals, I've learned from past experience that it seems to cause some problems if I forget to get dressed. At least I got to ride in a police car last time it happened!
Where do I keep them?
In my tree of course, I don't want the kobolds to steal them again.
Oh! I also have a magical acorn! Want to see it! It's from my bonded tree, I bring it with me at all times. We can talk that way and it lets me travel great distances from it without growing sick or weak.
Yes, and:
C.C. Schwarzman? Who's that? Should I know him?
Oh! Wait! You mean the tax guy, the boogeyman or whatever? Look, I hardly know him, all I know is that he's a blood sucking parasite who steals money from innocent people, I think they call it being a tax collector? I'm a bit bitter, I know. You see, just after I came to this city, right was I starting to fix up Allard Park, he showed up. No, not the Count, the tax man. He thought he could sneak into my forest! But the trees warned me, he just stood there watching, dressed in all black, and wearing a trench coat like some peeping tom...for at least an hour, maybe two, it was creepy.
Finally, I got so sick of it that I just threw a pine cone at him, knocked his stupid derby hat right off. Served him right, it's rude not to knock...But anyway, get this, when he finally talks, he just says, "U-uh, M-Miss Atwood, I'm here to collect your taxes, s-sorry."
I thought about trying to turn him into a toad, but ultimately, I decided it was better to do things legally, so I paid him with a crate of pine cones. Of course, that wasn't good enough for the late Count, so the taxman came back and explained that he'd have to bring me to see the Count. We didn't talk much on the way there, but C.C. seemed a bit lonely, maybe he just needed more friends? He did talk a lot about his best friend though, Rusty, the leader the Count's werewolf minions. They seemed very close, so that's good I guess. Everyone needs to have some friends.
Wait! What does the C.C. stand for? You don't know? Ah well, too bad. He looks like a Chuck, don't you think? No? Well, whatever, we'll agree to disagree, I still think his name is Chuck.
Location of Note: Allard Park Notable Person: Violet Atwood, known for the collection of exceedingly rare and magical plants that she maintains. A fact everyone knows about this place:
Allard Park is the oldest and largest park in New Camden. The park was established by Joseph Allard in 1835 when he purchased a large swath of land from the failing Truscott Company with the intention of using it as a hunting ground. However, following an unfortunate riding accident some years later, Allard generously bequeathed it to the city. Finally opened to the public in 1860, it has remained a popular place to visit for both mortal and supernatural denizens of the city ever since.
Like many other public places in New Camden, Allard Park has historically served as something of a neutral ground within the city's supernatural community. Following a brief period of anarchy, the park has recently fallen under the control of Violet Atwood. A young and spirited Dryad, she is quick to deal with any unwelcome or unannounced visitors, especially those that pose any threat to her forest.
Beyond her self-proclaimed title as "Guardian of the Forest Park", the demure Dryad is rumored to supply the ingredients neccesary for the creation of all manner of potions and poisons.
Location of Note: Release the Bats! (Club) Notable Person: Gabriela, the proprietor of the club, said by some to be a vampire or some similar sort of undead with a proclivity for not dying. A fact everyone knows about this place:
A nightclub in New Camden, infamous for the three rules enforced by management, "No Funk, No Disco, and No Trouble!". Frequented by mortals and supernaturals alike, the nightclub is a popular destination for the younger generation. Sporting a spooky atmosphere and enough goth kids to build an army, it is a place for budding punk, rock, rockabilly, glam, reggae, garage, trash and psychedelia acts to ply their trade.
Onsite security, of a supernatural nature, ensures that things don't get too out of hand and that the Concealment Edict is preserved. Despite this, the nightclub is known as a great place to find the latest and greatest of drugs at an acceptable price.
Location of Note: Caldwell and Westbrook Clothing and Tailoring, Washington Avenue Notable Persons: Caldwell, famed Goblin tailor, and the equally renowned half-giant dressmaker Westbrook. A fact everyone knows about this place:
Hidden behind an unassuming shopfront and past a burly mountain troll named Johan, lies the ancient and well-known workshop of Caldwell and Westbrook.
A staple in the fashion industry of New Camden, Caldwell and Westbrook has provided the supernatural community with the finest in clothing since the early 1920s. Offering clothing for all occasions (formal, semi-formal, informal and casual), the pair of strange business partners command the respect of not just other sewing professionals, but also of a large number of enchanters. Among the magically inclined, the two are noted for the powerful, elaborate, and unobtrusive enchantments they are able to weave into the clothing they create. Naturally however, such high quality does not come cheap, and only the wealthiest can afford to commission such works of art.
Until recently, very recently in fact, Caldwell was even the favored tailor of the late Count Caradoc de Lacy.
