5e Divine Avenger (Protector Aasimar Celestial Warlock/Monster Slayer)

Art by https://www.deviantart.com/inawong

The concept here is that there was a major breach of planar boundaries resulting in an invasion by some sort of creature, probably fiends or aberrations, but possibly fey, undead, or elementals as well. In either case, the event resulted in many people dying but in one case, a spirit that considers the invaders a personal enemy inhabited the body of one of the slain and essentially resurrected the body. However, instead of the mortal being the acting body, their mind is kept primarily in the back and it is the entity using them as a body to take the fight to the enemies but keep the soul around so they have a source to gain context related to the world it has appeared in. The being is slowly adapting to the new body, and building that body's nascent power, resulting in the need to level up. Should the entity ever eradicate the presence of its enemy on this world, it will leave the body and leave the accumulated power with the now freed soul getting a new life as recompense for the use of the body.

Tender Bar - Mutants and Masterminds Third Edition

This is an M&M recreation of my old City of Heroes character, Tender Bar. I'm using the quickstart character generator, but for obvious reasons, I'm not doing a random build. I'm also not limiting myself to power sets for one template. Fortunately, the point costs for each template are noted down and so accounting will be relatively easy to do. I considered starting with the Powerhouse stat set, but that is designed around the idea of enhanced strength and stamina whereas, as far as anyone can tell, Tender's strength is somehow natural. As such, I am going for the altered human warrior attribute set.

Strength 5, Stamina, 6, Agility 6, Dexterity 6, Fighting 10, Int 1, Awareness 4, Presence 1

Tender Bar - An City of Heroes Character

Back in the days of City of Heroes, I was also first introduced to Durarara!!! and Baccano and among the characters there was one whose origin I just really loved: Shizuo Heiwajima.

Shizuo about to let loose on a foe that deserves it.

Shizuo Heiwajima had anger management issues. Despite his best efforts. He was at all times on the edge of stepping over into a berserk rage. He has no explanation for this. His childhood wasn't traumatic, he never went through any experiments, he never did any special training, it just suddenly started one day when his younger brother did something that angered him and he responded by throwing the refrigerator through a wall. Initially, his body wasn't able to keep up with the strength he exhibited while angry and every time he lost his temper he ended up in the hospital. But he always healed, and he always healed back stronger. Eventually, his body developed into something that could handle his insane strength. Unfortunately he's only ever had minimal ability to control his anger. There are a few people he likes that keep him anchored and he himself would love to just live a peaceful life free of his anger, but it just doesn't seem in the cards for him. For a time his brother tried to find him jobs but he always lost them when his temper went off. The last of these jobs was as a bartender. After which he got a job being the bodyguard for a debt collector, maybe a loan shark. At first he was suspicious but was mollified when it was suggested that his mere presence would keep anything from getting out of hand. And it was a job he could do. He continued to wear the bartender outfit and dye his hair blonde as ways to make himself easily recognizable so that everybody would know to be careful around him and not anger him. 

Sharron Inquiry Record: Hollowgard Investigation - Crossroads Campaign - Sessions 23-25

Bittersnap is an interesting study for a goblin. She is not the first of the breed that we have seen that behaved in a more feral nature, there were the goblins in the tunnels underneath the Abolist's Tower that behaved in a similar manner. There is also her psionic capabilities. I would like to know why it is that psionic ability is associated with blue or purple skin tone in that world. Is there something that gets into the blood that affects the coloration? 

I wonder if a psionic variation of my own species would also turn out to have a blue fur-color. Actually, I'm not sure that fur colorations are affected by the presence of psionic potential. So it would be quite a bit more likely that the underlying skin would be blue while the fur would remain the standard colors we normally see. I doubt that would have much visual effect on matters. Which makes me wonder if there might already be such off-shoots on our world and just not yet recognized. They may have been mis-identified as sorcerers and encouraged to push their talents toward more well-known forms of magic. That is, I believe, part of how Kanti came into her bardic magic, using a trace of psionic potential inherited from aberrant blood to power arcane magic.

The Unnamed Naga - Mutant & Masterminds Third Edition - Randomly Generated Character

Snake Totem - Mutation

Strength 4(10)
Stamina 4
Agility 2
Dexterity 4
Fighting 6
Intelligence 0
Awareness 2
Presence 0

Dodge 8
Parry 10
Fortitude 8
Toughness 10 (Impervious)
Will 8

Initiative 6

Advantages: Daze (Deception), Evasion, Hide in Plain Sight, Improved Initiative, Redirect, Taunt

Acrobatics 6 (8)
Athletics 4 (8)
Insight 8 (10)
Perception 14 (16)
Stealth 6 (8)
Treatment 4 (4)

Powers

Reptilian Movement - Movement 1 (Slithering)
Reptilian Senses - Senses 4 (Acute and Accurate Smell, Infravision)
Scaly Hide - Protection 6, Impervious 10
Tensile Strength - Elongation 4, Enhanced Strength 6
Venomous Bite - Weaken Physical Abilities 10 (Resisted by Fortitude), Accurate 2, Broad

Complication: Identity (Transforms between powerless human form and a powered serpent-woman form)

5e Bioluminescence Sorcerer (Triton Divine Soul Sorcerer)

Earlier today, an acquaintance of mine linked me this picture. An image search showed her to be a character by the name of Dolphin from DC Comics who is connected to Aquaman. Judging by the image search she's been around for quite awhile. In any case, I figured I'd take the chance to create an aquatic themed character. I don't know much about the character, but it does seem that she is a mute who is capable of using bioluminescence for various purposes. It's an interesting enough concept and I can think of a good way to do it.

I hadn't had a particular character in mind to do, though I likely would have tweaked off of a deep one sort of character possibly. I do have a history of portraying the deep ones as a maligned culture. The thing is that the matter isn't really necessary here. D&D has a number of aquatic cultures, both good and evil, so for the noble aquatic types we already have a set race to use. Where as the stereotypical debased deep one type creatures also have their analogues in the game. (At least three, maybe four different creatures.

As to the bioluminescence, I know how to handle that. The character above doesn't seem particularly fighty, but I could look into a Sun Soul Monk just considering the powers displayed being natural abilities, sort of like a sorcerer but with abilities that are more associated with monks. Alternately, I could go with a Divine Soul Sorcerer, but again the character doesn't seem that heavily embossed with magical abilities. Though, that said, I could do a Celestial Warlock, but I've done a lot of Warlocks already. Light Cleric is another possible route, as is Arcane Trickster Rogue. Lack of armor might be an issue, though the image presented comes from a superhero setting, which is a genre where worn armor is rare. Looking at my list of characters so far, I have an equally small number of clerics, sorcerers, and rogues. So I think this will be a Divine Soul Sorcerer.

Campaigns I'd Love to Play or Run

Some of these I've sort of run, or started to run. Or started to play, but would like a better shot at them.

•  Inspired by Flying Frog Games' Touch of Evil board game, a gothic horror action style game set in something like a colonial period America circa 17th to 18th Century. Possible Systems:
• Modern AGE
• Monster of the Week
• City of Mist
• Legend of the Five Rings game with a lot of investigation and intrigue. Criminals and dark cults summoning undead monstrosites and demonic horrors. Characters as Jade and Emerald Magistrates.
• 7th Sea Eisen Campaign with a Castlevania vibe to it.
• Hunter of Beasts campaign. Someone is killing people in a manner similar to how vampires are meant to be destroyed, but is this a sign of something deeper and darker? Possible systems.
• GUMSHOE
• Modern AGE
• Monster of the Week
• Idun, a liquid gift of the gods. Each race has their own type of Idun and it is folly and torture to drink the Idun of other races. Down through the centuries, the races of Might and Order have contested with each other in a never ending battle of fluctuating borders and great quests. By the will of the gods the races are kept separate...but are the gods truly what they claim to be?
• Fantasy AGE
• Genesys
• Great Mysteries, the characters are part of the initial surge for a new VR game of urban legend and competing factions when they become stuck in the game through the nefarious plot of a group that claims to be terrorists.
• Playtest Just a Game
• Genesys
• The Unscripted Server, the characters are players of a fantasy VR MMO. There are rumors that every so often, someone who is online gets shifted to a realm where everything seems so much more real than even the normal VR experience. People that have experienced this stranger server find their physical bodies slowly shifting into something like their characters.
• Playtest Just a Game
• Genesys
• RWBY-esque adventure game, where the characters are a team of apprentice monster-hunters caught up in things bigger than they can imagine.
• Masks
• Genesys
• City of Mist
• Adeptive Engine, you were just finishing making a character and now you find yourself as that character and the tutorial you expected to play is around you and its real. What the heck is going on here?
• Playtest Just a Game
• Genesys 
• Wu Xia game where there are tournaments at six mystic temples that become accessible only once in a century.
• D&D 5e (as a Player)
• Genesys
• Legend of the Elements
• Fate

Gorgon Archer - Modern AGE - Character Advancement

The system of leveling for Modern AGE is the same as for Fantasy AGE. The difference lies in what advances. There are no classes so we don't look to our individual classes for what increases. Also, the modes might modify how things advance. Here is the summary:

• Characters get a new Talent at every level past 1st. In Fantasy AGE, the classes mostly got their first Talent at 3rd Level and Mage's would have their Talent acquisition interspersed with Magic Talents. You also get Talents even if you also get a Specialization that level.
• Characters still get a new Ability Advancement and Focus each level, but the only limit is that you can't advance the same Ability twice in a row.
• Characters still get the option of a Specialization at level 4 and improving them every four levels thereafter. You are still limited to two Specializations, but you don't have to complete one before starting on the second.
• Characters get new Relationship slots every fourth level.
• If you are using Conviction, an additional point is gained at Level 3 and every odd-numbered level after that.
• Depending on Game Mode, Health, Defense, Toughness, and Resources advance at different rates.
• Gritty Mode
• Health, Defense, Toughness, and Resources never improve. Save that Resources may improve based on GM rewards for story accomplishment.
• Pulp Mode
• Health increases by your Con+1.
• At 4th Level you increase Defense OR Toughness, at 8th Level you increase the other. Then you alternate every four levels afterward.
• Replenish 1 lost Resources level every level plus possible GM granted story rewards.
• Cinematic Mode
• Health improves by 1d6+Con (as per Fantasy AGE)
• Defense and Toughness both increase by 1 at every fourth level.
• Gain +1 Resources each level after the first, plus GM granted story rewards.

I'm going to use Pulp mode due to aiming at Gothic Horror. Once again, I'm going to do 18 sessions with 4 encounters each of randomly sorted difficulty and type. Difficulty will be a little bit different than rolls I used for Fantasy AGE. I'm going to make Hard encounters a little bit more common. (2-3: Routine, 4-5: Easy, 6-9: Average, 10-12: Hard). For type (1-2 Exploration, 3-4 Social, 5-6 Combat). For some of the details I'm drawing Town Elder secrets and events from the Touch of Evil board game by Flying Frog Games. I also just decided all of the 18th session's encounters would be hard.

Gorgon Archer - Modern AGE - Character Creation

Modern AGE is almost the same process as found in the Fantasy AGE game, but there are some differences. For one there's no classes and for the other there is no races. There is also suggestion of using races from Fantasy AGE to achieve a sort of urban fantasy style game. It changes the process a little bit, either replacing or adding a step, but I could also do this as a sort of epitaph sort of thing. That said, I've only done epitaphs in settings where gorgons make no narrative sense and Modern AGE is a flexible enough system that that lack of narrative justification isn't present. I think I will go ahead and use the races. The normal suggestion in this case is to have the races replace the background, but I'm going to add the race in instead because removing backgrounds feels like it removes a lot of character development. This will mean the character, and any training companions I make for her, will come out a bit stronger than the average starting character, but not too much. To further confirm, any humans I create will get the Fantasy AGE human package as well.

Another change we're going to do from the Fantasy AGE analysis is to use the point buy method which is to have 12 points to distribute between the stats. None can go over 3 with these points and none can go below 0. 

As a result of this, the steps for character creation in this case are as follows: 

1. Concept
2. Abilities
3. Race - This is an additional step not normally taken for Modern AGE
4. Background
5. Profession
6. Drive
7. Resources and Equipment
8. Health, Defense, Toughness, and Speed
9. Goals, Ties, and Relationships
10. Name and Description

For genre and setting, we're going to do a gothic horror thing along the lines of the Touch of Evil board game or the Sleepy Hollow movie from back when nobody knew anything horrible about certain actors. So vaguely creepy rural community on the edge of civilization. I'll be doing three companions again and doing random races:

• 3 - Demon Blooded (using the Blooded and the Demon Soldier)
• 4-5 - Fae (using the core Elf race)
• 6-8 - Beastfolk (using the optional race played as sort-of werecreatures)
• 9-11 - Human
• 12-14 - Dhampir (created using Blooded and Master Vampire)
• 15-17 - Goblin (created using Blooded and Goblin)
• 18 - Angel Blooded (created using Blooded and Divine Warrior)

The results are, two humans and a dhampir. (11, 11, 12). Anyway on to the creation of the gorgon.

As normal, the character concept is a gorgon archer. I'm imagining a woman escaping the crowded lands of her homelands where people know of her kind and disappearing into a distant colony on the edge of the wilds.

For Abilities, we have 12 points. I'm going to start with giving my major targets 2 each. There are no classes so we don't have to worry about primary or secondary abilities at all, not that that had too much of an impact in Fantasy AGE, but still we're even more open here. Accuracy 2, Dexterity 2, and Perception 2, for the three majors. Then I'm going to give Constitution 1, Intelligence 1, and Willpower 1. That's a total of 9 points spent and we have 3 points left. I think I will be placing these last bits into Accuracy, Willpower, and Constitution.

Race is next, we'll use the same thing we did for the Fantasy AGE. +1 to Constitution, I will choose the Dexterity (Stealth) ability focus this time. Speed is the same, characters can speak whatever languages you want up to a max of three starting with others earned by the Linguistics talent. Then we have to roll on the Blooded chart again. And I got the exact same result as last time, a 6 and a 7. So +1 Accuracy and Weapon Group Bows again which automatically becomes a Focus in this system sense there's no Class and everybody has all the weapon groups at least somewhat. Which means this character will have +2 to stats and two focuses more than the normal Modern AGE character. The companions will be similarly up-powered. Fortunately, this system handles that very easily.

Next we get back to the normal process for Modern AGE, background. We roll 1d6 twice, first to determine social class and then specific background. And I ended up rolling what makes the most sense, Outsider class and Outcast background. I was tempted to just take that anyway. The background comes with several different benefits; as Background, Profession, and Drive basically replace and overlap the Backgrounds and Races of Fantasy AGE. Outcast comes with +1 Willpower, a choice between Communication(Deception) or Dexterity(Stealth), and a choice between two talents: Living on the Fringe or Misdirection. We're going to take Communication(Deception), because we already have Dexterity(Stealth), and Novice Living on the Fringe. We also get a roll on a chart like we would see in the Fantasy AGE races. The result of the roll is Dexterity(Forgery) which must be how she got passage to the New World.

The next step is Profession and our social class sets what profession chart we roll on. If we had a higher social class we'd have the option of choosing lower class occupations. Oddly, Military is a Lower Class background but Soldier is a Middle Class occupation, making it impossible to get that combination by rolling, which feels like a mistake. Though the option to just choose a profession exists which would presumably allow you to get a higher class profession than your background, probably representing moving up in the world. I am going to go ahead and choose one from the Outsider social class, Survivalist. This gives us a choice between Accuracy (Bows or Pistols) and Perception (Tracking). We already have the Accuracy Focus we want, so we'll go with Perception (Tracking) for now to add to that living on the wild vibe more. As a further note, the Profession provides a starting Resources score and a choice between two Talents. We already have one so we could choose to move Living on the Fringe up to Expert from level 1. The other option is Tactical Awareness. I think I will boost Living on the Fringe to Expert. Our starting Resources is 0 and the last thing this does is decide our starting Health which is 20 + Con.

From here we go to Drive. These are our character's primary motives for the way she lives. It provides a Talent and an improvement to some other trait like Resources, Reputation, or the like. I am going to roll for it, 1-3 on Column 1, 4-6 on Column 2. The option rolled is a Drive of Rebel, where she has become hostile to established authority, which makes sense both for her background and for a person living in a Colonial/American Revolution era style settlement. This provides us the option of Expertise or Improvisation for Talents so I'm going to go ahead with Improvisation to be able to adapt to a large variety of situations rather than be even more specialized. We also get a choice of improving our Reputation, Relationships, or Resources. As a woman living on the edge of society who has a reputation for being a bit harsh, I think Reputation is the way to go here. And I'm going to give her a Reputation of "Scaled Witch" as Reputations are short titles and honorifics that describe the reputation while providing bonuses in certain situations.

The next step is starting resources and equipment. We have Resources 0 and so just the basic starting gear of clothing, tools for profession and one weapon for which we have a focus. We don't have a focus for knives, but a knife would fit into the tools of a survivalist, so we'll give that to her.

Now we go to derived stats. Health is based on Profession and received no other improvement so that is 20+Con which is a total of 3. Defense is 10 + Dexterity, which is a total of 12. Toughness comes based on Constitution. Toughness reduces damage and functions differently depending on whether the game is played in Gritty, Pulpy, or Cinematic mode. That has more impact on gameplay and advancement and you can choose different aspects to be at different levels for a more varied experience if you want, so I'm not going to worry about it. Regardless of which mode this game is in the Toughness level is still 3. Speed is 10 + Dexterity yards, which comes again to 12 just like Defense. There is also an optional stat called Conviction which starts at 3 points at 1st level if your campaign uses it, so we'll note that down. Characters start with a minimum of 1 Relationship.

The next two steps are Goals, Ties, Name, and Description, so I'm going to note those down below in the collected stats after I create her traveling companions.

Phaedra Hollyoak

Gorgon Outcast Survivalist, Rebel

Accuracy 4 (Bows)

Communication 0 (Deception)

Constitution 3

Dexterity 2 (Stealth, Forgery)

Fighting 0

Intelligence 1

Perception 2 (Tracking)

Strength 0

Willpower 3

Health 23
Defense 12
Toughness 3
Speed 12
Resources 0

Conviction 3

Relationships 1 (Dame Eillen D'Garosh)

Reputation: Scaled Witch (1)

Expert Living on the Fringe

Novice Improvisation

Light Leather (Warm furs)
Longbow

Quiver of 20 Arrows

Dagger

Traps

Backpack
Camping Gear

Dame Eillen sympathizes with Phaedra due to their shared non-human heritage.
Oskar Lintalos actually taught her some things about the origins of gorgons.
Geida Klaus has stood with her in battle.

Traveling Companions

Character Advancement

Character Creation and the Gorgon Archer

Modern AGE Gorgon Archer's Traveling companions

Modern AGE Gorgon

Geida Klaus

Human Trade Technician, Ecstatic

Accuracy 0

Communication 1

Constitution 3

Dexterity 3 (Riding, Crafting)

Fighting 2 (Brawling)

Intelligence 1 (Evaluation, Engineering)

Perception 1

Strength 3

Willpower 1

Health 18
Defense 13
Toughness 3
Speed 13 yds
Resources 4

Conviction 3

Relationships 1 (Oskar Lintalos)

Reputation: Excellent Smith (1)

Expert Maker

Novice Party Animal 

Gorgon Archer - Fantasy AGE - Characte Advancement

Character Advancement in AGE is done through levels. There's two ways discussed to determine when levels are gained. The first is to apply levels based on when the characters do something significant. Such as when they've completed the current adventure, made some incredible discovery about the world, or otherwise done something in the narrative to warrant an increase in ability. The second is to use experience points. This occurs more like you would expect though the level of increase may be a bit unfamiliar to some. In most games that use experience and levels, the amount needed to get to each new level increases fairly swiftly, but in Fantasy AGE, levels 2 through 6 each require 2,000 XP to earn; levels 7 through 12 each require 3,000 XP; and all remaining levels require 4,000 XP. The level cap is 20, there appears to be nothing in place for post 20 advancement outside of roleplaying rewards and the like but that represents a quite long campaign. You cannot multiclass, but the use of Specializations and Talents can allow some drifting between the classes.

Gorgon Archer - Fantasy AGE - Character Creation

I was originally struggling to see how I could do a Fantasy AGE gorgon without homebrewing a race to fill in. They had a Medusa adversary, the picture of which you can see on this page, but it was quite a bit over-powered for a PC character. Granted, once I sat down and worked at it, I'd likely have been able to find a good PC-compatible version that fit the flavor on my own. However, I was hoping not to do that. HI was looking for a way to do it without resorting to homebrew. I know I homebrewed in the 5e example, but I also did a version that used official rules. Fortunately, with the acquisition of the Fantasy AGE Companion there is now a good way to create a PC gorgon using official rules.

The game breaks down character creation into a nine-step process. I tend to feel that some of the steps are merged together. The steps are as follows:

1. Create a Concept
2. Determine Abilities
3. Choose a race
4. Determine Social Class and Background 
5. Choose a class
6. Pick Starting Equipment
7. Calculate Defense
8. Pick a name
9. Choose character goals and ties 

Our concept is, as stated, a gorgon archer. There isn't much in the way of mechanics here, but I would note that there is a lot of randomness in character generation here, so it's a good idea to have a character style that could reasonably fit to any of the three classes. Fortunately, while archery is easier to do with two classes, it's not forbidden to any. So we're in a good place.

Fantasy AGE Gorgon's Traveling Companions

The Fantasy AGE Gorgon

Ailine Stonered

Dwarf Church Officer Warrior

Accuracy 1

Communication 0 (Etiquette)

Constitution 4

Dexterity 0

Fighting 2 (Axes)

Intelligence 1 (Evaluation, Historical Lore)

Perception 2

Strength 2

Willpower 0

Legend of Five Rings - Theoretical Character - Blind Beauty Rebuild

This is a rebuild of my overlooked Crab Clan woman using the most recent version of the setting by Fantasy Flight Games. I am only going to rebuild only one version of her, and actually going to take a mix of schools that didn't appear on the original version. Now, one of the most interesting things about this new edition is that they've integrated the Twenty Questions with the mechanics of character creation. The twenty questions have always been there, but in prior editions they've been primarily roleplaying tools.

Summoner of Animal Spirits (Variant Human Druid of the Shepherd Circle)

For this theoretical build based on this character, I am going to build a character based on this picture here. For now I'm going to use a somewhat straightforward build in the form of a Druid of the Shepherd Circle.

As for race, I am going to go with the Variant Human.

This isn't the first time I've used druid to do a mystic of vaguely Asian flavor and I'd like to note again that there's nothing really in this picture that seems to be coming out of folklore anymore than that Robin Hood movies are representative of real English history.

For this I am using my typical theoretical 30 pt array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10.

1st Level Variant Human Druid

Str: 10

Dex: 14

Con: 14

Int: 12

Wis: 16

Cha: 12

HP: 10

AC: 13
Save DC: 13
Speed: 30 ft

Proficiency Bonus: +2

Let's Die in Call of Cthulhu Characters - Trail of Cthulhu Version

This is just a bunch of characters based on those played by the members of Kikoskia's roleplaying group that posts episodes on his YouTube channel. I guessing at a lot of stuff here since I don't have their character sheets and to represent the limits of 6th edition characters I'm using the low Ability point pools as suggested in Trail of Cthulhu for people that want less competent characters than usually. 

I won't go over the differences between Trail of Cthulhu and Call of Cthulhu here. I did do some discussion of GUMSHOE system when I did a one-shot using that system a couple of years back. Though I will add that the system assumes sessions of 3-4 hours in length and gives 2 Build Points for each such session at the end of each case. And sense even 1 point of an Investigative Ability is a tremendous amount of expertise, I might not add Cthulhu Mythos at places you'd expect me to.

I will note that Stability more represents the obvious degradation of a person's mental state. Sanity represents the slow divorce between the character and normal human perception. A cult leader or serial killer with an outward charming demeanor might have high Stability or low or 0 Sanity. I'm guessing at Pillars of Sanity but not Sources of Stability.

There are some weird character creation spending points. Each point of Fleeing past double your Athletics is half-cost. Occupational Abilities are half cost. You can trade General Abilities and Investigative Ability points with other players at a rate of 3 General Points to 1 Investigative point. Each Occupation has a base Credit Rating base value having low Credit Rating may actually be beneficial for interacting people at the same Credit Rating as you. I used the low-powered point buy pools meant to be closer to the doomed protagonists of most Cthulhu mythos stories.

Dreams from the Depths - Crossroads Campaign - Sessions 20-22

We have come to some interesting discoveries with the wrapping up of this first mission of ours on Opali. I was unfortunately quite busy with a number of things of late so I have been lax in updating my journal. As a result, there may be rather less detail than is normally the case. Looking to my last entry I see I stopped with the apprehension of the doppleganger we found impersonating Miss Loopmottin Daergal. We discussed matters with the police and arranged for means of keeping the thing confined, warning them against its telepathic abilities and the like. To make sure nothing was overlooked, we went back to the G.A.P. offices and Kelmar apparently noticed the presence of the real Loopmottin Daergal's ghost. 

According to her, relayed by Kelmar, she'd been trying to get people to notice the imposter for months and the only thing she'd been able to do is stir up a particular lunatic. And that gave us a link to our lovely little vigilante, the Haberdashing who turns out to be an eccentric middle-aged goblin who is the last scion of a wealthy family and operates out of a cavern that is underneath his mansion. And his name is Brewswine.

The Company of the Marsh Bell - One Ring Theoretical Fellowship

The Company of the Marsh Bell is going to be my first theoretical company built for One Ring. As the name suggests, my assumption is that the Marsh Bell adventure in the core rule book would be their first adventure together. The members of this company include:

• Angwiel, a Silvan Elf of ancient heritage and a hatred for spiders.
• Berwen daughter of Gilraen, a Ranger of the North with a love for song.
• Evoric the Far-Drawn, a woodmen healer seeking treasure and wonder.
• Holma daughter of Holgeir, an archer from Lake-Town who survived the dragon.
• Lófar son of Burin, a dwarven minor and historian seeking the lost lore of his people.
• Meliot Roper, a Buckland forester who has expanded her mission of protection.

To start with, I am going to build a Magical Item Index as suggested in the Rivendell supplement. These are things that to be given on the chance that a character finds a magic item in a horde. My assumption isn't that the characters would end up with all three of the items made for them, just that it's a good idea to have a range of items so that if and when they get an item, then an item fitting the players' desires and the narrative needs can be chosen. As a note, dragons are not an option for bane weapons.

• Famous Weapons and Armor
• Angwiel
• Ungwegla, Web-Forsaken, an Elf-Crafted Spear
• Bane: Spiders
• Luminescence 
• Superior Grievous
• Fell
• Coat of Alphiel, an Elf-crafted coat of mail warded against spiders
• Bane: Spiders
• Ancient Cunning Make
• Close Fitting
• Warding-Spell
• Shield of the Woodland Realm
• Cunning Make
• Superior Reinforced
• Cunning Make
• Berwen
• Ringing Steel, a dwarven made sword.
• Flame of Hope
• Keen
• Fell
• Mithril Coat, a dwarven crafted coat of mail
• Ancient Cunning Make
• Mithral Armor
• Ancient Close-Fitting 
• The Heir's Hope, a numenorean dagger made for the child of a king.
• Bane: Orcs, Undead
• Raging
• Superior Fell
• Foe-Slaying
• Evoric
• Axe of the Mountains, dwarven crafted long-handled axe gifted to the northman in past ages.
• Superior Keen
• Fell
• Grevious
• Helm of the Hunt, an ancient helm crafted from the skin of a cursed wolf.
• Bane: Wolves
• Ancient Close-Fitting
• Ancient Cunning Make
• Warding-Spell
• Shield of the North, an ancient shield of unknown make
• Superior Reinforced
• Cunning Make
• Cunning Make
• Holma
• Bow of Old Dale, a bow of dwarven make given to a past hero of Dale.
• Sure Shot 
• Superior Keen
• Superior Fell
• Mail of the Ancient Heath, a coat of mail crafted to face the ancient drakes.
• Ancient Cunning Make
• Mithril Armor
• Rune-Scored Armor
• Drake-Helm, dwarven crafted helm made from the bones of a dragon.
• Ancient Close-Fitting
• Ancient Cunning Make
• Lófar
• Mattock of the Old Kingdoms, dwarven crafted mattock.
• Grevious
• Superior Keen
• Fell
• Armor of the Old Kings, a hauberk of mithril meant for old dwarven heroes.
• Ancient Cunning Make
• Mithral Armor
• Ancient Close-Fitting
• Troll-breaker, a Numenorean axe meant to slay trolls.
• Bane: Trolls, Orcs
• Keen
• Superior Grevious
• Foe-Slaying
• Meliot 
• Axe of the Forester, a Numenorean axe made to fight horrors of dark forests.
• Bane: Wolves, Undead
• Foe-Slaying
• Keen
• Raging
•  Princeling's Hide, a Numenorean mail shirt made to protect them from the worst.
• Bane: Undead, Evil Men
• Ancient Cunning Make
• Ancient Close Fitting
• Warding Spell
• Shield of the North Downs, a shield crafted in the long years for the captain of the hobbits who aided Arnor.
• Superior Reinforced
• Rune-Scored Shield
• Wondrous Artifacts 
• Minor Artifacts: Assume one Artifact for each of the Common Skills Blessing that skill
• Major Artifacts:
• A wondrous cloak that grants a Blessing to Battle and Stealth.
• A ring of mithril that gives a Greater Blessing to Craft.
• A ring of crystal that gives a Blessing to Song and Persuade.
• A bottle of crystal that gives a Greater Blessing to Healing.
• A beautiful belt that gives a Blessing to Inspire and Athletics.
• An ash staff that gives a Greater Blessing to Explore.
• A ring giving a Blessing to Search and Craft.
• A mirror that gives a Greater Blessing to Lore.
• A collar of wood that gives a Blessing to Awareness and Hunting.
• A circlet that gives a Greater Blessing to Insight.
• A strange ring that gives a Blessing to Persuade and Riddle.
• A harp that gives a Greater Blessing to Song.

And later, I will start to look into considering adventures.

Mirkwood Soldier - The One Ring Theoretical - Company of the Marsh Bell

More Pathfinder art.

For the sixth member of the Company of the Marsh Bell I have decided to use an Elf of Mirkwood. This is going to be a warrior and contrary to the movies, that means a spear. Especially in Lord of the Rings, the elves much more known for the quality of their spearmen than anything else. Of course, the Mirkwood Elves stand out from their kin for their fame as bowmen, but even with them, their warriors primarily use spears.

The initial benefits of being a Silvan Elf includes the Cultural Blessing of Folk of the Dusk which means that while the elf is in the forest, underground, or it is night, then when they spend Hope to give an Attribute Bonus it uses their favored score for all Common Skills. That's actually quite nice. As to Skills, Lore and Athletics are both good but neither is favored. Awe, Stealth, Song, Battle, and Awareness are all decent with Awareness being Favored. They have basic skills in Hunting and Healing. The Woodland Realm is a Martial Culture.

This comes to the weapon skills. The first of the two lines we have a choice between is skill with all Spears as well as skill with the Sword and the Dagger. The second is favored skill with the Bow, skill with the Sword and Dagger. As I said earlier, we're going for the spears here.

Woodman Healer - The One Ring Theoretical - Company of the Marsh Bell

So for the next character, we're going to look at a young Woodmen who has gone out into the world to seek his fortune in this promising time of glory and prosperity. I don't have much in the way of a concept of his skills yet, but we'll see what happens. Eventually I see him picking up the Staunching Song and being something of a healer, but we'll see what happens.

As to the culture, Woodmen get the Cultural Blessing of Woodcrafty which means that when they're in a forested area they use their Favored Wits for their Parry instead of their Basic Wits. As for starting skills, Woodmen have good Explore and Healing, with Healing being favored. They have decent Athletics, Stealth, Awareness, and Hunting. They basic skills in Inspire, Song, Craft, Riddle, and Battle. Woodmen are a Frugal culture.

On the choice of weapon sets we have the choice between skill with all Bows, the Long-Hafted Axe, and Dagger; or Favored skill with the Long-Hafted Axe and skill with Spear and Dagger. We have a couple of good archers in the party already so I am going to move that to the Long-Hafted Axe skill.

For starting traits, the Woodmen have the following six to choose from: Anduin-Lore, Beast-Lore, Fishing, Herb-Lore, Leechcraft, and Mirkwood Lore. For that I think I will do Leechcraft due to looking ahead towards more healer stuff and Mirkwood Lore just for survival purposes. Mirkwood is an extremely useful trait to have when you're looking at adventuring in the Wilderland.

Lake-Town Dragon-Foe - The One Ring Theoretical - Company of the Marsh Bell

Plated armor like that isn't really in Middle Earth

The Lake-Town culture is close cousin to the Barding culture and can be found in the Lake-Town Guide. They use similar names but their mechanical benefits are mostly different. Unlike usual for me, I am playing into the stereotypes for the culture by making her an archer. I also did an image search to decide whether her gender and found a really nice picture that isn't quite the right sort of armor and such, but still looks quite nice, so I went with it.

For the culture, we start with the Cultural Blessing of Tenacious. This gives her extra experience if she fails rolls that are exceptionally important representing how the Lake-Town folk persevere in the face of tragedy and learn from it. The Lake-Town folk are unusual for cultures in that they don't have any skill rated at 3 to start. Their Riddle, Athletics, Travel, Insight, Healing, Courtesy, Song, Craft, and Persuade are all decent, with Persuade being favored. Awareness and Battle are basically skilled. The Lake-Town is a Prosperous culture.

For the first choice we have the choice between the line of favored Great Bow 2, Sword 1, and Dagger 1 or Sword 2, Bow 1, and Dagger 1. With the focus on being an archer, I am going to go for the Great Bow line.

This comes to the choice on specialties. Lake-Town have the following to choose from: Boating, Fishing, Swimming, Minstrelsy, Trading, and Swimming. I am going to take Boating and Swimming. Boating is frequently useful in adventures around Wilderland due to the number of adventures that take place in proximity to the River Anduin, the River Running, or the Forest River. Swimming just plays on top of that and may help to cover for emergency situations.

Dunadan Minstrel - The One Ring Theoretical - Company of the Marsh Bell

Dunadain bear a special note in that they are stronger than average culture and as a result their experience point costs are higher once the game begins. This does not affect the character creation however so let's get on to things. I like making characters a bit off the standard stereotype of a culture so I am going to make a character that is a bit more whimsical than the average ranger of the north. She is still a ranger, but she doesn't have the same burning drive that other rangers might and might fit in better with other people.

As to the hard starting things, we get the Ranger of the North cultural blessing which is Foresight of their Kindred. This grants the character an extra trait that can be used for one session out of an Adventuring Phase and recovers at the end of the adventure when you have a Fellowship Phase. So with our ranger's prophetic nature noted down let's move on. Rangers have good Awareness but it is not favored. They are decent at Stealth, Explore, Hunting, and Travel which is the favored trait of the culture. Then we have base skill in a lot of different skills: Athletics, Song, Insight, Healing, Courtesy, Battle, Persuade, and Search. The Rangers of the North are a Martial culture.

Now on to the first choice, weapons. Dunadain have two weapon tracks like all cultures, but their weapon tracks are a bit longer than others. We have the choice between having skill in all swords, favored skill in spear, plus skill in bow and dagger; or favored skill in Long Sword, skill with all bows, and skill in spear and dagger. I like spears and the focus on the long sword seems like much more focus on martial natures than normal, so we're going to go with that track.

Dwarven Historian - The One Ring theoretical - Company of the Marsh Bell

Scholarly pursuits are not what dwarves are known for, it's not hard to make a dwarven scholar. We don't see much in the way of scholars in the few dwarves we see, Balin is likely the best example of it. That said, let's get started.

Dwarves start with relatively few skills but more of them at higher level. In this case, good capabilities in Travel, Craft, and Search with Craft being favored. They have decent skill with Riddle, Inspire, and Explore. They have some basic skill in Song and Battle. Their cultural blessing is Redoubtable allowing them to hold great loads. The Dwarves of Erebor are a Rich culture.

So now we come to the choice of weapons. Both lines of weapons give Short Sword 1 and Dagger 1 but the choice is between skill in all Axes or favored skill with a Mattock. I'm already eyeing a particular background so I think I'm going to pick up the line with favored Mattock skill. Plus, it's Middle Earth and while axes are iconic to dwarves, the average soldier drafted from the miners will use a mattock rather than an axe. So there we go.

Buckland Forester - The One Ring Theoretical - Company of the Marsh Bell

This is going to be something of a challenge. Hobbits of the Shire, as compared to the other cultures

Pathfinder halfling art, but good enough.

hobbits do not have the best stats to be fighters off the bat. Pippin and Meriadoc manage it quite well, both achieving some laudable achievements, including Pippin killing a troll chief on his own, over the course of Lord of the Rings and even Bilbo, who was more of a burglar, managed to slay hundreds of spiders in his adventure. However, they all came into that capability later in their story.

So to start we have the basic culture attributes of a Hobbit of the Shire. This is the starting selection of common skills, favored Stealth, good Courtesy score; decent scores in Awareness, Song, Search, Persuasion, and Riddle; and some capability in Travel and Insight. There's also the Hobbit cultural blessing of Hobbit Sense. After noting all that, we get to the choices. Hobbits of the Shire are a Prosperous culture.

The first choices we get are between the two sets of weapon skills. The choice here is between favored bows and favored short sword. The safe choice is to go bows since this hobbit isn't going to have much endurance to start and staying off the front lines is a good idea. I could pick up short sword later as favored skill and I think I'll go with that option. I'll go with the bows for now and build up melee ability as we go along.

This comes to the next choice which is to choose two traits from the starting list of options. We have six options: Cooking, Gardening, Herb-Lore, Smoking, Story-Telling, and Tunneling. None of these are particularly warrior oriented. Tunneling will be of use in underground situations so that goes in. Now as to the others, the two I am looking at three. Herb-lore is useful for finding antidotes or medicinal herbs as well as identifying poisons. Story-telling can be used to remember bits of old battles and stratagems or to share tales with other folk. Smoking is another trait that can be used for communing with people and the smoke can also be used to find hidden passages or other such things. I think I'm going with the Story-Telling option there.

Roleplaying Streamers and YouTubers

Good Aligned Yuan-Ti Warlock Patrons

I am pretty vocal about not being particularly fond of alignment and have never really used it in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. That said, it's not the trait itself I have a problem with but the community around it and its status as a sacred cow. Truth be told, while simplistic in many ways, alignment is a useful guide for beginning players on how to make their character's decisions. As such, I have no complaint about alignment still being in the game itself.

Murder and Witnesses - Blackmouth Nightmares - Session 1

Character Journal

The mists were still thick and the mirrors were still covering the walls. She could see Dr Kapel Christian in the mirror, distorted by places where the mirrors were joined together. Or maybe those were cracks. Were they cracks?

She should have been a bit more cautious when she was looking into the facial recognition software. She'd left tracks and there was a bit of disapproval coming down her way. Loose cannons weren't to be tolerated and she should stick to doing only the investigations that she was asked to do.

Falling in line?

Holy Pregnant Pause - Yakki Koto Kiku - Session 4

So, Frederic didn't expect us to solve his scenario in a single day. I get the idea that he didn't expect anybody to have finished the whole deal in a single day, but certainly not us. I can sort of get that. I mean, if anybody is going to do it one day it'd likely be the people that were supposed to destroy the piano. 

I mean, the defense team wouldn't be going after us to remove us from the occasion, that'd leave the piano unguarded. And I get the feeling most thieves don't go for the bliztkrieg random nonsense strategy.

That's really sort of what we did, you know. Just random stuff and taking advantage of things that sort of blew up in the faces of our colleagues.

Unexpected Cousin - Crossroads Campaign - Session 19

We had arrived at the police office within a day of the murder of Xahndyg Yellow-Coat, a court clerk, so Inspector Craftbrass took us to the crime scene at the court offices. Wyndelly began the process of investigating the flows of magic at the site, looking for signs of this Haberdashing's tricks. Kelmar started reading through a journal of some sort at the same time and I went out to the bullpen to lean back and skirt over the minds of our victim's coworkers.

It produced an interesting bit of information. The other clerks were wondering who would be promoted to the now vacant spot. This was pertinent on its own, but the other response made things more intriguing. They weren't sure that promotion to Yellow-Coat's position was something anybody would want. This recent murder victim was someone attached to a prosecutor who worked a lot of political cases. The sort of person who would be prone to stumble onto dangerous information whether they know it or not.

Bizarre Bazaar - Cage of the Demiurge - Session 5

"Well, I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this," Hilde said as she scanned about the city they had entered through the gate.

Buildings scaled high around them on every side while the spaces between were cluttered by a variety of colorful stalls, booths, boutique shops, and any of a number of such businesses. People milled about on one errand or another and the entire place was filled with the rampant sound of strange music and raucous chatter. 

"All citizens keep in mind the upcoming Idol Competition. Potential competitors, your last chance of signing up as coming up shortly, you'd better get on it."

Vigilantes Make Everything Worse - Crossroads Campaign - Session 18

To be perfectly fair, I was on the vigilante side of things for a bit. That's how I got into this whole adventurer, cult-breaker deal in the first place. As a young changeling from a family that hadn't been human for generations, I grew up exposed to the occult and the supernatural quite often. Back home you had the dangers of the occasional fanatic or criminal organizations. The outsiders weren't so much of an issue, I mean, they'd been around and there were the occasional aberrations. That's where things like  dopplegangers came from, after all, and I eventuallly come from dopplegangers, but the first time I stumbled on a cult to them I decided to go the whole superhero deal. 

It went predictably, horribly wrong. We eventually cleaned the mess up, but our attempts to fix things at the start made everything so much worse and there was so much more collateral damage than there needed to be. After the fact, Department 7 cornered us and we got the offer to stand down or join up. I joined up, and then a year later, I was Lost and who knows how many years later I was playing Sentinels of the Multiverse with a demigod and a tiger-man. The Wraith, Expatriette, and Chrono-Ranger versus Miss Information in Rook City. 

Avice Kokinos - Avian and Chosen Scion of Frigg - The Clean Harpy

Scions of the Second Refinement

Background: Avice has always looked toward the sky and had issues with a terrible temper. In her early years she became a fan of anime and especially the various raven winged characters that were found within it. She would often fantasize about being a powerful tengu warrior come to deal death to some evil scum. And her young mind the tengu were always the heroes and she hated the shows where they were villains instead. She often found herself trying to ignore the legends of her own people, the horrific harpies know for defecating on food and harassing blind men.

She somehow managed to track down a retired wolf-warrior to teach her how to fight and found a legitimate relic somewhere in a second time around shop. She never really questioned how easily she found such hints of the divine around her and always assumed that the people on the deifan forums who talked about how they so wished to meet a real supernatural person must just be unlucky. That is, until the first time she met her birth mother at the age of 16.

Lucy West - Chosen Scion of Kali - The Forgotten Victim

Scions of the Second Refinement

Background: Lucy woke up with almost no memory to speak of. She had some vague memory of being helpless and immobile, but now she'd suddenly found herself looking about to see a pristine, almost unnaturally clean, room with harsh light streaming in from the window and setting a glare on everything around.her. She'd later come to learn that this was a hospital of some variety.

Míša Kedzierski - Chosen Scion of Veles - A Modern Red

The tail would come when she gained an omen later.

Scions of the Second Refinement

Background: 

Míša had heard the tale of Little Red Riding Hood of course, most people had. It was a popular folktale all around the world. She just hadn't given it much mind at all. You heard stories of supernatural wolves, of course, as well as werewolves. But who ever actually ran into one. That was something you heard from rumors or the odd news story. People liked to talk about the documentary filmer who announced an intention to interview and film werewolves and then vanished, but nobody could remember his name. It's just that you never one of those stories.

Her mother had asked her to walk down the street to return some flour to her grandmother. The door was ajar when she arrived and things were a mess. She had been nervous and called out for her grandmother and was relieved when she heard the old woman's voice, though it sounded a bit strained. She complained about an intruder and Míša walked in to see if there was anything to be done.

Pequod's for Tea - Blackmouth Nightmares - Session 0

Character Journal

The mists stretch on and on. The hallway is impossibly long with two many corners and intersections that curved on themselves or should have done...but didn't. The walls were mirrors that she could see through the mist. The glass must have been warped, or maybe the water droplets on the mist were warping the image itself. 

She was barely able to make out her silhouette and features on the twisted and flat surface of the blackened silver. But she undeniably knew it was there and behind her, and at the end of the hall, and on any other surface she could cast her eyes on. She could just reach out and trace the edges of it.

Much more visible was the cracked jigsaw image of herself sitting in the back of the Pequod's with a cup of Earl Grey because what the coffee house called sweet tea was a blaspheme on anybody who grew up south of Mason Dixon.

You make toys of tools.

The voice was just behind her ear. It wasn't English. She wasn't certain if it was even words at all, though she heard the sibilant lisps and clicks.

Charts and charts and charts. 

Was it laughing at her? She could feel it on the back of her neck. Just breathing there and stirring the mist. She whirled around to find nothing and stepped unsteadily down the hall looking for the source of the sound. 

The Nightmares of Cheyenne Belmont - Chronicles of Darkness - City of Blackmouth

At the beginning of the year, a friend of my spoke of plans to run a Chronicles of Darkness game and now, after several bumps and bruises of life, we've come to the first sort of session for it. Mostly we finished up characters, but had one small scene that we got to play out before we ended for the night, next session yet to be scheduled. So time to open up a journal for this character.

Yes, that is Agam Darshi.

I built the character without realizing which splat we were moving toward and I didn't exactly have an idea of what character I wanted to play. I started with a random name generation on the Behind-the-Name website and got Cheyenne, I picked up the surname Belmont due to having watched the Castlevania anime at about the same time. I had also had one of my periodic cases of Rally Vincent appreciation, who is half Indian and half English, resulting in me going looking for pics of Agam Darshi since I can't afford to commission art right now. Amusingly, Cheyenne isn't the action sort, she's a computer investigations specialist.

Regardless, this is an interesting case where I don't have a set forward plan for a character to guide myself other than some basic notions of what type of creature she's going to be and what her current goals are. That said, the GM provided us with a 100-question survey to optionally fill out to build the character. So I have a very firm idea of where she's coming from. I'm looking forward to this.

As a side note, this is in the same campaign city where Emma Terreal lives.

Character Sheet

 

100 Questions

• The Basics - 1-14 
• Growing Up 15-28  
• Past Influences 29-39 
• Beliefs and Opinions 40-52 
• Relationships with Others 53-69 
• Likes and Dislikes 70-83 
• Self-Images and Etc.84-100

 

All is Prologue

• Pequod's for Tea
• Murder and Witnesses

Cheyenne Belmont Character Sheet

Concept: Police Computer Forensics Specialist

Chronicle: Blackmouth

Virtue: Righteous

Vice: Perfectionist

Attributes

• Mental
• Intelligence ***
• Wits **
• Resolve ***
• Physical
• Strength **
• Dexterity **
• Stamina **
• Social
• Presence **
• Manipulation **
• Composure ***

Cheyenne's 100 Questions - Self-Images and Etc. 84-100

84. Describe the routine of a normal day for you. How do you feel when this routine is disrupted?

Wake up at about 4am, do some time on the treadmill, eat breakfast at about 6am after a shower. Head to work, check the day’s task roster and get started. Pick somewhere to eat lunch that sounds interesting, return to work. head home and choose a game to play. Go to bed at about 8pm. Most of this is obligation based, so when her routine is disrupted, he gets a little bit frantic, but otherwise it doesn’t much bother her.-

85. What is your greatest strength as a person?

Focus and Intelligence.-

86. What is your greatest weakness?

Hesitation and the desire for perfect information-

87. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

She’d undo the prank she pulled that got some killed and arrange for her to realize that the place was corrupt some other way.-

88. Are you generally introverted or extroverted?

Closer to introverted, but she can sometimes be mistaken for extroverted.

Cheyenne's 100 Questions - Likes and Dislikes 70-83

70. What is/are your favourite hobbies and pastimes?

Cheyenne is a gamer, mostly online with video games, but also a fair amount of tabletop gaming either face-to-face or virtual tabletop. -

71. What is your most treasured possession?

She has a key-chain as a gift from her parents that consists of an old American coin and an old Indian coin woven together decoratively with bronze wire. -

72. What is your favourite colour?

Earth tones.-

73. What is your favourite food?

What her mother calls “Southwestern Curry” which is a mix of curry and rice with chili.-

74. What, if anything, do you like to read?

She mostly likes intrigue stories with complex plots and clever gambits. This ranges from things like murder mysteries or court dramas to espionage stories. Superheroes are a recent appreciation, mostly because of the complex interconnections of the MCU.-

Cheyenne's 100 Questions - Relationships with Others 53-69

53. In general, how do you treat others (politely, rudely, by keeping them at a distance, etc.)? Does your treatment of them change depending on how well you know them, and if so, how?

Until she gets to know someone, Cheyenne can come across as friendly but guarded, often appearing extremely straight-laced and conservative. If she comes to trust a person, then she becomes a lot more casual and relaxed around them.-

54. Who is the most important person in your life, and why?

The most important person in Cheyenne’s life right now is her best friend Maya Osren, a police dispatcher, and the woman with whom she formerly shared a lover. This is entirely a friendship and has developed since the marriage since the husband is often busy with his career in the DA and doesn’t often have time to join them on outings. Maya is one of the people in her life right now who most understands the difficulties she faces due to being mixed heritage and non-standard sexuality (Maya is hetero but quite a bit more poly than Cheyenne. Her heritage is African/Korean) so she’s one of the few people around whom Maya can relax. They also share an interest in games of many sorts.

55. Who is the person you respect the most, and why?

Her elder sister for managing to get past the unreasoning dislike she used to have for Cheyenne as a kid and also for managing a respectable if not overly well-known career in entertainment through which she does a lot of charity work.-

Cheyenne's 100 Questions - Beliefs and Opinions 40-52

40. Are you basically optimistic or pessimistic?

Pessimistic Optimist. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.-

41. What is your greatest fear?

Unintended consequences-

42. What are your religious views?

Non-religious, mother is Hindu, father is Catholic. She has a bit of a mix, but doesn’t really think about it much. She will jokingly suggest she’s bisexual because of unresolved past lives.-

43. What are your political views?

Liberal authoritarian. Believes that tyranny, political and legal corruption are signs of a weak government rather than a government that is too strong. -

Cheyenne's 100 Questions - Past Influences 29-39

29. What do you consider the most important event of your life so far?

When her elder sister called her “sis” for the first time and they started to have a good relationship finally.-

30. Who has had the most influence on you?

Her mother’s intelligence, sense of justice, and determination.-

31. What do you consider your greatest achievement?

She helped convict the leader of a child prostitution ring.-

32. What is your greatest regret?

Failing to take advantage of the two times she had experienced love. She and Dale just let each other go across country without trying, though it was amicable so her guilt is manageable. Lydia is still institutionalized after her mental breakdown and Cheyenne feels that wouldn’t have happened if she’d been more mature and tried to support her more. -

Cheyenne's 100 Questions - Growing Up 15-28

15. How would you describe your childhood in general?

Complicated. Mother was often at work and expected high performance, father was often out of town. Both parents clearly love her. Her elder siblings often fought with her father and occasionally pulled pranks on her. -

16. What is your earliest memory?

Her mother was crying as her father comforted her, seen through a gap in the door.-

17. How much schooling have you had?

Master’s degree-

18. Did you enjoy school?

Yes. School is a chance to show off and show what she can do. In college she was part of a co-ed fraternity, pompously named Order of the Binary Code, focused around students in computer sciences.-

Cheyenne's 100 Questions - The Basics 1-14

1. What is your full name?

Cheyenne Belmont-

2. Where and when were you born?

October 31, 1993 in Denver, Colorado-

3. Who are/were your parents? (Know their names, occupations, personalities, etc.)

Mother (Deepa Tamboli originally, Choudhary first husband’s surname) was an immigrant from India who became a doctor and expert in immunology. Her father (Ian Belmont) is her mother’s second husband, an office manager for energy companies. Her mother’s first husband died in a car accident which is when she completed her education to become a doctor. Her mother was later hired by the CDC and her father travels for his work managing deals for an energy company.-

Naomi Medici - Chosen Scion of Hermes - The Squirrel Thief

Scions of the Second Refinement

Background: The Medici family is famous for its mercantile success through the Renaissance but one branch of the family delved into other means of power. One of their number came to the attention of one of the gods after which the family made the effort to keep that scion blood as strong as possible through the bloodline. Most of the time this didn't seem to produce anything special though the family claimed their practices were the reason so many of them were exceptional competent. A few parlayed their trace of divine blood into sorcery but only rare individuals, usually those that broke out of the family's hierarchy, attracted the attention of the Gods to be chosen as a scion. Naomi Medici ran away as a child to escape the practices of her coven of a biological family.

Opposing Teams...Plural - Yakki Koto Kiku - Session 3

Session 2: Wibbly-Wobbly and Drunky-Wunky 

We had a few plans. Leigh was gonna drive us off to somewhere out of the open and then we were going to either disguise the truck or get a different truck. Then I figured I'd set up a distraction or two or three. Leigh commented I was wonderful at distractions which I'm not sure what they're talking about really, but cool, thanks for the compliment.

Anyway, all that sort of went by the wayside when a bullet took out the truck's axle from out of nowhere. I mean, I didn't see it, I was in the back of the truck, but there was a sudden impact and then the truck was skidding to a stop. Then Morgan and I heard some muffled voices and maybe a pistol shot or two. So I did what a good little sneak does and dropped through the maintenance shaft, saw the massively broken axle and some massive guy with an axe slipping like an 80s lawn-toy ad on the oil and two other guys standing back away from him. 

Morgan stepped out as well though she was a bit out of my line of sight and used a dagger to pin the axe man to the ground or something.