player plot side quest: dream come true

[cozen]

Arlathan Forest happens to be where the Black Fox and his companions disappeared, so while we're there (p.s. go sign up for stuff), Bastien's also going to drag some folks off on a side quest to solve the mystery of what happened to them.

Doing so will wind up escaping a desire demon-inflicted dream maze similar to the Fade plot in Dragon Age: Origins, but hopefully less frustrating. Rather than horrors, the dream scenarios characters have to navigate will be ones where they are BIG DAMN HEROES, successfully leading revolts or personally stabbing Corypheus or whatever else would make them feel legendary.

(The scope for this is meant to be pretty small and side quests—a quick scene of your character's heroic dream scenario, enough for everyone to see what it is, before they're pushed along to the next thing. Not big time-intensive prolonged adventures.)

To some degree, they'll be assisted by the dream ghosts of Remi Vascal and his pals. The degree depends on whether or not I convince people to NPC them with me or not. There are five total–Remi Vascal (obviously), his Circle mage lover Servana de Montfort, a bounty hunter BFF named Karolis, a dwarf named Bolek, and a knight named Ser Clementis. We know very little about any of their personalities or specific adventures so it'll be a chance for folks to go a little ham, if desired, and try out some over-the-top personalities. But if no one's interested in writing NPCs, there may just be a lot of silent ghost pointing.

In the event that more than 5 people try to sign up, this'll be capped at 5 participants, and preference will go to people willing to take on an NPC.

Sign up by September 3, 2020, if you want in.

Comments

[cozen]

Whoohoo! We're about to get started!

Reply with your Top 3 NPC Choices, and I will roll dice to decide who's assigned NPCs and try to give those people the ones they prefer.

For the NPCing itself, you can write the NPC in the same tag as your PC—"Bastien looks around, meanwhile Bolek strokes his beard and says something wise"—unless you prefer to separate them. They'll be coaching everyone through not getting too distracted by the demon visions, since that's how they got caught, and helping them find their way to the next part. They can also banter with each other and answer questions on the way, but you'll never have to make them settle down for an in-depth conversation (unless you want to).

All but one of the NPCs are from a band of adventurers/friends who were active mainly during the late Blessed age (so the 8:80s onward) before they went to the sunken city of Arlathan (we're saying in the very early 9:00s) and disappeared. The versions we're playing will have been dead for nearly 50 years, with their spirits trapped in this part of the Fade by a demon, so their memories might be missing or warped (especially in the direction of what they wish had happened) and their personalities might be unstable/exaggerated.

Your choices are:

• LORD REMI VASCAL, THE BLACK FOX. A minor nobleman and Bard who got his start by donning a mask (not the nobility kind, a real face-hiding kind) and ridiculing and foiling the plans of the tyrannical then-Marquis de Chevin until the man was furious enough to put a huge bounty on him. (Thwarting Chevin's tax collectors was apparently a particular favorite of his, which is how he became a hero to the common folk.) Probably charismatic, given everything.
  
  
• KAROLIS, A BOUNTY HUNTER. One of the first to try to claim the Marquis' bounty, he came close to catching Remi several times (at least per the legends) while Remi narrowly escaped seemingly via buffoonish accident, until Karolis lost his temper about it and Remi used that to gain the upper hand. After that they became besties and partners in crime for the rest of their lives.
  
  
• SERVANA DE MONTFORT, A CIRCLE MAGE. Remi's lover. Betrayed him at some point, leading to his capture and year (supposedly) of torture before his friends, including a repentant Servana, sprung him from his imprisonment and ran away with him. Why did she do any of this?? And then get forgiven???? A mystery. If you want me to validate your tragic backstory theory (or help you come up with one) I am happy to do so.
  
  
• BOLEK, A DWARF. "Wise." Otherwise you can go wild.
  
  
• SER CLEMENTIS, A KNIGHT. "Tempestuous." Otherwise you can go wild.

And,

• DESIRE, A DEMON. I'm tentatively planning to do this myself, but it's also a fairly easy NPC job—some snakey "is this what you want, I can give it to you, etc." voiceovers during the dream segments, maybe arguing with the Black Fox NPCs who it has now known for 50 years and might like a little bit in a demon way, maybe a little boss fight when they find it—so if someone would prefer that over a Black Fox & Buddies NPC, we can trade.

Your job is to REPLY TO THIS COMMENT in the next 24 hours or so with the three of these who sound most fun to you.

[elegiaque]

i am down for any of them!