[OOC] [Mage: the Awakening 2E] The Supernal Suburbia

[Retias]

I think Sara and Vo both show that suburban life is often not as peaceful as people might think, and I do like some of the things they may share. On an aside, you said you panned to run here, but have you heard of a site called rpol.net?

[rwknoll]

Beans - I didn't see the original before you edited out Order relations, but I want to clarify that you're allowed to have ties to them if you would have before Awakening. I just didn't want people making assumptions yet about connections with the Orders post-Awakening -- partially because I want to RP that "on screen," and partially because I haven't finished a write up about local Awakened politics.

Caladriu - That sounds like a really neat character concept and totally sounds fine to me. As I just wrote above, I just wanted to avoid something along the lines of "...and as soon as he/she Awakened, she sought out the X Order and became an initiate." As a plot hook, I would like to incorporate your previous mentor as a Mage who was recently assassinated downtown, but whose death and surrounding circumstances remain inconclusive.

For everyone: Loving the ideas so far. I received a submission via Reddit from someone who has had trouble getting an account made here. He is planning to play a Thyrsus foreign exchange student from Norway.

I'll add more later, but the Arrow will be very prominent in downtown Chicago due to recent events, with a disgruntled Mysterium due to the previous Hierarch (a Mystagogue) being pressured into stepping down from his role and passing the role to an Arrow member. Guardians and Silver Ladder have somewhat tense relations due to philosophical differences in Chicagoland, but both will have an active presence in the outlying suburbs. Free Council were also pretty popular around the city and have been doing a lot of humanitarian work with Chicago homeless, and research with mages affiliated with several colleges and universities downtown; however, they also have lost some influence recently due to increase in dangerous crime spikes in Chicago and surrounding suburbs.

[rwknoll]

I think Sara and Vo both show that suburban life is often not as peaceful as people might think, and I do like some of the things they may share. On an aside, you said you panned to run here, but have you heard of a site called rpol.net?

I've heard of the site, and I know there are a few others. I would generally prefer to use this one, but actually the biggest determining factor will be whether I can load this website through my work firewall. :P I don't always have down time at work, but if I do, it will allow me to keep the game pace up a lot more easily. I'll know more tomorrow.

[Caladriu]

As a plot hook, I would like to incorporate your previous mentor as a Mage who was recently assassinated downtown, but whose death and surrounding circumstances remain inconclusive.

Perfect. Sounds great, exactly the kind of starting hook I was thinking of. Are there any details like Path/Order you'd like to define, or is it up to me?

[rwknoll]

Order doesn't need to be decided yet at all. For Path, you can either pick or let me pick, but I think it makes more sense for you to decide since we're starting post-Awakening.

[Retias]

I see Free Council as likely for Sara, but will see what happens.

[Caladriu]

Sorry, I meant the mentor's Path/Order just in case you had something in mind you wanted to run with. I'm definitely making an Acanthus.

[rwknoll]

Sorry, I meant the mentor's Path/Order just in case you had something in mind you wanted to run with. I'm definitely making an Acanthus.

Oh! Gotcha, my bad. I think you can go ahead and pick for the mentor, whatever you prefer. I can weave it into the story regardless. Plus, I imagine your mentor's order may influence your character's preference, and I don't want you to feel pressured into (or away from) any one in particular.

[rwknoll]

Caladriu - Just realized as I reviewed the submissions that you haven't provided a name. Any ideas? Also, what is his/her life among Sleepers, if any? Does he/she exclusively spend time with Mages? (Even so, what was their life before they were introduced to Awakened politics?) And how much information do you think they were privy to before their Awakening?

lnodiv and tenebra - Wanted to make sure you saw the confirmation that I'm offering to ST. Still interested in playing?

Tambov - I need a lot more information about your character. Name, history, pre-Awakened life, and Path. Feel free to ask here if you need help with ideas.

[Thorbes]

I might be interested in playing a Mastigos to round up the group. I'll post more later, I'm now at work.

[rwknoll]

I might be interested in playing a Mastigos to round up the group. I'll post more later, I'm now at work.

Great! And just a reminder, you're not required to play a Mastigos to be considered for the game. I like the idea of having 1 of each Path, but it's not a requirement. I care more that players enjoy their characters, and that characters have rich backgrounds and a strong overall concept.

Does anyone have any better ideas for the game title?

Also, good news: These forums load perfectly fine at work. I won't always have down time, but it means making fast replies as needed will be a lot easier for me.

[MagicSwordsman]

I'm very interested in participating! Will work on getting a character concept up quickly!

[wtaylorjr2001]

1. Character concept/archetype:
Michael Korn is a bestselling author of fantasy and science fiction and speculative fiction works. He wrote two bestsellers on the New York Times bestseller lists. Personally he is an adventurous sort who will try almost anything to learn about it and conceivably write about it. At one point he spent an entire month living with the homeless to transfer the experience to his fantasy series. He has found himself to be a happy go lucky person with a strong work ethic.
He has never really failed at anything he tried. Some things take longer than others, some things have to be tried more than once, in different ways, but he has always completed his goals and turned those experiences into fiction. His most exciting experience was when he awakened.


2. Awakening: Indicate your character's Path and provide a brief narrative about their Awakening experience.
He was on a private jet, complements of a multimillionaire who he was on his way to interview, when the plane went down. There was an engine failure and they crashed into the Atlantic ocean. He got out of the plane to find himself in the middle of the ocean no land to see and no idea in which direction land would be. He was afraid, but he was glad to be alive. He chose a direction, and swam when the remnants of the plane all sank below the ocean waves.
For three days he swam. Without fresh water he knew that he would die, but he hadn't yet, so he continued to swim. When he was too exhausted to continue, he floated on his back. He saw fins trailing him so when he was ready, he continued to swim. There was nothing else he could do.
Then came the impossible. Hedges with no land in sight. He grabbed onto the hedges after swimming up to them and pulled himself along. It was slow going because of his hunger and thirst but he continued. After what seemed an eternity, he reached a firm ground. In the distance he saw an Ivory tower, the first structure he saw in days. Hoping to get food and drink there he made his way through a thick, scratching hedge, miles of it.
It took a long time, how long, he couldn't say, but he made it to the tower. He walked through the open doorway, bloody from the scratches, clothes torn and his only thought was food and a drink of fresh water. He was going to start drinking salt water but came upon the hedges. He looked about for a door to enter the tower, but all he saw were walls filled with names. After a quick search he knew he was going to die. There was nothing here save names as far as the eye could see. He was afraid.
He was just about to leave when he saw a spot on the wall, perfect for his own name. He would write Michael Korn lived and died here. He wrote his name in his own blood on the inner walls of that Ivory Tower.

Correction**************************************** ************************************************** ******************************************

And he found himself back in the middle of the ocean. The only thing about the hedges and tower that was left with him, as proof he was there was the stinging cuts in the saltwater and his torn clothes. A half a day later he was half mad.
He found himself hoping and wishing for a way out of this, he wanted to live. In his mind a fantasy formed. He needed to get to the trade waters, he needed the correct current. If he swam to the correct trade waters a ship could find him and he would live. He just needed to get to the correct current. He visualized the current taking him in the right direction. He could see it and taste it and feel it and hear it. He was going to float to a ship. As these final hours ran through, the image of the ship grew more and more real. He just had to hold out. For some reason he knew he was getting closer. He foresaw that someone was coming. He turned on his back and floated. He hoped the current would take him to safety.


His body gave up but his mind did not. It continued to dream of the ship that rescued him, he continued to dream until he passed out ready to drown. But that was not to be. He woke to find himself wrapped in a blanket by a table with soup and water. He grabbed the water. He found himself on the ship he envisioned. He foretold his rescue.

Amendment to link to game ************************************************** ************************************************** *****

Michael needed a home. He needed someplace quiet where he could think. What on earth happened to him out in the ocean. The half mad picture in his mind came true. He swam until he found the correct current to put him in trade waters and it happened like he saw it. This is enough for a book that he could write. He needed a place that was quiet and peaceful. He wondered if he could do it again, form a mental movie and have his dream come true. No that wasn't it. He had a movie where he simply chose the right time to float and the right time to swim. He did not create the fateful rescue, he only put himself in the position to be rescued. Perhaps he could choose a small home in a quiet neighborhood. He would try it out. He got a map of the US and a pin. He closed his eyes and formed a mental movie of finding the best state for peace and quiet. He imagined a small home with quiet neighbors. He stuck the map with the needle and opened his eyes. Chicago eh. Not Chicago but the suburbs. He then went on his computer and looked up the phone numbers of the realtors in areas near Chicago. He wrote them down and once again, for practice, closed his eyes and made a mental movie of the right number to choose. He moved his finger along the page. He stopped and opened his eyes. He called the number and made an appointment to look at houses in a Chicago suburb.

He met the sales agent and went looking for houses. The last one was a nice looking house and the family that lived there was friendly enough. They seemed a bit on edge though. Michael knew something was up though he didn't know what. This was until the child blurted out that this house was haunted. Strange things happened here. It was odd.

Michael thought this would be perfect, living in a quiet home where no one would bother him. He bought the home, in La Grange, he got a deal on it. Three weeks later he moved in. He explored the new neighborhood and found a park where there were people playing chess among other things. He made a few friends there as the days rolled on. On a particular day he sat down at his computer and began writing the first draft of a new series about a man who became a mage. He wrote three chapter ones and rewrote them again and again. In each chapter the character could only get so far without a teacher. He tried creating a mental image of the best first chapter that would lead to another bestseller. In the quiet of his new home he wrote in the evenings and visited the park and played chess during the day. He finished the book in three weeks. Now came the revising. When he was done he made copies and passed them out to certain friends at the park.


3. Preferred game/player style:
I never played mage, though I have read it. I will tell you what I believe I would like about playing this game. I would like the freedom to create new magical workings. I love creating things and this is the most creative game I've ever heard about. I always make Acanthus mages because that gives me the most creative freedom.

[Tambov]

Big question! On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is Henry Wu and 10 is Takashi Natsume, how much does the Athenaeum care about the cryptids' wellbeing?

[Caladriu]

Player: Caladriu
Chronicle: The Supernal Suburbia
Shadow Name: Moonstone
Legal Name: Roger Ellis
Sympathetic Name: Ngoc Vo

Stats

Path: Mastigos
Order: (Guardians of the Veil)
Cabal: Stormborne
Legacy:

Virtue: Bold
Vice: Naive
Concept: Venomous Servant

Attributes
Intelligence: 1
Wits: 3
Resolve: 4

Strength: 3
Dexterity: 3
Stamina: 1

Presence: 1
Manipulation: 2
Composure: 4

[5/4/3 distribution, +1 Composure]

Skills (Profession, Rote)
Occult: 4+1 (Awakened Magic)
Politics: 3 (Chicago Consilium)

Athletics: 4
Stealth: 3
Weaponry: 4

Expression: 2 (Dance)
Subterfuge: 2


Advantages
Health: 6
Willpower: 8
Defense: 7
Initiative: 7
Speed: 11
Size: 5

Gnosis: 1
Wisdom: 7
Max Mana/Per Turn: 10/1

Merits
Artifact: 5
Infamous Mentor: 3 [Consilium Status 3, Fixer (for Status requisition purposes) 2, Allies (Adamantine Arrow) 3, Contacts (Knights of Alhambra) 1]
Professional Training (Sleepwalker Servant): 2 [Asset Skills: Occult, Weaponry. Contacts (Consilium Sleepwalkers, non-Awakened Occultists)]
High Speech: 1
Familiar: 4 (temporary)
Status (Guardians of the Veil): 1*

Arcana: Mind 2, Space 2, Time 2

Praxes
Divination (Time 1)

Attainments
Counterspell (Mind, Space, Time)
Mage Armor (Mind, Space, Time)
Mind's Eye
Sympathetic Range
Temporal Sympathy

Rotes (Not yet active)
Psychic Domination, Mind 2 (Subterfuge 3, Reach 4)
Choose the Thread, Time 2 (Occult 5, Reach 4)
Postcognition, Time 1 (Occult 5, Reach 5)
Perfect Timing, Time 1 (Stealth 4, Reach 5)

Dedicated Tool
A hand mirror with hairline fractures.

Nimbus

Long-term: Doubts and regrets grow stronger, a sense of being trapped and needing to escape.

Immediate: Moonstone seems to speak backwards, shrinking and growing and warping like a funhouse mirror.

Signature: The object is like the Snow Queen's devil-mirror, mentally reflecting the worst parts of the observer back at them.

Tilt: -1 to Dexterity rolls.

Aspirations
- Investigate La Grange Park. (short-term)
- Learn something about the mage who attacked us. (short-term)
- Distance myself from Hakim in a significant way. (long-term)

[completed: Perform for a Crowd, Engage in Social Maneuvering, Join a Cabal, Teach Ragnar something about magic, Acquire a Familiar]

Obsession
The potential shared Sympathy of the Deathstorm victims.

Equipment
Dao (Damage 2, Initiative -2, Strength 2, Size 2, Availability 2, page 221)
Dance wear (+2 to relevant Social rolls, Durability 1, Size 2, Structure 1, Availability 3, page 277)
Occult paraphernalia [incense, candles, sigils, papercraft, etc] (+1 to relevant Occult or Social rolls, Availability 1, grants access to +1 Sacrament yantra)
A pair of +2 Sacrament yantras, for Space and Time respectively
Valentine's business card, suitable for contacting him sympathetically
iPhone (photos: Stormborne group shot, imitation of Mathias)

Cloak of Night (Artifact 5)
An archaic hooded traveling cloak, ink-black, with a leaden clasp in the shape of a death's-head moth. Retrieved from a Highstorm by Hakim.
Contains the spells Shadow Flesh (Death 4) and Wards and Signs (Prime 2). Effective Gnosis 3 and Arcana 4. Contains up to 10 Mana. Moros Path tool.
Effect 1: Gain [base Potency 4, more with spell factors] Withstand against all spells targeting me specifically for 1 scene. Activated by closing the clasp around the neck. 7 dice before spell factors. (Wards and Signs, 1 reach spent on instant casting, 1 reach on advanced duration, 1 reach spent on changing primary factor from duration to potency.)
Effect 2: Dissolve into a two-dimensional shadow for [base Duration 5 turns, more with spell factors] as per Shadow Flesh. Activated by pulling the hood over the head. 7 dice before spell factors. (Shadow Flesh, 1 reach spent on instant casting.)

Moonstone's Fear (Familiar 4)
Moonstone's Fear lurks hazily in Mind Twilight as a human-sized and slightly more humanoid version of Alux. Toothsome, amorphous, light-consuming. Moonstone has nightmares that Alux can fly, and so Fear can fly.
Rank: 2
Attributes: Power 4, Finesse 5, Resistance 2
Willpower: 7
Essence: 15
Initiative: 7
Defense: 4
Speed: 15
Size: 5
Corpus: 7
Manifestations: Twilight Form, Familiar
Influence: Fear 2
Numina: Counterspell, Drain, Hallucination, Reveal Flaws
Ban: Must spend 1 Willpower to act against someone who successfully resisted a fear attack.
Bane: Physical contact with the real Alux.

Counterspell: As it specifically represents Moonstone's fear of the Abyss consuming and nullifying his magic, Fear can counter Awakened spells by injecting fear and self-doubt into the caster's Imago. When Moonstone perceives a spell being cast in Active Sight, spend one Essence to activate this Numen, which recreates the Prime 2 "Universal Counterspell" Attainment. Fear rolls Rank+Influence in the Clash of Wills.

Drain: As written. When used on Moonstone, Fear may choose to take only 1 success on its activation roll, effectively letting him steal its own Willpower- if he's at least minimally strong.

Hallucination: As written, with an eye towards nightmarish hallucinations drawn from Moonstone's subconscious.

Reveal Flaws: Fear draws a target's hidden faults to the surface, writing words such as "weak" or "greedy" or "liar" on their skin in Mind Twilight. This Numen costs one Essence, is resisted by Resolve+Composure+Gnosis, and lasts until Fear uses another Numen or Influence. For each net success Fear achieves, the target suffers a -1 penalty on its next contested roll.

Special - Goetic Struggle: As the embodiment of a specific complex drawn from Moonstone's unconscious, Fear can use its Influence to help him resist fear. When Moonstone would otherwise be affected by a supernatural fear effect such as Awe or Nightmare, it triggers a Clash of Wills. Roll Gnosis+Mind against the goetia's Rank+Influence. If Moonstone succeeds, the supernatural fear effect fails and he gains 1 Willpower. If Fear succeeds, Moonstone is affected by the power as if the attacker rolled an exceptional success.

History

Look
38 year old male. Southeast Asian ethnically, adopted by an American family before his first birthday. Usually presents as masculine, but prefers to look more femme for ritual work and dancing (same thing, really.) Usually fidgeting or playing with his fingers or shifting his weight as a nervous habit, but moves like an acrobat when he's focused.

Background
Moonstone has spent the past decade or so as the companion and faithful servant of Hakim (aka Lamont Torres-Wilson), a Moros and respected Thunderbolt Guardian of the Chicago Arrow. He maintained his master's ("like a Zen master! it's not weird!") sanctum, assisted with his rituals, tended his wounds, nurtured a painfully obvious and ambiguously-requited attraction, and sometimes even fought by his side directly. Most recently, he stood by his master and comforted him through a contentious break with his cabal as Hakim became more reclusive, retreating from Consilium politics into more mystical and esoteric research even Moonstone wasn't privy to. And then, during a sudden and unexplained return to downtown Chicago, he was killed. And now Moonstone is alone. It has been a very long time since Moonstone was alone.

Sometimes he feels like his life before he met Hakim happened to someone else. Short version: he could always see magic, and that was just one of the things that made people think he was crazy. He was an international adoption, and never quite fit his old-money family's expectations for their perfect demure daughter. Dropping out of the UCLA dance program they'd enrolled him in and taking a one-way bus ticket to Chicago in 2001 was the first time he ever felt like he was in control of his life. Meeting Hakim and his cabal after witnessing and remembering a Supernal summoning was like Hagrid telling Cinderella she'd been a wizard all along. For someone who had never quite fit into the assumptions of Sleeping society, it was a homecoming.

Except he wasn't a wizard. After a few years, even the optimists stop believing that constant exposure to magic is going to help you Awaken. Even the arcane can become routine. You decide in your heart that you're going to accept the gift of living among people who see the world as it truly is, but you're never really going to be one of them. And you become happy with that. There are so many ways you can help them and be useful to them. Do you think magicians cook their own dinner? Who draws the chalk circles and buys the eye of newt? Who catalogues the grimoires? Who guards your sleeping body when you're in the Dreaming Earth? Who speaks in your name at Consilium when you can't be bothered? Who backs you up with a blazing sword when a Gulmoth breaks through the summoning circle? Sleepwalkers, baby. Accept no substitutes.

Awakening
Moonstone pretty much locked up and shut down once he heard about Hakim's assassination. He was practically catatonic, unable to leave his room in their apartment/sanctum in La Grange (a sadly necessary downgrade from the old Chicago sanctum after the split with his old cabal) for what seemed like weeks. Choking vines grew from the walls, jeering Fae knocked insistently at the door, Time stretched agonizingly out until he'd been confined to a dusty corner for a month and everything else had been claimed by the thorns. It had to end. And it did.

He stood up and screamed and screamed and tore at the vines until his hands were bloody, climbed like Jack up the beanstalk on a path that didn't exist until he created it, chased a timid fairy with the face of his parents' perfect daughter and a controlling ogre that was Hakim and his father and mother and caseworker all at once, severed the hangman rope of the Norns that tied him down to the path of Destiny, bound the two fairies together with the stolen rope in a wicker man made from thorny Hedge-vines, conjured fire with a word and burned them to death in a great and terrible sacrifice, a ritual of his own for once, and sprouted wings and rose into the heavens on the smoke of the wicker man and their pleas for him to come back to earth with them. But he was in Arcadia, and he couldn't hear them anymore.

He woke up in his room, bloodied from shattering mirrors by hand, sputtering from smoke inhalation, and his bedsheets and clothes and photos of him and Hakim were burning in a foul smoky pile on the floor. It had been exactly one hour since he heard about Hakim's death. Dutiful as always, he put out the fire and bandaged his wounds and checked himself into a mental hospital. Fate wouldn't keep him there any longer than he had to be.

Connections
Binder: Moonstone is a patron of Marlin's bookstore, and the two of them sometimes play chess at the park.
Phoenix: Hakim was the mage who killed Phoenix's hunter cell.

Resource Stats

Health: XXX//O
Willpower: 3/8
Mana: 7/10
(Cloak of Night, Mana: 10/10)
(Moonstone's Fear, Essence: 15/15)
Conditions: Divergent, Guilty, Triumphant, Informed (Rumors)
[-1 Strength until Monday night]


Divergent [Persistent]
Your character has a difficult time relating to other people and himself. If the self is a bowl of clear water, his bowl ripples and boils and freezes and spills more easily than most in response to stimuli. The character has learned to manage the Condition most of the time, but stressful situations can make this more difficult. This Condition has an Active and Passive form.
Passive: The character experiences symptoms, but can set them aside. When they have less than half their Willpower remaining, or when they fail a Resolve+Composure roll in response to a stressor, the Condition switches to Active for the rest of the scene.
Active: The character's symptoms are more pronounced. Apply a -2 to all Social rolls and rolls involving Resolve. The character has 1 less Withstand against Mind spells targeting them. When they regain their full Willpower pool, or at the end of the scene, this Condition switches to Passive unless they still have less than half their Willpower remaining.

Resolution: The character's illness is cured by mundane or, more likely, supernatural means.
Beat: The character acts in a significantly self-defeating way due to their illness, or fails a Resolve+Composure roll called for by the Storyteller to resist a stressor.

Beats and Experiences

Beats: 0/5
Experiences (Unspent/Total): 4/4
Arcane Beats: 1/5
Experiences (Unspent/Total): 4/4

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