Wakshaani

I thought about other corrupted dream stuff for Nythmare, but they're a bit .. tricky. Alip isn't a word that rolls off the tongue well and I don't know how well "You can summon hungry sleep demons" works as a temptation so much as "I'll give you a friend to keep you safe" does. Maybe tho! Still early in the process. Witness is going to be a pain. They've *barely* been mentioned and divination effects are always tricky. There's some crossover with Fate, unless you make it more rear-facing. Of course, "Hindsight is 2020" is a concept that's more Witness than Fate, so might be a better way to go. Not sure yet. This one'll take work. Gorgon's got the Medusa thing going on, as noted, and is *very* manilpulative. Some kind of social ability? I'll have to dig through Molly, and to some extent Shamus, and see what's there. Obliteration is just a complete blank thusfar. Worse, in many ways, than Witness. Reactivate or the like is well outside the power curve for what I'd be looking at, but some kind of "Take 2 damage, gain Fast" thing maybe. *Maybe*. There're two Dragons. One's from Earth and does the Kung Fu thing, the other's deeeeep in the Bayou but we don't know what she's up to yet. She's barely mentioned.I'll have to dive in a bit deeper to see what to do on this front. Coming along tho!

SMall update as paying work has taken a lot of free time. DECEMBER I'd originally gotten a bit complicated here, trying to do something with immunity to cold, then a few other things, before going in to dig into the Hypothermia rules and spotting that Frozen Heart made you immune to cold, in addition to the rest of what it did, and it was just a plain ol' General Talent, so December's offering is just Frozen Heart and done. MERIDIAN Once I'd figured December out, and just a perma-state was also fine in addition to a manifested power, then Meridian went from a problem to easy: Gain Amphibious (Can breathe underwater, bonus on swim checks and swim speed, can see better in murky water). I *migh* add a bit about needing to be in water once a day or lose a Wound (a bath is plenty), but that'd really restrict travel in some areas... the Badlands are on a strict timetable, for instance, and I don't think I want to do that. Makes sense, but PC-restrictive. Thoughts are certainly welcome! NYGHTMARE Another one that was problematic until I figured out that, like the Dreamer, Nythmare could hand out friends. Teddy bears (small ones, not teh big ones!), animated dolls, etc. I'm not sure if it should be a manifested power that "wakes them up" and lets them do stuff for an hour or if it should just be a Subordinate Character that can be easily replaced by buying a new doll/bear and having a good night's rest... in the morning, they wake up too! This works better than the early "reality waring" stuff I was poking at and is easier to grasp. Mind you, I expect more than a few players would flinch away from "Get an animated doll" but hey. Still leaves Despair, Gorgon, Obliteration, Dragon, Witness, and Fortune to go. Fortune is probably just one of the good luck General Talents, and Despair is likely Terror check-related, but ... Gorgon? Dragon? Obliteration? Yikes. Any suggestions are quite welcome!

Here's a question that came up the other day and I was stunned i didn't find an answer. Are Grimoires locked to magical traditions? That is to say, if my Oxford Mage finds a Grimoire that's full-blown Whisper, what with the gnawed0on bones and teh skull that you shake and that whispers secrets in your ear ... can I attune to it and cast it my way? Or can you only attune to a Grimoire in your tradition? It would seem *odd* that you could, since the wild voodoo traditions of the Gremlin Houngan we just bonked and my proper Guild Thalarian caster shouldn't be compatable at *all*, but it would seem that I could pick it up and staple it into my own casting just fine. And that strikes me as off. Yet I'll be buggered if I can find anything that disallows it. Ack!

Once I'm done with these, the idea is to make up twenty or so cards. When characters are being generated, it'd be as normal, but everyone gets one less General Talent than the book would give them. Instead, you use the Temptations. Thirteen for each Tyrant. On the front of the card will be the sales pitch, the whisper that it sends to someone crossing the Breach to see if it can snare someone to its side. You can easily mark 'em with Ace-King as well, if you wanted to rank them. The Grave Spirit gets to be the Black Joker. The last card, which will be replicated six times or so (depends on the size of the group) gets to be the Red Joker, in essence. You take the thirteen Tyrants, shuffle it up, then deal out one per player, then sit the Black Joker in the middle of the table, taking the other cards back behind the GM screen. Each player can, in turn, either ACCEPT the Temptation, at which point they keep the card and gain the ability that it has on the back, PASS on the Temptation, at which point they take a card from the middle and then replace it with what they had, or REJECT all Temptations. A REJECT means that they add their card to the middle pile and instead get the Red Joker. Each player may only ACCEPT once, at which point they're done. Each player can REJECT once, at which point they're done. Each player can PASS as many times as they want, so everyone could, if they want, eventually see all the Temptations. That's fine! The more they're Tempted, the better. The Red Joker is a simple one, to the effect of, "You have rejected all offers to aid you, choosing to control your own fate. Time will tell if this was wise or foolish; Either way, the choice is yours. You may choose any one General Talent for which you qualify." (Have to hammer out the wording later.) So, everyone gets the same chargen that they'd normally get, but they'd have the option of getting one of these Temptations instead. Of course, you can't serve two masters, so if they chose one, they could never choose a different one, BUT, it'd later open up more, stronger Temptations that would lock them into service of a Tyrant. That's the theory, at the least. Might make 5-tier "Servant of (Tyrant)" Advanced Pursuits instead, letting people walk the path instead of General Talents, not sure yet. Still lots to ponder!

Still early in the process, but I'm working on a few temptations, Manifested Powers (or similar) that are tied in with teh Tyrants who, in a way, pay part of teh cost off in exchange for linking to a Human. Oh, the Human doesn't know that they're in service of a great force at first, they think that they're winning the deal, but, over time, it gets more and more clear who's in control. As part of teh subsidized cost, they can be taken as General upgrades, rather than being a Destiny Step, but the player doesn't get to help put the package together ... it' already made for them. Isn't that so NICE of the Tyrants? To take away all that pesky MATH and complicated figuring out of one's own path and instead just being handed a gift and helped along a path? So kind-hearted, those guys! It's still EARLY in the process, so I'm happy to take suggestions. The Tyrants, and a few other major forces that are on a similar level (like the Grave Spirit) are a diverse bunch, after all, and more heads could really help. Below I'll post what I have thusfar, but the formatting is *not* going to work here I don't think, so brace for a bit of ugly. I know that a few of them have to be tweaked as I started them in 1st edition, where the spell bases and Immuto were different, but I've not cleaned that part up yet (Especially for Cherufe!) but the basic format should be clear. For these first gifts, one big goal is to keep all the target numbers at 7 or less. They're relative small gifts and, more over, are intended for common people, so should be relatively easy to pop off. Start 'em small, give 'em a little taste, then bring them in for more once they're hooked, as it were. *** Tyrannical_Temptations.odt

Yeah, getting to read this stuff with later understanding's been really interesting. Almost finished with the final book of 1st edition, reading the discussion between December and Rasputina, having just digested the talk between Zoriada and Levi... man. Lots of STUFF in there. On the plus side, we have an actual date for Molly's death, so it clears up some of the early confusion. Huzzah!

Not too much in the second book... Molly's timeline is still a bit messed up, but the *exact* date isn't important. We get to see that Francis was the name of the Governor-General's only son, but no mention of the GG's name, spouse, or potential other kids. Kirai gets introduced, as did Haemlin, teh Red Star, the Red Cage which ... you know, I always thought it did a giant meteor dive and CRASH into teh swamp, but instead it just sorta ... poofed. No impact, no explosion, nada. Then the ground collapsed into a sinkhole when all of that energy poured out of it. When December's physical form was killed in book 1, no big energy spike. When the Kythera portal was destroyed, no big energy spike, but the Red Cage was WILDLY out of control in terms of energy and I'm really curious as to why. There's a bit of timeline in there, but not enough to really work with. Book 3 starts with us getting our first hard date, however, with September 20, PF 114 (that's 1902) given for The Event, and that lets us work backwards to see when the storyline started (1901), and the sprinkling of dates that we have up until this point can be plugged in. Book Three (Twisting Fates) is crazy thick, so I'm guessing this one'll take a while to chew through. This and the next one would round up the 1st edition of the tabletop game, then I'll move on to the 2nd ed, before diving into teh RPG again. I don't own any of teh 3rd ed tabletop books, so if anyone wants to crub data and dates from those, it'd be much appreciated.

Moving through the next book slower than intended. (More stories!) ... the death of the Governor General's son, and the assrote dinteractions with said general, do not, in fact, drop his name in there. Even his dad is, "The governor-general won't like this..." Got to see Francis dead, buried, and avenged, and I'm currently digging through Colette's debut, the passing to her of the Leviathan's Eye, and the introduction of Hamlin (yikes!). No real dates yet, but gettin there...

It's a start, but I was looking for more detail and a bunch of small things that the timeline doesn't cover. I mean, geeze, when I left for a bit, I'm not 100% sure we knew the governor-general's NAME. Getting a bit more detail past "The breach opened HERE, the Red Cage fell HERE," beynd what the book opening timeline has? Handy stuff, but possibly unknown to us. For example, when did the quarantine zones get, well... quarantined? When did Perdita first show up? When did Seamus murder his first victim? We may well not have answers to this stuff, but, I'm still *curious*.

Curses. I'll have to crack out my old books and start doing detective work. The first story in the main book I grabbed had a few clues ... Phillip Tombers is reanimated in July of Year ?, having died "A month ago", so in June. Molly Squidpidge had been a zombie for "several months" at that stage. Rasputina gets a book from tombers, then escapes, leaving Seamus with Philliip's head and Molly in Phillip's grave. We later get to see Viktoria arrive on a train from Earth, talk to Leveticus, who'd been here before (as shown by his having business cards for his Malifaux shop on him!), but there's no time frame at first. But teh NEXT story has Rasputina (who passed them at the station as she was taking a train to Ridley) having the book in her hands and cracking it open for the first time, so we can deduce that this is happening the same day, or teh next day, as the first story. So, yeah, I'll need to take some notes. Might have to crack this badboy on my day off.

From Day Zero: the Breach Reopens until ... *vague hand flaps* today, a bunch of stuff has happened. Teh rise and fall of the Piper, the fall of teh Red Cage, that whole avatar thing, the period of Martial law, but also when the Latigo compound opened, when Riley was formed, what day Hoffman arrived, and so on? The more solid information the better. There's a LOT of info scattered in teensy nuggets in, like, every book ever made, but if anyone has compiled it, I'd really be all kinds of thankful for a share.

THE GAMBERRITOS A general term for the numerous kids that run around inside the safety of the compound, the Gamberritos (little rowdies) range from four to fourteen (At fifteen, they're expected to be adults and act properly!), spending much of their time running around, roughhousing, playing games, and generally being rambunctious. There's not a ton of educational opportunities at the compound in the normal sense ... Padre Garcia keeps them up on basic reading, Pablo can pass on some math, and now that Miss Barton is present, she's been positively mortified at the lack of schooling so has taken it upon herself to at least *try* to civilize the little ones. (Good luck, Miss Barton!) The Gamberritos are *always* around, chasing one another, hollering and whooping it up, crashing through crowds, and always trying to stay one-step ahead of Mama Flores and her wick spoon! Black, white, brown, and yes, even blue all scrum together, and it can often be hard to tell which barefoot and dust-covered kids are which, so the blanket term of "rowdies" just sorta *happened*. They don't mind. About the only time that they calm down is when someone new's shown up, then a dozen or more of them will gather around to watch whatever they're doing, oohing and ahhing if it's impressive, howling with laughter and tossing japes if someone's learning a new skill and doing it wrong. (Oh, the stories Miss Barton could tell about when she was first handed a pistol! It was a week before the red left her ears!) It rarely comes up, but the Gamberritos know ll the shortcuts and hidden passages in Latigo, which is how they move around and stay out of trouble. If there was ever some kind of siege, tehy'd certainly be able to sneak some PCs around to where needed. THE GENERAL The General used to have a full name but it's fallen off and now he's simply The General. At one point in time, the General arrived in the early days of Latigo, a veteran of the Powder Wars, with his noble helmet, chest full of medals, and a chest full of gold that he was using to hire adventurers. He headed west with a large group, intending to conquer the far mountains. A week after they left, the first stragglers returned, telling of the Neverborn ambush that they encountered and the horrors that they experienced. Over the next few weeks, a slow drip of other survivors, in ever-worse shape, would return to the compound, with even worse stories. After two months, the General himself returned, a broken shell of a man. He eventually recovered physically, but his mind, and his purse, have never been the same. These days, the General mostly stays in the Latigo Saloon, nursing his drink and trying to keep his tattered uniform presentable. He'll happily recant his tales of glory from The Wars over a hot meal and a drink, and is actually quite a good storyteller. Sadly, all he has left are his medals and his stories, and it's only by mercy that he even has a place to lay his head at night. He dreams of oneday returning to the mountains.... he claims to have a map to great treasure, and he'll happily split it with anyone who helps him find it, but the map is all in his head ... he burned the original copy years ago, for fear that someone would murder him for it and take the treasure that was rightfully his. The General is in excellent shape for a man of his advanced years, sturdy from a life of soldiering even if his limbs aren't as stout as they were in his youth, and despite his broken mind, he's still got a razor-sharp grasp of tactics and military command skills. During the second expansion, he took command of the defending forces while the Ortegas took the attack to the enemy and he performed remarkably well. He hope sto have that chnce again someday, but the local Neverborn now give the compound a wide berth, so he's unlikely to do so. Well, unless he can talk a group into taking him to teh western mountains and the fights that are sure to be unleashed on them there.

JACK TOMSON A grizzled old man, Tomson left his native Scotland afte rthe death of his beloved life, having nothing left worth living for, but willing to travel to Malifaux and offer his services until his time ran out. He joined a settling bad into the Badlands and won their respect with his hard work ethic and skill, but those were things that couldn't protect them from the Neverborn. He and his village fought hard, but only the timely arrival of the Ortegas saved them. They agreed to move into the Latigo compound for safety, and while three of teh survivors sucumbed to Black Blood Poisoning and had to be put down, most survived. Several returned home after taking time to recover but Jack had nowhere left to go, so he stayed and busied himself making some small repairs, then got to cranking out good nails. In no time at all, the compoun was asking him t make right what was broken .. dented pans, broken pots, bent blades ... and he not only repaired them but made them better than before. After a few failed experiments, he even took to making rifle barrels, then other firearm parts... he never designed his own, he was a blacksmith not a gunsmith, but he could put together anything once he knew what parts were needed. Ol' Man Jack is still there today, hammeirng away at the Latigo Forge, having taken several of the youths there under his wing. These days, everyone swears by his work, and getting a Tomson Blade on your first adult birthday is a tradition he takes pride in. He might not be the finest blacksmith on this side of the Breach, but he works miracles with the low-quality metal he has access to. These days, the apprenticies do most of the more common work while he tries to focus on weaponry, but it's not uncommon for him to wake up the town by hammering his anvil at sunrise, striking out a few "proper" nails so that the kids have some examples to follow, and he personally looks over every farming impliment to ensure they meet his standards. In his eyes, getting food's more important than killing. Life beats death. MARIA FLORES Maria isn't a spellcaster, a tragic figure, a genius, or anything special at all. She's a tubby middle-aged mother to several kids, quick to warn misbehaving children that she'll tell their mother what they've done, but even quicker to bring the gossip all around town. She's in EVERYBODY'S business and it's said that if there's a secret told in Latigo, it's heard by two heads ... who you intend and Mama Flores. She'll stop to observe every new arrival at Latigo and gab quietly with anyone in town to keep an eye on them and to report back to her what they see. Surprisingly, she doesn't make-up stories, but instead quickly digs deep into the truth and makes sure that it gets around. She's less a busybody and more of a one-woman newspaper, making sure that everyone knows what's happening. The Ortegas don't much care for public speaking, so instead of firey speeches when something's up, they just dispatch a pistolero to tell Flores what's up ... she'll handle the rest. If approached by visitors, Flores normally pretends to not speak English; if people don't know that she can understand them, they're more likely to blab something important. Once she gets to know someone, she'll let it slip, usually by correcting them with, "It's not nice to call someone fat!" or the like while thwacking them with a wooden spoon. Maria's a great organizer and is always involved in every celebration, making sure that everyone's fed, that musicians are paid, and that decorations are proper. She might be the most ordinary person in the entire place but that doesn't mean she hasn't got a role to play!

PADRE GARCIA Padre Juan Garcia was an early arrival, personally requested by the Ortegas after the First Expansion, as several members of teh family, and more the survivors that had been rescued, were dealing with a wide array of fallout from combat stress, survivor's guilt, and more. An older gentleman (and, in fact, Papa Loco's third cousin), Padre Garcia stood out in teh early wave not for being a strapping lad or a hard worker, but for being a calming presence. He was able to soothe frazzled nerves, heal mental wounds that no one else coudl see, and provide the basic spirituality that was so badly needed. After two years, he started, he started to express minor magical talent, so was sent back to Malifaux City for training in the Thalaric Method and official status with the Guild. By no means a powerful spellcaster, he nontheless has been writing Grimoires, known as "Latigo Bibles", and mentoring others whose magical talents begin to express. He and Pablo have an ongoing relationship about how the spiritualist who dislikes technology has the power to make automations go while the engineer who loves them hasn't got a spark in him to use. They tease one another on the regular, but everyone knows that it's just how they express respect. Padre Garcia is also the reigning checkers champion at the compound. JUDY AZUL Rescued as a small child in teh wake of a Neverborn raid, Judy, like many other children, was infected with Black Blood but was helped through it by Dr. Azul. Three out of four infected don't make it through intact but she was one of the lucky ones. For years, visitors would see her leading a pack of mixed children... some blue, some brown, some white... in games of tag, "Cowboys and Neverborn", and more, always underfoot and full of life. As the years passed, she grew into a striking young woman, and now feels like she should be taking the field, helping fight "for reals". She's a skilled sword-wielder, not on Francisco's level (but then, who is?!) and a decent shot, but they regularly chide her on her favoring a giant Neverborn-style blade instead of a sensible rapier or the like. She's actively pursued by many of the young Latigo men but, as yet, has never chosen a paramore... she's more focused on learning to fight! With her blue skin and horns, she has great difficult disguising her look, so instead wears it proudly. After all, she's still Human on the inside, no matter what she looks like on the outside. LOUIS BENOIT "You can't be serious." "I know, I know, just try it." "I am NOT going to east some kind of Gremlin swill!" "I swear, this isn't a joke! Here, I'll drink some first." "I don't care if you drink the whole bucket, I'm NOT going to drink some Gremlin-cooked pigfood!" "Well alright. More for us I guess." "Us? What us?" *points behind her* *turns to see dozens of hungry people lined up at an impromptu kitchen, getting stew ladelled out by a grinning Gremlin standing on top of a crate. Other people were all around the compound, heartily digging in and clearly enjoying the meal." "All of us." "... well I'll be a gremlin's auntie." And that's how "Louie" became the official Latigo chef. From trail stew to saute'd beef marinated in mushrooms to French pastries to Bayou chilli so hot that it makes Sntiago cry, it seems that there's nothing that the little guy can't put on a plate. Nobody's really sure how he got there but they're all glad he is! ELIZABETH "LIZ" BARTON Mrs. Barton is, first and foremost, an archaeologist (and anthropologist), one who came to Malifux in order to read the ancient tomes and help decipher the native writings. She was directed to the Latigo compound for some basic training and, while she's only been here for a few months, she's at least comfortable enough with a pistol that they're willing to let her ride out with a large group now. She's an avid reader, but she much prefers field work over musty libraries (and boy did that ever break Pablo's heart!) ... she just didn't know that it woul dbe quite so risky. Still, she's always ready to roll out whenever anyone has a lead about some lost temple or uncovered artefact. She wants to know everything she can about the Neverborn and the only way to do that is to go where they are. Santiago's noticed that little Nino always volunteers to be on guard duty with her but, as of yet, has only teased him a little. If she's noticed, she's yet to say anything.

((More here after work tonight, but anyone else should feel free to toss in some of their own.))