Calling - FORCED

CORE ABILITY
COLLATERAL. You have a knack for getting behind someone else when things kick off. Once per session, allocate stress to the nearest friendly target (PC or NPC) instead of marking it yourself.

Who, or what, are your masters?

The Watchers - Spire is the city of a thousand gods, and the Watchers are interested in actively reducing that number – one god at a time. No end of torment has been lumped upon poor and desperate unfortunates in the name of one deity or another. Holy crusades have razed cities to the ground and destroyed priceless cultural artefacts. Multiple districts of the city are rife with minor holy turf wars as rival cults vie for control of the populace.

The Watchers claim to have arisen from a prehistoric group of warriors who saw what the unknowable had planned for the world and weren’t having any of it. They forged weapons and tools using sorceries stolen from heaven to allow them to fight toe-to-toe with the gods themselves. These days, they have to make do with infiltrating temples, destabilizing them from the inside, and occasionally executing a priest or two. But, they still draw power from the idea of the ancient artefacts that once let their forebears behead and shackle the divine, earthbound and mewling

What do your masters want?
They believe that the Heart is a nascent god and they want to kill it before it awakens to its full potential. To that end they want Manafort to venture deep into the Heart so they can channel some devastating ability through him and destroy the Heart. What effect that will have on Manafort or indeed the rest of the Heart and Spire is unknown.

How are your masters maintaining power over you?
Using occult rituals they have etched powerful runes into the inside of Manafort's skull that they use to inflict searing pain and (so they claim) they can use to kill Manafort at any time if he fails to progress on his mission. Manafort thinks that they may use him as a Drow bomb to explode inside the Heart in an attempt to destroy it.

How do your masters contact you?
The runes allow them to whisper thoughts into his head. It's an unpleasant experience and it is very clear that the messages are from the Watchers and not some other outside source.

Choose another player character. They have history with your masters too. What’s their relationship?

It's  Kirith'riina. She and her mother have had to deal with attacks and threats from The Watchers in the past.

When I dream: I see a tall pale human woman with black hair who I have come to call the Chatelaine; I see a double helix with one helix red and the other gold; and I see Manafort.


Describe a snap shot, or a motion that takes no more than a second, of Manafort in Bloddwyn ni Josef dream.

Manafort is in the middle of the double helix, each strand moving through one half of his body. Half of his body is colored red, the other half bright gold.

When you create your character, answer these questions:


Zuvyd never had a place in the City Above. His escape was a moment of seized opportunity that presented a path only into the Derelictus. To be free there or a slave above was an easy choice.



Zuvyn and Bloddwyn angered a witch, who subsequently turned the haven where they were resting from passive aggressive to actively aggressive. Neither of them are quite sure which of the witch's taboos they broke. Zu blames Bloddwyn for it (perhaps unfairly), but also credits her for saving them both from the poisoned stew that tried to crawl from its bowls down their throats.



Zuvyd and Hakesh delved into a wild tangle of serpentine forest in search of a rare snail whose secretions are said to block the sight of the gods. The snail turned out to be the size of a gnoll's head, and feeds on and lives amidst venomous scorpions with aelfir's eyes and the voices of songbirds. The snail was captured at great cost, but Hakesh discerned some connection between the snail's secretions and qualities of the Vermissian and insisted that it be retained for 'research' purposes (perhaps to pay one of her or appease her master).




Zuvyd has repeatedly heard rumors of the Golden Butcher--a figure alternately described as a cleaver who's sipped from the streams the pump from the Heart, a Vermissian engineer who devoured a train's engine, or a sentient demonic poleaxe that possesses and transforms whomever picks it up. Zuvyd hasn't defeated it yet because he's not sure what it is, where it is, or how to end it beyond the vague mention of a "silver nail" in some of the stories: the one thing the Golden Butcher fears.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:28, Wed 21 Feb.

Calling: Heartsong

Which 3 images, symbols, people or creatures do you repeteadly see when you dream? I see by deceased spouse, rotting and writhing with worms and maggots, beckoning me to delve deeper into the Heart. I see an angel, pulsating with eldritch power and primal prowess, constantly smiling at me. I see my own death mask, the one my family built for me as per tradition, it's broken and brittle and lies upon a mountain of skulls.

What signs do you look for to recognize where the Heart is strongest? I listen for the secretive whispers that can emanate from the beasts of the Heart, the living walls of fleshy havens and the tainted people that dwell in the deep.

You recently witnessed an unearthly sight with another player character. Who was it, what happened and how did they react? Me and Zuvyd saw a child who played with a piece of literal meat, as we got closer we saw that the meat had a mouth and told the child esoteric secrets. We noticed that the child didn't appear to be a little human, its eyes were miscolored and glowed like embers and the smile it wore was filled with fangs. When it saw the confused looks on our faces the 'child' giggled and ran off into the darkness, never to be seen again. Zuvyd seemed confused about this and fell silent, it seems like it reminded him of some bad memory.

Your connection to the Heart has touched you in some way. How does that manifest? My eyes glow with a yellow-ish amber light, like fireflies flickering in the dark.

Player 2

There's a further connection for you arising from one of my questions.



I'm not sure what qyestion will be asked of you but this is a heads up.

Likewise Zuvyd.  I am aware that we had that run in with a witch.  I have some idea of the question I may be ased, but am waiting for our illustrious to ask it.

AND it seems I am fluent in typoese.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:45, Mon 19 Feb.

I saw it, but thanks for the heads up, that does sound interesting :)

Crimson-Sun-On-The-Sky carries his spouses death mask in his belt. It always hangs around the hip.

In reply to Player 4 (msg # 28):

The human cub has taken to Hakesh, when on the streets he comes for a quick word or two. He lives in the settlement. He calls her by her name, though she can't recall ever giving it to him. He has odd mannerisms for a human, akin more to Gnollish ticks. She still knows little of him.

Proceed to Step 2.

In reply to Crimson-Sun-On-The-Sky (msg # 37):

He swears, at times when he looks down, he can see her eyes, irises violet ringed with gold, steering up at him in tears, of joy or sorrow, unclear. They never appear in reflections.

I'll get to your Step 2 (still haven't read it). Going through Step 1 of the other players right now, to get caught up.

In reply to Player 6 (msg # 23):

Shecknay was searching for something in the Heart himself. Ghost never found out what it was.

Start Step 2.

In reply to Player 7 (msg # 29):

Kirith'riina has yet to hear it's name, and the refugees from Vys that she's spoken to seem not to remember or know that horned god. It's call however bleeds out from her dream at times, a distant call some dark cavern, or into the dark of some tunnel that leads to some unknown place. The call is some mix of an elks bugle call and feedback on an amp, not that she knows what either are.

Proceed to Step 2.

Will Character Sheets be opened?

In reply to Kirith'riina (msg # 42):

Check now.

In reply to Heart's Blood (msg # 43):

Thank you.

Calling: HEARTSONG


• Which three images, symbols, people or creatures do you repeatedly see when you dream?
Young Female Drow.
Strange Symbol  of Arcane and Divine (Holy Symbol ??)
Beating Silver Heart


• What signs do you look for to recognize where the Heart is strongest?
Madness in People or the scent of Frankincense.


• You recently witnessed an unearthly sight with another player character. Who was it, what happened and how did they react?
One evening we (Kirith'riina and Hakesh) were walking down a street, looking a bit further we saw a building (inn) lights bright and a woman standing outside the door offering drinks to those that enter.  The place looked more like a brothel than a inn by the way the woman was acting and enticing people in.  As we got closer the woman smiled to us and offered us entrance into the building.  For some strange reason we stopped and didn't enter.  The woman looked at us again and winked.
Turning to enter into the building herself, as the doors closed.  In a blink of an eye the building was gone.  Into another Realm one can only guess.  Hakesh looked to me as I looked to her and we said nothing.


• Your connection to the Heart has touched you in some way. How does that manifest?
Silver Webbing appear upon her hands.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:00, Thu 22 Feb.

Step 2 Connections

Crimson & Bloddwyn:



Crimson, it was your sister that rose to head your family Crimson. And it was her words that the Aelfir used to judge your family. She was banished, while your family fell to ruin, and in her banishment they recited the supposed curse that the Aelfir claim was uttered by the Sun god to damn the Drow to darkness, and to live and mingle with the creatures beneath. When that child emerged from the dog, covered in blood and dirt, of an age a child can barely walk, and talk, it spat out a line of that curse as it gasped for it's first birth. What was it?

Bloddwyn heard no words, though she didn't know high elf at the time, and had rarely heard it. All she heard were a child gasping for air for the first time. When the large black dog ran away yelping, abandoning the very small girl of maybe 1 or 2, she realized the girl was human. Where you are dark skinned and featured, she was pale, white, and delicate. Where your hair is of a brown ever growing darker, hers was blond, nearing on silver. And where your eyes are black, to near pits of eternity, hers were white, blind, and unable to see.  What did Bloddwyn do with her?

Manafort & Kirith'riina:



Kirith'riina, you were not the first to be sent below in search of this item. As a matter of fact, none but your mother knew you were sent at all, as she was the one that placed you on this cause. Misfortune, and disappearances plagued your temple in Derelictus, the city between, especially with those tasked to delve in search of what you seek.

An Angel of the Heart was once captured by a group of delvers. Using forgotten arcane methods they pulled the creature out of the heart, seeing to deliver it to some undefined destination for study, or rites. Only when they found themselves in a fissure, with the night sky high above them, moon light fell on the creatures head. Where it landed, it turned its red hair to white, black, and purple. Seeing this the delvers quickly sought to conceal it from the moon, but it was too late, their magic had been undone. The Angel freed took vengeance, and returned to the heart below. The hair where the light struck became a braid of white, black, and purple, a gift from the Drows' goddesses. It is said that it has the power to free anyone from captivity. As the Drow of the Spire, and the lands they once held stand occupied, the search for it has continued. A century of attempts have been failed however, the large campaigns they once sent, now impossible to muster and finance. Freedom is only a distant dream to many under the boot of the Aelfir above, and Kirith'riina is one of their last attempts, if not their very last. All the while their enemies work to undo even these efforts even now. Kirith'riina has been sworn to secrecy about what she has been sent to retrieve, but she has spoken of it to someone, or something in a moment of weakness, solitude, hope, or madness. When and to whom?


Manafort has taken part in the murder of one of Kirith'riina order. A woman a bit older than Kirith'rinna, on a delve beyond Derelictus. The Watchers must not have known you had met her, or had and taken pleasure in the act. She had given refuge to Manafort when he had been young in Red Row, running from older boys seeking his end while serving different masters. Years later he would reward her with death for her kindness, but she would not lash out with words of hate, or pleads of mercy. Instead she asked of him something else in her dying breath, what was it?
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:25, Wed 21 Feb.

She asked him to watch over and protect Kirith'riina. Manafort didn't answer her before she died, but he remembered her wish and has resolved to do what he can, within reason.

It has been weeks since Kirith'riina experience such a horrific ordeal.
She can only imagine that it was something of a dream like she been having lately.  But it seemed all too real.

A conversation with a dear friend, Zarika.  It was a troubling evening and she was withered with dough of herself in the mission that she was sent to achieve.  As she was walking down an alley her friend Zarika walked up to her and gave her solace in a soft smile and asked what was  a matter. There Kirith'riina shared a secret with her that her mother made her not tell anyone.  A few moments after saying this, Zarika gave one of the most malice smiles ever and then her form turned to a red mist with yellow eyes gazing at her.  Then it was gone.

Kirith'riina is not sure if this was something that happen for real or one of those vivid dreams she been having.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:47, Wed 21 Feb.

Bloddwyn's humanity may be questionable but her kindness is verifiably vivid.  Aware of all the dangers that could arise from the pressence of a young antidoppelganger Bloddwyn nevertheless took the child to the Orphanage and paid the full price to ensure the best of treatment.  She had the child blessed by all the priests of all the faiths she could find and gave her the name Guinevere.

In reply to Heart's Blood (msg # 46):

"From now until the end of time no light or warmth shall aid you. The only thing you shall feel is the cold emanating from the void and the ravenous cries of fell beasts and wicked fiends as they long for your flesh!"

Manafort

How long ago did this murder take place?

Seeing if I would have know about her death.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:48, Wed 21 Feb.

In reply to Kirith'riina (msg # 51):

Hmm..good question. Do you want to know about her death? If so we'll make the timing work out :-)

I don’t want to know cause I plan on an encounter with her. Well something that looks like her
This message was last edited by the player at 19:02, Wed 21 Feb.

I leave it up to you if you want to know of her death or not. Either works for me.

Completed.