Here's the thread for everyone to share a bit about their characters for the benefit of your fellow players. Also use this thread to form your character connections and any other chargen stuff you'd like to share and/or discuss with each other.

Welcome to the game, Zijan

Hello Fraksel!  Bazian, eh?  I played a solo game as a Bazian Jack once for nearly a year - such an interesting descriptor!

My Arkus is excellent at leading people and helping them find their best way to live, often telling stories and referencing all kinds of people.  But Zijan has no memory of her life until one year ago - where her anecdotes come from, she's not sure. Why she feels the need to fix communities, she doesn't know.

Interesting, Zijan

How do you think the two of them met? (I’m assuming we’re an established party at the beginning of this, although we could have been pulled/teleported from different places to the adventure’s beginning, I guess?) Maybe Fraksel found her after she lost her memories (or she found him)? Maybe they're a couple? Maybe they're something else?

Offhand and so we can situate this, I’m thinking Fraksel himself was probably on his way to the Beanstalk when transported (or already in, on or around the structure), with aims of climbing the thing and see what’s on the other end. :)


P.S. Was that bazian game online?

(Note that I went with sort of a quirk on the Bazian descriptor, in that Brother M wasn’t raised there. He infiltrated the place over the course of years, seeking to interface with the Dragon. Which, eventually, he *did*)

Zijan doesn't bruit about that she doesn't have any memory of her past, but if she and Fraksel have been together for a while, eventually that would come out.  There are four suggested connections for the Shepherds the Community focus:



Perhaps they first met through the second one.  If Zijan had been helping a clave at a time when Fraksel showed up, she might have worried he was going to be trouble.  But over the course of speaking with him and perhaps working together, they discovered they made a good team.  If Zijan also discovered that (pulling a suggested connection from the Shreds the Walls Between Worlds focus) she always knows where he is, that would mean a lot to her because of her lack of a past.

The Bazian game recently ended, and it was here:  link to another game  It was a lovely game.  I played a Bazian Jack who Battled Automatons (because she had grown up with them and knew how they were put together and how they could be disabled) who was on a quest to save the Weal.

Ooh, I *like* the always knows where he is connection for Fraksel. (That might also hint that Zijan's condition(s) have something to do with the datasphere)

Maybe the clave she was tending was the Base (of the Beanstalk)? Frajsek's not shy about proselytizing his "Uploading to godhood" and "Heaven (on earth) through the heavens (in orbit)" convictions, and if he showed up alone his first goal would have been to recruit/convert a team to go explore the Beanstalk (or the grav fields around the floating mountains?). Either of those might have ruffled some feathers.

Why would she go with him afterwards though? Simplest thing that comes to mind = something changes in or around the Beanstalk/some mysterious event that might threaten her community... And they're off from there!

What do you think?


Out of the Weal of Baz = Bookmarked!

That sounds like a good story!  So Fraksel came into the Beanstalk with his own agenda, disrupted the status quo, some unrest was going on, Zijan shows up (drawn to it for whatever mysterious reason), and helps settle some things.  Fraksel explains what he's on about (fairly interesting and potentially very useful, just not typical for these parts and required some extra effort, which caused the initial misunderstandings).

Zijan would go with him afterwards for a couple of reasons - #1, she finds out she knows where he is, which is the first consistent connection she's had with a person since she "woke".  #2, Fraksel is likely going to cause some unrest wherever he goes, so they're paths are likely to cross again.  Wouldn't it be better to contain the chaos (from her end) and get things done (on his end)?

He does have a tendency to break things wherever he goes (walls, furniture, conventions...) :)

Heya folks. Lym is Limen's brother, a lifelong explorer and ruin delver he his main goal in his life seems to be to find new interesting ways to get himself into strange situations, areas, and among interesting people. Finding life in one area too dull he is constantly on the move looking for the next big ruin to discover, or adventure to be had. During one of these delves with his sister Limen, he found a transdimensional artifact that went off when he began to try and salvage it. The energies enveloped the two of them slowly changing their bodies to no longer be entirely in the same dimension as the were living but instead slowly phasing out of this existence. Feeling mostly responsible for what happened to them, and fearing non existence of his sister and himself, he now has a new goal to his journies, while still taking time to chase down anything interesting and new he takes any chance to cure him and his sister far more seriously and will dive into such endeavors if able. Personality wise, he's a bit of a joker with a fascination of the past worlds, his attention is scattered to the point he's never actually studied them but sees value in just seeing what came before. His relationship with his sister is strong yet the two seem to constantly be competing over varies things like they had for years.

What are you thinking for your link(s) with the rest of the group, you two? Maybe Fraksel is family as well? (Your father?) Maybe they've been convinced by one of his god-upload/"Heaven from the heavens" speech at The Base (at least enough to give it a go)? Maybe something else?

Alright, now for some plotting! As mentioned I'm playing Limen, Lym's sister and buddy in slowly phasing out of reality. She's never known any life besides one on the move, so the idea of settling down is as foreign to her as living on a boat would be to someone who's never seen the ocean. To add on a bit more to the already mentioned history, the both of their parents were adventurers much like they are now - you could call it a family business, and one prone to causing untimely deaths. Their mother died exploring not too long after they were born, and  a number of years later their father went on a solo adventure and never returned. Limen herself is an ever-cheerful sort of person who loves people - getting to know them, learning about them and what they think and why the think it, learning what makes them happy and pushing them to try new things... she can jump over into the realm of "trouble maker" as the same drive that makes her want to dismantle and examine old numeneran devices might lead her to dig around in the mayor's desk drawer, or see what happens when she makes the local jerk angry. She's nonetheless something of a coward, shying away from anything that might put them in too much danger, especially since the incident that left the two of them partially phased. Generally, she's the first to agree to a plan that "just might work" and the first to start running with a grin when the authorities show up. Like her brother, her light-hearted, floaty nature comes to a complete halt when it comes to anything that might keep them from permanently vanishing, as loyal to a fault she'd gladly jump into any old dangerous ruin to keep him safe.

As for connections! I've talked with Crow and have a couple ideas for the both of you.

Regarding Fraksel:
Their father's already booked, but their father was an explorer - to toss you a couple of related ideas:
> Perhaps their father worked with Fraksel in the past
> As such, Fraksel could've been mentioned in their father's notebook as a clever science fellow or something of the kind - perhaps when the both of them first got zapped into "not quite this dimension" their forms were really quite unstable, and reading through their father's old notes found mention of Fraksel. Hurrying to him, they basically showed up on his doorstep yelling "help!" and he was able to get them both mostly stable. Alternatively, they just hear he’s a knowledgeable fellow in the area and show up as strangers with the same plot in mind.
> Perhaps their father was hired by him or he was hired by their father and the both of them were the ones to first find and research this device that later zaps Lym and Limen. They couldn't quite crack it, so later on Lym and Limen re-found it and gave it a go. Needless to say they didn't quite succeed either.

Other ideas that could still pair with any of the above include the good old standbys of perhaps the two of them got into some trouble and Fraksel was the one who got them out, or the three of them could've in the past done some sort of smashing something in a ruin or town. Sadly neither of these two are particularly religious, but Limen is the sort to ask him lots of questions about what he believes as well as humor his practices even if she'll outright say she doesn't believe herself.


Regarding Zijan:
There was one general idea that could have a couple different specifics and outcomes, being the three of them so happened to be in the same town at the same time, and Lym and Limen were getting up to trouble. Maybe the Lym and Limen - or all three of them - went out and found something this town needed, adventurer-style. Similarly adventurer-style, they later went and messed with the strange numeneran device in the middle of town the locals have forbade to be touched and broke something, causing some trouble for the town. The two of them vanished off into the night, or the three of them had a confrontation and Lym and Limen managed to run off without anything resolved (which would make for a nice surprise, with us able to be teleported together from different locations), or Zijan did manage to stop the both of them. Alternatively, there happened to be a community nearby the spot where they first got zapped with anti-planer-stability and the two of them were causing some mischief to test out their abilities. Again either the two of them manage to evade Zijan or she stops the both of them.

The other idea is of course the three of them met up and do some small-town problem solving.


And to throw out for the two of you, these are Limen's connections:
1. Pick one other PC. You have known that
character for a while, and they helped you gain
control of your phase states. *cough*
2. Pick one other PC. Sometime in this
character’s past, they had a devastating
experience with going out of phase. Whether
they choose to tell you about it is up to them.
3. Pick one other PC. You once accidentally
moved your hand right through them. It was
an unnerving experience for you both.
4. Pick two other PCs. They both really want
to go out of phase and have been pestering
you about it. But you’re not convinced they
even know what that phrase means.

You guys have any likes/ideas/alterations/ect?
This message was last edited by the player at 08:11, Tue 16 Oct 2018.

Zijan I think this one would be a good connection with Lym, since he has a big problem with staying in any place longer than a few days, and is consantly exploring I could see him being a pet project for making someone join a community.

4. Pick one other PC. You hope this character
will come to find as much comfort in your
community as you.

Lym, that could work - or at least she could try to figure out how to get him to be part of a community before something blows up and they all have to move on!  ;)  Eventually she hopes there will be a place that everyone likes and can settle down so Lym can see what stability looks like.  It won't stop him from exploring and still getting into scrapes, but at least he'll have somewhere to go home to.  (Lym, out of curiosity, what are you?  A mischievous delve who exists outside of time or something?)

Limen - Those are some cool ideas!  I like the idea of Zijan hopefully stopping the siblings before they break something too hard - perhaps just enough to get their abilities, but not too bad for Fraksel to fix.  Zijan is always pulling bits of advice and anecdotes out of seemingly nothing, but this time Zijan finds advice geared towards Limen's new "quirk", and how to use it to her advantage.

--

You know, I'm sort of seeing this group as a somewhat wacky found family.  We've got the mischievous siblings, the crazy mad scientist uncle (Fraksel), and the long-suffering aunt (Zijan).

In reply to Zijan (msg # 13):

Lym is a Risktaking Delve that Shreds the Walls Between Worlds
Basically both the siblings are built around phasing due to a mishap with a transdimensional piece of Numenera
This message was last edited by the player at 13:13, Tue 16 Oct 2018.

Alright, how about something like this then:

• Lym and Limen get zapped into "not quite this dimension"
  
  
• The two of them start causing some mischief in the area to test out their new abilities
  
  
• They run into an old man busily building *something* and mumbling to himself. Mischief attempted, but they get caught! Chase scene through the aldeia with Fraksel breaking through walls and the siblings sprinting and phasing with powers much above their Tier
  
  
• During the chase, they discover that their forms are really quite unstable: if nothing is done, their molecules will loose all cohesion and disperse into a cloud of nothingness, possibly taking the whole town with them!
  
  
• Working together, they find a last minute solution and implement it: the siblings are safe, for now at least, and a lot more stable (if a lot less powerful: back to Tier 1, kiddies ;))
  
  
• As they talk afterwards, it comes out that their dad is an old, old childhood friend of his <Insert image of a Fraksel spit-take here; "Your father is WHO?">
  
  
• Insert bonding here, as the siblings slowly heal and Fraksel settles into sort of an odd "uncle" role for them
  
  
• They eventually head off towards the Beanstalk - as Limen and Lym have never seen it and Fraksel has, he believes, a glorious prophecy to fulfill there - each zooming around the plains on an individual Auto-chariot (which is what Fraksel was building when he was so rudely interrupted).

The Beanstalk, where Zijan awaits...


Wasn't sure if Zijan wanted to be part of this first part or not (?) -- with the difficulty being, of course, how to get her to leave with them afterwards

Note the first: Re making Lym part of a community, maybe it's an ongoing effort for Zijan? She could try again at the village on the other side of the teleport, keeping the Connection fresh? ("locals" are mentioned in the adventure blurb, makes sense they'll have a community, right?))

Note two: I'm thinking Lym and Limen's dad might have been one of Fraksel's old teammates from his initiation quest to Baz? In his original backstory he lost both of his companions just getting there; your dad might be one of them? This version would mean that your dad was raised by the Brothers and Sisters of Holy Ascension when he was young... What's his name, by the way? Any distinguishing marks?

Note drei: Auto-charriots: A construct slightly larger than human-size with four flexible limbs that end in rugged rubber wheels (or equivalent). The passenger sits on its belly, legs folded indian-style, and zooms about the land by controlling thin rods sticking out the front.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:56, Tue 16 Oct 2018.

I'd like Zijan to be involved with the initial shenanigans.

Say Fraksel and Zijan had met at the same aldea where the sibilings had their transformation.  Fraksel was doing research, the siblings were having some fun and also some trans-dimensional accidents.  Zijan was seeing how Fraksel entering the quantum realm (or whichever) would affect a piece of numenera that was supposed to help defend/power the aldea (as per Fraksel's outline above).  Instead, what popped out was two out-of-phase siblings, then Fraksel.

Zijan has felt obligated to keep her little family-esque unit on the right side of chaos ever since...

She's had a little success with Liman, helping her control her phase states, and has hope for Lym eventually deciding that some stable as a community isn't such a bad thing.  And Fraksel?  She hasn't been able to shake where he is, and that is something she's very intrigued by.

Since we all meet in the same aldea, then how about that aldea be the Beanstalk (or The Base of it, to be more precise)? Makes things simpler

So: (New bits in bold)

• Fraksel arrives at The Base to fulfill a glorious prophecy of space and satellites. He  starts proselytizing, trying to recruit other datapilgrims for the task, and also starts building equipment for the holy quest -- most notably an individual harness able to grip the edge of the Beanstalk's "stalk" and propel them upwards! This causes unrest and wild rumors in town, attracting Zijan's attention
  
  
• Lym and Limen get zapped into "not quite this dimension", not too far from The Base
  
  
• The two of them start causing some mischief in the area to test out their new abilities. Meanwhile Zijan (and a delegation from the town?) confront Fraksel at his improvised workshop
  
  
• The siblings run into an old man busily building *something* and a dark-skinned woman animatedly conversing. Mischief attempted, but they get caught! Chase scene through the aldeia with Fraksel breaking through walls, the siblings sprinting and phasing with powers much above their Tier and Zijan preventing several catastrophes. And it's finally Zijan that corners them, using her superior knowledge of her aldea and its citizens to the fullest!
  
  
• By then though it's become apparent that their forms are really quite unstable: if nothing is done, their molecules will loose all cohesion and disperse into a cloud of nothingness, possibly taking the whole town with them!
  
  
• Working together, they find a last minute solution and implement it: the siblings are safe, for now at least, and a lot more stable (if a lot less powerful: back to Tier 1, kiddies ;))
  
  
• As they talk afterwards, it comes out that their dad is an old, old childhood friend of Fraksel's <Insert image of a Fraksel spit-take here; "Your father is WHO?">
  
  
• Insert bonding here, as the siblings slowly heal in Fraksel's workshop and Zijan and Fraksel settle into sort of an odd "aunt and uncle" role for them
  
  
• Meanwhile people start noticing that one of the boulders floating around the Beanstalk is descending gradually. If it continues its descent, it will definitely crush part of the main water collector. Could this be related to whatever it was that transformed the siblings? Or the mayhem/breakage they and Fraksel caused afterwards? Nobody knows, but tongues sure are wagging...

What do you guys and galls think?


Could you run that by me again, Zijan? Is this how you see them being teleported out to the beginning of the adventure?
This message was last edited by the player at 02:03, Thu 18 Oct 2018.

I quite like these ideas. The happenings you've thrown together, Fraksel, with both Zijan and Fraksel in the initial shenanigans, work wonderfully for me! I love this idea of a makeshift family dynamic.

To add in a few new details, for the chase scene I'm getting this image of Limen taunting the guy smashing down walls after them to chase them faster. A small detail, but Limen can also build dynamic frames, them basic vehicles. Lym and her probably had one previously, but perhaps one day while getting stir crazy waiting to recover from "almost vanishing" she challenged Fraksel to a race with his auto-charriot that ended in his victory and her driving the frame into a large rock. She jumped and rolled before getting too hurt herself but the vehicle was sacrificed to said large rock. While working on a replacement, she's been poking around his auto-charriots, promising to put them back together how they were if she could just take a thing off here and there for a second...

And to steal a thing from Crow, Lym and Limen's father vanished, but they never actually heard of his death. Perhaps he - Leven, short for "Leviathen Sebastion Tree" as it were - wasn't religious before meeting Fraksel, but was not difficult to convert and was guns-in once he was. As it so happens, though, the timelines line up so that Fraksel meets Leven after Lym and Limen last saw him, lending some hope but not definite proof that he might still be around and kicking. As for defining features, perhaps he had a large coin-sized freckle under his left eye?

Although she wouldn't join Fraksel's religion, I could see her wanting to talk with him often about knowledge, numenera, and life, the universe, and everything. If he ever got up to mad-science sorts of stuff, I could see him being able to say his equivalent of "hey you want to-" and he wouldn't have to finish before she dropped what she was doing to get up and help. Ditto for anything he would want to break, he could count her along no questions asked. He'd probably also be the first one he poked for help while holding an experimental device of her own she couldn't quite get to work and was currently only warding off an explosion with duct tape.

With Zijan, I could see Limen tagging along to help with societal problems if she let her. She'd probably mostly just sit back and intently watch, but would gladly help out with anything Zijan asked for, and would play along with any anecdotes without missing a beat. Hearing advice directly referring to her own abilities (if that's what you mean) and hearing she had amnesia up unto a year ago if that was something Zijan would share, I could see Limen beginning to keep a small notebook of all Zijan's anecdotes kinda like data to ultimately solve a puzzle.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:41, Wed 17 Oct 2018.

As his prize, Fraksel asked for an entire sermon without her interrupting to ask a single question! I'm going to guess that she's tried three times now and hasn't made it yet ;) (On the plus side, she and anybody else that cared to learned a bit more about what the datapilgrims are and who he is -- since he does answer her questions -- making *not* asking them all the harder : Devilish! <lol>)


RE building stuff, from his time in Baz Brother M is quite good at building controls, limbs, sensors and, most of all, tiny machine minds to run all of the above. He has, in fact, a habit of trying to stick them into everything he builds or helps build, whether it makes sense or not!

I think she tried the first time, failed, tried the second time, failed, and is now failing on purpose because she enjoys it.

I'm also sure she's asked him for a spare arm on at least one occasion.

I can just see Zijan going along behind these human disasters and going, "Ah yes, I think you would have actually shifted that lighting generator right into position if you had crashed into the southwest corner.  Try to crash a little more accurately next time, yes?  Don't break too many limbs!  Dinner's at dusk."

--

Fraksel - My reference to the quantum realm was just me making up a scenario for our meeting, though having us teleport to the adventure because of a numenera misunderstanding is always fun.

Hm, how about having a physical reminder of that solution? Maybe a techno pendant/bracelet/circlet/belt/implant/something else the siblings now have to wear to stabilize themselves?

Could make for some very interesting GM (or player) intrusions should they crack or malfunction (or be willfully removed). Doesn't have to be both siblings either, as one's condition could be "worse"/different than the other's?

Just a thought

I like this idea a lot. My vote is a little bracelet since that can sit all nice against an arm, is about "medium hidden and protected", and because I can't quite shake the image of Limen pretending to be a powerranger with the tech bracelet. Not something that could happen in this world, but ah well.

Designed and made by ours truly Fraksel, I assume? Limen would pester him for the plans and notes on it. I'll also be squirling this away as a possible thing to use if "technical object they're tweaking in the background" is needed.

Collaborative effort, although the idea of the bracelet might have been part of Fraksel's contribution?

And there are actually not one but three power rangers on the plains of Kataru right now, looking for young disciples to initiate... (Although Green is an upraised, mutant plant; best to stay away from him)

The firs thing you notice is the loud noise of clanging metal and the hissing of pneumatic valves and the hiss of steam. Then you notice how large it is. Eight? Nine feet tall? The third thing would probably be the skeleton. Wait. What? Theres a skeleton inside a cyrostasis tube hooked up to three claw like extensions that serve as a tripodal means of locomotion. From the top supported by metal braces and wires and other mechanical bits are four arms ending in sharp claws. But they look intricate enough to handle tools and other delicate maneuvers. The whole of it is covered in a thick plating of some sort of gold and black metal and looks very hard. It moves slow but purpose full. And relentless.

A picture of them
https://pin.it/7gypixabubhqor
This message was last edited by the player at 17:46, Wed 28 Nov 2018.

Welcome Xeno. Hope you have plenty of pleasure in this new format :)

You can see the general background outline we had going in post #17 of this thread.

Has your character been with the group long? Or maybe we could meet/discover him on the group's imminent ressource-gathering trip out of town?

I see it that Xeno literally has just left the place he had been for a long time and has decided to explore so you all can 'meet' them on your journey. I dont see it as then having been with you all at all yet.

Was he active in that "place where he stayed for a long time"? Maybe the others could find him in inactive form (either in "that place" or after he ran out of what little energy he had after getting out of that place) and re-activate him/it?

Fraksel is sort of mad-sciency at times :D
This message was last edited by the player at 23:48, Thu 29 Nov 2018.

Oh let me out my backstory up in my description I thought everyone could see it lol

ok updated my description with its backstory for everyone to see

Did you choose your Connection yet? That might come into play fairly soon (depending on what it is, of course)

Fraksel's Connection was to the twins, so I guess that'll have to change too. Hm...

The connection and reason for doing the adventure are as follows.

Link(s) to the Party:
 Pick one other PC. They seem to find you
off-putting. You wonder if it’s because you’re
clearly smarter than they are or if it’s for some
other reason.
They wanted to spend timee out side to learn of the walking meat.

Zijan then, as Fraksel has been around AIs a while?

Or maybe it could be something like PTSD from Fraksel's time in the Wheal?

Or we could make it more of a professional rivalry, with each trying to out-build, out-knowledge the other every time they can? :D

Let us know which one you're leaning towards

It doesnt really matter to me. I figured one woild be put off by me bacuse im not hunan and I am a skeleton inside a machine. Idk ive never really done the pc connection thing. Which ever doesnt bother me.

<https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/486600659999784960/486668931466133514/image0.jpg>

Hopefully i did this right, should be the image of my character, except it's skin is black, cracked with green void energy, and bright, lime green eyes.

Character bio has been updated afaik

Also, for GM: My mutations....I would like to select two beneficial/ one harmful (Tendril arms/Tendril legs/Tendrils for Mouth). Both Tendril mutations carry an extra beneficial roll, which I am all for letting the dice decide. Also, aside from being freaky (social hindrance), they also provide two assets in Grappling.

I’m throwing this up here to be transparent about my mutant “build”.

Yes, go ahead and roll up your beneficial and harmful mutations.

In reply to The Ninth World (msg # 37):

Armor and  Neural Processing (+1 armor, +5 Intellect)
Might Weakness (+1 Might cost)

A brainiac delving mutant lol

**Note 12/11; was going over my sheet and noticed I misread the results.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:06, Wed 12 Dec 2018.

Its all done afaik; I have a total of 2 Distinctive, 2 Beneficial, and 2 Harmful (I dont mind the extra harmful as i feel the 2 Distinctive are kinda powerful.)

I should have it all finished, if Ninth World wants to check it to give the all-clear.

Talk to me about how the Void Matter Infusion ability works. You gain those stats while it's enabled, then lose them again when you disable it? So you would lose the extra 5 from your Might Pool? So potentially you would have to be careful if, say you were down to 3 Might and disabled it, you would suddenly find yourself impaired. But if you wanted to avoid dropping down on the damage track you would leave it enabled but suffer the penalties as noted during the day. Is that how you interpret that?

Yes, I believe that’s how I would run it; it’s a dangerous power source, so I need to stay aware of my health. During the day, I’d be covered in furs and hides, wearing a mask, etc., to keep from being exposed. But yeah, if my Might is low, and the power is active, turning it off could damage my overall health.

It’s risky, but that’s the nature of the beast with Void powers.