GM Samy's Strange Aeons

Game Master Samy

Character Name: Matsu Miuki
Race: Kitsune
Class: Tattood Sorcerer (Fey bloodline)
Alignment: Chaotic good
Str 6, Dex 12, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 17
Feats: Alertness, Varisian Tattoo, Magical Tail
Traits: Twitchy; Dtang Ma Bloodline, Nine Tailed Scion

1. Emerald green eyes looking at her…. and a red-furred face in a red robe with a golden belt. Caring, loving and soo sad

2. Walking peacefully through the woods with strange tube like trees, listening to the soothing sound of a flute. Looking in a pool of water and seeing herself with a strange animal like face
3. Running away from soldiers with torches and spears in terror in a dark night, the smell of burning hair in the aid, hearing the screams of friends and family behind her.
4. Finding shelter in a cave. The coldness, the dampness and then the brilliant light.
5. The pain of arriving in this country, the weeks where she could only speak with hands as no one understood her words.

Miuki was born in Dtang-Ma, one of the countries in far away Tien-Xa. As the daughter of a powerful kitsune noble she lived a life of no wanting. Born after the collapse of Lung Wa her mother became more influential, but also made quite a few enemies. A few years ago, one of those enemies used the evershifting alliances to attack the Matsu family. With devastating success. Her mother led Miuki away and ordered her to seek shelter in a cave in the south of her garden. This cave had a malfunctioning portal that sent her away to this country. But the magic had an unforeseen result, together with the terror of the night Miuki has forgotten her heritage. She thinks she is a normal human girl.
But her dreams show her fragments of her past, with many fox-faced people around her.
But her thoughts have power and in the end she was send to the asylum to cure her.

One particular red-haired daughter vowed to make life better for all women and girls... and boys and men as well, at least of those with no intention to perpetuate the reigning chaos. She was known as the Vermilion Vixen, the Extremely Fashionable Muscle of the Society, Champion of Milani, Protector of Young Girls, of All Women, of the Innocent...

Many illustrated texts depict this glorious heroine! She couldn’t save all of Numeria, but it is said that she thwarted many villains and managed to escape the border with a legion of women and girls. The whereabouts of their Amazonian paradise is rumored to be in the First World…

So how the f@!~ I end up in a nuthouse?

Memory #1: “Rooftopolis”
The Vixen leaps from rooftop to rooftop, then crouches by a gargoyle and watches two opposing forces of barbarian men battle it out. One side wears nothing but paint and fuzzy briefs. The other side has glowing green eyes and tubes of green gunk flowing from a metallic exo-spine. The Vixen waits to take on the handful of survivors. Team Woad wins, we can talk sense. But if the Juicers come out on top... here’s hoping no more than three of ’em’re left, and badly beaten to boot.

Memory #2: “Mrs. Bluebeard”
The Vixen enters a room in which the rotting corpses of several brides hang from the rafters in a wine cellar. Her eyes well with tears as she looks into the ice-blue eyes of a red-haired bride. She cuts her noose with a pair of fabric shears and cradles the body in her arms, sobbing…
((Click “Origin Story” spoilers for the full version.))

Memory #3: “Hot Spring”
The Vixen relaxes in a hot spring with a woman in each arm and another on her lap. The surroundings are lush and pristine.

Memory #4: “Epic Failure”
The Vixen hugs her leather-clad knees and sobs uncontrollably in a dark alley. There is dried blood on the pavement, but no body is there. The Vixen has a single red rose. She lays it in the center of the bloody spot, apologizing profusely.

Memory #5: “Mr. Bluebeard”
A man with a blue goatee lays dead with the heel of a broken stiletto embedded in his throat. Blood trickles from his bashed face. Broken teeth are scattered about on the wine cellar floor. The Vixen hears the sound of the man’s final bowel movement, and wipes the blood from her smirking lips.

Str 10, Dex 14+2, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 7
Feats: Point-Blank Shot; Precise Shot
Traits: Freed Slave (Regional, Katapesh); Foe of the Strange (Campaign); Blessed Touch (Faith)

1) As a child, seeing her owner murdered in the streets of Katapesh (watching with interest as his blood pooled in the street; waiting for the town watch to arrive. Only much later did she wonder whether she ought to have felt anything).

2) Realising that she was ‘different’ from the other acolytes she was training and studying with: the things that bothered them, that made them happy and sad, didn’t affect her.

3) Her first kill: the satisfaction of body and mind working in perfect coordination to send her arrow straight into the bandit’s eye. (The same sense of satisfaction as if she had hit the bullseye of a target. As for killing someone? Well, yes - it's not a training exercise. The arrow was supposed to kill him.)

4) Her capture and interrogation by ‘them’ and being tortured until she told them everything - which took longer than they expected, since the psychological elements of torture didn't really affect her, although pain of course works on everyone. (She has no idea, now, of who 'they' were; she can’t remember her answers, or even the questions). In-game, this is my rationalisation for her relatively low stat score: her body is still recovering from the trauma

5) This one is not so much a memory as a certainty: she knows she didn’t escape. ‘They’ let her live because they thought it was crueller than just killing her.

concept image

Jassminder is Lawful: orderly, methodical (all her arrows are fletched in the same way, with the same amount of twine wound in the same pattern), rational and above all, calm even in the midst of battle. Well aware that no plan survives contact with the enemy, she survives by being well-prepared: even when she has to improvise on the spur of the moment, she does so on the back of well-rehearsed and well-trained movements. She is not given to panic, or to moments of impulsive individualism. She is also truthful: it’s enough effort that her entire emotional life is a pretence, and she has no inclination to complicate things further.

Jassminder is Good: morality for her is not a question of feeling or personal preference, but of rational choice. She prefers the company of people who are good, because they are less likely to betray her or stab her in the back or enslave her. She may not share their propensity to, say, go all ‘gooey’ over small children and kittens and the like, but she would rather live in a world of good people than in a world of evil people. Keeping the good people safe is Jassminder's role, and if that means evildoers have to be eliminated, so be it. But she doesn’t take joy in killing: she vividly remembers her first kill, but hasn’t bothered to remember any of the subsequent ones (and there have been several). Bragging about killing, or keeping trophies or notches or records of kills, is something she finds incomprehensible: they’re dead, you’re alive, end of story, move on.

It’s important to note that Jassminder is not completely devoid of emotion; it’s more as though there’s a party in a house she is walking past: she can smell the food, and hear the laughter of the guests enjoying themselves, but there’s a wall between them and herself. It’s not something she worries about. She may not participate in the emotional highs of ‘normal’ people, but she doesn’t suffer from doubt, fear, despair, panic or any of the other afflictions ‘normal’ people have to endure. About the only time she feels anything comparable to emotional closeness is in the aftermath of good sex; and that creates a conundrum, since she enjoys the sex but emotional closeness is unfamiliar and uncomfortable. So far she has yet to find a rational solution, since complete abstinence is out of the question – the body has needs and appetites, after all.

In terms of appearance, Jassminder is relatively compact (just over 5 feet in height), although her broad shoulders tend to mean people perceive her as taller than she really is. Her hair, like most Keleshites, is black, and she wears it long because it’s easier than cutting it regularly.

Her eyes are dark and tend not to meet other peoples’ very often, usually making initial contact and then darting away, looking down. She is aware that most people are seeking to make some sort of connection when they look at you, and (not being able to make that sort of connection) she finds it uncomfortable; so she avoids it.

Jassminder appears to be in her mid to late twenties, although she has lost track of her exact age – along with most of her memories, it seems. She doesn’t fidget, or have any particular mannerisms; although perhaps her ability to be still no matter the circumstances, until she explodes into action, is a mannerism in itself. Even when caught by surprise she is highly unlikely to flinch or jump.

My newest game.

Also want to echo what a few other people have said and add forced attraction to men/conversion to my list of limits.

Feat
Spell focus evocation

Traits
Driven By Guilt
Magical Lineage (Mind Thrust)
Wayang Spellhunter (Battering Blast)

Kioku has a great feeling of guilt that drives her actions. She still feels it despite not having her memories and is driven to help others in an attempt to assuage that guilt. Kioku is generally a very social and amicable person. Even though her psychic wall is up protecting her from other's thoughts she still feels their emotions coming off of others and it helps her relate to them. She is 5'10" and has long midnight black hair. Her eyes are a solid white and her skin is slightly blue

I prefer long campaigns as it really lets you get invested in the story. As long as the party size is managable (no more than 6 maybe 7), I get invested in the relationships that get built between the characters and the story that plays out. In that way I would be in it for the long haul. I don't really have any free hours for anything live. I can make posts pretty regularly during business hours. At home I'm too busy and won't have a chance. I typically post between the hours of 9-5 Eastern time. In regards to posts, I can make several posts a day during weekdays. Weekends I tend to have a hard time getting in front of a computer and would not post often

Rage is where her facade cracks. It is the one emotion shown most commonly on her face; she is prone to scowling and snarling, and when threatened is known to bite. In battle, she most resembles a cornered prey animal.

Milady awakes terrified of her circumstances, lost and alone. She swallows and represses this fear, but it creeps through and influences many of her actions. She will immediately bond with the party as a lifeline, worried she might drown without them.

While her shape is correct enough, minor details obviously establish her as not normal. For one, she is missing a finger on both of her disproportionately large and powerful hands, and for another, she lacks individual toes. It looks as if they've all sort of merged together. Her jaw she can unhinge at will, skin stretching with great ease, and inside her cavernous, unending mouth, a blue tongue and a multitude of huge, sharp teeth.

And aside from the seams in her skin and her sometimes-glowing blue tattoos, the rest of her body is relatively human in shape and appearance, but her skin and hair are simply the wrong texture. Her skin is bone white, and appears cold and hard to the touch but is actually springy and incredibly warm. Her red, red hair always flows as if underwater, lifted up above her figure.

If both myself and the "Vermillion Vixen" get in, I will alter Milady's appearance to more match her avatar. Her blue tongue and circuitry tattoos will shine gold with light from within, and her hair will likewise be gold. That way we don't have two gingers with thick dramatic hair.

Over the course of the game, I want Milady to grow to feel complicated emotions and not just squash them immediately, but experience them and their consequences. I want her to bond with other PCs and be willing to be vulnerable with them. I want her to feel anguish and despair and genuine fear, and not run from any of these things or respond only with hate and anger. At risk of being cliche, I want to see her become human, almost.

She has a hero complex, and I know myself as a role-player. LARP or PbP, I have a track record of pulling crazy stunts for equal part theatrics + keeping allies on their feet. This Vixen will be no exception. She'll be loyal to a fault, and will not see any innocent (NPC) or ally (PC/NPC) as expendable.

She is not a heartless killer. The beauty of Hinyasi: as with unarmed strikes, VV can nonlethally break a chair over a bad guy's head. Or kill with a badminton racket. (I'm about to play with my daughters. Those things are kinda dangerous in the hands of a six-year-old.) VV will kill the deserving; and spare the... err... deserving-of-being-spared.

VV cherishes the tender moments. She wants to be that legendary heroine, who's stylish and sexy, but she does have those scars on her face. (CHA 8 @ Lv.1) She will likely be a flirt, but not looking for more than friendship. She wants to see the smiles on the faces of those she saves. She will have an emotional response to NPC deaths, especially children. Emotions could bring tears or murderous rage (against the killer, of course). Or both.

But during battle, she will taunt and crack jokes. It's sort of a sad clown thing. And there's always a purpose to seemingly insane words from her mouth. (Jokes during battle: make self a target; keep allies' morale up; act like she's not scared, etc.)

(Okay... kids are ready for badminton, so that'll do.)

Separated from the members of her team that actually could open the ways into the plane of shadow, Malarra has found herself stuck alone on a hostile world with no way of return.

In combat, Malarra seems to most come out of her shell, trading verbal barbs with her adversaries and issuing quick observations to her allies (when she is fortunate enough to have any). Though she is not a cold-blooded killer by any means, she is also not the kind to give any aid to a fallen foe without having a compelling enough reason to do so. She has been known to accept willing surrender on occasion, but not more often than not she gives as much mercy to her foes as she expects in return: none.

Elf: Drow are humanoids with the elf subtype.

Medium: Drow are Medium creatures and receive no bonuses or penalties due to their size.

Normal Speed: Drow have a base speed of 30 feet.

Surface Infiltrator: Some drow dwell close to the surface lands, either because they serve drow causes or they were exiled. Drow with this racial trait gain low-light vision, allowing them to see twice as far as humans in conditions of dim light. This racial trait replaces the darkvision and light blindness racial traits.
Drow Immunities: Drow are immune to magic sleep effects and gain a +2 racial bonus on saving throws against enchantment spells and effects.

Keen Senses: Drow gain a +2 racial bonus on Perception checks.

Poison Use: Drow are skilled in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves.

Spell Resistance: A drow possesses an amount of spell resistance equal to 6 + her character level.

Spell-Like Abilities: A drow can cast dancing lights, darkness, and faerie fire, each once per day, using her total character level as her caster level.

Weapon Familiarity: Drow are proficient with the hand crossbow, rapier, and short sword.

Languages: Drow begin play speaking Elven and Undercommon. Drow with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Aklo, Aquan, Common, Draconic, Gnome, Goblin, and Sakvroth.

This alters the fighter’s class skills.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A fighter is proficient with all simple and martial weapons and with light and medium armor.
Bonus Feats: At 1st level, and at every even level thereafter, a fighter gains a bonus feat in addition to those gained from normal advancement (meaning that the fighter gains a feat at every level). These bonus feats must be selected from those listed as combat feats, sometimes also called “fighter bonus feats.”

Upon reaching 4th level, and every four levels thereafter (8th, 12th, and so on), a fighter can choose to learn a new bonus feat in place of a bonus feat he has already learned. In effect, the fighter loses the bonus feat in exchange for the new one. The old feat cannot be one that was used as a prerequisite for another feat, prestige class, or other ability. A fighter can only change one feat at any given level and must choose whether or not to swap the feat at the time he gains a new bonus feat for the level.
Shadow Weapon (Su): A gloomblade can create a shadowy weapon in a free hand as a move action. This can take the form of any melee weapon with which he is proficient. A gloomblade can have only one shadow weapon in existence at a time; creating a new shadow weapon causes an existing shadow weapon to vanish. At 3rd level, the shadow weapon acts as a magic weapon with a +1 enhancement bonus; this bonus increases by 1 for every 4 levels a gloomblade has beyond 2nd, to a maximum enhancement bonus of +5 at 18th level.

At 7th level, a gloomblade can create (and maintain) two shadow weapons at a time as a move action; if he does, each weapon has an enhancement bonus 1 lower than normal. If a gloomblade creates only one weapon, it gains a weapon special ability of his choice (chosen upon creation); the ability must be valid for the shadow weapon’s weapon type and must be chosen from defending, flaming, frost, keen, ghost touch, merciful, shock, thundering, or vicious. (Additional special abilities might qualify, at the GM’s discretion.)

At 11th level, a gloomblade’s shadow weapons each gain their full enhancement bonus if he creates two weapons. If a gloomblade creates only one shadow weapon, it gains additional weapon special abilities; the total effective bonus of these abilities cannot exceed +3. The gloomblade can now choose from the of anarchic, axiomatic, flaming burst, icy burst, holy, shocking burst, unholy, and wounding weapon special abilities as well as those from the list above.

At 15th level, a gloomblade’s shadow weapons each gain magic weapon special abilities with a total effective bonus of +2 per weapon. If a gloomblade creates only one shadow weapon, its magic weapon special abilities cannot exceed a total effective bonus of +5. The gloomblade adds brilliant energy, dancing, and speed to the options he can choose as weapon special abilities for his shadow weapon.

This replaces the fighter’s armor training and proficiency with heavy armor and shields (he retains proficiency in light and medium armor).

...

Explanation: so I was just outside with my daughters, who are biracial, we're talking about the Hong Kong portion of our trip over dinner, and for whatever reason I remembered a classmate of mine from HKU who was pale and freckled with curly hair and spoke perfect Cantonese over the phone. It surprised me, so I asked who she was talking to. "My grandmother." Turned out she was 75% British, 25% Chinese.

I now know enough about Punnett Squares to know why recessive traits (like red hair) skip a generation. Let's just say science supports a 25% Tien redhead without the biology mini-lesson 'cause it's summer vacation.

Point is, the plan for my Brawler Vixen is already that she is fluent in Tien and she is NOT Addison Lane. I don't know who she is. But I certainly like the idea of her having a reason for fluency in Tien being a single grandparent. She could, if her paternal grandfather is Tien, carry a Tien family name. Her true name is a GM call.

So yeah... I'd like to play this VV as biracial, though more for the fun fact when memories pop in her head. VV doesn't really know her heritage at all.

(As far as the visibility of Tien features, they would be subtle. With my quarter-Chinese classmate, both white and Asian friends thought she was white. With my half-Chinese daughters, it's apparent. White people see Asians; Asians see white girls.)

When she got her memory wiped, she went back to her original personality, but only the hedonism and the need to help others. Otherwise, she's much more brash. It's much like a toned down version of Jane from Doom Patrol.

Over time, she would mellow down to an extend and would be more interested in stopping whoever caused this, even though the past will be painful to her.

She’s outgoing and friendly, but a little too eager for acceptance, and can be quite manipulative and deceitful in the interests of getting her way. She experiences emotion intensely and quickly, leading to passionate displays that can change in a moment. She can never entirely let her guard down around warm-blooded creatures, as there is always the creeping desire to exsanguinate them; she prefers the company of other unusual creatures that have no blood to tempt her (strange android women, perhaps?).

She awakes confused, but emboldened, ready to fight her way out of the asylum. She feels strangely light, like she’s been carrying a heavy burden that’s suddenly been lifted and is now reveling in the feeling. In time, though, she will begin to wonder what she was like before the amnesia; did she give in to the bloodlust inside of her, and how many times? Is it good she’s lost her memories, so she can begin life anew and free of guilt?

I will blow my gold on maxing HP because I know me as a player and I know my hero-complex characters well. I love playing the type, and I respect the difference between taking a hit for the team vs. forcing the party to save your crazy ass.

"VV" will care very deeply about her companions. She may gravitate to someone who gets her, but she also believes that a cliquey group leaving someone out/ignored is no fun. (Also bad for survival.) She will awkward-sidehug the hell out of an outcast if she has to.

She may come off as egotisticalat times. Usually in combat, unless of course she has good reason to feel less-than-awesome.

Assuming we start with ~100g, I intend to spend 10g on the courtesan kit. I love the kit as a means of having trashy action-spy-romance novels written by Jane Bond. (Somewhere in my sent folder is a synopsis and description of Book One in case players borrow the book.)

Lv.4-8: WIS up — "VV"'s delusional state starts to merge with reality. It may mean keeping the Vixen's name knowing it's not her, or she may still think she's the Vixen and simply suspect the illustrations she remembers are more fiction than fact. She follows the ideals of her Heroine because she believes in them rather than out of delusion.

Lv.9: STR up — 'cause I'm playing a PF-legal superhero and will keep that stat capped every 8 levels.

Lv.10 CHA up — the scars have healed and "VV" grows in confidence.

Lv.11+ working toward bonuses in all attributes...

At first glance, paladins would seem to destroy most of the common horror tropes: they're literally fearless (from level 3), they have kick-ass Will saves and immunity to some enchantments (from level 7).

But what does it mean to be literally fearless? What have you lost, that you're so resistant to some of the most basic human emotions? That's a question I want to explore with Jassminder.

She may not be terrified by the more obvious things (dead bodies? Yeah, I've seen a few. Made a few myself, even) but she struggles to deal with emotions, both hers and other peoples'. Anyone showing a deep, real, powerful emotional response is likely to make her uncomfortable*; and anyone who shows signs of emotionally investing in her is likely to freak her out: don't they know she can't return that investment in kind? What's their angle?

And if they're sincere in their emotional attachment, then so much the more confusing. After all, what kind of weirdo would get emotionally involved with her?

*unless it's anger. It's fair to say that she's got anger sorted

Picture (minus the hawk)

Five memories:(after each, there's an emotion associated with the memory)

1: A figure (her mother?) vaguely on the periphery of her vision, guiding Inustari, no older than 6 or 7, saying "Steady, steady. Lower your aim a bit. Pull your bow back a bit more. There we go. Now…. Release." Then, the satisfaction of an arrow flying from her bow, hitting the bullseye of a target nearly 200 feet away. Approval

2: A caravan of… desert wardens? Her family? A dozen or so people, trekking across the desert under the hot, hot sun in pursuit of something. Now no more than 10, she scans the horizon, calls, "There!" A shuffle of movement, people getting ready for something. Fear/worry

3: An award ceremony. She's about the same age as the previous memory. She's in a stone building, for the first time in her life. There's a regal figure there. A queen? A tribal leader? The memory is fuzzy. The queen is saying something, "In honor of your bravery in the face of fire in service of… I hereby grant you your name, in recognition of… Rise, and enter the service of the Dawnflower, Inustari…" the memory trails off before she learns her last name. Pride

4:Now, Inustari is twelve, and remembers rushing across a courtyard, not wanting to be late for chapel. She arrives just a minute too late, and all the adults glare at her as she takes her place in the service, still clad in her desert gear instead of the ceremonial attire of the other trainees. Nervousness

5: An oath-taking ceremony, now she's maybe 14 at the most. Too young for what she's undertaking. Far too young, but there is no choice, "I, Inustari … do swear to guide the righteous, to cleanse the wicked, and to chase out this corruption plaguing our lands. I will not rest until the innocent are safe, and these creatures are driven off. So is my oath, and so is my bond." Shame

Inustari is something like the archetypal paladin: committed to Sarenrae, kind to the weak, and ruthless toward evil. She will do whatever it takes to cleanse the corruption cause by unnatural creatures, and tries to redeem those affected by creatures that should not exist. She is utterly determined in her goals, quick to act, and will never give up on a goal she sets for herself, to the point where it can almost be a problem (it got her in trouble when she was younger), and is unwavering on her morals. However, she doesn't care much for how a goal is accomplished, so long as it is done (and doesn't cross her sense of Good). Fortunately, her goals rarely conflict with what would be considered "good sense." (She'll go along with what the party wants, basically) That said, she does value perspective, and if new information comes up, she will incorporate that into her decisions.

One thing, though, that really bothers her, is not knowing her last name. For Kelishites, their last name is frequently an honorific, something that you earn, the thing that defines you most as a person. To not know what is literally her most defining accomplishment, what she is to people, would be... maddening. So, she would either try to remember what it was, and how she earned it (unlikely), or earn a new one (more likely). However, she would never let herself live with a new name that is less than her old one, and would have to, without a doubt, be certain that her new name would have to signify something greater than her old one. It's a simple matter of honor. One must always be improving, and if one's old self was more accomplished, more skilled, braver than her current self, it would be humiliating.

But yeah. I haven't gone anywhere, and plan to stay around for a while. I don't have any friends on the boards, beyond just the people who I keep ending up in games with, but nobody who knows me in real life.

As a college student, my hours can be somewhat variable depending on my homework load, but for the summer, I'm free... basically every day after about 5 (EST). During the upcoming school year, I will mainly be free Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights.

As to how I can assure you I won't disappear, uh... Other than being relatively active on the boards for almost four years now, I'm not sure what I could really provide.