Motivation Station

[Ravenblade]

Hey there, Guys and Gals!

As an experiment for extra credit, I would like everyone to post an answer and description to the following 3 questions:

1. What short term goal or desire does your character have?

2. What does your character feel the party should do next (in the way of adventure or current "game hooks")?

3. As a player, what type of scenarios would you like to see more of?

Remember, there are no right or wrong answers. Give it some thought and treat this as an open forum with suggestions and replies. Please make your posts more than single sentence answers, but less than a volume of War and Peace.

Award: 500xp for initial post.

[frenzied67]

5/1/2016




preface: I have written this in my characters viewpoint in the hopes that it will add to everyone's enjoyment of the game. I hope it informs and entertains all of you without being too onerous to read. Sorry for vying with 'War and Peace' for length.



Kearse Nofather's Goals



“Hmmm, my personal goals and ambitions is it? That is a question that is both very very simple, and yet so difficult to answer. I suppose it would be wise of me to start simply, since this adventuring lifestyle is so new to me. My God, the Shining One, Lord of the Morning, the Brilliant Fount of Life has decreed that I cease ministering solely to the people of the cities and field and take his illuminating power to face the forces of evil and darkness. He has directed my steps to join up with a diverse group of splendid adventures, my boon companions Bahiyya, Thorfinn, Symon, Jansaadi, and Tevya. I am also certain that he guided the steps of our newest friend Saree, the scout with the quick bow and quicker grin. So the simplistic answer is this: I will learn and hone my skills and abilities by helping my companions out; they are currently embroiled in many harsh adventures that have yet to see a finish.

I must learn which of my spells are best to have at hand while on a mission and the spells that would serve us best while we seek information during our down times. My fiasco performance dealing with the night hearted villain Esdan proved to me that the slipshod array of spells that I had at my disposal were not appropriate to the harsh necessities of my new life. I have prayed for the wisdom to prepare the proper spells for the jobs at hand, but I am sure that I will have to revise my choices many more times before I have it right. As diverse as my companions personalities are, I am sure that they are all just being nice to me when they say they are grateful for the healing I provide. I wish to become as proficient and puissant as they are, only that will make me feel as if I am worthy to journey in their midst.

Now I must admit to the difficult realms this question of my goals brings me too, this answer, at its heart, smacks of my sins of pride and impatience. All my life, especially when I took up His ministry, I have had people ask me who the Shining One is. What is his name? What does he look like? Those questions lay at the heart of why it has been so hard for me to find converts to worship the Shining One with me; it is also the root of almost all the animosity that has been leveled my way. In a way I cannot blame my fellow prisoners in this material plane of existence, because a name has power and a face has certitude. Imagine having insane people look at you as though your mind is questionable, that is what it is like to worship my god. That is the main advantage of all these other gods and goddess's, they have names, idols, and history; and those things provide gravitas. In my heart I feel that the Shining One is not a new deity. I believe he is something ancient that has been forgotten, and I believe that he is subtly guiding my steps to find this proof. Or perhaps that is my own hubris talking.

The Shining One does not seem to place that much importance upon his past (or maybe I should say urgency), this is not a goal he has put upon me; it is one I feel I seek on my own. Believe me, friends, I have prayed to him many times to reveal his name and face, and there were times that he seemed to be on the verge of giving in to my entreaties. In those so rare instances, almost as if the Shining One was teasing me in my dreams, he would show me a bright light shrouding facial features that he slowly revealed with a slight dimming of the light. I know He was admonishing me for asking of him something that he did not place weight upon, but to show me my own face as if reflected in a mirror feels to me to be a most cruel punishment; but children do some times require harsh lessons to keep them from reaching into fires that will harm them.

Now I return to the simple goals, that are representative of my continuing efforts to spread the Shining Ones pure message, the Nine tenets of the Morning Lords faith. When I journeyed from the Battle of Skirling Falls the shining one spoke to me often. As you may recall I was born on a field of slaughter as a fully formed boy with this golden holy symbol about my neck. The Brilliant Fount of Life told me that the nine rays of this sun symbol correspond to his nine truths, and he would reveal them too me when I had learned the proper lessons in life to understand those illuminations. On that road he taught me the first tenet; the light is life and life is love. The sun brings life to the world and that life flourishes with both the light of the sun and the love that some of us have for our fellow living beings, light and love, his synonymous gifts to all beings. The second truth he bestowed came after I left Melwen's temple where I was educated. It deals with the balance of society and the individual. Society requires rules over the many individuals that live within, but those rules should never become too many nor too burdensome to the individual. While the individual must stick up for their inaliable rights they must also respect good rules placed on them. The individual must live within their society and do what they can to flourish, but they must do so without trampling their neighbors rights or falling into the trap of self aggrandizement, hedonism, or other forms of selfishness.
Charity and helping others before helping yourself make up the third truth of my Bright Lord. While you are not expected to give everything you own away you still must give what you can when others need you, that charity will spread like a ripple and some day it will come back to you when you most need it. The last truth was revealed too me not long ago, when I learned spells that were more powerful than any I was allowed to channel before. Now we come to the last revelation that the Shining One has bestowed upon me (thus far). The responsibility we have to face and conquer evil, whether that evil is within us or resides in someone else. While life is sacred it behooves us to try to correct the error in an evildoers character, but we also must face the inescapable truth that there are those who will never be redeemed. Their deeds will reveal how far darkness has corrupted their hearts. We must deal with each one of them accordingly, by word, deed, or by the force of arms. Good can not flourish where evil dwells unchecked.

While I do not know what the Morning Lords next tenet will be, I have a feeling that its subject matter will deal with love and sexuality. Just as with how I learned how I am to deal with unrepentant evil, this subject is much on my mind which tells me that I will learn His will on the subject. I have contemplated the teaching of other faiths and how the pantheons deal with sexuality and I have found little or no concordance between faiths; and there is often differences between sects serving the same deity. There are groups who believe in monogamy, polygamy, carefully controlled liaisons (arranged marriage), and outright taboos on the subject. There are those who believe in hedonism, or placing sensationalism before love, then there are those who do not believe in love at all and preach pain over pleasure; and yet others who limit which gender that one can dally with. While I do not know how He will direct me, I am certain that I am not to remain celibate in this life. His message will probably require balance, purity, and a devotion to positive emotions and memories with ones partner(s).

(Translation: Kearse wants to learn how to be a better adventurer by learning from the party. As he follows the others he wants to keep an eye out about anything that may teach him more about his nameless god. Part of his service to his deity is to learn and spread his message, the Shining One's tenets seem to correspond with Kearse's acquisition of spell level ability (i.e. He knows four of nine and can cast fourth level spells), he believes (hopes) that the fifth revelation will free him from his celibate lifestyle, though he is prepared to keep it in his pants if that is not to be (this should occur near, upon, or shortly after gaining access to fifth level spells Kearse may need the DM's (gods) help coming up with future tenets). One of these days he is going to stumble across the nine virtues and try to correlate them with his faith (courage, truth, honor, fidelity, discipline, hospitality, self reliance, industriousness, and perseverance).

[Xura]

Props to Roy for channeling Kearse, above. Sadly, my own brain is a bit dulled at the moment, so I'm writing in plain, dry Tracy-English.


1a) Immediate-term goals revolve around undoing as much of Esdan's evil deeds as possible -- including finding the dryad's scarf and restoring her -- getting off of this plane and back to the "real world."

1b) After that, we have a number of mid-range tasks before us. Bahiyya has an especial interest in finding the lost journal of -- and any additional information about -- Elgin VonDrieth. This would help the girl Aurora by finding a permanent cure, but Elgin is also a personal ancestor, so any information about him is welcome (and would also be of interest to her father).

1c) Come to think of it, I have a father. Doh. I'm so used to playing orphans and such, that I forget that in this game, I actually have family and friends in distant lands. I'll see about sending a letter or messenger pigeon or something when we get out of Esdan.


2) See answer to 1B, above. However, there are several other needs on our bucket-list, too, such as finding and freeing Thorfinn's lady-friend from slavery. I'll admit that I can't recall all of the tasks. Each party-member had something come up of interest to them -- for example, Thorfinn's lady-friend; Jansaadi learned something about her father, I think; and so on.

If the party wishes to turn next to one of those tasks (instead of to the search for Elgin's journal), Bahiyya is okay with that. I myself think it would be wise to triage the task-list -- let's start by tackling the next item that's most urgent, time-wise.


3) World-building and plotline are my jam, so just about anything that gets us travelling through Erath and seeing new places, people, and things, is great. Plus also too, combat; puzzles; mysteries; plot twists; creepy haunted stuff .... it's all good.

[frenzied67]

Tracy-English conveyed more information than Kearse-Blather. We also have to find that mask that Jansaadi was commissioned to find, on top of restoring the shawl to close out Esdan's villainies. The things we do for free experience points!

[Long John]

For Thorfinn,

1.  Short-term goals are obviously very clear for him.
    - Find Inga and save her if he can.
    - Find any other information about the whereabouts of his sister, Edelie, as well as any other survivors of his village.
    - Get his AC up.

2.  Party adventuring and game hooks are pretty simple for Thorfinn, if there is battle ensured, he will be there.

3.  As far as what kinds of scenarios I would like to see as a player, it would be "interesting" to see some encounters with the Scarred Hand. Perhaps some random attacks, or maybe finding some literature that may shed some light on Symon's history, and how it will effect 'Trump of Sedaria's' rise to power....
From Thorfinn's point of view, more seafaring would be nice.
Maybe Takei has some artifacts he would like some help finding....
We know so little of Saree's history.....
We have many options before us.


Thorfinn has some long-term goals as well.
-One day returning home to rebuild Fletveld, in order to provide Aurora with a proper environment to grow up.
-Regain the trust of the other kingdoms for the Koloi people, concerning the betrayal of their forefathers.
-Return to Gulthrum of Clan Logur, and confront him.
-And of course, help his friends with any conflicts, troubles and aid they may require.

[Charllie]

1. What short term goal or desire does your character have?

Tevya is interested in learning more about his compatriots. These people have helped him and accepted him despite not knowing exactly how he got to be in their company in the first place. (Having been freed from the goblins in that one dungeon place, and not having any memory of how he got there, or why.) He's hoping that, by aiding his friends in their endeavors (Bahiyya's Dragon riding, Jansaadi's Father [if she really cares], Thorfinn and Auroroa, maybe Symon and whatever he's doing) will allow him to regain the missing bits of his memory. Also, why was Jansaadi in the cave with him? Is there significance to that?

Sorry Kearse and Saari, Tevya just met you.

Also, he just has a general goal of furthering his druidic nature.

2. What does your character feel the party should do next (in the way of adventure or current "game hooks")?

Establishing the base seems to be the next logical step.

Then possibly finding out more about the Scarred Hand. Who are they? How did Symon escape? Did he really escape? Did they make Symon scared of snakes, or is that just inherent in his personality?

Possibly checking out my vision about my family, and seeing if they are indeed my family, or if that was just a ruse. Also, the dragon vision is really interesting. I'm not sure that actually going to that is really high on Tevya's list though, the vague memories he has of his family aren't pleasant, being as he went he druidic route instead of following in the usual gnomic tinkering footsteps of his father.

3. As a player, what type of scenarios would you like to see more of?

I like the scenarios we've had so far, I'm interested in seeing how the war will pan out. Tevya is happy travelling with everybody as long as they are happy with him being there, in the end he may learn about his lost memory.

[Stephanie]

1. Jansaadi is a cheerful anarchist. She's not a bad person--she does have a heart--but she's not a completely good person either, and she doesn't care about politics, social conventions, or morality. She cares about fun, risk, challenge (she steals for those reasons, not really for profit), her friends in the party, and her father.

Based on this, for her long term goals, she plans to eventually resurrect her father; however, she's concerned that he's just going to run off and get himself killed again, and she'd like to set up a safeguard against that happening before she brings him back. She'd like to become actively involved in risky projects for a thieves' guild, or, since there's a war coming, in some kind of political sabotage work for hire.

2. Jansaadi doesn't care what the group does; she'll be happy to tag along as long as she can run her little side projects without listening to too much moralizing about it. She knows that Thorfinn has wanted to save Inga for a long time, so she'd probably vote that we go rescue her.

3. I'm happy with whatever the group decides, although I'd prefer it if we had fewer bookkeeping and "in town" days.

[rimmermac]

1) Short term for Symon is simple, making sure Haroon is secure in his new...endeavor. That actually would include Takei as well, considering what they've lost in the war.

The other part of that is any time we run across the scarred hand we have to stop them from whatever they are involved in, mostly because if we run across them it's detrimental to Symon's health if they are allowed to continue breathing.

Long term is finding Dirci and finding a way to rescue her from the plane that she currently resides on. Most of that is searching for knowledge or items to allow him to breach her purgatory.

2) As for what the group should do next, we should go after Inga. If she's enslaved then there is a ticking clock. If she gets moved or sold we may never be able to find her.

3) I actually enjoy any scenarios pertaining to a characters background. Whether it's part of the created history that some of us had done being fleshed out or the surprise history that came up with Jansaadi.

I personally would enjoy getting some more in the way of history of Bahiyya, Kearse, Saree, and Tevya since their "histories" have not been visited yet. Of course I always enjoy the Scarred Hand appearances.

[frenzied67]

Kearse has evolved... well his goals have.  Learning of his curse (Kearse cursed?) has curtailed certain urges yet it has prompted curiosities.  He wants to discover who his mother, Neuell, was and what exactly the chaste order is (or was).  Also Gavin Blackwyrme will have to be researched.  Given his fathers fame, Kearse is more likely to find information on him than his mother, but both parents will be researched in depth when given an opportunity.  I know, this information wasn't asked for but if I don't write it down somewhere it gets lost in the echoing labyrinth of my mind.


Here's some demotivation for the hell of it.