Suihkulahde: Session Twelve, Trait Vote the First

I tried something different this time: I didn't push for this arc as if it was the last, and spent most of the time building forward. And it was a very strange experience! I've always striven to make sure each arc was self-contained. Even if my sessions aren't, they all added up by end of the arc. But this focus led me to suggest skipping parts of the narrative in The Undertow that could have been really interesting.

So I may or may not have gone the other way.

Way the other way.

I think I may have overdone it. Slightly. But this wasn't a total wash. We had created a prologue of sorts for the rest of the game. There had been a lot of tension between Anneli and Nomi. This arc hadn't removed the animosity completely, but it did put Anneli and Nomi on the same side.  By putting the sisters in a situation that removed them from their friends (and preventing them from able to communicate the problem to said friends) Anneli and Nomi forged a completely unique bond. And that's where we cut it: a rekindling of sorts between Anneli and Nomi. It's not perfect, it's certainly not pretty, but they won't necessarily be at each other's throats in future arcs.

So before we start this trait vote here's the traits as they stand:

Anneli

Call of the Island, Righteous,  Mortally Wounded in the Head | Shaky Hands | Slightly Clumsy, Bound to Akseli, Commanding Aura, Driven (Pilot)

When Sabina's Castle ended, Anneli was in a very interesting place. She had just saved the Argentum Empire from Aloysius, but was unable to figure out how to address Nomi. The entirety of this arc was about Anneli's assumptions getting just shattered. Seeing that Nomi, who Anneli had abandoned in confusion, had not only changed, but was pregnant, with a husband that had loved her, would have been enough. 

But then she failed her sister and Nomi's husband, Constantine, was killed. And then the Akseli helped mend her broken body, changing Anneli's soul. That's a lot. A lot of a lot.

So when looking at the traits I know I'll be suggesting swapping out Righteous for Fearless, drop Slightly Clumsy, and add Tough.

Nomi

Educated, Call of the Sea, Spite, Deceptive, Compulsive Liar, Callous, Charismatic, Memory’s Influence, Bitter, Guarded

Ah, Nomi. From NPC to PC, there's been a lot of development for this character that Andy first envisioned as just simply "Anneli's sister". Nomi, having lost her husband Constantine, needed a new anchor. And I think she found it? Or at least is willing to look for it? Even that much is a lot. And I think she's willing to find a new anchor.

I'll be suggesting swapping out Compulsive Liar for Snarky, nixing Guarded, and adding Aggressive.

Lead Up to the Vote

The first thing we had to figure out was how long Anneli, who'd taken a mortal wound, was out for. Given that life-giving water from the center of the earth was available, I decided that would help Marian, Telos, and Decima heal Anneli, giving dai quite the boost. So I told Andy that all healing checks would pass, giving Anneli +3D to dail Health rolls. The water also meant that, no matter what happened, the recovery time was at the minimum. That's a bit of cheating, I know, but it's the life-giving water. Those 3 dice really helped! Andy passed like a champ. Five months of recovery! So that's what the downtime is.

Feedback

I next asked folks for feedback: things they liked, things they didn't like and wanted addressed, as well as things they wanted introduced. With the format explained, I led.

Nathan (GM)

I really liked the character work going on; no matter how wonky things got Andy and Lena stayed relentlessly focused on how things affected their characters. They also played a lot with subtext, describing in pretty great detail little facial shifts and other stuff that I just adored. All the little twitches that siblings are so sensitive to they played up. It was great.

Less great was my own lack of focus. I had tried a few things that fell apart as they hit the table and had created a bit of a mess. I had partially intended to not make an arc that was self-contained, but felt that I had gone too far. 

I personally wanted to see more of what made someone become a member of the immortal Council. What did it mean to be immortal? What had to be given up? And what if not all of them were good? What did that look like?

Andy

Andy agreed that the character work was really strong and enjoyed it. He and Lena had crafted some really good emotional scenes. The arc had retained a good emotional core. He also really liked going back to the Argentum Empire and seeing it again.

Andy's criticisms were... completely on point, and not what I expected them to be. Andy said that the plot about the stars vanishing had been more or less dropped, and that had been a primary piece of concern for Anneli. Andy also wanted to see more of the fallout from the time traveling that happened, specifically the Dahaka. What had happened there? He wanted more definition on it.

I honestly just kinda expected them to want to drop the arc entirely.

Andy also asked about somehow getting back to the Ring of Tears. He wanted to reconnect Anneli to that piece of the past.

Lena

Lena agreed about the emotional core. She had found that, as weird as the plot had become, its focus on character was amazingly consistent. She also agreed that she wanted to see more of the consequences of the time travel. What had they accomplished? What sorta backlash was coming? Lena then asked if we could find a way to not only get back to the Ring of Tears but to see more of the fallout of the Lone Keep cult. Nomi had been a member of that cult for a while, what would happen if dai ran into more members of that former cult? I honestly hadn't expected that.

The State of the Sky

Andy brought up a good point: the plot about the vanished sky had dropped out. Part of it was that introducing Nomi significantly affected the plot, changing the focus of the story. So now that we had resolved the myriad conflicts brought about by bringing the two sisters back together, what were we going to do about the sky?

I said that I didn't really know how to approach the problem and wanted to broach that with the folks at the table. Naturally speaking the cloud that surrounded the planet would be dying down around five months or so. Now, speaking on a meta level that wasn't a problem; we needed to determine what answer we wanted. I broke down the three states we could do: sky remains black, cloud goes away, or something strange happens. If the sky stayed black that would mean someone was probably keeping it that way, and that while that would change the plot it would keep Anneli's motivations intact from the start of the campaign.

We all opted for that: the sky would stay dark. And that meant someone was keeping it that way. Which kinda implies the meta-goal of the next arc. I think. 

The Trait Vote

We're finally here! The trait vote! Here's the actual thing. We listed out our suggested traits, and then started to have our conversation.

Anneli

Nathan

Drop Slightly Clumsy, change Righteous to Fearless, and add Tough as Nails

My logic was that Slightly Clumsy, a trait earned from a Mortal Wound from years ago, just didn't really apply anymore. Anneli was no longer the Righteous icon dai had become in the eyes of the Argentum people, but had become a fearless, badass warrior, whose body was toughening up in the face of constant adversity.

Lena

Drop Slightly Clumsy, Righteous to Cool-Headed, add Aura of Determination

So Lena was in complete agreement about nixing Slightly Clumsy and Righteous, but wanted to add Aura of Determination. Anneli had been the bedrock of the sisters, constantly helping Nomi regain dail composure at key times. So Lena wanted something to reflect Anneli's leadership, but at the time she didn't really know what particular trait she wanted.

Andy

Drop Slightly Clumsy, swap Righteous for Dreamer, add Aura of Determination

Turns out nobody thought Slightly Clumsy and Righteous should go. But Andy wanted to go for Dreamer, as that allowed Anneli to take dail experiences with Dream and seeing other things from other worlds and making that a part of dail plans. Lena and I adored that idea, and took to it at once. Lena, who was looking for a trait, loved that idea.

And so this is what we ended up with:

Drop Slightly Clumsy

Swap Righteous for Dreamer

Add Aura of Determination

Nomi

Nathan

Drop Guarded, Swap Compulsive Liar for Snarky, add Itching for a Fight (C-O Intimidation, start in Aggressive stance)

I saw Nomi as becoming more open and not as openly secretive, as well as being openly hostile to those who got in the way of Nomi and dail sister.

Andy

Drop Compulsive Liar, swap Bitter to Grief-Touched, add The Killer

Andy saw Nomi as opening up more, and emphasized dail's growth from Bitterness to someone who was may be willing to grieve. The Killer makes Nomi better at Fight! and Ranged and Cover. 

Lena

Drop Educated, swap Callous for Familial Loyalty, and add The Killer

Lena brought up that Educated didn't come up... at all. Not at all. Like, at all at all. Lena wanted to get rid of Callous because, at the end of the day, Nomi had started to care about something... dail family. The rest of the detritus hasn't gone away. And this was another situation where The Killer just became a unanimous vote. 

Drop Educated

Swap Callous for Familial Loyalty

Add The Killer

And there we have it! We're going to take a break, as Andy and I go onto do an eight session gameof Hearts of Wulin while we all digest everything that went down. In about a month I think I'll start writing up my thoughts on the arc and see what it is I want to throw at the campaign. The idea of going and ending the darkness that was unwittingly started by Mikansia but now continued by... something else. Maybe throw in some of the folks from the Lone Keep, get some time glitches and loops thrown in, all from bad members of the Council?

We'll see!