#campaign diary

v// i can't quite tell what this feeling is, and clarification from those who experience normal emotions would be appreciated.

this night was fucked it started with banging on my coffin and the lid to be thrown open by piper as soon as i unlatched it, and the first thing she says "get up we need a attack dog" say how you really feel why don't you, the bitch knows who i am and what i can do, and just like that all my remaining good will for her gone in a single moment

 ☾.✴˚˖⁺✦

Lord Morgan Branwen is a recluse who only ventures into society for the express intention of expanding his art collection. The only other thing that interests him is news of his missing friend.

☾.✴˚˖⁺✦

Samantha Church is an investigative journalist forced into writing gossip columns for a tabloid. She can’t say it out loud, but she misses the days when she hid her identity and acted as a war correspondent.

☾.✴˚˖⁺✦

Aran is an actor who entered the industry for everything but acting six years ago, when an accident left them estranged from both their memories and family. When they’re not on a movie set, Aran can be found at the biggest parties– socialising, but not making any connections.

Nom / Name : 'His Fate' fanfiction.

Date de début / Start date : December 10th, 2016.

🇫🇷 2017 : Vivez la première campagne présidentielle du candidat Macron de l'intérieur à travers le personnage d'Helena Lefebvre, Community Manager pour le parti En Marche ! et protégée du Président en devenir, Emmanuel Macron...

Les coulisses d'une victoire politique hors du commun... 📣

📱 ... où vont se mêler mensonges, scandales et faux semblants... 🏛

... L'amour et l'amitié pourront-ils y survivre ? ❤️‍🩹💔

🇬🇧 Experience candidate Macron's 2017 presidential campaign through the eyes of Helena Lefebvre, Community Manager for the En Marche ! political movement and "little protégée" of a french President in the making ; Emmanuel Macron...

Enter the backstages of an uncommon political campaign...

... where lies, scandals and false appearances intertwine...

Can love and friendships survive this ?

'His Fate' | an Emmanuel Macron Fanfiction

》 Commencer la lecture

Session summary I wrote for the L5R game I bullied my friend into running. This was mostly a prologue session to help us all get into character so not too much happened beyond us hanging out at an inn.

Most esteemed Grandmother,

I hope this letter finds you well, and that Kyuden-Bayushi has not felt too much excitement in my absence. 

We ourselves have made roost in a most bucolic region of the country, to say the least. We have taken succor in a quaint little hamlet, so small and so deeply knotted in the boughs of the Shinomen it does not even have a name. Were it not for the reassuring presence of Todo and Kuro both, I fear my courage would have cracked and shattered under the noise of this accursed forest. I had hoped some time away from home would have given me some much needed levity, and the fresh air strengthened my all-too faltering constitution; as it was during our wandering year. 

Instead I am beset every night by a soundscape I am loath to put to ink, lest it burrow and bite itself a permanent home in my ears. The leaves and boughs howl in shadows, whorling and swarming, sucking up the sounds of conversation from us three like some consuming vacuum of noise. I can’t help but fear that around every corner is still a hidden, waiting blade eager to cut my throat. The only difference being that it hides beneath the chitter and scraping of leaves and wood rather than the agitated rustling of a traitorous courtier’s robe.

The village itself has, thankfully, been somewhat less noisome. We have booked rooms at the local inn (from whence I take brush to paper and write to you these words) and while lacking in many amenities, it does possess a certain rustic charm I admit courts some fondness into my heart.

Our arrival came near the evening, and we quickly accustomed ourselves to the locality.

Among the usual, unremarkable peasants were a few characters of some note. 

The first is nothing less than a Toritaka of the Falcon. An auspicious sign from heaven, given our mission. Upon my asking, she availed us of her assistance rather quickly, and has agreed to join us in traveling to Falcon Castle. I believe she will prove a crucial asset to our goals in this place, and if all goes well may be the latchkey which opens the Falcon to the influence of the Scorpion. Whether or not the rather ambitious goals of some among the Silk and Shadow Court come to fruition, the assistance of the Falcon is non-negotiable to any effort to pull more of the Shinomen into our sphere of influence; of this I am absolutely convinced having now been here in person.

The other was, to my surprise, an exile of the Doji. The exile is self imposed, it would seem, as she seems more interested in gambling with the peasantry than the courts of proper Samurai. As I listened to her little game, I was struck by that particular aggravation which inevitably strikes when a Crane opens its mouth to caw and croak. My suspicions were confirmed when, upon being pressured by Kuro’s reconnaissance, she expressed an ability to evade scrutiny far beyond that of a peasant. It was clear to me she was here under false pretense.

I confronted the false pigeon in her room, (in doing so, I learned that the keys given to us opened not just our room, but all the guest rooms! Some plot by the duplicitous innkeep, I have no doubt) and within a few minutes I had peeled away her mask of deceit and discovered the truth of her past. I am pleased to say that, by the end, the Scorpion had gained a new agent in this lost Doji. 

We begin our journey to the Falcon’s nest come sunrise. When we arrive I hope to send you my next letter, permitted that my ink and paper do not run out by then.

Much love and affection,

for context, our GM has been doing personalized campaigns for each of our characters, all focusing on overcoming some sort of aspect from their past. this current campaign focuses primarily on Jael (:S: or Swiper) and Bakunawa, and in our last session Jael and Bakunawa had gotten kidnapped by a very targeted pirate raid

i have given GM artistic liberty for Jael's backstory, as a lot of things were vague to begin with. i gave him bullet points of what it had always been, and they ran with it. and OH boy did they run with it, and it was great and fun collaborative storytelling

and here was the opening (they sent the transcript to me afterwards) under the cut

The last time I led a game of Candela Obscura, the player characters (PCs) didn't have a good time. Hunted by a demonhost, they delved into the ruins of Oldfaire in order to stop a powerful former operative of Candela Obscura intent on a dangerous ritual likely to shear the veil (or Flare) between our world and other realms.

This villain tied into the backstories of several PCs -- stopping him was cathartic for them all, and offered closure to their storylines while acting as foreshadowing to some of the conflicts that will, I hope, shape the latter half of the campaign and its finale.

The session also had some fantastic set pieces, psychological horror, and the most fun use of bloodbending as a weapon deployed since, well, y'know...

The players loved it all, which was fantastic - but after a session so emotionally heavy and so pregnant with danger, I thought it'd be nice to have something with lower stakes to deal with, at least for the characters.

I came up with a fun little scenario:

In the village of Shrike deep into the Briddleborn Mountains, an old man ailed and died after drinking from the local well. The villagers sealed the well up and drew water from the local mountain spring. A few days later, most of them likewise fell ill. The village was forced to seek aid from Newfaire - which is where the Circle comes in.

Unlike so many of the assignments I've prepared and ran for my party, this one didn't have a villain directly responsible for the villagers' plight. Rather, a lot of it can be blamed on a series of unfortunate events and on the foolishness of a pair of smugglers who moonlight as grave robbers and looters.

The twist to the scenario was as follows: the well and the mountain spring are both fouled up, both accidentally. Some manner of dangerous bacteria has infiltrated the well - something like Legionnaires' disease, if you need to put a name on it. This is what kills the Old Man.

Meanwhile, the mountain spring's wasting disease is unethically outsourced through bleed, courtesy of the hiding spot the pair of looters use - a system of caves up the mountain, beginning with an aptly named cavemouth called by the villagers the "Demon's Maw", from which the mountain spring comes forth. The smugglers are wary of being discovered, and so hide their Oldfairen bounties in wooden chests underwater in the spring - and what a great way that is of turning that entire watersource into a bleed-y nightmare!

It was incredibly fun to let my players figure out that there was not one but two sources of disease at play here. A lot of the session went by without dice rolls, because the party has both a doctor and an occultist. With a game like Candela Obscura, I don't ask for players to roll dice unless they're doing something time-sensitive or likely to fail. An experienced doctor examining a body through an autopsy in the scenario of an RPG is unlikely to fail; when the player was asking all the right questions, I was more than happy to give her the right answers.

I also let the players improvise how they reached the village on the donkeys they stole (it's...a long story); they all came up with fun little ideas, but the occultist's bizarre behaviour gave me wonderful narrative means to reinforcing the dangers of the mountain spring. The occultist, Vanessa, picked up several dead animals, which came into play in the autopsy in a satisfying (and wholly disturbing) way.

There was some conflict, mind. The cursed artifact that was polluting the mountain spring with bleed, an emerald staff-head in the shape of a caduceus, is a sentient thing: when the party's occultist spoke with it, its initial reaction was hostile. But thanks to some excellent thinking on the player's part and some help via a Drive point from another player character, the spirit of the caduceus was mollified and agreed to undo the bleed it had caused by poisoning the mountain spring.

Through the conversation with this sentient spirit, I even teased out some clues and developments for the remainder of the campaign, and heavily hinted at one potential antagonist. All in all, a welcome session with lots of laughs (which I didn't discuss here), less personal tension, but also with the opportunity for the members of the Veritas Circle to do a great deal of good.

My point is, a session without an immediately apparent antagonist can work great for you and the players both, and you should try it after your campaign has gone through some dramatic peak or other.