#dramatic tales

Aspect 5/Shepherd 3/Knight 4/Bindings 5/Emptiness 1

Paradox Space isn't a good place. It's not a fair place. You can win the battle, but you're fated to lose the war. And, I mean, you know that. It's hit very close to home quite recently.

You have to go on, because tomorrow is another day. But maybe you can take a bit of time to mourn, first.

Time to Mourn (35)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you launch a server into the Ring (or, if that's impossible/inappropriate/not in your setting, distribute some other kind of charity that you will never see the effects of);

you contact someone you haven't talked to in a very long time;

Someone tries to win you over to “the other side” — they take on the role of parent, mentor, older sibling, or romantic interest, and try to persuade you that what you think of as loyalty or purpose is just you clinging to things that hurt you; that they want to offer you a safer, better home.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

play with a bit of clay or putty in your hands

hang-glide or skydive

go to sleep with nothing but the open sky over you

reminisce about your childhood

eat French onion soup with crusty bread

write poetry

do something repetitive and let your mind wander

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

Time to Mourn (Simplified) (25)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you formally declare that you are taking A Break;

you finally decide that you will call yourself "friends", "lovers", etc. with someone - you'll risk tying your fate to theirs.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

dig idly in the dirt/ground with a stick

write poetry

watch Land Familiars, butterflies, or other small flying things

make pastries from scratch

Aspect 4/Shepherd 4/Knight 3/5/Bindings 3/4/Emptiness 4

This is the story of something someone else has been talking about intruding into your session, and you having to fight it back. Maybe it's something to do with the Angels or the Others - a Speaker or Singer bashing open the session boundary and coming in to try and screw everything up. Maybe it involves some sort of PK cult, like the Azurites. Maybe someone has declared a clade feud (a blood feud, except based on an extended network of troll relationships) against you, and one of their quadrants ended up in a session with you. Maybe it's a viral bug in Sburb that spreads through the data stored inside affected Players, and a group of said Players has just landed in your session in a valiant but futile attempt to outrun the bug.

Just because you're usually separated from other Replayers by the Interstitial Void doesn't mean that you're completely isolated from their problems.

Fighting Back (45)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

the threat strikes at someone very close to you

your weapon breaks during a fight, and you don't have a backup weapon (and are thus forced to use 1/2bladekind or whatever to whack your way out)

you figure out where the "core" of the threat is - where you can strike to bring it down

you think that you've taken care of the threat, but it resurges

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

discuss the threat on a chatroom

seek advice from your ancestors, the dead of the dream-bubbles, or some similar group

tie back your hair and roll up your sleeves

say "Here goes nothing" and then do something desperate and/or decisive

run across something that's crumbling behind you

whack something with a big mallet several times (i.e. a chisel; a tent-stake)

catch your breath, leaning against a wall carved with mystical symbols

very nearly fall off a cliff

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

Fighting Back (Simplified) (35)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you watch helplessly through a long-distance communication, scrying mirror, etc. as someone else gets defeated/consumed by the threat;

someone forcibly wakes up your dreamself, making your wakingself go to sleep abruptly (most likely in the middle of danger!);

you execute an untested and highly dangerous Gamebreaking maneuver because it might just save your life.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

double-book yourself accidentally (i.e. promising two different people that you'd meet them at the same time, and then having to figure out how to explain that)

pose as a team because shit just got real

go on a shopping or alchemization spree

tie back your hair and roll up your sleeves

say "Here goes nothing" and then do something desperate and/or decisive

wipe oil, blood, etc. off your weapon

Aspect 3/Shepherd 5/Knight 3/Bindings 5

Note that this is a rerun of "Your Social Burdens (Blogosphere Ver.)".

This is when your establishment as A Person Who Runs A Blog results in your getting involved in shenanigans. Maybe you've been half-pushed into helping run some sort of Internet social event - a giveaway, or a contest, or something such. Maybe you're getting a sudden uprising of arguments in your comments after you posted something contentious. Maybe someone more important linked your blog (for whatever reason). In any of these cases, you have to think more carefully about your words than you usually do, because you're suddenly aware of just how large your readership is.

When you finish this post, along with the other rewards, you're liable to get mentioned in the campaign's MOTDs once or twice after.

Aspect 2/Shepherd 2/Knight 1/Bindings 2/Emptiness 2

You make a Strange Friend, from somewhere you usually don't go.

Heavily modified because, in the vast majority of cases, the strange friend you make is not in your session. If they are, you can use An Unlikely Friendship from Glass Maker's Dragon, but I don't expect that to happen.

In the Strangest of Places (45)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you figure out who the Strange Friend is on this arc;

the Strange Friend casually mentions what they think is an unimportant detail, but for you it makes all the pieces fall into place;

the Strange Friend shows you a piece of art (including music, writing, and so on) that is precious to them;

you're forced to rethink a big part of something you've been working on because of a critical problem the Strange Friend pointed out.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 20 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

spend time with someone who might become the Strange Friend, if you haven't picked one

stay up too late talking to someone

use a telepresence robot, or have your Strange Friend use one

discuss a topic you are passionate about with the Strange Friend

find a serious conflict of interest between you and the Strange Friend

introduce the Strange Friend to an element of your culture ("This is called a rickroll.")

pick apart a problem you or the Strange Friend might be having

rapid-fire brainstorm in the general direction of someone else who doesn't understand most of what you're saying

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

In the Strangest of Places (Simplified) (25)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

the Strange Friend betrays some duty out of loyalty to you;

your certainty is shaken by something the Strange Friend says.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP. (You'll need to identify the person who's your Strange Friend before you can do that, though!)

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

spend time with someone who might become the Strange Friend, if you haven't picked one

stay up too late talking to someone

shake yourself out of a reverie and have to figure out what the conversation's about midstream

exchange recipes or food (usually alimentator files) with your Strange Friend

spit-take

Aspect 1/Shepherd 1/Knight 2/Bindings 1/Emptiness 3

There's something about you that you think is wrong, or broken, or holding everything back, or irredeemably tainted. I mean, maybe it's "in your head", but... that doesn't make it any less difficult to get past, does it?

Neurosis (35)

Major goals: The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

you tell the story of an event that made you the way you are now;

your neurosis turns out to be a lot more common than you thought it was and/or you find out that someone you look up to has the same feelings;

you let someone comfort you.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 15 XP.

Quest flavor: 1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP for this quest when you:

type out something that would confess what's really going on... and then backspace it, and type something else

think about why you haven't given up yet, despite everything

lie down, with something heavy pressing down on your chest (whether real or imagined)

dry-swallow pills

recount a nightmare/Psychoruins/scary daydream

take something apart, clean out the insides, and put it back together

You can combine this with an XP action, but you’re not required to.

Neurosis (Simplified) (20+)

This is an orange or green anytime flipcard quest, with the usual wording on the card and so on. See pages 96 and 99 of the corebook for rules on the green and orange versions respectively, but I'm going to assume you've seen stuff like this before, so let's move on.

Orange flipcard examples:

[I'm an expert at this! / I'm such a fraud.]

[I have everything under control. / It's only a matter of time until it all explodes.]

[Friends forever! / You're going to leave me like the others did, aren't you?]

Green flipcard examples:

[Lost in grayness / Something to live for]

[I can't do anything to change things. / Helping with the little things can still make a difference.]

And here are the arc notes for "Dramatic Tales"!

Our heater tried to kill us last night. I woke up a few times and was so hot I couldn't breathe, but I figured I was just hot because I'm about to start my period. I had turned the heater down to 70 before we went to bed.

I woke up again at 3, pouring sweat. I flopped over and faced Adam. He opened his eyes. I said, 'I'm so hot," and he said, "I am too!", so I checked the thermostat and it was set to 45, and the house temperature was 90!! We turned it off and it wouldn't stop running. I thought we were going to die.  It just kept going and going and I couldn't breathe. I thought we were going to have to flip the breaker, but it finally stopped. We've left it off since then.