Talk:Elizabeth Allegheny

"We thank you, shaper, but this diversion, although pleasant, is not true. Things never happened thus."
"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot."

Timeskip Plans

• Year 1: Finish high school, enrol at VFS on strength of pitch & bullshit
• Year 2: Vancouver Film School, Film Production Program (Directing, Cinematograpy) http://vfs.edu/programs/film-production
  • Artistic Expression
  • Tech?
• Years 3-5: ????
• End result: Liz is a talented young author and independent filmmaker who changes the dreams of the public through fictional vectors. Magically, she is a member of the FGSC doujin circle and writing group, with whom she collaborates on projects, adventures, and the nurturing of mages.

Potential Purchases

• Artistic Expression [film]
• Influence?
• Hokkaido Shrine (4 dots, 3xp each)
• FGSC backgrounds
  • Allies
  • Chantry
  • Sanctum

XP Budget

• 6 banked
• 3+ from Westination?
• 3+ from Vancouver?
• Library discount for Entropy?

Timeskip Ideas

• Strengthen the FGSC
• Restore the Queen to full strength (and more!)
  • Learn from the Gundam and spread her fictionally
• Learn about fate or something
  • Help Westin with his doom problem?
• Develop a successful authorial career
  • You have a contract with Eons Beyond, leverage it
• The Seven Exasperated Exes
  • John Lo, mundane
  • Peter Novak, Void Engineer Psychonaut
  • Kana
  • Dahir, Efreeti Princeling
  • Weresomething
    • Pro-Liz Animals: cats (occupied by Shannon), foxes, cockroaches
    • Anti-Liz Animals: spiders
  • Vampsomething
    • Ozu minion?
  • VA attracted by Project Coil

Forgotten Ability Shortlist

• Primordial Folklore
• Secret Paths
• Craft [destiny]
• Craft [dreams]
• Lost [thing] Tourist Guide
• Superior [Ability]
• Keys to forgotten magic system
• Avatar/Psychopomp Lore
• Candidate origins:
  • Atlantis
  • Babel
  • Enoch
  • Indus Valley Civilisation
  • Prehistory

The Plot

Big Ideas

• something something dialectical synthesis return of the spirit world

M:TA Third Edition

• Author Avatar

• Spirit 4 or Mind 4

Go to sleep, then project spirit out of the Palace and possess a secondary body remotely. It is best to have a prepared vessel for this purpose.

Foci:

• Can't Kill A Dream

• Entropy 4
• Spirit 4

If Liz dies while under this Effect, her spirit is swept away to reside in the Palace, ready to inhabit a new body later.

Foci:

---BELOW THIS LINE OUT OF DATE---

Cover Story

Canada

Liz is under a witness protection program and helping the secret service.

Plot Devices

Book of Fantasies

• Base item: Big hardback book
• Effect: Transport the reader into a fantastical world (Spirit 3)
• Effect?: The reader experiences the story vividly causing ???? (Mind 3)

Sword of Legend

• Base item: China's sword
• Effect: The sword strikes monsters (Prime 2, Spirit 2)
• Effect?: If lost, the sword returns to the/a hero by coincidences (Entropy 2)
• Effect?: The sword cuts through enchantments (Prime 2)
• Flaw: The wielder must perform heroic actions for the sword to maintain its effectiveness
• Notes: Save up Yu Lan tass to make it.

Fetishism

• Base item: Liz's disaster coat
• Desired abilities: defence, no dex penalty, transformation? invisibility? disguise? social bonuses?
• Spirit possibilities: trickster spirit, warrior spirit, movement/messenger spirit
• Procurement steps:
  • Find a spirit: spirit 2/entropy 2, spirit 4, narrative causality (i.e. ask IX), go poking nose in likely locations
  • Get it into the coat: beat it up until it submits (risky), overpower it with magic (I'm only arete 4), power of friendship (dubious), beat it in a gamble (also risky, but relevant to my abilities)
• NB: IX suggests using a Palace spirit. Their effects would be more 'cerebral and ephemeral' than near umbra spirits. He also suggests getting a lightning bolt fetish for when you really need it.

The Liz Guide to Figments

Figments, also known as spirits, are beings of the 'Umbra' or 'Shadow World' of fiction between mundane worlds.

Figmapedia

Super Figment Friends

Skeina, Author of the Tale

Jerkface destiny figment that possessed Liz via her Demesne. Under its influence Liz (transformed into a masked villain) took over the Edgewater Casino until exorcised by Cathy. Cathy (angry mode) then bound it and turned its power against the Technocracy response team until the heroes escaped into the Umbra.

• Status: Presumed At Large
• Threat Level: A?

That One Vulture

Guardian of Horizon's Gate of Life. Wants the words, or failing that a tasty meal of you.

• Status: Told what's what.
• Threat Level: A?

Trysobite

Conniving spirits that sneak in through any gap they can find and spread lies.

• Status: Really real!
• Threat Level: Not very dangerous, just a nuisance really, nothing to get worked up about.

Each Uisge

Malevolent horse furries made of water. Pretend to be cute boys with seaweed in their hair, don't be fooled.

• Status: Explosive
• Threat Level: C

Sprite

Tiny nearsighted fairies. Turn you to ice! Stupid stupid stupid.

• Status: Apologetic
• Threat Level: D

Urban Myths

Cockroaches

The walkers in our forgotten paths and the finders of our lost things.

• Status: Protecting the innocent
• Threat Level: E
• Cockroach 54,122,321, aka Eggscuttledumpsterfindcantnukmehahahah protects the Alleghenny family's information in Vancouver.

Glass Walkers Terrorantulas

Spiders that drink evil and eat other stories. Empowered by the presence of Mari for some mysterious reason.

• Status: Banished into the darkness.
• Threat Level: D?

NB: Liz expanded her spiderlore and expunged her error

Japan

Dark Geisha

Run the tables in underworld casinos. Don't like losing!

• Status: Frozen
• Threat Level: C

Lord Enma-O

Secret Boss of Japan. Ice demon sealed away in Kikuri, rival of Mikhaboshi.

• Status: Sealed. Known gate in Hokkaido.
• Threat Level: S

Iron Oni

Cybernetic demons in service to Lord Mikhaboshi.

• Status: Banished to the Wicked City
• Threat Level: C

Kitsune

Tricky foxpeople that play and cheat at Hanafuda.

• Status: In full retreat after their king and leader was crushed by Liz's Perfect Palm technique.
• Threat Level: Collapsed.

Lord Mikaboshi

Big Bad of Japan. Technodemon and ruler of the Wicked City, wannabe ruler of Tokyo and rival of Enma-O.

• Status: Foiled but back next episode.
• Threat Level: S

Tanuki

Nothing but trouble.

• Status: Trouble.
• Threat Level: Troubling.
• Monta is Catherine West's familiar and a real pain.
• Miyu is Monta's wife and a pestering annoyance. However, she is also a useful weapon against Monta.

Yuki-Onna

Ice Assassins as broken as the spell.

• Status: Banished to Kikuri.
• Threat Level: B?
• Tsurara was sent to kill Mikhaboshi's minions in Gyokuei, and nearly succeeded with Kana's help.

Inhabitants of CROSSDOWN

Numion

Tall scrawny future-aliens. Never observed to take independent or hostile action, have presumably evolved past such barbarian concerns.

• Status: Present in force on CROSSDOWN.
• Threat Level: E

Zol

Human-scale combat robots. Have both ranged and melee capabilities. Matched up poorly against (named) Akashic consors.

• Status: Present in force on CROSSDOWN.
• Threat Level: D

Mega-Zol

Gundam-scale Zols. Matched up poorly against Technocratic space fighters.

• Status: Present in force on CROSSDOWN.
• Threat Level: C?

Bargaining Tips

• Spirits like quintessence.
• Different spirits demand different approaches. Some you can defeat in a game, others will require bargaining or beating into submission, or other approaches.
• Be very wary of offering to perform a service.
• Mistreated spirits will spread the word and make you notorious.
• You can gain spirit power from unlikely sources, like spirit-weapon blasts or destroyed spirit-robots.
• Remember your obligations or people will whine so much.
• Sieze the moment if you have them over a barrel.

Mage: The Ascension

M:tA First Edition

M:tA Second Edition

• Character Assassination

• Entropy 2
• Mind 2

Some unfortunate convergence of events prominently reveals an embarassing or objectionable aspect of the target.

Foci: Whispered rumours about the aspect in question.

• Daydream

• Spirit 3
• Mind 3

Liz sleeps and becomes the Queen of Games, then sleepwalks and controls her body remotely from her Demesne. In this way she has the powers of the Queen in the waking world - if only inside her own head. At the cost of altered perception and personality, grants access to the purely mental advantages of being the Queen. This rote is vulnerable to the link being severed. If this happens, Liz must make a willpower roll to awake in reality, otherwise her consciousness remains trapped on the other side until she or someone wakes her up.

Foci: QoG costume, intense consumption of relevant media before going to sleep.

• Improv Plot

• Entropy 4

Liz writes a quick plot for herself. She defines an objective or outcome or theme and gains a number of automatic successes that can be deployed on an appropriate roll, emulating the Destiny background. Unlike true destiny however, this rote cannot enhance magic.

Foci: Notes and storyboards about the fulfillment of the destiny.

• Legendary Aspect

• Spirit 4
• Mind 2

All legends represent some archetype embedded in a mass of stories. With this always vulgar rote, Liz wraps a legendary figure in the figments of their archetype and subliminally encourages them to exemplify it. So long as they do so, they benefit from appropriate spiritual arms and powers (charms), powered by the tass generated by that very exemplification. A more extreme version of this rote directly possesses the legendary figure with a heroic archetype, but this is less popular as it surrenders control.

Foci: Props and dramatic descriptions, a Legend.

• Mary Sue

• Mind 2

Liz identifies herself as the main character and the centre of attention. Everyone knows, it's all about her, the most important person in the entire universe. Some people will hate her for being popular, but what can you do? Opposite of fish in water, probably significantly less useful.

Foci: Lustrous hair and piercing eyes (hair gel and contacts), and a purple description of your many overly romantic aspects.

• Method Acting

• Spirit 4

For long-term infiltration, Liz retires to the Palace, and puts a character appropriate to the scenario in her body instead. This figment genuinely believes themselves to be in their scenario, and acts with full sincerity in it. However, they are plagued by strange dreams, and as a critical juncture approaches these become stronger and stronger...

Foci: Study and thought about the situation and the character to create an appropriate figment, then making her situation as real as possible.

• Trivial Pursuit

• Entropy 2
• Mind 2

The smart guy who knows useful facts is a vital component of any heroic team. With this rote, Liz reveals that one of the things they know is very useful information relevant to the present predicament. This rote adds successes to a Lore, Academics, Science or Occult roll made to recall useful information.

Foci:

Brainstorming

• Propaganda is a Knowledge so pretty cheap, and relevant to changing the world. But it's very specific and possibly redundant.
• Prime 4 is 24 xp and not directly relevant to Liz's schtick, but it's needed to write Grimoires. Is it worth it? Are Grimoires worth it? You're not in a tradition so it'll be tricky even to sell it. However, sale to Dreamspeakers or even Hermetics may be possible by proper use of mythic archetypes.
• If you get Dodge 3 before reading the tome you can pick up Dodge 4 for 3 xp. But that's a lot of xp spent on Dodge.
• Is it possible to raise dream? Potential methods: Expanding umbral authority, a blessing from a spirit, consuming an energy field larger than your head. Probably a good idea to get Mind first.

Attributes of the Trickster

• Fundamentally ambiguous and anomalous: Liz as a Mage can defy the rules of static reality, and furthermore as an Orphan defies the classifications of her supernatural society. Avoid integration into the mainstream.
• Deciever and trick-player: Liz is a gambler and liar. Develop these abilities.
• Shape-shifter: Liz should possibly cultivate the Life sphere, and learn how to protect her electronic identity as well. Or maybe work through proxies and possession.
• Situation-inverter: One masterful bluff or good call can invert a sticky situation. But has Liz managed to do that yet?
• Messenger and imitator of the gods: Liz is a shrine maiden and may yet become involved in native american religion. She should go around collecting various forms of religious training. Become a god.

Tips of the Trade

• If they think you might be someone, run with it.
• Tell them what they want to hear.
• Appeal to their emotions. Be likeable. Alternatively, make them want to get rid of you quickly.
• Get your foot in the door.
• Appear to have authority. Look like you know what you’re doing.
  • Any authority works, even unrelated authority.
• Balance between building confidence and familiarity, and making sure people can’t join dots or get too close a look. The circumstances matter.
• Distract people when they check important things.
• Avoid concrete tests of ability - unless you get a chance to Dream it
  • Dream could also supply knowledge of jargon.
• Get supporting documents, individuals, events, details. Little details help, make things more convincing. But make sure they can’t trip you up.
• ‘People only know what you tell them’
• ‘Nobody can keep their eyes off the pinstripes’
• Be observant. Note every detail. Check things twice.
• Don’t trust what they tell you - think, assume it’s false, and wonder why they might tell you so.
• Think before acting.
• If something happens, ask why.

Making Things

• Making a CCG requires Gambling & Enigmas for mechanics and Expression for making a compelling world.
• Writing stories requires Expression, and ancillary abilities relevant to the story: Occult for modern fantasy, Science for hard SF, Enigmas for mysteries and so on.
• Building a paradigm requires Arete and Spheres, and abilities like Academics (philosophy), Enigmas and Intuition. It also demands paradigm-relevant abilities like Artistic Expression, Expression and Academics (fine art).