Questing Country: The Next Jaunt.

[powersthatbe]

QUESTING COUNTRY
July 22nd - August 26th

Nobody knows quite how Questing Country works. Any species who are capable of lucid dreams can enter it. Six Known Worlds are connected to it - planets which may or may not remember one another in the waking world, but whose Chosen have formed alliances through Questing Country for thousands of years. The landscape changes, but the place is real - anyone who dreams of Questing Country vanishes from their bed, and wakes up with the wounds, marks, or treasures they earned there. But a few things are clear: it taps into the most powerful beliefs in the minds of sentient beings. When those beliefs are too dangerous, Questing Country births strange talking beasts who lend abilities to the young, the only people hopeful and naive enough to believe one person really can change the world - and so, they’re the only people who ever have the chance to change it.

But there’s more to Questing Country than the Champions it anoints and their dangerous lives and uncertain fates. These troublesome beliefs - they take shape, too. The Fire Mushrooms range out from the place called Nuclear Winter. Hordes of Men in Black come from Conspiracy Country. If they’re not stopped here, they gain power in the dreams of the Known Worlds… and those are only a few of the more obvious ones.

Sometimes, though, the untapped powers of Questing Country find other shapes, as well. There are unstable nodes of energy called Valences that appear only a few times a generation… and when they do, Champions and Oracles and Adversaries all fling themselves into Questing Country with wild abandon. Because every Champion has some belief they’re fighting for, some hope they want to come true… and deep in their hearts, every Champion believes that one day, if they’re strong enough and pure enough, it will. The Valence is that belief, taken shape, the hope of hopes, the power to make dreams come true in an instant… but because Champions believe they have to prove themselves worthy, well, they’re right about that, too. To gain the Valence, they first have to succeed in a series of tests, tests that will send them against their friends and allies from across the worlds...

Age & Gender Swaps | Roles | Species | Casting Call | Bonds & Bonded | Skills | Calendar | World Info | Player Resources | Questions | Plotting

Comments

Re: Plotting

[nicotinized]

Oracle of Steel, I think, because that covers a lot of ground for hime

[tailforbrains]

... though if you're interested, Neeshka's bond group has room for one more :3

Re: Plotting

[amadine]

Sabetha will be Infiltrating as a human Adversary of Obsidian. Her magic leans toward scrying and illusion, though she also has a few very nasty tricks with very sharp blades. She has a particular dislike for the Men in Black, and has been known to assist or team up with people fighting against them, even if they're typically rivals or enemies. Despite these incidental alliances, she hasn't really been a part of a Bond since she turned Adversary - something that will be changing come this Jaunt.

Though she appears in Questing Country as a girl in her mid-to-late teens, she's been active for almost ten years, and I'd be happy to have some previous Jaunt CR with people she's either worked with or against in the past, or potentially members of her old Bond.

She's also Neeshka's older sister in-Jaunt, and will be inserting herself into her baby sister's party in an attempt to protect her and/or turn her away from a life of futile self-sacrifice.

Dorian will be Infiltrating as a Hecatite Oracle of Serpents, with a facility for transformation, secrets, and creation out of destruction. He was once a Champion of Bones who specialized in skeletal constructs, divination, and sarcastic quips, but eventually grew up and gained a wider perspective on the nature of death and its place in a lifecycle.

He is pretty keenly interested in members of species other than his own, in hopes that their knowledge might further enrich his own people, and vice-versa.

Party details are pending, but I'd love to have some CR from other Oracles/Pillars/older folks who might have been acquaintances/friends/enemies back during his more active adventuring days, or from fresh young Champions or Adversaries who want a mentor who will encourage them to learn and experiment as much as he'll dispense concrete advice.

[tailforbrains]

Hi sis! :D :D :D

I've got Zoe infiltrating as another Oracle, or Neeshka is perfectly happy to be encouraged to experiment, for Dorain. Since I obviously need all the CR with you always.

Investigating!

[willyousee]

Alcuin is investigating this round!

He won't be undergoing any physical changes - certainly not at first anyway - but partway through the jaunt a very frustrated familiar will turn up and he'll discover that he is the Oracle of Keys. This is a wide-ranging kind of theme which covers anything from door keys to the keys to the heart to map keys to the keys to a riddle. It deals primarily with access and knowledge.

He is going to wind up in a small bond with a few people (check the Updates comment below). I may wind up having him regain enough Hope to become a full-fledged Champion again over the course of the jaunt, but that's not set in stone.

Updates

[willyousee]

Bond Members:
Genevieve: Investigating Champion of Sound
Zed: Infiltrating Champion of Darkness (or Adversary of Rebirth)
Leonardo da Vinci: Investigating Champion of Mirrors
Zoe Washburne: Oracle of Arrows

Spots open for one or two more if you like! Please reply to my toplevel and we'll chat!



Powers/Skills:
Caveat - unless he becomes a Champion, many/most of his Questing Country abilities will be locked, but he may use diluted versions of his other skills.
His current list of all skills
Opening/Unlocking (and vice versa)
Clues to riddles/questions
Hints at knowledge
Finding what's wrong/clues on how to fix it

[papacerberus]

So! Lupa here is going to be Infiltrating as an Oracle (archetype depends on whether he gets the Will role or not) and whichever archetype he gets he'll have a big vested interest in both Bonds, and helping people who've lost their way re-find the right path (giving a backstory regardless where an old best friend/Bonded ended up going Pillar for reasons) for them.

Would Kanji and Naoki wish to have him on their team?

[howexciting]

Can volksgeists respond to any character who has a spirit animal/familiar contained within that volksgeist? Can a volksgeist who is part familiar talk to everyone, or just the people whose animals/familiars are part of the volksgeist?

[powersthatbe]

Volksgeists who are completely comprised of familiars may only speak to the Oracles who they belong to, but they are as clear as any familiar speaking. volksgeists with any portion of spirit animal in them may talk to everyone, but they are as cryptic as a standard spirit animal.

Adversary's spirit animals are a little different, however. They do not always act in the best interest of their Adversary. If an Adversary places their spirit animal in a volksgeist, the volksgeist will occasionally turn on their masters and act outside of their combined best interests.

It is inadvisable for multiple Adversaries to create a Volksgeist.

[creativefool]

Kanji'd be very interested indeed. XD

We might also have Dorian as another Oracle on the team; would that be OK?

Matt's Four Infiltrators: All Open to Backstory CR!

[detectivewonder]

Tim: sixteen-year old elven sniper Tim moonlights as Champion of Locks. Together with his cardinal Spirit Animal, there's no defense he can't sneak through - or strengthen! - no secret he can't hide, no contract he can't bind. Before he releases his bowstring, his catchphrase is "Locked on," and his keen-eyed focus backs that up a hundred percent. But he's also close to becoming an Oracle already despite his young age, powers fading, as the secrets he takes on sap his power and add to his insight. Tim is devoted to his Bonded companions - maybe too devoted, as he'll do questionable things in the name of helping them.

Remy: young Hecatite Remy is the Adversary of Fortune. Luck and Wealth both are his enemies and the tools he uses against others, along with Karras, an angry dragonling who occasionally assumes his form and spoils his plans. Remy's ultimate goal is revolution on Hecate, where he feels tyrannical restrictions which are the opposite of the freedom of Questing Country are strangling people. While Hecatite society is regimented and rational, few Hecatites react to it the way he does...

Joscelin: Joscelin is human, either the Oracle of Devotion or the Oracle of Shackles, and either way is prone to behaving like he's still a Champion and getting in over his head. His familiar is a brown finch named Hanna.


Souji: a Gorgon mask-maker's apprentice, and the Oracle of Faces, Souji considers himself semi-retired, exploring Questing Country but not doing nearly so much as others to interfere with it. A lie detector, capable of determinuing emotion at a glance, with uncanny knowledge of others identities, Souji can be un-nerving, until he dons the appropriate mask, at which point it's almost impossible not to trust him. A foo lion named Shisa is his familiar, a frightening looking cat-dog who often appears to be a terracotta statue.

[creativefool]

Oho, Remy... While Kanji never went as far as looking for revolution - damn, he feels him there. Butted his head against the rules and regulations and expectations himself, and his 'finding ones' own destiny' side of his thing is hard in a society like that. Only Kan recovered his Hope, so... Kind of got a bit of a two sides of the same coin thing, feels like to me?

[detectivewonder]

Definitely. Maybe they worked together when Remy was still a Champion?

[creativefool]

Sounds good to me!

[professorwolf]

I want CR with Joscelin this Jaunt, at long last. I just don't know with whom :: chinscratches :: Do you have anybody actually in-Jaunt who you think he'd get one well with, of mine? XD

[detectivewonder]

Zoe and Joscelin as tough guy Oracle friends!

[amadine]

Staying out of trouble? (Oh, what am I saying, of course not.)

Dorian and Zoe are about of an age with one another - maybe they did a bit of adventuring together, back in the day?

[papacerberus]

Lupa is very much a group kind of guy, the more the merrier! He might not have an archetype that specifically ties into teamwork anymore, but he still has the qualities that gave him that archetype in the first place XD

Re: Matt's Four Infiltrators: All Open to Backstory CR!

[thornsofmalkav]

His familiar is a brown finch named Hanna

i c wut u did thar

[shiroganeheir]

Another Re: Transformation sequences. I'm assuming they're shiny, dramatic, etc. Could/would there possibly be any music involved?

[shesearches]

Jane will be infiltrating on her first-ever Jaunt, as the human Oracle of Constellations. That means stars -- mostly in a sense of guiding light/north star/something to know your way by, but I was thinking also maybe a heat/fire aspect as the closest thing she's got to an offense/defense -- but alongside that also, seeing connections and the attempt to explain the world. She can't quite see what's ahead, but she's very intuitive and can draw lines and parallels between things quickly. And of course, she's always gathering knowledge -- and happy to share it. I'm not set on her familiar yet, but it's some kind of bird; probably a blackbird, a crow, or a crane? Any other infiltrators who want to backstory having known her for a while will not be at all surprised that she's an Oracle, because she was always all about learning and figuring things out, even as a Champion. Or that she seems to have made up for the hope she lost along the way with sheer stubbornness.

As for anything actually going on, I'm wide open. A Champion to mentor, someone to bond with, people she knew during her Champion days, I would love all the stuff with anyone.

[professorwolf]

I like it :B Zoe has had a long and colorful Champion career, I'm sure she's met him and worked with him before, and liked him ^^

And probably thinks he works too hard, now, and he's going to get his ass killed :| Idiot kid.

[professorwolf]

Zoe did a ton of adventuring, so sure! :3 She's already been in a bonded group with Natasha, and has history with Joscelin... would Dorian have liked to be part of a bonded group with her, too, or just occasional allies? ^^

She'd be happy to tell him all about her people, of course :3

[amadine]

Let's go with occasional allies - friendly, but not close enough (or maybe just not meeting frequently enough, since I'd imagine the whole dreamworld aspect would make it really, really easy to miss people) to be part of a Bond.

[shesearches]

So I don't know if you'd rather toss these two together when Jane does not think she's always been a magical girl, as she'll be infiltrating rather than investigating -- but I actually think this could be an interesting combo for the Jaunt? Jane is the Oracle of Constellations, which for her is largely tied to trying to explain the mysteries of the universe, and intuitively drawing the lines of knowledge between things -- something that could tie interestingly in with the truth-based powers, maybe?

....I'm not sure where to go with it -- maybe Jane deciding Naoto needs a mentor or something? -- but it could go somewhere.