Anarion

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

No more disguises! Ugh, really, Kathelia couldn't figure out why her mind kept going to disguises around here. She was wearing cool overalls with a pink heart on them, there is a) zero chance Eupheria would miss it and b) no way she's getting them dirty enough to do a proper spriggan disguise. it was bad enough she was mostly buried without intentionally messing up her clothes!

What kind of cunning trap could she set for someone who had the power to reshape reality itself though? The only way something like that would work would be if Eupheria didn't know she was trapped herself. Or if she wanted to be trapped. Oh there's an idea. If Kathelia could make it funny, make Eupheria want to play along for a while, then the trap would work. It wouldn't defeat her or anything, but it would give her a chance to talk. And maybe keep her here longer? Kathelia wasn't sure if Eupheria was actually limited to being in one place at a time or not, but it did at least seem possible that she didn't have equal focus everywhere all at once. Like, otherwise how would anyone be doing anything? Ugh, getting distracted Kazzle-dazzle. What's important is making the setup something over the top.

Kathelia slowly extricated herself from the dirt, tiptoeing away from the Spriggans. She didn't need to get far, just into the cover of the underbrush. She used her magic, which only gave off a few little bits of blue glitter, to pull vines and leaves to herself and started weaving them into a net. Yeah, this would be perfect she just needed...ahah! There was a tree with some ripe berries of some sort. Perfect, this would be perfect, she just had to attach the small net to a loose tree, set up the berries, and Eupheria would wander in, then Kazelia could pull the cord tight and dangle Eupheria upside down! It was absurd, it was ridiculous, it was incredibly obvious: there was no way Eupheria would be able to resist it.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kathelia...zelia, stars above she's thinking like she talks now?! Ka...ze...lia. Okay Kathelia, think. Ugh, forget it, just think. You're bound up in ouch very uncomfortable thorns. They didn't bother with a gag and they're mimicking your voice. You could use magic, throw your voice, pretend to be them and confuse them, maybe tell them to untie you. That could work, right? Ugh, no, that's dumb, she's tried to shout and mess with her voice like three times, but she's acting like she's normal and can do tricks that way to distract when clearly her voice is all messed up and only getting worse.

Hmm, maybe, she could try to activate her spear still. Her ultra cool awesome spear might be able to burn some of the thorns off. She'd rejected that one earlier though because she'd just get stuck fighting spriggans if she started doing that and it would take a long time. What she wanted was to slip away quietly, or to take them down decisively. If she only had help.

Well, there was Mother. She knew in her heart that could still help, but if she let Mother's power out now, she'd be exhausted, probably just curl up right here in the ruins to take a nap, especially in her weakened body. That was an ultra, ultra last resort. Like, things had to get way worse than being buried to pull that one out.

Okay, okay, what if, what if they just buried her poorly. If she could loosen the thorns. Spriggan thorns only had hardness 3, so that wouldn't be too hard, she could just use a little magic (she'd be careful not to make it sparkle like normal) and then, yeah, with the thorns looser she could cave out some extra dirt as they did the burying so she'd have room to move and a little air pocket. Everyone knew that air pressure was really strong, so if she did it right and the air had nowhere to go, it would hold while they finished burying her and that would mean she could wait a few minutes without needing to hold her breath and then just push her way out and walk off with no trouble. Okay, yeah that could work. Good thinking, Kathelia!

So, the key here was just being a bit subtle about loosening things. A bit of chilly magic, no sparkles, loosen the thorns bit by bit so they didn't cut or pinch and then just pull them off and do her big breakout when the moment was right.

[Overcome the thorns with subtle magic: 5+6+1=12]

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

Introducing

Annalee Sokolov

The Witch

Look: Edgy clothing - makeup and eyebrows that say don't mess with me - wicked eyes
Dark hair - pale Russian complexion - medium height - a bit stocky
Origin: Taught by grandmother, Baba Sokolov

Backstory and Strings (and Tokens, marked with a carrot)
I've got a sympathetic Token on Samael (some blood)
I've got a sympathetic Token on Timothy (some hair)

Elodie caught me rummaging through their friend's stuff and hasn't said anything about it, so they have a string on me.

I made out with Timothy in the broom closet and I have two strings on him.

I opened the doors and let Samael in before the dawn, saving his life, giving me two strings.

Tim: o^
Sam: oo^
Elodie: o
Alextralia: o

Post play
took a sweaty Twilight Sparkle shirt from Elodie. (used)
took some of Samael's shirt sleeve when he slapped me (used)

NPCs with strings on Annalee
Margot: 1
G'eldriia: 1

Stats
Hot -1 Cold 2 Volatile -1 Dark 1

Darkest Self

The time for subtlety and patience is over. You’re too powerful to put up with their garbage any longer. You hex anyone who slights you. All of your hexes have unexpected side effects, and are more effective than you are comfortable with. To escape your Darkest Self, you must offer peace to the one you have hurt the most.

Harm: [X][][][]
Experience: [X][X][X][X][]
Conditions: Creep, Whipped, Truant

Moves

Sympathetic Tokens
You gain power from Sympathetic Tokens - items of personal significance taken from others. Sympathetic Tokens count as Strings.

Hex-Casting
You can cast Hexes. Choose two that you know. To cast them, either expend a Sympathetic Token during a secret ritual, or meet the target’s gaze and chant at them in tongues. Then roll with Dark. On a 10 up, the Hex works, and can easily be reversed.
On a 7-9, it works but choose one:
-the casting does you 1 Harm;
-the Hex has weird side effects;
-trigger your Darkest Self.

Hexes
Wither
The hexed loses all of their hair, or their teeth start falling out, or their period arrives unexpected and heavy, or their skin gets all sickly yellow and spotty. Whatever the specifics, it’s bad

Ring of Lies
Whenever the person attempts to lie, they hear a piercing ringing noise. Big lies will often make their knees buckle and disorient them. Severe lies can cause harm or even brain damage.

Binding
The person cannot physically harm others

Watching
Enter a deep sleep and see the world through the eyes of the hexed (including reactions and internal impressions of what they're seeing).

Illusions
Snakes and bugs, demonic visages, false prophecies, non-existent subtext. Pick one and the hexed sees it everywhere. (MC controls what exactly they see).

Sex Move: After sex, you can take a Sympathetic Token from them. They know about it, and it’s cool.

Advances

Add +1 to one of your stats.
Take another Witch move.
Take all the remaining Hexes.
Create a new Hex.
Take a move from any Skin.
Take a move from any Skin.
You belong to a Coven

Monster Hearts: Sleepshy Rise

CREEP
WHIPPED
TRUANT

Annalee is in the middle of trying to open her backpack and inch out one of her spellbooks without being crushed by the sphinx, toppling over, or properly being able to move her arms and legs. It sort of looks like she's being slowly buried in a hot topic store that's oddly sphinx shaped. You might expect her to be awkward in this situation, but in some ways, your arrival is a blessed jolt of normalcy. And she looks positively, perhaps even unnaturally delighted to see that you brought Timothy Crompton with you. Well done, Elly-belly, we knew you were useful for something after all.

"What, the mouth hex? That was at Samael's request, but he didn't ask me to keep it." She waves a hand (as much as it can wave) and Timothy, any lingering oddity with your mouth is completely and utterly gone. "There, it was nothing, I'm glad that you enjoy my work. But now, now it's is excellent that you're here!" Her eyes light up. "I was just working on passing through the entrance, which I've never done before. And while I'm magically fused to this sphinx, I'm sure you can both assist. You see, Timmy, we really must go to the library at once. It's very urgent and I'm confident that whatever you both need, we can take care of it there!" Annalee looks at Timothy knowingly, and he might remember the last time she got him "whatever he needed."

[Spending a string on Timothy to tempt him to go with her (and Elodie if he wants) to Samael's library room. He gets an experience if he does it.]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

The key thing to think about during these sorts of decision points is not only likelihood of success, but what success gets you. They always trick you with these branching paths that way. Fun fact, did you know that a couple worlds back, Eska used to write choose your own adventure novels for entertainment? It was the high tech one where she really got into the scarab bots, so all the choices were like "hotwire the keypad with your trusty multi-tool" and "use your superior intellect to trap the guard robot in a logic puzzle" but she really got into it for a while, and the Riders even had some fun setting them up and acting them out as a party game (Eska would umpire, of course, since she was far too skillful and knowledgeable to be able to participate fairly).

Oh right, the Spriggans. The point was that the Kazelia had learned a key lesson, which is that you couldn't just go for success in these adventures, you needed to push for the best outcome. If you stumbled into something you couldn't handle, well, you had to extract as painlessly as possible and come back with the right tools. So here, even though spear-fighting was the easy choice, Kazelia knew that stalling the spriggans would just lead to them grouping up with their nightmare commander and coming at her in force. She could try to run, but that has never been her strength, especially with all these tricky vines. So, of course, she's going to impersonate the commander. If she's quick about it, she'll get her own team of support Spriggans, and at the very least, she'll confuse them long enough to make the whole thing a non-factor in the victory equation!

[Rolling wisdom with despair: 5 2, 1 +1=4.]

What Kazelia hadn't counted on, of course, was that she really didn't quite have the voice control down yet. Attempting to mimic the rustling sound they make while doing speech caused her braces to grate painfully and led to her attempted "Obey me, Spriggans, I am your leader!" to come out more like "Okay me, Sthpriggens, I am your theater!"

...Oops

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Kazelia lands and tries to rub her shoulder. But she can't because of a stupid vine. How dare Eupheria not be impressed by Kazelia's impeccable rules lawyering! She was gonna get it now, you better believe it, and this stupid vine was first on the chopping block! Kazelia's ultra cool awesome spear flares to life (you know that's what it is because the haft has stickers on it with pink and blue glittery swirls that say "ultra cool awesome" mixed with glittery rainbow unicorns all along the length). The vines singe immediately and Kazelia pulls on her spear to cut through the weakened parts, which are covering up the suspenders holding up her blue overalls (they have a heart on the belly because they're cute). Eventually, she extracts herself from the foliage. She waves her extremely cool glittery spear at the princesstrap menacingly as she continues forward.

"As everyone ought to know" she says to nobody in particular, still working on keeping her voice steady and trying to ignore the braces that are rubbing against her inner lips. "The Axonian princesstrap is a common species of fauna, primarily designed to catch and digest wild animals. It tightens its vines based on struggling, hence the term princess trap, but when approached cautiously and with something harmful to the plant such as fire, it slowly withdraws its vines into itself. The actual plant is, of course, barely larger than a a typical chair, and stores most of the vines in a special underground pouch for later use."

[Overcome: 5+6+1=12.]

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

"How dare you!" Princess Kazelia tries to shout. However, her voice cracks instead, and it comes out less as a shout and more like a frog croaking "How Ddddddare youuuu" as she tries to get control of her own speech and fails utterly. She stops, tries to clear her throat, rubs at her face where her new braces are scratching her lips uncomfortably instead. Ugh, this wasn't fair. Kazelia hadn't been a teenager in actual centuries and even when she had, it had never been like this! Oh Eupheria was going to pay.

"Well..." Kazelia says, speaking more quietly and trying to keep some control over her voice (she's failing, but she's getting words out now that's she's going more slowly) "what if we all just agree that whoever wins will wish for you to lose the Caduceus and undo everybody else's punishments, huh? What then? Your little game is totally flawed." Ha, that would show her. Kazelia definitely knew everything about the situation and just had to tell the whole world. Her plan was totally and completely flawless and she was confident that she'd foiled Eupheria already and she would just give up now and surrender.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

Introducing

Princess Kazelia Swiftlance

The Harbinger

Look

Season 1 looks

Flowing white hair - Navy blue robes and matching scarf light brown leathers with white fur on the neck and sleeves - Cold starry eyes - Predatory teeth

In Jedad, change to Blood red silks and demon mask in half/half black and red.
Second Jedad outfit: one-piece turquoise silk, black and white four quadrant checker mask.

Flowing white hair with a line of blue-green - mottled verdigris skin - silver birch hooded traveling cloak with gold neck clasp and matching boots and pack - sea-green passionate eyes - Crystal spear

Stats
Doom +2, Blood +1, Courage +2, Grace -1, Sense +0, Wisdom +1
SINGER OF THE ANCIENT SONG: I remember now, the old songs, they flow through me like a vast river and connect the hearts of all who hear them.

Agenda
You'll get through this: Protect your allies from harm and danger, no matter what happens to you
Be Brave, Take Risks
Tell Us Of Your People
Improve The World Around You

Harbinger Core

Doomed Soul: a) when Doom is damaged by an enemy attack, must damage another one of my stats.
b) When you finish them by relying on fate or luck, roll +doom. 10+ their fate is sealed and the Overlord decides what happens to them.
Anyone sharing this move has Doom +1

Doom and Gloom You can never have more than one bond with someone and others can never have more than one bond with you. Cannot share this move.

Do not Trifle With Wizards: Can conjure a powerful spell to destroy something in your way. Pay a price take up to 3 damage to inflict that much damage to the target. Then exhausted for the scene (roll with Despair). Cannot share this move. It doesn't work on Threats to the World and Set Pieces.

Wizardry: Can cast the following magical effects
-Floating light (typically an icy will o wisp)
-Deliver a message through mysterious means (voice on a frigid breeze most often)
-Speak, look, or listen as if you were somewhere else that you can see (starry illusion magic)
-Touch, push, or grab as if you were somewhere else that you can see (delicate ice and snowy hands or limbs)

What is a Harbinger
My people are the Servants of the Dark, the Riders. They serve the Overlord and herald his coming, but I do not, though I retain my powers. I do not need to pay a price when I show people why they should not trifle with wizards.

Harbinger Gear

Food: 2 uses 1/2 used
wizardly baubles: 2 uses, useful. Mine consist of some nevermeltice, a few crystals holding a myriad of lights, and some fine snow for conjuring. Other small wizardly things tbd.

A runed lance that can cut through anything (Piercing): This is the lance for which I have my name. I am a skilled witch, but I am most comfortable with my lance and it is where I go first when I am threatened. It was broken by Eska and replaced:
A sparkling and sparking crystal lance that can blaze with flame (Burning): Reformed when Kazelia took on a new body in Argossa. The lance is clear crystal and forms a prism that shines with rainbow light reflected through it.

The Overlord's Weakness: The singers have given me the Dolorous Song and I hold it in a box for safekeeping. It is my privilege and my freedom.
This is replaced by an ancient staff of oldwood (melee) with a spell of safe travels written upon it (2 uses, armor) 1/2 used

My Pegasus, Shiva: She can FLY, and is skilled at MOUNTED COMBAT. She is a Rider steed, black as night, but her wings are made of delicate crystal glass from Illumina.

My magic comes from my bloodline as a rider and and I can call upon it for healing as well (2 uses, Healing).

Bonds

Princess Alina gives me hope for the future. Fills me with joy.

Rita von Catabas held me close by choice.

Shiva the Pegasus is my fearless steed

Detective Brill and I played Find the Queen together

Adila and I worked together to win the joust and help Helya

Kyouko and I shared a night at the ball, a heartfelt moment, and she travels with us.

Tashanna really listened to me

Oberon Greymane revealed he took me from my mother

Diana the Witch and I shared an evening in good simple work restoring leylines

I greatly respect Theodora the Witch and her plant magic

I walk with Mother Void within me

Harbinger Custom
The Evil Eye Above: I'm ready for the Overlord and know him.
a) When the minions of the Overlord approach, the Overlord must tell me before the minions arrive.
b) When I know the overlord's plans, I may ask them "what is one way I could stop this" and the Overlord must answer me truthfully.

Wildspeaker: You speak the language of monsters and beasts. When you speak with them for the first time, they will always pause to listen and reply, and you can speak softly or talk sense.

Are we not the Same, You and I?
-Have an overlord stat (in the stats above). It's true while undamaged, false while damaged.
-While the overlord stat is undamaged, the overlord and I are the same in some way and I cannot harm or hinder him. If he makes An Offer You Can't Refuse while the stat is undamaged, I must accept it, but I can negotiate one (1) caveat to his terms because of my power.
-The overlord's weakness (currently Dolorous song) damages my overlord stat the same as how it damages him.

We are not the Same
Strike out stuff in Are we not the Same, above.
Once per scene, may use Heart of Fire against the Overlord without erasing a bond with him (still need to have a bond, I think).

Threat to the World
You are a Threat to the world. When someone who is not a threat to the world takes direct action against you, they have to pay a price. You no longer have to pay a price just to act against other threats to the world. A variety of moves no longer work on you.

Evil's Bane
You have become a new weakness for the Overlord. This applies to the Overlord's SHAPESHIFTING. When the overlord is in your presence, the chose stat becomes damaged.

Advancement

-Harbinger Move
-+1 stat (blood)
-Take an End of Days Move
-Take a second End of Days Move (level 5)
-Become a Threat to the World (level 5)
-Any move from a destiny playbook (level 5+)

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

The spotlight turns to Kazelia, who's wearing a long, sweeping gown in bright white with diagonal slashes of black running down the chest from the covered shoulder to just below the waist. Unlike her Gala dress, which had been subtle and served to highlight her new skin and the vibrancy of her body, this dress competed with her, its color contrasts and her own skin all vying to be the center of attention. The dress itself glittered and sparkled like a rainbow with diamonds set throughout the fabric and woven into it, and the long train completely obscured Kazelia's legs and spooled out to gather at the base of where she sat, making it look sort of like she melted into her cushioned seat.

"Uh, hi. My name is..." *record scratch noise* "...Kazelia Swiftlance. The last part's kind of a title, but I really like it and I think I'm going to keep it. I'm the very magical and kind of military daughter of Oberon Greymane, who's a totally evil force of arrogance and dominance that scours worlds until they're frozen, personified in a shapechanging man. My mother is a distant memory of a warm lodge in a cold, lost world. My other mother is the Void herself. She's here with me and kind of is me now?" *Record scratch noise again* "I channel a series of ancient songs that run through the universe and connect hearts, and I let my mother into mine along with some other people who are all sort of connected to me now. She really hates false things though and she's kind of unhappy with this whole setup, but we can't seem to tear ourselves out of it for the moment."

Kazelia pauses, seems to hesitate, there's a sense of reality flashing like static for an instant before coming back into focus still with Eupheria in charge. "Actually, I'm working on a spell that will mess up how this game is structured and control the outcome of the wheel, I just need a couple more minutes and it should be done." Kazelia flushes like her own mouth has betrayed her, which is absolutely has, but even with that the spotlight still hasn't left her.

"In the meantime, I um...I'm kind of struggling with feeling like an imposter right now. I spent a really long time being an awful person who hurt other people and had to be in control of things at all times or my sisters would take advantage of me and hurt me. Especially the owl over there, my big sister Azora is really mean and scary! But since I got here I've learned a lot of different things and even that being kidnapped can be a fun and good thing for people to enjoy and I kind of really like that..." Kazelia blushes a very dark purple. "Actually, if I'm being honest, since I talked to Alina recently and learned she's kind of into that too, I'm really curious to have her tie me up and see how it's different than with the Konkon. I mean, if Rita's okay with it. Or if, um, Rita wanted to join in too, she's really cool and I'd be pretty happy with that."

Kazelia looks like she wants to sink into the ground and die, but keeps going on one more thing. "To be honest though, I'm really worried with everything that's happened to me, and how I'm still a Rider even though nobody else is, and how I used to be and everything that if I ever really give up control I'll end up hurting people and all my friends will realize that there's no place for me in Hyperborea except some kind of distant retreat in Argossa or in Devilhome maybe and I'll have to be all alone most of the time because I'm not safe to be around and I'm not even totally sure if I'm still me anymore."

Kazelia looks like she's on the verge of tears as the spotlight moves away from her. She tries to look over to Adila, or Alina, or Rita. She starts to process what the others had said too, but it all seems to be too much.

Princess-Champions of Hyperborea

The world is suddenly facing a different direction. Kazelia has just an instant to make note of it and think to herself that it's somewhat different from the tests she faced in the void. This was not a conjured thing of her mind or a formless reality taking shape, it was more sudden. It was like some odd machine at Hobling Keep that could turn any way you pleased without falling over, except done to the whole space they were in.

Well, at any rate, that's about as far as Kazelia's sense impression got before she was too busy falling. That also meant she was too busy not being in control of her own motions to go fetch Azora's body or do something simple like keep hold of her head.
[Losing Azora in the fall.] "Sorry Az!" she manages to shout as the head goes flying away.

Then she's coming in hard for an impact, and she has just enough presence of mind to get a hand on her staff and use its shield to cushion the blows of the tentacles flailing at her as she passes by. [using one charge of the staff of safe travels to prevent damage.]