Crya

Mass Effect: Wanted

Daryna felt herself shrinking more and more into her seat as she observed the people around the room. She was almost tempted to leave right then and there. But when Tanya started to speak, her apprehension seemed to melt away. Tanya was so strong, so confident that they could get the job done. That Daryna could help get the job done. The drell had never been valued much by anyone other than her parents, and she was unused to such praise. Master in her craft? Considering that manipulate was a rare biotic ability, it was possible Daryna was better than most biotics, but to call herself a master... she considered quietly correcting Tanya to the people sitting near her, but she decided that she'd let the reputation ride for as long as it could. Just wait until they see me in a fight. I won't tell them I've never killed a man before, but I'll improvise hope it just comes naturally to me. Now that I think of it, I've tried that tactic before. Didn't work out so well. She held up a hand to her mouth to cover the laugh from her own joke.

After Tanya finished, Daryna began to clap. She only got out three before she realized she was alone, and quickly stopped herself. After a few others voiced their support and the girl got the feeling that she needed to finally commit, she stood up. "I'm committing everything I have to fighting Siame with you." She declared proudly. She didn't say that she kept all of her most treasured stolen goods back at her parents' house, which Siame found and promptly confiscated everything. Daryna also shared a bank account with her parents, and after Galdor's arrest Siame had drained everything. "Siame kidnapped my father and killed my mother. I'm with you until he's free and her death is avenged." Daryna had thought it all planned out. She was going to stay with these people until she discovered who hired Siame to imprison Khel Galdor. It was probably someone who was suffering during his black market funded business, or someone from his earlier days of pirating and general lawlessness. Either way, Siame was sure to have the records somewhere. As for Weliyah, that was also easy. She was guarding some rich asari charged with corruption (with about 20 other mercs) when Siame busted in and killed them all. Daryna would find out who ordered the attack and kill the person responsible. "I could probably get onto their ship before any of you. Maybe I could get the pilot to landlock the ship before you make your move."

Daryna began to fish around in her backpack for something. "This isn't much," she was explaining as she was searching, "but it's all I have left. Siame took pretty much everything from me." She finally pulled out a small cooler. "I picked these up from a salarian doctor. Three genuine krogan testicles. Perfect condition. I know it's one short of a full set, one kind of ruptured while I was trying to convince the good doctor to let these go. I figured that you could sell these and buy a good rifle or something. If you'll take them. My gift."

The Good Queen Falls: interest check

The idea I was getting at is that the empire has a long history of corrupt and evil tyrants, including the Good Queen's father and most who came before her, who she is directly related to, although they never had a chance to do anything about it because of the harsh measures they would take against any dissenters. There would still be people alive who remembered her father. This queen is not planning for such a rebellion, which would make it easy to start. The people know that they have suffered because of the Queen's ancestors, and right now the leaders of the rebellion don't want to continue to live just hoping that their ruler will be benevolent. In addition, no matter how good this queen is, she's still allowing no power to the people, even in the smallest amount. She's basically saying "leave everything up to me and I'll make it right, it's not your duty to decide what's best for yourself," and people are starting to catch on to that. I suppose you can say there's a renaissance like thinking spreading through the empire, and the current regime is clashing with the new ideals that man should be free to guide his own destiny.

If you still are interested then you can brainstorm ideas (I'm open to most things) and after I'm back from vacation on Sunday we can finalize the ideas.

Mass Effect: Wanted

So as I said some pages back I'll be gone until Sunday. I'll be able to read but not post so I'll be able to jump right back in Sunday or Monday.

Mass Effect: Wanted

I agree Mass Effect is still one of the best game series I've ever played, but that doesn't change the fact that the ending was really disappointing (I first played it original, no extended cut).A deus ex machina, almost literally, comes up and provides an explanation that has had really no buildup. You get the feeling that Dark Matter was going to come into play, with Kal'Reegar and Gianna Parisini both suggesting that they're investigating something big related to Dark Matter in 2, and then they both get written out of ME3. Then the three choices at the end are all terrible... Shepard transforming into the controller of the Reapers, destroying his humanity (the very thing he was fighting for), Shepard destroying the Reapers, committing a genocide of Geth and EDI along the way, or the synthesis ending, which, in the words of Mordin, is one of the worst possibilities for life forms (no soul, replaced by tech...).

Mass Effect: Wanted

So... has anyone else started a new game of Mass Effect? I haven't played the series since I experienced the ending of Mass Effect 3 and was left heartbroken and desolated in a field of hopelessness, but I'm understating just how I felt. The RP still sparked my interest.

Mass Effect: Wanted

The vessel jerked as it hit turbulence. A suitcase fell off the stack and smacked Daryna in the back of the head. "Ow," she cried loudly. The Drell had stowed away on a transport headed to Cartagena Station. She had usually allowed herself to fly first class, but she was feeling the pressure of Siame these past few days. They were everywhere, in every shadow. If they could get to her parents, how couldn't they find her? The news of her mother's death and father's imprisonment hit her like a speeding thresher maul. Daryna had to check, doublecheck, and eventually travel back to Illium to make sure that it wasn't a false memory. After she knew the truth, Daryna didn't really remember what happened. Her life was plagued by false memories and encroaching depression. What she did work out was that she ended up on Dekuuna, the Elcor homeworld, and she found herself in the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, on Earth, on account of the extra items she found in her luggage. She was fairly sure that she could consider the time she scaled the walls of the Citadel's presidium a false memory.

It took a few days to get everything sorted out, but when Daryna finally managed she looked into Siame. She spent most of the money she had saved hiring people to look into their operation, trying to figure out where they took Khel Galdor. Somewhere along the way Daryna must have gathered the attention of other people looking to bring down Siame, as she got the call to Cartagena shortly after.

After the turbulence settled down, Daryna heard footsteps in a nearby aisle. "Who's there?" A deep voice called out. Daryna waited, still rubbing her head. "I heard you, ya filthy stowaway! Come out!" Daryna watched as a hunched over Batarian man came around the corner. "Ah ha! I got you!" Daryna rolled her eyes and in one fluid motion the Batarian slammed his head into the nearest shelf. He'd hurt, but wouldn't have any serious injury. Probably. Besides, the vessel was already landing.

A few minutes after the passengers unloaded, Daryna slipped off. For good measure, she alerted the guards that a certain Batarian attendant might need medical assistance down in the cargo hold. Daryna was mesmerized by Cartagena. She hadn't been in a place so dangerous, wild and free since she traveled with Khel Jarr... and she loved it. She spent some time aimlessly wandering around, visiting the bazaars and trying different foods. Eventually she remembered why she was there in the first place, and realized she was probably late. She ran to the Cartagena Inn, slipping in just moments before Tara and Kosso arrived. She was drinking an unknown neon green beverage with a silly straw, had a glowstick necklace on and cartoonishly large sunglasses on her face, but she got there in time.

When she saw Kosso and Tanya, as well as the other guests, she felt sheepish and out of place. She slowly took off her glasses and put her drink on the floor. She sat up straight and tried to look professional.

Mass Effect: Wanted

If we model it off of Shepard, it seemed like a strong willed individual (strong renegade/paragon) could resist dominate, while a person without such will would be weaker. Anyways, I think/hope it will come naturally in the RP as the opportunities arise.

Mass Effect: Wanted

I made some changes to Daryna's character sheet. A quick TL;DR to what I changed and what I kept the same:

Tweaks

1. Made the reason for Era and Tivan's exile clearer. The Hanar was basically just an angry brat. Also changed Khel Galdor 'leaving' the pirates to 'deserting' to help explain the divide caused by Ravanor irdon killing Daryna's parents.

2. I understand the special snowflake concern with her disease, but then again Drell are kind of the "special snowflake" aliens of the galaxy considering they make up a tiny percent (maybe half a million among the galaxy's trillions) of the population. So a rare disease among a rare species isn't that unusual, IMO.

3. I did dial back her early power, now she only excelled in manipulate instead of all biotic ability. But the reason that she is such a good biotic (as well as why she has a debilitating disease combined with a shortened lifespan) is because the Batarian scientist gave her dangerous and unethical combinations and amounts of drugs to boost the potency of the eezo. Considering Omega's atmosphere it's possible the Batarian experimented on and killed countless babies before he partially succeeded with Daryna.

4. I developed Jarr and Daryna's relationship. He wasn't tutoring Daryna so much as dragging her around with him as a favor for his nephew Galdor. He didn't care where he brought her.

5. The dominate would be limited. I'm thinking an hour at most for weak minded people, a tenth of that for stronger people. The more complicated the task, the less people she can manipulate (she can make ten soldiers close their eyes so she can sneak past them, but she can't make ten soldiers shoot each other). Her Manipulating ability isn't limitless, but then again it's her only major talent. Combined with her disabilities (which aren't a sideshow, I plan for them to be a real factor in the RP) I think it's justified as it stands,

6. Her love of thievery is explained partially because her family needs the money and partially because she was raised in an amoral household. It was always understood that crime was sometimes necessary with Weliyah and Galdor and even Jarr.

Mass Effect: Wanted

You should do a brackets style elimination. Or we could have some kind of write off! Mass Effect themed of course.

Mass Effect: Wanted

I feel sort of bad after doing this, but in order to counter-act Daryna's powers (which are significant) I've effectively given her a Drell combination of Alzheimer's and Schizophrenia. Had to make up a bit of Drell lore but I think I explain it away well enough. She'll be that much more interesting to play (crossing my fingers). I'm also starting to make some shadow broker type dossier files, although I kind of made myself sad (again) while thinking of her extranet search terms.