By the amazing Samantha Braithwaite!
Aww, I miss the Strawberry Fields kids now.
Showing posts with label Dierdre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dierdre. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Strawberry Fields has art now!
It's been a little while since we had some art to post, but it was totally worth the wait! Check out below an adorable artistic rendering of the day that the minotaur king came to Dierdre's strawberry farm to lay waste to it with his armies of titanspawn minions, and instead she took him home and gave him lemonade and named him Marvin.
Aww, I miss the Strawberry Fields kids now.
Aww, I miss the Strawberry Fields kids now.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Irish Mystery Theatre
Question: What's the story of Danu aligning with the Titans in your games? Alternatively, if there is fiction written on the subject, could you point me to it?
Actually, there is no story of Danu aligning with the Titans in our story, at least not yet. For most games, we'd recommend she start as a Titan and never be available as a playable parent. She was way too ancient, remote and uninvolved to really be a candidate for godhood, but since Dierdre is there, clearly we are Up to Something and the plot must needs explain what the hell is going on.
And that I can't tell you, because players are still involved in that plot. If Dierdre is a true Scion - and she does seem to be - then Danu must have been a goddess when she created her, but what does that mean? Was she the last Scion of Danu before the ancient mother of the Tuatha departed to join the Titans? Is she the first Scion of Danu, returning to aid her people after centuries apart? Is she really a Scion at all, and if she's not, how does she so perfectly approximate one? What was Danu's reason for creating her, when she hasn't had children since she founded the Celtic pantheons in the mists of ages past? Are there secret clues embedded in the fiction surrounding the plot?
Nobody knows. All they know is that she's for some reason Important, at least enough for the Tuatha to dedicate an entire band of Scions to a rescue mission to retrieve her, and Manannan mac Lir, when he can be convinced to talk about the subject, has vaguely implied that there may be A Prophecy. And for the moment, that's all anybody knows about it.
Speculation! Mystery!
Actually, there is no story of Danu aligning with the Titans in our story, at least not yet. For most games, we'd recommend she start as a Titan and never be available as a playable parent. She was way too ancient, remote and uninvolved to really be a candidate for godhood, but since Dierdre is there, clearly we are Up to Something and the plot must needs explain what the hell is going on.
And that I can't tell you, because players are still involved in that plot. If Dierdre is a true Scion - and she does seem to be - then Danu must have been a goddess when she created her, but what does that mean? Was she the last Scion of Danu before the ancient mother of the Tuatha departed to join the Titans? Is she the first Scion of Danu, returning to aid her people after centuries apart? Is she really a Scion at all, and if she's not, how does she so perfectly approximate one? What was Danu's reason for creating her, when she hasn't had children since she founded the Celtic pantheons in the mists of ages past? Are there secret clues embedded in the fiction surrounding the plot?
Nobody knows. All they know is that she's for some reason Important, at least enough for the Tuatha to dedicate an entire band of Scions to a rescue mission to retrieve her, and Manannan mac Lir, when he can be convinced to talk about the subject, has vaguely implied that there may be A Prophecy. And for the moment, that's all anybody knows about it.
Speculation! Mystery!
Sunday, February 17, 2013
In Flanders' Fields
Question: So I noticed reading your Characters section that a lot of Scions got killed/captured then killed by the USA government. How were they able to do this? Were all the Scions Hero-level?
Alas... the unfortunate Strawberry Fields game. Its character roster is a military graveyard.
The game started with Ian Jupiter, Seamus McMann, Dierdre O'Riordan and Samuel Striker, a motley group of misfits who managed to clean up a few dangerous Titanspawn problems but were brought low by human military might. They were indeed Hero-level when they first ran into trouble with the law of the land, when their obviously augmented abilities and strange powers caught the attention of the United States government. In the first conflict between them, Sam was captured by overwhelming force and taken to a military hospital, where he was experimented upon in an attempt to figure out where his powers were coming from. The group then gained Amunet Ipi, Miles Laurent and Najarat Sekhar as they tried to heroically prevent the Titanspawn-fueled destruction of Las Vegas, but by then the government knew who half of them were and was mobilized in their direction. After a particularly spectacular battle in which Miles accidentally grew angel wings on live national newsfeeds, Najarat was killed in a tank-fight when he refused to submit to governmental authority, and Dierdre and Amunet were both captured and shipped off to the newly-created division at Langley Army Base dedicated to studying and containing magical phenomena.
Amunet died in captivity, having been thoroughly experimented on at the same time that her prophetic powers were exhausting and depleting her. Dierdre remained a prisoner for a long time; while she went up in Legend and became a Demigod in her own right, the government also had supernatural powers working for it, including Scions of equal power and carefully-placed Titanspawn agents, and she was unable to free herself alone.
Miles went underground to hide from the stir he'd accidentally caused, but Seamus, determined to rescue his cousin, rebuilt a new band of like-minded Celtic Scions to aid him after being instructed to do so in a prophecy from the Morrigan. He started with Alaina Bertrand, Jude Shriver, Luke Honre, Auggie MacDonough and Ignatius Rex, all of them now low-Legend Demigods, and they blazed a trail across the Americas looking for clues to where the captured Scions might have been taken. Luke was killed in the process, though by supernatural enemies instead of mortal ones, and was replaced by Killian Corvinus. They eventually figured out where she was being held and stormed the base in an attempt to free her.
As Legend 5 and 6 Demigods, the group of them could have succeeded fairly easily at storming a military base staffed only by mortals, but that wasn't what they were doing. There were at least four other opposing Scions in the base when they attacked it, not to mention several Titanspawn both inside and outside the containment areas. The attempt was a failure.
And future stories will talk about what exactly happened during that attempt and the events leading up to it, but so far nobody loves Seamus enough to vote him into the lead, so we'll all just have to wait. If you'd like to see a more detailed story about the problems of the Strawberry Fields gang, there are already a few fiction pieces up for them: start with All Good Things and then continue on through Troubled Waters, To Catch a Fallen Star, Angelfish and Man and Monster.
Shameless spoiler tease: the Strawberry Fields team, Seamus and Dierdre in particular, also have a future connection to the Skeins of Fate team, particularly Folkwardr, and being gone doesn't always mean you can't return. But that's a story for later!
Alas... the unfortunate Strawberry Fields game. Its character roster is a military graveyard.
The game started with Ian Jupiter, Seamus McMann, Dierdre O'Riordan and Samuel Striker, a motley group of misfits who managed to clean up a few dangerous Titanspawn problems but were brought low by human military might. They were indeed Hero-level when they first ran into trouble with the law of the land, when their obviously augmented abilities and strange powers caught the attention of the United States government. In the first conflict between them, Sam was captured by overwhelming force and taken to a military hospital, where he was experimented upon in an attempt to figure out where his powers were coming from. The group then gained Amunet Ipi, Miles Laurent and Najarat Sekhar as they tried to heroically prevent the Titanspawn-fueled destruction of Las Vegas, but by then the government knew who half of them were and was mobilized in their direction. After a particularly spectacular battle in which Miles accidentally grew angel wings on live national newsfeeds, Najarat was killed in a tank-fight when he refused to submit to governmental authority, and Dierdre and Amunet were both captured and shipped off to the newly-created division at Langley Army Base dedicated to studying and containing magical phenomena.
Amunet died in captivity, having been thoroughly experimented on at the same time that her prophetic powers were exhausting and depleting her. Dierdre remained a prisoner for a long time; while she went up in Legend and became a Demigod in her own right, the government also had supernatural powers working for it, including Scions of equal power and carefully-placed Titanspawn agents, and she was unable to free herself alone.
Miles went underground to hide from the stir he'd accidentally caused, but Seamus, determined to rescue his cousin, rebuilt a new band of like-minded Celtic Scions to aid him after being instructed to do so in a prophecy from the Morrigan. He started with Alaina Bertrand, Jude Shriver, Luke Honre, Auggie MacDonough and Ignatius Rex, all of them now low-Legend Demigods, and they blazed a trail across the Americas looking for clues to where the captured Scions might have been taken. Luke was killed in the process, though by supernatural enemies instead of mortal ones, and was replaced by Killian Corvinus. They eventually figured out where she was being held and stormed the base in an attempt to free her.
As Legend 5 and 6 Demigods, the group of them could have succeeded fairly easily at storming a military base staffed only by mortals, but that wasn't what they were doing. There were at least four other opposing Scions in the base when they attacked it, not to mention several Titanspawn both inside and outside the containment areas. The attempt was a failure.
And future stories will talk about what exactly happened during that attempt and the events leading up to it, but so far nobody loves Seamus enough to vote him into the lead, so we'll all just have to wait. If you'd like to see a more detailed story about the problems of the Strawberry Fields gang, there are already a few fiction pieces up for them: start with All Good Things and then continue on through Troubled Waters, To Catch a Fallen Star, Angelfish and Man and Monster.
Shameless spoiler tease: the Strawberry Fields team, Seamus and Dierdre in particular, also have a future connection to the Skeins of Fate team, particularly Folkwardr, and being gone doesn't always mean you can't return. But that's a story for later!
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Sproutling
Question: So, whatever happened to Deirde in the end? I've been curious - I can't imagine her mother would stand for her little girl staying locked up.
I get tired of saying this (and I imagine you guys are tired of hearing it), but that would be telling. Dierdre still has more roles to play in the story and more oncoming issues to deal with that haven't yet made it into fiction format; she has at least one more story in the queue and is far from entirely absent from current events. Certainly there are several people who are not fans of seeing her in captivity.
As for Danu, she hasn't been heard of in quite some time; Dierdre was the last legitimate Scion she had before departing to join a Titanrealm, being a very ancient and mostly primordial figure herself. She's no longer a viable parent in our games and has not been directly seen by Dierdre or any other PC in a long time. The Tuatha aren't really sure what, if anything, they should do about it, nor whether or not they should be worried, but for the moment they've accepted that they're going to have to function without their ancient ancestral mother.
I get tired of saying this (and I imagine you guys are tired of hearing it), but that would be telling. Dierdre still has more roles to play in the story and more oncoming issues to deal with that haven't yet made it into fiction format; she has at least one more story in the queue and is far from entirely absent from current events. Certainly there are several people who are not fans of seeing her in captivity.
As for Danu, she hasn't been heard of in quite some time; Dierdre was the last legitimate Scion she had before departing to join a Titanrealm, being a very ancient and mostly primordial figure herself. She's no longer a viable parent in our games and has not been directly seen by Dierdre or any other PC in a long time. The Tuatha aren't really sure what, if anything, they should do about it, nor whether or not they should be worried, but for the moment they've accepted that they're going to have to function without their ancient ancestral mother.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Big Brother is Watching
Question: How has the government, even with all of its not inconsiderable resources, managed to keep a Legend 7 Demigod like Dierdre contained?
Because they're cheating, like the dirty, dirty cheaters they are.
Dierdre is currently under the auspices of a branch of the government created specifically to deal with what they like to refer to as Dangerous Supernaturals. She's not the only Scion they're sitting on, and they also have various lesser immortals and Titanspawn on lockdown as well. While she was easy to capture, Legend 5 at the time and easily taken down by a giant spray of gunfire, she has since grown to Legend 7 while in captivity. It seems ludicrous that the mortal government could possibly keep her, let alone all the other creatures in there with her, solidly contained on their own.
So, of course, they're not doing it on their own; there are supernatural beings in the government as well. The extent of the non-humans in positions of power is unknown, as well as which factions are controlling what, but there are certainly Titanspawn (giants, in particular, have been turning up in the military quite a bit), lesser immortals and even Scions involved in running, influencing or changing several parts of the ruilng bodies of the world. The head scientist in charge of Dierdre is actually a Scion himself, as was the soldier that captured and brought her in. Mortals wouldn't have a prayer of holding on to that many high-octane supernatural beings, but it's an entirely different ballgames when it's divine power against divine power. Even Hero-level Scions can easily manipulate a government with the right application of powers; up it to several demigod-level beings that may or may not be working together, and pretty much anything could happen depending on what their eventual goals are and which pantheons, Titanrealms or other masters they might be working for.
It also doesn't hurt that poor Dierdre is a pacifist who really isn't sure what's even going on most of the time and will make friends with anyone who's nice to her. She's unfortunately very easy to manipulate and confuse.
Because they're cheating, like the dirty, dirty cheaters they are.
Dierdre is currently under the auspices of a branch of the government created specifically to deal with what they like to refer to as Dangerous Supernaturals. She's not the only Scion they're sitting on, and they also have various lesser immortals and Titanspawn on lockdown as well. While she was easy to capture, Legend 5 at the time and easily taken down by a giant spray of gunfire, she has since grown to Legend 7 while in captivity. It seems ludicrous that the mortal government could possibly keep her, let alone all the other creatures in there with her, solidly contained on their own.
So, of course, they're not doing it on their own; there are supernatural beings in the government as well. The extent of the non-humans in positions of power is unknown, as well as which factions are controlling what, but there are certainly Titanspawn (giants, in particular, have been turning up in the military quite a bit), lesser immortals and even Scions involved in running, influencing or changing several parts of the ruilng bodies of the world. The head scientist in charge of Dierdre is actually a Scion himself, as was the soldier that captured and brought her in. Mortals wouldn't have a prayer of holding on to that many high-octane supernatural beings, but it's an entirely different ballgames when it's divine power against divine power. Even Hero-level Scions can easily manipulate a government with the right application of powers; up it to several demigod-level beings that may or may not be working together, and pretty much anything could happen depending on what their eventual goals are and which pantheons, Titanrealms or other masters they might be working for.
It also doesn't hurt that poor Dierdre is a pacifist who really isn't sure what's even going on most of the time and will make friends with anyone who's nice to her. She's unfortunately very easy to manipulate and confuse.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Benched Superstars
Question: This may have already been asked, but will any or your inactive characters reach godhood? Characters like Saki, Aiko, Deirdre and Koga are only one or two legend away from apotheosis and some of the more twisted of them like Koga and Seamus would make interesting gods.
Yes, as a matter of fact! PCs seldom permanently go away in our games, inactive or not, unless other PCs go to great lengths to make sure they do. They usually become NPCs or MacGuffins for the active PCs, and their players are often happy to come make a cameo appearance in whatever game they happen to turn up.
Of the ones you name, Hachiro and Saki are almost certain to appear as gods at some point, and Colin, whose character page needs an overhaul, already has. Dierdre, Seamus, Darcy, Hime-Kame, Alison and Ray are also all still definitely in play in one way or another, though each is doing too many secret things for me to out them when our players are reading this. (We know you're there.)
I'm actually pretty tickled by all the interest in some of these characters; our players make great personalities, and it's fun to see others enjoying them, too. Someday we'll have to take a poll to see who's the most internet popular and award that player a bottle of whiskey or something. And then all drink it together.
Yes, as a matter of fact! PCs seldom permanently go away in our games, inactive or not, unless other PCs go to great lengths to make sure they do. They usually become NPCs or MacGuffins for the active PCs, and their players are often happy to come make a cameo appearance in whatever game they happen to turn up.
Of the ones you name, Hachiro and Saki are almost certain to appear as gods at some point, and Colin, whose character page needs an overhaul, already has. Dierdre, Seamus, Darcy, Hime-Kame, Alison and Ray are also all still definitely in play in one way or another, though each is doing too many secret things for me to out them when our players are reading this. (We know you're there.)
I'm actually pretty tickled by all the interest in some of these characters; our players make great personalities, and it's fun to see others enjoying them, too. Someday we'll have to take a poll to see who's the most internet popular and award that player a bottle of whiskey or something. And then all drink it together.
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