Watch the Footage

RussetDivinity wrote:If you need to separate him from the group, just have him get into an argument with someone. He seems to be good at that.

Seriously (or seriously-ish), though, I'm up for plotty things. Not because I have more free time than I expected. No, that's not it at all...

Is that an offer to anyone or just to Endless? ;P

It was meant for Endless, but I can plot with other people.

SO.

On Sunday, FC will have been running for a year. Which is totally not terrifying. At all.

Perish the thought.

Anyway, as a way to make my co-GM hate me, I propose a little competition. The terms are very, very simple. Write a GM quest for Qara and I, following the guidelines for the Underground quest. You can be as complex or as simple as you like, as heartwarming or tearjerking.

In return, the pair whose quest we chose will also get a quest of their own, following the Underground format. It is a quest that Qara and I will write, and we have the exact same abilities as you.

The deadline for submissions is Sunday, and the most popular quest submission will be chosen.

Scarab's also agreed to giving a sketch to the winner, so yeah, that's a bonus.

Luck to all the submitters!

Double post, but whatever.

Just to be clear. You post your quest submissions here. You, as players, will choose the GM quest you think is best. That player/group of players will get a quest from us, and a sketch from Scarab.

And then the world will probably explode.

We got all this now?

Quest Name: The Girl of Knowledge and Shade ~ Living Library.

Quest Victims: Eli and Qara.

Description: You encounter a mysterious blindfolded girl with the power to disassemble and reassemble anything - even living creatures - by viewing them as clockwork, and who is seemingly immortal. This girl is pursued by a group of magicians. In defending her, you find that she is the embodiment of Akasha: an archive of infinite knowledge. If captured and taken to a specific location, she can be returned to Akasha and used as a conduit to gain all the world's knowledge, at the cost of enslaving her body and soul for all time. If she is killed, which can only be done by removing her eyes, then if they are fused to another being, that person will gain her immortality, and her powers, but at the price of becoming the new embodiment of Akasha.

She herself has little control over her connection to Akasha save through her Mystic Eyes of Clockwork, and holds no ill will towards mankind. But, by touching her, one can connect their mind to hers, and in exchange for a piece or aspect of themselves - ranging from pieces of one's body to aspects of one's personality, or even parts of your soul - one can gain understanding of whatever they desire.

Your choices are threefold. You could kill her, and take her eyes for yourselves to obtain immortality, or allow her pursuers to do the same. Or, you could take her to the place of the ritual, and seal her within Akasha once more, taking the knowledge you desire by force. Or perhaps you will try to protect her, and perhaps even surrender a part of yourself in exchange for some of her knowledge? But even if you defend her now, how will you stop more pursuers in search of life and power from coming to kill her later? The choice is yours. But bear in mind that none of these things will be easy. The girl's pursuers are magicians and warriors of the highest caliber, willing to sacrifice anything in their quest for knowledge, power, and immortality. And she herself is no small danger as well, for although innocent and gentle by nature, she will retaliate against those who attempt to claim her life with her full power. Her eyes hold limitless potential: the ability to take apart and reconstruct the bodies of those who threaten her, or even the laws of reality itself, as she sees fit. Once her blindfold is removed, she will become a being of unfathomable power, and she will hold nothing back in her struggle to survive. Killing or capturing her will be no less difficult than protecting her. In any case, you must be as cautious as you are swift, for time is running out as her enemies close in, and if you do not take action soon, it will already be too late - both for you, and for her.

Time Limit: 3 Days.

Quest Name: Neither pen, nor the sword.
Quest Victims: Eli and Qara.

The world is torn asunder, enemies lurk in every single corner; the lay of the land itself seems to mock all those who struggle to survive. Just as every other day, as it would seem. People grow weary and morale is at an all time low. No matter how many monsters you kill, more come. No matter how organized you make your forces, whispers of fear and desolation spread. People are starting to lose hope, and there's no monster to slay or law to pass that will drive them to renew their forces: you must act on their spirit.

Quest Goal: Organize and preside a grand ball. Remind all that they still live and that life is worth celebrating in spite for the very world attempting to prove the contrary.

Quest Name: Leeches and spiders
Quest Victims: Eli and Qara.

We all know that Anji goes through healing salves and bandages quicker than a woodchuck could chuck wood. And healing supplies aren't infinite. Zi needs more stock, and it's up to her sister and brother-in-law to get them. Unfortunately, the best place to get them is in a swamp.

Quest Goal: Survive and catch the sap-spiders (read: spiders the size of your fist with a poisonous bite) and the dream-leeches (read: big fat leeches which induce anesthesia and drowsiness and sleepz when they bite) and get them all home safely.

Quest Name: Why Bother at All?
Quest 'Victims: Qara and Eli

A crippling wave of apathy seems to have struck the land... but for some reason people actually seem a bit happier. They have given up and resigned themselves to just existing in the castle, making no attempts to advance themselves, just waiting to slowly die with smiles on their faces. But there is magic afoot, something is making the people happily wait for their deaths. Take out whatever it is, for false happiness isn't something that people should live under. Is it?

Quest Note: Find the source of the spell and end it before your characters become consumed by the apathy devouring the castle.

Quest: Earn Your Happy Ending
Nice going, Kevin. Looks like you went and got yourself infected with a disease that’s eating away at your mind until your brain entirely ceases to function. Ouch. According to the medical tomes some scouts retrieved from one of the Underground cities, there is only one way to halt the disease’s progress: journey to a secret cavern within a distant floor, find the Fountain of Light contained there, appease its spectral guardians, and bathe Kevin in its blessed waters.
You have three days before the disease goes terminal. Good luck.
Victims: Anjali Aqaba (eli_gone_crazy), Kevin (NPC- Qara-Xuan Zenith)
GM Notes: The way to the Fountain is long and arduous, and all the while you’ve got that pesky disease to deal with. Motor functions go out first- by the end of the first day, Kevin won’t even be able to walk. On the bright side, piggyback rides yaaaaaay! :P On the not-so-bright side, memory’s next to go, and by the time you reach the Fountain, Kevin might not even be able to remember Anji’s name- or his own, for that matter. D:

So yeah, you have forty-eight hours to complete this quest. Best of luck! We believe in youuuuuuu~ :)

GM quest: Reflections of Life

Quest victims: Anji (eli) and Kevin (NPC- Qara)

Check out this abandoned house, they said. What could possibly go wrong, they said. Yea well “they” are kind of idiots. So you walked into this abandoned mansion that rumor has it is haunted. A short time after walking in you find yourselves separated and each standing in a room with three mirrors: in one stands a child, in another a person who looks awfully similar to you, the third you can see only darkly. But don't get to caught up staring at mirrors, there is a reason this house is said to be haunted.....

Quest goals: reunite and escape the house

Quest notes: The mirrors show your past, an alternate present and a possible future. And a monster is stalking the two of you.

This entry is brought to you by myself and Krika.

Quest Name: Double Date
Quest Victims: Eli and Qara

Hey Kevin, Ben's still down in the dumps, and while she's getting better, she's still not quite back to normal. You know what would cheer her up? A date! Of course, someone should be there to make sure it goes well, and that neither participant backs out. Also, a date with your lovely wife sounds good as well, right?

Quest Goal: Cheer Ben up! And hopefully have the night NOT end in disaster.

Any more submissions?

You have until 3 pm EST time today to submit your quest, and then we'll have a poll and vote like civilised people.

Also Qara, we should write that quest soon. XD

Winner of the vote gets to see their quest written, have a quest of their own, and a sketch by the ever lovely Scarab, who is an amazing and awesome person for agreeing to this madness.

eli_gone_crazy wrote:Any more submissions?

You have until 3 pm EST time today to submit your quest, and then we'll have a poll and vote like civilised people.

Also Qara, we should write that quest soon. XD

Winner of the vote gets to see their quest written, have a quest of their own, and a sketch by the ever lovely Scarab, who is an amazing and awesome person for agreeing to this madness.

I have a question in regards to... Competitive... Uh... Spirit? Fairness? I don't remember the term I was looking for, but nevertheless I want to know if the contestants can vote. They could either vote in their own or someone else's entry, but, say, if every contestant voted for their own quest, it'd give me and Krika an unfair advantage. I assume that giving them the option to vote for any entry but their own would be... Uh... I'm pretty sure I also forgot the word for that but I'll just go with unfair again.

You can vote for any entry, including your own. Honestly, some of the entries impressed us so much that they will be used somewhere, even if they aren't the most popular today. Also, there have only been seven submissions, and I doubt that there will be more. So even factoring your fear of foul play, I don't think that there will be an issue.

Also, just to be clear, Qara and I will not be voting in this poll. It's more about us being tortured for your amusement anyway.

Oh, okay then. That's good to know

Depending on how much we can get done today, Sea and I may need an extension on our quest. I don't have a lot of the week free, Sea's starting school tomorrow, and the quest's so vague we've just been spending most of what time we do have trying to figure out just what to do. Is an extension okay?

Okay. Since I want to be a good sport and not vote for my own quest, I guess I'll put up a vote for Endless' suggestion, mostly because I'm an evil person and want to maximize your suffering MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Besides, it doesn't really matter to me all that much whether mine succeeds or fails, since I'm probably going to use that as the plot of a story or roleplay at some point anyhow, so I'll get my fill at that time.

On the other hand, I really want Scarab to draw stuff for me, so VOTE FOR MIMSEEEEEEEEH!

Mimsy... give it an hour bro, there'll be a poll

Oh.

/derp

And amid the one-year-anniversary hullabaloo, I'd like to offer my own personal commemoration, with huge thanks to Pixie for creating the game, and to eli for being the best partner ever in everything, and to all of you for playing this game and making it amazing.

I'd actually been planning for months to take Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning" and turn it into an FC song for the anniversary, and finally, here it is.

Yeah, so I should say something sentimental and trite now.

Pixel is an amazing, creative person for thinking up the concept and mechanics of the game itself, and for writing one of my favorite characters to read. He worked tirelessly for months to see the project come to fruition, and helped facilitate me in growing as both a writer and a person.

Qara, you are one of my closest friends, and I wouldn't be able to make this thing work without you. Your care and conscience about the things and concepts that I would like to move creatively have made sure that this thing keeps moving. You are one of the people I would volunteer to work with on any project, and I thank you for stepping in when I needed you.

And finally, to the various people that make up the playerbase of the game. You may have been a metaguard from the very beginning, or you may be a recent addition to the small corner of the net we call home. You are all patient and inventive people, and I look forward to seeing what responses you all can make to the quests.

It's been fun. Let's end all the ceremony now XD

Just to be sure, when will the voting for the Great Anniversary Quest end?

By the way, do I need to say how much Pixel, eli, Qara, and all you guys and girls who play this game are awesome ?

There'll be another round of voting today.

I have decided to pull Salvantas from FC. From the start he was a character that fit better into other settings, one that would never be able to sync well with other characters or players. As fun as it has been to write him continuing to do so is a mistake for this setting. Consider all plot threads involving him (Dark Carnival, Tenzami, etc.) to be void and pushed into the background. They were ideas that would probably not have synced well with the over all narative being told in this RP anyway, and I just feel it is better if maybe I start fresh with a new character, someone who plays better and maybe I could have do actual interactions with rather then just being a lone wolf surrounded by NPC's as Salvantas has become.

Thank you all for the fun times, and hopefully the next character is less of a dud.

Just some thoughts that I've had on FC.

More specifically, why I've been suddenly more excited about writing when the ball became a thing. I think it stems from the fact that I enjoy writing FC stories, writing with you all. It's something that's fun for me to do, and that I like to do - in fact, like what few things I really get into, I could do it a lot more than I think anyway else would want to do it with me - generally when it's over and the story's finished, there's always part of me that's disappointed that we just couldn't keep going, that we couldn't write more. And before you say that it's because I have creative ideas for how I want the scenes to go and that I should grab people and write them, I really don't have said ideas. I bounce off other people's ideas for the most part, or try to.

And I think that the ball event is something that really opens that up - it provides something of a natural reason/way for me to be able to write with other people, and thus is cool in that regard - since basically everyone's at the ball, set-up is natural. (Set-up being another thing that means I don't like asking people to write - I don't want them to have to do anything out of the way or out of what's natural, whether in-universe or out-of-universe, so when characters would naturally meet is good) And thus writing becomes easy.

I suppose a natural next point would be something along the lines of "Well, make up reasons to write with other people". And that's a good point, and I'd do it if I could, but I'm sorta trapped by how Fern is basically content where he is, and doesn't actually get out much which means that generally speaking it'd have to be others who initiated something (like the party - if he hadn't explicitly gotten an invitation from a friend of his, I don't think he would have gone), which goes right back into the whole "I don't want others to have to go out of their way for me" pride thing, which combined with my lack of creativity or ability to come up with reasonably sized plot-lines for Fern to participate in means that I'm sorta stuck in that regard, but OH WELL I never really expected Fern to be overly important regardless, or to do big things (my desire to write lots notwithstanding). (Really, this is me bitching about my character, which is basically what I don't want to do, but I can't go through and try and be complete here without saying it so bleh)

But anyway, I wanted to say thank you for making something that captures my interest, and makes me want to do something that I would normally never do. Even if I can't do it as much as I would want to, I think that can be a good thing since it keeps me from getting burned out.