City of Mist: Discovery Bay (Interest Thread)

[LordImperial]

The things you’ll see on the streets, they don’t always add up, y’know? Sometimes you’re downtown, middle of the day, you raise your head and catch a strange reflection on the skyscraper: something like a crooked, dreary castle tower is jutting into the overcast sky above. Another day, you take out the trash at night and you see her across the street, looking at you, a kid dressed in bright colors with the head of an elephant. Or you’re alone at the office, it’s late, and you hear a voice, a familiar voice, calling to you. Someone you knew, and they’ve been dead for years. It’s not Halloween. You’re not on drugs. What are you going to do?

I’ll tell you what: You’re going to keep doing the same things you’ve always been doing. You keep walking. You dump the trash and come back inside, listen to some radio. You keep working. It’s in your head, right? You can’t really be seeing this. There must be some logical explanation. But a tiny part of you is questioning. It’s whispering: what’s going on? Where am I? What is this? It feels like you’re about to wake up from a dream, but this feeling stretches over weeks, months, and years.

You get used to it. You get used to it so much that you hardly ever remember this feeling is there. You go back to your life: you work, sleep, eat, you do whatever it is you do. See, you can’t afford to really ask yourself what was that thing you saw. You can’t, because deep down inside you know the truth. You know that if you go looking for answers, if you doubt the way things are, you will have no escape but to also doubt who you are. You’ll have to ask the toughest question of all: who am I?

WELCOME TO CITY OF MIST

Here’s the lowdown: City of Mist is a modern city where legends are real. It’s not as if knights and monsters walk down Main Street donning shining armor or breathing fire, but rather that knights and monsters are reborn inside ordinary people, regular Joes and Janes. Those people, known as Rifts, live out a modern version of their legends, called Mythoi, and sometimes can even make the shining armor real or breathe actual fire – but they still have their ordinary lives. On the occasions when they tap into their Mythos, a mysterious and mystical force hides their miraculous powers from those who have not awakened to the legend inside them: the sleepwalking residents of the City. It makes armor look like a flak vest and fire breathing like a party trick or a gas leak explosion, so no-one ever knows about the Rifts except the Rifts. This mystical veil is the Mist. This is its City.

City of Mist: Discovery Bay is a superhero noir series using the City of Mist rules Powered by the Apocalypse! from Son of Oak Studios. I would like for the player character Crew to consist of Rifts whose Mythoi are literary or mythological characters prior to 1940 (and even better if there's been a Disney adaptation of the work, regardless of how recent). Characters are built according to the character creation rules in the City of Mist Core Book. Session Zero of this series will help establish the ties between the characters and how they came together as a Crew. It will also be a collaborative City-building session, though I do have a few setting contributions that I'll lay out here. Incidentally, I highly recommend purchasing the PDF of the Core Book, though I'm certain if worse comes to worse you might find a copy online somewhere. Task resolution requires only 2d6, and character creation itself is diceless and fairly straightforward, but does require a bit of creativity.

Welcome to Discovery Bay


Discovery Bay, or The City as it's known to its inhabitants, superficially resembles San Francisco, California, but incorporates architectural styles and landmarks from metropolitan areas around the world. The City has a timeless film noir quality about itself, and seems to be perpetually stuck in an ambiguous time period somewhere between 1920 and 1940. Discovery Bay is home to several movie studios, including Hyperion Pictures in the Mission District, and local landmarks include the Hotel Hightower in Hamilton Valley across Park Avenue from Hyperion Studios, a star in its own right amidst the glitz and glitter of this young movie town, and the Paragon State Building, an Art Deco edifice in the heart of the Financial District. Interestingly, few national flags fly in The City, and where they do, there are several in the same place, all for different nations.

[Arcanist]

Count me interested!
Unfortunately they seem to be having issues with the cart. Waiting to purchase.

[LordImperial]

Excellent! Any thoughts on a Mythos?

[Arcanist]

I guess it depends on where you decide to take the party. I was looking at these Mythos
1. A Death God
2. Lady Luck
3. Loki
4 A Tarot Archetype

[HairyHeretic]

Tentative interest. I'd need to read over the book though and get a better feel for it. Having been watching quite a lot of Lucifer recently though, I think something like that could perhaps translate quite well into this, would that be correct?

[LordImperial]

That could work, yes. Remember, though, a Rift is an ordinary person who's become Awakened to the Mythic world beyond the Mist, and his or her Mythos is trying to work through him or her.

[GunmetalDreamer]

Nnngh .... I shouldn't take on another game right now, but I don't think I can resist.  Paging through the book now.

Initial thoughts are either Robin Hood or Big Bad Wolf related.  Something else might shake out as I read through the options though.

Edit:  Okay, things are firming up a bit in my head a bit.  Robin Fletcher is a police detective who first attracted her Mythos during a stint as a POW in Iraq, having organized an escape (it's a Crusades riff).  Instead of the warm return home she expected, however, she came home to discover her parents killed in an episode of gang violence and her childhood home repossessed by the bank.  Robin joined the police force to try and help protect the people, but in recent years she's become frustrated by corruption in the ranks (blame her boss, the totally-not-Sheriff of Nottingham, deeply in the pocket of a crime lord "Prince John").

A rough sketch of themes looks like:
Mythos:  Expression (Legendary Marksmanship)
Logos:  Training (Police Training)
Logos:  Mission (Clean Up The Streets)
Logos:  Relationship (Partner: Detective John Smalls)

(I considered going the Masked Vigilante route, but worried that'd get a little too Arrow.  I think twisting it a bit is more in keeping with the game's themes anyway)

[LordImperial]

Nnngh .... I shouldn't take on another game right now, but I don't think I can resist.  Paging through the book now.

Initial thoughts are either Robin Hood or Big Bad Wolf related.  Something else might shake out as I read through the options though.

Edit:  Okay, things are firming up a bit in my head a bit.  Robin Fletcher is a police detective who first attracted her Mythos during a stint as a POW in Iraq, having organized an escape (it's a Crusades riff).  Instead of the warm return home she expected, however, she came home to discover her parents killed in an episode of gang violence and her childhood home repossessed by the bank.  Robin joined the police force to try and help protect the people, but in recent years she's become frustrated by corruption in the ranks (blame her boss, the totally-not-Sheriff of Nottingham, deeply in the pocket of a crime lord "Prince John").

A rough sketch of themes looks like:
Mythos:  Expression (Legendary Marksmanship)
Logos:  Training (Police Training)
Logos:  Mission (Clean Up The Streets)
Logos:  Relationship (Partner: Detective John Smalls)

(I considered going the Masked Vigilante route, but worried that'd get a little too Arrow.  I think twisting it a bit is more in keeping with the game's themes anyway)

Sounds good, though I might suggest Turkey or Afghanistan instead of Iraq - we're technically somewhere between the World Wars.

[GunmetalDreamer]

Fair enough.  My understanding from the brief reading over the setting was that it was modern but anachronistically stuck.  Somewhat like Gotham.

Edit:  Actually, apparently I shouldn't include events from outside the city, so, that point is moot.  Ha ha.  I've got some ideas on how I'll retool things ... wheels are spinning 'n' all.

[LordImperial]

Fair enough.  My understanding from the brief reading over the setting was that it was modern but anachronistically stuck.  Somewhat like Gotham.

Edit:  Actually, apparently I shouldn't include events from outside the city, so, that point is moot.  Ha ha.  I've got some ideas on how I'll retool things ... wheels are spinning 'n' all.

Also a fair point. Though I suppose I should have been a bit clearer in my description of time setting. Also, Robin's return from the war to that lack of a warm welcome might have been what triggered her Awakening.

[GunmetalDreamer]

Robin Fletcher
Training:  Daddy-Daughter Criminal Tag Team
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Crack : [ ] [ ] [ ]

Identity :  “I never trust anyone with more money than me.”

Power Tags
(A) What do you do best?   Cat Burglary
(E) What quality did your training foster?  An Eye For Details
(F) Name a teacher you can rely on for help in this field.  Benjamin Fletcher

Weakness Tags
(C) Who is after you due to your prominence in the field?  Underworld Reputation
Defining Event:  Kidnapped, Ransomed, and Nearly Killed
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Crack: [ ] [ ] [ ]

Identity:  “I won’t be just a victim.”

Power Tags
(A) What kind of strong emotion did your defining event leave you with?  Driven to Mete Out Justice
(H) What approach to life did you adopt following your defining event?  Always Be Prepared
(I) What physical change or improvement stemmed from your defining event?  Great Reflexes

Weakness Tags
(A) What emotional baggage did your defining event leave you with?  Won’t Even Touch A Gun Again
Expression:  Winner of the Golden Arrow Tournament
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Fade: [ ] [ ] [ ]

Mystery:  “Who is responsible for the corruption in the city’s heart?”

Power Tags
(A) What is the most common way you use your Mythos to affect the world?  Unerring Accuracy
(F) What specific uses of your Mythos' main form of expression have you mentioned?  Pinning Shot
(H) What trick shot can you do with your Expression powers? Selectively Hit Targets in an Area

Weakness Tags
(A) What conditions weaken or suppress your Mythos' Expression?  Weaker in Windy Conditions
Possessions:  The Hood's Arsenal
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Crack : [ ] [ ] [ ]

Identity :  “Simple tools are more reliable.”

Power Tags
(A) What is the most important thing in your possession?  Collapsible Bow
(C) What other important thing is in your possession?  Throwing Knives
(F) What helps you conceal your possessions or the fact that you are using them?  Unregistered Warehouse

Weakness Tags
(D) What can prevent you from putting your possessions to use?  Running Out of Ammo
I remember the first time I dreamed about the forest.

It was a little after Mom got sick.  Dad, he did what he could to raise the money, but we ran out of legitimate options before we ran out of debt.  So, we stepped outside the bounds of the law.  He’d lost a step, needed an assistant, and he didn’t trust anyone outside of the family.  I was halfway there already, he’d taught me a few tricks to make sure I could “take care of myself”.

Robbing houses in the Old Quarter kinda steps outside of the bounds of “taking care of myself”.

We got caught once, had to make a run for it.  It felt like the blue lights were everywhere, but we just kept running.  Hopping fences, ducking down alleys, I heard the snap of a bullet in the air whiz pass when some asshole decided he’d had enough of running.  We gave ‘em the slip though, after we’d opened up the distance a bit the old man boosted me up to the fire escape, then I reached down and gave him a handhold to follow on up.  We ran the roofs down to the end of the block before waiting up there for them to move on … had to shimmy down a gutter to get back to street level.

I didn’t think much of it at the time.  After a day like that day, a dream of running wildly through the forest, with hounds baying at your heels and arrows shrieking through the air was easy to rationalize away.  The forest stuck with me though.  The leaves were a brilliant green, more like scales of stained glass than foliage, the light reaching down and dappling everything with pools of verdant green light.  The white bark of slender trees broke up the darkness of the shade, and the land rolled and swelled.  You’d think, in a dream about running for your life, you’d be afraid … but no.  I’ve never felt more at ease than I was in that place, a serene kind of peace that was so at odds with events that I could feel laughter bubbling up in me.

Those woods stuck with me even into the waking world.  Deep down, I ached to see them in a way that I can’t properly convey.  I’d been a city girl my whole life, I didn’t know where I’d have seen such a forest before.  Still, I couldn’t shake that feeling of belonging, like when I passed from this world, that was where my soul would rest.

It’d be a few years before I went back to that place.  Mom had passed, but me and Dad kept on going.  It was just the way we lived now, this thing we did together.  Somewhere along the way though, we hadn’t properly vetted a target.  I was on my way to school, still trying to build that bridge to a legitimate life, when this van jumped the curb and blocked off the sidewalk in front of me.  I’m not a sucker, I turned to double back, an escape plan already in mind … turns out the guy behind me on the sidewalk though was in cahoots.  I get a bag dropped over my head and pushed roughly into the opening side of the van, where they proceeded to beat the crap out of me and tie me up.

I wish they hadn’t left the bag on.

Apparently, in one of the safes Dad had cracked, he’d scooped up a ledger that contained some incriminating financial records.  They’d scooped me up as leverage while they turned the screws on him, intent to get it back.  It was a dark place, damp … but street level.  I could hear trucks rolling by in the quiet of the night.  I was in that place for a week, and the dreams were back.  Dungeons, that was the theme now.  Sometimes they were characterized with hot, stale air, a lot of fervent prayers in the air and people swearing they never should have left home.  Other times, it was a damp, dark hole, filled with the hopeless, hungry eyes of debtors, a high window only granting a view of a castle courtyard and the patiently waiting gallows set in the center of them.

Then, one day, things are different.  The goons who’ve been watching me are talking more, cheerier.  Apparently Dad got what they were looking for.  I’ve been chained to a piece of heavy machinery for a week, and these gorillas have barely said two words.  Now I’m hearing names, plans for what they’re gonna do once they’re out of this pit they’ve been squatting in with me.  Careless, careless … and that’s when it hits me, they’re careless because they’re gonna kill me and Dad both at the handoff.  It doesn’t matter what they say, I’m not gonna be around to share it.

Well, I’m not going to leave it at that.

When the guy goes to unchain me and drag me to the van, I make my move.  I’d already slipped the cuff, a little party trick Dad taught me when I was six, so when the guy leans in close I make a play for his holster.  The wooden grip feels almost warm in my hand when I take hold, I pull the trigger while I draw it back, putting one in his gut.  The guy staggers back, and I’m rolling up to my knees … I hear a shout and put two rounds down range towards the noise, jerking the hood off with my free hand.  There’s brains spattered against the wall, playing cards fluttering down … a car door opens.  The driver’s reaching for his gun, and this time I look when I shoot, put one round in his hand and another between his eyes.  He doesn’t slam back into the car like they do in the pictures, it’s more like someone cut the strings on a marionette.  His knees hit the pavement and his upper half falls back  into the car.  While I’m staring at this man fall, my heart’s hammering in my chest … I can hear my blood roaring in my ears, but it sounds like the cheers of a crowd.  I hear a scuffle on the pavement behind me and pivot … the man I’d gut shot was gripping a crowbar, coming back.  He barely even registered that I’d seen him when I put him out of his misery.

I’d never killed a man before.  Never even punched one.  Now there were three dead on the ground because of me.  I looked at the gun in my hand like a damned snake, throwing it away.  The exhilaration of the fight mixed with the smell of gunsmoke and gore and made me sick to my stomach.  They’d barely been feeding me, but I dry heaved all the same.  That was when the world changed for me … when it all started looking so twisted and wrong.

When things are wrong, someone’s got to make them right.  I’m no angel, but I can see the things that nobody else sees…and I guess that means it falls to me.

[Arcanist]

Rachel Davenport

Background:
A small town girl and attracted to the lights of the city. Born with a natural talent and classically trained in the performing arts, she sets off looking for a job as an actress. But like many hopeful, it is not only talent that is needed but who you know, or worse, who you are willing to sleep with. Naive and not full of desperation, she manages to fine a job as a waitress. And later a lounge singer at a local mob hangout. With a beautiful voice and a fragile-like ethereal beauty, she proved popular with prominent mob figures there who “protects her and treats her well”.

However, one night, one of the Enforcers drunk with drink and power, took things a little too far and tried to take her as his own. In fear, she ordered him to stop and was surprised that he did. She found that she control the thoughts of others and leave them in a state of stupour like the sirens of old.


Type - Expression - Voice of a Siren
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Crack: [ ] [ ] [ ]

Mystery - What do they see?

Power Tag
What is the most common way you use your mythos to affect the world - A Call that stuns all who hear into stupor
What additional expression, not necesssarily related to the main one, does your mythos have? - Causes target to be lost in a vivid dream
What additional variants or specific uses of your Mythos’ Main form of expression have you mastered - short term memory wipe defore and during stupor

Weakness Tags
A Needs to hear her voice (i.e. Does not work if target is deaf)


Type - Subversion - Command of a Siren
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Crack: [ ] [ ] [ ]

Mystery - What is happening to me?

Power Tag
What is the principle ability you use to mask or hide your actions - To give a Direct Command that needs to be followed.
Who is most likely to fall prey to your subversive activity - Targets attracted to her
What is unlikely to affect you thanks to your powers - Indomitable Will

Weakness Tags
What disadvantages psychological tendencies have you developed in the shadows or behind your mask? - Unsure of true feelings of partners in relationships


Type - Personality - Beauty of a Siren
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Crack: [ ] [ ] [ ]

Identity - Let me lighten your burdens with my voice

What lies at the core of your personality - Charismatic
What useful habit or routine have you cultivated thanks to your personaility - Captivating Voice
What is the first time notice about you - Ethereal Beauty

Weakness Tags
What aspects of your appearance, style, or physique can get in they way - Memorable


Type - Training - Path of a Siren
Attention: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Crack: [ ] [ ] [ ]

Identity - To be loved by all my fans

Power Tags
What do you do, or know best?- Performing Arts
What move, method, maneuver, habit, or trick did you pick up during your training? - Distracting the crowd
What quality or trait did your training foster - To know what her audience wants

Weakness Tags
C - Pushy Fans/Stalkers

[Arcanist]

Hi Lord Imperial,
What is the minimum number you are going to need to want to run with the game? The systems looks really interesting. Been going through the Core.

[LordImperial]

I'm hoping to have at least two more. Though if we get at least one more, I'll throw a host PC into the mix.