Friendship is Dragons
Updates Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays
Page 459 - It's Who You Know
Author Notes:
Fallout is Dragons will up on Saturday, and for the foreseeable future will continue to go up on Saturday. Sorry for the consistent delays up to this point - promising a regular update during such a tumultuous time in my life might've been a little premature. But Saturday seems to be working well for me, so Saturday it is.
* characters
* relief,
... Also, I guess I'm first? Tell a story about a shoehorned in character that was important to the plot.
I've never had a shoehorned character that was important to the plot. Story-relevant NPCs usually get the proper time for introductions.
Now as a player, I remember one campaign where the GM shoehorned a BBEG just for me-- a T-800ish professor/programmer who wanted to kill all organic life. His motivations to bother me were kind of weak and say nothing about the left field he came out of. I think this NPC started in the parking lot. O_o`
Edit: oh, right; storytime. In My Little Inferno: Evil is Magic, we've lost a lot of PCs to scheduling and the like, and replacements often get contrived entrances - which is actually really fun. My favorite has to be when Chaos (Laughter ported to the updated system - for those unfamiliar w/ AoH, it's like a Rod of Wonder) triggered a high-stakes game of Cards Against Equinity against a demon who leapt through a portal... And brought our new healer. Iirc, our boss (also a demon) called in a favor with the guy.
So, I had snuck a peek at the DM's notes, and caught a name. Cryanthis. Apparently she was a blind seer, and a goddess in disguise. I went and wrote in my backstory that she had sworn on her soul to be my bride, and we were betrothed. The DM, naturally, only glanced at my backstory. So when he introduced her out of the blue, my noble paladin rushed forward and lifted her in a gentle hug.
My Paladin: "My darling! How I have missed you so! I had feared you lost! I have been searching for you for a year!"
DM: "What the hell are you doing?"
Me: "It's in my backstory. We are betrothed to wed. There were three pages dedicated to it. You signed off on it."
DM: "Fine. You're betrothed."
Crysanthis: "My love! I thought you would never find me! Now we can go home and play! Oh, I cannot wait until I am old enough for us to be wed!"
What wasn't in the DM's notes was her age. She was eight.
She was a good DMPC, though. Her visions were useful, and she didn't try to enter combat. My paladin didn't have much trouble protecting her.
Kinda like Ashley from Resident Evil 4. When I needed to leave her alone for a bit, She knew to stay where I put her.
And that is how I married the virgin goddess of visions.
And before anyone asks, the virgin goddess thing is complicated. The way it works is that her virginity... grew back every time. The DM thought that would be a turn off. Poor guy had no clue.
A couple sessions later, there was a new guy. My paladin marched into the room, a grin on his face. "I just deflowered a blind maiden! You know the best thing about blind maidens? They never know where your hands will go!"
And then we spent ten minutes discussing our reasons for liking women with disabilities. My paladin and the new guy, that is. Turns out he's a devotee. My paladin, on the other hand, had developed a taste for blind virgins...
I've played a 16-year old in an X-Files game. She was a consultant for magical research and boy did her skills get a lot of work. The Jersey Devil case turned out to involve a doomsday cult summoning those creatures to kill certain people for the blood ritual to summon a demon. Whoa...
But the other players liked to joke about my character's age. I joked too, like this exchange:
PC: "The security chief is going to look at you the same way I do."
Me: "What, that he wishes I was two years older?"
Hilarity.
When the DM said she was eight, my response was, "Well, she did fall in love with him for his noble heart, not his sexy bod, so no reason why he can't wait for her to grow up."
"Are you sure?"
"Oh, totally! He can personally teach her to be a splendid wife."
Not so creepy in a world where arranged marriages are common.
2nd, I have shoehorned a lot of characters because we tend to do or go through things quicker or play through the plot longer then I anticipated. My ultimate favorite was from my first time DMing, where I created an NPC (later a based off of characters). His name was Popsicle Bacon, and he was a 1083 year old human wizard on the search for immortality.
I inserted a one-off character but the group liked said character so much, I had to write more plot around it in future sessions.
The NPC was later named Sarah. And the rest, as they say, is history...
I think we're all looking forward to seeing how the GM explains that one. Especially if (s)he goes with the idea that Cadance was her foalsitter BEFORE Twi became Celestia's student.
Also, I tend to think that Sparkle's parents were at least minor players in the rich power elite of Canterlot and thus were a bit more likely to afford or have connections to someone like Cadence. Especially given the number of books they bought Twilight so she could attempt her entrance exam.
Well, that could be fatal to my present headcanon (that she's the last surviving heir to the Crystal Empire. Methodical overlords like Sombra do seem to have a predilection for executing threats, but missing just enough to have one come back to dethrone them.)
I was just worried new canon might be conflicting with that - I tend to be a bit orphan-happy with back stories, so I'm used to integrating previously unknown parents.
...hmm, helping Cadence's ancestors escape the Empire's sealing could be an interesting, if slightly textbook, one-shot campaign. I wonder if pre- gen4 ponies lived in such high fantasy worlds.
The bit about the foalsitting service is new to me, but unsurprising. Gotta start going to the comic shop again.
~Until further notice, at least >D ~
And the few times we actually saw Twi's parents, they never seemed to be anything much, just some regular ponies. Though we hardly saw them and never heard their voice. I was kind of disappointed when, after Twilight's coronation, they didn't even came to congratulate their daughter, like Shining armor did. Dunno, it would seemed only natural, given how they were there and seemed proud during the ceremony.
Anyway, still hoping we might get to actually know them at some point. And maybe get a few answers while we're at it. Like how the hell did Twi got Cadenza as a foalsitter ? Oo
Also, DM not doing anything with Princess Luna ! Bad DM !
As for Luna... Yeah, it's a slip-up, but the DM's been busy trying to keep the game from getting derailed too badly again, & balance all the characters' development. With this, or... well, ANY party, that can't be easy.
As for Cellestia smoothing things out for Twilight, yeah, but I always thought that she took notice of Twilight's potential after her exam. And I'd guess that Cadenza was foalsitting her way before that.
Unless there was some prophecy of some sort...
As for Cadance becoming Twilight's foal sitter, the comic book shows that it had nothing to do with Celestia. Shining Armor had a hoof in that set up.
So in the end its up to you if you consider them canon or not. I personally love them and add almost all of it to my own headcannon, as they add a lot more details to the story (The nightmare forces and Cadence life as prime examples) and even prefer their canon to the main series canon in some points (Cheerilee being the same age as the mane six in the series while in the comics she has shining armor and Mayor Mare age)
Anyway, thanks for the various answers. Might try and give those comics a try sometime.
Applejack say that it has been years in the table but that does mean the time that the mane party has been playing the setting or about the combined experienced in different adventures as a meta example?
Also, what is the longest one single party has managed to stay united in one of your settings? The longest for me was for 8 consecutive months (+ 2 months hiatus) in a Werewolf the apocalypse/Magic the gathering/ all flesh must be eaten pandemonium when I was in highschool.
"There's a comic like that. Cadance makes a deal with Shining's dad to babysit for like... two oatsicles and marriage to Shining. It's hilarious.
Here:
http://toonbat.tumblr.com/post/49043194735/headcanon"
Shining was probably a little ticked about finding out he's only worth as much as an old birdcage, but it seems to be working out for him in the long run.
I can't wait to see my players' reaction to finding this out.
It's more fun when the players guess at it first...
I know that the focus is still on Twilight and her family/foal sitter, but I still think were forgetting something... what was it?... oh yeah, PRINCESS LUNA LIVES... and is probably good aligned now.
How come they retain only the info that ends up making a fool of you?
Also:
"I think we can all agree what a minor miracle it was that the Season Two finale and its new characters turned out as well as they did."
Oh there's PLENTY of room to disagree there.