Even Death May Die - Cute Cthulhu Cultist! (Flying Circus Quest)

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Character Sheet
  • Informational
    • Character Sheet
    Isabelle Morgenthau
    A Fisher

    Isa (left) and her boyfriend Arren (right)

    Hard Keen Calm Daring Wild
    +4 -1 +4 +1 -1
    Moves
    Creepy: When a comrade sees you perform a ritual, overhears your prayers, or sees signs of your alienness, they lose Trust in you. Once they learn one of your Moves, they are no longer affected, but they gain Creepy as well.
    Deep Ones:When you call out to your patrons, they give +1 forward on your next roll.
    Blessing: When you dab fresh blood on an item roll +Calm. On a 16+, take both. On an 11-15, choose 1. Effects last 1 Routine.
    • Take +1 Ongoing with this item this Routine. (+5 Handling for a plane)
    • The item cannot break or be lost this Routine. (Armour 3/8+ for a plane)
    On a miss, make a bigger sacrifice or the machine is damaged.
    Ideomotor Response: Your plane effectively has a programmable autopilot. It does not have to be switched on and off; it "knows" when you are behind the controls.
    Soul-Bound: When you paint a rune in blood on an aircraft, you are linked. While in flight, you can take incoming Structure damage as Stress, 1-1. You can take a hit that would strike a Component as Injury, or give incoming Injury to your Engine.
    Written in Ink: When you get a tattoo to mark an major milestone, take 3 Stress , describe the tattoo and where it's inked, and link it to a Fisher move. Whenever you use that Move, lose 1 Stress (max 1 time per Routine per Move).
    Bond: (Witch move learned from Wulf) When you hold an object of significance and make an emotional connection to it, take 1 Stress. The object becomes a magical Focus, and you learn it's Nature (Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Iron, or Blood).
    Whispered Answers: You get visions.
    Gifts from the Abyss: Your connection to the Deep Ones is physically changing you. Name the physically obvious mutation you have received and describe how it frightens or disgusts the unfaithful. It can be hidden, but not perfectly, and just seeing it will trigger Creepy. All XP advances now cost 1 less XP (minimum 1).
    Strategist: When you lay out a plan of action, anyone following the plan (including you) can opt to use your stats on the roll if they are better, and roll Seize the Initiative with their best stat. This lasts until a comrade is wounded or events go drastically off script.

    Mastery
    The Bushwack
    Ambush Predator: When you strike an enemy who is unaware of your presence, roll with Advantage.
    Forced Evade: When you fire to scare an opponent off, spend 1 ammo and roll +Hard. On a hit, instead of dealing damage, choose one: Target dives 1, target climbs 1, target loses speed in a forced turn. On a 16+, roll attack dice on them anyway.
    Momentum: When you dive onto a target, add +1 AP.
    Scissors Snip: When you disengage, give an ally +3 towards dealing with your target.

    Familiar Vices
    - Drinking
    - Prayer
    - Dancing
    - Cannabis

    Intimacy Move
    When you are intimate with another, choose one of you to get a hold. They can spend that hold to give the other a command: if followed, then forward to their next +Stat move, they will always score at least a partial hit, regardless of what the dice say.

    If you use this move in the air, there are two holds, and they can be distributed however you agree.

    The Company
    People
    • Isabelle (Fisher): The PC. Was once an acolyte training at her village's temple, but fled abuse at the hands of the cult leader. Possibly the mortal avatar of the dark gods, and remarkably calm and patient, Isabelle is the world's most mature 19 year old. Which isn't saying much. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Arren (NPC- Confidant/Observer): Your cute fish boyfriend, Arren is a sweet boy in way over his head, but he loves you more than anything. Artist, deeply empathetic, quietly devoted, everyone finds him hot. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Wulf (Witch): Your girlfriend and a former bandit leader with a fractally tragic backstory. Basically incapable of impulse control, she puts on a confident mask to hide how much she's hurting. Her dad was a wolf. The world's only transgender pansexual half-fae witch. 1 thaler per Routine.
      • Hard +3, Keen +3, Calm -2, Daring +0, Wild +3 (Avenger)
    • Minna Hammerl (Soldier): Highly trained soldier from a military junta, who exiled her due to her autism. The squadron's second in command, the most beautiful woman in the world, and the only person on this crew of idiots whose life doesn't revolve around getting laid. Does not use contractions. 1 thaler per Routine.
      • Hard +4, Keen +1, Calm +2, Daring -2 (Professional)
    • Heinrich Engel (Student): Political science student working on his thesis-slash-manifesto. Mentor in a queer society back home, he's the one who actually knows things about stuff. Deeply camp. "i think if heinrich tried to not say stupid things he would suffer a toxic buildup and fucking die"
      • Hard -1, Keen -1, Calm +2, Daring +2
    • Anny Meldgaard (NPC - Mechanic): A young half-Fischer, half-Himmilvolk woman from Piav, trained by the mechanics there. Looking for adventure and her origins. Blushes pink?
    • Ronja Devapala (NPC - Non-Combat Pilot): Anny's friend from Piav, descendant of Skyborn but adopted by locals, unsure who she is. Enthusiast of sarcasm and the only person on the crew with her shit mostly together.
    Temporary Members
    • Marcus (Farmer): A Macchi native. He goes where Lyse goes. Flies a specialized seaplane with a precision rifle.
    • Lyse (Scion): A bastard child of a Sopwith noble family. Flies a V-engine triplane conversion.
    • Ann-Lise Holms (Revenant): The ghost of famed Great War ace Stormcloud, the best female fischer ace of the war. Flies a 200hp KW-AN.

    Aircraft
    • Isa & Arren's Plane: A Teicher Möwen seaplane. Steel frame, liquid-cooled engine. Deeply possessed. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Fang Howl: Wulf's helicopter. An experimental pre-war model. Liquid-cooled radial. Three wolf moon. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Pup: Wulf's Kreuzer Skorpion prototype retrieved from a sealed hanger. Gets a lot out of an underpowered engine.
    • Minna's Kobra: An inline-engine powered, wood framed fighter. All around an excellent machine. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • Heinrich's Reconstruction: A canard plane with a 30mm cannon in the nose. Awkward and unstable but hits like a train. 1 thaler per Routine.
    • The Pioneer: A huge 3 engine'd cargo plane with capacity for two airplanes and an additional eight people. 3 thaler per Routine.
    ​
    Stress XP Mastery
    7 3 2
    Cash Expenses Value
    22 14 11
    Vice Track: ☐☐☐☐☐
    9 Victories​
    You're welcome
     
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  • Informational
    • brmj said:
    What does "prophet" even mean in the context of a religion where the gods verifiability, non-metaphorically talk to everyone, and what makes it special?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Well, literally all the Gods in existence talk to Isa (which as far as we know nobody else can claim), and she's at least somewhat more touched by them in general.

    I'm still holding out for spooky freaky transformations, too.
     
    A1-3: Pillowtalk
  • Threadmarks
    • CW: Discussions of suicide, depersonalization​

    "Yeah?"

    The fan swiveled back, cool air playing across your bare chest. You wondered why it felt colder than the rest of the air in the room. Heinrich would probably know.

    "You've known Isa a long time, right?" She asked.

    The fan moved on past you.

    "Since we were little kids." It was one of your earliest memories, one of your clearest too. You were scared, and shy, and your patrons encouraged you to sit with the weird girl. Everyone said Isabelle was a liar, that she'd just made up the names of patrons when she was first inducted, so she didn't have any friends either.

    "What was Isa like as a kid?" Wulf asked.

    "I mean... quiet, I guess. Really quiet. Barely ever spoke, usually only a few words at a time. I guess she was spending a lot of time in her head, you know."

    She did her work when she was asked, and then she'd find you and sit nearby and watch you draw, listen to you talk, read with in you in the library, walk with you as you skipped rocks off the lagoon. Probably said maybe a few words to you in a week total, and it was often kind of cryptic. You'd had to learn to watch her face, her body language, look for subtle hints. She was odd, for sure, but you could tell she enjoyed just being around you. She liked having a friend.

    You always had friends. She only really ever had you.

    "That doesn't sound much like her now. What happened?" Wulf asked, shifting across the bed, a little closer. You could feel her body heat, radiating off her.

    "Her mum died." You said. "Her balloon lost lift over the water, nothing could be done. It happens. Isa pretty much locked herself in the temple for a few weeks, praying, I guess. That's how she ended up as an acolyte."

    "She was different after that?"

    "Yeah, totally. She started talking a lot more, and making plans, asking me about stuff... I dunno. I don't want to say it's like she was a different person, but..."

    The fan brushed back over you as Wulf pulled herself to your side, sudden warmth as her wrist brushed against yours.

    "I heard inside her head for a while, you know." Wulf said. "When we were bodyswapped. I couldn't hear myself think, it was so loud in there."

    "She has a lot of patrons." You said. She'd tried to attract more, but it'd be a few years, so she'd given up. Privately, you thought it might be because they were all already talking to her.

    "Dozens, at least." Wulf said. "Or hundreds."

    Almost certainly hundreds, though one less now. You had six, and sometimes it felt crowded.

    The fan continued it's slow sweep.

    "The worst part... Arren... sometimes I couldn't tell the difference between her and the whispers."

    You looked over, seeing just the strands of hair illuminated by moonlight, the silhouette of her body against the window.

    "I'm not sure there is one." You said, finally.

    You'd thought it for years. But this was your first time saying it out loud.

    Wulf's hands wrapped around her arm, pulling herself closer to you. The heat was nearly unbearable, but her presence, her closeness, more than made up for it.

    "So what, she's just, like, a puppet? Possessed?" She whispered.

    "I... I don't know." You confessed.

    What if there was nothing else under there? What if whatever Isa was, that quiet girl who used to push herself against your shoulder to look at your drawings, who was so shy you had to learn to speak for her, what if she was totally drowned out by the voices in her head? What if she was gone forever, her body just being piloted around by a bunch of onlookers? Worse, what if she was still in there, having to watch?

    What if yesterday was a cry for help, an attempt to break free?

    You'd tried asking your patrons about it, but it was too... metaphysical. You couldn't get a straight answer about it. You just had to have faith it was going to be okay, that you were just worrying too much.

    You didn't know what to think.

    Wulf snorted with laughter in your ear, breaking your introspection.

    "What?"

    "I wasn't expecting your gods to be so subby." She whispered.

    You don't know what it was. Maybe your emotional fragility, tired brain, frayed nerves. But it was the funniest thing you'd ever heard. You laughed so hard you cried, almost doubling over against Wulf. She laughed too, uncontrollably, biting her finger to muffle the noise.

    The fan swept back over you.

    "Welp, we're in a real poly relationship now: a guy, a girl, and a thousand Deep Ones." You said, barely able to get enough air to form the sentence.

    "Oh Rhona, that's..." Wulf was clearly having a difficult time keeping things together, tears of mirth in her eyes.

    "We're in love with the sea, and she's nobody's mistress."

    "... that's awful, nooooo..." She was laughing so hard she sounded like she was having trouble breathing.

    "Yep, that's Isa." You said, each word a struggle around the giggles. "Just three gods in a trenchcoat."

    Wulf hit you with a pillow to shut you up, and to be fair, it worked. The giggles did eventually die down, and you took a few minutes to catch your breath.

    "I think I hurt myself laughing." You gasped.

    "I thought I was going to piss myself, Goddesses. Arren, you asshole." Wulf replied, the light glinting off her fanged smile.

    "Yeah, sorry."

    "Nah. Honestly like... I needed it. I was spiraling a bit." That was a new word, one she'd picked up from Minna. Spiraling, like plane in a flat spin.

    "Hey, come here." You beckoned, shifting an arm to invite her closer. She settled up close against you again, wrapping her arms around your chest, and she kissed you on the cheek. You'd not had a lot of intimate moments together with just the two of you, and it always felt unnatural to think about, but right in the moment. Your hand was just in the right spot, so you shifted it up to the base of one of her ears and gave a little scratch, and she leaned in against you, sighing contentedly.

    "Oh nooo, my one weakness..." She muttered.

    "Hey, it worked for Isa." You said.

    "So what, you trying to seduce me too?" She said. "Cuz it's working ohmaigawdess right there."

    You still couldn't quite get over the fact that you were kinda-sorta-involved with a girl who was essentially part canine. In the last two months of magic and clockwork men and gas spectres and dragon eggs, it was honestly one of the less weird things in your life.

    Besides, you didn't have much room to talk. You must be pretty weird to her too.

    "So what if I was?" You joked, smoothing out the ruffled hair at the top of her head as you slowed to a stop. She let her head droop onto your shoulder, her breath hot against you neck.

    "Honestly, I'd be down. Like... seriously, Arren, we gotta figure this whole thing out, and that'd be a pretty direct way to do it."

    "Let's wait for Isa to get better first." You said.

    "Yeah, for sure." She said, shifting up a little bit. The reason why became clear as she whispered in your ear. "If you can wait that long..."

    Urgh, this girl. This was categorically not fair, especially because she was clearly learning from Isa. That's the last thing you needed.

    "I'm remarkably patient." You warned. "Isa had a crush on me for years and I didn't say a thing."

    "Sounds like you were just scared." She teased.

    "We're fishers. We're not scared of anything." You boasted, then you winced. That was categorically not true. It's why you were in this situation in the first place. Wulf clearly sensed it too, and the conversation ground to an awkward halt.

    The fan buzzed over the two of you, and some of Wulf's hair was thrown about by breeze, the moonlight and electric lights through the crack under the door reflected in the strands.

    "Hey... so... I know Isa talks about it a lot, but like... it's not just faith to you guys, is it?"

    "What isn't?"

    "The afterlife."

    Wulf had explained to you and Isa what inlanders believed about the afterlife, but she was clearly quite cynical about it, despite her pretty unshakable faith in the three goddesses involved. You hated the entire concept of it, especially when you learned that the original underworld, supposedly just a dark place where the dead would wait for the end of the world, was transformed by the Gothen church into a place of eternal punishment. It was... deeply troubling, from a spiritual point of view.

    "It's real." You said. You didn't really have a way to explain it beyond that, but you'd seen it, in your dreams. Everyone in the faith had, in the prophetic dreams you all shared: it was the inevitable future of everyone mortal. Isa had seen the lights in the sea, as had your grandmother. Your patrons were watching over your father.

    "... so what keeps you going, huh?" She asked. She pulled away from you, turning to face the other way. "Through all this shit. Why not just... I dunno. Jump in the water, take a shortcut."

    "Some people do." You said frankly. "They just... up and vanish overnight. We all know where they went. But..."

    You wrapped your arms around Wulf, your hands finding hers. There, on her left wrist, normally covered by that single glove she liked to wear, there was a scar.

    "... the afterlife is a happy ending, but it's still an ending. It's still closing the book, and... you might not have gotten to the best part yet."

    Wulf pulled herself a little inward, and you nestled a little closer, your fingers intertwining with hers. The fan buzzed, cool air playing across your back as you pressed your head up against the mess of her hair, pulled a little closer despite the sweltering heat.

    "Right. Yeah." She muttered, her voice breaking a little. "Just gotta hang on."

    You tightened your grip of her hands a moment, just to remind her she was safe.

    ===

    Arrenquest end.

    Isa's going to be waking up tomorrow and dealing with some stuff regarding her Whispers. Who, I remind you, are you.

    That means it's time for Isabelle to level up. Leveling up has been modified to seperate Mastery from personal advancement, and you have enough for both.
    New Move: 4 XP
    - Move Exchange: 4 XP (Write In Teammate)
    - +1 to stat below 0: 8 XP
    - +1 to stat 0 or above: 4 XP
    - +1 to stat above 3: 8 XP (max +5)
    - Remove Addiction/Immunity: 5 XP
    - Add Tatoo: 3XP (Write in associated move)

    Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
    - Lashed to the Mast: Isa can tie herself into her plane, letting her ignore incoming injury or reroll a move, but it makes crashing or escaping more dangerous.
    - Gifts from the Abyss: Isa receives a difficult-to-hide mutation that'll freak out onlookers as per Creepy just from seeing it. You get to decide what it is, and it can be hidden, but not perfectly. It makes all XP costs 1 cheaper.

    - Vanishing Act: When you fly into clouds or other terrain, roll +Keen. On a hit, your enemy loses track of you. On a 16+, you remain aware of their position.
    - Momentum: When you dive onto a target, add +1 Damage and +1 AP to attacks.
    - Overdrive: When you Open Fire with a rapid-fire weapon while travelling faster than your Max Speed, count your range as one closer.
    - G-Tolerant: Count your G-Force penalty as 1 lower (minimum 0) for the purposes of rolls.
    - Back To The Clouds: Reduce your Energy Loss by 1, to a minimum of 1.

    Because of changes over time, Isa has ended up with Mastery Moves from both the Sniper and Slipstream masteries. Aww well. She's a talented fish.​
    Adhoc vote count started by open_sketch on Jul 11, 2019 at 8:29 PM, finished with 676 posts and 12 votes.
    • [X] Plan Listen and Learn
      -[X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
      -[X] +1 Keen
      [X] Plan Memorial
      -[X] Add Tattoo: 3XP
      --[X] A chest tattoo of a bleeding leviathan
      --[X] Linked to Blessing
      -[X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
      -[X] Move exchange: 4XP
      --[X] Give Minna Soul-Bound
      --[X] Learn Steelheart from Minna
      [X] Back To The Clouds: Reduce your Energy Loss by 1, to a minimum of 1.
      [X] Plan Memorial
      -[X] Add Tattoo: 3XP
      --[X] A chest tattoo of a bleeding leviathan
      --[X] Linked to Blessing
      -[X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
      -[X] Move exchange: 4XP
      --[X] Give Minna Soul-Bound
      --[X] Learn Steelheart from Minna
      [X] Plan Listen and Learn
      -[X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
      -[X] +1 Keen
      [X] - Momentum: When you dive onto a target, add +1 Damage and +1 AP to attacks.
      [X] Plan Top Gun
      - [X] Move Exchange - Minna - Style Study - Minna's choice of our move set
      - [X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
      - [X] Tattoo memorialising the dead Leviathan - Linked to Ideomotor Response
      [X] Back To The Clouds: Reduce your Energy Loss by 1, to a minimum of 1.
      [X] Plan Listen and Learn
      -[X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
      -[X] +1 Keen
      [X] Vanishing Act: When you fly into clouds or other terrain, roll +Keen. On a hit, your enemy loses track of you. On a 16+, you remain aware of their position.
      [X] Plan Once Bitten, Twice Shy​

      -[X] New Move -
      Gifts from the Abyss: Isa receives a difficult-to-hide mutation that'll freak out onlookers as per Creepy just from seeing it. You get to decide what it is, and it can be hidden, but not perfectly. It makes all XP costs 1 cheaper​
      .      ​

      --[X] Whatever the new mutation is, it is instantly reminicient of the Deceased Old One/Leviathan (Their final gift to Isa... was a piece of themselves)​

      -[X] Move exchange: 4XP​

      --[X] Give Minna Soul-Bound​

      --[X] Learn Steelheart from Minna​

      ---[X] Make Nice with Heinrich, he may need to Step Up as party face, depending on mechanical draw backs of new mutation. ​
    Click to expand...
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • open_sketch said:
    - Gifts from the Abyss: Isa receives a difficult-to-hide mutation that'll freak out onlookers as per Creepy just from seeing it. You get to decide what it is, and it can be hidden, but not perfectly. It makes all XP costs 1 cheaper.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Can we get something like this as a mutation?

    open_sketch said:
    Her skin was mottled, shifting in colours, sometimes glowing, and felt like velvet to your touch. As your hand touched, she lit up brighter than before, your hand leaving a glowing imprint where it touched.
    Click to expand...
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    It could be hidden as a glowing Fisher tattoo, until people notice that it's awefully dynamic for a tattoo.
     
    Here's my idea for the mutation. I actually talked with Sketch about this... a while back. There were more details, but I was throwing out all sorts of ideas, including glowing eyes that have better night-vision or something like that. But even without that mechanical boost, picture it. Isa could start wearing goggles to hide the glow. It could be her thing. It could be an aesthetic. Also, you'd never need a glow-in-the-dark nightlight again!
     
    open_sketch said:
    - Gifts from the Abyss: Isa receives a difficult-to-hide mutation that'll freak out onlookers as per Creepy just from seeing it. You get to decide what it is, and it can be hidden, but not perfectly. It makes all XP costs 1 cheaper.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    Given our current warmer climes: patches of colorful scales, or ears taking on the appearance of lionfish fins.

    Anyone here familiar with Leviathan: the Tempest or Cult Chronicles? Good source for mutation ideas.
     
    [X] Plan Listen and Learn
    -[X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
    -[X] +1 Keen

    [X] - Momentum: When you dive onto a target, add +1 Damage and +1 AP to attacks.

    I don't really care about having a mutation, and I think it's more narratively appropriate for the Whispers to try and get more coherent what with one of their number dying to something that is still unidentified. I realise that my plan has next to no chance of winning, but oh well, if it loses, it loses.
     
    [X] Plan Listen and Learn
     
    For the weird mutation I think webbed hands and feet would be kinda cool. Very fishy, pretty weird, difficult to hide without the use of thumbless mittens. Gifts is an interesting one overall, it's really good for a character but it's going to be tough for us in particular as the Party Face. I think it's an autotake for Arren but for Isa we have to be careful.

    Tattoos seem to be cheaper now, 3XP instead of 5XP, do they still have the same +1XP per mission effect? I'd quite like to get one for story reasons but I want to know what they do first.

    Does Minna have Commanding Presence?
    Commanding Presence: When you bark an order to a friend or foe in combat, it gives a +1 to PCs that follow. Against NPCs, Press the Issue with Hard. They still obey on a partial, though only for a few seconds until they can reconsider.
    Click to expand...
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    It fits nicely with our creepy priestess/flesh puppet of the Whispers thing for us to be able to essentially Whisper to other people, it'll be really handy in combat where as long as we see there's someone on our tail we can give Arren free +1s to kill it and it means we can give Minna one of our moves and Creepy. I think she'd take seeing us do creepy shit pretty hard so she's the next priority for it, Heinrich will just say "That's weird, I'd better drink".

    We already have Momentum on our stat sheet but it doesn't give us +1 Damage, would New Momentum stack with Old Momentum or is there a mistake somewhere or what? G-Tolerant is amazing RAW but I suspect what it's actually meant to say is that it gives you bonuses to personal rolls and if you exceed your aircraft's G-limits the wings still fall off. Back To The Clouds is a pretty great one though, it means that whenever we pull up out of an attack we lose 10kph less speed. For our ultimate energy fighter that's a major advantage.
     
    I think she needs a tattoo to memorialize the dead god, and I think it fits to link that tattoo to a move where she bleeds (like Blessing or Soul-Bound).

    I want her to get Whispered Answers to tie her closer to her (remaining) gods.

    Also, I'd like Minna to get Creepy. I think the story justifies Minna getting curious about the blood runes, and given recent events I can see Minna sharing some Soldier 'coping' techniques (the Steelheart move)

    Code: 
    Steelheart: Even if you are Burnt Out,you can still fly. 
You are unaffected by the Stressed penalty as long as you are fighting.

    [X] Plan Memorial
    -[X] Add Tattoo: 3XP
    --[X] A chest tattoo of a bleeding leviathan
    --[X] Linked to Blessing
    -[X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
    -[X] Move exchange: 4XP
    --[X] Give Minna Soul-Bound
    --[X] Learn Steelheart from Minna

    For mastery moves, I think Back to the Clouds is a good choice. I mean, Isa's plane is an energy fighter, so reducing energy loss would be good, right?

    [X] Back To The Clouds: Reduce your Energy Loss by 1, to a minimum of 1.
     
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    Minna has creepy already: she got Whispered Answers at the climax of the last book. Heinrich is the only one who doesn't and he's technically broke trust with Isa, though the boy isn't gonna show it the way Minna did. The new tattoo mechanic is in your character sheet.
     
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    I like both of the glowy mutations. I will admit I'm a big sucker for the goggles aesthetic, and revealing glowing eyes sounds like a really cool narrative effect.

    Edit: Someone who understands the mechanics make me a plan to support. :p
     
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    Wait a minute...
    Style Study: When you spar with a comrade, both of you roll +Hard. If you both hit, hold 2. If one of you hit and one missed, the winner holds 1 and the loser holds 3. If you both miss, somebody gets hurt.
    Spend these holds to use one of your opponent's Personal or Mastery Moves.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    [X] Plan Top Gun
    - [X] Move Exchange - Minna - Style Study - Minna's choice of our move set
    - [X] +1 Hard
    - [X] Tattoo memorialising the dead Leviathan - Linked to Ideomotor Response

    11XP Total, 2XP Remaining

    Nope, increasing stats above +3 is really expensive

    [X] Plan Top Gun
    - [X] Move Exchange - Minna - Style Study - Minna's choice of our move set
    - [X] New Move - Whispered Answers: Isa gets prophetic dreams in her sleep, which lets you get answers to questions if you get stuck.
    - [X] Tattoo memorialising the dead Leviathan - Linked to Ideomotor Response

    11XP Total, 2XP Remaining

    This gives us a whopping Hard 5, which means that we will find it very difficult to get a miss on Style Study. We spam that move as much as we possibly can, constantly practicing air combat with our fellow circus members, which will allow us to use other people's moves when it becomes convenient for us in a much more flexible fashion than doing lots of Move Exchanges (but with limited uses). Linking a tattoo to ideomotor response is a no-brainer option, it lets us get 1XP every mission for literally doing nothing, taking our hands off the controls. Also maybe using our intimacy move in flight for EVEN MORE MOVE HOLDS.

    Edit: Screwed up the maths, so now we have an 85% chance of hitting on the Style Study (plus the chance of us missing and our opponent hitting) instead of 90% but we get Whispered Answers instead which is fun.

    [X] Back To The Clouds: Reduce your Energy Loss by 1, to a minimum of 1.
     
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    eh, this sounds decent
    [X] Plan Memorial
    Wish we could get the dreams and the mutations (don't even care about the mechanical effects, i just want some mutations).
     
    [X] Plan Memorial
    I don't like the tattoo literally showing the bleeding leviathan. It feels less respdctful than a memorial should really be. Otherwise, though, I like this well enough.

    [X] Back To The Clouds: Reduce your Energy Loss by 1, to a minimum of 1.
     
    [X] Plan Listen and Learn
    [X] Vanishing Act: When you fly into clouds or other terrain, roll +Keen. On a hit, your enemy loses track of you. On a 16+, you remain aware of their position.
     
    The bit about Isa being a puppet of the Whispers is both Meta (for us) and quite Horrifying (for Arren).

    While the the current plans are good, but what I'm thinking is:

    [X] Plan Once Bitten, Twice Shy
    -[X] New Move -
    Gifts from the Abyss: Isa receives a difficult-to-hide mutation that'll freak out onlookers as per Creepy just from seeing it. You get to decide what it is, and it can be hidden, but not perfectly. It makes all XP costs 1 cheaper​
    .
    --[X] Whatever the new mutation is, it is instantly reminicient of the Deceased Old One/Leviathan (Their final gift to Isa... was a piece of themselves)
    -[X] Move exchange: 4XP
    --[X] Give Minna Soul-Bound
    --[X] Learn Steelheart from Minna
    ---[X] Make Nice with Heinrich, he may need to Step Up as party face, depending on mechanical draw backs of new mutation.     ​

    I think that a lot of issues Isa will run into where Whispered Answers would help are things that are too time sensitive to wait for Dreams, and this way we ARE the memorial. It is also as good an excuse as any to get Heinrich using his big brain to make the Circus more money (we are not a cheap outfit to keep flying). Steel Heart is arguably the best move the Solider has, and considering how dangerous this breakdown was to her health and to her friends/lovers, it would make sense to me for Isa to seek out coping strategies.
     
    CallmeIshma3l said:
    The bit about Isa being a puppet of the Whispers is both Meta (for us) and quite Horrifying (for Arren).
    Click to expand...
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    The good news is, thanks to our meta situation, we have hard proof from the end of Whispers that the horrifying "puppet" interpretation is not in fact correct:
    open_sketch said:
    What do you say? What do you do?

    The next update will be the last. You can make a plan, and it will feature, but remember, you are the whispers in the deep. You can guide her, but this one is Isa's choice.
    Click to expand...
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    (plus of course more circumstantial evidence like "Isa's characterization constrains what vote options can actually pass" or "votes are often relatively general and do not cover all of the actions Isa pursues in the following update")
     
    CallmeIshma3l said:
    Steel Heart is arguably the best move the Solider has, and considering how dangerous this breakdown was to her health and to her friends/lovers, it would make sense to me for Isa to seek out coping strategies.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Well, you did say arguably so let's argue about it! Steelheart is good when things go bad, but it's useless when things go good. It's not helping you win, it's just preventing you from losing. Instead if we take Style Study and spar with Minna then we're almost certain to get at least one hold that lasts forever. Keep a Minna hold in the back pocket at all times and you can switch Steelheart on when things are going to shit but you can also use additional holds from Minna and holds from the other characters to greatly reduce the likelihood that everything goes to shit.

    Honestly I'm creeping towards the idea that Style Study is a bit broken with high Hard characters but I suppose it's not entirely safe to use. Even with two Hard 5 emotionless murderers there's still a 1% chance for people to get hurt instead of buffed.
     
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