Fate/False Amendment (FATE system Fate Quest)

[Tarock Star]

As you have every night for the last month, you dream of hell.

The world that you had known was gone. All that was left was suffering and pain, beautiful vistas now turned into fire-blasted wastelands. The body's of the innocent lay forgotten, rotting or burning or worse. It was a realm where monsters roamed, fighting and slaying each other indiscriminately. Such a place, where the only options of survival was wicked ruthlessness or wretched cowardice- what else could it be called but hell?

You find yourself in a hidden place, shuddering as you hear the roars of the monsters fighting outside. You had seen flashes of them. They looked almost human. But human beings could not tear buildings apart with their bare hands, or leave craters behind with their footfalls, or create sonic booms from simply slicing the air. No, these could not be human beings- they were monsters in everything except appearance. The monsters that had dragged this land to hell.

You cannot tell how long you lay in the dark and the cold listening to the battle. You never know who wins, nor do you ever care to know. All you know is that when the end comes and silence falls over the battlefield, it does not fill you with any peace. Not when you know that in a moment you will hear the crunch of gravel under slow, cautious footfalls. A figure, covered in glowing tattoos enters. You only risk the briefest glances to the face, not letting any recognition sink in.

The monster smiles. "There you are."

~

You awaken easily. It would fit the cliché to awaken with a start or even a scream, but after a month of this you've gotten used to it. At first the dreams had disturbed you- how could they not? The idea of the scenic tropical wonders of Mataia Island being reduced to cinders would be enough to worry anyone. But as the dreams continued and no coming apocalypse struck the island, you brushed them aside. You have a life to get to that doesn't involve becoming some madman on the streets preaching about the end of the world.

Gender:
[ ] Male
[ ] Female
[ ] Other

Your Life Before Hell:
[ ] Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist. You are a person of importance in the mundane world, your face showing up in news stories and tabloids in equal measure. With connections like yours you have some vague understanding that there are... forces in the world that are not exactly natural, but they're of little concern to you. You've come to Mataia Island for a bit of a vacation, and to perhaps do some business with an antiques collector to add to your own collection. +Luxuria, +Acedia

[ ] Young Clock Tower Prodigy. To the center of European magecraft that is the Mage's Association, your family is little more than some backwater spellcasters from Asia. Hence why it seems to infuriate them all when after joining their main branch, the Clock Tower in London, you rose like nothing they'd ever seen before. You took to your chosen field of magecraft like a fish to water, but your unconventional approach has made you more than a few enemies along the way. On paper you're on a trip to Mataia Island with an instructor for some education abroad; in practice you're being sent away in an attempt to keep you from embarrassing the establishment any further. +Luxuria, +Gula

[ ] Scion of the Fallen House. That your family has survived even nominally to the point of producing you is a miracle. Though your ancestral home houses tomes of knowledge that other clans would tear yours apart for if they knew of them, you do not possess nearly the enough magical power to make use of even a fraction of it. You know the truth, that the line of mages in your family will end with you, unless you do something. And so you've come to Mataia Island in search of a desperate hope that you've only heard whispers of: a Holy Grail. +Gula, +Avaritia

[ ] Dog of the Mage's Association. An Enforcer, a mage that has forsaken the chance of furthering your standing in the Association to instead impose its laws on others. An unthinkable proposition to some, but you understand that without people like you the magical and mundane worlds alike would descend into chaos. You have been tracking a dangerous apostate from the Association, one who has fled to Mataia Island in an attempt to avoid the their grasp. You cannot allow them to get away, no matter what happens. +Ira, +Acedia

[ ] World Renowned Freelancer. A mercenary of the magical world, a grim and terrifying mage hunter... that is most certainly not you. You were someone who just found the life of a mage too restrictive. So you left your family behind, took on a pseudonym, and went on to live a life of adventure. And so far it's worked out, allowing you to travel around the world and put your skills to use in thrilling ways. It doesn't hurt that you've made a small fortune in the process either. Now you've been offered a fair sum to be some mage's bodyguard on Mataia Island for a while, which looks to you a decent way to get a working vacation in. +Superbia, +Avaricia

[ ] Agent of the Holy Church. The Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament are those from the Holy Church tasked with the retrieval of relics across the world. As they must walk among heretics, they are given special permissions to immerse themselves in that world and its practices in order to do their duties. Eternally curious of things your superiors told you were forbidden, it seemed the perfect place to further your studies. Being tasked with wild goose chases like the search for a supposed Holy Grail on Mataia Island is a small sacrifice to be permitted to continue your learning under the blessings of God.+Superbia, +Invidia

[ ] Indigenous Shaman. It has been many generations since the settlers came to your island, building a great port city so that they may exploit the bounty of your home for their own lands. The reception among your people has been mixed at best, but you understand that no matter what you wish these outsiders are here to stay. It has been this way for years, but recently the spirits have begun murmuring of some great and terrible change on the island. As the one who speaks for them, it falls to you to determine what the settlers are doing to your home. +Ira, +Invidia

Spoiler: QM Note

This is something I've been sitting on for a while that I'm think I'll need to get out at some point or else it will never happen. To anyone who has been following my other Fate quest, I still plan on picking that back up but I think I need to put my attention elsewhere to get out of a rut I've been in. Consider this an entirely separate project, though there may be a familiar face here and there popping up...

For everyone else, the plan is for this to be a Holy Grail War quest using a modified version of the Fate Core System to run it. The mechanical portions will be working in the background so it will never be require for any readers to know in order to participate, however I will be making some index post linking to the rules and what modifications to it I'm using.

 

[Tarock Star]

Petra Arrant
Master of ???
High Concept: Genius, Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist
Trouble: ???
Bloodline/Background: ???
Specialty: ???
Free Aspect: ???
Free Aspect: ???
Luxuria: 1, Gula: 0, Avaricia: 0, Invidia: 0, Ira: 0, Acedia: 1, Superbia: 0

Consequences
-Mild: None
-Moderate: None
-Severe: None

Stunts (0/3):
???

Refresh: 3
Fate Points: 3

 

[Tarock Star]

Spoiler: Humans

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Spoiler: Servants

???

 

[Tarock Star]

Important: As this is my first time running a more mechanically structured quest, I am reserving the right to alter or add to the rules if something doesn't work as intended or I made an oversight somewhere.

This quest will be run on a modified version of the Fate Core System ruleset, freely available to look into here. Knowledge of the system is not a requirement to participate in the quest- as the QM I will be handling most of the mechanical aspects behind the scenes, putting things like dice rolls and such in spoilers at the end of updates for those interested in them. However there are some mechanics that will be important to understand, so please read the following at least up to the spoiler.

• Time will be tracked in this quest over the course of six roughly four hour segments: Morning (8AM-10AM), Noon (10AM-2PM), Afternoon (2PM-6PM), Evening (6PM-10PM), Night (10PM-2AM), and Early Morning/Pre-Dawn (might think of a better title for it later, but it's 2AM-6AM). While depending on the nature of what's going on in the story there might be multiple updates per time period, there will usually be roughly one plot important decision or event happening in each. Also a character that doesn't spend at least two time periods to sleep (or goes a long time only spending one to sleep) may start seeing some Consequences as their exhaustion catches up with them. Spend your time wisely SV!
• Destiny Points! Fate points are a mechanic that exist in Fate Core that help to assist in rolls, but another effect they have which I'm moving to a separate system is to declare story details. Essentially if you the individual quester possess a Destiny Point you can declare one thing in the story absolutely true from that point forward. This is of course subject to a veto from the QM if it would destroy the story, so keep it within some level of reason. Declaring a character that's been missing for a while suddenly reappears to save you is usually fine, declaring that a character that you watched die is now somehow alive again is probably not going to work outside of really specific circumstances, and declaring that a completely normal human can punch a Servant in the face hard enough to kill them is just plain not going to work. For the best results, try and relate it to an aspect that's currently in play (found on your character sheet or highlighted in the update). I will be handing out Destiny Points at my discretion, but things like omakes, particularly creative write-ins, and other forms of going above and beyond in quest involvement are good ways to try and earn some.
• Fate points can be used to improve rolls by spending them to invoke aspects, either from a character sheet or present in the scene. They will only be invoked to improve rolls if more than half of the votes for the winning choice includes invoking them on specific aspects. Due to not having proper sessions, Fate Points will refresh every time you reach a new Morning, and can be earned as you go on by making choices that include negative results of the protagonist's aspects (in Fate Core terms, accepting a compel).

And that's about it for the non-crunch parts that are important to know. The remainder of what lies below are the modifications to the basic Fate Core rules that we will be using in this quest, which you can peruse if that stuff interests you. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy participating in this Quest!

Spoiler: FATE Rule Modifications

Aspects Only: For simplicity's sake (there's going to be a LOT of characters to keep track of), we will not be using skills in this quest, relying only on Aspects. As per the link, a character's Aspects will provide a passive +1 to checks where they are relevant. Invoking a character's aspect means they are drawing on it more intensively, and the narration of the resulting update will likely reflect that.

Scale: As with any good Fate Quest, there's going to be some power level disparity going on. Humans are going to be considered 0 on the scale, lesser Servants (such as most Hassans) as 1, middle ranking Servants as 2, and the high tier Servants (think Gilgamesh) as 3.

Stress-Free and Swashbuckling Combat: This is intended to avoid making fights too drawn out while also keeping them devolving into just Fight rolls until one side gives up. An update with a fight will likely have a few rounds of combat happen in the background, roughly guided by the votes and suggestions of the questers to the previous update.

The Power System from the Venture City world book will be used as something of a guideline to building Servant's Noble Phantasms.

Finally, a personal change to the rules: when present in the same scene, a Master can allow their Servant to make use of their Fate Points. Given how Stunt heavy Servants are going to be, this is going to be a preferred way of doing things for most!

 

[Tarock Star]

Morning of the Day Before Hell

You're awoken by a grating ringing noise. Just coming out of that nightmare it takes your mind a few seconds to catch up. That's not your cell, and you know for a fact that you never set an alarm for the morning. Process of elimination means that its the room phone, and some inconsiderate jerk is calling you at...

You peek at the clock. 9:32. Not the latest you've slept in, but you definitely could've used some more time to sleep off this headache. The insistent ringing isn't helping any, so you quickly pick up the phone at your bedside. You hear a brief tinny voice on the other end say "Ms. Arrant-" before quickly cutting it off by slamming the phone back down.

There. Quiet. Though your head is still throbbing. Damn.

You'd hoped that getting as drunk as you did last night would have had some impact on the dreams, but no such luck. All you got for your trouble was a headache. Well that and...

You reach over to your right and confirm the presence of another warm body there. Right. You comb your memory and try to recall who it might be, and come up with absolutely nothing. An annoying oversight by past Petra, but one that future Petra can deal with (and possibly her PR department). Petra in the present moment needs to deal with this hangover first and foremost.

You crawl out of bed and throw on a robe, wincing as you notice the sunlight shining through the curtains. Why does everything in this suit have to be so bright? You make a mental note to get one of your people to get better curtains installed as you stagger onward, first to the kitchen to grab a glass and then to the bathroom in search of the painkillers.

Gulping down a few pills and then a glass or two of water just to be safe, you give yourself a quick visual inspection. No noticeable marks, no black eyes- good, it seems you mostly stayed out of trouble last night. Apart from your sandy blonde hair looking an absolute mess and your green eyes being bloodshot, you look fine, and those can be fixed by a quick shower and a pair of sunglasses respectively. You're about to get on that when the damn phone starts ringing again. You sigh and march back to the bedside, this time picking it up and putting it to your ear.

"Yes?" you groan quietly, watching the bed to make sure you're not waking up your guest.

"Ms. Arrant, your driver has been waiting in the lobby for more than an hour now. Are you- "

"Just tell him to hang tight ok?" you say and then hang up again. Izzy is a good kid, he'll wait as long as you need him to. Though granted he does tend to bore easily, so with more than an hour with nothing to do on his hands he might be getting up to some trouble. But honestly that's part of why you like him.

You ponder on the fact that you don't have much in the way of an entourage for this vacation. You suppose in a sense you're giving them a vacation from you- if you're being fully honest with yourself you aren't exactly the most easy person to work with. Apart from being a pretty grouchy morning person, you have to admit (though never out loud of course) that you're a bit of a-

[ ] Rulebreaking Thrillseeker. Why go the speed limit when you can go twenty or thirty over? Why bring home some single from the bar when you can crash a bachelorette party or stag and help the engaged have one last night of fun? Rules were made to be broken, or else they wouldn't be so fun to break! ++Luxuria, +Invidia, -Ira
[ ] Abrasive Control Freak. Yes you like to let your hair down, but you expect the best out of those who work for you. If that means you have to micromanage every little thing they do then they really only have themselves to blame. ++Avaricia, +Ira, -Superbia
[ ] Thoughtless Layabout. You've gotten pretty used to people just... doing what you want them to do. So its understandable that you've just come to expect it. You honestly don't mean to come off as entitled, its just difficult to remember not everyone works for you sometimes. ++Acedia, +Gula, -Invidia
[ ] Careless Addict. All things considered, you're fortunate all you seemed to imbibe last night was alcohol. You're not proud of it but sometimes you just need your fix, and damn what you have to give up to get it. ++Gula, +Luxuria, -Avaricia

You start making your way back to the bathroom to start getting ready for the day ahead, when a sound catches your attention. A groan- the telltale groan that, when combined with the shifting you see as you glance over at the bed, tells you that someone has just gone from fast asleep to minutes from wakefulness at the most.

[ ] Just go about your morning. Whoever it is can get comfortable and you can reintroduce yourselves once you're presentable. +Acedia
[ ] Get started on some breakfast. You have no idea how you acted last night, but you can make sure you leave a good impression this morning. +Superbia
[ ] Awkward morning after conversations are not your thing. Just throw on something presentable and get down to Izzy, you've got other things to do! +Luxuria

[ ] Write in.