The Campaign Builder's Guild

Recently, I had a chance to play in a short one-shot game in Weave's Opus setting. He was GM, and I played as Rankflin, a young Boggart (a type of fae) intent upon making his way in the world.

A good idea of Rankflin's appearance can be gotten from Mercer Mayer's "Little Critter" character: http://www.littlecritter.com/images/all_about_lc3.gif

The most important thing to note about a Boggart is that they derive their sustenance from annoying people. That is, they don't need to eat-- although they do, and generally speaking, they'll shove just about anything in their mouth. However, it doesn't give them nutrition. In order to survive, a Boggart needs to irritate people. Make someone flinch, or snarl, or clench his fists, and they'll just get a taste, but really, they're not going to be satisfied unless they can totally make their target lose it. In the case of Rankflin, he doesn't intend to have this effect, of course-- he's just a highly curious little Boggart, a chatterbox who asks lots of questions. Lots and lots of questions. Immensely stupid ones. But he just wants to learn! That's not so wrong, is it?

What follows is a brief summary of his grand adventure.  :yumm:

Rankflin arrived at an event called Trademeet, in which people from all around came to trade in a grand market. It was quite a diverse group, so, unlike in the Known Realm (which was Rankflin's ultimate destination) it wouldn't be too unusual to have humans and faeries freely mingling in the street. He made his way there in a giant's backpack, completely unbeknownst to its owner, of course, accompanied by Odious Maximus, his friend and "mentor," at least as much as such a thing applies to Boggarts. Odious is a real scholar (he pronounces it as written, with a "ch" sound) and Rankflin greatly looks up to his intelligence. Odious also has the habit of smoking far too much, generally shoving anything into his pipe that seemed remotely flammable and igniting it.

After inspecting a loaf of bread and a large rock, sizing up their merits, and deciding to eat the rock, Rankflin hopped out of the backpack along with Odious. Apparently the pipe smoking had caused the giant to think his backpack was on fire, and start rummaging around in there to see what was up. That was the cue for the Boggart twosome to depart. It was a lot more interesting on the outside, anyway; the marketplace was fascinating. Rankflin immediately had all sorts of questions-- what is going on? Where are all these people coming from? Where are they going? What is the meaning of life? How much for a dozen eggs? On that note, why do inkmoths give ink but eggplants don't give eggs?

Rankflin approached a vendor who was selling some kind of rock candy on a stick. He didn't have much money, but the vendor gave him a free sample in order that he might go away. Of course he didn't; he did, however, eat the stick and then wonder what to do with the odd rock that he had in his hand. Meanwhile, Odious had been making a meal of the legs of the vendor's stand, which was becoming dangerously unstable. Rankflin, concerned citizen that he was, couldn't help but point out that he wasn't about to patronize a business whose construction was so shoddy. Even Boggarts had standards, after all! It was right about then that the stand collapsed.

The vendor lost it, giving Rankflin his real candy-- the sweet taste of his rage. However, he also called for the guards, who quickly came over. Naturally, Rankflin tried to blame the whole thing on a young girl standing next to him patiently waiting to buy some candy, but nobody believed that for some reason. So, he took the only other course of action available to him-- and ran away as quickly as possible. Fortunately (at least, fortunately through the use of a FATE point to make a declaration) there was a small stand selling all kinds of tchotchkes, small statues, lawn gnomes, and other such things. Rankflin quickly hid among them, standing perfectly still and pretending to be a piece of merchandise. It almost worked, but a lucky roll by one of the guards meant Rankflin was found out. Odious clubbed the guard over the head with his pipe and the two Boggarts took off again.

The guard drew his pistol, taking a shot at the Boggart. Rankflin jumped atop some boxes, dancing around, taunting him, and at the same time making a rather difficult shot. The guard fired, but missed wildly-- in fact, he missed so badly, Rankflin was able to convince onlookers that the guard was shooting at someone completely different. That someone being the giant from before, who was none too happy that he was being shot at. In addition, Rankflin may have hinted that it was the guard who set the fire in the giant's backpack.

Having managed to create a thoroughly tumultuous scene, Rankflin went on his way, trying to find Odious once again. Instead, however, a rather unsettling old woman found him. She had a curious serenity about her, and an oddly distant and cold disposition. Nothing Rankflin did seemed to rattle her; however, she seemed to be quite helpful and generous-- she offered to take him to the Known Realm for free, even. Rankflin happily (after receiving a compel) accepted, one might say unquestioningly, but of course, Rankflin was always full of questions. He followed her through a maze of alleyways and city streets, eventually arriving at a carriage parked at the end of an alley.

The carriage was draped in black and looked a little suspicious, especially when the woman made some sort of hand signal to the men driving it. However, it was a ticket to the Known Realm, that couldn't be that bad, right? At that point, Odious arrived, and Rankflin proudly informed him of his find.

[note]What was happening here was that she was a farmer who collected Boggarts, starving them to death to create the sought-after magical material Boggart Parchment. Her eerie serenity was because she had cultivated the mental discipline to never give Boggarts the annoyance they needed to survive.[/note]
Odious, dutiful mentor that he was, reminded Rankflin to give this kind woman a proper Boggart thanks for her generosity. A proper Boggart thanks is, of course, a firm slap on the back of the head, and Rankflin was intent to show his immense gratitude-- in the form of a flying leap off the top of the carriage. (By this point, I as a player had realized that something was definitely amiss. However, I figured Rankflin might not have-- and I used this rather emphatic gratitude taking the form of an attack as a way for him to fight his way out of the situation but have it logically fit the story)

His attack smacked into the woman and finally managed to enrage her, which of course was delicious for the Boggarts.

As it turned out (at least, after another declaration) there was a Boggart in the back of the carriage who had been quite starved, and the annoyance surging in the air managed to return some life to the poor creature. He burst out from the back, exclaiming loudly, "THAT WASN'T A BATHROOM!" A brief debate among the Boggarts present as to the merits of bathroom use transpired-- further annoying the woman.

Two goons exited the front of carriage, with earmuffs on; obviously, an attempt to shield themselves from the usual Boggart trickery. They had nets as well, intent upon capturing their prey by hook if not by crook. Instead, through the use of a maneuver that seemed a bit questionable at the time (but was justified in the rules, by using a declaration driven by a skill roll rather than a maneuver) Rankflin managed to get one of the guards to net the other. The other one missed, while Odious clubbed the old woman over the head with his pipe. She drew a small pistol and took a shot, but missed.

Noting that the carriage has two seats and both of the people who could occupy those seats are now running around, Rankflin dashed to the front of the carriage, commandeering it. Odious hopped in shotgun, and their new acquaintance, the half-starved Boggart, hopped back in the back-- but not before getting a little revitalizing snack of the rage and frustration of the guards and the woman, of course.

With a shout of "GRAND THEFT CARRIAGE," away Rankflin and friends went, heading for the Known Realm and further adventure...

I found it quite fun.  :D

I am Weave, and I approve this message.

I hope to get another game with Rankflin in soon! The school semester has just started up again, so "soon" might be stretched a little. If anyone wants to hop in, you're certainly more than welcome to; the game is fairly light-hearted and freeform, so there's certainly no pressure. :)

Was Odious another PC?

It read like an interesting writeup!

Odious was an NPC; Sparkletwist was the only one playing at the time since it was fairly impromptu.