(no subject)
After work, I popped by the monthy Garou LARP to see what was going on. For some reason my character sheet wasn't printed this game, and there wasn't any help needed with NPCs. I'd pretty much resigned myself to a night as an Eggplant, when a storyline twist enabled me to play two of my old deceased characters as ancestor spirit NPCs, Irina Blesses-the-Dead and Maggie Simmons.
It was awesome.
I kicked things off by having Irina do her usual spiritual bullshit. She summoned dozens of air and water elementals and other spirits, as well as an avatar of her totem, Dog. She then aided the smallest group (only two player characters against eight antagonists) as a combat medic, using her Gifts to heal people since she couldn't attack directly. I then switched over to Maggie, who use her Inspiration Gift to give everyone a free retest trait; she assisted the second smallest group (three low-ranking player characters up against four high-ranked antagonists) by using a leadership test to organize them into a pack (thereby giving them a ghetto version of the Pack Tactics ability) before lending out her own health levels to temporarily heal the two most heavily wounded of the group and thus dispersing herself for the rest of the scene. Well, all of that helped a little, but the NPCs were still manhandling the player group and two characters were already dead. With only two Gnosis left--nowhere near enough to heal anyone with Mother's Touch or Flames of Hestia--Irina enacted the Rite of the Opened Sky.
The rite actually has a pretty high cost for its Intermediate level. One Gnosis and a Mental challenge, plus two additional Gnosis for each health level the rite caster wants to heal for the collective sept. Even with all the basic costs covered, the rite does nothing unless the caster makes a personal sacrifice of some kind. I had the mental traits and initial Gnosis cost covered (which, come to think of it, Pez forgot to give me the mental challenge; no big deal, really, but if I ever have to perform the rite again on another character I'll have to remember to ask for it), but I had nothing else. To force the rite to work, Irina made the greatest sacrifice of all: herself. She gave up every last ounce of her spiritual essence in order to power the rite. It was a smashing success, apparently. The storytellers ruled that the cleansing rain the rite generated restored four health levels instead of just one.
It's a satisfying conclusion to the character's story, really. From the moment I first created her, Irina existed to heal, protect, and teach others. Originally, she died trying to save some of her septmates that were getting wailed on by an elder Setite they'd tried to fight. After her death, she continued on as an ancestor spirit, teaching those who came to her and giving out advice (this wasn't often; in fact, there was a period of almost a year where ancestor spirits weren't allowed to be played by actual players, so no one came to her for training). The final sacrifice she made tonight is the end of her story. I've always been fond of playing this character, but at long last, I have to let her go.
Goodbye, Irina. It's been nice being you.
It was awesome.
I kicked things off by having Irina do her usual spiritual bullshit. She summoned dozens of air and water elementals and other spirits, as well as an avatar of her totem, Dog. She then aided the smallest group (only two player characters against eight antagonists) as a combat medic, using her Gifts to heal people since she couldn't attack directly. I then switched over to Maggie, who use her Inspiration Gift to give everyone a free retest trait; she assisted the second smallest group (three low-ranking player characters up against four high-ranked antagonists) by using a leadership test to organize them into a pack (thereby giving them a ghetto version of the Pack Tactics ability) before lending out her own health levels to temporarily heal the two most heavily wounded of the group and thus dispersing herself for the rest of the scene. Well, all of that helped a little, but the NPCs were still manhandling the player group and two characters were already dead. With only two Gnosis left--nowhere near enough to heal anyone with Mother's Touch or Flames of Hestia--Irina enacted the Rite of the Opened Sky.
The rite actually has a pretty high cost for its Intermediate level. One Gnosis and a Mental challenge, plus two additional Gnosis for each health level the rite caster wants to heal for the collective sept. Even with all the basic costs covered, the rite does nothing unless the caster makes a personal sacrifice of some kind. I had the mental traits and initial Gnosis cost covered (which, come to think of it, Pez forgot to give me the mental challenge; no big deal, really, but if I ever have to perform the rite again on another character I'll have to remember to ask for it), but I had nothing else. To force the rite to work, Irina made the greatest sacrifice of all: herself. She gave up every last ounce of her spiritual essence in order to power the rite. It was a smashing success, apparently. The storytellers ruled that the cleansing rain the rite generated restored four health levels instead of just one.
It's a satisfying conclusion to the character's story, really. From the moment I first created her, Irina existed to heal, protect, and teach others. Originally, she died trying to save some of her septmates that were getting wailed on by an elder Setite they'd tried to fight. After her death, she continued on as an ancestor spirit, teaching those who came to her and giving out advice (this wasn't often; in fact, there was a period of almost a year where ancestor spirits weren't allowed to be played by actual players, so no one came to her for training). The final sacrifice she made tonight is the end of her story. I've always been fond of playing this character, but at long last, I have to let her go.
Goodbye, Irina. It's been nice being you.