Intro

Tone

• The Sword Coast, Arcane style, high fantasy, Genshin, vistas and views

Plot Inspirations

• FF4 - a knight rebels against his evil king who is collecting elemental crystals (power)
• FF6/Arcane - a new source of power is found and enslaved/harnessed by a military
• FF7 - mad scientist experiments fusing spirits and humans create a super baddie
• FF8 - power mad time sorceress wants to compress all time and steal other sorceresses' power
• Owl House - emperor is a secret witch hunter trying to destroy all magic via a Day of Unity celebration

Fun Mechanics

Players

• 5 emotions, themes, visual motifs or adjectives
• A secret special unique ability they learn about
• A moral theme or tale
• A quest they can complete

GM

• Story thread list
• Actors based on player back stories, with goals and per-session turns
• Chaos level

Players

Nova — Half-Elf Bard

• Raised by elves in the High Forest.
• Her mother and elven community value music, art and tradition.
• Nova finds formal music lessons long, repetitive and difficult to sit through.
• Much more interested in bugs, lights, mushrooms, strange objects and anything she has been told not to investigate.
• Curious to the point of recklessness.
• Has a collection of strange objects she has picked up during her wanderings:
  • A mushroom that never decays.
  • A button from a coat nobody remembers owning.
  • A stone that is warm at midnight.
  • A feather that always points north.
  • A tiny bottle containing water that tastes different every time.
  • A coin with a king nobody recognises.
  • A moth wing she refuses to throw away.
  • A key she has never found a lock for.
  • The lantern.
• Her magical lantern is made from extremely rare Dreamglass, although nobody initially realises this.
• The lantern allows her to see possibilities when its light falls onto surfaces.
• She can see distant people, places and possible events through the projected light.
• She does not initially understand what the lantern is doing.
• The lantern is not sentient.
• Nova follows a will-o'-wisp / strange light into the forest despite obvious warnings.
• Her lantern runs out.
• Improbably, the will-o'-wisp enters the open lantern.
• Nova closes it, and the strange light allows her to see the other player characters.
• This begins her journey toward Tikva and Mitch.
• Nova becomes the travelling member of the party, crossing the Dessarin Valley and Sword Mountains.
• Her father is a travelling Harper.
• He is charming, rogueish, restless and incapable of committing to staying anywhere.
• He follows a god of travel and wandering.
• He loves Nova but is an unreliable father.
• He can plausibly be travelling near wherever Mitch's character is located.
• Nova does not initially know she has a half-sister.
• If Sara and Nova share a father, Nova's father has no idea Sara exists.
• Nova's curiosity is both her greatest strength and her greatest source of trouble.
• Character themes: curiosity, freedom, possibility, wonder, mischief.
• Potential character question: Is Nova merely someone who sees possibilities, or someone who learns to choose among them?

Tikva — Mostly-Halfling Goblin Fighter

• Raised in a halfling home/community.
• Her family is mostly halfling, but she inherited an improbable concentration of goblin traits.
• Dark skin, long ears and striking yellow eyes.
• As a child, she played with a halfling friend in Phandalin.
• Adults eventually decided that she was not an acceptable companion.
• Her family tried to conceal her unusual appearance with illusion potions and spells.
• Eventually the village discovered the truth.
• Her parents abandoned her.
• Carries family shame, resentment and hurt.
• Has a strong hero heart despite everything.
• Wants self-respect rather than simply external approval.
• Her story is partly about discovering what goblins and halflings are actually like rather than accepting either group's stereotypes.
• Her quest is to learn about goblin-kind and halfling-kind — the good, bad and complicated parts of both.
• Wants to become a hero who proves that goblins, half-breeds and outsiders are not inherently monstrous.
• Her unusual goblin traits may simply be an improbable genetic roll rather than evidence of destiny.
• Has a special Goblin NRG ability:
  • When provoked, makes a WIS save.
  • On success, anger becomes a focused warrior flow state.
  • Everything appears predictable and slow.
  • Advantage on attacks.
  • Disadvantage on attacks against her.
  • Lasts up to her WIS bonus in rounds.
  • Taking damage requires another WIS save to maintain it.
  • Failure leads toward aggression and chaos.
• The ability could eventually become a mechanical expression of her broader character journey: anger can be something she chooses how to use rather than something that controls her.
• Nova finds Tikva through the lantern and travels to find her.
• Tikva's abandonment gives her a strong reason to attach herself to the new people who choose to stay.
• Character themes: family, shame, anger, identity, self-respect, belonging.
• Potential character question: Is Tikva what her ancestry says she is, or what she chooses to become?

Sara — Human Shadow Sorcerer

• Born in/around Beregost.
• Her mother worked at a tavern.
• Her biological father was a travelling man passing through Beregost.
• Her mother eventually found another man to raise Sara.
• Her biological father never knew Sara existed.
• As a child, Sara played in an old ruin with her half-sister.
• Something happened there.
• Sara was later found at the bottom of a cliff with her half-sister dead.
• Sara was inexplicably cold to the touch.
• Nobody ever gets a complete explanation of what happened.
• She was too young to be blamed for what happened, but was subsequently shunned because of her strangeness.
• Her supernatural symptoms gradually became more pronounced.
• Often extremely cold to the touch.
• Sometimes does not blink.
• Experiences sudden, unnatural changes in temperature.
• Has an unsettling connection to currawongs.
• Often has one currawong watching or following her.
• The birds feel predatory and observant rather than cute or comforting.
• Her shadow magic should feel eerie, beautiful and increasingly difficult to distinguish from ordinary reality.
• Sara's initial motivation is straightforward:
  • Find her biological father.
  • Discover who he really is.
  • Determine whether he had anything to do with what happened to her.
• She may initially suspect increasingly bizarre possibilities:
  • Demigod in disguise.
  • Shadow creature.
  • Shadow dragon.
  • Ancient magical being.
  • Something responsible for what happened that night.
• The eventual joke/tragedy is that he may just be a completely ordinary travelling Harper who never knew she existed.
• Sara encounters Nova and the party while following her father's trail.
• Nova and Sara therefore have an immediate mundane reason to stay together if they discover their shared father.
• Sara has a unique interaction with Nova's lantern.
• Nova normally looks at the light projected outward onto surfaces.
• Sara discovers that she can somehow dim or enter the lantern's light and look into it.
• Inside the light, she can perceive possibilities across time.
• She may see the Sword Coast as it could have been:
  • Netherese cities still floating.
  • Orcs and goblins overrunning the land.
  • Waterdeep drowned beneath the ocean.
  • The dead walking everywhere.
  • Other catastrophic or bizarre alternate histories.
• The exact nature of these visions should remain open for improv.
• The first major vision should be cataclysmic.
• The party initially assumes Sara has seen the future and that they need to prevent the apocalypse.
• Eventually they discover that Sara was not seeing the future.
• She was seeing a discarded possibility — a catastrophe that was possible but never happened.
• Her ability to perceive discarded possibilities may make her extremely interesting to the Magisters.
• Character themes: identity, memory, loss, the past, fear of becoming something else, selfhood.
• Potential character question: If something changed you without your consent, does that change who you are?

Mitch's Character

• Leave intentionally blank for now.
• Do not build a major plot connection around them before Mitch has created the character.
• Let Mitch's character introduce their own themes, problems, aesthetics and relationships.
• Find a natural location for them somewhere around the Sword Mountains / central Sword Coast if convenient.
• Nova can discover them through the lantern.
• Nova and Tikva can then travel toward them.
• Nova's dad can conveniently be travelling nearby if useful.
• Let Mitch's character determine the next major direction rather than forcing them into an existing plot.
• Once created, add:
  • Character name/race/class.
  • 5 emotions/themes/visual motifs.
  • Backstory.
  • Special ability.
  • Personal quest.
  • Important actors.
  • Important locations.
  • Unresolved threads.

NPCs

The Magisters

• A small group of powerful Netherese-descended magicians who have developed the Prism.
• They have discovered that improbability can be separated, concentrated and harvested.
• They call Dreamglass Elseglass; "Dreamglass" is an older/less technical name.
• They believe the consequences are unfortunate but manageable.
• Their internal disagreement: how much instability is acceptable in exchange for power?
• At least 2–3 lead Magisters with different personalities and priorities:
  • The Architect: wants to perfect the Prism and believes everything can be controlled.
  • The Opportunist: cares primarily about what Elseglass can accomplish.
  • The Doubter: knows something is going badly wrong but is afraid to stop.
• Their agents range from scholars to magical constructs.
• They don't initially know about the player characters.
• They become increasingly interested in Sara once they realise she can perceive discarded possibilities.

Nova's Dad

• Harper.
• Traveller, charming, rogueish, restless, cannot commit.
• Follower of Shaundakul, god of travel.
• Knows an enormous number of people and places.
• Appears exactly when useful and disappears before things become complicated.
• Loves Nova, even if he's unreliable.
• Does not know Sara exists.
• Has unknowingly crossed paths with Prism-related phenomena during Harper work.
• Can conveniently be travelling wherever Mitch's character is introduced.
• Probably has several stories about places that "don't exist anymore."

The Harpers

• Loose network investigating unusual magical activity.
• Some members suspect the Magisters are doing something dangerous.
• Dad has been investigating apparently unrelated incidents.
• Provide rumours, safehouses, contacts and occasional complications.
• Potentially one Harper has quietly tracked Dreamglass for years.

Nova's Mum & the High Forest Elves

• Traditional elven community.
• Value music, art and long-lived culture.
• Love Nova but don't understand her curiosity.
• Increasingly concerned by Fey weirdness around the forest.
• Nova's mother worries her daughter is becoming more like her father every year.

Sara's Mum

• Lives in Beregost.
• Practical, protective and private.
• Chose another man to raise Sara.
• Never contacted Sara's biological father.
• Knows nothing supernatural about Sara's condition.
• Eventually has to confront Sara's search for answers.

Sara's Adoptive Father

• The man who actually raised Sara.
• Entirely ordinary.
• Loved Sara as his daughter.
• Has complicated feelings about the absent biological father.

Tikva's Halfling Family

• Raised Tikva despite her goblin ancestry.
• Tried to hide her appearance.
• Abandoned her out of fear.
• Different family members carry guilt, shame, denial or hope.
• Potential reconciliation much later.

Goblin Communities

• Diverse, not monolithic.
• Some hostile, some welcoming, some deeply strange.
• Allow Tikva to discover what goblin identity really means.

Ancient Dragon

• Remembers Dreamglass from long before the Magisters.
• Knows the current experiments are dangerous.
• Not necessarily benevolent.
• Believes mortals are repeating an ancient mistake.
• Reveals information only reluctantly.

Fey Figure

• Has noticed the Material Plane becoming unusually close.
• Knows something about Nova's moth connection.
• Treats the thinning boundary as both fascinating and alarming.

Shadowfell Figure

• Has noticed the same thinning from the opposite side.
• May know something about what entered Sara that night.
• Potentially from Barovia.
• Has motives that don't necessarily align with the party.

Settings

High Forest

• Nova's home.
• Ancient forests and elven settlements.
• Music lessons.
• Moths and Fey weirdness.

Phandalin

• Tikva's childhood home.
• Halfling community.
• Family history.
• Shame and belonging.

Sword Mountains

• Tikva's broader home region.
• Goblins, ruins, roads and wilderness.
• Early adventure region.

Beregost

• Sara's home.
• Tavern.
• Sara's family.
• Starting point of her search.

The Ruin

• Where Sara and her sister played.
• Contained an insignificant Dreamglass object.
• Something crossed from the Shadowfell.
• Do not decide exactly what happened yet.

Rikrok

• Orphan treehouse town.
• Excellent recurring neutral location.
• Strange NPCs and side adventures.

Dessarin Valley

• Nova's journey toward Tikva.
• Travel montages.
• Roads, rivers, caravans and odd encounters.

Feywild

• Existing crossings.
• Becoming increasingly accessible.
• Closely tied to Nova.

Shadowfell

• Existing crossings.
• Becoming increasingly accessible.
• Closely tied to Sara.

Barovia

• Potential Shadowfell location.
• Source of ancient knowledge about impossible events.

The Magisters' Halls

• Beautiful magical architecture.
• Elseglass everywhere.
• Home of the Prism.
• Controlled, wealthy and visually spectacular.

Plot Threads

Nova

• What exactly can the lantern do?
• Why is it made of Dreamglass?
• Where did it come from?
• Why did the will-o'-wisp enter it?
• Why does Nova see possibilities projected onto surfaces?
• What stories belong to the other strange objects in her collection?
• Why do moths follow her?
• What is her connection to the Feywild?

Tikva

• What really happened when her family abandoned her?
• Does she ever reconcile with them?
• What does she discover about goblins?
• What does she discover about halflings?
• What does becoming a "hero goblin" actually mean?
• How does she redefine family?
• Why does she possess such an improbably goblin appearance?

Sara

• What happened in the ruin?
• What happened to her sister?
• What entered Sara?
• Why is she always cold?
• Why do currawongs follow her?
• What does the Shadowfell presence want?
• Who is her biological father?
• What happens when she looks into the lantern?
• Why can she do something Nova cannot?
• What alternate histories does she see?
• Is there a world where her sister survived?
• Does she eventually realise the catastrophe she witnessed already failed to happen?

Mitch

• Leave blank.
• Build entirely from Session 0.

Nova & Sara's Father

• Are they actually half-sisters?
• How do they discover it?
• How does Dad react?
• What old Harper investigations become relevant later?

The Prism

• Who built it?
• How does it harvest improbability?
• What does it actually look like?
• What becomes of discarded possibilities?
• Why are planar crossings increasing?
• Can it be stopped?
• Should it be stopped?

Dreamglass / Elseglass

• Where did it come from?
• Why is it so rare?
• Why does it anchor possibilities?
• Why can it connect planes?
• Why does the lantern work?
• Why can Sara perceive something different?
• What do ancient beings know about it?

The Cataclysmic Vision

• What exactly does Sara see?
• Why does it appear to be the future?
• Which details matter?
• Which details are unique to that discarded history?
• How do the players discover it never actually happened?

The Magisters' Endgame

• What are they ultimately trying to achieve?
• Are they simply seeking power?
• Are they trying to engineer a perfect future?
• Do they understand the consequences?
• What happens when they discover the party?

Campaign Theme

• Nobody is destined.
• Nobody is secretly chosen.
• Race, ancestry and magic do not determine identity.
• The Magisters are trying to engineer what is possible.
• The players repeatedly encounter people who defy what they are supposed to be.
• The campaign ultimately asks one question:

What do you choose to become?