Shhhh! It's a secret 🤫

I'm happy to use Discord to chat if thats helps, Kara. It something easier for a quick question.

Hi Kara! :)

When it comes to names, do you wanna just do random stuff or do we want to use some kind of naming convention to make things more structured? It could make it easier to remember which name belongs to which thing or person.
For example we could name all the cities after types of flowers. Or we could make names alphabetically; Abraham, Benny, Cristy, Dolf, ... Like they do with hurricanes.

What do you think?

I like that! You thinking this specifically for cities or people, too?

If both, maybe we could move forwards through the alphabet for people and then do flower names moving backwards through the alphabet for location names. 😂

Welcome to Zinnia!

So, we already have Aibesta, so perhaps the new order should start with B. You think they’re all female? A virtue name? Benevolence?

I think None should be received well but we have the opportunity to introduce some point of conflict here. Maybe some in the order felt divided about inviting/hosting a foreigner? Maybe the head mistress (probably the wrong term) is very strict? Maybe there have been mysterious disappearances recently, and they are all afraid to tell None the truth of it? Maybe some think her room is cursed after a death occurred there? I dunno… Just throwing out ideas.

I was thinking None should arrive by camel before vague even wrote about her origins. When he posted that, I kinda felt like it was meant to be. lol. But I don’t feel strongly about it.

Oh, and I imagine None to be in her mid-twenties, maybe? Maybe early thirties?

Could work. I'm not sure how much we should be shaping the story before such a question is asked. So if vagueGM asks the question "is something strange going on here?" then we could answer that.

We can start with something simple like "You can sleep here, but if you want food and drink you'll need to work for it."
I was going to suggest that too! :D
That's absolutely fine by me

Yeah for anything we feel like. It doesn't have to be flowers, btw. That's just the first thing that came to mind ;)
If we decide to go that route, let's write down our rules somewhere.
A dictionary would also be useful. I'll ask if that's something that vague wants to keep track of or if we should do it.

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Zinnia sounds good!

The order of Benevolence seems perfectly fine too.

I meant like doing chores around for the order of benevolence. But now that vague mentioned begging for money together with your idea that None has to work for cash, I kinda like the idea of some sort of community service. Things like helping the homeless or cleaning/getting groceries for an old lady.

What do you think?

Ohhh, that makes so much more sense. I was confused.

Okay, let's say that they expected her prior abbey to send up some funds to cover the cost of food, etc. and that didn't happen. Consequently, she's being assigned a task that no one else wants to deal with.... Maybe she has to care for an invalid (the old abbess??), someone that the others don't want to deal with for ... reasons.... She's odd and blunt and they all say she lost her mind... They blame it on old age, but maybe there's more to it than that?

I don't think it has to be perfectly defined just yet. I'm just spitballing here. Let me know what you think.

As for None's travel, maybe she came most of the way by camel caravan, but then they refused to enter the city for reasons they wouldn't share?

Oh, also: how fair do you think the people here are?

I was going for fair redhead because Vague said it was cold there, but maybe that girl is also an "import." Maybe she can relate to None a little, because she also feels different? Jut thinking it would be nice for our main character to build some friendships/contacts that are important to them -- that way there's more at stake for them if things go really wrong.

Please feel free to give any of these ideas the thumbs down. I'm just throwing them out as they come.

I like your ideas! I'll add that to the thread with vague.
You mean fair in terms of looks, right? Not in judgement.
Since it's a medieval world with simple tools I suspect most commoners are tanned by the sun and dirt from working outside. The people from the order could very well be fair, especially in comparison. It's logical that this would make them revered by the commoners. Do you want this person to also stand out from the order itself?
It's unlikely that I'll do that. But perhaps at some point. I like to use the improv principle of "yes and".

I'm not sure what to do here. I don't really have a preference. If I had to pick I'd probably go for None waking up on time.

I do have an idea for how she would wake up:
Or do you think that's too much?

Vague seems to be encouraging color and creativity, so no I don’t think it’s too much. Have any ideas for what’s in the note? An anonymous warning? An invitation to meet privately?

I imagine it might be written in the language of the locals. (But maybe not!) Is it easy enough to read and understand?

I think I like the idea of our redhead being similarly unusual/foreign so they have something in common, but I did not imagine her to be particularly revered for her light skin. She is an oddity to be treated with tentative respect.

I think the nuns are usually treated with respect by the populace — we can leave whether or not that is due to skin color up to interpretation at this point.

Not really :D Just thought it would be intriguing. Perhaps the warning that the red-head wasn't able to say out loud?

Do we say what's in the note or wait for vague to ask "what's in the note?". If we don't, vague might make something up themselves.

Oh, and I’m inclined to say she wakes in time to care for the elderly member, but she is late to prayers because the member makes her life difficult. Let me know if you’re okay with that. If so, I’d like to post it, because I have a vision in my head I’d like to attempt to describe. (It might be tough…)

Go for it :D

Oh, and names for the Abbess, redhead, and old member… C, D, and E, right? Should these be virtues names, as well?

Constance, Diligence, … Eutrapelia?

lol, struggled to come up with one for E, but that kind of works…

Hmm yes, E is difficult. Maybe we picked a tough theme :) We can always change.
Eutrapelia is fine, but I'm not so happy with Diligence as it's a word that may come up in general conversation.
Maybe shorten it to Dilige? Or a different writing like Déligance.

Déligance is kinda pretty. Or she could have a nickname, like Dili?

Oh crap. I forgot to mention your "note under the door" idea because I imagined that happening when she woke in the morning, and then suddenly realized it was the evening still and got thrown off… Feel free to mention it yourself now. Or we could have it happen in the morning when she wakes. Up to you. (I’m unclear on what the contents of the note are, though.)

No worries. I can't post today unfortunately

I'm inclined to say that None skips giving the tea. I feel like that could have the most interesting implications.... You?

What do you mean with skipping the tea? Like not making it at all to be in time for prayers?
I'm getting this image of the old woman spitting it out because it tastes really bad. Probably the wrong measurements used for the ingredients or missing a key part.

Let me know what you prefer :)

@karabooo poke ;)

Oh, that's weird. I was totally waiting on you. I didn't realize I had to subscribe to this thread individually. My bad!

Sure, I'm fine with her spitting out the tea.

I'm kind of toying with the idea that the tea is being used by someone to dull Eutrapelia's wits and senses. If she doesn't take it, she might have more and more clarity of mind, which could yield something interesting.

You okay with None being spied on? Could make sense, if someone is keeping tabs on Sister E....

Looks like vague skipped the tea, which is fine :)

Could be interesting to have the tea be that kind of thing. I like it.

Yes, add a spy :D should be interesting.

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Feel free to take decisions without me this week. I've got quite a busy schedule coming up. I think I'll be able to post every other day, so I'll give FFA priority.

I'm thinking it might be entertaining to set things up such that it appears like the order has evil plans afoot. Maybe they are hiding things, being elusive and untrusting, and fogging this woman's mind... But then, after time, it becomes clear they are doing this for a very good reason, in classic story twist fashion. ("Ohhh, the good guys are the bad guys and the bad guys are the good guys...!")

Is it cliche? Sure. At this point, anything is. All that matters to me personally is that we keep it interesting. For that reason, let's try not to let vagueGM know what we're thinking too much. I imagine it's gotta be more fun for players to keep them on their toes.

lol did you just tag vague to a message they're not supposed to see? Or was that a sarcastic thing? ;)

I'm all for this intrigue and plot twist thing. We're already heading in a similar direction right now.

The only thing I'm wonder is, how does all this help None's mission concerning the book? Are we supposed to even care about that at all? I'm not sure. But I feel like we also need to think about where we're (potentially) going in relation to this book. We do want her to get to that part of the story.

All that is of, of course, still perfectly possible with your current ideas.

lol. I’m such an idiot.

Oh well, let’s throw all that out the window now.