Revenge? (OOC)

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Aug 9, 2025 2:52 pm
vagueGM says:
you figured getting to the safe was more important than keeping yourself safe for your loved ones.
If that would have been the standard for gaining corruption, I would have been forced to retire Emma a long time ago due to racking up like a thousand corruption. She puts herself in a lot of dangerous situations.
Aug 9, 2025 3:26 pm
:)

The difference here is that you did actually abandon David who was relying on you to get back home and take care of him. The situation he has found himself in is your doing. But it is up to you. Maybe reserve judgement till after you get back?
Aug 10, 2025 3:34 am
I think this calls for a Devil Inside roll?
Aug 10, 2025 4:27 pm
Drgwen says:
I think this calls for a Devil Inside roll?
If only it were that easy. :(
Dark Bargain says:
... you must perform an act of contrition before you can invoke their influence again.
Doing your job might work, but there may also be other ways, or other 'costs'.
Aug 10, 2025 6:58 pm
vagueGM says:
Drgwen says:
I think this calls for a Devil Inside roll?
If only it were that easy. :(
Dark Bargain says:
... you must perform an act of contrition before you can invoke their influence again.
Doing your job might work, but there may also be other ways, or other 'costs'.
Oh this is too good! I had actually forgotten that she had lost the power to change! But YES, this is a perfect narrative moment. Now she has to choose between betraying this naive girl that she has just started catching feelings for in order to prove herself to her sister, or find some other solution.

We've talked a bit about the fact that 'getting out of her contract' is a campaign goal, and not something I would want to happen any time soon. So I think it is unavoidable that Persephone do some jobs. Also, I think we got a glimpse of Persephone trying hard to be her better self, but I'm not ready yet for that to actually 'stick.' I think instead she will try to play both sides, doing the job for her patron (and thus regaining her ability to show Circe she's telling the truth), then getting Circe and Henry (and Emma) on board the idea that Persephone wants to get out of her contract, all while continuing to do demon work on the side, maybe.

In short, I want to explore a subtle, messy, fractured response to her traumatic murder, one where she is almost split in two (but not going into D.I.D. territory).
Aug 10, 2025 7:31 pm
Drgwen says:
... Now she has to choose between betraying this naive girl that she has just started catching feelings for in order to prove herself to her sister, or find some other solution. ...
Well, not just 'to prove it to you sister' (and David?), also to avoid any other prices for shirking your responsibilities. :)
Drgwen says:
... 'getting out of her contract' is a campaign goal, and not something I would want to happen any time soon. ...
Absolutely. This is just a little light at the end of tunnel, not, in any way, a getting you any closer to that goal.
Drgwen says:
... So I think it is unavoidable that Persephone do some jobs. ...
Not engaging with that part of the Playbook would be a pity, so yeah, just sad it is with someone like Viviana... but that may be part of the point... these are not exactly saints you are working for. :)
Drgwen says:
... Also, I think we got a glimpse of Persephone trying hard to be her better self, but I'm not ready yet for that to actually 'stick.' ...
I worry for her, betraying Viviana may cause her to come unstuck... but that is also part of the Playbook.
Drgwen says:
... I think instead she will try to play both sides ...
Good luck with that.
Drgwen says:
... then getting Circe and Henry (and Emma) on board the idea that Persephone wants to get out of her contract ...
Sounds like a plan.

Showing her The Devil Inside is not the only way to prove to Circe that you were not teasing her, of course.
Drgwen says:
... In short, I want to explore a subtle, messy, fractured response to her traumatic murder ...
It is hard to imaging what having such a thing be proved to be non-permanent would do to someone... :)
Aug 10, 2025 8:35 pm
vagueGM says:
I worry for her, betraying Viviana may cause her to come unstuck... but that is also part of the Playbook.
Agreed, and, I think, an unavoidable result at this point. Well, at least I don't plan to avoid it!
vagueGM says:
It is hard to imaging what having such a thing be proved to be non-permanent would do to someone... :)
Yeah, I've thought a lot about what that would do to a person and, well, I think it would fundamentally change a person, scarring them psychologically forever. Can the victim heal from that? Yes, eventually, but that's not something you shrug off.
Aug 10, 2025 8:39 pm
Drgwen says:
... I think it would fundamentally change a person, scarring them psychologically forever. Can the victim heal from that? Yes, eventually, but that's not something you shrug off.
For some reason that post made me think about Persephone (eventually) changing Playbooks to The Angel...? Not sure on the logic there...
Aug 10, 2025 8:51 pm
Oooh! That certainly would be a cool transformation for her, wouldn't it? I just assumed she'd become an Imp or Hunter if she escapes her Contract. But who knows? The Angel might be the best choice of the three!
Aug 10, 2025 8:52 pm
I haven't actually looked at the Playbook, just riffing off assumptions of what it might be...
Aug 10, 2025 8:57 pm
It is also a Heart focused playbook, so mechanically it works. Angle wings, can conjure angel weapons and armor -- it really is the flip side of the Tainted.

Also, I have decided to pair Persephone getting drunk with her demonic side asserting itself, as a kind of synecdoche.
Aug 10, 2025 9:01 pm
Drgwen says:
... Also, I have decided to pair Persephone getting drunk with her demonic side asserting itself, ...
Yeah, I noticed the 'drinking already'...
Aug 11, 2025 2:13 am
So, the Tainted playbook has two sections that refer to contracts and bargains. My "Demonic Jobs" selection includes brokering demonic contracts. Then there is the Dark Bargain move.

What I don't yet know is HOW these occur. Like, Dark Bargain refers to sealing a deal in smoke and blood. But do I write up a contract? Is there a ritual? Does one magically appear? And when brokering a demonic contract, do they literally have to sign their name on the dotted line? And how does the Demonic Job relate, or not, to the optional Move?

Obviously I can come up with answers to all this, but I thought I'd ask if you had anything concrete in mind, @vagueGM .
Aug 11, 2025 4:30 am
Drgwen says:
... My "Demonic Jobs" selection includes brokering demonic contracts. Then there is the Dark Bargain move. ...
I assume they are deliberately left vague, so you can treat them independently of each other (if you only have one but not the other?), or link them together if you have both and want to make the blood and smoke of Dark Bargain be part of your 'brokering deals' and possibly 'collecting souls'.

'They' might not allow you to be part of the 'contract signing ceremony', not until they trust you... but you may be able to convince them?
Drgwen says:
... Dark Bargain refers to sealing a deal in smoke and blood. But do I write up a contract? ...
As we saw in the sacrifice room, you don't have complete carte blanche to makes these deals, (and, this is for sealing a deal, not for negotiating one, as you tried), but something bigger than you enforces them.

These Bargains are not mechanically tied to your Jobs or their 'Contracts', you can use this in the fiction to force someone to do things they agreed to for you (4-Harm will kill most NPCs if they don't), or to make yourselves better able for the duration of a task (Henry (and Circe) won't mechanically benefit from a +1, but you (and Emma, if you can get her helping you:) might benefit from the +1 to Let It Out while seeking your Chaudry Revenge?).
Drgwen says:
... two sections that refer to contracts and bargains ...
They need not be the same thing. 'Bargains' might be street-level deals with people to help you, the 'Contracts' (a term only used twice in the actual mechanical text of the Playbook (and once as a synonym for Jobs?)) are part of your deal and Jobs. Bargains could be spoken-contracts (with smoke and blood, but that is your doing), while the contracts seem to be more corporate stacks of paper filled with legalese?
Drgwen says:
... Is there a ritual? Does one magically appear? ... do they literally have to sign their name on the dotted line? ...
How did it happen for you?
Drgwen says:
... And how does the Demonic Job relate, or not, to the optional Move? ...
You can weave Dark Bargains into the brokered contract, but they both exist independent of each other (you might not have both). Showing the good use of your Dark Bargain ability might get you closer to the paperwork during a signing, but who knows. Depends how you play it?
Drgwen says:
... Obviously I can come up with answers to all this ...
For the part of this that stems from your character's experience we rely on you for the details. But your experience was unique and may not have much bearing on what Viviana goes thought... it probably serves as a guide for us, though?

We don't need to know till we see (or don't see) the next Contract (Soul) being signed (away). But we can talk about it if it helps your shaping your approach with Viv?
Drgwen says:
... concrete in mind ...
There is no concrete in my mind!
Aug 11, 2025 5:09 am
Does Emma have enough to go on to roll 'figure someone out', maybe based on Mrs Spunklecleif tone of voice?
Aug 11, 2025 5:23 am
vagueGM says:
I assume they are deliberately left vague, so you can treat them independently of each other (if you only have one but not the other?), or link them together if you have both and want to make the blood and smoke of Dark Bargain be part of your 'brokering deals' and possibly 'collecting souls'.
..

...These Bargains are not mechanically tied to your Jobs or their 'Contracts', you can use this in the fiction to force someone to do things they agreed to for you (4-Harm will kill most NPCs if they don't), or to make yourselves better able for the duration of a task (Henry (and Circe) won't mechanically benefit from a +1, but you (and Emma, if you can get her helping you:) might benefit from the +1 to Let It Out while seeking your Chaudry Revenge?).

...There is no concrete in my mind!
OK this all works for me! Let's figure it out in play! OK, sleep for me.
Aug 11, 2025 5:04 pm
Delirium says:
Does Emma have enough to go on to roll 'figure someone out', maybe based on Mrs Spunklecleif tone of voice?
You will only be able to learn what is reasonable for you to learn within the fiction. So mainly 'hints' from her tone?

You may need to probe her for answers, but, I can tell you for free, she is in the room with David, you maybe don't want him hearing what the nosy neighbour has to say?

Go ahead and roll it if you want, but she is a nobody (unless you roll real bad and turn her into a threat?), so it might not be worth the risk?
Aug 11, 2025 5:31 pm
I think I'll skip the roll then, and see if Emma can call anyone else to drop by her apartment. Kenedi, most likely.
Aug 11, 2025 8:25 pm
Delirium says:
... call anyone else to drop by her apartment. Kenedi, most likely.
Could do, she may be miffed at your wasting her time. Do you want her to agree or do we force you to lean on Persephone ... or even Circe as a last resort? If it is too early to start mending fences, then you may have to Owe Kenedi one for deal with the snooping neighbour. :)
Aug 11, 2025 8:31 pm
I think Kenedi is her best option right now. She'll owe her one, especially if she could pick up some clothes for her on the way.
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