Neverending Nights

Race: Gnoll
Occupation: Guard
Place of Birth: Onyxhovel
Known Relatives: Jake (Brother), Kane (Brother)
First Appearance: Neverending Nights – Forty: Something’s Not Quite Right
History: Hailing from Onyxhovel, Isiah, Jake and Kane were tasked with finding a guard to protect their cavern home. The three of them ventured out into the world and found many adventurers would try to kill them, rather than listen to their chances of handing out employment. During one such instance, the trio traveling into a lower caverns that they deemed “Guk” – combining “gooey” and “yuck” since the floor was covered with an odd slime. It was there, they discovered most of the creatures were undead (and thus no suitable guards could be found here!) – one of the undead attacked them, but they managed to defeat the frenzied ghoul who wore and odd, flowing, black, silk sash. They decided to take the weird sash and leave the caverns where they finally encountered an Ettin by the name of “Ettin the Exiled” who agreed to become their guardian.

However, the Ettin did not prove to be a very good guard. The Ettin had unknowingly been “tricked” for lack of a better word by Peter, Grayson and Pawl (in the form of a minotaur at this time), by forcing the two heads to argue with one another, allowing the trio to quickly run by. Later, even Andrea, Daniel, and the three goblins (Albert, Bob and Charlie) had managed to get by the Ettin with no problem.

Isiah told Kane to go check on the Ettin to see if it was even alive, because it was allowing so many people into Onyxhovel. Unfortunately, Kane would end up possessed by Pawl the Dorf, after the minotaur form perished on a trap. Pawl had possessed Kane for some time, until Andrea the Assassin caught up with Peter, Grayson and Pawl and she back stabbed Kane, killing the gnoll and releasing Pawl’s spirit, yet again.

Isiah and Jake found Kane’s body much later, when he had not returned from checking on the Ettin. Perhaps even more strange was Kane’s spirit was hanging out by his own body, explaining to the disbelieving brothers, that a Dwarf had “shoved” him out of his body and possessed him – and now that his own body was dead, he had no way to return to his body – or any body! Isiah and Jake vowed not only vengeance against the one who killed Kane, but also sought a way to get Kane back into his body – or any body!

Where they are in this quest, remains unknown.

Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

Accessories:

WEAPON: Isiah uses a non magical bow.

And this time, I decided to play a character I could be familiar with again (there was a previous game of WoD: Mage I played, where he was a D&D / Ren Fair kind of guy so I had a connection there)… but this… this would be a connection to a previous WoD game… calling back to the World of Darkness: Hunter game… I’d played a character who was a singer of a (fictious) band called Steel Destiny.

I posted about it previously – the first post here, and a follow up here.

Steel Destiny Band Members:

• Sam Branor – Vocalist
• Christian Oliva – Guitarist, Brother to Jane Oliva, Steel Destiny’s drummer
• Jane Oliva – Drums, Older sister to Christian Oliva, Steel Destiny’s guitarist
• James Aldrich – Bass

The band members are references to actual musicians I like – Christian Oliva is a reference to the late guitarist Criss Oliva of Savatage; Jane Oliva is a reference to Jon Oliva, brother of Criss Oliva and vocalist of Savatage, and James Aldrich is a reference to Doug Aldrich a guitarist who has been in a number of bands (I knew him from Lion, but he went on to play for Dio, Whitesnake, and an assortment of other bands). Sam Branor, when I created him, was not a reference to anyone.

So here we are now – heading into Mage, and I decided to play the Bass Player for this game. Essentially he has abilities that allow him to influence the mood, minds, and dreams of people (which he usually uses during their concerts – to help people get into the music, or convey specific emotion; like ballads really tear people up when they’re at the concert).

One of the things, he can do is enter/influence dreams – and I called that power The Nightmask. This is based off the New Universe comic Nightmask, who was a character who had that same exact power.

Now in order for him to use the Nightmask ability he has to hum or sing a (fictional) song from Steel Destiny called “The Dream Thief” – which puts him into the mental state of entering the “Dream World.”

So naturally, I wrote the (fictional) song lyrics for the song…

“The Dream Thief” – Steel Destiny
Written by Sam Branor and James Aldrich

In the shadow, in the dark
There is no light, there is no spark
But I can sense, something there
A never ending nightmare

I can feel it feeding
As my dreams are bleeding
It’s thriving here
Living off of all my fear

Chorus:
And when I close my eyes
I fall into a real I despise
There’s no respite
In this land devoid of light

The Dream Thief awaits
To feed of my dreams
The Dream Thief tastes
The sound of my screams
The Dream Thief!

In the dark, in the shadow
There is no spark, there is no glow
But I can feel him out there
The never ending nightmare

Tonight, I made a stand
Tonight, I clench my hand
Tonight, I face my fears
Tonight, the Dream Thief dies here!

Chorus:
And when I close my eyes
I fall into a real I despise
There’s no respite
In this land devoid of light

The Dream Thief awaits
To feed of my dreams
The Dream Thief dies
As I open my eyes!

This naturally means I need to make a (fictional) CD/Single cover too, right? Yes. Yes, I do.

The art for this is by the amazing Ken Kelly.

And here it is with the lyrics…

The astound Ken Kelly art without my stuff…

And this is the first issue of Nightmask from Marvel, for which the power name comes from…

Race: Human
Occupation: Daughter of Salt Vendor
Place of Birth: Elkayjun
Known Relatives: Poppy the Salt Vendor (Mother), Father (???), Katie the Kid (Sister), Craig the Commander (Adopted Father)
First Appearance: Neverending Nights – Episode Thirty One: Side Effects May Vary
History: Born in the run down city of Elkayjun, Hannah’s mother, Poppy the Salt Vendor, promised she would make a better life for her daughters. Hannah was often left to take care of her younger sister, Katie the Kid. Hannah was a young, capable woman who knew how to take care of herself – but she always longed for her mother’s safe return from her various Salt Route Trips around the country side. Hannah’s frequent visits to the wishing well in the city of Elkayjun is how she earned the title of ‘Hannah the Hopeful.’ When her mother discovered Pepper Flavored Salt, which became an instant success she returned to Elkayjun and moved Hannah and Katie to the much cleaner city of Blackmire. Despite Poppy’s success with Pepper Flavored Salt, she continued to travel. Hannah found a well in the city of Blackmire, where she continued her tradition of tossing a coin into the well and wishing for her mother’s safe return.

It was on her way to the Wishing Well that she first ran into Peter and Grayson, who had been “acquiring” money from the well for their own needs. She had explained to them that money taken from the Well undoes the wishes that were asked for – and can often have disastrous results as the wishes become undone. Peter was concerned that Hannah had been right and asked Grayson who blew it off as common superstition. Still, Peter watched as Hannah left the well and returned home, clearly looking sad.

As Grayson returned to the Bar with the gold they recovered from the Well, Peter told Grayson he’d be there in a moment. Instead Peter went to Hannah’s home to speak to her and ask her why she had looked so sad at the Well. Hannah explained that her mother was a Salt Vendor and had been traveling for quite some time. Peter immediately asked if her mother was none other than Poppy the Salt Vendor, whom he had encountered in both Galana and the City of Ator. Hannah was pleased to know that her mother had been fine. Peter reached into his pouch and gave Hannah 300 gold (which he had no idea where he got that from; unaware that once again, he was drawing money from Alan (“The Astounding!”)’s magical pouch). He told Hannah to give that gold to her mother as payment for more Pepper Flavored Salt (in truth, hoping that all that gold would set them for a long time, so that she would not have to be away from her daughter).

Unbeknownst to Peter and Grayson, because they had taken money out of the Wishing Well, it had indeed hampered Poppy’s travels. A mysterious sand storm suddenly appeared and erased all evidence of the path that she had been on. Lost, she ended up encountering all the animals that Peter had previously summoned in the desert outside of the City of Ator.

After several weeks of not hearing from her mother, Hannah the Hopeful, took the money that Peter had given her and gathered her young sister and headed for the last known location Peter had mentioned seeing her mother – the City of Ator. After two weeks of travel, she arrived in the City of Ator to discover her mother had left several weeks ago. She put out a reward in the City of Ator to help find her mother. Commander Craig of the City of Ator Army answered the reward and gathered men to find Poppy the Salt Vendor.

Commander Craig found Poppy in the Stormpeak Mountains – the supposed home of the Blue Dragon, Cobalt. They safely retrieved her and returned with her to the City of Ator. When it came to collecting the reward from Hannah, Commander Craig refused the award and said that he had done it because someone needed help – not because he had wanted the reward. Poppy the Salt Vendor refused to let Commander Craig leave without accepting something – so, the two of them went on a date where they discovered they had several things in common and bonded very closely.

Before long, Commander Craig became a steady member of their family – finally, officially proposing to – and marrying Poppy the Salt Vendor, and adopting Hannah and Katie as children of his own.

Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

Accessories:
NONE: Hannah uses no weapons.