A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Agata (Lauren Chai) / Character Sheet

Agata

“Money is like a sixth sense – and you can’t make use of the other five without it.” – William Somerset Maugham “Give me a nickel, brother can you spare a dime Money can drive some people out of their minds.” – For the Love of Money, O’Jays

Growing up on the mean streets can be tough on a girl. It is even tougher if you remember the alternative, if you know that it doesn’t have to be this way. You remember your parents, what it was like having parents. Maybe they were a bit overprotective, but home was always safe and warm and happy and. . . home. That was before it all went wrong. One day, you were only eight years old, your mother received a note. It must have been important, given the inherent difficulty and expense of sending mail in Liberec. Your mother seemed so scared. Even though she tried to hide her fear from you, you could tell. Your mother had no one to turn to, as your father was off dealing with a rampant overgrowth problem across town in Port Vianden. You know, Plant Mage stuff. He just took months at a time to deal with any Plant problem instead of a few weeks like your mother (an Animal Mage). Maybe Plant problems just take longer to deal with than stampedes or spooked horses. Not long after, your entire household (your mother Ivy, brother Danny and yourself) picked up everything and moved to Mons. Your father did not come with you. Shortly thereafter, Danny ran away and Andi was born. You kept telling your mother that if only you had waited in Port Vianden for him to come home before moving, the entire family might still be together. She didn’t seem to care, nor did she seem to care that The Mages’ Council hadn’t approved the move. Your mother kept getting notes; she kept spending the evenings after getting the notes crying. It occurred to you that maybe your family originally moved to Mons to get away from something, or someone. You don’t know what. Maybe your mother was being blackmailed, because she started leaving the house a lot, leaving you and Andi on your own. After a few times leaving, she didn’t come back home again. There was nothing for you to do, no way for you to protect yourself and Andi (your only family left) from the ravaging Liberec weather, no way for you to make money or find food, no way to continue living. In addition, whoever had been threatening your mother might come for you next, you and poor little Andi, only a year old. You took the last of your family’s money and bought passage with the Mons delegation to the Bazaar for yourself and Andi and left everything else behind, hoping for a better life. You even changed both of your names, hoping to avoid your mother’s blackmailer and protect Andi from mental probes, to truly start life over afresh. You abandoned being Greta and named yourself Agata; you renamed baby Andi to Andrea. She was too young to remember, so you never even told her about her given name, or yours for that matter. You never told her about the blackmail, or your father’s disappearance, or your brother’s running away, or your mother’s abandonment of you and your sister. It was just safer. If she doesn’t know about these things, the blackmailer cannot find her. On the other hand, if she knew, she might get curious and go searching. Andrea’s a smart kid, she would find out the reason behind the blackmail eventually. This is worrisome; you know in your heart that anyone who goes looking becomes a target. Losing Andrea, the last remaining member of your family. . . you wouldn’t be able to deal with that. Running away to Wiltz was a good decision, although of course, you didn’t find a better life there. It was protected from the weather, sure, and it’s easier to steal food when your closest neighbor is sleeping on the cold street a few feet away instead of miles away, but opportunities for making money were few and far between.

Agata 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Agata (Lauren Chai) / Character Sheet

When you were thirteen, little Andrea (a whole three years old at the time) dragged in an orphan boy, barely older than herself, off the streets.1 She came in claiming that he, little Zdenko, was her new little brother. Oh boy, an extra mouth to feed. Still, you’ve always had a soft heart when it comes to Andrea. You allowed her to adopt Zdenko as a brother, and you let each day deal with procuring food independently of any other. About a year after the number of mouths to feed went from 2 to 3, you became tired of not having food or a place to live, a place to shelter your two, now, little siblings. You went out searching for work. When you got home to the alley, you announced that you’d found a source of income and that no one was to disturb your plants that you’d hidden behind a boulder at the end of the dirt alley you called home. Making drugs wasn’t all that bad of a career, anyway. The police would never disturb you, they generally didn’t bother with the Wiltz street rats and slums, and you were one living in the other. The money was decent, especially around Bazaar time when all of the little doe-eyed Mage Candidates are frantic for anything, legal or not, which will increase their learning capacity and their chance of getting hired. Thanks to your parents’ Mage talent and your ample use of your own plants, you were talent-spotted at the age of 16 and someone you’d never met before suddenly sponsored you to be a Mage Candidate in the middle of the Bazaar. Sure, you’d been tagging along on some of the magic-learning shadowruns, but that was mostly to learn a shade of Plant Magic to aid in your gardening in the back of the old alley. Before you knew it, you were the most talented Mage Candidate that year for Plant Magic and you got apprenticed by Bertrand, a high-profile Plant Mage in Wiltz. While apprenticed, Andrea, 10 years old at the time brought home a friend, Theodore who stayed with your little family for a number of years, after being alone in Wiltz. Though he appears to be gay, he fits right into your interesting little family. A few years ago, when you were twenty-three, you were called away for two years in a Mage redistribution to serve in Oldenburg. It was in the middle of nowhere and you couldn’t send any money back to Andrea and Zdenko. It was the most frustrating thing you’ve ever experienced. While in Oldenburg, you met a man, Urshenko, a Mundane. You fell madly in love and married him only six weeks after first meeting him. Unfortunately, his charms only stayed as long as his ring wasn’t on your finger. He became angry and abusive more and more, giving into his fearsome temper. He died (of a heart attack caused by his excess rage, no less) a few months after you married him. He left you no money, no love, few good memories, and only more debts. When you finally returned last year, you were shocked and disappointed to discover that Andrea had resorted to prostitution to support herself and Zdenko during your absence. In addition, she had failed to get hired at her Bazaar (at least she gets a second chance this year). Things had completely fallen apart without you; thank goodness those idiots on the Council had finally heard your pleas to be redistributed back to Wiltz, back to your family, back to your career as an herbalist and drug dealer. This year, you are on The Mages’ Council, and you will fight for the right of all of the Mages and Mage Candidates to stay in the region with their families if they so choose. You’ve been growing and dealing drugs and other herbs on the black market for so many years that you’ve basically ousted any competition from Wiltz. However, it seems as if some others are starting to move in on your territory. You must find a way of ensuring your continued monopoly in Wiltz, if not in all of Liberec. Kusel has even better drugs than you provide, some whisper. They are difficult to get but worth it. Since only Port Vianden does any substantial trading with Kusel, this has only minimally cut into your income. However, if you are to expand to further reaches of Liberec, you’ll need to prevent Kusel from cutting into your profits. You’ve gotten involved with the Isolationists towards furthering this goal. It might be a pity to include the denizens of Port Vianden in the affect radius, but it is unavoidable. You’re willing to allow Port Vianden to be destroyed to get your monopoly. Why? You’ve thought about it deeply. . . You need this monopoly, this way to make as much money as possible, and you need it now. In another year when your

1Later you discovered that the orphan boy, despite impressive precociousness, had been lying about his age and was barely more than a year old

Agata 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Agata (Lauren Chai) / Character Sheet ability to do magic fades, you will no longer be able to use your Plant Magic to help grow your herbs, and your business will falter and fail. You’ve had your family live in poverty so long, you’ve seen it even drive poor little Andrea to prostitution. You refuse to let it take more from you; you refuse to let poverty cause Andrea any more harm. This year, you are also on The Mages’ Council. You, for the first time in your life, have a modicum of power. And you have some decided political ideas. For one, you are (for obvious reasons) against trade with Kusel. However, you are for surrendering to their army so that as many of their number get destroyed as possible invading from Port Vianden when the Isolationists flatten it. Being originally from Port Vianden and lately from Wiltz (and considering how much you hated the conservative bastards in Oldenburg), you are generally liberal. You support rights for Mundanes, gay marriage, etc. You are also willing to support Marcela, the head of the Wiltz delegation, in most things. She has a good head on her shoulders and (by virtue of being the bastard sister of King Harold) has had political training since she was a baby. You do not support the legalization of drugs, because (quite frankly) your profits are much higher at minimal risk to you if they are illegal. Meanwhile, you should increase your profits by increasing the quality of your wares as much as possible. First, you of course have ongoing research into creating more drugs and herbs, new drugs and herbs, and more potent drugs and herbs. Speaking of your herbs, your secret garden at the back of your home alleyway got raided and trampled by some incompetent thug-thief a few months back. They took everything, the half-ripe fruits as much as the rarest of your herbs. It was annoying and unfortunate, and set your business back by months, but at least plants always grow back. Sadly, you have not replaced your rarest herbs yet. Second, you have become involved in Mana Cartographers, because it will (in the long term) allow Liberec to settle more areas, help less advanced regions such as Mons, and find more promising areas to grow plants and herbs. Third, you have become involved in Vianden Zephyr Corporation, a group of people led by Eric which want to build roads all over Liberec. If that happens (and the roads aren’t immediately washed away by the weather), that would improve your ability to sell your wares by multiple orders of magnitude. Making sure that can happen, by any means necessary, would improve all of your land trading immensely. You’ve been also interested in Mage geneology. How is it that you easily got hired ten years ago but Andrea is having such trouble? Why are some children of Mundanes born with a great talent for magic and some children of powerful Mages born without? What makes a strong Mage? You aren’t sure that you can find the answers to these questions, but some clues might be found in the Wiltz library. On a more personal note, your marriage to Urshenko taught you that one should be careful whom one marries, that in the absence of true love that the man should at least have money. You intend to strictly enforce this attitude on Andrea and to at least vaguely follow it yourself. You intend to see Andrea married properly and respectably. In addition, you intend to find yourself a business partner and possibly, remarry. You could get so much more out of a close personal relationship like that now, after the Urshenko debacle. Goals - Keep or improve your monopoly on the drug trade in Liberec. - Destroy Port Vianden and its merchants’ potential to hone in on your profits with Isolationists. - Make sure that The Mages’ Council doesn’t make any agreements of trade with Kusel. - Get Liberec to surrender to Kusel intead of making peace accords. Then destroy as many of them as possible (along with Port Vianden) when they invade. - Ensure that no drugs become legalized (and some potions become illegal, if possible) – the black market always nets higher profit margins.

Agata 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Agata (Lauren Chai) / Character Sheet

- Other than those, push the politically liberal agenda. - Help find good places for your plants to grow with Mana Cartographers. - Make sure Andrea and Zdenko, your family, are successful at their Bazaar. - Make more drugs (and more potent, better drugs!) to expand your business. - Remarry, hopefully someone richer than before, someone who will be a business partner and your true love. - Ensure that Andrea follows the same ideals when finding a husband. - Investigate the Library and its secrets about Mage geneology. Notes - Your home is a Alley, located in 37-5. Contacts - Andrea (Laura McKnight): Your sister, who has resorted to prostitution to support herself and the family. - Zdenko (Carter Huffman): Adopted into the family, he will also make money however possible to help out yourself and Andrea. - Theodore (Halftime Peairs): Andrea’s best friend, and almost part of your family. - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The King of Liberec. You might have met him once when he was kissing some babies, but if something goes seriously wrong at the Bazaar, you should inform him. As you are on The Mages’ Council, maybe he’d even listen to you! - Marcela (Jessie Lowell): The Head of Delegation for Wiltz and publicly-acknowledged bastard sister of King Harold - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): An Earth Adept known to your organization to be addicted. - Vera (Kim Beder): A Mage Candidate known to your organization to be addicted. - Dionyz (Jonathan Chapman): A Mage Candidate known to your organization to be addicted.

Memory/Event Packets - π

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Mana Cartographers - Wiltz - Vianden Zephyr Corporation - Isolationists

Greensheets - Herbalism

Abilities - Teaching - Herbalist Wisdom - Desensitized to Drugs - Magically Green Thumb - Level 6 Mage - Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - Bronze Key (3836) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Drug Lord Recipe Book (in-game document) - 500 liberyen - Plant Mage/Farmer Recipe Book (in-game document)

Agata 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Agata (Lauren Chai) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 26 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 6 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 5

Agata 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Anastasia (Kevin Chen) / Character Sheet

Anastasia

“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done. ” – Alan Turing “If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it’s the best possible substitute for it” – James A. Garfield

What would life be without hard work? That is what your family has always valued, and it works for you. Work hard and you’ll be better Mages; work hard and you’ll have money to buy anything you want; work hard and you’ll improve your family’s station; work hard and you’ll save the world. Well, that last one doesn’t work quite so well in Liberec, but you’re trying. You grew up on your family’s farm in Mons, the same farm your niece Ilona is growing up on now with her brothers and sisters. You had to have little extras you did in the community to make money on the side, growing up; it’s family tradition to do so. It taught you right from wrong and how to make money effectively. Your work ethic easily got you hired at the Bazaar. You became a Storm Mage and moved to Port Vianden. Your appren- ticeship was easy, you learned your level 6 magic in record time for an apprentice Storm Mage. You spent the remaining time of your apprenticeship building yourself a business as a merchant in Port Vianden (boredom being, of course, the great evil). You got a loan from the Mage who had apprenticed you, Tuann, in order to begin business. Perhaps Port Vianden had been in need of a merchant with a sound business sense. You began making money at a rate beyond anything you’d imagined. You paid Tuann back in less than two months and put the rest of the money back into the business. Your profits have only increased since then, so you are very rich. While at the Bazaar, you should still watch out for your business interests, and ensure that they remain strong. You’ve recently hired a new ship, and have been slowly guiding it to self-sufficience, but the Mind Mage on board is still taking orders directly from you as they gain their strength. One thing that you could do in your spare time, away from preventing storms or running your business, was study. You studied sufficiently that you were quickly inducted into an elite but quiet group of individuals, a think tank for Liberec, Scholars. It is now, at this year’s Bazaar, time for you to spot the talented and studious young scholar to be inducted into the organization. In your studies, you have come across some interesting phenomena that might be obtainable via a controlled mana current. It is somewhat similar to Kusel’s peculiar type of magic they call Magitech without the blasphemous enslaving of mana. Your hypothesis is that if you can harness the mana current and control its flow, you can build an Analytical Engine that runs off mana charge coursing through the veins of the Engine to perform calculations and make predictions. Such an Engine would have a myriad of uses, from easier bookkeeping for your shipping business to saving Liberec from its weather patterns. The Analytical Engine is a complex and tricky system. First, before you can have it perform any logic, you need to control mana flow. This requires two components – a local mana storage device and a mana valve to control the amount and direction of flow. Once those are complete, you need proof of concept, so you plan to build a simple calculation device using your logic gates. Only after that can you build the Analytical Engine. It seems so simple when described like that, but it will be the most difficult undertaking yet of the Liberec scientific research community. You have ideas how to create the mana valve, the logic for the calculation device, and an Analytical Engine based on the calculation device. However, mana storage is a different area of research, one you don’t know much about. Perhaps someone else in Wiltz will be able to help you find or create one of those. Since the construction of the Analytic Engine will take many resources, you have begun organizing people to help you in the construction of the Engine. Hopefully, with all you working together, you’ll be able to succeed in its creation. You’ve gathered together under the name Society for Applied Manaology, and hope to be able to advance the science of Liberec in order to help save lives. This idea, your theory of the Analytical Engine, is revolutionary. It could turn the (currently very dismal) prognosis of this

Anastasia 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Anastasia (Kevin Chen) / Character Sheet world completely around. It would lead to an industrialization of Liberec, ease the average life immensely, allow The Great Mana to let its mana work for the Liberecines in a way other than being used in spells. In your life, you constantly work. Work, work, work, all the time, work work work work work work work work work. Your family prizes productivity, and mocks laziness, more than anything. Still, one must do something fun in life or else go mad – you just had to pick something with a minimum time commitment. You started experimenting with drugs – learning drugs, calming drugs, stimulant drugs, anything to give you a high, an edge, a new perspective. You’re still a brilliant engineer; you deserve to blow off steam through mind-altering substances. You aren’t addicted to any one drug in particular – you’re addicted to the rush of trying a new one, constantly. Now, in your trip to Wiltz for the Bazaar, you might be able to encounter some new types of drugs not found in Port Vianden. You want, no, you need to try all of them! While many, think that drugs would impair ones ability to concentrate and cast magic, you’ve found that the use of drugs seems to increase your ability to understand and learn concepts. Still, aside from your major drug habit, you are the most productive member of society in Port Vianden. This is why you have attained such important positions. You have a seat on The Mages’ Council. This gives you the ability to affect the course of Liberec for the coming year. You have some important ideas that the Council should address. First, they should fund your research into the Analytical Engine, or at least take out contracts to build many of them as soon as the research is complete. Also, you want to keep them from ever legitimizing the perversion of mana which Kusel flaunts. For all their technological ideas, you refuse to pander to such misuse of mana. Some of your liberal friends have called you a hypocrite for holding such an opinion, especially when you normally follow the more accepting and free-thinking attitudes prevalent in Port Vianden–but on this one subject you remain unmoved. The Mages’ Council invited you to join an elite committee, The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the Funda- mental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime. You were dewy-eyed at the prospect of actually sitting down with some of the best minds in the land and finally fixing all of Liberec’s problems (or at least those to do with the excessive weather). However, a greater lot of incompetents than this could not be found for such an important committee if striven for. You eventually got fed up and formed a new committee, a secret one, The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization. Perhaps they will actually be able to do what The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime has not been able to. The weather needs to get fixed. It doesn’t matter who does it, just that it gets done. And Liberec needs someone like you, kind and smart and conscientious, looking out for its best interest to make sure that nothing untoward accidentally happens while trying to fix the weather-blasted country. Goals - Build the Analytical Engine with the help of Society for Applied Manaology. - Further the cause of scholarly research and the understanding of the nature of magic with Scholars. - Fix the gorram weather-blasted weather. You don’t care how, or what it takes, whether The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime or The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization succeeds, just fix it! - Help The Mages’ Council make prudent decisions for this coming year. - Represent Port Vianden to the Council and get a favorable selection of Mages assigned to your region. - Make sure that your Merchant Ship survives the High Seas. - Try all of the mind-altering substances available during the Bazaar. Notes - If you succeed at building the Analytical Engine early in game, this will give a significant to anyone you allow to use it for the duration of game.

Anastasia 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Anastasia (Kevin Chen) / Character Sheet

Contacts - Ilona (Casey McNamara): Your lovely niece, a Mage Candidate this year, an entrepreneurial sort after your own heart. - Florian (Jim Waldrop): Your brother, estranged for many years. - Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew): A local merchant you do a lot of business with usually. However, he is also interested in trading contracts with Kusel, and you won’t let your prior business relationship get in the way of such a lucrative contract. - Garomil (Telmo Correa): An ex-Storm Mage from Oldenburg, last year’s Head of Council and a member of The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization. - Klement (Daniel Gray): A Mundane with talent in mechanics and member of Society for Applied Manaology.

Memory/Event Packets - η

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the - Port Vianden Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime - Society for Applied Manaology - The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization - Scholars

Greensheets - Negotiating the Distribution of Mages- Navigating and Selling on the High Seas

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage

Items - Bronze Key (3836)- 950 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Engineering Ability: 7 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 8

Anastasia 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andel (Andy Menard) / Character Sheet

Andel

“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.” – Anonymous Dear Kaisha, I’m headed off to my Bazaar in a few weeks. I expect to find a nice apprenticeship, as my family is usually strong in Magic talent. I look forward to seeing you there. I look forward to do my duty as an upstanding citizen lucky enough to have Mage talent and learning some useful form of magic. I’m excited to leave Mons for the first time in my life! All those people, the ’hustle and bustle,’ whatever that is, and the people from outside of Liberec, even, those I’ve heard tales about. Andel

Dear Kaisha, The Bazaar was awful, wasn’t it? Absolute hell. The infidels were all around! Those evil beings (I can scarce call them human they are so corrupted) from Port Vianden were slothered with unholy magic from their strong connections with Kusel (not to mention being loose and radical beyond anything acceptable in a proper town). Those slobbering unbelievers! I hate them so much. How can the Great Mana suffer them to live? They blaspheme the Great Mana – their mere presence is an unwarranted blight upon your god! I must stop them somehow. I don’t know how yet. But, Kaisha, I promise you that I’ll halt the plague upon the Great Mana, I’ll stop them. Andel

Dear Kaisha, I still cannot believe how awful the Bazaar was. Those creepy liberal-politicking, sexually-loose, city-dwelling, sickening speci- mens of humanity! I can’t imagine how humanity could sink so low! I’m so glad to not be part of it, although if I can share any of my wisdom, to follow the Mage Reproduction Laws, strictly and in their entirety, to avoid disuseful homosexual relationships, to not waste money uselessly on projects which go nowhere and just get destroyed by the weather. I’m so glad to be away. It was the worst experience of my life. Andel

Dear Kaisha, I suppose a few good things came out of my Bazaar. I got hired, of course, and avoided bringing shame upon my good parents (and a child’s duty is primarily to be a boon upon its family, right?). That was to be expected. Better still, I found an excellent discipline, Healing Magic, don’t you remember? I didn’t see you as much as I expected at the Bazaar, but I think I mentioned that to you, at least. Anyway, I was hired by a lovely gentlewoman named Freda; she lives in Saar. I’m so glad to be getting out of Mons. I lived so far out in the sticks before that the modicum of population I interact with now in a small village in Saar is a great improvement. I rather like the people here, except for the occasional drugged-out beatnik. Andel

Dear Kaisha This note will have to be brief today, as it is the day of my wedding! I am excited. My bride, Drama, is a young Animal Mage with a heart of gold. I will be so happy with her. Andel

Andel 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andel (Andy Menard) / Character Sheet

Dear Kaisha I don’t like living in Saar so much anymore. It turns out that most of the people here are lazy, liberal, and too accepting of things foreign and not approved by the Great Mana. They aren’t infidels, not like the denizens of Port Vianden, but they have no organization, no structure in their lives. Still, they are the people I protect and heal on a daily basis, as is my duty as a Healing Mage. I help out with my community and act the model Saar citizen, but secretly I despise them. Andel

Dear Kaisha I ran into an ancient ex-Mage today. He must have been over 70 years old. He told me his secret to living so long, even long after his magic failed. He merely lets the mana run through his body, flow through his extremities, cascade through his senses, open himself up to the greatest force in Liberec, and it keeps him feeling young and healthy and alive. It seems to work pretty well, too, because of course as a Healing Mage I had to go try it out for myself. Research, you see. It felt fantastic! There’s even a group of people, The Order of Mana Connoisseurs who do this on a regular basis. And the health consequences seem to be positive, if this guy who has lived to be over 70 after losing his magic is any indication. I must investigate further. Andel

Dear Kaisha, My niece Valancy is troubling our family. She’s completely insane, and we don’t know how to fix it. She carries out both sides of conversations with people who aren’t there, has tantrums and breaks family heirlooms, and is a general menace to herself and others. I fear for the day when the family talent will break through. As shameful as it would be on the entire family, we might all be better off if she lacks any talent whatsoever. The girl is severely unhinged. I wish my Healing Magic was enough to cure her. Andel

Dear Kaisha, I have been attending the local meetings of The Order of Mana Connoisseurs for a few months now, and I must admit that I am hooked. Allowing the great glory of the mana to flow through your body, submitting to the thrall of the most delightful component of nature, becoming submerged in the tingling waves of mana. . . it is more than I ever dreamed I could feel! I do feel some pro- fessional concern in my attachment to this recreational pleasure, as a Healing Mage, since the withdrawal symptoms are severe. However, I do not see how much harm can really come of letting it go on a bit longer. Andel

Dear Kaisha, I’ve had a revelation. Perhaps my Healing Magic can help Valancy! No known spell or ritual will help, but I am surely talented enough to create one, if I try long and hard enough. I will start on this research now. I believe I have some herbal remedies which can help suppress her magical talent, if any (Great Mana grant that she has none for the sake of the world), as well as inhibiting her sociopathic and violent tendencies. I have given my brother Quolbo and his wife, Qualba, a large supply of this remedy to give her, but I consider it my own personal responsibility to keep her on a regular course of the remedy whenever she is out of their house. She is my niece. I must find out what is wrong with her and fix it. Andel

Dear Kaisha, The Bazaar is almost here. I’ll be on The Mages’ Council this year, of course. Why aren’t you? I wish I was going to see you at the Bazaar. It has been so long since I’ve seen you. I need to choose an apprentice this year, preferably one with an

Andel 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andel (Andy Menard) / Character Sheet appropriate respect for the Great Mana, a conservative and respectable young Mage candidate. In addition, lots of important political issues might come up with the Council. I will be working to ensure that a few things happen politically, notably that the Mage Reproduction Laws become more strictly enforced, to make sure drugs don’t get legalized. Mundanes shouldn’t get any rights, of course, because they do nothing to help Liberec along with its path, nor should any other group be allowed to change The Mages’ Council, as it has worked just fine for many years and will continue to do so. Any group trying to hone in on Council territory is just doing so because a sensible Council won’t pass the appropriate laws on its own, which means that the Council is doing its job in weeding out the bad apples. Late bloomers probably shouldn’t be allowed at the Bazaar, either, but that is not a major issue, as allowing those less capable of magic at the Bazaar hasn’t hurt the country too much in the past. Andel

Dear Kaisha, Klara and I have been corresponding and have recently discussed the condition of my poor niece. We have some ideas to inves- tigate once we are together at the upcoming Bazaar towards a potential cure for Valancy’s instability. Perhaps I can salvage my niece yet. Andel

Dear Kaisha, The Order of Mana Connoisseurs have it right, really. But all of Liberec should be in that state of the glory of mana. However, I can’t allow the mana to spill out and grant such a boon to the entire world, to the infidels. We shall know the glory of mana with the plans of Servants of the Great Mana after cutting off Port Vianden (with Isolationists)! It will be marvelous! Glorious! Magnificent! The entire country of Liberec will be bettered by the mana flowing everywhere, and the mana will protect us from the outsiders! So it must be. Andel

Dear Kaisha, I am so upset! I hear that this year, for the Bazaar, the plaugued infidels from Kusel have sent a delegation! This is the worst plague to come upon Liberec since the Great Catastrophe of ten generations ago! Their pet perversion of magic, “Magitech” or whatever they call it, is just more proof that they are emissaries of the enemies of the Great Mana. You don’t want anything to do with them, and neither do I. For their own sakes, I must convince The Mages’ Council to abandon the delegation unless they give up their perversion and enslavement of mana and convert to following Fruit of the Great Mana. War with Kusel would be in the best interest of the Liberecines, if only I could make them see that! Perhaps I will even succeed, Great Mana willing, for the sakes of all the Liberecines. Andel

Dear Kaisha, The Bazaar is in a scarce few days now. I regret already that the herbal remedy might prove continued discomfort for Valancy and than people in Port Vianden must die, but I do what I must for the betterment of my family and of this country. I am most devoted to the good of humanity, as always. Andel

Goals - Have the glory of mana and keep it all within Liberec (complete the Servants of the Great Mana plot after completing the Isolationists plot)

Andel 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andel (Andy Menard) / Character Sheet

- Develop a cure for Valancy’s condition - Help treat or cure any other health-related conditions in anyone you meet at the Bazaar. - Otherwise, keep Valancy on the herbal remedy and get her declared a mundane - Get The Mages’ Council to pass appropriate laws - Find an apprentice appropriate to your craft and who hates the infidels as much as you do - Cut off Port Vianden with Isolationists, thus protecting Liberec from the corrupting influence of the infidels - Keep feeling good with The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - Abide by the rules and expectations of Saar enough to not upset anyone, but fix their way of life when you can. Notes - You have been writing to Kaisha daily as far back as you can remember, but you don’t have responses from her (although you are convinced she responds and is real with no doubt or hesitation) - Your daily letters to Kaisha are always a truthful of the most interesting things in your day and your most pressing concerns. You do not hide anything from her in the letters. - You have been feeding Porqnamene (8152) to Valancy every day. The recipe for Porqnamene (8152) is Stillengia (7365) Toadstool (7282)Mulberry (7635). - For political views, yours tend towards the ultra-conservative. - You should keep a copy of the letters to Kaisha with you (They are in-game items), and e-mail a copy to the GMs. Contacts - Kaisha: Your closest friend. You write to her every day. - Valancy (Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson): Your niece, a shame upon the family. You hope she is a genetic anomaly with no magical talent. - Klara (Jason Gonsalves): A close friend and fellow Healing Mage who is helping you develop Valancy’s cure.

Memory/Event Packets - ξ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Servants of the Great Mana - The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - Isolationists - Saar - First Annual Medical Conference

Greensheets - Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Sensitive to Drugs - Psychlim: Write to Kaisha - Level 6 Mage

Items - Bundle of Letters (5528) - On the Curing of Mental Ailment (in-game notebook) - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - 500 liberyen - Bronze Key (3836)

Andel 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andel (Andy Menard) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Research Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Genetics Ability: 8 - β: 20 - Theology Ability: 7

Andel 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andrea (Laura McKnight) / Character Sheet

Andrea

“Aren’t women prudes if they don’t and prostitutes if they do?” – Kate Millett

Family is the most important thing. Your earliest memory is of being three years old and wandering alone around the dirty streets of Wiltz, coming across a tiny bundle of rags in a back alley covering a skinny boy no bigger than a baby. He had such a sweet face. He was starving, he didn’t know how to take care of himself as a street rat in Wiltz. Okay, you were only three years old, maybe you didn’t think through the implications in quite that detail, but your instincts were right. “Come ’long, mithter. Thould come eat.” You brought him to the alley you and your older sister Agata, newly thirteen years old, called home and announced that you had adopted this little ragamuffin as your new brother. After he was fed, there were introductions all around. “My name ith Andrea. My thithter is Agata. What’th yourth, little brother?” “My name’s Zdenko. And I’m four.” Hmph. Older than you. But still smaller than you. And he’ll always be “little brother” to you. Zdenko settled in and stayed with you and your sister. Turns out he was lying about his age, wanted to impress you or some such. He was really just a year old, give or take a few days (precocious little thing, wasn’t he?). And he was family, as much as sister Agata ever was. About a year later, Agata was tired of not having food or a place to live. One day she came home and announced that she had found a source of income and that no one was to disturb her plants hidden behind a boulder at the end of the dirt alley you called home. It was a source of income, finally! No more trying to scout for your sister at only three years old to help her steal food to feed your little family. Things were pretty good after that, all considered. You all were still in the deepest depths of poverty and still living in that same alley, but at least food could be bought instead of stolen, most of the time. And you could take care of dear little brother. Years later, when you were thirteen, Agata was called away for a few years in her capacity as a Mage of Liberec to serve in Oldenburg. She was unable to send any money. After a couple of months with no income, after poor little brother Zdenko had broken his leg and couldn’t help steal food from the merchants, you made a difficult decision. You didn’t have the talent to really keep up Agata’s garden in her absence, and stealing has never been a talent of yours, and no one would hire you for a respectable job. You really had no choice; you had to take care of little brother. You’d gotten offers before, dirty street rat though you were. On your thirteenth birthday, you took one and started prostituting yourself. The experience was always difficult, painful. It took its toll on you, but at least you and Zdenko could eat again. You never liked being a prostitute, but it was better than starving to death. You eventually got used to it, at least mostly. Once Zdenko’s broken leg healed, he did what he could to help. any food that he could steal or civilians he could rough up for money. . . that meant a few less times you came home crying, or hurt, or bruised, from some of the assholes who hire prostitutes. Last year was your Bazaar. You were so excited! You had hope of getting hired, even, because Agata had managed to get hired not being an official candidate. Of course, you weren’t an official candidate for your Bazaar. Even with a member of the family as a ninth-year Mage, you just couldn’t spare the money. You knew that it was still possible. You increased your prostitution to hope to make the money or sponsor required to become an official Mage Candidate, you went with the official candidates out into the forest to improve your

Andrea 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andrea (Laura McKnight) / Character Sheet magic. You learned a little bit, but not enough. You couldn’t be hired. You were crushed. Your opportunity to help your family, raise its status (with two Mages in the family, surely someone has to pay attention to you!), lift yourself out of poverty for the sake of little brother. You failed. To make matters worse, Agata came home from her stint in Oldenburg just in time to see your humiliation. And then, the worst thing, Zdenko left for a few months. He never told you where he’d gone or what he was doing or if he was leaving because he hated you or if he would be okay or anything else. You woke up one morning and he wasn’t in his swath of grass he used as a mattress. He did come back, but he doesn’t talk about being gone. It would have been more lonely if it hadn’t been for your best friend in the world, Theodore. You two met while he was wandering the streets of the city at the age of ten in his best hot pink sequined dress and tiara. Most of the kids he’d met that day had made fun of him for his exceedingly strange wardrobe for a little boy, so you wanted to be nice to him about it. You said that you liked it, said it matched his skin tone2. You’ve been bosom buddies ever since. Theodore helped so much while Agata was gone, but a best friend can only sort of replace a sister. Now that the Bazaar has come again, you may as well use this, your last chance, to actually get hired as a Mage (and it would be great to get Zdenko hired, too, even though he is a bit young). Of course, in the ideal case that both of you get hired, it is unlikely that you will both be apprenticed to the same region, and you don’t want to lose any family members, even temporarily, ever again. Fortunately, Ilona has had a brilliant idea for continued communication with friends and family, and the Teenage Girls will be helping her develop this plan. You should make sure everyone in your family gets involved in this plan, so that you can keep in touch with them if your family splinters geographically for the next few years. Meanwhile, since the Bazaar is the primary time in Liberec to affect any politics and coordinate with other people for the betterment of the world as a whole, you have a few other aims this Bazaar. First, you should support the political goals of Wiltz and liberalism. Second, you have become involved in a scholarly group intending to map the mana in Liberec, the Mana Cartographers; you should help them achieve their goals this Bazaar. Goals - Find a sponsor to become an official Mage Candidate - Get hired as a Mage at the Bazaar - Get Zdenko hired as a Mage at the Bazaar - Make as much money through prostitution as possible to support yourself and your family and so you can stop doing so after this Bazaar - Keep in touch with any new friends but especially your family with the mechanism being devised by the Teenage Girls - Aid Wiltz in its liberal political aims - Do something to help the world with Mana Cartographers Notes - You have luckily lost your lisp since you were three years old. - Your home is a Alley, located in 37-5. Contacts - Agata (Lauren Chai): Your sister, a Plant Mage, who has taken care of you like a surrogate mother for all of your life. - Zdenko (Carter Huffman): Your adopted little brother, a sweetheart who always wants to take care of you - Theodore (Halftime Peairs): Your gay best friend - Ilona (Casey McNamara): The person initiating the Teenage Girls plot to make a long-distance communication mechanism

2Well, you had to say something, and pink clearly was his color.

Andrea 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Andrea (Laura McKnight) / Character Sheet

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Mana Cartographers - Wiltz

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs- Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - 50 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: texture, somersault, - Age: 16 angry bear, swift, listening, food, lazy - α: 2 - Leadership Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Biology Ability: 5 - Engineering Ability: 4

Andrea 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cecilia (Ceres Lee) / Character Sheet

Cecilia

“But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?.” – Mark Twain “Satan exalted sat, by merit raised To that bad eminence.” – John Milton “Satan has his miracles, too.” – John Calvin

Indeed, why should the church worship the inanimate substance which enables magic? It’s like worshipping water because it enables drinking. Although the other Theists have the right idea, many spend their time worshipping only one god or less powerful gods. You, on the other hand, worship the most powerful of the gods - the god of death. Some might call him satan, or the lord of the underworld, or whatnot. To you, he is merely the nirgal. The nirgal has the power over life and death, thus he must be the most powerful of the pantheon of gods. You are his faithful servant. While you may be a part of Port Vianden, the concerns of your home are as nothing to the concerns of the nirgal. While you are in Wiltz, you should prepare a few dead bodies for the voyage to his kingdom so that they will make proper servants for him once they get there. Of course, waiting around for people to die just isn’t your style. On the other hand, nirgal doesn’t accept new bodies which were murdered (directly or indirectly) by his own servants in the land of the living. This set you thinking about where else you could find some good ol’ fresh corpses. If you can manage to get your hands on some dead bodies, maybe you can figure out what prior preparations are needed before the become-a-servant-of-nirgal ritual to make it work on a body which is already dead. Of course, you also have another use for those dead bodies, if you can find any.1 Back at your first Bazaar attempt last year, you met some interesting people with death on their minds as much as it has always been on yours. These people are the Dark Mages, investigating the death of others for increasing their own life essence, pleasure, and profit. You met them over a lovely discussion about corpses, but they soon took you aside and introduced you to their secret organization of some magic that The Mages’ Council knows nothing about, using the magic from dead bodies. Using magic from corpses! Brilliant. The nirgal would approve of his servant’s new life path, learning this secret magic. The nirgal is the lord of the dead, after all, but that doesn’t mean you need to keep any sort of special reverence for the bodies of the dead (except for those, perhaps, who have become nirgal’s servants in the underworld). Unfortunately, your magic ability hadn’t really started a year ago at the Bazaar. There’s no shame in being a late bloomer, well. . . mostly. There was some talk of disallowing late bloomers from participating in a second Bazaar attempt because that means that their magic is weaker, that they only get hired on their second attempt because they have the starting advantage of anything they learned at their Bazaar the previous year. Hopefully this year, The Mages’ Council will not continue to have that opinion of late bloomers; you should encourage a nicer view of late bloomers (there’s nothing wrong with it, anyway) by any means necessary. Which brings us to the Templars of the Black Cross. You met up with Zdenko and the other members of the Templars of the Black Cross while you were at the Bazaar last year. They are your true Family; they care much more about you than your out-

1When you had your first Bazaar last year with your cousin Effie, she got hired and you didn’t. You’re back again, this time with your cousin Eliska who would have been a Mage in her ninth year, thus campaigning for Head of Council, if she hadn’t been prejudiced against due to being a late bloomer. Eliska was drafted into the army after her failure to get hired at her second Bazaar. She’s not a bad sort, although wholly uninitiated in the ways of death and the gods.

Cecilia 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cecilia (Ceres Lee) / Character Sheet of-touch biological family does. All your biological family cares about seems to be following Council recommendations about families with Mage blood reproducing like rabbits. They certainly don’t care much about you, their black sheep of a relative. Zdenko and Kveta and Eugen, on the other hand, well, they care about you and won’t just start ignoring your presence and status as a member of the Family because you want to talk about corpses all the time. Speaking of corpses, rigor mortis is a fascinating phenomenon. Rigor mortis is one of the most recognizable signs of recent death. After death, respiration in the body ceases to occur, depleting the corpse of oxygen used in the making of mana passageways out of the body. These mana passageways are no longer provided to allow the natural flow of mana through the living body as through the rest of its environment, causing latent mana to bind with the blood and allowing for crossbridging to occur between the mana in the blood and the muscles of the corpse. Unlike normal muscle contractions, the body is unable to complete the cycle due to the high density of mana in the bloodstream, creating a perpetual state of muscular contraction, until the breakdown of muscles by bodily spirits during decomposition. Rigor mortis begins about 3 hours after death, reaches maximum stiffness after 12 hours, and gradually dissipates until approximately 72 hours (3 days) after death. You’ve spent enough time watching corpses to observe this, probably more than the medicine men of Liberec know about the process. It’s just so much fun to play with corpses. This year at the Bazaar, the Teenage Girls have already been discussing a new plan to continue communication with each other after the Bazaar. Even though most of them are doe-eyed insipid little creatures, talking to them beats talking to your biological family, at least. Besides, if you end up getting sent out to Mons (or worse, drafted into the army) at the end of the Bazaar, even discourse with and mocking of these girls will be precious amusement. However, you have an additional, better plan. Once the Teenage Girls have completed their research, you can take the results and modify them for use exclusively by the Templars of the Black Cross as a private communication channel with the people you care to be in touch with (aka the Templars of the Black Cross). Goals - Give the nirgal as many servants in this world and the underworld as possible - Help your Family, the Templars of the Black Cross, with anything they do - Research the use of corpses in magic with the Dark Mages - Spread the gospel of Theism and help the Theists with their plots - Fight for the rights of late bloomers and teenagers - Learn more about corpses any way you can - they are so interesting to watch and analyse - Get an unofficial apprenticeship from the Dark Mages, making sure to avoid being drafted into the army - Continue being able to communicate with the other teenagers, especially the Templars of the Black Cross using the ritual that the Teenage Girls are developing - Co-opt the research of the Teenage Girls to make a separate, stronger communication channel for the Templars of the Black Cross - Aid your home region, Port Vianden, if you have time, but it isn’t like you actually want to stay close to your family there after this Bazaar Notes - You should create an appropriate and moderately complicated burial ritual for properly sending bodies to nirgal to be his servants. This does not work if you or another servant of nirgal murdered the person or if the ritual is not obviously sketchy. However, you know that sending the bodies on to him works better for each of: they converted to Theism, especially polytheism; they were a servant of nirgal in life, knowing or not, willing or not; or they die on of of nirgal’s days of power (which you have calculated, they are the 20th, 23rd, and 25th). Contacts - Eliska (Gillian Guertin): Your cousin and the recruiter for the army

Cecilia 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cecilia (Ceres Lee) / Character Sheet

- Zdenko (Carter Huffman): The leader of the Templars of the Black Cross - Kveta (Cassie Huang): The athlete and brawn of the Templars of the Black Cross - Eugen (JB Parkes): The dim-witted flunkie of the Templars of the Black Cross

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Port Vianden - Templars of the Black Cross - Theists - Dark Mages - First Annual Medical Conference

Greensheets - Dueling

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs - Search word - Gossip with the Public - Search word

Items - The Art of Agile Dueling (in-game notebook)- 100 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: unyielding, steam, - Age: 16 pressure, stream, stuck, slippery, color, rotting - α: 3 - Manaology Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 5 - Theology Ability: 6

Cecilia 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cenek (Andrew Clough) / Character Sheet

Cenek

“Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband.” – Ambrose Bierce “You haven’t lost anything when you know where it is. Death can hide but not divide.” – Vance Havner

Seeing these carefree kids around, blissfully unaware of the torment life has in store for them, spurs you to remember your own Bazaar. This remembering is so painful... it is why you can’t wait to return to Mons, where you aren’t confronted by it. At your Bazaar, you were a talented youth, with two possible mentors already interested in you by the end of your first day. Although your parents wanted you to go into a nice, boring magic like Animal Magic, you were enthralled by the prospect of Mind Magic, being able to know secrets, see the truth, connect to others mentally, implant thoughts... You always wanted to save the world, or at least Liberec, before the storms destroy it completely, and you always had ideas, to magically fortify city walls or to create shields to protect the Mages while they were fighting the weather. The Head of the Council, a Mind Mage named Lani, was very impressed with you and more than willing to help you along the path. You were happy, popular, one of the first Mage Candidates of your year to be chosen by a Mage on the Council, even if the sponsorship wouldn’t be official until you finished learning a few more spells - just when you thought your life couldn’t get any better, you met Iva. Iva was a second year Mage, four years older than you and beautiful. Watching her, discovering who she was, learning about her from a distance long before you ever got up the nerve to talk to her took over your every waking moment. You couldn’t concentrate on your magic studies, let alone mundane activities like sleeping or eating. Lani’s disappointment in your failure to learn any more Mind Magic was obvious; she took Cyril as her apprentice instead of you, leaving you to beg for a position with the grizzled, sullen, unfriendly Klayl, who worked in the middle of nowhere in Mons. Of course, none of that mattered, as becoming a Mage was sure to impress Iva, even if it was only as Klayl’s apprentice. Of course, your becoming Klayl’s apprentice in a middle-of-nowhere village in Mons had nothing, whatsoever, to do with the fact that Iva lived in Mons. Of course not. During the following year, you tailored your magic so that you could catch glimpses into Iva’s life halfway across Mons. Klayl thought this was a waste of your efforts, that you should be vigilant, looking for Mindstorms so you could protect the peasants in your backwoods corner of Mons. He couldn’t understand, of course, how a glimpse of Iva was so much more important than saving so many lives. At the following year’s Bazaar, you used your studied knowledge of Iva and your new political clout as a Mage of Liberec to secure a few dates and then her hand in marriage. After a year of preparation, it was almost too easy. What followed that were the eight happiest years of your life. She wasn’t always happy, didn’t like Mons, and didn’t like your restrictions on her, keeping her from staying out too late or associating with the wrong sort of people. That was all fine, of course, because she was with you. She had a liking for sneaking out of the house, always claiming to “need some air.” You knew, you just had this feeling, that “air” was really some other man she was having an affair with. However, you let it slide since you had no proof and you had long ago promised Iva never to use your Mind Magic on her (besides which, she could feel it when you did). About a year ago, things started getting worse. Iva started sneaking out of the house more and more often, sometimes not getting back until almost dawn. She even used her Earth Magic to hide where she was going and duststorms to cover her footprints. Whenever you asked her about it, she gave some bland and unconvincing answer. She also became more and more distant, ignoring your constant attempts to woo her love back. Despite now being a member of The Mages’ Council and needing to pick an apprentice, you didn’t want to come to this

Cenek 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cenek (Andrew Clough) / Character Sheet

Bazaar and expose Iva to more of the man-whores of Liberec who might take her away from you. Iva convinced you to come to Wiltz and do your duty, not that you could ever really deny her anything (unless, of course, it involved her being with another man or leaving you). Upon your arrival at the Bazaar, Iva went into your room to unpack as you did your official duties and talked to Vendelin about the public events of the Bazaar and the procedure for getting Iva elected as the next Head of Council (sure, you were upset when you lost Head of Council to Erica, but you would be furious if Iva lost). While talking to Vendelin, you spotted a strange silhouette through the window into your room. THE BITCH HADN’T WAITED FOR YOU TO BE GONE FIVE MINUTES BEFORE WHORING HERSELF OUT TO THE FIRST MAN TO COME AROUND. You calmly took your leave of Vendelin and in a dirty alley dusted off your specialty spell from long ago, allowing you to glimpse into Iva’s life. SHE COULDN’T HIDE ANYTHING FROM YOU, NOT ANY LONGER. In a whirl of naked flesh, she was tossed onto your bed, laughing... You cut off the connection and pushed your way through the few people stupid enough to get between you and your unfaithful wife. By the time you got to your room, she must have warned her lover, she was there alone, trembling naked on your bed. HOW COULD SHE? WHAT A WHORE! SHE DESERVES TO GO TO HELL FOR ETERNITY FOR BETRAYING YOU LIKE THIS! You grabbed her new-fangled cooking knife. She shouldn’t cheat on you if she knew you could hurt her, so you did. She wouldn’t cheat on you if she was less pretty, with chunks of flesh missing, so you did that, too. She couldn’t cheat on you if she was dead, and she was, but that wasn’t enough. Half in rage, half in grief, you kept cutting and chopping, slicing and carving until Iva was only a beautiful heap of small, cubical chunks of flesh and bone... Well, it is done now, and there is no going back. You miss her, to be sure, but she deserved what she got, the lying whore.1 Of course, not everyone will see it the same way you do, so keeping information about what happened away from everyone, especially the Wiltz police, is important. Finding, and dealing appropriately with, her lover is even more important. Other than dealing with Iva’s lover, your attention is now thankfully free to be redirected to the scholarly concerns. You never would have been distracted from them in the first place if it hadn’t been for her. Now, with no cheating wife to keep in line, you can really focus on saving Liberec from itself. First, and most importantly, you must keep away the polluting influence of Kusel. War would be infinitely favorable to allowing their pet perversion of mana pollute the great nation of Liberec. However, you’ve had many more ideas, more subtle ideas, for the improvement of Liberec. After years of living in the mana-starved Mons, and seeing the frivolous waste of mana which takes place in Wiltz and Port Vianden, you want to even out the mana distribution in Liberec, make it fair for Mages living in all of the regions. The abundance of mana that Wiltz has, spread out over all of Liberec, should leave every area of Liberec with enough mana to fight off storms and none with so much mana that the residents are tempted into frivolous, wasteful uses of mana. The Commanaist Party are working toward that goal, changing the mana distribution in Liberec such that it is even across the country, doing away with spots constantly ravaged by the storms as well as spots with too little mana to fight off the few storms which come. In addition, you will help The Mana Preservation Society with their methods for more efficient use of the sparse mana in many places around Liberec, such as most of Mons, as you have had to scrimp and save for your Mind Magic since the beginning of your apprenticeship, even with the scarcity of mindstorms that your region enjoys. Even though such extreme mana preservation would not be necessary if you are able to evenly spread mana out over Liberec, you know that there should be a backup plan in case anything goes wrong with the Commanaist Party’s plans. Still more important than either of those plans is your attempt to build protective barriers which can guard cities, towns, and farms from destruction and allow roads to be built in the open without having whole sections just wash away before they are

1You don’t remember where you disposed of her remains. . . you should find those, before someone else does, and dispose of them properly.

Cenek 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cenek (Andrew Clough) / Character Sheet completed. If the protective barriers work, then the people of Liberec might be able to someday leave the region they were born in, the Mages of Liberec could travel to impending disasters from farther away, and The Mages’ Council could meet more than once a year and more effectively make laws. Towards these ends, and many more, you started amassing your Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters in the past two years. Your ideas for creating these barriers dates long before two years ago (you originally thought of them as a way to protect your beloved Iva), but you are finally almost done with the requisite research and ready to make your ideas reality. Besides, this Bazaar is probably your only chance to have so many of the Society together in the same place to get some serious work done. You collected the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters via letters sent to the foremost families of Mages in each region. A few responded, and you’ve kept in touch with each of them through your Mind Magic. They have all spent the past year keeping detailed records of the weather patterns, Mage actions, and mana levels in their respective regions. Even the ambitious Mage Candidates who have not yet developed their magic, Kristof and Eugen, have been able to take some measurements and record their observations. Based on these records, the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters will be able to discover the most effective method to erect a barrier to prevent weather from affecting the target areas. You, of course, have your official duties also. As the duly appointed leader of the delegation from Mons, it is your duty to ensure the safety of the region from the weather in the coming year. You must therefore negotiate with The Mages’ Council to assign good apprentices and a favorable distribution of existing mages to Mons for the coming year. In addition, you must support your region by promoting any and all Council measures which would benefit Mons, such as increasing the number of allotted Mages for the region to an allotment proportional to population or physical size of the region, settling some of the inhabitable yet sparsely populated areas of Mons, or building roads through the region. Besides those which benefit Mons, you also have to rein in some of the foolish, so-called progressive measures some of the other Mages support. You especially hate that some of them support measures which would allow men to, of all things, be wed as you and your Iva were. The idea is revolting, not least because how could they ever possibly have such a sacred relationship as you had with Iva? It just doesn’t make any sense. It flies in the face of nature. It is beyond revolting. The mere thought makes you slightly twitchy. This and other measures to keep the old traditions of Liberec must be upheld, even if some of the others cannot be trusted to do so. Lastly, but very importantly, you also need to choose an apprentice for yourself. As a political leader of Liberec and a powerful Mind Mage (much stronger than Cyril, of course), finding a talented apprentice shouldn’t be too difficult, but Mind Magic isn’t always as popular as it should be and Mons is an unpopular place to do an apprenticeship. You are not going to seriously consider any girls for your apprentice, as you don’t want any females around so soon after what happened with Iva. You need more time... even after she betrayed your love and trust, you will always love her and be true to her memory. It isn’t like you are some kind of monster. Of course not. Goals - Find out who was Iva’s lover; kill him. - Keep the authorities from finding out what happened to Iva, or at least your part in it. The world needs you. - Build the protective barriers with the group you formed, the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters. - Find yourself a talented, appropriate, male apprentice. - Represent Mons well as the head of its delegation and promote its interests. - Equalize the mana distribution in Liberec with the Commanaist Party. - If all else fails, help find better ways to more efficiently use mana in mana-starved areas with the help of The Mana Preser- vation Society.

Cenek 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cenek (Andrew Clough) / Character Sheet

Notes - Dead or alive, Iva is the most important thing to you. You will defend her honor, try to protect her, and be faithful to her as if she were still alive. - The authorities probably don’t know of her death yet. - Except for things associated with Iva (which cloud your judgment and frequently cause you to react suddenly and violently), you really want what is best for the people of Liberec. - Iva is running for Head of Council at the age of 28 because, despite theoretically losing her magic two years ago, she is still a competent Earth Mage, and you have decided she should run for Head of Council Contacts - Iva (Beth Baniszewski): Your wife, the love of your life, AND A CHEATING WHORE. - ??? (???): The son of a bitch that was sleeping with your Iva. You’ll find him. You’ll come for him. You’ll get him. - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The Head of the Council. - Cyril (Charles Hope): The other Mind Mage on The Mages’ Council. He’s pretty incompetent, but he has gotten a lot of undeserved public attention lately because his Fire Mage wife had a baby. - Drahomir (Daniel Kane): A Fire Mage and the Mage living closest geographically to you and Iva, but he’s a strange anti- social sort of person, so you have rarely ever seen him before. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of the Bazaar. You were talking to him when you spotted the LYING CHEATING WHORE throwing herself and some TRASH OF A MAN. - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): Head Priestess of Fruit of the Great Mana, lead a mission to Mons. - Garomil (Telmo Correa): An ex-storm Mage and last year’s head of the Mage’s council. - Klement (Daniel Gray): The police officer in charge of Mons.

Memory/Event Packets - ψ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - The Mana Preservation Society - Mons - Commanaist Party - Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters

Greensheets - Negotiating the Distribution of Mages- Searching for Iva’s remains (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Teaching - Level 6 Mage - Sensitive to Drugs - Gossip with the Public

Items - Bronze Key (3836)- 500 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Leadership Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Engineering Ability: 6 - β: -2 - Psychology Ability: 6

Cenek 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Chiara (Kevin Riggle) / Character Sheet

Chiara

“Since love and fear can hardly coexist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved.” – Niccolo Machiavelli “Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest [woman] you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly. . . stupid.” – Pirates of the Carribean

Power. Power isn’t just a means, it’s an end. Your family was always respectable. Respectable, but not on top. Also, your father was strict as weather-blasted hell. Father never loved you, neither did your brother; you always knew that. The father was the unquestioned head of the family, what he says goes. Your brother Ril was in training to be the next head of your family, so he went everywhere with Father, the favorite child and only son (although those two appellations were redundant in your household). You and Mother, as females, were subservient, not loved but provided for, taken for granted. Your father had been a Mage, a very powerful one, but The Mages’ Council rarely listened to him on political matters. His magic was just as strong as King Harold’s. Someday the royal family will realize that it is not the only one with power anymore. Everyone feared your father, especially you. Fear is the strongest kind of respect, Father’s example taught you that. You had a right to fear your father, though, as he had complete control over you and your actions. He was also strict - if you showed the slightest disobedience, or acted outside your station, you were harshly punished. Your mother, sweet and loving and caring, died when you were only six years old. She had been the only one you could turn to for sympathy, so you learned to live without. Seeking sympathy would have been a weakness anyway; but you missed your mother regardless. Speaking of your mother, you’ve recently misplaced the silver locket she left to you when your father wasn’t looking. It is your last object of hers, so you had better find it. You last saw it in Port Vianden when you were doing some business deals there. You spent the next few years of your life purging yourself of weaknesses. You want control. You want power. You want to be in charge. Leaving a weakness in yourself is just leaving an opening for a future enemy or competitor to get easy sway over you, which would be intolerable. You’ve been planning to end up in charge of Liberec since the age of four, and you’re on your way. For the first three years after your mother’s death sent out of the house, apprenticed to various artisans living nearby in Port Vianden. Although this occurred at a young age, you learned a few things: how to craft objects, patience, temperance, steadiness of your hands, bartering and how to convince others to give you what you want. At the age of nine, you left your family for the sea. You had learned everything you could from them, and they would barely notice you were gone. While walking the streets of Port Vianden home from your current apprenticeship, you met Alwid the Pirate Queen. She convinced you to leave your life, downtrodden by your father and brother, and escape to the sea, to become a pirate. Yeah, you thought she was joking, too. At first. Alwid is the captain of the Androdameia, the first all-women pirate vessel. She is a smart enough captain, but she has rarely been with the ship these past eight years. You have been her second-in-command (by virtue of sheer superiority over the rest of the crew) since Celeste vanished in a raid. But, despite Alwid being hailed as Queen of the High Seas, you have been the one inspiring the crew of the Androdameia, training them, seeing the ship through day-to-day life and challenges.

Chiara 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Chiara (Kevin Riggle) / Character Sheet

Celeste, now, that’s a different story. Not only was she a trusted advisor and close friend of Alwid,1 but she was also the apprentice to the Androdameia’s Mind Adept. You were a little bitter that she was so talented and trusted, allowed so much responsibility that you did not have, when she was years younger than you. However, Celeste was also a sweet and useful soul. The way to power on a pirate vessel is through its Mind Adept. You spent a few years, from the moment Celeste came on board the Androdameia really, courting her. Courting her loyalty, courting her support for a potential future coup, courting her delectable self in a more. . . carnal fashion. . . Alwid has essentially abandoned the Androdameia. She hasn’t so much as stepped aboard in the past two years. Luckily, she has realized your importance, and has told the Mind Adept to take orders from you. Yet, due to the annoying clause of the Mind Adept following orders from the mind of the technical captain of the ship over all others, no matter how out of touch she is, she still remains the true captain. You deserve this, not Alwid. You deserve the praise, the title, the power. Unfortunately, it is really hard to pull a coup against someone not physically there. However, you may be able to gain some power by finding other ships in the High Seas that you can use to take over the Androdameia with your own loyal Mind Adepts. If you can find Celeste, you can install her as the Mind Adept of the Androdameia and convince her to listen to your instructions instead of Alwid’s.2 Now, Alwid has called in the Androdameia to meet her at this year’s Bazaar. This is the perfect time to take over the ship and have the power that you always deserved. The existing power structure of the world is just fine as it is (including the installation of Fruit of the Great Mana as the only state religion, you have some contacts with their churches and can use them to help put you on top as long as they don’t suddenly acquire competition for being the official church), with the exception that you should be on top. You’ve known that since you were a little girl. More than anything else, you want control - the control that your father and brother always had over you - over yourself and everyone else. Deference or respect are just pallid younger sisters of the almighty fearful obedience born out of pure control. There are a few ways into power - to marry someone with power is the most common way for a girl. Unfortunately, you’ve heard that Prince Vavrinec already has a girlfriend. (They are some famous couple beloved of the idiotic masses in Liberec.) Maybe there is an alternate solution, or a way around the existing relationship. A less defined way into power is to become the Head of The Mages’ Council or have the Head of Council acting as your puppet. This post is traditionally held by a strong male Mage, but it is currently held by Erica, a flimsy little woman. You don’t know much about the Head of Council candidates for next year, but they will surely be campaigning at the upcoming Bazaar. Getting next year’s Head of Council in your back pocket would be a productive step. Getting yourself on The Mages’ Council next year, despite your young age, would be even better. This is all a little hard, as you are technically 17 years old, a two-year-late bloomer. Although you haven’t been to the Bazaar either of the previous two years (so the only way to find out that you are 17 years old instead of 16 would be to delve deeply through your family tree archives in the Library), you should be careful not to be found out as a two-year-late bloomer, as you would be immediately forced into the Liberec Army (which would be awful and keep you away from the sea). However, even better would be to get two-year-late bloomers legally allowed to participate in the Bazaar. You would also forever shame your family by the fact that you were a Mage Candidate only as a two-year-late bloomer. In fact, you know that the other teenaged girls at the Bazaar this year have coalesced into a coherent group, yet they have yet

1which is why you told everyone that Celeste died in the raid, not just vanished, you wouldn’t want Alwid thinking that her favorite was still alive when you’d rather be next in line for promotions 2Yes, the current Mind Adept is listening to you. . . sometimes. Alwid can always override your orders, which is unacceptable. That isn’t responsibility and command, it is slave labor that can be made moot at any point by the person actually in charge.

Chiara 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Chiara (Kevin Riggle) / Character Sheet to talk to you and invite you. Hrmph. How inconsiderate. Perhaps you should figure out what they are up to. . . Also, while Port Vianden may not have been your home for some years, you still feel that you should support some of their power in The Mages’ Council. If you can get laws passed that open the seas even more, then how many more ships will sail the open sea, each vulnerable to the appropriate force. Also, you’ve found a interesting and intricately carved rattle while exploring Wiltz, it brings back memories of your work under the artisans from Port Vianden. Maybe, you can craft some interesting objects to sell. Of course, there is no need to be chaotic about these things. It would be a shame to allow others to die or be hurt in a way that was messy and unprofessional as well as unproductive towards your overall goals. It would be fine in either the name of professionalism or as a productive step towards your goals, but messiness is not useful in itself. Of course, once you have all of your new power, it would be nice to find a nice girl to share it with. . . Goals - Oust Alwid from captaincy of the ship Androdameia - Win the High Seas struggle for power, and gain enough power to take over the Androdameia from Alwid. - Find Celeste - Get hired as a Mage for extra power - Pass legislation allowing two-year-late bloomers into the Bazaar; or else don’t get caught as a two-year-late bloomer yourself - Have sway over the next Head of The Mages’ Council - Gain as much personal and/or political power as possible - Find a way for yourself to be on The Mages’ Council next year - Discover and publish any secrets or secret history of the Liberec royal family to maybe prove that the royal family is no better than the average Liberecine (or at least the average Mage) - Become the new Initiate for Fruit of the Great Mana - Keep Fruit of the Great Mana on top as the only state religion, and keep any other religions from getting a foothold in Liberec - Find out what the other teen girls are up to Notes - You are a power-hungry psychopathic bitch. - You are also a lesbian, but you aren’t interested in any of the women on the Androdameia. It wouldn’t do to mix business with pleasure. Contacts - Alwid the Pirate Queen: The captain of the Androdameia - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The Prince of Liberec, one of the undeserving royal family which hasn’t earned its power - Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger): The girlfriend of Vavrinec, who will be getting power handed to her on a silver platter, the bitch - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The Head of The Mages’ Council, currently the most powerful woman in the land - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The Head of Fruit of the Great Mana. You know that she wants to spread religious sentiment into Port Vianden, which you can hopefully use to your advantage (since you are nominally from Port Vianden).

Memory/Event Packets - Item #3895- Open at game start

Bluesheets - Port Vianden- Fruit of the Great Mana

Chiara 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Chiara (Kevin Riggle) / Character Sheet

Greensheets - Navigating and Living on the High Seas - Searching for Celeste (out-of-game notebook) - Dueling

Abilities - Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip

Items - A Baby’s Rattle (1752) - 150 liberyen - Dueler’s Training (in-game notebook)

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: impossible, blinding, - Age: 17 breeze, balance, climb, sleepy, dodge, jump - α: 5 - Leadership Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Engineering Ability: 3 - Philosophy Ability: 5

Chiara 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cyril (Charles Hope) / Character Sheet

Cyril

I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him? ... All beings so far have created something beyond themselves; and do you want to be the ebb of this great flood, and even go back to the beasts rather than overcome man? What is ape to man? A laughing stock or painful embarrassment. ... The overman is the meaning of the earth. ... Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman - a rope over an abyss ... what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end. – Nietzsche “...life simply is will to power... ’Exploitation’... belongs to the essence of what lives, as a basic organic function; it is a consequence of the will to power, which is after all the will to life. – Nietzsche

After 10 years as a Mind Mage of Port Vianden, you are returning to the Bazaar. You left your training with your Fire Mage wife, Matilda, and now you return with your child others thought impossible. You also return considerably richer; you were happy to provide services to the rich merchants and men of Port Vianden, so long as they returned the favor. It wasn’t the easiest road to such prosperity, though. During your training, when your faith was almost revealed, it seemed impossible that you would be a respected Mage one day. And during the first years of your marriage, when Matilda was being overworked by her lazy teacher and still foolishly fearful of burning you during sex, you wondered if being a Mage was as great as you’d thought. But now you return to the bazaar with authority and purpose. You and Matilda will sit on the Mage Council which decides the future of Mages in Liberec, and you have directions you want to lead in. Especially, you want to find some young and powerful Mages willing to devote themselves to the one true god, Povos. In addition, it is at this Bazaar, that you will organize with the Wiltz Realtors Incorporated, and fix up the land that the old ruins sit on for public good. In the many years the ruins have been there, you’ve noticed that they have never suffered major weather problems. You must take down these ruins with their images of false gods, and ensure that everyone believes in Povos. And, you can be sure this will happen with the help of some of the Wiltz Realtors Incorporated. They’ve discovered a way to dose objects so that they influence the populace to believe in different ideas. Povos found your youthful self as he trained himself in preparation for the bazaar. You though you’d overdone it this time: the root the herbalist had given you for your headaches seemed to conflict with the powder you used to increase your focus, so you’d taken more powder and blinked eyes open face floored. A voice then started, though Povos never appeared (disdaining such showiness in favor of real power). It spoke a message of becoming more than oneself, disdaining the false categorization into ‘mind’ and ‘soul’, instead using the body to reach beyond the body. He admired your drive to improve yourself, and appeared not to guide you but to show you how to guide yourself. He told you that the first Mages were worshippers of his who discovered magic. Foolishly they taught it to the unitiated, and thus caused the cataclysm. Though all Mages today are descendants of his worshippers, they have forgotten the drive that brought them this power, and decay in their laziness. But Mages (already as far from Mundanes as they from base animals) can make themselves more than they are. Now, years later, you are in a position to bring this message to others who are worthy. You have formed and lead a network of various mislead theists (as a Mind Mage, you were a natural choice). Povos, of course, gains no benefit from common publicity, but it would help if opposition to the fool Great Manaists were not so reviled. Promoting theism is thus one of the things you aim to accomplish at this bazaar. With your management, perhaps the foolhardy theists can make a positive impact. In case of failure, however, you think it be best to remain behind the scenes. In a similar vein you hope to promote some of Povos’s philosophy to the teenagers of this Bazaar. Your wife has some interesting ideas about starting a movement of magic for magic’s sake. Though she cheapens her ideas through the lack of your religious element, your ideas (especially about the natural authority of Mages) are similar. The real purpose of this philosophizing, of course, is to find those strong enough to learn from Povos and teach them his worship. Together, you shall point the way to Mages-Over-Mages, destined to rule over Mages as they rule over Mundanes. It is vital that the criminally stupid sloth of your parents not be continued on.

Cyril 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Cyril (Charles Hope) / Character Sheet

Also, in the name of Povos, you have been working with Mana Cartographers in order to chart the so called mana lines that are around Liberec in order to help reveal the truth of what Mana really is. Also, you’d like to help out your home region of Port Vianden with their trade negotiations with Kusel in order to ensure knowledge and theist worship spreads between nations. Goals - Find at least one successor to the worship of Povos. - Help out Mana Cartographers with their studies of the mana lines around Liberec. - Help Port Vianden with their trade discussions with the delegation from Kusel. - Keep your family happy, and help your child grow up strong. - Make theist worship be perceived as less bad. - Gain control of stable land with the help of the Wiltz Realtors Incorporated. - Get the council to publish statements in line with Povos’ philosophy. Contacts - Symon (Ian Born-Mathewson): Your baby boy. - Matilda (Susan Born): Your wife. - Cenek (Andrew Clough): The other Mind Mage on The Mages’ Council.

Memory/Event Packets - ψ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Mana Cartographers - Theists - Wiltz Realtors Incorporated - Port Vianden

Greensheets - Reporting the News - Demolishing and Preparing an Area for Construction Work - Gain Legal Control of Locations - Organizing an Artifact Exhibition

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage

Items - Bronze Key (3836) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - 450 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 5 - β: N/A - Theology Ability: 4

Cyril 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dana (Allison Schneider) / Character Sheet

Dana

“Sickness and healing are in every heart; Death and deliverance are in every hand.” – Speaker for the Dead, Orson Scott Card

You do so love having two lives. In public, you’re a fairly quiet collector of magical items. Most of the items were originally stolen, of course, but people in Oldenburg where you live tend not to care too much about such details. In your spare time you perform medical research that occasionally suggests new ways of treating the injured, especially children afflicted by birth defects. No one really wonders how you’re able to research so successfully without having any talent for Healing Magic yourself. In reality, you’re the leader of the Dark Mages of Liberec. Your dealings in magical items occasionally turn up one that will fit perfectly in a new power-enhancing or life-extending ritual for your comrades, and your medical research gives you the deep understanding of bodies (particularly dead ones) that is necessary to be able to manipulate the souls that once inhabited them. You are all so close to immortality, that botched ritual on Dalton just needs a few more tweaks. (Speaking of Dalton, you really should return his ring . . . then again, it might be a magical item worth a pretty penny to someone else . . . ) All this while the rest of Oldenburg thinks you practically a saint for the lives your research has saved. Sheep, yes, but what entertaining sheep! Perhaps you will allow them to live longer than the rest when your magical army takes over Liberec. For that is your ultimate goal, the reason you rose to leadership of the Dark Mages in the first place several years ago. The previous leader gave you the Bronze Key (3836) and A Silver Brooch (3751) that have been passed down from leader to leader for generations.1 You have seen the glory of Dark Magic, that magic which can bend the souls of the living and dead to your bidding and ensure immortality for anyone worthy to receive it, and you know therefore that all the Dark Mages must someday reign supreme over Liberec—nay, the world. You will prove wrong all those lesser Mages who called you Mundane because you practiced a form of magic greater than any they could be allowed to know. You will burn their pride to the ground and let them watch your ascension to power with impotent rage before you kill or enslave them. It is your destiny! That’s what you tell the others, anyway. Grand, sweeping, evil speeches are necessary to get the sort of blind obedience that you’ll need to accomplish your goals (not to mention the obsequiousness that your ego so enjoys). Truly, though, you aren’t a megalomaniac. You’re trying to save Liberec from itself! The Mages’ Council is just hopelessly incapable; how long has it been since the Catastrophe, and still no solution in sight for the weather? They don’t even realize Dark Magic exists, nor did they recognize Void Magic until some idiot kid ten years ago had a fit and blabbed to them about it. Think about that. Those dimwits, supposedly the guiding beacon of all Liberec to save it from the terrible storms, have managed to wind up with an institutional retardation so absolute that none of them in twenty generations ever realized those two most powerful forms of magic existed. The Dark Mages can practice magic for over twenty years and keep their power fully-fledged, partially because of the rituals their Dark knowledge allows them to perform; the Council thinks a Mage who makes it ten years has done more than enough! And that’s not even getting into their completely unreasonable prejudice against Dark Magic. Not that they know it exists, but there was so much hullaboo about Void Magic (comparatively benign) back when it was discovered that you’re sure you’d be lynched if you were outed as Dark publicly under this regime. How ridiculous. There’s nothing to it: you’ll take over Liberec, kill all the idiots running this place into the ground, and fix things. Maybe. Maybe just kill some more people, and enjoy that power you’ve got. Sweet, delicious power. That power won’t last forever, though, and you should really find an apprentice for this year. Obviously Dark Magic is completely unknown to the Mages’ Council system (and you hope it stays that way), but that doesn’t make it any less necessary to pass down the wisdom of what you know. There are a couple of teenagers at the Bazaar this year who have already expressed

1Unfortunately, you took the brooch off at some political event where it was too flashy, and you haven’t been able to find it since. It’d be great if you could locate it again.

Dana 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dana (Allison Schneider) / Character Sheet interest in becoming Dark Mages; you can pick one of them, or someone else entirely, to train as your eventual replacement in leading the group. And speaking of sweet, delicious things, let’s talk about that magical army. Oh yes. You discovered that reanimated corpses keep whatever magic they held at the peak of their life; magic is tied to the soul, after all, and it’s the soul that Dark Magic manipulates, unfettered by the bodily limitations that cause most Mages to burn out their powers after a decade. A tortured soul outputs more energy than anything else . . . You and your compatriots already have the power to raise individual dead, but there aren’t that many of you, and a handful of rogue controlled Mages won’t do much in a city of thousands. If each of you can control twenty-five corpses or so, though . . . what glorious terror for the capital! All those who dismissed you will cower in fear before your glory. You’ll no longer need to hide yourselves; with a few hundred unnaturally determined Mage-zombies using their powers for your bidding, no one will be able to reasonably oppose you. Muahaha! Getting to that point will be difficult, though; you’ll need to research new ways to split your soul control. There’s a world of difference between controlling one person and controlling a horde, not least because even your finely-honed mind has trouble thinking in twenty-five directions at once. You could certainly scare people with just a handful of zombies, but it’s a risk; the properties of Dark Magic force you to stay near the corpses you’ve reanimated, and if the show of force is not sufficient, there’s your cover blown. As certain as you are of your ultimate triumph, you’ll need to take care to not sabotage yourselves along the way. Dark Magic research mostly involves dead bodies: studying them, casting spells on them, determining how they work. (Willing living people could help with some of that, but the utter necessity of secrecy for your association makes that avenue impractical.) In a city the size of Wiltz, there must be graveyards aplenty, and you’d bet anything the magical dead are buried separately—it’d just fit the asinine caste system the Councilfucks have fostered too beautifully. The city doesn’t exactly publish a map, but with some exploration you should be able to find them. You have help, too: after nearly getting caught in the Oldenburg graveyard back home, you studied and successfully enchanted a canine sprite to menace nighttime graveyard visitors in cemeteries all across Liberec. He’s a lovely specimen, with shining silvery eyes and glowing white fangs that look real enough at first glance to send anyone who doesn’t know better running in screaming terror. That spell took two months of every spare hour you had available, but no price is too high for the luxury of uninterrupted study, reveling at night in the innumerable dead just waiting for the touch of your magic. Moreover, your secrecy has given you quite the skill at detecting the fac¸ades put on by others. No Mage children have been born in Oldenburg for 27 years, which was suspicious in itself, but there was more: the number of stillbirths was much higher than you knew to be reasonable, and one midwife, Tarsia, seemed to be connected with an undue number of them. Not all—she was a crafty one, like you, she’d never tip her hand like that—but enough to prompt you to ask her about them. She denied it, but of course she would; you were confident of the truth, and won her over by convincing her you didn’t care. You just wanted the bodies for medical research, you told her. And so she started giving them to you, with even something of an explanation: she was attempting to rid the country of the blight of Magehood by killing every magical baby she could. Idiocy, of course, but then again, she was part of the public world who believed you Mundane. You could ruin her at any point by exposing her treachery, but you let her stand for now, because the children’s bodies she provides you are useful. They’re so much more varied and interesting than what you find in a graveyard. Lately, though, you’ve been a bit squeamish about them. Three years back, you had a brief but intense dalliance with another Village fellow named Marek, a Void Mage. At first you thought he was refreshingly open-minded compared to the sheep you’d dealt with for the rest of your life; a couple weeks down the line, it became apparent that he was, in fact, batshit insane. He had no appreciation for the finer points of power, and kept talking about wanting to burn down all of Liberec. What use would that be? Sure, you’re Dark, but you’re not mindlessly destructive! You broke it off with him right quick after that. Not quickly enough, though: he left you with something. A child. Darin, your son. How strange to ponder those words . . . how strange to look with love on a form alive that dead you’d so emotionlessly dissected. As unbecoming as you know it is for

Dana 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dana (Allison Schneider) / Character Sheet someone of your ambition, you do care about the boy, and you couldn’t bear to see him become a sacrifice to someone else’s ignorance. You masked his birth carefully on a trip to “search for artifacts,” and called him adopted upon your return, so that Tarsia would not look closely enough at him to realize he is magical. For he is—of course he is—he’ll be a wonderfully powerful Dark Mage someday, the only heir you could trust. Assuming he survives that long . . . over the past month he’s been much too frail, probably Marek’s insanity at work, and Tarsia can’t be allowed to heal him lest he “mysteriously” die in the process. (You long ago devised spells to tend to his basic needs while you were away—toting a baby along really crimps your nighttime grave-opening style—but they can’t fix this.) Luckily there’s another healer in Oldenburg, albeit one not specializing in children: Klara. She’s an absolute dear, utterly innocent and na¨ıve but so helpful and kindhearted as to almost—almost—restore a bit of your faith in humanity. She’s also in the village delegation to the Bazaar, and she’s promised to do whatever she can to help your son, but the last time she took a look at him, she was completely unable to figure out what might be wrong. You’ll need to think hard about what might’ve affected him so, so that Klara will have a direction in which to apply her Healing talents. As much of a disaster as your relationship with Marek was, it has been three years, and the cemeteries you frequent aren’t exactly the best place to pick up men. You’re starting to get interested in a relationship again . . . maybe if you keep your nighttime activities to yourself, you can find someone more normal this time. Someone like that Liam fellow, the Mageball player whose team you hosted during one of their matches in Oldenburg four years back. You couldn’t care less about the sport, but you’d been feeling lonely, wanting an excuse to have some people in your house other than just yourself . . . and you and Liam hit it off just marvelously. It was a long time ago and he didn’t stay for long, but still there’s an impression there that lingers with you to this day. Maybe you’ll even see him this year at the Bazaar; you know there was a big Mageball tournament a few days back. Wouldn’t that just be wonderful! But enough with all that mushy stuff. To help your plans for world domination, you’ve become involved with the Commanaist Party, which seeks to level out the mana distribution across all of Liberec. That would be perfect for you: no area would have the high concentration of mana necessary to repel your magical puppets, for their initial attack would deplete the local mana reserves enough to make it impractical to fight back. You’ve also heard of scholars who believe spikes in mana use are what attract the weather. Spikes are a lot harder to produce when no one has that much mana around, and it would be awfully nice not to have to worry about rogue storms in the utopia you’ll be creating! You’re also working with the Vianden Zephyr Corporation, a group of people who are trying to build roads throughout Liberec that will be able to resist the weather. This sounds like it’d lead to an excellent improvement in the ability of your undead army to march all across the country spreading chaos. The science is a little bit interesting, but what you really care about is the efficiency gains for when you ultimately take over the world. Finally, as befits your public image, you’re associated with The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages. You don’t actually care that much about political rights for Mundanes; your Dark Magic life is by far the one you care more about. It would be nice to be treated a little bit less like dirt during the day, though. Support what plans of theirs you find mild and reasonable–and appropriately unradical, as some of their notions seem to be–and spend the rest of your energy on that glorious and inexorable path to ruling a newly Dark world. Goals - Save Liberec by taking control of it away from those incompetents on The Mages’ Council. - Devise ways for a single person to control a score or more of reanimated corpses, so that you can raise a magical army to terrorize Liberec. - Protect your son and your future by getting Klara to heal him. - Help the Dark Mages perfect their immortality ritual and use it on yourself. - Give The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages the minimal amount of support necessary to not be suspicious. - Try to recover the A Silver Brooch (3751). - Help the Commanaist Party redistribute mana so your conquest plans are more likely to succeed.

Dana 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dana (Allison Schneider) / Character Sheet

- If somehow word about Dark Mages comes out, make sure you get the two seats on the Council that are your due, and run and win for Head of Council. - Build roads across Liberec with Vianden Zephyr Corporation and use them to the advantage of your army. Contacts - Klara (Jason Gonsalves): An amusingly innocent magical healer you know. You should get her assistance in treating Darin. - Tarsia (Sukrit Ranjan): A Mundane midwife and healer who has been killing magical Oldenburg babies. She gives you some of the bodies in exchange for not having her secret revealed. - Marek (Ben Lehnert): Completely insane, despicable, and the father of your child. You suppose it’ll be best to let him stay in his own private fantasy world, but you’ll have to take action if he comes after you. - Femke (Brogan King): A teenage girl from Wiltz who’s very interested in Dark Magic. - Ladislav (Michael Behr) [formerly Dalton]: A former Dark Mage from Saar who owes his youthful body to a Dark ritual his older self performed. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): A Dark Mage from Wiltz and your unofficial recruiter. - Liam (Alex Westbrook): A Mageball player you met several years back, whom you still have a serious crush on.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #3751- µ

Bluesheets - Dark Mages - Commanaist Party - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - Vianden Zephyr Corporation - Oldenburg

Greensheets - Reporting the News

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs- Level 6 Mage

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Bronze Key (3836) - Heirloom Wedding Ring (1112) - 200 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 24 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 3 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 3

Dana 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew) / Character Sheet

Danthony

“Where there is a sea there are pirates.” – Greek proverb

Mages have enslaved the Mundanes to do their will and do nothing more than produce food and the occasional Mage baby. You, the Mundanes, are the populace over which they rule for generation after generation. This will end with you. Now. No time like the present! You have been a trader, a merchant sailing across the high seas for a long time now. Your father before you, and his father before him, and so on into the depths of time, was a merchant. Of course, sailing the high seas, loading and unloading goods, and interacting with fellas from all shores gives a fella a certain position in society, and a certain temptation to give into piracy. Of course, you have no proof that any of your forefathers were pirates. The fellas were clever enough to not leave a paper trail, of course. But you know. Oh, you know. You should have the same discretion. You grew up on land in Port Vianden with your mother, Ivy, and your younger sister Greta. (Your father was off trading *ahem* pirating *ahem* under the added guise of his Plant Mage work.) Both of your parents were Mages (father a Plant Mage, mother an Animal Mage). When you were eleven, your mother started getting blackmail and threats from your father’s archenemy, Dread Pirate Grayfeather. Your family picked up everything and moved to Mons, but that was not enough to avoid him; the threats kept coming. Grayfeather eventually killed your father and you left home at the age of twelve to go avenge your father. However, your given name Danny was not going to go over well with the pirate crowd; you needed a name that would garner you the respect of your peers. You changed your name to Danthony. You haven’t seen your family since. You’ve been a pirate ever since, for the past sixteen years or so. You’ve worked your way up from swabbing decks to PIRATE MASTER over that time. You acquired your Captain’s Hat (0735) by being the most competent and impressive deckboy, then sailor, then first mate, on the ship. You’ve become pretty good at swashbuckling combat as well as smuggling magical artifacts into Port Vianden to sell. You are now twenty-eight years old and your ability to live life on the high seas will be failing soon. . . Before its too late, you should leave your mark on the seas, and become the most intimidating pirate out there. However, you should also watch out and make sure that your contacts and fellow merchants don’t find out about your alternative revenue streams. Thus, it will all too soon be time for you to retire and pass your captain’s hat onto the next generation. Unfortunately, unlike your father’s father before you, and his father before him, and so on into the depths of time, you don’t have a son to whom to pass on your Captain’s Hat (0735).1 You’re not even married! (You also don’t have mistresses at every shore, sadly for more reasons than one.) It would be nice to find a young fella to take your place when it is time for you to give up the life on the high seas (of course, the high seas are really no place for a woman, not that you have anything against the hussies). However, whenever you come to port in Port Vianden, it is always the same story. You have no respect, no rights, simply because you are a Mundane, a normal and proper citizen of Liberec. You, as a rich man and a ’merchant’ (well, you are in your spare time from piracy) who controls the flow of goods into and out of Liberec, are single-handedly more powerful than any of those Mages supposedly ’stopping the weather from killing us all.’ I mean, come on. It’s mere propaganda. The Mundanes must have rights! You are a fully-fledged member of their organization for the political rights of Mundanes. Getting some members on The Mages’ Council, or even better all of the members, would be great. But you have a better idea. Since the Mundanes have been going around for all of these years enslaving the Mundanes that make up over 95% of the country, it is time for them to be enslaved!

1Of course, your own father died before he could pass on his Captain’s Hat (0735) to you. . .

Danthony 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew) / Character Sheet

Conveniently, your travels to distant lands have recently uncovered a large supply of the coveted Mada bracelet (2921). These bracelets, when worn on a Mage, can be triggered into the Mage being subservient hereafter to the person with the codeword – and that’s you. The codeword is “Llama,” by the way. Also conveniently, your status as a merchant puts you in an excellent position to distribute these bracelets to every Mage at the Bazaar, and possibly to every Mage in Liberec. Since the codeword only works once, ever, you must wait until all of the bracelets that you ever intend to distribute have been distributed and worn on the relevant Mages. You wouldn’t want to trigger all of your hundreds of enslavement bracelets before maximum distribution1 If you could, you’d like to learn how to manufacture more Mada bracelet (2921)s, as the next generation of young Mages will be cropping up soon. Also, you are the merchant to beat. You should obtain a monopoly on trading between Liberec and Kusel – not that you won’t own the waters anyway, seeing as if someone else gets a monopoly your vessels can always hijack theirs, but it’s the principle of the thing. One must be a legitimate pirate whenever possible. It makes it harder for them to crack down on the illegitimacy. Meanwhile, since you spend more time in Port Vianden than any other place in Liberec, you should help them further their political aims. Port Vianden is cool. In addition, you can attempt to gain more political power for The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages even before you enslave all of the Mages in Liberec. You have also attended some meetings of The Order of Mana Connoisseurs, the snobbish Mage mana connoisseurs. Even though you are only a Mundane, you can still allow mana to flow through your body and get you high off of it. Awesome. And that leaves that much less mana for the Mages to use. You have also been given a commission by the Emperor of Kusel, to acquire The Eye (4239), the oldest symbol of Liberec nobility. It had gone astray in Aldin, a country far across the sea. Unfortunately, when your ship the Avenger unloaded its cargo in Liberec, The Eye (4239) was missing. Not only that, but you were to bring The Eye (4239) to the Liberec Bazaar to turn it over and you have no way of knowing who is the Emperor of Kusel or who is his representative. Once you reacquire The Eye (4239), you need to find a way to turn it over to the Emperor! Perhaps you can sell the Silver Locket (3895) that you recently bought dirt cheap in a Port Vianden pawn shop for a tidy profit to help you acquire The Eye (4239). Funnily enough, a few days later, Harold also gave you the same commission, to find The Eye (4239). Once you find it, you’ll have to sell it to the highest bidder, or maybe you can find a way to sell it to both of them. You left your family so long ago, and you heard that Grayfeather had them all killed. While at the Bazaar, you should find out what happened to them. Also, you are finally strong enough (hopefully) to beat Grayfeather. You’ve heard he is going to be at the Bazaar also. An interesting coincidence, you wonder what business he has here at the Bazaar. You should find him (you’ve never met him, but you should be able to find out some clues as to what he looks like from the vast legends about him) and kill him in single combat, avenging your father once and for all. The research you’ve been doing on building a ranged Mundane weapon might help. Maybe then, you’ll finally even be able to rename your ship. In addition, in order to seperate your more profiting, but unapproved endavours, you’ve recently acquired another ship in order to keep your profiteering seperate from your legitimate business. For the first few months, you’ve been directly controlling the new ship in the High Seas.

1Maximum distribution will likely happen after game ends. This is okay. If you want to trigger the Mada bracelet (2921) before game end, please talk to a GM.

Danthony 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew) / Character Sheet

Goals - Enslave all of the Mages with the Mada bracelet (2921) - Find out what happened to your family, your mother and sisters - Hunt down Grayfeather and kill him in single combat - Obtain a monopolistic trade route between Liberec and Kusel - Find a fella to be your surrogate son and take over as captain when you retire - Recover The Eye (4239) so you can turn it over. - Complete your commission for Harold - Trade and sell magical artifacts to become as rich as possible - Try finding alternative ways to prosper off of the High Seas. - Ensure your new ship can make it through the High Seas. - Get high off of mana to spite Mages who can use it for other things - Help The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages acquire political power - Aid Port Vianden in any of its political aims, as that is where you do most of your business and is your typical port of call Notes - You may only activate the Mada bracelet (2921) once ever. Anyone saying “Llama” once will immediately activate all current and future instances of Mada bracelet (2921). Activate them with caution and discretion. - Psychlim: your pirate shipmates are great at finding gossip. You refuse to publicly acknowledge your old name Danny, or to ever say it to anyone, lest you completely lose control of your men. Contacts - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The Ambassador from Kusel - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The King of Liberec, who also hired you to find The Eye (4239) - Liam (Alex Westbrook): A ship captain you last saw years ago - Anastasia (Kevin Chen): A merchant and Storm Mage of Port Vianden - Gabriel (Daniel Grazian): A merchant from Kusel - Iva (Beth Baniszewski): A surprisingly succesful merchant, considering she lives in Wiltz

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - Port Vianden

Greensheets - Navigating and Living on the High Seas - Searching for What Happened to Your Family (out-of-game - Navigating and Selling on the High Seas notebook) - Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body

Abilities - Gossip with the Public- Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip

Danthony 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew) / Character Sheet

Items - Captain’s Hat (0735) - Mada bracelet (2921) - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Mada bracelet (2921) - Silver Locket (3895) - Mada bracelet (2921) - Mada bracelet (2921) - Mana Stone (4550) - Mada bracelet (2921) - Mana Stone (4550) - Mada bracelet (2921) - Constructing a Ranged Mundane Weapon (in-game - Mada bracelet (2921) notebook) - Mada bracelet (2921) - 850 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 28 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Engineering Ability: 6 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 5

Danthony 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dionyz (Jonathan Chapman) / Character Sheet

Dionyz

“Shaken, not stirred.” – James Bond “You carry a 00 number, it means you have License to Kill, not GET killed!” –M “Behind the headlights, Stinger missiles.” “Excellent. Just the thing for unwinding after a rough day at the office.” “Need I remind you, 007, that you have a license to kill, not to break the traffic laws.” – Q, James Bond

It was one of those days when it seemed to you that all life, as someone put it, was nothing but a heap of six to four against. To begin with, you were ashamed of yourself – a rare state of mind. You had a hangover, a bad one, with an aching head and still joints. When you coughed – smoking too many herbs goes with drinking too much focus drug and doubles the hangover – a cloud of small luminous black spots swam across your vision like amoebae in pond water. The one drink too many signals itself unmistakably. Your final shot of focus in the luxurious accommodations provided by the Bazaar in Wiltz had been no different from the ten preceeding ones, but it had gone down reluctantly and had left a bitter taste and an ugly sensation of surfeit. And, although you had taken in the message, you had agreed to play just one more round. Five Liberyen a hundred as it’s the last one? You agreed. And you had played it like a fool. Even now you could see the girl, with that stupid Mana-Blessed Saint of Love smile on her fat face, slapping you triumphantly down. In the end it had been a round of a hundred Liberyen against you – important money. Well, there goes your personal spending money. Down to just the standard Mage Candidate allowance for the Bazaar. Mmm... although highly addictive in Liberec, your focus drug of choice is Caffeine (9867). You take it as often as possible for its added benefits of staying awake concentrating on whatever project has caught your eye.1 Back at your Bazaar housing accommodations afterwards, in the final hours before the start of the Bazaar, you sat back and thought about life and death. It was part of your profession to kill people. You haven’t needed to yet, and you don’t expect to like it, but when you have to kill, you’ll do it as well as you know how and forget about it. As a secret agent under cover in Liberec, it is your duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofessional – worse, it was death-watch beetle in the soul. That woman you were playing against, streetrat by day and elegant geisha by night, called “Trembling Leaf,” ended the game on her knees beside you, leaning forward from the waist and kissing you chastely on the right cheek. “That’s a cheat,” you said severely. “You agreed it would be a real kiss on the mouth. At the very least.” You handed her a chrysanthemum. Your favorite flower. “Grey Pearl,” the madame, who had black lacquered teeth, a bizarre affectation, and was so thickly made up that she looked like a character out of a No play, translated. There was much giggling and cries of encouragement. Trembling Leaf covered her face with her pretty hands as if she were being required to perform some ultimate obscenity. But then the fingers divided and the pert brown eyes examined your mouth, as if taking aim, and her body lanced forward. This time the kiss was full on the lips, and it lingered fractionally. In invitation? In promise? You remembered that you had been promised a “pillow geisha.” Technically, this would be a geisha they found rotting in the streets before educating her. She would not be proficient in the traditional arts of her calling – she would not be able to tell humorous stories, sing, or compose verses about her patron. But, unlike her cultured sisters, she might agree to perform more

1The recipe for Caffeine (9867) is Mulberry (7635)Toadstool (7282)Norfolk Island Pine (7023).

Dionyz 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dionyz (Jonathan Chapman) / Character Sheet robust services, garner information for you – discreetly, of course. You wished you’d been able to keep up that intelligence-gathering spree a while longer, but you had a pressing need to get back to work. There are moments of great luxury in the life of a secret agent. There are assignments on which he is required to act the part of a very rich man; occasions when he takes refuge in good living to efface the memory of danger and the shadow of death; and times when, as was now the case, he is still hidden in a different land, waiting for his chance. At least, you’re looking forward to all but the last. You’ve known that last for far too long. Back when you were a child, the other children would tease you mercilessly for your interest in technological advancements. Of course you liked new advancements. A redesigned plow might allow farmers to produce 5% more crops per year. New Earth Magic techniques for extracting stone from the earth could lead to buildings better able to withstand the assault of the weather. How could they not see how cool this is? You put your love of technology aside, hidden, and focused on becoming what they would respect – strong, athletic, impor- tant. You would hang out with Teenage Boys often and fully participate in their competitions. Winners gain respect, it’s as simple as that. This will apply even more at the Bazaar this year. In addition, you started working out. A lot. Now your outlet for strength training is The Bronze Pandas. Being awesome in their scrimmages will also gain you respect and friends, maybe even girls. In order to be important, and have adults like you, too, you joined Fruit of the Great Mana in an official capacity as a youth leader. Some people may make fun of you for spending all your time with little kids, but hey, it’s useful. It may not be the most glamorous job ever, but adults never watch what they say in front of kids and the little ones don’t know better than to repeat everything they hear. Having information is useful, especially now that you’re going to be a secret agent. The only one who would consent to being your friend was Eugen, a member of the most powerful family in Saar. He had enough coolness and power that even being friends with you couldn’t hurt his reputation. You were always so jealous of him, but you appreciate the friendship. In exchange for the years of kindness, you’ll always help him out if he needs it. None of this kept you from being beaten up a lot. Saar has some good ideas about how to run the government, equality and fairness and everyone participating as much as they are able, yadda yadda. It doesn’t pan out in practice. No amount of fairness in government would stop the other children from making your life hell. You have, however, found a group interested in creating a great equalizer, the Commanaist Party. They want to even out the mana spread across Liberec. Excellent. Fight for the underdogs. Then, about four years ago, you met a man who would change your life (now you only need to meet a woman to do the same. . . ) and tell you about the hope and promise that await you in Kusel. A secret agent. Perotin. This was something you couldn’t – can never – tell anyone, even Eugen. Perotin understood you. He taught you. He was your mentor. He started training you how to be stealthy and suave, how to use new technology to your advantage. After your hours of training for the day were done, he would even teach you skills for the fun of it; he taught you things like basic cooking and glass blowing. One of these times, you made a Glass Teardrop (4437) that you have always kept with you. Perotin knew what it was like to be beaten up by everyone here in Liberec, and for good reason - he was a Mundane who knew about being a Mage. Strange, that. He said that he had a Mage brother and that he’d never learned to keep his mouth shut. But the real reason he knew lots about being a Mage, lots of secrets about the government in Liberec, was because he was here as a secret agent.

Dionyz 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dionyz (Jonathan Chapman) / Character Sheet

The higher-ups in Kusel had approached him long ago and promised him a new life in Kusel at the end of this year. A new life, with riches and power and women, basically anything he wanted. A new life away from the storms (he said that Kusel has weather patterns that are much more benign). A new life protected by a powerful army. A new life where everyone has to be nice to you, suck up to you. A new life in Kusel, which is known for its interesting technology. A new life where you would be allowed to study this new technology without fear of social repercussions. (You’ve heard the same rumors everyone else has, about Kusel and its use of MAGITECH. Unlike everyone else, instead of being scared of it, you are intrigued by the prospect. It’s technology, new and different. Shiny.) After being trod upon his entire life, Perotin was looking forward to the upcoming boat to Kusel, to leave Liberec forever. Perotin said that you could get the same deal, that he’d bring you to the Bazaar and arrange it with the diplomatic envoy. You were so excited. You’d get to be a real secret agent boy. Unfortunately, Perotin disappeared. . . Of course, your magic talent has suddenly started, a year early, since that decision, so now you can get started a year earlier on your Mage training and more effective spying on Liberec, and leave Liberec for good a year earlier than planned. By the way, to better integrate with the residents of Kusel, you want to learn their strange magic craft, Magitech. Besides which, you’ve heard that Magitech can lead to some shiny new tech. But when you arrived at the Bazaar, you found that the Glass Teardrop (4437) was no longer with you. Where could it be? You always kept it with you. But just as you were searching your luggage for the fifth time, an unfamiliar book was found nestled deep under your belongings. What could it be? A message from Perotin? A gift from your soon-to-be peers from Kusel? You’ll figure it out. After all, Perotin wouldn’t have chosen you for the greatest adventure of your life if you weren’t smart. It’s good to be a secret agent. Goals - Find out what happened to Perotin - Get the money, girls, and glory from the spy gig that you deserve - Get a contract where you get to move to Kusel after your Mageship (the same deal Perotin had) - Win the competition among the Teenage Boys to prove to them that you are no longer the skinny, wimpy little kid to be made fun of - Aid Fruit of the Great Mana in their rituals and services - Create some new shiny tech to play with - Help Commanaist Party promote equality and everyone having a fair share - Prove your virility with The Bronze Pandas - See if you can find your Glass Teardrop (4437) - Obtain an apprenticeship to facilitate continued work as a secret agent - Help out your region, Saar Notes - Since it is unpopular in Liberec, you tend to hide your obsession with new technology, especially that made with Magitech. - You should probably write up in-game documents of the secret agent contracts you wish to be signed and confirmed by Kusel. Contacts - Perotin (Emily Rosser): Your mentor - Eugen (JB Parkes): Your close and only friend - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The ambassador from Kusel visiting during this Bazaar. She probably has the power to sign your secret agent contracts. Unfortunately, Perotin never wrote to officials in Kusel about you joining the spy

Dionyz 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dionyz (Jonathan Chapman) / Character Sheet

network and he is missing, so she probably doesn’t know you exist. - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The Head of Fruit of the Great Mana.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #4437

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Commanaist Party - The Bronze Pandas - Fruit of the Great Mana - Saar

Greensheets - Mageball

Abilities - Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - A white powder (9867) - A thick, dense diary in an old-fashioned script (1677) - A white powder (9867) - A white powder (9867) - A white powder (9867) - A white powder (9867) - 150 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: clever, steam, pressure, - Age: 15 poison berries, lazy, gap, heavy - α: 4 - Leadership Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Engineering Ability: 5 - Logic Ability: 6

Dionyz 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dominik (Nathan Serrano) / Character Sheet

Dominik

“I don’t get political points for being an idealist, I have to do the best I can with what I have.” – Lt. James Gordon “The Watchman’s helmet isn’t like a crown. Even when you take it off, you’re still wearing it.” – Commander Samuel Vimes “No excuses. No excuses at all. Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses.” – Commander Samuel Vimes “Do you think it’s possible for an entire nation to be insane?” – Commander Samuel Vimes

There are days–days you don’t care to acknowledge–when you wonder what your life would be like if The Mages’ Council did not run the country. Would your family– with a history of little magic and too many brains–have had a chance at en- trepreneurial greatness? Would your mother not have worked long nights at the palace for a living wage? Would your younger brother have had something to entertain his mind? Would you spend your days doing something other than cleaning up other peoples’ messes without a single damned way of preventing them from ever happening? Then again, years of observation have taught you a lot about human nature, and you figure there’ll probably always be someone greedy or power-hungry or just downright stupid making a mess for you to clean up. Whether it was the antics of your younger brother as a child–he was always resentful–to drug dealers accidentally selling the wrong dosages to their clients and the poor chumps lying dead in your streets and the pointless crimes and killings that are swept under the radar while the weather terrorizes Liberec. Oh, you know how important the Mages are to the world. You won’t ever begrudge them the acclaim and support that being the protectors of the country deserve. But there’s a difference between protecting the world and keeping it running. They’re needed out there, keeping the weather from tearing everyone to pieces– but it sometimes gets to you that they’re the ones making laws, running the country. In the name of God, their job is to handle the weather, not be even remotely useful on a day-to-day basis of keeping everything going. You know the current Head of Council, Erica, because she has worked in Wiltz during her term as a Mage. She’s surprisingly competent, for a Mage, but not everyone has her competence. Besides, the Mages just don’t have the kind of attention to spare for this sort of thing. It’s one of the reasons you support The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages as strongly as you do. Some of the Mages may come from backgrounds to understand what those unlucky enough to live without all that power, responsibility, and its rewards go through. Still, you have always felt that Liberec is made up mostly of those without magic, and that they should have the greater say in what happens to their lives. You grew up in Wiltz, walking her streets and learning about her people. By the time you took a few years off to work in Port Vianden–to expand your horizons, have a challenge of somewhere new (and to get away from your irritatingly brilliant younger brother)–you already knew the city so well you could tell by the feel of the stones under your boots which neighborhood you were in. You never learned your way around Port Vianden quite as well, during your five years or so there, but you did learn a lot about how to deal with unfamiliar situations. It was even better for training your detective skills than working with the police in Wiltz. While you were there, one of your biggest cases was a two-year-plus investigation into the disappearances of some of the dock rats and other orphans around the town. Almost no one even noticed when it was happening–who was gonna notice a bunch of street kids?–but you doggedly tracked what you could for the middle half of your tenure with the police force of Port Vianden. To this day, you’re not entirely sure what happened to those children. A few months before you were finally ordered to close the case file, a huge crop of children reappeared from the ether. About that time, more orphans disappeared–and the few children you managed to track down refused to talk. You could never quite tell whether it was from trauma, fear, or some bizarre (and probably twisted) form of loyalty. The most you have been able to determine, after all these years, is that there was some mess

Dominik 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dominik (Nathan Serrano) / Character Sheet involving mercantile ships, smuggling, or possibly human trafficking. Within a year of closing the file on that–with no leads to follow, there was nothing else you could do–and soon after you were transferred back to Wiltz. You belong here, anyway. You moved back sixteen years ago–just under seventeen years since the case file on those missing children closed. You still keep feelers out, in case anything opens up again on it. It was the one case you couldn’t break, and you were young. You’re older now, and wiser, and probably a lot more cynical, but somewhere at the back of your mind you still want to work out the tangle you only caught the frayed edges of, and apprehend any responsible if you can follow any remaining threads back to them. In the mean time, however, you’ve also got other problems on your hands. You’ve already had word from your sources that there was a fight between two talented mage candidates in the Bazaar–one that went further than it should. The witness couldn’t identify either combatant, nor did she stick around (after all, she was Mundane), so you don’t know how badly injured either of them were. On the other hand, no one reported any children missing yet, so you can only ask around and hope for the best. Far more troubling than that report, however, is one left completely anonymously. You wish rather viciously that you had any way of tracking who left the tip, but the best you have, at the moment, is that Iva has gone missing. One of the major political players of Liberec and a candidate for leadership for the next legislative year, if she’s in trouble there will be hell to pay. But, then again, if you do your job right, the person doing the paying will be the one behind it. You’re sick and tired of people breaking the law in your city, and one of those laws which is almost never enforced is the one about illegal substances. You’re damn certain that the Bazaar is always a place of extensive dealing, but the major problem is you’re also pretty sure there are Mages involved in the trade. You’d love to be able to nail them if you can, but at this point, there are no guarantees. It’s the problem with having Mages think they’re above the little things, like the law. And things always get lost, with all the people and Mages wandering around–things like the strange Stone Crown (3721) you got off a street urchin looking for a quick couple of coins. You were nearest the Village delegation at the time, but given the traffic flow of this time of year, there’s no real way to tell. Speaking of Mages, you also have something to pursue, hopefully, when you take the time to sit in on their council sessions. You recently discovered the Theists, and their belief in a guiding force in this world is one you find rather comforting. After all, the concept of someone above the fickle, ever- destructive flow of mana or the vagaries of the Mages having a plan and directing those below is one you want to be able to believe in, even if you still think that those without magic need to take some control over their own lives. Once again concerning Mages (God, there always seem to be more of the buggers than there actually are by numbers), you want to give Julius’ body one more look over. Yes, he died of natural causes–but frankly? That in of itself is bizarre beyond all words. He’s a Mage, not past his term of service–only twenty-five or so years old–living in Saar, and he didn’t die of a hurricane? That’s just not normal. You want to do one more autopsy to be sure. All of these problems with Mages recently has reminded you of a long-time issue: Chief of Police you may be (and true, most people are Mundanes and respect the badge as such), but you honestly have no way of dealing with Mages who try to circumvent the law. They’re simply too strong with their magic to necessarily have adequate combat readiness. However, you’ve put a lot of effort into theories over the years–on your off hours, of course–into a possible weapon to have ranged capabilities. Even closer to home, though, are two problems: one more minor and purely a personal problem; the other being potentially a true concern, depending on how far it goes. The first is that your Magnifying Glass (3423)–which the chief of police before you passed on along with his office–which has mysteriously gone missing. You’re not sure it has any value to anyone except you, but to you? It’s one of those things, like your badge. You must find it. The other, and possibly more serious problem, is that one of your subordinates–Klement, from Mons–seems to have developed ambitions. It’s not that you want to deal with playing the politics against him, but... you remember when he was one of the candidates for apprenticeship, and it wasn’t even at the same Bazaar as the current Council Mages. He’s too damn young for this. It’s almost adorable, really, how he seems to think he can take over the whole operation. Hopefully his ambitions won’t get the better of him, but you should keep an eye on him anyway.

Dominik 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dominik (Nathan Serrano) / Character Sheet

In a way, you can’t wait for the end of the Bazaar. Status quo is keeping the world running while the Mages go out and save the world; all of them in one place just makes it that much harder. Here’s to hoping none of them tries to break the whole damn country. Not on your watch. Also, while you’ve been in Wiltz for quite a while, you’d still like to make sure it recieves its share of Mages Goals - Ensure that all crimes committed during the Bazaar are solved - Get more rights for Mundanes - Help the Theists get recognition, and spread the word of a higher power. - Find your lost Magnifying Glass (3423). - Find out what happened to Iva. - Ensure that you keep your position as Police Chief in Wiltz. - Prevent fights from breaking out outside of the Dueling Arena. - Find some way of being able to defend yourself against the power that Mages are wielding. Contacts - Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov): A Void Mage, and an under-cover cop. - Klement (Daniel Gray): A young cop from out of town. He thinks he’ll get your job. - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The head of the Council this year, and she’s worked in Wiltz. Competent, for a Mage. - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The prince, and the representative of the Royal Family since the king can’t be bothered. - Garomil (Telmo Correa): Last year’s head of Council. - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The king of Liberec. You rarely have contact with him, but sometimes official business happens. - Marcela (Jessie Lowell): The king’s bastard sister, who might be more competent to go to than the young prince, should anything important arise. - Eliska (Gillian Guertin): The Army Recruiter for Wiltz. You sometimes direct young mages towards her.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #3423

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Wiltz - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - Theists

Greensheets - Searching for Iva (out-of-game notebook)- Investigating the Damage from the Fight (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Gossip with the Public

Items - Stone Crown (3721) - 350 liberyen - Constructing a Ranged Mundane Weapon (in-game notebook)

Dominik 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Dominik (Nathan Serrano) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 3 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 40 - Leadership Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Logic Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 5

Dominik 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Drahomir (Daniel Kane) / Character Sheet

Drahomir

“A certain recluse, I know not who, once said that no bonds attached him to this life, and the only thing he would regret leaving was the sky.” – Kenko Yoshida “A scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is not fit to be deemed a scholar.” – Lao Tzu

How you miss the peace and quiet of home. You haven’t even been gone for that long, yet. Of course, Mons has not always been your home. You were born and bred in Wiltz around the castle where much of your family lived. Anything you wanted was always obtainable, as your mother was the first cousin of the king. You never were in the spotlight like your second cousin Harold, thank the Great Mana. At your Bazaar, everything worked out perfectly for you (your royal connections didn’t hurt in getting everything to work out perfectly). You got everything you ever wanted. You were apprenticed to the Fire Mage and Scholar Drey, who taught you much about the most prestigious type of Magic in Liberec as well as stretched your mind with conjectures as to how mana and Magic work. In addition, as a Fire Mage (who would surely become infertile shortly after marriage due to the particular problem with Fire Magic), you were not required to marry. You were given an exemption from the Mage family promotion laws. Excellent; you don’t really like people, never have, never will, and you certainly don’t want to be stuck living with another person for the rest of your life. You like your peace and quiet. The best thing about working with Drey was that he was from Mons in the middle of nowhere where there were few people to bother him in his work. He was just like you, really. Moving to Mons was the best thing that ever happened to you. You were able to focus on magic, books, and studies, with no distractions from the bloody noisy people. With royal connections still, you were able to requisition more books and magic supplies from Wiltz each year when the Bazaar delegation’s caravan travelled there and back. A year ago, the caravan travelled back with a note from second cousin Harold as well as your supplies. Second Cousin Drahomir, I am pleased to hear that you are progressing so well with your studies. You are now one of the foremost intellectuals of the country, and I know the other Scholars would wish to meet with you if you are ever in Wiltz, such as for the Bazaar during which you’ll be on The Mages’ Council next year (you do remember about that, don’t you, cousin?) or anytime else you’re here in Wiltz. Meanwhile, given your particular position of one of the foremost Scholars in Liberec and your position as a member of the royal family, I thought best to confide in you some top-secret research we are having done. First, I want you to research the genetics of magic. What causes the magic gene to continue on, generation to generation? What causes it to become weaker or stronger? What causes outcroppings of magical talent among the Mundanes or Mundane babies to Mage families? Second, I need you to research the history of the royal family. We continue to hold power, compared to The Mages’ Council, by a tenuous thread. We are still respected for our Mage talent, but half of that is a lie now. You are the only strong Mage our family has produced for a few generations, and no one knows why. Vavrinec is even weaker than most of us; I haven’t seen any Mage talent from him yet. He is fifteen this year and it should be his Bazaar, but I sent him away on a diplomatic mission instead, for the twofold reasons of we can’t afford a war with Kusel right now and Vavrinec would embarrass the royal family at his Bazaar and maybe cause us to be deposed in favor of The Mages’ Council. What could be causing this? Why are we the royal family? There must be some reason. Why have we been losing power and Mage strength over the past ten generations? How can we reverse this trend? You must figure this out without it going public, for publicity would only ruin us. -Harold

Drahomir 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Drahomir (Daniel Kane) / Character Sheet

You need to figure out what is happening with the royal family, and soon, before Vavrinec embarrasses the family into being dethroned. However, your research and experiments over the past year have given you some ideas about Mage strength. You should conduct some research and experiments to investigate how to increase the Mage strength of the royal family, especially Vavrinec. Meanwhile, since you must be at Wiltz for the Bazaar this year, you will attempt to put your vast intelligence and experience to good use. First, you will help Scholars investigate the inner workings and physics of magic, especially learning magic. Second, it’s time to fix the awful weather here in Liberec once and for all. You have been invited to assist The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization towards this aim. Third, you’ll be helping Isolationists cut Liberec off from the world. Much like you like your peace and quiet, the entire country would be better off if only it had some more peace and quiet. Fourth, you will do what you have to with The Mages’ Council to get resolutions passed to protect the peace and quiet of your life. The last thing you want is war, or this continued contact with Kusel–and if you can keep radical politics from setting Liberec metaphorically aflame as well, so much the better. Last, you’ll retire back to Mons with an apprentice as reclusive and anti-socialization as you are. And then, finally, life will be good again. Goals - Investigate the history of the royal family, from pre-Catastrophe to their recent waning of magical power - Fix the waning magical power of the royal family such that they are, properly, the strongest Mages around - Research the genetics of magic - Help The Mages’ Council pass laws to help Liberec and protect the power of the royal family - Help Mons achieve its political aims and keep people from intruding on your blessed peace and quiet - Avoid war with Kusel – they’ll just come stomping through Mons again, like so many years ago, and interrupt all of your experiments - Investigate the physics of magic with Scholars - Fix the Liberec weather with The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization - Cut yourself off from more of the world with Isolationists - Get an apprentice who likes the reclusive life as you do Notes - You are genuinely loyal to the royal family and are generally amenable to their requests. Contacts - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The prince of Liberec, your second cousin once removed - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The king of Liberec, your second cousin - Marcela (Jessie Lowell): Harold’s bastard half-sister - Cenek (Andrew Clough): A Mind Mage and one of the Mages living closest geographically to you, married to Iva - Iva (Beth Baniszewski): An Earth Mage and one of the Mages living closest geographically to you, married to Cenek. She was on the council a few years ago, and will be running for head of council this year. - Ivan (Shawn Westerdale): A Mage Candidate from Wendel and member of Isolationists.

Memory/Event Packets - σ

Drahomir 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Drahomir (Daniel Kane) / Character Sheet

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Scholars - Mons - Isolationists - The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage - Sense Magic

Items - Bronze Key (3836)- 450 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Genetics Ability: 7 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 7

Drahomir 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eliska (Gillian Guertin) / Character Sheet

Eliska

“My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.” – Evil Overlord List

Ten years ago, the world ended for you. You failed to learn enough fire magic in order to qualify for an apprenticeship. Nine years ago, you tried again. You got a fresh start and tried learning a new branch of magic. Unfortunately, as you quickly progressed through the levels, you realized that you had stumbled upon a magic unlike anything that had been seen before. You would have gone before the council regarding your discovery, but you had seen Nikolai go in front of The Mages’ Council and now he has to train the next ten years of Mages in the art of Void magic. You didn’t yet know what you wanted to do with your life, but that was something you wanted to avoid. So, deciding that returning home wasn’t an option that year, you went and spoke with Gareth, the Army recruiter at the Bazaar that year. In a few short hours, you signed the next ten years of your life away to the army. At the end of the Bazaar, you loaded your few belongings onto the army caravan, and spent the next four days traveling towards the training camp in Mons. Your first day there, you were asked to learn and perform some low-level battle magic. Luckily, you had already learned some fire combat magic, and were able to cast the spells they taught. Over the next few months, you were put through your paces and finally graduated boot camp. You were stationed at Mons after finishing boot camp along with a group of other mundanes whose grasp of magic wasn’t that strong. Your group was also paired with a troop of ten mundanes who weren’t capable of learning any magic. Over time, you grew closer together patrolling the border of Mons. Unfortunately, occasionally your merry band of people were caught by the officers to be doing recreational drugs, and were sent as punishment out beyond Mons to patrol the wastelands. It was during one of these punishments that you came across a small pamphlet about the magic you had learned during your second Bazaar. It was buried on the edge of a swampland, potentially a remnant from before the catastrophe. When you returned with your group, you spent almost every night trying to learn more about the magic. At first, you could only create small sparks of electricity, but overtime you created more expansive examples of Magitech. One time, you even created a freak lightning storm that caused Storm Mages to be called in as you struggled inside the barracks to control it. It was during this experimentation that you were discovered by Carlos practicing behind the barracks. Luckily, he realized the potential of Magitech to boost the army’s power and to help better understand the magic of Kusel, that he continued to allow you to practice it and secret and didn’t inform anyone about your talent. It was around the same time, that you lost the pamphlet you had been learning from during one of your patrols around Mons. It wasn’t that big of a lose, since you already knew most of what was in it, but you still would like to find out more about Magitech. Since that day, you have slowly been experimenting with using it with different things. Carlos has helped in that regard by bringing old and broken devices that the army doesn’t need anymore or that have been discovered out beyond Mons. You appreciate being able to learn more about this strange new magic while in the army. About four years ago, you were chosen to go to Port Vianden to act as an army recruiter for the Mages and mundanes in that area. You were chosen since you had family in that area and were one of the more vocal mundanes, and since you didn’t seem to be capable of grasping the more important battle magic spells. Little did they know, that you had slowly been adapting what they taught you for Magitech. Both you and Carlos had agreed that it was best to keep pretenses up, and not reveal your use of Magitech until it was really needed or the Council approved it. A lot of people were still anxious about the existence of Void Mages, and the army didn’t need another reason to be hated. During your time as a recruiter at Port Vianden, you’ve convinced a large number of mundanes returning from their second Bazaar to give up being a Mage, and to join the army. You’ve even been able to tempt a few who have only been to their first Bazaar to join the army. With the huge turn around that you have had with recruitment, two years ago you were elected to go to Wiltz during the Bazaar and recruit right there, right after people’s hopes are drowned. The time you’ve had to be in Wiltz during the Bazaar has

Eliska 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eliska (Gillian Guertin) / Character Sheet been some of the best that you have spent. Its given you a chance to get at people more directly, and it also gives you a chance to look through Wiltz’s expansive library. The last time you were there, you discovered a small hidden recess in one of the books, which contained a stick with a crow’s head, being turned by some sort of magic. It looks like some combination of Magitech and a children’s toy. This year, you’d like to keep a greater look out for signs of others performing and learning Magitech. Also while here, you’d like to help improve the status of mundanes and adepts by helping out The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages. It would be so much easier to convince the candidates to join the army, if they had equal rights. Also, during the last Bazaar, you came across a group who is trying to combine magic and technology in another way. The Society for Applied Manaology are trying to create a contraption that will help solve Liberec’s problems using a combination of magic and a mechanical device to create a thinking machine. While this isn’t the same Magitech you’ve been practicing, you hope that you can work with the group to better understand how they are using this combination of magic and technology. You were approached due to your wide connections, and your talent in mechanics, from having to work with the army’s weaponry. During this Bazaar, you’d like to continue helping the Society for Applied Manaology to see whether they can lead you to more information about Magitech. Also, this year there is a delegation from Kusel that is here as a diplomatic envoy. You’ve heard rumors about their capibilities in a strange magic that sounds a lot like what you practice. Maybe, you’ll be able to find out their capabilities and learn more about Magitech from them. Also, as a member of the Army, you’d like to find out more about their military capabilities and their plans regarding warfare with Liberec. Also, during this Bazaar, your younger cousin Cecilia will be attempting to get an apprenticeship. You don’t want her to be stuck as a Mundane, and would rather have some one in your extended family be a full Mage. You will try to ensure that she becomes a Mage at this Bazaar. In addition, whil at the Bazaar, you’d like to meet with other Explorers of the Ancient Past in order to further explore the remains of Liberec’s ancient past. Most importantly, you want to prevent the delegation from Kusel to learn too much about Liberec’s military potential and weak points. You also don’t want them to make large trade agreements that will provide more power and money too them. It would be a travesty if Liberec were to fund the people who would invade Liberec. Also, you’d like to get The Mages’ Council to legalize Magitech as a form of magic, without letting out that you have been practicing it until you are well away from Wiltz. Also, you’d like to ensure that Port Vianden gets a suitable number of Mages to protect from the harsh weather of the area. You’ve also recently begun to realize that the governance of Liberec is too chaotic, and left too much to personal motives and aspirations. It is time for a new force to take control of Liberec. Recently, you’ve talked to a couple of people who you believe can aid you in these goals. However, they each have different beliefs in what to do after the government is overthrown. Yet, they may still be useful until the government is actually gone, and you or someone who believes in the same things you do are in power. You’ve talked with Florian who believes that Liberec should become more united. You’ve convinced her, that the rule of The Mages’ Council is too loose, and is doing Liberec a disservice. With her help, you could stage a coup to unify the country under a source of power and leadership. She seems interested in the idea, but seems unconvinced that the chaos as a result of a coup wouldn’t harm Liberec. Maybe, you should convince her otherwise, and have her help you more willingly. Another person you’ve talked to is Eliska, who you have heard has been organizing martial combat competitions here in Wiltz. You’ve convinced her, that a coup would allow Wiltz to retake its place as the head of Liberec. With The Mages’ Council meeting only yearly, the regions of Liberec seem to have strayed apart, and don’t respect Wiltz’s power. With the help of these two, along with other allies, you should hopefully be able to save Liberec from the evil corruption of the current government. Recently, you’ve also come across some new forms of drugs while taking the new recruits to drop them off at the training camp. Being the person you are, you are forced to confiscate it, so they don’t lose focus while at boot camp. On some occasions, you’ve had yourself a small dose of drugs on your lonely trip back to Wiltz to catch the caravan to Port Vianden. While you’re here in Wiltz, you’ll also have access to all sorts of physical and magical resources which are normally com- pletely unavailable to you. You want to take this opportunity to do some experimenting with just what you can make with your magic. For instance, a device to take a picture of a landscape–or, say, enemy troop positions–would be incredibly useful, as would

Eliska 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eliska (Gillian Guertin) / Character Sheet research into applying magic to new forms of weaponry. The Bazaar always gives access to minds, magics, and items which are harder to get during the training cycle; best take advantage of it while you can. Goals - Influence more teenagers to join the Army after failing to become a Mage Candidate. - Find out more about the new type of magic that your practice, Magitech. Hopefully, the library will have more information or legends about Magitech. - Try to find others who also practice Magitech. Don’t let the council know about your magic. You don’t want for anyone to have another ten apprentices. - Help The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages get more power to the Mundanes, it would be helpful in convincing Mage Candidates that they don’t really want to be Mages. - Figure out what type of threat Kusel poses to Liberec. Try to find out what they know about Magitech and get any military and Magitech intelligence they have. - Make sure that Cecilia, your younger cousin, becomes apprenticed this year. - Prevent money and resources from being given directly or indirectly to Kusel. - Make sure Port Vianden gets enough Mages. - Explore the ruins around Wiltz, and see what sort of mysteries you can uncover. - Overthrow the government of Liberec with the help of Raina and Florian. Notes - You first joined the army during your second Bazaar. - You have been practicing Magitech for the last nine years, however to everyone else except your commanding officer, you are a weak Fire Mage who can only cause small fires. This is part of why you were chosen to be the Army Recruiter in Port Vianden. Contacts - Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov): The poor Void Mage who has had to teach ten years of apprentices. - Dominik (Nathan Serrano): The Police Chief of Wiltz. He has always been willing to help spot and direct young Mages towards you and the army. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of the Bazaar, he has given you space these last few years to recruit people into the army. - Cecilia (Ceres Lee): Your younger cousin, is trying to get a Mage contract this year. - Raina (Piper Hunt): An Animal Mage on the Council interested in helping you take over the government. - Florian (Jim Waldrop): A Mageball player interested in helping you take over the government.

Memory/Event Packets - φ

Bluesheets - Society for Applied Manaology - Port Vianden - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - Explorers of the Ancient Past

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Level 6 Mage - Gossip with the Public - Level 1 Mage

Eliska 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eliska (Gillian Guertin) / Character Sheet

Items - Building a Mana-Photographic Device (in-game notebook)- 450 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Leadership Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Engineering Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 3

Eliska 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Elyzha (Sally Guthrie) / Character Sheet

Elyzha

“You must save the eye that does not see. You must not kill the one who is already dead. And, failing all else, at the last, you must surrender to your greatest fear, knowing that it will destroy you.” – J Michael Straczynski

You have seen a vision of what Kusel could be. It came to you one night, a vivid vision of the strength and power for Kusel in a possible future. You have also seen destruction, total annihilation, at the end of a slow and multi-generation war sparked with Liberec. You can’t allow that to happen. Both countries will just slowly grind each other to bits until there is nothing left to grind, then grind a while longer. You cannot stand for this heartbreak, this slow and agonizing torture, a snails-pace war killing off all hope for the future. You refuse to let it happen. Still, these are only possible futures. Your visions, your prophecy, and even your stronger-than-strong Mind Magic come from your gods, from chaos. All around you, there is chaos. Pure and simple, a continuous struggle to survive, all around you. Natural growth expands in every direction, in order to succeed in one. Animals fight and eat each other in a neverending conflict. All you’ve ever known of order is that which is imposed by the artificial figures of authority in Kusel. Such chaos forms beauty, improved by randomness in attempted extensions. Such beauty from chaos can only imply that all of creation could only be by design, intentionally made flexible that random variations supplement and add to creation. Order, imposed by the imperfect humans with imperfect ideals, leads only to death and destruction. For life, beauty, and evolution to even survive in this world, there must have been someone to create it, to guide it, to nurture it through the worst. How else could there have been even a little saved from the horrors of the apocalypses in Liberec, if not by the will of a consciousness with a greater design? Even the single god worshipped by most of Kusel can’t account for Liberec surviving the Cataclysm, because without chaos and evolution, they never would have, and Kusel’s religion’s one god is far too concerned with order and law. However, for years you’ve been reading the tales of the eternal struggle between the god of evolution, chaos triumphant–and the agent of artificially imposed order and structure, limiting the development of the world. In your life, you’ve always been a devotee of the aggressive improvements on the world that Naten Aowbmi encourages, and opposed Nuhen Aonro’s artificialty and restrictions. Some years ago, the Storm Mage Emperor of Kusel disappeared – he was always an independent sort, taking affairs into his own hands. A few short weeks later, a ‘new’ Storm Mage showed up on the steps of the palace, Gabriel, offering his services stopping any storms threatening Kusel. It was really not the best disguise ever, but it wasn’t your place to correct the Emperor. You merely helped run everything during his continued ‘absence.’ However, the Emperor is still masquerading as Gabriel, so something must be wrong such that he cannot come back. If you can figure out what is wrong, perhaps the Emperor could come back and take the reins on running his own country again. It certainly is going to the dogs without him. Last year, Vavrinec, the prince of Liberec, came to Kusel on a diplomatic mission. You attempted to lead him in circles, keeping him from seeing the neglect toward Kusel’s future. The facade only worked for so long. You regrettably had to tether his mind to yours, to keep him in control, not spilling the secrets of the crumbling Kusel and instead acting in the role of spy. Now, at the Bazaar, the once yearly gathering of the most important and influenctial persons from around Liberec, you’ll have to keep an even closer eye on him. Make sure he doesn’t spill any state secrets and that the peace between Liberec and Kusel remains intact. You have also been in Mind contact with another spy, Julius, for many years. In the past few months, he has gone strangely silent. You would like to find out why and retrieve any information he has collected over the course of the last many years.

Elyzha 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Elyzha (Sally Guthrie) / Character Sheet

All of this, of course, is important. However, that doesn’t stop you from worrying about your children. Your children, your twins, your babies, Sylvia and Vincent. Sixteen years ago, you had a whirlwind romance with an ex-Mage from Liberec, Vezen. He had moved to Kusel for a new life after his term as a Mage expired; he was extremely valuable in Kusel for his knowledge of Storm Magic, a type of magic which only crops up in the emperor’s family. Some years after he moved, you met him and the romance bloomed quicker than the onset of spring hurricanes. It was perfect, perfect, perfect. You got married after only a few weeks, got pregnant a few days later. Vezen was the best husband you could have asked for. When the twins were born, a boy and a girl, you were so happy, but Vezen started acting strangely. You started fighting, fiercely. Vezen couldn’t agree with you on anything, from where and how to raise the twins to what to eat for dinner. Vezen even wanted to raise the twins in Liberec, to help save that forsaken country from its gods-damned weather. How could you leave your home, take your babes away from a safe and happy life, to save people you’ve never met? It didn’t make sense. Then one day, before the twins were three months old, Vezen vanished, taking the twins with him. It was one of the random occurrances from Naten Aowbmi which turns out to not be favorable. It is the price of the chance at greatness. You combed Kusel for them for years, but they couldn’t be found. Vezen must have actually taken the children to Liberec, a place you have no desire to visit and in which you have no contacts. There was only one remaining way to find your children, to wait. Liberec would be a nearly impossible place to find your children. If you went there, it would be difficult to navigate, and no one would talk to you. Liberec is nothing if not inconsistent about all things all the time, there are no patterns to exploit. Even your vast Mind Magic and prophetic talents abandoned you in your pursuit of your children. Yet Liberec has one consistent, exploitable, weakness. All magically talented teenagers are ferried to Wiltz in a vast meat market (both for Mageships and for marriages) at the age of 15, and this is the year that your twins would be 15 years old. The twins of course have vast magical talents, being the children of Vezen, a respectable and strong Storm Mage, and yourself, the greatest Mind Mage of the era. This is your only chance to find your children in this gods-forsaken country. You don’t know how you could possibly recognize them, but there must be a way. The other members of Kusel delegation do not know about your search for your children, and it might be best to not inform them until after the children have been found – after all, you wouldn’t want any cracks in your facade of power and strength, and your children are your only weakness. Goals - Keep Vavrinec in check, making sure he doesn’t spill any state secrets - Fix any potential problems keeping the Emperor from coming back from his disguise so that Kusel can finally have a leader again - Prevent the possible destruction of Liberec and Kusel; keep the peace - Find out what happened to Julius and get the information he has collected as a spy for the past many years - Find your children and have them come back with the delegation to join you Notes - Since you are a remote part, you may mechanic people at the Bazaar communicating with you by emails (in-game represen- tation is they send a note to your kludgite-secure NPC Mind Mage representative at the Bazaar). Make sure to let those you contact know that this is in-game communication. You may also communicate via phone using standard Mind Mage rules (assume that you have an infinite supply of any required herbs for communication-related Mind Magic spells). - You are still in Kusel. You allow Nephilim and Gabriel to deal with most issues which arise, and just try to arrange things behind the scenes.

Elyzha 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Elyzha (Sally Guthrie) / Character Sheet

Contacts - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The prince of Liberec, who you have under some control in the form of a brainwashing leash - Julius (Mark Mascaro): A longtime spy for Kusel - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The ambassador to Liberec - Gabriel (Daniel Grazian): Officially the attache and bodyguard to Nephilim, actually Kusel Emperor in really ineffective disguise - ???: Your beautiful daughter you haven’t seen for 15 years - ???: Your handsome son you haven’t seen for 15 years

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Kusel

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Level 6 Mage

Items - none

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 57 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Psychology Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 2

Elyzha 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Emil (Eli Stickgold) / Character Sheet

Emil

“I’d like to live just long enough to be there when they cut off your head and stick it on a pike as a warning to the next ten generations that some favors come with too high a price. I would look up at your lifeless eyes and wave like this.” – Vir Cotto, Babylon 5 “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time.” – Bill Gates

Some days, you just felt like there wasn’t a single thing you could get right. You never really did fit in–and coming from Port Vianden, that’s saying a lot. In Port Vianden, there are ideas and trade with the outside world, ideas from all over Liberec and even a few from Kusel. Then again, maybe that was the problem. You’re not sure where the trouble started, really. It might have been when you were five, and asked your father who it was that had made Liberec. “Not who, what,” he tried to explain, over and over. Not just Father, either: teachers at school, sometimes even Otakar, the few times you tried to talk about it with him. The other boys would just laugh and shove you away, maybe take your latest idea away too; the girls would make comments–sometimes ones that seemed kind until you realized they were only being snide. They never seemed to understand what seems so obvious to you. All around you, there is order. Pure and simple, a structure and logic to everything around you. The walls of buildings are straight. Day follows night, follows day in an endless cycle. All you’ve ever known of chaos is that which is brought on by the storms, earthquakes–the scourges of Liberec. Such carefully formed beauty, following such basic principles, could only be by design. Randomness, you have seen from the weather, leads only to death and destruction. For life, beauty, and order to even survive in such a harsh world as Liberec, there must have been someone to create it, to guide it, to nurture it through the worst. How else could there have been even a little saved from the horrors of the Cataclysm, or the rest of your family saved by the weather patterns which your father said took your mother’s life when you were still just a baby, if not by the will of a consciousness with a greater design? No matter what anyone said, the Great Mana didn’t seem to be an idea which supported an ability to have such vision, such perfect awareness and plan for the future. Nor does it account for the chaos which so maliciously rips apart the lives of Liberecines. At the last you found the tales of the eternal struggle between the god of creation, order, destiny–and the agent of chaos and destruction. That was when you devoted your life to finding ways even you, the weak and small, could oppose Naten Aowbmi’s malevo- lent attacks, and better serve the greater designs of Nuhen Aonro and help his creation grow. Most people, though, just can’t see the beautiful logic of the world, and very young you stopped even knowing how to talk to them. It never helped that you have always been smaller than all the other boys. Smaller, weaker–and smarter, too. It’s part of order, it seems, for the bigger to overwhelm the weaker. And to make it worse, you could never fit into that order. Always tripping over yourself, always dropping things, being the worst thing you could possibly be: an agent of chaos. All around you simple, orderly life seemed to crumble, no matter what you did. Even when you tried to follow all the logic through, to extend it and apply it in new ways, your attempts usually ended in disaster. Something broken, something on fire, people disturbed and yelling and angry, and all you could do was cringe, and say ‘I’m sorry,’ and try to restore what order there had been. And late at night, you speak to Nuhen Aonro, telling him all you hoped to build, and apologizing for not seeing the next layer of the pattern he created. If only you understood it better, you could serve him and his pattern as you should. That’s one of the reasons you first got involved with Mana Cartographers. All the chaos of Liberec is known to revolve around the mana, and maybe, if you study it enough, you can find the pattern that has to be underneath it, no matter what Naten Aowbmi has done to mask and corrupt it. And, once you have found that pattern, you can share it with all the people. Surely they’ll see that it can’t just flow naturally, but must have been a product of a mind concerned with beauty.

Emil 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Emil (Eli Stickgold) / Character Sheet

You’re still not sure why it is that, with all of this so clear to you even from the very earliest of your memories, people like your father and most of the merchants and the like brushed off anything you tried to say, and after a while you learned to keep quiet. At school, some of the other kids even liked to push you around for it. Out of all of them, only Otakar was consistent in not taking your differences as an excuse to push you around. Sure, he didn’t always actually stand up for you, and often as not brushed off whatever you were trying to say, but he never picked on you, and sometimes he would lend a hand when you got cornered by the bigger bullies. You’ve never been quite sure what he thinks of your beliefs about Nuhen Aonro, but you know that, at least, he is not one of the knee-jerk followers of Fruit of the Great Mana. You’ve become confidantes of sorts over the years. In fact, it is the two of you who have devised a plan of sorts. You have never been particularly strong, physically, or really one to make the more traditionally confrontational kinds of moves. However, all your life you’ve thought of designs and patterns, trying to expand on the basic beauty of Nuhen Aonro’s plans, and now? Now you’re away from your father’s ever-disapproving eyes and among a group of those your age who have no preconceptions of your physical and mental prowess. Now you have a chance to exercise both your mind and, maybe, your body. You’ve got plans to do some research into magics and gadgets you can use in such pursuits. You may not be a member of The Bronze Pandas yourself, but hey, you might just surprise Otakar by joining him on the field. He’d like that. In the mean time, the Bazaar provides all sorts of new and powerful opportunities. For one, you can help out the repre- sentatives of Port Vianden in their political goals. It’s certainly something anyone would agree is useful. All your life, you’ve been useless, but if you can find a new order to forge. It could be one built on new, more efficient ways to use magic and even simple mechanics. A world in which your ideas wouldn’t lead to pain and chaos, where your ideas will contribute to the pattern of Nuhen Aonro. The Theists are an organization you’ve heard of that seem to believe in gods. By helping them get recognition, it would be much easier for Nuhen Aonro to be worshipped. Besides the research into methods of matching the physical exploits of the other boys, you also will finally get to start building any of the nifty gizmos you have thought up over the years. You’ve long since thought of a way to capture an image onto mana-sensitive paper–and that is only the beginning. Of course, to do this effectively, it would help to be a strong Mage. Even better, if you have that strength, you can finally fit into the order of things, rather than continuing to upset the balance, maybe even finally have a girl speak to you kindly instead of with derision. You never wanted to have the brute force of the kind of boys Otakar sometimes hangs out with, of course–you’ve known forever that you’ll never fit in that portion of the pattern. However, with magic, not only can help contain the work of Naten Aowbmi’s storms, you can start building your ideas without the flaws in design and get the help you need from other Mages to make those dreams a reality. And it’d be really, really Nuhen-blessed nice to give a cheery little wave to everyone who thought you couldn’t be as good or better than the boys who were bigger, stronger, and nastier than you. Brains over brawn–and it’s time to prove it. Goals - Build stuff, especially a Camera (4602) in order to document your inventions - Spread the word about Nuhen Aonro, and warn people of Naten Aowbmi’s evil - Become a Mage and get hired - Prove yourself with the Teenage Boys - Help make sure The Mages’ Council makes some sort of treaty with Kusel, in order to minimize disagreements between them - Help Theists get a position as a recognized religious group. With such a group, spreading the word of Nuhen Aonro will become easier - Help Mana Cartographers chart the lines of mana around Liberec - Show that you are strong as the The Bronze Pandas

Emil 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Emil (Eli Stickgold) / Character Sheet

- Make sure that your actions further the pattern of Nuhen Aonro, rather than the chaos of Naten Aowbmi Contacts - Otakar (Erik Chen): A good friend of yours from Port Vianden. - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The head of the brainwashed religious group, Fruit of the Great Mana.

Memory/Event Packets - Open if you learn the spell ’Sending’

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Theists - Port Vianden - Mana Cartographers

Greensheets - Dueling

Abilities - Search word

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - Building a Mana-Photographic Device (in-game notebook) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Dueler’s Training (in-game notebook) - 150 liberyen - The Art of Agile Dueling (in-game notebook)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: impossible, flexible, - Age: 15 flavor, stream, lazy, food, conundrum, climb - α: 4 - Manaology Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 7 - Genetics Ability: 6

Emil 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eric (Xavier Jackson) / Character Sheet

Eric

“Oh no, Mrs. Robinson, oh no... Mrs. Robinson, you got me into your house, you got me a drink, you put on music, now you start opening up your personal life to me and tell me your husband won’t be home for hours. Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me.” – Benjamin, The Graduate

Finally. Your youth is over; a new era of your life begins now, with the Bazaar. Of course, you’d just like a bit of time to yourself, but everyone says that it is a wonderful thing to have so many opportunities and so many devoted friends, so you should probably go out and socialize with them. Maybe. You were a distinguished youth, in studies and athletics, the pride of your community. But you’ll be a Mage soon and you don’t quite understand why everyone focuses on your past accomplishments instead of caring about what you are doing in the present. On the other hand, everyone expects you to have completely thought out your future already, which of course you have not. You don’t know what region you expect to live in, what type of Mage you expect to be, how you’ll make profit or life better for the community in that area, or with which Council Mage you wish to study. You don’t know! You’ve thought of one useful and productive thing to do with your soon-to-be-newfound Mage abilities - build roads every- where in Liberec. Thus, to this end you founded Vianden Zephyr Corporation. There are still a few glitches with the plan, but a few others have signed on, and you’ll see it through. Of course, this will also enable you to keep seeing Ester after the Bazaar sends you off to some random region. . . One of the interesting things you learned while studying in your youth was forgery. You can forge books and make them look old, authentic. Since you’re generally an honest, honorable guy, this is somewhat useless to you. However, a day of practice once led you to discover an entire society based around forging in Liberec, The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts. You’ve kept in touch with them and kept your hand in to investigate and find out what people think is worth forging, what is important to change history about rather than to be up to anything mischievous yourself. If you have a few things to sketchily forge and blend right in, perhaps you’ll be able to discover where people are inserting falsified documents into the Library in Wiltz. You don’t know what you’ll do with that information, though. Maybe you’ll help them, maybe turn them in, it all depends. The important thing, right now, is your relationship with Ester. You met her on a sunny afternoon when she was first arriving in Yudoth, your hometown in Mons, as a missionary from Wiltz. She wanted to build Yudoth a church. She was the Head Priestess of Fruit of the Great Mana, not to mention married to the Head of The Mages’ Council. Yet she was stunningly beautiful. You didn’t see it in the sexual way, not at first, due to the age difference. You helped her with building the church for Yudoth because you could. Your childhood friend Leana was also helping, so you didn’t notice that the extra time with Ester was causing her to act strangely for a day or two. She was taking every opportunity to talk to you, to tell you her secret hopes and dreams and fears, to be alone with you working in close proximity. A few days after her arrival, you finally realized that all of that closeness was indicative of her more carnal interest in you. You were confused, discombobulated at first; you soon grew to think of her, and want her, in that way. When you finally went to her, you found her more than willing. Those short few weeks building the church were filled with hard work during the day and secret passion at night. Who would you ever want after Ester? She is the perfect lover. Sadly, the mission trip took her away from Yudoth far too soon, and she was only able to spend a couple of days there on her way back towards her home in Wiltz (during which time you confirmed that you were in a committed, although completely secret) relationship). The Bazaar is the first chance you’ll have to see her - and sleep with her - since then. Make the most of it.

Eric 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eric (Xavier Jackson) / Character Sheet

On your way here to the Bazaar, some other members of your delegation have been talking to you about the politics of Mons. You want to help in any way you can. First, Mons needs more Mages to cover its vast area - Mages can’t travel to the areas where weather problems are occurring in time to stop them. Also, any trading deal (i.e. with Kusel) needs to be made such that it also benefits those who live outside the two big cities, Wiltz and Port Vianden. One major problem for Mons is that mana is a scarce commodity. The city-dwellers, swimming in mana as they are, do not comprehend the scrimping and saving that goes on every day in Mons just in order to have enough mana to be able to do something about the weather when a disaster is coming. Sometimes there isn’t enough mana to deal with a disaster, too; Mages must sit by and fruitlessly flail around while a disaster of their type ravages the land. Some of the other members of your delegation have had a brilliant idea. Mana comes from mana lines that are near the populated regions of Liberec. Why not move some of this great source of mana from the near-infinite-mana cities into the mana- starved Mons? You’ll definitely help out Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions in order to bring about these changes. You are also connected with the Teenage Boys, but since you are already sleeping with the hottest woman in Liberec, there is not much to be concerned with there. Goals - Have lots of sex with Ester - Avoid getting married to or entangled with any other girls so you can not be distracted from Ester - Get hired in a region which will allow you to continue your relationship with Ester - Build roads everywhere in Liberec with Vianden Zephyr Corporation - Get the Mage Reproduction Laws repealed if possible, to aid your relationship with Ester - Find out what other members of The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts are forging to insert into the Library - Help Mons politically in any way you can - Make sure Mons has the mana required to function by helping Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions - Win respect from Teenage Boys via your relationship with Ester - if you can do that and keep the object of your affections a secret Contacts - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The attractive older woman you’ve been seeing. - Leana (Yelena Tsitkin): A friend of yours from Yudoth

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Vianden Zephyr Corporation - Mons - The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts - Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions

Greensheets - none

Abilities - none

Items - 150 liberyen

Eric 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eric (Xavier Jackson) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: pendulum, luck, dodge, - Age: 15 quiet, listening, color, gap - α: 4 - Research Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Lore Ability: 3 - Logic Ability: 3

Eric 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Erica (Miriam Gershenson) / Character Sheet

Erica

“Babylon 5 was the last of the Babylon stations. There would never be another. It changed the future .. and it changed us. It taught us that we have to create the future .. or others will do it for us. It showed us that we have care for one another, because if we don’t, who will? And that true strength sometimes comes from the most unlikely places. Mostly, though, I think it gave us hope .. that there can always be new beginnings .. even for people like us.” – General Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5 “Ivanova is always right. I will listen to Ivanova. I will not ignore Ivanova’s recommendations. Ivanova is God. And if this ever happens again, Ivanova will personally rip your lungs out. Babylon Control out.” – Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5 “No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There’s always a boom tomorrow. . . . What? Look, somebody’s gotta have some damn perspective around here. Boom. Sooner or later–BOOM!” –Susan Ivanova, Babylon 5

Liberec has never been a place which gives people hope. It is taken as a given that death to a rogue storm could be imminent at any time. The availability of mana in the land determines the fates of the Liberecines, they cannot determine their own fate. An invasion by Kusel or any country from further across the sea could easily decimate the population at any time. As a population constantly on the brink of extinction, the people of Liberec must stick together. Now, even that is fraying. Inflammatory journalists complain about everything from the occasional storm the Mages can’t prevent to the ‘oppression’ of the Mundanes. The very weather has been worryingly worsening – the severity of the series of earthquakes in Wendel eight years ago or the hurricane seven years ago in Saar were far greater than anything Liberec has seen since the Catastrophe. Such things are indicative of another impending apocalypse. Since you value your life, and those of your Mages, you have to stop the imminent apocalypse. Even if it wouldn’t happen for another few years, the next few years’ of Mages (who will form The Mages’ Council for those critical next years after your reign is over) are full of incompetents who would fail to stop it much like the last 20 generations’ worth of Mages. It is up to you. Only you can be trusted to keep this weather-blasted country going in an acceptable direction, to keep everyone even just alive. Unless you are able to save the future years of the Council by changing the turnover of the Council seats and associated Bronze Key (3836)s to allow yourself and your qualified and intelligent peers to stay on The Mages’ Council for additional years, or at least to allow yourself additional years, you’ll need to make sure that the Council turnover gets put in suitable hands. You are in contact with the six leading candidates for Head of Council next year, should the turnover take place as scheduled. All of them seem like wonderful, intelligent, able Mages, but that does not jive with what you’ve heard about those younger Mages. You will not give your support to one of them until you have evidence that he or she is not up to untoward activities and instead has Liberec’s best interest at heart. In this vein, you will be digging up dirt on all of the Head of Council candidates. No luck just yet, but you’re sure that you can find out which ones are and aren’t suited to the job. You’re also interested in the dirt on the Mage Candidates. It is imperative to get the best set of them apprenticed to be Mages for the coming year. In the past, Council approval of apprenticeships has been much a mere rubber stamp, in the face of barely enough Mage Candidates and ambitious Council Mages. Yet things are changing – the army, represented by Eliska at this year’s Bazaar, has become greedier, wanting as many Mage Candidates to instead go into the Liberec Army as possible, the Mageball teams have been luring away some of the best teenagers, and Great Mana knows what else is keeping the most qualified applicants from becoming Mages. No more can apprenticeship approvals be a mere rubber stamp, you want real evidence that each Mage Candidate being approved cares about the best interests of Liberec and that he or she is the most talented Mage Candidate (both in potential and in accomplishments) for that discipline of magic. You’ll also need to find a Mage Candidate to hire yourself, preferably one with no intention of marrying (that being the thorn

Erica 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Erica (Miriam Gershenson) / Character Sheet in the side of a Fire Mage, which is otherwise the most respectable form of magic) and a keen interest in intelligent politics, in other words someone just like you. The only Mage Candidates you already know are your sister Natalia and her boyfriend, Vavrinec. Natalia is a sweet girl and sister, but you would never hire her yourself; it would violate your principles. She must earn her apprenticeship herself, without even the seeming of favoritism by having her sister on The Mages’ Council. Besides which, Natalia cannot become a Fire Mage, as the Prince will surely need an heir. Beyond your duties as an ordinary member of The Mages’ Council, you have additional responsibilities as the Head of Council. First, Nephilim and her attache´ and bodyguard Gabriel are here as the first diplomatic envoy from Kusel to step onto Liberec soil and meet with The Mages’ Council since the Catastrophe. Since the legends clearly indicate that Kusel nearly destroyed Liberec with their giant gleaming, fire-shrouded weapons during the last invasion, their technology is to be feared. It is unnatural and goes against everything that the Great Mana stands for. Still, displaying fear is not your way. Liberec desperately needs a peace accord, but you want it to be as favorable to Liberec as possible, giving Liberecine merchants exclusive trading rights, having access to Kusel’s strange perversion of mana they use in their technology, while still not giving over any tribute. It’s a risky plan, but Liberec’s future cannot afford to become the vassal of a foreign state. Second, you’ve decided that it is high time to sit down and bloody well fix the weather-blasted (quite literally) country. In addition to making any laws necessary to leave your legacy of fixing things, you have formed a committee to fix the weather once and for all, The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime. You must ensure they succeed in their goals and that you get the credit. Third, it is your duty to make sure that all of the Heads of the six regions sit down and play nice to reallocate the Mages among the various regions. The needs of the regions are constantly in flux, and a reallocation to give each region its due is just what is needed. Furthermore, it would be nice if the reallocation adequately reflected the populations of the various regions, which it currently does not. You do slightly resent not being the Head of the Wiltz delegation, that Marcela was instead chosen, but you understand that when a royal bastard – a bastard of the royal family, rather – is up for a Council seat and not competent enough to be made Head of Council, the royal family has to exert their paltry figurehead influence and give their poor relation some consolation prize. Still, almost every Head of Council has been the Head of their delegation that year. Even if it weren’t for any... residual distrust of Marcela’s ability–not that you ever trust anyone but yourself–you also worry about where her politics lie. Being a royalist doesn’t say much, really–but you don’t know. And, well... sure, the way things have been done before has worked, but honestly? Sooner or later, if something’s set in stone, it’ll get too rigid and shatter like glass. Some have called you liberal, but you like to think you only have enough flexibility to evolve to the next step. Well, when all of this is over a year from now, you’ll have finally lost your Fire Magic and the best days of your life will be over. You better make the most of them while you can. And speaking of your magic waning, it might be possible for you to finally get married and not accidentally burn off unfortunate parts of your husband on the wedding night. If you find any likely candidates, your baby will be the second (weather-blasted Matilda beat you to it) child of a Fire Mage ever, the second wonder-child. That’s about it. You’re in charge. The fate of Liberec is in your hands. Are you ready? Goals - Keep order and peace in Liberec, with an iron fist if necessary - Make sure a peace agreement is reached with Kusel and signed by The Mages’ Council and Nephilim - Get a peace agreement which is favorable to Liberec (Liberecines with monopolies on the trade routes, access to Kusel’s technology and attack machines, and giving no tribute) - Fix the weather problems in Liberec

Erica 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Erica (Miriam Gershenson) / Character Sheet

- Leave a legacy as Head of Council which will be remembered for many generations, even past the next apocalypse - Keep the Council fully populated with two Mages of each discipline - Make sure your sister Natalia gets hired as an apprentice and gets married to her boyfriend, Vavrinec - Cause this year’s Bazaar to get the best set of Mage apprentices in history - Assist the Heads of the regions to reallocate Mages among the regions - Keep power out of the hands of those insipid 9th year Mages in favor of the current, competent, Council. . . which would presumably have the side effect of leaving you as Head of Council - Ruin the reputations of the Head of Council candidates that would lead Liberec in unfortunate directions by finding dirt on them. - Ensure that the Head of Council election for next year’s Head of Council elects the best candidate, someone the most like you – if you cannot run again - Find someone to marry for after your Mage abilities stop (because then you could have children and further the Mage lines in Liberec), assuming that you’d no longer burn off his genitals1 - You better find an apprentice, who will live up to your standards and be politically active, leading the country in the proper direction Notes - You are in charge of The Mages’ Council. It is your responsibility to make sure that the Council does everything necessary by the laws and to improve Liberec for the coming year. - Since the royal family doesn’t do any legislation for the people of Liberec or any enforcement (in fact, they don’t do much of anything), you are responsible for the making and enforcing of laws. Contacts - Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger): Your little sister and a Mage Candidate this year - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): Your little sister’s boyfriend, the Prince of Liberec - Garomil (Telmo Correa): Last year’s Head of Council and a formidable man - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The new Ambassador to Liberec from Kusel, the first representative they have ever sent to the Bazaar - Gabriel (Daniel Grazian): The attache´ to the Ambassador of Kusel and bodyguard - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The Mundane organizer of the Bazaar who helps you with administrative details, he also manages a popular Mageball team, The Mageball Lions, in his free time - Dominik (Nathan Serrano): The Chief of Police in Wiltz, he’ll help you keep order - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The King of Liberec, he won’t be attending the Bazaar but wants regular reports on the doings of the Council - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The Head Priestess of Fruit of the Great Mana here in Wiltz, married to Garomil - Marcela (Jessie Lowell): Head of Wiltz delegation, appointed by the royal family because she is the bastard sister to Harold, an Earth Mage - Anastasia (Kevin Chen): Head of Port Vianden delegation, a wealthy merchant, a Storm Mage - Cenek (Andrew Clough): Head of Mons delegation, a caring and intelligent Mind Mage - Lenka (Joy Perkinson): Head of Saar delegation, a ditzy but well-meaning Storm Mage - Sabina (Fangfei Shen): Head of Wendel delegation, a strict but upstanding Earth Mage - Klara (Jason Gonsalves): Head of Oldenburg delegation, a soft-spoken Healing Mage - Matilda (Susan Born): Head of Council candidate, the first Fire Mage to ever have a miracle baby - Iva (Beth Baniszewski): Head of Council candidate, a Storm Mage and leader in the community - Raina (Piper Hunt): Head of Council candidate, an Animal Mage and diplomatic advisor to The Mages’ Council

1It would be useful to find confirmation of this in the Library before bothering with the marriage.

Erica 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Erica (Miriam Gershenson) / Character Sheet

- Pavel (Adam Yedidia): Head of Council candidate, a Mind Mage and a leader, with vast experience governing Oldenburg - Lydia (Kate O’Connor): Head of Council candidate, a social and outgoing Fire Mage, in touch with the populace - Julius (Mark Mascaro): The recently deceased Council Animal Mage

Memory/Event Packets - σ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the - Wiltz Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime

Greensheets - Negotiating the Distribution of Mages

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage

Items - Bronze Key (3836)- 750 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Leadership Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Genetics Ability: 3

Erica 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ester (Andrea Lincoln) / Character Sheet

Ester

“Religion is not a fractional thing that can be doled out in fixed weekly or daily measures as one among various subjects in the school syllabus. It is the truth of our complete being, the consciousness of our personal relationshp with the infinite.” – Rabindranath Tagore “Benjamin, I want you to know that I’m available to you, and if you won’t sleep with me this time... If you won’t sleep with me this time I want you to know that you can call me up anytime you want and we’ll make some kind of arrangement... I find you very attractive.” – Mrs. Robinson, The Graduate

You never loved your husband. Your love was always for the church, for your ambition to become the head of the Fruit of the Great Mana, for the ways of your people. Unfortunately, one of the ways of the people here in Liberec is marriage. Specifically, it functions to ensure that all Mages marry other Mages to further the reproduction of more Mages who would be able to postpone any apocalyptic weather for another precious few years. Blah. Blah. Blah. Still, in your heart you knew you must be true to the ways of your people, even though you never loved him, your pig-headed husband, Garomil. On the other hand, he never loved you either. The Great Mana sees to the needs of all, and it blessed you with that fact, at least. He never loved you. Of course, the rest of the known world knowing that he never loved you, well, that’s a different story. That’s just. . . downright embarrassing. You must stop it! But let’s start from the beginning. Growing up in the shockingly liberal and progressive environment of Port Vianden, your young life was spent as an outcast due to your natural piety and conservatism. The only church of the Fruit of the Great Mana in the entirety of Port Vianden was small and ineffective with a congregation even smaller and more ineffective. Still, you made that small church your entire life, always hoping to become more devoted to the Fruit of the Great Mana and to eventually become the head of the church. You spent the vast majority of your childhood there, in quiet devotion and service. Even after childhood and your own Bazaar, your primary focus was the church. You became an apprentice to an important Mage in the church, learning the nearly useless and unpopular Plant Magic to get the apprenticeship. A few years ago, you finally achieved your dream. You became what you are now, the Head Priestess of the Fruit of the Great Mana. From spending much time in the church, you learned about some of the issues continually plaguing Liberec, primarily its horrible weather patterns. You also heard rumors of hope, possible ways which could theoretically create wards against the weather. This all came to fruition less than a year ago, when the church received an official letter from Cenek asking for volunteers to help explore these theories and create the reality of wards against the weather. What an opportunity! You jumped at the chance, although your brothers and sisters in faith were less enthusiastic, saying that things already were as they were intended to be by the Great Mana. They didn’t see that the Great Mana needs all true believers to have initiative, to do their part, for the Great Mana’s intentions to come into being. Shortly after communicating with Cenek about the possibility of actually creating these wards you had always wanted to investigate, another dream came true. The church approved your request to send a mission to the faith-deprived Mons. Missionary work! This is where the true work of the faithful is. The six-month mission took a month of frantic preparation, then finally, nine months ago, you left for Mons. Since you’d be gone for so long, you insisted that your brothers and sisters in the faith take over the measurements for Cenek and the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters and spent hours painstakingly training them to carefully

Ester 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ester (Andrea Lincoln) / Character Sheet collect the necessary data. You even remembered to leave a note for your husband before leaving, letting him know you’d be gone for a few months bettering the lives of the downtrodden in Mons. The mission changed your life. You learned to love another person. The setup of the mission was for you to spend a few weeks in each of the selected communities in Mons, helping each set up a church, confirming the faith of the residents, teaching about the Great Mana, and otherwise helping their community. (Finally, knowing Plant Magic would come in handy, allowing you to assist in their agricultural efforts! The Great Mana is generous and would want their people to thrive rather than barely scraping together a harvest from the few crops not yet destroyed by the weather. In addition, with your vast knowledge of flora, you would teach them more effective methods of agriculture for use once you’d left.) At the end of this cycle, you would spend a few extra days in each of the communities to oversee the formations of the churches, in form and personnel, to make sure that the communities would successfully complete the work once you’d left. Near the middle of your trip, the mission took you to the community of Yudoth. When you showed up to the planned site for the new church, you spied two teenagers waiting for you and ribbing each other while waiting. “Leana, I said I would help.” “By help, I mean give a proper helping hand in actually getting work done, not run useless errands for the first half hour and then running off to do whatever it is you do with your free time.” “Why do you think I wouldn’t be doing just that?” “Jan’s barn.” “Leana–” “The last time we tried to build a church here.” “L–” “The school house. The time before that we tried to build a church. The pasture fencing...” “Yeah, yeah, I get it! Will you knock it off? I’ll help.” “Good boy. And you’ll actually help with the heavy lifting, and until the lunch break.” “Or what?” “Or I’ll tell everyone who it was who sewed Linnea’s doll.” “...” “It’ll be fun, you’ll see. I’ll even tell you which pies my mother cooked when you get hungry.” Eric was beautiful. You’ll always see him that exact same way, with the bright sunrise beaming down on his face, cheerfully exchanging jibes with his friend. You knew upon seeing him that you wanted him. Propriety, the age gap, the cruelty of rumors. . . they had no place in your thoughts that morning. Your marriage certainly never crossed your mind. His friend, Leana, was also a find. She reminds you of your younger self, impressively proper and intersted in religion considering her community’s lack of religious resources. You encouraged and strengthened her faith as much as you could in the time you were in Yudoth, inspiring her to devote her life to the Fruit of the Great Mana, whenever you weren’t with Eric, of course. It took mere days into the mission being at Yudoth for you to become intimate, in all senses of the word, with Eric. He is gentle, caring, and passionate, as well as beautiful. Shortly after the mission left to go to the next community, you realized that you loved him - the first thing you’d ever loved besides the church, the ways of your people, or your ambition. The return trip to Yudoth, a precious few days checking on the development of their new church, confirmed your love.

Ester 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ester (Andrea Lincoln) / Character Sheet

On the trip returning to Wiltz, you had time to analyze and over-analyze your brief relationship with Eric. Although worried about societal expectations, anxious to know if he felt the same way about you, and excited to see him for his Bazaar in Wiltz in only three months, the fact that Garomil wouldn’t care about the relationship and that you had no reason to tell him was a steady calm amidst your turbulent tides of emotions. You would be almost glad to sense his steady, apathetic presence in the house again. He wasn’t there. While you were gone, he had left you! Could he have heard about you and Eric? No, that would have been impossible, and besides which, he wouldn’t have cared if you took a lover. He never cared about you at all. . . So why did he leave? In fact, where was he? Now, without Eric with you in Wiltz, you took it upon yourself to complete a worthy goal you had heard of in Mons. You joined Mana Cartographers in an effort to try helping those in Mons by mapping the mana lines across Liberec. What better way to honor Fruit of the Great Mana, than charting the Great Mana’s journey across Liberec. Also, now that you are back in Wiltz, you should help out Wiltz during the Bazaar, and ensure they get a fair share of Mages to protect the surrounding areas. Goals - Continue your affair with Eric, making sure he gets assigned to Wiltz and keeping the secrecy. - Save your reputation which was destroyed when Garomil left you and prevent him from further harming your reputation by discovering your affair. - Further the goals of Fruit of the Great Mana and minimize the influence of heretics. - Spread the influence of Fruit of the Great Mana by expanding churches and faith in those with no/small/ineffective churches. - Convince The Mages’ Council to legislate in favor of the church, conservative policies, and mostly keeping the current status quo. - Void Magic is an abomination in the face of the Great Mana. Destroy its practicers, prevent Mage Candidates from studying it, or at least take away its seats on the Council and publicize its facilitation of evil. - Build wards with Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters. - Find at least one dedicated Mage Candidate to become an Inititate in the church. The faith must always be continued by the Mages, or their work shall be for naught. You might even considering taking this person on as your apprentice. - Help with the mapping of mana lines with Mana Cartographers. - Find a decent Plant Mage apprentice if you have time. Notes - As the Head Priestess of Fruit of the Great Mana, you must be an exemplar of morality and standards of life. You must keep people from discovering your relationship with Eric, or you will probably lose your position. - You are moderately conservative and staunchly religious. Let this inform your political choices whenever appropriate. Contacts - Garomil (Telmo Correa): Your pig-headed husband who left you and now resides elsewhere. - Eric (Xavier Jackson): Your lover, one of the Mage Candidates. - Leana (Yelena Tsitkin): A promising young Mage Candidate interested in serving Fruit of the Great Mana. - Cenek (Andrew Clough): A Mind Mage and the head of the Mons delegation, he is leading the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters. - Leana (Yelena Tsitkin): A possible Initiate for Fruit of the Great Mana from Mons - Dionyz (Jonathan Chapman): A Youth Leader and possible Initiate for Fruit of the Great Mana from Saar - Terenza (Lydia Krasilnikova): A possible Initiate for Fruit of the Great Mana from Wendel - Chiara (Kevin Riggle): A possible Initiate for Fruit of the Great Mana from Port Vianden - Iva (Beth Baniszewski): The foremost Priestess in Mons

Ester 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ester (Andrea Lincoln) / Character Sheet

- Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The current head of the Mage’s council. - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The king of Liberec.

Memory/Event Packets - π

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Fruit of the Great Mana - Wiltz - Mana Cartographers - Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters

Greensheets - Herbalism

Abilities - Teaching - Herbalist Wisdom - Desensitized to Drugs - Magically Green Thumb - Level 6 Mage - Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - Bronze Key (3836) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Plant Mage/Farmer Recipe Book (in-game document) - 650 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Genetics Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Theology Ability: 5

Ester 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eugen (JB Parkes) / Character Sheet

Eugen

“We always long for the forbidden things, and desire what is denied us.” – Francois Rabelais

Focus. Focus, Eugen, focus. Remember where you came from; don’t only think about her. Save that for last. Your family has always prided itself on its ability to provide for the community in Saar. Your family had even been given a Bronze Key (3836) to show your status years ago. Now, it has passed down to you and few remember that you have it. The family always has remarkable ability and willingness to serve the community in Saar, so your family has always gotten great respect within Saar and even among the great families of other regions. The family has also always been strong in Storm Magic- in fact, all of your relatives of a magic-using age are Storm Mages except Tibo, who is a Storm Adept on The Mageball Lions. You are expected to be hired as a practicing Storm Mage during this, your first Bazaar. A family of Storm Mages isn’t always a good thing, however. Seven years ago, a large hurricane was threatening Saar. The magnitude of the storm required all available Storm Mages to help prevent it from destroying a major town in Saar. Of course, every practicing Mage in your family volunteered for the job- both of your parents, Aunt Nallya and Uncle Garot, Cousin Tallo, and Aunt Lenka. They all travelled towards the source of the developing hurricane, but only one returned. Lenka. You were suddenly an orphan, to be left to the kindness of other relatives. An orphan. Aunt Nallya and Uncle Garot also left an orphan, your cousin Lucia. Between the six of them, there should have been just barely enough magic power to stop the storm. Lenka came back with a pathetic sob story about the hurricane being more than it seemed and there was nothing any of them could have done to prevent what happened. All they could do was downsize the hurricane. Still, a moderately destructive hurricane hitting a major Saar town and five family members dead... even now, years later, you wonder if there was something that Lenka could have done. You just can’t seem to forgive her for surviving that which killed your parents. Even after she married the charming Dalton (you admit, you always admired him), you couldn’t tolerate her. She wasn’t deserving of him. Needless to say, this little incident has caused you quite a bit of squeamishness about becoming a Storm Mage. Although your family still expects you to apprentice to become a Storm Mage, there is nothing further from your mind. Animal Mages, Plant Mages, Mind Mages, and most other types have much less job hazard. Even Fire Mages and Earth Mages have ways to avoid being killed in the line of work. Just not Storm Mages. An umbrella can only do so much. You were down to only one friend who stuck by you in this stormy time in your life, Dionyz. He’s kind of a clumsy, bumbling, too-skinny oaf with dreams of not being picked on by the other kids, but he’s loyal and forever thankful for your being kind to him when no one else was. You’ve introduced him to the other canidates in Teenage Boys. Your bitterness after the accident found you some new friends, the Templars of the Black Cross. You met Zdenko at last year’s Bazaar and agreed to help him in his brilliant and noble goal of giving you a new Family (now that yours was lost) which will always help you and deserve your trust and love. Also, this Family will be powerful and strong so that they won’t get themselves swept away by a storm, if they are involved in stopping the storm at all (Zdenko values the lives of the members of the Templars of the Black Cross more than stopping a stupid storm). Mutual love, trust, and help will keep the members of the Templars of the Black Cross alive and well for many years. Since your life hasn’t been as hard as theirs (your family actually being one of the more powerful families in Liberec), you are the lowest in the Templars of the Black Cross pecking order, but you don’t mind. You have a Family which will always be there for you. They are the most important people in the world to you. . . except her. When Dalton died, shortly after last year’s Bazaar, the Templars of the Black Cross was there for you. Living under Lenka’s roof, without Dalton, for one more year before you became free at your Bazaar would have been intolerable without your new

Eugen 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eugen (JB Parkes) / Character Sheet friends. The accident also prompted you to discover Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters, a group of Mages and devoted citizens who have been working to develop continually functioning wards, preempting storms around cities and travel routes. Using these wards, Mages could travel to where natural disasters happen to replace the wards when it is safe rather than needing to travel there in the middle of a storm (or earthquake, or cattle stampede, etc). Your studies with that group have taught you a lot about magical research. The research is coming close to completion, and members of the group expect to finish in time to propose the project to The Mages’ Council for official funding during this year’s Bazaar. You found the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters when the head of the group, Cenek, sent a letter to your family (as a highly respected family of Mages) calling for any interested in the project to respond. Although you did not yet have your magic, you had too much of a vested interest in seeing such research implemented that you responded anyway, and Cenek has been using his Mind Magic to give you instructions on how to contribute ever since. You have been working with your friend, Berer, a third-year Mage in the area, on taking detailed observations on magical phenomena in Saar. Still, having been around Storm Mages all your life, you have a lot of knowledge about how they function and what is involved in their work. The wards will probably only be used for large cities and important trade routes. Storm Mages will still be in danger while fighting the many storms which hit in less populated and travelled areas. On your own, you have been developing a protective ritual which will save Storm Mages from danger in their line of work. In addition, the inequitable distribution of mana through the world bothers you. Some regions of the world, such as Wiltz, have an abundant, almost infinite, supply of mana. Other regions, such as parts of Saar and most areas of Mons, have to scrimp and save on spells in order to have enough mana for the major disasters. You have contacted a group, the Commanaist Party, whose members feel as you do about redistribution of mana. You’ll be meeting with them during the Bazaar to further the cause of equitable distribution of the all-important mana. You have been planning for the past year to be working on these issues during the Bazaar. Of course, now that you have met her, spending your time on these things is much less important. Finally. Time to talk about her. Vera. How much is there to say? Mere minutes after arriving at the Bazaar, you started looking around for the Templars of the Black Cross to discuss dueling strategies. You didn’t find them. No matter. It allowed you to meet her. She was just peering around the market when you offered to buy her a pastry. She was rather pretty, and when she smiled at you in thanks, she was absolutely beautiful. Honestly, it was over then and there. The two of you went to sit at the fountain and talk, get to know each other. You were a little surprised, of course, to find out she was from Wendel, even more that she was from the leading family. Shocked is the better term: she was so nice to you. You didn’t think anyone from that family would be anything other than an irritating, stuck up spoiled brat. But she wasn’t-and you liked her even more for it. You were even willing-no, eager-to walk her home. No one in Saar likes the way that Wendel runs their region. Although your experience meeting Vera was charming, your second experience, mere hours after the first, was more than unpleasant. Roland expected you to give him the unquestioned deference and servitude he was accustomed to from his own people. Why would anyone serve him with his refusal to serve his community? He didn’t like you, either. Long experience with the Templars of the Black Cross gave you an immediate solution-violence. You’ve done some magic dueling before, even against experienced Mages. When Roland challenged you to a magical match, you accepted, knowing your experience with the Templars of the Black Cross would give you the upper hand. Even though you knew you could handle yourself, accepting a duel in an abandoned alley (instead of the arena, where everyone would be safe) was stupid. Frankly, you

Eugen 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eugen (JB Parkes) / Character Sheet didn’t think that it would last long enough to matter. The magical sparring match should have ended peacefully with Roland’s surrender after a few spells of minimal effect, but the match kept escalating beyond your expectations. You were doing great and even getting into the duel a bit when Roland suddenly crumpled to the ground. Oh. Shit. You ran off quickly, to get backup. Luckily, you had the Templars of the Black Cross’s contacts to help you clean up the mess. It looked like an accident. Which it was, but you know that the militaristic Wendel will hunt you down like a bloodhound for this little accident. There is still some evidence of your involvement that you hid in your panic, but you don’t remember where – you must find it before anyone else does, or you might become known as a murderer. Normally, with the Templars of the Black Cross to back you up, you wouldn’t care so much about such a reputation. The real reason you can’t tell anyone is her. Mere minutes after killing Roland, you saw her again. She ran up to you, looking for someone but happy to see you anyway. She said that she had come to meet her twin, asked if you had seen a young man named Roland. You couldn’t bring yourself to tell her about what had happened between you and Roland, so you helped her look for him, held her when she discovered the body, and helped her home afterwards. You must not let her find out that you are responsible for Roland’s death. She would never forgive you, even though it was an accident, and you can’t bear the thought of losing your perfect girl so soon after finding her in the first place. You haven’t stopped thinking about her, not once since you met her. It’s not a passing, idle interest this time: she’s the one. And somehow, you’ll find a way to make it work. Goals - Marry Vera. - Cover up your involvement in Roland’s death. - Serve your community in Saar to the best of your ability. - Get hired at the Bazaar as anything other than a Storm Mage. - Help your Family, the Templars of the Black Cross, in everything they do. - Finish the research to create wards with the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters to save lives. - Create a protective ritual to protect Storm Mages. - Further the cause of equitable distribution of mana with the help of the Commanaist Party. Notes - You love living in Saar and will attempt to do so if possible. - You hate Lenka and refuse to trust her on anything. - Your loyalties (in case they conflict) are roughly in the following order: Vera, Templars of the Black Cross, Saar, everything else. Contacts - Vera (Kim Beder): Her. Your true love. - Zdenko (Carter Huffman): The mastermind and head of Templars of the Black Cross. - Cecilia (Ceres Lee): The pessimistic second-in-command of Templars of the Black Cross. - Kveta (Cassie Huang): The best fighter and athlete you’ve ever seen, and a loyal member of Templars of the Black Cross. - Dionyz (Jonathan Chapman): A longtime friend, unpopular but loyal - Lenka (Joy Perkinson): Your aunt, a Storm Mage. You can’t forgive her for surviving the storm that killed your parents. - Lucia (Ami Greene): Your cousin, also orphaned by the hurricane - Cenek (Andrew Clough): The Mind Mage who first contacted you about the Society for the Development of Infrastructure

Eugen 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Eugen (JB Parkes) / Character Sheet

and Its Protection from Disasters and currently running the group’s research - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): Your cousin, also from Saar.

Memory/Event Packets - Open at game start

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Commanaist Party - Templars of the Black Cross - Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its - Saar Protection from Disasters

Greensheets - Dueling- Searching for the Murder Weapons (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Psychlim: True Love - Search word - Search word

Items - Bronze Key (3836) - 200 liberyen - Dueler’s Training (in-game notebook)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: clever, pressure, swift, - Age: 15 vines, reach, climb, slippery - α: 6 - Leadership Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Biology Ability: 5 - Engineering Ability: 3

Eugen 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Femke (Brogan King) / Character Sheet

Femke

“I refuse to accept the idea that it’s okay to sacrifice people for a cause. It’s not okay to lose your life. No life should be born for the sole purpose of dying. . . . I’m not giving up until I find a way for everyone to live.” – Tales of Symphonia “Because necromancy embraces the power of death, just as magic embraces the power of life. And as magic can be twisted and perverted to cruel and destructive ends, necromancy can be turned upon its nature as well. Death can be warded off . . . Life can be served by that dark power, if one’s will and purpose are strong.” – Kumori, Dead Beat “Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once! Everybody LIVES!” – The Doctor, Doctor Who

Since very early on in your life, you have been keenly aware of two things: One, life is glorious and wonderful and every opportunity should be taken to celebrate it. Two, death royally sucks. You grew up in Port Vianden, daughter of a wealthy merchant family who always worried more about your two-years-older sister Claudia than they did about you. But they didn’t love you any the less for it; they encouraged you to play as much as you wanted to, and delighted in hearing your excited tales of all the fascinating things you’d seen and friends you’d met as you skipped through the busy streets outside. When you were thirteen and she fifteen, Claudia went to the Bazaar to try her best to be apprenticed as a Mage. Your parents couldn’t afford to take the time off from work to accompany her, but you so wanted to go and see the capital and all the lovely people there, and you begged and cajoled and frequently reminded them of how much leeway they had given you previously, and finally convinced them to let you join Claudia alone. That Bazaar was a whirlwind of new sights and new experiences; you were having the time of your life, and it delighted you even more to see Claudia so successful in her Mage training. Then the news came. It was the unlikeliest of sources, a Mind Mage from Port Vianden named Marcus, on The Mages’ Council, whom you vaguely knew because Claudia had been trying (with some success) to be hired as his apprentice. He knew a couple of other Mind Mages in Port Vianden, and one of them had told him mentally what had happened . . . it was the only way you would have ever found out so soon. A terrible firestorm, one of the worst in recent memory, had come upon your hometown. The Fire Mages of the city had stopped it quickly, after it had consumed no more than the docks . . . but it was on those docks that your parents had been working, negotiating a last-minute deal with a vessel about to depart. They were well-known in the city, and still perfectly recognizable. They had died of smoke inhalation. Of all the fucked-up ways to go . . . Claudia got apprenticed to Marcus and went back to Port Vianden with him. You couldn’t bear to face the ruins of your old life. With the same spirit of adventure that had propelled you to Wiltz in the first place, you decided to stay and see what kind of a life you could make for yourself. At least money wouldn’t be a problem, not with the wealth your parents had accumulated, the wealth they’d no longer have any worldly use for . . . Stop it. Not thinking about their tragedy. Thinking about happy things. Claudia had taken you along on her first magic-learning shadowrun, but she wouldn’t let you learn any spells yourself (you were too young, in her opinion). You were frustrated, but you knew better than to argue with her . . . so the next two days, you inveigled yourself into different groups of Mage Candidates, and they each took you for a Mage Candidate yourself and allowed you to join them in their learning efforts. The nature of the spell you wound up learning, Drain Life, so offended you that you

Femke 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Femke (Brogan King) / Character Sheet swore you wouldn’t touch magic at all for the next year. Until, that is, you got back to the somewhat ill-reputed inn at which you had been staying. Vendelin, the organizer of the Bazaar, was waiting for you there. One of his favorite Mage Candidates had been telling him about her adventures, and mentioned someone (you) whom Vendelin recognized as not being a registered candidate. He had done a cursory check of your background, and would have left well enough alone were it not for your age—most thirteen-year-olds couldn’t even learn a single spell, or so he said. Well, that just sounded like a challenge! You cast Drain Life on a plant outside the inn, and it withered and died. Upon seeing this, Vendelin became even more intrigued. He casually swept you into the dark alley behind your inn and explained to you, in a hushed voice, that he knew a group of people who could help you realize the full extent of your talents. There would be plenty of power in it for you, you were assured. You didn’t much want power, but you did want to learn, so you accepted his offer to meet them. It transpired after much wasted time and cloak-and-dagger nonsense that Vendelin was a member of the Dark Mages, a secret society of Mages unacknowledged by The Mages’ Council that were trying to gain complete control over the forces of life and death. They showed how they could briefly reanimate corpses, and promised many future developments including a ritual to grant immortality. While they were working on those, though, you’d be more a liability than an asset—after all, you couldn’t do magic “properly” yet. So you were to return to them when you were of an age to be an official Mage Candidate. That got you angry. But you couldn’t focus on your anger for long, not with what they had told you. None of this controlling- the-dead stuff appealed to you, not at all. But immortality . . . How many lives could be spared the pain you went through? How many families could be kept together indefinitely? How many scholars and healers could continue their efforts towards bettering Liberec for centuries? It wouldn’t bring back your parents. But it would be a glimmer of hope for everyone else’s loved ones. If this worked, never again would a family be torn apart by death. Never even a city ravaged by the weather, for if Mages were immortal, they wouldn’t lose their magic through the unnaturally accelerated aging brought on by a decade of fighting the weather. More Mages would keep being born, and would grow up and become trained and add their forces to the fight against an unchanging amount of weather. They would overpower it. You would have saved the world. Your parents’ death had crushed you, but you couldn’t let it rob all the joy from your life; Despair was simply not allowed to claim victory in your view of the world. By not returning to Port Vianden you’d made the conscious decision to put yourself far away from the forces of your sadness. The adults would’ve called this a childish display of denial, so you didn’t ask them what they thought. What did they know, anyway? You were young and passionate and you knew what you wanted to give to the world. It’d be so silly of anyone to try to stand in your way. It seemed implicitly true to you then, and still does, that the greatest things you could do were those in the service of life. You want to be an agent of the forces of good and light and happiness in the world, to make people feel just as strongly attached to life as the news of your parents made you feel dissociated from it. Not the mechanics of life (you’d happily leave the Healing to others) but the emotions of it: you’re happiest when causing others joy. Of course, you’re still young, so you want some adventure and fun in it for yourself too. Your interactions with The Mageball Lions have given you plenty on both sides. Mageball wasn’t much on your radar at first; for the year after that first Bazaar, you mostly spent your time getting to know Wiltz and its inhabitants. You lived frugally, and your parents’ death had left you with buckets of money, so you had no need to find a job. And Wiltz had plenty to get to know! Still, the difficulty of travel in Liberec makes most people quite insular, and by the next time the Bazaar rolled around, you were itching to see more of the country. You’d never met any of the players on The Mageball Lions, but that didn’t stop you from walking up after a game and introducing yourself. Social conventions be damned—you’ve always had a way with people, and true to form, you hit it off with all of them right away. All except Liam, that is; he always seemed a little bit disdainful of you. You have no idea why, and aren’t

Femke 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Femke (Brogan King) / Character Sheet much bothered by it. But Maarten (zealous and fun), Tibo (a little dour, but that just meant you’d be able to improve his mood more), Stef (intriguingly driven), and Florian (oh-so-mysterious but a sweetheart underneath) all liked you and seemed to want you around (who wouldn’t?), and Vendelin remembered your potential and wouldn’t say a word against you. So you wound up following the team wherever their rotating schedule of games took them. It was great! You got to explore all sorts of interesting areas of Liberec, without any restrictions and with some pretty great folks for company. If it weren’t for the actual game, you’d be first in line to sign up to be a Mageball player yourself, but you don’t at all relish the thought of being tied to such a silly contest during the best years of your life. While you’re exploring and having fun in the cities your team visits, they’re usually practicing over and over. And you can’t stand the way in which everyone obsesses over winning. When the team starts getting all mopey over a loss, you tend to run off to find something interesting and non-Mageball to do, shaking your head at their silliness. Their attitude just saps all the fun out of the air. Luckily they do pretty well as a team, so they don’t get into such moods very often. One of the best parts of your time with The Mageball Lions has been the sex. Your parents had told you about the basic mechanics, of course, leaving the impression that it was a fairly dull and icky procedure that no one would perform unless they wanted a child out of it. But Florian swept you off your feet soon after you started hanging out with The Mageball Lions . . . and oh, how your thoughts changed! Sex wasn’t icky—sex was lovely, a perfect way to celebrate life, something you should share with as many people as possible. Pretty soon you were sleeping with everyone on The Mageball Lions (and plenty of people not on the team!) except Liam, who if anything seemed even more disgusted with you for this outreach effort. It was so cute how they each thought they had you to themselves. Most of them weren’t as sweet as Florian, but you still liked them just fine, and really enjoyed being able to “spread the love” as it were. (Speaking of Florian, he’s seemed awfully distant lately; the two of you haven’t slept together in nearly a month! You’re not sure what’s up, but he always clams up when you ask him about his personal life, so you figure it’s best to leave him alone for now.) Not too long ago, Liam deftly pulled you away from the group for a “conversation.” He seemed much more open and interested in you, so you assumed he’d finally gotten over whatever issues she had, and when the two of you were in private you jumped into some rather hands-on flirting with him. Two things happened simultaneously at this point. First, Liam ran off—absolutely bolted. Second, you realized that under all the male clothing, he definitely did not have a body to match. Or should that be she? You might not have had much time to draw a conclusion, but you were pretty familiar with men’s bodies by now, and it just fit too perfectly to draw any other conclusion. Liam was actually a girl—that’s why “he” hadn’t been attracted to you like everyone else on the team, and why so disgusted in general—“he” must have been like that odious woman who tried to sweep you under her wing of MORALRIGHTEOUSNESS! a couple towns back. Thanks but no thanks. Of course, since Mageball is a male-only sport, you now had a surefire way to get back at Liam (or whatever her real name was) if you needed to. You might be nice, but you could never be called a pushover, especially to someone who’s been nasty to you consistently for months. You were all set to blackmail “him” if “he” kept getting in your way, but “he” never did—“he” must have realized you knew, and decided to stay out of your way. And good riddance! Still, you’d love to know why “he” was in disguise. As fun as sex is, it isn’t all you care about—far from it. This year is your Bazaar for real, and that brings with it a host of opportunities. You’ll definitely want to be learning magic. You could try to get recruited by The Mageball Lions, but you hate the game. You could try to get hired as a Mage, but being stuck in one place for a decade sounds like it could seriously backfire; being stationed in Port Vianden or Wiltz would be fine, but you’d rather go through life a Mundane than get marooned in Mons or Oldenburg! Or you could just revel in being around Liberec’s best and brightest, and poke around and get involved in things that interest you. That sounds fun. You’ll get another bite at the Mage apple next year anyway, if you really want it. And now that you’re of proper age, the Dark Mages might actually let you in on their plans. That would be worth devoting

Femke 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Femke (Brogan King) / Character Sheet some serious effort to. Any steps towards practical immortality, even the tiniest, would be paving the way for the greatest boon Liberec might ever see, the best means in your power to further the cause of life.1 You must do everything you can to help the Dark Mages in this goal. Unfortunately, they’re also working on that foul undead army project, which would have the exact opposite effect: lots of death and destruction to put a few mostly-undeserving people in power. If the undead army looks likely to succeed, you’ll do your best to scuttle it; you couldn’t bear to see it devastate Wiltz. You’re working with the Dark Mages because they’re the only ones who know anything at all about immortality—not because you like or trust them. Realistically, as much as you want to figure out eternal life for everyone, you know you’re unlikely to discover in a couple weeks something that’s eluded humanity for millennia. So you’re also working on a more attainable goal with the Servants of the Great Mana: releasing all the mana that’s locked in the earth, so everyone (not just the Mages) can bask in its light! The weather is the primary blight on Liberecine happiness, and mana is the one thing that can fight it; surely it follows that mana is a force for good, and releasing it will make everyone happier. The air will be filled with the exuberance that defines your existence. For all you know, it may even fight the weather directly! Finally, while you may not be a typical teenager, you know the Teenage Girls are working on a way to use Mind Magic to communicate over long distances. With the extent to which you enjoy exploring Liberec, it’d be great to be able to keep in touch with the people you meet in odd corners of the country. You should help them out with the network if you have time. This Bazaar is going to be great! Goals - Celebrate life by having sex with as many people as possible - Learn an interesting type of magic to an advanced level - Research immortality with the Dark Mages - Dissuade the Dark Mages from their undead-army plans, and sabotage them if it becomes necessary - Bring mana out to embrace the world with the Servants of the Great Mana - Make sure The Mageball Lions recruits someone who’d be interesting to travel with, in case you decide to continue hanging out with the team - Figure out why Liam is pretending to be male when “he’s” actually a girl - Help the Teenage Girls get their communication network up and running Notes - You are very sociable and friendly, and will go to great lengths to help people with their problems, as long as such help doesn’t conflict with your fundamental motivation of celebrating life. - You hate death and everything related to it. You are incapable of performing a killing blow or intentionally allowing a wounded person to bleed out. Contacts - Dana (Allison Schneider): The leader of the Dark Mages. She acts tough with her plans for an undead army but you know she has a soft spot somewhere. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of the Bazaar, manager of The Mageball Lions, and another member of the Dark Mages. - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): A member of The Mageball Lions whom you’ve been sleeping with. Kind of crazy and lots of fun. - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): A member of The Mageball Lions whom you’ve been sleeping with. Very mopey, but you like being able to cheer him up. - Florian (Jim Waldrop): A member of The Mageball Lions whom you’ve been sleeping with. A sweetheart, but he’s seemed

1You feel so strongly about this that you mentioned it to Florian recently. You know lots of people have silly taboos about messing with death, but he’s so kind and considerate and you had to tell someone. And it’s not as if you mentioned any of the other Dark Mages.

Femke 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Femke (Brogan King) / Character Sheet

less interested lately . . . - Stef (Pi Lanningham): A member of The Mageball Lions whom you’ve been sleeping with. Gruff and skilled in making various herbal remedies. - Liam (Alex Westbrook): The final member of The Mageball Lions; he just quit in a huff, and you know he’s actually a girl.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Wiltz - Servants of the Great Mana - The Mageball Lions - Teenage Girls - Dark Mages

Greensheets - Herbalism

Abilities - Gossip with the Public- Search word

Items - Love Drugs Recipe Book (in-game document)- 250 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: texture, pressure, - Age: 15 stream, stuck, listening, gap, steam - α: 3 - Leadership Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 4 - Theology Ability: 4

Femke 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Florian (Jim Waldrop) / Character Sheet

Florian

“Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos.” – Will Durant “Order is the shape upon which beauty depends.” – Pearl S. Burck

It’s always seemed to you that the troubles of the world can be mostly ascribed to the undue influence of chaos. Liberec’s weather, violent crime, a megalomaniac’s ambitions, and so on, all derive from imbalances in the fundamental forces that govern our existence. As one of the few who recognize this, you know it’s your job to keep order, by any means necessary. You grew up in Mons, where you lived on a farm just down the road from your best friend Kveta, a young girl a few years younger than you. Your only real regret in leaving Mons is leaving her company (there wasn’t much else of interest there). 1 At your Bazaar four years ago, The Shadow Watchers noticed your conscientiousness and inducted you into their organi- zation. You soon learned that the problems you’d worried over previously—gang violence, Mage Candidate infighting, and the ever-present weather—were nothing compared to an unspeakable evil centered roughly on Oldenburg. The evidence was entirely circumstantial, but fit together too perfectly to be dismissed. An older member of The Shadow Watchers even found a sinister- looking mechanical contraption in a system of caves tunneling underneath the befouled region. (That contraption is the Rusted mechanical detritus (3924), which you’re holding onto until The Shadow Watchers can figure out what its purpose and prove- nance are.) And while Liberec tends to do poorly at remembering the past, your order’s reckoning is long indeed, and you know that every single upstart who’s tried to take over The Mages’ Council since the Catastrophe has hailed from that weather-blasted region of Oldenburg. Luckily, and with the hand of The Shadow Watchers helping out their own idiocies, all of them have failed thus far. Sadly, training for The Shadow Watchers during your first Bazaar distracted you from the politics of Mage apprenticeships, and you’d already reached a high level in Fire Magic before you realized that both Fire Mages on The Mages’ Council were from Oldenburg. With what you’d learned, you wouldn’t dare commit yourself to a decade spent in that loathsome place, and you were too far along to start learning another magic type. Your prospects for being hired looked grim. Luckily, Vendelin was recruiting for his Mageball team that year, and you turned out to be a natural at the sport. You didn’t much enjoy it, but it was better than awkwardly hanging around your family in Wiltz for another year, and you soon realized it provided a perfect excuse (not to mention funding!) to travel around the country keeping abreast of any worrisome developments. No one ever seemed to notice the several unexplained disappearances that occurred in cities The Mageball Lions played in during the past few years. All part of your peacekeeping efforts, of course. You’re looking forward to bringing your somewhat-estranged niece Ilona, whose Bazaar is this year, into the same service of great order that you so devotedly pursue. You sent her a letter extolling its virtues a couple months back, and you’ll do your best at this Bazaar to convince her to follow in your footsteps and join The Shadow Watchers. Over the past year, a teenager named Femke has been following The Mageball Lions around to all their away games. Like you, she seems to be in it more for the travel than for the sport. You’re not sure why Vendelin hasn’t shooed her off yet; you suppose he doesn’t want to anger the team, all of whom except Liam were sleeping with her. You were the first of that number, and you won’t deny she’s awfully attractive, but (as with everything you do) it was ultimately meant mostly for the benefit of your order-preserving mission. With the difficulty the weather imposes on travel, few people have the inclination to go trapising about Liberec, and fewer still at such a young age. You thought she might be hiding something that she would confide in a lover, or, failing that, that she might make an excellent recruit for The Shadow Watchers. And you had to admit the companionship was awfully appealing.

1This year she is coming to the Bazaar, and you look forward to seeing her again here in Wiltz.

Florian 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Florian (Jim Waldrop) / Character Sheet

It was great for a while, until Femke told you something last month that horrified you. Apparently her parents died in a firestorm in Port Vianden, so she wants to make everyone immortal so no one will have to go through that kind of pain ever again . . . You would’ve dismissed this as a childish longing, were it not for the deadly-serious passion with which she described the vision she had for the future. It was unnerving, and made you certain she knew some way by which she might actually achieve her goal, even though she mentioned none. The Shadow Watchers have dealt with many evils, but such a perversion of the natural cycle of life and death would surely rank above the worst of them. You hope she doesn’t pursue it—she’s a sweet girl, really—but you’ll have to keep an eye on her, and ensure any meddling she attempts meets with appropriate resistance. See if she works with anyone else on this, and deal with them too; maybe get The Shadow Watchers involved to help you out. It’s a pity this has thrown such a wrench into your relationship, you were really quite enjoying it, but your duty must always come before personal matters. Speaking of duty, Eliska, the army recruiter, recently approached you with an interesting proposition. She feels the rule of The Mages’ Council, necessarily loose because it only convenes once per year, is doing Liberec a disservice, and wants to stage a military coup to unify the country under the actual source of power. Even with the temporary chaos this change would bring, the orderly future it promises makes it an extremely worthwhole endeavor. The military will actually be able to bring order to the country in a way that the Council cannot. You fully support Eliska in this coup, and will give her whatever help she needs with it. And speaking of order, the inequitable distribution of mana typifies the sort of imbalance that’s causing all of Liberec’s problems. Some regions (like Wiltz where you were raised) are practically swimming in the stuff, while others have barely enough to fight off the weather when it comes knocking. You recently became aware of a group called the Commanaist Party that are working on a way to even out the mana distribution, so that everyone would have enough to deal with the weather and with everyday issues, and no one would be gluttonously sitting on an infinite supply. That seems much more in line with the natural order of things than the current system. You’d love it if this Commanaist transformation could be pulled off, and consider it a priority only slightly below your more fundamental ones. You’re working on another way to effect a positive change in Liberec, as well. Before he quit The Mageball Lions, you and Liam had talked a lot about issues of power in Liberec. Not the political kind—literally the kind that makes things go. Both of you had the thought that if only you could somehow harness the energy that drives the weather, you’d be able to supply practically an infinite amount of energy to anything you wanted. Liam was pretty quiet about what he’d like to use this for, which suited you just fine considering the secrecy surrounding your own intentions. And you could never object to making the power source, whatever the ultimate goal—the very concept is that of creating the greatest order out of the greatest chaos, which is pretty much the pinnacle of the sort of thing you’ve devoted your life to doing. If you can develop a weather-powered generator, though, you may be able to achieve something even better. You’ve been researching the use of Mind Magic to direct people’s inclinations on a wide scale, and as of yet the only thing you’ve been able to conclude is that the amount of power required would be simply stupendous—far more than a single Mage could ever channel. But if you could source power from the weather, you would be able to perform further experiments, and ideally develop a machine that will project a sense of order into the world, discouraging the sort of selfish chaos-mongering that The Shadow Watchers have seen so often out of Oldenburg. Most important, though, is keeping an eye out for any agitators who are trying to disrupt the peaceful and orderly operation of Liberecine society. As an agent of a more fundamental law, you consider yourself above the written one, and will deal with such individuals in the most direct manner possible that doesn’t jeopardize the secrecy of your mission. You can’t be everywhere or hear about everything, but you can do your part to keep the world following its proper course for another very important week. In this country, it feels like complete and total destruction is never far off . . . Goals - Deal appropriately with anyone trying to disrupt the proper order of society, sowing chaos to claim power for themselves, etc. - Work with The Shadow Watchers to find out the origin and purpose of the evil underneath Oldenburg, and erase it if possible.

Florian 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Florian (Jim Waldrop) / Character Sheet

- Convince Ilona to join The Shadow Watchers in your footsteps - Find out what, if anything, Femke is up to that makes such a mockery of life, and stop it with extreme prejudice if it’s anything more than childish fantasy. - Work with Liam to research a method for channeling the chaotic weather to produce useful energy. - Using the energy store thus created, build a device that will instill a sense of order into the minds of Liberecines everywhere, and save the country from itself. - Play Mageball with The Mageball Lions; saving the world may be a priority, but winning is good too. - Help the Commanaist Party redistribute mana in a more orderly fashion. - Aid Eliska with the military coup. Notes - While you can be quite personable when you need to be, your top priority is always that which you see as your duty. - You’re very comfortable with some covert violence as an essential peacekeeping tool, but your respect for law and order prevents you from enacting it in the company of less high-minded criminals. Contacts - Ilona (Casey McNamara): Your niece; you should do your best to ensure she follows the same orderly path you have forged in your life. - Kveta (Cassie Huang): Your best friend from back in Mons, who seems to be coming to the Bazaar this year. - Pavel (Adam Yedidia): The leader of Oldenburg; perhaps he knows something about the evil there, though he’s unlikely to say so. - Femke (Brogan King): A girl who’s been following around, and sleeping with, most of The Mageball Lions for the past year; her passion would be alluring if it didn’t strike on such forbidden topics. - Eliska (Gillian Guertin): Recruiter for the Liberec Army, and author of a planned military takeover that might just do the country some good. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The manager of The Mageball Lions team, and the one who will be responsible for selecting a replacement player. - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): A Storm Adept who’s been with The Mageball Lions for eight years. - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): An Earth Adept who’s been with The Mageball Lions for seven years. - Stef (Pi Lanningham): A Plant Adept who was recruited to The Mageball Lions just two years ago. - Liam (Alex Westbrook): An Animal Adept who recently ragequit The Mageball Lions, although the official story is that it was over an injury

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Wiltz - The Shadow Watchers - The Mageball Lions - Commanaist Party

Greensheets - Mageball

Abilities - Level 5 Mage- Gossip with the Public

Items - Rusted mechanical detritus (3924)- 450 liberyen

Florian 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Florian (Jim Waldrop) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 19 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 8 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 5

Florian 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Gabriel (Daniel Grazian) / Character Sheet

Gabriel

“O mischief, thou art swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men!” – William Shakespeare

You love the smell of rampant destruction in the morning. The hell that your life has always been has taught you such appreciation of senseless violence and explosion. This morning, now, this morning is one of those invigorating mornings with great potential for massive wreckage. What wrongs have been done to you? What wrongs haven’t would be an easier question. Growing up, you were just another street brat in the slums of Wiltz. (Your name was Gabel back then, but it has been so many years since you went by that old name given to you by your dearest mother.) Your parents had a smattering of magical ability each but not enough to be hired. They were both drafted into the Liberec Army upon a second unsuccessful Bazaar attempt. They had you while in the Army, but having a kid didn’t excuse them from service - your mother was forced to continue daily drills and exercises with the other recruits until the day before she went into labor, and your father was reassigned to one of the Army Auxiliary Expeditions, which tend to go on multi-year excursions to the far reaches of Mons and sometimes never come back, for the sheer nerve of having gotten your mother pregnant.1 You were at least allowed to live with the Army for your first six years, theoretically until you could ’provide for yourself.’ Not that you were allowed to see your mother more than once a week or given any food other than the scraps from the kitchen, when there were any, but you at least belonged there. When you were six, they dumped you into the slums of Wiltz for you to just survive or fade away on your own. Your mother’s protests did nothing to change their mind. Living as a street brat in the slums of Wiltz with no family or friends to help feed or take care of you, it was hell. Only blatant bad luck and Fate’s twisted sense of humor caused you to survive for the next ten years. Then it got worse. At the age of fifteen, you hoped to make your life better at the Bazaar. Your parents, although not Mages, had at least been Mage Candidates. You had hope, a tiny gleam of possible future happiness in your dull and laborious life. You don’t know the true abyss of depression until that one last gleam of a dream is snatched away from you. At sixteen, you tried again. With a head start on learning magic from the previous year and a talent for magic much greater than that of either of your parents, the glimmer of hope was back, more pronounced this time. The Storm Magic you’d been learning the previous year turned out to be exactly what you wanted; you would be happy forever as a Storm Mage of Liberec, turning aside wind and rain and hail. You were even more hopeful during the Bazaar. You got up to level 4 Storm Magic in the first day, you were surely going to get hired. Both Council Storm Mages were interested in hiring you. You were a center of attention. It was the happiest you’d been since the last time you ever saw your mother. It got better - you met the love of your life, Yana. During the Bazaar, you were not only learning magic but also falling head over heels in love with the most beautiful, perfect girl in the world. She made all of your cares, all of your troubles and worries, not seem so bad anymore. She had no power to make your parents come get you or to cause you not to have been starving for the past ten years or to make living in Liberec suck

1You’re no law expert, but don’t the Mage Reproduction Laws exist specifically to encourage those with magical ability to reproduce? Maybe your parents weren’t strong enough magically to get hired, but they had some talent. Why would they be prevented from reproducing?!

Gabriel 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Gabriel (Daniel Grazian) / Character Sheet less, but you were simply incapable of really being depressed about it while she was around. During one of the days, you didn’t go to the Bazaar because you were busy with your impassioned affair with Yana, and staying in bed with her all day was just too good of an opportunity to pass up, even for your future. Besides, you could just get hired the next day, right? Wrong, of course. Fate was coming for you once again. You’d only missed one day, but the powerful clan of Storm Mages which runs Saar had taken advantage of that one day. Two of their distant relatives were also Mage Candidates that year; the clan pressured, forced, bribed, cajoled, and politicked their way into those two Mage Candidates having their hiring documents pushed through by The Mages’ Council during the very same day you were out. It seemed like Yana must have been in on the conspiracy, coordinating with the clan in Saar to keep you from the Bazaar that day, to screw over your life completely and utterly (as if it needed the help). You and Yana fought, bitterly, and you left intending to never see Yana again. Two Storm Mage apprentices suddenly meant that there were no spots left for you to be hired, and it was too late in the Bazaar for you to start along another track of a Magic type. This being your second year at the Bazaar, you had no more chances. They drafted you into the Liberec Army and carried you away, kicking and screaming. As you were leaving with the Army, a messenger brought you a note from Yana:

Dearest Gabel, I still don’t understand why we fought. I know you said something about a conspiracy to ruin your life, and you must be so disappointed to not be hired this year. But what does that all have to do with me? Regardless, I just wanted to let you know that I love you, no matter how crazy you can be sometimes (like now). If my mysterious offense is forgivable, come back to me, my Gabel. Yours always, Yana

Jubilation! She had not betrayed you! But wait. . . It was too late - you were leaving with the Army for training and would not be able to go see Yana for many years, even if you knew where to find her. Curse the woman for not providing contact information! . . . And she would always think that you mistrusted her, hadn’t forgiven her. Oh, cursed Fate does make a mockery of your life. Living with the Army again should have been like going home, but it only managed a resurgence of all of the pain and trauma of your youth combined with the intense pain of the constant workouts and strenuous physical activity of being one of the Army’s newest recruits. It was not a good combination. Beyond anything you’d experienced in your life, all of the depths of pain and misery and depression that you had yet encountered, this was worse, far worse. Devoid of anything akin to love, the only meaning left in your life was revenge on the selfish pigs from Saar who had ruined both your chance at a career and your chance with Yana in one cruel stroke. In your time in the Army, almost eight years ago, you met Sabina, a Mage who hated Saar almost half as much as you did. The clan from Saar had caused recent rampant destruction in Wendel and Sabina wanted to get them back. You were, of course, happy to oblige. You’d been working hard on improving your Storm Magic, much harder than the other peons in the Liberec Army. Now you

Gabriel 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Gabriel (Daniel Grazian) / Character Sheet had a purpose; you studied harder. You devised a ritual to call down a storm of unstoppable proportions, a fitting punishment for the clan of Storm Mages. Even beyond the beautiful death and destruction, any who survived would be completely embarrassed by Saar, Storm Mage central run by a clan of Storm Mages, being taken out by a meager storm. It was a beautiful plan, an elegant plan, and no one would ever suspect an Earth Mage and a Mundane (Sabina and yourself). Better yet, Sabina was paying you for your services in the form of a new life - a new name, a new identity, a new life, passage on a ship to another land, Kusel. All that stood between you and finally achieving a life of less misery was creating one measly gigantic hurricane. You snuck out of the Army headquarters in the middle of the night after a bit more than eight years of service, all told; it wasn’t like you had any possessions to take with you for sentimental reasons. Through fire and mindquake and storm you made it through the countryside to Saar and started the ritual, gathering an epically sized hurricane. Storm Mages came from across Saar to stop this impending doom, six of them. You watched them for a while, unseen, as they set up camp nearby. You nearly cackled with glee - they were providing themselves as convenient targets to be the first to die. Still, one of them caught your eye. She was frequently sitting apart from her fellow Mages and looked sad all the time. You couldn’t understand why, until you noticed that she was the only unmarried Mage of the group, in a group where the two married couples were constantly, sickeningly, flaunting their love. The poor girl. She even reminded you of your Yana in a way. That night, you unleashed the full power of the hurricane upon Saar. The Storm Mages broke camp and walked out to the rocky cliff jutting out above the ocean to contain and control the storm. They were greatly distracted by stopping the storm, so it was a simple matter to knock out the entire group with icicles created from nothing. When they were all down, you threw all of the Mages off the rocky cliff except for the lonely one who was so like Yana. You carried her back to the nearest town and left her, unconscious but alive. It was your good deed of the day, you see. The hurricane doing its job, you took your passage on the ship and took upon yourself a new name, Gabriel. Leaving behind the evidence of the ritual and its casting to be disposed of by Sabina. After the hell your life had always been, you had meager expectations of your new life in Kusel - it had to be better because it would be impossible for your life to become worse, but years of bleak unending hardship had taught you to moderate your expectations. Upon arriving in Kusel, you found yourself in their capital city and set out to peddle your services as a Storm Mage (which is what you had always wanted so why not go for broke, you can always attempt to find a more drudgery-like way of life when it inevitably didn’t work out). Offering your services as a Storm Mage worked out beautifully - Kusel has a shortage of all Mage types except Mind and Magitech. You were respected, and your services were in demand. It was amazing. One day, you were even taken to the imperial palace, the house of the Emperor of Kusel, to be tested as a Storm Mage; when you passed the test, they gave you free housing in the palace. They never even questioned your past. You even met a few friends in the imperial palace. One of them, Dirk, was the head priest of the Servants of the Lord, a monotheistic religion in Kusel. Until then, you hadn’t questioned the Liberec model of religion, worshipping the inanimante mana supply. In fact, worshipping the mana hadn’t worked out too well for you (just remember what hell your life had always been). You converted, happily. Worshipping this one god and asking for your life to become better actually worked, unlike the years of hoping that mana would improve your technically-Mundane life. Finally, your life was going right.

Gabriel 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Gabriel (Daniel Grazian) / Character Sheet

Still, there was something wrong, unresolved. . . Yana. You have avoided romantic attachments with anyone else since you lost her. With life finally not scraping the sludge at the bottom of the barrel of life, with life finally sipping from a glass not totally empty, with life finally not sheer and utter hell hour after painstaking hour every day after unending day. . . By the sixth year of your life in Kusel, your thoughts had turned to Yana, constantly. You had to find her, even though it had been half a lifetime since you last saw her. You started making arrangements. Luckily, Vavrinec of Liberec had been sent to Kusel on a diplomatic mission around that time, and a return mission was being arranged by Nephilim. It was almost too easy to get her permission to accompany the mission which would take you direct to Wiltz (where Yana had lived) in the middle of the Bazaar. While here, you will of course help Nephilim attain the best ends possible for your adopted country. Your primary roles are to keep Nephilim safe, assist in bargaining for a favorable settlement from Liberec, and running interference with Vavrinec (who is under some mental control by Elyzha). As far as the rest of Kusel delegation knows, you have lived in Kusel for all of your life; considering the relative qualities of life you’ve experienced in Liberec versus Kusel, you intend to go back to Kusel as soon as you have found Yana.. . but you intend to go back with your Yana. For the first time in your miserable life, you will have attained actual happiness if you manage it. Of course, you remember the lessons of your earlier life about this “hope” concept, vividly. Better be careful. While in Liberec at the Bazaar, you will also help the Theists in Liberec attain official status. Although you have an established church to return to in Kusel, you wish for more Liberecines to attain the betterment of life that you have found by abandoning worship of uncaring, inanimate mana for the worship of actual conscious beings in the universe. Also while here, you’ve seen some interesting ruins that other people have been destroying and building new structures on. You’ve talked with a couple of them, and they seem willing to let you help out. It would be great to clean up the area around Wiltz. And, also, who could blame you if the new structures also came down because of bad building materials. Also, it appears Wiltz Realtors Incorporated have a way of dosing the artifacts that are within the ruins. The dosed artifacts cause people viewing them to shift their opinions on different matters. Maybe, you can use this to shift the public view on Theism and Kusel to your favor. Also, one of your hobbies during your life in Kusel has been growing plants and mixing drugs. You frequently need them to forget the slings and arrows of the indignities and pain of most of your life, but there is also something about being responsible for the lives of those tiny living things which is just soothing. Perhaps if Liberec and Kusel end up doing significant trade in the future, both in legal goods and in drugs, you should own the monopoly. That would be fun, and you’d have another avenue to make money and make Yana’s life (and yours) comfortable and happy. In preparation, you’ve hired a merchant ship to take small trinkets and merchandise across the great sea. You’ll need to keep a careful eye on the sea, to see whether its worth it or not. Never forget what you’ve learned about hope, though. Life will merely drain you, but hope kills the spirit. Beware of hope. Goals - Find Yana - Get Yana to leave with you for Kusel after the Bazaar to start a new (happy?) life together - Destroy Saar and the clan of Storm Mages which runs it - Destroy the ruins around Wiltz with Wiltz Realtors Incorporated - Help Kusel accomplish all of their goals here at the Bazaar - Spread the word of Theism - Use Wiltz Realtors Incorporated to influence public opinion towards Theism and Kusel - Get a monopoly in both legal trading and drug trading - See if you can succeed in trade over the High Seas, and ensure your investment isn’t destroyed. - Make lots of money off the drug trade while here in Liberec

Gabriel 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Gabriel (Daniel Grazian) / Character Sheet

Contacts - Yana: The love of your life, somewhere back in Liberec. You must find her. - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The ambassador for Kusel, you are her aide, attache, and bodyguard. - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The prince of Liberec, currently mind-controlled by Elyzha, it is your job to run interference and make sure he remains loyal to Kusel - Elyzha (Sally Guthrie): A Mind Mage and friend back in Kusel - Sabina (Fangfei Shen): The Mage whom you created the storm for in exchange for a new identity.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #3832 - Badge Number 312 - η

Bluesheets - Kusel - Wiltz Realtors Incorporated - Theists

Greensheets - Herbalism - Demolishing and Preparing an Area for Construction Work - Navigating and Selling on the High Seas - Organizing an Artifact Exhibition - Gain Legal Control of Locations - Searching for Yana (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs - Psychlim: True Love - Level 6 Mage - Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - 750 liberyen - Drug Lord Recipe Book (in-game document)

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 31 - Research Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 4

Gabriel 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Garomil (Telmo Correa) / Character Sheet

Garomil

“I will see this game of life out to its bitter end.” – Zane Grey

You don’t have a problem. No, of course not. It’s the rest of the weather-blasted world. A year ago, life was fine, perfect, without a care in the world. Sure, the weather was barely under control, but the terrific swell of magic through your veins meant that you had power to create change in the world! You were blithely happy in your innocence; the wool was completely over your eyes. When you still had your magic, all of the teachings of Fruit of the Great Mana made complete sense. You felt that optimistic flow of the sparkle of glorious magic through your veins. . . That was so long ago. You can barely remember that feeling of complete mana-induced euphoria; having lost your magic, it would be impossible to recapture that feeling ever again. You were a pathetic sheep, bleating for more mana, a worm in the earth, thinking you’d found the life’s blood of the world in the most disgusting of mud, an unschooled Mundane lemming, lining up to go to its death. You can only think on that feeling with disgust now. The mana was merely a drug, a chemical in your body, squeezing the life out of you day by day. You are a scholar, you’ve seen the effects of addictions time and again in your work. Now you must sit helplessly as you watch yourself go through those same pathetic steps, groveling for mana when it refuses to go through your veins any longer. The idiots of the world just sit by with their tongues lolling out of their mouths, allowing this to happen every single weather- blasted year! All of those idiots should just die, in the extreme of poetic justice, to the weather they think some ’Great Mana’ will save them from. Bah! It’s all just the sweet tang of addiction; the Great Mana is just an illusion. There is nothing divine watching over this godforsaken (quite literally), weather-blasted, pathetic piece of trash of a world. Of course, it is somewhat strange that you have lost your magic so early. You won’t admit this to anyone, but you had already lost the ability to perform spells a year ago while you were on The Mages’ Council. You have some research to determine what went wrong, but it would be the scandal of the generation to find out that you were lying during your term as Head of Council, that the most powerful Mage in the country actually had no magical ability. Thus, you must guard the reason for the research very carefully. All those young reporters traipsing around the Bazaar would just love to get their hands on a juicy story like that. One of the worst bits about it is that since losing your magic, you have been looking older and older at an accelerated pace. You may be only a year older than the current Council, but you look twice that! It just sometimes makes you so mad! You’re furious at the world for stealing from you what was rightfully yours, and you just want to throttle someone! Yet you can’t admit to anyone, not even your wife. . . It doesn’t help that Ester still has her magic. You were married to her, you see, a long time ago. Now, there are some problems in your marriage. For one, she’s the head priestess of Fruit of the Great Mana. Last year, when she was head priestess and you were the Head of Council for The Mages’ Council, everything was perfect. You lost your magic, became a Mundane, became no one, and realized that her religion is balderdash, bilge, bunkum - your marriage stopped being a perfect meeting of two of the rich and famous of Liberec, a regular celebrity marriage. As head priestess, Ester must live in Wiltz. It sucks here. You have been missing Oldenburg, where you were raised, more and more as time progressed. For another, well, it isn’t as if either of you went into this marriage for love. It was a political alliance, and it worked out

Garomil 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Garomil (Telmo Correa) / Character Sheet beautifully for both of you. You’re a Mundane now. What further use do you have of continuing life with her? You never really got along. You could survive living with each other, but nothing more1. For many years, it was politically sound strategy to continue to keep up the charade in public - that was the whole point of the marriage, after all - but now it just seems pointless. She cares about the Great Mana, that false deity, more than she does about you. You aren’t surprised, of course, but it still rankles in your gut after ten years of marriage. About eight months ago, Ester came home rambling about farmers and missions and buildings and something. It didn’t entirely make sense, but her main point was that she was leaving, on a six-month trip to Mons. It didn’t really matter to you, you were plenty distracted wondering why you had lost your magic so suddenly and why everything was driving you so crazy all of a sudden and maybe it was her fault and maybe she just hated you (well, that wouldn’t really be a surprise) and maybe you just needed to go out into the streets and punch someone. Only a few days into Ester’s absence, you really just wanted to get away from the hordes and mobs of people in Wiltz. SO MANY PEOPLE. ARGH. You needed a break, a true break which wasn’t about kissing babies and doing the politically right thing. You left your apprentice, Jance, to watch the city and learn Storm Magic alone (it isn’t like you were helping much anyway, what with not having magic left and all). You wanted a break. You wanted a chance to sit and not be plagued with so much stress and politicking and problems and reporters and being driven crazy by the lack of mana in your blood. You wanted peace and quiet, for a change. You wanted a chance to go through a library, searching for answers on why you were being driven crazy. You wanted to go home. You went back to the home of your childhood, where you were raised. Oldenburg. You’ve lived there ever since. It is more peaceful. The mana lines aren’t as strong, so you notice the lack of mana less. You can be somewhat calm, sometimes, there. You tried to go to the old library in Oldenburg to investigate your condition, but it was gone. No one would tell you much about it (they never talk about things much in Oldenburg beyond the schedule of the day and what you residents can do to help their glorious region), but you did discover that it had fallen victim to a fire some time ago. Now, without the Oldenburg library, you’ll have to settle for the Great Library back in Wiltz, where you’ve come back for the Bazaar. Backup records are sent to Wiltz every year with the Bazaar delegation, so they should have the relevant medical records for your life. Also, since the Wiltz library is legendarily great, you have put together some notes which will help you look for a cure for your condition while there. It was a while living in Oldenburg before you started getting approached by curious whippersnapper reporters about your separation with your wife. It is true, you know, that you are being scandalous, having left your home and wife and assigned region without any notice or permission. But you have enough troubles, it would be better to make Ester take the brunt of the scandal. You haven’t started talking to reporters yet, but when you do, it should be easy enough to blame the separation on your wife leaving first. Of course, if you can dig up any additional dirt on her, that would really solidify your case. See, you want to put the scandal on that annoying little bitch of a wife because she makes you so mad all the time and you don’t actually want to harm her but. . . rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr you can’t help yourself! You’ve come back to the Bazaar as the most recent past Head of Council in an unofficial advisory capacity to the current The Mages’ Council. Having been Head of Council last year, however, you have some decided political opinions which you must convince the current Council to enact, even though you no longer have a vote. First, although you are fine with late bloomers entering the Bazaar (you were a late bloomer yourself many years ago), it is absolutely essential that the culling of the herd happens after the second try at the Bazaar. 2-year-late bloomers are a rarity but are always weak and inefficient unlike their 1-year-late bloomer counterparts. Besides, there must be someone for recruitment

1You are aware that thousands of Liberecines pray to the Great Mana every day that the barren streak might end for yourself and Ester, that ’a child by you two such blessed citizens might someday lead the world and save it from itself.’ You’ve heard it umpteen thousand blasted times. Little do they know that Ester has no idea if she is barren or not; she’s never had a chance to test it, by mutual arrangement.

Garomil 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Garomil (Telmo Correa) / Character Sheet into the Army. Second, you have seen the truth. Fruit of the Great Mana is hokum. It is merely the chemical effect of the mana flowing through the Mages which causes such feelings of divine presence. Convincing the Council of this and abolishing any official religion (as well as converting as many people as possible to atheism) would effect positive change in the people of Liberec, removing the blinders from their eyes about what mana really is. There is also this country which has sent an ambassador to Liberec to visit the Bazaar, Kusel. Trade with Kusel would benefit both greatly, besides which, Kusel specializes in a type of magic unknown to Liberec and probably illegal if it became known. You should find out about this type of magic and get it to the point of legalization, acceptance, and Mage training in Liberec. Otherwise, Liberec won’t get nearly as much good stuff out of trading with Kusel as it should. Surrender to Kusel is, of course, straight out. Well, while you’re at the Bazaar there are all these people who keep bothering you. Maybe you signed up to help them and forgot, it’s been happening a lot recently. You blame that annoying wife of yours. (Why? You don’t have a good reason, but if you think hard enough, you can probably come up with one. That’s right. Thus, it is her fault.) First off, there’s Dominik and Vendelin, who are petitioning for equal rights for Mundanes. That’s kind of cool, especially as you are a Mundane now, though you weep to admit it. Besides which, Mundanes aren’t blinded by the amazing wonderful fine fluorescent taste of mana in their blood. This single-handedly makes them more qualified to rule than The Mages’ Council, so concerned with their own welfare instead of Liberec’s. Speaking of Liberec’s welfare, a coalition of the least incompetent on the Council seems to be trying to actually fix Liberec’s weather. More power to them, although it does sometimes seem a hopeless case. Still, you are happy to help The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization. Also, you are one of the most learned in Liberec, so of course the Scholars of Liberec see you as one of their own. Although you have more important research of your own, perhaps Scholars can be of use. When it comes down to it, though, anyone who is as furious with Ester as you are is probably a friend. She just does everything wrong just to annoy you, or so you suspect. Goals - Find out why you lost your magic before you should have, and why you have been going crazy - Make sure Ester takes the blame for the scandal of your separation - Learn more about Kusel and their new shiny special type of magic - Spread the true understanding that comes with atheism and abolish any state religion - See to it that The Mages’ Council passes sensible laws this year, mostly conservative laws and also specifically legalization of the new type of magic from Kusel, trade contracts with Kusel instead of surrender, and continued disallowing of 2-year-late bloomers to the Bazaar - Help The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages acquire greater political rights for Mundanes (’cause anything’s better than zero, right?) - Help those poor sods trying to fix Liberec in The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization, even though you suspect that it is hopeless - Use Scholars to investigate. . . whatever the hell, then use your contacts among them to do your own research - Ensure that The Mages’ Council doesn’t ruin Liberec with improperly though out policies. Notes - You have no intention of going back to your marriage. Ester drives you crazy. - You are slightly (but noticeably) insane due to mana withdrawl, showing random bouts of aggression, forgetfulness, or mercurial behavior changes

Garomil 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Garomil (Telmo Correa) / Character Sheet

- Your political views lean conservative. You would be against such things as equal rights for women, gay marriage, tolerance of more religions, or allowing 2-year-late bloomers into the Bazaar. The exception to this is magic types, where you are happy to have the Void Mages, and the new type of magic from Kusel if it can be managed, on The Mages’ Council. Contacts - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): Your wife, the head of Fruit of the Great Mana, and a Plant Mage on The Mages’ Council - Klara (Jason Gonsalves): A sweet little Healing Mage from Oldenburg who has been aiding you in your research (although she doesn’t know what it is about), also on The Mages’ Council and the head of the Oldenburg delegation - Dominik (Nathan Serrano): The Chief of Police in Wiltz, a competent yet bitter Mundane with whom you are working to get rights for Mundanes - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The ambassador from Kusel here to negotiate with The Mages’ Council, you may as well help them with that - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of the Bazaar, a very competent Mundane with whom you have worked before - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The Prince of Liberec who went on a diplomatic mission to Kusel last year, you should make sure he represents Liberec appropriately in his seat on The Mages’ Council

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Scholars - Oldenburg - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Sensitive to Drugs- Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521)- 350 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 26 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 5 - β: 0 − i - Theology Ability: 2

Garomil 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 King Harold (William Lowenthal) / Character Sheet

King Harold

“Everyone likes flattery, and when you come to Royalty, you should lay it on with a thick trowel.” – Benjamin Disraeli “Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern but impossible to enslave.” – Baron Henry Peter Brougham

The name is Harold, King Harold to all but immediate family. Your father, the late King Frederick, instilled a strict sense of moral order in you. He taught you that a king must always be kind but rigid, rigorous but detached, concerned for the welfare of his people but accepting no less than his royal due. (Of course, he also taught you about honesty and loyalty and fidelity, and you can see how much he really believed in that.) Your royal parents threw a gala event for your fourth birthday party. It’s sad that you actually remember parts of it. Landown- ers and members of some of the most powerful families in Liberec all travelled to the castle to stay as part of the gala event. Of course, while one particular family of landowners was visiting, Father managed to impregnate the young unmarried daughter of the family. He did acknowledge his bastard and took care of the mother during the pregnancy, took care of the child after the mother died in childbirth. The child was named Marcela. There was no concern of the bastard child usurping the throne – she was younger and she seemed to have no interest in governing. There remained the question of what to do with her. Frankly, you forgot about her most of the time. She had her own tutors and a few pre-scheduled visits with you (her half-brother), but she was never really around very much. Later, you always supported Marcela in all of her endeavors. She is a strong Mage and very bright, so you supported her in becoming a scholar and reporter and anything else she wanted. It was the least you could do for your poor nearly-estranged sister. This year, you have even made her Head of Region for Wiltz. You regret not seeing more of Marcela, as life at the castle was always lonely. Of course, you had a retinue of Mundanes as servants, a legion of tutors and advisors, and every powerful family in the land coming to visit the castle (many in hopes of marrying off a daughter to you). This doesn’t change the cold, bleak stone walls or the tedious daily schedule. You did your duty always, from sitting through every lesson on family history to diplomatic meetings to marrying the girl Father picked out for you. Sonya. Your queen. Sonya was lovely, if distant, and did her duty to you, also. She produced an heir, and a few extra children, lived out her term as a Mage, then slowly wasted away from illness. She died four years ago. You still miss her, but your son, Vavrinec, and two young daughters, Freda and Helena, afford you some company. You feel some regret that you have always been so distant, even to your own family, but it was your duty. Speaking of your duty, you have a few during this year’s Bazaar. You no longer need to sit in at meetings of The Mages’ Council, as your son Vavrinec has received extensive political training and will be taking over for you there. However, you have retained a vague interest in the politics of Liberec and should encourage the dewy-eyed clumsy folk to ensure that their well-intentioned ideas for fixing the weather problems in Liberec for good will not accidentally cause another Catastrophe. In addition, you have retained the fun job of judging the reporting competition during the course of the Bazaar. You enjoy it so much. Sure, you’ve just given the award to Marcela for the past. . . oh, you forget how many years. This year might actually be different! You’ve decided to consolidate the regional news flyers into a national news agency for Liberec. The regions can continue running their own, but (especially with an emissary from Kusel visiting Liberec for the first time in recorded history) it is time for Liberec to have a national reporter. You should choose someone with flair, and style, a keen eye for current events and a good story, and someone who is not biased politically. You’ve also heard that Kusel is missing an antique jewel of their empire, The Eye (4239). You have commissioned Danthony, a merchant from Port Vianden, to find it and return it to you. You plan to have someone pay him handsomely for it – and if you

King Harold 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 King Harold (William Lowenthal) / Character Sheet then give it to Kusel as a peace overture, perhaps they will be more kindly disposed towards not wiping out your country if the negotiations fail. The bureaucracy you control is stretched quite thin, and it can be difficult to keep abreast of developments in far corners of Liberec. That’s especially troubling when you hear after-the-fact of some rogue who tried to seize power in a region or worse. You keep in contact with a group called The Shadow Watchers that makes it their mission to spot such subversive activity, particularly that which comes from the troublesome region of Oldenburg. They’re a bit vigilante for your taste, but you still prefer the quiet disappearances of these chaos-mongrels over their unchecked rampages. Your last, and most important, duty this Bazaar is to find a suitable bride for Vavrinec. He isn’t very strong in Magic potential. In fact, he was kept home from his Bazaar last year (when he was 15) because you were afraid he’d shame the royal name. The royal family of a country run by Mages should be a decent Mage. . . Thus, you sent Vavrinec to Kusel on a diplomatic mission, which is being returned in kind this Bazaar (although with not nearly as important a personage playing ambassador). Vavrinec needs to marry, soon, and produce an heir. The young lady should be from one of the most powerful families in Liberec and a strong Mage to boot. His little girlfriend, Natalia, seems to be neither of these things. What’s more, she is interested in Fire Magic, which is well known to prevent heirs from being born. Even if he truly likes his little girlfriend, Vavrinec’s duty is to produce an heir. You must ensure this happens. Goals - Find a suitable bride for Vavrinec. - Choose a new Head Reporter for Liberec - Encourage people to improve quality of life in Liberec instead of doing some well-intentioned ham-handed screw-up which will cause another Catastrophe. Notes - Since you are a remote part, you may mechanic people at the Bazaar leaving notes for you with your couriers by emails. Make sure to let those you contact know that this is in-game communication. You may not communicate via phone unless you know otherwise. - You never leave your castle. You allow Vavrinec to deal with most issues which arise. You communicate with everyone at the Bazaar, including your son, via messenger. Contacts - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): Your son, the Prince of Liberec and heir to the throne. - Marcela (Jessie Lowell): Your bastard half-sister who grew up with you in the castle, long-time reporter for Wiltz and newly also Head of Region. - Drahomir (Daniel Kane): Your second-cousin who stays in Mons away from other people most of the time - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The current Head of The Mages’ Council. - Garomil (Telmo Correa): Last year’s Head of The Mages’ Council. - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The Head Priestess of Fruit of the Great Mana. - Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger): Vavrinec’s little girlfriend. You must find out whether or not she is good enough for your son. - Dominik (Nathan Serrano): The Chief of Police in Wiltz. You rarely have contact with him, but sometimes official business happens. - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The ambassador from Kusel here to negotiate with The Mages’ Council - Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew): A merchant who will hopefully find The Eye (4239) for you

Memory/Event Packets - none

King Harold 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 King Harold (William Lowenthal) / Character Sheet

Bluesheets - Wiltz- The Shadow Watchers

Greensheets - Reporting the News

Abilities - Gossip with the Public- Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip

Items - none

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 40 - Leadership Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 2

King Harold 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ilona (Casey McNamara) / Character Sheet

Ilona

“Right. So the castle’s a huge mechanical death trap. But, theoretically, it’s my huge mechanical death trap, so it probably won’t kill me. . . at least, not until I’ve repaired it. . . unless I run afoul of one of the damaged bits. . . or it doesn’t recognize me as part of the Heterodyne family. . . or it decides it would be funny to kill me anyway. . . ” – Agatha Clay, Girl Genius “Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.” – Thomas A. Edison

A normal day in Mons where you’ve lived for 15 years starts out with your family’s rooster crowing into the metal horn you built for it and trained it to use. The horn amplifies the sound and vibrations, splits off into five custom-built branches. Three of the branches go straight to the bedrooms and wake up the family, one goes to the barn and starts prepping for the morning chores, and the last one goes into the kitchen to put some water on to boil to start breakfast. It isn’t much, but no one else had ever thought of it before. Of course, after you’d built yours, everyone else in the neighborhood wanted one. Those were fun to build – and the profits got your family enough money to buy some textbooks, made of real paper, for you and your siblings to study. Your parents are determined to make sure all of the children have studied all accessible academic subjects in great depth, just in case some of you don’t have enough inherent Mage ability to get hired. You hope to be like your favorite aunt, your mother’s sister, Anastasia. She is a Mage on The Mages’ Council this year, she paid your Mage Candidate fees. Not to mention that Anastasia lives in Port Vianden and is a cool aunt who respects your ideas. You visited her before in Port Vianden for a few months, the best months of your life. You loved the business way of things and living in the hustle and bustle of the city. You see, the problem is that only your mother is an actual Mage. Your father, despite having a small amount of Mage talent in his youth, was unable to attend the Bazaar his year because he was helping clean up after a recent earthquake in his hometown. Because of that, he was never able to develop any magical abilities, he was branded as a Mundane forever. No one will ever know how strong of a Mage he could have been. His family was all Mundanes, the fact that he embodied a sudden outcropping of a small amount of Mage talent was a miracle in itself. . . the tragedy (especially in Liberec, desperate to hold onto anyone with Mage talent for its very survival) was that he never had a chance to learn, as the Bazaar happens only once every year. Your mother flaunted all tradition and the Mage Reproduction Laws in order to get married. The taxes every year, paying for her deviation from the Mage Reproduction Laws, have been a huge burden on an agricultural family such as yours with nine children to support (of whom you are the oldest). Now that your mother’s time as an Animal Mage is finished and thus officially a Mundane, the family is rid of that financial burden as well as the financial assistance given to Mages. The net utility of the change was not in your favor. You have no problem with the Mage Reproduction Laws. If anything, you have seen that they only cost a portion of the bonus income one gets by being a Mage anyway. Anyone who has a job doing something productive for the country as well as their job as a Mage should have no trouble marrying whomever they like already. The Mage Reproduction Laws only penalize those who are both not furthering the Mage genetics of Liberec and being a lazy weather-blasted bum. You’re okay with that. There is, however, something that you are not okay with. The Mages of Liberec can only train 1 Mage per retiring Mage per year, and there are Mage Candidates and other potential Mages who do not get hired every year. This is a problem because the Mages of Liberec are stretched thin across the land, and far too many storms cannot be prevented due to the lack of trained Mages in the vicinity. You’ve had some ideas.1 1You’re known for that, having ideas.

Ilona 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ilona (Casey McNamara) / Character Sheet

First of all, Liberec needs more fully trained, full-fledged Mages. It’s the only way the country can survive. Yet the country has held stagnant at 2 Mages per type of magic per year since the Catastrophe, or maybe longer. This cannot be fixed by Mages training apprentices every single year - any Mage training an apprentice is doing that instead of preventing weather problems, not to mention that training apprentices is exhausting (just look at Marek and Nikolai, Liberec’s first Void Mages - they’ve had to train apprentices every year in order to just populate their discipline and they are exhausted). But there is another way. Or rather. . . there might be. What if a single Mage could take on multiple apprentices for the same cost to them? What if level 6 magic, the only thing which can actually stop the weather, the magic which takes the full apprenticeship year to learn, could be taught in a school like some children in Liberec go to for their academic subjects? That would solve a lot of problems. You’ve been thinking about how to allow this to happen, but it doesn’t work yet, you’ll have to do some more research while you’re here at the Bazaar. (Now, you are also a practical girl. This would be a huge boon for Liberec, so you want your cut of the profits. You will not set up Mage School for free.) There is another idea that ties into this. See, Mage School won’t actually fix things; it will only lessen the tension between regions over how many Mages each gets, reduce the number of disasters which go unstopped by a little. That is good but not everything. Why? There are more teenagers with Mage ability each year than positions in the 16 sought-after apprenticeships, sure, but not too many more. The key thing that will catapult your idea to success is the spreading of the Mage ability - getting a lot more Liberecines with the capacity to learn to stop the weather. Then Mage School can teach as many of the populace as are interested in being Mages. But who - the Mundanes? In the caravan of goods traveling from Mons to Wiltz for the Bazaar, you met Kveta. She was a farmer, just like you. You spent the time traveling to Wiltz talking about the problems facing Liberec. She was looking for a solution to the Mundanes being oppressed and finding it in social revolution. Being a bit of an engineer, you had some improvements on her plan to suggest. “Social revolution seems impossible when the Mages, though few, hold all of the power. What we need is an equal playing field. You must know what I mean, Kveta” “What?” You didn’t understand what she was getting at. “The magical ability is what keeps the scales tipped in favor of the Mages. We should even them out.” “That’s impossible.” “It isn’t impossible. All we have to do is give the Mundanes access to magic.” “That’s impossible.” “Just think, Kveta! If we succeed, then another Catastrophe cannot happen. With everyone helping dissipate the storms, the cataclysmic weather will stop for good.” As time passed, the idea seemed less and less crazy. Magical ability is inherited, which is why families of Mundanes continue to breed more Mundanes. However, after the Catastrophe 20 generations ago, there was sufficient in-breeding among the survivors that almost every Mundane family has some Mage ancestor many generations ago. If only that tiny bit of potential could be augmented, increased. . . the Council would no longer be able to justify keeping the Mundanes in their oppressed and downtrodden state. With Mage potential for the Mundanes, equality can’t be too far behind. Mage School will be overflowing with pupils, and you’ll make a lot of money and save your country from destruction in one move. You rather like this invention - now you just have to implement it. Mage School might not work out, or it might not make you much money but you have other enterprising ideas. First, Nephilim is here at the Bazaar representing Kusel in the first diplomatic mission they have sent to Liberec in recorded history. A new burgeoning of trade between the two countries is a possible outcome of the Bazaar - if you could get yourself

Ilona 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ilona (Casey McNamara) / Character Sheet established as a reputable merchant you might be able to get guaranteed trading contracts, or maybe even a contract for a monopoly on trade, between Liberec and Kusel. That would be a great way to guarantee your financial security and step into a career. Maybe, you can even hire out your own ship to transport merchandise for you. Maybe, you should ask around to see if anyone is willing to sell or trade you one. Maybe, given enough time, you could find a way to construct one. Second, you’ve been developing a system for using low-level Mind Magic to keep in touch with friends or business con- tacts long-distance reliably. The Teenage Girls were the ones who started you on this invention; they want it for post-Bazaar communication and gossiping2. Perhaps you can find a way to turn this system into a way of generating profit. Third, there is of course the obvious aid to financial security which is getting hired as a Mage. You want a magic type useful to your business as a merchant/entrepreneur/inventor. However, that is not as important as location, location, location. Living in Port Vianden would be everything - easy access to natural resources from Saar and Wendel, plenty of people to provide manual labor, and the easiest access to the sea to do shipping either upriver or across the water to Kusel. Wiltz also wouldn’t be a bad place to be hired, but any other region is going to be too sparsely populated to support your potential business. Fourth, there is your monopoly on many of the resrouces from Mons. You have been quietly acquiring exclusive rights to the products of many of the lands there. Everyone is happy to give those contracts away for not much money because the resources there are virtually untapped. There are some problems, though, which are the reasons that this rich region of natural resources is still untapped. There is little mana to fuel spells to aid in acquiring the natural resources; there is almost no transportation anywhere in Mons except near the Rue Grande; and the weather frequently ruins fields or quarries. However, if you could get your areas protected from the weather, roads going into the more remote areas of Mons, or a greater mana supply in the regin, this becomes much easier. This is why you’ve joined up with the secret initiative to pump some mana resources into the mana-starved Mons, Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions. Hopefully that will be of use. You need those resources for your inventions, for trading, for running your businesses. Shortly before the Bazaar, your parents told you about two more relatives you have in town during the Bazaar. Your mother has a somewhat-estranged brother in town for the Bazaar this year, Florian. He has had limited contact with the family ever since he joined up with the mysterious Shadow Watchers, a secret order promoting stability in Liberec. However, he recently contacted your family to find out if you, with your imminently budding Mage abilities, would be interested in also joining his organization. Less than a week later, a similar note had arrived from your father’s sister, Lise, asking about much the same thing, except her organization was more involved with profitability than stability. You had never heard of either relative before. Perhaps you can discuss with them at the Bazaar about their organizations and join one if you feel like it (they do seem to be very different organizations, and it sounds like joining both is not feasible for you to do while starting up your own business, becoming a Mage, etc.). Florian will be at the Bazaar as a Mageball player; Lise said that she would also be in town for the Bazaar but in disguise due to prejudices against women in her profession (she will be using the name Liam). While at the Bazaar, you might get more cool ideas for inventions to assist in the functioning of Liberec. Making, advertising, and profiting from those to get your new life started on the right track is top priority. You should also spend the little time you have in the Bazaar, searching around the city for the leftovers of ancient Liberec. With the Explorers of the Ancient Past, you have a chance to explore and find things in the ruins. Goals - Make lots of cool gadgets, useful everyday items and anything else that Liberec needs. - Make lots of profit from selling them. - Secure a trade route for yourself with Kusel (or better yet, a monopoly on trade). - Make sure that the plan you came up with for the Teenage Girls comes to fruition and is an invention that you can be proud

2Not worthwhile goals, but serving a worthwhile purpose is not the point of invention.

Ilona 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ilona (Casey McNamara) / Character Sheet

of. - Develop your system to give Mundanes access to magical abilities with Kveta. - Create a school for Mages - just as soon as you figure out how a Mage can apprentice more than one teenager at a time - and make sure you’ll get some handsome royalty payments for coming up with it (although you have no interest in teaching). - Get hired as a Mage with enough free time otherwise to operate a trading business as well as your inventing hobby (for that matter, living in a major port with sea access is critical, preferably Port Vianden). - Redirect mana into Mons and get a monopoly on the multitude of untapped natural resources there to support your future businesses. - Keep the Mage Reproduction Laws around as a disincentive to be lazy and useless for the Mages (the gold standards for the population of Liberec, whether they like it or not). - Use your time here in Wiltz, to explore the nearby ruins. - If you get married, make sure that it is to a quiet pushover of a man so he won’t disturb your work. Another inventor genius and boon to your business would also do. Being married would probably be fun - your parents certainly think so (*ahem* they have nine kids, if you needed proof). - Figure out if you want to follow in the footsteps of your uncle, Florian, or your aunt, Lise Notes - You can develop and produce any item that you (the player) can think up and create detailed instructions to create. Come up with a name and full description of the item that you think that your instructions will create; write all of that up and leave it in the Box for the GMs with your relevant ability card (i.e. you may only have one proposal in at a time). If the plan is viable, you will shortly receive a short research notebook for creating that item in your folder in the Box. (If the plan is not viable, you will receive a note to that effect.) You may try this as often as you would like. The GMs reserve the right to not allow some of your inventions for other reasons known only to the GMs, for instance if we believe the invention would unfairly break game. - You have done sufficient experimentation for your inventions that you have some knowledge of compounds that can be formed by combinations of plants. Contacts - Anastasia (Kevin Chen): Your aunt, a Storm Mage from Port Vianden - Leos (Paul Weaver): Your uncle, newly arrived in your life - Lise (Alex Westbrook): Your aunt, newly arrived in your life and going by the name Liam during the Bazaar - Kveta (Cassie Huang): A new friend you met on the way to the Bazaar whom you are helping with the plan to give magical abilities to Mundanes - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The ambassador to Kusel, whose favor you need if you want trading contracts - Florian (Jim Waldrop): Your uncle.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions - Mons - Explorers of the Ancient Past

Greensheets - Gain Legal Control of Locations

Abilities - Invention- Search word

Ilona 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ilona (Casey McNamara) / Character Sheet

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521)- 200 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: back, dodge, stuck, - Age: 15 quiet, sleepy, reach, food - α: 5 - Research Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Engineering Ability: 8 - Mathematics Ability: 8

Ilona 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ivan (Shawn Westerdale) / Character Sheet

Ivan

“If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination.” – Thomas de Quincey “In many walks of life, a conscience is a more expensive encumbrance than a wife or a carriage.” – Thomas de Quincey

Midnight. The sky is clear and sweet-smelling after the glory of the day’s hurricane. Dig, dig, dig. Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig. Dig, dig, DIG DIG DIG DIG. Dig, thud, thud, dig, thud, dig, thud, sweep. Ahh. . . Finally. Creak. You see the glint of metal before the lid is fully erect. Jackpot. Slowly, lovingly, tenderly, you gather what you want and pile it on the soft grass, made more fleshy and succulent by the recent hurricane. You stand back, admiring the shiny pile of hoarded items now yours. Exhilarating. Carefully, you draw some mana out of the remains. Hm, must be fresh. That’s got quite a kick to it. Whew. The fun part over, you unceremoniously dump the bodies of the twin sons of some wealthy but mundane family or other back into their casket and kick some earth back on top of it. You go to lovingly gather your shiny pile and stow delicious metal morsels in your sack one by one... but then, before you’ve finished, you see those glinting eyes, again, looking right at you. AAAAAH! You thoughtlessly scoop your treasures (ritual can wait until you’re safe from those creepy eyes) and sprint out of the burial ground. Gasping, you bolt upright. You’re safe from the eyes for now. The experience was actually over a week ago, but you’ve been reliving it in your dreams ever since. You saw those eyes at all of your last three grave-robbings. They sure aren’t friendly, whatever they are. It would still be nice to find out what exactly is behind those eyes. The dream reminds you of another incident that night. You still can’t forgive yourself for having dropped the delicate filigreed bronze necklace in your flight from the burial ground. If only you could find it again. . . There is no shame in being a thief, although it tends to be better to not brag about your shiny metallic conquests in front of the authorities. (They don’t seem to understand. It isn’t like the dead are still using their pretty things.) Growing up in a poor, mundane family in Wendel, you were expected to help provide for your family from a young age. In the structured society of Wendel, where your family is unimportant due to a lack of wealth and Mages, you were given few chances to help provide for your family and turned to more creative methods. You tried pick-pocketing for a while, but your conscience always bothered you afterwards. Those unfortunate souls from whom you stole perhaps needed that money for their own families. Whenever your conscience bothered you, you had to use your ill-gotten gains to buy yourself some pretty jewels to bribe it into submission. Of course, this made pick-pocketing an inefficient, although luxurious, way of supporting your family. Besides which, you have morals. . . you think. . . Then you had a brilliant plan. Stealing from the dead, unlike from the living, does not harm the society you grew up in, the society you were raised to aid no matter what, and thus does not bother your conscience. You have been working to help support your family for many years now, and now that most caskets in Wendel are stripped of anything worthwhile to steal, you are ready to take on other regions. You need more money. It is time for your family to rise in prominence in Wendel. The memories of too little food to eat and too many mouths to feed are still vivid. You didn’t have a plan until your magical potential impressed Lieven, a Mind Mage from one of the more powerful families in Wendel and he sponsored your trip to this Bazaar and your status as a Mage Candidate. If you can prove, here during the Bazaar, that you are a strong enough Mage, your family will rise in status back home in Wendel, giving them access to more money and more privileges granted by the regional government. If you can get an apprenticeship in any region other than Wendel (where the graves are already stripped of valuables) or Mons (where the burial sites are too far apart to easily access them all), you will have access

Ivan 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ivan (Shawn Westerdale) / Character Sheet to the buried wealth and shiny jewelry of that region! If you get yourself a high-profile sponsor from Wendel, Port Vianden, or Wiltz, that would get your family an even better status back in Wendel (you would love to get an apprenticeship in Port Vianden, as your research is going to attract lots of storms to the region, allowing you to revel in them). Maybe that would even get your less-naturally-talented brother sponsored for his Bazaar next year. You could even sponsor him yourself if you somehow had BIGNUM-MONEY for the sponsorship. (Man, traveling is expensive!) With two Mages in the family, your family’s status would change dramatically! Everything is possible through hard work and scheming. Meanwhile, while you’re in Wiltz, you might as well steal stuff to make money for your family. Besides which, robbing graves is fun! You can’t part with all of the pretty things you steal, naturally. Providing for one’s family is all well and good, but having shiny pieces of metal decorating your arms, hands, fingers, ankles, waist, forehead, ears, nose, and toes. . . well, that’s so much more important. You only retain the choicest pieces for your personal collection; you happily pawn the cheap stuff. You know that there are a number of graveyards around Wiltz, but you haven’t found any during your time since arriving. Maybe you can get someone to show you where some of them are. In addition, if you can find out what happened to that beautiful bronze filigreed necklace, the biggest prize you’ve ever found, it would make a priceless addition to your personal collection. You would never take it off, ever. It was just that beautiful. You thought you saw Klement with it, but it turns out that the book you stole from Klement only had a picture of it on the cover. The only bad thing about being hired as a Mage would be the fact that you would have to fight off the weather, prevent the storms, instead of egging it on. These idiots don’t appreciate the true beauty, the true glory, of the weather here in Liberec. It would be magnificent if only the Liberec Mages allowed the weather to run its natural course, sowing beautiful destruction everywhere, exposing the internal order of the earth and its flora and fauna, rending the earth from itself. It isn’t like people get hurt all that often from the weather patterns, and stories of the Catastrophe ten generations ago are just made up to scare children into becoming Mages. You secretly wish that the Mages of Liberec could be stopped from using their magic against the pretty weather patterns. You’ve even been researching how you could possibly sever the ability of the Mages to control the weather patterns. If you are to succeed at your research, though, you’ll need a lot of help. Meanwhile, you’ll have to pretend to like preventing the beautiful storms from ravaging the countryside like you ravage the ladies (and, once, um, your buddy Kondrad, but you try not to think about that). Even if you can’t complete your research, if you become a Mage in your own right, you can at least use your position and influence to get other Mages to interfere with the weather less. Along the same lines, you hate Fruit of the Great Mana. They worship the Great Mana, the mana which allows them to stop the weather from wreaking its naturally glorious havoc with the world. They have it all wrong. For years now, you have worshipped the weather patterns which make it past the Liberec Mages and come to pass as actual storms. Worshipping the storms strong enough to become reality makes them stronger and paves the way for more storms to make it past the Mages. You do your devotions to the storms every day, and you’ll recruit more followers if you can. Now, if there is one follower you wouldn’t take even if he begged you to let him help worship the weather, even if he begged you to take him as sacrifice to the weather, it’s Kondrad. He’s disgusting. You hate him so much you want to puke, but killing him is probably more effective at erasing his putrid guts from this Weather-forsaken world! Your first priority, above all else here at the Bazaar is to kill him by any means possible. Of course, you want to kill him yourself, just to make sure he’s dead, not allow anyone else to help you (and possibly steal your satisfying kill). If you could choose any region to do your apprenticeship, you’d choose Port Vianden because you have inside knowledge that it might have terrible weather in the coming years. You’ve integrated yourself with the Isolationists, who are going to redirect mana (and probably weather patterns, too) to Port Vianden. It’s so exciting! You are also a member of the Teenage Boys and The Bronze Pandas. Really, though, the only reason to be a part of them is

Ivan 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ivan (Shawn Westerdale) / Character Sheet to see your beloved Kondrad. You always thought that you were attracted to girls until you met him, the love of your life. Your first night together was your first night here at the Bazaar, mere hours after meeting him for the first time; it was magical. You also gave him the wonderful glowing box you had found near the food stores since it matches his eyes so nicely. You wonder if it is possible to marry him. . . Goals - Through research and/or your status as a Mage, get Mages to leave the Liberec weather patterns alone. - Confide in Kondrad, your best friend. - Go grave-robbing to make money for your family, earn yourself some shiny jewelry, and get high off of the mana in the dead bodies. - Kill Kondrad, your mortal enemy. - Get a hired by a highly respected Mage to raise your family’s status. - Seduce (and marry?) Kondrad, the love of your life. - Make enough money to sponsor your brother to go to his Bazaar next year. - Spread your new religion, worshipping the storms. - Attract lots of storms to Port Vianden with the Isolationists. - Find the beautiful filigreed bronze necklace you lost (item #6328). Notes - Every hour, on the hour, roll a d6. On a 1 or 2, you are best friends with Kondrad; on a 3 or 4, you hate his guts and want to kill him; on a 5 or 6, you are in love with him and trying to seduce him. Roleplay accordingly. - You are minorly addicted to the mana high you get from the dead bodies while grave-robbing. If you go more than 18 consecutive hours without getting high off of the dead, you start to go into withdrawal (roleplay accordingly). Contacts - Kondrad (Enrique Cintron): Your best friend. No, your mortal enemy. No no no, your lover! - Sabina (Fangfei Shen): The head of the Wendel delegation. - Drahomir (Daniel Kane): A member of the Isolationists who has lots of information on how to go about isolating Liberec.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #6328 - Item #3895 - Item #1112

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - The Bronze Pandas - Wendel - Isolationists

Greensheets - Mageball

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs- Saving Throws Versus Kondrad

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - 50 liberyen - “The Laws and Ordinances of the City Wiltz” (0640)

Ivan 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ivan (Shawn Westerdale) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: unyielding, rotting, - Age: 15 flavor, jump, slippery, climb, poison berries - α: 1 - Research Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 5 - Philosophy Ability: 4

Ivan 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Klara (Jason Gonsalves) / Character Sheet

Klara

“Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.” – Albert Einstein

There is so much pain in Liberec these days. Storms real and feared, political machinations that crush people’s hopes, whole regions that have barely enough magic to survive . . . but everyone knows about those, they’re just a part of life. What bothers you more is closer to home. How so many people believe your lovely region of Oldenburg is some kind of controlling dystopia. Your dearest friends’ mental and physical health problems. The lack of any Mage children for twenty-seven years. It’s been this way for a long time, but lately it seems worst of all. You can’t stand it. You can’t bear to see people hurt like that. You have to do something about it. You were noted for your kind heart from very young childhood, when you would take in stray cats sometimes found on the streets in your Village and nurture them back to health. The keeping of pets is frowned upon in Oldenburg as an affront to one’s self-worth and community reliance, and you received your fair share of taunts for it from your peers, but you didn’t care. You knew you were doing the right thing; it was their problem if they were too short-sighted to see it. And when your magic manifested itself on a kitten you were initially sure was beyond saving . . . well, it was no surprise to anyone that you wound up a Healing Mage. Your years since then have been devoted to your gift: healing. Healing people; healing the magical disturbances that cause Liberec’s terrible weather patterns; and, now, healing the government. As a member of the Mage Council this year, you’re in a powerful position to influence the course of Liberec’s future, and considering the ways some other people have botched that, you feel obligated to give it the full measure of your effort. You wouldn’t dare call them corrupt, but clearly some of them are misguided! It’s your duty to show them the right way forward. The Bazaar is only once a year, though. For the rest of the time, you count yourself proudly a member of your home Village in Oldenburg, and you are ecstatic to be the leader of its delegation to the Bazaar this year. Lately you’ve heard so much muttering about the “stifling nature” of Village life, how it “saps one’s creative spirit” . . . utter bollocks! How could anyone object to living in such a beautiful community, with the freedom that comes from having all your basic needs provided for? It’ll be necessary for Oldenburg to present a unified front to the rest of Liberec if it’s to have any hope of receiving its fair share of Mages for the coming year. See to it that your compatriots exhibit a genuinely positive attitude about their hometown. Surely they can find the goodness of heart within them. One benefit of being in Wiltz for the Bazaar is access to more information and research than you might have at home. This could be the breakthrough you are waiting for on your largest concrete Healing project (healing the world of its troubles doesn’t count): the Mage fertility problem in Oldenburg. No Mage children have been born in twenty-seven years. The region is really starting to feel the effects of that magically and politically, but more importantly, it’s simply a crime for such a positive source of new life to be denied your people. You’ve been working on this for years, trying every Healing spell you can think of on mothers-to-be, but still no Mage children have been born under your care. You’ve noticed a surprisingly large number of early childhood deaths, but they don’t have any unifying cause; as you know full well, Village life just doesn’t agree with some people. Your close friend and fellow healer Andel, though not a citizen of Oldenburg, is deeply invested in this plight and has been helping you with your efforts. In return, you’re helping him with his research. Neither of you has made much of any progress yet, but surely you’ll be much better off working together than you would be separately. Healing the world is well and good, but you know you can have the greatest impact in the lives of people you already know. We’re all interconnected, after all, at least to the degree we allow ourselves to be, and there are certain particular people who

Klara 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Klara (Jason Gonsalves) / Character Sheet have consistently been beacons of flowering happiness in your life. Well . . . more or less. There’s Valancy, Andel’s niece, who’s actually very quiet and not much fun at all because she’s been locked away for most of her life on account of her poor constitution. But that’s not her fault, the poor dear, and she does have some mental problems but surely you can help her with those. She’ll need a mother figure to help her stay happy, healthy, and safe; as fond as you are of Andel, you know he doesn’t particularly like his niece. You can fill that void. Also among your friends, though you don’t know her nearly as well as Valancy or Andel, is Dana, a Mundane collector who comes across the most fascinating trinkets sometimes. You don’t ask her where she got them, of course; that would be horribly impolite. She’s unmarried herself, but she has an adopted baby, the most adorable creature you’ve ever met who’s nevertheless crippled by an awful frailty. Why is it that such bad things have to happen to such good people? You took a look at her baby before you left for the Bazaar, and despite all of your considerable mental knowledge you were unable to figure out what was wrong with him. You can only hope Dana might have some idea that will guide you in the right direction, because you really want to be able to heal her baby. The world is full of Healing mysteries, and one of the people you’re looking forward to meeting at this Bazaar is Matilda. Despite being a Fire Mage, she has a son, Symon! If she was able to somehow get around that most basic of fertility rules all Healers learn—“Fire Mages can’t have children and shouldn’t try”—what advice might she be able to give about the delicate situation in Oldenburg? You should ask her, and see what she has to offer! On the other end of life’s circle is Garomil, who lost his magic before he even finished his term on The Mages’ Council. You’re sure something is wrong with his health; magic doesn’t just up and desert a person! You’ve only heard about him, never met him, but you know he wouldn’t refuse your help if you were to offer it. He must be awfully desperate. Another of your passions is the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters. The members of this Society, like you, have witnessed the terrible onslaught of Liberecine weather far more times than any human being should have to, and instead of cowering in fear and clinging to measures that delay the inevitable, they’ve decided to get together and construct a permanent solution. They’re putting together wards that can be powered up ahead of time and stop all weather from reaching a certain region—what a wonderful concept! These wards will need a Healer’s knowledge and magic to do their duty, though, so be sure to stay invested in their process and provide any help you’re able. Finally, as sad as it is for you to admit it, this business of always being optimistic, always cheerful, always helpful can be draining sometimes. Pretty damn often, actually. You wouldn’t dare become more selfish—your friends wouldn’t be able to handle it!—so you have to find your help somewhere else. The Order of Mana Connoisseurs, of which you are a part, knows of a simply delightful method of Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body that allows you to forget all your private troubles and stay focused on what you should be focused on: making Liberec a better and happier place to live. You’re grateful for this boost, crutch though it is, and will use it as often as necessary to make sure you don’t fail in your sacred duty of Healing. Goals - Make sure that Oldenburg gets its fair share of Mages. - Consult with Andel, Matilda, and anyone else you need to to figure out the source of Oldenburg’s Mage infertility problem and fix it. - Ensure that naysayers and cynics don’t ruin everyone’s impression (internal and external) of the beautiful community you have in Oldenburg. - Keep Valancy happy, healthy, and safe. - Assist Andel in his research. - Do your best to heal Dana’s adoptive son, though you don’t know what’s wrong with him . . . - Try to help Garomil with his problem. - Help the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters construct wards to combat the weather.

Klara 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Klara (Jason Gonsalves) / Character Sheet

- Sow happiness in the world to combat all the pain you see. Notes - You cannot stand to see others in pain or distress, and will do anything that is in your power to alleviate it. - You know intellectually that not everyone you meet will truly want what’s best for Liberec, but in your heart you still believe they’re like you until proven otherwise. Contacts - Andel (Andy Menard): A fellow Healer and close friend from Saar. - Valancy (Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson): Andel’s niece and your proteg´ ee.´ Keep her happy, healthy, and safe! - Dana (Allison Schneider): An acquaintance from Oldenburg whose adopted baby needs your Healing skills. - Pavel (Adam Yedidia): The leader of Oldenburg. You’ll have to listen to him, of course, but make sure he’s not creating an environment that your compatriots find oppressive. - Matilda (Susan Born): A Fire Mage who’s miraculously managed to have a child, Symon. - Garomil (Telmo Correa): A former Head of Council who lost his magic prematurely. You’re sure you can help him out. - Tarsia (Sukrit Ranjan): The midwife for Oldenburg.

Memory/Event Packets - ξ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - Oldenburg - First Annual Medical Conference - Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters

Greensheets - Negotiating the Distribution of Mages- Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage

Items - Bronze Key (3836)- 500 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 6 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 6

Klara 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Klement (Daniel Gray) / Character Sheet

Klement

“In a town this bent, who’s there to rat to anyway?” – Lt. Jim Gordon “Uh, the Council. [...] Big shock, they aren’t helping.” – Harry Dresden

Murder, Drugs, Rape, Theft, Drugs. All these things are what you were told to beware of, watch out for, and to prevent when you became a Police Officer in Mons. Its been 9 years since you first became a police officer, and not once have you gone about your job with honesty and integrity. Anytime someone has asked about what you do, you’ve lied about it through your teeth. 9 years ago, at your second attempt at becoming a Mage, you were learning your 3rd level Animal spell, when you were called by The Mages’ Council to meet with Lillian, the head of council that year. It turns out, that there had already been 2 Animal Mages selected by the Council, and you would not become a full Mage. However, as a second-year and your knowledge of technology (You built a windmill at 12), Lillian offered you the chance to investigate Magitech, and discover how dangerous it was to Liberec. Seeing as your only other option was gone, and it would take too long to learn a new type of magic before the Bazaar was over, you quickly accepted the proposition. In order to protect yourself and the Council, Lillian has had you pretend to be a Mundane Police officer in Mons for the past 9 years. Unfortunately, only a few years later Lillian died, leaving you without a contact about your role as the Magitech investigator. You don’t know whether Lillian ever had a chance to inform someone about your role, so you’re keeping a low profile until you find out one way or another. Luckily, by being stationed in Mons you have more time to work in relative privacy on your magic, and to study the ancient remnants of Kusel’s attempted invasion on Liberec during the dark times after the Catastrophe. As a police officer in charge of the police force in Mons, you’ve had to accompany the delegation to the Bazaar every year since you first became a police officer. While having time to study Magitech in Mons, you are glad for the opportunity to travel to Wiltz every year. It gives you a chance to look up more information in the library, and the greater amount of mana flowing through Wiltz gives you a chance to apply some of what you have learned about Magitech. Also, you’ve come to love Wiltz as your home away from home. With all the knowledge floating around and the library right there, you wouldn’t be mad if you were promoted and became a police officer or even the police chief of Wiltz. This year, you are especially excited about the Bazaar, because a delegation of Kusel will be here. Dominik even told you that you should keep an eye on the visitors for their own ”protection”. You might even hear and see more of the magic that they are rumored to practice over there. Rumors are that they have had many years to perfect their brand of magic, and you’d love to learn more. You’ve barely scratched the surface of this powerful branch of magic. During the Bazaar last year, you noticed some residual sparks of Magitech in some of the back alleys of Wiltz. You’d like to try and discover who else is practicing Magitech, and if they pose a threat to Liberec. Also during last year’s Bazaar, you were contacted by Mana Cartographers to go and take measurements around Mons in order to help map the mana lines throughout Liberec. If they succeed, this may help you further in your studies of Magitech, and allow you to show The Mages’ Council how technology can help Liberec. You also found out that a group led by Anastasia was planning on building a thinking machine in order to help solve Liberec’s weather problems. From what you’ve heard, it sounds like if they succeed, the council may look at the mixture of magic and technology with greater favor. It would then be easier to convince them to legalize Magitech as an official branch of magic. It was also around the last Bazaar that you met the beautiful Lise. You met her at one of The Mageball Lions’ games during last year’s Bazaar. She seemed distracted and ignored your conversation with her, but even without talking, you saw the beauty that she possessed. You need to find her at this Bazaar and get to know her better . . . hopefully she’ll see you in the same light you see her! You don’t know it for a fact that she’ll be back, but you know it deep down in your soul.

Klement 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Klement (Daniel Gray) / Character Sheet

Your main mission this year, your last year of using the wonderful magic, is too convince the council that Magitech can greatly benefit Liberec and that it should be legalized. However, you can not let them discover that you have been practicing Magitech all these years lest they decide to throw you in jail or worse kill you for practicing such a thing without the current council’s permission. You also are looking for intelligent teenagers to teach the secret of Magitech to and persuade them to become the next Magitech investigator in hopes that they will succeed in convincing the Council in the future if you fail this year. Also while here, you need to act as a police officer and confiscate any illegal substances you find, and if you have to, prevent any crimes from being committed. Ever since then, you’ve been addicted to all forms of drugs. If anyone were to discover, you would lose your job and credibility. So, you’ve never been able to acquire drugs through the legitimate illegal means of buying them. Your only source for the past year has been the drugs you find stashed around Mons and the ones that you confiscated from the various Mundane dealers in Mons. Now that you are in Wiltz, you can once again confront the bigger dealers and ”confiscate” their wares. While confiscating drugs last year, you came across a small parchment written in a strange language hidden away near the back wall of the library along with a Small Steel Block (2412). On the top of the parchment is a picture of a chest along with a serpent surrounding it. You’d like to see if you can translate it. You’ve had some luck over the past year, but you haven’t had much time to look into it while researching more about Magitech and acting like a police officer. Especially, when you spent 3 months looking for one of the council member’s ornamental key during the winter in Mons. It was a big waste of your time to look for the stupid bronze key, but it would have thrown suspicion on you if you hadn’t looked for it. You also lost the original parchment in Mons while looking for that blasted ornament. Also while looking for the ornamental key, you discovered an old copy of “The Laws and Ordinances of the City Wiltz” (0640). Another perk of coming to the Bazaar every year is that you’ve made friends with the Mundanes throughout the Capital. In return for lending them an ear, you’ve heard many rumors about the actions of the other Mages. Some are just completely false rumors, such as the rumor of the king being a frog turned into a King, but you have also heard about rumors of a group of The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts that are trying to make history. Unfortunately, while talking with the Mundanes, a pickpocket got away with the copy of “The Laws and Ordinances of the City Wiltz” (0640). Its also at this year’s Bazaar, that you first caught sight of the beautiful Dana. If only, you could impress her. She is quite beautiful. You’ll also have a chance to work with a new group, called the Explorers of the Ancient Past in order to explore the ruins around Wiltz. This could be a chance to discover old evidence of the power of Magitech. Goals - Try getting promoted to Police Chief of Wiltz, or at least moved to Wiltz - Help Mana Cartographers chart the manalines throughout Liberec in order to be able to better understand magic. - Find out how Kusel was stopped at Mons during their invasion after the Catastrophe. - Learn more about Kusel and their research into Magitech. - Try to convince The Mages’ Council to accept Magitech as an official magic type. Try not to be caught as a practitioner until they accept it - Help the Society for Applied Manaology with their endeavors and help them build technology for you to experiment with and to take to Mons - Find out more about Magitech and everything about it including who is practicing it - Get more people to learn Magitech who won’t let the secret out until it becomes legal to practice it. - Explore the ruins around Wiltz, and see if you can find any mentions of Magitech. - Find Lise and woo her. - Gather a stash of drugs to last you the year. - Try to recover the book of law you lost. Notes - No one that originally knew about you being tasked as being the Magitech investigator is at the Bazaar. You think that the

Klement 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Klement (Daniel Gray) / Character Sheet

Head of the Council might know about you, but you aren’t sure - You are attracted to any combination of technology and magic, not necessarily Magitech. If you hear about some mixing of technology and magic, you’ll try to find out more - Your interest in politics is to increase the power of the Wiltz police, and to try getting recognition for Magitech. You’d also like to open up further trade with Kusel. You also should support rights for The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages in order to keep up appearances - You are mildly addicted to drugs, however you don’t want to get caught. You’ll try to get as much as possible, but will refrain from taking them until the end of the Bazaar, unless you know no one will find out Contacts - Dominik (Nathan Serrano): The Chief of Police in Wiltz, a competent yet bitter Mundane under whom you are working. - Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov): A Void Mage on The Mages’ Council and the organizer of Mana Cartographers. - Anastasia (Kevin Chen): A wealthy merchant, the leader and driving force behind Society for Applied Manaology - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The ambassador from Kusel here to negotiate with The Mages’ Council; you have been put in charge of watching the Kusel delegation for their safety. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of the Bazaar, a very competent Mundane with whom you have worked with before. - Lise: The girl you’re in love with. You need to find her! - Dana (Allison Schneider): A beautiful Mundane from Oldenburg.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #0640- φ

Bluesheets - Society for Applied Manaology - Mana Cartographers - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - Explorers of the Ancient Past - Mons

Greensheets - Gain Legal Control of Locations

Abilities - Level 6 Mage- Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Small Steel Block (2412) - 250 liberyen - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document)

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 6 - β: N/A - Engineering Ability: 7

Klement 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kondrad (Enrique Cintron) / Character Sheet

Kondrad

“’What do you want?’ ’What do I want? The Centauri stripped my world. I want Justice.’ ’But what do you want?’ ’To suck the marrow from their bones and grind their skulls to powder.’ ’What do you want?’ ’To tear down their cities, blacken their skies, sow their ground with salt, to completely and utterly erase them.’ ’And then what?’ ’I don’t know. As long as my home world’s safety is guaranteed, I don’t know that it matters.’ ’I see.”’ – J Michael Straczynski “’What do you want?’ ’That’s what I was going to ask you! What do YOU want?’ ’You are a lunatic. Go away. Pester someone else.”’ – J Michael Straczynski “’Looking back on it, though, I think I just tried to make people happy.”’ – Neil Gaiman

People are most easily undone by their own desires. That’s why you consider yourself to be in the want-fulfillment service. ’What do you want?’ It’s a fascinating question. Sometimes it takes a bit of patience to really get through to the true desire of a person, but once you know their innermost want, you know the most important aspect of them. In your line of work, you really get to know people. After you know what they secretly desire, of course, you can use their want to your own benefit, as well as their own self-destruction. (You should bring down Ivan, your greatest enemy, this way.) When it comes to bringing down people with their own desires, your associates can help you with that. . . You couldn’t ask for better associates; they have expert knowledge of the dog-eat-dog world out there. Of course, you never admit to others the fact that you have been able to speak to animals ever since you failed to get hired at last year’s Bazaar. Still, the animals do assist you in your goals of promoting chaos and self-destruction, knowing the joys and benefits of constant warfare and natural selection even better than you do. So then, what do you want? It’s quite simple, really. If the people of Mons are going to survive, if the people of Liberec are going to survive, they must be stronger-and not just magically. Strength comes through evolution, through struggle, through conflict.

STRENGTHCOMESTHROUGHCHAOS

If Liberec is going to survive, there must be chaos, conflict, fights, murder, war. Only the fittest shall survive. It is up to you to promote this cause by any means necessary. Living in Mons has been a formative experience. Mons has so few resources that acquiring anything, from some mana to protect a village to some fruit for lunch, is difficult. You learn to be resourceful, clever. You learn the value of every bit of material and intellectual goods in your possession. It is obvious that the people of Mons are stronger, hardier stock than elsewhere in Liberec due to their constant struggle with an aggressive environment (even beyond the usual apocalyptic weather everywhere). Besides which, Mons is the only place which gets storms where there isn’t enough mana around to prevent them, leaving manaless Mages helpless, sitting and watching storms cause ruin. The people of Mons deserve better! The people of the other regions should have to worry about scrimping and saving on

Kondrad 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kondrad (Enrique Cintron) / Character Sheet their mana usage for once. On your way to the Bazaar, you were talking to some of the other members of the Mons delegation and persuaded them to feel the same way. While at the Bazaar, you all will be looking for ways to redirect mana to Mons from the other regions. Plain and simple, you’re stronger, more deserving. There are rumors of an ambassador from Kusel, the country across the water, coming to the Bazaar this year. They are supposed to have a mighty military, powered by strange magics. Legend has it that the last time they invaded Liberec, they were stopped by the people of Mons: “Once it was a time of hardship for Liberec. Kusel, at the time led by a bellicose dictator, invaded Liberec with an eye to enslave its people. Liberec’s warriors could not stand up to their strange magical weapons wielded by Kusel’s Mages; nothing could be done to stop the glowing weapons from moving as if with a life of their own. As these unnatural warriors crossed Mons, the rural farmers rose up and took up arms against the invaders. The people of Mons came together to save Liberec. And lo, as the strange weapons and warriors of Kusel were coming through Mons, the might of the people of Mons crushed the invading force and did strike down the weapons and prevent them from harming a single Liberec civilian. Defeated, the Kusel warriors turned and fled.” The legend could happen again, the chaos of war and battle would truly bring out the best in Liberec. If you can promote war with Kusel, that would truly bring about the best for Liberec and Mons. You’ve been recruited into The Historian Guild, investigating the cause of the Catastrophe ten generations ago. Sounds like interesting information, and information is almost as important part of your business as favors! You are also involved with the Teenage Boys and a cool sports team, The Bronze Pandas. Furthermore, you are involved with a particular boy and friend of yours from both the Teenage Boys and The Bronze Pandas. He’s so wonderful. His name is Ivan. You would be straight if it weren’t for him, but Ivan makes such a wonderful lover that you forget all about girls when you’re with him. He even gave you a glowing box that matches your eyes. Through all of this, you must keep up appearances, however. Mons must be well represented at the Bazaar; you love your home region and will aid in its goals at the Bazaar in any way you can. If any action of yours brought shame on Mons or interfered with the region’s political goals, that would be unacceptable. Your associates expect regular reports during the Bazaar. You should address your reports, as well as reports on anything you hear from the animals, to the leader, Petauris. Sadly, one of your reports, which included a book you found detailing the invasions of the past, has been lost while the Caravans were unpacking. It is crucial that you recover it. Goals - Promote conflict and chaos wherever possible. - Kill Ivan, your mortal enemy. - Find a way to redirect mana into Mons with Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions. - Seduce (and marry?) Ivan, the love of your life. - Further the social and political aims of Mons and represent them well at the Bazaar. - Confide in Ivan, your best friend. - Promote war with Kusel. - Win the Teenage Boys plot. - Help The Bronze Pandas achieve athletic victory. - Find and talk to all of the species of animals in Wiltz - Get hired as a Mage as long as it doesn’t interfere with more important matters. Notes - You can talk to animals in-game. If you are doing so, make sure that it is obvious to anyone in the vicinity what you are doing. - You may communicate with Petauris, the leader of your associates, via email. Please cc the GMs on any daily reports. The

Kondrad 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kondrad (Enrique Cintron) / Character Sheet

in-game representation is that you send or receive notes to/from a NPC courier who has the ability to communicate with Petauris. - Every hour, on the hour, roll a d6. On a 1 or 2, you are mortal enemies with Ivan and want to kill him; on a 3 or 4, you are in love with him and trying to seduce him; on a 5 or 6, you are best friends. Roleplay accordingly. Contacts - Ivan (Shawn Westerdale): Your mortal enemy, you hate his guts. Also your secret lover. Wait, no, just your best friend. - Petauris (Paul Baranay): The leader of your associates who can maybe assist you in giving people what they want. - Cenek (Andrew Clough): The head of the Mons delegation. - Perotin (Emily Rosser): The founder of The Historian Guild, who is missing.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #1753

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions - The Bronze Pandas - The Historian Guild - Mons

Greensheets - Mageball- Herbalism

Abilities - Speak To Animals - Search word - Saving Throws Versus Ivan - Search word - Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Plant Mage/Farmer Recipe Book (in-game document) - Glowing Box (2139) - 100 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: conundrum, flexible, - Age: 16 stuck, vines, food, gap, sleepy - α: 4 - Leadership Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 3 - Psychology Ability: 5

Kondrad 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kristof (Jay Muchnij) / Character Sheet

Kristof

The best laid plans o’mice an’ men Gang aft agley – Robert Burns “Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride–where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation.” – Jane Austen

As far as beginnings go, nothing about this Bazaar has been particularly auspicious. This was supposed to be the moment you and Roland stepped forward into the world–claimed your place among the leaders of Liberec and of your home. You would meet those who have written in the public view and argue with them, show with logic how anything they said in ignorance was lacking. And somehow it all fell apart. You have always been one of the most promising children of Wendel. True, you were not from the very first family, but at least of one of the more influential, and one of the most gifted magically. This meant that very young you met Roland and were encouraged to play with him, and soon you were the best of friends. You’ve never been quite comfortable around people– especially large groups of those so decidedly beneath you. Roland, however, tended to at least be exciting to be with. Amongst your own circle you were sociable enough, or at least as much as you could bring yourself to be. You knew your place–you joined The Bronze Pandas early, determined to excel, and encouraging Roland to as well. You never spent much time with his sister Vera, but then she was just his sister. Nothing against sisters–not at all, in fact. You have a sister of your own, Genevieve, only eight. She’s a sweetheart –when your mother died five years ago, she became the light of your family. Long past the age of playing games, when you had to take charge of some of her free time you found you really didn’t mind. You still don’t–however rarely you get to do so, now, it’s still a joy spending time with her. You even take over some of her lessons, sometimes–teaching her about the duties of your family to Wendel, about the dangers of the storms, about the Mages who protect all Liberecines and try to calm the land. You’re the older brother, the firstborn of the family. It’s your duty to do your best by her, protect her. In fact, she’s the primary reason you first joined the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters, when the call went out. In Liberec, it’s the storms, the quakes, the perpetual catastrophes. As long as they happen, Genevieve is in danger–and when she, too, takes her rightful place as a Mage of the Council, she’ll be putting her life on the line willingly and out of her obligation to the people. But, if you can help the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters find ways to protect the settlements, the people, and the Mages who fight the storms, maybe she’ll have a better chance when the time comes. She’s always been a little frail. You’ll do anything at all to keep her safe. Your own, darling little sister–but she’s honestly been the only girl you’ve ever cared much about. Other people’s sisters just aren’t interesting, not even Roland’s. Roland. It all leads back to him, somehow: this whole mess you’re now in is because of him. You hate to think of it that way, and wish visciously he were there to berate for leaving you alone to handle it all. You miss him. But then, he was always doing things like this, wasn’t he? You had been wandering through the market, watching for anything interesting, when you noticed the commotion near a fountain. By the time you got there, it was already far too late, but Vera was weeping and Sabina looked... well, more or less as she always looked, but perhaps a little concerned. But it didn’t take long to get the story: Roland was dead. The only real friend you’ve ever had, the pride and joy of Wendel, and he was dead. You were in shock for hours: barely slept, and if you hadn’t been nearly grown up, a Mage Candidate, and the son of your family–the highest male left from Wendel, now–you would have been deeply tempted to simply cry. Vera and Sabina are convinced it’s foul play, although you’re not certain. Hopefully the police will investigate to be certain, but you don’t trust them to investigate thoroughly when they didn’t even know that he was important or

Kristof 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kristof (Jay Muchnij) / Character Sheet where to look. You, a talented Mage Candidate and Roland’s best friend, will be able to figure out what happened far better than the paranoid police or the grief-stricken ladies. You’re the best male candidate left from Wendel, and only Terenza and Vera can actually compete with you overall– assum- ing, of course, that Vera isn’t as high as her brother used to be. When it doesn’t come back to Roland, it comes back to the damn drugs and how they’ve hurt everything and everyone in your life. Your own mother died, in the end, because she kept trying different potions and drugs to control her various illnesses, and as for sweet little Genevieve... she’s frail, too–the combination of the drugs your mother was on combined with extra taken during her pregnancy to try to keep the baby healthy had the opposite effect on your darling little sister. She can’t walk–none of Wendel’s Healing Mages have ever found any way to fix whatever went so very, very wrong. It was yet more cocktails made by fools of Plant Mages who thought they knew what they were doing which killed your mother. Over the years, you have come to realize that it was the constant use of Plant Magic to affect the plants and taking the word of the people who wield mana in that way which is obviously to blame for the prevalence of drugs and the poisons which killed your mother. Everyone knows to go to the Plant Mages if you want drugs or some useless potion. While you’re here in the Capital, with nearly unlimited resources in Mana, you want to try to end the blight of Plant Magic once and for all. If it hadn’t been for Plant Magic–over stretching the Great Mana’s gift of life in a manner which it never intended–your mother might be alive, and maybe Roland wouldn’t have found a way to get so jacked up like an idiot that he left it all on your shoulders. You suppose that you could easily come up with a date when it started, as it only began after Roland had taken over the duties of reporting for Wendel, and after the idiot had gotten himself so addicted to drugs that chances were good he’d be high as a kite at any given time. The first time, you just gave what he’d written a look over. To say it was a mess would be an understatement–even ignoring the grammatical errors, the entire style was confused. Roland could be perfectly intelligent when he chose to be, but apparently this time he couldn’t be bothered to even try to have his pen keep up with whatever was going through his head. After trying to offer a few ideas on edits, and asking for permission to suggest some stylistic changes. “Oh, feel free. Rewrite whatever you want,” Roland replied dismissively. So you did. After the first few times you rewrote whole swaths of his work, you simply started writing it up from scratch. You were sober, after all; you heard more than Roland did. For all that you maintained the distance required by your station, you were also less... the polite word might be brusque, perhaps. You were always less brusque with the lower families of Wendel who didn’t try to get above themselves. You didn’t get along as well with outsiders, though– especially with... certain of the other reporters. The writing wasn’t your style–not by a long shot. It had to sound like Roland’s work, incase anyone asked questions, and at least the others of Wendel would be able to tell it was you. For all that the opinions were your own, you tried to emulate your friend’s flagrantly cavalier attitude towards the rest of the world. He was free enough in expressing it, especially around you. You agreed, but his address always left a little something to be desired: sufficient logical support, frequently, or at least enough decorum to avoid having the whole argument invalidated as irrational or an ad hominem attack. So you cut corners, you wrote them all more stridently, more dismissively argumentative in tone than you would have ever done under your own name. After a few times writing the column fully independently, you had to admit–only privately–that it rankled a little that you would never get the credit for it. You began leaving a cipher, hidden in the signatures and text. “Greetings, astute reader. This is Kristof. If you are reading this, I hope you will take the arguments contained herein on the basis of their content, not the manner in which they have been presented. I am, as ever, glad to entertain and counter any opposing viewpoints, however little they may affect my own.” No one ever seemed to reply, no matter how much you search every report for a counter to it. Now Wendel will expect Vera to take her brother’s place–and, where the duty of reporting for your region is concerned, that’s the last thing you want to happen. You never wanted to embarrass your friend, or step on his toes–but you enjoy the work you’ve done. You’re proud of it. And

Kristof 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kristof (Jay Muchnij) / Character Sheet now there’s the competition for representing all of Liberec, and you want it. Vera can even have the job for Wendel if she wants it, once you have the national position. You’ll be able to meet the competition. Unfortunately, you’ve lost your notes on the state of Liberec while walking around the Bazaar. Though, there will probably be more important topics to write about. The competition. Yesterday, before you heard that is, you almost wanted to damn Roland for leaving you to be the reporter. Before coming here, it was mostly the best thing for Wendel and for you. For all that it was work you shouldn’t have had to do, you enjoyed reading what the others wrote–and to your surprise, the articles which most contradicted and replied to yours–to the overt one, that is–was the reporter from Mons. Some girl named Leana, apparently. For all that she persists in being ignorant, uppity, and incredibly impertinent, she’s always had a remarkable way with words. You hadn’t expected that, from a girl from the backwaters, but she has always been dextrous with word choice and daring in her execution. She is also consistently respectful of religion, which you find admirable, considering some of her more radical opinions. Whatever her problems she has always entertained you, even if she occasionally made things personal with you–or, rather, with “Roland.” You had been looking forward to meeting her, telling her the truth of it–that you are the author, not your friend, that you would like to talk and maybe, just maybe, you could even educate her a little. Had being the operative word. Oh, you found her all right–yesterday, greeting the Mage Ester, the head of the Church. You only knew it was her because you heard her name. Rather ordinary girl, over all–tolerable, perhaps, but nothing out of the common way. You only thought of politely greeting them and asking her for a moment of her time, at her earliest convenience, of course– And then she laughed, and you rather forgot to speak. It wasn’t the sound, which was more or less like any other laugh in the world. It was the arch and merry expression, the mischievous attitude in her body language. Even more, though, it was the way her eyes sparkled, bright with her joy. You’ve honestly never seen such beautiful eyes. You still need to speak with her, if you can; you’ve no idea how. It isn’t as though you have experience speaking with girls other than your sister, and occasionally Vera, who was almost the same. More than ever you wish that someone–that Leana, specifically–had broken the cipher, but you suspect she was too busy being furious at “Roland” to take note. Even if you know it isn’t Roland she hates, it’s you, you still want to talk to her. Sure, you still think her ig– no, not ignorant, exactly. She never has been ignorant, or she couldn’t write like she does. A little naive, perhaps–misguided and misinformed, certainly. Given her natural (if undeveloped) intelligence, she might even listen to reason if you just sit down and talk to her. As a rule, girls have never really interested you in any but the abstract way. And then you saw Leana. It makes a little more sense to you now, why there are all those tragic stories of love and what people are willing to do for it. You just don’t know what to do–or how to go about it. And, of course, you still have to train your magic and get hired as a Mage. You’re hardly going to go through the shame of failing so massively. Hopefully something of this mess of a Bazaar can still be salvaged. Your first day here, a person ran into you and then got up and ran away. He didn’t even acknowledge what he did. Still, you got a fancy Magnifying Glass (3423) that he dropped. So far, the Bazaar hasn’t been anything like you imagined. Goals - Find out what actually happened to Roland yesterday - Be made the official reporter of Wendel (finally) - Train your magic and get hired - Win the national reporting post

Kristof 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kristof (Jay Muchnij) / Character Sheet

- Try finding your notes. - Help the Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its Protection from Disasters with their research and planning - Convince Leana not to hate you and court her - Deal with Plant Magic and its inherent evil Contacts - Roland (Xavid Pretzer): Your best friend. He died yesterday. - Leana (Yelena Tsitkin): One of your rivals for the national reporting post, and incidentally the owner of a pair of fine eyes and sparkling wit. - Vera (Kim Beder): Roland’s sister. - Sabina (Fangfei Shen): The leader of the delegation from Wendel, and Roland’s aunt.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #1751

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Society for the Development of Infrastructure and Its - The Bronze Pandas Protection from Disasters - Wendel

Greensheets - Mageball- Searching for Roland’s Cause of Death (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Gossip with the Public

Items - Magnifying Glass (3423)- 150 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: illusion, rotting, - Age: 15 somersault, poison berries, slippery, reach, bats - α: 5 - Research Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 6 - Philosophy Ability: 6

Kristof 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kveta (Cassie Huang) / Character Sheet

Kveta

“They don’t give you gold medals for beating somebody. They give you gold medals for beating everybody.” – Michael Johnson “Above anything else, I hate to lose.” – Jackie Robinson “Impossible, For a plain yellow pumpkin to become a golden carriage. Impossible, For a plain country bumpkin and a prince to join in marriage. And four white mice will never be four white horses. Such falderal and fiddle-dee-dee, of course, is Impossible. But the world is full of zanies and fools, Who don’t believe in sensible rules, And won’t believe what sensible people say, And because these daft and dewy-eyed dopes keep Building up impossible hopes, Impossible things are happening everyday. Impossible...” – Rodgers and Hammerstein

This Bazaar is the strangest and most exciting thing you have ever seen, let alone taken part in, for all of your life. Even though you were at the Bazaar (under very different circumstances) last year, things are stranger and more exciting and bigger and more real now that you are going to try to get an apprenticeship. It is so exciting and terrifying that you can hardly sleep at night. There are so many people at all hours of the day and night, merchants selling every possible good under the Great Mana’s sky, and a cacophony of smells. You’d spent your whole life, up until a year ago, in one of the most rural regions of Mons on the family farm. Your family, without magical ability or inclination and officially Mundane, does nothing but produce food which is sent on to Wiltz. Even though technically freemen, they are no better than enslaved to the Mages! They are barely granted enough allowance of their own food production to feed you and your seven brothers and sisters. Your best friend Florian lived on a farm down the road for many years, but his Bazaar was a few years ago and he moved away to become a famous Mageball star athlete. You’ve heard that their team is at the Bazaar this year, so you look forward to seeing him. At least he got out, away from Mons, away from the poverty and hunger. You hope to do the same. You have always known that you had to get out of Mons by any means necessary. Now you have the chance. Your family will not be kept in poverty and on the brink of starvation, constantly crushed beneath the heels of the Mages who run the country. You will find a better life for yourself and for all of the Mundanes of Liberec, and most importantly, you will find a better life for your siblings. . . Siblings. As the second-oldest of the six kids popped out regularly each year by your parents, with the other five being boys, and with two little sisters Abaca (age 6) and Chure (age 2) to take care of, you grew up strong from helping your parents on the farm and a tomboy from playing with your brothers. Just because you are a girl doesn’t mean that you have to lose to your brothers. Naturally quick and agile, you trained hard to become strong as well. Wrestling. Sparring. Mageball. Horseshoes. Racing. You spent your entire youth running around with your brothers Thom, Zurk, Barron, Chad, and Teffie. Eventually you could beat each of your brothers at whatever sport or competition had been devised, and later you could sometimes even beat all of them teamed up against you. Training extra hard each time you lost, you would make sure you won the next time.

Kveta 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kveta (Cassie Huang) / Character Sheet

Really, you just hate to lose. You especially love playing and winning Mageball. It was fun to dream about getting out of Mons through your skill at sports and going pro. Despite its name, being a Mage isn’t technically required to play Mageball; it helps, but your strength and agility could help you overcome the gap between you and the Mages on the team. After all this planning, you were shocked to discover, after years of beating your brothers at it, that Mageball is considered a men’s sport. Your dream was crushed. You needed another way out of Mons. Last year, your family sent you to the Bazaar as their representative to sell your produce. With so many people with spending allowances gathered in one place, the Bazaar is an important event for farmers as well as those lucky enough to have Mage blood. Being sent to the Bazaar last year changed your life. You don’t know why your parents sent you last year. Your father Uji always went, and even Thom had never been told to go. Last year, you were sent - on your own, no less - to the Bazaar when you were the same age as the Mage candidates there. It was cruel, seeing the life and privilege you could have had if born into a Mage family. Still, your mother Tia insisted that you go. Maybe she thought you’d find a Mage boy to marry and raise your own social status, if not that of the family. In the caravan of goods traveling from Mons to Wiltz for the Bazaar, you met Ilona. She was surprisingly nice to you, considering she had Mage blood and you didn’t. You spent the time traveling to Wiltz talking about the problems facing Liberec. She was the first person in your life who didn’t laugh at your solution to the Mundanes being oppressed - social revolution. In fact, being a bit of an engineer, she proposed a plan beyond your wildest dreams. “Social revolution seems impossible when the Mages, though few, hold all of the power. What we need is an equal playing field. You must know what I mean, Kveta” “What?” You didn’t understand what she was getting at. “The magical ability is what keeps the scales tipped in favor of the Mages. We should even them out.” “That’s impossible.” “It isn’t impossible. All we have to do is give the Mundanes access to magic.” “That’s impossible.” “Just think, Kveta! If we succeed, then another Catastrophe cannot happen. With everyone helping dissipate the storms, the cataclysmic weather will stop for good.” It was impossible, just impossible, what she suggested, but over the next few days, she convinced you to try it. As time passed, the idea seemed less and less crazy. Magical ability is inherited, which is why families of Mundanes continue to breed more Mundanes. However, after the Catastrophe 20 generations ago, there was sufficient in-breeding among the survivors that almost every Mundane family has some Mage ancestor many generations ago. If only that tiny bit of potential could be augmented, increased. . . the Council would no longer be able to justify keeping the Mundanes in their oppressed and downtrodden state. With Mage potential for the Mundanes, equality can’t be too far behind. (Not to mention, the world would be saved from forever-impending apocalypse.) The idea of augmenting Mage capacity wasn’t unreasonable, either. Why, in your very load of produce from the family to sell at the Bazaar was a few dozen sprigs of the ever popular and very difficult to grow Toguphan, which (despite being illegal) was well-known to increase magic learning potential in those with Mage blood. It might be possible. With all of the time spent on the farm, you are experienced enough with plants, grown to produce food or grown to produce illegal drugs, to begin experimenting with your own (lack of) magical ability. You would have been at an age to be a candidate at the Bazaar if you were from a magical bloodline, so why not?

Kveta 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kveta (Cassie Huang) / Character Sheet

Following something of the scientific process, you needed a control before beginning to experiment on yourself, so you accompanied some of the young Mages off to their first learning magic Shadowrun. You expected nothing. This was only the control, against which improvements would be measured. Nothing happened. Well, that was as expected. . . almost. Nothing happened for the actual Mage Candidates, either. Curiosity piqued, you insisted that the group do more Shadowruns. Now you were less nervous than that actual Candidates who were seeing their promised future crumble around them. As you started the next Shadowrun, your thoughts were whirling. Did having a Mundane in the group nullify their magic potential? Was The Mages’ Council just confused about which teenagers actually had potential? Were the Mages of Liberec all just one big conspiracy? How could you use it to your advantage, and that of your family? The next time, you learned something. Just like the real Candidates. You had Mage potential, and you hadn’t even started your experiments yet. What is going on? Although last year you got distracted from figuring it out, you spent the rest of the Bazaar well. You met Zdenko, who introduced you to your new Family - a Family who cared about you particularly, a Family which would someday run the world, a Family which thought you were special instead just another useless peasant Mundane. He created the Templars of the Black Cross from those, like you, whose right to have a chance at being a Mage was unfairly taken away. In addition, Zdenko appreciates your strength. With him, you’ll finally get an opportunity to be badass, to win. That’s why you’re back. You must have magical potential of some sort. Now is time to win - get a monopoly in the drug trade around Wiltz, gain power and money with the Templars of the Black Cross, become a Mage, bring your family up in the world, improve Mons through the help of your associates in Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions. and raise up the Mundanes to social revolution by imbuing them with magical potential. Also, you’d like to help Teenage Girls construct a communication system to reach across Liberec. Lastly, you’d like to join The Bronze Pandas and do the best you can in Mageball in order to show that you are powerful. Doesn’t sound too hard. You’re a winner. Goals - Get out of Mons and subservience forever; get your family out, too. - Find an official sponsor for your Mage Candidacy, so that you have a chance of being hired as an apprentice. - Acquire official status as a Mage (and increased status for your family) either by getting hired as an apprentice or recruited to a Mageball team. - Help the Templars of the Black Cross create better lives for everyone in the Family. - Find a way for people who are hereditarily Mundanes to learn magic. - Prove yourself to The Bronze Pandas to become one of them. - Fight for the rights of women and Mundanes. - Help The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages strive towards equality, although keeping most of the power in the hands of the Mages, who can actually take action to protect the public for whom they are responsible and the group of which you will hopefully soon be a part, would be better than the alternatives. - Support your region, Mons, in any way you can. - Get the Mageball officials to accept women in the sport (and hopefully you). - Secure a monopoly (and as much money as possible) in the drug trade. - Help Mons as much as possible through the efforts of Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions - Help Teenage Girls work on long distance communication

Kveta 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Kveta (Cassie Huang) / Character Sheet

Notes - You have access to a source of illegal drugs from your family farm. You may take up to 5 items of your choice from the ∆ folder in the box per day. - You have a lot of experience with illegal drugs from your family farm. You may find out what a drug does by spending 1 minute examining it. Do this by finding a duplicate of the drug by item number in the ∆ folder in the box room and opening (then discarding) it. You receive no effects, positive or negative, by doing so. - You are primarily lesbian. Contacts - Zdenko (Carter Huffman): The leader of the Templars of the Black Cross, and the closest thing to family you have at the Bazaar. - Cecilia (Ceres Lee): Another member of the Templars of the Black Cross who understands the additional hardship that sometimes comes down on the women of Liberec. - Eugen (JB Parkes): A soulful noble whose family hardship led him to become a member of the Templars of the Black Cross - Florian (Jim Waldrop): Your old best friend, a couple of years older, now a player on The Mageball Lions. - Ilona (Casey McNamara): A Mage Candidate from elsewhere in Mons who gave you the idea to increase the magic learning potential of the masses of Mundanes of Liberec. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The manager for the best Mageball sports team in Liberec and organizer of the Bazaar. You should probably get on his good side.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Mons - Templars of the Black Cross - Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions - The Bronze Pandas - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages

Greensheets - Dueling - Herbalism - Mageball

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs - Search word - Level 1 Mage - Search word

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Drug Lord Recipe Book (in-game document) - Dueler’s Training (in-game notebook) - 50 liberyen - The Art of Agile Dueling (in-game notebook)

Stats - Combat Rating: 3 - Sneaks: clever, flexible, vines, - Age: 15 jump, heavy, lazy, flavor - α: 2 - Research Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 4 - Genetics Ability: 4

Kveta 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ladislav (Michael Behr) / Character Sheet

Ladislav

“The disembodied spirit is immortal; there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied spirit sees death on the horizon as soon as its day dawns.” – Thomas Hobbes

Death. It’s no big deal. You’ve died before, about a year ago, and – look at yourself! – you’re still just fine today. Too bad The Mages’ Council would lynch you if they found out how you’d done it, or that you had. You could do with some worshipful minions. Maybe it was only that once, but once was enough to cure you of the fear of death forever.1 Evading death is more impressive in Liberec, the country of continually impending death and apocalypses, chaos and rampant destruction, than even in Kusel, the country across the sea, let alone the mythical land of childrens’ stories where the weather does not rend the land from itself on a daily basis. In this land of constantly anticipated death, this land of Mages placed on high pedastal for just postponing weather-induced doom upon the land, you managed to get better after death. Only you, no one else. No way death could threaten you any longer. Oh, if only everyone knew. . . Of course, you do still want to become actually immortal (not merely able to cheat death) and never have to think about needing to cheat death again, needing to be special and lucky, needing another Great Mana-sent exemption, needing to worry about death ever again. Maybe this time, if you succeed, you will be able to tell the world about your triumphant victory over death, gain the admirers you’ve so long deserved.2 Hence the ritual you were doing which caused you to die in the first place when it went so weather-blastedly haywire. See, the ritual was supposed to give your body an exemption from the necessity of death via the Dark Mages’ control of the forces of life and death; it didn’t exactly go as planned. . . and you ended up dead, in limbo, and then stuck in this new strange body, stolen from a street rat of Port Vianden by your Dark Mage peers. Weather-blasted damnation. Before the ritual, your name was. . . it was. . . Dalton, you think. So difficult to remember now. Your childhood was normal enough for a family of Mages climbing the sociopolitical ladder. Sure, none of your relatives were ever the strongest Mages around, they were always just barely good enough to get hired at the Bazaar. You were so much stronger, but the idiots never knew, never realized, that you were the one the family genetics had been working towards all these generations. Perhaps that tradition of ’just barely good enough’ is why your family didn’t notice your talent, didn’t notice when you started learning Dark Magic instead of an accepted type; they figured you were weaker than average for the family and left you alone, when you were actually stronger – strong enough to get hired for one type of magic while secretly studying to be a Dark Mage. You don’t even remember what type of magic you were hired for. It doesn’t really matter anymore, but it’s funny how the cheating death and entering into this new teenaged body causes certain aspects of your life as Dalton to fade as if distant memory. Yet you remember the Dark Mages, you remember them vividly. Dark Magic is a wild, untamed form of magic, manipulating the forces of life and death themselves. It is the most prestigious and difficult type of magic, the ultimate culmination and climax of the subservient 8 types. Fire Magic only serves death, as does Void. Healing Magic only serves life, as do Plant and Animal. The other Magic Types only affect an aspect of life or death (i.e. Mind Magic can only affect life in the mind). Only Dark Magic, wonderful and all-powerful Dark Magic, can so totally affect the whole of both realms. 1And without the fear of death, what is there left to fear? 2Great Mana forsaken hell, the populace worships Symon for merely being born to an infertile Fire Mage. You deserve it so much more for triumphing over death!

Ladislav 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ladislav (Michael Behr) / Character Sheet

The Dark Mages found you at your Bazaar, a strong but underestimated Mage Candidate with a voracious lust for life. Even while learning some other minor form of magic, your talent at Dark Magic soared. During your Bazaar six years ago, you not only discovered the Dark Mages, but also you discovered Lenka. Lenka was a wreck, still grieving the deaths of five of her family almost a year after the accident. Her emotional issues afforded you the perfect opportunity to continue practicing your Dark Magic under a guise of respectability and the freedom of Saar. Despite differences in age and supposed magical ability, you conned your way into marrying her by pretending to be supportive and sympathetic. For a few years, your newfound connections to the most respected family in Saar gave you the resources and the freedom required to actively develop new Dark Magic rituals. The Dark Mages had always been able to raise the dead and summon dark energy, but you revolutionized the practices. Using Dana’s thorough research on hundreds of corpses, you devised a ritual, your most brilliant creation. The ritual would make the recipient immortal, drawing the energy needed to sustain life from the very same dark energy needed to kill or raise the dead. It wouldn’t be a perfect life, but one need never die or lose one’s magic; soon the world would be overflowing with Dark Mages who never died. After your stroke of brilliance, you gathered your friends among the Dark Mages to perform the ritual for the first time. Naturally, you volunteered to be the first recipient of eternal life and youth. As the genius inventor of the ritual, it was your due. But something went wrong. You knew that dying and being brought back anew were part of the ritual, but the dying took so long! You waited in limbo for much longer than expected, then the body you came back to wasn’t familiar at all! In addition, you felt like you were no longer complete, as if the piece of your soul so eager for experimentation with death just vanished. Another thing vanished, too - your wedding ring. It had been an heirloom of Lenka’s family and is very distinctive. Even your charms could not explain this new teenage body away to the gullible Lenka. You and your friends took the corpse of your previous body and staged an innocent-looking death with it, and then you fled to the capital, Wiltz. No one would notice one more stray teen on the streets there. Luckily for you, being a stray teen street rat in Wiltz wasn’t in the cards. You had barely been in the city a week when a chance meeting made your life much easier. You were breaking into the garden in a side alley - an alley somewhat more well-to- do than the average home of the Liberec street riffraff - when you noticed someone else already there, surreptitiously taking stock from the muddle of plants on the ground instead of the delicious looking fruit trees. He couldn’t be the owner of the garden, not with the way he was clearly stealing from it. Would he appreciate a fellow thief, or not? It was worth the risk, as that fruit would be the best food you’d had all week, and you weren’t interested in the random weeds on the ground anyway. You took the risk, stepped out from around the fence, and cleared your throat. Well, the poor guy (turned out his name was Stef) jumped at least ten feet backwards, hitting his head on the lower branches of the apple tree you’d had your eye on. Oops, oh well. You quickly explained your actual business in the area, and teamed up with Stef under his still slightly suspicious eye to raid every edible piece of fruit and every weed of interest to Stef from the alley. He was a young Mageball player, always living on the edge of life; he made you a great offer - you couldn’t refuse (now that would have been stupid). For a small bit of assistance growing his plants and mixing his concoctions both legal and illegal (and very illegal), he would adopt and support you as a big brother would. ’Big’ brother? Hmmmph. He was only a couple of years older than your new, youthful body. You actually have years’ more life experience than Stef, but he loves so to condescend to take care of you that finding out your actual history might break his heart. Wiltz is a good home, even easier to blend in than Saar. Besides, the liberal and accepting population will leave you alone for any personal habits short of mass murder, despite what the laws of Liberec say. Although Saar is also extremely liberal and lax, Wiltz wins your affection for a few reasons: it is far easier to blend into the city population, no one expects you to automatically spend all of your time doing service to your community, and (last but not least) it is far from Lenka. Ever since then, you have been busy building up a believable new life to avoid suspicion. You have gotten involved with

Ladislav 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ladislav (Michael Behr) / Character Sheet

Mana Cartographers and The Mana Preservation Society, and you have even involved yourself in the immature shenanigans of the Teenage Boys (if you didn’t associate with them, surely someone would notice and start asking uncomfortable questions). For the same reason, you will actually have to participate in the Bazaar as the street-urchin-turned-late-bloomer they think you are. Besides, what fun it would be to take the spot of some deserving kid! Soon it will all be over, however, as you intend to meet with the Dark Mages, fix the ritual, and put yourself to rights during the Bazaar. As a side note reminding you that the Bazaar is actually about a lot of political matters, you found a sheaf of papers sitting on a bench early in the Bazaar. They seem to be boring political treatises on the current state of Liberec, criticizing the commonness of the city-born Liberecines, sniffing at the ignorance of the rural Liberecines, and lamenting the indirect boast of the appearance of humility of the rest. They are rather insulting, but you kept them in case they might be useful later; someone clearly put a lot of thought into expressing their extreme political opinions. Goals - Find a way to recover the missing part of your soul. - Finally finish the ritual and become immortal – this time without risking going into death’s realm for a while. - Stay away from Lenka in case she recognizes you - Find your wedding ring (and keep it away from Lenka) - Fix the Dark Mages’ immortality ritual and use the perfected ritual on the rest of the Dark Mages to further the cause of the Dark Mages - Hide your involvement with Dark Magic by helping the Mana Cartographers and The Mana Preservation Society - Just for fun, get sponsored as a Mage Candidate and find some befuddled idiot to hire you, to screw over the deserving teenagers Notes - Avoid Lenka. She may be gullible, but you don’t want to risk being exposed. (Also, she’s annoying.) - Despite your previous bold excursions in death’s realm, you have been queasy about trying such a thing since the ritual. You are unwilling to personally volunteer for such ventures currently. Contacts - Lenka (Joy Perkinson): Your annoying wife. She thinks you are dead. Hopefully things will stay that way. - Eugen (JB Parkes): Your nephew, the budding Storm Mage of Lenka’s clan and clean-cut do-gooder teen here in Wiltz for his Bazaar. Maybe you’ll be able to see behind that facade now as a fellow teenager rather than an uncle. - Dana (Allison Schneider): The leader of the Dark Mages, mostly due to her extensive resources for corpse research. - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): A Dark Mage with a lot of money and power from owning the most famous Mageball team in liberec, The Mageball Lions, and always running the entire Bazaar despite official status as a Mundane - Stef (Pi Lanningham): A Plant Adept on The Mageball Lions, potion and drug dealer, and your adoptive ’big’ brother

Memory/Event Packets - Item #1112 - ν - Badge Number 319 - γ - µ

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - The Mana Preservation Society - Dark Mages - Mana Cartographers - Wiltz

Greensheets - Searching for Your Soul (out-of-game notebook)

Ladislav 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ladislav (Michael Behr) / Character Sheet

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs- Level 2 Mage

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - A Set of Notes (1751) - 100 liberyen - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: quicksand, blinding, - Age: 21 (15 physically) luck, bats, climb, color, back - α: 0 - Manaology Ability: 1 - β: H - Lore Ability: 6 - Theology Ability: 5

Ladislav 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leana (Yelena Tsitkin) / Character Sheet

Leana

“Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” – Henry Anatole Grunwald “You fell in love with the words and put yourself too far into the story. Write about what you’re writing about, not about you writing about what you’re writing about. [...] That’s what the editorial pages are for. This is news. One is at the front of the newspaper. The other is in the back. Let me know where you want your name to appear.” – Perry White to Lois Lane, Superman: Earth One “The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense.” – Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice

This is it. The Bazaar–the time you step forward, the time you shine. It’s the first time you’ve ever actually left Mons, which is exciting in and of itself. This isn’t to say that you’re necessarily wild about Wiltz; for all the rush and headiness of the Bazaar, you do honestly miss some things about home, even after so little time away from home: the wide open spaces, cleaner and fresher air (how do so many people breathe the same air all at once?), the peace and quiet and freedom to go wander wherever you choose. But the city has its own kind of life, vibrancy, constant action, and right now, nothing could be grander or more exciting. You feel you might be able to get used to it, even– But you’re getting ahead of yourself a little. There’s time enough to learn where you’ll live and work for the world. You think, right now, that you could thrive either in your well-loved country or even in this rush of a city or Port Vianden. Where you live–or even what kind of Mage you become, although you’re a little wary of the sheer explosiveness of fire magic–is less materially important to you than fulfilling that dream and the others which attend it. You grew up in Yudoth, your closest friend being Eric, the local ’best’ in the town. Some of your friendship is still based in your innate competitiveness: you’re bored without a challenge, and Eric could keep up with you. It’s the kind of friendship which is the stuff of legends (although you’re secretly very relieved that the two of you never fell into that dull pattern of romance in the stories you will never admit to stealing from your sisters). You are well aware, though, that it is something of a one-sided competition: Eric has this nasty habit of apathy which tends to keep him from doing as much as his potential could let him. You saw this break only once, and it still warms your heart to think of it. A delegation from the center of Fruit of the Great Mana was making a missionary trip out to Mons, and while they were in Yudoth they helped with the construction of a new church there. It had taken some persuasion at first to get him to even lend more than a passing hand. “Leana, I said I would help.” “By help, I mean give a proper helping hand in actually getting work done, not run useless errands for the first half hour and then running off to do whatever it is you do with your free time.” “Why do you think I wouldn’t be doing just that?” “Jan’s barn.” “Leana–” “The last time we tried to build a church here.” “L–” “The school house. The time before that we tried to build a church. The pasture fencing...”

Leana 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leana (Yelena Tsitkin) / Character Sheet

“Yeah, yeah, I get it! Will you knock it off? I’ll help.” “Good boy. And you’ll actually help with the heavy lifting, and until the lunch break.” “Or what?” “Or I’ll tell everyone who it was who sewed Linnea’s doll.” “...” “It’ll be fun, you’ll see. I’ll even tell you which pies my mother cooked when you get hungry.” Just a little, judiciously applied persuasion–and over time, you were overjoyed to see him finally start to devote real time and energy to building the church. For one thing, it warmed you to see him actually care about something; for another... well. You were raised properly, by a well-educated (if somewhat indolent) former Animal Mage. Your father always preferred you for your insatiable curiosity about the world, and he made sure that whatever questions you had were answered. However, he was also a devout (and inactive) member of Fruit of the Great Mana, and he passed on that love to you. While the missionaries were in Yudoth, you made the acquaintance of Ester, who turns out to be the head of the hierarchy. You really took to her, finally finding in her someone besides your father who could actually engross you in conversations about the faith, and meeting her–and knowing how highly placed she was–made you more determined than ever to make the most of this, your Bazaar. You want to become properly initiated into the order. There’s likely to be some stiff competition, though, so you’ll have to make sure to excel at your magic and keep in Ester’s good books to get it. Also while you’re in the capital, you have a chance to do some real work for Mons. You’ve been vocal enough in your opinions that finally Cenek noticed some of your ideas, and invited you to join the efforts of The Mana Preservation Society. You have heard that your father was always faced with a certain shortage of mana; if you and the group can work out a way to store up the energy for the Mages of Mons to use, it will be a dream come true, even if you end up moving away. You know it might be hard, especially given that those who only have experience living in mana-laden areas like Wiltz can’t begin to have any appreciation of just how important this is to you and to the people of Mons. People like that unmitigated, narrow-minded, arrogant, self-involved snob Roland have proven that much. Roland. You would never have known about him if not for one of your greatest loves in life: being reporter for Mons. You hadn’t even realized, at first, that what you always wanted was to speak out like that–for all the people who couldn’t do so for themselves, or didn’t even know it was an option. At first it only started because you had your own opinions and ideas; it wasn’t long before your father encouraged you to write it down, to allow others to see it. Soon after that you became known in the area for your cheeky way of refusing to back down, of your deftness with word choice, and when at last the reporting position opened up in Mons, you fought tooth and nail with other candidates for it–and you got it. You’re fiercely proud of what you do, what you write, what you say. But one of the side-effects of going major with your reporting was hearing from some of the others who do this in the country–namely, the self-impressed stentorian idiot from Wendel. He calls what you do editorializing, not reporting, and there have been a few times that you’ve written actual editorials just to prove him wrong. (You’ll never admit it, but you really enjoy writing them more; your father says you’re in love with the words, and writing opinion lets you put so much more into it than you usually get to.) And he somehow thinks that the clearly biased and horribly bigoted ideas which pour out of his own writing are more impartial than your ’liberal, idiotic, ignorant ramblings,’ too! You’ve been looking forward to giving him a piece of your mind at this Bazaar, preferably in public, if you can only locate the fool. You know that, as devoted to the Fruit of the Great Mana as you are, normally you really wouldn’t hold the ideals that you do. However, you have long since realized that there is a deep difference between the reverence and love you have for the Great Mana and following what others dictate your thoughts should be. You know there are people who love others of their own sex, and you don’t see why they should be punished for sharing that love. You also think that the Mage Reproduction Laws are downright idiotic. Then again, your mother wasn’t a Mage herself, and your older sister Elise is a Mage herself now. Really, if

Leana 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leana (Yelena Tsitkin) / Character Sheet they absolutely want to make laws to make Mages marry, they shouldn’t be forcing them to in-breed like this; the more Mages there are in general, the better, and it’s not like people will actually marry someone they can’t stand just to breed, not in this day and age! You also hear that some people want to ban late-bloomers from the Bazaar, and there’s always the problem of Mundanes’ rights. Of your siblings who are older, only dear, dear Elise became a Mage, so the position of Mundanes is still vastly important to you. While you don’t think you’re much use to them politically, you can write and speak out–and speaking for those who have no voice? That is a call you can’t resist. It’s something Roland has just never understood. What you do, reporting–it’s not just about the minutae of daily life, or noting down the major events. It’s about the why, and the people it affects, and their feelings and lives. And may the Great Mana help you, you’re going to find him and knock that into him with a blunt object if you have to. Then again, given your talents, locating him shouldn’t be terribly much of a problem. You developed a habit of taking long walks and enjoying the country when your work allowed. Soon you began stumbling upon old buildings, ruins of ages past, and over time you began recognizing all the signs of where ones might be, and looking for clues in them as to what they might mean and what they might hold. Investigating those ruins went so easily hand in hand with your penchant for investigating the news; it’s nearly the same thing, even if one is current and one is decades–maybe centuries!–of years old. One of the great things about this trip to Wiltz is having new ruins to explore. You have no idea what you might find out about the land, the city itself, the history of Liberec, and maybe even the Catastrophe if you only dig in the right places. Plus it is something new to explore, and your curiosity hasn’t slackened in the least since you were a small child. Since you started poking around the ruins here, though, you discovered some others doing the same, who had a fascinating thought. They call themselves Wiltz Realtors Incorporated (a name which, incidentally, you hardly take seriously, and wonder if they do). It’s mostly what you were doing, with the exploring and all that, but they’ve added a step to it which fascinates you. See, these places–for some reason–survived the Catastrophe of so many generations back. Maybe that was for a reason, and it might well work again. It’s not that you don’t have the deepest respect for the past–you do! And you always love learning new things, of course–but life is about moving forward, not staying stuck in the past. It does give you some pain, and would give your father a Mana-blessed heart attack, but you really do think that the best place to build shelters more guaranteed to survive any future Cataclysms would be on those spots. Building there seems the best way to ensure the shelters survive. Speaking of finding things out, you stumbled across a fascinating idea since arriving. The other girls your age have been planning a group project to make communication between each other easier–and you figure that maybe if it’s extended over all of the country, it could change the very nature of reporting. (It might even help Mons make some strides forward, if you can figure out how.) You know the others are in it for the gossip and girly talk, mostly, and you honestly have no interest in that. . . but as a source of information and maybe a way to spread it, it’s exciting beyond belief. And the other big change that’s already happened since you’ve arrived in Wiltz was that brief glimpse you got of a future you could really love–literally. A gorgeous boy, with intelligence and analysis in his eyes that you’ve honestly never seen anyone else regard the world with. You’ve asked around a little–being a reporter really has made finding things out more habitual–and turns out his name is Zdenko. You haven’t met yet, but you can’t wait to introduce yourself and get to know him better. It’s a little hackneyed to say, but this is the start of the rest of your life. And you’re going to take it by the horns and wrestle it to the ground if you have to in order to get what you want. Goals - Do what you can to help The Mana Preservation Society with their plans to store mana - Track down that arrogant Roland and find a way to confront him publicly - Get to know that handsome boy you saw–you’ve heard his name was Zdenko - Get inducted properly into Fruit of the Great Mana - Explore the ruins and profit off of them with the Wiltz Realtors Incorporated

Leana 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leana (Yelena Tsitkin) / Character Sheet

- Win the reporting competition - Learn a magic type and earn an apprenticeship Contacts - Eric (Xavier Jackson): Your childhood friend, whom you hope has taken an interest in Fruit of the Great Mana with you at last. - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The head of Fruit of the Great Mana, from whom you hope to get permission to be inducted into the order - Roland (unknown): You’ve never met him, except in heated exchanges in writing. You’d love nothing better than to confront him properly - Zdenko (Carter Huffman): That adorable boy you saw - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The Head of Fruit of the Great Mana.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Fruit of the Great Mana - Mons - Wiltz Realtors Incorporated - The Mana Preservation Society

Greensheets - Reporting the News - Demolishing and Preparing an Area for Construction Work - Herbalism - Organizing an Artifact Exhibition - Gain Legal Control of Locations

Abilities - Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip

Items - Plant Mage/Farmer Recipe Book (in-game document)- 150 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: cartwheel, rotting, - Age: 15 angry bear, jump, heavy, color, somersault, vines - α: 4 - Leadership Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 6 - Theology Ability: 6

Leana 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lenka (Joy Perkinson) / Character Sheet

Lenka

“So where are you? You’re in some motel room. You just - you just wake up and you’re in - in a motel room. There’s the key. It feels like maybe it’s just the first time you’ve been there, but perhaps you’ve been there for a week, three months. It’s - it’s kind of hard to say. I don’t - I don’t know. It’s just an anonymous room.” – Memento “ Sammy Jankis wrote himself endless notes. But he’d get mixed up. I’ve got a more graceful solution to the memory problem. I’m disciplined and organized. I use habit and routine to make my life possible. Sammy had no drive. No reason to make it work.” – Memento

Waking up this morning, you know that your surroundings are familiar but not home, but you don’t remember coming here. Not that it matters, as you can’t remember any days at home either. It’s the most disturbing, distressing thing you know - to not remember yesterday. Specifically, to not remember yesterday or any of the days which came before but to know that they happened and when they did you had the same problem remembering days previous to that one as you have today remembering yesterday. This is bad. This is very bad. This isn’t about the current yesterday, according to the calendar, as you might have slept through it, been in a coma, or been temporarily dead. . . or just been having a really boring day unworthy of being committed to memory. There are reasons to not remember a yesterday, but all of them? Between your diary, your most prized and precious possession, and your instincts as to who you are and your relations to everyone and everything around you, you survive and no one really notices that anything is wrong, that you don’t remember yesterday. Occasionally, when someone comes to talk to you about a conversation you had the previous day or some days before that (not that it matters, they are all the unremembered same to you), they notice that you don’t really recall the conversation. Over the years, though, you’ve gotten good at pretending. You’ve also gotten good at ’remembering’ via rereading your life. Dear Diary, Silly as this may seem upon later rereading, I can’t remember yesterday. Eugen asked me about something I had told him yesterday, asking him to take some baked goods to one of the neighbors. I believe him, it is our duty to our community to freely give aid to those less well off, but I honestly couldn’t remember the conversation. I started trying to remember anything about yesterday. What did I eat for dinner? Was it as cold as today? Were there any major storms I had to prevent? I can’t remember. It is as if yesterday didn’t exist. In fact, it is as if all previous days didn’t exist, yet I still have a hazy view of the distant past and who I am. I don’t even know if I noticed this lack of memory yesterday, or maybe my memory was fine yesterday. I don’t remember. Thus, I am starting a diary. If tomorrow I cannot remember today, I can at least read about it and believe that it happened. Let me start with any facts I can think of, in case I cannot remember them tomorrow. I am a Storm Mage of Liberec, protecting the populace from floods, tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes. . . yes, hurricanes. I am a good citizen of Saar, helping others whenever I can with the gifts I have at my disposal. With my strength as a Mage and my good works, and my family’s good name, I am one of the leaders of Saar. My nephew Eugen and I live in a good home in the largest town in Saar. Eugen is only eight years old and is of quite a sullen disposition. I think I used to have other family, but now I just have him. We’re the only ones left. That was the first entry in your diary. When you reread it each morning, now, seven years later, you know it by heart

Lenka 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lenka (Joy Perkinson) / Character Sheet already, even though you don’t remember the act of reading it before. There is another entry which you have memorized by daily rereadings. It is from just over two years ago, when Eugen’s thirteenth birthday. Dear Diary, Dalton and I held a big, extravagant birthday party for Eugen today, hoping to cheer him up from his accustomed dour disposition. It didn’t work, and instead provoked him into an uncharacteristic frenzy. The moment Dalton left the party to go bring some more food, Eugen started screaming. “Stop it!” he yelled at me, “Stop it stop it stop it! I won’t let you bribe me to like you. I know what you did. I’ll never forgive you!” “Eugen, Eugen, please, calm down. What in the Great Mana are you talking about?” I of course had no idea what could have possibly caused him to yell like that, and this couldn’t be explained merely by adolescent mood swings. “The hurricane! You know, the one in which my parents died?! How did you come back alive when the rest of the family died, unless you were responsible for their deaths? Go away from me! I don’t want your stinking party!” I can’t remember anything about a hurricane, but I know that I used to have family beyond just Eugen. All I know is that I never would have let them die if I could do something about it... right? Even now, you don’t know what happened. You can’t remember. You believe that there was a hurricane, some major disaster which killed most of your family seven years ago, but you don’t remember anything about it. In fact, your memory before that seems intact - perhaps the hurricane was the source of your memory problems as well as your family’s tragedy? You have to get to the bottom of this without anyone finding out about your memory problems. If anyone finds out that you can’t remember, even Eugen, Saar’s bargaining positions on The Mages’ Council and your position within the Saar delegation are in jeopardy. You have to find out what happened in the hurricane seven years ago without anyone knowing why. It’s probably for the best - Eugen gets so upset anytime something regarding the hurricane is mentioned that it is probably better for your relationship to not try to talk to him about it until you have some answers. Of course, the hurricane seven years ago isn’t the only disaster you’ve lived through. Dalton, the wonderful man you married (according to your diary) about a year after the hurricane, died a year ago. Everyone consoled you and said that it was such an unfortunate accident, but you know better. It had to have been foul play. Someone out there took your wonderful, perfect husband away from you and staged his death to look like he’d fallen in the river and drowned. He had only left that day because he was meeting with some acquaintances. Something, something happened that meeting. Dalton couldn’t have drowned. Something else happened and one of those people he was meeting staged his death, you just know it. There is no one diary entry to memorize, all of the entries from around then are nearly incoherent with grief and suspicion. Still, there must be information out there somewhere that can help you. Maybe if you looked in the Archives, you could find a clue. As the only remaining Mage of the most respected family in Saar, you have (of course) been asked to serve as the leader of their delegation at this Bazaar. You accepted, and it is up to you to promote the interests of your region. You must make sure it will have sufficient Mages and new apprentices in the next year, promote the interests of the region on The Mages’ Council. Strangely, one of the Mages of your region, Julius, died just before leaving for Wiltz. He appeared to die peacefully in his sleep, which is strange because he is only 24 years old. Despite the peacefulness of his death, the police are investigating. You need to replace him, both in his capacity as an Animal Mage for Saar and as the reporter for the region. A new reporter needs to be chosen as soon as possible because the reporters from all six regions will be posting their work for all of Liberec to see during the Bazaar, and you wouldn’t want Wendel to promote their twisted ideologies without a chance to make a quick rebuttal. Also, serving on The Mages’ Council has provided you with an opportunity to lead an official committee to try to save

Lenka 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lenka (Joy Perkinson) / Character Sheet

Liberec from its perennial weather problems, to find out why near-apocalyptic storms are a weekly occurrence in most regions. This could be the most important thing that The Mages’ Council ever does, so making sure it succeeds is important. It is your duty as a citizen of Saar to give of yourself for the benefit of others. While investigating mana activity, you have come across another group, the Commanaist Party. They are interested in finding a way to equitably distribute the mana resources of Liberec, so that the mana-poor areas of Liberec have the resources necessary to protect themselves from the worst storms without running out (as they currently do). If the weather cannot be fixed on a country-wide scale, this would be the way to go. Everyone deserves enough mana to protect themselves. Also, you’ve joined The Historian Guild in order to find out more about the past of the Liberec. Hopefully, studying the past of Liberec will let you find out more about your own personal past. Today, the third horrible event of your life happened - you lost your diary. It contains, no, it is the last seven years of your life. You must find it ASAP! Goals - Find out what happened in the hurricane seven years ago - Keep everyone from finding out about your memory problems - Fix your memory problems and remember what happened - Avenge Dalton’s death and bring his murderers to justice - Promote the ideals and goals of Saar in The Mages’ Council - Find out what happened to Julius - Replace Julius with a new reporter for Saar as soon as possible - Find your diary! - Help The Historian Guild find out more about Liberec’s past. - Fix the weather with The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime - If the weather cannot be fixed, equitably distribute mana with the Commanaist Party Notes - Due to your memory problems, you can’t remember any details of a previous day unless they were recorded in your diary. You can pretend that this isn’t the case in-character, but be sure not to take action on a conversation from a previous day unless someone has re-explained the relevant information or you wrote it down in your diary. - As with every member of your family, Eugen will expected to be joining the ranks of the Storm Mages in Saar after his Bazaar, which means taking him as your apprentice. This expectation is especially important to the Saar community in the wake of the hurricane and the death of so many strong Mages from the family. - You are politically very liberal. You will generally support liberal fiscal, social, and mana measures put before The Mages’ Council Contacts - Eugen (JB Parkes): The only close family you have left. - Lucia (Ami Greene): She’s being cared for by a distant branch of your family, so she is probably a relative, but you don’t remember who her parents were. - Julius (Mark Mascaro): The other Mage from Saar, recently deceased. - Sabina (Fangfei Shen): An Earth Mage on the council. - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): Your nephew. - Valancy (Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson): A poor girl from Saar who isn’t quite there mentally.

Lenka 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lenka (Joy Perkinson) / Character Sheet

Memory/Event Packets - Item #1677 - η - Item #1112

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Commanaist Party - Saar - The Historian Guild - The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime

Greensheets - Negotiating the Distribution of Mages

Abilities - Teaching - Level 6 Mage - Sensitive to Drugs - Gossip with the Public

Items - Bronze Key (3836) - 600 liberyen - A Silver Brooch (3751)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 7 - β: N/A - Theology Ability: 5

Lenka 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leos (Paul Weaver) / Character Sheet

Leos

“It was an early earth president, Abraham Lincoln, who best described our situation. ’The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise to the occasion. We cannot escape history. We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the last generation. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, our last best hope for Earth.”’ – J. Michael Straczynski Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there lived a little boy named Leos. Leos loved his homeland of Liberec, but he was not a very brave little boy. . . (Well, that’s as far as you’ve gotten writing the epic tale of your life, seeing as you haven’t done anything heroic yet in your life.) You grew up loving stories. You love it all - the familiarity of once upon a time, the subtle tension of the exposition, the cadence and cacophony and chaos of the climactic battle scene, the soft lullaby of the denouement, the Tierce di Picardie of the closing ’The End.’ One day, maybe you would be brave like the heroes in the stories. One day. You grew up with a happy and quiet, but poor, Mundane family in the furthest reaches of Mons, beyond the mountains from which sprung Rue Grande, almost beyond any existing map. Your parents were kind, and your farm was not as often ravaged by the weather than the more populated regions of Liberec (for instance, Saar or Wendel); it was a good life. Sure, it was always difficult to interact with other children your age, as they would always make fun of you, bully you until you continued meekness made it no longer fun for them. Yet you were always scared, shy, timid. Why stand up to bullies when you can just make yourself small and weak enough that even the most paltry of bullies is wasting his time picking on you? Even the most pathetic of predators won’t get any pride from intimidating a blade of grass. When you turned fifteen years old, your loving parents had a surprise for you. You had been adopted at birth, adopted from a Mage family who couldn’t take care of you (for what reasons, they wouldn’t say). You had to quickly start to prepare, they said, as the Bazaar was soon and by your birthright you would participate (you had never even heard of the annual Bazaar before that). Then the frantic preparations started; weeks passed in a blur. You didn’t have a chance to really think through what this all might mean. It’s just like the stories. It might mean anything, that your parents were part of some tragedy, that your parents were high- ranking Mages, unfaithful to their given spouses such that they had to hide you, anything. This is how the epic stories always start - an orphan, adopted by farmers living in a remote corner of the land, suddenly gains power way beyond his station and goes on to save the world with it. Your life followed that exactly, too bad you’re not the epic type (in personality). Funny, when you’re reading the story, it all seems to pass so quickly. Years are jumped in a single sentence. When you have to live it, well, it is not so. Your story will have to finish sometime, but when? Back to the age of fifteen. Finally, you made it to your Bazaar. (You would never see your parents (the ones who raised you) again, as they stayed in the far reaches of Mons, beyond the mountains.) You knew no one there, but you had some unknown sponsorship, so you were showered in money and attention and all of those other things that you never strove to acquire in your life. You had to somehow fulfill your destiny, but your goal was to do so without offending anyone, taking a spot that another Mage Candidate wanted, or otherwise attract attention. Animal Magic was the perfect solution to that. No one wanted to learn Animal Magic. It was nice and wimpy and non-threatening (perfect for your personality). Besides which, Mons had the greatest need of Animal Mages of all of the regions, meaning that you would likely be able to stay in the region in which you had grown

Leos 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leos (Paul Weaver) / Character Sheet up, the region that had the lowest population density and therefore fewer people to even bother trying to bully you. Perfect. You threw yourself into Animal Magic and easily got hired, deftly avoiding the fierce competition of becoming a Fire Mage, the grave seriousness of becoming an Earth Mage, or the hype and drama of becoming a Storm Mage. Even better, you were far away from the chaos surrounding Nikolai and Marek becoming the first ever Void Mages. Animal Magic, that was just fine with you. However, you have a destiny to do something great. Halfway through the Bazaar, you found a letter from your parents tucked into your belongings. Our dearest Leos, We are, as always, proud of you. You have gone off to improve your own life and to make Liberec a better place. We have something that might aid you in this endeavor. (We had intended to tell you about this when we told you about your real parents, but there was no good way to change the subject then.) We are elite members of The Shadow Watchers, an organization dedicated to promoting the good of Liberec and purging it of those evil influences that would ruin it. If you contact our members in town, Penroe and Tuffi, during the Bazaar, you may also be inducted into our order. Our peers in the organization will assist you in anything you to for the betterment of Liberec and will always take care of you just like we would. All our love, Mum and Pop Immediately, you contacted Penroe and Tuffi and joined The Shadow Watchers. It was the only thing you could do to remain close to your parents. However, things didn’t go smoothly. The others didn’t take care of you like your parents thought, nor did they care about you at all. It was so disappointing. In addition, they all thought that you were going to be that hero, the stereotypical hero from all the stories; when they realized that you weren’t, they stopped caring. The Shadow Watchers are also really strict, expecting you to practice and work towards their goals every day, to stand up, voluntarily, against stronger Mages to promote their understanding of right versus wrong. It isn’t that you disagree with them, they have some ideas for the betterment of Liberec that have been developed and improved and tested over the course of generations. It is just that The Shadow Watchers have never gone through on any of their implicit promises to assist you in your life or with any of your ideas as to how to improve Liberec. Everything is dictated by the mandates of smart Liberecines living a dozen or more generations ago, completely disconnected from modern Liberec. They should just get their meddling paws the hell out of modern Liberec and allow the new smart ideas to take root, to allow the new members of The Shadow Watchers to make their own mistakes. That’s about it for the story of your life. Nothing else of note happened at your Bazaar, and you never married (you never had the guts to even try). The next eight years of your life were not worthy of being mentioned. Nothing that happened in your life mattered, not until you met Iva two years ago. She and her husband Cenek lived just a short distance from your posting in Mons, and she was beautiful, the cutest, smartest, most radiant creature in Liberec. What’s more, she liked you, too. Maybe you weren’t very good at interacting with pretty girls, and you’d never talked much due to being shy. It didn’t matter with Iva. She understood what you were thinking, cajoled you into talking more, did plenty of talking herself, whatever was necessary. You never needed to get up the guts to actually tell her how you felt or what you wanted, just be there and stay attentive and keep listening (finally, something relationship-wise that you are good at!). However shy you were, however wrong it was (but it wasn’t, it was completely right), you started an affair with her. It somehow just worked. You’ve been seeing Iva for about two years now. This time has been wonderful, filled with passion and companionship, the real start of your hero-story (as the hero always falls in love). The only trouble is that Iva is already married. It was never a marriage for love, luckily for you, but it is a marriage nonetheless. Cenek is a kind and trusting soul, never objecting to your oh-so-ravishingly-frequent ’outings’ with his wife, never suspecting a thing. It has been sad to lie about the affair, but Iva begged you to never tell anyone, for her sake, for propriety’s

Leos 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leos (Paul Weaver) / Character Sheet sake, and for the sake of not hurting poor Cenek. In these past two glorious years, you’ve felt your story start up again, in more ways than just the love of Iva. You’ve started having ideas, getting involved in the community, being less reclusive, less timid. (Maybe it is all due to the effect Iva has on you, the angel of a girl.) In all your socialization, you’ve gotten a little more involved in the politics of your own region, Mons. As such a large region, your Mages are spread out very thinly in many areas, and a Mage cannot travel across Mons quickly enough to help prevent disasters if the disasters are not focused nearby to where that Mage lives. You are also a firm supporter of marriage and the Mage Reproduction Laws (another reason why you won’t tell anyone about you and Iva), as Liberec and Mons both desperately need more Mages. Without legally enforcing Mage marriage and (attempts at) reproduction, the country will stop being able to protect itself, and quickly. You don’t hold with those liberal urban values - very few Liberecines live in the urban slums (although they seem deceptively many, as the Bazaar is conveniently held in Wiltz every year) and laws should be made to support the majority who do not. In particular, you feel very strongly against allowing homosexual Mages to marry – how will they ever create Mage babies and further the saving of the world if they do such? Mundanes can marry whomever they want, that is no problem, but Mages should see the big picture, that on their backs rests the fate of the world for the next year, the next generation, the next ten generations! They cannot squander such an important responsibility as saving the world by such a silly and frivolous thing as wanting to be married to someone of the same gender. One major problem for Mons is that mana is a scarce commodity. The city-dwellers, swimming in mana as they are, do not comprehend the scrimping and saving that goes on every day in Mons just in order to have enough mana to be able to do something about the weather when a disaster is coming. Sometimes there isn’t enough mana to deal with a disaster, too; Mages must sit by and fruitlessly flail around while a disaster of their type ravages the land1 Iva came up with the brilliant idea. Mana comes from mana lines that are near the populated regions of Liberec. Why not move some of this great source of mana from the near-infinite-mana cities into the mana-starved Mons? It goes without saying that you will assist her with causing her idea to come to fruition any way you possibly can, especially by helping out the group she started for this purpose, Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions. You have also joined up with some people who think that it would be useful to figure out where all of the mana lines in Liberec are. This group, Mana Cartographers, has now collected the requisite data to start their deliberations and calculations. You are interested in what is best for Liberec, and knowing more about the mana lines which form your livelihood (and that of all Mages, and that of Liberec, for that matter) is a good step. Still, you must continue your story yourself, through your own initiative. Perhaps Liberec is just screwed. The past hundreds of generations have been unable to fix the problems with the weather; what makes you think that this, your generation of imbeciles, will be able to finally fix it? It just makes better sense to abandon this Great Mana-forsaken world. If there was only another option. . . so you have been searching, looking for another world, another option. Anyone who chose to do so could come with you to a new, more stable world. You have tethered your Animal Magic to the stars, looking for distant life (luckily, you are a powerful Mage). You have a few candidate worlds, if your hunch is correct.2 During the Bazaar, you will investigate those further and pick which one is best suited as a home for you and Iva, away from the madness of Liberec, and you will lead an exodus of Liberecines away from those who would choose their course of action for them, the weather as well as The Shadow Watchers and the forces of evil fought by them. It is your destiny, your fate. And then who cares if this world gets blown up behind you (perhaps that is even a good idea, you have the research for that, too, if the situation in Liberec comes to such a drastic point). If those manipulative forces intend to follow you and keep meddling, or if Liberec’s evil forces of weather might be able to follow to the next world, it might just be safer.

1Much like you ravage dearest Iva, but a lot more violent and likely to cause injury or death. 2Your hunches seem to always be correct.

Leos 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leos (Paul Weaver) / Character Sheet

Finally, things are going forward for the betterment of Liberec, even if it isn’t being done by The Shadow Watchers. It is time to stop hiding, stop being afraid, and take up the mantle of your destiny, as all the storybook protagonists are wont to do eventually. Unfortunately, things aren’t going so well for your love life. Iva has been acting really weirdly during the trip to the Bazaar. She hasn’t acted this bizarrely since that month she had the really bad illness - or was it that pregnancy scare last year? - and you’re getting worried. She is acting erratically and gloomily, barely even talking to you. Something must be wrong, but she won’t tell you about it. You had finally gotten to the Bazaar this year when you immediately went to visit Iva in her room, but she instantly played coy and asked if you were leaving soon. You wouldn’t go, of course. You hadn’t been able to have any fun with her since leaving home in Mons, as people were always around. You pulled her robe off a bit and threw her onto the bed, both of you laughing. Suddenly, her mood did another about-face and she grew very rigid, calmly told you to get out. What can you say? You left. You respected her wishes. You had a standing date with her for dinner that night (was that only yesterday?), anyway. You would see her soon, make sure that she was okay. Then. . . She vanished. She never showed up for dinner. Nor was she in her room. You searched frantically all over Wiltz, stayed up all night. It felt like you searched forever, asked millions of Liberecines if they had seen her. Where was she? She was gone, somehow. You don’t know what happened to her. You are going crazy without her. You were probably the last person to have seen her before she disappeared, so you sent in an anonymous tip to the police, asking them to find her, find your beloved Iva. Of course, you are looking for her also, although it wouldnt do if anyone (especially Cenek) knew that you were looking for her, as you have no good reason to be concerned. You do have a theory. She vanished into thin air. The only ones with the ability to pull off something like that are the Void Mages. Maybe they have something to do with it? Of course, if that is the case, you are in deep trouble, seeing as one of the Council Void Mages, Nikolai is also involved with the police. That is why you must find her, yourself. It doesn’t matter what it takes. If you must learn how to pull someone out from the void, you will. If you must go into the void to be with her, there being no way out for either of you, you will. Anything. You have to be with Iva. You have to. Besides which, the void might be inhabitable! That might make an even better evacuation plan than the distant worlds – The Shadow Watchers would never think to follow into the void! Perhaps you should talk to the Void Mages about the possibilities of letting humans traverse into the void (although if they really did something to Iva, they might not want to talk about it). Of course, any number of other things might have happened to her, also. With any luck, she’ll show up to the first day of the Bazaar with a good explanation of where she has been and everything will be alright. Hopefully. Meanwhile, you’re going crazy without her. Goals - Find Iva, the love of your life, or find out what happened to her and take revenge for someone having taken her away from you - If Iva can be found, help her win the Head of Council election, so that she can make laws that will keep you two together forever - Find another world to which you can lead an exodus of Liberecines, headed by yourself and Iva - Destroy the world of Liberec behind you if it poses any threat - Investigate the family archives in the Library to find out about your birth family and why you were sent to live in middle-of- nowhere Mons as an infant.

Leos 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Leos (Paul Weaver) / Character Sheet

- Get the most talented Mage Candidate as your apprentice without any of the stronger Mages noticing and becoming jealous enough to bully you. Notes - Your political views are very conservative. Yes, this means that, despite having never married, you support the Mage Reproduction Laws. You got closer to marriage than your shy self would have ever gotten on its own, purely because of the Laws. - You have been slowly going insane since you have been unable to find Iva. Although you don’t wish to be treated, you suspect it will continue to worsen until Iva is found. This slow increase should be noticeable to other characters, roleplay accordingly. Contacts - Iva (Beth Baniszewski): The love of your life! You have been unable to find her since yesterday when she was acting strange. - Cenek (Andrew Clough): Iva’s husband and the Head of the Mons delegation to the Bazaar. He doesn’t know about his wife’s affair but is generally an affable and gullible guy. - Ilona (Casey McNamara): Your niece, whom you’ve recently established contact with again.

Memory/Event Packets - λ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Mana Cartographers - Mons - The Shadow Watchers - Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions

Greensheets - Searching for Iva (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Teaching - Psychlim: True Love - Sensitive to Drugs - Speak To Animals - Level 6 Mage - Gossip with the Public

Items - Bronze Key (3836) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - 450 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Genetics Ability: 5

Leos 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

Lise

“You need to find yourself a girl, mate. Or perhpas the reason you practice three hours a day is that you already found one, and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet. You’re not a eunuch, are you?” – Pirates of the Carribean “I leave you people alone for just a minute and look what happens. Everything’s gone to pot!” – Pirates of the Carribean

Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum Drink and the devil had done for the rest Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

The waves. Your earliest memory. The waves crashing against the side of the boat. You weren’t old enough to walk, even, but you definitely had your sea crawling-limbs. You don’t know who your parents were, or how you got on that first boat, but it doesn’t matter. The sea is your mother, and your father, the timbers of that first ship your brothers and sisters.

The mate was fixed by the bosun’s pike The bosun brained with a marlinspike And cookey’s thrat was marked belike It had been gripped by fingers ten; And there they lay, all good dead men Like break o’day in a boozing ken Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

You lost your family, your ship and the sea, one day when the ship dropped you off back on land. You were young, you barely remember it. But your near-supernatural ability to swim and sail, your amazing affinity for the sea, they kept you alive in Port Vianden during those years on land.

Fifteen men of the whole ship’s list Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Dead and be damned and the rest gone whist! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

But you still heard the calling of the sea, deeply. It rocked the core of your being from the earliest of ages. You were born to sail, bred to fight, and blessed by being a pirate.

The skipper lay with his nob in gore Where the scullion’s axe his cheek had shore And the scullion he was stabbed times four And there they lay, and the soggy skies Dripped down in up-staring eyes In murk sunset and foul sunrise Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Lise 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

At the age of seven, you were kidnapped from your humdrum dreary life begging on the streets of Port Vianden and chained to the oars of a pirate vessel. It was glorious to be back out to sea, but you resented their methods. However, you proved too weak to row as fast and hard as the oarmaster had in mind – you were almost thrown overboard to fend for yourself out in your sea-mother – but First Mate Grayfeather saved your life and agreed to try you out in the mess for a while before watching you toddle down the plank. You didn’t realize then what he’d expect from you for saving your life.

Fifteen men of ’em stiff and stark Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Ten of the crew had the murder mark! Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

You learned a lot apprenticing in the mess as cook’s helper that year. You were kept alive by an innate talent of being able to tell plants apart, and if they were edible, even after they’d been in the ship’s storage for a few years. At the end of a year, First Mate Grayfeather came to exact his fee for your life. You had such talent in the kitchen and were so young and innocent, he said, that no one (not even the ultra-paranoid Dread Pirate Alquin, captain of the vessel) would mistrust the food you had prepared, not even for a second. You were to poison the captain, he said, slowly over the course of the next year, slowly weakening the Dread Pirate Alquin to the point where Grayfeather could run an easy mutiny. He’d saved your life a year before. Could you say no? Saying no would earn your death. You agreed. You had to.

’Twas a cutlass swipe or an ounce of lead Or a yawing hole in a battered head And the scuppers’ glut with a rotting red And there they lay, aye, damn my eyes Looking up at paradise All souls bound just contrawise Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum

You started poisoning the Dread Pirate Alquin with some poison. . . Prennisurki (9696), a powder which is odorless, tasteless, colorless. . . in his food every single day. You didn’t want to – he’d always been sweet to you. Every day. Every day. Twice a day when Old Grayfeather insisted. Every day for a year.

Fifteen men of ’em good and true Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! Ev’ry man jack could ha’ sailed with Old Pew, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

You hated Old Grayfeather. HATED him! You would do anything to stop his mutiny. . . so you decided to hold one of your own. There were plenty of children on the ship, enslaved from a young age (like you were) into being oarsmen or cooks or makeshift rope swinging in the wind of the hurricanes. You could rally them behind you, and pull a coup on Grayfeather’s mutiny. He so completely dismissed the idea that you children might have minds and ideas of your own, that he would never see it coming.

There was a chest on chest of Spanish gold With a ton of plate in the middle hold And the cabins riot of stuff untold,

Lise 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

And they lay there that took the plum With sightless glare and their lips struck dumb While we shared all by the rule of thumb, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

You kept poisoning Alquin but rallied the children, the downtrodden and dirty, the oarsmen yearning to be free. Day by day, you became more outwardly obsequious and obedient but more inwardly rebellious, and the children’s counter-coup became more and more organized. When the day came, when the Formerly Dread Pirate Alquin stumbled and fell, never to rise again, after his evening meal, all of the childrens’ chains had been miraculously broken and the aft deck and the fore deck were swarmed by the invisibles of the ship before Grayfeather had a chance to even grab Alquin’s neck for the coup de gras.

More was seen through a sternlight screen... Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Chartings undoubt where a woman had been Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

The children had their weapons, some shiny and sharp and stolen from the officers’ private quarters, some as raggedly as the wielders, mere lengths of rope or dirty rags for swabbing decks. The downtrodden slaves of the pirate vessel, under your command of course, took over quickly. There was much gore and bloodshed all over the vessel; you now understand all those verses of the song the sea-mother used to sing you to sleep with, yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

’Twas a flimsy shift on a bunker cot With a dirk slit sheer through the bosom spot And the lace stiff dry in a purplish blot h was she wench or some shudderin’ maid Taht dared the knife and took the blade By God! she had stuff for a plucky jade Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

By daybreak, Grayfeather’s men had beaten back your exhausted untrained troops and you were thrown into the brig for insubordination (what? it wasn’t like you were insubordinate against any of your legitimate superiors, aka anyone not trying to pull a coup) and your allies were chained up again and used as swordfodder taking the next prize, and the next one, and the next. Then, just to torment you, helpless in your prison cell, the newly-captained Grayfeather stopped by Port Vianden to pick up some more young orphans off the streets and use them also as swordfodder for the next uncountably many prizes. Grayfeather was cruel, ruthless, and uncaring. He killed or ruined the lives of so many street urchins to punish you for your coup. You quickly became even more hardened against the blood, gore, and hardship those kids went through – that you went through.

Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum. Drink and the devil had done for the rest Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.

Grayfeather would take you out for “fun” to entertain the crew on occasion. They would hang food above your starving head, out of your reach, or force you to drink seawater with your parched throat, or merely stab at you with their shiny sharp swords to watch you dance for hours to avoid being hit.

Lise 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

We wrapped ’em all in a mains’l tight With twice ten turns of a hawser’s bight And we heaved ’em over and out of sight, With a Yo-Heave-Ho! and a fare-you-well And a sudden plunge in the sullen swell Ten fathoms deep on the road to hell, Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

By the time Grayfeather threw you off the ship, out of the only true home you had ever known, back onto the streets of Port Vianden, you had forever sworn him as your archenemy, in that ernest way that eight-year-olds have. For three years, you were a street urchin begging on the streets of Port Vianden. It won’t do to dwell on that time. Later, at the age of eleven, you stopped pitying yourself and swore revenge, revenge against Grayfeather, revenge for the helpless dead street urchin orphans, revenge and glory putting yourself in a position of power once and for all. Still, you were now eleven years old, old enough that you wouldn’t be allowed back on any pirate vessels. Stupid gender discrimination traditions. Women aren’t allowed on pirate vessels after the age at which they can be distinguished from males (which made their enslavement of you and your bonds-sisters allowable by their code but would prevent you from exacting your revenge now). You knew what to do. You cried at the thought of it, but you would do anything to take down Grayfeather. You shaved your head, bound your chest, practiced cussing and the deeper but oft-cracking voice of a prepubescent boy, and took the name Liam. As Liam, you grabbed passage on another ship, appropriately the Revenge, as a deck boy swabbing decks after battles with prizes. Your years of experience on old Alquin’s ship had taught you hard work, really hard work; your life on the sea had taught you everything you would ever need to know on a pirate vessel; your experience attempting a counter-coup on Grayfeather had taught you more about leadership than most entire pirate crews learn in all their lifetimes. Less than three years later, nearly a record-setting amount of time, you were captain of the Revenge. You can’t help it if you’re awesome. The following year, you and your men had put into port for a few days’ rest when a sleek, agile vessel put in alongside the Revenge. The captain and crew came to shore and started drinking and carousing with your men. All in all, nothing exemplary or unusual. . . until you saw their captain. His name was Danthony. He was a merchant, and he was the most handsome son of the sea ever spotted beneath the stormy skies. It was too bad he was an honest merchant; it was really too bad he thought you were male. There was no way to blow your cover in front of your crew, so you just talked to him as Liam. Still, you couldn’t help but hit on him some, and this made him a little uncomfortable. (Not to mention, after getting back to the Revenge your crew put you through a Mana-damned amount of teasing for the incident.) If only you could have lived your proper pirate life as yourself, a woman, this would not have been a problem. You had really wanted him. Hell of the craving for the sea, you had almost fallen in love with him over those few wonderful but short hours. You still want him, even though you have never seen him since. You only enjoyed the captaincy for two years before you realized that you had reached a personal onset of Mage capability. At this golden opportunity for gaining more power, you immediately turned the ship to aft and sailed up the Rue Grande to Wiltz, to the Bazaar. Sadly, you didn’t get hired as an official Mage of Liberec, although you will ensure that your successor has the full power of a Mage of Liberec as captain. However, you did manage to convince the local Mageball team, The Mageball Lions, to sponsor you at the Bazaar and even to hire you. Maybe you aren’t a full Mage with the powers, capabilities, and income inherent in such, but you’re still the most kickass woman in Liberec at Animal Magic.

Lise 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

Of course, the rules of Mageball are clear, just like the rules of piracy. No girls allowed. (You’re so sick of that.) Well, you were conveniently still under your guise as Liam, so you stayed that way. Due to the idiosyncratic nature of the Liberec pirate code, even absent from your vessel you were still in charge. Sure, your first mate was doing all of the tactics, but your orders still got through each day, choosing the overall course of action for the Revenge. You would still be in command, through the power of Mind Magic. Cool, huh? Within a year, you were bored and power-hungry again. With the Revenge practically running itself and Mageball in the off-season, you found yourself missing your sea-mother. With all the new shiny money you had acquired from your adoring fans, you decided to buy a ship and crew and take to the seas again. This was the perfect opportunity! All of the issues you’d had with the pirate code, disallowing women and enslaving children off the streets, overlooking the non-officers on the crew as if they were invisible, the frequency of coups against perfectly nice captains for just that reason - because they were nice - and the sheer barbarity of the crews. . . you could fix them. You had capital to invest and strong opinions; it was time to make your world become what you wanted it to become. You bought a ship, the Androdameia, the Subduer of Men. You went to the streets of Port Vianden and offered to every hard- up woman you saw to come with you, to join your crew. Tavern-maids who wanted a better income and kinder boss, prostitutes desperate enough to sell themselves on the cold bare streets, and orphaned young girls with no one to take care of them but stars in their eyes joined you. The first year was just training, most of them had never been to sea, couldn’t tie knots or sheer a rigging, had never handled a weapon. You taught them, kindly and patiently, your life having renewed purpose, and that not merely focused on revenge. They continued training all during your Mageball season, and by the time you returned the next year, you were so proud of how these downtrodden city women had become rough, hardened children of the sea. You set sail for deeper waters and the heart of the sea-mother. Within a year, you were known as Alwid the Pirate Queen all across the high seas (you knew better than to use your real name, of course). Your ladies were fast, and strong, and cunning. During that glorious time for the Androdameia, nothing could stand against your crew. Men were never allowed on your ship, even as prisoners, which gave you a reputation as a hard taskmaster who took no prisoners 1 During the Mageball off-season, you could sail with the Androdameia, and during the season play Mageball. It’s a young girl’s dream, to be a famous pirate (twice over), a career closed to women, and to be a famous Mageball player and trounce all of the men, another career closed to women. If only they all knew you were female. . . but you wouldn’t give up all of your dreams just for that. It was so great that you could trust your first mates to run your ships loyally in your absence. During the Mageball season, the team practices were a fun way to get out any anger and frustration, and winning the Mageball games was a thrill (well, you’ve always been competitive), but you really enjoyed travelling with the team to the occasional competition out in the more remote regions of Liberec. On one such competition four years ago, out in Oldenburg, you met a woman named Dana. She was a strong woman, the sort you wished that the girls on your crew would grow up to be. You met her initially because she had been among those who volunteered a room in her house to the team and her hospitality. You were the lucky ones to stay with her. She was polite but cold at first, made a little uncomfortable by the presence of so many strangers around her house. Dana got to watch the team’s final practice, in which you single-handedly drove all of your asshole teammates into the ground. Good practice for the next day’s game. Dana came to watch the game, too, which The Mageball Lions won of course. Afterwards, back at her house, exhausted after the game, you had a long conversation with Dana about strength and power as a

1Actually, you would have been happy to take prisoners, but males were not allowed on the Androdameia and none of the other pirate vessels had females older than ten. For some reason, the other pirates just didn’t notice you were taking the ’invisibles,’ the child slaves, when you took a prize. The other pirate crews certainly didn’t notice that you were setting the children free, to go home or work for you, their own choice, as soon as they were on board the Androdameia.

Lise 5 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet woman, the different lots in life between the genders, etc. She was so nice. You were pretty sure she figured out that you were really female from that conversation, but she probably would never say anything, so you cannot be sure. She seemed to be really sweet. You were having so much fun with the Androdameia that, three years ago, you sent the Revenge away to the far unmapped corners of the sea to investigate other lands and steal their treasures. It was the only time you had visited your old ship since going to The Mageball Lions. You missed it, but you really didn’t want the pain and suffering of binding yourself and cutting your hair again more often than need be. Unfortunate timing, that. A year later, your apprentice Mind Adept on the Androdameia, Celeste, passed away in an un- fortunate accident raiding a prize with more fight left in it than she’d planned. Poor Celeste. She had been the best girl you had saved from the streets and added to your crew, and her toughness, loyalty, and dedication to the life of the seamother were beyond compare. The two of you were always close, even though she’d only been with the crew for three years and was one of the younger crew members (promoted to First Mate at the age of twelve). You miss her so. You are still looking for her remains, to give the sweet girl a proper pirate burial. Maybe you’ll be able to find her in Wiltz during this Bazaar? Seems unlikely, given the lack of success for the past couple years, but you can’t give up trying quite yet. You always take care of your girls, for better or worse. When a vacancy came up in the position of First Mate of the Androdameia, with Celeste gone, you instead picked one of the hardened and fierce girls, Chiara. She hadn’t been with the ship since the beginning, but she showed such promise as a leader. Chiara would take care of the day-to-day tasks and duties on the ship during your absence, much as Celeste would have done. (Of course, you would remain as captain due to the wonderfulness of remote orders via Mind Magic.) The next two years were Mageball hell. Vendelin started insisting on more and more practices, expecting too much out of the team. He even cancelled your off-season, insisting that the team practice more during it. You couldn’t get back to your ships. You barely had a free moment away from the team for those two years. However, it was during one of your Mageball trips to Wiltz that you first met Klement, one of the police officers at the Bazaar that year. One of the saving graces of that year were your discussions with Florian about power in Liberec, the kind of power that could make things go, automatedly, keep spells going without a Mage there continually casting it. Both of you had the thought that if only you could somehow harness the energy that drives the weather, you’d be able to supply practically an infinite amount of energy to anything you wanted. You don’t know what Florian might want to use this for, but you certainly have plans for it which you’d prefer not share. You’re developing, on the side, a tide controlling device which could be powered off this power supply from the weather. You could send your two ships anywhere in the world with complete control, the tides always carrying you along. You could obviate the need for any oars(wo)men at all. And meanwhile, you could be grounding any other pirate ships which do not treat their stolen young girls as well as they should. It is the best of both worlds. A speed boost and control bonus for your own ships, and the ability to punish those which have been hurting the poor children. The Mageball Lions later acquired a little snot of a camp follower, Femke, always flaunting her ass-ets around the guys. . . which included you. You pretended to appreciate it, as ’Liam’ should, but you just don’t swing that way, you can’t help that. The little flirt followed you all around, during the off-season too, and didn’t the guys just drool over her. Florian, always the charmer, took every opportunity to sweep her off her feet. The gruff Stef would occasionally even talk in her presence. And of course, Tibo and Maarten took every opportunity to fight about her. It was disgusting. And the little poodle Femke just lapped it all up. One day, you were so desperate that you tried to have a one-on-one discussion with her and open her eyes to the light of feminism, doing things for oneself rather than allowing men to fawn all over her. She was surprisingly willing to go off alone with you, considering you had never made a secret out of your dislike. Of course, that was all explained when she started started stripping her clothes off and saying that it took you long enough to come around.

Lise 6 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

You bolted – the discussion about feminism was abandoned. You’ve spoken to prostitutes who have been working on the streets for years, all sorts of mistreated women. Yet you’ve never seen such a hopeless case. You avoided Femke like the plague after that. In your few interactions with her, she was smug, as if she had something on you. Maybe she knew? Maybe she saw through your disguise, saw your rough pirate interior? Or worse, noticed that you were a woman? It would be better to make sure she never could say anything believably. The social situation with the team was becoming exceedingly awkward with all the testosterone getting thrown around, and an injury you took during the championship match provided the perfect excuse to quit. (Of course, the injury itself didn’t faze you at all.) It was a spectacular show. You explained politely to Vendelin how you wanted to look after your health and retire a little early, and then when he wasn’t around you went all prima-donna on the team. There was yelling, blame tossed around every which way, and you quit the team in a huff. Then followed an awkward few days as you bummed a ride off the team on your way to Wiltz for the Bazaar. Oops. You’re not disappointed to be done with Mageball. For a long time you’ve been itching to get back to your seafaring business, and you even sent your niece Ilona (whose Bazaar is this year) a letter a few weeks back, asking very obliquely if she might be interested in joining your ship. You don’t know her very well, but everything you’ve heard indicates she’s very much the inquisitive sort, so she’ll definitely have questions for you when you next see each other. You’ve told her about your disguise, at least, so there won’t be any awkwardness there. It’d be great to have someone new on board. You have been away from the sea mother for so long. You’ve missed your ships. You sent instructions to both ships’ Mind Mages to sail up the Rue Grande and meet you here in Wiltz. However, they are first to spread your reputation around the High Seas as far as possible. You’ve given Chiara command of the Androdameia, while you focus on getting the Revenge a reputation as the harshest pirate ship on the High Seas. You’d also like to remind the merchants traveling in the Seas that they should avoid angering you and your power. Of course, should Chiara ever step out of line, or should you want the Androdameia for other purposes, you still outrank her and can easily override her orders. Goals - Take revenge on Captain Grayfeather for forcing you to poison Captain Alquin, causing your misery and humiliation in front of the crew, and then sending you away from the seamother, by personally defeating him in a duel - Get the loot from across the seas off of the Revenge - Dominate the high seas and gain a reputation in as much of the high seas as possible - Harness the weather’s power - Use the harnessed power to control the tides to easily sail your ships anywhere you want but stall the bastards hurting the young girls at the dock - Find Danthony and spark his interest; try to get him to be more wild and less of just a quiet, honest merchant - Promote the cause of feminism, allowing female pirates and female Mageball players as well as any other benefits for females you can get, culturally or legally - Find and take down the ship which killed Celeste - Find Celeste’s remains to give her a proper burial at sea - Hire a full Mage to be your successor as Captain on each of your ships, as your time to retire will come soon - Befriend any oppressed girls and help them find alternate options to their current shameful or misery-ridden lives Notes - Try not to reveal your true gender (and name) unless absolutely necessary. - The recipe for Prennisurki is: Turnip (7???)Slippery Elm (7???)Gofer Dust (1608). It was with this that you poisoned old Alquin.

Lise 7 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

Contacts - Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew): The most wonderful merchant you’ve ever met - Chiara (Kevin Riggle): The first mate of the Androdameia, currently in charge while you’ve been away from the ship - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The owner of The Mageball Lions - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): A whiny brat on The Mageball Lions - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): Another whiny brat on The Mageball Lions who constantly fights with Tibo - Florian (Jim Waldrop): A firy, ditzy Fire Mage on The Mageball Lions who you are still working with on harnessing the power of the weather - Stef (Pi Lanningham): The newest member of The Mageball Lions - Femke (Brogan King): The camp follower of The Mageball Lions and a slut - Dana (Allison Schneider): A strong woman that The Mageball Lions once stayed with while in Oldenburg - Klement (Daniel Gray): A Police Officer you met in the Bazaar. - Ilona (Casey McNamara): Your niece, a Mage candidate from Mons.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Wiltz- The Mageball Lions

Greensheets - Navigating and Living on the High Seas - Mageball - Dueling - Searching for Celeste’s remains (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Level 5 Mage - Gossip with the Public - Physlim: Female

Items - Captain’s Hat (0735) - The Art of Agile Dueling (in-game notebook) - Captain’s Hat (0735) - 450 liberyen - A colorless powder (9696)

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 24 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 6

Lise 8 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lise (Alex Westbrook) / Character Sheet

LiamAlwid

Lise 1 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lucia (Ami Greene) / Character Sheet

Lucia

“Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice.” – Unknown

It all began on a midwinter’s day in your twelfth year of being single, lonely, and (for the previous six years) parentless and estranged from most of your family. Once again, you found yourself on your own and going into the nearest town for the annual post-Bazaar buffet and sharing of news from other regions. Every year, your adoptive parents tried to pawn you off on some middle-aged bore so they could get high beyond recognition. You had feared that year would be no exception. It was different. The newspapers they brought, for the very first time, had well-written news in Wendel’s papers. Who could this Roland be, you wondered? He was clever, smart, funny. He knew what was right and wrong and wasn’t afraid to show it. You read the articles over and over. Then you noticed something odd. When you arranged all of the articles in chronological order and looked in the reporter’s signature, there was an extra letter hidden in each if you looked at it sideways. These letters, put together, spelled “Greetings, astute reader. This is Kristof. If you are reading this, I hope you will take the arguments contained herein on the basis of their content, not the manner in which they have been presented. I am, as ever, glad to entertain and counter any opposing viewpoints, however little they may affect my own.” Ah. Kristof. He is the clever, smart, funny reporter. That – that was it. That was the moment, when you first saw his hidden message. That was when you realized that in your entire life, unless you started changing it now before your Bazaar, your major relationship would be with your adoptive parents who didn’t even like you. You’d finally die, drowned in another hurricane, and be found weeks later half-eaten by crustaceans. Unless you can get Kristof. Since falling in love with Kristof, you refuse to form romantic attachments with any boys who are, unlike Kristof, any of the following: drug addicts, workaholics, commitment-phobics, peeping toms, megalomaniacs, emotional fuckwits, or perverts. And especially, you will not fantasize about about a particular person who embodies all of these things. Otakar. You met him mere days after first seeing the press reports by Kristof. The proximity of the introduction only served to exemplify the vast sea of difference between them. Otakar was quite attractive, but that is where good traits ended. Everything that ever came out of his mouth was insipid and arrogant and idiotic and mockable. You will take him down a few notches by whatever means necessary. For one thing, Otakar hates mana. How can someone hate mana? He tried to convince you of some arrogant bullshit that mana was what caused problems in Liberec. What. The. Fuck. Mana fixes problems in Liberec. Without mana. . . why, without mana you would be flattened. . . just like your parents were1... The only reason your entire world exists is mana. All good fortune comes from the Great Mana, worshipped by Fruit of the Great Mana, the official religion of Liberec. The Great Mana is trapped, imprisoned in the earth, struggling to get free. You must help It, set It loose so It can spread its blessing freely over those in the world who love It. You’ve been studying lately, reading some books, learning about the history surrounding the Great Catastrophe with The Historian Guild. Your studies so far say exactly what you already knew – that lacking mana, the world is doomed. Maybe if you can find enough evidence of this with The Historian Guild, you can finally put Otakar in his place once and for all. Or. . . maybe not. You know the secrets of this land; you are too attuned with the mana resonating through the earth to be unaware. The mana is trapped, a divine thing enslaved into the rocks and cliffs and fields of the earth. Of course the weather goes occasionally a little

1Seven years ago, a large hurricane was threatening Saar. Of course, every practicing Mage in your family volunteered for the job- both of your parents, Uncle Merc and Aunt Rosaly, Cousin Tallo, and Aunt Lenka. They all travelled towards the source of the developing hurricane to stop it, but they were not strong enough and all but Aunt Lenka perished. Uncle Merc and Aunt Rosaly left a son, your cousin Eugen. You really don’t like to talk about what happened.

Lucia 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lucia (Ami Greene) / Character Sheet bad. . . the poor thing is struggling to get free. You believe that you can help free the mana. You started Servants of the Great Mana for this goal. You will all be able to revel in the mana once it is freed. The entire world will experience the glory of mana. Still, the Great Mana, as distinct from mana (which is just its imprint on the physical world), might not be freed by this ritual. But It gets closer to being freed with every bit the weather pummels the earth trying to let it out. You can help It by helping the weather pound on the earth. Since you’ve always had a bit of an interest in alchemy and chemistry, taught to you by your friend and mentor Fostaur after your parents’ deaths, you figured that you could use that knowledge to create chemicals which could change the weeping rain and scar the soil, wearing down the prison entrapping the Great Mana. In addition, while in Wiltz, you’ll finally have access to new workshops and materials to continue Fostaur’s work, turning raw iron ore all the way into gold. It’s quite complicated alchemically, but you can probably use Fostaur’s notes to aid you on your way2. Of course, after your Bazaar, you want to be hired and come back to Saar. You’ve been estranged from your family for so long that if you truly do them proud, come home with a respectable Mageship and talented husband (like Kristof!), with close friends from the Teenage Girls keeping in touch, and are awesome, they might just give you the respect and love that you should have had all along. Things like helping the Teenage Girls are good, independent things to do. You are a strong, independent woman, one who does not need or want any of those fuckwit pervert scoundrel teenage boys for anything. You need a nice, sensible, bona fide sex-god boyfriend like Kristof (well, you imagine he would be a bona fide sex-god boyfriend, and in your imagination – hoo boy) to firm up your decision to not need boys for anything. Good plan. Goals - Set free the mana of the world with Servants of the Great Mana - Better Living through Chemistry - create substances which, when spread on the ground, increase the destructive power of the storms through acid rain and speed up the ability of the Great Mana to free itself from its bonds - Learn enough alchemy to make refined iron, then gold or silver from the refined iron - Win the love of Kristof, the hot, intelligent boy from Wendel, and convince him to marry you and move to Saar - Keep in touch with the other Teenage Girls via their communication plot - Aid Saar in their goals - Research the power of mana by looking into Liberec’s past with The Historian Guild. - Embarrass or eradicate your archenemy, Otakar, the hater and destroyer of mana - Find an apprenticeship in a cool mana-using Magic, preferably in Saar Contacts - Eugen (JB Parkes): A cousin of yours, who as cared for by Aunt Lenka after the hurricane. You haven’t spoken with that side of the family in years. - Lenka (Joy Perkinson): Your aunt who survived the hurricane, a Storm Mage - Ilona (Casey McNamara): A brilliant girl masterminding the communication plot for the Teenage Girls - Otakar (Erik Chen): A fuckwit pervert scoundrel. You will take every opportunity to mock him publicly and use what he says against him. - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): Another cousin from Saar (your family is very large).

2Fostaur is not here to help you in your alchemical and chemical goals because, much like your parents and so many people that you have ever known, he got killed by the weather. Fostaur was caught in a raging wildfire after you’d only known him for two years. You don’t like to think about it.

Lucia 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lucia (Ami Greene) / Character Sheet

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Saar - Servants of the Great Mana - The Historian Guild

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Search word

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521)- 200 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: conundrum, breeze, - Age: 15 bats, swift, lazy, food, angry bear - α: 5 - Manaology Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Lore Ability: 5 - Biology Ability: 5

Lucia 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lydia (Kate O’Connor) / Character Sheet

Lydia

“Since the house is on fire, let us warm ourselves.” – Italian Proverb “A spark neglected makes a mighty fire.” – Robert Herrick “Burn, baby, burn!” – The Dictators

When you were growing up, Fire Mages were always the coolest. They were always the best, the strongest, the favorites of everyone. Babies loved the cool pretty tricks they could do. The elderly liked the fires specifically tailored to their own personal warmth needs. And, of course, everyone liked the sheer offensive strength of the Fire Mages in Mageball or any sort of competition. Besides, fire is so PRETTY. You love watching things burn. Everything is better when on fire. Fire Mages are simply the best. At your Bazaar, you wanted to be a Fire Mage, of course. You were so excited! Finally, you would be the one to play with the shiny. Finally, you would be the one praised - nay, worshipped - for your abilities. You would be the strong one. Yes. Finally. It wouldn’t matter that you had always been skinny and weak. It wouldn’t matter that your family doesn’t tend to have strong Mages. It wouldn’t matter that you had been born in the slums of Wiltz. Nothing would matter anymore. During your Bazaar, everyone was obsessed with Iva. Iva, Iva, Iva. Why pay attention to her?! She wasn’t a Fire Mage! Yet it seemed that Iva was everyone’s favorite little Mage. Why was she even at the Bazaar? She was a pitiful little fourth-year Earth Mage. Who cares? (Everyone, it seemed.) In fact, so few people cared about Fire Magic that year that, in a freak circumstance, only yourself and Matilda even tried to get hired for Fire Magic. What’s the fun in being the best, a Fire Mage, when there isn’t even any competition for being the best? You had been so looking forward to beating hordes in the competition to become an official Fire Mage, grinding their noses in the dirt, setting them on fire (competition is best served well-roasted). In the year after your Bazaar, the Fire Mage who’d taken you on as her apprentice, Greta, tried to make you slow down and learn to control small undercurrents of temperature and other such boring things. (Who wants to sit patiently and practice those boring parts? Certainly not you.) When can you learn important things? How to set things on fire! How to cause explosions! How to sweep entire platoons of enemy Mages off their feet and flesh, leaving only a pile of soot! Greta kept saying something about needing to learn to control the patterns in the weather from a fundamental level in order to stop the shiny firestorms. Why would you do something like that? Why would you stop the shiny firestorms? They make the world so pretty. Everything is better when it is on fire. And the inconsiderate world deserves to just BURN. You never really learned to control the weather patterns that it seems most Fire Mages spend all their time stopping. Instead, you learned how to burn things. Burn burn burn burn burn burn burn burn buuuuurn, baby, burn! Since you never really learned to control the weather patterns, Wendel has had more problems with firestorms and rampant wildfires than they would expect. However, no one is really going to blame you for that. They hired you, after all. It’s their problem if you aren’t stopping the wildfires as much as they expect. (And really, who would stop such beauties?) Everyone calls you incompetent. Everyone says you are unable to do a good job. EVERYONE ACCUSES YOU OF BEING BAD AT BURNING THINGS! How could they? They’re all idiots. IDIOTS!!!

Lydia 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lydia (Kate O’Connor) / Character Sheet

This will stop. They will respect you. You’ll get your acknowledgment as the best, strongest, fiercest, wildest, most compe- tent, bestest Fire Mage in the history of Liberec! And then, once you have that, you’ll burn them anyway, just to make sure they have learned their lesson. You are the best. One of the ways in which you are the best is that you will win the election for Head of Council for next year. You are a Fire Mage, and the position should go to a Fire Mage. (You suppose Matilda is also up for the position, but you can take her. You thrive on the competition.) You are determined to win, to gain the respect you deserve for your awesome magic, to gain this respect publicly. No one but you will do. Then, of course, once you have the title and the entire world looks up to you, kneels at your feet in supplication, then you can reach forth your hand and burn them all, burn Liberec, burn the world. Of course, burning everything is kind of hard. You’ll need the help of some other people here at the Bazaar to figure out how to do this effectively, but you already have some ideas to research further. After you decided to do this, however, you met some people, Servants of the Great Mana. They are planning on releasing all of the mana in Liberec into the country. This is brilliant! This goes along perfectly with your plan. The mana can burn along with everything else! You suspect it’s flammable. That’ll make those ravishing explosions all the more, well, explody. Excellent. You cannot wait to see everything, the entire world, on fire. It will make such a pretty boom. Meanwhile, you have joined up with Vianden Zephyr Corporation to help them build roads throughout Liberec. This would allow the burning to spread more vigorously throughout the land - you definitely want that to happen. Yes. Most excellent. You’ve also heard of a group called the Wiltz Realtors Incorporated who are trying to burn down the old ruins around Wiltz to build new buildings. Burning is always excellent, and who could fault you if the new buildings were so much more flammable than they should be? Well, the problem with all of those is that they have no immediate firy, burn end in sight. So you’re looking into setting some things on fire, namely, the Rue Grande and the city of Wiltz itself. The city should be easy – even after all the firestorms, the citizens haven’t learned all that much about how to build fire- resistant buildings. However, you want the pretty flames to stick around for long after, not just flare up and die in some short but beautiful phoenix cycle. You know that this has successfully been done to the city before. Once, long ago, before the Catastrophe, it is said, the Liberecines were afraid that Kusel would invade and steal all the secrets of their capitial, so they made an everlasting fire1 to hold back the mighty and terrible Kusel war machines. The way for doing this must still be somewhere around, possibly in the library. If you can find this, and set the city alight, you can roast marshmellows in all the fun, pretty destruction! The river, now that is a challenge, even for a Fire Mage. Fire and water do not mix, it kills the poor pretty fire. NOT ANY MORE. You’ve been researching a way of setting water on fire, and you plan to light up the ENTIRE COUNTRY with the pretty flames. Burny burny burny burny burny! Goals - Burn the world with fire! - Specifically, set Wiltz and the Rue Grande on fire. - Scorch the world with Servants of the Great Mana! 1Clearly not everlasting enough or it would still be going

Lydia 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Lydia (Kate O’Connor) / Character Sheet

- Become Head of Council for next year. - Get everyone to acknowledge that you are the best Fire Mage ever. Getting this acknowledgment in a public venue, such as a newspaper, would be even better. - Build roads across Liberec with Vianden Zephyr Corporation - Help Wendel achieve their goals - Burn down the old ruins with Wiltz Realtors Incorporated Contacts - Matilda (Susan Born): The other Fire Mage your year, not as good at burning things as you are. - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The Fire Mage Head of Council. You intend to be the next one. Hopefully she will see how appropriate it is for Fire Mages to continue leading The Mages’ Council. - Iva (Beth Baniszewski): That bitch who was stealing all of the Fire Mages’ thunder at your Bazaar. - Lucia (Ami Greene): A young girl on Servants of the Great Mana who seems to be extremely pro-mana, which works well with your plans for burning the world.

Memory/Event Packets - σ

Bluesheets - Wendel - The Mages’ Council - Servants of the Great Mana - Vianden Zephyr Corporation - Wiltz Realtors Incorporated

Greensheets - Gain Legal Control of Locations - Organizing an Artifact Exhibition - Demolishing and Preparing an Area for Construction Work

Abilities - Level 6 Mage

Items - 350 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 24 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Theology Ability: 3

Lydia 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel) / Character Sheet

Maarten

“By right of superior intelligence, I am best suited to guide the destiny of this planet.” – Pinky and the Brain “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph” – Thomas Paine “If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutenant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.” – The Evil Overlord List

They are all idiots. Idiots!!! If they only listened to you none of this would ever have happened. You would still be on top. Your plans were perfect. Nothing could have possibly gone wrong. This should have never happened. Never! Now that those in charge have proved to be so incompetent, it is time that you took over. Mageball. It is life. But so is winning. Winning Mageball is about as good as it gets. That, put quite simply, requires cheating. Oh, how you love cheating. Getting that which you really didn’t earn is just another way of proving that you are better than everyone else. You grew up in a poor Mundane family in Wiltz, but despite having no Mage talent, you always wanted to be able to be a Mageball player. Rather than accept your pitiful fate to always be a downtrodden Mundane for all your life, unable to be important or become a Mageball player due to your genetics preventing you from having magical talent. . . you took things into your own two Mundane hands. First, you found a reliable supplier of Gonuunqa (9510). It is a remarkable substance, outlawed by the Mage-genetics-centric Council; it imbues the taker with temporary Mage abilities. You could even choose the form of magic that you ’had the ability’ to do, as the Gonuunqa (9510) grants Mage abilities of a discipline determined by what herb you consume with the Gonuunqa (9510). You chose Earth Magic, because it is a cool, violent form of magic, because Mulberry (7635) to consume with the Gonuunqa (9510) is always available, and because you like the thought of the earth itself swallowing up your enemies for you. It’s a neat little power trip. You went to the Bazaar at the age of fifteen, posing as a Mage Candidate with budding Earth Magic. This was seven years ago. All you had to do was take some Gonuunqa (9510) right before showing off any of your ’new Mage abilities,’ and you were golden. Since you weren’t trying for an official apprenticeship, you couldn’t be bothered to, you also didn’t need to have a sponsor or official paperwork. You easily got a spot with The Mageball Lions using your supposed ’Earth Magic.’ Now that you had cheated your way onto The Mageball Lions, you needed to acquire a large supply of Gonuunqa (9510) to bring along to all of your matches and practices, to always have the ’Earth Magic’ used to help your team win, and also you needed to start plotting ways of making sure The Mageball Lions would be guaranteed to always win matches1. You not only managed to buy multiple years’ worth of Gonuunqa (9510) but also the recipe to make more yourself from a few certain herbs grown around Liberec. (In fact, you’ve been wondering about improvements to the current recipe. With some experimentation, you might find even better, stronger Gonuunqa (9510).) You never had much success getting your team to cheat and ensure they won those first years. However, two years ago Stef joined the team and fixed everything. Stef is a Plant Adept and an accomplished potion-maker, mostly when applied to steroids. Perfect! Just what the pansy-assed team needed! The team started (finally) doing better after that, winning most games. You all were even the favorites to win the last Liberec Mageball Championships. It was all going just fine. . . The Mageball Lions has six important personajes other than yourself. First of all is Vendelin, the organizer of your team.

1Remember, winning is everything.

Maarten 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel) / Character Sheet

He pays for all of the team’s expenses, pays all five players, and gains the profit when you win. He is very enthusiastic about Mageball but probably wouldn’t approve of you cheating. Femke is your favorite, the hottest sweet young thing on the planet. You’ve been sleeping with her for a few years now, she’s a bit of a camp follower for The Mageball Lions, just coming into that age where she will have her own Bazaar and will be hirable for the team. Mmmm, sex with her would be delicious after winning away matches.1 Stef, a Plant Adept, is your favorite person on the team. He’s a chill guy. He is sleeping with Femke too, just like you are, but you aren’t jealous because he’s just a cool guy (and he is better than some other alternatives for Femke to be sleeping with on the team). You’re more than happy to share her with him. Stef even helped you out with getting some steroids that were not going to affect your performance in bed with her. He is truly a decent guy. You’re pretty sure that Stef, as upset as you are about losing the championship match, is developing some new and more complex steroids and potions to help The Mageball Lions win. You’re anxious to try them, and should assist him wherever you can. Liam, an Animal Adept, was a nice enough (albeit annoying) companion on the road, and busy with other work during the off-season. You had no problems with the guy, at least until he up and quit the team for no weather-blasted reason. Sure, he’d been injured earlier, but he was totally healed and it’s not as if it was the first time. Perhaps he was holding back the team, though, with his mere Animal Magic (the most laughable kind); getting Femke or someone else with a more competent and violent form of magic to replace Liam would be an improvement. Even if Vendelin won’t like the fact that she’s a girl. Florian, a Fire Adept (now, you can’t argue with that being useful to the team) and quick on his feet, is very quiet. You don’t know him very well because he keeps to himself. Not the sort of guy you’re comfortable around, but he kicks enough butt on the Mageball court to have your respect. Then there is Tibo, a Storm Adept. Ugh, you cannot stand that guy. He spends his life whining, whining, whining. You’d think the Great Mana came and kicked him in the balls every morning when he woke up. Whiners are not winners. You keep telling him that but he still comes to practice every day simpering, seeking approval, and being totally incompetent. If you can get him kicked off the team, so much the better for your chances at winning as well as your sanity. (Also, he seems to have a bit of a crush on Femke. You must make sure that goes nowhere and that dear Femke stays with true men like yourself and Stef.) That’s the gang. You were favored to win, the public knew your names. Being a winner rocks. And then it happened. You lost. And (just to make matters worse, to kick you while you were down) Liam quit, supposedly because of his injury but really in a huff over some still-unknown problem; he yelled a bunch at the team (you, Stef, Florian, and Tibo) about Femke and such before leaving. Maybe he also had a crush on Femke? You’d seen them together quite a bit recently. Whatever the cause, though, your team is now short a player. How are you ever going to win now? You still don’t even know how the team lost – your plan was foolproof. Now the team is mocked heartily by its previously adoring fans. Grrrrrrrr! IT SHALL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. You are done with losing, completely through with it. Never again. You utterly refuse to lose. Yet to your ultimate humilia- tion, here at the Bazaar this year, an upstart team of stupid teenagers is a popular Mageball team, The Bronze Pandas. If Vendelin were to agree to let you play against them, losing that game would be even more humiliating than losing that last championship match! And you’ll need to keep your skills sharp; there might not be any more championship matches, but the start of next year’s season is barely a month after the Bazaar. It wouldn’t do to get off on the wrong foot, or worse, a player short! Speaking of being done with things, you are through with the Mage-centric view Liberec takes. Over 95% of the people

1Who needs romance, that silly, floofy thing? You get all the sex you could want out of Femke, and there are no further benefits you could derive from any stronger type of romance.

Maarten 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel) / Character Sheet of the country are Mundanes, without any Mage ancestry to speak of, unable to become even an Adept. This bars them from playing Mageball professionally (unless they are clever like you), being a Mage (the only mark of respectability in this whole Great Mana-forsaken country), or having any political power. It is time for that to be over. It is time for the Mundanes to rise up and take the power that they so rightly deserve as the vast majority of the land! There is also another thing you can do to get the bossy Mages out of your hair. Since The Mages’ Council reallocates Mages between regions every year, you could get them to allocate the vast majority of Mages to a remote region, probably Mons. Any Mages sent there would have limited capacity to interfere with the affairs of the Mundanes in charge everywhere else in the country. This is best done through the weather. If Mons starts getting pummeled weather-wise, The Mages’ Council is responsible to send enough Mages to each region to protect them. Besides which, Mons grows almost all of the food for Liberec, and if those supplies were threatened, the Mages even more need to go and protect them. You have some documents which might lead you to a way of attracting weather patterns towards those remote regions of the country, although anything you can do to exaggerate the threat is even better (cheating, as always, beats out hard work easily). The Bazaar is coming up, a great place to take care of all of these little pesky situations. You are most excited, however, at reuniting with your childhood friend Raina, who wrote saying she would be at the Bazaar campaigning for Head of Council for next year. If the Mundanes can’t take over, perhaps you can have sway over her as Head of Council? She’s got to be better than any of the other options, at least. She’s also asked for your help with another issue during the Bazaar. She’s an Animal Mage (pathetic, but what can you do?) and she has noticed that the animals of Liberec are being oppressed, prevented from keeping their own natures, by the Mages of Liberec. You’ve pounced on this opportunity to take another swing at those bastards running The Mages’ Council, so you’ll help her free the animals of Wiltz during the Bazaar. In your spare time, you lead an organization, The Historian Guild. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Studying the history of colorful periods of Liberec’s history is another valid form of cheating, conveniently keeping you from making any preventable mistakes! You’re particularly interested in the history surrounding the Great Catastrophe 20 generations ago. The Catastrophe is fascinating. You know that Liberec has had myriad apocalypses in its past. Of course, any information on the apocalypses before the most recent one is lost to time, but there are still some specks of information about the Catastrophe. What caused it? What has caused there to be no apocalypses since? How did Liberec survive the Catastrophe? What was life like in Liberec before the Catastrophe? Was there technology which modern Liberec does not have (ooh, you’re very interested in that)? You don’t know exactly what your inquiries will find, but you’re certain that it will be interesting. During the Bazaar, you’ll have plenty of access to the Library in Wiltz, of which you’ll need to make ample use. Unfortunately, you lost track of the wagon carrying your Gonuunqa (9510) supply in the confusion when you arrived at the Bazaar. It has surely been parked somewhere in this vast city, you just have to find it. However, your previous dose has worn off and you don’t have any more magic abilities until you get some more. It doesn’t matter if you find your wagon, buy some from the vendors around here (as long as Vendelin and the rest of The Mageball Lions don’t find out), or find/grow the ingredients to make more, but whatever it is, you’ll have to do it quickly! It’ll be rather noticeable if one of the star Mageball players of the country suddenly cannot do any spells on the court! Goals - Win, especially at Mageball, but at anything competitive. Cheat liberally. Remember, the best wins are the ones you don’t earn through hard work! - Find or replace your Gonuunqa (9510) supply ASAP!

Maarten 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel) / Character Sheet

- Ensure that The Mageball Lions discovers and uses enough cheats that it will win next year’s Liberec Mageball Tournament. Stef should also be working on this. - Put Mundanes in charge of the country, as you all would be much better at it than the incompetents that call themselves The Mages’ Council - Investigate the history of Liberec surrounding the Catastrophe as the leader of The Historian Guild - Make sure that Vendelin hires Femke as the new member of The Mageball Lions (and fires Tibo if possible in favor of another Mage Candidate if possible) - Sleep with Femke as often as possible, and keep her away from Tibo who seems to have a crush on her - Distribute Dust as widely as possible, use it to help the Mundanes, and take a lot of it yourself to aid in your ’Magic’ - Get the weather to attack Mons more frequently so that lots of Mages have to move there (to protect the food supply for the country) and will be out of your hair, allowing the Mundanes to rule in peace all of the important (i.e. populated) areas of Liberec - Experiment with herbalism products to make even better, stronger Gonuunqa (9510) - Help your friend Raina free the animals of Liberec from their Mage oppressors - Improve the standing of your home, the Capital. Notes - The recipe for Gonuunqa (9510) is: Stillengia (7365)Marigold (7954)Hazel (7201). - You go into severe withdrawl whenever you have not taken Gonuunqa (9510) for a day. Roleplay accordingly. Contacts - Raina (Piper Hunt): A childhood friend of yours who you’re helping free the animals that have been oppressed by the Mages for so many years - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of The Mageball Lions - Florian (Jim Waldrop): The calm and quiet Fire Adept on The Mageball Lions - Stef (Pi Lanningham): The Plant Adept on The Mageball Lions, who makes the best steroids in Liberec - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): The annoying Storm Adept on The Mageball Lions, you can’t stand him - he better not put any moves on Femke - Liam (Alex Westbrook): The sweet Animal Adept who quit The Mageball Lions last season in a huff - Femke (Brogan King): The hottest little thing around, sleeping with you and Stef

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - The Historian Guild - Wiltz - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - The Mageball Lions

Greensheets - Mageball- Searching for the Lost Gonuunqa (9510) (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs - Psychlim: Sociopaths Don’t Love - Level 5 Mage - Gossip with the Public

Items - 450 liberyen

Maarten 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 22 - Research Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 7 - β: N/A - Theology Ability: 6

Maarten 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Marcela (Jessie Lowell) / Character Sheet

Marcela

“There are no illegitimate children - only illegitimate parents.” – Leon R. Yankwich

Being a bastard is the best and the worst thing in the world all rolled up in one tiny little painful bundle. Actually, no, it isn’t. Life would be far worse if you hadn’t been acknowledged by Harold. That’s right. You’re the bastard of the royal family. Do you have a problem with that? Well, maybe. . . maybe you do. It isn’t like you envy your half-brother Harold the throne (and since you are younger anyway, you are in no danger of being installed as queen). It isn’t like you don’t have the support of the royal family in all you do. It isn’t like you don’t get all of the benefits of the royal connection without any of the responsibilities. It’s just that you have always really wanted an actual family. Your father, the late King Frederick, impregnated a pretty daughter of a family of visiting landowners (of course, they were visiting on the occasion of the new Prince Harold’s fourth birthday, how could Father be so brainless). When she noticed that she was pregnant, Father admitted his mistake and took care of her in the castle and took care of you after she died in childbirth. Being acknowledged and raised with your half-brother was much better than it could have been, but on the other hand, there was so much you missed. You had to be out of sight when the castle had visitors (and do you have any idea how often a castle like that has visitors?!), you had to only see your half-brother on certain pre-scheduled times (him being so busy getting trained to run the country), and you were always separated from the family, but your relationships with people outside the castle were closely monitored and strongly discouraged (since you were associated with the royal family). It was hard to have friends and impossible to feel that you had a family. On the other hand, you were better off than most bastards. Your father not only acknowledged you, even after your mother’s death, but also supported you through schooling, Bazaar and apprenticeship, reporting career, and more. When he died five years ago and Harold took the crown, he continued supporting you and made you his advisor. (Still, being an advisor is not the same as being a sister.) All of your years of infinite support for anything you wanted but loneliness taught you the evils of boredom. You practiced writing and became the reporter for Wiltz by the age of eleven (Father strong-armed the old reporter from Wiltz into early retirement). Now, of course, you want to win the reporting competition at the Bazaar like you have every year for the past nine years. It is your due. Still. No matter how many times you’ve won before. Beyond that, you’ve heard that Harold is increasing the stakes this year, giving the winner the newfound post as the Reporter for all of Liberec in his new country-wide news agency. In addition, you’ve always been both smart and very talented in Earth Magic. King Frederick kept you well supplied in tutors for your youth. You know a bit of the theory of how Magic works (although no one really knows exactly how it works), and your interaction with Scholars has allowed you to further your scholarly instincts. Your scholarly research has led you to one firm conclusion. Mana is bad for Liberec, poisoning the earth yet making all life dependent on it. Hell, the Church worships the Great Mana. Without any mana anywhere, maybe magic would die, but the problems and the addictions would die with it. That is a worthy trade. In addition, the royal family (how to put it) is not the most talented family magically. With the destruction of the mana, the strength of The Mages’ Council will wane and the royal family will take its rightful place as the head of a completely Mundane feudal society. The members of the Shields of the World will assist you in just that, shielding the world from mana. Speaking of the royal family’s comparative lack of power, you should really figure out how that all happened. You’ve heard legends of the commanding power of the royal family pre-Catastrophe, yet now the most powerful Mages tend to come from the second-tier families in each region and the Prince, bless his heart, is a little slow. (That’s why the royal family didn’t even allow

Marcela 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Marcela (Jessie Lowell) / Character Sheet him to go to the Bazaar at the age of 15 and waited an extra year, they wanted to avoid the humiliation.) The Library might have some information as to how this all changed and where the royal family’s power has been going. You are also one of the primary liaisons to other countries. The royal family knows that you’ll never betray them but no one important is in danger. You’ll show them how well you’ll do, especially with the new ambassadors from Kusel finally here for the Bazaar! You’ll prove yourself by not only keeping Liberec out of war but also getting Kusel to hand over some of their precious, secret weapons technology. You’ll make damn sure that Nephilim is comfortable during her stay here.

But what use is it? Your daddy will never love you like he did his legitimate child! This year, the royal family appointed you the Head of the Wiltz delegation to the Bazaar as it was the year that you would be on The Mages’ Council. This was an honor that you didn’t even ask your brother for, and some people might be taking it wrong. Shouldn’t Erica, as Head of Council, also be Head of a delegation? It isn’t actually required, just traditional. You are in a special position relative to the royal family, however. Exceptions were made, now it’s your personal duty to make sure Wiltz gets its proper and just partition of the Mages of Liberec. Your half-brother trusts you even more than that, however. Vavrinec has a steady girlfriend, Natalia, and Harold wants you to check her out for potential acceptance into the royal family if Vavrinec proposes. Since Natalia is not from one of the first families of Liberec, the marriage would not be a political alliance. You must find out if she would make a good wife and queen, politically, domestically, and in terms of carrying on the royal line (Harold has no heirs other than Vavrinec and you certainly don’t want the throne). You’ll need to report in to Harold about this. In more family business, you have never married, which has always made you sad because you want a family, a real family, a family of your own so badly. The royal family had strict standards for your husband at your Bazaar, strict standards which no one could meet, sadly. However, this year at the Bazaar you have met a wonderful man, Vendelin. He is handsome, and sweet, and rich, and interesting, and mysterious, and suave, and OH BY THE WAY SO HANDSOME. Your love life isn’t under such stringent observation anymore, now that your honored father has passed on and you are a powerful Mage in your own right. Unfortunately, you should be a good role model, as a sometimes member of the royal family, and abide by the Mage Reproduction Laws... probably. The main problem with Vendelin is that he is, alas, Mundane. But he is so competent and smart and sexy! Mmmph. . . you just want to go off and marry him. Of course, he probably doesn’t know who you are yet. This marriage flies in the face of royal policy; if you do manage to catch the eye of the man of (quite literally) your dreams, you’ll need to find a way to save face before the royal family. You’ve also recently joined with others to form a group of Explorers of the Ancient Past. You hope, that by working with them, you will be able to find evidence of the great power that the royal family held in the ruins around Wiltz. While you’re at all of that, you are an important political representative also. You should help increase the power of the royal family at the expense of the Council, prove that the current societal structure is weak and should be replaced by a hierarchical feudal system (headed by the royal family, of course), and increase the power of the Mundanes (you know how they feel, as a bit of an outcast yourself). With all of the political power of a Mage of Liberec and a Bastard of the (Ungrateful) Royal Family, you will make changes in the way the world runs! Goals - Destroy the mana of Liberec in order to improve the country and instill the royal family with more power - Recreate Liberec’s failed social structure and implement feudalism with the royal family at the head - Ensure that negotiations with Kusel go favorably and the success is credited to you - Vet the Prince’s girlfriend, Natalia, as a suitable mate for Vavrinec and report your findings to Harold - As the Head of the Wiltz delegation, get a favorable partition of Mages assigned to Wiltz - Investigate the history of the royal family and the reason behind their comparative lack of power in the Library - Marry and start a family with Vendelin without losing face as part of the royal family

Marcela 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Marcela (Jessie Lowell) / Character Sheet

- Be the best reporter in the country, again, beating out the schmucks from the other regions - Investigate the origins and structure of Magic in Liberec with Scholars - Find yourself an appropriate apprentice, making sure that it is a political alliance for the royal family if possible - Explore the ruins around Wiltz and see if you can find ancient information on the royal family - Increase the political power of the royal family at the expense of The Mages’ Council - Increase the political power of Mundanes Contacts - King Harold (William Lowenthal): Your half-brother, the King of Liberec, who supports you politically, financially, and in everything you do. - Drahomir (Daniel Kane): The reclusive second cousin of Harold - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The Prince of Liberec, your nephew, whose marriage you must make sure will improve the status of the royal family - Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger): The Prince’s current girlfriend, who is probably not an acceptable match (pity, she’s a sweet girl, but you must do what is best for the royal family’s long-term status) - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of the Bazaar and the man you want to marry - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The Head of Council who has enormous political power - Garomil (Telmo Correa): Last year’s Head of Council - Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky): The Ambassador from Kusel - Gabriel (Daniel Grazian): The Bodyguard and Attache to Nephilim - Dominik (Nathan Serrano): Police chief of Liberec.

Memory/Event Packets - ζ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Wiltz - Scholars - Explorers of the Ancient Past - Shields of the World

Greensheets - Negotiating the Distribution of Mages - Gain Legal Control of Locations - Reporting the News

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage

Items - Bronze Key (3836)- 550 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 5 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 7

Marcela 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Marek (Ben Lehnert) / Character Sheet

Marek

“One of my advisers will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.” – The Evil Overlord List “If the beautiful princess that I capture says ’I’ll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!’, I will say ’Oh well’ and kill her.” – The Evil Overlord List “It is not the clear-sighted who rule the world. Great achievements are accomplished in a blessed, warm fog.” – Joseph Condrad

Who cares about this world? It’s all inconsequential. The weather doesn’t matter, except as how it serves you, and all of the temporary pleasures only matter in how they help you wait, wait for the day when YOU WILL RULE THE WORLD. Of course, you don’t have enough power, yet. You may be a Mage on The Mages’ Council, but that is not enough. You have to share your power with the other sixteen members of the Council. You want to be single-handedly in charge. You grew up in Mons, away from mana, away from power, away from the world. It sucked. You really don’t want to go back, ever. Even the Catastrophe didn’t affect them much. Nothing affects them much. Nothing interesting ever happens there; barely even any true Liberecine weather patterns make it all the way out to the middle-of-nowhere Mons. At your Bazaar, you were approached by some cool guys in black robes. They told you that they were a secret society with exclusive membership, that you were invited if you continued in the magic track you were learning. That would have been awesome. You kept going on the magic track you were learning, gaining darker and darker powers1 as the Bazaar continued. Unfortu- nately, another Mage Candidate, Nikolai, was tagging along with you everywhere you went (he was such a geek, it was a mistake ever being nice to him, but he was so awkward you felt bad for the guy and he was pretty nice in general). Nikolai was learning the same types of magic that you were. Finally, finally you both reached level 5. It was glorious. YOU COULD CREATE BLACK HOLES IN MIDAIR, CONTROL WHAT THEY SUCKED INTO THEMSELVES. Glorious. Unfortunately, Nikolai freaked out upon learning this power. Unbeknownst to you, he ran straight to the current Head of Council and confessed everything he knew (luckily he didn’t know about your friends in the black robes). Before you knew it, The Mages’ Council had grabbed both you and Nikolai and brought you into the Council chambers for extensive questioning. The Council determined this was a type of magic never seen before; they termed it Void Magic. They thought it was something new (of course it wasn’t, the Mages in the black cloaks seemed to have known about it for generations). The Mages on the Council even granted Void Magic official status as a type of magic and a seat on the Council whenever you and Nikolai had finally reached your tenth year. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy was almost enough to do you in. With a new type of magic needing trained Mage Candidates, you and Nikolai both have had to train a Mage Candidate every year of being a Mage. In fact, you never got a proper appren- ticeship yourself, there being no preexisting official Void Mages at your Bazaar! It was so unfair. You did steal Nikolai’s favorite possession during the last Bazaar, the Bronze Sphere were he insists on practicing his experimental Void Magic, as revenge for his actions. It might be petty, but it doesn’t matter once the apocalypse happens. In fact, all of this prejudice against the ’scary scary Void Mages’ has prevented you from ever getting married, or even a relationship. This must end; it’s so unfair! In addition to all of the unfairness, all of the Mages on The Mages’ Council were scared of you. They forced you to sit out your Mageship in Oldenburg, where nothing of importance ever happens and no one of power ever cares about. You have

1The better to suck you into a ball of nothing with, my dear

Marek 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Marek (Ben Lehnert) / Character Sheet developed some attachments to Oldenburg during your stay, so you should help them out on principle (although of course it won’t matter once you bring on the apocalypse). Also, while at the Oldenburg, you found a Stone Crown (3721) in the edge of town. Unfortunately, it got misplaced while your belongings were being removed from the caravan at the start of the Bazaar. Being on The Mages’ Council this year, you should finagle yourself into a position of as much power as possible. It might actually come in handy that everyone is scared of the Void Mages, of what you can do. Being in a position of high respect and authority would be useful in your coming plans, but not critical. Also potentially useful might be the study or rewrite of history, hence you’ve joined up with both The Historian Guild and The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts. You’ve insinuated yourself in a group calling itself Society for Applied Manaology out of sheer curiosity as to what they were doing. You’ve discovered that they are building some batteries, just big enough to store mana enough to protect a very small area. . . or a person. You’ve always been curious what another Catastrophe would be like, here’s your chance. You have an absolutely brilliant plan. The mana storage device that Society for Applied Manaology want to build could be just enough to protect you through another Catastrophe, save up enough mana that even if the earth had no mana (you’ll get to that in a minute) that you could survive. Then, with just about everyone dead, you could rule the post-apocalyptic world unquestioned (you would, of course, take out any competitors). This, of course, works much better if as few people survive as possible, especially among strong Mages and the royal family. See? You’re not evil. You just want to be in charge. You’ve determined that big upsets in the mana cause the weather to do strange things (careful, this would be considered a blasphemous opinion by, say, the church). What bigger upset could possibly be caused than by draining all of the mana out of the world forever? (This has the bonus of, after the Catastrophe when you are in charge, there never having the potential for a big upset in the mana ever again, so your reign would be unhindered by the annoyance of the Liberec weather.) That is where Shields of the World comes in. They, like you, want to destroy all of the mana in Liberec. Sweet, just exactly what you need. They have the plans and the manpower, all that you need to do is make sure they all cause themselves (but not you) to burn, baby, burn (you know, in a wildfire or something). It’s too bad more people don’t appreciate your intensity. You had a little fling a few years back with a Mundane from Oldenburg named Dana, but you must’ve been too much man for her, ’cause she broke it off pretty quick. You were angry, but you didn’t waste your time taking it out on her. You’re going to be king of the world, after all. And when you’re there, you’ll have all the women you want. Goals - Destroy the world! - Protect yourself with one of the batteries from Society for Applied Manaology to survive the apocalypse. - Help the politicking for Oldenburg when you get bored. - Find your Stone Crown (3721). - Understand history with The Historian Guild, it might be useful to your goals. - Rewrite history with The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts in any way that is useful to you. - RULE THE WORLD AFTER THE APOCALYPSE AND GET ALL THE WOMEN. Contacts - Dana (Allison Schneider): A woman you had a fling with a few years ago. - Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov): The mage you discovered Void Magic with 10 years ago.

Marek 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Marek (Ben Lehnert) / Character Sheet

Memory/Event Packets - ω

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Shields of the World - Oldenburg - The Historian Guild - Society for Applied Manaology - The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Bronze Key (3836) - A Rusted Iron Sphere (1410) - 450 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Logic Ability: 5 - β: N/A - Theology Ability: 5

Marek 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Matilda (Susan Born) / Character Sheet

Matilda

“Pleasure is the only thing to live for. Nothing ages like happiness.” – Oscar Wilde “Get it into your head once and for all, my simple and very fainthearted fellow, that what fools call humanness is nothing but a weakness born of fear and egoism; that this chimerical virtue, enslaving only weak men, is unknown to those whose character is formed by stoicism, courage, and philosophy.” – Marquis de Sade

Life is good; indeed, it’s never been better. Not only for you, either—Mages all over Liberec are finding the times more luxurious than before. You’re getting better at stopping the storms of Port Vianden. It takes less effort for you each time, but the need of the Mundanes for you (and other Mages nationwide) doesn’t change. After your first year as a Mage, you had second thoughts on your career (not that you had much of a choice after your bazaar). It was hard work to learn to stop the storms, especially since the Fire Magic you’d been hired for wasn’t what you really knew. Whatever this magic you’d discovered was, it was close enough to Fire to get hired, and not picked out like those poor Void Mages, but it wasn’t Fire. Yours was a magic of sparks on a forge and lightning in the sky, an unknown magic. Unlike the unfortunate Fire Mages, you don’t have a problem with burning lover’s genitalia off, something Cyril certainly appreciates. That first year however, the stress of not being a Fire Mage kept you from Cyril for the longest period since you’d met and married at your second bazaar. (The first thing Cyril told you was that the established religion of Liberec was a lie. You didn’t really care—religion seem rather irrelevant to the affairs of men—but his investment in it was rather charming. Plus, his ‘god’ believed that it was a Mage’s right to rule mundanes, which you agree with.) Eventually you got better at faking Fire Magic, and regained confidence. You found again joy in life and in Cyril. Cyril, much relieved, humored your sudden requests for information from the library; communicating with some Mind Mage friend of his in the capital, he unwittingly found you evidence of previous ‘hapless’ Fire Mages who you suspect had known your magic; astonishingly, however, in the descriptions of Kusel’s great Pre-Catastrophe war machines you saw yourself, the sparks from your hands in their ancient descriptions of flaming swords. Once, your magic had done that. But you could never tell anyone. As the Void Mages had shown, their reaction would be born out of fear and would hurt both of you. The problem was the way other Mages (and especially the council) focused on such mundane (and Mundane) issues, when magic (and Mages) are so much more important. The luxury of Port Vianden never really rubbed you the right way. The Mages didn’t have to fight for the mana they needed, didn’t have to do anything but merely ask in order to get anything – and everything – that they wanted. This prompted you to join The Mana Preservation Society, a society interested in furthering awareness of the inherent limitations on mana use elsewhere in Liberec, a society designed to address those problems. Through the years of luxury in Port Vianden this nagged at you, and then (not long before the birth of your beautiful Symon) you realized what was needed. Liberec (the Mages of Liberec) needs to be captivated by a new movement, of personal and magical aesthetic, supporting the weird, the new, the self-experimental. This is what Liberec should be! A place where Mages explore the possibility of matter and magic, needed and supported by Mundanes. You’ve often thought that what matters in life is not the normal beauty or aesthetic pleasure, but the greatest height reached. And yet, at this Bazaar, all those old meaningless concerns are in the air again. You don’t understand why some Mages seem to want to alter the current power structure to give themselves less power. Obviously any action in that direction should be stopped, the foolishness of this pointed out, and a simple groundwork for Mage control of Mundanes laid out by the council. That status quo, of course, is not enough. With the Magitechnology group you have found, the Society for Applied Manaology,

Matilda 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Matilda (Susan Born) / Character Sheet others who have your magic, and with them you can create powerful new devices to further both the superiority and the aesthetic drive of Mages. Coming to the Bazaar this year, you fully intend to support Port Vianden in all of its liberal political aims, although you won’t be taking point in doing so. Interestingly, shortly after arrival, while you were discussing with a Mage from Wiltz about Symon’s missing rattle and the political climate for fighting the Mage Reproduction Laws1 when Symon found a shiny new toy, The Eye (4239). You wonder where it came from. Goals - Promote the cause of capitalism to further this life of luxury for the Mages. Convince The Mages’ Council to make rulings furthering capitalism and competition for the individual talents of the Mages of Liberec. - Keep your family happy, and your baby ignorant of suffering - Keep Mages in their current authority - Start an renaissance of aesthetic enlightenment for Mages. - Get the council to pass a bill enforcing Mage’s authority over Mundanes - Help Port Vianden ensure that it gets its fair share of Mages. - Make sure that The Mages’ Council passes laws that are friendly toward trading and Port Vianden’s business on the seas. - Prevent the world from ending Notes - You are firmly capitalist and should roleplay accordingly. - Your son is somewhat worshipped as the first Fire Mage baby ever, especially by Cyril. Be careful about this drawing undue attention to your unique situation. Contacts - Symon (Ian Born-Mathewson): Your baby boy. - Cyril (Charles Hope): Your husband.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #1752- φ

Bluesheets - Society for Applied Manaology - The Mana Preservation Society - Port Vianden - The Mages’ Council

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Level 3 Mage- Level 6 Mage

Items - The Eye (4239)- 450 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 24 - Research Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Engineering Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 6

1They clearly aren’t serving their intended purpose anyway, and they are far too restrictive of individual freedoms.

Matilda 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger) / Character Sheet

Natalia

“Oh! Isn’t this amazing? It’s my favorite because you’ll see. Here’s where she meets prince charming. But she won’t discover that it’s him till chapter three.” – Belle, Beauty and the Beast “Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable.” – Bruce Lee

It seems like every year, the stakes get higher. First there was the year long ago when Erica first went to the Bazaar, and it was a chance for your family to really make a step forward in all your lives. And then, almost shockingly (almost, except it was Erica, and when hasn’t she succeeded when she sank her teeth into something?) she actually got the apprenticeship with the Fire Mage Andrej. And, of course, last year the game changed yet again when Erica got elected to be this year’s Head of Council. It’s funny, in a way. All your life, it’s always been your big sister who was the mover, the shaker, the firebrand and the forward hope of the family. Since you were young, it was always reminders of the standard she left to live up to. You’re not surprised she’s as efficient as she is with The Mages’ Council; you’d almost have to assume something was dreadfully wrong with her if she weren’t. Which is one of the reasons that, last year, the stakes were as high as they were. Your Bazaar, your chance, maybe, to prove you could get out from your sister’s shadow. And then, when you should have been taking your big leap forward... nothing. Absolutely nothing. You thought home could be perfectionist hell before that Bazaar. It didn’t even begin to approach what you have had to live with this past year. You still aren’t sure if it’s the best or worst thing to happen to you that what magical talent you showed last year was in Fire magic. On the one hand, the last thing you’ve ever wanted was to be another little copy of your sister running around (Mana help you, you are not and never will be her, when will people understand that?) but on the other hand... You haven’t had much taste of it, not yet, but so far you love it. Fire magic is all the rush, all the joy, so much inherent warmth and strength and pure freedom you only imagined before. You’ve already sworn not to be hired by Erica, which is part of the reason you were so disappointed not to have made any progress at all last year. This year–especially with your talent in your beloved Fire magic–you’ve only got one shot at this. (Honestly, did you have to wind up with exactly the same kind of magic as your sister?) But you’ve got that shot and you’re going to take it. You’re going to prove that you can be a Fire Mage of Liberec in your own right, never mind your sister. Sure, maybe you won’t be Head of Council in ten years (but who knows what the future holds), but you’ll be able to help save Liberec in your own style. And, though your parents don’t actually realize it, you’ve already gotten started doing just that. Over the years of watching the Bazaar pass through Wiltz, you got to know some of the Mages. One of them was Nikolai, a year-mate of your sister’s, and whom you remembered particularly because he was one of the first pair of mages of a whole new type of magic. After some conversations with him–the poor man always had to find a new apprentice–you heard about his group, Mana Cartographers, trying to map the flow and ebb of mana in Liberec, and the idea fascinated you. It took some talking, but you made your way into the group, and have been working with them ever since. It helps that Erica is not part of the group to overshadow you. You’ve also heard of another group, Servants of the Great Mana who is trying to free the mana, so that everyone will enjoy bountiful amounts of it. Its a noble goal, and hopefully you can make a name for yourself by helping them. There’s another group which your sister definitely isn’t in: the group of Teenage Girls working to create a communications

Natalia 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger) / Character Sheet network with low-level mind magic. It’s a brilliant idea, really–great for making connections with other people and, plus, the prospect of having that kind of long-range communication is absolutely invaluable. You don’t usually go for gossip and hanging with the girls (especially not since they started nosing into your life even more, these last couple years) but this? This idea is worth it to see it through. You do plan on getting a little exercise in the political arena, doing what little you can for Wiltz’s aims. For one, you’ve heard at length how some of the other regions are systematically driving Liberec to Catastrophe-era politics, which is just anti- productive on so many levels. Plus, it’ll be some good practice for the future. However intensely you may want to argue, though, getting hired is your first priority–along with one other. That particular goal of yours isn’t even remotely on darling big sister’s agenda. The fertility problems of the Fire Mages are legendary; it is a primary goal of yours to fix that problem. You have high hopes of getting the participants in the First Annual Medical Conference to help you with the research. After all, everyone would love to see the Fire Mage lines continued. You have your own reasons. One, because you want to be a Fire Mage above all else, and you don’t want that to close off a life with children for you. And reason two... is tied to one, and tied to the one thing that makes you so totally different from the sister you hated having to look up to. Reason two for needing to fix the Fire Mage Infertility is tied into the events of three years ago, during the Bazaar when you were all of fourteen years old. You were making your way along the stalls, when you saw a younger girl wandering along, looking lost. You remember kneeling in front of her asking her gently if she’d misplaced her family (if nothing else, your sister could probably track them down). Her voice was a little small when she said she wasn’t supposed to run off from her brother, but she did, and– “Freda? Freda, are you there? Oh Mana help me, please be all righ– oh.” You didn’t notice it at the time–not that second, anyway. “Oh, she’s yours? She was saying she should find you,” you assured him as little Freda ran back to him and hid her face in his shirt. And then, because they both looked so awkward, so out of place (and, well, you could tell they were ranked, from their clothes) you offered to show them back to the main table of the Bazaar. They both looked so grateful to be back to familiar territory, and Freda ran to a woman–her back was turned, you couldn’t quite see who. But her brother lingered. “Thank you for your help,” he said rather reservedly. So you grinned. “No problem–I’ll be here all week,” you replied easily. “I’m Natalia, if you need any more help.” The next moment was the first you had, maybe, just a hint of an idea. It was the surprised, shy smile he gave you. “Vavrinec. I–” He glanced over his shoulder at the woman–and now you knew her face, even if you’d never met her. The king’s sister, Mana shield you. “I might see you.” With that he vanished, and while you tried to tell your heart to stop pounding from sheer shock, you also told yourself that was all it would ever be. But he found his way back the next day–without his sister, this time–and the day after that, and the day after that. Every day until the end of the Bazaar, though some days he didn’t have time to say anything more than a quick ’hello.’ But he did. And when the Bazaar was over, you were pretty sure this strange, unlooked-for friendship was just as over. So it surprised you–shocked would be closer–when you started accidentally running into the Prince of Liberec with almost alarming frequency. You even took a few days avoiding your usual haunts, not more than a week. Maybe two. And it was just the one time. And you told your friends that you had a lot of work at home helping your parents, too–it wasn’t as though you just disappeared into the air or anything. Still, it somehow surprised you when, after all of that, you finally made it back to your usual meeting spot and there he was–awkward, sheltered, a little nervous, and so astonishingly happy to see you. And he smiled, that smile of his that shouldn’t be as sweet as it is, and said with complete earnestness, “I was starting to get worried something might have happened. Is everything all right?” The fact that he meant it really is what did it for you–what made you realize just what you’d gotten yourself into this time. And this was the one thing you really hadn’t tried to do anything terribly world-view-shattering, this time.

Natalia 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger) / Character Sheet

And somehow, somewhere along the line, you started taking walks with the heir to the throne. Two years you spent getting to know each other. For once, this was something happening without the shadow of your sister– perennially single and uninterested, let alone anything with the royal family– and somehow it scared the crap out of you. But Vavrinec was always so sweet, intelligent behind the awkwardness from being locked up in that palace of theirs. And he meant well, too, wanted to do things right by the country whose rule he would nominally inherit one day. You aren’t terribly surprised, from what you’ve learned from him, that Harold turned over responsibility of representing them to his son, and you hope for his sake Vavrinec enjoys it. And then... last year. The year you thought the stakes were that high. You and he would have to get apprenticeships in the same Region, and you’d have to impress his family... and then, suddenly, he was off on that diplomatic mission to Kusel. You still have yet to get the straight of what all he saw there–sometimes he’s inconsistent, and it worries you a little, because he’s never been anything but relatively uncomplicated (rank aside)–but you do know something he seemingly has yet to realize. You’re aware, as most are not, that he was sent there to delay his Bazaar by a year. That the Royal Family is getting weaker in magic is a well-known fact; you don’t think he’s aware, yet, that it’s generally rumored that he is weaker even than is usual for them. You’ve seen it, a little, and you’re worried about him this year. And it’s been three years. You adore him, all his sweetness and intelligence and the occasional naivete, and you’re fairly certain he has some level of feelings for you. And now, finally, the Bazaar. This year, you get your apprenticeship–and you figure out how to both have your magic and your future family too. The last thing you want is to be forced to choose between your love of Liberec and protecting it against your love of the boy you’d do anything to make happy. He needs an heir, and you’ll see to it he gets that–without sacrificing your own Fire Magic on the way. And on the note of Vavrinec, you also have to go about ensuring his family–specifically, Marcela and, if he intervenes, Harold–know that you both can and will make a fitting partner and wife for the son of the Royal Family. Truth be told, you’ve been a little worried about him since he got back from Kusel. You’ve always wondered how he never heard what people say about the Royal Family’s declining magic, but you certainly aren’t about to bring it up to him. The last thing you want is to damage his ego. But now they can’t dodge it, and he’s a candidate, and you’ve been trying to hide your concern from him. But... he’s also been a little off, since getting back. He’s missed a few dates and been confused later about why he had–and often would go a little overboard trying to make up for it after the fact. It’s adorable (he usually is), but the strange inattention he’s been displaying is. . . odd. It’s nothing major, sure, but you wonder if he’s okay. You don’t think he’s. . . lost interest, or anything like that–he hasn’t said anything, and you’re sure he would. So maybe you are a little worried about where your relationship with him is going, and you never thought you’d be the kind of girl to do that. Over your future, over politics, sure, but over a guy? But then, you never really expected to fall in love like this, either. Especially not with him. You know there might be some out there who think you’re a social climber, or shallow, or power-hungry and dazzled. Honestly? You don’t really care. You want to make Liberec a better place. If you didn’t love Vavrinec, you would find some other way to do it. As it is, the whole challenge of loving him, being what he needs, makes it something different, exciting, daunting, alluring. . . And something entirely new, entirely you. You’ll solve problems no one else has thought to address yet, and you’ll get the man you love and the life you want for your trouble. And let Erica and her life of work try to beat that. Goals - Cure the Fertility problems of the Fire Mages with the help of First Annual Medical Conference - Impress Vavrinec’s family and show people you aren’t just his girlfriend, but that you can be your own person - Get hired as a Mage this year, preferably in the Wiltz or a region, where you can be close to Vavrinec - Make sure that The Mages’ Council doesn’t keep making Catastrophe-era decisions and laws.

Natalia 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger) / Character Sheet

- Help out Mana Cartographers with the mapping of the mana lines throughout Liberec. Its an intriguing idea, and it may shed light on the differences between regions of Liberec. - Help Teenage Girls with their attempts at making a way to communicate over long distances - Release the trapped mana by helping out Servants of the Great Mana, so that everyone can have an abundance of mana Contacts - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): Your sister, though you rarely speak. - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): Your steady boyfriend of several years–and, incidentally, the heir to the throne. - Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov): A void mage, and the one who introduced you to Mana Cartographers. - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The current king of Liberec. - Marcela (Jessie Lowell): Your bastard half-aunt, the long-time reporter for Wiltz and newly also Head of Region.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Mana Cartographers - Wiltz - First Annual Medical Conference - Servants of the Great Mana

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Level 1 Mage - Search word - Gossip with the Public - Search word

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Fixing Fire Mage Infertility (in-game notebook) - 150 liberyen - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: pendulum, dodge, - Age: 16 balance, vines, reach, color, cartwheel - α: 7 - Leadership Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 8 - Genetics Ability: 6

Natalia 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky) / Character Sheet

Ambassador Nephilim

“If a person has an eye in the front and in the back of his head he will remain wealthy for a thousand years.” – Ancient Proverb, Xiaolong

It’s going to be tough ruling the world. You see, having one person actually be in charge of it all and be known for it is incredibly stupid. How it should be is to have one person to be truly in charge, who makes sure it all stays together, and one person for everyone to focus their love and hate. These should not be (and in general, are not) the same person. You want to be in charge, but not Emperor, and you’ve set things in motion to make it so. You see, being Emperor is a very dangerous job. Other countries send assassins to kill the Emperor all the time. It’s only through the efforts of the Emperor’s secret police that the plots against the Emperor fail. You, thankfully, are not one of them. They tend not to live very long, as they often end up in very dangerous situations. You knew you were meant for greatness by the age of 10. Born to a small noble house in East Kusel as the third child, and the only daughter, you learned the nature of power very quickly. Previous to this, you were made fun of by your older siblings until you learned you to be better than them both physically and mentally. Eventually, you got your siblings to do the chores for you in return for a variety of favors and items they could not get elsewhere. If that didn’t work, a few unfortunate accidents often convinced them to go your way. They began to trust you more than your parents, who still considered you a perfect son. Quickly, you began to influence them, and had full control of the workings of the house at age 13. You transformed it into a smooth running machine with your parents as the face of the family, but you pulling the strings. Once you became old enough to be considered a true adult, you decided that you wanted more. So even against the admoni- tions of your parents, you made the ultimate sacrifice and left your family so you could play power games at Court. You quickly became someone whom the Emperor would consider a trusted advisor. Your first action as a trusted advisor was to acquire a spy in Liberec. You hid in a crate in a merchant’s ship for the entire long voyage across the ocean and spent a few years scouting around Liberec to find a suitable spy. Finally, you found the perfect candidate – Julius. He was a wimp, always picked on by the bigger and badder Liberec Mages, the stronger kids at school, and just about everyone who had ever known him. He’d never done anything requiring a spine or anything controversial in his entire life. Of course, you were nice to him. As soon as he recovered from the shock, he immediately signed on to being Kusel’s spy in Liberec, with none else the wiser as to the purpose of your visit. He should be a Council Mage this year, and as per your previous agreement, he will be granted asylum in Kusel as soon as he has finished this Bazaar. You kept in contact with Julius by means of Elyzha, Kusel’s most powerful Mind Mage. Unfortunately, for the past few months, Julius has disappeared from contact with Elyzha. You should find out what went wrong and retrieve the intelligence he was supposed to hand off at the end of this Bazaar. The Emperor is constantly busy dealing with pointless problems trying to keep Kusel intact. Between quelling storms (which are not as destructive as those in Liberec, or so you’ve heard), making laws, and trying to reinstate the education system, he was busy. For some reason, though, a lot of others wanted his spot as Emperor and he kept having to dodge assassination attempts. As mentioned before, you’d rather be the power behind the throne. Much much safer, and actually more satisfying. Speaking of the power on the throne, the Emperor disappeared some years ago. More than six, in fact. No one has seen him since. A few months after he disappeared, a ragged and nearly-starving beggar came to the capital city of Kusel claiming to be able to do Storm Magic and diplomacy and offering his services to the palace directly. He said his name was Gabriel. Well, if the Emperor feels it necessary to go under cover for a while and didn’t confide in you, that’s okay. You’ll just play

Ambassador Nephilim 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky) / Character Sheet along. Maybe you’ll even find out why he went under cover without telling you. In fact, you’re hoping that the Emperor will be officially returning soon. You are certain that finding The Eye (4239), a lost artifact of Kusel nobility, will help ease his homecoming. You have hired Danthony, a merchant from Port Vianden, to help find it. Meanwhile, you’re more or less in charge. More because you’re calling all the shots. Less because it is all behind the scenes. Things were going alright, considering the shoddy state of the country at the moment. Then a diplomatic mission from Liberec showed up, with the prince of Liberec, Vavrinec, on board. He saw the state of Kusel. Well, you didn’t want Liberec to go to war with Kusel just because it thought that it could get all kinds of information and goods from you. You made the decision that had to be made. You asked Elyzha, the most powerful Mind Mage in Kusel, to bind Vavrinec’s mind to her own, causing him to be loyal to Kusel and act in capacity as a spy. You were sorry to do it, but sorry doesn’t run a country. If you can take control of Liberec while you’re here, all the better. Goals - Secure a favorable peace settlement from Liberec - Encourage The Mages’ Council to pass laws favorable to Kusel, such as increased competition in trading - Learn secrets of magic from Liberec - Figure out what happened with the Emperor of Kusel and why he is in hiding in disguise - Find out what happened to Julius and retrieve any intelligence information Contacts - Elyzha (Sally Guthrie): A strong Mind Mage back in Kusel responsible for keeping Vavrinec a spy for Kusel and not spilling state secrets - Gabriel (Daniel Grazian): Your attache and bodyguard - Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer): The prince of Liberec, who is acting as a spy for Kusel - Julius (Mark Mascaro): A longtime spy for Kusel - King Harold (William Lowenthal): The King of Liberec - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The Head of The Mages’ Council, which appears to be effectively the ruling body in Liberec - Danthony (Kaleb Ayalew): A merchant who should be finding The Eye (4239) for you

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Kusel

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521)- 1,650 liberyen

Ambassador Nephilim 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Ambassador Nephilim (Mika Braginsky) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 36 - Leadership Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Logic Ability: 3 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 4

Ambassador Nephilim 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov) / Character Sheet

Nikolai

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” – Thomas Edison

There are days you wish you’d been born a Mundane. It sure would’ve made your life less hectic. Juggling ten apprentices over the past ten years, attempting to wield a form of magic in which no official instruction has ever been available, designing measuring devices on the side to try to understand the sources of Liberec’s deep-set magical issues . . . you’ve barely a free minute in your days. Your future seemed so bright at your Bazaar, ten years ago. Magic was fascinating. You had no idea how it worked, but you were eager to figure it out, and you jumped into the magic-learning shadowruns with more vigor than almost any other teenager that year. You quickly made friends with Marek, and rejoiced in finally knowing someone so similar to yourself: intense, motivated, and smart. The two of you began going on your shadowruns together, with Marek choosing which ones to do. You were happy to take his lead, since he knew more about magic than you at the time, and you progressed through the first couple of levels of spells with no problems. All this time, you’d not really had any idea what type of magic you were learning. Most people get started on their paths by an established Mage, and are likely to develop a similar type of magic to that person, but Marek was (you believed) as confused as you were. Your attempt at the third level of spell in this unknown type of magic was deeply unsettling. It wasn’t so bad at first. The spell created a tiny black sphere of nothingness, about ten feet in front of you, that pulsated in the most fascinating manner. But as you began to move forward to investigate it, you noticed that the grass on the ground was being tilted wildly towards the sphere, a few loose pieces flying into it and disappearing. Even the fabric on your shirt seemed desperate to escape your torso and find its way to that little black ball. Not knowing what to do, you prepared to call off the spell . . . and a large flying squirrel bounded between two branches above the clearing where you were practicing. The additional gravity of your creation misdirected its flight path, the poor thing, and it fell to the ground—as the little black ball sucked up the formerly lively squirrel with no more sound than a muffled squeal. What was this creation, this void? Where did it take things? What happened to that squirrel, and what would’ve happened to you or Marek if you’d gotten any closer? It matched no known form of magic, and that alone made it dangerous. The fact that you suspected a sufficiently large invocation of it could take out an entire city . . . well, some things are just not meant to be meddled with. Marek was his usual unflappable self, mildly excited at your success, and you didn’t want to appear a wimp in front of him. But the first chance you got, you went to The Mages’ Council with your discovery. (And squirrels have made you supremely uncomfortable ever since.) The Head of Council had no more idea about this magic than you, which was frightening, but he didn’t object to your having discovered it. In fact, he hired you on the spot. When you mentioned that Marek had really done most of the discovery legwork, he hired him too, sight unseen. Marek was extremely put out with you over this for a while (you’ve no idea why and he never told you), but you did a reasonable job of mending fences before you went your separate ways at the end of that Bazaar. The type of magic you and Marek had discovered became known as Void Magic, and as the first Void Mages, you had a much more difficult time of your Mageship than you would have in any other branch of magic. Since no one else had studied Void Magic, you had no one to apprentice to. Since the Council wanted to quickly increase its foothold in this new field before it could be misdirected for evil ends, both you and Marek were required to take on an apprentice during every year of your Mageship, even the second year when you barely knew more than apprentices yourselves. Your inquisitive curiosity and inventive mind served you well, and within a few years you’d developed means of using the Void to suck up weather patterns without damaging the cities they menaced. That was as much as society expected of you, but thus primed, you were unwilling to put down your research and experimentation. You also constructed a device, the Void

Nikolai 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov) / Character Sheet

Sphere, that would help prevent objects from falling into your voids while performing magic. You wanted to learn more about the practicalities of how magic worked in Liberec, using this Void Magic (now obviously to you the magic of manipulating magic) as your guide. And, in between tutoring yet another apprentice in basic and advanced storm defense, you did. Every Mage learns during his earliest training that available mana varies greatly with location. In order to understand the flow of mana through Liberec, you would need to measure exactly what shape this variation takes. For almost two years, you worked on your masterpiece: a mana gauge. Placed in any location, it would instantly and accurately give a reading of the amount of natural mana available in that location. Your design complete, you spent another six months producing enough of the devices to distribute to recruited data-gatherers at the Bazaar, tuned to collect the different types of readings you were able to elicit in your home of Wendel. Unfortunately, interest was low, and most of the interested people wouldn’t be coming back to the Bazaar next year, or had no plans to leave Wiltz in the meantime. The scientific mindset is sadly compromised by everyone’s constant fears about how the weather will affect them now. Making matters worse, you misplaced your Void Sphere while you were going around trying to convince people to help you. Luckily for you, though, you did find one eager (some might say desperate) partner: Zdenko. With a large monetary incentive promised from your Mageship coffers, he mobilized his friends to train the ragtag postal service in the use of your devices. It might take a month for a letter to get to its destination, but when you have all year, that’s no problem. He got readings from two of the device types all around the country this way, and you supplemented them by taking readings from the other three at various places in Wendel. With the data in hand, this year you’re determined to analyze it; it’s a large, somewhat tedious job and your Councilship will keep you busy, so you’ve recruited a team of eager Mana Cartographers. They’ll attempt to determine from this data where the mana lines are in Liberec. (Mana lines are nigh-infinitely potent strings of mana charge that induce progressively lower- strength mana fields at progressively further distances. The closer you are to a line, the more mana you can command. It’s simply fascinating.) You should spearhead the work, of course; it’s your project, and you’re the most likely one to be able to understand the results. As important as this project is, though, you’ve never lost your taste for exploring new fields. The Bazaar is an excellent time to study some of the collected wisdom in Wiltz’s Library, or simply be swept up in the excitement of learning about a new field that someone mentioned offhandedly to you. You’re on The Mages’ Council this year, which makes it even better; you can rally support for measures that would make the cool ideas you hear about likely to actually happen, and try to increase funding for scientific research in general. You also found a set of notes written in an ancient language buried in the woods near Wendel that might be an interesting read if only you could decrypt them. Finally, your observational skills built up over the course of many years have given you an uncanny knack at Investigation and Crimes. You would prefer never to need to use this skill, of course, but there is bound to be trouble of some sort at an event as large as the Bazaar, and you feel duty-bound to trace it to its source as best as you are able. Your research might save many lives a long way down the road, but apprehending a criminal will save lives right now, and there’s no doubt in your mind as to which is more important. You will more-or-less happily put aside your research to investigate crimes. Even more essential, though, is not getting preemptively offed by one of these criminals because they perceive you as a threat. So you should make your investigations quietly, and report the results through the Wiltz Chief of Police, Dominik, when at all possible. This could be the year that finally sees a turnaround in Liberec’s understanding of the weather it’s grappled with for so long. With a little persuasion and a lot of hard work, you will be the one who makes it so. Goals - Lead the charge in mapping mana with Mana Cartographers. - Help The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization determine how differences in mana use lead to Liberec’s fierce storms. - Research anything mana-related that looks interesting.

Nikolai 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov) / Character Sheet

- Encourage The Mages’ Council to support more scientific research so that Liberec can determine the true cause of its problems. - Keep on top of crimes during the Bazaar and investigate them as best you are able. - Try to find the Void Sphere. - Stay away from squirrels. Notes - You have an insatiable curiosity, and will quite happily put aside a current project for a while in order to investigate something new and exciting. - You treat Void Magic somewhat like hydrofluoric acid: while highly dangerous, it can be an incredibly useful tool of scientific discovery in the right hands, and it’s certainly not evil. Contacts - Marek (Ben Lehnert): The long-lost friend and fellow Void Mage from your Bazaar ten years ago, who will be at the Bazaar again this year for his term on The Mages’ Council. - Zdenko (Carter Huffman): The dedicated teenager who helped provide the Mana Cartographers with an enormous amount of reliable data. - Sabina (Fangfei Shen): Your wife, a Storm Mage, and the leader of The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization. - Dominik (Nathan Serrano): The official Chief of Police of Wiltz. He may be a bit bumbling, but he’s much better at protecting himself from vengeful criminals than you are. - Klement (Daniel Gray): A Mundane from Mons, also on Mana Cartographers. - Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger): A Mage Candidate from Wiltz, also on Mana Cartographers.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #1410- ω

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization - Wendel - Mana Cartographers

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Teaching- Level 6 Mage

Items - A thick notebook written in a strange language (3832) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - Bronze Key (3836) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - 500 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Manaology Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Engineering Ability: 5 - β: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 6

Nikolai 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Otakar (Erik Chen) / Character Sheet

Otakar

“[She] had hated this man; yet her hate had been but a parasite growth on a nobler stem, with no abiding roots of its own. It withered under his words, and lo, there was the old love, fair and strong and beautiful as ever.” – Lucy Maud Montgomery “You know how easily and suddenly these things happen, beginning in playful teasing and ending in something a little warmer than friendship. You squeeze the slender arm which is passed through yours, you venture to take the little gloved hand, you say good night at absurd length in the shadow of the door. It is innocent and very interesting, love trying his wings in a first little flutter.” – Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed. Some days it does. The rest of the time, well, you realize that those two aren’t mutually exclusive. You see, there is this girl1. Lucia. Her golden ringlets surround her face like a halo. She’s gorgeous and sweet and all you ever wanted. No, really wanted. She is also a mean and heartless bitch who hates your guts and takes every possible opportunity to take any casual word you have spoken in her presence and turn it against you, mock you with it. It just goes to prove how much she cares. She is magnificently cruel. Beautifully cruel. Wonderfully cruel. You want more. It isn’t like she acts this way towards everyone. She hates you, in particular. Despises you. And so help you, you love how she loathes you. You hate her, too, in your way, even though you do wonder what wonders would be if she didn’t hate you. Why do you hate her? Easy. She’s a lover of mana. Mana, that goop that sticks up the gears of the world. Mana, that stuff that calls down the storms from the heavens. Mana, the corrupter of mankind. Mana, that which ruins the entire world. Lucia, that beautiful darling idiot-bitch, worships even the smallest quantity of the polluting crap. You met her three years ago when she visited Port Vianden. You’ve been in love ever since. She’s been in hate ever since (but it must be merely disguised love, you are certain). Once, when you tried to change her mind about the mana, she sucker-punched you, kneed your groin, spit in your face, and ran away, leaving you for dead in ground zero for a major earthquake. She wouldn’t do something like that if it wasn’t for a deep-set concern for your state of being, true love hidden and masked by hate. It was bliss, knowing how much she cared. You’ve hated mana for all of your life. It’s sort of a family obsession, ridding the world of the plague of mana. Generations ago, your ancestor discovered a correlation between large amounts of mana in Liberec and consistently severely apocalyptic weather. This same apocalyptic weather seems to have a particular grudge against your family. No one in your family lives to see the end of their Mageship. You all would be one of the foremost Mage families in Liberec, if it weren’t for the damned ’dying’ issue. You aren’t exaggerating about the Entropy Curse, as your family calls it. Since your family so aggressively creates order from chaos, quelling severe weather patterns and (in their free time) blahblahblah, generation after generation, entropy feels the need to exert itself against your family once every few years. Uncle Yue had an earthquake open directly under where he was standing with no warning. Cousin Weira had a single bear stampede directly at her from out of the underbrush ten feet away; it wouldn’t have even had enough momentum to do severe damage if it hadn’t been for the extremely unfortunate circumstance that the bear’s extended claws had landed directly in her windpipe. Second-cousin Tut was seduced into the wilderness by a rogue mindwhisper (not even strong enough to be considered a mindstorm); once in the wilderness, a different mindwhisper brought someone inclined to violence into the same clearing who loosed an Animal Magic spell to calm a wild attacking animal; this spell

1There’s always a girl.

Otakar 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Otakar (Erik Chen) / Character Sheet went slightly awry and lulled Tut into a fatal coma. Does the weather go out of its way to kill members of your family or what? You’re really annoyed by now at the generations and generations of your family keep getting hurt and killed. And the mana of Liberec is all to blame for it. You hate it! You hate it so much! You hate it with every fiber of your being! (No matter how much Lucia loves the accursed stuff.) You will drain the world of mana in order to stop yourself and your family from dying! You’ve found the perfect people to help you do this, Shields of the World. They all hate mana and want to destroy the loathsome substance as much as you do. Perfect. Your chances of ending this Entropy Curse, destroying all mana, and living your life without fear, have never been better. In fact, you don’t just want to complete the ritual for Shields of the World. The ritual will only control and stop the flow of mana into the world from elsewhere. It will do nothing to get rid of already existing mana. You will have to do that yourself. And where better to send all that annoying mana than into the void, where it will never hurt anyone ever again? You’ll need to become a high-level Void Mage during the Bazaar before the ritual to drain the world of mana, in order to end the ritual with your own special variation - 6 immediate castings of the highest obtainable level Void spell, Oblivion as part of the last step of the ritual, to send the still-existing = mana into the void from all over Liberec. The world will lose all mana, immediately. Then everything will be okay. Well, the world imminently losing all of its mana or not, you still need to go to your Bazaar and get hired as a Mage. It is your duty. And, just in case the weather remains, you’ve joined Wiltz Realtors Incorporated in order to clear out areas where the weather has never hit. If you could clear out safe areas to live, you’ll have a home where you won’t have to worry about the weather. You’ll just need to ensure it goes under your name. In the likely case that you don’t end up in Wiltz, you can always sell off the land and clear the ruins near wherever you end up, and live there. You’ll also need to do your duty to your home region, Port Vianden, and aid it in its goals, during the Bazaar. You’re not alone in coming from Port Vianden, either. Your best friend since childhood, Emil, is also at the Bazaar this year. He was always a little strange–spouting bizarre ideas about order and chaos, about people guiding things... it’s all kind of bizarre, really, but you’re very certain that at least he isn’t one of those damn Mana-worshipping idiots. He’s been your best friend for years, for just that reason, in fact. Plus, he’s pretty handy with inventions and such. Sure, he’s never been the athelete you are, but his knack for coming up with nifty plans might turn out to be handy for all the combat and Mageball you’ll be doing, and you are all set to help him build them. (Not to mention he can help you with your grand plans.) All of the Teenage Boys will be competing during the Bazaar. You should win these competitions! In addition, to the respect garnered from your peers, Lucia might be impressed by your newfound high standing in respect or jealous after seeing you with other girls. To this end, you’ve been practicing Mageball with some other boys at the Bazaar this year, The Bronze Pandas. You’ve heard rumours that professional Mageball teams take this oppourtunity to scout out prospective players; if this is true, then you should try to be the best player on the team. Spending your magic-using years traveling with a Mageball team would give you more time for research. Goals - Destroy all mana - Win the love, as well as the hate, of the beautiful Lucia - Save the world, your family, and your life by removing the curse of mana - Clear out areas of land which have stable weather with the help of Wiltz Realtors Incorporated in order to have a place to live just in case.

Otakar 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Otakar (Erik Chen) / Character Sheet

- Play sports and be cool with The Bronze Pandas - Win the Teenage Boys plot - Aid your region, Port Vianden, with their needs Contacts - Lucia (Ami Greene): Your beautiful treacherous wonderful idiot-bitch of a love - Emil (Eli Stickgold): A good friend of yours, even if he is kind of strange sometimes

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Port Vianden - The Bronze Pandas - Wiltz Realtors Incorporated - Shields of the World

Greensheets - Mageball - Demolishing and Preparing an Area for Construction Work - Gain Legal Control of Locations - Organizing an Artifact Exhibition

Abilities - Gossip with the Public

Items - 150 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: cartwheel, angry bear, - Age: 15 quiet, stream, sleepy, heavy, reach - α: 4 - Research Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Lore Ability: 5 - Philosophy Ability: 4

Otakar 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Pavel (Adam Yedidia) / Character Sheet

Pavel

“Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself.” – Sign in The Prisoner “When the sides facing each other suddenly realize that they’re looking into a mirror, they will see that ‘this’ is the pattern for the future.” – Number Two, The Prisoner

Sheep, the lot of them. It’s so annoying to be dealing with them, day in and day out, carefully guiding their actions so as to preserve their loyalty to Oldenburg. And, of course, you. But the results are sweet, and so you persevere. You are the leader of Oldenburg; mayor, officially, but more of a dictator in practice. You were born in Saar to an abusive family that did an excellent job teaching you that the “personal freedom” you heard so much about in school was meant for them, not you. They were masters of manipulation, doublespeak, and forced loyalty uncharacteristic of the society they lived in. Of course, they were eventually arrested . . . but not before you’d learned plenty of their craft by observation. You apprenticed to a Mind Mage in Oldenburg, and even before your training was complete you realized it would be the perfect place to put your knowledge into practice. Your childhood proved to you that everyone’s true goal is the exploitation of his fellows, and the master of this universal art is the one who can convince his exploitees to love him all the more for it. The Village of Oldenburg was already so twisted by adherents to similar philosophies before you arrived that you had no trouble at all shaping it into the perfect realization of your truth. You master manipulator, you. You see, the Village gives everyone what they think they want. Food, water, a roof over their heads, games and meaningless pursuits to keep them occupied, plenty of fellow sheeple to make their lives seem interesting. They can even conspire all they want to evils that don’t harm the Village itself. But you’re always watching. As soon as they try to leave Oldenburg, or seize power, or do anything else untoward . . . there you are, arresting them on trumped-up charges, throwing them in prison or executing them with a righteous anger that makes the whole populace feel safer. It’s a lovely little system. No one who’s left would dare defy the Village that cares for them so well. They don’t even know what they’re missing. And the various petty criminals and megalomaniacs around, none of whose existence harms Oldenburg directly, help keep everyone just fearful enough that they desperately rely on that care. The structure of Oldenburg’s society, then, is just about perfect for you. You’re on top of the only hierarchy in life that matters: those who can exercise power above those who can’t. For that to be really rewarding, though, you need people to exercise power over . . . Oldenburg has plenty of Mundanes, but they’re boring. You’ve been having a tiny little problem recently with getting Mages into your region; specifically, none of them are being born, or have been for over twenty-five years. Foul play is obvious, of course, but whose you have no idea . . . best keep an eye out, if they’re clever enough to hide from even you! It’s such an entertaining power dynamic to watch. Who cares that the Mage children are in all likelihood being born and killed? It’s not as if you’re ever failing to hold back the weather with the number of Mages you get. You receive so much more from Liberec than you’ve ever given to it . . . maybe you can return the favor by running the whole country someday. Eheheheheheh, wouldn’t that be lovely. In the mean time, you’ll extol the virtues of Village life to any Mage Candidate willing to listen. Wouldn’t it be great for as many of them as possible to apprentice themselves to the other Mages in your delegation? You may even want to take your own apprentice, of a sort; you can’t officially teach them magic, but there are plenty of more important things. You’d want someone more nuanced . . . someone who understands the subtleties of how power is to be used . . . yes, someone to carry on your legacy once your gone. And you’d want them now, so you’re not forced to split your attention when you’re teaching some Mage Candidate your Mind Magic next year. Oh, that would be a glorious history indeed! It just wouldn’t do for the Village to fall out of the state of sheeplification it’s been in for as long as anyone reasonable can remember.

Pavel 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Pavel (Adam Yedidia) / Character Sheet

While you’re not keeping an iron hand on the population, you enjoy exploring the local area, trying to figure out if you can use any of it to your advantage. Recently you came across a system of caves that opens near the coastline; you walked in, traveling deeper and deeper and deeper. You had told no one where you were going, but as a Mind Mage, you knew you could call for help in the extremely unlikely event that you actually needed it. You were just about to turn back and give up on the whole thing as miles of elaborate pointlessness, when you saw the device. It was mechanical and, to your mind, clearly malevolent; well beyond Liberecine technological capacity yet still quite primitive-looking. At the height of its power, it had surely done something stupendous, but as one would expect with the weather in these parts, earthquakes had long since broken it to pieces. You were unwilling to get close enough to tell for sure, but it looked like some of the pieces might still be moving . . . In any event, you took with you some Intricate mechanical detritus (3923) that you found some distance from the machine. Maybe you can find someone who knows what it is, and derive an understanding of this mysterious contraption so well poised to threaten your precious Village. In testament to your mastery of the manipulator’s craft, you are well-known throughout Liberec as a reasonable and just fellow with a good head on his shoulders, and you are a favored candidate to be Head of The Mages’ Council next year. This would be a simply wonderful position from which to agitate for changes that would appear to benefit all of Libere but actually benefit primarily Oldenburg, and particularly your position of power over it. You’d get enough insight into the workings of the Council to hopefully exert more than the usual control over them, too. For your bid to be successful, though, Liberec must not lose its delusions of your honesty. See to it that anyone speaking against you is dealt with appropriately. You’ve also been associating with some Isolationists who hold that Port Vianden is the source of all evil in Liberec. They plan to reshape the flow of mana to attract particularly many horrible storms to Port Vianden, effectively wiping the thrice-damned region off the face of the continent. You know better than to take such a simplistic outlook, of course, but losing Liberec’s link to the outside world would suit you just fine; leading Oldenburg has shown you how docile a population can be when it knows not what it could get from realms outside its leader’s control. If you hope to one day control all of Liberec, you’ll have to support measures like these that will make your power base more pliable. Finally, you’ve taken up membership with The Historian Guild and Explorers of the Ancient Past. Following your philosophy that knowledge of the past will help you exploit people ever more ably in the future, you’d like to elucidate murky periods in Liberec’s history, particularly those before the Catastrophe, and especially anything that might shed some light on the origins or purposes of your Intricate mechanical detritus (3923). You’ll also be able to explore those ruins and see if you can discover their secrets with the Explorers of the Ancient Past. You’ve no love for history as more than a means to an end, but interacting professionally with the other historians may well be repaid in learning the information you seek. Goals - Maintain your stranglehold on your Village by disciplining any member of the Oldenburg delegation who expresses unortho- dox anti-Village views - Determine the origin and purpose of the mechanical device of which your Intricate mechanical detritus (3923) is a part - Investigate who might be responsible for Oldenburg’s complete lack of Mage children in the past generation - Find an apprentice who understands (or can be made to understand) the proper disposition of power - Convince the rest of Liberec that you will be the best candidate for Head of Council, and get elected to such - Help the Isolationists destroy Port Vianden - Work with the Explorers of the Ancient Past to discover the secrets of the ancient ruins throughout Liberec. - Work with The Historian Guild to find out information you can take advantage of from Liberec’s past Notes - You love discoursing on your leadership philosophy to anyone whom you believe won’t take it the wrong way. - You don’t really care about anything that doesn’t affect your ability to gain or maintain power.

Pavel 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Pavel (Adam Yedidia) / Character Sheet

Contacts - Marek (Ben Lehnert): A Void Mage. - Klara (Jason Gonsalves): A Healing Mage and the head of the Oldenburg delegation. - Garomil (Telmo Correa): A Storm Mage, the previous head of the Mages’ Council. - Dana (Allison Schneider): A Mundane dealer in lost items. - Tarsia (Sukrit Ranjan): A Mundane midwife and healer, the best in the region.

Memory/Event Packets - ψ

Bluesheets - Oldenburg - Explorers of the Ancient Past - Isolationists - The Mages’ Council - The Historian Guild

Greensheets - Gain Legal Control of Locations

Abilities - Level 6 Mage

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - 550 liberyen - Intricate mechanical detritus (3923)

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 24 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Psychology Ability: 8 - β: N/A - Genetics Ability: 5

Pavel 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Petauris (Paul Baranay) / Character Sheet

Petauris

“You see, John, back a million years ago, there were forces prowling around the galaxy beyond anything that we could understand. And, like anything else, most of them outgrew this little corner of the universe, and headed off toward greener pastures. Now, two of them stayed behind, shepherds, you might call them. They wanted to look after the younger races, bring them around, help them evolve into something better. . . It’s really simple. You bring two sides together, they fight, a lot of them die. But those who survive are stronger, smarter, better.” – Z’ha’dum, Babylon 5

The key to success at life, as a species, comes through competition. Through variation. Through evolution. The Liberecines, the stupid Liberecines who stole your land, do not understand that. Perhaps you’ll be able to simultaneously teach them the path, encourage their competitive and chaotic instincts. Then maybe they’ll start fighting more amongst themselves and leave you the perfect opening to take back the lands that are rightfully yours. Jumeraye is a society of the animals on this island. It is a society devoted to conflict and progress, and has always been led by the squirrels. You own the land to the ‘unexplored’ north of Liberec, but you used to roam free across the entire continent. It’s been many cycles since you first became the leader of the Jumerayeans. In that time, you’ve been quite successful in the advancement of the Jumerayean plan. Since the deployment of the Jumerayean device beneath Oldenburg, and the large retreat of the Jumerayeans, you have all been preparing for a resurgence. Recently, you even succeeded in a critical modification to the device that has caused the humans to take initiative and act on those persistent little ideas in their heads. As a leader, you’ve accomplished much for the Jumerayean empire. You hope, with all the activity this year, to be able to complete the Chaos device under Oldenburg soon. Sadly, you are still missing many critical components for it. But hopefully, through the sleeper agents and Animal Mages in the Bazaar this year, you will be able to acquire some of the things you need. Most important is a piece of the device which was stolen earlier this month. Ironically, it was stolen before, about twenty years back. Maybe, by keeping an ear out at this Bazaar, you can recover the piece. Even the older piece stolen decades ago would be useful. Even though it is inefficient, and would require twice as many resources to use, it would still be a step forward. Luckily, with your animal spies and human agents, you’ve become in tune with the gossip around Wiltz. Every day, new news flows from Wiltz to your minions. In order to fix the device you need the following in addition to the Intricate mechanical detritus (3923). If instead, you recover Rusted mechanical detritus (3924), you will need twice as much of the following: - 10 Stone (4515) - 2 Gold Ore (4517) - 2 Mana Wire (4623) - 4 Mountain Mahogany (7883) - 2 Sorrel Wood (7002) - 2 Stillengia (7365) - 2 Toadstool (7282) - 2 Mulberry (7635) - 2 Paper Birch Bark (6580) - 2 Edelweiss (7329) - 2 Damiana (7912) - 2 Cloth of Gold (7924) - 2 Gofer Dust (1608) - 1 Pennyroyal (7689)

Petauris 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Petauris (Paul Baranay) / Character Sheet

- 1 Kava-Kave (7???) - 3 Metal Ore (4501) - 1 Piece of Glass (4511) - 1 Mana Stone (4550) In addition to trying to repair the Chaos device, you should try escalating the tension throughout Liberec. This year, diplomats from the country of Kusel, old allies from many centuries ago, have come to visit the Bazaar. It may be possible to renew your alliances and strike at Liberec, or else use your influence to escalate the rumoured conflict between the two countries. It is time for the Jumerayeans to take their homes back from the human invaders. At the very least, it would be a good idea to increase the number of Animal Mages throughout Liberec. During this Bazaar, you should try convincing as many teenagers as possible that they should really consider becoming an Animal Mage. Being an Animal Mage is one step closer to being on the side of the Jumerayeans. In addition, you’ve heard talk of a group of people called The Shadow Watchers. They seem to be intent on bringing order to this chaotic universe. They are also responsible for the theft of pieces of the Chaos Device some generations ago. Maybe if you can reveal this organization to the public for the villains they are, you can destroy their structure. In order to accomplish these tasks, you should coordinate with the Raina, your sleeper agent in the Bazaar. Until recently, you’ve contacted her by invading her dreams, or by influencing her actions then making her believe it was all a vision. But recently you gave her the command to contact you through your corrupt Animal Mages in order to more directly steer her towards the path. She still isn’t completely aware of the machinations of the Jumerayean empire, and you don’t know whether she is trustworthy enough. A budding Animal Mage has started contacting your animals with his reports about the Bazaar. His name is Kondrad. You should milk him for all he is worth, but be careful – as much as he likes the animals, you have no direct sway over him. With the willing or unwilling help of Raina, you should hopefully be able to accomplish these goals soon. It’s time for the Jumerayean empire to rise. And speaking of your empire . . . it’s not likely to be much use, but you’d really like to find out what happened with your previous leader. She disappeared while exploring Wiltz exactly 10 years ago. There is a slim chance that maybe, your agents in Wiltz will be able to determine what happened to her those many years ago. Goals - Gather the resources you need in order to repair the Machine under Oldenburg - Cause unrest and chaos across Liberec - Encourage the teenagers to become Animal Mages - Ensure that The Shadow Watchers don’t cause problems for the Jumerayeans - Find out what happened to your mother, the previous leader of the Jumerayeans. (Like you, she is a large flying squirrel.) Notes - Since you are a remote part, you may mechanic sending and receiving messages through your corrupted Animal Mages to people at the Bazaar by using emails. Make sure to let those you contact know that this is in-game communication, received through an NPC Animal Mage, and that he will deliver any replies to you. (Also, please CC ador-gms for our entertainment.) You may not communicate via phone. - You are too far from Wiltz to go there. You allow your sleeper agents and corrupted Animal Mages to deal with the physical things, and you communicate with others through them. - You should tell anyone you have collect resources on your behalf to drop them in your folder in the Box Room. This represents giving them to an NPC Animal Mage you have corrupted, who will get animals across Liberec to deliver the resources to you.

Petauris 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Petauris (Paul Baranay) / Character Sheet

Contacts - Raina (Piper Hunt): A sleeper agent for the Jumerayean empire. - Kondrad (Enrique Cintron): A teenager with a talent for Animal Magic, who has been reporting about his activities at the Bazaar to your agents.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - none

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip- Gossip with the Public

Items - Chaos Drugs Recipe Book (in-game document)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: ??? - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Psychology Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 2

Petauris 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Petr (Ken Clary) / Character Sheet

Petr

“America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” – Abraham Lincoln

The time that you’ve spent living at Wendel has been horrible. Luckily, your friends, Vera and Terenza, have made life bearable. However, you still are set in leaving Wendel. You’ve heard that Saar is a place where people are welcome to live life as they wish. Luckily, this year could be the last that you would have to spend in Wendel. This was the year that you would be old enough to be a Mage Candidate and to head to the Bazaar. Another reason that you want to leave Wendel, is that the people of Wendel openly hate and prosecute anyone who goes against nature. This is a problem for you, because you are secretly gay. You discovered this, when you first discovered you had feelings for your fellow team mates and their muscly bodies. As one of the top sports players in Wendel, you are also the team leader of The Bronze Pandas at the Bazaar. With that, you set out with the Wendel caravan and began the journey to the Wiltz. When you first arrived at the Bazaar, your eye immediately caught sight of Theodore, another Mage Candidate from the Wiltz. From the rumors that you have heard, he is openly gay. Looking at him, and his muscular body, you wish that he would fall in love with you. However, you don’t think you have very good chances. Maybe, during this week you can gain his affections. While looking at Theodore, you felt a pebble under your foot. When you moved your foot you realized that it was a Glass Teardrop (4437). It looked quite beautiful, and you picked it up and put it in your pocket. Also, since you are here at the Bazaar, you’d like to get people to support Same-Sex marriage and get it passed through as law. However, as Same-sex relationships are deeply hated at Wendel, you cannot let others find out your true feelings until it becomes legalized. Also while here, you’ve heard about the Teenage Boys attempts to get more political power for younger generations. You want to try to blend in, and will help out as much as you can in order to not stick out. Also, due to your prowess in sports, you have been made the team captain of The Bronze Pandas. You should try recruiting more people into The Bronze Pandas so that you will be the best group at the Bazaar. Also, at this Bazaar, you, as a Mage Candidate, would like to become apprenticed and leave Wendel permanently. If you could become an apprentice to one of the Mages from Saar, you would have a life without the restrictions and rigor of Wendel. Once, when you were fed up with life in Wendel, you ran out and spent a day in the wilds and ruins around Wendel. Their, you found a strange key-shaped mold. Since finding the mold in the old ruins around Wendel, you have been fascinated with the thrill of exploring old ruins and buildings. But, many look down upon people that do such things. So, you try to only explore ruins late at night when no one is watching. You’ve heard that the ruins around the Wiltz may hold interesting relics from ages long past. If you have any free time, you’d like to try to explore these ruins. Another time, while exploring some of these old ruins, you found an ancient inscription that said something that seemed to indicate that in ages long past, scholars had been studying the manuscripts, when they discovered knowledge that began a great war. Sadly, you also dropped the mold into a deep chasm while climbing back out of the ruins. Since then, you’ve vowed that no one should die from knowledge. While in Wendel you discovered that their was a small society called The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts who modified the records and books of history. By working with them here in Wiltz, you hope to be able to prevent the discovery of knowledge that could precipitate another conflict. Also, while you’re at it, maybe you could “discover” facts that show that Same-Sex marriage is part of the past of Liberec. You’d also like to make sure that your best friends also become full Mages and are apprenticed. Also, while here, though exploring the ruins would be fun, you won’t have enough time to truly explore them. So, you’ve joined a group called Wiltz Realtors Incorporated in order to at least explore the surface, and make some money off of the ruins.

Petr 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Petr (Ken Clary) / Character Sheet

With money, you’d have more time to yourself to explore the ruins near whereever you end up. Goals - Get Theodore to fall in love with you. - Get Same-Sex marriage legalized. - Try to get moved to Saar. - Work with the Teenage Boys in order to get political power out from the old people. You don’t really want to spend all that much time helping the Teenage Boys, but you want to blend in with the other guys. - Help Wiltz Realtors Incorporated clear out the ruins, in order to make money selling the area for higher prices. - Make sure that The Bronze Pandas are the best at the Bazaar, and try to entice other good players to join. - You also believe that discovering of the origin of mana would be an affront to Fruit of the Great Mana, and may result in a holy war. You’ve joined The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts in order to prevent these things from happening. Also, you may be able to discover/fabricate evidence that Same-Sex marriage is a noble tradition from ages past. - Also, while here in the Wiltz, you’d like to explore the ruins around the Bazaar and look for interesting places. The thrill of exploration was one of your life lines when you were in the oppressive Wendel. Notes - You were born in Wendel. You hate it here. - You are still in the closet. You don’t wan’t to reveal that you are gay. Contacts - Theodore (Halftime Peairs): He is a beautiful Mage Candidate from the Wiltz. - Vera (Kim Beder): One of your best friends, and the twin sister of Roland. - Terenza (Lydia Krasilnikova): One of your best friends who loves Wendel, but still wants to help you leave.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #2412

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Wiltz Realtors Incorporated - The Bronze Pandas - The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts - Wendel

Greensheets - Mageball - Demolishing and Preparing an Area for Construction Work - Gain Legal Control of Locations - Organizing an Artifact Exhibition

Abilities - none

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Enhancing Mageball Performance with Herbalism (in-game - Glass Teardrop (4437) notebook) - 150 liberyen

Petr 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Petr (Ken Clary) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: texture, breeze, jump, - Age: 15 bats, sleepy, gap, listening - α: 4 - Leadership Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Biology Ability: 2 - Theology Ability: 3

Petr 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Raina (Piper Hunt) / Character Sheet

Raina

“I am Martel, and also the incarnation of the Great Seed itself. Lloyd, your hope as well as those of many others, resurrected me [but] Martel is one of the many sources within me. I am Mana, and I am the Giant Tree. I am a symbol of the many lives sacrificed to the Great Seed. I am the new spirit born to accompany the Giant Tree. And now the Seed has awakened anew along with me.” – Tales of Symphonia “You.. . bitch. . . You blew my cover. You’re dead! Do you hear me? You’re dead. The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father. You’re dead, Lyta Alexander. We will find you, THE CORPS WILL FIND YOU.” – J. Michael Straczynski, Divided Loyalties “History is written by the victors.” – Winston Churchill You were in Wiltz, back-to-back with another Mage, chanting. The spot was ritualistically humming with a strange pulsing vibration in the vast mana surrounding you. You could feel the power, feel the mana flowing through and around you. It was a glorious feeling. You were all-powerful. You never wanted to let it go ever again. . . You’ve had some vivid dreams in your life. You never forget them. They always leave off, fade into vivid gray chaos before anything is resolved, perhaps because they are usually about unresolved issues in the world. They are as if they had been real, if vague, recollections of your life. Perhaps they are presentiment, perhaps they are visions from the past, perhaps they are from someone else’s memory, but regardless, they might be visions given to you by the Great Mana in order to push you in certain directions with your life. You called upon the animals and they did answer you, spoke directly into your thoughts. Friend, they called to you, friend, friend. Friend, come help us. The world is too strict, too confining. Release us. The Mages are too strict. We can only grow, live, by evolution. Why must we be rigidly bred in sterile conditions? We cannot achieve our full potential, and neither can you. Why would you retard the progress of your own species so? Why? Why? Why? If your society was not so over-regulated. . . That does seem the most likely, that no matter the source, these dreams, these visions come directly from the primary divine being of your entire world. Perhaps this is what Vianden felt like, the first prophetess. But what does the Great Mana want with you? Perhaps you’re special? One of the Great Mana’s Chosen Ones? It seems the only thing that would make sense, that the Great Mana has chosen you as its appointed vessel and makes its will known to the world through you. Yet you cannot ever remember the end of any of the visions. You must find the endings so that you can follow through on the expectations for the right course of the world. Still, even without following through on finding the ends of your visions, one thing is clear. You must save the animals. It makes sense that you were chosen, now that you think about it. You are an Animal Mage, and the Great Mana clearly needs an Animal Mage to talk to the animals and help release them from their bonds. You must help them! Luckily, you have help. You’ve told your old childhood friend, Maarten, about the need to free the animals, allow them and the Liberecines to reach their full potential, the fates of one being tied in the fates of the other. By helping the animals, riling them up and preventing them from becoming too complacent, you can simultaneously fuel the Liberecines’ desire to get up off their lazy bums and improve their lives and that of their world. Liberec society was collapsing, collapsing into itself, imploding. The Mages had designed such strict rules that no change, no transformation of society into something better, could ever happen again. It was too rigid, and the Mages became too rigid. They needed something to work against, to fight against, or they would simply lapse into sullen domesticity, mere followers of the appointed algorithm of their life rather than beings truly living their life. To become better, to improve, they had to fight. . . If the Great Mana wanted you to make the people of Liberec more competitive, more combative, you could do that. An

Raina 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Raina (Piper Hunt) / Character Sheet officer in the Liberec Army, Eliska, came up to you one day with an offer along that line. She had heard of some martial arts competitions you had been running with the children in your home region these past five years, Wiltz. Eliska has a plan to overturn the government in Wiltz, just enough to shake up the population of Liberec. It’s a perfect plan! If Wiltz is overturned and ruled by the (then perceived to be) evil military dictator Eliska, then the rest of the regions will unite to take down the new regime in Wiltz. The strong will survive, the weak will be culled, and the Liberecines will be forced to set up a new (better) government, to reevaluate their governing structures. This might be just what is needed to keep Liberec society from collapsing in on itself like in your warning vision from the Great Mana. Also, your ability to teach the Liberecines to be more competitive would be greatly increased by your having more political power. Luckily, a few things have happened recently. First, one of the Animal Mages on The Mages’ Council recently died. His name was Julius, he lived in Mons, yadda yadda. You don’t feel too bad about it; it is the natural order of things. The weak are always culled from the herd first, by illness or predators, and then the strong take their place and continue on. You, the strong Animal Mage with the potential to take over the place of Julius on The Mages’ Council, will do just that. A spot on the Council will do nicely for your aims of teaching the Liberecines to be more competitive. If you do get a spot on the Council, you will also be able to help tear down the walls of the stringent rules and laws and societally accepted behavior. For one thing, Liberec has far too many laws,1 and they pass more each year. Liberec needs fewer laws, not more. Striking down some of the existing laws or clauses in the Liberec Constitution would be a great leap into the face of progress; burning the wretched constitution and forcing them either to make a new one or into anarchy would be even better. You’re also up for Head of Council for next year, whether or not you get Julius’s vacated seat. Winning that would give you more than enough political power to be an agent of change. An opportunity, a perfect opportunity. No one was looking, and one of the great chosen few of the despotism of the paragons of authoritarianism and enemies of progress was there, in front of you, waiting to see what you would do, what you would choose. How could anyone have known that your mind was already made up, that the Great Mana led you down the path of right long ago and no amount of charisma would turn you down the path leading to algorithmic life, partitioned carefully into little roles and places for each component being. . . Although you’ve gotten these visions since you were a teenager, they were particularly memorable at two points in your life. One started about nine years ago, when you were just starting up as a Mage in Saar, probably keyed into your budding advanced Mage abilities, having finally achieved level 6 magic. You travelled across Liberec searching for the source of these newly enhanced visions. The other time was recently, these past few days preparing for the Bazaar. Perhaps the Great Mana knows how key this time of your life is. (Of course it does; it’s omniscient.) You wonder what it is preparing you for, or what has already happened, to cause such a surge in visions. Whatever it is, this time and each of the times before, you must learn more about the visions, try to remember how they end. Then you can try to implement the wishes of the Great Mana and the universe within Liberec. The strife and struggle to survive brought by the weather is currently the only good thing about Liberec. It forces the popu- lation to deal with opposition, to strengthen themselves. To improve things further, you can exaggerate the effect by emphasizing the cause! First, there are some people who want to cut off Liberec at Port Vianden and focus on improving the country internally. These are the Isolationists. 1They even legally regulate reproduction for Mages! That does not follow the natural order of things at all. Enforced breeding always eventually brings out some weakness or other, it’s breeding the variants which is key to creating a stronger population on the whole.

Raina 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Raina (Piper Hunt) / Character Sheet

Second, there are some who think that the distribution of mana through Liberec is unfair and want to provide the farmers and animals and Great Mana’s beautiful earth in Mons with some extra mana. These are the Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions. These two groups have beautiful plans. Especially if both happened, it would create such lovely chaos in the name of the Great Mana and her earth and animal servants. Your visions have confirmed that this would be a keen idea. However, your visions have shown you that another group is attempting to build roads throughout Liberec to unite the country, to bring everyone together. This would be very bad, far too orderly. You must stop those plans by any means necessary. There is another great struggle which you have been feeding, burning from both ends to reach the middle faster. It is the struggle of history. There is an endless war, a quiet war, a fascinating multi-sided war, between those who would write history (from every different possible perspective, each trying to emphasize their own while seemingly remaining neutral) and those who would study it. You are both. First, you were recruited by Perotin to help investigate the history surrounding the Great Catastrophe. You eagerly await the answer. Perhaps the Great Mana would appreciate the answer, too – the Catastrophe, the sudden flareup in the weather ten generations back, must have happened for a reason, and if it wasn’t the Great Mana’s will, then you are determined to find out whose will it was and fight them. The day after you were recruited for The Historian Guild, one of the rare visions came (well, rare because it was an off year). It was raining, gray everywhere outside. Not unusual for Liberec. A man was standing outside the post building, yelling about them not taking his letters to Kaisha, insisting that they were idiots and that she did exist. Beyond, into the earth, there was the mana, still affected by the influence of the Catastrophe. If only you could tell if the influence was good. . . or bad. . . But either way, you wouldn’t want anyone else to know. Who might hurt the Great Mana if they knew what it wanted, or what it hated? Untrustworthy bastards. You needed a way to mislead everyone else while you were finding out what happened in the Catastrophe. This prompted you to seek out and join The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts, to create that counter opinion, the misleading history, the historical documents which confuse the truth-seeking scholars after you. As long as no one except you knows what happened in the Catastrophe, the Great Mana will be protected. There’s the added benefit that you’ll be feeding that endless war of the writers of history. In more lighthearted news, there is an interesting little group, The Order of Mana Connoisseurs, which seek to bring them- selves closer to mana by uniting with small amounts of mana, pulling the mana out of the earth and into their bodies. This sounds like a great idea, a perfect way to celebrate your existing relationship with the Great Mana. Of course, it’s nothing compared to your existing connection, at a fundamental psychic level, to the Great Mana, but it is a fine dissipation. You plan to meet with them often during the Bazaar. The most important group in all of Liberec, of course, is Fruit of the Great Mana, the children and worshippers of the Great Mana. Although you do the work of the Great Mana all the time, helping its followers minister to the people of Liberec is also noble work. You help out whenever you can. In fact, since you are attuned with the Great Mana itself, you would make a far better leader of Fruit of the Great Mana than does Ester, who is more concerned with values of the flesh than with promoting the chaos all around. If there is any way to oust her from power and take over, you should take the opportunity to lead Fruit of the Great Mana down a better path. Your visions have recently told you about a far more important thing, however. A new force has come to Liberec, embodied in Petauris, Lord Squirrel. That title. . . the squirrels, kings of the Liberec forests, the paragon of animals, the highest praise one animal would give another, or one Animal Mage would give another. . . your visions have told you that such a title would not be given lightly, that Petauris must be the most powerful Animal Mage to have ever lived.

Raina 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Raina (Piper Hunt) / Character Sheet

Petauris will aid you and assist and guide you anytime when your visions do not. Goals - Find out more about your visions, for they are the true way - Make sure you follow through on each of your visions to cause them to happen in reality, as the Great Mana wishes - Free the animals from their Mage oppressors, with the help of your friend Maarten - Win the election for next Head of Council - Help out the Great Mana by aiding its followers in Fruit of the Great Mana - Depose Ester from power in Fruit of the Great Mana and take her place, if possible; else, help her and her followers see the light and reform how they follow the Great Mana - Work with Eliska to overturn the Wiltz government and force the others in Liberec to start putting forth their best effort in order to re-unite the country - Help Isolationists change around the mana in Liberec! - Help Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions change around the mana in Liberec, too! - Mess with Liberec’s memory of its own history with The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts - ... Then discover that modified history with The Historian Guild! - Enjoy the addictive release of allowing mana to flow through yourself - Inherit Julius’s seat on The Mages’ Council and use it to throw out laws, destroy the constitution, and admit an anarchic legal system - Get high off mana to deepen your connection to the Great Mana with The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - Assist the Wiltz delegation at the Bazaar Notes - If you would like a vision overnight, email the GMs to request one after you have left game for the night. - You may communicate with Petauris, the closest representative to those providing your visions (and thus leading you towards the Great Mana’s wishes for you), via email. The in-game representation is that you send or receive notes to/from a NPC courier who has the ability to communicate with Petauris. Contacts - Petauris (Paul Baranay): A representative of the Great Mana - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): A childhood friend of yours, trusted by the animals of some of your visions; he’s helping you free them of the bonds put upon them by the Mages - Julius (Mark Mascaro): One of the Council Animal Mages, who recently passed away, leaving his seat on The Mages’ Council up for grabs - Eliska (Gillian Guertin): An officer in the Liberec Army interested in taking charge of Wiltz - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The Head Priestess of Fruit of the Great Mana and servant of the Great Mana, although she doesn’t understand its needs like you do - Perotin (Emily Rosser): The founder of The Historian Guild, currently missing

Memory/Event Packets - λ - Investigating the endings to your visions

Bluesheets - The Historian Guild - Society for the Increased Mana Flow Into Outlying Regions - Wiltz - Fruit of the Great Mana - The Mages’ Council - The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - Isolationists - The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts

Raina 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Raina (Piper Hunt) / Character Sheet

Greensheets - Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body

Abilities - Level 6 Mage - Gossip with the Public - Speak To Animals

Items - Chaos Drugs Recipe Book (in-game document)- 550 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 24 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 4 - β: j - Genetics Ability: 5

Raina 5 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Sabina (Fangfei Shen) / Character Sheet

Sabina

“Pride goeth before a fall.” – Proverbs 16:18, abridged “I touch the fire and it freezes me I look into it and it’s black Why can’t I feel? My skin should crack and peel. I want the fire back. . . This isn’t real But I just want to feel. . . ” – Joss Whedon

Ten years ago, at your own Bazaar, Baldaq took you aside and, in all his kindness, praised you for being the culmination of your family’s talent at Earth Magic and informed you that it was your duty, as such a strong Earth Mage (even as a Mage Candidate, you were unusually strong) to accept apprenticeship and permanent posting in Wendel and protect your people. Although your family has always produced great Earth Mages, many of whom have always stayed in Wendel to protect their people, you were proud and flattered that Baldaq picked you out personally. At least, you remember the fact that you were proud. You just don’t remember how it feels to be proud anymore, even just in memory. You did manage to get an apprenticeship in Wendel, of course (it isn’t like Tafea was going to prefer any of the other candidates, especially against Baldaq’s recommendation). Your new husband, Nikolai, was a Void Mage (a new type of magic), so he could come with you to any region without violating the family-promotion laws. Everything just fell into place for you to abide by Baldaq’s recommendation. Shortly after you finished your year of apprenticeship, the earthquakes started. They began small, centered around the city of Narbonne (where your posting was). You took care of them yourself. If you must say so yourself, you were very good at what you did. Thinking back on it, this must have been a matter of pride and a sense of accomplishment for you, dealing with this entire sequence of earthquakes by yourself. Still, they continued, and the earthquakes were getting slightly worse. You held on and insisted on dealing with them yourself. Once or twice, a few house-crumpling tremors got by. This attracted the attention of Baldaq. “Sabina, I know you’re a strong Mage, but Wendel has many other Earth Mages. Perhaps you would like a rest from this sequence of quakes around Narbonne. Or perhaps you would like some assistance in dealing with them.” “I can handle it, Baldaq. I promise, I won’t let any more tremors through.” You were proud, and certain of your strength; you were sure you wouldn’t allow yourself to make another mistake. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Baldaq allowed you to continue fighting the worsening earthquakes by yourself. He cautioned you to reconsider officially requesting a transfer of another Wendel Earth Mage to Narbonne for the duration of the current conflict but did not insist on it. You, of course, refused. The earthquakes around Narbonne started getting much worse. You could barely hold on. You remember that you were scared, petrified that one of the times you wouldn’t be able to stop it. Of course, you were probably more terrified of the damage that would do to your reputation than for the lives of the people in danger, and you never actually believed that you would fail. It got worse. You were getting more and more worn out after the quakes, and the local supply of mana was running down. The earthquakes were getting far worse, but you made sure not to let through a single tremor. You were too proud, unwilling to admit you were

Sabina 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Sabina (Fangfei Shen) / Character Sheet not up to the job. One day, eight years ago, an earthquake came that was again slightly worse than the previous earthquakes. Between being worn down preventing the earthquakes so frequently and the slight added difficulty in fighting this one, you couldn’t handle it any more. You passed out from trying to prevent the earthquake. It got through. The fact that you had greatly reduced the damage done by the earthquake did not matter. The entire city of Narbonne was levelled. You survived by pure luck, along with only a handful of other people from the city. That was it. You went numb. All feelings, positive or negative, were torn from you forever. You couldn’t feel anything, except maybe cold, always cold cold cold freezing lack of emotion in the world. It was all your fault. You weren’t good enough. Thousands of people died from your failure. Yet, you couldn’t stop. You went mechanically on, living life and stopping tremors on auto-pilot. You almost felt an emotion the day, mere weeks after Narbonne was destroyed, that Baldaq visited you again with some news. “Sabina, I have been digging through the Wendel Archives since the earthquake. I am sorry to speak of it to you, I know that it must grieve you to be reminded thus, but it is necessary.” “Of course, Baldaq. What is it that you found?” “This was not the first time that such a series of earthquakes has occurred in Wendel. A similar series happens every generation or two. The level of destruction varies and sometimes is not even recorded, but the devastation is usually very great.” “Excuse my impertinence, but is this supposed to make me feel better?” “Bide, Sabina. Furthermore, this series of quakes has always occurred at a time coinciding with that of a big political move by Saar. They even use these earthquakes as an excuse to discount our way of life. It is always at a curiously, and suspiciously, convenient time politically for Saar when we experience the devastation of these earthquakes.” “Are you saying that my failure killed thousands of my people and gave Saar a political advantage? Please leave me alone with my grief.” (Well, it was true that you wished to be left alone, although the grief was only an act because you knew that you should be grieving.) “No, not at all, my dear Sabina. I’m saying that Saar must have somehow found a way of sending these earthquakes at us, trying to destroy our way of life through the climate since they keep failing to do so politically.” How would that even be possible? Could you employ the same means? In fact, you could. You found a lovely ’Mundane’ in the army named Gabel. He hated Saar as much as you did; you really bonded complaining about them. Luckily for you, Gabel was quite gifted in Storm Magic (so rare in Wendel, which is why you had to look outside the Mages of the glorious region). He was willing to give up his life and freedom and everything for a large sum from your family, a guarantee of a new life and identity in Kusel, and the contentment of revenge. It was only just, to do to Saar what they had done to you. The famous Saar hurricane of epic proportions resulted from Gabel’s dedicated work and magical effort for more than a year straight. (Afterwards, of course Gabel fled the country, taking on the alias Gabriel that you prepared for him.) It still didn’t move you. You couldn’t manage to feel gratified that your plan worked or to feel pity for the innocent civilians killed. Still cold, so cold. You know that Gabel fled to Kusel (you arranged it); you hope he’s doing well there, after the hell Saar put him through here in Liberec. You made sure to keep the notes on the creation of the hurricane and to ”dispose” of them. You can’t have someone in Kusel being able to summon storms of epic proportions. Unfortunately, you’ve misplaced the notes and can’t find them. It

Sabina 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Sabina (Fangfei Shen) / Character Sheet is essential you find them before someone can decipher them. On the other hand, the influence of Kusel on Liberec, influence which is concentrated especially in Port Vianden, has to go. Some friends of yours have had an idea to permanently end the intercourse between Liberec and Kusel. These Isolationists need your help implementing this plan, especially with Nephilim (the Kusel ambassador) visiting Liberec for the first time during this Bazaar. Still, feeling nothing but cold doesn’t impair your logic or your judgement. You decided to start helping people for a change. Okay, fine, it took you until a year ago to decide this. These things take time. You are the Head of the Wendel delegation, which means that you need to make sure that Wendel gets its quotient of Mages assigned to it (and, ideally, Saar gets fewer Mages or gets Mages only if it changes to some more reasonable civics). This also puts you in charge of some random things also, such as making sure Wendel has a reporter to promote your views, now that Roland. . . You are also responsible for promoting the beliefs of Wendel to The Mages’ Council and the Mages of Liberec. Be sure to encourage the other Mages to support the Wendel values and get similar Council resolutions to pass. A strict regimen and control for the country will benefit everyone. In particular, you want to stand against the irrationally radical movements, such as those against the standing Mage Reproduction Laws and for rights for Mundanes which are entirely unjustified. After all, Mages are the ones standing between Liberec and destruction. Then, too, you don’t want Liberec to have all this continued involvement with Kusel. Those that deem it important are out of their loose-moralled, likely drug-addled minds. Last year, at the Bazaar, Erica, the incoming Head of The Mages’ Council, put Lenka in charge of The Mages’ Council Subcommittee on Investigating the Fundamental Underlying Causes of Rapid Changes in Clime. Lenka?!?!?! The incompetent, bumbling, evil woman who was probably in charge of sending the series of hurricanes at Narbonne? Unconscionable! You, of course, helped form a separate, better, group to do their job for them, The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization, and filled the committee with Mages who were actually competent. You’ll save the world, just to spite that bitch.1 Just to rub your face in the dirt, the most promising young Wendel Mage Candidate, Roland, died the day before the Bazaar. Just yesterday. He was in perfect health, perfect condition, strong and beautiful. You and your niece, Vera, must investigate his death and find out what happened. With Roland gone, Vera is the rightful next heir of everything that you and Wendel can provide her with, including all of the opportunities her brother had. You should give her all of the political and financial support of Wendel, have her represent Wendel (as is her duty) as a reporter, and apply to her the strictest standards for her apprenticeship and marriage (she should marry a nice conservative boy and they should settle down in her home region). You trust that she will abide by her duty to Wendel and her people. Also, while at the Bazaar, you’ve discovered The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts, a group of people looking to prevent Scholars from finding out information in the library, by hiding the truth with lies. If no one had found out what it would take to cause enormous weather problems, Wendel would never have been hit by the disaster that you couldn’t stop. Working with these masters of forgery, you may be able to make life more difficult for people looking to hurt Wendel. While meeting with The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts, you also came across a book, A Set of Notes (1751), that has cryptic notes on Liberec. You should see if you could find out what it says. Goals - Find out what’s wrong with the weather with The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization before that bitch Lenka’s group learns anything - Promote the interests of Wendel at the Bazaar and with The Mages’ Council - Officially censure Saar for their way of life (and for causing the earthquakes if you can find proof in the Archives) - Fulfill your duties as the Head of Wendel, finding a new reporter and sufficient Mages to meet the region’s needs for the

1You have logically deduced that she must be a bitch, although it perturbs your cold unfeelingness not at all.

Sabina 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Sabina (Fangfei Shen) / Character Sheet

coming year. - Protect Liberec from the corrupting influence of the foreigners from Kusel - Find out what happened to Roland, Wendel’s most promising Mage Candidate and your nephew - Try to recover your notes on the Hurricanes. - Choose a promising Earth Mage Candidate with appropriate politics as an apprentice. Notes - You are strict and regimented but kind, conservative but compassionate. - You cannot feel emotions, but you can logically determine what emotion you would be otherwise feeling and emulate the symptoms of that. Contacts - Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov): Your sweetheart of a husband. - Lenka (Joy Perkinson): An evil bitch from Saar - Gabriel (Daniel Grazian): A Storm Magic-talented ’Mundane’ who assisted you in your plans to send a large storm to Saar seven years ago. You got him a new identity as Gabel. - Roland (Xavid Pretzer): The most promising Mage Candidate from Wendel this year, your nephew, who died rather myste- riously yesterday - Vera (Kim Beder): The next most promising Mage Candidate from Wendel this year, Roland’s twin sister

Memory/Event Packets - Item #3832- ζ

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Isolationists - Wendel - The Society for the Fabrication of Ancient Texts - The Independent Society For Climate Stabilization

Greensheets - Negotiating the Distribution of Mages- Searching for Roland’s Cause of Death (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Teaching - Gossip with the Public - Level 6 Mage

Items - Bronze Key (3836) - 600 liberyen - A Small Book (1753)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 25 - Leadership Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Lore Ability: 7 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 6

Sabina 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Stef (Pi Lanningham) / Character Sheet

Stef

‘”It’s business... it’s business.... it’s business time. –Flight of the Conchords

You can already visualize the day you retire. You’ll roll off the Mageball field with your head held high and dreams up in the sky. It will be a glorious day. That’s not to say you don’t like Mageball: to the contrary, you love it. The fame, the glory, and the money isn’t bad either. You couldn’t ask for a better job. But... you want to retire in style. Not just Mageball style – you want more style than your Mageball salary could every give you. And so you’ve experiment with herbalism on the side. While you never had much formal training (The Mageball Lions always got in the way of that), it’s really not all that hard. You only have to mix random plants together, and poof, you have an awesome medicine. It’s even easier than Mageball. Sometimes your medicines don’t work very well. A handful of people will back complaining of a sore stomach or a strange rash. And, in the end, it’s okay. Because, even if someone did get seriously injured (or even died) from your ”cure,” you’re retirement will totally make up for it. It’s not that you hate people. You just don’t want anything to get in the way of your retirement. Although healing people (or even just...neutralizing them is so much better for business then death. And it’s all about the business. You’re a little bit worried about sustaining your business. It’s profitable to cure people for now and get the word out about your medicine, but there are only so many sick people. It would be even better if your wares had a slightly... addictive dimension to them. Then you would never run out of customers... Anyway, you also play Mageball. It’s a fun job, and a good way to get some social style enabled. For example, it got you some hot action with Femke – man, she was even easier than herbalism. And now you know that two of your other teammates slept with her as well. A good night that lead to good blackmail. It might just be useful at some point... You’ve also noticed something up with Liam – he never takes any of the enhancements that the rest of the team uses. You should figure out how he’s so good naturally, or maybe he has his own supplements that he takes. You’ll probably never know, though, now that he left the team in such a huff. He told Vendelin it was his injury, but then he cussed out all of the rest of you about how you’ve been treating Femke. Maybe he was all high-and-mighty because she wouldn’t sleep with him, hm? But she’s seemed so willing with the rest of you that that’d be pretty weird. Something must be up, and you’ll want to figure out what. Mageball isn’t the only thing in your life, though. You also believe that Wiltz should get its suitable share of resources, especially since it hosts the Bazaar yearly. About a year ago, you found a stray teen street rat in Wiltz. He had barely been in the city a week before you had a chance meeting with him. You were looting a garden in a side alley - an alley somewhat more well-to-do than the average home of the Liberec street riffraff - for herbs useful to your experiments when you were startled by a fellow garden lurker. You jumped at the sudden appearance of Ladislav’s young face, clearing at least ten feet (backwards) and hitting your head on the lower branches of the apple tree shading the garden of precious hervs. However, you quickly realized that the poor young thing only wanted some of the fruit from the overhanging trees. It wasn’t so much of a risk, his first question was “Why are you picking raggedy weeds when the fruit is up in the trees?” Ah, the young and naive. At least he helped you raid every interesting herb from the alley. Ladislav was a teen, newly arrived in Wiltz, with no money or connections. You felt for him. You offered to take him in as a big brother, adopt him, in exchange for his assistance with your plants and mixing your legal (and very illegal) concoctions. Besides which, Mageball pays well, it is nice to be able to share that with someone. Taking care of Ladislav is one of the highlights of your life now, and not being able to do so in the future would break your heart.

Stef 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Stef (Pi Lanningham) / Character Sheet

Also, while in the Bazaar this year, you would like to see what sorts of goodies you can find from the ruins around Wiltz. When the caravans first arrived, you stumbled upon others who were also exploring the ruins. You’ve all decided to join up and explore all the ruins in Wiltz as the Explorers of the Ancient Past. Whatever their motives are, you’d love to get your hands on some ancient relics. Goals - Make money. - Find more cures, and make these ones addictive. - Make even more money. - Blackmail your teammates. - Figure out what’s up with Liam. - Help your Mageball team with the tournament, and then retire in style. - Improve the standing of your home, Wiltz. - Explore the ruins around Liberec with the Explorers of the Ancient Past. - Help out Ladislav, your ‘little brother’, with anything he needs. Contacts - Ladislav (Michael Behr): Your adopted ‘little brother’ that you take care of and who helps you with your plants - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of The Mageball Lions and a generally good guy - Florian (Jim Waldrop): A Fire Adept on The Mageball Lions - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): A Storm Adept on The Mageball Lions - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): An Earth Adept on The Mageball Lions - Liam (Alex Westbrook): An Animal Adept who recently ragequit The Mageball Lions - Femke (Brogan King): The sweet young thing who follows around The Mageball Lions as a groupie. You and everyone else on the team are sleeping with her.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Wiltz - Explorers of the Ancient Past - The Mageball Lions - First Annual Medical Conference

Greensheets - Mageball - Gain Legal Control of Locations - Herbalism

Abilities - Level 5 Mage - Magically Green Thumb - Level 3 Mage - Gossip with the Public - Herbalist Wisdom

Items - Enhancing Mageball Performance with Herbalism (in-game - Plant Mage/Farmer Recipe Book (in-game document) notebook) - 450 liberyen - Drug Lord Recipe Book (in-game document)

Stef 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Stef (Pi Lanningham) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 17 - Research Ability: 2 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 8 - β: N/A - Genetics Ability: 4

Stef 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Symon (Ian Born-Mathewson) / Character Sheet

Symon

“Every baby born into the world is a finer one than the last.” – Charles Dickens

You are an adorable baby boy. Your mother is loving and takes wonderful care of you. Your father dotes on you. You love them and will do great things in life. For now, you will win over all the hearts of Liberec with your adorable baby-ness. Taking over the world through cuteness. How could it possibly go wrong? You also found a new toy, while crawling around. Its a beautiful Eye. Goals - Win over the hearts of the Liberec Mages at the Bazaar - Take over the world - Eat, sleep, and poop Notes - You are a baby. - You went to MIT, and will never leave. Contacts - Matilda (Susan Born): Your mother. - Cyril (Charles Hope): Your father.

Memory/Event Packets - Item #1752

Bluesheets - Port Vianden

Greensheets - none

Abilities - none

Items - none

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - β: N/A - Age: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - α: N/A

Symon 1 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Tarsia (Sukrit Ranjan) / Character Sheet

Tarsia

“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. “Truth is on the side of the oppressed.” – Malcolm X

Mages. They’re the reason Liberec has so many problems. Your life, just like everyone else’s lives, has been hard because of Mages. You are a warrior for the people, the real people of Liberec, those slurred at by the Mages and usually called the Mundanes. You were born to protect the people, and that is what you shall do. While The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages may be working towards leaving this oppression, and you commend and even are willing to help them, they are not doing enough. The Mages are a blight upon the soil of Liberec. They soil the soil, har har. They steal mana from the soil in great quantities, pillaging and desecrating the earth. It’s no wonder that the earth takes her revenge upon them, sending mindstorms and hurricanes and stampedes to take them out, wreak havoc as revenge. Yet they are your children, these pitiful sinful Mages. Your mean, dirty, spoiled children, playing with their mana and devil may care what happens to the rest of Liberec, never a thought for the poor Mundanes making up more than 95% of the population. It makes you so angry! You want to lash out, destroy destroy destroy, like they have been destroying your precious land. You have lived in Oldenburg for all of your life, and you’ve been in training to be a midwife and healing woman since you were but a child. The wickedness of the Mages was apparent to you at a young age, but you labored to save them through the healing arts as you would to save any proper citizen of Liberec. You were fully trained and working sunup to sundown, more if there was a weather incident, by the age of thirteen. The Mage Candidates your age were still frolicking in the meadows and being educated, not contributing to society at all (and once they became full Mages it would be even worse, as they would be actively hurting society). Of course, you couldn’t say anything about how the Mages have been hurting the land. It just wouldn’t be appropriate for a ‘lowly Mundane’ like yourself. Also, it isn’t like anyone would listen to you, anyway. Stupid common knowledge supposedly says that ‘The Mages of Liberec are the only reason the country still exists today.’ While that may or may not be true, the Mages of Liberec are also the only reason that existence was ever in question! A few years after you became a fully practicing midwife and healer, your younger brother Jebiel came to the family and admitted a terrible fact. He had been duped by a Mage and believed himself to be in love with her. It would have been a terrible shame on your family. Jebiel knew better, he knew what the Mages were doing to his country! Still, some young whore comes waltzing into Oldenburg as a new Mage, fresh out of the Bazaar, and Jebiel instantly falls prey to his basest and lustful instincts. You and Father took him out to the edge of the wasteland north of Oldenburg and left him to his own devices and the will of nature to repent, for the great mother, nature, to purge him of his base and reprehensible tendencies. You never saw him again. Nature took her wayward child to her bosom to help him avoid future temptation. Jebiel died in his attempt to keep holy and pure and not influenced by Mages. It wasn’t enough. That bitch, that doxy, that whore of a Mage was pregnant. With Jebiel’s child. She said something about raising the child as if it had two Mage parents, giving it a chance to be hired at the Bazaar. NO! No no no no no no no no no! This could not be borne. You would not allow a child of your flesh, your blood, your kin to become one of the Mages intent on ruining the country! It was your mission to liberate Liberec, and your soon-to-be-niece, from the hands of the Mages destroying it, or die trying. You

Tarsia 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Tarsia (Sukrit Ranjan) / Character Sheet swore nothing would stop you, not the Mage carrying Jebiel’s child, not your oath as a healer to do no harm, nothing. You swore to get that child, keep it away from its mother forever. Purge it of its Mage part. Purge it with fire. This, your first time, really went badly. The entire sick house burned down with the Oldenburg records in the basement, just to get the new Mage baby. You learned subtlety after that. The good news was that the sick house burned down with the Mage whore still in it. The bad news was that you weren’t able to take your baby niece out of the fire and give her back to nature properly, in the wastelands, as you had intended. It was all for the best. Oldenburg was purged of a Mage as well as a potential Mage child, and it was all attributed to an accident. This was 35 years ago. You were only 17 years old. You have, since, been killing more and more Mage babies, but with a bit more subtlety. Here a child mysteriously missing at the age of five, there a pregnant Mage accidentally killed in a freak incident of weather, more ’stillbirths’ than you can count, weeds which may cause infertility slipped into healing brews given to Mages. It is what is best for everyone. For the past 27 years, you have managed to prevent any Mage babies born in Oldenburg from ever making it to puberty, when Mage talent starts showing. Some many years ago, one of the people of the Oldenburg, the Mundane Dana, came to you asking about all the stillbirths. You protested having nothing to do with them – many of them had taken place when you (cleverly) were not even on duty, or in residence in Oldenburg. Dana did not believe you. She said that it didn’t matter. She just wanted the bodies, for medical research. Of course, anyone else in Oldenburg wouldn’t let her have them, worried about ’desecrating the spirit of the unborn’ or something. Idiots. Blind, always blind, to the real truth of the universe. Ever since, some of the bodies, those that ‘mysteriously disappear’ or had ‘too little to concretely identify,’ find their way into Dana’s hands. She does research and occasionally even makes a medical breakthrough that can help you doctor the ill and wounded more effectively. It’s so nice to have a kindred spirit, one who knows that the country is better served by potential Mages dying and being used to better serve the people of Liberec than by the potential Mages growing up to snort and misuse mana. Finally, at this Bazaar, you finally have a chance to visit Wiltz and improve Liberec from the pit of sin and magic itself. As you are a healer of great knowledge and repute, and there is a medical conference attached to the Bazaar this year, you are part of the official delegation from Oldenburg. While at the Bazaar, you should work towards saving Liberec as much as possible from the sinful Mages which pillage the fundaments, the mana, right from the core of the earth. Anyone with a high affinity for magic, great magic ability, is more likely to produce stronger Mage babies who churn up the earth even worse than it is being messed with already. Luckily, your long experience as a healer and midwife has taught you how to diagnose someone as more likely to be a strong Mage and mess with the earth’s precious mana. There is one baby of rumor who must die. Fire Mages have always been infertile, since they are such a blasphemy to nature that they burn off their spouse’s - *ahem* - before they can conceive. Yet one Fire Mage, Matilda, supposedly just had a baby. It is a blight upon the land and must be purged at all costs. Of course, purging the older ones, the strong Mage Candidates, from the land is going to be difficult. You don’t have any Mage powers to throw up against them, and besides which, you’d rather any unfortunate ’accidents’ not be traced back to you so that you can continue your glorious work towards the betterment of the country of Liberec. It will be best, not to mention apt justice for the Mages, for their end to come from their own evil abilities. You must convince the other Mage Candidates at the Bazaar to take each other down. It will be justice, revenge for your mistress, nature. Meanwhile, you have a few other plans which might help with removing the plague of magic from Liberec’s soil. First, you have found a group, Shields of the World, which is trying to expunge all mana from the land. Although that in itself cannot

Tarsia 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Tarsia (Sukrit Ranjan) / Character Sheet possibly fix the venom insinuated through the country, that being the Mages and their despoiling of the land, it is a fascinating idea. With the mana gone, the Mages cannot possibly hurt the land and its true population further, beyond that which they have already done. In addition, you could go ahead with encouraging all of the Mage Candidates to pick up Fire Magic, just enough to be unable to reproduce. That would be fun. Of course, with Matilda’s new miracle baby, you are a bit worried that maybe Fire Magic isn’t what it used to be. You should make sure that it still properly causes infertility for causing such trouble for nature. Beyond these plans, you also aim to use First Annual Medical Conference to help you research a way to tie infertility such as the Fire Mages suffer to all Mages–although, of course, you musn’t let on to them that this is what you plan to do. Still, they are mostly mages and children; it shouldn’t be hard to shepherd them into it. You also want to dig around in the Library to find unequivocal proof that Mages are the cause of all the pain and suffering Liberec has seen. Once you have it, you want to publish it so all the world can know what abominations the Mages are. You will put on the face of a good little Mundane and pretend that you like being enslaved to the Mages systematically ruining your country for the Bazaar, but you will win and purge their blight from the earth in the end. While you’re here, too, you need to start laying the political groundwork for the day the so-called Mundanes can reclaim this troubled world, doing what you can to get as many rights and as much power for Mundanes as you can. Goals - Purge the world of the blight that is the Mages - Start with that miracle baby, the child of Matilda, the Fire Mage - Kill any Mage Candidates with a high α stat - Get Mages and Mage Candidates to perform the purging for you, as that is more justice and revenge for what they have done to nature - Expunge mana from the land with Shields of the World - Get as many promising Mage Candidates to pick up Fire Magic as possible - Make sure Fire Magic still causes infertility - Do what you can to push through Mundanes’ rights and power - Research a way to tie infertility to the Mage power, with the help of First Annual Medical Conference - Find proof in the history texts that Mages are the cause of the world’s ills and publish it for all to see Contacts - Dana (Allison Schneider): Your friend and kindred soul, you’ve been giving her some of the ’stillborn’ bodies. - Klara (Jason Gonsalves): A Healing Mage from Oldenburg. Although you don’t like her means (healing people with magic), she means well. - Matilda (Susan Born): A Fire Mage who somehow has produced a child. This is an abomination.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - Shields of the World - Oldenburg - First Annual Medical Conference

Greensheets - none

Tarsia 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Tarsia (Sukrit Ranjan) / Character Sheet

Abilities - Gossip with the Public - Sense Magic - Fruit of the Great Mana Gossip

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - 150 liberyen - On the Curing of Mage Reproduction (in-game notebook)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 52 - Research Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 6 - β: N/A - Genetics Ability: 5

Tarsia 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Terenza (Lydia Krasilnikova) / Character Sheet

Terenza

“ Everybody hates a prodigy, detests an old head on young shoulders.” – Desiderius Erasmus

In your time in Wendel, you’ve learned that there are many classes of people in the world: Those who can do Magic, those who can’t. Those who have Money, those who don’t. Those who live in Prosperity, those who shouldn’t. You are one of children of fortune. The Great Mana has smiled upon you throughout your life, and as such, you are the smartest person in Wendel. The last few years of your life haven’t been extraordinarily exciting, but you’ve spent yout time well, and you’ve been learning all that you can. While living here, you’ve also become great friends with Vera and Petr. Since you met them, 6 years ago, the three of you have been together almost every day: exploring Wendel, talking about the world outside, and thinking about each of your futures. Petr seems to be interested in going to the Bazaar and moving to another region of Liberec. While you’ll be sad to see him go, you believe that Petr should be where he feels happiest, and you’re willing to help him in any way you can. Over the past year, you’ve become increasingly interested in the distribution of mana, and have met members of Mana Cartographers who are similarly interested in determining how mana is distributed throughout Liberec, and how it seems to concentrate in places where the powerful reside. Hopefully, by aiding Mana Cartographers, you’ll be able to prove to others that Wendel is superior in terms of magical strength to all other regions. Near the beginning of this year, you almost died when you were exploring the surrounding wilderness, and it was a miracle that Petr was getting food from the Forest, and stumbled upon you as you lay bleeding after falling from a tree. Since then, you’ve attributed your life to Fruit of the Great Mana, it could only have been the power of Fruit of the Great Mana that could have saved you. The Great Mana has always been known to be kind to her children. Also, since the miracle, you’ve devoted your time to figuring out how the Great Mana has become enslaved such that the dark and evil places such as Saar have so much mana. As a result, you’ve become a member of Servants of the Great Mana in order to find out how to free the mana from the earth and the bonds that enslave it to be near the centers of such darkness and chaos. Hopefully, by freeing the mana, Wendel will rightfully have the mana that has been stolen from it by the fiends of other regions. Surprisingly, you are going to the Bazaar as a Mage Candidate this year. It seems that your Mage powers have manifested itself earlier than other people your age. Unfortunately, in a misguided attempt to rein you in, your parents refused to sponsor you until the typical Mage Candidate age. You’ll have to find a sponsor if you want to be hired and prove your superiority to the world. When you first arrived to Wiltz, a nice girl named Natalia approached you and told you of research that she and other Teenage Girls were doing in order to allow all of you to communicate across vast distances. While you aren’t especially anxious to communicate with these other unimportant girls, this could very well give you a way to talk to Vera and Petr even if they are placed across Liberec. You’ll try not to seem too unfriendly, but you really don’t want to spend too much time around these girls. You’d also like to spend some of the Bazaar in the library, taking advantage of the fact that you are here in order to do some research into preventing the Mundanes from getting more magical power. You’ve also heard about other groups that are meeting at the Bazaar this year. You’d like to find them and see if you can help with your superior intellect. They are doomed to failure unless they have someone with your level of intelligence working

Terenza 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Terenza (Lydia Krasilnikova) / Character Sheet with them. Also, while you are here, you’ve heard that the message of Fruit of the Great Mana hasn’t fully permeated Wiltz, and you’d like to help spread their message far and wide. You’ve also been hearing rumors about a strange locked chest in the Library, that requires 20 Bronze Keys. You’d like to figure out what is in the chest, but that will require you to find enough keys. It seems that many of The Mages’ Council members have some, so you may be able to find a way to convince them to part with them. You’ve also heard that there are many other people who are interested in exploring the Library, maybe they could do with some aid. And who knows, maybe the help you can provide will be worth monetary compensation to the other Mage Candidates who don’t have enough time to really work and look up things in the Library. In the time at Wendel, you’ve become really proficient searching the small collection of books around the region, and hopefully the Great Library won’t be nearly as annoying, since its all gathered in one place. Goals - Find a sponsor for your Mage Candidacy, learn lots of magic, and land an apprenticeship appropriate to your incredible skills. - Help free the Great Mana with Servants of the Great Mana. - Help the Teenage Girls to create a way for you to stay in contact with Vera and Petr. - Find any research groups that can benefit from your superior intellect. - Try to find out what is within the Chest in the Library. - Help Petr with his learning and to leave Wendel. - Help map the mana lines of Liberec with Mana Cartographers. - Help spread the word of Fruit of the Great Mana. - Help Wendel become the most powerful region. Notes - You act like a know-it-all. Roleplay accordingly. Contacts - Vera (Kim Beder): One of your best friends. - Petr (Ken Clary): Your other best friend. - Ester (Andrea Lincoln): The Head of Fruit of the Great Mana.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Mana Cartographers - Wendel - Fruit of the Great Mana - Servants of the Great Mana

Greensheets - none

Abilities - none

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - 150 liberyen

Terenza 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Terenza (Lydia Krasilnikova) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: quicksand, luck, - Age: 14 balance, quiet, gap, climb, illusion - α: 7 - Leadership Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Philosophy Ability: 7 - Theology Ability: 7

Terenza 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Theodore (Halftime Peairs) / Character Sheet

Theodore

“Ever tried to get bloodstains out of a silk shirt?. . . Nightmare!” – Captain Shakespeare, Stardust “Have you ever considered piracy? You’d make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.” – Westley, The Princess Bride

Dread Pirate Grayfeather? Dread Pirate Gray Feather Boa sounds much nicer, don’t you think? Or the Dread Pirate Titania, in the tradition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Granted, the latter might not be manly enough to get you the requisite respect from the other pirates on the Liberec high seas. Not that you really care. . . piracy is your father’s dream, not yours. But now that it is time for him to retire, he wants to pass on his captain’s hat to you, his only son. (If only he’d chosen some distant cousin. . . ) Actually, you changed your mind (again). This is the first thing you’ve ever done that might be able to please your father, the current Dread Pirate Grayfeather. If being ruthless and cutthroat and taking on his captain’s hat and name will do it, sure. Having your father proud of you for the first time ever would be worth it1 There is just one thing - you refuse, absolutely refuse, to do, not even for your father’s approval. You will not kill, or even physically harm, anyone (especially not the cute boys), just to further the guise of being a pirate. You started disappointing your father at the age of three. Your mother had already died by that time, and you had no siblings, so you were the only one on whom for your father to focus his vicarious hopes and wishes, and all his disappointments. It all started when you asked for a pair of high-heeled shoes for your upcoming fourth birthday. You got the shoes, but your father sulked, went off to sea and took his frustration out on some poor sod’s ship, and came back to give you the talk about how disappointed he was in you. Your father has been a pirate for years and years, since long before your birth. He also has a long-standing hatred of the Dread Pirate Alquin and his entire family (for instance, the Dread Pirate Alquin has an equally detestable brother, Captain Tregg). You don’t know how the feud started, but you know how it ended oh so well. Your father used to tell it to you, as a bedtime story, the only bedtime story he would tell. “As First Mate Grayfeather, under the hideous command of the cruel Alquin, I could see how miserable the crew was. They were dissolute, bored. They needed something to actually work for. They needed a real captain, a true son of the sea. Even the conscripted help and the children on board were eager to help. A little cook’s helper, one of the orphans we conscripted, even cared so much about my being in charge that he began poisoning the captain for me, every day until the captain just collapsed on the deck after a meal. It was easy to take over then. The day I delivered the killing blow to that bastard, disembowling him, that was the happiest day of my life, happier even than when I married your mother.” When your father handed over his Captain’s Hat (0735) to you, he even said that he would accept (though begrudgingly so) your sexuality and choice of lifestyle, but on one condition. If you find any more relations of the dead Dread Pirate Alquin, you must take them down. Humiliate them, maim them, kill them. You have to. It is the only condition of your captaincy2. You should also prove yourself on the High Seas by trying to become rich from the boarding of other ships and searching the many hidden treasures buried by pirates of the ancient past. All that your father ever wanted from you was for you to be a testosterone-charged, competitive, violent heterosexual with piracy and thievery at the heart. Why could you not have been even one of them?

1Besides, the men on your crew will be all muscly and handsome, and maybe some of the men on will even be gay. Being alone on the ocean sea with a dozen strong sailors being driven mad by sexual repression for months on end might just drive them into the scrumptious temptation of your tender, loving embrace. Mmm, yummy. 2Not that you actually wanted the captaincy, it was never your dream, but you’ll take it for the limited bonding with and approval from your father that it will get you.

Theodore 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Theodore (Halftime Peairs) / Character Sheet

Your father even brought home some poor, frightened girl one day, said she was a present for you. A present? What for? It didn’t make any sense. Your father very patiently, and lewdly, explained exactly what he wanted you to do to that poor girl. He wanted to seduce you out of liking boys.1 His suggestions of what to do to the poor girl sounded disgusting, frankly. That poor girl was just cowering in a corner, thinking that you would hurt her. (You would never!) You went over, asked her name. Celeste. You told her that you had no intention of hurting her at all. Your father got incredibly pissed and went all Dread Pirate on you, whisking the girl away before you were able to shoo her out the door to freedom. You’re sure she’s hidden away somewhere, but if anyone knows that you are looking for her, your father will make sure that it seems like you were the kidnapper rather than an innocent bystander. He does know how to manipulate a sweetheart like you, does your father. It has been a long time, but you are still determined to find her. She cannot have just disappeared (where would she have gone, the Void?), so somehow you can find her. Your father’s disappointment in you made his trips to the sea as the captain of the most infamous pirate ship on the waters hailing from Liberecine port grow longer and longer, spanning a year or more at a time by your teenage years. Having no one at home and nothing better to do during his long absences, you took to the streets of Wiltz and found your own surrogate family. Your best friend in the world, Andrea, you met in this manner, wandering the streets of the city at the age of ten in your best hot pink sequined dress and tiara. Most of the kids you’d met that day had made fun of you for your fabulous taste in wardrobe, but Andrea liked it, said it matched your skin tone3. You’ve been bosom buddies ever since. Andrea’s family (and your surrogate family) are: Agata, a drug farmer and dealer, Andrea’s big sister, who cares for all of you; and Zdenko, an orphan dear sweet Andrea rescued from the street as a toddler, good at roughing people up for money politely, a manly man with all the qualities you lack. They may not be the most functional family in the world, but you love them and would do anything for them. Andrea started to bring you to hang out with her other friends, those outside her little family in the back of an alley in Wiltz. The girls of Wiltz were kind of mean to you at first (damn prepubescent bitches), but they eventually decided that you were the most awesome guy ever. You were their age but not an asshole; they could talk about their guy problems with you (and vice versa); the group of you could discuss and invent new fashions every season (not to mention laugh at the uninformed littler kids who caught on and started imitating you only after your invented fashions went out of style a few weeks later); you were one of them. Now, at the Bazaar, the Teenage Girls have come up with a brilliant idea of how to keep in touch with all of your uber- close girlfriends (not in the romantic sense, of course) after you are scattered to the winds by the Baaar. You are so excited by this, because if you end up in some Great Mana-forsaken region such as Mons or Oldenburg, or somewhere that doesn’t tolerate homosexuality well like Wendel, you’ll need your girlfriends in contact to keep you sane through the trying time. Speaking of getting hired. . . it’s your Bazaar! Wheee! You’re not too worried about what type of Magic you get (although Fire Magic is, of course, hottttttt), but you are concerned with what region you are sent to. You are also very concerned with going to that region with some pretty boy at your side. Hopefully. You’ve recently seen a god of a figure among the boys showing up to the Bazaar. Eric. He’s the most beautiful creature you have ever seen. He must be gay, also. He’s far too pretty to be straight. You don’t get those perfectly-kept good looks by being heterosexual. Unfortunately, you get such nervous butterflies around him that you’ve barely spoken to him yet. Surely there is some way to ensure that he falls for you. Oh, and while you’re here, you’ve found a cool group of Mages and teenagers combined, Mana Cartographers, interested in mapping the mana lines around Liberec. That sounds neat, and being a street rat who is being allowed to help? Even better. Maybe you can get your name on something, get some recognition. Maybe it will even help your chances of getting hired?

1It doesn’t work like that. 3She was so right, it was the perfect shade for your coloring.

Theodore 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Theodore (Halftime Peairs) / Character Sheet

Goals - Win the high seas to prove to your father your worthiness - Get hired as a Mage, preferably in Wiltz or Saar or Port Vianden - Find Celeste and finally free her from your father’s grasp - Find a nice boy to fall in love with (or better yet, marry, if the Mage Reproduction Laws can go away), preferably Eric - Get rid of any remaining relatives of the Dread Pirate Alquin (there is a brother, but there may be family beyond the brother) - Help the Teenage Girls develop a way to stay in touch after the Bazaar - Help the Mana Cartographers to understand the mana lines and the world Notes - You are happily, obviously, flamboyantly, and stereotypically gay (and adorable about it). Feel free to hit on all of the boys. A lot. - You will attempt to follow your father’s wishes as much as possible, but you will not actually harm someone based on your father’s grudges and competitions. Contacts - Eric (Xavier Jackson): A beautiful, beautiful god of a man, you are secretly in love with him. If only you had the nerve to approach him! - Andrea (Laura McKnight): Your best friend from the streets of Wiltz and surrogate sister - Agata (Lauren Chai): Andrea’s sister and your surrogate mother/older sister figure, a drug farmer and dealer to make money for the family - Zdenko (Carter Huffman): Andrea’s adopted brother and your surrogate brother, a masculine and highly persuasive teen

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Mana Cartographers - Wiltz

Greensheets - Navigating and Living on the High Seas- Searching for Celeste (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - none

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Captain’s Hat (0735) - 100 liberyen - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: illusion, blinding, - Age: 15 flavor, bats, slippery, listening, swift - α: 4 - Manaology Ability: 1 - β: N/A - Logic Ability: 3 - Philosophy Ability: 4

Theodore 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Tibo (Mats Ahlgren) / Character Sheet

Tibo

“To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.” – Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

Life is gloomy when you’re cursed, really gloomy all the time. You were merely misfortunate as a child, only haunted as a youth, but now you’re blighted. It is a voodoo curse, you just know it. It is irreverent, even sacrilegious, to claim that The Great Mana allows curses to happen, but there is just no other explanation for, well, for your life. Your older brother Tallo was always the lucky one, the talented one, the blessed one, of the family. You could never match him. He was always up before dawn, out to help the community with seven projects before breakfast, even when just ten years old. You were not so lucky, troubled by a voodoo curse of ill fate since birth. Perhaps some malevolent fairy (or more likely, a vengeful Mage) visited your troubles on you at birth. You always wished that you could be a good son like Tallo. Saar’s basic tenets of cooperation, volunteering for what you are able to do, and public duty cause the lucky ones like Tallo, the ones able to give seemingly their entire lives to the community, to be nigh-worshipped. You always wanted that. Even your family had always been highly respected in the Saar community: it had a history of public service, strong Mage blood, and wealth. However, respect must also be earned on an individual basis. Tallo had it, you didn’t. Your childhood was happy enough, but plagued by illnesses. The local healers said that tainted mana plagued your ears, causing pain. The illnesses forced you to stay home most of the time, so you never really made friends outside of the family. Inside of the family, you got sick of your relatives very quickly, since they all had to come over and take turns caring for you, the unimaginatively codenamed ’sickly one’ of the family. You couldn’t be mad at Tallo, you loved Tallo, and no one could ever be mad at him, but you hated everyone else in your family for their condescension to you. In your adolescence, the ear pains and illnesses subsided, only to be replaced with a discovery that you were unlucky in love - tragically, cataclysmically, apocalyptically unlucky (and such terms are not used lightly in Liberec). The first girl you spent more than a few hours with, after the illnesses had stopped at the age of twelve, was named Ninea. You instantly developed a crush on her. Less than a week later, she got caught in a Healing Storm; the local healers all agreed that the storm caused all of Ninea’s body parts to over-heal, and that is why she died as a result. After the disaster with Ninea, there was Lea, Riatha, Quelluria, Nevya, Una, and Pip, who died from an earthquake, fire, hurricane, another fire, getting lost in a jungle, and another Healing Storm, respectively, each within three months of you falling in juvenile love with them. The next girl you fell for was Ziulle, Tallo’s girlfriend. That was worse than any of the last seven girls. It doesn’t do to think about it. You finally left your youth behind you at 14, when you fell in love with Racha. After a few days of listening to your life-long tale of woe, she asked you to marry her (conned you into eloping, more like). The day after the wedding, she admitted that she was pregnant, not fat and that she had married you for your money and family wealth and respectability only. She said that she hated you, that she’d never met such a bore until now. Just your (absolutely typical) luck, you were stuck with her. Two months later, she had triplets and then she split, disappeared in the middle of the night never to be seen again, leaving the triplets (three of the most colicky babies in all of the mana-blasted country) with you. Of course, your family nearly disowned you for all the shame - marrying a Mundane (and a poor one with no family respectability at that), having three children with no magic talent (despite the fact they were not genetically yours), and then having your new wife up and leave you and disappear - in such a short time. Saar may be wonderful and accepting, but there are limits. You’d just gotten in a routine for taking care of the triplets when it was suddenly time for your Bazaar. Despite all of the

Tibo 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Tibo (Mats Ahlgren) / Character Sheet trouble you had brought upon the family, during the Bazaar your extended family (Storm Mages all) cajoled or bribed or sweet- talked or threatened the Council Storm Mages into guaranteeing you a spot as an apprentice. Clearly, they didn’t trust you to manage to get a spot on your own; frankly, you didn’t trust you either, with your personal history. A spot as a Mage was guaranteed (though through no actions of your own), and you did have lots of natural talent. You shot straight up through all of the achievable ranks of Storm Magic. Maybe your luck was turning around. Maybe. Maybe you’d be like Tallo finally. (It wasn’t that you resented your brother for having the luck you didn’t, per se. . . The difference between the two of you was the fault of the curse. Great Mana damn those voodoo practitioners.) About that time, you found your first true passion - Mageball. You were athletic (keeping in shape had seemed much more important after your childhood of illnesses), and your inherent bad luck didn’t seem to play out on the court. When Vendelin recruited you to join his team, The Mageball Lions, you were so excited. You had finally earned something yourself. The downside was not becoming a Mage. You had let down your family, again. At least you were doing this all on your own, no help from Saar, or your family, or Tallo. About a year later, the hurricane hit. A family of Storm Mages can be a bad thing. It was seven years ago but you remember it vividly. A large hurricane was threatening Saar. The magnitude of the storm required all available Storm Mages to help prevent it from destroying a major town in Saar. Of course, every practicing Mage in your family volunteered for the job- Uncle Merc and Aunt Rosaly, Aunt Nallya and Uncle Garot, Tallo (of course), and Aunt Lenka. They all travelled towards the source of the developing hurricane, but only one returned. Lenka. Why? Why hadn’t you become a Mage? Why couldn’t you help? If only you’d done what your family had asked of you, taken their pity-apprenticeship, you would have learned the last level of Storm Magic and been able to help prevent the hurricane from devastating a part of Saar and from wiping out most of the practicing Storm Mages in your family. It was your damn luck again - it had kept you from helping by blinding you with a passion for Mageball and the hope eternal of the infernal bad luck finally running out for good. Recently, you’ve heard rumors of people across the sea who had tons of good luck. They say, that their luck originated from the sea mother, who smiled upon the boats and ships they sailed across the sea. With the money you had from Mageball, you decided to work on the sea. You bought a ship and began buying and selling merchandise at the different islands on the sea. But, the curse struck you again, and you began getting sick as you spent time on the open sea. So, you decided to leave the sea. Yet, you still command the ship you bought through a Mind Mage you hired. While you can’t be cured of your dreaded luck by the sea mother, at least you could ferry merchandise and make money off of your investment. With sightings of pirates mounting, you should ensure that your Mind Mage is correctly instructed in how to proceed across the sea. A few years later, you had some hope that your luck might be finally turning around – a beautiful girl caused you to fall for her, harder than you fell for the ones before. Femke, the hanger-on for The Mageball Lions. Yet something about her caused another member of the team, Liam, annoyance, and after a Mageball-related injury, he up and quit the team in a huff over some unclear reason, possibly having to do with Femke. You’re not sure what there is to be upset about, as Femke has been sleeping with you and Florian (the team’s Fire Adept), not Liam or anyone else,1 so no one but the two of you should be angsting about it! Maybe this Bazaar, this year, this week, maybe it will turn it all around. Finally. Goals - Stop the curse and get your luck back - Find the voodoo practitioners and exact revenge on them

1You’re so glad she isn’t sleeping with that horrible Maarten, whom you hate.

Tibo 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Tibo (Mats Ahlgren) / Character Sheet

- Prevent a disaster like the hurricane from happening ever again - Find a way for non-apprenticed Mage Candidates to learn the last level of magic anyways, to help with large natural disasters - Improve the standing of your home, Wiltz. - Make money off of your investment in your ship on the open sea - Play Mageball with The Mageball Lions Notes - You are unlucky and always have been. This does not mean that you should necessarily avoid fortunate circumstances as a player, but your character should not notice. You should also plan for bad luck in character, assuming all circumstances will always be against you. Roleplay accordingly. Contacts - ???: The evil perpetrator of the voodoo curse which has haunted you for all your life - Lenka (Joy Perkinson): The current head of your family in Saar. - Eugen (JB Parkes): Your cousin, also from Saar. - Lucia (Ami Greene): Another cousin from Saar (your family is very large). - Vendelin (Ariel Segall): The organizer of The Mageball Lions - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): Your enemy, a fellow member of The Mageball Lions. He has everything you want and might be going after Femke next. - Florian (Jim Waldrop): A strong Fire Adept on The Mageball Lions. He’s nice but somewhat of an airhead. - Stef (Pi Lanningham): A Plant Adept on The Mageball Lions and a specialist in steroids. - Liam (Alex Westbrook): An Animal Adept who quit The Mageball Lions recently for unknown reasons. - Femke (Brogan King): Your hot young lover, a hanger-on of The Mageball Lions. You want her to get on the team for entertainment at away games. (You also want to keep her away from Maarten.)

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - Wiltz- The Mageball Lions

Greensheets - Mageball - Searching for the Cause of the Curse (out-of-game - Navigating and Selling on the High Seas notebook) - Searching for Maarten’s Secrets (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Level 5 Mage- Gossip with the Public

Items - 450 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 2 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 23 - Manaology Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 4 - β: N/A - Mathematics Ability: 5

Tibo 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Valancy (Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson) / Character Sheet

Valancy

“I reject your reality and substitute it for my own.” – Adam Savage “I am prisoner of a gaudy and unlivable present, where all forms of human society have reached an extreme of their cycle and there is no imagining what new forms they may assume.” – Italo Calvino

When you close your eyes, you can’t help but see your room at home in Saar. The room is there, waiting for you to come home from the Bazaar and live out the rest of your days there. As you recall it, you see it around you: putrid yellow walls, still chipped from the temper tantrum as a 7-year-old when Dustin threw Mother’s old jar of ancient potpourri against the wall; tarnished brass basin for hygiene and bladder needs after they had locked up everyone in your room but which Lenka’s spell kept fresh and supplied with clean water; discoloration of the sun-bleached wallpaper above the sink where you used to have a mirror (but then they took it away); the ugly gray-brown hooked rug; the shelf of do-it-yourself herbal remedies for your poor constitution brought over weekly by Tal, the regional Plant Mage; the shelf of ’decorations,’ all too ugly to fit in any other part of the spotless house; and the window, your only connection to anything outside the room. You’ve stared at that room for the better part of every day of your life... until you were unexpectedly given permission to leave for the Bazaar with the Saar delegation. You should have been a Mage candidate last year. You come from a respectable family of Mages (Uncle Andel is on the council this year and Cousin Marn will probably be on the council in a few years). Ansie says that Mother would have gotten you to last year’s Bazaar and she might be able to help you find Mother again if you are helpful and give her the voice and audience she requires. You have been helping Ansie work with the animals outside that wonderful window. She has been trying to use them as her servants through which to speak to the world and to move about the world. She just wants to escape the jail room. Still, you like her idea. Just imagine, giving animals a voice! Dustin starts crying and screaming that he misses Mother. He gets upset anytime anyone in the family gets mentioned. He misses Mother although she has been gone these five years, and he thinks that anyone else in the extended family is either evil for keeping him locked up or cowards for wanting to free him from his prison but being too scared of Uncle Quolbo and Aunt Qualba to say anything about freeing you from their guadianship. However, now that you are free of their house for the duration of the Bazaar, you can do a few things. First, you need to break free of the medication from Tal, the Saar Plant Mage. You know they have been sneaking into your food; you must cleanse your body of its residue while avoiding being given more doses of the medication. Uncle Andel is probably responsible for medicating you for the duration of the Bazaar, but no one from Saar is to be trusted. Second, you need to pass a resolution of your freedom from your family through The Mages’ Council. Third, marriage is a great way to get away from your family. Make sure to marry a boy who is apprenticing somewhere other than Saar. Fourth, your family has always said that if you ever are let out of the house, you will fatally embarrass the family. Prove them wrong by becoming a scholar. (You have no idea what is involved in this, but to keep Dustin from whining about it, you promised you’d figure something out.) Fifth, you need to learn a little bit about the real world. Uncle Quolbo and Aunt Qualba have kept you locked up in that room, sheltered, secreted from the world, for so long that you don’t really know much about how anyone who isn’t a stick-in-the-mud family member or one of your friends acts. Valsidal tells Ansie that she is wrong, that Mother went away so many years ago because she didn’t love you enough, but you don’t pay too much attention because he is in one of his moods. You met him recently- your first new friend in many years- and he is frequently sullen and depressed. He sometimes says things about killing himself. Valsidal said that he lost something when he came to join you and Dustin and Lara and Ansie. The Bazaar is the biggest gathering of people, Mages, and merchants of the year. Maybe someone at the Bazaar will have it. Maybe finding it would make

Valancy 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Valancy (Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson) / Character Sheet

Valsidal become more cheerful. You aren’t entirely sure what type of thing he is looking for, but he will obviously recognize it and tell you, so that doesn’t worry you too much. Lara goes over to calm Dustin. She is the quietest of your friends, and her words always have an ethereal quality to them. You always believe what she says. Lara has told you a great secret- the Fruit of the Great Mana is a false religion. There is truly a single omnipotent and powerful being which rules the universe. It has always had a following, but it has chosen this time, this year, to come out as the one true god of your kind. Greater still, he has chosen Lara as his first prophet. Lara has been writing some religious texts indicating the god’s will. You should continue helping her to write these religious texts and convert the idiots who worship the Great Mana. In fact, new religions sometimes have difficulty becoming established. If you could sell Lara’s writings as ancient texts, perhaps monotheism might gain a lot of worshipers. It shouldn’t be hard, you think; Lara’s message rings true. Why worship a brainless, emotionless, powerless thing when you can worship a sentient being which actually has an effect on your life? Lara has had you join up with Theists, who feel as she does about not worshipping the inanimate mana. She will help strengthen all of their faiths if her prophecies turn up as ancient texts in the Liberec library during the Bazaar. Meanwhile, you may as well help them out with their rituals, putting yourself and Lara in the good graces of the true, sentient, god. She has also had you help out Teenage Girls, with their attempts at making a way to communicate over large distances. You remember the first day you finally got up the nerve to tell your mother about the secret prophecies entrusted to you by Lara. Not only did Mother not believe you about the one true god of people, Mother said some horrible things about Lara and everyone else- about them not being real and while she was happy that you had some ’imaginary friends’ she wanted you to start growing out of it. She said these things while poor Lara was standing right next to you, crying the whole time! Even Dustin got upset enough to throw Mother’s old jar of ancient potpourri against the wall. Which brings you back to where you were, envisioning your jail of a room around you. You don’t want to go back. Goals - Help Ansie create a vessel for herself to more widely spread her plans - Find Valsidal’s item - Help Lara to write the first religious texts for the true monotheistic religion, possibly faking them as older than the Upheaval to give them credibility - Cleanse yourself of your medications and avoid taking any more - Help Teenage Girls construct a way to communicate over long distances quickly - Get official freedom from your family via a The Mages’ Council resolution - Marry an attractive boy who is apprenticing somewhere away from Saar - Become a scholar - Learn the ins and outs of the real world - Acquire an apprenticeship somewhere away from Saar - Never, ever, ever go back Notes - You are severely schizophrenic but unaware of the fact. Any action taken by your ’friends’ Dustin, Lara, Ansie, and Valsidal is performed by your character (although your character will vehemently deny this). Any explicit or implicit suggestion that your friends are not real will upset you greatly and you will refuse to believe it. - You have been sheltered for your entire life. You have virtually no (pre-game) knowledge of drugs, sex, violence, social

Valancy 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Valancy (Jesse Ashcraft-Johnson) / Character Sheet

conventions, or current events. Roleplay accordingly. Contacts - Lenka (Joy Perkinson): A Storm Mage on The Mages’ Council whose family runs most of Saar, she has always been kind to you - Andel (Andy Menard): A Healing Mage on The Mages’ Council and your uncle, probably under orders from your parents to watch you closely, keep you on your medicines, and ’prevent you from getting into trouble’ - Ansie: A friend of yours with a forceful personality who wants to put her consciousness into an animal or other such form in order to spread her message further - Dustin: A petulant, sulky spoiled brat but your oldest friend - Lara: The first prophetess of the true religion and a friend of yours - Valsidal: A moody and sullen teen and a fairly new friend of yours

Memory/Event Packets - Open and draw a random hallucination every hour- Item #1112

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - Theists - Saar

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs- Search word

Items - Conciousness Transfer into a Squirrel (in-game notebook)- 150 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: pendulum, somersault, - Age: 15 flavor, poison berries, reach, food, luck, flexible - α: 7 - β - Manaology Ability: 2 - β: 7 - Mathematics Ability: 7 - Genetics Ability: 6

Valancy 3 Not Transferable

A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer) / Character Sheet

Prince Vavrinec

“Two faces... just like this mirror. Two faces and two minds. Can’t fix them until they’re one. Right? Right?” – Harvey Dent

The Bazaar: the highlight of the year and for many, of their lives. You hate to admit it, but until a few weeks ago, you honestly hadn’t been as excited about it as you expected. After all, living in Wiltz, you’ve been at the Bazaar every year since you were very young. Sure, this is the year you’re a Mage Candidate yourself, but even there, Natalia did this last year. The thought is enough to make you nervous and unhappy, mostly on her behalf. You know she didn’t have the best luck, last year, and in that way, there is something exciting about this year’s Bazaar. Of course, it can’t begin to compare to last year. Last year, instead of spending another tedious ten days in the loud markets of Wiltz, you were privileged enough to travel to the ancient, advanced land of Kusel, full of technology beyond your wildest dreams and magic like you’ve never seen before. If you hadn’t been sent on that trip, you would have been stuck in Liberec instead of getting to see the wonders of a truly civilized empire. Sometimes the memories of the trip itself, the long treks over land and sea to reach their capital, are a little hazy. But you remember that it was wonderous, far beyond anything that provincial old Liberec has. But this year, everything’s different. Your father, Harold has decided at last that you are old enough to start taking a role in the ruling of Liberec. Last year, that meant leaving the safety and security of home to make the necessary overtures of peace to Kusel. You hated to leave then, under normal circumstances, it would have been your Bazaar as a Candidate, and it was Natalia’s turn at it. You knew how nervous she was about it, you knew she needed you, but your father gave an order, and that left you little choice. Besides, you are eager to do what you can for Liberec’s future. The future. So much is at stake, this year. While it’s true that Kusel is a technological marvel like nothing you had seen before, you also know that much of it is a ghost of the past. The best of their weaponry and strength and advances were lost with the Catastrophe just as Liberec’s were. You know that they can’t actually beat Liberec in an all-out war of attrition. However, in such a war, neither side would win. The best you can hope for, for the sake of this ancient bastion of science and technology, is that Liberec will never recognize the true state of their military and resources and never be able to exploit those weaknesses. It would be the greatest tragedy of all, to never see Kusel rise again to its former place in the world, and beyond it. After successfully managing to settle relations enough to get Kusel to send a delegation in return, this year your father has given you even more responsibility than he has before: he passed down the Bronze Key (3836) the Royal Family kept to itself. The very symbol of the crown’s continuing authority in Liberec, you received with it the Royal Family’s place on The Mages’ Council. You’re younger than most are to hold this position, but you’re more than ready. Liberec needs you. With the threat of Kusel invading, as it did before the Catastrophe. regardless of the actual state of their military, and regardless of the sheer power you know the mages can pack in their punch, neither country could really win in any kind of war between the two nations, and you refuse to see Liberec devastated by that. You also refuse to see Kusel ripped apart by that impending war. Even worse, you need to make sure that no one in Liberec finds out that the emperor of Kusel is missing. If anyone knew, they could hit Kusel right where it hurts the most. You are keeping in contact with Elyzha regularly, to make sure that you’re doing what Kusel needs most from you. Besides having the official seat on the Council this year, which would be burden and excitement enough in its own right, this is the year you are finally a Mage Candidate. You would have been last year, alongside Natalia, but for being dragged out to Kusel. As a Candidate, the whole world is open to you. Any kind of magic, any direction to take your life. However, from the time you spent with your great teacher in Kusel, Elyzha, you know what direction you wish to go: to be a Mind Mage like the ones so revered and powerful in Kusel, to stay in contact with them from afar.

Prince Vavrinec 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer) / Character Sheet

After all, it has to be from afar, because your life, duty, and love are all here, in Liberec. You owe it to your people to defend them as a Mage; you owe it to them to serve on the Council in your father’s place if he wishes it. You’ve been trained, all your life, in what Liberec needs to keep running, and even if that duty hadn’t been drilled into you by your father and your aunt Marcela (who can be nice enough, if a little uptight.), you really do love Liberec and want the best for your people. And, of course, its best for the people of Kusel, too, to avoid war. You know some on the Council support it. Officially, the Fruit of the Great Mana demands it so long as Kusel makes use of Magitech (although why they call it a perversion is beyond you, given how much its done for Kusel.) But then, you don’t really care much what the Fruit of the Great Mana thinks. After all, you only really started going to their services in Wiltz regularly for one reason. Natalia. Not that she’s particularly religious. Mana knows she isn’t an atheist or anything, but she’s not particularly pious. But appearing to care about the Fruit of the Great Mana gave you an excuse to go into the city from the royal citadel frequently, and to see her. Mana, she’s beautiful. You can still remember so clearly what it was like, when you first saw her. It was three Bazaars ago, now. The Bazaar has been your favorite time of year, since you met her; it gave you an excuse to spend all your time in the city, getting to know your people and that beautiful, kind, strong girl who saved your skin from a hiding from your aunt that time. It was the first time you’d been allowed to bring your little sister Freda out into the city with you, ever, and the first time you’d been allowed to wander on your own. And that very first time, you were so distracted by the sights you couldn’t even keep an eye on your own kid sister for five minutes. (You found out later she was distracted by a shiny necklace and wandered off – girls.) You remember searching frantically for her, calling her name. Marcela was going to make you wish you were dead if you couldn’t find Freda. You still aren’t sure if you saw her first, or recognized your sister with her first. Either way, nothing else mattered when you saw her. She’s beautiful, there’s no denying that, but the first thing you noticed, what really caught your eye, was how incredible her hair looked in the late-afternoon light. You could have sworn it was a living fire crowning friendly eyes. She didn’t know who you were, or anything at all, and she still helped you and Freda find your ways back to Marcela. Of course, meeting Natalia was nothing like the trip you took to Kusel to meet Elyzha, your great teacher. She is incredible. She’s twice the age or more of the mages on The Mages’ Council, and yet, she’s the most powerful Mind Mage you’ve ever seen, and being Prince of Liberec, you’ve seen a lot of Mages in general, Mind Mages in particular. She’s raised it to an art form unlike anything you’ve ever seen or known before, and its awe-inspiring, even a year since you first met her. She impressed on you, as part of her teaching while you were there in Kusel, the importance of becoming as powerful a Mind Mage as you can. It will help you keep in touch with that incredible realm and lend them aid while you remain here, in Liberec, guiding it to its proper place of tribute to Kusel. After all, its the place Kusel occupied before the Catastrophe hit. If you can do that, you will make the great teacher proud of you. And if you can become that strong a mage, Natalia will be proud of you, too. She’s already on the path to Fire Magic, like her sister, who is now the Head of the Council. It makes you smile a little to think about it. Maybe one day, she’ll be Head too. You can see that, your queen and the leader of the Mages, alongside you. Council and Crown working together in harmony, under your leadership. It’d be beautiful to see that one day. In the three years you’ve known her and fallen in love with her, you’ve never been quite so excited by the prospect of a Bazaar, not even that first one. Of course, you have to convince Harold and Marcela that she’s the right woman for you. (Admittedly, you’re a little worried about that whole Fire Magic thing. but its Natalia’s gift, and you trust her to find a way

Prince Vavrinec 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer) / Character Sheet around the problems of your need for an heir and, um, the rest of it. She wouldn’t hurt you. Yeah, you’re just leaving that whole mess up to her.) Before this year, you never really had any goals at the Bazaar. This year, you do: helping Kusel from the threat of possible Liberecine hostilities, becoming a Mind Mage. And oh yeah, you really ought to figure out how to propose properly to Natalia. Even if your family is not all on board yet. Well, you want marry her, and you want to make sure you do this one right. Goals - Do what is best for Liberec in your place in The Mages’ Council - Ensure that Kusel is protected, and pass through legislation that is best for Kusel - Ensure that you don’t bring shame to your family, and become hired at the Bazaar this year. You’d prefer to become a Mind Mage, but being a Mage is better to not being one at all - Find a way to propose to Natalia in some spectacular way - Use your position on The Mages’ Council in order to increase the power of the Royal Family Notes - Your loyalties lie to both Kusel and Liberec. You will do things, such that they benefit Kusel, no Liberec, no Kusel ... Your loyalties are split, and you will act in the best interests of one or the other. Your loyalties should flip priority throughout the Bazaar. Roleplay accordingly. - Psychlim: You are physically unable to talk about the sorry state of Kusel. If anyone brings it up to you, you will vehemently deny it. Contacts - Natalia (Elizabeth Krueger): Your girlfriend for many years - Elyzha (Sally Guthrie): The strongest Mind Mage in all the world - King Harold (William Lowenthal): Your father, who doesn’t wholly approve of Natalia - Marcela (Jessie Lowell): Your uptight aunt, who doesn’t approve of your relationship with Natalia

Memory/Event Packets - none

Bluesheets - The Mages’ Council - Kusel - Teenage Boys - Fruit of the Great Mana - Wiltz

Greensheets - none

Abilities - Sensitive to Drugs- Gossip with the Public

Items - Bronze Key (3836)- 250 liberyen

Prince Vavrinec 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Prince Vavrinec (Andrew Hyer) / Character Sheet

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: unyielding, blinding, - Age: 16 balance, stuck, slippery, heavy, quiet - α: 2 - Leadership Ability: 2 - β: z - Psychology Ability: 7 - Genetics Ability: 2

Prince Vavrinec 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vendelin (Ariel Segall) / Character Sheet

Vendelin

“We can’t win at home and we can’t win on the road. My problem as general manager is I can’t think of another place to play.” – Pat Williams

“And he SCOOOORES!” Adrenaline is your drug of choice, and you get plenty of it being the manager of The Mageball Lions, one of the top-ranked Mageball teams in all of Liberec. Teams practice in their home regions, and there’s a grand competition shortly before the Bazaar every year. You’ve made it to the finals in all three of the most recent championships, including this year’s, but lost to one team or another in each case. It’s not easy to standardize the rules of a game whose players are separated by what the weather causes to be impossible distances, but Mageball is flexible-minded enough that it works out beautifully. You do love being kept on your toes. “It’s alive?! Oh, Great Mana!” But a man with your exquisite taste for adventure could never confine himself to perfectly legal pursuits. Oh no. The absolute most exciting things in life have to be kept from the public eye, because the public is overly excitable in a very disheartening way. So you don’t tell anyone that you’re a member of an elite group of Dark Mages, that you spend your free nights experimentally raising the dead and figuring out how to become immortal, that you’re secretly plotting to create a magical undead army that can take over Liberec—because wouldn’t that be a wonderful dollop of excitement? You don’t particularly want to rule, but getting there would be such fun. (And you’re really close to that goal now, you think!) Ah, Dark Magic, the culmination of all of the other types of magic in Liberec, the final version – the power over life and death themselves instead of merely over an element of nature. “Uhh . . . okay, Vendelin sir, I can try to come up with 400 liberyen, I do ever so want to be an official Mage Candidate, but that’s an awful hardship for my family . . . ” Your society demands of adventurers either a pure heart or a fat pocketbook. You’ve certainly not got the former, but you’ve been able to finagle yourself into a wonderful position with respect to the latter. Being the manager of The Mageball Lions has gained you a lot of money and notoriety in recent years, notoriety which you’ve exploited to become the official organizer for the entire Bazaar. This means you and you alone are responsible for compiling the official list of Mage Candidates. And while you couldn’t reasonably deny the candidacy of someone from one of Liberec’s premier Mage families, there are plenty of more . . . questionable cases, and only so many slots (or so you tell those unfortunate enough to not have your favor). It’s perfectly reasonable that you give preference to those who grease the wheels, right? Your power makes you more money, which makes you more power, which makes you more money . . . such a delicious cycle. “Ladies and gentlemen, what you’ve all been waiting for—the climactic fight between Fire and Earth!” As organizer of the Bazaar, it falls to you to organize some public events to keep the plebeians engaged. One of your best tools for this is the dueling arena: it has a large stage and plenty of room for spectators, and more importantly, it’s enchanted to prevent spells from causing actual personal harm, which calms The Mages’ Council’s insecurities enough that you’re actually allowed to use it. (You’d love to see similarly cataclysmic battles occurring in the outside world, but that’s what the Dark Mages’ army plans are for.) Each Bazaar’s inevitable weddings are also great opportunities to put on a bit of a spectacle. More opportunities will present themselves, too—you live in the moment (as much as you can in an administrative position) and do an awesome job! “And he makes the goal, but he’s hit—ouch, folks, that’s a bad one. I didn’t know arms could bend like that! But the game marches on . . . ”

Vendelin 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vendelin (Ariel Segall) / Character Sheet

Mageball is a fairly extreme sport—with the tenor of your interests, it could hardly be anything less—and while serious injuries are rare, they do occur. One of your players on The Mageball Lions, Liam, got hit particularly badly near the end of the championship game this year; although the Healing Mages fixed him up to almost good as new within a week, the player’s been getting up there a bit in age, and he took this as his cue to retire. Pah! Now you have to find another player during the Bazaar, probably among the teenagers. The news of this has already made you a minor celebrity; who wouldn’t want to play for a professional Mageball team instead of studying some crusty old magic? There’s a group of teenagers calling themselves The Bronze Pandas that play pickup games every day at 8pm. If you watch them, maybe you’ll notice some amazing talent that’s slipped your eye before now. One of the teenagers, Femke, has been following The Mageball Lions around to all their away games for the past year, and seems to be having a fun time of it. As best you can tell, she’s just bored and looking for excitement, and you can hardly blame her. She showed some talent for Dark Magic as a dabbler in her older sister’s shadow two years ago, and really surprised you with her ability to learn any magic at all at such a young age. She can’t join The Mageball Lions because she’s a girl, but she can definitely be made to do something that’ll benefit you, especially if you bribe her with free registration as an official Mage Candidate. “REMEMBER THE REST OF US!” Mages only make up a tiny portion of Liberec; the rest are Mundanes, and a certain subset of them have always been vocal about asserting rights they believe they’re denied. (Sometimes they’ve come up with the stupidest rallying cries, though.) You don’t have any magical talent that’s not Dark, so society considers you a Mundane too, but you don’t give a damn; it’s easiest to have fun when you blend in with the crowd, and you’d much rather be raising the dead than figuring out how to quell some stupid firestorm up north. In your opinion, the status that Mages get is their just recompense for putting in the work fighting the weather, just like Mageball players put in their work practicing; the fact that only a tiny fraction of the population has the magical ability necessary to become a Mage is no different from the fact that only half the population has the maleness necessary to succeed in Mageball. But you still pay your fair share of attention to the Mundanes’ politicking, and it would be suspicious for such a well-connected Mundane as yourself not to. Who knows? They might even be right. “It just creates . . . nothingness? And can suck things into it? That’s AWESOME!” The Dark Mages have known about Void Magic for quite a long time (the two are very similar to each other in the early stages, but Dark Magic is simply a higher, more advanced version of magic in general), but when a dewy-eyed Mage Candidate [the idiot] brought it to the attention of The Mages’ Council ten years ago, it seemed that all hell had broken loose. The Council was determined to expand and control this newly discovered form of magic. Since then, those two first official Void Mages have had to take on apprentices every year in order to populate a supply of Void Mages. Too bad for them, but a just fine for their massive slip-up in getting exposed. At least they didn’t take down the Dark Mages with them. Just last year and this year, Void Magic is considered pretty routine by The Mages’ Council and the Mage Candidates learning during the Bazaar. This is great, because you’ve been admiring the strength of the Void Mages (for non-Dark Mages, they aren’t bad!) and envying their talents just a little bit. It would be AWESOME to get a Void Adept on your Mageball team! You’d have plays none of the other teams could match, and you’d easily coast your way to victory. It’d be that one last boost you need to actually win the Liberec Mageball Championship for once. And you love winning even more than you love adventures. In the same vein, although a scientific you’re definitely not, you’re interested in research that would be useful in Mageball. The game is won and lost by attacking, so spells that make you a stronger attacker are in high demand. Maybe you could pay someone else to do the research to escape the mind-numbing boredom of doing it yourself, but you’re not sure you trust anyone else that much. And you’d rather have it than not, even if it means (horrors) reading during some of your precious free time. Probably you can convince the members of your team to do their own research into being stronger Mages, even if it doesn’t

Vendelin 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vendelin (Ariel Segall) / Character Sheet end up being useful in the Mageball arena. “Ohhhh, it’s so wonderful and transcendent and sparkly!” Finally, you’re a member of The Order of Mana Connoisseurs, a group dedicated to pursuing that most high and ethereal state of consciousness that’s attainable only by the practice of Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body. It’s mildly addictive, but you’re addicted to adventure anyway, and this is definitely that. And oh, what a wonderful feeling! So very worth it, despite the cost. Life is awesome, and you’re at the center of it having a blast. Go to it! Goals - Organize awesome public events for the Bazaar - Manage the registration of new Mage Candidates (with an appropriate honorarium for yourself, of course) - Find a new player for The Mageball Lions, preferably a Void Mage - Research spells that will help you win at Mageball - Be sufficiently involved in the politics of The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages to keep up appearances - Give yourself regular doses of Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body - Help the Dark Mages raise their undead magical army, and hopefully get immortality for yourself out of the bargain - Seek out new adventures in everything you do Notes - You are the only person in game who can organize public events at the Bazaar, so you should do your best to keep regularity, interest, and variety in what you put on. Your ideas are limited only by out-of-game feasibility; if you want to do something more awesome than your personal resources allow, talk to the GMs. - You are solely responsible for approving late Mage Candidate registration, and can put whatever barriers you want on that (monetary or otherwise, consistent or flexible). Some of the Mage Candidates come from prominent Mage families and have already paid a standard rate for their registration. Because official candidates earn a stipend out of The Mages’ Council funds, the Council requires you to pay them 300 liberyen for each additional candidate you register.1 New candidates should be enrolled on the roster in the Council Room (34-302). Contacts - Petr (Ken Clary): A Mage Candidate who seems to be the leader of The Bronze Pandas - Dana (Allison Schneider): The head of the Dark Mages. Kind of stuffy for your tastes, but extremely skilled and motivated. - Florian (Jim Waldrop): A Fire Adept who’s been with The Mageball Lions for four years. - Tibo (Mats Ahlgren): A Storm Adept who’s been with The Mageball Lions for eight years. - Maarten (Ian Ynda-Hummel): An Earth Adept who’s been with The Mageball Lions for seven years. - Stef (Pi Lanningham): A Plant Adept who was recruited to The Mageball Lions just two years ago. - Liam (Alex Westbrook): An Animal Adept who recently left The Mageball Lions after his injury. - Femke (Brogan King): A member of Dark Mages who also often travels with The Mageball Lions. - Cenek (Andrew Clough): A mind mage from Mons. You’ve been talking to him recently about Iva running for the Head of the Mage’s council. - Erica (Miriam Gershenson): The current head of the Mage’s Council. - Ladislav (Michael Behr) [formerly Dalton]: A former Dark Mage from Saar who owes his youthful body to a Dark ritual his older self performed, although the ritual went a little awry. - Eliska (Gillian Guertin): The recruiter for the army. Make sure you send any late bloomers who don’t get hired to her.

1Give it to the GMs, who will take out an appropriate amount for the candidate’s stipend for the remainder of the Bazaar, and give the rest to the Council.

Vendelin 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vendelin (Ariel Segall) / Character Sheet

Memory/Event Packets - µ

Bluesheets - Dark Mages - The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - The Society for the Advancement of Nonmages - The Mageball Lions - Wiltz

Greensheets - Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body

Abilities - Level 6 Mage- Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521)- 2,000 liberyen

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: N/A - Age: 24 - Leadership Ability: 1 - α: N/A - Biology Ability: 3 - β: N/A - Psychology Ability: 3

Vendelin 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vera (Kim Beder) / Character Sheet

Vera

“Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?” – Christopher Marlowe “Half the night I waste in sighs, in a wakeful doze I sorrow, for the hand, the lips, the eyes, for the meeting of tomorrow.” – A Cinderella Story

Your life was always so-called “perfect.” Wendel is a wonderful place to live, where you know exactly how you can best serve your region and your country because someone else has figured out your particular talents, where everyone does whatever they can for the good of the whole. Your family is powerful and well-off, so you never had to deal with poverty or being viewed as inconsequential. Everyone respected you and your family. Your twin, Roland, was powerful, protective, and everything else you would want in a brother. Your best friends, Terenza and Petr, are the perfect best friends, with you as often as your mutual duties to Wendel would allow. Still. . . there was always something missing, something bigger and better and more exciting, something foreign and exotic and fascinating, something beyond your limited experience. You wanted that missing something so badly you could not only taste it, but also smell it and touch it. Whatever it was, you had to find it. Maybe you’ve found it now. When you’re around Eugen, you don’t feel like something is lacking anymore. But was that what was always lacking? Maybe there were other things, too. Possibly that askew aspect of your life was merely the birth order. You’ve always been the slightly smarter one, the slightly more powerful one, the significantly kinder one, not Roland, for all the good that did you. In Wendel, the eldest sibling inherits the primary privileges, burdens, and responsibilities of the family’s children, not the most qualified. Of course, you understand that the inherent ability of a child cannot easily be determined for years, by which time Roland had already been well established as the heir to your family’s privileges and duties. It should have been you, though. Roland had to spend extra hours each day with a tutor for history and politics, as your family is the most important family in Wendel and it was expected that he would someday take up an important political or governmental role within Wendel, possibly leading the region personally. In addition, your family is comprised primarily of Earth Mages for the benefit of Wendel, so Roland had been preparing to study Earth Magic at the Bazaar and then apprentice under your aunt, Sabina, in Wendel. As much as you love Roland, he was only born an hour earlier than you were, making him the eldest sibling by the slimmest margin. If only you’d been a little more aggressive as a fetus... In fact, you’ve had a brilliant idea. Although everywhere in Liberec, men and women are equal, the girls you’ve known in Wendel have always far outstripped the boys in natural talent and ability. It would be great if you could convince The Mages’ Council to declare Wendel or, better yet, all of Liberec, to be a matriarchal society. If you do favors for the right Mages, it is probably possible. That would make Wendel an even better place to live than it already is! However, there were some benefits to Roland being given these responsibilities. Despite your natural talent, you were always left much freer than Roland to pursue your own courses of action and magic. Once, you even found a nice Bronze necklace (6328) while walking around Wendel. You’ve kept it hidden all this time, waiting until you you felt it was appropriate. Now, for your Bazaar you’ve decided to bring it with you just in case. Still, there was pressure to perform well. After all, your family is the first family of Wendel. You started using Ebullaqa (9375) at a young age to please your parents and elders with how quickly you learned and how clever you were. Using Ebullaqa (9375) helped a lot with your studies, but unfortunately you became addicted to it. It was your first brief sight into that other world filled with the unfamiliar and enticing that you so crave. Your experiences with Ebullaqa (9375) have inspired you to possibly become a Plant Mage. As a Plant Mage, you could legally grow and experiment with plants to create more transcendence-inducing and ability-enhancing mixes. To start, you would

Vera 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vera (Kim Beder) / Character Sheet like to research some basic mixes of plants along these lines while here at the Bazaar. This freedom also brought you your two amazing best friends, Terenza and Petr, and a lot of popularity (well, you had so much more free time to talk to other children your age than Roland did, and your family’s reputation gains you entrance into any respectable social circle, and quite a few that weren’t quite so respectable). Your social graces have helped you be one of the most important Teenage Girls at this Bazaar. Due to this, you really want the long-distance communication research to succeed. It will allow you to still talk to your friends anytime you want after you’ve been separated from your bosom friends as well as continue fanning the flames of your rising popularity. Also, it will allow you to talk to Eugen, that adorable boy, even more than you could otherwise! Then you’ll never really be apart. Ooh, you like that. At a young age, you discovered the use of mana for a rush of strange, exotic feeling. Even nonmages can use mana this way. In your search for more ways to use mana for such a high, you eventually discovered The Order of Mana Connoisseurs, a secret organization dedicated to perfecting the craft of that same thrilling exercise. However, even your discovery of The Order of Mana Connoisseurs did not halt your your ongoing search for new ways to experience that wonderful feeling. Your recent experimentation has yielded an interesting device, the Glowing Box (2139). It is capable of attracting mana in a small area to itself, making that area difficult to use for casting spells or using magical abilities, but greatly increasing the effect of allowing the mana to flow through your body, doubling the normal high. It was a true piece of genius, if you must say so yourself. Using it and the finely tuned techniques of The Order of Mana Connoisseurs, you got a high that even caught you a glimpse of that foreign, exotic piece that has always been missing from your life. You must have more of it. Unfortunately, the Glowing Box (2139) has since been lost. You know you packed it for coming to the Bazaar to show off to your fellow members of The Order of Mana Connoisseurs, but you haven’t seen it since carefully packing it into the wagon carefully hidden under some extra stores of food on the way to the Bazaar. After arriving at the Bazaar and finding your room, you casually wandered back by the Wendel wagon and, to your utter dismay, the Glowing Box (2139) was gone. If you ever hope to achieve that spectacular high again, you need to find that. Since arriving at the Bazaar, you’ve also been helping the Mana Cartographers research the mana levels in the country. Terenza dragged you into helping them. As much as you adore Terenza, their research is pretty boring. You’ve been at the Bazaar barely a day, but already your life has changed immeasurably. You met Eugen. He truly is perfect, the perfect boy. You were eyeing a pastry stall speculatively when you met Eugen. He asked you if he could do you the honor of buying you a snack, and he was so nice about it (and his smile so friendly) you had to say yes. He took you to the fountain to eat, and sit and talk, and you were surprised to discover you really enjoyed talking to him. After all, he was a boy-sure, Petr was one of your best friends, but it wasn’t the same kind of talking. You’d never had too much fun talking to Roland and his friends, as much as you love your brother. But Eugen was different. He paid attention to you like most people paid attention to Roland, and being around him gave you that wonderful, bizarre and glamorous feeling that you’ve always been seeking. There was a bad moment when you found out he was in the Storm Mage family from Saar, but he wasn’t uncivilized and ignorant like you’d always heard. Still, you allowed Eugen to walk you back to your room. Mere hours later, you were supposed to meet Roland for some magical sparring in preparation for the start of the Bazaar in the morning, but when you finally found him, he was limp and crumpled on the ground, already dead. Sobbing, you fell to your knees and started shouting for help. One of the first people to rush to your aid was Eugen, thank goodness, who let you cling to him instead of to your twin’s dead body while the Healing Mages tried to revive Roland. Sadly, it was too late. You took his favorite object, a Bronze Key (3836), from his body to remember him by. The head of the police in Wiltz, Dominik, gave the scene a cursory glance and said that the air in Wiltz clearly hadn’t agreed with Roland. Perhaps Roland had been hit by a bad mindquake. Bullshit. He was always healthy, and nothing ever went wrong with him. Something bad happened to him. Dominik clearly cannot be trusted to actually investigate Roland’s death. Aunt

Vera 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vera (Kim Beder) / Character Sheet

Sabina has been helping you carry out your own investigation, and Eugen has been supporting your efforts and comforting you in this your time of loss. (Actually, hmm, this whole “time of loss” thing could be used to garner even more popularity for yourself. You really do miss Roland, but this merits serious consideration.) You already know you’re falling in love with Eugen-although your brother’s death is putting a damper on your outlook. But you won’t let even trying to find out how your magically talented brother could have died get in the way of spending time with Eugen. After all, Roland would want you to be happy. Goals - Find out what happened to Roland. - Avoid getting Roland’s duties as the family’s eldest child dumped on you. - Marry Eugen. - Become a Plant Mage and create new mind-expanding and exotic drugs. - Find the Glowing Box (2139) and use it to help yourself and The Order of Mana Connoisseurs achieve better and more intense highs from mana flowing through your body. - Make sure the communication devices the Teenage Girls are creating succeed. - Push a bill for a matriarchal society for Wendel or all of Liberec through The Mages’ Council. Notes - You are addicted to Ebullaqa (9375) and will generally accept it and any other learning drug offered to you in hopes of catching a glimpse of the exotic world you lack. The recipe for Ebullaqa (9375) is: Sorrel Wood (7002)Lily of the Valley (7851)Echinacea (7973) - You love living in Wendel and will attempt to do so if possible. Contacts - Eugen (JB Parkes): The love of your life whom you recently met at the Bazaar. - Sabina (Fangfei Shen): Your aunt and a Mage on The Mages’ Council. She has been helping you investigate Roland’s death. - Petr (Ken Clary): One of your two best friends. - Terenza (Lydia Krasilnikova): Your other best friend who dragged you to your first introduction to the Mana Cartographers. - Roland (Xavid Pretzer): Your magically talented twin, recently dead under mysterious circumstances. - Kristof (Jay Muchnij): Roland’s best friend.

Memory/Event Packets - Open at game start- Item #2139

Bluesheets - Teenage Girls - The Order of Mana Connoisseurs - Wendel - Mana Cartographers

Greensheets - Allowing the Mana to Flow Through the Body

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs - Search word - Psychlim: True Love - Search word

Vera 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Vera (Kim Beder) / Character Sheet

Items - Bronze necklace (6328) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Bronze Key (3836) - 200 liberyen - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: impossible, breeze, - Age: 15 stream, poison berries, sleepy, heavy, color - α: 6 - Research Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Biology Ability: 7 - Engineering Ability: 5

Vera 4 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Zdenko (Carter Huffman) / Character Sheet

Zdenko

“Adolescence: A stage between infancy and adultery.” – Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary, 1911 “I usually lump organized religion, organized labor, and organized crime together. The Mafia gets points for having the best restaurants.” – Dave Beard “Does age poison us, or do we poison age?” – Astrid Alauda

You’ve heard it all before. “Life is hard in Liberec.” “Those poor, poor street urchins!” “Here kid, here’s a couple of liberyen. You look like you need it.” Worst is the simple “I pity you, kid.” Speaking of that, you hate HATE HATE being called ’kid.’ Your life sucks. Of course it does. The last thing you need is some idiotic but well-meaning adult pointing that out to you and broadcasting it to the world. How does life suck? Let’s count the ways. Your whore of a mother abandoned you in the streets of Wiltz, not even bothering to find a nice church doorstep of Fruit of the Great Mana to leave you on, before you were a year old. Having a baby around probably interfered with her clientele. A few days later, luckily before you starved to death, you were found by the 3-year-old Andrea who brought you home for Great Mana knows what reason. (And she’s called you “little brother,” also for Great Mana knows what reason, ever since.) Andrea and her sister Agata took care of you the best they could considering they were also living on the streets of Wiltz with no source of income. At least they were family. You and Andrea have always been as close as if you were actually siblings, and she’s also your best and most trusted friend. Agata isn’t a bad sort either, even though she is an adult. Even if there was nothing to eat, they were your family. About a year after Andrea found you as a baby, Agata was tired of not having food or a place to live. One day she came home and announced that she had found a source of income and that no one was to disturb her plants hidden behind a boulder at the end of the dirt alley you called home. Years later, when you were eleven, Agata was called away for a few years in her capacity as a Mage of Liberec to serve in Oldenburg. She was unable to send any money. After a couple of months with no income, after you broke your leg and couldn’t help steal from the merchants, Andrea found her own source of income. On her thirteenth birthday, she started selling herself. She’d gotten offers before; she has always been the most beautiful woman in the world. Prostitution took a hard toll on her, but at least you both could eat again. As soon as you could, you started training to be better, faster, stronger. Any food that you could steal or civilians you could rough up for money... that meant a few less times Andrea had to come home crying, or hurt, or bruised. Last year was Andrea’s Bazaar. She was fifteen and very excited (she even had hope of getting hired because her sister had been hired at her Bazaar nine years before). You were so proud of her. While Andrea was off in the deep reaches of the forest improving her magic, you were networking. You found some other teenagers as dissatisfied with their lot in life as you were - Cecilia, a dark eyed and dark souled candidate with no apprenticeship offers; Kveta, the strongest and most athletic person you’ve ever met from a nonmagical family in Mons with less money than yours and eight children; and Eugen, a strong Mage from a good family which was all lost in a major disaster. They all wanted a better life in the future, and they all needed someone to trust. You had a brilliant idea. With the four of you working together, you should be able to steal, extort, blackmail, and employ lies and trickery very effectively, bringing in more money than you’d ever seen before in your life. With money comes power, and with power will come that better life that you all so deserve after your unacceptably meager existences until now. You have

Zdenko 1 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Zdenko (Carter Huffman) / Character Sheet even named yourselves, the Templars of the Black Cross. The Templars of the Black Cross really is your family, as much as Andrea is. You won’t desert them or the goals you have set out for them for anything; as long as the four of you completely trust each other and look out for each other, you have a much better chance of surviving anything political, personal, or weather-related than anyone else in this whole damned country. Even if the Catastrophe were to come again, that would be no big deal. The Templars of the Black Cross will just make sure to take power and fix the world afterwards. Once you had created the Templars of the Black Cross, you realized that you were the mastermind behind the whole thing, and that it was a rather brilliant plan. The old fogeys on The Mages’ Council, who were at that moment choosing not to hire Andrea (the best and most talented Mage Candidate there ever was) and fix both of your lives forever, could not compete in intellect. It was as if all of your lifelong disdain for adults came to a point right at the moment you realized this. The adults are steering Liberec into the ground by being in charge. Life is hard here not because the weather sucks but because the adults are mismanaging the situation and their resources! It would be different if you were in charge, or any teenagers for that matter. You must cause this to happen. One of the worst things the adults on The Mages’ Council have been doing was spearheaded by a Mage named Julius. Not only was he trying to push through resolutions which allowed Mages to stay on The Mages’ Council after they lost their magic, which would cause the Council to get older and older and never get the change that it would require to save the world, but he was campaigning against the rights of second-chance Mage candidates. Andrea needed that second chance! Being a late bloomer is not a crime and should not be punished. In fact, some of the best Mages in Liberec history have been late bloomers! Of course, any late bloomers greatly affecting Liberec history wouldn’t be written up in the history books. You need to convince the reporters around the Bazaar to write articles about these unknown greats among the late-bloomers and sway public opinion towards supporting late-bloomers. If there were any ways of adding such stories into the record books, then you could ’prove’ to the idiotic Council that they shouldn’t be ignoring or underestimating the late bloomers, like Julius had been. Julius was screwing up all your plans. You had to do something about this. About the time you realized this, your own magic ability had started (you are so lucky that you are an early bloomer). You hid in or connived your way onto convoys headed out to Saar two months ago and found Julius’s house. While you were trying to figure out what to do and how to squelch his politics, you visited him at his house. He was sick and in bed, having just gotten over the worst of the flu, and you got angry while arguing with him. After the fight, you watched him sleep for a while. You were SO ANGRY! You found yourself subconsciously doing magic, of what sort you did not know, but Julius slowly sank deeper into his pillows, succumbed to the flu, and never got up again. As you left, you picked up the Bronze Key (3836) on the table beside him. If that’s what killing someone is like, it’s surprisingly easy to do. Getting away with it is even easier. You aren’t officially able to use magic until (and unless) you are hired as a Mage, and what’s more is that it is impossible to invisibly kill someone with magic. Burn them to death, sure, but not this. Then what did you do? You’re determined to find out. It’s bound to give you an edge in achieving your other goals. Now that you know that you are an early bloomer, there is no reason to not try for this Bazaar (especially now that Julius is out of the way). Since this is the case, there are a few other things which you should do during the Bazaar. First, you need to become an official Mage Candidate. Vendelin is in charge of that, so you need to find out from him what you and Andrea need to do to become official candidates. It usually involves finding a sponsor of some kind. Second, once you become an official Mage Candidate and have all of the resources and contacts you’re likely to get from that, you may as well actually look for your family. Even though you know that your mother is probably a whore in one of the city brothels, or worse, on the city streets, maybe your father is important. Magic ability is hereditary, and you’re a very strong mage, so one of your parents must have been somebody. Also, revenge on those who abandoned you would be sweet after all of these years living on the streets of Wiltz.

Zdenko 2 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Zdenko (Carter Huffman) / Character Sheet

Third, the teenage boys at this Bazaar have some unofficial competitions going. Social standing is key to your plans to eventually take over political power for yourself or the Templars of the Black Cross, so be sure to impress your peers among the boys by your performances in these silly little competitions. The recognition means more than even you will admit. Speaking of such romance, you’ve spotted quite the girl here at the Bazaar, Terenza. She is one of the most intelligent people you have ever met. If she turns out to be trustworthy, or if you can get her to fall in love with you, perhaps you can bring her into your network of trust. That would be heavenly. Finally, in hoping to get some contacts among the Council Mages, you have joined a group that is attempting to map the mana in Liberec, Mana Cartographers. Mapping mana is pretty boring but worth it if you can gain the trust of a few more people. You’ve already made a huge step towards doing so by offering to help out Nikolai with his data collection (you just got bored mail carriers to take readings as they went about their routes), but he’d be even more indebted to you if you were the one to figure out the pattern behind the data. Social standing and favors are the true currencies of the world. Goals - Promote the interests of the Templars of the Black Cross and help the teenagers, especially yourself, gain political power. - Get hired as a Mage at the Bazaar. - Get Andrea hired as a Mage at the Bazaar. - Figure out how you killed Julius under such impossible circumstances, but prevent anyone else from finding out about it. - Help create a better world for Andrea, the Templars of the Black Cross, and anyone else you consider family. - Find proof that some of the best Mages in Liberec history have been late bloomers. - Prevent anti-teenager politics from becoming law. Instead, attempt to instate teenagers in The Mages’ Council. - Get news reports issued and try to prove that late bloomers have been some of Liberec’s best Mages through whatever sneaky means you can. - Find out who your parents were and under what conditions you were abandoned. - Participate in the Teenage Boys’ competitions and acquire as much social standing from those as you can manage. - Notes - Your home is a Alley, located in 37-5. Contacts - Andrea (Laura McKnight): Your sister and best friend who is helping support your family through prostitution. You want to give her a better, easier life. - Agata (Lauren Chai): Andrea’s older sister and a Mage and drug dealer, recently returned from an assignment to Oldenburg - Cecilia (Ceres Lee): Your lieutenant for the Templars of the Black Cross on her second attempt at the Bazaar. - Kveta (Cassie Huang): Your main strength for the Templars of the Black Cross, an athletic and strong girl. - Eugen (JB Parkes): A dissatisfied and bitter son of a noble family and a good source of connections to money and power for the Templars of the Black Cross. - Julius (Mark Mascaro): A Mage who was taking away the rights of teenagers until you silenced him forever. - Terenza (Lydia Krasilnikova): A highly skilled Mage Candidate you’d really like to get to know better. - Nikolai (Alex Arkhipov): The leader of Mana Cartographers. - Theodore (Halftime Peairs): Agata’s best friend.

Memory/Event Packets - none

Zdenko 3 Not Transferable A Drop of Rain / February 2011 Zdenko (Carter Huffman) / Character Sheet

Bluesheets - Teenage Boys - Wiltz - Templars of the Black Cross - Mana Cartographers

Greensheets - Dueling- Searching for your family (out-of-game notebook)

Abilities - Desensitized to Drugs - Search word - Level 1 Mage - Search word - Twisted Healing - Gossip with the Wiltz Street Teens - Gossip with the Public

Items - Mortar and Pestle (5521) - Cartographic Mana Survey Data (in-game document) - Bronze Key (3836) - Coordinate Map of Liberec (in-game document) - Dueler’s Training (in-game notebook) - 50 liberyen - The Art of Agile Dueling (in-game notebook)

Stats - Combat Rating: 1 - Sneaks: back, steam, balance, - Age: 14 swift, listening, lazy, quicksand - α: 5 - Leadership Ability: 2 - β: N/A - Lore Ability: 5 - Logic Ability: 5

Zdenko 4 Not Transferable