In Dreams You Will Lose Your Heartache
Mar. 5th, 2025 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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jennafansThis is a Gold Quest Set about a dreamer living in a bad place. They face trouble and heartbreak, but their dreams give them a moment of pure and wondrous joy. From that moment they find the strength to change their life for the better.
For this Quest Set, the player will need several narrative elements:
Additionally, this Quest Set is ten points shy of the standard 120 XP needed to complete an Arc. You can introduce an Any-Time Chibi Quest (CMWGE 450) to fill the remaining XP.
During the first and second Quests, you might introduce a…
During the third Quest, you might introduce a…
During the fourth Quest, you might introduce a…
Time to Start Another Day
25 XP Quest
You're living in a bad place. The people who should be caring for you, looking after you and advising you? They're using you for their own ends when they aren't neglecting you. It's hard and there doesn't seem to be any way forward for you, so you're just keeping your spirits up and trying to find the beauty in the moment. You sing songs while you clean, you dream of brighter days. You imagine what it would be like to be someone important, someone significant and happy.
You dream of a charmed life that could have been, while you live in the ashes.
Major Goals
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
Reward: There's a social event that holds incredible potential to transform your life if you were ever able to attend.
Perks
Mundane Perks appropriate for this Quest are:
25 XP Quest
This quest is about your reaction to this chance to realize your dreams. It's about how it intrudes on your life. It's about how you consider it, ponder it, test it against your life and heart. It's about the arguments that play out inside of your heart as you grapple with it.
Ultimately, you choose to take a risk here. You choose to believe in your dreams and yourself. You step beyond wistful imagining and try to bring one of your dreams to life. However, your life is not fair or just. It's not charmed and effortless.
So once you actually take the steps you need to get there, the people who mistreat you tear it all down around you. It's terrible. It's painful, but it's what happens.
…but it's not how this story ends.
Major Goal
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
Quest Flavor
Result: In the darkest moment, once you are alone, divine providence finds you. Something beautiful and gracious and wonderful happens, and it gives you a chance to seize the opportunity in spite of the injustice you've faced.
Perks
Mundane Perks appropriate for this Quest include:
30 XP Quest
This quest is about the whirl of beauty and strangeness that cascades outwards from your decision. The social event -the ball, fundraiser, cotillion or recital- is wonderful and totally outside of your context. It's bright and colorful and fun and magical.
It's as beautiful as you always dreamed. You throw yourself into it and it's not easy but it is so very right. You face your abusers and they don't even recognize you, so profound is the change this context brings. You can laugh at them, snub them, ignore them- it doesn't matter because they have no power here.
The whirl of light and color is disorientating. The attention is profoundly bizarre and the way people hang on your words and admire your actions is downright unreal. Sometimes, you have to step away into a silent hall or darkened garden just to breathe and make sure that you haven't actually drifted away into a dream.
But still, you navigate the confusion and you build harmonies from the noise.
Then you meet someone important. They're a Person of Significance. They matter in a deep and enduring way in this place you find yourself. Maybe they're part of it, or above it, or the source of it- but they mean something here now and they'll always mean something, even when you have to tear yourself away from this dream.
You form a bond that holds the promise of something enduring and meaningful, but then your charmed life begins to come to a close. The wondrous gift that allowed you to be here in this place begins to come undone and you have to return to your old life.
Major Goals
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
Quest Flavor
Result: When this quest comes to a close, you return to your normal life. However, when you are still giddy from the joy of the moment a terrible thing happens- one of your abusers returns and figures it out.
Perks
Mundane Perks that are appropriate include:
Whatever You Wish For, You Keep
30 XP Quest
This is a struggle you face. It's a conflict with your abusers that is rising in intensity. You're being imprisoned by them. The consequences and metaphorical shape of their actions take on overtly supernatural elements- the situation becomes more fantastical the more dire it is.
At first, the context of this struggle is just over their indigence at your attempt to be joyful and free from their cruelty. They treat the injustice of your life as right and proper, and they accuse you of moral crime. They lay tasks and chores on you that escalate from difficult, but conventional, to impossible and folkloric. They ask you to mend a thousand dresses in a night, or fix a purposefully shattered mirror to perfection. When you fail, their punishments are draconian and surreal and become all the worse if you ever have the temerity to succeed.
Which you do, sometimes. It's impossible and wonderful- but sometimes you do an impossible thing.
This quest comes to a head when the Person of Significance arrives. They're looking for you, using something you left behind on the night you met. Your abusers try to trick them, but they lack your art, skill, talent or other virtue.
In an attempt to deny you utterly the chance for joy, they destroy the evidence rather than allow you to prove yourself, only for you to reveal the twin, pair or companion of the thing being used to find you.
Major Goals
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
Quest Flavor
Someone or something impossible or unlikely comes to your aid.
The world becomes strange and surreal.
You somehow find joy in the moment, despite the terrors and difficulties.
You are imprisoned by fantastic means.
Result: You endure, defeat or otherwise survive the dangers and challenges you faced. You leave with the Person of Significance and your life is changed forever.
Perks
Mundane Perks that are appropriate include:
Miraculous Perks that are appropriate include:
For this Quest Set, the player will need several narrative elements:
- A set of cruel people who mistreat the character.
- A hidden virtue or unrealized potential talent.
- A social event that acts as a major turning point in the story and is heavily identified with the character’s wishes and dreams.
- A Person of Significance who has the power to change their life utterly.
Additionally, this Quest Set is ten points shy of the standard 120 XP needed to complete an Arc. You can introduce an Any-Time Chibi Quest (CMWGE 450) to fill the remaining XP.
During the first and second Quests, you might introduce a…
- Work and Study Quest about your hidden virtue or potential talent, art or similar endeavor.
- As an alternative, this can also be about building a bond with a group of creatures- animals, small faeries, urchins or the like. These characters are more often in trouble than any help, but they mean well.
- Background Quest about grappling with the grief of death, either a dead caregiver, friend or a metaphorical kind of death, like imagining the person one of the character’s abusers could have been if they were kinder, or imagining a life that could have been lived.
- Melodramatic Quest about your dreams, where you exclaim or remark about how wonderful things could be, should be or would be, if only your wishes came true.
During the third Quest, you might introduce a…
- Paradigmatic Quest about the meaning and import of various traditions and/or activities.
- Melodramatic Quest about laughing and enjoying the moment.
During the fourth Quest, you might introduce a…
- Paradigmatic Quest about the possible solution to some impossible task.
- Work and Study Quest about how you (casually) overcome trials, tribulations and punishments.
- Symbolic Quest.
Time to Start Another Day
25 XP Quest
You're living in a bad place. The people who should be caring for you, looking after you and advising you? They're using you for their own ends when they aren't neglecting you. It's hard and there doesn't seem to be any way forward for you, so you're just keeping your spirits up and trying to find the beauty in the moment. You sing songs while you clean, you dream of brighter days. You imagine what it would be like to be someone important, someone significant and happy.
You dream of a charmed life that could have been, while you live in the ashes.
Major Goals
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
- A song comes to mind and you give it life.
- A grave injustice befalls you.
- You treat something small, helpless or unfortunate with kindness.
- You engage in simple, honest work.
- You talk about, sing about or otherwise vocalize your dreams and wishes.
- Small animals gather around you.
Reward: There's a social event that holds incredible potential to transform your life if you were ever able to attend.
Perks
Mundane Perks appropriate for this Quest are:
- A level 1 Bond related to your dreams and wishes; or,
- A Skill Trick related to your hidden talents.
- A similar Bond; or,
- A Power Up Perk for the skill most related to your hidden talents
25 XP Quest
This quest is about your reaction to this chance to realize your dreams. It's about how it intrudes on your life. It's about how you consider it, ponder it, test it against your life and heart. It's about the arguments that play out inside of your heart as you grapple with it.
Ultimately, you choose to take a risk here. You choose to believe in your dreams and yourself. You step beyond wistful imagining and try to bring one of your dreams to life. However, your life is not fair or just. It's not charmed and effortless.
So once you actually take the steps you need to get there, the people who mistreat you tear it all down around you. It's terrible. It's painful, but it's what happens.
…but it's not how this story ends.
Major Goal
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
- You decide to pursue this chance even though it's scary.
- Your abusers ruin your work and effort.
Quest Flavor
- You make a mistake, slip up or otherwise fail a basic chore or task for you.
- You try to hide things, mislead someone or make excuses.
- You spend time making (and resolving) excuses with something inanimate or unspeaking.
- You work towards the dreams in your heart.
Result: In the darkest moment, once you are alone, divine providence finds you. Something beautiful and gracious and wonderful happens, and it gives you a chance to seize the opportunity in spite of the injustice you've faced.
Perks
Mundane Perks appropriate for this Quest include:
- Rewriting an Affliction into a form that reflects the gifts of divine providence,
- A Connection Perk at level 1-2 to the Person of Significance, due to fate’s meddling,
- A new Magical Technique reflecting grace, beauty or artful skill; or,
- A Power-Up Perk that allows you to give one of your mundane skills a supernatural twist. 1-2x/Book you can treat that Skill as a level 2 Superior Skill for the duration of a scene. In addition to its other effects, spending a Recharge Token automatically refreshes your available uses of this power.
- An MP Perk,
- Picking up a new Affliction tied to this Arc that reflects the gifts of divine providence; or,
- A level 1 Superior Skill Perk related to your potential and virtues.
30 XP Quest
This quest is about the whirl of beauty and strangeness that cascades outwards from your decision. The social event -the ball, fundraiser, cotillion or recital- is wonderful and totally outside of your context. It's bright and colorful and fun and magical.
It's as beautiful as you always dreamed. You throw yourself into it and it's not easy but it is so very right. You face your abusers and they don't even recognize you, so profound is the change this context brings. You can laugh at them, snub them, ignore them- it doesn't matter because they have no power here.
The whirl of light and color is disorientating. The attention is profoundly bizarre and the way people hang on your words and admire your actions is downright unreal. Sometimes, you have to step away into a silent hall or darkened garden just to breathe and make sure that you haven't actually drifted away into a dream.
But still, you navigate the confusion and you build harmonies from the noise.
Then you meet someone important. They're a Person of Significance. They matter in a deep and enduring way in this place you find yourself. Maybe they're part of it, or above it, or the source of it- but they mean something here now and they'll always mean something, even when you have to tear yourself away from this dream.
You form a bond that holds the promise of something enduring and meaningful, but then your charmed life begins to come to a close. The wondrous gift that allowed you to be here in this place begins to come undone and you have to return to your old life.
Major Goals
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
- You wield power over your abusers for the first time.
- You are appreciated for your art, skill or some other unappreciated virtue.
- You meet and form a bond with the Person of Significance.
Quest Flavor
- Describe the overwhelming grandeur and beauty of your surroundings.
- Reveal a new facet of the gift that brought you here.
- Engage with the people in a joyful and artful way- dancing their dances or singing their songs.
- See something you've always dreamed of and mention how much it means to you.
Result: When this quest comes to a close, you return to your normal life. However, when you are still giddy from the joy of the moment a terrible thing happens- one of your abusers returns and figures it out.
Perks
Mundane Perks that are appropriate include:
- Rewriting a Skill, Bond or Affliction to reflect the power of your wishes; or,
- A Connection to the social context of the Quest.
- An MP Perk; or,
- A Power-Up Perk: Improve a Skill reflective of your hidden talents or potential by +1.
Whatever You Wish For, You Keep
30 XP Quest
This is a struggle you face. It's a conflict with your abusers that is rising in intensity. You're being imprisoned by them. The consequences and metaphorical shape of their actions take on overtly supernatural elements- the situation becomes more fantastical the more dire it is.
At first, the context of this struggle is just over their indigence at your attempt to be joyful and free from their cruelty. They treat the injustice of your life as right and proper, and they accuse you of moral crime. They lay tasks and chores on you that escalate from difficult, but conventional, to impossible and folkloric. They ask you to mend a thousand dresses in a night, or fix a purposefully shattered mirror to perfection. When you fail, their punishments are draconian and surreal and become all the worse if you ever have the temerity to succeed.
Which you do, sometimes. It's impossible and wonderful- but sometimes you do an impossible thing.
This quest comes to a head when the Person of Significance arrives. They're looking for you, using something you left behind on the night you met. Your abusers try to trick them, but they lack your art, skill, talent or other virtue.
In an attempt to deny you utterly the chance for joy, they destroy the evidence rather than allow you to prove yourself, only for you to reveal the twin, pair or companion of the thing being used to find you.
Major Goals
The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when...
- You face an impossible task and somehow succeed in the face of it.
- You escape, endure or otherwise cope with some fantastical punishment.
- You reunite with the Person of Significance by revealing something from your dream that you cherished and kept alive.
Quest Flavor
Someone or something impossible or unlikely comes to your aid.
The world becomes strange and surreal.
You somehow find joy in the moment, despite the terrors and difficulties.
You are imprisoned by fantastic means.
Result: You endure, defeat or otherwise survive the dangers and challenges you faced. You leave with the Person of Significance and your life is changed forever.
Perks
Mundane Perks that are appropriate include:
- A Hax Perk that reflects the powers gained by your persistent struggle, or which reflect the person you are going to become now that you’re freed from your previous life,
- An MP Perk; or,
- An Accessory that is either the thing which proves your identity, or a related part of the paraphernalia or outfit of your third Quest.
Miraculous Perks that are appropriate include:
- A miraculous Power that allows you to perform some kind of impossible feat related to one of the trials you faced,
- A Health Level or MP Perk,
- A level 4 Bond Perk that relates to the changes you went through, or the inner strength you now possess; or,
- An Affliction tied to this arc that represents the potential you (or your dreams) still yet hold to change the world.
