SALEM "The only thing worse than a witch hunt...is a witch." *** The Lie Times are not good for witches in colonial Salem, Massachusetts. The daughters of Salem are being scratched and bitten by an invisible attacker in their sleep; the crops are mysteriously wilting and dying; strange animals have been spotted lurking in the shadows at night. The young, overzealous Reverend Cotton Mathers has whipped the town into a frenzy, blaming their recent problems on a secret coven of demonic witches who are trying to destroy their way of life. Friends are turning against friends, neighbors are turning against neighbors - the Witch Trials have begun. The Truth Witches are among the God-fearing citizens of Salem, but they are not the ones causing the problems. The witches came to the New World to escape the witch-burning's flaring up in Ireland and Europe; they would not risk their safety just to torture the normal folk of Salem. So, the question is: who is really causing the problems? Is there another witch they don't know about, someone no-one would suspect? Or is it something else altogether? Either way, they must put their heads together and find the culprit - before their heads are taken from them by the executioner. Plot Our story begins as all the good witches meet in the woods in the dead of night to discuss what to do about the ominous happenings in Salem. Goody Sarah (the oldest and wisest witch) has a few ideas about who the culprit could be and she wants to hear their opinions. In your first post, describe your journey into the woods for the secret meeting. Game-play Each character has three magickal powers unique to them, called 'Talents'. Your character's Talents can be anything you can dream of, as long as they are not overpowered. You will begin the game with 60 points, and every time you use your Talents it will deduct points. Your Lower Talent will cost 10 pts, your Medium Talent will cost 15 pts, and your Extreme Talent will take 20 pts. Once you use up all your points, you cannot use your Talents for the remainder of the challenge. Everyone who participates in a challenge will be rewarded with 10 additional points, then 20 points, then 30, and on and on. Every witch also has a Familiar, a spirit companion that lives "inside" them (in a spectral form) unless called upon to complete a task. A Familiar can be a Doppelganger (an exact clone of your character), or a mythical creature (phoenix, basilisk, griffin, etc). A giant Familiar like a dragon is too noticeable and would be easily seen by the non-magical Salemites, so try to think of something practical. It doesn't take any points to summon your Familiar, or for it to attack an enemy for you - but if your Familiar is badly injured during a conflict, then it cannot fight for the remainder of the challenge. You may also choose to have a non-magical weapon to use during a challenge that will not take points to use. Character TemplateName: Age (20 & up): Gender: Appearance (optional): Personality traits (optional): Talents: 1. 2. 3. Familiar: Weapon (optional): Rules The usual, no God-Moding, no pay for other characters without permission, try to make each post substantial (at least two or three paragraphs long), co-op posts are encouraged.
Chapter One: The Enemy Goody Sarah waited until the sun had fully set before leaving her house through the back door. She wore a black shawl over her head, casting her wizened old face in shadow. Despite her age, her snow-white mane was full and thick and fell to her waist in gentle waves. She walked with the aid of a cane that she used to stab the ground and make sure she wasn't headed for an ankle-twisting pothole. "Witches!" Goody Sarah's head snapped around. It was that boisterous reverend, Cotton Mathers, shouting at a crowd of five people. No doubt fill their heads with nonsense: that witches were daughters of the Devil, that they wanted nothing more than to destroy Christendom and bring down heaven. "If only he knew that I had saved his life with witchcraft when he was an infant," she grumbled to herself as she shuffled on. Goody Sarah had a minor Talent for healing and when Cotton was but a couple days old he had been afflicted with a horrible cough. Sometimes, Goody Sarah wondered if it would have been better if she had not healed him. She reached the woods without any further inconveniences. The trees creaked and moaned as she drew near and the knotty roots that snaked across the ground withdrew to let her by. Thus was the strength of her biggest Talent dominion over Nature. Plants came alive in her presence and seeds were known to put down roots at a startling rate and become fully grown in a matter of seconds. She had another Talent for Premonitions, but she couldn't control what she could see. And who cared about what tomorrow's weather was going to be like when people were getting killed, here and now? At last, Goody Sarah arrived at a small clearing. She sat on a tree stump directly in the middle of the clearing and stared up at the silver crescent moon. "Goddess save us," she whispered to the heavens.
