7.7 KiB
7.7 KiB
Quick ID
- Name: Soren Silversong
- Race: Changeling (retcon / decided later; big reveal planned)
- Early presentation: “Drow Bard” vibe (Dark Urge energy), but that is no longer the truth in-world.
- Class/Level (current): PC, Level 6 (campaign state). (Class was described as Bard early; later details focus more on character than mechanics.)
- Core Theme: Intrusive violence + identity instability + “am I real?”
- Tone Role in Party: the dark counterweight to Ben’s social performance and Joe’s suburban normalcy.
Core Backstory (Player-established)
- Family dynamic: Soren is the “lesser” child in her own home.
- Parents: Lirael and Rael
- Sister: Elise (golden child / gets all the attention)
- Soren’s resentment: she hates Elise for the attention imbalance and carries that bitterness constantly.
- Key rumor: last year she was out of school for a few days, and when she returned she “wasn’t the same.”
- The table/setting rumor mill speculated:
- “maybe she’s a changeling”
- “something happened during those days”
- You later canonized changeling, but the cause is still an open mystery.
- The table/setting rumor mill speculated:
The Body / The Friend / The Voices (Primary Hook)
The corpse “friend”
- Secret: Soren found a dead body near the river.
- Soren treats it as her only friend.
- She has not reported it.
- This corpse is intended as a slow-burn reveal:
- At first: Soren is delusional / projecting.
- Later: the “friend” knows things it shouldn’t (hint: Root/leyline/Coherence entanglement).
Voices & hallucination frame (your current intent)
- Soren believes the voice is coming from the river / riverbank.
- You wanted the voice to respond more at the river, and not speak outside the riverbank yet (early constraint).
- Twist structure:
- Phase 1: it’s “just in her head” (or seems that way).
- Phase 2: the voice displays impossible knowledge.
- Phase 3: you reveal the leyline / Coherence has been “listening” through her.
“Dark Urge” energy
- You described her as “Practically the Dark Urge.”
- Mechanically represented in play as:
- Wisdom saves to control violent urges.
- Even on a success, the player may choose violence anyway (this has happened).
Personal Objects / Secrets / Props
- Important item carried: Diary (most important personal object)
- Thing she is hiding: Jar of Fingernails (signature creepy prop)
- Night-before-school scene: sitting by the river, muttering to herself, kicking stuff into the water, then walking home.
Family / Home (Tone + Conflict Engine)
- Desired tone: suburban realism with cruelty, not “crack den melodrama.”
- Your intent for home scenes:
- Mother and sister are condescending / superior / cruel “for no reason,”
- Any attempt to defend herself triggers more contempt.
- This family dynamic is her main “ground-level” conflict (like Ben’s identity lie, Joe’s legacy).
Key Behavioral Traits (How Soren plays at the table)
- Predatory curiosity: likes to test boundaries and see what she can get away with.
- Fixation behavior: will pick a target and spiral (Millie became that target).
- Disguise + manipulation: uses deception as a weapon (Disguise Self + impersonation).
Major Relationships / Targets
Party
- Ben: ally by convenience; she has shown willingness to respond to crisis (e.g., arrived at Ben’s house after Circle explosion).
- Joe: ally; can act as “witness” to Soren going too far (and moral friction tool).
NPC Fixation: Millie Fairweather
- Soren’s player explicitly wants a stalking/torture vibe (“Thanos and the birthday guy” reference).
- You have stated a hard boundary: you don’t want the campaign to become “murder porn” or derail due to violence.
- This is the single biggest table-management pressure point right now.
Major Events Soren Was Involved In (Chronological, high-signal)
Session 1 hooks
- River scene established:
- corpse friend
- voices believed to be river-based
- family hostility at home
Detention-era and early school chaos
- Soren gets detention early (one of the first-day hooks).
- You wanted her detention hook originally different; later:
- she “gets lost in music,” can’t hear teachers calling her to move on (instruments soothe urges).
The Lunch Incident (recent major escalation)
Soren’s actions (as you clarified):
- Tried to lure Millie into a bathroom to stab her — failed Persuasion.
- After lunch, hid near Millie’s classroom.
- Got spotted by a security guard and ran.
- Hid around a corner and cast Disguise Self to become Estrada.
- Entered Millie’s class impersonating Estrada.
- Lured Millie to the parking lot (Millie failed Investigation/Insight).
- Used Prestidigitation to make Millie’s face look “fucked up.”
- Millie screamed and ran.
- You denied an opportunity attack to avoid severe consequences the player didn’t want.
Outcome:
- Soren successfully escalated to psychological terror.
- You flagged the need for an out-of-character discussion about violence boundaries.
Post Circle explosion involvement
- After Ben/Joe blew up the gas station and Pip threatened Ben, Soren was called and arrived at Ben’s house.
DM Levers (what reliably moves Soren)
- The river / corpse (pulls her into solo scenes and gives you horror tone control)
- Jealousy / resentment (especially toward “effortless” people like Millie)
- Identity insecurity (changeling reveal pressure, “who am I?”)
- Authority humiliation (Estrada/guards/teachers; she loves to subvert)
- Seduction by Coherence (Coherence’s “love + dissolve pain” pitch is a perfect temptation)
How Soren Connects to the Main Arc (Leyline / Coherence / Instrumentality)
- Soren is a natural “receiver”:
- porous identity (changeling)
- history of illness / missing days
- voice phenomena anchored to a location (river / leyline proximity)
- Her violent urges can be framed as:
- intrusive thoughts,
- Coherence “steering tests,”
- or a predatory “echo” seeking to reduce separation by force.
- Her corpse friend is a perfect Root dead-drop:
- it’s physically real evidence of something wrong,
- it can later become “impossible knowledge” without immediately proving anything.
Table-Management Risk Notes (Important)
- Current tension:
- Player feels “unfairly constrained” because Soren was told “no stabbing innocents,” but the next session the party caused collateral deaths at The Circle.
- Your stated principle (good rule):
- Collateral consequences can happen.
- Deliberate, intimate harm to innocents (especially torture/murder) is disallowed because it derails tone and creates unwanted content.
- Soren’s content needs a lane:
- “horror” via psychological dread, identity erosion, supernatural compulsion
- not extended torture or explicit murder scenes.
- Practical tool:
- Give Soren alternate “predation outlets” that are campaign-relevant:
- stalking the Coherence cult,
- hunting Root anomalies,
- sabotaging villains,
- social dominance games that don’t require blood.
- Give Soren alternate “predation outlets” that are campaign-relevant:
Current Status (start-of-next-session snapshot)
- Soren has just executed a major intimidation stunt on Millie using Disguise Self and Prestidigitation.
- Soren is physically at Ben’s house following the Circle explosion fallout.
- The river/corpse thread has been left untouched for “weeks” in-fiction at one point:
- “the river is dry; you feel it calling; your friend misses you.”
- Changeling identity is now canonical; reveal is pending.