So Here's a Question for the GM

[Johan]

I have been re-reading (and re-re-reading) many threads in the eberron game forum, and a thought occurred to me as I read the interviews:

How is it that Whisper became interested in Temmit (who would, at that time, have been largely a monotonous loner...willing to help if asked, but not eager to...very much the watcher / studious type, not the participant / partying type)?

I note from the interviews that I've been involved in that there's usually some early tip-off (like this one survived a fire miraculously, this one is telling too-accurate fortunes...) to the guild. What would Temmit's "tells" be? This, of course, would provoke me to try to figure out what his earliest powers might be: those would have been Empathy, Telempathic Projection, Urban Strider, Prcognition...those sorts (all of which are level 1 abilities).

How would he have been "spotted"?

Who would have approached him? Were there prior, "accidental" contacts and then the then-leader approached with...who?

As I read this, and looked over his character sheet, it occurred to me that this might be one of those times when Temmit found them, rather than the other way around. He could have spotted the furtive signals, the knowing glances, the alliances...whatever. Even spotted someone taking their sneaky drought. Then, a month later, seeing several someones doing the same. Temmit could have been on their trail for months, trying to see what was going on (who are the leaders, who the followers, the newbies that might be interviewed with a well-placed suppressed Telempathic Projection...)

As I cultivated this idea, I then thought of Noah's journals. My dad also found them, eh?

Thoughts, Mr. GM?

[Dray]

The newspaper report was as follows (paraphrased); ”family of four has a wagon accident in the wilderness. Three out of four are killed, the lone survivor is a three-year-old boy.” The truth (as the older Temmit knows it) was that his family was slaughtered by a lone Kahr’Thul. Then someone went through some trouble making it look like and reporting it as an accident.

This leads to the questions:

*Who covered up the accident and why?
*What “side” is that conspirator on?
*Did that Kahr’Thul simply pass the Outer-Rim undetected and encounter your family by happenstance?
*How is it that the Whisper Guild fought and defeated individual Kahr’Thul last summer, yet your father couldn’t and mother, both military veterans and former Whisper members, were defeated by only one?
*Would the guild have been tipped-off by the unusual wagon accident?

MORE INFORMATION:

*Current year is 2133, Temmit turns 16-years-old in a few days.
*In the summer of the accident (2120 ESH) Temmit would have been 3.5 years old.
*Michael Banks was the leader of TAO (Throw-Away-Order, the name of the Whisper Guild, pre-Renee) from 2125 ESH until 2129 ESH.
*Temmit was ages 8.5 to 12 during Michael’s tenure, he would have joined TAO somewhere during this time. (How that would have occurred is what we are trying to determine by this OCD).
*Michael Banks (just past age 17) was found dead on the shores of Lakeshore in the Spring of 2129 ESH. The story was that he had drowned. Renee (at age 15) took over the guild.
*Temmit knows the Warden Council is in league with the Whisper Guild. Temmit also knows his father was involved with the Warden Council…therefore…

Thoughts?

[Johan]

All good thoughts. I know this because I've had them (other than historical information that I was not privy to...like the "drowning" of Michael Banks and whatnot).

So are you side-stepping my questions on purpose, or is your agenda more important than mine?

Or, are you thinking that some of the answers / thoughts to your bullets will inform us on answers to my original question?

By the way: one thing that I actually KNOW is that I don't know who can be trusted on the Warden Council. Isn't that the council that Martha was one? Didn't she sell us out? Isn't there a hell of a screen between us "kids" and the council proper?

For most of the sleuthing that you're suggesting, I don't see a way to get to it without being absent from school for extended periods of time.

[Dray]

Oh, well, first off, my agenda will ALWAYS be more important than Temmit’s.  

I can’t answer your questions directly without performing a SPOILER ALERT and giving Johan information that Temmit does not yet know. I just tried typing all of the information (offline) and upon rereading it, I discovered that forfeiting such delightfully intriguing information OOG would have made me sad.

Having said that, allow me a few more bullets that yes, will give you more fodder to entertain, ascertain, and hypothesize what the true answer(s) may be.

*Per Noah’s journal, Noah Janalius joined The Warden Council on 05.25.2105.
*The leader of TAO/Whisper Guild always has a Warden Council contact.
*Yes, there is indeed a necessary ignorance of the Warden Council’s intentions by typical Whisper members. This is because each Whisper member must pass through 6 years of true military service, and the W.C. can’t trust that each Whisper will stay quiet and not betray the W.C. during their tenure.
*As far as Temmit knows, the only Whisper kids who have knowledge that the Warden Council and Whisper Guild share common goals is Renee and Temmit. Although you can justifiable conjecture that Emma may/or will soon know and therefore Harrison will follow.
*The common goals Whisper and the Warden Council share is that they harbor those with magical talent and are against the Clergy controlled government and its strong-fisted dogmatic rule.
*All that being said, Temmit is also aware that the Warden Council has had the Clergy interfering recently with their affairs. Fresenius has been sending Clergy-controlled soldiers to the W.C. to enlist their help in tracking down Kahr’Thul.
*The best thread to get really meaty information on all this is in

Saturday Night Interlude, specifically start reading at my last post on page 6.[/list]

[Johan]

Ok, thank you for that reply. I did know most of that, and I have recently re-read pretty much every thread that Temmit has been involved in, including Saturday Night Interlude.

However, there's NOTHING in this reply that speaks to the question that I'm asking you. Did you ever read my original post?

Knucklehead.

My questions, which Temmit WOULD know the answers to, even in this anachronistic game of threads, are:

How is it that Temmit became entangled with Whisper?
Did a Whisper member approach him?
How would he have been "spotted" (being that his "powers" have no real outward signs and he can, even when he's using his powers, be regarded as nothing more than a talented muggle)?
Did he perhaps "spot" Whisper (this is a real possibility, since his dad did the same thing...like father, like son)?

THIS is what I'm after. If you'd rather, I'll be glad to tell you the answers, but I thought I'd give you the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing story of your campaign.

[Dray]

OH! You want me to TELL you! ….okay!

In the late Winter of 2127, when Temmit was ten years old, he was doing a study on the various cliques in the school. Perhaps this was a character study he was performing for extra credit in Scribes clas? Anyway, he noticed that a specific group of kids always gathered in the cafeteria, and that they were quiet and less obnoxious than the other children. What’s more, they seemed to have an intriguing body language that transcended simple empathic queues and actually conveyed simple sentences! Little did the young lad know that he was being watched from a distance as he watched the TAO…

How’s that?

[Griznuq]

God Dammit! Read the whole fucking question!!! Dude. OMG. /me shakes you violently!

At some point in time someone walked up to Temmit and said "Hey, fucko, We're whisper, we are interested in you because (Fill in the fucking blank)"

Because said "someone" would have been an NPC, it's up to you what they said. Temmit was there, so he'd know what was said, but Steve doesn't, cause I guess that ICD never happened? Sometime during the ICD, Temmit would have said "WHY ME?!" and they would have said "(Fill in the fucking blank again)

Who was that person?
Where are they now?

[Griznuq]

FUCK IT ALL! HAVE THE FUCKING ICD! I will even start it if I have to! Jesus, god!

[Dray]

Hey Johan? Want to have an ICD? I am thinking we should have an ICD...something just tells me we should, call it instinct.

[Johan]

We're getting there...

We certainly *could* have an ICD on it, though I don't necessarily think that it's truly necessary.

Let's step back an think on this...

Temmit is something like 9 or 10. He's probably got, at most, one or two abilities, and his Psionic Focus. We've already established that he does not have Smokey; he likely doesn't even have any feats at this point in his development. Knowing Temmit, he'd have gotten those abilities by just observing. Empathy makes sense, and either Precognition or Telempathic Projection.

I can't for the life of me think of how he might have attracted the attention of other people (like that). It's not like he can fly and was spotted doing that.

"Hey, Temmit. Can I talk to you?"
Looks both ways. "Um...yeah?"
"I noticed you looking at things. Tell me what you've got for powers."
"Powers? What do you mean 'powers'?"
"Well, Serge here makes a mean espresso with a lemon twist. And me? I'm the talkingest damn donkey you ever heard. What's your power?"
"I, umm...drink a lot of coffee. Does that count?"
"No."
"I can read! Watch: [takes up a book] ...it was then that she felt the warm throbbing of his masculinity, striving to be free of his britches, to..."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! That's not what I mean."
"Well, what do you mean then?"
"You see *that* guy? He farts fireballs and lightning flashes out of his eyes. Can you do that?"
"I can fart, but not fireballs."
"Ok; that's a start. Do your farts melt granite or something?"
"No."
"Shatter glass."
"No."
"Well, what then?"
"What what?"
"This kid's too stupid to even talk to."
"...huh...people usually respond to me better than that."

I really didn't mean this to be so difficult. I think I'm just trying to flesh a few things out, and I like for things to make sense. I don't see this introduction making sense without Temmit spotting them.

Does that make sense?

[Dray]

Okay... enough is enough...

The Warden Council told Michael Banks, leader of Whisper, to interview Temmit Janalius. For Temmit's father, Noah Janalius, was a powerful psion and a member of the Warden Council before his death. The Council was/is hoping that Temmit, Noah's surviving child, will grow to be as powerful.

So yes, Temmit's powers didn't attract attention. His relation to his father "got him the interview".

[Johan]

Ok. Sorry to piss you off so thoroughly. Johan understands now.

As far as Temmit knows, then, he was approached by Mikey, perhaps over a few weeks, and interviewed and eventually inducted into Whisper (TOA, at that time, aye?).

They wouldn't have owned their reasons to Temmit (especially with him being only 10 at that time), and he's probably only now (with the Return Home thread) getting enough background "painted in" to be able to assemble and see the whole picture (or whole enough, at any rate).

He still hasn't made all of these connections though.

Yar?

[Dray]

Yar.

I wasn't pissed off at all. I would have used !!!!! had I been in any way shape or form mad.

No worries.

I sent you an email yesterday (note: before the Griznuq breakdown), I asked if you wanted to perform this/these meeting(s) in an ICD?

[Johan]

Nah. I don't need an ICD for it. I'm hoping to have my head on straight enough to get back to them soon though.

Thanks.

[Dray]

Okie doke. I look forward to your return. Give me a heads up if you need me to start any trouble for you in the threads.