Welcome to the Dog Days of Podcasting, 2022 season. This year we’re taking part by creating 30 NPCs to use with table top gaming, writing projects, or other creative endeavors. These NPCs are system agnostic, but may include minor suggestions for how to run the characters with a party of adventures and explorers. They are written with a specific genre in mind, but will include notation for how to use them within at least two other realms.
That said, let’s get started.
Today, we’re visiting The Star-filled Night, an NPC designed for Urban Fantasy campaigns.
The Star-filled Night
XXIV
It’s gentle up here. Behind her, the distant lights of the city danced along the horizon, but here the heavens shine clearly onto the top of the water tower. A light breeze brushed through silver curls and gossamer wings, and the oracle stared wistfully past the party at a future yet to come. It was time. Her wings fluffed for a moment while pins from the celestial tapestry floated down to her, as if they were fireflies just feet away and not vast titans countless lightyears beyond our sky. They danced in geometric patterns, leaving behind trails of light. Her eyes flash, the lights dissipated, and she is ready to speak of the fate to come.
The Star-Filled Night is a dancer of divination, a being of dreams who resides between the waking city and the fantasy of the wilderness. Her presence is tied to proximity of the urban sprawl and the visible sky above, so meetings with her requires finding that delicate ring around civilization that has both. The workings of her sight require these spaces of intersection, the cusp between realms.
She is fascinated by both regions but can never visit either. An NPC tied to the spirit of a place, the Oracle is enthralled by these other domains, and gifts from either can enchant her. A child of powerful glamour, she protects herself with illusions and charms should she suspect a party means her harm. If all else fails, she will attempt to slide sideways into the past or the future.
In Urban Fantasy, she is the oracle of the water tower, a local legend that arises when the moon is dark, and the heavens sing with lights.
In ages of explorations, she is the spirit of the isolated well. Tithing coin to her sacred space may grant one dreams, wishes, and nightmares.
In distant sci-fi, she is the trapped spirit aboard the reality warped wreckage. An illusion of form on shattered monitors, she plays haunting memories of the disaster that brought her crew to such ends.
The night, more gentle than it would seem, has come at last. The blanket of darkness swept the land and calm reflection greeted us. Breath in the umbral air. Let dreams take hold.
The audio portion of this episode is shared on a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Sounds and music are provided by Syrinscape’s Train Soundset. Please see the website for individual song and sound usage. The text for this episode is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Have a good time with the character, and let me know if you use them for something.
Until tomorrow.