diff --git a/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-chapter-ref.md b/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-chapter-ref.md index 2be404c2..098f3c72 100644 --- a/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-chapter-ref.md +++ b/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-chapter-ref.md @@ -1,54 +1,59 @@ -# Character State: Ch1 +# Character State: Ch2 ## Lena Duval Location: The Duval ancestral cabin, Cypress Bend bayou -Physical: Feverish and exhausted; palm is raw and sliced from a blood-oath casting. -Emotional: Defiant but deeply unsettled. +Physical: Feverish; right hand is bandaged and throbbing from the blood-oath; persistent cough. +Emotional: Violated and resolute. Active obligations: -- Owes the land a "balancing of scales" for the fog she summoned (Ch1) -- UNPAID +- Owes the land a "balancing of scales" for the fog (Ch1) -- UNPAID - Owes Aunt Maribelle an audience regarding the "inheritance" (Ch1) -- UNPAID +- Owes Jax Harlan a conversation about the "unnatural" events (Ch2) -- UNPAID Open loops: -- Lena and Aunt Maribelle: The struggle over Lena’s refusal to join the coven (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED -- Lena and the encroaching developers: The physical presence of survey markers in the grove (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED +- Lena and the "Whisper": The potential consciousness within the cypress roots (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED +- Lena and the surveyors: Physical removal of markers from her property (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED Known secrets: -- Knows she intends to flee to New Orleans within the week -- Aunt Maribelle does not know. -- Knows the "whisper" in the cypress roots sounded like her mother's voice -- No one else knows. -Arc: 5% -- Lena successfully uses her magic to protect her home but realizes the "land-debt" is tightening its grip on her, making escape harder. -Permanent: YES - -## Aunt Maribelle Duval -Location: The porch of the Duval ancestral cabin, departing toward the deeper swamp. -Physical: No injuries; moves with an unnatural, fluid grace despite her age. -Emotional: Calculating and patient. -Active obligations: None. -Open loops: -- Aunt Maribelle and Lena: Grooming Lena to take the mantle of "Grove Keeper" (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED -Known secrets: -- Knows the exact date the developers plan to clear-cut the Eastern bend -- Lena does not know. -Arc: 2% -- Reasserted her dominance over the family narrative by forcing Lena to use blood magic. +- CARRIED (Ch1--unresolved): Knows she intends to flee to New Orleans within the week -- Aunt Maribelle does not know. +- CARRIED (Ch1--unresolved): Knows the "whisper" in the cypress roots sounded like her mother's voice -- No one else knows. +- Knows she found a survey marker labeled "Project Phlegethon" deep in the restricted grove -- Jax and Maribelle do not know. +Arc: 10% -- Lena transitioned from passive avoidance to active resistance by physically removing the developers' markers, though it triggered a spike in her magical sickness. Permanent: YES ## Jax Harlan -Location: The Blackwater skiff, docked at the Duval pier. -Physical: Soaked from the unnatural fog; no injuries. -Emotional: Skeptical but protective. +Location: The Duval pier / cabin porch +Physical: Exhausted but stable. +Emotional: Protective and increasingly suspicious of the town's silence. Active obligations: -- Owes Lena a "quick exit" if she decides to leave (Ch1) -- UNPAID +- Owes Lena a "quick exit" (Ch1) -- UNPAID Open loops: -- Jax and Lena: The tension between his "outsider" logic and her "insider" magic (Ch1) -- UNRESOLVED -Known secrets: None. -Arc: 1% -- Witnessed the bayou react to Lena’s blood for the first time, cracking his shell of skepticism. +- Jax and the developers: His discovery of the high-end sonar equipment in the shallows (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED +Known secrets: +- Knows he took a bribe from a developer contact for "navigation assistance" three months ago -- Lena does not know. +Arc: 15% -- Jax has moved from a skeptical observer to a co-conspirator by helping Lena hide the evidence of her interference with the survey site. Permanent: YES -# World State: Ch1 +## Aunt Maribelle Duval +Location: The "Widow’s Deep" (secluded swamp interior) +Physical: No injuries. +Emotional: Impatient and ritualistic. +Active obligations: None. +Open loops: +- Maribelle and the Coven: Preparing the "Rite of the First Sap" (Ch2) -- UNRESOLVED +Known secrets: +- CARRIED (Ch1--unresolved): Knows the exact date the developers plan to clear-cut the Eastern bend -- Lena does not know. +- Knows the developers are paying the local sheriff to ignore the "swamp fever" cases -- Lena and Jax do not know. +Arc: 5% -- Maribelle has begun the ritual process to "tether" Lena to the land permanently, heightening Lena's fever. +Permanent: YES + +# World State: Ch2 ## NPC Memory -- Remy LeBlanc (The Bait Shop): AFRAID -- Witnessed the "black-water" rising earlier that morning -- Warned Lena to stay inside. +- Sheriff Miller (The Parish Office): DISMISSIVE -- Ignored Lena’s report of trespassing on her land. +- "Gator" Pete (The Docks): TERRIFIED -- Claimed the fish are turning belly-up with "black eyes." ## Faction Attitudes -- Swamp Witches (Duval Coven): Insistent -- They view Lena as a vital, missing battery for their waning power. -- Developers (Terrebonne Development Corp): Aggressive -- They have begun placing physical markers on protected land, ignoring historical pacts. +- Terrebonne Development Corp: Escalating -- They have moved from surveying to placing sonar buoys in the bayou. +- The Duval Coven: Restless -- They are beginning the "humming," a collective magical vibration Lena can feel in her teeth. ## Active World Events -- The Awakening: The cypress trees are "weeping" sap at an accelerated rate, a sign of magical instability in the Bend. -- The Encroachment: Surveyors are moving closer to the Duval property line. \ No newline at end of file +- The Blackening: The cypress sap is turning from amber to an oily black, tainting the local water supply. +- Project Phlegethon: The codename for the development project discovered on the markers found by Lena. \ No newline at end of file