Madelaine Springs

[granny]

Madelaine Springs
Chicken Wizard, Oathbreaker, Pondswoman, Frog Witch, Prospecting Groat Whore, Frog Bitch




Madelaine came to me as a concept of how far could I OOCly shape a character so to manipulate other characters' feelings towards loving and protecting someone that they would otherwise kill on sight. On this she was a success. My problem with her started when I had to shelve Madelaine for some weeks due to real life commitments and then of me losing the track of her initial impulse when I returned. That's when I decided to retire her after a DM quest death.

Her tale was centered around being a young, naive and innocent witch that was lost in many ways, unable to control her own powers. Through her journey she tried to find herself with the lords and ladies of the Peerage Ward, the coin mongrels of Ticker Square, the undeath lovers of the Drips, the disgraced folk of the Pauper Ponds and the beasts of the Mongrelwood.

Madelaine was a sweet pause on my usual crone/ hag portrayal (even if I did not resist and made a hag out of her now and then, or even if I made Miss Cluckgoo randomly stare at people as one of my other witches would so gladly do). She started not actually taking the lead of anything, but shielding herself behind important and prominent people, trying to help with what she could, or at least promising to help.  And promises were things that she could not keep, even if she truly wanted to. In the end, she truly started to devote herself to the Ponds, finally finding some confidence as she decided to take the burden of the unwanted and abandoned of the Ponds and of the Mongrelwoods, starting the well known questioning of the fate of the stillborn and malformed babies left to die or to be hunted after growing up.


Below I leave some screenshots, trying to keep spoilers at a minimum. Maybe on the future I will come back to update with things that I decided to keep secret.

[hide]The First Companions, the First Changes










Inquisitor Cluckgoo?




Who's the "Chicken Wizard?"




Sharing a Secret








A New Ally




Making an Oath




Breaking an Oath






Bone Collectors




Pleasing the Prince of Tehoto




Asking for the Help of Pzatharun






A Friend?




Another Ally?




Prospecting




Big Change

[/hide]


Edit: By popular demand, the loot

[hide]Personal Acquisitions









[hide]The Love of Gods (AKA DMs)


by Howlando


by Akke
[/hide]

[Richørd]

Damn, you took more screenshots of Gorick than I did for that PC.

Kudos to Madelaine. You hit the nail straight on the head, fantastic character.

[Blue41]

My first interaction was most memorable, when you sold my PC a cloak for 10 gp and made the most threatening chicken emote 5 seconds after your last line. Definitely felt like they were two distinct players rather than one.

[Loops]

I loved Morgan and Madelaine's influence on each other. It was a great little story to share. It sounds like you had a great journey after!

:)

[Last Cold Tome]

GRANNY! I didn't know it was you but OF COURSE it was you!!! Amazing work, as always!! I think we had precisely zero interactions but none the less I felt like I got to know this PC from afar. I love your influence on this server, I hope it continues through more of your lovely characterizations and storytelling.

[Cat]

Madelaine was one of the first people Merry met, and one of the first she grew to like!

I always adored the looks Miss Cluckgoo would give to others. <3

[Wakefield]

One of the first player cases ever looked into was a 'missing' chicken. Bumping into Madelaine every time after that made me chuckle at how absurd it all was, but seeing the slow drift into her place as a ponds witch was really impressive. She'll be missed. :(

[Autarch]

Madelaine was a good one. Miss Cluckgoo was a Great (Old) One. I always considered it a shame that Annie didn't get a chance to interact more with Madelaine.

[Aethereal]

Madelaine was such a real character. There was just something about her naivete that made her truly stand out as a confused sorceress trying to find her place in the world. Initially it was just seeing this scared, distrustful mage who had started expressing changeling traits, exploring or questioning her 'curse' as her secret was shared with Aethelwine by Sean Gorick. I remember then seeing her in a rare and brief cameo (when the necromancy changes were made) actually going down the path towards joining a necromantic cabal, which to me depicted exactly how one could be swept up into a cult because these were just the people who reached out and accepted someone like her with open arms. Then I got to see her weeping for the Ponds, hoping to see the Court Wizard restored to prevent the destruction of her home during some tumultuous times but doing so with great hesitation and need.

And finally there was the character evolution where Madelaine started taking matters into her own hands, becoming the champion of the foxberries, not hesitating to make wild pronouncements against those who would abuse her garden. This final phase concluding with a focus on babies in a way that yet again made her feel so strongly a part of the setting, shedding light on some pretty deep topics to consider IC. I liked that so much because it didn't feel in any way manufactured or contrived, you could just see it made sense to the character as part of her journey, that she really cared, that she wanted to improve things for her new home. 'Please, won't somebody think of the babies?' Well, in that respect, she succeeded. I've had a bit of a IC lore-writing block lately, but I will push through to publish the sequel to 'How Not to Raise Children' in Madelaine's honour.

I also never saw her hag form and didn't realise she was a granny PC! It was very fun sharing in her story and interacting on those occasions that we did!

[Scrappa-yeti]

I really liked Madelaine. Hmm, let me rethink that. I really liked the way -you- played Madelaine.

The character was nuanced - she was moody, fickle and self-absorbed, but in a very human, realistic way.  She seemed multilayered.

Props and kudos.