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 Divided Pet, an NPC designed for Fantasy campaigns.
The Divided Pet
XII
A shuffle, a ruffle, a pawing at the door. They make their presence known one way or another. And yet again they smell of spices not grown nor traded in these lands, are brushed clean with trimmed and polished talons, and then there’s that odd bow they’re wearing that no one in the party seems to know where it came from. Where has this companion been? And how does it keep slipping into that world?
The Divided Pet is a companion to the party, but not to just this party. They’re a portal jumper, but not one that walks up and down the stream of time; rather they leap cross the blade to other possibilities. And in several of these realities they are companion animals to various loving homes and travelers.
The exact nature of the animal doesn’t matter to the theme, although a cat stepping sideways is fitting, and a charming dog loved by many across spacetime is certainly in vogue. This companion cube is meant to serve as a means of offering relief from managing an animal companion, as well as an engine to deliver interesting parcels or gifts. With an evolved enough relationship, it may even be possible to send messages or gifts to the other parties the pet travels with.
Manipulating this companion is well, like manipulating a pet. So, lots of ear scratches, love, affection, maybe some treats. Dear listener, please give your pets extra love tonight, less they escape to their other dimensional family.
In fantasy, they have the blood of magical beings in their lineage, and with a smooth motion they slip into another realm.
In sci-fi, they’ve managed to find a phasing collar that lets them slip between realities.
In ages of exploration, they fly high above the ship and disappear in a cloud, only to reappear later with a clipping of a strange map.
Not all NPCs need have vast stories, nor the means to speak them. Some come pawed and others scaled, but they are all wonders unto themselves, and share these gifts with those they consider pack.
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 Treant Battle 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.