Magnifico: The New Adventures
Origin
In my senior year of college, I had the good luck to play and sing the part of Feste in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. There was almost no competition, and I had written music for the songs, so that other part I thought I had wanted was not an option. I’ve been fascinated with the Fool in literature ever since. In 1994, during my stint in the Army, I came across TSR’s Complete Bard’s Handbook, with its delineation of the Jester as a character kit. I played my first jester, predictably named Feste, in a game run by Specialist Mike. Back around 1996, I began playing a jester character in a Scott-run Dungeons & Dragons game. I’d named him after the Mule’s persona* in Asimov’s Foundation And Empire, since I’d equipped him with a psionic talent. Magnifico acted as sidekick and butler to Pete’s Don Esteban, a dissipated ex-knight, and as I recall never swung a weapon, preferring the lute to the blade. Magnifico and Don Esteban died together, along with a few other party members, in an adventure that effectively ended that campaign. I had unfinished business with this clown, and resurrected him a few years back.
A new beginning
This time around, Magnifico’s a more obviously Shakespearean fool, in an online game captained by another Scott, with whom I’ve been playing off and on for a decade (look for Scott as the player of Crazy Jack in my abortive Under The Hill game). We’re playing in the Dungeons & Dragons setting known as Forgotten Realms, but using modified rules from the late, great sci-fi game Alternity. The odd part is that we play in IRC (Internet Relay Chat), a text-based medium ideally suited to the improvisational nature of my jester. We gather weekly from four different time zones to commit unspeakable acts of heroism. I might suck at improv comedy, you see, and I’m not the showman that Magnifico is, but at the slower pace of Chat, I intermittently rock. I’m so proud of the poignancy of the character, in fact, and of the way he shines, that I want his Greatest Hits preserved here. There’s a lot of abbreviation and out-of-sequence action in chat logs, so I’ve edited them for clarity; I believe that the feel of the game is preserved, and Magnifico’s words soar. A Shakespearean fool is fundamentally a servant, so you’ll see that right from the start, Magnifico attaches himself to Gina’s Alanna, a horse barbarian of the Shaar who is more or less the party’s leader. I had planned that whoever first tipped the clown would earn his loyalty, and in character, Gina took the bait. Nowadays, he addresses her as “my lady,” with just the occasional hint of a romantic attraction. He’s far too self-deprecatory, though, to entertain such thoughts seriously, and I don’t intend to do more with this aspect of the character. He’s a puny, homely specimen. Scott insists that all new characters start at first level, so I had a challenge before me. How to distinguish myself in a party of mostly sixth through ninth level? Not with skill at arms, certainly, or by mighty magics! No, I’ve deliberately hobbled Magnifico, giving him absolutely no combat ability, no magic, and not even the psionic power that helped inspire his previous incarnation. As a proper Shakespearean fool, he therefore wins no battles, makes no fortune and never gets the girl. He is an outsider, a witty observer useful to any sufficiently wise to heed his commentary. He’s also a celebrity of sorts; for you Alternity players, that’s the potent combination of the Networked, Well-Traveled and Renown Perks. I’ve made him a showman, and loaded him with the social skills not emphasized in a campaign that had previously tended toward the hack-and-slash. I’ve found my place, and in a series of adventures you’ll see this fragile little clown talk the party out of fights and assist in key negotiations. You’ll see him work the old soupstone scam, spout huge swaths of Shakespeare, and in fits of enthusiasm join the front line of battle. You’ll see him lead an attack on a dragon, for crying out loud! He is not exactly a hero, but he is infected with hero worship (the original source of the party’s attraction for him), and when he forgets what he is, he gets injured. Badly. So who is Magnifico? I wanted a touch of pathos in his past, so I’ve fiddled a bit with the official continuity of Forgotten Realms, and Scott has made room for me. Cormyr’s King Azoun IV, whom Magnifico served as Court Jester, is dead. Long live the Steel Regent! Her Highness, the Princess Alusair, rules in name only. The jester, who had known her since her birth, acted as go-between in an ill-fated romance with a poor knight named Sir Cuthric. When the affair was discovered, the lords of the realm–who would have her wed one of them–banished the knight to some far-off province, and had the jester put on a boat, never to return. Why was his life spared, when it could so easily have been snuffed out? Will he ever see his Princess again? As Magnifico joins the game, he knows little of what has occurred since in Cormyr, and is working his passage aboard a trade ship that plies the waters of the Dragonmere.
The Party
Here are the members of the party as Magnifico joined:
Alanna Windrider, 6th-level human warrior played by Gina
Kys, 9th-level human bard played by Melissa
Roamana Swiftfoot, 7th-level human ranger also played by Melissa
Obsidian Lightfoot, 8th-level gnomish wizard played by April
Phantom Opal, 8th-level half-elven wizard played by Cheryl
Hyacinth, 1st-level elven rogue played by James
Logs
5/16/2005: Magnifico joins the party, and prepares magic soup.
1/16/2006: Magnifico wields the Pasta-Stirrer of Power.
1/10/2007: A summons to Cormyr!
1/24/2007: Toys? Toys!
*Sorry for the spoiler if you’ve not read the Foundation trilogy…you heathen.
