Narrator's Best Friend: the Singer of Peace

The Narrator's Best Friend Award goes to the character who most players agree consistently added great stuff to the story be it with NPC's or character choices through the entire season. This prestigious award is accompanied not only by the trophy emblem (right), but by 5, count them 5, of the coveted blue Never Gems. The honored recipient of the second ever Narrator's Best Friend Award is Mokuzai, the Peace-loving Prill.

Indeed, it can hardly be doubted that the elderly former guardian of the Song of Tempest was a constant friend to the narrator this past season. The pretext for the entire season was a journey to the Grand Chantry, something which was only possible due to his patient, if frequently exasperated, leadership. Mokuzai calmly helped steer the party in all the right directions - whether that be to recover his staff from Ben Hamor and the revelation of the Gods, or the opening of the sealed chamber and the unraveling of the mysteries. The plot swirled in delicate eddies around the rock of Mokuzai all season long.

Rei and Moses are grateful to the old fox-son for taking on this role. "Last season, in Geneva Prime, the story kept driving us into uncomfortable interactions with my dysfunctional family or Moses' unwilling instigation of a civil war. Frankly it was exhausting, we're glad he took up some of the burden this time around."

Though Moses didn't speak openly about the pains of being last season's recipient of this award, it was clear that he didn't relish being in the spotlight again. "He can have the award every season if he wants it. As long as people stop killing each other and blaming it on me."

Not everyone felt that Mokuzai was the best anchor for the collective storyline however.

"He's a stodgy old man," High-Dive confessed in a back room. "You should have seen how he flips out over a little piss on a stinky book." She would have said more, but just then Una shot her a disapproving glance.

"Mokuzai cares about the legacy of the Dusk Sages," Una contributed. "We shouldn't underestimate how much it has cost him to choose to follow this path, unraveling these mysteries. He's trying to solve the riddle of peace and that's no small thing."

No small thing at all. This distinguished Prill has collected Dusk Sage artifacts and wisdom like nobody's business, and though he knows their histories and names and functions, the rest of the party just refers to them as "plot devices A, B & C".

"Yeah," Kiyoshi quipped "That staff is a damn handy escape trick, and a mask that sees a giant arrow in the sky pointing us in the right direction? I mean, can the GM be any more obvious?"

Mokuzai really is the man who keeps the story moving, and that's why this Singer of Peace is the Narrator's Best Friend.