Tag: RPG

When we left The Five they’d reunited in the Glass Tower and held the Lorebook in their hands. That’s a huge advance in their goals. There were signs of trouble. Some kind of odd tornado laden, green/black cloud storm sat over the Cliffs of Gallinor. Out East there is a trickle of smoke. Almost due North is the volcano in which the village they just escaped sits in the shadow.

Dark, dreary times with an invading party of 12-20 cultists and their bonds coming for them. The Five decided to stay and fight.

Maurice left the Tower to hide in the same patch of trees where Mansaray helped The Five a few days ago. The idea is to flank Chorl and the Naks when they attempt to charge the entry. Shonie hides up on the ridge where she and Hilltop will perform a delaying action so that the archers and casters can support from the observatory. That’s the role of Cortez, Saffron and Behn. Their bonds go to the ground floor with Aamar and the still recovering Samul. The priest checks the door to from outside to the pantry, blocking it with the stove and then blocking the pantry to foyer as well. That will delay alternate entry paths, unless Chorl and his followers just try to burn the whole place down. That would suck.

It’s a plan. Outnumbered the hope is to defend in depth and wear out the waves of wolves, eagles, humans and goliaths. It could even work.

Saffron is at the window looking towards Nak and one of the two giant eagles dives down to ground level. They other speeds towards the Tower. Behn is reinforcing the shelves that Shonie put in front of the broken glass windows. He should be able to take some cover using his trusty crossbow. As he pulls some wood past Cortez he recognizes a little of the language of Ken coming from the ancient goliath. Behn has no idea what is being said, just that it has similar sounds to the title of the book that Mo took and most of the Lorebook.

There is a boom – it is louder than anything anyone has heard. All are knocked to the ground. Saffron springs up quickly and checks the window. The top of the volcano is gone. No eagles fly as there is a rain of ash and rock and fear. There is also a wave of ash rushing towards them and down the valleys along the mountain.

Saffron didn’t really see the fear, she more felt it.

Behn rushes to the broken windows and shouts “Shonie, Mo! RUN!” Saffron can hardly hear him. Their companions are hundreds of feet away.

Aamar calls out “What happened?” And Behn barely hearing him, “Get up here!”

Rushing up the stairs as quickly as possible the human passes the window to the southwest and sees no more storm. The sky there is currently clear, and as he rounds a bookshelf he sees that wall of ash and the rain of stone to the North. They are seconds away from the Glass Tower getting hit by a few dozen feet of hot ash. Shonie and Maurice are outside with their companions.

Cortez is no longer muttering.

The wave of ash shakes the mostly wood tower. It remains standing. Most of the group is safe. The land outside looks like it was hit with a heavy snow, if snow was warm. There is no sign of Mo and Shonie. A falcon taps on the window to the West. It is a bond, not wild.

Aarmar Speaks with the Falcon as Behn sprints down the stairs. Maybe, just maybe he can find the two halflings. Saffron looks towards where the village of Nak was. Most trees are gone. The ridgelines she’d just scouted are forever changed.

From the falcon Aamar learns that Mansaray was in the little hamlet past the dark woods. It is where they left Saffron while she was ill. It is the town where one bandit was sent to serve and earn back honor. It is where Mansaray was when the ash flow hit. The goliath sent his falcon to Cortez’ tower to tell them that the hamlet is gone.

Behn throws the main door open and ash flows into the building. It’s just a few inches and bounding towards him is Mo’s little fox. Behn sprints back along the easy to follow tracks. Where they end he starts digging and digging. Maurice is nowhere to be found. The fox and Mitzie try to help, but still nothing.

Worried and excited Behn huffs and blows a Gust Of Wind. Clearing a space and then another space as the light ash blows out of the way. Maurice is under a large tree that seems to have protected him a bit.

“Heeellllp! I’ve found Mo.”

Aamar and Saffron join him. Aamar uses First Aid on the halfling and Maurice can walk again.

“What about Shonie?” and Saffron runs off to the ridge and those boulders. There are no tracks, no signs of life. “Behn, can you do that thing that cleared the ash?”

“Maybe?” and he does it again. Hundreds of cubic feet of ash are blown away from Behn. Shonie is huddled over Hilltop. The two tucked against those boulders.

Aamar cures their wounds.

Scanning the skies for any of Nak’s eagles they only see a trickle of rocks and ash. The Five (there are actually five since Samul is still exhausted from his day long rage) trudge back to the Glass Tower. Shonie and Maurice are in tattered clothes. Hilltop is a bit singed, but healthy and happy.

Climbing the stairs to the observatory in the Glass Tower and Cortez they have questions. He’s old and wise. He could know what just happened.

Behn asks “Did you do this?”

“I guess I did. We decided that Chorl was gaining too much power and needed to be stopped.”

“We?” Aamar interrupts.

“I and the other Scholars at the libraries around Kin. We decided to end his time. It may have worked.”

“Wait – you blew up a mountain to stop Chorl?” Saffron is stunned.

“Yes, he’ll be slowed down at worst. He may be ended. Even if he comes back, others will now have the powers he has.”

Aamar asks “Powers?”

“Pray to Quar, you will find he has more to offer you now. Saffron, your words are more potent. Behn, you will be able to do things that surprise and amaze. As Chorl’s Awakening leaked some magic into Kin, this broke the cage. It will also let the Others into Kin.”

The group exchange glances. Cortez just wiped out at least one hamlet and probably more, changing the landscape of the Western Wildes to maybe stop a former student. That and this talk of even more magic. When the Awakening (now the Minor Awakening?) came tens of thousands died. Kingdoms like Sheljar fell.

“Do you need the Book?” Aamar asks the old man.

“No, it is just a history of Kin with some spells. I have that here among my other books too.”

They back away from Cortez. Trust between them is dead. Sure, they have the book they wanted, but he’d wiped minds clean of others that hunted the Lorebook and blown up a volcano to trouble one man.

Without a mule, they load up Mitzie and Saffron’s dog to pull Samul on a sled behind them. The going is slow. Devastation surrounds them. Passing through the forest that was once dark and spider ridden is relatively easy. Then they round the bend where they’d seen that waterfall and see what the town was. It was in a valley from the once-high mountain. Now, it is desolate with only a single barn’s rough above the flow of ash.

Those with axes hack their way into the barn. It is warm, there is hay in the loft and five cattle on the ground floor. No people live. None of the cattle were bonded. The Five (back at six) settle in for the evening. Saffron sings a Song of Rest. They are all refreshed, even Samul.

In the morning they tear down some of the flooring to take the cattle on their journey to Telse. They have the Lorebook, five cattle, a story none will believe and a trail left behind them that anyone could follow.

Every few weeks, by the time the players can’t act on spoilers contained within, I’ll review the gaming sessions. These reviews will not be a review of the performance of the PCs, but a explanations as to what hooks were given, how the flavor of Kin leaked into the gaming conversation and attempts to give an impression of a larger world.

Prelude to a discovery

Most of this is a stock opener that can be used for two other concurrent adventures that could be run in the future. That ends at “You, you, those two, that one, her and her see Elder Sealm when we are done.” During the opener the establishment of Telse as a place that has religious powers in influential positions, as well as an elder non-political/religious leader is inserted into the storyline. And, there is a bare mention of Nils.

There the three groups break out. With The Five, who were supposed to be a seven, and eventually are, we immediately get a snapshot that there is tension in the area among the people of Telse. All tension creates potential hooks.

Notice, that the establishment of a “party” is hand waved. They are there because they want to be there. Shonie and Aamar know of each other, but are not friends. Each is working towards personal goals, but the quest for the Lorebook is just a path towards those more personal desires.

Sealm hands Aamar a Stone. It is a minor magical item. His directions are bare-boned. At this point the group could follow those vague instructions, though the behavior of Nils intrigues them. As the DM I also prepared a couple concepts if they went totally off the Western path or following Nils. Those sketches included mapping a swath of area outside of where they were “supposed” to go, ready descriptions of a few locales and creating a few custom random encounter tables, empowering sandbox play.

All of those details are also relevant when considering the possibility of expanding The Everflow into a robust campaign setting or writing fiction within the same setting like Chasing Piyu.

There was a concentrated effort in this melding of our zero session and session one in talking about how every person of Kin (goliath, halfling, human) has a companion. These are mentioned as often as that bonded animal is within sight. Domesticated animals and the bond developed with them is a key part of this tale. Repetition of themes makes it feel important.

The mostly Halfling group does not have a pack mastiff, so they purchase a mule to carry supplies on their journey.

Now, that’s kind of a lie. Behn’s companion is technically a pack mastiff, but he does not use Mitzie in that manner. That’s also part of the flavor. A bonded animal that is merely wheelbarrow isn’t interesting. A wheelbarrow that becomes a key companion in life is.

Day wolves, night wolves

This opens with them being part of the Born Generation. Each is a character born with small magical abilities. This makes them late teens. A typical age for coming-of-age stories told through gaming. It is also a reminder that their parents grew up in times before the Awakening, when social and political systems were stable for many centuries.

As they leave Telse they encounter but do not engage followers of Obscon. This was not designed as a random encounter, and if they left Telse through any gate, but not Upper Telse, they would have met that group. This allowed me to describe the political maneuvering of ghetto control.

The rest of this first day of travel mostly involves descriptive narrative of the Western Wilde. They pass a tower complex being built as an early warning and defense system for the growing community. As they move along the road they leave civilization.

When the wolves attack them at night this is actually a random encounter, but since it is custom built it fills some knowledge about what’s happening in Kin. There is a huge wolf as one of the five that attack the group. Animals of that size are new to every member of that group.

That’s a seed of information planted. Even random encounters should plant information about the world space, if not the actual adventure.

Finding and Defending the Tower of Glass

Maurice’s entry into the group is the first time the nature of playing an episodic series of adventures comes into play. Unfortunately due to real life it doesn’t happen in a village or base, but on the road. That could have been handled better, but was necessary for real life. We meet almost every Sunday (Sounders games permitting) and those who can come do. Saffron’s operator couldn’t make this session so she came down ill. The group put here on mule and they made way.

They also learn of something disastrous off towards Telse. They choose to not investigate. Using the few words to describe the smoke near where they passed the being-constructed tower let’s them know that there is a breathing world beyond just their quest. Always make the world breathe. This can leads to future hooks.

In the upcoming battle at the Glass Tower three players were unavailable. Saffron remained ill, Mo was knocked out while alone when the attack started, Shonie guarded the companions as a reserve force. All are things that could happen. New entry Mansaray comes to the Tower in a wary fashion, not knowing which side is his enemy until he’s just missed by an arrow.

The spider attack is something from the random encounters table. It is the mildest of attacks and done just to remind the players that there is not safety.

When The Five get to the Tower of Glass there is a role-played interrogation that gets interrupted. The interrogation is actually the break point for our 3 hour real world session.

The session with the attack is also only to be about three hours, it opens with conflict. The pace is a mix of fast and slow as the group learns/relearns combat. It is complex and in waves. Having four different waves forces the players to manage their resources. They know they will not have time to rest. Waves also provides both sides the opportunity to retreat, which one does.

Retreat should always be an option. Just as a total party kill is wrong to do to the players, it is something that a group of NPCs will actively avoid. In this case the leader and two sub-bosses get away. Their minions and their minions’ companions all perish.

Side Mission

Only two players could make the next session. This was handled by creating two possible side missions. They picked one through role-play, rushing off to track down the raider who fled on foot. The other choice was to send a message to Telse, past that area that had been spewing smoke a few days prior.

There are two encounters in this session. Both earned experience, even though only one involved death. During the second encounter when Saffron and Aamar escape from a patrol searching for them they won.

They were rewarded with xp for doing so. The reward was not quite as large as if they had killed the patrol, but that was because they were not fully successful. The patrol knew that someone was nearby. The partial success resulted in half xp given.

If xp is only given out for killings you create a game that is all about death. To this point every character earned xp for finding the Lorebook (a storypoint) and every character earned xp for winning a battle even if some of the enemy retreated. Saffron and Aamar also earned full xp for the man they captured and sent into servitude. Creating rewards for the type of play you want to see encourages that play in the future.

We’re in middle of the battle of Nak right now, so I’m not going to dive into how the first few waves were used.

Instead I’ll end pointing out that we are using the variant rule Gritty Realism (267 of the DnD5e DMG). That change was made during the play sessions and has had no effect on play. What it did was create a more narrative style of game that paced to one or two hard/deadly encounters on a typical day. The long rest will need to be in a place of sanctuary (say the Glass Tower, or semi-permanent encampment build with help of an outdoors specialist).

Since we are doing just a 3-4 hour session averaging every other weeks this less video-game like pace suits the group. It also means that they worry about the death a bit more. Having players worry that characters die is good. It encourages play that is both cautious and courageous. Knowing that you won’t die means you have no courage, something the DM does will save you. Most of the group already know what they want their next character to be.

Returning from their scouting trip Saffron and Aamar share their findings. The group left behind tells a quick tale about how Cortez trained other scholars, including a man named Chorl. Cortez expected the Cult of Nak to have Chorl at its head, but as of now, Chorl’s whereabouts are unknown.

In side voices the rest of The Five tell the scouts that in the past Cortez wipes the minds clean of those that find the Tower, the Lorebook and himself. Only those judged worthy of carrying on knowledge of ancient ways can know what they’ve found. None know if they are worthy, but their quest is to get the Book. Maybe they don’t need to bring it back to Cortez.

They are going to sneak to that small village. Violence is fortunately certain, and so only Bernie the bear cub and Samul’s bearded dragon Boo come along. Bernie can provide help in the realm of violence. Samul and Boo are a pair. It isn’t an issue of trust, for Shonie and Saffron will stay back with the other companions. Behn and Mo round out the group.

Travel during daylight is easier. The volcano looms, there is less smoke than usual, but still small signs of something happening soon. They come to the first ridge, where Aamar and Saffron killed the escapee and interrogated his rear guard. There is more caution this time.

Mo heads to the top of the ridge and pokes his eyes over the edge. There is a group, they found one of the arrows. Mo indicates to his companions that they should stop and ready their weapons. This opposing group is masked, includes a goliath and five humans. There are two eagles and four wolves. Mo is a bit tense.

Good fortune! They follow another path, and head to the Mo’s right. It’s slow, but The Five can wait. That group heads off and is now distant. Another group of five or six, with their bonds, walks along the next ridgeline. They head towards the mountain.

The Five think they can slip into town now while those two are away. That would roughly be about a third of the populace, and now Mo notices a smaller group of three across the lahar valley and climbing the distant volcano. Maybe they can get into the largest building and snag the Lorebook.

Working their way through brush, trees and gullies they make their way to the west edge of the two. Two small cottages sit along the entry path that walks towards a stream. There are bits of forest along the hillside. Mo rushes through the underbrush and gets to the edge, leaving the less stealthy group behind him with about 60 feet of path and grassland in between him and the others.

Another patrol from the Nakists is in Maurice’s sight. Things could get hairy. This group has an eagle as well and a giant eagle too. Three humans, a goliath and two wolves round out the patrol. Mo takes cover, but not quickly enough. The giant eagle spots him. As it swoops down in an attempt to attack, little Maurice ducks underneath a branch. That bird will have to circle back or find a new target.

Spotted Mo knows that he will need support. He has it, as the rest of the group surges forward. Between blades, bolts (magical and natural), birds, bears and wolves there is blooding flowing quickly. Only one human from the patrol gets away and flees to the largest of the houses, a two story building that can host a few goliath. A single eagle flies off. The Five are slightly wounded, but move forward.

They are a few dozen feet behind that patrolman. He slams the door shut behind them and the loud noise of door bar is heard. Samul smashes through the door. His pit chain ripping through the soft woods. Just behind him are Aamar, Behn and Bernie. The brawl will continue. They force their way into the building.

It is a large gathering place. About 45 feet away towards the back of the long house is a stairway. A man in chain mail holds a large book, the Lorebook, in front of him. There are obstacles. A couple more patrolman and a goliath with an eagle mask, but no eagle block the way. It is a pitched battle. The weakened patrolman doesn’t go down first, but the all fall.

Anderson commands his group forward. They attack and The Five (but there’s only three and the bear cub. We’ll get to Mo in a bit) respond. It is another swirl of violence and chaos. Bolts of magic slice through the air with two hitting both Behn and Samul. It is a new kind of magic. Off to the side of their vision they notice a poof of smoke from the book.

The people are handling the guards so Aamar releases his bear cub on the leader. Bernie charges Anderson, the man with the book and wrestles him. It is a man in chain, a huge book and a bear cub throwing each other about. A fortunate claw rips into Anderson, he falls unconscious at roughly the same time as his remaining guards.

As those three charge into the house, Mo decides to try the second floor. He’s had enough of the violence. His first handhold gives out and a spear flies down past his shoulder. The second time he gets every hold, rushing to the window. Stabbing into the window with his rapier he skewers and throws aside that guard.

Leaping into the window he sees a goliath with bird on shoulder. It’s an unfair fight, but Mo tries. He’s weakened the other, but falls with a blow to the head. An unconscious Mo is becoming a regular occurrence, as is the slightly halfling’s success at using his rapier.

After taking Mo to the floor the goliath heads down the stairs in time to see Anderson fall victim to Bernie. Casting First Aid on Anderson the two are prepared to fight. Behn rushes the wounded leader. With a quick swing he falls again. Sacred Flame flows from that goliaths hands. The Lorebook and Behn take the holy fires.

The rest of the group offs the petulant goliath. Action is swift, but he gets another Flame towards the Book. Behn shields it from most of the fires, taking the heat himself.

There are no noises in the house. The large greeting and eating area has fur, feather, blood and fire about it. No one knows where Mo is. A quick Aamar shouts “UPSTAIRS?!” and heads there. Samul pops his head out the entry. Behn protects the Book.

Aamar finds Maurice just at death’s door. The priest of Quar casts First Aid and Mo is back among the living.

They’ve won! They have the Lorebook, as long as no one else is in the town, or discovers them as they head back to the Glass Tower and/or Telse.