Home Sweet Home

We played another game yesterday and this time, Baldur, Kyrila and Hygelak had to find their way back home from the plateau of Cantopia. They still had three gliders constructed by the Puppeteer and decided not to climb down the bluff at the edge of the plateau but instead looked for a suitable landing place in the forest below and took off to the air once again – only fail completely at the obstacle 3 Speed tests in order to land safely on a clearing about a mile from the edge of the high plateau and not damage the glider in the process.

While Baldur turned his own glider into a pile of wooden splinters and torn canvas, Kyrila and Hygelak managed to avoid the most substantial damage to their vessels and being blessed with good luck, none of the three crash-happy pilots took any serious injuries (only a superficial for Kyrila and a light for Hygelak, from both of which they recovered instantly). Anyway, Baldur was quite depressed, looking at the destroyed marvellous gliders and decided to take at least one of them back to the rebel camp so he could repair it and understand its ingenious construction.

Down on the ground, Kyrila climbed a nearby tree in order to win back her lost orientation as she had no clear idea of the cardinal directions after her unexpectedly fast and turbulent descent. Climbing the tree did not prove all that difficult, yet Kyrila still failed her Orienteering test and so the party would get lost on their way back home to the rebel camp.

Kyrila led her two companions through the wilderness and soon the came to witness a couple of  disgusting bugs with the size of well-fed domestic cats that were feeding upon the cadavre of a huge boar. In the evening of the first day of travel, Kyrila found out that there wasn’t much game in the forest to hunt and so she didn’t manage to provide anything but a weasel as a meal for the three of them. So they finally were forced to go to sleep with empty stomaches and a unpleasant anxiety as beyond the illumination of the campfire that Baldur had ignited, the were disturbing shadows crawling through the undergrowth and the entire forest seemed to be bustling with many-legged life.

On the second day, Kyrila led the group further through the woods, and close to noon, they encountered a river of myriads of red ants that was rolling through the bed of one the many mountain creeks that descend from the Stormpillar Mountains to Lake Tangir, carrying dead forest animals and boughs with it.

The heroes decided unanimously that it was a bad idea to cross the path of the ants and instead decided to venture back to the last creek they had crossed about half an hour ago and follow it down to the lakeshore.  The party had to rest once again, and as Kyrila still couldn’t provide enough food, Hygelak decided to play on his Aura of Martyrdom and abstain from his part of the scarce rations (he effectively accepted a +3 Ob penalty due to hunger while that of Baldur and Kyrila would remain at +1 Ob).

When they finally emerged from the forest, a warm rain had started to pour down from the heavy clouds that were hanging above the smoke-colored surface of the lake. They instantly realized that they had ventured way too far west and had now ended up with the hostile city of Nimrod between them and the rebel camp.

Anyway, they immediately spotted a group of three warriors that occurred to be guardians of Nimrod who were struggling with a pair of enormous giant stag beetles that were about as big as ponys. One of the warriors had been badly injured by the monstrous insects and so the heroes decided to intervene and help the warriors with the intention to persuade them to join the Woodland Rebellion afterwards.

Thus, Kyrila used her bow to assist her father’s warriors, but although she finally did bring one of the beetles down and the tribal guardians took care of the other, the abominations still transformed the already wounded man into a gorey mess that was far beyond any hopes of healing. After the battle, Kyrila tried to convince the surviving warriors to join her cause in exchange for her already granted help, but the warriors remained very reluctant. Although they agreed that Marduk was indeed treating them badly, they insisted on their opinion that Kyrila’s rebellion was but a thorn in Marduk’s heel and that they would finally all be slaughtered by the chieftain’s Angelic allies.

Anyway, the warriors agreed to supply the heroes with food and helped them sneak around Nimrod without being harassed by the patrols. They also told the party about the attacks by vicious insect monstrosities that had begun a few days ago and had already caused some casualties to Marduk’s troops.

With the promise not to take action against the rebels as long as they could avoid it, the two warriors hailed the heroes good bye and returned to Nimrod while Hygelak, Kyrila and Baldur finally returned to the rebel camp. There, they were greeted by Berun, the warrior that had dared to question Kyrila’s authority before and now he confronted her again, telling her about attacks by giant vermin and two rebel warriors who had been injured badly trying to defend the camp against those creatures. Berun asked Kyrila to legitimate her trip to Cantopia and openly suggested that maybe she was not a good leader for the Rebellion at all.

This led to a quick duel of wits in which Kyrila managed to humiliate Berun deeply by telling him to remember his place in the hierarchy and presenting the blueprints of the Bronze Juggernaut that would enable the rebels to finally seek open conflict with Marduk’s forces and his powerful allies. Berun reacted by cursing at Princess Kyrila which ruined his good standing among the other rebel warriors and so it happened that Berun was stripped of his rank and sentenced to a public whipping for his transgressions.

After the duel of wits, the session was mostly over, leaving only Baldur to decipher the blueprints of the Bronze Moloch and Kyrila trying a circles test to find an NPC that would be able to create a regional map of the woodlands between Lake Tangir and the Plateau of Cantopia from the PCs descriptions. The latter was successful, leaving the heroes with the name of a certain Thara, the cousin of one of the rebels who was supposed to live in Arcadia were she was employed at the local academy. Anyway, Baldur failed his test for deciphering the blueprints and so his calculations about how much bronze, how many workers and how a big a workshop will be required to construct the Bronze Juggernaut will finally turn out to be somewhat off.

—

That’s it, so far. Baldur’s quest for the fabled Mystificator is finally over, leaving him with an even bigger one as constructing the Juggernaut will be a huge challenge. Anyway, Kyrila will most certainly help him as this weapon will hopefully enable her to defeat her father in the upcoming battle of Nimrod. Hygelak has found a first hint on his origins and will be doing some research in Arcadia – as that’s the place were the party will go next. So another journey through Ethrea imminent and finally there will be some good social interaction in the Free City of Arcadia where it’s all about whom you know and who knows you.

Escape from Cantopia

After Baldur had recovered from his wounds, the party returned to the ruin of the pentagonal tower and finished their work, cleaning the debris from the staircase. After that they descended into a  pentagonal chamber about twice as large as the ground floor of the tower. The only feature of the room was sliding door of bronze mesh flanked by two statues of bald-headed men holding bronze tools in their hand. Interestingly, the statues did not resemble natural humans as the artist had carefully avoided any round surfaces and instead composed them of various triangular or polygonal faces, giving them a sharp and somewhat calculated appearance.

Beyond the sliding door there was a lift shaft and it was Hygelak’s successful Sculpture test helped by Baldur’s ancient knowledge that revealed that the heads of the statues could be turned by 90 degrees so that they faced each other and with metallic noises, an elevator platform rose from the darkness below.

Foresighted enough, the heroes realized that they didn’t have any light sources and so they returned to the surface were Baldur tested his Beginner’s Luck for Scavenging in order to find inflammable lamp oil in one of the surrounding buildings – and failed. The consequence was that Baldur actually did find a cask of lamp oil, yet the scent of the burning liquid would attract the attention of the vicious spider hybrids.

At the bottom of the elevator, the heroes discovered a huge subterraneam complex that appeared to be some kind of temple hallowed to mathematics and science. Unfortunately for them, the temple was also connected to the lair of the spider hybrids, and while Hygelak successfully tested his speed to copy a complex mathematical equation that was carved into the surface of the central altar using sheets of parchment from Baldur’s backpack and the grime-stained thigh bone they had fashioned into a torch in an Indy-Jonesish fashion, about one hundred of the eight-legged monstrosities crawled out of the loges that dotted the walls of the room on four stories.

The heroes appeared to be doomed as the monsters approached them but then, they realized that one of the abominations was indeed quite bit larger then its specimen and also appeared to ancient with its wrinkled, spotted face and its long silvery-white hair and beard. This elder spider began to speak, introducing itself as Zhagratax, Lord of Cantopia. Although Zhagratax didn’t have the PCs killed on sight, he was rather hostile and asked for a good reason why he should not feed the intruders to his underlings right now. Only when Baldur mentioned his quest for the Mystificator did Zhagratax raise his brows suspiciously and engage in a DoW with Hygelak (“You have illegally trespassed the borders of my realm. My underlings should eat you alive!” – “Listen to what we can offer, maybe we can strike a bargain that is more useful to you than dividing three human corpses among one hundred hungry spiders.”).

Hygelak used his Oratory as the main dueling skill while Zhagratax relied on his (not so good) interrogation and the bodies of argument started at 9 for Hygelak and 7 for his arachnid adversary. The duel took two exchanges and at the end, Hygelak could convince Zhagratax, that the heroes could be useful to his agenda, indeed. Zhagratax then stated that the heroes would not be eaten, at least not now, and had them instead imprisoned in the crypt below.

Down in the catacombs, the heroes found the final resting place of about thirty priests that had been buried in niches in the wall in three concentric circles around a central chamber with two stone sarcophagi with ornately sculpted lids that displayed a man and a woman lying on their backs. The statues had the same precisely calculated look as those at the upper exit of the lift shaft and when Hygelak inspected them closely, he realized that the amulet of the female lid figure actually showed the crest of his own family.

In order to lift the sarcophagi’s lids, Baldur tested his Beginner’s Luck for Scavenging again, successfully retrieving a steel elbow from one of the burial niches in circular corridors surrounding the central chamber. With a successful power test, Baldur removed the lids from the sarcophagi without breaking them or making noise, revealing two skeletons that had been buried with rich pieces of grave furniture, most notably jewelry worth five dice of cash on hand.

A few hours later, Zhagratax summoned the PCs for an audience and told them that the fabled Mystificator was guarded by a individual called the Puppeteer who resides in a great manor on another hilltop (Cantopia is built on three hills). Zhagratax asked the characters to kill the Puppeteer who was his nemesis and deliver his head to the subterranean church of science. He even gave them a spell-powered lighting thrower, a mighty weapon that would allow them to kill the mighty Puppeteer. Zhagratax also promised the characters that they may take the Mystificator for themselves.

Thus, the heroes left the subterranean cathedral and head to the Puppeteer’s manor on the opposing hilltop. There, they discovered a huge square structure with a perfectly round dome on top. The building only had a single entrance that was not locked, yet a mighty curse prevented the Puppeteer and his minions to leave just as well as it hindered Zhagratax’s spider hybrids to enter.

Inside there was a vase chamber with a circular collonade that supported the dome above. In the middle of the room, a bald-headed man was sitting on the floor, obviously meditating, who turned his headed in mechanical manner when the PCs entered. He then spoke to them with a metallic voice and it was obvious that this was no living creature but a masterfully crafted mechanical guardian. When the explorers told him that they wished to talk to the Puppeteer, the guardian stepped back a number of arcs descended into the perfectly smooth marbe floor to form a spiral staircase leading down.

The heroes descended the stairs and emerged in a chamber that was connected to a long corridor by an archway. The corridor was flanked on both sides by about one hundred alcoves in each of which another mechanical guardian was standing and staring at the newcomers motionlessly.

The heroes walked down the corridor and finally came to another big circular chamber in the center of which a gaunt old man with a bald head, clad in a brown loincloth was sitting on the floor. This man turned out to be the Puppeteer, one of the two legendary engineers of ancient Cantopia and lifetime rival of Zhagratax. He explained to the heroes that in the days of the Cataclysm, he had refused to enter the pact with the Devil Norimaar and had thus escaped the cruel fate that had befallen Zhagratax and his fellows.

He had, however, also refused to join the ranks of the invading archangel Thereniel and has thus been imprisoned by the Angelic warlord and cursed to spend an eternity in his manor in Cantopia. When asked about the Mystificator, the Puppeteer deliberately told the heroes that not this device was his greates achievement but what was hidden within it – for the Mystificator was a cryptologic device in the form of a copper column that composed of pivoted discs with numbers and letters and obscure symbols on them. Only if those discs were brought into the correct constellation and a lever was pulled would the Mystificator reveal the secret contained within. Pulling the lever with the discs in the wrong constellation would however, destroy the treasure that was stored in the column.

Fortunately for the PCs, the Puppeteer offered them right away to give them what was inside for it was of no use to him anymore. This treasure turned out to be the blue prints for the most advanced technical device the Puppeteer – and any mortal engineer – had ever developed: The Bronze Juggernaut, a gargantuan mechanical rhino powered by magical energy that would trample the ranks of enemy, raze fortifications with its massive head and burn its creator’s foes in a cone of flames from its mouth.

The Puppeteer had developed this ultimate weapon in long years but then he has never been able to actually construct it for Thereniel’s curse held him captive his own manor and the construction of the Bronze Juggernaut would require large amounts of bronze as well as a huge construction hall and a massive forge – so he gave the blueprints to Baldur in whom he saw a promising aspirant who might realize his grand plans and use the Juggernauts for noble ends, as they both shared an urgent need for independence from both Angels and Devils.

Yet the Puppeteer knew just as well as the heroes that Zhagratax would not simply let them walk out of Cantopia with the blueprints of the Bronze Juggernaut in their bags. So it was Kyrila who proposed that the Puppeteer should construct a flying vehicle with which they could take off from the manor’s domed roof and fly to safety. I really loved that idea and so I decided that this should not be a big challenge for the Puppeteer with his G7 Engineering skill – and it happened that two days later, the PCs managed to escape from Cantopia, flying over the ruined city’s roofs with gliders fashioned from wood and cloth like the flying devices envisioned by Leonardo DaVinci.

Zhagratax and his vile specimen could do nothing but hiss in fury and hatred at the humans that had tricked them and betrayed their alliance – yet for Hygelak, Baldur and Kyrila, the adventure has just begun.

Corkscrews Of Heavenly Wrath

The heroes have continued their exploration of the ruined city of Cantopia. After having defeated one of the scary spider-hybrids, Baldur and his friends examined the ruin of a small temple on a plaza several hundred paces from the city gates. The crumbled dome was endorned with bas-reliefs that showed human figures with various tools and technical devices who were working on machines of all kinds.

One relief was particularly interesting as it showed a tower with a pentagonal layout and a huge gear on the top. As there weren’t any other hints, the party decided to start their search for the Mystificator at this tower – as soon as they could manage to find the building.

To this end, Kyrila took the lead and made her companions follow her to the top of the highest of the three hills on which Cantopia had been built. From there, the party could actually spot a pentagonal structure, although it was a mere ruin and not a miraculously high tower with a gear on the top. Still, it appeared to be the building that they have been looking for and so the party ventured there and although Kyrila did her best to lead her friends through small alleys and avoid any unwanted attention, the tinkerer and the philosopher obviously were unable to keep their mouths shut and so – not yet known to the explorers – two spider hybrids that were lairing in a nearby building stealthily followed the group over piles of debris and through alleys and dark backyards.

When the heroes passed through what must have been a residential house, Baldur picked up an ancient device from table that looked as if the inhabitants had been interrupted in their last meal as there were still dishes on the table, covered in a thick layer of dust. The device Baldur picked up was an old corkscrew – a not so complex but still very rare mechanical tool. This little household helper should prove to become very helpful, later.

Some minutes later, the adventurers arrived at the ruined pentagonal tower which had a massive bronze front door and appeared to be shaped from a single gargantuan block of snow-white marble with greenish veining. The door that was completely covered with verdigris seemed to be stuck and could be opened by a rather complex machinery that consisted of various gears, poles and other parts. In order to open the door, a key was needed.

Although the tower didn’t have a roof anymore, climbing the smooth marble surface might have been difficult and Kyrila wasn’t too kind on trying, remembering her fall back on the mountain ridge. So Baldur decided that he would try to pick the lock. With his brand-new corkscrew. Ok, I thought and handed out an Ob 4 Lockpick test for a complex lock, knowing that Baldur did not have the lockpick skill, so it would effectively be an Ob 8 test, modified by another +1 Ob penalty for less-than-optimal tools (a frickin’ corkscrew, remember?).

Baldurs player asked if his Geometry Training would apply which I did allow, as well as FoRKing in Mending and a helping die from Hygelak’s Blacksmith skill (which was perhaps not quite correct, but corkscrew it). Investing a persona point, Baldur’s player rolled a total of nine open-ended dice (Perception test!) and, well, he instantly produced 8 successes with several 6s that exploded to come up with the final required success to meet the nigh-impossible obstacle. Very cool, Baldur will from now on be known as MacGyver of Nimrod.

Inside the tower, the party discovered a spiral stair that led downwards to the basement, but unfortunately it was impassable because of the debris of the collapsed upper stories. The heroes immediately began the tedious task of clearing the stairway and only Baldur noticed the two spider hybrids that came suddenly crawling over the outer tower walls.

Kyrila succeeded at her Steel test vs. Surprise (which had a +1D advantage because the party had succeeded at an Observation test before the intent of which had been: “We are very cautious and always look out for approaching enemies). Hygelak, however, failed to overcome his hesitation by 3 and ran away from the tower and down the street, screaming like a little girl.

This also sprang the Raw Talent rules and so Hygelak gained the Notorious Liar trait for the duration of the scene. Well – it didn’t make that much of a difference – and neither did the Batshit trait which he received later in the following fight as result of another failed Steel test that was caused by one of the Cantopians casting The Fear.

The aformentiond fight that did follow now was A) lengthy and B) very suspenseful. Kyrila drew her sword while Baldur picked up some rocks from the ground to throw, yet one of the hybrids cast The Fear and so, by the end of volley one, the entire party was fleeing cowardly from the tower. The spiders raced after their prey, slashing with their razor-sharp forelegs and hissing insiduously. When the spiders (that had a serious advantage in positioning due to their higher Speed multiplier and their B5 Speed) reached Kyrila and Baldur some fifty paces from the tower, both critters pushed their opponent off their feet and struck them with their forelegs.

Both Kyrila and Baldur were wounded (some lights, some sufis), but then, they shuffled to their feet, held up sword and corkscrew and struck the spiders themselves. The fight lasted for several exchanges and although our wordy philosopher Hygelak turned out to be a swordmaster in disguise, the true turning point was, when one of the hybrids tried to cast The Fear again and failed. The result on the wheel of magic was something along the lines of White Enhance Presence and so forth. I therefore decided that the PCs weapons began to burn with heavenly fire and would from there on grant a +1D advantage when used to strike Devils or anybody with the Hellbound trait and would also grant a +1 bonus to Power against those enemies.

So, bleeding from several wounds, the heroes finally managed to drive of the spiders. Although Kyrila and Hygelak did recover quite well from their wounds, Baldur still had a total of 3 light wounds for -3D. So the party decided to search for a relatively safe hideout so that Baldur could rest (it would take him 60 hours to recover completely). This however, did not work out, and the party was continuously forced to move to another hideout because spiders were crawling through the shadows outside (very tense atmosphere at this point).

Finally, the heroes did manage to find a safe resting place, but  all in all, they will have to rest for 72 hours until Baldur’s wound penalties will go away.

All in all, the game was a blast. The fight took almost 2 hours but that is mostly because some of us aren’t all that comfortable with rules yet which are a bit hard to learn in the first place (especially for a complete RPG newcomer like Kyrila’s player). I also deliberately did not tell the players about the possibility to forfeit an action in order to keep confusion low – of course the enemies didn’t use the rule, neither. We will introduce it in the next Fight! that will surely arise sooner or later.

There have also been some advancements like Baldur’s Perception which has gone up to B5, as well as Kyrila’s Stealthy and/or Orienteering (not completely sure here). We will hopefully play again around Jan 10, and then the party will finally descend into the basement of the pentagonal tower – which is, by the way, not the place where the Mystificator can be found: The PCs have failed the test when they tried to interpret the bas-reliefs on the temple dome.

Anyway, they will find something cool in the tower basement. I know I’ve hit them hard and it’s about time they get some reward for the blood they’ve shed… What might this reward turn out to be? Well, I really have no idea so far, but I’m sure, that I can make something up till next time.

Welcome to Cantopia

Kyrila, Hygelak and Baldur had recently explored a cavern into which they had fled from an unnatural weather phenomenon (acidic rain). In the cave they had freed an infernal creature called a “Child of Norimaar”. The cavern floor had then collapsed beneath the adventurers’ feet and they fell into a fast-flowing subterranean stream, lost consciousness and regained it only as they had been washed ashore on a sandy beach from which they could leave the cave and step out onto a moonlit rocky outcropping above a forest valley that was rising towards a mountain ridge behind which the heroes suspected the ancient city of Cantopia.

In the last session, the three explorers travelled through the forest valley, Baldur successfully tested his Beginner’s Luck Firebuildung and finally they reached the rocky slope leading up to the ridge. Kyrila took the lead and climbed up there but failed her Beginner’s Luck climbing test, tripped, fell and took a superficial wound from which she recovered instantly. After tying her rope to a solid rock on the ridge, Hygelak and Baldur could follow without risking to fall down.

Up there, the party discovered a mountain plateau dotted with huge boulders and dwarf-pines. On the horizon to the east they spotted the outlines of a walled city. The heroes decided to wait until nightfall so they could cross the plateau without being noticed. They failed their Stealthy tests, anyway, so one of the inhabitants of Cantopia who have been turned into spider-hybrid monstrosities by infernal magic, decades ago, spotted them as they approached the city in the silvery light that the full moon cast over the rocky plateau.

The three of them entered the ruined city through a massive city gate and began to walk down a formerly wide and heavily used street that was covered with piles of debris from the ruined buildings that rose against the night sky at both sides.

After some paces, all three PCs succeeded at their Beginner’s Luck Observation tests vs. the Beginner’s Luck Stealthy of one of the Cantopian spider-hybrids, so they spotted the monster as it crawled down from a pile of debris into a shadowy alley. The adventurers decided to bypass said alley on the other side of the street and try not to disturb the human-headed beast.

Anyway, after another 30 meters or so, they heard a pebble roll down from one of the piles behind them, turned and now spotted the spider-beast in all its glory sitting atop the pile and observing them warily. It turned out that the spider could actually talk (surprise!), yet there wasn’t much conversation as both sides were full of mistrust, and when Baldur decided to light a torch to keep the approaching vermin away, the spider interpreted that as an aggressive act and cast The Horror – successfully. Kyrila and Baldur both totally failed their Steel tests and ran screaming deeper into the city while Hygelak decided to Stand and Drool.

He had earned the Hellbound trait in the last session, however, and we are using a variant of the Raw Talent rules from the Magic Burner. So we rolled the dice and Hygelak got the Horned trait for the duration of the scene: Suddenly a pair of large curved horns emerged from his forehead. This caused the man-spider to halt and hiss: “Interesting, so you’re alleged to the Dark Master as well!”

I don’t remember completely, how the situation finally escalated but it began with Hygelak saying something about Norimaar. The spider had an instinct that said “Never speak the Dark Master’s name aloud”, so it begged Hygelak not to do so neither – which he ignored and finally the situation grew so threatening that Hygelak reached for his sword that he had dropped to the ground before and a Fight! emerged.

Hygelak acted very defensively and the superior spider attacked him with vicious blows from its Bladed Tarsi but didn’t manage to lock the sculptor which would have sealed his fate most probably (lucky dice for Hygelak in this one!).

Finally, Kyrila entered the conflict and targeted the spider with her bow. The first arrow didn’t hit the spider but the second one produced a superb hit, B10 damage, spider gone.

That’s when the session ended so next time, the players will have to figure out why Hygelak could suddenly grow horns and they will have to explore the ruins of Cantopia and find the Mystificator – whatever that might be.

What Lurks Below

We played with the Nimrod group yesterday and had quite an eventful session. The player characters had left behind Nimrod and travelled to the rebel camp in the forest. After having lunch the party went to rest. The next day, Horatio/Hygelak started out inquiring about a cooperative NPC who had formerly been a close contact of chieftain Marduk and was willing to share information about the tribal leader (independently from princess Kyrila, that is). Unfortunately, the circles test failed and we invoked the enmity clause:

Berun, a proven rebel warrior, respected by his fellows for his bravery in battle and loyalty to his friends, approached Kyrila to tell her that he and some other rebels were concerned about the stranger snuffing around in the camp. Berun made the point that this weird guy could very well be Marduk’s spy and cause great distress to the Woodland Rebellion. Kyrila on the other hand made clear that she trusted Horatio because he had risked his life for the rebels’ cause – and then she insisted on trusting her instinct which had never betrayed so far.

Berun still disagreed and wanted Kyrila to arrest Horatio so he could not gather information that he might then share with Marduk. Now it was Kyrila’s “Never allow anyone to question my authority” instinct that had her engage Berun in a DoW on the matter. Kyrila used her Oratory while Berun relied on Interrogation. Rebels were gathering around the pair and all eyes were on them while they argued the case of Horatio/Hygelak. The bodies of argument were 4 for Kyrila and 6 for Berun respectively – no successes on the roll for the princess, so she was starting out on less than great conditions.

Kyrila’s script was point, rebuttal, dismiss while I had scripted point, feint, dismiss for Berun. In the first volley, both sides reduced their opponent’s BOA by 2 points. In the second volley, Berun asked flatly, which bits of concrete information Kyrila could present about Horatio. The princess who had prepared herself to rebut Berun’s argumentation was suddenly caught flat-footed and didn’t know what to say – bad, bad luck. But then, I rolled only 1 success on 4 dice, so Kyrila was still in the game for the last volley in which both sides had scripted a dismiss. Berun argued that the Woodland Rebellion should not rely on strangers as they could not be trusted for which the Evangelists’ machinations were a perfect proof. Kyrila, on the other hand, told Berun to remember his rank and that she was in charge and would not allow him to question his authority. After rolling the dice, both sides’ BOA was reduced to zero and so the duel ended in a tie.

The intents that were stated before the DoW were “Horatio will be arrested while in camp if Berun wins” and “Berun will be charged with patrol duty for the next two weeks if Kyrila wins.” As a compromise, Kyrila agreed to do not allow Horatio to stroll about without her in camp while she completely clear to Berun that he should better watch out as she would not acquiesce should he ever dare to question her authority again.

After this dispute had been settled, Esra, a rebel warrior who had died in the feigned attack on Nimrod to allow Kyrila and the others to flee from the city, was buried and then, Kyrila, Baldur and Horatio gathered supplies and set out to the wild in order to search the ancient city of Cantopia in the Stormpillar Mountains. Baldur had discovered hints on the so-called “Mystificator”, an ancient artifact of great yet unknown power. Which he had been planning to retrieve for months and had asked Kyrila for help in exchange for his support in the prisoner liberation back in Nimrod. Baldur had left his workshop behind and so Kyrila felt obliged to accompany Baldur – even if only she was curious about this legendary device that might prove to be a powerful weapon in her war against her father Marduk.

Baldur also had an old map of the region but unfortunately, the landscape had been changed during the cataclysm, so the ancient map was not very accurate any more. Kyrila, being on her home turf, tried a Orienteering test (Ob 2) to find the way to Cantopia. She failed and so the party got lost and was eventually caught in a supernatural rainstorm with acidic drops pouring down on them. In order not to get burnt by the acid rain, the three adventurers sought refuge in a nearby cave.

A natural corridor sloped down into the flank of a rocky outcropping and finally ended at a whole in the floor, revealing a subterranean lake in the chamber below that was illuminated by iridescent algae. As the corridor was sloped and the rainstorm seemed to intensify outside, the heroes decided that they would have to jump down into the lake in order to escape the corrosive water that would soon flow down the rocky floor.

Down there, they swam to the shore of the small lake and discovered to corridors leading from the chamber, one in a northern, the other in a southern direction. As the northern corridor reeked of sulphur, the heroes decided that it would be better to follow the other one. Their confidence dwindled, anyway, when from the darkness ahead, a legion of giant woodlouses approached them – crawling backwards and in a perfect rank and file formation. Obviously, something strange was going on.

The PCs still decided to follow the corridor and finally reached another small chamber. In which they encountered a bloated amorphous creature covered in chitinous plates that peered upon them from multiple facetted eyes and welcomed them with a raspy voice that emerged from a jaw that was armed with razorsharp mandibles. “Ah, finally some visitors!” the creature hissed. As the PCs were frightened by the monstrous appearance of the creature, they were standing there in shock and awe while the monster explained that it was A) very hungry and would B) eat them if they C) didn’t free it by breaking the celestial seal in the chamber at the end of the northern corridor. Obviously this creature was some kind of Devil and had been imprisoned by Angelic forces during the Great Judgement.

Surprisingly, the adventurers agreed and went to the other chamber that was the only artificially created room in the complex and contained a shrine of the Arch Angel Thereniel including an altar with an arcane seal upon it. The entire room was filled with the bodies of giant woodlouses that had obviously tried to reach the altar but were killed by some unseen force before they could reach the seal. After hesitating shortly, Horatio approached the altar and destroyed the seal with his sword. Some moments later, an invisble booming voice called out: “Fools! You have just freed a Son of Norimaar, a vile Devil from the Sulphurous Pits of Hell! An entire army of Angels was necessary to bind the creature in its prison, and now it will bring death and despair to the mortal men. For this, you shall burn in Hell!”

Then the voice fell silent and the earth began to shake below the characters’ feet as the cave complex began to collapse. The heroes fell through utter darkness for an unfathomable amount of time and finally they plunged into another body of water, black as ink and cold as ice. Moments later, they lost their consciousness.

When they awoke, they were lying on a narrow patch of a subterranean sand beach from were they could see an opening in the towering walls of the caverns through which silvery light fell into the cave. The heroes stood up and stumbled out of the dark into the moonlit wilderness, finding themselves on a ridge above a pass overgrown with trees that led up into the mountains – just as depicted on Baldur’s ancient map.

—

So that was it, a fun game with some great new complications: Berun as a NPC that might question Kyrila’s authority and step up as a rival inside the Woodland Rebellion and, of course a mighty Devil that has been unleashed on the countryside. Horatio has also earned the Hellbound trait and will from now on be subject to the Raw Talent rules.

Prisoner Liberation

The Burning Ethrea campaign has finally begun. On a sultry summer evening, Princess Kyrilla sneaked into the city of Nimrod aided by a mysterious wanderer who introduced himself as Horatio. Hidden on the loading space of an oxen cart provided to Horatio by the princess’s rebel warriors, the two managed to bypass the sentries of Nimrod and reached the workshop of Baldur the locksmith who was a known sympathizer who had offered his home as a safehouse to rebels on earlier occasions.

Kyrilla explained to Baldur that she needed his help in rescuing the rebel warriors that had been imprisoned by her father, chieftain Marduk, and were now confined in a large bamboo cage on the rostra on Nimrod’s marketplace. Kyrilla had deserted her home town some months ago when her bellicose father forged an alliance with the Angelic evangelists that had arrived in the city and tried to convert the citizens to worship and obedience. Kyrilla, who had always been mistreated by Marduk, took this as the final reason to rebel against her father and found the movement that had become known as the Woodland Rebellion. Not only was Marduk a cruel and selfish leader, the Angelic influene was a bad thing in Kyrilla’s opinion for it had been the Angels who had brought devastation to the lands and death to millions of people, just about 50 years ago in the time that is referred to as the Grand Judgement.

Baldur, on the other hand, who was more of a tinkerer than a real locksmith, wasn’t happy about the evangelist’s influence either as he was obsessed with knowledge and technology and most of the achievements of mankind had been lost in the Grand Judgement. He had dedicated his passion to the retrieval of as much ancient technology as he could and he wanted to start by finding the so-called Mystificator, a device of unknown powers that was said to be in the ruins of Cantopia, a deserted settlement in the Storm Pillar mountains near Nimrod. Unfortunately that area was infested with vicious spider-like monstrosities so Baldur would need able swords for that endeavour. So his reasoning was that helping the princess might put him into position to ask for her help in exploring the ruins of Cantopia.

For Horatio – or Hygelak as his real name was – his motivations were not that clear to his new allies. He had been captured by the rebels on his way to Nimrod and as the princess questioned the strange wanderer with the detached demeanour, both realized that the other was driven by some sort of quest. Horatio didn’t really disclose what he was after, yet he mentioned that he was willing to help Kyrilla’s just cause in exchange for her friendship and support in his mysterious mission.

So the three of them deliberated on how they could rescue the rebels from the cage without revealing Baldur’s involvement (as didn’t want to lose his workshop and stuff in Nimrod). They finally came up with a rather… complicated plan: Baldur would try to forge an absolutely crappy lock that looked like the finest lock ever but would break under a determined hit with the pommel of a sword. Then, Horatio would request an audience with chieftain Marduk in which he would continue to impersonate the merchant and would try to convince the chieftain that the lock on the bamboo cage was an ancient piece of crap (and ancient it was, yet not crappy).

Having the locks exchanged would make it easier for the princess to break open the cage and free her fellow rebels which should finally happen during a feigned rebel attack on the southern barricade. In the chaos caused by that attack, Kyrilla would try to take out the two cage guardians, break the mockup-lock and flee from Nimrod with the prisoners.

So that was the plan. While Baldur and Horatio worked together to forge the lock (which took them about two days). Kyrilla made good use of the deep shadows during sunset and blended into the crowd on the market place with a successful beginner’s luck test for Inconspicuous (I offered a Stealthy test to her which would mean that she would be sneaking around in the small alleys around the marketplace, yet Steffie went for Inconspicuous as she considered it offered better chances). Se also managed to get an image on where the next guards were standing, the frequency of patrols and the overall situation on the marketplace. She also attempted a beginner’s luck test for Warrior-wise to recognize one of the cage guards as an old drunkard from her father’s myrmidons. That test she failed, so I decided the chieftain Marduk had picked only his most valiant underlings to guard the cage on the marketplace.

In the meantime, Baldur and Horatio managed to create a really great mockup-lock. It was a beginner’s luck locksmithing test with a base obstacle of 2 (doubled to 4) and a 2 points disadvantage as Baldur only had mending tools (so I decided that he didn’t have “no tools at all” but simply “not exactly the right tools). Horatio helped by bringing in his blacksmithing abilities and I also allowed Baldur to fork in his Ancient-technology-wise. Baldur also burned a persona point and finally came up with 9 successes on 6 dice against a final obstacle of 6. Yep, that’s a lot. Baldur allocated the extra successes to working quickly, so the lock was finished within one and half day – which was a good thing because Baldur had failed a beginner’s luck Street-wise test just before by which he had tried to establish the fact that he had heard rumors that the rebels would not be deported to another destination within the next week or so. Finishing the lock more quickly gave them just the amount of time they required to free the rebels before they would be brought to the stone quarries on the outskirts where they would have been forced to labour.

The next step was gaining an audience with chieftain Marduk – which wasn’t as easy a task as one might think. Horatio tried to talk his way into the chieftain’s palace but failed his Oratory test (6 dice vs. Ob 3). The guards refused to let him in, unless Horatio agreed to arrange a night of relaxation in Loretta’s brothel for them – which was a difficult task for one who had a B0 resources. Horatio thought about visiting his rich uncle who also lived in Nimrod, yet he decided against it as he didn’t want to call on the uncle’s favour for things like that.

So Horatio waited until the guards at the front door where displaced by two comrades and tried again. Again, he failed his Oratory test  – what a bad day. I decided that the guards had already informed about the annoying dirtbag of a crazy merchant who had been trying to gain an audience. When the new guards found out that said merchant was really, really annoying, they agreed to take him to the chieftain, although I decided that Horatio/Hygelak would gain a 1D hostile reputation with the warriors of chieftain Marduk.

Inside the chieftain’s rooms, Horatio was more successful: He convinced the chieftain that maybe the lock on the cage was a Diabolic artefact and that he had to remove it if he didn’t want to risk the evangelist’s wrath. He offered the mock-up lock to the chieftain and also mentioned grand chieftain Dagan from the other side of Lake Tangir who already had such a great modern lock. Dagan was Marduks biggest rival and – being more powerful than Marduk – the chieftain of the Nimrodin was infuriated by any message of him being overtrumped by his abhorred enemy (whom he had to pay a regular tribute; princess Kyrilla had told Horatio about her father’s rivalry with Dagan).

Eventually, Marduk agreed that he would take a look at the merchant’s offer – which meant that he would send for the only locksmith of Nimrod which fortunately happened to be Horatio’s friend Baldur. So in the end it was a collusive agreement in which Marduk he finally agreed, not knowing that he was just helping his rebellious daughter with the liberation of her friends.

After the price for the new lock had been haggled (Horatio tried to raise the price, but Marduk resisted, so Horatio only earned 1 Resource die), the three conspirators set the last part of their plan to work. Through a secret message, princess Kyrilla informed her warriors to begin with the feigned attack. Marduk’s daughter herself hid in one of the ruined buildings around the market place and waited for the alarm. When finally chaos broke loose, she notched an arrow on her hunting bow and took a shot on one of the two – valiantly remaining – cage guards. She hit him for a superficial wound and now the two warriors tried to spot the ambusher who had just attacked them. Unfortunately, Kyrilla had chosen a building on the western end of the market place, so the sun that was going down over Lake Tangir made it almost impossible to see what was going on within the deep shadows. Kyrilla won almost all positioning tests in the ensuing Range and Cover conflict and finally managed to wound the soldiers so severely (actually both took a light wound) that they failed their Steel test and ran screaming: “Beware! The rebels are already in town! There’s an archer batallion on the market place!”

That was when Kyrilla jumped out of her hiding place and down to the streets and rushed for the cage. The lock was easily broken and so she could rescue her friends with no further complications. On the oxen cart, Kyrilla, Horatio and the rebels could escape from Nimrod at the eastern barricade that wasn’t guarded due to the feigned rebel attack in the south. They headed for the hidden rebel camp in the woods where Baldur would join them some days later.

—

So that’s it. Our first session was – mostly – awesome. The rules turned out to work quite well and my preparation prooved to sufficient (I was afraid I wouldn’t be sufficiently saddle-fast rules-wise but that was not the case). We had no Fight! or DoW conflicts although we had thought about having Horatio’s negotiations with Marduk be resolved by a DoW. Yet we decided that for the first session with beginner players, simple versus tests would be enough (and we had Range and Cover, regular tests and Circles come into play, so I think that’s ok).

The characters’ beliefs did work, at least most of them, with Horatio having beliefs to detached from the situation at hand. We will adjust them before the next session which has not yet been scheduled.