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Episode 19: Air Waves - 24 Jul 2020 19:19
Setting
Early in Sea Season.
The entire plot of Sea Season was the GM attempting to get the adventurers into the correct position to play The Duel at Dangerford while the adventurers blithely ignored IC hints and attempts at political guidance.
IC Play
The group returned to Sartar, and Androranous went towards Boldhome, which was preparing for war, judging by the reinforcements on the wall. Saronil and Kosa went to the Temple of Earth,1 as Daravala wanted to talk to them, and Varaema and Aria went with them, but paused to do trading on the way.2 Daravala wanted to know from Saronil about some people who had fought Zorak Zoran before.
The new Light Priest of Yelmalio had been confirmed as Hardeep. Androus went to see him, but was given Light Son Norang, a Rune Lord, instead. He braindumped, telling everything he knew of what had happened when he was away.
On his return to the training enclosure, Andros found a Humakti at the gate, trying to catch his attention. The Humakti had a message from Lord Eril for Androus with a request he deliver it to Saronil, in person. It was apparently, "To your mutual advantage." There was a slightly tetchy exchange, as Androus explained he is due to do a weeks' temple duty, and could act without the temple's consent. The Humakti expected Androus to go and get consent. Light Son Norang and Androus conspired to agree to the delivery, and arrange for the Humakti to see the Norang and demand a service for a service. Lord Eril was not going to get his man back for a while.
Saronil, in Clearwine, had told all he knew about the meeting with the Troll that had bent his sword, and was meeting his nephew for the first time. He was delighted by the small bundle of snot and big brown eyes that his sister presented him with. He gave her the gifts he had bought on getting the news of the birth, and introduced them to Varaema.
On his way, riding a decent horse, Androus overtook some warriors who looked to be of Kallyr's household, making their way on rather shorter horses to Clearwine. They said nothing to him. Androus reached Clearwine about a day after his friends, who had been travelling slowly.
He delivered the message to Saronil, and then read it out, as Saronil could not. "For your information: Order for detaining of Varaema-all-healer issued. Recommend being absent. Lord Eril Sambar."3 It did not use his Humakti title, so could be construed to be an informal tip-off, either advice to get out of the way and let it happen, or advice to get Varaema out of the way. Daravala ordered Kosa to leave - protecting Varaema - and thus stay away from the High Priestess of Maran Gor, who was still after her as a sacrifice.
They got Varaema out of the way, despite her protestations that she was sure all would be well, and were far enough from Clearwine to watch the warriors arrive to start looking for her. They hoofed it down to the Yelmalian Temple in Sun Dome County. They asked for protection of a patrol they met. Jaynrii, its leader, was not pleased either with Andros telling him how to behave or with the request. However, he agreed to lead the party into the city and Temple.
They told their various stories. The women were put into women's quarters and the men were put into men's quarters, and for that night at least, they were safe. ((There was an attempt by someone to get some information here about Daravala's request, but the GM forgets.))
On the way to Whitewall the following day, the party was eyeballed by centaurs along the Beast Valley road, but when they proved no threat, the demicavalry band moved on. They were observed by a very large alynx from the same direction,4 towards nightfall.
As Yelm ascended the next day, they spotted an Orlanthi flying, landing some distance away. The party moved off, and the Orlanthi, flying again, attempted to levitate Varaema - and would have succeeded, had Kosa not grabbed her and wrested her back down again.
Late in the day, the group arrived in Whitewall, where they rested a week and took political advice from Jaldis, who then carefully wrote to her allies to make sure she knew what was going on. Androus spent the week in prayer and sacrifice, after finding a Yelm Priest who was interested enough in him to sanctify a Temple and let him do that.
Other Things
I am particularly proud of the attempt to steal Varaema, which nearly succeeded, and resulted in people having to be tied to their saddles…
Tags: 1626 andros boldhome eril hardeep jaldis kallyr kaynrii kosa saronil sea varaema whitewall
Episode 17: Politics and Pedestrians - 13 Jun 2020 21:26
Setting
Plot was created by letting the player characters do things, with a little understanding as to what. Saronil was cut off from the rest, helping Eril to pay reparations to the Dwarf, but this went OK as he was able to explore the problem with the roads himself.
IC Play
Saronil got very very lost on his way out of Boldhome. Something didn’t seem to want to let him go north. He spent an entire day just trying to get out of Dangerford, and even managed to cross the river twice because he turned back halfway. He detoured via Alone while trying to get to Alda Chur from Herongreen.
Androuranos and Varaema went to the library, it was full of people celebrating. After working out that neither of them had any significant amount of money, they went and found their bankroll, Aria.
Issaries (Aria) went to meet Lhankor-Mhy and look for someone, according to their sacred duty at this time. And also, not by coincidence, to pay for the research into what the hell went wrong in Boldhome and how to fix it.
In the library there was line dancing to help teach the stories.5 Androus, as a lay member, joined in. The others got to be bored for some time.
When he finally reached Alda Chur after three more days than it should have taken, Saronil went to the Temple of Humakt, where Gallem was just finishing a sacrifice. The worship of Orlanth being forbidden here, he was in no way performing the rites that would send Orlanth into the underworld as a dead god. However, the rabbit he was sacrificing *was* dyed red.
Saronil gave a summary of events to Gallem. He was horrified, mostly at the thought that Saronil might be exiled enough to have to move to Alda Chur. Gallem suspected that the problem with roads was because the Prince of Sartar had been wounded, and was magically part of the Kingdom.
Meanwhile, back in Jonstown, the others finally had an answer from the library, in Fate week.6Eril’s protection of the HeroQuest had been mythologically flawed, as Humakt should not have been asked to help. The solution was not to have Lord Eril any more. This caused some consternation within the group.
As they began to make their way back, they went astray again. Fortunately, they were very close to a Temple of Knowledge, and therefore after a single further day, they were able to understand what had happened. The connections within the Royal Roads had been severed - in this case, the forks and intersections were not doing the job they should have.
Vareama and Aria deliver the information from Jonstown to the Hospital. From there, they take that to Lord Tennebris. He tells a messenger to go down to Androus’s temple RIGHT NOW THIS SECOND to try to stop the news spreading.
Meanwhile, Androuranos is telling lord Farenor all of this… The messenger comes in with a letter from Tennebris. Faremor tells Androus to tell Captain Hardeep and only then reads the letter, thus ensuring he cannot be silenced.
On the last day of sacred season, Lord Farenor challenges Lord Eril over the matter. Lord Eril wins, despite being badly wounded, and is a dickhead about it. Varaema saves Farenor’s life, earning enmity from a number of very powerful people between 0 and 5 inclusive. As Farenor falls to Death, the burden of communicating with the Cold Sun becomes Hardeep's. He rises to the occasion; Lord Hardeep becomes the new Light Son of the Temple.
There is a whole bunch of walking around talking to people. Aria revealed to her High Priest what the problem with the roads was, as far as the Jonstown Temple could work out, and the Issarians prepared to go tell people and help keep the road system working.
Other Things
The politics here was very good fun, and I am exceedingly proud that I managed to keep a straight face despite the Chief Priest of Lhankhor Mhy having fumbled a Library Use roll. Eril's entirely justified anger at all of the accusations he had been sloppy about ensuring Humakt was not damaging to the quest were looked on as a means to make political capital - right up until he proved that he could still defeat the lord of another Temple in combat.
Episode 16: There and There Again - 13 Jun 2020 13:15
Setting
The group lacked Saronil, and so was light on combat.
Without Saronil I didn't want to advance the plot too much, so I gave the group the chance to find out something others would not know yet, while also keeping them around the Boldhome area. The breaking of the roads was massive and major, but also something you could not find out about unless you went out of your city in Sacred Time.
IC Play
The group got sent to Jonstown to look into the library and find out what might have gone wrong. They rapidly got onto the wrong road, and continued on towards, apparently, Wilmskirk. Several times they found themselves going to Clearwine instead of Jonstown, even when looking out for it.
Along their way, they decided to step off the path which was misleading them, and so they were walking through the wilderness. They spotted a dead baboon on their trail, with two others hiding nearby: a huge one and a small one. Varaema managed to coax them out, and they had the story from the pair; human bandits had attacked them, and the two, Papa and Gallaf, asked to hire the adventurers for help. The baboons could, fortunately, do the tracking.
They went along for half a day, passing where the bandits had stopped to heal themselves, and where they had gone along a river to cut away from a trail, with Gallaf, the smaller baboon, consistently keeping them on trail. They circled some flat ground, and went into a valley from a pass where they could see a fire's smoke off in the distance. Gallaf went forwards carefully, with Androus a little way back. Shortly there was the sound of fighting and Androus galloped forwards with Papa Baboon following. Aria used magic to speed them up, casting Mobility repeatedly.
Gallaf was up a tree by this point, and being harried by the bandits. Androus killed one with his spear, after they scattered at his arrows. Aria was brought down by their bows and Varaema ran to help her.
Gallaf and Papa hunted bandits, while Androus shot from horseback, but was unfortunately downed by a lucky shot by one of them.
The others were lucky and Gallaf and Papa killed every bandit not already dead. Then Papa offered to pay for Androus being resurrected, and Varaema hurried his body to Boldhome to get it done before Death's touch damaged him too much. Gallaf took Varaema by the shortest route.
~~~~~dream~~~~~
Androus is on a path, walking towards Yelm. He is not Androus, he is Yelmalio, and he is going home. And yet…a white-clad, alluring Lady catches him up, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. She tells him it is not yet his time: his friends would miss him, and he has more to do in the world before he returns to his father.
Yelmalio concedes…for a while. Then realises this Lady is some kind of deceiver, and fends her off with his holy Spear. But…she resists. Overcomes, but without force, only love. His spear passes through her hand, leaving a red circle, a dot in the middle. And…
~~~~~~dream~~~~~
…he woke. In the Chalanna Arroy temple in Boldhome.
The others had to walk back, guided by Papa Baboon.
Other Things
This was a stacked encounter so I gave the adventurers some help in the form of a tracker who was competent with weapons, and a warrior who was a competent tracker. The bandits were under-armoured, and thus went down relatively easily, and they did not have much magic. However, they were lucky to kill Androus - Papa was an honourable baboon and we treated the donation to the Temple as a thing that could be part of a contract, rather than a life debt.
Tags: 1625 andros baboons gallaf kosa papa sacred_time varaema
Episode 15: Most things go quite badly wrong - 06 Apr 2020 20:05
Setting
Most of the adventurers were in Clearwine.
Plot was created from a known item, and working out how the adventurers interacted with it and other items.
Thanks to Saronil for the notes.
IC Play
Hero quest started off.
Orlanth said tearful goodbyes to Ernalda and went off to do the thing.
Sneaky god followed him.
Issaries? And some other god did a sidequest. And traded a trinket to Varaema
Humakt stabbed Orlanth to provide a shortcut to the underworld
Chalana Arroy was there too
Then the air tore, a red woman with six arms came through and stabbed orlanth quite a lot.
Humakt and that other god that the storm bull was representing fought the red demon
The air was red and a red moon was in the sky (Lunars!)
Varaema stepped into the circle and healed Yelmalio
Then Humakt was injured and she tried to heal death. At this point she passed out.
When she came round, everyone was dead or dying, but the red moon was gone.
Her high priestess did what she could for Kallyr Starbrow, but the wounds could not be healed with magic, the same was true for everyone else injured, or at least, those closely related to Kallyr - most people, given the worship.
Varaema helped to save people all night.
Saronil, Aria and Androuranos (and Helver):
Went off through the north gate and along the road. There were a number of annoying Lunar traps that exploded when prodded. They saw something in the distance, possibly some Lunars.
They went back to northgate and found an enemy disguised as a rock. Saronil poked it and it bit his hand, then he killed it and they eventually managed to pry it off his arm. It was an armadillo with a huge bitey mouth.7
Then they discovered a cannon8 and muskets pointed along the road, they dived off the road and got shot at a bit. I will note that Aria’s pathfinding Rune spell identified them as enemies.
Then some Lunars appeared and were obliterated by the cannon.
More lunars appeared and were attacked by the PCs, the gate sounded the retreat, PCs left and got back to the gate. As soon as they were not in contact with the Lunars, a magical attack started from the gate, on the Moon worshippers. They did not seem to be very popular at ALL at the gate.
They noticed a big red Moon Rune in the sky and ran towards it; then part way down the stairs, the gate behind them exploded.
They went down and found many, many people dead or dying. Every Orlanthi related to Kallyr or worshipping in support of her was wounded. Urox was recovering from his wounds, and Lord Eril was wounded but refusing magical healing.
They helped with first aid and/or running messages.
In the morning, one of Aria’s friends advised her and her companions to get out of town because people were angry about the north gate.
So they left. Helver had already been Banned, cast out from his Temple.
Saronil has a letter to deliver to the Dwarf of Dwarf mine
Varaema has some investigation to do into why no-one can be healed.
Other Things
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!! Aaaand breathe.
I had provided Helver as a one-time escape with potential Divine Intervention, but as it turned out he was not needed. However, he did genuinely mess up, by getting in other people's plans. It was possible to save the cannon - but difficult.
Tags: 1625 andros aria cannon eril feshin helver kallyr lightbringers sacred_time saronil varaema
Episode 14: Happy Fun Hugging Time - 27 Mar 2020 18:36
Setting
Kindly written up by Saronil's player with a few extra bits of grammar thrown in by the GM.
Plot was made up by the GM putting stuff together from the past few weeks.
IC Play
Happy Fun Hugging Time
The fame building with the dead animals around it was a trap! Filled with Lunars!
There was a lot of fighting and hugging, in which the Lunars mostly hid inside a building and made us fight each other, and to counteract this, Varaema made us hug each other.
Then the Lunars got bored and captured everyone.
They asked a lot about what we were doing and where we were going and special things that were happening.
The merchant lady, Dagryr, who gave Aria a mission was there, and probably in charge.
They were very clear that they wouldn’t let anyone go to Boldhome to warn people about their presence and would route the ransom request through far away places. At least for a couple more days. They also claimed to be protecting us, although did not say what from.
Then they agreed to accept all Androuranos’s stuff as ransom and let him and Varaema go with a promise that they wouldn’t send anyone against them.
(And to stay on the road)
Then Androuranos told his temple bosses basically everything and Helver turned up to ransom Saronil and Aria. Lord Farenor sent a letter to Eril, probably with all of that in.
They discussed all the things they knew on the way back to Boldhome, while passing dugouts that might contain hidden lunars.
Other Things
Androuranos had a philosophical moment in which he didn't want to send anyone against the Lunars but did want to warn people.
Tags: 1625 andros aria boldhome dagryr lunar saronil storm varaema
