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<blockquote data-quote="EinWaterBottle" data-source="post: 8576323" data-attributes="member: 7030936"><p>So begins the next part of The Dying Skyseer.</p><p></p><p>Franke was not looking forward to this whole haunted mountain deal, already dealing with spirits in his normal everyday life, so he resolved to shore up his mental defenses by getting coked off his mind. How so? By finding Nilasa's drug dealer, of course, and buying her supply.</p><p></p><p>As written, Danisca didn't have any, but I was rather amused by the idea of Franke being coked up (and as fuel for the later audit), so I materialized some in her safe. I was expecting a sort of entrapment scenario, but that never happened. They just really wanted Franke to get coked up, which is fair enough and I did give Franke some mechanical benefits from being high as a kite.</p><p></p><p>Fey pepper in hand, the team went over to Nevard... only to get interrupted by a Kell thug giving them an invitation to a meet-and-greet with their boss, in 3ish hours. The PCs immediately made the choice to talk to Delft and get his advice on all this. I quite liked that, as it showed they do have a trust built with their superior officer.</p><p></p><p>Delft was quite approving that they went to him with this too, and he gave them some good background info on the psychopath known as Lorcan Kell. Magical top hat, not very smart but innately tough himself, cruel sense of humor, and big into knives. Kastiv made a joking comment about maybe getting him a knife as a gift, which Delft actually approved, as an officer of the law giving the crime boss a murder weapon is almost certainly something Kell would find amusing.</p><p></p><p>So they marched on over to meet Kell. The PCs were tricked by his little duplicity act, Amyra and Ulyana separating to check on the 'victim' while Kastiv and Franke chased the 'baby thieves'. Both were ambushed and led into the theatre of scoundrels.</p><p></p><p>While Kell put on a 'comedy', he informed the PCs of what he invited them over for. An exchange: a favor for him, for the location of Wolfgang. The PCs, after giving Kell a rather beautiful knife, agreed to the terms. They didn't stay for the rest of Kell's act, though. But they did hear the screams of the innocent man behind them as they left.</p><p></p><p>Troubled by the offer, they continued forward to bound their blood in Nevard's ritual, and hopped up Death Mountain. It was certainly spooky for the lot of them, as I really tried to hammer in the loneliness and spiritedness of the mountain. Reflections of their selves, feelings of bugs all over your skin, things like that. I gave Franke some auto successes on some checks because of his drugged nature.</p><p></p><p>But they settled in their circle of pig's blood, as the horrors of Cauldron Hill surrounded them. They were safe. Until Nilasa Hume appeared. They took her appearance in stride, but then the shadowy figure made itself apparent, and threw a sunrod into the center of the party. And so began combat.</p><p></p><p>Combat was tense, and Amyra was the MVP in Catapult-ing the sunrod away from the party. Ulyana, with her massive Guiding Bolt range, struck the shadowy figure in the chest and made it flee -- letting the rest of the party deal with the enemies that stuck on them. Nevard, though nearly falling, stayed alive.</p><p></p><p>And with the adrenaline of combat fading, they saw visions in the stars. A vision of the Sechim factory burning down and something else that Nevard himself needed to process. He advised the party to go save his niece, but given the beatdown (and some levels of exhaustion from the trek) they just suffered... they decided they'd rather just sleep the night away. Likewise, they didn't think it was that time sensitive of a matter.</p><p></p><p>Fair enough. That just means the Arson Twins get to do their thing, though.</p><p></p><p>Task Force Three awakens to the city under riots and flame. The players were shocked, not that their decision had consequences, but that it had so wide-ranging consequences. Considering how beaten up they were, they likely wouldn't have been able to traverse the Arson Twins encounter too well, though, so I can't blame them too much on that front. Still, everything going forward from this point is under the backdrop of an out-of-control inferno blazing through Flint.</p><p></p><p>The team make their way to Sechim's factory, but find the whole district essentially ash. Bellastair and his police squad are trying to dig free any survivors and ID bodies, to no avail. He mentions he couldn't find any sign of a Henrietta, which rather upset Ulyana.</p><p></p><p>[SPOILER="Henrietta"]Henrietta's fate would be determined later in this post.[/SPOILER]</p><p></p><p>Still, they had a job to do. They took Nevard up the hill for a reason after all, and that reason manifested itself when a canary flew around the party, and a voice revealed itself as the terrorist Gale -- inviting the party to a little rendevous.</p><p></p><p>The Task Force accepted, and realizing there was something more to do with this case than they realize, stayed their hand when they spoke to Gale. The eladrin revealed the makings of a conspiracy, intriguing the party. And after some hot debate and questions, they agreed to ally with Gale to figure out more about what's going on.</p><p></p><p>In the background of this conversation, Kastiv was pushing Franke to romantically entangle with Gale. Franke, being a man of culture and a symbol of Spike Spiegel, noted that his type was the "one who could kill you". So I do see a possible romantic angle being played at in the future. Furthermore, given that Gale has the ability to hear from any spot around 500 feet of her with her wind powers, she absolutely heard all of this little talk. Whether or not she responds to it all, of course, is gonna be up to Franke's words and his dice. He elected not to right now try it, though. In his words, "I'm crass, but not bad enough to say 'sorry, you're friend's (Nilasa) dead, wanna go out'?"</p><p></p><p>Still, with the artifact known as the Message Wind with which to contact Gale, and the makings of a conspiracy surrounding the case, they moved to prepare themselves for Nevard's rally. This rally, Gale had mentioned, would be to showcase Nevard's findings on top of Cauldron Hill. And given the idea of a conspiracy in the background, Gale worries for Nevard's safety. </p><p></p><p>With that in mind, they go back to the Danoran Consulate and begin interrogating Julian LeBrix, now with the idea that he definitely wasn't telling the truth about Nilasa wanting this egg. LeBrix, after some rolls, relents and lets the PCs know of the weird circumstances involving Nilasa's death. The weird vials of oil around factories. The odd numbers of smuggling in those factories.</p><p></p><p>Franke, jumping on weakness, extorts LeBrix by leveraging possible criminal charges to force him into finding any more evidence in the consulate proper. Given that Wolfgang has all the actual evidence with him, I elected to let LeBrix find some evidence listing factories. Mainly the "ones cooperating in the project" and list how much they're being paid. Some of them reference "that old disfigured spy" overseeing and coordinating with the Consular, but don't mention a name.</p><p></p><p>And they move onto their next agenda on the list: finding Wolfgang. Earlier that day, Franke's contact Redd was paid LOTS of gold to investigate, and she found Wolfgang's location. Still, without Kell's support, I noted it would be probably guarded and watched. The PCs elected to flip Kell the middle finger by extracting Wolfgang themselves without his oversight.</p><p></p><p>So before they take a rest for the day, they decide to tackle the Wolfgang lead. It leads them to an abandoned church, with some street toughs watching the front. Kastiv, who mentions beginning to weave a spell, spooks the toughs because no sane (and low level) look-out would stick around after seeing someone chanting vocal spell components. So they enter.</p><p></p><p>Franke, being the local rogue of the group, dealt with most of the traps. He flubbed one roll, however, and took a load of knives to the face. Still, he succeeded on a (disadvantaged) Stealth check to not scream out in pain, so they still got the jump on Wolfgang.</p><p></p><p>With the power of a surprise round on their side, they decimated the two Kell thugs and forced Wolfgang to surrender. </p><p></p><p>This was a bit of a tense encounter. Kastiv despised Wolfgang for what the doctor did to him (see backstory in the first post) meanwhile Wolfgang was trying to leverage the fact that he was just a bystander to his advantage. The rest of Task Force Three sympathized with Kastiv, but gently coaxed him away from doing anything too drastic and instead hearing the doctor out.</p><p></p><p>The doctor gave his version of the truth, revealing the documents he seized from Nilasa Hume, and the corner he painted himself into at the church. Kastiv and Amyra probed him on his background -- why did he do such heinous experiments to Kastiv, and what exactly did he come to Risur for? Not wanting to reveal his biggest sin, von Recklinghausen deflected and just said he did what he did to Kastiv so he can advance medical science/magic and learn the secrets of bringing life from death. Ah, foreshadowing.</p><p></p><p>Before Wolfgang could fish out the documents for the party to take, however, a shadowy figure struck, backed by some Bleak Gate assassins. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, the shadowy figure nova'd down Wolfgang and hucked him over its shoulder. With its invisibility and movement speed, the shadow fled from Wolfgang -- and instead of using the gated entranceway, it found the bathroom tunnel. </p><p></p><p>The party had no chance of finding the shadow figure (it rolled very, very high on its Stealth check), and it was during the rapid investigation of the church that Franke found himself face-to-face with Leone Quital, the Steelshaper.</p><p></p><p>I admit, I don't think I effectively portrayed the Steelshaper's veil of honor, but they were suitably threatened by his presence. Wolfgang was hucked by the shadowy figure onto the floor next to the Steelshaper. The man, of course, requested for the documents lest he explode and collapse the church they were hiding in. </p><p></p><p>The Steelshaper, horribly impatient at this point, brings out Henrietta Sechim out from behind a wagon. The woman had the Sleep spell cast on her and kidnapped before the factory arson incident. Ulyana was the only one with an actual connection with the woman, but she was suitably horrified.</p><p></p><p>Realizing they were backed into a corner, they began investigating the church -- first, for the documents, and second, for a possible way out. </p><p></p><p>They find the documents in a hollow column. They also connected the fact that obviously the shadowy figure managed to escape from another way out, so they began looking while Franke distracted the Steelshaper. While they didn't find the bathroom tunnel, they did find the rainwater chimney. Kastiv and Ulyana climb their way out.</p><p></p><p>Franke, to Steelshaper's face, insults the man. He even makes a show of pulling fake documents (rolling very well on the Sleight of Hand), and burning the stack in front of him. Understandably, Quital is angered by the setback and blatant disrespect, but realizes that their tracks are somewhat covered up by the documents (still not realizing they're fake) are burned.</p><p></p><p>The Steelshaper is about to kill Henrietta, but Ulyana had finally reached the top of the rainwater chimney. From her high position, she transforms into a bird (a mistake on our parts, as we forgot 5e druids didn't have the ability to wildshape into flying creatures until 8th level. whoops) and, with Kastiv riding on her back, they dive downwards. </p><p></p><p>Initiative is rolled.</p><p></p><p>Ulyana and Kastiv don't win initiative, but they do have a surprise round. Using the Amulet of Urim he kept from Axis Island, he blasts Henrietta into the sky by popping pillars of earth from underneath her body. Ulyana then snatches her unconscious body in her talons and zips off.</p><p></p><p>Leone is reasonably furious, and, using his statblock found in later adventures, starts blasting at Amyra and Franke. He rolls very poorly, but his high bonuses and damage do foreshadow his power -- something that unnerves the players. The two flee with some luckily-rolled Athletics checks up the rainwater chimney, and sprint away.</p><p></p><p>While stuck in the church, Task Force Three had the bright idea of using the Messenger Wind to request help from Gale. Normally, their fleeing would instigate some type of chase scene, but Gale sends a wave of bluebirds and canaries that block sight of the PCs.</p><p></p><p>The session ends there, and the players are suitably happy with their triumph.</p><p></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p></p><p>And that's the second part of The Dying Skyseer. The next post will be the third and final part. After that, the posts will be basically caught up on our play. Future posts will be less massive as they won't talk about multiple sessions at once.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="EinWaterBottle, post: 8576323, member: 7030936"] So begins the next part of The Dying Skyseer. Franke was not looking forward to this whole haunted mountain deal, already dealing with spirits in his normal everyday life, so he resolved to shore up his mental defenses by getting coked off his mind. How so? By finding Nilasa's drug dealer, of course, and buying her supply. As written, Danisca didn't have any, but I was rather amused by the idea of Franke being coked up (and as fuel for the later audit), so I materialized some in her safe. I was expecting a sort of entrapment scenario, but that never happened. They just really wanted Franke to get coked up, which is fair enough and I did give Franke some mechanical benefits from being high as a kite. Fey pepper in hand, the team went over to Nevard... only to get interrupted by a Kell thug giving them an invitation to a meet-and-greet with their boss, in 3ish hours. The PCs immediately made the choice to talk to Delft and get his advice on all this. I quite liked that, as it showed they do have a trust built with their superior officer. Delft was quite approving that they went to him with this too, and he gave them some good background info on the psychopath known as Lorcan Kell. Magical top hat, not very smart but innately tough himself, cruel sense of humor, and big into knives. Kastiv made a joking comment about maybe getting him a knife as a gift, which Delft actually approved, as an officer of the law giving the crime boss a murder weapon is almost certainly something Kell would find amusing. So they marched on over to meet Kell. The PCs were tricked by his little duplicity act, Amyra and Ulyana separating to check on the 'victim' while Kastiv and Franke chased the 'baby thieves'. Both were ambushed and led into the theatre of scoundrels. While Kell put on a 'comedy', he informed the PCs of what he invited them over for. An exchange: a favor for him, for the location of Wolfgang. The PCs, after giving Kell a rather beautiful knife, agreed to the terms. They didn't stay for the rest of Kell's act, though. But they did hear the screams of the innocent man behind them as they left. Troubled by the offer, they continued forward to bound their blood in Nevard's ritual, and hopped up Death Mountain. It was certainly spooky for the lot of them, as I really tried to hammer in the loneliness and spiritedness of the mountain. Reflections of their selves, feelings of bugs all over your skin, things like that. I gave Franke some auto successes on some checks because of his drugged nature. But they settled in their circle of pig's blood, as the horrors of Cauldron Hill surrounded them. They were safe. Until Nilasa Hume appeared. They took her appearance in stride, but then the shadowy figure made itself apparent, and threw a sunrod into the center of the party. And so began combat. Combat was tense, and Amyra was the MVP in Catapult-ing the sunrod away from the party. Ulyana, with her massive Guiding Bolt range, struck the shadowy figure in the chest and made it flee -- letting the rest of the party deal with the enemies that stuck on them. Nevard, though nearly falling, stayed alive. And with the adrenaline of combat fading, they saw visions in the stars. A vision of the Sechim factory burning down and something else that Nevard himself needed to process. He advised the party to go save his niece, but given the beatdown (and some levels of exhaustion from the trek) they just suffered... they decided they'd rather just sleep the night away. Likewise, they didn't think it was that time sensitive of a matter. Fair enough. That just means the Arson Twins get to do their thing, though. Task Force Three awakens to the city under riots and flame. The players were shocked, not that their decision had consequences, but that it had so wide-ranging consequences. Considering how beaten up they were, they likely wouldn't have been able to traverse the Arson Twins encounter too well, though, so I can't blame them too much on that front. Still, everything going forward from this point is under the backdrop of an out-of-control inferno blazing through Flint. The team make their way to Sechim's factory, but find the whole district essentially ash. Bellastair and his police squad are trying to dig free any survivors and ID bodies, to no avail. He mentions he couldn't find any sign of a Henrietta, which rather upset Ulyana. [SPOILER="Henrietta"]Henrietta's fate would be determined later in this post.[/SPOILER] Still, they had a job to do. They took Nevard up the hill for a reason after all, and that reason manifested itself when a canary flew around the party, and a voice revealed itself as the terrorist Gale -- inviting the party to a little rendevous. The Task Force accepted, and realizing there was something more to do with this case than they realize, stayed their hand when they spoke to Gale. The eladrin revealed the makings of a conspiracy, intriguing the party. And after some hot debate and questions, they agreed to ally with Gale to figure out more about what's going on. In the background of this conversation, Kastiv was pushing Franke to romantically entangle with Gale. Franke, being a man of culture and a symbol of Spike Spiegel, noted that his type was the "one who could kill you". So I do see a possible romantic angle being played at in the future. Furthermore, given that Gale has the ability to hear from any spot around 500 feet of her with her wind powers, she absolutely heard all of this little talk. Whether or not she responds to it all, of course, is gonna be up to Franke's words and his dice. He elected not to right now try it, though. In his words, "I'm crass, but not bad enough to say 'sorry, you're friend's (Nilasa) dead, wanna go out'?" Still, with the artifact known as the Message Wind with which to contact Gale, and the makings of a conspiracy surrounding the case, they moved to prepare themselves for Nevard's rally. This rally, Gale had mentioned, would be to showcase Nevard's findings on top of Cauldron Hill. And given the idea of a conspiracy in the background, Gale worries for Nevard's safety. With that in mind, they go back to the Danoran Consulate and begin interrogating Julian LeBrix, now with the idea that he definitely wasn't telling the truth about Nilasa wanting this egg. LeBrix, after some rolls, relents and lets the PCs know of the weird circumstances involving Nilasa's death. The weird vials of oil around factories. The odd numbers of smuggling in those factories. Franke, jumping on weakness, extorts LeBrix by leveraging possible criminal charges to force him into finding any more evidence in the consulate proper. Given that Wolfgang has all the actual evidence with him, I elected to let LeBrix find some evidence listing factories. Mainly the "ones cooperating in the project" and list how much they're being paid. Some of them reference "that old disfigured spy" overseeing and coordinating with the Consular, but don't mention a name. And they move onto their next agenda on the list: finding Wolfgang. Earlier that day, Franke's contact Redd was paid LOTS of gold to investigate, and she found Wolfgang's location. Still, without Kell's support, I noted it would be probably guarded and watched. The PCs elected to flip Kell the middle finger by extracting Wolfgang themselves without his oversight. So before they take a rest for the day, they decide to tackle the Wolfgang lead. It leads them to an abandoned church, with some street toughs watching the front. Kastiv, who mentions beginning to weave a spell, spooks the toughs because no sane (and low level) look-out would stick around after seeing someone chanting vocal spell components. So they enter. Franke, being the local rogue of the group, dealt with most of the traps. He flubbed one roll, however, and took a load of knives to the face. Still, he succeeded on a (disadvantaged) Stealth check to not scream out in pain, so they still got the jump on Wolfgang. With the power of a surprise round on their side, they decimated the two Kell thugs and forced Wolfgang to surrender. This was a bit of a tense encounter. Kastiv despised Wolfgang for what the doctor did to him (see backstory in the first post) meanwhile Wolfgang was trying to leverage the fact that he was just a bystander to his advantage. The rest of Task Force Three sympathized with Kastiv, but gently coaxed him away from doing anything too drastic and instead hearing the doctor out. The doctor gave his version of the truth, revealing the documents he seized from Nilasa Hume, and the corner he painted himself into at the church. Kastiv and Amyra probed him on his background -- why did he do such heinous experiments to Kastiv, and what exactly did he come to Risur for? Not wanting to reveal his biggest sin, von Recklinghausen deflected and just said he did what he did to Kastiv so he can advance medical science/magic and learn the secrets of bringing life from death. Ah, foreshadowing. Before Wolfgang could fish out the documents for the party to take, however, a shadowy figure struck, backed by some Bleak Gate assassins. Unfortunately, the shadowy figure nova'd down Wolfgang and hucked him over its shoulder. With its invisibility and movement speed, the shadow fled from Wolfgang -- and instead of using the gated entranceway, it found the bathroom tunnel. The party had no chance of finding the shadow figure (it rolled very, very high on its Stealth check), and it was during the rapid investigation of the church that Franke found himself face-to-face with Leone Quital, the Steelshaper. I admit, I don't think I effectively portrayed the Steelshaper's veil of honor, but they were suitably threatened by his presence. Wolfgang was hucked by the shadowy figure onto the floor next to the Steelshaper. The man, of course, requested for the documents lest he explode and collapse the church they were hiding in. The Steelshaper, horribly impatient at this point, brings out Henrietta Sechim out from behind a wagon. The woman had the Sleep spell cast on her and kidnapped before the factory arson incident. Ulyana was the only one with an actual connection with the woman, but she was suitably horrified. Realizing they were backed into a corner, they began investigating the church -- first, for the documents, and second, for a possible way out. They find the documents in a hollow column. They also connected the fact that obviously the shadowy figure managed to escape from another way out, so they began looking while Franke distracted the Steelshaper. While they didn't find the bathroom tunnel, they did find the rainwater chimney. Kastiv and Ulyana climb their way out. Franke, to Steelshaper's face, insults the man. He even makes a show of pulling fake documents (rolling very well on the Sleight of Hand), and burning the stack in front of him. Understandably, Quital is angered by the setback and blatant disrespect, but realizes that their tracks are somewhat covered up by the documents (still not realizing they're fake) are burned. The Steelshaper is about to kill Henrietta, but Ulyana had finally reached the top of the rainwater chimney. From her high position, she transforms into a bird (a mistake on our parts, as we forgot 5e druids didn't have the ability to wildshape into flying creatures until 8th level. whoops) and, with Kastiv riding on her back, they dive downwards. Initiative is rolled. Ulyana and Kastiv don't win initiative, but they do have a surprise round. Using the Amulet of Urim he kept from Axis Island, he blasts Henrietta into the sky by popping pillars of earth from underneath her body. Ulyana then snatches her unconscious body in her talons and zips off. Leone is reasonably furious, and, using his statblock found in later adventures, starts blasting at Amyra and Franke. He rolls very poorly, but his high bonuses and damage do foreshadow his power -- something that unnerves the players. The two flee with some luckily-rolled Athletics checks up the rainwater chimney, and sprint away. While stuck in the church, Task Force Three had the bright idea of using the Messenger Wind to request help from Gale. Normally, their fleeing would instigate some type of chase scene, but Gale sends a wave of bluebirds and canaries that block sight of the PCs. The session ends there, and the players are suitably happy with their triumph. [HR][/HR] And that's the second part of The Dying Skyseer. The next post will be the third and final part. After that, the posts will be basically caught up on our play. Future posts will be less massive as they won't talk about multiple sessions at once. [/QUOTE]
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