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Fuzzybear's Burning Sky
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<blockquote data-quote="Fuzzybear" data-source="post: 9119666" data-attributes="member: 6917259"><p><h3>A Return to Shelter</h3><p>This review is actually 2 sessions because they naturally fit together well, though it might get a bit long and rambling as a lot of assorted roleplaying happened. These couple of hours of playtime took place between escaping Castle Korstull with Shalosha and leaving for Ycengled to start the next adventure. I believe there were a grand total of 2 dice rolls per person over these sessions. It was very talking heavy which was a great break from the weeks of combat recently.</p><p></p><p>Breaking camp after their sleigh ride out, the group heads with Shalosha to her warships on the coast of Sindaire which she instructs to head back around the continent towards home. On the way, Shalosha reaches out to some of her contacts back in Calanis to do a little bit of research into Ycengled for the party. She is able to relay all of the relevant information about the region this way. She also has a talk with Myetharia during the ride where she apologizes again for lying about her location and activity. She promises to do better going forward and reinforces her creed of working with good people regardless of race or background. She considers Magdus one such person despite being Ragesian as well as the party themselves.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the party spends most of the boat trip back to Seaquen sending messages to contacts and scrying on family members. Bryn scries on her estranged husband Brent and finds out that he has surprisingly taken up arms in Gate Pass in defense of the city. Rev asks Bryn to scry on his brother Riv after assuming Aemon Ming would have some defense against it (correctly) and finds him flying through remote Ostalin and purchasing supplies. The next time he tries though, the spell fails prompting concern. I considered Tempest to be scrying proof which is causing these problems as Ming has cast his lot there. I plan to have him show up in later adventures as a future plot point, so I don't want to spoil things too early, especially with Rev getting a lot of the early game spotlight.</p><p></p><p>After a week and a half, the party is dropped off a short distance from Seaquen in the marshlands as Shalosha continues home. She promises to do her best to keep their information about the torch and the assassins from her father if possible as she does not trust her father with the torch. She is working against him but trying to do so subtly so as to not raise his suspicions and ire against her. They finish the trip back and report in to Simeon after a long time of no contact. Now knowing what the next steps are, Simeon informs the party that they will have a few days rest while he prepares things with Sheena Larkins for teleportation out to Ycengled to search for the assassins and torch wielders.</p><p></p><p>This allows the party a much needed time to spend their hard earned gold from Castle Korstull as well as time to check in with friends and family further. I won't run down every item bought, but suffice it to say that nearly everyone had interest in Misty Step tattoos independently. Items procured, each person visits a handful of NPCs around town to check in. The green dragon in the swamp, the goblins, Crystin, Torrent, Eril, and Tiljann are all briefly interacted with, though little new information is learned. We got to reconnect some player knowledge with the characters though as Tiljann was a part of the one-shot to Ragos months ago where the players learned that not all in Ragesia supports Leska's actions and plans.</p><p></p><p>The big items of information that are found out is that Katrina has left town, seeming reluctant but resolute, and a deeper conversation with Three Weeping Ravens. Having heard that the party is heading to Ycengled, he feels it his duty to inform them about the Temple of Echoed Souls there that his order was driven from decades prior (allowing me to give the party the info in the lore panel). Bryn also asks him more about the soul gems that they found (and used one of to power the sleigh). He tells that others use the power of souls destructively, though fueling artifacts beyond the Torch was new to him. I wanted to get the information out there early that Soul Gems were needed for the Torch so that it wouldn't be as disconnected that they needed to forge a new one. In the end this likely won't be necessary as the party decided to head to the Temple first anyway.</p><p></p><p>Winry and Jack have a very cute date night in the Wayfarer's ship that Jack borrowed, which is something of a shared backstory ambition of both of them. Jack provided the music and taught Winry some noble dances while Winry bought a pair of sending stone made from sentimental items (Balan's harmonica for Jack and a bell for kitty cat Winry). </p><p></p><p>Now we get into the meat, and a big change, of the last session. Jack hires researchers at Lyceum to look into the Stormchaser/Stormbringer Eagle (side note, both names are used in the guide books I realized) and Aquiline Heart given the discussions with Parallax his sword (gosh I hope I've mentioned this before). He gets back a handful of rumors and half information that will become more relevant for the end game than it is now, but he is getting confirmation as well that Parallax's story about being a part of the Eagle's mind could be true. My hope is that this will pay off long term, but I worry that I should have drip fed things a bit more than I did. I wanted to give him reward for spending money on research as he did, but now I have to keep it up. I did make up a fun children's rhyme verse if anyone wants to use it as well.</p><p></p><p><em>The Eagle's heart is power,</em></p><p><em>its beats forever strong,</em></p><p><em>and if you were to drink its blood </em></p><p><em>your heart would beat along.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The Dragon feared to finish things </em></p><p><em>that earth and sea unite, </em></p><p><em>so deep within he hid the heart </em></p><p><em>its flow new life alight.</em></p><p> </p><p>The final thing that happened also involves Jack. His player was starting to feel that with Jack's terrible Performance rolls essentially at every opportunity and his failure to bring peace through diplomacy, he might be considering a change towards Wizard from Bard. The idea being that he's giving up the naïve and musical aspects to dive fully into spellcasting. I had previously allowed him to learn ritual spells like a Wizard to give the group a bit more magical flexibility, so this is something of an extension of that. The final straw that brought this down though was actually the Ancient Spellbook found in Castle Korstull. The antiquated magic spells contained within were intriguing to him, so I decided to connect all of this together.</p><p></p><p>We decided that the book is antiquated because it relies on a method of casting that is not used in modern magic; a different way of manipulating the Weave effectively. But with Parallax, and the ability to read these ancient languages that he possesses while holding the sword, Jack is able to understand and learn. The spells described within deal with gravity and time (plugging in a rare subclasses and spells from the Wildemount book) that would be impossible for modern casters to learn. Jack's goal is now to use the Temple of Echoed Souls to change his soul to become a Wizard that this book describes, which sounds awesome. That in his back pocket now, he pushes for the group to head to the Temple first which they agree to.</p><p></p><p>So it is that Simeon returns, a full 2 weeks (20 days) out from Castle Korstull by this point, and tells the group to be ready that night for Sheena to teleport them. Gathering together, the world becomes fire as she channels her magic, and that is where we left things off. The only thing forgotten in all of this was that darn necromantic cheese... oh well, next time.</p><p></p><h3>Changes to the module - </h3><p>I'd love to list off the changes of this session, but they are plentiful. The main things being adding optional subclasses and spells, expounding a lot on characters and lore, and the party heading off to the Temple first in the next adventure. I don't think it will be a problem to push them off to Ycengled afterwards, and they'll have the required Soul Gem for when they get there which makes the need to send them across afterwards moot. I did give a handful of days to get the other party in position (not enough for Shalosha technically, but I'm going to make her show up slightly worse for wear from being forced to teleport there in a rush) with the information to search this region from Shaaladel. I am looking foward to the vision very much having bullet pointed all of them already. I will probably go through and write full prose for them as well, but the Temple is one of the things that I was most looking forward to anyway.</p><p></p><h4>Next time, a journey of self-discovery!</h4></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Fuzzybear, post: 9119666, member: 6917259"] [HEADING=2]A Return to Shelter[/HEADING] This review is actually 2 sessions because they naturally fit together well, though it might get a bit long and rambling as a lot of assorted roleplaying happened. These couple of hours of playtime took place between escaping Castle Korstull with Shalosha and leaving for Ycengled to start the next adventure. I believe there were a grand total of 2 dice rolls per person over these sessions. It was very talking heavy which was a great break from the weeks of combat recently. Breaking camp after their sleigh ride out, the group heads with Shalosha to her warships on the coast of Sindaire which she instructs to head back around the continent towards home. On the way, Shalosha reaches out to some of her contacts back in Calanis to do a little bit of research into Ycengled for the party. She is able to relay all of the relevant information about the region this way. She also has a talk with Myetharia during the ride where she apologizes again for lying about her location and activity. She promises to do better going forward and reinforces her creed of working with good people regardless of race or background. She considers Magdus one such person despite being Ragesian as well as the party themselves. The rest of the party spends most of the boat trip back to Seaquen sending messages to contacts and scrying on family members. Bryn scries on her estranged husband Brent and finds out that he has surprisingly taken up arms in Gate Pass in defense of the city. Rev asks Bryn to scry on his brother Riv after assuming Aemon Ming would have some defense against it (correctly) and finds him flying through remote Ostalin and purchasing supplies. The next time he tries though, the spell fails prompting concern. I considered Tempest to be scrying proof which is causing these problems as Ming has cast his lot there. I plan to have him show up in later adventures as a future plot point, so I don't want to spoil things too early, especially with Rev getting a lot of the early game spotlight. After a week and a half, the party is dropped off a short distance from Seaquen in the marshlands as Shalosha continues home. She promises to do her best to keep their information about the torch and the assassins from her father if possible as she does not trust her father with the torch. She is working against him but trying to do so subtly so as to not raise his suspicions and ire against her. They finish the trip back and report in to Simeon after a long time of no contact. Now knowing what the next steps are, Simeon informs the party that they will have a few days rest while he prepares things with Sheena Larkins for teleportation out to Ycengled to search for the assassins and torch wielders. This allows the party a much needed time to spend their hard earned gold from Castle Korstull as well as time to check in with friends and family further. I won't run down every item bought, but suffice it to say that nearly everyone had interest in Misty Step tattoos independently. Items procured, each person visits a handful of NPCs around town to check in. The green dragon in the swamp, the goblins, Crystin, Torrent, Eril, and Tiljann are all briefly interacted with, though little new information is learned. We got to reconnect some player knowledge with the characters though as Tiljann was a part of the one-shot to Ragos months ago where the players learned that not all in Ragesia supports Leska's actions and plans. The big items of information that are found out is that Katrina has left town, seeming reluctant but resolute, and a deeper conversation with Three Weeping Ravens. Having heard that the party is heading to Ycengled, he feels it his duty to inform them about the Temple of Echoed Souls there that his order was driven from decades prior (allowing me to give the party the info in the lore panel). Bryn also asks him more about the soul gems that they found (and used one of to power the sleigh). He tells that others use the power of souls destructively, though fueling artifacts beyond the Torch was new to him. I wanted to get the information out there early that Soul Gems were needed for the Torch so that it wouldn't be as disconnected that they needed to forge a new one. In the end this likely won't be necessary as the party decided to head to the Temple first anyway. Winry and Jack have a very cute date night in the Wayfarer's ship that Jack borrowed, which is something of a shared backstory ambition of both of them. Jack provided the music and taught Winry some noble dances while Winry bought a pair of sending stone made from sentimental items (Balan's harmonica for Jack and a bell for kitty cat Winry). Now we get into the meat, and a big change, of the last session. Jack hires researchers at Lyceum to look into the Stormchaser/Stormbringer Eagle (side note, both names are used in the guide books I realized) and Aquiline Heart given the discussions with Parallax his sword (gosh I hope I've mentioned this before). He gets back a handful of rumors and half information that will become more relevant for the end game than it is now, but he is getting confirmation as well that Parallax's story about being a part of the Eagle's mind could be true. My hope is that this will pay off long term, but I worry that I should have drip fed things a bit more than I did. I wanted to give him reward for spending money on research as he did, but now I have to keep it up. I did make up a fun children's rhyme verse if anyone wants to use it as well. [I]The Eagle's heart is power, its beats forever strong, and if you were to drink its blood your heart would beat along. The Dragon feared to finish things that earth and sea unite, so deep within he hid the heart its flow new life alight.[/I] The final thing that happened also involves Jack. His player was starting to feel that with Jack's terrible Performance rolls essentially at every opportunity and his failure to bring peace through diplomacy, he might be considering a change towards Wizard from Bard. The idea being that he's giving up the naïve and musical aspects to dive fully into spellcasting. I had previously allowed him to learn ritual spells like a Wizard to give the group a bit more magical flexibility, so this is something of an extension of that. The final straw that brought this down though was actually the Ancient Spellbook found in Castle Korstull. The antiquated magic spells contained within were intriguing to him, so I decided to connect all of this together. We decided that the book is antiquated because it relies on a method of casting that is not used in modern magic; a different way of manipulating the Weave effectively. But with Parallax, and the ability to read these ancient languages that he possesses while holding the sword, Jack is able to understand and learn. The spells described within deal with gravity and time (plugging in a rare subclasses and spells from the Wildemount book) that would be impossible for modern casters to learn. Jack's goal is now to use the Temple of Echoed Souls to change his soul to become a Wizard that this book describes, which sounds awesome. That in his back pocket now, he pushes for the group to head to the Temple first which they agree to. So it is that Simeon returns, a full 2 weeks (20 days) out from Castle Korstull by this point, and tells the group to be ready that night for Sheena to teleport them. Gathering together, the world becomes fire as she channels her magic, and that is where we left things off. The only thing forgotten in all of this was that darn necromantic cheese... oh well, next time. [HEADING=2]Changes to the module - [/HEADING] I'd love to list off the changes of this session, but they are plentiful. The main things being adding optional subclasses and spells, expounding a lot on characters and lore, and the party heading off to the Temple first in the next adventure. I don't think it will be a problem to push them off to Ycengled afterwards, and they'll have the required Soul Gem for when they get there which makes the need to send them across afterwards moot. I did give a handful of days to get the other party in position (not enough for Shalosha technically, but I'm going to make her show up slightly worse for wear from being forced to teleport there in a rush) with the information to search this region from Shaaladel. I am looking foward to the vision very much having bullet pointed all of them already. I will probably go through and write full prose for them as well, but the Temple is one of the things that I was most looking forward to anyway. [HEADING=3]Next time, a journey of self-discovery![/HEADING] [/QUOTE]
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