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Redbadge's Campaign (there will be spoilers)
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<blockquote data-quote="Isklexi" data-source="post: 6777591" data-attributes="member: 6684948"><p><strong>Skyfall</strong></p><p></p><p>The constables immediately began brainstorming. They needed to get to Tinker before Lya and her lieutenants. While the Bruse suggested that they wait for Ber’s navy to draw off most of the Gnoll ships before attempting to make landfall, Lya has a larger, more powerful ship. The party reasoned that she would likely try to steal a march on them, risking a more dangerous naval encounter in exchange for reaching the island sooner. The constables had a special custom ship of their own, but it still wouldn’t be able to take on an entire fleet of Gnoll ships alone. They needed a way to beat Lya to the island without getting drawn into protracted naval combat.</p><p></p><p>[gm]We didn’t get around to actually customizing their ship until this session. The party wanted a ship that reflected Risur’s druidic traditions as well as Flint’s industry. They went with a steam-powered ship built from living wood. Mechanically, it’s a living ship with a flagbearer defense, shroud, and unmanned armaments. They paid out of pocket for the shroud feature. They considered mounting the Skull of Cheshimox on the prow, but the cost of a new weapon was too prohibitive (even with hefty discounts for it being a preexisting object). Thematically, the ship doesn’t have cannons. Instead the hull can sprout and fling volleys of ironwood spikes. It even has a few trees growing from the main deck that can provide cover during boarding actions.[/gm]</p><p></p><p>Eventually, the constables settled on a plan. They would use their ship’s shroud ability and the constant rain from the Silent Storm surrounding the island to cover their approach. They would bring their ship roughly 3 miles from the island’s coast before dawn then approach the island “on foot” using water walking. The combination of heavy rainfall and darkness would conceal them from any Gnoll ships as they hiked their way to the beachhead. The main sticking point in the plan was that the water walking ritual only lasts one hour and has to be cast individually. To avoid having any one constable’s water walking effect fail prematurely, they needed multiple ritualists performing the spell on each constable at the same time. Irony used a Sending spell to contact Inspector Delft to inform him that they were infiltrating the Isla dola Focas and required the aid of several ritualists versed in the water walking spell. Delft responded that it might take a few days to get them the mages they needed. Fortunately, the constables could spare the time because Ber’s navy would take several days to get into position anyway.</p><p></p><p>While the constables made preparations, Maddox, the party’s explosives expert, had a more personal mission. After witnessing the sonic bomb deployed by Merton, Maddox had become quite interested in that technology. Given the recent détente with Lya, Maddox decided to approach Merton about his sonic bomb. At first Merton was reticent to let Maddox examine one of his bombs and called Lya over to speak instead. Lya chatted with Maddox saying that the interest in technology went both ways, and she had noted Maddox’s own blaster weapon as a fascinating piece. She told Maddox that enlightened thinkers trying to make the world a better place founded the Obscurati. Magical oaths prevented her from giving too many details, but she told Maddox that the Ob is always looking for people of singular talent and intellect. She acknowledged that Maddox should take time to think over what she said and offered him one of Merton’s bombs to study as a gesture of good will.</p><p></p><p>[gm]I finally managed to sneak in Lya trying to recruit someone. Maddox plans to study the bomb and will probably figure out how to make them by the start of the next adventure.[/gm]</p><p></p><p>Back with the rest of the constables, Irony received an unexpected Sending from Principle Minister Harkover Lee only a few hours after she contacted Delft. Lee informed her that they would have the spell casters they needed by that afternoon along with Risur’s Director of Infiltrations, Lauryn Cyneburg, with a classified briefing. Within a few hours, the constables had everything they needed to execute their plan. Director Cyneburg quickly gathered up the constables into the wheelhouse on their ship and ejected the rest of the crew from the room. After putting up some wards against eavesdropping, Lauryn commenced with the briefing. </p><p></p><p>Lauryn started with a brief summary of Ber’s history following the Great Malice. She explained how dragon hunting became a popular past time of trumped up heroes and would be kings following the fall of Elfaivar and the collapse of the Holy Clergy Empire. The dragon lords of Ber fended off most challengers until things changed roughly 200 years go. Skyseers in Risur witnessed a strange celestial phenomenon. While the planet Avilona traveled through the house of the constellation Draco, the constellation itself vanished from the sky in a shower of shooting stars. Many seers took this as a sign that the dragon lords of Ber would soon fall. While this prediction was accurate, it failed to illuminate what precipitated this fall. Lauryn revealed to the constables that the disappearance of the constellation Draco coincided with a planar anomaly. The anomaly disrupted Lanjyr’s already feeble connection to the plane of air. Very few people took note of this disruption because few mages bothered to specialize in air magic given its difficulty and poor results. What few academic papers that discussed the anomaly began to refer to the event as Skyfall. </p><p></p><p>Skyfall made an already recalcitrant section of magic even more difficult to wield. While this had little effect on the vast majority of Lanjyr’s inhabitants, it had a profound effect on dragons. Dragons were inherently magical creatures that could innately tap into elemental forces for various supernatural effects. One of these effects was the ability to empower their flight. The Skyfall anomaly resulted in dragons no longer being able to fly. With the loss of flight, dragons lost the ability to control engagements with their foes and flee when necessary. The number of dragons in the world dwindled rapidly following Skyfall.</p><p></p><p>Risur’s monarch at the time, King Boyle, saw an opportunity to secure future assets for Risur. King Boyle mounted a dragon hunting expedition into neighboring Ber to track down the last remaining dragon lords. Each dragon he hunted down was given a choice: accept asylum in Risur or die. The few dragons that accepted his terms had to submit to certain stipulations. They had to swear to never take hostile action against the kingdom of Risur, and they had to take on the form of a human and live as Risuri citizens for no less than 100 years. One of the dragons that accepted King Boyle’s terms was Gradiax, the Lord of Steel. Over the last two centuries, Gradiax had invested his horde in real estate and industrial ventures. His current human persona is Benedict Pemberton. The constables had met Pemberton in person when they purchased golems from him to help build the railroad.</p><p></p><p>Lauryn explained that King Aodhan had decided to release this information to the constables in light of their impending confrontation with the Cult of the Steel Lord. While they didn’t have conclusive evidence, it seems likely that Gradiax has retaken control of the Gnoll tribe and desires to reclaim dominion over Ber. Lauryn advised the constables to prepare for the possibility that they may end up fighting a fire-breathing dragon. As the primary agents of Risur in this combat theater, the constables were granted leeway to use and share this intelligence, as they deemed necessary to complete their mission. However, Lauryn did point out that revealing Risur had granted asylum to dragon lords could damage political relations between Risur and Ber. Ultimately, the constables decided not to tell their allies about this revelation.</p><p></p><p>[gm]The reveal about dragons was a good bit of plot exposition. I tweaked the delivery in a few ways. First off, I gave the planar event a name. It made sense to me that something with world spanning influence would be noticed by specialists in that field and eventually get named even if it never really reached beyond a select portion of academia. I also came up with the concept of the constellation falling from the sky. It was mentioned as an allegory in a possible skyseer PC vision, and I felt it worked well as a literal celestial event as well as an allegorical one. Obviously, it quickly led to people bringing up Adele, but these things happen.</p><p></p><p>I also named the original Clergy kingdom (the Holy Clergy Empire). The name is (obviously) a reference to the Holy Roman Empire. While this wasn’t totally necessary, I felt it would be strange for the original Clergy kingdom to be named Crisillyir when the current country of that name doesn’t encompass any of the original heartlands of the Clergy kingdom (those being in Danor and the Malice Lands).</p><p></p><p>Lastly, I emphasized the potential for political fallout in revealing this information to Ber. I wanted the players to pause and consider whether to share the information or not. Some of the players also wanted to know just what other dragons were hiding around Risur, but that information is only made available with direct permission from the king himself.[/gm]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Isklexi, post: 6777591, member: 6684948"] [b]Skyfall[/b] The constables immediately began brainstorming. They needed to get to Tinker before Lya and her lieutenants. While the Bruse suggested that they wait for Ber’s navy to draw off most of the Gnoll ships before attempting to make landfall, Lya has a larger, more powerful ship. The party reasoned that she would likely try to steal a march on them, risking a more dangerous naval encounter in exchange for reaching the island sooner. The constables had a special custom ship of their own, but it still wouldn’t be able to take on an entire fleet of Gnoll ships alone. They needed a way to beat Lya to the island without getting drawn into protracted naval combat. [gm]We didn’t get around to actually customizing their ship until this session. The party wanted a ship that reflected Risur’s druidic traditions as well as Flint’s industry. They went with a steam-powered ship built from living wood. Mechanically, it’s a living ship with a flagbearer defense, shroud, and unmanned armaments. They paid out of pocket for the shroud feature. They considered mounting the Skull of Cheshimox on the prow, but the cost of a new weapon was too prohibitive (even with hefty discounts for it being a preexisting object). Thematically, the ship doesn’t have cannons. Instead the hull can sprout and fling volleys of ironwood spikes. It even has a few trees growing from the main deck that can provide cover during boarding actions.[/gm] Eventually, the constables settled on a plan. They would use their ship’s shroud ability and the constant rain from the Silent Storm surrounding the island to cover their approach. They would bring their ship roughly 3 miles from the island’s coast before dawn then approach the island “on foot” using water walking. The combination of heavy rainfall and darkness would conceal them from any Gnoll ships as they hiked their way to the beachhead. The main sticking point in the plan was that the water walking ritual only lasts one hour and has to be cast individually. To avoid having any one constable’s water walking effect fail prematurely, they needed multiple ritualists performing the spell on each constable at the same time. Irony used a Sending spell to contact Inspector Delft to inform him that they were infiltrating the Isla dola Focas and required the aid of several ritualists versed in the water walking spell. Delft responded that it might take a few days to get them the mages they needed. Fortunately, the constables could spare the time because Ber’s navy would take several days to get into position anyway. While the constables made preparations, Maddox, the party’s explosives expert, had a more personal mission. After witnessing the sonic bomb deployed by Merton, Maddox had become quite interested in that technology. Given the recent détente with Lya, Maddox decided to approach Merton about his sonic bomb. At first Merton was reticent to let Maddox examine one of his bombs and called Lya over to speak instead. Lya chatted with Maddox saying that the interest in technology went both ways, and she had noted Maddox’s own blaster weapon as a fascinating piece. She told Maddox that enlightened thinkers trying to make the world a better place founded the Obscurati. Magical oaths prevented her from giving too many details, but she told Maddox that the Ob is always looking for people of singular talent and intellect. She acknowledged that Maddox should take time to think over what she said and offered him one of Merton’s bombs to study as a gesture of good will. [gm]I finally managed to sneak in Lya trying to recruit someone. Maddox plans to study the bomb and will probably figure out how to make them by the start of the next adventure.[/gm] Back with the rest of the constables, Irony received an unexpected Sending from Principle Minister Harkover Lee only a few hours after she contacted Delft. Lee informed her that they would have the spell casters they needed by that afternoon along with Risur’s Director of Infiltrations, Lauryn Cyneburg, with a classified briefing. Within a few hours, the constables had everything they needed to execute their plan. Director Cyneburg quickly gathered up the constables into the wheelhouse on their ship and ejected the rest of the crew from the room. After putting up some wards against eavesdropping, Lauryn commenced with the briefing. Lauryn started with a brief summary of Ber’s history following the Great Malice. She explained how dragon hunting became a popular past time of trumped up heroes and would be kings following the fall of Elfaivar and the collapse of the Holy Clergy Empire. The dragon lords of Ber fended off most challengers until things changed roughly 200 years go. Skyseers in Risur witnessed a strange celestial phenomenon. While the planet Avilona traveled through the house of the constellation Draco, the constellation itself vanished from the sky in a shower of shooting stars. Many seers took this as a sign that the dragon lords of Ber would soon fall. While this prediction was accurate, it failed to illuminate what precipitated this fall. Lauryn revealed to the constables that the disappearance of the constellation Draco coincided with a planar anomaly. The anomaly disrupted Lanjyr’s already feeble connection to the plane of air. Very few people took note of this disruption because few mages bothered to specialize in air magic given its difficulty and poor results. What few academic papers that discussed the anomaly began to refer to the event as Skyfall. Skyfall made an already recalcitrant section of magic even more difficult to wield. While this had little effect on the vast majority of Lanjyr’s inhabitants, it had a profound effect on dragons. Dragons were inherently magical creatures that could innately tap into elemental forces for various supernatural effects. One of these effects was the ability to empower their flight. The Skyfall anomaly resulted in dragons no longer being able to fly. With the loss of flight, dragons lost the ability to control engagements with their foes and flee when necessary. The number of dragons in the world dwindled rapidly following Skyfall. Risur’s monarch at the time, King Boyle, saw an opportunity to secure future assets for Risur. King Boyle mounted a dragon hunting expedition into neighboring Ber to track down the last remaining dragon lords. Each dragon he hunted down was given a choice: accept asylum in Risur or die. The few dragons that accepted his terms had to submit to certain stipulations. They had to swear to never take hostile action against the kingdom of Risur, and they had to take on the form of a human and live as Risuri citizens for no less than 100 years. One of the dragons that accepted King Boyle’s terms was Gradiax, the Lord of Steel. Over the last two centuries, Gradiax had invested his horde in real estate and industrial ventures. His current human persona is Benedict Pemberton. The constables had met Pemberton in person when they purchased golems from him to help build the railroad. Lauryn explained that King Aodhan had decided to release this information to the constables in light of their impending confrontation with the Cult of the Steel Lord. While they didn’t have conclusive evidence, it seems likely that Gradiax has retaken control of the Gnoll tribe and desires to reclaim dominion over Ber. Lauryn advised the constables to prepare for the possibility that they may end up fighting a fire-breathing dragon. As the primary agents of Risur in this combat theater, the constables were granted leeway to use and share this intelligence, as they deemed necessary to complete their mission. However, Lauryn did point out that revealing Risur had granted asylum to dragon lords could damage political relations between Risur and Ber. Ultimately, the constables decided not to tell their allies about this revelation. [gm]The reveal about dragons was a good bit of plot exposition. I tweaked the delivery in a few ways. First off, I gave the planar event a name. It made sense to me that something with world spanning influence would be noticed by specialists in that field and eventually get named even if it never really reached beyond a select portion of academia. I also came up with the concept of the constellation falling from the sky. It was mentioned as an allegory in a possible skyseer PC vision, and I felt it worked well as a literal celestial event as well as an allegorical one. Obviously, it quickly led to people bringing up Adele, but these things happen. I also named the original Clergy kingdom (the Holy Clergy Empire). The name is (obviously) a reference to the Holy Roman Empire. While this wasn’t totally necessary, I felt it would be strange for the original Clergy kingdom to be named Crisillyir when the current country of that name doesn’t encompass any of the original heartlands of the Clergy kingdom (those being in Danor and the Malice Lands). Lastly, I emphasized the potential for political fallout in revealing this information to Ber. I wanted the players to pause and consider whether to share the information or not. Some of the players also wanted to know just what other dragons were hiding around Risur, but that information is only made available with direct permission from the king himself.[/gm] [/QUOTE]
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