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Torchbearer 2e - actual play of this AWESOME system! (+)
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9124469" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>We played a session yesterday, again with four PCs - Fea-bella the Elven Dreamwalker, Golin the Dwarven Outcast, Telemere the Elven Ranger, and Korvin the human Skald.</p><p></p><p>The session began with Telemere's player giving us the prologue, and thereby recovering Exhausted.</p><p></p><p>Then there was some discussion of what to do. With three of the PCs being eligible for level gain, the group decided to enter town phase. Before doing so, Golin's player tested Labourer so that Golin could carry off his newly-found plate armour. Naturally he failed the Ob test despite rolling 3 dice, and so became Exhausted (I think it was?) while the turn count ticked over to 4, meaning that everyone became Hungry and Thirsty.</p><p></p><p>The one camp check was spent, and Korvin recovered from his Exhaustion.</p><p></p><p>Then I rolled the Town Event - the roll was 7, with a -2 penalty for two disasters (destruction of the hedge witch's establishment, and of Megloss's house), for a final 5:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Dust to dust.</em> All food in the area has turned to colorful dust. Remain in adventure phase until you reach another settlement or until the magical famine is reversed.</p><p></p><p>The players now wrote their Goals: for Golin, to get safely out of town; for the other three, variants on finding out the cause of this magical catastrophe.</p><p></p><p>There was mayhem in the streets, as the winds (no longer gale force, but still blowing) sent what had been food, but was now colourful dust, flying through the air. The PCs could see the constable who blames Golin (not entirely unjustly) for the fire at the Hedge Wizard's coming down the street. Golin made himself scarce, heading down a side alley and on out of town. The other PCs, led by Telemere, distracted the constable with questions about the food-to-dust situation: the constable blamed "that Dwarf", while Telemere tried to suggest there might be another cause. The PCs succeeded in Beginner's Luck Manipulator against the constable's Beginner's Luck Will, and so Golin got away and the others were able to catch him up outside of town.</p><p></p><p>The players had discussed various ways of trying to get water, and I had said they had two basic options: Survivalist to try and find something around town, or Pathfinder to take the one Toll journey south-east to the river. They opted for the latter. I then rolled for weather, and again (after applying the -1 modifier for it being early in Autumn) got a 12 result - the winds once again picked up into a gale! Which made the journey 3 Toll instead, or 4 Toll for Telemere (serving as their guide and making the Pathfinder test) and Golin (carrying his shield). Three of them had cloaks as raiment, that protected them from the wind; Golin ditched the leather armour he was wearing, and the rest of the toll was bought down by spending 10D in total of loot in the hamlets and and farmsteads on the path to the river. This caused a lot of consternation from Telemere's less experienced player, who had never before experienced the rigours of Toll!</p><p></p><p>I didn't call for a Health test due to the gale, but flagged that if bad weather continued, then I reserved the right to do so. And at least there was no trouble on the road (a roll of 5).</p><p></p><p>At the river, they made camp safely, and Fea-bella healed Telemere's Injury. They all were able to drink, alleviating their Hungry and Thirsty. And they also refilled their waterskins. They then discussed what to do next. I told them that if they crossed the river, it was a one Toll journey to the Tower of Stars - the ruined tower of Beholder of Fates, which they had explored in <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2nd-ed-actual-play.686046/post-8557834" target="_blank">their first session</a>. Their was no point returning to the Wizard's Tower, and they thought that answers might be found there, so they headed off. But first they asked if it was still blowing a gale, and I said I would have to roll for weather again - and what were the odds of getting another 13 on 3d6? As it turned out, 100%! Which elicited groans. But then the roll for Trouble was a 6 (good weather), and so I stepped the Gale down to Blustery Winds, which lifted the Toll only by 1. So that was overall 2 for Korvin, 3 for Telemere and Fea-bella (guide and forager respectively), and a mighty 6 for Golin (+2 for cook, +2 for wearing his plate armour).</p><p></p><p>They succeeded at Ob 3 Survivalist to cross the river; Golin's player was pleased, because he had loaned his rope to Telemere to grant a +1D gear bonus, and the successful check meant he got to keep his rope! The PCs then set out on their journey.</p><p></p><p>Fea-bella found two portions of fresh rations. Golin was able to prepare a meal from one portion, to offset one toll for all. Cloaks again helped for 3 of them. Golin wore out his woollen sweater, and consumed portions of food and drink. And Telemere was able to lead them to the tower. This constituted four turns in total, for another turning of the Grind. I can't recall the final disposition of conditions, except that all were Hungry and Thirsty, multiple PCs were Exhausted, and Golin was Angry.</p><p></p><p>Given that they had had to travel through more heavy wind, I also called for Health tests. This caused some complaint, but Golin's player backed me up! There was mostly success, but Telemere's player failed the roll vs Ob 3. I decided I wanted a twist rather than a condition, was pondering a bit, and then either he or Golin's player, or maybe both, mentioned bandits, and I decided that was an excellent idea - as the PCs approached the Tower, entering the hills, from out of a blind bluff who should emerge in ambush but <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2e-actual-play-of-this-awesome-system.691233/post-8780776" target="_blank">Turner, Roy and Nutmeg</a>, trying to drive off these interlopers!</p><p></p><p>Golin's response was "Charge!", and so by general acclaim he was the conflict captain. The PCs' disposition was 8, and the bandits 6, and so I thought it might be over quickly, but the conflict actually lasted 4 full exchanges. Being a close-quarters ambush, Telemere could not bring his bow to bear, and so had to fight with his hatchet as an improvised weapon. And Golin's player scripted with attention to a careful allocation of Fighter (Attack, Feint) and Will (Defence, Manoeuvre) tests - as a result Golin's Will advanced from 4 to 5, and Korvin's from 3 to 4. Nevertheless, despite some good rolling on my part and the bandits rallying more than once, they ended up being defeated with no loss of disposition by the PCs.</p><p></p><p>During the fight, the players had been eyeing off possible loot - Korvin in particular has long had his eyes on Turner's nice boots! - but I told them that what they found would depend on the roll on the Loot table. When the conflict was over I duly rolled on Loot Table 1, and was amused by my result. I told the players that the bandits fled, taking all their gear with them but for a helmet and shield that had been destroyed in the fight. But did not yet divulge the loot!</p><p></p><p>The PCs were in a hurry now to get to the tower, where they knew there was a pool of water at its base. They could see that the scree field leading up to the Tower had been smoothed, and a path made. Naturally they were suspicious - but with a successful Scout test, all Telemere could see was a barrel next to the pool. That was their loot! - as I explained, a roll on Loot Table 1 led to the Gear subtable, which in turn led to the Vessel sub-subtable, which yielded a barrel. Although they could see its utility for storing water, on balance they were underwhelmed.</p><p></p><p>The damaged head with its sigil was still there, and Fea-bella (using her Instict to <em>read every word</em>) read it. The roll failed, and so when she worked out that it was an ancient sigil of vigilance, for commanding living statues, she became Afraid.</p><p></p><p>And there was also a wooden ladder, leading to the open trapdoor to the next level.</p><p></p><p>They filled two waterskins and then decided to camp, and at this point had amassed 5 camp checks. The camp event roll for these Ancient Ruins indicated <em>Penetrating chill</em>:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">The air of the ruin - and the very stone itself - emanates a sharp chill: +1 Ob to recover from sick and injured during this camp phase.</p><p></p><p>Golin cooked a portion of preserved rations, feeding the group and thus alleviating Hungry and Thirsty. Fea-bella healed her own Injury. Korvin declined to be healed: as a Loner he rolled his Health (5D, +1D for the trait) against Ob 5 (base Ob 4, +1 Ob for the chill) to try and recover, but failed. But the failure did step his Health up to 6. Golin recovered from being Angry; and Fea-bella recovered from being Afraid.</p><p></p><p>At the end of their camp they were able to fill two more waterskins, and they decided to explore the Tower. Golin went up the ladder, and I was able to deploy the trap I had noted up - unless the metal pin is slotted into place, Turner's trick ladder collapses when climbed! I gave Golin's players two options for his Health check: try and land safely on the floor, or make the harder attempt to grab hold of the trapdoor lip as the ladder collapsed. He opted for the latter, and failed the roll - which took Golin's Health to 6. I told him that Golin grabbed the lip, but pulled a muscle doing so - Golin was Injured.</p><p></p><p>He used his rope to pull up the other PCs.</p><p></p><p>The next level was a room the PCs had already explored, in our first session. I told them that this time all the metal screens and silver mirrors (ie the loot) were gone. As was the dead body.</p><p></p><p>Fea-bella attempted a Scholar check to decipher the ancient writing, aided by Golin with his Dwarven Chronicles- wise. The test was a failure, although the helping die was not, which made her Angry that she needed the help of the Dwarf to make sense of the commands (one of which, I explained, was a human rendering of a Dwarven phrase). So they learned how to control the Basalt Guardians, beginning by commanding the broken one with its banging arm to <em>Stop</em>.</p><p></p><p>They then checked out the rusty door. Golin searched it for weak points - the failed Scout roll meant only that he broke the handle off completely, meaning that Korvin couldn't try and open it with his thieves' tools. Telemere borrowed a hammer and iron spike from Korvin to try a more forceful methods of opening it, and succeed on the Ob 3 Health test to smash out the lock mechanism altogether.</p><p></p><p>They opened the door, and looked through to what was for them a new part of the Tower: the main chamber of Beholder of Fates! They were suitably impressed by the description of the book shelves, alchemy gear and the like. But their first action was to examine the glyph circle about the door - Fea-bella made the test with the others' help, and succeeded. So they worked out that the glyphs were the activators for the Basalt Guardians. They entered the room, and Fea-bella commanded the Guardian in it to serve: it brought her a towel from behind the metal privacy screen, and she duly cleaned herself up!</p><p></p><p>This also marked four turns on the Grind, and so they all drank their water.</p><p></p><p>Fea-bella then made two Scholar tests by instinct. The first was to quickly survey the books - as per the room description, she identified that</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">The bookcases are filled with rare books and scrolls . . . [dealing with] ancient celestial language, its laws or the tracking of the passage of time and movements of the firmament. The bookcases contain 25 treatises (pack 1 each) and nine codices (pack 2 each).</p><p></p><p>One codex in particular that she noted, and placed in her backpack, was On the Mingling of Elven and Human Knowledge of the Firmament. It contained a loose sheet. She pulled that out and read it: it mentioned the Elven Lady scholar of the Wizard's Tower, ill omens, and suggested that the birth of Lareth - though he was a beautiful child - was not fortuitous.</p><p></p><p>A successful Lore Master check allowed her to recall that Lareth is a favoured name for Half-Elves.</p><p></p><p>A third bout of instinctual reading had her looking through the codex itself, for more information about this Lareth. A marginal note referred to "Fella" - the name of Fea-bella's mother, who is a scholar who lives in the Wizard's Tower - and also recorded that</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>as the earth moved</em>, so did the firmament, and the dark constellation of the void was ascendent when Lareth was conceived.</p><p></p><p>The codex proper also recorded that, according to the lore of a now-forgotten temple, the void is an evil admixture of elemental air and elemental earth.</p><p></p><p>Golin's player asked me if the Forgotten Temple Complex where he grew up is full of nut-jobs. I told him that, as per what he had said back at PC creation, he hung out with the nut-jobs who worked on explosions - the combination of elemental fire and elemental air.</p><p></p><p>Fea-bella's player, meanwhile, was speculating about the coincidence of an earthquake and a constellation, and there was some laughter at the table. I asked if a Lore Master test to interpret human folk idioms was in order - it was made, and succeeded, and so Fea-bella learned that "the earth moved" can also be a reference to a sexual experience. Golin's helping die was a success, and Telemere remarked that one can always trust the Dwarves to make everything tawdry. I suggested to Fea-bella's player "Wasn't it your mother who asked you to come to the Tower of Stars in the first place, to see what had happened to the Beholder of Fates?" The player agreed.</p><p></p><p>A Healer test then revealed that Beholder of Fates, lying on his bed, seemed to have died peacefully in his sleep. Fea-bella, claiming right of inheritance from her apparent step-father, took his 5D gold ring and placed it on her own finger.</p><p></p><p>And Telemere made a Scholar check of his own, which succeeded, to find information about his brother - the original reason he had come to the Tower of Fates. He learned that Kalamere came to the Tower six years ago, seeking information about the Elf Celedhring who was rumoured to have entered into communion with the Outer Darkness. Beholder of Fates notes recorded that he did not tell Kalamere anything - including the connection he discerned between Celedhring and the demon of the Outer Darkness called Duran - and Kalamere left the tower unhappy. The players took this opportunity to remind one another of the various details of what had happened in the Shadow Caves beneath Megloss's house, where they had freed the demon Duran and driven him off, and had found the wight Celedhring in his sarcophagus but successfully escaped from him.</p><p></p><p>This triggered the Grind again. But they had no camp checks. So Golin, bored, went up the stairs to the top level of the Tower, the observation dome. Telemere followed. They noticed that even though the crank on the controls for the dome seemed to be turned fully in the shut position, the dome was slightly open. Golin made a Labourer check, buffed by channelling his Crafting Nature, to try and close the dome fully; but failed, and so broke the mechanism. But he had used a trait against himself and so collected a check.</p><p></p><p>And we finished the session there, with the PCs ready to camp, and handing out rewards. (I recall that Fea-bella got Teamworker, and Golin MVP.)</p><p></p><p>**************************************</p><p></p><p>In preparing for this session, I had assumed that the players would want to enter town phase, and had decided that I would take that opportunity to encourage them to go back to the Tower of Stars. My thought had been that, given all the mayhem they had caused in the Wizard's Tower, that they would be "gently" encouraged by some or other authority figure to go elsewhere.</p><p></p><p>And I had made notes on how that might happen. I will sblock them on the off chance that a player in my game reads this:</p><p></p><p>[spoiler]The Wizard's Tower has a town law (as per the Scholar's Guide) that "All families must have one boy child. Failure to do so within a year will result in the arrest of the eldest family member." I had decided that the recent, seemingly ill-omened events, would trigger a renewed enforcement of this law.</p><p></p><p>Vaccin, Golin's mentor, would offer to adopt Golin as his boy child, to ensure his compliance. (He could also give Golin a free check for Cook.)</p><p></p><p>Korvin's friend, the tavern owner Jann, would offer him 1D either to buy shoes ("I know a guy") or to pay for Lifestyle before leaving town.</p><p></p><p>And Fella, Fea-bella's mother with whom Fea-bella stays, would do two things. First, she would provide Fea-bella with a map, twenty or more years old, to the Tower of Fates, with a note on it saying "Come soon to visit me" - an Ob 2 Scholar test would reveal this to be the second or subsequent page of a longer message. Second, she would insist to the authorities that she has satisfied the boy child law, as her boy is Lareth.[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>As it turned out, this prep was bypassed by the Town Events roll. But the other part of my prep - making notes on the changes to the first three areas of the Tower (scree field, entry way (including the trapped ladder) and waiting chamber) - did prove useful.</p><p></p><p>In our next session, after the PCs camp, I would expect them to make another effort to find out the cause of the food-to-dust in the Wizard's Tower. Or perhaps to head south to the Forgotten Temple Complex?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9124469, member: 42582"] We played a session yesterday, again with four PCs - Fea-bella the Elven Dreamwalker, Golin the Dwarven Outcast, Telemere the Elven Ranger, and Korvin the human Skald. The session began with Telemere's player giving us the prologue, and thereby recovering Exhausted. Then there was some discussion of what to do. With three of the PCs being eligible for level gain, the group decided to enter town phase. Before doing so, Golin's player tested Labourer so that Golin could carry off his newly-found plate armour. Naturally he failed the Ob test despite rolling 3 dice, and so became Exhausted (I think it was?) while the turn count ticked over to 4, meaning that everyone became Hungry and Thirsty. The one camp check was spent, and Korvin recovered from his Exhaustion. Then I rolled the Town Event - the roll was 7, with a -2 penalty for two disasters (destruction of the hedge witch's establishment, and of Megloss's house), for a final 5: [indent][i]Dust to dust.[/i] All food in the area has turned to colorful dust. Remain in adventure phase until you reach another settlement or until the magical famine is reversed.[/indent] The players now wrote their Goals: for Golin, to get safely out of town; for the other three, variants on finding out the cause of this magical catastrophe. There was mayhem in the streets, as the winds (no longer gale force, but still blowing) sent what had been food, but was now colourful dust, flying through the air. The PCs could see the constable who blames Golin (not entirely unjustly) for the fire at the Hedge Wizard's coming down the street. Golin made himself scarce, heading down a side alley and on out of town. The other PCs, led by Telemere, distracted the constable with questions about the food-to-dust situation: the constable blamed "that Dwarf", while Telemere tried to suggest there might be another cause. The PCs succeeded in Beginner's Luck Manipulator against the constable's Beginner's Luck Will, and so Golin got away and the others were able to catch him up outside of town. The players had discussed various ways of trying to get water, and I had said they had two basic options: Survivalist to try and find something around town, or Pathfinder to take the one Toll journey south-east to the river. They opted for the latter. I then rolled for weather, and again (after applying the -1 modifier for it being early in Autumn) got a 12 result - the winds once again picked up into a gale! Which made the journey 3 Toll instead, or 4 Toll for Telemere (serving as their guide and making the Pathfinder test) and Golin (carrying his shield). Three of them had cloaks as raiment, that protected them from the wind; Golin ditched the leather armour he was wearing, and the rest of the toll was bought down by spending 10D in total of loot in the hamlets and and farmsteads on the path to the river. This caused a lot of consternation from Telemere's less experienced player, who had never before experienced the rigours of Toll! I didn't call for a Health test due to the gale, but flagged that if bad weather continued, then I reserved the right to do so. And at least there was no trouble on the road (a roll of 5). At the river, they made camp safely, and Fea-bella healed Telemere's Injury. They all were able to drink, alleviating their Hungry and Thirsty. And they also refilled their waterskins. They then discussed what to do next. I told them that if they crossed the river, it was a one Toll journey to the Tower of Stars - the ruined tower of Beholder of Fates, which they had explored in [url=https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2nd-ed-actual-play.686046/post-8557834]their first session[/url]. Their was no point returning to the Wizard's Tower, and they thought that answers might be found there, so they headed off. But first they asked if it was still blowing a gale, and I said I would have to roll for weather again - and what were the odds of getting another 13 on 3d6? As it turned out, 100%! Which elicited groans. But then the roll for Trouble was a 6 (good weather), and so I stepped the Gale down to Blustery Winds, which lifted the Toll only by 1. So that was overall 2 for Korvin, 3 for Telemere and Fea-bella (guide and forager respectively), and a mighty 6 for Golin (+2 for cook, +2 for wearing his plate armour). They succeeded at Ob 3 Survivalist to cross the river; Golin's player was pleased, because he had loaned his rope to Telemere to grant a +1D gear bonus, and the successful check meant he got to keep his rope! The PCs then set out on their journey. Fea-bella found two portions of fresh rations. Golin was able to prepare a meal from one portion, to offset one toll for all. Cloaks again helped for 3 of them. Golin wore out his woollen sweater, and consumed portions of food and drink. And Telemere was able to lead them to the tower. This constituted four turns in total, for another turning of the Grind. I can't recall the final disposition of conditions, except that all were Hungry and Thirsty, multiple PCs were Exhausted, and Golin was Angry. Given that they had had to travel through more heavy wind, I also called for Health tests. This caused some complaint, but Golin's player backed me up! There was mostly success, but Telemere's player failed the roll vs Ob 3. I decided I wanted a twist rather than a condition, was pondering a bit, and then either he or Golin's player, or maybe both, mentioned bandits, and I decided that was an excellent idea - as the PCs approached the Tower, entering the hills, from out of a blind bluff who should emerge in ambush but [url=https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2e-actual-play-of-this-awesome-system.691233/post-8780776]Turner, Roy and Nutmeg[/url], trying to drive off these interlopers! Golin's response was "Charge!", and so by general acclaim he was the conflict captain. The PCs' disposition was 8, and the bandits 6, and so I thought it might be over quickly, but the conflict actually lasted 4 full exchanges. Being a close-quarters ambush, Telemere could not bring his bow to bear, and so had to fight with his hatchet as an improvised weapon. And Golin's player scripted with attention to a careful allocation of Fighter (Attack, Feint) and Will (Defence, Manoeuvre) tests - as a result Golin's Will advanced from 4 to 5, and Korvin's from 3 to 4. Nevertheless, despite some good rolling on my part and the bandits rallying more than once, they ended up being defeated with no loss of disposition by the PCs. During the fight, the players had been eyeing off possible loot - Korvin in particular has long had his eyes on Turner's nice boots! - but I told them that what they found would depend on the roll on the Loot table. When the conflict was over I duly rolled on Loot Table 1, and was amused by my result. I told the players that the bandits fled, taking all their gear with them but for a helmet and shield that had been destroyed in the fight. But did not yet divulge the loot! The PCs were in a hurry now to get to the tower, where they knew there was a pool of water at its base. They could see that the scree field leading up to the Tower had been smoothed, and a path made. Naturally they were suspicious - but with a successful Scout test, all Telemere could see was a barrel next to the pool. That was their loot! - as I explained, a roll on Loot Table 1 led to the Gear subtable, which in turn led to the Vessel sub-subtable, which yielded a barrel. Although they could see its utility for storing water, on balance they were underwhelmed. The damaged head with its sigil was still there, and Fea-bella (using her Instict to [I]read every word[/I]) read it. The roll failed, and so when she worked out that it was an ancient sigil of vigilance, for commanding living statues, she became Afraid. And there was also a wooden ladder, leading to the open trapdoor to the next level. They filled two waterskins and then decided to camp, and at this point had amassed 5 camp checks. The camp event roll for these Ancient Ruins indicated [i]Penetrating chill[/i]: [indent]The air of the ruin - and the very stone itself - emanates a sharp chill: +1 Ob to recover from sick and injured during this camp phase.[/indent] Golin cooked a portion of preserved rations, feeding the group and thus alleviating Hungry and Thirsty. Fea-bella healed her own Injury. Korvin declined to be healed: as a Loner he rolled his Health (5D, +1D for the trait) against Ob 5 (base Ob 4, +1 Ob for the chill) to try and recover, but failed. But the failure did step his Health up to 6. Golin recovered from being Angry; and Fea-bella recovered from being Afraid. At the end of their camp they were able to fill two more waterskins, and they decided to explore the Tower. Golin went up the ladder, and I was able to deploy the trap I had noted up - unless the metal pin is slotted into place, Turner's trick ladder collapses when climbed! I gave Golin's players two options for his Health check: try and land safely on the floor, or make the harder attempt to grab hold of the trapdoor lip as the ladder collapsed. He opted for the latter, and failed the roll - which took Golin's Health to 6. I told him that Golin grabbed the lip, but pulled a muscle doing so - Golin was Injured. He used his rope to pull up the other PCs. The next level was a room the PCs had already explored, in our first session. I told them that this time all the metal screens and silver mirrors (ie the loot) were gone. As was the dead body. Fea-bella attempted a Scholar check to decipher the ancient writing, aided by Golin with his Dwarven Chronicles- wise. The test was a failure, although the helping die was not, which made her Angry that she needed the help of the Dwarf to make sense of the commands (one of which, I explained, was a human rendering of a Dwarven phrase). So they learned how to control the Basalt Guardians, beginning by commanding the broken one with its banging arm to [I]Stop[/I]. They then checked out the rusty door. Golin searched it for weak points - the failed Scout roll meant only that he broke the handle off completely, meaning that Korvin couldn't try and open it with his thieves' tools. Telemere borrowed a hammer and iron spike from Korvin to try a more forceful methods of opening it, and succeed on the Ob 3 Health test to smash out the lock mechanism altogether. They opened the door, and looked through to what was for them a new part of the Tower: the main chamber of Beholder of Fates! They were suitably impressed by the description of the book shelves, alchemy gear and the like. But their first action was to examine the glyph circle about the door - Fea-bella made the test with the others' help, and succeeded. So they worked out that the glyphs were the activators for the Basalt Guardians. They entered the room, and Fea-bella commanded the Guardian in it to serve: it brought her a towel from behind the metal privacy screen, and she duly cleaned herself up! This also marked four turns on the Grind, and so they all drank their water. Fea-bella then made two Scholar tests by instinct. The first was to quickly survey the books - as per the room description, she identified that [indent]The bookcases are filled with rare books and scrolls . . . [dealing with] ancient celestial language, its laws or the tracking of the passage of time and movements of the firmament. The bookcases contain 25 treatises (pack 1 each) and nine codices (pack 2 each).[/indent] One codex in particular that she noted, and placed in her backpack, was On the Mingling of Elven and Human Knowledge of the Firmament. It contained a loose sheet. She pulled that out and read it: it mentioned the Elven Lady scholar of the Wizard's Tower, ill omens, and suggested that the birth of Lareth - though he was a beautiful child - was not fortuitous. A successful Lore Master check allowed her to recall that Lareth is a favoured name for Half-Elves. A third bout of instinctual reading had her looking through the codex itself, for more information about this Lareth. A marginal note referred to "Fella" - the name of Fea-bella's mother, who is a scholar who lives in the Wizard's Tower - and also recorded that [indent][I]as the earth moved[/I], so did the firmament, and the dark constellation of the void was ascendent when Lareth was conceived.[/indent] The codex proper also recorded that, according to the lore of a now-forgotten temple, the void is an evil admixture of elemental air and elemental earth. Golin's player asked me if the Forgotten Temple Complex where he grew up is full of nut-jobs. I told him that, as per what he had said back at PC creation, he hung out with the nut-jobs who worked on explosions - the combination of elemental fire and elemental air. Fea-bella's player, meanwhile, was speculating about the coincidence of an earthquake and a constellation, and there was some laughter at the table. I asked if a Lore Master test to interpret human folk idioms was in order - it was made, and succeeded, and so Fea-bella learned that "the earth moved" can also be a reference to a sexual experience. Golin's helping die was a success, and Telemere remarked that one can always trust the Dwarves to make everything tawdry. I suggested to Fea-bella's player "Wasn't it your mother who asked you to come to the Tower of Stars in the first place, to see what had happened to the Beholder of Fates?" The player agreed. A Healer test then revealed that Beholder of Fates, lying on his bed, seemed to have died peacefully in his sleep. Fea-bella, claiming right of inheritance from her apparent step-father, took his 5D gold ring and placed it on her own finger. And Telemere made a Scholar check of his own, which succeeded, to find information about his brother - the original reason he had come to the Tower of Fates. He learned that Kalamere came to the Tower six years ago, seeking information about the Elf Celedhring who was rumoured to have entered into communion with the Outer Darkness. Beholder of Fates notes recorded that he did not tell Kalamere anything - including the connection he discerned between Celedhring and the demon of the Outer Darkness called Duran - and Kalamere left the tower unhappy. The players took this opportunity to remind one another of the various details of what had happened in the Shadow Caves beneath Megloss's house, where they had freed the demon Duran and driven him off, and had found the wight Celedhring in his sarcophagus but successfully escaped from him. This triggered the Grind again. But they had no camp checks. So Golin, bored, went up the stairs to the top level of the Tower, the observation dome. Telemere followed. They noticed that even though the crank on the controls for the dome seemed to be turned fully in the shut position, the dome was slightly open. Golin made a Labourer check, buffed by channelling his Crafting Nature, to try and close the dome fully; but failed, and so broke the mechanism. But he had used a trait against himself and so collected a check. And we finished the session there, with the PCs ready to camp, and handing out rewards. (I recall that Fea-bella got Teamworker, and Golin MVP.) ************************************** In preparing for this session, I had assumed that the players would want to enter town phase, and had decided that I would take that opportunity to encourage them to go back to the Tower of Stars. My thought had been that, given all the mayhem they had caused in the Wizard's Tower, that they would be "gently" encouraged by some or other authority figure to go elsewhere. And I had made notes on how that might happen. I will sblock them on the off chance that a player in my game reads this: [spoiler]The Wizard's Tower has a town law (as per the Scholar's Guide) that "All families must have one boy child. Failure to do so within a year will result in the arrest of the eldest family member." I had decided that the recent, seemingly ill-omened events, would trigger a renewed enforcement of this law. Vaccin, Golin's mentor, would offer to adopt Golin as his boy child, to ensure his compliance. (He could also give Golin a free check for Cook.) Korvin's friend, the tavern owner Jann, would offer him 1D either to buy shoes ("I know a guy") or to pay for Lifestyle before leaving town. And Fella, Fea-bella's mother with whom Fea-bella stays, would do two things. First, she would provide Fea-bella with a map, twenty or more years old, to the Tower of Fates, with a note on it saying "Come soon to visit me" - an Ob 2 Scholar test would reveal this to be the second or subsequent page of a longer message. Second, she would insist to the authorities that she has satisfied the boy child law, as her boy is Lareth.[/spoiler] As it turned out, this prep was bypassed by the Town Events roll. But the other part of my prep - making notes on the changes to the first three areas of the Tower (scree field, entry way (including the trapped ladder) and waiting chamber) - did prove useful. In our next session, after the PCs camp, I would expect them to make another effort to find out the cause of the food-to-dust in the Wizard's Tower. Or perhaps to head south to the Forgotten Temple Complex? [/QUOTE]
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