ZEITGEIST [ZEITGEIST] The Continuing Adventures of Korrigan & Co.

[gideonpepys]

Session 24, Part Two - False Flags & Fairydust

Not long after Delft had gone, Gale announced her presence through the messenger wind. It was good to know the invisible feathers still worked! Gupta, Uru and Korrigan went on deck to meet her. She looked the same as ever – her long black hair and simple blue dress flowing about her like fronds of seaweed.

Gale was accompanied by two dark-skinned and muscular eladrin men, each wearing bronze helms and breastplates over a short white tunic. They bore unsheathed short swords and glared menacingly and protectively at everyone who drew near. Gale explained dismissively that these ‘rajput’ insisted on going everywhere with her since she ‘refused to stay put’. Then she noticed that only three constables stood before her and said in a worried tone, “Your numbers are low.”

They reassured Gale that Leon, Rumdoom and Matunaaga were alive and well (kind of). Then she told them why she had come: she wanted their help trying to find Isobel Travers, whom she had been searching for these past three years. Gale felt an enormous sense of responsibility for Isobel, who had come to Flint following her example (after the unit had rescued her from slavery with the help of Andrei von Recklinghausen, during their escapade on the Avery Coast railroad). If Gale had not succumbed to the influence of Ekossigan, Isobel might never have left. She then reminded the unit that messengers had arrived with tokens from Andrei Von Recklinghausen (shortly after his abduction) and promised to take her to safety in Elfaivar now that he could no longer protect her. When she described these messengers – an olive-skinned human in a stove-pipe hat, and a brightly coloured female sprite – the unit immediately recognised them as Ob operatives. They were the same people who had beaten them to – and murdered – two of Malthusius’ incarnations, to prevent him from accessing his memories and restoring his old personality. Now that the unit knew what had become of Andrei, they felt sure that Isobel must be held captive somewhere, to secure his cooperation with Nicodemus.

They shared this information with Gale and promised to help search for Isobel when they could. Realising that it was futile to continue the search in Elfaivar, Gale decided to return to Flint and look there. When she was urged to be careful she pointed out that she had never been caught yet – not even by them! The unit said they would return when they could and hoped that Gale might be able to speed things up: Did she have any idea where they might find Kasvarina Varal?

“Oh, yes,” Gale said, happily. “She’s in Sentosa.”

This led to many more questions, most of which Gale could not answer. Sentosa was an eladrin enclave that existed in a pocket plane, not in physical space, and Gale could not tell them exactly how to get there. As a mistrusted outsider (but a valued female) she had been guided through the enclaves on her search, but was never shown how to come and go, or how to reach each one of them. All she knew was that Sentosa was tied to the physical ruin of an ancient, abandoned eladrin city. She gestured to the map, “somewhere here” – on the Danoran colony of Rationalis, up-river from Port Perrault. Gale did not know which ruin. “There are a lot,” she said.

When pressed on how to approach or gain access to the enclave Gale said she did not know, and even if she did – she gestured at the Rajput – it would be unwise and churlish of her to tell them. Safe to say, if the eladrin wanted to speak to them they would grant them access.

And so they changed course for the coast to the west of Port Perrault, and bid farewell to Gale. She left slightly nonplussed by Gupta who remembered that her mother greatly admired the eladrin and told her so. (Gale also ‘awoke’ their messenger wind before she went, and promised that it would not lose charge for a long time.)

When she had gone, they sent a message to Leon who travelled to a clergy library and secured a map of major eladrin settlements from before the Great War. There were indeed a lot, but three were clustered together up the Tapi River many miles from the coast, just where Gale had blithely poked her finger.

*​

Two days later – as the Impossible and her escort rounded the fog-wreathed horn of Tropaeum (to the east of Macdam and the Isle of Titans) – an approaching Risuri steamship, the Ipsum, was identified as flying a false flag. Uru, up in the crow’s nest, could clearly see this ship was of Danoran design, hastily and poorly disguised. The Ipsum began to use semaphore to signal for help, but when the Impossible and her escort suddenly veered south, two Danoran steam frigates emerged from the fog bank (a magical, illusory shroud) and gave chase.

Fearing for her escort, the Impossible manoeuvred to lock the Ispum down.

Silky, the ships merfey mascot, reported another vessel approaching beneath the waves. A submersible!

The RNS Chell was on the receiving end of a barrage from both frigates, and her rigging was shattered.

The Impossible and the Alesia drew within striking distance on either side of the Ipsum, hoping to deal with one foe before the submersible got involved. Cannon fire was exchanged, with some loss of life on both sides, before the gap narrowed enough for close combat.


End of Session

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 25, Part One - R.I.P.?

And so the RNS Impossible entered its first ever naval engagement in twenty years of service. Having exchanged fire on closing, the Ipsum came alongside and a squad of Danoran troops fought to storm aboard. They were supported by black-clad tiefling marines; riflemen and artillerists in similar garb remained aboard the Ipsum. The Impossible had its own small detachment of marines, but they and the ship’s crew were green in close combat. The unit was represented by only three members: Uru, Gupta and Korrigan. They needed to fight off the Ipsum and get clear before the steam frigates or the submersible could close.

Gupta and Korrigan waded into the fray, rallying the marines around them. Both went toe-to-toe- with the black-clad tiefling elite. Korrigan was able to hold his own, but Gupta was quickly wounded: the tieflings struck back with infernal flames when attacked and were practised at working together to exploit gaps and weaknesses. As the fight went on, mortar shells began to thud into the side of the Impossible, causing a great deal of damage and destroying the sick bay entirely.

With Little Jack at his side, Uru ghost-stepped onto the Ipsum, and – under withering fire from two snipers – disabled the forward turret. Then he leaped over the side of the boat and ran along the hull, appearing suddenly in the stern, where the mortar had been set up, and killed both of the artillerists with his shuriken crossbow before vanishing again.

Korrigan stomped on the deck sending shockwaves through the hull and throwing one tiefling marine overboard. He absorbed the backlash of flames, transformed into a bolt of Avilona, and reappeared next to another pair of tieflings who were subjecting Gupta to pistol fire from behind their own squad of troops. Another urimshock threw a second tiefling overboard. Gupta, mechanical blade flashing in the centre of the melee, went down to the blows of two more elite marines. Instantly, Korrigan was at her side, dragged her to her feet and took her place. But the marines were relentless and could smell the blood of an easier target. Their eager shouts made it clear that their orders were to specifically target members of the unit. Gupta went down again. The marines were on her, driving their blades home. A final pistol shot from close range and she lay still. Korrigan’s defender blade told him she was dead.

A pulse from the fey portal pad heralded the arrival of reinforcements: Leon and Matunaaga! With them were Uriel, Hildegaard (pushing an empty wheelchair) and Thurgid (still with a napkin tucked into his collar and crumbs around his mouth – their response had been a hasty one). Uriel was wide-eyed at this sudden carnage. Hildegaard took him by the coat sleeve and dragged him and Thurgid belowdecks.

Uru reappeared on the deck of the Ipsum, looking identical to one of the artillerists he had killed. In the chaos of battle no one noticed as he began to invert the mortar. [Another lucky 20!] A sudden explosion ripped through the Ipsum and it began to take on water. Uru rode the shockwave (and Little Jack) into the rigging of the Impossible.

The snipers were taking aim at Korrigan now, trying to take him down or drive him from combat, to tip the balance in favour of their troops. Korrigan didn’t even duck [first use of his bespoke focus power, “I love the smell of witchoil in the morning”] but planted his feet, raised his palm and blew the head off the tiefling who had taken out Gupta. Then he rallied the Risuri marines and encouraged them to stand firm.

Matunaaga first took stock of the situation, picking out the elites. Then, in a series of fluid movements, he shot and killed the snipers with his rifle, before drawing his pistols and taking out the three remaining marines with balletic precision. All of the elites were dead within a minute.

The Impossible was by now pulling clear of the Ipsum, which was listing badly. The few remaining Danorans – with nowhere to flee – soon surrendered. They were marched to the brig. With no infirmary left bodies remained where they lay until the crisis was over. The Chell, rigging shattered, was unable to outrun the frigates, but signalled to the Impossible that she should try. The Alesia, too, would stay and throw herself at the enemy. Leon appeared on the deck of the Chell and offered to evacuate her, but Captain Wheatley refused: they would go down fighting if necessary. Their orders had been to protect the Impossible, and protect her they would.

All of this proved to be academic. As the Impossible changed course away from the coast of Elfaivar, the steam frigates ignored her escort and gave futile chase. It was hopeless. If there was a ship on the sea that could outrun the Impossible, Captain Smith had yet to run into it.

They had survived. Still, they were shaken – rattled, even. Many crew members had died. A dozen marines had been killed or injured. And, then, of course, there was Gupta…

Before her comrades could really begin to take in her death, just as a clean-up crew was engaged in shifting bodies from the deck, Gupta suddenly began to thrash and shake violently, as if an aelectrical current was coursing through her. Bystanders clutched their weapons instinctively, only for Korrigan’s sword to confirm that Gupta was alive! She ceased to thrash, lay still for a moment and then clambered to her feet, almost as stunned as they were.

“Thank you for having your clothes on this time,” said Korrigan.

 

[RangerWickett]

Back from the dead again? Nobody likes a show off.

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 25, Part Two - Macdam & Jungle Trek

Macdam

The Impossible had been badly damaged and was in need of repair. They gave up on trying to reach Elfaivar for now, and circled round the Isle of Titans to Macdam. While they went, they interrogated the prisoners. None of the black-clad elite soldiers remained alive. The regular soldiers referred to them as Porteurs de Mort, but didn’t know much else about them. The story they had been told was that the Impossible had been involved in an assassination attempt on Han Jierre a few days ago.

Macdam – city of eccentric technologists – concentric semi-circles of whitewashed towers encircled by tall mountains and jungle. Korrigan went to talk with the Governor* to arrange repairs to the Impossible and safe haven for a small Beran fleet: On his three-day journey around Lanjyr, Leon had taken in Crisillyir, Flint (where, in heavy disguise, he had purloined a Wayfarer Lantern), the Valley of the Gith (to retrieve Matunaaga and Hildegaard) and finally Citado Cavallo. There he had secured the aid of Corta Nariz de Guerra, and had been underway to join the Impossible when their luncheon was interrupted by news of the naval skirmish. Although he and the other unit members had teleported ahead, Corta Nariz was already over halfway from the Marrajado de Oro, and would be in Macdam very shortly to provide protection for the Impossible. She was bringing their submersible, the Sunfish – armed with the Tyrant’s Eye. They also persuaded Captain Smith to allow the Skull of Cheshimox to be transported from Trekhom and used as a ship-board weapon to repel boarders (assuming Rumdoom was on board, that is). Having seen his men die in battle, Rutger was less inclined to be staunchly superstitious. Hildegaard contacted the Cult of Rumschatology and arranged for them to bring the skull under heavy security and with great caution. (Rumdoom was making a slow recovery, but it was decided not to vex him with logistics.)

To Uriel. His presence was willing – he had after all predicted that he would need to join them “after the wind-woman comes” – but the real impetus had been the gith elders and Matunaaga’s father. They absorbed the news of Xambria’s defection with quiet concern, but were not at all placated by the suggestion that the Obscurati had no cause to disturb them: Uriel was only in the Hidden Valley to protect him from the Ob, who may very well decide that an incursion was worthwhile (having murdered at least two incarnations before him). And so it was decided that Uriel would leave with Matunaaga and join the unit after all.

Uriel was strange: extremely tall and thin, with light-blue skin and dark-purple, almost black markings (where Malthusius’ had been white). He still wore the dark-blue robes and cowl of the Congregation of Adaljour – the devout clergy sect among whom he had been found. Uriel had carefully cleaned and repaired this single set of robes for over three years now, though the hem and cuffs were looking threadbare. Uriel had a habit of standing very still, hands clasped behind his back, and regarded everything – everyone – with intense scrutiny. Occasionally, he would interject with advice or, worse, predictions that tended to be doom-laden. (Shortly after they first arrived on ship, he had turned to Matunaaga and said, “Would it be helpful or unhelpful for you to know that is the last time you will see your father?” Matunaaga turned and stalked away.) Uru gave him some items that once belonged to Malthusius, and Uriel complained that they hadn’t been very well looked after. But Korrigan’s main concern was that Uriel was totally out of his depth, with no means of defending himself or aiding the unit in combat. (He was a dab hand at rituals, it turned out, but they wouldn’t keep him alive, especially if the Ob came after him…)

While they were in Macdam, Gupta made sure to send to Wolfgang von Recklinghausen: “Don’t know what you did to me but thanks again. If offer you got has anything to do with your son, get the hell out.” She didn’t receive a reply.

Jungle Trek

Careful to avoid Ob spies, they slipped out of Macdam on a single Beran ship, leaving the others to stand watch over the Impossible. Sure enough, they found the Danoran steam frigates circling just beyond the horizon. (Presumably the submersible was scouting ahead.)

Soon afterwards they were back on course for a spot along the coast of Elfaivar just to the west of the Tapi River and Port Perrault. When they were a few miles away from their destination, they lowered the Sunfish into the water and took the submersible the rest of the way. The small vessel was very cramped. Ideal for four, with a maximum capacity of six, they were testing her engines and their own patience with a complement of nine (having brought Hildegaard and Thurgid with them). A few sweaty hours later they reached the mouth of the Tapi and came ashore, leaving the Sunfish unmanned and anchored on the seabed.

There had been a lot of discussion about what to do with Rumdoom, who was still unsteady on his feet. Hildegaard was adamant he should not be left behind, as the travel and adventure would bring him back to himself. Obviously, a wheelchair was no use, and Leon’s offer of the absurdist web was dismissed too. They toyed with the idea of a palanquin, but that would require a trip to Port Perrault to hire porters. (Uriel said he knew a ritual that could provide a magical floating disc. “Tenser’s?” asked Gupta. “No, Uriel’s,” said Uriel. “Who’s Tenser?”) In the end, they decided that the best mode of transport would be the clockwork carriage figurine which, as it ran on legs, would be just as able to cope with the terrain as they were. Uriel performed another of his rituals and summoned a ghostly hand over their area map, on which Leon had drawn the locations of the three eladrin settlements. Uriel asked the hand which would be ‘best to visit first’ and the hand pointed at Akravan. And so they set off in style, pausing for regular meals and the occasional respite from the heat in the form of a dip in the broad, slinking Tapi.

The journey took a few days, during which they crossed paths with a parade of elephants accompanied by some local fey, were stalked (but never attacked) by a dire tiger, and came across a ruined village with a centuries-old stone marker listing the names of every woman who perished there from the Great Malice. Gupta found herself entranced by this, and thought of her mother. Close to Akravan they were accosted by an eladrin hermit who performed mild curses and left bloody totems in their path to try to make them leave his territory. The Dreaming bled through in places, and one morning they woke beside a grotto that wasn’t there at nightfall, and that sang for them to come down into its depths.

On the final night before Akravan, while they were setting up camp, Uriel claimed to sense “wrongness and rot” close by. Uru went to investigate and did not return until morning. When he did, he looked different somehow. There were strange stains on his fingers and lips and his uniform was dishevelled, but the biggest difference was intangible – an alteration in his manner: less febrile and predatory, perhaps. He told them that he felt like he had been gone for many days. Deep in the brush he had found a hole into the Bleak Dreaming – a border between the three realms where the deep faen lived. There he had come across some of his people who greeted him with hostility and suspicion because of the machines he carried, but were hugely in awe of his fading form**. He left Little Jack behind and joined them around a campfire, where he spent long hours recounting the death of everything he had killed, augmenting his performance with help from the ghostly entourage. At the end he said, “War is coming!” Then he brandished his regalia of the creeping fey and chittered like an ettercap in a call to arms, before handing them El Perro’s pistol as a gift. The deep faen shaman announced Uru was an incarnation of The Fading One, a figure from deep faen folklore. The shaman rewarded him with a hallucinogenic draught that brought on a trance in which he learned how to shadow walk. Now Uru could pass with his comrades through the Bleak Gate instead of the real world when necessary. The deep faen also taught him how to make ghostrot, a deadly necrotic poison. And all that before breakfast!

In Akravan they found signs of recent Obscu­rati activity around colossal indentations in the earth, which could only have been caused by Borne. But the strongest signs of Ob activity clustered near the handful of archways or doorways that had not crumbled from centuries of disuse. Leon detected traces of strange planar en­ergy similar to those used emitted in the Wayfarer Lantern when used to translate to the Dreaming. Tossed into bushes, they also found discarded glass vials with traces of oil infused with different planar energy. But the Ob were long gone.

Before they could begin to explore Akravan further they received a sending from Corta Nariz: Scouts from the Bloody Stump Trading Posts had visited both Bharat and Rumah Terakir. They had found nothing in Bharat, but a large contingent of Porteurs de Mort was already approaching the latter. The unit sprang into action and rode phantom steeds through the Bleak Gate to arrive in Rumah Terakir in less than a day. (All save Rumdoom who still travelled in the mechanical carriage and was by now a few days behind them.)

Rumah Terakir was clearly a much bigger site than Akravan. There were many more clearings where ancient structures inhibited growth and they spotted intriguing monoliths and pyramids through the trees.

Leon cast a spell of invisibility and he and Uru set off into the ruins to explore…

End of Session

*In a prolonged encounter that went unreported at the time, Korrigan really did take one for the team: the Governor of Macdam was a ridiculous gentleman who wore very old-fashioned, lace-fringed clothes buttoned tightly over his rotund frame, and a very obvious wig. To complete his 'look' he sported a tiny moustache beneath his bulbous nose. A man of some pretention, he was overjoyed to receive an official guest and personally ‘entertained’ Korrigan over dinner with a rendition of the national anthem of Risur, performed on a screechy violin. All the while, his pet capuchin gorged dates from a bowl in the centre of the table, and spat the pits with suspicious accuracy – ricocheting off the silverware and pinging off wine glasses to whizz past Korrigan’s head. [Here, Korrigan employed ‘I love the smell of witchoil’ for the second time in as many days and remained unphased by the monkey.] The end result of this interminable dinner was that Korrigan got what he came for.

** Uru had been fading ever since his close brush with death on Cauldron Hill, where he was tricked and trapped by the quasit Tokoloshe (and only freed by Malthusius). His form has somehow been infected by the essence of the Bleak Gate, and sometimes seems almost translucent. (In a reversal of fortunes, the quasit Tokoloshe now resides in a mechanical liturgical calendar in Uru’s Garden. The calendar marks certain holy days by ejecting the quasit like a cuckoo from a cuckoo clock, through a fine mist of holy water.)

Musical Interlude

This is the track I sent out to my players before this session, to accompany their trek through the jungle lands and ruins of Elfaivar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INHttEHCZEw

 

[Tormyr]

*In a prolonged encounter that went unreported at the time, Korrigan really did take one for the team: the Governor of Macdam was a ridiculous gentleman who wore very old-fashioned, lace-fringed clothes buttoned tightly over his rotund frame, and a very obvious wig. To complete his 'look' he sported a tiny moustache beneath his bulbous nose. A man of some pretention, he was overjoyed to receive an official guest and personally ‘entertained’ Korrigan over dinner with a rendition of the national anthem of Risur, performed on a screechy violin. All the while, his pet capuchin gorged dates from a bowl in the centre of the table, and spat the pits with suspicious accuracy – ricocheting off the silverware and pinging off wine glasses to whizz past Korrigan’s head. [Here, Korrigan employed ‘I love the smell of witchoil’ for the second time in as many days and remained unphased by the monkey.] The end result of this interminable dinner was that Korrigan got what he came for.

** Uru had been fading ever since his close brush with death on Cauldron Hill, where he was tricked and trapped by the quasit Tokoloshe (and only freed by Malthusius). His form has somehow been infected by the essence of the Bleak Gate, and sometimes seems almost translucent. (In a reversal of fortunes, the quasit Tokoloshe now resides in a mechanical liturgical calendar in Uru’s Garden. The calendar marks certain holy days by ejecting the quasit like a cuckoo from a cuckoo clock, through a fine mist of holy water.)

Insertion of stuff like this is how the DM and players together win D&D. The memories it creates...

 

[gideonpepys]

Session 26 (149), Part One - In the Footprints of the Colossus

• Uru and Leon discover edgestones – sources of planar abjuration that encircle Rumah Terakir, but can only be sensed, not seen. The jungle has not encroached beyond these stones and the extensive ruin is relatively clear of undergrowth and very well preserved.
• The others remain behind near the river, which flows over the gigantic chest of a fallen eladrin warrior – one of four otherwise upright statues that line the river where the old dock might once have been. Matunaaga takes up a high vantage point and keeps watch.
• Uriel sets about making a fishing rod, but the spot he chooses is exposed and Gupta distracts him with her text on William Miller. Eventually, he begins a running commentary on what he can see: Before Uru and Leon set off, Uriel performed the skull watch ritual, and gave Uru a little bird skull as decoration for his hat of hats.
• Uru and Leon see a huge, tiered temple at the centre of the site. They pass by a simple stone structure that emanates evil. The carvings have been broken off and a stone has been rolled across the entrance. They debate whether to investigate but stick with their mission and press on. Then they find an inverted pyramid covered with illusory runes. This turns out to be the temple of the eladrin trickster god Ingatan. They cannot resist investigating further and Leon teleports the others to him. He and Gupta soon discover that there is a lot to learn here, and make a mental note to return when time allows. Gupta inscribes a rune of thanks in the sand with the stock of her rifle.
• Uriel has to be stopped from wandering back towards the ‘evil’ temple. He feels drawn towards it. They distract him again by having him perform the amenuensis ritual on the temple of Ingatan.
• Leon sends up Rahu Ketu to check out the lie of the land. They debate how to proceed further and consider approaching the central temple. Uriel performs hand of fate again and asks it where they can find Kasvarina and where they can find the Ob. The answer is the same both times: back towards the edge of the city. (A third question about Borne goes unanswered.)
• They follow the edgestones and Borne’s footsteps (which have made huge indentations and knocked down trees even here in the real world), with Uru ranging ahead. Eventually, he sees a thick pillar of smoke from a very obvious fire and comes to a place where two huge hardwood trees have crashed across the ancient, walled highway. Beyond he hears voices. Approaching, he finds several Ob researchers clustered round a campfire set into one of Borne’s footprints. They are debating what to do next – the focus of their discussion being a high gateway close by. One stands out: Instead of practical travelling clothes he wears a crushed red velvet one-piece outfit and his platinum blonde hair is cut a very neat bob. His movements are jerky and he dances about the campsite firing questions at the other researchers, who seem faintly in awe of him.
• With Uru in place, and Matunaaga just behind, also out of sight, Korrigan approaches and attempts to parley. Uriel follows alongside him; Gupta stops beside a low wall, rifle at the ready but in clear view of the researchers. Leon circles round invisibly. The strangely dressed lead researcher, Charles Ormond, says he knows who Korrigan is, and tells him to wait a short distance away. Then, with the other researchers keeping an eye on Korrigan, he heads into the deep footprint as if to fetch something. It is only then, with the whole campsite in full view and Ormand giving orders to non-existent colleagues, that Leon - who has truesight – realises that the researchers are illusory. He yells a warning only seconds before two distant mortar reports, then he teleports Korrigan and Uriel out of harm’s way (which he assumes to be the campsite) and hopes for the best himself. Korrigan tries to get Uriel over a nearby wall and out of danger but Uriel is too fascinated by what is going on to follow orders.
• The two shells land bang on target (although by now there is no one there). Korrigan realises this is a well-prepared ambush, as such precision would require practice shots. Ormond pops his head out of the hole and yells some words in Danoran battle cant. Korrigan and Leon recognise this, but their cant is rusty; Gupta – ever the professional- has swatted up on it and knows that Ormond is calling out positions.
• With predatory precision, Uru shoots Ormond, whose stoneskin cannot save him from injury. He yelps, realises the seriousness of his situation and curses someone whose name he cannot mention for leaving him at the mercy of these barbarians. Then he summons a solid fog that restricts vision and slows movement. Those caught within it stumble about trying to find a way out.
• Four snipers approach from the north. Two reach a position where they can fire on Korrigan or Uriel. One says, “The human is Korrigan. He’s the one we’re after.” They open fire and narrowly miss.
• Matunaaga circles the fog bank at speed and picks off the other two snipers before they can even take aim. Morale shaken, the first pair hesitates. One, a tiefling, takes aim at Korrigan and cries, “In the name of the sovereign and his murdered niece!” Korrigan says, “I commend your loyalty,” draws his pistol and shoots the man dead, absorbing his tiefling fire without harm.
• Having bampfed on top of the high gate post, Leon activates the wayfarer lantern and summons the winds of Avilona (adding even more chaos to an already crowded field) hoping to drive the fog away. The fog responds by shifting northeastwards like slow treacle, while everyone, including Leon, struggles to keep their footing. [The encounter is now turning into a bit of a head, with a zone of fog drifting diagonally across the map.]
• Uru guesses Ormond’s location and blindly ghost-steps nearby, summons a cloud of darkness and lies in wait.
• Ormond, Plan A in tatters, summons a defensive wall of fire, only to find himself blown through it by the winds of Avilona, testing his stoneskin spell to the limit.
• Uru is forced to recoil from the heat, although Little Jack is damaged as they ride the winds away.
• Two off-target bombs remind the unit of the threat of the artillery. Matunaaga sprints off through the undergrowth to take care of it, moving without impediment.
• Uru uses his moaning ghostly entourage to grope about in the fog for Ormond! Ormand yelps as he is groped by disembodied hands, cries “time for phase four” and stumbles off through the fog.
• Uriel finally heeds Korrigan’s advice and, using Malthusius’ old bracers to give him the necessary strength, vaults the ancient wall, only to find himself trapped by the crown of the fallen tree. The remaining sniper draws a bead on him.
• Korrigan becomes a bolt of Avilona and appears alongside the sniper, whom he threatens with his six-shooter. “Lay down your weapon,” he says, to which Uriel adds helpfully, “I’d listen to the man if I were you.” The sniper begins to slowly withdraw, keeping his rifle poised. Korrigan lets him go for now.
• More mortars land, blasting Gupta off her feet and against the tree, where the winds of Avilona hold her firm. Uriel ducks as great chunks of the ancient wall are blasted upon him.
• Matunaaga arrives at the first artillery position, kicks over the mortar, spoiling its aim, dodges the blows of the porteurs and sprints away, searching the sky for signs of the second position.
• As the wind moves the fog towards him, Leon teleports onto a wall on the opposite side of the bank, only for the winds he summoned to shove him off his perch.
• A final mortar lands close enough to Uru to harm him and put Little Jack out of action until such times as he can be fixed. (Back up the hill, the mortar’s report is enough for Matunaaga to fix on its position.)
• The fog is dispelled; the wall of fire has gone too. Korrigan can now see Ormond’s bob bobbing just behind a low wall, and bolts over to trap him in against a tree trunk. Ormond gives a yelp of surprise and lets go of the chicken he is holding. Clucking, it zig-zags at pace across the battlefield and disappears between the arches. At once, a dark, swirling portal opens and something big begins to emerge. Ormond starts to panic, his planned exit blocked by Korrigan.
• Curious, Uriel begins to walk towards the gateway.
• Gupta steps in. Fearing some cunning plan on Ormond’s part, she casts a spell that removes his memories of the last five minutes. Ormond blinks in confusion, glances back at the portal and cries, “You fools! You’ve doomed us all!”

 

[RangerWickett]

I hope the players feel the repeated ambushes are earned.

 

[gideonpepys]

Replies, Observations & Notes

I hope the players feel the repeated ambushes are earned.

So far no one has said anything that indicates they're feeling persecuted. (Despite the fact that one character has been first killed and then petrified!) Well, we'll soon see about that! My plan is to have a few more ambushes than those presented in the adventure because my version may take a bit longer (with twice as many memories to unearth) so we need to break it up a bit. Also, the Ob - specifically, agents of Roland Stanfield - are in pursuit of Uriel in case he is able to access Malthusius' memories: Malthusius worked out Stanfield was the head of the bronze cell and got murdered for his pains. Well, handed over to Leone Quital, which amounts to the same thing. Quital tried to use him as a bargaining chip when the unit entered the Cauldron Hill facility, and Malthusius ended his current incarnation to save his friends from making an impossible decision.

Which reminds me:

Insertion of stuff like this is how the DM and players together win D&D. The memories it creates...

You're exactly right. The episode above is a perfect example. If Malthusius' player, as a deva, hadn't suggested that he might know Roland Stanfield when generating his contacts (five years ago!), the above events would never have happened. They have now led to a major side-quest in which Uriel will use the Arc of Reida to access the memories of his prior incarnations, while globe-trotting alongside Kasvarina.

Similar player-driven elements to our campaign include:

Uru's Garden - A reference to which prompted your comment. Uru became obsessed with helping the children of the Nettles - including the dead ones. To this end he created his underground garden, and sowed it with plants from the Bleak gate. Although we opened the reboot with an adventure here, it has taken something of a back-seat since the paragon tier adventures don't take place in Flint. But the garden is perhaps the perfect example for me of player-designed colour because it really brings the character and the setting to life.

Rumdoom's Cult & the Stone of Not - Again, when the players generated their contacts, Rumdoom was connected to an entire cell of eschatologists. The player also invented the mythical Stone of Not, as a focus for their obsession. I have lost count of the plot threads this has given rise to, but the most obvious is that two of the four cell-members joined up with the terrorists in adventure #5. Another, Khaled Valchek, became a major campaign villain until he was sort of rehabilitated in adventure #6. Rumdoom's Cult developed out of all this, and now thrives in Trekhom. Actually, come to think of it, Rumdoom himself is pretty central to the feel of our campaign. (The others wouldn't consider a reboot unless his player returned!) When his player added 'fear of boats' during chargen I knew we were on to a winner.

Matunaaga's People - The githzerai who live in the Hidden Valley and have been allies of the Kings of Risur for centuries. Loyal and dogged, they rescinded their ancient oath following the carnage of Yerasol IV. The player and I thrashed out an entire culture (albeit a fairly derivative one) to fit the aesthetic of the character. But the hiatus in our campaign - and the need to give the unit somewhere to hide - has turned the gith into major allies, giving sanctuary to Korrigan and his son, Uriel and other unit members. They arrived on Lanjyr as slaves of the gidim, so I hope to include them even more once the Ob's ritual opens the floodgates!

Korrigan's political ambitions - A huge subplot driven not by the player's ego, or a desire to win power, but a character-driven realisation that things were not 'right' in Flint. This led to a huge campaign to thwart the ambitions of Khaled Valchek and Benedict Pemberton (who remained offstage in a piece of artful foreshadowing) and saw Korrigan request that he be allowed to challenge Stanfield for the governorship of Flint. Obviously this is all in the past now, but look at how many rivallries it set up! It also establishes Korrigan very firmly as an ideal candidate for king.

Uriel - Once the player realised the jig was up for poor Malthusius, his reward was to go 'full deva'. Uriel's character arc will take the player on a journey through his past incarnations, as he gains access to their skills and abilities through memory events. This was inspired by the player's own fascination with Malthusius' past, and his desire to explore the deva paragon path in 4E. Unlike Stanfield - who summons his past incarnations - Uriel will become them. Right now, though he is tier one, with no 'type' or class - and therefore no abilities at all (except for some handy rituals). To the player's credit he is actually enjoying being useless and poking his nose where it doesn't belong, forcing the others to rescue him. Anyway, all of this allows me to sidetep the risk of Diaspora becoming the 'Kasvarina Show', as the campaign director warns. (I have a couple of other ideas up my sleeve to prevent that too.)

Here, I am not even including Leon's mysterious love Lavanya (who has popped up in Cauldron Hill and on Mutravir) or the shenanigans with Korrigan's family because they were additions I made, leaving the players in a reactive state instead of being in the driving seat. As a result, although they added differentiating colour to the campaign (and provided me material for buffer adventures when the publication rate slowed down) they have not been as successful as the shared ideas.

That is my biggest piece of advice for anyone running this campaign. Get your players to think hard about their contacts, link them up to the world. I didn't go all that far compared to other DMs and wish I had included more NPCs in my characters' backgrounds (although, in my defence, the campaign hadn't been published so I couldn't).

Speaking of advice, I began this thread with the intention of adding notes for DMs as I wrote it, a habit that has fallen by the wayside since we converted to Cypher System (because a lot of advice stems from how the adventure plays out within the system you're using). So here's something I noticed about the start of adventure #8: there's a big section about tracking down Kasvarina which allows the characters to capitalise on their prestige and familiarises the players with the region they are about to explore - both of which I applaud. But in the end, as there is no penalty for success or failure, I'm not sure it's worth running the actual search. I used Gale to skip to the end (in a nod to the first draft of the adventure, and to remind the players about Isobel Travers and other campaign elements they may have forgotten). But I brought her in after they had studied the map and thought about how they would track down Kasvarina without help. (PS. There's a similar bit in Schism, where there's no time factor or tension in tracking down Quital. You either find him in a few days or in a few weeks, it makes no difference. I like the idea of a manhunt, and I guess it doesn't matter if the players aren't aware there is nothing at stake, but these sections did give me pause when I was running them.)

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, some day I'll figure out how to design a published adventure with enough flexibility to handle the party failing act one entirely (e.g., don't find Stanfield) but still getting to do the rest. I guess the Lorcan Kell manhunt kinda sorta is that, right?

 

[gideonpepys]

Yeah, some day I'll figure out how to design a published adventure with enough flexibility to handle the party failing act one entirely (e.g., don't find Stanfield) but still getting to do the rest. I guess the Lorcan Kell manhunt kinda sorta is that, right?

I think it is an unavoidable problem when designing a cinematic, story-based campaign. The best you can do, perhaps, is have rewards/penalties for varying levels of success or failure. My initial idea was to give the players less time to prep for their mission to Mutravir, but then I realised there was a fixed point they needed to be back for (Quital's meeting with the Ob officers). Also, given the whole idea was dicey as hell, it didn't seem to be a good idea to dissuade them from pursuing it. In the end I just ran it as an opportunity for the non-combat characters to demonstrate their prowess (and for El Extrano to be introduced, of course).

Another solution would be for forces other than the PCs to do the job for them if they fail, in such a way that Prestige, or other rewards, are lowered. If they don't get Leone, El Extrano does, but he won't help them as much later (or reports their failure to the Bruse). If they can't find Kasvarina fast enough, the Ob are able to get more forces into the area, and maybe attack them again as they leave Sentosa.

The other option would be to flag the issue in the adventure text and advise DMs on how they might deal with it themselves, given the inifinite number of variables.

Please rest assured that this is far away and without doubt the best AP I have ever read or run, and this is a very minor quibble!