ZEITGEIST The chronicles of Team Big-hearted And Determined (B.A.D.)

[Echolocation]

Session 58
Courtesy of Ella's player

It’s not often in our line of work that we get to sit down, have a nice chat, and eat some free food... Unfortunately our soon-to-be lunch was rather destroyed by black-clad figures shattering the skylight and streaming in from above. We just had time to recognise the familiar face of Lya Jierre’s half-elf bodyguard before the entire room went black - cast into Darkness by a spellslinger standing on the roof.

Confused shouts and screams echoed as guests panicked and our hostess Melissa hid under a chair. John was quick to react though, turning into a giant lizard whose senses could penetrate the darkness and darting up to the rooftop to eat the mage. Meanwhile Angharad was unphased by the darkness: simply forming a flame blade and stabbing out at where the half-elf had been.

Glaucia struck her staff on the floor, dispelling the darkness, and Angharad received an Immovable Rod to his foot from the winking half-elf. With an odd mix of flirtatiousness and self-deprecation, Lya’s bodyguard proceeded to try to beat Angharad senseless with his remaining magic stick while the Cipith and Lisandra cut him down to size and Brakken came perilously close to dying.

Sydney burst into the room with a roar, Ella failed a bunch of acrobatics checks, and Glaucia kept us all alive with channelled energy. Eventually we managed to subdue all the ambushers - well, all except the half-elf... who sank into the floor in a swirl of shadows, swearing profusely at his own ineptitude.

The philosophers gathered their wits as the turtle-chef mourned the death of our lunch and Melissa gingerly crawled out from under her chair to ask us what the hell was going on. We didn’t have much information to share with the journalist - other than that we and Lya Jierre were clearly after the same thing and therefore rivals - but she nonetheless gave us Lya’s supposed address despite the destruction we’d brought to her house.

We excused ourselves as Beran police took over the scene, and decided to head straight to the Summer Court rather than risk whatever trap might be waiting at Lya’s address. The beginning of this trip proved uneventful: Brakken providing commentary as we rode through the city and its outskirts and examined the statues of old conquerors and leaders who’d helped the original Bruse unify the people of Ber. Things got more interesting as we headed uphill into a giant redwood forest and Glaucia suggested we stop for lunch.

The gnoll had something on her mind: the subject of prophecy. After some discussion, Glaucia announced that she’d rather like to have her fortune told - if only so she could prove it wrong. Lisandra offered her services as party Diviner and Glaucia accepted, requesting insight into a particular issue: that of her vengeance against a group of gnolls that had attacked her village.

Explaining, the gnoll laid out her story: fifteen years ago gnolls from the Cult of the Steel Lord attacked her village, abducting children to convert to their beliefs. Glaucia refused to allow her children to be enslaved, killing two of them with her own hand rather than give them over to the cultists. The raid leader panicked and let Glaucia and the rest of her children go, and ever since the gnoll has trained herself for revenge: joining the Executores Dola Liberta and gaining divine powers of justice. Unfortunately the Cult of the Steel Lord lairs on an island off the shores of Ber, and Glaucia has no official right to commandeer Beran troops to deal with them. In light of this, she wanted to know whether she would ever have her revenge.

Lisandra descended deep into a trance, calling to the spirits of Ber for answers to the gnoll’s questions. The oracle was rather shocked to have her summons answered by a ghostly dragon, and even more so when it granted her leave to ask it questions in light of her “generous donation to its coffers”. Confused, Lisandra nevertheless focused on the matter at hand and began her questioning.

Spoiler: Ghost dragon?

I wasn't expecting this, so I had to improvise quickly. I decided the dragon would be Yerov, whose eye the player's encounter later in the book. Only later did I double check my notes and read about the potato field and stuff...so uh, my bad. I could have set this up better. When Lisandra encounters the eye, she will need to make will saves each round to avoid the eye absorbing her soul. If she fails two consecutive saves, her soul will be sucked in. As a spirit medium, she can assume control of the eye and engage in the fight, but her body will lay limp. Tinker and Lisandra may fight for control of the eye beam structure, which will result in it's deterioration. If so, the eye will fall into the volcanic lava, likely triggering the onset of an eruption.

Her nine questions revealed that yes, Glaucia would get her revenge against the cult - and she’d have allies in doing so. These allies would come at least in part from the party and maybe Brakken, although not necessarily all of them. The vengeance quest would lead to her death and come to pass within the next three months, although it wouldn’t affect our own mission here - so long as we didn’t join the Cult of the Steel Lord anyway.

Glaucia seemed quite satisfied with these answers - and confident in her ability to prove both prophecy and a dragon wrong. The next leg of the ride was quietly contemplative and only interrupted by the appearance of a concealed pit trap. Ella spotted it in enough time to shout a warning, but as she dismounted to examine it an ear-piercing high-pitched whining noise vibrated through the air and sent our steeds into a panic. As they began to buck and scream a rumbling sound approached and two giant, freaking dinosaurs appeared.

...I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is not how I wanted to experience Ber’s native fauna…

Still! At least Ella can get some solid first-hand field experience before she’s eaten! Such fascinating reptiles; imagine the study potential! Do you think they prefer their gnome tieflings crushed or shredded?

I suppose there’s only one way to find out!
Tune in this week: on Zeitgeist!

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Is the humanoid turtle a Teenager and/or a ninja. These are important things to know, especially if it is delivering pizza.

The Ghost Dragon stuff sounds fun, a lot of good ideas come from teh consequences of sorting out pc actions on the fly

 

[Echolocation]

No pizza, just salad for those with a Beran anatomy unable to process cheese. He's slipped on a fake beard to look more philosophical.

 

[Echolocation]

Session 59
Courtesy of Lisandra's player

Session 59 began at the inception of the most bizarre ambush. As Ella and Glaucia inspected the pit trap barring their the groups way, the terrifying shrieks of two huge dinosaurs pierced the air and the ground began to rumble ominously.

As the travellers attempted to steady their horses, and dismount the source became clear as a herd of large, 10-foot tall goats sprang from the undergrowth, barreling towards the group with startling speed as they fled the enormous predators chasing behind them.

With the giant reptiles ignoring the free lunch and heading directly John and Angharad as they clamoured out of the stampede way, taking refuge atop a stone wall. Shots were fired, spells were slung, and a reckless Kineticist yeeted himself in a jet of flames toward one of the approaching creatures. Chaos, naturally, ensued.

Glaucia took cover on top of a fallen tree, joined by Ella and Brakken as she swept them out of the stampede’s way through a dimension door. Lisandra levitated above the herd, hurling searing light at the beasts as Ella rejoined the fray, darting back to where John was perched, as Angharad landed between the razor-sharp jaws of the very dinosaur he had hoped to assault. The creatures mate joined in, and the constables looked on in horror, as two King-bred Tyrannosauruses tore their comrade in two, both his arms ripping free of his torso, all pieces dropping to the ground.

Panic set in as Lisandra drew the beasts attention away from Ella and John. With a herd below her, and nowhere to go but up, the oracle found herself quickly grappled in a toothy maw. Bleeding profusely, she rammed her flaming blade into the roof of her captor's mouth, sending the gargantuan body slumping the ground as it’s mate, still searing from a fireball’s blaze, made its way towards Ella, the fey-formed origin of the spell that seared it’s flesh. Empowered by the flames of Ella’s spell, it’s mouth ablaze, it stalked it’s way down the path towards John and Fey-Ella.

To avoid the beast’s reach, the Druid rolled into the pit trap, falling partway down before transforming into an eagle as Ella flapped her translucent wings and soared upwards out of reach. In the brush below, another problem revealed itself, as Merton (Lya’s half-orc bodyguard) lobbed an explosive into the pit and revealed his position.

Thankfully, as Ella turned her frustration on the new target below, Glaucia had kept Angharad from the brink of death, and brought him back to consciousness. Brakken, kindly, retrieved the Cipith’s arms as Fey-Ella ripped into Merton with ferocity. John flew up onto stable ground, transforming back into his human form, and riddled the orc with bullets. Merton, eyes still locked on Ella, vanished in a haze of black smoke.

So we join our recovering party, as Brakken collects the terrified horses from their escape route, wondering what else this insane day has in store. A journey to Slate, transport via teleport to Ber, moonlighting as lawyers in a foreign court, a lunchtime ambush through skylight, conversations with a dead dragon and a second ambush before dinner. Well Team BAD, this is your life now. Isn’t newfound knighthood fun? Enjoy figuring out how to reattach Anghard’s limbs, and whether that needs doing before you meet the Bruce and his infuriating, Danoran guest…. Today, in the misadventures of Team BAD.

 

[RangerWickett]

 

[Andrew Moreton]

Tyrannosaurs they are the family fun pack monster, Not in this campaign but another my players killed one by firing a cannon inside it's stomach said cannon being in a portable hole carried by the swallowed pc, tragically so was a valuable and irreplacable wine collection

 

[Echolocation]

Sessions 60 & 61

I'm recapping these, so expect a gloss over. They considered turning back to Seobriga for aid with Angharad's arm problems, but deduced that Lya must be trying to keep them from the Summer Court for a reason. So, the party pushed onwards. After all, Angharad could still make kinetic fire blades on his feet, so they still packed quite a bit of firepower (but no hands for inquisitor spells). Though, the party spared a quick scroll of sending to book a 9:45 appointment with Wolfgang at Seobriga on the 5th of Summer.

The party were initial excited for the Adulthood Challenge, but they found the combat and navigation to be a bit of a drag towards the end. However, the B.E.A.R was well received, and manged to pick up and throw the party's wizard a couple of times.

Then, the Court. The players despised Bruse Shantus. The characters despised Bruse Shantus. However, all other NPCs were well-received. Pardo scolded the gnome tiefling for her clockwork leg, claiming she was unworthy of such a thing. Lisandra and Angharad agreed to go jogging with Kenna. Meanwhile, the players dobbed in Lya and her goons to Zarkava, readily detailing the damage she has caused Ber.

After agreeing to play the Bruse's game, Shantus called for Marco and Polo, his favourite lizardfolk aides. Each took one party to their own cottage. The players had great fun roleplaying with the cook and maid. When Lya showed up, the party were curious but exhausted...they had a hell of a day. After Team BAD crammed into a small stable with Lya, they briefly discussed their motives. Then, Lya pulled Ella aside to talk recruitment. Ella uses it as an opportunity to probe for more information, trying to understand the structure of the Ob and their goals. Lya tells Ella to throw the game, and she sincerely considers it. But she has no intention of joining the Ob, at least not yet.

"You have a chance to steer the future. Or, you can stay here, with your friends, and have no impact at all." - Lya

When Lya leaves, Ella immediately gathers her fellow constables under Lisandra's cloak of secrets (a spell that masks conversations as mundane).

 

[Echolocation]

Session 62
Courtesy of Ella's player

Last week’s session began huddled within a Cloak of Secrets on the upper floor of our cosy Beran villa. Having barely survived our first -and very long - day in Ber, we were all looking forward to a good night’s rest, but Ella had one more problem to add to the pile before bed.

Lya had tried to recruit her. To the Obscurati. As a double agent. Which Ella clearly wasn’t suited to since she’d wasted less than ten minutes in telling everyone. The gnome was quick to explain though that she didn’t want to work for the Obscurati, rather she wanted to spy on them while pretending to work for them. To ferret out all their juicy secrets. To become a triple agent of sorts.

Everyone else was… understandably concerned by this scheme, but not particularly surprised to hear of Lya’s recruitment efforts. Which is frankly just insulting. Did everyone assume Ella was going to turn Obscurati eventually? Was there some kind of betting pool I wasn’t aware of? What about Sydney? Sydney could be an Obscurati agent! You don’t know!

...Potential secret agent shenanigans aside though, Lya’s requirement for Ella’s recruitment - that she throw the Bruse’s games - wasn’t entirely out of the question. It even made a kind of sense. Why pander to the Bruse’s whims and risk hostility between Ber and Risur simply for the chance to talk to Tinker first? Speaking to him second wasn’t the end of everything; it might even be beneficial - assuming Lya didn’t break the Bruse’s rules by teleporting Tinker away.

After considerable debate, we made a tentative decision and sent two Sendings to Delft. Our surrogate dad figure was quick to assure us that any potential attack by the Cavallo would be dealt with, and to suggest that while what we did with the games was up to us, having a channel into the Obscurati would be incredibly useful. Thus confirmed in our thoughts, we decided: come morning we’d inform the Bruse of our withdrawal from the games.

That settled, we could finally - finally - go to bed. After what may have been the longest day of our careers.

Sleep passed restfully, until Lisandra began to dream. A confusing vision of Glaucia standing with a glowing staff near a sleeping black serpent, only for the serpent to wake and shed its skin: becoming several smaller, paler snakes which swarmed the gnoll and began to devour her feet. In the background an invisible presence approached - marked only by its distorted footprints on the floor - and ripped Glaucia’s throat open. The gnoll’s flesh began to decay, devoured by necrotic energy as the snakes also devoured her.

Lisandra woke with her last glimpse of the gnoll’s shame-filled face imprinted in her mind.

Spoiler: A Prophecy

Lisandra's dream is a vision of Glaucia's demise. Given the party enjoy her company, she will travel with them to Pemberton's lair. However, according to the vision, Glaucia will light her staff to dismiss the darkness of the gnoll ambush in the pump room. Then, following the detonation of the water tanks, a wire (black snake) will become exposed (shed its skin), and send electricity coursing along the ground (small, pale snakes) that will devour Glaucia from the ground up. An invisible Pardo will then enter the room (marked only by distorted footprint; i.e., the ripples of his movement), approach Glaucia, and kill her with slay living. I rejigged the encounter a bit to keep Pardo at full casting capacity.

The reason why Lisandra is having such a prophetic dream is because the source of her divine power is near...

Something else from the dream remained too: warped footsteps, etched onto her bedroom floor by phantom outlines. Spectral wisps of past torment, showing dozens - hundreds - of people writhing in agony rose from each footprint. The trail of torment led Lisandra out of her room: through a bedroom door standing ajar where previously she had left it locked, to the courtyard door likewise hanging open. In the pre-dawn light, Lisandra saw the courtyard splattered with blood.

She roused the others, now hearing Ralfa’s cries of pain from below: begging someone to stop, please. Wasting no time, Lisandra dashed outside with the Blade of Srasama in her hand. Through the blade’s divine connection she could feel Ralfa’s lifeforce ebbing. When she flung open the door of the dining room though it was to an unexpected scene: Dejaro hacking at Ralfa with a cleaver and helpless grief in his eyes, while a familiar figure sat nearby, watching. Father Balthazar.

The psychic lich looked at Lisandra and smiled as he casually commented, “That’s enough,” to Dejaro. The orc stopped his unwilling torture as Balthazar examined his daughter. “Tea, darling? Are your friends with you? They can join us, of course.”

The oracle responded by casting a searing blast of light, but the lich simply absorbed it with a shadowy, ghostly shield and scoffed at her rudeness. As Lisandra’s arm glowed with growing pain, John knocked Dejaro out cold and Balthazar explained that while he could murder the lot of us and rip Lisandra’s arm off her screaming body, he would show rare restraint for now. But only if Lisandra wore a ring. One that would allow him to monitor her location and condition. And if she ever died, he’d be coming to take her arm back.

In the meantime, he hoped she would come to accept her inherited power and eventually approach him herself to unlock the full measure of her potential.

Or… some egomaniacal, self-serving naughty word like that.

Wracked with increasing pain, Lisandra agreed, and after placing the Prisoner’s Dungeon Ring on her finger, Balthazar sweetly informed her that Ralfa had betrayed us all, then Teleported away.

Spoiler: A ring

It's a prisoner ring. The lich was surprisingly honest, intending to use the ring to track his daughter until her death. He truly hopes the world will corrupt Lisandra. The strange sensation of hope has instilled Balthazar with a foreign sense of patience.

During the contact with Balthazar, his sickle (corrupted blade of Srasama) briefly called out in a desperate plea for aid. Lisandra's mother is trapped within, and knows a soul gem of intense fury is the only way to dismiss the lich's defenses. Fortunately, Grappa will help the party collect such a gem in Adventure 7.

Lisandra questioned Ralfa, and discovered that Lya had paid the goblin maid to place loops of golden thread in two party members’ pockets - presumably as an anti-teleportation measure. Given that the goblin maid was now missing her feet due to Dejaro’s enchanted violence… Lisandra decided she’d suffered enough and left her with her coins.

Three minutes after Balthazar disappeared Minister of Dragon Affairs Kenna Vigilante arrived on her morning jog. Angharad provided to her a…. brief description of the morning’s events and guards were quickly summoned. Many questions later, the Minister, Angharad and Lisandra departed for their jog, while Ella and John cleared their belongings out of the villa.

During the jog Kenna discussed her interest in martial theses with Angharad and Lisandra, expressing her desire to establish a joint martial school where Berans and Risuri could collaborate on research - thus improving efficiency and reducing research costs. Meanwhile Ella, John and Polo chatted as the lizardfolk led them to the Court, expressing condolences for the dead guards and acquiring an invitation to their funeral.

When we finally regrouped at the Court for an audience with the Bruse, our declaration of withdrawal was… met with a mixed response. Lisandra presented our excuses eloquently but her carefully crafted words did little to allay Shantus’ tears, as the Bruse tearfully sent us out of the room to wait while Lya was recalled and Tinker was sent for.

Lya smiled at us as she arrived, and Tinker pouted as he was escorted past by guards, saying: “I don’t want to talk to them!” While Ella had a minor crisis over that comment, Lisandra noticed that - much like the Minister of Rebellion, Pardo - Tinker's soul was oddly stretched toward the south.

The gnome’s temperament seemed similarly strained: as partway through Lya’s meeting the gnome yelled at everyone to leave. He gave them till the count of 16, and as he began counting, Lisandra saw that the guards’ souls in the antechamber were also stretched. Chaos erupted as a guard ran in from outside, only to be cut down by another guard partway through yelling “We’re under a-!”

Eerie, unnatural red glowed in the eyes of the guards as they began murdering each other - some of them turning towards us with the same violence. And in the midst of everything, Ella and John heard an ominous, descending whistle... as if something were falling toward us from above…

Will we make it out of here alive? Is Tinker some kind of evil, soul-warping mastermind? And will Angharad ever get to play a game of cards with the Bruse? Find out the answers to hopefully one of these questions, this week: on Zeitgeist!

 

[RangerWickett]

Wow, Lya pulled it off? Awesome. I don't know any other team that actually decided to, well, um, skip 50% of the adventure.

oh

Hm, maybe I shouldn't have made that an option. I hope it didn't dispirit you, Echolocation.

 

[Echolocation]

I hope it didn't dispirit you, Echolocation

Not at all. I'm glad my players have the freedom to defy the Bruse. They enjoyed his hysterical denouncement. All in all, the party really did think that waiting until after Lya 'talked' to Tinker, they would be able to counter anything Lya told the gnome. Despite Lya's blatant lying, the party see her as noble. I don't think they've considered she will simply kill the gnome, but instead thought she may kidnap him.

At first, I was worried about the structure of the story. However, I think it still holds up well. It's just more about the Cult of the Steel God. The emphasis is reinforced by the party's divinations on the topic whilst on the road with Glaucia.

I have no idea about how this 'triple agent' thing will pan out. There is no way Ella can bluff her way through Ob interrogation. She has good bluff, but it's entirely dependent on her magic items. I plan on seeing if the party kills Lya this adventure, and go from there...