Let's play Bloodsword, book 3/5

[Jfdlsjfd]

We're going to the Temple of the Roc, and are met by Tobias de Vantery in person. He mentions that he has been recently appointed as commander of the monastery, and was appalled by the lack of standard of the local knights. He has endeavioured to restore a more fitting behaviour amongst the troops, so they are now examplars of the faith.

He then concludes that he'll have time to discuss with us of our quest tomorrow, and that now it's time to settle for the night.

When we mention the possibility of having dinner, he responds that gluttony is a sin.

The servant takes us to a windy corridor strewn with reed mat and smiles insolently when showing us our accomodation.

I will now quote the book: "What will you reply? You insolent dog, you deserve a flogging! (turn to 63).

Yes, the first choice offered is to flog the servant. And if you follow this path, you do get the opportunity to confirm your choice and use your leather belt to flog the servant until he has welts, while commenting that he's mewling too much than warranted by our lenient hand. At this point, this is no longer being jerk, it's being downright evil/murderhobos. Note that the not-Templars are totally cool with us beating their staff, since he's not of noble birth, a local, and a Ta'ashim heathen.

That course of action is too much for our noble group of ladies, they may be jerks, but not frothing-at-the-mouth evil. Let's consider the other choice.
We complain angrily about the affront of offering such a lowly accomodation to persons of our quality.

"Do you know you I am?" is totally on par for our group.

The servant hints that another sort of accommodation might be available and extend an greedy hand.

Back to quoting:

You accept to pay, and he escorts you further down the corridor. You are led to an opulent suite of apartments. High foliate windows runs the length of the East wall, opening on a veranda of mosaic tiles. Silk curtains patterned with stars flutter in the evening breeze. The screen windows along the top of the west wall show the elaborate abstract decoration for which Ta'ashim art is famed; and below these are a group of jewelled arches, each of which bears a calligraphic panel. You are not familiar with the classical form of the Jezant script, but you presume that the panels feature lines from the sacred Ta'ashim Codex. Interesting that the notoriously intolerant Capellars have not defaced them. Perhaps they are aware that art (even heathen art) is a sound investment, and many do say that the Capellars worship Gold as much as they worship God...

I like the writing. I already feel luxury.

The servant mentions these are officers' quarters, but the new Commander has disallowed their use to officer, as he thinks sleeping on horsehair pallets is better for their soul and their determination.

Rule note: we insisted only for flavour. Sleeping gives back 1/2 rank HP per nights, irrespective of the quality of the accommodation. But I am really not imagining the ladies sleeping in a common room, that's why we made a point to always choose the best inns around. We're, after all, the hero of the land, tasked to prevent the millenarist return of the True Magi and save the world. Five-stars lodgings are integral to our quest.

Before we get to sleep, we see a last opportunity for being jerks. We recall the servant, and take back our money from his purse. Since he has the insolency to protest, we kick him in the side and send him flying as we close the door.

We spend a good night in our befitting luxury... until we're awakened by the creaking on the floor. Assassins surround us!

Assassins: FP 7, PA 7, AW 8, AR 1, damage 1d6+1 HP 15.

Special rule: the book won't be convinced that we chose to sleep in armour after doing a fuss about accommodations. So we're not wearing armour for this fight -- which I read as allowing to wear a shielding brooch anyway.

Will we defeat them and get to go to section 217?

 

[Joshua Randall]

I got a fever, and the only prescription, is SHEET LIGHTNING.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I'll surprise you...

Round 1:

Assassin north of Trixie attacks, rolls a 7, +1 because Trixie is naturally good at evasion, so he misses.
Assassin north and east of Winny attack, roll 7 and 6 and do a total of 9 damage.
The furthest Assassin moves adjacent to Salvia
Trixie attacks her assassin (7) and hits for 6 damage.

Winny attacks the northern Assassin (7) for 8 damage.
Salvia attacks her assassin (10) and misses, still lacking a magical staff...
Esmeralda casts Enthralment on the Assassin east of Salvia (roll of 7) and has him under mind control (save roll of 8)

Trixie does her extra attack, hits on 7, and inflicts a total of 4 damage.

Round 2:

Assassin north of Trixie misses on a roll of 12.
Assassin north of Winny attacks (5) for 6 damage. Winny is reduced to 10 HP.
Assassin east of Winny has two foes and the defaut tactic is to strike the lowest FP. Which is... his former friend. He inflicts 4 damage to him.
Assassin east of Salvia is in the same predicament, and retaliates (3) for 4 net damage.
Trixie attacks her assassin (3) and hits for 5 damage, killing her assassin.

Winny attacks her northen assassin and send him meet its Ta'ashin maker (8, for 9 damage).
Salvia attacks her adjacent assassin and misses (9). The training of True Faith monks in the way of bo fighting is lacking.
Esmeralda contemplates doing nothing and watch the two remaining assassin fight to the death but finishes off the one next to Salvia with a Nemesis Bolt (4) turning her foe into an Ashassin (27 damage, minus 1 for armour, that's 26.

The fight is won, since we have the last Assassin under our mental control.

We kill him immediately while he keeps thinking we're his true friends.


We won without using Sheet Lightning. It might have ruined the carpet. At no point is interrogating the Assassin an option, while he's under mind control, so we'll never know what they wanted.

We're quickly surrounded by the local knights who explain that they've been at odd recently with the Marijah sect of Assassins, despite having had positive dealings with them in the past.

The not-Assassin assassins, then. No wonder they didn't take well to the new management that turned out to be fanatical and bigoted.

They immediately turns into master sleuth and conclude that since we had words with a servant, he must be the one that called the Assassins in, and he'll impaled the next morning, for the amusement of the local crowd.

Because obviously, there was no other discernable reason the Marijah could have to remove the top officers (whose quarters we were sleeping in) of an enemy group. None at all.

We resume sleeping, regaining 2 HP. Salvia uses this to heal Winny for a net total of 6 HP (back to 18 HP).

 

[Joshua Randall]

Well, that’s done and dusted. Now we can wake up and have a super awkward conversation with Tobias de Vantery wherein he mentions his brother Augustus and then says, “Hey, is that a flying carpet sticking out of your pack, or are you just happy to see me?”

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

The next morning, we're woken up at dawn for breakfast at the officer's table. Tobias is there, and offers to share a glass of watered down wine and a slice of (stale?) bread. He mentions he's pride to have a nice breakfast, without those overripe fruits and greasy meats that the locals enjoy so much.

He commits several instances of bigotry against said local, two counts of cruelty toward an animal (his dog, which he kicks and spits at)...

Is the book subtly trying to tell us he is a bad guy? Probably the sight of a servant being impaled in the nearby courtyard wasn't evidence enough? The writing is often nice, but sometimes less is more. Well, it is aimed at 12-15 years old, so maybe they needed to overdo it.

... and finally asks what is our quest.

Honestly at this point I am not tempted to reveal that we are looking for fragments of the Bloodsword, especially since Evil runs in the family and we killed his brother who was also looking to acquire the scabbard in the previous book.

The choices are between spilling the beans about our secret quest, deny an answer by saying we're on a secret quest, or just say we're looking for adventure.

Since this last one is probably a hint for a side quest, it's probably also the best choice.

He sternly tells us that we join, pro bono, the patrolling duty of his militia since we need to have an objective in our heart before the Enemy puts one there for us. Since disagreeing sounds unwise, we accept gladly.

He summons Sir Balian, a young officer commanding today's patrol, who look at us quizzically, and leaves to attend more important matters.

As we get ready to go, Sir Balian sigh and adds that there is no rush, and mentions that his way of doing thing is much different from the commander. He beckons a slave over and order for us a breakfast of roast goose, fresh baked bread, fruits and piping hot coffee. We get 1 HP from it (Salvia rolls another 6 on the healing roll, so that's a total of 5 HP for Winny, back to 21, breakfast included). Late in the morning, we get ready for a stroll.

Balian is a nice chap, and his men love him.

I do, too.

As we patrol, we see some kind of commotion. We're offered the choice to intervene, but since we're here to learn, and we're jerks, we won't do anything. We see a scuffle between two beggars, Balian intervenes to separate them and he gets in slight knife cut doing that.

Despite the wound not seeming that bad, the patrol is canceled as Balian needs to visit a doctor. He mentions that Emeritus is a very wise healer, perhaps the most knowledgeable man in the whole Outremer. Emeritus treats our newfound friend, orders him to spend a few days of bedrest and send him back to the knight temple for rest. He waves us over and hopes we'll meet again.

Emeritus ushers us in a curtained alcove and say "I recognize that scabbard and hilt you're carrying... It's from the Sword of Life, isn't it?"

So, the items that cause us instant death if we drop them for whatever reason, the item that several NPCs in the past tried to steal from us, the items that are evidence of our super-duper-secret quest to save the world by preventing the return of the True Magi on year 1,000, the items we didn't dare to talk about to the Very Holy Sir Tobias de Vantery for fear of telling too much of our quest, these items, we're carrying IN THE OPEN for anyone to see? Wow. WIS 3, indeed, we are.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Side note: there is a path to befriend Tobias more. In that case, he offers us Crucifix and he insists we must wear them at all time to ward off evil. We're told to go to section 142 if a character ever loses his Crucifix from now on and that they must take a spot in our inventory.

If we go to section 142, we're just told that we discarded Tobias' crucifix. And the memorable sentence: "What did you expect to happen? The end of the world? A supernatural doom? No, it is just a regular item, it's the faith that counts." I love when the book toys with the readers, and honestly I probably would have kept them until the end of the last book if that had happened on our path.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Obviously the scabbard and hilt only function to prevent doom if in close contact with your body and receiving sunlight. A thin layer of clothing will not block their powerful dweomers from your body, but the thicker leather of a backpack would. And obviously if they’re in a backpack they can’t get any sunlight.

This is why you have to wear the Bloodsword openly.

—

As for the crucifix: Oh yeah, I would’ve kept that thing in my inventory until the bitter end. And kept expecting a passage in, like, book 17 that read, “If you have Tobias’ Crucifix, turn to 999.” Which would protects us from some otherwise super tough enemy.

—

Now we have met Emeritus, who was one of our possible contacts to begin with. Do we go stay in his house and get attacked by assassins / summoned demons / street thugs / angry poodles?

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Obviously the scabbard and hilt only function to prevent doom if in close contact with your body and receiving sunlight. A thin layer of clothing will not block their powerful dweomers from your body, but the thicker leather of a backpack would. And obviously if they’re in a backpack they can’t get any sunlight.

The Bloodsword, being an artifact of the Forces of Good, seems to be ecoresponsible and therefore powered by tiny solar panels. Makes sense, I guess.

As for the crucifix: Oh yeah, I would’ve kept that thing in my inventory until the bitter end. And kept expecting a passage in, like, book 17 that read, “If you have Tobias’ Crucifix, turn to 999.” Which would protects us from some otherwise super tough enemy.

I don't rule it out. But we won't have it. On the other hand, we have St Ashanax crucifix, which seems to be more aligned with the forces of Good than Tobias.

Now we have met Emeritus, who was one of our possible contacts to begin with. Do we go stay in his house and get attacked by assassins / summoned demons / street thugs / angry poodles?

The path to Emeritus is quite straightforward. We ask around, learn that he's popular because he is extremely fair to everyone and give alms so a beggar is happy to point us to his house, we arrive at this house, where a slave girl explains that he's away because he want in the outskirts of town to cure the homeless for free, she says we can stay in the house for the night, she gets us a nice breakfast and we arrive at the same section we're in on our convoluted path to Emeritus.

I suppose it's the game's test of player skill to notice that it's the only contact that a character had a positive history with (instead of "I have heard of..." "I was a rival to..." or "I have an introduction to a random official..." Also, playing with a Sage is supposed to make thing simpler when dealing with academia (interestingly, it's not the Enchanter, the world is much closer to medieval Europe than fantasy Europe so monasteries and churches (and Ta'ashim mosques) are the centers of learning, no magic academy or College Arcane around).

I used editorial authority to actively avoid paths that would lead us to Emeritus straight away but it's impossible to visit all of Crescentium in a single play-through even if you do your best.

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

Emeritus recounts to us that the Lord created the world without separating the living and the dead, and realizing it wasn't appropriate, he sent one of his archangels, Abdiel, to cut the world in two halves, one of the living, and another to serve as the realm of the dead. He created to swords to symbolise the cut between them, one he set in the realm of the dead, another in realm of the living.

The sword of Death was happily standing in its proper place, but was taken out by a hero who wanted to use its incredibly dangerous power against evil, but fail to resist the lure of evil himself, and the sword of death is supposed now to reside in Marazid somewhere, under the name of the Demon's Claw (the title of the book, whoah). The Bloodsword, the one residing with the living, was set in the northen wasteland of Krarth, when one day a demon called Yaunt the Seven-Eyed smashing it in pieces and it is presumed lost ever since.

We ask if we can kill the True Magi with it, and he answers positively, since it's the implement of natural order and the Magi escaped destruction with their capital by some kind of apotheosis that made them immortal, it is certainly apt to do what we expect. He also mentions that we shoud recieve help along the way as righteouness should prevail in our quest to recover this powerul implement of Good.

He can't help us with the location of the blade, but he suggests we meet Prince Sussurien of Opalar. The Prince of Not-Persia, then.

He's exiled and lives currently near Crescentium (yay!), on a personal quest to recover the Sword of Death (boo!) so he is probably well-informed on the legend surrounding the artefact we seek.

Then, Emeritus offers us to have the slave do some shopping for us, if we want. There doesn't seem any drawback, so we oblige. Also, we'll buy fur gloves.

If we don't have gold, Emeritus gifts us gold. But the book is smart: it defines destitute as having less than an average of 3 gp among the characters. He must have seen through our trick to pool our gold with Trixie so the other character can truthfully claim to have no money (and if we need to lie, then Trixie is the best to do that convincingly anyway...)

The list is quite worrying, since we're offered the opportunity to buy replacement armour, replacement weapons... There must be opportunty for item damage further down the line. But we might need to save money and I decide to only buy ration for a week, for a total of 8 gp.

We then depart on our quest, say goodbyes, praise his slavegirl for her attentive service and he mentions that he despises slavery and she's is neither a slave nor a servant but his wife.

Oops.

One of the nice item we missed in an earlier book by not looting Augustus de Vantery's tower is a loaf of neverending bread, that can replace a meal... forever. We could have stopped adventuring an open a bread shop, or stop famine, or drown the world under stale bread....

Since the books assume we're jerks, I'll quote the ending of the section when we leave Emeritus house, who, let's remind ourselves, is a friend to a character and who helped us freely and more evidently than anyone so far... "You are a little shocked. Respectable Coradians should not mingle intimately with the natives. Nonethless you manage to keep your sentiments to yourselves."

Was the alternative to chastize the friend who gave us a room and helped us about his choice of wife? Wow... And we "manage" not to say anything. It required, obviously, all our collective inner strength not to lash at him?

Anyway, we're on our way to the other side of town, where Sussurien is living (section 186)

 

[Joshua Randall]

I like that this world is quite literally Manichean, divided into two halves. With of course, two competing blades!

—

Why would Emeritus tell us that a slave will go shopping for us, when she is his wife? Emeritus is a big jerk? Or, he didn’t actually say that, but our lovely ladies ASSumed the woman was a slave?