Something I love about Arcana is that they enhance the richness and mystery of the world (one of the key components of the GM agenda: "Portray a rich and mysterious world) by both their description and the steps you need to take to unlock and then further use them. These aren't magic items you use casually, they're artifacts of power that become play goals and personality defining items in their own right. The Seeker playbook being built around the acquisition and mastery of Arcana really delves into the whole "these are forbidden and costly magiks."
I mean how cool is this unlock/effect (trimmed significantly):
"You can unlock the power of this mantle by…
… wearing it for three days and three long, long nights, suffering through the nightmares.
… bringing to heel the slavering wraiths that are tethered to it.
[once bound]
When you let slip the wraiths tethered to the mantle, treat them as followers. They are loathe to return to the mantle; you must spend their Loyalty or Persuade them. Cost souls feasted upon (Hold Loyalty when met)"
Something I love about Arcana is that they enhance the richness and mystery of the world (one of the key components of the GM agenda: "Portray a rich and mysterious world) by both their description and the steps you need to take to unlock and then further use them. These aren't magic items you use casually, they're artifacts of power that become play goals and personality defining items in their own right. The Seeker playbook being built around the acquisition and mastery of Arcana really delves into the whole "these are forbidden and costly magiks."
Absolutely. And all the arcana have costs. I've only checked one box off the Twisted Spear's list, and it cost Vahid 4 hp permanently (after Donal's burial, Vahid drove the spear through his own hand, and I pulled a roll of 4 on 1d4+1). I'm sure Vahid won't miss those hp when Jown comes a-calling.
My Seeker in the first game was always messing with her 'Hand' major arcana. That, plus some of the class features/moves definitely encouraged experimentation. Some of the other PCs were starting to worry... lol. Great stuff!
While there have been violent conflicts and journey conflicts, the rather pronounced frequency of social conflicts and spiritual conflicts in this particular game of Stonetop has been fairly remarkable. This session was rather the poster child of the paradigm. If I inventory the 4 PCs that have been in this game, it starts to come together:
Branwyn (Ranger): Relies on her wits, words, and ability to communicate with animals far more than her bow and her knife. Though the "end" of her adventuring career (ruined tibia) certainly stands as a testament to the dangers of violence (but she saved Stonetop from a Northern Manmarch threat)!
Yorath (Fox): A total operator, charmer, con-man. Everything seems counterfeit with him though his newfound faith has proven not easily discarded. Thus far its, interestingly, stuck. And relationships are seemingly less disposable as the game has worn on. I'm verrrrrrrrry interested how this spirit composed of the dark astral winds of the celestial night (a gift from The Void), riding shotgun within to rectify Yorath's lost sight, will play with his devotion to the radiant, guiding light of Helior!
Donal (Marshal): While he had the background of a cattle thief and cavorted with roadmen, this is one of the more noteworthy heroic characters I've ever GMed. Relentlessly taking on the burden of his charges and putting himself in the crosshairs. Always trying to talk frays down from violence, but that seemed mostly to mitigate the danger to his folk rather than himself. RIP (from violence!...and, true to his legacy, the inescapable gravity of putting himself in danger so others might live).
Vahid (Witch Hunter): Very interesting. His first notable moment on-screen was trying to beat Donal to death in a fistfight after Donal failed to save his brother's life (after trying desperately to do so). Also ironically, Donal disarmed the furor of the fight (after Vahid was starting to get the better of him) by throwing chalk in Vahid's face. After eulogizing Vahid's brother successfully to the Lygosian celestial entity known as The Void (a supernatural conflict), our present Seeker became an opportunity as a Follower of Donal. Now he routinely deploys trick/loadout-saavy like Donal did to him with the chalk and engages in supernatural and social galore.
We're nearing winter and the (former witch who made a bargain with The Things Below to become the most successful midwife Stonetop had ever seen) midwife Teodora is being escorted by Emrys (the most capable member of Stonetop's watch/militia) along with three others + Stonetop's cart and few horses to the remote steading in Barrier's Pass. There, they will winter and she will hopefully learn their legendary skills of midwifery now that she and The Things below have parted ways with the Faustian Bargan sundered.
We're going to make the move for their offscreen, perilous journey to Barrier's Pass next session. I'm very interested to see how that goes!
Donal was in some ways like your Judge Cullen. They both religiously took on the burdens of their constituents and served somewhat similar positions of leadership in Stonetop (though Cullen's was bedrock and locked-in as mediator and Eratis-counselled Judge, Donal's was only recently earned as militia-captain and was still pending full community buy-in). They both looked for "the middle way", trying to find harmony in dispute arbitration if they could.
The big differences would be:
* Cullen was supernaturally endowed through and through (there was no mistaking it as it was relentlessly onscreen) while Donal was just a grunt and was happy enough to be seen that way.
* Mechanically, the Judge's "oomph" is innate; the Hammer, the Shield, the Book, the Bulwark, the Censure (etc); just an impregnable Paladin type. Meanwhile, so much of the Marshall's "oomph" is invested in their Crew and their ability to bolster allies/community. Donal's inclinations were so "take on the burdens myself" that the character ended up putting his Crew in the least amount of danger possible at most turns (as well as trying to keep a few of the primary rabble-rousers of that Crew from starting trouble in Stonetop...ironically, the only few that stayed on to help Stonetop after Donal's heroic demise).
Just some reflections on the differences between the Stonetop Judge (the 4e Paladin of Eratis with the Scholar theme) and the Stonetop Marshal (clearly the 4e Warlord which defaults to Inspiring but can be built for others) and how subtle differences in Background, Instinct, and evolving play can create meaningful differences in these character archetypes.
Yorath (Fox): A total operator, charmer, con-man. Everything seems counterfeit with him though his newfound faith has proven not easily discarded. Thus far its, interestingly, stuck. And relationships are seemingly less disposable as the game has worn on. I'm verrrrrrrrry interested how this spirit composed of the dark astral winds of the celestial night (a gift from The Void), riding shotgun within to rectify Yorath's lost sight, will play with his devotion to the radiant, guiding light of Helior!
Yorath delights me. Particularly how much the character has and has not changed since my first session, which if I recall correctly (this is not in the notes) started with Yorath slipping out the back door of his father's house, when Emrys and the town watch came calling on behalf of the Stonetop elders. I can't remember what the problem was, but I remember that he left his elderly, invalided(?) father to take the heat. The delta between that Yorath, and the one that's teaching children how to juggle is fun to see. Hidden depths to the Fox!
Yorath delights me. Particularly how much the character has and has not changed since my first session, which if I recall correctly (this is not in the notes) started with Yorath slipping out the back door of his father's house, when Emrys and the town watch came calling on behalf of the Stonetop elders. I can't remember what the problem was, but I remember that he left his elderly, invalided(?) father to take the heat. The delta between that Yorath, and the one that's teaching children how to juggle is fun to see. Hidden depths to the Fox!
Yeah, these sorts of characters always evolve in this kind of play. I sort of thought he would just grift himself either into being 'The Man' of Stonetop or else get run out of town/hung. I've no idea where the actual story is going. Maybe he will be Saint Yorath, or perhaps just a cautionary tale about messing with divine forces.
But Vahid is equally out there. Hunting the bad stuff but allied with an alien force. And with very specific ideas of right and wrong that will keep getting challenged, as I see it.
Donal was in some ways like your Judge Cullen. They both religiously took on the burdens of their constituents and served somewhat similar positions of leadership in Stonetop (though Cullen's was bedrock and locked-in as mediator and Eratis-counselled Judge, Donal's was only recently earned as militia-captain and was still pending full community buy-in). They both looked for "the middle way", trying to find harmony in dispute arbitration if they could.
The big differences would be:
* Cullen was supernaturally endowed through and through (there was no mistaking it as it was relentlessly onscreen) while Donal was just a grunt and was happy enough to be seen that way.
* Mechanically, the Judge's "oomph" is innate; the Hammer, the Shield, the Book, the Bulwark, the Censure (etc); just an impregnable Paladin type. Meanwhile, so much of the Marshall's "oomph" is invested in their Crew and their ability to bolster allies/community. Donal's inclinations were so "take on the burdens myself" that the character ended up putting his Crew in the least amount of danger possible at most turns (as well as trying to keep a few of the primary rabble-rousers of that Crew from starting trouble in Stonetop...ironically, the only few that stayed on to help Stonetop after Donal's heroic demise).
Just some reflections on the differences between the Stonetop Judge (the 4e Paladin of Eratis with the Scholar theme) and the Stonetop Marshal (clearly the 4e Warlord which defaults to Inspiring but can be built for others) and how subtle differences in Background, Instinct, and evolving play can create meaningful differences in these character archetypes.
It’s interesting how the different playbooks and their choices in abilities can really make for a nice variety of play types.
Cullen was like a rock. I don’t know if I’ve ever played a character that was so sturdy in their game.
We have a Marshall in our game, and he also tends to take the risk on himself. I think that early on, the crew are much more vulnerable, and so he was reluctant to put them at risk unless necessary.
But now he’s advanced a few levels and that’s given him some abilities to mitigate damage to the crew and so he’s starting to rely on them some more.
Yorath delights me. Particularly how much the character has and has not changed since my first session, which if I recall correctly (this is not in the notes) started with Yorath slipping out the back door of his father's house, when Emrys and the town watch came calling on behalf of the Stonetop elders. I can't remember what the problem was, but I remember that he left his elderly, invalided(?) father to take the heat. The delta between that Yorath, and the one that's teaching children how to juggle is fun to see. Hidden depths to the Fox!
The Fox is a really interesting playbook. Ostensibly the “rogue” of the group, they’re really more socially focused than I initially expected. Really flavorful stuff. The Fox in our game has really come through with some clutch moves when needed.
I thought it might be interesting to post our next session, to give a more complete arc of play. Also, when we played again last Thursday, things got complicated. By which I mean they went badly off the rails and in which Yorath and Vahid conspire to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
We started by checking in with the expedition to the Barrier Pass. For context, two sessions ago, after the feast celebrating Yorath's Indemnification of the Stonetoppers*, Elder Pryce approached Yorath, Vahid, Emrys, and Tedora** at the public house. We've had some disagreements with the steading elders, but Pryce is generally all right. It might have been the whisky, but he says the quiet part out loud and asks Tedora, "Do we need to send an envoy to Barrier's Pass to train and bring back a midwife?" She blanches, but it's a good opportunity. And so she agrees to go. In a show of good faith, Pryce sends Emrys with her as well as three of the most trustworthy watch members, Stonetop's cart, and Stonetop's horses. He tells them to winter there, saying to "Bring her back safe, bring her back learned. And bring back the horses, we'll need them for the sowing."
We picked things up with them in the mountains. It's late fall, and it's wet and cold. The five of them aren't far from Barrier Pass, but there's a storm, and they don't have a lot of supplies left. Exposure's certain to be a problem if they press on, but running out of supplies is a definite issue if they bunker down. So Emrys has to choose whether they stick or twist. He decides to stick and finds an overhang that shelters them from the rain and the worst of the wind, but they're on strict rationing. Tedora and Emrys are holding up well, but the three watch members are getting a bit itchy. One night while they're sleeping, Aeronwen, the youngest of the watch on the journey, breaks into the supplies and takes some meat. Emrys notices her, waits, and follows her. He finds her sitting out in the cold, up against a big rock, feet dangling over a ledge, eating a big old turkey drummy. About ten paces from her is a cougar. Emrys throws a rock to get her attention. Somehow, she picks up his meaning, throws the half-eaten drumstick one way, goes around the rock the other way and back to Emrys. He waits until they're back at camp to impress upon her the importance of sticking together literally and metaphorically on these sorts of journeys.***
Meanwhile, back in Stonetop, Yorath, his sight restored, is preparing to hold a public ceremony to show off the gold ring he picked up in the Gwead. He's looking to lay some seeds for a reputation for Stonetop. When the crowd gathers, he starts in on the ceremony and speechmaking.† Vahid and his dogsbody, Erez, stand in the back watching the spectacle. Yorath has put the ring on a chain and is getting ready to present it to Unirra††, but as he does so, he touches the ring and gets a shock of biofeedback. It's an open question whether this is the Void's air spirit, Persefoni, rebuking him for touching a relic of Helior or Helior rebuking him for having Persefoni as a passenger.
Yorath examines his relationship with Helior: what's going to happen when I trigger this ring? His sense is that Helior and Persefoni are struggling against each other. Helior's p.o.ed that Yorath's giving the ring to Unirra, but Persefoni's hellbent on getting Yorath to give up the ring. Yorath, ever the showman, ends up giving the ring to Unirra and asking her to put it on him. He gets a little zap from Persefoni from his trouble, but the crowd loves it.††† In the back of the crowd, Vahid cocks an eyebrow and makes a mental note.‡
As the ring goes around Yorath's neck, he feels Persefoni welling up inside him, trying to force him to his knees and ruin the ceremony. Feeling the urge to get a hold of the situation, he puts the ring on.‡‡ A powerful warmth pervades his entire being, and it's clear something has happened here. The Stonetoppers present have the sense of having witnessed a miracle. What they don't know is that, in putting on the ring, Yorath has incurred Persefoni's wrath and is once again mostly blind.
In the time between the last session and the start of play here, Vahid has been sending Juda and Jown, the two outriders from the TotG, out of Stonetop on reconnaissance to check on an encampment the Ferrier family has set up outside of town.‡‡‡ This time, things go badly wrong, and Juda contrives to catch fen blight.§ His condition worsens, and Jown comes back to Stonetop with murder in his eyes.
Before he can reach Vahid and kill him, he's intercepted by Bryn††, who dissuades him from killing Vahid right now. And the outrider stalks back to Juda to see him through his dying moments, while making it clear to Bryn that, if Juda dies, the duel will not be the reason he kills Vahid. (Boy, Jown's a little high-strung.)
Bryn goes from there to Yorath, who's relaxing in the Pavilion of the Gods. "I think Juda’s gravely ill, but Jown said he is changing. And he doesn’t think that his brother will last the night. I don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s got a murderous look in his eyes. I couldn’t stop Jown from going out, but I fear that there could be an outbreak in Stonetop if anyone else goes out."
As Yorath takes this in, he notices a Bryn has a peaty smell — a known symptom of fen blight. And there's no one in town that can do a damn thing about fen blight. Except Helior. "Helior’s the one that fixes bad things. Bryn, ask for the blessing of Helior." And he lays hands on Bryn and, with a visible manifestation of Helior's power, takes on her fen blight himself. His skin mottles. The Stonetoppers in the Pavilion panic. Bryn mouths a "thank you" to Yorath and runs to take care of her daughter.§§
Vahid witnesses this from his front porch. He sees Lim, a local urchin from Marshedge, point at Yorath and say "fen blight." He grunts. He has some bendis root that can slow the spread. Then he notices that neither Jown or Juda are here and deduces that one or both of them are gravely ill with fen blight.§§§
While he's putting this all together, Yorath is headed out of town into the Great Wood.
* Persuade, +CHA, +Piety, 10. If Stonetop survives what happened in this session, there's a good case to be made that this will be remembered as the first of Yorath's great works by future generations.
** Emrys is the captain of the watch and Yorath's buddy. Tedora is currently between jobs, with experience in witchcraft and faking midwifery. #OpenToWork
*** For this sequence, AbdulAlhazred played Emrys, and I played Aeronwen. They're statted up as NPCs/Followers, and their tags grant +1 on relevant die rolls. This paragraph had a Forage check to find shelter (Emrys, 2d6+2, watch-wise, skeptical, 9), another check to notice Aeronwen stealing (Emrys, 2d6+2, as above, 7), and a check for Aeronwen to pick up what Emrys is putting down (2d6+1, cunning, 10). The last bit ("He waits until they're back at camp...") is Emrys paying Aeronwen's cost (gentle attentive instruction). This'll give him Loyalty with her that he can spend later, when he needs her to do something she doesn't want to do or to resist her tags or instinct.
Sentry Emrys (finally grew up and out of his youthful hijinx, wiry, mumbly)
tags: watch-wise, warrior, skeptical, Yorath-friend
instinct: to never let a newcomer out of his sight
cost: help him help the people of Stonetop
6 hp, d6 dmg, [not sure about his gear; it was 0 armor when he was first introduced]
† Silver Tongued, +CHA, 10. Yorath holds 3 Nerve, which can be spent 1-for-1 to avoid trouble.
†† Unirra is the granddaughter of Elder Elfryth. Yorath and Donal rescued her mother, Bryn, and her from the Thunder of the Gwead (TotG) four sessions ago.
††† Yorath spent 1 Nerve here to cover up the change in plans.
‡ In the back of the crowd, Vahid clocked the magical energies and uses his Countermeasures move to assess how Persefoni might be countered. He gathers that the air spirit's freelancing here and suborning the Void's authority by acting out. Per the move, Vahid has advantage to act on this in the future.
‡‡ Yes, my preciousss...gollum... The ring is in fact a minor arcanum (a gold ring). Yorath has already checked off one of the three requirements to unlock its power ("participate in the devout and proper worship of Helior") and will check off another later this session.
‡‡‡ Some youthful indiscretions on Yorath's part led the Ferriers, a powerful family from Marshedge, to blame Yorath for their daughter Imogene's demise from fen blight (fantasy leprosy, highly contagious). To be fair to the Ferriers, they're not entirely wrong — Yorath did lead her out into the Fens, though he didn't give her fen blight. She got that honestly (which was not a specialty of Yorath's at the time) from a fen troll. In any case, the Ferriers have been massively ticked off at Stonetop since she died, sending fen spores (fantasy bioweapons) to Stonetop in hopes of giving the entire steading leprosy. So far, we've lost two horses to fen blight, but kept it away from Stonetop itself. Give it a paragraph, though, and we'll fix that.
§ Mechanically, it was a Deploy move, 2d6+2, 8. And so, I decided that Juda died. I think I had advantage on the roll, and Manbearcat let me pick the effect. I can't speak to what sort of lunacy inspired me to pick Juda's death rather than "It's less effective than you expected." I mean, it's a nice echo of Vahid's brother's death on the journey to the Titan's Bones earlier in the game and gives Jown some more depth, but it's the beginning of a bad couple beats for Yorath and Vahid.
§§ Know Things, +INT, 5, followed by Borrow Power, +WIS, 6. This was the second requirement checked off the ring, too — "perform an act of charity while wearing the ring, one that changes the recipient's life."
§§§ This was a Seek Insight, +INT, 10, so Vahid will have advantage dealing with this when we pick things up again. But he'll have to pick where he spends it — to help Yorath, to help Jown/Juda, or to help Stonetop.
It may well be that Yorath reached the peak of his career there. For a minute he was all set to build a little Helior powered operation, pilgrims, donations, fame for Stonetop, etc. This is all in great jeopardy now. Perhaps Yorath can rebound if he's somehow cured quickly, but as of now he's a leper and the fickle public has turned.
I'm interested in what Vahid makes of all this. It's hard to say he's in Yorath's corner. He may even find it convenient to insure there's no path back for the follower of an opposing diety. He's thinking about bendis root, but he may think better of that! Can Yorath survive? At what cost? Might he pass his legacy on to his follower Unirra? Maybe!
