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Bill T's Second War of the Burning Sky: Shelter from the Storm [more spoilers than you can shake a stick adorned with ribbons and kerchiefs at!]
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<blockquote data-quote="Bill T." data-source="post: 7980169" data-attributes="member: 6795693"><p><span style="font-size: 22px"><strong>Dramatis Personae</strong></span></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Basel</strong>, an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker who has been attending Gabal's school and previously made his living as a baker.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Dämmek</strong>, a human swordswoman with keen senses and the Living Blade.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Gusle</strong>, a seela bard who recently escaped captivity from a circus. This player has been through the first few chapters already, so she's aware of the seela and can fill Torrent's role as guide.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Jesús Tillamook</strong>, a half-elf cloistered cleric of the Stormbringer Phoenix, a sect of the Stormchaser Eagle that is dedicated to finding the Aquiline Heart so that they can reincarnate the Eagle.</li> </ul><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>We played on Easter, as expected, but I didn't type up the notes until two teeks later. I'd managed to convince myself that not much had happened but, now having typed them up, realize a fair amount did!</em></p><p></p><p>After wrapping up their interrogation of Brutus, the heroes return to camp. On their way there, a guard clumsily starts up a conversation. "So, how about this weather, eh?" After more stilted dialogue, the guard eventually gets to why he approached the heroes: "Somebody's looking for you...." They ask for directions and eventually continue to camp.</p><p></p><p>In the morning, Gusle tells the heroes of the strange dream she had. She dreamt of an elderly elf who has been studying the vital military intelligence. He describes what he's discovered (text in ciphered infernal, maps and architectural drawing, mysteries terms "scourge" and "infernal", etc.). When he is done, he starts to fade away but thensuddenly turns solid and sends Shealis's and his condolences regarding Leeta's death.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I like giving these subtle hints, but at too often frustrated when the PCs don't even ask the follow-on questions -- the questions, in this case, is how and why he might have known Leeta had died. Maybe I just like being frustrated.</em></p><p></p><p>As they finish discussing Gusle's dream, Katrina bursts in. "You guys sure have lit a fire under Simeon -- he can't find Lee <strong>anywhere</strong>. Here, each of you take a turn with this wand of <em>locate person</em> and we'll work our way through the refugee camps to see if we can find him." Nope, no Lee.</p><p></p><p>They go back to Simeon to report. He explains that he realized there was another question no one had asked Brutus, "What will your familiar do?" Their guess is that the familiar went to Lee and they learned from it, somehow, that it informed Lee of what happend to Brutus.</p><p></p><p>Basel has the clever(?) idea of looking for Lee's corpse using <em>locate object</em>, so the heroes get to spend a bunch more time sweeping the camps. Katrina manages to opt out of this search. They then go to Lee's place, as Simeon has decided that someone should keep watch on the place should Lee try to return.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Not to mention he was appalled that the brave heroes were huddling in a tent among all the refugees!</em></p><p></p><p>They scope Lee's place out: There's a parlor and small kitchen on the upper floor, and circular staircase down to a floor with a bedroom and storage space that had barrels, and built-in cistern, and a couple of crude places to sleep, and a trap door leading down to a large undersea cavern. In the cavern they find a bullseye lantern lit using <em>continual flame</em> lying on the pebble beach.</p><p></p><p>Ultimately, they decide to chase down their one remaining lead, the place they think they'll meet the person looking for them. They meet an obsequious butler, who explains that Lady Jess is away for the moment, that he doesn't keep her schedule, and that he'll leave a message. They turn to leave and bump into a woman. Dämmek suddenly pipes up, "Oh, wow, fancy meeting you here! It's wonderful to see you again!"</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Dämmek had been </em>charmed<em> by Jeszka before they turned around, and I was able to communicate this to her without the rest of the group knowing. I didn't expect her to automatically greet her as someone she knew! She threw us all for a loop, but she carried it off really well.</em></p><p></p><p>The banter is pleasant, but eventually the woman, who identifies herself as the Lady Jess they seek, eventually asks about the case they were supposed to be bringing to Seaquen. Dämmek claims ignorance (as she was ignorant, having joined the heroes well after they'd seen the case). The conversation morphs into game of "Who can get a straight answer out of whom?" as Basel and Gusle are unwilling to say anything about the case and Jess is unwilling to go into details about herself. Eventually, Jesús gets fed up and spills the beans about the case. Gusle decides they urgently need to see Simeon, so Jess promises Dämmek they'll get together for dinner and the heroes leave amiably.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Aww, no battle with Jeszka at Lee's place.</em></p><p></p><p>On the way to the Lyceum, Gusle and Basel talk about Dämmek behind her back (in Sylvan!), coming to the conclusion she was under some sort of magical influence, and describe what they learned to Simeon.</p><p></p><p>Tiljann meets the heroes back at Lee's place, and then Katrina arrives for the promised spelldueling. The duel with Basel is unsurprisingly quick and brutal. Katrina gets a little more pedagogical with Jesús, then she manages to trip over her own feet casting her first spell. The fight is long and drawn out, and eventually Gusle, the appointed referee for the duel, gets bored, declares the duel a draw, and decides it's time to go back upstairs and party.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Spelldueling didn't go at all well. Jesús has the feat, but the player is still very noob and continues to have trouble with basic combat mechanics, so he quickly got frustrated. While he was away from the table the rest of us decided to abandon the duel and move on. We also had technical problems: the computer they were using to Google Hangout decided to get confused about colors and had to be rebooted in the middle of the spellduling.</em></p><p></p><p>The next morning, the heroes learn that Jess is really the devil Jeszka. They get to meet her in her true form, where she rails to be let out. Dämmek is upset and asks Jeszka to explain why Jeszka lied to her, as no one thought to try to dispel the charm, much to everyone's frustration -- including Jeszka's! Eventually, they manage to come up with a list of questions that they want her to answer before they have the Lyceum <em>dismiss</em> her. Simeon agrees to let her go, but Gusle is less convincing with Jeszka and is unable to persuade her to reveal what other Ragesian agents in town she's aware of.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I'm really torn here. In some respects, I'd very much like the heroes to learn about the Ragesians with the teleportation anchor. I'm not sure how useful the information would be, but they might be crazy enough to try deliberately triggering the anchor to get at the Ragesians, which would <strong>really</strong> turn the adventure on its head, one way or the other. I also doubt they'll ever take advantage of Jeszka's offer to serve them for free. It seem a bit out of character for her after the hard-nosed bargaining about what she would tell them. Anyone have any ideas? I'm tempted to rewind, have her answer the question, and retract the offer, since the only other thing that happened was that</em></p><p></p><p>Gusle, Basel, and Dämmek meet Tiljann at the dock, taking her up on her offer the preceding evening to let them tour the Wayfarer's Theatre. It's a quick tour.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill T., post: 7980169, member: 6795693"] [SIZE=6][B]Dramatis Personae[/B][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][B]Basel[/B], an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker who has been attending Gabal's school and previously made his living as a baker. [*][B]Dämmek[/B], a human swordswoman with keen senses and the Living Blade. [*][B]Gusle[/B], a seela bard who recently escaped captivity from a circus. This player has been through the first few chapters already, so she's aware of the seela and can fill Torrent's role as guide. [*][B]Jesús Tillamook[/B], a half-elf cloistered cleric of the Stormbringer Phoenix, a sect of the Stormchaser Eagle that is dedicated to finding the Aquiline Heart so that they can reincarnate the Eagle. [/LIST] [INDENT][I]We played on Easter, as expected, but I didn't type up the notes until two teeks later. I'd managed to convince myself that not much had happened but, now having typed them up, realize a fair amount did![/I][/INDENT] After wrapping up their interrogation of Brutus, the heroes return to camp. On their way there, a guard clumsily starts up a conversation. "So, how about this weather, eh?" After more stilted dialogue, the guard eventually gets to why he approached the heroes: "Somebody's looking for you...." They ask for directions and eventually continue to camp. In the morning, Gusle tells the heroes of the strange dream she had. She dreamt of an elderly elf who has been studying the vital military intelligence. He describes what he's discovered (text in ciphered infernal, maps and architectural drawing, mysteries terms "scourge" and "infernal", etc.). When he is done, he starts to fade away but thensuddenly turns solid and sends Shealis's and his condolences regarding Leeta's death. [INDENT][I]I like giving these subtle hints, but at too often frustrated when the PCs don't even ask the follow-on questions -- the questions, in this case, is how and why he might have known Leeta had died. Maybe I just like being frustrated.[/I][/INDENT] As they finish discussing Gusle's dream, Katrina bursts in. "You guys sure have lit a fire under Simeon -- he can't find Lee [B]anywhere[/B]. Here, each of you take a turn with this wand of [I]locate person[/I] and we'll work our way through the refugee camps to see if we can find him." Nope, no Lee. They go back to Simeon to report. He explains that he realized there was another question no one had asked Brutus, "What will your familiar do?" Their guess is that the familiar went to Lee and they learned from it, somehow, that it informed Lee of what happend to Brutus. Basel has the clever(?) idea of looking for Lee's corpse using [I]locate object[/I], so the heroes get to spend a bunch more time sweeping the camps. Katrina manages to opt out of this search. They then go to Lee's place, as Simeon has decided that someone should keep watch on the place should Lee try to return. [INDENT][I]Not to mention he was appalled that the brave heroes were huddling in a tent among all the refugees![/I][/INDENT] They scope Lee's place out: There's a parlor and small kitchen on the upper floor, and circular staircase down to a floor with a bedroom and storage space that had barrels, and built-in cistern, and a couple of crude places to sleep, and a trap door leading down to a large undersea cavern. In the cavern they find a bullseye lantern lit using [I]continual flame[/I] lying on the pebble beach. Ultimately, they decide to chase down their one remaining lead, the place they think they'll meet the person looking for them. They meet an obsequious butler, who explains that Lady Jess is away for the moment, that he doesn't keep her schedule, and that he'll leave a message. They turn to leave and bump into a woman. Dämmek suddenly pipes up, "Oh, wow, fancy meeting you here! It's wonderful to see you again!" [INDENT][I]Dämmek had been [/I]charmed[I] by Jeszka before they turned around, and I was able to communicate this to her without the rest of the group knowing. I didn't expect her to automatically greet her as someone she knew! She threw us all for a loop, but she carried it off really well.[/I][/INDENT] The banter is pleasant, but eventually the woman, who identifies herself as the Lady Jess they seek, eventually asks about the case they were supposed to be bringing to Seaquen. Dämmek claims ignorance (as she was ignorant, having joined the heroes well after they'd seen the case). The conversation morphs into game of "Who can get a straight answer out of whom?" as Basel and Gusle are unwilling to say anything about the case and Jess is unwilling to go into details about herself. Eventually, Jesús gets fed up and spills the beans about the case. Gusle decides they urgently need to see Simeon, so Jess promises Dämmek they'll get together for dinner and the heroes leave amiably. [INDENT][I]Aww, no battle with Jeszka at Lee's place.[/I][/INDENT] On the way to the Lyceum, Gusle and Basel talk about Dämmek behind her back (in Sylvan!), coming to the conclusion she was under some sort of magical influence, and describe what they learned to Simeon. Tiljann meets the heroes back at Lee's place, and then Katrina arrives for the promised spelldueling. The duel with Basel is unsurprisingly quick and brutal. Katrina gets a little more pedagogical with Jesús, then she manages to trip over her own feet casting her first spell. The fight is long and drawn out, and eventually Gusle, the appointed referee for the duel, gets bored, declares the duel a draw, and decides it's time to go back upstairs and party. [INDENT][I]Spelldueling didn't go at all well. Jesús has the feat, but the player is still very noob and continues to have trouble with basic combat mechanics, so he quickly got frustrated. While he was away from the table the rest of us decided to abandon the duel and move on. We also had technical problems: the computer they were using to Google Hangout decided to get confused about colors and had to be rebooted in the middle of the spellduling.[/I][/INDENT] The next morning, the heroes learn that Jess is really the devil Jeszka. They get to meet her in her true form, where she rails to be let out. Dämmek is upset and asks Jeszka to explain why Jeszka lied to her, as no one thought to try to dispel the charm, much to everyone's frustration -- including Jeszka's! Eventually, they manage to come up with a list of questions that they want her to answer before they have the Lyceum [I]dismiss[/I] her. Simeon agrees to let her go, but Gusle is less convincing with Jeszka and is unable to persuade her to reveal what other Ragesian agents in town she's aware of. [INDENT][I]I'm really torn here. In some respects, I'd very much like the heroes to learn about the Ragesians with the teleportation anchor. I'm not sure how useful the information would be, but they might be crazy enough to try deliberately triggering the anchor to get at the Ragesians, which would [B]really[/B] turn the adventure on its head, one way or the other. I also doubt they'll ever take advantage of Jeszka's offer to serve them for free. It seem a bit out of character for her after the hard-nosed bargaining about what she would tell them. Anyone have any ideas? I'm tempted to rewind, have her answer the question, and retract the offer, since the only other thing that happened was that[/I][/INDENT] Gusle, Basel, and Dämmek meet Tiljann at the dock, taking her up on her offer the preceding evening to let them tour the Wayfarer's Theatre. It's a quick tour. [/QUOTE]
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Bill T's Second War of the Burning Sky: Shelter from the Storm [more spoilers than you can shake a stick adorned with ribbons and kerchiefs at!]
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