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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LordVyreth" data-source="post: 1523267" data-attributes="member: 9626">March of Time“So, what’s our next plan?”  Raz asked, after meeting with the party the next morning.  He was the last to arrive, after doing some shopping in Methosilang earlier.  “I’m thinking we should pursue that avatar angle.  If Olivia, or should I save Ordhari, was telling the truth, we could get quite a bit of information about what’s going on with the world or even who Lady Memory is if we find the other avatars.”The party looked a little uncomfortable, however.  Tal cleared his throat, and then said, “Actually, we were planning on staying in town for a while.  This whole Bas issue is just too much for us to ignore, so we decided to help the country for a bit.”Raz looked crushed.  “Wait, you plan on sitting here and just waiting?  We can’t afford to just stand around.  We have to find these avatars before it’s too late!”Quercus gave him a patronizing look.  “And how do you propose we do that?  We don’t even have a lead on who any of them are.  We could waste months of our time doing nothing, while The Lady of Blood and Bas’ other servants sabotage our entire kingdom.  At the very least, we have to find proof.”Raz was fuming at this point.  “Well, fine!  Waste your time with politics and pointless battles!  We’re talking about the truth of reality here!  We’re being contacted by some godlike being, giving us strange instructions, and we don’t even know who she is!  We don’t know who this Bas is either, and we’re not going to find out by hacking a few of her servants apart.  She might even be our real master, and we’re foolish enough to fight her!  And what about the goddesses? After what we read and heard in Delaspie, do we even know if they’re really goddesses?  How can you trust them, or their priests, or even the entire nation of Methosilang at this point?  Forget it.  Do what you want.  I’m going to find the truth.  Maybe if I’m feeling generous, I’ll share the answers I find with you.”  With that, he turned to leave.The rest of the party spent six months in or helping Methosilang.  In addition to just dealing with minor threats in and around the city, they went on raids against the orcs, tried playing politics, and rooted out any Bas spies or temples that they could find.  They fought lycanthropes, cultists, and more of the strange half-machine creatures like Tanos.  While it was dangerous work, they were well rewarded, earning many priceless treasures (about half of which they immediately sold,) and learning much of their enemies, and how to fight them.  Here is a brief summary of the major events of the six months.Flix disappeared for the first month of so.  He said he had “business” elsewhere, but wouldn’t elaborate.  Rudyard had his suspicions, though, and warned the party to be extra careful around Flix from now on.  He realized that Flix was developing more of his psychic powers, and didn’t know how far he would have to go to do so.  What if he was willing to join Bas to gain power?Meanwhile, it was a difficult period for Methosilang.  Despite the party’s best efforts, a number of fairly difficult problems struck.  A building in the capital city was “accidentally” destroyed, there was a fire, a plague, and a military revolt that swept across many of their cities (though, fortunately, none of their major cities that were protected by the protection of the goddesses.  However, the worst thing that happened in Methosilang was a sudden worsening in relations with Delaspie.  Things started when a band of orcs apparently snuck into the city using one of the underground tunnels connecting Delaspie with Methosilang.  The Delaspie government blamed Methosilang for their poor security, Methosilang denied involvement, and things worsened from there until the former close allies were merely neutral.  It was obvious to the party that this was the work of Bas’ servants, but they still couldn’t prove anything.But not everything that happened to Methosilang was bad.  The most unusual event occurred a few months in, when a band of surface travelers were surrounded by a vastly larger and more powerful undead force.  The travelers were ready to fight to the last, but the undead indicated they were ready to parley!  One of them gave the group a message, which was delivered to the king and queen after being tested for magic and poison.  According to the message, the undead empire was willing to enter into a truce with Methosilang, effective immediately!  This strange event, sadly, only lasted a few months, before it ended as mysteriously as it began, but to the party, this meant something significant.  It meant Bas’ servants were interfering with the undead empire as well, but that the undead are aware of it as well, and perhaps were even more willing to fight Bas than Methosilang itself!The other major positive events occurred because of the party directly, and were focused on the orc empire.  In between attempts to stop Bas, the party led Methosilang raids into the orc’s territory, sneaking into their weapons development facilities and dragon hatcheries.  They managed to recover two very important items as a result.  First, they gained some of the guns that the orcs have been able to use, and information about how to make them.  The Ordhari temple and its followers were very grateful for the information, and promised that they would have weaponry as advanced as the orcs very soon.  Even better, the party raided a special breeding center for the dragons, and came out with dozens of strange eggs that have never been seen before.  Some looked tainted with evil magic, but others were as large as a house, and either partially transparent, or radiated many different colors.  A few looked like standard dragon eggs, but were multi-colored, and had properties of two different types of dragon eggs.  For now, the party handed all of the eggs over to the royal family of Methosilang, until it can be discovered what they are.However, these setbacks didn’t make the orcs any more cautious.  In fact, emboldened by Delaspie separation from Methosilang (and perhaps by a few choice words in the right ears,) they declared all-out war on Delaspie.  Though logic would dictate that the undead empire and Methosilang would enter the war on the appropriate sides, both stayed out of it, owing to their brief cessation of attacks and the undead and orc empires having a similar broken alliance.  Despite the party’s best efforts, it looks like Bas and her servants were succeeding in wreaking havoc across the continent.The party had a loss among their own, as well.  Near the end of the six months, the party was gathered together, mostly, when Rudyard suddenly ran in.  “Guys, come quick!” he yelled.  “It’s Flix.  Something terrible has happened.”“What?” a suddenly concerned Tal asked.“He’s been murdered.”As the party rushed to follow Rudyard, he explained the story.  “Flix was working to improve his social standing in town while earning a reputation in the local ‘guild,’ when he suddenly collapsed.  He had been poisoned, and the only one who could have done it was someone with a lot of prestige and power.”The party arranged for the body to be taken to Necropolis and paid for the costs to have him raised, but it was not a total success.  When he returned, he was groggy and confused, even more than one would expect considering the circumstances.  The priest who performed the raising took the party to one side and explained.  “I’m afraid there were some problems.  He came with me back to his body willingly, but at the last moment, he suddenly turned his thoughts back to the realm we were escaping from.  His mind became literally locked to that realm, and though I could free him, part of his mind remained there.  He lost a lot of his intelligence as a result.  I don’t think he’ll ever be as smart as he was before.”The concerned party rushed to Flix’s side.  Though he was glad to see them, he also was obviously trying to say something he didn’t want to say.  “Guys, I, uh, know what happened to me.  I can’t think as well as I used to, but I think I know one thing.  I don’t want to adventure any more.  Don’t be upset, it isn’t your fault.  It’s just that I can’t take the risk any more.  I don’t want something even worse than this to happen to me.”  Though the party accepted what he said and understood his reasons, it was nonetheless a tearful goodbye.Tal and Tsine, on the other hand, did very well over this period.  Not only did they help fight back the enemies of Methosilang, but also they let the nobility know how integral the party was in the country’s defenses.  They were soon rewarded for their work with official noble titles.  Being of noble families but too far down their respective family lines to benefit from it normally, this was a real boon.  They pooled their resources to establish a new manor in the noble sector.  It wasn’t too impressive, admittedly, and odd that two nobles were forced to share a house, but they were just starting out, after all, so it was no big concern.  This manor became the new base of operations for the party.  Tal, however, wasn’t satisfied, and he decided that once things clamed down a bit, he would try to become even more important in the city.  He even tried to court one of the princesses of the kingdom!  Though she barely gave him the time of day.Finally, the six months ended.  With war breaking out, it was becoming obvious to the party that they couldn’t just try to stop the plans of Bas’ servants when they see them.  They need to take the fight to her, or at least her main officers.  But how to find them?  As they pondered this, Quercus realized that with Shedell’s help, they could find at least one of them: her archrival, the Lady of Blood.OOC Notes:  All of this basically happened over the course of one game.  I created a system that was fairly complex to let people decide what to do with their time, and then roll on random tables to get the result.  These results combined with various other factors to determine the events that occurred in each kingdom over that time.  The results, after quite a bit of abridging, were what you see here.  I’ll probably take a break and post just an excerpt tomorrow, but I’ll have a full update again on Thursday with any luck.</blockquote>

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