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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9069826" data-attributes="member: 42582">You're welcome, and thanks!If the declared action to open the portal, using Ritual and based on "conjecturing that it led to Auxol or the vicinity" had succeeded, then yes the player's intent and task would have been achieved.But because the roll failed, the GM - as per the rules of the game - narrated a consequence which defeated the intent. In this case, the destination was unfamiliar (a cave) and the portal was unstable (flickering, about to close). The successful check on Symbology established that it opened about 100 miles east (closer to Auxol than Evard's tower) - this is intent and task being honoured given the success. But then the failed check to hold the portal open meant that the GM narrated a consequence that defeated the intent (ie the portal closed).It's also worth noting that the whole reason that opening in Auxol or vicinity is a relevant concerns is because of player choices made during the build and play of Thurgon: those choices (i) establish Auxol as his home, and (ii) establish that he cares about it and wishes to restore it to its former glory. Likewise the whole reason that Evard and Xanthippe are connected, and hence that it is suggested in the fiction that there might be a magical means of moving between Xanthippe's home and Evard's tower, is that Thurgon has a relationship to his mother as part of his (player-established) build.To begin, the same note as above applies: the whole reason that Rufus and his master feature in play is because of the player-established backstory for Thurgon, its mechanical manifestation (the Affiliation with family), and then the action declaration that triggers the Circles check.Likewise for Evard: the whole reason this is an element of play is because, in an earlier session, Aramina succeeded at a Great Masters-wise check when she (as played by me) seemed to recall that Evard's tower was in the general vicinity of where she and Thurgon were travelling.As to how those mysteries will resolve, it would depend on the details of play. For instance, the GM might frame a scene which reveals Rufus's  "master". Or it might make sense for me (as player) to declare an action in which something about Rufus or the "master" is recalled.In my view, these examples show that RPGing in which the players establish what is at stake can also be RPGing in which there are mysteries. It works by using different ways of resolving action declarations from the approach of the GM reads their map and notes - that is a common in D&D and many other RPGs, but not the only possibility.</blockquote>

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