Haraiva in Darkness - Greybar's Storyhour (9/15 update)
- Thread starter Greybar
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Greybar
No Trouble at All
Thanks Seasong! Now the tough part will be remembering to update the teasers in my .sig
I'm curious as to people's preferences on the fight scenes. I like writing them and try to keep them abbreviated to the essence. Heck, these are from almost two years ago, so I can't give round-by-round if I wanted to. The things that stick in my mind are the easy parts. Or, as Vertius Goldenthroat teaches: they are they things that are true, even if they didn't occur.
Similarly, I fully expect that I'll incidentlly let slip plot clues that players didn't get way back when due to GM forgetfulness or PCs not asking the "right" questions. And forget to mention plot-clues they did pick up, etc.
John
I'm curious as to people's preferences on the fight scenes. I like writing them and try to keep them abbreviated to the essence. Heck, these are from almost two years ago, so I can't give round-by-round if I wanted to. The things that stick in my mind are the easy parts. Or, as Vertius Goldenthroat teaches: they are they things that are true, even if they didn't occur.
Similarly, I fully expect that I'll incidentlly let slip plot clues that players didn't get way back when due to GM forgetfulness or PCs not asking the "right" questions. And forget to mention plot-clues they did pick up, etc.
John
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Greybar
No Trouble at All
"Hunters become hunted", part one
Syra ran. Calling upon her discipline, she willed her legs to keep moving.
When the Matriarch's Bloodguard came knocking on her door, she didn't even try to pretend. She had slammed wedges under the door and in-between the hinges, wedges that had been waiting against this day. She fled out a back window, descending down two stories of wall with her hands gripping the smooth wood effortlessly. The time for subtlety was past. Passers by either gawked or fled. The use of magic in New Gorkana is a capital offense.
Pallas was dead. Sarata was missing. Fenden denied ever knowing her. The others had gone to ground, hopefully with more success than she had.
"Sarata!" Syra cursed the Abantine mystic's name under her breath. "Always" [breathe] "though you knew what was best". "Didn't want to listen" [dodge around a tree] "to the rest of us."
She heard the cry of the bloodhawk too late. She ducked reflexively. The talons raked along the back of her neck. If she had spun to look it would have doubtless tried to tear out her eyes as it was trained.
The hunters must be on her. If I stop to fight the hawk with my blade, they'll catch up. If keep running, it will eventually bleed me to death. Unless I can get a quiet moment to draw power, I cannot knock it from the sky, and I hear their hawks are resistent to power. Must keep running and look for better options.
---
Karrinkas pads between the trees. He hears the voices and footsteps of the others just far enough behind. It affords him a measure of quiet and space to scout ahead. He wrinkles his nose in the air, taking in the scent of recent passage. There is the acrid musk of the lizard-hounds here, though faint. His ears rise. The rapid crunch of human boots running without heed to stealth and the cry of a hawk.
He rises on his hind paws, getting a better position on the sound, and waves a signal to Balius. Balius relays it to the group, and they go quiet. Karrinkas drops back to all fours and races silently along the ground, instinctively moving from cover to cover in search of the sound.
He sees a human female crashing through the trees, a hawk swooping and diving at her. She has a shortsword at her waist, but seems more intent on getting away than turning to fight the hawk. She circles a tree with thick branches, trying to put it between her and the hawk for a moment to catch her breath. He considers for the briefest moment, and springs forward in a pounce. One claw catches the side of the hawk unawares and bats it into a roll. The hawk screetches and darts away. The woman stares wide-eyed at the Karranas then dashes up the tree with amazing speed.
"I mean you no harm" Karrinkas says slowly in his best moonborn. He knows that most human women can also speak moonborn, so he tries his best to enunciate clearly.
She pauses in the crook of two branches. A weak smile crosses her face. Her look turns to alarm once more as two longbow arrows slam into Karrinkas' flank in quick succession.
Syra ran. Calling upon her discipline, she willed her legs to keep moving.
When the Matriarch's Bloodguard came knocking on her door, she didn't even try to pretend. She had slammed wedges under the door and in-between the hinges, wedges that had been waiting against this day. She fled out a back window, descending down two stories of wall with her hands gripping the smooth wood effortlessly. The time for subtlety was past. Passers by either gawked or fled. The use of magic in New Gorkana is a capital offense.
Pallas was dead. Sarata was missing. Fenden denied ever knowing her. The others had gone to ground, hopefully with more success than she had.
"Sarata!" Syra cursed the Abantine mystic's name under her breath. "Always" [breathe] "though you knew what was best". "Didn't want to listen" [dodge around a tree] "to the rest of us."
She heard the cry of the bloodhawk too late. She ducked reflexively. The talons raked along the back of her neck. If she had spun to look it would have doubtless tried to tear out her eyes as it was trained.
The hunters must be on her. If I stop to fight the hawk with my blade, they'll catch up. If keep running, it will eventually bleed me to death. Unless I can get a quiet moment to draw power, I cannot knock it from the sky, and I hear their hawks are resistent to power. Must keep running and look for better options.
---
Karrinkas pads between the trees. He hears the voices and footsteps of the others just far enough behind. It affords him a measure of quiet and space to scout ahead. He wrinkles his nose in the air, taking in the scent of recent passage. There is the acrid musk of the lizard-hounds here, though faint. His ears rise. The rapid crunch of human boots running without heed to stealth and the cry of a hawk.
He rises on his hind paws, getting a better position on the sound, and waves a signal to Balius. Balius relays it to the group, and they go quiet. Karrinkas drops back to all fours and races silently along the ground, instinctively moving from cover to cover in search of the sound.
He sees a human female crashing through the trees, a hawk swooping and diving at her. She has a shortsword at her waist, but seems more intent on getting away than turning to fight the hawk. She circles a tree with thick branches, trying to put it between her and the hawk for a moment to catch her breath. He considers for the briefest moment, and springs forward in a pounce. One claw catches the side of the hawk unawares and bats it into a roll. The hawk screetches and darts away. The woman stares wide-eyed at the Karranas then dashes up the tree with amazing speed.
"I mean you no harm" Karrinkas says slowly in his best moonborn. He knows that most human women can also speak moonborn, so he tries his best to enunciate clearly.
She pauses in the crook of two branches. A weak smile crosses her face. Her look turns to alarm once more as two longbow arrows slam into Karrinkas' flank in quick succession.
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Indigo Veil
First Post
<gives the thread a gentle bump with her pompoms, and gives Greybar a gentle nudge towards an update>
<whispers> Psst. I wanna see some really arrogant sunborns topple from their heights, but I figure that before I can see that happen, Karrinkas, at the very least, has to get those arrows outta his bu...uh, flank.
<whispers> Psst. I wanna see some really arrogant sunborns topple from their heights, but I figure that before I can see that happen, Karrinkas, at the very least, has to get those arrows outta his bu...uh, flank.
Greybar
No Trouble at All
"Hunters become hunted", part two
The two groups spot each other at about the same time. Balius sees Karrinkas hit by the arrows and crouches into a turn until the archer comes into view. He sees the sunborn hunter notching another arrow, the symbol of House Gorkana visible on her cloak. Balius shouts back to the others "Gorkana!" and raises his shortbow, winging an arrow into the tree next to her. The archer looses another two arrows at Karrinkas but he is ready this time and easily dodges them.
The archer shouts over her shoulder, and four moonborn emerge from the trees.
"The sorceress has friends, kill the rebels and bring her back."
They draw their axes and advance.
Samus quickly takes the lead, scanning the moonborn for the one with battle honors on his armor or other signs of leadership. He picks him out, a big man with a greataxe of his own. "You! I am Samus called the Lucky. Yield or die."
He flourishes his greataxe in a salute.
The leader of the moonborn draws his own greataxe and matches the salute. "I am Erinus. I yield to no rebel mage-friend."
The two crash together. The greataxes swing in vicious blows. Erinus is clearly stronger than Samus, but more clumsy in his footwork.
Daphna screens Arlissa for a moment as the cleric calls upon the heat of the sun, pulling its power into the archer's armor. At first she doesn't notice, loosing two more arrows at the charging Karrinkas. She notices the heat as she draws her swords and makes her first attacks on the Karranas, and then it is too late. Her hawk notices something is wrong as her armor begins to smoke. It dives madly around her, trying to keep Karrinkas away as its mistress slumps, her skin blackening. Karrinkas swats the hawk from the sky for a final time and it lies twitching next to the burnt corpse of the archer. Karrinkas pokes hesitantly at the body as it steams against the earth.[1]
He looks up to see the other side of the battle has gone smoothly. Balius stands over a cowering man. Samus' opponent is dead after a tough fight, and Daphna has dispatched the other two.
Balius' captive is interrogated, but it quickly becomes apparent that the lowest ranking member of a hunting group is not the best source of information. He carries the name of Snorri. His job was to follow the sunborn, Krishena Gorkana, in hunting down an enemy of the Matriarch that had fled the city. She was to be brought back to the Matriarch alive for questioning. No one is willing to kill him in cold blood. Well, no one except for Berke, perhaps. Then comes the question of rearming him before letting him go.
"If he don't let him take his axe, he'll never make it back to the city. He won't have a chance against the lizard-hounds."
"If he has to fight them, he won't survive even with his axe. If he doesn't have his axe, we won't have to worry about him trying to kill us in the night."
"No, please. I swear all I want to do his get back out of the woods. I swear you won't see me again."
"If we do see you again, you're dead. You know that, don't you."
"Here, you can have your axe. Get out of here."
Snorri crashes through the trees heading north.
"If he makes it, we have to assume she'll know where we are in two days."
"She'll know where we were. Not that we know where we're going."
"... but we know where we've been. The future's uncertain..."
"Knock it off, Balius."
"Well, wherever that 'sorceress' was going sounds good to me."
"So where is she, anyway?"
"She's right over there, up that... crap. She must have taken off again. Give me a minute."
Two legs are hard pressed to outrun four. Karrinkas is soon bounding alongside her. "Hello. I still mean you no harm."
[1] That's right folks, heat metal can be quite deadly to a 4th level fighter/ranger. I think that Karrinkas got at least one blow in on her and Balius might have hit her once with an arrow, but the huge surprise for me as a GM was the spell.
The two groups spot each other at about the same time. Balius sees Karrinkas hit by the arrows and crouches into a turn until the archer comes into view. He sees the sunborn hunter notching another arrow, the symbol of House Gorkana visible on her cloak. Balius shouts back to the others "Gorkana!" and raises his shortbow, winging an arrow into the tree next to her. The archer looses another two arrows at Karrinkas but he is ready this time and easily dodges them.
The archer shouts over her shoulder, and four moonborn emerge from the trees.
"The sorceress has friends, kill the rebels and bring her back."
They draw their axes and advance.
Samus quickly takes the lead, scanning the moonborn for the one with battle honors on his armor or other signs of leadership. He picks him out, a big man with a greataxe of his own. "You! I am Samus called the Lucky. Yield or die."
He flourishes his greataxe in a salute.
The leader of the moonborn draws his own greataxe and matches the salute. "I am Erinus. I yield to no rebel mage-friend."
The two crash together. The greataxes swing in vicious blows. Erinus is clearly stronger than Samus, but more clumsy in his footwork.
Daphna screens Arlissa for a moment as the cleric calls upon the heat of the sun, pulling its power into the archer's armor. At first she doesn't notice, loosing two more arrows at the charging Karrinkas. She notices the heat as she draws her swords and makes her first attacks on the Karranas, and then it is too late. Her hawk notices something is wrong as her armor begins to smoke. It dives madly around her, trying to keep Karrinkas away as its mistress slumps, her skin blackening. Karrinkas swats the hawk from the sky for a final time and it lies twitching next to the burnt corpse of the archer. Karrinkas pokes hesitantly at the body as it steams against the earth.[1]
He looks up to see the other side of the battle has gone smoothly. Balius stands over a cowering man. Samus' opponent is dead after a tough fight, and Daphna has dispatched the other two.
Balius' captive is interrogated, but it quickly becomes apparent that the lowest ranking member of a hunting group is not the best source of information. He carries the name of Snorri. His job was to follow the sunborn, Krishena Gorkana, in hunting down an enemy of the Matriarch that had fled the city. She was to be brought back to the Matriarch alive for questioning. No one is willing to kill him in cold blood. Well, no one except for Berke, perhaps. Then comes the question of rearming him before letting him go.
"If he don't let him take his axe, he'll never make it back to the city. He won't have a chance against the lizard-hounds."
"If he has to fight them, he won't survive even with his axe. If he doesn't have his axe, we won't have to worry about him trying to kill us in the night."
"No, please. I swear all I want to do his get back out of the woods. I swear you won't see me again."
"If we do see you again, you're dead. You know that, don't you."
"Here, you can have your axe. Get out of here."
Snorri crashes through the trees heading north.
"If he makes it, we have to assume she'll know where we are in two days."
"She'll know where we were. Not that we know where we're going."
"... but we know where we've been. The future's uncertain..."
"Knock it off, Balius."
"Well, wherever that 'sorceress' was going sounds good to me."
"So where is she, anyway?"
"She's right over there, up that... crap. She must have taken off again. Give me a minute."
Two legs are hard pressed to outrun four. Karrinkas is soon bounding alongside her. "Hello. I still mean you no harm."
[1] That's right folks, heat metal can be quite deadly to a 4th level fighter/ranger. I think that Karrinkas got at least one blow in on her and Balius might have hit her once with an arrow, but the huge surprise for me as a GM was the spell.
Greybar
No Trouble at All
Thanks for the push Christina.
That may be a while... [grin]
Actually, I'm thinking about skipping ahead to the more recent storyline and leave an outline behind to fill in. We've just had the first PC death last Sunday and the more recent plot is a lot more involved and interesting.
John
That may be a while... [grin]
Actually, I'm thinking about skipping ahead to the more recent storyline and leave an outline behind to fill in. We've just had the first PC death last Sunday and the more recent plot is a lot more involved and interesting.
John
Indigo Veil
First Post
Pushing: No problem. I did it for purely selfish reasons anyway. ^^;; Like I said, I want to get to the "sunborns toppling from unstable heights" part. I like toppling. 'S'fun. ^_^
Skipping ahead: Do what you think is necessary. I understand how daunting keeping an updated story hour is, particularly when the campaign's a coupla sessions ahead of where the writing is. (I'm usually in this boat. Eh-heh heh heh...)
PC deaths: I don't think I've ever experienced a PC death before (but then, I've not been gaming very long, either)...but I can see how absolutely wrenching that can be. There was once in one of Thomas' games that an NPC (to whom I was rather attached) died in a horrible manner, and I was so distraught that I actually wept. ^^;;; (Yes. I'm also a sap. I acknowledge and accept this.) She didn't even leave behind a body to bury, she was so mutilated. <sniff>
It happened in Thomas' version of a gritty Victorian England, where magic and steampunk tech elements come together, and where you can die at any moment because of Bad Stuff! O.O!! When Queen of Shadows is over (or even before it's over), we're going to start our next campaign there, and I can't wait! =^^=
Oops. Sorry for the thread hijack. On with Haraiva! </plug> ^.^
Skipping ahead: Do what you think is necessary. I understand how daunting keeping an updated story hour is, particularly when the campaign's a coupla sessions ahead of where the writing is. (I'm usually in this boat. Eh-heh heh heh...)
PC deaths: I don't think I've ever experienced a PC death before (but then, I've not been gaming very long, either)...but I can see how absolutely wrenching that can be. There was once in one of Thomas' games that an NPC (to whom I was rather attached) died in a horrible manner, and I was so distraught that I actually wept. ^^;;; (Yes. I'm also a sap. I acknowledge and accept this.) She didn't even leave behind a body to bury, she was so mutilated. <sniff>
It happened in Thomas' version of a gritty Victorian England, where magic and steampunk tech elements come together, and where you can die at any moment because of Bad Stuff! O.O!! When Queen of Shadows is over (or even before it's over), we're going to start our next campaign there, and I can't wait! =^^=
Oops. Sorry for the thread hijack. On with Haraiva! </plug> ^.^
Greybar
No Trouble at All
Ah, well the good news is that this is D&D and Arlissa just became capable of casting Raise Dead about six in-game days before the death occurred. Now all they need is a 500gp diamond, that and they have to find the corpse of the dear unnamed-for-dramatic-effect PC.
If they thought the PC was beyond help I think it would be more wrenching for them. Instead, the player is even now starting to plot with me as to the nature of the soul's journey into the land of death.
John
Greybar
No Trouble at All
Your feedback on PrCs
Sidebar here for the mechnically minded:
I'm looking for feedback on two PrCs meant for the heroes here.
Llassan Soul of Light
and
Avenger of Tarranus
Thanks for any feedback, but please keep posts about such to those threads.
John
Sidebar here for the mechnically minded:
I'm looking for feedback on two PrCs meant for the heroes here.
Llassan Soul of Light
and
Avenger of Tarranus
Thanks for any feedback, but please keep posts about such to those threads.
John
ArlissaLlassa
First Post
Oh, I agree... that ought to be fun....
HEY! Waitaminnit! I resemble that remark!
Yeah, that surprised all of us. That was a "Whaddya mean she's dead?!?" moment for the player/character as well.
It also helps that the last two encounters were very dangerous, and we had resigned ourselves to losing a character. In emails between those sessions, I had advised other players that we had to keep Arlissa alive, and if anyone fell, we had to keep fighting till we drove off our adversary, or we wouldn't have access to raise dead and permanent character loss would result.
Besides, most of this group could deal pretty well with character death, as long as the character went out with style.
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