IRON DM 2015 Tournament

[Rune]

Judgement for Round 2, Match 1: Wicht vs. Deuce Traveler

Right from the start, it is clear that one of these two entries is much more polished than the other. In part, this is because it is a far more linear adventure. This linearity is both a strength and weakness of the adventure. It gives it focus, but not without a cost. On the other hand, the other adventure's wide-open possibility and ambiguity is its own strength and weakness. We'll get to all of that, though. For now, ingredients:

The First Day in "The Lost Crayon Caper" ("Caper") holds significance not only as the backdrop during which the entire adventure plays out, but also as a source of tension. It is important to remember that all of the complications of the adventure have been simmering all summer long. This gives the whole adventure a kind of latent energy that a good DM (GM) will find ways to harness throughout the running of the game. "The Brothers Makeembo" ("Brothers") doesn't quite measure up with this ingredient. It also appears as backdrop for (part of) the adventure and establishes a baseline for a timeline of events that will certainly complicate things, to say the least. But the first day, itself, is only a starting point.

The Lonely Ranger in each entry has some problems. In "Brothers," she essentially serves as a crossroads for the PCs, as, once they retrieve the pearls from her, it's time to commit to a course (if they haven't already). This is a good function. But her loneliness (because her animal companion is missing? Dead?) is irrelevant. Similarly, in "Caper," while Reynold's loneliness is better developed--and is expected to be the lever PCs use to gain his assistance--there really could be many other ways to make that happen (which is good for the adventure, but bad for the ingredient). But this leads to a bit of a problem: it has to happen or the adventure doesn't continue. It becomes a choke-point through which the PCs must successfully navigate in order to progress.

Both entries also use the Mighty Leap in similar ways--and with similar problems. "Caper gives us another choke-point; progress requires success in a challenge that cannot be (reasonably) circumnavigated (as written, anyway). Of course, with no penalty for failure, the PCs can just keep trying, but if that's the case, why include it at all? It doesn't matter. "Brothers" also presents a choke-point, if the PCs side with the Air and Water Spirits. If they side with the Fire and Earth Spirits, they won't even get to this one. Here, at least, failure is a meaningful risk.

The Rotten Hull in "Brothers" is mere scenery. It serves no purpose in the adventure. "Caper," on the other hand, gives us something that needs to be rotten and needs to be a hollow hull. And, in so doing, gives us a cool--and dynamic--encounter scene (I love the idea of the PCs dodging the robot and causing it to smash the hideout to bits as it tries to hit them). And an unanswered mystery/hook for future gaming: how did it get there in the first place? Well done.

Both entries use the Undone Deed as the focus of their adventures. The difference between the two is that "Brothers" uses the undone deed as a springboard for adventure and "Caper" actually has the PCs undo the deed. In "Caper," the ingredient is the adventure. It doesn't get more relevant or interconnected than that.

But "Caper" can't keep up the relevance with the Unfinished Masterpiece. It is well-integrated into the adventure as both hook and reward, but what it actually is doesn't matter. The adventure plays out almost the same way if it doesn't exist at all and (for instance) Snap just stole Vesper's milk-money (with the caveat that this wouldn't incorporate the tension built up over the summer). In "Brothers," it plays a much smaller role, but it at least is irreplaceable and integral, if--and only if--the PCs side with the Air and Water Spirits.

"Brothers" gives us a Deposed King who will be a major player, no matter whether he is a patron or a foe. This is the entry's strongest ingredient, because it is the main source of all of the adventure's conflict, and there is simply no getting around it. In contrast, "Caper" gives us a deposed king who is potentially a tremendously fun complication to the adventure, but does not actually need to exist for the adventure to work.

It looks like "Caper" has the edge with the ingredients. This leads us to the adventures, themselves.

It is interesting to note that each entry has two ingredients that highlight problems in the adventures' structures. For "Brothers," these are otherwise (comparatively) well-implemented ingredients: the mighty leap and the unfinished masterpiece--both of which only become relevant if the PCs choose to side against the king.

The thing is, we are given interesting challenges for the PCs to face if they choose this route, but nothing if they choose the opposite. This is a pretty big oversight for an adventure that is built on the strength of its free-form nature and ambiguity. Also, it would be great to know what the opposing sides (no matter which they are) do to hinder the PCs, because, if it's nothing, that's a giant missed opportunity.

In "Caper," we get choke-points in the form of the lonely ranger (whom the PCs must successfully enlist) and the mighty leap (which must be attempted, over and over, if necessary). The overall linearity of the adventure would otherwise not be problematic, but these two things are potentially pretty big challenges to overcome when running the game.

[sblock]But there's something else about the piece that really bothers me on a fundamental level. "Caper" goes out of its way to point out that, should the adventure be successfully completed, nothing will really change. None of the major players will learn anything about themselves or others (even Reynolds, who gains a new motivation, doesn't actually change anything).

No status quo will shift (aside from the possible coronation of a new "King of the Monkey-Bars"). The classroom dynamic will remain pretty much the same (with the important exception that the PCs will earn the enmity of Victor--but even that won't represent any meaningful change for Victor).

And everyone will keep repeating the same patterns of behavior. This is an adventure devoid of meaningful consequences. Even as the one-shot that this adventure was likely intended to be, that's an unsatisfying conclusion.

This seems particularly incongruent with the curiously mature themes that we are presented with throughout. The coquettish artist. The milk addiction. Bomb-identification classes and a blown-up hideout. (When I envision this playing out, part of me wants to see it animated, South Park style.) These themes had me looking forward to something that ran a little deeper than the conclusion delivered, I think.

Wicht, if I had only read each entry casually, yours was going to be the winner. It was tight, polished, had a fun premise, and had some very interesting NPCs to interact with. And, because of those features, I think it would be pretty easy to fix the problems that I see in it. I still would like to run this one someday.

Deuce Traveler's entry is sloppier, uses its ingredients (a little) less well, and is somewhat under-developed. It would probably take more work to make it really ready to run. But it is fundamentally sound and, frankly, has more adventure in it, as well as the good kind of unanswered questions. I look at it and I see something that I can do more with.

And even now, I'm torn about which set of virtues I value more. I guess it'll come down to this: while entirely (maybe even easily) fixable, the lack of meaningful consequences in "Caper" seems to me a fatal flaw; its implications color the whole of the adventure. "Brothers" has its flaws, but none so fundamental that they do likewise. And that's where I'll hang my judgement.

Deuce Traveler advances to the Championship Round. [/sblock]

 

[Wicht]

Well, you can't win them all... congratulations Deuce Traveler.

The defense (not to argue with the judge, but just to provide insight)...
I knew as I was working on this particular one that I was taking a chance. Because, the defects that Rune points out, and I agree with him in their existence and was aware of them as I entered the submission, were not meant to be so much bugs as features. It struck me sometime after I submitted, though I don't recall now how long after, that one mistake I made was in not including a line somewhere implying this was a scenario meant to be run with children. It was also done in the manner of a children's serial, aka. cartoon series. In fact I had originally toyed with the idea of making it a TOON adventure to convey this, but realized if I actually ever statted it up, FATE would be a better fit, so did that.

I should have had the intro blurb read: "A S.P.I.E.S. FATE adventure for 1-4 players, ages 8 and up.

Because of the age group being aimed for, failure was not meant to be life or death. This affected how I decided to handle the ravine, which I admit was a feeble attempt to use an ingredient I didn't have an integral use for, plot-wise.

The lack of real changes to the basic setup is integral to a light-hearted serial where the interactions between known characters provide the entertainment, rather than the possibility of drastic changes. You typically know, going in to a Batman story, for instance, that the Joker is not going to get killed, and that any setback he experiences has no bearing on his future activities. Even more so in a children's serial is this true. Thus at the end, it is vital that all changes be rather superficial. I was thinking of this as episode one of season two of a campaign, not necessarily as a one-shot. This is the episode that sets up the character dynamics for the rest of the season.

Like I said, I knew submitting it that it was taking a chance to do it this way. And perhaps I should have tried to convey the intent better.

The entry was inspired by JL8 (which if you don't know what it is, you should look into it), James Bond, and certain cartoon series featuring kid protagonists. It contained a few "easter eggs." Explaining them might ruin the fun, but I thought I would point them out and let interested parties have a go at figuring them out before clicking the spoiler button to see what they referenced...

[sblock=Vesper Lynx]Vesper Lynd is the "Bond Girl" from Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel[/sblock]
[sblock=Ziggy Krycsiwiki]He's a young Jaws, from the Bond series. Ziggy is a nick-name, but the last name is true to Jaws actual name.[/sblock]
[sblock=John Reynolds]The Lone Ranger is thought to have been inspired by a Texas ranger named John Reynold's Hughes. John Reid was the name of the tv character.[/sblock]
[sblock=Victor Von Mood]This one I thought was really obvious. Mood is just Doom spelled backwards.[/sblock]
[sblock=Mr. Carre]John le Carre is the pen-name of David John Moore, who writes spy novels[/sblock]

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Wicht, I thought your entry was pretty imaginative and it looks like it would be quite a bit of fun for GM and players alike.

 

[Rune]

Judgement for Round 2, Match 2: Iron Sky vs. Gradine

I must confess to a certain degree of disappointment that neither entry in this match tried to tackle these ingredients in a more traditional fantasy adventure (since many people avoid the suggested themes in the genre). That said, both selections of setting work very well for their entries and the adventures that emerge both look to be quite fun. As usual, we'll explore the ingredients used before we examine those adventures in more depth.

First, the Un-funhouse. I've literally been waiting for years to see how entrants might use this ingredient. With no traditional definition to work with, the ingredient requires interpretation. Is it a house that isn't fun, or something that isn't a funhouse in any way? Or some other interpretation? In "The Fittest" ("Fit"), we have elements of a former funhouse turned into a home and not a hint of fun within. But those funhouse elements don't really add anything to the adventure. They're just scenery. That appears to be the case with "Laboratory #AAAAAA" ("Lab"), but the depiction of a funhouse that actively works against fun does add something to the adventure--a sense that the PCs are being observed (and manipulated) by sinister beings. Which, of course, is probably true.

But "Lab" doesn't really present us with much in the way of Regret. "Fit" uses the ingredient as a reinforcement of its themes and, cleverly, as the expected payoff for the completion of the adventure.

Its usage of the Defensive Position is also good, because it pretty much guarantees that, by the time the PCs get past it, stakes have been raised pretty high. It's one thing to cake-walk into a lair, be confronted with helpless innocents and maybe decide to be merciful. It's a harder decision when you only barely survived getting that far. But, "Lab" is just as good. It gives the position to the PCs and good reason to want to use it effectively, but punishes them for doing so. That's proper rat bastardy, right there.

Unfortunately, both entries use the Narrow Path in much the same, uninspired way (and there was such potential to tie it in thematically, too). In "Lab," we don't really have enough detail to do much with it and I have to wonder, in "Fit," would it be so hard for the PCs to just sweep the shards of glass aside, somehow?

"Lab" uses a couple of different versions of Blighted Crops. The first, the (single) blighting riding crop is a bit of a stretch. It could also be argued that the townsfolk, themselves, are a type of blighted crop for the Grays, who seek knowledge of corruption and evil in their human experiments. This, too, is a bit of a stretch, but an interesting one. The ingredient is used in a much more straightforward way in "Fit," but it also does something very important: it creates conflict--importantly, pretty much all of the conflict of the adventure. This, alone, would be pretty good, but "Fit" takes it a step further, adding an additional layer of conflict to the ingredient. But I do wish there was a clearer means of conveying the reveal that the mutants eat (only) the rot. As presented, it seems too easy to miss.

"Lab" also presents Gray Area in multiple ways. Thematically, it is present through its lack. Their isn't much ambiguity between good and evil, here. In fact, entry into the control room demands that distinction. As the control room of the Grays, itself, the ingredient works. As the area of earth that the Grays control (according to treaty), it is quite clever, indeed. But all of those pale next to the strong theme presented in "Fit." Even its use as a setting in that adventure reinforces the moral struggles that dominate the piece. This is unquestionably the strongest ingredient in the entry and serves as a framework for the entire adventure.

Alas, "Fit" doesn't find a way to fold Redeemable Evil into the adventure in a meaningful way--merely leaving the PCs to have to figure out whether or not their (expected) evil actions can be redeemed after everything is over. I say "expected," because I pretty quickly came up with another possibility that the entry doesn't seem to allude to. But I'll get back to that. In "Lab," the use is quite integral--and particularly clever, as well. Evil becomes a redeemable currency, which further defines the Grays as sinister and completely amoral (from a human perspective) scientists. Pretty much everything we know about them is through their actions and the actions of their experiments--which is a tremendously good way to give them character, while emphasizing their alien mindset.

So, we're reasonably close on ingredients. It's in the adventures, themselves, where the competition pulls away.

[sblock]Gradine, you've come a long way in two tournaments (four entries). And I say that as someone who was impressed with your work from the start. Although it hasn't been universal, I will say that I've noticed a tendency for you to lean on more linear adventures, however. This isn't inherently bad. It's just an extra challenge you are presenting yourself, because it's simply harder to write a good linear adventure than a good non-linear one. Here's why: in taking the trust away from the players and DM, you are putting the burden of presenting a Cool adventure on your own shoulders. If you merely provide Cool ingredients that fit together in a meaningful way, you can enable the players (and DM) to cook their own Cool with them. And, not only that, this gives them a sense of ownership over the Coolness, which is also Cool.

All that said, you're adventure is good. My main lament is that the only really interesting decision that the PCs face comes at the end. If you could have seeded the entire adventure with similar decisions, it would have been very, very good.

Now, I did want to say something about that final decision: namely that a third option (I think unintended by the author) is present. I think it entirely possible that the PCs could broker an agreement between the two peoples in which the rot was cultivated, but controlled with the chemical, so that both cultures could live in harmony. This would, of course, require diplomatic relations (and possibly overcoming a language barrier), which means more adventure, which is good. Unintended, or not, the fact that the option is there speaks well for the piece. Yup, it's good.

But sometimes, in IRON DM, good goes up against great, and that's what we have, here. Iron Sky didn't earn his championship pedigree through a fluke; he earned it through solid skills, and this entry showcases his skills at the top of his game. From the detail he gives his characters (which is perfect in form and function), to his carefully crafted synthesis of tone and adventure, to his well-handled field of player and DM options, this is an adventure that begs to be run. Certainly, it will make an appearance in the Iron DM Anthology (which already has two past entries from Iron Sky, by the way). This is a truly superlative adventure.

Gradine, I don't think you're far off from a championship, now. I get the sense that any words of advice I could offer you would be less helpful than the analysis that I'm sure you're already doing.

This time, though, Iron Sky advances to the championship round.[/sblock]

 

[Iron Sky]

I had flutters in my chest as I read the judgement as I really had no idea who was going to win. I loved the mutants needing the rotted human foods in your entry - totally nailed the moral ambiguity and I could see as a player getting that "oh crap, did we just...?" feeling when they figure it out at the end. The Grays of radiation made me say "brilliant!" out-loud when I read it too.

For my adventure, on a first skim of the ingredients, Gray Area mixed with Withered Crop (the crop circle at the beginning) instantly put me in alien-mode. In my original draft, there were nearly twice as many NPCs in town and the Funhouse was much more elaborate (the Narrow Path they had to follow to pass through it without getting ground in its gears), but I had to hack away several pages to get it down to its essence. There was also more elaboration on Evil = Intentional Regrettable Action that didn't make it either.

Have I mentioned I love the word limits? As hard as they are, they force me out of my "everything and the kitchen sink" default mode where I write a mini-novel and die the death of 10k too-many words.

I think I've learned more about writing adventures (and a decent chunk about writing in general) than I have in all the other Iron DMs I've competed in put together.

Thanks for the awesome round, Gradine and Rune for judging!

 

[Rune]

Championship Round: Iron Sky vs. Deuce Traveler

[MENTION=60965]Iron Sky[/MENTION] and [MENTION=34958]Deuce Traveler[/MENTION], you have 48 hours to post your entries to this thread. Please limit your entry to a title, a list of the ingredients used and 2000 additional words. Be aware, also, that any description of those ingredients that you choose to include will count against your word total. Please include your list of ingredients at the beginning of the entry and please do not edit your post once it is submitted. Please refrain from reading your opponent's entry until after you have posted your own. You are on your honor to do so.

Your ingredients are:

Heavenly Body

Fog of War

Sullen Scion

Lawful Good

Any Given Day

Bad Investment

Covenant

Contract

 

[Iron Sky]

Iron DM 2015 Final Entry

Never Enough Place
​

A high-level fantasy adventure.
​

Ingredients
• Heavenly Body
• Fog of War
• Sullen Scion
• Lawful Good
• Any Given Day
• Bad Investment
• Covenant
• Contract


The Center Does Not Hold
Civis: Keeper of Order, God of Organization, Structure, Stability, Pride.
His antithesis and rival, Karne: Boss of Bloodletting, God of Battle, Destruction, Chaos, and Deception.
Interplanar War: eons of favors, oaths, promises, alliances, threats, and any-and-all means of bringing mortal and immortal alike to their banners. No holds barred, no mercy.

This war of extermination between the righteous and the ruthless rages across the multiverse. Millions die. Rare is the refuge left untouched, ubiquitous the refugee fleeing from this devastation or that massacre. So violent and far-reaching the war, some say the stable fundament that holds the universe together is shifted, skewed, or broken.

Hook
If any PCs are divine-focused, an envoy from their god arrives. Otherwise, a messenger from the Celestial Council. Its method and appearance depends on the character of the group. If they are warriors: a grizzled veteran approaching after battle. If rogues: a cloaked figure appearing at their hideout. If arcane: an intelligent familiar. For mystery: a note found in their belongings.

Message essentials:
• The PCs are sought to be officially hired by the Celestial Council. It is made very clear that this service is to the Council as a body rather than any particular heavenly divinity. Upon completion of said contract: enough gold to buy a kingdom. Each.
• The PCs' part, locating a missing deity: one Maya, Mother of All That Exists, Goddess of Physicality, Stability, Space. Last seen: departing the Celestial Council to “halt to this endless butchery.” Likely destinations: Precis, demiplane of Civis; Bale, demiplane of Karne. Due to extensively-used wide-area battlefield anti-divination devices, her exact location is untrackable.
• To aid in search: Cassida Ius Aevum, daughter of an unknown mortal and Janae, Goddess of Time. Usefulness: demiplanar access – adopted daughter of Civis, protégé of Karne. Location: unknown, unlocatable for similar reasons.
• If necessary, divine characters must abandon their faith – final orders from their deities. Finding Maya is “absolutely essential” and will likely require uninvited travel to demiplanes of gods, a feat impossible to other gods and their faithful without express permission as part of the Celestial Covenant etched into the bedrock of reality when the multiverse was formed.

Chasing Cassida
Likely immediate destinations:
• Precis – Civis' standing orders explicitly deny access to non-followers. To become followers, oaths for life backed by undertakings to prove faith and fealty such as destroying one of Karne's armies or war-titans, capturing a fortresses, splitting away a major ally, etc.
• Bale – Karne has similar standing orders, though the tasks his warlord-priests demand are bloodier and more wanton.
• The Celestial Council – Nebulous advice is all the Celestial Council offers. Further aid from any agent of the council might be considered favor or blessing.
• Locate Cassida – The most likely course, perhaps after the difficulty and Covenant-incompatibility of the previous choices is discovered.

Finding Cassida is difficult:
• Cassida is decades old but acts the rebellious teen, currently in the midst of enjoying the delights and depravities of the world. She bores easily and moves often.
• Her Battle Shroud of Karne shields widely from even divine scrying attempts and can summon up a black mist in battle that only she can see through. She uses the mists primarily for dramatic entrances and exits.
• Directions lead astray, maps are incorrect, compasses drift. Something is Wrong and this fact grows increasingly clear as the search for Cassida continues. Travel distances are off, landmarks vanished, constellations skewed, captains and caravans lost on routes they've used for decades.

While searching:
• Massive warcamps recruiting, drafting, conscripting, foraging, scouting, skirmishing.
• Sprawling battles, sudden ambushes, roadblocks, impeding sieges and blockades.
• Destroyed bridges, fresh ruins, mass graves, ravaged countrysides, corpse-choked battlefields swarming with carrion beasts.
• Refugees, sometimes interplanar, often in the thousands.
• Whole villages, forests, rivers just... gone. Only memories remain.

When they finally track Cassida to a house of pleasure, dueling ground, drug den, race track, brawl, or the like, she's not what the PCs were hoping for. Pampered by gods growing up, she's a spoiled brat. Rebellious, pouty, petty, moody, sulking, entitled, ungrateful, with the innate powers of a demigod, the training, investiture, and raiment of the God of Havoc, and the PCs' best shot at entrance to Precis and Bale.

Getting her to help includes any or all of:
• Going to absurd lengths to prove Civis didn't send them.
• Ruining her fun until she agrees to help just to make them leave.
• Persuading her she's used up the all the excitement easily found; “going with us will be way more interesting!”
• Convincing her they know of better entertainments; “c'mon, we'll show you later after you help!”

The one thing she always demands is Ordum. Once the primary exported trade good of Precis, Ordum metal resonates with the demiplane's pure Lawfulness, making it ideal material for mechanical equipment, balancing scales, or weapons against Chaos. Trade in general has halted and Ordum is especially scarce now as Civis crafts His own scry-shielding mechanisms with it to hide the movements of His armies.

Acquiring Ordum may involve:
• Buying it – difficult as Civis' efficient quartermasters ration it and only Civis' champions have access.
• Stealing it.
• Fighting for it.
• Looting it.
• Performing great feats for one of Civis' generals without becoming His follower and coming up against the Covenant's demiplanar travel restrictions.

Unless they returned with a pure ingot (unlikely), Cassida throws a tantrum, hurls their hard-earned Ordum object into a lake, crevasse, or cesspit, then sulks. “It has to be unwrought so I can have it made into whatever I want, stupids.”

Their reward for eventually obtaining an ingot: the laborious task of finding amidst the chaos of worlds war a clockwork master capable of crafting a pocket watch from it. She toys with said watch briefly then gets bored, stuffs it away, and grudgingly agrees to help.

Her adopted Father still allows her access to Precis and her still-favored status with Karne grants access to Bale. The PCs may accompany her to either as long as they don't violate the Covenant.

She bores easily and complains constantly, moping and dragging until she gets her way. The occasions she suddenly becomes helpful the PCs will learn to be wary as she'll invest them with powers that seem useful but end up faulty, cursed, excessive, and/or erratic. Her favorite: granting characters immense battle-prowess accompanied by berserk bloodlust that sets aggression to 11 and discrimination to 0. Carnage and tragedy.

To top it off, some mornings she'll just be gone, vanished at exactly midnight. When tracked down again and asked about it, she gives the silent treatment.

Precis
Precis is a plane of straight lines and square edges. Everything is counted, arrayed, and organized, including the population.

Ideas for challenges while investigating Precis:
• Navigating Civis' byzantine bureaucracy to find answers, get interviews, access locations, etc.
• Conscription or conversion attempts by zealots.
• Cassida hiding from the party to watch them squirm when Civis' Customs and Immigration Agency arrives to deport them.

Civis Himself is immaculately dressed, stern, and speaks in exact, clipped tones. When they finally meet Him, they are peripheral to a shouting match between Father and daughter. “You micromanage everything” “you make irrational choices” “You aren't my real Dad” “you started this whole war when you slept with Karne” “anything to get away from You”... ad nauseam. The only useful bit they manage to glean: Civis hasn't seen Maya.

Bale
Bale is a shadowy, blackened plane of rubble and bloodshed, its challenges simpler yet more dangerous. Bale's two currencies: intimidation and violence... and the former being mostly the reputation for being effective and liberal with the latter.

If the PCs are clever, they'll find the biggest, scariest man or monster around and kill it in a spectacularly rapid or brutal fashion. Otherwise, they'll face endless assaults, ambushes, and challenges. Eventually they'll likely face down one of Karne's Shroud-equipped warlord-priests.

Karne Himself is gaunt and brutish, constantly dripping gore, His weapons rusted and bloodstained. When they manage to murder their way to a meeting with Him, immediate drama with Cassida: “you left Me” “you were only using me” “you used Me to get back at your Father”... ad nauseam. The useful bit extractable: Karne never saw Maya.

Time's Up
At this point, the PCs are probably giving up, constructing wild theories, and/or plotting “the Maya treatment” for Cassida.

Observing Cassida's midnight disappearances, however, they notice she reaches into her pocked each time a moment before vanishing. Up to this point she's refused to talk about it, but now she's sick of being dragged around and finally explains.

“Before all this started, Mother told me to have an Ordum timepiece made. It only ever ticks at random midnights, then everyone and everything suddenly freezes except me. I can't effect anything or anyone, just walk around, look at stuff. Boring. Stupid. The clock works for twenty-four hours, then stops again and everything goes back to normal. I don't get it.”

She'll try to include the PCs next time the watch's power activates. At first they get only a few seconds, but eventually Cassida is able to share the whole extra day. While in “her time” everyone experiences fleeting impressions of a dead woman's face, everywhere, nowhere, immense.

During any one of these days, they also encounter a group of Janae's devotees and – via the PCs choice of confrontation, enchantment, diplomacy, or guile – learn that Janae's most-faithful recently started experiencing unpredictable, shared Given Days between days: “gifts of the Eon Mistress”. Asked where Janae is, riddles: “She's not here this time, next time She will be” or “One location touches another, but the second touches eternity.”

Puzzling this out, some eventual Given Day they'll discover how to step “sideways” through time to Janae's demiperiod. There, Janae greets Cassida warmly, pleased that Her daughter found Her. Grudgingly, Cassida admits the PCs did most of it and Her pleasure turns to them. The omnipresence of Maya's body nearwhen is impossible to miss.

Janae brags with the excitement of a master criminal explaining a heist pulled on the gods themselves:

“Cassida was already rebelling against her Father, a few subtle nudges sent her to the arms of his arch-rival Karne – one thing the controlling Civis would never tolerate and thus sparking this War to End All Wars. War hurts Maya so I knew She'd try to stop it eventually.

"When she did, I found the time to eliminate Her, trapped Her in an inflated bit of now, and took her to the exact moment before She existed. Exposed to raw paradox, She's as close to dead as gods get. Resultant, Her domain wanes and extensible reality subtly continues to contract in upon itself. Best of all, Her body is hidden in my Given Days! While the gods search fruitlessly here-and-there amidst the war-shrouds for Her, they should be looking now-and-then in my recently inflated days-between-days.

“Space-time: S = x * y * z * t. S is a constant, unchangeable even by the Council after its value was unalterably set in the Covenant at Creation. As width(x), height, depth(z) decrease together, time(t) must increase inverse-proportionally. Maya's domain erodes away as she fades, mine grows larger in step, and thus the End of Everything locked-in at Creation grows later and later. For now, I gift the extra time to my servants, but eventually the wheres will be dwarfed by the whens everywhere and for whoever is left. Space loses its unjust three-fold dominance and soon time shall have its proper primacy!”

Conclusion options:
• Vow faith and allegiance to Janae, share in the Given Days She gifts, and pursue Her timely ends.
• Take word to the Celestial Council, complete the contract, and figure out how to bring the rogue Goddess to justice while there's still place.
• Radical PC Creativity.

 

[Rune]

I hope you've got something for us soon, [MENTION=34958]Deuce Traveler[/MENTION]. You're already half an hour past deadline.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I'm sorry, I am still putting together a draft. I must have gotten my timing confused, because I thought I still had 21 hours to complete this. I'm deployed right now and have been getting on a new sleep cycle, so it is absolutely my fault. I'll post in a few hours, but concede to Iron Sky.

 

[Iron Sky]

I don't accept your concession.

I've seen people win with just an outline that was 12 hours late. Submit!