[SPOILERS] Gale and the Unseen Court

[parhadokzal]

Hi people,

I just finished playing the part of Cauldron-Born where the party has to fight Gale because she is on a geas from Ekossigan. My PCs have a really good relationship with her and the Unseen Court by proxy.

As my players were totally ill-equiped to deal with a flying caster and that I didn't want to make her behave stupidly as she's supposed to be a real bad-ass, I have... improvised quite a bit.

After the party got away from her to come back later, they got to Asrabey for help in bringing her down. I improvised that he was able to put his hands on some powerful Unseen Court mojo that would require a lot of work, while in fight with her and the gremlins, to neutralize her flight ability.

I wondered where to go with that next (we stopped just as Ekossigan appeared). I'm really thinking of taking off her flight permanently, as this would be interesting drama that the player would inadvertently take away this capacity while trying not to hurt her too much. They didn't ask about duration at all when Asrabey got them the item and I pictured it as some super-powerful fey kinda-artifact. I was thinking maybe even Asrabey didn't know about the duration when he was given it. The Unseen Court would have been willing to sacrifice one of their own so Ekossigan would be dealt with swiftly enough.

So,

1- Any official word about where Gale got her flight ability? From all I've read, she's quite unique about that, but we don't know any more?

2- What do you guys think about this story twist? I'm really asking for sincere advice on this because I really made this call totally unprepared and I'm not quite sure where this would take us.

BTW, my players are going to be fine with this kind of "gotcha", so no problem on this side.

Thanks!

LP

 

[RangerWickett]

1- Gale was originally conceived as a 'superhero' in our old Four-Colour to Fantasy (and Tinker Oddcog was her nemesis). So yeah, there's literally no explanation why she can fly. I could come up with some, but nothing's canon.

2- A flightless Gale just changes her schtick, not her personality or politics. I think it would have an interesting development, and it doesn't muck up anything plot-wise. Just make sure she keeps her expanded weather powers, because there's a nifty scene involving those in adventure nine. And if you want, you could have the Ob's activities at the end of #9 restore Gale's flight, since there's a new source of flight magic.

 

[paradoxweaver]

1- Gale was originally conceived as a 'superhero' in our old Four-Colour to Fantasy (and Tinker Oddcog was her nemesis). So yeah, there's literally no explanation why she can fly. I could come up with some, but nothing's canon.

2- A flightless Gale just changes her schtick, not her personality or politics. I think it would have an interesting development, and it doesn't muck up anything plot-wise. Just make sure she keeps her expanded weather powers, because there's a nifty scene involving those in adventure nine. And if you want, you could have the Ob's activities at the end of #9 restore Gale's flight, since there's a new source of flight magic.

Ok, thanks a lot, I can go crazy with my idea then!

Nice to have the AP people around here to answer these kinds of questions!

 

[Morrus]

1- Gale was originally conceived as a 'superhero' in our old Four-Colour to Fantasy (and Tinker Oddcog was her nemesis). So yeah, there's literally no explanation why she can fly. I could come up with some, but nothing's canon.

It's basically a racial ability, I guess. She's a slightly variant race, and the race contains one member.

 

[paradoxweaver]

Since I've got both of you in this post, I wanted to ask this other question:

Any idea what might happen if someone was to purposefull and willingly consume Ashima-Shimtu's blood?

One of my PCs, while getting out of the cursed island in Crissyliyr, decided to keep a good portion of her blood in a flask. He's been hiding it since and has clearly stated that he would drink it if he was ever in real danger of dying.

... And since they might well fight Lorcan Kell in our next session, I think it is possible that this happens fast!

Any idea about what this might do?

 

[RangerWickett]

Um, probably a mild infection? You shouldn't eat other people's blood, yo.



Or, if you watch Supernatural, drinking demon blood gives you some sort of super-power but leaves you strung out when you can't get your fix. Maybe cut the PC's arm off, and have the blood grow him a new one and heal him temporarily, but after the fight ends his limb dissolves away. And even if he gets a new one healed onto him, it's always a little evil.

 

[paradoxweaver]

I was asking because you wrote in Always on Time to note which PCs got in touch with Ashima-Shimtu's blood, that it would be important later in the AP.

I was thinking that if it is important later, maybe consuming it directly would have a stronger effect than... whatever is coming later!

 

[Samuel Cole]

In our campaign, the jury is still out on whether Gale can actually fly or not. Rumors certainly suggest that she can, but thus far the party hasn't actually seen her doing anything other than jump really high and land really gracefully.

Given that the weakened connection with Avilona (which prevents magical flight) is a major plot point, I think it'd be great to have a canon explanation for why she's the only person who can fly! In the meantime, my plan is to keep her as someone who has studied flight magics but who can't wield them fully until the connection to Avilona is restored.