Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Lylandra" data-source="post: 7484308" data-attributes="member: 6816692"><p><strong>An explosive welcome</strong></p><p></p><p>As Isobel is still hiding inside the bathroom, Auryn decides to calm her young friend down. She tells her that Asrabey is gone now, so she might just wish to come out and tell her what happened. Isobel explains that the Nightelves are a bunch of men who look like Asrabey. They came infrequently to her home to take her little brothers away. Also, her mothers and aunts had to meet them occasionally in another building and they wept much afterward. Auryn can only guess that these Nightelves could be the missing link in the Traverses' breeding program, meaning they'd be the “fathers” of Isobel and her sisters. She also realizes that Isobel has next to no knowledge of topics like procreation, sexuality, consensual relationships and motherhood which is why she decides to add yet another topic to Isobel's ever-increasing lesson plan. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(So, more people on her to-punish list. She'd seriously hoped that they'd just be male prisoners who are pumped with aphrodisiacs or something like that. The thought of killing one of her kind had always been an abstract possibility. Now it felt all too real.)</span></p><p> </p><p>Auryn then carefully explains to Isobel that Asrabey is not a Nightelf, but rather a distant relative who wouldn't dream of harming either of them. She touches her brooch and tells Isobel that she got this family heirloom from Asrabey to remind her of her heritage. And while it is true that the dreadnaught is a dangerous warrior, being dangerous is a kind of required quality to be able to defend himself or others. </p><p></p><p>Auryn then leaves Isobel and heads to the RHC to meet up with Carlyle where she shares the one chunk of information she hid from Asrabey: That she's pretty certain about the “wheel-woven dead man's” identity and that it has to be Mr. Grappa. Which means that bringing him to the Bleak Gate might just be the catalyst for the catastrophe Ekossigan hinted at in his poem. Auryn explains that while she does want to trust Grappa and sees no malicious intent in his plans, we don't know anything about the golem-maker or his affiliation. So we simply need more information in this case. </p><p></p><p>Together we head to several offices to gather information on Alexander Grappa. There, we find out about his old home in Flint and decide to pay his old landlord a visit. The old man man tells us all about this nice fellow who came from Bole and studied fine mechanics at Pardwright. He then opened up a workshop in Patity Lake, no big business, but rather a very specialized shop. Five years ago, he suddenly closed his shop and gave the keys to his family. He disappeared shortly after and everyone who knew Grappa just guessed that he tried to make a fortune in Ber or something like that. </p><p></p><p>We assume that this could have been around the time when he joined the Obscurati. Still, none of the info we get is incriminating or pointing at some kind of obsession or secret agenda. Auryn still wants to keep this a secret from both Grappa and Asrabey for now as she doesn't know whether the eladrin might try to act against the potentially dangerous man. </p><p></p><p>As time progresses quickly, we realize that we do have to move to the harbor lest we'd wish to miss the arrival of Brakken Heffanita. There, we meet our backup team of Serena, Carlao, Dima and Gaethan. It appears that we're not one minute too early as the ship is already towed and the crew is about to lift a big cage containing a dire bear from deck to dock. Turns out that flinter cranes aren't really made for lifting giant bears, so the crane breaks in the process and both bear and cage plummet down to the dock. This causes the cage to spring open and the massive dire bear to get a sniff of freedom. </p><p></p><p>The dock workers panic at the sight of this ferocious looking beast, but Auryn seizes the moment to cast a friendly charm on the bear and approaches it fearlessly. She then fondles the massive animal behind its ears and asks the others to maybe stop their screaming as this animal won't harm anyone. </p><p> </p><p>“Didn't know the Risuri knew how to handle a dire bear like my Feroz!” Brakken exclaims in positive surprise before climbing down the ship. </p><p></p><p><span style="color: #008000">(Uh, there's a spanish movie called “Feroz” that we did watch in school. It is about a man who turns into a bear and I really hope that this bear didn't share the same fate)</span></p><p></p><p>When Brakken approaches us, we officially welcome him to Flint and introduce ourselves. Auryn then says that she had quite the time to perfect her bear-taming abilities after her initial, clumsy attempt during their trip with Brakken's niece, Wolmi. The minotaur utters a heartfelt laugh as he's heard that story from his niece about her expedition to find the tomb of her ancestor to finally claim adulthood and independence. </p><p></p><p>We are then a bit surprised to hear that Brakken is keen on going the way to the Beran embassy by foot (and, of course, in the company of his dire bear companion). We decide to accompany him and try to keep the panic levels among the nearby citizens at a minimum. </p><p></p><p>Brakken takes quite the time to gather “the spirit” of several places of interest in Flint and we kind of get the impression that he's actually able to sense the vibe and thoughts of nearby communities or single people. When we come across Dawn Square, he takes a break for a few moments and utters a long sigh.</p><p></p><p>“Such... tragedy. Whatever happened here, I hope it didn't claim too many lives” Brakken says quietly while looking to the place where Nevard's stage had been. </p><p></p><p>“This is where our last High Skyseer died while trying to warn us of a potential catastrophe. It was old age and a weak heart that claimed him in the end and the memory of him... dying in my arms is still fresh”</p><p></p><p>Auryn then, too, takes a moment to contemplate and continues to tell the story about the attack at Dawn Square where, fortunately, no one else lost their life. We continue our trip through the city and Brakken is all curious about these protesters he spots here and there. He muses whether they are just rabble rousing kids or legitimately upset about their working condition and we claim that it is a mix of both. Protesting, we explain, has become an integral part of our city's culture and is also a key element in improving conditions. And while we can definitely see the charme of installing Executores dola Liberta to punish industrialists who abuse their employees, the Risuri believe in a more lengthy process of law which includes a lot of regulations. We also explain that our mayors are mostly elected, so getting rid of someone who screws up is both possible and rather easy. </p><p></p><p>Regarding the dockers, Auryn explains, they are a colorful bunch of artists, dock workers and free spirits who enjoy each other's company and who formed a union to get closer ties to each other. She doesn't hide her own affiliation with and sympathy for the movement, even if they can get overzealous from time to time. </p><p></p><p>After a long time of marching we finally reach the embassy of Ber. There, we are greeted by consul Gerax and Wolmi Heffanita who's really eager to welcome her uncle and show him around. Once Brakken got his baggage stowed and Feroz is fed (they really got an impressive stable there...), we're ready to accompany the minotaur to his scheduled meeting with Steffan Eberhard from Drakr. </p><p></p><p>Auryn releases her inner guide yet again as she shows the two men around Pardwright Campus, explaining the features of the different buildings and complexes, including a lengthy monologue about the greenhouse and Pardwright's botanical research. As soon as we realize that both Brakken Heffanita and Steffan Eberhard would rather need a good meal to continue their sightseeing, Brakken invites us all to an extensive lunch in a cozy bistro.</p><p></p><p>Our meal is then suddenly interrupted when loud detonations shake the whole building. We ask the members of Team B <span style="color: #008000">(or rather... Team A? We're still C, aren't we?)</span> to stay with our guests and guard them with their lives while the two of us try to get a grasp on the situation. </p><p></p><p>Once we're outside, we see that the explosion we just heard took down a connecting bridge between two buildings. And from the looks of it, the falling debris crashed into a train which must have passed by just the moment the detonation took off. Everyone around is panicking, screaming and running in different directions. Keeping a clear mind amidst all that chaos is no easy task and so we take a few breaths to re-focus and make a plan. </p><p></p><p>Instinctively we're keeping our eyes open for victims of the disaster, trying to heal those who were injured and getting people to safety. We spot one dwarf nearby who appears to be taken down by a fallen gargoyle statue. So we lift the gargoyle off him and manage to stabilize the guy. While we're doing this, we notice some strange items on his body: One newspaper that seems to be scheduled for release on the next day and a broken pocket watch that has traces of magic on it. What's even stranger is the fact that this dwarf, unlike many others, is completely shaven and bald, revealing some eerily pale skin underneath. </p><p></p><p>Putting these pieces of information in place, we get that this man might be a member of a rather radical sect of Eschatologists which is keen on bringing the world to an end. The newspaper, we remember, is kind of affiliated with the philosophy of Heid and therefore an ideological enemy of the radicals. As shocking and unlikely as it may sound, but this dwarf could just be the one behind the explosions!</p><p></p><p>We quickly return to the bistro to get Serena and Dima to aid us. We ask Dima to care for the wounded and tech savvy Serena to help us with determining whether or not that watch was the trigger for whatever kind of bomb was used to set off the explosions. We then tie up the dwarf and heal him up as well as we're keen on getting some quick answers. But that guy isn't really in for a dialogue. He mutters about the end of the world and how we're all going to die soon and then tries to kill himself with some sort of magical frost poison. </p><p></p><p>We're both quick to react though and so we prevent the dwarf from freezing to death by administering him an antidote and warming him through magical fire. </p><p></p><p>“Think you can choose how and when to die? Guess what, that choice isn't yours anymore.” Carlyle says grimly, causing the dwarf to look nervously at his damaged watch and the newspaper.</p><p></p><p>The guy takes a moment and then regains his countenance. He laughs in our faces and claims that this doesn't change anything as we'll never find all of the other bombs in time. The moment he utters this, the watch starts functioning again and shows some sort of count-down. We fear that there might be some truth behind this madman's words and so we leave the tied up dwarf in Dima's care, take Serena with us and head towards the publisher building. </p><p></p><p>There, we make haste to evacuate everyone who's still inside while searching the building for areas that are vital for its structural integrity. Fortunately, we are able to find the bombs hidden in there in time and Carlyle and Serena use their combined technical and alchemical knowledge to disarm them before any of them can detonate. </p><p></p><p>We hope that the times of terror are finally over, so we can take the time to give proper aid to the injured and offer means of security until the police finally arrives. But before we can finish this thought, we suddenly hear the sound of fired shots coming from the direction of our bistro...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lylandra, post: 7484308, member: 6816692"] [b]An explosive welcome[/b] As Isobel is still hiding inside the bathroom, Auryn decides to calm her young friend down. She tells her that Asrabey is gone now, so she might just wish to come out and tell her what happened. Isobel explains that the Nightelves are a bunch of men who look like Asrabey. They came infrequently to her home to take her little brothers away. Also, her mothers and aunts had to meet them occasionally in another building and they wept much afterward. Auryn can only guess that these Nightelves could be the missing link in the Traverses' breeding program, meaning they'd be the “fathers” of Isobel and her sisters. She also realizes that Isobel has next to no knowledge of topics like procreation, sexuality, consensual relationships and motherhood which is why she decides to add yet another topic to Isobel's ever-increasing lesson plan. [COLOR="#008000"](So, more people on her to-punish list. She'd seriously hoped that they'd just be male prisoners who are pumped with aphrodisiacs or something like that. The thought of killing one of her kind had always been an abstract possibility. Now it felt all too real.)[/COLOR] Auryn then carefully explains to Isobel that Asrabey is not a Nightelf, but rather a distant relative who wouldn't dream of harming either of them. She touches her brooch and tells Isobel that she got this family heirloom from Asrabey to remind her of her heritage. And while it is true that the dreadnaught is a dangerous warrior, being dangerous is a kind of required quality to be able to defend himself or others. Auryn then leaves Isobel and heads to the RHC to meet up with Carlyle where she shares the one chunk of information she hid from Asrabey: That she's pretty certain about the “wheel-woven dead man's” identity and that it has to be Mr. Grappa. Which means that bringing him to the Bleak Gate might just be the catalyst for the catastrophe Ekossigan hinted at in his poem. Auryn explains that while she does want to trust Grappa and sees no malicious intent in his plans, we don't know anything about the golem-maker or his affiliation. So we simply need more information in this case. Together we head to several offices to gather information on Alexander Grappa. There, we find out about his old home in Flint and decide to pay his old landlord a visit. The old man man tells us all about this nice fellow who came from Bole and studied fine mechanics at Pardwright. He then opened up a workshop in Patity Lake, no big business, but rather a very specialized shop. Five years ago, he suddenly closed his shop and gave the keys to his family. He disappeared shortly after and everyone who knew Grappa just guessed that he tried to make a fortune in Ber or something like that. We assume that this could have been around the time when he joined the Obscurati. Still, none of the info we get is incriminating or pointing at some kind of obsession or secret agenda. Auryn still wants to keep this a secret from both Grappa and Asrabey for now as she doesn't know whether the eladrin might try to act against the potentially dangerous man. As time progresses quickly, we realize that we do have to move to the harbor lest we'd wish to miss the arrival of Brakken Heffanita. There, we meet our backup team of Serena, Carlao, Dima and Gaethan. It appears that we're not one minute too early as the ship is already towed and the crew is about to lift a big cage containing a dire bear from deck to dock. Turns out that flinter cranes aren't really made for lifting giant bears, so the crane breaks in the process and both bear and cage plummet down to the dock. This causes the cage to spring open and the massive dire bear to get a sniff of freedom. The dock workers panic at the sight of this ferocious looking beast, but Auryn seizes the moment to cast a friendly charm on the bear and approaches it fearlessly. She then fondles the massive animal behind its ears and asks the others to maybe stop their screaming as this animal won't harm anyone. “Didn't know the Risuri knew how to handle a dire bear like my Feroz!” Brakken exclaims in positive surprise before climbing down the ship. [COLOR="#008000"](Uh, there's a spanish movie called “Feroz” that we did watch in school. It is about a man who turns into a bear and I really hope that this bear didn't share the same fate)[/COLOR] When Brakken approaches us, we officially welcome him to Flint and introduce ourselves. Auryn then says that she had quite the time to perfect her bear-taming abilities after her initial, clumsy attempt during their trip with Brakken's niece, Wolmi. The minotaur utters a heartfelt laugh as he's heard that story from his niece about her expedition to find the tomb of her ancestor to finally claim adulthood and independence. We are then a bit surprised to hear that Brakken is keen on going the way to the Beran embassy by foot (and, of course, in the company of his dire bear companion). We decide to accompany him and try to keep the panic levels among the nearby citizens at a minimum. Brakken takes quite the time to gather “the spirit” of several places of interest in Flint and we kind of get the impression that he's actually able to sense the vibe and thoughts of nearby communities or single people. When we come across Dawn Square, he takes a break for a few moments and utters a long sigh. “Such... tragedy. Whatever happened here, I hope it didn't claim too many lives” Brakken says quietly while looking to the place where Nevard's stage had been. “This is where our last High Skyseer died while trying to warn us of a potential catastrophe. It was old age and a weak heart that claimed him in the end and the memory of him... dying in my arms is still fresh” Auryn then, too, takes a moment to contemplate and continues to tell the story about the attack at Dawn Square where, fortunately, no one else lost their life. We continue our trip through the city and Brakken is all curious about these protesters he spots here and there. He muses whether they are just rabble rousing kids or legitimately upset about their working condition and we claim that it is a mix of both. Protesting, we explain, has become an integral part of our city's culture and is also a key element in improving conditions. And while we can definitely see the charme of installing Executores dola Liberta to punish industrialists who abuse their employees, the Risuri believe in a more lengthy process of law which includes a lot of regulations. We also explain that our mayors are mostly elected, so getting rid of someone who screws up is both possible and rather easy. Regarding the dockers, Auryn explains, they are a colorful bunch of artists, dock workers and free spirits who enjoy each other's company and who formed a union to get closer ties to each other. She doesn't hide her own affiliation with and sympathy for the movement, even if they can get overzealous from time to time. After a long time of marching we finally reach the embassy of Ber. There, we are greeted by consul Gerax and Wolmi Heffanita who's really eager to welcome her uncle and show him around. Once Brakken got his baggage stowed and Feroz is fed (they really got an impressive stable there...), we're ready to accompany the minotaur to his scheduled meeting with Steffan Eberhard from Drakr. Auryn releases her inner guide yet again as she shows the two men around Pardwright Campus, explaining the features of the different buildings and complexes, including a lengthy monologue about the greenhouse and Pardwright's botanical research. As soon as we realize that both Brakken Heffanita and Steffan Eberhard would rather need a good meal to continue their sightseeing, Brakken invites us all to an extensive lunch in a cozy bistro. Our meal is then suddenly interrupted when loud detonations shake the whole building. We ask the members of Team B [COLOR="#008000"](or rather... Team A? We're still C, aren't we?)[/COLOR] to stay with our guests and guard them with their lives while the two of us try to get a grasp on the situation. Once we're outside, we see that the explosion we just heard took down a connecting bridge between two buildings. And from the looks of it, the falling debris crashed into a train which must have passed by just the moment the detonation took off. Everyone around is panicking, screaming and running in different directions. Keeping a clear mind amidst all that chaos is no easy task and so we take a few breaths to re-focus and make a plan. Instinctively we're keeping our eyes open for victims of the disaster, trying to heal those who were injured and getting people to safety. We spot one dwarf nearby who appears to be taken down by a fallen gargoyle statue. So we lift the gargoyle off him and manage to stabilize the guy. While we're doing this, we notice some strange items on his body: One newspaper that seems to be scheduled for release on the next day and a broken pocket watch that has traces of magic on it. What's even stranger is the fact that this dwarf, unlike many others, is completely shaven and bald, revealing some eerily pale skin underneath. Putting these pieces of information in place, we get that this man might be a member of a rather radical sect of Eschatologists which is keen on bringing the world to an end. The newspaper, we remember, is kind of affiliated with the philosophy of Heid and therefore an ideological enemy of the radicals. As shocking and unlikely as it may sound, but this dwarf could just be the one behind the explosions! We quickly return to the bistro to get Serena and Dima to aid us. We ask Dima to care for the wounded and tech savvy Serena to help us with determining whether or not that watch was the trigger for whatever kind of bomb was used to set off the explosions. We then tie up the dwarf and heal him up as well as we're keen on getting some quick answers. But that guy isn't really in for a dialogue. He mutters about the end of the world and how we're all going to die soon and then tries to kill himself with some sort of magical frost poison. We're both quick to react though and so we prevent the dwarf from freezing to death by administering him an antidote and warming him through magical fire. “Think you can choose how and when to die? Guess what, that choice isn't yours anymore.” Carlyle says grimly, causing the dwarf to look nervously at his damaged watch and the newspaper. The guy takes a moment and then regains his countenance. He laughs in our faces and claims that this doesn't change anything as we'll never find all of the other bombs in time. The moment he utters this, the watch starts functioning again and shows some sort of count-down. We fear that there might be some truth behind this madman's words and so we leave the tied up dwarf in Dima's care, take Serena with us and head towards the publisher building. There, we make haste to evacuate everyone who's still inside while searching the building for areas that are vital for its structural integrity. Fortunately, we are able to find the bombs hidden in there in time and Carlyle and Serena use their combined technical and alchemical knowledge to disarm them before any of them can detonate. We hope that the times of terror are finally over, so we can take the time to give proper aid to the injured and offer means of security until the police finally arrives. But before we can finish this thought, we suddenly hear the sound of fired shots coming from the direction of our bistro... [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Tizbiz Zeitgeist Campaign
Top