We played again today, with four participants: me as GM, and the players of Telemere the Elven Ranger, Fea-bella the Elven Dreamwalker, and Golin the Dwarven Outcast.
Fea-bella's player provided the prologue - this player seems to have become the de facto record-keeper. Golin's player filled us in on what had happened to Golin: in
the confusion with the bandits in the Moathouse, Golin had left the Moathouse and headed back up-river to find the make-shift raft. He had found it, and had also found his cousin Aldric, who was following the river looking for him; and the two of them had floated on the raft down the river, past Nulb, and finally coming to shore where Fea-bella and Telemere were striking out towards Wintershiven.
Golin therefore recovered from Exhaustion, but remained Injured and Sick. Fea-bella recovered from her Anger, but was still Exhausted. Telemere was Angry and Exhausted.
The players also wrote Goals for their PCs. Golin wanted to find a map or similar that would show the way to the Forgotten Temple Complex; Telemere wanted to return the rescued merchant to his home; and Fea-bella wanted to collect the reward for rescuing the mercant.
The action then began by establishing parameters for the journey to Wintershiven. The roll for spring weather was Clear and Cool (-1 toll), for a net toll of zero; and the roll for Trouble on the Road indicated no trouble. The PCs were following the river, but I still asked for a Pathfinder test, given that they have no map, and there was no guarantee that they would not need to leave the river-side at some or other point.
Telemere's player confirmed that by spending all 3 of his Persona, for +3D to his roll, he would meet the required Persona expenditure to go to 4th level at the next town phase (which was about to be Wintershiven, as far as he knew). With his Pathfinder 3, and a helping die from Fea-bella, he had 7D against Ob 3. In what proved to be a sign of things to come for the session (on the players' side at least), only 1 success was rolled.
Back in April of this year I had prepared a little scenario involving a haunted shrine on the Yol river. When I wrote it, I was thinking it would occur between the Moathouse and Nulb. But I thought it would be a good fit now, not far south-west of Nulb. I've pasted the scenario nots, which include a map/diagram, below.
I told the players that the PCs had left Nulb in the afternoon, unable to bear another night on the streets. And so it was now early night-time. And as Telemere tried to get his bearings by the stars to ensure they didn't get lost, he saw a light reflecting off the river and emanating from a stone structure on the river edge, where it was strangely focused through a hole in the floor of the building. The light was from
the comet that he had been following months ago, now returned. This made him Afraid.
The PCs looked around this eerie place. Golin examined the structure itself, and with a test against his Crafting Nature identified it as Dwarven stonework (the test itself failed; he also became Hungry and Thirsty).
Telemere, whose instinct is to always look around when coming to a new place to see if he is being watched, tested Scout. But the test failed (no successes on 5 dice, is my recollection) and so he tripped over a root on the river bank, and went tumbling into the water. This made his candles too damp to be used, until they dried out.
The PCs noticed the bowl-like depression, with the burned bones inside, and Fea-bella lit her lantern and then read the Elvish inscription written about its edge (successful Scholar test - at least I think so, because I didn't apply the twist in my notes). Fea-bella then tried to identify the ritual purpose. I can't remember how this pool was built - I think there were an initial 4 dice (from Theologian 2 plus 2 helpers), and then a rerolling of 3 traitors by spending a Persona on Elven Lore-wise, and then open-ending a 6 by spending a Fate. But with 9 dice rolled it still failed against the Ob 3. As per the scenario notes, Fea-bella identified the ritual purpose, and became Angry that it was now abandoned.
Golin had conjectured that the bones and ashes were some sort of sacrifice, but Fea-bella was able to assure him that no Elvish ceremony would involve that sort of thing. He did something around this point - I think maybe poured water into the bowl? - that roused the vengeful spirit. The PCs decided to try and Capture it, so they could then perform an appropriate ritual - via a Spiritual Conflict - to deal with it.
I rolled 6 hp for the spirit, vs 8 for the PCs, and they succeeded admirably in the conflict, capturing the spirit with no loss of hp and hence no compromise owed. Fea-bella then tested Lore Master to identify how the spirit would fare in various sorts of spiritual conflicts: this established that it would be 3 hp to Banish, vs 5 hp to Abjure; but Fea-bella opted to lead an Abjure conflict nevertheless because it is based around Arcanist and Lore Master, compared to Theologian and Ritualist to Banish. Before the conflict started, Telemere successfully tested his Remembering Nature to recall the spirit's True Name (which he was then able to equip as a weapon).
The Abjuration conflict didn't go well for the PCs; the spirit won, albeit with only 1 hp left, and so it was not abjured but did owe a major compromise. After reviewing the various options/suggestions in the rulebook, I suggested that its Nature was reduced from 3 to 2, and that it lost its Harrowing descriptor. So it still haunted the shrine, with its Frightening and Stalking Nature, but the shrine was no longer defiled.
Golin took the chipped ruby from out of the bowl.
The PCs were now ready to camp. Telemere looked around to find shelter for their camp, and a successful Survivalist test meant that he noticed the obscured door (I combined a logical answer to this test with the principle of "fun once" - he had already fallen into the river). Telemere led the Labourer test to clear the way to the door, but was already Exhausted; but his two helpers both became Hungry and Thirsty. (On reflection I think this was an "illegal" Labourer test on Beginner's Luck, given that Telemere was Afraid at the time. Oops.)
Inside, now working by candlelight, they found the reliefs that depicted performance of the water purification ritual, and also that provided a map of the environs. Golin's player was impressed by this overlap with his Goal! Fea-bella did the actual copying of it. They also scooped up the dented silver bucket.
They then camped, with five checks, plus a free recovery from Fea-bella's Song of Serenity, but with 7 conditions to recover. Telemere recovered Angry and Afraid, but remained Exhausted. Fea-bella recovered Angry and Exhausted. Golin failed his test to recover from his Injury, and then opted to Grit His Teeth, costing a rank of Labourer, in order to get a test against Sick. This succeeded.
The camp event roll was
Mirror font. Drinking the cool water from this glass-like font grants +1D to recover from angry and afraid. Roll 1d6 for every draught taken. On a 1, the font’s potency is expended.
I decided that rather than a separate font, this would apply to water purified in the bowl. With their camp finished the next morning, the PCs decided to perform the ritual. Fea-bella did this (using Beginner's Luck), and succeeded. 12 draughts of water were purified. The PCs filled 11 waterskins with the magical water (this was probably their best rolling of the session, getting no 1s). And somewhere around this time Fea-bella scavenged for loot using her Instinct: the test failed but she got a condition (from memory, Hungry and Thirsty), and found a couple of candles that the Gnolls had left at one edge of the shrine, while performing their ritual.
Telemere then decided there must be some other secret room or cache, and tested his Beginner's Luck Stonemason to find it. Golin - whose Creed is that
Elves are lost in dreams, and need grounding in reality - declined to help him; but Fea-bella - whose Creed is that
These are dark times, so all Elves need help! - decided to help, even though she thought it was hopeless.
The test failed, and so Telemere found nothing. Rather, Golin - watching from atop the shrine - saw a vessel sailing down the river towards them. He recognised it as a pirate river galley, especially when it ran up the Jolly Roger! He also thought he heard some words drifting through the still air, something like "Is that Golin the Beardless?"
The PCs decided to flee. With the players' approval, I decided to give the Pirate a disposition of 2d6 (it being a bit arbitrary), and got 9. The players got a disposition for their PCs of 9 also. They won the conflict, but with their disposition reduced to 5, so I explained that they escaped the pirates, but were lost somewhere west of the river and would need to start a new journey. The players accepted this compromise.
Roles were allocated: Fea-bella as guide (because she had the map), Telemere as Scout, and Golin as Forager (on Instinct) and Cook. A roll for weather confirmed that it was still Clear and Cool; but Trouble on the Road indicated that the PCs would get Lost, adding 2 to the Toll and requiring another Pathfinder test.
The first Pathfinder test failed; I don't have any notes indicating a twist, so I think this made Fea-bella Exhausted, and the others Hungry and Thirsty. Golin successfully found some forage and cooked it, alleviating a point of Toll. The second Pathfinder test failed too; here I opted for a twist, and called on Telemere, as the Lookout, to make a Scout test. He failed, and so the PCs stumbled upon a group of 3 pirates (on the shore, away from the rest of their crewmates), who initiated a Capture conflict.
I rolled fairly well in this conflict, and so the PCs were captured, but with a half-compromise owed. I can't remember now exactly how we resolved this (EDIT: I think it was here that we established that the rescued prisoners escaped, so that only the PCs were caught), but the action rolled into a Convince Crowd conflict, as the PCs - led by Golin, the only Orator - tried to persuade the pirates that they were friends of Tolub and so should be taken to him free rather than as captives. The pirates had only 2 hp for this conflict, while the PCs had 3, and the PCs won with only 1 hp lost. What the pirates really wanted was Fea-bella's silver bucket, but the compromise was that instead they were given some draughts of magic water from that "sacred bucket".
The PCs were therefore taken back to the pirates' vessel, which duly sailed them back to Nulb. They paid of some of their tool by spending the ruby to procure victuals from the pirates. Golin's galoshes helped him, given that some of their journeying had been on the river bank; and they took four conditions between them, leaving Golin Exhausted.
Which produced groans, given this was where the PCs had been trying to get away from at the start of the session. But the town event roll was a 6:
Bandits. The village is beset with bandits (3d6 in number). Remain in the adventure phase until the bandits are driven off or until you arrive at a different settlement.
In this case, of course it was pirates - 11 of them - who were not just occupying the accommodation, but had literally taken over the township. The PCs didn't want to fight pirates. They tried to persuade the pirates to let them sail back south, with the Jolly Roger lowered and the pirates themselves hiding below deck so as to avoid notice and capture by Wintershiven authorities; but this attempt - resolved as a simple Orator vs the pirate captain Orgoth Bloodeye's Orator 3 - failed, and so Orgoth shifted to negotiation instead: he would do what the PCs asked in exchange for the silver bucket, in advance. This was resolved as a full Negotiation conflict, and Orgoth (aided by his second-in-command) succeeded with no compromise owed. This was my best rolling of the session - with 9 successes out of 9 dice on Orgoth's two rolls - and caused much gnashing of teeth and wails of lamentation from the players, who had to hand over their remaining loot.
Fea-bella was in charge of Sailing the vessel, but her test failed, and a severe rainstorm came up (which meant that I imposed 2 Toll on each PC, which otherwise I was not going to do). The plus side was that the rain gave Telemere +1D to his Scout test to ensure the pirates weren't spotted as the ship approached Wintershiven. The town event roll for the Walled Town was a 9:
Fire. One facility has burned down. Roll 2d6 to determine the facility . . .
A roll of 7 indicated that it was the docks that had burned down, which cemented the need to leave the ship to the pirates while the PCs entered town.
To pay off their tool, Fea-bella and Telemere each relied on their cloak as raiment and took Angry as a condition; while Golin crossed off his scarf (sodden from the rain)
and his rope and candles (which he had burned up to try and keep warm on deck).
In the town, Golin took himself to a flophouse - where he duly failed to recover from his Exhaustion - while Fea-bella and Telemere settled down in an inn. Telemere failed his test to recover from Angry, and so remains Angry and Exhausted. Fea-bella succeeded against Angry but not Exhausted.
Telemere also reached 4th level - and took Fearless - and Fea-bella reached 6th level - and added 1 further slot to her Dream Palace. This also reminded me to deem this town phase a respite, given that the last (and first) respite of the campaign was when Fea-bella and Golin reached 3rd level. So Telemere will be able to gain a Creed; but the lifestyle costs will be high!
We finished the session by allocating Artha:
Telemere got 2 Fate, for pursuing his Goal and for acting on his Belief that one should see things through to their end; and 1 Persona, for MVP (he rolled 3 successes in one of the conflicts - maybe the one to convince the pirates that they were friends of Tolub? - and this was deemed the best player-side roll of the session).
Golin got 2 Fate, for using his Instinct successfully and for acting on his Belief that Elves are unstable; and 2 Persona, for upholding his Creed, and for achieving his Goal.
Fea-bella got 3 Fate, for using her Instinct to find candles, for acting on her Belief that she must become rich, and for pursing her Goal; and 2 Persona, one for upholding her Creed, and one for Teamworker. (There was some discussion of this, as Golin was the other candidate, but Telemere's vote for Fea-bella was decisive.)
Given that staying in an inn during a respite is Lifestyle Ob 3, and Fea-bella and Telemere have Resources 2 each, the resolution of the town phase in our next session may see more trouble with debt collectors.
