We played a session today with my regular group. I used the eastern GH map for our starting point, focusing on the area around Urnst/the Bandit Kingdoms/the Pale/Tenh.
The four PCs were:
Korvin, 21 year old human skald - from Fayan's Way, a prosperous wayhouse on the Urnst side of the river between that land and the Bandit Kingdoms. A skirmish-wise, pragmatic loner, he's a bit of an all-rounder: talking, fighting (with a sword), scholarship, criminal, riding and hunting. His raiment is a night-black cloak. His enemy is a bandit lord. He never tells the truth, and believes in following the clues to hunt down the wicked.
Telemere, 71 year old Elven ranger - from Elfhome in the Fellreev Forest. A stars-wise, calm loner, his enemy is his brother Kalamere who stole his place in a boat to the west. He believes that one should see things through to the end; and when he enters somewhere new, he checks to see if he is being watched. A pathfinder, cartographer, scout, survivalist, healer and archer, his raiment is the traditional Elven greycloak.
Fea-bella, 69 year old Elven dreamwalker - from the tower of the wizard Jobe on the edge of the Bluff Hills, not far from Elfhome. A hills-wise and herbs-wise scholar, healer and Elven enchanter, she believes that one should delve deeply, for knowledge holds the power to change the world. Her instinct is to read every word. Her mother Fella is a scholar, she was mentored by Vaccin (a 7th level Dreamwalker) before Vaccin was betrayed by her enemy Megloss, the elder apprentice of Jobe who set fire to the tower. Her friend is an adventuring Elven ranger whom she last saw riding his steed in the Fellreev. Her raiment is a forest-green cloak.
Golin, 43 year old Dwarven outcast - from a forgotten temple complex just inside The Pale. He is cynical and explosives-wise, and believes that explosive solutions are good solutions; he always looks for weak points in structures and mechanisms. As well as fighting, orating and Dwarf-y stuff, he is the group's cook. He carries a huge maul. His friend Vaxen (who may be the same personage as Vaccin?) is an alchemist from Jobe's tower; his mentor Grantham is a 7th level outcast; and his enemy is also called Golin, and cheated on the exams to get the best apprentice position. He is an orphan (or, at least, has repudiated his parents) and in memory of them wears an armoured glove worth 1D. He also wears galoshes as his raiment.
Although not everything about these PCs is stone-cold serious, I think they bear out what I said in my OP in
the other Torchbearer thread: the colour in this game is first rate. These first-level characters have personalities, backstories, and relationships.
I had already decided on my way to the session to use the Tower of Stars as my scenario, but also - inspired by my Darkwood Forest experience - to open with a bandit encounter if any of the players built a talk-y PC. So when one built a skald, that settled that!
In the introductions phase we established that the PCs had met on the road, although Fea-bella and Telemere had once met in the Elfhome, while she and Golin had met at Jobe's tower. I read out the scenario backstory, and the players chose goals (Korvin: discover the truth about the Beholder of Fates; Telemere: discover if my brother came through here; Fea-bella: raid the tower for the secrets of the starts; Golin: raid the tower for its laboratory ingredients). Then I described the approach to the tower, where the PCs could see four rough-looking individuals sitting at the base of the basalt-scree slope up to the tower, one of them bandaging the feet of another.
The players decided to go for a social option, but for reasons I didn't follow decided to have Fea-bella (Persuader 2; cf Korvin's Orator 4 and Manipulator 4) do the talking, trying to persuade them to let her do the bandaging. Her goal was then to administer some sort of soporific. The Persuasion test failed; so she became angry in the course of the debate with Aunty - the one doing the bandaging. (The one with the injured foot, which the players had inferred had been cut on the basalt, was Rot Grub.) Telemere had been helping with this, and so became hungry and thirsty while the argument went on. He drained his waterskin and also his Fresh condition.
Once Aunty relented, it was then time to administer the soporific as part of the healing process - which was beginner's luck Alchemist, another fiasco, prompting the leader Scaramander (wearing a helmet and carrying a knife - the only arms and armour in this group of bandits) to try and drive the PCs off.
The players decided that Golin was their conflict captain; and Golin decided that their intent was to kill. Disposition was 8 for the PCs and 7 for the bandits. I scripted M/A/D; the players - mostly Golin and Fea-bella's players - initially canvassed opening with an Attack but then opted to Manoeuvre for advantage. And decided to try for a third-round Feint, anticipating a likely Defence at that point. Thus they scripted M/A/F.
Opposed manoeuvres are independent checks against Ob 0: the bandits got 3 successes and disarmed Telemere by closing with a dagger (there must have been other effects in there but I don't remember them); Korvin for the PCs got 6 successes and disarmed Scaramander, and both debuffed the NPCs and buffed their own next action. The Attack vs Attack was a massacre - the NPCs got in one point of damage, which damaged Golin's helmet, while Golin got 8 successes (5 rolled, plus 2 for Maul, plus 1 for superior Might) which eliminated the NPCs' 7 points of disposition. With no compromise required.
I had already rolled for the bandit's loot (Loot Table 1 for my area, and 2 times Loot Table 2 for four Might 4 NPCs): 2 candles, a helmet and an indecipherable note. So Scaramander's knife turned out to be broken by Korvin's disarming of it; but Golin was able to take the helmet to replace his damaged one, and Fea-bella successfully deciphered the note (written, it turned out, in a wizard's cypher by the adventuring enchanter Maila, and consisting of instructions on how to travel from Stoink to the Tower of Stars). They left the candles on the bodies for the moment, having nowhere to put them.
Not liking the look of the scree slope, Golin searched for another way into the tower - a weak spot - and the Crafting Nature check failed and so he was angry by the time he found it. His beginner's luck Labourer test to knock a hole in the wall also failed, and instead of opening up a hole in the wall the whole tower settled further on the basalt rubble, opening up crevasse which Korvin (who had been helping) avoided with a leap.
That sequence of events cost 3 turns and took the clock to 5 turns, and so everyone was hungry and thirsty. They ate and drank.
They then decided to go up the basalt scree, with Telemere making the test (beginner's luck Dungeoneering) helped by everyone else, and using a rope to assist. The test succeeded (5D, I think, vs Ob 3) and they entered the tower. At this point - 6 turns in - they lit a torch.
Looking around, they found a pool of water (which enabled them to refill their two empty waterskins) and a broken Basalt Guardian. They deliberately decided not to reassemble its broken head, and thought about making copies of the markings (runes?) on the head another time. Instead, Telemere (with Survivalist) helped Golin use rope and spikes to make a way through the gap in the ceiling. (With my daughter, I had assessed this as two tests; today I did it as one, having reread some of the advice in the Scholar's Guide.)
7 turns.
In the second level (which Golin correctly identified as a waiting room), they started with Telemere inspecting the corpse. His Healing test succeeded, and he was able to identify its cause of death (a severed wrist). He also spotted the signet ring and removed it. The mucking about with the body disturbed the dust (ie I had forgotten it for Telemere's Healing test) but despite the extra obstacle penalty Fea-bella was able to identify the ring, using Lore Master and assisted by Korvin and Telemere (both Lore Masters) and Golin (Dwarven Chronicles-wise) as a cult ring from Golin's forgotten temple complex, most likely crafted by Golin's nemesis Golin.
9 turns. During this time the torch burned out, and Fea-bella lit her lantern which had burned for one turn.
Looking in the alcoves on the inner wall of the semi-circular room - which the players (as their characters) identified as places to clean up before having one's fortune told - Telemere found inscriptions in a strange language. Fea-bella read them instinctually, but struggled to make them out (especially as strange inscriptions in the mouldy dust reminded her of her haunted dreams - about 3D vs Ob 6) and once she had identified them as writings about having one's fortune read in the stars had become sick from inhaling the dust.
Still 9 turns.
Once again the poor layout of this room description got the better of me - I had remembered this time to mention the door, but had not mentioned the glyphs - and so did now, when Telemere's player went to look at the rubble in front of the door; I suggested that the glyphs near the body must have been concealed by the dust before it got disturbed. When I also described the arm of the Basalt Guardian banging as Telemere crossed the glyphs they inferred that the glyphs must be some sort of activation mechanism without bothering to try and read them. Though their were differences of opinion as to whether the Guardian was trying to beat them up as intruders, or offer to help them change into their finery for having their fortunes told!
I asked Telemere's player if he was concerned about being watched, and he made his instinctual Scout test. It failed, and so he did not spot the head of the Guardian, with its sigil, in the rubble; but instead my favourite ley-line mutated moles swarmed out of the rubble towards the PCs. At which point - still at 9 turns - we has to finish the session.
In our end-of-session phase, rewards were distributed: Korvin got two Fate, for pursing his goal and his belief (as he had helped to interpret the signet ring); Telemere got two Fate, for pursuing his goal (he had been trying to find records, in the waiting room, of who had been there) and for trying to see things through to the end, and also one Persona, being judged the teamworker; Fea-bella got three Fate, as she had delved deep for knowledge, had sought the secrets of the stars, and had aided the group with her instinctual reading of the indecipherable note; and Golin got one Fate (for trying to find and take laboratory ingredients) and one Persona as MVP, for taking out the NPCs in a single round with his maul.
I'm now at three first sessions for this system, but its uncertain when a second session will happen for any of them.
