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tragicThaumaturge's 4e Zeitgeist Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="tragicThaumaturge" data-source="post: 7856913" data-attributes="member: 6975610"><p>Session 2.4 (First half)</p><p><strong>Fifth of Summer</strong></p><p></p><p>Gwen had been tormented by thoughts of the oil creature that had assaulted them in the church that night. She could not shake the feeling that it was somehow tied to her own origins, and could not help but wonder if that monstrosity was something similar to herself. As they headed home that night after failing to find Wolfgang she had taken the usual route along with Uzziel, since they lived nearby. During the trek she confessed the truth about her nature, and explained that he was the one she trusted in the most. She carefully explained her fear that she might go berserker at some point and harm them, because she didn’t know who had created her but her purpose she did know. Fearing that at some point she might lose control, or be directly controlled by someone else, she warned him so that he at least would not be taken by surprise. That way, maybe he would be able to stop her from harming others. Uzziel, being a technologist (and an artificer to boot) listened carefully to her confession and decided to trust her despite being an artificial intelligence.</p><p></p><p>The party arrived at HQ in the morning and were relieved beyond belief when they learned Wolfgang had arrived by himself earlier that day. After questioning him they learned he had gotten lost in the Nettles but managed to avoid pursuit by spending the night in a dumpster (I rolled for both Leone’s group and the police and both failed their check to find him, but Wolfgang succeeded in his second streetwise check to find his way to HQ).</p><p></p><p>They’d gotten most of the useful information from him already, so they really just wanted to keep him safe by principle and because he was a key witness. After locking him up in a cell in the basement (for protection) they decided to go get Eva Sechim and meet with Macbannin so they could start making their way to the top of Cauldron Hill. Since the group had split up (one half went to get Eva, the others went to tell Macbannin they were ready to climb the mountain) Eva had to wait until they were reunited at the mayor’s house to reveal the magic scroll containing Bonds of Forced Faith. Macbannin was certainly surprised by this, as were the constables. They hesitated about participating in an evil ritual, but finally decided it was for the best.</p><p></p><p>Borrowing climbing kits from Macbannin (they had forgotten to bring their own) the party began their ascent. During the climb they talked at length with Eva about what she hoped to see in the night sky. She answered that she hoped to see something that would be able to bring the people of Flint together despite their ideological differences so that they could work together and reach a peaceful agreement. She explained that she had already tried to persuade Gale previously but the woman had been too stubborn, and she had decided not to betray her trust in hopes that she might come around eventually. After all, at least Gale listened to what she had to say.</p><p></p><p>To Juza she admitted that, when she had taken her in as an infant, she had done so not exclusively out of good will, but because she had sensed something within her, a connection to the cosmos that would prove pivotal in the future, but as part of a vision she had not received yet. During all her life she taught her everything she knew about skyseeing so that she would learn to harness her power and be prepared when the moment came, but even now, several decades later, she still hadn’t had that vision. She hoped that this, her very last skyseeing attempt, would let her glimpse the prophecy for which she had trained her.</p><p></p><p>As the group was making a particularly steep climb a tremor - stronger than the one they’d felt before - shook the ground. Everyone was secured to the rope they were using, and so came unscathed save for a few bruises. It was enough to make them wary though.</p><p></p><p>After a couple of hours they made it all the way to the top with enough time to set up camp. They used the barrel of blood Macbannin had given them to pain a circle around the area they designated for their camp: the ring of standing stones used by the witches of old. They gathered branches, leaves, vines and rocks and made a makeshift wall to conceal themselves from the exterior. During this forage they came upon the cracked cauldron, which they decided to keep.</p><p></p><p>The sun began to set and the constables got a fire going. They huddled around it and Eva, together with Juza, began to gaze at the sky. Jasbeer decided to focus on listening in case something approached. Gwen and Uzziel listened intently to Eva’s explanations to learn about the ancient art of skyseeing. After a few hours Jasbeer heard a faint song which began to increase in intensity. She warned the others and everyone kept quiet. Soon shadows appeared on the wall of leaves illuminated by the light of the fire, sort of like if the light were coming from the opposite side of the wall and cast shadows upon it. Dozens of silhouettes appeared prancing around their camp: gremlins, tiny devils, a lion with a mane made of snakes, and naked women, the witches of Caudron Hill. Having played Bonds of Forced Faith, the players were shitting themselves. Eva simply ignored the apparitions and urged Juza to focus on the sky. After a while Gwen and Uzziel decided a distraction might be better to pass the time, so they shifted their attention back to the night sky. Only Jasbeer continued to keep watch.</p><p></p><p>“Look” said Eva. She pointed toward a glowing red dot, which Juza identified as Jiese, the plane of fire. From the plane she saw a streak, like a shooting star, descending rapidly toward the lake. It landed on the reflection of a factory, and the place burst into flames. Two fiery dragons emerged from the pyre and leaped from building to building, until the whole district was ablaze. And as the sun rose on the horizon a sign could be made out among the ashes and rubble: Sechim’s Alkahest and Etchings. Gwen and Uzziel, through the blood bond they shared with Eva, saw this too, although not as vividly. They were startled when Jasbeer called out to them, drawing their attention to the glowing red veil that hovered above their fire.</p><p>The group hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do. Finally Jasbeer went ahead and touched the veil, which fell to the floor and disappeared, revealing the figure of a ghostly woman: Nilasa. She put a finger to her lips and whispered: “the man who killed me is coming. His face is scarred, so he hides behind many faces.” Afterwards she vanished and the smell of burnt engine grease filled the air. A sudden glow illuminated the night and a sunrod landed at their feet. Immediately all the spirits on the mountain fixed their gaze on the camp and began tearing at the makeshift walls, trying to make their way to the party.</p><p></p><p>Alright, so this battle was brutal. The PCs huddled close together as they tried to fight off the onslaught of monsters, which resulted in them getting surrounded by the spooks and taking a lot of damage from the stacked auras. I had the hag go after Uzziel since he was the only male in the group, playing up the “seduction” aspect of the monster. She flew up to him and gave him a kiss, puking worms down his throat. The effect was instantaneous. Everyone was super grossed out, and the poor player was in shock. Gwen engaged the lion and did a fantastic job of keeping it off the others, but took a serious beating. The cackling crawler unfortunately was also draw toward Uzziel because (apart from Eva) he was the most fragile-looking member of the party. So after downing a mouthful of worms and vomit, he was used as a mount by a zombie until Jasbeer managed to get the damn thing off him. Meanwhile Juza was focused on dealing with the ever-increasing number of minions that were trying to get to them. Eva was simply using look skyward on her protégé (it was most useful on her because of her area attacks). However there came a point where everyone urged her to attack the minions too because they were being overwhelmed, which resulted in her kicking one and scoring a critical hit (inconsequential, but man, was it funny). The vestige of death began placing shrouds on the old skyseer from the start, and no one knew what that meant, so they didn’t care too much.</p><p></p><p>Uzziel, dazed from the hag’s kiss, was victim to the woman’s rancid allure, and his mind was filled with a burning hatred for his former companions. Trying to defend the love of his life he began attacking the other constables until he was rendered unconscious by the pandemonic dance of the spooks. Gwen was downed by the lion and Jasbeer finished the job of bringing down the beast. A miraculous 20 on Gwen’s death saving throw got her back on her feet. They had realized that the vestige’s shrouds were similar to the assassin’s shrouds, and shuddered at the thought of the devastating attack hitting Eva, since the ritual of bonds of forced faith would cause the damage to be split among the whole party. However, they hadn’t even bloodied the vestige, because it kept disappearing into the Bleak Gate. So Juza readied an action to use her daily: dazzling ray. An action point allowed her to attack a group of spooks that had congregated around Uzziel and Eva, but she didn’t manage to kill all of them. The tiny creatures swarmed Uzziel, who perished on the mountaintop that night.</p><p></p><p>By now all of the big monsters were dead, except for the vestige. The moment came and the vestige appeared. For dramatic effect I rolled the monster’s attack before Juza’s (Juza’s attack was going to hit first because the trigger was “when the monster appears”, but I wanted everyone to see what the outcome would be if Juza missed, since even with half damage on a miss and the monster’s radiant vulnerability, it wasn’t going to be enough). I rolled and the vestige got a crit. That’s 60 damage from its reaper’s scythe. That was a TPK. Knowing the stakes Juza attacked. Drum roll. And she hit! And rolled high to boot! She vaporized the vestige and saved the party. Jasbeer kicked the sunrod down the mountain, sending the spooks after it. They picked up Uzziel’s body and rushed downhill themselves (in the opposite direction as the monsters, of course). It was such a close call they couldn’t believe they had made it out alive. They had used everything and lost a party member. Jasbeer was devastated and angry, because she felt it was Eva’s fault for bringing them here. Eva, of course, was saddened too, and apologized for putting them in so much danger.</p><p></p><p>Upon reaching the mayor’s mansion they were intercepted by a squad led by Lieutenant Dale, who demanded to know what they were doing. Mayor Reed Macbannin arrived and explained the situation, apologizing for the confusion. He performed a quick purification ritual on the group to make sure they weren’t possessed, and the constables explained they needed to run and asked him to hold on to the cauldron and Uzziel’s corpse (since moving him too far away from the place of his death would cause his spirit to move on to the afterlife). They told Dale about Juza’s vision and convinced him to send along backup. And so Uzziel’s player’s new character joins the group!</p><p></p><p>Short summary of the character: Holster Glock (yes, I know) is Lieutenant Dale’s second in command, a gunsmith who served during the Fourth Yerasol War as a scout. He has a grey morality, is a bit trigger-happy and hates bureaucracy because he hates people who waste his time. More on him later. Right now I’m going to leave this here because it’s getting too long and it’s already been months since I last posted.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="tragicThaumaturge, post: 7856913, member: 6975610"] Session 2.4 (First half) [B]Fifth of Summer[/B] Gwen had been tormented by thoughts of the oil creature that had assaulted them in the church that night. She could not shake the feeling that it was somehow tied to her own origins, and could not help but wonder if that monstrosity was something similar to herself. As they headed home that night after failing to find Wolfgang she had taken the usual route along with Uzziel, since they lived nearby. During the trek she confessed the truth about her nature, and explained that he was the one she trusted in the most. She carefully explained her fear that she might go berserker at some point and harm them, because she didn’t know who had created her but her purpose she did know. Fearing that at some point she might lose control, or be directly controlled by someone else, she warned him so that he at least would not be taken by surprise. That way, maybe he would be able to stop her from harming others. Uzziel, being a technologist (and an artificer to boot) listened carefully to her confession and decided to trust her despite being an artificial intelligence. The party arrived at HQ in the morning and were relieved beyond belief when they learned Wolfgang had arrived by himself earlier that day. After questioning him they learned he had gotten lost in the Nettles but managed to avoid pursuit by spending the night in a dumpster (I rolled for both Leone’s group and the police and both failed their check to find him, but Wolfgang succeeded in his second streetwise check to find his way to HQ). They’d gotten most of the useful information from him already, so they really just wanted to keep him safe by principle and because he was a key witness. After locking him up in a cell in the basement (for protection) they decided to go get Eva Sechim and meet with Macbannin so they could start making their way to the top of Cauldron Hill. Since the group had split up (one half went to get Eva, the others went to tell Macbannin they were ready to climb the mountain) Eva had to wait until they were reunited at the mayor’s house to reveal the magic scroll containing Bonds of Forced Faith. Macbannin was certainly surprised by this, as were the constables. They hesitated about participating in an evil ritual, but finally decided it was for the best. Borrowing climbing kits from Macbannin (they had forgotten to bring their own) the party began their ascent. During the climb they talked at length with Eva about what she hoped to see in the night sky. She answered that she hoped to see something that would be able to bring the people of Flint together despite their ideological differences so that they could work together and reach a peaceful agreement. She explained that she had already tried to persuade Gale previously but the woman had been too stubborn, and she had decided not to betray her trust in hopes that she might come around eventually. After all, at least Gale listened to what she had to say. To Juza she admitted that, when she had taken her in as an infant, she had done so not exclusively out of good will, but because she had sensed something within her, a connection to the cosmos that would prove pivotal in the future, but as part of a vision she had not received yet. During all her life she taught her everything she knew about skyseeing so that she would learn to harness her power and be prepared when the moment came, but even now, several decades later, she still hadn’t had that vision. She hoped that this, her very last skyseeing attempt, would let her glimpse the prophecy for which she had trained her. As the group was making a particularly steep climb a tremor - stronger than the one they’d felt before - shook the ground. Everyone was secured to the rope they were using, and so came unscathed save for a few bruises. It was enough to make them wary though. After a couple of hours they made it all the way to the top with enough time to set up camp. They used the barrel of blood Macbannin had given them to pain a circle around the area they designated for their camp: the ring of standing stones used by the witches of old. They gathered branches, leaves, vines and rocks and made a makeshift wall to conceal themselves from the exterior. During this forage they came upon the cracked cauldron, which they decided to keep. The sun began to set and the constables got a fire going. They huddled around it and Eva, together with Juza, began to gaze at the sky. Jasbeer decided to focus on listening in case something approached. Gwen and Uzziel listened intently to Eva’s explanations to learn about the ancient art of skyseeing. After a few hours Jasbeer heard a faint song which began to increase in intensity. She warned the others and everyone kept quiet. Soon shadows appeared on the wall of leaves illuminated by the light of the fire, sort of like if the light were coming from the opposite side of the wall and cast shadows upon it. Dozens of silhouettes appeared prancing around their camp: gremlins, tiny devils, a lion with a mane made of snakes, and naked women, the witches of Caudron Hill. Having played Bonds of Forced Faith, the players were shitting themselves. Eva simply ignored the apparitions and urged Juza to focus on the sky. After a while Gwen and Uzziel decided a distraction might be better to pass the time, so they shifted their attention back to the night sky. Only Jasbeer continued to keep watch. “Look” said Eva. She pointed toward a glowing red dot, which Juza identified as Jiese, the plane of fire. From the plane she saw a streak, like a shooting star, descending rapidly toward the lake. It landed on the reflection of a factory, and the place burst into flames. Two fiery dragons emerged from the pyre and leaped from building to building, until the whole district was ablaze. And as the sun rose on the horizon a sign could be made out among the ashes and rubble: Sechim’s Alkahest and Etchings. Gwen and Uzziel, through the blood bond they shared with Eva, saw this too, although not as vividly. They were startled when Jasbeer called out to them, drawing their attention to the glowing red veil that hovered above their fire. The group hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to do. Finally Jasbeer went ahead and touched the veil, which fell to the floor and disappeared, revealing the figure of a ghostly woman: Nilasa. She put a finger to her lips and whispered: “the man who killed me is coming. His face is scarred, so he hides behind many faces.” Afterwards she vanished and the smell of burnt engine grease filled the air. A sudden glow illuminated the night and a sunrod landed at their feet. Immediately all the spirits on the mountain fixed their gaze on the camp and began tearing at the makeshift walls, trying to make their way to the party. Alright, so this battle was brutal. The PCs huddled close together as they tried to fight off the onslaught of monsters, which resulted in them getting surrounded by the spooks and taking a lot of damage from the stacked auras. I had the hag go after Uzziel since he was the only male in the group, playing up the “seduction” aspect of the monster. She flew up to him and gave him a kiss, puking worms down his throat. The effect was instantaneous. Everyone was super grossed out, and the poor player was in shock. Gwen engaged the lion and did a fantastic job of keeping it off the others, but took a serious beating. The cackling crawler unfortunately was also draw toward Uzziel because (apart from Eva) he was the most fragile-looking member of the party. So after downing a mouthful of worms and vomit, he was used as a mount by a zombie until Jasbeer managed to get the damn thing off him. Meanwhile Juza was focused on dealing with the ever-increasing number of minions that were trying to get to them. Eva was simply using look skyward on her protégé (it was most useful on her because of her area attacks). However there came a point where everyone urged her to attack the minions too because they were being overwhelmed, which resulted in her kicking one and scoring a critical hit (inconsequential, but man, was it funny). The vestige of death began placing shrouds on the old skyseer from the start, and no one knew what that meant, so they didn’t care too much. Uzziel, dazed from the hag’s kiss, was victim to the woman’s rancid allure, and his mind was filled with a burning hatred for his former companions. Trying to defend the love of his life he began attacking the other constables until he was rendered unconscious by the pandemonic dance of the spooks. Gwen was downed by the lion and Jasbeer finished the job of bringing down the beast. A miraculous 20 on Gwen’s death saving throw got her back on her feet. They had realized that the vestige’s shrouds were similar to the assassin’s shrouds, and shuddered at the thought of the devastating attack hitting Eva, since the ritual of bonds of forced faith would cause the damage to be split among the whole party. However, they hadn’t even bloodied the vestige, because it kept disappearing into the Bleak Gate. So Juza readied an action to use her daily: dazzling ray. An action point allowed her to attack a group of spooks that had congregated around Uzziel and Eva, but she didn’t manage to kill all of them. The tiny creatures swarmed Uzziel, who perished on the mountaintop that night. By now all of the big monsters were dead, except for the vestige. The moment came and the vestige appeared. For dramatic effect I rolled the monster’s attack before Juza’s (Juza’s attack was going to hit first because the trigger was “when the monster appears”, but I wanted everyone to see what the outcome would be if Juza missed, since even with half damage on a miss and the monster’s radiant vulnerability, it wasn’t going to be enough). I rolled and the vestige got a crit. That’s 60 damage from its reaper’s scythe. That was a TPK. Knowing the stakes Juza attacked. Drum roll. And she hit! And rolled high to boot! She vaporized the vestige and saved the party. Jasbeer kicked the sunrod down the mountain, sending the spooks after it. They picked up Uzziel’s body and rushed downhill themselves (in the opposite direction as the monsters, of course). It was such a close call they couldn’t believe they had made it out alive. They had used everything and lost a party member. Jasbeer was devastated and angry, because she felt it was Eva’s fault for bringing them here. Eva, of course, was saddened too, and apologized for putting them in so much danger. Upon reaching the mayor’s mansion they were intercepted by a squad led by Lieutenant Dale, who demanded to know what they were doing. Mayor Reed Macbannin arrived and explained the situation, apologizing for the confusion. He performed a quick purification ritual on the group to make sure they weren’t possessed, and the constables explained they needed to run and asked him to hold on to the cauldron and Uzziel’s corpse (since moving him too far away from the place of his death would cause his spirit to move on to the afterlife). They told Dale about Juza’s vision and convinced him to send along backup. And so Uzziel’s player’s new character joins the group! Short summary of the character: Holster Glock (yes, I know) is Lieutenant Dale’s second in command, a gunsmith who served during the Fourth Yerasol War as a scout. He has a grey morality, is a bit trigger-happy and hates bureaucracy because he hates people who waste his time. More on him later. Right now I’m going to leave this here because it’s getting too long and it’s already been months since I last posted. [/QUOTE]
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