Actual Play – Page 24

Actual Play – Redemption Rail (11/14/2015)

GM: Michael Garcia
Players: Mike Bogan, Bry Hitchcock, Karen Twelves, and Sean Nittner
System: Apocalypse World

What is it about a train that makes it such a strong symbol of salvation? An extension of some still ingrained Manifest Destiny? The sense of locomotion on such a grand scale? The grandeur thousands of miles of track; a bold conquest over nature? Connecting people from so far away?

I’m just speculating here, but I’ve seen trains multiple times in games: Scott White’s Iron Road, John Harper’s Ghost Lines his ongoing rail Apocalypse World game, and now Mike’s Redemption Rail. Transportation means getting out of this horrible place, with the hope that there is something better on the horizon? Regardless of the psychological or sociological reasons, I know my experience playing games centered around trains has always been one of strong purpose, there was something worthwhile to strive for!

History of Redemption Rail

Redemption Rail was formerly an isolated railway junction and during the Apocalypse a great train passed through. It was westward bound and escaping a disaster in the east. The train was almost a complete ecosystem (like Snowpiecer) with solar panels on top, and cars devoted to providing it’s own food and water. For an unknown reason, someone decoupled the tail end leaving most of who would become the decedents of the holding. These original residents are known as the Waysiders, and they struggled to survive in what is equivalent of the Nevada badlands. Over time, they formed a religion centering on two beliefs: there was place in the west called Pair-of-Dice filled with clean water and green plants, and that a great engine would come and carry the remaining cars to there.

Though, Redemption Rail is isolated, there were rare trade caravans that would drop by a few times a year. Unfortunately, it wasn’t immune to raider attacks, and one particularly nasty one struck about fifteen years ago that decimated the community. Among the dead was the spouse of the Gunlugger who also was one of the parents of the Hocus. This encouraged a man named Frost to take over Redemption Rail who ruled the Rail who became a despot eventually lead him to a confrontation the Waysider who were opposing him. This confrontation critically injured the Hocus and killed their twin sibling. In retaliation, the Gunlugger single-handedly murdered Frost and his entire gang (about 20 people). Some say it was justified, while others believe they should of spared the less enthused members of his gang. Following Frost’s downfall, there has been relative peace in the holding. Though there was no clear leader, the Hocus took over the Waysider, and through it, was able to keep any significant conflict arising for the next ten years.

Gradually, refugees began to trickle into Redemption Rail, escaping either devasting raider attacks, or a natural disaster. The raider attacks all came from a group known as the Immolators: brutal cannibals with seemingly supernatural powers that swept over holdings like locust picking everything clean before moving on. K the Ruin Runner, knows of them intimately, but rarely speaks about them. The natural disaster has come to be known as the Conflagration and is responsible for most of the refugees that have ended up in Redemption Rail. It is a fire that burns out east, and immolates regardless of the presence of fuel, poisoning the land, water, and sky with it’s smoke.

During this period, the Hocus started getting visions of the Savvyhead and the Conflagration. The visions showed that a great fire was coming to Redemption Rail, and the only means to escape it was for a new engine to be built by this Savvyhead. Though many of the Waysiders were faithful, they were still surprised when the Savvyhead showed up with their sibling, the Brainer. Unfortunately, the Savvyhead wasn’t the only refugee to show up, as the Conflagration started claiming the last remaining holdings out east, causing a horde of refugees to poor into Redemption Rail, many of which lead by the Chopper, Canker.

Facing starvation, it was the generosity of the Hocus and the Waysiders that saved the refugees, but now the holding is facing food and water shortages as the refugees doubled the number of people in the holding.This has caused increased tensions between the Hocus’s cult and Canker’s gang the Prarie-Jackals, vying for the limited resources in Redemption Rail. For now, peace has been maintained, but pressure is building for change to occur, good or ill.

The Cast of Redemption Rail

For this game, Michael created six pre-generated characters that already had history within the rail. He also tweaked the playbooks some to fit the setting. We had:

Canker the Chopper: You lost everything to the Conflagration except your daughter, who was burned badly, but survived.. You arrived at Redemption Rail with nothing, but have managed to transform a fair number of your fellow refugees into the very dangerous gang: the Prairie-Jackals.

Hector or Hope the Hocus: Fifteen years ago, a feud broke out in Redemption Rail between two factions which you and your sibling found yourself opposite sides of. Not wanting to kill your own twin, both of you tried to broker peace, but, in the end, you were gravely injured and your sibling was shot dead. In the aftermath, you took over the Wayside church and have nearly doubled the size of your congregation. Unfortunately, the refugees, the raiders, and the coming of the Conflagration threaten the stability you bled for.

Samson/Sister the Gunlugger: You remember the world before the Conflagration, though you were very young then. You spent your entire life in Redemption Rail raising your twins, Hector and Hope praying that they never know they pain you had to endure to survive. Then the feud broke out and you nearly lost both your children. With one in the ground and one at death’s door you snapped and went to murdering every single one of those sons of bitches. Fifteen years later you still have all their guns as mementos of slaughter you committed, but you swore you’d never use them again…unless you had to.

K the Ruin Runner: You are the only one who have seen the Immolators and lived, but the price you paid for your survival was very high. You had to watch everyone you ever loved, including your entire family be tortured and murdered. You yourself were no stranger to their cruelties, but one day, you managed to get the upper hand on one of your captors and you bashed his face in with a crowbar before escaping into the wasteland. Out there, you learned to survive with nothing but your wits, but the isolation was too much to bear so you found your way to Redemption Rail. Most see you as complete wackjob, but you can’t help it. It’s hard to talk to people after all you’ve been through. Luckily, someone has taken pity on you and given you place to stay, and more importantly, their friendship.

Ash the Savvyhead:Your father was a fucking monster, but he had to try and sacrifice your sibling for you to discover that. After you gunned him down, Phoenix and you escaped to Redemption Rail. There you found your abilities to fix old tech has made you invaluable. However, there is prophecy of a great engine and you role in creating and you’re not sure if this a party you want to play.

Phoenix the Brainer: Your father was a fucking monster and Ash saved you from him, or at least that’s what you both want to believe… You are incredibly gifted as well as cursed. In addition, you have insight on an enemy no one else understands.

Highlights of play

We selected K (Karen), Ash (Bry), Pheonix (Mike), and Canker (Sean). The other two characters became important NPCs in the story. I don’t want to go into to many details because there are some fronts and threats that Mike is a) still working on and b) planning to drop on players at Dead of Winter.

We saw an awesome transformation of K from a terrified creature to someone whose drive gave him courage. In our first scene when given the choice of saving his own skin or facing his fears to help another K just bolted! Boom, he was out of there. In our final confrontation though, K didn’t lead the “charge” (we were mostly running anyway) but he did show us where we needed to be, despite the risk to himself.

Ash and Phoenix were two sisters that had been messed up something fierce by their father. We never got the whole story behind Phoenix but it was pretty clear that her name wasn’t coincidental and that her sister had somehow given her a new life. It was great that Ashed loved her sister unconditionally, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t a little scared of her too. Brainers, right?

This moment when Ash gives Canker’s daughter a present (a hood ornament from the SUV that we just took by force) and she turns to her daughter and asks “what do you do when someone gives you something?” and Delfinia immediately ferrets the shiny object away under many layers and inside a hidden pocket safe from robbers and thieves. “Good girl!”.

The mounting complications involved with turning on the “Food Switch” (my character’s very limited understanding of hydroponics and gardening combined with a real urgency for food meant she just kept driving towards whatever the Savvyhead said was needed to provide food).

Fucking running away through a minefield! K had a secret holdout on the other side of the minefield and woe be to those who try to chase him down. We found Bone in pieces afterwards.

Pheonix getting to the truth of the matter…one broken brain at a time.

What rocked

I usually play characters that care, that are at some level driven by compassion. They are easier to empathize with for me. Canker wasn’t that person. She cared about her daughter. She cared, in a general sense, about stability, but she gave exactly zero fucks for people that got in her way. We started the game with me “making an example” of Fuckboy and curb stomping he head against the rail itself. In fact, up till the end, most of the blood spilled was by Canker asserting herself over the savage fucking Prairie-Jackals. I think I realized I was breaking my norm when Bry said “I know now not to fuck with Sean when we play Apocalypse World”. Being badass in this game isn’t hard, but when I heard the siren call of “This is a Canker problem” I responded.

Mike B did a fantastic job of playing a Brainer who was fucked up, but not weird for the sake of being weird. Pheonix wanted to know the truth about her father, about the impending doom, and about the doomsday cult that hailed it. All the scary ass shit she did was in the service of finding out that truth, and then acting on the knowledge she had.

Lots of strong ties in this game. Between Ash and Phoenix, between Canker and Delfinia, between Ash and Lagato (sp?). Some great PC-NPC-PC triangles between Phoenix-Bone-Canker (Phoenix knew Bone was our enemy, Canker trusted her with her daughter) and K-Samson-Canker (Samson had taken K in and took care of him, Canker threatened to put a hole in the old man’s head if K didn’t return her daughter). You know, good, healthy relationships.

The props, both the map and the pictures were great. They breathed life into the characters…which we snuffed out one by one. Sorry Pampers, Bone, Gerber, Fuckboy, Diesel, et al.

Ash’s scene where she used and old timey radio to tune into the Psychic Maelstrom and find out what started this all was just amazing. The call backs were great.

Mike’s answer to what was needed to fix the train was great. Drove two PCs (Ash and Canker) right against each other!

What could have improved

The Conflagration, a force beyond mortal ken existed alongside the Psychic Maelstrom. I think it would have been stronger (and present less confusion when making moves like “open your brain”) if it was the Psychic Maelstrom. In this world, that’s what it is!

There were some NPC relationships between Hope and Grove and Hope and Sampson that made sense but they weren’t “charged”. No PC agency meant the players were bystanders to their development which dragged some energy out of the game. It seems like Hope is a pretty central character. She should be given out first, before the other characters are offered.

We had some discussion after the game about pitching this as horror. The horrific threats were distant and external. The immediate threats were personal (two people at odds) or based on scarcity (food, water, etc). There were great but didn’t evoke horror or fear. We needed more announcing future badness in the form of our loved ones being either converted or consumed by the unknowable threat.

Actual Play – Heroes of Skywatch (10/24/2015)

GM: Dennis Jordan
Players: Regina Joyner, Karen Twelves, and Sean Nittner
System: Pathfinder
Adventure Path: Kingmaker

The triumphant return of our heroes after rescuing the hostages… and all the sacrifices they had to make.

Last session we ended with our return. At the start of this session we saw Chall Fingo vanish along with nearly a third of the hostages, who, now free, were immediately heading back to Restov to arm up and plot their revenge.

Last session actual play: Big Damn Heroes

When we turned our attention back to the PCs we found them, as often the case in the…

Small council meeting

First there was a discussion of awards. Yay for one happy topic. All who fought would receive a metal forged by Christoph and emblazoned by one of our artisans recognizing them as a “Hero of Skywatch.”

Others would receive greater rewards commiserate with their contribution and station.

Ribissi – for his contributions and the contribution of Mivon, Miquela would offer to foster one of his children as her own. Additionally we will name the first ship in our navy the Water Dancer and make the masthead in his image as a nod to him.
Aldo – Named the Warden of the North.
Xanthia – Named the Warden of the East and given leave to raise a Centaur army (Free Nomen Legion).
Sootscale – We delayed the awards until the evening so that he and the rest of his entourage could participate. Additionally he will be named Warden of the Deep.
Roy – A graveyard would be built in honor of the fallen in Tazzleford. (+1 graveyard).
Franco – A memorial would be built in his honor (+1 monument in the Tusk) and Miquela would speak of the long road he had to walk to earn our trust and our respect and how his shoes would be very hard to fill.
Jerome – Awarded an official title, head of the Swordlord’s Intelligence Service (SIS).

For the others, they were awarded a special medal for their contribution.

And then the bad news

What to do with Peitro?

Really, we’ve got this kid, and he’s been working with our enemy. The man who kidnapped our loved ones, and kidnapped the loved ones of many Rostland families. He’s despicable, and should be put the sword.

But how to do it without destroying his father, or if not destroying his father, destroying his father’s credibility, which we will need if we are to unite the houses?

Maybe more so than ever before the council was divided. Do we give Pietro back to his father? If so, do we do it publicly or secretly? Maybe through a message to his mother first? Do we put him on trial ourselves for treason against Aldoria? If so, what do we do when he calls for an advocate? No matter what we do it could be bad.

Edward got up and left the table when Merrowyn suggested that if Lord Sellemius stepped up to be the advocate for his son, they should throw the match. Not long after Merrowyn got up and left the table after it was clear that we were going to lock him up in some dungeons and throw away the key.

Which is exactly what we ended up doing. Nobody felt great about it, but Kobb and Domingo’s cold logic won out over our own sense of right and wrong.

Disappointed Dad

What made Edward leave was his daughter saying something that hurt him at the core. That she would consider having an advocate throw the match, even push for it. He thought he had trained her (all those ranks in Profession: Advocate!) and she just gave it all up in a moment when it would serve her purposes.

Later, Merrowyn, Olivetta, and Leccio made a quick jaunt to Skywatch (Leccio wanted a look at the Rogarvians) and came back beaten and battered. Edward found Merrowyn later and was about to forgive her, but then he saw her all beaten up just like she was 12 again and constantly getting into fights.

Kingdom Turn 37

The Kingdom is stable (+1 BP)
Paying consumption and 10 BP for the rescue mission.
Expansion into hexes C0, C-1, and C-2
Farms in C0 and C-2
Fishery in C-1
Roads in C0 and C-1
Buildings (Tazzleford): Graveyard
Buildings (The Tusk): Monument
Increase size of Arvin’s Rangers from Medium (100) to Large (200).
Event: Outstanding success in Tazzleford – Dug up an old Cyclops graveyard and sold off artifacts (+16 BP, +4 Economy until next turn, +1 Fame, -2 Unrest)

Liberation Day

During the morning there was a parade through the Tusk and Miquela used her Rod of Splendor to create a giant feast for everyone to partake in. Leccio pointed that since the rod can be used once a week, she should do this every week! Tuesdays would be best!

In the afternoon Miquela sat in the common ground and received petitions from the people. Many asked for impossible things, others had grievances easy to solve. The worst of the complainers were saved for the end, when Miquela’s patience was the most strained. Kobb had engineered it, trying to get her to snap. She kept her calm though and addressed even the most cantankerous citizens with civility.

At the end of the hearings one final petitioner, Lady Simeraldia Amato, wife of Bruno Amato and a her small entourage stepped up and asked if they could approach the Swordlord. She was admitted to come forward where she took a knee and held out her upward turned hand to Miquela. Not sure what to do, indeed there was no protocol for this, Miquela stood and took Lady Amato by the wrist in a soldiers’ embrace and lifted her up.

Standing very close Lady Simeraldia said “House Amato does not forget!”

Fuck yeah. A win for the good guys! Or at least, you know, a win for us.

After that there were games and contests. People trying to enter the temple of Gorum (good luck), wheelbarrow jousting, you name it. Merrowyn was peopled-out and spent some good time drinking with Santiago and talking about alternative ale-dispensing vessels.

At dusk the kobolds arrived in an giant parade. Sootscale had commanded his soldiers to put on their finest polish and clean up as well as they could. Quite an impressive feat. They had giant paper dragon puppets driven by 20 kobolds, gymnastics, jugglers and other fanfare. They also had the stuffed corpse of the Hobgoblin commander they defeated during the last raid. Festive by kobold standards, a bit crass by ours.

Awards Ceremony

At night, after the parades and festivities, we performed the awards ceremony, commemorating those who fought at Skywatch to bring our families home.

Atonio Ribisi, his five dualists, one of them fallen, and his wizard – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal. We further offered to foster one of his children to be raised by the Swordlord herself alongside her own.
Roy Resnick – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal and a graveyard for the fallen erected in Tazzleford.
Aldo Resnick – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal and named Warden of the North.
King Sootscale – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal and named Warden of the Deep.
Nat Pick and the twenty kobolds, four of them fallen – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal.
Jerome, and “staff,” one of them fallen – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal and named head of the Swordlord’s Intelligence Service (SIS).
Xanthia – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal and named Warden of the East, and granted the commission to lead a Free Nomen army.
Chall Fingo, his two bodyguards, one of them fallen, Jarl the wizard, and Laren the archmage – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal in absentia.
Akiros – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal in absentia.
Mik Mek – Was not mentioned, though a medal was left for him later by Miquela.
Brigitte, and her three clerics of Abadar – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal.
Rombilard, Felix, and the Twins, one of them fallen but raised again – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal partially in absentia.
Lieutenant Solia, Private Delaco Farell, and Sergeant “Stoney,” soldiers of the Swordlord’s Own – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal.
Sergeant Nolan, soldier of the Swordlord’s Own, fallen in battle – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal posthumously.
Captain Franco, commander of the Swordlord’s Own, fallen in battle – Awarded the Hero of Skywatch medal posthumously, thanked personally for his service by the Swordlord, and a memorial erected in his honor.

The awards were often accepted by loved ones and then placed by them on the recipients. There was a joyous scene where Tad accepted Xanthia’s and vice versa and then placed them on each other. The same for the Resnicks and the twins.

When Franco’s medal was awarded a woman in battered adamantine full plate stepped up from the crowd and accepted it in his honor. She introduced herself as Savia Sordello, Franco’s older sister, and simple as that, returned back to a crowd of soldiers.

The Afterparty

Someone doesn’t walk around in dented adamantine plate if they haven’t seen a lot. Like, a lot. And she didn’t storm out the moment she received the medal, so that was another good sign.

Merrowyn approached, made the briefest of small talk and then offered her a position. Something like “So, you’re Franco’s older sister. Want a job?” Not surprisingly, after 3o years of soldering Savia wasn’t interested in anything but a command position. Specifically Franco’s. “I think my brother died trying to be like his big sister. I intend to honor that.”

This was a problem. The position was to be given to Lt. Solia. She was the next in line for it. She fought at Skywatch. She was one of us. Savia, despite her accolades, was a stranger. Solia was understanding, kind of amazingly so. She liked that most problems, big or small, went to Franco, and she wouldn’t mind if they went to his sister instead.

But of course, nothing could be that simple. Miquela also had to have a say. She needed to make sure that Savia’s ego wasn’t going to interfere with her duties. Not an unreasonable question, but damn Merrowyn was sure she was going to undermine her. Savia laid it out pretty clearly “I don’t really care about you, or about Aldoria. But my brother did, and I love my brother.” Maybe not what Miquela was hoping for, but good enough!

Elara and the ranger’s hut

Enter Elara, Druid, upon a simple scene of Akiros digging a well out in the woods. Toilsome work with spade and sweat. As she flew down and took human form the spoke about why he was out here, to offer the rangers a place of respite on their travels and why he was out here, to do Erastil’s will.

The recent rescue of the hostages shook Elara up, again. The lizardmen taking that boy, the kidnapping of our family, those things were just wrong. Yet there isn’t a place for right and wrong in the Green Faith. A wolf who kills a lamb isn’t wrong, he’s just hungry. And when that wolf is killed by a hunter who will use his fur for a pelt, that isn’t wrong either, so long as it all stays in some kind of equilibrium.

But those acts were not done out of necessity but from malicious intent. What of that? Meanwhile Elara offered to help dig the well, and took the form of an Earth Elemenal and dug it out in no time at all. The work was done but there was no satisfaction in it.

They talked. About one’s place in this world and one’s purpose. About beliefs and direction. About choosing a path before one is chosen for you. In the end Akiros told her that he finds purpose in doing Erastil’s will, and when he needs guidance he looks to Jahad. Maybe she should too.

Elara and the pool at the Temple of the Elk

Enter Elara, the reluctant druid to the Temple of the Elk, where all sorts gathered. Rangers on their way to and fro. Families that lived in the area. Pilgrims wanting to see the sight, and of course Jahad, welcoming them all in.

Elara also sought council from Jahad. The conversation was a bit more direct. He pointed to the rangers, noted how they were necessary to keep the land safe, but by necessity were not part of the same society that they protected. If Elara also wanted to protect people, she’d have to make a choice to stand apart as well.

And how do you make that choice? By being throw into the transformative pool and then yanked back out again.

Exit Elara, Inquisitor of Erastil.

Kingdom Turn 38

The kingdom is stable (+1 BP)
Expansion into hexes D-2, E-3, and F-3
Farms in F-3, E-3, D-2
Roads in C-2, D-2, E-3, F-3
Settle in Sellen’s Gate! (Held together with shoeshine and promises till now)
Balanced Treaty formed with Mivon. We share an enemy. Pitax!
Treaty with Mivon. Successful. We created a balanced treaty!

Event: Fued. Savia has taken over leading the Swordlord’s Own and not everyone is making the cut. +1 Unrest as she kicks out some of the original soldiers!

Kingdom Turn 39

The kingdom is stable (-1 Unrest)
Claim three water hexes (Lake Hooktongue) establishing two separate routes to Sellen’s Gate.
Buildings (The Tusk): Library, Barracks, and a Temple of Pharasma (just in time!).
Army expansion: Increase the size of the Swordlord’s Own from Large (200) to Huge (500).
Army creation: Nomen Free Legion (Small army of Centaur Rangers)
Event: Natural Blessing (fires burn through the kingdom but miss inhabited areas, the next harvest will be a fantastic one) [+4 Stability until end of next turn]
Event: Vandals. Mivon duelists show up excited that we have no lists and so they can duel anyone they wants. They leave with broken faces muttering about out incivility (put down before they could spread unrest).

Other matters of state

We put a call out for wizards wondering if we could lure any to the Tusk by building them colleges and academies and such, then…

One day we receive a letter, no wait, we received a verbose invective, from none other that Ervil Pendrod. The missive went on and on (many pages, both sides, small lettering) about how we abused him, took him for granted, and tried to take advantage of his good nature. But that wasn’t all, he went on long tangents about how this is how wizards are always treated and that he has never been given the respect he deserves.

As the small council reviewed the pages of the letter in confusion it was Kobb who finally burst out in exaltation. “Wait a second… Penrod was know for being calm, rational, and patient. This letter is anything but… He must have one of the rings!” And in short order we all agreed. One more ring accounted for, two more at large!

When we realized this, we also began to wonder if the reason we’ve had so much trouble recruiting wizards was because of Dopple-Svetlana. We reached out to Ribissi and asked if he knew any wizards looking for a home. He said he thought we just didn’t like wizards!

We built a library that month, and will soon upgrade it to an Academy and then a University! We’re going to start bringing some arcane might to our kingdom!

Plans for next session

Kingdom turns permitting: expand to more plains hexes, build farms in new hexes and in H7, building granary and storehouse in Sellen’s Gate, establish a trade route to Mivon, grow our armies, create a standing army in Sellen’s gate, build a cathedral in Sellen’s gate, build an academy in the Tusk.

War efforts: Talk to Sootscale about the hobgoblins. How do we face a foe that has every terrain advantage over us (underground, dark, in their home). We can fight them out on the open front, but if we don’t destroy them, they will eventually grow so vast they can crush us.

Personal goals: Get some hounds for the castle. It needs a good pack of dogs to be running around eating the scraps, keeping us warm, and barking at intruders.

What Rocked

We’ve got the following houses that would right now raise banners for us: Sellemius (most likely), Amato (hell yeah!), Strozzi, and Aldori. House Ridolfi also has strong nationalistic views and may stand with us, but we’ve made no specific inroads with them to make them believe us. They might just as well back another leader to fight the throne. House Infaganti are making money and that is the way they like it. They are at present in favor of the status quo. House Villani are moderates not inclined to take sides. Finally there is House Sordello, which as far as we know, still hate our guts. Should our play win them over, we have a chance of uniting all the (capital “S”) Swordlord houses, which hasn’t happened since… oh yeah, the time House Aldori led the houses to their fiery graves. Hmmm… let’s stock up on our Rings of Fire Resistance!

What could have improved

Damn it. I always have these ideas too late! Treason is a crime fought over with greatswords. Instead of suggesting we throw the match, Merrowyn should have demanded that she be allowed to be the advocate! Arg, that would have been cool. Fuck, fuck, fuck. It might still happen. I’m going back to my dueling strategy doc I made several levels ago to update it. It’s like updating your resume.

Actual Play – Pulling the Plugg (10/23/2015)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Meg Pressley, Rocko Moran, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Pathfinder
Adventure Path: Skull and Shackles

Piracy be done! From Adrienne’s notes:

Round 1:
Vyv goes on scythe-based active defense. Madi is hit for 10. Davey sneak attacks Mook 1. Madi runs behind Vyv; casts Evil Eye to give opponent -2 to Attack. Anand clobbers Mook 2 with a winch. Ratliner kills Mook 1.

Round 2:
Vyv stormblasts, but misses. Remaining cutlass-guy (Mook 2) surrenders. Davey is hit twice (bolt, sword). Davey maces sword guy (Mook 3). Madi fails to intimidate surrendered Mook 2, fails, cackles and runs toward the wheel. Anand bullrushes but misses. Tense interlock at the wheel.

Round 3:
Vyv sees Barnabas being snuck up on, but doesn’t warn him. Vyv heals Davey for 10. Davey gets hit twice more. Davey hits SwordMook 3, killing him. Madi doesn’t warn the Captain; casts ear-splitting scream for 3 damage + dazing of Mook 4. Anand doesn’t warn the Captain and flurries: 6 damage, 8 damage, dead Mook 4. Ratliner holds the wheel.

Round 4:
Vyv holds the wheel, takes damage from crossbow. Barnabas is not felled and sees us. Davey hits a crossbowman. Madi ear-piercing screams. Sly falls to the deck. Anand ‘checks out the rudder’, to find Scourge and Plugg. Anand flurries and misses a crossbowman.

Round 5:
Explosion! Mady and Vyv miss reflex saves. Fires on the ship. Vyv climbs over the side to get in position for spell. Davey kills a crossbowman. Madi gets up and throws a dagger at crossbowman; misses. Sail ripped loose when Anand flurries at a crossbowman.

Round 6:
Vyv sees people trying to escape in a dinghy; climbs incredibly well; puts out the fire with a giant Wave spell and sees someone in the hold. Radoomi make progress on boat. Anand hit for two. Davey disables the dinghy-lowering device. Madi helps Ratliner hold the wheel. Anand goes toward rudder – sees some mass around it. Spots Plugg and sees Sly is near him.

Round 7:
Vyv climbs into hole, sees Kipper heal himself with a potion, senses motive, realizes he blew the place up. Radoomi cut the dinghy ropes. Davey bullrushes but misses. Madi evil eyes one of the Radoomi. Anand tries to stealth attack Plugg, but doesn’t stealth. Plugg gives Anand an order, but Anand attacks anyway. Chairbreaker; 9 damage from the winch. Sly smiles.

Round 8:
Vyv searches the hold and finds freshwater, apples, and a trunk with silks, letters and an emerald/dragon-claw pendant. Radoomi all fail to jump into the boat. Davey cracks the boat (disable device). Madi evil eyes Plugg. “You mutinous dog!” Plugg says to Anand. Plugg botches twice. Anand attacks: 1x miss, 1x 13 damage. Sly fails to hit.

Round 9:
Vyv tries to break open a door’s lock with a cannonball but misses. Radoomi officer +2 crew try to leave with other dinghy. Davey misses with crossbow. Madi cackles to keep evil eye on Plugg and holds the wheel, calling for Ratliner. Plugg does 7 damage to Anand with one weapon. Neither Anand nor Sly hit Plugg.

Round 10:
Vyv goes up on deck; sees all the fighting. Tries to water-blast Plugg, but fails. Radoomi officer doesn’t hit Davey with elongated staff. Davey doesn’t hit her with crossbow. Plugg hits Anand for 9 – knocking him out, misses Sly. Madi emits an earpiercing scream: Plugg is dazed.

Round 11:
Vyv heals Anand. Lady Arese &co start to escape. Davey shoots and misses. Madi casts Undine’s curse on Plugg and succeeds. Anand gets up. Swings the boom. Hits Plugg for max damage (15, 12 needed). Sly, Sandara and Shivikah smoothly push the corpse overboard.

Unexpected outcomes

With only moments left Sly, Shivkah, and Sandara all grabbed Plugg’s body and heaved it over the edge into the water for the sharks to devour. Moments later the fog cleared and the Captain bellowed in triumph. That day was won and the Man’s Promise was taken! Little did he know that his first mate was being devoured by sharks as he celebrated a victory.

Looking forward to next session where the players have some downtime and we find out who will take on the station of the new first mate!

Highlights

We capture and hold the wheel! (Some Radoomi loss of life.)
We do not take the opportunity to help Barnabas out.
We don’t really stop people from escaping on the dinghys.
Vyv stops the ship from going up in flames!
Anand (with some help from Madi, Sly and healing from Vyv) kills Plugg.
Plugg is dead. Plugg is dead. Plugg is DEAD!

XP Awarded

Defeating 8 Rahadoumi Sailors – 400
Defeating Plugg – 300

New XP Total: 4025

Treasure doled out

3 x Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
1 x Potion of Invisibility
850 GP in rewards, plunder, and bounty!
Emerald Dragon Claw Amulet

What rocked

Plugg is dead. Dead, dead, dead. Like, really, really dead.

What could have improved

Much as I hate the idea of breaking out miniatures, there was definitely some confusion about what was where, so for future fights we may want to use some kind of battle map, even if it’s just very general.

Actual Play – Licking our wounds (10/22/2015)

GM: John Harper
Players: Stras Acimovic, Adam Koebel, and Sean Nittner
System: Blades in the Dark, Quickset Rules v.3f-ish

After our showdown from last session, the Six Tower’s Gang needed some legit downtime!

Canter got himself a nice new coat from Dunridge & Sons and the spent time with his new lady friend, where we learned about childhood in Iruvia.

Arcy got patched up first by some street doc that gave her and infection and later by Quellin who actually helped her out. She then overindulged her sexual appetite and slept with Cyclops, which caused some trouble in the gang.

Oskar also had his wounds tended to by Quellin and then spent considerable time and money getting some amazing calligrapher to draw a new tattoo design and then getting an invite to party (an exceptional invite even) where we can start trying to hawk our wares to the richer clientele. Yay for finding us the next score!

Trouble

We also ran into some trouble, entanglements if you will.

Lord Skurlock has been messing with the minds of our gang and without them even knowing it, they dug a cistern for the bodies of the demon blood corrupted people to float in. Covered in morter and brick dust, holding trowels in their hands they still didn’t know they did it.

Larose, our contact in the bluecoats let us know that Harrington was taken in for questioning and found to have contraband. He’s our supply of leviathan blood and a personal friend of Arcy’s. We’ve got a week before a magistrate sentences him to figure out who to pay off to get him out of there.

Bazso Bas has asked for a personal meeting with us. We want that right? That’s a good thing right?

Making Plans

For once Arcy and Canter agreed on something. In the short term we’re going to let Bazso Baz know that we’ll take care of the Red Sashes and he can focus on the Crows, knowing that sooner or later we’ll have our knives at his throat, or the other way around.

In the long term, we plan on rolling Lord Keel and taking him for all that he’s worth.

Blades on Air

Actual Play – Everyone’s a Suspect (10/17/2015)

GM: Kristin Firth
Players: Matt Gaston, Sean Nittner, Jackson Tegu, Lali Cheshire, and Laurel Halbany
System: Everyone’s A Suspect

Kristin’s storytelling game of “who done it” is so much fun.

The game starts with all of the players collectively answering questions surrounding a murder. The year, the location, other events in the area, the victim, the PCs relationship to the victim, and how the victim died.

We created a small town near the mountains in 1971. Freedom Chase owned a small movie theater and was found dead in her employee’s car at 5AM one morning. We played her employee, her landlord, her son, her guru, and her on again, off again boyfriend.

In play the goal is to frame scenes that make your character looks suspicions. At the end of a full round of scenes each player has a pool of dice ranging from d4 to d20 and they assign them in order of who they thought looked the most suspicious that round. There aren’t enough dice for everyone, and you can give someone more than one, so an even distribution of dice is highly unlikely, as is desired!

Once the dice are assigned they are rolled and a running tally is kept. At the end of the game the player with the highest suspicion get the first choice to pick if their character was in fact the murdered. All the way down the line until someone does, and the rest of the players reveal how their characters were innocent (at least of the murder in question).

In our game we had a lot of things going on. The guru with her own secret files on everyone, the theater employee who had been making armature adult films with Freedom, the rebellions son who wanted someone punished, the boyfriend who turned out to be an absentee father, and the landlord whose own husband died of cancer (or perhaps just of the cold) during the course of the investigation.

In terms of procedure the format is very much like fiasco (4 acts with an epilogue at the end) but the mood and tenor of the game was at least in our case, much more serous.

What Rocked

Emotionally this game was a bit of a roller coaster for me. I started playing a character who was free loving and all about experiencing life and realized later he was a dead beat dad who showed up years later trying to reclaim his past without any thought of his son. That was rough terrain for me and I was really glad I was playing with such a compassionate group of people I love. I used the x-card in the form of “okay, that was really intense and awesome, but let’s not push that one any farther.” and everyone respected that and was awesome about it!

On a mechanical level, the game did genre emulation very well. My character looked extremely suspicious in the first act but by the third scene it was clear to everyone I was the red herring. Matt’s character, however, looked dubious throughout, but had one open thread he was able to use in the end, so it made total sense why and how he did it. Good stuff there!

What could have improved

We had a hard time fitting everything into two hours and since there was another game scheduled right after ours we had to wrap it up. Kristin said that other games had finished in under two hours, which I believe, as we were really chewing up the scenery!

Actual Play – Big Bad Gauntlet (10/17/2015)

GMs: Kasi Jammeh, Sophie Lagacé, Bry Hitchcock, and John Kim
Agents: Eric Zim, Bruce Harlick, Shaun Hayworth, Brian Williams
Audience*: June Garcia, Charles Chung, Ashley Richter, Mike Murray, Adam Fox, Rob Harrell
Players*: Ken Gribble, John Cornell, Kevin Murphy, Rachel Tevlin, Gennaro Kukonu, Johnathan Wright, Mike McFarland, Joe Sondow, Michael Kwan, Jennifer Blight, Duane Padilla, Justin Padilla, Randy Lubin, Mario Cole, Shantih Moriarty, and Jon Edwards
Adversaries: Lali Cheshire and Sean Nittner
System: Fate Accelerated (modified Fate Economy)

* The audience and players lists are based off the online sign ups for Big Bad Con, however, those often change at the con itself, so I’m not sure if these lists are entirely accurate.

Wow, that was crazy. Four games, each of them connected, and each of them threatened by a central pair of adversaries.

Rather than go into all the details of how it worked, here is the basic description of the event, here’s the instructions sent to the GMs, and to the Agents.

What rocked

We hosted a co-op four game event with a central adversary (by the end adversaries!) and our marginalized factions overthrew them!

At the end we had an nearly hour long debrief and got at ton of good feedback for how to improve the event for next year.

A healthy host of folks said they had a great time.

Our agents were stalwart emissaries that backed my every… oh wait, never mind, the Monkey King turned on me and joined the faction. I guess that is a win as well!

We did it all in 4 hours. Though it was challenging, that was a huge improvement over BBGM in six hours in the past.

What could have improved

We accidentally allowed an audience member the ability to completely cut off one faction from it’s goal. That was a compel we should not have taken, as it was a pretty big bummer for one table to find out the Moon Princess was no more.

We had some pretty strict rules about the Fate economy that were circumvented by two tables and that put those tables at a stark advantage over the other tables. By the end of the game that meant one table was blowing through our challenges without batting an eye and the other ones were really struggling with them. This is definitely something we’ll address next time going over the modified economy with the GMs just prior to game.

There was a big of a frantic rush to get started and work on the goals ASAP which meant a few players who weren’t familiar with Fate were playing catch up. Just like we’re going to sit down with the GMs, next time we’ll also have a Fate 101 for the players before it kicks off.

Having 30+ people in that room got WARM. Next year we’re going to take the Forum Room for this! Yeah, it means displacing larps but we just couldn’t breathe in there. Either that or reduce ourselves down to three games.

Actual Play – Ghost Court, Alameda County (10/16/2015)

GM: Sean Nittner and others
Players: Others, living and dead
System: Ghost Court

Tagline: Ghost court is a game about ghosts, and people, and all the dumb ways that ghosts and people can’t get along.

The fact that I was not only playing in a game, but running a game at Big Bad Con says two things:

The support I’ve gotten from our staff has been amazing. It was fantastic to host a con where so many thing went so well all on their own. Even when something went wrong (a finger smooshed, a table broken, a room left in disarray) the response was calm, cool, and collected. We did great!
The game is ridiculously easy to run. And Ghost Court is. I mean, it’s so easy to run that halfway through the game Oscar Simmons caught me in the hall and asked “aren’t you in a game right now?” My response was “I’m running a game right now.” Pretty gosh darn awesome!

For folks who weren’t there to experience the hilarity, Ghost Court is a larp that emulates daytime court TV. People’s Court, Judge Judy, etc. It does so by giving two people a single card with their case (as plaintiff and defendant) and giving them each a minute to please their case before the judge, clerk, and bailiff. Because the cases are so masterfully written and because people know the parts to play, the whole thing fits together wonderfully.

Oh, and some of us are dead, and some of us are not. All the more fun to be had.

What rocked

I was a pretty good judge. People laughed. I got some good ghost puns in the mix. Overall, a solid B+ judge. Jennifer Miller, however, she was just amazing. She channeled the self assurance and moral authority of the best judges out there and delivered her sentences with sass. She was Judge Judy DisIncarnate!

I got to be judge, bailiff, audience member, and plaintiff. Not bad for a single session! I even had to be escorted out of the court for disorderly conduct, and that’s when I was the bailiff!

What could have improved

I wasn’t sure exactly when to end the game. I think we got through about 15 cases before we were all tuckered out. I opted to have one more case with Jennifer (judge Alex Miller presiding) and called that the end. Seemed like as good a way as any to wrap it up.

As soon as this game is out, I know a half dozen living and dead who will be snatching it up!

Actual Play – Ship ahoy! (10/8/2015)

GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Meg Pressley, Rocko Moran, and Adrienne Mueller
System: Pathfinder
Adventure Path: Skull and Shackles

Day 19

Started bad. The captain announced an inquisition and Peppery Longfarthing started taking people individually into the captain’s quarters with Kipper and interrogating them with her magic.

Meanwhile everyone was sent off to do their least favorite jobs.

Vyv was sent back down into the bilges with Cog and Fipps. Anand sent Shivikah to go with them in order to keep Vyv safe, though later when Shivkah revealed she had hidden weapons and was ready to jump Jape, Maddie visited and told her to hold stead.

Madi swabs (passed a roll to not be fatigued) and asks Sandara about what we’re missing on the ship, who is happy to tell Maddie about some of the more secret parts of the ship (the captain’s private storage, the armory, the laboratory, and treasures ferreted away in the quartermaster’s store.

Finding out the “Truth”

During the day the crew is interrogated by Peppery. She casts a spell which fills the air with motes of light. As they speak some of the motes burst open, others continue to twinkle. Peppery’s eyes glow red and she tells them if they lie, she will know.

Davey is interrogated and likes the dust. Anand is interrogated and doesn’t like the dust. Madi is interrogated and knows the dust is bullshit. Argues she has the soul of a Kraken. Rolls really well for bluff and because Longfarthing plays along with it, seems to intimidate Kipper!

More work for the weary

Anand is lookout. Fails perception check but sees an unusual bird landing on the crow’s nest. Attacks it. Catches it. Puts it in a net.

As he climbs down Anand is cut off by Pugg who sends him back to work, but still gets a shout out to Maheem who later joins him. He asks Maheem about the bird (the Rhadoomi has a tattoo of the bird on his chest). The bird is a Radoomi Gadfly. There is a Radoomi ship and sorcerer nearby!

Anand kills the bird. Sorcerers are bad, right?

A red light flares and dies down slowly in the captain’s quarters

Ratliner is identified as the traitor. Captain starts speech about whether he wants a fast or slow death. Anand calls out ‘There’s a ship’, loud enough to partially distract the crew. He climbs down, facing off with Plugg and trying to get Captain’s attention.

Davey succeeds in a diplomacy roll (lots of help: Anand, Ratliner, Jack, Devil’s Bargain – hell to pay later) against Penny Longfathing, to capture the Captain’s attention. Barnabas grabs his spyglass and sees the ship!

Lets do some Piracy!

Ratlier is practically forgotten in the zeal to take a ship as the officers start barking orders to chase the ship down as a fast as they can.

Several rolls of seamanship to capture the ship, and roll out the ballista. (We all succeed, Vyv particularly well. Madi least well, but okay with minimal contribution to piracy.)

Davey steals some stuff from some lockboxes with Kroop’s help. (Tanglefoot bag, Cool Lantern, 2x Vials of Sobriety, 1x brandy, 10gp). Kroop also gives him his trusted steadfast grapple, and wishes him the bets of luck.

It takes all day to to catch the ship but when they do Riaris tells our heroes they will be part of the boarding party and must defend the wheel and prevent anyone from getting off the boats.

Anand is to lead the charge! Takes Ratliner in tow. Krine allows it (begrudgingly)

Boarding:
– Vyv fails to grapple, as does Anand. Davey, Ratliner and Madi succeed.
– Vyv doesn’t grapple, Anand does. Davey climbs, Ratliner falls and Madi climbs with a little bit of help from Anand.
– Vyv summons a dolphin to save Ratliner. Anand’s rope is cut and he falls. Davey hides on the new deck. Madi inches her way along the rope.
– Ratliner is saved by Vyv’s dolphin. Vyv successfully grapples. Anand climbs back up and sees Plugg’s pommel. Davey pushes a guy over the side and he’s attacked by sharks. Ratliner makes it up. Madi hides really well.
– Vyv and Anand make it over with some assistance from Krine. Davey and Madi hide. Vyv, Anand and Ratliner are attacked!

XP Awarded

Saving Ratliner: 50
Boarding the Man’s Promise: 100

New XP Total: 3325

What rocked

There was some fun tension about trying to save Ratliner from the fate they had inadvertently gotten him into. I did let off a little in the end because, frankly, the officers cared a lot more about taking another ship than about disciplining a halfling with missing fingers. I was still happy to see the party so invested in helping out the little guy!

Playing out the scene of Peppery casting Prestidigitation over and over was fun. I knew Maddie would make her Spellcraft check to identify it, but I didn’t think she’s use it to convince Kipper that she was a leviathan! Great stuff there!

There was nothing planned for Vyv in the bilges, but I just love how looming they seemed after the last session. I also really dig that they almost turned it around and jumped Cog and Fipps on their own accord!

Many, many thanks to Adrienne for taking notes during the session so I didn’t have to. This AP report is courtesy of her!

What could have improved

I really should have made Plugg more of an obstacle to Anand. I would have like to have seen him either deck the guy, or have to do some crazy rope swinging over his head. That would have added a little more tension to Davey’s mad dash to get the captain’s attention.

We didn’t get to the actual taking on the Man’s Promise during this session, I think in large part because I was too obscure with the whole “you failed a perception check, so you find this bird, and this bird remind you of Maheem, and Maheem tells you…” I should have just said “you see a ship!”.

Actual Play – Big Bad Gauntlet [Playtest] (9/27/2015)

Participants (in various roles): Lali Cheshire, Karen Twelves, J Li, Ezra Denney, Tom Vallejos, Colin Fahrion, Eric Zim, Brian Williams, Sophie Lagacé, Edmund Metheny, and Sean Nittner.
System: Fate Accelerated (in pieces)

Big Bad Gauntlet designed by Lali Cheshire.

After many slack conversations, emails, phone calls, google docs reviews, and much tinkering, we got together to try out a playtest of the Big Bad Gauntlet for Big Bad Con.

The playtest was vastly informative. As we had it structured the GM/Leaders were really a first among equals and the Agents, coming to them with challenges were the actual authority/GM. We were using a PTA style resolution system with decks of Fate Cards. It felt like it had a lot of promise but when we started breaking down the structure of play, it became pretty apparent that this was only working because our players and GMs were doing their best to keep it working.

After a lot of discussion we decided to go with a more traditional model of GMs running their own games but having a very limited fate point economy (and what fate points they did have went away when used) that could be supplemented by bribes from the Agent and help from the Audience.

We walked out ready to have more slack conversations, emails discussions, and start some new google docs!

A note for future games: A hand of Fate cards, where each player secretly puts one card face down into a pot, works in effect a lot like the crisis mechanics in BSG. It didn’t end up being utilized for this, but I really like the idea of using this more in the future.

Actual Play – Big Damn Heroes (9/26/2015)

GM: Dennis Jordan
Players: Regina Joyner, Karen Twelves, Eric Fattig, and Sean Nittner
System: Pathfinder
Adventure Path: Kingmaker

At the sight of Miquela, Pietro (freshly resurrected) feinted on the spot. Everyone expected someone else was going to catch him but instead he went back like a board and he his head hit the floor…hard. He didn’t move. We couldn’t tell if he was breathing.

We all stood in silent horror. Shit, did he die again? What does that even mean if he did? Has this game switched from Pathfinder to Fiasco? We stood there, speechless, until…

Johah, the inquisitor of Pharasma, burst out laughing.

Finding our family

Last session we finally recovered Pietro (albiet a dead Pietro) and after hunting him down through some crazy ancient forgotten Emerald spire and were now going to find out from him where the hostages were being kept.

To facilitate this, the head of our new founded central intelligence Jerome, asked if he could interrogate the prisoner without Miquela present, and he wasn’t sure how many more resurrections this kid had left in him (The swordlord does tend to get a bit stabby with people who have betrayed her).

In the next small council meeting (as we waited for information from Pietro)

Cobb suggested keeping Lord Sellemus in the dark about his son which we temporarily agreed to.
We all agreed it was time to call the banners and get the hostages.
After we recovered the hostages we also agreed that there would be no reason not to go to war with Brevoy, except that are armies aren’t nearly large enough. In order to hold our own they need to grow to ten times their current size. Once that happens we’ll be ready for:
- War with Pitax (if we can get Mivon to step in and help)
- War with Brevoy (if we can unify the Restov swordlords)

The children are in Skywatch

When report came back from Jerome we found out:

Pietro has been working with the Surtovas for ages, since he was a teenager. Never thought highly of by his own father, Pietro saw Noleskin as a father figure, and hand a lingering fancy for Queen Natala.
He’s dumb, but not as dumb as people think. They worked with Pitax to kill one of the four groups sent out, which confirms we’re the only ones that have survived this long.
The hostages are in Skywatch. Time for a history lesson folks.

The observatory at Skywatch has been there forever. Thought to be built by celestial creatures (though we suspect cyclops), it’s surface is utterly impenetrable. When Choral the Conquerer united the two nations there was one group of ultra nationalist swordords, the Night Blades that continued to fight even when their country had fallen. The took control of Skywatch and through several underground networks smuggling supplies they were able to hold it for a year. Finally, after sending all of his mundane forces against it and failing Choral brought in his dragons and burned everything to ashes. All but the observatory, which was untarnished by the flames.

It was claimed by the Rogarvians, but granted to the Surtovas to rebuild and after they had built it, they lived their. Some other things we know it about it:

It cannot be penetrated by magic (teleportation and scrying doesn’t even work within a mile of it)
There are rumored to be catacombs under it.
Based on Pietro’s knowledge there are at least 200 troops there (as of a month ago).

Cobb suggested we let him send in a highly trained team to gather intelligence and ferret out the hostages. It would take a month, maybe two. We didn’t have that long. We couldn’t keep Pietro hidden for long and who knows what would happen to the hostages during that time. It was time to go!

Strike Team

We had our expected line up…

Miquela, our Swordlord
Elara, our Warden and closest to Rudolfo, along with her old companion Kiri.
Merrowyn, the General

Then their were our stalwart companions:

Tad on Xanthia’s back (and she was flying???)
Mik Mek
Giovanni (he was going to get his son and sister back!)
Rombilard and the Twins (who would never miss the action)

We also had recruits brought up from within our ranks:

Franco and five of the Swordlord’s Own (including Nolan and Stoney).
Brigitte and three healers of Abadar.
Three of Enza Aldori’s finest students.
Jerome and three of his infiltrators.

Ambassadors of good will from parts near an far:

Sootscale arrived with Nat Pick and 20 of his Kobold Elite
Antoni Ribissi of Mivon arrived with five duelists and a wizard.
Chall Fingo and his entourage include two men-at-arms and Jarl the wizard, as per his agreement many moons back.

We couldn’t get all of us that far north, even with all our combined wizards using all their powers of teleportation, so we called in a favor. Jarl contacted his mentor, and ancient elf named Lauren, one of the archmages of Golarion, who created a teleportation circle that would bring us all close by, and then promised to have another ready for us the next day to retreat.

Finally there were two who arrived at the last moment before we set out:

Santiago, though forbidden by Miquela, burst into the teleportation circle at the last moment.
Akiros, who we expected to come with but no one had heard word of showed up “Erastil told me I need to be here”.

Those left behind to guard the Tusk

We couldn’t just all go! Despite wanting to come with, we had to leave few behind to ensure there would be a kingdom to come back to.

Edward, left in charge
Domingo, still wheeling and dealing
Jahad, to look after the poeple
Toti, to keep the clerics of Abadar in check.
Arvin, to watch our borders
Leccio, to provide us what wisdom he could from his library
Cobb, our contingency plan
Hima, to guard Floriana
Enza, there must be a dueling master in ever swordlord’s capitol!
Sootscale, to unleash the horde should an enemy choose now to strike.

The costs (financial ones)

Our personal costs for potions to go on this trip:

Description	Qty	Value	Cost
See Invisibility (CL3)	4	-300	-1200
Invisibility (CL3)	4	-300	-1200
Darkvision (CL3)	4	-300	-1200
Fly (CL 5)	4	-750	-3000

Costs to equip the rest of the troops and arrange the logistics: another 50,000 in expenses (12 Build points when we get to Kingdom phase).

The Rescue

We all hopped through the teleport circle about five miles north of Skywatch in a craggy region that was well concealed. We sent out scouts to report on the current status and a few hours later they returned back reporting that 100 cavalry were moving towards Skywatch, all of them “Slashers” the Brevoy elite. In front of them was an eerie black carriage that floated without wheels and was driven by eight black horses. Inside the town near the observatory were 500 troops.

We opted to come in from the size, circumvent the town all together, open the gates and let our folks storm in while we kept the slashers busy. That was the plan at least!

Highlights of the Fight

Elara dropping a volcanic storm in the center of the Slashers slowing them all down and blocking visibility.
Oliveta impersonating a Slasher and then using Mass Suggestion to get a dozen of them to clump together around a single sergeant.
Miquela running to lead the wedge when Fraco had fallen to a disintegrate spell.
Merrowyn leaping from rooftop to rooftop to pull all the necessary levers to open the gates and tag team fighting with Mik Mek.

Remarkable actions of the our allies:

Chall Fingo making a direct b-line to the wizards and cutting them down despite his entourage taking grievous injuries.
Franco leading the charge of the Swordlords own and not one of them breaking after he was disintegrated by Stroon. Fucking Stroon!
Santiago running off on his own, chasing down a scent and finding Rudolfo (later).
Akiros keeping calm as there is a delay in opening the gates.
Our bad ass Kobold assassin archers.
The Stone Face Killer and Mik Mek fist bump.
Tad flying on Xanthia’s back raining down explosive arrows.
Aldo showing us he still had it in him, by dropping the first Slasher with a single arrow, and then nearly killing Stroon with one shot. Also some adorable moments between him and his son Roy trading compliments.
Rombilard and Felix going full bear on the Slashers.

Inside the Observatory

After slaying a whole ass ton of Slashers (and emphatically avoiding going anywhere near that spooky carriage) we made our way into the observatory and then went down… so far down.

There we fought wizards and rogues and did more killing until we finally got the end where we found Narise (the hand maiden of Queen Natala), our hostages, and about 20 killers ready to kill those hostages.

And then the Swordlord and Narise negotiated. Tensely.

In the end we left them go and they gave us back the hostages. Despite a lot of super evil dudes that wanted to do some murdering and some super good guys who really didn’t want to see those super evil guys walk away free.

A count of those lost

Franco, leader of the Swordlord’s Own, disintegrated by Stroon.
Nolan, one of the Swordlords’s Own
One of Chall’s entourage
Two of the academy duelists
One of the Twins
A duelist of Mivon
One of Jerome’s infiltrators
Four of Sootscale’s kobolds

More mysteries inside Skywatch

Miquela realized that as Narise was leaving, she hinted that dangerous as it was to be in Skywatch, it held something valuable. Later one of our scouts reported finding something very strange.

A giant room, filled with tables? beds? something. And on each of them was one one of the Rogarvian family. Apparently all of the Rogarvian family. Completely frozen.

Olivetta had cast dominate person on one of the rogues and she sent him into investigate. The moment he passed through an invisible barrier he was locked in place and his telepathic connection with Olivetta was completely cut off!

Much as we knew Leccio would love to see this, there was no way to get him here magically or to hold Skywatch long enough for him to travel this far. We had to go and we had to leave this mystery behind. One thing we knew for sure was that this was the work of some epic level sorcery, the likes of which we doubt any Surtova has ever mustered. Whoever did this, for whatever reason they did it, the Surtova’s used it to their advantage!

We freed the hostages!

Despite our losses and this mystery we raced away from Skywatch with 500 soldiers on our heels. We made it to the extraction point and teleported home. All of the hostages with us!

Epilogue

We found out that Savia, once sober, had been the one to hold everyone else together. She was the rock that kept them steady. That strength of character lasted just until she got home and hit the drink. Then she took it all out on Toti. Awww.

Elara went to see Rudolpho and rejoiced that he was still alive.

Merrown brought Domingo to see his mother.

Miquela made a pillow barrier around her children and slept with them in her giant bed.

Olivetta watched Rudolpho and Giovanni unite. She then was seen talking to a carpenter and gathering her things to move out of the Tusk and build a little shake of her own.

Aldo and Roy drinking together.

Robilard and Felix wrestling while drunk.

The twins, one of them getting the other ressurected.

Franco’s commemoration by his soldiers.

Tad and Xanthia heading off to be alone.

Sootscale arriving with an entourage to pick up their fallen.

As Miquela nodded off for the night and one of the babies woke and started fussing, a single reptilian and coming up out of the shadows to give it a pacifier and calm it once again.

What rocked

This rescue operation was long time in the coming. It was great to finally get to do it.

Merrowyn hardly ever pulled out her sword. I think she stabbed one dude that Mik Mek was tussling with and maybe an assassin. It was fun having other things for her to do (namely opening the giant doors) besides stabbing things.

Dennis did a masterful job of managing a truly gigantic combat. I would have never taken on something so daunting and handled it with such granularity. Some combats have interesting terrain or environmental factors that effect them. In this game, the environment was the battle itself, and all the people we cared about in it!

What could have improved

Hard to say really. There were some tactical elements (like needing to open two doors) that might have been more clear if we were using a battle map or if we specifically announced that we were going to examine the mechanics of the door. But mostly likely that would have taken a really tough Knowledge (Engineering) check that none of us would have made, so we were likely to find out the hard way one way or another.

Next session

Kingdom turns

Freedom day celebration!

Honoring those who lived and those who died to bring our families home.

And more I’m sure!