guys, this has turned into way far the biggest campaign we've ever played. i sure hope you're enjoying it, because we're all really digging this game. anyway, here's the start of our next play session!
GM Elle: Here we go, then. Your donkeys are hitched to the cart, their saddlebags are on, and you're ready to head out of Outskirt toward Dead Eyes Cave, where Gualmond and his adventuring partners told you there's a basilisk. Anything you want to do before leaving town?MSG: What's everybody's rations situation? Because according to the cart inventory, we've got 28 rations there, and my look at the map says it's about three days to the cave. Multiplied by six of us --
Claire: Seven.
Akane: Yes! Do not forget your unwisely hired cultist donkey-tender!
MSG: Well, technically we haven't checked the cart for her yet, so maybe instead of hiding in there she decided to ditch us. Anyway, six times three would be eighteen, plus another eighteen on the way back to Outskirt makes 36 rations just for the trip.
Claire: Or 42 if Glinssa is hiding in the cart like we told her to.
Ariel: I'm too slothful to do the math, but 42 is definitely a chunk more than 28. Probably we should buy some more.
Sasha: Hey, we know there's snakes and a basilisk in the cave, so it's just a matter of clearing the place out and grilling up whatever we kill. How much meat is on a basilisk?
Akane: Zedeja attempts Beast Lore hoping to learn a basilisk is poisonous to eat, not just from its gassiness. The roll is 15, though, far above her skill. Still, she says, "No eating basilisks! Indigestible, I'm sure!"
Claire: Since Filvius seemed to know some basilisk lore last time it came up, can I roll to see if he knows whether they're edible?
GM Elle: Sure.
Claire: 10 is a success.
GM Elle: You know they're chock-full of poison gas and corrosive stomach acids, and their eyes can turn you to stone. So at the very least you'd need to do a really good job preparing the meat before cooking it, and if you stab it in the gas-bladder while fighting it, the whole thing will be contaminated. In game terms, let's say you'll have to roll bushcraft with a bane to cook it properly.
Akane: Zedeja forbids this kind of culinary. Look, across the square is the store of Master Ulvar, where rations are one silver ... less if a hound haggles for them!
Ariel: Okay, I guess let's make a stop and Fidu will see what kind of deal he can get on some road grub. I guess we might as well get like 20 of them? My Bartering roll is ... 2.
GM Elle: 16 silver for 20 rations, then. Master Ulvar says you drive a hard bargain.
Ariel: Ooh, maybe that's what we should name our cart! "The Hard Bargain." Do people name carts? It's sort of like a boat with wheels, right?
Sasha: The word I'm thinking of is "dinghy."
Ariel: Sure, that's a little boat, isn't it? Wait a minute ... are you saying "dinghy" like a boat or "dingy" like I'm a ding-dong for wanting to name our cart?
Sasha: Let's just assume I said "dinghy" with an "h" so we don't get bogged down in an argument. Be sure you write it that way in the notes, MSG.
MSG: Already done.
Akane: Zedeja says naming a boat is allowable, but do not waste funds buying paint and a brush to write the name on the cart-prow. To make sure no expenditure of such fecklessness is made, she will go into the store and help retrieve rations.
Harriet: That seems uncharacteristically industrious of her, given her normal complaints of age and achings.
Akane: A second purpose is to throw the rations into the cart bed onto the piled sleeping furs, and see if the stowaway cultist is there.
Harriet: That sounds more like the Zedeja we know.
GM Elle: Roll Awareness to see if you hear anything.
Akane: 15 succeeds because Zedeja is so Aware.
GM Elle: You think a little sound of discomfort squeaks out from under the furs.
MSG: Let's go ahead and get moving, then, in case anyone passing by heard that too.
Ariel: Fidu is back in the cart and ready to go.
Akane: Zedeja resumes driving. What is our direction?
Harriet: Isn't it out of town to the south? That's where we came from when we ran into the three downcast adventurers on their way back from Dead Eyes Cave.
Akane: South would be a direction very reasonable. But who knows? Maybe the north gate is closer and we must hurry from town as fast as we can to conceal this cultist. She's paying us to transport her out of town, yes? So the quicker we're out, the quicker she pays and departs from us.
Harriet: Also the quicker Dilfriida can return to riding in the back of the cart, now that I think of it. Maybe the north gate does sound better, since Dilfriida wasn't around for any of the discussion about exactly why we're bringing this other person along.
MSG: I'll say that south is the direction we need to smuggle her out of town because that's the direction she meant to head.
Claire: That's pretty close to a bluff, isn't it? If she's going with us to tend our donkeys, she didn't mean to head any direction except wherever we're going.
Ariel: Does she even know we're hiring her as a donkey-person?
Sasha: I don't think so, but that's not part of Dolora's bluff right now. Assuming the GM makes her roll for it.
Akane: She must! Clearly, it's untrue her motive was southernly.
GM Elle: I think it's more shading the truth than Bluffing, really, so I'll give you a Boon on the roll, MSG.
MSG: 5 and 10 both succeed.
Claire: South it is, then. Filvius starts walking that direction.
GM Elle: If no one makes any further issue of it, you reach the south gate and pass out of town without incident. Once on the road, you find that the thick mists that give the vale its name are especially bad today -- like pea soup. The damp air feels heavy on your skin, and permeates your clothes to work a chill into your bones.
Akane: Excellent! This soupy fog conceals us. Now the cart-sneaker can be unloaded and pay us for our smugglery, then begone. Zedeja insists that it is time.
GM Elle: Glinssa sits up in the bed of the cart and says she thought she was joining your group.
MSG: Dolora says, "I said we had an opening. Whether you actually join or not is provisional."
Claire: Which is why she's riding in the cart with our provisions, Filvius supposes.
Akane: Zedeja is silent at this outrage of deception.
Ariel: Fidu says he's pretty sure we can trust her.
Akane: Obviously more than our bard is trustable!
GM Elle: Glinssa is quiet for a moment, then sighs and says it doesn't really matter what the deal is, she's very relieved to be away from Quasimund and his thugs.
Akane: Very easy for her to say a deal doesn't matter when the deal is changed from, she will pay us for smuggling to, we will pay her for donkey-minding.
GM Elle: Glinssa's brow furrows. She asks, "Donkey-minding?"
MSG: Dolora says that to start with, the group figures she can handle simpler and less dangerous tasks, like keeping an eye on the donkeys while the rest of us go down into a cave. Then we might move her up to other tasks depending on how things work out.
Ariel: If we're setting up the deal here, Fidu will pitch in with his Bartering skills. Like, we'll cover her rations while we're on the road, and she gets maybe 2 silvers a day for watching the donkeys and doing stuff like helping find firewood for camp?
GM Elle: You can roll Bartering with a Boon to sell her on that deal.
Ariel: 3 and 6, easy peasy!
GM Elle: She says she's pretty happy with that, since all she got from Quasimund was room and board and a mug of ale here and there. Then she adds, "Which seems like a pretty bad deal for pledging my soul to Sathmog. I sure hope he doesn't come after me to collect now that I've left."
Claire: I show off my knowledge that I gained from Dranath about how Sathmog's high priest is stuck on a misty island somewhere, so she's probably safe until he figures out a way to get loose.
Sasha: Which we're going to stop him from doing by getting that ancient monster-killing sword everybody says is under the old temple in Outskirt.
Akane: Silence! Why is this information being told to a cultist?
MSG: Well, she's decided not to be a cultist anymore, right, Glinssa?
Ariel: Whatever she says, I'm going to use my Insight to see if she's lying.
GM Elle: She says Quasimund found her while she was down on her luck and desperate, and now that Dolora has encouraged her to have a little more hope, she sees that it was a really bad idea to join the cult. Fidu's insight tells him she's being honest.
Akane: Honesty now does not prevent mind-changing later!
Harriet: All Dilfriida knows is, this chick is still in my spot. How about if she gets down and starts leading a donkey or something so I can rest my short little legs?
GM Elle: She looks like she's a little put off by your gruffness and Akane's bossiness. But she gives up her place in the cart and starts walking.
MSG: I'll encourage her not to worry. A couple of our teammates are kind of rough around the edges, but no one will mistreat her the way Quasimund and Vlort did.
Akane: Truthful. Also, no soul-demanding here.
Harriet: Dilfriida mutters, "Just soul draining."
GM Elle: So is there anything the group wants to discuss on the journey, or should we just move along through it?
MSG: I want to ask Glinssa if she knows what's up with Annabelle. There seemed to be something weird going on between the two of them, and I also noticed some inconsistencies in things Annabelle told us.
GM Elle: Glinssa reveals that Annabelle is another member of the cult and actually gives Quasimund his orders. Her real name is Leanara. Early on, Leanara's seeming kindness was part of what made it easy for Glinssa to sign up with the cult. She made very compelling arguments about how bad the dragon knights were, and her story of the knights killing her whole family made Glinssa sympathize with her. But more recently Leanara has grown more forceful in her demands toward the other cultists, and has revealed a harsh edge Glinssa doesn't like so much. That's more or less the gist of it.
Akane: Zedeja is very interrogative hearing this. She has so many accusing questions. But we don't need to roleplay them all.
Harriet: Thank you for that! We can safely assume Dilfriida becomes highly irritable about Zedeja's questions and tells Dolora and Glinssa to walk farther away from the cart if that keeps up for any length of time.
Claire: Filvius will also ask a lot of questions, trying to learn more about the cult and what it's like to be a cultist. He's more interested in acquiring his own knowledge than in the answers to Dolora's questions, so he probably interrupts a lot and generally makes a pain of himself.
Ariel: Fidu gets tired of all that really quick, so he agrees with Dilfriida that people should take that conversation farther away from the cart.
Sasha: Quackers doesn't care. He's intent on watching the road ahead for monsters. Also, he probably can't hear all that much with the Awareness bane from his great helm.
GM Elle: All right. Toward the end of your first shift on the road, an hour or so after passing through a small village, you happen across a couple of travelers. One is injured and limping along. The other is helping the injured one. They have similar features -- maybe a brother and sister or two cousins. Both of them are young, somewhere in their late teens.
MSG: I'll hail them and ask if they need any help.
Claire: I'll hail them and offer to heal the injured one in exchange for information.
Sasha: I'll put a hand to the pommel of my sword in case they're monsters in disguise.
GM Elle: The injured one is the brother, and he quickly says no thanks to the offer of help. They'll make it the rest of the way back to their town on their own. The sister looks at him dubiously and says she's getting worn out and that she's worried about how much slower he's been getting. She says she thinks they should accept the help. He replies that they definitely don't have any information to trade, so it's no use anyway.
MSG: Does it seem like he's bluffing about that?
Ariel: I'm using my Insight to find out!
GM Elle: Dolora thinks he sounds pretty convincing. But Fidu, you're sure he's lying.
Ariel: I'll try to Persuade him that for sure his health must be worth a useful trade, considering if they don't make it back to town tonight something bad could happen to them and then whatever he's hiding wouldn't be useful anyway. I roll an 11, which is a success.
GM Elle: Roll another die for the Bane I'm saying applies due to him being incredibly stubborn. He does appear to be seriously wounded, but is struggling to avoid showing it.
Ariel: Oh, poop. My second roll is a Demon.
GM Elle: That's such a bad result that the sister re-thinks her argument and gives in to him.
MSG: Dang it.
Ariel: Sorry!
Sasha: I tell him if he got injured fighting a monster, don't worry, I'll take care of it.
GM Elle: The two of them look like they're just going to push onward back toward their village.
Claire: Doggone it, even as greedy for knowledge as he is, Filvius doesn't want to just let them get eaten by a bear or something if they don't make it home. I'll tell them to wait up so I can heal him.
GM Elle: The brother appears skeptical but is hurting too much to argue.
Claire: I succeed with a 10 on my roll and heal him for 11 points of damage, plus one non-permanent severe injury if he's got one.
GM Elle: That gets him all the way back to full health. He looks amazed but seems to be biting his tongue against thanking you. The sister rattles on and on about being grateful, though.
Claire: I'll ask them if they'll at least tell us whether there's something dangerous on the road ahead that injured him.
GM Elle: The sister opens her mouth to say something, but the brother jumps in before she can start. "Not on the road, no. Stick to the road and you'll be fine."
MSG: Dolora says that's what we're planning to do.
Claire: Pretty stingy with the information, but I guess I'll take what I can get.
Ariel: Ooh!
Sasha: What?
Ariel: Quick, give me the rulebook! Mm-hmm ... mm-hmm ... okay! Before they get out of sight, I'm going to designate the dude Filvius healed as my prey.
Sasha: Wow, are you that pissed at him for not telling us what happened?
Ariel: No, but it seems like there must be something not on the road that he doesn't want us poking around at, right?
Akane: Zedeja was thinking just this as well.
Ariel: Well, if I designate someone as my prey, I can follow their scent for a whole day. And the book doesn't have to say I need to follow it to them -- I can follow it the other direction if I want, right? So if we want to, I can figure out where they were coming from that he got injured at and that they don't seem to want us to know about.
GM Elle: That's definitely within the rules as written, I think. But you've overlooked at least one important detail.
Ariel: I did? Boo! What is it?
GM Elle: To follow the scent, Fidu will have to get out of the cart and track it on foot.
Ariel: Aw, crud. Never mind, I guess. That will be way too much work.
Harriet: I believe this is one of those places where it would have helped to know what was said in character. Do the rest of us know about Fidu's tracking notion?
MSG: Considering Elle already said he overlooked the important detail of having to walk, I don't know why he'd keep it from us.
Ariel: That's true, I guess.
Sasha: Then Sir Quackenscrump is going to demand you lead us on the trail back to wherever he got injured. Maybe it was a monster that injured him, and he's trying to keep all the glory to himself by bringing an expedition back to kill it.
Ariel: I guess if I have to.
GM Elle: In that case, about half an hour after you begin tracking, you come to a spot where the road twists between two hills. You can see that one of the hills appears to have had a landslide occur on the side of the hill facing away from the road. It's not extremely obvious from this angle, so you might easily have missed it if it weren't for the scent of your prey leading off in that direction.
Ariel: Fidu points it out and says, "Dang. It looks like the reason they didn't want to give us information is, they broke that hill and hoped no one would find out about it. Guess I can get back in the cart and we can just keep going down the road, then."
Sasha: Not so fast, fuzzball. Maybe the landslide uncovered a monster lair and they found it, but the monster ran them off.
Harriet: Why would they want to hide the fact that they found a monster lair, though?
Sasha: Obviously the same reason I said before: so they could come back later and kill it and hog all the glory for themselves.
Akane: Another possibility: monster treasure.
Sasha: I guess there's that too. And don't you have a treasure hunting ability along with that prey hunting ability, Fidu?
Ariel: Yes, but I don't have the energy to use it right now. I'm down to 2 willpower points and it takes three, which to Fidu means he's just too tired.
Sasha: You were resting in the cart for hours though. Elle, shouldn't that count as a Stretch Rest?
GM Elle: No, because then any downtime where a character was sitting around would count as their Stretch Rest whether they needed to take one or not. You have to declare it.
Claire: I'm down a couple of WP, so I'd be fine with a rest.
Harriet: Dilfriida could use one as well, since she hasn't fully regained her points after that illness.
Ariel: Fine, I guess I'll rest too. And then I guess I'll spend the WP for my Treasure Hunter ability. Where's it say the greatest treasure is?
GM Elle: You're pretty sure it's in the direction of that landslide.
MSG: Dolora wants to check it out. Even if there's no treasure, I'll be getting knowledge about landslides.
Claire: Same here.
Ariel: I guess I have to go in case the trail is actually leading past the landslide somewhere and not just up to it.
Sasha: Seems like a group effort, then. Anybody staying behind?
Akane: Someone must watch the donkeys.
MSG: That's why we hired Glinssa.
Akane: Someone must watch Glinssa watching the donkeys!
Harriet: I'll volunteer for that.
GM Elle: Interesting. Everyone else heads out on the trail, then.
Harriet: The moment they're out of sight, I tell Glinssa I only volunteered to shut Zedeja up. I say, "I'm going to sneak after them, and when everyone gets back and you're still here with the cart, hopefully it'll stop her from continually complaining every time we need you to watch the donkeys."
Akane: More halfling treachery!
GM Elle: Glinssa nods and says she appreciates that. However, it will take a bushcraft roll for you to follow the group's trail.
Harriet: I don't particularly like my odds of making that roll. Can I just keep an eye on the landslide spot and navigate by that?
GM Elle: There are places where you'll have to go in and out of some dense thickets of trees, so you still have to roll, but I'll give you a double Boon.
Harriet: My second roll is a 2, so I make it.
GM Elle: This means you're actually taking a more direct path than the rest of the group. Draw initiative to see who gets there first. The group had a head start, so I'll give them the advantage of drawing two cards.
MSG: 5 and 6.
Harriet: 8 for Dilfriida, which is fine. I didn't want to arrive first anyway.
GM Elle: All right. As the rest of the group reaches the collapsed hillside, everyone sees that the entrance to some kind of tomb or crypt has been revealed by the landslide.
MSG: Did you have to have to jump right to tombs and crypts? Couldn't maybe have said, "bunker or basement or maybe crypt?"
Claire: Like that would have fooled anybody.
Ariel: Yeah, you'd have been the first one to say, "It's a crypt" if she said it that way.
Sasha: At least this way there's a mystery. Is it a tomb, or is it a crypt? Your version makes crypt a dead giveaway.
Akane: If "crypt" is a dead giveaway, does "tomb" have admission fees? I thought both were the same.
Harriet: Haha, no a tomb is an underground vault for burying the dead. A crypt is a large chamber underneath a church that might or might not be used for burial purposes.
GM Elle: I did not know that. MSG, feel free to speculate about it being a bunker. Hell, maybe it's a storm shelter. In any case, what do you do?
MSG: I'll --
Sasha: Stand aside while Quackers checks for monsters.
Akane: Zedeja urges caution! We do not know what injured the brother. Could be a sharp rock that trips unwaries onto another sharp rock.
Sasha: Oh I'll be careful, all right, using my Spot Hidden of 7. Should I roll, gamemaster lady?
GM Elle: Go for it.
Sasha: 15. Looks clear to me. Somebody get a light over here so we can go in.
Ariel: I have an oil lamp, but I probably left it in the cart. It's heavy.
Claire: Filvius uses his magic trick, Light, to put a light on Sir Q's shield.
Sasha: Awesome.
Claire: While I'm right there, I also look at the entrance and see if I can see anything that might explain the teenager's injury. Ooh, I get a 3 for my Spot Hidden.
GM Elle: The entrance is basically a rough stone arch opening into a tunnel that leads down. Just inside the arch, you see a groove in the floor that looks like a guide for a sliding door. The floor past the groove, you notice, is dusty except for a single footprint and spatters of blood around it.
Claire: I'll point that out and say that maybe we should poke the floor with something long
Sasha: You got anything?
Claire: It's been a while since I looked at my equipment list ... but actually, I have a staff. That ought to work. Oh. But I also just noticed that bone mask I found. Was I ever able to get that thing off, or have I been walking around town and everywhere with it on this whole time?
GM Elle: You get to make a WIL roll once a shift to take it off. I'm assuming you did that somewhere between the Temple of the Purple Flame and getting back to town.
Claire: Whew! Okay then, I'm going to prod the floor with my staff, right where that footprint is.
GM Elle: What exactly do you mean by "prod?"
Claire: Um ... I guess I angle the staff forward and down until the tip touches the floor. Then I'll press on it with more and more force until either something happens, or I get a good portion of my weight on it.
GM Elle: Got it. The slight pressure at the start doesn't do anything. But once you get a decent amount of oomph behind it, pushing on that spot causes the flooring stone there to click downward slightly, at which point spears jab out from each side into the space where you'd be if you were stepping there.
Ariel: Yikes!
Sasha: Looks like that kid got lucky he didn't have his whole body in the way of those spears.
Claire: Can I see where the edges of that flooring stone are?
GM Elle: Yes, it's a middle stone that extends most of the way across the passage, but there's space on either side where you could step.
Claire: I'll test those spaces too.
GM Elle: As soon as you remove pressure from the trigger stone, the spears slowly withdraw into the walls again. The side stones appear to be solid and don't set anything off.
Claire: I'll tell everybody it looks like we just need to not step on that middle stone.
Sasha: Naw, what we need to do is have you push the trigger again and then a couple of us break the spears. Otherwise somebody's going to be running out to escape from whatever else is in there and get speared because they forget about the trap.
Akane: Yes, this happens in one Indiana Jones film. If the halfling was here and if Zedeja knew Indiana Jones films, she would say to leave the trap alone because it's the betraying thief character who is speared. But since neither is true, she approves of the mallard's plan.
Claire: Sure, let's do that.
GM Elle: Between Quackenscrump's sword and Dolora's huge club, you manage to destroy the spears.
Claire: I'll keep testing stones ahead of us as we move forward.
GM Elle: Normal marching order with Sir Q up front and then Dolora, Filvius, Fidu, and Zedeja?
MSG: Works for me.
Sasha: Sure.
Akane: Zedeja demands this order, in fact.
GM Elle: All right, then. As the group heads into the passageway, Dilfriida arrives at the site.
Harriet: I'll hang back at the edge of the trees until they're all inside if I can. Then I'll sneak in after them. Tell me if I have to roll.
GM Elle: You'll have to roll once you step onto the stone floor. The question is whether it's an opposed roll or not.
Akane: Opposed, certainly. Regardless of crypt or tomb, Zedeja is alert for menaces.
GM Elle: There you go, then. Roll your Sneaking opposed by Zedeja's Awareness.
Harriet: 7 succeeds for me.
Akane: 6 succeeds more prominently for Zedeja!
Harriet: I'll push my roll and become angry. The thought of Zedeja noticing me is highly aggravating. But I get a 13, so she still wins.
Akane: Halt, everyone! There is sneakery from behind!
Harriet: If I hear that, I'll announce that it's just me.
Ariel: Oh, hi, Dilfriida!
Akane: Zedeja scowls at this unacceptable appearance. "You are supposed to be watching a cultist!"
Harriet: I'll say I did watch her, and since I saw that she was watching the donkeys like she was supposed to, I decided my job there was done.
Akane: If we are cartless and donkeyless when we return, you must pay for new ones, halfling.
Harriet: Sure, whatever.
GM Elle: The passageway slopes down into the hill, takes a bend at a landing and descends even further, until you come to a small chamber centered on a stone sarcophagus.
MSG: I thought tombs and crypts were both supposed to be large chambers.
Harriet: Aha. The plot twist is that after making us think it would be a tomb or crypt, it's actually a sepulcher.
GM Elle: The question is, regardless of the technical term, are you bold enough to enter and possibly open the sarcophagus?
MSG: I think both Dolora and Filvius have a keen interest in gaining knowledge of the precise technical terms.
Claire: Absolutely.
Harriet: Unfortunately, Dilfriida is the one who's there, and she hasn't nearly my vocabulary.
Sasha: Quackers says he's for going in and popping the lid on that thing.
Akane: There should be testing and searching for more spearlike devices!
Sasha: Be my guest.
Akane: Zedeja spots the hidden with a 9. Her value for the skill is 14.
GM Elle: There are no visible trip mechanisms. It appears to be untrapped.
Sasha: I'll give it a heave, then.
GM Elle: It's very heavy. Test strength with a Bane.
Sasha: A 6 and a Dragon. Super easy.
GM Elle: The lid topples open and crashes to the floor. The whole chamber resonates with cracking stone, and dust whirls up into a cloud. When it settles, you see a skeletal corpse in funeral finery, and you find two treasure cards worth of treasure.
MSG: The infamous treasure deck. I hope it turns up better than it has in the past.
GM Elle: On one finger of the skeletal hand you see a gold ring. It's not particularly ornate and lacks any inset gems, so it's worth about 12 gold pieces.
Claire: We're so rich.
Ariel: What's on the other card? Because if it's not any better than that, I'm going to ask my Treasure Hunter ability for a refund on those WP.
GM Elle: In the body's other hand you find a magnifying glass.
MSG: Who sets up a deadly spear trap to protect one gold ring and a magnifying glass?
Claire: Okay, the rulebook says a magnifying glass gives a Boon on Spot Hidden checks, so I say we take it and go over this sarcophagus and the whole room top to bottom. I'll hand it to Zedeja, since her Spot Hidden is so great.
Akane: How much rolling should be done, gamemaster?
GM Elle: One for the interior of the sarcophagus, one for the body itself, I suppose, and one for the room.
Akane: Sarcophagus! 14 and 4.
GM Elle: You find that the once-fine fabric lining the inside of the casket can be pulled loose, revealing inscriptions all the way around the interior. You see that through the magnifying lens the inscriptions appear to glow.
MSG: What do they say? I'll crowd in to look over Zedeja's shoulder.
Claire: Filvius wants to know too. I'll elbow Dolora out of the way.
Akane: Could be cursed! Zedeja averts her gaze. The dwarf and elf can look as they wish. She holds up the magnifier.
GM Elle: I assume you're both going to try and grab it, so draw initiative cards.
MSG: 4.
Claire: 8.
MSG: Hah! Got it! I try to read the glowing script.
GM Elle: It doesn't glow for you. It just looks like gobbledegook.
MSG: What the hell? Damn it.
Claire: I'll grab the magnifying lens.
GM Elle: To Filvius, it appears to be magical script. As you continue reading, you feel your mind filling with mystical knowledge.
Claire: I keep reading.
GM Elle: Unfortunately, the magic is foreign to you. It seems to be from another school of wizardry.
Claire: I'm pretty ticked about knowledge I can't use, so I give the lens back to Zedeja and say, "Looks like a curse, all right."
Akane: This requires Bluffing, yes?
GM Elle: Correct. Make a roll, Claire.
Claire: 6.
Ariel: That's good!
Claire: Not with my Charisma, it isn't. My Bluffing is only 4.
Akane: Cease your lies! Zedeja examines the script.
GM Elle: If you read through the entire thing, you can make a Mentalism check.
Akane: Success with 7.
GM Elle: The glowing script impresses the spell Enchant Weapon in your mind, then disappears forever.
Akane: I know this spell now?
GM Elle: You can cast it once, then it will disappear from your mind. Or you can write it down in your grimoire and learn it as you normally could do with a spell from a spell book.
Akane: Writing! We still have not acquired the supplies for it. Zedeja will have to keep this in her head until we do.
GM Elle: Regardless of further searching, that's all you find in the chamber.
MSG: I hope I was right about hiring Glinssa. This will be a pretty poor exchange for two donkeys and a cart full of stuff if she's gone.
Ariel: Honestly, I don't feel like it was that great an exchange for my 6 Willpower Points I had to spend tracking the way here and then Treasure Hunting.
GM Elle: Well, you can get the WP back, and when the group returns to the road, you find Glinssa still waiting by the cart for you.
MSG: There we go. I told you.
Akane: Hmph. Acceptable performance for such a short period proves little. Zedeja remains a skeptic.
GM Elle: So between the travel and the detour to the, ah, sepulcher ...
Harriet: Good.
GM Elle: ... it's now nearing the end of the day. Are you going to pull over soon and set up camp?
MSG: I'd kind of rather get some distance between us and the grave we just robbed first, but sure.
Claire: I agree with going at least another mile or two, unless it's getting dark already.
Akane: Zedeja allows this.
GM Elle: You can get a bit more travel in before dusk comes on. Then it's time to set up camp. Who's putting up the tent?
MSG: I think I've got the highest Bushcraft skill.
Claire: I'll help, since I'm second-highest.
GM Elle: That gives the roll a double Boon then, one for help and one for the tent.
MSG: All three rolls make it.
GM Elle: Who's on first watch, then?
Ariel: Not me, I'm beat! I can barely keep my eyes open.
Sasha: Quackers is good to stay up.
Harriet: I'll join him on first watch.
MSG: I'll take second watch with Glinssa.
Akane: If the cultist is watching, Zedeja must watch the cultist.
Claire: I'll be on first watch with Sir Q and Dilfriida.
GM Elle: All right, then, with that covered, let's see if there are any encounters for the night ... looks like the answer is no. The next day dawns as most do in the Vale: slowly and hazily as the sun rises and makes a diffuse ball of light through the ever-present mists. The day passes without much to note. Midmorning or so, you take the right fork in the road toward the mountains. Around lunchtime, you pass a titanic statue jutting from a grassy hill some distance away from the road. Only the waist up is visible, a figure of a heroically proportioned man raising a sword high in salute or challenge. You can tell that it's enormous, but because of the mists and distance, you're not sure exactly how enormous, or how far off it is.
Claire: Filvius thinks that we should go and find out. Maybe there's knowledge to be gained from that statue.
Sasha: Quackers says you're welcome to dash over there and then hoof it to catch up, but he's on a mission to slay a basilisk, and he's got no interest in detours that have a low probability of monsters.
Akane: Zedeja also opposes this investigation. The statue is ages old. We will pass it again on our return.
Claire: Fine. But at least inwardly, Filvius is taking that as a commitment to have a look at the statue on the way back.
GM Elle: By the end of the day, then, you find yourselves nearing the foot of the Kummer Mountains once more, where the road peters out just short of a rocky pass. A modest farmstead occupies a hillside overlooking the broken road ...
(sorry folks, there was more to this session, but it's getting late and this post is already pretty darned long! to be continued!)
