The Bloody Hands REBIRTH: The Stone Crack'd 01 - The Interruption in the Library
The Stone Crack'd, Part 1
== Recap ==
"Guardian Ulet! GUARDIAN ULET!"
Arden has been on a dead run for several minutes trying to get to the library at the Hub University to meet with Izzia Kor. The Order Scholar has agreed to help with tracking down the Marel Obelisk even though Arden has been a bit secretive on actual reasons, hoping for a chance to meet with Izzia a bit more privately.
The voice behind him pulls him to a stop and Arden turns and sees a scrawny, shorter man dressed like a underpaid priest hobbling after him. A face on the supplicant a mixture of humble and excited. Someone has clearly worked themselves into a mixture of uncertainty and righteous belief. The rougher part is that Arden recognizes him.
Probationary Guardian Leonardo Miller. Once a full Guardian like Arden. Except, while Arden was largely left to his own devices and sent on wild goose chases after a cult in which of the Order actually believed - a concession to the Ulet name - Miller was handpicked by some Veilborn Purist true believers. Folks who believe that the people born inside the Veil are higher ranking than those not. A paradox considering that the Veil's spread tended to be after they were born.
Miller's task was to prove that the Outside was a terrible place. He got caught up in some shady dealings with arresting Outsiders near the Veil without much proof, with being a mouthpiece at certain Guardian meetings opposing new towers, and such stuff at his benefactor's behest.
The worst thing was a year or more ago, shortly before Arden and Senior Agent Jalmar Dax were assigned to work together. Miller had been assigned to prove the Ord Woods were a threat to Fellig and therefore the whole Veil network. Miller gathered up lots of woodland animals, disrupted the lives of many Ordfolk, and performed deeply questionable experiments.
At the end, Jalmar ended up getting to fight with Miller. Not on the battleground but in Order Court. As loud as the "silent majority" of the Veilborn purists are, they could not hold up simple logic that spreading the Veil is the number one priority of the Order. What's more, the utter lack of evidence by Miller had been the hammer coming down. He had pages and pages of a journal detailing graphic experiments and disruption of hunting, fishing, and logging efforts. Miller demanded more time but his own patrons abandoned him.
He was stripped back down to Probationary status and the Veilborn Purists refuse to acknowledge him now. Many Guardians see him as political poison and refuse to sponsor him to help regain his rank. He has spent months wandering the University as practically a beggar.
"Can I help you, Probationary Guardian Miller?" Arden asks, not exactly rudely but definitely with the thinnest hint of welcome in his voice.
"Ah, well..." Miller struggles to catch his breath, "...you see, I have heard quite a few people praising the work you did last week with the Returners. Congrats on protecting the Veil." Leonardo places his hand on Arden's shoulder and Arden notices the Order Runes, the marking of Guardians and Agents that grant them special powers, have been broken on his skin. Another form of punishment.
"Well, thanks, I..."
"I have a favor to ask, and it is a big favor and I want to realize that I am asking you because I have heard good things about you and..."
"...I am running behind, can you please just ask?"
"I want you to help me prove that Senior Agent Jalmar Dax is secretly conspiring against the Order."
"What in the hells, man, I serve with..."
"I know you serve with Dax, that is why you would be the perfect person to..."
"Look, just shut up right now. Keep your mouth closed, and know this: if Senior Agent Jalmar Dax, a man who has served the Order for over a decade, if that man turns rogue I will bust him and credit you, does that work?"
"It works, I..."
"We can discuss this later, but not now."
And with that, Arden walks off before Leonardo can say anything else.
Rounding the final hallway and walking into the reading room, Arden finds an exhausted Izzia behind a stack of books. Scholar Kor looks definitely upset at Arden's tardiness and if they were not in a very quiet part of the library, Arden knows he would be getting loudly chewed out.
He gestures for Izzia to follow him to a place where they can talk in whispers.
"I am deeply sorry for that, there are wheels turning."
Izzia holds back any complaint and asks if there is anything he can do.
"No, not with this. Did you have any luck?"
"Not in the least. No mention of any blade shaped stone in relation to the name Marel. Why are we doing this? You are one of the busiest Guardians I have ever met and you are slowing down to help some stranger you met on the road?"
"Look, meet me at a tea shop. Isabella's. Remember that. Is. A. Bell. A. On the northwest outer wall. Central section. Just ask, people will point. Got that?"
"Yes, but..."
"Good. Tomorrow. I want to dig up some old files."
“This isn’t a tea shop, you know?”
These are the first words out of Izzia's mouth as Arden walks into the back room at Isabella's. The smell of raw meat and specks of blood are notable along one side of the table and the loud, older woman is out front shouting prices at a customer. Isabella is one of the finest butchers for low-to-mid-priced meat in Hub.
Arden smirks slightly. “I needed to make sure that someone wasn’t listening just in case I could be followed…do you know Leonardo Miller?”
"Guy who was a useful tool for the Veilborn folk, and then later got kicked out when he stopped being useful?"
"The very same. He contacted me yesterday to try and get me to turn on Senior Agent Dax."
"One of your most trusted companions?"
"Exactly. The thing is, and I confirmed this with Miller's file, he tends to lack proper self-motivation. He does things at behest."
"So someone is putting him up to it."
"I think so. I... look, I am going to do something and I don't want to disturb you but..."
Arden's runes along his neck start glowing as his eyes shift to a red light. To outsiders, Arden seems to pause for a few seconds. Inside Arden's head he is seeing a map of threads and lines and is currently following the line to find out what happens if he trusts Izzia or not. In the futures where he brings in Scholar Kor as an ally, the future grows more positive, and that is good enough for Arden.
"Sorry about that, I wanted to..."
"The legendary Ulet seer. I've heard about your powers, how it is enough to be partially why some don't trust you."
"Exactly. Isabella, the loud lady shouting out there? You want to know why I am using her shop instead of any more reputable places? Of course you do, the reason is because three months ago I went into one of my own visions and pulled back the souls of a number of people, including her sister and her niece."
"I've read the reports, they seemed..."
"Fantastical? It was frankly very terrifying. But it was necessary. In the past year I have gone from Probationary Guardian to full Guardian. I have made friends. I have made enemies. I need you to be a friend because I think it is about to get worse."
"Go on."
"You are wondering why we might care about some old significant site from before the Five Generations?"
"Yes...it's like you know..."
"The conversations before it happens? Yes, I saw about thirty different variations and this is the most direct and to the point one. I will tell you."
Arden goes on to talk about the Veilborn Purists, people who believe that the Veil's expansion should be stopped now and protections installed to stop outsiders from entering. About how this is madness (30 years or so ago, everyone was an Outsider). The group has deeper hooks in Khalid City. Leonardo Miller is just a side effect of people in actual power spreading this idea. Why a place like Yarlken, where the first proto-tower went up, ended up taking years to be Merged. Why distance from Khalid is considered the greatest sin.
There is a pattern to the attacks by The Bloody Hands, Arden explains. They keep copying the general shape of the Order and try to find a way to bring magic back to power inside the Veil. The Veil is not a positive force, but instead is a negative one. It is "anti-magic." With the exception of a few High Order Mages, whose runes allow for modified magic in the Veil, the sword cuts both ways. The creatures of the dark cannot enter the Veil but neither can the positive magic of old.
The Bloody Hands keep trying to find a way to violate this rule more than anything else. Modifying towers. Experimenting with their own runes. A drug that allows magic to build up in people even under the Veil. And...taking over old sites of power to enhance their abilities. An oversight of the Order to abandon all the old sites.
“The families targeted by Calderon often involved people who either went outside the Veil to hunt, mine, and otherwise work or attacked their families while they were gone. All these attempts…I’ve always assumed they were working towards the simple goal of destroying the towers after finding a way to get inside, that they were simply trying to stop the towers from functioning. And maybe some of them are but more and more it is starting to feel like that the goal of attacking the towers is merely a distraction. That the real goal is to figure out how to use the towers to limit the powers of others while allowing their own agents the ability to maintain power and control. They are finding ways to mimic Arcane Order technology. Except…”
“Yeah…”
“...it might not be mimicry. Talking to Miller yesterday made me think about it. The way that Order both tells us to fear the Outside but also wants to keep expanding its powers. The Order Mages that maintain their magical powers in the middle of the capital. How convenient it is to have an enemy that not only helps to increase support for your lock downs and controls but also just happens to be testing out new techniques for expanding your power.”
“You are not saying…”
“I am… The Bloody Hands are possibly working with the Order or maybe they are made up of members of the Order. For now, let’s assume it is some shadow branch.”
“In that case, what can we even do?”
“For starters, we can find this obelisk.”
“BUT WHY?”
“Because The Bloody Hands keep showing up at places of power. If this obelisk is one, I’d rather it be used by some force of good rather than another weapon in the Hands’ arsenal. What’s more, these things have a connection to another place. I want to see how that works before the Hand alters it. You go back to the library and try again. I’ll ask Natalia to help you. I’ll get Jalmar to help me. I’m going to talk to Miller. Because though he is half mad, he is either part of the problem and I can get some truth out of him or he is earnest in his beliefs and if I can get him to wake up, he will be a useful ally.”
== DOUG'S NOTES ==
One of the hardest decisions was how exactly to split this one up. The first bit was the discussion about Hub and what kind of city it was. Then I went to have a "quick" trip to the library which turned into a whole section about Leonardo Miller (which is not yet finished) before getting to some of the twists about finding the obelisk (which isn't, exactly, an obelisk, it is shaped a bit more like a very large sundial but whatever). I eventually figured that ending it here was a good idea because there is a lot of talking, then there will be a bit of action, and then a LOT more talking. I have been working on getting more into the vibe of NPC interactions while solo play and I got a lot of experience with this one.
The idea that The Bloody Hands are actually either a rogue group of Guardians or working closely with them is not exactly knew. Matthew Calderon was introduced in the first week or two of me playing this campaign. There have been hints about Guardian involvement in others. I still don't know if it will turn out which (if either) are actually true but I like that it adds back that 90s era TV paranoia since that is part of the vibe this series is supposed to have.
As usual, the actual play notes are below.
== ACTUAL PLAY NOTES ==
++Scene, Chaos Factor 5.
Expected: Arden meets up with Izzia in the library to try and find mention of the obelisk.
Altered Scene. What is altered about it?
Plot Twists: 89 Social 44 Information + 6 Business 97 Unlikely
Arden is on the way to the library to meet up with Izzia when someone comes up with some business that might interest Arden. 1d6: 1-3 means a open threat. 4-6 means a character. 6, so information about a character. Rolling on the characters list: we get Jalmar Dax. Now, let’s do it again: 1-3 = FROM Dax. 4-6 = ABOUT Dax. Another 6 = About Dax.
What about him? Character Motivations: 9 Change 28 Fight + 90 Serve 51 Intolerance. Someone in the Order wants Jalmar to stop his fight for Outsider Rights and thinks that Arden is a possible ally in this.
Let’s find out some information about who is asking: Universal NPC Emulator. 15 Duelist 30 Vicar. 58 Comparable Strength. Motivation → 69 Report 10 Distress + 41 Take 94 Animals.
A fighting priest type. Actual priest? It feels like it would be funnier if he just acted like a priest (especially since the old priests are somewhat distrusted by the new Order folk). Are the animals he is taking dark beasts? (50/50) No. So he is gathering up animals from outside of the Veil to do study on. He believes in the old rumors that life forms outside of the Veil are somehow tainted by the darkness (a thing that Arden has learned is untrue by years of being Outside the Veil himself, as well as working with Outsiders as equals). He is looking for proof that something is wrong and since there is nothing inherently wrong he is getting desperate. Desperate enough to actually fake it? (50/50) No. So he thinks the problem is somehow being held from him. This would explain some of his distrust of Outsiders. Thinking they are conspiring.
Does Arden know him? (50/50) Yes. Triggering a NPC Negative Random Event. “Overthrow Location”. Character: Choose. We’ll choose the character we are currently looking at. 1 year ago, he was at The Ord Wood and was attempting to set-up a research station that involved capturing, studying, and dissecting animals and disrupting the people who lived there. Jalmar Dax intervened both physically and through administrative means. This involved the character’s research project being disbanded but led to some of the tensions in Fellig with the Ord folk.
Name: Tricube Solo 4,2 Leonardo 4, 4 Miller. His actual position in the Order is 1, 3 “Beggar/Vagrant”. Since the defeat in Fellig/Ord his research has been disregarded and he no longer has a command. He is trying to find a way back in. His general demeanor is 3,2 Condescending. His mannerism is 3,6 “Drumming Fingers”.
To sum this all up: Leonardo Miller, a true believer (fanatically so) in the order who also considers himself a warrior for good. A condescending guardian who used his power to try and make a base in The Ord and who treated the people who lived there like not only second class citizens but also like a threat. He had been gathering up animals and wildlife there to find proof that the Outsiders should be treated as dangerous (not yet advancing all the way to capturing people). He was stopped by Jalmar Dax who used his connections in the Order to call out Leonardo and had the project disbanded. Due to the lack of evidence (since there is none), Leonardo’s entire team was punished and stripped of active duty. Leonardo is basically still on the payroll but treated like a failure and has been trying to find an ally. He approaches Arden (possibly the worst person to approach) and asks for Arden to help with getting information about Jalmar Dax.
Standard Crafty Challenge to dissuade Leonardo for now: Have to spend a karma point BUT this gives an exceptional success. Arden manages to convince Leonardo to hold off AND to generally trust him. Arden won’t like actually tricking the poor man but he needs time to contemplate it. MAYBE he can show Leonardo that he is wrong. MAYBE.
Leonardo Miller: Agile Researcher who is Dedicated but Condescending (and Distraught). 2K, 3R.
After this, Arden continues on to the reading room to talk to Izzia who has been making his own inquiries into old maps that might have the obelisk. Hard Crafty Challenge needing 3 Successes (now). Izzia runs out of resolve before finishing the task, leaving him exhausted, after only getting 1 success (some basic knowledge). He asks to call it a day and Arden promises to make it up to him.
“Let’s meet up tomorrow at Isabella’s tea shop.” She has a small room in the back that offers some privacy and Arden needs to discuss some things. Izzia should just go in and ask for the house dark and let her know that Arden sent him.
Chaos Factor will increase to 6.
++ SCENE, Chaos Factor 6.
Expected: Arden meets up with Izzia at Isabella’s to discuss…things.Altered Scene (again). This time [partially to keep a spiral of things from going out of control]... using the image icons in the Guardians mini-setting: 5,5 “Meat on Bone” + 2,6 “Bloody Sword”.
Isabella’s isn’t a tea shop. It’s a butcher shop. One in the power section on the outside of the second rim. BUT, it does have a private room that Isabella (1,6) Green will allow Arden to use. How does she know him? “Matthew Calderon”. Her family was one of the ones who was kidnapped by Calderon and rescued by Arden. She does not trust the Guardians anymore, but she does trust Arden.
“This isn’t a tea shop, you know?”
“I needed to make sure that someone wasn’t listening just in case I could be followed…do you know Leonardo Miller?”
Does Izzia know Leonardo Miller directly? (50/50) No. Ok, then, Easy Crafty to see if he knows him by name. Yes. Exceptionally well.
Arden will use Seer powers to see how much he can trust Izzia. Hard Crafty. Another Karma down (2 remain) but this time but another exceptional success. Can Arden trust Izzia Kor? (Very Likely) Yes.
There is a faction inside the Order that does not trust Outsiders and wishes to declare all people outside of the Veil as a potential threat. Since this would interfere with expanding the Veil, it is obviously a bit of a paradox. You cannot believe that the Veil protects you from some corrupting force AND think that expanding the Veil is a good idea. Still, some folks keep trying to make that case. Look at how a place like Yarlken, where they tested one of the very first towers, got left behind while they expanded in a different way. Then later they used the fact that they had chosen to skip over Yarlken as an excuse to keep skipping over Yarlken for years.
In that light, getting caught trying to locate a potential object of mystical power outside of the Order’s control could cause problems.
What’s more, there has been a pattern in all the major activities that the Bloody Hand have been involved with:
Trying to find a way to set up a base underneath the Resonant Tower’s influence in Yarlken.
Using a drug that allows a person to tape into dark energy while under the Veil (though problematic that multiple people using it amplifies the effect and can change people into monsters, the presumed fall of Guillarme was due to this effect).
A modified resonance tower that allows for people to be soul-swapped with some sort of dark energy element.
Now the use of bastardized Skin Runes to give people powers the equivalent to Agents (still falling short of full Guardians).
The uses of old sites of power. The old empire’s religious temples are now being used as gateways to some other…weirder…world.
“The families targeted by Calderon often involved people who either went outside the Veil to hunt, mine, and otherwise work or attacked their families while they were gone. All these attempts…I’ve always assumed they were working towards the simple goal of destroying the towers after finding a way to get inside, that they were simply trying to stop the towers from functioning. And maybe some of them are but more and more it is starting to feel like that the goal of attacking the towers is merely a distraction.
Character Motivations: 46 Imprison 47 Increase + 55 Justice 78 Power. [Note, this is just an assumption on Arden’s part at this time, the truth of it will come out]
“The real goal is to figure out how to use the towers to limit the powers of others while allowing their own agents the ability to maintain power and control. They are finding ways to mimic Arcane Order technology. Except…”
“Yeah…”
“...it might not be mimicry. Talking to Leonardo yesterday made me think about it. The way that Order both tells us to fear the Outside but also wants to keep expanding its powers. The Order Mages that maintain their magical powers in the middle of the capital. How convenient it is to have an enemy that not only helps to increase support for your lock downs and controls but also just happens to be testing out new techniques for expanding your power.”
“You are not saying…”
“I am… The Bloody Hands are possibly working with the Order or maybe they are made up of members of the Order. For now, let’s assume it is some shadow branch.”
“In that case, what can we even do?”
“For starters, we can find this obelisk.”
“BUT WHY?”
“Because The Bloody Hands keep showing up at places of power. If this obelisk is one, I’d rather it be used by some force of good rather than another weapon in the Hands’ arsenal. What’s more, these things have a connection to another place. I want to see how that works before the Hand alters it. You go back to the library and try again. I’ll ask Natalia to help you. I’ll get Jalmar to help me. I’m going to talk to Leonardo. Because though he is half mad, he is either part of the problem and I can get some truth out of him or he is earnest in his beliefs and if I can get him to wake up, he will be a useful ally.”
== CREDITS ==
This game uses Tricubes Solo, the Tricubes one-sheet "The Guardians of the Shadow Frontier," [both by Richard Woolcock and Zadmar Games] and The Mythic Game Master Emulator (2nd Edition) [by Tana Pigeon].
Additional tables come from Cezar Capacle's Random Realities, Ben Milton's Maze Rats + Knave 2nd edition, Kevin Crawford's Without Numbers (primarily Worlds) + Scarlet Heroes, and Madeline Hale's Table Fables. Other sources should be be credited in the raw play notes.
Graphics come from a variety of sources. Pixabay/Unsplash is a source of some of the stock art and illustrations I use to create the original graphics. A frequent source of the opening/splash images is ArtUK.
The splash painting (as always, more of a mood piece than precise illustration) is "Todd's Warehouse, Stonegate, York" from the York Art Gallery.
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