The Bloody Hands REBIRTH: The Stone Crack'd 03 - Rainy Travels, the Dead Village, and Two Wizards' Curses [Tricubes + Mythic] [Recap]
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| "L'aurore et la nuit (Dawn and Night)" by Henri Fantin-Latour |
Previously...
While trying to solve the mystery of The Returners, Guardian Arden Ulet met Vyryon Marel. Marel said his family were searching for a place of power and its distinctive obelisk that once belonged to the Marel family. Arden agreed to help. Scholar Izzia Kor and Probationary Guardian Natalia Wilson have located the obelisk and learned it has been broken and sold to merchants up north. Before they track it down, Arden wants to find the place of power itself. After a few delays, Arden is joined by Jalmar Dax—Arcane Order Beastmaster—and Izzia and Natalia and head south into the Shallow Plains.
About The Bloody Hands
The once great Khelia Empire has crumbled due to a long war between mages (The Troubles). After five generations (roughly a century and a half) a new technology has been developed: The Veil. Its anti-magical properties allow the remnants of the empire to rebuild without the threat of mages and their creatures of darkness they used to lay waste to towns and cities. Now the Arcane Order employs Guardians and Agents to protect the Veil. Guadian Arden Ulet, a Seer, is taked with traveling the frontier at the edge of the Veil to try and protect those inside.
This post is in RECAP style. See the about page for this blog for more details. The Image Oracles described in the post (gamemaster phases and mechanic notes, especially) are from the Guardians of the Shadow Frontier one-sheet (CC-BY Richard Woolcock and Zadmar Games). They can be seen on the Tricube Image Oracles page.
The Stone Crack'd 03 - Rainy Travels, the Dead Village, and Two Wizards' Curses
A Storm Disrupts Plans
As Arden Ulet (along with Jalmar Dax, Izzia Kor, and Natalia Wilson) make their plans to trek down to the site which held Marel's obelisk, a storm rolls into the city of Hub. The months long rainy season is a bit early which causes Arden to hesitate about this trip.
He and Jalmar have lots of experience (Jalmar has more but Arden is pluckier with it) and the weather will not deter them much, but they must plan for the worse. Food going bad or equipment being ruined could cost them time (or their lives).
"Look, old friend, I appreciate that we have survived much more than a few storms but the truth is that we have a couple of people who have barely been outside of the Veil their whole lives."
Jalmar ends up agreeing and while Izzia (an Order Scholar and generally fairly pampered in life) is happy that care is being taken to protect them, Natalia is fairly upset (the Probationary Guardian was vital to Arden being successful in Oakwood and also spent some time traveling with him and Jalmar to Basinghall and held her own for most of it). She does not like being treated as a weak Veilborn even though, a few months back, she was very much so fitting the description. She has gone through a lot of personal growth since working with Arden and she does not think he is respecting her. He fails to notice this, so it will be a point of contention as they go on.
They delay the trip for a couple of days as Arden gathers up more supplies, and have to move a bit faster to make up for lost time.
On the Shallows
"The Shallows," or The Shallow Plains, gets its name from the fact that is flat, sometimes below sea-level, and has a variety of shells and aquatic fossils in its soil. It was likely once underwater many, many years ago.
To the north (and northwest) of the Shallows are the Angor Mountains. To the southwest is a patch of swamp and jungle called "The Arch." To the east is the Ord Wood. South is the Onnalian Sea.
Before the Troubles, The Shallows was a place of farming and small village life. It was the so-called "breadbasket" of Old Khelia. As the Troubles began, though, it was mostly left to defend itself [as we will see, there were exceptions]. After the fall of Old Khelia and the start of the Five Generations, many villages were left to their own devices and many were abandoned or destroyed.
Khalid City and Hub consider it a low priority so it might be decades for any of the Shallows are properly reclaimed. In the meantime, it is a place where magic and strange things occur.
Rainy Days by the Ghost of a Village
A few days later, the group has stopped while Jalmar tries to do some hunting. The storm has largely passed but it continues to rain and everything is wet. Izzia is tired and exhausted and deeply irritated by the water. Natalia is actually starting to really enjoy herself and has been training herself in fighting. Outside of Hub, the rules and protocols drop a way a good bit and she does better (now) when free of that.
Talking to Izzia, Arden finds out that the Scholar is going along with him because Izzia loves that Arden has passion and is trying to accomplish something. Izzia regretfully admits that the Order often exists to take care of itself and leaves people behind. Arden, who has deep problems with the Order, tries to establish that it does try to take care of the system, that it is not entirely selfish.
Jalmar returns at this time and has found no food. He instead found bones. Human ones. The remains of a small village shows that seemingly everyone died a few years back and not even animals have really picked at the remains. On one crumbled door is an eye painted to show dripping blood.
Izzia recognizes it. It is the disease of Bloody Tears. A magical curse virus. Usually used to drive people off from places that wizards did not want them to visit. Those infected because convinced they are being pursued. It starts out as a sensation but eventually you see stalkers and attackers. If the curse/virus is not stopped, your eyes eventually met into a bloody mess and you die from the extreme stress your body is under. Izzia notes there were known cures but the people here did not seem to use them. At the time, the group is unsure if this is because they did not trust Hub, or if Hub did not reach out to them.
Arden travels with Jalmar to the site and enters a vision state. He realizes the so-called village was actually a experimental homestead. Someone (it is unclear) came from Hub along with his family and some followers with the idea they could use modern scientific principle and freedom from Hub politics to create a new style of farm and eventually become a major power. The farm was run with ruthless efficiency, almost like a military order.
Unfortunately, two of the younger members went out on a hunting trip and found the tomb of a long-dead wizard. There, they plundered some artifacts, including the wizard's hat. The hat had the curse of Bloody Tears upon it. It spread to the farm faster than normal. The farm leader locked the infected away. The refusal to try and get help and take care of the infected caused the whole farm to die off, including the leader.
Arden can sense the direction to the wizard's tomb and comes up with a bit of a stupid plan. He will return the hat (not touching it directly to try and avoid the curse). He feels it should be reburied and sealed to stop some other traveler from spreading further. Jalmar is not happy with this, but sends Ruk (the ravenhawk) to keep an eye on the seer.
The Harbinger of Hollow Joys vs The Unhallowed Ones
In the years at the start of the full blow Troubles, The Wizard Kalbarn-Karn (The Harbinger of Hollow Joys and Bitter Bliss) was one of the most powerful wizards in Old Khelia. They adored helping people and traveled the Shallows, trying to fix problems. The issue was that Kalbarn-Karn was so powerful that they often caused new problems. Increasing the flow of a stream might make a flood. Chasing off predators might drive off all the animals. Still, they were beloved by the people who considered Kalbarn to be something of a loving curse.
Near the very end of Old Khelia, a new wizard came to the area. She was Whirmheilde Khijikova, The Unhallowed One. An equally powerful wizard of darkness who summoned forth great servitors. Whirmheilde wished to turn a large swath of the Shallows into her own ruinous kingdom. In a great battle between Kalbarn and giant-servitors that raged throughout the night, Kalbarn-Karn was deemed victorious and Whirmheilde was killed (and her servitors driven out). However, Kalbarn-Karn had suffered a fatal blow.
They were taken to a tomb where they sealed themselves inside with protections to drive out any who might try and use their powers to hurt the people of the Shallows.
The Twisted Forest of Shadows
Arden travels most of the day to reach the small lake and the tranquil tomb he saw in his vision. However, getting there, he finds a strange, twisted forest has sprouted up around the lake. Weird shadow creatures travel in the woods. Arden, who has resisted the curse, pushes on. He finds his warding runes growing hot and draining him of energy as they fight off the shadowy figures.
He wanders for hours in the woods, struggling to find his away, as the rain and darkness continue to fall. He eventually pushes through and finds the tomb and sees the forest is coming from it. He crawls inside and it is the wizard's own body that is the source of the roots.
Though tired, Arden risks entering directly into a vision to find out the cause of the problem and sees the great lake of light which represents the wizard's soul. Upon it is a smaller, violent darkness like a barnacle. Though Arden does not know the full story, this is Whirmheilde. In the final moments of that fateful battle 150+ years ago, she had attached a bit of herself like a thorn to Kalbarn-Karn. That good wizard took a bit of the evil one into the tomb.
Once the villagers opened the tomb, Whirmheilde started burning off the energy of Kalbarn-Karn to try and rebirth and re-infest the Shallows. The dark forest will continue to spread until it chokes off a greater and greater stretch of the world.
Arden fashions a vision spear from his own breath and stabs it into the heart of the dark barnacle, killing Whirmheilde once and for all and freeing Kalbarn-Karn. In turn, Kalbarn's good energy flows out into the roots of the shadow trees and the entire forest turns to ash and is washed away by the rain. Arden seals the tomb behind himself and returns to his horse. Though he has been hours in the forest, it is physically not very far from where he left the creature a dozen meters beyond the forest's edge.
Riding back, Arden is met by the other three who have been riding hard to catch up. Through the eyes of Ruk, Jalmar witnessed Arden enter into the forest and not return. Izzia hugs the seer and everyone is in good spirits as Arden recounts what happened.
However, at this time, a day or two's worth of travel away, Arden senses a voice reaching out and calling to him. One that is in the very path they are about to follow.
What Arden does not know is that this is an unscrupulous magic wielder summoning to her side. She sensed the high levels of magic being wielded (and thinks they are all due to Arden). Her, and her people, prey on travelers.
Arden and his company are going towards a trap.
== DOUG'S COMMENTARY ==
"The Stone Crack'd" is, as far as mini-arcs go, the examination of the actions of the Order and the realities of magic in the world.
This is the session that really nailed it for me. Both elements have been somewhat underdeveloped. The campaign, as a whole, is a throwback to a 90s-00s style detective/thriller TV serial. Lots of broad stroke urban environments and personal strife. This mini-arc is more like a full on special mini-series special full of on-location shots and special effects.
I wanted to start developing more of the world (the first part is about Hub, the second is about the area south, the third will look at the area inside of the Veil). Currently, I am deeply happy with it. I got to bring in two new books - Ashes Without Number and Academies of the Arcane- and develop some geography, some cultural, and some mystical elements. While whatever mini-arc shows up next will almost be definitely back to urban thriller, this is a somewhat necessary break.
As a note, I am going to be bringing in the transcripts as plain-text and reformatting them. I think the copy-and-paste technique being used is what led to my blog troubles of last week.
In the notes, I have a bunch of { tables | like | this } where the idea is I would make a 3-6 choices and then roll an appropriate sized die to pick that element. It was a handy to add some randomness without taking up a lot of line space.
I also introduce two mechanics that work pretty well with Tricube Tales. The first is the classic opposed roll which I did by "compare successes" style. The second is an "open roll" where you count up success as if they are Easy | Normal | Hard and go from there. That style has an interesting twist that sometimes possible to get a decent Hard success but an exceptional Easy success which will have some fun implications.
As a bonus note, you are going to get a sneak preview since this session started out with generating three random encounters and none of them were the dead village or the wizard's tomb. You get to see the first of them hinted at the end of the recap but it is likely that the first two might take up whole sessions in themselves. Like I said, "The Stone Crack'd" is less a mini-arc and more an entire short campaign in itself.
ACTUAL PLAY NOTES FOR THE STONE CRACK'D 03
<< Making Some Places>>
The world is pretty dang empty overall (makes sense since it is an urban thriller style format). On the way to the Marel Site, there should be some various landmarks. In order to generate those, let’s use Tricubes Solo and a variety of tables: Wilderness Features (4 times), Wilderness Events (twice), Wilderness Folk (twice), and the Image Oracle (4 times) and then gather up enough info for two to three landmark, sites, places, villages, etc. As a bonus, I'm going to use the beta copy of Ashes Without Number to make a post-apoc style settlement/people to blend in.
- Wilderness Features: 4,5 Pond/Spring | 2, 2 Camp/Firepit | 5, 3 Rope/Log Bridge | 6, 1 Standing Stones
- Wilderness Events: 3, 6 Pungent Order | 5, 5 Sudden Silence
- Wilderness Folk: 4, 3 Merchant/Tinker | 3, 2 Honorable Knight
- Image Oracle: 4,6 Magic Swirl | 5,6 Scarecrow | 1, 1 Magic Portal | 6, 4 Magic Potion
- Ashes Without Number, One-Roll Occupant Details: skipping the “when will they get there table” | Mood: 4 Rapacious | In Charge: 1 Skilled Elder Member | How Large? 2 Small (2d4 members) | Biggest Concern 5 Their “mission” seems impossible | Goal 18 They are outcasts.
This we can cut and divide into the following (and then specifics can be worked out during their own scenes)…
- A small, very ramshackle village. A few poorly tended vegetable fields with an old scarecrow leaning over at an angle. Huts and small cabins made of wood, mud, and hay bundles have wet smoke floating overhead. It is built around a pond that lets off a pungent odor. The people here, largely just one or two (fairly inbred) families are led by a patriarch. The whole family/group was kicked out of another town. The reason that the adventurers would go here is because they can sense someone magical who is either trapped, or willing, sort of “call out” to them. Maybe literally, maybe using magic to lure people in. Once folks staying in town, though, travelers are caught and robbed. Possibly murdered. Possibly eaten. Overtime, the plan to get back to society eventually has started to fade and they are giving into increasingly savage behavior.
- Near some standing stones, a sudden silence spreads over the land as a strange ripple appears. This is a portal to another place. Nearby a knight stands. They have been here for some time. Someone went through the portal (on purpose, accidentally, 50/50? Don’t know). The knight does not wish to abandon them nor has the courage to go inside the portal.
- A merchant selling “miracle oil” (along with some guards) is setting up camp. They are heading somewhere and are coming from somewhere (so might be a source of knowledge). Are they a good person? Is their oil legit? How do they feel about the Order? They are needing to cross an old bridge but are having trouble.
That is a couple of somewhat sizable encounters and another that should be a bit lighter. It’s a good chunk of set-pieces. Now to figure out the order: I’ll roll 3d6. Green | Purple | Pink and then highest goes first, etc etc. That’s the order: the village, the knight, then the merchant. This means the merchant will actually be close to the site of power.
++ SCENE 6 ++
CHAOS FACTOR: 4
EXPECTED: The four Order members - Arden, Jalmar, Izzia, and Natalia - prep for a trip.
ACTUAL: Altered. How? Image Oracle: 4,1 Pocket Bow | 6, 5 Lightning Bolt. The weather has turned poor with storms moving in. { Arden | Jalmar | Izzia | Natalia } > Arden worries about the status of the equipment they have in such weather and needs to gather more.
The trip will take (1d3 = ) 3 weeks to travel there and back and so the amount of supplies being gathered is notable. Jalmar will be able to do some hunting and there are farms and villages along the way that they can restock (none of which are Veil’d though so sometimes the vibe about the Order can be mixed. To make matters worse, a storm has developed.
Arden tries to get a sense of when the storm will pass (Normal Crafty: he scores 2 successes). The storm will persist for { hours | a day or two | several days | over a week | this is the start of a rainy/storm season } = 6 this is the start of a rainy/storm season. Arden still wants to push on with the mission because he wants to meet up with Marel at the planned time but he realizes he will need more equipment (or, to put it more precisely, better suited equipment).
Does Jalmar agree with this assessment? (Likely): 91 = Exceptional No. Jalmar feels that Arden and himself have been through much worse and actually considers the weather to be helpful because it will give them stealth.
Rolling 1d6 to gauge both Izzia and Natalia’s vibe (high = better) we get a 3 and a 4 respectively. Both are somewhat neutral on this with Izzia being a tad more negative. Neither are thrilled with the trip but at this point neither will outright leave.
Hard Crafty for Arden and Jalmar to argue about taking time (possibly another day or two) to get more equipment. Arden does not try to pull rank very much but does outrank the rest. He will argue this from a practical standpoint. He gets one success to Jalmar’s no successes, so he does manage to convince the beastmaster.
“Look, old friend, I appreciate that we have survived much more than a few storms but the truth is that we have a couple of people who have barely been outside of the Veil their whole lives. We have miles to travel across The Shallows, very nearly down to the sea itself, and our maps are completely out of date. I am not saying that we spend a lot of time with this, just give me a few hours to see if I can find some more tarps, waterproof storage, food that won’t sour in a week. You know I trust you!”
Looking over at the two younger members, Jalmar agrees. Izzia (vibe check = 5) is actually happy about this. He’s the kind of guy who likes that precautions are being taken (he would probably prefer the precaution to be “just stay home” but nevertheless. Natalia (vibe check = 1), though, is actually a bit upset by this. She has served in out-of-Veil missions before with Arden and Jalmar and has been a major factor in their success (a single kidnapping not being held against her). Though she is only a Probationary Guardian, she still should be shown more respect.
Does Arden catch this? (Hard Crafty: No, not yet at least). We’ll add a thread that Natalia feels disrespected to the list.
Crafty check variable: Hard = a couple of hours, Normal = the rest of the day, Easy = a couple of days. Arden only scores a 4 and so it takes them a couple of days to regroup and rekit. They will have some time to make up. Chaos factor will increase.
{{ The Shallows }}
The Shallows, or the “The Shallow Plains” are a large stretch of grassland stretching most of the way from the Angor Mountains to the Onnalian Sea. It is so called because the flatness and general shape means not only is some portions of it slightly below sea level but a large predominance of shells and aquatic fossils in the soil suggest that it was once was underwater. To the east, they end at the Ord Forest. The Angor mountains wrap around the west and northern portions of The Shallows before giving way (to the South West) to the Arch: a densely packed swamp and jungle type region.
Prior to the Five Generations, the Shallows were largely used as the “breadbasket” of the Khelia empire. Actually getting wheat and grain from them to Khalid City was a major innovator in trains, mountain road building, and river travel (this is one thing that Thelmion used to “port”...grain would be shipped up River to Lake Khel and then exported to other areas in the central empire.
During the Five Generations, virtually no significant effort has been made to maintain any of the dispersed farming communities, leading to a lot of issues. The main one to be faced right now is the fact that it should not be assumed that a map truly captures the current state of affairs. Traveling merchants and caravans know the truth but there’s a reason a lot stick to the mountains instead of veering too much South.
++ Scene 7 ++
Chaos Factor 5
Expected: A few days travel southwest through The Shallows as the group comes together.
Actual: Expected Scene
Weather Check { cloudy | misting | drizzle | rainy | hard rain | full on storm }: 4 = Rainy.
Vibe Check: Izzia (1) + Natalia (6). Izzia is wet and miserable and unable to do much in the way of writing or recording his adventure except at night when he is cold and wet. Natalia = actually pretty happy. Once outside of the walls, some of the formality is dropped and she’s being treated as a full member again.
Checking to see if Jalmar has any luck hunting (he’s not Prenty so we’ll say Normal Agile for him): no successes. Game is scarce.
Arden comes across a dejected Izzia. The scholar will be under a tarp with a sputtering fire being nursed by being propped up on a rock (under the tarp) that is barely kept dry overall. Talking to him, Arden asks how Izzia is doing and Izzia is (1d6 = 4) mostly truthful, saying he is not having a great time.
“I mean, I know I asked for you, but why did you come along? You could have said no.”
Mythic meaning tables, Character Motivations: 72 Passion, 77 Plan. He follows Arden because Arden, unlike some other Order Members, has passion. Arden is trying to accomplish something.
“I watched how you handled the situation at Yarlken. I have heard stories about…” (What stories has he heard about Arden? 3 Anxiously 97 Warm) “...this Guardian who ran all around like he was running out of time, but always stopped to take care of people. That’s…” (To see how much the Order is actually considered by Izzia to take care of people, 1d6 [high is more] = 1…not much at all) “...very unusual. Sorry. I shouldn’t have…”
“No, don’t apologize. We are not in Hub walls here. I obviously can criticize anyone being judgmental of some of the Order’s actions. You heard what I said about The Bloody Hands. You have heard some of Jalmar’s complaints. It exists to take care of the new empire. Hells, it is the new empire. The people sometimes get left behind. Just look at…” Arden gestures around. “If they cared about people, the Shallows would have been the first thing they fought to protect. Food and civilization goes hand in hand. Speaking of, I see Jalmar returning…”
While Jalmar got not food, he did get (Mythic meaning tables, Scavenging Results = 30 Elements 24 Death. Image oracle = 1, 4 Haunting)... bones. Human ones. Or at least, he found some.
“Game here is no good. Should have gotten Prenty to come with us. Did, however, find the husk of a house. Couple of houses. Small little village. Now just bricks and timber. Just bones inside. Whole family by the looks of it..”
“How did they die?” This is asked by Natalia who has been practicing her sword work and enjoying the cooling rain.
(Image Oracle = 6, 2 Dig Dug + 4, 4 Bleeding Eye…hmmmmm. Signs of violence (1d6 = 2) very little)
“Don’t know. Tools were in good order. Well, to be expected. Workers, not fighters. No real signs of violence. Few signs animals got to the bodies. One of the doors had a sign painted on it. An eye. Bleeding.”
Arden asks “Like the Hand?”
“No, I think it was a warning.”
“Izzia, does that ring any bells?”
Hard Crafty. With a karma spent, Izzia gets two successes.
“Bloody tears. In the final hours of it, you…well, that’s obvious.” (Mythic Magazine #40 Perilous Situations: 79 Pursuit + 79 Pursuit… hmmmmmmmmm) “Before then, you saw hideous visions of things chasing you. It was…magical in nature. Probably created by some wizard to chase folks away from his demesne. It got rough, though. People would run and panic until they died. Eventually their eyes…melted.”
“How infectious was it?”
(Infectious 1d6 = 2, not much). “Not very. Required close contact. Again, was probably made to be a very specific deterrent that just…took off. If it took out a whole village and they stayed together, that’s…”
Jalmar: “They knew there was worse things out there.”
Natalia: “Was it curable?” (50/50 18 = yes)
Izzia: “It was. Before the Troubles, at least. Hub researchers had fixed it.”
This village died {weeks | months | a year | a few years | decades} ago: 5 = a few years.
Jalmar: “Only these people would have had to travel for several days, maybe a week or more on foot, just to get to Hub.”
By this time the sunset has finished and the rain blocks out the moon and stars so darkness is pretty dominant outside of camp. Arden suggests they turn but in the morning he get Jalmar to show him the spot.
Normal Crafty to engage in a vision of the place: 1 success. Mythic meaning tables City Descriptors 61 Modern 33 Harsh. Arden sees that this was a fairly rigorously run place. Was the person from Hub (50/50) = 2 Exceptional Yes. This was not just some random village. It was a purposeful settlement by someone who had left Hub with plans and ideas backed up by modern science. Going with the above time scale, they got here about a year before the outbreak occurred. Once people started getting sick, the leader had people locked inside and the houses painted with the red eye. Eventually he and his wife were left alone and died as well.
Since this was a relatively sudden outbreak, this suggests they found a cursed place and either interacted with it or outright brought it back. Image oracle 3.6 Pointy Hat + 1, 6 Viking Shield. A gravesite. A burial place of a wizard from Before. Someone from this village ransacked it and stole an item from it. A literal hat? Sure. One that they thought might give them power. Instead it spread a disease that wiped out the tribe fairly fast.
Jalmar: What do you want to do with them?
Arden: The damned fools messed with things they shouldn’t. Were too proud. We thought maybe they didn’t know about Hub but they did. They just felt…above it. They took a hat. [Hard crafty, 1 success with spent Karma] From somewhere that way. Several miles. A few hours on horse.
Jalmar: A hat?
Arden: Yeah. A literal damned wizard’s hat like out of a children’s story. “Don’t talk to Mad Wizard Gerard, he’ll whisk off his hat and CURSE YOU!”
Jalmar: So we leave the whole place?
Arden: No, I am going to do something stupid. I want you to stay with the others and I will take the hat back (not touching it, by the way). I will find some way to seal the site back up. Otherwise, someone else might find it and relive the same curse.
Jalmar: That is stupid. What if you get infected?
Arden: Well, Izzia said he knows of the cure. Maybe help him figure it out before I need it. Heh.
Jalmar clearly wants to debate the issue but instead clicks his tongue and sends Ruk (his ravenhawk) up into the sky. “She’ll watch after you and I’ll do the same through her eyes. Come back to us, Ulet!”
{{ The Wizard Kalbarn-Karn, The Harbinger of Hollow Joys and Bitter Bliss }}
Name and title generated by Academies of the Arcane by Brian Yaksha. How good was Kalbarn-Karn (1d6)? 6 = very, very good. How powerful (1d6)? 6 = very, very powerful. Yet, the name suggests that they often made some deep mistakes. Such as cursing their hat to stop bad people from getting it but not putting any sort of protection in case not-so-bad people get ahold of it.
They traveled the Shallows and protected a wide swath of land as The Troubles were brewing. The evil archmages were carving up chunks of the Old Khelian Empire and little people were getting trampled underfoot. Kalbarn-Karn fought back but often took things too far, sometimes causing more damage than they prevented (flooding a region trying to help improve water flow, chasing off all animals and not just the predators, blasting stretches of land trying to stop some minor creature of darkness). Despite this, for the longest time, the people saw the good in them.
Finally, in 1843 OK (Old Khelian Calendar) the fight against the villainous Whirmheidle Khijikova, The Unhallowed One, marked the end of Kalbarn-Karn’s life. Whirmheidle brought several powerful dark servitors to lay waste to the area so she could claim it as her own ruinous land. Kalbarn-Karn, not wanting to once again involve others that would only end up getting hurt, went alone. One night, giant shadows were seen in flashes of fire as beings the size of giants fought against a single Wizard no larger than an average human. But, in the morning, the servitors were destroyed. Whirmheidle lay broken and shattered. And, alas, Kalbarn-Karn was dying.
A great feast was given in their honor and a dozen towns and villages came out to give thinks to one of the last great, good wizards. Kalbarn-Karn oversaw their own tomb being built and then asked to be left alone as they sealed themselves inside. As the Troubles spread, and Old Khelia finished falling, there was a place in the Shallows where the people stayed strong. “Do it like Kalbarn!” But, time eats away at us all.
A century later, houses have gone to ruin and dust. People have moved on. Life has been harshed since the Troubles rewrote the world.
Kalbarn-Karn lay mostly forgotten besides a few dusty books in Hub where evil wizards get all the love from the various students.
Until a couple of younger villagers at an experimental village found the tomb and took from it just a single, solitary hat.
++ Scene 8 ++
Chaos Factor 6
Expected: Arden returns the hat.
Actual: (Image Oracle: 4, 3 Bottled Shadow + 2, 1 Wood, Axe) The tomb, which was (Wilderness Features: 6,6 Tranquil Oasis + 4, 5 Pond/Spring) is now, after the tomb was opened, turned into a patch of wild and weird woods with odd shadows creeping along it.
Arden will top the hill and the vision he had of a tomb carved on the edge of a small, quiet lake is having trouble catching up with what he sees. Since the two villagers found the tomb and opened it, a strange curse has been released. Whirmheidle managed to bind a special curse to Kalbarn-Karn in that last fight and now it has been triggered. The devouring wood is spreading. Over time, it will grow even faster.
Standard Brawny: success. Arden is fully able to resist the curse on the hat but now has a second curse to contend with.
Standard Crafty: failure. He finds himself lost trying to navigate the woods around him. The runes that cover about half of his body start heating up. Dark, foul magic is trying to attack him and his magical protection is overheating. He feels prickles of pain.
Hard Craft Challenge (3 successes): To find the tomb and try to reseal it before he “shorts out”.
- First roll: 1 Karma spent: 1 success.
- Second roll: 1 success
- Third: Another karma spent: 2 successes
He finds the tomb and sees the vines and roots of the trees erupting out of it. Crawling inside (Standard Agile which he passes) he sees the roots growing directly out of the body of the wizard. He now returns the hat to the head and has to figure out how to stop this from spreading.
Hard Crafty Challenge (part 2!):
- First roll: Karma spent (the last one): One success
- Second roll: TWO SUCCESSES! MY MAN!
Arden reaches out in the vision space and finds the screeching, petty spirit of Whirmheilde clinging to the bright shining spirit of Kalbarn-Karn like a barnacle. Breathing out and catching his own breath to shape into a spiritual equivalent of a spear, Arden channels all of his energy into it and thrusts it into the barnacle killing the last vestige of The Unhallowed one and freeing Kalbarn-Karn’s soul to start fighting back against its own curse.
As Arden re-enters the real world, he sees the roots withering at the body. As he walks out and pulls the doors of the tomb shut, the dark forest is turning into ash and being washed away by the rain. He is mentally tired (0 Karma for now) but looks to Ruk and motions the ravenhawk down. She lands on his shoulder and they start riding back the way they came…
His meets his three companions before he gets to the halfway point. They were too worried (Jalmar witnessed the dark woods through Ruk’s eyes) and are happy to see Arden is ok. Izzia even runs over and hugs him.
Out in the distance, Arden feels a tug. A spectral voice.
Mythic meaning tables, Character Motivation: 34 Group 32 Goal. The magical person in the bad village is reaching out and found Arden. It is…telling the group goal or acting upon the group goal. Let’s see: how good is the person sending the message (1d6)? 1 = not good at all. Female. She sensed Arden’s magic even { 5 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 50 | 70+ } 50 miles away because that fight was a big one. Sensing power, she is trying to pull him in because she thinks she can feed off of him.
1d6: 1-4 = in direction they are traveling, 5 = off to west, 6 off to east. In the direction they are going.
“Something is calling us. Calling me, at least.”
Chaos factor is going down to 5 but Arden is without any Karma remaining and in a couple days time is likely to have a bad time.
== 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 but in this case Ashes) + Scarlet Heroes, and Madeline Hale's Table Fables. Other sources should be be credited in the raw play notes. This session used Brian Yaksha's Academies of the Arcane (specifically the "Lost Tables" supplement).
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 "L'aurore et la nuit (Dawn and Night)" by Henri Fantin-Latour.
I was searching ArtUK for a nice night or spooky forest type painting and got that one by something of a happy accident. I had just typed up the story about Kalbarn-Karn's final fight and the contrast of dawn and night seemed to sum it up. Kalbarn-Karn is purposefully non-binary in the description (and also a bit ageless) but my mental image had a bit of a femme-forward aspect. That painting works well for hitting a kind of mythical vibe I had for it.
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