Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Game Session, 2007.02.27

Published to Google Docs.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Game Session, 2007.02.24 (manual transcript)

(Unfortunately, the game transcript was lost after the game session of 2007.02.24. This recap will be from memory.)

(Play begins around 7:30 PM.)

We are joined by our cast, currently consisting of: Dev the Rogue, Shara the Paladin, and Elrymbor the Arcanist. Crom the Barbarian appears later on.

The characters return to Tulerohk the morning following the successful destruction of the gnoll huddle. With the smoke of the gnoll bodies still lingering in the air, the conclave calls the characters in immediately and they account for the attack. This immediately clears Dvethan ir'Wyren of charges of murder, as there were many witnesses to the fact that his sister, Illuvien, is still alive. Unfortunately, his hearsay testimony that Spyridon was responsible for her kidnapping is not accepted as evidence; her kidnappers are placed in holding cells on the guard level of the orulin, but no charges are brought against Spyridon Dara for his alleged part in the conspiracy.

After the conclave, Lucas leaves the characters, saying he has business of his own to attend to. The characters return to Shara's rooms, where they lay out their next plan of action. Spyridon Dara has ired Dev, and the characters suspect Lucas is already there interrogating him. They go visit his apartments, and send Elrymbor to knock on his door with a ruse. Lucas spots them out, and invites them in; he has indeed been there.

They interrogate Dara while Dev searches the apartments. There are some revelations. Dara reveals some interesting tidbits. He claims not to know how Illuvien got kidnapped, but he suggests that Emil ir'Wyren, father of Dev and Illuvien, is the culprit. He reveals that Illuvien was looking for a "red agent". But he doesn't know what that is. While Spyridon is giving his testimony, Dev is searching his apartments, and finds a notepad with pen impressions on it.

Here, Lucas threatens to have Spyridon hanged if he turns out to be a red agent, but Dara continues to protest that he doesn't even know what that is. Lucas immediately leaves the room, saying he's going to get Perletinius.

It is at this point that Crom returns.

When Lucas and Perletinius return, they bicker over whether to reveal something of great import to the characters; Lucas wants to tell them, Perletinius protests. Lucas finally prevails, saying, "It is time for new Blue Companions."

Lucas and Dev tie up Spyridon and throw him into the bedroom with the door closed.

Lucas then asks the party to swear, each individually, to keep the information secret "for the rest of their lives". When each of them does, starting with Crom, then Shara, then Dev, and finally Elrymbor, he reveals to them the true purpose of the Blue Companions.

Perletinius and Lucas reveal the following:
  • There are two Gabbents, Blue and Red. These are connected by something called the Soft World.
  • The Blue Companions exist to protect the forest Olemheiden in this eternal war against Red Gabbent. But their numbers have dwindled almost down to nothing.
  • There is something called "tincture" which differentiates the inhabitants of Red Gabbent from the inhabitants of Blue Gabbent. It is not visible to the eye and the Blue Companions do not know of a way to see it. (But Illuvien might.) Tincture is innate at birth; a person born on Red Gabbent has red tincture, a person born on Blue Gabbent has blue tincture.
  • If Illuvien can be believed, there is a Red agent somewhere in Olemheiden, maybe even in Tulerohk. A method to detect tincture is needed so this person can be found.
  • The Red agent may have been the one who caused the earthquake.

The DM breaks here to give a tutorial on using MapTool, specifically how to roll dice (/roll, /rollme and /rollgm), use aliases (/alias command..), and use the macro buttons (right-click on the button to change it). See this reference to chat commands.

Now the party commits to a course of action: the (new and old) Blue Companions will travel to Olemcorro, location of their informational archives, and research a way to detect red tincture. With a way to detect red tincture, the Companions might have a better chance of protecting the orulins from some new catastrophe, by fighting the red agent who is causing all the trouble (if that is indeed the cause of the trouble).

Dev investigates the contents of the notepad at this point, and is able to see a partial address, enough to know that the address that was written was the address of Emil ir'Wyren where he lived in Jeraslan!

The next day the part travels to Olemcorro through Olemheiden. Along the way, Lucas makes brief stops at the homes of lowlander elves just to reassure them that the gnolls have been taken care of. The lowlanders are extremely grateful for the assistance of the Jeraslan elves in killing the gnolls and freeing the kidnapped elves.

At sunset, the party reaches the base of the Olemcorro staircase. With night coming, it would be impossible to reach the lowest branch level before midnight, so the party makes a decision to return to the nearest lowlander burrow, and ask for shelter for the night. There, they are given a room to sleep in, safe from the nighttime forest, within the walls of the burrow.

That night, the travellers are awakened by great stentorian thuds reverberating through the forest, coming from below. This continues for several minutes before Elrymbor goes outside to investigate. No sooner does he do so than the forest is lit up by a beam of light, seemingly flashing up from the ground and crackling among the treetops like reverse lightning. In this flash, he sees something leviathan and blue, and in the afterglow sees shapes, small and clawed, exploding into the air from a rift in the ground.

(Play ends at 11PM.)

Plot Recap as of Saturday, February 24, 2007

A brief recollection of the events that have transpired so far during the Nest of Candles campaign, "The Precarious Earth".

Background

The Nest of Candles is the name of the campaign set on the world of Gabbent. The campaign so far centers around a forest region named Olemheiden. You will want to read this background material to start with, which describes the chapter known as "The Breaking of Jeraslan".

The story continues in Grimcatch, where the players fought and defeated a grimlock army that could have killed Jeraslan outright.

Returning from Grimcatch, the characters are forced into political intrigue in their new home, the orulin named Tulerohk, at the Conclave of Servants. There, one of the characters, a rogue named Dev, is accused of murder--the murder of his own sister. This accusation occurs at a time when the party is needed to destroy an infestation of gnolls which has kidnapped many of the "lowlander" elves, the elves which live on the forest floor in burrows and do not climb the orulin trees.

The captain of the Blue Companions, a paladin named Lucas, is put in charge of Dev during the raid on the Gnoll Huddle. (Follow the link for a description of the events in the Gnoll Huddle as well as the confrontation in the Conclave of Servants.)

Against a storm of gnolls, the party holds the prison where the lowlander elves were being kept successfully, keeping the prisoners safe long enough for Lucas to storm the village by surprise. They slay every last gnoll, and make a pyre of their bodies.

Among the prisoners they discover Iluvien ir'Wyren, sister of Dev, the very person he was accused of murdering. She is still alive, and she tells a story of being kidnapped by thugs sent by Spyridon Dara--the very council member who accused Dev of murder! This discovery clears Dev's name, but no sooner are brother and sister reunited than Iluvien flees rather than be taken back to Tulerohk. Dev chases her, with Shara close on his heels. She runs into the forest near the village and, with a twist of her arm, summons some sort of globe that squirms around her and then vanishes, with her still inside.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Game Calendar

Nest of Candles Calendar—Nest of Candles Calendar