<2022-01-01 Sat> The Setup
Morgana (she/her) (Fergus)
- BG:
- Witchhunter
- Curiously young-looking, soft hands
- Short
- Ran away to Marshhedge to seek knowledge.
- Arrogant, know it all
- Inquisitor apprentice.
- Came back because she didn’t have any options.
- Items:
- Family’s tannery acts as laboratory
- Collect things from the forest: strange trinkets, crystals, flowers
- Make potions and poltices. Generally don’t work.
- Family owns tannery
- Arcana
- Major Arcana - Twisted Spear
- Went into a fugue state in the woods.
- Found naked in the woods.
- Took spear from dead Fae. Other Fae want it back. (are they the dark presence? did it kill the Fae?)
- Always carries it.
- Finding a dead Fae is unheard of.
- What do you hope to accomplish? “The Fae are terrible and wicked. I’ll use it to save Stonetop and prove I am worthy of respect.”
- Minor Arcana
- Truth Seeds
- Found a Marshedge herbalist to teach ritual (make truth seeds)
- Thunderous Bellow
- Found in ruin. Got scared in tunnel and left.
- Brought it back. Haven’t shown anyone.
- Green Lord’s Shade
- Has seen the skull-head creature walking in the woods.
- Green Lords are long extinct.
- Share aspects with the Fae?
- You can see a glow in the forest when the Pale Hunter roams around. Connection with Green Lord’s Shade?
- NPC’s
- Closest Kin
- Tanners (parents). Overbearing. Harping on her to gear married to… some farmer.
- Farmer is older. Friend of theirs. Widower.
- Delwin: Secret spouse / lover / boyfriend (Smith)
- Who do you secretly watch over?
- Brangwen (midwife’s assistant).
- Morgana thinks she is a witch. Wants to out/burn her.
- Visiting the stone late at night.
- Strange colored smoke from her hut.
Tesni (he/him) (Hoid)
- BG:
- Takes hallucinogens
- Lanky, never grew out of puberty
- Auspicious birth
- Sun shaped birthmark on left (face) cheek
- Expected to be a Lightbearer, but didn’t happen for decades
- Preaching to nobody
- Town fool / “chosen one”
- Restored shrine at Stonetop
- Predecessor lived long ago
- Powers activated by visitation. “Be wary of who you share this with. Agents of shadow are lurking…”
- Faithful of Tor don’t respect him.
- Items:
- Glass works
- Built an enclosure on side of house
- Special projects (magnifying glasses, lenses, etc) prepared for legend / prophecy
- People think they are a waste of resources
- Makes / repairs lanterns and glass
- Makes holy relics (Helior)
- Got high and did a crop circle once that pissed people off
- Helior
- Try to find less busy times to go to the worship pavilion and maintain the shrine.
- Sneaky about maintaining it.
- Gossip: Tesni is fixing the shrine. The gossipers keep quiet though.
- By consuming (drugs), or staring at the sun, we have visions of Helior.
- Previous Lightbearer
- We don’t know who they were.
- Legend
- Light banished the evil.
- Made it safe for Stonetop to prosper.
- Tor followers disagree!
- Not many remember the stories.
- Tesni doesn’t know the true story.
- Theory: Lightbearer wasn’t human and we must work with them.
- While lying drunk in a field a servant of Helior visited.
- A seal is weakening.
- Need to venture out
- Invocations:
- NPC’s
- Who needs Helior’s light?: The midwife (Meriom).
- Lots of stillbirths lately.
- Superstitions?
- She is unable to have children.
- Cursed? Unknowingly?
Ifan (Evan) Fletcher (he/him) (Quin)
- BG:
- Grew up civilized.
- Soul bonded to beast of the wild.
- Wolverine, bit off Ifan’s finger. Wrestled.
- Fae magic? Mystery of the forest?
- Gave him some food, and they got on after.
- Begrudging friendship. Best friends.
- Old AF.
- Makes good arrows.
- “Old man yells at cloud” type
- Skips out on harvest. “Gone fishin.”
- Lives together with adult children.
- Johan:
- instinct to eat. Needs to free roam.
- No matter the distance, Ifan can focus for a moment and call him.
- Beloved by town.
- Smart, loyal, clever.
- Kids go and play with him (they feed him).
- Items:
- Help with hunting, fetching
- Longbow.
- Expert and making good arrows
- Tracking / scouting near the village
- Loads of hideouts (3), nearby
- Knows the area
- Worries:
- Know something is out there.
- Dark, unwholesome presence that lurks in the wood.
- “There is a dark spirit behind all this.”
- Looming shadow that portends encounter with Crinwin.
- Uptick in altercations with the Crinwin (symptom). They are too organized / coordinated now.
- Lures, ambushes, tactics, swarms.
- Not a coincidence that the Free Folk left. “They reneged on the bargin.”
- Lost his wife to the Crinwin years ago (never found the body).
- “Things are moving against Stonetop”, “There is a storm coming.”
- People in the village are tired of the warnings.
- The other hunters find them more believable.
- Who can tell you more? The Pale Hunter (Tensi: strange skull and antlers?)
- NPC’s
- Closest Kin
- Braithe (daughter). Live with her, her partner, and their kids.
- Occupation: works at pub, general laborer (fields)
- Gifted storyteller
- Efan:
- Tells stories of her adventures.
- Thomas (son in law).
- Pub keeper.
- Complains too much.
- Who would be lost without you?
- Garet. Trapper. 17-ish
- A bit shit. Relies on Ifan for where to look.
- Good heart, not a bad kid. Just isn’t good at trapping.
- Terrible luck
- In good shape, contributes, helps with farming.
- Trapping is the family trade, but he doesn’t like it much.
<2022-01-08 Sat> Clouds on the Horizon
Prep
Setup
- Morgana
- How do you and Delwin arrange a meeting?
- Where are you meeting Delwin outside the town tonight? What makes it cramped?
- Response: signal passing by smithy. Out on the cliffs.
- Ifan
- What dangerous place deep in the woods did you tell Garet to place traps after he pressured you?
- What hideous beast did you see there once?
- Response: The Maw. Two-headed goat, massive and angry.
- Tesni
- How did you learn to control your magical healing?
- Who mentored you, if anyone?
- Response: Experimented on Ifan. Backfired a couple times. Took more hallucinogens for visions. A priest of Helior from… ???
- Berkhard, during the last night raid:
- What tactics did the crinwin use that surprised you and caused casualties?
- How were the crinwin more ferocious than before?
- Response: Numbers fielded, must have massed before. Horde coming over the wall. Outliers came over in advance to scout. Infiltrators? Solo/pairs doing other things (theft?). Ifan caught the sneakers.
Hook
- A human figure stumbles out of the dark. He falls before you, and passes out. You recognize Garet. A purple barb the size of a kitchen knife has punctured his abdomen and dark ooze is seeping from the wound. What do you do? (SMEAR PURPLE GOO ON BOTH)
- Later on, if not treated, Garet goes into convulsions (withdrawal) and the purple lines spread.
What’s going on?
- Addicted Crinwin riding mutated feathered drakes are expanding their territory.
- Garet wandered into their territory, was chased to the edge of the Great Woods, and shot by a mutated feather drake.
- Garet needs expert magical help to cure the infection. Probably from the Fae?
Agenda
Player Intros
Add NPC’s (lem)
PC connections
Weather
- A sunny spring day, some clouds, gusting winds
Meet the town
- Establish the mundane
- What do they do every day?
- Morgana and Delwin: how do they arrange meetings?
- Delwin’s marriage?
- Ifan: in town?
- Tesni: strange looks?
- Moves
- Introduce someone
- Reveal simmering tensions
- Present a want or need
- Quicken a threat or crisis
- Oppose their wishes
- Play them against each other
- Change a relationship
- Show them how others really feel
First adventure
Notes
- Helior: “seal weakening” (tie to Fomoraij?)
- Ifan has hideouts? (a POI?)
- Ifan’s son: tracker / ranger
- Morgana: runs around in woods, dead fae, fae looking for her
Berkhard (Marshal)
- Arrived 10-ish years ago from Manmarches (SE)
- Blood feuds in Manmarches
- Background: Penitent, for pursuing revenge in spite of a wereguild being paid
- Wereguild was “insufficent repayment” for injustice suffered
- Hasn’t told anyone what the injustice was
- “Unforgiveable”
- Honor over tradition
- Exiled from homeland
- Wandered as a thug
- Settled in Stonetop
- Wife (Meredith, native) & Kids (7, 5)
- House in town
- Established himself as a leader
- Crew:
- Added a few local followers
- Follower instinct: to bicker and fight among each other
- Tension between old guard and new additions
- Relax at the pub
- Carpenter / Engineer
- Unlikely to panic, cool-headed
- NPC’s
Events
- Battle vs crinwin night raid roughly a month ago
- Berkhard rallied townsfolk
- Berkhard rescued the locals instead of Hartig
PC questions
- Ifan: who doesn’t like venturing into the woods?
- Tesni: afraid of the dark
- Morgana: which one of you most fears the path I tread?
- Berkhard: doesn’t see how this is different from regular witchcraft?
- Tesni: which one of you shares my faith?
- Ifan: adopted the faith after Tesni gained powers, healed him
- Berkhard: which one of you have I promised to keep safe?
- Tesni: worried about religious discrimination, followers of Tor are prevalent
- Ifan: which one of you have I caught staring out at the horizon?
- Berkhard: thinking about back home (east). Drinking buddies, close chats.
- Morgana: which one of you is keeping secrets from me?
- Tesni: keeping secret of the midwife (treating stillbirths, terrible luck)
- Tesni: which one of scoffs at mercy and hope?
- Morgana: mercy is for the weak.
- Berkhard: which one of you do I still have doubts about?
- Ifan: which one of you lacks the stomach to put something out of its misery?
- Tesni: wants to heal everything/everyone.
- Morgana: which one of you lead me to a key discovery?
- Ifan: found something suspicious in the Great Woods, let it slip at the pub. Morgana was interested. Morgana took the Half-buried plaque, and Ifan kept that secret.
- Tesni: which one of you is an old and dear friend?
- Berkhard: doesn’t think of Tesni as a disappointment.
- Tesni: which one of you will need my guidance soon?
- Morgana: on a dark path, going a bit over the top. Helior might know about Fae / forest creatures.
Everyday life
- Telsi: maintaining the symbols of Helior. Everyone tolerates this. Tor followers don’t like it much.
- Berkhard: out in the fields, helping plow/sow.
- Ifan: arguing that the militia is insufficient, “Berkhard should train the villagers”.
- Morgana: screaming match with parents about arranged marriage.
- who pretended not to notice? The Tor Cleric who knows all the gossip.
Signals
- 1 horn blasts: friendly returning
- 2 horn blasts: friendly returning (injured)
- 3 horn blasts: attack
Threads
- Delwin and Morgana covered in purple goop that won’t come off
- Garet & The Maw
- Drake tail spikes
- Seed things
- Did Delwin answer the call to arms?
- Konrad antagonism “what did the marshal say?”
Wishes
- Quin: Sometime in future: steading upgrades / improvements, mundane adventures, trading, “boring” logistical issues
- Lem: Setting description, active involvement of NPC’s (waiting for PC’s to do stuff)
- NPC’s taking independent action
- Fergus: more inter-villager drama
- purple die problems
- town tear itself apart
- schism
- something mystical / supernatural
- Hoid:
- a long expedition
- utilize foraging/camp stuff
- keep company move
- shroom quest
<2022-01-15 Sat> The Dread Goat’s Maw
Agenda
- Unexpected Bounty: Viggo’s chickens have been producing more eggs lately, and he is boastful about it. Handing them out as gifts of Tor.
- Recap, take advantage
I wonder…
- How will Tesni react to these divine eggs?
- Will they make progress towards a trained militia?
- Will Morgana’s affair be discovered?
- Will they venture into the great woods in search of clues, re: plant corruption?
- [-] Will they find what has become of the two-headed goat at the Maw?
- Will the religious tensions (Tor vs Helior) rise?
- Will the plant corruption intensify?
- Did Delwin come out to the woods with the gang?
- How is Efan feeling about Garet’s injury?
Vignettes
- Weather: A heavy thunder storm. Lightning strikes the Stone repeatedly. Loud as fuck. CRACK / BOOM. Scares the animals. Afterwards, a chilly rain.
- Meriom in public house complaining about purple stuff staining her table/floors. Lauds Morgana (such a strong young woman) for dragging Garet into town.
- All the chickens producing an incredible amount of perfect eggs. Virgo praising Tor’s benevolence for the rains, grass growing.
- Garet talking about the Maw?
Expedition (Maw)
Travel to: a place to ambush the goat
Requirements
Challenges / Dangers
- Goat (surprise)
- Crinwin (regular)
- Crinwin (drake riders)
- Weather: cold/wind, showers
- Getting lost
- Plant drakes
POI
- The Maw
- The Stream
- A massive clearing, ring of fae standing stones, runes
- Dense thicket (moderate size)
- A ruin or artifact of the green lords
End of Session
Likes
- Keep company
- Developing relationships
- Dire goat
- Secret keeping
Wishes
- Time developing the town
- Less dilly dallying
- Chance to grow Helior’s influence
- Handling Morgana in a different way
- Green Lords (corrupted magic things pushing influence)
- Painting the picture
- Almanacs
- Environmental details
- Proper expedition
- Areas besides The Great Woods
- Trade beast parts with neighbors
<2022-01-22 Sat> Leaving Home / Turtle Trouble
I wonder…
Add
- More spirit stuff
- Opportunity for Helior growth
- town
Hooks
- An trade caravan comes to town from Barrier Pass. They bring word: Barrier Pass is paying well for non-perishable food, but not for long.
Agenda
- Goat loot
- Maw cave shit (discovery?)
- Triumphant return
Weather
Notes
- Cerys coming along on trip
- Goat stored in tannery
- Renegotiating prenup would be good for Cerys
- Cerys going along on trade mission
- 5 rare cheeses
Journey to Marshedge
Reqs
- You’ll need a horse and cart to carry the goat
- It’ll take 8 days / supplies (or 16 w/o mess kit).
- You’ll need magical wards, or you risk drawing the attention of spirits and beasts.
- You’ll need someone to vouch for your entry, or you’ll have to buy your way in.
POI
- Highway
- Stone Lord’s Arch
- ??
- ??
- Marshedge
Selling
Notes
- Cerys will demand y’all replace her stuff
- If expert says arcana is dangerous
EOS
Stars
- Morgana character development!
- PvP stuff (XP!): Tesni vs Morgana
- Morgana exploring artifacts / witch stuff (x2)
- Morgana slugging Konrad
Wishes
- Encounter tables
- Hoid & Quin: Chance to find something magical / arcana
- Expedition stuff!
- Dangers and discoveries roll. Random discoveries / encounters.
- Interaction with Cerys (love triangle)
- Steppelands & Marshedge
<2022-02-05 Sat> Fire Walk With Me
I wonder…
The Steplands
- Weather: Hot and dry. Clear skies. Insects buzzing / chirping. Wafts of cinnabar.
Treasures
- Minor Arcana #7: Runes around a ruined hall / The Fiery Veil
Notes
- Tesni recognizes old timers
- Hillfolk
- Morgana prophecy: moon, wolves , crawdad (meekness, humility, regeneration)
- Cerys prophecy: judgment,
- Hillfolk: Helior is just another Spirit of the Wild
- Morgana made discriminatory comments, smashed the masterpiece glass sculpture
- Tesni: vision of prophet standing on temple, trapped in a ring of fire
- Morgana: chased by Fae who turned up in front of her.
- Efan: gives up memory: story/location of a flower that only blooms under moonlight
Chart a course
- To: The Flaming Temple
- Requirements
- A guide / directions or risk getting lost
- Provisions, or you’ll need to forage
- you’ll risk attracting the attention of beasts
- You don’t know how long it’ll take
- Hard and grueling over this terrain
- POI
- Hillfolk sacred place, gully,
- Small hut with water wheel, stream
- Offerings from Hillfolk
- Fae inscription above door
EOS
Stars
- Arcana from Helior
- Johan and the sausages
- Environmental descriptions
- Rolling with solution to burning temple puzzle
- Yes, and…
- Fae house
Wishes
- Efan shining / spotlight session
- Once we return home: more daily life vignettes
- Contrast of mundane vs fantastic
- Wildyrmyth: “In Between” — little scenes about characters
- Tesni: Recruit some followers in Marshedge
- Tend to the Helior shrine in Stonetop
- Interpersonal drama between Cerys and Hillfolk
- Unlocking more Twisted Spear
<2022-02-12 Sat> Thunder on the Steppe
I wonder…
Festival
- What will the Hillfolk festival be like?
- What is the purpose of the Ribbon Colossus?
- Which band of Hillfolk did they meet at Wildflower Station?: Moon Tree Watchers, Red Crows, Leaf & Shield
- What mundane things do the PC’s get up to?
- What is going on between Cerys and the Hillfolk?
- What rumors of dark spirits have they heard?
- What makes that band different from the others?
- What is the situation with Cerys / Delwin’s marriage agreement?
Marshedge
Notes
- Vivian VERY interested in Helior’s power.
- Felix’s band: Trading with Hillfolk, taking aetherium back through Barrier pass
- Red Crows: The band they met at Wildflower station
- Thunder Drake: Rasgovir, Stalker of the Steppes
- Stren claimed Rasgovir as his prey
- Moon Tree Watcher hunters drinking with Cerys
- Cerys has a heavy coin-purse
- Advancing her agenda
- Sold the goat guts to Moon Tree Watchers
- paid Cerys enough not to ask
- Cerys needs Morgana to admit the affair to the chronicler
- Public announcement to Stonetop
- Vivian wants to know about secret Tor/Helior prophecy.
- Efan’s Rumor: A particularly successful group of outcast hunters who conduct a ritual before hunting. Intake the blood of the beast. They are tolerated, but other bands are suspicious.
- Efan working to gain friendship of Hillfolk
- Moon Tree Watchers conduct blood magic ritual at nearest large tree. Hunt on the new moon.
- Name of dread goat spirit: Yuulenok
- Dread hunt: two moons from now at the Tree of Woe
- Yuulenok told Morgana there is a dark spirit in the Stonetop stone.
EOS
Stars
- Combat was fun
- Environmental descriptions
- GM Improvising
- Subtle science fantasy setting
Wishes
- Opportunities for recurring NPC’s
- Tesni: place of worship
- Fat cats
- Hillfolk hunters
- Threats to Stonetop
<2022-02-26 Sat> Meet the Town
I wonder…
General
Floating
Hillfolk
Marshedge
Weather
- Steplands: Warm, sunny, pleasant
- Marshedge / Swamps: Warm, sunny, pleasant
Arcanum
A Sunken Table (33f)
immobile
A big old chunk of stone, maybe five feet across, covered in mud and algae. There are Maker-runes on it, barely visible. Runes for the earth, and spirits, and rejuvenation.
The tablet reveals the workings for a ritual, which you can learn if you…
Convocation of the Soil (33b)
When you spill your blood on the soil and speak the words of convocation, the spirits of the soil will stir and wake, filling the soil with life and energy and nutrients.
When you cast this spell on the fields in early spring, spilling a significant quantity of blood, mark all three debilities and lose all but 1 HP. You need not leave any fields fallow this year, and the autumn harvest will generate \+1d4 Surplus.
However, you must roll \+WIS:
- on a 10+, you call up only the spirits of the fallow fields, and there is no consequence
- on a 7-9, you stir other spirits of the soil and some sort of dangerous growth starts to spread in the vicinity (or spread more quickly)
- on a 6-: you wake something evil and dangerous that had been imprisoned in the earth
Notes
-
Efan:
I think his priority 1 is always the village; working towards improving the village and their lives as much as possible. He’s still concerned and cautious about the rising crinwin threat in the Great Woods, but feels that has been curtailed a bit by killing the goat demon which seemed to be an influencing factor in their increasing aggression, hence his freedom to leave the village on more… adventurous projects like this trade run.
I pretty consistently play thinking about the “If you want to…” page rather than any specific personal quest motivation. My “hunting with the hillfolk” work is specifically targeting getting an invite next spring to join them on an aurochs hunt so that Stonetop can start doing that every year for additional Surplus (one requirement is Cooperating with Hillfolk).
Efan is really quite old; he knows he’ll probably be dead in a decade or so at best, so he wants to ensure he’s leaving things as good as possible. I want to work on improving the Inn for Braith, which also then opens us up to create a Marketplace in Stonetop. I’d also want us to improve the Defenses of the village; we’re hilariously open to attack and that’s a constant concern of Efan’s.
With what we have in our wagon, we would have enough to get everything we need to work on a Palisade from Marshedge. It would cost us a season of time, so would take us through Summer, but I think it’s a worthwhile project.
One of the requirements for Far Reaching Reputation is “Saving many Marshedge residents’ lives”, so I’m hoping there’s an opportunity to do some real good in that town.
I’m hoping we can complete Far Reaching Rep to get that +1 Fortunes which, when added to Return Triumphant (if this trade adventure goes well, which it seems to be!), would take us to +3 Fortunes as we head into Summer. I’d like us to increase Prosperity with that, given it makes the most sense contextually and provides nice benefits to the town
-
Yuulensaa awakening other Green Lords for reasons???
-
Ritual / fertility rite under Marshedge. Huge tablet covered in vines.
-
Fiery veil:
- Only spiritual fire
- Tor legend:
-
Caron Blodwen
- Vivian Blodwen (daughter)
-
Wilted fields, they fucked up the harvest
- Council too proud to ask Nerys
-
Competing factions
-
Who the fuck are these cultists?
- Town farmers desperate to revitalize the harvest
- The guard (or part of it) is in on the rituals
-
Elene (she/her)
-
Tavern
- The Blue Maple
- The Wise Leaf
- Spotless floor
- Barkeep (he) wearing Cerys’ coinpouch
-
There is a Stone Lord spirit here
EOS
Stars
- Everything tied together
- Blowout
- Efan in action
Wishes
- Really difficult fight
- Hoid: maybe DEATH?!
- Big spirit thing
- Morgana: talking to a witch hunter
- Goat sale
<2022-03-12 Sat>
I wonder…
General
Marshedge
- Will they get the goat into Marshedge?
- If not, where will they sell it?
- What will they do if they get the goat inside Marshedge?
- Who taught Morgana to make the truth seeds? (Marshedge herbalist)
- Will Tensi recruit some followers?
- Will the Fen-walkers catch them with the dread goat?
- [-] What role does Nerys have in this?
- What will happen to the cart?
- Why haven’t the Witch Hunters destroyed the cult?
- The cult includes members of the council, save face
- How are the guards involved with the cult?
Labyrinth
- Will they discover the tablet? (minor arcanum #33) (NO)
- What lurks below in the Maker ruins?
- How will the cult try to stop them?
- How will they navigate the labyrinth?
- How did the cult’s ritual go wrong last time?
Notes
- Witchfinder General: leader of Witch Hunters / Fen
- Fought the stone lord construct
- Morgana murdered the tavern keeper (cultist)
Rewards
- Steading Improvement: Rhoillyg Orchard
Epilogue
- Morgana frees the spirit within the stone
- Foul spirit emerges from stone
- Morgana and Cerys become a couple and get Delwin kicked out of Stonetop
- Tensi recruits followers and overthrows Tor