To the Havens In Glory

 

Most people I've met and talked to about Lord of the Rings seem to think of Frodo as a chump. And if you just watch the movies this is true; movie Frodo is the ultimate of chumps. He inherits the last vestige of evil power from a bygone age, which proceeds to ruin his life. Sacrificing his life Frodo travels to Mordor, where he ultimately fails to give up the thing the had traveled so long to get rid of and returns back to a quiet life, where he is haunted by the horrors he experienced, eventually having to go to Valinor to go find peace. It's a thoroughly depressing story. And completely guts the character from the book, making for a mere shadow of what was intended. I personally hesitate to even call them by the same name. Here's why.

During the Council of Elrond Elrond calls Frodo the equal of the likes of Beren and Turin Turambar. Anyone who knows the Silmarillion knows this is no small praise. Elrond is saying Frodo is a mover and shaker of the world on the same level of the heroes of old! And that's before Frodo gets to Mordor. As Frodo travels he only becomes more and more impressive. With no power he awes the likes of Faramir, holds council with Galadriel as someone on even footing (even if he doesn't recognize it), and is able to channel the Ring to his own personal charisma, cowing Gollum with nothing more than a few stern words. Frodo does fail to destroy the Ring, but this is after a journey that literally no one else in the entirety of Middle Earth could have done. It is presented within Tolkien's framework that no one can hold out against evil for forever, not in this world. But even so, why on earth

It all comes to a clean focus in The Scouring of the Shire, which is emphatically the point of The Lord of the Rings. It is explicit in the text itself. To omit it is to cut out the central conflict of LOTR, nevermind all of Tolkien's Legendarium! It is here where Frodo comes into sharp view. To those of you who still don't know, The Scouring of the Shire was what happened when the hobbits returned to the Shire.. only to find that a vastly depowered Saruman had  taken over their homeland and corrupted it. Merry, Pippin, and Sam manage to organize a resistance and, taking Saruman's henchmen by surprise, bring down Saruman's government. But the most important part of Saruman, his voice and mind, were  not taken away by Gandalf. Saruman can still manipulate and wreck souls, if only they don't know they can prevent it.  All the other hobbits flinch. 

All but Frodo. Up until Frodo nobody had ever gone toe to toe with a maiar with something so simple as conversation. A maiar's power isn't in his physical strength, but in his soul, his mind. Physical power comes and goes and is not something that Tolkien regards as special. But the mind? The soul? Those are completely irreplaceable and are where power truly lies. And no one in the Legendarium has been able to just stand up to maiar and win, not in a duel of wits.

Nobody but Frodo.

Using nothing but the strength of his character Frodo completely dismantles Saruman's evil in front of the hobbits of the Shire. With all the respect and care in the world Frodo counters Saruman's voice, allowing the hobbits to be free from the last enslavement Saruman had put them under. And Frodo does this with absolutely no force, whatsoever. Going to hell and back has not destroyed Frodo, on the contrary: Frodo is one of the strongest beings in Middle Earth. He is certainly unique.

What to make of the ending, then? Frodo is most definitely not broken by his experiences in Mordor. He has evolved a quiet strength that is all but impossible to see. Frodo is hurt by his experiences, of course; he does have his wounds. But the wounds are not all-consuming. But eventually the clock does have to run out on not being home. And Frodo is not home. There is only one place for someone who had been strengthened like how he was, and it is nowhere near the Shire.

Far from being the sacrificial lamb that must go on in misery until Heaven smiles upon him, Frodo winds up being one of the most powerful folk in all of the Legendarium. Able to walk with elves and men equally as easily as hobbits, Frodo became someone that even the gods could not contend with. And when it was time for him to go Frodo left in peace. Far from being a long defeat, Frodo's arc is one of victory in the face of adversity.

The Undertow: Session Thirty-Three

 

Lore Note: Andy, Lena, and I have developed a set of pronouns for elves that are going to start showing up here. I've a real love for the obscure terms of Wolfe and in a wish to imitate his ability to alienate and fascinate, which I think intrinsic to fantasy, I put forward the idea to them that the vaeltaja would not see themselves in terms of male and female, given how little reproduction happens in a vaeltajan lifespan. We decided that elves would instead classify themselves in terms of how much Grief a vaeltaja carried on their soul. To them the differences between even a Grief of B1 and B2 would be noticeable, although for simplicity's sake they'd stick to what we think would make four categories:

Grief B0-B3: mu (singular and multiple)/mul (possesive)

Grief B4-B7 dai/dail

Grief B8-9 ta/tal

B10, but not yet sailed into the Void tor/torl

The Argentum Empire has been saved; Golau, the Demon Queen of Light, is no more, in no small part because of Mikansia. Immediatedly afterwards Nomi accidentally ran into an old mark of hers, the Crown Prince of the Argentum Empire, Prince Constantine, who Nomi had married as part of a scheme for the Lone Keep. Constantine had returned with Mikansia and Nomi to Vigilance, much to Mikansia's amusement.

It was the first time Mikansia had slept in for months and ta was determined to enjoy it. Ta snuggled into the blankets provided by Decima. It was wonderful, taking a break.

Mikansia's door snuck open; Nomi was now against it, bare legs shaking like burnt leaves escaping a bonfire. Nomi slid down the door, hands in tal face. "So, good morning," said Mikansia. Nomi froze. Ta hadn't meant to hide in Mikansia's room. "Everything okay?" asked Mikansia, getting up and out of tal bed.

Nomi wouldn't look at Mikansia, not at first. "I didn't just fuck Constantine's brains out this morning. I've... I've not slept." Looking up at Mikansia after a moment Nomi found herself whispering "I thought of myself as a "she", by my sex, not as 'ta', when I was with him. I felt human."

Mikansia's jaw needed to be screwed back in. "You really care for him," Mikansia finally said.

"I. DO. NOT. WANT. TO. It's not like this is my first time fucking some random lyhyt's brains out all night long. This shouldn't mean anything!" Nomi realized ta was shouting. One ragged breath later and ta was back to a whisper. "This is infuriating. This makes no sense!"

"What doesn't? Because he's human?" asked Mikansia.

"Well, that's a part of it," Nomi replied.

"If we're going to go by those standards then you're just a dark elf and I'm just a dark elf's bastard, who had the potential to be some dark messiah. But that's not what how this works." Mikansia took a moment and smiled. Ta didn't see taself as just a dark elf's bastard anymore. Ta looked back up at Nomi, a new sense of... something. Something good. "When you love someone it frequently doesn’t...”

Ta paused.  Mikansia, no, Jabez was standing in front of that pirate, way back at the beginning, figuring out what mu was going to do about helping Mikansia.

“You find yourself doing all sorts of strange things... like.. like giving up your sword so that way the one you love can go pursue their dream," stammered Mikansia, trying to compensate for the sudden memory flash.

So you were in love with Jabez?" asked Nomi, getting a bit of tal composure back.

"I..." Mikansia shook tal head, coming out of the reverie of Jabez's memories. "That's not really the point right now. You've got someone in there that's definitely your family." 

"Family??" Nomi's quick moment of triumph had vanished back into consternation. "I... family."

"Isn't that what he is? Family?"

"... yes." Nomi sighed.

"So what are you going to do?" Mikansia asked.

"I.. have to tell him. I don't think it will... well..." Nom took a deep breath. Ta walked out.

Mikansia went downstairs to a picture of peace. Yvette, bags under her eyes, was nursing the elven baby Alexis. Mikansia smiled at Alexis, Jabez's son, who was still getting used to the idea of other ebony-skinned beings existing.  Simone ran up to Mikansia "I knew you'd come back," the three year old told Mikansia with a warm smile. A familiar one.

Mikansia's smile was just as familiar and warm. "And here I am. I've missed you."

"Who wants breakfast?" Decima called from the kitchen. Even Yvette got up, stumbling into the kitchen as everyone made their way to get food.

Constantine came down the stairs and walked out the door into Vigilance without a word, face impassive. Nomi didn't come down after him. Mikansia found Nomi sitting on tal and Constantine's bed. "That didn't go well, I take it." Nomi shook tal head. "I'm sorry," Mikansia said, in all sincerity and gentleness.

"Can you.. can you come with me?" asked Nomi through tal tears.

"You don't have to ask," assured Miksansia. "Get dressed." Nomi nodded.

Constantine was sitting in the piazza just down the street. "Hello, Mikansia." Mikansia grimaced. Ta had mockingly told Constantine tal name was Nomi when they had met, as Nomi was known to Constantine as Mikansia. Apparently Constantine was a bit sore about it.

"What did ta tell you?" Constantine and Nomi looked at Mikansia with surprise. Mikansia was supposed to just come along. "Knowing Nomi ta probably didn't tell you about all the good she's done since, as ta tried to become better. Nomi has been nothing but a help and support to me and I doubt ta has the ability to even mention those things."

"That's wonderful, but Nom didn't just hurt me," said Constantine, standing up from the fountain. "I'm the Crown Prince of the Argentum Empire! I am not just me, Mikansia. I am the Argentum Empire, personified. The people are mine. Mine. I protect them. I keep them safe. They are mine to hold in protection against the nations. And Nomi hurt them. She tricked me and used that information to hurt my people. I should resign as prince and leave the kingdom, but I can't! I'm the last of the line! All my brothers died when the dragon destroyed Argentum Prime." Mikansia and Nomi shifted, looking uncomfortable. That had been Fish when he had first become a dragon. He had recently been relieved of his curse and was still recovering from it. "If I step down, which I really should, since Nomi proved I was so untrustworthy, that would lead to a bloody civil war. My people don't deserve that." Nomi's eyes began to flood. Constantine tried not to look at ta as he turned to Mikansia. "Your sword can return me to Argentum Reskartum. Please.. please take me back there." Nomi sobbed and sobbed in the very public piazza, falling at Constantine's feet. He tried as hard as he could not to look at ta, but his eyes teared up from the effort. Other humans began to gather at the very public display of heartbreak.

Mikansia picked up Nomi. "I'm going to take him back through Dream. Wait for me back at the house."

"Mikansia, how could-"

"I. Said. Wait." The look on Mikansia's face shut Nomi up. Mikansia cut open a portal through Dream with Sydanelma, just as Constantine had asked. But Mikansia made Constantine walk through every single memory of Nomi that Mikansia had to do it: swirling memories of Nomi trusting Mikansia with secrets, helping Mikansia through places in tal life that ta could never have made it through alone, Mikansai telling Nomi over and over again "I only trust you to do this. Please help me!" At first Constantine protested, but became quieter and quieter as they walked through the memories, as he saw Nomi evolve into what he had always thought her to be. 

At the end of the walk Mikansia cut open another hole, showing the ruins of Argentum Reskartum. But Constantine didn't go through. "Alright. Bring me back." Mikansia cut to Nomi's room with a rainbow slash of Sydanelma. Nomi jumped. "I.. .I was wrong. I didn't... I'm sorry," Constantine said, looking right into Nomi's tearful eyes. "Come with me. We'll figure it out. Somehow."

"No."

Everyone's jaw dropped but Nomi's. 

"I'm... I'm still damaged. I need to.. I need to return to grief. And I love you so much and I want to go, but you can't help me return."

Constantine barely let Nomi finish. "But I-"

"-need someone to be there for the people," interrupted Nomi with a gentle smile. "I'm not that. Not yet. But I won't rest until I am, if you'll wait for me. I've no right to ask for that. But I don't deserve any of this to begin with and I want to do it right. And when I can I want to be your wife. Or your concubine. Whatever you can do whenever I figure this out."

"Well after this morning and what you-"

"ErHEM" coughed Mikansia. Nomi and Constantine started. They weren't alone. They had forgotten.

"I'll always wait. Always," swore Constantine.

"I hope not. The people need an heir, after all," chuckled Nomi. "I won't keep you long. I promise." Cosntantine nodded. They parted as Mikansia turned to cut another portal.

As Constantine stood in the portal that would take him b ack to Argentum Reskartum he turned and smiled at Mikansia. "Well played, Mikansia. Well played." Mikansia smiled by way of reply. "You've sacrificed yourself before. I can tell. You know the burden of being everyone's source of strength."

Mikansia felt a bit sheepish."I don't know if I'd go that far. But I do have some appreciation for what you told Nomi. And clearly ta did too."

Constantine laughed. "Indeed! Well, until next time, Mikansia Lux Armiger, Bearer of Light!" he said, pointing at the multifaceted glow of Sydanelma. Ta nodded

The portal closed between them. Constatine immediately turned his mind to his people. Nomi would return to him. But, for now, there was work to be done.

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Death is a Patient Master: Session One

A few weeks ago orcs were seen near the sarcastically-named Beautiful Caves by the inhabitants of the metropolis Ilona. They attacked the orcs, who slew all who came after them... except one, who managed to flee and warn the city of Ilona of what was undoubtedly an incoming invasion. The townsfolk of Ilona braced themselves for an assault, possibly a siege; panic was in the air as supplies were laid, troops mustered, and everyone thought their days were numbered.

The invasion never came. the orcs camped outside the inhuman and twisting structures that marked the entrance to the Beautiful Caves; the orcs didn't move one inch towards Ilona. The Lord Mayor of Ilona, moved by the outcries to drive the orcs away, but not willing to send his own men to attack a group of orcs who had made no further aggressive moves against his populace, issued a substantial bounty to whomever could either clear the caves or report back what the orcs were planning, as well as if the force actually required the town militia.

Galina, the reluctant Celestial Knight of the star Ilona, the rogue mage Ember, the thief Aria, and Wizktiyc the minotaur decided that bounty was worth their while. They had never met before (well, Ember and Wiztiyc had met and been on a job before), only having met at an inn, looking over the same proclamation of the Lord Mayor. They made a plan to scout for alternative entrances to the Beautiful Caves, so as to catch the orcs by surprise and pick them off, one by one. Wiztiyc in particular had developed a taste for orc meat, something he was very vocal about. "It tastes just like chicken. I want more."

That may have been enough reason for Aria and Galina to offer to scout ahead, leaving the not as stealthy Ember holding the bag that was the awful conversation Wiztiyc wanted to have about how to cook orc flesh. Aria and Galina chuckled as they made their way along the ridge before the Beautiful Caves. Aria's foot landed on a section of ground that was definitely hollow. With Galina's help They pulled up a section of the earth that had grown over a section of wood. They pulled that up to reveal darkness, which fled away from the light fifteen feet, abandoning unworked stone. Securing a rope with the help of Galina, Aria repelled down down into the hole. 

The instant her feet sunk into it Aria was almost overwhelmed by the smell of feces. Gagging, she called up "Galina! - HACK - careful about the smell! The walls are - UGH - covered in shit!"

Galina didn't smell it until her feet sunk into it.  "Oh, oh!" She gagged, remembered the money, and found a way to not throw up. She stumbled over to Aria, who had lit a torch. The darkness continued its retreat, this time into a passageway at the far end of the shit-covered opening they were in. Something glinted in Galina's periphery; a silvery response to Aria's torchlight. Galina grimaced as she wiped the caked droppings off the wall. It wasn't silver Galina had found: it was a vein of mithril. Galina touched the vein in silent awe.

Another hand placed itself upon hers. A familiar hand. A hand from a dead man. Galina turned to her right, to see Corin, her husband, looking at the mithril with her. Corin had been dead awhile now, since before Galina had met Ilona. "That is so beautiful," declared the dead man. And then he was gone.

Aria, for her part, had found something round in a deeper section of poop: a goblin skull. Aria hated goblins. No one had talked about them when the bounty was announced, just orcs. Aria heard Galina gasp; she was pale in the torchlight. And she had her hand in the smelly wall. "Something happen?" Aria asked, concerned.

"Uh... um... mithril!" Galina said a touch too hastily. "Mithril, mithril right here!" Aria walked over, wincing at every footstep as it sank into the muck. They didn't need to stay another minute, and so therefore they didn't.

When they got out of the cave there was not one bit of feces on them. When they looked back down they couldn't see even a trace of the foulness that was in the cave.

Wiztiyc and Ember were having a conversation about eating orcs, a bit farther down the Beautiful Mountain. Well, Wiztiyc was trying to, with Ember trying to redirect the conversation to something, anything, else, and failing. So he was excited when Aria and Galina came back with a sure way forward. Wiztiyc, however, was disappointed when he heard that the route didn't include orcs he could chew on the bones of. 

"Wiztiyc sank much lower into the horrific muck than the others, and his sensitive nose made the experience a whole order of magnitude worse. Ember, however, didn't notice the filth at all. The whole complex was roiling with the most awful eldritch energy he'd ever seen, surrounding him, hugging the walls, forcing its way into his nostrils, into his lungs, his heart...

Goblins. Way, deep, deep down.

Spells. Living, sparking, beautiful spells.

A gigantic. Rotting. Rotting to eternity but never running out of a thing to rot corpse.

Eyes. Burning through eyelids that never would fully go away. Staring out. Staring at him. Beckoning. 

Deeper. 

Deeper. 

Deeper.

While he was gagging on the stench Wiztiyc noticed that Ember wasn't in the cave with them. Footprints led down the adjacent hall. The minotaur barreled ahead of the torch Aria was holding to find Ember standing at the edge of an abyss. His eyes were glazed and he teetered, mouth forming words that made no sound. Wiztiyc grabbed Ember, whose eyes cleared; the tunnel reverberated with Ember's scream. As Wiztiyc pulled Ember back to Aria, who had come running with the torch, Ember somehow regained his composure. "There's a lot of really evil energy around us. And there's something... I think it's a god of rot. Or it was. This is not what we signed up for."

Galina had not followed Wiztiyc and Aria to help with Ember. She had been looking at the vein of mithril, wistfully. Corin had come back. He had loved it. She couldn't leave it behind. She took a hammer and began to chisel out some of the mithril, just to keep. For Corin. Forever for Corin. Galina was tired. So tired. She just wanted all this to be over. And it soon would be. She'd settle down, with this one piece of mithril, and forget about the rest. 

Corin grabbed Galina and shook her. "Get rid of that and get away! This place is evil!" Galina's scream joined with Ember's, just down the hall. Nobody knew they were the same cry.

When Wiztiyc, Ember, and Aria to Galina a moment later they grabbed a swig of wine from their skins. When they'd taken a moment in the pregnant filthy darkness they all walked back to the abyss that Ember had almost fallen into. Turns out that abyss was about thirty feet deep, easily reachable with the ropes everyone had brought. They repelled down the thirty feet, to discover another hallway that went further down. The giggling of goblins echoed down the shit-covered walls. Galina, using the aura reading powers Ilona had granted her, counted seven goblins. Aria made out their voices. "They're saying they'll find us when the sun goes down and cut us open. They're about to start gathering their friends to get ready for it." They all shuddered and began to think of what to do next.

Snarls and the yells of orcs interrupted their internal reverie. The echoes of steel and death followed. Wiztiyc desired to go and see what was going on, but Galina and Aria insisted on going. Galina's astral blade, received from Ilona, glowed lightly. It would be enough to see without attracting too much attention. So they snuck down the smelly passageway.

The orcs were having the fight of their lives. They were fighting the oddest goblins Aria had ever seen. Dark brown green and markedly bigger than normal goblins, they moved with a manner that Aria found deeply disgusting. She wanted to grind them beneath her foot, to feel them squirm in the shit, to suffocate in it. She wanted them to vanish.

I can make that happen whispered something old. Rotting. Powerful. It frightened Aria, but only because she longed for it with every fiber of her being. That power... she could have prevented Tonya's death with that power. Yes, you could have It whispered in heart, in her mind, in the most secret  recesses that not even Aria could have known were there until It talked to them. Oh, how sad, this vow you made. Never again. It cooed. You're right, my dear. Never again. Aria knew something about this was wrong, tried to pry it away from the raw and screaming part of her heart that had sworn that stupid vow up and down and demanded Aria fix the impossible, morality and rationality be damned. Don't worry, my dear, I'll fix it. I'll fix it all. 

There may have been one last scream of Aria's conscience.

She didn't care. Not anymore. Because she could see, perfectly clearly, where there had been darkness, both in her heart and in this shit-filled cavern. There they were: those fucking goblins. All the anger and fear were gone. In its place was confidence as she looked down the twenty foot drop, at the top of the head of a goblin as it slurped down the throat tendon of an orc. That's it, she felt her deep in her body. That's it.

HUNT, MY BEAUTY.

Galina looked over and almost dropped her sword. Aria was now a dark green-brown, her eyes emitted a fuligin glow that drank in the light from Galina's blade like a desert in a monsoon. Aria's smile was now a hellish skull-mask of a grin, with her cheeks beginning to sink visibly before Galina's gaze like quicksand. "Don't worry," said Aria. The voice was the same. And then Aria jumped the twenty feet, laughing at the thrill of the fall, landing on the goblin below with a sickening KRUNCH. The orcs and goblins stopped and looked up, but the thing that was Aria and the god had already charged them all. Galina's jaw went slack as Aria's touched turned goblin after goblin, orc after orc, into dust. Stumbling as she got up, Galina ran back to Wiztiyc and Ember.

Ember recoiled in horror when he saw Aria. Eldritch strings, crackling purple things of energy that buried themselves into Aria's soul like fishhooks. The strings went back and back, through the floor, down back to...

It could see him. 

It hated him. 

Blood popped out of Ember's eyes, nose, ears, and fingers and he fell over. He practically drowned in the overflow of red coming from his mouth, which was open so the scream could come escape the blinding pain he was in.

Wiztiyck almost didn't hear the scream. He was staring at the piles around the massacre at the bottom. There was that telltale glint. Wiztiyck hurriedly tied a rope, ignoring the screams of his friend as he got down to the bottom to fill his pockets and knapsack with the loose gold coins he had seen instead of the death and carnage. Aria disintegrated the last orc and looked around. She saw Wiztiyck, who was busy throwing gold into backpack.  Him too, It hissed. Aria pushed back as hard as she could. It was not amused. All must go eventually, It told her. He is ours. Aria pushed and pushed, but she couldn't get It to let go. Wiztiyc looked up and saw the fuligin eyed Aria advancing on him, eyes drinking in the torchlight that Wiztiyc offered. He looked up and saw the darkness backing into a shaft high above them, as well as a chute behind whatever the hell Aria was now. 

Ember forced himself to his feet, Galina helping him not to lean against the feces encrusted wall. Ember began to weave a music of great beauty, something that spoke of friendships remembered but long since cracked open to the dust of time. Aria convulsed for a moment as It forced Itself to stay in that wound in her heart. But there had been a moment of weakness and Aria knew it. Galina, sensing the opening, began to push on Aria's aura. Aria, we are here. This isn't you.

I know.

Even a god must flee those two words.

They went back to the entrance, carrying the wounded Ember. As they climbed all the shit vanished as soon as the light hit it. They were greeted by a white flag and fifteen orcs. 

"At least let me have a fingernail to nibble on, before they kill us," whinged Wiztiyc.

But Ember could see their auras, as could Galina; they were utterly sincere. One of the orcs advanced. Ember took of his glove and offered it to the orc. They shook. "We have come to kill... monster," said the orc. A beautiful sword hilt was buried in an equally beautiful sheath at his hip. "Lost many already. Want to.. how you say... ally. At least make camp. Together."

The last part was agreed upon. And it was just as well: rats got into camp's rations, so Aria had to preserve what they had left. Ember drew a map of what he'd seen while they were in the Beautiful Caves, but that hadn't included the shaft and chute in the room of gold, so the others helped him draft it again.

The night was busy, but ultimately quiet.

Suihkulahde: Session One

Lore Notes: Elves refer to themselves as vaeltaja, the wanderers. Elves refer to humans as the lyhyt, the curt, the short, the concise.

There are two moons of Heranyt: the malevolent Eous and the benevolent Aiti. Werewolves and vampires claim that Eous is their father and is the father of all monsters.

Andy, Lena, and I have developed a set of pronouns for elves that are going to start showing up here. I've a real love for the obscure terms of Wolfe and in a wish to imitate his ability to alienate and fascinate, which I think intrinsic to fantasy, I put forward the idea to them that the vaeltaja would not see themselves in terms of male and female, given how little reproduction happens in a vaeltajan lifespan. We decided that elves would instead classify themselves in terms of how much Grief a vaeltaja carried on their soul. To them the differences between even a Grief of B1 and B2 would be noticeable, although for simplicity's sake they'd stick to what we think would make four categories:

Grief B0-B3: mu (singular and multiple)/mul (possesive)

Grief B4-B7 dai/dail

Grief B8-9 ta/tal

B10, but not yet sailed into the Void tor/torl

Dawn had not yet kissed the waves that gently carried the two-masted Felicitas. The beach took her intrusion with the good nature of one who has not had a visitor in many a year and is just happy to have someone there, regardless of whether the visit was planned or not. It had been some time since the crew of the Felicitas had left the coast of the Argentum Empire. Fingar had grumbled about not being able to fly, as well as the strange wood of the humans, but Anneli was relieved to be on a deck of any sort, regardless of who had crafted it and whether it floated on air or water or blood. It was Anneli's first port call since becoming a captain, over three years ago. Everyone was excited to get off; vaeltaja friends Fingar and Thungal, along with the humans Brutus and Remus pushed to get off. They were greeted by a trio of male lyhyt, covered in teals robes. "It has been a long time since we have seen any travelers. How can we help?" asked the eldest.

Anneli stepped up. "We're just passing through and are in need of some food and water. Do you have any to spare?"

"But of course! Right this way, to our Redoubt Castle."

They fell in together and walked up the shore, torches lit. The torchlight revealed walls that jutted out at an angle that should require supports to keep upright. But there the walls stood. "What are vaeltajan walls doing here?" asked Thungal, meerl eyebrows creased.

"Those are elven walls?" asked Brutus, confused.

"We live on asteroids orbiting Heranyt and fly in ships from what you consider to be magical wood and this is what's troubling you?" poked Anneli.

"We knew all that, just we thought all that happened with straight walls!" chimed in Remus.

"Yes, it's vaeltajan make", said the youngest teal robe as they walked toward the castle. "Dal the great architect  built it about one hundred and fifty years ago, as a place of refuge. We maintain the place so when the opportunity arises its purpose can be fulfilled."

Fingar kept staring at the structure in the pre-dawn gloom. "It may be far away still , but there is no possibility that structure is one hundred fifty years old. It's much, much older than that."

"We have records of Dal building it, good sir vaeltaja," replied another one of the teal-robed men. "We have elders who knew humans who helped build it."

"Well that settles it one way or another" said Remus.

Fingar and Thungal pulled aside Anneli, away from the lyhyt. "What is this all about?" asked Anneli.

"I don't think we ought to let Brutus and Remus see our confusion," Fingar said gravely. Thungal nodded as well.

"Why not? They're part of our crew. We need to trust them," Anneli replied.

Fingar and Thungal's confusion was interrupted by shouting from the teal figures. "STAY ON THE PATH!" They ran up, hands on hidden hilts. Fingar and Thungal didn't hide their blades. Or the sound coming from them as they were drawn.

Anneli pushed dailself between the two groups. Something shone in dail eyes that made up for the lack of the sun, something that took everyone (including Anneli) aback. After a second of realizing that everyone was starting at dai,  Anneli finally spoke. "Our sincerest apologies, our dear hosts! We had to resolve a small disagreement and had no idea we offended. Please forgive us. We will come with you immediately." Fingar and Thungal promptly put down their weapons. The teal figures relaxed. All fell in together, back to what the vaeltaja could now clearly see was a path, where Brutus and Remus were hastily putting away their blades. "We were curious to hear more about the Redoubt, if you do not mind. This is a most unexpected place to find a vaeltajan structure, not to mention a human cult devoted to it," Anneli requested.

The youngest teal robe stepped forward, excited. "Of course! We apologize for that outburst, we just have a very strict way we approach this island and should not have expected you to know about it." As they continued onto the castle he began to explain the cult had formed around Dal's prophecy that the Redoubt would needed come the end of the world and that the cult was meant to be a beacon for those who needed it. Anneli watched the faces of the elder men; they did not fully agree with the you one's ideas.

As the young one talked Brutus whispered to Anneli. "The sun should have been up a half hour ago."

"Are you sure?" Anneli asked, shocked. "Instruments sometimes make mistakes," dai said, pointing at the instruments that Brutus had been checking while the young one waxed poetical.

"I'm very sure," said Brutus, shaken.

"Keep an eye on it. I hope you're wrong," Anneli said. Dai felt uneasy and couldn't begin to explain why. 

"Me too," said Brutus, shaking his head.

The group entered the castle courtyard, passing next to a beautifully crafted vaeltajan fountain as they made their way to a small house near the slanted walls of the Redoubt. Bread and cheese was presented and the travelers were grateful for it. As they ate screams of terror could be heard. "The sun has abandoned us! The moon and stars too!!"

Anneli's thoughts flashed to an ancient vaeltajan prophecy: when the malevolent Eous ate the night sky with the Void, a lone vaeltaja would find The Fountain that led to the center of the world. All would be put right. But all the robed figures in the cottage with them were eyeing Anneli and dail friends. One of the elders drew a blade.

"What are you doing?? They're our guests! We're bound by the laws of our cult to help them!" shouted the youngest cultist, the one who had been telling them about the proud history of the Redoubt. 

"We have a Prophecy. Her death fulfills it", declared the elder, point at Anneli.

"There are more prophecies than just yours," rejoindered Anneli as dai cut his throat open in a spray of iron and fluid; another male lyhyt collapsed as his teal robes grew a dark stain, all from the same cut. The group cut their way through to the door, youngest cultist joining in with his dagger, and ran to the fountain. The group quickly filled their waterskins, with Anneli keeping watch until they were ready. Just as they finished the remaining cultists they had cut their way through bowled out the cottage, screaming an alarm into the gloom like a flare at sea. Anneli and the rest cut their way through the cultists; Anneli received a light cut on dail arm. It would keep. Running back to the welcoming but tiring sand they managed to shove  the Felicitas off, just in time. The cultists did not follow, as they did not have deep sea-worthy vessels. Very soon the island was out of sight.

The young cultist turned to Anneli. "What happens now?"

"There's a prophecy," Anneli reassured him. "And I know my place in it." The youngest cultist nodded, looking as lost and confused as Anneli felt but would never have let on, not right then. Dai clapped him on the shoulder warmly. "I never asked your name, nor do I remember giving mine. I'm Anneli, Captain of the Felicitas," dai said, presenting dail hand. 

"Aloisio," he said back, shaking dail hand. 

The Pull: October 2020 Edition

 

We are at a couple of different points in each of our respective titles this time around: Amazing Spider-Man is building to a conclusion, I think, Star Wars is building a new arc, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is building to a conclusion, but I sure can't see the road right now. But that doesn't mean there isn't one.

Amazing Spider-Man 49

Okay, so this sucker is ten bucks, on its own. That is a lot of money. I already struggle with the price point of comics as they are, so for me the question is: is this worth my ten bucks? Did this issue  need to be this freaking large??

The main story, the teaming up of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, is done rather well. It's essentially three issues plopped together as one, which means I already saved money! So check on that score! The story is well written and it's nice to see them acknowledge the shifting of artists with differing chapters, which allows for a cleaner break. I really like how they gave this particular story some room to breathe. Spencer manages to take even the worst parts of Peter's and Norman's relationship and breathes a life into it that is refreshing. One of Spencer's strengths has been using all the points of Spider-Man's lore, especially Strazcynski, who was all but ignored by Slott. Before Slott Peter had been on his way to becoming an actually mature individual, something that was walked back hardcore by Quesada and Slott. That unfortunate path seems to be in the process of being slowly undone, and this issue is proof that one does not need to see Peter Parker as an adolescent for forever to make him an engaging character. 

And that goes double for Norman, who is written with a sympathy and villainy that feels amazing to read. So many times people just want to write Norman as just a psychopath who is trying to keep his sanity, but Norman is so much more than that. He is a widower, a father, a terrible human being, a genocidal maniac. All of those things are true. 100% of the time. And Spencer treats Norman as possessing all those qualities and a lot more. So I had a great time just reading the main feature!

The backup features are acceptable, except for the last one "Family Affair", which features the Vulture's grand-daughter. I've never seen this character before, but I love how she was handled. Just love it. I love that Adrian Toomes has this softer side to him, dark and twisted as he can get, and I adore that Peter defeated her by just being himself, which I always think is the point of Peter as Spider-Man. I really want to see more of "Firecracker". I hope we do.

So yes, I'm pleasantly surprised to say that I think I got my money's worth here. Even the stories I don't like as much as what I've mentioned are good-hearted stories that are edifying. 

Star Wars 7

So this issue as a whole took me by surprise. I did not expect to see a tough-love side of Admiral Tarkin, of all people. Nor did I know I really wanted to! But they pulled it off really well here! Yeah, he's still an evil jerk, but I really like little twists like this, as it shows a more human side. Which does not mean sympathetic, by the way. Tarkin is a freaking monster, but he's really not that much different than most military officers that I met in my time in the Army, except in terms of scale. He wanted Commander Zahra to be the best of the best, and so he did what he thought he had to so she would be. If you think an officer wouldn't throw a protege away like this I'm going to disagree. The military means suppressing the part of yourself that feels compassion and light, at least for the majority of folks. And that's exactly what we're watching here, as Tarkin molds Zahara into someone who can do just that. It's quite a sight, particularly with the ending explaining Zahara's central drive. It will certainly make the rest of this story more relatable.

Might Morphin Power Rangers 54

This has been a very interesting title since I picked it up again. Parrott continues his puzzle pieces, detailing another threat to the universe that the Omega Rangers have to deal with. Up until the end I wondered why Parrott had taken the time to outline this episode in the Omega Rangers' lives, but given that they're coming to Earth at the same time the Dark Rangers are manifesting themselves to the Mighty Morphin team there's an inevitable crash incoming. It should be glorious!

I love how Parrott has nailed Jason's voice. Jason has always been one of those characters that so thoroughly believe in what he is doing that what we think of as corny one-liners and whatnot are actually complete and total belief. We  think it's corny because most of us can't conceive of someone believing that strongly, but that's the beauty of Jason: he does. He always does. He's a freaking amazing character and Parrott completely nails him in this issue.

All in all this was a really good pull. We're back to building for most of the titles, but that's not a bad thing. 

May the Power Protect You: A Temporary Leave of Absence

 

I've been dreading writing this post. I've known for awhile that I needed to write it, but I kept thinking that maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't. But I must. So here I am. May the Power Protect You is going on an indefinite hiatus. There's two major reasons: bad roll-out plan and losing my main group. We'll handle both of these, in order.

So when I first wrote this thing I thought having two posts a month would give me plenty of time. I had about four or so months of playing MMPR1 under my belt and felt pretty good about things at that rate. What I didn't understand was that the way I wanted to write about these characters that I've come to love so much was that it took me months to develop an appreciation for them on a mechanical level, as well as having different anecdotal stuff about them. The depth of experience I wanted to write from requires... well... time! And I didn't respect that. Each character has had less time devoted to it, and after NEENJOR! I found I just couldn't do that anymore. It just doesn't feel honest to me. That may not sit right with some, but what I loved about writing about these characters became impossible. For now.

Which brings me to my next point: my board gaming group has mostly collapsed in the face of Covid-19. That's no one's fault, but I've found that one of the things that I enjoyed about this game the most has to do with conversations it enables. I think the mechanics are perfectly suited to that. Because of this I've always found playing solo... odd. Those conversations aren't just a nice add-on to the game, they are essential. Absolutely essential, to me. A lot of what I wrote came from those conversations when we were all laughing and cheering or gripping the table for a dice roll or groaning as we screwed the game up or when we got it exactly right or clapping each other on the shoulder for a job well done. These posts were just as much as celebration of my friends as they were about the characters themselves. And without that core I simply cannot bring the joy that is so essential to this series.

So, for the moment this series is on hiatus. I do not know when it will be returning. I hope it's sooner than later, because this was one of the first regular columns I wrote, and the HotG community has been a huge part of this blog. But I cannot control the fates. No man can. Know that when it happens I'll be coming back, locked and loaded, with more love and joy for a game that has changed so much for me. 

Thank you so much to the folks who have read this column. It has meant the world to me.

The Undertow: Session Thirty-Two

Mikansia made a promise to her friend, Jabez, beyond the confines of the living: to find and help his four children find safety. Setting out for the Argentum Empire, Mikansia discovered it was being invade by the Demon Queen of Light, Golau. After having defeated The Hound, a creature comprised of the corpses of unwilling undead. Now she has to find this child in the middle of an undead invasion.

Lore notes: Starting with this post Andy, Lena, and I decided that elven pronouns should be different than human ones, given that Grief is a far more prevalent part of their lives than sex. Elves can tell by a glance what level of grief is on an elf's heart. The classifications are, roughly:

Grief 0-3: mu/mul (To make the pronoun possessive add an l at the end)

Grief 4-7: dai/dail

Grief 8-9: ta/tal

Grief 10, but not yet sailed: tor/torl

Mikansia sliced into Argentum Reskartum from Dream, near where ta knew Jabez's first child was. The hole ta cut into Dream, which was dragon-sized for Fish, began to close almost immediately. Mikansia and Nomi got through relatively easily, but Fish was almost cut in half. Argentum Reskartum, last time Mikansia had seen it, was a ruin coming back to life. The lyhyt had begun to rebuild the capital city of the Argentum Empire while Mikansia had been hiding out in it, waiting for ta's year to finish up. By the time Mikansia had left Argentum Reskartum had almost entirely recovered.

For a second Mikansia had wondered if ta had somehow cut back in time again.

Argentum Reskartum was beyond a ruin, with dust clouds that choked Mikansia's lungs; something big was going down. 

The pillar of fire almost didn't surprise ta. Almost. But Marian being on the other end of it, working as hard as she could to not be burned alive by it? That did surprise Mikansia.

Marian hit the dusty ground with a sickening crack, which could be heard over the roar of the flames that were just now dispersing. A fell light overwhelmed Nomi and Fish; only Mikansia stood in the wreckage, staring at the Demon Queen of the Horrific Light: Golau. Mikansia could feel her malevolence, the raw power.... and the curiosity of Golau, who walked right up to ta. Mikansia stared back, completely unbowed light in a sea of sickening radiance. No one had done such a thing in over a millennium, until now. Mikansia would never run away. Not ever again. And Golau sensed it.

The earth shook as Fish roared. And charged. Golau held up her hand. Fish's huge form hung in mid-air. Golau was bemused. "You're not a dragon at all. You've been cursed to imitate one. Let's fix that."

A dark and terrible dagger, a Dagger of Betrayal, came flying out of Fish's head. And then he was a dwarf. The monstrous dragon had just turned into a dwarf, in an eyeblink. His injuries were awful; changing forms hadn't cured the wounds the dwarf had sustained while he was a dragon.

Mikansia drew Sydanelma with the loud and angry ring of the righteous.

Golau looked at the blade, puzzled. with a flick of her finger Sydanelma flew toward her, so Golau could get a better look.

But Mikansia didn't let go. Ebony knuckles grey with the strain ta reoriented talself, turning the magical yank into a magically aided mid-air charge. With a blood-curdling cry Mikansia put all tal weight into one stab. Sparks flew off the myriad magical barriers surrounding Golau; Mikansia felt herself slowing down. So ta planted tal feet back on the ground and pushed with all tal might. Something invisible, but more real than the ground Mikansia was pushing tal heels into, shattered under Sydanelma. With another feral scream Mikansia pushed tal weapon through the break in reality into Golau's shoulder, slicing bone. "No. One. Takes. Sydanelma. From ME." growled Mikansia, teeth bared in a snarl.

The world around Mikansia whirled and turned in a confusing maelstrom as ta flew through the air, back smashing into one of the few walls left in this section of Argentum Prime. All the air in tal body had been knocked cleaned out it. But ta still had Sydanelma. Golau stood over ta, holding her bleeding shoulder. "I'm impressed. I've not met someone with your potential in over a thousand years. This-" Golau indicated her shoulder "-is truly impressive."

Shaking, Mikansia stood up, ready to charge. If ta was going to die it would be swinging. And ta had no doubt that Golau would kill ta. Golau's power was so vast that ta could feel it humming beneath ta feet. The air crackled with Golau's presence. But Mikansia would never, ever, ever be afraid, never again. But ta needed to get the hell out of there. Marian needed ta. So did Jabez's child.

Something hit the ground right behind Golau. Everything went in dust and debris, including the wall behind Mikansia. Ta shut tal eyes. When ta opened them again ta saw Tyce. Well, Tyce glowing from head to toe, anyway. "Tyce?? What the the hell is this??" asked Mikansia, after taking a second to screw tal jaw back in.

"Oh, um, I'm with Telos" said Tyce, as sheepish as a dead man could be.

"Where was this back at Elfwatch?? We could have really used what you're doing now, then!" ta said, a light mocking smile at tal lips. 

"I... uh... I didn't remember. It's a long story. Look, there's the Demon Queen of the Undead a quarter mile that way, picking hserlf up off the ground. Can we talk about this later? I had already relocated everyone else inside the blast radius. They may need you."

Mikansia chuckled and helped the still dazed Nomi up. "Oh, we'll be talking about this" ta said, indicating Tyce's glowing ethereal form. "You can bet on it." Tyce smiled a bit nervously and was gone.

All of a sudden they were all standing in normal sunlight. Mikansia blinked in the sudden overwhelming brightness, even as ta basked in it. From the sky descended a human in gold: Telos. Mikansia had met Telos before, briefly, while ta was waiting for tal year to be up. Telos had hardly said a word, had dressed plainly... not like this. Telos's feet barely made an impression on the ground as he walked past Mikansia, blue skies almost as bright as the light that emanated from him. "Thank you Mikansia. You've done far more good than you'll ever know." He patted ta on the shoulder. And then he was gone. And the light with him. A sonic boom occurred a quarter mile to the east. Mikiansia looked over and saw seven points of rainbow light in the darkness orbiting  an intense darkness. The lights danced up and down and around this darkness, and each time they touched the darkness the earth shook. 

Mikansia trudged north, helping Nomi carry the unconscious dwarf . Nomi kept giving the unconscious dwarf looks of consternation. And Mikansia couldn't blame tal for doing so. A dwarf, of all things?? Nasty things that lived in the ground...

"MIKANSIA!!" interrupted tal reverie.

A total stranger of a lyhyt ran past Mikansia and tackled Nomi (leaving Mikansia with the heavy dwarf), burying tal in hugs and kisses and tears. All the blood was gone from Nomi's ebony face.

Mikansia, for tal part, was beyond amused. "Mikansia, huh?" tal said. Nomi was in shock mouthing words over and over at Mikansia. Mikansia realized ta probably should feel badly. But that didn't change that Mikansia felt incredibly amused at the horror show before ta.

The lyhyt helped helped Nomi to tal feet. "I'm Constantine," he said to Mikansia, tears of joy staining his cheeks. "You.. you know my wife?"

"Oh yes, but ta hasn't mentioned you. I'm Nomi," said Mikansia with a grin that almost made Nomi throw up. "We've been travelling together awhile."

"Well thank you for that, I thought she was dead! The note that was left.. I thought they'd killed you!"

"I... I've been trying to get back to you," stammered Nomi. Mikansia had to step away, ta was too close to a laughing fit.

And that was when ta saw mu. The Child. Mu was snuggled up to a lyhyt female. Those were Jabez's eyes, looking out at ta. The lyhyt looked up at Mikansia and went pale. "Are... are you his mother?"

Mikansia sat down next to the lyhyt. "No, but I have been looking for mu. I mean, him," she clarified to the confused lyhyt woman. "I needed to make sure... he... was safe."

The hilt of of Mikansia's sword could be seen peeking around the woman's knee. The sword that Mikansia had originally exchanged for Jabez's, which had become Sydanelma. Mikansia had given her sword, the sword made for her by the Sword Singers, to a male lyhyt smuggler,  in order to possibly return his sword to Jabez. And there it was. Right by her knee. The woman tracked Mikansia's stare. "I'm Yvette. You know that sword."

Mikansia nodded. "Mikansia. And yes, I do. It's been a lifetime since I saw it."

"My husband had gotten it in payment for dropping an elf off at the Iron Forest. After Elfharrow fell he couldn't get the elf out of his mind. He needed to know what had happened to her. So I went with him. And that's when we found... him," Yvette said, looking at The Child with glistening eyes. "We could count his ribs.  We'd just lost one of our own, so I put him up to my breast and... and... " Yvette choked and then cleared her throat. "It worked. It worked. But then she.. some female elf... she strode out, after the child. Something in her eyes. My husband... he gave me this sword and told me to run. And I've not stopped running since." Yvette gave Mikansia a look that rended tal heart into thousands of bits. "He's all I have left. Him and this sword. Please... please don't!" she begged, face twisted into a mask of anguish.

Mikansia gazed at The Child with Jabez's eyes. A longing she had never anticipated washed over Mikansia. Ta couldn't tell if it was the part of Jabez that was now with Mikansia, or ta as well, or some odd combination of both. It didn't matter: The Child was staring back, snuggling against the breast of his mother; Yvette was just that. "I came to make sure mu was safe. I can see mu's safe with you. But are you both safe?" ta asked. Yvette shook her head fearfully. "Then I'm here to get you out, to somewhere safe. Please trust me. Come with me," Mikansia requested, as tal heart ached, looking at The Child.

"I can help you with that." Tyce appeared next to them in the gloom. "You can't cut to Dream right now. When Telos does something it affects all the layers of reality." Tyce was grinning ear to ear. "We did it Mikansia! We killed Golau. And its' because of you did to her. Her defenses were compromised. Thank you for that." Mikansia stared back up at her friend, a bit in shock. "I was told to give you this," Tyce said with a wry chuckle. "It's given with the sincerest thanks of Autarch Telos." 

Tyce handed Mikansia a sword so dark that even its sheath drank in the meager light. Ta examined the sword with skeptical eyes. "I already have a sword I quite like."

"You'll know when you'll need it," reassured Tyce. Mikansia nodded, strapping the extra blade to tal back, hesitatingly. "Where do you want to go?"

Mikansia had barely said "Vigilance", where Decima lived, when they were in Decima's kitchen. Decima looked up and smiled. "Oh good, you're home! Who's this?" she asked, walking up to Constantine and Yvette.

"I'm Yvette. This.. this is Alexis," said said, point at The Child. 

Mikansia couldn't help but look at Alexis again. Ta had been trying to figure out what to say to Alexis. Something needed to be said. Sitting next to Alexis ta finally introduced herself. "I'm Mikansia. I... I was a friend of your father, Jabez."

Alexis continued to gaze at Mikansia with Jabez's eyes. Only they weren't just Jabez's, not anymore. They belonged to Alexis, too.

Trophy Dark: Zine Review

 

Okay, so this review is more of a story, even more than usual. I mean, I think good reviews are stories of your time with the product in question. And I think it's a good story, so we're going to go with that. 

I initially tried out Trophy Gold with my players. Before trying Gold, which is an OSR game, I would have said that the divide between OSR and story-gamers was a fake one. Part of that is because labels always seem dumb, but also part of is that I personally can straddle that line pretty well. I prefer more "story-oriented" games, but I still have a blast doing OSR. They're two very different itches for me, but ultimately it's a question of preference.

Boy was that bubble popped. HARD.

To anyone who says there is only an artificial difference between story-gamers and OSR players, I present my group, who were dyed-in-the-wool Burning Wheel players, with some Torchbearer and Bleak Spirit in there too. Blood flowed and they balked. Hard. They wanted to know their characters and get attached, not use them like tissue paper on the way to success! There was a difference in philosophy that was extremely obvious, painfully so. I am still explaining the OSR and how it works and finding that it just. Doesn't. Click. With these folks.

Which, for the record, is okay. I just had to remember that labels do, in fact, exist for a reason. 

They were so badly burned on Trophy Gold that one of my players still twitches if it's even casually mentioned. But I'd tried Trophy Dark with someone else, using one of the pregenned Incursions, and we both loved it, so I wanted to try it with them. For the last few months I've just sorta been biding my time, hoping an opportunity would come up to see if I could convince them to try this game.

Trophy Dark is a one-shot game of tragic horror fantasy. You are playing characters who are not heroes, or even necessarily good people. No, you are playing those people who enter an ancient forest thinking the forest owes them their success. And finding out that's really not the case. The word Trophy does not refer to what you take out of the forest, but what the forest turns you into. Gameplay is light but thematically an embarrassment of riches. If you fight an actual big bad monster you die. Period. If you do anything other than that you roll what's called a Risk Roll, which is a pool of dice, light and dark. If the dark die is higher than your light dice you could accrue something called Ruin. Ruin is the measure by which you are The Forest's trophy, both physically and mentally. Each time it goes up you either invent a new condition or make a previously existing one worse. There's also a roll called the Ruin Roll, which is invoked whenever a terrible thing happens to or is seen by the character. If they roll higher than their current Ruin score (range of 1-6) it goes up by one. When your Ruin hits 6 you either die or snap, becoming a monster that works for The Forest. Once your Ruin hits five you can start doing Reduction rolls, trying to get your Ruin back down. Reduction rolls involve screwing over your fellow players or getting rid of treasure.

I really like this dynamic. And I wanted my players to try it. But... horrific PTSD. So I waited. My players have good taste (That's why they play with me, clearly!!) and I figured if I waited for an opportune moment to strike they'd like the game.

Actual footage of me waiting

Well whaddaya know?? The chance came! The Torchbearer campaign we'd been running had a player miss. I have a 100% show-up policy; if we all aren't available it's cool, that game will not run. So I floated a couple of one shot games to the folks who were still available, one of them being Trophy Dark. I put it last in the list. I didn't expect anyone to pick it. To my great surprise they picked it. I hadn't really picked any Incursion beforehand, since I kinda figured they wouldn't pick the game. Looking at the rules, I decided that I was going to make up an Incursion. Right then and there. How hard can it be, right? Keep in mind I'm currently running three Burning Wheel games; I've gotten pretty proficient at targeting Beliefs and Instincts and kinda figured I'd be able to handle it, right?

Let's break down why I had this thought while looking at the text. See, each character rolls up a Drive at the beginning of the game (or can choose their own) which tells you why they're doing the incredibly stupid thing of invading the forest in the first place. Most of the advice I've read about the pre-written Incursions centers around taking the Incursion and adapting it to your players' Drives. You are supposed to affirm and also punish the player character as they get deeper and deeper, until their Drive is the source of their insanity. So I kinda figured I could just do this on the fly.

The good news is that I was right. The other news is that I was woefully unprepared for the five-act structure of the system, which has you hitting players with a series of five pairs of carrot-stick challenges. Players kept slipping back and forth between acts and I was trying to figure out how to gently nudge toward Ring Five, the end. It was terrifying. It was exhilarating. God it was fun. Thanks to the emphasis on Theme I was able to identify a central core to throw at the players (which I told them about, explicitly: Worthiness) I was able to bob and weave my way through an Incursion. And it worked. Holy shit it worked! I'm sure there were a few hiccups I didn't catch but I was able to run a full Incursion, on the fly, with just the Drives of the characters and the Theme, plugged into the five rings.

The players loved it. They were told, explicitly, that their characters would either die or lose their souls, and that the goal of the game was to make their characters' fall into darkness tragic, meaningful, and fun. One of the players was in a bit of a sadistic mood and wanted to try and break the game. He wound up playing a hilariously dark and tragic arc of a man whose flaws got him killed, violently. The other player was a bit easier on the concept: she wound up dying as she was unworthy to touch the sacred sword they had gone out to get, turning into dust. Both players had a great time with the mechanics of the building up of internal and external darkness, playing out their characters becoming literal monsters as they strove to save or humiliate their friends, purposefully failing tests of character and enjoying the punishment that was inevitable. They even tried out the Reduction rolls, as they figured their characters would do such a thing. They were rewarded with a richer narrative. They also may or may not have started a grudge match back in Trophy Gold and were excited that they had a reason to turn the game full PVP, which they did at the end. There was this rush of blood and betrayal, ending in moral failure that, once bought into, was one of the more cathartic things I've been a part of.

This game is absolutely not for everyone. It wants you to buy into playing out the degeneration of characters as they strive for something they shouldn't strive for, no matter how desperate they are. But my players, who had never experienced such a thing, were surprised by just how fun the experience was. They brought their A-game to the concept and were rewarded with a dark, eerie, and strangely comedic experience that had us all on the edge of our seats right up until the end.  I'm not sure if they forgave Trophy Gold (or me, honestly), but they do want to do it again. And so do I. It was awesome to maneuver between differing Drives in ten different ways and I really want to do it again. 

Trophy Dark can be found in the Dark 2 issue of The Codex. They'll also be releasing a book next year. Check it out!

Suihkulahde: Session Zero

So when Andy and I ended Sabina's Castle, we did so with the full intent of making a sequel game, where Anneli actually went to The Island and got her wish. But it didn't feel right. The theme of the game revolved around The Dagger of Betrayal and Anneli succeeding where Spar had failed, and so we stuck to the theme and ended the game. We were perfectly fine with just waiting, although I got itchy every once a while Andy was able to convince me that maybe we should hold off, just a little bit longer.

All of that changed with Session Twenty-Eight of The Undertow. Right after Session Twenty-Six I realized that the asteroid that The Lone Keep was on wouldn't burn up in the atmosphere. It was far too large. It would hit the earth and was certainly going to cause something that neither Lena and I had intended when we set out to play this game. I had two options: the asteroid hits the land or the water. I picked the land, mostly on a whim. Lena and I realized that this was something that, if Mikansia found out, would undoubtedly destroy her and end the campaign. The idea of searching for Jabez's children didn't come strictly from that realization, but it definitely influenced it.

And that's when the situation with Anneli just couldn't sit in my head anymore. I called Andy, explained what had happened, and threw the following pitch: Anneli is at sea and the sun just... doesn't seem to come up. The stars and moon are gone. Gone. You can't see them. What would Anneli do with that? She has a wish, invited to a mystical island to grant her whatever wish she wanted. What would she wish for, with the world so obviously wrong? What would she think was wrong? How would she want to fix it, given a wish?

What fell into place was a rough framework for a travelogue campaign. Anneli would happen upon various things on or in the sea that would change her outlook and put up into the air what she would actually wish for. Whatever that winds up being? No idea. We'll see.

Time to go save the world. Maybe.

Autarchy: Session Three

 

Traveling in the Void was not easy for Xellous and his family. The constant howl of the wind in the blackness was extremely stressful. The horribly bitter cold was extremely hard to deal with. But they were not alone; the ship came with a crew to man it, captained by the elf Sven. Their songs, good cheer, and amazing food helped Xellous, Kora, Threen, Gerard, and Lily make sense of their new surroundings. But good company while adjusting to new circumstances only goes so far. Lily hardly slept, which meant no one else did. And as big as the heated cabin the elves had prepared for them was it mattered little; it still felt cramped.

So when Sven told Xellous that their first port, a monastery of gith, wasn't responding to the hails of the elves, and that they'd need to go and check out the monastery, Xellous almost jumped up and down with excitement. He immediately volunteered to go with the elves. He ran back to the cabin to tell an exhausted Kora the news. She was not amused. "The children haven't slept. I've not slept. I need help and you're wanting to go gallivanting about?

"But your mother-"

"I. Need. You."

"Sweetie, they need me out there for my aura reading." Kora's face softened with an emotion that most men read as coming around to their point of view. Xellous was no different. "There's something wrong about this place and I can help them in a unique way," he explained as Kora looked over at Pyra, her fire bow that could blow up trees, but then looked back at Xellous. She nodded. "Thanks honey, I'll be back as soon as I can." Xellous walked out with a spring in his step.

The monastery was built into an asteroid, with lots of windows, balconies, and porches looking out into the dark brightness of the Void.  But the winds weren't any less for most of the monastery being indoors. The place was littered with the yellow bodies of the gith. There was a lot of blood as well, Xellous noticed as he came near one of the corpses. They had leathery yellow skin, ears that reminded Xellous of the elves he traveled with, and bald yellow heads with goatees.

Wait, Blood...

Xellous got out his kit and got to work, collecting the blood all spattered around for later enchanting use. He reactivated the blood and got it into a collection bottle. 

"What are you doing??" Xellous jumped. Tyce had come up out of nowhere. "There may still be whatever killed all these monks about and you're out collecting samples from the dead? Why would you do something so stupid, nevermind disrespectful?"

Xellous's cheeks flushed more than they already had been in the beyond bitter cold. "Okay! Uh, you're right. Completely right. I just.. I wanted to do something that felt a bit more normal. And this will be useful for enchanting, for later. Their deaths won't be in vain, at least in some small way. This... this feels normal. Collecting specimens and all that. And normal is really nice right now. I know how it looks, although that... yeah this wasn't a good idea."

Tyce's eyebrows, about the only thing that could be seen in the heavy coat given the humans by the elves, lowered. "None of this is normal. You're right. I'm sorry for snapping. I've just not found a way to help me adjust. It was unkind of me to be rude about what you've found that works."

"There's only one Telos," said Xellous with a laugh.

"Absolutely! I've never seen him upset with anyone. He's always been so gentle. Have you ever seen him upset?" asked Tyce.

"I've seen him afraid, but no, never upset," Xellous confirmed. "But he always seems to be so troubled, so laden down, so restricted. I wish I could help him with that. Help him be free."

"I don't think he wants to be free," Tyce said thoughtfully, sitting down next to Xellous. "You don't want to be free of Kora. It's why you married her. I suspect it's the same for Telos." Xellous and Tyce sat there a moment, leaning on the wall next to the corpse of the gith, staring out into the starry beauty of the Void. They stood up, still looking at the bright stars that illuminated the Void like holes in a black-out shade.

As Xellous stood a yellow gith landed where Xellous had been sitting. Xellous jumped back, surprised, but the monk's aura took him aback more: the gith's aura had been drained, almost completely. Kneeling next to the fallen monastic Xellous took some of his own aura and set it in the gith's chest, trying to get the monk's own aura to begin regnerating on its own. Memories from the gith flooded into Xellous's mind. Monstrous things with three heads, eyes, arms, and clawed fingers had descended upon the monastery, draining monks of their life energy, ripping others open and leaving them to die in the halls of their home.

While Xellous was examining and helping the gith Tyce rounded a corner and went down a hallway. Xellous head shouts and screeches from where Tyce had gone. Xellous picked up the gith, who hadn't yet stabilized, and ran. Tyce was locked in battle with one of the creatures that had ripped the monastery apart. It floated in the air before Tyce, hissing out between jagged fangs. Xellous could feel its rage, washing off in red waves. 

It was communicating in aura, in rage. It. Was. SHARN. From Can't Remember Name. Removed. So much REMOVED. THARIZDUN. Took everything. Flame. In Heranyt. Man in Gold. Telos. Attacked. Hurt. Drove off. We lost. Hurt. ALONE. KILL TELOS'S FRIENDS. KILL THEM ALL ALL OF THEM DIE.

Xellous threw himself between the red waves and Tyce. "No, no stop! We don't need to do this! Maybe there's a better way. Maybe Telos didn't know about Tharizdun. Maybe we can talk to him."

The look on Tyce's face stopped Xellous's heart. Tyce knew. Tyce knew. Approved.

Kora's scream could be heard over the howling of the wind.

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