Suihkulahde: Session Three

 

Sometime around session thirty of the The Undertow a few things occurred to me: Nomi really needed to be in Anneli's sequel game, The Undertow was the second in a trilogy, Suihkulahde was the third in that trilogy, and Lena really should play in Suihkulahde. Andy and Lena had separately done a lot of overlapping themes and plots and it just made sense to have the two of them wrap up all the threads, together. I talked to them both and things seemed to click into place.

There was just the question of who Lena was going to play. None of the existing crew really seemed to fit, at least in my opinion, so I pitched to Lena that she play Nomi. Y'know, the former dark elf turned mother to the heir of the Argentum Empire. Three hundred year old Nomi. Andy was for it, immediately. Lena was a bit hesitant at first, but liked the idea of giving Nomi a proper story, all dail own. So she said she'd give it a shot.

The burn up was so good, guys. So. Freaking. Good. Lena outlined Nomi's life in nine lifepaths. As one of the elves who still remembered life before The Ring of Tears, Nomi's life became a quest for the answer to why the Ring had formed. Unable to find these answers, Nomi quietly slid into being a dark elf, eventually joining The Lone Keep as a way to restore dail people to their former glory. As detailed in Sabina's Castle Nomi was given one last test of loyalty: to stab Anneli with a Dagger of Betrayal, so that The Lone Keep could get ahold of the invitation to The Island. Lena's outline on this already existing NPC showed such an understanding of the character that I proudly declared Lena to be the authority on Nomi, even more than myself. When I think of Nomi I think of Lena.

Letting go of Nomi was hard, but it was so cool to see the character become a full PC, after two whole campaigns of developing in the shadows of Anneli and Mikansia. It's time for Nomi to have a journey, all dail own.

This of course changed the campaign itself, drastically. The campaign themes shifted to reconciliation, correcting bad ideas, and establishing peace. Andy and I are thrilled to bring Lena on and finish this monster of a trilogy. This wasn't the trip we expected, but we're up for trying for the epic conclusion to The Thunder Trilogy!

So we knew this session was going to be a bit interesting. Lena and I had intentionally not played Mikansia's hand-off of Nomi to Anneli in Session Thirty-Seven of The Undertow, because by then we knew that Lena would be playing with Andy. It was a pretty emotional thing for the both of us, and we wanted to do it right. I also had been hinting about a surprise for Lena. I may or may not have talked it up. Lena was suspicious, but she's gotten used to me taunting people with "NEXT TIME ON DRAGONBALL Z". Andy was down for having that good-bye happen in Suihkulahde, not to mention playing up the sibling rivalry.

Here's the BITs:

Anneli

1 fate, 5 persona

B1 The world is ending; the prophecy is our only hope.

B2 I don't understand what malevolence put Nomi in my path; I must endure this trial.

B3 There will be no bloodshed on my ship; I will find a compromise for everyone.

I1 Always keep my blade close at hand.

I2 Always take command

I3 Never back down

CTs: Call of the Island, Righteous

DTs: Mortal Wound to the Head (Perception Cap lowered), Shaky Hands (Agility), Slightly Clumsy (Speed)

Haunted: Whenever Anneli fails a check dail must roll Steel: failing means that the human prostitute ghost who's haunting dai takes over for a section of time equal to the margin of failure

Commanding Aura

C-Os: Driven (Pilot)

Anneli has had that freaking Haunted trait for a long time now and... I kept forgetting about it. Much to my eternal shame. Andy and I had been talking about it and swore to get it in play a lot this session. And, as you'll see, we did almost too good a job doing so!

Nomi

1 fate 1 persona

B1 This situation is precarious; I have to find a way to get Anneli to help me out so this doesn't escalate dangerously.

B2 I've no idea how to address the complicated history with my sister, but I can't lose dail further.

B3 Grieving may be necessary eventually but it doesn't help get things done.

I1 Never attack Anneli

I2 Always protect Fish

I3 Always push my own agenda

CTs: Educated, Call of the Void, Deceptive, Compulsive Liar, Callous, Charismatic, Bitter, Guarded, Memory's Influence

DTs: Spite, Pregnant

So it took nine lifepaths to get Nomi burned up right; Andy and I gave permission for Nomi's Will to be gray-shaded, given Nomi's centuries of being a dark elf double agent.

For anyone who doesn't know, Nomi is a 300 year old dark elf, Anneli's senior by 200 plus years. Nomi had been present for when the original elven kingdom, its own continent, had mysteriously risen into the stratosphere and become The Ring of Tears. This destabilized Nomi's young life. Dail spent the next few hundred years traveling, trying to understand the world, only to be swept up into The Lone Keep's machinations. They groomed dai until they thought dai ready for one last test: turning Anneli into their pawn.  As shown in Sabina's Castle Nomi, then an NPC, managed to throw off their influence. Anneli, still stung badly by dail sister's betrayal, left Nomi to a mentor and departed to find a ship to The Island. 

When we'd last seen Nomi dail had rediscovered dail husband, the human Prince Constantine... only to lose him in a coup to Aloysius, a former colonel of the Argentum Army that Anneli had spared at the end of Sabina's Castle. Fish, Nomi's long-time dwarven friend, has had his gut cut open. 

Yes, Andy caught the joke and congratulated me on my cleverness.

You should too.

Oh, and Nomi is pregnant with the heir to the Argentum Empire. So bereaved, friend's life in danger, and pregnant! What can go wrong??

So we just opened right up to five minutes after the second session of Suihkulahde.  Anneli was eating deer on the beach; nothing helped soothe the ache of a long day like hot food in your stomach. Anneli was actually in a bit of a good mood for once!

And then Tyce, Mikansia, Fish (who was holding his guts closed) and Nomi (who was holding Fish) showed up. Oh, and Nomi had Sydanelma, the glowing dream sword that Mikansia had given dai.  Fingar, who had been trying to kill Nomi for years, was already jumping at Nomi, blade out. Thungal, who had been captured and tortured by Nomi, wasn't far behind. Anneli tried to stop the fighting but failed, causing Tyce to put both Thungal and Fingar to sleep.  I laughed a lot at Andy's whiplash, who hadn't really followed The Undertow and had no idea who Tyce was.

And then Mikansia formally met Anneli. One of the things that's been fun about inventing elven pronouns is that elven Grief becomes so cool to track. Mikansia and Anneli are about the same age, and yet Mikansia's life has been so freaking hard that ta is practically ready to sail into the Void. So Anneli had a moment of Steel, realizing that someone about dail age was practically done with life. And did Andy flub this one up! And he reminded me about the ghost! She took over, saw Nomi, felt Anneli's fear and anger toward dail sister, and jumped at Nomi. Of course Mikansia intercepted, and when Anneli regained control a heartbeat later dai found dailself face to face with the best swordsman on Heranyt (no really, G10. Mikansia was able to aristeia in tal last session to a W10). Anneli tried to draw dail blade, but Mikansia moved way too quickly for Andy's B4 Sword. Mikansia asked Anneli to give Nomi another chance, and then left for tal doom with an affectionate touch on Nomi's shoulder. Andy made sure to play up Anneli's confusion over the affection Mikansia showed Nomi.

With a wink of gold Tyce and Mikansia vanished.

Fish began to scream the instant the gold glow left him. Nomi begged for help, before noticing Remus. And recognized him. Remus had been one of the humans dai had seen in dail raids on the Argentum Empire. Nomi had built a respect for this particular human. He had survived battles he should not have, showing a tenacity and strength Nomi had had no choice but to acknowledge. It was very clear to Nomi that the respect was not mutual. But dai had no one else to turn to.  So Nomi begged Anneli to help save Fish's life, which didn't require any form of a roll; Andy had a Belief about no more shedding blood, after all.

Remus, however, was not just going to take this lying down. Anneli had to order him to do it, and fortunately passed. Nomi, however, was not happy with this either; either Nomi or Anneli needed to watch as Remus and Brutus stitched up Fish. Again, no real roll needed; so long as there wasn't bloodshed Andy didn't care what happened. So Nomi intimidated Remus and Fish into working faster. Fortunately it didn't kill Fish.

Aloisio, for his part, had just come back with firewood and wanted to know what was going on. So Anneli tried to tell him about Nomi and to be careful about dail sister. Andy managed to botch the roll, and so I had Aloisio decide that Nomi was a threat to be dealt with.

Oh, and did Lena have fun with narrating Nomi, mistress of subterfuge and gray-shaded Will, watching the seventeen year old punk of a human try to sneak up on dai! Nomi knocked Aloisio over and scared the holy hell out of him, as he realized that Nomi was still covered in blood from avenging dail husband's death.  Anneli came running up, shouting at Aloisio that dai wanted no more bloodshed. The stakes were whether or not Aloisio's trust in Anneli would erode or not. Fortunately Andy made that roll and we don't have to worry about Aloisio coming to doubt Anneli... for now.

And then the sibling fun began. Nomi told Anneli dai expected better out of Anneli's crew. And that's when we had Anneli realize that Nomi was pregnant, as elves can tell things like that if they care to pay attention. What followed was the two players RPing the glances the two estranged sisters threw at each other, with Nomi dropping dail facade and Anneli being unable to understand the sheer grief that came upon dail sister's face. It was beautifully done. Finally Nomi got dail mask of cold mockery back on and Anneli, relieved, told Nomi to see to Fish.

Fingar and Thungal awoke. Fingar groaned and rolled over, holding dail head. Thungal got up. Seeing Nomi with fresh eyes, Thungal blinked. "Who bent her over and used her as a barnyard animal?" asked Thungal. Nomi ignored dai. Yes, I had a lot of fun trying to describe just how vile the terms Thungal came up with to describe Nomi's pregnancy. I'm cultured like that. Fingar asked Anneli if Nomi was really pregnant, which got a glare and a "Shut up" from Andy. T'was awesome.

And that's when Lena pushed. Nomi asked where they were. Anneli tried to say it wasn't Nomi's business, but horribly botched the Falsehood versus test, and so I had the prostitute take back over... who was confused. And definitely not Anneli. A second later and Anneli was back, and unable to hide that something was seriously wrong. Lena then had Nomi establish that dai knew they were on their way to The Island. There was no need for pretense!

The light.

A pure pulse of peace washed over them, before the bright explosion. It broke through the gloom and they call see the stars. The moons. None of it was gone. They just couldn't see  it for the moment, that was all.

And then they saw another explosion, which washed over them; more peace.

And then another.

And another.

Another.

Nomi was smiling through dail tears. "You did it, Mikansia. You did it," dail whispered. Somehow dai knew. Lena was grateful for another chance to say good-bye.

Anneli sat on the beach. And gazed up, drinking it in.

For three hours the pulses continued. And for three hours the stars were where they belonged. And they all watched, sitting on the beach.