The Grand Tapestry

Roughly two weeks after the fall of the house of Ahzenbakh and the dispelling of the Shorrannin-induced psionic delusion of the goat demon/green flame, the Governors of Doran have re-located to the old Ahzenbakh mansion, having granted the old Governorial mansion to lady Miren, who has changed her last name to Sovalt. In the exchange, Miren Sovalt has been made the Dean of the Governor's Academy, and the unused rooms set up as dorms for the most excellent students (comprised both of orphans of the pirate attack, as well as children of the entitled and wealthy eager to have the best education [read as: status] afforded their progeny).

Business dealings have brought the purchase of much of the island by the Guild Council to the Governors' attention, and a reception was held by said group in the hopes of securing their favour/capitulation. It was an interesting set of conversations as deals were made to have the Guild Education system integrated with the Academy, in exchange for a cut of all profits from Guild business. Likewise, Mela Mela's apothecary businesses and weapons shoppes have been brought into the fold, as it were, with Mela now an official Doctor of Medicine, and the author of the Pharmaceutical Purity Standards (as well as fronting her own independent regulatory investigations agency of the industry). Tyb also met Marnharnnan businessmen who were affiliated with the Kherstic League (possibly undercover), who urged that the Governors make the effort necessary to purchase and protect frontier parcels on the mainland. Mela was approached by a Marnharnnan woman who identified herself as an agent of the Marnharnnan Defence Agency, and asked Mela to make the trip to a region of the Riverland Peninsula to aid in diagnosing and treating an unknown illness growing to epidemic proportions.

With Mela and Darius off to the mainland, Tybalt (actually Tybylt based on the meaning of his name, --my mistake. I'll have to go back and edit all of these posts with the incorrect spelling.) and Ashta were preparing to set off on the journey to the realm of the Shlzm who transported the Sphere to the Shadow Plane to further 'her' self-repairs. To this end, Tybylt travelled to visit the Sphere, and encountered some extremely long-limbed creatures fascinated with the scintillating 'pearl' in the deep glooms of that realm. The Sphere stated that she would be well enough to get underway (save low fuel) in a matter of hours. Upon return to the Mundane Realm, Tybylt [Oh, look, a squirrel! ;p ] decided to launch his anti-smuggling operation in earnest, and affected a cover identity, Yihi ('Ending Song'), a flautist of moderate renown.

Setting off, he studies outside talent and determines that a former Guild Council assassin, gone freelance and worked over for her infidelity, was the best choice in the region, and hires the woman. She now goes by the name, 'the Swan'. Their first circuitous and wending ploy is to procure an extant smuggling operation. Surface investigation brings them to a small rocky island only large enough for a few dozen warehouses, brothels, and stables, with a periphery of moored boats serving as the rest of the town's services (inns, taverns, shops, etc.).
-- >> The merchant to be whacked is in fact the good and loyal individual, and his lover/partner is the one with the gambling debt that is dragging the business down. Yihi and the Swan bail on that plan and as they are discussing their next move, there is a knock on the door. Special Investigators from Doran are there to arrest Yihi. Tybylt/Yihi grabs Swan and uses his shadowy powers to E&E from them. An illusion later, and the last member of the team is thrown off their actual location and Tybylt and Swan drive off with the carriage occupied by some unknown person, whereupon he purposefully wedges the transport into an alleyway too narrow to open the doors, and they dip on the horses until they send them in different directions. The two find a sleazy inn operated by a former player's first character (the psychopathic scumbag in the adventure detailed in the earliest Dragonsfoot-link =---> posts), and stay there just long enough to Plane Travel via Shadow, back to Doran. Tybylt drops his guard and lets slip a few references that allow Swan to realise who he really is, and she then informs him that the reason she went freelance was because the last Guild contract she'd been given was on him, roughly two months prior (post-pirate-attack).

Ymyk, the LGS co-owner's character (the one with the alternating personalities due to a bad dual brain mutation), locks himself in a closet in the new mansion until Tybylt and the Swan arrive (introductions all around), whereupon Ymyk takes Tyb to the gambling house he (as the crime boss identity, Zhakun) owns, and the underground complex annex rife with newly-set traps protecting the subterranean warehouses. Ymyk hands the whole operation over to Tybylt (as Yihi) [still with me?], who accepts once he lays down righteous smack upon an enforcer who looked to be the most trouble of the bunch. Another thug, Kleph, loses a few fingers on a scythe-blade drawer trap, but has the new boss to thank for one of Mela's regeneration potions (it will still take weeks to fully regrow them, but they will regrow). Introductions of the work crew are made, and each is re-interviewed for by Yihi.


I totted-up the Glory sums for the characters, with (no surprise) Tybylt clearly in the lead, with Ashta about 2/3rd his junior, and Mela next by a fair margin.

The tandoori food was yummy. :)

Before starting the session, we hammered out Tybylt's particular sort of magic, which, at this point is still derived from canned sources, namely the 3.5 Shadow Magics, and the Warlock, but will eventually be drawn entirely from the native Urutsk 'constructive magic' rules. I've been too diffuse already to dedicate time to the magic system, and I am unwilling to write up a bunch of canned spells -- the Retros and Simulcs do that job well, as does the above edition -- but it just isn't my vision of magic, and hasn't been for decades.

After that, I had Ashta spend some of her free Adventure Points on purchasing competency in the Aelbaan Technology she has become increasingly exposed to and comfortable with, due to her partial Aelbaan ancestry (Western Isles Vrun).

I rolled my trusty d12 about a dozen times to divine a loose line of internal inquiry, in which I determined a future encounter that 'made sense' given the current situation, as well as the main point, namely, to introduce more stuff/tech for the PCs to have the opportunity to procure/purchase/trade-for, etc.

My d12 methodology is ubiquitous:

* Frequency/Intensity/Proximity of Encounters (in the extant Referee's Manual .pdf)

* Clock-overlay directions ('I've got your 6', man, now advance up to that cover and survey our 10 o' clock.') I extend this to geographic scale to determine the general continental region, and then use refinements of these rolls to determine exact origin not only at the governmental/national, etc. level, but even districts, quarters, and so forth.
--Don't mistake my organic Top-Downism for Non-Oracularism. ;)

* Intensity of Reactions, etc.

* Quality of goods, etc.

* etc.

My SO and her brother were regarding my mostly silent, unwritten die-rolling burst, and then I recapped what had happened the session prior.

While many moments in the play were notable, I will condense further, as there is so much to cover (we wrapped a bit after 1 AM, having played for at least seven hours).

* The Aelbaan sphere was utilised to assist the friendly ground forces, until a missile attack was partially deflected by Tyb, using the Wand of Plant Control, and partly due to the geometry of the craft. The payload was some sort of alchemical viscous fluid that appeared to possess both corrosive and electrical properties (in fact it is a Plasmatic Acid payload, aboard a small cruise missile).
--Using the sensors, a flight path was reverse-projected, and the firing craft, a sailing vessel about a mile offshore, was identified and set after. Much futzing about resulting in that ship going down, but only after the Humanoid crew (4) who were overseeing a literal skeleton crew (16) gave the party a bit of trouble, including the Humanoid captain using a beefier version of the Jaunt-type spell trying to scuttle his ship so as to prevent its weapon from being captured.

* Back over the island, the initial resistance by the pirates was crushed, but only at the cost of most of the local ships (including the WICE Misty Sea), and heavy loss of life. Her captain, Qeurryk, lost his left arm and foot, but was saved alive.

* Dealing with the wounded. Dealing in a cultural context with the need to dispose of the dead. During this time, as captives are being centralised, it becomes apparent that a large number of the pirates are unaccounted for.

* Accusations of individuals harbouring the pirates begins to erupt into street 'justice', and in the subsequent Truth and Reconciliation trial, dozens of names are brought up, but between eyewitnesses and sphere/probe sensor logs, fifty percent of those in question are cleared of wrongdoing, while a new thirty percent were proven to be guilty, mainly upwardly-mobile businessmen and noble houses.
--The second trial results in Tybylt's executive decision to draw and quarter by horse those found guilty of the greatest offences. Three are killed before two are ready to spill the names of fellow traitors. The entire merry Tea-Time Magical group, and all but one member of House Ahzenbakh, including the Ahzenbakh kennel master, are directly implicated. Tybylt does nothing yet to alert them of his knowledge of their treachery. At the same time, the two final to be d/q'd are instead stripped of 90% of their wealth, and exiled. Private individuals who, out of humanitarian drive, provided shelter to individual pirates (as in the case of three boys who served with the pirates) were never brought to trial.

* As a prison is being constructed, it is determined that up to 20% of the prisoners are Humanoids, and Tybylt decides to keep their number separated, and refuses to bring them to swift execution (as is the way across most of Urutsk, especially if the Humanoids have attacked a Human population centre). Instead, he has a second facility built for them, and begins to investigate the connection between the Humanoids and the pirates. This exposes the contract-work the very organised (and strangely 'civilised' [the religious leader claims to be a starship captain, and possess a following of over 250,000 of his Abbekqorru kinfolk, apart from being a Class III Phaser technician]) Humanoids had with the pirate network. A hinted-at number of agents of his are somehow able to blend in with the Human population (the Half-Abbekqorru's Humanesque ability to shape-shift, like a jackalwere).

* Salvaging sunken cargo, etc. underway with Ashta, Qeurryk, and another highly Aelbaanesque WI Vrun, Yan Tsurmen, utilising the Aelbaan sphere's TK abilities to greatly speed up and make safer the operation. Six days and all of the PMH containers are centralised for Doran's arsenal. Ashta finally bunks down after sleep deprivation begins to catch up with her.
--Instantly she is whisked away by some unknown force and brought up through the atmosphere to an Aelbaan ship that de-cloaks as she is brought inside and thoroughly interrogated as to the whereabouts of Delver Denab. She overhears that while his sheath (cadaver) had been handed over to them (see the post regarding the underground Dryvv ship sections, etc.), they cannot account for the whereabouts of his spirit. As she is being returned, one of the congress slips something into her mind/brain and she has to deal with that.

* Negotiations with the Abbekqorru leader results in his being allowed to speak freely with his leaders of hundreds and tens, dressed in full armour and weapons, and he informs his people that they are now under contract with the Governors of Doran. Plans to utilised one thousand of them for tunnel-clearing operations (to flush-out the remaining pirates) are initiated.

* Ashta struggles with the news that her prefrontal lobe is being altered by an Aelbaan protein so as to develop her latent Psionic powers (the Aelbaan are powerful psionics). She eventually chooses to have it removed and go back to being herself rather than risk being brought 'into the fold' against her choice. The operation is performed by the Abbekqorru, and assisted by Mela, but the ship, now an extension of Ashta, merely trimmed the protein chain so to, in a hypothetical future, allow Ashta to willingly activate Telekinesis.
--I explain that, in effect, Ashta can now control the craft without much in the way of conscious thought.

We held it there.

The Isle of Slavers ended prematurely with the detonation of the Aelbaan system-ship in the fortress courtyard --after the PCs made it to cover behind a steep dune, and before the worst of the burning debris rained down.
--They hastily retreated to the NW shore and after a brief adventure with descendants of the Aelbaan Scout Service personnel who had originally touched down there over 2k years prior, then blasted a Humanoid pirate vessel, just because, stranding the Humanoids on the island.
---Not certain if I have the energy at present to write up the actual adventure, as my time is now re-directed to UWoM in full.

We have had one group session on the island of Doran as the WICE Governor cedes control of the island to the Kherstic League in some behind-the-scenes deal. Tybalt and Ashta are the original KL employees ('Assassins' -- ha!), with Delver their happen-stance compatriot through these crazy mis-adventures they have had, and the secondary characters of Darius, Mela, and 'Cici' having been 'brought into the fold' back in Qerzyk.
--In that first episode, the individual characters began to find activities that interested them, and they settled into their new position of authority.

Thursday I ran through Delver's plans, and his player set up a solid business shipping and passage company, utilising their monopoly on Doran's resources and workforce, and now is pulling in about 5k net, monthly. He also has launched an anti-Piracy campaign using almost entirely his own funds, and one of his Faux-Pirate Force crew was able to gain acceptance into the 'Kingdom of the Black Flag', and even entered a Pirate cove inside a hollowed out columnar island of sheer granite, crowned in a dense jungle. In this cove, large enough to have five ships in drydock and others still in the port-town, the crew met someone who identified himself as the King of the Pirates, and gave them his blessing (as they had to operate under deep cover and actually pirate to gain the good rep), and an item to scry upon them. Fortunately, Delver had given the captain his amulet versus scrying and detection. Lastly, Delver personally contacted an alien life form and has entered into negotiations with its species representative.

Last night, Tybalt and Ari (another WI Vrun lesser noble) set to work making money in more island-centric means, ranging from a kennel for the island's small population of two-headed dogs, to capturing a, for lack of a better name, Hawknoid chick, to incubating faerie pods (the islands are replete with all manner of Fae), and Tybalt's joining a débutante tea-circle of low-level magic-users with plans on starting their own magickal institution.

The LGS propietor was largely unable to play, but his Archer was able to gain a few horses, and more importantly, pick up the Mounted Archery proficiency. His plan is to amass horses and enough ships to make it back home, and start his own powerful clan.

Ashta/Mela's player was at work.