GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Lucas, Cassadros, Doug, Adrian
System: Spell & Blade by Stras Acimovic
I just ran Tomb of the Twins and I’m writing most of this fresh after the game (instead of from my notes, which I normally do).
This game was electric for me. I think it’s the first time I felt like I embodied the world. Maybe it’s because I’ve played several games in Verrard, or because I’ve run the Tomb of the Twins adventure a few times, or because I’m more steeped in the world’s lore, or because Verrard feels close enough to classic European fantasy that I had more touchstones, or because I’ve practiced rolling up random encounters and interpret the results, or because of advice Stras has given me, or because of the characters the players chose and how well the meshed with the parts of the world that I understood. I imagine it is some combination of all of the above.
Here’s some examples of when the world felt real to me.
- Our Apprentice Wizard Worrenstead was raised in a family of herders and beyond the alumi sheep they headed there was also rare flower they collected for the apiarists to make mead from. In Zerenbor, where the bees pollinated by the local woundsbreath flowers produce a reddish honey that goes into Kingsblade mead, of course he knew the apiarist Islana, daughter of Zaya. When he entered her apiary, she saw his tension around so many bees and lit censers that produced soothing smoke which calmed the bees. Her family had been carrying on the tradition since before the cataclysm and she had a map from the Age of Legends that included many landmarks on it, including the Woundsbreath Pine (an addition made after the cataclysm) and the tomb to the north, from the era of the Empire a thousand years ago. When Worrenstead opened his mystic sight to view the map, his vision became blurred as he realized the entire apiary was teeming with trace amounts of mystic energy. The bees themselves, from the flowers that pollinated them were touched by both necromantic and divine energy. In that moment I decided that King Verr, struck a blow against the Necromancer King in that forest. It was not the blow that ended him, they skirmished many times, but it was such a blow that the divine and necromantic energies blended in that moment, forever changing the flowers that grew there. This also told me that King Verr was in possession of divine power. Was he Chosen by the Gods? Did he have a Legendary Sword? Was a god involved with the battle as well? I didn’t know and I didn’t need to know right then, but it was something I could revisit later.
- When our our Dragon-Touched wild child inhaled the vapors of the Aurora Mortalis they had a memory of the past, of flying above great mountains and looking out at their wings which seemed to stretch for leagues. Were dragons truly this large? I’m not sure, but in their memory it seemed so. And why were they so sensitive to the mist, because this necromancy was embroiled in dream, and the haunting dreams they had been experiencing felt like they were leading to this.
- When they slept in the hunters lodge and dreamed of their ancestors, I asked our Lykani thief, who as called the Scurvy Thief because he always left a curled orange peel as a calling card, what he imagines his parents might be like, he just remembered that they too had coppery skin. Two ancient touched in Lykeard having an ancient touched child was not bizzare, but it was certainly not guaranteed. That much Ancient power, enough to infuse multiple generations. Perhaps it carried with it a curse. A reason his parents might have given him away, to protect him from it passing down to him. When he woke the embers of the fire in the hearth bore the same copper color as he remembered from his dream.
- When our hunter woke, she simply remembered the end of her dream, her mother Karinya calling “Sverena, don’t forget to stir the stew or it will burn.” A wholesome memory that brought comfort rather than confusion or dread like her companions experienced. Was she protected from the worst of it because she as Marked by Verr. Or was it simply that her past was untainted by trauma and terror?
- “How do I change my name and erase what I’ve done before?” The question asked during camp, was so fire. The apprentice said you can pick any name you want. The dragon-touched wild child said you took a name from Dream. The hunter said you must do great deed and earn a deed name. That connected the most and with Gabrinkus and he sought to earn a name that was not the Survey Thief (even though he had left an orange peel in the merchants caravan after steeling there alchemicals earlier that day!)
- Inside the tomb, the Apprentice Worrenstead quickly heeded the echoes guidance. He washed himself clean in the blackwater, he changed into the fine shawl made by his parents that parents had made, embroidered with the flowers from his home. He shaved his head with a sharp razor.
- Can I pry the mirror off the wall? You’ve got a primitive spear. So, probably, but there’s a chance it might snap or the mirror might break. If something goes wrong, what do you care more about? My spear for sure. Two seconds later, mixed result on the Force roll. Okay, get it off but the mirror shatters. Remember that metal spear you saw impaled in the stone outside. Yeah, you hear a stone door slide open from deeper in the dungeon. What next?
- Can I burn a tomb warrior? Sure, but normal fire would take a long time, more than you have. Can I burn it with dragon breath? Hell yeah, you can. Can I boost them? How would you give them breath more fire? Burning a goldseel rod and channel true flame into the fire. Fuck Yeah!!!!!
