GM: Stras Acimovic
Players: Jahmal “Mad Jay” Brown, April Walsh, Jeremiah Frye, Sean Nittner
System: Spell and Blade
We started with a few updates Stras did over the week between sessions.
Loddi: The owl spirit that blessed his family is named Silence Bringer, also known as Nightwatcher, Frost Feather, Hollow Heart, Marrow-Eater, and First Snow. The great spirit of the Aurora Borealis. A snowy owl with spots the color of the aurora.
Loddi had been taught not to look at it directly unless it invited you to. As an offering bone charms were placed on the roofs of houses that were sturdy enough for it to land on.
Kormel: Sent to Rul by the Arcanix Zahrana to meet a caravan coming from the north east carrying ice crabs and some arcane goods. He was sent with two Aethyric Suspensions, vials of blue liquid he could inject to borrow some of his Sorcerer’s dragon fire, giving him the ability empower one or both of the apparatuses she sent him with:
- Sparksong Generator: Made from stormsilver, this Apparatus is usually mounted on the back, with sockets running down the spine and ribs. It generates notes of sound using Aethyric current. For 2 mana you can silence a small room’s area. You may need to roll attune to keep the effect up if you are exposed to extraordinarily loud noises or have to move rapidly.
- Air Resonance Greave: Uses pulse-harmonics to phase-shift air to solid for a moment beneath your feet. Can count as gear for climbing or sneaking. Spend 1 mana and channel to run up invisible footholds or leap great distances.
He was also given some guidance to “not be a stupid child and get hurt” pushing the devices. He was sent with coin to pay for the supplies and told to return in a week. The Arcanix needed focus to work on an experiment.
Skanya: The blessing trait from Akta works as written. You can push the trait, spend 1+ mana and perform a ritual of your faith to do the following: consecrate a liquid—bless an area which may repulse lesser monsters or undead, the bigger the area the more mana it takes—offer someone 1 magic die on an action your god might have influence over. In Akta’s case her, her domains are Night, Luck, Protection, Knowledge, and Comets.
The holy item she stole was an Eye of Akta. She learned that when she closes her eyes she can see through it, even at a distance. Also, when looking through it she can see perfectly in the dark. The only other person she knew of who had a similar gem, the Eye of Akta was the high priest Ydra Nightwing, a menacingly tall Chosen of Akta, named for her giant black wings.She also happened to be Consort to the Queen. Skanya ran into her once in a temple hallway and Ydra was curious because she saw Skanya’s gem (did Ydra steal hers as well. She must have, right?). However for most of her experience as an acolyte Skanya reported to a stern figure who looked like she’s never had fun in her life.
Rulgara: Here Oath of Starfell would be expounded upon in the future. the Rul arena is an impact crater and there are areas that are still slick glass formed by the heat of the impact where it’s easy to slip or get sliced open by a sharp glass ridge. The current champion is Vadra Three-Finger, a scarred monster huntress who wears a wyrmscale cape. The announcer Eylif is a middle-aged orator who retired from adventuring with many tales to tell, who has actually been as far as Barad’s arenas. She is heavy and bears the scars of hardship and battle. The tales she declines to tell are the subject of much speculation, and occasionally strangers from afar will show up in Rul claiming to be old acquaintances seeking her out for one reason or another.
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Last time on Spell & Blade
We made our cool character, who will hopefully one day be worth of song and story.
Skanya, born to brewers, turned to theft at a young age to impress and delight her father, but the smile on his face never lasted long. Her escapades escalated until (with Kormel’s aid) she stole the Eye of Akta. After that she was given an opportunity to change her path and became and Acolyte of the goddess. She has a small artic fox Tippi (named after her father) trained to scout, search, and guard.
Kormel, a Verani orphan who grew up on the streets of Rul after his parents were killed by sky raiders. He was found at a young age by the Arcanix Zahrana who took him under her wing as an apprentice. He had a fellow apprentice who died attempting to complete apotheosis. Friend and accomplice to Skanya.
Rulgara, Skanya’s elder sister born to smiths (they are half sisters). Her father refused to sell a Rulhim ring he was forging to a Verani noble Corivin Rokan, 2nd son of Lord Rokan, but items of Rulhim must never be purchased, only given as gifts. After Corvin could not convince him with coin, he killed the smith and took the ring anyway. In a moment of rage and fear at he murder of her father, Gar picked up her father’s smithing hammer and struck down one of Corvin’s guards. Items made of Rulhim must never be used for purposes they were not intended or by people they do not belong to. Having committed this taboo, Rulgara was shunned by the other smiths in Rul and signed up to become a caravan guard. During her time as a guard she traveled to Verard in hopes of finding the noble but she was denied vengeance. When she returned to Rul, she challenged the other smiths to competitions of smithing and became a gladiator, competing in feats of martial prowess.
Loddi, the outsider, born to wyrm hunters, beast-touched by the Silence Bringer. He has owl like traits including keen sense and owl wings. He is at home in the wilds and is used to going where the winds take him. His companion Nyx is a Arrgarr (big wolf) trained to fight monsters, hunt, and ride.
A dark and stormy night
The game started in winter, three weeks out from Moontide, the day when the sun does not come up. It is bracketed by Nightfall (the day before, the last time the sun sets) and Sparklight (the day after, the first time the sun rises). During these days people celebrate Akta by telling tales and celebrate Maya by going on Blue Hour walks. There is a saying painted on windows “The dark is a sacred library.” Normally just before Moontide it is calm, but tonight the wind was whipping and a storm was coming in.
Skanya was working, as she often did, at her home the Blue Barrel Inn.
Kormel entered and shook off the deep cold that had sunk into his bones on the journey from his Wizard’s tower. He was awaiting a caravan that was due tomorrow.
Skanya ranted “Who let this riff raff inside?” Then she ran over to give him a hug and asked how long his wizard was letting him out of the cave. She winked at him as though maybe they would have time for some mischief together.
Tord, a too tall, too gangly young man who as serving drinks asked Kormel “Did you see anything strange on the way here? I heard a story about a titan crossing The Line, and that is what brought the storm.
Kormel wasn’t sure about that but he did make an effort to catch up with Tord, Skanya’s mother, and the other Blue Barrel staff.
Rulgara arrived sometime later with some boisterous gladiator friends. Outside it had been getting worse. Hard rain coming down and thunder rolling. The sisters embraced and Gar took her friends by the fire to tell more stories.
There an old man mused “This is Zaganeon’s Storm!” in hushed tones. Skanya laughed “Of course it is, and I’m baby titan.”
Everyone knew that was just a tall tale, but the name seemed familiar to Kormel. Zaganeon Skybreaker is (or was) a wizard whose tome he had been studying. “He’s not a fairy tale, he’s real, but he lived over a hundred years ago so he must be dead by now.”
Loddi arrived later still. By this time it was terrible outside. There was a lightning storm but the lighting wasn’t coming down from the sky, but going up from the ground! Skanya didn’t believe him either so she looked outside to see for herself. She gasped and slammed the door shut when she saw it. Nyx was allowed in and laid down by the fire to get cuddles from Gar and her friends.
Loddi asked if the inn would be strong enough to endure the storm and our mother responded “The Blue Barrel has been around since before the Red Queen. It’s not going anywhere.”
When the storm made it to Rul it was powerful. We shuttered all the doors and windows and threw more logs on the fire, and in time we weathered it, just as we had weathered storms before.
Late in the night…
Skanya and Kormel were closing up the inn as people were leaving. Washing the dishes, emptying the tankards, and putting up the chair. Rulgara had see her friends off and then joined them to help. Loddi was offered the common room by the fire to spend the night rather than go back out into the cold.
There was a heavy knock on the door and Skanya opened it to see a haggard man coated in hoarfrost. He looked like he was about to collapse. Skanya invite him to sit by the fire and went to the back to find something warm for him to eat and drink.
The man introduced himself to all of us as Renar, a member of the ice crab trade caravan Kormel was supposed to meet tomorrow. Renar told us his caravan was caught in the storm and the winds were so strong they lifted the reindeer off the ground. The caravan decided to hunker down and wait out the storm, but there are members that are hurt and need care.
We talked about what as sensible—rounding up people and sending out a search patrol in the morning—and what we were going to do, which was head out right now our own.
With directions from Renar and supplies from the Blue Barrel, we swore a group oaths. Before the messengers, oaths could only be sworn between two people, but the messengers found a way for the deep to recognize as small band of aventurines who could all swear oaths to each other for one common cause.
- I will se no one left behind – Kormel
- I will find our path – Loddi
- I will stand between you and harm – Rulgara
- I will discover the nature of his unnatural storm – Skanya
Renar told us the caravan was waiting for him on Sky Mirror Lake. It is a lake that hasn’t been seen in decades (always buried beneath a hard pack of snow) but the storm cleared it. They are stuck on the ice now.
Journey to Adventure
Loddi lead our way into the night. Riding atop Nyx he scrambled over snow drifts and made a direct path to Sky Mirror Lake, his keen eyes catching small details even in the night. We made incredible time, some might say we were blessed by the Silence Bringer.
We traveled all night ad as the sun was rising over Sky Mirror Lake we beheld the clear (but still frozen) lake for the first time. And beneath the surface we saw a giant metal tower reach up but not quite reaching the surface. We also saw rocks floating in the air, barring out path.
Kormel used his mystic sight to study the phenomena, with aid from Rulgara who was attuning to the strange energy propelling them from through the air. He was able to glean that this is Aether magic, the kind used by Sorcerers (could this be his mentor’s doing…she said she was performing an experiment…or could it be Zaganeon’s storm?). Whatever magic this is, it came from above, something from very high struck the lake (that is what cleared the drift!) and when the magic had nowhere else to go, it diffused into the area around, causing the rocks to float and crackle with electricity.
Was a sky city here? If so, it had moved on. Did the dead sorcerer Zaganeon land? If so, there no trace of him. When wizards do “experiments” is this what it looks like? We had so many questions.
Meanwhile Skanya closed her eyes and held the Eye of Akta to the surface of the lake to glean the metal tower below. It glowed with a fierce purple light and Skanya believed the glow was so strong she’d be able to find it again…even if the lake was covered once more. How deep was it? 15, maybe 20 feet. Could we come back with picks and axes to dig it out? We might be able to! Did the Aethyric energy from above try to strike the tower and just miss? It seemed possible.
Rulgara, guided by Kormel attuned to the energy of the charged rocks and marked a path for us to follow her through it, using the bright dyes of Iskanard. As we traveled, Nyx veered slightly from the path and would have been struck by a bolt of lightning, but Rulgara caught the bolt with her father’s hammer and sent it arcing away. The bolt coursed through her and though she stood her ground, it make a scar on her arm. She would return to Rul as Rulgara the Lightning Tamer!
Once through the lightning rocks, Loddi lead us to where Renar described, but there was nothing there. Some signs a caravan had been there, but no tracks. No sign of a fight. Loddi ran up the lightning struck tree and launched himself into the air with his great owl wings. As he glided airborne, with his keen vision, he spotted some wagons a distance away.
We made our way to the wagons and quickly saw that they were abandoned. Not a person here. The wagons themselves had hook marks in them. Ruglara could tell they were made form metal hooks that were forged rather than claws.
Could these by sky raiders? It seemed unlikely since most did not have ships large enough to do something like this. And even if they could, sky raiders too goods, not people. There was a tale of a band of raiders from Verard that had a great ship that might be capable of something like this, but what would Verani sky raiders be doing here in the far north?
Kormel used his mystic sight and pushed himself to the sights of Aethyric displacement in the area, which he had never seen before. He followed the distortion to a patch of green flame still burning in the snow. He recognized it as a Blaze, a substance that comes from the Sky Cities.
Skanya, a fan of strange substances, used her fine spirits and alchemical tools to form a distillate of the substance. She learned it was very reactive, very dangerous, but it did not react with glass. It was the fuel of a skyship, but it was used for running them, or perhaps for transferring energy through them. She wanted to study it further and collect a sample, but the focus was on finding the now-missing caravan.
Nyx got the scent of the stuff (very bad) and tracked the smell to a landing site, which as far as we knew, wasn’t a thing most sky ships did! We crested a hill and spied their downed ship and the camp they had around it. The raiders had white tattoos of skulls on their faces, marking them as Kadr Hakar, brutal and terrifying foes. Thanks to Loddi’s deft approach, we snuck past their patrols.
Skanya used a spyglass to learn more. The woman in charge looked like a dangerous warrior. Another woman, who had different tattoos seemed to report to her and have some degree of authority among the crew. On the ground a man (likely a first mate) was directing some people who looked like they were members of Renar’s caravan to carry heavy parts and aid their repairs. He had many scars from battle. Beyond the camp she saw a cave with two guard standing outside it…perhaps that was where the other caravan members were being held!
Rescue Operation
We all wanted to leap into action, but Skanya asked that our band pause for a moment so that Akta could bless this endeavor. She said the words of her goddess “May the Raven Feathered hold you and your secrets safe in the skyflame above and in the shadows below.” She formed her hands hands like two crescent moons back to back and bound mana to spread the blessing to all of her allies.
We then divided into two teams. The sisters snuck to the cave, while Kormel and Loddi stayed outside to rescue the caravan members forced to labor on the ship. We knew that sooner rather than later they would either receive reinforcements, or another band of raiders would come to attack while they were vulnerable. Either way we had to move fast!
The day was very short and the sun had set already by the time we were in motion. Skanya lead Rulgara along a path to the cave, using the Eye of Akta to see in the dark. She got there…almost. They were a good 15′ feet above the guards but if they slipped down further they’d surly disturb the snow beneath them and alert the guards.
Gar was unphased, she leapt down to crush one beneath her feet while she cut the other down with the Rulhim sword she had forged on her own! So cool. Ruglara, Lightning Tamer and Slayer of Sky Raiders!
Inside the cave, we found the members of the caravan as we hoped. One of them (Kikira) had seen Gar’s incredible stunt and swooned at the gladiator’s deed, smitten immediately.
We told the people Renar sent us and that we were here to help. Most of them were able to move, but Lynara had been struck by lightning and they could not get her to wake. Skanya had smelling salts and Heathfire, a deep maroon rum that increases bloodflow and causes body temperature raises rapidly, to the point where you can walk midwinter without a coat for several hours. She gave the tincture to Rulgara who administered to Lynarra who woke immediately but her heart was beating to fast and suffering from arrythmia. Her body spasmed as she screamed “it passed through me!” Gar had crushed leaves that calmed her and soon she was stable. Ruglara, Lightning Tamer, Slayer of Sky Raiders, who brought Lynara back from the edge of death!
Outside Kormel pulled out the aetheric suspension and casually plunged the needle into his neck as he pressed the blue fluid into his blood. His veins glowed blue (faintly) and his eyes glowed blue (not faintly). The storm in his blood felt like an awakening of his sense. His breathing was heavy, working hard to stay in control.
Kormel walked on air (thanks to his air resonance greaves) and Loddi glided (thanks to his wings) to the ship. They made it to the engine room which was very hot. Inside were two large men from the caravan working as they were overseen by a dangerous looking guard, as well as a woman (the same we saw advising the captain earlier) and her daughter. The engine room was full of glass tubes where blaze flowed and in the center of the engine…a dragon heart.
Loddi found a porthole they could drop a rope down so the prisoners could flee (neither of them had wings or fancy air walking boots). In silence (thanks to the sparksong generator) they snuck up to the guard. Kormel wanted to smash the glass tube above him and burn him with blaze but realized how dangerous that would be so instead Loddie shot him with an arrow, that went right through his throat and killed instantly (that works too!).
The captives saw (but did not hear) what happened and quickly grabbed heavy tools to use as makeshift weapons. With a bow pointed at her the woman and her child did not resist (though they did try unsuccessfully to talk) as Kormel bound them to a chair with ropes.
As they climbed out the porthole window down to safety, the captain spotted then and would have shouted out, but she was still in the sound suppression field so she could not make a noise. She did however, spot the two men who had climbed down the rope and were running to meet the rest of the caravan. She kicked up a spear and hurled it with deadly accuracy. It touched only snow however. Skanya remembered the famous Wight Tree Bark heist she pulled with Kormel ages ago and just as the guard fired a crossbow at her, he dove from the shadows to protect her, so did she push herself to run up the ice bank and tackle the caravanner out of the way. [This is a retcon addition as I’m writing to give context to the moment]. One of the patrol here the soft thud of the spear in ice but paid it no heed.
Kormel, still walking on air, ran forward to join us, but now that the Captain was outside of his field, she threw a large crate down and called out for our capture.
Skanya and Gar were ready to help. We found one of the tripwire traps the raider had set up and we called Kormel to run that way. He’d go right over it on his Air Resonance Greaves but the raiders would surely get tangled in it. A foolproof plan except they missed that just in front of it was a pit of Blaze!
Skanya fell in and her arms and legs bolted out to the edges of the pit to catch herself before falling to the impossibly hot green flames below. Gar tossed her shield into the flames to buy us a moment and then tried to pull Skanya out, but she fell in as well. Now they were both trapped and planking as hard as they ever planked not to fall in. [Some dialog we flashed back to in the hole]
Rulgara grunted “I was prepared to cover everyone’s escape, but then I fell in a hole. Leave this part out of the song sis.”
Skanya chuckled despite the strain “This is a pickle. If we die in here, I just want you to know even if I can’t sing of your deeds in the Blue Barrel, you’re my hero.”
Kormel was told by the Arcanix not to push the capabilities of his boots. It could carry him and no more. Certainly not another person, and certainly not two! To hell with that. He plunged the second Aethyric Suspension in his neck and the that raged inside him extended to the world around sparking lightning from his steps. With uncontrolled power coursing through, he bolted over his steps of air and plucked Rulgara and Skanya out of the pit, saving us both!
We lead the caravan back across the ice drift toward the safety of Rul.
On the way out we noticed the cave was marked on the outside with the symbols of the twin goddesses of the moon. Had this been a holy place?
Deeds
- We all gained an honor deed for rescuing the caravan.
- Gar was awarded an Honor deed for saving Lynara with Hearthflame and herbs.
- Kormel was awarded a Might deed for pushing his magic and rescuing us both.
- Gar was warded an Sacrifice deed for saving Nyx by channeling the lightning through her.
We then highlighted other memorable moments. Loddi leading the way and evading the patrols, Skanya’s blessing of Akta, Gar trashing two guards with one blow, Kormel silencing the whole ship to sneak in and out, the two sisters working together to get into the cave and later fall in a hole, Loddi dropping the guard with a single arrow.
Stras’ Adventure Notes
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Next time on Spell and Blade
Here’s things Skanya wants to learn when we return to Rul. Town Phase time!
- Did we get any ice crabs? Like even a single one? No? Very sad. Yes? We’re eating crab tonight!
- Learn about the woman with tattoos who was assisting the captain. Kormel saw her up close
- Research the ice tower. What was it and what tools will we need to get to it?
- Ask priests about doing thievery. Kormel had asked if I still did jobs with him and I wasn’t sure.
- Learn about the Kadr Hakar. Normally they raid the barrier mountains nearest to the wastes. Why would they be in Iskanard, and what damaged their ship?
