GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Dale Horstman, Matthew Klein
System: The Shadow of Yesterday
Aboard the Sea Serpent
We recounted the story of our heroes on Near. They had just arrived on the Sea Serpent and once again were putting those they cared about in danger with their presence. As soon as they were welcomed aboard, Aonghüs asked that they be placed in a room with not light.
Captain Newlyn did not know what to make of that, but when his trusted spy Ysabel nodded her head, he accented to give them a room in the hold. No light inside, and therefor no shadow.
Together, the heroes discussed what they could do, and decided on a plan to lure out Sorcerer Zedwick, find him, and rescue Aphrita from his hold. Snippets of the conversation:
- Maybe we come clean? Tell him about the shadow curse?
- Maybe he puts us back on a rowboat?
- That maybe the best thing for everyone.
- Maybe we stage a fake conversation to trick the sorcerer. Maybe we can lure him out. And maybe if he manifests in one our shadows, we can destroy it.
A lot of maybes.
Telling the Truth is Hard
Eventually Newlyn knocked on their door and then opened it. He stood in the dim light of the lantern behind him and the heroes stuck to the dark corners so they could not cast shadows. He had a frustrated look of someone with 99 problems, and he just got another one. “Ysabel told me that you got off the Bloodbark because you were a danger to the ship. Aonghüs, that you accepted going to the brig. That you might be a danger to all of us. The smart move would be for me to put you back on rowboat.” He paused for a moment and then stepped into the room and closed the door behind him “But I don’t always make the smart move.”
Aonghüs got to work making their case “We’re grateful for the rescue. We know Aphrita is a prisoner and we want to rescue her. What you’ve heard is true. A sorcerer cursed us and as long as we cast shadows, we are a danger to ourselves and others. That is why we asked to be put in this hold.”
Tamarin muttered a snarky comment and Newlyn probed the room with his senses “Whose that?” He was not accustomed being in the dark. He thought he was understanding the plan Aonghüs proposed. “So we try to trick the sorcerer and then you have a way of finding him?”
Tamarin said she was from Maldor, and knew something of identifying sorcerer, and might be able to determine where it came from if she saw it.
Another unfamiliar voice spoke “If we help you recover Aphrita, will you take us to Qek?”
“Whose that?” Once again Newlyn was surprised in the dark.
Haka identified themself and Newlyn thought it over “I have so many things I need to do right now. I need to rescue Aphrita, and recover that stone tablet.” There were more mutterings from Tamarin about tossing the tablet in the sea. Newlyn continued “After that I need to sink an enemy ship, and finally capture pirates. And you want to add one more thing to my list?” He rubbed his temples in the dark. “Yes, if you can rescue Aphrita, I will find a way to get you to Qek. I’ll do what I can. Deal?”
An accord was met. In the morning they would lay a sorcerers trap. That night they tended to more temporal matters.
The last medic died, so you’ve got me
There was a thump on the door. “I’ve heard your hurt but I can’t work in the dark. So if you want any ministration, you’ve gotta come out here.”
Thankfully Haka’s shadow was no longer an issue (it was gone!) so he stepped out to see the ugliest goblin he’d ever met. First Gunnery Sergeant Vedri was a goblin with a giant scar running diagonally across his face, missing teeth, and a burn scar where hair should have been. He sized Haka up (who had many injuries) and said “You look like hell. Well, come with me.”
During his treatment, Vedri told Haka the prior ship doctor died.
“Under you’re care?” Haka asked with concern.
“Killed by cannon fire. One moment a man, the next, nothing but red mist. So now I’ve got the job. It can’t be much different than carpentry, right?” He laughed to himself. “The thing you’ve gotta know Haka is there is one thing I want. To blow the living hell out of the Ammeni.”
Haka, an Ammeni themself, nodded with understanding. The doc mixed up a concoction that didn’t seem intended to kill him.
And sure enough, when he woke in the morning the singes he had were much less painful. Tamarin and Aonghüs shook off their wounds as well [spending vigor points to recover].
Trapping a Sorcerer
In captain Newlyn’s quarters they staged a fake covsation.
Aonghüs told Newlyn “When we left the Bloodbark, Bodwyn had been found out and they were deciding what to do with him. I think they are going to make him walk the plank.”
Newlyn played his part “What would that matter to me? The best pirate is a dead pirate.”
Tamarin knew he was acting, but her fur still ruffled in anger, that was her friend they were talking about. In time though she noticed the Aonghüs’ shadow starting to twist and warp. It scanned across the room, passed over the charts and maps, and onto Newlyn himself, fingers like claws. She used divination to detect the source of the magic, but somehow Zedwick sensed her sorcery and withdrew. She received only single momently sense of where he was, and then nothing. Tamarin had been holding a compass the whole time and told them. 10 degrees west of due north. A single point she could not rely to stay still, so they set out full sail ahead and hoped they could anticipate the Ghosts’ trajectory.
That day, the heroes prepared themselves for boarding by doing Khale Cross-fit rope training. Canon ball deadlifts and cargo net pull ups got their blood flowing [vigor restore scene].
Boarding Action
That day they caught up with the Raven’s Ghost. And that night, they prepared to board.
The heroes, along with Ysabel, set out on a rowboat together again. She didn’t want to go, she thought chasing Aphrita was the wrong thing to focus on. They should work on getting the Stone of Stars. That was their mission. Also, there was something personal deep down that made this mission difficult. But Newlyn had asked her to do it, and she would not disappoint him.
Aonghüs teased her, calling her a traitor but not meaning it. She didn’t understand his humor. He slapped her on the back and told her to lighten up. She still did not understand.
As the reformed party got to know each other a little better, at least a few laughs were shared [Instinct Recovery Scene].
They had a plan to summon aid. Fire on the deck to summon a barrage of canon fire. A shrill whistle to indicate they were coming back with Aphrita.
The Raven’s Ghost was a large galleon surrounded by shadow-stuff that devoured light. The bamboo beams of the ship had been treated by black salt to harden them. Teak rigging was operated by hempen ropes.
Aonghüs tosses a grapnel onto the railing and climbed up to spot where the hull had been repaired from canon fire. With one hand holding the rope and the other on his knife, he swung until he finally got purchase on the board used for repairs and wedged his blade between it and the ship. The board had been hammered, but not so securely that with effort he could not pry it away.
As he worked her heard an command being issued and officers responding. It was all in Ammeni so he didn’t know the details, but he could tell that some of the some on deck were less enthusiastic than others.
Ysabel climbed up without a struggle. Haka on the other hand made quote a commotion. To their relief they found the the same shadow stuff that cloaked the ship also muffled sounds and while the officers on deck heard something, they weren’t sure what it was [1/4 ticks on the alert clock]. Aonghüs threw a rock to his the hull in another part of the ship to send them looking another direction.
Alone in the rowboat, Tamarin cast the spell of transportation, growing claws and a feral snout, changing into her wolfkin form!
Violence on the Gun Deck
The gun deck was packed with canon balls, rope, gunpowder, torches, fuses, bloodthirsty lanterns, chained Zaru conscripts, and five officers, spread throughout.
Aphrita was not here and though they saw steps down, Tamarin was not going to let these Ammeni soldiers live with Zaru in chains. The plan was to split up, Aonghüs and Haka to go down and Tamarin and Ysabel to free the Zaru, but as soon as the plan was made, it was broken. Aonghüs told Haka to go without him, he had to stay and help.
Tamarin snuck over to the lock and that had a chain which held three of the Zaru, and when she realized she couldn’t pick it, she cleaved the chain with her supernatural strong claws. As it broke she looked to the Zaru, who stared silently at her. There mouths open, but no sounds coming from them.
An officer came charging towards her and Ysabel stabbed him from the shadows. A wicked blow in the shoulder, but not the slit throat she was hoping for. Tamarin charged leapt on the man, tearing flesh from his neck, till he was nothing but a bloody mess on the ground.
The rest of the guards, armed with bamboo spears and armor, heard the fracas and advanced to pin Tamarin and Ysabel down.
Aonghüs tripped one of them, and got his attention. The two of them, locked in combat. The freed Zaru pried the spear from the dead soldiers hands and started to retreat.
A brutal battle broke out [2/4 ticks on the alert clock] and though Tamarin was impaled, she had help from Ysabel and and the Zaru. Tamarin blinded one with her claws (poisoned by Haka) raked across his face. Ysabel plunged her blade beneath their bamboo armor, and one of the Zaru dropped a canon ball on a solder that fell, breaking his leg. It wasn’t pretty, but in the end Tamarin was cut, but the soldiers were dead or dying painfully.
A world of shadow
In the cargo deck below, Haka saw more naval officers (thankfully not alerted by the noise above) and two grand doors to the aft of the hold, but still not Aphrita. From what he knew of the Bloodbark, there was probably another set of steps further ahead, but he didn’t want to take his chances, so he used the Secret of the Fading Illusion to make the world dim around him, and slipped through the cracks of the floorboards into the level below. When he looked up, in this liminal place of shadows he saw a unbridled flame above him glowing with impossible heat. He didn’t know what that was, but he did not believe it as Aphirta, so he continued down.
Both Wrong Doors
Just as Haka disappeared through the cracks, Aonghüs came tumbling down the steps, wrestling with an Ammeni soldier, whose neck was broken at the base. Above, Tamarin, Ysabel, and the Zaru heaved with all their might and ripped another chain from the wall freeing more of the Zaru. Tamarin wished them the best and then headed down the steps with Ysabel.
Without Haka present, Tamarin sent Ysabel to continue forward looking for him.
Hoping they might find Zedwick in one of the rooms, Aonghüs opened the double doors into the captains quarters.
A stark contrast from the disarray of Captain Blackmane, Commander Priya had a heavy table covered in maps and charts (though it could support something much heavier). There was an astrolabe, a giant oil painting in progress, and a collection of books. A banner hanging from a pole.
Commander Priya was working on the painting. It has a heavy black background full of charging hoses with fiery eyes. The horse in the foreground at the edge of a cliff, being forced off by the other behind it. Its eyes are wide and its nostrils flared. It is unable to turn back.
“Wrong door!” Aonghüs said as he slammed it shut. Commander Priya grabbed her spear.
Hoping the next door would be Zedwicks’ room, he burst in and saw a room full of decadence. It had fresh fruit, incense burning to drive off foul odors, hot kabobs with roasted meat and powerful spices, rice pudding, slugs, fish eyes, and rice wine. A Zaru servant was chained in the corner.
He closed the door again. Still not what he was looing for.
Tamarin tried to tie the door closed with rope at hand, but the Commander Priya pulled it open too soon. She was right upon Tamarin, with a bamboo spear that had a moon metal blade. Aphrita’s moon metal blade. “You’re not still on the Bloodbark? That sorcerer lied to me. I should have known.” She prepared for battle!
Run or fight. The had to decide in a moment.
Commander Priya wielded a moon metal spear in one hand and a poisoned dagger in the other. But that really didn’t matter because Tamarain scampered beneath her and jumped on her back. Distracted by Tamarin’s claws she was not prepared when Aonghüs head butted her back into her room. She fell on her back and tried to bull Tamarin’s claws free, but it was all she could do to stop her from tearing her throat out.
Aonghüs picked up the spear and pointed it at her sternum. “Where is Aphrita?”
Priya spit blood at him.
“Where is Sorcerer Zewdick?”
She spit blood again, but this time it was only as she gurgled out the words “Above. On the prow.”
“One more time. Where is Aphrita?” Aonghüs demanded.
She coughed more blood and sputter “Below.”
Then Aonghüs plunged the spear into her chest. “This is for Aphrita.” She gurgled blood once more and died before them. COLD.
Tamarin could not abide the terrible image on the wall. She approached and saw the placard beside it “The inevitability of death.” Commander Priya did not know how right she was. Still, Tamarin hated to see the horse suffer and so with a broad brush stroke she drew more cliff before it.
Aphrita, Found!
Haka, meanwhile, descended into a dark hold lit by dozens of lanterns. In the center was a complex apparatus that held Aphrita. In a nearby room, someone was humming to themselves.
The apparatus was one part cage and one part torture device. Hundreds of tiny spikes were inches away from impaling Aphrita. Within it, two syringes punctured Aphirta’s neck, one drawing blood, the other dripping a clear fluid. There is script written in Maldorian on the base of the device, a scale, a basin and a censer. Script Haka could not read.
Haka returned to the illusion of the world and doused the censer. The smoke, which he recognized as White Poiture (the pollen of a gleaming white flower that grows wild in the rice fields of Ammeni, and causes a deep relaxed state like slumber) ceased. [Herb Lore!]
Aphrita’s eyes were open and moved towards the noise, but she could not talk. She looked terrified. As she should be.
Haka moved towards the humming and saw a man working away inside an alchemical lab used to distil herbs. He was clearly a healer, a poisoner, or both. There were poiture, ackee, grass pea, and bitter cassava root plants drying on the walls, a small copper distillery, and many tinctures in unlabeled bottles.
Haka crept up behind the them man and placed a dagger at the base of his skull. They also felt a prink in their belly.
“Hello, it seems we’re at an impasse.” The man said with casual confidence “You have a knife to my back and I’ve poisoned you.”
Haka looked down and saw the prick of the man’s blade. Add “assassin” to his probably list of occupations.
The were at a standstill for a moment. Haka agreed to step back (dagger still at the ready). “I’m Cador, and you might say my allegiance is flexible. If your here to cause destruction as I think you are, I don’t want to be in your path. Here’s my offer. I give you the antidote and you and your probable friends let me go.”
Haka could feel their fingers tingling and going numb. “Deal.”
Cador pulled a recipe from a small cubby. He hoped it would take Haka long enough to assemble that he could slip away… and so they both did. Haka distilled the herbs, made the antidote to the paralytic and Cador departed, paste Ysabel, who was staring in horror at the contraption Aphrita was in.
[Should Ysabel have slit his throat while he was backing away from Haka? Maybe, but I don’t think that was what was on her mind. Still not sure if that was the right move].
A complex and terrible apparatus
Tamarin and Aonghüs made their way into the hold and once again the heroes were together, taking in the horror of the contraption. Too dangerous to try to disassemble, but at least Tamarin could read the four inscriptions on the device…a cryptic instruction manual.
On the placard at the base of the device. “All praise the shadow moon, the bleeding mass, the fruit of House Racktus. The unyielding fire purges all”.
On the uneven scale. “First, the weight of the moon binds and last it releases.” This scale connects to the gears that drive the apparatus.
On the copper basin. “Between, the water of life drowns and revives” There is a drain at the bottom, encrusted with dried blood.
On the burning censer. “Last, the bounty of the land pierces the mind, and first mends it”. The smoke from it was gathered and distilled in the device.
The prevailing sentiment was “What?” Could they just break Aphrita out of this terrible cage? There were so many spikes and needles that they didn’t dare try.
Aonghüs heard “Between, the water of life drowns and revives” and cut himself to bleed in the copper basin, but the order was wrong, this was not done “between”, and instead of reviving her, more blood was drawn from Aphrita, weakening her further.
Next he tried placing moon metal, the rocks from Aphrita’s bolo, in the unbalanced scale, but again the order of operation was incorrect. He did not put in the metal “last” and so instead of releasing it constricted further. A hundred tiny spikes closed in, many of them just piercing the surface of Aphrita’s skin.
Tamarin and Haka studied the inscriptions again. The were instructions in Maldor, but cryptic in their nature. Terrified of harming her further, they turned to the censer. Haka had already made a paralytic antidote and had the herbs ready, so he tried burning them in the senser. The bounty of the land “first” mended her mind. Aphrita’s eyes moved again with alarm. With a terrible effort she blinked and one of the syringes retracted from her neck.
Next, Tamarin cut herself to bleed in the copper basin “between” the other steps. The syringe drawing blood from Aphrita retracted as well.
Finally Aonghüs added the weight of the moon metal. So tentatively the moment the machine started to move he pulled them away. He tried again and to their great relief, it opened, and Aphrita tumbled forward, her skin cut by a hundred tiny barbs.
Flee now or stay and fight
Aonghüs gave Aphrita her spear, now remade, which both helped to bolster her sprits “The blood on the tip is Commander Priya’s” and helped her walk (she was still very week).
They made it to the gun duck and heard below someone shout in alarm, the commander was dead! The could flee now, or take their chance to defeat the sorcerer. After a short discussion back and forth the convinced Ysabel to take Aphrita back to the Sea Serpent. It was then the realized Ysabel’s reluctance to rescue Aphrita, she was jealous of Newlyn’s love for her!
Into the Shadows
The moved to the top deck and into the dark shadow-stuff in the front. Inside it, their shadows menaced them, and and tiny red embers glowed where their hearts would be. The moved to the front and saw Sorcerer Zedwick surrounded by two servants draped in dark cloaks. He was focused on maintaining the shadows around the ship but when the arrived he turned and the shadows began to dissipate. His full attention was on the heroes.
He looked them all over, and then made them an offer. “Join me, and I can reunite you with your tribe Aeongus and lift your fathers Curse. Join me and I can teach you the sorcerer’s arts. Join me Haka, and we can reach the last Ember of Sky Fire together…Join me and we can bathe the world in flames.”
Notably he hadn’t mentioned Tamarin’s name, though is attention lingered on her the longest. Also notable, his shadow was burning and there was a giant tome behind him!
Thoughts on the Game
The dice were very swingy today, and produced from frustrating results for the players. Fudge dice can be like that.
I like almost all of the resolution mechanics, but actual combat is either over in a single roll (if the players win) or drawn out in a slot (if they lose and bring down the pain, which we did in this session). I think I need to break up the action a bit more so that a powerful NPC doesn’t go down because of one roll. It’s not that I don’t want to let it happen, it just feels too quick and it steals the opportunities for more back and forth between the players and the NPCs. Next time I’m going to try using the battle system from AGON, which I think is somewhere in the middle.
