AAR: [11M] Morgan and the Stormcrows. (2021-02-20 @ 1900 gmt)

[ChrisDDickey]

LFG: Morgan and the Stormcrows.
GM: Chris D
Organized by: William Carver (Montaugh /Montaugh #3578)
Difficulty: 11M 4 or 5 players.
Time: 2021-2-20 @ 1900 gmt Saturday at 2pm Eastern.
Rumor: http://fasagames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=2158
Deed Item: http://fasagames.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... =60#p15808

DEED: Shepard's Strength. Key Knowledge: The owner must learn where the animal met its fate. Deed: The owner must travel to that location and build a suitable tribute to the animal.

A massive spirit dog suddenly appears near William one night. It wears a collar like that one on his staff and wags is tail and urges William and his party to follow it, in the distance where it leads you can hear the bleating of sheep and the crack of thunder as flocks of birds crowd the sky.

[nathaniel]

Name: Jael
ECR: 11
Last Game: 2/13
Discipline: Beastmaster/Scholar/Woodsman
Notable Abilities: Elven Lore, Pets, Frenzy's and Grappling. Woodskin for all!
Downtime: Animal Training (Rank 11) 21, Item History (Rank 7) 16, Research (Rank 4) 13 (16 with library access)

[Montaugh]

Name: William Carver
Date Last Played Doesn't Matter My Rumor.
ECR: 11 (1,319,725 LP)
Race: Human
Discipline: Scout 11, Thief 8, Journeyman 5, Cavalryman 7
Quote/Unique: I'll get you there and back again.
Notable Abilities:
Talented: Scout, Stealth, Ranged/melee/mounted combat.
Items:
Potions: Kelia's Antidote (1), Booster Potion (5), Kelix's Poultice (1), Halt Illness Potion (1), Healing Potion (3), Last Chance Salve (3)
Mounted: Huttawa named Charlie and he's sworn, He might also swear.. I don't have animal talk yet.
Downtime:
Perception step (9)
Versatile Forge Weapon Rank: (9) Step 22
Versatile Research Rank: (10) Step 23, Step 26 with library Access
Versatile Item History Rank: (10) Step 23.
(Karma spent with Applied versatility or Practiced Versatility)

[Sharkforce]

Name: Zivilyn
ECR: 10
Last Played: Feb 12
Discipline: Shaman/Wizard/Elementalist/Nethermancer 8/7/6/5
Notable Abilities: Spells, a little bit of everything at this point. Good with animals. Only *mostly* incompetent at social stuff.
Downtime: Downtime: Animal Training (Talent) - Step 20 including karma (Rank 10) (can train up to 10 commands total, or improve non-combat skills by +1 per command used on it)
Research - Step 24 including karma (Rank 5). +3 to the step is available at a cost of 20 sp for access to the Great Library of Throal.
Item History - Step 20 including karma (Rank 8)
Design Enchanting Pattern - Step 21
Create Blood Charm - Step 21 (for the moment, you'll need to supply your *own* patterns)

[Waijhou]

Name: Xeviouz
Last time you (player, not character) played: EVENT: 1.30.21
Circle: 11/6(ECR11)
Discipline: Warrior/Horror Stalker
Quote/Unique: Lets do this!
Notable Abilities: Sword & Board
Downtime: ---

[etherial]

Name: Daldorer
Last Game Played:2021-02-08 (or maybe 2-20)
Effective Circle: 11
Discipline: Nethermancer
Quote/Unique: Daddy can make you feel better
Notable Abilities: Banish, Critical Thinking, Evidence Analysis
Downtime:

• Alchemy Step 8 (Rank 3) Recipes: Booster Potion and Small Light Quartz
• Item History Step 20 (Rank 8) (Historian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times)
• Research Step 44 (Rank 12) (Librarian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times)
• Patterncraft 24 (Rank 12) :
  • Craft Blood Charm
  • Craft True Pattern
  • Design Enchanting Pattern
  • Incorporate Bound Spirit
  • Incorporate Glyph

[Montaugh]

and we have our group. Jael, William, Daldorer, Xevious, and Zivilyn.

[ChrisDDickey]

AAR:
Player Rewards: 
William: 124,000 LP, 1500SP, 3 Tips, 1,000SP Fire Kernals TI Deed.
Jael: 124,000 lp, 1500 sp, 3 Tips, 1,000sp fire kernels.
Zivilyn:  124,000 lp, 2000 sp, 3 Tips.
Xeviouz:  124,000 lp, 2000 sp, 3 Tips.
Daldorer:  124,000 lp, 2000 sp, 3 Tips.
GM Rewards (Truck) 2,200 lp, 375 sp, 3 TIPs.

Downtime:
William: Versatile Forge Weapon Rank: (9) Step 22, Versatile Research Rank: (10) Step 23, Step 26 with library Access, Versatile Item History Rank: (10) Step 23.  (Karma spent with Applied versatility or Practiced Versatility)
Jael:  Animal Training (Rank 11) 21, Item History (Rank 7) 16, Research (Rank 4) 13 (16 with library access)
Zivilyn:  Downtime: Downtime: Animal Training (Talent) - Step 20 including karma (Rank 10) (can train up to 10 commands total, or improve non-combat skills by +1 per command used on it), Research - Step 24 including karma (Rank 5). +3 to the step is available at a cost of 20 sp for access to the Great Library of Throal. Item History - Step 20 including karma (Rank, Design Enchanting Pattern - Step 21  Create Blood Charm - Step 21 (for the moment, you'll need to supply your *own* patterns)
Daldorer: - Alchemy Step 8 (Rank 3) Recipes: Booster Potion and Small Light Quartz,  Item History Step 20 (Rank 8) (Historian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times),  Research Step 44 (Rank 12) (Librarian: Extra Successes reduce Research Times).    Patterncraft 24 (Rank 12) : Craft Blood Charm.  Craft True Pattern,  Design Enchanting Pattern.  Incorporate Bound Spirit.    Incorporate Glyph

Alternate rewards:
Half price fire kernals, half price drinks for 2 weeks.

Further Information:
The PCs are now on good terms with a Beast Sprit (dog) named Morgan.

[Sharkforce]

From the Journal of Zivilyn, Windling Magician: Morgan and the Stormcrows

Wiliam, a Human of my acquaintance that I have adventured with a few times in the past, has been spending nearly a year trying to determine where his troll sling comes from; all his efforts in the Great Library have been unable to lock down a location. Recently, however, he has woken up in the morning with a great Spirit Dog (intangibly) licking his face and pointing to the south-southwest. He enlisted myself, Daldorer, Jael, and a Human Warrior by the name of Xeviouz (I've briefly met him, but never fought at his side to my knowledge).

Being reasonably skilled in dealings with Spirits, he asked me to speak with the dog (named Morgan, and closely associated with his sling's history) and so we went out to the hills around Throal and waited for morning. Of course, getting anything like Namegiver directions out of a Beast Spirit was never on the cards, but less specific questions yielded some useful answers; for example, it was beyond the jungle, in a place that used to be nice but isn't any more, not too far from the liquid fire, with a few hills and streams having crisscrossed the region at one point. This saved us a great deal of time as we could hop on an airship and head for Travar the fast way, rather than having to hike through the entire Servos and cross rivers.

Available evidence on arrival in Travar suggested we were looking at a region a couple days travel north of Death's Sea, in the Badlands. Most of us were not particularly prepared for a journey into the Badlands, and so we gathered some equipment together; extra tents to shelter us, as much water as we could carry with the help of a Lighten Load spell, food that would not rely on finding living plants, that sort of thing. We hitched a ride near our destination with a True Fire miner airship, made a landing, and decided to head out at night, thinking to beat the heat.

Turns out, just after nightfall it gets very very cold there. Still better than when I had to hike through the Mist Swamps, so all things considered, a worthwhile trade-off; I have warm clothes (albeit not as warm as I would've liked). I don't have anti-warm clothes. Weather Cloak to provide some protection during the day was great, as was the tent I bought mostly for Howler, but was glad to have it instead of just my usual basket; I swear the wind was trying to peel our skin off with gritty sand. Thankfully I had a scarf to help keep it from caking my mouth too much while travelling.

The Damarish Rose was pretty much shining the entire time; to sneak around I had to keep it wrapped in my warm-weather cloak. And sneaking around turned out to be a very good idea, because we could hear some clashing in the distance and it turns out to be a scorpion the size of a Human house which Daldorer easily recognized as bonecrackers. We had been told that nobody comes back alive from the Badlands (or at least, not if they go far in). I guess that's one reason why. Fortunately we spotted them first, kept our distance, and flew away (on Metal Wings) under cover of a trick William could do. Good thing, too, as we saw several more moving towards the commotion.

Less fortunately, the second night we could feel a storm coming on, one that would do us serious harm. Sleet, hail, and piercing winds to steal away what little warmth we had. Fortunately we were able to find a gulley running through the region, and better still there was some abandoned cave under it. Less fortunately, Daldorer realized the gulley was formed by water that would flash flood through the area, making our shelter decidedly less safe than we would have liked.

I was able to call upon a minor Earth Spirit to lend assistance, though I could not call on one as strong as might have been useful; my study in that area has been regrettably less of a priority, and it was a close call; first it dug a ventilation shaft, then it started building up a wall between the gulley and the little cave, which it finished just before the floodwaters arrived. Meanwhile, we started looking into an interesting find that the ventilation shaft ran across; worked stone bits came rolling out of it. The Spirit grumbled a bit about the slight course correction, but it was my blood paying the price after all, (and also I think it probably recognized it would be shorter, as there was a large open area it could skip over).

In that little area where a few boxes and chests, containing journals from the original inhabitants and a fairly substantial amount of gold. William recognized the name of the town as being something from the legend of his sling, and so we knew we were close. Eventually I used the magic of the Earth Q'wril to allow us to escape the area, which we marked with a cairn so that others could find it more easily if they were inclined to make another trip (they shouldn't be, but seeing as we found quite a sum of money, and it is near Travar, I'm sure someone will try). Of course, getting there will probably be pretty hard; as a group of Wardens (and almost-Wardens) it was difficult, even with flight, as the strong gritty winds buffeted us with great force.

It was nearly morning so we waited until later in the day and broke camp. Traveling during the day was also very unpleasant, as the air gets miserably hot and there is precious little shelter from the sun or wind. It felt almost like standing in an oven, if the oven had a million tiny imps hurling pebbles at every exposed part of your body inside it. Even during the day, we could scarcely see the sky, and if we did not have such a skilled navigator as William I think we might have gotten last at least a dozen times even on our relatively short journey.

After what felt like ages (everything feels like a long time when you're miserable enough) we finally arrived at what we determined to be the location William was looking for (on the basis that Morgan appeared and indicated as much). A pair of irksome Spirits looking to cause trouble were there; one Ally Spirit (I'm not certain of its classification, as they are less easily discerned than others usually) and one Air Spirit. They taunted and jeered at us (although most only understood the Ally Spirit, which spoke in Human) and Xeviouz lost his temper. Unfortunately, he ran straight into the jaws of what we determined to be ant lions (after the fact), a creature which I had not heard even the faintest rumours of previous to this.

Ant lions are a terrible foe; they lurk underneath the sand, hidden from normal view (and I suspect the Spirits kept them hidden from my Lifesense as well until the last moment). Then when you get close, a great pit opens beneath you, funnelling their victims into their jaws as their many tentacles flail around grasping at anything to drag it to a gruesome demise. Things looked pretty bad for a minute there; I couldn't see Howler, but I could hear him crying out in pain, and Haze was struggling to do much of anything against them to help. Fortunately our capable fighters were quickly cutting them down while William, Daldorer and myself were stuck in their grip.

The Spirits, having lost their hidden advantage of ravenous beasts in the sands, decided to go elsewhere and leave us to our work. The Ally Spirit had complained that Morgan was getting a monument when many Humans around had died as well, and I say that it can go suck on an egg because it doesn't deserve so much as a bump on the ground to commemorate it.

Fortunately William had brought along tools to carve stone. I had bled enough to satiate the cravings of the local Earth Elementals so far as I am concerned, but I would have done it if I absolutely had to in order to complete our task. We managed to sneak back out of the Badlands and get into the Dragon Mountains around Death's Sea to catch a return trip with the fire miners again, and I can't say I look forward to ever going back to that benighted place. Whatever happened there must have truly hurt the land deeply. Much hard work will be needed if it is to be healed, and the land is to ever again have fields and streams and birds and rabbits and sheep roaming it again.

[Waijhou]

Feb 20, 2021
DEED: Shepard's Strength. Key Knowledge: The owner must learn where the animal met its fate. Deed: The owner must travel to that location and build a suitable tribute to the animal.

A massive spirit dog suddenly appears near William one night. It wears a collar like that one on his staff and wags is tail and urges William and his party to follow it, in the distance where it leads you can hear the bleating of sheep and the crack of thunder as flocks of birds crowd the sky.

From the journal of Xeviouz, Warrior/Horror Stalker

I received a message from my good friend William Carver to assist him with a deed for one of his many Thread Items. I drop what I am doing, grab my pack and head for the door. We need to find a battle field where some storm crows were fought. Along for the journey are William, Myself, Jael, Daldorer and Zyvlian.

We head south/southwest out of Throal and spend the night in a wooded area. William has to wake up with his staff in his hand to be able to see the ghost dog. Zyvilan is able to speak to the ghost dog and it revels the spirit wants William to follow it to the battle site. From all the clues the ghost dog(his name is Morgan) gives Zyvlian, we are heading to the Bad Lands west of Travar. We are able to jump a ride on an air ship headed to Travar. It takes 2 days to get to Travar.

After spending day and a night in Travar resupplying, we learn from the ghost dog Morgan we now need to head West/South West. We also learn that many many scouts that have ventured out west to the Bad Lands have not returned. We are able to wait a day to leave so we can hok up with a Fire Mining crew just leaving Travar. We are with the fire miners for 4 days. During that time we are able to triangulate the possible position of the Storm Crow Battle.

We spend a few hours on the rocky side of a small mount before heading into the Bad Lands after sunset. As soon as the sun goes down, the temperature drops drastically. Makes me thankful for my cold weather cloths. As we are flying along on Metal Wings, we hear a commotion off to our right. It seems to be a couple very large scorpions. Each is the size of a house! We are able to skirt to the side and proceed on course unnoticed. We continue our marchuntill the sky starts to lighten, then we find a spot to camp and rest during the day. It is very hot again as soon as the sun comes up. Lots of snakes, lizards and scorpions run around.

Evening 2 we are flying along and after a few hours of travel Jael says we need to land and seek shelter, the weather is taking a very bad turn for the worse. Jael says looks like an ice storm is coming in quick. Daldorer is able to find a cave we can all tuke into. Just as we are getting into the cave a large swarm of Storm Crows attack us. We run from the stupid crows and seek out shelter from the storm. Zivlyn is able to summon a spirit to help dig an exit because this area looks like it floods. THe spirit starts digging at an angle upwards and tells Zyvlin that it seems to be digging through a foundation of a previous building. It says it finds an air pocket, like a tunnel maybe? The air pocket is small. The spirit is able to dig a hole all the way through the roof to the outside creating an air pocket. Williams' orbiting spy finds a gold bar somehow. The spirit is asked to seal off the entrance to the cave so water can not flood in. Daldorer does psychometry on the gold bar.

Williams Orbiting Spy seems to find a second building foundation. While the spirit is digging the ceiling and covering the opening of the cave, Daldorer turn into an EarthQuill and goes to check out the air pocket and the boxes found there. He uses Astral sight to check for traps and finds none. One box has some old clothing and a couple of books. Clothing is worthless, the books are written in Human. They seem to be the journals of the mayor of a small town.

The weather has passed, all the ice is melting, we need to get out. Daldorer casts the EarthQuill on all of us so we can swim through the dirt and rock to get out. We decide to check out the second building foundation before moving on. Not much to find there. We continue on our way North looking for the battle field. We travel for a couple of hours then rest. We break camp about noon and continue North. After a few hours we find the battle sight. William says we need to construct a “tribute” whatever that is.

As we begin a couple of spirits show up, and start smack talking us. Seriously??? Smack talking spirits?? I haven't gotten to use my sword at all this adventure so now is the time. I try to use my Spirit Strike talent but am unsuccessful. Then several Antlions ambush us and I am wounded badly. It was a brutal fight, but we prevailed. Now I know why so many Scouts disappear out here in the Badlands.