AAR (12M): Just a Quick Dip (2021-07-16 @ 2300 GMT)

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predajey
Posts:344
Joined:Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:27 am
AAR (12M): Just a Quick Dip (2021-07-16 @ 2300 GMT)

Post by predajey » Mon Jul 05, 2021 3:27 am

LFG: [12M] Just a Quick Dip
Time: 2021-07-16 @ 2300 GMT (7PM EST)
GM: Pub
Difficulty: 12M
Rumor Source: Thorkell Gulbradsen

Rumor: Thorkell must return to the Death's Sea to submerge Inhibitor in its flames. Inhibitor must be submerged to a depth of 7 yards at a location where the sea is the hottest. There is record of an island in the middle of the Sea, once used as a prison by the Theran Empire to house a great many of the most dangerous of criminals that claimed the Empire as their territory. This record is pre-scourge history, but it seems like a good location to begin searching for the HotSpot at which Inhibitor must be submerged.

Location: Death's Sea

Alt Reward: None predetermined

Note: 3-4 Players

CAUTION: A wide skillset should be brought. This could be an inhabited location with hostile (or impressionable) denizens, or it could simply be a location with a wide range of antipersonnel devices designed to prevent free passage into and out of the island.
Last edited by predajey on Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:36 am, edited 3 times in total.

ChrisDDickey
Posts:1011
Joined:Sun Nov 27, 2016 10:02 pm

Re: LFG (12M): Just a Quick Dip

Post by ChrisDDickey » Mon Jul 05, 2021 4:59 pm

Name: Zil
Date Player last played: July 2nd
ECR: 12
Discipline: Elementalist 12th circle on the path of the purifier / Exemplar of Garlen - Windling
Quote/Unique:May the blessings of Garlen be upon you! Travel in style with a party Elementalist! Heat Food! Plant Feast! Purify Water! Shelter! Air Mattress! All the comforts of home upon the road.
Notable Abilities: Questor of Garlen, Physician. Lots and Lots of very good healing.
Downtime: Research rank 5, step 13 (step 16 if pay 20 sp for library access).
    Item History Rank 9 (step 20).

Consult your Elementalist before dipping anything into Deaths Sea.
Last edited by ChrisDDickey on Tue Jul 06, 2021 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

verse86
Posts:269
Joined:Tue Jun 16, 2020 11:16 pm

Re: LFG (12M): Just a Quick Dip

Post by verse86 » Tue Jul 06, 2021 1:15 am

Name: Thorkell Gulbrandsen
Date of Last Game Played:
ECR: 12
Discipline: Weaponsmith 12/Warrior 8
Unique: Thorkell brings the downtime activities. Besides that he is a perceptive and tanky troll.
Downtime:
[Craftsman] Rank 12 / 39 (+2 if metal) can make mundane items, weapons, and armor
[Efficient Forge Weapon] Rank 14 / 32 (+2 if metal) (can forge rank weapons at once)
[Rapid Forge Weapon] Rank 14 / 32 (+2 if metal) (can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Rapid Forge Armor] Rank 13 / 31 (+2 if metal) (can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Item History] Rank 4 / 26
[Research] Rank 6 / 24
[Design Enchanting Pattern] Rank 12 / 34
[Craft True Pattern] Rank 12 / 39 (+2 if metal)
[Craft True Pattern] Ring of Endurance: Ask for details.

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG (12M): Just a Quick Dip

Post by Sharkforce » Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:54 am

Name: Zivilyn
ECR: 12
Last Played: July 9
Discipline: Shaman/Wizard/Elementalist/Nethermancer/Illusionist 9/7/6/5/1
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 28 including karma (Rank 8). +3 to the step is available at a cost of 20 sp for access to the Great Library of Throal.
Item History - Step 21 including karma (Rank 9)
Design Enchanting Pattern - Step 21
Create Blood Charm - Step 21 (can make Absorb Blow, Bone Charm at +5 TN to the crafting)
Last edited by Sharkforce on Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Montaugh
Posts:203
Joined:Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:49 pm

Re: LFG (12M): Just a Quick Dip

Post by Montaugh » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:09 am

Name: William Carver
Date Last Played 6/19/2021 (What happens in Landis)
ECR: 12 (2,604,550LP)
Race: Human
Discipline: Scout 12, Thief 9, Journeyman 5, Cavalier 8
Quote/Unique: I'll get you there and back again.
Notable Abilities:
Talented: Pretty much everything that doesn't involve spells
Items:
Potions: Booster Potion (5), Cure Disease Potion (2), Halt Illness Potion (1), Healing Potion (3), Kelia's Antidote (3), Kelix's Poultice (1), Last Chance Salve (3), Salve of Closure (0)
Mounted: Huttawa named Charlie and he's sworn, He might also swear.. I don't have animal talk yet.

Downtime:
Perception step (9)
Willpower Step (6)
Mystic Defense (14)
Perfect Focus (8) Step 18 (+2 all sustained downtime activities)

Talents:
Versatile Forge Weapon Rank: (9) Step 26 (Sustained)
Versatile Research Rank: (10) Step 25, Step 28 with library Access (Sustained)
Versatile Item History Rank: (10) Step 25. (Sustained)
(Karma spent with Applied versatility or Practiced Versatility)

Skills:
Alchemy Rank 4 (15) Sustained
Known recipes
Booster Potion (EDN 7) Time: 1 per day Cost: 25
Small Light Crystal (EDN 6) Time: 1 per day Cost: 37.5
Kelix's Poultice (EDN 7) Time: 1 per day Cost: 25

Sharkforce
Posts:527
Joined:Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:39 am

Re: LFG (12M): Just a Quick Dip (2021-07-16 @ 2300 GMT)

Post by Sharkforce » Sat Jul 17, 2021 6:59 am

From the Journal of Zivilyn, Windling Magician: Just a Quick Dip

Thorkell needed a hand with dipping a pair of gauntlets into the hottest part of Death's Sea, and I had time (or at least, could *make* time) to help. An ideal match, I suppose. As I would expect of someone so practical, he had also called upon Zil (more Elementalists is almost never a bad idea, and doubly so when going to somewhere as Elementally charged as Death's Sea) and William (who worryingly insisted on introducing himself as "definitely not a horror"). This provides a combination of specialization and versatility which you would be hard to match in any other group.

Of course, I have to admit I wasn't fully prepared for this adventure, although I really would have thought I was; I had two creatures native to Death's Sea I could turn any of us into, and a grimoire chock full of a collection of spells that would make many librarians weep. I opted to leave Howler at home on this occasion; he hates the heat for one thing, and I worry about his ability to traverse the Sea safely, since he can't fly without magical assistance. Haze came along, although we spent a great deal of time separated (more on that later). I think he might be showing his age, a year ago I think he could've slipped past almost anything to get to me.

Thorkell had been digging around to find rumours of where the hottest point in Death's Sea might be, and had found evidence of an old Theran prison somewhere in the Sea. We decided that the sensible place to gather more information would Travar, as the closest major city that was friendly to us, and sure enough William was able to find some useful old captain's logs relating to resupplying the place. He got a good location. I memorized the book just in case we'd need it later.

Thorkell meanwhile had contracted "Some Like It Hot" once more to take us out to look for another island, this one being supposedly quite massive, which seems odd; you'd think something that large would be a known port. There was a lot of turbulence on the way out, but nothing too problematic. The crew were in good spirits (I think that may have been the amount of spirits that Thorkell provided them with; I think he might've forgotten that not everyone can handle as much liquor as a Troll).

We got to our destination point, and there was nothing to be seen, except for a very odd amount of corruption and an odd absolute lack of anything living. So, apart from all the things we found, nothing. Oh, and signs of... something? Off to the west. We went to investigate, and... well, I regret to say that I believe the entire crew were lost. Out of nowhere we passed through some sort of illusionary barrier and a scant few yards on the other side of it was a cliff, 2000 feet up over Death's Sea. The ship took serious damage and perhaps most importantly was losing altitude. Some of the crew seem to have lost their senses, for I remember seeing some of them jump off the side before I hit my head and lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I was in a cell being jabbed at by a guard who insisted that I go do something. Turns out that something was watch a man be thrown into a pit of stones and brutally destroyed by a Spirit that had the appearance of a large burning tree. I am not amused. Apparently this is a thing that happens every morning. A strange woman Named Theresa with no eyes and red glowing in her mouth comes to talk to me, and offers to help me get in touch with anyone I would like in other areas of the prison. Not long after, William speaks to me through her... sister? Apparently there is someone like her in each area. Also, I have none of my equipment, and none of my spell matrices are working, and Haze was gone, though I could sort of feel that he was alive somewhere.

I spend the week freezing and heating the bars of my cell to a point where I can break them. William couldn't find our weapons and apparently had a lot more freedom than I do, as well as making a friend of some ancient Elf where he is. Thorkell says he wishes he had a proper forge, but in the meanwhile he is making a bunch of makeshift weapons. Zil decides to gain favour with the farmers in his area by improving the quality of their farmland.

In the next week, I befriend the Spirit, which Zil sounds very interested in. I spend some time talking to it about the fact that the Scourge is largely ended and most of the horrors are gone. William finds some way to arrange for us to trade places without the guards noticing, thanks to some help from the Elf. Zill continues to impress the farmers so that they'll smuggle things around the prison for us, and Thorkell is delighted to have access to the kitchen (and fire) so that he can do some proper forging. Apparently the scraps of brittle metal I have are the best we've got, so those go to him.

William also figures out where our weapons and equipment are, and apparently that is down "the pit" which nobody ever comes back alive from. We aim to prove them wrong on that. There is access to this pit in each part of the prison, and on closer inspection it looks like an old well. We each arrange to drop down and recover our equipment, and as we finally get to see each other in person for the first time in weeks Thorkell is looking to see where something has dragged the box with our equipment off to and is jumped from the shadows by some strange horror. Whatever it is, we are surrounded in a field of its victims, twitching and moaning and crying in agony as they lie pinned in place, somehow not dead after who knows how long in this hole. The guards have much to answer for if they have made a deal with this thing.

The horror hurls a spike at Zil and pins him to the ground, but Thorkell is quick to respond and tears into it with his shivs. I am glad he is on our side as he carves this weird three-tailed, claw-legged thing open in seconds, before I can even begin to give anyone Mage Armour. Seconds later, Haze comes flying in, and I am pleased to be reunited with him. I can't wait to get back to Howler either.

We get our armour on, put on our thread items, and go back up top to have a discussion with the guards about the morality of operating a prison that punishes the descendants of criminals just for having been born in a prison. Zil wants to enlist the Arborean (that would be the extremely powerful Spirit in my part of the prison, which was nice enough to help me learn to speak both Fire and Wood Elemental), which is fine.

The guards suddenly decide that maybe making a bunch of Adepts angry by throwing them in prison and taking all their stuff was not the best decision they had ever made, and surrender. One of them suggests that we should join them in arbitrarily tormenting the prisoners here, and at long last I understand why I need formal hob-nailed boots built specially for kicking. Thorkell got to work out his frustration on a horror, I got to work mine out on a horror collaborator.

After Zil gives them a good talking-to, and William pitches in, a few of them decide that living on the mainland doesn't sound so bad and the guards "conveniently remember" that they have stone ships for just such an occasion. Thorkell builds a nice tall monument to Upandal on the top of the island so that the location is marked and no more airships need to crash into it to find the place, the Arborean agrees to help Thorkell dip his gloves in lava, and we go on our way. For the record: sailing on a stone ship through thick lava sucks. I don't recommend it. At all. At least it was a dry heat, but still everything gets hot. I feel bad for the people who didn't even have shoes when we left the prison. Hopefully the next batch get to leave the place by airship, because I don't think the trip would have been survivable for the folks from the prison without a couple of Elementalists (one of them Questing for Garlen) to keep them alive.

I think maybe I'll talk to the local Questors of Lochost about heading out there to have a little talk about why you DON'T LOCK PEOPLE UP FOR 400 YEARS JUST BECAUSE THEIR ANCESTORS DID SOMETHING. Actually, while I'm at it, maybe I should ask Vlolkir to take a look and see if the prison guards have any horror marks on them or anything. There was only the one (I was relieved to see that the suffering of all its victims ended when it died, which is *why* I assume there was only the one), but then again, the whole place was badly corrupted in the astral, so who knows.

So, long story short: there was a lot of interesting stuff to study. I'd like to see if that damnable whatever-it-is that broke our matrices can be disabled, someone should probably look into whatever is up with the women who have no eyes and you can talk through them to people on the other side, the great illusion that hides the place should be studied for the good of all Namegivers, and hopefully that can be mostly someone else's problem. Maybe I should let a scholar know about the place too. With all the weird stuff that nobody else has written 500 page studies on, I bet I'll be able to just read their reports in a year or two without having to spend the whole time in the middle of Death's Sea and learn all about all the interesting things out there! Personally, I have other things to learn (but really, that illusion would have been really helpful back when it was looking like the island might need to worry about scourge cult attacks).

predajey
Posts:344
Joined:Mon Jun 15, 2020 9:27 am

Re: LFG (12M): Just a Quick Dip (2021-07-16 @ 2300 GMT)

Post by predajey » Sun Jul 18, 2021 3:36 am

AAR: Just a Quick Dip
GM: Pub
ECR: 12
Difficulty: Medium

Player Rewards:
Thorkell: 184000 LP 2500 SP 3 TIPs
William: 184000 LP 2500 SP 3 TIPs
Zil: 184000 LP 2500 SP 3 TIPs
Zivilyn: 184000 LP 2500 SP 3 TIPs

Alt Rewards: None

Journals: 9200 LP, 625 SP

GM Reward: Calina (13000 LP, 775 SP, 3 TIPs)

Downtime:

[Item History] at Step 26 (Rank 4)
[Research] at Step 28 (Rank 8, Step 31 with Library)
[Librarian] Knack Spend 1 success to reduce Research time by 1 day
[Craftsman] at Step 39 (Rank 12, +2 if metal) can make mundane items, weapons, and armor
[Efficient Forge Weapon] at Step 32 (Rank 14, +2 if metal, can forge rank weapons at once)
[Rapid Forge Weapon] at Step 32 (Rank 14, +2 if metal, can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Rapid Forge Armor] at Step 31 (Rank 13, +2 if metal, can use extra successes to reduce downtime by 1 day each)
[Design Enchanting Pattern] at Step 34 (Rank 12)
[Craft True Pattern] at Step 39 (Rank 12, +2 if metal)
[Craft True Pattern] Ring of Endurance: Ask for details
[Craft Spell Matrix Objects] at Step 23 (Rank 11) Standard - 5 days -1000 SP; Enhanced 6 days - 2000 SP; Armored Matrix 7 days - 4000 SP
[Design Enchanting Pattern] at Step 23 (Rank 11)
[Animal Training] at Step 20 (Rank 10, can train up to 10 commands total, or improve non-combat skills by +1 per command used on it)
[Create Blood Charm] at Step 21 (can make Absorb Blow, Bone Charm at +5 TN to the crafting)
[Alchemy] at Step 15 (Rank 4)
  • Booster Potion (EDN 7) Time: 1 per day Cost: 25
  • Small Light Crystal (EDN 6) Time: 1 per day Cost: 37.5
  • Kelix's Poultice (EDN 7) Time: 1 per day Cost: 25
Summary:
Thorkell found that he had to submerge Inhibitor into the Death's Sea at a point where it was hottest and at a depth of 7 yards. Rumors were found describing an island where a pre-scourge Theran Prison was located. It seemed like a decent place to establish a base from which to search for this location. Through research, the group was able to find bearings from several locations to conduct a two point intersection, identifying where this island was. Enlisting "Some Like It Hot" as transport, they found that nothing existed at that location, or so it seemed. Attempts at using spells led to a breakdown of Zil and Zivilyn's spell matrices; however, Talents didn't seem to be affected. Following a faint flicker from Zivilyn's Lifesight, their airship passed through a sort of veil before crashing into a shear cliff face.

Upon awakening, each party member found themselves in a prison cell, their equipment removed and replaced with simple twill thread clothing, and alone. Each party member was in a unique quadrant of the prison. The found Terisa, Rita, Tina, and Nicole, who were able to communicate with each other. William developed a rapport with Laniel, an Elf with thorns like the Blood Elves and stone-like skin similar to Obsidifolk, who ran the warehouse. Laniel was able to use True Switch to allow party members to swap places, despite the issues with spell matrices. Zil purified the earth of a farm garden, gaining the trust of the Dumph family, who offered to move small objects between the sections. Zivilyn was able to break free of his cell and began conversing with a terrifying Elemental spirit who seemed to be a mix between a wood elemental and a fire elemental. Thorkell was assigned to serve one of the guards, but was not inclined to do much more than fashion what was quite possibly the most lethal shiv out of a wooden spoon.

Zivilyn was able to talk the Ablazed Arborean spirit into taking the gloves to where they needed to be submerged. William was able to track down where the party's equipment was located. The party found a Horror living below the prison. After recovering their gear, Zil and William talked a few of the denizens into moving to the Barsaive mainland, but most of the residents elected to remain in the prison. The guards, swayed by the reported safety of the mainland, informed the party of several stone sea craft capable of crossing Death's Sea back to Barsaive. Zivilyn recommended to Thorkell to build a large flag or some similar marking to protrude out of the veil so the next group of visitors doesn't crash into the island.

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