On the road, Xinnian Empire, 18 of Starlight.
The night passed without events and the group prepared to continue their trip. Travelling without interruption, they reached the Township of Moller before the second sunset. As their map indicated, a full battalion if the Xinnian Army covered the South East Approach to the city. As usual, the companions decided that Mamba should do the talking.
Black Mamba justified their presence in Moller as a re-supplying trip and justified the fact that they were fully armed to the presence of barbarians in the North. After consulting with their fellow officers, the soldiers allowed the companions to enter the township.
"Go on," said the soldier, gesturing with his thumb. "But if we hear that you caused any problems, we'll go get you."
"Understood, Sir," said Mamba with a slight bow.
"This guy is going to get us in trouble," murmured Daktari to no one in particular after they passed the barricades.
The group entered the town and looked for an inn, which was not too difficult because the town was small and because the Inn was marked with a large sign. They entered the Inn and walked straight to the bar, where they met a short, middle aged woman. Her hair dropped dead to the sides of her pale face and she was missing her two front teeth.
Daktari and Mamba ordered honey liquor and Kishara asked for bread. Persephone decided to sit by the tables and keep her eyes open. There were two suspicious men in a corner, who seemed to be eyeing the companions, but they left without causing any trouble.
The companions rented two rooms upstairs, and a while later, Daktari and Kishara retired to their beds, leaving Persephone and Black Mamba downstairs. Persephone remained in the main hall for a while but later decided to go top her room. For some reason, she could not sleep that night, and remained awake most of the night.
Mamba established some rapport with the bartender, whose mane was Danina, and before the night ended, she was pouring free drinks on Mamba's cup.
"So," Janina asked, leaning on the counter. "Which one of those girls is your wife?"
"Oh," said Mamba after considering if he should lie or tell the truth. "None, of them. I don't have a wife."
"No one waiting for you at home?"
"No."
For some reason, this seemed to please the woman, who kept Mamba's cup to the brim with the sweet liquor.
Township of Moller, Xinnian Empire, 19 of Starlight.
Persephone did not sleep at all that night, and from her bedroom, listened to the movements of troops and people on the streets. Finally, too exhausted to remain awake, she succumbed to sleep, almost at first dawn.
Kishara and Daktari woke up early and met each other in the main room.
"Are you ready to go?" Asked Kishara. "Persephone is still sleeping."
"Mamba was drinking last night with that bartender woman," responded Daktari. "He's totally wasted right now."
"So, what should we do?"
"I guess I'll go see the town," Daktari got up. "See if I find anything interesting."
After Daktari left, Kish decided that she would also like to see the town. However, since she really didn't have a particular place in mind, she quickly grew bored and returned to the Inn.
Daktari on the other hand, found a weapon shop. It was full, wall to wall with low quality weapons and there was a tall guard keeping an eye on him at all times, which he found oppressing, so he decided to leave.
On the way to the door he saw something that called his attention. There on a shelf, was the most beautiful knife that he had seen in his life. Actually, it was the most beautiful knife he had seen twice in his life, because now that he thought about it, that knife used to belong to his great-grandfather. So, this was where great-grandpa had lost his knife! How lucky for him to have found it! He was about to grab it when a thought came to him. The knife was in a store, so whenever he grabbed it, the guard would think that he stole it. That would be an inconvenient, because great-grandpa was not here to explain to them that the knife actually belonged to Daktari, and he was in an important mission with Persephone and could not go to jail just now. He thought about leaving the knife, but that was not fair. He had found it and it belonged to him.
Dak walked to the window and looked out. Two women walked down the street outside.
"Are all Moller women that beautiful?" Dak asked pointing out.
"I don't think they are particularly beautiful," said the guard, giving a momentary glance to the women, but returning to keep an eye on Daktari immediately. "Most women around these parts are better looking."
"Oh," said Daktari. "I guess I'll go see some of them, then."
Daktari walked out the door and into the street. It was about noon, so he decided to return to the Inn. On his way, he pulled the jewel-encrusted knife out of his pockets and stared at it. How lucky he was! To travel so far from home and find Great-Grandpa's knife. None of his friends back home would believe it. The knife looked even better than the last time he saw it. Back then, it had been an old relic. Now, it looked new, and the jewel was different too. Someone must have had lost the old glass bead that was at the pommel and felt bad for great-grandpa so he placed a precious gemstone there instead. How lucky...
By the time Dak reached the Inn, everyone was ready to leave. Bartender Danina came outside to bid farewell to Mamba and gave him a bag of bread that he quickly gave to Kishara.
The rest of the day passed without event and they camped on the road again.
TO BE CONTINUED
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
1.1 The Xinnian Resistance
Andustaran, Xinnian Empire, 17 of Starlight.
Persephone suggested that they should investigate the rivers, but in the end was convinced by the rest of her team that the rivers were being watched by the Xinnian forces and therefore were not their main priority. Looking over the map, the group determined to look for clues at the site of the last battle, a spot on the road that borders the forest of the Fae and that runs North to South from Freya to the Great City of Xin.
Since the characters met at an Inn in Andustaran, and they decided to take the Southern Route, they faced a 5-day trip, as a horse rides, but they had no horses and not enough money to buy one, much less three.
"Ah, don't you worry," said Daktari to the worry of everyone else. "I know where I can get horses. You just wait outside of the city. I'll get them horses."
No one asked him how or where he planned to acquire the beasts.
While Persephone, Kishara and Mamba waited, Daktari returned to the city with his faithful mount Cattus and approached the city stables. There were plenty of horses there, he thought. No one would notice if he took three.
The nice guard that kept watch over the horses was asleep, and Daktari didn't want to wake him up. Why, that would be rude, besides, the man had the keys to the stable easily available hanging from his belt.
In a moment, Daktari entered the stables, opened several of the gates and allowed the horses to run free. Scared as they were by Cattus, this was an easy task. The poor man was awakened by a literal stampede and went after the horses, which made it easier for Daktari to take three of them and return to his friends at camp.
The group travelled most of the day until they found some tracks to the side of the road, as if someone had been riding on the grasslands. They looked around, but the number of tracks did not seem to match the numbers that the Belomari Raiders must have, and it didn't seem to be related to the Belomari, so eventually they decided not to pursue this.
Too exhausted to even think about posting guards, the four travelers set up camp, ate some food and went to sleep in two tents. Kishara and Persephone shared on of them, while Daktari and Mamba shared the other. Black Mamba was the last one to go to sleep because he wanted to groom his beard. While they slept, Cattus roamed the countryside, probably hunting for moon rats or any of the other small mammals that were abundant on the area. As a pet, besides riding, Cattus did not have many skills. Daktari has plans to train it some more in the future.
In the middle of the night, Persephone was awakened by a small sound. It seemed to her that someone had walked into their camp and the horses were a bit nervous.
"Kishara," she whispered. "I thing someone is here."
Kishara placed her palms on the ground and concentrated. Feeling the vibrations around the camp, she identified the number and general location of several bipedal and quadrupedal creatures. Her Earth Elementalist powers did not give her information about the nature of the creatures, but did tell her that they had been surrounded.
"What are we going to do?" Persephone asked after Kishara shared her discovery. "The boys are asleep."
"I wish I had more power," said the Fae. "If I could raise the Earth under our tents into a very high column, we could avoid whoever is out there."
"Wait," Persephone said. "Can you do that?
"Of course not," she answered, as if everyone knew what in the abyss an Elementalist was capable of. "Only wizards of Legendary powers could do something like that, but wait, I have an idea."
Once again, Kish placed her palm on the friendly Earth. It was the month of Starlight, so the powers of Autumn, including those of the Earth Elementalist were in their prime. Sure, it would not be a column, but she could still cause a ripple around them to surprise their enemies and awaken their friends.
"What is this?" A voice yelled from outside as the small ripple of earthquake spread from the tent. At least now they knew that those who surrounded them could talk.
"Hush, you imbecile," responded another. Persephone recognized the accent as North Xinnian, perhaps Kametian, and decided to go out and confront them.
Once outside, Daktari and black Mamba joined them. They were surrounded by scruffy-looking Xinnians who appeared to have skipped too many meals and even more baths. They were all young, all had in their eyes the fire of insanity. Persephone had doubts as to whether coming out of the tents had been a good idea.
"Let Mamba do the talking," said Daktari, confident in that his friend's sweet tongue would keep them from harm. Of course, the Xinnians didn't look like much, but there were 20 of them or more out there, and after all, they were Xinnians, and that was not who they were meant to be fighting against.
"All right," said Mamba walking slowly towards the men, who held spears towards them. "What can we do for you?"
"We are the resistance of the Xinnian Empire," said the tallest Xinnian of the group, a skinny fellow whose hair had forgotten brush, comb or water. "We don;t want to hurt you, but we need supplies. We'll take your weapons, horses and provisions and will let you live."
"If you are the Xinnian resistance, we are glad to see you fellows," said Mamba with a smile.
"Don't you get us killed," whispered Kishara.
"We are your allies," said Mamba. "As a matter of fact, we are on our way to the City of Xin to join the effort to fight the barbarian scum."
"Really?" the young man said. The companions could tell that he was not sure what to make of Mamba's sunny disposition.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" asked another man, a shorter, leaner scholarly type, in times of famine, of course. "How do we know that you are who you say you are?"
"We are not going to do anything," said Mamba, mostly to Kishara, who seemed to be thinking on how to use her talents against the bandits. "We just need to deliver a message to the city of Xin. The Belomari war raiders will reach their city in less than a week."
"How do you know that?" asked the first man. "Tell us!"
"We saw them."
At that, a wave of murmur swept through the group.
"Silence!" said the leader. Then he removed himself from hearing range of the companions and discussed the matter with the scholarly kid.
"Listen," said the boy after finishing his discussion. "We ride for the Great City right now. We'll alert them of the threat you mention."
"The gods grant you speed," said Mamba. "Speed and strength, my friends"
With that, the young bandits fled, leaving the companions alone.
"They didn't steal anything," said Daktari after a quick review. "But that was a close one. We really need to post guards at night".
That night, as she slept, Kishara heard a murmur of sand and pebbles, a fairy of the land speaking to her as in a dream, saying that the bandits had left, but if they found out that they had lied about them, they would come back for them and their revenge would be swift and lethal. If this was a message from the gnomes of Autumn or just a dream made up by her own worries, Kishara knew not.
And thus concluded the first day of the travels of the companions.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Persephone suggested that they should investigate the rivers, but in the end was convinced by the rest of her team that the rivers were being watched by the Xinnian forces and therefore were not their main priority. Looking over the map, the group determined to look for clues at the site of the last battle, a spot on the road that borders the forest of the Fae and that runs North to South from Freya to the Great City of Xin.
Since the characters met at an Inn in Andustaran, and they decided to take the Southern Route, they faced a 5-day trip, as a horse rides, but they had no horses and not enough money to buy one, much less three.
"Ah, don't you worry," said Daktari to the worry of everyone else. "I know where I can get horses. You just wait outside of the city. I'll get them horses."
No one asked him how or where he planned to acquire the beasts.
While Persephone, Kishara and Mamba waited, Daktari returned to the city with his faithful mount Cattus and approached the city stables. There were plenty of horses there, he thought. No one would notice if he took three.
The nice guard that kept watch over the horses was asleep, and Daktari didn't want to wake him up. Why, that would be rude, besides, the man had the keys to the stable easily available hanging from his belt.
In a moment, Daktari entered the stables, opened several of the gates and allowed the horses to run free. Scared as they were by Cattus, this was an easy task. The poor man was awakened by a literal stampede and went after the horses, which made it easier for Daktari to take three of them and return to his friends at camp.
The group travelled most of the day until they found some tracks to the side of the road, as if someone had been riding on the grasslands. They looked around, but the number of tracks did not seem to match the numbers that the Belomari Raiders must have, and it didn't seem to be related to the Belomari, so eventually they decided not to pursue this.
Too exhausted to even think about posting guards, the four travelers set up camp, ate some food and went to sleep in two tents. Kishara and Persephone shared on of them, while Daktari and Mamba shared the other. Black Mamba was the last one to go to sleep because he wanted to groom his beard. While they slept, Cattus roamed the countryside, probably hunting for moon rats or any of the other small mammals that were abundant on the area. As a pet, besides riding, Cattus did not have many skills. Daktari has plans to train it some more in the future.
In the middle of the night, Persephone was awakened by a small sound. It seemed to her that someone had walked into their camp and the horses were a bit nervous.
"Kishara," she whispered. "I thing someone is here."
Kishara placed her palms on the ground and concentrated. Feeling the vibrations around the camp, she identified the number and general location of several bipedal and quadrupedal creatures. Her Earth Elementalist powers did not give her information about the nature of the creatures, but did tell her that they had been surrounded.
"What are we going to do?" Persephone asked after Kishara shared her discovery. "The boys are asleep."
"I wish I had more power," said the Fae. "If I could raise the Earth under our tents into a very high column, we could avoid whoever is out there."
"Wait," Persephone said. "Can you do that?
"Of course not," she answered, as if everyone knew what in the abyss an Elementalist was capable of. "Only wizards of Legendary powers could do something like that, but wait, I have an idea."
Once again, Kish placed her palm on the friendly Earth. It was the month of Starlight, so the powers of Autumn, including those of the Earth Elementalist were in their prime. Sure, it would not be a column, but she could still cause a ripple around them to surprise their enemies and awaken their friends.
"What is this?" A voice yelled from outside as the small ripple of earthquake spread from the tent. At least now they knew that those who surrounded them could talk.
"Hush, you imbecile," responded another. Persephone recognized the accent as North Xinnian, perhaps Kametian, and decided to go out and confront them.
Once outside, Daktari and black Mamba joined them. They were surrounded by scruffy-looking Xinnians who appeared to have skipped too many meals and even more baths. They were all young, all had in their eyes the fire of insanity. Persephone had doubts as to whether coming out of the tents had been a good idea.
"Let Mamba do the talking," said Daktari, confident in that his friend's sweet tongue would keep them from harm. Of course, the Xinnians didn't look like much, but there were 20 of them or more out there, and after all, they were Xinnians, and that was not who they were meant to be fighting against.
"All right," said Mamba walking slowly towards the men, who held spears towards them. "What can we do for you?"
"We are the resistance of the Xinnian Empire," said the tallest Xinnian of the group, a skinny fellow whose hair had forgotten brush, comb or water. "We don;t want to hurt you, but we need supplies. We'll take your weapons, horses and provisions and will let you live."
"If you are the Xinnian resistance, we are glad to see you fellows," said Mamba with a smile.
"Don't you get us killed," whispered Kishara.
"We are your allies," said Mamba. "As a matter of fact, we are on our way to the City of Xin to join the effort to fight the barbarian scum."
"Really?" the young man said. The companions could tell that he was not sure what to make of Mamba's sunny disposition.
"How do we know you're telling the truth?" asked another man, a shorter, leaner scholarly type, in times of famine, of course. "How do we know that you are who you say you are?"
"We are not going to do anything," said Mamba, mostly to Kishara, who seemed to be thinking on how to use her talents against the bandits. "We just need to deliver a message to the city of Xin. The Belomari war raiders will reach their city in less than a week."
"How do you know that?" asked the first man. "Tell us!"
"We saw them."
At that, a wave of murmur swept through the group.
"Silence!" said the leader. Then he removed himself from hearing range of the companions and discussed the matter with the scholarly kid.
"Listen," said the boy after finishing his discussion. "We ride for the Great City right now. We'll alert them of the threat you mention."
"The gods grant you speed," said Mamba. "Speed and strength, my friends"
With that, the young bandits fled, leaving the companions alone.
"They didn't steal anything," said Daktari after a quick review. "But that was a close one. We really need to post guards at night".
That night, as she slept, Kishara heard a murmur of sand and pebbles, a fairy of the land speaking to her as in a dream, saying that the bandits had left, but if they found out that they had lied about them, they would come back for them and their revenge would be swift and lethal. If this was a message from the gnomes of Autumn or just a dream made up by her own worries, Kishara knew not.
And thus concluded the first day of the travels of the companions.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Session 1: Prologue
NOTE: If you haven't read the introduction, you should CLICK HERE first.
"But something has to be done!" Persephone told the unnamed officer who stood by the window of his rich office. "There is no way we are going to stay put and wait for the Belomari to kill us all!"
"You are young, my dear," said the officer, not even turning to look at her. "You lack the experience needed to understand military strategy".
"What military strategy? The same one that lost you the cities of Kamet and Soliman?"
At that, the officer turned back to face her and placed a hand on a polished desk. "Our conversation is over, girl. Go back to your unit."
"There is no unit, sir," said Persephone. "I resigned my post, I'm not with your army anymore."
"Oh, I see," said the officer with a twisted smile. "In that case, I suggest you remove yourself from my presence before I call the guards. You know how we deal with deserters around these parts."
Persephone left. It was useless. The war was going bad, and the enemy had not yet attacked in full force. If the Belomari managed to cross the Ring of Fire in large numbers, the Xinnian military had no hope. Persephone had been telling them for a long time. Her intelligence contacts had given her enough information for her to believe that the Belomari were preparing a major scale invasion. She didn't know when or where, but she planned to find out. If only the military officers were a little more understanding...
Her spirits improved a little when she entered the main hall of the Inn where she was to meet her informant. Her old friend Kish was there. She had asked the fae elementalist to come, but had not received confirmation. Of course, it was like Kish to forget to respond. She was very smart, but careless, absent-minded one might say. At least she was here.
Later, the two friends finished their meal and headed upstairs for the room they had rented for the meeting. It was about time for her informant to arrive.
A soft, almost imperceptible rasp on the door announced the arrival of Daktari. Kishtara opened the door and was surprised to see that the informant was a four-feet tall Mede.
"What's your problem, am I too short to enter the room?" Daktari asked, pushing Kishtara aside and walking in. "Pers, you have to teach your friend some manners."
"Sorry, Daktari," said Persephone. "This is my friend Kishtara. Kish, this is Daktari. He was my informant in the military, but now we're joining forces."
"Nice meeting you, Daktari" said Kishtara closing the door.
"No,"interrupted Daktari. "Leave it open. I brought a friend."
"A friend?" Persephone looked worried.
"Yeah," said Daktari. "You brought an ally, I brought one too. He's downstairs, getting some of that honey drink they make around here. He's never tasted it before."
"I thought you were talking about that cattus of yours."
"Ah, no. People are usually afraid of big cats, so I left her out of town, hunting."
A few minutes later, a tall man entered the room struggling with four mugs of honeybrew. Daktari introduced him simply as 'Black Mamba', which clearly was not the man's real name, but neither Persephone nor Kishtara asked any questions.
"So," asked Mamba rubbing his hands. "When do we begin killing barbarians?"
Kish and Pers exchanged a look, unsure of whether the man was serious or not.
"Daktari," asked Persephone after a pause. "Did you bring it?"
"Of course," answered the Mede. "Would I be here if I didn't have it?"
Daktari sat on a low chair by the table and began to fumble with his pouches. The rest of the group pulled chairs closer around the table.
"Ah, here it is," said Daktari, opening a bone cylinder and pulling a roll of parchment from inside. He unrolled it, and smoothed it on the table. "So, is this what you wanted?"
"Yes," answered Pers. "It's perfect.""But what is it?" Asked Mamba.
"It's a map, you doofus," said Daktari. "What, you have never seen one?"
"I know it's a map! I'm just asking what the map is for!"
"It's a map of the East side of the Xinnian Empire," Explained Persephone, always the patient one. "Here, this is the Great City of Xin."
"Pardon me for asking," asked Kishtara. "But aren't maps supposed to have a legend or something? What are blue and red markings?
"The blue bars are the Xinnian Forces," answered Daktari pointing at the map. Three full battalions protect the Capital, here, here and here."
"The red marks are the location of the major battles fought so far, including the siege of Soliman and the massacre of Kamet."
"I heard those cities are gone," said Kishtara. "Is it true?"
"Gone," answered Daktari.
"The refugees of Soliman are travelling to Xin as we speak," explained Persephone. "There were no survivors in Kamet."
"The entire city gone?" asked Black Mamba, who had been silently picking at his nails with a knife. "I hate these barbarians!"
"So," asked Kishtara, "Why are the Xinnian forces all spread out if the battles are happening on this area only?"
"That is the problem, Kish," answered Persephone. The military has no idea where the Belomari army is. They seem to appear out of nowhere, attack and leave after the battle. No one knows where they come from, how they cross the mountains and where they are hiding, so the military is trying to protect the cities."
"But why is this army here?" Asked Kish, pointing at the army by the ruins of Kamet. "If the city is already lost, shouldn't they go help somewhere else?"
"They think the Belomary is coming through the rivers," explained Daktari. That's the reason why they are covering that side on Revis and Moller as well".
"I see Andustaran moved its army to the North of the city," said Persephone. "At least someone is paying attention."
"You think they will attack from the North?" asked Kishtara.
"Look at all the battles," said Persephone. "They seem to be interested in this area."
"What now?" asked Daktari. "Where do they attack next?"
"This is what we need to figure out," answered Persephone. "We need to find this army, or at least some clues as to where they are going or what they want."
"And then we kill them all!" Said Black Mamba with a shrill laugh.
Everyone stared at him for a second. They didn't stand a chance against a full army and they knew it. Black Mamba, on the other hand, either had a huge ego or was suicidal.
"Once we have an idea of what the Belomari are doing, "said Persephone."We will alert the military, so they can prepare accordingly."
"All right," said Black Mamba standing up. "What are we waiting for? Let's go get us some barbarian!"
"Well," said Persephone. "I'm glad you are all excited, but first we need to decide where to go."
"Well," said Kishtara. "Let me see that map again."
As the night approached, the four friends huddled around the map and discussed their plans to investigate the origin of the attacks, the location of the enemy army and their next objective.
What will they do now?
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Developmental Notes: Character Creation
A Note on Developmental Notes:
While play-testing and developing the rules for FATE of Stolvorden, I will introduce concepts and comments about the progress of the game here. I'm planning to identify them as "Developmental Notes" and add a subtitle. If you are interested in little details about how the game rules are adapted, applied, expanded and condensed, these are the posts for you. If on the other hand, your interest is in following the story of the characters and their adventures, I will be publishing story summaries on a session by session format.
The back story presented in the previous post emphasizes the information that surfaced during character creation. The option of playing characters that sympathized with the plight of the Xinnian people originated with the players, who might as well have taken the side of the Belomari, in which case the presentation above would have been totally different.
I found that creating the characters in phases led with some discussion from the GM and questions for the players gave richness of detail not only to the interrelationship between characters but also game me plenty of material to borrow for use as a backdrop. There were things discussed that prompted me to plan new plot development, so in general, character creation went well.
One of the challenges we will have in play-testing FATE of Stolvorden is that we will have to be flexible enough to change things that don;t work about the game, while maintaining a semblance of storyline. A few problems surfaced during character creation that will have to be addressed. First, the skill list, which I developed after FATE version 2.0, needs to be updated to reflect current changes in the rules. This means that the players will have to update their character sheets. I will take advantage of the fact that the sheet itself needed to be updated to do this immediately.
Another problem surfaced when one of the players wanted to play a Fae Elementalist. Although I have the rules for Elementalism basically done, the rules mention that the Fae follow a different version of Elementalism based on the seasons of the year. This player's wish to develop a Fae Elementalist represented a stumbling block. However, during character creation, we 'discovered' that this character had "left" (been expelled?) the land of the Fae and that her training had been done by humans (who now are hunting for her, do we have a pattern here?) so her version of Elementalism should be the human one (or more correctly, Dwarven, since humans acquired Elementalism from the Altun Dwarfs).
At this time, I need to work on the new skill list, on a few details for Elementalism, particularly the Alter Elemental skill, and on getting the details of the first session worked out, so the players can start to play as soon as possible.
Since there are many pieces of information that the characters are not aware of, I will try to refrain from spoilers here as much as possible. This way, the players and the readers can both enjoy discovering the world of Stolvorden together. As the GM, I hope I will be able to discover it as well.
While play-testing and developing the rules for FATE of Stolvorden, I will introduce concepts and comments about the progress of the game here. I'm planning to identify them as "Developmental Notes" and add a subtitle. If you are interested in little details about how the game rules are adapted, applied, expanded and condensed, these are the posts for you. If on the other hand, your interest is in following the story of the characters and their adventures, I will be publishing story summaries on a session by session format.
The back story presented in the previous post emphasizes the information that surfaced during character creation. The option of playing characters that sympathized with the plight of the Xinnian people originated with the players, who might as well have taken the side of the Belomari, in which case the presentation above would have been totally different.
I found that creating the characters in phases led with some discussion from the GM and questions for the players gave richness of detail not only to the interrelationship between characters but also game me plenty of material to borrow for use as a backdrop. There were things discussed that prompted me to plan new plot development, so in general, character creation went well.
One of the challenges we will have in play-testing FATE of Stolvorden is that we will have to be flexible enough to change things that don;t work about the game, while maintaining a semblance of storyline. A few problems surfaced during character creation that will have to be addressed. First, the skill list, which I developed after FATE version 2.0, needs to be updated to reflect current changes in the rules. This means that the players will have to update their character sheets. I will take advantage of the fact that the sheet itself needed to be updated to do this immediately.
Another problem surfaced when one of the players wanted to play a Fae Elementalist. Although I have the rules for Elementalism basically done, the rules mention that the Fae follow a different version of Elementalism based on the seasons of the year. This player's wish to develop a Fae Elementalist represented a stumbling block. However, during character creation, we 'discovered' that this character had "left" (been expelled?) the land of the Fae and that her training had been done by humans (who now are hunting for her, do we have a pattern here?) so her version of Elementalism should be the human one (or more correctly, Dwarven, since humans acquired Elementalism from the Altun Dwarfs).
At this time, I need to work on the new skill list, on a few details for Elementalism, particularly the Alter Elemental skill, and on getting the details of the first session worked out, so the players can start to play as soon as possible.
Since there are many pieces of information that the characters are not aware of, I will try to refrain from spoilers here as much as possible. This way, the players and the readers can both enjoy discovering the world of Stolvorden together. As the GM, I hope I will be able to discover it as well.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Introduction
It is a time of war in the lands of the north. After many years of struggle, the Belomari barbarians have finally consolidated their power under one Warlord and have now set their sigths on their neighbors to the East, the Xinnians. The Xinnians were not prepared for battle, and were taken by surprise by the fact that the Belomari war machine managed to cross the Ring of Fire, a high mountain range of volcanic origin that was previously considered impassable. Several battles ensued, resulting in the destruction of two Xinnian Cities, before a unified response effort managed to be organized. Since then, several important battles as well as smaller skirmishes have been fought on the plains to the northeast of the great city of Xin
In this time of crisis, the Xinnians looked to their old allies, the Fae, for assistance, but the Fae coldly refused to assist the humans, stating that they had brought the war on themselves and they would not interfere in the matters of man. They went further on to say that the Fae would never be moved from their sacred places and that as no human had been able to enter Faeland ever since the original exile. This said, the Fae closed their borders and suspended all relations with the Xinnian Empire “until human affairs came to order”.
Persephone, a noble-born petty officer in an intelligence, recognizance and communications battalion of the Xinnian Army, frustrated by her multiple failures to convince the Fae to help the Xinnians, and by the inability of the Xinnian command structure to provide appropriate response to what in her view is a full-scale invasion, resigns her post and gathers a group of close associates to protect the homeland in any way they can. This group consisted of three previous contacts and a few soldiers that followed her when she resigned.
Daktari, a Mede that provided Persephone with information of the movements and plans of the Belomari, was one of the first to encourage Persephone to quit the military and create her own band of mercenaries. The population of Medes in Belomar is significant, and since the Barbarian tended to ignore the ‘little people’ as they called them, Daktari found his work easy to accomplish. Daktari crossed the mountain roads often to provide intelligence to Persephone riding on a Black Cat (Panthera nigra).
‘Black Mamba’ was a former gladiator in the Stolvorden Arena who became friends with Daktari when he assisted him in purchasing his freedom by sharing a portion of his gambling winnings with him. The true name of this famous former-star is not known to many but his arena nickname and his likeness, considered to be one of the most attractive to the ladies in recent arena history are known across the Kingdom of Oxford
Kishara was a Fae that Persephone met while on an assignment to Faeland. Apparently they became friends and had some contact even after Kishara left the land of the Fae to learn Elemental Magic under the instruction of the Grey Magi in Altun’a. There are various versions of what happened between the Grey Magi and Kishara, but we know Kish Kish
Will the four friends be enough to stem the tide of barbarians that threaten to engulf the Xinnian Empire? How will they go about using their talents to help in this struggle? There are many questions, but so far, not too many answers. One thing, however, is known. Their actions will determine the FATE of Stolvorden.
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