cmagoun
02-23-2005, 09:04 PM
Part of my New Year's gaming resolutions was to be a more conscientous GM -- make sure I take time to look back, tie up loose ends, analyze the sessions a bit. I always enjoy actual play threads, so I figured I would try to shore up my group's gaming logs into something readable.
Runebearer Campaign Notes – The Silent Sisters
The School of the Silent Sisters
The School of the Silent Sisters is a fringe cult of priestesses that fight demons, pagans, and other enemies of the Bostonian Church. The School was founded many years ago by the “Renegade Saint” Aylea. The School recruits twins, one of which becomes a demon hunter with special powers; the other becomes a Learned Sister who aids her twin in her travels. Twins are chosen over other types of siblings because of the mythical ties in Bostonian lore of twins to demons, and because The School has methods of developing telepathic powers between twins and once the hunter takes her rune, she can no longer speak.
The Sisters’ School recently relocated from its original home in the Azareth Barony to a remote area in NW Semple. The School was forced out of Azareth due to theological disagreements between the Mother Superior of the School and Helena Azareth, the Mother of the Temple of the Dark Lake (most powerful priestess in the northwest). The Sisters wandered south and found an abandoned manor – they assumed that this was divine providence and moved in. The manor was in disrepair and they are working to repair it.
Tharsbrook
The manor is nearly a day’s travel north of Tharsbrook, a small village and mining outpost in NW Semple. Tharsbrook is a mining town of about 50 families run by the Vogel Mining Company. Everything is owned by the company and everyone here is probably in debt to the company store. Facilities include a one-room Church of Stratus, a small tavern, a company store, a blacksmith, and smelting facilities. Food is brought in from downriver in exchange for ore or pure metal ingots.
Ranchers from a sheep ranch nearby come into town occasionally to drink and cause trouble.
Tharsbrook provides most of the Sisters’ food and goods needs in exchange for healing and other religious services. The inhabitants don’t know the School’s true purpose.
Aylea the “Renegade Saint”
According to the lore of the School, Aylea was a Lay Priestess who forsook the traditional role of a scholar, minister and physician and hunted the demon cults that plagued her homeland of Semple. Her holy crusade put her at odds with many priests (whose traditional job includes protecting the flock from demon kind) as well as many priestesses who believed Aylea had taken runes to augment her abilities. When Aylea was killed battling demons, there was a huge debate in the Church as to whether to make her a saint. She was denied sainthood, but is still worshipped as such in many parts of the Semple Barony.
The Semple Barony
The Lower Teeth region was first settled soon after the Bostonian War of Unification. Thousands of people displaced by the war fled west to avoid the victorious armies of the Bost and their allies. The remnants of the Dingore, Ilrace and Tunderrim tribes, as well as smaller groups of pagans and unbelievers found shelter in the hills and dense woods of the Lower Teeth.
50 years later, a group of Azert settlers and explorers entered the Lower Teeth region. They came upon a settlement of Tunderrim tribesmen. Even two generations later, the pagan’s hate of their enemies was still fresh. The Tunderrim fell upon the Azert settlers and killed them.
A few survivors escaped, fled north to the safety of Azert lands, and told their tale. The Azert were incensed that these pagan refugees had escaped punishment. The current baroness of the land, Telia Azert rallied an army and marched south to claim the wilderness of the Lower Teeth region.
Telia campaigned for 6 years in the region in what is now called the Second Unification. Telia’s army was brutal and efficient, destroying dozens of Ilrace and Tunderrim enclaves, converting a few pagans and killing the rest. Only the Dingore escaped her wrath by hiding in the deepest and darkest woods.
Telia claimed the Lower Teeth for Azert and she and her descendants ruled it for many years. During this time, they made many attempts to cleanse the land of rebel tribesmen, but they were unsuccessful and there are pockets of heresy and sedition even today.
The current ruler of the Lower Teeth is Baron Rellan Semple. Upon taking the throne, the Baron moved his family from the east, built a splendid manor in the city of Raglan, and then quickly became disenchanted with his rural barony far from the high society and politics of the east. Within 4 years, the Baron returned to the King’s Court in Boston, leaving his ministers and the local lords to deal with day-to-day affairs.
Campaign Quick Premise
Characters in this campaign are the hunter, her twin, and several travelers who join them in their mission to battle the pagans, heretics and demons that roam the land. In addition, I have made it clear that I intend for this campaign to be a little on the “dark” side of things in terms of mood, and that I expect that most of the PCs will have their own (possibly conflicting) agendas.
Characters
We rolled fairly standard Runebearer characters: 10 stats, players can re-roll the lowest two of a set and order the numbers how they like. I let them roll as many sets as they could tolerate rolling. I allowed a small set of limitations for points. Overall, these characters ought to be pretty good starting characters.
Camille (April) – The hunter and twin to Alice, Camille is the main character in the campaign and as such, it is sort of odd that she can talk only to Alice. In any case, she has a mix of combat and adventure skills, and the Hunter Rune of the Silent Sisters. She is only seventeen, but shows tremendous talent and promise.
Camille is extremely loyal to the Mother Superior of the Silent Sisters. Because of this loyalty, and her quickly developing skills, the Mother Superior has special plans for Camille.
Alice (Karen) – Twin to Camille, Alice is a Learned Sister and is the healer of the party. She has a few combat and scholarly skills as well. Alice is a young prodigy, completing her priestess training in record time. I think this fact will make her somewhat well known as a “whiz kid” among the Temples – that gives her a means to not be the second fiddle to her sister all of the time.
Alice is very devoted to her sister, and though they are twins, she thinks of Camille as her “kid sister.” She will do anything to protect her sister. Because of this, she has returned to the school to travel with Camille even though she is a little wary of the Mother Superior and her methods.
The ladies generally play off each other pretty well in the group and so I hope that putting them together in such a “tight” alliance will pay off. Frankly, I am a little nervous about the “no talking” thing with April; I don’t know how it will work. We have discussed it though, and the group (and April) seems willing to try.
Uriel (Scott) – I can usually count on Scott to play a “competent lieutenant.” For this campaign, he has created a member of the Order of Flame. The Order is a fire rune with historical ties to Stratus (the Bostonian Father God). However, the modern Church distrusts all magic and considers associating this rune with the worship of Stratus to be heresy. Thus, he should fit right in with the Sisters.
This is a strange fire rune that has never been played, so that is interesting. Uriel is the mage/scholar in the party, and Scott seems to be interested in trying to acquire as much magical knowledge, runes, items, etc. as possible. There is generally a tension between mages and religious types in any of my Runebearer games, so Uriel is a good character to mix with the priestesses.
Perre Callahan (Jeff C) – A bounty hunter with a mix of combat, tracking and outdoor survival skills. Relative to the other characters so far, Perre is pretty “mundane”, but I think that is a good thing. The party will need a couple non-religious, non-magic types to form its center.
Perre was chased out of Raglan after bringing in a couple notorious Sandalfeet goons. Now the Sandalfeet are after him. I need to remember this as I am planning storylines.
Rothan (Tom) – An ex-shield guildsman and a pretty standard fighter type. At first glance, this has the look of a boring character. This is by design as Tom’s attendance has been spotty these past few months and so he realizes his need for a character that does not grab the spotlight too often.
Ben (Jeff B) – Jeff B made a shifty bard. He has personality skills and a smattering of combat skills. However, Jeff likes to play strange characters, so before he started the game, I offered him the chance to create a character with a dark secret: he is actually a Doppleganger, a demon that can mimic other creatures he touches. The time and completeness of this transformation is dependent on the type of contact he has with his victim. A simple touch gives an outward appearance for a relatively short period of time. Contact with the victim’s blood gives access to some of his quirks and mannerisms and the transformation lasts a day or two. If he kills the victim and creates a mask out of his face, he gains the ability to mimic that person at will.
Ben is bound to a powerful Bostonian noble called Lord Firaxis. Firaxis is a devout follower of Makav (Demon Prince of Ambition) who has designs on the Ernst Barony. Ben was given to Firaxis to reward him and further his plans. However, Ben is unlike others of his kind in that he likes to be transformed. He finds it liberating to take the forms of his victims and live their lives. He likes being “Ben”. To this end, Ben has fled from Firaxis (based on a liberal interpretation of a command – we are working on the specifics) and is looking for someone to kill him, hoping that will allow Ben to remain free.
The whole “I want to be human” angle is a little cliché, but it works. Ben is still selfish and possibly evil (I need to talk to Jeff about how he wants to play this in the long-term), but he has a goal that brings him in alliance with the Sisters. Ben will end up traveling with the Sisters in hopes of manipulating them into killing Firaxis. In the meantime, he has to make sure he keeps his secret.
Ack! Of course I realize now that Firaxis is a subconscious slip after having seen the Civilization III box… oh well, his name had been spoken to a couple of the players before I realized this, so I suppose it stands.
As a GM, I am happy about this slate of characters. The main danger here is that we have a campaign set up where the two women are the main characters and everyone else is filler. Now, the two women are very good roleplayers, but I don’t want everyone else to feel like they are second-class PCs. So, while keeping the focus of the campaign centered on the School and its mission, we need to give everyone their spotlight time and try to create at least one interesting storyline for each character.
Themes
When I thought about this campaign and the characters, the following themes came to mind:
• Trust and Betrayal – With one sister being loyal to the Mother Superior and the other being wary of her, this seems like a great theme. To further the theme, the Sisters are a fringe cult, almost outcasts from regular priestesses. Here we have young prodigies of two orders, one of which considers the other to be one shade away from heresy. The bonds of the two sisters will be tested versus that between the each sister and her order.
• Heresy – Both the Silent Sisters and Uriel are outcasts from the mainstream of their religions. In addition, the campaign is based in the Semple Barony, a hotbed of pagan and heretical cults. At some point, the various religious points of view will clash, but I am not sure how far it goes… could just be a debate, could end up in the Church trying to wipe out the School by force. In a schism, which side do you take?
• Be Thy Enemy – The concept of taking aspects and powers of your enemies to better defeat them is common in Bostonia. The Huntress’ rune is like this, as is the Rune of the Beast – both of which will come into play. Ben has the ability to “become” his enemy. The question is, how far do you go and what are the consequences?
• They Are Everywhere – When demons are afoot, I like to feel a certain sense of pervading corruption throughout the characters’ world. As the plot thickens, and the big bad guys get closer to enacting their plan, the world should seem to be conspiring against our heroes. At some point, I want them to be concerned that ANYONE they talk to could be “in on it.” The key is to give this feeling without making the players despair and feel helpless.
Session 1
Campaign starts on a misty morning in early spring. Camille and Alice are taking breakfast in the dining hall with the other Sisters. A small group of men from Tharsbrook enter the hall to eat before starting work on the restoration of the manor. The Sisters are very polite to these men, but you can tell they are somewhat nervous about being surrounded by priestesses.
Breakfast continues with a few minor NPCs making appearances and small-talk with Alice and Camille. First Huntress Ferah and her sister, Beatrice, come up behind Camille. Beatrice addresses Camille.
“My sister, Ferah, wishes to tell you that your work in yesterday’s magic training was excellent. She has passed news of your progress to the Mother Superior.”
Camille answers (through Alice), “Thank you, Sister. I appreciate your praise.”
Beatrice and Ferah go on their way.
Next a young girl flops down on a seat next to Alice and bubbles over breakfast, “Oooh, I love ham for breakfast. I wonder if cook will give me another serving if I ask her.”
Alice smiles at the young girl, “I am certain she will, Paula. And how are you today?”
“Great, Sister! I have archery training today and I am very excited. Trainer says I am the best in the class.” Paula stuffs her mouth full of ham.
“Wonderful, where is your sister this morning?”
“She is at the Lakeside Temple, praying.”
“She is a very devout girl, isn’t she?”
Paula turns to Alice with a mouth full of ham, “Hey, I am devout!”
Camille listens to this conversation and wonders if this girl will ever survive taking the Huntress’ Rune.
Once the villagers leave the mess hall, one of the Sisters rings a small bell to bring the group to attention and then morning announcements are read.
• Archery training is cancelled today because of Trainer Brice’s illness (much to the dismay of Paula). Students are welcome to practice at the range however and Trainer wishes to inform her students that the archery exam will take place on schedule.
• Learned Sister Gretchen will be speaking this evening in the library on the subject of The Five (Bostonian demons) and Tertentathador (demon city).
• Mother Superior reminds all sisters in the field that if they come upon the bounty hunter named Perre Callahan, they are to request his presence at the School for possible employment.
Once breakfast is over, Camille and Alice head out onto the grounds and are met by Sister Almayra (who was the previous hunter wunderkind, but Camille is considered to have more potential now) and Jaclyn (who is not a priestess and is somewhat snippy with Alice) who are driving an ox cart with a wrapped corpse on it.
As Jaclyn sees Alice and Camille looking their way, she says rather loudly, “Another successful hunt.”
Alice steps forward to get a closer look, “Who is that, Jaclyn?”
“Back off youngster, no one touches this body until the Mother gets a look at it.”
Alice frowns, but continues, “Did he give you any difficulty? You don’t look hurt.”
“Bah, I don’t know what the Mother was thinking. He was not a demon, but a mage, and a weak one at that. We surprised him and he hardly managed to put up a fight. Some work for seasoned demon hunters, eh? That was more a job for neophytes like you two.”
The two unload their corpse and head into the School.
A few minutes later, young Paula comes with a message for the two Sisters. The Mother Superior would like to see them. They head to her office and as they get there, they see Almayra and Jaclyn carrying their corpse. The Mother’s voice calls out from the office “Put that in storage until we can find someone to analyze it.”
(switch scenes – though the timing is not right here… the Sisters’ scenes are happening before this one, I wanted to switch up to give the men in the group some screen time. When coincidentally, everyone shows up in the same place, keep that in mind.)
In the meantime, Uriel and Perre have been contracted by Lord Cyrus to capture or kill a group of bandits led by a man named Garuk. Garuk’s band has been roaming the region for several months now, rustling sheep and waylaying travelers. Recently though, the group has been getting bolder and more vicious, attacking farmsteads and small villages.
While following word of the bandits, Uriel and Perre see dark plumes of smoke rising up through the trees. The bounty hunters investigate and find a farmstead in ruins. People killed, buildings burned, the animals have been driven off or slaughtered. Perre sees that valuable foodstuffs and supplies have been left behind; this was destruction for destruction’s sake.
Uriel searches for survivors among the bodies here, but finds none. He wonders if the main farmhouse had a basement because that is the only way anyone would have survived the fire. He uses his powers over the element of earth to search for a basement.
Earthsblood Spell: One With the Earth
The spell gives the caster an awareness that extends into the ground around him in a 20 meter radius. This allows the caster to sense vibrations in the earth, which gives him the ability to detect movement. This means he has a rudimentary sense of creatures around him, even in total darkness and cannot be surprised, backstabbed or flanked in combat.
In addition, One With the Earth gives the caster a sense of the layout of the earth around him. This allows the mage to sense the presence of tunnels and secret passages with the spell’s area of effect.
Casting this spell, Uriel finds a basement and detects movement therein – survivors. Uriel uses his medical skills to tend to them while Perre asks questions about the attack. From the descriptions given by the survivors, the bounty hunters determine that this was Garuk’s band and that they are fairly close, perhaps only a few hours behind. Darkness is falling, but the pair decides to press on and see if they can catch the bandits.
(switch scenes)
The Mother Superior Callahan has the face of a kindly, middle-aged woman. She is grey-haired, thin and spy for her age. She is gentle to the sisters here, always quick to smile and praise. Even so, Alice has always noted something in her eyes – a hint of danger, a steely glint that tells you crossing this woman would be a fatal mistake.
(Strangely enough, Jeff C and I came up with the same last name independently. Though I originally thought of changing her name, I decided to keep it and go with it. Perhaps they are related in some way that is as of yet unknown. I love these small gaming coincidences that end up enhancing the story.)
The Mother’s office is a small room with a huge window overlooking the school grounds. Shelves with various religious books and scrolls line two of the walls. The other wall is dominated by a map of the Semple Barony with markings indicating the threats to Bostonia as seen by the Mother Superior. The Mother has no desk, but instead there is a ring of chairs in the center of the room.
The Mother bids the two Sisters to sit and tells them it is time for their first task.
“Years ago, this region was the home of a cult devoted to a pagan wind god called Fayshin. We believe that Fayshin was a minor wind elemental, but little is known about the creature’s origin. Elemental or not, Fayshin had the ability to grant his followers the ability to control the winds – possibly a rune of some sort. Stories exist of priests being able to toss opponents through the air, create whirlwinds, call destructive storms and perhaps even fly.
“Their pagan temple was supposedly overrun over 200 years ago by a Talak (barbarian) incursion. No one knows where the temple is, or what state it is in. The pagans fled east and north, but most were killed by templars and agents of the Azareth. Stories told by a few survivors indicate that the elemental “god” had foreseen the cult’s demise and mated with his female followers.
“Over the years, there have been people who have manifested the powers possessed by the Fayshin cult, but as of 70 years ago, these powers have disappeared. Probably the bloodline has weakened so much as to make it worthless.
“We believe that one of the true descendants of Fayshin, perhaps the last such descendant, is nearby. His name is Garuk and he is currently the leader of a pack of bandits roaming the wilderness of Semple. Garuk and his bandits have been attacking farms and villages in the region. Survivors of the attacks have indicated that Garuk and his men can “call the winds to aid them” which points to him being a mage, if not an elemental spawn.
“Your mission is to track down Garuk and bring him to justice. He has offended the Mother with his tainted bloodline and his lack of mercy. Not quite a demon, but a formidable enemy upon which to test your training, don’t you think?”
The Sisters head out to find Garuk.
(switch scenes)
Both groups come upon Garuk’s campsite simultaneously (Ahh, those soap opera coincidences!!). After a brief discussion in which they discuss their purpose and plan, the four PCs decide to band together to finish Garuk. There is only one problem; the campsite seems lifeless. Though a fire burns, no one is moving. The adventurers have seen no patrols, heard no snoring, and seen no one wander into the woods to relieve themselves. Nothing.
They decide to investigate the campsite more closely. When they search inside the tents, they find that all of Garuk’s men are dead. Their skin and lips have a bluish color to them; they have suffocated in their beds.
The wind kicks up around the PCs and they can hear a whisper carried on it.
“I lay awake at night and my hunger rises to a fevered pitch. I need to kill because my father needs their breath. I need your breath.”
Suddenly, tentacles of wind lash out along the ground and fly straight to the dead bodies’ noses and mouths. The corpses gasp and then rise on the air current, inflated by Garuk’s magic. They fling themselves at the PCs while Garuk enters the battlefield about 7 meters above the ground, riding an inflated ox corpse.
The group enters combat. It is only 4 PCs against 11 enemies. Fortunately, when punctured, the corpses deflate and become lifeless bags of skin. Uriel and Alice draw their swords and fend off the corpses flying at them. Perre cuts through another. Camille draws a magic arrow (prepared earlier) and fires at Garuk. Unfortunately, Garuk raises a shield of wind and dust and the arrow misses its mark.
Holy Arrow
The mage projects some of her inner power onto an arrow. The arrow is enchanted and gains a +1 to hit and a +1 to damage. In addition, the arrow can damage creatures that require magic to do so. Casting this spell costs the mage 1d4 hit points that can be regained only by rest.
The PCs fight off the inflated corpses with only minor problems. One of them did manage to grab Alice and kiss her on the mouth, sucking the breath from her lungs, but with the help of Uriel, she managed to pull away. Camille kept up the stream of arrows at Garuk, but it was hard to tell how effective they were due to the nearly opaque shield of dust surrounding him. In the meantime, Garuk struck back, creating a zone in which the heroes could not breathe and using his control of the winds to toss characters about. Perre was hit particularly hard, getting thrown smack into a tree and nearly being knocked unconscious.
In a few combat rounds, the tables did turn for the better. Uriel, Alice, and Perre managed to take most of the inflated corpses out of action, which took some of the pressure off of them. Mind you, Garuk was still happily tossing things at them, knocking them around, and stealing the oxygen from the battlefield, but without so many targets on the ground, Perre managed to retrieve his bow and aid in the attack on Garuk.
The battle ended on a spectacular arrow shot by Perre which managed to break through Garuk’s wind shield and strike him in the head, killing him. Well, he was not quite dead, but he fell to the ground motionless and the group descended upon him.
Alice rushes to his side, “Garuk, I promise I will see to it that you are buried at your father’s temple, but you must tell us where it is.”
(This was a great move and though I had decided that Garuk hadn’t found the temple, I figured I would give Karen a persuasion skill roll. If she had succeeded, I would have changed my ruling and had Garuk divulge the location of the temple. She failed the skill roll though, and so Garuk did not know.)
Garuk looks at her with contempt, “If you find the temple, my father and his guardians will kill you all.”
At which point, Perre beheads Garuk.
The bodies of the men are gathered and burned. While the group is doing this, Camille searches Garuk and finds a crystal necklace with a tiny bauble that contains an ever-swirling cloud of mist (The Mist Key).
A cursory examination of Garuk shows no external markings or runes, so it is possible he was not a mage. The Sisters want to bring Garuk back to the School for examination, but Perre needs evidence of his kill for Lord Cyrus. After a brief argument over who will take the head of Garuk, Perre agrees to accompany Alice and Camille back to the School to talk to Mother Superior.
GM Thoughts
Overall, this session went well. We ended up with a good set of characters; everyone seemed to get into the story and we finished with the death of Garuk – a very productive night. Some notes:
• I started the session with the mention of a “misty morning”. That is because the mist that covers the mountains is very important for the functioning of the Mist Key. I am not sure anyone made any notice of the mist whatsoever, and thus, I doubt they will connect the key to the mist. I need to drive home this point with a sledgehammer over the next session or so.
• I have two possible next adventures. The first is to send them seeking the Rune of the Beast. The second is to have them search for the Temple of Fayshin. Both would be interesting… but the Temple is dependent on their being able to use the Mist Key, and the Rune sends the PCs weeks from the School before I even establish it as an HQ.
Runebearer Campaign Notes – The Silent Sisters
The School of the Silent Sisters
The School of the Silent Sisters is a fringe cult of priestesses that fight demons, pagans, and other enemies of the Bostonian Church. The School was founded many years ago by the “Renegade Saint” Aylea. The School recruits twins, one of which becomes a demon hunter with special powers; the other becomes a Learned Sister who aids her twin in her travels. Twins are chosen over other types of siblings because of the mythical ties in Bostonian lore of twins to demons, and because The School has methods of developing telepathic powers between twins and once the hunter takes her rune, she can no longer speak.
The Sisters’ School recently relocated from its original home in the Azareth Barony to a remote area in NW Semple. The School was forced out of Azareth due to theological disagreements between the Mother Superior of the School and Helena Azareth, the Mother of the Temple of the Dark Lake (most powerful priestess in the northwest). The Sisters wandered south and found an abandoned manor – they assumed that this was divine providence and moved in. The manor was in disrepair and they are working to repair it.
Tharsbrook
The manor is nearly a day’s travel north of Tharsbrook, a small village and mining outpost in NW Semple. Tharsbrook is a mining town of about 50 families run by the Vogel Mining Company. Everything is owned by the company and everyone here is probably in debt to the company store. Facilities include a one-room Church of Stratus, a small tavern, a company store, a blacksmith, and smelting facilities. Food is brought in from downriver in exchange for ore or pure metal ingots.
Ranchers from a sheep ranch nearby come into town occasionally to drink and cause trouble.
Tharsbrook provides most of the Sisters’ food and goods needs in exchange for healing and other religious services. The inhabitants don’t know the School’s true purpose.
Aylea the “Renegade Saint”
According to the lore of the School, Aylea was a Lay Priestess who forsook the traditional role of a scholar, minister and physician and hunted the demon cults that plagued her homeland of Semple. Her holy crusade put her at odds with many priests (whose traditional job includes protecting the flock from demon kind) as well as many priestesses who believed Aylea had taken runes to augment her abilities. When Aylea was killed battling demons, there was a huge debate in the Church as to whether to make her a saint. She was denied sainthood, but is still worshipped as such in many parts of the Semple Barony.
The Semple Barony
The Lower Teeth region was first settled soon after the Bostonian War of Unification. Thousands of people displaced by the war fled west to avoid the victorious armies of the Bost and their allies. The remnants of the Dingore, Ilrace and Tunderrim tribes, as well as smaller groups of pagans and unbelievers found shelter in the hills and dense woods of the Lower Teeth.
50 years later, a group of Azert settlers and explorers entered the Lower Teeth region. They came upon a settlement of Tunderrim tribesmen. Even two generations later, the pagan’s hate of their enemies was still fresh. The Tunderrim fell upon the Azert settlers and killed them.
A few survivors escaped, fled north to the safety of Azert lands, and told their tale. The Azert were incensed that these pagan refugees had escaped punishment. The current baroness of the land, Telia Azert rallied an army and marched south to claim the wilderness of the Lower Teeth region.
Telia campaigned for 6 years in the region in what is now called the Second Unification. Telia’s army was brutal and efficient, destroying dozens of Ilrace and Tunderrim enclaves, converting a few pagans and killing the rest. Only the Dingore escaped her wrath by hiding in the deepest and darkest woods.
Telia claimed the Lower Teeth for Azert and she and her descendants ruled it for many years. During this time, they made many attempts to cleanse the land of rebel tribesmen, but they were unsuccessful and there are pockets of heresy and sedition even today.
The current ruler of the Lower Teeth is Baron Rellan Semple. Upon taking the throne, the Baron moved his family from the east, built a splendid manor in the city of Raglan, and then quickly became disenchanted with his rural barony far from the high society and politics of the east. Within 4 years, the Baron returned to the King’s Court in Boston, leaving his ministers and the local lords to deal with day-to-day affairs.
Campaign Quick Premise
Characters in this campaign are the hunter, her twin, and several travelers who join them in their mission to battle the pagans, heretics and demons that roam the land. In addition, I have made it clear that I intend for this campaign to be a little on the “dark” side of things in terms of mood, and that I expect that most of the PCs will have their own (possibly conflicting) agendas.
Characters
We rolled fairly standard Runebearer characters: 10 stats, players can re-roll the lowest two of a set and order the numbers how they like. I let them roll as many sets as they could tolerate rolling. I allowed a small set of limitations for points. Overall, these characters ought to be pretty good starting characters.
Camille (April) – The hunter and twin to Alice, Camille is the main character in the campaign and as such, it is sort of odd that she can talk only to Alice. In any case, she has a mix of combat and adventure skills, and the Hunter Rune of the Silent Sisters. She is only seventeen, but shows tremendous talent and promise.
Camille is extremely loyal to the Mother Superior of the Silent Sisters. Because of this loyalty, and her quickly developing skills, the Mother Superior has special plans for Camille.
Alice (Karen) – Twin to Camille, Alice is a Learned Sister and is the healer of the party. She has a few combat and scholarly skills as well. Alice is a young prodigy, completing her priestess training in record time. I think this fact will make her somewhat well known as a “whiz kid” among the Temples – that gives her a means to not be the second fiddle to her sister all of the time.
Alice is very devoted to her sister, and though they are twins, she thinks of Camille as her “kid sister.” She will do anything to protect her sister. Because of this, she has returned to the school to travel with Camille even though she is a little wary of the Mother Superior and her methods.
The ladies generally play off each other pretty well in the group and so I hope that putting them together in such a “tight” alliance will pay off. Frankly, I am a little nervous about the “no talking” thing with April; I don’t know how it will work. We have discussed it though, and the group (and April) seems willing to try.
Uriel (Scott) – I can usually count on Scott to play a “competent lieutenant.” For this campaign, he has created a member of the Order of Flame. The Order is a fire rune with historical ties to Stratus (the Bostonian Father God). However, the modern Church distrusts all magic and considers associating this rune with the worship of Stratus to be heresy. Thus, he should fit right in with the Sisters.
This is a strange fire rune that has never been played, so that is interesting. Uriel is the mage/scholar in the party, and Scott seems to be interested in trying to acquire as much magical knowledge, runes, items, etc. as possible. There is generally a tension between mages and religious types in any of my Runebearer games, so Uriel is a good character to mix with the priestesses.
Perre Callahan (Jeff C) – A bounty hunter with a mix of combat, tracking and outdoor survival skills. Relative to the other characters so far, Perre is pretty “mundane”, but I think that is a good thing. The party will need a couple non-religious, non-magic types to form its center.
Perre was chased out of Raglan after bringing in a couple notorious Sandalfeet goons. Now the Sandalfeet are after him. I need to remember this as I am planning storylines.
Rothan (Tom) – An ex-shield guildsman and a pretty standard fighter type. At first glance, this has the look of a boring character. This is by design as Tom’s attendance has been spotty these past few months and so he realizes his need for a character that does not grab the spotlight too often.
Ben (Jeff B) – Jeff B made a shifty bard. He has personality skills and a smattering of combat skills. However, Jeff likes to play strange characters, so before he started the game, I offered him the chance to create a character with a dark secret: he is actually a Doppleganger, a demon that can mimic other creatures he touches. The time and completeness of this transformation is dependent on the type of contact he has with his victim. A simple touch gives an outward appearance for a relatively short period of time. Contact with the victim’s blood gives access to some of his quirks and mannerisms and the transformation lasts a day or two. If he kills the victim and creates a mask out of his face, he gains the ability to mimic that person at will.
Ben is bound to a powerful Bostonian noble called Lord Firaxis. Firaxis is a devout follower of Makav (Demon Prince of Ambition) who has designs on the Ernst Barony. Ben was given to Firaxis to reward him and further his plans. However, Ben is unlike others of his kind in that he likes to be transformed. He finds it liberating to take the forms of his victims and live their lives. He likes being “Ben”. To this end, Ben has fled from Firaxis (based on a liberal interpretation of a command – we are working on the specifics) and is looking for someone to kill him, hoping that will allow Ben to remain free.
The whole “I want to be human” angle is a little cliché, but it works. Ben is still selfish and possibly evil (I need to talk to Jeff about how he wants to play this in the long-term), but he has a goal that brings him in alliance with the Sisters. Ben will end up traveling with the Sisters in hopes of manipulating them into killing Firaxis. In the meantime, he has to make sure he keeps his secret.
Ack! Of course I realize now that Firaxis is a subconscious slip after having seen the Civilization III box… oh well, his name had been spoken to a couple of the players before I realized this, so I suppose it stands.
As a GM, I am happy about this slate of characters. The main danger here is that we have a campaign set up where the two women are the main characters and everyone else is filler. Now, the two women are very good roleplayers, but I don’t want everyone else to feel like they are second-class PCs. So, while keeping the focus of the campaign centered on the School and its mission, we need to give everyone their spotlight time and try to create at least one interesting storyline for each character.
Themes
When I thought about this campaign and the characters, the following themes came to mind:
• Trust and Betrayal – With one sister being loyal to the Mother Superior and the other being wary of her, this seems like a great theme. To further the theme, the Sisters are a fringe cult, almost outcasts from regular priestesses. Here we have young prodigies of two orders, one of which considers the other to be one shade away from heresy. The bonds of the two sisters will be tested versus that between the each sister and her order.
• Heresy – Both the Silent Sisters and Uriel are outcasts from the mainstream of their religions. In addition, the campaign is based in the Semple Barony, a hotbed of pagan and heretical cults. At some point, the various religious points of view will clash, but I am not sure how far it goes… could just be a debate, could end up in the Church trying to wipe out the School by force. In a schism, which side do you take?
• Be Thy Enemy – The concept of taking aspects and powers of your enemies to better defeat them is common in Bostonia. The Huntress’ rune is like this, as is the Rune of the Beast – both of which will come into play. Ben has the ability to “become” his enemy. The question is, how far do you go and what are the consequences?
• They Are Everywhere – When demons are afoot, I like to feel a certain sense of pervading corruption throughout the characters’ world. As the plot thickens, and the big bad guys get closer to enacting their plan, the world should seem to be conspiring against our heroes. At some point, I want them to be concerned that ANYONE they talk to could be “in on it.” The key is to give this feeling without making the players despair and feel helpless.
Session 1
Campaign starts on a misty morning in early spring. Camille and Alice are taking breakfast in the dining hall with the other Sisters. A small group of men from Tharsbrook enter the hall to eat before starting work on the restoration of the manor. The Sisters are very polite to these men, but you can tell they are somewhat nervous about being surrounded by priestesses.
Breakfast continues with a few minor NPCs making appearances and small-talk with Alice and Camille. First Huntress Ferah and her sister, Beatrice, come up behind Camille. Beatrice addresses Camille.
“My sister, Ferah, wishes to tell you that your work in yesterday’s magic training was excellent. She has passed news of your progress to the Mother Superior.”
Camille answers (through Alice), “Thank you, Sister. I appreciate your praise.”
Beatrice and Ferah go on their way.
Next a young girl flops down on a seat next to Alice and bubbles over breakfast, “Oooh, I love ham for breakfast. I wonder if cook will give me another serving if I ask her.”
Alice smiles at the young girl, “I am certain she will, Paula. And how are you today?”
“Great, Sister! I have archery training today and I am very excited. Trainer says I am the best in the class.” Paula stuffs her mouth full of ham.
“Wonderful, where is your sister this morning?”
“She is at the Lakeside Temple, praying.”
“She is a very devout girl, isn’t she?”
Paula turns to Alice with a mouth full of ham, “Hey, I am devout!”
Camille listens to this conversation and wonders if this girl will ever survive taking the Huntress’ Rune.
Once the villagers leave the mess hall, one of the Sisters rings a small bell to bring the group to attention and then morning announcements are read.
• Archery training is cancelled today because of Trainer Brice’s illness (much to the dismay of Paula). Students are welcome to practice at the range however and Trainer wishes to inform her students that the archery exam will take place on schedule.
• Learned Sister Gretchen will be speaking this evening in the library on the subject of The Five (Bostonian demons) and Tertentathador (demon city).
• Mother Superior reminds all sisters in the field that if they come upon the bounty hunter named Perre Callahan, they are to request his presence at the School for possible employment.
Once breakfast is over, Camille and Alice head out onto the grounds and are met by Sister Almayra (who was the previous hunter wunderkind, but Camille is considered to have more potential now) and Jaclyn (who is not a priestess and is somewhat snippy with Alice) who are driving an ox cart with a wrapped corpse on it.
As Jaclyn sees Alice and Camille looking their way, she says rather loudly, “Another successful hunt.”
Alice steps forward to get a closer look, “Who is that, Jaclyn?”
“Back off youngster, no one touches this body until the Mother gets a look at it.”
Alice frowns, but continues, “Did he give you any difficulty? You don’t look hurt.”
“Bah, I don’t know what the Mother was thinking. He was not a demon, but a mage, and a weak one at that. We surprised him and he hardly managed to put up a fight. Some work for seasoned demon hunters, eh? That was more a job for neophytes like you two.”
The two unload their corpse and head into the School.
A few minutes later, young Paula comes with a message for the two Sisters. The Mother Superior would like to see them. They head to her office and as they get there, they see Almayra and Jaclyn carrying their corpse. The Mother’s voice calls out from the office “Put that in storage until we can find someone to analyze it.”
(switch scenes – though the timing is not right here… the Sisters’ scenes are happening before this one, I wanted to switch up to give the men in the group some screen time. When coincidentally, everyone shows up in the same place, keep that in mind.)
In the meantime, Uriel and Perre have been contracted by Lord Cyrus to capture or kill a group of bandits led by a man named Garuk. Garuk’s band has been roaming the region for several months now, rustling sheep and waylaying travelers. Recently though, the group has been getting bolder and more vicious, attacking farmsteads and small villages.
While following word of the bandits, Uriel and Perre see dark plumes of smoke rising up through the trees. The bounty hunters investigate and find a farmstead in ruins. People killed, buildings burned, the animals have been driven off or slaughtered. Perre sees that valuable foodstuffs and supplies have been left behind; this was destruction for destruction’s sake.
Uriel searches for survivors among the bodies here, but finds none. He wonders if the main farmhouse had a basement because that is the only way anyone would have survived the fire. He uses his powers over the element of earth to search for a basement.
Earthsblood Spell: One With the Earth
The spell gives the caster an awareness that extends into the ground around him in a 20 meter radius. This allows the caster to sense vibrations in the earth, which gives him the ability to detect movement. This means he has a rudimentary sense of creatures around him, even in total darkness and cannot be surprised, backstabbed or flanked in combat.
In addition, One With the Earth gives the caster a sense of the layout of the earth around him. This allows the mage to sense the presence of tunnels and secret passages with the spell’s area of effect.
Casting this spell, Uriel finds a basement and detects movement therein – survivors. Uriel uses his medical skills to tend to them while Perre asks questions about the attack. From the descriptions given by the survivors, the bounty hunters determine that this was Garuk’s band and that they are fairly close, perhaps only a few hours behind. Darkness is falling, but the pair decides to press on and see if they can catch the bandits.
(switch scenes)
The Mother Superior Callahan has the face of a kindly, middle-aged woman. She is grey-haired, thin and spy for her age. She is gentle to the sisters here, always quick to smile and praise. Even so, Alice has always noted something in her eyes – a hint of danger, a steely glint that tells you crossing this woman would be a fatal mistake.
(Strangely enough, Jeff C and I came up with the same last name independently. Though I originally thought of changing her name, I decided to keep it and go with it. Perhaps they are related in some way that is as of yet unknown. I love these small gaming coincidences that end up enhancing the story.)
The Mother’s office is a small room with a huge window overlooking the school grounds. Shelves with various religious books and scrolls line two of the walls. The other wall is dominated by a map of the Semple Barony with markings indicating the threats to Bostonia as seen by the Mother Superior. The Mother has no desk, but instead there is a ring of chairs in the center of the room.
The Mother bids the two Sisters to sit and tells them it is time for their first task.
“Years ago, this region was the home of a cult devoted to a pagan wind god called Fayshin. We believe that Fayshin was a minor wind elemental, but little is known about the creature’s origin. Elemental or not, Fayshin had the ability to grant his followers the ability to control the winds – possibly a rune of some sort. Stories exist of priests being able to toss opponents through the air, create whirlwinds, call destructive storms and perhaps even fly.
“Their pagan temple was supposedly overrun over 200 years ago by a Talak (barbarian) incursion. No one knows where the temple is, or what state it is in. The pagans fled east and north, but most were killed by templars and agents of the Azareth. Stories told by a few survivors indicate that the elemental “god” had foreseen the cult’s demise and mated with his female followers.
“Over the years, there have been people who have manifested the powers possessed by the Fayshin cult, but as of 70 years ago, these powers have disappeared. Probably the bloodline has weakened so much as to make it worthless.
“We believe that one of the true descendants of Fayshin, perhaps the last such descendant, is nearby. His name is Garuk and he is currently the leader of a pack of bandits roaming the wilderness of Semple. Garuk and his bandits have been attacking farms and villages in the region. Survivors of the attacks have indicated that Garuk and his men can “call the winds to aid them” which points to him being a mage, if not an elemental spawn.
“Your mission is to track down Garuk and bring him to justice. He has offended the Mother with his tainted bloodline and his lack of mercy. Not quite a demon, but a formidable enemy upon which to test your training, don’t you think?”
The Sisters head out to find Garuk.
(switch scenes)
Both groups come upon Garuk’s campsite simultaneously (Ahh, those soap opera coincidences!!). After a brief discussion in which they discuss their purpose and plan, the four PCs decide to band together to finish Garuk. There is only one problem; the campsite seems lifeless. Though a fire burns, no one is moving. The adventurers have seen no patrols, heard no snoring, and seen no one wander into the woods to relieve themselves. Nothing.
They decide to investigate the campsite more closely. When they search inside the tents, they find that all of Garuk’s men are dead. Their skin and lips have a bluish color to them; they have suffocated in their beds.
The wind kicks up around the PCs and they can hear a whisper carried on it.
“I lay awake at night and my hunger rises to a fevered pitch. I need to kill because my father needs their breath. I need your breath.”
Suddenly, tentacles of wind lash out along the ground and fly straight to the dead bodies’ noses and mouths. The corpses gasp and then rise on the air current, inflated by Garuk’s magic. They fling themselves at the PCs while Garuk enters the battlefield about 7 meters above the ground, riding an inflated ox corpse.
The group enters combat. It is only 4 PCs against 11 enemies. Fortunately, when punctured, the corpses deflate and become lifeless bags of skin. Uriel and Alice draw their swords and fend off the corpses flying at them. Perre cuts through another. Camille draws a magic arrow (prepared earlier) and fires at Garuk. Unfortunately, Garuk raises a shield of wind and dust and the arrow misses its mark.
Holy Arrow
The mage projects some of her inner power onto an arrow. The arrow is enchanted and gains a +1 to hit and a +1 to damage. In addition, the arrow can damage creatures that require magic to do so. Casting this spell costs the mage 1d4 hit points that can be regained only by rest.
The PCs fight off the inflated corpses with only minor problems. One of them did manage to grab Alice and kiss her on the mouth, sucking the breath from her lungs, but with the help of Uriel, she managed to pull away. Camille kept up the stream of arrows at Garuk, but it was hard to tell how effective they were due to the nearly opaque shield of dust surrounding him. In the meantime, Garuk struck back, creating a zone in which the heroes could not breathe and using his control of the winds to toss characters about. Perre was hit particularly hard, getting thrown smack into a tree and nearly being knocked unconscious.
In a few combat rounds, the tables did turn for the better. Uriel, Alice, and Perre managed to take most of the inflated corpses out of action, which took some of the pressure off of them. Mind you, Garuk was still happily tossing things at them, knocking them around, and stealing the oxygen from the battlefield, but without so many targets on the ground, Perre managed to retrieve his bow and aid in the attack on Garuk.
The battle ended on a spectacular arrow shot by Perre which managed to break through Garuk’s wind shield and strike him in the head, killing him. Well, he was not quite dead, but he fell to the ground motionless and the group descended upon him.
Alice rushes to his side, “Garuk, I promise I will see to it that you are buried at your father’s temple, but you must tell us where it is.”
(This was a great move and though I had decided that Garuk hadn’t found the temple, I figured I would give Karen a persuasion skill roll. If she had succeeded, I would have changed my ruling and had Garuk divulge the location of the temple. She failed the skill roll though, and so Garuk did not know.)
Garuk looks at her with contempt, “If you find the temple, my father and his guardians will kill you all.”
At which point, Perre beheads Garuk.
The bodies of the men are gathered and burned. While the group is doing this, Camille searches Garuk and finds a crystal necklace with a tiny bauble that contains an ever-swirling cloud of mist (The Mist Key).
A cursory examination of Garuk shows no external markings or runes, so it is possible he was not a mage. The Sisters want to bring Garuk back to the School for examination, but Perre needs evidence of his kill for Lord Cyrus. After a brief argument over who will take the head of Garuk, Perre agrees to accompany Alice and Camille back to the School to talk to Mother Superior.
GM Thoughts
Overall, this session went well. We ended up with a good set of characters; everyone seemed to get into the story and we finished with the death of Garuk – a very productive night. Some notes:
• I started the session with the mention of a “misty morning”. That is because the mist that covers the mountains is very important for the functioning of the Mist Key. I am not sure anyone made any notice of the mist whatsoever, and thus, I doubt they will connect the key to the mist. I need to drive home this point with a sledgehammer over the next session or so.
• I have two possible next adventures. The first is to send them seeking the Rune of the Beast. The second is to have them search for the Temple of Fayshin. Both would be interesting… but the Temple is dependent on their being able to use the Mist Key, and the Rune sends the PCs weeks from the School before I even establish it as an HQ.