melworks

I went by My Local Gameshop this afternoon, not really expecting to find anything, so, of course, I did. There, sitting on the shelf, was a box set for Daggerheart, the new RPG from the folks at Critical Role. I was curious about it, so I picked it up. It cost me $63 for the box which included the core rule book and the cards.

I just finished reading through it, skimming some parts, and it's a pretty decent book. It definitely has Matthew Mercer's voice throughout, which can be good or bad. Your personal milage may very.

I'll be honest, I'm probably never going to play this game. It comes with cards, which are convenient for some people but distracting to me personally. They encourage the use of tokens. The Hope/Fear dice mechanic is a bit of a twist and, honestly, just another thing that I don't really want to have to keep track of.

The race descriptions (Dwarf, Elf, etc) are concise and to the point, and they include some nice sketches with additional info. They are, conceptually, heavily influenced by the last few seasons of Critical Role.

The class choices and descriptions are equally as concise. Honestly, though? I found the classes to be kind of flat. Most are just reskins of already existing D&D classes. Each class gets a number of Hit Poiints, an Evasian number(which functions like Armor Class), a unique Class ability and then you choose from two subclasses for additional benefits.

Backgrounds, I think, are where they get a bit weak. Backgrounds are meant to reflect a PC's upbringing, and the writers are a bit schizo with their choices. They go from purely geographic locals (Ridgeborne = Mountain Dwellers) to social status (Highborne = Rich/Nobles).

The game has cards and tokens, which I've never cared for in a TTRPG. Just another thing to track. Also, there's this Domain thing tied to Classes affecting things like abilities, spells, etc. you can choose.

It's all just a bit fiddly to me, with way too many moving parts. Give me simple and straightforward.

So, I'll probably take it out to the Store soon and resell it.

Well, that was quick.

Tonight, I played the third session of my new scifi solo game and my PC got killed.

*sigh*

This was probably for the best, as the game just wasn't gelling for me, if you know what I mean.

So, onward and upward.

Current Mood: fatigued
Current Location: Downstairs, My Bedroom, My Bed

So, I finally got it together enough, to start playing a new solo. It's set in an Alternate Star Trek universe where the Vulcans never existed. Because of this, galactic geopolitics are very different. The nerds among you may know what I'm talking about. Anywho....

My NPC, Nico, is an independent cargo-hauler who has recently relocated to the Akira Sector. He has established himself on the planet Wellspring, known for its expansive river systems and spectacular waterfalls(some of which can be seen from orbit), but has visited Amity IV, a new mining colony, and Port Legacy, a more established colony on a mountainous world.

The first couple of sessions have generally been about establishing some truths about Nico and the world he lives in. His ship, the Brahman, is faster and tougher than most people expect, and Nico may have a dark past.

On his first job, he traveled to Amity VI to pick up a load of ore and transport it to Port Legacy. There was a minor hitch in things as Amity VI was under medical quarantine, but it got lifted fairly quickly and Nico completed the job with no real problems.

On his second job, he was contracted by a private corporation, to transport cattle from Wellspring to Amity VI. His corporate contact was a scarred Ferengi named Eshk. On this job, Nico ran afoul of a raider. He managed to get his shields up before they could strafe the Brahman with their phasers, and Nico kept ahead of them until help arrived in the shape of a Terran Federation starship, the TFS Valencia. They blew the raider to atoms and escorted Nico to Amity VI, where they learned several other ships had been attacked. It was later revealed that the attackers were members of the Gorn Hegemony.

Returning to Wellspring, Nico learned that the Terran Federation had formally declared war on the Gorn Hegemony, for the unprovoked attacks, as had the Cardassian Union. Some people were concerned that the Klingons might take advantage of this situation, to launch attacks on the border, but this seemed unlikely with the Klingon Great Houses squabbeling among themselves again, and the Interstellar Alliance keeping a hard eye on them.

* * * * *

So, I wanted to play something different from the fantasy game I've been soloing for over a year, and after some false starts I settled on an AU Star Trek setting. This game feels much more narrative than my last, which is odd, but I'm not complaining. That said, I'll be surprised if this one lasts as long as my Liam Solo.

Current Mood: content
Current Location: Downstairs, My Bedroom, My Couch

So, I want to play a different type of solo game, but I can't decide what sort to play.
I'm a bit burned out on Fantasy settings, and want to take a break.
Naturally, my first inclination is to play in a SciFi setting. But most of the resources out there for SciFi right now are very grimdark and I just don't want to do that. Most of the SciFi resources I own fall into that category: Aliens, Blade Runner, Ironsworn: Starforged.
I considered a Planetary Romance setting, a la John Carter of Mars or Carson of Venus, but I'm just not really feeling it.
So I thought I might try a Star Trek type setting, but I'm ambivalent about that as well.
Still, I've got the itch to solo something, I've just got to come up with a world to play in.
If anyone has any suggestions, hit me up in comments.
:/

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: Upstairs, The Living Room, The Couch
Current Music: The creak of the attic fan, the buzz of distant traffic

So, I'm a bit bored with soloing in a fantasy setting. I want to play in a different setting, but I couldn't figure out what I wanted. So, like a lot of people, I consulted the FB Hivemind.

A lot of people suggested something Historic.

Others said Sci-Fi.

And there was a sizeable contingent recommending a Lovecraftian horror setting.

Sadly, none of these are exactly what I want to play.

I thought about doing a Multiverse game, where my PC is slipping between different realities for a random number of sessions. That could be interesting, and it would let me explore different genres.

Or maybe something completely different. A setting where the PC has slipped through the cracks of reality and finds himself in a London Below kind of setting. (see Neil Gaiman's excellent Neverwhere book fo the reference!)

And now I've got decision paralysis. :(

Current Mood: frustrated
Current Location: Upstairs, The Living Room, The Couch
Current Music: "Butterflies in the Rain" by Ray Noble & His Orchestra

So, having arrived in Elecado, Liam and Ulda Bordis speak with Master Zersis, Liam's old tutor, regarding his situation. They decide that Liam formally disavowing his family is the best idea. Master Zersis asks if he can come along, as he would like to see how things play out. Liam and Ulda Bordis agree.
The three leave town and head for the City of Lionscliff. On their first night, they meet an elvish ranger, a member of the Home Legion, dispatched to the north with important instructions.
A few days later, the trio has a less polite encounter with a dragonbear. Eventually, the three companions are able to overcome the creature.
They continue on their way, coming to a rough inn, where they reveal that the dragonbear is dead. A brief celebration ensues, and the three decide that Ulda Bordis and Master Zersis will go ahead tomorrow, while Liam follows the next day. Their hope is that, in the busy traffic entering the city for a local festival, any spies on the city gates won't spot Liam.
The next day Ulda Bordis and Master Zersis continue on to Lionscliff. Nothing dramatic happens, although we learn that Master Zersis used to work in the Regent's Court as a scribe and was, very briefly, a member of the Ebon Daggers. He remains on good terms with the organization of assassins to this day. They arrive in Lionscliff and make their way to the Tinker District and the home of Master Galio, a friend of Master Zersis. They wait their for Liam to arrive, so they can come up with a plan to get him into the Regent's Court.
Liam meanwhile has waited half a day and decided to leave the rough inn, maybe camp in the woods until the morrow. Unfortunately, there are no good camp sites along the road. He does find shelter for the night at a dilapidated farm. There is an awkward moment between Liam and the farmer's daughter, but nothing comes of it.
The next morning, as Liam is packing his pack and getting ready to leave, the farmer's daughter is killed by a water-dragon, sleeping in the farm well. The farmer, in grief stricken madness, attacks the water-dragon and is killed almost instantly.
Realizing he cannot defeat the water-dragon on his own, Liam flees. He is certain the farmer's family was killed by the creature.
Making his way to a busy inn, Liam hires a prostitute named Vio to beat him with a whip, as pennance for abandoning the farmer and his family.
The next day, Liam decides to change the plan. Rather than slip through the city gates, he decides to approach his eldest sister, Elektra, who lives on an estate outside the city. Elektra is surprised to see Liam, and she and her servant, Amalice, take him to Elektra's bedroom, where she is preparing to attend a party in the city.
During the conversation with his sister, Liam learns that the Regent's Hand is looking into the murder of his brothers. Elektra also confides that she was the one who sent the assassins the night Liam ran away from home. She is a member of the Freedom League and her hope was that the death of the Merrik family would cause a significant collapse in the regional slave trade. Then she and her servant try to kill Liam. They very nearly succeed, but Liam is victorious in the end, slaying Elektra and her servant. Hiding the bodies in the floor using a spell, Liam then proceeds to the city. Passing through the gates, still in a state of shock from recent events and his wounds, Liam does not go to the Tinkers District, but decides to go to the the Temple of the Peacekeeper.
Four days later, Ulda Bordis and Master Zersis are summoned to attend the Regent's Hand. The Hand advises them that Liam is in his custody and that he has been very helpful is resolving certain matters. The companions are reunited and Liam shares most of his experiences with his friends.
They are then escorted to the Regent's Court. Ulda Bordis and Master Zersis watch from the balcony gallery as Liam eventually appears before the Regent to disavow his bloodline. His parents have been summoned to witness the event and Liam's father, Victor, flies into a fury and protests Liam's actions. His wife, Damera, approaches the matter more pragmatically. Both their efforts fail and the Regent witnesses and approves the disavowal. Liam has three days to get out of the Kingdom of Lionscliff, never to return, upon pain of death.
The companions reunite with the Regent's Hand, who is very happy that Victor Marrik has been knocked down a peg or two. He wishes the trio luck and departs, after telling them there is someone else waiting to speak with them, outside the Regent's Court.
Before venturing outside, Master Zersis is convinced by Ulda Bordis to come with them, as she thinks the Marriks identified them and they may try and take vengeance on Liam's old tutor. Master Zersis agrees.
The trio open the door, and encounter a priestess of the Peacekeeper. She informs them that as their god and temple performed a service for Liam, establishing his bonafides with the Regent's Hand, now he must perform a service for them.
* * * * *
So, some things got resolved in these sessions. We leaned who was behind the attack on the Marrik family and their motivations. Liam was able to disavow his bloodline, and formally sever his connection with his parents. When I consulted the dice to see if Victor and Damera would pursue matters, I got a firm 'no,' which makes sense given their cold, pragmatic natures.
I was honestly hoping for a hot confontation between father and son, but that didn't happen. The dice just did not roll that way, when I questioned my System Oracle.
Elektra's part in the assassination came as a complete surprise, but, in retrospect, it sort of makes sense. If she had survived, I might have made her a recurrent character, but I think it's best that she didn't. The scene with Liam and the whip-wielding whore also caught me off guard, but, again, the dice rolled as they did.
I've written over 80,000 words in narrative notes for this campaign and, honestly? I'm ready to take a break. I'm not abandoning Liam & Friends, but I'm ready for a tonal change.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Location: Upstairs, The Living Room, The Couch
Current Music: The distant rumble of heavy machinery...

I'm running a D&D game tomorrow for some folks and I'm kind of getting OCD about everything.
*le sigh*
I haven't run a game for others in a couple of years, so I'm probably overcompensating.
The basic plot is that the party gets hired to retrieve a magic mcguffin from an old church.
But I thought it would be cool if they had to solve riddles to get into the church and then get back out again(if they survive the encounter in the church! Mwahahaha!).

Anyway, I've come up with a couple of riddles. Let me know what y'all think.

Riddle One: The Entrance
I am patient, kind and cruel.
I have been with thee,
am with thee still,
will be waiting for thee tomorrow.
Name me and enter.

The answer is Death. Because death is patient, kind to some and cruel to others, and is always with us. Is the riddle too abstract? I'm not sure.

Riddle Two: The Exit
I am a balm on dark days,
and a liar to the foolish.
I soar on wings of divine promise,
and am the promise of better days.
Name me and live.

The answer is Hope. Because people cling to hope in their darkest days, while fools cling to false hope. The soaring on wings of divine promise bit is related to hope being associated with the divine and doves, and 'the promise of better days' is an allusion to 'hope for the future.' Again, I wonder if it's too abstract?

Eh. If they can't guess, I can always fudge the numbers.

Current Mood: industrious
Current Location: Upstairs, The Living Room, The Couch
Current Music: "Four impromptus" by Schubert

When last we left them, Liam and Ulda Bordis had arrived in the town of Elecado, in the Kingdom of Lionscliff. There, they had found the home of Liam's old tutor, Master Zersis, who has become Elecado's school master. Invited in by the old man, they discovered a body inside the house.
Master Zersis was pretty blase about the corpse. He explained that a while back he accrued a debt with the Ebon Daggers, a guild of respectable assassins. They offered him a way to pay off his debt: they would send 9 apprentice assassins after him (as their Final Exam). If Master Zersis survived all 9 assassination attempts, his debt would be forgiven. The assassin he had killed earlier was the seventh.
After Liam and Ulda Bordis absorb this information, they settle into the small parlor, while Master Zersis disposes of the body. He stuffs it in a barrel in his back garden and tells them it will probably be gone before sunrise tomorrow; the Ebon Daggers are very good about cleaning up their messes.
Liam eventually explains why he's there, recounting his recent experiences with his family. Master Zersis tells him that he's taking the Diviner priest's words, "Shed your family's blood" too literally. Liam doesn't need to kill his father; he just needs to formally disavow his connection to them. This is a solution that is rarely used in Lionscliff, as it has consequences: Liam could never use his family name again, he could neve contact any of his kin, and if he returned to Lionscliff, he would be executed. (They take family very seriously in Lionscliff.) All Liam has to do is make his way to the Regent's Court, avoiding the agents of his enemies, and make a public statement disavowing his relationship and all rights, responsibilities and duties to the Family Merrik.
Liam admits that leaving Lionscliff would not be difficult for him, as he always thought that he would return to Mistgate and continue his life there.
* * * * *
So, Liam now has options. He can solve his problem by killing his father or by disowning his family. He'd prefer the former, but could probably live with the later. He also made a very telling statement that he was trying to be good, which is NOT being like his parents.
Interesting thing I just noticed; Lionscliff is a slave kingdom, but so far we haven't seen any slaves. I should probably adress that.

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Location: Downstairs, My Bedroom, My Bed

So, when last we left Liam and Ulda Bordis, they had gone off to dance the day away at the New Year's festivities in Mistgate.
We pick up about a week later, as they board a ship that will take them on the first leg of their journey to the Kingdom of Lionscliff. They sail away from Mistgate, traveling north and west along the coast of the Gilded Sea. They leave the Wild Coast behind them. The ship stops at a couple of places to swap out cargo and passengers, before arriving in the port city of Undershore.
Undershore is a largish city built mainly within a massive cave entrance. Its always dark in Undershore, except at the end of the day, when the setting sun's light illuminates the ramshackle buildings facing the sea.
Liam and Ulda Bordis changed ships in Undershore, but their new ship wouldn't leavef or a couple of days. They spent a little time poking about the city. Liam bought a book. The accomodation available was not good and they chose, upon the advice of others, to camp on the hillside overlooking the beach.
The first night, nothing happened. The second night, a trio of bums, armed with clubs, attacked their campsite. The fight ended with one of the attackes dead, and the other two fled, as sailors from the other camps rushed in to see what was going on. Everyone agreed it was probably best to sleep in one camp, and the rest of the evening passed without problems.
They boarded the second ship and continued on their journey. Ulda Bordis learned a bit about Liam's family. He has six siblings. With his brothers dead, only his sisters are left, and he only geta along with one of them. His mother is, according to Liam, an "awful person." She's where he gets his magical talents from; his mother was a ritualist, until an accident left her paralyzed below the waist, severely inhibiting her ability to channel her magics. (Interesting note: if you want to nuetralize a mage? Cut off their hands. Want to nuetralize a ritualist? Cut off their feet.)
They stop at Wildkeep, where the two blow off some steam, getting blitzed on hallucinogenic jelly, and catching a bawdy street show. They barely make it back to the ship in time.
Finally, they enter the Kingdoms. They stop, briefly, at Iron Bay, but don't linger, and continue on to their final destination: Blacksand.
Liam and Ulda Bordis debark and continue to the town where Liam's old tutor has retired. They travel on foot, overland, encountering no real troubles. They arrive at the town, and take rooms in the local inn. They learn that Liam's old tutor is now the headmaster of the town school, and everyone knows him. They are given directions to his home, after Liam convinces the innkeeper that he really does know him.
At the home, the old man lets them in. After Liam and Ulda Bordis step inside, they see a dead man lying in a hallway with a knife sticking out of his eye. They turn to the old man, who is holding the knife's twin.
"Don't mind the mess in the hall," he says.
Fade to black.
* * * * *
This session was mostly travel, which isn't bad, in itself. I got to flesh out some of the big cities along the northeast section of the Gilded Sea: Raven's Dale, Nightgate, Undershore, Wildkeep, Iron Bay, Blacksand. And the section between those cities and the Iron Empire, is now known as the Northern Marches. Also, there is an underground sea, accessible via Undershore, called the Dark Sea. It is the only sea-access to the Iron Empire.
Oh. We also got a hint of how things are in the Iron Empire. I forgot to mention that, on the last leg of the trip, an Imperial citizen with goblin slaves boarded the ship. Some of the ship's goblin crew threw him overboard, to free the goblin slaves, but the slaves threw themselves off the ship after him, shocking everybody, yours truly included. The goblin crewmen were arrested in Blacksand, and will probably meet a grissly fate: getting torn apart by four horses outside the city.
Ulda Bordis said that was barbaric. Liam reminded her that in the Gallowswalk, folk had been left to die from exposure and hunger. So which punishment was worse?
Yeah.
I think I'm gearing up for the next session. Not sure what's going on with Liam's old teacher, whose name completely escapes me right now, but I'm trying not to plan shit in advance. What's the point of having a random Oracle if you don't fucking use it? Right? Right!

In the last session, Liam escaped his captors and reuinted with Ulda Bordis. They returned to Mistgate, where Liam paid off Captain Trapp, and then sat down and told Ulda Bordis his story. She was unaware of his history, as, up until now, it hadn't really impacted her. After listening to Liam explain his situation, Ulda Bordis suggests they seek the advice of their mutal friend, Master Orla the Sage. They visit Master Orla and, after a little catching up(he's been put in charge of assembling the teaching staff for Mistgate's new university), they explain why they've come to him. Master Orla suggests that Liam consult a lawyer versed in the inheritance laws of his homeland, as his problems seem caused by that. Liam doesn't know a lawyer in Lionscliff that he could trust, but he might know someone who knows someone; his old tutor, who taught him to kill.

In the next session, we jump ahead a few weeks to the start of spring and the beginning of the New Year in the Unfolding World. Liam is still staying with Sigmara and Aithlore. He and Ulda Bordis work a couple of cases, one involving the retrieval of an ancient shield for new dwarven nobility, and the other where they track down a runaway groom to prevent a vendetta between two dwarf families. Liam also attends the Umberfist Tournement with friends, trying to take his mind off of things.
During all of this, Liam has been consulting the priests at the Temple of the Diviner, asking if now is the right time for him to return home. After several weeks, he finally gets a 'Yes'. He is advised not to travel alone, and that the only way to resolve the situation with his family is to "shed his family's blood."
Liam makes his way through the streets of Mistgate, thick with New Year's Day celebrations, to Ulda Bordis. He informs her of the priest's advice and she informs him that she'll start looking into ships heading toward the Kingdoms.
Afterward, he asks if she wants to go out and dance at a street fair he passed on the way to her place. She agrees and the session ends with them heading out to have a good time.
* * * * *
So, Liam is heading home. And I can't decide if I want to play out the travel or just skip ahead to their arrival in Lionscliff. On the one hand, playing through the journey would take a while and, given the nature of random encounters, they could both die. On the other hand, jumping ahead to their arrival, would feel a bit like cheating. Also, I think I'm falling into the trap of planning ahead for this campaign, which I really shouldn't be doing, as it removes the random element that makes solo so interesting. But I sort of want Liam to confront his family and just fuck them up, because they are not nice people.
So, narratively, I'm sort of in the weeds here. I'll probably resolve the situation by flipping a coin or something. Or maybe just having a single random encounter on the journey.

When last we left, a cannonball had just burst through the door of the captain's cabin aboard the slaver ship, Relentless, and also, burst through Captain Corrico. Sir Arlo was pinned to his chair by a splinter, howling for help from his wave, Lady Repana. The dwarf, Swallow Mooncliff, had dived to protect Cestina while Liam and Doctor Ibramak dove for the floor.
Realizing this was his chance, Liam went for the deadmage candle, negating his magical abilities, and managed to snuff it. Swallow immediately set upon him, but none of her attacks hit and Liam blasted her with a lightning bolt. In the confusion, Doctor Ibramak ran out of the room. The fight between Liam and Swallow was joined, briefly, by a wounded Sir Farlo. Liam cast arcane armor on himself, took a minor hit from the knight, then armed himself with a shattered table leg and held his own against both of his attackers. Then, Lady Rapena dashed out of the cabin, and a furious Sir Farlo rushed after her, leaving both Swallow and Liam somewhat amused. In this lull, Cestina threw a dagger at Liam that managed to wound him a little, while arguing that the three of them should work together to survive. Liam basically told them to fuck off, then he cast intangible on himself and exited the fight, through the cabin wall.
On the ship's deck, Liam observed that the attackers did not seem to be pirates. They were ruthlessly executing every member of the ship's crew. Liam dove over the side of the ship, after casting his fourth spell on himself, and flew away from the battle, just as the dark skies erupted in a storm.
Meanwhile, Ulda Bordis and the Farwen had hit the edge of the same storm assailing the slaver ship and its attacker. They were still making progress when one of the lookouts spotted a man flying through the storm. Ulda Bordis, borrowing Captain Trapp's telescope, was shocked to see that it was Liam. Trapp ordered the Farwen's magical enhancement shut down, and a flare fired in front of Liam, to get his attention. The tactic worked and an exhausted and wet Liam landed on the deck, only after spotting Ulda Bordis.
Retreating to Captain Trapp's cabin, Liam and Ulda Bordis exchanged stories. Trapp asked if Liam saw anything that could identify the slaver ship's attackers, but Liam did not remember anything. Leth asked Liam what he would do now? Would he stay in Mistgate or leave? Change his name?
Liam answered that he had run far enough and now he would have to deal with his family.
When a concerned Ulda Bordis asked him what he meant, Liam answered, "Well, I suppose it means I'll have to go to Lionscliff and kill my father."
Meanwhile, back on the captured slaver ship, one of the attackers is reporting to his leader, which turns out to be Lady Repana. It seems that the attackers and Lady Repana are members of the abolitionish Freedom League. Sir Farlo and Doctor Ibramak are dead, but Cestina and Swallow are missing. There is no mention of Piper. Lady Repana opines that any survivors will scurry out of hiding when they scuttle the ship and that Cestina would be a valuable bargaining chip for the League. She also notes that Liam managed to escape, but that she doesn't think he'll be a problem for the League and, if he is, they know where he is.
End of Session
* * * * *
So, after several sessions apart, Liam and Ulda Bordis are reunited. We got some insight into Liam's family and history, while Ulda Bordis still remains something of a cypher. I think these sessions did consolidate her dedication to her friend and business partner, but whether that will carry over if Liam plans bloody patricide? Who can say? And, since it does look like Liam will be heading to Lionscliff, we've got some potentially interesting allies/enemies revealed in the Freedom League, Lady Repana, Cestina Marrik, Swallow and maybe even Piper. If the last three have survived. That's still up in the air.
And next session will be my 40th session. I feel like I should take a breather. Maybe do something completely different. It's still winter in-setting, and the Umberfist Tournement still needs to happen. Or, I could just do a time-jump, move everything up to Summer and jump into the action. I can't decide. We'll find out soon enough though.

So, when last we left our intrepid duo, Liam was languishing in a slave cage aboard the Relentless, denied the use of his magics by a deadmage candle, firmly in the grip of his sister-in-law, Cestina, and the mercenary, Piper.
Ulda Bordis, on the other hand, had found allies aboard the Farwen, a trader ship that dabbles in piracy. As the ship raced after Liam, Ulda Bordis was witness to a shocking illusionary transformation cast upon the ship and all of its occupants, and then the vessel magically rising to fly just above the surface of the Gilded Sea.
This session, we began with Ulda Bordis and Leth, discussing the Farwen and its crew, and the nature of Ulda Bordis's relationship with Liam. We learn that Captain Trapp was sold as a slave when he was younger, explaining his hatred for the Relentless. We also learn that Eunia, the angry drunk lady, and the person responsible for the ship's magical transformation and locomotion, is a ritualist mage with a shady background.
Meanwhile, aboard the Relentless, Liam is taken upstairs by Cestina's loyal bodyguard, the dwarf-woman named Swallow Mooncliff. She is one tough customer, not taking shit from anyone. Liam is brought to the Captain's cabin, where Cestina convinces him to behave and his trip home to Lionscliff won't have to be unpleasant. He agrees and the manacles he's wearing are removed, as the deadmage candle is brought up from below. Liam also gets to meet some of the other people traveling aboard the Relentless: her commanding officer, Captain Corrico, a heavyset red-head with a missing left eye; Doctor Ibramalik, a mysterious stranger; Sir Farlo and his wife, Lady Repana, returning from a diplomatic mission to the eastern nations.
Liam is good, but the dinner is incredibly tedious, until a cannonball bursts through the cabin door, killing Captain Corrico and pinning Sir Farlo to his chair. Swallow moves to protect Cestina, while Liam and Doctor Ibramalik take shelter beneath the table.
Outside, it sounds like all hell is breaking loose.
* * * * *
Woohoo! Things happening! And next session, Liam and Ulda Bordis get to level up their Health as they achieve Level 9. :D

As the Farwen starts its pursuit of the Relentless, Captain Trapp and his crew reveal some surprises. A member of the crew, Eunia, is called into action. An angry drunken women, she castigates Trapp, but descends below deck and soon the Farwen and her crew undergo a startling transformation. The ship turns black as night, while the crew, including Ulda Bordis and Lethe, assume the guises of burning eyed phantoms.
Then, the first mate raises a red flag, and the Farwen starts to fly across the waves of the Gilded Sea, bearding down swiftly on their target.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, Liam wakes up in a large metal cage below deck on what he quickly realizes is a slave ship. He also quickly discovers that his magical abilities are being neutralized by a strange candle burning nearby. Assuming that it is his father who has captured him, Liam is surprised to learn that it is his newly widowed sister-in-law, Celestine, who has captured him. The two have a rather barbed conversation, as Liam learns only one of his nephews survived the attack on his family. He is unmoved that his parents survived.
He postulates that the attack on his family, which led to the deaths of his brothers, was probably carried out by one of three factions: (1)the Regent of Lionsgate, who may be growing concerned with the ambitions of Liam's father; (2) one of his father's personal enemies; or (3) Celestine's family.
Naturally, the last does not endear him to Celestine, who withdraws, leaving Liam with the man who arranged his capture, the rogue known as Piper.
They have a short conversation, and Piper leaves as well, leaving Liam alone, and thinking that he has a few weeks to escape before the ship returns to Lionscliff.
* * * * *
So, the above is a very abreviated record of my last two sessions.
It was good to get back to Liam, as I'm still having trouble channeling Ulda Bordis. The conversation between him and Celestine was great and the above synopsis does not do it justice. And Piper? Piper is a rogue. That's the best way to describe him. But he's a rogue working for Liam's father, Victor, and looking at winning some favor with the family's sole heir. Liam is not impressed.
In this session, Liam sort of revealed that he can be as calculating as any of his family, expressing sympathy regarding the murder of Celestine's son, and later, in that same conversation, asking her how long it will be before her family marries her off to another rich merchant?
It got very Game of Thrones there for a while, if you get my meaning.
I rolled randomly to see how many sessions before the Farwen catches up to the Relentless, and I've got one more to play before that happens and all hell probably breaks loose. I'm probably going to stick with Liam for the next session, unless the dice indicate otherwise, and maybe see what happens next between him and his captors. It should be entertaining.

Serd Brucera declines Ulda Bordis's invitation to go with her to the Kingdoms, claiming that (1) he has no desire to return to those lands for various reasons (the food is too spicy, the weather too warm and the men too cold) and (2) they just met so its probably not a good idea for them to take off on an adventure that will probably end in violent bloodshed. Ulda Bordis admits this is probably a good idea, and leaves the Dappled Tiger.
However, as she is leaving the Tiger, a figure catches up to Ulda Bordis on the street. It is Leth, the Lisote woman who she hired on the last escort job from Frostkeep. Leth asks what happened to Liam and Ulda Bordis tells the tale. Leth takes Ulda Bordis to see a friend of hers who may be able to help.
Leth leads Ulda Bordis to a ramshackle bar called the Cellar, patronized by ruffians and ne'er-do-wells. There, she introduces Ulda Bordis to Captain Hamish Trapp of the Farwen.
Captain Trapp seems to have some bad feelings twoard the Kingdoms and agrees to listen to Ulda Bordis's story. When he finds out that the ship he's being hired to pursue is the Relentless, the job becomes personal as he vows to send that ship's captain and crew to the bottom of the Gilded Sea.
The trio make their way to the Farwen, where Captain Trapp starts bellowing orders, while his First Mate, a long-eared goblin called Quill, points out that they haven't agreed to a price for the mission. Ulda Bordis offers 130g for the safe return of Liam, a sum that satisfies Quill, further motivates the captain and surprises Leth. Leth is offered a chance to leave, but decides to stay aboard, and Ulda Bordis gets out of the crew's way, swearing that if she doesn't get Liam back, that there will be hell to pay.
* * * * *
Yeah, so tonight's session was a bit all over the place. The dice-rolls led to Serd Brucera not joining the party, but did take us to Captain Trapp, who did. Further rolls revealed that Trapp has a bleak history with the Relentless, providing a personal motivation for him to catch up with the ship. Deciding rolls also led to Leth choosing the stay on board.
On the worldbuilding front, this session led to the creation of a sea god, specific to the Gilded Sea, known as the Serpent Lord. I did this quite by accident, as I forgot that there was already a sea diety present, the Siren. Still, there's nothing that says there can't be two sea-gods. Right? The Siren, however, is probably a goddess of the Ocean and the Sea, while the Serpent Lord is just a god of the sea.
Anyway, the last three sessions have all occurred on the same day. The ship carrying Liam away has a good head start, but she's fighting against the wind and the weather, and the Farwen, at least according to Captain Trapp, is the fastest ship on the Wild Coast. So, it'll be interesting to see if she can catch up to the Relentless, and what happens then.

Guided by the Diviner Priest, Ulda Bordis rushes to Mistport, the small seaside community just outside of Mistgate itself. Her first stop is the Harbormaster's Office, where she learns that the Relentless won't be leaving until mid-afternoon. Ulda Bordis then goes to the Mistport Watch Garrison, where she tells her story to Commander Harper. He is sympathetic, but needs more than hearsay, even divinely inspired hearsay, before he can storm aboard a ship and search it for a kidnap victim. However, unofficially, he sends a couple of his watchmen to nose around the Relentless, to dig up anything they could use to justify going aboard the ship. Unfortunately, when the two watchmen return, they inform Commander Harper and Ulda Bordis that the ship is gone, it sailed hours ago, when the weather cleared. Interviews with some of the dockworkers revealed that the ship did not load or unload cargo and that she was sitting high in the water the entire time she was docked. Because of that, she didn't need to wait for high tide to depart.
Furious at herself for being too late to catch the ship, Ulda Bordis winds up in a local bar called The Dappled Tiger. The she proceeds to drown her temper and plan her next steps. She also meets a foreign dwarf-dandy named Serd Bruceva. Serd has several piercings, the thickest, blackest beard Ulda Bordis has ever seen on a dwarf, and is armed with a pistol. After some initial resistance, Ulda Bordis reveals why she's so angry to Serd. He in turn reveals that he's a jack-of-all-trades a.k.a. an adventurer, who came to Mistgate in pursuit of a bounty that ended badly. Intrigued, Ulda Bordis asks if he's ever been to the Kingdoms. When Serd says he's been there once or twice, Ulda Bordis asks him if he'd like to go back.
* * * * *
I honestly didn't know if Ulda Bordis would get to the ship in time to save Liam, but I rolled my dice and they revealed that she would not. In fact, they revealed that the ship had left hours ago, probably while Ulda Bordis was nosing around Liam's bedroom for clues.
Winding up in The Dappled Tiger allowed me to satisfy a recent Random Event: introduce a new NPC. Thus, was Serd Bruceva born. Serd is a bit of a dandy dwarf, with his magnificent beard, gold piercings, fine clothes and expensive pistol. He's from the South. Where exactly, we don't know yet. But he's only been in one scene and I'm already really liking him.
Next session, I think I'll shift the focus back to Liam. Reveal his kidnappers and their motivations and figure out how the hell they're containing him.

The blizzard that has innundated Mistgate for the last few days finally blew itself out. In the Court of Ironsmiths, Ulda Bordis is relaxing in her office with a cup of hot, black tea. The one-eyed elf girl, Honoria, is snoring gently beneath the desk, cradeling an empty wine bottle. It's a weirdly domestic scene, when the door to the office flies open and Sigmara enters, announcing that Liam has vanished.
Ulda Bordis immediately travels to Sigmara's house via cab. Sigmara assures her that Liam did not have a relapse, that his fever had broken, so he wouldn't have just wandered out into the cold night. Arriving at the house, Ulda Bordis examines the entraces and discovers that someone picked the lock on the rear door. Investigating Liam's room, she finds that his boots and cloak are missing, but that his weapons remain behind. She decides that Liam must have been taken. But by who?
Ulda Bordis travels to the Great Plaza, to the Temple of the Diviner. There, she speaks with a Lisote priest, trying to determine Liam's location. She is informed that he is no longer in the city, that his family has him and that he cannot reveal Liam's exact location. Ulda Bordis is about to ask another question, when the priest warns her that this will be her final question, so she should ask wisely.
Recalling her previous conversations with Liam, and what she learned about him during their work together, as well as taking into account the answers she has already received, Ulda Bordis asks, "What is the name of the ship that Liam is on?" The priest informs her that the ship is called Relentless.
Armed with this information, Ulda Bordis presses 10 gold coins into the priest's hand and dashes from the temple.
* * * * *
Wow. So, this was an interesting session. I spent the first part determining who had taken Liam. I rolled on a list of suspects and determined that his family was behind his vanishing. Then I spent some time determing who had come for him and how they did it.
Then the session began and Ulda Bordis had to make some pretty good Cunning rolls to determine that Sigmara's home had been broken into. Other rolls led her to the conclusion that Liam had, indeed, been taken.
Going to the Temple of the Diviner seemed perfectly natural. I rolled percentile dice to determine if the priest could answer Ulda Bordis's questions. He could answer all of them, except for giving Liam's precise location. I chalked that up, narratively, to the fact that Liam is obscurred from all forms of divination, both arcane and divine. Then I had to go back through my notes to determine what Liam had told Ulda Bordis, or what she would have learned from their time on the road together. So she knew he was running from his family, that he came from Lionscliff and that his kidnappers would most likely be returning there via ship. (The magical transport that Liam experienced in earlier sessions is NOT common.) So, it made sense for her to ask what was the name of the ship. Then I rolled on my new Starforged oracles and got the name, Relentless.
And that's where we left it.

After a two month break, tonight I returned to the Liam Solo.
* * * * *
We open up on the city of Mistgate, being pounded by a fierce blizzard. Then we shift focus to the room of Liam Easthill, where he is tucked up in bed, with a fever. As the scene unfolds, Liam's fever grows worse. He falls into a fitful sleep, waking in bright eyed delirium. His landlady, Sigmara, is standing by the bed, as her spouse, Aithlore, tends to the feverish Liam. He drifts in and out of consciousness, waking once to find Ulda Bordis standing at the foot of his bed. In his delirium, Liam hallucinates auras around the three women and hears the fire in his hearth hissing like snakes.
The view shifts to Ulda Bordis and Sigmara. They discuss this fever, which is sweeping the city. Sigmara reports that half the people at The Wheel & Lantern have caught it. Ulda Bordis announces that The Singing Beetle has been shut down, as have all the other festhalls in the city, by order of the City Council.
During their conversation, Ulda Bordis jokingly asks if Sigmara is on good terms with any priests of the plague-goddess, the Lady of Maladies. To her surprise, Sigmara tells her that she might be.
The scene shifts to the Court of Peacocks, very close to the Great Plaza. Here, Ulda Bordis enters the temple to the Lady of Maladies. She finds that Sigmara's old friend, Sister Gwenabyr, is no longer a humble accolyte, but a full fledged Priestess to the Lady of Maladies. She is also a victim of the Rot, a leprosy-like disease that leaves those who survive it terribly deformed, forced to wear masks to hide their ravaged condition.
Pushing past her personal revulsion, Ulda Bordis asks if there's anything Sister Gwenabyr could do for Liam. The sister confesses that several others have come to the temple with similar requests, but that there is nothing they can do for the ill, except pray for them.
Somewhat despirited by this news, Ulda Bordis makes her way to her office/home in the Court of Ironsmiths. She finds the elf-girl, Honoria, curled up in a blanket-nest beneath her desk, surrounded by empty bottles of beer. Ulda Bordis settles herself in her chair and drifts off to sleep, where she dreams that she is back in Edelsyor's Tomb, with the giant snow-tiger prowling around outside, howling to get in.
The next day, Ulda Bordis returns to Liam's place, and gets good news. His fever broke some time during the night. Aithlore has gone upstairs to sleep, leaving Sigmara and Ulda Bordis alone in the kitchen. They talk over cups of strong black tea and Sigmara confides in Ulda Bordis that Liam has very old scars on his body. Deliberately inflicted wounds that he must have received in childhood, that were never Healed. Basically, Ulda Bordis learns that Liam must have been tortured as a child. She admits that he never talks about his past and now she has a better understanding why.
After their conversation, Ulda Bordis leaves, thanking Sigmara for looking after Liam, and advising that she'll return in a couple of days to check on him. She leaves, vanishing into the swirling blizzard.
The next morning, Aithlore wakes and goes about her morning routine. She goes downstairs to check on Liam. His room is dark. The window shuttered. The fire in the hearth reduced to coals. Aithlore kindles a new fire and turns to the bed.
But the bed is empty.
Liam is gone.
* * * * *
So, after a brief hiatus, we returned to The Unfolding World, to Mistgate and the adventures of Liam Easthill nee Marrik. Since it had been a while since I played, I approached things a little differently, writing short scenes prompted by my oracle tables. The first thing I did was roll to see if the opening scene in my head was going to remain unchanged. It was not. So, I rolled on my Oracle tables and got "Struggle Illness" which prompted me to make Liam sick. Once he was sick, I rolled to determine if he was taking damage from his fever and he was.
After that, I shifted the focus to Ulda Bordis and her efforts to cure Liam. Which led to the introduction of a new deity, the Lady of Maladies, who is both the cause and the cure of plagues. It also introduced us to the Rot-afflicted Sister Gwenabyr. It seemed perfectly natural to me that a plague goddess's priesthood would include the survivors of plagues and illnesses.
More prompts and rolls, led to the revelation that Liam had been abused as a child, and that Sigmara had a dark childhood as well.
And then, of course, there was the ending, where Aithlore discovers that Liam has vanished.
I'm going to say right now that he did not get up and go for a fever-fueled walkabout. He's been taken. But by who?
There are a few possible suspects: (1)agents from his family in Lionscliff, (2)the coldhearted Lady Uldwig and Xasha, her orc muscle, or (3) individuals from Frostkeep connected to the mysterious notebook that was briefly in Liam's possession.
I know which one I would like to choose, but I'm going to leave the final decision in the hands of fate and roll the dice next session.
Although, now that I think about it, I could probably add a fourth suspect: the Wildbrook Sisterhood, the ritualist witches from Liam's first adventure.
Or maybe it was Eyasu the Blackmailer?
It'll be interesting to see who's the culprit.

Spectrum keeps sending me texts saying that they have detected a potential issue with my service and that I should schedule an appointment with them for a technician to come out.
But they can't tell me what the actual issue is without having a technician come to my house.
Exactly how does that work? You can detect a potential issue, but you can't tell me what it is?
This feels like some kind of poorly thought out scam.
It's irrelevant anywya as I won't call them until I have an actual internet problem beyond the usual wifi signal drops.
In other news, I cooked up a dice-centric zombie game the other night and I played it most of this afternoon. This is not a roleplay game, more of a simple dice-mechanic game reliant on luck. But it has sort of eaten my brain.
I'm very close to 'winning' as my NPC group is almost big enough for me to quit having to move to new areas for salvage/scavenging. I posted about it in a solo group on Facebook and some folks have asked if I'd post the rules anywhere. I'm seriously thinking about it.
And tomorrow is the Full Moon a.k.a. the Worm Moon and the Lenten Moon as well. It was almost full tonight as I was in the back yard and so bright I would bet I could read a page by its light.
Easing up on the salt/sugar thing as I feel like I'm going a little OCD about it.

So, yesterday was a good day on the diet, so I decided to take today off and give myself a little breather. It's a good thing that I did, because the cash register at the Store had a breakdown. I couldn't use it at all, so was letting folks buy stuff all morning without paying any tax. Jorg came in and reset the machine, so it was working, but the taxes were still FUBAR. I tried to fix it, but nothing I did seemed to take and eventually I just gave up and started playing Wordl.
I hate that game.
I hate it with the passion of a thousand exploding stars.
But I play it for some weird masochistic reason, I have yet to define.
In other areas, life is okay. My friend Gina finally got approved for residency in Italy, after a thee month wait and having to refile their application.
I've been driving out to my other friend, Paul's, place on Mondays so he can do stuff like grocery shop, go to the library and do laundry. Then we hang out for a while, usually watch a movie and then I come home.
Haven't been soloing lately. I stopped the Liam Solo at a good place, and Diamond City Diaries is one of those things I can pick up whenever. I got the Alien and Blade Runner RPGs from Free League and both books are excellent resources. I was thinking of running a cyberpunk game, and even did an initial session with a PC named Fidelio Chance. But I don't feel that I got what I wanted out of it, so I'm having a rethink. And last night, out of boredom, I started messing around with ideas for a zombie survival game. But I can't decide if I want it to be card-centric or dice-centric.
But I did defeat the Escape Cats by sealing off the open grate in the house that they were using to get into the back yard. Hah!
I'll take my small victories where I can, thank you very much.

I got the Alien RPG from Free League the other day. It's taken me a couple of days to read through it, but it's a really good book. The game is set up so that you don't even have to incorporate xenomorphs into the game if you don't want to. You could just run an open-ended campaign set in a gritty spacefaring future.
What I'm most jazzed about is the section on generating star systems, planets, colonies, colony missions, etc. Since I've been doing a lot more solo roleplaying, stuff like this is gravy to me.
Looking forward to giving some of the stuff a try, maybe in a solo sci-fi game.

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