Month: Sep 2022

Trying for Simplicity

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The rule of Sod feels quite active the last couple of days. Work has been productive despite constant exhaustion so I booked out some time to try and relax and rest. So of course, the boy had unexpected late shifts and we were asked to have the cub over, and he promptly developed a deep cough and a temperature.

At least he’s low maintenance as an invalid, and while Lady M works I’m able to have a quiet collapse on the sofa. The cub is currently in our bed half-heartedly watching YouTube videos on the xbox…

Wednesday Game

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It’s been a hectic week but we did get the Wednesday Librarian game in – picking up from where we left them in a grimy hole in the wall bar with their new friends.

The gang didn’t have a name or anything like that, but drinks were consumed before they headed off out. The two kenku accompanying them were a great source of interest as the players worked out how to communicate with creatures who could only mimic other sounds.

They did at least confirm that the apprentices they were looking for worked in The Mortuary which was next door. There seemed to be some mirth around this that wasn’t explained. Half the party were by now drunk – specifically those specialising in lock picking – and so attempts to gain entry took a little longer. This provided a great deal of entertainment for the locals, who seemed unconcerned by all this activity.

Eventually, by various means, they broke in to the locked up building to find that it was in fact a book depository full of jumbled shelves and stacks of old newspapers. A cursed book of tongue twisters left Xander the artificer literally tongue tied until Wilhem lifted the enchantment. It was carefully stowed away as the group found a trapdoor.

This in turn led to a deeper cellar carved into the bedrock that featured a wide set of magical runes, the two apprentices, and the animated objects that they had just been about to make fight. On spotting the group, they directed their creations to attack and tried to make a run for it. The potted shrub was slow but moved to block the group, while the broom flew quickly and aggressively.

And that was the cliffhanger we ended on.

Eberron Draconic Prophecies

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We’ve not played this evening as my stomach has decided that today would be a good day to play up – so instead here’s some unused Draconic Prophecy snippets I made up as ancillary things to make the players go ‘ooooh’ and as some world building.

Some context: in the game world of Eberron there is a complex prophecy that touches on all sorts of things that is researched and debated by the dragons of that world and acts in-game as a mcguffin to explain or prompt whatever portentous things the GM wants to have happen – or in other words a nice motivation for dragons or their followers or opponents to get out and cause mischief as needed in the story. Its deliberately left vague for the GMs pleasure.

I decided to write a few verses that could be dropped into the game, or possibly discovered in some dusty tome as the players research things – but they’ve shown a marked tendency in the Sunday game to be entities of action rather than of research, so I may never get a chance to crowbar them in. There is the faint chance that the players will read this and then try their best not to metagame (and good luck to them if so)

So – here are three that should ring bells for anyone who’s been following the game recently:

The inter-twining god serpents’ lights follow the lightning and make slumbering prophecies hatch golden wings. Even madness’ sting deters not the seekers and the passage of the Heir

The Draconic Prophecies – Scale 532, chapter 4, verses 32-33

This refers to the dance of the coatls that accompanied the lightning rail train that the characters rode on as they left Windhaven on their way back to see Thorin’s unwell father. The slumbering prophecies and wings verse is about the vision where Caeluma rejected their bloodline’s demonic patron and sacrificed themself to protect their family – being rewarded with golden wings by their celestial patron as a change to their tiefling features. The sting refers to the assassins sent by one of the factions involved in the underlying conflict they are stepping into

The Seeker of the Mark risks all in the face of the fiercest winter – risking EverIce for the sake of a lost sibling. The Forgotten Mark but slumbers even as lights throng in display

The Draconic Prophecies – Scale 1042, chapter 2, verses 4-5

Kerne has a long-standing interest in rediscovering the lost Dragonmark of Death. They’ve heard that it was something to do with the creation of her people – the dragonborn – and wants to get to the bottom of it, mostly because they enjoy the academic discovery involved. Kerne’s adventures have brought them into contact with The Winter’s Knight – a being of the Feywild/Thelanis that seems to have become the patron of Kerne’s long-lost sister and have driven that sister to studying with Hags. EverIce is an arctic region in Eberron that may or may not have ties to Thelanis or lost civilisations. The Forgotten Mark is the Dragonmark of Death, which is currently completely suppressed by the elves of Aerenal. Kerne discovered a statue that depicts what she thinks may be the Mark. It is currently on loan to the University of Wynarn in Aundair.

Golden wings and divided bow, Amber hammer, scale, and guardian low. The wolves fall back. The shadows smile, and Xoriat watches and waits. The Triumphant Dead numbers lack, yet gather by the mile. A favour for a favour links gates

The Draconic Prophecies – Scale 538, chapter 5, verses 1-5

This is fairly simple in that it identifies everyone currently active in the DDC. The wolves is a reference to the werewolves they just defeated on their way to the Amberhammer Holdings west of Cragwar. Smiling shadows and Xoriat is a vague description of the forces arrayed against them. The Triumphant Dead is a faction that has been encountered once in the recent past working with the Emerald Claw when Coal was used as a power source to reactivate a Warforged Titan in the slums of Windhaven. As the prophecy says, they are small in number but seem to be travelling and gathering allies perhaps. The favour for a favour was the deal done with House Sivis to allow the creation of a teleportation circle out of the remains of the planar portal and favourable trading for that House in the AmberHammer lands.

So there you have it – three obscure statements that can be read in all sorts of ways and that will certainly get people thinking in the campaign and referring back. I may make a habit of these to drop between sessions as a stinger. That appeals to me and I think it will keep people busy – what do you think?

Exhausted. Again.

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There’s definitely something not right, but we’ll have to wait for the routines of blood tests and investigations to work out what it is. All I known is that having woken at seven this morning, I’ve napped for a couple of hours and headed to the shops, and it feels like three in the morning with added gentle dizziness.

So, my plan is to plough on steadily, and hopefully its something that a course of B12 injections will sort out because this feels like the last time my body stopped making vitamin D.

The joys of diabetes, kids.

So, if I’m a bit short with anyone for a while, I apologise. In the meantime, work and two D&D groups, not to mention my wonderful partners and extended Entourage will keep me distracted and remembering to hydrate.

Speaking of D&D, and especially Eberron, I’ve been working up some Draconic Prophecy verses as colour for my groups – and will share them for any GMs who want to reuse them.

Wednesday D&D Session One

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And this will be the one where I suddenly remember five minutes in that i haven’t actually exported the expected map and uploaded and configured it and proceed to do this in the background.

Its also the session where the simple “go here, hit this person, and return with the stolen item” mission became a huge and convoluted conspiracy theory necessitating the on-the-fly generation of a dozen semi-fleshed out NPCs, including four high levels wizards and a street gang who the group talked into not trying to mug them and instead took them down the pub.

It’s also the game that was utterly derailed by a wizard with the name Thunderstaff, how he was a big noise in the community, and frankly everyone was desperate to get their hands on him. That’s about as PG as I can make that conversation.

Welcome to a new Eberron campaign where the players are mostly librarians, with a rogue teacher, and a couple of the polycule for good measure. There are two rogues, two gothic elf death priests, and an artificer with amnesia who’s a little bit bemused by it all.

We had great fun. I have no idea where we’re going to end up.

Howling At The Moons

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An amazing session of D&D this evening. We’re all quietly buzzed afterward, and a lot of chatter and gossip filled the chat channel after the stream.

The whole thing picked up where we left off last time. We had the group facing off against a pack of werewolves on the way to Thorin’s homeland under the orange light of one of the twelve moons. Battle was soon joined, and at first seemed to be going well. Thorin held the bridge, raging and striking at anything trying to pass. The rest of the group began to tackle anything that got past him. And then Thorin killed the first werewolf and as it fell it reverted to its original form – a dwarf wearing the tattered remains of clothing in Thorin’s clan colours.

You could have heard a pin drop. And in that moment Caeluma and Valenia were bitten. As another werewolf fell and reverted, Caeluma was bitten again, and in the stress of the battle turned into a werewolf too.

Well, if there was stress and shock before, it was doubled now. Thorin was bitten as well and the group tried to switch to non-lethal subduing efforts to end the battle. Kerne used a charm monster spell to stop Caeluma and calm them and eventually the group was able to subdue two of the original werewolves and knock them out.

The group hurriedly retreated into the shelter of the forest away from the moonlight as Caeluma reverted to their true self with little memory of what had happened. As their captives regained consciousness and lucidity in their original dwarvish forms they began to reveal what had happened.

According to their captives, Thorins father was indeed ill. Thorin’s sister had returned to the Hold with deep mining dwarves who brought news of a cure and they were welcomed in. Overnight however, Hold fell to creatures from below, the night full of teeth and eyes, and Thorin’s sister was revealed as a werewolf who began to infect prisoners with her bite, releasing them into the night to spread chaos and madness across the mountains. The Hold now lies full of death and madness, but no one knows the final fate of Thorin’s family.

And that is where we ended the session…

Ploughing On

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Even though we’re in national mourning, life continues – and with it plans for future events at work that I won’t talk about until nearer the time. It’s an odd time, at least as an experience of working on transformative and innovative pieces when I can’t talk about them – and more so when the national and local moods are so unpredictable.

Some want and need to carry on as usual, others have a deep sombreness – but overwhelmingly there seems to be a sense of things being a bit…dislocated.

Oh well. My own mood and energy levels have been low so that may be colouring things. I’ve been forcing myself to rest when I can, and doing the self-care bit. It’s working some, and cuddles from Lady M are helping too. Here’s to a brighter week to come.

Another D&D Group?

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I’ve just finished part two of a Session Zero D&D game with some colleagues from work and it looks like it’s going to be a very different style of game. Everyone has played to some degree before but not all in an online way so there’s a familiar enough learning curve – but I think it’s going to be an interesting counterpoint to the Sunday game.

In this game the players work for Morgrave University Library. Yep, you guessed it – Librarian-based shenanigans involving the retrieval and acquisition of rare books and the punishment of those stealing or damaging stock are incoming…

We’re calling the adventure: Don’t Annoy The Librarians

Well, what’s the worst that could happen?

Cragwar

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The Sunday game saw the DDC completing its trip between Marketplace and the dour fortress city known as Cragwar. It nestles in a cleft in the mountains, dominated by brutal fortifications – most notably the thick North to South running curtain walls that could be seen from miles away.

There was no doubt that they had now crossed the border into Breland. The traces of the Last War were still being patched, and there was a grey dourness quite at odds with the bright streets of Windhaven. Conversations were muted, as were many of the colours in common use in the streets. Still, as the main gateway to Breland, it was also a major trade hub.

Most of the population was a mix of humans and dwarves, with a sprinkling of goliaths and half orcs. Thorin recalled that historic battles had been fought against orc and goliath tribes in the mountains – so their presence even in small numbers bored well for peaceable encounters while they travelled.

Arrangements were made to stable their pack animal and cart for a couple of weeks, and ponies secured for the journey into the mountains. They were warned that the roads to the Amberhammer lands were not as widely travelled and certainly not as well maintained as what they had been using.

Of note as well was the presence outside the gates of a large body of armed soldiers and cavalry under the flag of The Silver Flame. The tension between the City Watch and the church knights seemed ready to boil over, so the DDC kept their head down and made haste to leave.

And so, into the mountains and up into chillier temperatures. The howls of wolves in the distance kept them company through the day and they made good time. As the sun set and the full moons rose they came to a wooden bridge that had been set to replace an older broken span. And that’s when they encountered the werewolves.

Considering werewolves are meant to be all but extinct in Khorvaire, this was a nasty surprise. Baying for blood, the werewolves closed on the group despite Thorin’s attempt to hold the bridge and the spells deployed to try and drive them away.

And that’s the cliffhanger we ended on…

Long Days

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I’m still, in some ways, processing the death of Queen Elizabeth and the change that brings to the sensation of what I’m calling the touchstones of normality. That said, my work has required me to be involved in making sure that protocols and agreements are rolled out effectively in how my libraries operate and communicate at this time.

There’s nothing outrageous, just a lot of communication and relaying of questions up and down the chain – and thanking everyone working for me for their hard work and resilience during some fast-changing times.

That’s partly why today I herded the polycule all into one place so we could just spend some time together at Geek Retreat to chat, gossip, and support each other. One touchstone may have gone, but we have each other and the affirmation of being in each other’s company as another touchstone.

Tomorrow will be a quiet day of recharging batteries and, for me at least, some prepping of options for the D&D game in the evening.