Hey there, folks, apologies for how quiet it's been here. Juggling things here, etc. Also, I didn't get around to getting those core system Alchemical builds up while the crowdfunding campaign was up, but I will get to them. But I'm still behind on my session write-ups, so I wanted to knock out another of these first. I could probably go into much less detail than I do on them, but especially on the chattier sessions, I have trouble finding a middle ground between 'excruciating amounts of detail' and 'summarize the entire session in half a dozen paragraphs.' But between a brief holiday hiatus and the fact that I'm playtesting something with the group (which won't go on the blog right away), I should have a little time to get caught up.
(Speaking of which, this is another talking-heavy session, so there might be details I get wrong or put things in the wrong order. If any of my players see this and would like to offer a correction, let me know.)
So here we go. Oh, and before I forget, I hope everyone reading this is having a happy and safe holiday season.
We pick up in the aftermath of the massive battle at the Summit Leaf Teahouse. Carmine, burned and limping a bit, has her summoned blood ape help her down to the ground floor (during which anyone who hadn't already seen it gets a glimpse of the fact that she has caribou legs with ruby hooves under the floor-length skirt. She tells the group that she can get them out of this so they don't have to kill everyone -- Stray Dog insists that he's will if he has to, and Lecht insists that no he won't, and that they aren't leaving until they have Rhion's skull. They go checking through Rhion's remains to see if there's enough of his skull left to work with.
Carmine takes a breath and explains that the group needs to act like she's got them subdued and the situation under control. People are scared, and she trusts they had a good reason to do what they did, but they'll need her to sell the townspeople on that. And they'll have to figure out what Rhion's been up to to justify it to the people of Larkim.
Lecht, freaked out by the whole situation and not at all helped by this stranger who talks to them like they're old friends, yells that they don't know who she is. Carmine acknowledges that but says she knows who Lecht is, that they're good at killing people -- maybe as good as Stray Dog -- and they don't want to kill anyone they don't have to. So this is the only way to get out of this without more killing. She manages to calm Stray Dog down with her whole spiel, even getting him to trust her a bit (thanks to the social influence system).
Carmine makes her way over to the ground-level hole in the wall of the teahouse as the Monolith comes back, ready to continue the fight. She talks him down and tells him that now his job is to watch Danica (Rhion's assistant) -- he should take the fact that Carmine's still alive as a sign that she's got this under control, and he begrudgingly leaves. She waves away the remaining soldiers and slumps into a chair inside as Lecht returns with the retrieved skull. Carmine asks if they can meet up somewhere, and it's suggested they go back to the caravan in case they have to flee. She agrees to meet them there in a couple of hours, before picking up a piece of a chair and making an impromptu cane. She orders the blood ape to dematerialize, and hobbles off.
Time passes. Back at the caravan, Lecht heals Stray Dog's injuries with a Charm and carves some sigils into Rhion's skull because they've got plans for it later. Wandering Dawn rests up while Stray Dog tries to calm down. They keep details light with the others in the caravan, partially out of shame on Lecht's part for how they behaved -- they blame themselves for things getting out of control.
But two hours later, Carmine shows up riding the agata. She lands next to the caravan, hops off, and has it dematerialize.[0] As she approaches, she reaches up to remove her mask, revealing it's some sort of mesh that looks like solid metal on her face (mostly moonsilver and starmetal) but she can peel it off like it's a sheet of cloth. She looks vaguely familiar to the group, but they can't quite place her. Wandering Dawn offers her a steamed bun from his lunch, and she accepts it, sincerely thanking the group for their hospitality and patience with her through all this. She asks if they've got questions or if she should start talking, and Lecht suggests she starts talking.
She begins by asking if they object to her starting with the 'craziest' part, and there are no objections. I didn't exactly write out a speech ahead of time or anything, and I'm recreating the spiel from a rough outline, but this might be easier if I type this out from her perspective...
Surely at some point you've asked yourselves what if certain events went differently. Told yourselves stories about might have been if, say... (nod to Stray Dog) ...you'd moved to Gethamane, or... (nod to Wandering Dawn) ...or wound up joining the guard in Fella or Larkim instead of becoming a hunter-captain in Whitewall, or... (nod to Lecht) ...traveled to Sijan to study more about your powers and legacy. Everyone does that.Now, as heroic types, you might ask yourselves what would have happened if you'd arrived at a village sooner, or responded differently to a threat. There are people whose lives you could have saved, and maybe you tell yourself stories about a version of Creation in which they lived instead of died.I wasn't born properly. I'm a character from a 'storybook' version of Creation brought to life. I have memories of a life in which I grew up among the Broken Antler, trained as a shaman, led them down a different path than in this Creation. (Wandering Dawn mentions that he realizes who she reminds him of, and she nods to him.) You're right, but please hold questions on that until the end.But yes, I'm one of the Broken Antler. In my storybook version of Creation, the Creation I know, I trained as a shaman, ventured into the Wyld to win trials and seize power and make pacts with fae and demons and stranger things. I used that power to command the respect of the Broken Antler, and forged them into a tribe that was more than just bandits and raiders, built alliances with the local settlements. Built something here. During that time, I met versions of the three of you -- individually when I first met you, you weren't traveling together yet when we met. We fought and saved people together. That's why I act like I know you, even though you don't me.
Now, quick OOC aside before I continue, all this is what's known as a Getimian's Origin. Just for a change of pace, I wanted to have her explain it as someone who'd have no reason to know anything resembling multiverse theory or anything like that -- and in any case, technically Getimians don't come from another timeline, they came from a hypothetical version of Creation that never was (as opposed to one just on the other side of some cosmic membrane). But while she obviously doesn't use the term 'Origin,' I'll be using it for simplicity's sake, and wanted to explain it.
Wandering Dawn asks her if he's the same in her Origin. She says he is, and explains that as near as she can tell, the only things that are different are things she would have been responsible for -- for instance, her years of diplomacy among the Broken Antler. In Creation proper, they're madmen and violent raiders. Where she comes from, they behave from a place of strength and honor and dignity, and are more like proper Icewalkers again. (I actually had an alternate name of the tribe she used, but I can't find it now -- might've been the Herd Union, I made it up on the fly but I also made up her 'caption' from the last session on the fly as well, so...) Wandering Dawn asks if she knows who pulled her out of 'her' Creation. She bitterly says she does, and gives them the short version: A man[1] used some bizarre magic to bring her to life, and tried to enlist her in a war on Heaven, but she turned him down as she had more important things to worry about.
Lecht says it all sounds mind-bendingly horrible, and Wandering Dawn says it's a testament to her strength that she survived, and she says that not to toot her own horn (not that she has horns, but she does indicate the caribou legs) but she's pretty proud of what she's survived. As Lecht carefully etches sigils into Rhion's fire-blasted skull, they say this is a lot to take in. Carmine notes the skull and says that Rhion was in the right place to stumble over her after she turned up in Creation proper, and she had some experience dealing with him and a mentor of his in her Origin, so she was more than willing to use him as an anchor for connections and resources since he was a known quantity.
Lecht comments on how awkward it is that she talks like she knows them, and she realizes she never properly introduced herself.[2] She formally introduces herself and mentions that when they fought the Broken Antler, they encountered and killed a version of her sister -- who was going by Pearlescent Fang in this reality. In her Origin, Carmine ventured into the Wyld and came out mutated but stronger for it. In Creation, her sister did so instead and became a vicious madwoman sorcerer. Carmine also mentions that it was in studying sorcery in her Origin that she learned the 'alternate' Wood Dragon's Claw, that both she and Stray Dog had a version of, purely by coincidence -- she showed it to him because she mistakenly thought it might give him pause or make him curious (and perhaps other circumstances it might have).
Wandering Dawn asks about Rhion's assistant, and Carmine says that's Danica, she's his second in command. But Carmine had to track her down, as she came into the battle after it already started, right when Dreadful Thorn got blasted out the side of the building.[3] That leads Lecht to ask Wandering Dawn if he knows how hard it is for them to blast people when he keeps sending them flying. The Solar insists it should help them line up the blast, and they say he's not entirely wrong but they still have to recalibrate their aim. Dawn then admits that it's fun.
But we turn back to Danica and Rhion and the latter's plans -- he's helping to rebuild Larkim after the damage done by the Broken Antler. In particular, he was working on building them a bigger, grander hunting lodge, having somehow sold the town on the idea with the same charisma and cleverness that had ensnared The Monolith's loyalty (Lecht takes a moment to mock his voice). Lecht mentions that they're planning on summoning his ghost to answer a few questions, and she suggests as a backup, Danica probably knows some things since with him dead, she'll be taking over the operation. She mentions that in her Origin, Rhion himself was second-in-command to a mentor that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of but she knows has been around. She then asks Lecht if there's anything she can do to help with the working they're planning, and they say they don't know because they're not sure what magic she knows, and they don't know her well enough to trust her, unlike Stray Dog. She says that's fair but also meant that she could help in general if need be, like with preparing tools or whatever.
Wandering Dawn asks Carmine what her end goal is with the Guild (which is a very good question because I actually hadn't thought of that OOCly), and she says that from what she's seen, the Broken Antler might be beyond her ability to save in Creation -- the work she did with them was done over the course of most of her life. So she's been kind of treading water until she finds a good current, but until then she's been trying to sort out what Rhion's up to as that seems like a good enough use of her time.
And she knows he's up to something, because he went to a lot of trouble to keep her busy as if there was something he wanted her to be too distracted to notice. That leads her to ask the group what brought them here to apparently strike him down, but Lecht changes the subject somewhat to ask a critical question -- why didn't she attempt diplomacy when she first showed up, if she knew them so well? That makes no sense.
She acknowledges that's a fair question, and then asks Stray Dog if she could have simply talked him down in the state he was in, and he acknowledges she would have had to say something really spectacular. She gestures to him as if that's all the answer she needs, and admits that it's also partially because of how she was raised -- anything she'd say would need to be anchored with a show of force. Especially since Stray Dog had just vaporized Dreadful Thorn right next to her. She admits that had she come in from a different direction, maybe ran into Wandering Dawn first, she could have gone more straight-up diplomacy. But she had to make do with what she had.
Lecht says outright that it's a very weird story, and she acknowledges how crazy it sounds. They say they can trust her enough to come and go at the caravan and they're not going to attack her on sight or anything. They say in so many words that this is all abnormal but they're willing to work with her and get to know her, and she says that's more than fair and doesn't want to bother them more than they want to be bothered. She should probably get back sooner rather than later, she's probably gonna have to take responsibility for the teahouse repairs to smooth things over.
Lecht tries to get a read on her, and gets the distinct vibe that she at least believes what she's saying, and she's clearly trying to rebuild connections she can remember. After a moment's thought, they tell her "Welcome to the caravan," as they go back to working on the skull. She nods her thanks and says she should go back and help with the damage, since the people still see her as one of Rhion's lieutenants even if the situation is a little more complicated than that.
Stray Dog asks if the group's going to have to kill Danica, sne she says probably not -- Danica probably doesn't know the full plan, and genuinely wants to help rebuild Larkim. But even if Danica doesn't know Rhion's plans, she certainly knows something useful even if she doesn't know she knows it. And Carmine then asks, not having gotten a response earlier, what brought the group to Rhion to begin with. Lecht, in the form of a furious rant, gives her the low-down on the situation with the sarcophagus and Silverpost and how they came here to confront him, but their anger got the better of them and they pointed their finger at him and Stray Dog killed him.
And that leads Carmine to ask what they know about Rhion's dealings with Elmorze -- in her Origin, she was the one who first introduced Rhion and his mentor to the entity's existence (and then to the entity). But when she 'arrived' in Creation, he was already a 'business partner' of Elmorze's. So something definitely changed there, but she's not sure how -- and she wants to go back through his stuff and see ifs he can find something, but figures that Lecht may have more luck getting information out of him.
This leads to some broader conversation about the Guild. It's confirmed that their distributed hierarchy and their important presence within commercial infrastructure makes them hard to fight, and also that they're slave traders. Stray Dog says that makes them his enemy, and Carmine says she knows some Nightfangs that would agree with him.[4] But Carmine opines that when it comes to fighting the Guild, you'd have an easier time kicking in the gates of Heaven -- to which Stray Dog says "One thing at a time," and Carmine just gives him a 'thought you'd say that' smile.
This leads to a digression of Lecht's belief that the Loom of Fate is the problem, and might need to be destroyed because it's more power than Heaven should have. Lecht isn't even sure that fate is real, but if so the Loom is necessary to read it. That maybe if not for the Loom, Carmine would still be a hero somewhere. That maybe they could saved their village. Carmine points out that the Contagion is one of the Loom's blind spots, that Heaven couldn't have seen that coming, and Lecht says it's not the point, that it's about Heaven's 'double-standard.' Carmine says if she runs into the guy who pulled her into Creation, she'll steer him towards Lecht; they'd have a lot to talk about.
They then say that in the meantime, the Guild is a problem they can deal with, right? She says sure, at least locally. Lecht says that their vote is that she's welcome with the caravan if she wants to travel with them, for the record, but what they really want to know is who's responsible for this whole mess because they should be rebuilding their home, not dealing with this. Carmine gets that, maybe better than Lecht realizes.
So, Lecht asks, whose manager do they need to request next to get something done? Stray Dog says they should probably try to secure the sarcophagus, because otherwise what did he bake Rhion's bones for? Lecht says that if he was as connected as has been implied, his ghost might be useful in 'purging' the Guild. Carmine says that could be a good start. However, Danica's probably the highest Guild authority within a couple weeks' ride in any direction, and she's probably got The Monolith with her -- and he's an asshole, but he'll stick around for at least as long as Rhion paid up-front for protection.
The Getimian thinks aloud that she can probably arrange a meeting with Danica, but Lecht still wants to summon his ghost since they've been working on the sigils this whole time. Carmine's quick to point out that a meeting would take time to arrange anyways, unless the group wants her to just knock out Danica and throw her in a sack. Wandering Dawn offers to help her with that if it comes to it, and Carmine grins and says she can manage -- it wasn't an accident that Stray Dog didn't kill her, after all. Stray Dog acknowledges that and agrees that she can handle herself in a fight. But with that out of the way, she has to get back into town before someone comes looking for her and sees or hears something that makes all this more awkward. She puts the mask back on and it 'snaps' back into place, before asking the wasp to materialize again and take her back into town so nobody sees her casually walking in from the caravan.
And we leave off there.
[0]-- It's worth noting that it's not like she can just click a button on the menu bar to send her demon companions away. She has to give them orders and such. They're still present, just invisible. And it might be rude to have the agata dematerialize knowing it's going to have to reappear later (which costs energy), but she also knows that agata are notoriously visually-distracting, so she had it turn invisible for the sake of the conversation.
[1]-- I don't think Carmine named him to the group, but this is Rakan Thulio. You may have heard of him before. If I knew more about the Getimians' deal when I introduced Danai in the Moonlight Maiden series, I'd have had him mention Rakan. As it is, I put in my notes that Rakan caught up with Danai about five minutes after the group dropped him off following their escape from the Wyld Hunt. I was gonna link a Scarlet Phoenix post, but she doesn't mention him by name either, but it makes sense that she wouldn't give up that particular detail to ostensible enemies.
[2]-- Partially an unintentional side-effect of me using the character's name OOCly for ease of descriptions before the characters actually learn it, we all get comfortable with the name out of character. But it also makes sense that she might not think to introduce herself to people she feels like she knows already.
[3]-- Fun fact that I don't think I've mentioned: Had the group not immediately attacked Rhion during that first meeting, he was going to cut it short after seeing Carmine arriving outside via the demon wasp, because he'd had to go talk to her. I was ready for a battle, but I was expecting a different place and time -- the sudden attack worked out for pacing reasons because it let me space out the introduction of certain elements like Carmine. At the time, I figured that since she was on the way, I'd have her show up a couple of rounds in.
[4]-- This is an oblique reference to Lunars in general and specifically the Lunar forces based out of the nearby-ish Mountain of the Spider King, who are lead by... (checks notes) ...the Spider King, Aum-Ashatra.
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