Old Fezziwig
Twenty feet tall, made of radiation
The Stonetop game I'm in with @AbdulAlhazred and @Manbearcat has recently resolved (well, "resolved" so far as we know, I suppose) some threads that have been with us for a while, and I thought it might be interesting to post a write up here. It's a two-man party, with AbdulAlhazred playing Yorath (Fox playbook with Prodigal background) and me playing Vahid (Seeker playbook with Witchhunter background). Yorath is a charming scoundrel with a good heart and the favor of the sun god, and Vahid is loyal and dedicated but arrogant. Vahid carries the Twisted Spear, a major arcana capable of harming spirits.
Yorath as part of an exorcism, recently took a trip through Maker's Glass into a place beyond space and time. Confronted there by The Void, an entity from a time outside place and space, Yorath prayed to the sun god, Helior, who returned him to Stonetop but left him blind. (It's worth noting that Yorath has some previous with the Void and with Helior — on a previous trip into a space past place and time he met the Void. This being generally undesirable, he called out to Helior to save him from the Void and was returned to Stonetop unharmed with golden hair and a newfound appreciation for Helior.)*
Meanwhile, the exorcism was successful, and Yorath and Vahid managed to save a witch (the midwife) and quell burgeoning witchcraft trials in Stonetop, including Vahid unreasonably but successfully accusing a village elder of witchcraft followed by Yorath truthfully claiming to have had visions of the Things Below corrupting the midwife and indemnifying everyone in Helior's name. It remains unclear whether (a) Vahid understands the whole "Witchhunter" thing and (b) Helior's actually okay with Yorath's namedropping.
Nevertheless, there was a feast, and, flush with victory (and probably whisky, too), Vahid has an idea of how to cure Yorath's blindness. This was the result of a Know Things move, where I rolled a 7. Directly from my notes: "Do spirit-talkers know how to cure blindness or have the components to do so, if harvested, as it were? The spirits of the wind are renowned for their ability to imbue a person with sight beyond sight, the sight of the wind. It’s achieved by convincing a windspirit to ride shotgun with a host. Spirit-talkers summon them to make bargains. Follow-up, what does Helior think of spirit-talkers? Helior harshly judges spirit-talkers that deal with the earth or the water but is lenient with those that deal with the sky. Spirits of the earth and water can’t be sanitized by the radiance of the sun." And, so, Vahid makes a pitch to Yorath — "Yorath, how do you feel about a little light heresy?"
The plan is this — Yorath and Vahid will return to the Gwead (grasslands south of Stonetop) to the abandoned lakeside campsite of the Thunder of the Gwead ("TotG"), a nomadic clan that worships Tor (a feisty weather god). Yorath has been there previously, with Donal, to do Big Hero Stuff, rescuing the daughter of one of Stonetop's elders and defeating the TotG's chieftain in single combat, and also with Vahid, laying Donal to rest and ending a drought in Stonetop by stealing the chieftain's staff.** Given that the previous two excursions have gone well***, what could go wrong the third time?
And truthfully, not much does at the beginnig. Because of Yorath's blindness, they commandeer the dogs of Stonetop's hunter, Branwen. (Clever!) Because it's cold, they bundle up in warm cloaks. (Smart!) Yet things start to go off from the start — after a day of travel, they search for shelter, finding only the TotG's latrine. (Gross.) So the party splits — Vahid tries to find better shelter, while Yorath takes the dogs to get the lay of the land. There are mixed results. Vahid finds no shelter and, what's more, discovers that the spirit-talker has bound the fell spirit of the lake† to do her will and guard against Vahid's return. Yorath has better luck, finding evidence of TotG outriders having been here recently but also sensing the Helior's presence in the radiance of the moon and a vision of a relic of Helior buried in the earth nearby, as if to defile Helior.
The water spirit starts to approach Vahid, who retreats carefully and watchfully. In the water, he notices a bladder bobbing, which he breaks with a well aimed sling stone. This frees the spirit from the spirit-talker's control, and, as the air leaves the bladder, he hears the voice of the spirit-talker and her instructions to the spirit of the lake float away on the wind.
Yorath and the dogs, meanwhile, have found a small headstone and a subtle, well-worn grave, relatively freshly dug. He and the dogs start to dig it up, finding a cold ring but no bones. Over the happy digging noises of the pups, Yorath can hear hooves. One of the outriders has returned. "Come on, dogs, let's hide." They find a mostly abandoned firedrake burrow to hide in — "mostly" meaning that mom and pop are away, with an adolescent left behind to guard the hatchlings. Rather than try to fight a horseman, blind, Yorath ducks into the burrow with the firedrakes. To keep them onside, he feeds them some raw meat.†† And the outrider rides by.
On the other side of the camp, Vahid also discovers that he has two outrider friends, about twenty paces away, off their horses and on their bellies. They don't know that Vahid knows they're there. Rather than wait to let things develop, he tries a different tactic — “We don’t have to do this. There’s another way.” He pitches life in Stonetop to them. They're interested and approach him, relaxed and at ease, but, as they get closer, he notices ritual markings on their faces and one of them starts talking in the voice of the spirit-talker. They're both clearly ensorceled. If Vahid can break the markings on their faces, he can break the spell, and, presumptuously, he calls on his new friend, the spirit of the lake, to wash them clean. He succeeds! Now that everyone's wet and friendly, he tries his pitch again. He fails badly.†††
The end result is that they all swear a Lygosian blood oath — the lads will agree to come to Stonetop if Vahid can defeat one of them, Jown, in a duel. If Vahid avoids being wounded in the first pass, he wins. If he can't, it's a duel to the death. Vahid can't avoid taking a wound, and the fight is on. In the second pass, things get worse as Vahid is bumped into the lake.‡ As Vahid swims out, he hears the dogs and Yorath arrive, which is good, because he's in trouble. Vahid suggests that they finish this some time later.‡‡ Jown and the other outrider, his brother Juda, agree. The mood is grim, but the immediate danger has passed. Yorath says, "Hey, we've got to travel together — let's eat."
After dinner, instead of dessert, Vahid and Yorath set out to do what they came here to do — bind an air spirit to Yorath so he can see. Vahid sits him under a ritual arch that the spirit-talker left behind, marks him with some ashes (similar to what Jown and Juda had on them), and invokes the Void.‡‡‡ An inky vastness blots out the light, and the outriders get up, spears ready, standing back to back. Yorath's sight flickers for a second, but he feels cold and dark, a nonsense welling up in his mind. Vahid threatens the spirit with the Twisted Spear, chanting a Lygosian ward against spirits and the Void. Yorath meditates on the sun, and its radiance and warmth.§ And, then, he can see again.
In the end, Yorath and Vahid return to Stonetop triumphantly with three new friends — an air spirit in service to gestures vaguely to the far distance and two TotG outriders, one of which will (someday) try to kill Vahid. And just in time for winter, too. What could go wrong?
Yorath as part of an exorcism, recently took a trip through Maker's Glass into a place beyond space and time. Confronted there by The Void, an entity from a time outside place and space, Yorath prayed to the sun god, Helior, who returned him to Stonetop but left him blind. (It's worth noting that Yorath has some previous with the Void and with Helior — on a previous trip into a space past place and time he met the Void. This being generally undesirable, he called out to Helior to save him from the Void and was returned to Stonetop unharmed with golden hair and a newfound appreciation for Helior.)*
Meanwhile, the exorcism was successful, and Yorath and Vahid managed to save a witch (the midwife) and quell burgeoning witchcraft trials in Stonetop, including Vahid unreasonably but successfully accusing a village elder of witchcraft followed by Yorath truthfully claiming to have had visions of the Things Below corrupting the midwife and indemnifying everyone in Helior's name. It remains unclear whether (a) Vahid understands the whole "Witchhunter" thing and (b) Helior's actually okay with Yorath's namedropping.
Nevertheless, there was a feast, and, flush with victory (and probably whisky, too), Vahid has an idea of how to cure Yorath's blindness. This was the result of a Know Things move, where I rolled a 7. Directly from my notes: "Do spirit-talkers know how to cure blindness or have the components to do so, if harvested, as it were? The spirits of the wind are renowned for their ability to imbue a person with sight beyond sight, the sight of the wind. It’s achieved by convincing a windspirit to ride shotgun with a host. Spirit-talkers summon them to make bargains. Follow-up, what does Helior think of spirit-talkers? Helior harshly judges spirit-talkers that deal with the earth or the water but is lenient with those that deal with the sky. Spirits of the earth and water can’t be sanitized by the radiance of the sun." And, so, Vahid makes a pitch to Yorath — "Yorath, how do you feel about a little light heresy?"
The plan is this — Yorath and Vahid will return to the Gwead (grasslands south of Stonetop) to the abandoned lakeside campsite of the Thunder of the Gwead ("TotG"), a nomadic clan that worships Tor (a feisty weather god). Yorath has been there previously, with Donal, to do Big Hero Stuff, rescuing the daughter of one of Stonetop's elders and defeating the TotG's chieftain in single combat, and also with Vahid, laying Donal to rest and ending a drought in Stonetop by stealing the chieftain's staff.** Given that the previous two excursions have gone well***, what could go wrong the third time?
And truthfully, not much does at the beginnig. Because of Yorath's blindness, they commandeer the dogs of Stonetop's hunter, Branwen. (Clever!) Because it's cold, they bundle up in warm cloaks. (Smart!) Yet things start to go off from the start — after a day of travel, they search for shelter, finding only the TotG's latrine. (Gross.) So the party splits — Vahid tries to find better shelter, while Yorath takes the dogs to get the lay of the land. There are mixed results. Vahid finds no shelter and, what's more, discovers that the spirit-talker has bound the fell spirit of the lake† to do her will and guard against Vahid's return. Yorath has better luck, finding evidence of TotG outriders having been here recently but also sensing the Helior's presence in the radiance of the moon and a vision of a relic of Helior buried in the earth nearby, as if to defile Helior.
The water spirit starts to approach Vahid, who retreats carefully and watchfully. In the water, he notices a bladder bobbing, which he breaks with a well aimed sling stone. This frees the spirit from the spirit-talker's control, and, as the air leaves the bladder, he hears the voice of the spirit-talker and her instructions to the spirit of the lake float away on the wind.
Yorath and the dogs, meanwhile, have found a small headstone and a subtle, well-worn grave, relatively freshly dug. He and the dogs start to dig it up, finding a cold ring but no bones. Over the happy digging noises of the pups, Yorath can hear hooves. One of the outriders has returned. "Come on, dogs, let's hide." They find a mostly abandoned firedrake burrow to hide in — "mostly" meaning that mom and pop are away, with an adolescent left behind to guard the hatchlings. Rather than try to fight a horseman, blind, Yorath ducks into the burrow with the firedrakes. To keep them onside, he feeds them some raw meat.†† And the outrider rides by.
On the other side of the camp, Vahid also discovers that he has two outrider friends, about twenty paces away, off their horses and on their bellies. They don't know that Vahid knows they're there. Rather than wait to let things develop, he tries a different tactic — “We don’t have to do this. There’s another way.” He pitches life in Stonetop to them. They're interested and approach him, relaxed and at ease, but, as they get closer, he notices ritual markings on their faces and one of them starts talking in the voice of the spirit-talker. They're both clearly ensorceled. If Vahid can break the markings on their faces, he can break the spell, and, presumptuously, he calls on his new friend, the spirit of the lake, to wash them clean. He succeeds! Now that everyone's wet and friendly, he tries his pitch again. He fails badly.†††
The end result is that they all swear a Lygosian blood oath — the lads will agree to come to Stonetop if Vahid can defeat one of them, Jown, in a duel. If Vahid avoids being wounded in the first pass, he wins. If he can't, it's a duel to the death. Vahid can't avoid taking a wound, and the fight is on. In the second pass, things get worse as Vahid is bumped into the lake.‡ As Vahid swims out, he hears the dogs and Yorath arrive, which is good, because he's in trouble. Vahid suggests that they finish this some time later.‡‡ Jown and the other outrider, his brother Juda, agree. The mood is grim, but the immediate danger has passed. Yorath says, "Hey, we've got to travel together — let's eat."
After dinner, instead of dessert, Vahid and Yorath set out to do what they came here to do — bind an air spirit to Yorath so he can see. Vahid sits him under a ritual arch that the spirit-talker left behind, marks him with some ashes (similar to what Jown and Juda had on them), and invokes the Void.‡‡‡ An inky vastness blots out the light, and the outriders get up, spears ready, standing back to back. Yorath's sight flickers for a second, but he feels cold and dark, a nonsense welling up in his mind. Vahid threatens the spirit with the Twisted Spear, chanting a Lygosian ward against spirits and the Void. Yorath meditates on the sun, and its radiance and warmth.§ And, then, he can see again.
In the end, Yorath and Vahid return to Stonetop triumphantly with three new friends — an air spirit in service to gestures vaguely to the far distance and two TotG outriders, one of which will (someday) try to kill Vahid. And just in time for winter, too. What could go wrong?
* Mechanically, these were both custom moves that essentially broke down as 6-, dead; 7-9, returned but changed (playbook -> Lightbringer); 10+, returned relatively unchanged. AbdulAlhazred rolled boxcars the first time, and a 10 the second time. Although Vahid will never admit this to Yorath, he suspects that Yorath is one of the foundational elements of their universe, eternal and unchanging.
** To be fair, the TotG might feel differently about all this. If asked (and who asked them?), they would say that Yorath and Donal/Vahid have been there to Commit a Litany of Abhorrent Crimes, abducting our chieftain's wife, murdering our chieftain, setting fire to our camp with naphtha (kind of fantasy napalm), and stealing valuable cultural artifacts. Entre nous, written out like this, it's not a really a great look for our boys.
*** Donal might call the first excursion a mixed bag, honestly.
† It might more properly be called a fell spirit of the lake. Deep standing water like lakes is bad news in Stonetop, and there's no evidence that any census workers have been to this lake recently. At least not lakeside. And the spirit of the deep lake have a malevolence to them. They want to draw things into their depths.
†† This was a fun use of Silvertongued, and AbdulAlhazred rolled really well again, pulling a 14 on 2d6 with advantage.
††† I just about covered all the possible results in this sequence: Defy Danger, +INT, 8 -> Everything Burns, +INT, 6, burn brightly, 7 -> Work with What You've Got, +INT, 11 -> Persuade, -CHA, 4.
‡ Momentarily, Vahid considered embracing the deep and surrendering to the water spirit. But the moment of madness passed, and he swam out. Only Yorath is eternal. This wasn't suggested to me, but I kind of talked myself into it for a bit. I believe my exact words to Manbearcat were, "No, that's crazy. I swim out."
‡‡ Persuade, -CHA, advantage (hunting dogs are very convincing), 9, burn brightly, 10. I think I'd be close to leveling if I hadn't burnt brightly to increase rolls so much this session.
‡‡‡ Yes, the entity from the place just past time and space. I didn't think much of this, save that we've already established through play that Vahid is from Lygos, where they worship the Void. This may not qualify as "light heresy" for one of Helior's devotees.
§ Mechanically, what happened here was an Aid move by me (Vahid, the spear, the chanting), followed by a Defy Danger for Yorath. This gives AbdulAlhazred advantage on his roll but means that I'm accepting the consequences of failure for Vahid.
** To be fair, the TotG might feel differently about all this. If asked (and who asked them?), they would say that Yorath and Donal/Vahid have been there to Commit a Litany of Abhorrent Crimes, abducting our chieftain's wife, murdering our chieftain, setting fire to our camp with naphtha (kind of fantasy napalm), and stealing valuable cultural artifacts. Entre nous, written out like this, it's not a really a great look for our boys.
*** Donal might call the first excursion a mixed bag, honestly.
† It might more properly be called a fell spirit of the lake. Deep standing water like lakes is bad news in Stonetop, and there's no evidence that any census workers have been to this lake recently. At least not lakeside. And the spirit of the deep lake have a malevolence to them. They want to draw things into their depths.
†† This was a fun use of Silvertongued, and AbdulAlhazred rolled really well again, pulling a 14 on 2d6 with advantage.
††† I just about covered all the possible results in this sequence: Defy Danger, +INT, 8 -> Everything Burns, +INT, 6, burn brightly, 7 -> Work with What You've Got, +INT, 11 -> Persuade, -CHA, 4.
‡ Momentarily, Vahid considered embracing the deep and surrendering to the water spirit. But the moment of madness passed, and he swam out. Only Yorath is eternal. This wasn't suggested to me, but I kind of talked myself into it for a bit. I believe my exact words to Manbearcat were, "No, that's crazy. I swim out."
‡‡ Persuade, -CHA, advantage (hunting dogs are very convincing), 9, burn brightly, 10. I think I'd be close to leveling if I hadn't burnt brightly to increase rolls so much this session.
‡‡‡ Yes, the entity from the place just past time and space. I didn't think much of this, save that we've already established through play that Vahid is from Lygos, where they worship the Void. This may not qualify as "light heresy" for one of Helior's devotees.
§ Mechanically, what happened here was an Aid move by me (Vahid, the spear, the chanting), followed by a Defy Danger for Yorath. This gives AbdulAlhazred advantage on his roll but means that I'm accepting the consequences of failure for Vahid.
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