Session 17 - Development and a New Threat

GM Observations/Summary
- Grant learns more about the multiverse, reconnects with Ethan and then there is the arrival of a new threat. We also discussed a number of rules related items which I've put at the bottom of this post.

Realm 15b - True Marindar (Grey Door)
- Turadok's arrival changes the dynamics between Grant and Sophia. She is quite distracted by Turadok and spends a considerable amount of time with the short creature in an attempt to understand more about him. Grant understands the threat that Turadok presents for he is able to enter Marindar without going via the Approach. Turadok is difficult to read and his black eyes give few clues to his intentions. Nevertheless, Sophia seems to relax greatly when she does have time to spend with Grant - clearly Turadok is 'hard work' for her - and Grant is able to learn a great deal about the Realms that are connected to Marindar.
- There was a once considerable trading network that was accessible via the Doors in addition to the trading routes that exist via 'Phase-Gates' and more mundane travel. There is a grand museum here in "Central", as the city is known to distinguish it from the other communities on the continent, which contains thousands of treasures and curiosities from literally thousands of places. Grant has been to the British Museum before - the Central Museum dwarfs that. He could spend weeks exploring all that there is to see. The Museum also contains areas, even whole rooms, dedicated to each Lord of Gossamer, including statues, paintings, treasures and historical references. There is even a section which is dedicated to the Great War, which contains scarred remnants from that terrible period.
- The Central Library is even bigger, and that's even with crystalline storage which is accessible via sorcery. There is a vast amount of knowledge here on Marindar, and a willingness of the people here to share it. It is difficult for Grant not to lose himself in this place.
- Marindar is ruled by a Queen, who also uses a Council as her board of advisors. Looking back through the Royal bloodline and the ancestry of even her closest advisors, more than one Lord of Gossamer is intertwined. It appears that both Lords and Ladies of Gossamer have produced offspring here over the centuries, which of course has also given them a reason to keep coming back, and remain interested and involved. Sophia is herself a descendent of a Lord of Gossamer and a relation to the Queen (although not a close one). It also seems that even though very few offspring of the Lords will themselves become Wardens, a measure of the Lords' superior attributes is inherited as well as a strong aptitude for sorcery.
- There are a number of artefacts which have real power in the Museum. For example there is a Magic Mirror, that only a Lord of Gossamer can use - which the Lady Vala created long ago. It shows whatever the Lord wishes to see. There are also some Icons, but most of them are in the possession of the Queen. This is why Sophia said that she does not have the Icons herself, but that she can request them.

Grant's Research
- Grant spends some time between the Central Museum and the Central Library. He examines the exhibits of the Gossamer Lords (particularly the ones that Sophia mentioned) and learns of the Great War against the Dwimmerlaik. He also looks for information on how the Powers work but this needs to be inferred from historical texts from the Central Library. There is some information on Sorcery and its workings (because there are Marindans who practice Sorcery) but information on the greater powers (Eidolon and Umbra) need to be gleaned from the historical accounts and the biographies of the Lords that have been written over the years. Very quickly he starts to piece together the information he is seeking. (GM's note - for those of you who have seen the Star Trek episode "Space Seed", Khan sits at a computer and the schematics start flashing up of the Enterprise. He sits back, relaxed and takes it all in as the information flashes up before him. Grant can absorb information many times faster than a normal human being, and has superior insight which is a byproduct of Ranked Warfare. He instinctively knows what is important, and can make leaps of logic to reach accurate conclusions with relatively little source information. My ruling was that it would take hours to get an overview, days to build understanding, and weeks to build detailed understanding - as opposed to years for a normal person)
- As the days go by, Grant begins to realise how much he is missing Sophia's company. He starts arranging to see more of her, and she seems to enjoy his attention. They talk off and on over the days. On the third day of Grant's time in Marindar, Sophia says that she has found something that Turadok is interested in. The strange Lord of Gossamer is fascinated by natural beauty, such as wide open spaces, mountains and waterfalls. She has organised for Turadok to tour Marindar and some of the neighbouring realms, and he has excitedly accepted. Her relief is obvious, and it allows Grant and Sophia to spend more time together. In the library and museum, she provides further insights into the topics that are of interest to Grant.

He learns the following over this period:

• Dwimmerlaik and the Great War - there is a whole section of the Central Museum dedicated to the Dwimmerlaik and entire texts devoted to them in the Central Library. Grant learns that they are thousands of years old, believed to have come from a single world but their numbers are vast. (GM's note - I suggested that the Dwimmerlaik have been so successful because they connected early with other realms also populated by similar-minded Dwimmerlaik, expanding their forces considerable. We also discussed the Dwimmerlaik enslaving other populations and having allies - more on that below in the rules section)Much of the LoG&S rulebook accounts are in the Marindan libraries - the Dwimmerlaik were finally defeated by a consortium of Lords of Gossamer, led by Lady Vala of Shatterlight - but the cost was extremely high. Entire worlds were shattered or destroyed by the cross-dimensional conflict, many Lords of Gossamer died in the Great War. The world of Skamino is also mentioned prominently in one of the texts as one of the destroyed realms, which Grant remembers from Sophia's accounts of which worlds are connected to Marindar. There are many artefacts of the Dwimmerlaik in the Central Museum, including accounts of famous heroes and races who fought against them. The timing seems to be 600-800 years ago (GM's note - we thrashed this around a lot. Originally I wanted it to be thousands of years ago but the LoG&S rulebook says centuries so we retconned that). There are descriptions of some of the Dwimmerlaik powers in the texts, but it makes reference mostly to Umbra and Sorcery.
• Greater Powers - Eidolon and Umbra are not mentioned specifically, but the accounts of the Lords of Gossamer and their foes are such that the powers described in the LoG&S rulebook can be mostly derived.
• Door Activity - Grant was specifically looking for any evidence that opening/closing Doors could be detected or attract attention. (GM's note - I ruled that it was possible and that the texts mentioned this - otherwise how would one army ever find the other?)
• Icon Activity - Grant also looked for any evidence that Icons could be traced/detected. (GM's note - I ruled that Icons were not mentioned prominently in any of the texts. Even in the museum, they were just another artefact on display with no special mention of what they could do. Hence Grant's conclusion was that Icon-to-Icon contact probably could not be detected.)
• Lords of Gossamer - Grant learnt much about the Lords of Gossamer, building on what he had learnt from Sophia. He built a base knowledge on the characters mentioned earlier in the Interlude section between Session 16 and 17.

- (GM's note - as GM, I gave David a run-down of what Grant now knew, but did not spend time writing down every little detail. If I did that I would spend ages doing so. It's not practical.)

Contact with Ethan
The other side-plot that occurs during this week is that Grant contains Ethan via his pocket-watch Icon. To his surprise, Ethan accepts the contact. (GM's note - we had to re-read the rulebook carefully at this point because we weren't sure if Grant could see where Ethan was through the contact. But no, it isn't like one of Amber DRPG's Trumps.) The image of Ethan on the inside of the pocket-watch moves. Ethan is guarded and cool towards Grant. Grant can feel through the Icon contact that Ethan is wary of him and ready for trouble. Grant starts by apologising and explaining that he is suffering from memory loss. Gradually, Ethan relaxes. (GM's note - Ethan has Dominant Rank in Psyche and can tell that Grant is no longer under the Umbra's Madness) Ethan implies that Grant has contacted him before, but won't tell Grant what happened.

It is obvious from the outset that something is very wrong with Ethan. Grant becomes greatly worried about him when Ethan says that he is 'farming'. He decides to follow up with him the next day but on the next contact he finds out that Ethan is having dinner, despite what appears to be an early hour. Ethan says that there are only a few hours of daylight every day, and the nights are long, making Grant even more concerned about what he is doing. Bit by bit it starts to come out - Ethan is completely alone except for a strong horse, two sheep, a goat and a dog. He's attempting to farm basic land and is a long way from the nearest Door.

Grant attempts to peel the story, but Ethan will only tell him part of it. He tells him that he came to a primitive world (probably the equivalent of 800 - 900 AD) akin to Denmark or Norway in an attempt to learn basic farming and living skills such as making bread, weaving cloth, carving soapstone. He showed too much interest in what was considered to be 'women's work' (brewing beer, weaving cloth, carving tools from bone etc) such that one of the locals took a disliking to him, and unfortunately they then discovered just how physically strong he really was. Ethan then dodged what happened next, but was clear that whatever had happened had affected his mind. He left on a ship and travelled far away with only a handful of livestock and some bare essentials in order to start over. It was clear to Grant that it was bitterly cold where Ethan was, and he was poorly equipped for it. (GM's notes - 1) Don't forget here that Ethan has Dominant rank Endurance - no one in the universe is tougher than Ethan when it comes to matters of constitution and hardiness. 2) Ethan now has Bad Stuff - that is a factor in pretty much everything he does.)

The last contact left Grant quite shaken and wondering what to do about it.

The Red Robin
- Between contacts with Ethan, Sophia said to Grant that the Red Robin had found another Lord of Gossamer and was bringing him to the Approach. At that point, Grant told Sophia that he wanted to rescue his friend Ethan, another Lord of Gossamer. He explained what he had in mind, and Sophia nodded her acceptance. Touching his arm softly, she said goodbye and went off to meet the new arrival. 
- Shortly after Sophia's departure, Grant went to visit Aperre, the agrarian realm said to belong to Mordecai of the Raven Legion. He did not want to create problems in Marindar by introducing another Lord of Gossamer directly into the realm and bypass the Approach, and hence decided to go to an adjacent realm to make the Icon-to-Icon contact. He felt confident that he could convince Ethan to come through, but given that he was unfamiliar with Aperre, he put on his battle garb and went to the Portal. 
- Just as Grant is about to open the Door to enter Aperre, the Red Robin flies in and hastily begins singing. It is clearly trying to communicate in a hurry. It says that its mistress is in danger, and that Grant's presence in the Gateway is needed most urgently. It says that the new Lord is unfriendly and is killing the townsfolk. The new Lord also has allies. It begs him to come quickly.
- Grant follows the Red Robin, transforming into an eagle and following it to a building within Central. Within the building is a circular structure (perhaps a little bit reminiscent of something out of Stargate, even though that movie has not been released yet) which has no apparent function until the Red Robin approaches it. Then it crackles into life, creating a shimmering pool-like portal. When Grant is ready, the Robin enters the portal and Grant quickly follows. (GM's note - this is a one-way phase portal. Grant cannot return to True Marindar this way)

Realm 15a - The Gateway to Marindar (Grey Door)
- On the other side is a similar circular portal in a Marindan structure. The perimeter has a number of columns holding up the roof, but is otherwise open to the elements. Grant is aware of a distortion in his senses, but it is not as bad as before. It is very quiet here in the Marindan gateway.
- As he begins to look around he finds evidence of destruction. A bloody smear on some of the steps leading down to the street, but no body. It would not take him long to find one of the perpetrators - a great wolf-creature that is gnawing on a clearly human arm.

….. and this is where Session 18 starts.

Rules Stuff

• Keys - David and I realised that we had interpreted Keys differently. The Door to Shadow Earth (Realm 0) cannot be opened without a Key. Even a Warden of the Grand Stair cannot open that Door without a Key. That is David's interpretation and ruling. My interpretation was that a Key enabled a non-Warden to open a Door. So we've got two different interpretations on this - it's possible that David is correct, or I'm correct, or we're both correct (both can co-exist). I guess the point I'm trying to make is that a GM needs to decide what the answer is in his/her campaign.
• Healing with Umbra Mastery - David and I chatted for quite a while as to whether Umbra Mastery can be used constructively to heal, or not. I don't think we reached a landing on this - my mental model is that it should be possible, but that you're not healing a wound back to an original state; you're probably warping it such that the wound closes, knits back together again but the flesh is replaced with something different to what it was before. Still mulling that one over.
• Dwimmerlaik and Allies - I think David and I are mostly aligned on this one. I think of the Dwimmerlaik as 'Daleks' - they believe themselves to be superior and their desire is destroy or conquer everything. The Daleks do use minions or slave races (e.g.: Ogrons) but those 'allies' are never equals - they are always submissive. That mental model works for me for the moment.
• Ranked Strength v Godzilla - responding to Sovem's question, I'll be referring to this post made back on 27th September and give my response in two parts. 1) Our ruling is that the 1st Rank PC is Dominant Rank. That means that Grant is literally the Strongest in the universe. If he goes to a Realm where Godzilla, or the Hulk, or Superman exists, Grant will be stronger. It is not possible to find a creature in the multiverse which is Stronger than Grant. There is literally nothing that he cannot bend or break. He is the Apex. Even if Grant goes to a realm where something should theoretically be stronger than he, Grant's Dominant Rank will mean that he will also 'scale up'. Hence in some realities, he will be literally able to punch a planet out of orbit. The only exception to this are the Typhonians (as per the reference post above). They are meant to be 'Beyond' comprehension. 2) For those games where 1st Rank does not mean Dominant Rank, or let's just pick on Ethan because he is not Dominant Rank, it would be possible for Godzilla or the Hulk or Thor or Superman to be Stronger than he is. The GM needs to decide how such super powered characters rank against the Ranked PCs.