Session 232 – Interludes from the Dragon War

 - GM’s note: David and I decided to delve a little deeper into some key episodes in the lead up to the war, and during the Dragon War itself. My ideas were as follows:

• The attack on Marindar

• A hero on the wrong side

• An unexpected opportunity

• A terrible loss

• A friend in need

• Personal grudge

• Strange ally

It was my intention to play through all of these over a few sessions but we ended up just picking a few. Here is a summary of those mini-adventures.

Part 1 – An Unexpected Opportunity

- Prior to the outbreak of war, Grant unexpectedly finds himself in the vicinity of Florin. One of the Marindan couriers, a woman called Cherie, is travelling on the Sparrowhawk (an airship first seen way back in Session 32 which has a Door to the Stair onboard) and the vessel is under attack by sky pirates. 

* Image by TerryLH on DeviantART

- Notified by Icon, Grant successfully defends the Sparrowhawk from the small raider vessels and helps to drive them off. He finds Florin is the next stop and he decides to pay Aethelwyn a visit. He hasn’t seen her in a long time (he’s been trying to stay away as there is a spark there). To his pleasant surprise, she is pleased to see him after so long.

Part 2 – Strange Ally

- Prior to the outbreak of war, Grant finds himself in a dark, polluted, ghost-ridden city. He is in pursuit of one of the Dragon Lord Nephron’s lieutenants who is said to be a vampire: Lord Raethel.

- During this adventure, Grant comes across Norwood, a gentleman ghost who was once Lord Raethel’s friend. Norwood is surprised that Grant can see him and asks for Grant’s help in breaking the curse that has prevented him from moving on. He is willing to help Grant in return for an end to his disembodied state. To Grant’s surprise, he finds that he likes the noble Norwood and he offers to find him a suitable body that he can possess. 

Part 3 – A Friend In Need

- War has finally broken out and Grant is busy. Nevertheless, things come up which distract him. On returning to Marindar, he finds that Olin the bard has gone missing. Grant suspects (and it is quickly confirmed) that Olin is performing a task for Jona (whom he believes is the Olympian Hera in disguise). 

- Figuring that his friend may need his aid, he seeks Olin out and finds him on a small, mountainous island which is being lashed by storms. Olin has been helping the people here to recover from a series of earthquakes that have rocked the island – but he thinks that Jona (aka Hera) wants him to do something heroic to find and stop whatever is causing these calamities.

- Together, they search for the source of the earthquakes and find that there is a mighty Chthonian dwelling beneath the island. It is almost certainly too much for Olin to handle on his own, and Grant is concerned that a battle against the monster will almost certainly destroy the island and all of Hera’s worshippers on it. As such, Grant takes some time to weaken the creature and return it to its slumber. 

- He finds that he needs to return more than once to the island to ensure that it remains asleep.

Part 4 – Heroes on Both Sides

- Grant watches uncomfortably as Lord Drake sides with Sturmvald. Even though Sturmvald is a noble Dragon Lord, Grant decides that Sturmvald as the Dragon Emperor would not change anything for Ethan. He has decided that Sturmvald must fall in order for Lofwyr to eventually take the throne. And for that, Asmadi must triumph over Sturmvald, even if that means backing a treacherous dragon over a noble one.

- Grant decides to neutralise Drake’s presence on the battlefield by organising to hire Mordecai through intermediaries so that Drake will not be as effective as he would normally be.

- As the months wear on, Grant watches the battles between the two Lords of Gossamer and sees the considerable damage that each is inflicting upon the others’ forces.  

Part 5 – Grudge and Loss

- Krovaliss has long suspected that Grant was behind the Dwimmerlaik Civil War. Rather than openly show his hand against the Lords of Gossamer, he manipulates Asmadi into launching an attack on Marindar.

- This offensive takes Grant by surprise. The Marindan defenders are relatively small compared to the size of the dragon army that attacks them, and the battle is bloody. Grant joins the defence but dares not bring Ethan to Marindar lest it be a trap to draw him out. There are three waves of attacks over four bloody days. In the end, Marindar’s allies from Arcadia and elsewhere have made all of the difference – but Central has been heavily damaged and there are thousands of dead, including many dragons. Worst of all, Lady Sophia is gone. Grant cannot even find her body to mourn her.

Session 231 – The Dragon War

- GM’s note: This session’s writeup covers the entirety of the war which breaks out. It would be too long to write up every blow so what follows here is an abbreviated account.

David and I talked about how to end the ‘Ethan is Dragon Marked’ plotline, and what we wanted to see (and run) after this plotline. We talked for quite a while over many months.

Eventually, I think the plotline went on too long and David didn’t know how to actually draw this to a satisfactory conclusion such that the next story arc was something different and not ‘more of the same’. So what I suggested was that we take the story up a level and map out the inevitable war. We ran this as an abstract, using Blades In the Dark rules (yes, we used Dice !!!) and a series of linked Active Clocks. We occasionally use FATE Cards for a bit of random inspiration (eg : It’s a -3, that person really doesn’t like you) but this time we wanted something more.

Part 1 – Starting the War

- Ethan and Grant plot the destruction of the Draconian Empire. The Lords of Gossamer will not directly become involved between the Dragon Highlords, but things have gone far enough. It is time to end things. The Dragon Highlords seem poised to go to war – all they need is something or someone to push them over the edge.

- Ethan is more confident using the Orb and he believes he can use it subtly to push the Dragons towards war. He believes that the Dragons don’t yet know that he has the Orb so for the time being, miraculously they have the advantage.

- Grant and Ethan consider each of the Dragon Highlords and decide how they want the war to play out. But first they need to remove the Dragon Highlord Arcades. He’s meant to be a master strategist and he could be a balancing figure – they want him out of the way.

* From L to R, Top to Bottom: Lofwyr, Arcades, Nephron, Asmadi, Sturmvald

* Images sourced from Google Images – some are from Magic The Gathering, others from Earthdawn

- Ethan hatches a plot with some of his friends in Faerie (Bettina) for the fey to keep Arcades busy. He is introduced to a Lady of Faerie called the Dusk Queen who is intrigued enough by what is going on to invite the Dragon Highlord to a very special ‘party’ that will keep him occupied for some time.

- The Clock “The War Begins” is now 1 of 8 (see Blades in the Dark for how Clocks work).

- None of the other Dragon Lords seem to notice that Arcades has been diverted or if they notice, they don’t seem to show any interest.

- The next part of the plan is to make the Highlord Sturmvald think that Asmadi is going to attack him. Asmadi is known to be dangerous and greedy, and all of the Dragons are amassing forces for war. Grant decides to sabotage some of their magical camouflage in order to reveal to Sturmvald just how large an army Asmadi has. He also uses stealth to bait one of Asmadi’s more bellicose lieutenants into attacking a target of opportunity (Ethan also uses the Orb to influence the dragon lieutenant) and then exposes this act of aggression for all to see. They make certain that Sturmvald is aware.

- The Clock “The War Begins” is now 2 of 8.

- All of this takes time. Grant and Ethan watch the situation. It seems that Sturmvald is aware, but he remains cautious of starting anything. 

- As such, Grant and Ethan pick another target. This time Grant impersonates one of Nephron’s powerful ambassadors and he convinces a race of demons to go to war against their enemies for the promise of a favour. This also works well, but the demons are more successful than expected. Nephron is alerted to the situation and realizes that the demons who are operating in his name are becoming a threat to others and drawing too much attention.

- The Clock “The War Begins” is now 3 of 8.

- At this point, Grant fakes instructions to Asmadi’s forces encouraging them to ‘take the initiative’. Asmadi’s lieutenants are already twitchy and ambitious, and they take it upon themselves to arrange to kill Irina, the Blue Lady (a Lord of Gossamer, and servant of Lord Sturmvald). 

- Grant isn’t happy about a Lord of Gossamer being targeted and he intercedes so that the draconic assassin fails to kill her (although she is wounded). Grant’s hand in all of this is undetected.

- The Clock “The War Begins” is now 4 of 8.

- This time, Sturmvald is less cautious. He targets one of Asmadi’s people in a tit-for-tat exchange. This has limited effect as the strike is not conclusive. However, Sturmvald has not hidden that he is behind the attack.

- The Clock “The War Begins” is now 5 of 8.

- Ethan decides to try to use the Orb subtly to increase Asmadi’s paranoia, hoping to push the Dragon Lord into responding rashly. However, this fails – Asmadi becomes aware that someone is attempting to manipulate him and he realizes that the Orb is in play. Asmadi is angry and he redoubles his defenses (but he does not tell the others that the Orb is in play).

- The Clock “The War Begins” remains at 5 of 8 because this was a failure.

- Sturmvald seems to realise that Asmadi is not backing down. Asmadi seems to reach the conclusion that only Nephron could have the Orb and he decides to move against him. Grant becomes sneaky again and decides to stealthily impersonate some of the demons in Nephron’s demonic legions in order to reposition them poorly. This is more than successful – it finally triggers Asmadi into a full-scale attack against Nephron’s realms.

- The Clock “The War Begins” is now at 7 of 8 because this was a critical success. Asmadi himself enters the fray. He doesn’t trust his minions to do it properly. He personally leads his armies and establishes a foothold in Nephron’s territory.

- Believing that Asmadi has lost his mind, Nephron takes the field and a duel is declared. Leading up to this, Grant has been nudging the situation along with Umbra, feeding the bad feelings between them and breaking down whatever trust they had previously. Ethan tries using the Orb on both Dragon Lords. With Nephron he is successful in pushing the Dragon Lord towards the duel. He is less successful with Asmadi who seems to be slipping towards insanity.

- The two mighty Dragon Lords battle over the mountains of Morak Dur. A terrible battle is fought. Asmadi’s rage gives him terrible strength and he inflicts ‘final death’ on Nephron.

- Triumphant, Asmadi claims Nephron’s legions as his own and declares himself Dragon Emperor. He is however furious that Nephron does not seem to have the Orb.

- At this point, the Clock “The War Begins” – is complete and the story enters a new arc.

Part 2 – War of the Dragons

- GM’s note – the War itself was run with a series of rounds, with different Clocks indicating how depleted the various Dragon Lords’ forces were, and we also included a Clock for when Arcades might realise what is going on and return. Each of these rounds takes place over months of time. The war itself takes time to play out.

- Open war finally breaks out with Asmadi declaring himself the new Dragon Emperor. Asmadi launches attacks against Sturmvald. Sturmvald retaliates. Ethan uses the Orb to skim the thoughts of the various Dragon Lords to figure out who knows the secrets of the Dragon Mark – which one of them was the prime instigator for the ritual which put it on him. He is successful and realises that Sturmvald was the instigator, at Lofwyr’s suggestion. But the master of the ritual is actually an ancient dragon referred to as the Keeper of the Rituals, or the Dragon Sage. Too old and doddering to be a real contender for Dragon Emperor, the Dragon Sage is considered apolitical and largely left to his own devices. With this information, Grant slips into Draconian Empire territory and uses Umbra to weaken the Dragon Sage further, such that Ethan is able to slip into his mind and starts working to acquire the final pieces of the ritual so he can undo the Dragon Mark.

- In the months that follow, Asmadi’s forces and Sturmvald’s forces slug it out, whilst Lofwyr remains uncommitted. Grant successfully recovers a relic that can be used to scry on the dragons – a relic that even penetrates their shielding spells – this gives them a vital edge. Ethan continues to work on the complex ritual with the unwitting help from the Dragon Sage.

- Grant continues to watch the battle between the Dragon Lords from the sidelines, occasionally intervening. He doesn’t want Asmadi to win, but a defeated Asmadi might also be very bad – Sturmvald in place would likely result in a more militant and controlling Dragon Empire. As the months wear on, the war spills out into more and more realms and the Lords of Gossamer are inevitably drawn in. Drake is too friendly with Sturmvald and it is impossible to stop him providing some support. Ethan seems to hit a wall in trying to put together the final pieces of the ritual. He tries twice to remove the Dragonmark with Isabelle’s help but each time it fails. Something is still missing.

- During wartime, the unexpected happens. Grant receives a request for aid from the Dwimmerlaik via Lord Morla. They are being threatened by both sides in the Dragon Civil War and they request Grant’s assistance to help in maintaining their neutrality and helping to keep them out of the war. Seeing an opportunity for improved relationships with the Dwimmerlaik, Grant goes to help. He also uses his connections with Lofwyr to try to avoid drawing them in.

- As the war wears on, both Asmadi’s forces and Sturmvald’s forces are becoming increasingly battered, but it looks like Asmadi has the upper hand. Finally, Lofwyr picks a side and sends forces to reinforce Sturmvald. The injection of fresh troops reinforces Sturmvald’s positions and Asmadi suffers severe losses as a result.

- Finally, after months of work, Ethan manages to remove the Dragon Mark. He is finally free of it.

- But the damage toll is colossal – the number of realms that have sustained damage is more than can be counted. The war continues on multiple fronts. Arcades is still nowhere to be seen – he remains a guest of the Dusk Queen, blissfully unaware of what is going on.

- Ethan now turns his attention on trying to influence Asmadi and Sturmvald to resolve their differences with a duel to ‘final death’. However, both minds are too strong for him to influence and hence the war continues to rage on. It is during this time that Marindar itself comes under attack and severe damage is done to Central and to its people. In the devastation, Lady Sophia is lost, presumed dead.

- On the Poznian plains of Turien (Sturmvald’s home realm), Asmadi finally launches a final offensive against what is left of Sturmvald’s forces and decimates them. A triumphant Asmadi faces off against a crippled Sturmvald and delivers ‘real death’ to him.

- Many grieve for the noble Sturmvald (Drake weeps bitterly) but all attention now turns to Asmadi and ensuring that his rule as Dragon Emperor is a short one. Lofwyr contests Asmadi’s claim and further battles are fought as a result. Despite badly battered armies, Asmadi continues to fight on – his madness seems to give him inexhaustible strength and with Nephron’s forces added to his own, he is in a stronger position than Lofwyr.

- The war drags into a second year. By this point Grant and Ethan are doing the same as many of the other Lords of Gossamer – they are trying to minimise the damage that the Dragons and their forces are causing – but the war is being fought on many fronts and they cannot be everywhere.

- Ultimately what brings the war to an abrupt end is an apparent miscalculation on the part of Lofwyr. Asmadi seems to lead from the front and so Lofwyr arms himself and enters the fray directly, seeking to ‘cut off the head of the snake’ and end the war. Lofwyr is highly prescient and is well prepared to fight Asmadi, but despite this, the battle is savage and it does not go the way he expects. Even with all of his preparations, Asmadi’s strength is a match for Lofwyr’s. Between them, they level mountains and destroy large swaths of the realms that they duel in.

- After a sustained battle, Asmadi is finally slain, cursing Lofwyr’s name and believing him to have used the Orb to bring about their ruin. Lofwyr himself is mortally wounded. They have seemingly killed one another.

- But Lofwyr does not die. Before he breathes his last breath, a Lord of Gossamer comes to his aid. Ethan has decided that Lofwyr as Dragon Emperor would be preferable to no Dragon Emperor at all and all of the chaos that this would bring. He brings Lofwyr back from death’s door and Lofwyr, as the last Dragon Lord standing, claims the title of Dragon Emperor.

Part 3 – Aftermath

- A large number of realms are in ruins after the bloody civil war between the Dragons. Earth 0 has remained unscathed but Marindar is heavily damaged.

- A wounded Lofwyr is pronounced the new Dragon Emperor. Lady Abigail (Abbie) becomes his major domo. Abbie promises to spend time with Ethan when she can ‘catch her breath’. Being the right-hand woman to the new Dragon Emperor is more than a full-time job.

- Drake continues to mourn the death of his friend, Sturmvald.

- Arcades leaves the company of the Dusk Queen to find that the world has changed while he has been away.

- Grant is heartbroken at the loss of Sophia. He sadly begins the slow task of rebuilding Marindar.

- Ethan takes a while to actually relax. He has been hunted for so long that he finds it hard not to be constantly looking over his shoulder. He and Isabelle spend time together in the aftermath of the war. 

- Macavity turns up after many months in absentia. He says nothing about where he has been. 

- GM’s note: From here, we then run a session focusing on some key events from the war (like the attack on Marindar) and then we move into some stories in the immediate aftermath of the war before moving onto new things.

Session 230 – Orb Power

 - GM’s note: When we last left Ethan, he had recovered a Dragon Orb which is supposed to be able to control or at least influence dragons. This may finally give him a tool to be able to strike back against the Empire that has been hunting him.

This is actually the second last session of this story arc. We’re building up to a finale.

- Some time has passed since the last session. There were no instructions with the Orb and Ugin (the Dragon Lord who had been slain using it) was not able to tell Ethan how to use the device. Nevertheless, Ethan has managed to figure it out – using psychometry, divination and the combined gadgetry of Isabelle and Ethan.

- Ethan believes it may be possible to control a lesser dragon, but influence over one of the Highlords is likely to be very limited. Also, the older and more powerful the dragon, the more likely that they will sense the attempt. A test is required.

Part 1 – The First Test

- We cut to an underground cavern with many graeco-roman columns. Ethan, Isabelle and Macavity are running for their lives as masonry splinters behind them. An enraged Smaug-sized dragon is tearing the place apart trying to pursue them.

* Image sourced from Google Images

- The first test has failed. Something went wrong. And as such, the trio are running like hell. Even Ethan’s Mental Invisibility isn’t helping them very much – the Dragon is still able to sense them. 

- Fleeing as fast as they can, Ethan notes that the Dragon is trying to cut off their escape route by sending a number of draconian minions to intercept them. Luckily Grant is playing a screening role and he engages before they can block the trio’s escape. 

- The dragon behind them is behaving like it has lost its mind. It is so mad that it is almost berserk, smashing through columns like a wild thing in his hunger to reach them. Occasionally it sends a blast of fire after them but so far, they have been lucky (even though the stones around them have heated to the point where they glow and smoke). 

- Knowing that the dragon is coming for him and him alone, Ethan splits off from Isabelle and Macavity. The dragon pursues. Ethan tries to put as much of the cavern’s pillars between him and the dragon. The dragon is very, very irate – it tears and blasts its way after him. 

- However, the stalling tactic works. Isabelle reaches the Stair. She reaches him via Icon and pulls him through. Then she recovers Grant. They are safe – for now. Hurrying away before pursuit can reach them, they return to Isabelle’s domain via a circuitous route. Everyone needs a cold drink. Macavity is not impressed – he glares at Ethan and licks his burnt tail.

Part 2 – Further Research

- The little group of Lords of Gossamer are sombre. They realise that Ethan’s connection with the target dragon failed and it’s only a matter of time before the Dragon Highlords realise that someone has the Orb. This is not good.

- Isabelle decides to study the Orb further, hoping to figure out what went wrong. Ethan is tired. He was really hoping that this would make a difference. Grant offers him a beer and he accepts. Macavity scowls at them both and slinks off.

- After a while Ethan simply acknowledges that they missed something and he doesn’t know what. Grant reassures him that he’ll figure it out. The last individual to use the Orb was Bolas - he was a dragon and he knew how to use it.  

- Ethan excuses himself and goes for a wander on the Stair. Cloaked via numerous Wards, he eventually decides to try the Forbidden Library. On his way he senses another Lord of Gossamer nearby and decides to avoid them. He doesn’t like surprises.

- He returns to the Library and begins looking through books which contain histories of past conflicts between dragons, looking for cases where dragons have died, or times when the Orb itself is mentioned.

- He finds three separate accounts which are of interest. It takes him considerable time (weeks) to find and read these.

Part 3 – Three Accounts

- The first account makes reference to a ‘suppression effect’ when dragons take to the battlefield. It seems that it affects dragon mortality and whether they can ‘come back’ or not. Ethan counts seven Dragon Lords from the records who have died and not returned. It is not clear how this has been achieved. There are many battle accounts which are of vague interest but not pertinent to the question in his mind.

- The second account was written by a dragon’s faithful servant. The servant refers to something untranslatable which can be on, or off for battles – but the trigger is a formal duel – and the consequence of losing that duel is real, permanent death. The account also goes into the different motives and layers of the draconian mind which gives Ethan a glimpse of the complexity of these alien creatures. He wouldn’t want to play chess against even the weakest of them.

- The third book is bound in dragonhide. The sheets of paper are actually metal. Despite being fireproof, it looks like something or someone has still attempted to immolate the book. The book is a grimoire – a study of dragons and of spells relevant to dragons. The spells seem very complex and layered. The author of the book was not a dragon but seems to have been a powerful mage, possibly even a Warden of the Stair (it’s not clear). The book is old and predates the Great War. It takes Ethan weeks of work to fully digest what is in the book and he has to do this in multiple sittings.

- The longer Ethan remains in the Forbidden Library, the more uncomfortable he feels. He doesn’t like lingering in one place. He thinks that the Dragonmark is suppressed here but he cannot be sure that it is completely suppressed. And even if the Forbidden Library’s location is forgotten, he considers it possible that the dragons somehow remember.

- Two months after the disastrous first test, Ethan feels that he has learnt a lot. It seems that someone who has been working for the dragons has been depositing books into the Forbidden Library for a long, long time. He has learnt a lot from this hidden information. Many of the dragons that are mentioned are still around today, but sometimes they go by other names.

Part 4 – Preparing for the Next Test

- Despite what he has learnt, Ethan doesn’t rejoin the others. He is sick of being unprepared and this time, he wants to make sure that he has all of the relevant information before trying to influence a dragon.

- Working through the wealth of information in the Forbidden Library, Ethan starts piecing together how to use the Orb. One by one, he eliminates the unknowns. It has been a while since he had to study for something important but he takes this study very seriously.

- Ethan is also interested in what is said about each of the Dragon Highlords – their history, their personalities, their agendas. In the old texts, Lofwyr had other names – Iceclaw, Frostlord. It seems that he is an expert with Divination and Scrying and had access to some sort of relic that gave him an edge over other dragons in this regard. If Ethan is going to try influencing some of these Highlords, he needs to understand them better.

- Occasionally Ethan speaks to Grant. It seems that they are still hunting for him. The situation between the Dragons is still very tense – some of them are even actively talking about the Emperor being poisoned. Grant doesn’t think it will take much to push them into conflict. He also notes that the Dragons tried to send a group after Grant (to get to Ethan). Grant dealt with them but this escalation has apparently upset some of the other Lords of Gossamer. Grant says that he’s moving around as well – he hopes that Marindar won’t be targeted if he stays on the move.

Part 5 – The Intruder

- Another month passes. Ethan has read many books and what he is finding now seems to be of diminished value. Nevertheless, he pushes on, looking for anything else that he has missed.

- It is during this time that an intruder is caught in the slowtime trap inside the Library. This tanned individual is close to collapse when Ethan finds him. Using mind-to-mind, Ethan confirms that this person isn’t here for him. He doesn’t even know about the Lords of Gossamer. His master died and he was asked to bring items here. He found out about the Forbidden Library from a puzzle box left by his master (similar to the puzzle box that Ethan has used to take knowledge out of the Library).

- Ethan decides to remove him from the Library and contacts Grant. He can’t afford for this individual to be picked up by someone else. Grant agrees to look after him.

- Returning to the library, Ethan goes through the items that the intruder was trying to place in the library and finds a book about dragons. Coincidence? Cursing himself for his stupidity, Ethan realises that someone probably knows where he is and has manipulated the young sorcerer into coming here.

- Ethan flicks through the book – it is interesting but he decides that it is too dangerous to stay. He leaves the book behind and decides the quit the Forbidden Library. He is done with researching. It is time for action.

Part 6 – The Plan

- Grant and Ethan meet in a soundproof booth. Neon lights flash. People dance on the dance floor. Both Grant and Ethan are using a variety of charms and devices for blocking scrying and divination. Grant has picked up some skills in the last year – he has become very good at blocking draconic divination when he wants to. For now, Ethan’s danger sense is quiet. It is time to talk. It is time…. to plan how this ends.

Session 229 – The Dragon Orb

 - GM’s note: This session carries on from our messed up Duskwall adventure which was covered in Sessions 224 and 228. We return to Ethan and Grant in the present, with Ethan being hunted by the Dragon Highlords.

David and I had already talked about how this plotline could end, and what Ethan might be able to do to bring this to a close. This session was about finding an artefact that would give him an edge.

The Dragon Orb concept is, of course, from TSR’s Dragonlance.

Part 1 – The Other Thief

- Grant and Ethan spend considerable time talking to the Dragon Lord Ugin, learning about how his brother Nicol Bolas slew his mortal form. It seems that Bolas had an artefact which could be used to influence and even control other dragons – a Dragon Orb. It is doubtful that even someone as powerful as Ethan would be able to directly control a Dragon Highlord, but it may be possible to influence them.

- Time passes. Grant and Ethan split up. Grant searches for clues as to where such a device might be held and who might currently be in possession of it. Ethan spends time in the Forbidden Library trying to learn more about the artefact from old, lost historical records and what it is capable of doing.

- After some time, Ethan is able to locate where this artefact is (via Divination). It is in a vault, in a pocket dimension. He is able to find the Door that leads to the Vault. He is pretty sure that no Icons will work in the Vault itself, and the Vault holds many ‘precious’ things. The realm itself will be hostile to them – the draconic inhabitants were and are still loyal to Nicol Bolas.

- The Orb itself is normally 2-3 metres across, but it can be shrunk with the correct commands. 

- The two friends plan an approach with Isabelle and then put the plan into motion. Grant runs interference while Isabelle and Ethan make their way to the central room that contains the Vault itself. The Vault door should be no challenge for two Lords of Gossamer but they are astonished to find that someone has beaten them to it. The Vault is open and leaking coins. There is blood on the floor and a trail of blood droplets leads away. Frowning, Ethan realises that someone else has already come for the Orb. 

- The alarms go off elsewhere in the complex. Soon there will be guards everywhere.

- Ethan calmly uses Mental Invisibility to shield both of them. Remote cameras will still pick them up but not the guards in proximity. Taking a sample of the bloodstain on the ground, they begin tracking the thief.

- They find some doors have been opened and traps have been disabled. They realise that the thief is someone small, and rather than heading for the exit, the thief is heading deeper into the complex. 

- Hurrying after the thief as they presume that he (or she) has another way out, they hear a high-pitched scream ahead and find a large silver mirror lying on its side. There is a single dragonfly wing on the ground – it looks like the thief is some sort of fairy, and he (or she) has lost a wing trying to escape through a mirror portal. 

- Ethan is unwilling to follow the thief through an unknown portal (given that he is being hunted). Frustrated at the coincidence of two groups of thieves hitting the same target at about the same time, Ethan and Isabelle lay into the first group of reptilian guards that arrive in the mirror chamber. They take them out easily.

- Isabelle asks what they should do next and Ethan grimly tells her that they have to withdraw. Despite the multitude of guards that are looking for intruders, the trio are able to slip away without being detected, but the mission is a failure.

Part 2 - Recovery

- Ethan looks over the small dragonfly wing and decides that the thief is a pixie rather than a member of the true fey. He thinks that the thief should be relatively easy to trace given that he has one of the pixie’s wings. Also, he has a feeling that he’s seen this sort of magic before.

- Ethan uses Divination to trace the source of the familiar magic and he concludes that this thief comes from another Trollworld. (first seen in Session 49!) Scrying on this world, it seems that this society is thriving, and there seems to be a magical broadcast going on – a TV gameshow where the contestants are going through magic mirrors to steal things from other worlds. 

- Ethan shares what he knows with Grant and Isabelle. They judge it too far to traverse the Stair via the normal means so Grant uses his Mastery of the Stair to establish a closer connection to cut down the travel time. Ethan has a bad feeling about this – he has the feeling that the pixie may be a Warden, or a potential Warden.

- After a number of hours, they reach the Door to an alternate Trollworld. There are many cultures here – humans, demihumans, orcs. They arrive in a city street of what looks like some sort of classical fantasy world. Ethan takes some time to re-establish the magical wards to prevent the hunters from tracking him down. He senses that he is not the only powerful magic user here. Sorcery is powerful here.

- Sitting down in a park, Ethan takes time to find the thief via scrying. He confirms that the thief is still carrying the Orb, and in the complex that is being used for the gameshow. Ethan watches as the one-winged pixie thief runs into a multi-headed hydra on what looks like a beach (despite this ‘beach’ being inside the complex).

- Ethan shares the location with Grant and Grant turns a door into a Door to reach the room where the pixie thief is fighting. The hydra discharges lightning bolts from its mouth while the pixie dodges here and there, trying to avoid being fried. The hydra is completely unaware of Ethan and Grant as they are under the cover of Ethan’s spells. The hydra is abruptly slain by the pair, and Grant uses Umbra to incinerate it for good measure.

- Conscious that they are now probably ‘on TV’ and this will make it easy for the hunters to find him, Ethan grabs the pixie and tells the others that it is time to leave. They retreat to the Stair, literally walking out of the realm and ‘off the map’. Grant switches Doors to conceal their path and they head to a safe realm of red vegetation in which yellow-fanged orcs dwell. There they go through the pixie thief’s things – he seems to have a lot in his backpack. Far more than what the backpack should normally hold – artefacts, weapons, a lot of gold and jewels, documents and a change of clothes. There is also a puzzle box which, oddly enough, none of the Lords of Gossamer can open.

- By this point, the pixie thief has fallen unconscious from the strain of it all. Ethan heals him and restores his wing. Guessing that this pixie may be a Warden or ‘almost a Warden’, he decides to make a crude Icon sketch of him to keep an eye on him in the future. Then he uses a mind-to-mind contact to figure out how to open the puzzle box. Persuading the pixie doesn’t seem to work so he needs to trick him within a dream into revealing the secret. 

- Sleepwalking, the pixie thief opens the puzzle box and the Orb is found. There are also other precious things inside like a tiny pixie size filigree brooch.

- The three Lords of Gossamer peruse the pixie’s possessions but decide to take nothing except for the Orb. Isabelle is a little bit annoyed – she would very much like to take some of the treasure for herself. 

- The Orb itself is bigger than expected – almost a metre across – again, far too big to believably fit inside the backpack which is tiny. Ethan wonders how it works. 

* Image sourced from Google Images

- Grant quickly figures out how to shrink it down to a pocket size and they decide to leave the pixie thief with the natives. They don’t seem hostile or likely to eat him.

- Ethan is pretty sure that this Orb is the artefact that he has been looking for, but he has absolutely no idea how to use it.

Session 228 – Duskwall Adventures

- GM’s note: As mentioned during the Session 224 writeup, our adventures in Duskwall did not go according to plan. Session 224 was run on 9th July 2020 and it just didn’t work. We then returned to Duskwall in Session 228 (after three sessions of flashback to Tachyon Squadron) and completed the session properly so that it actually worked.

The writeup for Session 228 is actually in the Session 224 writeup so that there is one coherent narrative.

 

Session 227 – Return to Tachyon Squadron Part 3

- GM’s note: Continuing on with the third of three sessions back in the Tachyon Squadron universe, when Grant and Ethan were much younger.

This session has two mini-stories. The first deals with the aftermath of the smugglers’ ship, the Dark Shadow (first introduced in Session 210.

After this session, we return to the current timeline.

Part 1 – Return to the Dark Shadow

- The cadets from Starfighter Academy captured the armed freighter, “Dark Shadow” about two months ago. Since then, the intelligence forces of Draconis have done a lot of work to figure out who Captain Maggar was working for and who was trying to ship weaponry to the Arco space station.

- “Deadeye” and “Chance” are part of the crew of the captured “Dark Shadow”. A meet has been arranged at a rendezvous point in space. Another ship, unlisted and with more armament than the “Dark Shadow” approaches.

- The plan is to board the unidentified ship and capture the encrypted data storage before their presence can be detected and the data storage destroyed. “Deadeye” and “Chance” spacewalk across with two others – “Flash” (a hacking/decoding expert” and “Glare”, a Draconis marine who is a bit of a weapons nut. They manage to open one of the exterior hatches without tripping the alarms while the ships dock and extend a boarding tunnel in order for the official ‘meet’ to occur.

- They reach the data storage and “Flash” gets to work. “Glare” assembles a signal jammer to prevent the crew of the unidentified ship from sending a distress signal. “Deadeye” is sent to secure the cargo bay while “Chance” is sent forward.

- They go hunting. They are heavily armoured up and prepared to use flash and sonic weapons. Alarms go off – but they didn’t trigger it – something else is going on, perhaps the official ‘meet’ is going poorly. A few crew members are quickly dealt with, but “Chance” runs into trouble when he reaches the airlock to the “Dark Shadow”. One of their crew is in powered armour and wearing a huge honking sonic weapon. “Chance” blinds the crew member with a flash grenade and overpowers him with a melee weapon, knocking him over and pinning him to the deck. He hurries onto the bridge and finds that the crew have an armed drone hovering by the door. He throws a grenade and the stunned drone falls, its circuits fried.

- On the bridge itself, the two crewmembers are hurriedly getting into powered armour while a functioning warbot (like a tripod) stands guard. Judging that he has to act quickly, “Chance” hurls in another grenade which blinds the warbot and it starts firing erratically. One of the stray blaster bolts severs a power cable and the lights go out on the bridge.  

- Using the darkness as cover, “Chance” dives into the room and ‘sonics’ the men. The warbot is still shooting in all directions when he uses a blaster to finally silence it. “Chance” calls in to report that the bridge is secure – the jammer doesn’t affect the local secure comms that they have prepared.

- “Deadeye” has already taken the cargo bay. There are no comms from the “Dark Shadow”. “Glare” and “Flash” have what they came for. “Chance” reports some damage to the bridge controls (loss of sensors) but control could be rerouted to engineering. Both of the bridge crew are alive but unconscious. They are instructed to hold position and wait for the ‘all clear’.

- They wait almost ten minutes before the next instructions are given. They are advised that there is a standoff on the “Dark Shadow” – the agents who went across from the unidentified ship are still there, in a Mexican standoff with the crew of the “Dark Shadow”. 

- “Deadeye” heads across to break the stalemate. The two are called “Argent” and “Silver”. “Silver” has a cybernetic arm and other enhancements. They speak another language in an attempt to converse privately but “Deadeye” can understand them. They know that their cause is lost and they are trying to figure out how to get out of the situation alive. “Deadeye” convinces them to stand down and that they will be fairly treated. They surrender.

- The team from Tachyon Squadron return with both ships. The unidentified ship is carrying warbots, heavy weaponry and armed drones.

Part 2 – Revenge of the Dark Shadow

- A few weeks later, Draconis Intelligence has enough from interrogating the prisoners and going through the encrypted data storage to figure out the next target. There is a crime lord named Jasper Jerome who is operating out of an asteroid field on the edge of Dominion territory. He sounds like bad news – a techno-rogue who is out for himself – young and ambitious. It seems that he has a total of three unregistered ships that are used to carry weapons to Dominion sympathisers in Draconis space.

- The unidentified ship has been repaired and has now been given an unofficial name – “Sally”. The team from Tachyon Squadron are given a new mission – to  capture Jasper Jerome and bring him back to Draconis to face justice.

- To make this easier, Draconis Intelligence has acquired the item that Jasper was expecting to receive as payment – a large sculpture made of crystals. 

- “Deadeye” and “Chance” take “Sally” to a small moon on the edge of Dominion space in order to meet with Jasper. Jasper welcomes them and is very pleased when given the artwork. Jasper offers them some very expensive alcohol out of a bottle carved from diamond to congratulate them, at which point “Chance” cuts him off and tells him that he is under arrest.

- Before Jasper’s bodyguards can react, they are taken out by “Deadeye” with two quick sonic blasts. However, Jasper drops a cufflink that explodes with a deafening sound and he gets away into a concealed elevator. The two novice Lords of Gossamer are staggered but quickly shake off the effects and go after him. 

- In the hangar bay below, there are two racing vessels and one is ready to take off. “Chance” seals the doors and “Deadeye” uses Wayfinding to easily locate Jerome in the racing vessel that has not yet powered up.

- One of the racing vessels takes off and slams into the hangar door, exploding in flame. As the automatic extinguishers spring into life to put out the fire, “Deadeye” calmly takes Jasper into custody (but offers him a drink).

- Jasper has a lot of loot in his lair. There are priceless pieces of art (a lot should be in museums), cash, precious materials and a lot of weapons and data crystals. Jasper offers “Chance” and “Deadeye” many inducements to convince them not to turn him in, but they are not particularly interested. They take a few hours to load up “Sally”, using some of the service drones to assist them – and then depart. Both are wary that Jasper may have somehow called for aid and they don’t wish to push their luck.

- They return to Draconis space and report in.

- Over the next few weeks, they make multiple trips in order to quietly retrieve more of Jasper’s cache.

Session 226 – Return to Tachyon Squadron Part 2

- GM’s note: Continuing on with the second of three sessions back in the Tachyon Squadron universe, when Grant and Ethan were much younger.

This adventure is inspired by one of the old Classic Traveller Adventures – Chamax Plague.

- The two ‘pugs’ (Phoenix class strikeboats) head to the Dalban system. In the first pug is “Hammer”, “Tex”, “Deadeye” and “Chance”. In the second pug are “Gunner”, “Nails”, “Nok” and “Auger”. It is the first time that “Deadeye” and “Chance” have been on a real jump to another star system. Each of the ‘pugs’ has a FTL drive.

- The jump is not instantaneous. It takes 3 hours of travel time and then hours to recharge the drives. Coming out of lightspeed, “Deadeye” confirms their position and “Chance” orients the ship towards Dalban 3. It is slightly smaller than Earth and has an atmosphere, but there is no water and no vegetation. It’s a barren planet. 

- Completing a sensor sweep, the lead ‘pug’ enters orbit while the second pug hangs back. “Deadeye” quickly finds the Shaarin Challenger – it’s intact on the surface and hasn’t crashed. It is about 400 metres from a nearby ruin. There are many ruined structures on the surface. 

- They do a sweep for the missing ‘pug’ from Axion squadron and find that it crashed about 30km from the Challenger. The debris is scattered over a wide area – it looks like it came down hard.

- “Hammer” orders the lead ‘pug’ to descend and “Chance” guides the ship down. They circle the Challenger – there is no obvious damage. There is a lot of static on communications. It looks like the nearby ruin was recently approached and that the ‘pug’ which crashed had landed here previously.

- “Chance” lands the ship about a kilometre from the Challenger. The ground outside is barren and flat. Nothing grows here. But the air is breathable. It is about two hours before the G-type sun sets.

- Confirming radio contact, “Chance”, “Deadeye” and “Tex” are given the task of scouting out the Challenger. “Hammer” remains in command in the ‘pug’ and maintains an open communication channel to the second pug.

- It takes them about ten minutes to cross the distance. “Deadeye” spots some patches where the soil is disturbed. He’s seen evidence of burrowing creatures before (eg: from Tyndam) and he points this out to “Chance”. As they make their way closer to the Challenger, the strength of the radio signal degrades.

- Reaching the ship, there is some damage underneath. A total of six holes, each roughly a metre across and it looks like the hull has been melted inwards. It doesn’t look like weapons fire. It looks like something else. Reporting back, “Hammer” decides to lift off and remain on standby, circling the Challenger, just to be on the safe side.

- The bow doors of the Challenger are shut. “Deadeye” pretends to run a security bypass and then uses his Warden abilities to open the door. Inside is a tracked ATV, sitting idle. The static gets worse as they investigate inside. They lose the signal entirely when they reach the cargo area. There is a hole in the ceiling and the occasional hole in the floor, here and there.

- What then follows is an Aliens-style sweep of the ship by torchlight. “Chance”, “Deadeye” and “Tex” carefully go through the place, room by room. They are certain that there is something here. Eventually they find a strange ball-shaped creature, about twice the size of a basketball, sitting there amongst the storage crates. It is quivering slightly, as if it is breathing.

- In another place they find two more. Then another, and another.

- Then, they find one moving – it has unfurled its spider-like limbs (of which there are six) and seems to be heading purposefully in their direction. It is big – as big as a Great Dane. As it gets close, “Deadeye” blasts it and it begins melting on the deck.

* Image is from Traveller Double Adventure – the Chamax Plague

- Ethan calls out that there is another one moving in their direction. Then two. They seem to be moving lazily in their direction (as if they are just waking up) but they are moving with purpose. “Tex” and “Chance” shoot them. They seem to have an acid sac just below the mouth – when that sac is broken, it kills the creature and starts melting through the deck.

- There is too much static to alert “Hammer” as to what is happening. More and more of the creatures seem to be coming out of hibernation. “Deadeye” and “Chance” move confidently (they’ve dealt with worse situations before) and they lure the creatures out and kill them in clusters. “Tex” keeps his cool in the situation even though the creatures are becoming faster as they become more alert. 

- Gunfire. Grenades. Smoke fills the corridors making it difficult to see. The trio go full-blown Chuck Norris / Rambo. It’s clear that the ship is infested with these spider-like creatures. The creatures are in front and behind. There are piles of dead smoking bodies, their broken acid sacs spewing acid which is rapidly eating through the deck.

- At last they find a large creature which is largely immobile, except that it is churning out eggs. They toss in the last of their grenades and blow it apart. This enrages the remaining creatures and they are forced to retreat via the top hatch onto the exterior of the ship. As they do so, they grab what information they can from the bridge computers. The bridge is largely intact – there is still no sign of the crew.

- Free of the ship and with many of the creatures dead (as they themselves are creating interference), “Deadeye” is able to contact “Hammer”. It seems that killing one of the mother-creatures has triggered a reaction amongst the population. There are hundreds heading towards the Challenger from the ruins – they are still kilometres away but they are marching towards the ship at a steady pace.

- “Chance”, “Deadeye” and “Tex” are picked up by “Hammer” as the G-type sun is setting. They start going over the bridge logs. It seems that five of the crew headed north in a shuttle to check out another site. The crew of the lead ‘pug’ take their stations and “Chance” guides the ship in the direction of the crashed ‘pug’ which came to Dalban 3 to rescue the crew of the Shaarin Challenger. They survey the wreckage and judge that there could not have been any survivors, particularly as the ground impact clearly attracted attention.

- Heading 300km north, they find that five of the crew have survived and they were trapped in a cave above one of the glacial flows. The spider-creatures have made short-work of their shuttlecraft and the crew retreated across the ice to make their last stand. However, they then made a discovery – the spider-creatures don’t like the cold. They tend to hibernate when it is cold or when there is no available food source.

- With the survivors of the Shaarin Challenger rescued, the ‘pug’ returns to orbit and “Deadeye” charts a course for home. There are comments upon their return that though “Deadeye” and “Chance” have only just joined Tachyon Squadron, they’re already behaving like bad-ass marines.