Game Afoot
Summary
Adventure: The name of the adventure
- aka: The Pocket Universe
GM: Jeff
Season: Summer 804 WK
- Party
- Falco, a slightly dodgy looking human who admits to being a thief and a Shadow Celestial
- Ashlon Goodlight, an elf of the E&E college and courtier and our party leader
- Yvette de Clare, a Mind mage, as well as healer, troubadour and our military scientist
- Robert McLeod, a Mind mage
- Theodonna, a namer
- Mira Stuart, a fighter and sometime Earth mage – our scribe
- Time on adventure
- 1 Meadow to 9 Meadow 804 WK
- Employer
- someone rich
- Mission
- Hired to do a job
- Original Scribe Notes
- Media:Snsu0403.zip
Scribe Notes
1st Meadow We gather in one of the many rooms of the Seagate Guild, and once we have all arrived, someone from Guild Security appears. They aren't too sure about this mage called Curtains, but he seems honest enough about employing us. Apparently he lives in a pub that appeared recently in Seagate – it seemed to make room for itself between two buildings that were once adjoining. He hinted that the Guild might be interested in more information about how the pub managed this. Apart from that, he gives us a small sparkly marble – apparently it's some new toy from the Guild. If we break it, it will send out a distress signal, and the Guild will send out a party to get us – or at least try to. Very experimental. As he has nothing else to add, he goes and brings our employer into the room. He is an elderly gentleman obviously dressed as a mage. He rambles on about how he creates these pocket universes using these tomes he found in his library, and that one of them has been invaded by hordes of men in horned helmets, and trolls and undead and dwarf like creatures – and he wants us to stop this invasion. Falco gets a DA on him, and he shows up as human-like aura, of a race called create-lets. We attempt to get more information, but he suggests we continue the discussion at his pub. We agree and he wanders off. I cast lesser enchantment on those who need it before we head off. A short time later, we all gather at the pub – called The Black Rose. The staff in the pub don't look Alusian – a few DA's later reveal them to be from a plane called Finia. As the drinks are on the house, we enjoy the evening. At some point, we see someone who looks like Curtains leaving the pub. We ask the staff, and they say, no – it's Dane (whoever that it). Eventually we sit down with our employer and the bar staff after closing. Talking to Curtains is interesting. Sometimes it's like he doesn't even recognise us, and we have to remind him who we are – I hope he remembers when it's time to pay us. Anyway, after some roundabout questioning, we find out that he hired us because he thought we would have more appropriate skills than the bar staff, who double as his bodyguards, to deal with the problem. The staff admit to working at the pub, but are very evasive about who they work for. Other important information found includes that items brought out of the pocket universe stay around – we admire an armband of defence and a ring of protection from spiritual attacks that the bar staff have. The creatures can be killed by normal weapons, however the body disappears as soon as you kill it, then the creature reappears alive and in one piece 10 minutes later. After we try to get straight answers about the pub and Curtains again, they try to distract us with some fancy flaming drinks. I decline, and see that it was probably a good decision when Falco manages to set his hair on fire. At some point during the distraction, Curtains gets up and leaves. After the drinks, we are offered a tour of the pub and we accept. Nice bedrooms upstairs, with a spa pool, another spa pool on the ground floor, and in the basement, the sarcophagi used to transfer you to the pocket universe, the library, and three private quarters – Curtains, Dane, and a third person called Joshua. However we'll have to get permission before we can use the library. Before we retire for the night, we manage to pry a bit more information from the staff – apparently the pub moves quite regularly – it can move with very little warning if it is in danger. It chimes before moving – and the troubadour demonstrates on her harp. Also, we are probably going to have to carry all our food supplies – they saw no sign of any food in the universe. By this time it's 4am, and most of us retire for some sleep. I think some people decide to try out the spa pools. 2nd Meadow At some ungodly hour of the morning, I am woken up by chiming. After a moment of confusion, I realise it is the warning that the pub is about to move. I get dressed in record time and head downstairs, meeting up with the rest of the party doing the same thing. After a short discussion we decide to stay in the pub, as there is no sign of Curtains, and the staff are very reluctant to go and wake him (and we do want to get paid). Shortly after that, the universe turns inside out. I don't remember much about it – I passed out, as did most of the party and some of the staff. When I wake up, we are somewhere else. I DA Ashlon, and last magic to impact is universe transportation. Meanwhile, outside we can see that we are on an island in a lake, and it appears to be surrounded by a peat bog.. The buildings in the town we have appeared in are smaller than in Seagate, and the people on the street look vaguely like Caledonians. They don't seem surprised that they suddenly have an extra pub, in fact they bang on the door, and ask the pub to open as they want a drink! The staff open the doors and people come in. DA's are cast, and apparently we are on the plane Carfella. As we watch, we notice someone looking just like Curtains come up from downstairs and head in to the pub's lounge room. One of the staff brings hims some breakfast. We head over to him, and after some roundabout questions we find out that we are talking to Dane – who we saw last night. We eventually manage to figure out that he is a universe creator as well, and despite the fact that he and Joshua and Curtains look the same, they are not brothers – we can't get a straight answer over what relationship there is between them – this is getting frustrating! Anyway, we find out that Dane creates different universes to Curtains – Curtains likes peaceful universes, Dane's universes have people in horned helmets and trolls and dwarves fighting each other – and lots of mountains. This sounds interestingly like the problem Curtains is happening. We ask a few roundabout questions about links between his universe and Curtains, don't get a straight answer again, and then he gets annoyed with us and leaves. A few minutes later, another old mage who looks like Curtains enters the lounge. More roundabout questions reveals this to be Joshua. We ask if he creates universes as well, and he does – and his are full of undead (he likes them for some strange reason). We ask some more questions about these universes, and manage to get him to admit that he would quite like us to fail in our job to fix the problems in Curtains universe. Ashlon suggests that it would be good to be able to communicate with him when we are in the universe, and Joshua agrees. He puts his hands on Ashlon's forehead, and Ashlon screams in pain and passes out. My DA on him now says last magic to impact is remote viewing magic. Joshua then gets up and leaves. Just as we get Ashlon back on his feet, a bar fight breaks out. Robert is closest to the door and is attacked by a man. Robert responds by hitting him with a sap, and the guy falls to the ground unconscious. A second guy tries to attack Robert as well, and manages to hit him fairly hard. Robert decides to fall back and Ashlon deals with him. We can hear more fighting in the bar, but before we can go do something about it, the barman kicks everyone out of the pub. While this is happening, Thedona decides to go through the pockets of the unconscious man – he has some coins, tobacco and a magical dagger of virility. As we doesn't want to be labelled thieves at this early point, we convince Thedona not to take anything. Things quickly quieten down, and shortly after they do, another elderly mage appears. This time it's Curtains. We decide to talk to him openly about our belief that we think that it is creatures from the other mages universe that is causing his problems, and he agrees. Why he didn't just tell us that I don't know. Turns out it happens with all the universes they create, however he can't sort it out with the other two, and he wants us to stop it happening in this universe. When we ask how to do this, he says once we go into the universe, we need to find the elf who is in charge and ask him for a quest. He'll ask us to 'go deal with the ravening hordes of horned men', and we can take it from there. We ask about food supplies, and he says that we should take our own. We also ask if we can enter and leave the universe several times, and he says that it is OK, however there could be problems if we come out and meet one of the other mages instead of him. We discuss this, and settle on getting him to be in the transfer room at a certain time each day, and we'll try to come through them. Curtains then asks if there is anything we would like to help us on our quest, and says he can make us luckier. We work out that it is some form of Greater Enchantment, using an amulet that needs to be surgically implanted. Yvette and Ashlon already have permanent Greaters, and so they start negotiating for something else. Also Ashlon asks if Curtains can remove the remote viewing magic on him, and Curtains says he can and does so. My DA on last magic to impact now comes back as dispel remote viewing magic. Curtains heads off, presumably to attempt to find the amulets, while we pack. When he returns, he has a collection of magical items for us – some healing potions of various types, a staff that enhances the Namer college, which Thedona claims, an amulet of Trollskin that Robert claims, and 4 Greater Enchantment amulets of various attributes. Robert claims the vodka greater – so will spend the adventure drunk or in search of a drink, Thedona gets the Gold Enchantment as she needs the extra protection it gives, and Falco and I take the Blue Greaters. He also gives us a final briefing – go to Tir-na-Mbeo and seek out the elf called Fagan, and ask for a quest. We also get some final info from his staff – apparently they left someone behind, a necromancer called Nine Lives. He died, but was not resurrected like everyone else was – I think they wanted us to keep an eye out for him. They also give us a copy of the map they made of the area. Once all this is done, we sort out some final code words with Curtains, then we climb into the sarcophagi, and the lids are closed. After a few moments, we are suddenly standing in a field. Looking around, we can see a forest and a town to the south, and a river to the north, with a bridge across it. There are a few creatures around – a mudman and some water beetles (strange, the names just appear in our heads as we approach them). They're neutral and don't attack us. A quick check reveals that we can all draw mana normally. After a short discussion, we decide to head to the bridge over the river. As we approach, we see a man standing on the bridge. He is a fisherman called Mannix, and he and Ashlon have a chat that seems to be mainly a waste of time – the only useful information we get is that the town to the South is called Ardee. A quick check of the map shows that we are north of Tir-na-mbeo, so we say goodbye to Mannix and head to Ardee. There we find various merchants – all selling very standard fare. We stop for a while for lunch, ask around about getting to Tir-na-mbeo, and we are directed to the stables. Turns out they have a magical transport system, however it only goes to certain places. We purchase tickets to Maymell, which is close to Tir-na-mbeo, at 5sp each, then head out – the journey takes 3 hours and is totally uneventful. Maymell is much the same as Ardee, and the magical transport doesn't go to Tir-na- mbeo, so we decide to walk. As it should only take about 3 hours, and it's currently mid afternoon, we decide to set out immediately. A short way out of town we find a group of skeletons. As they look particularly weak, we decide to find out what fighting is like here. We manage to draw one skeleton out and kill it, then a second, then we are attacked by 8 at once. During the combat, one of the original skeletons reappears and joins the fight. However we still quickly dispatch them all, and decide to move on before they all reappear again. After collecting the loot of course – we find a total of 67 cp, a dagger, a 2 rings and some bracers. Once clear of the combat area, we DA the items, and find we have bracers of defense of some sort, a ring of aiding quickness, a ring of defense +2 and a dagger of extra damage. We agree to get them properly identified at the next town and continue on. Eventually we reach Tir-na-mbeo. A quick trip to the merchants reveals we have a dagger of +1 DM & +5% SC, bracers and 2 rings of +5% defense, and a ring of initiative +1. That goes to Thedona, the defensive items are sold for 20sp total. We then locate Fagan in the central building. He is an impressively dressed elf, who welcomes us warmly. We ask for a quest to save the world. He somehow manages to look even more impressive as he straightens and looks at Thedona! He says 'You must find the King of the Pookas, who lives north of the river at Ardee. You must then render him unconscious and place this bridle upon him. It will give you control over him. Then return to me with the King of the Pookas. Within him resides another creature. We will free it from the pooka, and you must take it to the Frontier Lands, and find the sleeping god, the oracle.' Wonderful. We ask for a description of a pooka – it's horselike, with a long spiralled horn on it's forehead. We then pointedly ask Thedona a question and she admits to being a virgin – that explains why Fagan spoke to her – apparently she is the only one who can use the bridle and control the Pooka King. Fagan notices our lack of knowledge of the realms, and says he can give that knowledge to us. He singles out Ashlon and Falco, and murmurs some spells. Apparently it fails for Ashlon, but Falco's is successful. It's getting dark, and we decide to settle in for the night in a quiet spot in the town. Falco explains that every town has sentinels which protect them from all the creatures outside. We still set a watch, but have a quiet night.
