The Hero of Nightfall

Summary

Adventure: The Hero of Nightfall
GM: Stephen
Session: Summer 814wk
Night: Mondays
Location Sackville Street, Grey Lynn
Level: High (may involve travel to Hell, Haven, Asgard, & Sanctuary)
Party:

Vychan Giant Earth Mage, Party Leader - Sean English
Lath Air Mage, Mil Sci - Jono Bean
Tegan, Beast Mage, Scribe - Kelsie
Bishop Velcanthus, Wicca - Jim Arona
Eric Dwarven Namer, - Mike Haycock
Christopher Human Warrior/Ice Mage - Michael Young

Employer: The Urielite Priest The Best Defence is Pre-emptive Execution (a.k.a. Bodie)

Briefing

Summary: A conflicted hero has fallen, which has left the Powers of Light with a slight problem. His job is unfinished, he is destined to fulfil a key role at Nightfall that could be pivotal to the victory of Light. Uriel has a plan, the fallen hero must ascend to become the Angel of One-Eyed Justice Delivered in Darkness (they're still working on the title), one of Uriel's choir of executioners. Unfortunately there's not enough left of his essence. A party of former comrades is required to take the angelic seed and immerse it in the formative places, events, and experiences of the fallen hero.

Here is a table of Delran's history with links to scribe notes, and which of us were there with him.

He has land in Brastor
He has a crystal shop in and a home in Newhaven He has a small Estate (the De Ridefort Estate owned by Marius de Ridefort ) outside of Sactuary, and many aliases in Sanctuary including a mage in the SMG.

Requirements: (and guild security clarifications)

Must be of stern moral character and be of good will towards the fallen hero. (No devil worshippers and you have to have known, liked or at least respected the conflicted hero and wish him well in his afterlife.)
Must be capable of surviving the forge of events that made the hero what he was. (It's going to get messy)
Must be discrete and not catch the attention of the self-proclaimed 'patron saint of adventurers'. (If Seir finds out what you're up to it's going to get a lot harder).

Party members views, ideas and general talk about the following tasks can be found here.

Tasks:

Ostow, Aquila. Initiation at the place of birth.
Re-enact the infiltration of the Deepspring facility
Trace the web, honour the threads
Enscribe the names and know the faces of the fallen hero - all of them and recover the replica
Enscribe the Runes of Revenge with the blood of Proscenian Mimes
Burn the Mountain
Take 2 crystals, a fine vintage and the bunny to the dragon.
Seek the gift of Yggdrasil
Tag the target from before and now, seek the 4th
Gather the Shards
- Breath from the lake
- Remnants of Thwarted Demons
- Sweat & Blood of Command
- Tracks in the alternate way home
- The Mantle of Safety
Gather the Remains

Scribe Notes

Session one

We have an interview with Bodie.

He gives us a large white seed shaped object, which we will imbue with Delran.

He views us all with a crystal ball called "The Scales" which he then leaves with Christopher to use to help find what we need to find. Some of what he said (it was too fast):

Tegan: The spider's apprentice, tipping the balance the wrong way
Rowan: Aspects of Uriel, Gabriel and Michael
Vychan: blue, the trickster, success and betrayal
Lath: dark paths, pitfalls, future, present, past tangled
Eric: many races, renunciate of Foras
Christopher: the defender, has his work cut out with the rest of the party.

He the brings in a mad seer, who says we each get one question for free, pay for a second and bad things for a 3rd, and you really don't want to ask any more than that. Turns out any questions asked in the room count, so it gets a bit tricky.

What order should we do the tasks? The first first and the last last, the rest in any order.
Who will assist and who will oppose? Many, but the most opposition will be the willing one.
What is the precise location of the birthplace? In a castle on a hill in a pass in a tower in a bed, used to be the capital.
What is the name of the agent of the willing prince directly opposing us? One-eyed Davros, when we least expect it.
Have we caught the attention of Seir yet? No, but we will know by the falling of the horns.
Who will assist us the most? The Lady of the Dwarves in the mountains of Haven will be the most critical.

Lath asked too many questions, and a couple of people asked 2. We don't yet know the consequences of that.

We are told that we each have to carry the seed for at least one section. Father Rowan will be the first as it relates to birth.

We will call Seir "Bruce" and Dalran "the Righteous" so as not to attract notice.

Task 1

Dalran's Birth We have a vial of liquid and a scroll to read out. The ritual will take as long as it takes to be born.

The 'de Brevic' family line were based in eastern Aquila around Innesburg, they were wiped out in 774. The last known were John and Alexa, who had a child, fate unknown.
Ostow (birthplace of the Righteous) is in the south western corner of Aquila.

After filling up Eric's house with grain and itemised meat for the war ravaged, the next day at noon we travel by Lath's dragon statue to Aquila. We then fly to Ostow town, stopping to rescue and feed starving bandits and their victims etc on the way. Once we get to the city, Lath causes a storm to do field work, and Father Rowan tends to the health of the locals.

The Lord of the city is Horatio Nordberg. Our description of the location we want fits his castle, so we use the crystal to discover the correct room, and have the current occupant moved out.

We do some investigation so ascertain time of birth so as to start the ritual at the same time, but discover anomalies.

There is a birth record at the correct date but of of the son of an Aladarian Baron, Von Liebstrau, from around Barretskine. We go to the graveyard to interrogate the dead midwife. It seems there was another birth, unrecorded, but it was a girl (no one has any recollection of the Righteous having been born a girl)and about 5 months apart. The labour with the boy began in early evening and the birth was before dawn. So we will wait for tomorrow.

Session two

During the night, Lath dreams that Nordberg is trying to tell her something but keeps stopping himself, so in the morning we DA him and ascertain that he is not under a geas or compulsion not to talk about something.

Freed of the worry that his head will explode, Lath has a quiet word with him. It seems that forty years ago (things are more liberal now), it was an embarrassment to an Alidarian to have a child with such magical potential, so his sister's son was adopted out, (presumably to the de Brevics, with the story that the did not live).

Nordberg is extremely sorry about his part in it, and Lath reassures him that his nephew did did well for himself. He would like "Andrew" to visit so that he can apologise or face his wrath if he is angry. Lath promises to pass on that message, and says that Andrew's children might be more able to visit.

So, in the early evening we begin the ritual; Father Rowan chants the scroll until dawn, adding in a blessing on unborn child for good measure. The seed is seen by those with spirit vision to have changing, swirling mana flows, and I can see the form of Dalran go through the tribulations of birth, and to everyone it glows.

Vychan then DA's the seed for "is this fully charged" and gets a negative, so we will now know when it is.

Task 2:

Re-enact the infiltration of the Deepspring facility Back at the guild, we do research. Deepspring is in the Pallisades mountain range in Southern Ranke.

Apparently they had been investigating the facility and were spotted while leaving, so the Righteous' response was to run away screaming " I'm not a loony, I,m not a loony", dressed in white like the residents. He was captured in a net, whereupon he triggered a shadow wings. He was battere,as they thought he was a demon, and "re-incarcerated".

We fly to the area and approach the small town. Vychan changes to human and Rowan to a cat. We go to the inn and talk to locals. They tell us exaggerated stories about the group of strangers who came here 15 years ago.

The sanatorium is about 5 miles up the road. Supplies are delivered there regularly, but the denizens never come out. The patients are long term and don't come out until they are cured.

The lake is about half a day away.

We sleep in the barn, and in the morning use crystals of vision to view the sanatorium:

map*

It is a two story blockish building, about 150ft long and 30 deep, it has gardens and staff outside tending to them, but we don't see any patients outside.

We forge ourselves a letter of introduction, as a family with a mad relative who we might want to send there.

As we are about to set off to walk up to the site, a strange incident occurs, whereby as we step outside, a woman across the street is startled by us, trips and breaks her arm. Even more oddly, Lath feels that she knew it was going to happen before it did.

Father Rowan mends her and we make our way onward. We take a lunch break on the way and Lath is divinated - she was touched 3 days ago by Uriel. There is also a debt there (we presume for the seer).

At the sanatorium: it has small defensive windows, which are sealed even though they don't appear to be. The walls are bound, and Vychan can only see 1" into them. The door is GTN Black Oak, and it's magic is "boundary". The boundary is still there when the door is open and neither my animal sense, nor Lath's air mapping can penetrate. The boundary doesn't includes the kitchen, laundry etc.

At the front door, they refuse us entry. They are willing to send a consultant to our mad relative, Miss Summers, but don't allow tours.

Back outside in the bushes we plan further. The "scales" show 6 figures running around a building, so it looks like we will all have to do it. Lath does astrology to see how they got Dalran out after he was caught. She sees that SF & D picked a hidden lock (which we now know where to find) snuck in and broke him out. She also sees the five off us and one other running around and getting caught, but the shadow wings don't seem to be important. My "Banner of Foes" shows a humanish man, but more angular, finely dressed and manicured, with lace cuffs and a high collar. We jump to the conclusion that he is a vampire.

So, after hiding most our stuff on shapechanged people and similar and dressed in white robes, we pick the lock to get in, so that we can "escape". Invisibility is cast on the seed, so that it is easier to keep it hidden if we are searched.

Inside it is dimly lit. There is a huge entrance hall with sweeping staircases etc, and it is clearly bigger inside than out. We can feel as we step inside, that we are further from links with powers and a DA shows that we are on the plane "Asylum", it is high mana here and there is no time of day, only endless twilight.

I can here footsteps approaching so as they spot us we leg it. We are subsequently captured in cold iron nets and dragged inside, but, surprisingly, we are not searched. The staff argue about responsibility and not recognising us, conclude that we must be from the "secret vault". We decide that this is the point at which to escape. Father Rowan turns into a disgusting giant pile of worms, and slip his net. The staff fall back in horror and we are all able to get loose, while the staff call for reinforcements. We discover that shadow walking out through the door doesn't work, but we are able to physically leave through the little viewing door in the door (what are they called), in "gaseous form" or as a small enough critter or critters.

We run away. From the edge of the gardens we can see the more serious guards exit. Some are floating, some are well dressed, six wear full faced masks. We fly away.

Session 3

The Aliases

Born: Andrew von Leibstrau
Winged elf form
Chevalier Roke con Sartra: the Lord of Shadowvale and Herald of Erewhon. One of Baron Turf's circle of advisors.

Marius de Ridefort
Bertran de Born, a Human Minstrel doomed to wander the earth
Father Lucius, a priest of Berith with a bad lisp
Raz, Kontrazynsky Rokossky owner of Rokosskys Messengers in Sanctuary
Otto von Schultz, A painter
Black Viktor, A Sanctuary Mage Guild Master Thaumaturge
Jurgen (nose 3, wig 2)?

Aâ€™tuni Dâ€™Noso in "A Timely Ghost", 6â€™5 and 140lbs, a handsome and athletic male elf with shock of black hair, attired in sleek reddish scale amour. He wields a broadsword with a large garnet set in the pommel and a shield with a copper coloured face on which the old symbols for Hunter/Guide and Fire are daubed in ochre.

Belisarius, an experienced Mercenary General on To Ruska with Love
Philip who is a medium ranked human E&E on Lambs with Teeth

?The nom de guerre of a thaumaturgical spymaster high in the Flugelheim counter intelligence service is "Sir Rocklam" in Ice Demons in Flugelheim

SGT Snippets & Gossip

Buffs and Mil Sci

Long Term (assumed always on)

Magic (caster)	Rk	Effects	Dur	FR	Er	Te	La	Ch	Vy
Rune Shield (FR)	12	+17 Def, +3 Prot, avoid a SG	13/25** hrs
or Armour of Earth (Vy)	20	+42 Def, absorb 1 DP/Strike	10.5/16.5** hrs
or Barrier of Wind (La)	21	+42% Def or +52% with Eddy	16 hours**
Heart Rune (FR)	8	Cures 7 EN when EN taken	9/17** days
Willow Healing (FR)	12	Cures 3 EN / Pulse for 14 Pulses	24/48** hrs
Mind Cloak (FR)	10	Conceals thoughts & pact, + 30 vs compel, charm etc	21/41** hrs
Strength of Stone (Vy)	20	+20 PS or EN	21/33** hrs	EN	EN	EN	EN	EN	EN
Fire Armour (Vy)	20	Absorb 100 Fire Damage	21/33** hrs
Circle of Protection (FR)	20	Absorb 20 Dam / Pulse, + 5 to attacker's die roll	10.5/16.5** hrs
Feather Falling (La)	9	Float downwards	10 hours**
Vapour Breathing (La)	16	Can breath any gas	14.5 hrs**
Resist Heat & Cold (La)	16	5 steps better on weather table & 5 less damage.	29 hours**
Eddy (Ritual) (La)	16	+3 steps better on weather table and +4 effective ranks on BoW, protection from Whirlwind Vortex.	17 hours
Flying (La)	13	Air Mage flying spell at 43 mph.	13 hours**
Adopt Essence (Te)	19	+20 on a stat eg a monkey MD for climbing or an animal ability eg poison fangs	32hrs**
Magic (caster)	Rk	Effects ** on duration includes Enhance Enchantment	Dur

Short Term

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	La
Blessing (FR)	10	+10 SC, +10 vs Fear	110/210** mins
Solar Protection (FR)	6	+14 vs Light/Solar magic, see through Rk 20 Light	70/130** mins
Night Vision (FR)	6	110 ft see in darkness	3.5/6.5** hrs
Fast as the Wind (La)	16	+6 TMR up to a max of 16.	44 mins
Wind Walking (La)	18	Travel (as air) at 140 mph (~13 miles range)	9.5/18.5** mins	--
Enhance Enchantment (La)	12	+12 ranks for duration of spell magics	not long (but when buffing)
Evil Eye (Te)	4	4 off targets MR	2.5/4.5**hrs
Namer GK Counter (Er)	0	+30% MR	~6 mins

Tegan can cast any spell out of the book, one time only, at rk 6

Military info for the Bishop

Watch Order:

Night time: Tegan all night. One Air Elemental all night. Everyone else a 3 hour shift.
Watch cycle as follows: 8pm Lath 11pm, 10pm Eric 1am, Midnight Vychan 3am, 2am Christopher 5am, 4am Father Rowan 7am.
Father Rowan's pet will be cooking each morning from the 6am onwards.

Night Vision:

Tegan - Cat vision 110' Rg (needs some light).
Vychan - Inf vision 500' Rg (see living things).
Lath - Dark Vision 250' Rg (needs some light).
Christopher - Night vision 110' Rg (Because the vision is monochromatic it cannot be used to do a Detect Aura, needs some light).
Father Rowan - Night vision 110' Rg (Because the vision is monochromatic it cannot be used to do a Detect Aura, needs some light).
Eric - Dwarves close vision is exceptionally sharp, but many have poor distance vision. They can see in the dark as a human does at dusk. Their effective range of vision in the dark is 50 feet under the open sky, 100 feet inside man-made structures, and 150 feet inside caves and tunnels.

Other Enhanced Sensors:

Tegan - Can hear like a Fox.
Air Elementals - can see and hear things.

Marching Order:

Front
Vychan & Eric
Christopher & Father Rowan & Pet
Lath & Tegan
Air Elemental X 2

Places

Ostow - currently, suffering the effects of the war with the Drow - widespread famine, dispossessed people, developing banditry.

People

Holy Fool - a madman given to religious ecstasy and visions. Also, speaking in rhyming couplets and giggling.
Repentant bandits - some chaps we met on the way and with whom we remonstrated gently about their choice of career.
mentioned: Proscenian Mimes - we were warned of these, and the Righteous was recollected to have considered them particularly evil or threatening. Possible reference to one here.

Loot

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