That Old Rivalry

April 7, 2016

The group goes down into the passage.  They find it goes thirty paces before it ends at a well shaft.  They confirm this when they use the rope, with a backup rope ready courtesy of Thomas, and find the bucket at the bottom.  From there, it goes to a worked passage.  

It was luck that Thomas avoided the trap.  Sure, they saw the warnings to stay out in a few languages but didn't heed them.  They get to the first door and Kull listens quite intently at it, as does Bellytimber.  Bellytimber backs off when he hears something crawling around inside the door.  Kull isn't so lucky and one gets into his ear then starts burrowing!  Kull thrashes around but they calm him down and are able to get the worm things out.  

That's when the gaunt elf introduces himself as Gavin.  He came out of the third door in the hallway and asks them what they are doing.  They want behind the doors but Gavin won't have it.  Gavin is polite and asks if they are interested in the black market auction.  When they say yes, Gavin asks to go into the door but the group wants to go as well.  Gavin asks them to stay and he will get it another way.  Gavin leaves the way he came in.  

The group follows Gavin and find the third door leads to a dining area.  There are crates of food that seem to contain tiny versions of meals.  Bellytimber surmises, correctly it turns out, that they grow full size when removed.  Kull tests the theory and is happy to eat the chicken that he selected.  Gavin returns with a scroll tube containing an invitation to the auction.  It lists the Decimverate helm, Fallen Blood, and other things will be there.  

The group still doesn't look happy and so Gavin reveals the hidden door in this room.  He says if they want a fight, as they look like they do, to go speak to the giants.  Gavin explains that they have a truce but if the group going down there negates it, he is fine with that.  After some discussing, the group takes him up on the offer.  

Going through the door leads to stairs going quite far down.  At the bottom, the stairs open up into a large passage.  They explore it and find a small cave that has gear just tossed into it.  They also find bodies, wrapped in shrouds.  They don't recognize anyone.  Kull grabs a few things and they continue.  

At the next junction, they meet a hill giant, who is more than willing to talk to them!  Taking aback. Bellytimber can't resist and does talk to him.  He finds out that the masters have helped him understand things and now he serves them.  As they ask who the masters are, another giant appears.  The hill giant was twice their height and now this giant is twice the hill giant's height!  He tells Nanganrejur to go back to his duties.  They surmise that this is Caclos, that Nanganrejur spoke of.  He greets them and says that they are welcome to stay in the entrance area but asks them not to go further.  He does indicate that Gavin could have sent them here for the giants to deal with, as he looks at the room with the bodies.  Caclos then excuses himself, saying he has other duties.  

The group can't help it and start exploring.  They find another room with bodies being preserved and some equipment, which is better.  Again, a few things are grabbed and they keep going.  They find an altar with humanoids being bleed on it, guarded by two armed and armored hill giants.  They can't stop themselves from attacking at this.  Even when the third hill giant shows up, they are able to deal with them.  Two went down to Bellytimber and one Kull was able to deal with.  

They see the doors made of a silvery metal and while very interested, Bellytimber seems to hide back around a corner!  Opening it reveals a cathedral like room, where a ley line and one of the rune wells rests.  There is a lot of magic happening here.  Bellytimber and Zendryl are assaulted by it all but the rest are able to walk into the room and look around.  They find another pool, although they doubt it is water, and even the non magical can feel the power humming between the two.  So, what better way to disrupt it then for Fei and Thomas to jump between them?  

When they wake up, they remember the doors of metal splintering and coming at them.  The metal entered most of them and as they wake up, they start to see realize what has happened with all of them.  

4 xp

GM Notes

• The players have always done a good job of not reacting with player knowledge of good and evil in interacting with NPCs or even monsters.   When they met Gavin, it's obvious he's not a nice guy with some of the things he seems to condone, such as slavery, stealing, and the black market itself.  However, since he is polite to them, they don't know how they can really justify attacking him.  Even at the mention of the items in the black market, which they are supposed to find out about, can get them to attack Gavin.  I thought it was well done.
• The encounter with Gavin also brought up the question of what authority they have.  While they are members of the Pathfinder Society, the Pathfinders are like 19th century British explorers.  They think they know best and take or remove things as they go around the world, sending them back to England.  Knowing they can only do what they themselves can enforce does temper them a bit but they still want to attack many things on sight, even as they talk with them.  
• I will say that I do think that the refresh rate of character is a bit too high.  I only say that because maybe we aren't using them right yet as they seem to have just a few too many?  I think we are missing a more back and forth exchange on them that should be happening.  I'm not going to change anything at the moment but it is something I want to watch as we keep going.   
• I think it was the altar, where they are seeing an evil act of sacrifice, did they finally decide that they can do something.  The system is again showing how fluid and fun the fight is.  
• In DND, called shots don't mean too much.  The abstraction of hit points means that it's all description with no effects.  I try and follow them as best as I can but there is no mechanic holding me to them.  That is not the case in Strands of Fate.  The martial artist is able to target the knee of a giant and then give it an aspect of twisted knee.  That allows someone else to compel that and have the giant fall as they attack!  I really like that!
• This idea of aspects and others being able to compel them also opens up a lot more possibilities of cooperation among the group.  Now one character can target a weak spot and make it easier for the rest to hit!  A lot of fun!
• Again, a very fluid system with description backed by dice rolls!  
• The other thing I decided to do was to have them tell me their initiative order.  It's not set in stone but they got to pick the default order they will go and I will just insert bad guys as needed.  I really liked that!  
• And then we got our dramatic end!   

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