AAR [6H]: A Debut (2020-05-15 @2000 GMT)

The current version of the Earthdawn West Marches Discord campaign, effective Jan 1, 2020

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Shokunin
Posts:136
Joined:Fri Nov 24, 2017 1:50 pm
AAR [6H]: A Debut (2020-05-15 @2000 GMT)

Post by Shokunin » Thu May 07, 2020 3:35 pm

LFG: A Debut
Time: 15May2020 2000gmt
GM: Vlolkir
Requestor: Dvarim Bolg
Circle: 6 (16,500 - 132,000 lifetime LP)
Difficulty: Hard
Players: 4

A young elven child in ragged clothes sprints towards you through a crowd calling your proper name in a strident urchin tone. As the child pants from prolonged running, you read the finely folded and stamped envelope he presses into your hands. "Cordially you are requested to accompany Dvarim Bolg on a journey of much daring and import. Consider this a personal invitation to join in the recovery of the Familial lands in the mountains. Bring your things."

Note: This adventure starts at 4 pm EST, but start time is flexible to account for maximum player ability. Also, as requested this is a circle 6 hard, please prepare accordingly.
Last edited by Shokunin on Sat May 16, 2020 11:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm

Re: LFG [6H]: A Debut (15May2020 @2000 GMT)

Post by bronzemountain » Thu May 07, 2020 3:40 pm

Name: Dvarim Bolg
ECR: 6
Discipline: Weaponsmith / Elementalist
Quote/Unique: "I make things better. By hammering them."
Notable Abilities: Physician, Lock Pick, Chiseled Dwarven Good Looks
Downtime: Forge Weapon 6/17, Item History 4/15, Forge Armor 7/18
Last edited by bronzemountain on Fri May 08, 2020 1:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Montaugh
Posts:203
Joined:Thu Dec 19, 2019 1:49 pm

Re: LFG [6H]: A Debut (15May2020 @2000 GMT)

Post by Montaugh » Thu May 07, 2020 5:35 pm

Name: William Carver
Date Last Played May 8, 2020
ECR: 6 ( 44,025 LP)
Race: Human
Discipline: Scout 5, Thief 4
Quote/Unique: I'll get you there and back again.
Notable Abilities:
Talented: Locks/Traps, Stealth/Scouting, Ranged/Melee, map making.
Items: Pure Water Pot (cast the Purify Water spell, p. 190, with a Spellcasting and Effect Step of 8/2D6 on any liquid placed in them).
Potions:Kelia's Antidote (1), Booster Potion (2), Kelix's Poultice (1), Halt Illness Potion (1), Healing Potion (1), Last Chance Salve (2)
Mounted: Huttawa named Charlie
Downtime: Forge Weapon (3) Step 8, Research 3(10) (13 with library access) Item History 5 (12).
Last edited by Montaugh on Sun May 10, 2020 2:32 am, edited 2 times in total.

Aegharan
Posts:439
Joined:Sat Oct 14, 2017 2:58 pm

Re: LFG [6H]: A Debut (15May2020 @2000 GMT)

Post by Aegharan » Thu May 07, 2020 8:00 pm

Name: Karl Tomsson
Date of Last Game Played: 2020-05-01
ECR: 6
Discipline: Archer (6) & Beastmaster (3)
Quote/Unique: I have a tool for every job. It's called Mercy.
Notable Abilities: Shooting stuff, taming stuff, finding all the stuff. And some social stuff!
Downtime:
Animal Training (talent rank 1 step 10)
Forge Weapon (rank 4 Step 11)
Research (Rank 2 Step 9, or Step 12 with Library Access)

ottdmk
Posts:462
Joined:Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:25 pm

Re: LFG [6H]: A Debut (15May2020 @2000 GMT)

Post by ottdmk » Sat May 09, 2020 4:36 pm

Name: Dubhan Goronich
Date of Last Game Played: 2020-05-08
Circle: 6 (ECR 6, 56,270 legend)
Discipline: Wizard
Unique: Spells (Buffs, Astral Sensing, Debuffs, etc.), Physician
Downtime: Research Step 22 (Step 25 with Library access)
Alchemy Step 9 (Booster Potions, Small Light Crystals, Kelix' Poultice)

Waijhou
Posts:245
Joined:Sat Oct 27, 2018 2:27 am

Re: LFG [6H]: A Debut (15May2020 @2000 GMT)

Post by Waijhou » Sun May 10, 2020 1:56 am

Xeviouz
Last game was May 8,2020
5th Circle Warrior
Sword & Board
"Lets do this!"

bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm

Re: LFG [6H]: A Debut (2020-05-15 @2000 GMT)

Post by bronzemountain » Thu May 14, 2020 4:18 pm

William, Karl, Dubhan, I choose you!
(Xeviouz, I'll get you on the next one buddy!)

Shokunin
Posts:136
Joined:Fri Nov 24, 2017 1:50 pm

AAR [6H]: A Debut (2020-05-15 @2000 GMT)

Post by Shokunin » Sat May 16, 2020 2:35 am

Player Rewards:
Karl Tomsson: Legend: 11,000 LP, 975 SP, 5 TIPs
Dubhan Goronrich: 11,000 LP, 975 SP, 5 TIPs
William Carver: 11,000 LP, 975 SP, 5 TIPs
Dvarim Bolg: 11,000 LP, 975 SP, 5 TIPs


Alternate awards:
N/A

GM Reward:
Vlolkir: 4,000 LP, 475 SP, 3 TIPs

Further Information:
The Bolg family mountain village artists retreat has been found, and claimed once more
An undead wyvern was slain in a great battle, and its provenance is unknown
Contacts were made with strange beings, spirits or namegivers or what, no one is sure

ottdmk
Posts:462
Joined:Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:25 pm

Re: LFG [6H]: A Debut (2020-05-15 @2000 GMT)

Post by ottdmk » Sat May 16, 2020 5:51 am

From the Journal of Dubhan Goronich:

So, this time we ended up in the mountains. Allow me to explain:

My good colleague Dvarim Bolg asked myself, William and Karl to accompany him into the mountains to clear out the Bolg family retreat. Dvarim is attempting to curry favour with his mother (a formidable Weaponsmith in her own right.) Armed with a list of requests, off we went.

Up in the mountains we found a dead great bear that was moving. As it turned out, it was being dragged by three quite large Cave Trolls. Even worse, the Trolls were slaves of a Changeling and a Demiwraith. Naturally, a fight ensued. The Changeling managed to hit William with an extremely hazardous bone shaping mystic attack. Luckily, we combined forces and quickly killed it. I even deviated from my normal pattern of buffing my allies' attacks to intercede directly with a Mind Dagger to the thing's skull.

After burning the Changeling's lair to the ground (it's amazing how much flame Flame Flash in an Enhanced Matrix can produce) we continued onward, and eventually, after seeing some truly extraordinary sights, we reached the Bolg Retreat. (We saw amazing sculptures that used reflective materials to place the observer on the sculpture! Extraordinary!

Arriving at the Retreat, we were greeted by what appeared to be a spirit of some kind, or something... I honestly don't know. I really need to do some research on all this. Anyways, this being greeted us in a somewhat irritated fashion, but fed us a tremendous meal and strongly suggested that we get a good night's rest as we would be tested the next day. Dvarim accepted all this with a great deal of trust, and so we all just slept without a watch.

Thankfully (as this account should make obvious) we were not murdered in our beds (the beds, by the way, were fantastic) and the next day after a fabulous breakfast (again provided by whatever being was making the complex home) we started exploring. We found some of the item's desired by Dvarim's mother, but mostly we were looking for whatever was unlocked by a large silver key left to us with no explanation.

The key unlocked a passageway into the depths where Dvarim found a fantastic forge, with an orichalcum anvil (the others may have said I drooled at the sight, but I dispute this.) Another being was present, and explained things a bit further. Dubhan proceeded to use the anvil in some sort of blood magic ritual, and William also made a sacrifice of blood. In exchange, they were given weapons of light.

Returning to the surface, I took a moment to gird our party for the coming conflict, casting Dodge Boost and Energy Shield. Shortly thereafter, we were attacked by an undead wyvern.

The wyvern was quite the frightening beast. I was lucky indeed that it did not make me a priority. William, for example, was gored quite badly. However, Karl performed such feats of Archery as I have never seen before. Admittedly, he had some help (I gave him some added accuracy through my spells and knacks, plus I Harried the beast with Jinx.) Still, absolutely amazing shots. I'll remember that for a long time.

After we moved the body (thank you Lighten Load) and burnt it (Flame Flash is proving more utilitarian than I ever expected) we decided to rest a few days at the Retreat before returning to Throal.

bronzemountain
Posts:606
Joined:Fri Feb 21, 2020 10:02 pm

The Journal of Dvarim Bolg, Journeyman Weaponsmith of Throal

Post by bronzemountain » Sat May 16, 2020 1:15 pm

The Ineffable Sense of Finally Arriving
Or, Damn it Feels Good to be a Bolg

It is rather extraordinary to watch my mother, Magda, decide what information she is going to offer and what she will withhold.

I had asked to make use of one of her crafting Patterns, and to this my mother responded that to earn that right I had best go check in on the ancestral pre-Scourge Bolg family mountain retreat. To this end, she provided me with a map, an exhaustive list of supplies, trinkets, and one pair of tweezers to recover from the place, and pasties for my companions (Dubhan, Karl, and William) and myself to feed us on the journey.

The map was accurate, the pasties delicious, the information she provided about the Bolg family retreat was entirely and absurdly incomplete. Sufficiently so that I suspect intentional omission.

Our family retreat is not far (HEX: 42.08/43.08) but did require us to ascend the mountains to where the air is crisp and clear and thin. Along the way, we encountered a rather gruesome group: Three cave trolls that had been tortured into submission and rage and obedience by an absolutely foul worm-tailed flying creature with faint, passing similarity to a diseased, obese Windling, though clearly not of those wonderful people.

The trolls did as one would expect. They ran fiercely on long legs and swung heavy stone axes with prodigious strength. They were accompanied by some fell spirit of cold and vengeance that attempted (and failed, thanks to Dubhan's wards) to put the freezing immobility of winter in my bones. Their master, however, was that tiny thing we are calling a Changeling. For it had the dread ability to shape bone itself.

It used that ability on William, dragging shards of his breastbone out through his very skin. He shrieked in terrible pain and I hope to never again encounter the sight of thorns piercing a Namegiver's skin from the inside.

We cleansed the cave these fell creatures had occupied - finding it full of distressing but elegant bone sculptures - and continued on.

(It should be observed for mountain travelers that exertion is particularly taxing at these high altitudes. Be prepared!)

We continued on until we found the first markers of my family home. And reader, what glorious work the dwarfs of the past had done. Bolgenar, as our retreat was called, was always a sanctuary for artists and crafters, of makers and dreamers. And these great people had turned their imaginations to extraordinary and mighty works of art. Our journey to the gates of the valley was spend in wonder.

And after passing through the great iron doors that protected our retreat, we were treated to the sight of the valley, green and inviting, rustic and comfortable. As if a painting had come to life.

There we <redacted> and had a lovely meal before turning in on most comfortable beds. In the morning, we looked for the many things on my mother's list and found most of them (apologies: those tweezers are gone forever). We also found the <redacted>.

<Redacted>

Upon returning to the main area of the retreat, we found every reason to run in fear. To surrender to terror.

For before us, howling its eerie hollow cry, was a full-grown Wyvern. A beast of rapacious appetite and potent venom, of ferocious claws and animal fury. But, worse, this Wyvern had been returned from the dead by some foul process. It had the stink and the fury of Cadaver Men in the body of a massive, sinuous, flying killing machine.

We had many reasons to flee. But our time <redacted> had reaffirmed our mission as Adepts. I cannot speak for my companions, but I felt, perhaps for the first time in truth, that I was set on a great and vital path. That I represented something great. And that I was a critical part of it.

And so we gave battle. Dubhan and I wove spells, at the outset, while William and Karl set to peppering it. This angered the beast, which tried to poison me with its barbed tail - to no avail - and tried to tear William asunder, with rather more success. No, kind reader, he did not perish but he came near enough!

And that is when Dubhan cried out the words of the spell called Seeking Sight. And Karl marshaled all of his Karma and poured them into the purest distillation of his Discipline - the relentless pursuit of a clear path and a direct solution. We could nearly see the glow and glitter of his soul's blessing on his arrowheads as he loosed two arrows that burrowed into the heart of the beast.

Two arrows that dropped the Wyvern to the ground, dead again.

We recovered from its unfortunate, terrible, dreadful corpse what scraps of its former glory we could. For the greatest service we could do was to recover something of value from this poor corrupted beast. And then, we took it out of our valley and burned it down to ash.

Bolgenar is ours again and I feel a special kinship to it, having been one to help restore it. And I am the Maker of this generation of Bolgs, so I suppose it is now my place to hold, where I shall nurture the artisans and crafters of this new age of Throal.

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