Earthdawn 1879

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sjostrand
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Earthdawn 1879

Post by sjostrand » Sun Feb 25, 2018 8:22 pm

I’m writing this in the hopes that if we don’t manage to return to Barsaive, this text will somehow return. We have arrived in a very strange world. But let’s start from the beginning.

My name is Cefalus and I am a human Troubadour of third circle from a village close to the Scytha Mountains and I travel with my friend Vrendrak, a third circle Skyraider and highland Troll. We were on a mission to help two retired adventurers to find out what had happened to a mysterious girl named Ardelia because her mother was worried. As instructed we traveled to Mount Vapor and talked to a dragon named Icewing, but the dragon just told us that it was up to the girl to decide herself if she wanted to let her mother know what had happened. We continued to her cave and met her, but she was a very angry young woman and run away from us. We followed and she opened a portal and went in. We had only one choice if we wanted to catch her, so we jumped in to the portal.

In the darkness in the astral world we had lost the trace, so we walked for a very long time trying to find her. We didn’t find her, but arrived at some sort of big metal tube. It was as large as some of the larges tunnels inside Throal City. We followed along the outside of the tube and after a while we saw a strange creature gnawing at the tube. It was eating at a large piece of metal from the tube. We later found out that this creature was called a gremlin. But right then we were more concerned with trying to defeat the creature which seemed to be partially immune to blades made from metal. But thanks to Vrendraks combat experience and his magical Sword of Runvir we manage to keep up with this small creature. Suddenly a strange noise was heard from inside the tunnel and the creature escaped into it. We followed in to the strange smelling tunnel and both felt and heard this rhythmic sound that made the tunnel rumble. In the tunnel was to pairs of rail tracks, like mine tracks but much larger. Then suddenly a large creature appeared, we were curtained it must be a horror or possible a dragon because of its size and speed. But we soon realized it was some sort of machine, something like an airship but on the ground. The gremlin jumped up on the machine while we stood pressed against the wall of the tunnel. This machine filled the tunnel with smoke but we saw that it had wagons with people inside. On each wagon it was a few steps up to a platform so Vrendrak grabbed me and made a great leap onto the platform.

This “train”, as they later told us it was, took us out of the tunnel. We expected to come to an undiscovered Kaer and was surprised by how vast it was. We even saw the sky, which probably was created by some illusion to make the Kaer seem more pleasant to elves or something like that. The namegivers in this Kaer was prepared for intrusion and a lot of guards with spears approached us. They spoke a strange language and didn’t understand either throalic, human or troll. I listened to them for a while and started to understand this new language called “English”. They were very surprised that someone was riding on the outside of this train and we were very confused by why they never had heard of either Throal nor Barsaive. Something had probably gone wrong when they built there Kaer and after what we have heard about Parlainth anything could have happened. A human called Doctor George Klein brought us along so we could talk to someone in charge. And this was a strange place, because it wasn’t the ruler of this Kaer we were going to talk to. This Queen Victoria wasn’t interested in meeting her new guests from outside of her Kaer. This is very concerning and we probably need to investigate this later, is the Queen under influence of a horror or why doesn’t she want to meet guests from the outside? Or is she kidnapped by the other elders of the Kaer?

Doctor George Klein took us to some military barracks where we could take a bath before we would meet the military officer in charge. The shower room was impressive, they had warm water in small tubes I the wall. We assumed it was heated using elemental water or elemental earth, but the good doctor wasn’t very well informed of even the simplest magic since he didn’t understand what we were talking about. While they washed our clothes, they lent us some fancy well-made night shirts and let us sleep for the night. They had taken our weapons but Doctor George promised us that we would get them back so we trusted him.

After breakfast, Doctor George took us to meet a man called Charles Miller. He was a spellcaster of some unknown sort. He said he was a member of Ordo Britannica Victorious. He questioned us about where we came from, but he didn’t recognize any of the places we mentioned. Except Urupa, but he said Europa was a continent and that London was in Europa. Since we told him that we come from a place west of Urupa and he thought Barsaive sounded French he guessed that we maybe were from Canada. We looked at a map but Canada didn’t look like anything like Barsaive. Charles Miller was the first one to talk about threads, and he asked about the threads Vrendrak had to his sword and my thread to the Amulet of Wisdom. We explained and he was astonished by it. We tried to explain that in Barsaive not only spellcasters can use magic, but when we had to prove our use of magic he wasn’t so impressed by that I could change emotions by singing or that Vrendrak could jump very high. One interesting thing he mentioned was that he was wondering way I had threads to an amulet that had negative effect. I don’t know what he meant, but when I think about it I think I have been less perceptive since I arrived here. During the conversation we realized we had come to another dimension!

This new world is more primitive than Barsaive, they use coal instead of elemental fire and can’t use threaded items. They say that trolls only have existed in two years, since the tunnel appeared. The tunnel goes through the astral plane to a place called Grosvenor World, but we haven’t investigated that place yet. This large city London smells very bad and it’s not very colorful, dull even. When I went with Doctor George to do some shopping I was surprised that almost all clothes were black, brown or grey even though they were very well made. At the tailor I asked for a blue top hat, red trousers, green shirt, yellow waistcoat and a purple jacket. I was surprised when he talked me into buying a black set of clothes. It’s a little hard to make the belt with my broadsword and four throwing knives fit under the jacket, but I make it work. My shield I usually carry bound to my backpack because I don’t see anyone else carrying a shield here. And I want to blend in.

One thing we had realized was that we are in the middle of this worlds Theran Empire and that makes us feel a little uncomfortable, but we think it’s best to play along. And they have told us that they don’t have any slaves, so it’s at least better then Thera. But that could explain why their queen still don’t want to meet us. One day Mister Charles Miller of the OBV took us with him on a flight over London in their airships. It was fun to fly with such a primitive machine and we told them that they should change to have it fueled by elemental fire instead. And Vrendrak got an opportunity to show Mister Charles another talent he got. He threw himself over the railing and sailed down to Doctor Georges house.

After a week Vrendrak had learned to understand English and George had learned some throalic. Vrendrak surprised us all with how talented he was with learning a new language. I’m still very confused with why the humans in this world don’t speak human. Or trolls speak troll for that matter. Maybe I should start teaching the humans to speak human?

Mister Charles returned to us with a mission for us and George. He wanted us to go to a castle in the province Scotland to solve a problem with some mysterious murders. Possibly committed by a ghost. We traveled by train and the trip took a whole day. In the middle of the night we arrived at Edinburgh. Edinburgh was a nice place, much more like Barsaive than London is. The bearded gentleman Mister Raymond that met us at the train station and he had colorful clothes and a knife. He mumbled something negative about Englishmen and I answered him with a comment about Therans and a thumbs up to show him that I understand their struggle. Maybe we should help them? We have long experience of resistance against an oppressive empire.

When Mister Raymond drove us to the castle we talked about how a lot of people here thinks it’s strange that we only use one name so George try to teach me about the etiquette in this world. We should present ourselves as Mister Cefalus and Mister Vrendrak. Vrendrak wasn’t thrilled with my suggestion. At the castle we went to bed. We had one room each, but both I and Vrendrak thought it felt strange, we had camped together for a very long time so he moved his mattress into my room. His bed was too small for him anyway. When we were still talking George heard some running outside and told us to follow him down. At the courtyard a soldier had been killed. Impaled on his own bayonet. We started the investigation but couldn’t find any earthly explanation for the murder. When we talked to Captain Doyle the day after he told us about the eight previous murders that had been committed the last nine days. It was nothing connecting the victims, a mix of soldiers, staff and guests. Some had been stabbed in the back (when they were up against something), others had their throat slit and some ha drowned in sea water in their beds. Two were found inside their locked rooms. Our investigations found few clues. We suspected that either a ghost or a horror was the culprit. The dead Douglas brothers from 1440 was our prime suspects until we found a mysterious painting from the latter half of the 17th century. It portrayed an unknown thin man.

When we later that night investigated the painting, we saw a reflection in the painted steel orb. It was a level of realism we never seen in a painting. George touched the painting and was drawn into it. I looked at Vrendrak and said, “Let’s go!” and touched the painting and was also drawn into it. A couple of seconds later Vrendrak arrived. We were in a big emptiness. Both I and Vrendrak guessed we was back in the astral world. It was completely dark. My light quartz worked but it was nothing to see. We started to walk in any direction trying not to walk in circles. After 15 minutes we saw a small girl who introduced us as Esmeralda. It was the captain’s daughter that had been murdered, and she knew that she was dead and that she was in the netherplanes. She had found a friend in the ghost boy Billy who had been dead a very long time. She also told us that she had been killed by Muckle Mack and that he still moves through the painting to invisibly kill people once every night. We thought about our options, if we would return to the physical world Muckle Mack would be invisible and only Vrendrak could hurt him with his magical sword. Here in the netherworld Vrendrak could still hit him with the sword, we should see him and at least hurt him with our fists. And if we killed him in the physical world he would just be banished to this plane for a while. It was an easy choice. We had to battle him here. Billy returned and when asked, he told us Muckle Mack was already here!

Thank you Thystonius for Vrendraks quick reaction! Muckle Mack appeared behind George but Vrendrak quickly moved George aside and hit Muckle Mack so he fell flat to the ground. That gave us time to attack Muckle Mack. He was a very difficult opponent, he cursed us and cut us. Me and George was basically only nuisances to him, but Vrendrak hit him hard a couple of times. Billy helped us by transforming himself to sea water and tried to grapple him. Finally, Vrendrak could strike him down for good.

Billy helped us back to Edinburgh and when we stayed a couple of days to see that no new murders was committed we left for London again. I don’t know if we ever are going to be able to return home to Barsaive but I will at least do everything I can to make my diary return home to tell my story of this strange place. It seems that if the old stories of changing magic levels are correct, this London year 1879 are on a very low level of magic. I don’t know what it means, and I find it very strange that all the trolls and other non-humans was humans until two years ago. Why don’t they appear when the world is without magic? I don’t feel comftoble speaking with Vrendrak about this. I guess I must investigate this myself somehow. Vrendrak is thinking about trying a career as a Military Officer. He has already bought one of this strange “firearms”. He says they sounds funny when they shoot. Well, I guess he’s still a troll after all. I don’t know what I will do. It’s so much I want to do. Since no one here care about the Passions I think I need to educate them and spread their words. Maybe I can find out how to cure the mad ones at home if they are not mad in this world? But I also want to learn more about the magic in this world since I guess it can help us to get home again. And I think that we might be able to help those unevolved spellcasters in this world. But in that case, should I try du pursue the Wizards of OBV or should I try the Nethermancer way? I could also just continue as an investigator, I think I’m quite good at it.

Well, now I must go and kick Vrendrak in the side because he snores.

Cefalus, London 1879

Slimcreeper
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by Slimcreeper » Sun Feb 25, 2018 8:53 pm

Very fun! Thanks for sharing!

daniel_a
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by daniel_a » Sun Feb 25, 2018 9:32 pm

Very nice there, Cefalus. You got a couple of things right ... ;-)

/Mr. G.M.

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Andrew1879
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by Andrew1879 » Mon Feb 26, 2018 7:12 pm

Nicely done, certainly worth some LP for in-character journaling if you ever get back to Barsaive :). Will there be more?

daniel_a
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by daniel_a » Mon Feb 26, 2018 7:20 pm

I am certainly planning for more. They are looking for Aardelea, and have no idea where she is at the moment. It can take quite a bit of searching in this strange new world, or worlds, to find her, as she doesn't want to be found... But I won't say more here, obviously, since at least one of the players in the campaign isn't just reading this thread, but even started it...

sjostrand
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by sjostrand » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:38 pm

We don't have time to read here. We need to get occupations in this new Worlds.
Vrendrak is thinking about Military Officer, but I don't know what career to start... any suggestions?

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Andrew1879
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by Andrew1879 » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:42 pm

For a Troubadour? Journalist.

Slimcreeper
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by Slimcreeper » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:30 pm

I guess Aristocrat is off the table, unless he can just con his way through - claiming to be a Baron from another land.

daniel_a
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by daniel_a » Sun Mar 11, 2018 1:13 pm

So, some sort of Passion Priest is out of the equation by now, Cefalus?

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Andrew1879
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Re: Earthdawn 1879

Post by Andrew1879 » Sun Mar 11, 2018 3:28 pm

A Priest requires an organized religion, and there's no organized worship of the Passions in the late Fifth World. Doesn't mean you couldn't start it.

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