Well?
A playtest of something called Path of Blood
Availability?
Not yet. We’ll be throwing this out to try publication, and an any-time guess is a good guess.
Finished Playtest?
No, and it looks like it will be a long arc.
Characters
Gastara, Rastar, Laika, Hengrast, Jon
IC Action?
SPOILERS!!!!
Massive spoilers. Players who have not played this should not read past this point.
Hengrast finally got to meet his dead uncle. He decided to take in Rastar, who had met Roka. Eril was obviously unimpressed with all of them and apparently did not recall his brother Silor, or the Blue Tree, but had had some memories brought back by Hengrast’s actions. He instructed Hengrast to look into the matter, with his band, and to forget about personal pride – lose the armour, walk away from any situation that he could.
Meanwhile, outside, the others had met Laika’s duck friend, D’Val. He explained a bit about Humakti, resurrection, and the town. Afterwards they tried to hire him, not realising that as a Rune Lord he was rather above all that. He refused, pointing out that he was part of the Temple, but that they could come to him if they needed advice.
They looked for general info in various places. Jon was rather worried when, on asking around for information brokers, he was invited into the shop of Sora Goodseller. She had lost a cousin, Aroth, to Eril, and thought an Issarian in his company would be in danger. Aroth had been a merchant who had been friends with Eril, and had been captured by the Lunars a week after Clearwine fell. Begging for help as he was carried away, he suddenly died. Sora was convinced Eril had done it.
They then all toddled off to organise doing the Heroquest again. Needing somewhere to stay overnight, they considered staying with Hengrast, but then they realised a lot of people were following them around town. Laika managed to get one to follow her, and got a hint they were from different people. Overnight she spotted Rastar going off to talk with a man who was lurking.
It was in fact a woman, Roka, with an illusion on her. She asked how things had gone, and said it was important to finish the task because there was an awful lot of money in it, and she would cut Rastar in.1
In the morning, they successfully performed a Heroquest, with Asborn collecting the followers, and putting a massive shield with a long extension onto Jon. A Critical success on his casting roll meant that Asborn was convinced of the rightness of his actions. Beforehand, everyone tried meditation or ritual; Hengrast succeeded, putting him at an advantage in getting away. This time he managed to do so without anyone turning tail or helping him unduly, and learned a little – he recalled being a young Lord Eril, and what he was trying to escape with, but not where he intended to go next. He did almost kill Jon, who was saved only by the Shield spell as he gave chase.
Laika was invited to meet the Ernaldan Priestess, while her bodyguard, Gastara, got to talk with the Babeester Gor axe maiden. Laika took advantage of (What is the Priestess’s name anyhow? From the GM’s guide)’s offer of help, to ask for a diviniation – were any of the Relics of the Humakti Temple within the Earth? Ervaneala (or something like that) said no. Meanwhile, Gastara had been getting on very well with the axe maiden and got offered help if they needed to face up to Eril, as well as learning that Eril had bound his own Wyter, and had an awful lot of scars.
OOC?
Massive spoilers. Players who have not played this should not read past this point.
It should be clear from the way Eril’s memories return or do not that he was affected by, and therefore linked to, the Heroquest. This should, of course, be impossible.
D’Val was a good call to use. A friendly NPC with information and also a recompense for not being invited in to the meeting. I was lucky in having a chargen roll make him be Laika’s friend already, but he belongs in the game nevertheless.
The thing that worries me chiefly is how the players believe Heroquests start. The group does not entirely know how they fit into the world, and while some of this is IC, some of this is OOC, and they are unsure of their rights or the amount of pull they have.
This game needs more scaffolding and I don’t know where. In some cases it needs a lot less scaffolding, but when it comes to what the characters can do, I am worrying the players are lost.
Free session quote?
“However, having met you, I am reassured that you could not have done this on purpose.” – Eril
1. Cue disbelief from entire table.
