Round 4
Chaos Card
This round’s card is The Smith. It’s an interesting one for sure. It states “Someone in that group creates a new object of power.” Objects of Power are probably not explained super well in this game yet partially because I don’t know what, if any, mechanically function they would have. Essentially they are your legendary weapons, your magical macguffins, and the like. The evil magic stone that Mizia has would be considered an Object of Power.
As for resolving this card. What could this be? Maybe the crown of the Queen of Glasswood? That’s cool, but how about I try to resolve this whole evil magic assassin thing? I got distracted last round and didn’t actually figure out what is going on with the Ethereals. Here’s what happens: After many years of recovery the surviving pontiffs of the United Ethereals pray to Ah’Tix to deliver to them the source of the dark flame. Ah’Tix replies, still unsure if they could physically move the one responsible, “You will find what harmed your people dwelling in the mountains across the great ocean. I will give you something that will help you find it and destroy it.” Then from the sparkles of the Prosperous Range condensed an immaculately crafted dagger that shone brilliantly. In it’s blade sat the burning eye of Ah’Tix.
Turn 1
Welp, now I got to have a group of Ethereals venture to Glasswood to slay Mizia, right? That has to be the scene here. It would be very easy to write a whole dang novel on this, so I’m going to try to keep it brief. To add some extra fun for me I am going to try out a new expanded rule I came up with: Mortal Quests.
For these a set of sequential goals is decided on and then dice are rolled for each one to see if the adventures achieve their goals. I’ll have more on Mortal Quests in the next edition for now, this is going to replace Set A Scene as my action here.
I’m going to give this quest three goals:
- Cross the Ocean
- Find Mizia’s hiding spot
- Destroy their magic rock
Let’s roll some dice! Since this is replacing my action and thus Ah’Tix is helping across the whole of the quest, I’m going to roll 2d6 for each quest.
The results: 6, 4, 5! One hit, and two partial, you love to see it.
But wait, I only rolled 3d6 when I should have rolled 6d6, so let’s roll again too see if it would matter. 6, 4, 5… ok? Well, thanks, dice roller.
So here’s what happens: The adventuring crew is made up of two Ethereals.
- Vidja - a mage and wielder of the Dagger of Ah’tix
- Ilme- a master of spears and travel
The ocean is not frequently traveled as of yet. I’m calling it an ocean, but it is actually fairly shallow compared to real oceans. It’s also fresh water because why not. So even in a crude boat Vidja and Ilme are able to cross without issue.
Next they got a partial hit on “Find Mizia’s hiding spot”. They run into some issues with the humans of Glasswood. The simple truth here is that humans and ethereals alike have had basically no interaction. For the sake of ease I’m going to say they can speak to each other without issue, but I think the humans are skeletal and try to imprison our heroes. Of course, no human prison could keep beings that are essentially incorporeal. So escape isn’t much of an issue.
Lastly, a 5 is still a partial success. The duo is successful, but Mizia does not go down so easily. There is a fight, it’s probably sick as hell, where Ilme ends up putting themself in danger just long enough for Vidja to plunge the dagger into the evil stone and shatter it. Ilme is destroyed by Mizia’s magic, but Mizia is similarly destroyed. As is the dagger.
Vidja decides to stay and learn about these new creatures called humans and report back to faer people through Ah’Tix.
Turn 2
Well that was a lot. Let’s take a breather by doing some drawing.
The tiles are: H2, H3, I2. I put mostly plains, some lakes, a big shore, new islands, extended the forest, and finally added some tundra.
What’s interesting about them is there is a new city set up by the ethereals by one of the lakes called “Telth” with the hopes to one day set up trade with the humans of Glasswood.
Turn 3
Let’s get some more of the map drawn now that these two groups are starting to have more contact.
This time: E2, E3, and F2. Nothing super fancy here. Just some more plains, islands, and tundra. What’s interesting is that the islands appear to float a few meters above the water. Thus they are called “The Floating Islands”. Again, the people of Glasswood are very creative at naming things.
