A new Journey

Aramil- Eric
Clarity-Mija

Hesperose-Scott (not present, so being run by clint)

Kita-Shawn

Shiffit-clint

Zyva-Ron

   -- Clint currently running the game.  --

A New Journey (the proper title would give to much away)

Clarity wastes no time in befriending team Shiffit on board the 'Celeste', she also warns the party that “DOOM!!” awaits them on this island and that they should leave with all haste. Hesperose states that he very recently came close to death from thirst and starvation and that they must provision the ship before undertaking any voyage. Clarity explains that they gods are not always clear with her, and that there may be time to provision the ship in the town where the tournament took place but that they should not linger in this harbor. A plan is put into action, Clarity carefully surveys the waterfront and says that she must go below decks to meditate, and Hesperose cordially shows her a cabin.

     Hesperose is a satisfactory sailor, but the rest of the crew is just this side of hopeless. Only due to they kindness of the wind, and at the slight cost of some rope, the untrained crew get the Celeste out to sea. the voyage around the peninsula to the tournament city is blessedly uneventful. The party realizes that the weather is due to change in roughly 11 days, and that a safe harbor needs to be reached before the seas are to dangerous to be upon. The party wastes no time getting provisions for the voyage and themselves, with little discussion they set off on their shopping, leaving Shiffit and Clarity on board. Shiffit and Clarity spend the time discussing the value of friendship.

    Kita is shocked to discover what shop keeps are asking for a spy glass.  In an antique store, He deftly redirects the shop keeper toward the musical instruments when the telescope receives his five feathered discount. The shopkeeper notices that spyglass is missing from its shelf and signals the city guard, delaying Kita by pontificating on the provenance of the various musical instruments. When the guards arrive, in force, it is only their desire to not tarnish the image of  “The Games” that keeps Kita out of irons. With his welcome used up, and under close supervision, Kita makes his way back to the Celeste, stopping off to buy an eye patch, made of squid hide.

     The shoppers return to the ship and are chatting on deck when Hesperose returns with a very short and stout man. The halfling deftly strides up the gangplank and is introduced to the crew. Hesperose explains that Yaher has assumed the debt of the Celeste's repairs, and will forgive the debt after this single cargo run. 82 stevedores are making quick work loading the 20 crates aboard, and Hesperose supervises the stowing of the load. Hesperose knows that the cargo run involves; delivering these 20 crates for another load of cargo, which they will then take to the final destination, but in the haste to cast off this tidbit of datum does not get passed along. Aramil and Clarity are suspicious that so much debt could be offset with a single cargo run, but keep their cards close and don't share their suspicions. 

    Upon asking, Yaher says that the crates contain weapons, mostly long spears. Clarity listens to the crates as they are being carried past, and hears the screaming of a small child. With some subtle gestures, from Clarity, Zyva starts to flirt rapaciously with Yaher, asking about his bold displays of wealth about his person. Yaher is more than happy to prattle on about his ostentatious jewelry, helping Zyva get a more accurate appraisal of its worth, between 4k-6k in gold pieces. With Yaher's attention fixed upon Zyva,  Aramil and Clarity sneak into the hold and listen carefully and knock on some crates. Clarity continues to hear the screams of a child. She asks Aramil what he hears and he says that he hears nothing. They do not open any of the crates and Clarity explains that sometimes her actions will not make since to others.

     The crew struggles with the sweeps to get the boat launched that very evening, choosiness not to waste anytime, knowing that time is pressing hard against them.

Side post

Welcome travelers,

Some things to know about these seas is that these islands loosely are based around the islands of southern Greece.

Hesperose came from the island of Karpothos (Carpathos) and the city he hailed from was also called Karpothos (Poseidium).  The kingdom of Madea where the tournament took place is on Crete where Phaestus is located.  The Oracle of Premulus is located on the same island where Cydonia is located.

Hesperose has only knowledge of lands to the east such as Rhodes and Cos and has no knowledge of these other lands.

This is the beginning idea for a map and new game masters may drastically alter the map.

Further, I've begun with the calendar based on the Sicilian Hellenistic calendar:

• Thesmophorios (~October)
• Dalios
• -
• Agrianios
• -
• Theudasios
• Artamitios
• -
• Badromios
• Hyacinthios
• Carneios
• Panamos

These are not necessarily months of a year but rather periods of traumatic times during the year.  Panamos is marked by strong storms and angry seas and usually lasts about two weeks.  Then, for a few weeks calm weather is the norm until the Thesmophorios begins, when another calamity takes place.  Shipping, trade, exploration and war usually takes place during these epic event periods.  What causes these events to happen is unknown.  Some say the the gods are fighting, other say great beasts are the cause.  Yet others believe there is a rip in reality under the seas and chaos spews forth like geisers when the pressure has grown too strong.  Whatever the reason, the islanders judge time by when it's safe to travel by sea and when it's time to hunker down and take shelter when the world becomes cranky.

Coins, coins, coins.  Different kingdoms only allow certain coins to be used as money.  You have a could stash of gold coins but if they do not have the right heads and tails upon them, they may be denied, considered contra-ban or even a reason for imprisonment.  The practice of melting coins is greatly frowned up.  Changing and sculpting metal is often left up to guilds and special practitioners.  One may melt a lump of silver and make a cup but appraisers may discover this fraud and contact the authorities.  It has also been said the coins from one island and taken to another island bestow curses upon the owner.  But these may just be rumors.

This world is old, but new to our characters.  The ideas of this post are not to be considered as a framework but as the beginning pieces to an expanding universe.  Where one game master adds a kingdom, another may introduce an invading force.  Where another game master adds a dragon which is mighty and rare, yet another game master will have a realm where dragons are constantly used as domestic forms or transportation.  The world may change in confusing ways but the main constant are the characters in the story.  Some spells will change depending on the game master's whim.  AKA the great emanation/burst debate.  :)

Game masters will hopefully announce limitations, exceptions and alterations to canon rules.  I, for instance, give out re-roll rewards, exact attack rolls to AC do half damage, bless is a burst effect that lingers when characters are out of range from the caster and allow 3 critical checks to be an instant kill/KO.

So with this I give some overview of the world that I have started and some inclination of how things work.  Clint, the next grand poobah for the game, may turn everything upon its head and have a new calendar system, a new way the money works and may (gasp) change the bless spell to be a moving emanation spell.  With this, I hope, everyone playing easily bends to the direction the wind is blowing and will refuse to break.  Even if one becomes quite despondent, please be patient.  Here in Shiffit's world the winds will change... but still be right in your face.  :D

It's not about the world we're creating, it's about the characters and a series of stories.  The over-arching world is going to have a lot of inconsistencies but for the most part we should be able to say, "Remember that one time when..."

~SCI

Bait and switch

Shiffit (war-forged) - played by Clint
Zyva (gold-dragon-pixie) - played by Ron
Glauca (old man wizard) - played by Maija
Hesperose (human mariner) - played by Scott
Aramil (elven wizard) - played by Committee
Kita (kenku) - played by Committee

With the barbarian half-orc retired, the fight continues.  Zyva lays down a patch of entangling vines and bushes only to find the barriers in the arena impede the spell to some extent.  The druid spots the pixie in flight and illuminates her with fairy fire causing the once invisible Zyva to glow in a pale violet outline.  The ranger quickly loosens an arrow and the sorcerer sends magic arrows that plunge into Zyva.  She reluctantly flies closer to her enemy and lets loose a cone of fiery breath upon two of them.  The cleric swings a morning star toward the now very close pixie but misses, leaving the weapon impaled into a wall.  The ranger however uses expert marksmanship and fells the tiny fey.  Seeing the pixie is close to death, the enemy cleric lays a hand upon Zyva and helps her heal from the brink of emptiness.

Elsewhere, after Hesperose gets some healing from Shiffit, he hears the cry of Zyva's fall and heads out into the fray yet again.  Hesperose makes it to the edge of the entangled field where he takes an arrow from the ranger to the head and goes down to a knee.  After some self-inspection and finding himself alone on the battlefield, he retires.  

Then the enemy wizard, who has been invisible, reveals herself as she sends a blast of fire at Shiffit but misses.  A line of fire now burns behind the hulking construct.  Shiffit is angered by the damage to the grass and charges the wizard.  Shiffit attempts to grapple the wizard but misses.  The druid appears from the brush and casts an entangling field of her own catching both the Shiffit team wizards.  The enemy wizard and the druid then retreat back into the dense foliage.  Shiffit undauntedly chases the team members.  The wizard casts a blast of magic projectiles into Shiffit but he continues his charge.  Raising his scimitar, the war forged demands the wizard retire, which she does fearing that the weight of the mighty behemoth would easily crush her.

The sorcerer has made her way to the far hill from the rest of the battle and spies the wizards.  Aramil loosens many arrows at the shifty sorcerer but a magic barrier seems to cause the bolts to miss their target.  The sorcerer unleashes bolts of arcana of her own that strike Glauca.  Finding himself rather defenseless, entangled and without a brute meatshield available, Glauca resigns from the game.  However, he is rooted to the ground and cannot leave the field.  The crowd boos the old man.

The sorcerer now turns her attention to Aramil and loosens yet more streaks of magical might.  Aramil is hit hard but refuses to yield.  The sorcerer continues to loosen magic arrows that unerringly strike Aramil bringing him to near death.  With great reluctance and great effort, Aramil holds up a hand in submission.

Kita has been pelting arrows at the druid to little effect until he accidentally breaks the string of his bow.  Shiffit emerges from the brush and makes an intimidating request that the druid submit or face the wrath of nature.  The druid takes note of the balancing of nature, taking place and knows she is on the dipping end of the scales, lays down in retirement.

While this is taking place, the crowd begin to boo the enemy cleric and ranger who have yet to advance from their perch for some time.  The king motions to a couple of guards and they encourage the combatants to engage the enemy with two well placed arrows.  The ranger takes a brutal shot the back of her neck and retires out of anger.  She expertly took out two members of team Shiffit yet the crowd turned against her?  She did not think this was fair and storms out of the competition.  The cleric also seems annoyed and finds her only route into the fray would be a long flanking motion around the far side of the arena.  Zyva's entangling field has really split Team One's cohesiveness.

The sorcerer seeing no enemy in sight slowly makes her way around the arena.  Eventually the enemy cleric and the sorcerer find each other but do not know the whereabouts of their ally wizard or the druid.  Shiffit unleashes yet another field of entanglement (a third in the arena) catching the cleric and the shifty one.  After a couple well places spheres of fire the final two Team One members are forced to acquiesce.

The crowd erupts in cheers and the king's guards bring all of Team Shiffit to the king's box and he introduces them all.  Great sounds of acclaim are made for each name, less so for Glauca, and the king doles out the rewards to the characters.  Each receives a thick gold coin with a leaf on one side and an image of an eye on the other.  They are told to go to the temple of Premulus and give the tributes to the Oracle of Premulus.  Great festivals and parties take place.  Team Shiffit and Team One agree to break bread together and talk about their experiences in the tournament.  One unfortunate member has to sit next to Glauca and gets grappled.

Shiffit asks Hesperose if he can find some way to gain help in repairing his vessel.  Hesperose rolls a natural 20 and the town of Madea rolls out the red carpet. A handsome loan is offered by the bank and a crowd of elves donate their trade in repairing the Celeste.  In no time (a week) the ship is in tip top shape and the team heads toward the port city of Premulus.  The weather is very agreeable and even seems to assist in the quick trip to the city.

They dock the ship and make their way up to the temple which is found at the top of a rocky hill overlooking the city.  As the team ascends the carved stairs, they see pilgrims ritualistically making their way up and guards in white cloaks with golden spears.  They reach the entrance of the temple, display their tribute and are brought into the foyer.  Eventually they are brought further into the great hall where the team is allowed through a door to visit the Oracle, one at a time.  Hesperose enters first.  After a few minutes, he comes back through a door escorted by two guards.  As he walks past the party Shiffit wants to intervene and stop Hesperose.  However, Shiffit notices Hesperose slightly nod and motion not to interfere.  Eventually, each team member enters the well guarded chamber and has a discussion with the Oracle and then they individually make their way back to the boat (except Glauca).

After some confusion and somewhat dismayed by their audience with the Oracle, Shiffit notices an out of place figure making its way to the Celeste.  At first thinking it is Glauca, he quickly determines it is actually the Oracle herself and helps her board the boat.  They ask where Glauca is and she replies, "His future takes him elsewhere, for now."

Enter Clarity, the Oracle of Premulus, played by Maija.