Brief Candles

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Please go to the 'Talk Page' to let me know what nights you can play. This will involve some time on Perfidious Albion (Yboracum), Reich (Berlin), Alusia (Calder), New Terra (Khemet), Hell (Ys). The Risk Factor is ?.
Treaure will be distributed using the Loot Auction convention.
I run the game under these variations and may add others from time to time.
Players should submit a .pdf or similar file of their character sheet and item list to me at jim.arona - at - gmail.com. You can be as thorough as you like, although I prefer brief and to the point. It is important to me that the information is readable and organised logically.

Summary

Adventure: Brief Candles
GM: Jim Arona
Session: Spring 813
Night: TBA
Location TBA
Level: High

Party

• Domino - An arcane trickster played by Jason Stevens
• Suhoi - A fluid warrior played by Denys Matve'ev
• Robin - An eco-warrior played by Heather
• Kara - A sorceress played by Sylvia
• Endgame - A wanderer from the Outer Darkness played by James
• Grendel - A sorceror played by Simon
• Ace, the Wonder Dog - a wonder dog, played by Dean
• Mr Ed, the Wonder Horse - a wonder horse, played by Stephen

Employer

Mark, Death's Champion

Mission

The Angels of the Seal have returned to the Known Realms at the speed of death, and have much to reveal of what they have seen.

The story so far...

Buffs

Magic	Rk	Effects	Dur	Do	Su	Ro	Ka	Eg	Gr	A	ME
Rune Armour (A)	20	+10 Dodge +3 Body Void +5 Armour	10.5 Hrs
Smite (A)	20	+22 Damage on first strike, stun, knock down	21 Hours
Mind Shield (Gr)	13
Water Breathing (Gr)	13
Cold Resistance (Gr)	7

Melee Combat +4 Dodge +1 BodyVoid +4 Attack +1 minor action at end of pulse

Those under the military command of Mr Ed gain these bonuses in Melee Combat

Watches

Treasure

Resource points

Type	Qty	Do	Su	Ro	Ka	Eg	Gr	Ki	Ar
Iron	39					13	13		13
Similarity	14					4	5		5
Worm or Skull	78	From smaller horrors (6x13)
Worm	-	17				15	16	15	15
Skull	-	17				15	16	15	15
Mountain or Torrent	70	Mountain Scream
Mountain	-	18					17	17 1	18
Torrent	-	18					17	17	18
Eye or Discord	12	Eye of Discord
Eye	-	3					3	3	3
Discord	-	3					3	3	3
Dragon or Hunter	145	From the big horror
Dragon	-	29				29	29	29 9	29 9
Hunter	-							0

Experience & Other Awards

Domino	Bower	Suhoi
After racial tax:
After bonuses:
After Loot Auction:

Calendar

Spring: Thaw (10) 813wk
	Moonday		Duesday		W'ansday		Th'rsday		Frysday		Reapsday		Sunday
		Candlemansa	1	Guild Meeting	2		3		4		5		6
	7		8		9		10		11		12		13
	14		15		16		17		18		19		20
	21		22		23		24		25		26		27
Spring: Seedtime (11)
	28		29		30		1		2		3		4
	5		6		7		8	Rites of Thunor	9		10		11
	12		13		14		15	Equinox	16		17	Eostre	18
	19		20		21		22		23		24		25
	26		27		28		29		30		1		2
Spring: Blossom (12)
	3		4		5		6		7		8		9
	10		11		12		13		14		15		16
	17		18		19		20		21	Floralia	22		23
	24		25		26		27		28		29		30	Walpurgisnacht

Scribe Notes

Serpents & Similarities are seeking the answer to The World Riddle - Does God exist? This is a bad thing as when that question is answered it increases the certainty in the known realms and that's bad. Mark has gone to try to slow the answer down. The party is tasked with helping.

Similarities used the Well of Trumps to create/influence The Lands of Chaos, his plan includes using the LoC as a focus when multi-verses collide to create a new version of the known realms, the LoC becoming a map of the new multi-verse granting him significant power over it. The certainty from the World Riddle, stolen time, jet tree forest, etc. are all tools or triggers related to the timing and control of this event.

Ungoliant exists within the multi-verse (though on the edge of it in the outer darkness) her efforts, unlight webs etc are probably related to anchoring herself to the parts of the multi-verse that Sims wants to preserve so that her existence and power base are preserved through the change.

Dioscura to Red Keep

Day 1-20

On our way to check up on things in Perfidious Albion and ask after Mark, something goes awry in the Astral, Kilroy and I get separated as we drop back into the real world.

I disguise myself and infiltrate the nearest city to find out where I am, it turns out to be Dioscura, City of the Hidden Gods. After a day or so of blending in with the locals I see Grendel and subtly get his attention, he introduces me to Domino and we make our way to their house to talk.

They explain what's going on and how they're trying to help Mark, following some visions they saw in the caves of twilight and messing with the plans of Sims, Snakes, Berith, and anyone else who might be associated. Though I'm not sure how this helps as apparently the arrival of the answer is inevitable now that it has begun its journey. Or possibly they can find out something that we can tell Mark that will allow him to stop it or maybe 'kill the answer'.

Last outing they found a Basilisk (the Lord of Serpents) feeding on the place where Mark had been imprisoned - gathering essence of mark to help fight him. They killed it and dispelled all the remaining essence.

Grendel, Domino and a couple of other immortals have raised a joint house here, had a look for the hidden gods (they're still hidden). They're looking for the spiders of Unlight (ungoliant's brood).

Kilroy turns up, and we head off to the city of twilight (5 day walk), named Ioaoa (something like that with lots of vowels) origin of Medeanite witches. The city is run by witches, several covens. Toughest are the Medeanites. Grendel is identified as a powerful witch as we enter the city and questioned by 3 witches from a local coven and manages to convince them he's a power hungry witch just visiting for a while and he needs to maintain his masculine disguise.

We poke around for a week gathering information from the locals in our specialist ways. Domino finds that the city walls are wicker pailings containing a web of Unlight. The strands from the walls all head off into the astral, woven together into a 3 metre cable. Following that through into the abyss and it looks like they eventually head into the outer darkness where 'the big U' hangs out. Six big abyssal demons (named by Sims, all with the same name which is not normal - they're normally unique) are guarding the cable where the astral meets the abyss. We kill five of them, the sixth gets away. Then we spend a couple of days slowly cutting through the cable. Then back to the Witch City, they are a bit stirred up, Medeanite Dancers examining the walls, the Medeanite Sorceress with her usual entourage active (Toad, Psionic Orchid, Floating throne), we leave.

It's a five day walk to Red Keep which was seen in the twilight visions.

NB Grendel's vision is of intertwined spires it's still to be investigated - he knows the location.

Red Keep, Dark Mountain

Day 21-24

The Red Keep has magical walls, only two of the walls may be seen at any time, the defensive power may be concentrated on whichever wall is being attacked, an effective offence would need to strike all four walls at once. The corner towers are pentagonal. Once we enter the keep Domino and Grendel can sense a fifth wall and a Nexus.

We enter as questors which they accept quite happily, find a reasonable inn and poke around for a couple of days. We meet Endgame who also has an interest in Unlight and Ungoliant's activities and decides to join us for a while. The keep is being evacuated in an orderly fashion, they have been attacked by Nephilim and Blood Wolves who have come south into the area near the keep and can't defend against them. We debate for a while whether the impact on the Red Keep is deliberate or incidental but come to no likely conclusion. We gain audience with the Lord of the Red Keep, he doesn't know of the Nexus in his city but can tell us that Black Dwarves have been seen in the north where the Nephilim used to be.

We decide to head north and check out what has driven the Nephilim out. About 100 miles north we find a large black mountain that hasn't always been there, we work out it is a damage sink for the Lord of the Dark Earth that he can use when on this plane. While approaching and investigating we attract the attention of several smaller and one large horror. The smaller ones attack Grendel and Domino from the astral; Grendel hands out Tinctures of Aconite and Passionflower; Domino opens a door into the astral; Kilroy blasts the smaller horrors with a Sunray as they open a small portal to target us; the big horror arrives, Endgame and I engage it. The battle is fast and furious, we are victorious though somewhat drained and damaged.

Jungle and Fiends

Day 24-34

We try to come up with a clever plan to subvert or drain the mountain, in the end Domino sets some siege venom to work on the mountain and we return to Red Keep. Kilroy and Domino stay in the keep to search for the Nexus and work with a large group of mages currently in town to create Rune Wards against Nephilim.

Endgame, Grendel and I head south into the jungle to find some Athelas to heal Grendel and some Passionflower for more tinctures. We spend a couple of days, finding Athelas and healing Grendel fairly quickly but taking longer to find Passionflower. The third day we come to a large town in the forest, gaining entry as questors again we are directed to a master Herbalist with an effete aide who agrees to make tincture for us in return for a portion of the flowers. He warns of an illness in town but he has a potion to cure it if we're afflicted. At our request he directs us to a town elder who can direct us to an empty house to use for a few days. They attempt to charge us too much for the house but we negotiate it down to merely an extortionate amount.

In the morning Grendel and Endgame are ill and get potions from the Herbalist before we head out to harvest more Passionflower for the three days it will take the Herbalist to make the tincture.

Chatting with the locals one evening we find out one of the tribes coming in from the west is overdue, we head out in the evening flying along the trail they should have arrived by and searching either side for signs of firelight. We eventually spot them, land in a clearing and approach their camp. They had diverted south to avoid Blood Wolves(?) near the main trail, we get the impression they have been tracked or watched, one of the children remembers seeing someone who we believe is a Succubus.

We escort the tribe back to town and then start checking the town for signs of succubus infestation, there have been a couple of suspicious deaths but we don't scare any Demonics into the open. We go to consult with the Herbalist and finally spot that his aide is a Pit Fiend in disguise. I discretely warn the Herbalist and he says he knows, he found it in an old temple in the forest to the west and has it bound. We suggest we stand guard while he checks the bindings, at that point the Fiend reveals itself and combat ensues. The room we're fighting in has been rigged as a fire trap, greek fire, incendiaries, very messy for those of us who are not creatures of fire. Pulling out all stops and the Unforgotten we make it out, with Endgame unconscious, the building in flames, and it turns out the Herbalist is Blackrod in disguise with his familiar the Pit Fiend. Blackrod and the Pit Fiend have a decent lead by the time we chase after them, we almost catch up to them when they land in a clearing and banish themselves - presumably back to hell.

Blackrod has been here a while, he has curses under many of the buildings making the inhabitants sick, they come to him for a remedy and get given his herbalist potion that lets him harvest their souls when they die - and a discrete counterspell for the curse that's ailing them. We explain to the tribes what has happened and help them identify who has been affected. I gather and use more Athelas to cure part of the affliction on Endgame and Grendel, then we head back to the Red Keep to seek Kilroy and Domino's help in lifting the curse portion.

The Fifth Wall

Day 35-43

Endgame leaves to follow his own leads.

With the agreement of the Lord of the Keep we decide to seek military help from the Tintagelites, Kilroy establishes a permanent Geode Portal from Red Keep to near a cenotaph 80 miles north of House Tintagel.

House Tintagel is busy and it takes us a couple of days to get in to see The Castellan. He agrees to station some troops at the Red Keep and sends a Lieutenant with 100 warriors back with us. While there we make use of their Gift Box, I draw an opening to Mark's pocket, Domino draws a Rod of Ambiguity which we stick in my pocket for Mark to use against the answer, Kilroy draws the Forge of the Insubstantial.

Domino has located the Nexus, it is the gate in the fifth wall and leads to another multi-verse. There's something weird about how long the nexus has existed, its time since creation is increasing faster than the normal flow of time but we can't work out the rate or how long it has been here. Heading through we emerge from the entry into a castle built into a mountain. The castle has been assaulted by something big. Featureless stone in front of the gate leads to a bridge through mist into a dark and gloomy forest.

The bridge is a hollow tube, we break in and explore. It is home to a tribe of Kobalts who are working on repairing the castle. They tell us that Dwarves used to live in the castle, it was attacked by a Dragon - Mountain Scream, who was after their hoard of gems, the Dwarves survived but have fled. Nobody lives in the castle any more but a couple of people occasionally emerge from it and travel to the human settlements to the south. We identify this couple as the Biolurgen and Mister Wolf.

Grendel makes a river boat and we set off down river, lots of fun navigating perilous rapids until we reach a small lake where the Dragon attempts to ambush us. I close with it, shoving my sword in it's mouth as it engulfs me in flame and biting it's neck, the others put themselves out, keep me alive and then start blasting the Dragon. Battered and burned we defeat the dragon and feast on its heart blood. Then spend a couple of days skinning, boning and looting the corpse.

Domino locates its hoard, we make our way there, lift the curse and start counting our new fortune.

Wands, Patterns, Beirut

Day 44-90

We continue our interrupted journey and enter the first walled city we come to. The city is quartered, ordered, strong religious/military presence, and is lit by lamps that use Galvinism or something like it. We're exploring in the evening when we something fly over the walls and come down a couple of blacks from us, we head over to investigate and are met by the Lord of Wands. We exchange information about what Sims is up to, he is investigating this world and suspects Mister Wolf has some of his people here, he will continue investigating here, he suggests that we need to warn the Lord of Patterns about the risk of incursion by the Lord of Serpents from the mirror city in Perfidious Albion. And on our way there he asks us to place some of his house cards in the Lands of Chaos.

Travelling back to near the Kobalts by Rune Portal we let them know the Dragon is dead then head through the Nexus to Red Keep, through the astral to Jiroth then through the Lands of Chaos to the abyss, placing the house cards and finding an interesting garden where Domino finds the herb required for the antidote to Blackrod's soul poison.

Two weeks hiking through the Abyss then up the cliff to the astral of Victoria where Domino leads us to the Astral gate of the Lord of Patterns. We are granted entry and are very careful and polite as we are admitted and then granted audience with Serafin. We quickly give warning about the threat from Perfidious Albion and tell him what we have learned of Grimes plots and related events.

We ask what we can best do to help, Patterns tasks us with going to Beirut (Nualis) to gather the souls in the Garden of Tophet before Berith gets there and to take them to the Lady of Souls on Sparlainth. He provides us with a phylactery to gather the souls into.

We spend a week while I learn to Detect Ley Lines and make armour from the Dragon scales.

Then through the astral to the Abyss, two weeks across the abyss to Nualis, up the cliff and into the astral to Domino's house on Nualis. The house in near on oasis on the Dark Continent, we want to minimise our time travelling from here so we don't catch the attention of the Lord of the Dark Continent. We refresh buffs and then I Windwalk east to the Red Sea, fly over it then north up the coast to near a city about 1,000 miles from the house. Setting down Grendel's crystal, I wait and watch for a couple of hours until they wormhole in. After a late dinner we walk to the city which is full of knights, clerics and monks of the Holy Mother Church. We find rooms in a dive which is the only place not filled with HMC knights and rest the night. The following day we enquire after boats travelling to Beirut but they are all busy taking the HMC the same way, we decide not to risk travelling with HMC knights and witch sniffers and head out of town to make our own boat. Grendel and I sail us north and east for 3 days, we dismantle our ship and make land at a rocky cliff a few miles from the city. The coastal villages are occupied by HMC knights, we avoid them and make our way to the city.

Scouting round the outside I find three ley lines which would intercept near the centre of the city, we sneak over an inland wall and follow one of the Ley Lines towards a large church that is the centre of activity for the HMC troops. Most of the buildings here are built over the remnants of older buildings, we know that the garden was close to the old temple and probably near the intersection of the ley lines, we guess it is beneath the church. We sneak as close as we can, observe from the cover of a small cemetery then enter an old building just over 100' from the church. Kilroy and Grendel bind earth and air, slowly forming a tunnel into the crypts beneath the church where we find the entrance to the middlemarch containing the Garden of Tophet. Covering our tunnel and tracks we enter the garden. It takes a day and a half to gather the 24,000 trapped souls into the phylactery. While doing that we gather the round stones that paralysed the souls trapping them in here, destroying those we can't carry away with us. Then we wait until nightfall and make our way out again, sealing up the crypt chamber with tonnes of stone to slow anyone else trying to access the garden. Sneaking back out we make it out of town then a further mile or so until we can get over a ridge and out of line of sight. Then Domino opens a door into the astral and we exit, unfortunately the door doesn't close.

The Eye of Discord was with the HMC at the church, detected the door, moved the opening to them and sent knights in after us. I hold the door to slow them down but something like a wizards eye gets past me. Kilroy and Grendel get walls down, battle monks cast at us through the door and a cone of annihilation from the eye almost slays Domino. Grendel sends a red grenado through into the room with the battle monks which kills or disables them and the knights. But the Eye of Discord has already teleported through to behind us in the astral. He blinds me, I charge anyway swinging blindly and getting the occasional wound while Grendel and Domino blast him, Kilroy moves around to strike from behind him, the combination of attacks eventually overwhelms his defence and he goes down, Domino races forward to pin his soul before it can depart.

Chapter 6

Day 90-