Faith and Spirit: Ascension and God-Killers

[Judd]

Lots of information gathering this game. Circles rolls, research tests, -wises, spirit rolls and evading one apocalypse beast in the Pit of Ossad.

Going up against the Beast-God of Ossad means Storn rolls really poorly. It was almost a direct replay of last time with several failed rolls but this time he didn't get maimed. I think that perhaps I played softball with him and that this was a poor decision, sapping out some tension and sense of danger from the game. It was a choice I wasn't happy about as soon as I allowed him to make an Orate roll to sooth the beast.

Something that occurred to me in the middle of this game is that we need a timeline for this world's history. It has gotten viciously complicated and a timeline would help me (us?) get a grip on the historic events:

• Fall of the Yelteth Wall
• Attempted godhoods of past Sorcerer-Kings
• The war with the God-killers
• The deposing of the Druid Lords and the destruction of their pantheon.
• The destruction of the Dragon's city in his bid for godhood.

It also occurred to me that it would be fun to play an arc where the players are gods. It would not be too difficult to burn them up via the Monster Burner and Magic Burner and I have ideas on how to do so, some traits gods would have, etc.

I was kind of amazed to see how much the players really trust the Sorcerer-King. They laid everything out, everything they had learned about becoming a god, honestly and openly and without subterfuge. The arc takes its final turn as they attempt to get every Gifted child of the Sorcerer-King (there are five living) to sign a treaty saying they would support whomever their king chose to take the throne should he retire peacefully.

We listed them out right there and now the race is on to get each of them to sign the blood oath treaty before Sorcerer-King Tabat calls his children back to the 14th City to discuss his ascension.

Probably the most interesting moment of the evening was the Duel of Wits with the captured god-killer. The god-killers are the mysterious terrorists of the setting, often mentioned or alluded to but never really discussed or delved into. After our last game session, we sat around and brainstormed ideas about them.

They are a democratic society that was once ruled by god-king despots who were overthrown from their step pyramid thrones. Now their civilization slays gods and topples monarchies, taking in cultures into their empire. It was nice to have an NPC to comment on the players adherence to the feudal government.

The Duel of Wits was a close one (with me and Storn scripting the exact same moves from two full exchanges). He was left with doubts (new Belief!) about the Empire of the 13 Cities and she let slip that not all of her god-killing cell were caught in the raid.

Good stuff.

[Judd]

Through some of the session, I did get the gitchy feeling that I wasn't pushing on their Beliefs hard enough, wasn't challlenging them enough.

For some reason, in the transition from a one player/one gm to two players/one gm, I feel like I have been going softer on them. I dunno, maybe this is just a feeling that is unfounded.

[Storn]

I think that perhaps I played softball with him and that this was a poor decision

Oh, there was plenty of tension. I pretty much tossed in the towel, ready to burn up another character when the dice FINALLY went my way. That Oratory roll was the highest ob of all the rolls.
1 roll) I had to beat a ob of 1 with 4 dice for a Stealth roll....Judd had rolled badly too, didn't have Observation, I didn't, the beast became aware of me.
2nd roll) I had to beat an ob of 3 with 8! dice, rolled one success. Couldn't summon a ghost sound to draw the Beast's attention via Spirits
3rd roll) I had to beat his Speed vs. Mine, I didn't roll a single success on 4 dice.
4th roll) I had to beat an ob of 5 with 6 dice for a Steel roll, pretty much not gonna make that too often, I manage to get 3 success, so the Run for One's life wasn't too long.
5th roll) After hearing that a Prince was destined to come and read the Books of Jaedden, and I couldn't believe that this fucking Beast had beaten me yet again (so there was support in the narrative for my crazy decision), I threw caution to the wind and declared "I'm the Prince Shahin Tabat, let me pass!" and finally made an ob 5 with 6 dice...not an easy thing to do ever. It was ridiculously lucky. And if I didn't make it, I would have been fine with being trampled or swallowed to death.

Btw,now that i've time to reflect, I think I should have a rep with the BEast Cult of Ossad... I didn't even get a Deeds for that... shit.

So, it was plenty tense on my end. I started the game with 6 FATE and 3 Persona, I ended the night with 2 FATE, 0 Persona. The one place you could have eaten me was when I ran screaming for my life, I had lost the earlier speed test so let it ride could have been invoked. I totally had a feeling of "here we go again" and wasn't particularly happy about having to face this fucking Beast yet again. Maybe the dice sense that crap.

However, I have the Spirits of Castles totally pissed off at me at a STR 5. And a STR 3. Not like I got off easy. And the information I had gleaned down there, while important, certainly didn't solve anything politically. So, to my mind, the risk didn't equal the pay-off, which is fine, because maybe Shahin II should have been killed.

However, I do agree that Beliefs haven't been pushed on that hard. Partly this is because, IMO, the situation has been so fluid. Information added has been about rapid and shifting ideas. And it has taken a lot to get a handle on my character, I dunno about Pete, who is a bit stronger at the social end of things, and has a real place in the world. My PC is the eldest of some 20+ children and wasn't designed to be a scheming-back-stabbing sibling. This is a political idealogical campaign. I started this game with a Belief about getting a wife, scratched that out pretty quickly when it was obvious that events were going to put that on the back burner.

But I feel that the evening was a success once it got past the Beast of Ossad. The conversation with the Sorcerer King Tabat (father) and the duel of wits with the Godkiller, Kaerdwin were rocking solid. Now we also have a much more solid direction than we did before for this game. I think track down your siblings, get them to sign a blood oath is a much stronger lead than go to Ossad, there are some books there that might help the situation (which I take responsibility for as it was my stakes in a research roll that led us in that direction.)