#Heroes of Sedonia

[mortalmab]

Here we go

Terran cracked an eye open. Morning again. By far, the worst part of being an itinerant scholar was waking up stiff on the road. Late spring was a better time to be sleeping rough than some others, but this far north the ground still remembered winter. Terran pulled their bedroll more tightly around themselves for a moment, willing sleep to return. It did not. The persistent ache in their bladder, combined with the root they seem to have rolled onto in the night, made Terran climb out of last night’s bed and crack their back. Their breath made ghosts in the chill dawn air as they took care of their morning routine, packed up the bedroll, and continued down the road.

Hurstley, the eastern-most holding in the county of Valareth, was big enough that it took several days to cross on foot. It had been a long journey north and Terran’s purse was feeling the effects. Their feet were feeling it even harder.

The clop-clop of hooves and the creaking of a wagon brought relief. Terran turned and coming up the road was a hay wagon pulled by a braw farm horse. The old man on top looked like a peeled apple left in the sun for too long. Terran waited for the cart to catch up with them. They began to walk alongside.

“Good morning!” they called. The farmer nodded at them.

“Good morning young master.”

“Where are you headed, Grandfather?”

“On up to Hurstley Manor, young…ster.” Terran was used to the hesitation. They had been told several times that it was hard to determine exactly what they looked like and honestly Terran enjoyed it that way. Jaw just a little too strong to be comfortably feminine, chest just slightly too big to be comfortably masculine, Terran rested in a comfortable androgyny. The old man shook his head but continued, “are you looking for a lift?”

Terran offered him a brilliant smile. “If there’s room on your cart, Grandfather, I’d love nothing more.”

The old man was an amiable travel companion. He talked with pride about his farm and his home and his family.

“We’ve lived in Hurstley since the War of the Gods, it seems. Bora’s Body, but there isn’t a more beautiful place in all the world, seems to me. And Lirburn is a good master. My boys and I, we grow the hay that supplies the castle and the town below it.”

“You must have a big farm then?”

“Oh aye. And times must be good because Sir Lirburn has been ordering more of our hay than he used to, seems like! If this keeps up, we’ll need to till even the fallow field next year! I’d warn him though, you can’t keep using up the fallow field year in and out. Fields got to go fallow for a reason!”

He continued speaking but Terran stopped listening. Sometimes a Knight or Lord might have need of a few extra supplies if he was expecting a party or some such, but to make continued increases in supplies sounded to Terran less like times were good and more like times were about to get bad.

“So whereabouts are you from then?”

Terran jumped at the question. They took a second to bring themselves present.

“Uh, most recently from Tonbridge, but originally Tyr’s Reach.”

“Oh that right? You’re a long ways from the capitol, youngster.”

Terran shrugged. “Gotta go where there’s work.”

The old man laughed. “Too right, too right.” He seemed content to leave it at that. Terran was relieved. Truthfully, as a master in the Scribal Guild, Terran could have gotten work just about anywhere. The book in their pack burned in the back of their mind. Afar as Terran’s studies had taken them, their final destination was somewhere in the Duchy of Norfolk. Either County Valareth or County Cheshire, if Terran was right. Terran was unlikely to find a very lucrative contract out here but work was work and Terran would take whatever paved their way to their final destination. Wherever that ended up being.

The town of Hurstley had a relaxed atmosphere about it, being in the shadow of the manor house. The house was a stone manor surrounded by a wooden palisade at the top of a hill with a rocky bluff down one side. No way to bring a large force there without being noticed. The manor, the town, the holding of this size were all far more than most knights had. Sir Lirburn must have the good graces of someone.

Catch you in the next update!

[theriverreview]

TRR Not An Interview (excerpts from Proust Questionnaire) | Aliyah Cydonia

[artist's work above-- Mother, 2023]

What is your idea of perfect happiness? Knowledge of the coming events.

What is your greatest fear? Knowledge of the coming events.

What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? When I talk without thought.

What is the trait you most deplore in others? When people talk without thought.

Which living person do you most admire? Christian Flores

What is your greatest extravagance? A $41 lip gloss I just bought (I’m using afterpay)

What is your current state of mind? Current — go go go in a good way. current current — remembering old times.

What do you consider the most overrated virtue? That we have to respect authority no matter what.

On what occasion do you lie? When people I barely know ask “how I’m doing?” It’s none of their business to know the real answer, good or bad.

What do you most dislike about your appearance? I can, at times, look bummy and not detailed.

Which living person do you most despise? A person.

What is the quality you most like in a man? Decisiveness

What is the quality you most like in a woman? Control

Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Interestante (I know it’s not a word it just sounds nice coming out of my mouth)

What or who is the greatest love of your life? Creating

When and where were you happiest? When a hard project starts to turn out good.

Which talent would you most like to have? To siiiiiingggg

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? To be more thorough.

What do you consider your greatest achievement? Depends. I’ve gotten through hardship and very proud of that but I’m also proud that I’ve built so many connections.

If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? I wanna be a worm.

Where would you most like to live? Right now Chicago or Morocco

What is your most treasured possession? My oil paints.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Lost in your mind.

What is your favorite occupation? Carpenters

What is your most marked characteristic? My ability to converse

What do you most value in your friends? Shared time with each other

Who are your favorite writers? Octavia Butler

Who are your heroes in real life? My mom

What are your favorite names? cera Kizzy (kezia) Nico Jeanne (Jeannie) Jeanette Magnolia (nollie, nolia) Heuy (hue) Art Sedonia Maybellene nolia Townes Avant Ripsi Zora Odessa

What is it that you most dislike? Feeling stupid

What is your greatest regret? Staying in anger for so long.

How would you like to die? In motion

What is your motto? As a man thinketh so shall it be.

[mortalmab]

A little bit of Background

A prologue of sorts. The War of the Gods ended about 500 years ago. According to the bards, this was a war between the Gods of Sedonia and all of demon kind. The Gods had the mortal help of six Great Heroes that modern bards love telling stories about: Avir, the Thief of Time. Ember Stone-Speaker. Rikia the Way Finder/aka Rikia the Hearth Seeker. Sabar, the Keeper of Secrets. Carfax the Clear-Sighted. In all of these stories they owe deference to some great unnamed king. Imagine the Arthurian legends telling stories about all the knights of the round table but never once mention Arthur, just kind of reference a king that these knights owe fealty to.

Now imagine you found a book - something that belonged in a museum, it's so old - that gives that king a name. Tells stories about him! Even alludes to how he finally died and what happened to the most sacred artifact in your country's history. This is where Terran, a master of the Scribal Guild and our current protagonist, finds themself. Cracking open that mystery of History would make them the most famous scholar of all fucking time!

However, that path they must take to get there leads to adventuring and adventuring sometimes leads to...heroism.

In Sedonia we have a culture of Heroes and Bards. Yes there are the Great Heroes of legend, but most of the time when you hear a bard sing or tell a story, it's about a more recent hero. "Hero" is almost like its own social class and just about anybody can become one. They have a semi-symbiotic relationship with the bards of Sedonia: A hero does a thing and the bards turn it into a tavern tale which increases the hero's renown as well as the bard's reputation. Therefore it is in the bard's best interest to make the hero look as good as possible, which can lead to some glossing over of facts, changing of facts or even downright hyperbole! For the Heroes it is in their best interest to treat the bards well and never get on their bad side, because when a bard gets pissed at you they might write a 27 verse song about how you romanced a donkey and after the act was completed the donkey flung itself off a cliff because you were so bad at it. In Sedonia, a bard's word carries the weight of a herald so whatever they say happened will be taken as truth by the populace. This causes a lot of consternation amongst scholars like Terran who would REALLY like a little more critical thinking to be done thank you very much. Truth, people! Plus, it gives space for unsavory characters to become very well respected and beloved by the populace, no matter what they are ACTUALLY like. So some members of the party have feelings about THAT as well.

Sedonia is surrounded on all sides by tall mountain ranges. We are completely land locked. Normally we have a robust trade with our nearest neighbors, Ravinia and Neban, but recently that trade seems to have dried up quite a bit and at the moment nobody knows why...

Any place names or character names that you recognize from other fiction or from real life will end up getting changed; it's just easier to keep up with the game if the names are the same between the game notes and the novel rough draft. I think that's about it, that's all the information we the players had going into the game and we seem to be figuring it out okay. but feel free to ask questions as the story progresses. It might get answered in the text or it might be something I don't realize needs clarification.

The game is a home brew based on the Harnmaster system rather than actual DND, so monsters, races, abilities, etc. will not be a one-for-one translation

Catch you at the next update!