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matrotas-muse-hub · 1 year ago

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Potential Muses - Part Two

Continued from here, same deal as before. I’ve listed eight more muses below the cut, muses which are not officially part of this blog but may end up on here at some point. If there’s any interest in knowing more about them or starting a thread, hmu!

Lionel / Guardian - Lionel was originally a tool - nothing but a shield for a faction called V’aarn Athil, a radical sect of psychics who fought the void’s encroachment on the material plane. After his base was wiped out, he lost his memory and was found by a farmer. When he instinctually used his psychic powers to heal the farmer during a prayer, the farmer mistakenly assumed Lionel had been blessed by the god of light, and had become a paladin. Lionel, not knowing any better, became a follower of the light god. He travels the world seeking to help others using psychic powers he believes to be divine.

Ren’dalar Eventide (art by filibusterfrog) - A shadar-kai swiftblade who died trying to stop a mad wizard from completing an ascension ritual to transform himself into a dragon. The ritual went haywire, trapping the mad wizard - now a dragon - and Ren’dalar in an endless cycle of reincarnation. The two have been fighting and killing one another for thousands of years.

Rob Wylde - A human sellsword who spent many years as a bandit. After killing some adventurers in a brutal conflict alongside the remnants of his old band, Rob, the sole survivor, finished the adventurer’s contract in hopes to cash in on their quest. He was scouted by some other adventurers when he showed up at the guild and, with no bandit troupe to return to, he decided to try the life of a “legal” mercenary.

Sir Rowan Adelard - A knight by social class alone, Sir Rowan Adelard is a skilled warrior who uses feints and sleight of hand to get the upper hand in combat, a man with little aversion to “fighting dirty.” He is a staunch defender of the people, and some rumors say he even has ties to a rogueish syndicate. But that would be preposterous, seeing how he’s a knight and all!

Theran Stryker - Son of the famed hero Scout Stryker, Theran has always lived in his fathers’ shadow. He grew up on the road, never having a stable home and never knowing his mother who died giving birth to him. Forced to learn the ways of the warrior from a living legend of a father, Theran fell short, unable to match up to his dad. After failing a particularly important mission, his father decided Theran needs to travel alone, as he cannot accompany him forever. While his father saw this as a push towards independence, Theran saw it as a betrayal, as if he had been disowned.

Vaelin Goldenbrow - Vaelin is a high elf scholar who taught at a rather diverse school for people from all over the world. After his only daughter marries a human, Vaelin fears for her happiness as she is bound to far outlive him. Wanting his daughter’s marriage to be a long and happy one, Vaelin sets out on a journey to unlock the secrets of chronomancy - looking for a way to make his new son-in-law age much, much slower.

Vivian Song - Vivian, or Vi (pronounced “vee”) as some of her friends call her, is a narcoleptic noblewoman. Frail since birth, she is visited by a god in her dreams who promises her health in exchange for her worship. She accepts, finding herself slowly becoming more physically fit. Once she feels confident, Vivian steals some armor from her family’s storehouse and runs away, hoping to make good use of the divine magic she’s now acquired. She dreams of getting rich quick and retiring, sleeping all day in a comfy bed with servants to bring her food and tend to her needs.

Willow Belvari - Willow is a priestess, a holy woman known for having an interest in scholarly pursuits. What people don’t know is that she is in fact a void fanatic, obsessed with eldritch knowledge that would break the mind of a lesser mortal. She dreams of joining the horrors who lurk beyond the stars - not as a servant, but as an equal.

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maydaymadier · 1 year ago

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The Gods and The Rivers (session 2)

Welcome to recap of session 2 of my Merano campaign. Session 1 can be found here. Same as last time, all character names are in bold, spells are in italics. Party members are tagged “merano: [character name]”. Locations visited (cities, specific establishments) are tagged “location: [NAME]”. All posts for this campaign are tagged “campaign: merano”.

Introduction:

Last time, our three heroes met. Hugo, the bard; Calypso, the barbarian; and Delphie the wizard. The three are recruited into finding the saboteur of a goodberry fountain at the Akonerry Academy of the Arcane, that feeds the entire region. Meeting with the groundskeeper and the student team tasked with its maintenance, they navigate the tunnels underneath the school. First fighting off two merrows left behind as a distraction. The actual saboteur is found in the mechanism room and the party successfully fights and captures him before he can do any more damage or get away. They double back and turn him over to the groundskeeper. Who in turn, hands him over to the city guard. The three then take the night for themselves.

The Next Morning:

Opening on the early morning in Kerras, the fresh morning sea-air blowing up off the ocean, the city is just starting to wake up, and a large fluffy white dog knows where she’s going. Nimbus comes to the front door of the Screech family house, sits, and barks once. Apolla Screech answers the door and isn’t sure what to make of it when a disembodied voice comes from the dog at her front step and asks for Delphie but she seems to know the dog and follows along without any questions. Stranger things have probably happened since she picked up wizardry.

Sabine’s voice coming through the collar catches her up. The rogue has woken up and is in the city jail but is refusing to talk to anyone, except the people who captured him. He’s willing to blab but, principally, he considers it cheating for anyone who didn’t go to the effort of actually capturing him to interrogate him. She’ll see them when they get back to the jail.

They collect Delphie and Calypso, catch them both up, and make their way back into the city to the jail. It’s early and Sabine is clearly annoyed but if it gets any useful information she’ll put up with it. All the nearby cells have been emptied, so the rogue is out of earshot of any other prisoners. There’s a cleric standing guard outside of the cell helping to maintain an anti-magic field to keep him from teleporting away. He’s an insanely old half-elf, scrawny with a bulbous nose, the longest beard ever, purple wizard robes, and a big old’ warhammer. Delphie recognizes him as Marasmius Elcarim.

However, the anti-magic field is giving Delphie vision problems.

The rogue has had his armor, weaponry, and any other items confiscated. He’s standing in the middle of his cell, arms crossed, back to the bars. He sneers at Sabine and shoos her out. But Marasmius gets to stay because there’s no way they’re dropping the anti-magic field.

He immediately opens up, willing and ready to blab. When asked his name, he gives it, his name is Nariav. Why did he do it? Easy. He was hired to. Well who hired him to do it? The Virastis, that noble family up in Feolinn. Okay but why would they want to sabotage The Cornucopia? He was one of many people hired to cause distractions up and down the coast so no one will pay attention to whatever it is they’re planning. What are they planning? Okay, let’s calm down a bit, he was a random hired hand, they didn’t reveal their entire master plan to him. Still, why are you telling us all this? Seems risky. He’s been caught, he’s already a dead man walking, the Virastis are going to kill him no matter what he does at this point.

But, well, why did you agree to take the job? Yeah, your were hired, but, what were they paying you with? …They were going to turn him back into a god. At this point Nariav shuts down and it’s not like the party believes that particular yarn. Though Marasmius hears this and tries to speak to him in Celestial. However, Nariav is downright insulted by this and replies in a different language that nobody recognizes and sounds like birdsong. But as a last attempt for his death to actually hurt the people who sent him to slaughter, he’s going to try and fuck them over.

The only thing left he has to give them is to ask the guards for his medallion. It marks him as an agent of the Virastis. Maybe they can get some use out of it.

It comes up in conversation that ‘oh hey, is The Cornucopia fixed?’, Marasmius reassures the group that it’s been resolved. With that, they decide to go meet back with Sabine and call Syd back in to keep up the anti-magic field.

The four of them go back to find Sabine and fill her in on what Nariav told them, including asking for his medallion. She goes back to get his confiscated items from the guards and comes back with what he must have been talking about. The conversation moves out of earshot into a sideroom. What she pulls out for them to see is a piece of dark scrap leather with what can only be described as a light green enamel pin with gold lining. It could be the Virasti family crest but if so it’s considerably simplified. Marasmius casts a quick Detect Magic on it and finds the scraps of leftover purple divination magic on it, the guess is that it’s from a Scrying spell and that it must have been either cloaking itself or dispelling a cloaking.

Everyone puts their heads together on what to do next. It wouldn’t be too hard to get to Feolinn, they are currently in a port city and there are four different rivers that connect up to Feolinn. So by sea it is. Sabine says that the Academy will secretly endorse your efforts as thanks for your help and that she’ll be sending updates as things happen. Delphie wants to help though she does bring up the fact that she’s currently a student and can’t miss class. Sabine points to Marasmius and asks ‘Hey, Mirasmius, do you need a TA?’/ ‘Yeah!’/ (Pointing at Delphie) ‘Well, you’ve got one!’ So Marasmius gives Delphie his first wizard hat and robe, they’re tattered but with love.

Before leaving town, the group decides to stock up at Fantasy Cabela’s down by the docks. Calypso covers the essentials and Hugo buys fudge. Delphie manages to find an Alchemist’s Kit and decides to go for it.

Now, as a former ‘sailor’ Calypso takes the lead to find someone headed up to Feolinn. It doesn’t take long before they find The Dapper, a river boat that’s made port in Kerras to pick up a shipment. Dante Rose, the first mate, knows Calypso! They were drinking buddies for a little bit years ago. Dante says he’ll talk to the captain and see if they can tag along. He disappears for a few minutes, but comes back with Captain Monpress in tow, who is willing to let them join them as they sail to Feolinn under the conditions that they stay out of the way and feed themselves.

The Dapper is a modestly-sized river boat with a hold, a flat deck with a low railing to make some spots for oars/poles, and only one sail. The party decides to just find some space below decks and keep out of everyone’s way. Not much happens that first day once they’ve set out, sailing Northeast along the coast to Therane so they can take the Starfire River up to Feolinn. So belowdecks, they decide to make ramen on Hugo’s head for dinner, just sort of balancing a pot on top of the diving suit helmet and letting him heat up. After nightfall, when the crew is taking a break, Dante pokes his head down to invite them all to join them for a drinking game. Marasmius puzzles over the offer and asks the group if any of them are of drinking age. (They all are.)

The crew is palling around circled up together on the deck having a good time and explain that the game is Gnome’s Knack. There are four different drinks, each worth a different amount of points, the winner is either first to 10 points or last team standing, whichever happens first. The Dapper’s crew offers up Dante and Luka (the ship’s cartographer) for their team. The party nominates Calypso and Marasmius.

Everyone’s having a rough go of it tonight. The Dapper isn’t doing very good but the party is doing worse. It takes five rounds of everyone choking down their liquor, the previous drinks making trying to get anything else down even harder. Though the party loses definitively when Marasmius, thoroughly wrecked by his previous attempts tries to get one last drink down, throws it back up and passes out. The Dapper wins by default but it’s not like anyone’s having a good time about it.

Calypso and Hugo help carry Marasmius back down into the hold and get him comfy. Delphie uses her Alchemist’s Kit to make him something to settle his stomach and help with the hangover. The group decides now is as good a time as any to get some sleep.

The following morning, The Dapper hits Therane, situated on the delta of the Starfire River. Therane is mostly known for its floating bazaar though most locals and any well-travelled sailors will tell you that the bazaar is too touristy and not worth sticking around too long. Though as they’re trying to leave the city, the ship gets held up at a customs checkpoint, much to Capt. Monpress’ annoyance, he runs a tight ship and goes to great lengths that everything is above board. He doesn’t like the implication that he’s doing anything illegal but eventually they manage to get through. Marasmius tries acting casually to figure out what that was about. Capt. Monpress fumes about how apparently Therane is clamping down on a recent uptick in falsified manifests, people trying to sneak things inland.

Skipping ahead, it takes another day to reach The Dapper’s first proper stop before reaching Feolinn, the city of Dire, about a third of the way up the river. Dire is nestled at the point where the Starfire and Sapling Rivers meet and deal mostly in wood and lumber coming downstream from the Causatum Forest at the other end of the Sapling. Though it’s most striking feature is the meteor floating over it, with a tower built on top The crew needs the day to work on unloading cargo and their own general business. The party can go explore the city but they have to be back by the end of the day or they’re leaving without them.

The party disembarks and decides to go find some breakfast, making note of what’s around for them to check out as they go, and stop at a cozy little diner called The Old Tree. The place is run and operated by a pretty centaur man in a cozy sweater who takes everyone’s orders but gets stumped when Marasmius requests falseberry jam for his pancakes. But he checks to see if they have it anyway.

The party decides to hammer out places they want to visit. Of the parts of the city they saw on the walk here, there’s some sort of visitor’s center, a temple to Orsum and another one to Hecare in the exact opposite direction, as well as the floating tower on the meteor. The plan is to go to the visitor’s center first, then the temples, and if they can figure out how to get them all up there, they’ll go to the tower.

Marasmius gives everyone a piece of saltwater taffy before they head out to explore.

#my post #tal plays dnd #campaign: merano #dnd 5e homebrew #homebrew campaign #merano: calypso #merano: hugo #merano: delphie #merano: marasmius #location: kerras #location: the dapper #location: therane #location: dire #i've been dragging my feet on writing my recaps rip

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