Eyes Unclouded - Session 6
Kawase Hasui. Detail from Crescent Moon on River Tama. ~1935.
These are the records of a lightly modified game of Cairn 2e that I am playing with an in-person group. I've expanded Eyes Unclouded, a now out of print collection of Studio Ghibli themed 5e adventures, into a more open-ended sandbox. You can find our last session here. I'll try to keep these spoiler free, so enjoy!
Back to the Cat King's Castle
This week our dramatis personae were:
- Flame, tiny fire elemental in an automaton body
- Madrigal, halfling forager and werebear
- Sir Percius, law-abiding knight
- Nanaki, "no-face" spirit and artificer
- Ambrose, mountebank with a cart full of sundries
- Jubilo, Eleutherian snail bard
While the rest of the party had slipped into the woods to confront Atakon, the false emissary, Ambrose had been snooping around the Cat King's Castle with Airen. The two found their way up into a study on the third floor. There, Ambrose found a bundle of loose pages that were clearly very old. They presented a firsthand account of Eirnos the Deer God's ascension from the perspective of Alfiann Yve. Ambrose lost track of time and soon it was dawn. He pocketed the ancient book for later reference.
(Flame and Madrigal's players recalled that Alfiann has a quarter named after her in Wealdstone and that they had previously encountered this name in a book of folklore in Master Calvero's study).
Outside, the animals of Eleutheria were anticipating the arrival of the emissary from Fyrir. As the rest of the party began making their way into town, a band started playing. There were jugglers and banner bearers. Nanaki added to the festivity, casting still images of fireworks. Jubilo the Snail was playing a tuba in the band.
The crowd's excitement turned to confusion as the party arrived, Akaton the faerie dragon who had planned to impersonate the emissary struggling under Sir Percius' arm. Not knowing what to do, the band followed them as they headed up to the Cat King's court.
Just Desserts
The castle's banquet hall was filled with a feast of pastries and cakes. The Cat King, enormous as ever, was lounged on his throne at the head of the room. After some jostling, the party eventually explained what was happening and who Atakon had been.
Ambrose rejoined via the spiral staircase in the back of the hall. He bumped into Whimwick lurking there and chipperly led him into the room and out of hiding.
The King, with obvious delight, sentenced Atakon to dish duty, cleaning up after the entire banquet. The guards moved to drag the dragon off to the kitchen, but before they could, Whimwick interjected. The ferret suggested that someone capable of such illusions might make a powerful ally and perhaps should be invited to join the Cat King's court. Merlina protested, but the Cat King turned to the party for their counsel.
Sir Percius used the opportunity not only to tell the King this was an obviously bad idea, but to cast doubt on Whimwick's intentions. The enraged ferret demanded a duel to defend his honor, but the Cat King refused him and ushered him away. Atakon soon followed, off to wait in the kitchen.
That left only the matter of the party's reward. For their services, the King offered them the use of a local guide. He ordered Jubilo to accompany the party and lead them south to the gate to the Verdurous Court. Additionally, he offered the party their choice of a treasure from his collection. Jubilo chimed in at this point and suggested two treasures and the Cat King somewhat bemusedly agreed that two would be acceptable.
The party debated for sometime before settling on two items:
- The Mirror of Perfect Apology - Floor length and fragile, this mirror reveals the viewer's deepest grievances and offers them an eloquent and heartfelt apology. Folklore tells of knights using it as a tower shield to negotiate ceasefires.
- The Nap Stone - A fist-sized gem of amber color faceted into a hexagonal pyramid. Those in its presence sleep contently for exactly 8 hours and cannot be awoken by any interruption.
Nanaki considered cutting the mirror down into a more manageable form. Merlina offered a word of warning - particularly old magical items often develop a will of their own and can be dangerous when tampered with.
A Day Off
With two party members running on fumes and a feasts already prepared, the party decided to take a day to enjoy Eleutheria's hospitality before setting off. During the day:
- Sir Percius indulged his sweet tooth and tried some of the spirit food at the banquet. His head is now orbited by 36 glowing motes.
- Madrigal inquired about purchasing armor and managed to negotiate a bulk discount on some corded silk gambesons from Celyn the Orb Weaver. Other party members refilled their supplies.
- Flame purchased an Encyclopedia of Common Enchantment (a thorough if dubiously accurate work). With Merlina's help, the fire spirit successfully identified their rope - noting that it was a Rope of Mending and would heal itself overnight if cut.
That night the party headed to Eleutheria's lone tavern - the Dead Horse. Jubilo knew the bartender (a burly beaver) and did some jello shots with him. Jello shots are some sort of herbal stimulant distinct from alcohol.
Sir Percius and Nanaki played a rousing card game, drawing a large audience. They earned some cheers and a little celebrity clout.
Madrigal eavesdropped on some of the locals, listening for any news but especially anything about the woods or haunts within. She found out that a) Meroc, the King's scout had yet to return from due west and b) the Woods Inverted were studded with ruins rumored to belong to giant humans.
Flame grilled Jubilo about the local region. The snail revealed that he was over a hundred years old and that snails crawled up into the woods from the grey expanse outside of the woods. The Woods Inverted sat on a set of floating islands that mirrored the exact contours of the Blue Woods. He noted with concern that the new growth was so fast that the Woods Inverted couldn't keep up. New regions were coming in wrong - upside down trees, blocky chunks of rock erupting from the ground, you name it.
Ambrose tried to read the bartender's fortune with a deck of cards. He gave the beaver a somewhat depressing reading using sleight of hand to manipulate the cards - "your grand ventures will fail, but your life will be basically the same." Throughout the reading, Ambrose gleaned some information about other humans that had passed through. They were typically either wizards from the Verdurous Court or people who got lost in the mundane woods and ended up here. He mentioned a court wizard named Ismene, who visited often and was an expert on herbology.
Eventually, the party turned in. There plan was to set off to the south early in the morning.
GM Notes
This was an interesting session. Not a lot happened in some sense, but the players did a lot of roleplaying and learned a lot about the world. Some likened it to a "beach episode" and it definitely had that kind of pace - a little slow, but lighthearted and a nice pause before some danger next week.
The group is up to six with a seventh on the way! This is more players than I usually play with but feels pretty manageable while playing in person. I think there were a few beats where I didn't pass the limelight back to a player/character often enough, but I think we had enough open-ended group decisions that everyone felt involved. I might ask the players to pick a caller next week to help streamline travel and exploration decisions.
Choosing magic items was a great time! All of the items I had invented were weird and only obliquely useful, though all would be pretty valuable to the right buyer. The only real contenders that the party didn't get were the cold-iron saber and one of the Cat King's tokens.
When the party wanted to buy supplies, I really fumbled trying to find a price list in Cairn 2e. I really need to sticky note my copy with some of the tables I am constantly grasping for. In the meantime, I grabbed a nearby version of 5e and just used those tables for now - totally functional in a pinch, if maybe pricy for Cairn's economy.
For Ambrose's fortune-telling, I pulled up Trilemma Adventures' "Tarot of Pips." It was a little clumsy (I said too much when I should have let Ambrose's player take the lead), but it worked out well enough I think.