Eyes Unclouded - Session 7
Kawase Hasui. Summer in Ikaho. 1919
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!
Into the Woods
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
- September, a squirrel druid and practicing violinist
The party set out from Eleutheria in the morning with Jubilo leading the way south. A few hours into their trek they happened upon September, who had also received a letter from Aviquin and arrived in the Inverted Woods a few days prior. The druid was friends with Flame and Nanaki (who had made her violin) and was quickly welcomed into the party.
As the party shared their journey so far, they mentioned the Mirror of Perfect Apology. Nanaki and September decided to try it out. The mirror spoke to each telepathically offering heartfelt condolences and understanding for their respective struggles. No one one else could hear what was said.
September was close to their destination a ruin that had once belonged to giants sequestered deep in the woods. The clearing the druid was in the process of investigating was full of a strange, grasping poison ivy that reached out towards any movement. The party debated a few different means of burning or distracting the ivy, but decided they were all too dangerous and opted to forge a new path through the dense woods.
A Few Trails
The party emerged exhausted onto a trail nearby some 30 minutes later. Someone had tied little blue ribbons to the tree branches at regular intervals to mark the way. September decided to take the opportunity to take the nap, curling up with the Nap Stone while being carried by Flame (or maybe Nanaki?).
They followed the trail to a glade with a small hut in it. Next to the hut several fish were smoking over a low burning fire. Jubilo tooted a greeting on his tuba and a bearded dragon in a patched tunic came running into the clearing. He introduced himself as Drev, a hermit, and solicited alms. The party eventually gave him a coin and trade a pastry from the Cat King's banquet for a smoked fish wrapped in a torn book page.
Drev semi-helpfully warned the party - many people came and went from the ruins ahead but they required a password to traverse safely.
Saying their goodbyes, the party made their way east, passing under a crumbling arch of cyclopean orange masonry and turning down a boulevard lined with fruit trees. At the far end was the giant ruin they had been seeking.
In the Ruin
The ruin itself was orange, composed of huge stones, and shaped roughly like a sweet potato cut in half widthwise. A 15 foot tall aperture loomed on its side and the trees pressed close to its walls. Jubilo noted a small desire path that trailed around the building to the right. Madrigal noticed silky cocoons hanging from the archway, each the size of a human child.
The party used the Mirror of Perfect Apology to direct Flame's light like a spotlight. Panning the light around they saw the opening led into a short antechamber then a large central cavernous room. The light caused something to stir - a huge moth like the one the party had encountered in the Cat King's garden lurked within.
At this point, Airen the once and future apprentice volunteered to stay back with Sir Horsius. She seemed nervous about whatever lurked within. The party debated leaving her out here, but figured it may well be a portal like the one they had used to come here.
Madrigal produced a small fistful of blue lichen that burned with a faint blue light, dim enough to not disturb the moths. She used it to lead the way inside, revealing two giant humanoid statues flanking the entrance to the antechamber from recessed nooks. Each had a huge torso and long articulated arms that dragged on the floor. Their bodies were blocky, but their heads were finely detailed busts. The one to the right had the visage of a disappointed-looking man with a hook nose. The one to the left seemed to have been repaired or had its head replaced with a more generic portrait of a woman.
The party produced the Nap Stone and, by holding it aloft, lulled the moth they had seen into a deep slumber. This let Flame emerge from behind the shutters of the automaton, fully illuminating the ruins. Hanging above them were dozens of the giant moths, clinging to the walls and ceiling of the central chamber.
That chamber was marked with a large circle enclosed by glyphs in an ancient language. In the center was a large green emerald, faceted and set in the floor. Two more exits left the room to the left and right.
Jubilo managed to decipher the runes by drawing on bardic lore and experience with other sites. They repeated a single phrase "TO/FROM AQAT" or "AQAT TO/FROM." The giant language differentiates between those prepositions by context. Nanaki noted that the engraving looked like it had been branded or melted into the floor rather than chiseled.
Splitting Up
The party split up to search the place. Sir Percius and Madrigal went left to see what was in that room while the rest of the party investigated the statues for clues. Some theorized that the two statues were related to the two other exits and might have some clues.
A closer inspection of the statues confirmed their initial observations. Nanaki noted that the female head was a much later addition or repair, made in the last 40 or so years. Jubilo recalled folklore accounts of these statues wandering around or appearing in unexpected places. Nanaki observed that if the statue did move, it must be through magic. It lacked any kind of skeleton or visible power source.
Meanwhile, Sir Percius and Madrigal found the side room to be filled with rows of ancient benches and stacked crates. A fresco on the wall depicted a flying, multi-tiered city - perhaps born aloft by a great fire like a hot air balloon - floating over a sea of trees. Sir Percius muscled open a crate, finding it full of dried roots that Madrigal quickly identified as a ginseng like alchemical ingredient. Curious, they cracked the remaining crates finding them to be filled with a mix of preserved herbs and shelf-stable supplies like beans and rice.
Madrigal decided to try one of the beans and popped it in her mouth. No magical effects ensued, so she confirmed that these were rations from the mundane world left by someone. As soon as she did, the two statues in the other room sprang to life. In unison they shouted "STOP THIEF" (though only Jubilo could parse this) and stomped down from their pedestals. The party also realized they had let the Nap Stone drift from the room filled with moths...
GM Notes
This was a fun session! We started a little late on account of a scheduling miscommunication and introducing September's player to the story so far. These recaps are a form of play in-and-of themselves and there's no rush, but it does mean we had to leave the release of the rising suspense as a cliffhanger for next session.
Seven players is a lot! We had one scene where we had to call a vote this session to determine the next course of action, but mostly it flowed naturally enough. I tried to bring my A-game in terms of bouncing the spotlight between characters more actively. I felt like I handled the split party sequence at the end much more elegantly than some of the previous ones and I think introducing more pressures that require the party to divide their attention might be useful as a way to pace the action going forward.
In terms of pace, I can't say that I love Cairn's forest-crawl procedures, which we were more or less running by the book this session. There were a lot of results that were technically not "no encounter," but the next best thing. I'll probably revert back to the tried and true d6 encounter roll with 1s being a creature and 2s being an omen.
The giant ruin here is interesting. I won't spoil it, but I'm on record as somewhat of a hater when it comes to puzzles in RPGs. I try to set up a situation and disclaim responsibility for the outcome. Puzzles feel like they stray too close to the opposite. How exactly to get the giant ruin to take the party to the Verdurous Court should be crackable from a number of angles and I think the players are engaged with the problem.