Mediums and Messages

The Electrum Archive - Session 4

Hendrik Goltzius. The Fall of Phaëton. 1588. Engraving on paper.

This post continues my account of the micro-campaign of The Electrum Archive I'm running. As ever I'll strive to keep the report spoiler-free for players while still including my impressions as a GM and critical notes for next time. We're in the home stretch, just one or two more sessions to go!

Primordials

This week our party consisted of:

Shabai opted to stay behind at the outpost for the moment (i.e. her player is unavailable for the remainder of the campaign).

This session opened as night fell on Bar Moryn, a border outpost in the foothills of the Rainwall Mountains. The party was walking Zarta, warlock and naturalist, back to the outpost after questioning him.

Et recalled the silvery, ooze-like creature he saw on the horizon and asked if Zarta had heard of anything like that. The naturalist said the description matched something called a "primordial" - a huge single-celled organism that sometimes made its home in caves or other damp biomes. He said they specifically formed symbiotic relationships with carrion rays and other flying animals, feeding on their droppings and preferring the same shelters. He had never heard of a mercury primordial, but the similarity to the quicksilver in the aqueducts couldn't be a coincidence.

Turuta asked how the creatures might be caught. Zarta guessed that a stout barrel would do fine. The trick would be finding out what drove it: light, temperature, vibration, or any number of simple stimuli.

Rough Night at Bar Morvyn

Over dinner, the party decided to keep watch from Bar Morvyn's observation tower, keeping an eye out for another silver primordial or for any signs of who might be tampering with the water.

Dunda kept first watch. He didn't see any suspicious activity, but he did see light and smoke from the northeast and a light in the mountains to the northwest. He deduced that the light to the northeast was likely the home of Enobi, the Irr recluse.

Et took second watch. He lost track of the light in the mountains, but he heard something scraping around down at ground level. Heading down to investigate he ran into Bisir, the honey merchant. Bisir said he went out to check on his bees (since they weren't allowed to stay within the walls). He said he appreciated Et's interest in beekeeping and would be sad to say goodbye because he was leaving for Titan Port in the morning.

Figuring it was odd to check on your bees at midnight, Et went to investigate the hive. He found the structure - half backpack, half crate - just outside Bar Morvyn's walls. Et used a torch to smoke the bees into passivity then opened the hive, revealing an electrum capsule with a note inside:

"Strangers just in. Asking too many questions. Going quiet, then leaving for Bara Mar in three days. Report to S in the mountain for further instruction."

The party wondered whether Bisir was the message's author or recipient. They decided to replace the note and keep watching the hive to see if anyone came to pick it up.

Turuta's watch passed uneventfully, mostly filled with desert wildlife sounds and starlight.

Gun decided to conceal himself down by the hive, ducking behind one of the massive silver struts that supported the overhanging aqueduct. About an hour in, he saw a trio of cloaked figures approach the hive. One read the note and said something about Bisir pulling out. (I forget the exact wording.)

As they turned to go, Gun tried to follow, but the sand squeaked underfoot. The figures immediately turned. Two drew shortswords in the practiced manner of trained duelists. The leader gestured for the other one to retreat.

Gun hid himself behind the pillar then cast Controlling Charm to animate his cloak, sending it running as a decoy. The fighters bought it and he waited for them to pass before running back to the tower.

Slow Pursuit

Turuta decided they needed a little more sleep (i.e. their player needed to leave early).

The group decided to set out in pursuit of the trio using the Sparrowhawk, their ghost-possessed sand skiff. Rather than overtaking the cloaked strangers, they decided to tail them. They found tracks that indicated they were riding saurian striders, desert animals that walked at roughly human speed, but nearly without tiring. By coasting slowly from dune to dune just over the horizon, they were able to lead the ship along at the strangers' pace without being detected.

This slow chase continued for 2 days - enough time for the party to repair an ancient, damaged ballista from Sparrowhawk's hull. The strangers headed due north, approaching a freestanding butte - almost a column of stone that split a slope up to the next terrace of the Rainwall Mountains.

As their quarry went up the slope, the party fashioned camouflage, using a tarp coated in resin from their torches to disguise the silhouette of their ship. Disguised and with their mast lowered, they could only move at walking speed thanks to Ryllufar's spectral push.

The strangers went up the slope and headed West along the ridge. The party decided they could catch up to them and wanted to investigate this butte.

The Climb

The butte itself seemed naturally occurring, maybe 30' x 30' at the base, but gradually tapering as it rose. At the top it seemed to have some kind of manmade structure with a corrugated roof. All along its side were engraved ladder-like handholds that spiraled around the surface like a corkscrew, five stories into the air.

Et volunteered to climb, leaving his pack and taking up a hammer, pitons, and a long rope to lower down. The climb was slow going, but usually quite manageable. About two stories up, Et encountered some handholds that had eroded away, but acrobatically leapt the gap without problem.

The real hurdle came at about 4 stories - maybe only 6 or so feet from the top. The handholds wound themselves around a steep incline that would have left Et dangling. Rather than trying his strength, Et tried to the use a nearby corner to mantle his way up. Sadly his grip slipped and he swung down, dangling from his last piton.

Trying another approach, Et formed the long rope he was carrying into a lasso. He tried to hook anything on the top and eventually caught something.

That something just turned out to be a sleeping carrion ray.

The eagle-sized flying manta ray swooped away brandishing its paralytic sting. From below, Gun aimed a deft arrow and shot it down.

Resolved to make it to the top Et set himself for one last leap, swinging from a fresh piton to try to loop his way onto the plateau at the top. He swung out into the open air.

The Fall

Immediately the fresh piton gave out. Plink. Then the next, plink. Next thing you knew, Et was tumbling freely through the air, dropping four stories.

Gun cast a minor Controlling Charm on an arrow to try to pin Et to the wall by his cloak. The shaft slowed his descend but he ripped out of it and continued to fall.

With just a few yards left to tumble, Dunda lept in to try to catch him or at least absorb the brunt of the damage.

Sadly it wasn't enough and Et struck the ground hard, dying instantly.

Renewal?

Et woke up in the spirit realm, an uncanny negative version of the world he knew. His companions were messy blurs, hard to make out. He felt his connections to them, to his job, to an old flame as small silver threads spinning off into the distance.

The only corporeal figure he saw was Ryllufar. Rather than a shade, the thousand year old pirate ghost seemed like flesh and blood, clad in striped silks and a vest. Ryllufar carried a colossal chain, a ships anchor dripping with ink that bound them to the Sparrowhawk.

In their 1000 years in the tomb, Ryllufar had become an expert at tethering their unfinished business, using it to manipulate the material world. They could teach Et to do the same.

In the physical world, Gun set about swiftly etching sigils all over Et's body while Ryllufar helped Et to focus and make one strand of unfinished business dense and binding. Gun cast Controlling Charm burning a large sum of ink, and Et stood up again, or at least Et's body piloted by Et's ghost.

GM Notes

What a climactic ending! I was worried that the session would be all intrigue and no action, but we got one last climactic moment in.

I had the players roll a test for their watch phase, asking them to describe what they were doing as a way to select from the menu of Attributes. They mostly decided it was a Spirit test, with the one exception of Gun who positioned themselves at ground level to roll Mask.

I adjudicated this like I do most perception tests these days. You always get what you can just see and hear. If you pass the test, you get a deductive leap or something that would require luck / extreme attention to pick up on. I feel a little bad about Turuta failing their roll in a Watch where I had nothing planned, prep-wise, but I didn't want to invent something just to fill airtime.

A lot of this session was spent discussing how best to chase after the trio of strangers - how fast, with what intent, etc. I think either option would have been interesting, but the party ended up choosing the option where Dunda still doesn't really get to use any Vagabond class features. Something to earmark for next time. I can't make them fight, but I can make fights come to them...

I had to adjudicate spells for the first time! I accidentally charged Gun a moderate rate for the minor effect of manipulating his cloak. I think that balanced out by letting him attempt a resurrection(-ish) with the help of Ryllufar for the cost of a Major spell. Still the party burned like their entire take so far this session in spell. Very fun.

I adjudicated the climb as a skill challenge. I set three successes against three failures and gave Et a free success for using the hammer and pitons. Et made it past the first obstacle with ease. The second one... less so. They had two tries for free and I even interpreted the Fixer's Expertise as letting them reroll with advantage for a total of 6 attempts at 50/50 odds. Still nothing. The dice had spoken.

We started the fall at 3d6 (four stories plus the play of their piton system). Gun's spell took another 2d6 off, but an arrow wasn't enough to hold. I probably would have let a moderate spell just pin Et, but you can't splurge all the time! I ruled that Dunda could try to catch Et and split the incoming damage, 1d6 each. Alas, Et had not invested any levels in Health and had a meager 4 to spare...

For the purposes of a short campaign, I figured it was good to let them leverage their ally Ryllufar to keep Et around. New Et can no longer heal by resting, needing to be physically repaired as he is no longer alive as such. I gave Et's player til next session to pick an "unfinished business" to be the thing pulling them forward.