Session Recap: Until It Sleeps, Session 1

Finding the theme song was more
work than preparing for session 1.

So, session one, finally, we step foot into the world, evacuate the capital city of Montgomery, and find ourselves outside the walls at a monastery. How did it go?

The Cast

Mortimer ("Morty")

A subterranean elf, Morty was among the most respected undertakers in all of Montgomery, before being ousted. He has secretly been practicing Necromancy, but this wasn't even his worst crime. For some reason, he can't remember, shortly after the embalming of the late Empress Lumi Montgomery, he went mad and attempted to kill the new emperor, Edward Montgomery LVIII. He was apprehended and sentenced to death. Zeke who felt things didn't add up after hearing this story decided to help him escape.

Talbot

Talbot is a mustelidian, or more colloquially, an otter-person. Until the end of the recently deceased empress, he was among the royal gardeners. He has a magical talent for gardening [using Sorcery mechanics] and can usher the elements to his whims using by calling o power through the rhythmic clashing of two stones in either hand. He is enchanted with Zeke's air synthesis, a rare miracle in this day and age, and becomes friends to learn more about him.

Zeke

An Air-Infused religious monk who has betrayed his traditions, and done irreparable harm to his ancestors by selling manuals of their secret techniques to rich but exploitative businessman who have exhausted air aspected mana throughout the empire. To this day, the faintest breeze is considered a miracle. Wanting to give the greedy royals a piece of his mind, he returned to the capital to speak with someone in charge that might help. When this failed, due to an unfortunate switch-up, he found himself imprisoned for a short while in the same dungeon as Morty. He was soon released when the forensics group discovered they made a mistake, but while in the cell, he listened to Zeke's story, and decided it was worth his while to help him break out.

The Log

September 25, 1812 The party decides to leave the capital immediately. It is a death trap for a hot fugitive like Morty. Outside the village, the party stops to shop for basic necessities.

After loading up on the essentials, the party makes way to the most impressive sight in all directions, a humble monastery, dedicated to the goddess of nature and harvest. The characters convince the monks to accommodate them, and they agree in exchange for a modest fee and help tilling the fields.

Zeke decides he would like to see what he can do to befriend the monks. That night, Talbot discovers a brewery on the premises, Morty discovers a larger than modest graveyard, and Zeke creates a disguise charm for Morty in case people come looking for him and a conditional spell to detect anyone with malevolent intentions near him. He then scans the minds of all the monks in the nearby area to find out how many might be sympathetic to the cause of overthrowing the regime, and finds that they are neither especially for nor against the idea. He decides to follow through with a plot to ingratiate himself to the abbey.

After Action Report

• The players enjoyed the Ritual Path Magic system and Zeke especially started exploring the system when given a chance.
• I printed up cheat sheets with decanic modifiers, which lead to the party thinking about buying clothes in matching colors to the decans. Zeke especially invested in a ornately decorated staff to support his path of mind rituals.
• I like that Zeke is saying his plans out loud because I now have some grist for creating the next plot points in the campaign.
• Bonus point opportunity for my players: If you can think of interesting names for the months (at least three) since this is a universe where Rome and Greece never existed, and I like the name, then I'll give an extra character point. Ditto if you can think of an interesting myth plus name for the nature goddess.