Gaming Report - Dungeon Tours LTD #2 (2015-02-28)
This time a group of ex-adventurers helps a Couple of Noble of Lovers goes through a ritual
- GM: Fábio Emilio Costa
- Players:
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- Eduardo Olveira de Carvalho as Fezair, the Elf Illusionist ;
- Eduardo Olveira de Carvalho as Carvahal, the Warden ;
- Max Fischer as Samir, the Half-Elf Con-Artist ;
- Max Fischer as Till, the Half-Dragon Beast-tamer ;
This Game Report is for a session i Rolled online, using Youtube Live + Roll20. There was two players, each using two characters: Max, using Till, a Half-Dragon Beast-tamer that like to tame So-Called “Evil” Creatures and Samir, the name I gave for the Con-Artist from the Playtest docs; and Eduardo, that played with Carvahal, the Warden from the docs and Fezair, an Illusionist Elf, that although Not as Traditionalist as expected for an elf, he Always looks nice and clean.
I didn’t used this time The Lil’ Lord Fitzroy Job, creating my own job. In this case, the Contractor was the local druid and old-time acquaintance of the PCs, Sarek, that came with a great problem:
Every year, the Kingdom Druids does a ritual of fertility with two lovers, that are sent into a magical glen to pass through a series of challenges to prove their love and get in the middle of it. If the lovers does that before the twilight, this is understood as a signal that the Nature Deities are for the people and the crops will be good.
The problem at this year was that the lottery to choose the couple to be chosen as The Lovers for the ritual gave a couple of nobles, Lord Marcus and Lady Alexandria, the sons of Lord Marcer and Lady Anders, two of the most powerful of the nobles of the Kingdom. And although no one had died before in this ritual, stories about lost limbs and people getting out without eyes or even limbs were not unheard, and this would put Sarek into hot pants!
Sarek then heard about some adventurers that faked dungeons for profit and thought on asking his friends (the PCs) for some help, so the noble Lovers could get through the ritual without “too much risks”. The PCs asked about the ritual requirements and Sarek mentioned about the need of Wild Creatures, like pixies, sprites, and so, about The Challenge for Love, like creatures that could seduce the two, and about the need of Obstacles to their Loves, so they (the Lovers) could prove their love is pure and true.
Samir asked about the love between Lord Marcus and Lady Alexandria, and Sarek says that, although in the past some of the Couples that undergone by the ritual were part of arranged marriages, they were really in love, and he put a Love Conquers All Aspect, but in a Success with a Cost that I held for the future.
After talking with Sarek, the group splitted for their preparation for the Build: Carvahal and Till gone to the “sacred glen” to find the Fair People of the Forest and talk with them, while Fezair and Samir would talk with the Lovers.
They knew the “basics” of the ritual: the Lovers would, after a time of ritual fasting and cleansing, be sent to the glen and, after a blessing, put into opposite sides of the glen, entering it and trying to find their way to the middle of the glen, where they would be blesssed by achieving success in the ritual. The ritual fasting and cleansing goes by one week and the PCs found the Lovers into opposite towers of the God of Peace’s, Zingg, temple, dressed into ritualistic white clothes and doing a series of cleansing rituals under the clergy supervision.
The PCs talked the Lovers and Samir did a Create Advantage, that said he was working into the Ballad of the Noble Lovers, checking with Flashy and using his New Best Bud! Stunt. After spending 1FP for a reroll, he discovered that they were really in love, even their families having for each other nothing more or less than despise, just approving this as an infatuation of the young or as a way to stabilish power in the kingdom.
Samir discovered a Hidden Aspect for both, but he put as a Free Invoke into Love Conquers All, and he receive also some of the Hidden Talents of the Lovers: Lady Alexandria Sings like a princess (as in Disney) and Lord Marcus would be Unstoppable on his love for Alexandria. Also he discovered the Pet Peeves for them, but it was plain things: Not too much gore or blood or dirt…
In the meantime, Fezair gone to talk with the Lords (once by time) and asked about how much they both were worried about their sons and the agreements involved in this potential marriage. To improve his chances, Fezair used his Always Nice and clean aspect for a +2 in his roll to make the Lords confortable with him, as he didn’t looked like some good-for-nothing “adventurer”. He confirmed the despiste both the Lords have with each other the Lords’ main Pet Peevee: I want my son unscathed!, both thinks, as all kind of things in the past happened with the Lovers in the ritual, from little geasa or curses placed by pixies to people (lower-class, obviously) that were rendered armless or legless! Then I talked them about the Requirement, Hidden Talents and Pet Peevees.
For Carvahal and Till, I that they were trying to provide The “Sacred Glen” (The Location, part 1C) and started to track the kind of things that could be find there. They discovered (via Till) that this was a somewhat common place with somewhat common things, like eagles, owls, and even some creatures like Owlbears and Hippogriphs. However, while investigating the glen, Carvahal (even using 2FP for rerolls) suffered a cost for a Tie, were I made him to mark Stress 1 box, but only being able to clea it after Build Day 1, when he discovered a Hippogriph Nest, with a Pregnant Female.
They got back to Sarek, and he said that (a) they have 5 days to Build the “dungeon” and that (b) as each of the Lovers would go into the glen by opposite sides, there would be needed two chaperones at least, one for each of the Lovers. As the Lovers were into the cleansing for the ritual, there would no need for some of them to stay with the Lovers. So, the four of them would be into the Build.
First of all, they would improve the Legend (that was the Fertility Ritual). Samir created a Only True Lovers hears the Pixies and can sing their Love Aspect. They chosed to split the Glen into 8 “rooms”, with the glen the middle of the forest as center being the 9th. They also split the “rooms” into 3 for Lady Alexandria and 5 for Lord Marcus. This part was a pain in the ass because of Roll20 crappy drawing tools and my crappy drawing skills.
This was the Sacred Glen, and the Challen## Headingges
| “Room” | Threat | Type | Invokes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Stone in the Sword (would provide the Fake “Dragon-Slayer” Sword) | Real | Boost |
| 2 | Thorn Wall with blunt Thorns and Snakes | Real | 3 |
| 3 | The Darkbringer Wolf (an Metamorph) | Real | 1 |
| 4 | “Living” Trees (manipulated by the Forest Creatures) | Real | 2 |
| 5 | Ghastly Poltergeist Illusion | Fake | 2 |
| 6 | The “Sphinx” (in fact, a Female Centaur) Temptation | Fake | 2 |
| 7 | Orc Tribe | Real | 4 |
| 8 | “Evil Red” Dragon (in fact, a Copper Dragon that likes a joke) | Real | 2 |
| 9 | The True Love Pixies | Real | 3 |
Also, as a house rule, they wanted some kind of Dungeon Aspects that could be used at any time. As they had lots of success during the Build, I provided the following Aspects to be used:
441The highlights during the Build were:
While people start to came next Day (the Tour), and people came and even bet on how much limbs each of the Lovers would finish with after the ritual, the PCs decided that Carvahal would go with Lady Anders and Till would go with Lord Marten discovered that with Lord Marten and Lady Anders came TWO Cynics:
They started to go through the Dungeon and, althought things was a little complex and they suffered a lot (specially Carvahal, as Lord Marten’s side had more Real Threats than Lady Arden’s), with either received Mild and Moderate Consequences, it was when the both Twists were triggered:
And in the End, the PCs had, in the Room 9, to split 14 Stress… But Till acted to convince Lady Arden’s Brother about the ritual importance. By being successful, he re-enabled the use of the Beasts and Magical Creatures, which allowed than to use it the final win and all of them
For the Final Impression, they had a big +22, against Difficult 8 (9 rooms): 9 victories + no Pet Peeves put in the game + used the Hidden Talents of both Lady Ardens (sang in the last room) and Lord Marten (fought for his love agains the Dragon and the Orcs), and even a -1 roll warranted a Success with Style and a very Happy Ending for the Lovers.
By the way, in the end they were royally paid by Sarek and they choosed to use the money to open a kind of medieval Start-up company, that would provide “fun” in Dungeon Crawling…
It’s name? Dungeon Tours LTD