Blue Rose: The Finale, Now With Sea Dragons!

Yesterday we finished up our Blue Rose story run by my son Cael, in his inaugural foray into GMing. Here's last time!

Our heroes spend some time cleaning up the reef, recruiting help from the village of Ray'fin. They try and clean the mold above a certain depth, hoping to keep the mysterious and terrible sleeping leviathan to the deeps. 

The annual feast day in the surface village of Amber Bay rolls around, and still no mold-pocalypse. The characters head up on land to walk around. Well, Adad and Makala walk. Gali stays in the water with her dolphin friends, and Greeni crawls into a bucket and brachiates or uses Move Object to hover around. 

The craftsmen of the village have their wares on display, and so Makala goes looking for a new she can use in combat. She finds one that's really meant for fishing, but spends a little time altering it with weights so it'll work as an entangling weapon. 

Adad is accompanying two of his younger siblings (younger sister Zho and little brother Po), and his two niblings, the twins Tyll and Fyll. As such, he's spending a lot of the time at the feast reminding them that while in the water things tend to sink gently, on land they just drop so they need to be careful what they handle. 

As they're walking around the village, Zho finds a shop with an intricately carved door, but no one is in evidence and there's no indication of what the shop might sell. She asks if she can go in; Adad tells her maybe knock first. She does, and the door creeeeaks open to reveal a store full of weird trinkets and curiosities. 

As they're looking around, a man with a great big bushy beard and an eyepatch pops out and welcomes them to the shop. This is the place to purchase the peculiar treasures of the sea! He shows Adad a gold spyglass that makes things glow, maybe some kind of aura-reader. Adad shows interest, but it's far too expensive. The man shows him a potion that, he claims, is a way to make psychic contact with any mind, no matter how powerful. Adad knows a little something about such magic, and reflecting that making contact with the immensely powerful being in the deeps might be necessary, buys it. And then he gets the kids the heck out of that store before the ancient Aldin maxim of "ya break it, ya buy it" becomes relevant.

Greeni, meanwhile, finds a stall with a bunch of octopi hung up from hooks! Initially horrified, they realize that these are children's toys made from fabric. They talk with the proprietor (who is remarkably chill about mental communication with an octopus in a bucket), and explains that one can pay money to take part in a competition to win one of these. Greeni isn't really interesting in winning a stuffed octopus (they find it a little creepy, honestly), but then the man pulls out a stuffed human doll and they're all about that! Greeni mentally contacts Adad (as Greeni has no money), and Adad walks up, each hand being tugged by a five-year-old. 

Adad pays for a go, and Greeni has to fling balls at bottles full of liquid. Get one in the bottle, win the prize! Greeni tries twice just hurling the ball and manages to hit and knock over the bottle, but on the last try casts Move Object and guides their throw a bit more, winning! The man pulls out a doll to give to Greeni, this one with a mild enchantment that will keep it from getting waterlogged.

The characters meet back up by the water's edge (where Gali has been taking part in some rhy-fen competition involving juggling), and relax for the feast. The leader of the village gives a brief speech and is about to start the festivities, when an underwater quake nearly knocks them all over! The characters spring into action - Makala tosses Greeni into the water and dives in, and Adad hands his charges over to his older brother Adz and follows. The swim down towards the quake and see...mold, creeping toward Ray'fin. The mold has even formed into three distinct entities, two fairly small blobs and one humanoid sized creature. And these molds aren't interested in discourse! 

(Mold Discourse is my psychedelic jam Nirvana cover band.)

Greeni swims straight for the biggest one and casts Cure, remembering that this healing spell was damaging to the mold. And it works! The mold bubbles and disintegrates, but more fills the void. Makala and Gali follow up with spear and snout-slams, and Adad summons a psychic staff and bonks one of the mold-blobs. The mold defends itself, striking back at the characters and sapping energy, but the main one (his name is Harold. OK, it's "the Ebony's Herald") mentally dominates Makala. Adad quickly snaps her out of it; having their best and most dangerous warrior under the mold's control would end this fight quickly!

The heroes battle mold, fighting it to a standstill and destroying the two minor blobs, but the Herald flows back against the cliff wall and absorbs more of the mold, healing itself. And then the rumbling starts anew, and the heroes realize the creature in the deeps is waking up. Greeni grabs the potion off Adad's belt and quaffs it, and reaches out to the leviathan below. The shopkeeper wasn't lying; Greeni is immediately able to make contact.

The leviathan's mind is a maze of shattered mirrors - grief, loss, time, and most of all, hunger. Greeni tries to sort through it and help the creature awaken, and Adad joins them (linking first to Greeni's mind and then piggybacking through to the leviathan). They focus on the hunger, trying to bring the creature to consciousness, while Makala and Gali keep the Herald busy...and finally, it works.

The sea dragon's head emerges from the caves below and it devours the Herald in one bite. It brings Gali and Makala into the mental conversation and reveals who and what it is - Roara, once the protector of these reefs, worshiped by the bustling metropolis of Ray'fin thousands of years ago. Once she was bedecked in gold and gems, with carvings of her on every wall, but then...

She had pups, she says, and she turned her attention away for a moment. She doesn't reveal exactly what happened, but her overwhelming feeling of loss is clear. She succumbed to her hunger and slept for too long. 

She slurps up the rest of the mold, and the characters ask if she would like to meet the people who live here now. She rises them up to the surface, and her head breaches just as a group of rhy-fen are dancing for the people of Amber Bay. The Sea Dragon has returned! 

(Roll credits over Roara rest her head on the beach as the bravest of the children of Amber Bay and Ray'fin climb on her face-fins.)

Blue Rose: Tight Spaces

Tonight was Blue Rose. Everybody into the pool! Here's last time.

Our heroes descend into the depths, and into the ravine searching for info or clues on the evil black mold that threatens their reefs. They find two caverns, on opposite sides of the ravine, and pick one to investigate. 

Adad goes first, perhaps foolishly. He finds a smaller sub-chamber with a bunch of mold on the south side. He hugs the north side, since staying away from the mold seems wise, and feels teeth sink into his shoulder. He lurches around and sees eels - they look like morays, but they're much bigger than usual, nearly 10 feet long! 

Adad sends out a psychic beacon for his friends, and they coming swimming in after him. Makala strikes with her trident and wounds ones, while Gali charges at the one biting Adad and chomps its tail. It lets go, and Adad punches it in the side of the head, killing it. Greeni tries to cast a spell to close one of the eels' jaws, but that doesn't work, so she just puts one to sleep. It takes some doing, and the remaining eel chews on Gali pretty good, but they do manage to kill it. 

The heroes investigate the mold a bit more. It seems to be moving, almost hungrily. Adad grabs a rock and prods at the mold, and the mold grabs the rock and eats it. The characters blink a bit. 

Greeni squeezes through a small opening at the other end of the room and winds up in a chamber with branching pathways. There's also a pile of rocks, apparently from a cave-in. She pokes at them a little, but they're too heavy for her to move without help. 

Meanwhile, Adad, always a bit more curious than cautious, punches the mold, focusing his Arcane Strike. If the mold is magical in nature, maybe a magic punch will damage it? It kind of works - the mold moves like it's got a mind and then closes around Adad's fist. He casts Body Control and rejects the mold before it eats him, but this stuff is a lot more dangerous - and aware - than the characters thought.

When Adad punches the mold, the area quakes, just a little. It seems to emanate from the pile of boulders, so they decide to check the other pathways first. One leads down a long hallway and back into the ravine, which is nice because it means they don't have to squeeze through that narrow pathway. The other leads to a small chamber with a huge blob of mold (Greeni sees this and backs out slowly). 

The only way is forward, so Makala and Adad (as the only two with thumbs) get to work and start moving boulders. They eventually get enough shifted that Greeni can squeeze through, and on the other side she finds more mold, and a room with a huge, living something. It seems to be breathing, but she can't see well enough to check and she isn't going to get closer. She retreats back to the others, and they move a few more rocks, just enough that Adad can use Body Control to make himself flexible enough to squeeze in.

The being the room appears to be a sea dragon. It's curled up and asleep, but definitely alive. Adad casts a spell and makes psychic contact, and finds that it is hungry. Adad thinks about the mold, trying to see the dragon's opinion on it, and this just makes it hungrier. It's definitely gonna eat that mold.

The characters surface and talk this through. The dragon eating the mold would be great, except that their reef is covered in the stuff. Makala swims back to Ray'fin and asks some of the elders if they've heard of a mold-eating dragon, and there are indeed legends of a catastrophe about 150 years ago. Evidently a dragon surfaced from the deeps and laid waste to the village, utterly destroying it. This is apparently primed to happen again.

The characters figure they don't have much chance of battling the sea dragon (and they don't really want to kill it - it's just hungry, after all, not evil). Instead, they decide to focus on a two-pronged approach: cleanse the reef so that the dragon won't be tempted to coming up into the shallower waters, and try to create a trail of mold to lead it where they want it to go. They find Teali, who's still panicky and sleep deprived, and Greeni, after trying to tell him the plan, casts Sleep to help the poor guy rest. 

They tuck him somewhere safe and get to work.

Blue Rose: Attack of the Deflated Volleyballs

Today we started a new Blue Rose game! We are in the village of Ray'fin, south of Amber Bay, in the water, so you know what that means! Fish!

Ahem. Meet the characters:

• Greeni: Greeni is a rhy-bo, a dumbo octopus. The rhy-bo take care of a particular section of the Reef, keeping the coral safe and healthy. They don't have names, but are designated by their jobs. Greeni takes care of the green coral. 
• Gali: Gali is a rhy-fen (dolphin). She's deeply connected to her pod and was the one who introduced Greeni to the village of Rayfin. 
• Makala: A sea-folk warrior, she's a liaison to the town of Amber Bay and a protector of the reef and Ray'fin. She also saved the life of Adad's little sister when she wandered too far from home. 
• Adad: A sea-folk warrior. Adad practices meditative magic, more inward focused and intent on self-control and improvement than affecting the outside. He also has a very big family - three parents, a bunch of siblings, and a small but growing collection of niblings. 

The children of the Ray'fin have, of late, become lethargic. Not to the point that anyone is thinking there's an illness running rampant, but enough that it's noticeable. Adad swims out to the Reef to ask Greeni if she's seen anything weird or concerning of late.

And indeed, some of the coral seems to have a kind of mold on it. Adad casts Second Sight and notes that while it's not overtly magical, at least not powerfully so, it does have a kind of "off" vibe to it. He and Greeni swim further down the Reef to where the coral turns teal, and speak to Teali, the rhy-bo that protects that section. 

Teali says that she's tried to clean off the mold and points out a hole in the rock that seems to be just full of the stuff. She also seems tired and bleary, more than a bit run down. Greeni and Adad decide to swim up to the surface and look for Gali - Adad is curious to know if the rhy-fen pod have noticed anything.

Up on the surface, Makala and Gali meet with Thyria, the matriarch of Amber Bay, and talk about trading and contact between their people (Gali dances and entertains the children). Adad and Greeni surface and call to Gali, and Makala joins them out of curiosity. 

They dive back down and check out the mold. No one has seen anything like this before, and all of them are concerned by it. Adad and Makala use their special abilities (that is, thumbs) to scoop some up in a shell and take it back to the surface for study. Adad discovers that the stuff sizzles in sunlight - a sure sign of Corruption. Greeni casts a Cure spell on it and it shrieks and turns to dust. That might destroy it, but who knows what effect that shriek (with its psychic and sonic components) might have on the Reef.

The characters dive back down and talk to Teali again, and realize that she's on the verge of a breakdown. Cleaning the Reef and trying to fight back the mold is clearly taking a toll. They decide to descend a bit more, and trying to find a cave entrance or something that might lead to more of the stuff, maybe an origin point.

The four of them descend into a part of the Reef past a drop-off, and Greeni bumps into a section of coral that's been chewed on and cracked off. Adad knows what did this - coral crushers, and there's a school of them swimming this way!

The horrible little fish are sort of similar to piranha, but larger and more...squishy. There's an especially large one directing the others, and they immediately make for Greeni and start biting (rhy-bo are especially delicious). Greeni spews a bunch of ink and swims away to hide, and the crushers turn their attention to Adad, who enhances himself magically and starts punchin' some fish! Gali and Makala, much more skilled as combatants, strike fish, and between the four of them, they manage to kill the alpha crusher and most of the smaller ones. It takes a toll, though, and Greeni spends some time casting some healing spells. Adad casts Body Control and stops himself from bleeding (there are bigger fish down here than coral crushers, and the characters have no desire to meet one), and the characters gingerly pick their way deeper.

They find another drop-off, leading into a ravine, and the mold definitely gets thicker and stronger there. They decide to return to the surface, resupply, and head back down when they're up to par.

Next time, we'll see what awaits them in Ray'fin!

Blue Rose: Sauce for the Goose

My younger son requested I start running a Blue Rose game for him and a couple of his friends, and what the heck, that game's a lot of fun. This saga follows the end of the last one by some time (I'll figure out how much time if it becomes relevant). Meet the characters!

• Pe'lusa is a rhy-weasel adept. He's quick, mischievous, and enthusiastic. He wears a necklace, which marks him as rhydan if you're paying attention. 
• Saridon is a vata'an expert. Originally from the forest in the Pavin Weald, Saridon was raised by his older sister, who taught him healing magic. She died of a plague that resisted all attempts to heal it, magical or otherwise.
• Fynix is a vata'an expert, too! He hails from Kern, where he grew up with his abusive father. His parents died of disease (probably the same plague that killed Saridon's sister), although by the time that happened he had run off. 

The three of them have formed a little thieving band. They live in a tree house in the Thieves' Forest, a section of the Weald north of the town of Ennevan. The Forest is the domain of Lucius, a rhy-wolf, who runs the Pack, a gang of rhy-wolves, a couple of rhy-bears, and some human and night person toughs. Lucius keeps the peace amongst the scoundrels of the Forest. He takes a cut of people's spoils, but he doesn't allow thieves to steal from or harm each other while in the Forest. 

On this particular day, the lads are in the Forest. Saridon is tending to his hair and face (he's somewhat vain), while Fynix is sleeping off a late night. Pe'lasu is practicing magic, trying to refine his control of Move Object. He overhears another couple of thieves talking about a "fine, fat goose" - a traveling noble named Corlis Gorgan who has been moving around the area with an entourage. Corlis apparently travels in style, with expensive clothes and foodstuffs. These two thieves are not, for whatever reason, planning to rob him, at least not yet. They don't notice the weasel on the forest floor near them.

Pe'lasu scampers back to the tree and bounces on Fynix' head to wake him. He tells the other two about Corlis, and they agree this sounds like a solid score. They figure they need more info, though, so Pe'lasu heads into Ennevan to listen to some gossip. 

He returns that evening, a little wiser. Corlis Gorgan is a noble from Aldis, but his cariad is from Ennevan, so he took a circuit as a traveling noble up here so said cariad could visit family. Gorgan is known as an aesthete and a gourmand, and he travels with a chef and a dresser...as well as a small handful of guards. The thieves figure that they can't approach this as a direct confrontation, but they can probably sneak into the caravan after dark. 

Saridon puzzles over a map of the area and finds the most likely place for them to make camp - a grassy area near a stream and a crossroads. The thieves go and stake the place out, and decide on a clever plan. They spend most of a day digging a hole in a nearby copse of trees, and then Pe'lasu climbs a tree and watches. 

The caravan approaches, and Pe'lasu casts Water Shaping, draws water from the stream, and muddies the road. The driver of the carriage is clearly tired and isn't watching the road, and the wagon gets stuck. The characters watch carefully as guards get out, and Saridon and Fynix note that the guards are carrying staves, not swords, which is a little unusual. The leader of the guards, a woman named Amand, scans the area, but doesn't notice them. 

The guards build a fire and the thieves get to work. Pe'lasu uses Psychic Contact to link them, and Saridon sneaks into Gorgan's wagon. He knocks Gorgan out and proceeds to rob the place, move goods and finery back to Fynix, who puts it in the hole they dug. Saridon steals books, clothes, combs (which he keeps, obviously), food, and whatever other valuables he can carry. And then, before anyone is the wiser, Pe'lasu uses Plant Shaping to cover the hole, and the thieves bugger off, planning to come back for the loot once the caravan has moved on.

Next session, we'll see how that goes.

Blue Rose: The Grand Finale

Or, as Zapp Brannigan would say, the "grand finally."

Last time, the party battled (and defeated!) Qinis and a big ol' wyvern, and then cracked open the tomb of the Mad Seer...I mean, just click the link. The important this is, now they're fighting a handful of needle-fingered darkfiends and a huge humanoid headless creature - Nettas, the darkfiend whose skull Kisha currently carries in her clothes.

Nettas demands the Mask, and the heroes pause for a moment. The vision that Arlen had seemed to indicate that they do indeed have to give Nettas the Mask in order to defeat him, but do they want to do that now? Dobbin, always one for a direct response, shoots one of the minor fiends and the fight is on.

The darkfiends immediately surround Kisha and try to rip her apart. Nettas, too, strikes at her, but is too big to strike the ever-nimble Kisha. The heroes focus on the darkfiends first, figuring that Nettas is probably invulnerable to their weapons but wanting to thin the field a bit.

Nettas, horribly, responds by reanimating the body of the wyvern! It stings Arlen with its tail and goes in for a bite on Kisha, but Dobbin fires an arrow into its head and knocks it off the edge of the island into the sea.

The heroes fight on, wearing the darkfiends down, destroying some, but Kisha is pretty badly injured. Arlen casts Cure on her to keep her on her feet, and of course she's quick enough that she's avoiding most of the blows, but every so often a darkfiend strikes. The fiends, too, seem willing to weather whatever punishment the heroes dish out, just to try and get to the Mask.

Nettas leans down and touches the rubble of the Tomb, and more darkfiends spring up. Arlen has a vision, and sees them throwing the Mask to Nettas, who then becomes solid. Arlen figures that, no matter what, they need to defeat Nettas with his skull restored, and yells to Kisha to give him the Mask.

Kisha tosses it up and Nettas catches it, reabsorbing it into his neck-stump. Arlen notices that he drops a few inches to the ground, as though he's become a bit more solid. The heroes attack, Arlen with the bolts of purifying light, Dobbin with arrows, and Kisha and Whirlpool with their melee weapons, and they find that their weapons connect.

Arlen summons the purifying light of Selene and drives the minor darkfiends to the edge of the island, and then moves forward, pushing them into the sea. The others beat on Nettas, and he grows smaller until he is only a little bigger than Whirlpool, whereupon Whirlpool leaps up and crushes his skull - the Mask of Ebban, with his trident.

Nettas falls to the ground and seeps into the earth. The rocks that made up Miriana's Tomb liquefy into a horrible tar, absorbing his body, but then a woman stands up out of it. She's beautiful, but a little too perfect, a little too symmetrical, and her face is twisted in an expression of hate and envy. She reaches out for the characters and they brace themselves for a (probably short-lived) battle with Ulasta, Exarch of Envy...

...but then they feel a gentle hand on their shoulders (all four of them at once!). They step aside, and a woman made of moonlight steps forward and lays a hand on Ulasta's chest. The Exarch screams in rage and falls back into the tar, which then sinks into the earth. Selene, the moon-goddess, turns to the heroes and kisses Arlen gently on the forehead. She gestures them onto a disc of moonlight, and they find themselves flying through the air over Basketh Bay as the spire collapses into the sea behind them.

They arrive at the palace in Aldis, and the Queen receives them once again. They are awarded medals for their service, and, their quest complete, the party goes their separate ways.

Kisha asks for, and receives, a bequest of land from the queen, on which to found her own household.

Dobbin serves for a year in the Finest, but then returns to the village of Riverside and learns the craft of baking from Myon, finding the simple home she's always wanted.

Arlen stays with the Finest for a few years, but then leaves and also returns to Riverside. He, however, does so to find Balstir's herd, and runs with the horses, spreading the word of Selene. He also writes and publishes a chronicle of the quest, based on his sketches and notes.

Whirlpool, after a similar stint in the Finest, acquires a ship and becomes a treasure-hunter and privateer, sailing the seas in search of lost artifacts of power.

FIN

Blue Rose: Mad Seer Tastes the Cold Sea

We're in the endgame now. Here's last time.

The characters stand before Miriana's Tomb on this weird isle of peace in the middle of the Leviathan's Teeth. They start by hacking away at the vegetation covering it, until they can see it clearly - a small, oddly clean marble mausoleum. It doesn't have a door, just a white block of marble perfectly fitted into the front opening, so tight that not even air can get in.

As they're pondering their next move, they hear a horrific screech from above, and they see a monstrous dragon-like creature bearing down on them. On its back - Qinis, still ghoulishly pale, gripping his trident.

Whirlpool hurls his dirk at the wyvern and tears its wing, dropping it slightly. Kisha establishes Psychic Contact with Qinis and tries to rid his mind of outside influence, but nothing happens - apparently he's not being controlled. Dobbin takes a more direct approach and shoots him off his mount. He lands and strikes Arlen with his trident, but Arlen casts Plant Shaping and entangles him.

The wyvern swoops down, biting a clawing, and the characters attack. Whirlpool jumps on top of it and starts stabbing away with his trident, but the thing stabs him with its tail and flings him off. Qinis frees himself from the foliage and attacks Arlen again, but Arlen sets the vegetation on fire and hurls Qinis back into it. Dobbin shoots him again and knocks him further into the flames, and Kisha and Pansy attack the Wyvern. Whirlpool stabs it in the side and bears it to the ground - still dangerous, but not as likely to carry anyone off into the sea.

Qinis manages to free himself, but Kisha casts Calm on his mind and removes his aggression, so all he does is put out the fire and brace himself (whereupon Arlen imbues his staff with magic light and bops him, which ends that calm). Whirlpool finishes off the wyvern with a mighty thrust of his trident, and then charges at Qinis. He pins his head between the tines, and Dobbin puts an arrow between his eyes, finally killing him. Whirlpool, noting that he's already come back several times, beheads him and throws his head into the sea, and then puts his body in the burning half of the island.

But now the characters are faced with a conundrum - how to get into the Tomb? It seems to be magically sealed; Arlen tries to magically move the block and finds that even if he could manage the weight, he can't get around the magic. Whirlpool punches it a couple of times, but doesn't see much result. Kisha casts Second Sight and figures that introducing a little chaos into this artificial stasis might help, so she creates an illusion of a tragic play from her homeland of Kern on top of the crypt.

Arlen, meanwhile, figures that the light of Selene might at least annoy whatever force is in control here, so calls on Purifying Light. At this, the illusions of the Kernish shadow-creatures come to threaten the young lovers (for 'tis the plot of the play) attack! Dobbin fells one with an arrow and Whirlpool beheads one with his sword, and both of them feel a weird pull to join the story, though they resist it. The "warriors" set fire to the "village", and Whirlpool gets caught up, catching fire and running around trying to extinguish it.

Arlen calls to Kisha to drop the illusion, which she does, and the fire goes out. With the Purifying Light, though, Arlen notes that the places where Whirlpool punched the door are scuffed. It should, therefore, be possible to break it, though it might take some work. The characters get to that work, Whirlpool and Kisha battering through it and Arlen hurling bolts of light, and finally the block cracks.

Whirlpool uses Water Shaping to summon up sea water from far below and hurls it against the block, flooding the crypt. The Mad Seer has, at last, tasted the cold sea.

And then the crypt explodes, nearly knocking them all into the ocean. The shadowgate below them opens, and darkfiends begin crawling out of the ground. One of them, a huge, black monstrosity, has no recognizable head, just a shapeless lump on it shoulders. That, then, would be Nettas, and they've got what's left of its skull with them.

Next time, the exciting conclusion!

Blue Rose: Into the Sunshine

Roses are blue, violets are fragrant, why murder-hobo when you can kill-vagrant. Here's last time.

Darkfiends drop from the ceiling like cockroaches in a cheap motel! They surround our heroes and charge in, their fingers and fangs dripping poison. Most of them attack Kisha, trying to get to the Mask, and they manage to do some damage before Arlen calls on Purifying Light. It drives back most of the darkfiends and they scuttle to the walls, hissing at the heroes.

Arlen hands the map to Whirlpool to figure out which of the three exits from this room is the right one, and he susses it out pretty quickly. But then the heroes hear a horrific voice in their heads, petulantly demanding the light that Arlen wields. Kisha considers their options; they think about trying to destroy the shadowgate above their heads, but the sea-folk they talked to said that this gate doesn't seem to want to budge. They decide to handle the Mask and come back for the gate later, maybe.

They head for the exit, but the voice returns and screams at the darkfiends to stop them and get the Mask, even if they have to burn. The ceiling shifts and starts closing off the exit as some of the darkfiends force their way into the light, crying out in pain all the while. Pansy and Whirlpool throw themselves under the collapsing rock, and Kisha tosses the Mask, too. But now Dobbin, Kisha, and Arlen are stuck in the room with the darkfiends, while Whirlpool is trapped in a tunnel with the Mask (and Pansy, of course, who frantically digs at the stone).

Kisha uses Psychic Contact to tell Whirlpool to use his trident as a lever, while Kisha does the same thing from her side using her staff. They manage, with a great deal of effort, to lift the rock enough that the others can crawl under it, but now they have a conundrum: Kisha is holding up the rock. Arlen has to concentrate to maintain the light. How are they all going to get through?

Dobbin holds off the darkfiends with some arrows, and then dives under the boulder. Arlen follows, and then Kisha's grip slips and the rock starts to shift (Whirlpool, fortunately, has managed to brace it well on his end). The darkfiends bite at Kisha and nearly kill her, but Arlen casts Move Object and yanks Kisha under the rock, pulling her to safety.

Whirlpool and Arlen help Kisha with her wounds, and the party presses on, eventually emerging from the dark tunnels into the light. They're standing on an island in the Leviathan's Teeth. It's sunny and spring-like, and the small island boasts only one notable feature: a tomb, right in the middle, covered in moss and vines and lovely blossoms.

The heroes sit and rest. Their quest is almost at an end, and yet, this might be the hardest part.

Blue Rose: Wriggle On

Blue Rose, ahoy! Last time here.

The characters are heading up through tiny, cramped tunnels, going to the surface and, hopefully, Miriana's Tomb. But that seems so far away when they're wriggling through the dark.

The party winds its way through the tunnels, with Arlen providing light and Pansy guiding the way in psychic contact with Dobbin. Pansy makes clear that she hates this. Everything is wet and her paws are wet and it smells like dead fish and her eyes are droopy and she's afraid Dobbin is going to get stuck.

Dobbin reassures her, and they soldier one. Pansy tells them that the tunnel goes away up ahead, and sure enough, it empties into a huge flooded cavern. Arlen checks the map and realizes that, yep, this chamber should be empty, but it must have flooded somehow. Whirlpool dives down into the water to try and get some bearings, and sees a lot of sharks. They're not bothering the party, but they're there, and that makes everyone nervous.

Whirlpool goes further into the cave and finds some exits, but doesn't know which one is the right one. He swims back and Arlen takes a deep breath and heads down, spotting the right exit. Whirlpool swims through holding a rope, finds where the tunnel juts up and there's air again, and everyone swims through, past the sharks, and back into the tight tunnels once more.

They wriggle on, and suddenly Pansy starts thinking "SNAKE! LADY!" at Dobbin. Dobbin glances over and sees a human face staring at her from the wall. She grabs for Pansy and starts moving on, and the woman asks her if she's planning to eat that little mammal. Dobbin holds Pansy close and says that she's her companion and friend, not food, and the snake-lady nods and retreats. Dobbin relays this to the others, and they grit their teeth and keep wriggling.

This tunnel empties into a small room with knee-deep water. The characters leave the tunnel and take a minute to breath and stretch, but then notice sharpened pieces of coral or bone sticking out of the silt on the floor of the cavern. This place is trapped, and they start moving on, with nary a nick.

But then suddenly, the water level rises seven feet. The characters tread water, and three of those snake-creatures attack! They slither out from the water and bite, one of them hits Arlen in the face with a gush of water and stuns him, but the characters manage to slay them without taking any serious damage. Shaken, they keep moving, once again back in the tiny tunnels.

They get a little ways before Whirlpool realizes that the chest holding the Mask won't fit. They have to open it, and Kisha wraps the Mask in a cloth (ignoring the voices telling her to put it on), and they keep moving.

Finally, after what seems like days but is probably only a few hours, they emerge into a large room with a low ceiling. The ceiling is made of a smooth, black stone, and they all feel a weight hit their minds and souls and a strong urge to grab the Mask and put it on (which, fortunately, they all resist). They are in the presence of the shadowgate.

And as if on cue, darkfiends begin dropping from the ceiling...

Blue Rose: Roasted Crab and Lurking Ghoul

Last night was Blue Rose, jiggety-jig.

Last time, the party was rescued by sea-folk and taken to the tunnels beneath the Leviathan's Teeth, far under the sea. The characters manage to get there with minimal difficulty, and are welcomed by the Jarzoni sea-folk. They're a kind of formal and polite bunch, and very invested in the characters being the ones "prophesied" to end the stillness. They're taken to meet the high priest and leader of the community, Garis Cru.

Garis is sitting in a chamber with a volcanic vent, and the characters join him and talk about their mission and their experiences thus far. He tells them what he knows about the "stillness" - there's an island in the Teeth that is perpetually in springtime, blossoms growing around a tomb and always pleasant and warm, even when the sea rages around it. He claims this is because there's a "witch" buried there and this is due to her influence, even after death. The characters gather this is probably Miriana's Tomb, and her being regarded as a witch by the uber-pious Jarzoni isn't surprising.

They ask Garis about the Mask and what they might need to do to destroy it, but he doesn't know anything about the Mask specifically. He notes that there's a shadowgate between here and the Tomb, and his people have tried to destroy it but have failed to even dent it. Kisha notes that the party destroyed a shadowgate once, but feels that might have been luck as much as anything. In either case, the characters are going to encounter that shadowgate on their way up.

Garis tells the party that the sea-folk will accompany them up, but by custom they don't go further than the seamount. At that point, the characters will need to start following a map leading them up through the tunnels into the Teeth. He offers them crab roasted in a bucket dangled down into the vent, which Dobbin and Whirlpool eagerly accept, and Arlen rather tentatively tries (seafood's not a big part of Rezean cuisine and he isn't sure how to eat it). Garis asks what else the characters might need and says he'll provide whatever he can, but of course he's limited by the fact that they're in caves at the bottom of the ocean (Dobbin is out of luck where arrows are concerned, for instance). He leaves them to talk over their needs, and to rest.

The characters talk a bit, and decide that they'll need basic provisions - food, water, and breathing pearls - but beyond that they're pretty well good. Dobbin wonders how exactly they are going to destroy the Mask, and Arlen casts a Vision spell. He sees Nettas, the darkfiend, grabbing the Mask and putting it up to its head, merging with it and sending out a blast of black energy that drives the characters back...but now the darkfiend is bleeding. The characters figure that maybe letting Nettas have its skull back will make it vulnerable, though it seems they'll be in for a very difficult fight.

They hear a scream outside in the tunnels, and rush out. Garis is lying on the ground in a tunnel, and a horrible gnarled creature is squatting by him, chewing on his shoulder. He's got a dagger sticking out of his stomach, and he's bleeding out. The creature has a trident strapped to its back, and that as much as anything allows the characters to recognize it - Qinis. He released Garis and runs.

Kisha charges after him. Dobbin fires an arrow, which whizzes by Kisha's head and strikes Qinis. Whirlpool casts Cold Shaping to freeze him, and manages to freeze and frostbite his skin, but Qinis is faster than Kisha and makes it to the slope leading to the ocean. Whirlpool considers going in after him, but, remembering how badly Qinis hurt him the last time they fought, decides against it.

Meanwhile, Arlen casts Cure on Garis to save his life, and removes the dagger from his stomach. He recognizes it - it's Whirlpool's dirk, which Whirlpool lost hurling it at Qinis. He gives it back, and Garis stands, still injured but out of danger. He orders some guards posted to make sure Qinis doesn't return.

The characters return to the vent chamber and look at the map of the tunnels leading to the Teeth. There are three routes. One takes them through small, jagged, tight tunnels, but once they make it through those, it's pretty much a straight shot to the shadowgate and then the Tomb. One has larger, easily traversed tunnels, but with lots of dead ends and double-backs, and the map is incomplete. The last is the shortest, but opens to the ocean frequently, leading to flooded passageways.

The party pretty much immediately dismisses the last route; too easy for Qinis to ambush them, and too easy to drown. The other two pose different problems. Arlen advises against the wider paths. It's easy to get lost, and if that happens they're screwed. If they take the jagged, narrow tunnels, they'll be in for some claustrophobic wiggling, but it won't take as long and at least they aren't going to wind up wandering the tunnels forever. Also, if they find it's too hard, they can backtrack and take the middle path.

With that plan in place, the characters level up and prepare for their journey.

Blue Rose: The Sinking of the Misery

Last night was Blue Rose, my last semblance of normalcy in a world ravaged by disease.

Last time, our heroes fought some pirates, only to see their bodies rise up as the walking dead. The zombies attack, and the sailors on the Misery rally and fight back. The characters battle them, killing a couple, but then Arlen activates his Purifying Light. This drives most of the zombies overboard in terror, and the sailors and the characters make short work of the few that remain.

They examine the bodies left, and find that they're diseased and covered in sores. Arlen finds a blossom in the mouth of one of the zombies, as though it had coughed it up. He notes that Ulasta, the Exarch of Envy (whose servants the characters have battled before) is the patron of the unliving, and Whirlpool recalls sailors' stories of an island that grows blossoms that, if eaten, can supposedly cure any disease. Kisha notes that while the blossoms might cure the disease in the moment, upon the death of the body the true price of the flowers are revealed.

The characters throw the corpses overboard, and continue on their journey. Shira advises the characters to get some rest; they'll be at the Teeth in about eight hours. The party retires to their cabin to sleep.

Some time later, Dobbin and Arlen wake with a start. They hear, or feel, something from below. They wake the others quickly, and head out onto the deck. It's still dark, and much of the crew is asleep. The helmsman says that the ship bumped something, and says that unfortunately sometimes sea creatures get too close to the ship, but it's not really anything to worry about. The characters have been through too much to not worry, however, so they peer into the water. Whirlpool takes it a step farther and leaps in to have a closer look.

Beneath the ship, he sees Qinis clinging to the keel. He watches as Qinis gestures with his trident, and a huge sea serpent lunges up from below and nudges the ship. Whirlpool starts to swim up to warn the others, but Qinis sees him and launches himself, driving Whirlpool deeper into the sea. They fight, Qinis striking with his trident, but Whirlpool, in an uncharacteristic display of caution, flees for the ship. He yells for a rope and the others pull him up. He gasps "Qinis. Eel. Ow."

Dobbin nocks and arrow and mind-links with Pansy, hoping her dog can help her draw a bead on the beast. Kisha rallies the sailors (who are panicking), and tells them that their only hope to outrun it, so they get to work making the ship go faster. Arlen tries to summon the serpent, hoping to send it away, but realizes that the thing is warded, and he can't get through it.

The serpent strikes again, dumping Whirlpool and Kisha into the sea. The characters hear cracking from below. Pansy smells the serpent and Dobbin takes aim, knowing that if she doesn't place the arrow perfectly it won't even penetrate. Arlen casts Move Object and pulls his compatriots back to the ship, and then tries to scry the creature so that he can cast a spell on it more easily, but can't manage to focus. Dobbin fires and blood boils up from below, but the serpent strikes, bursting through the hull and destroying the ship. Arlen and Kisha are thrown into the water, but the others keep their footing. Arlen, now able to see the serpent, casts Animal Messenger and manages to breach the ward. The serpent leaves, but the ship is sinking.

The surviving sailors head for the longboats, but then Qinis emerges from the hole in the ship and heads for the cabin, presumably to steal the mask. Whirlpool intercepts him, but Qinis is reading and engages him with his trident. Dobbin fires arrows, and sends Pansy in to aid Whirlpool, but Qinis is holding his own.

Kisha manages to crawl back up onto the ship and taunts Qinis, trying to draw him away from the chest. Whirlpool takes the opportunity and grabs the chest, moving it away from Qinis, and Arlen, now on a longboat, casts Scrying. He sees the chest and pulls it to him with Move Object.

Meanwhile, Whirlpool summons all his strength and anger and casts Cold Shaping at Qinis. The magic freezes the pirate solid, and as the ship sinks, his body slides into the sea.

The characters make it to the longboats, but they are cold, the boats are overloaded, and they're still miles from the Teeth. They resign themselves to a long, hard journey, but then they see shapes swimming below them. Sea-folk surface, but these sea-folk are paler and more somber than the Aldin ones - these would be the Jarzoni sea-folk the characters have heard about.

They ask if the characters are the ones prophesied to end the stasis. They clarify that there's an island in the Teeth that is eternally still. The heroes figure that sounds like where they're going, and the sea-folk give them breathing pearls so they can take them. Dobbin apologizes to Shira for the loss of her ship, and says that she hopes they'll all see each other again. Shira agrees, and the characters dive into the ocean with the sea-folk, heading to the undersea caverns beneath the Leviathan's Teeth.

Blue Rose: Runnin' from Pirates

Blue Rose! Last time! On we go!

Our heroes sail out on the Misery from the Pirate Isles, heading north to the Leviathan's Teeth. Arlen ponders their course and what they'll do when they get there, Whirlpool and Kisha help out on the ship, and Dobbin crafts arrows and looks to her gear, anticipating trouble at some point. Arlen has a vision of Miriana's Tomb, and it's peaceful, serene, and spring-like, with the scent of flowers in the air, even as the waves crash on the Teeth around it. Arlen notes this with distrust.

As evening falls, Kisha and Whirlpool notice another ship hoving into view, and recognize it as the Sweet Blossom. It's a bigger and faster ship, Captain Shira tells them, and the pirates probably outnumber them (the Misery only has about a dozen sailors, plus the characters). Whirlpool steps up, however, and conjures up a hurricane force wind against the oncoming Blossom, forcing it to steer out of the way and giving the Misery a chance to head out.

They talk on the way about their next moves - should the Misery wait for them? Head to Jarzon or Aldis? They can't head north of the Teeth (that's the Veran Marsh, highly unsafe), and heading to Jarzon is iffy because the Jarzoni aren't always the most welcoming of people. They decide that once they're in the Teeth, Shira will get the ship maneuvered and moored so that they can leave quickly.

As they're coming up on the first boulders and "islands" of the Teeth, Arlen casts a scrying spell to look in on Qinis, and sees him and the sorcerer leader from the Dark Isle standing on the deck of the Blossom. The sorcerer kills a rat and splashes its blood on the deck, and a tarry skeleton creature pulls itself up out of the blood. The sorcerer tells the horrific creature "don't let them enter the Teeth," but then seems to realize he's being watched and flings a spell back at Arlen. The spell hurts him, but he tells the others that something's coming and from the description, Kisha recognizes it as a darkfiend (albeit less powerful than the ones the characters have fought previously).

Moments later, a scream and a splash! The characters run down the deck and see a sailor in the water and the darkfiend clawing at the others. Whirlpool and Kisha engage it, killing it with a few well-placed staff and trident blows, while Dobbin dives into the drink to save the sailor. They manage to pull Dobbin and the sailor back out, but by now the Sweet Blossom is in view, and the pirates are already swinging over.

Shira rallies the sailors, Dobbin shoots arrows at the sorcerer (who is standing on the deck of the Blossom), and Whirlpool and Kisha and Pansy engage Qinis. Arlen, thinking quickly, casts Fire Shaping and the sails of the Blossom burst into flames. The pirates are frightened and distracted, and Pansy knocks Qinis into the water. Several of the other pirates are likewise thrown overboard, while some are killed by the sailors as Shira gives a rallying cry.

Whirlpool notes that Qinis is a sea-folk, so throwing him into the ocean is unlikely to harm him. He looks over the edge of the ship, but sees nothing. The Blossom, now without much of its crew, begins to drift away as the sorcerer summons up another darkfiend (this time from his own blood) to quench the flames. The sailors and the heroes realize with horror that the dead pirates are getting up, and that they all have a sweet smell about them. This fight isn't over.

Blue Rose: Run, Arlen, Run

Last night was Blue Rose, which is about the only game I can run during the stay-at-home order, because the players are all family.

Last time, the heroes managed to get away from pirates and sorcerers and escape to Mashae (fun fact: on the Blue Rose map it's spelled "Marshae"). Kisha and Arlen are having a spot of dinner when Qinis and his posse (crew, I guess, is more genre-appropriate) walk in and see them.

Qinis sits down and, real friendly-like, tells them that in the morning he's going to have them arrested for stealing his property. They've violated the "peace of the reefs," it seems, which prevents pirates from stealing from each other and otherwise doing violence while on the Isles. They're welcome to contest this, he says, but the council doesn't look kindly on the Finest, so he's interested to see their defense.

The two vata fall back to the inn where Whirlpool and Dobbin are waiting, and explain the situation. Arlen is not at all sanguine about their chances if they go to court, but they aren't sure what their options are. They have a rowboat, but where would they go? It's not going to make it to the mainland or the Teeth, and the Misery is still a day away at least. Kisha suggests maybe they could find somewhere to hide out, maybe bribe a captain to take them away. Dobbin asks Arlen if he could divine any future possibilities, and Arlen casts Visions.

He looks forward to the morning, and sees the group getting arrested as they leave the inn at first light. He rewinds back to the night before (this is more detail than Visions usually grants, but a. the player rolled really well and b. Run, Lola, Run is a really cool movie) and tries taking the rowboat out. He sees them get just off the coast when Qinis' boats surround them and demand the chest. That's not gonna work.

He rewinds again and has them check the docks for help. He sees some sea-folk on the beach, and has Whirlpool talk to them - and finds them sympathetic. The name "Rysa Seaspray" comes up, and Arlen figures this is the best chance they have.

They take the chest and head to the beach, and indeed, they see some sea-folk. Whirlpool talks to one and is initially less than honest about the contents of the chest, but Dobbin steps in and tells the real story, and the sea-folk says that she'll help. She calls for help, and some other sea-folk come ashore. The heroes all take breathing pearls (Dobbin mind-links with Pansy to get her to keep it in her mouth), and the sea-folk tow them along under water past Qinis' men.

Going to Laren's Town takes most of the night, as it's on the other end of the Isles. Along the way they find the Sweet Blossom, and, while taking a breather, Arlen notes that the masthead of the ship is a depiction of the wine-goddess Athne. In the sculpture, though, she's reaching out her hand as though demanding something, which Arlen recognizes as borderline blasphemous (Athne is never depicted as demanding, always as offering, usually a goblet). Kisha figures this means these pirates might worship some Exarchy version of Athne. The ship also smells sweet, and Arlen casts Second Sight. He doesn't recognize the specific arcanum, but it feels similar to Imbue Undead, and it's affecting the whole crew. Are the zombies? Vampires? The heroes don't know, and they're not going to investigate tonight.

The sea-folk tow them on and, as the sun rises, they reach Laren's Town. Rysa Seaspray, the elder sea-folk, comes to meet them, and tells them that the sea-folk have no loyalty to the Pirate Council and are totally not down with sorcery. Kisha mind-links with Shira and tells her the change of plans, and they spend the rest of the day resting.

The Misery arrives and the heroes embark. Shira opines that everything ought to go smoothly now.

Blue Rose: RUN!

Last night, we played Blue Rose. Also had empanadas, which was nice.

Last time, which was way back in the heady days when people still went to school and a simple cough didn't cause meerkat-like "DANGER" reactions, the characters got into a big fight on the Dark Isle. Now, they survey the carnage and realize that they need to get gone before that sorcerer comes back with help.

Arlen casts a Cure spell on Whirlpool to stabilize and save him, and they start heading out. Kisha runs ahead to push the boat out and get it ready to go, but the others have difficulty. They can't seem to make any progress running while carrying the chest, and no one wants to leave the chest (or whoever's carrying it) behind. Eventually they see the sorcerer coming in the distance, along with Qinis and a bunch of pirates carrying torches. They're badly outnumbered, and they need to hoof it.

Arlen casts a Move Object spell and flings the chest to Kisha on the boat, who manages to catch it. Dobbin stops and fires a couple of arrows into the ongoing mob, and then keeps moving. They all pile into the boat and Whirlpool casts Water Shaping to push them out into the bay quickly. They don't have lights (most of them can see in the dark), and the pirates are left on the shore, looking for them.

After getting out of sight, they decide to head around the islands to Mashae and hook up with the Tempered Heart. That takes most of the night, but in the morning, feeling a little better, they arrive at the docks of Mashae, and realize that the Heart isn't there. They beach their stalwart craft, and Kisha casts Psychic Contact on the High Priest Mav. Fortunately, he knows that spell as well, and therefore is able to converse. He tells them that, unfortunately, the Heart was ordered back to Jarzon. Admiral Pov disagreed with the order, but it is an order, so there's nothing he can do about it. They can try and come back to get the characters, but it might be months before they can. Kisha says that she'll find other transport and thanks Mav for his help.

The characters discuss what to do. They don't fancy the chances of taking a rowboat back to the Teeth, not with the Sweet Blossom looking for them. Kisha mentally contacts Shira, the captain of the Misery (the ship that brought them here), and Shira agrees to come get them. It might be a couple of days, though, so she advises them to find lodging and lay low. Mashae has rules against pirates killing or stealing from each other, so as long as they don't start trouble they should be OK. Arlen also remembers that members of the Finest aren't really welcome here, so they need to find other apparel, too.

Whirlpool and Kisha go into town and find a cheap inn. Kisha pays for a room, and the party takes up residence. They go out (in shifts) to buy clothes in the cargo market (and note, with no small discomfort, that there's a slave market here, too), and then find some food at a better establishment. Kisha and Arlen are eating when a group of people walks in, led by none other than Qinis. He sees them and smiles.

Next time, we'll see where this goes.

Blue Rose: Battle on Dark Isle

Last night we did some Blue Rose. Here's last time. On we go.

Our heroes have landed on the Dark Isle, and discover that it's pure rock - no plants growing here except some moss. They head inland, and hear chanting. They find a circle of 10 men dressed in robes, standing around an 11th one with more ornate garb. That last one is standing over their chest, and the 10 others are funneling magic into him.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's happening here - the cultists are pumping a leader full of enough power to crack the ward on the chest. Arlen realizes that there are wards around the circle and around the chest, so he can't just magic it on out. He has a vision and realizes that if they wait until the chest opens, the sorcerers will be depleted and they'll just have to deal with the leader...but they don't know if the leader will be too much to handle or if they'll be able to ward the chest again. They decide to strike now.

Arlen and Kisha flank the group, but Arlen draws attention and the leader sorcerer yells to kill him. Kisha, thinking quickly, throws up an illusion of a group of pirates charging at the sorcerers, which fools most of them. Dobbin stays on the rise that the characters found and fires arrows at the leader, while Pansy heads down into the fray and Whirlpool leaps up and lands on a sorcerer. The battle is join!

The sorcerers fight with Harm spells, and Arlen and Whirlpool take the brunt of it. Arlen drops one sorcerer with a sleep spell, and Whirlpool lays waste with this trident. Kisha jumps into the fight with her staff, and she's a skilled enough combatant that the sorcerers rarely hit her. The sorcerer leader, after getting hit a couple of times, falls back with a couple of his minions, grabs the chest, and runs. Arlen sees this and casts a Move Object spell to pull the chest back, and Dobbin comes to guard him while he pulls on it. The heroes whittle away the sorcerers until finally they lose their grip on the chest and Arlen yanks it back.

Whirlpool falls, beaten into unconsciousness by repeated attacks, but the lead sorcerer realizes that he doesn't have the numbers he did and summons up a creature made of blood to take him away into the dark.

The heroes have the chest back, but they're stuck on Dark Isle, surrounded by bodies, and they haven't seen hide nor hair of Qinis and his pirates. All of them are injured, Whirlpool pretty seriously.

Next time, we'll see how they get out of this one.

Blue Rose: Sweet Blossom Pirates

"Sweet Blossom Pirates" sounds like a show pitch in a game of Channel A, but I promise it makes sense.

Last time, our heroes rowed into the Leviathan's Teeth with eight soldiers from Jarzon. Arlen is the only one who's any kind of navigator, so he's charting the course around the jagged rocks and peaks. Every so often they see a bit of a building that looks man-made (as the Teeth are the remains of the city of Falzanoth), but mostly it's just rock, some lonely looking seabirds, and, beneath them, sharks.

They don't find the Tomb before dark, so one of the soldiers points out a big flat boulder jutting up out of the water, and says that it should remain so even at high tide; good place to camp. The party moors their boats, builds a fire, and gets some sleep...

...but then Dobbin and Pansy wake up to a group of people getting out of boats onto the rock. Said group is at least 20 strong, and worse, four of the guards from the heroes' party have joined them. Two of them have the chest with the Mask. Dobbin shouts an alarm and everyone gets up and grabs their weapons, but the leader of the pirates steps forward. He's a tough-looking sea-folk with a trident, and he introduces himself as Qinis, captain of the Sweet Blossom (told ya). He tells the characters that he'll be taking the chest. They, of course, prepare to fight, but he tells them to think it through. They're outnumber four to one, and the pirates have torches aimed at their boats. If they're left here with no way off, they're shark food.

Dobbin tries to reason with him - does he know what he's stealing, and how evil it is? Qinis laughs ruefully and tells her that there are factors in play here she doesn't understand, but what's odd is that he doesn't have the power-mad obsession that a lot of folks who have made a play for the Mask do. In the end, the characters swallow their pride. The pirates leave (and take one of their two longboats with them), but Arlen, wasting no time, summons an albatross and sends it after them.

The characters get on the remaining boat and start following the bird; Arlen sends another one back to the Tempered Heart with a note for Admiral Pov. The heroes take the longboat out into the Bay, and Kisha thinks about where they're headed. If they hug the coastline, they'll pass by the Sansian Plain, the Shadow Barrens, and finally the Kingdom of Wyss. If they head due south, though, they wind up at the Pirate Isles. That's...probably where they need to go.

The next day, the Tempered Heart pulls up to them and brings them on board. They explain what happened to the Admiral (who is furious that his men betrayed him), and explains that the Pirate Isles have their own sort of government, headquartered in the island town of Mashae. The Isles have their own warships, and getting into a fight would be a diplomatic incident, so Admiral Pov can't just roll up and start making demands. He has no problem pull into port and starting negotiations, however, and if the characters want to go ashore, well, that's fine.

The complicating factor here is that there's an island in the Isles called the Dark Isle, and that's probably where Qinis has taken the chest. Belus takes Dobbin aside and tells her that no one lives on Dark Isle except a cult of sorcerers, meaning the characters won't have a lot of cover. They need to be careful.

The Heart pulls around the eastern edge of the Isles toward Mashae, and the characters get on a longboat and head for the Dark Isle. They beach the boat, and set off into the dark, looking for the Mask.

Blue Rose: No Step on Snek

Last time here, Blue Rose play game on we go.

The heroes wake up and Dobbin and Kisha go to morning worship (where, again, they don't understand anything being said), while Arlen and Whirlpool are still in the brig. The High Priest goes down to said brig to talk to them, listens to Arlen's very respectful recounting of what happened, and asks if he can make psychic contact to verify the story. Arlen agrees, and Mah casts the spell, delving into Arlen's mind to learn the truth. Once he does, he orders them both released, and tells the jailer that he'll be coming to see the two sailors who accused Arlen that evening.

Negotiations, meanwhile, continue - Kisha bides her time until Arlen and Whirlpool join them again. When they do, Admiral Pov apologizes to them on behalf of his crew, which Arlen accepts. The characters do note, however, that there are more people in the negotiations today, almost like Pov expects things to get ugly.

They don't, however. Pov reiterates his desire to take the Mask ashore with his men, and Kisha debates him until he agrees to have his men take the characters ashore but wait for them in the longboats. Kisha agrees to that, and the negotiations end just before dinner.

As they're all walking to the mess, however, they hear a drum roll. The two sailors that accosted Arlen last night are there, bound, and a priest reads out their sentence while an ensign translates for the characters: they're to have 30 lashes and then 10 days in the brig. Dobbin and Arlen look away as the men are whipped within an inch of their lives, Whirlpool and Kisha manage to look on, but they're pretty disturbed. This isn't how things are done in Aldis, after all.

The men are cut down and taken to the infirmary, everyone has a very awkward dinner, and Pov tells the assembled sailors that he needs eight volunteers to go ashore with the Aldins, or he'll choose volunteers himself. After dinner, Whirlpool and Arlen go to bed (neither slept especially well in the brig last night), while Kisha hangs around on deck listening to sailors talk and trying to learn Jarzoni. Dobbin finds Belus, the deck sergeant, and asks about the punishment - is that common?

Belus says that the punishment for starting a fight is usually time in the brig, but lying to the High Priest is really what got them in trouble. He says that even then, 30 lashes is excessive, and he's seen men die under that kind of punishment (the sailors in question are OK, though). He notes that the whole crew has been violent and on edge lately, and Dobbin wonders if the Mask might be responsible.

At this point, a loud whistle echoes over the deck, and Belus goes pale. He runs over the railing (Dobbin following, and Kisha joins them), and a deckhand points off into the distance. Belus calls for light, and out in the waters of the bay they see it: An immense serpent's coil disappearing into the waves.

Belus orders the men to arms and alert, and the ruckus wakes Arlen, who wakes Whirlpool. They head out to the railing and Whirlpool, the most knowledgeable about sea creatures, identifies the giant serpent as a constrictor (which is odd, because they aren't usually aquatic). It's huge, but probably not big enough to crush the Tempered Heart. It is, however, easily big enough to crush the Misery.

Kisha runs to the other side of the ship to warn Shira to cast off, but the captain can't hear her. Dobbin ties a note to an arrow and fires it into the mast, and the Misery untethers from the Heart and starts sailing off. Whirlpool, though, notices the serpent's head emerge and start heading toward the fleeing ship. Belus tells Dobbin that they can fire the ballistas at the snake, but that's going to take a minute to aim and ready. If the characters have a better idea, now's the time.

Dobbin fires an arrow into the snake and Whirlpool casts Cold Shaping, but the thing is so massive that even these attacks don't really bother it. But then Arlen realizes that it's just an animal, and casts a spell to summon it. The snake stops, turns, and swims over, rising up out of the water and staring at him. Belus nearly gives the order to attack, but Dobbin stops him just in time, and Arlen commands the snake to go out to the middle of the bay and wait (using the Animal Messenger spell). The snake obligingly swims away, and everyone gives a sigh of relief.

The Admiral comes to talk to the characters, and thanks them for their help. He also has noted the violence on the ship, and asks the characters if they know what's happening. They're tempted to blame the Mask, but they do note that the Mask has never had this kind of effect before. The violence started when the characters came aboard, so maybe something followed it, or awakened because of it?

Pov doesn't know, but he wants the characters (and the Mask) off the ship as soon as possible. He has his engines burn all night to get to the Teeth, and helps the heroes get on longboats with some sailors and head in through the choppy waters, bound for Miriana's Tomb.

Next time, we'll see how that goes.

Blue Rose: Drunken Sailors

Behold, the further adventures of...the party, which doesn't really have a name.

Last time, the party ran afoul of a darkfiend called Nettas, but then Kisha became a noble and they received a quest from the Queen: Take this damned mask to the Leviathan's Teeth and destroy it (no hobbits, no volcanoes, no Gollums).

We jump forward several months into autumn, the month of Anawar. The party has received a warded box to hold the Mask - any two of them can open it, but it won't open for just one of them, and it won't open for anyone else (not without breaking the ward, anyway). They travel over land to the coast of Basketh Bay, and board a ship called Misery to take them to meet a Jarzoni barge, as their quest will take them into the Theocracy of Jarzon.

The captain of the Misery, Shira, welcomes them aboard and they set sail. Arlen is nervous (he's never been on a boat this big before), and Kisha is having some difficulty finding her sea legs, but Whirlpool is overjoyed to be back on the water. That night, they dine at the captain's table, and Shira informs them that the ship they're meeting is under the command of Admiral Tarros Pov, a highly decorated sailor and hunter, who knows these waters better than any man alive. He tells them that Pov is a fair man, but he's still Jarzoni, and that means he's a highly devout guy. Jarzon also doesn't looking kindly on vata'sha (like Arlen), and they don't trust sea-folk. The Jarzoni worship Leonoth, the god of hearth and family, but they don't really acknowledge the other gods (other than Maraunel, whom they see as his consort). This rankles Arlen just a bit, of course.

They sail for a few days to the middle of the bay, and there they meet the Tempered Heart, a huge Jarzoni barge. Shira accompanies the party aboard, and the admiral greets them and introduces them to his high priest and advisor, Kravus Mah. He then excuses Shira (who mouths "good luck" to the party) and has an ensign show them to their quarters - they'll have dinner, and then commence negotiations tomorrow. There are some sideways glances cast at Arlen, but everyone remains formal and polite.

The characters sit at the head table for dinner, but at the ends, away from Mah and Pov. The meal begins with a prayer (and Whirlpool commits a minor faux pas by taking a drink before the prayer has begun), and then everyone eats, simple fare well prepared, meat and buns and so on. After dinner, everyone goes back to work or to their quarters, except Dobbin, who walks Pansy around the deck. She clears this with a deck sergeant (who fortunately speaks Aldin, a lot of these guys don't), and he introduces himself as Belus.

As she's walking, she hears a fight break out, and sees two sailors involved in a brawl while others crowd around. They just manage to rassle a bit before Belus breaks it up and sends the rowdies to the brig, and then advises maybe Dobbin should go to her quarters.

In the morning, Dobbin tells the others about what happened, and she and Kisha go to morning services (Arlen skips it on principle and Whirlpool can't be bothered). And then negotiations begin. The Jarzoni, after hearing the basics about what the mission entails, tell Kisha (who is obviously leading negotiations) that they would prefer to take the Mask to the Teeth themselves, rather than let the characters bumble around with a cursed artifact on their land. Kisha tells them that the party has been carrying this Mask for a long time and is accustomed to handling it, and therefore ignoring its blandishments, but Pov isn't really listening, and then an ensign bursts in and whispers to Pov in Jarzoni. Mah gets up and follows him, and Pov tells the characters that an internal matter has come up and negotiations will resume presently.

They don't; hours go by (during which the characters check on the Mask - yep, still there), and then an ensign tells them that Admiral Pov is still dealing with the "internal matter" and they'll resume tomorrow. They go to dinner, much the same as last night, but on the way back, two Jarzoni sailors accost Arlen, calling him "shadow man" and "anathema". One even spits in his face.

Arlen manages to take this with aplomb, but Whirlpool is also nearby, and he responds a bit more threateningly. The sailors don't speak Aldin anyway, so it escalates; one slugs Arlen, who tries (and fails) to put them to sleep with magic. Whirlpool shouts at them to piss off, but they don't understand, and press the attack. Arlen pins one against the wall with magic and Whirlpool pins the other in a hold, and Arlen manages to fire off the sleep spell to knock them out. And, at that point, the deck sergeant and other sailors tromp in and put them both in the bring.

Belus finds Dobbin and tells her what happened, more or less, except he says that Arlen started it and used "magical bewitchery" on the sailors. Dobbin gets Kisha and they go to the brig to visit their companions, and realize that there a bunch of sailors here who have clearly been in fights. Something is going on.

They tell them that the high priest is going to talk to them in the morning, but they're stuck here until then. They speculate that this arrangement may not work - they might have strike out on their own and get the Mask to the Teeth, but they aren't sure how exactly they'll do that.

Next time, we'll see what the morning brings.

Blue Rose: End of Season One

Last night we came to what I'm calling the end of the first season in Blue Rose; the characters have made it all the way to Aldis, turned over the Mask, and then discovered the next part of their quest.

Last time, the heroes fought some merrows and rescued Aleta from the bottom of Lake Vash. This time, as we open, Kisha has passed all her exams, and the city is preparing for the month-long celebration of the Festival of Service, during which nobles from all over Aldea come to the city. Also, on the first night of the festival, Midsummer's Night, new nobles are, well, ennobled, as Kisha hopes to be.

The characters are on duty the days before the festival, patrolling the Lake Ward, helping traffic, that sort of thing. Kisha sees Vistul, an instructor from the Academy of the Dance in Verdaunen. She looks good, but tired from travel and (probably) the stress of her colleague Memne getting arrested as a Shadow Dancer. Whirlpool winds up arbitrating a dispute between a Rezean noble and a rhy-horse about treatment of horses, imposing himself between them and getting them to listen to each other. Arlen sees an arriving noble from Garnet, traveling in a carriage and flanked by his entourage, and Dobbin notes that with this many people in Aldis, she's seeing more of the inequality and human unpleasantness that she was led to believe didn't exist here.

That night, the evening of Atholon 30, the night before the Festival begins, they're still patrolling (since all of them are going to be off duty tomorrow for Kisha's ceremony). As they're patrolling, Arlen sees a vision in his mind's eye of the Rose River rising up and turning to blood. They decide to head down toward the river, and indeed, they see a man standing over the body of a woman. The woman is bleeding from her neck, and the man turns to them with eyes glowing red and fangs dripping gore. They recognize him - Lord Ezrath, from Sundown.

Whirlpool acts as he does best, off the cuff, and calls up a gout of water from the river to knock Ezrath down. Dobbin and Pansy try to herd him away from the woman, and Kisha tries to talk him down, giving him a chance to surrender. Ezrath raises his hands and they glow with black fire, and Arlen casts Ward on him to disrupt his arcana. The fire does disappear, but his eyes also change back to normal and his fangs and the blood vanish, and he just looks afraid. The characters realize that this was an illusion...and then the "victim" stands up.

"The offer still stands," she says, in a voice that Whirlpool recognizes as the darkfiend that was recently in his head. "To both of you." And then the woman melts into shadow and oozes away.

Kisha tells Ezrath that he's committed no crime, and therefore can go free, but he says that he needs help. He confesses to the characters: he's a member of a society called the Broken Circle, and they look for ways to cheat death. He's been terrified of dying since he took part in a battle against the forces of the Shadow and saw what they were capable of, and since then the voice of Nettas, a darkfiend in service to Ulasta the Exarch of Envy, has been in his head. The characters take him to the Temple, and tell him that Corruption can be excised, it's just hard.

The next night, the characters all get dressed up and go to the ceremony. They see nobles and prospective nobles take the scepter and receive their titles, and some that take the scepter and see it cease glowing. Kisha approaches and takes the scepter, and sees herself escape from Kern, meet the others, and all of her adventures on the way to Aldis, until she stands here before the queen, the Scepter of the Blue Rose still glowing. Queen Jaellin names her Lady Kisha Lost, and the characters celebrate into the night.

The next day, they are summoned before the queen, and she waits for them with Professor Dorian Cal of the Royal College. He tells them that they can't destroy the Mask, not here. However, he's fairly sure that it can be destroyed, but they need to fulfill the condition that was place on the Ebban family. The family remains marked by Shadow until the Mad Seer tastes the cold sea's tears, and that means that the characters must go to the Leviathan's Teeth, a treacherous maze of jagged rocks and ruins, find Miriana's tomb, and there figure out how to destroy the Mask. If they're willing to undertake this quest, of course.

They all agree, and they begin preparation. Next time, they'll set sail!

Blue Rose: Merrows and Exams

Last time, our intrepid party was in a cavern at the bottom of Lake Vash, facing off against monsters to save Aleta, Whirlpool's friend/rival. I like it when I occasionally just begin a game session by saying "roll initiative." Feels like ice cream for breakfast.

Anyway, the battle was joined! The adventurers quickly find that these monsters, though slow and easy to hit, also have a lot of power behind their attacks and can suck up a ton of damage. They pound away at the heroes with bone clubs/spears, and Kisha quickly finds herself injured. She falls back and casts an illusions of herself to confuse them, which gives Arlen enough time to dart in and strike with his psychic weapon.

Whirlpool is strong enough to hold his own against these things, but their sheer ferocity finally gets the better of him and the merrow he's fighting runs him through. He falls, dying, and the merrow charges over to help fight "Kisha." Arlen moves to cast Cure on poor Whirlpool and save him (I should mention that through all this, Arlen also has to maintain his Light spell, because ain't no light down here).

Back in the fight, Whirlpool runs the merrow through with his trident, felling him and giving out a vengeful cry of triumph. Dobbin, who's been through a constant and intense fight with another merrow, finally finds an opening and sticks her sword under its arm, killing it. Arlen leaps into the fray and knocks the last merrow backwards, and Whirlpool follows up with a trident strike. The party has won, and Aleta is still alive.

Whirlpool hears the voice of the darkfiend in his head, mocking him again. They've killed some merrows, but there are more, and sooner or later the darkfiend will have Whirlpool back. Whirlpool resists this taunt, and the characters head to the surface. Kisha loses her rhythm on the way up and nearly drowns, but Whirlpool pushes her up with Water Shaping and Solven pulls them all into a boat.

They're taken to an infirmary and treated for their wounds. Whirlpool apologizes to Aleta (who slugs him in the arm), and Ashera comes to visit and make good on her promise to sever the darkfiend's link to his mind. The darkfiend makes one last effort to tempt Whirlpool, telling him that there such wonders and sights he could see with the darkfiend's help, but Whirlpool responds, "I can find those on my own, or maybe I don't need to see what you can show me." And then the link breaks.

Over the next month, the characters go about their duties as Finest. Arlen visits the Academy of the Dance, Dobbin goes shopping and buys some armor for Pansy. She also tries to work on her bow, but winds up breaking it. Tessam tells her that maybe she tried to do something too complicated too soon, and she needs to learn the basics first.

Whirlpool goes around the sea-folk on Lake Vash and apologizes for what happened with Aleta. He also pens a written apology to her directly, which she accepts.

Kisha passes her final two exams (law and philosophy), and manages to come away with results that allow her to undergo the ceremony of the Scepter at Midsummer. She sends invitations to some of the folks she's met along the way, including Jocen, the judiciary in Verdaunen.

Next time, we'll see if she's worthy of being a noble.

Blue Rose: Fire and Water

Last night was Blue Rose. Let's kick this pig!

Last time, the heroes were adjusting to their lives in Aldis, and Whirlpool was wracked with guilt over apparently leaving a friend at the bottom of the lake to die. This time, all four of them are patrolling the High Ward, when Pansy perks up and signals danger and Whirlpool smells smoke.

They follow the noses, and wind up at a jeweler's shop that's engulfed in flames. Whirlpool casts Cold Shaping to snuff the flames, while Dobbin organizes a bucket brigade and Arlen rips open a water pipe to douse the fire. Kisha senses magic, and feels that while the fire itself isn't arcane, something in the shop is. She goes running in and finds a young man of about 13 surrounded by a ring of fire, but the fire doesn't seem to be spreading or hurting him.

The fire outside doused, the others rush in. The bucketeers toss water at the ring of fire, but it dodges, which is odd. Whirlpool uses Water Shaping to direct the water streaming in from pipes and splashes the oddly frisky fire, and it coalesces into a humanoid figure and says "Well, that was rude."

Meanwhile, the young man has run towards the back of the house, looking for his mother. Kisha hears a faint call for help behind a pile of debris. She and the bucket brigade remove the wreckage and Kisha finds the woman mostly unharmed, and gets her to safety.

Whirlpool talks to the fire elemental, who claims he was summoned and it's very misleading to summon a fire elemental if you don't want everything burned. Whirlpool agrees and apologizes, and the elemental vanishes. The boy, Izhae, murmurs that he loses control of his magic sometimes, and everyone kind of glances at Arlen.

Outside, the woman (whose name is Ashera) talks to the heroes and thanks them for their help. She takes Whirlpool aside and asks if he knows he's got a malign presence in his mind; he says he does, but isn't sure how to get rid of it. She offers to cast a spell to do so, and Arlen, watching them talk, has a vision. He sees Whirlpool with a murky, slimy halo that leads off in a tendril, and stretches to the bottom of the lake, into a system of caves. There, someone is chained to a wall while monsters lurk in the dark. The woman casts a spell and dispels the murk, but upon so doing, the monsters fall on the prisoner and eat them.

Arlen quickly interjects and relates the vision (and shares it with the others using Psychic Contact). They confer with Ashera, who says that she was going to cast a Mind Shaping spell to sever the link between Whirlpool and the darkfiend (this was actually originally discussed way back here, but the characters kind of forgot in all the excitement of time traveling, and the darkfiend has been mum). They figure that this might be a kind of hostage situation - sever the bond and the monsters kill Aleta (whom Whirlpool identifies as the prisoner).

They decide to go and rescue her, but that means they need a way for the non-sea-folk to get there. Whirlpool is aware of magic items called breathing pearls; take a breath, put one in your mouth, and you can hold that breath for an hour or so. Turns out Ashera has some, but only seven. The heroes take them and head to the lake.

Solven, the Rose Knight that Dobbin met a week or so back, joins them on the way and learns of their plan, and offers to watch Pansy while they're gone. They leave behind the gear that won't fare well in the water (Dobbin's bow, Kisha's staff) and dive in.

They make it to the bottom and Arlen summons light, and finds a cave entrance. They swim in and find that it widens and dips up into a tunnel system with enough room to walk and air to breathe, though it all smells like rotted fish. They find a room with shackles on the wall, some holding skeletons. Whirlpool realizes that they're all sea-folk, and some have been down here for a long time. The bones have been gnawed, though he can't tell by what.

Several tunnels lead out of the room, but Dobbin hears faint splashing from one, and finds blood at the entrance. They head down the tunnel, and Whirlpool hears the voice of the darkfiend in his head, mocking him. "You'll come this far only to watch yourself fail, to watch your friends' flesh stripped and devoured, and I will feed on the guilt and shame you feel. You are a land-walker, a river runner. No sea-folk, you." Whirlpool relates this and the heroes move faster, and emerge into a cave filled knee-deep with water. Aleta is chained to a wall, bleeding from multiple bite wounds. As the heroes emerge, ogre-like creatures surface, some brandishing spears, all with awful webbed hands and snaggly sharp teeth.

The heroes draw their weapons.