Fall of Magic: The Conclusion

We played through about the first half the game here, so now for the conclusion. I actually did take notes this time!

Dogtooth Jungle

Leaving the Hanging City, the party presses on; the Magus feels they shouldn't linger. The Dogtooth Jungle is strange - a purple haze hangs in the air, and the jungle has an odd scent. The Magus is tense as we enter. This place is beyond even their reckoning. 

Our guide leads us to the Dogtooth Spar, and and the sun is purple - is it even the sun at all? The sky is a lilac color, and the plants are strange. The trees don't have bark so much as a tough skin. No one here knows the Magus or recognizes their power or authority, and no one here knows what "Ravens" are. To Harp, this is both disconcerting and exciting. She is not defined by her role. She defers, perhaps, a bit less to the Magus.

Kabu visits the Fruiting Grove. It consists of huge trees, and the fruit they bear are the size of wagons. The locals can eat of the flesh of one for weeks, but Kabu snacks on them, crunching on the hard interior seed. He doesn't normally eat like this - normally he "eats" by absorbing sunlight - but who knows if the purple "sun" here in the Jungle will sustain him? And besides, he likes the feeling of eating. Perhaps he is a different kind of giant...a Giant of the Caves.

River witnesses the Violet Dawn. She wakes up and vines have covered the party, and are pulling the under the ground. They bear strange, metallic-looking flowers, but the party barely has time to note that. The Magus destroys the vine with magic, but this leaves them weak. The party moves on, disconcerted. 

Piccolo takes one of the metallic flowers adding it to the others they've collected. They wander off on their own, pushing through the brush, and finds the pack of a former traveler. It's disintegrated beyond utility, and serves only as evidence that this party isn't the first to brave the Jungle. Piccolo returns to the group, and on they go. 

Gritwater

Gritwater isn't quite a swamp. The water is shallow and has just enough current to stay clean. In the midst of it is a hut, inhabited by the Pool Crone, the guide informs us - she is a being of great age and wisdom, but she is no threat. The Pool Crone invites the party in, and they all enter, even Kabu. Her home extends into caverns that lead below the pool.

Kabu finds the Moon Pool in these caverns. The water trickles in from above, forming a perfectly round, still pool. The Pool Crone sees Kabu there, and Kabu asks: Is Kabu still Kabu? Kabu feels less like himself as he travels. The Pool Crone responds that change is normal, even for giants, and the changes that Kabu experiences are fine if Kabu is fine with them. Kabu tries to tell himself that he is fine with these changes, but he's lying.

River visits the Salamander Shallows, and sees all of the little amphibians darting about in the water. The Pool Crone visits her and asks her a favor - she hands River a vial and says when the moment comes, she'll know what to do with it.

Piccolo feels homesick upon hearing the sound of running water, and follows it to the Moonmilk Falls, a waterfall backlit by glowing rock. The mist coming off the falls is cool, but the rocks are warm, and Piccolo finds a cut-out area that they can sit in. They feel warm and comforted, and their thoughts linger not on their home in Istallia, but on the pull of the unknown, driving them forward. When they leave the falls, they are confused. 

Harp discovers that there are many other structures in Gritwater, but the shimmer off the water masks them. One is a Sunken Hovel, and as she walks towards it, she smells something amazing - someone cooking vegetables and roots. She finds an old man, who puts a dollop of the mixture on a hot stone and it bubbles up, and then bursts. He gives her some, and says if she eats it now it'll be tasty but not filling, but if she saves it it'll be filling (though it might not taste as good). She decides to save it, and he gives her two more. 

Fortress of Karst

The party moves on, and the ground dries and changes. It's mostly stone, sometimes shot through with ore. The party reaches the immense Fortress of Karst, and the Magus looks, for the first time that the party has known them, frightened. They have to stop through the Fortress, though - it's the only path to Umbra. So they stay here, guests of the Machine.

River visits Flywheel Tower. It's noisy and smells like metal and grease. In the distance she sees storms, with green and purple lightning, and the storm doesn't have the normal scent of rain. This just smells...strange. She feels dread, and informs the Magus. The Magus nods, but doesn't respond.

Piccolo is, characteristically, poking about. They find the Vault of the Builder - a hallway, a huge room, dug out with tools. There's a pile of bricks, arranged into a pattern, with space in the center, and Piccolo hears something scrabbling around in there. Eyes peer out from the pile. Piccolo leaves, not wanting to disturb whatever it is.

Harp enters the Hall of Constant Motion. The floor is steady, but everything else moves in a dizzying pattern. She walks carefully into the hall, and a black cube appears on a stone riser. Words form in the black: ONE QUESTION. Harp asks, is magic gone or has it changed? The square glows red/orange, and then the word appears: CHANGED. Harp wants to ask if it could be changed back, but she only gets one question. 

Kabu doesn't enter the Fortress. He's far too tall and he doesn't want to break anything. Instead, he sleeps in a valley with a boulder for a pillow, and he awakens to hear the Nest of the Machine - a great pit with an immensely complex mechanical apparatus clanking and whirring and spinning. He hefts the boulder and hurls it in, shattering the Machine, and magic bursts forth, suffusing him and all of the other-

And then he wakes. The Machine whirrs on. It was only a dream, and he can no longer lift the rock. 

Gate of Umbra

The party nears the end of the journey, and approaches the Gate of Umbra. Storms of magic dog them as they travel, and they leave the Magus depleted. The gate itself is iridescent and beautiful, and many other travelers are nearby.

Piccolo finds a cairn near the gate, a Worn Monument. There's an inscription around the edges, in a language that Piccolo doesn't know, but the inscription includes an illustration and that does seem familiar. There's a certain wave-like curve that Piccolo recognizes from Istallia, but it's so old - did their people come from here? Is this originally "home" for Istallians? If that's the case, how, in this desert-like place with no waves, did they come up with this symbol?

Harp finds the Dusk Road, a long stretch of road that's only visible at dusk when the fading light hits it just right. There are caravans, tent cities, so many travelers here. It's not a destination per se, mostly it's a waypoint elsewhere. Harp climbs a dune and sees the camps stretching for miles, and moonlight reflecting off the road. A traveler (or a resident?) approaches and explains the name, and Harp asks where the road goes. "Everywhere, away from here, but who knows the end?" The road fades as the darkness falls. Harp realizes that once, she didn't want to be anything but a Raven, but now, she could be something else. She might have to be.

As night falls, the fires appear, and Kabu watches as magical creatures - giants, dwarves, dragons, unicorns - all dance by the firelight. They're here celebrating the last of their magic, and as it fades, they shrink. The unicorns become horses, the giants become men, and some of the creatures just...fade. Kabu sees other giants, some much bigger than he is, and he realizes they don't judge how he's changed. 

River ventures to the Coast, and finds the Magus, looking old and frail. They're fading, and the Magus says that they aren't sure they'll make it through the Gate. River feels the vial that the Pool Crone gave her grown warm, and she gives it to the Magus, who drinks it. The Magus revives some - not entirely, but enough. 

The Nameless City

It's a short distance through the Gate to the Nameless City. The City is worn and broken, but not from battle. It's just losing life, little by little. The roofs have holes, the walls are crumbling. People still live here, but they're worn and hollowed, too. Nothing attacked the Nameless City, magic simply withdrew. This takes a toll on the Magus. The Magus doesn't sleep anymore.

The Magus has Harp take them to the Academy of the Sightless. They're escorted in by a young novice wearing a blindfold, and then before the Council, all of whom are completely blind. The Magus questions the Council, and the Council confers silently, and then answers:

Magic comes, and magic goes

Its form may shift, but no one knows

What's yet to come or yet may be

But we live on uneasily. 

The fate you seek we understand.

You've traveled from a distant land.

But change this will, and here we stand.

Harp and the Magus are escorted out, and the Magus seems sad, but relieved. Harp asks if it's time to go, and the Magus says, "not quite."

Outside of the City, Kabu finds the Body of the Ancient, the corpse of a giant much bigger than Kabu. The bones are all that's left, but giants decay slowly and the inhabitants are picking through the corpse for bone marrow to eat. Kabu discovers that this huge giant was stabbed, dying of his wounds, and is appalled to realize that the giant died in battle. The scavengers tell Kabu that legend has it that the giant was part of an immense battle in the distant mountains, and fell here, dying. Kabu looks to the mountain, but decides not to investigate. There's enough battle in history already.

River finds the Night District. It used to be opulent, but there's nothing fancy here anymore. She finds a well, sealed up entirely, and River asks the inhabitants why. They tell her that it used to be a well of magic, but then the blood of the dying seeped in, killed the well, and poisoned the magic of it. It used to be beautiful. River walks away from the well disheartened.

Piccolo visits the Palace of Silver, which isn't so much a palace as a small, square building lined on the inside with resplendent silver paneling. Piccolo realizes this place was built with magic, and that, while they can't determine the exact function, that this was definitely a gathering place of some kind. It's peaceful here. Piccolo finds a small niche at the back of the building, with a trunk and a desk. Inside the trunk are books and scrolls, all in different languages, all radiating magic. The magic was once powerful, but like everything else, it's fading now. Piccolo takes a book and finds, pressed between the pages, another of the wave-flowers like they found in the Hanging City. It still makes the wave sound if they listen carefully. Piccolo takes it.

The Glow

The journey is coming to an end. The party moves on, to the Glow in the distance, where magic was born. The inhabitants of the Nameless City do not accompany them. As they approach, the Magus whispers, "If it's not here, it's not anywhere." 

Kabu hears voices and sees faces in the glow, faces of other giants. He realizes that all giants shift - humans shift on a cultural level, but for giants it's individual. Kabu's shifts are therefore part of his journey, and that's just how giants are. He realizes that, for now, he's not a Giant of the Caves or of Mistwood. He's just a Giant. Kabu wanders off, and eventually shrinks and becomes a man. Years later, he sees Harp in a market, and while they smile and greet each other, they do not recognize each other from this trip.

River follows the Magus into the Glow. River reflects, and realizes that the Magus gave her a purpose, someone to protect. She decides that she'll go back and become a Gray Ranger when this is over. She is pulled through a portal and winds up at the altar of the Grey Rangers during their ritual. Over time, she becomes a leader, and helps them to develop the magic of sacrifice.

Piccolo walks into the Glow and sits. They pull out the book and the strange collection of objects that Mathilda gave them, and try to figure out how it all goes together. Do they pour the vial over the flowers? Drink it? They aren't sure, and they site there, lost in the Glow. They're not from Istallia anymore. They're Piccolo of Nowhere. Eventually, they get up and leave when no one is looking, never having figured out what to do. The combination of objects is still there in the Glow, and scholars debate its symbolism and function endlessly. 

Harp doesn't go into the Glow. Those who are too invested in magic, she realizes, always wind up harmed or doing harm. The Glow isn't up for control, and trying would end badly. Maybe magic isn't gone, maybe it's just changing, but it's passing beyond the control of people like the Magus. The real magic is people - Harp's people back on Oak Island, the man who gave her food, the people that they've seen celebrating by the Gate. Harp hangs her black cloak on a tree and goes to pack up. She's just Harp, now - no longer a Raven.

Actual Play: Fall of Magic

Last night we played Fall of Magic. I'd played it once before at Metatopia, though we didn't get to finish that game before it was time to head home. This is part one of two (probably), so here we go!

What you need to know about Fall of Magic, though, is that the setup is always the same; a group of people is following/accompanying the Magus on a journey as magic dies. The game is played with a scroll (you can see a bunch of pictures here); every character has a token that represents them, and you move along the map as the journey continues. There's a lot to it, so I'll do my best to remember all the details I can, but I wasn't taking notes.

Magic is dying, and the Magus is dying with it. We travel to the realm of Umbra where magic was born...

Ravenhall

We start in Ravenhall, home of the Magus. At the bridge, we see River, the Ranger of Mistwood, washing her face in the water. She's killed a grouse, and now goes to deliver it to nearby folks who might need food. She's known in Mistwood, and here, as a provider for those that need help.

At the menagerie, we find Piccolo, the Crab-Singer of Istallia. Piccolo looks about at the animals, musing that the last time they saw real magic, it was a baby phoenix, barely able to open its eyes. Now magic is dying, the magical creatures are fading - but are they dying, or are no new ones being born? Where is that phoenix now? Did it live out its life and rise again from its ashes, or did it fade and cool? Piccolo doesn't know.

In the rose garden, we find Kabu, the Giant of Mistwood. Kabu is too big to enter Ravenhall; he'd bump his head and break things. Kabu is grey-skinned, but his nose is red as the roses, and his eyes are brown as the branches. Kabu doesn't understand much about people - he's used to feeling small amongst the huge trees of Mistwood, but here in Ravenhall he's the biggest thing around. He still feels small, somehow, and he sleeps here in the garden.

At the scrying pool, Harp, a Raven of Ravenhall, reflects. Like all Ravens, she wears a black cloak and acts as a messenger and errand-runner for the Magus, and now she's expected to accompany him...where? She isn't sure, and he won't tell her. She notes that magical creatures are growing smaller, as the magic they contain fades.

Piccolo wanders to rose gardens and bumps into Kabu (literally). Kabu tells them that he intends to follow the Magus, but isn't sure why - it's like geese flying north or south, they just do it. Piccolo doesn't quite understand that, but decides they like this giant, and resolve to tag along.

Oak Hills

The party arrives in the Oak Hills. Summer is ending and the days are long, but getting shorter. The Magus is tired; they're old and frail, and they instruct the party to make camp. 

River begins to do so, clearing away an area for the Magus' tent. Harp helps and, perhaps, feels a moment of discomfort that she isn't setting up the Magus' area, but in the end thanks River for her help. 

Piccolo sits around the fire with the others and offers to tell stories. The group shares stories until the fire dies, and everyone drifts off to sleep.

In the morning, Kabu stands on an eastern hill, hands outstretched, as the sun rises. The sunlight turns his skin from grey to gold, and he absorbs the light to nourish himself for a day. He turns (scattering the birds that have rested on his immense arms) and walks back to the group, noting that his skin is already changing back - the light isn't nourishing him like it used to. 

The party presses on, heading sound to Barley Town. 

Barley Town

The party arrives in Barley Town, and the Barley Lord fixes the them up with accommodations for their stay. Piccolo goes to the Inn of the Axe & Fiddle, and trades a song with the musician playing there - the musician teaches Piccolo a traditional song of the area, and Piccolo teaches the musician and song of Istallia and the sea, thanking spirits for their generosity. 

Harp goes to Oak Island, her home. Her cousin married a year ago today, and, as it tradition here, the one-year anniversary is a reenactment of the wedding. But where the actual wedding is a solemn, nearly silent affair, the reenactment is a raucous party with elaborate dress, music, and dancing. Harp reflects that this is normal, this beautiful, joyous ritual, and if magic dies, at least this remains.

Kabu sleeps near Swine Hill (he's too big to enter the town proper), and dreams of battle - two opposing forces met on this hill and stabbed each other until the hill was stained red. Kabu wakes, distressed, and digs into the hill, unearthing a skeleton clad in armor. He wipes the dirt from it, trying to identify which side the man fought on, but he can't.

River goes to the old abbey, and lights a candle. She remembers her sister and her companions, and she remembers that they died because she fell asleep on watch. She vows that she won't fail her new companions the same way.

Piccolo goes out to a farm, owned by a woman named Mathilda. Mathilda talks with Piccolo and learns that they're traveling with the Magus, and gives her a leather pouch. In it are four objects: a silver pendant with an insignia Piccolo doesn't recognize, a vial of purple-red liquid, a ball of twine, and a turnip. Mathilda tells Piccolo that they'll know when this stuff will be useful. Piccolo is amused, but grateful.

Harp goes to the farmer's market and stocks up on foods and provisions for the journey ahead, although she doesn't know where they're going from here. 

Kabu takes the corpse and goes to the abbey, remembering someone say that one could go to this building to ask questions. He asks the Abbott about the dream, and the abbott says that Swine Hill was the site of a battle long ago. Kabu doesn't understand "battle," though, so the abbott explains it as best he can - Kabu only really understands violence in the context of animals eating each other, and he's a little appalled to learn that all those people killed each other but none of them were eaten. The abbott says that he doesn't really understand battles and war, either, and Kabu leaves, troubled. 

The party reconvenes and, at the Magus' direction, heads north, into Mistwood.

Mistwood

Mistwood is home to both River and Kabu. The party slows, though - a strange fog rises up around the woods. The party makes camp, and Piccolo follows the trail of the Rangers, watching as the mist rises up around them.

Harp helps make camp, and tends to the Magus. The Magus isn't well. They're old and losing some of the alertness they were known for. Harp talks with River about it, and River offers to go out and find herbs to make a poultice to help the Magus recover a bit. 

Kabu, meanwhile, walks through the woods, and comes to a copse of trees that are shorter than the rest of the forest - perhaps an area where a forest fire razed the old trees, and new ones are growing. In the mist, though, the trees look like soldiers, and the dew makes the leaves look like metal. Kabu panics and runs back to the camp, whispering "no battle" to himself. 

River goes out foraging, looking for the herbs, but she is beset by foxes. One of the little bastards grabs the herb she was going for and runs off. River tracks it to a river, but doesn't want to kill the fox if she doesn't have to. She baits a trap, and waits.

Hall of the Woods

The party has moved on. The Magus has their poultice, but they're not always good about applying it. The group has moved north to the Hall of the Woods, where the Gray Rangers receive them. The Magus is giving a place by the fire next to the leader of the Rangers, and the two of them talk quietly about whatever leaders talk about.

Harp, meanwhile, goes out into the woods and finds a stone circle. In, a group of Rangers surround a stag, and then draw their daggers and kill it. The blood seeps into the group, and Harp feels a jolt of magic - magic taken from life. She's glad, in a way, to feel magic again, but she doesn't want to do magic this way.

Kabu walks through the woods and finds a silvery lake. Two Rangers stand in the shallows, arms outstretched in much the same way that Kabu stands in the morning to drink in the light. He copies them, and drinks in moonlight - his skin goes silver, and his teeth become sharper. Moonlight, he muses, tastes strange. 

River finds an altar in the forest, a stump that's been whittled down into the shrine. She feels her desire to protect these people, the Magus included, rekindled, and resolves to guide them. She does, however, think that when this is over, she might return here to the Hall and join her fellow Rangers.

Piccolo stays at the hall, watching the Magus and the Rangers talking. They consider their role as a keeper of old traditions (a Crab-Singer), and how these Rangers are changing their own traditions as magic dies. 

The Magus recovers, and the group moves on east to the Spirit River.

Spirit River

The party arrives at the river, and the Magus is stronger, but just as tight-lipped about their journey as ever. The mist from the woods seems to have followed them, bathing the river in fog.

Kabu drifts on the river. He doesn't get the chance to swim often; few bodies of water are big enough. Giants live a long time, and he doesn't remember his parents much, but he does remember them saying that they used to live underground, under the mountains, and what they used to eat. Kabu shudders, and sips the silvery watery, marveling at the sensation of taste. 

River sits in starlight, thinking again about the death of her sister and her companions. It was wolves, huge wolves that came upon them at night and killed them, while she slept at her post. Never again. 

Piccolo, too, has regrets by starlight, but I don't remember them, sadly (told ya, I didn't take notes). 

Harp goes walking in the tall grass; no one really approaches the ferry over the river from this direction except the Rangers, and they don't leave tracks. She finds blood and animal prints, and one of the Rangers' knives. Apparently the sacrifice-for-magic thing happens out here, too. 

The party goes to move on, and the Magus states that they'll go north to Istallia, but the road is blocked by huge trees. No one remembers a windstorm or anything, but the way is blocked, so they need to go south, to the Mouth of the Deep, and travel through the caverns.

The Mouth of the Deep

The party takes its wagons into the dark, and the Magus casts a spell that makes all of the metal - the bridles on the horses, the weapons the people carry, and even Kabu's teeth - glow bright enough to see. 

River travels the Deep Way, scouting out their progress and trying to find a safe way through the tunnels.

Piccolo find a cavern, a cavern with marble veins in the walls and a high domed ceiling, and a floor far too flat to have occurred naturally. Something made this cavern, and there are noises in the dark.

Harp walks with Piccolo down a hallway off the cavern, and finds tiny alcoves. Piccolo's pendant glows brighter, and the two of them shudder as they notice claw marks on the walls. Piccolo leaves the pendant behind, hoping to appease the unseen Cave Dwellers.

It doesn't work, though. The Cave Dwellers appear, bear-sized humanoid creatures with furry pelts and upturned snouts. Kabu hears the ruckus and emerges into the caverns, picking up a Cave Dweller and speaking to it in its odd language. The Cave Dwellers want meat, and don't much care what it comes from, and so they allow the people to pass unharmed, but the horses don't make it through.

The party does find the passage, though, and emerges at the Hanging City.

The Hanging City

The Hanging City is in the top of a huge, ovoid cavern. The Magus and their company take the hospitality of the Rag-Draggers, the strange, hunched-over people who dwell here. 

Piccolo visits the vertical gardens, and sees a field of flowers that rustle like the waves of the ocean. They're reminded of their home in Istallia, and they take a flower, unable to control the temptation. 

Harp notes how things enter this city - there's a river fed by a waterfall, and refuse from above winds up washing into nets and then being hoisted up into the city. In Ravenhall, this kind of thing would all be done by magic, but magic doesn't seem to be a part of life for the Rag-Draggers. 

Kabu, for his part, gets a job for their stay in the Hanging City. The Kettle Bottom - the deep lake at the bottom of the cavern - is overlaid with nets to catch the aforementioned refuse. Normally people under social censure row out in boats to kill living things caught in the nets and untangle valuable stuff, but Kabu can just walk. He doesn't mind killing, he decides - this isn't battle, because the things he kills are getting put to use. He does wind up smelling awful after doing this job, though.

River visits the Hanging Commons, learning how to fit in amongst these people who live so far away from forests. They don't use magic and they don't live off the land, not the same way, but they're still people and they benefit from River's skill with ropes, at least.

The party rests. Soon they'll need to move on...