College of War

Well, I just had the worst idea ever, and decided that I’ll be running some College of War demos at Ropecon. I will post the scenarios and materials needed for them when I’ve completely written them, but I already know which two games will be run:

College of War: Nightwork

A College of War story of love, colonialism and the importance of pranks.

When an influential old Fieon Templar arrives at the College to inspect things and deliver the official announcement of what the King of Fieon has planned for the school, it’s up to the Society of Crows to make sure their opinions won’t go unnoticed. A rag-a-tag band of students belonging to the secret circle must now set aside their differences, accept the responsibility, and pull some magnificent pranks before the administrative body catches and detains them for the duration of the visit.

Mirrorshow, a College of War Story

A College of War story about betrayal, murder and disobeying the law.

In the dark alleys of New Strumgaut, a retired private investigator Philibert de Fronsac is found dead. Now it is up to his former colleagues to figure out what has happened to him, and more importantly, find out where he stashed all his field notes of the horrible crime they all committed those years ago. Before someone else does.

–

Beyond these two, I might make a third scenario, or just run these a couple of times. When I get some actual material written, I’ll put them up in case someone is interested.

While this doesn’t really fit the feel of the current campaign of College of War I’m running, it fits the general moods and themes of the game, so, posting.

The opening theme from John Adams. Not only is it a wonderful song, but ther opening titles are quite captivating in their mood:

Dungeon Crawl!

It was an action-filled game. And began like any one of those should: “It hits you!” The “it” in this case being an invisible assailant and “you” being Ninga. It’s kinda hard to describe a dungeon crawl in the typical CoW rapport type, so I won’t bother with the damn chronological details of exploring LeGaulle’s tower.

• The tower was guarded by a few Elementals. At least two Air and two Earth ones. The Air ones were invisible to the naked eye - would have been visible with Detect Magic, but sadly the place was “booby-trapped” with very high level magical auras to block said effort, making things a bit harder.
• There was a kennel, which, for some reason was left unkempt, leaving the poor dogs dead or dying. The PCs helped three dogs out. Sadly, two of them got killed by the Air Elementals. And the last one later by Richard, as a Dark Magic spell inside it activated, turning it into a huge monster.
• The player characters found a lot of loot - LeGaulle had apparently been arming an .. well, an army, and there were coffers filled with gold, arms, food and uniforms inside the keep waiting to be utilized.
• Also, lots and lots of interesting books and maps were found, and looted.
• Some books hinted that LeGaulle had known Richard back 300 years or so ago. This made Richard quite confused.
• The two Earth Elementals at the tower were quite obedient and the players found this to be more than useful when they had to haul the loot out.
• Richard tried his Void powers on one of the Air Elementals, destroying it.
• There had been five pedestals with Void-extracted hearts like Lovejoy’s. Three were broken, two were looted before the party had arrived by someone with a limp. Apparently, the last person there before the PCs was Emeraius van deer Goud
• A local looting mob arrived at LeGaulle’s tower and the players made a hasty exit. Later they could see the tower burning.
• Ninga got the party into a fight when they got back to Johnstown. Apparently her proud outlook on things doesn’t really mix that well with the “all women are whores” attitude of the local crowd.
• Ninga ends up arrested and Marcus has to buy her free. “Yeah, she’s my slave, I’ll take responsibility, won’t happen again.” Welcome to the wonderful world of Johnstown and their attitude towards non-Old-Worlders.

I’ll get back to this in a while…

A traveling game, for a change. There were three stories, naturally.

• Richard and Lovejoy traveled from the College to they town of Bay’s End. On their way, they met some Fieon furriers, on their way to the west to catch some beaver. The guys politely turned down their offer to go squirrel-hunting the same night, and ended up drinking a lot instead.
• On their way from the lodge where they met these guys to the town of Bay’s End, they ran into a grisly sight of dozens of slaughtered men. Some by magic, some by blade. They weren’t wearing an apparent uniform, but there was a constant theme in coloration and design. The one that seemed to be the leader was wearing a College uniform. All had been stripped of their valuables and weapons.
• When they arrive at Bay’s End, they discover that the ships have stopped sailing because of the horrible accidents that have happened at The Chasm. They find out that the problems with it don’t coincide with LeGaulle’s death precisely. But are quite close to comfort still.
• Also, it becomes apparent that there has been some schism between the Fieon military and the local “bandits” (as the Fieon explain) or “freedom fighters” which led to the massacre the guys had come across.

• Meanwhile, Ninga has been having the most awful time at school. People aren’t training with her, her teacher is unavailable, and everything in general is as horrible as they can be for a young aboriginal girl who thinks she’s found a place to live at and friends who like her.
• She learns that she may need to take some other classes to compensate for the lack of her teacher, tries to go to the Water lectures, doesn’t understand them.
• People won’t spar with her - Reeve isn’t around, and no-one is really at the whole two-handed sword “level” with her.
• She is approached by one of the administrators with some letters from LeGaulle’s possession. They talk of her, so they thought it might have been appropriate for her to see them.
• They are from Tim, her foster-brother, to LeGaulle. Apparently he’s alive and well and was doing some sort of work for LeGaulle. This makes Ninga interested in getting to LeGaulle’s tower, as it might contain additional information of his brother’s whereabouts.
• Ninga gets means of travel and heads to the capital of Bay’s End to meet the guys.

• Marcus heads northwards, to Creek. After a day or two of travel, he meets up with Reeve, who is at an inn, talking to some people from New Strumgaut (George, Adam, Jeff) - These people seem to be interested in forming some form of an alliance with the Bay’s End independence movement.
• Marcus takes care of Iiain, during the trip. When it gets cold during the night, he prays to make them warm, and the prayer is granted. (a 3×6 critical success) The wagon fills with divine light and warmth, keeping the catatonic girlfriend warm even during the cold nights.
• They arrive at Creek and head to Mike’s vineyard there. They’re greeted by some elven servants, who take care of all their needs. Give them food and wine. The place is protected by spells and has a nice library. Marcus takes some books with him before he heads out to meet with the others at the town of Bay’s End. Reeve decides to stay behind.

• Ninga arrives at BE before Marcus. She wants to go shopping, so they go with Lovejoy, who wants to haggle down prices and make sweet deals. They go to a weaponsmith first, who shows some swords, and Ninga inspects a few, settling on a new fine two handed sword. Lovejoy tries to get some sort of a “well, if I buy this too, will I get some discount on that” sort of deal, and leaves the store happy about the price of Ninga’s sword, until realizing he has bought 7 other swords from the merchant as well. He then goes off to sell the extra swords for slight profit, still a bit puzzled on how the guy managed to dump them on him.
• Ninga goes to a local herb store only to find another aboriginal there. They drink some tea and walk around town, with the local telling Ninga about the places and what they were before the Old Worlders came there. They also listen to the wind and the birds. Ninga is then offered the herbs she came looking for and in return, gives the woman a consultation from the bones.
• When Marcus gets to BE, they rent a ride on a boat to Johnstown. Ninga doesn’t appreciate the food, or manage to keep it in.
• Eventually they arrive at Johnstown, where they rent a room and Richard and Lovejoy head to LeGaulle’s tower. After losing contact with them on the Mind-Link (when they enter the tower), Ninga and Marcus head there too.
• Inside the tower, Ninga tries to Detect Magic, but gets a sensory overload from the huge amount of magic present (they deduct it’s some sort of a trap to keep people from using Detect Magic)

Next time, Dungeon Crawl!

The trailer for the awesome HBO miniseries, dealing with themes of independence, revolution, colonial relations with mainland and others. Had André LeGaulle not died, he might have become this man of the world of CoW.

Ok. This was a damn short game, my apologies for that. Especially to those who missed most of it. But I rather play a short game than go into the next bit unprepared. I should have guessed you want to leave the school ASAP when you get the death-of-(whatever-Mauge’s-character-will-be-called) sorted out, but I didn’t. Probably the best route to next game might be two separate smaller pre-games, one with Larsa and Aura, one with the rest of the group, as there is a time lag of about a week going on.

Anyways to the highlights of today’s game:

• Ninga sees a magister who has been stabbed dragged to the infirmary.
• Reeve and Iiain head out while the shield is down, Ninga helps them.
• Emeraius gets a flashback scene with his wife Hildegard, who apparently is well aware of his husband’s line of work.
• Emeraius kills Richard. Richard slumps to the ground, dead. Mauge leaves the game session and heads home.
• Emeraius and Marcus have a swordfight. Emeraius sucks with his rolls (four ones in a single roll…) and gets shafted with Imperan steel, straight through the heart.
• Ninga notices she has a connection with the guys when she feels getting stabbed when the guys do. There are strands of Void connecting her to the guys.
• Marcus lifts Richard’s body on the horse and they ride back to the school.
• The beaten-up Emeraius stands up, healing the wound in his chest with some Light magic. In his mind, he thanks LeGaulle for removing his heart (like LeGaulle did with Lovejoy). And heads for LeGaulle’s tower at Johnstown.
• Marcus arrives at the school, takes Richard’s body to the infirmary. The nurses can’t help him. A priest is brought in for the same purpose, also fails to help Richard. He’s gone.
• Marcus and Ninga start wondering where on earth Lovejoy is and start backtracking him.
• He’s apparently been to the room LeGaulle was staying (doing some honest-to-god looting, unlike the rest of the guys. When trying to figure out stuff, he walks to the guys in a “hi, what’s up” kind of a way
• (at this point, both Illu and Mauge appear back to the game location from the shopping spree they’ve been on)
• Richard suddenly registers again on Ninga’s strange web-of-void thing. They rush to the hospital where Richard has woken up and wobbles outside, wearing a sheet as a toga.
• “You were dead!” “Yeah, I got better, shall we get a drink?”
• The group goes for a drink, Richard explains how he was apparently “repaid” by Alex (aka. Death) by getting Richard back to life. Apparently they’re now even, and this was a one-time thing.
• Ninga trains void magic a bit with Ian Lee, but the guy does not seem legit, instead kills a cat in demonstration how one needs to kill to awaken the need for Void inside.
• Richard seems to have lost the bone fragment Ninga gave him as a parting gift. After a while of searching, Marcus realizes his chain no longer has one. Ninga promises to make Lovejoy one as well. Does that, and after a while, it has disappeared from the chain as well.
• At some point, one of the players tries to once again break the space-time continuum by trying to talk to another player character when they’re not in the same room. To their surprise, they are able. A Mind-Link has been formed between them.
• College of War fun-facts: Mind-Link is one of the recurring themes amongst the games. It’s a cellphone analogy, but also a very nice way of keeping everyone able to contribute to a situation even if they’re not physically that near. Not all GMs might find the approach fun (as isolation can bring some situations into better light) but it has fit the CoW campaigns I’ve ran quite well.
• The characters re-make their plans of leaving for their destinations. Ninga once again bids them farewell.
• The game ends with Emeraius arriving at the town of Bay’s End to find out that there have been huge accidents at the sea, as The Chasm has been acting up and no ship has been able to penetrate it. The sailors are organizing a wake for their comrades, making leaving Bay’s End for Johnstown a bit hard, but he manages to get a boat.
• The Player Character group is divided into three groups at this point - Lovejoy and Richard heading for the town of Bay’s End, Marcus for Creek and Ninga staying at the school.

The game was short because frankly I wasn’t prepared that the PC’s would leave the school as soon as they had regrouped. And I didn’t want to go to the travel part unplanned.

Bless youtube. The Opening Theme of Chapter II of the current campaign, Jonna Tervomaa’s cover version of the Kaseva song “Tyhjää”. Sadly, I can’t find a proper version of the first theme… (might need to do a fan-made-movie I guess)

Hmm…

13 is an unlucky number, and for the campaign, it really set another crisis point. Not only a huge group of major NPCs (the void mages, barring PCs and Ian Lee) gone, but one (Or two? What happened to Lovejoy?) player character’s life is in jeopardy. I know I can’t remember everything, but here’s some highlights:

• Some older light-magic students try to revive LeGaulle, fail as predicted. Go to fetch someone from the infirmary, who eventually fails in helping the poor chap as well. This is what happens when someone uses an artifact gun from Death to kill you. You end up dead, quite permanently.
• Going back a bit in time, we join Reeve and Ninga as they’re in the forest, training. LeGaulle appears and disses Ninga. LeGaulle then gets cut off mid-talks and disappears (this moment coexists in time with the moment when Roland shoots him). Reeve ”snaps out of it”, remembering nothing since he was at the field. Seems like people were really under some strange hypnosis when LeGaulle was speaking to them.
• Around this point, a surprise guest arrived. Mertsi, or ”Bono, lead singer of the hit band U2” as we call him around the office, came to play a random celebrity appearance. His character, Emeraius Van Deer Goud, was a nobleman from New Strumgaut colony.
• He bumps into the characters, asks questions, pretty much in line of ”uhmn, what’s going on? I’m here to listen to this guy LeGaulle, they told me he’d be having a lecture this week. Oh, he’s dead?”
• Lovejoy disappeared right around LeGaulle’s death. His player wasn’t present at this game session at all.
• Emeraius asks if anyone has heard of a ”Richard Allen”, Roland reveals that it is actually his name and that he’s been using ”Roland Petitjean” as a cover for the past few months. Emeraius says that his friends told to talk to Allen, as he could provide interesting information on things. Richard (formerly known as Roland) says he’s sorry and that he knows nothing as he’s lost his memory
• Richard also tells Emeraius that he was the one who killed LeGaulle. Emeraius stares in more disbelief. Richard reveals that he used a gun that he got from a guy who claims he was Death. Emeraius stares in even more disbelief. If somehow possible.
• All void mages except the ones present and Ian Lee have died unexpectedly and without an apparent reason. The link between this and Lovejoy’s disappearance makes the players and their characters worried, but decide it’s best to just wait a while and hope that Lovejoy shows up.
• At some point Emeraius and Ninga end up having a sparring match with swords. Ninga’s idea meant a two-handed sword against Emeraius’ foil. Emeraius backs away, scared senseless, babbling about fencing rules and other things.
• Mike is worried about all that’s been going on. From the outside perspective, the school has just dispatched of a huge group of Fieon solders and three of their Paladins. And the single most powerful Puritan leader as well. Trying to maintain a neutral stance in world politics has just become pretty much impossible.
• Magisters order everyone indoors, perform a spell that seals off the school from the outside world with a shiny magic shield for the reasons Mike explained.
• Ninga’s elven friends tell her that they are leaving the school. She tries to talk them into staying, but ends up thrown out of their room for calling them “pointy eared idiots who don’t know their own good” or something along those lines. The power of three ones in a roll is still amazing and ground-shattering.
• Shield gets quickly surrounded by Dark shapes when viewed with Detect Magic. Mike reveals that it’s Alex, waiting to take him away, as he’s lived beyond his years already.
• The characters take a trip to the library (First time for Marcus and Richard. Ninga has been there before), Marcus finds Puritan books that seem to deal with light and dark magic that are actually worth reading. Richard finds a book written by ”Richard Allen”, titled ”A Praise to the King Institiution”, a book about how great the King of Fieon is. Is shocked. Ninga is pretty much horrified when Marcus reads the books she loathes. Agrees to help him study to keep an eye on him.
• Marcus talks with Adam, the guy who hangs around the room of the player characters and reads books. Adam explains that he’s working on easing the casting effort of one of his spells – a storm of fire and brimstone over a medium sized city area. Says he can only hold it for about 3 minutes now, but should be able to extend the duration some.
• Richard gets the idea that they should head out. As in ”go outside the shield and head to LeGaulle residence.” Mike approves and has made arrangements for the player characters to have a place to stay at one of his summer houses. Makes arrangements with Reeve to have him transport Iiain in her vegetative state to Creek.
• Ninga says she wants to stay at the College, even if the guys are leaving.
• Marcus says he’ll be joning Reeve, wants to see that Iiain gets to Creek safely.
• Emeraius tells Marcus and Richard that he needs to perform a ritual outside the shield when they’ll eventually leave. The ritual will help Richard control the void magic effect better and might help with his memory (or something).
• Mike tells that if they happen to run into his son, tell him that he was sorry.
• Time comes to exit the shield. Marcus asks Ninga to go check on Iiain. Ninga gives the guys some of her bones on a string, leaves. Shield shatters. Guys ride outside. Emeraius starts the ritual, tells the guys to go to New Strumgaut if something goes wrong and talk to a Wilfred Mann there. Gives Richard a scroll and tells him to open it on his mark, gets him to remove his jacket and shirt. Walks behind him, tells him to break open the scroll.
• Richard reads the scroll. It says ”This is for the death of our Master” and as the thought of what’s happening sinks into Richard’s mind, Emeraius stabs him in the back with the foil.

The game will continue next week.

As an epilogue, we look into Mike’s office. Alex walks in and indicates that it’s time to go. Mike nods. Then they are both gone.

I probably forgot many important details. So much happened in the game… I hope I’ll remember to add them later.

Finally I managed to get them online.

Pre-filled character sheets for the current CoW player characters. They’re not really all that fancy. Visuals will change, but that ought to give you a picture how simplistically we’re running things at the moment. The d20 stats are there for the players to have a base of reference, as most are long-term d20ers and it makes it easier for them to have a comparison-point, but they don’t actually hold a system-significance for the current game. The real traits are written after them. The o’s written with trait are check-boxes to mark if the trait was used in the session or not.

The diagram on the right is the magic system thingamob. It’s left a bit unclear for the moment, because I’m running the game as a journey of discovery into what magic means, uncovering mechanics as the characters discover new forms of magic. If I ever get round to writing a “generic CoW character sheet”, it will be more clearly explained.