Volcano's Land - Forged in Blood (Inactive)

Game Master Miner Cotren

to give context, due north will not get you any closer to Cedar or Light - those both lie to the east.

Duly noted.

State of the Game, June 2019

Another six months - we're a year in, and 2000 posts strong! I do still miss Marianne as a player, but I certainly enjoy what we've put together here. Like last time, I'm going to list loose ends and reaffirm character goals.

Loose Ends
--Where did Hotah's vision come from?
--Why did he move to Rokerenge? Why did he choose to be burned?

--How much does tricky Uncle really know? What happened to him in Bertrude’s hut?
--Where is Bertrude now, after she abandoned the group to get away from Abbygailiwy?

--What happened to Chaska, your eldest Uncle?
--How does the Cedarsmoke tribe feel about Hotah and Uncle?
--How much does Cedarsmoke know about the heirlooms, and Sky?

--Who/what is Erret? Is he still truly dead?

--Is Bree waiting at the Breathless Valley? Is Abbygailiwy there now too?
--Where did Krissa go? To Light, like Marianne suggested?
--Where did Big Sitter go, now that his love is dead? Where is Denerele? Will she attend the Meet?

--How close has Samoon come to death? How many times?
--Where did Yuma and the rest of Root retreat to?

--Is the v'Borio family still hold a grudge against your family?
--What are the powers of the heirlooms? What is the source of their power? (elementals)
--What did Abbygailiwy mean by the sleeping turtle, arrogant light, and bruised thing?
--Where did that dragon come from? (lovely one, silver bringer) How did it control elens with brass?

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Goals
1) Samen wishes to prove his theory of one elen original race and language.

2) Marianne at this point wants to learn how to help her family survive without relying on the gods.

3) Samoon wishes to climb Volcano and pierce the Dark. He needs to find Bree. (if possible)

4) Wamblee wishes to find peace, and a true path for oreads to live, if such a thing exists

Let me know if there is anything to add to Loose Ends or Goals!

two super busy days at work, sorry. I'll post tomorrow. :*(

Also, yes, that's Samoon's goal, and also, Samen and Wamblee's goals are weak and puny and should be ignored. :D

Typical academic : head in the clouds! ;)

Unfortunately, I won't get a post in tonight.

Just so that I know what to introduce, what is everyone doing and focusing right now? What is your first priority? I could see:

--Researching spawn, which could result in a bonus to "knowledge checks" versus their weaknesses (this would take time though).

--Trying to find out more about what is going on in Forest, or in the world in general, which would let you know more about the big happenings and how wide-spread the spawn problem is (this would also take time, especially to confirm any rumors)

--Researching more about elementals, now that you are stuck with a handful of them

--I saw Wamblee mentioned info on Cedar Smoke, which would be simple to find. Going through all the info will take time.

--Samoon also mentioned brass and dark-touched

--Marianne will spend her time looking for more information on magic - the kind she has been displaying with her falcon eyes and lightning-wreathed bow.

I shall post today, I swear it!

Long day - update will be coming tomorrow morning.

Fair!

Just so you all know, I won't be available much at all on Friday, and a limited amount on Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks for the update!

Feel free to keep RPing this scene, or feel free to individually move on and narrate what you are doing for the rest of the day. With Wamblee having limited availability this weekend, I will likely let both scenes sit over the weekend, and update with a new day on Monday.

Still planning on updating to "the next morning" on Monday. In the meantime, let me know:

Is Samen the type when researching to: fall asleep at a library desk ; stay up all night with obsessive studying ; or something else entirely?

Is Wamblee doing any more studying of the Cedar Smoke? conversing with the locals and other travelers, trying to get local and regional news ; go with Marianne ; or something else?

Samoon - are you taking it easy the rest of the day ; going back for more research ; conversing with locals; going with Marianne ; or something else?

Samoon will research more. Any stories of people possessed by elementals and if their spirits were ever recovered.

Oh, and I have someone interested in the game. Dedicated gamer and game designer, even.

Amazing! It would be nice to get back up to four. If the amount of lore, etc does not scare them off, have them drop a line in Discussion or a PM!

(I updated to the new day, but we'll just say Wamblee stayed with Mari and you went back to the 3rd level with Samen)

Your preliminary research gives a few instances of ecstatic possession by elementals during religious rites, but these were rare and temporary - you don't see anything resembling your situation before it is time for sleep.

I've a brutal headache. I'll get back to posting when I replace that with free time.

Take all the time you need. Hoping you feel better soon.

As always, Marianne is just one voice among four, not the DM's mouthpiece, so feel free to ignore her :)

I would say, as a character, she would be by far the least comfortable in a place like this.

I'm going to be out of town until Sunday afternoon and will have no internet access. Bot me if necessary.

Yay for libraries and info dumps! I'm keeping them unspoilered just so everyone can read as Samoon is likely passing on the relevant info.

So Samen is out of touch for a bit, but the next decision that needs to be made is this:

--Stay at Branch for an extended period of time

or

--Leave and head somewhere else (either Cedar Smoke or the Winter Meet)

1) So far, I would say everyone has gotten one or two good pieces of 'easy' info to find. Marianne was focusing on the rumors ; Wamblee researched Cedar Smoke ; Samoon found info to hurt spawn, as well as the trend that spawn are living longer ; Samen has found a little about composite elementals and their...erratic qualities.

2) If you decided to really research a subject, that would be at least one to two weeks of study, which we would likely fast forward through.

Examples of this might include - techniques to survive in the Breathless Valleys ; composite elementals, possibly how they are made ; spells or other protection against blackbloods ; spells or other protections against elementals

3) The Winter Meet is coming up soon, which is an important event in Forest. If you stay to research, you will miss it. Whether the Meet is important or not depends on what your aims are.

So in short - decide between staying and going. We can still RP in Gameplay, but I want to wait until everyone has a chance to weigh in before I do any major updates, so we're taking it easy until Sunday or Monday.

ok ok, Winter Meet. I suppose what Samoon should really research is a way to not nearly die during each fight :D

Just confirming I am still around. I will respond to posts, but I am also content to wait until Monday night to update.

Hi all. I'm catching up.

Good timing! I'm just about to do a minor update.

I have not heard back from anyone but Samoon about whether you are staying or going (and if going, then where). Feel free to RP it.

By the way, I'll be in Costa Rica from 7/2-7/14 (or traveling to and fro) and will be posting less frequently. I will have wi-fi, though! :)

Enjoy!

Any word on the potential player, Samoon? The Winter Meet would be a very good place to meet someone new. We won't get there for a few weeks yet I'm guessing, but it would be nice to get started on character-building sooner than later.

No word. I messaged them again. :(

I'm gonna stop trying recruit friends! :D Maybe try the Recruitment forum to find that great mythical potential player?

Don't worry if it doesn't work out :)

I'll think about opening it up to Recruitment. I'll let you all know over the weekend what I decide.

There is always the option of opening it up on the recruitment forum, with the proviso that no one might be picked. There are good character concepts and solid roleplayers who might not fit well in this particular campaign.

Alrighty, I opened a recruitment post for anyone nutty enough to read this lore and survive!

Link

So Samoon is gone starting 7/2 for almost two weeks.

What is everyone else general availability for July? I might put us on a short hiatus (especially while recruiting!) and then start up again (botting Samoon if necessary) after a week or so.

Thoughts?

I'll be out a bit for the 4th of July weekend, and the last week of the month, but other than that I'm free.

I will also be out for a few days at the end of July, going backpacking. :) Then I'll have no reception.

Interesting! So for now I will just let the scene sit - I will respond to any posts, I'm always happy to RP, but I will not be moving us to "leaving Branch" until let's say July 5th or 6th.

My availability should remain at "usually available at some point in the day, with the odd day of not managing to get to post and the rare being away from forums for a few days".

A hiatus is fine by me, especially when noted in advance.

Yeah, I'm in it for the long haul, me! I'll be in the air and traveling/prepping 7/2-7/3 but should be getting back to human on the 4th or so.

I figured that waiting until after the July the 4th was wisest :)

In other news, I found a 4th player - the PM they sent me showed me they had read the lore and retained the ability to write coherent sentences (succeeded their sanity roll), so I knew we had an instant winner.

Introductions to Discussion will be soon, probably later tonight - I'm hoping we can use this "hiatus" to make a shared backstory with your incoming ifrit cousin from Forge :0

(remember you have an ifrit grandfather on your mother's side, where Marianne's red hair comes from)

World building ahoy! Skip if you are not interested in the details of what the skald colleges of Forge look like.

--The three main colleges align with the three parts of the ifrit armies, represented by spear (infantry), sword (paladins), and lance (cavalry).

1) Eterno Tamburo (the Undying Drums)
Aligned with infantry
Drums
Endurance, determination, marching
(will roughly use the Undying Words archetype)

2) Duello Poeti (Poets of the Duel)
Aligned with paladins
Operatic song-poetry
Nobility, honor, inspiring
(will roughly use Battle Scion archetype)

3) Cornicello Fortuna (the Lucky Horns)
Aligned with cavalry
Hunting horns (from rare horned pogona)
Fearless, heedless, charging
(will roughly use Herald of the Horn archetype)

4) There is also one college that is aligned with the temple.
Efreeti Tango (Tangling with the Devil)
Aligned with local Temple of Forge
Frenzied war-dance
this college is more secretive

Hi Guys :)

Been hard at work reading up on lore, and writing up a detailed backstory before I'd submit things and work on links. I think I still have things to touch up (which I might do a bit later), and I probably need to (now) connect it up with the rest of you, but here is what I have at present.

Thank you for having me in your game!

To give you all some background, here are the broad strokes we've worked out:

--Wamblee, Samoon, Samen, and Marianne's mother is Colleen, and her parents were Muireann Baking and Antonio Bruciare

--Muireann and Antonio had another daughter, an ifrit named Benedetta (aunt to Wamblee et al). When Benedetta grew up she married an ifrit named Carmine v'Breda.

--Because of the Carmine's unfortunate views of other races, I'm guessing the cousins were not super close, but Colleen and Benedetta still managed to visit each other when Carmine was busy marching new troops to the Fronts (he is a sergeant of the Army)

I think it would be fun to flesh those shared visits out a little more since we are on a "hiatus" until the 5th or so. This can also be a chance to talk about what your characters were like when they were younger, how they reacted to each other, and how they are different (or the same) in the present.

Welcome on board, Iniga. :)

I'll have a think about it!

Speaking as Marianne, I think she and Iniga would have bouts of getting along famously, and other times of sudden clashing (as Marianne is quite impulsive too)

Samen is still young, so he's basically the same as he's always been. He'd rather be alone with a book than deal with other elens, especially ones as boisterous and gregarious as your average Skald. I imagine he hid as much as possible when Iniga came around.

Just running through things fairly quickly

-In general, I doubt Iniga would have interacted much with the family within the last five years (ie since she joined the Red Tongue faction). So she's definitely changed a lot in terms of apperance (she now has those tattoos), fighting style, and temperament. Old Iniga would never really have been able to be diplomatic for instance or read people as effectively as she does now.

-Iniga might not have had many opportunities to interact with Samen in the past, but I think its likely that he made some impact on her. She probably got the idea's for her tattoos from his, although the reasons as to why the both have tattoos are completely different.

-Wamblee and Iniga might have had some common ground, as both of them are on bad terms with their fathers. We might have bonded a little but that depends on Wamblee's player -you could argue that both of us might have had limited interactions as well as Wamblee went into the monastery while Iniga went to study to be a Skald.

-No idea on Samoon, cannot find a backstory on him.

-Agree that Marianne and Iniga are going to have a fiery relationship. On the one hand, Marianne despises ifrits - on the other hand, Iniga is well-intentioned in that they both want better things for Sylphs. My prediction is probably that they clash on how to go about it - as Iniga favores the political / diplomacy sort of process (which would be slower) while Marianne might doubt that the majority of ifrits would ever change.

On an unrelated note, here is a map of Forest. I ended up drawing this in part just to make sure all the distance between Root, Branch, etc were actually consistent when you were traveling. I doubt I'll ever take the time to turn it into a google doc, so enjoy the original!

Map of Forest

--The circles are Forge and Light
--The teardrops are breathless valleys
--This is not an exhaustive list of every tribe and monastery, but it shows the major tribes and the bigger minor tribes at least

I also put this link in with the other map links in Campaign info.

A defining early moment for Wamblee was the idea that the oreads and other els are copying the ifrit ways, whether or not those ways are good for anyone involved. He is unimpressed by what he sees as overly militaristic and mercantile ideals. He was always keenly perceptive, and drew conclusions from his insights.

An interesting parallel comes to mind. Wamblee is deeply concerned with the wellbeing of oreads as a group, while not deeply connected to so many oreads. He is suspicious of ifriti culture, while being far more amenable to individual ifrits.

He is also very stubborn, in the sense that once on a path, he is extremely difficult to sway. Very similar both in temperament and physicality to the deceased Hotah.

How he has changed?

Definitely a more rounded out worldview. He does not see a simple or easy solution to the fate of els or the issues with their cultures, or even if a solution is possible or desirable. He is slightly less stubborn. Slightly.

Alrighty, who is around? The general idea was you've finished your drinks with Matoskah the oread, and you've agree (at least in Discussion) to heading to the Winter Meet next.

Let's talk it over in Gameplay today, and if we're mostly around we can get the scene moving again over the weekend.