"Hwaet! Pen that was fantastic!" Visna whirls the slim elf around in honest surprise. "Were you always that limber?"
***
Visna hefts the spear appreciatively then tosses it over to Briar on her way to the door. "This seems like a good fit for you; now let's see if there's some devil who needs impaling on it."
There is no special significance to the pattern on the wagon. It is purely decorative.
The door opens into a room lined with shelves containing scraps of metal and various tools. Some of the shelves have been cleared to make room for a few piles of clothes, some food and wine bottles, and several stacks of harrow cards.
An elven man who must be Dieral shrieks in panic as you enter the room. His lack of sleep, healthy food, and opportunities for personal hygiene over the past few days have certainly left him in a sad state. He falls to his knees. ”Please! Have mercy on me, I beg you!”
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"Well, we are no Sarenites, but neither do I believe hwaet you have done us any wrong. I have no doubt that your days have been harrowing in any case, but you are Dieral of the Harrow Barrow, correct? Then we are glad to have reached you before it is too late, for we have found both questions and peril aplenty, and hope you can aide us with the former while we vouchsafe you from the latter."
She extends her drinking horn to him. "Here, but no more than a swallow, for honeyed waves carry much upon them."
Dieral happily takes a swig from the drinking horn. He takes a few deep breaths to steady himself as his initial panic slowly fades. "Thank you. Yes, I am Dieral Myrnese. I've been hiding out because I'm being pursued. I'm not sure who is after me, exactly, but ever since I found that card, I knew that it was only a matter of time before they catch up with me!"
At this point, the double doors in the stable suddenly burst open! A tiefling wearing half-plate and wielding a jagged battle axe charges inside. Moments later, a trio of humans in leather armor drop in through the thatch roof, brandishing bows, while a four-armed devil in a hooded robe comes in through the southern door! Dieral yelps in terror and rushes to find a hiding spot.
The tiefling hesitates, momentarily taken aback by your presence here. Then his eyes narrow. "Kill them all! Find the Harrow card!"
Pen was watching Visna care for the terrified ragged man, her mind a little tilted still at the limber question, Why she didn't know. But she should have been watching out for danger!
Stepping out in the doorway, she sees several of the attackers bunched together without her companions in the mix, Yet. Tactically, one should shock their opponents hoping they will decide that you were not worth dying for. Pen had no idea if a fireball would convince these people of that, but it was worth a try.
|
Briar hummed at the place as they searched, it looked old, but smelled like someone was there fairly recently. Then Visna tossed her a spear, which she caught and tested the weight of the weapon giving it a few test thrusts towards the open space of the shop and grinning. "A fine weapon, perhaps the owner of this place won't mind if we borrow it for the time being. Spirits know that humans have 'borrowed' enough from mine."
Visna opened the door and the shriek of a small man sounded out, causing Briar to turn her attention and laugh, "Aww well ain't there the man of the hour?"
The conversation is cut very short as a tiefling man, a devil, and their goons all burst through the roof.
"Kill them all! Find the Harrow card!" He screamed at them, Briar grinned deep and growled at anyone who would dare to even suggest harming her charge and her new allies.
She grasp the spear tightly and noted the demon, before unleashing a harrowing battle cackle before she charged in, the air on this side of the stables becoming charged with an unsettling presence.
Visna hurtles her bulk forward, crashing into the pile of bowmen with casual violence. "This time no wicked pinions shall make of my protection a folly."
Two of the assassins dodge some of Pen’s fireball, but the other takes the full brunt. Visna demoralizes the devil with a fierce battle cry before rushing in to attack the assassins with a sweeping, snagging strike! Briar critically hits the devil with the mithral spear, then bites its throat, silencing it!
Rather than risk casting a spell with its damaged voice after recovering from being stunned, the devil stabs at Briar with all four daggers!
The tiefling charges in to flank Briar, swinging his axe! He scores two critical hits!
The assassins Visna wounded step to flank her, switching to rapiers and attacking. The other one fires with his bow.
Poor Briar really wasn't faring well in these encounters, and that was very upsetting to Sanjana. Eyeing the tiefling, the kashrishi pulls out their Harrow deck, throwing the cards into the air.
"Which card, precisely, are you looking for?"
But instead of falling to the ground, they swirl around Briar protectively.
"It really is no use. You should give up, while you yet live."
Visna greets the assault of her dancing partners with savage joy, opening an answering smile across the chest of her most wounded foe, before mitigating his strike by drawing forth luck from her Last Coin.
Her axe whistles back to her hand as she backhands the duelist, the short haft of her Smile allowing her to cut his thread even while they grapple for a primacy she knows is hers.
"no one ever takes the hint." the elf mutters at the lack of respect a fireball is given now a days, so instead she grasps her staff, evoking the vision of the future to make one of the ones that is attempting to hurt Visna regret their choice to continue this battle.
|
|
Sensing the approaching Tiefling Briar spins and lashes out with the spear on approach before being hit by them. And wincing at the weapon biting deep into her backside.
She shoulder's the tiefling as Sanjana's spell takes effect buying her some space. To get some space on the devil, "Away with you both!"
Sanjana protects Briar with the Harrow before inflicting the tiefling with momentary feelings of hopelessness. Pen tries to disintegrate him, but the beam narrowly misses, dissolving a crate across the room instead. Visna finishes off the wounded assassin, then turns to the next one, narrowly missing. Briar stabs the devil with her spear, but misses with her bite.
The devil and the tiefling continue to assail Briar, badly wounding her!
The archer switches to his rapier and moves to fill the position of his fallen comrade. Flanking Visna, both assassins attack with their rapiers.
The battle is chaos, making Pen's mind frown. The tearing, ripping, and bleeding of the companion is focused on makes that frown into a clenching panic. Worse is when she finally tears her gaze away from that melee to the other, where there is more Gnoll fluids and flesh on the floor than there should be.
As much as she would love to focus all her fire at the one battle, that would be impractical. So with a her finger pointing like a crossbow, she fires a lance of scorching flame at the nearest three villians.
|
|
Even in her rage Briar can feel her strength slipping away as another series of blades open tears in her flesh and spill the precious lifeblood from her. She backs herself into a corner so that she can more easily defend herself. Though to the onlooker she leans fairly heavily into the wall as the spear in her gasp falls with a clang to the ground, she reaches into a pouch to chew on some numbing herbs and literally wipes away one of the knife wounds in her chest.
But even with some of the pain driven from her body her breaths are still raspy and labored. The stubborn gnoll none-the-less puts her dukes up.
Sanjana ponders the situation from behind Pentella, raising their scepter high as they reach for the boomerang at their side and hurl it towards the tiefling.
"Cease this violence!"
Visna spits out a mouthful of blood, the battle-grin on her face beginning to look rather more forced. Like Briar, she takes a moment to hunker down, whipping her Last Coin in front of her in sharp angular patterns while her new tattoo glows fiercely within the dank stable.
Sanjana hits the tiefling with their boomerang, but the pacifying rune has no effect on the man. Pen unleashes scorching rays, burning the tiefling but missing her other targets. Visna and Briar focus on healing themselves.
Given a moment's reprieve, the devil steps away from Briar and protects itself with a mirror image spell. It continues to bleed.
The tiefling likewise casts a spell on himself, granting himself haste. He then steps forward to slash at Briar.
The mercenaries stab at Visna, but she manages to fend off all of their attacks!
Choke points, planned defenses, not whirling melee and battle and blood all around. That is what Pen likes when fighting. But MOST OF ALL she likes avoid battle.
Something she has obviously been doing way too much of late, as her last streams of fire do little other than brighten the shop and set random fires.
|
|
Briar tries to kick the Tiefling's leg out from under him, but with so much blood spilt already and her strength flagging from just that it isn't much to write home about. So she instead throws her large body into the man to shove him back before stooping down to grab the shining spear once more, leaning back into the wall like a cornered animal once again. Her open wounds refuse to clot and one begins to wonder if she really is unkillable based on the sheer amount of blood pooling around her feet.
Visna's wounds continue to close as she switches back to her axe, hewing about her as she tries to turn her scrum into a duel.
Sanjana catches their boomerang as it whistles back to them, then launches it at the devil.
Sanjana realizes the devil’s vulnerability to silver weapons. They hurl their boomerang, which destroys one of its mirror images. Briar shoves the tiefling away and retrieves the mithral spear. Visna delivers a critical hit to one of her attackers, then follows up with another strike as she grabs a hold. Pen releases more scorching rays, and while two miss their targets, she burns the man Visna is holding, finishing him off!
The devil steps away from Briar again, then casts a spell, hurling a fireball that explodes in the midst of all but Visna!
Meanwhile, the tiefling turns his attention to Visna. He moves in and attacks with his axe.
The remaining mercenary steps to flank the Ulfen warrior!
|
|
Briar manages to hunker down in her corner against the onslaught of flames that explodes next to her. The flames roil over the gnoll, but her hide suddenly flashes to bronze and she glows hot before returning to normal after the spell disipates. Watching the fiery conflagration hurt Sanjana stokes her ire again and she moves closer to her ward, hugging the wall with a limp.
"Sanja..."
Success: The target is unaffected.
Failure: The target is dazed and can barely vocalize. It's stunned 1 and its speech is raspy and hard to understand. It must succeed at a DC 11 flat check to use linguistic actions or supply verbal spellcasting components until the end of its next turn.
Critical Failure: As failure, but the creature is stunned 3 instead of stunned 1.
With a stabilizing breath she lunges outtowards the Devil's throat with the spear hoping to hit meat instead of magic. The strike manages to drop the fel-beast and seeing her ally in danger Briar moves to assist but falters part of the way there.
"My pack... potions." After the effort of the strikes she drops to one knee clearly exhausted, through ragged breaths.
Pen promises herself to PRACTICE hitting targets after this is all over, no matter how much she'd rather curl up with a book.
Duck and roll, her mind screams as soon as the flame explodes, which she listens to only getting a minor burn. The mage pops back up, looking around for what she can do, and in the corner of her eye, she sees the devil create illusions of itself, "Oh no you don't" she states, pointing her palm at it and Pew-Pewing a half dozen glowing blue orbs at all the devils in sight.
Two of Pen’s magic missiles destroy the devil’s mirror images while the rest slam into the fiend. Briar stabs the devil clean through the neck with her spear, slaying the vile creature!
"Hwaet? Go win your own fight fiendling! Or at least wait your turn!"
Trusting to her runic protections to keep her moving, Visna tries to finish of the bandit with a bullying barrage, twisting and shoving him off balance before hauling him off his feet with one hand. A final strike of her Smile sends the short-hafted axe whirling in a vicious semicircle behind her, driving back her other assailant before returning to her grasp.
Sanjana moves closer to Briar before throwing their boomerang once again, at the tiefling.
Then the kashrishi grasps one Briar's hands, squeezing tightly. "Hold in there. You got this. We've been through worse."
Sanjana hits the tiefling again, then Visna slices and grabs the mercenary, the critical hit slowing him down! Both foes continue to focus on Visna, slicing and stabbing her!
|
|
Reassured by Sanjana Briar moves up to aid Visna in her struggle against the tiefling foregoing the unruned spear she takes a go at chomping on the mercenaries skull.
Success: The target is unaffected.
Failure: The target is dazed and can barely vocalize. It's stunned 1 and its speech is raspy and hard to understand. It must succeed at a DC 11 flat check to use linguistic actions or supply verbal spellcasting components until the end of its next turn.
Critical: Failure As failure, but the creature is stunned 3 instead of stunned 1.
Though there is still considerable danger, three of the enemy are bleeding on the ground while none of them are. 'Not the time to congratulate oneself for not being a complete stinking pile, Pen-ie.' the elf reminds herself.
Grabbing her staff in both hands, and squeezing hard like one would do to an orange to produce juice, Pen brings out the magical energy she pours into it each morning.
Then raising her attack palm out again, the familiar green unsettling beam of Make Into Dust shoots out toward the last human assassin.
Pen’s spell hits the mercenary, whose scream of agony cuts off as he crumbles to dust in Visna’s grasp! Meanwhile, Briar bites the tiefling twice, momentarily stunning him!
Even Visna's mighty thews are beginning to weaken, but she battles on nonetheless. Rounding on the Tiefling she meets him axe to axe, baleful runes flaring as she tries to close within the sweep of his blade!
Visna slices the tiefling with both of her axes, and blood sprays as the man goes down!
Dieral cautiously emerges from his hiding spot. "Is it over? Are they... gone?"
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As the Tiefling's body goes limp with Visna's slice Briar uses her stature and strength to give it one last quick whip while biting down on the man's skull producing a crunch as his body turns at a wrong angle from his head. Before she let's the whole corpse drop, she props herself on the spear with both hands afterwards and huffs as the battle rage leaves her.
"You alive bloodhawk?" She looks to Visna not sure if her body is just standing from the pressure of the fight or if there was still life in that heart. Once assured of her still being alive, she looked to Sanjana. "Sanja, your assistance is well earned. We may need to reconvene somewhere safe again.. with our new stray." She motions towards Dieral with her snout since it seems her shaking hands are welded to the spear for now.
"A moment to catch my breath, then I'll tend to our wounds, my herb pack will need restored after today though."
True to her word, once Briar catches her breath and steadies her hands she begins tending to everyone's wounds lighting some herbs on fire and using the resultant smoke to help numb the pain, making the group chew various herbs which she then has them spit out to be pressed into the wounds. The entire time she chants low the same prayers she had before and finally she tends to her own wounds.
"Please remain out here, I have business with the dead."
Briar returns inside the stables to witness the various corpses of their foes. Pulling free the jawbone dagger hanging from her neck with her left hand she kneels over the Tiefling first.
With that Briar cuts into the man's chest, having removed the gear prior to the ritual. Freeing his non-beating heart with her right hand she lifted it up, gently balancing the dagger in her opposite palm. For just a moment it seems the heart gives one last thump and she lowers them both before consuming the flesh of the fallen foe.
After meditating on her actions she breaks trance and moves to the fallen devil in the room and if it happened to be solid still she would make sure to kick all it's weapons away and cut free the rags it wore before flaying it's hide. Again keeping carefully to keep the dagger in her left hand only as she works with almost a rout precision.
Once the entire process is done with she returns to her companions who hopefully waited outside during her grizzly ceremonies.
Pen lets out a pleased sigh when the fighting is over. She spends a moment looking over her person, the singed cloths and minor burns, not great but better than it could be. "Thank you" she says simply when Briar comes over with a salve. She does include a smile with the gratitude.
Once the blood is properly soaking into the floor beard, the elf goes over to her distant kin "Master Deiral, what card are they after? They killed the owner of Three Moves Ahead, looking for cards as well. Why?"
”All-Seeing Hajeck is dead? That is a tragedy, and too bad she did not see it coming.
“A strange harrow card just appeared in my possession one day not too long ago.” Dieral produces a card from his pocket and shows it to you: The Carnival. Its style matches those already in your possession. ”This card, and others like it, belong to a greater whole—a powerful collection known as the Deck of Destiny. I know this because I have seen it in my nightmares. I have had terrible dreams since the card came to me, dreams of being pursued by a man in demonic armor, a hulking werewolf, and a monstrous black bird, all of whom taunted me that the glories of the Deck of Destiny were not meant for me.
“I have tried to sell, discard, and even destroy The Carnival in countless ways, only to fail each time and find the card returned to me. Maybe you could try to take it from me?” The elf gives you the card, but fully expects it to return to him within a few moments. When it doesn’t, he’s shocked, amazed, and more than anything else, relieved.
”Incredible! It would seem that perhaps you, unlike me, are destined for the artifact’s power. I believe that if all of the cards in the deck are gathered in one place, the resulting collection will likely have much greater powers. But the fact that I didn’t recognize The Carnival makes me think that either the Deck of Destiny itself is remarkably ancient and forgotten, or unusually recent in its construction.”
In his gratitude, Dieral also offers you two moderate salamander elixirs that he discovered earlier.
Visna isn't shy about yelping or hissing whenever Briar's fingers are ungentle, or her unguents sting, but she holds herself tightly, never flinching away from her healer.
"Do you recall hwaet befell you before the Carnival appeared? The twist of fate that brought the Paladin into my keeping is as yet unknown to me, but perhaps in the telling of many tales some commonalities might reveal themselves."
"Hmmm... destined are we?" The wizard does not sound grateful about the prospect. Fate has never been kind, in her mind at least.
While the card was accepted, hopefully by someone else, Pen looks through the assassin's gear, holding up the feather a moment later. "This is used to deliver a message, I wonder if it is preprogrammed..." she muses aloud, wondering if there is a way to trace where it might go to.
Puff pushes out from its hiding spot in her backpack, stretching its long nose out to the feather, and SNIFFS. Just in case, there is a smell other than the currently decaying one, and they ever run into them.
"Nothing unusual portended the card's arrival," Dieral says. "I just checked my cart's inventory one day, and there it was!"
Pen is able to discern that the feather token functions like most others of its kind. The name and location of its intended recipient is not assigned to it until it is activated. The design is distinctive, but the elf doesn't know whether or not it holds special significance.
Once Dieral has answered all of the questions you might have for him, he takes his leave, eager to get back to his normal life. He lifts up the Harrow Barrow and wheels it away.
Chapter 2: Scattered Stories
Mere moments after he has left, a sudden sense of vertigo overwhelms you as a thunderous sound fills the air of what must be a colossal deck of cards being shuffled. The world around you flickers and fades as images of a new reality, viewed as if in a series of rapidly flashing pages flipping over and over, manifests before you. This vision shows a sprawling valley surrounded by impossibly tall mountains. Within the valley lie forests and swamps, deserts and plains, and a massive lake. At the valley’s heart sits a lonely castle atop a low hill, surrounded by a village. A sudden sense of homesickness seems to rise up from that castle, and then, just as quickly as it began, the vision comes to an end.
As if by instinct, you understand the truth of what has occurred—by bringing together a card from every suit in the Deck of Destiny, a new reality has been created. Further, each of you understands how you can enter this new reality and knows its name—the Harrow Court.
You concentrate on a card from the Deck of Destiny that you have invested, focusing on it as if you were looking through a window rather than at a piece of artwork. After 1 minute, a stationary portal appears in the air in front of you, its edges resembling the quick riffling of a thick deck of cards. You and any other creatures you designate can pass through this portal to enter the Harrow Court. Once created, the portal persists for up to 1 minute or until you take an action with the envision trait to close the portal.
A character in the Harrow Court can use this activity to open a portal out of the demiplane, but this portal always leads to the same point in the multiverse they were at when they previously entered the Harrow Court.
Sanjana accepts briar's ministrations with gratitude. "I was afraid I'd lose you, moments ago. If these kinds of encounters are to keep occurring, I'll start preparing some healing craft of my own." They pull out their own herb supplies, patching up those who are still injured after Briar's healing.
The kashrishi leaves the room when Briar asks, joining Pen in talking to Dieral. "I am so glad that we got to you in time. I believe Arhan would have been very upset if anything happened to you." Sanjana smiles, perhaps a suggestion that Dieral should pay the aforementioned Arhan a visit sometime soon, hmm?
|
|
"Ahh.. Sanjana." Briar starts giving a tiny hug to the Kashrishi, "It'll take more than a few dozen stabs in the front and back to put me down." She manages a confident laugh that's ruined by a wet cough to the side filled with half-coagulated bloody phlegm. "Okay maybe they were closer than most. But we made it through and that's what's important. A change of tactics perhaps is in order as well."
With a glance over to Visna, "I do not want to press our luck in utilizing your resources and comforts, but I have a sense that this is far from over. Do you have a viable place for lodging while we figure out our next move?"
Briar spends much of the next month visiting various places throughout Absalom to learn, visiting the hospitals of the city to better learn to care for her group as a whole unit. Visiting various fighting rings to of course keep sharp in her technique but also to learn new more prevalent ones in this area. Hunter enclaves outside the city even took her in for a solid week of no contact but she returned all the same ready for a good soak in a hot bath. She even returned to Three Moves Ahead and took a trophy from the fallen, before of course letting proper authorities know what had transpired. Each night she returns to the group tired in some form, but it seems she's well rested and jovial despite the constant running about.
At the end of the month when reconvening with the group she wears the fruits of their efforts when they first came together, sporting hides of various predators as well as the mismatched unmistakable skin of the devil she had skinned in the stables. Highlighted by it's six limbs, she also bore the upper skull of the Bone devil they fought on the first day as a shoulder guard. She sits with a heavy thump near her companions.
"I hope you all had fun during our stay." Looking to Sanjana, "And that you learned well, my dearest friend?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
A frown settles into Pen's soft cheeks at Dieral's words. The card Just Appeared, which was exactly what happened to her. And her companions, she sighed.
It was strange, odd, even Intriguing, but... not her problem. Dusting off her pants again, she stands before the others "It was a pleasure meeting you, Briar and Sanjana. And to see you again, Visna. But I have not been back to my place in months. All my plants are likely dead, potentially the cats as well, but more likely the feline herd simply ate the neighbors." she pauses, settling her mouth into a line. Then waves, turns, and heads out.
Pen had meant that to be a goodbye, but every night she left for dinner, she ended up at whatever the others met to eat at. Every night! She ate with them of course, drank a bit, anything else would be rude. She listened to Briar's training, to Visna's stories, to Sanjana's creative wisdom, and smiled pleasantly. They truly were the most personable and eclectic group she's ever been a part of.
Nope, she not a Part of the group. A few months of reading while covered in her herd and sipping soup sounded so much better.
Still she told them about her day, about spending the afternoons with Arhan and Brine learning their craft. About how Arhan's cheeks turned the brightest red the sun has ever seen when Dieral heeded Sanjana's nudge.
Then the night was over, and Pen attempted to make it Goodbye again. And failed Over and Over. She even left the city, deciding Tian Xia would be a nice place to visit this time to year, only to wake in her own bed the next day.
After weeks, she accepts Destiny has its own opinion on whether you are allowed to decline.
Sanjana empathizes with Dieral, of course. They knew better than most what it was like to be a pawn of fate, your path written by forces beyond you. They had spent decades railing against it, trying to outsmart it, trick it, plead with whomever might listen, run away. In the end, all was in vain, and destiny kept finding them over and over.
Well, at least try to make the most of it. If not for the prophecy, Sanjana would have never travelled to the places that they had, would never have met the people they had - like Briar.
Haunted by how little they were able to help their friend in the recent confrontations, Sanjana spends the next few weeks studying. Labouriously drawing the intricate designs in Arhan's shop, elbow to elbow with Pentella. Teasing out the secrets of the storied artifacts in Erikanesh's shop. Roaming the city's many libraries, spending days talking with sages and oracles, sorcerers and shamans, wizards and conjurers, magi and occultists - the most famed practitioners of the occult and the arcane.
And all the while they feel the presence of the two Harrow cards, their design so different from Sanjana's own Harrow deck. They had always been drawn to the Harrow, their home back in Jalmeray cluttered with dozens of decks drawn by different artists, some of them straying rather far from the classical suits (although, somehow, Sanjana always knew what the cards meant).
One day, as Pentella says her goodbye for the sixth time, Sanjana smiles. "It is no use swimming against the current, you will only exhaust yourself. Floating along brings opportunities, even though they may not be the ones you were looking for."
After several weeks of training, crafting, and enjoying everything that Absalom has to offer, you feel confident enough in yourselves to finally explore this new realm the cards from the Deck of Destiny have created. You find a secluded place to open the portal into the Harrow Court.
As you step through the portal, you find yourselves in a grand hall. The bare stone walls of this cathedral-like chamber are draped with cobwebs and dust. No furnishings adorn the immense hall, while the ceiling above arches up to a height of nearly a hundred feet. Dozens of stained glass windows, each depicting a different scene from the Harrow, allow light to stream into the dusty chamber, and several wooden doors allow exit in all of the room’s walls but one. This wall instead features six shallow alcoves filled with swirling gray mist. Each alcove is framed by an elegantly carved archway featuring decorations from the six suits of the Harrow—hammers, keys, shields, tomes, stars, and crowns.
You instinctively understand the nature of this realm...
Divinities none
Native Inhabitants simulacra
The Harrow Court appears as an idyllic region that could have been plucked from the heart of Avistan. At the demiplane’s center, a fortress known as Harrowheart sits atop a hill, which is in turn surrounded by a village and farmlands. To the north, the farmlands give way to barren deserts, while to the south they decline into a swamp. A vast lake lies to the east, and a dense forest grows in the west, while all around, towering mountains surround the realm, giving it the appearance of being nestled in a single vast valley. The sun rises in the east every morning at 6:00 am and sets in the west every evening at 6:00 pm, splitting time into equal periods of twelve hour days and nights. The sky above appears normal (complete with moon and stars at night) but has an impassible barrier—the edge of the demiplane—at an altitude of 3 miles.
There are no dangerous monsters native to the demiplane. The PCs are the only truly living things within the Harrow Court, but they’re not alone. People and animals populate the fortress, surrounding village, and modest farmhouses that dot the countryside, representing what appears to be a perfectly ordinary mix of both young and old from numerous common ancestries. Beyond the farmlands, simulacra of all kinds of wild animals populate the wilderness, yet they do not encroach upon the heartland of the demiplane. When the PCs first arrive in the Harrow Court, it is sparsely populated.
These people and creatures are created by the Deck of Destiny, but they’re not truly “alive.” Instead, they’re more akin to simulacra. They possess full memories, relationships, and interests that seem legitimate—these citizens of the Harrow Court believe that they have always lived here and have memories that include lineages and traditions, yet they’re not actual living creatures. All of these simulacra, be they citizens or wild animals, appear to live and even die as normal, but with each new sunrise in the Harrow Court, dead bodies fade and those simulacra wake as normal with no memory of their previous death as they continue to play out their constant but repeating role within the demiplane.
The defining characteristic of the Harrow Court are its epitomes—one for each card in the Deck of Destiny. Each of these epitomes helps to expand the demiplane by adding new opportunities to the realm. A card’s epitome activates immediately as soon as it arrives within the Harrow Court, as long as the card itself is invested. Likewise, if a PC invests a card while within the Harrow Court, its epitome activates automatically. Once a card’s epitome activates, the player characters immediately become aware of those effects, regardless of where in the Harrow Court the epitome manifests. An epitome remains active forever —there’s no way to reverse an epitome once it takes place.
The six cards you have brought into the Harrow Court pulse with power as they begin to epitomize themseles within the demiplane!
Critical Success The PC observes some of the carnival performers and gains subtle clues as to the nature of a foe they will soon face. The GM chooses a specific, named enemy that the PCs are likely to face at some point in the current adventure they’re playing. When the PC encounters that foe (as long as the foe isn’t disguised), they automatically recognize them. At this point, the GM informs the PC that they recognize the foe from their visit to the carnival, and the PC learns information about the foe as if they had achieved a critical success in an attempt to Recall Knowledge against that target. Until the party encounters and defeats that foe, they cannot visit this carnival again to search for clues.
Success As success, but instead of granting insight into the nature of a specific foe, the GM chooses a generic monster that the PCs may soon face, selecting from standard monsters that might be encountered in the current adventure the PCs are playing. The information gained is equal to what the PC would have gained from a success by Recalling Knowledge about that monster.
Failure Apart from a vaguely unsettling feeling of being watched themselves, the PC learns nothing from their visit to the carnival.
Critical Failure Rather than noticing anything helpful, the PC emerges from their trip to the carnival with paranoid feelings of being watched by unseen eyes, and becomes stupefied 3.
Critical Success Once during the next month, you can reroll a failed or critically failed saving throw. This is a fortune effect.
Success As critical success, but you can only reroll a failed saving throw. This is a fortune effect.
Failure You gain no benefit from the meditation.
Critical Failure The next time you critically succeed at a significant or important saving throw, as determined by the GM, you must reroll that saving throw. This is a misfortune effect.
Critical Success You surprise the Rabbit Prince and he is impressed enough to gift you a +2 striking weapon. The specific type of weapon is up to you, but it must be a common weapon. The Rabbit Prince is now on the lookout for your tricks, and you can never attempt this activity again.
Success You spot the Rabbit Prince for a moment, but he doesn’t spot you. The next time you perform this activity, you gain a +4 circumstance bonus to your Stealth check.
Failure You do not spot the Rabbit Prince.
Critical Failure You don’t spot the Rabbit Prince, but he spots you. He’s insulted by your curiosity and triggers a trap that inflicts a serious wound upon you. You become clumsy 3 for 1 week or until the condition is removed via an effect like restoration.
You can either investigate the six arches in this hall, or explore the rest of the castle...
|
|
Briar half expects a fight when they first enter the demiplane, but upon seeing none she looks around confused before the realm becomes almost second nature to her in an instant. "Ahh... that is... strange."
She turns to her companions and the barren room and the archways of swirling mist. "Hmmm what should we explore first? You're much better at figuring this kind of stuff out Sanjana so I'll heed your word on the matter."
Sanjana walks slowly around the enormous space, shaking their head at the dust and cobwebs. The kashrishi takes their time examining the stained glass windows, noting their position in relation to what they depict, peering at the alcoves with their symbols, standing in front of the doors for minutes at a time.
"I think I would like to know more about this place we are in right now. This... Harrowheart. Are all its rooms as bare as this one?" They glance over their shoulder to the wall with the alcoves. "And I would prefer to travel through a maximum of one portal per hour, if at all possible. Transdimensional relocation upsets my stomach."
As you step into the halls of the castle to begin exploring the sprawling complex, a man in a well-tailored suit approaches and bows. ”Welcome, masters. We have been expecting your return. Harrowheart is ready for you, and its staff are at your service. Shall I show you around?”
The man leads you around to the various facilities as a small but bustling staff of cooks, valets, and servants prepare to tend to your needs. You note a contingent of paladins standing watch at strategic locations around the castle. Many appear to be humans of Ulfen descent, and they salute Visna as she passes by.
Bedrooms: These chambers are a perfect place to rest and relax. They can be outfitted as recovery rooms as well, to provide places for long-term rest or other medical care as needed.
Dining Halls: These chambers range from sprawling rooms capable of hosting galas to intimate nooks for single dining. Meals provided by cooks in adjoining kitchens are filling but not overly flavorful. While the materials used to cook these meals vanish like all other materials if taken from Harrowheart, the sustenance they provide is real—a character who eats and drinks in one of the castle’s dining halls remains full and sated, even if they immediately leave the demiplane after finishing their meal.
Training Rooms: The first time a training room is entered, it’s empty, featuring only a single meditation mat lying on the center of the floor. A character who spends a minute meditating on the mat can adjust the room’s contents to be a shrine, laboratory, library, dojo, garden, sparring hall, or any similar room that matches the themes of their class. The room thereafter can be used by any character of that class for the Retraining downtime activity. A character can adjust the room’s contents to support a different class by meditating at the center of the room—provided the room isn’t already in use.
Workshops: Harrowheart’s workshops feature numerous tools and resources for creating a wide range of items, including magical items. The tools located in each workshop are of high quality and grant a +1 item bonus to any Crafting check made within. Raw materials must be provided by the crafter, of course, as no materials found within Harrowheart can exist outside the demiplane.
In one of the workshops stands the Brass Dwarf, a clockwork smith with hair and beard of fire. They give a stiff bow as you approach. ”I stand ready to stoke the fires of the forge, should ye be need of me crafting services,” they say in a hollow, metallic voice.
"Hello... um... what should we call you?" she asks the brass dwarf and the man in the well-tailored suit. Naming is important, Pen thinks.
She finds the place fascinating, the idea of the food insane, she asks "If a body fades overnight, but we eat a bunny or even a head of lettuce, does that fade away from our bellies. OH!" her musing stops when she pokes her head into a bedroom, that screams her in every way.
She quickly shuts the door, deciding seeing Her in room form was too intimate to share with others.