A Sundered World: Episode 104

Cast

• Agron (level 3 scion psion)
• Katra "Crazy Gin" (level 3 kobold pirate)
• Sift (level 3 deva shaman)
• Sirus "Ironhide" (level 3 tarchon battlemind)
• Waive (level 3 scion nomad)

Summary

Arms shaped into jagged blades and eager to mete out retribution, Ironhide charged towards Panzer...who snapped him up with a single, surprisingly swift motion.

Choking on his scalding, sooty breath, Ironhide struggled to force his jaws open. When that invariably failed, long, metallic spikes erupted all around his body, piercing the interior of Panzer's mouth and causing him to unceremoniously expectorate Ironhide.

Seeing that they were clearly outnumbered and outclassed, Sift unleashed his spirit Fizz. She darted about in a smoky blur, destroying the floor of the already rapidly destabilizing cathedral underneath the tarchon warriors. While they floated about helplessly, Waive grabbed Ironhide and followed everyone else as they retreated from the cathedral, with Panzer and a torrent of magma hot on their heels.

They made it to Katra's ship in various degrees of health, but as she fired up the collidor and sped away Panzer flew after them. He quickly closed the distance and latched onto the back of the ship, tearing at the hull with his great talons. Ironhide took Katra's ghostly blade and again charged him, and again Panzer snapped him up. But, as Ironhide's pain and consciousness slipped away he drove the ghostly blade into Panzer's skull, killing him. Panzer's grip slackened and he fell away, Ironhide's corpse still in his mouth, to the streets below.

Waive drifted down to the street to retrieve Ironhide's body. He easily found it amid a pile of blackened rock and ash, along with the devil prince that had purchased the cambion ship they were hauling on their way to the city. He asked the prince what he was doing, and he dismissively replied that he was looking for something. After a few moments he pulled a spherical object from the remains of Panzer's chest. Waive then asked him if he'd profited from whatever it was that he did, and the prince said that he wasn't sure before vanishing.

Waive returned to the ship, body in hand, and told them what had happened. Unsure what, if anything they could do about the devil prince, then instead focused their efforts on finding a way to return Ironhide to life. They entertained some theories before Waive suggested, what with the sudden lack of divine presence, the library's archive.

There weren't any golden lanterns flitting about, so it was a simple matter for Waive to slip through the door and unlock it. The archive was filled with massive stone slates that Agron found he could easily lift and move about. They were inscribed in the angelic language, which fortunately Sift could read well enough. He found a passage that described Tyr's valiant sacrifice whilst defending his angelic host, and subsequent reassembly.

Sift concluded that with some god's blood, and pieces of various god-corpse fragments that corresponded with Ironhide's own missing body parts, they could similarly revive him. From what they could tell the tarchons were not actually claiming trophies or prisoners, so they went to the cathedral in the hopes they could find something in the disintegrating ruin. As with the library there were no angels to impede them, meaning that they had a clear path to the sanctuary.

The devil prince had beat them to it.

Waive extended his sight so that he could take a closer look without getting too close, and watched as he tore the face off an ophanim, melted an altar, and removed a small, golden sphere that featured the faces of scion and animal. After some brief inspection a fleshy, worm-like creature consumed him and returned to his black, wailing ship.

With no one around to stop them they entered the sanctuary, where they recovered a variety of priceless relics like a strand of Tyr's hair, a fifteen foot wide fragment of his comb, a halberd stained with blood, a massive set of golden, jewel-encrusted scales, and a few golden idols.

Oh, and a tiny, thumb-sized phial of shimmering god's blood.

Behind the Scenes

Hooboy, had to remove and downgrade a number of tags on this steading, but on the plus side they managed to tackle that particular danger before it got too far. Wasn't sure if they'd kill Panzer, though honestly I wasn't betting on it. I'm sure they weren't either, and I'm proud of them for fleeing: I know a lot of gamers get used to the idea that if you see something, you can (or perhaps are expected to) kill it. These guys knew that they stood no chance against a dragon and squad of tarchon warriors, so tried to retreat.

Unfortunately a bunch of misses threw a wrench in their plans, but in the end it worked out well enough for them since Panzer "split the party".

One of the major deviations with A Sundered World is character death. Since there is no Death or Black Gate, you don't make bargains or whatever. Instead your soul or soul-like essence manifests, and you roll+WIS to see if you can resist the call of oblivion. If you succeed your soul sticks around, and you start racking up a counter currency over time. When it equals your Wisdom your soul departs to wherever it is that souls go in your world (this is one of the questions asked in the book).

Until then you can keep adventuring to a point: souls can harm living creatures with their touch (and ignore armor for the most part), and can pass through objects. The sword that they found in the first adventure is the Shattered Echo from 10+ Treasures: Volume II, and while I ruled he can wield it it really just increases his range from hand to close. There's also a lingering soul compendium class that better allows you to resist vanishing and do other things, like possess corpses and devour other souls.

Though they've found what I consider to be a valid way to bring Ironhide back, Shane wants to try out The Vampire, so I'm running with the idea that using godsblood will give his character THE THIRST.

Matthew, the player of Sift, expressed his frustrations at not knowing the layout of A Sundered World. This is understandable given that it's a pretty "gonzo" setting, and something that bears addressing, which is why I wrote this post. It describes several models for the arrangement of the world, and I'm curious what everyone else thinks (as well as if you have any other models you'd like to see).