A Sundered World: Episode 106 Synopsis

Cast

• Agron (level 3 scion psion)
• Katra "Crazy Gin" (level 3 kobold pirate)
• Waive (level 3 scion nomad)
• Warpath (level 3 tarchon battlemind)

Summary

The party returned to Spiral Harbor, with a sizable chunk of godsteel in tow. When they met up with Waive at the Sky Captain's Watch, they discovered that he had in turn met Ironhide's brother, a tarchon capable of similar flesh-shaping feats named Warpath.

Warpath had already learned from Waive that Ironhide had fallen in battle, and was especially grateful to meet Katra, who had given him the weapon used to finally slay Panzer.

He was eager to meet with Ironhide's soul, but Sift explained that while they were at Tyr's Arm his soul had been drawn inside. They weren't sure if he willingly went to join with the army of souls so that he could continue to fight, if he was drawn inside by it's overwhelming conflict resonance, or a combination of both. Regardless, Warpath was satisfied that Ironhide had at least avenged himself.

Waive was surprised to learn that Warpath had also met with the devil prince: apparently he had given something to Panzer, which was the source of his newfound size, strength, and ability to transform into a dragon. Waive had observed him retrieve whatever it was from Panzer's ashes after his defeat, but had not pressed him for information.

While they were gone, and before a new host of angels had arrived to help restore and fortify the city, Waive had also learned from the archive that there was much more to the Sword Vault than what they'd initially explored. It had been constructed around the sword of the Dwarf-Maker, and served as the headquarters for what was best described as a kind of smithing cult.

He wanted to return to it in hopes that he could find a way to repair and awaken his own blades. Plus, there was likely much more lost treasure and knowledge hidden within. Since the Vault was near Metacaropolis, which contained another godsteel fragment that they would need to restore Ironhide, the rest of the party agreed.

Their voyage took them near an island from which they had previously gathered honey when they were low on food. This time, instead of giant bees, they had to deal with a swarm of dark elves that managed to latch onto the underside of the ship using strands of webbing as they sailed past. Though Waive and Warpath managed to dispatch them all, Waive was afflicted by a poisoned javelin.

They decided to make a detour to Metacarpolis, so that they could pick up some antitoxins and other healing supplies. Fortunately the infernal merchants were more than happy to accept their assortment of holy relics, in exchange for a six-pack of healing potions.

After additionally stocking up on more mundane medicines they returned to their ship, but before they could board they spotted a familiar face, disembarking from a familiar black ship. He was dressed in black and red silks. Numerous horns curled from his head. He had no eyes, but they knew he could still see, and though his mouth was fixed in a perpetual, lipless grin, he could still speak clearly.

"It's very good to see you again, my friends."

Behind the Scenes

Quick Note: The Kickstarter for A Sundered World is now live! Go. Back it. You know you want to.

We had to push Sift to hireling status while we wait for his player to make a comeback (we miss you, Matthew), and Shane ditched his vampire in favor of another tarchon battlemind. I'm cool with this, both because he seems much happier with this style of character, and hey, more playtesting!

Speaking of playtesting, thanks to Shane I'm changing the battlemind's key move, because as it was if you take Self Healing, you could always top yourself off so long as you had about ten minutes of downtime (or less, it depends on which temporary penalty you went with).

The problem is that I thought of two versions, and I'm not sure which I like more.

Currently, you can spend 1 focus when you deal damage to deal +1d4 damage, and when you take damage you can spend 1 focus to reduce it by 1d4 (it's not an armor boost, so it still works against the piercing and ignore armor tags).

Version 1
When you spend a few moments to try gather and focus your psionic energies, lose all focus and roll+CON. ✴On a 10+, gain 3 focus. ✴On a 7-9, gain 2 focus. ✴On a miss, gain 1 focus in addition to whatever else the GM says.

Version 2
When conflict erupts, roll+CON. ✴On a 10+, gain 3 focus. ✴On a 7-9, gain 2 focus. ✴On a miss, gain 1 focus.

Version 2 could be tweaked so that on a miss the GM still hits you with something (though I wouldn't want to do that since it's an involuntary thing), or so that instead of rolling you just set your focus to a flat amount (like 2 or 3).

So, which do you like more? Version 1? Version 2? Version 2 with a tweak?

As an added bonus, here's some battlemind art (based on my dwarf battlemind from another campaign):