Our First Adventure
We began our 7th Sea campaign last night. The characters are as follows:
Austin: Guy du Paix. Montaigne Noble, 2nd Son, love interest at court. He is traveling under the "du Paix" name, which is Montaigne Noble for "I need an alias." He is a linguist and a scholar, with a body guard (played by me) who fights. Guy does not fight. He tries. He is learning from the bodyguard but has much to learn. He is being hunted by Remy du Montaigne.
Tim: Emil. Bartender and assistant Innkeep. Owns a very nice dracheneisen sword and arm guards to match. Dangerously Beautiful. Orphaned young, is searching for the family. He does not yet know his true identity. In fact, he won't know for quite a while. Well, technically, his character does not yet know that he doesn't know his true identity. Hee hee. You followed that, right?
Abby: Bella MacDonald. Vodacce, educated, married to a Highlands Man who is a member of the Explorer's Guild and disappeared in the catacombs of Montaigne. She learned last night that her husband is alive and in prison, caught by the Musketeers in said catacombs and locked up in the Emperor's prison, there to rot and die. Dominique is going to get him out of prision and sent to Vodacce (through her maid Anna's contacts. Anna is a fate witch.) From there, (Abby doesn't know this part yet) he will end up in the clutches of a close cousin of Alcide Mondavi, name to be determined. This cousin used to be betrothed to Bella but she broke it off to marry the Highlands Man. (This from Abby's destiny spread, a "betrothal" that, due to rules set before hand, I get to choose.) Well, we all know how well Vodacce men take to such things, so when he finds this Highlands Man on his lands (not sure exactly how yet) he happily turns him over to cousin Alcide, who has a nasty, nasty way of disposing of people and is gleeful at getting another victim. Of course, he has to give him time to rebuild his strength, it's no fun otherwise. Which will give Bella and the party time to rescue him.
Matthew: Oh, Matthew is from the Crescent Empire, and has a unique and awesome name. Which I don't know if I can remember. Shafiq, I think. He is in Chareuse peddling wares from the Crescents (including a new and wonderful black liquid called...er...'koffe" I think). He's a traveling trader salesman. And incredibly cheerful. He has a sleezy saleman feel to him with an overdone friendliness (on the part of the character, not of Matthew) that is perfectly entertaining. Of course, he has lots of salves. Go figure, right? Anyhow, I like his character. Also, he carries a very large sword.
Steph: Steph is, at the moment, a very enigmatic character, and I think she will stay that way. She is a runaway street waif who Shafiq has hired to help him find his way around Chareuse, where she has lived for about 3 years. She has worked very hard on her languages so that she has no accent left when speaking any language that she speaks, so no one can really tell where she is from. I love that. She doesn't have a name yet, so every time Shafiq spoke to her, Matthew used a different name, and the rest of us started doing it too, and it ended up being very, very funny. I figure she will name her character eventually. But the rest will stay for a while. She is mistrustful of people, wary, and stays quiet, but has moments of brilliance that I really appreciate.
So, as if this isn't long enough, here is the story so far.
Anna met with all of them, and later they received their letters. They all agreed to help. They met at the right time and place (ta-da! We have a party!) and went to the sewers, but first had to get past the (GM designed puzzle gate) to get in. It was an iron gate with decorative panels that turned, and they had to figure out which way each one was supposed to be. Bella, fortunately, has occult knowledge, so picked up on the fact that some of them were based on a (7th Sea version of a) Tarot deck, some weren't. No one had alchemy knowledge, or they may have recongized the alchemy symbols on the other side. Anyhow they figured it out and traveled down to the catacombs. At one point, they had to travel under a guardhouse, with a grate in the sidewalk that opened up to below, and lucky for me a couple of them failed their rolls, so the Musketeers could be called to investigate. At the next guardhouse, a couple failed their rolls, and Steph picked up a rock and piece of wood that were convenient, and made scratching sounds on the walls. The guards thought it was the usual noise and everyone passed this time, undetected. See? Brilliant.
They met with Dominique, agreed to the quest, and almost got caught by Musketeers, but threw a lantern that burned long enough to get out of that room. Cue chase music....and they ran through the catacombs. They kept trying to get back the way they came, but somehow they never seemed to find the passage. Huh. They ended up in a large, circular room with several doorways, and I think Matthew got frustrated (but wasn't surprised) when one passage led right back to the room. Oh, it was fun. Then they ended up in the dressing room of the premier opera house of the city, with a show going on. Honestly, I tried to get them on stage, but gave them an option for an out if they didn't want to go. They didn't. But they did set fire to a large painted and stored drop down in storage in the catacombs. I decided it would delay most of the Musketeers long enough for them to get out. After all, it would look bad for them to let the Opera House burn down. Who knows, the Emperor might even have been in the house. They did throw on some costume capes that were hanging around long enough to blend into the cast and exited.
That's where it ended. Everyone seemed to have fun. We ordered pizza which we haven't done in a while, it was just like old times. Well, a few people shy, you know. The babies were a bit of a distraction but not really annoyingly so, although it might have been so to someone without kids. It did seem like when one of us needed a baby break, the others needed one also. Or, if one needed a break, they weren't doing anything at that moment anyhow. So that aspect is working well so far.
There were some things I could have done better. More gunshots during the chase, for example. We didn't make any combat-type rolls at all, and I could have thrown a couple of those in during the chase to make it more exciting. Also, I took the liberty of leading them a couple times, like when I reminded Steph and Guy that they would know there is no natural light in the catacombs, and they all realized that lanterns would be a great idea. It has just been a while since we played. We haven't role-played since before Michael was born, and we haven't don't this system in years. So I figure the first few sessions will be re-learning the system and should be fun and somewhat challenging but not terribly hard yet. Next time there will be a fight in a large barn, with all sorts of things stored there for an army, and ropes, and balconies, and stuff they can climb on and throw in the way and such. The men they are fighting won't be too hard to beat, as most of them are quartermasters, but it will get them used to fighting in the system again. I just need to find the balance between letting them find their own way, forget things,and dig their way out; and not letting them get into a stupid position that a simple reminder of "oh, yeah...darkness" would prevent.
I'll do that less as time goes on, I imagine. I had this first night fairly planned out, since it was my first time too, and didn't know what to expect, exactly. I was a little nervous about being able to make things up on the spot, but it was easy last night. I did a lot lot lot of prepwork so I am sure that helped. My next encounters are much less structured.
Ok, that's the report. We left our heros going back to their respective rooms to gather things to get ready to leave town. I imagine each of them will overhear excited rumors of the opera house almost burning down, and the Musketeers saving the day, and now Musketeers are searching for the responsible parties, because they are really mad about something. It will be a good opportunity to drop in some things I want them to know but couldn't work in, namely that the captain of the Musketeers himself is heading up the search, due to rumors of a treasonous plot against the King.
Until next time.
Austin: Guy du Paix. Montaigne Noble, 2nd Son, love interest at court. He is traveling under the "du Paix" name, which is Montaigne Noble for "I need an alias." He is a linguist and a scholar, with a body guard (played by me) who fights. Guy does not fight. He tries. He is learning from the bodyguard but has much to learn. He is being hunted by Remy du Montaigne.
Tim: Emil. Bartender and assistant Innkeep. Owns a very nice dracheneisen sword and arm guards to match. Dangerously Beautiful. Orphaned young, is searching for the family. He does not yet know his true identity. In fact, he won't know for quite a while. Well, technically, his character does not yet know that he doesn't know his true identity. Hee hee. You followed that, right?
Abby: Bella MacDonald. Vodacce, educated, married to a Highlands Man who is a member of the Explorer's Guild and disappeared in the catacombs of Montaigne. She learned last night that her husband is alive and in prison, caught by the Musketeers in said catacombs and locked up in the Emperor's prison, there to rot and die. Dominique is going to get him out of prision and sent to Vodacce (through her maid Anna's contacts. Anna is a fate witch.) From there, (Abby doesn't know this part yet) he will end up in the clutches of a close cousin of Alcide Mondavi, name to be determined. This cousin used to be betrothed to Bella but she broke it off to marry the Highlands Man. (This from Abby's destiny spread, a "betrothal" that, due to rules set before hand, I get to choose.) Well, we all know how well Vodacce men take to such things, so when he finds this Highlands Man on his lands (not sure exactly how yet) he happily turns him over to cousin Alcide, who has a nasty, nasty way of disposing of people and is gleeful at getting another victim. Of course, he has to give him time to rebuild his strength, it's no fun otherwise. Which will give Bella and the party time to rescue him.
Matthew: Oh, Matthew is from the Crescent Empire, and has a unique and awesome name. Which I don't know if I can remember. Shafiq, I think. He is in Chareuse peddling wares from the Crescents (including a new and wonderful black liquid called...er...'koffe" I think). He's a traveling trader salesman. And incredibly cheerful. He has a sleezy saleman feel to him with an overdone friendliness (on the part of the character, not of Matthew) that is perfectly entertaining. Of course, he has lots of salves. Go figure, right? Anyhow, I like his character. Also, he carries a very large sword.
Steph: Steph is, at the moment, a very enigmatic character, and I think she will stay that way. She is a runaway street waif who Shafiq has hired to help him find his way around Chareuse, where she has lived for about 3 years. She has worked very hard on her languages so that she has no accent left when speaking any language that she speaks, so no one can really tell where she is from. I love that. She doesn't have a name yet, so every time Shafiq spoke to her, Matthew used a different name, and the rest of us started doing it too, and it ended up being very, very funny. I figure she will name her character eventually. But the rest will stay for a while. She is mistrustful of people, wary, and stays quiet, but has moments of brilliance that I really appreciate.
So, as if this isn't long enough, here is the story so far.
Anna met with all of them, and later they received their letters. They all agreed to help. They met at the right time and place (ta-da! We have a party!) and went to the sewers, but first had to get past the (GM designed puzzle gate) to get in. It was an iron gate with decorative panels that turned, and they had to figure out which way each one was supposed to be. Bella, fortunately, has occult knowledge, so picked up on the fact that some of them were based on a (7th Sea version of a) Tarot deck, some weren't. No one had alchemy knowledge, or they may have recongized the alchemy symbols on the other side. Anyhow they figured it out and traveled down to the catacombs. At one point, they had to travel under a guardhouse, with a grate in the sidewalk that opened up to below, and lucky for me a couple of them failed their rolls, so the Musketeers could be called to investigate. At the next guardhouse, a couple failed their rolls, and Steph picked up a rock and piece of wood that were convenient, and made scratching sounds on the walls. The guards thought it was the usual noise and everyone passed this time, undetected. See? Brilliant.
They met with Dominique, agreed to the quest, and almost got caught by Musketeers, but threw a lantern that burned long enough to get out of that room. Cue chase music....and they ran through the catacombs. They kept trying to get back the way they came, but somehow they never seemed to find the passage. Huh. They ended up in a large, circular room with several doorways, and I think Matthew got frustrated (but wasn't surprised) when one passage led right back to the room. Oh, it was fun. Then they ended up in the dressing room of the premier opera house of the city, with a show going on. Honestly, I tried to get them on stage, but gave them an option for an out if they didn't want to go. They didn't. But they did set fire to a large painted and stored drop down in storage in the catacombs. I decided it would delay most of the Musketeers long enough for them to get out. After all, it would look bad for them to let the Opera House burn down. Who knows, the Emperor might even have been in the house. They did throw on some costume capes that were hanging around long enough to blend into the cast and exited.
That's where it ended. Everyone seemed to have fun. We ordered pizza which we haven't done in a while, it was just like old times. Well, a few people shy, you know. The babies were a bit of a distraction but not really annoyingly so, although it might have been so to someone without kids. It did seem like when one of us needed a baby break, the others needed one also. Or, if one needed a break, they weren't doing anything at that moment anyhow. So that aspect is working well so far.
There were some things I could have done better. More gunshots during the chase, for example. We didn't make any combat-type rolls at all, and I could have thrown a couple of those in during the chase to make it more exciting. Also, I took the liberty of leading them a couple times, like when I reminded Steph and Guy that they would know there is no natural light in the catacombs, and they all realized that lanterns would be a great idea. It has just been a while since we played. We haven't role-played since before Michael was born, and we haven't don't this system in years. So I figure the first few sessions will be re-learning the system and should be fun and somewhat challenging but not terribly hard yet. Next time there will be a fight in a large barn, with all sorts of things stored there for an army, and ropes, and balconies, and stuff they can climb on and throw in the way and such. The men they are fighting won't be too hard to beat, as most of them are quartermasters, but it will get them used to fighting in the system again. I just need to find the balance between letting them find their own way, forget things,and dig their way out; and not letting them get into a stupid position that a simple reminder of "oh, yeah...darkness" would prevent.
I'll do that less as time goes on, I imagine. I had this first night fairly planned out, since it was my first time too, and didn't know what to expect, exactly. I was a little nervous about being able to make things up on the spot, but it was easy last night. I did a lot lot lot of prepwork so I am sure that helped. My next encounters are much less structured.
Ok, that's the report. We left our heros going back to their respective rooms to gather things to get ready to leave town. I imagine each of them will overhear excited rumors of the opera house almost burning down, and the Musketeers saving the day, and now Musketeers are searching for the responsible parties, because they are really mad about something. It will be a good opportunity to drop in some things I want them to know but couldn't work in, namely that the captain of the Musketeers himself is heading up the search, due to rumors of a treasonous plot against the King.
Until next time.