Friday Evening Game Report - Capharnaüm, Session 11
Last night, the Friday gaming group met up for the once every two weeks gaming session. The Friday night gamers continued play in their Capharnaüm - The Tales of the Dragon-Marked roleplaying game campaign in the world of the Arabian Nights, Argonauts and Adventure. You can read about the previous session of the game by following the link. This post is somewhat long, so I've put it behind a cut for those who don't want to read about my roleplaying game campaigns.
CHARACTERS:
Chanda the Dark-Haired (KathyB) - Saabi Thief
Derori Bat Natanyu (Angela) - Shiradi Storyteller
Meheka the Wise (Ellie) - Saabi Sage, Sorceress
Menachim Bar Vidal (Mark) - Shiradi Physician
Erick Olafsson (Peter) - Orkadian Mercenary/Adventurer
9-Secundus-4-5997
(9th day of the second Ten-day of the 4th Month of the year 5997)
Shimon’s sister, Sarah, arrives on the scene and is aghast at what she sees about to happen. She shouts for Shimon to stop, as he promised to aid the Dragon-Marked, but Shimon ignores her and moves in to attack - targeting Edrick Olafsson! The Agalanthians move in to the attack, outnumbering the Dragon-Marked two to one, and are armed with gladius and the kopis [single-edged sabre]. Chanda the Dark-Haired finds herself able to defend against her attackers with her khedama and is able to hold her own. Derori Bat Natanyu’s attackers are surprised that the storyteller can defend herself so well with her yatagan [single-edged weapon], and she takes one of them down easily enough. Meheka the Wise uses sorcery to trap the feet of one of her attackers in solidified sand, and then battles her second attacker with her sayf. Menachim Bar Vidal uses his sayf and his knowledge of the body, to defend himself against his two attackers, while also wounding one quite seriously. Meanwhile, Edrick finds himself facing three opponents, including Shimon, but when Sarah attacks her brother, he is able to focus on the two Agalanthians attacking him, striking them with his Orkadian axe. The battle goes as one would expect, the Dragon-Marked taking out the Agalanthians, but when Sarah takes a serious pair of wounds, Edrick is forced to take on her brother. Shimon goes down, victim of a sword butt to the head courtesy of Chanda, who tells them they need to get on with things.
In the aftermath of the fight, the Dragon-Marked tend to their wounds. Only Derori and Edrick took serious wounds [8 points of damage each], while the other suffered minor injuries [between 3 and 5 points of damage each]. Menachim tends to their wounds, while Meheka treats the physician’s injuries, and then the characters turn their attention elsewhere. Only three of the ten Agalanthians that attacked them are dead, the rest of them ae unconscious (though several have serious wounds). Shimon recovers, and can’t figure out what he’s doing at the player characters’ camp and why he’s injured. He doesn’t remember the fight at all. The last thing he recalls is being summoned to Deborah Bat Miryam’s tent... Meheka and Derori go to talk with the Agalanthian mercenaries, and learn they also don’t remember coming to attack the player characters. Meheka and Derori tell the others what they’ve learned, and Meheka says that it must be sorcery. There’s obviously more to the ex-Red Lion than they thought.
With the Agalanthians now willing to help them out of misplaced guilt, Edrick says the time has come to face Deborah with whatever forces they can raise. Shimon insists that he and Sarah will come with them. It’s the least they can do for the player characters. Sarah seems relieved to see that her brother is back to what passes for normal. Meheka says they need to make a plan, but Edrick says they don’t really know who or what they’re dealing with; they’ll have to improvise. The group goes to confront the leader of the soldiers and mercenaries, and put an end to this once and for all.
When they arrive at the tent of Deborah Bat Miryam, they find her waiting for them - with the remainder of her forces and soldiers. She demands to know what they want, but isn’t surprised to see them alive, and comments that she should have sent double the complement of men to take the Dragon-Marked on. Derori and Meheka both notice in the torch and fire light that Deborah’s eyes glow with an eerie orange/yellow light and that her fingernails momentarily become claws. Derori realizes she has heard of creatures with those aspects in stories - they are rakshasa! [She rolled a Result of 22 with 6 Magnitude on her INT + Storytelling roll!] As Deborah’s men start to move forward, Derori appeals to them by telling them a little bit of what she knows of Rakshasas, and is backed by the force and persuasiveness of Meheka. Deborah laughs, and says she admits it, that she doesn’t serve Carrassine (though she won’t say whom she serves), but she has led them to victory and riches. Many of the agents, soldiers and mercenaries side with her, but a few do not - Coros, Ibar, Eliahu and Solomon Bar Dariva among a few others - and Deborah laughs at the Dragon-Marked. With a snarl, she launches herself at Edrick while shifting into a giant leonine form.
The battle is engaged, with the Dragon-Marked and their allies hard pressed by “Deborah”’s forces. As she fights with Edrick, she taunts and teases him, taking various forms and tells him that she is actually Kravya, one of the Rakshasas; she has taken the form of Deborah Bat Miryam for several years now, after having killed the ex-Red Lion when they met during the latter’s travels. The two continue to fight, the rakshasa’s supernatural abilities seeming to be a match for the Dragon-Marked’s heroic nature.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Dragon-Marked and their allies are hard pressed by “Deborah”’s elite fighters from Agalanth, Aragon, and other parts of Jazirat. Chanda is almost overwhelmed by one of the Agalanthians who is loyal to “Deborah”, but is saved at the last minute by Meheka’s attack from the flank on the man, after she defeated her own Jazirati foe. Derori’s yatagan is more than a match for two Saabi mercenaries, but she is wounded in the process [she takes 14 damage]. Menachim manages to take down one of his opponents, but is sore pressed by another, but the wounded Derori is able to dispatch the man before he kills the physician.
The fight between Edrick and Kravya is one that is both fast and brutal, neither party giving quarter. Kravya laughs at the sport she is having with him, but when she taunts him with the illusion of his deceased mother, it sparks a rage in the Orkadian that she didn’t expect. With a pair of savage blows, Edrick slices the rakshasa in half. She merely grins at him, and says that she can’t be killed - he has merely banished her for a “few” years. But with her last breath, she says that she will return and find him to exact her vengeance on him. [It was an epic fight, one where Edrick took 25 points of damage and suffered somewhat mentally as well. He lit up constellations twice for his combat bonuses, and spent Bravery Virtue stars twice.] Before his fellow Dragon-Marked can approach him, he finds himself in the arms of Sarah. Edrick collapses from the shock of it all.
The next morning, Edrick wakes to find that there is a mutually agreed to truce and cessation of hostilities between the surviving soldiers and non-combatants from “Deborah”’s side and the Dragon-Marked and their allies. During the time that he was out, everyone’s injuries have been treated, including Edrick’s, though the Agalanthian healer who worked on him tells him that he will have a nasty scar across his left shoulder from...whatever “Deborah” attacked him with. The other Dragon-Marked are pleased to have survived the encounter with the rakshasa, and lament the death of the real Deborah Bat Miryam somewhere in the wilderness to the east of Jazirat. The player characters decide that they need to return to Seph and start spreading the word that the attacks on caravans are over. Meheka adds that they need to inform the Red Lions of Shirad of the circumstances of Deborah Bat Miryam’s death and the presence of potentially other rakshasas in Jazirat.
Coros comes over to the Dragon-Marked, accompanied by several of their other allies. He tells them that he’s talked with others among the mercenaries, and the majority of them intend to form a mercenary company of some sort, under his command, their purpose being to protect the various desert oases and the mercantile caravans that travel the wastes of Jazirat. Shimon and Sarah inform the characters, with special attention to the still recovering Edrick, that there is nothing for them back in Carrassine, and that they will stay with Coros and the mercenary company, acting as their scouts and information gatherers. When Meheka asks if anything of the false Deborah’s belongings survived, she is informed that the false Deborah’s tent did not survive the blaze that engulfed it the night before. Solomon Bar Dariva tells her that this is probably for the best, and she ruefully agrees with him.
As the rest of the Dragon-Marked move off with Coros and his people to discuss matters, Sarah takes Edrick aside and says they still have unfinished business. When asked what she means, she puts a finger to his lips, and then pulls him into some of the foliage of the oasis. The sound of passionate kissing is heard, and Chanda chuckles, as she listens in momentarily from her spot beneath the trees, before she heeds Menachim’s call to catch up with them.
Last night's game session of the Friday night Capharnaüm - The Tales of the Dragon-Marked campaign was...epic! The players told me that this was by far the most exciting, best session with both roleplaying and combat, that the players had played to this point. I have to say that I agree with them. What I've written above can't do the final battle justice, nor can it do the fight between Edrick and "Deborah" justice descriptively, since in truth I am no expert wordsmith. Suffice it to say the revelation of "Deborah"'a true nature came as a shock to the players, and the mano-a-monster fight against her/it at the end was...brilliant. Pete's character Edrick beat her/it fair and square, but it cost him. Consequences for another session, I guess...
In any event, a superb game session of the Capharnaüm - The Tales of the Dragon-Marked RPG to wrap up the second adventure the players embarked on, with some great roleplaying and great combat stuff throughout the wrap-up of the adventure. I can't wait for the next game session, but there will be a focus on the CanGames 2019 stuff that I've got to get ready and playtest for the next while.
CHARACTERS:
Chanda the Dark-Haired (KathyB) - Saabi Thief
Derori Bat Natanyu (Angela) - Shiradi Storyteller
Meheka the Wise (Ellie) - Saabi Sage, Sorceress
Menachim Bar Vidal (Mark) - Shiradi Physician
Erick Olafsson (Peter) - Orkadian Mercenary/Adventurer
9-Secundus-4-5997
(9th day of the second Ten-day of the 4th Month of the year 5997)
Shimon’s sister, Sarah, arrives on the scene and is aghast at what she sees about to happen. She shouts for Shimon to stop, as he promised to aid the Dragon-Marked, but Shimon ignores her and moves in to attack - targeting Edrick Olafsson! The Agalanthians move in to the attack, outnumbering the Dragon-Marked two to one, and are armed with gladius and the kopis [single-edged sabre]. Chanda the Dark-Haired finds herself able to defend against her attackers with her khedama and is able to hold her own. Derori Bat Natanyu’s attackers are surprised that the storyteller can defend herself so well with her yatagan [single-edged weapon], and she takes one of them down easily enough. Meheka the Wise uses sorcery to trap the feet of one of her attackers in solidified sand, and then battles her second attacker with her sayf. Menachim Bar Vidal uses his sayf and his knowledge of the body, to defend himself against his two attackers, while also wounding one quite seriously. Meanwhile, Edrick finds himself facing three opponents, including Shimon, but when Sarah attacks her brother, he is able to focus on the two Agalanthians attacking him, striking them with his Orkadian axe. The battle goes as one would expect, the Dragon-Marked taking out the Agalanthians, but when Sarah takes a serious pair of wounds, Edrick is forced to take on her brother. Shimon goes down, victim of a sword butt to the head courtesy of Chanda, who tells them they need to get on with things.
In the aftermath of the fight, the Dragon-Marked tend to their wounds. Only Derori and Edrick took serious wounds [8 points of damage each], while the other suffered minor injuries [between 3 and 5 points of damage each]. Menachim tends to their wounds, while Meheka treats the physician’s injuries, and then the characters turn their attention elsewhere. Only three of the ten Agalanthians that attacked them are dead, the rest of them ae unconscious (though several have serious wounds). Shimon recovers, and can’t figure out what he’s doing at the player characters’ camp and why he’s injured. He doesn’t remember the fight at all. The last thing he recalls is being summoned to Deborah Bat Miryam’s tent... Meheka and Derori go to talk with the Agalanthian mercenaries, and learn they also don’t remember coming to attack the player characters. Meheka and Derori tell the others what they’ve learned, and Meheka says that it must be sorcery. There’s obviously more to the ex-Red Lion than they thought.
With the Agalanthians now willing to help them out of misplaced guilt, Edrick says the time has come to face Deborah with whatever forces they can raise. Shimon insists that he and Sarah will come with them. It’s the least they can do for the player characters. Sarah seems relieved to see that her brother is back to what passes for normal. Meheka says they need to make a plan, but Edrick says they don’t really know who or what they’re dealing with; they’ll have to improvise. The group goes to confront the leader of the soldiers and mercenaries, and put an end to this once and for all.
When they arrive at the tent of Deborah Bat Miryam, they find her waiting for them - with the remainder of her forces and soldiers. She demands to know what they want, but isn’t surprised to see them alive, and comments that she should have sent double the complement of men to take the Dragon-Marked on. Derori and Meheka both notice in the torch and fire light that Deborah’s eyes glow with an eerie orange/yellow light and that her fingernails momentarily become claws. Derori realizes she has heard of creatures with those aspects in stories - they are rakshasa! [She rolled a Result of 22 with 6 Magnitude on her INT + Storytelling roll!] As Deborah’s men start to move forward, Derori appeals to them by telling them a little bit of what she knows of Rakshasas, and is backed by the force and persuasiveness of Meheka. Deborah laughs, and says she admits it, that she doesn’t serve Carrassine (though she won’t say whom she serves), but she has led them to victory and riches. Many of the agents, soldiers and mercenaries side with her, but a few do not - Coros, Ibar, Eliahu and Solomon Bar Dariva among a few others - and Deborah laughs at the Dragon-Marked. With a snarl, she launches herself at Edrick while shifting into a giant leonine form.
The battle is engaged, with the Dragon-Marked and their allies hard pressed by “Deborah”’s forces. As she fights with Edrick, she taunts and teases him, taking various forms and tells him that she is actually Kravya, one of the Rakshasas; she has taken the form of Deborah Bat Miryam for several years now, after having killed the ex-Red Lion when they met during the latter’s travels. The two continue to fight, the rakshasa’s supernatural abilities seeming to be a match for the Dragon-Marked’s heroic nature.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Dragon-Marked and their allies are hard pressed by “Deborah”’s elite fighters from Agalanth, Aragon, and other parts of Jazirat. Chanda is almost overwhelmed by one of the Agalanthians who is loyal to “Deborah”, but is saved at the last minute by Meheka’s attack from the flank on the man, after she defeated her own Jazirati foe. Derori’s yatagan is more than a match for two Saabi mercenaries, but she is wounded in the process [she takes 14 damage]. Menachim manages to take down one of his opponents, but is sore pressed by another, but the wounded Derori is able to dispatch the man before he kills the physician.
The fight between Edrick and Kravya is one that is both fast and brutal, neither party giving quarter. Kravya laughs at the sport she is having with him, but when she taunts him with the illusion of his deceased mother, it sparks a rage in the Orkadian that she didn’t expect. With a pair of savage blows, Edrick slices the rakshasa in half. She merely grins at him, and says that she can’t be killed - he has merely banished her for a “few” years. But with her last breath, she says that she will return and find him to exact her vengeance on him. [It was an epic fight, one where Edrick took 25 points of damage and suffered somewhat mentally as well. He lit up constellations twice for his combat bonuses, and spent Bravery Virtue stars twice.] Before his fellow Dragon-Marked can approach him, he finds himself in the arms of Sarah. Edrick collapses from the shock of it all.
The next morning, Edrick wakes to find that there is a mutually agreed to truce and cessation of hostilities between the surviving soldiers and non-combatants from “Deborah”’s side and the Dragon-Marked and their allies. During the time that he was out, everyone’s injuries have been treated, including Edrick’s, though the Agalanthian healer who worked on him tells him that he will have a nasty scar across his left shoulder from...whatever “Deborah” attacked him with. The other Dragon-Marked are pleased to have survived the encounter with the rakshasa, and lament the death of the real Deborah Bat Miryam somewhere in the wilderness to the east of Jazirat. The player characters decide that they need to return to Seph and start spreading the word that the attacks on caravans are over. Meheka adds that they need to inform the Red Lions of Shirad of the circumstances of Deborah Bat Miryam’s death and the presence of potentially other rakshasas in Jazirat.
Coros comes over to the Dragon-Marked, accompanied by several of their other allies. He tells them that he’s talked with others among the mercenaries, and the majority of them intend to form a mercenary company of some sort, under his command, their purpose being to protect the various desert oases and the mercantile caravans that travel the wastes of Jazirat. Shimon and Sarah inform the characters, with special attention to the still recovering Edrick, that there is nothing for them back in Carrassine, and that they will stay with Coros and the mercenary company, acting as their scouts and information gatherers. When Meheka asks if anything of the false Deborah’s belongings survived, she is informed that the false Deborah’s tent did not survive the blaze that engulfed it the night before. Solomon Bar Dariva tells her that this is probably for the best, and she ruefully agrees with him.
As the rest of the Dragon-Marked move off with Coros and his people to discuss matters, Sarah takes Edrick aside and says they still have unfinished business. When asked what she means, she puts a finger to his lips, and then pulls him into some of the foliage of the oasis. The sound of passionate kissing is heard, and Chanda chuckles, as she listens in momentarily from her spot beneath the trees, before she heeds Menachim’s call to catch up with them.
Last night's game session of the Friday night Capharnaüm - The Tales of the Dragon-Marked campaign was...epic! The players told me that this was by far the most exciting, best session with both roleplaying and combat, that the players had played to this point. I have to say that I agree with them. What I've written above can't do the final battle justice, nor can it do the fight between Edrick and "Deborah" justice descriptively, since in truth I am no expert wordsmith. Suffice it to say the revelation of "Deborah"'a true nature came as a shock to the players, and the mano-a-monster fight against her/it at the end was...brilliant. Pete's character Edrick beat her/it fair and square, but it cost him. Consequences for another session, I guess...
In any event, a superb game session of the Capharnaüm - The Tales of the Dragon-Marked RPG to wrap up the second adventure the players embarked on, with some great roleplaying and great combat stuff throughout the wrap-up of the adventure. I can't wait for the next game session, but there will be a focus on the CanGames 2019 stuff that I've got to get ready and playtest for the next while.