BW: A Legacy of Blood: Session 1
Tonight my group and i finally sat down to play our new Burning Wheel series. I tried to push for a pace much faster than my usual languid GMing style, and i think it worked rather well, even if i still think i could do better.
My goal for this session was to introduce as much of the setting and as many of the major npcs as possible, while also reviewing the core BW rules and style of play.
* First, i went through a quick run-down of the setting's named locations: the Barony of Hochswald, the town of Kanzlersburg, and the Drachenstern Estate & Village, and tried to impart an impression of the surrounding countryside.
* The first scene was all colour, where we introduced Jonas's character Lord Rainer Drachenstern, his hidden alchemical laboratory - and the body of his dead twin sister, Korinna, floating in a tank of preservative fluid. Korinna's ghost appeared to urge the sorcerer to action.
* Heeding the apparation's words, Rainer retreats to his study to begin a search for the best nearby place to find a body that could be removed without being seen. (Rolls Graveyard-wise, forking Research) Among his family's books and papers he finds a map of Kanzlersburg that clearly shows the location of all the local cemetaries; Rainer figures that the one marked "New Cemetary" on the outskirts nearest Drachenstern would be the best place to covertly approach with a wagon. The lord then heads out back of the manor to find the only servant he trusts to know his secret - Erik the deranged, and somewhat disturbing, groundskeeper. (Circles failure for a delayed Enmity Clause, Erik is loyal, bt not trustworthy, as he has "Problems"! I proceed to play Erik as a mash-up of Igor and Renfield...) Together they load up an old wagon, taking care to bring enough junk - including a smelly deer carcass - to disguise the presence of a body, before setting off for the city (which will take the rest of the day by wagon).
* From there i switch scenes to Matt's character, Wolfram, meeting with his Master at the Unseen Academy in Kanzlersburg. The Master welcomes his young apprentice, who bows before him dutifully, before swiftly moving on to business: The Master has heard rumours of two other mage-blooded practicing in the area, a rural witch practising the Blood Arts and a practioner of the Death Arts at "Castle" Drachenstern. The sorcerer orders his apprentice to investigate these people, and, if at all possible, recruit them to the cause of the Unseen Academy. "And if they will not join us?" Wolfram asks. "Then measures must be taken, " the Master replys. Wolfram swears that he will do as he is bid, but the Master stops him just as he is leaving to remind him to "act with discretion".
* Next, i put in a quick GM colour scene: Back in Drachenstern village, a scarred, becloaked and heavily armed stranger enters the town and heads directly toward the small community's church of Selene as the peasants watch warily. Inside the stranger approaches the frightened priest, only to say "I'm Gerwald, Lord Dietric recieved your letter. I'm here to look into these reports of necromancy..."
* We then switch back to Wolfram, as he decides that the best way to get to Drachenstern and the outskirts is with a horse. But, of course he has almost no money (Res 1), so he figures he might as well steal a horse - so he asks around the local street people to find a stable that doesn't look after its horses too well. (Roll of Streetwise here) Sure enough, there is a particularly shabby inn in the district with only a single dim-witted stable-boy looking after the beasts. Figring that the best way to make off with a horse is too impersonate its owner, Wolfram heads into the common room to eavesdrop on the locals. (And i missed a golden opportunity to introduce the Gilded Rose, Torben and Ava here!) Our budding criminal singles out a poor farmer in the city for market-day, picks up on his situation (Observation), and heads back out to try to befuddle the stable-boy. Things got confusing here - i think we rolled too many tests and wern't clear with intents - but the end result was Wolfram walking out of the stable with the worst broken down farmer's nag of the lot. Nonetheless, it served to get him to Drachenstern Manor.
* Meanwhile, Rainer and his servant Erik were busy tramping around the largely abandoned "New Cemetary" looking for the freshest corpse of the lot. Unfortunately for the necromancer, the freshest was a year rotting in its grave! (DoF for Graveyard Body Snatching) Rainer: "Aha! This one looks promising!" Erik: "But master, look at all the flowers growing on it!" Not to be deterred, the dubious duo proceed to dig the body up anyway (with Erik doing the real digging) and hide it in the cart. (I say yes, looking forward to seeing this wreck get reanimated!)
* There is some discussion of who gets to Drachenstern first, but since Wolfram has a horse and hasn't spent the evening digging, i rule that he gets to the manor some hourse before Rainer returns. Of course, by then it is the middle of the night! Rainer remembers that nobles always keep a large staff on hand, working night and day (Noble-wise), so he decides the best way to get into the house is to be invited in - as a messenger. Realizing his street clothing will never do, he ties his stolen horse to some convienient trees, sneaks around to where the servants clothing has been hung out to dry, and pilfers a decent set of clothes (avoiding the black & red livery of Lord Drachenstern's staff with a Let it Ride Noble-wise, i think). Once properly dressed, Wolfram rode up to the door, dismounted and barged in, where he was met with the aged chief of Rainer's household staff, whom he proceeded to fast-talk (Falsehood) into believing his disguise. Not satisfied with simply gaining entry, Wolfram then carefully stole the butler's master keys (Sleight of Hand vs untrained Observation) while being led up to wait in the study's anteroom for Lord Rainer's return. Momentarily left alone, the spy took the pilfered key-ring over to a suspiciously ornate door at the end of the hallway - but none of them would open it! (DoF to see if Rainer had failed to confiscate a tower key.) Wolfram: "Hmm... He doesn't trust his servants..."
From there things got crazy - Wolfram was not abot to leave without getting into that tower: he couldn't return to the Master without discovering something! So he found a window that overlooked the tower's windows - but the distance proved too far to jump (Perception test failure), so he resolved to assemble a make-shift grappling hook out of a clothes-line and a meat hook (finding his way around with Manor-wise) after dressing up in the servant's livery and being very Inconspicuous as he moved through the manor. Back at the window, he managed to get the improvised climbing hook through the window, but latched it onto something deep inside the tower room! (failed Throwing test) Unable to rig up a guy-wire, Wolfram instead snuck back outside through a back door (LiR) to where the rope hung from the window above. Testing the rope showed it seemed to hold his weight, so he began to repel up the tower face - which quickly became intense as the rope started to slip. Luckily he made it too the top just as the worktable the grapple was hooked to slid out of its moorings and crashed into the window-sill. (barely successful Climbing test via Fate) There was still a way down, but it was going to be tricky!
Wolfram went on to search the long abandoned tower, finding several arcane volumes (one of which he stole), but not locating Rainer's lab. He did, however, learn that there was a secret basement beneath the tower - but could not find a way in. (Perception) He also discovered that the tower was an ancient mage's tower, enchanted to withstand the ages.
However, in making his exit from the tower via the improvised rope he managed to pull the whole desk crashing to the ground - stirring up the whole of the manor's staff! Deciding a little discretion was a good idea after all, Wolfram grabbed his handy rope and hook and fled into the darkened countryside... without any gear, and wearing pilfered servant's livery!
* Finally, Rainer returned to find his house in an uproar. Leaving Erik to "take care of the cart", Rainer went inside to confer with his staff. Told of the break-in, and lack of obvious theft, he ordered that the crime be reported to the city's law enforcement - which i decided meant Lord Dietric, witch-hunting leader of the Order, in his capacity as Baliff to Baron Konrad. (Jonas was cool with this, because Rainer has a belief about distracting attention away from his necromancy.) Using the keys he had kept to himself, Rainer then entered the tower and did a search of his own to see if anything was taken or disturbed. (Perception) Finding the remaining arcane tomes, and decideng he needed to hide them, Rainer gathered them up and took them down into his secret lab, where Erik was unloading the corpse. Although not particularly interested in their contents, he figured they could be used to frame someone as a sorcerer.
With that out of the way, Rainier decided it was time for the experiment to proceed. Gathering the sum of his arcane arts, he prepared the stolen corpse - with alchemical concoctions brewing and bubbling, he carved out the rotten remains of the withered husk's heart, replacing it with an artificial one - a glass-encased device of brass and silver - sealing the cavity with a disk inscribed with arcane symbols calling forth the life and spirit of the dead man. (successful Symbology forking Calligraphy) He then floooded the corpse's mouth with a viscous, black fluid - another alchemical elixir - before applying the final, revivifying shock to the metallic heart. (testing Death Art) As the trapped lightening flowed into it, the corpse's heart beat, its limbs quivered, and finally its glassy eyes opened - and the crude shambler sat up, moaning softly.
Rainer turned to his sister's ghost, and smirked: "Well, it's alive", only to be answered by her silent applause.
And that's were we ended the session!
My goal for this session was to introduce as much of the setting and as many of the major npcs as possible, while also reviewing the core BW rules and style of play.
* First, i went through a quick run-down of the setting's named locations: the Barony of Hochswald, the town of Kanzlersburg, and the Drachenstern Estate & Village, and tried to impart an impression of the surrounding countryside.
* The first scene was all colour, where we introduced Jonas's character Lord Rainer Drachenstern, his hidden alchemical laboratory - and the body of his dead twin sister, Korinna, floating in a tank of preservative fluid. Korinna's ghost appeared to urge the sorcerer to action.
* Heeding the apparation's words, Rainer retreats to his study to begin a search for the best nearby place to find a body that could be removed without being seen. (Rolls Graveyard-wise, forking Research) Among his family's books and papers he finds a map of Kanzlersburg that clearly shows the location of all the local cemetaries; Rainer figures that the one marked "New Cemetary" on the outskirts nearest Drachenstern would be the best place to covertly approach with a wagon. The lord then heads out back of the manor to find the only servant he trusts to know his secret - Erik the deranged, and somewhat disturbing, groundskeeper. (Circles failure for a delayed Enmity Clause, Erik is loyal, bt not trustworthy, as he has "Problems"! I proceed to play Erik as a mash-up of Igor and Renfield...) Together they load up an old wagon, taking care to bring enough junk - including a smelly deer carcass - to disguise the presence of a body, before setting off for the city (which will take the rest of the day by wagon).
* From there i switch scenes to Matt's character, Wolfram, meeting with his Master at the Unseen Academy in Kanzlersburg. The Master welcomes his young apprentice, who bows before him dutifully, before swiftly moving on to business: The Master has heard rumours of two other mage-blooded practicing in the area, a rural witch practising the Blood Arts and a practioner of the Death Arts at "Castle" Drachenstern. The sorcerer orders his apprentice to investigate these people, and, if at all possible, recruit them to the cause of the Unseen Academy. "And if they will not join us?" Wolfram asks. "Then measures must be taken, " the Master replys. Wolfram swears that he will do as he is bid, but the Master stops him just as he is leaving to remind him to "act with discretion".
* Next, i put in a quick GM colour scene: Back in Drachenstern village, a scarred, becloaked and heavily armed stranger enters the town and heads directly toward the small community's church of Selene as the peasants watch warily. Inside the stranger approaches the frightened priest, only to say "I'm Gerwald, Lord Dietric recieved your letter. I'm here to look into these reports of necromancy..."
* We then switch back to Wolfram, as he decides that the best way to get to Drachenstern and the outskirts is with a horse. But, of course he has almost no money (Res 1), so he figures he might as well steal a horse - so he asks around the local street people to find a stable that doesn't look after its horses too well. (Roll of Streetwise here) Sure enough, there is a particularly shabby inn in the district with only a single dim-witted stable-boy looking after the beasts. Figring that the best way to make off with a horse is too impersonate its owner, Wolfram heads into the common room to eavesdrop on the locals. (And i missed a golden opportunity to introduce the Gilded Rose, Torben and Ava here!) Our budding criminal singles out a poor farmer in the city for market-day, picks up on his situation (Observation), and heads back out to try to befuddle the stable-boy. Things got confusing here - i think we rolled too many tests and wern't clear with intents - but the end result was Wolfram walking out of the stable with the worst broken down farmer's nag of the lot. Nonetheless, it served to get him to Drachenstern Manor.
* Meanwhile, Rainer and his servant Erik were busy tramping around the largely abandoned "New Cemetary" looking for the freshest corpse of the lot. Unfortunately for the necromancer, the freshest was a year rotting in its grave! (DoF for Graveyard Body Snatching) Rainer: "Aha! This one looks promising!" Erik: "But master, look at all the flowers growing on it!" Not to be deterred, the dubious duo proceed to dig the body up anyway (with Erik doing the real digging) and hide it in the cart. (I say yes, looking forward to seeing this wreck get reanimated!)
* There is some discussion of who gets to Drachenstern first, but since Wolfram has a horse and hasn't spent the evening digging, i rule that he gets to the manor some hourse before Rainer returns. Of course, by then it is the middle of the night! Rainer remembers that nobles always keep a large staff on hand, working night and day (Noble-wise), so he decides the best way to get into the house is to be invited in - as a messenger. Realizing his street clothing will never do, he ties his stolen horse to some convienient trees, sneaks around to where the servants clothing has been hung out to dry, and pilfers a decent set of clothes (avoiding the black & red livery of Lord Drachenstern's staff with a Let it Ride Noble-wise, i think). Once properly dressed, Wolfram rode up to the door, dismounted and barged in, where he was met with the aged chief of Rainer's household staff, whom he proceeded to fast-talk (Falsehood) into believing his disguise. Not satisfied with simply gaining entry, Wolfram then carefully stole the butler's master keys (Sleight of Hand vs untrained Observation) while being led up to wait in the study's anteroom for Lord Rainer's return. Momentarily left alone, the spy took the pilfered key-ring over to a suspiciously ornate door at the end of the hallway - but none of them would open it! (DoF to see if Rainer had failed to confiscate a tower key.) Wolfram: "Hmm... He doesn't trust his servants..."
From there things got crazy - Wolfram was not abot to leave without getting into that tower: he couldn't return to the Master without discovering something! So he found a window that overlooked the tower's windows - but the distance proved too far to jump (Perception test failure), so he resolved to assemble a make-shift grappling hook out of a clothes-line and a meat hook (finding his way around with Manor-wise) after dressing up in the servant's livery and being very Inconspicuous as he moved through the manor. Back at the window, he managed to get the improvised climbing hook through the window, but latched it onto something deep inside the tower room! (failed Throwing test) Unable to rig up a guy-wire, Wolfram instead snuck back outside through a back door (LiR) to where the rope hung from the window above. Testing the rope showed it seemed to hold his weight, so he began to repel up the tower face - which quickly became intense as the rope started to slip. Luckily he made it too the top just as the worktable the grapple was hooked to slid out of its moorings and crashed into the window-sill. (barely successful Climbing test via Fate) There was still a way down, but it was going to be tricky!
Wolfram went on to search the long abandoned tower, finding several arcane volumes (one of which he stole), but not locating Rainer's lab. He did, however, learn that there was a secret basement beneath the tower - but could not find a way in. (Perception) He also discovered that the tower was an ancient mage's tower, enchanted to withstand the ages.
However, in making his exit from the tower via the improvised rope he managed to pull the whole desk crashing to the ground - stirring up the whole of the manor's staff! Deciding a little discretion was a good idea after all, Wolfram grabbed his handy rope and hook and fled into the darkened countryside... without any gear, and wearing pilfered servant's livery!
* Finally, Rainer returned to find his house in an uproar. Leaving Erik to "take care of the cart", Rainer went inside to confer with his staff. Told of the break-in, and lack of obvious theft, he ordered that the crime be reported to the city's law enforcement - which i decided meant Lord Dietric, witch-hunting leader of the Order, in his capacity as Baliff to Baron Konrad. (Jonas was cool with this, because Rainer has a belief about distracting attention away from his necromancy.) Using the keys he had kept to himself, Rainer then entered the tower and did a search of his own to see if anything was taken or disturbed. (Perception) Finding the remaining arcane tomes, and decideng he needed to hide them, Rainer gathered them up and took them down into his secret lab, where Erik was unloading the corpse. Although not particularly interested in their contents, he figured they could be used to frame someone as a sorcerer.
With that out of the way, Rainier decided it was time for the experiment to proceed. Gathering the sum of his arcane arts, he prepared the stolen corpse - with alchemical concoctions brewing and bubbling, he carved out the rotten remains of the withered husk's heart, replacing it with an artificial one - a glass-encased device of brass and silver - sealing the cavity with a disk inscribed with arcane symbols calling forth the life and spirit of the dead man. (successful Symbology forking Calligraphy) He then floooded the corpse's mouth with a viscous, black fluid - another alchemical elixir - before applying the final, revivifying shock to the metallic heart. (testing Death Art) As the trapped lightening flowed into it, the corpse's heart beat, its limbs quivered, and finally its glassy eyes opened - and the crude shambler sat up, moaning softly.
Rainer turned to his sister's ghost, and smirked: "Well, it's alive", only to be answered by her silent applause.
And that's were we ended the session!