FATE Wars

It's the year 3502 BBY, two decades since the crushing defeat of the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Desolous. The shadow of the Sith Empire over the galaxy at large is considered no more a threat than pirates. While there remain planets under the dominion, any available military is spent maintaining what planets remain under their sway.

The Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Collude, is rife with paranoia and fear of assassination. Effectively leaderless due to Collude's priority of surviving over governing, the Dark Council grip of control is nearly total.

The Force

While in Bulldogs, psychic powers are placed under the umbrella of a single skill, I feel that this game would be lessened by doing that. In a narrative, magic is inherently greater than the mundane. Mundane actions are burdened and circumscribed by our own personal experiences, while any limitations with magic must be explicitly pointed out. Even outside of that, open-ended systems mean that a broad, general skill is superior to a narrow, specific one. You can simply do more and different things with Engineering and Psychic than you can with Artillery; and being able to do more means you have greater narrative control, which is not a desirable outcome.

So as to prevent the Force from being all empowering, the Psychic skill shall be removed, and more narrow skills are added to be selected based on the character's aspects. This means you need something like "Peace is a lie. Through strength, I gain power" to be able to choose Sith focused skills.

The options below are available to all who take the Jedi Aspect; taking a Sith aspect will do largely the same thing, switching out Empathic for Exude Energy [Lightning stunt], and other Force Traditions (or even aspects that incorporate specialized training) would give different options.

Base Jedi Skills

Empathic Talent [Skill] Can sense emotions without direct contact. Spend Fate point to roll vs target's Resolve. Each shift allows a Yes/No question about the target.

Mind Control [Skill] Affect a number of minions equal to shifts generated. If a leader is present, must overcome the leader's Resolve skill. Can be used to cause the minion to ignore the character, allow them to pass, or leave. It cannot cause them to kill themselves. Spending a Fate point will 'win over' the minions to join and attach for the duration of the scene.

• Dominate [Dark Side, Mind Control, Stunt] Control named foe, spending Fate point to use skill vs Resolve, targeting Composure track. During attack, target at -3 to physically act against controller. If target taken out, they are under complete control, the dominator at -1 to all actions to maintain concentration; which is lost if they take any consequences. Releasing control leaves the target with no composure stress and Major mental consequence.
• Mental Shield [Mind Control, Stunt] Negates -3 penalty while attacked with Dominate. Can also use Mind Control in a blocking maneuver

Telekinesis [Skill] Gives same attribute as Might, but at a distance. Number of shifts generated is the number of exchanges the item can be carried before rolling again. Zero gravity lowers difficulty one level.

• Feather Touch [Telekinesis, Stunt] Allow delicate handling of objects, such as turning a key, typing, or writing.
• Move Self [Telekinesis, Stunt] Can target self, allowing use of the Fly skill. Defaults to Mediocre
• Move Heavy Loads [Telekinesis, Stunt] Weight-based difficulties reduced by two steps.

Telepathy [Skill] Use Rapport, Empathy, Deceit at a distance; Telepathy rank acting as a restriction (if Telepathy < Skill, skill at -1). Friendly communication is difficulty equal to number of zones plus intervening barriers. 

Sixth Sense [Alertness, Stunt] Fate point for +4 Alertness check when making one or versus a known opponent's Stealth

Jump [Athletics, Stunt] +2 Athletics to jump

Regeneration [Endurance, Stunt] Treat healing times as three time periods faster for consequences. Pay a Fate point in a scene to start regenerating, regaining 1 stress per round so long as they remain stationery and are not attacked

Control Energy [Dark Side, Skill] Rank also determines damage value, requires a stunt for the energy's form. Range is same zone.

• Force Lightning [Control Energy, Stunt] Can send a stream of lightning against a target in the same zone. On a hit, the character can spend a Fate point to add the 'Electrocuted' aspect or a minor consequence. Armour provides no defence to stress caused.
• Absorb Energy Weapons [Control Energy, Stunt] May make a block against energy weapons, rolling Athletics and Control Energy, using the greater total of the two for the blocking attempt. May also use Absorb Energy instead of Athletics for general defence. Alternatively, for a FATE point, absorb up to 4 points of Stress from one attack as a passive defence.
• Absorb Energy [Control Energy, Stunt] Able to heal self by drawing energy from the environment. Able to heal 1 stress with mediocre difficulty providing there is working technology at hand (which will malfunction for the round) or in the same zone as a source of strong energy ambiance.
• Absorb Energy [Control Energy, Stunt] Use in place of Fists attack to damage powered targets (batteries, robots, energy beings, etc). On a hit, causes Stress on the powered target or can spend a Fate point to place an aspect of "Running out of Juice."

Additional Force Skills & Stunts

Accessing these require aspects that incorporate it into the character's backstory.
Force Momentum [Telekinesis, Stunt] When using a Fate point to increase a physical effect, the bonus is +3 rather than +2.

Buried Presence [Stealth, Stunt] The character can not only hide their alignment to the Force or even their sensitivity to the Force, the bonus from Sixth Sense doesn't apply for purposes of detecting them in general.

Shifting [Stealth, Stunt] Enhances In Plain Sight stunt to permit moving up to a slow creep

Force Resistance [Racial, -2] Like the Yinchorri and Toydarians, you are immune to mental manipulation from the Force

Lightsabers

A kind of necessary feature to describe, since any Star Wars campaign will have someone choose Sith or Jedi who wields one or more laser swords.

Lightsaber (Damage 4, Deflect, Superb Cost, Energy) Can use weapon skill to defend against projectile attacks. Melee weapons, unless energy or specially noted, cannot block a lightsaber. Epic (+7) for a pair of sabers. Note, energy weapons are unhindered by armor, but can be blocked by energy shields.

• An elegant weapon [Weapon, Stunt] If Spin obtained on defense, make an immediate ranged attack against another target using Lightsabre skill and Range of 1 zone. Damage is equal to deflected attack.

Extra Equipment

Following a standard closer to Starblazer Adventures, you start with 15 items equal to your Resources or less in cost, purchasing items above your Resources requires a Resources check. Failing will result in you not being able to roll again during character creation, though as in the regular system, you can choose to get it anyway with a number (equal to how much you failed by) of negative aspects that I can tag for free once per session each.

Group Purchases - If desired, you may forgo one or more of your starting item options to increase another's Resources by +1 for a single purchase. You cannot do a group effort for Resource purchases like this again, only during character creation.

Sith Tremor Sword (Damage 4, Great Cost) No real extra cost other than being capable of blocking lightsabers.
Discblade (Damage 2/3 shields/0 armor, Range 1, Fair Cost)

Starships

Hyperspace Travel - Operations roll required, against Mediocre difficulty. The time required is a few minutes if navigation data is 1 year old or less, one hour otherwise. Failure requires a second check to notice the error before making the jump to hyperspace, failing the second check means the ship will exit hyperspace at a random point along the route and take 1 consequence. Modifiers include:

• Using nav computer (+1)
• No nav computer (-2)
• No Holonet access (-1)

Travel Time - 1 + steps up or down chart (from starting position) in days. Add another day to travel time if going to different quadrant.

• Deep Core, Colonies, Inner Rim, Expansion Region, Mid Rim, Outer Rim, Unknown Regions
• Hyperdrive multiplier
• +1 - x4
• +2 - x3
• +3 - x2
• +4 - x1
• +5 - x0.5

For those wondering about the slow hyperdrives here, it's established in the setting that there have been actual advances in hyperdrive technology between this era and that of the movies. It's never been very well clarified, and the setting does lend itself toward stagnation, so I've left it at a single step of advancement.

Cost, creation, and maintenance are going to be different, and higher, by a bunch. Here are a few examples for purchasing...

Basic Scale 3 Ships [Shuttles, fighters, small freighters, etc]: 3 separate Epic (+7) purchases, making it Advanced adds another purchase

Basic Scale 4 Ships [Medium freighters, patrol ships, gunboats]: 3 separate Legendary (+8) purchases, making it Advanced adds another required purchase

Maintenance is required each month, and is going to be either Fantastic (+6) or Legendary depending on whether it's Scale 3 or 4 size ship. If you failed one or more times, you can still purchase the ship on credit, which raises the price for maintenance by one level per failed check to represent loan payments (loan lasts for a year). Failing a maintenance check bestows the "Disrepair" aspect onto the ship and forces a cumulative -1 to all skill checks until it gets proper maintenance, while also increasing the duration of the loan repayments by another year (assuming it's on credit); failing 3 cumulative maintenance checks for a loaned ship results in repossession as appropriate for the organization you got the loan from.

From the above, you guys should be fine on getting whatever ship you want within the above guidelines; if everyone but the buyer (since he can't) gives up 7 starting items, you'll auto-succeed on the best ship non-corporations can buy. Ship creation, while different, will be discussed as a group due to it being a group purchase.

Star Wars FATE: Initial Campaign Houserules

I will be using the Bulldogs! rules system for this campaign (Trouble level), with a few additions/modifications from the Starblazer system that I will detail in the next post. It's a system that uses the FATE mechanics, much like Spirit of the Century and Starblazers. Before we begin, let me introduce a few discussions regarding the system.

Mechanics & Mullings
There are three major faults in the FATE system, as I've noticed in the system and heard from actual campaigns. Please note that FATE points are important, where gaining or using them draws the spotlight to the player.

• Attention Whore This isn't the Drama Queen, who insists on bizarre back-stories to justify why they don't have any of the skills expected of their role, as this system actually handles those people much better than games such D&D. No, the problem is in the player who actively locks down the situation with their flaws. Failure from compels earns the specific player FATE points, but the consequences are communal. As a result, once everyone is captured, the player that caused the trouble is the one with the lion's share of FATE points, and is thus the most equipped to save the party.
• Wall Flowers If you don't speak up and act with your character, then you'll face an appreciable lack of FATE points. The system encourages you to get involved to earn FATE points, but there is a sizable number of players who genuinely require turns and lists of what they can do. Boundaries create freedom for these people, and while they are not to be pitied, one must acknowledge that free-form rules do not encourage involvement for these people.
• DM's Girlfriend (Favoritism) The difference between a player whose ideas are not approved and a player whose are is stark indeed. Every game suffers from this to an extent, but when benchmarks are fluid in a rules-lite system, this issue only explodes.

The problems of the Attention Whore bring up another facet of the system that I disapprove of; the Refresh Economy. Let's freshen ourselves up on the nature of FATE points first. It's a fact that compelling and invoking aspects are important to the flow of the game, and thus the act of moving FATE points create focus on the story to their events. When you focus on something actively being done by a player, gaining or losing a FATE point, then that player is enforcing their will on the game and ending up the center of attention.

With the Refresh Economy, you change how many FATE points you start with by choosing fewer or more stunts and special abilities in the reverse. Stunts and abilities are objective increases your power and ability to influence the narrative in specific ways, and having them lowers how many FATE points you start with. Note, this is only for beginning rates. Compelled aspects, trait activation, and other sources of FATE point acquisition are unchanged.

What the Refresh Economy does is encourage high-competency players to have more hijinks in the beginning of the session to gather FATE points to offset their deficiency. This means they're encouraged to hog the spotlight in the beginning, which leaves them on par with everyone else, but with more powers and abilities. A Lower Refresh "requires" you to monopolize the story more, and more and better powers allow you to monopolize the story more. What this creates some players who can't advance the narrative as much, at the 'benefit' of having the narrative focus on them less. Last I checked, that's what you do with NPCs.

Solutions
Favoritism and Wall-Flowers are difficult problems to overcome, especially as my S.O. actually is going to be one of the players. The primary solutions to these issues is to move away from rules-lite systems entirely, which the sacrifice is currently not worth. The thing I can do about "DM's Girlfriend" syndrome is to be aware of such and make an active effort to watch my behavior. Wall-Flowers I'm hoping to mitigate with a house-rule I'm going to instate to handle the Attention Whores and Refresh rules.

What I'm going to create is a communal FATE pool. Whenever a player is compelled, the earned FATE point goes toward a pot that any player can choose to draw upon as if it were their own. Therefore, the player whose foibles bring down consequences upon the party does not subsequently gain the monopoly in the ability to control the narrative to handle the consequences. What this ideally does is also provide the Wall-Flowers a resource to use FATE points without having to interject to gain them; which I am aware is not ideal, but it's at least a gentle nudge so they do not face undue resistance.

Next, I will raise the Refresh of every player to 12 and instate mandatory character creation to buy abilities and stunts until their Refresh becomes 6; no more, no less. Some characters will be wizards or own spaceships, while others will have iron will and steely gazes. I cannot think of a concept that would truly be expected to have [i]less[/i] stunts than others without that player asking to be an NPC, which isn't what the system is about.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Epilogue

And so, the campaign comes to a close. Ssevar'nac is able to negotiate with Ethedril (variety of speak with dead), and learns enough about the group to concoct a plan. It's determined that Cast & Marshal do not have a reasonable chance to survive an encounter with a prepared Golden Lord. In addition, the campaign has lasted sufficiently long for a change of pace to be desired, especially as we now have two new players who wish to join.

And so, we have the campaign world fade to black, and I shall begin preparations, including details concerning the rules as they're designed.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session XX

They level up by this point, and are now level 9. 

After having taken the damage, they decide it prudent to turn around and instead head for the capital to heal up the vile damage, and just send Ethedril's cleric to the kobolds. This should take about four or five days, and they pass through a couple small towns with warm welcome. On the third day, they encounter a hamlet that's been holed up as if under siege, and find out they've been attacked by a horde of ninja over the last three days (two attacks thus far, three dead). 

Cast and escort travel to pick up the more isolated people who were trying to weather the assault in their cottages, and helps them suit up to leave by morning (~75 of 'em). When morning draws near, a score of Shadowed Hand genin charge, and 15 of the villagers are revealed to be chunnin in disguise in this attack. The party makes quick work of them, three rounds of Marshal's fast healing removing the marks made. Concerned of further treachery, Cast makes sure not a single villager has any weapons, and keeps his weapon readied at them. Once at the castle, the villagers are quarantined, and will be released after the party leaves. 

At the castle, they get some information concerning the name they were given on the person who hired the Shadowed Hand to kill them; Ssevar'nac the Golden Lord, Plague Father, Master of Shapes. He is a disgustingly wealthy lord of a node in the Blackened Grove, known for his mastery of shapeshifting, ability to birth monsters, and curse people into all manner of shapes, and is also known to shape corpses (fabricate level) for the Grove's war machine. They get directions and convince the Empress to loan them two hippogriffs so as to swiftly reach the node (with a buff from Chantico), as well as a handful of fireball flasks to deal with swarms. 

They travel long hours, but are a mere 10 miles from Ssevar'nac's castle when they make camp. In the middle of the night, Ethedril is awakened to the sound of an old man singing very off-key in some local dialect on a path that will go through the party; and hears him far enough away for Cast to put his armor on and ready a bow. When the old man sees the party, he barely has a chance to register their presence before Cast knocks an arrow and demands that he turn around and go the other way, stating that they are adventurers under siege. Old man, partially apologetically and partially crotchety, states he's just trying to reach a shrine that the party is on the way of; and if he could take his old knees and around far enough out to not be seen by either. Just the act of explaining nearly brings Cast into a rage (the insolence, near as I can tell), which Marshal manages to subdue him enough to not just slay the old man where he stands. 

The old man backtracks a bit and takes the long way around the party, mumbling with crotchety annoyance at them and hoping that Ssevar'nac that turns them into stoats. Ethedril can hear this from the distance, which sorta surprises Cast that the old man knows of Ssevar'nac, tempting him to go and kill the obvious spy; Ethedril instead follows the old man to the shrine, which is dedicated to Kiransal. When the old man enters, Ethedril overhears him making confessions, which for Kiransal means confessing of every sin visited upon you; and money is exchanged for karmic vengeance, the party having been mentioned. The priestess inside exits the shrine to deliver the money and prayers to the greater church, who Ethedril sees to be a harpy. 

Following the harpy, Ethedril goes awhile without being seen, but is eventually spotted. The harpy asks a question, getting a snarky answer with a hint of danger, so she sings her Captivating Song and Ethedril rolls a natural 1. And so, our drow is lead directly into the Ssevar'nac's estate, and brought before one of the accountants under the guard of two trolls. The harpy is paid and leaves, while the accountant questions Ethedril for a name and reason for being around. Ethedril delays for a short bit, then flies forward to cut the accountant down and attempts to batter a wall down to escape; but is grappled and rended unto death by the two trolls (reach is a powerful thing when you don't otherwise have the edge). 

After four hours, Cast and Marshal decide to search for Ethedril, following the old man's tracks. They come upon the shrine with the old man outside and partially on his way away, where Cast demands to know what happened to his travelling companion. The old man states he hasn't a clue (Sense Motive checks state he's telling the truth) but does a short cackle at the idea, which is the last straw for Cast who charges and kills; revealing that the old man was an Obake, a lesser type of human-turned-oni with a bee hive in their hunch (minor shapeshifting hides this). 

Marshal enters the shrine to ask the priestess for information, eventually being convinced to pay a small tithing (4gp), where she tells them she will call upon divine wisdom from Kiransal to lead them. She asks for them to follow, where they mount up and do so; Cast tries a few times with his helm of telepathy to start reading her mind, eventually getting through the Will save and finding out that she's leading them to the primary counting house instead of the ancillary because there were two of them. 

At the central counting house, there are half a dozen dire vultures in gilded cages with three well-groomed gnolls in fine clothing caretaking the entire room. The floor is covered with ivory white marble expertly cut, the floor otherwise being fairly bare aside from the back end where three japanese-like men in kimonos write notes and keep track of numbers with an abacus, while formian workers work behind them to physically move money at their demand. 

The three accountants, looking close enough to be brothers, ask for their names. They are told the full titles, and that the two are seeking Ethedril. Notes are passed to a formian worker, who wanders off with it, and the head accountant tells them to wait a moment for them to receive permission. After a couple minutes, the formian returns with a message, which the accountant reads and informs the party that they can simply enter the palace to speak with Ssevar'nac for further information. 

This does not sit well with Cast, who demands to know immediately where Ethedril is, which the accountants state that they cannot tell them. Cast begins walking towards them with the intent of blocking the back exit (which is 15' behind the accountants, the front door is on the opposite side over 75' away), where the gnolls move to keep him from getting too close to the accountants. Cast cuts down the gnoll, which sends the entire room into a flurry and a fight breaks out. The accountants prove to be expert unarmed combatants, pinning and disarming the two, but proving to be virtually incapable of scratching them (disguised Ogon no Oni from Creatures of Rokugan, 5000 koku on them). Once the first accountant is finally struck down, they surrender and beg to be spared, telling the two that Ethedril had been killed for slaying their brother and his corpse is with Ssevar'nac and is likely being interrogated. 

Cast is tempted to slay the two anyway, though there exists the chance he would use the suggestion power in his telepathy helm, demanding the Ogon no Oni to both give up his money bag and to forgo any incoming saving throw (will immediately kill the oni if he doesn't forgo). But we end the session and debate there for next time, likely in two weeks because Cynic's coming down and wants a one-shot (aWoD).

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session XIX

Our player for Plank finally returns to his home. And thus, the game has returned to three once more. The game also got started late because one player slept in and got enthralled playing Dragon Age on his computer, that and when conversation began he got bored and drove off quickly for food (very common behavior for him). 

After a day of holing up in their room in town for nearly 24 hours to await their meeting with the Shadowed Hand (avoiding the townspeople like crazy), the shadows in their room coalesce into a figure to inform them to go north to the dojo for the meeting. At about noon, they reach the place, and they enter the area that looks much like the Plane of Shadow. They can see the building built into the bottom of the cliff, and the front gate to the grounds is guarded by a pair of orc vampires. The guards open the gate slowly into impenetrable mist, request that the party wait a moment for the path to be shown, in which a gust of wind from the other side of the fog parts the way so the party can swiftly walk across and into the building. 

Inside is a dark room with interior paper walls, the largest one being a long table with cushions all around. At the head of table is Shadowtongue (two ninja guards behind him), and on each side of the table are individuals that Shadowtongue introduces as representatives of two other ninja guilds to witnesses to the proceedings. One is a ghoul-like bugbear named Jabb, who leads the Barghest's Maw. The other is a human with a deathly blue flame coming from his eyes, wearing samurai armor made of stone, representing the Scratch. Shadowtongue introduces himself as a negotiator for the Shadowed Hand itself. 

Talk about what the party wants is laid out, the contract to be ripped up under threat of violence, the contract to be nulled by a competing offer, or the name of the individual who bought the contract. Negotiation is slow at first because the player for Cast doesn't like the idea of giving the Shadowed Hand anything; 2000gp is his initial limit for buying out the contract (basic magic items are generally worth that, and Cast himself pulls in ~8k a month from taxes). Eventually, Ethedril brings up the idea of giving up the wizard tower they obtained back in the Valley of the White Dragon, with the extra bit that Ethedril will inform her kobold followers to put it back in place (and repaired). This would be in exchange for the name of the person who hired the Shadowed Hand. One Diplomacy check later, and things work out. 

Shadowtongue tells them they must wait until tomorrow to leave due to the nature of how they entered the place, and provides the party access to the guest wing. He promises that they will not make any attempt on their lives until nightfall the next day (giving them half a day's travel of seperation from the base), as part of a general pact of hospitality that comes with a ninja negotiation. Inside the guest wing, they are offered a wide selection of food and women and are told they can ask for any other diversion for the day. They all forgo any pleasures, Cast specifically asking for a white room for him to sit and ignore everything in, though Ethedril tries out the food and discovers that it's illusory (30% real because it's a shadow illusion). The next day, they suit up and leave for the Valley of the White Dragon to inform the kobolds to undo what they've done to the tower so far. 

They push themselves to the limit of fatigue to avoid getting ambushed in camp right at nightfall, delaying it until about 4am, where half an hour into their rest they are interrupted by a wall of fire forming on them, dealing vile damage (yay Carnage domain). Marshal manages to spot something above the party, nearly 200' above them with wings flapping utterly silently, while releasing a bird to begin diving towards the party. While Marshal and Cast jump out of the fire, Ethedril charges upward to chop the bird in half mid-flight, discovering that it was a very simple conjuration that holds a scrap of real paper. At the winged creature's turn, with a flap it seems to fold itself into the night and disappear (Ethedril cannot sense it). The message tells the party that while they are not yet at the level for his full attention, they are worth a visit to soften them up for the rest of the guild, and it is signed from the Crow.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: XVIII

Once Plank returns, the party suits up and heads for the NE in search of the base for the Shadowed Hand, in unclaimed territory where none travel. After about a week, they eventually pick up signs that indicate frequently traveled yet well-hidden paths. Following it, they come upon a village built to be as inconspicuous to any but those who practically walk straight in. 

From afar, they see that the village is populated by humans, hobgoblins, and a minority of orcs of the Red Fang Tribe. It's a little past noon, so they decide to camp just out of sight and wait until noon. Once night rolls in, a very small bonfire is made and the party hears a song coming from near it; spoken in the Shadow dialect of Primal, telling a tale that the party is familiar with that involves the Empress and an ex-lover. It's a tale that likens their relationship between night and day, and how their separation creates the cycle as it is known. During this song, Cast and Plank receive something akin to a sending within their minds reminding them of their fate and to accept a swift death; though Plank received an additional message offering quarter if he came to their side (Bard's Siren Call, resisted). Readying their weapons for an imminent attack, none come, and the party eventually sleeps. 

That morning, some hunters from the village are coming close to the party's camp, and the sound of Cast trying to put his armor on gets their attention. Concerned, one of the three hunters heads back to the village while the other two head towards the party (only seeing Cast and Marshal, the rest too well-hidden); wondering why unwelcome strangers are in the middle of nowhere. Cast declares that they come seeking information (never more specific than that) and they can't promise that they won't enter the village because of certain information they await. Eventually the third hunter returns and confers with the other two out of sight and from some distance, though Ethedril listens in with supernatural ears. They are worried about these vague and noncommittal adventurers, and decide to warn the elder of their presence. One of them returns, leaving the other two to watch the party, as well as a screecher arrow to warn the village if they're going hostile. 

Once noon rolls around, the village looks unchanged, so Cast decides and informs the two villagers that he's going to fly up on his hippogriff to just have a look around. The villagers warn against such, because their watch was not warned of him and would fire upon him; but would accept him if the villagers could spread the news. Not wanting to be delayed, he tells them that he'll weather the shots, understanding that the villagers can't prevent any harm coming to him. With a trot and flap, he begins flying upward, which convinces the villagers (who are seen to be worried) to fire their screecher arrow, which triggers Ethedril's readied action to charge and kill them before they can act; and does so. 

Cast sees a bit north of the village a spot of forest that's appreciably darker than the rest of the area, despite a lack of clouds above or the angle of the sun allowing the hill to normally create such shadow naturally. Dodging arrow fire deftly, he returns back to the party and informs them, a little disheartened at the sight of the villager's death. They suit up and begin moving around the village as fast as possible to get to the shadowed area. 

While moving, they begin to hear a sound akin to a tuning fork that fascinates Plank. Just as they break it, an unarmored elf with black eyes and tongue, wearing a ceremonial shield and an elven thinblade that he continually knocks onto something to continue its humming sound. Coming up from behind are eight silk-steel armor wearing ninjas (Ethedril hears six more out of sight that are slowly flanking the party). Introducing himself as Shadowtongue and representative of the village that the party attacked. Cast offers compensation for the villagers' death, but they must continue on their recon mission to a shadowed area to the north which he believes to be a base for the Shadowed Hand. Shadowtongue is disappointed, telling the party that there is a price for such knowledge, which is blood. 

Marshal is infuriated when he discovers that something's enhancing Shadowtongue's Countersong to counter abilities that require targets to be able to hear (such as many of Marshal's buffs, or even Cast's designate opponent). 

After a couple rounds of pain, all of the ninja are dead and Shadowtongue surrenders just before an attack is levied against him. He informs the party that the Shadowed Hand likely has an escape clause in their contract with the party (usually by ending up too expensive for the guild), but they'd have to have the leader of another ninja guild request a calling in order for any kind of safe negotiations to begin. As a favor, Shadowtongue tells the party he can make a few contacts to see if Marshal's request will count (he does command a dojo of trained ninjas, afterall), allowing the party to rest in the town for the day. 

With a warning as he walks away, he informs the party that should they cause any more death to the village, then they must fear the wrath of the Crow itself.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session XVII

The party waits three days for Sarou to return from his fact-finding mission. He returns with a mention that he will need to get more poison. The 'escaped' ninja had laid low for two days before contacting his superiors, at which point Sarou followed the superior who would know more, only to discover that he was expecting to be followed and Marshal's cohort was ambushed. Fortunately, his training allowed him to escape with a fair number of them dead. After escaping, Sarou researched more on the fact one of the ninja in the ambush was an unusually pale orc that proved particularly resilient to Sarou's techniques. 

In his own research, he determined that it was very likely to have been a vampire orc, and the source of vampiric orcs is from the Red Fang Clan to the east (prior mention had been made of them). Culturally, Red Fang vampires are incredibly reluctant to ever be farther than three nights' travel from their clan, which hinted of at minimum an outpost near the wastelands about a week's travel east. 

After some discussion, the party decided a more solid lead would be to the dojo north of Naught Hill from their captured ninja. Thanks to Plank's plane shift and the royal maps, they were able to shift within 3 days travel of the dojo. They were interrupted by a pair of noble hill giants along the way (wore quality gear rather than random sticks), but convinced them that Imperials going through the land was for peaceful purposes and continued onward. 

The dojo was built into a plateau that was being strip mined very slowly by hand (literally) as a method of training for the humans there. It took a moment, because Cast was trying to speak first and he doesn't know Giantish, but one of them knew the Imperial tongue. Only those sufficiently enlightened in their ways could actually receive training or wisdom of any kind from the He Who Supports the Firmament (head of the dojo). One of the higher ranking monks (titled Bellower, who spoke softly and squeakily) informed them that there existed two 'quick' ways of wisdom in their ways. 

Our first method was to show that could be an immovable object, by staying true against the force of Shifting Glacier, a Jotun (half-giant stats) monk with the Juggernaut feat. After Cast was almost casually bull-rushed, they opted for the very dangerous second test, to prove themselves (individually or as a whole) as an unstoppable force. This test was to utterly defeat a stone golem without receiving a single point of damage, which the party agreed to. An unknown entity from behind a gauze curtain in the dojo seems to stare with glowing eyes, causing nearby debris & slag to rise and become a stone golem (concentration duration, close range). Thanks to Cast's ability to fight defensively and his Draw Fire ability, this was done readily enough. 

Speaking with He Who Supports the Firmament, who is a Stone Giant Elder (switch transmute for the golem ability and increase by one or two HD), he informs of a group of recruiters attempting to encourage his disciples to "act like the rolling avalanche rather than the shifting earthquake". After learning of Firmament's displeasure of this practice, he suspected they recruited students who had left the dojo. As a favor, Firmament told the party that he would speak with gravestones of the recruiting ninja about their clan. The next morning, they were informed that this ninja clan was called the Shadowed Hand, and had four five fingers throughout the land, and one of these fingers lay on the border of the Empire of the Sun and the eastern wastelands. Also, this finger could only be seen under the light of the noon sun. 

Bidding farewell, the party did the plane shift trick to get within three days of Cast's castle to recoup, and had Sarou do a fact-finding mission on what they've learned thus far. 

Were this dojo to actually be veiled except under a noon sun, would imply a shadow well and very likely a node along such a theme. This made such an outpost quite likely the clan's HQ and guarded by shadows due to the node's theme. Considering the danger, they decide to rest for a week or so and call in some magic items to be constructed for themselves (since Cast will go in with his sun plate instead of adamantine carapace). 

While resting, in the dead of night, numerous ninja from the Shadowed Hand attacked the party. One of their high elites (level 4 Samurai) managed to get into Cast's bedchamber without being heard (even after one-shotting the guards), and the surprise round + normal round, Cast was sent into the negatives. Thinking quick, Gina used her skill-based fascinate/suggestions to convince him that he'll bleed out and to leave her in her grief (which works). The rest of the party was similarly ambushed, but they were attacked by 'regular' elites (similar to the Barghest Maw regular ninja); three elites on Marshal, two on Plank and Ethedril each. With less skilled assaults, the rest of the party survived and repelled the attacks readily. Ethedril in particular managed to hear the ninja before they even got within melee, but pretended to remain asleep and killed all three the moment before they made their melee attacks. 

This convinced Cast to rearrange the bedchamber arrangement so that any stealthers would have to go by Ethedril's room to reach any of the other party's, and to use the higher level followers for the guard patrols.