[Petals & Thrones] Session 2: Battle of the Bear

Session II

Our intrepid heroes, after rethinking the wisdom of bringing squishy, squishy Bryce along with them, tread forward into the wilds of Ramshorn. They are mildly scarred by funnel spiders & jumping spiders, the latter making a critical pounce on Aquilan's face, but very swiftly slay them before they can attempt to escape.

They come upon their first group of Bear soldiers, and fortunately, one of them is a knight attempting to give the veneer of respectability. After some very terse diplomacy (and several gold in toll), they are given a warning and the party circles around them to the North, coming upon a pair of Bear infantry being attacked by giant wolf spiders. Saving them, they earn some goodwill and convince them to be escorted to the central camp...ultimately being recognized, increasing the guards' entourage and setting the tone with Sir Brander to be cool at best.

Fortunately, through Morluck's diplomacy and the goodwill of having saved two infantry men from death by spider, they're permitted a chance to walk away with a message that the Order of the Bear will collect their taxes soon. Running away, the party send word to the Lunatic Court, and speak with Pantaloon - who considers this a prime opportunity to achieve some goodwill with the people of Ramshorn, especially if they can outsource some muscle with the party (let them get paid in salvage).

Together with their group of Lunatics, they fought the first wave of Bear soldiers in the Battle of the Bear - 2 ogrillons, 2 elementalists, 8 archers, & 11 infantry (I rolled very high). The fight ends up remarkably well in their favor due to well placed tactics and lucky dice rolls, and none are actually slain. Thoradin uses a prayer of healing during the short rest, and they continue onward to fight Sir Brander at the Watchtower...

[Petals & Thrones] Session 1: Return to Ramshorn

I know it's been awhile since I've reported on the events of our cast of heroes, but life has gotten in the way as of late. Here's where we left off. Roland, Victor, & Bridgitte have perished in the caves of the goblins; having taken a rest a third of the way into their caves and thus giving the forces time to rally and slay them under a deluge of goblinoid bodies.

We now gather a new group of PCs

Cast

Ribbles Folkor

• Race: Gnome (Svirfneblin)
• Class & Background: War Mage Wizard & Sage
• Boon: Beak's Defense

Morluck Knife-Ear

• Race: Elf (High Elf)
• Class & Background: Swashbuckler Rogue & Courtier
• Boon: Sword Saint

Aquilan Thesalor

• Race: Elf (Wood Elf)
• Class & Background: Kensei Monk & Courtier
• Boon: Got Gud

Thoradin Battlehammer

• Race: Dwarf (Hill)
• Class & Background: Tempest Cleric (of Moradin) & Acolyte
• Boon: Martial Advantage Advantage

Session I

Things are more organized this time around. I compile a primer and such of the setting for people to peruse before the game begins. In a fit of deja vu, Morluck talks down the toll price, the party approaches the town, smells smoke, and begins stabbing belligerent Bear soldiers.

This time around, Andie manages to survive long enough for the cleric to stabilize her, and a number of Bear soldiers are also stabilized by Thoradin. Morluck is thoroughly running through them with a flourish, while Ribbles' owl manages to scout over the town something fierce. Aquilan & Ribbles (played by two of the original players from the prior attempt at Ramshorn) run into trouble with their dice rolling, but are there and contribute. Their jaws drop at the performance of Harlequin and her Lunatic Court, Morluck low-key fanboying.

After the raid, they have a short conversation, but then go into full negotiation with Goldblum, failing to improve his offer of 200gp in store credit after the Order of the Bear is handled. They also interrogate one of the surviving Bear infantry, discovering that he's a stupid one and just follows the archers when it's time to find the Order's camp, and all of the archers have either already escaped or were killed.

Gathering the fallen's wealth, they run face-first into Ront's policy of only buying weapons for scrap. So, they discover that Bryce is a priest of a forge god, and after a fair bit of high-rolling Persuasion (and about 30gp), they convince him to answer the Call to Adventure and join them as a hireling to manage their packmule in the hopes that they can get him to level 2 and leverage that sweet Force Cleric power. Tossing their haul into a room in the Accidental Gryphon, they set out that day to seek out the hidden camp of the Order of the Bear...

[Volaire, Pathfinder E6] Ishtarian Serpents

In Volaire, fiends do exist, but they are considered rare threats. Cultists can pool their resources and ritually summon energies from dark dimensions, but imps are among the most powerful fiends they can pull wholly into our dimension. It's generally more efficacious to use said energies to corrupt an extant being, generally a beast, as sentient minds don't react well to such corruption. Operating in such a manner over the span of years can twist the environment, leaving traces in the land itself. Over the span of generations, the uninterrupted work of dark cultists on a large scale can pollute entire ecologic regions.

The planet Unas is a world where rampant, uncontrolled channeling of extraplanar energies had gone unchecked for a century by a corrupt government who ignored the existential threat. The Moon Gate of Quag Keep, once the gleaming jewel of the system, was disrupted by a rival faction in an attempt at sabotage; resulting in a domino effect in an already magically unstable region that opened what is known as a Hellmouth, a permanently torn rift in space. The larger a Hell Mouth, the more powerful the fiend that can fit through. The Hell Mouth of Ishtar is the largest known in the Tapestry, and one of several such entities that came through is what is colloquially known as the Ishtarian Serpent. Academics call it a Thethtu.

O flower heart hides within a serpent’s face!

The gate is barred! Smash the door, shatter the bolt.

Life becomes death. Death becomes life.

• Cataclysm of Quag Keep, Epistle of Milo

Thethtu are exceptionally dangerous fiendish serpents; between five & six feet wide and roughly a hundred feet long. Most dangerous is Thethtu venom, which will enslave escalating loyalty to the serpent, animating their corpse if they die while it courses through their veins. As zombies are accrued, they move about like ants in service to their queen; protecting the serpent and its territory, seeking living creatures to subdue and drag to the serpent for conversion, etc.

Thethtu, Ishtarian Serpent [CR 6]

Gargantuan outsider (evil)

Init +1; Senses DV 60’, Notice +6; Spd 40’, 40' climb (compression); Reach 20’ (30’ tail)

hp 68 (5d8+45); AC 19 (+12 nat, +1 Dex, -4 size); SV Fort +13, Ref +2, Will +3

Immune mind-affecting; Resist cold/fire 10; DR 5/good; SR 11

Melee bite +10 (2d8+11 plus poison), tail slap +5 (1d4 nonlethal plus trip)

Stats 33.13.29.-.14.6; BAB +3; CMB +18; CMD 28 (cannot be tripped)

Skills Climb +19, Notice +6, Stealth +0

Ishtarian Poison (Su) When exposed to the poison, the victim must make a DC 21 Fortitude save or be unable to attack the Ishtarian serpent, effectively charmed. Every round afterward for the next minute, another Fortitude save must be made or the condition will progress. Failing a second time results in the victim being fascinated by the sight of the Ishtarian Serpent. Failing a third time results in the victim being dominated to serve the serpent for 1d4 hours. If the creature dies while under the effects of this poison, then their body is immediately animated as a zombie with the instinct to serve the serpent.

Fiendish: A Delve into Conlang

As a general rule of thumb, especially in fiction, artificial languages are unnecessary. The audience's limited exposure can rarely tell whether you put something together in a day with basic rules or spent a decade painstakingly constructing a new language down to incorporating historical borrowings and vowel shifts. This isn't to say you shouldn't put any thought into your constructed language, because zero effort conlang can be random and jarring. Something internally consistent and about a level deeper than what the audience will interact with is sufficient to make your fantasy language look superficially complete.

It is from that mindset that I am now doing conlang with the vulgar tongue of demons. This is a language spoken by fiendish inhabitants that possess many of the same morphological traits of humans as it pertains to communication; lips, tongue, a perception of time following the arrow of entropy, etc. Deal-making is also a major facet of their culture. Beyond this, I'm not planning on any deeper world-building of demonic culture, since I plan on this being applicable for multiple settings that use the above archetype.

Grammar

Fiendish sentence structure is Subject - Object - Verb. English follows SVO. An example of SVO is "Sam ate oranges," while SOV is "Sam oranges ate."

Grammatical Case

Fiendish conjugates its vocabulary pretty heavily. Objects aren't so much "gendered" as they are informing of the financial/hierarchical relationship. The object of a sentence is conjugated based on its relationship with the subject of the sentence, while the subject of the sentence is conjugated based on its relationship to the speaker. In the right context, this same conjunction is used in the ablative & allative cases (generally "wish to sell" & "wish to procure," respectively). As a good rule of thumb, apply the appropriate suffix to any noun. Appending -way or -ai to someone's name is an excellent way of indicating that the speaker is used to speaking in the tongue of demons.

-una  Neuter
-way  Lender, Seller, Owner, Allative
-ai  Debtor, Buyer, Owned, Ablative
-wan  Instrumental (tool)
-kuna-  plural

Subject Pronouns

First person subject pronouns (I, we) are generally not voiced, and are presumed when no other subject pronouns are used in the sentence.
Qan-  2nd person subject pronoun (you)
Pay-  3rd person subject pronoun (they)

Verb Tenses

Same principle as above. Take the verb and append it appropriately based on the tense. Fiendish cares about whether reporting of a past event is first or second-hand information (third+ hand is grouped here).
-ni  present
-chu  present (negative)
-sqani  past (reported)
-rqani  past (experienced)
-man  past (negative; would have)
-saq  future
-chik-  plural (allies)
-chi-  plural (minions)

Verbs

T'urpu-  to stab
Mikhu-  to consume (and add to yourself)
Lik’i-  to consume (without adding to yourself)
Impuwistu-  to invoice
Khuya-  to love
Qunqu-  to forget
Iñi-  to believe, accept as true

Nouns

sach'a (perennial), saca  large woody plant
-micun  food-bearing (temptation; eg apple)
-hamp  food-bearing (protective; eg oak)
q'illay  kanina coin
qullqi  price
asnu  gullible fool
michi  goblin

Sample Sentence

Qanai t'urpusaq  I will stab you (vengeful connotation)
Michikunauna asnuai mikhuchiksqani  Goblins ate, from what I know, the moron.

General Phrases

Haykai’k-[case]  Welcome!
Maypi [noun]?  Where is the [noun]?
Yanapayk-[case]!  Help! (-ai gives connotations of "my kingdom for a horse!", -una is more typical, -way is more prideful/assertive)
Wuynas diyas-[case]  Good morning!

Chu No. Adding grammatical case is only when being formal, especially in transactional context.

[Volaire] Food of Volaire

A staple for the lower classes is bread, mushrooms, and a porridge made from beans. Herbs are widely available for adding flavour. Cheeses of both local production and colonial imports of a variety of types are available, as are eggs (from domestic chickens) and nuts. Fruit is common, and remarkably high quality. Pies are the most common treatment for the various foodstuffs consumed by the peasantry. Meat is uncommon fare among the lower classes; what is available is specifically given a tax if made available to them, forcing only meat deemed inedible due to spoilage to be affordable. Such meat is subject to purify food & drink to make safe to eat (its flavour leaves a lot to be desired).

The upper classes have access to more meat. Goat and giant spider are preferred, but chicken is more common due to relative ease of containment. Meat is frequently given multiple layers of preparation, first boiling and then frying or roasting. When holding feasts or eating ostentatiously, wizards are hired for more elaborate meals.

As a general rule, everyone eats only one full meal a day; though this isn't to say no food passes their lips outside of supper. Especially of the lower class, something small, quick, and portable is usually consumed earlier in the day; something like bread & cheese or a pie.

Volaire is situated in the middle of the ice rings of Mondria, and the ice shards cleared out around the asteroid city have been concentrated into a handful of spots to be melted and become floating lakes. These bubbles of water allow for easily maintained fish farms, subsequently leading to seafood being commonly available to all classes of Volaire.

As a trade port for numerous worlds, the culinarians of Volaire have exceptional access to spices. This leads to the residents frequently developing a very multicutural taste, and it is through Volaire that many cooking styles are then introduced to the greater Mondrian system.

Caterina the Muncheon Minotaur

Standing on a crate behind her stall (platform shoes are common with women, but typically not an option for the hooved races), with a two-layer gown to cover it, Caterina is a spotted brown & white minotaur who is difficult to miss at the docks. Her soft-spoken nature is no hindrance to sales, as her presence and local reputation is more than sufficient. She sells two types of pies; a basic one of cheese & honey, and a more expensive peppered meat pie, the meat being whatever's available earlier that day, purified tapestry whale being one of the more common options.

[Volaire] Government

Sgobbe Leon (♂ Kobold)
Current Rao of Volaire

Rao

Chief executive officer & ultimately the most important public figure of Volaire. The Rao presides over the most important committees, sets the agenda, & acts as the chairman of the city. Numerous restrictions are placed on the person assigned to the position - the Rao cannot discuss business or even read official correspondence except in the presence of the Advisory, a six-member team appointed by the Civil Council that represents each of the districts of Volaire. The Rao's entire family is barred from civil service, with limited exceptions after the Rao's death (life-time appointment). The Rao is not allowed to own foreign property, & their estate is in fact audited upon death.

Civil Council

The ultimate deliberative body & seat of legitimate power is the Civil Council. It is composed of approximately three thousand adult males from the aristocratic families of Volaire. This Council appoints & elects its population into other, smaller government bodies.

Senate

Its 60 members are a mix of appointments by the Civil Council & outgoing senators, & serves as the chief legislative body of Volaire.

Lower Senate

Comprised of council heads, appointments from outgoing senators, ambassadors, & military commanders that are 250 people strong. Day-to-day operations typically only see half of this number, and only 60 are necessary to make quorum. This group predominantly handles administration, committee appointments, & oversight.

Magistrate

Executive positions assigned by the Lower Senate, these people are charged with regulating industry, enforcing sumptuary laws, auditing other offices, & so on. A magistrate & its office is typically a short-lived affair; lasting anywhere from three months to three years. Once its term is over, a new one is formed by the Senate.

High Lords of Sciolo

A shadowy body, originally comprised of twelve members elected by the Senate for non-consecutive terms each lasting one year. It was officially disbanded over seventy years ago, but its authority remained, ultimately acting as the true power. Its members include the Rao, the Advisory Board, the Ashe, & heads of three of the most powerful merchant families in Volaire. The High Lords are responsible for important financial decisions for the city, form the leadership of the secret police (both foreign & domestic), & are able to override any other part of the government. This body does not & can not oversee or manage everything done by the Volarian government, but it is the final arbiter of its policies & are behind nearly all of the shadowy moves of the government.

[Petals & Thrones] Session 5: Goblintown

Session V

Our intrepid heroes, led forward by the werewolf, approach the entrance of the goblin cave encampment. The lieutenant telling them to turn around is given the rebuttal of initiative, which leads to the bugbear surprise attacking the fighter for a critical surprise attack (still standing, barely), followed by all of the bigger goblinoids being webbed and slowly shot down. The goblins made a couple attacks, but stayed in stealth afterward to avoid blasting from Victor.

The continue inward, struggling through the front room, against the hobgoblins & bugbears, the goblins largely dispersing due to their distance and predilection towards stealth. They move west and south, finding an alcove to hide in for a five minute rest just before entering the room with the underground river. They have a very rough fight in this room, entirely using up their short-rest abilities against the eight hobgoblins and four goblins.

And so, our heroes, spent of their major resources and severely injured, march forward deeper into hobgoblin camp...