by Ethan "JB" Goldman
Greetings everyone. It’s been a long day at ginger rehab but I can now use a pen again without shaking.
But it's not about me, it's about the world. Specifically Domai.
Domai is a weird plane that abruptly just decided to show up in the Realms one day. The last time I went to Domai I was abruptly teleported to a temple, to the confusion of its soldiers and its ever exploding death dragon, and I bashed my head against a wall until I escaped through death. So I went into Domai again with concern. Mostly… I didn’t think I would be important, I’m a pretty bad fighter.
Friday started with John Tis, John is an angry anarch who reminds us the world is at war, and that he's been trying to contact a very helpful Bannerette (Think Rossetta but for only one element) but he’s been holed away doing Chang’e knows. So wouldn’t it be nice if we could… break in and talk to him?
So we… did. We broke into his house, killed his bird (and thus quelled its infinite army of fighting wind, and personally there is nothing I like less than invincible monsters, or wind. I have a bad relationship with winds). And what do we find… DRUGS! I know, scandal.
You see drugs are bad… but maybe not because the drugs gave the scientists here super strength. They couldn’t be killed, we tried. If you decapitated them they would put their head back on and rage for 5 seconds of invincible madness. It was nutty. More people should be on drugs.
Eventually we found out the… puzzle needed drugs arranged in certain patterns? Or something? It’s weird. But it opened the door and we ran away… right into the Bannerette. Who was in a coma.
Then John goes and guts the bannerette like a fish, with a strange weapon made of weirdstone coming out. That weirdstone was also being used to make the rage drugs. This is foreshadowing two things.
Weirdstone is bad news.
This John guy isn't REALLY my friend.
After this we sortof… just left. Some of us yelled at John but John just sortof said “Sorry I guess” in the same way he said “We should talk to the Air Bannerette” and we just… let him go, since I was sleepy. And my lord was promised a drug lab to let it go.
So enter, Saturday. After a bit of waiting a strange fortune teller arrived offering to show us our elemental composition, showcasing how the elements pertained to emotional behavior. This actually worked multiple ways because 4 of the elements defined the nations that would become critical later. However, a few things happened that I think… made issues.
You see, there is a thing called Flow. The world, when run according to its planned Fate, Flows seamlessly, and if you get the Flow wrong, you get discord.
This may be considered more review than recap, but there was one thing that caused more discord than anything else.
John Tis walked in first, well second after the fortuneteller. But the whims of heroes are fickle, and his immediacy drew eyeballs towards him and his cause of houselessness, and we forced him to promise to not trick us a third time. Then Autumn’s ambassador arrived with grim news.
You see, Domai is NOT simple. It has 11 elements, each with its own house, and 4 of those elements, the Seasonal Elements, had nations. Fall is the nation of Traditions, respecting their titles and bannerettes the most out of the nations, and appreciating the arts and classic way things are done. Winter is a hardy nation with brutal beasts and weather and keeps to its close knit communities and can call upon that brutal land if needed. Summer is a land of plenty, but so plentify that it was dependent on its legendary heroking Nunoc. And Spring was innovation, constantly throwing resources into labs to come up with strange weapons and tools. John had no element and thus no place in the world, nor did his friends. So he was getting his revenge by attacking the nations Bannerettes who were essentially helping empower the Avatar, who is the world’s god, or maybe a titan or something. Because of some disruptions that may be us, may be something else form the Realms, or maybe the Realms is just a symptom of this disruption, John was getting a lot better at killing Wizards than before. This was causing more disorder and Spring was taking advantage of this to grab as much power as it could in order to fuel its own ideas. Suddenly, in something that neither Spring nor John had ANY hand in but WOWIE WASN'T IT SO CONVENIENT? Nunoc goes missing and Spring randomly decides, as a quirky gesture to say “Hey give me your stuff and be my vassal and I'll give you robots since you're unguarded.” This caused Summer to say “No”, as well as many other loud members of the Realms including Rillian, champion of fall.
Spring then says “Well because your being rude about this and taking too long I have razed Celdoa to the ground” which I mean… Spring had no send magic, how would he have stopped them if we said yes? You see the issue.
Anyway Spring saunters off and everyone goes “okay we need to kill Spring” and here is where John, likely unintentionally cause Discord.
JOHN suggests something first, helpfully saying he knows where Winter, who is neutral, could get weapons, real good ones, and geeze wouldn’t THOSE be handy in fighting a war? Funnily enough this event was proceeded by Tulli loudly mocking spring for considering going into a land war against winter… and then Tulli proceeded to join the land raid against winter. But just because it's a BAD idea doesn’t mean it's not FUN.
I don't BLAME John for asking this, however Khan, (Heir to Summer and de factor ruler without the Heroking) also needed something done, to deal with a dangerous and strange blight thats plaguing his orchards and he needed maybe… 5 or more assistants?
You see the issue was is Khan doesn’t have Johns swagger, or even Rillian's, and everyone thought John was The Mission, the ONLY mission, with apples being just a random side gig.
But I had… perhaps by luck perhaps by my own unwillingness to be just one voice of many, a better understanding of Flow. I’ve been to Domai before, and it is not a one show circus, with Khan confirming. Even though many nations ARE, there was much more to do in a war than that, and many things were going to happen, with various twists and turns.
Rillian did agree to send some people to do the apple thing. But those people also mistook the Bunker as the real “Thing” and after solving the apples went straight off.
The apple thing was also indeed important. It turns out Dwight, a self proclaimed Ranger with a pet bear, found his apples were pitch black and poisonous. The cause? Black slugs that almost went into my ear until Rillian saved me… by cutting my arm off with a poisoned blade.
I got better but some love is harsh.
Eventually all the Slugs were gathered and we were waylaid on our way back by another silence member who wanted us to engage in a assassination plot. He also let slip WHAT the titanx bunker John sent everyone too was. It was a tomb for the Winter Bannerette’s unconscious body, the bannerette being put in self stasis so the weapons could be extracted from them. And John intended to stab ANOTHER Bannerette. AFTER WE ASKED HIM NOT TO.
Hearing this many of our number ran off to warn Rillian, who ran off to lead the raid and thus missed the assassin’s speech. The rest tactfully helped the noble get away from Jeremy while I… found what I actually was good at.
You see, the very map which Spring pointed at to showcase his raising of Celdoa (a province in Summer) was being used as a war map, as Autumn coordinated with us to rally Summers forces… except, as per the discord earlier, the only one who noticed was Swoop, who was doing his best to lead the fight on his own. But Swoops a man of spirit and song, not numbers. And he said “Hey Baptise, do you want to take a handle at this war stuff, I’m gonna go help the Bunker raid.”
And thus, Jean Baptise became General of Summer.
The war was… simplish. You had around 5 phases, with each phase possibly using a dedicated person except the last. You had to draw the elements and turn them into resources, which was just bookkeeping, you had to move troops into provinces, where the Sergeant would actually duel the resistance in the area to simulate the battlefield. Your Sergeant only had a single short and armor unless you used gear to outfit the army, while the simulated Enemy may use a combo and whatever was appropriate for the forces you were facing.
Then you had to draw energy from the land, with your… let's call em Bannerette, playing a matching card game to corner off matching circles of mana to use in the war. The issue was nature was playing against you and could pull mana off the board.
And I, ran all three. At least for a while. The Bannerette seemed the most… difficult, because Nature COULD just grief you and solely mess with your resource gain, and you couldn't control what resources you would draw, so if you really needed metal elements… you may just never find it.
Then supply lines became a concern. Which was FIIIIINE I just had to send very small squads out and completely change my strategy of BIG NUMBER. I don’t even CARE, I hate big numbers!
Anyway fortunately Swoop is a bird, and its inherent for him to migrate south in the Winter… and the bunker was north. So he came back and worked as my army sergeant, letting me play with numbers and cards. Then Eerie came back and assisted as our Bannerette. Then everyone else came.
Turns out, Tulli was right, land war in Winter? Bad idea.
I don’t know WHAT happened but Trent and Jericho were not there and Rillian was NOT happy.
Incidentally many fortune tellers came in missing their identities, and using our previous elemental knowledge we were able to help them find their names and get more understanding of Runes… though I missed this as I was busy doing War. And honestly, wished I spent the dinner bugging people to teach me.
However Rillian's arrival was a boon to me at least, as he realized the importance of the board as soon as we explained it and happily replaced Swoop as war Marshall, with his key tactical acumen on the battlefield (aka, he hit good), he was crucial in our retaking of Froze, which allowed us to create a base to punch through winter and spring… except we didn’t. Because well, we found a tunnel in Froze (A province in winter, which decided to declare war on us because…well, bunker), a tunnel that would lead straight into Spring where we could cut off Jericho and Trent’s transfer into Spring’s prisons. Apparently they got captured.
With runic lore and Trent’s rescue imminent everyone ran off to save their friends. Except me, who wanted to keep leading the battle from the map, but Khan told me this needed everyone. So off I went.
I spent most of the rescue distracting soldiers, allowing Rillian to negoti-fight the Winter bannerette, as Evie and Jortsa led the puzzle team in saving Nunoc, who was also being transported, maybe as a hostage exchange.
Both of our teams succeeded, though I could have distracted better (I AM a bad fighter) and Winter agreed to stop if we agreed to stop messing with Bannerettes or this weirdstone stuff, and thus we wouldn't begin this poisonous arms race.
Winter’s bannerette managed to get an agreement from the Winter king and Rillian to work together to stop Spring, and then his weirdstone weapons finally finished poisoning him.
Swift managed to, with GREAT effort, pull the weirdstone out of the Winter Bannerette, but unfortunately that corruption was also the power of Winter, and winters power faded away and left only a frail old man who wandered off.
Then, Dinner where Nunoc was brought up to speed with things. Nunoc stepped down as Heroking to just be Hero, and gave Khan command of Summer as well as a half functioning runic shield that Tolkhan worked to fix, which was really impressive for someone who's illiterate.
Nunoc also pointed out his sword, Lionheart is missing and asked Khan to give it to whoever would replace him as the “Sword of Summer” aka its Champion. Rillian, who admires Nunoc more then anyone, was eager to fight among Nunoc again and retrieve the weapon, however Nunoc planned to use the army that he was shocked we had to attack spring directly, allowing us to use John’s sneaky paths to attack the heart of spring and finish things at the head.
Things started rough. The castle was guarded by Nunoc-offs, clones of the king who appeared to be either powered by or fighting for the right to wield the sealed off Lionheart. We worked together and… well Jortsa unsealed the weapon, and Tulkhan brought it to Khan, who was meant to give it to the Sword of Summer. I got a little rude about this, and this is a heated discussion but… well here’s my take.
If this was ANY other magic sword even an incredibly powerful one like Soul Reaver, then it would be Jortsa by right of effort. If it was merely the weapon of Nunoc and meant to go to his heir, it'd be Rillian's, who lead the bunker raid, and Nunocs rescue, and the spring attack and cared more for Nunoc than any player. But, it was KON’S sword, to give to his Champion of Summer, and Rillian was Champion of Fall. Khan saw me lead his armies for hours alone, and he knew me as his Sword.
And heres where I get into the Flow. If Rillian was AWARE this day was meant to be multiple jobs, if he knew there was a big fancy war game that needed a sergeant to fight the battles and lead summer, he'd have NOT been on the Bunker, he’d have been with me, showing Khan his skills with a blade and leading Summers forces to defeating winter and Spring and earning the name Sword of Summer.
But he DIDN’T KNOW, because John showed up first. Flow.
So Jean Baptise, me, got the sword. Which helped a good deal against the lesser Nunocs. Finally ending their everlasting regenerations.
This lead to the Spring Bannerette, who, as a banerette was only weak to Titanx, which was sealed in runic chests around them, and their beast, some Treant that Rillian fell.
This was a second time where Flow as important because Jortsa broke a runic lock with Tulkhans help and retrieved a titanx dagger, but when it was used, apparently the Bannerette didnt notice. So the war suddenly slowed, as we were unsure of what to do except more of the puzzles.
Eventually Swift and Evie used a powerful ritual to summon the power to defeat the Spring Bannerette, using the Night Bannerettes power to fuel it. Unfortunately this did seem to spread Spring’s poison into Night but we had the titanx weapons that Rillian and King Grott used to finally kill Spring.
Finally we had the key and were able to march into… the Spring king smugly standing around the eviscerated remains of his own council. He was very… unconcerned, boasting even, about how he did nothing wrong and we all played into his hands… which honestly… is a contradiction.
You can't have done nothing wrong and set up your own friends to die, thats not how wrong works. But you can't reason with smug.
Eventually the Spring finally agreed to stop bragging and go to court so he can brag there. And turns out he had good reason.
The reason Spring was experimenting with corruptive weirdstone, the reason it was stealing vast swathes of resources… was because the Spring King was eating it.
Which… isn't healthy, but then Spring felled Rillian, Swift, and the Avatar of Breaking and yelled mean things at Khan and then the Avatar’s corpse caused our ties to Domai to end. On that VERY cheery note.
This didn't even get into the hour long discussion on what to do about John but… honestly none of that matters really. Because with the Avatar being stabbed by a very… voracious King, its likely John’s fate is sealed.
Mr Tis is doomed by Flow, to be the next Avatar of Breaking.
Foretell. (I am a fighter but come on Ben give me the reward)
Oh yeah! The Feast.
Feast was fun, there was cucumber sandwiches, no grapes, these pork roll things with fruit. The only flaw is that its the same Feastocrat as Folkestone, which just happened. So it was a familiar taste.
But there were Bardics, which Evie crushed. Melodia, did a very brave and stellar performance, and then I won with an inspired take on Zarine insulting everyone.
Then court happened, and Bones became knight commander of the Knights of the Steward. Pilpus became squire of the Blue Rose, some Blackwood stuff happened while I was busy with… stuff. And Vesper became a knight of Blackwood after playing a rather noname roll as a god for several years.
And Vesper got wedding cake.
It was a busy weekend, and one where I feel everything feel a bit off step because of one mistake in who walked into the tavern first. If John was a little less collected and prepared, or just set a cap on his suicide mission, we’d have had stragglers to do the war, and the fortunetellers would have shown up earlier and the runes would have been less rushed… and maybe a lot of things.
But I reaped a lot of benefits from seeing what others didn’t, so I can’t complain too much. Also I really liked being General, and had a great time just running numbers and cards.
Gift Horses.
Sincerely
Sir Jean C’est Magnifique Try Baptise of Neden, Your Friend, Butcher, Sword of Summer
Knight of the Stewards