by Cameron "Griffin" Huneke
This was the first Storytellers event I’ve had the opportunity to go to, and I’d just like to start off by saying I had an absolute blast! In case you hadn’t heard the event pitch yet, the purpose of Storytellers is to give newer players a chance to run some content of their own, while giving them the resources and help they need to see it happen. This weekend, there were five modules run over the course of the event, three of which were run by newer players and two of which were run by experienced event holders. I’ll cover them in order.
Friday Night: A Door that Must Be Opened, run by Dan H. (‘N’)
Friday night had a group of us head into a door found in the Castle Requiem. Said door took us to a pocket dimension filled with a number of unpleasant things, including some sort of entropic undead with the ability to rearrange their limbs, and a large creature we didn’t have the means to defeat. This resistance eventually forced us deeper into the dimension. While there, we were met with more entropic undead, a shadowy assassin, and a friendly statue which insisted on playing games with us, in exchange for giving us bits of writing which Pawldo knew how to read and were needed to get past a second door. Once we were past the second door, we met a small village who offered to help us and guided us to cultists of entropy. We were frozen in place while they offered us a place in entropy, but Tuilli was having none of it and quite effectively told the cultists where they could put their offer. Once we began to unparalyze, the villagers who had guided us to the cultists killed a few of us, but those of us that survived made short work of them. The main cultist stood inside a circle that protected him even from those of us who weren’t enchanted, but eventually Tuilli goaded him out of the circle and he didn’t last long from there. I’m sure I’m missing a few things, and if you want a more detailed accounting I’m sure Styx or Pawldo would be happy to talk about what they know.
Saturday Morning: A Favor for Calladen, run by Tom G. (Avendar)
Come Saturday morning, a number of our magically inclined friends found themselves drawn to a place out of curiosity to investigate something on the border of Calladen’s lands. They didn’t know what it was that drew them there, but When Calladen showed up to explain why we were all there, naturally we were all a bit on edge. He explained that someone in lands that neighbored his possessed an important artifact, and that he wanted us to go take it. Calladen didn’t want the artifact for himself, rather, he wanted to get it away from his lands. We agreed, though we retained a healthy dose of suspicion throughout the adventure. We began in a field where we needed to challenge undead to honorable combat to receive small clear stones which became important later. We eventually moved deeper into the forest, fighting more undead until we came to a small area. We set up a circle of the clear stones, and eventually, we had enough to attract the attention of the owner of the artifact we were sent to get. He said that only the most powerful was worthy to take it from him, and that the last person in the circle would be the one to challenge him for it. We eventually all cleared out of the circle for Aelias, though something tells me that they expected us to fight until one person came out on top. Aelias and the artifact bearer fought while we held off more undead, and eventually Aelias was victorious, but when he took the artifact, a staff with a blue orb at the top, he lost a large portion of his memories. Once we had retrieved the staff, we left the forest and spoke to Calladen once more. He offered a reward for our services, and Tuilli suggested gold and safe passage, which Calladen promised to grant the next time we were in his lands. I, again, unfortunately don’t know all the specifics, such as the name of the artifact bearer, but Aelias or Liselle would likely be able to tell you more if you wanted to know.
Saturday Afternoon: Rescuing and Escorting a Refugee to Sanctuary, run by Bri M. (Margaret)
Saturday afternoon we found ourselves in sanctuary, speaking to Elder Sanders, the Elder of Protection, and one of the leaders of sanctuary. He told us of a person who was trying to get to sanctuary, but for reasons unknown to him, unable to do so. Based on a dream Rosetta had and information Styx knew, we believed someone associated with the Devourer of Souls was the culprit. Elder Sanders sent us through a magic door to the far-away kingdom of Asteria, where we almost immediately ran into an… ahem, wealth reallocation specialist inside his own Circle of Protection, under attack from an undead creature. Once we saved him, he showed us a way to get into the castle we needed to get inside, through a sewer rigged with bells and containing a lot of bog beasts. Once we got out of the sewers, we were met with a host of undead guards, who were forcibly regenerating, so we began rendering them to make our lives easier. Little did we know that was only going to make things more difficult in the end. The undead were also dropping hematite rings and trinkets, which when touched to a silver weapon, allowed us to perform a “soul channel.” After we eventually pushed past all the undead, we finally found the person we were looking for, Princess Theofania Ainsley, locked in a cell behind numerous locks. Once we eventually opened, bypassed or destroyed all of the locks, we had to save the Princess’ pet unicorn, which had been corrupted to be undead and locked up in the next room over. After restoring the unicorn, we took the princess out of the dungeon with us. We were met by someone named Icarus and his host of undead minions. Icarus seemed to want the Princess’ father, King Oliver, to show himself, but we were there instead. Fern attempted to negotiate, but as they were speaking in beast the whole time, negotiations eventually broke down and fighting ensued. We had to kill and soul channel Icarus as many times as we had rendered undead over the course of the adventure, so it took a while, but we eventually defeated him and escorted the Princess back to Sanctuary. If you find yourself wanting more details about what went down in this adventure, Styx and N would likely be good places to start.
Saturday Night: Retrieving the Sunblade Silverlight from the Dark Isle, run by Ken C. (Celtrex)
Saturday night we were met by Sir Merric of the Silverlight. He told us that the sword of his order had been taken and was stuck in the Dark Isle, and he wanted us to retrieve it. He send a friend of his, named Shaft, in to make sure we stayed alive. We went to the Isle and found ourselves confronted by outrageously french vampire duck boat pirates who, coincidentally, happened to be a crew Fern was a part of. A very entertaining fight into the castle ensued with us fighting off waves of french vampire pirates and searching them for organs, which we needed to pass a puzzle. After that, we made our way deeper into the halls until we saw our target, the Sunblade Silverlight, sticking out of a rock, surrounded by seven glowing stones, with an additional barrier blocking our way. The first puzzle seemed to involve untangling a series of rocks tied to posts at the edge of the room. Once we made it to the glowing barrier, we heard in our minds that only one person would be able to take the sword. Some tried reaching through the barrier, only to lose their arms. The glowing stones also each had a rune inscribed on them, spelling out Dracula. We eventually disassembled the barrier through a combination of disenchant and fighter disenchant. Then, unsure what to do next, people tried pulling the sword. I was the fifth person to try, and much to my surprise, the sword moved when I tried to pull. With the sword safely in our possession, we made our way out of the castle and back to Sir Merric. I was entirely unprepared for what happened next. Upon returning the sword to Sir Merric, he asked who pulled the sword from the stone in the castle. Everyone pointed at me, and he asked me to kneel, and knighted me to the Knights of the Silverlight. I’m… still kind of reeling from that. He returned the sword to me, and when I touched it, I could feel that Shaft was evil and had been working against us. I told Shaft that he needed to leave. He seemed offended when I told him, but eventually, he said that he’d take his things and leave. That was when he pointed at Ryu, and she started walking towards him. Fern and I both immediately dropped Ryu, and Shaft became more insistent, raising Ryu while we dropped her repeatedly. Eventually, Sir Merric banished him, but both Shaft and Fern were holding onto Ryu, and all three of them disappeared. He grabbed me and teleported the two of us to where Shaft, Ryu and Fern were. Shaft and Merric spoke a lot, and Merric eventually cured Ryu’s thrall affliction, but at a great cost to himself. Fern and Ryu were sent back to the others, but I stayed behind and heard Shaft and Merric speak some more. Shaft claims he just wants to move into Dracula’s castle, but Merric doesn’t believe that’s the extent of his ambitions. In the meantime, I have a duty to prepare for our next confrontation. Both Tuilli and Aelias pledged to help me with this, and I cannot thank them enough for the support they gave me in the moment, and the support I know they’ll provide in the future. I’m glossing over some of the interactions here, if you ever want the full recounting, talk to Ryu and I sometime and we’ll be able to tell a much better story.
Sunday Morning: Testing New Coursework for the Wyvern College, run by Justin B.H. (Grarr), Kelly P. (Fern), and Zack E. (Tony)
When Sunday morning (“morning,” realms standard time) rolled around, we were greeted by Fern, sporting a Wyvern College tabard. Grarr also came up to meet us, and the two of them explained that some farmers nearby were in need of assistance due to some golems and spiders that had cropped up. They also wanted to use this opportunity to test out a new curriculum for student adventurers, and we all readily agreed to help out. They also provided a mobile apothecary and anvil for us to heal and repair our items over the course of the quest. We first ran into a set of two clockwork golems guarding a cave entrance. There was a puzzle at the entrance that Kovaks solved while we fought the golems. It took a little while to get their patterns and avoid their shattering strikes, but we eventually made our way into the cave and found ourselves confronted by a nest of spiders. Again, Kovaks worked on the puzzle while we fended off spiders. In the next area, there were a number of pressure plates which we had to drag heavy boulders onto and even place a defeated clockwork on one of them. Moving onto the next area, we had to throw rocks to hit targets while continuing to fend off the occasional spider and clockwork. Finally, we came upon a puzzle where we had to place objects and perform some actions representative of the glyphs seen on plates. Once we passed this puzzle, we fought our way back out of the spider cave and into a clearing, where we were confronted with the perfect final exam, which involved a large spider clockwork golem and smaller versions of puzzles we had done before that point. Eventually, we finally defeated the spider golem and made our way back home, debriefing with Fern along the way. Overall, I felt it was an excellent adventure and will make for a good curriculum for future student adventurers.
A lot happened this weekend, and I’m really glad I was able to stay for all of it. Despite the weather, each of the modules was a ton of fun and the newer plot runners all did an amazing job. I’m looking forward to seeing what each of them does next!
Griffin Hurana
Member of the Cerulean Company
Squire to Sir Tao Ya Kang
Knight of the Silverlight