Aersalus B-Team: Season 1, Session 10 – Run Razor Run

Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

The PCs begin to formulate their plan and get ready to end the menace of Dogskull and his bandits on the town of Wolftrap.

A Final Communion of Spirits

Listens-to-Ocean
The Edge of Wolftrap
Watersday, Zhven 20th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 1st hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

The de facto leader of Wolftrap, Kohana, is outside when Listens gets up to speak with him. Kohana informs Listens that he’s concerned about the number of mouths to feed, which Listens is also concerned about as they look at the full jail cells. Listens claims that they’ve been too busy tracking down bandits and their stronghold to hold trials and executions. Listens hopes that he’ll have things done in the next few days. Kohana note that there’s no other magistrate in the town and Kohana mentions that the missives have said that there’ll be even more people coming from the Duke to settle in the area.

While doing his morning devotions Listens announces to the spirits his plans to create a blizzard on top of the bandit camp to keep things contained as well as mentions they may be fighting witches and that things could get nasty. Upon mentioning the first thing, Listens gets the feeling that the spirits really don’t like the idea of a snowstorm occurring. The spirits do, however, seem to want the dark spellcasters taken care of, though they cannot tell him if it the spellcasters are in league with Mama Blood. It does, however, attract the feathery fish again which Listens offers even more of the spirit resin they located in the Warborn cache.

Bear….Trapper

Trapper
The Constabulary/Jori Vanhatalo’s Stitchery
Watersday, Zhven 20th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 1st hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Trapper has finally lived up to his name and got some stoneshapers working to get some traps set up overnight, resulting in a good dozen bandits falling into various pit traps injuring legs. With all the new prisoners, they’ve had to stoneshape some rough stone jail cells outside the constabulary.

Trapper investigates the bandits’ possessions, sniffing at some of the herbals they’ve got which smells like wet mud and wilted grass. Resisting his curiosity to drink it, he puts their belongings with the other bandits. Instead, he heads out to see how his bear hide armor is coming along, walking along he notices a large amount of weirlights that look like magical lanterns, globes of glass with light within. They’re covered with intricate knots and tied up so they look like giant tear drops. Walking around, he can see the lights of them in the distance, easily, something they use to just combat the darkness as the season turns to Winter.

Trapper continues to head towards Jori to investigate how she’s doing with the bear hide. She’s outside asking if he got her message. Apparently the armor was done recently and she just sent a message to alert him. When asking if she got the measurements right, she gets a thousand-yard stare before saying she got it taken care of. When asked about the payment, she stares at his midsection as though she wants to say something before deciding against it, noting that they’ll settle up later. She heads inside, with Trapper following behind her, noticing several drawings on the wall with circles and glyphs and questions about what is the personal pocket. When Trapper notes that she’s been busy, she turns to Trapper and moves him to have his back against the wall covered with madness before presenting the armor.

It’s one of the best gremian armors he has seen, even better than some of the armsmaster armors. He thanks Jori profusely who mentions that it even has pockets before getting the thousand-yard stare again and saying there’s pockets everywhere. He pays her with an uncut ruby and makes sure she seems alright, which she doesn’t. He makes a note to speak with Listens later to see if he can help her.

With It Or On It

Rhum
The Three Arrows Inn
Watersday, Zhven 20th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 3rd hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Rhum, meanwhile, does his morning routine to get the blood flowing by chopping wood, putting on a travois, and taking it to the inn so they have enough wood for the day. He ensure that either Meiri, or the old woman, has enough wood for the day before he heads off to find the magistrate. He locates Listens communing with the spirits, the feathered fish swimming around Listens’ head and wafting through the burning spirit resin, completely ignoring Rhum’s presence. Once Listens is done with the meditation, he tells Listens they’ve got time-sensitive things to take care of and that Unit Seven has disappeared, asking if Listens sent him out scouting again. Listens, however, notes that Seven should be at the constabulary. Rhum mentions they’ve got way too many bandits and Listens informs Rhum that they don’t have quite enough time for holding a trial until after the bandits stronghold has been taken care of. Rhum decides he needs some more to eat and heads towards the inn again to get food after Rhum notes that Raito has said that Meiri was into him and Listens explains what that means. On the way back to the inn, he stops by the constabulary to see if Unit Seven is present, which it isn’t.

Back at the inn, Meiri is up and moving around like she normally is in the morning, glaring at Rhum over the wood he brought her. He explains that he chops wood, making sure they she has enough to do what she needs to do. The inn is the heartbeat of the town and needs enough wood to do what they need to take care of. He has enough wood himself, now she needs some. He asks Meiri if she’s seen Unit Seven wandering around, which she hasn’t. He asks for something light and to-go. He mentions he will have to leave, to go for a fight against bandits, which seems to worry Meiri.

She tells him to follow her upstairs, up to the third floor, having to get in there by a ladder into the attic. He notes that it’s one of her personal areas, and she says it’s where her husband’s stuff is. Rhum mentions if he’d arrived sooner, he’d have liked to have met her husband. She starts looking for things in the attic, finding a large trunk which she asks for his help with since it’s just a really large and heavy steamer trunk. She rummages around inside, and he sees an actual drawn picture in a very good hand of Meiri much younger looking rather pretty next to a giant looking man, well over seven feet tall and built like a brick house. He compliments the drawings, with her telling him softly that her son drew them. They bought back memories, and that he had true talent. She takes the picture from him and stuffs it deep into the trunk before pulling out a large flat object in an oil canvas which notes was prepared for travel overseas. She says that during the war, not much came back.

She’s quiet as she looks at it before unlacing the side of it. She reveals a large shield, a very big one. She looks at it and then at Rhum and then wordlessly hands it over to him. It’s in very good condition and made out of metal. He notes that it isn’t decorative and that it’s good. She says that her husband had it made, he was often chosen for the militia in the area. Good fighter, good people, someone that didn’t really like fighting but he had some kind of gift for it. He wanted to be a sculptor instead. Rhum notes that the man had the heart of a taura, someone that dislikes fighting but knows violence when he needs to. He suspects that Listens may be similar to that, but he has his doubts about Trapper, calling him a mysterious little Gremian. She tells him to get going and come back alive, she needs someone to chop the wood before she marches off. He removes his shield, leaving it behind and hefts the one that she had given him. Downstairs, she already has a packet of food wrapped up and ready to go, but she isn’t present, she’s in the back doing something. He takes the food and heads back to the constabulary with the shield out and on his arm.

Snaffles Part Three: The Missing Cog

Listens-to-Ocean, Trapper
The Edge of Wolftrap
Watersday, Zhven 20th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 4th hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Back at the constabulary, Seven is not present. Listens suggests splitting up, looking for Seven for an hour before coming back to the constabulary. Trapper nods and then shoves an herbal under his nose telling him to smell it and asks him what it is. It takes Listens a moment to try to identify it, noting it’s some kind of a combat boosting potion with a really nasty side effect, Listens suggests not using it. Trapper also suggests that Listens takes a look at Jori since she seems to be going mad, and not the good type of mad either. They follow Trapper’s lead who tracks Seven’s tracks to the edge of the forest and then. . . it’s gone. There’s a slight scuff in front of one of the footprints where it looks like he hesitated for a moment before stepping onto something that they cannot see. Listens looks with his spirit vision, noticing Seven’s footprints continuing onwards through the forest. It seems that Seven has somehow managed to go into the spirit world. Listens attempts to call a spirit, and they hear something in the tree above them.

They hear the sound of laughter, and looking up is a rather large, fat squirrel about the size of a gremian, wearing robes. He tells them to be careful who they call, anyone could show up. The squirrel says he could tell them where Seven went but won’t. Even if he was given some of the spirit resin. Trapper points out that even if the squirrel did say he’d tell them, it’d be vague and unhelpful which the squirrel admits is true. Listens says they should head back to the constabulary while the squirrel tells them to wait, he never said he wouldn’t help them. Apparently, he was tasked with helping them by the spirits but won’t say how they’re meant to help and refuses any idea that Listens proposes.

Trapper just says to say screw it and they should get the cart and dress the servant as a bandit. Drag the cart there with barrels filled sawdust and traps. Listens prepares to cast spells, taking some of the bullets from Trapper’s prodd and enchanting them along with some of Listens’ throwing knives. He casts a few more echoes on top of them as well, preparing for battle. Trapper, meantime, gets some barrels of sawdust and inserts several clockwork claymores in them with trigger line to the tops. He also interrogates the bandits to determine if there’s any security or what they need to do when dropping off loot. The bandit says there’s no security or anything, they normally just go in, which is when the bandit complains about not feeling good and starts bleeding from the nose and mouth. It seems that they may be cursed if they talk about the camp, something that Listens cannot dispel. The other bandits seem to be quite quiet about the fates, though it’s obvious they’re rather disturbed by what happened and really want to speak.

With them ready, they cram themselves on the cart while the squirrel gets ready, doing a half hour of loony tunes calisthenics until Trapper pulls out a peach, telling the squirrel that the sooner they get to the bandit camp, the more peach will be left. He finally decides to help, pulling the cart for five steps before complaining about it being hard and demanding half the peach first. Trapper starts taking a bite and the Squirrel finally starts moving them, incredibly fast as the group hangs on for dear life.

The Battle of the Kennel

Listens-to-Ocean, Rhum, and Trapper
Dogskull’s Encampment
Watersday, Zhven 20th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 4th hour of the Sun
The Westroad, Western Span

Once a few hundred yards from the bandit camp, in cover, he demands the peach, which Trapper finishes taking a bite from and throwing the rest to the squirrel afterwards as part of the deal. Trapper also notes that he still hasn’t followed what the powers that be said to be helpful, to which the squirrel finally groans and tells them to hold hands, reciting a rhyme that causes all of them to glow green before he crawls up into a tree to sleep, but not before telling Listens to learn how to speak to spirits from Trapper.

They approach the gate, staying far enough away to keep more or less hidden while the Servant hauls the cart to the gate, a guard questioning them with the servant miming that they can’t speak due to an injured throat. Some of them seem to be fighting about opening the gate or not and if the Servant, disguised in the bandit’s armor and hooded and bandaged to hide its obvious. . . corpse-like appearance. They don’t want to open the gate, but the Servant makes a gesture to look it over and stomps off. One of the bandits climbs down a ladder and checks over the barrels, finding the trap inside with his face as clockwork claymores go off into it, launching sawdust into the air. As the bandit turns back towards the group to say he found something with his face bleeding, a fire cage bolt is shot from the distance into the cloud of sawdust creating a powder explosion, the bandit next to the cart is still up, but bleeding and burning.

The Servant starts to run along the wall, attempting to block arrows from the wall while drawing arrow fire, the one injured bandit trying to walk but falls down unconscious. Somehow the group is spotted and the group start glowing another aura of green-ish black. They start to fire at Rhum who parries the first missile. Trapper starts moving, getting behind cover, managing to shoot a bandit in both arms. Listens heads behind the same tree as Trapper for cover. Rhum readies his shield and preps the echoes before charging straight for the burning gate, slamming into it with his new shield, tearing through the gate like it was burning paper with a bellow as he goes into a rage, mentally stunning each bandit present.

The Servant of Bones scales a wall as the bandits slowly break from their mental stun. Trapper cripples the arm of one the bandits and knocks out another. Listens calls for The Lady of Silver Waters, Akachakh, and starts singing a spell at the same time. Rhum charges up boxes, dealing a whirlwind attack to a group of bandits, chopping the first in half through the abdomen, the second dodges, and the third gets his feet sliced off while Rhum takes more damage from a spell.

The Servant kicks the bandit it’s next to, knocking the bandit down to the ground. The bandits start attacking, shields being used, and someone throws a firebomb at Rhum’s head, setting it aflame and throwing the Taura off balance while another bandit misses and shoots his friend in the junk and Rhum in the thigh, causing him to drop his weapon. Trapper, noticing that one of the bandits is currently staring hard at Rhum, decides he doesn’t like that and hits him in the face with a boffin bolt, knocking him out. Listens throws his elemental blast at a bandit in the courtyard of the stronghold, knocking him to the side as Rhum regains his balance.

Rhum continues to take weird damage while the Servant of Bones kicks yet another bandit off the catwalk. Rhum keeps blocking arrows and even manages to knock a bandit off the catwalk with a shield bash. As he keeps fighting with the shield, he finds it incredibly responsive, almost as though it were responding to his thoughts. The Servant dodges an arrow, jumping down onto a bandit it kicked off earlier, knocking him out while dodging more arrows. Trapper, annoyed at being shot at, climbs the tower and knocks out the last bandit up there before taking refuge behind a table. Inside the bandit hideout, water starts flowing out of buckets, wells, rooms, taking on a silvery sheen before exploding outwards and all the non-combatants disappear. Listens starts looking for a target as he sings elemental blast again. Rhum, back on balance, starts charging his nearest opponent, grabbing the bandit, jumping up into a tower, and slamming another bandit with one in his hands, knocking out of them while the last jumps from the tower to avoid being hit by Rhum.

Rhum keeps taking weird damage from somewhere while the Servant of Bones jumps onto the bandit next to it, managing to hit him. One bandit faints while the one that just jumped from the tower takes some time to stand up. Trapper, moving from cover, takes out another bandit’s pelvis knocking them out and then sends another boffin bolt to the back of another bandit’s skull causing a kayo. Listens throws his elemental blast, missing his target. Rhum runs back down the tower and catwalk, grabbing his axe on the way and swinging at his opponent, severing arms. He sees a man appearing from nowhere in front of him wearing a large canine skull, pointing at Rhum and saying die with Rhum keeling over on the ground. Trapper drops a prodd bullet into Dogskull’s pelvis, which actually manages to damage the bandit, while the boffin to the face misses. Listens casts Chill on Dogskull, using his fate against Dogskull, ripping the stamina from the boss bandit with the sheer power of it. Upon dropping, a funky black cloud pours from Dogskull’s skin and even unconscious the bandit is screaming as parts of the bandit’s tattoos start breaking from his body forming a dark figure, filling Listens with dread, almost like it’s looking down before looking at Trapper, Listens, and the Servant and fleeing.

Listens starts moving quickly towards the Taura, trying not to look like he’s panicking. Listens attempts to cast Halt Death on their large friend. A quicker inspection reveals that he’s not dead yet so Trapper is pouring his mending potions down Rhum’s throat and screaming for the squirrel and screaming about the green aura not being any help at all only for the squirrel to reveal that it may have just been a simple light spell. The squirrel finally acquiesces and takes Trapper’s hand before placing a hand on Listens’ shoulder, feeding the healer Trapper’s power while Listens heals Rhum. His body is healed, but he’s still unconscious. The squirrel leans in saying that the spirit is wandering and demands another peach from Trapper who just stares at him before checking his personal pocket for some, pulling out a few and handing the squirrel a single one. It devours the flesh of the peach and slams the stonefruit in the center into Rhum’s forehead with a crack, protecting Rhum’s body until the spirit returns. The squirrel then orders the bandits to gather and spiritually hogties Dogskull.

With that taken care of, Trapper picks out a nice cart to replace the one that he blew up before looking around. There’s not a lot of valuable items in the camp compared to the treasures in the stash. There are two books, one of which is an annotated volume on dark magic. Barely an hour of searching later the water comes back, bringing the women and the children back with the Lady of the Silver Water. She tells Listens that she did her part before looking towards a 2-year old toddler, the spirit saying that she wants them. Listens insists that the child must volunteer and tries to speak to the barely 1.5 year old child while Trapper wants to know what is going on and by whose authority he’s giving away a child. Listens isn’t too thrilled with Trapper questioning things and says to let him speak with the child as he reads the kid’s aura. He tries to explain to the kid that their mommy isn’t around anymore and they may need to go to orphanage or the scary spirit. The child manages to babble out that it doesn’t want to go with the spirit. Listens turns the spirit down, saying that it’s not a good spirit, that the spirits it knows wouldn’t act like that. Her visage changes, her face growing sunken and white as it turns on Listens, attempting to frighten the hauflin. He stands ready, looking around him, seeing those around, the bloodshed, the prone body of Rhum, the Servant of Bones ready to attack, and Trapper eying the women and children for shackles.

Listens calls for his father as the Lady of the Silver Waters has tried to renege on her deal. He coalesces out of the air and Listens explains what is happening to his father. The spirit sneers at Listens and so does his father. The spirit tells the father they have no power there before the father says that she must forget whose son they are. She goes full banshee again, not towards Listens. The father starts to drive off the spirit, allowing her to keep Listen’s eye to teach him a lesson, and when driven off she squeezes the eye to dust and drops it to the ground. Trapper cannot quite believe what he’s seeing, the fact that Listens seems to think that there’s good and bad spirits out there. Myrk can’t believe that Listens would try to sell a kid. And Listens’ father is disappointed that Listens made such a deal to ruin the reputation. Listens tries to insist that he put in the safety net that she wouldn’t get the kid if she wasn’t a good spirit only for his father to shake his head and rip off a strip of cloth from his clothing and bandaging Listens’ eye.

His father notes that the fort stinks of dark magic as Listens tries to explain that the bandits were likely in league with a bad spirit, or at least he thoughts so, and that the bad spirit managed to get away. His father tells him to do better next time. His father speaks to the Servant of Bones, asking who its master is who points towards Trapper. He kneels down in front of the Gremian, noting that it’s weird, noticing the Gremian’s marks, the glyphs, the tattoos, and then the mention of being chosen by the old gods of the Arkon-Ha, at least five gods. The god of death guiding one hand, the god of war guiding the other, and his heart being guided by the god of justice. Trapper is not amused by the comments. The father still looks towards the Gremian and speaks with Trapper, asking him to protect his son. Trapper finally acquiesces that he’ll protect Listens for as long as he can, as long as he stops doing stupid things.

His father investigates Dogskull, looking at the tattoos, literally ripping his clothing from the bandit’s body, surprised by the sheer amount of power that would have been needed to bind the spirit to the body. Placing a hand on Dogskull, waterfire rips through the bandit’s body, purifying and sealing the bandit’s powers, revealing that the man made a pact, that his soul is claimed by hell and when the bandit dies, they will take it. The father then heads over to the Taura and looks at Rhum, commenting that it’s not terrible work, rather sloppy even. He looks towards the squirrel and the squirrel looks back, greeting each other. He moves back to the center, looking at all the people, asking if he shows a secret if they’ll keep it which they agree to. The father starts casting a very powerful spell, which Listens knows what he’s doing but the sheer amount of power that the father is using is not something that Listens is able to accomplishment. Gathering up the bandits and shrinking them, placing them in a blue-jade box and depositing them inside before handing the box to Listens and saying they need to move 8 miles in a certain direction. He instructs the servant to move Rhum until they can get him on the wagon. The servant tries to move the wagon, only for the Squirrel to start noticing and trying to show himself as actually being helpful, telling Trapper to inform Listens’ father that he was quite helpful. Trapper informs the father that the squirrel wanted him to tell the father that the squirrel was being helpful, which mildly annoys the squirrel.

An Ancient Gate

Listens-to-Ocean, Rhum, and Trapper
The Westroad/The Grotto of the Windgate
Watersday, Zhven 20th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 10th hour of the Sun
The Westroad, Western Span

They head out the eight miles slowly but surely, with the father telling embarrassing stories about Listens causing the women and the children to laugh. The location they’re heading is a cave they don’t even notice at first, a kind of fissure in the ground that Listens is able to see as a set of stairs heading downwards while Trapper isn’t seeing quite the same thing. While descending, Listens shows his father the scrying orb from the warborn vault.

His father is quite surprised, wanting to know where they got it from. His father takes off his surjacket and wraps the orb in it, making sure to inform Listens that no one else can know about it, to tell the Duke that he was mistaken about it. That it cannot be claimed from Listens as long as he doesn’t give it away. He then asks who touched the orb first, to which Listens says it was Rhum, not remembering that he had shoved Trapper out of the way to touch it himself after Trapper investigated it. They explain the order of things, revealing that it belongs to Trapper due to him having dusted it off. He gives a bunch of vague and mysterious warnings, saying not to use it, not to expose it, not to say anything about it, never give it to anyone else because it may draw attention. Trapper can’t imagine why one would really want to use it despite Listens’s insistence that it would be fun to use.

They go further inside the cave until they see a weird indentation on the ground, almost disc-shaped. Listens’ father runs his hand around the disc, and a rumbling and humming starts before the sound of rushing wind happens. The center of the disc starts opening up, showing the area where the razortusks attacked. Listens is able to tell that it’s a windgate, the transportation portals of Aersalus made by the firstborn. Listens wants to know how to make them work, despite his father saying it may make his head explode before shutting it down and making him repeat things, taking injury as he attempts to do it, slicing into Listens’ soul. The father opens the portal again, herding the women and children through, then Listens and Trapper, and then the Father along with the Servant carrying Rhum.

Aftermath

They’re now back just outside of Wolftrap and the father makes sure they get them to the constabulary, summoning a building from the earth next to the constabulary and attaches it to the existing building, the two buildings merging. He shares some words with Listens, checks on Rhum, and speaks with Trapper.

Listens asks him about the feathered fish, the spirit of the place that Listens cannot hear, noting that he cannot remember what the spirit said. The father tells Listens that it’s because he wasn’t listening. He tells Listens that the spirit, Misah, was specifically the spirit of the harbor beneath the cliffs, along the shoreline. The father looks around, noting that the town took a huge hit, with Listens saying that hopefully things will look up with the bandits gone and the spirits away. Tessikai is rather happy to see them, wondering who all the people are. Trapper insists that they’re prisoners, accessories to the bandits, even the 2 year old. Tessikai is insistent that they aren’t prisoners and takes them inside to feed them while Trapper gives the squirrel the rest of the peaches, who insists they need to do something for Trapper much to his annoyance when the squirrel touches his forehead and then his new armor. Listen’s father walks off towards the cliff where Listens normally does his morning meditations and disappears, leaving behind a large kani crystal shaped like a waterspout.

After Action Report (GM)

This was the first really summation of the first main storyline for B-Team. There are some things I know I wish I had done better. First, those:

• I feel like I dropped the ball when it came to powers in a lot of ways. This team really showed me how and what I needed to do for refinement, I just wish it had not been necessary.
• I did not keep track of time as well as I would have liked. It was good enough, but not where it should be in my opinion.
• I was at a genuine loss for what to do with Unit 7. Part of that is because the player’s work schedule requires we shove in lots of spotlight time when he’s there and I have failed him numerous times on that part. However, we’ve been working on ways to shore that up and I feel like going forward we’ll have less of this issue or none at all.
• I came up with a good format for intersession notes…about 3 sessions ago. That. Is. Annoying.
• I was not as prepared for random bits and bobs as I would have liked. I need to create some actors for the VTT for random NPCs: townsfolk, bandits, etc.
• I was not as familiar with the VTT as I would have liked. That will change. It’s on the List of Tasks(TM).

Here are some things I feel I did well:

• I really was pleased with the characterization of a lot of the NPCs. I felt like I brought them alive with their own wants, feelings, and idiosyncrasies.
• I was mostly pleased by the various setting pieces the PCs ventured into, on, etc. The descriptions of these things was a marked improvement on my GMing chops.
• I was overall happy I was able to keep up with work, the other teams, etc. without falling too far behind.
• I was very pleased with the pacing. It felt right. It wasn’t rushed. It moved how it was supposed to once we found the right tempo and I have so missed this feeling.

Overall, there were several really great moments during this session. The giving of Palander Liikanen’s shield to Rhum. The bit towards the end with Listen’s father. Rhum breaking down the encampment’s gate and seemingly dying a warrior’s death. The entire interaction with The Tanár Ajidamo (the squirrel spirit). The moments between the Servant of the Bones and Trapper. How Listen’s player had me damn near utterly fooled with his intentions. All of it. We wrapped up good and I was so proud of all my players right then. This was a game I’ll be talking about for years. It was that good. It was that fun.

Finally, the players get to spend their hard-won XP and we get to do a intersession chat about where the PCs will be going next.

Also! The Squirrel Spirit’s Song:

Come along, let’s help today,
Gather nuts the squirrel’s way!
Under trees and through the leaves,
Fill our baskets, if you please.

Acorns here and walnuts there,
Gather nuts from everywhere!
In a pile, we’ll sort them neat,
Crunchy treasures, such a treat.

Help the squirrel, don’t delay,
Winter’s coming, time to play!
Working hard and having fun,
Gather nuts ’til we’re all done!

World Lore Tidbit (The Windgates)

The Firstborn (they have other names, but that can wait for another installment!) were the first non-spirit beings on Aersalus. They are older than even the Old Gods and count only the Creator, the Living Waters, the Triunity, and the Notes as their seniors. The Firstborn were made for a specific purpose: they were to help populate and tend Aersalus. To help them do this they created the windgates, portals linking to other locations using the power of Deep Magic. Now, this might seem a standard fantasy trope…but it’s not. In Aersalus, only spirits and spirit-adjacent beings can travel near that fast. And even then, there are limits. Instantaneous travel is simply not possible for everyone but the Firstborn and to do that they had to create tools (the gates) with multiple other of their kind to do so. A windgate looks like a concave depression in the ground/floor/etc. Think of it as a kind giant contact lens shaped structure. It’s made of a form of kani crystal that has never been seen before outside of a windgate and many theorists believe that there are no such crystals of that type anymore. Along the edges are (VERY) slight grooves to activate it. This requires that the outside of the gate be traced in a very specific way. Imagine, running your fingers along the edges of a wine glass – doing so creates a harmonic vibration/sound. The same principle is at work in the case of windgates. Activation of the gate requires knowing the right frequency. It also requires a tremendous will (and this was why Listens-to-Oceans failed) to activate. Once active, the two physical spaces are now one for all intents and purposes until the one who activated it ceases to concentrate. Every windgate ever found (and there are maybe two or three dozen at most) all go to and from one location. Rumors persist of windgates that can go to any of the others or that there is some legendary “hub” that has yet to be discovered. Regardless, windgates are highly guarded, kept secret by those who possess them, and can command fortunes for their use by their owners.

Other Notes

Bonus Report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin

Aersalus B-Team: Season 1, Session 12 – The Road to Ironhaul