Aersalus B-Team: Season 1, Session 8 – A Tree Grows In Wolftrap

Dramatis Personae

Previously . . .

With the party having come back into Wolftrap they are still getting their bearings as new problems arise and old problems persist.

Snaffles Part Two: The Rise of Myrk

Listens-to-Ocean, Unit Seven
The Edge of Wolftrap
Stonesday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 7th hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

With all the weighing and measuring done at the constabulary, Seven wanders around to find Listen, sitting in the lotus position in with stark white eyes and a small crab sitting on him. Seven and Myrk get into an argument about who gets to protect the magistrate and Myrk gets annoyed with Seven and refuses to elaborate on what happened with Listens, saying that Listens is perfectly fine. A modest insult later, Myrk acknowledges that he cannot take Seven in a straight fight so they’ll have to settle it the old-fashioned way and Myrk digs into the ground and a game board forms up from the earth with three different stacks of cards on it.

Seven is challenged to a game where if Seven wins then they get to protect Listens, if they lose then Myrk gets to protect Listens. Seven declines saying that gambling, or game playing, isn’t part of Seven’s duties. Seven also doesn’t feel like fighting Myrk either, and Myrk also declines to explain why Listens is in his current state either. Myrk does let slip that Listen’s soul isn’t currently in its body though and therefore Myrk is protecting it from something slipping in. Seven thanks Myrk for explaining, much to Myrk’s annoyance that he let slip what was happening. With that done, Seven stands on guard, pulling out a spear and honing the head of it, much to Myrk’s annoyance leading to a very uncomfortable silence that even Seven may notice. Seven questions why Myrk is unsatisfied and Myrk explains it’s because he’s bored and wanted to play a game. Myrk decides that he needs to help Seven understand humans, and that if he manages to do so then maybe Listens would take Myrk on as a spirit. He decides to teach Seven how to be a real boy, which Seven is unsure of.

First thing first, social interaction. Seven tries to say that social interactions could be a distraction from duties while Myrk claims that it could lead to its duties by noticing a danger which Seven concedes the point. Therefore, they need to play a game of cards. Myrk teaches Seven how to play it as they stand guard over Listens.

Bloodied Hands

Rhum
Three Arrows Inn
Stonesday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 7th hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Rhum is still in the inn, his hand bandaged up and Meiri has given him a slice of honey cake and keeps eying him from the other side of the bar, glaring at him with a mix of anger and anger-born-of-worry. Rhum enjoys the cake, looking over to Raito saying that at least they won’t be living next to something that is cursed, saying that the people have suffered long enough. Rhum thanks Raito for his aid with the tree stump, saying that he wasn’t expecting the bleeding from his hands when burying the branch.

It’s an unusually crowded day in the inn, getting neighbors’ children to serve and an old woman in the kitchen to cook. There’s plenty of refugees in the inn and when Rhum asks if Meiri needs anything, she says that she needs more food to serve which, once again, Rhum mentions that he’ll mention it to Trapper when he sees him. She thanks him and then tell him to get out, he’s taking up valuable table space, and then goes to shoo out other people. Raito mentions that Meiri is obviously sweet on Rhum, which slightly confuses Rhum. They head back to the constabulary, they find no one there as Listens is gone, Seven is out, and Trapper has left earlier so he sticks around to guard the prisoners.

A Constabulary of Constant Sorrow

Rhum
Constabulary
Stonesday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 8th hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Rhum longs for a certain kind of grass that could be threshed and turns into a food source, even if it doesn’t taste great. Raito mentions that this isn’t what he was supposed to be doing in the first place, that Raito was just supposed to be there to get buildings and structures repaired and get back on the road to the next location. Rhum notes that life is always complicated and shares that he owes a life debt to the Duke, which is why he’s working for the Duke. While Raito goes to get some drink or beer from the quartermaster, Rhum starts painting. A painting of what Rhum envisions Wolftrap looking at its height of prestige.

When the painting is finished, he heads back to the Three Arrows Inn.

Bloodied Hands

Rhum
Three Arrows Inn
Stonesday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 9th hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Rhum heads over to the kitchen entrance of the inn and knocks on the door. When he enters, there’s a bunch of kids moving food and the old woman cooking with a large pan or wok, tossing it around like it was nothing. Rhum smiles and nods looking at the sight and notes that Meiri is currently manning the bar getting payments. He walks up, asking Meiri where she wants the painting hung, not even asking if she wanted a painting. She’s amazed, saying that it looks pretty close to Wolftrap in its glory. She takes it from Rhum, replacing a picture from behind the bar which Rhum appreciates, saying that Wolftrap will eventually be like it again.

She stares at the portrait that she took down, a still-life of honeycombs and apples sitting on a table, it’s an old portrait, almost 20-25 years old, made from hand-mixed dyes. Rhum comments that whomever painted it knew what they were doing and that it wasn’t splashed haphazardly. She shares that he was an architect, not an artist really, sounding wistful enough that it’s obvious she’s speaking of her long-gone husband, saying that it may be time to take it down for good. She then shoos Rhum away again, threatening to hit him with a rolling pin. Rhum leaves through the kitchen, the old woman stops him for a moment and pours out a bowl of stew for Rhum before ordering the kids to work. Rhum thanks her and steps out, enjoying the stew. It’s a bit bitter at first and then very sweet afterwards. He makes his way back to the constabulary.

Clear as Water, Cold as Silver

Listens-to-Ocean
The Spirit World/Dogskull’s Encampment/The Pale Lake
Stonesday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 8th hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Listens is going fast, fast enough that he cannot perceive where he’s going other than knowing that he’s going fast, the scenery changing with each blink. Listens tries to figure out roughly how far they’re going and if there’s any major landmarks but it’s like he’s in ten places at the same time, perceiving and understanding everything in each of those places. He’s pretty sure they’re going fast enough that he’s 50-60 miles out of Wolftrap at the moment and still going. And then they stop moving and everything catches up all at once and now it’s all there immediately, he can feel bits of his spirit catching up to him.

He is currently outside of a rather large encampment and he’s able to notice that there seems to be some kind of protection on it that’s clear as day in the spirit world. Some kind of nasty green and black field. He also notes that Snaffles is somehow concealing him, though he is unsure how there’s definitely some kind of spiritual concealment occurring. It takes Listens a few moments before he realizes approximately where he’s at based on the maps of the area that he recalls. He sticks around for a half-hour, taking in the details of the local area trying to scout the best that he can. Looking at the field, it looks like witchcraft and either way they’re very talented and they’re using the spell with brute force, like someone running silverware through a garbage disposal to Listens’ ears. Something he notices is there isn’t just bandits there, there’s also civilians, children even. Around 30-50 of them at least.

He gets Snaffles to take him back to his body, with Snaffles commenting that the place is so bad. Listens laments that there’s children in the area. Snaffles asks if they’re going to have to kill all of them, which Listens isn’t too thrilled now that there’s children involved. Snaffles suggests asking a local spirit for help, technically a water spirit but she likes kids. Snaffles can take him to her, but Snaffles can’t guarantee Listen’s safety. Her nearest pond is only a couple strides from there and her name is Akachakh, the Lady of Silvered Waters.

Listens blurs again and it’s a bit more disorienting this time, like on a quickly accelerating airship. When done, Listens is standing at a very large lake with trees surrounding it, the water is almost like in large bowl. Snaffles is quite nervous, his paws turning to hands, rubbing them nervously as he leans into the water, whispering something to it before backing away quickly. Seconds, minutes go by and then the water start ringing clear as a bell. Water ripples from multiple locations and the sound becomes louder and louder and with each ripple it forms a melody and eventually the watery shape of a woman appears with indistinct features forms in the middle of the lake. She starts gliding, moving over the surface of the lake towards them, staring at Snaffles before questioning what he wants. Snaffles explains that he brought someone to treat with her, noting that it’s a shenin that appears to be a pretty good guy, an envoy to the fleshy world. Akachakh stares at Listens, getting closer to the shoreline without stepping on land, demanding to know what Listens wants.

He tells her that there’s a group of bandits that is nearby associated with one or more witches that may also be empowering a malevolent spirit, but there’s children in the camp and that Snaffles had suggested speaking to her. Listens cannot say they are in danger, but since they’re in the middle of a bandit camp surrounded by hostile magic. Akachakh notes that to kill is to survive, while Listens notes that the bandits are soon to be killed. Akachakh asks what Listens offers in return, he mentions that taking care of bandits would alleviate the strain in the local area but Akachakh isn’t buying it. Akachakh wants one of the children, but Listens says it isn’t his to offer but he can suggest one of them volunteers to go and says that considering their life it seems possible for one to volunteer. She demands collateral in that case, one of his eyes, saying she’ll give it back when he brings a child and in exchange she’ll take the children out wherever Listens wants them to go and he can do whatever is needed to their parents.

Listens weighs his choices, they’ve got only 20-ish able bodied fighters back at Wolftrap compared to the bandit’s 30-50, it’s likely that a lot of people will die from what Listens can think of. Listens accepts the spirit’s offer and he moves closer to the spirit who brings a hand to Listens’ shoulder before plucking an eye from his soul saying the bargain is sealed. She goes to leave before Listens calls his, saying that they’re also trying to get the hostile spirit to go back to sleep. She says that’s a whole other deal and leaves when Listens says he doesn’t have anything else to offer. Listens notes that it’s surprising that Akachakh didn’t want to deal with Mama Blood, but that’s because Mama Blood doesn’t bother the spirits too much, especially those in the deep. Snaffles mentions feeling like a jerk because Listens doesn’t have an eye anymore which Listens doesn’t mind too much as they head back.

Providing for Wolftrap

Trapper
Outside of Wolftrap/The Three Arrows Inn
Stonesday, Zhven 19th, 2,981 Fourth Reckoning, 10th hour of the Sun
Wolftrap, Western Span

Trapper, working on the trapline, manages to have somehow snagged some hogs with bristly fur in small snares and deadfalls. Tessikai keeps gathering random edibles, flowers, other things. She explains how she discovered she had a healing gift when a bird flew into the side of a building and she started crying over it and it became better. She isn’t too sure if she wanted to become a healer as she thinks that just wandering around would be better. They’ve found around 4 hogs for a total of 400 lbs. of food so they stop by the berry patch on the way back, the one surrounded by copses of dead trees. They gather berries as Tessikai tries to teach Trapper a working song, gathering a large amount of cloud berries.

They head back into town, there’s still plenty of people there with Kohana leading people to work. Trapper hauls the boars back to the constabulary to butcher them, noticing there’s something wrong with the hide, that it’s far too thick for a boar and underneath the epidermis there’s weird follicles underneath like a single piece of straw. Tessikai notes that it’s weird as well but Trapper is more concerned about getting the meat to Meiri and the hides to Toragana. Meiri actually answers, asking Trapper to haul it downstairs since Meiri threw out her back serving customers. They haul it downstairs, the meat he brought it a few days ago already gone. Meiri going out to get some water and some lye soap to clean their hands. She’s concerned about the food situation and people are getting desperate. She offers, once more, to pay for any meat he can bring in. She gives him money for the boars he brought in but he asks for honey instead, she ends up giving him a large jar almost half his size, hugging Trapper and kissing the top of his head before demanding he leave. Tessikai immediately grabs the jar and heads out back to the constabulary despite Trapper demanding she leave it. Sighing, Trapper leaves the money on the table and heads out to take the hides to the tanner.

Aftermath

Trapper greets Toragana, making sure their deal is still in place, which it is. Apparently everything that Trapper brings by is good for business, she even offers Trapper a small cart to use instead of the sledge he has been. She takes a look at the hides, saying that they’re baby razortusk boars, identifiable by the strange nodules in the fur they noticed earlier.

That’s when screaming starts, and a animal-like bellowing can be heard so loud that it echoes throughout the town.

After Action Report (GM)

This was a session that felt very fast, took a while, and utterly enjoyed. One thing I keep saying over and over and over to my players (and other invested folks) is that there is time to get it right. We’re going to get it right. So no push, no major plot plans, just…players acting on the course of events as we collectively form the narrative. Now this doesn’t mean that a plot will not eventually form – long-term games tend to have that happen unless you try REALLY hard not to let it. But I want it to be collaborative. I want the players to tell me and I want to tell them. This game already feels like that and I really can’t wait to get deeper in this same way with the other teams.

I feel there is a certain level of tension that must be applied when running a game. You don’t put them in a boilermaker scenario (though that CAN be fun and IS one of my preferred methods of motive push). But a slack in the tension…and then ramping it up again can result in some truly profound moments when telling a story. Not everything must be balls to the wall now now now…sometimes the lack of tension is a tension all its own.

World Lore Tidbit (Ceremonial Handwashing)

In Aersalus, there are some acts that are performed in both a ceremonial and non-ceremonial manner. In this session we got to see one of those. The Warborn were born of blood and conflict and when the Giant’s Rebellion had finally ended, the Old Gods declared them free of the tethers that bound them to their service. In return, the archons (divine servitors), allied spirits, etc. washed the hands of the Warborn who were still left alive cleaning them physically of dirt, grime, and blood as well as spiritually. In current day, the act of washing your own hands regularly is a common practice (which in turn does lower disease transmission to some degree). It is a way to renew the self of flesh and the self of spirit. When another washes your hands it can mean they are grateful to you (or something you did) and are showing it by an act of humility. It can also mean that the one who is cleaning you is absolving you of a deed or deeds by taking it onto themselves. Of course, the powerful elite often force their servants to perform gizii’injii (ceremonial handwashing) as a show of power and prestige.

Other Notes

Bonus Report from Rory.

Soundtrack

“The Horror and the Wild” by The Amazing Devil

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