Question about Cineris. How long ago did the humans take over the western part and cause the divide in factions? Has it been generations or just a few years? Would anyone remember the "good ol' days?'

So far, only locations from session 1 have made it into the repo.

Key NPCs

• Dril, the silent partner, scales in the dark
• The Silver Mask, Root Stoneshaper's chief handler
• Petra Bladebender, an atificer

Key locations

• The Burnt Turtle, a Soma bar in the Soma Ring of the elvish forest
• The Outer Ring, the thickening, blasted ring of used Soma trees around the dwindling elvish forest
• Portia, wasteland dwarves' capital and trade city

Key events

• Wally, unaccustomed to Soma and dreading the prospect of confronting Petra, becomes intoxicated and passes out at the Burnt Turtle. Maik agrees to watch him for the group.
• The party leaves the Burnt Turtle and establishes a key-phrase to encrypt their conversations on the red shard crystals ahead of their mission to find Petra in the Outer Ring.
• The party travels to the Outer Ring on horse back, using Faelin's Astral Eyes spell and Psalt's Scout Sprite spell to locate Petra's cup-shaped hiding place high up in a blasted nodule of a spent Soma tree.
• It seems like there's a small, contained fire in the hiding place and a fuzzy area that messes with its observer's vision somehow.
• Psalt also discovers 2 elvish sentries guarding the tree.
• The party stops out of sight of Petra's tree, and Kilvar uses his Messenger spell to summon a giant millipede to deliver his blue crystal shard to Petra. The millipede makes it past the sentries.
• Kilvar sends a clear-text message to Dril, potentially giving Petra and her networks Dril's name.
• Kilvar uses "Gotnafiskr" to get Petra's true name from the Silver Mask, communicating with the Silver Mask over the red crystal shard network.
• Using the blue crystal shard network, Faelin opens negotiations with Petra, sending a key-phrase encrypted with her true name and then implying that the party will take what it wants from her unless she deals with them.
• Petra tells the story of the hunter in the dark and demands Faelin's true name before calling off her sentries. Faelin shares his true name, potentially sharing it with Petra's other networks, as well.
• Kilvar and Ob go into stealth and begin flanking Petra's tree.
• Petra agrees to meet the group up the tree in the cup-shaped nodule she's using as a hideout. She wants to be free of Root forever, and is willing to deal or die to achieve that goal. She says, "Root is not what you think."
• Kilvar knocks out one of the sentries.
• Psalt calls in a Shard Spike from Dril on the blue crystal shard network. They party hears the sound of a marble shattering.
• Ob knocks out the other sentry.
• The party rendezvous at the base of Petra's tree and climbs to her hiding place.
• The party finds Petra under a a kind of curtain or tarp made of overlapping rows of small crystals that seem to reflect, together, whatever they face.
• Petra has been gravely wounded by the Shard Spike. Believing that the party is there to kill her, she whispers, "He's not Aarok," before casting Meld to phase down through the floor of the cup and fall to her death at the base of the tree.
• Ob searches Petra's body, taking scale mail, a shard, and a rag he later discovers to be the schematics for the crystal artifact.
• Kilvar kills and searches a sentry, staging the body and recovering a bow and arrows, some gold, and a crystal.
• Psalt interrogates the remaining living sentry, extracts his true name to ensure coöperation, and frees him.
• The party destroys the crystals Petra and the sentries were using after Psalt determines they belong to a network of 9-10 mercenaries in the Soma Ring.
• Before going back to Portia, the party collects Wally and resupplies.
• On the road to Portia, Psalt tries to deal with Dril, who is upset the party is also working for Root. Dril wants the artifact and its plans and has promised double the original reward for the mission, but is clearly upset about Root and impatient for the party to declare for one patron or the other.
• Also on the way back to Portia, Faelin lies to the Silver Mask to buy time with Root, saying that Petra escaped and the party needs to resupply before pursuing her again. The Silver Mask buys it.
• The party decides to work for Dril and tosses its red crystal shards into Ob's Shadow Cache.
• The session ends at the safe-house with the party reflecting on its experiences and figuring out how best to proceed with Dril.

Key understandings

• Petra would have done anything to never see Root again.
• Petra had a working prototype of the designs she stole.
• Petra created a kind of crystal, camouflage mesh that reflects what it "sees."
• Petra quotes: "Root is not what you think he is," and, "He is not Aarok."
• Aarok is known among living wasteland dwarves as the boogeyman who holds a child's hand to the fire when they goof around in a parent's workshop.
• Infosec matters on missions, but can also lead to creative solutions combined with characters' play.
• It's important to agree on key-phrases before they're needed and to use them for symmetrical encryption.

Key decisions

• How does Wally deal with Petra's death and the party's decision to stop working for Root?
• How will the party approach Dril?
• Where will party ultimately stay? How will it improve its safe-house?
• How will characters grow to reflect their experiences?
• What will the party do with Petra's artifact?
• What will the party do with Petra's design schematics?
• How will the party deal with Root in the future?
• What's the next step?

Key rewards

• Each player has 2 Talent Points.
• The party has 2 Strategic Assets to spend.
• The party can keep its horses as mounts.
• The party is at 7% risk.

See also

• #6
• #7
• #8

Players, add your insights and questions below to get ready for session 4 on May 8th, 2018!

Everyone: take 1 TP and spend it while in Portia, if you'd like. Let us know how you use it here.

Psalt, Faelin: take 1 extra TP each.

No SA this session since you get Jem beginning next session.

Please also ask questions, spring theories, and spout lore.

Bonus question: what did you think of the collaborative interstitials?

cc @cryptomancer-actual, @pfzenke, @Claw33, @BeardedBurglar, @boristakoi

What are your characters doing between sessions 6 and 7? How are they spending Talent Points (2 new points + any banked points) and Strategic Assets (4 remaining)?

What questions are you researching? Feel free to create new issues to discuss each question you have; that might be less confusing than creating a mega thread here. To do that:

1. Start a new issue per topic and name it after its topic (e.g. "Gotnafiskr research").
2. Label it PC Discussion + Lore.
3. Roll query against a 6 (concrete, recent texts) or 8 (esoteric, ancient texts).
4. Share your results.
5. Everyone should chime in with ideas and insights.
6. I will answer a question for each net success.
7. I will provide you with misinformation if you net botches.
8. Multiple characters can roll on multiple topics, but please roll once per character per topic.

Put downtime plans here; start new issues for research topics.

Everyone takes 2 TP, and the group gets 1 SA. Only advances that directly related to the raid on the road to Visus can be claimed before the next session.

You can rest, or you can get to Visus. What do you say?

Each character has 2 talent points to spend or save. Please share any new talents or spells you think the group should know about before session 4.

The files in the session folder should be renamed to reflect their content or a sequence of adventures. We take several play sessions to complete a single "session" file, so the naming convention doesn't make sense right now.

However, the files also need to be revised to delete duplicated material, so I plan to wait and edit them after this first part of the campaign is over.

Let's start a discussion about how and when to use the group's 2 strategic asset points to improve its safe-house.

Key NPCs

• Dril, the silent partner, scales in the dark
• The Captain, military supervisor of the human district in Visus
• Naardor Gearsmith, Magmatic senior crafter referenced in Petra's schematics

Key locations

• The new safe house, a sea cave just west of Visus. Includes a blackout entry hall, a bunkroom, a kitchen/pantry, and a multi-purpose space with a library, Shardscape crystal, and exit to Visus's sewer system.
• Visus, a trade city split in two by the Ash River, west of Portia on the southern coast of Cineris. Visus has a human district on the west bank of the Ash River and a dwarven district on the east bank. A large draw bridge connects the two sides of the city.
• Sootbeard Mine, a dwarven mine near Kilvar's pass at the source of the Ash River.

Key events

• Kilvar teaches Psalt the Messeger spell.
• Kilvar builds a trap.
• Wally studies Petra's schematics and learns that a Magmatic senior crafter by the name of Naardor "Old Naardo" Gearsmith is somehow associated with Petra's work.
• Wally also learns that Petra used the old dwarven word for "scale" to describe the crystals in the artifact.
• The party employs a cell of corporate spies at Magmatic and sets up key phrase encryption to use over the Shardscape.
• The party sells its mounts and laves Portia on board The Weeping Angel. In return for Petra's cloak and its schematics, Dril agrees to deliver the party to a new safe house west of Visus.
• Passing Visus, the party sees that a fatty, necrotic oil pollutes the Ash River and sea around Visus. It's made of zombie fishmuck, the rotting, undead remains of marine life in the river and sea. Ob eats this stuff.
• The party makes it to its new safe house and discovers its key features, including a library, Shardscape crystal, and exit to Visus's sewer systems.
• The Weeping Angel leaves. Dril says it won't return immediately, but may be available in the future if the party needs transport.
• The library has dwarven, elven, and human texts dealing mostly with contemporary and old (but not ancient) accounts of the human conquest, the geography of Cineris, and the beliefs and myths of its inhabitants. Scrolls and tomes. A few texts in languages that no one recognizes.
• Psalt checks in with the Magmatic spy cell; no one from Magmatic seems to be after the party yet.
• Ob suspects that his old fishing frenemy Fishhook might be the mercenary Root eventually sends after the group.
• The party travels through the sewers to Visus, taking the second side branch exit into the city, emerging in a small square tucked behind buildings and alleys on all sides.
• Kilvar stays behind to rig some traps before joining the party.
• Faelin scouts ahead and meets a persnickety old zombie fishmuck monger who tells him, "The god fish is suffering," and, "The ending is still taking its shape." Then she extorts him before explaining that the humans and dwarves blame one another for this necromantic catastrophe and have raised the city's bridges to cut themselves off from one another.
• Faelin also finds the last barge in Visus. Its crew assembles on the high tide near dawn to pole and punt upriver.
• Wally talks with a dwarven member of the crew who confirms that the humans and dwarves are more concerned about blaming one another than anything else. No one is really solving the problem at hand. The barge is on its way to the Sootbeard mine to make its last pick-up: scavengers who have been looting the place. The dwarf just wants some money to last long enough to make it back to the dwarven side of the city after the crisis.
• Wally finds a cargo handlers' union hall and brings the party inside to gather more intelligence. It's not crowded.
• Faelin talks with the bartender who is rude to his companions. He learns that the Captain is responsible for raising the bridge on the human side of town.
• Kilvar slugs Ob to start a fight to summon the Captain and his guard. Ob gets knocked down and pukes zombie fishmuck all over Kilvar's pants.
• The Captain arrives. Psalt negotiates with him.
• The Captain confirms what they party has heard about the troubles in Visus and begrudgingly agrees to pay its way north to investigate the zombie fishmuck.
• The Captain says that no one who returns from the mine ever wants to go back because of a piercing sound that nearly drove them crazy.
• If the party resolves the crisis, the Captain agrees to sing its praises to the trade council on the dwarven side of the city.
• The party makes it to Sootbeard Mine. The barge and its scavengers leave as quickly as possible.
• Psalt takes the lead.
• A relentless, piercing clanging echoes throughout the mine from several levels below ground. It's almost mechanical in its perfect repetition. The dwarves in the party recognize the sound: it's a hammer striking something on an anvil.
• Wally and Faelin discover a patch of wall that seems out of place and asymmetrical with the rest of the mine's great hall. It's full of magic. Undead, twitching echo eaters are in jars piled against the wall.
• Wally and Faelin investigate. The way the wall feels to the touch doesn't match what they see, which seems more like a wall from Magmatic's corporate offices than a wall from the mine.
• Wally gets his hand painfully stuck in some kind of mechanism he can't see. Faelin pulls him free, flaying part of Wally's palm on the hidden mechanism.
• Wally drinks a healing potion.

Key understandings

• The Golem in The Weeping Angel operates oars below the water line that are connected to its chitin-shielded "wiring."
• The dwarves and humans of Visus have decided to engage one another in a stand-off over blame for the zombie fishmuck instead of working together to resolve the issue. The city will die soon without intervention.
• The Captain serves a general at a border fort between the Wasteland and the dwarven homelands. They both serve the human government further west. If Visus fails, so does the Captain.
• Dril and the party can spy on one another, as well as on The Weeping Angel, using the blue shards.

Key decisions

• What to do about the false wall and hidden mechanism.
• What to do about the clanging from the depths of Sootbeard Mine.

Players, add your insights and questions below to get ready for session 5 on May 15th, 2018!

What have you learned on your adventures that might come in handy at dinner with Old Naardo? How are you spending your talent points for your character in ways that make sense with what they've experienced up to now?

The team has 5 Strategic Asset points, with 3 reserved for a shard storm attack on Stoneshaper Keep. Paslt has suggested using the others on a Ritual Chamber or Dungeon. Gotnafiskr or Naardor can oblige while you're out after Jem.

Given everything PCs have learned, they can take a downtime or two, spend their Talent Points, and share their advancements here.

PCs can also keep researching before they go. Start a new issue per topic, share your query roll, and we'll go from there.

Session 8 begins at our usual time on June 5th, 2018!

Key NPCs

• Dril, the silent partner, scales in darkness
• Pfrenk, dwarven Soma dealer in Portia
• Maik, elven bartender at the Burnt Turtle in the Soma Ring
• Petra Bladebender, fleeing artificer
• Dema Inkscar, a name on first list of the Friends of Petra and dead Magmatic cloak
• Jotah Kegshaker, a name on first list of the Friends of Petra and dead Magmatic cloak
• Nerok Darkhall, a name on first list of the Friends of Petra and dead Magmatic cloak

Key locations

• Portia safehouse
• The Weeping Angel, a Golem ship
• Sootbeard Mine, a dwarven mine near Kilvar's pass at the head of the Ash River
• Visus, the Bridge City, a trade city at the mouth of the Ash River
• Kilvar's pass, a non-lethal way to cross the mountains from the wasteland to the elvish forest.
• The Outer Ring, the thickening ring of dead and blasted Soma trees around the elvish forest
• The Soma Ring, the current ring of Soma production around the elvish forest
• The Burnt Turtle, a bar in the Soma Ring

Key events

• Psalt determines that the red crystal shard network has 60 members. See #3 for geographic distribution.
• Wally contacts a former supervisor, claiming to be asking after information for Root, and discovers that 3 of the names on the first list of the Friends of Petra belong to the dead Magmatic cloaks.
• Wally tries to contact the people with the other names on that list, but only gets back encrypted messages he cannot decrypt.
• The party boards the Weeping Angel and discovers it's a Golem ship.
• The Golem is wrapped in Gigaphid chitin.
• The party discovers an encrypted lock-box in the captain's cabin.
• After focusing on the encrypted lock (cast with Maze), the party can see the lock-hole, indicating that they all know the keyword to decrypt the spell/lock.
• The party follows the directions in the lock box to touch the shards on the ship's masthead and contact Dril, the silent partner, scales in darkness. Faelin climbs a boat; Wally takes one for the team.
• Dril wants to party to toss their red crystal shards into the water and to work for Dril.
• Dril suggests that Root wants to kill the artificers and the party after its work is done.
• Dril claims to be interested only in the technologies stolen by the artificers; no disintegrations.
• It's clear that Dril has a source of information inside Magmatic or the red crystal shard network.
• The party decides to practice impeccable infosec and work for two masters, isolating their shards in different pockets to avoid bridging networks.
• The party lays in equipment and supplies and purchases mounts (horses) to travel north after Petra.
• On its way through the Outer Ring, the party sees a Gnoll raiding party demolished by elves arriving on Gigaphid APCs.
• Faelin successfully disguises himself as an elf, albeit with waxy features, using Glamour.
• Kilvar takes the group to meet Maik the bartender at the Burnt Turtle in the Soma Ring, which is like a series of Black Rock Cities spreading out from each producing tree.
• Kilvar bribes Maik with coffee.
• When asked about Petra, who has distinguishing auburn hair, Maik gestures out and up into the Outer Ring of blasted and used Soma trees.
• Because of the party's willingness to work for both Root and Drill, and because of Wally's inquiries and the attention paid to Faelin in the Soma Ring, the party's Risk Eater, uh, risk, has risen to 5%, still at the nuisance level (1-2 Risk Eaters ambush the party on a 1d100 roll of 5 or less).

Key understandings

• The Weeping Angel is a Golem ship/mobile hub.
• Dril is not human.
• Faelin's way of dressing as an elf brings negative attention in the Soma Ring.
• As the Outer Ring thickens, the elvish forest thins. The Soma Ring is the corrosive boundary between them, tightening inward.
• Holding shards from two networks bridges them.
• Messages sent in the open on a network are readable by everyone on that network.
• Keywords encrypt messages on a network.
• True name/soul name key pairings provide the best encryption on a network in which no one else knows your soul name.

Key decisions

• What to do about Petra.
• What to do with Petra's tech if you recover it.
• Who to claim as your patron (see above).

Players, add your insights and questions below to get ready for session 3 on May 1st, 2018!

In particular, we need

• Maps.
• A refactored story.
• A refactored catalog of NPCs.

What else?

Would love feedback on this campaign to improve it and help plan future adventures!

• What worked?
• What didn't work?
• What surprised you?
• What would you change?

cc @cryptomancer-actual, @pfzenke, @Claw33, @BeardedBurglar, @boristakoi

Key NPCs

• Naardor "Old Naardo" Gearsmith, an exhausted Magmatic senior crafter, Aarok and Gotnafiskr worshiper, and member of the Visus trade council who is ready to betray Root and disappear after losing his niece, Petra, to Root's machinations. Naardor oversaw Hamner and Petra's projects at Magmatic. He can help the group track Hamner Dreadfist, who has stolen plans for synthesizing shards. Naardor can also help connect the group with cels in Visus. Has the Aarok + Gotnafiskr tattoo.
• The Black Mask, one of several bodyguards assigned to Root's inner circle of executive Aarok worshipers. Dissembled. Has the Aarok + Gotnafiskr tattoo

Key locations

• Visus, the Bridge City, open for trade again along the Ash River from the Sootbeard Mine to the sea. Specializes in fleecing humans on "precious stones." Imports food and crystals from the homelands. The western bank has the human district; the eastern bank has the dwarven one. Each side controls half a drawbridge connecting the districts. The bridge is lowered and business has resumed now that the necromantic catastrophe is over.
• Gearsmith Estate, Naardor's home and the site of a fateful dinner party.
• The group's safe house, a sea cave to the west of Visus.

Key events

• The group follows the dwarven trade council to a celebratory feast at Naardor's house.
• Wally and Naardor strike up a conversation reminiscing about their time together at Magmatic and water cooler conversations about dwarven lore.
• Naardor arranges a special menu for the feast.
• Everyone stows their shards and larger weapons as a matter of decorum and etiquette before sitting at the table.
• The rest of the council seems deferential to Naardor, perhaps because he represents Magmatic. They kiss up to him, though, rather than worship him.
• Dinner conversation topics include Aarok and the party's adventure in the Sootbeard Mine and its hidden temple.
• Naardor's servants serve 3 courses. Each course has 2 choices of dish and 2 choices of drink.
• The ostentatious combinations that Naardor recommends catalyze one another into a powerful soporific that drugs all of the moguls into a deep sleep after dessert.
• The other pairings carry encoded, cultural messages about Naardor's willingness to betray Root, re-purpose his assets, and negotiate a mutually beneficial deal with the group despite great personal cost.
• Kilvar eats a lot of Gorma at Palada.
• Each character eats and drinks some of Naardor's recommendations, but none of them consume a full course of poison. Kilvar is the worst off, while Faelin feels best.
• Seeing the moguls pass out, Psalt attempts to hold his dagger to Naardor's throat. The Black Mask intercedes incredibly quickly, staying Psalt's hand.
• Naardor scolds the moguls' bodyguards to drag their slovenly masters back home and then beckons the group to join him in his library. He is amused that Faelin did the best job of avoiding the poisoned plates and drinks.
• After the resolution of his library encounter with the group, Naardor gifts the group several artifacts and supplies to help them on their next adventure. He can also help them establish cels in Visus before he retires in an attempt to escape Root's influence.
• Kilvar gets the Aarok + Gotnafiskr tattoo.
• The group recovers its shards and equipment and goes home to its sea cave safe house.
• See Key understandings below to learn more about the group's after-dinner conversation.
• At the end of the evening, Naardor shared these gifts with the PCs:
  • Shard arrows - a crystal shard with 11 arrowheads in its network that can be used to tag and track objects or prey.
  • Gotnafiskr's Tooth - dagger +1 damage; must draw blood whenever drawn or it will stick in its sheath forever; wielder's hand seeps blood painlessly when holding it.
  • Gilded echo eater in a crystal jar; break jar in case of emergency network.
  • A bottle of Vimdrought.
  • Walking workshop.
  • Cryptomancer's kit.

Key understandings

• Naardor worships Aarok and Gotnafiskr.
• He and his Black Mask have the Aarok + Gotnafiskr tattoo of concentric circles, which includes both a blue and red circle. Outer: Ochre (mountains) --> Blue (lake, Gotnafiskr) --> Ocher (volcano) --> Red (city, Aarok): Inner
• Naardor warns the group not to trust people with only the red circle in the middle (plus 3 ochre circles, no blue) - they only worship Aarok.
• Aarok is associated with creativity and invention and beginning new things, especially at the forge, while Gotnafiskr is associated with tempering, refining, and finishing things and bringing them from the mind to the world.
• Between what Naardor knows and what the group has deduced, Aarok and Gotnafiskr may be flip sides of the same idea or deity or otherwise paired. Naardor has even read texts in which they are described as married and considered to be the parents of the dwarves.
• According to Naardor, Root is the high priest of an Aarok cult that wants to raise Aarok as part of a campaign to retake the homelands.
• Root and his circle do not acknowledge or worship Gotnafiskr.
• Root has at least half a dozen ritual magicians working to summon Aarok back to life from wherever he or it is now. Naardor says they are using incomplete spells that also include passages of text they haven't been able to translate or understand. It's likely that the magma Golem avatar the group fought was brought to life by this magic and caused the zombie fishmuck. However, Naardor believes that the spell continues and will result in other summonings in the future until Root has a more fully realized Aarok by his side to support his plan.
• When Petra and Hamner fled Magmatic, Root blamed Naardor who had been managing their projects.
• Root installed Naardor on the Visus trade council to intercept Hamner and recover his stolen plans and technology.
• Naardor failed. He wants the group to help him track Hamner or rescue a family member held hostage by Root. At first, Naardor is willing to coerce the party, but then Wally convinces him that Magmatic killed Petra.
• Petra was Naardor's niece. Root threatened to turn her into a Black Mask if Naardor failed.
• Naador now feels like he has failed entirely in losing Hamner, in losing Petra (who warned him about Root's unethical behavior), and in helping Root do bad things for so long.
• Naardor does not believe Aarok would condone the creation of the Black Masks or that Root will be able to retake the homelands without being crushed by the Risk Eaters. He believes that Cineris, as it is, is what the Risk Eaters want right now. He also suspects that the shortcuts Root is taking towards the manufacture of his desired future will come back to bite him.
• Naardor will help the group prepare to find the other artificers or to destroy Root before Naardor attempts to retire and escape Root's influence.
• Naardor believes Root wants to create synthetic shards to mass produce camouflage cloaks for his Black Masks - elite cloaks who have volunteered or been conscripted to be Dissembled. Some serve as bodyguards for Magmatic executives inside Root's Aarok cult; others have been hidden as sleepers in Stranger communities.
• Black Masks are dissembled; then their identities are broken down through extreme means; then they are initiated into the cult of Aarok and conditioned to bond with Root, one another, and any executive cultists they are assigned to guard.
• Naardor theorizes that Root will use shadow chambers to train and bond the Black Masks as they help one another fight through the terrors of the shadow dimension.
• Naardor thinks the best way to infiltrate Stoneshaper Keep is to shard storm it.
• Naardor doesn't believe Root is essential to any of these plans or technologies.
• The big idea so far, according to Naardor: Root is inventing and compartmentalizing ways to do things out of the Risk Eater's sight so he can prepare an Aarok-inspired army to retake the homelands.
• Dril may be an agent of Gotnafiskr or Gotnafiskr itself.
• There are 3 artificers left.
• Normal risk is at 12%.
• Magmatic risk is at 13%.

Key decisions

• How should the group approach Dril?
• What Strategic Assets should the group put into place with Naardor's help?
• What should characters learn to prepare them for their next adventure?
• Which artificer should the group pursue next or should the group somehow attack Root next?

Players, add your insights and questions below to get ready for session 7 on May 29th, 2018!

Key NPCs

• Root Stoneshaper, Magmatic magnate and patron
• The Silver Mask, handler
• The Red Mask, bodygyard
• Petra Bladebender, the first artificer to leave Magmatic with stolen technology

Key locations

• Portia, capital trade city of the wasteland; walls separate its districts; brutal architecture.
• Stoneshaper Keep; feels like you're underground inside; a treasure trove of dwarven art and artifacts.
• Market district.
• Port district.
• Warehouse safehouse.

Key events

• PCs witness a Risk Eater attack on 3 dwarven cloaks wearing Magmatic gear.
• The last cloak standing seems to stutter in time before stabbing the Risk Eater; says, "Gotnafisker," with his dying breath.
• PCs kill wounded Risk Eater.
• Magmatic guards take PCs to Stoneshaper Keep.
• Root recruits PCs to replace his dead cloaks.
• PCs agree to work for Root Stoneshaper and to track ex-employees, artificers who fled with stolen technologies.
• Each PC accepts a red shard crystal from Root. These crystals connect to a private shardnet for Magmatic executives, lieutenants, and agents. They are also status symbols like badges of office in Portia.
• Each PC accepts an individual reward from Root for killing the Risk Eater.
• PCs talk with the Silver Mask and choose an abandoned Magmatic warehouse for their safehouse by the port. The warehouse is too far off the optimal Golem delivery routes to make any kind of economic sense to maintain as a warehouse.
• The PCs' first assignment is to track down Petra Bladebender, secure the technology she stole, and bring it back to Root.
• Petra is rumored to have fled north.
• PCs receive unencrypted invitations to a party for the Friends of Petra on board the ship The Weeping Angel.
• PCs discover The Weeping Angel outside their safehouse. The angel masthead wears a necklace of glowing shards.

Key understandings

• Kilvar is quick to take credit for things he didn't do. He knows how to get through the mountains to cross from the wasteland to the elvish wood. He has a recreational soma espresso habit.
• Ob was on a mission to assassinate Root. He is gross.
• Faelin is an expert at stealth and speaks fluent ancient Elvish.
• Psalt is a stone cold killer.
• Wally knew Petra from when they both worked at Magmatic and likes her a lot.

Key decisions

• What to do about The Weeping Angel.
• What to do about Petra.

Players, add your insights and questions below to get ready for session 2!

Key NPCs

• Embrey "Old Embrey" Sootbeard, Magmatic artificer in hiding who knows the old ways and discovered the secrets of creating shadow chambers (and then survived one), hates and fears Root, worships Aarok and Gotnafiskr, and now hides in the temple of Aarok and Gotnafiskr in the Sootbeard Mine
• Avatar of Aarok, the Molten Dread, a magma Golem who reforged his sword in the temple of Aarok and Gotnafiskr deep below the Sootbeard Mine
• Dril, the silent partner, scales in the dark
• The Captain, military supervisor of the human district in Visus
• Naardor "Old Naardo" Gearsmith, Magmatic senior crafter referenced in Petra's schematics, member of the Visus trade council

Key locations

• Sootbeard Mine, looted, hiding Old Embrey's shadow chamber and the temple to Aarok and Gotnafiskr. Source of the necrotic catastrophe choking the Ash River with zombie fishmuck.
• Old Embrey's shadow chamber, a simultaneously muted and still place and howling kinetic vortex full of lost things that haunt its inhabitants.
• Temple to Aarok and Gotnafiskr, housing a forge and anvil, a tempering pool on a raised dais, and a mural depicting the sea around mountains around a lake with a sea serpent coiled in it around a volcano with a dwarven city on its side, slightly reminiscent of the geography of Black Lake, a caldera lake to the west of Mount Cineris. Touching the sea serpent, tiled in semi-precious gems, causes fingers to bleed, though they bleed painlessly.
• Visus, the Bridge City, a trade city split into human (east) and dwarven (west) districts on opposite banks of the Ash River near its mouth and the sea.

Key events

• Wally uses Swarm Song to summon living Echo Eaters to map the contours of the real door hidden below the illusory Magmatic wall in the Sootbeard Mine great hall.
• The Echo Eaters swarm and outline a mechanism for opening a hidden door; Wally opens it.
• Ob recognizes the stifled gray madness behind the door as a giant shadow cache, or shadow chamber, which shouldn't exist.
• Old Embrey's gore-covered hand and gouged arm shoot out from the shadow chamber.
• Psalt stabs Old Embrey through the hand.
• Kilvar drags Old Embrey out of the shadow chamber.
• Old Embrey has clearly been scratching himself; he clutches a set of blood spattered plans and a red crystal shard. He is screaming and howling.
• Psalt covers Old Embrey's mouth to stop his screaming and then calms him with a healing potion from Wally; Wally takes the plans; Kilvar smashes the red crystal shard.
• Wally can see that the plans detail ritual magic.
• Old Embrey begins compulsively chanting, "Root is watching! Aarok is coming! The shadows aren't empty!"
• Psalt quiets Old Embrey and begins interrogating him. The party learns that Root wants to build a massive shadow chamber in which to train an army. Old Embrey is sure Root's soldiers will go mad and seems upset with Root for pushing past the old ways into such unnatural and perverse endeavors.
• Psalt sends a scout sprite into the shadow chamber and brings it back out once it's clear the chamber wants to confront Psalt with his past; Psalt then sends the sprite down the mine to find the source of the clanging.
• Some kind of dwarf-sized being is forging something deep within the mine in a chamber with an underground river, a forge and anvil, a tempering pool on a raised dais, and obscured art on the far wall.
• Psalt negotiates with Old Embrey, and Old Embey agrees to take the group below if they will destroy his plans. The party agrees.
• Old Embrey guides the party through the mine to the chamber discovered by Psalt's sprite. It's not clear whether or not the party could have found the place without Old Embrey.
• Halfway across the bridge in the chamber, Old Embrey recognizes the being as Aarok, the Molten Dread, a dwarven god associated with the forge. He is hammering a sword. Wally discerns that this is an avatar, though, and not the god entire.
• Psalt shows the scene to Dril who remains silent for a long time before letting out a weighted sigh and disconnecting.
• The party attacks Aarok and his jerky skeleton assistants, firing arrows into anvils, throwing torches everywhere, and quickly dispatching the skeletons and disarming Aarok who, on his death, explodes into a wave of magma dodged by the group.
• Old Embrey flees during the battle.
• When Aarok dies, the party hears a sound like a rock splitting, the last surviving skeleton disintegrates, and the underground river begins to clear of zombie fishmuck.
• Wally recovers Aarok's sword.
• Ob tracks down Old Embrey and brings him back to the group as Psalt and Wally fake the destruction of the shadow chamber plans to trick Old Embrey.
• Psalt, Wally, and Embrey study the mural (see key locations above) and take notes. Psalt and Old Embrey's fingers bleed whenever they touch the sea serpent depicted in the mural. This seems to make Old Embrey joyful. He names the sea serpent "Gotnafiskr" and says she always completes what Aarok begins.
• Psalt consults with Dril about the mural and bleeding who responds, "Aarok always was the jealous sort."
• Old Embrey, freed by the party, decides to stay in the temple below the mine.
• The party hikes back to the human district of Visus, puzzling out what they've learned and how Fishhook might have failed in the same circumstances.
• The Ash River begins running clear again, pushing the surface slicks of necrotic ooze back against its banks.
• The Captain believes the party's story about defeating an undead monster that was nesting near the source of the Ash River.
• True to his word and no more, the Captain contacts the dwarves and negotiates the lowering of the bridges. Then he introduces the party to the dwarven trade council, explaining that the group resolved the necrotic catastrophe.
• The trade council, including shard-twirling Magmatic representative Naardor "Old Naardo" Gearsmith, invites to the group to a feast in its honor.

Key understandings

• Old Embrey was one of the artificers that fled Magmatic at the same time Petra left.
• Old Embrey is a Sootbeard and considers the Sootbeard Mine a kind of ancestral home, though he says there are few Sootbeards left.
• Aarok's hammering of the sword caused the clanging in the mine.
• The energy animating Aarok's avatar and his jerky skeleton assistants also polluted the Ash River and raised the zombie fishmuck.
• Root and Aarok are connected.
• Aarok and Gotnafiskr are connected.
• Aarok is more than a bogeyman; he is a god associated with the forge in ancient dwarven lore.
• The shadow realm is a terrifying and paradoxical place that confronts you with things you lost in the past and things others have lost that you cannot touch. These are figurative, as well as literal, things.
• Magmatic has a presence in Visus.
• The party now carries Magmatic risk in addition to normal risk.
• Normal risk is at 10%.
• Magmatic risk is at 12%.

Key decisions

• How to deal with the threat posed by Old Naardo, his shard, and his bodyguard (and his shard?) in Visus.
• How to survive dinner and get back to the safe house.
• How to leverage the shadow chamber plans.
• What to research about Aarok and Gotnafiskr.
• Which artificer to pursue next.

Players, add your insights and questions below to get ready for session 6 on May 22nd, 2018!

Looking for:

• Questions to ask Jem.
• Ways to end Wally's impersonation of Naardor.
• Suggestions about what to do with Aarok's bones.
• Suggestions about what to do next as Root's caravan gets underway.
• Notes on how you spend any Talent Points you've accrued - it's fine to add something that fits with what happened in the last session or over the last several sessions.

Let us know what your character gets up to between sessions, as well as what tyour character thinks of the key decisions facing the group from #5.

Which way do you go?

• Down the ramp to level 3?
• Down the river into the dark?

Feel free to ask questions!

cc @cryptomancer-actual, @pfzenke, @Claw33, @BeardedBurglar, @boristakoi