This is a continuation of the adventure in this post. I might actually end up turning this into a series if my creative drive doesn’t take a premature skydiving trip.

Crunch I decided to leave a little more behind-the-scenes stuff in this time. These “Turning Points” use The Adventure Crafter’s fantastic tables to generate scenes for adventures. I usually roll one when I’m not sure what a scene should entail, or when MUNE’s Oracle implies that a scene is heavily modified.

Turning Point

Plotline: New plotline

Plot points (characters invokes):

1. Character steps down (Mazequis)

2. Retaliation

3. Friend focus (people of Rahm Oru)

4. A character is diminished (Nina)

5. A celebration

It’s a few days after the events of last adventure. A cleric enters the tavern our heroes are staying at and asks to see them. Elion hears his name mentioned, as he’s sitting in the common room tinkering with some armour pieces. He gives her a wave.

Elion: That’s me. If you’re here to ask me to give to charity, you’re wasting your time. I need charity to give to me.

She dodges around the preoccupied owner trying to wrestle a runaway goat out of the building, no doubt drawn to the stack of freshly picked carrots resting on a nearby table, and takes a seat. She introduces herself as Nina – she’s a Kataros, extremely thin with a sickly grey skin colour.

> Fun fact! The Aasimar race were cursed long ago by Princess Titania of the seelie court. Now 10% of all angelfolk, called Kataros, are born with muscle deficiency and pigmentation problems. WHat a fUn FaCt!1

Elion realises she looks extremely nervous, frightened even. She explains that she is the head of Zenia tharth, Rahm Oru’s local temple. She was sent an anonymous letter addressed with instructions to contact Elion and his team – they are to gather outside the tharth at midnight in three day’s time, unarmed and unarmored. If they fail to comply, whatever happens next will be on their head. Nina also tells them that in three days the festival of the stars will be held at the temple, drawing large crowds through the streets.

Elion: Death threats. That’s… New. I’ll give it that.

Elion goes full Sherlock Holmes on the letter, using his suit’s helmet to enhance his vision. He discovers a fleck of weird material that Melody confirms to be the bacterial leather they used to make clothes from in the Infinite City – whoever delivered the letter was one of the planelost, like her. Also sticking to the parchment is a fine sliver of honey.

Melody: Where would you get honey and parchment in one place?

They thank Nina and assure her that they’ll do their best to make sure no one gets hurt (Elion outright promises it), before heading upstairs to get the other two’s opinion.

Melody: It could be a hoax.

Maisie: We just rained on a potential council member’s parade, there’s no way it’s a hoax.

Melody: But he’s surely lacking in power right now. He doesn’t have the reach to pull off hits like this.

Elion: Maybe, and maybe not. We’ve gotta take this seriously until we know who we’re dealing with.

Natina: Best for safe, not sorry.

Maisie doesn’t know where the letter comes from, so they spread out to search for stationary shops near confectionaries in and around Zenia tharth. Elion finds the perfect places a few shops away from each other. He questions the confectioner about any strangely dressed customers.

Crunch MUNE Intervention: Wild Negative

Portent: Hairiest germinate (interpreting as hairiest->alarm germinate->develop)

She denies anything and gets increasingly anxious the more he presses. Giving up, he heads to the parchment store: but the owner shuts him down immediately and orders him out.

They must have been threatened to keep quiet – so they’re either dealing with a powerful organisation, a really intimidating person, or a gang of them. Even a crusty old Aasimar beggar slumped by a wall outside can’t remember seeing anyone of note.

Elion thinks it’s time to cancel the festival, or at least postpone it, so he heads to the tharth to meet with Nina – she’s just left, so he returns back to the tavern to share findings. None of the others found anything of note.

Elion: I guess, there’s not much we can do but follow the instructions. I was gonna ask the tharth to cancel their festival, just so it isn’t crowded, but the cleric girl wasn’t in.

Nat: You crazy! You walk into trap, like rabbit?

Elion: You’re right, we should follow your idea instead.

Nat: *gives him a puzzled look* But not having idea..

Maisie: He’s being sarcastic, ignore it. Elion, seriously, it’s a really dumb idea to just play along.

Elion: Which is why we’re not gonna. There’s this little spell Mel and I can cast, called Disguise Self.

Melody: I get it. We turn up as the letter said, no weapons or armour – but you and me are cloaked, right?

Elion: You got it. Kinda. I actually have a much better idea..

The next three days are spent preparing for the upcoming confrontation. Natina meets with the head cleric to try and push back the festival, but Nina refuses. Fearful as she might be for the safety of her church, the festivities are much more than a celebration – they’re a sacred ritual.

Elion: Shad.. Ah well, we can work with that. I’m gonna head out now, gotta call in a few favours.

* * *

Crunch MUNE Intervention: New plot

Going to roll a new Turning Point for this, with the plotline automatically set to new. Turning Point

Plotline: New

Plot points (characters invokes):

1. None

2. Character returns (Anika)

3. Organisations in conflict

4. Sneaky barrier

5. None

The night of the festival, half an hour to midnight. The clouds have been kind and parted ways, letting the many coloured stars of Empai Tirkosu light up the sky. Uplifting horns occasionally hum through the babble of those gathered to praise the Supreme One and his luminous creations – and to partake in the food and drink.

Elion, Nat, Mel, and Maisie make their cautious way towards the tharth’s pillared entrance, passing a couple of vagabonds on the steps who eye them blankly. They’ve come without weapons or armour – Elion’s even left his backpack suit behind. Nina is nowhere to be seen, but she’s probably busy with the rites inside the temple.

A masked, slightly overweight dwarf approaches the group. He nods to the rooftops above the square. A crossbow bolt cracks as it hits one of the temple’s pillars.

Dwarf: The square’s surrounded. Fez up, and you’ll be to blame for the massacre that follows.

Maisie: *voice shaking* Who the everloving dragon mother are you?

The dwarf gives her a cold look and doesn’t deign to reply, as the two hobos scuttle away having seen the crossbow bolt strike.

Natina: What you wanting us for?

Dwarf: You. *jabs a finger at Mel, pulling a wand from his cloak and tossing it to her* When the high cleric comes out, you’re going to walk right up ta her and activate this.

Natina: What it for..?

Silence.

Meanwhile, the two “vagabonds” duck down a side alley, letting their cloaking spells dismiss and revealing Melody and Elion, fully equipped.

Elion: We gotta call in the guards, there’s no way we can take out a bunch of snipers!

Melody: We don’t know how many there are, he could have been bluffing.

Elion: …Can you climb?

She can climb. Activating her invisibility cloak, she sneaks up onto the rooftop where the bolt seemed to come from. She creeps over the slates, finally spotting a hunched figure next to a dormer. She can’t see anyone else on the surrounding rooftops, but that doesn’t mean much considering how well hidden the one close to her is.

Crunch MUNE Intervention: Character Entity negative (Elion)

Choosing Nina for this even though she isn’t on his list of significant NPCs

As Elion rushes to climb onto a roof further down via a stack of crates, the noise of the crowd rises suddenly before hushing. Horns sound out through the square, announcing the high cleric leaving the tharth. A train of priests and holy warriors follow herm stopping not a hundred feet from where Maisie and Nat stand with the dopplegangers.

No time to lose. Mel skids down the roof slope, catching the sniper and wrestling her off the roof – but not before she gets a shot off at Maisie, the sheer force of which knocks her prone. Nat and Maisie scramble to down the dwarf before running across the square as the crowd scatters in panic. The dopplegangers deactivate their spell scrolls, revealing two town guards who also rush into the fray.

Elion takes an exploding bolt to the chest from the sniper that knocks him out, sending him tumbling off the roof – the feytouched armour’s life support system kicks in, but a second bolt drops him unconscious again. The guards attempt to grapple the sniper, but she shrugs them off – even a fireball to the face from Maisie seems to barely phase her.

Lying face down on the cobbles, Elion’s eyes snap open. He twists his arm around and unleashes a flurry of small spinning blades that slice into the assassin. She gasps, gurgles, and collapses. No more bolts rain from the rooftops – either she was the only one, or they fled.

Crunch MUNE Intervention: New plot

Anika Longstrider, the Tsethem of light, arrives on the scene with the rest of the town guards. Both the assailants survived, but aren’t talking. The only clue on the personages are matching tattoos: a rune of dwarven making popular with certain members of the Brother hood of Arcane Tinkerers.

Melody takes a look at the wand: Activating it would have cast a magic mouth spell, pausing for a few seconds before following up with a fireball.

Maisie: Whaa? That doesn’t make any sense. Like, I get why the BAT would be fezzed at us, but why target the high cleric? What was the mouth spell going to say?

Mel: I can only tell if I activate it. *glances around to make sure no one’s close enough* You might wanna stand back.

Maise: Wait, no! *tries to snatch the wand from her* Are you loopy?? You don’t need to take a fireball to the face, we can figure it out another way. Tiamat’s whiskers..

Anika approaches them, golden Tsethem mask glowing faintly. She tells them to lie low until they can properly investigate the BAT – and by lying low, she means leaving Rahm Oru.

Anika: The Brotherhood has been fractured since the Valkeesh invasion. Members in one town will be unlikely to share information with the next. You should be safe in any of the coastal villages.

Nat explains that it’s all good: they were planning on heading to Korolev Nivak on the plane of ice after their stay on Tirkosu. This just means their journey begins a little prematurely.

Elion pushes through the crowd around the tharth’s entrance to ask after Nina. She’s a little shaken, but managed to avoid the combat. He inquires whether she’s headed back to the safety of Appinamopu tharth, but she assures him that the town guards have already promised her a personal guard until everything blows over. Before he leaves, she gives him thanks and a hasty but heartfelt blessing.

With that, the heroes head back to their lodgings to collect their few belongings before embarking on an airship headed for Mt. Tirkosu; and the icy village of Tapuk.