Recap 4- GALLAGHER!

'''Episode 4: GALLAGHER! (or Poundin'n' Pokin', in the porn adaptation)'''

Scene 1: Crown Square, Ship's Berth

The scene opens on Saxon, Sandro, and Silyana as the Sharing with Sharron discussion forum is wrapping up and the crowd is dispersing. The three all react to what they have seen and then begin to discuss a plan to frame someone for the Massacre on the Marion. An elaborate spectacle of a plan begins to take shape as they brainstorm: Sandro and Sil will pose as Albacan terrorists who are loudly (and very publicly) discussing how they were recently responsible for the Massacre on the Marion, Saxon will "overhear" this and attempt to arrest them and then Sandro and Sil will flee. Saxon is then going to give chase and then corner them in a predetermined place where the three have already stashed the corpses of recently murdered Albacans. Saxon will then walk out of the building (to a waiting crowd?) and then declare that he was forced to kill the perpetrators in his pursuit of justice. The three ultimately pause their plan in order to be on time for their noon meeting with Tatianna...

*** DM's Comments:  So, here are the things that I was trying to get across in "Sharing with Sharron"...

''- The Oaken believe they are doing the right thing by enslaving the Albacans. They don't call it slavery, the call it "The Partnership" and they believe they are civilizing the Albacans (a la "White Man's Burden")''

''- The Massacre on the Marion has widely come to be viewed (in a very short time for a world without 24 hr cable news) as an act of terrorism by Albacan separatists (people that believe the Albacans should be free... I suppose they would rightly be called abolitionists but the Oaken don't call it slavery)... the implication here is not that Albacans did this but that a non-Albacan who supports the end of Albacan slavery is ultimately responsible for this.''

''- News of the Four Friends incredible deeds has spread all across Twofourtheen and is not particularly well-received here in Golden Oak. They see the message of the Four Friends and the Four Friends themselves as a threat to their authoritarian way of life (at least the side of things represented by Sharron thinks that way). The Four Friends would be seen as dangerous rabble-rousers or as power-hungry wolves masquerading in sheeps' clothing (the Four Fakes).''

''- There are free tribes of Albacans in the Verdant Valley that are constantly skirmishing with Golden Oak's forces. If there is a resistance movement of enslaved Albacans, it doesn't exist here in Ship's Berth and Golden Oak. These sorts of problems have always been an issue in places like Brandtwood and other outlying communities but not in the seat of Golden Oak's power.''

''- Great Lord Harold Sludj (the Golden Crown and Tatianna's father) is going to fix all of this for the Oaken. Golden Oak Will Rise Again!''

So, here are the things that might be missing from your plan to frame, as currently constructed...

''- Your plan relies on having an audience. You need to be intentional about there being an audience and who that audience is. Otherwise, you're just putting on a show for yourselves that might be amusing but ultimately doesn't serve the purpose you want it to serve. I think later you guys came up with the idea of doing this during a Sharing with Sharron, which is an excellent idea. All of this may now be changed by the fact that I essentially gave you an opportunity to spectacularly and publicly apprehend the cultists... I'll talk about it later but I kind of think that battle may have done the thing you were trying to do anyway...''

''- YOU CAN'T JUST PICK A COUPLE OF RANDOM SLAVES AND FRAME THEM. I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU THAT WILL NOT WORK. For one thing, the Oaken think of the Albacans as less than human. The idea that a couple of slaves were able to pull off the Massacre simply won't be bought by the Oaken; they would never believe that a couple of dirty Albacans could elude the Golden Guard and cause such carnage. Everyone believes that if Albacans carried out the crime, they must have done it with someone else pulling the strings. Plus, picking a couple of random Albacans seems like a real missed opportunity for Sandro and Sil... there could be more profit in framing someone WHO ACTUALLY FUCKING MATTERS IN THIS WORLD.''

Scene 2: The Throwdown Outside the Chanty

The three make their way to the Belting Chanty for their expected noon meeting with Tats. Before entering the tavern, they are beckoned into a nearby alley by Tatianna. Things seem a little strange as Tats is just standing in this alley with no visible guard. Things get even stranger as Tats, more grim and with a much wider vocabulary than in the first meeting, produces a bag and asks Saxon to place the Book in it. Saxon asks about payment and "Tatianna" becomes flustered. Sandro and Sil smell a rat and Sil starts powering up some magic. "Tatianna" floats ten feet in the air and starts firing beams of force energy everywhere (not the first indication she is not the actual Tats).

The three are a little sluggish to react to the ambush as the tentacle-armed cultist appears from the shadows in the back of the alley and he and fake Tatianna get the upper hand. Silyana lives up to her reputation as a frigid bitch and hits "Tats" with a Ray of Frost. The tentacle-armed cultist takes advantage of Saxon being knocked prone by an Eldritch Blast and this is where things get super sensual. The cultist slides his fingers beneath Saxon's breastplate, fingers probing gristly flesh as the cultist reaches for the book. Sandro comes to the rescue and carves up the cultist a little, allowing Saxon to flip the leverage on the cultist and relive his glory days in the high school wrestling ring. Saxon is about to ask the ref to DQ the cultist because his hair is too long when Silyana conjures a mage hand to snatch the Golden Book, now hanging suggestively out of Saxon's breastplate, and then runs around the corner with Book-in-tow. "Tatianna" disappears in a puff of black smoke and reappears as the hooded cultist next to Silyana. The cultist attempts to manhandle Silyana and take the book but Sil keeps her balance and stands her ground. The fight has now spilled out of the alley and into the street, where a crowd starts to gather. Saxon and Sandro rush around the corner and start poundin' 'n' pokin' (the name of this porn) on the hooded cultist, who is knocked to the ground and is struggling to keep her shit together (she got nailed pretty hard). The second cultist rushes around the corner and attempts to save the hooded cultist but is also knocked to the ground for his trouble. Things are now looking pretty bad for the cultists as Sandro attempts a reach around on the tentacle-armed cultist. This is enough of a distraction for the hooded cultist to regain her wits and she rises slowly, making some arcane gestures and speaking in a voice that sounds like it is reversed and slowed-down (chopped and screwed, if you will). Dark energies coalesce around the cultist and a bouquet of black tentacles spring forth to batter and penetrate everyone around her (maybe a few onlookers were caught in this, too?). Saxon and Sil manage to avoid the brunt of it (I think?) but Sandro gets it from all ends (I think you guys even used an inspiration point here and the reroll went poorly for Sandy). In the moments following the spell going off, the hooded cultist (still hurting) manages to Misty Step her way on out of the situation (I imagine her Misty Step looks like Nightcrawler's  teleport from the more recent X-Men movies). Sandro puts a boot on the throat of the tentacle-arm cultist who is still laying in the street in a stupor. Sil attempts to charm the cultist (to no avail) and Sandro demands answers about the Golden Book, which the cultist meets with a shrug and a telepathic "hey, go fuck yourself." Saxon attempts to follow the hooded cultist, whom he sees reappear for a second in the alley before disappearing again. Saxon, pissed that the hooded cultist seems to have gotten away and living up to his Oath, takes his mace and fucking GALLAGHERS the brains out of the cultist that Sandro and Sil are attempting to interrogate. A simultaneous gasp and cheer is heard from the gathered crowd. The three take a moment to examine the body: the shadow aura around the cultist dissipates as his brain splatters in chunks across the crowd. Despite the fact that he no longer has a face, you can clearly see that he is Albacan from his complexion, slender build, and tribal tattoos that run the length of his body (like the old Albacan from the dream... likely this means he is a free Albacan). He is wearing black, studded leather armor. As the three drag his body away from the crowd and into the alley, they notice the backs of each of his hands feature a darker, more fresh tattoo of a concentric diamond.

The three figure out that, if the hooded cultist was Misty Stepping, she can't have gotten far and likely went down into the sewers via a grate in the back of the alley. Saxon, again living up to his Oath, demands the three pursue the wounded cultist. Sandy and Sil seem pretty on board with this suggestion...

''*** DM's Comments: Wow! A lot of random observations here...''

''- This was pretty awesome. My plan was for this to go down into the sewers pretty quickly but it just didn't work out that way, which made it even better. You guys wound up with the worst collective initiative roll for a party that I have ever fucking seen (including Phil's critical failure). I thought the cultists might just succeed in getting the book away from you but I also like that they made the classic good guy mistake of trying for the book when they should have been more aggressive and tried to kill you first. But they're the good guys. It's fun to be the bad guys, right?''

''- The big reveal here was (obviously) Saxon's history as a high school wrestler. Nah, it was the Abysm thing. I mean, was it a reveal? These two have been pretty much going through the checklist of Rolen's early level spells since you met them back in Episode 2. ''

''Would your characters know this symbol on sight? Probably not. It's not something that is officially associated with the Four Friends, though someone who spends a lot of time around the Four Friends would associate it with Rolen. The Abysm is not known in the wider world. In fact, up until now, Rolen has been the only Abysm-powered character we've encountered... well, maybe there's one more...''

''Anyway, I think that the meaning behind this symbol and its associations are discoverable for your characters in the world. Silyana would at least recognize it as some sort of mystic symbol of power... like, in the way that someone familiar with coding would recognize when they are looking at a line of code, even if they can't fully read it.''

''- I call the Abysm symbol the Mystik Spiral. Yes, that is a Daria reference.''

''- Really nice combat group chemistry here. I thought it was particularly dramatic and cool when Sandro stepped in to help a pinned Saxon. I also liked that Silyana found ways to impact the situation without necessarily making an attack. You all are more combat capable than I was imagining before. I think the fights get tougher from here but I also like the idea of continuing to introduce other objectives into the combat scenarios (like playing keep away with the Book, etc)''

''- So, your plan basically happened, though not exactly to the letter of how you imagined it? This wasn't really my intention (see bullet point 1) but  really you guys just (very) publicly attempted to apprehend (and successfully killed) the terrorists who were (at least in Saxon's mind) responsible for the Massacre on the Marion. And, at least one of them is Albacan. No one had the presence of mind to shout to the crowd that the cultists were the ones who sunk the barge (a little disappointing) but the crowd was definitely on your side anyway. And they witnessed the strange and dark powers of the cultists... Yes, I'd say this is shaping up pretty good for you guys...''

"WHO'S BAD?!?!"

Everyone. Everyone did a pretty nice job of being evil, playing their characters, and even detailing their actions. I think I have to give it to Saxon the Merciless (not a knight yet but damn that's got a nice ring to it)... he GALLAGHERED the skull of another fallen opponent and this time it was on to a cheering, bloodlusty crowd of Berthers who just love to see the Golden Guard doing their mother fucking job. Special shout out to Sil for trying to snatch the book away from EVERYBODY on the sly during combat. If her charm spells ever work, watch out!

WHO ARE: The Cultists?

We didn't really meet any new characters in this go around (except Sharron but she's a bitch and you know that) so let's dive a little deeper with who these cultists are...

- They are powered by THE ABYSM and the living one seems to have Rolen's suite of powers (but, so far, is not nearly as powerful overall... if you turds bumped into Rolen in a dark alley he'd   smoke you like chicken thighs, right?)

- The dead one was for sure Albacan

- The living one very well could be given her slightness and physical grace

- I keep calling the living one a 'she' because she reached out to you telepathically a couple of times (to demand the book, etc) and the voice in your head was a woman's

- They are from south of here

- Their primary concern has been to get the Book back ever since you stole it from them

- They were apparently asked to care for the Book by a Friend of a Friend

- They're the good guys (This is kind of a joke but I think your characters might recognize what I said earlier about not attempting to kill you first... maybe not Saxon... I don't know I kind of leave this to you individually)

Did I miss anything?

Next Time On...

- We're going into the sewers in hot pursuit of a suspect!

- In the larger picture, we're moving toward some sort of trial or public hearing, I think, where the blame for the Massacre is officially assigned and Sandy and Sil get an opportunity to do their schtick. There are some dots that need to be connected between now and then, however...

-back to The Golden Oak Campaign