Session 15

Property	Value
Beginning XP	465 XP
Beginning gold	152 gold, 31 silver, 13 copper
Ending XP	645 XP
Ending gold	162 gold, 31 silver, 13 copper

Kingdom Turn - Erastus 4710

(See Kingdom-Turn-Chart for full details)

Major Achievements:

• Successfully integrated the Sootscale Kobolds into Amedaria (+10 XP)
• Achieved first successful Pledge of Fealty (+80 XP)
• Built Farms, improving food production
• Reconnoitered two new hexes
• Claimed hex at Quellendrill
• Claimed hex at Thorn River and built Lumber Mill

Kingdom Status: +90 Kingdom XP, +1 Resource Die, +2 Resource Points

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The morning sun filtered through the canopy as Jacques and Kairos found a quiet spot away from camp. There was much to discuss, and the recent encounters with Nyrissa and the shifting reality of the First World’s influence demanded careful consideration.

”Tell me what you know of dryads,” Jacques said, settling against a moss-covered log. “And the fey in general. If we’re going to be dealing with them more frequently, I’d prefer to know what we’re walking into.”

Kairos opened one of her journals, flipping through pages of meticulous notes. “Dryads are fey creatures, bound to specific trees—typically oaks, though not exclusively.”

She explained the nuances: their bond to specific trees, their ability to summon animals and manipulate plants, their near-omniscient knowledge of their forests. She spoke of traditional offerings—coins in tree hollows, songs at dusk, the planting of saplings.

”Like all fey,” Kairos continued, “dryads are reclusive, powerful when provoked, and capable of charm magic that can beguile even the most cautious traveler. They’re neutral by nature, protecting balance rather than adhering to concepts of good or evil. But threaten their tree, and you’ll face swift vengeance.”

She closed the journal, her expression thoughtful. “Dryads often serve greater powers—archfey like Nyrissa, or the seasonal courts of the First World. They might be allies, or they might be pawns in schemes we can’t yet see.”

Jacques absorbed this quietly. “And we’re walking deeper into their territory to seek them out. To learn more about Nyrissa."

"Lizzy needs answers,” Kairos said. “About where she comes from, what she is, and what role Nyrissa plays in her existence. The dryads might provide those answers.”

As if summoned by her words, Lizzy joined them, settling onto a nearby stone. Kairos shifted the conversation, sensing Lizzy’s curiosity about her own origins.

”The First World,” Kairos began

”The First World is not a place you walk into. It’s a place that notices you. It’s older than the gods, and the laws of nature there are soft suggestions at best. Time loops like ivy, memory and reality bleed into each other, and the fey? They don’t lie, but their truth can ruin you. If you ever find yourself in the First World, don’t eat, don’t dance, and for the love of Desna, don’t make a deal. The fey aren’t cruel they just don’t understand consequence the way mortals do. They think in patterns and games, not years and grief.”

Lizzy asks why she can’t dance;

Kairos responds: “Because in the First World, everything is a ritual, and every ritual is a contract. A dance isn’t just a dance there- it’s an invitation. A binding. An agreement to play by someone else’s rules. And those rules might say that you’re the partner tonight… and the prey tomorrow. You step to their rhythm, and suddenly your heartbeat doesn’t belong to you anymore. Maybe you’re just part of the revel now. Maybe you never come back. Or maybe you do - but you’re humming songs no one’s heard in centuries and your shadow doesn’t move when you do.

Kairos keeps talking and reading as she walks, and the rest of the party notices the signs of the thylascine. Everyone stops in the movement as Lizzy says that she’ll scout ahead, but Kairos isn’t paying attention, and trips and slides into a deep mud hole with… a Thylascine. Lizzy checks it out but falls too.

”Alright. No sudden movements, no noise above a whisper. That’s a thylacine. Big teeth, bad temper, easily startled. If we move wrong, we’re the ones who get chewed on.”

As soon as Kairos says this, Lizzy moves in and hugs the thylacine. The thylacine begins to lick Lizzy like a enthousiastic dog. It’s clear the thylacine is friendly towards Lizzy. Kairos stands up, throws a grappling hook to Leonardo, attaches the rop to the thylacine, and Lizzy calms the thylacine and helps it up. Though Lizzy made a friend, the thylacine immediately runs off.

We walk on, and we enter an area where the veil to the First World feels particularly thin. Up in the treetops, Lizzy spots a few small nests. Leonardo hears the loud roar of a lion, but nobody else recognizes it. Lizzy spots a Fairy Dragon flying by, and quickly points it out to the others. She spots a few brightly coloured lights. While the group isn’t completely paying attention, Lizzy walks towards the Dragon.

Djacquess casts a quick cantrip to glamorize himself, and gives his face a sparkly appearance, but his magic returns much stronger than anticipated, something only Kairos notices. His clothes become clean, as new, much more luxurious, his face looks freshly exfoliated and cleaned. Kairos warns;

“That was a cantrip, wasn’t it? Cantrips don’t rewrite threadwork. They don’t stitch new seams or scrub out wine stains from last week’s tavern crawl. Don’t cast any spells until I’ve checked the ground. Or the stars. Or something. Either we’ve wandered too close to a leyline, or something from the First World is brushing up against us.”

A thunderclap sounds. Djacquess follows Lizzy, and notices Lizzy floating up in the air, but she doesn’t seem to pay attention to her odd state. She’s been teleported to the First World. Standing close to Lizzy is “nature momma”, Nyrissa, and Gomi flies in circles around Lizzy. Djacquess’s Weiß seems to resist following Lizzy. As DDjacquesss nears Lizzy, DDjacquesss gets a strong static electricity zap. Leonardo follows closely, and feels “something”, but doesn’t entirely notice whatever is going on. The air feels thick, as if there’s a close veil to the First World. Kairos feels that the veil to the First World is particularly thin here, but her Detect Magic doesn’t tell her more than that, that magic is strong here.

Nyrissa tells Lizzy that she’s going to take away Gomi, as Gomi has completed his goals. Nyrissa will take Gomi away, and replace him with a new companion. We’ve completed the goals, founding a kingdom, but we can use more help for our further, future goals. Hence, Nyrissa has decided to grant Lizzy a more powerful companion; a Fairy Dragon. The Dragon’s name is Ryu.

We see Lizzy float in the air, absent, as she’s spiritually present in the First World. Leonardo tries grabbing Lizzy but is repulsed, while Djacquess notices that all his spells are more powerful and give a backlash. Kairos read that people near these kind of veils sometimes disappear and reappear later, but isn’t sure about what to do. She hands a rope to DDjacquesss and Leonardo so they can find one another later.

Lizzy tells Nyrissa that she noticed that some people talk “cruely” about Nyrissa, and she wonders why. Nyrissa tells her that people sometimes have odd preconceptions, gnomes in particular. Nyrissa tells her they’ll see one another again, but not now, as Nyrissa has other priorities. Lizzy returns to the Material World. The bright orbs around Lizzy disappear, and a Fairy Dragon appears. Leonardo safely catches Lizzy, as Lizzy falls down. Kairos notices that the veil feels somewhat thicker again.

Kairos asks Lizzy how the First World was. Lizzy says it was wonderful, beautiful, and she’s magically fascinated by Nyrissa.

Kairos tells Djames: Nyrissa isn’t being cruel, but she’s not kind, either - not the way we mean it. She does what the First World demands: growth, change, beauty, mystery. We’re going to need to be cautious around Nyrissa.

We return to Hexpan.

As Kairos enters her home, she notices a small copper-gold bird, in the window. It is tapping on the window with it’s beak. Kairos opens the window. She takes some bird feed, and notices a message delivery container on the birds back. She takes out the letter and reads it. The message tells it’s a anonymous benefactor called the Architect, who has been watching us and is very pleased with out work - the letter also contains a map of the area, directions towards where we can find Shamblesap.

Kairos makes a drawing of the bird, which is in a mysterious gold-yellow brass colour. Kairos doesn’t recognize the bird exactly (and can’t find any information about it in her books), but notices that the colour sometimes occurs in magical animals, though not in First World magical creatures. Her books also contain no information about the Architect, whose name is too generic to find any information.

+1 Resource Die +2 Resource Points

• Quell Unrest (Politics)

• Request Aid (Brevoy)

• Request Aid (Sootscale) +1 Resource Die

• Claim a Hex (Quellendrill)

• Claim a Hex (Thorn River) - Build a Lumber Mill

Event: “Rustahhhhg jonguh!!”

Upkeep Phase: Step 1: Leadership Roles Success Step 2: Unrest Unrest No action Step 3: Resource Collection: Roll result: 7d4 = 20 +2 Lumber +2 Ore Step 4: Pay consumption: 0

Commerce Phase Step 1: Collect Taxes Step skipped Step 2: Improve Lifestyle Critical failure Spent 1 fame point Success Step 3: Tap Commodities Sell 4 Ore Step 4: Manage Trade Agreements Skipped (did it previous turn)

Activity Phase Step 1: Leadership Activities - Lizzy: Celebrate Holiday (Success) - Leonardo: Focussed Attention (Succes) for Pledge Fealty - Kairos: Supernatural Solution (Failure: -9RP) - DDjacquesss: Pledge of Fealty (Critical Failure: Sootscales will never integrate) - Reroll for 1 Fame point: (Critical Success) - Integrate the Sootscale Kobolds (+10XP) - “Achieve your first successful Pledge of Fealty” +80XP - Lizzy: Capital Investment (Success, +3RP) - -10 Gold - DDjacquesss: Capital Investment (Failure, +2RP) - Leonardo: Process Hidden Fees (Success, +1 Recource Die) - Kairos: Prognostication (Failure)

Step 2: Region Activities: - 1. Build Farms (Success) - 2. Reconnoiter Hex (Success) - We find a long-abandoned tree, struck by lightening. It’s the only tree in a 2 mile radius. - 3. Reconnoiter Hex (Success) - A dilapidated mud hut squats atop a small hummock in the middle of a fetid marsh, a thin tendril of bluish smoke trickling through a gaping hole in its moss-covered roof. A wooden fence surrounding the perimeter of the mound is festooned with crude fetishes crafted out of sticks, feathers, and animal bones. A lone crow caws noisily from the top of a nearby cypress tree.

Step 3: Civic Activities:

Next turn: +5 Resource Dice No penalty on Manage Trade Agreements No Penalty on Collect Taxes Penalty on Celebrate Holiday Penalty on Process Hidden Fees +1 circumstance bonus to Loyalty checks

We travel to the tree.

It’s clear to Lizzy that something was recently burried here. Kairos casts Detect Magic, and finds some strong magic nearby. Lizzy starts digging, and soon finds a treasure chest.

+1 Dagger +10GP Wand of Breathe Fire Scroll of Elemental Counter (Lizzy’s familiar eats the scroll immediately) Spellbook Rain seeping down has damaged the spellbook. Some remain legible. Enlarge Illusory Object Mage Armor Shrink Unseen Servant A large Leather Cape

Lizzy puts on the leather cape, and as soon as she does, the cape has a spell cast on it, and becomes clean. Lizzy hears an Fairy Dragon echo in her mind; “Your clothes might be clean now, but you’re still rancid”. Lizzy laughs to herself. The Fairy Dragon says there’s another Fairy Dragon that has joined Lizzy for a few days, has been following/tracking her.

Leonardo hears some swans, and wonders where the sound is coming from. DDjacquesss keeps casting Glamorize on himself.

We move away from the large tree, and towards the mud hut. It’s a larger hut, with above a small door. A pumpkin headed scarecrow stands in the garden. Ryu flies towards the house, and checks out the windows, and an older woman runs out; “WHO GOES THERE? LEAVE!“. Ryu returns to Lizzy.

Leonardo if the woman was the one who had asked for Black Rattlecaps. The woman is immediately enamored by Leonardo, and invites us in. Lizzy recalls more knowledge about the black rattlecaps. The woman is named Elga Verniex, and she tells us about a hateful hermit in the west, the younger brother of the hermit of the north (Bokken). She also warns us about Candlemere Island, warns that it is full of Will ‘o Wisps and Shambling Mounds.

Kairos knows that Will ‘o Wisps surround dangerous monster places. Malevolent balls of colored light, will-o’-wisps haunt lonely marshes and forests, where they lure unsuspecting travelers into danger. Will-o’-wisps can vary the color and illumination they shed, and delight in mimicking bobbing lanterns or distant fires to draw lost or disoriented travelers off of safe trails.

Finally, the woman warns of a Lizardfolk settlement. She finally warns of a haunted graveyard. Locals call her the swamp witch and avoid her, but DDjacquesss knows she’s not a hag. She has a fey lineage, though.