Forgotten Songs Retrospective -- "Supernatural Awakenings"
Risus Monkey long ago finished posting his session logs of our Forgotten Songs campaign, so I am way behind in my commentary track. I'll work to fit these in over the next several weeks, trying my best to catch up sooner rather than later.
This, I think will be a two-parter. This first part will reveal some of the background of Katja and Bix from the DM's perspective. The second part will talk more about the plot and events in the Thoralien Forest.
Well, again, I almost killed the entire party. I thought camping so close to where the goblins were was a pretty big tactical error on the part of the party. Some failed listen checks later, everyone is almost dead. I was really unforgiving, I suppose. By this point I should have simply realized the party was not a bunch of tacticians and altered encounters accordingly. But I had yet to read Robin Laws' work and thus barrled on ahead, ignoring what seems now to be an obvious conflcit between player and DM expectations.
Behind the scenes here was the party leveling up, with story elements present for both Bix and Katja. The feminine voice Katja heard in her vision was the Silver Huntress, a never-fully-named moon goddess. The huntress was a "new" goddess, one who had never before been worshiped in Ermoon. I had a vague outline of her lineage. Her older sister, also never fully named (though I have "Sharess") scrawled in my notes, was also a moon goddess, albeit one who embodied the darker, sinister aspects of the night. For whatever reason, the older sister had been deposed/fled, but still lurked somewhere in the multiverse, looking for a way to get back and do not nice things to Ermoon. Katja was going to play a pivotal role in this struggle. As for the gruff voice, well, my notes fail me again here. It would make a lot of sense for that to be Oghma, but honestly I don't have a clear memory. Given Ohgma's connection to druidism, that makes sense.
Bix's story is not quite as cosmic. His player took a level of sorceror (a very sub-optimal choice power-wise, given his bard levels, but it made sense given his story). Bix had a celestial bloodline, most recently personified by his uncle. His uncle, a noted bard, had made a deal with some devils, but had worked his way out of it with songs and cleverness. Bix's uncle had disappeared, however. All this strange flashes were Bix's otherworldly legacy; they had also begun attracting the wrong sort of attention. Bix's uncle, or at least the celestial blood in Bix's family, also had a never-revealed Oghma connection. His uncle helped compose a song that was a key part of the goings-on at the Oghma temple, keeping evil forces at bay. I had recently read Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann" and just fell in love with the idea of a tune keeping a gate to hell closed. Played differently, it could be used to open the gate. Well, guess what was in a chamber in the basement of the Oghma temple? That, and a bunch of information about a moon goddess and the Hunt. . .
This, I think will be a two-parter. This first part will reveal some of the background of Katja and Bix from the DM's perspective. The second part will talk more about the plot and events in the Thoralien Forest.
Well, again, I almost killed the entire party. I thought camping so close to where the goblins were was a pretty big tactical error on the part of the party. Some failed listen checks later, everyone is almost dead. I was really unforgiving, I suppose. By this point I should have simply realized the party was not a bunch of tacticians and altered encounters accordingly. But I had yet to read Robin Laws' work and thus barrled on ahead, ignoring what seems now to be an obvious conflcit between player and DM expectations.
Behind the scenes here was the party leveling up, with story elements present for both Bix and Katja. The feminine voice Katja heard in her vision was the Silver Huntress, a never-fully-named moon goddess. The huntress was a "new" goddess, one who had never before been worshiped in Ermoon. I had a vague outline of her lineage. Her older sister, also never fully named (though I have "Sharess") scrawled in my notes, was also a moon goddess, albeit one who embodied the darker, sinister aspects of the night. For whatever reason, the older sister had been deposed/fled, but still lurked somewhere in the multiverse, looking for a way to get back and do not nice things to Ermoon. Katja was going to play a pivotal role in this struggle. As for the gruff voice, well, my notes fail me again here. It would make a lot of sense for that to be Oghma, but honestly I don't have a clear memory. Given Ohgma's connection to druidism, that makes sense.
Bix's story is not quite as cosmic. His player took a level of sorceror (a very sub-optimal choice power-wise, given his bard levels, but it made sense given his story). Bix had a celestial bloodline, most recently personified by his uncle. His uncle, a noted bard, had made a deal with some devils, but had worked his way out of it with songs and cleverness. Bix's uncle had disappeared, however. All this strange flashes were Bix's otherworldly legacy; they had also begun attracting the wrong sort of attention. Bix's uncle, or at least the celestial blood in Bix's family, also had a never-revealed Oghma connection. His uncle helped compose a song that was a key part of the goings-on at the Oghma temple, keeping evil forces at bay. I had recently read Lovecraft's "The Music of Erich Zann" and just fell in love with the idea of a tune keeping a gate to hell closed. Played differently, it could be used to open the gate. Well, guess what was in a chamber in the basement of the Oghma temple? That, and a bunch of information about a moon goddess and the Hunt. . .
Very interesting reveal about the Silver Huntress' older sister. Didn't see that one coming. Also, I guessed the gruff male voice to be Oghma as well, though some later visions made me second guess myself. I was slightly possible to read the male voice as Pelor.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't think at this stage I had really decided who it was -- nor ever really firmed it up.
ReplyDeleteThe wolf mask that Katja later found was a holy item of the dark moon sister. It probably would have turned Katja into a lycanthrope had she used it a bunch.
That's really great, I would have loved to have come across the info about Bix's uncle and the song at the temple. He would, of course, have to learn the song!
ReplyDeleteI was also under the assumption that the male voice was Oghma, when Katja told us of her dreams.