RQ Meeting summary 14 - June, 2011 - part 1

Our group consisted of:

Baclane - Mark's master of horses
Arre, Thad's Melnibonean alchemist archer
Aurelius, Rich O's graeco-egyptian sorceror charioteer, favorite of Ra, The Golden, The One, Pharoah to both Humans and Fairies, Lord of the Summer Lands, The Returned, He Who Rules in Strength….
Palanar - Leon's Maat/Humakti arkati sorcerer
Nick the Greek –Scott’s Byzantine catacphract (disciplined, well armored horse archer)
Keith’s Argan Argar Troll, who has left Constantinople in order to enjoy the sunny shores of the Baltic
Dave’s hunter sidhe, Felcia Shadowclaw, from the Unseelie Court, who follows Fladais the Huntress, who has been guarding the camp.
Dwayne’s virgin sorcerer
Harry's frankish knight (I can't find the name)
Stan's german housecarl, John of Saxony
Bob’s sidhe from the Unseelie courts, Lysteria, who follows Sholto, the sidhe Lord of the High Hunt
Tony’s sidhe from the Unseelie courts, Namon Pferd, who has betrayed his loyalty to Essus the Just, Prince of Flesh and Flame (brother to Andais, The Queen of Air and Darkness, ruler of the Unseelie Courts.)  Namon now follows Ra, The Golden, The One, Pharoah to both Humans and Fairies…you get the picture.
Rich F's sidhe from the Seelie Court, (whose name I forget), who follows Hugh Belenus, Seneschal of the Court of Light.
Please note that everyone from the Seelie and Unseelie Courts takes double damage from iron.
People of Note:
Allies and Friends
Louis the Pious, Emperor, heir to Charlemagne
Reinald, Paladin, commander of the imperial forces in Hispania
Duke Astolph, mage, protégé of Merlin, the only english Paladin in Charlemagne's court.  Next to certain members of the party, he is the greatest personal enemy Malachi has, having just recently made his way into the Castle of Iron in stealth and stolen the cream of Malachi's prize menagerie: a griffin, a hippogryf and one of the giant Eagles of the Atlas mtns.  Current whereabouts unknown.
Merlinus Ambrosius: you knew he had to be around here somewhere.

Enemies, Threats to Western Civilization and All around Bad People
Malachi, Mage of the Castle of Iron, Sorcerer and Master of Moorish Spain, also called the Curse of Hispania, also called Cidi Atlantes (Lord of the Atlantic or West) one of the 3…I mean 2 great lords who rule the muslim world.
Asshurbanipal - Dread Lord of the Muslim world from the Sinai to western India, current Guardian of Mecca and Medina, known to be able to summon demons, believed to be thousands of years old.  Eats kittens, but is said to be one heck of a dancer.


When last we left the party, it was March of 814.
After the meetings at the great crossroads (near modern day Paris), the party has 3 new members:
Harry's Frankish knight
Stan's John of Saxony
Rich F's warrior from the Seelie Court
The courier from Emperor Louis has given you imperial orders: finish off Malachi.
The ambassador from the Court of Light, Uar the Cruel, has brought you greetings from his brother, King Taranus, Lord of Light and Illusion, and a warning: when Malachi and his Iron Castle has been brought down, the war with Ra will begin.  Until then, your mission against Malachi has priority, and an enchantment has been cast upon your party by both the Unseelie and Seelie Courts that will prevent ANY sidhe magic from harming members of the party until the Lord of the Iron Castle is no more.  This is to prevent any sidhe you meet from attacking the followers of Ra in the party: Aurelius and Namon.

This protection is necessary, because the last war with Ra (about 1200 years ago) was catastrophic, and just barely won by the Sidhe.  Ra had amassed a huge army of fairies and humans, armed with both magic and iron, and since he was actively worshipped by millions of humans, he was almost unstoppable magically.  All of the fey races in Europe are bitter enemies of Ra and his followers, and will attack the followers of the Sun Lord on sight.  They are not ready to invade Egypt just yet though.  The losses inflicted by the Lunars and the disruption caused by the Castle of Iron have crippled the Courts of Light and Darkness, and until the Castle of Iron falls, they will be at no better than 3/4 of their possible strength.

The location of Malachi's stronghold is a unique junction formed by the crossing of all the major ley lines of SW Europe and NW Africa.  All of these lines of power crossed in 4 points within 100 meters of each other, forming a massive nexus of magical power.  This had been a traditional Sidhe stronghold and center of influence, often changing hands between powerful warriors of either Court.  This ended with the arrival of Malachi about 50 years ago: he killed the sidhe Lord who held the nexus, drove off his followers and erected the Castle of Iron in a day and a night.
Since then, all magical power within hundreds of miles drains INTO the Castle of Iron, whose ferrous aura has driven the fairie races out of Hispania with the exception of one stronghold in the NW corner of the peninsula.  If the party can break, kill or drive away Malachi, there is a good chance the old flows of magic can be restored.  As of now, many of the great Sidhe lords of both Courts think that a war with Ra will fail unless Malachi is destroyed once and for all.
After due consideration, the party decides to head south to the Castle of Iron by the fastest route. This takes you south through the Frankish lands into Hispania along the Mediterranean coast, then SW inland to the Imperial siege lines around the Castle of Iron.  Paladin Reinald commands here, and he's glad to see you.  His siege has reached an impasse: Malachi can't get out, but the imperial forces can't get in.  Reinald has learned a few things that might be of interest to you.

His mining attempts have revealed that the foundations of the Castle of Iron extend below ground, as do its magical defenses.  He believes that the bottom floor of the castle is one great solid plate of iron, forged of a single piece and not hammered or bolted together, as is the rest of the castle.  All of his mining tunnels that have gotten underneath the castle have been collapsed by waves of power that emanate from the castle itself, or from one of 4 points beneath the castle.  Three of these four points contains something metallic (and big), but no tunnel has lasted more than a few hours once they reach one of those power points, and none of his mine shafts last more than a day once the castle perimeter is reached.  The fourth point, to the north, has yet to be investigated.

Reinald's engineers have mapped the castle's exterior and its perimeter (as much as possible); when you examine this map, you realize that the points of power he has located correspond to the ley line junctions; Malachi has placed the Castle of Iron on top of the ley line nexus, so that each line junction is directly underneath part of the castle.  These 4 junctions mark the outline of a rough diamond, with the long axis running North/South.  You confer with Reinald and devise a plan for his men to run a shaft down and then laterally to the northern point of power, where your party will investigate and determine the nature of any object found there.   The imperial engineers get to work, and you prepare for your journey underground.



When the shaft is completed (the engineers stopped when they found metal), the imperial troops clear out and your party enters the tunnel.  Moving quickly to the tunnel's end, you use the tools left for you to complete the task of exposing the metal object found at its end.  All the sidhe in your party can feel the immense mass of iron ahead as your approach the castle, and more: there are waves of power sweeping outward from the castle at irregular intervals.  You find the object at the end of the tunnel, in fact, it's hard to miss it.  It seems to be made of bronze, and it's big enough to walk through.  It is covered with strange characters that some members of your party identify as Lunar in nature, and you soon realize that what you have found is a world gate and it is OPEN.  All of the sidhe members of your party can tell that there is a geyser of magical power shooting out of the world gate.  The gate is laying face up, and the magic erupting from it is more than any one or two or more ley junctions could provide, and the power from the gate feels...DIFFERENT.  No one has seen or heard of such a thing before, and it looks like Malachi has FOUR of these gates, each directing an unimaginable amount of power into the Castle of Iron.
The party argues over what to do next for a bit, and then you feel a different kind of vibration sweep outwards from the Castle above you; it matches the beginning of the sequence of magic waves that collapsed all of the other tunnels, and you know that your time is limited.  What should you do?

Namon decides to stop waiting and jumps into the world gate; the rest of the party tie themselves together with rope, link arms and jump in after him.  Namon goes to one place and the rest of the party goes to another, but it is the changes done to each of you before you arrive that may be the most important.

What the party finds out later is that Malachi has somehow traveled to at least 4 other worlds and redirected their ley lines through 4 world gates into this world and into the Castle of Iron.  In doing so, the power from each world is…braided or fused together, so that not only  does Malachi get tons of magic to use, it is magical power that is DIFFERENT.  The effect of a normal human jumping into one of these gates would have most likely been fatal.  But none of you is "normal" and the first one through was Namon, a sidhe, and there were two other sidhe's in the main party.  The sidhe have great magical potential, that can sometimes be awakened.  It might require that they kill in battle, or grow older or it might be as the result of great magical stress.  In this instance, the flood of magic pouring through the world gate has awakened a Hand of Power in each of the three sidhe in your group, and it has changed all of you in some way, especially Dwayne's and Scot's characters.
In Namon, it has awakened the Hand of Summer's Fury.  Namon can now cast the SunSpear divine spell for a cost of 6 magic points.  The casting of this spell is EXTREMELY visible.
For Lysteria, Sidhe of the Unseelie Court, Follower of Lord Sholto and the High Hunt:
The unimaginable power flowing through Malachi's world gates has awakened your Hand of Power:
The Hand of Darkness
- you can see in complete and utter darkness as if it were broad daylight, but you suffer no penalties in sunlight or bright light (at least no more than you do now).
- your touch is that of Darkness itself; once per day per target, at a cost of 4 magic points, your touch will attack as if it was the touch of a shade, matching your magic points against the target's CON, ignoring physical, but not magical armor.
- you take half damage from cold
- you are immune to most Fear and Demoralize attacks, including Shade attacks.
- detect Darkness spells and abilities will detect you
- creatures of Darkness will react favorably to you, and in general will not attack you unless you attack them first.
There are other effects on your spirits and magic items, but I need to see your sheet before the next meeting to fill you in on that.

Rich, this is for your Sidhe of the Seelie Court, Follower of Hugh Belenus, Seneschal of the Court of Light.
The unimaginable power flowing through Malachi's world gates has awakened your Hand of Power:
The Hand of Flame
- you are immune to fire or light damage, unless you are beaten by the power of someone or something whose Power is greater than your own.
- you take double damage from cold
- you may imbue any one of your weapons with Fireblade at no cost in magic points at the beginning of a melee round.  This magical effect will work on ANY weapon that is not a natural weapon.  It will last for 10 minutes or until you lose consciousness (or die).  It cannot be dispelled but it can be quenched with water or cold.
- you may cast fireblade on all of the weapons currently being wielded by your party members at a cost of 1 magic point per weapon, at the start of the melee round.  This counts as an action and is a normal casting of Fireblade with all of the normal restrictions.
- you may cast Firearrow on one missile of each party member for a cost of 1 magic point each missile.  This spell will replace any other spirit or sorcery spell on the missile.
- once per day, you may embody the power of Flame for a length of time equal to your POW in minutes.  During this time, your grapple will attack a target as if they had been enveloped by a salamander. During this period, your touch will ignite normally flammable objects.
There are other effects on your spirits and magic items, but I need to see your sheet before the next meeting to fill you in on that.

Normally, the awakening of a Hand of Power has some side effects, such as small earthquakes, a tornado or a minor flood; in the surge of power through the world gate, your awakenings have no side effects at all.


For Dwayne's Sorcerer
You had an unusual result from entering the world gate (and surviving).  You are the only pure sorcerer in the party (Rich O has Ra divine magic and Leon has Humakt divine magic).  Add to this the fact that you were a brand new character, and you were a blank slate for the power that poured over and through you.  You have discovered and begun mastery of a new element: Plasma (using the plasma spell list from Rolemaster).
You have the following abilities:
 - You are immune to plasma damage and critical effects
- You may imbue any weapon you wield with the Eldritch Weapon effect; this effect costs no magic points and will last 10 minutes or until you are knocked unconscious or killed.  It cannot be dispelled unless the opposing caster overcomes your magic points.  You may imbue one of your weapons each melee round, at the start of the round.
- You may imbue the weapons that are being currently wielded by the other party members with the Eldritch Weapon effect at a cost of 1 magic point per weapon.  This is done at the start of the round and counts as an action.  This effect will last for 10 melee rounds.
**Eldritch Weapon - a sorcery spell that must be cast upon a weapon that is at least partially metal; any metal will do.  For the duration of the spell, the weapon counts as magical and will do plasma damage in addition to any damage done by the weapon itself.   Eldritch Weapon is not compatible with Fireblade.

In addition to the damage done by the attack itself, Eldritch Weapon has the following effects:
A normal hit will do A column critical damage to the target.
A special hit will do C column critical damage to the target
A critical hit will do E column plasma damage and A column electrical damage to the target.
A fumble will do B column plasma damage to nearest friend (or self if no friend near) and A column Electrical damage to self.

- You can cast the spell Plasma Bolt at a cost of 2 magic points
 range: 100 feet,  base chance to hit: 5% x DEX, uses Missile attack modifier

- You can cast the spell Plasma Ball at a cost of 10 magic points
range: 100 feet, base chance to hit: 3% x DEX, uses Magical bonus as modifier
*Please note that the plasma ball has to go SOMEWHERE; a miss means that you roll for over/under and left or right.
Please note that you have absorbed the knowledge and concepts of Plasma energy at a basic level.  As you increase your Pow/Int, you will learn to apply this energy in new ways.
At your present level of knowledge, you cannot teach these spells to anyone else.  Yet.

Your knowledge of Plasma Lore is currently at 20% plus your magical modifier
Your power goes up by 2
Your species max power goes up by 2
give yourself 2 power gain checks

For Scot's Nick the Greek
Perhaps jumping into the Old Faithful geyser of magic power while wearing the Armor of Hector and carrying Durandal wasn't the wisest thing you've ever done.  The power of the sword and armor of Hector of Troy are strengthened in a number of ways, but you pay a terrible price: you will lose 3 points of power.
There are other effects on your spirits and magic items, but I need to see your sheet before the next meeting to fill you in on that.
Nearly everyone took general hit point damage in addition to the other effects.

The world the main party jumps into is an open, fertile savannah.  There are four world gates here, each in locations matching the world gates in your world, except there is no castle here, just open plains.  You notice an unusual object suspended between the 4 gates: a six-pointed spike made of a strange green stone or metal.  One spike points up, another points down and each of the other 4 spikes points to a world gate.  The spike has waves of power rippling across its surface.  At this point, the carnosaurs discover the party and attack.
The party manages to kill or drive off the dinosaurs after a knock-down, drag-out fight.  A decision is made to do something about the spike, which is immune to any magic you throw at it, so someone whacks the spike with an iron weapon.  The weapon is destroyed, the wielder takes damage from a flash of magical electricity which ignores armor, and the waves of power begin to ripple faster and faster.  Rather than wait around and find out what happens when the timer runs out, the party links arms and jumps through the next world gate, and ends up in the world where Namon went.

This world is a flat, lifeless plain, whose soil has been drained of life.  The draining effect appears to be strongest around the world gates and the spike suspended between them.  A member of your party whacks the spike with an iron weapon with the same results: destroyed weapon, damaged party member and an ominously flashing magical spike.  The party links arms and jumps through the next gate.

The next world is an endless expanse of water that is about knee-deep.  You find the world gates and realize that something (a spell or magical effect or property) is keeping the water from flowing into the gates.  You find the glowing spike suspended between the gates and realize that if you whack it with everyone standing in water, the entire party might get zapped, and some people are in pretty bad shape.  So party members summon or unleash 2 elementals: a gnome to gather the clay soil beneath the water and mound it up above water level, and a salamander to bake the clay into a brick walkway for the party to stand on.  This walkway runs from the spike to the next gate, but when the elementals were released, a wave of magic rippled outward through the water.  In response, two of the Elemental Lords of this world come to investigate whoever is playing games at the world gates: a huge sylph in the form of a whirlwind from the north, and a giant salamander in the form of a wyvern from the south.

The whirlwind moves faster and soon is close enough to start blasting people with lightning.  At Namon's suggestion, instead of iron, one of the sidhe use a silver weapon to whack the spike.  This results in a spike that starts to pulse faster, a silver weapon that absorbs the magic charge and safely explodes when thrown away (far away), and no damage to the party.  Everyone runs for the next gate and manage to escape before either of the elemental lords can catch them.
Holy Smoke, this is 9 pages long?  Time for a break.

End of part 1