Year 106,072: The Abbadar Found Boladine

I started the players off with an interstitial document, an excerpt from the holy book of Abbadar:  The New Gospels of In-Pella.

As the year of the arrival of Celestrones the Conqueror neared, more and more of the Abbadar followed their Oracles and began a mass exodus from the Empire of Sathad. At first they moved west to the Galos River; when the Chon Zin giants moved south and took the city of Nagiz, many Abbadar again moved westward, spreading into lands only barely civilized by isolated pockets of agrarianism, swallowed up by vast tracts of hunter-gatherer nomads and horsemen.

They came to the west shores of what the locals called Sanctuary Bay. There they settled into the town of Matta, then a tiny fishing settlement. The Abbadar exodus continued over the five centuries following the giants’ defeat of Nagiz. Eventually Matta grew into a respectable port city, trading with the Celestrian Empire, the Chon Zin, and the remains of the Sathad. The Abbadar begin to populate the area, building towns and farms.

The Abbadar had brought The Gospels of In-Pella with them, and their traditions of marriage and their belief in Chimata, the Combined God. Those who had evaded the arrival of the Conqueror were among the best at foreseeing distant danger, further refining their culture’s tendency toward predictive psionics.

Indeed, so far into the future could these Abbadar sense danger that many of them wandered for years before settling anywhere at all. Even as they settled in Matta, they selectively built their houses on the northeastern parts of town that lay inland, due north of the peninsula, and not in the parts of town nearest the sea.

As a result of their idolatry of Chimata, the god who was made from two, the Abbadar had a fascination with twins, especially identical twins; they believed identical twins and triplets had an essence of Chimata’s divine power in them. Parents who gave birth to such children were apparently blessed by the gods; twins and parents of twins tended to become rulers.

When the Abbadar’s influence reached as far north as the Salvation River, they founded a colony there. To consecrate the new settlement of Boladine, the gateway to Salvation Vale, the governor-king of Matta sent his twin daughters Jelica and Shalya (F, 17). The new governor-king of the colony of Boladine had two sons, and it would be the honor of the eldest to choose one of the two as his bride.*

The Oracles of Boladine had declared the governor-king’s son Rolojer (M, 23) to be blessed; under the guidance of Rolojer and his offspring, the colony of Boladine would prosper for many fine years. Rolojer, in fact, was the best prospect for leadership in all the village. All the Oracles agreed that once he learned the craft of leadership under his father’s tutelage, Rolojer would be the first of a powerful dynasty, and Boladine would become powerful.

But other omens of the future were not so good. The most powerful Oracle among the Boladinians saw far, far into the future and made his prophecy: Boladine would pay for its centuries of peace and prosperity with a catastrophic end.

If Rolojer takes to wife Jelica, the Oracle proclaimed, the city of Boladine would be suffer a terrible flood, two hundred years hence. If Rolojer is the consort of Shalya, the Oracle foresaw, the city of Boladine would suffer a lingering plague and pestilence, three hundred years from now. If Rolojer chooses neither, on the other hand, the city would be struck by famine within twenty years.

The governor-king of Boladine, Bolad (M, 55) himself, asks of his god Chimata, “Whom should my eldest son marry? We accept that there is danger in the future, mighty Chimata, and we do not question what fates you choose to deliver to us. If we must buy present happiness with future pain, do I choose for my grandchildrens’ grandchildren a flood, or a pestilence, or a famine? And what do I tell my people? Only the best of my Oracles can see this now, but as the time draws nearer, more of my people will foresee this terrible danger. Must they know the truth?”

What The Players Decided 

"We already have our answer," Joe said, as soon as I had finished reading the scenario.

Dave was nodding.  "He'll just marry them both."

I turned to a section of my notes that I had prepared for this eventuality, and read:  If the players ask — Dave will probably think of this — if Rolojer marries both the twins, the city will last five hundred years, but would come to an utter end; it will be sacked, destroyed, and all its people slaughtered; nothing would be left of Boladine but dust and ruin. 

I did not read out the part about Rolojer's brother; I had told them that he was the eldest of two, but they didn't follow up on that.

"Five hundred years is a good run," Dave said.

"Five hundred years?  We're going to go through that in the next two pages," Joe said.

Something was still worrying Dave.  "I don't get the prophecies, though.  They say that Rolojer is going to be a dynasty, but then they say if he doesn't marry the twins, there won't be a dynasty.  Which one of them is right?"

I shrugged.

"And come on, five hundred years?  That's nothing," said Dave, who was playing an immortal god that had been around since Year Zero.  

How long do you think a dynasty should last? I asked.

"That's a good point," he admitted.

"Five hundred years is a good run," Jack said, echoing Dave's prior comment.

"As long as they leave your giants alone," Joe said, "you don't care."

"If they were going to get destroyed in 20 years, it's probably the Conqueror coming here to wipe out their town," Dave said.

No, they were escaping the Conqueror, I said.  They never would have settled in any place the Conqueror was likely to come.  Again, they didn't follow up on that, or draw conclusions about what that might mean.  In order to reach Boladine, the Conqueror would have to come through the land of the giants — and I had just said the Conqueror would never come this far.

Rather than point this out, I asked instead, So you're fine with breeding twins into the line of the Abbadar?

They were.  "This is every geek's fantasy, to be married to hot twins," Dave asserted.

"He's sacrificing his freedom," Joe said piously, "to be with his two beautiful women."

"I buy that," said Dave, "and I totally support that."

Of such decisions is history made.

Results 

I won't know the results of this round until I prepare for the next round.

*You might well be asking at this point, "Another bride?  Haven't you got any other ideas?"  To be absolutely candid, I didn't care who Rolojer married.  It was a decision of absolutely no consequence.  What I was trying to do was present the Players with the Abbadar culture, where decisions were made based on vague, long-distant prophecies of the future, rather than upon the Here and Now.  It would be literally impossible to found a city anywhere on Earth that could never be touched by war, famine, disease, flood, earthquake, tornado, storm, typhoon, fire, or death.  Were the players going to continue to encourage that kind of prophetic doomthink?  Or were they going to encourage the Abbadar to concentrate more on the moment?

The New Gospels of In-Pella, Kad:2

An excerpt from The New Gospels of In-Pella, from the Book of Kader, chapter 2.

2:10     And as the time of the Conqueror neared, the people were able to sense the steps of his approach through the mists of time, and they were afraid.

2:11     And the fear overcame them, and one by one, they began to leave the lands of Sathad behind, abandoning farms and villages and shops, taking with them only what they needed to survive.

2:12     Now to the west of Sathad lay the Empire of Sathad-Zin, which was a land of giants, and so large were the giants that the walls of their cities reached high into the sky.

2:13     And the worshipers of Sathad said that the Sathad-Zin were gods descended from Paradise Valley, but the people of Abbadar worshiped them not.

2:14     Mighty were the works of the giants, and strong was their rule, for they were masters of fire and water and sky, and with them fought the bird-men of the air.

2:15     Here Kellmas said, “This is our new home, for the Sathad-Zin are strong enough indeed to repel the Conqueror in all his might, when he comes.”

2:16     But the twin Oracles, Levrin the boy and Larsa his twin sister, stood before their people and said, “This is no place of safety, for when the Conqueror comes, he will surely come also to Sathad-Zin.”

2:17     And Kellmas was old, and he had walked far, and he had abandoned even his wife to escape the fear of the coming Conqueror, and foolishly he ignored the words of the Oracle twins, and he said, “To come hither I have walked many miles, and I can go no further.  Let the Conqueror come, though I be consumed in fear.”

2:18     But many people heard the words of the Oracle twins, and they knew that they had been doubly blessed by Chimata, for they were two spirits combined, just as was the God Himself, and he had given them foresight unparalleled.

2:19     “Let us follow the Oracles of Chimata, young though they are,” said the people.  “For they have the wisdom of Chimata Himself.  Lead us, Oracles, though the way be very long.”

2:20     “Whether the way is short or long, we cannot see,” said the twins, “for our eyes are on the distant future.  When we come to a place where the Conqueror dares to come not, there we shall abide a while.”

Year 105,742: The Haesonian Dialogue

This Event was played out of sequence; it is chronologically concurrent with the Conqueror's invasion of Zefar.  For dramatic purposes, and to keep the players from unfairly using knowledge of one event to influence their behavior in another, I introduced this Event after the Conqueror handled the giants of Sathad-Zin.

Again, there was no historical document for this Event, since the players were familiar with the scene.

Alone among the people of the Delta, the Haesonai had a safe haven to which they could retreat.  The bulk of their people lived upon an island, so to there they retreated.  No one knew whether the Conqueror had a devastating fleet to match his terrible land army.  The Haesonai knew that Celestrones was from Joranne, and that the Bronze Empire was possessed of a navy, but perhaps Celestrones had not employed that navy in this conquest.  Was the navy engaged elsewhere?  Was it yet to come?

The various cities of the Haesonai did not spend idle time wondering.  They defended their waters with ships, each ship containing a sorceress who could raise a storm at need.  Winds and weather could keep the Conqueror at bay.

And the Haesonai were nothing if not adaptable.  Like the bamboo that grew in the marshes, they were flexible.  Their culture had been based upon competition, upon finding the best weapon for the job.  Unlike the Zefari, they had never relied upon one form of production.  The Haesonai believed in diversification.  Whichever was the best method would win out.  Swiftly they turned their attention to the use of iron and steel.  They had, after all, been trading partners of the Joranne, even though trade had fallen to a fraction of its previous level, so they had at least heard of steel before the Conqueror’s arrival.  And again, unlike their Zefari neighbors, their island was rich in iron.  All that was needed was time to forge a new army.  Safe behind their wall of storms, they bent iron into swords.

In defending their island against all incoming ships, the Haesonai had isolated themselves.  Even their sister cities on the mainland could not maintain contact when the seas, angry with magic, were too rough for travel.  Those cities had been left to defend themselves as best they could, wreathing their cities in illusions suitable to deflect the armies of the Conqueror.  His soldiers, the Haesonai believed, would never bother to conquer mere ruins.

But it was not merely the Conqueror with whom they had to contend.  The Zefari sent an envoy, backed by columns of soldiers, to the city of Veladis, right on the mouth of the bay.

General Drurich (M, 44) is a young for a high officer in the Zefari Army, but the constant defeats to Celestrian steel swords have thinned the ranks considerably.  He has been sent on an unpleasant but necessary task for the good of the Empire, and he has the backing of three divisions.  Drurich isn’t happy with his assignment.  Things back home aren’t going well.  The crumbling of Zefari social order is almost too far along to stop; the junior races of the Empire are wondering whether it might be time to abandon the security of the Empire and fend for themselves.  Independent city-states all along the coast are becoming hesitant to commit their support to a distant Emperor.

He addresses the Council of one such city of Veladis.  The council there is the Veladis Five, a small group of Haesonai amazon women and telepathic Boda.  The rule of the Five over Veladis dates back tens of thousands of years, back before the days when Chima and Tonta were combined into one.

“Council,” says General Drurich, “there is no use in pleasantries.  You are all painfully familiar with the approach of Celestria from the west, as are we all.  The Conqueror’s men approach, and they are bearing steel.  I need not inform you of the consequences of his arrival, so I will be brief.  The Emperor Rhees has sent me to collect your soldiers.”

“Our soldiers will remain here,” says Magister Ona (F, 58), an ex-military Haesonai woman.  “If our soldiers abandon the city, our walls cannot possibly hold.  Our people know this.  Without women to defend our walls, the people would panic and flee.  There would be chaos.  We cannot grant you the use of our soldiers.”

“The Emperor is not begging for soldiers,” says General Drurich.  “This is no request.  I am commanded to bring your soldiers to the front, where we make our stand against Celestrones.”

“That is impossible,” says Ona.  “It is a battle your army cannot win.  You cannot fight the Conqueror in an open field.  You have cavalry, and stone, and archers, but you do not have steel.  To stand up against the Conqueror in pitched battle is to march into death.  We will not authorize the Emperor their use.”

“The Emperor is descended from Chimata the Combined himself,” says Drurich, “who was set by the gods over Zefari and Haesonai alike.  That is his command, and your soldiers are to report to the battle.”

“Chimata the Combined respected Zefari and Haesonai alike,” says Magister Pleth (M, 33), a Boda telepath.  “He never would have burned one of his citizen to keep another citizen warm, as you propose to do by taking our defenses.”

“The Emperor has commanded me to observe how the Haesonai, especially of this city, did brisk business in trade with the people Bronze,” says Drurich.  “It occurs to him to wonder if perhaps the Veladians are allies more to Celestrones than to the Emperor.”

“Among the people of the Bronze Empire are merchants whom we know well,” says Magister Ona, “but of late we have traded with them little.  We are no allies of the Celestrians.”

“And yet,” Drurich says, “it is not the Haesonai whom Celestrones attacks.  He attacks Zefar’s armies only, sparing yours.  The Emperor may naturally wonder if you are in league with the Celestrians.”

“There is no collusion between Haesonai and the Conqueror,” says Ona.

“Do you call him Conqueror?” says Drurich.  “He is not yet conqueror of the Delta.  The armies of Zefar will obstruct Celestrones and his men with steel we are managing to create.  And if you of Veladis wish to earn your place in the Zefari Empire, you will send your soldiers into battle with us or be called craven.”

“We will do no such thing,” says Pleth.  “Our armies are our own to command, and our cities our own to defend.  When the Conqueror comes to Veladis we will hear his terms.”

“Then the Emperor, regretfully, declares your city forfeit.  Outside your walls I have two divisions of Zefari troops.  If you continue to obstruct the Empire we will destroy your city utterly.”

“Your Emperor,” says Pleth, “will make an enemy of all Haesonai.  They, at least, are our allies.  They are mistresses of the sea.  While your army lays siege outside our walls, the Haesonai navy may well come to our aid.  Our telepaths may even now, all unknown to you, be seeking out their vessels and calling them here.”

“The Emperor is not without a navy of his own,” says Drurich.  “If your people from the island of Amazons send their navy to assist you, they will first fight the Emperor’s own.  And still, I do not think this very likely, for your people must be concerned over their own safety as well.  Is it not more likely that your navy is occupied in defending the island?  How much of their strength would they spare to defend one city here?”

“They may send a very great force,” says Ona.  “And they may send none.  That remains to be seen.  Then, investing our city with your siege will cost you many soldiers that you can ill afford to spare from the battlefield.  Your Emperor may not find it wise.”

“The Emperor knows his people are anxious to rebel,” says Drurich.  “He does not wish to allow Veladis to go its own way, lest it give heart to other cities whose courage wavers.”

“And you propose to lay siege to Veladis, we who are not a threat, while all the while the Conqueror approaches at your back?” says Ona.  “Siege takes years that you do not have.  If your men fail to repel the Conqueror, you will be slaughtered on our doorstep.  Then, perhaps, your zombie corpses will serve better in our cause than they did in yours.”

("Oh, snap!" said Dave the Artisan.)

“If you are so desperate to hope for our destruction at the hands of the Celestrians, then you place no hope in your allies of Haesonai,” says Drurich.  “So again I say, supply your soldiers to the Zefari Army at once, to be taken into battle against Celestrones, or the city in which you live will be razed to its foundations.  The people of the Empire must see that the Emperor does not crawl away weakly when one of his subject cities resists him.”

What The Players Decided 
As one, they decided that the best result could be obtained by resisting the peremptory demands of General Drurich and the Emperor.

"I hate politics," Dave added.

"They should definitely fight," Jack said.

"Yeah, they should fight," Connor agreed.

Do you think that General Drurich has a point? I asked.

"Well, yes, but I'm not so sure if it'll stiffen the spines of the other rebellious cities," Dave said.

They realized with a certain dread that they had just prepared the Zefari Empire with spells and enchantments that could be used to fight the Conqueror, which the Zefari would now use to fight the Haesonai.

"We want the Zefari to be as strong as possible when it fights the Conqueror," Joe said.  "To be strong it has to have the united strength of all its cities.  That means we have to lose this one.  I say they have to fight."

"All right, they fight," Dave said.  "But I want it noted in the blog that I said to leave my giants alone."

Results 
I won't know the results of this round until I prepare for the next round.

Year 30,000: The Drim (Dar) Acquire A Telepath

Previous history

     Year 0: The Dar's cave is crushed in an earthquake

For the past 30,000 years, the Dar (red arrow) have spreading out over the southeast.  There are a multitude of Dar-related clans all over the Big River region.  In this part of the world, they are called the Drim, for languages change over time (probably more than this, but I wanted things to sound recognizable to the Players).

Round 2 begins with a Gathering where the various clans of the Drim get together to exchange tales, hunt the giant water buffalo and trade knowledge.  There is a matchmaking ceremony, of the same kind that the Players had set up in Year 0, where brides are exchanged between one Dar clan and another.

One of the promised brides is Temu (F, 15), the medicine woman for her tribe.  However, at the Gathering, a scandal breaks out:  Temu is rumored to be possessed by evil spirits!  Without using magic at all, she can touch a person and know what he is feeling or thinking.  She cannot be a medicine woman, say the other tribes:  nobody would have her! 

Her tribe’s leader and father, Vock the Tall (M), says she is a better medicine woman because she knows where it hurts.  The other tribes at the Gathering are unconvinced.

The Council of the Drim get together and summon the Heroes, and make their plea.  "Dispose of these evil spirits for us!" they beg the Players.  "Kill her if you must, but drive the spirits away.  We have tried the Old Rituals for driving away spirits, and they do not work!"

("Connor!" said Joe the Leader.  "Thanks a lot.  You told them to ignore the Old Ways.  And improvise."

"Hey, it sounded like a good idea," Connor said.)

The Council of the Drim includes three people:  Golm the Carver, the toolsmith to whom all toolsmiths bow, wise in the ways of spirits and craft.  Cheb the Stick, the powerful hunter and disciplinarian, who has mastered the art of drawing maps in the dirt.  Last is Ral the Raven (F), a healer ahead of her time.  She thinks the evil spirits are in Temu’s head and they can be removed.

("I don't like the sound of that," said the Dave the Artisan.)

What The Players Decided

First, they decided to persuade the Gathering that Temu really was a better healer because of her power.  "Prove it," said the Council of the Drim. 

"Uh..." the Players said, never a good sign, and they immediately confabulated.

"We'll just bring some animal or something that's sick, and she can heal it, and that'll be that," said Joe the Leader.

"That just proves she can heal animals.  They'll want to see she's better at healing people," argued Dave the Artisan.

"I can see to it that some of them need healing," said Joe grimly.

"We'll just hold some kind of contest.  We'll get some animals — are there any animals around here that we could trap?" Dave the Artisan asked.

Yes, I said; there was a small proto-horse called the aguen, and a small ocelot-sized hunting cat.

"Hey, maybe we can get them to start domesticating animals," Dave said.  "We'll get some of those."

What with? I asked.

Dave rolled a few dice, hoping to successfully invent the first animal cage.  He succeeded, and the Players took a short expedition to go find some animals that they could use to test Temu's alleged healing prowess.  (I noted with interest that they didn't actually test the assumption that Temu had any healing prowess.  They were just going to stake their reputations on this ability sight unseen.  Making assumptions could get them into trouble someday.)

Once two similar aguens were captured they could begin planning this healing demonstration.  "All we need is for the animals to be injured equally," said Joe the Leader.

"Not equally.  We want Temu to win," Connor the Mystic reminded him.

"And do we really want to encourage a tribe to go around maiming animals?" asked Dave.  "We just want them to look sick."

The Players scrounged around for plants with a pharmacological effect, rather than physically injure them.  They drugged both animals, one more heavily than the other, and presented them to both Temu and to Ral the Raven.  Temu, of course, was to get the aguen who was less heavily medicated.

"We should test the effect of the plants," said Joe the Leader, who in Real Life is a nurse.  "Then we can time how long the drugs last.  Connor, how good is your Tell Time spell?"

"Uh ... I didn't take that one."

Boldly (because they had no choice) they proceeded with the demonstration.  The two healers, Temu and Ral, sat down before their unfamiliar animal patients.  Ral the Raven discerned that the animal had eaten something that didn't agree with it, and found some herbs she could use an emetic to make it vomit up all those lovely drugged leaves.  Temu, meanwhile, had simply touched her aguen and sat back placidly, doing nothing.

"Are you not capable of healing?" asked the jeering tribesmen at the Gathering.

"It isn't sick," Temu said.  "It's sleeping."

The diagnosis was confirmed when Ral the Raven's aguen vomited up its narcotic salad.  The tribesmen were convinced and the Players were off the hook.

As a finishing touch, Connor the Mystic taught Temu some magic spells to help her defend herself should her fellow clansmen again conclude that she was a evil soul-stealing witch.  (That she might really be an evil soul-stealing witch apparently never occurred to him.)

Result

The Drim tribes of the Big River area would now have a strain of telepaths, and possibly other psionic or psychokinetic powers to come. Furthermore, they had been given a great big push in the direction of animal domestication, although it must be admitted that the players weren't asking me for domesticable animals for their demonstration.