The Faerie Wood

The sound of a beating heart thumped and throbbed next to the howling whirl of a high-pitched tinning that rattled through Da'La's head. Da'La slowly opened her eyes, and was met with a grey and green blur, with a tint of dancing orange, as she felt a heat from a nearby fire. Exhausted, she closed them again.  

No, Da'La thought, Mon Divinica needs me… To call her body sore, was an understatement. It hurt; her body ached in ways she had rarely experienced. Da'La forced her eyes back open, the blurring of green and grey and orange hurting her eyes, and blinking, things slowly came into focus. She could see from her vantage point torn steel, sitting on a marshy green and brown forest bed, pieces of the tarp balloon, which had caught on fire. The memory of the flight toward Twilight Run, the abandonment of the captain, and the nosedive into the woods below came back to her.  

Determined, Da'La braced her hand against the cool grassy dirt bed of the forest floor, attempting leverage to get to her feet. An unfathomable pain took over and tore through her body as she collapsed, letting out a strained whine, and rolling to her back. Her left arm was broken. Grunting, Da'La slowly managed her way to her feet.  

They had crashed into a light section of the forest, not quite a clearing, but a place with space among the large thick set roots of the barky oak, in which moss grew on all sides. The forest bed was covered in dry vines and wet marsh, which smelled of musky leaves with a slight hint of baking spices. The forest stretched out around near infinitely around her, but that wasn't what bothered her. The forest bed curled. Not in the way that paths and clearings wind through forests, but rather it rolled so that in places the bed was perpendicular to where she stood, and the trees stood straight sideways from her perspective, as the forest became thicker as it went on. Small lights, like fireflies in summer evenings, but blinking and glowing multiple spectrums of colors. The sky above was sunless, instead the light came from what seemed to be infinite rainbows, that rolled like clouds into the horizon.  

Da'La looked around, panicked. Sitting back on a tree, she could see Kunjao, who was grunting and winging while he held his right eye and blood gushed from his hand. Kneeling over him was Lodak, who was now trying to tend to his injured friend. Da'La resisted the urge to see what the matter was, she had to find Sister Margaret. She scanned her surroundings closely.  

She heard the snap of a twig, and turned immediately, seeing what appeared to be the back of a small white nightgown, and pale back of a thigh and small shoeless foot, walking around the dilapidated wreckage of the sky carriage. Da'La, holding her arm, rushed around the wreckage, and upon lapping it, found not the source of the leg, but a hand limply under an upturned cushion bench from the inside of the sky carriage and dangling from it: a chain with a sigil that looked like a shield, with a heart and caduceus within.  

Da'La rushed to it, fear overtaking her, she used her good arm to flip the bench, revealing Maggie, who laid under it on the floor of the forest, scratches and rub burns pinking her freckled face. Da'La pulled Maggie away from the wreckage, eyeing the fiery tarp, and pulled a mirror from her roll, and praying to Merne, goddess of protection, put it against Maggie's nose. It fogged. Feeling relief wash over Da’La, she began to gently shake Maggie.  

Maggie's eyes fluttered open, at first squinting with the light, and groaning, her eyes suddenly widened in horror, and she let out a blood curdling scream, "My leg! My leg is…" She babbled incomprehensibly as tears flooded through her eyes. She yelled. Da'La lifted Maggie's dress, and her right thigh was pierced, gushing with blood, and a blood-soaked white shard of bone poked out of her skin.  

"Maggie?" Came, groggily from the left, as Star began jogging, but slower than he seemingly wanted, he made his way toward the two. He was paler than usual, the grey of his tentacled face, giving way to slight green. He was notably shining, slightly, as a film of mucus covered his skin. His eyes, squinted. Following behind him, Lodak, who had excused himself from his friend, jogged up.  

"Her leg is broken," Da'La informed, as she gripped part of Maggie's dress that was over the leg, and using her good hand, and her lizard beak, began to tear it.  

Star looked to Lodak, "Did you guys pack some alcohol? Clearer the better!" He demanded.  

"Kunjao ‘as a piece of glass in ‘is eye," Lodak said stunned.  

"We'll deal with that in a second!" Star barked. And pointed toward Maggie, kneeling beside her, whose lips puffed out, and her mouth curled to the corner of her face.  

"It hurts so bad, Da'La." She strained, "Why does it hurt so bad?" This was followed by a sob.  

"She is the only one who can heal, so please, did you bring alcohol?" Star insisted.  

Lodak ran, and retrieved a backpack, which had been cast from the sky carriage, and ran back with it. He rooted through it, and pulled out a clear bottle of mint Schnapps, and handed it to Star.  

"It'll have to do," Star turned to Da'La, as she had managed to coax off a strip of dress. "Are you ok?" Star asked, as he panted, and held his chest.  

"My arm is broken, you vill have to tie zhe tourniquet." Da'La handed him the strip of green dress cloth. Maggie screamed again, quickly turning into a fit of pain.  

Star soaked the rag in the Schnapps, the mint burning his nostrils, and he folded the rag into a band. He then poured the Schnapps over the wound, and Maggie let out another blood curdling scream as she arched her back.   

Da'La, working quick, grabbed a nearby branch that had fallen from a tree, and before she could place it sideways, Star handed Maggie the bottle.   

"Drink." Star commanded, and she through streaming tears obeyed. Star tied the tourniquet, tightly around at first, and the cloth soaked the blood. After Maggie had succeeded in gulping down a few healthy portions, but afterward the bottle jetted out of her mouth, as she coughed violently, followed by whines and sobs of pain.   

Maggie babbled, incomprehensibly still through the pain, as Da'La placed the branch between her teeth, "bite." She commanded, and Maggie obeyed, her eyes puffing from tears. With her good hand, Da'La laid it on the tourniquet, "Hold her legs," She commanded Lodak, who knelt and using his giant hands, managed to use two to hold down her legs, and the other two to hold down her torso, leaving an arch under his body for Da'La. Star grabbed both of Maggie's hands and held them over her head.  

"Un… Deux… Trois!" Da'La counted, and using her weight, she pushed the bone back into place, as Maggie screamed and bit on the branch, and her body tensed and struggled with pain. Da'La, using her beak and hand, tightened the tourniquet.   

_____________________________________________  

It took them a few hours to recover Maggie enough, to which she could assess injuries. They came to her, one by one. Da'La's left forearm was broken, Star had a concussion and some broken ribs, a piece of glass had lodged in Kunjao's eye, and Lodak had some burns up one of his arms. Maggie quickly found that the severity of these injuries were slightly beyond her healing abilities, which were much more suited for cuts and bruises, and far less for broken bones. But she could accelerate the healing, they used pieces for her dress (which increasingly began to resemble a miniature skirt) to form a stint and sling for Da'La, a stint around Star's chest, a wrap for Lodak, and an eyepatch for Kunjao.   

Now, all wearing jade color accoutrement, and smelling slightly of mint, they gathered their resources.  

Kunjao managed a crystal decanter, filled with a syrupy purple liquid, whose film cling to the inside of the bottle like honey. He handed it to Maggie. "Potion of Analgesics," He explained.  

She looked at it and opened it. It smelled of alcohol and alchemic disinfectant. She looked at Kunjao.  

"It makes the pain… subside slightly, you need it more than I. Besides, I have a few more." Kunjao explained.  

Maggie drank the potion, it was awfully bitter, tasting of sassafras, pith, and a medical staleness that stuck to her mouth. A warm sensation flooded over Maggie, and the searing pain of her leg gave way to a dull throb. "Thank you, Kunjao."  

Kunjao nodded and stood up.  

"Where are we?" Star asked, as he looked to the sky.  

"Faerie Wood," came Lodak, his soft thundering voice filling the air, "I've 'eard stories 'bout it. People dun en'er through the Dancers and find ‘emselves in other worlds."  

"The Fae," Maggie gave a small smile. The whimsy of the idea overtook her, she looked up at the rainbow sky.  

"Yeah." Lodak said, glumly. "The Fae…"  

"So which way do we go?" Asked Star, peering around the woods.  

Da'La stared into the woods, her eyes caught something. A white figure, with long draping black hair, barefoot, in what seemed to be a white nightgown, it disappeared behind a tree as she looked at it.  

"What was that?" Kunjao said, walking next to Da'La, training his one good eye toward the thicket.  

"You saw it too?" Da'La asked.  

"Saw what?" Came Maggie, shooting back from the sky.  

"Little girl, looked like." Kunjao said.  

"I saw her bevore." Confirmed Da'La, "It is how I found you, Mon Divinica." Da'La said.  

"Well, I don't see any other clue," Said Star, putting his satchel over his shoulder. "Pack up the necessities, let's go."  

_______________________________________________________  

After a small debate about necessities, the group pushed onward through the Faerie Wood, all carrying one bag, with the exception of Maggie, She was sidled up on Lodak's back, sitting on his backpack, and holding on to his thick neck like a piggyback ride. Maggie noticed, that while the potion had subdued the pain, occasionally the thundering gait of her large friend sent shocks up her legs, and the pain would quickly return, only to subside again.  

Travel through the Faerie Wood was strange. Compasses didn't work, the needle spinning uselessly on its axis, and they couldn't navigate by moss, as the amazingly spectral colored moss, grew on all sides of the trees. The land never slanted to the side, as they anticipated, always staying level with their feet, but as they turned back, it curled like a Möbius strip, or a Klein bottle behind them, in a way that hurt their collective heads.  

The pressed forward through the woods, as the thicket overhead, obscured more of the sky, but the light maintained constantly as the multicolored fireflies shone the floor. They passed a small section, where between the trees were gigantic red mushroom caps, that stood to everyone but Lodak's waist, and little white dots the size of Maggie's fist.  

"My god, imagine those fried in butter, and served on a grilled Grouper." Maggie said, her mouth-watering.  

"I'm not sure they taste that good," Star said, pressing forward.  

"This is the Fae, Star." Maggie came back, "They could taste like sugar plums, for all we know." She turned to her Dek'Har. "Da'La, could you cut off a piece for me?" She asked sweetly.   

Da'La nodded and began to approach one of the large caps.  

"We do not have time for this." Star said, his words straining through his throbbing headache.  

"I'll do it," Kunjao said, walking passed Da'La, "I have two workin' arms."   

"Thank you, Kunjao." Maggie said.  

"We'll need food anyway." Kunjao unsheathed his Odachi, as he approached the cap. As he winded it up to cut the cap off the stock, he felts something move around his ankle, over his wooden sandals. It was a gnarled vine that came rooted from the ground, that latched tight on to his ankles and pulled.  

Kunjao managed his footing with one leg, as the Mushroom cap began to rise slowly from the ground, revealing a toothy maw. Kunjao, panicked, sliced the vine from his leg and stumbled back toward the group. A rumbling from around the group, as the sound of tearing roots, snapping vines, and rolling dirt surrounded the party.  

Branch-like claws, made from mycelium, dragged the caps from the ground, revealing that the lip of the Mushroom caps, were the upper lips of mawing mouths, with sharp teeth made of barky stalk. Their bodies, thin stalks with wrapping intertwining mycelium made sharp claws and feet, the eyelines, that would be if any of them had eyes, of the mushroom creatures, a dozen or so, lay at about everyone's pelvis.  

"I don't think they taste like sugar plums…" Maggie said, her voice cracking, as the creatures began to close in.  

Da'La and Kunjao readied their blades, Kunjao gripping his with both hands, and Da'La only her katana in her right, as the mushroom creatures approached. Star readied his pepperbox, and backed into the abdomen of Lodak, as Da'La and Kunjao closed to his front. The gibbering creatures, snapped and snarled as they closed in on the ground.  

Lodak reached into his bag, and produced his long Oboe, wetting the reed quickly with his tongue.  

"Now's not really the time for a song, Lodak." said Star, trying to figure out which one of the dozen Mushroom headed creatures to fire at.  

They rushed, flying at them from all angles, but as they jumped in midair, Lodak blew a long deep note into his Oboe, which began to glow a bright indigo, and a sphere of indigo energy harmlessly passed through the ground and slammed against the Mushroom creatures, throwing them back toward the trees.  

"Lodak's not just a musician," Kunjao smiled, "He's a student of the Great Chord. He's a Bard." The mushroom creatures began to pull to their vine-like feet again, as Lodak began to play a soft tempo, that rhythmed faster and faster as an indigo smoke came from the horn and entered all parties noses. At once, their senses flared, their eyes focused, and they became acutely aware of their surroundings, as well as everyone else's positions. Maggie swore she could hear drums begin, and brass horns and string instruments tune.  

The mushroom creatures rushed. Giving each other a quick glance, Kunjao pivoted and ducked around, with Da'La rolling over his back and switching places, coming down with a graceful chop to one of the creatures, splitting its cap, as Kunjao plunged his blade into another. Star lifted his pepperbox, as their bodies separated, and a small sphere of air condensed around the barrel, he fired, and a tunnel of sonic energy followed the bullet and hit two of the creatures splitting them open. One dove toward Da'La, but a vine, which glowed golden whipped and grasped the creature in midair, and flung it fast against the tree, Maggie, holding her glowing sigil, guiding the vine with her hand.  

The tempo had built to the beat of a speak easy night club band, as Lodak waved his Oboe through the air to the beat, firing two balls of fire from the horn, it colliding into two of the creatures. The remaining five slowed their approach. Star cocked his pepperbox and fired a warning shot. They scattered back into the trees, as the band music began to slow down.  

A quiet beat.  

Maggie spoke, "That was awesome!"  

__________________________________________________  

The group made their way through the forest, the treetops canvassing most of the light, making the forest now look like a twilight grove. They moved through, twigs and fallen leaves crunching at their feet. They had been moving for hours it seemed, Maggie's leg had begun to throb harder, each step of the gigantic bard shocking her leg.  

"You have any more of that potion?" She called to Kunjao.  

"Yeah, but I think you'd have to ration it a bit. Two left." Kunjao tossed her a bottle. Maggie drank it greedily, as the wave of calm coursed through her veins. She'd have to heal it again when they rested. Maggie turned her head as they walked by a large tree with a branch that curled over to an inset rolling hill. "Hey… Am I just really high, or do you guys see that too?"  

Under the branch, the path went downward, through a thicket of densely packed trees. But over the branch, as if starting from it, a whole new forest bed stretched out in front of them, with tall red woods, nearly evenly spaced, rolling out against the rainbow sky. It hurt the brain to see it. The entire group stood in stunned silence as they tried to parse what exactly they were looking at.  

"Divergent Path," Star said.  

"Which way do we go?" Kunjao asked.  

Da'La looked down the bramble path of thicket and narrowed her eyes. For a second, she spotted the face of a pale little girl, with long black hair, wearing a white nightgown, staring at her.   

"Zhis vay!" Da'La called, rushing toward the lower path. The rest followed Da'La. As she unleashed her sword to cut bramble in her path. Hacking, and moving through the thicket, the group emerged on a deep forest path. The light from the rainbow sky was dim, only the multicolored fireflies gave light enough to see. The trees intertwined not far above the group, making the whole path seem like a cave of bark walls and brush ceiling.  

"Da'La, what was that about?" Star asked, as he negotiated out of the bramble on to the dirt trail.  

"Zhere was the girl." Da'La said, looking off down the darkened trail, mindlessly sheathing her sword.  

"You and Kunjao have been the only ones to see this girl." Star said, narrowing his eyes.  

"And ve are hallucinating zhis, is vhat you're implying. Zhe same girl?" Da'La asked, her voice accusing.  

"No, just these woods… play tricks on people. We should be careful." Star warned.  

"For now, it seems to be our only lead." Maggie said, looking over the shoulder of her gigantic companion.  

Star had to admit the logic in this. They pressed forward, fanning out a little as the path had given some extra room in comparison to moving through the trees. They moved a little down the path, and heard a creak, like a whole tree trunk bending and cracking behind them. They turned, and the same sound magnified a hundred times began to roar at them, as the forest ceiling, and the trees pulled together like a curtain being quickly closed, and the canopy of the forest progressively closed from the clearing of the thicket from where they came, and collapsed, rushing like a beast toward the party.  

They ran, hopping over branches, diving under trees, except for Lodak, who with miraculous assistance from Maggie, brute forced the obstacles, and broke through the trees as the others were gaining footing on the other side. The group gains traction again, as Maggie peeked behind her, the forest was still chasing them. They turn the corner, Da'La and Kunjao swinging gracefully, but Star and Lodak slammed into thicket of trees and turned to a mudslide. Without time to think, they slid down, first Lodak and Maggie, Lodak sitting and sliding down like a kid on the slide, followed by Da'La and Kunjao, who kept to their feet, pointing a forefoot and leaning back for stability, and finally Star, who dove on to his belly. They reached the bottom of the basin and narrowly caught themselves in front of a chasm, that inexplicably separated the trail in the forest, the opposite bank of which sat maybe ten feet away.  

"I'm sorry, Maggie." Lodak said, and before she could return, Lodak grabbed Maggie with his upper arms, and threw her across the chasm, her landing safely on the other side, crying out for a moment in pain as she hit her leg. Kunjao took a running leap, using a branch halfway across as leverage and landed next to Maggie, followed by Da'La, who leaped on the thicket of trees, and kicked off with a spin, and landed on the other side. The forest was closing in, Star and Lodak stuck on the other side.   

As the collapsing forest managed to get halfway down the mudslide, Lodak grabbed star and made a running leap across the cavern, Star hitting the ground and sliding, as Lodak, holding on to the side of the chasm with all four arms, struggled to pull himself up. Da'La and Kunjao rushed to grab his top arms, and with the leverage pulled Lodak dangling from the chasm, who using all four arms and two legs, running like an insect, in one quick movement grabbed Maggie and began to run.   

The howling forest still chasing them, as the thicket ahead became bramble. They pushed through it, as it scratched their arms and faces, moving and clawing through the bramble to the tune of the howling forest behind them, they spotted a small blue light. They moved toward it, pushing through the pain until they fell out and hit the water. All became quiet as the bubbles escaped their mouths. Maggie, who had grown up in a port city pushed her way up to the surface, doing her best to ignore the pain in her leg, but the water was shallow. Slightly embarrassed, she grabbed on to the nearest thing, which happened to be Kunjao, and picked herself up on her good leg, and face dripping, took a deep breath.  

All of them stood in a waist high stream of glowing blue water, that shined and illuminated the area, granting a blue tinge on everything it touched. They stood in a pond, that trickled out to two streams surrounding a small island, on which sat a fire and small hut. Surrounding the entire clearing, at every tend feet were large red stones that stood higher than Lodak.  

Star took off his hat and wrung it out. Maggie looked around at her companions. "We're alive!" She called out with a laugh.  

"Yeah, and if you want to keep it that way, you'll move over to one of the dancers." Came an even, neutral accented voice. Standing on the island was a man, by all accounts fairly handsome, with a square jaw and a well-kept beard. He had black hair and the glowing blue eyes of a manifest, that melded with the blue incandescence emanating from the stream. He wore a long black coat, with blue trimming, and blue inner lining, a waistcoat over a purple shirt, and a red tie, with a golden button and an opal set into it. On his hand was a magenta gem, cut in a long hexagon, and seemingly adhered by itself to the back of his right hand.   

The man made a quick gesture, like he was playing cat's cradle with one hand, and muttered a small phrase, while the jewel on his hand lit, and a fire rose like a torch above his upturned and closed fingered hand.  

All of them stood still for a moment, watching the man with the dancing fire.  

"I'm not kidding." The man said, "touch the dancer." He gestured with his other hand to the red stones lining the small Oasis.   

All but Star, Maggie using Kunjao as a crutch, moved toward the dancers to comply. Star instead pulled his pepperbox and stood his ground.  

"I'm not kidding." The man barked, "You don't touch the dancer, I will set this entire clearing on fire." With that word the fire flamed up.  

Star and the well-dressed man locked eyes. "I'm not going, anywhere." Star said.  

"Star, it's a simple request, be reasonable." Maggie called out.  

Silence.  

For what seemed like an eternity, Star and the man locked eyes. Then, sighing, Star approached one of the large red stones, and touched it, his gun in his other hand swinging into it and attaching to the stone, the sudden shock of which pinching his ribs. "AH!" Star cried for a moment.  

"Oh, thank all the Gods." The man dispelled the small ball of fire with a gesture, his previously severe face melting into an exhausted and somewhat gaumless smile. "Your bullet would have hit me before my firebolt, I guarantee it. You're not Fae, though, so you're well met." The man said, as Star struggled, and slowly pried his gun from the Dancer. "They're magnetic iron, by the way. Fairly weak field but keeps the Fae out."  

"Who in the 12 hells are you?" Maggie asked, stunned at the pace in which the man changed cadence.  

"Oh! Apologies, this is the first time I've had guests in forever." The man spread his arms out like a circus ringleader presenting himself, "Roddick-Tem. Welcome to Casa del Tem," He gestured around him. "Please, come up, try the Gnome." He waved his hand to the spit, which to Maggie's horror had one of the mushroom creatures, skewered from stalk to cap, laying on a rotisserie, with its mouth agape.  

_______________________________________________  

"That was shockingly delicious." Maggie said, sitting next to the fire, with a red piece of the gnome’s cap in her hand, half eaten. Maggie was surprised to note that it did have a taste somewhat like a meaty brown sugar.  

"Yeah," came Roddick, "I would have made bread, but the wild yeast I cultivated here bit me." He said wryly. Maggie let out a giggle. "That wasn't a joke, this place is a hellscape."  

"Then why are you here?" Asked Star, who sat, smoking one of his cigarillos.   

"Why are you here?" Roddick returned.  

"Our sky carriage crashed." Explained Da'La, who sat next to Maggie, clearing a plate of breadless gnome.  

"Really?" Roddick looked taken aback for a moment, "You should be dead."  

"Yeah, no thanks to my miracle." Maggie muttered.  

"Your miracle is probably the only reason we survived," Star assured his friend.  

"'Miracle'?" Roddick sneered. It was met with silence.  

"How long have you been here?" Kunjao was leaning next to a log, he turned his good eye to Roddick.  

"About a week." Roddick said. "I was going to see a friend in Twilight Run."  

"Really, Twilight Run?" Maggie chuckled at the coincidence.  

"Yeah," Roddick said, not realizing the significance. "Thing is, the gate to Twilight Run was closed, no-one knows why, and there was no way in hell I was going to make my way through the Faerie Wood. So I followed the train tracks."  

"So ‘ow'd ya end up 'ere?" Lodak, who sat on the other side of the fire, propping himself up with all four hands.  

"Well, I came across a town, Dusk Junction." Roddick said, turning to the behemoth bard, he turned his head back to the group, "Thing is, it was overrun by elves. Devilish creatures who manipulate humans with Glamour."  

"So, you fought them valiantly, and accidentally stumbled into the Fae while running them off!" Maggie said, excitedly.  

Roddick let out a laugh, "Hahaha, no I ran." Maggie's excited face turned to a disappointed shock, Roddick continued, "Thing is, I'm not immune to Glamour like psionics. So, I bolted, before I knew it, in the midst of the night, I ended up crossing into the Fae. That was about a week ago, I think," Roddick pointed to the shifting rainbow sky, "No sun means no night."  

"So, you're a coward." Accused Maggie.  

"I prefer survivalist." Roddick said, his smile never leaving his now punchable face.  

"What is Glamour?" It was Kunjao, who sat forward from his log.  

"It's the magic the Fae uses." Said Roddick, "Well… I say magic, it's so old that it barely qualifies anymore. It's the property it uses to distort itself, sometimes twisting things into mocking facsimiles of reality, sometimes using it to be whimsily attractive to people. It's powerful magic."  

"You vandered in, so vhy didn't you just go back zhe vay you came?" Da'La asked.  

"Unfortunately, the Fae doesn't work that way," Explained Roddick, "you have to pass through certain, points. Junctions where the Fae meets the outside world. I haven't found one yet. I got lucky to find this place, how did you get here?"  

Everyone stared at Da'La, who after a moment, "We followed a little girl."  

"You what?" This was the first time that Roddicks boyish smile dissolved, he stood up and looked around. He heard a slight giggle. Everyone but Maggie stood up as well and looked around.   

"There… you are…" It was a little girl's voice calling out from the woods, Roddick froze in place.  

"Vhat's wrong?" Da'La asked, her blood turning cold. Da'La looked, and pointed behind the hut, where stood a little pale girl in a white gown, standing just beyond the dancers, with black hair that shaded her eyes. She gave a smile toward Da'La, that at the moment seemed almost menacing. Everyone looked, as it faded slowly from view.   

"What is that?" Came Kunjao.  

"That's a Faerie." Spat Roddick, "You followed a fucking Faerie."  

  GM's Notes: One of the methods I had used in this session to racket up tension was Injuries. Historically, for me, Injuries had always been a mixed bag. While I like them for the purposes of hampering the players enough to force them to be creative, applying them has always been a bit difficult. It's hard to find a balance between a mechanical obstacle, and making the players feel like they're being punished. Tying it to massive damage uses it too prodigiously in my opinion, cheapening the effect. But saving injuries for particularly catastrophic events, like a player failing a roll they really needed to make, or for example, their sky carriage falling from the sky, grants the tool power.  

Yes, the players had to deal with the mechanical fallout of not having their full range of abilities, but that minor sacrifice came with the benefit of racketing up tension. Which is a tradeoff I think was worth it, in the end.  

So, let's talk about my version of the Fae. I think it's obvious that I take cues from various folklores about the Fae, instead of the more traditional fantasy Tolkienesque elves and dwarves. To be clear, I don't have a problem with any of that, but since my world already has different races, I decided folklore, with its trickster elements was far more interesting of a choice for my world. So instead of having ancient stoic elves, I decided to lean in a more Seelie/Unseelie direction.  

But I wouldn't be me if I didn't lean a little into the horrifying alien-ness of the ordeal. To me, a realm in which doesn't obey the same logical rules as ours, should feel off, in some measure. And, while I do enjoy some whimsy, I felt when constructing my Fae, that I would try to bring that across to my players, the result was an off kilter feel that I think worked.  

A note about Roddick. So, I mentioned earlier, at first, I only had two players, Maggie and Star. Roddick represents the third, and only mainstay since. But funnily enough, the day of the session he was supposed to be introduced, Roddick's player informs me that he was scheduled to work last minute, which is totally fine, but left me at an imposition. What do I do about this character? I decided, instead of replanning this section, to NPC Roddick until he was able to return (which actually wouldn't be for a few sessions, as it turns out). But yes, finally we have reached the point where we have the full group.  

A little housekeeping: I return to work tomorrow, and I still plan to write when I can and get these chapters out at a good pace, but this does mean I won't have my three hours in the noon hours to write, so this is going to go a little slower from here on. Hope you stick around.  

Written by: Jack Shawhan
Proofread and Edited by: Alhana Escher
Original Characters played by:
Donovan Hill - Maggie
Stephen Kirk - Star
Joshua Horton - Roddick-Tem

Schancier, Whispers of Ja Reyil, and all associated copyright Jack Shawhan, 2020