Hello, I thought I'd post this here as I plan to write the events of my new D&D Campaign which are based upon Magic the Gathering and the recently published Plane Shift articles. Timeline- just previous to the events of HoD.
The Campaign centers around a new group of fledgling Planeswalkers who must together navigate their new reality as Plane-hopping heroes/anti-heroes, whose actions may determine the fate of worlds and even entire realities of existence.
6 players rolled 2 dice, one of which determined one of their two colour alignments, and the other determining the plane in which they were born. Players were then instructed to create a character based upon the colours and Plane rolled, while choosing their character's race, class and background in addition to choosing an additional color from which to base their character.
Alignment I told them, was not as important as playing true to the colour combination of your character. Players' colours and characterization might expand, contract or shift over time, in accordance to their choices and experiences but these changes would be gradual and may influence what magic one had access to.
Finally, characters where given two lands based upon their plane and chosen colours, which allows them to cast card-spells (no creatures so far)once a session, per DM approval. Effects of the spell are interpreted by the DM and are matched more for flavor than anything. As this is a potentially abusive and powerful effect, the DM is still experimenting with it.
The Six players:
Anya, a BU Vedalken Sorcerer from Kaladesh whose secret powers over storm magic is only matched by her cautious ambition and expertise in understanding and profiting from capitalistic economies. But all power begets envious rivals, some of which she thought her friends and family.
Drake Noivar, a WB Human Paladin from Innistrad. Drake is an older, veteran cathar who realized after the events of Eldritch Moon that darkness is just part of his world's (and perhaps all of existence's) very nature and that sometimes one must embrace dark means for more noble ends.
Ameniphus, a WR Aven Monk from Amonkhet. Hawk-headed and mentally independant, Ameniphus was one of the few Amonkhetu who suspected their 'god' Nicol Bolas as more tyrant and interloper than a benevolent judge of worthiness. Following Samut's lead, he tried to further the cause of righteous rebellion on his plane until his life took an unexpected turn.
Rhydeon, a WG Human Druid from Innistrad. As a druid protecting his personal grove and home within the Umberwald and the Innistrad's forests in general, Rhydeon has always tried to balance necessity with kindness, doing his best to help those lost or less fortunate than himself. However, after the events of Eldritch Moon left his grove destroyed and his sense of optimism scarred, Rhydeon has need of new purpose and healing, and fate it seems has one of these in mind for him.
Bimori, the UR Merfolk Eldritch Warrior (Fighter Archetype) from Ixalan. A bit of an outcast among the River Heralds, Bimori had always felt closer to his gut and sense of curiosity than any ties to nature, but this selfsame curiosity has recently landed him in trouble. After stealing a strange artifact from an even stranger personage deep within an oceanic trench, Bimori has been on the run, only narrowly avoiding pursuit. His luck however is about to end after joining a pirate crew sailing for Ixalan's coast and gold- or is it?
Gaka, a BR Goblin Rogue from Zendikar. Gaka is pretty shrewd for a goblin, as he has had to be to make a living on post-Eldrazi Zendikar as an expedition guide. But even the most cunning goblin has their faults, so when Gaka noticed a particularly shiny treasure dangling below a hazardous precipice while questing with his clients he took a risk and later a tumble and that was supposedly the end of Gaka. But Gaka's companions are going to regret gambling against the goblin's odds of survival soon enough...
Ok we've had about three sessions so far, let me paraphrase each in a post:
First Session: Sparking Up
The first session took us to the various home planes of our heroes and antiheroes and saw how their sparks ignited. Not all were available for this first session so some of these circumstances were a bit mysterious. The first session was short.
Ameniphas
Ameniphas the Aven Monk on Amonkhet was fighting a losing battle with his fellow dissenters in the city-state of Naktamun. Just a few hours previously, Ameniphas and his comrades had been released from sarcophagi, and word had spread to his small band that the 'strangers' who released them, as well as many of their comrades elsewhere had been apprehended by the gods themselves.
Ameniphas and his group put up a worthy fight but were overwhelmed. The Aven monk, while balancing passion and compassion and displaying much martial and embodied magical skill soon met his match when he became reunited through aerial combat with the very angel that locked him up in the first place-
-Except this time the Angel was wielding a ridiculously large mace instead of a crook.
Ameniphas fought valiantly and even managed to harm the celestial but took a blow to the head and was felled by the Angel, nothing even left of the warrior in the brilliant flash of radiant energy that followed. In reality, Ameniphas's spark ignited and he followed a mysterious green aurora to an unknown fate.
Anya
Raised in a wealthy corporate Vedalken House on Kaledesh, but recently acquiring an ascendant place within through sheer hard work, ruthless pragmatism and emotional self-control, the Vedalken financial analyst Anya has a terrible secret: She is an ambient sorceress, with powers over wind and storm, just to name a few.
Anya is enjoying a private celebration of an Aether harvest and relay station constructed by her House for the reformed Consulate, with coworkers- her Vedalken fiance Santosh and brother Asha. She is enjoying the praise of her recent successes, which included the correct analysis that the Renegades would come out victorious and worth patroning, and the series of contracts, profitable stock manipulations and financial edging over business rivals that followed.
Anya notes however that Santosh has seemed distant all day and has yet to join Asha in praising her hard work. What followed would change her life forever. Together Santosh and Asha came to the conclusion that Anya was a 'poor fit' for the company, with Santosh betraying Anya's secret sorcery to Asha and fearing that Anya's alignment with the Renegades was more out of personal self-interest and emotional bias than objective analysis.
Asha, driven less by objectivity and more out of the need to remove a rival, conspired with Santosh and arranged to illegally remove Anya and her influence from the company. Santosh desired to convince Anya to retire quietly to the countryside but neither Anya nor Asha were interested in such.
In a bold move, Asha and his personal entourage of Aetherborn bodyguards physically overcame Anya, shackled her, and left her to die as a distraught Santosh and smug Asha & guard left the Collector and Relay faculty, which was sabotaged from the start to malfunction and explode, covering up the murder.
Anya screamed and swore her undying hatred as the the overry overloaded, her spark ignited and she planeswalked for the first time, following the same mystical Green aurora as Ameniphas
Bimori
Bimori is a Merfolk Eldritch fighter on Ixalan. Not as enthused by the shamanistic, spiritual life of his people, the River Heralds, Bimori's intuition leads him more to a life of exploration and even piracy.
While exploring an underwater trench and evading the unusual traps therein, Bimori found and stole a strange artificial sphere, and ever since, his trail has been dogged by disaster after freezing disaster, narrowly avoiding unnatural tempests of ice and snow.
While fleeing aboard a pirate vessel heading to the continent of Ixalan, and hiring himself out as a member of the crew, Bimori's ship is run aground by a geological impossibility, an iceberg within the warm sea between High and Dry and Ixalan. The captain and crew is suddenly attacked by a strange, pale reptilian humanoid who demands the surrender of a "thief" on board. the Captain and crew fight strategically but the entity fights with a cold magic they had never encountered before. Panicked and lanced in the shoulder by an ice spike Bimori summoned a cloud of fog, leaped overboard and swam, weaker and weaker for his life.
With his stolen prize strangely glowing a pale blue, Bimori's spark too ignited and he also followed the mysterious light.
Gaka
Gaka is a goblin guide upon Zendikar, whose roguish cunning has led many adventurers to grand riches or obscurity and death. In the Aftermath of Zendikar's war with its Eldrazi captives, many explorers have begun to cartograph the extent of their plane's destruction and search for lost treasure in ancient ruins in hope of giving the survivors an edge.
He is not all that impressed with the bickering Kor expedition leader Kalrey, her accomplice Jodin and their crew but the pay is good and its not as though he had much of a 'people' anymore. He had become separated from his fellow Lavastep goblins and isn't even sure if they survived the tentically things that were so terrible and so terribly inedible.
While journeying up a dangerous precipice along an Akoum mountain range, the expedition guide and lead (Gaka) spotted a particularly shiny piece of ancient artifice along the underskirts of the cliff and decided that this too, must be his. Against the shouts of warning by both Jodin and Kalrey, and muttering of a bet made underneath their breaths, Gaka leapt to claim his prize, and snatched it too!
Unfortunately Gaka's momentum carried him farther than he thought and he took a very lethal tumble along the pass and beneath the pass. Amid the echoing screams and the clinking of coins being exchanged Gaka too found within himself a potential he didn't even know he had, and drifted along a wondrous galaxy of 'fireflies', following a river of "bright ick".
These were the only players who joined in the first session, but the details of the other players origins are available above.
Second Session: We are Planeswalkers. What the HELL is a Planeswalker?!!
Six planeswalkers find themselves suddenly upon the frozen entry-grounds of a derelict, strangely tree-shrouded keep. Some are wounded, one is shackled and only two are even human. The wind whips furiously around them as they brace themselves and try to understand what has just happened to them. A green Aurora leads to the flagstoned entry of the daunting building where two of five torches flicker in amidst the blizzard: one Green, one Blue.
Introductions are jumbled and hasty, if even made at all in Anya's case. The Merfolk Bimori is not doing to well in the freezing conditions and a wound already given him by frosty circumstances. The Aven Ameniphas is also simultaneously filled with wonder as he tries to fly amidst the storm only to have his wings began to glacially stiffen before plummeting back to ground. They still have their personal belongings, both long-held and newly-acquired and Bimori is still confused by his now-sizzlingly blue metal orb.
The goblin is the first to explore the doorways entrance. It is held fast by a portcullis and as he walks across a strange 5-part symbol enlayed upon the very stone (strangely clear of snow), two more of the five torches above the entry light up, one with red fire, the other with black flames. A mystical tattoo begins to form upon the goblin's arm, a patterned sleeve of spiraling, ascending borealis lights and coniferous-tree designs. It glows an eerie purple and red.
Soon the other mages join the goblin and the other torch alights, this time with white flame. All of the mages' arms now bear the same pattern as the goblin's save that their sorcerously-glowing coloration are each different. Purple-Blue for Anya. Red-Blue for Bimori. Red-White for Ameniphas. Green-White for Rhydeon, a human druid dressed in the trappings of a Kessig human. And Purple-White for Drake, another human, old and grizzled, with dead eyes and strangely sinister Cathar apparel.
The portcullis opens as does the doors. The party rushes to shelter, with Gaka simultaneously freeing Anya from her bonds with his rougish tools and ways. For the promise of compensation of course!
The hallways are derelict and most of the doorways are frozen shut, collapsed or locked by forces beyond the party. The light leads them to a grand hall where frozen, stiff corpses are aligned neatly throughout the dining area. Rhyd is able to conclude that they have been dead for a long time, and died through mysterious circumstances. The party is on edge, unsure what to think of the others and the light still leads onwards up the stairs of another tower and wing.
The party is able to enter a few doors and openings, and found these either collapsed and exposed to the elements, or dusty and filled with ruin and disuse. They then finally come to the towers' final floor and doorway. and enter.
A cowled old man sits amid a circle that glows teal and ever so slightly steams. His eyes are closed when they enter but slowly they open to reveal equally 'hooded' eyes, one blue, one green. He responds in a voice that is both tired and matter-of-fact, stating that "Krkerurik must be dead" and what a shame that was. The party enters the room, some more suspicious of the magical circle than others. The goblin confidently walked up to the man and pokes him, the mage responding by only raising an eybrow and considering them with now a tilted head.
The players ask many questions; Where are they, how did they get here and who the strange man is.
The mage introduces himself as Ungaard, headmaster of this, University called Arborealar, or at least was until its ruin. He explains to the characters that they are Planeswalkers, impossible beings able to journey to other realities, this current one being called Aotar.
The players are difficult but sincere as they quiz him for more details. Ungaard only explains that their own abilities caused them to fade to his plane, but that his 'curse' instinctively lead them all to him and his plane. Planeswalkers were once gods he tells them and telepathically responds to Ameniphas when the Aven looks at him with shock, reading his mind and expressing that Planeswalkers were once and in many ways could still be greater than those 'deities' the Aven knew. Whatever it was that changed planeswalkers was indirectly related to the events that destroyed his institution and so many of his world's inhabitants. In fact this Arborealar was once renowned across the Multiverse as a place of instruction for both interplanar and resident mages and scholars alike.
The mysterious mage then discovers a little more about each of them and where they are from, mentally and verbally. Ungaard is horrified at hearing of the Eldrazi Titans' destruction and escape upon Zendikar and their presence and strange disappearance on Innistrad. He blasphemes Bolas's name as Ameniphas relays the worship of the dragon as a god on his plane and only muses that Krkerurik's 'plan' must have gone horribly wrong. He knows well of a few of their planes, including Kaladesh, Zendikar, a bit about Amonkhet. Others however like Ixalan and Innistrad however are unknown to him.
In any event, Ungaard offers them a deal: help him restore his university, as his last accomplice had sworn, and he will teach them of planeswalkers, of Planes and the five fires of Magic. A few of the party, like Anya, are skeptical but an agreement is struck and terms are given. Ungaard had been hoping not to resort to desperate measures but recent events have forced his hand, he directs the party to go to a Southern wing of the Citadel and return with a 'Powerstone', a rare artifact which would be used to make the University more habitable. In a 'magical' sort of way. He warns them that while he is unsure of all they find there, when they release the powerstone, they are to cautiously bring it to him as well as that 'which comes with it', and if such resists, kill it. The party is alarmed but the mage shares nothing further, but does heal their injuries.
So the party sets out and visits the Southern wing. They complain and wonder at their circumstances as they climb the steps and avoid the hazards of the building, such as falling icicles, dubious stairs and slippery surfaces. They come to the wing and see the glowing powerstone atop a strange cairn and surrounded by ice elementals who swarm and attack the party but not by surprise, the party being cautious and perceptive.
A fight ensues and the party quickly learns of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as that of their companions. The Goblin and the Aven are superb Melee fighters and the Merfolk knows his stuff too. The Paladin had a difficult time maneuvering the battlefield while the druid transformed into a common wolf and also joined the melee. This alarmed the Inistraddi Cathar exceedingly.
Anya, refusing to reveal her powers in front of these strangers, having paid a great cost the last time she had been so open during a moment of vulnerability, tried to engage the fight as a ranged combatant with a crossbow of elaborate filigree. Anya's aim was not good however and she managed to miss all her marks while piercing the goblin Gaka with a bolt, causing the little thing to shriek and swear a great deal. The party was curious as to her uses.
The elementals got wise of the party and summoned a cloud of freezing fog, obscuring the battlefield but the Aven Monk Ameniphas got just as wise and cast Galestrike (DM allowed this although rules changed a bit to balance card castings) to clear the the room of chilling veils. The battle ended with Drake paladin smashing the last elemental whilst the Druid Rhyd healed Gaka and others in the party of their wounds. The goblin, ever impetuous, then removed the Powerstone, which began to open the cairn in which the goblin was atop of. Bimori acted quickly and cast a Spell Card (cannot recall which) of his own which prevented the Lavasetep Rogue from landing upon the strange resident now unsealed from within the stone. A curious man, with blue eyes, red clothing awoke from a magical coma in front of them. He too bore a tatoo like theirs except it is messy, streaked, and glows an erratic crimson. He introduces himself as Vral and asks what has happened, where he is, where is Ungaard and how long had he been 'away'.
The party is unsure what to do and do not reveal much to Vral the mage. He shares that he too is a university graduate and planeswalker, he even reveals that he knows a lot about Zendikar when Gaka bonds a little with him, clearly not as cautious as the rest of the party.
Vral however would later 'flip out' as he descended the tower and saw the ruin of the institution and the cold dead within. He is distraught and demands answers of which the party cannot provide, and in his trauma a burst of magic explodes from his hand. A sickly magenta glow that crawls and writhes like tentacles. Rhydian becomes particularly alarmed, as does Drake Noir. Gaka the goblin just stares at the mage with the same confusion as the rest of the party.
The party with Vral return to Ungaard. The Goblin Gaka is reluctant to give the mage the Powerstone as it looks delicious and he is starving and demands payment upfront. A terse conversation ensues but the old man relents and summons a small flock of large owls from the window. Ungaard brings it inside the room and asks that it be "taken care of respectfully". The goblin exchanges the Powerstone and chases an owl, and Ungaard replaces a dead, dull powerstone upon a fixture on the wall with the new one, carefully avoiding Vral's eyes.
The party catches the owls with varying success and wrings the owls necks and prepares them. The fireplace is now cozily burning and the building begins to become warmer. Ameniphas is meanwhile transfixed with horror as he watches the party eat the birds. He asks for Ungaard's leave who responds that the swirling icy barrier around the Keep is gone and no longer needed. Ameniphas then leaps from the window and catches a pair of rabbits for himself, which he cooks and eats.
While the party prepares and devours their meal Ungaard and Vral have a tense, animated argument by themselves in the chambers corner. Ungaard has bespelled their little area with a wall of silence, though Drake watches with curiosity as carves his insignia upon a chair, His new chair. Eventually the party is shown their individual quarters, which while Ungaard 'freshens' with magic, still look bare and forlorn. The blankets too need serious work. The party sleeps.
End of session 2
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Chapter 3: Vral is a tool, Black Holes are bad, and mad-fox-things are too! Part 1 of 2
The planeswalkers have spent an uncomfortable night at Arborealar Acadamae on the plane of Aotar.
They have awoken however at least to a much cleaner environment. The dust and debris has strangely been cleared from much of the citadel, the place is much warmer now, and there is even a warm pot of porridge awaiting them as they rise from their slumber. Even the corpses seem to have been 'taken care of' during the night.
Bimori is perhaps the most homesick of everyone, and after he has an early-bird breakfast with Ameniphas the Aven monk, he turns to the bird-man and tells him that "just as I'm sure you long for the skies of your home, So I too long for the oceans of mine. I shall return shortly- I think." Then, just like that, the Ixalani merfolk 'blinks' out.
The party, Vral and Ungaard is now all gathered within the grand hall and breakfasting. Gaka even had thirds! Ungaard asks the party if they understood everything he told them last night. A few questions remained and the cryptic mage answered what he felt necessary.
Ameniphas was particularly unsure of how one consciously planeswalks and as he tries to explain his dilemma, "like do all we have to do is think about home really, really har-" the Aven too blinks out of existence, much to the alarm of most of the party, Drake Noivar the sole exception- he is still preoccupied in perfecting his chair to his preferred measurements and artistic style.
After a head-rush through a 'galaxy' of lights, Ameniphas finds himself back home on Amonkhet, in the midst of much chaos and confusion. Proud architecture is crumbling, Insects are buzzing and people are yelling and running, screaming about the 'Hours'. Surprised and suddenly wanting to not be home so quickly, Ameniphas concentrated on the cold new reality he had found himself in-
-and returned to the grand hall. Gaka hadn't even finished eating his spoon. Anya was unimpressed, even less so by Ungaard and his cryptic ways.
After the headmaster magically cleared and cleaned the dishes, by dubious magical means, Ungaard instructed the party to meet at his study again, with Vral. The student mages gathered in a tight circle where Vral and Ungaard explained plansewalking consciously for the first time, how to lead and follow Aether trails and then asked them to 'follow'.
For some the experience was easy, for others like Gaka, Combustible. Anya herself felt it was like trailing the numbers of financial accounts and calculations, for Rhyd, like tracking prey within a forest of bright, moving trees.
They arrived upon the banks of a wide, dark river, under a bright but hazy sun, gazing upon a city that looked prosperous, greasy and dangerous at the same time. The city straddled the river, like some sick scene of an abusive lover engaging upon his/her other without regard for mutual welfare. The river looked dank and in some places, polluted.
The party asked if they were upon another reality to which Vral replied by welcoming them to Shandalar and its city of Lesh. Ungaard had strangely not traveled with them, despite having introduced himself as an entity like they.
Unsurprisingly Gaki took it upon himself to explore, with the party slowly trailing behind. Upon seeing a merchant caravan heading towards the city the goblin rushed to introduce himself. The merchants were alarmed, warned the goblin to keep his distance and drew ornate swords from their sheathes. Anya and the rest of the party quickly intervened, explaining their companion was not a threat. Vral merely watched, amused, as the merchants became both more confused yet less hostile; they had never seen some of these 'races' before and even those that appeared familiar had differences they could not account for. Ameniphas was at least grateful that even though he looked different from the Aven wardens of Evos Isle, there were still others of his kind here on Shandalar.
The goblin appeared to have no issues telling the merchants that he was from Zendikar, Lavastep tribe, whilst the rest of the party tried a more quiet and conservative approach by feigning as locals- following Vral's lead in this process. The merchants asked the party if they desired to accompany them to Lesh, and while Vral tried to dissuade the party as they had 'other business', the group followed their curiosity by entering the corrupt city.
There were many merchants within Lesh's entrance and the entire scene was a bit overwhelming for some of the party. Anya particularly felt uncomfortable as many of the merchants and citizens openly displayed their magical abilities with no fear of arrest. The party explored the marketplace, and did their best to keep Gaka out of trouble. Drake learned of the ruling merchant princes, various and criminal thieves' guilds and when he asked where he could purchase blood, the merchants would only reply by giving him a dark look and that he should speak with the Bloodlord merchants of House Vaasgoth. Things almost went sour for the party however when Gaka tried to grab a particularly shiny gold necklace from a merchant's stall.
The merchant's attitude went quickly from alarm to accusation to mercantile opportunism when he came to the conclusion that the goblin was the party's pet. Amidst the merchant's rising offers to buy Gaka and Gaka's increasingly shrill demand for the party to "sell me", cooler heads (maybe) prevailed as Anya assured the man that the pet was "not for sale".
Vral in the meantime became increasingly, and unnecessarily impatient with the party and informed them that they had other 'places' to visit. Reluctantly the group followed Vral into a seemingly deserted back ally, and jumped when a cutthroat jumped out from the shadows to end their guide. Vral merely, without so much as glancing at their attacker, put his hand up to the threat, and a surge of that same, spine-tingling, urching, writhing magenta magic erupted from Vral's hand.
The cutthroat dropped immediatly to the ground and began clutching his head and thrashing around maddeningly. Vral tersely, without so much as looking at his wards, told the party to kill the intruder, less his madness spreads to infect the whole city.
The party is horrified, but Ameniphas rose to the task, being familiar with the harshness of life, and strangled the poor bloke to death, then he and Drake hid the body. Anya expresses her annoyance at Vral for using a spell that could've put the entirety of the city at risk. Not out of any discomfort with death and the necessity of killing- she had plans for her brother Asha after all- but that the mage had been so cavalier in the risks involved.
The party regrouped and Vral, with some haughtiness, invited Anya to then lead in the next demonstration, which was to practice safely entering a Plane unknown to any of them, Vral included.
The party then planeswalked, with Anya leading.
They arrived upon a strange and terrible setting. a world where a 'sun' loomed black and strange, eclipsed by whirling nether. Fierce winds of gravity pulled at the party as they tumbled across a rocky, barren field where even the very earth seemed as though stretched to the dark sphere. Gaka and interestingly, Drake seemed to be pulled above the most and it was as much as the party could do to hang on to one another. Rhyd transformed into a drafthorse to stabilize the party against the strange currents of force, and Ameniphas did his best to reposition himself as he hung on to the others for his dear life, his flight and wings more of a problem than a benefit. Gaki crawled into a pocket of space between two jutting slabs of stone.
As the party clutched each other and their environment, Vral shouted if the party had had enough of the plane. All in agreement the Planesewalkers quickly zipped back to Arborealar on Aotar. An expectant Ungaard greeted them upon their arrival as the party disengaged themselves from one another. Gaka however had found and taken a nice rock from the plane though!
Chapter 3: Vral is a tool, Black Holes are bad, and mad-fox-things are too! Part 2 of 2
After the party resettles, Ungaard questions the party as to how their practice went. Ameniphas and the group describe Shandalar and the second plane they visited. Ungaard identifies the second plane as Tloseth, a dimension where a pair of ancient planeswalkers held a titanic duel and the entire plane was nearly destroyed. Ameniphas then asked if anything could even live upon such a world and if it were even possible for planeswalkers to have such power again.
Ungaard comments that very little could still survive on Tloseth but does not rule out the possibility. He further states that while events may have changed the nature of the Planeswalker spark, and that most planeswalkers are nowhere near the power they once were, such beings could still manage to drastically influence the multiverse and its planes, albeit at much steeper costs and sacrifice.
Ungaard then proposes a mission for the party.
After the catastrophic events on Dominia Prime (Dominaria), the peoples of this plane have remained within a primitive state more than a century and a half for unknown reasons. Civilization ought to have started to rekindle by now but the old capitals lie desolate. Only the Succumbruun (humanoid demons) and those they’ve enslaved seem to have formed permanent holds and networks.
Ungaard does not know why. He would have tried to teach and aid the peoples in remembering their heritage earlier but Krkerurik, his former Planeswalker pupil felt uncomfortable with the prospect of daily interaction with them. Krkerurik was a shy one indeed.
The party is to trek a few days westward and make contact with a tribe of Einherjar humans and convince them to relocate to the university citadel. The party is to do their best to bring the tribe willingly although Ungaard does not seem all that concerned if necessity requires a firmer approach. Ungaard and Vral will await the party's return and prepare for their arrival.
The party asks a few questions about the local flora and fauna but they receive only vague answers, that much of the ecology in the area is fairly ordinary for the climate, and not particularly sorcerous. They are uneasy and pack a few days rations and prepare for the journey.
The first few days and nights are uneventful. the Party's survival skills are string and between the Druid, Goblin and Aven, they proceed cautiously towards the general area. Drake even brought his chair, now collapsible.
The third day and night the party began to be trailed by wolves. The group kept them bay during the evening while threatening them with sunbolts etc, during the day. Rhyd finally had enough and communicated with the wolves using his ability to communicate with animals.
The wolves were respectful, albeit hungry and were difficult for Rhyd to parley with, but after much persuasion, the druid was able to not only convince the wolves to not attack the group, but even learn from them the habits of the nomadic tribe, their general location and an agreement to aide one another such as a trade of information/warning and food. Drake eyed Rhyd suspiciously. People who talk with wolves on Innistrad are generally unsafe companions.
The party finally found signs of human activity in the form of animal blood, track, etc. The wolves howl to announce the approach of strangers and neither the nomadic Viking inspired peoples nor the party are caught flat footed. Gaka climbs a tree.
A tense standoff ensues where the party is surrounded by 20 or so Tribesmen and women, all uneasy at the arrival of the visitors.
The tribal chieftain introduces himself as Brynjarus and his tribe as the Grimspear people. Some explanations are made by the party and they are this time not too wary about sharing their interplanar natures. Brynjarus and his people are confused, scared and angry as they apparently, many years ago had also made contact with a strange being- a man, or what appeared to be a man, with 3 tails like that of a glacial fox. Apparently the man had cursed the tribe, and for generations the tribe would be attacked by a strange animal if they tried to settle themselves with any permanency, hunted beyond bare subsistence, approached ancient ruins including the area of the "Eternal Storm", or even tried to convey ideas upon the ground beyond simple pictures.
The Tribe's language is rough and unclear (though the party can strangely understand it). Both Rhyd and Anya assure the chieftain that they have no connection to the mysterious stranger and that if the tribe will follow their party, they deal with the creature attacking them. The players rolled well and so despite the DM's high threshold in mind for a charisma check, Brynjarus and the tribe stand down and agree to hold a council to discuss the idea.
The party stays with the tribe for about a day and a night and the Grimspear clan is impressed by the party's magical prowess, particularly Rhyd's ability to transform into a wolf and redirect his new patrons during joint hunts. Gaka and Drake are very curious about the monster attacking the Tribe and learn that the creature is said to resemble a gigantic nine-tailed fox with burning orange eyes including bright spheres that float above it. It has killed a few within the clan and no warrior has been able to stop it, only allay it through 'embracing their primordial, inner beast and forsaking questions and selfishness'.
The Tribe hold a council and the group is allowed to watch but not participate...much. The Tribe's wisewoman is concerned as the area the party desires to lead them to, the eternal storm, is taboo due to their new 'guardian' not caring for their presence there. The party again commits to killing the beast and should they fail, the Grimspears could return, without provoking the beast further. The tribe chieftain and Elders then vote, with the decision favoring the party.
It takes a few days for the tribe to pack up their things and prepare for the journey. Nothing attacks the group during the first few nights although strange orange lamps are seen within the trees as they near the area where the 'eternal storm' once stood.
the party and tribe is on edge as the lights flicker and approach ahead of them. The group rush ahead of the Grimspears to keep their vows while the tribe remains behind to watch with suspicion and fear. The beast is indeed a gigantic fox, with a body seemingly made up of plant matter, with burning eyes and burning orbs floating above it.
Gaka and Ameniphas get to the fox first and are surprised to find that though the thing appears to be made up of leafy, woody things like an elemental, it both breaths fire and is impervious to it- but not to radiant sunbolt apparently.
Ameniphas barely dodges a bout of fire and the goblin approaches to help. Flying does not advantage Ameniphas if he is burning. The thing is fast, and angry. Anya successfully shoots it with her crossbow, much to her surprise and rising confidence. She can do this.
The cathar Drake also moves in and manages to slice at the thing, though it seems far from down.
Rhyd decided to try to help inspire the tribe to join the fight and so, holding aloft Avacyn's cast the card Cursebreak
And that is when the DM's world goes a lil topsy-turvy, for unknown to the players, the Kami attacking them is essentially the product of an enchantment, whose ward is the tribe themselves.
Deciding the play was both brilliant and followed the rules by which he conceptualized the monster, the DM allowed the play, and Rhyd essentially destroys the Kami-fox thing with his spell. As the plant matter disentangles, a note with strange characters is found amidst the brambles and the enterprising goblin Gaka scoops it up.
The Tribe is awestruck and all proceed to enter the Citadel-academy of Arborealar, now a new bastion of hope and remembrance for Aotar.
End of Part 2 of 2, of Chapter 3
Private Mod Note
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Intermission and Side Events before upcoming Chapter 3
Ungaard and Vral welcomed the planeswalkers and their wards into the warm, grand hall. The Grimspears are uncomfortable, but feel fealty towards the group for ending their curse. Vral is asked by Ungaard to help the tribe settl in, but reminds Vral to use ‘no magic’. Vral glares at Ungaard and organizes the resettlement.
At this point, Anya confronts Ungaard on his secretive ways and declares that they have no reason to trust him, she perhaps suspecting him of having known more about what they would face than he let on. Ungaard responded by telepathically delving into her personal history, which she had not revealed, and telling her that she hardly even trusted herself.
Anya was displeased.
The party then described the creature they fought and the note they found. The goblin refused point blank to hand over the strange piece of parchment with it’s equally peculiar characters until he was paid.
Ungaard only sighed and lead them to another part of the academy, a vault with many locks that he seemed to unlock telekinetically. Strange shadows crept away from the wizard’s lighted hand as he summoned a hefty amount of god for the party from within the room. Gaka had greed written all over his face but the wiser of the party helped lead him out as Ungaard turned to lead with his light following him. The oily blackness that once receded returned to smother what treasures were glimpsed beyond and it did not look friendly.
Upon being paid the goblin handed the note to Ungaard, who remarked that the writing was some form of Kanji, a style of writing used on some planes such as Tarkir, Dominaria, Kamigawa and others. He then lead the party to another section of the university, a grand library.
Ungaard asked the party if they had noticed something strange since they became planeswalkers, the fact that although they could understand himself, their companions, and sentient denizens from other planes, the movement of these people’s mouths, tongue, etc did not match the words they were comprehending.
A few of the planeswalkers had in fact already realized this, Rhyd being among the first. Ungaard then explained that The Mending was not the first interplanar event to have changed the nature of the Planeswalker spark and that before time immemorial, an ancient planeswalker had changed the nature of planeswalkers and planeswalking so as to make travelling the planes easier for herself and her cadre of friends, and understand commonly known, non-magical languages of sentients across the multiverse, as if they were hearing their own tongue.
Strangely, this same planeswalker either did not consider making it similarly possible for all planeswalkers to be able to read such languages, or mysteriously chose not to.
...The above is mere headcannon that solves a problem I always had with MTG lore...
Ungaard then set the paper on the table, where it magically became comprehensible to all.
A land long betrayed,
My gift is but justice,
You are brought upon your knees.
Ungaard noted that the note appeared to be a haiku, a type of poetry common on a few planes that usually also used Kanji. He then gave the note back to Gaka who remarked with wide eyes “you aren’t very good at this are you?” referring to previous exchange of gold.
The party then puzzled over the note, but with all their literary-associated knowledge checks failing, they could not confidently figure out its meaning.
What they could conclude however was that whatever entity had cursed the tribe, it was interplanar in nature, most likely a planeswalker like them and from a place that used Kanji.
All of the above technically had occurred at the end of Chapter 2. The remainder of events on this post describes the activities, research and development the characters undergo between sessions, chapters 2 to 3, and cover a span of about 5 days.
Anya
Anya’s player did not detail too many things that she wanted her character to do, but this is what is known of her activities:
The Vedalken Sorceress secretly perused spellbooks within the library, looking for magic of the mind, and still displeased with both Vraal and Ungaard’s displays of mental sorcery, and formulating a plan to eliminate her brother.
Anya also trained in martial combat with Ameniphas.
Gaka
Gaka was pretty engaged in his own goblin-y things for the five days, which isn’t to say that such wasn’t important, but nothing all that plot-moving.
One interesting event that did occur was Vral tensely approaching Gaka and asking him about recent events on his homeplane, what it is currently like, the year by their reckoning, etc.
Gaka responded by telling Vral that he was from Zendikar, and that he used to be a member of the Lavastep tribe before venturing out on his own and becoming an expedition guide. He described it as being a lot of fun and profitable until strange monsters began appearing and turning the world and people into dust. The People were scared, expeditions stopped, and Gaka hid within some old ruins. He wasn’t even sure if his Tribe was still alive.
Upon being pressed further by Vral, Gaka describes Zendikar as still being around last time he was there, and that he hadn’t seen a ‘monster’ for a while, despite the subject still being talked of much by the inhabitants.
Vral thanked Gaka and then left.
Rhydeon
Rhyd was perhaps the busiest of characters within the 5day span.
He pestered Ungaard for more information on a few of the planes he mentioned using Kanji, and how to get to these planes.
Ungaard telepathically relayed to Rhyd the location of the planes and the sections in the library covering them.
Rhyd learned the following
Tarkir
a plane where ancient clans have fought eternally with proud dragonflights for supremacy. The Jeskai monastic order apparently used Kanji characters. Rhyd and Ameniphas did not spend much time there as they had a run-in with Silumgar warriors but it seems as though your research is out-dated- at least one of the clans seems to have fallen to the Dragonflights. Nothing is recorded of Kitsune.
Avyrim
a tiny plane comprised of four clusters of Archipelagos, whose denizens worship ‘god-giants’. Each Island group is magically isolated from the other according to your research and Kanji are used by the Taiyo Kishi peoples. Kitsune are a race of fox-people who are believed to be clever messengers of their god-giantess. Your research is again outdated- your brief visit there suggests open war between the Islands, which are now connected by mysterious bridges of vine and stone arisen from the sea.
Dominaria, Madara
Madara is a continent of Dominaria whose people used Kanji, and your research states that it was once ruled by Nicol Bolas who enslaved the continent and established his own empire. After a series of power-plays and fortunate circumstances, Tetsuo Umezawa, Bolas’s own champion managed to slay the dragon-god’s body while his mind and soul was engaged elsewhere. There is author speculation as what might occur after the fact. The accounts were written before a cataclysmic event that you infer was what Ungaard called ‘The Mending’ occurred as Dominaria now appears to be slowly recovering from a previous planewide magical calamity. Madara is now ruled by a cat -dragon race, the nekoru. The humans of Madara exist solely as servants, clerics, and slaves. There is however whispers of a mysterious Cabal that has begun to spread on Madara and throughout Dominaria which has caused conflict with those currently in power. Nothing is recorded of Kitsune.
Kamigawa
the people on this plane use Kanji in their writing. Your research suggests that the peoples of the plane, which include Kitsune, worship plane-derived spirits that guard over aspects of nature, cosmology, philosophy and their very society. Kitsune are fox-peoples who have strong ties to the plane’s humans as well as Kami and are known as excellent samurai- who you believe are like Cathars. At the time of the authors’ writing, there appeared to be a growing tension between the mortal residents and the spirits they worship which had even escalated in some regions to open bloodshed. The authors were unsure why and were interested due to the plane being relatively ‘close’ cosmologically to Aotar’s position in the multiverse. Whatever the conflict was, your short visit there suggested no current issues as the few people you met seemed respectful and at peace with both strangers like yourself and their Kami spirits.
Rhyd was also approached later in the 5-day period by Vral who asked him about his plane. Rhyd admitted that Innistrad had always been a place of horror and conflict but recently it became twisted further by mad magic that bore resemblance to Vral’s own strange powers. Rhyd then urges Vral to hold back his spellcasing as Rhyd has seen such power turn friends into enemies. Vral, paler than before, then thanks Rhyd and leaves
But not before causing a suspicious Rhyd to suspect him of Planeswalking (which he did) and following Vral to a beautiful but scarred plane. Vral, strangely amused and annoyed, then asks Rhyd if there was a reason why he had followed him to Dominaria.
Rhyd responded by telling Vral that as a new planeswalker he needed practicing and that as Vral seemed unnerved about his own magic and Rhyd too wished to learn about the cause of his plane’s calamity, he would like to join Vral as he may be an expert on the subject.
Vral relents, but warns Rhyd that he may not like what he finds, to which Rhyd responds that fear is necessary and he had yet to be controlled by it. Rhyd personally believes Vral to be a lost cause and hopes to be able to do what is necessary should it come to that, and learn a thing or two in the process.
Together they explore Innistrad a little and Rhyd learns the following by observing Vral, sometimes conversing with him, and joining his investigation
Vral is a planeswalker from a backwater plane who excelled at archaeology, investigation and interplanar history. He was researching on Zendikar before the mending. Something went wrong but Vral is silent on the subject
Witnesses at the battle of Thraben say a group of ‘strangers’ tried to battle a great Horror of Horrors but accounts differ as to what happened, as nobody’s memory of the event is clear, or comfortable. Some say the horror was destroyed, others say it bled into the earth, whilst a few claim that the thing returned to the sky.
The Archangel Sigarda now leads the reorganization of humanity upon Innistrad and all creatures, both human and nonhuman are in a stage of recovery, with few willing to engage in conflict at this time. Except to extinguish the vestiges of otherworldly horror.
Rhyd does little beyond these events and is unsure how the pieces fit together.
Ameniphas
Ameniphas chose to spend his time by first acclimatizing to the frigid harshness of Aotar and teaching and engaging Anya in martial combat. Ameniphas views her as a sister and she reminds him of someone he once knew and cared deeply about on Amonkhet.
Ameniphas approached Ungaard to learn more about Nicol Bolas, and was directed by the man to a section of the library on interplanar history. The scholars and planeswalker agents of Arborealar had performed some research on the figure and had even engaged in proxy wars against Bolas’s own networks anciently.
Ameniphas even found a spell demonstrating to agents how to erase one’s memory from mind and spirit to protect the university from Bolas and his minions. But the Aven had not the talent for mind-magic to learn it. What Ameniphas did learn however was that Bolas was one of, if not the greatest tyrant in the entire known Multiverse, and that he was presumed to have been killed, ironically by his own servants.
The monk also found a more recent notation handwritten in one of the histories mapping the ancient networks of the Dragon...
Agent found and imprisoned on Falandria. Will interrogate after investigation into Gwatch and Amonkhet. New networks suspected.
Ameniphas then later accompanied Rhyd to Tarkir where they briefly encountered Silumgar warriors who like the Aven’s people, also served a cruel Dragon god. Ameniphas had been hoping to meet the Jeskai that Rhyd’s research had described but found no evidence of them in their briefest of trips.
Finally, Ameniphas also practiced planeswalking by himself and became totally captivated by the plane of Kylem, where 2 on 2 martial and arcane duels are the pinnacle of sport and contenders win not by killing their opponents but by defeating them with expertise and flair. There he met a battlemage named Kimberly Kerathe and became a regular duel partner of hers.
Ameniphas is absent during Chapter 3, and all that the party knows at the beginning of that chapter is that Ameniphas had “a match” coming up, and if he ditched it ‘Kimberly was going to kick his butt’.
Bimori
Bimori was absent last chapter but makes an appearance again in Chapter 3
While the party was out adventuring together, Bimori the Merfolk eldritch Fighter from Ixalan returned to his home and warm ocean. While there he discovered from his people, the River Heralds, that a terrifying, frost-wielding lizard...humanoid was slaughtering almost every merfolk he found within the seas and had sent a message with what few he spared: demanding the surrender of the thief who stole his orb and its return- or he would slaughter every ‘fishman’ on this ‘world’.
Needless to say Bimori left Ixalan quickly after that, his stolen artefact glowing with blue fire all the while.
The Merfolk was not too specific where he desired to go, but only mentally sought a place of deep, wide oceans. He found himself upon Theros and briefly spent some time amongst the Tritons there, who told him grand stories of heroes, gods and daring thieves.
Drake Noivar
Drake spent his time researching Shandalar and Vampirism across the planes. Drake seems to have a history with Innistraddi vampires, despite not being one himself, and it is unclear if this has anything to do with his unnatural vigor in his old age, or his use of dark methods to achieve noble means. During the 5-day period, Drake learns the following...
Shandalar
Shandalar is a ‘rogue’ plane and thus has no fixed place within the Multiverse.
Shandalar is rich in mana. Spellcraft is common. And the plane has been the site of many planeswalker duels
Both of the above points have in the past given planeswalkers incentive to try to conquer the plane, including Leshrac, the city of Lesh’s namesake.
Lesh
Besides being perhaps founded by a planeswalker, the city is run by Merchant Princes, Thieve Guilds, and various cults and other sinister organizations.
Shandalar, particularly Lesh, is home to many powerful vampiric houses, each headed by a Bloodlord such as House Vaasgoth.
Vampires
Drake’s research is too general and great to get into much detail here but it is enough to say that he learned somewhat of the various kinds of vampires across various planes and their similarities and differences
The research had a lot of , old but still relevant, information on Innistrad’s Vampiric houses, although their origins were a mystery even to the mages of Arborealar.
Private Mod Note
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
I promise to upload more of the adventure so far, just in the midst of other priorities as of yet. In two or so weeks however I’ll let you know of the Party’ forays into Kamigawa!
Needless to say, the party’s reaction to the plane is mixed as it’s a more ‘spiritual’ setting.
Private Mod Note
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
The Campaign centers around a new group of fledgling Planeswalkers who must together navigate their new reality as Plane-hopping heroes/anti-heroes, whose actions may determine the fate of worlds and even entire realities of existence.
6 players rolled 2 dice, one of which determined one of their two colour alignments, and the other determining the plane in which they were born. Players were then instructed to create a character based upon the colours and Plane rolled, while choosing their character's race, class and background in addition to choosing an additional color from which to base their character.
Alignment I told them, was not as important as playing true to the colour combination of your character. Players' colours and characterization might expand, contract or shift over time, in accordance to their choices and experiences but these changes would be gradual and may influence what magic one had access to.
Finally, characters where given two lands based upon their plane and chosen colours, which allows them to cast card-spells (no creatures so far)once a session, per DM approval. Effects of the spell are interpreted by the DM and are matched more for flavor than anything. As this is a potentially abusive and powerful effect, the DM is still experimenting with it.
The Six players:
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
First Session: Sparking Up
The first session took us to the various home planes of our heroes and antiheroes and saw how their sparks ignited. Not all were available for this first session so some of these circumstances were a bit mysterious. The first session was short.
Ameniphas
Ameniphas the Aven Monk on Amonkhet was fighting a losing battle with his fellow dissenters in the city-state of Naktamun. Just a few hours previously, Ameniphas and his comrades had been released from sarcophagi, and word had spread to his small band that the 'strangers' who released them, as well as many of their comrades elsewhere had been apprehended by the gods themselves.
Ameniphas and his group put up a worthy fight but were overwhelmed. The Aven monk, while balancing passion and compassion and displaying much martial and embodied magical skill soon met his match when he became reunited through aerial combat with the very angel that locked him up in the first place-
-Except this time the Angel was wielding a ridiculously large mace instead of a crook.
Ameniphas fought valiantly and even managed to harm the celestial but took a blow to the head and was felled by the Angel, nothing even left of the warrior in the brilliant flash of radiant energy that followed. In reality, Ameniphas's spark ignited and he followed a mysterious green aurora to an unknown fate.
Anya
Raised in a wealthy corporate Vedalken House on Kaledesh, but recently acquiring an ascendant place within through sheer hard work, ruthless pragmatism and emotional self-control, the Vedalken financial analyst Anya has a terrible secret: She is an ambient sorceress, with powers over wind and storm, just to name a few.
Anya is enjoying a private celebration of an Aether harvest and relay station constructed by her House for the reformed Consulate, with coworkers- her Vedalken fiance Santosh and brother Asha. She is enjoying the praise of her recent successes, which included the correct analysis that the Renegades would come out victorious and worth patroning, and the series of contracts, profitable stock manipulations and financial edging over business rivals that followed.
Anya notes however that Santosh has seemed distant all day and has yet to join Asha in praising her hard work. What followed would change her life forever. Together Santosh and Asha came to the conclusion that Anya was a 'poor fit' for the company, with Santosh betraying Anya's secret sorcery to Asha and fearing that Anya's alignment with the Renegades was more out of personal self-interest and emotional bias than objective analysis.
Asha, driven less by objectivity and more out of the need to remove a rival, conspired with Santosh and arranged to illegally remove Anya and her influence from the company. Santosh desired to convince Anya to retire quietly to the countryside but neither Anya nor Asha were interested in such.
In a bold move, Asha and his personal entourage of Aetherborn bodyguards physically overcame Anya, shackled her, and left her to die as a distraught Santosh and smug Asha & guard left the Collector and Relay faculty, which was sabotaged from the start to malfunction and explode, covering up the murder.
Anya screamed and swore her undying hatred as the the overry overloaded, her spark ignited and she planeswalked for the first time, following the same mystical Green aurora as Ameniphas
Bimori
Bimori is a Merfolk Eldritch fighter on Ixalan. Not as enthused by the shamanistic, spiritual life of his people, the River Heralds, Bimori's intuition leads him more to a life of exploration and even piracy.
While exploring an underwater trench and evading the unusual traps therein, Bimori found and stole a strange artificial sphere, and ever since, his trail has been dogged by disaster after freezing disaster, narrowly avoiding unnatural tempests of ice and snow.
While fleeing aboard a pirate vessel heading to the continent of Ixalan, and hiring himself out as a member of the crew, Bimori's ship is run aground by a geological impossibility, an iceberg within the warm sea between High and Dry and Ixalan. The captain and crew is suddenly attacked by a strange, pale reptilian humanoid who demands the surrender of a "thief" on board. the Captain and crew fight strategically but the entity fights with a cold magic they had never encountered before. Panicked and lanced in the shoulder by an ice spike Bimori summoned a cloud of fog, leaped overboard and swam, weaker and weaker for his life.
With his stolen prize strangely glowing a pale blue, Bimori's spark too ignited and he also followed the mysterious light.
Gaka
Gaka is a goblin guide upon Zendikar, whose roguish cunning has led many adventurers to grand riches or obscurity and death. In the Aftermath of Zendikar's war with its Eldrazi captives, many explorers have begun to cartograph the extent of their plane's destruction and search for lost treasure in ancient ruins in hope of giving the survivors an edge.
He is not all that impressed with the bickering Kor expedition leader Kalrey, her accomplice Jodin and their crew but the pay is good and its not as though he had much of a 'people' anymore. He had become separated from his fellow Lavastep goblins and isn't even sure if they survived the tentically things that were so terrible and so terribly inedible.
While journeying up a dangerous precipice along an Akoum mountain range, the expedition guide and lead (Gaka) spotted a particularly shiny piece of ancient artifice along the underskirts of the cliff and decided that this too, must be his. Against the shouts of warning by both Jodin and Kalrey, and muttering of a bet made underneath their breaths, Gaka leapt to claim his prize, and snatched it too!
Unfortunately Gaka's momentum carried him farther than he thought and he took a very lethal tumble along the pass and beneath the pass. Amid the echoing screams and the clinking of coins being exchanged Gaka too found within himself a potential he didn't even know he had, and drifted along a wondrous galaxy of 'fireflies', following a river of "bright ick".
These were the only players who joined in the first session, but the details of the other players origins are available above.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Six planeswalkers find themselves suddenly upon the frozen entry-grounds of a derelict, strangely tree-shrouded keep. Some are wounded, one is shackled and only two are even human. The wind whips furiously around them as they brace themselves and try to understand what has just happened to them. A green Aurora leads to the flagstoned entry of the daunting building where two of five torches flicker in amidst the blizzard: one Green, one Blue.
Introductions are jumbled and hasty, if even made at all in Anya's case. The Merfolk Bimori is not doing to well in the freezing conditions and a wound already given him by frosty circumstances. The Aven Ameniphas is also simultaneously filled with wonder as he tries to fly amidst the storm only to have his wings began to glacially stiffen before plummeting back to ground. They still have their personal belongings, both long-held and newly-acquired and Bimori is still confused by his now-sizzlingly blue metal orb.
The goblin is the first to explore the doorways entrance. It is held fast by a portcullis and as he walks across a strange 5-part symbol enlayed upon the very stone (strangely clear of snow), two more of the five torches above the entry light up, one with red fire, the other with black flames. A mystical tattoo begins to form upon the goblin's arm, a patterned sleeve of spiraling, ascending borealis lights and coniferous-tree designs. It glows an eerie purple and red.
Soon the other mages join the goblin and the other torch alights, this time with white flame. All of the mages' arms now bear the same pattern as the goblin's save that their sorcerously-glowing coloration are each different. Purple-Blue for Anya. Red-Blue for Bimori. Red-White for Ameniphas. Green-White for Rhydeon, a human druid dressed in the trappings of a Kessig human. And Purple-White for Drake, another human, old and grizzled, with dead eyes and strangely sinister Cathar apparel.
The portcullis opens as does the doors. The party rushes to shelter, with Gaka simultaneously freeing Anya from her bonds with his rougish tools and ways. For the promise of compensation of course!
The hallways are derelict and most of the doorways are frozen shut, collapsed or locked by forces beyond the party. The light leads them to a grand hall where frozen, stiff corpses are aligned neatly throughout the dining area. Rhyd is able to conclude that they have been dead for a long time, and died through mysterious circumstances. The party is on edge, unsure what to think of the others and the light still leads onwards up the stairs of another tower and wing.
The party is able to enter a few doors and openings, and found these either collapsed and exposed to the elements, or dusty and filled with ruin and disuse. They then finally come to the towers' final floor and doorway. and enter.
A cowled old man sits amid a circle that glows teal and ever so slightly steams. His eyes are closed when they enter but slowly they open to reveal equally 'hooded' eyes, one blue, one green. He responds in a voice that is both tired and matter-of-fact, stating that "Krkerurik must be dead" and what a shame that was. The party enters the room, some more suspicious of the magical circle than others. The goblin confidently walked up to the man and pokes him, the mage responding by only raising an eybrow and considering them with now a tilted head.
The players ask many questions; Where are they, how did they get here and who the strange man is.
The mage introduces himself as Ungaard, headmaster of this, University called Arborealar, or at least was until its ruin. He explains to the characters that they are Planeswalkers, impossible beings able to journey to other realities, this current one being called Aotar.
The players are difficult but sincere as they quiz him for more details. Ungaard only explains that their own abilities caused them to fade to his plane, but that his 'curse' instinctively lead them all to him and his plane. Planeswalkers were once gods he tells them and telepathically responds to Ameniphas when the Aven looks at him with shock, reading his mind and expressing that Planeswalkers were once and in many ways could still be greater than those 'deities' the Aven knew. Whatever it was that changed planeswalkers was indirectly related to the events that destroyed his institution and so many of his world's inhabitants. In fact this Arborealar was once renowned across the Multiverse as a place of instruction for both interplanar and resident mages and scholars alike.
The mysterious mage then discovers a little more about each of them and where they are from, mentally and verbally. Ungaard is horrified at hearing of the Eldrazi Titans' destruction and escape upon Zendikar and their presence and strange disappearance on Innistrad. He blasphemes Bolas's name as Ameniphas relays the worship of the dragon as a god on his plane and only muses that Krkerurik's 'plan' must have gone horribly wrong. He knows well of a few of their planes, including Kaladesh, Zendikar, a bit about Amonkhet. Others however like Ixalan and Innistrad however are unknown to him.
In any event, Ungaard offers them a deal: help him restore his university, as his last accomplice had sworn, and he will teach them of planeswalkers, of Planes and the five fires of Magic. A few of the party, like Anya, are skeptical but an agreement is struck and terms are given. Ungaard had been hoping not to resort to desperate measures but recent events have forced his hand, he directs the party to go to a Southern wing of the Citadel and return with a 'Powerstone', a rare artifact which would be used to make the University more habitable. In a 'magical' sort of way. He warns them that while he is unsure of all they find there, when they release the powerstone, they are to cautiously bring it to him as well as that 'which comes with it', and if such resists, kill it. The party is alarmed but the mage shares nothing further, but does heal their injuries.
So the party sets out and visits the Southern wing. They complain and wonder at their circumstances as they climb the steps and avoid the hazards of the building, such as falling icicles, dubious stairs and slippery surfaces. They come to the wing and see the glowing powerstone atop a strange cairn and surrounded by ice elementals who swarm and attack the party but not by surprise, the party being cautious and perceptive.
A fight ensues and the party quickly learns of their strengths and weaknesses, as well as that of their companions. The Goblin and the Aven are superb Melee fighters and the Merfolk knows his stuff too. The Paladin had a difficult time maneuvering the battlefield while the druid transformed into a common wolf and also joined the melee. This alarmed the Inistraddi Cathar exceedingly.
Anya, refusing to reveal her powers in front of these strangers, having paid a great cost the last time she had been so open during a moment of vulnerability, tried to engage the fight as a ranged combatant with a crossbow of elaborate filigree. Anya's aim was not good however and she managed to miss all her marks while piercing the goblin Gaka with a bolt, causing the little thing to shriek and swear a great deal. The party was curious as to her uses.
The elementals got wise of the party and summoned a cloud of freezing fog, obscuring the battlefield but the Aven Monk Ameniphas got just as wise and cast Galestrike (DM allowed this although rules changed a bit to balance card castings) to clear the the room of chilling veils. The battle ended with Drake paladin smashing the last elemental whilst the Druid Rhyd healed Gaka and others in the party of their wounds. The goblin, ever impetuous, then removed the Powerstone, which began to open the cairn in which the goblin was atop of. Bimori acted quickly and cast a Spell Card (cannot recall which) of his own which prevented the Lavasetep Rogue from landing upon the strange resident now unsealed from within the stone. A curious man, with blue eyes, red clothing awoke from a magical coma in front of them. He too bore a tatoo like theirs except it is messy, streaked, and glows an erratic crimson. He introduces himself as Vral and asks what has happened, where he is, where is Ungaard and how long had he been 'away'.
The party is unsure what to do and do not reveal much to Vral the mage. He shares that he too is a university graduate and planeswalker, he even reveals that he knows a lot about Zendikar when Gaka bonds a little with him, clearly not as cautious as the rest of the party.
Vral however would later 'flip out' as he descended the tower and saw the ruin of the institution and the cold dead within. He is distraught and demands answers of which the party cannot provide, and in his trauma a burst of magic explodes from his hand. A sickly magenta glow that crawls and writhes like tentacles. Rhydian becomes particularly alarmed, as does Drake Noir. Gaka the goblin just stares at the mage with the same confusion as the rest of the party.
The party with Vral return to Ungaard. The Goblin Gaka is reluctant to give the mage the Powerstone as it looks delicious and he is starving and demands payment upfront. A terse conversation ensues but the old man relents and summons a small flock of large owls from the window. Ungaard brings it inside the room and asks that it be "taken care of respectfully". The goblin exchanges the Powerstone and chases an owl, and Ungaard replaces a dead, dull powerstone upon a fixture on the wall with the new one, carefully avoiding Vral's eyes.
The party catches the owls with varying success and wrings the owls necks and prepares them. The fireplace is now cozily burning and the building begins to become warmer. Ameniphas is meanwhile transfixed with horror as he watches the party eat the birds. He asks for Ungaard's leave who responds that the swirling icy barrier around the Keep is gone and no longer needed. Ameniphas then leaps from the window and catches a pair of rabbits for himself, which he cooks and eats.
While the party prepares and devours their meal Ungaard and Vral have a tense, animated argument by themselves in the chambers corner. Ungaard has bespelled their little area with a wall of silence, though Drake watches with curiosity as carves his insignia upon a chair, His new chair. Eventually the party is shown their individual quarters, which while Ungaard 'freshens' with magic, still look bare and forlorn. The blankets too need serious work. The party sleeps.
End of session 2
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
The planeswalkers have spent an uncomfortable night at Arborealar Acadamae on the plane of Aotar.
They have awoken however at least to a much cleaner environment. The dust and debris has strangely been cleared from much of the citadel, the place is much warmer now, and there is even a warm pot of porridge awaiting them as they rise from their slumber. Even the corpses seem to have been 'taken care of' during the night.
Bimori is perhaps the most homesick of everyone, and after he has an early-bird breakfast with Ameniphas the Aven monk, he turns to the bird-man and tells him that "just as I'm sure you long for the skies of your home, So I too long for the oceans of mine. I shall return shortly- I think." Then, just like that, the Ixalani merfolk 'blinks' out.
The party, Vral and Ungaard is now all gathered within the grand hall and breakfasting. Gaka even had thirds! Ungaard asks the party if they understood everything he told them last night. A few questions remained and the cryptic mage answered what he felt necessary.
Ameniphas was particularly unsure of how one consciously planeswalks and as he tries to explain his dilemma, "like do all we have to do is think about home really, really har-" the Aven too blinks out of existence, much to the alarm of most of the party, Drake Noivar the sole exception- he is still preoccupied in perfecting his chair to his preferred measurements and artistic style.
After a head-rush through a 'galaxy' of lights, Ameniphas finds himself back home on Amonkhet, in the midst of much chaos and confusion. Proud architecture is crumbling, Insects are buzzing and people are yelling and running, screaming about the 'Hours'. Surprised and suddenly wanting to not be home so quickly, Ameniphas concentrated on the cold new reality he had found himself in-
-and returned to the grand hall. Gaka hadn't even finished eating his spoon. Anya was unimpressed, even less so by Ungaard and his cryptic ways.
After the headmaster magically cleared and cleaned the dishes, by dubious magical means, Ungaard instructed the party to meet at his study again, with Vral. The student mages gathered in a tight circle where Vral and Ungaard explained plansewalking consciously for the first time, how to lead and follow Aether trails and then asked them to 'follow'.
For some the experience was easy, for others like Gaka, Combustible. Anya herself felt it was like trailing the numbers of financial accounts and calculations, for Rhyd, like tracking prey within a forest of bright, moving trees.
They arrived upon the banks of a wide, dark river, under a bright but hazy sun, gazing upon a city that looked prosperous, greasy and dangerous at the same time. The city straddled the river, like some sick scene of an abusive lover engaging upon his/her other without regard for mutual welfare. The river looked dank and in some places, polluted.
The party asked if they were upon another reality to which Vral replied by welcoming them to Shandalar and its city of Lesh. Ungaard had strangely not traveled with them, despite having introduced himself as an entity like they.
Unsurprisingly Gaki took it upon himself to explore, with the party slowly trailing behind. Upon seeing a merchant caravan heading towards the city the goblin rushed to introduce himself. The merchants were alarmed, warned the goblin to keep his distance and drew ornate swords from their sheathes. Anya and the rest of the party quickly intervened, explaining their companion was not a threat. Vral merely watched, amused, as the merchants became both more confused yet less hostile; they had never seen some of these 'races' before and even those that appeared familiar had differences they could not account for. Ameniphas was at least grateful that even though he looked different from the Aven wardens of Evos Isle, there were still others of his kind here on Shandalar.
The goblin appeared to have no issues telling the merchants that he was from Zendikar, Lavastep tribe, whilst the rest of the party tried a more quiet and conservative approach by feigning as locals- following Vral's lead in this process. The merchants asked the party if they desired to accompany them to Lesh, and while Vral tried to dissuade the party as they had 'other business', the group followed their curiosity by entering the corrupt city.
There were many merchants within Lesh's entrance and the entire scene was a bit overwhelming for some of the party. Anya particularly felt uncomfortable as many of the merchants and citizens openly displayed their magical abilities with no fear of arrest. The party explored the marketplace, and did their best to keep Gaka out of trouble. Drake learned of the ruling merchant princes, various and criminal thieves' guilds and when he asked where he could purchase blood, the merchants would only reply by giving him a dark look and that he should speak with the Bloodlord merchants of House Vaasgoth. Things almost went sour for the party however when Gaka tried to grab a particularly shiny gold necklace from a merchant's stall.
The merchant's attitude went quickly from alarm to accusation to mercantile opportunism when he came to the conclusion that the goblin was the party's pet. Amidst the merchant's rising offers to buy Gaka and Gaka's increasingly shrill demand for the party to "sell me", cooler heads (maybe) prevailed as Anya assured the man that the pet was "not for sale".
Vral in the meantime became increasingly, and unnecessarily impatient with the party and informed them that they had other 'places' to visit. Reluctantly the group followed Vral into a seemingly deserted back ally, and jumped when a cutthroat jumped out from the shadows to end their guide. Vral merely, without so much as glancing at their attacker, put his hand up to the threat, and a surge of that same, spine-tingling, urching, writhing magenta magic erupted from Vral's hand.
The cutthroat dropped immediatly to the ground and began clutching his head and thrashing around maddeningly. Vral tersely, without so much as looking at his wards, told the party to kill the intruder, less his madness spreads to infect the whole city.
The party is horrified, but Ameniphas rose to the task, being familiar with the harshness of life, and strangled the poor bloke to death, then he and Drake hid the body. Anya expresses her annoyance at Vral for using a spell that could've put the entirety of the city at risk. Not out of any discomfort with death and the necessity of killing- she had plans for her brother Asha after all- but that the mage had been so cavalier in the risks involved.
The party regrouped and Vral, with some haughtiness, invited Anya to then lead in the next demonstration, which was to practice safely entering a Plane unknown to any of them, Vral included.
The party then planeswalked, with Anya leading.
They arrived upon a strange and terrible setting. a world where a 'sun' loomed black and strange, eclipsed by whirling nether. Fierce winds of gravity pulled at the party as they tumbled across a rocky, barren field where even the very earth seemed as though stretched to the dark sphere. Gaka and interestingly, Drake seemed to be pulled above the most and it was as much as the party could do to hang on to one another. Rhyd transformed into a drafthorse to stabilize the party against the strange currents of force, and Ameniphas did his best to reposition himself as he hung on to the others for his dear life, his flight and wings more of a problem than a benefit. Gaki crawled into a pocket of space between two jutting slabs of stone.
As the party clutched each other and their environment, Vral shouted if the party had had enough of the plane. All in agreement the Planesewalkers quickly zipped back to Arborealar on Aotar. An expectant Ungaard greeted them upon their arrival as the party disengaged themselves from one another. Gaka however had found and taken a nice rock from the plane though!
End of part 1 of 2, of Chapter 3.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
After the party resettles, Ungaard questions the party as to how their practice went. Ameniphas and the group describe Shandalar and the second plane they visited. Ungaard identifies the second plane as Tloseth, a dimension where a pair of ancient planeswalkers held a titanic duel and the entire plane was nearly destroyed. Ameniphas then asked if anything could even live upon such a world and if it were even possible for planeswalkers to have such power again.
Ungaard comments that very little could still survive on Tloseth but does not rule out the possibility. He further states that while events may have changed the nature of the Planeswalker spark, and that most planeswalkers are nowhere near the power they once were, such beings could still manage to drastically influence the multiverse and its planes, albeit at much steeper costs and sacrifice.
Ungaard then proposes a mission for the party.
After the catastrophic events on Dominia Prime (Dominaria), the peoples of this plane have remained within a primitive state more than a century and a half for unknown reasons. Civilization ought to have started to rekindle by now but the old capitals lie desolate. Only the Succumbruun (humanoid demons) and those they’ve enslaved seem to have formed permanent holds and networks.
Ungaard does not know why. He would have tried to teach and aid the peoples in remembering their heritage earlier but Krkerurik, his former Planeswalker pupil felt uncomfortable with the prospect of daily interaction with them. Krkerurik was a shy one indeed.
The party is to trek a few days westward and make contact with a tribe of Einherjar humans and convince them to relocate to the university citadel. The party is to do their best to bring the tribe willingly although Ungaard does not seem all that concerned if necessity requires a firmer approach. Ungaard and Vral will await the party's return and prepare for their arrival.
The party asks a few questions about the local flora and fauna but they receive only vague answers, that much of the ecology in the area is fairly ordinary for the climate, and not particularly sorcerous. They are uneasy and pack a few days rations and prepare for the journey.
The first few days and nights are uneventful. the Party's survival skills are string and between the Druid, Goblin and Aven, they proceed cautiously towards the general area. Drake even brought his chair, now collapsible.
The third day and night the party began to be trailed by wolves. The group kept them bay during the evening while threatening them with sunbolts etc, during the day. Rhyd finally had enough and communicated with the wolves using his ability to communicate with animals.
The wolves were respectful, albeit hungry and were difficult for Rhyd to parley with, but after much persuasion, the druid was able to not only convince the wolves to not attack the group, but even learn from them the habits of the nomadic tribe, their general location and an agreement to aide one another such as a trade of information/warning and food. Drake eyed Rhyd suspiciously. People who talk with wolves on Innistrad are generally unsafe companions.
The party finally found signs of human activity in the form of animal blood, track, etc. The wolves howl to announce the approach of strangers and neither the nomadic Viking inspired peoples nor the party are caught flat footed. Gaka climbs a tree.
A tense standoff ensues where the party is surrounded by 20 or so Tribesmen and women, all uneasy at the arrival of the visitors.
The tribal chieftain introduces himself as Brynjarus and his tribe as the Grimspear people. Some explanations are made by the party and they are this time not too wary about sharing their interplanar natures. Brynjarus and his people are confused, scared and angry as they apparently, many years ago had also made contact with a strange being- a man, or what appeared to be a man, with 3 tails like that of a glacial fox. Apparently the man had cursed the tribe, and for generations the tribe would be attacked by a strange animal if they tried to settle themselves with any permanency, hunted beyond bare subsistence, approached ancient ruins including the area of the "Eternal Storm", or even tried to convey ideas upon the ground beyond simple pictures.
The Tribe's language is rough and unclear (though the party can strangely understand it). Both Rhyd and Anya assure the chieftain that they have no connection to the mysterious stranger and that if the tribe will follow their party, they deal with the creature attacking them. The players rolled well and so despite the DM's high threshold in mind for a charisma check, Brynjarus and the tribe stand down and agree to hold a council to discuss the idea.
The party stays with the tribe for about a day and a night and the Grimspear clan is impressed by the party's magical prowess, particularly Rhyd's ability to transform into a wolf and redirect his new patrons during joint hunts. Gaka and Drake are very curious about the monster attacking the Tribe and learn that the creature is said to resemble a gigantic nine-tailed fox with burning orange eyes including bright spheres that float above it. It has killed a few within the clan and no warrior has been able to stop it, only allay it through 'embracing their primordial, inner beast and forsaking questions and selfishness'.
The Tribe hold a council and the group is allowed to watch but not participate...much. The Tribe's wisewoman is concerned as the area the party desires to lead them to, the eternal storm, is taboo due to their new 'guardian' not caring for their presence there. The party again commits to killing the beast and should they fail, the Grimspears could return, without provoking the beast further. The tribe chieftain and Elders then vote, with the decision favoring the party.
It takes a few days for the tribe to pack up their things and prepare for the journey. Nothing attacks the group during the first few nights although strange orange lamps are seen within the trees as they near the area where the 'eternal storm' once stood.
the party and tribe is on edge as the lights flicker and approach ahead of them. The group rush ahead of the Grimspears to keep their vows while the tribe remains behind to watch with suspicion and fear. The beast is indeed a gigantic fox, with a body seemingly made up of plant matter, with burning eyes and burning orbs floating above it.
Gaka and Ameniphas get to the fox first and are surprised to find that though the thing appears to be made up of leafy, woody things like an elemental, it both breaths fire and is impervious to it- but not to radiant sunbolt apparently.
Ameniphas barely dodges a bout of fire and the goblin approaches to help. Flying does not advantage Ameniphas if he is burning. The thing is fast, and angry. Anya successfully shoots it with her crossbow, much to her surprise and rising confidence. She can do this.
The cathar Drake also moves in and manages to slice at the thing, though it seems far from down.
Rhyd decided to try to help inspire the tribe to join the fight and so, holding aloft Avacyn's cast the card Cursebreak
And that is when the DM's world goes a lil topsy-turvy, for unknown to the players, the Kami attacking them is essentially the product of an enchantment, whose ward is the tribe themselves.
Deciding the play was both brilliant and followed the rules by which he conceptualized the monster, the DM allowed the play, and Rhyd essentially destroys the Kami-fox thing with his spell. As the plant matter disentangles, a note with strange characters is found amidst the brambles and the enterprising goblin Gaka scoops it up.
The Tribe is awestruck and all proceed to enter the Citadel-academy of Arborealar, now a new bastion of hope and remembrance for Aotar.
End of Part 2 of 2, of Chapter 3
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Ungaard and Vral welcomed the planeswalkers and their wards into the warm, grand hall. The Grimspears are uncomfortable, but feel fealty towards the group for ending their curse. Vral is asked by Ungaard to help the tribe settl in, but reminds Vral to use ‘no magic’. Vral glares at Ungaard and organizes the resettlement.
At this point, Anya confronts Ungaard on his secretive ways and declares that they have no reason to trust him, she perhaps suspecting him of having known more about what they would face than he let on. Ungaard responded by telepathically delving into her personal history, which she had not revealed, and telling her that she hardly even trusted herself.
Anya was displeased.
The party then described the creature they fought and the note they found. The goblin refused point blank to hand over the strange piece of parchment with it’s equally peculiar characters until he was paid.
Ungaard only sighed and lead them to another part of the academy, a vault with many locks that he seemed to unlock telekinetically. Strange shadows crept away from the wizard’s lighted hand as he summoned a hefty amount of god for the party from within the room. Gaka had greed written all over his face but the wiser of the party helped lead him out as Ungaard turned to lead with his light following him. The oily blackness that once receded returned to smother what treasures were glimpsed beyond and it did not look friendly.
Upon being paid the goblin handed the note to Ungaard, who remarked that the writing was some form of Kanji, a style of writing used on some planes such as Tarkir, Dominaria, Kamigawa and others. He then lead the party to another section of the university, a grand library.
Ungaard asked the party if they had noticed something strange since they became planeswalkers, the fact that although they could understand himself, their companions, and sentient denizens from other planes, the movement of these people’s mouths, tongue, etc did not match the words they were comprehending.
A few of the planeswalkers had in fact already realized this, Rhyd being among the first. Ungaard then explained that The Mending was not the first interplanar event to have changed the nature of the Planeswalker spark and that before time immemorial, an ancient planeswalker had changed the nature of planeswalkers and planeswalking so as to make travelling the planes easier for herself and her cadre of friends, and understand commonly known, non-magical languages of sentients across the multiverse, as if they were hearing their own tongue.
Strangely, this same planeswalker either did not consider making it similarly possible for all planeswalkers to be able to read such languages, or mysteriously chose not to.
...The above is mere headcannon that solves a problem I always had with MTG lore...
Ungaard then set the paper on the table, where it magically became comprehensible to all.
A land long betrayed,
My gift is but justice,
You are brought upon your knees.
Ungaard noted that the note appeared to be a haiku, a type of poetry common on a few planes that usually also used Kanji. He then gave the note back to Gaka who remarked with wide eyes “you aren’t very good at this are you?” referring to previous exchange of gold.
The party then puzzled over the note, but with all their literary-associated knowledge checks failing, they could not confidently figure out its meaning.
What they could conclude however was that whatever entity had cursed the tribe, it was interplanar in nature, most likely a planeswalker like them and from a place that used Kanji.
All of the above technically had occurred at the end of Chapter 2. The remainder of events on this post describes the activities, research and development the characters undergo between sessions, chapters 2 to 3, and cover a span of about 5 days.
Anya
Anya’s player did not detail too many things that she wanted her character to do, but this is what is known of her activities:
The Vedalken Sorceress secretly perused spellbooks within the library, looking for magic of the mind, and still displeased with both Vraal and Ungaard’s displays of mental sorcery, and formulating a plan to eliminate her brother.
Anya also trained in martial combat with Ameniphas.
Gaka
Gaka was pretty engaged in his own goblin-y things for the five days, which isn’t to say that such wasn’t important, but nothing all that plot-moving.
One interesting event that did occur was Vral tensely approaching Gaka and asking him about recent events on his homeplane, what it is currently like, the year by their reckoning, etc.
Gaka responded by telling Vral that he was from Zendikar, and that he used to be a member of the Lavastep tribe before venturing out on his own and becoming an expedition guide. He described it as being a lot of fun and profitable until strange monsters began appearing and turning the world and people into dust. The People were scared, expeditions stopped, and Gaka hid within some old ruins. He wasn’t even sure if his Tribe was still alive.
Upon being pressed further by Vral, Gaka describes Zendikar as still being around last time he was there, and that he hadn’t seen a ‘monster’ for a while, despite the subject still being talked of much by the inhabitants.
Vral thanked Gaka and then left.
Rhydeon
Rhyd was perhaps the busiest of characters within the 5day span.
He pestered Ungaard for more information on a few of the planes he mentioned using Kanji, and how to get to these planes.
Ungaard telepathically relayed to Rhyd the location of the planes and the sections in the library covering them.
Rhyd learned the following
Tarkir
a plane where ancient clans have fought eternally with proud dragonflights for supremacy. The Jeskai monastic order apparently used Kanji characters. Rhyd and Ameniphas did not spend much time there as they had a run-in with Silumgar warriors but it seems as though your research is out-dated- at least one of the clans seems to have fallen to the Dragonflights. Nothing is recorded of Kitsune.
Avyrim
a tiny plane comprised of four clusters of Archipelagos, whose denizens worship ‘god-giants’. Each Island group is magically isolated from the other according to your research and Kanji are used by the Taiyo Kishi peoples. Kitsune are a race of fox-people who are believed to be clever messengers of their god-giantess. Your research is again outdated- your brief visit there suggests open war between the Islands, which are now connected by mysterious bridges of vine and stone arisen from the sea.
Dominaria, Madara
Madara is a continent of Dominaria whose people used Kanji, and your research states that it was once ruled by Nicol Bolas who enslaved the continent and established his own empire. After a series of power-plays and fortunate circumstances, Tetsuo Umezawa, Bolas’s own champion managed to slay the dragon-god’s body while his mind and soul was engaged elsewhere. There is author speculation as what might occur after the fact. The accounts were written before a cataclysmic event that you infer was what Ungaard called ‘The Mending’ occurred as Dominaria now appears to be slowly recovering from a previous planewide magical calamity. Madara is now ruled by a cat -dragon race, the nekoru. The humans of Madara exist solely as servants, clerics, and slaves. There is however whispers of a mysterious Cabal that has begun to spread on Madara and throughout Dominaria which has caused conflict with those currently in power. Nothing is recorded of Kitsune.
Kamigawa
the people on this plane use Kanji in their writing. Your research suggests that the peoples of the plane, which include Kitsune, worship plane-derived spirits that guard over aspects of nature, cosmology, philosophy and their very society. Kitsune are fox-peoples who have strong ties to the plane’s humans as well as Kami and are known as excellent samurai- who you believe are like Cathars. At the time of the authors’ writing, there appeared to be a growing tension between the mortal residents and the spirits they worship which had even escalated in some regions to open bloodshed. The authors were unsure why and were interested due to the plane being relatively ‘close’ cosmologically to Aotar’s position in the multiverse. Whatever the conflict was, your short visit there suggested no current issues as the few people you met seemed respectful and at peace with both strangers like yourself and their Kami spirits.
Rhyd was also approached later in the 5-day period by Vral who asked him about his plane. Rhyd admitted that Innistrad had always been a place of horror and conflict but recently it became twisted further by mad magic that bore resemblance to Vral’s own strange powers. Rhyd then urges Vral to hold back his spellcasing as Rhyd has seen such power turn friends into enemies. Vral, paler than before, then thanks Rhyd and leaves
But not before causing a suspicious Rhyd to suspect him of Planeswalking (which he did) and following Vral to a beautiful but scarred plane. Vral, strangely amused and annoyed, then asks Rhyd if there was a reason why he had followed him to Dominaria.
Rhyd responded by telling Vral that as a new planeswalker he needed practicing and that as Vral seemed unnerved about his own magic and Rhyd too wished to learn about the cause of his plane’s calamity, he would like to join Vral as he may be an expert on the subject.
Vral relents, but warns Rhyd that he may not like what he finds, to which Rhyd responds that fear is necessary and he had yet to be controlled by it. Rhyd personally believes Vral to be a lost cause and hopes to be able to do what is necessary should it come to that, and learn a thing or two in the process.
Together they explore Innistrad a little and Rhyd learns the following by observing Vral, sometimes conversing with him, and joining his investigation
Rhyd does little beyond these events and is unsure how the pieces fit together.
Ameniphas
Ameniphas chose to spend his time by first acclimatizing to the frigid harshness of Aotar and teaching and engaging Anya in martial combat. Ameniphas views her as a sister and she reminds him of someone he once knew and cared deeply about on Amonkhet.
Ameniphas approached Ungaard to learn more about Nicol Bolas, and was directed by the man to a section of the library on interplanar history. The scholars and planeswalker agents of Arborealar had performed some research on the figure and had even engaged in proxy wars against Bolas’s own networks anciently.
Ameniphas even found a spell demonstrating to agents how to erase one’s memory from mind and spirit to protect the university from Bolas and his minions. But the Aven had not the talent for mind-magic to learn it. What Ameniphas did learn however was that Bolas was one of, if not the greatest tyrant in the entire known Multiverse, and that he was presumed to have been killed, ironically by his own servants.
The monk also found a more recent notation handwritten in one of the histories mapping the ancient networks of the Dragon...
Agent found and imprisoned on Falandria. Will interrogate after investigation into Gwatch and Amonkhet. New networks suspected.
Ameniphas then later accompanied Rhyd to Tarkir where they briefly encountered Silumgar warriors who like the Aven’s people, also served a cruel Dragon god. Ameniphas had been hoping to meet the Jeskai that Rhyd’s research had described but found no evidence of them in their briefest of trips.
Finally, Ameniphas also practiced planeswalking by himself and became totally captivated by the plane of Kylem, where 2 on 2 martial and arcane duels are the pinnacle of sport and contenders win not by killing their opponents but by defeating them with expertise and flair. There he met a battlemage named Kimberly Kerathe and became a regular duel partner of hers.
Ameniphas is absent during Chapter 3, and all that the party knows at the beginning of that chapter is that Ameniphas had “a match” coming up, and if he ditched it ‘Kimberly was going to kick his butt’.
Bimori
Bimori was absent last chapter but makes an appearance again in Chapter 3
While the party was out adventuring together, Bimori the Merfolk eldritch Fighter from Ixalan returned to his home and warm ocean. While there he discovered from his people, the River Heralds, that a terrifying, frost-wielding lizard...humanoid was slaughtering almost every merfolk he found within the seas and had sent a message with what few he spared: demanding the surrender of the thief who stole his orb and its return- or he would slaughter every ‘fishman’ on this ‘world’.
Needless to say Bimori left Ixalan quickly after that, his stolen artefact glowing with blue fire all the while.
The Merfolk was not too specific where he desired to go, but only mentally sought a place of deep, wide oceans. He found himself upon Theros and briefly spent some time amongst the Tritons there, who told him grand stories of heroes, gods and daring thieves.
Drake Noivar
Drake spent his time researching Shandalar and Vampirism across the planes. Drake seems to have a history with Innistraddi vampires, despite not being one himself, and it is unclear if this has anything to do with his unnatural vigor in his old age, or his use of dark methods to achieve noble means. During the 5-day period, Drake learns the following...
Shandalar
Lesh
Vampires
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Needless to say, the party’s reaction to the plane is mixed as it’s a more ‘spiritual’ setting.
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
The group is still going and much has happened, from a trip through Kamigawa, a buddy cop adventure in Ulgrotha, and current espionage on Kaladesh.
But I’m not gonna post there’s disinterest
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi