[Burning Wheel] Corso Conclusion

[taepoong]

So, last night we finished up what was supposed to be a short, 6-session campaign. Let's just say that we began this way back in late summer! Lots of sickness, work, and holidays really cramped the schedule. It often broke our momentum and sometimes made getting back into the story difficult. But, we soldiered on and finally were able to conclude it.

Story: The city is Corso and is inspired by Rennaissance Florence. It's governed by a Prince by ruled by 5 merchant families. On top is the House  Baroncelli, followed by the House Davanzatti, the House Ferruci, the House Strada and finally the House Magaldi.

50 years ago, the House Magaldi was number one. However, the Don of the family murdered the Prince of that time and the House suffered ruination. At the beginning of the campaign, they are about to be usurped for good.

The PCs belong to the House Magaldi. The eldest is Baldasera - the bastard son of the Don. Finding no opportunity nor legitimacy within the family, he left behind his young fiance and illegitimate son to freelance and smuggle in the distant Khodan Empire. The youngest son of the Don is Magos Nestore - the House Sorcerer. After being severely punished by his Master - Magos Ottavio di Baroncelli - he, too, left his post and his love/apprentice for the Khodan Empire where he learned the forbidden art of Summoning. Staying behind to govern the family is Monsigneur Dolce, the House Bishop and second son of the Don.

The Story begins with the three reuniting on the docks after 16 years.

Core Beliefs: Baldasera wants to earn his place in the family, thus enabling him to finally marry his love. Dolce wants his family to resume its rightful place in society. Nestore wants to prove himself superior to his Master.


More to come...

[Thor Olavsrud]

This was a truly excellent campaign. And also an excellent example that though Burning Wheel's combat system usually gets top billing when people discuss the game, the mechanics offer many exciting and interesting choices outside of combat.

In fact, I believe we only had about four combats throughout the entire game, and usually only one of us engaged in it. Only Dro's character, Baldesera, had any martial skills at all, and he wasn't very good at it.

Instead, most of the tension and conflict in the game was a result of social situations. The Duel of Wits played a central role in the game's resolution. The last session came down to two Duels of Wits. First, Phredd's character, Dolce (our family's bishop), had to convince the Inquisitors to hold off on taking my character, Nestore (the family's wizard) in for questioning.

Here was the situation: After months of skullduggery, plotting, investigation and various unsavory acts, we had gathered what we considered to be incontrovertible evidence that our great grandfather had been framed in the assassination of the Prince of Corso 50 years before. Our great grandfather had been executed and our House disgraced. Where once we had been the most powerful noble house in the city, now our enemies had taken our place and we were in danger of being destroyed utterly.

Anyway, we had the evidence that showed that two of our rival Houses (in fact the two most powerful Houses in the city now) had concocted a conspiracy to assassinate the Prince and frame us for it. I had discovered information about an enchanted ring created by our rivals that allowed the assassin to take our great grandfather's likeness. After he had done the deed, our rivals had killed their own assassin and buried him with the ring deep in the catacombs beneath one of their houses. My character, with some henchmen, invaded the catacombs and broke open the assassin's tomb to get the ring.

We had requested an audience before the Prince and were set to present our evidence the very next day. And then the inquisitors show up and accuse my character of defiling the dead and our rival house's crypt! If they took Nestore away and tortured him, he wouldn't be able to provide evidence!

Our characters verbally fenced with the inquisitors for a while, but then it started getting circular. So I suggested a Duel of Wits. If we won, they would wait to interrogate me until after the trial. If they won, I would come with them immediately. Everyone at the table agreed that these two outcomes were acceptable.

We let Dolce take the lead with the Duel, as he had by far the most social skills. Dro and I didn't get to script, but the stakes and the fact that we could provide Helping Dice to Phredd by interjecting our own points in support of his kept us riveted to the table! In the end, Phredd destroyed the inquisitors, suggesting that they were corrupt and being paid off by our rivals, the Davanzatti. They slunk away with their tails between their legs.

The following day (game time), we had a second Duel of Wits, as Dolce squared off against Zosimo (the bishop of our number one rivals, the Baroncelli) as each side attempted to persuade the Prince of the rightness of our case. We improvised a bit with the mechanics here, though I'm sure Luke would approve. As Phredd introduced our evidence in the course of his Duel, Pete gave him a number of bonus dice to roll, depending on how compelling the evidence was.

For instance, a painting of our great grandfather that seemed to show he was left-handed (though the assassin had been described as striking with his right hand in court documents from our great grandfather's trial), gave Phredd +1D when he introduced it. Damaged and incomplete letters exchanged by the Baroncelli and Davanzatti wizards who created the ring gave Phredd a +2D bonus when he introduced it. And the ring itself gave a whopping +5D when Dolce slipped it on his finger and assumed our great grandfather's likeness, causing hysteria in the court!

[Monosodium Glutamate]

Ooh... and the struggle for political power begins.

Are you intending to ever return to this campaign?  If so, how do you think the power vacuum left by what I can only presume was the partial collapse of the two largest Houses will be filled?

[Thor Olavsrud]

Ooh... and the struggle for political power begins.

Are you intending to ever return to this campaign?  If so, how do you think the power vacuum left by what I can only presume was the partial collapse of the two largest Houses will be filled?

I think this campaign is concluded and we won't be going back. But the collapse wasn't partial. We had been plotting throughout the campaign to turn those two houses against each other. See, the Davanzatti had a monopoly on the docks and ship-building (in fact, each family had its own monopoly). We had forged documents that suggested the Baroncelli were planning on moving in on their ship-building turf, and then used our underworld contacts to deliver those documents to the Davanzatti. Then we hired an arsonist to burn down a Davanzatti shipyard (after making an extremely unsuccessful attempt to do it ourselves).

Meanwhile, we had captured a Davanzatti war galley on the river (a B24 White Fire will make almost anyone surrender, I've found). After using Persuasion (the spell) to crush the minds of the surviving crew and turn them into my loyal slaves, we hired a pirates to make up the ship's complement. Then we left them on the river to prey on Baroncelli shipping.

To pad our own coffers, we had cut a deal with the guy who basically controlled the criminal elements in Corso. We let him know when there would be a shortage of materials in Corso due to piracy or "accidental" fires.

When the final showdown came in court, the Davanzatti and Baroncelli families attacked us and each other. Not only that, but their wizards went on a rampage in the city, which our College of Wizardry had been designed to prevent (each of the five noble families had one Wizard on the council). Much of the city burned, and many were killed. The Davanzatti and Baroncelli were rounded up and executed or exiled. Fortunately, our family had the monopoly on architects and masons, so we made a killing. ;)

Our allied house, the Ferrucci, became the most powerful House in the city, but our house ended as a close second. The Strada, which had nominally supported the Baroncelli and Davanzatti, but failed to rise up with them during the riots, moved from the fourth most powerful family to the third. A couple of new families also rose up as a result.

[taepoong]

Although it was fun, I have no intention of returning to Corso. As for the political fate of the city, the Magaldi were raised to 2nd in power, with the Ferrucci strongest of all. The Strada - lapdog of the Baroncelli and Davanzatti - stayed out of the struggle! Nothing lost, nothing gained for them. I hinted at the fate of the city, as new houses from outside Corso began to purchase property and invest. There is certainly much more to explore, such as:

1) The Heretics: Corso has a strong church, however none of their priests have Faith - that is, the power to perform miracles. They rule much as the Catholic Church did in our own history. However, a former slave has returned to Corso and wields true God magic. Constantly hounded by Inquisitors, he works among the poor and recruits worshippers.

I tried many times to play off Monsigneur Dolce's Beliefs here. He thought of the Church only as a tool and his piety was merely a facade. I wanted to tempt him with true Faith and arranged encouters between him and the Heretic, Angelo. Angelo spoke of the Church as a house of lies and nothing  but power-mongering mortals, which reflected Dolce's own feelings. Dolce's main contact - the Beggar King - fell under Angelo's words and both worked to recruit him. Yet, time and again, Dolce refused - even attempting the assassination of Angelo - twice! Yet, the power of the Living God is mighty and he returned again and again. Dolce was played brilliantly in this respect - when faced with true God might, he was terrified and tried to destroy rather than understand it! Tee hee!

2) The Don of the Underworld - Baldasera was a man of the underworld himself and knew many such men. One was a disgraced Baroncelli son, who carved a chunk of Corso for himself. Though he was no longer a legitimate House member, he called himself Don and his organization his House. His price for cooperation was too high, unfortunately. He wanted a Magaldi signet ring to complete his collection - he had the other 4 already. What Baldasera could've gained from such a bargain was much more than what occurred within game, but that'll never be known now. However, they still had somewhat of a relationship, coordinating attacks to each other's benefit.

3) The Magos - Each family supports a Magos and together the Magos keep the city running. Each Magos has an apprentice and this is where I had the most fun in the game. A little background first:

Once upon a time, Magos Ottavio di Baroncelli was the master of Nestore Magaldi. Nestore was a fine student, but he had a terrible, burning desire for his own apprentice - Lia, Ottavio's daughter. Ottavio wasn't really happy about that, since the Magaldis were his number one nuisance as long as they existed. Therefore, Ottavio was cruel towards Nestore. In fact, after a relatively small accident in the lab caused by Nestore, Ottavio plucked out Nestore's eye in punishment!

Nestore vowed revenge and exiled himself from the city to the lands of Khoda, where he learned the forbidden arts of summoning. Intent upon proving himself superior to Ottavio, he returned in a bid to win back Lia.

Upon his return, he found Lia had become Ottavio's apprentice. She still loved him, though, and their reunion was passionate. Then, Nestore revealed his plot to her.

I should recount Nestore's Beliefs, since they were central to our story. First, as stated, he vowed to prove himself better than his master Ottavio. Second, he believed to be feared is more important than to be loved. Finally, Nestore felt only his family could protect him. Now, back to the plot.

At first, Lia went along with Nestore. She stood by as Nestore succeeded in his first objective. Using summoning, he bid an Air Spirit to steal the voice of Ottavio, rendering him all but impotent! Thor rolled really well and we were shocked to discover the spirit would keep Ottavio silent for SIX years!

Nestore then enlisted Lia to steal the correspondences which would lead to the finding of the enchanted ring. She did as bid, but when they rendevouzed Nestore found that Lia had been beaten by her father during his now frequent rages. Now, he swore to destroy Ottavio for good. Lia left him alone in the University, but another sorcerer appeared and engaged Nestore in a sorcerous duel. Fought to a draw, the villain retreated. Nestore didn't have his Sense up, so he never discovered the enshrouded identity of his assailant.

At this point, Lia begins to distance herself from Nestore. During her father's "illness," she was named Magos in his stead. And this is when I had most of my fun.

Lia was an excellent student. She learned many lessos from both Ottavio and Nestore. In fact, she adored Nestore so much, she also took his Beliefs as her own. This set up a beautiful finale.

After the trial, the city was up in arms as the Baroncelli and Davanzatti rioted through the streets in a bid for vengeance against the Magaldis. Nestore rushed through the streets to reach the Magaldi estate, but was intercepted. The very same wizard who attacked him in the University now confronted him on the street.

Caught off guard, keeping his Eldritch Shield powered was all Nestore could to survive the onslaught of magics from the dark-shadowed villain. Yet, Nestore had his Sense up this time and good thing, too. He gazed upon the enemy and saw his fair Lia.

Blinking, he deceived himself into believing she must've been compelled by her father Ottavio. Casting Persuasion again and again, he tried to break the hold over his true love. It was only after she laughed mockingly did he begin to understand. And when he did, he betrayed his own Belief. He turned to love instead of fear in order to sway fair Lia.

However, Lia was now of different heart altogether. Her father had beaten her to the breaking point and she realized the truth. Fear was stronger than Love and truly only her own family mattered. She forsook Nestore and swore to keep her family intact.

As Nestore dropped to his knees before Lia, begging her to return to him, she mocked him again and blasted Nestore with his own words.

"Ha! You, Nestore, my master now kneel before me! Admit I am better!"

Nestore, his heart ruined, admitted it to be so.

"You promised you would care for me, but you abandoned me for 12 years! Now, only my family can protect me!" Emperor's Hand cast upon Nestore took away half his Forte. Nestore gave entirely into his broken heart and gave her permission to finish him.

Tears streaming from her eyes at this time, she uttered, "It is better to be Feared than Loved!" Again, she let loose the Emperor's Hand and Nestore was sent adrift into Oblivion.

When he came to hours later, Lia was gone for good. She hadn't killed him. However, where she, her father, and the Magos Davanzatti went to is unknown, though there was a unconfirmed rumor that at least Lia was employed in the capitol.

[Thor Olavsrud]

That ending was definitely tragic! I broke two of my three beliefs by the end of the last session. It was a really poweful moment for the character, I think. He stood there, at the end, facing her. He had a very powerful Eldritch Shield up, so he could have taken his time invoking White Fire and utterly annihilated her, absolutely ensuring the destruction of her hated house. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't attack her.

I like to think that even though his own quest for vengeance and power lost him his love, he learned compassion after this, and trained a number of apprentices whom he taught compassion rather than hate. I also think he never gave up searching for Lia, but that's another story.