Shadow World using Hero Wars

[Mike Holmes]

I stopped posting about this a while back, and indeed there was a long hiatus from this game. For those who might want to look back at it:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=4194

But we've played a couple more sessions since then, and just added a new character. So I thought, what the heck, here's a short synopsis.

As it turned out, the leader of Salani's cult was raised from the dead to inhabit her daughter's body in a ritual involving a powerful demon. The PCs of course stumbled in on this. The end result was that Salani ended up working her way back into the cult with the caveat that she should have to perform a special ritual to prove her worthiness, and Killian ended up coming back later to look for information on how they'd summoned such a powerful demon. He ended up being captured.

So they start the ritual, which involves Salani drinking some awful concoction, and spiritually traveling to the red moon of the dark gods. The priestess decides to offer Killian's soul to make the ritual go better, and tries to pull out his heart. Well, Killian being a resourceful sort manages to hold her off long enough to join Salani on the journey as a thoughtful raven whispering hints to her. I ran the ritual as an extended conflict, which seemed to work well. In the end Salani ended up gaining a crystal containing her own soul from a demigod she encountered.

As they returned, I introduced Ryan's new character, a werewolf who, incensed by the link to the red moon on the basement came charging in and smaked into the priestess. In the resulting chaos, the priestess was killed, leaving Salani in charge of the cult, and predisposed enough towards Killian that she let him go.


That last part is important. I really like the idea of the burgeoning love/hate relationship between their characters. At one point, Josh had an idea and cast a spell that allowed him to find the weak point in the ritual. I decided, totally by GM fiat (though I did ask if it was OK), if I could have the result of the spell report back that the weak point was the relationsip between Killian and Salani. Again, this doesn't exist on paper yet, but you can feel it in play as nigh palpable. They agreed. So then Josh asked if he could lend her APs, and I said, of course. But he wanted to do it only on the condition that Salani would become favorably disposed towards him. As this was a totally OOC decision, they discusssed it, and at first Julie hedged (which was funny), but then agreed to it.

Interesting case of "I'll protagonize your character if you protagonize mine" being negotiated explicitly. Does that seem odd at all? It did seem wierd when it was happening, and I'm not really putting my finger on why.

Anyhow, everyone seems to be liking it so we continue next week. Josh will continue to have his character work on summoning a demon that's waaaay over his head in power. Neato! :-)

Mike