This thread is a continuation of Well of Souls 1, Well of Souls 2, and Curse You Rickard--Well of Souls 3.

If you would like to have a copy of the 1 MB fully illustrated scenario pdf, let me know, and I’ll send you a copy.

Player heroes are still Sir Giliam, Dacius, and Rickard.

We are finally about to play Well of Souls again tomorrow. It is just bad luck and bad planning, not lack of interest, that has kept us from playing in a loooong time.

Here are some prep notes:

I am aiming for two things. First, I want to empower the players by giving them more information (thanx Chris!). Last session, the NPCs were rather passive, but now it is time for them to act. Hopefully, all hell will break loose.

SIR GILIAM
His daughter, Sister Josette, will need to make a couple of decisions. Probably these: 1) Tell her father that she is pregnant. 2) Accept Assessor Ratier's proposal to marry her (she is still early in the pregnancy, so nobody will need to know who the real father is).

Last session, Sir Giliam Sir Giliam invited both Assessor Ratier and Sister Josette to dinner, and I plan to make the dinner Sir Giliam's first scene.

Assessor Ratier has promised Sir Giliam to assist in the heroquest to retrieve Lord Eustef's soul. (He will conduct the ritual to open the way to the Other Side.) The dinner is an opportunity to give the player a little more information about heroquesting by having Assessor Ratier explain how it works. (The player is new to Glorantha and HeroQuest.)

Currently, lord Eustef's body is possessed by the ghost of Anmak (Rickard's former follower). Anmak is confused and suffers from severe amnesia, so he accepts anything his closest advisors tell him. Serge convinces him to outlaw the "dangerous disloyal thieves" Giliam and Old Maslin (who both have confessed to a crime that never took place). So, Serge and his men will try to drive away Giliam and take over his fief. This time they have their Lord's permission.

DACIUS
You may remember that Dacius is the illegitimate son of Father Rance. In Dacius' first scene, Rance will tell him that he has discovered that Eustef is possessed by an evil spirit. He will warn his son that he has sent for the Inquisition. He may also inform him of the Lord's sudden decision to outlaw two of his own knights (see above).

A large angry lynch-mob, instigated by Etienne and his father Deliam, will attack the home of rival merchant Raol de Nesle. This is actually the result of Dacius' plotting. Naturally, Dacius will have the opportunity to decide whether to help the innocent merchant and his even more innocent family or not.

Hugo gets outlawed for conspiring against his older brother Guilbert, based on "evidence" provided by Dacius. --> Brier decides to avenge her beloved master by going after the traitorous Dacius.

Important to remember: Dacius is Xavier's assistant, and Xavier is very loyal to Hugo.

RICKARD
Wait a minute ... Rickard is one of Xavier’s best students. Another connection I must not forget!

Anyway, Rickard and Lady Colette, Lord Eustef's sister in law, are responsible for the entire Eustef/Anmak situation. They were trying to revive the comatose Lord by performing this human sacrifice on Anmak, but something went wrong. Now, Lady Colette convinces Eustef/Anmak to replace garrison leader Trencavel with this promising young soldier Rickard. However, once the Lord actually sees his newly appointed head of garrison, he will snap. He cannot remember why, but he intensely hates Rickard. This will be Rickard's first scene, I think. I wonder what will happen.

Problem: What about Rickard's relic spear? It is obviously powerful and important. Since Rickard is now tainted by human sacrifice, it will most likely treat him like it treated Lady Colette: by burning his hands. However, this spear has become a mystery of sorts. Rickard tried to find out more about it, but I never really told him anything. Shouldn't there be some kind of revelation here? Something ought to happen regarding this relic, but I don't know what. This powerful thing is becoming quite anticlimactic, I think.

What we know about it so far: It was the spear that killed Saint Xemela. One of Trencavel's ancestors got hold of it while on a crucade in Ralios. It has the power Killing Blast of Light and Explosion (or something) 10W2.

Suggestions anyone?

ADDITIONAL NOTE:
Father Rance is likely to inform other trustworthy people of the possession. Who is trustworthy? Well, anybody who gets outlawed by the Lord is a good candidate.

Cheers,

/Peter N

There are two sides to every story.

What everybody knows
While Lord Eustef's "soul" was captured by the earth daimon Dame Ophidia of the Moist Between the Rocks, his body was possessed by an evil demonic entity. The possessed Lord Eustef outlawed Sir Giliam, Sir Maslin, and even his own son Hugo. He also fired Trencavel, head of the garrison of Wells, and attacked Rickard for obscure reasons.

Seven men went on a quest to retrieve Eustef's soul: Sir Giliam and his squire, Rickard, Dacius, Alfan, Hugo, and Trencavel. Only Dacius survived to tell their story. Most died in battle against Dame Ophidia. Sir Giliam was killed when the daimon turned the very earth against him.

In the final moment, when all seemed lost, Rickard sacrificed himself and traded his life for Eustef's. Dacius managed to slip away while the brave peasant was torn to pieces by the daimon.

Lord Eustef was saved. The Inquisition investigated the matter, and discovered that Lady Colette was the evil sorceress responsible for the possession. She was burned at the stake. Rickard received a hero's funeral.

The peasants of Sir Giliam's fief had supported him in the quest. When he failed, the land became infertile and infested with snakes and sickness. Nobody lives there today. His daughter Josette, however, married Lord Eustef's son Guilbert. One day she will become Lady Josette of Spring Fountain.

Dacius is glad just to be alive. He is still the assistant of swordsmaster Xavier.

The Secret
At the final stage of the heroquest, when only Rickard was still standing, Rickard changed strategy. Realizing that he could not defeat the goddess, he decided to join her instead. He seduced her, and they made a deal. She would put his soul in Lord Eustef's body. In return, he would free her from her prison mound, allowing her to once again influence the mortal world as a landscape daimon.

Thus, Lord Eustef's soul is still imprisoned in her realm, and Rickard is the real ruler of Spring Fountain. And as Lord Eustef, Rickard framed his former lover Colette for all the bad things that had happened.

And
More later about the important stuff: what actually happened at the gaming table. Please ask questions.

At this point, in the middle of the night, after the best roleplaying experience I've had in years, I'll say only this:

Thank you Chris Chinn, Mike Holmes, Ralph Mazza, and Ron Edwards for superb advice, and invaluable help. I owe you big time!

/Peter Nordstrand

Whatever ever happened to the Spear?

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to post before you played, because to me that Spear was just screaming for a Dolorous Stroke type event. Something that would send ripples through the world far beyond the course of events being portrayed here, and possibly form the kernal for your next adventure in the same setting.

Ya gotta love it when the bad guys burn each other.

Have you guys decided to end the story? The game as a whole? What were the player comments about this?

I don't know if I could leave the potential Dacius/Rickard conflict unsettled.

Mike

Hi Peter,

Glad to hear things went well! Looking back, with a little more experience, Well of Souls may be a solid Nar scenario, but it certainly isn't a simple one! But I'm glad to see you took the openness of the characters to interpret the how's and why's of the backstory! I could easily see the Spear serving as a continuing link to other games or storylines.

Here's my list of questions:

-After defining the focal conflict, did you find it easier to prep between sessions?
-Did you occassionally catch yourself slipping into "force-heavy" GMing(railroading)?
-How did the players do as taking up protagonism, instead of looking for GM cues?
-What premise did you feel come forward from play?

Chris

Theme, Chris, theme. :-)

Oh, and when does this get published?

Mike

Hi,

Thank you for you comments and questions. I will post proper replies later today.

Mike Holmes wrote: Oh, and when does this get published?

Hi,

I'm not saying everything went 100% perfectly. I made a lot of stupid little mistakes, but the final session was such an enjoyable experience that it didn't really matter. I think most of mistakes were made as a consequence of me firing off too many Bangs in the first session; trying to juggle too many balls at the same time, I was bound to drop a few.

Valamir wrote: Whatever ever happened to the Spear?

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to post before you played, because to me that Spear was just screaming for a Dolorous Stroke type event. Something that would send ripples through the world far beyond the course of events being portrayed here, and possibly form the kernal for your next adventure in the same setting.

Mike Holmes wrote: Have you guys decided to end the story? The game as a whole? What were the player comments about this?

Mike Holmes wrote: I don't know if I could leave the potential Dacius/Rickard conflict unsettled.

Sweet. I would love to see a follow up campaign set years later with new characters, with these characters as NPCs. The Spear Tree spreading cancerous blight throughout the land...general nastiness. Very cool.

That's why I said "potential." I just can't stand to see Dacius fooled, and Rickard get away with it. My point is, what would happen if Dacius found out somehow...

Too cool.

Mike

Hi Chris,

Bankuei wrote: After defining the focal conflict, did you find it easier to prep between sessions?

Bankuei wrote: Did you occasionally catch yourself slipping into "force-heavy" GMing(railroading)?

Bankuei wrote: How did the players do as taking up protagonism, instead of looking for GM cues?

Hi Peter,

Glad to hear how well it went. It's a very different mentality when the GM realizes that the only two major "differences" between GM'ing and playing are the power over scene framing and introducing conflict on the GM's side.

Instead of trying to guess what each player might do, you just roleplay, roleplay, roleplay, from actor to author to director stance, any you want, and it flies very well when you've defined the conflicts and motivations involved. HQ is very nice in setting up general conflicts and motivations, and leaves enough room to plug in any sort of characters you want who fulfill or violate the expected conflicts.

However, I did apply a lot of force, especially during the last session. I wanted to force the players to make decisions. And in the future, I am likely to "railroad" the players to these points of decision even more firmly.