Fabula Ultima - The Romance of Ys - Session 20
We resume the game with the party heading to Castle Niyonin to investigate why its king has called for an inopportune joust. Along the way they buy a cart, fight a moose, and make a good first impression.
Episode 4, "Foul Garden: Trouble in the Onion Castle!" Session 20
Cast
- Aurelia, she/her, Ex-Inventor Turned Spy
- Hemlocke, any, Loyal Servant Looking for Answers
- Mio, she/her, Headstrong Pugilist with a Heart of Gold
- Rhiannon the Blue, she/her, Academic Ghost Bride Looking for Answers
- Seren, she/her, Kindhearted Princess on the Run
Setting Out
The session opens on the party preparing to leave Caer Ys for Castle Niyonin. Mindful that they only have about three weeks to find news of the missing horse goddess Rhiannon and bring it to King Manawydan and thinking about the tapestry they saw depicting Rhiannon fleeing the Seelie Court when it was sacked, Hemlocke finds her fairy compatriot, Hawthorne, and asks him if goddess Rhiannon was present at the Seelie Court and which direction she fled. The tiny fairy doorman thinks for a moment, does a peculiar little dance, and recalls that indeed, Rhiannon was at the Court, knowledge that was kept from Hemlocke. She fled north, in the direction of Alba, a territory now controlled by Nova Sinfonia. It's not much of a lead, but it is something the group plan to follow-up on as they travel north from Caer Ys.
To help speed their travels, the group decides to buy a carriage before leaving the city. Unfortunately, buying the morning they depart leaves them with only a single choice - a large, wheelbarrow-like carriage pulled by two boarlings, the resigned Snortly and the proud Boaregard. The man selling them a wagon warns that the roads are dangerous as the party finally leaves Caer Ys.
Snake Tunnel
As they depart, we cut away from the party to focus on a small group moving through a dusty tunnel lit only by the lantern they carry. A knight in red armor leads a Nova Sinfonian Chanter and Squire Blevin to the room the party fought Blevin in weeks ago. Following a lead provided them by a princess, they discover that the hole the party made to ambush Blevin now leads into a water soaked tunnel full of snake hisses. The knight and his squire advance down the tunnel, weapons drawn, and we leave them with the camera focused on the enchanted crystal the trio carries, the kind Nova Sinfonia uses to trap spirits.
Not-Quite-Bandit Ambush
The group makes good time with their new wagon. Their trip is interupted at midday with a crash, as trees fall across the road and block them in. A trio of Lőd Lizardfolk wearing red bandannas and their heavily armored pot-bellied boarling appear and demand their valuables or their lives. With an eager swagger, Mio exits the cart, approaches the one lizardfolk riding a moose, and starts a fight instead.
Over the course of the resulting fight Mio learns to snort fire from the boarling and Seren, tapping into new magics, reads the mind of the moose-mounted bandit to discover they were hired by a man in red armor and Squire Blevin to ambush travelers. While the fight leaves no survivors to interrogate, the party is confident the "bandits" are actually mercenaries hired by Nova Sinfonia.
The group ruffle through the Lizardfolk's belongings and takings and turn-up a well-made apron, a peculiar bezoar, and three-hundred zenit. Seren hacks-up the stone bezoar that allows her to conjure a scythe, passing it to Thistle the loyal hound, then swallows her new bolt-scoured bead to replace it with enchanted bolt attacks.
Castle Niyonin
The rest of the trip is uneventful and swift, and early into the afternoon the group smells onions in the air - a sure sign they're approaching Castle Niyonin and its holdings. They pull-off to the side of the road and take several minutes to cast an illusion over their wheelbarrow wagon to make it appear suitable for a noblewoman such as the kind Mio is disguised as. The group debate back-and-forth over designs, at one point floating that it should look like a large, mechanical boarling, but settle on making it appear as a giant onion. With Seren leading, the group create a majestic illusion sure to draw the favor and awe of any who see it.
Content they appear by all accounts to be a vacationing noblewoman and her attendants, they approach Castle Niyonin proper. Sure enough, the gate guard is so impressed by their carriage that despite the group not having a proper invitation to the tournament they claim to want to attend, he waves them through. As Seren, disguised as a younger Rhiannon, steps out to help Mio, disguised as the Lady Rúna Ömansdottir, down from the carriage, she gives a double-take at three young women emerging from the castle itself - it's her two former handmaidens, Aurora and Vesper, and her sister Astri! We end the session with Vesper noting the disguised Seren's shock and surprise and getting a dangerously curious look on her face.
Referee Thoughts
It was nice to return to running a game. I enjoy and am excited to be a player in Seren's magical girl campaign, but I always am happy when I can referee a game. The session went well, even if it was a bit less eventful than some our of recent ones. Much of that was just us reorienting ourselves after being away from the campaign for a while and also navigating a fight.
On the note of the fight, the group now are challenging a new tier of threats. The party's level 16, so any normal are hard fights now feature foes who are level 20 or higher. Per Fabula's rules, that means the foes get a boost to what they can do. That boost combined with targeting rolls that focused attacks on Rhiannon and Aurelia made the "bandits" feel threatening in a way some more recent fights haven't.
Over a year into playing Fabula, the group is also starting to take advantage of rules they previously ignored. Hemlocke opened the session by spending a Fabula Point to declare that the fairy who manages the group's house, Hawthorne, actually was a doorman or watchman for the Seelie Court and could magically tell who enters and leaves that space. This was a delight and gave the group a good starting place for finding the missing horse goddess Rhiannon.
Buying a wagon was also the idea of the group. Mio pointed out that a land vehicle is quite affordable - only 600 zennit - and would double their speed. They settled on it being a large wheelbarrow-shaped wagon drawn by two boarlings, which is delightful.
Finally, projects got brought-up a few different times. I really think that the work the group did making Clamouflage last session showed them how powerful and versatile projects can be. Seren in-particular wants Aurelia's help in using a project to turn a shield she bought from this session's Matty's Immram interlude into a Pilot shield module.
The flipside to folks beginning to take advantage of new tools a year in was also realizing there are traps in how the game works. Hemlocke continues to be frustrated that they can either do a cool Wayfarer + Commander combo attack in a fight or use their fun Gourmet cooking skill, but never both of them together. This isn't a new problem - I cautioned Hemlocke's player about this when she first designed the seneschal - but it highlights that there is nothing in Fabula that warns you that taking all the "cool" classes might leave you with a bunch of moves you never get to use because in any given fight you probably only get three actions. It's not a novel problem - this is just D&D 3e System Mastery all over again - but it is frustrating.
For now Hemlocke will soldier on. After this adventure wraps-up, he might visit the tapestries under the hill to respec or - more likely - pitch a side quest and project for an upgrade that allows her to more easily combine Cooking with Wayfarer or Commander's skillsets.