Cloudex

Fabula Ultima - The Romance of Ys - Session 6

A stylized logo with an Art Nouveau theme. It says Romance of Ys: Crystals in Cymru.

We wrap-up our downtime in Caer Ys with an elaborate minigame this week, then make our first travel rolls!

Episode 2, "The Stone’s Voice Speaks! Seek the Secret Steeding." Session 06

Cast

Matty's Day Out

We start in Caer Ys, with the party picking-up Matty the Smuggler at The Leeky Johnson. Hemlocke and Mio agreed to help Joan out by escorting Matty around town on a bunch of errands. Joan hands them three very heavy pouches of zenit, gives them directions, and the party is off.

A digital drawing of a sullen woman named Matty. The drawing was made on a smartphone in a notes app, so is simplistic. Matty sits hunched on a gray stone bench. She has tan skin, wine-dark purple hair, a blue vest, a long-sleeved red-shirt, denim-blue long pants, and brown shoes. Matty the smuggler, drawn in about 10 minutes using my smartphone's notes app.

The first stop is the barber Gwent Glasscock1. As the party enters the store the camera moves from them into Matty, and the minigame proper kicks off. Gwent begins a check-up and starts asking questions about Matty's past. As he does, the party pick an answer from a list of five choices, with each answer nudging Matty toward some broad class roles. At the end, Gwent describes Matty as the protective type, which the party interprets as Matty being in the vein of a D&D cleric or paladin. Matty washes her hair with shampoo to get rid of some lice and the players pick her stats. The visit wraps-up with Gwent offering a haircut and the group establishing a diegetic way to tweak character features.2

At the end the party hands-over one of the massive pouches of zenit and head-off to their second stop. Along the way they chat with Matty and wonder where Joan - who runs a dingy pub near the docks - got so much money.

Stop two is Tadych Stitch, a clothier run by a lizardman from the northern nation of Lod. Mio hangs back, uncomfortable around someone from Lod. Niko the tailor shuffles Matty to the back to try on some outfits and the party dips back into controlling Matty and design a kitchen outfit and a casual outfit. I then remind folks that you can purchase qualities on armor or commission crafters to forge items from the materials they find, and highlight that Niko is a diegetic way to do that.

The party passes another sack of zenit over and continue to wonder where Joan got the money. They float maybe Joan is running something criminal or illicit as a possibility.

The final stop is Gay Abandonment, the pawnshop Aurelia visited last session. Hemlocke sees the gunbrella and lights-up. None the wiser to Aurelia paying half of it already, they buy it as well as some armor for her companion, Thistle. Party shopping complete, we dive back into Matty one last time so the party can decide what her standard tools and weapons are. They settle on a sturdy skillet with lid to act as a club and shield. They also get her a journal that catches Matty's attention and invest 400 zenit to buy her additional supplies - more on those in a minute.

The group hands-over the last heavy pouch of zenit and head back to The Leeky Johnson so Matty is back before the pub gets busy. Along the way they wrap-up their conversation about Joan's mysterious wealth with Matty resolving to poke-around. Then Honey Locust, the fairy ward of Hemlocke, starts pulling at the journal Matty has. As the two fight over it, Honey Locust pulls the journal apart, revealing that it is actually two that were bundled in a way that hid their nature. The fairy then proudly exclaims that the journals are fairy magic, demonstrating by physically diving into one journal and appearing from the other, like two linked magic portals.

With some experimentation they figure out that fey can move through the two books and carry items between them. Additionally, what is written or drawn in one appears immediately in the other. Bemused, Matty gives one copy to the party. Upset that Matty can't use the journal as an actual diary, Seren dips into a bookstore and buys Matty a regular, non-magical journal, to the former-smuggler's delight.

The party return to The Leeky Johnson just as it starts to fill. Joan hustles Matty to the kitchen, and pays the group 100 zenit and gives everyone a big meal that provides the Double Portion camp activity buff. Mio takes a moment to pull Joan aside and let her know that folks are worried her funds are from criminal activities. Joan just winks and assures the catgirl that they are - treasure from her pirate days.

A Lead for Seren

As evening draws near the group return to Greenhome and Seren finds she has mail. In an apologetic letter, Lady Branwen tells Seren that while she has not found a lead on a way for Seren to reduce the strain of sending spirits back to the stream of souls, Sir Cai suggests the group visit a sage. Branwen assures Seren that the the sage's answers ring true, but also cautions he is rather crass. Seren then opens a package that came with the letter and receives a map of Ysbridia with the site marked on it.

With a lead to follow, the group prepare to leave Caer Ys tomorrow. Before doing so, Seren rushes back to Gay Abandonment to see if Gaynor Mattox might sell an accessory that does the same. She doesn't, but offers to try and source it for Seren. The runaway princess places a 100 zenit down payment and Gaynor tells her to check back in a week.

Matty's Immram

The next morning opens with a cutscene, as the camera focuses on The Leeky Johnson. As Joan gets the kitchen going, Matty uses the opportunity to sneak into the cook's room. After some searching she finds a heavy chest with a compass sitting on-top of it. Matty goes to open the chest, but when she moves the compass out of the way she gets startled by the squawk of a seagull immediately behind her.

Compass in-hand, Matty pivots to find the bedroom in the process of being replaced by a beach on the shore of a mirror-like sea. The camera cuts back to Joan as there is a sudden wave crash upstairs. She rushes to her bedroom to see Matty swept to sea. Cussing up a storm, Joan yells at Matty to hold onto the compass, look for a ship, and she'll make it back fine.

The cutscene ends and the scene cuts to Joan knocking on the door of Greenhome. Inside she asks what the party got up to the day prior with Matty before collapsing in a chair and explaining what happened to the young woman. Many years ago, in her pirating days, Joan got hold of an enchanted compass. The compass swept her off to a strange fairy ocean - the Mirrorlight Sea - and she ended-up in a cycle of voyages between strange islands. She managed to escape by tricking the King of the Sea, but never could destroy or throw away the compass - it always found its way back to her.

Seren remembers the magic journals and opens it up to find Matty has been keeping a log of her trip. At this point I reveal the minigame proper!

Each session Matty will get whisked away to the Mirrorlight Sea, where she will visit two-to-five different sites. At each one she finds a treasure and faces a skill check. If she fails the skill check, she loses something - some HP, a bit of MP, or IP. When she runs out of sites to visit or runs out of a resource she gets whisked back to wherever she was when she left, with a conundrum to ask the party to help with and a handful of treasures that she can sell them using fairy-linked journals and the help of Hemlocke's wards, Honey Locust and Hawthorne.

The party can choose to invest in each trip, either to extend the maximum amount of sites Matty can visit by one or to guarantee they get one of her treasures randomly for free. The party opted to invest 400 zenit to guarantee receipt of a treasure back at Gay Abandonment, and it pays off this time as they get a set of magic armor worth 700 zenit.

A picture of the Fultimator item card for a piece of armor called "Clear Skies Dress." The dress is described as "A sky blue sundress decorated with white clouds. Wearing it brings a sense of calm reminiscent of watching the sun set over the ocean from a quiet boardwalk." The armor costs 700 zenit, has a Defense equal to the wearer's Dexterity score, a Magic Defense of the wearer's Insight score plus two, an Initiative modifier of negative one, and makes the wearer immune to dazed. The dress is represented by an icon of a sky blue and pale white dress.

Along with the dress, Matty's trip provides her with two more items to sell - a Baptismal Pearl that can allow Aurelia's gauntlet glove do five more damage to Undead and a Sand Dollar Hairclip that makes all damage the wearer causes become ice damage. Mio buys the Hairclip and Honey Locust facilitates the transaction before Matty is whisked back to The Leeky Johnson.

A picture of the Fultimator item card for an accessory called "Sand Dollar Hairclip." The accessory costs 300 zenit and turns all damage dealt by weapons, pells, and skills into ice damage while equipped. A description of the accessory says "Subtle ripples across the sand dollar speak to its time bathed in the ocean waves."

A Cut To The Villains

With the mini-game complete, we cut to a second cutscene. The camera moves to a castle where Squire Blevin is providing a report to his master, the red-armored knight Sir Roric. In the background a Lod lizardman dressed in flamboyant clothes listens in. Roric dismisses Blevin before discussing the report with the lizardman sellsword, Walerian.

Both recognize the description of Seren from Blevin's report, but are also baffled since by all accounts the Princess was rescued and is in Nova Sinfonia. Roric asks for an update from Walerian, who explains his sellswords are busy hiding crystals somewhere in Cymru and also harassing caravans. Roric then pays the mercenary to take on a third job - find and capture Seren. Walerian promises to send one of his squads to do so.

Leaving Caer Ys

Cutscene over, the camera returns to the party just as they leave Caer Ys to find the strange seer. We make our first travel roll and start poorly - a powerful thunderstorm rolls in. Hemlocke spends the item points to make a tent to shelter in. The group avoids damage from the storm and have a resting scene.

Seren talks with Aurelia, feeling out whether Aurelia hates her for being Nova Sinfonia royalty. Aurelia tells her no, and then asks what Seren hopes to accomplish. The young woman declares she wants to stop the empire, even if it is just in small ways, then asks Aurelia the same. Aurelia blithely says she is just here to cause chaos for Nova Sinfonia. Seren ends the conversation with a lingering sense of mistrust as she ultimately can't get a bead on the distant Aurelia.

Mio takes in the storm while bonding with Thistle. Hemlocke confronts Rhiannon about her undead nature, and attempts to find some way he can provide for the revenant, given Rhiannon doesn't eat. The seneschel has no luck and mostly comes away a bit flustered, but promises to try and help Rhiannon find her missing spouse's soul. Aurelia goes to gather after the storm finishes and finds an old cache of 400 zenit along with restocking her IP.

The group resumes their hike the next day and have better luck with their travel roll. They make a discovery and find a pond of magic fish. Hemlocke cooks them for lunch and the party gain a buff, treating their Insight die as one size larger for the next relevant check they make. The party marks the pond on their map and we finish the session with them arriving at the seer's home - a hill with a large oak tree growing from it.

Referee Thoughts

This was a nightmare of a session to prepare for, and it almost all came down to me not knowing how to scope my own prep. Below is a non-exhaustive list of what I tackled:

It was a lot! And because I didn't have a great sense of how much I needed to complete. The mini-game was a whole new thing and might have been wrapped-up in an hour or might have taken the whole session. The travel rolls could have been done in five minutes or taken a whole hour to resolve. I managed things in the end, mostly by figuring out the bare minimum I needed - two discoveries, two encounter rolls, only enough treasures to cover the sites that could be visited in the mini-game, only enough sites in the mini-game as can be reached at the start, and as small of a dungeon as I could manage. But I did spend something like three or four weeks of steadily working on this.

A picture of the Fultimator item card for a weapon called "Baptismal Pearl.' The item is specific to the bespoke firearm that Aurelia wields, and is a pearl meant to be slotted into it. The pearl costs 550 zenit, is a martial weapon, and acts as a firearm that uses Dexterity plus Insight for accuracy rolls, does high roll plus eight physical damage, is one-handed, is ranged, is a martial weapon, and does five extra damage to undead. A description for the item states "A large pearl taken from a giant clam bathed in fey-touched waters. It is comfortably cool to the touch."

I am just relieved that everyone enjoyed it. They had a lot of fun embodying Matty, are excited for the minigame, and enjoyed that a travel roll gave an excuse to have a rest scene. I would have been heartbroken if none of this - especially the mini-game - didn't hit.

This scramble also helped me really look at where I need to spend my prep time. Namely, I need to develop less mini-games unless asked for them; I need to check my impulse to make larger dungeons; I need to finish writing-up notes for my key NPCs and factions; and I need to start actively using those key NPCs and factions to drive the action. Those last two in-particular are important. I will finish out my travel roll tables as well as the site, treasure, and conundrum tables for the mini-game, though.

The travel rolls worked-out well. The thunderstorm threatened 30 damage if the party did not find a way to take shelter. The party balked at the damage, but I am not too worried - if they took damage they could have done exactly what they did and spend 4 IP to pitch a tent and have a rest scene.

More than the rolls, though, how far the party can travel in a day engendered the most conversation. Our original, Worldwizard-generated map broke things up into 36-mile hexes, which everyone agreed was too long a distance for a group of people to reasonable travel in a day. With some help from a GIMP plug-in I scoped it down to 12-mile hexes and decided that folks can travel 24-miles in a day. Turns out that is exactly the wrong distance, because most metrics the players found online suggest its more reasonable to travel 10-to-20-miles in a day. We debated the merits of using one-hex per day for travel but in the end went with two-hexes a day.

Between sessions I met with Hemlocke's player to change Thistle's character sheet. Thistle frequently gets KO'd within the first round or two of conflict and it has become disheartening. In an attempt to improve his survivability, we changed his species from Beast to Elemental and gave him the Use Equipment skill so he can wear armor and eventually use Shield Weapon Modules. In the process Hemlocke's player also tweaked his stats and themes, giving him a fire theme.

A Fultimator character sheet for Thistle, the Wayfarer companion of Hemlocke. Thistle is a level 5 Elemental with d6 Dexterity, d6 Insight, d10 Might, and d10 Willpower. He is immune to fire and poison damage and vulnerable to ice damage. He has a poison bite attack and a fiery bark attack that can daze targets.

Oh, I also want to shout-out the team who develop Fultimator! This tool has made prep so much quicker, streamlining making NPC stat blocks and items and helping me manage conflict scenes. I wonder if our game would be as fun to run if I didn't have access to it. If you run Fabula Ultima and somehow aren't already using Fultimator I encourage you to try it out.

Seren's player let me know she wants to have a conversation with Seren's handmaiden Vesper and to have an opportunity to speak with Seren's sibling. Following last session Seren's player and Mio's player pitched me on the sibling. Both players are trans women and saw a lot of their specific experiences in the sibling, and pitched me that the character also be a trans woman and requested she appear soon and often. This is fine, and honestly it is cool to have players come to me and say "We want this." Next session I will try to engineer a scene between Seren, Mio, and Princess "Astri."

Fabula Ultima remains a lot of fun! If I have time in the next week I'll make a post about the mini-game and its rules.

  1. Shout-out to Fantasy Name Generator, whose Celtic: Welsh generator keeps providing the absolute best names.↩

  2. Players previously requested a diegetic way to re-spec characters in-game, as opposed to handwaving it. I asked if folks want more diegetic ways to handle those kind of changes, giving this as an example, and one player said that would be nice. That player also asked for a chocobo racing mini-game, which is now on my to-do list.↩

#fabula ultima #rpg #the romance of ys #ttrpg