- A Woman, A Man, and a Little Lady …and a Little Lady, and a Little Lady, and a Little Lady Storr talks with Gwen
S: How have these children come to live here?
G: Quite a long time ago now i went on an expedition with some of the people that live around here that help out the tower. We traveled a good way across Nyth to go to a cave where we heard there were clear crystals that S had suggested that would perhaps aid him in his study of the stars. As I was walking a path close to this cave, I was hailed by a rather ragged individua;l who suggested to me that I take a child in his position, and to be totally honest, he didn’t see a likely candidate for raising a child in the wilderness, so i agreed, and brought the child back here. Didn’t really know what we would do with her. It felt like the right thing to do. Very strangely, I put her in a basket, tucked her in, and when I came down to check on her the next day, there were four baskets with four babies in the room. I’ve never been able to solve the mystery of how it happened.
S: Did you ever figure out which was the original baby?
G: No, they all looked like WInston Churchill.
Silas: How long ago was this?
G: Quite some time. You can sew that they’ve all grown up.
S: That’s a strange thing to have happened. Since then, have any other strange things happened since?
G: No.
S: Do the children know of this occurrence?
G: I’ve told them the story, they don’t seem to know anything about it. Though sometimes it does seem like they’re hiding something
S: Do they ever ask about the man that gave them to you?
G: That’s a hard thing. They’ve want to know the story, because children like being told stories. But they ont’ ask anything in particular. They seem very individual to me. I don’t know where the three others came from., HE gave me one, and now I have four.
S: How have you managed?
G: I stay busy. A woman’s work is never done.
S: Preach sister. Have you taken them anywhere?
G: They’ve stayed here. They’ve gone to the farm in the valley but that’s as far as they’ve gone.
S: What are their personalities? They seem different from each other.
G: They are.
S: please elaborate.
G: Dark haired one stays quiet. She hums a song to herself. Looks at the sky.
Blonde feels older than the others. Self appointed leader. Very forceful, strong. She could hurl a boulder across the valley I feel.
Red head is somewhat fickle and opinionated, but a good friend to the others even if she defends herself and doesn’t take guff.
Brown hair is inquisitive, playing things, drawing things and circles on the table over there. Quiet, but always thinking, thinking something new and wanting to explain it.
S: Was Ser here when you brought the baby here?
G: Yes, he never leaves the tower.
S: How did he react?
G: I don’t think he really noticed. I told him, his head was in the clouds as always
S: What’s your relationship?
G: I’m the housekeeper. I take care of things, he researches. I try to give the girls a good upbringing.
Silas: Are the girls happy here?
G: I think so. I try to get them to be.
Storr: Before you were housekeeper, what did you do?
G: I can’t remember that far back
S: Have you traveled beyond this place?
GL: What do you mean? I’ve traveled out into Nyth, made it out to the cave that once.
S: No further than the cave?
G: No. That’s as far as I’ve gone. There’s a woman that lives down by the river named Angharad and sometimes I visit her.
S; Have you heard voices on the wind?
G: I’ve listened to the wind through the valley, it’s a favorite pastime.
S: Why does Ser do his research?
G: I think he’s curious, looking at the stars is a remarkable thing. I don’t see them the way he does, but I can imagine somebody doing that and that’s all they want to do.
S: How is his work supported?
G: It’s just what he does, it’s what we all do. He’s lucky enough that we all care for him and want him to continue.
S: Does he get any visitors? Anyone else interested in his work?
G: No. Just the group of us that lives around here. There’s a farm down in the valley, a family down there. That’s where we get most of our food.
S: As we were journeying, we came across a city besieged by an outsider. Are you aware of this?
G: I’m aware of the city, but not of the siege. I’ll have to ask Ser if he saw that in the stars.
S: Probably strange that we showed up here.
G: I would certainly say unusual.
S: Let’s talk bees. Do you have hives that you keep?
G: I’ve always been a bee keeper; as long as I can remember.
S: Are the girls interested in bee keeping?
G: interested in their own way but very young, not enthusiastic. They’ve helped out.
Branwen: Does it strike you as odd that they resemble us?
Gwen looks thoughtfully. G: Some hair matches, black, red.
B: The girl with glasses with horns and our horned friend here seem to share an attitude toward the sciences.
G: That could be, I haven’t spent much time with him.
B: Trust me, there’s something there. The blond haired girl is similar to our druid friend. There are some spiritual connections between us it seems.
G: Perhaps. What happened to your tattooed friend?
K comes staggering out of the stairwell. “Good morning!”
B: Hey K, did you ruin anything? Did you get us kicked out? (savage)
(A correction: Ser is taken with our spyglass, but he has been trying to form lenses himself, just not as successful as the spyglass that we have. It’s not like he’s never tried to play with magnification before. The quartzite crew was mining the stones for Ser.)
Storr: When the girls were babies, did they all look that way from the beginning?
G: Children’s hair color changes over time. It’s not like they were identical, they were very young and Churchillian.
The wetnurse question goes unanswered given G’s token (she’s older than this)
We discuss what our next moves are. We’ve found this “girl.”
- Dm suggests we take stock and think who was involved, who sent us to the kid, we need to find out something about the kid, what do we have (we have some objects) This might be a good reset point so we can figure out what questions to ask. Fellowship phase would be appropriate, piecing together what we’ve seen. What is the quest we’re on?*
One more question: Silas: Did the woman by the river have any insight into the girls?
G: Sometimes babies appear. Kids wash up on a river bank. I told her about it. Ang nodded and was thoughtful.
At some point Ang did meet them. G took them down just for a change of pace.
B: Have they grown fast or has it been 12 years? They seem to our eyes 12yo children. Has the moon gone through 150 phases?
G: Not sure. Days come and go.
… Missed some talk about time, and patterns….
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Taking in the 10000 ft view Guiding questions from our DM: We have some good world building hypotheses, but what’s happening with the people? What’s our operating hypothesis of what’s happening? Do we want to take one or all the girls? Do we want to give them anything? What’s the role of The Boatman? Where do we fall in all of this? To a certain extent, we’ve achieved a step in the quest. Who has sent us on a quest with a motivation?
- Thoughts on those involved in sending us and their motivations Sun King: Sent B on a quest re: The Black Water
Tewlder: Find his daughter, not necessarily bring her home, but maybe implied
- How much did he know beyond that? We don’t know.
- We don’t know what his wife’s name was, K’s crush
Abbot: Seems to have orchestrated everything
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Hopps thought: Seems to be a supernatural being
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Kelynnen nuggets: B asked her about Osgog. Her response: he’s a mystery but he took after his mother (a compliment, O’s mother is Doldhelan, whom K is aligned with)
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Is Bryok a sibling of Osgog? (never answered) Hopps thought: he is.
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She called him “shining prince”, a translation of his name. Why? Because he was inline to the throne, but he had made another choice.
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Hopps thought: Bryok could have been The God King after Mons
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What is Bryok’s intention with us as a party then? - How do his actions affect your answer to these last three questions? NB
1. People/ideas we've encountered
Big mysteries that seem very related but have no real information about:
- Silas and the sleeping bear (B asks if Silas has anything to tell us, Silas will need to reflect)
- There was a second one…. I think this was the Tower. NB
Does Bryok not want there to be a god king?
Does the Sun King want to be The God King? - These last two seem like big questions. NB
These are opposing motivations. Have we seen anything related to those motivations?
- The lake is the source of The Black Water
- There may be spring beneath the lake
- We’ve heard both of these narratives around The Black Water:
- The Black Water represents an ancient evil
- it’s trapping something down
Boatman and The Oracle
Choice and the dead
- The dead are “losing their grip”
- Dm not sure what else we’ve heard about the dead
- Branwen’s “A Vision From the Raven Queen” - I did a really good job with this. NB
The DM defends Mons:
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I’ve been microaggressing against Mons
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Lots of people don’t hate him in and around Monsoth
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Invented the wheel, Apollo-ish figure
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Music, medicine
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(Silas would not be swayed be these treaties in defense of Mons) Mali
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She wasn’t there to bring Balz back, she was looking for The Black Water
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What was her intent with Balthazar then? - How much do you remember about her words? What does Balthazar remember about his relationship with her? NB
1. Our current position and questions
We believe we’ve been sent here by our Abbot. Who is our opposition? What role could coming to this place play?
Why would the Sun King be so interested in The Black Water? He wants to be a god king? -The fact that you’ve repeated this about twenty times is telling. NB
The lake has been described as a prison, the black water has been described as an evil leaking out of it.
Is the Sun King trying to acquire black water? -How much does he know? What happened to Mali when she drank some? There was a related comment that someone made here about Osgog. NB
Horns represent ancient wisdom. SK is seeking ancient wisdom which could help him ascend.
Why did The Abbot send us on a path to collide with SK?
Plotwise, the tower and the watchman was a significant event.
The lake, the tower. Where else has something dark escaped?
Something was released in Mons and the God of Death. (A beast) There were four gifts given to Mons by his children. Is the SK trying to retrieve these four gifts in order to come to power? Kleghien might be the “Sword of Darkness Edged in Light”
Is the hammer the scepter?
- The stone was found on a beach
- Krambler gave the rock to The Abbot, later K found the hammer in the A’s enclave with a branch grasping the stone (there’s a drawing). -----------⇒
- K keeps having dreams of roots in the earth grasping for things - What things? NB
- K had a dream in The Abbot’s cottage (“one of the great hammers”)
- In Gorydth (the alpine bog) he showed the hammer to one of the stones (not the three) and the eyes blazed with desire
- Those folk were imprisoned, and we thought maybe they wanted to get free with the hammer
- K’s poem: “what is the stone you hold”
What’s the next global step back from the conflict between SK and The Abbot?
What are we going to do next?
Ideal-wise: Man (God King) vs. Nature (Abbot). God king f’ed up last time. Would these folks be hesitant to support another one?
1. What's next?
For the in between time:
- Think about questions posited above
- Read up on those stories/poems mentioned
- Review the tower encounter
Fireside chat topics for next time:
- Think on what characters would have motivations and what that would mean for us
- What are they trying to use us for?
- How does that relate to where we are right now?
- What do we have that can help us?
- What are B and Storr’s thoughts on Mons?
- Conflict? Sides? What do we see?
- How do these gifts of Mons’ children fit in?
- The Sun King wants to come into power. Generalize that more.
- How will he do it? Why is he doing it?
- Are these people aligned with our side of this conflict? Not just heard of the people we’ve run into.
After the fireside chat and we hopefully have a better sense of what’s going on in the world, we should decide what our goals are for a fellowship phase and a council.