Well the first game started magnificantly, Mantious the T'Skrang decided to challenge the NPC Sky Raider Wulf to a duel and was promptly decapitated by him. This occurred in the first 30 minutes of play! Not wanting Simon to have to reroll another character, an NPC was on hand with a Last Chance Salve. Now being a Salve, I ruled that a severed head could be reattached, with lasting visible scars, and Mantious returned to the land of the living. Ofcourse their was a problem of a Blood Oath sworn by Valantas to serve the generous NPC in exchange for the Last Chance Salve. This game was going to be a doozy.
There was plenty of roleplaying during the game due to the dozen or so NPCs staying at Jacob's Well and I could tell everyone was enjoying themselves. Then I hit them with the death of the bed-ridden Sky Raider and the game went into overdrive. The players discussed the cause of the Sky Raider's death and the prospect of leaving the trading post. Ofcourse the freezing blizzard outside prevented that, heh heh heh.
(Oh, for those of you who are wondering what a freezing blizzard is doing in Barsaive's lowlands? All will be revealed later on in the Campaign.)With the burning of the guard barracks and the disapperance of one of the guards, the players could not work out if it was caused by the thing that had killed the Sky Raider or if it was an independant incident. Amroth's player Robert even suggested that the guard may have suffered from Spontaneous Human Combustion!!!
When the Horror showed itself the players were a little freaked, its interesting appearance threw them off a bit. Then the self proclaimed-battle-tactic expert Mantious charged the Horror and was paralyzed by a spell.... the look on Simon's face was priceless! This was Atilla's first ever Earthdawn game and he was having a lot of luck with his character Valantas (sworn to a Blood Oath and Horror Marked in your first game, no need to thank me Atilla.)
In the main room Amroth decided to cast Earthblend on all those assembled. I told him to start rolling his Spell Casting Tests, on the 10th go he rolled snake eyes! The resulting surge of raw magic flung Amroth to the floor and Horror marked the NPC Wizard standing next to him. The NPC Wizard claimed Amroth was Horror Marked but the quick thinking Elementalist had the NPC windling check him and the wizard. The verdict was in, the Wizard was marked and then he cast a Mind Dagger at Amroth, a Mind Dagger that packed a heavy Karma punch. Seconds later the Horror influenced Wizard was dead by Ax's hand (I guess attacking to stun wasn't an option.)
Simon threw a slight spanner in the works when he ordered that everyone was to leave the compound the next day since the weather had abated. I didn't realise they would bail out so quickly so I had one of the guards return with the news of the coming Ork Scorcher Band.
And so ended the first session. I was pleased to hear that everyone enjoyed the game and someone even mentioned that it had the feel/mood of the John Carpenter movie classic "The Thing". Not bad I thought to my self, not bad at all.
The Gamemaster - 25/05/00
(Return to Behind the Scenes)