The team have acquired the second Aeonatine relic. Today's session is just trying to figure out some details related to it.

from a photo by ARTUR KERKHOFF on Unsplash. A golden-sword was much easier to find than giant iron fists or people with dragon-fly wings.

Let's draw two cards and see if I can make any sense about how this might apply to an ancient-alien technology reshaped into a golden-looking sword:

  • 263 - An Excited Dog... (friendly).
  • 223 - 4d4 Pilgrims (friendly).

Is it Gulwin? (Very Unlikely) → 92. No. Exceptionally not. Something like Gulwin? (Unlikely) → 15. Yes.

Because this will take some time to explain, I will now add in a lore section and a brief story section.

Also, they will all get +2 Luck for finding the sword. Barston is still something like 8HP down. I'm going to say he has to heal the rest more naturally. It's more than a simple life drain, it was removing him from his source of magic which is basically his ability to create.

Later that night, Barston is still recovering from the drain. He does not mention it, but he can taste food. He can only see a few brighter colors. It is a bit like the ability to create and witness art have been struck from him. It is coming back, but slowly.

Faruin has been swinging the sword and practicing. With the same odd shapes and symbols as the bow. Two parts of a relic. With a pair (or more) of some strange entity seeking them. As part of a bet.

Barston thinks back to an innkeeper in Humb. The Dog and Duck. A halfling who was is actually a leprechaun. Utterly shattered from his magical roots by trying to steal the bow. Holding it too long.

Now is as good a time as any to figure out the actual mechanics. The bow was a byproduct of very early solo-play days by me and is very weirdly balanced. It had one goal in mind: it was meant to be a "gift" to Malakar Brite. However, it turned out Malakar Brite was dead and the whole Warlock War was simply different cult leaders claiming to be him. Essentially.

It was initially created to attack the Magic stat directly. Only by holding it, though. I think I'll do something different.

The Bow of Aeonatus:

  • Does longbow damage.
  • When using a charge, it does second damage roll to the MP of those characters with MP. For sorcerers and entities who use Stamina, it will get a second damage roll that ignores armor.
  • It can store 8 charges.
  • When held or in contact with a magic-wielder (minus priests) or magical entity (minus those empowered by gods), it does equivalent damage as Unarmed Human directly the Magic stat and equivalent damage as Medium Claw to MP. This can be resisted with a Luck/Skill roll.
  • For entities whose Magic/MP are Skill/Stamina, it will do Unharmed Damage to both.
  • Each point of Magic (not MP) absorbed this way returns a charge.
  • If the magic user (etc) hits -4 Magic stat, it utterly destroys their magical ability.
  • Likewise, if a creature who uses its Skill to cast magic hits -4 Skill, it turns them mundane or destroys them.
  • For relics, it will have completely absorbed the magic from it in either a few minutes for a minor relic (netting 1d3 charges) or in an hour or two (up to 2d6 charges).

That's complex as hell, but a lot more structured than the original notes.

Then for The Sword of Aeonatus, it will use its charges differently...

  • Rather than do extra damage, the sword can "cut through magical effects." Rather than Luck, it may use the Skill+Sword of the user to resist a magical effect.
  • This includes effects where Luck would not apply, though these effects (ironically) will require a Luck roll to hit.
  • All the same applies for restoring charges.

NOTE: At this time, neither Barston nor Faruin have any real knowledge of how these works or how to activate the charges.

Are demons/devils effected? (Likely) → 95. No. Their magic derives from a similar celestial [though, you know, the opposite] source. However, I will retcon my decision when it comes to undead. At least those raised by mortal magician types.

One other odd aspect is there are...dogs...associated with them.

Barston is thinking he needs to learn more about how these work and where others like them might exists, when he hears a loud but playful shout from Faruin. Carefully standing up on his tired legs, he walks outside and sees a dog playing around with the young priest.

"Gulwin?," he asks, incredulously. But no, Gulwin had shaggy hair roughly the same color as Barston's own. This dog has straighter hair and the hair is tinged red and gold, more a nod to Faruin's.

"How strange."

In the very early days of what was then called (roughly) The Bakersfield Chronicles — with an intent to have different mini-campaigns focusing on different people from the family — shortly after Barston found the Bow while sneaking into the Red Warlock base, Gulwin showed up.

Back then, I tended to use a full on stack of oracles for play. This many-headed-random-beast nature is part of the reason why the world is multi-layered and various realities play off each other.

In multiple cases — I think three — I had prompts about a friendly dog "NPC" and I think two of them had the dog be shaggy. There was something of an in-joke — all jokes during solo-play are so in- they are practically insular-jokes — that for some reason this strange, shaggy dog (later named Gulwin from some table or another) would show up and save Barston back when he was on his lonesome. Then I got a Mythic random event that had Gulwin leave. At the time, I said he went with another NPC.

The oracle tests around Gulwin were always strange. He was not Barston's dog. He did not follow Barston automatically. He was Yezony the Great's dog, but also did not like Yezony the great.

The strange dog iconery showed up so much that the inn that was Barston's base for the first year of this campaign was the Dog & Duck [again, from random rolls]. The inn-keeper also owned the Bow once. Yezony took it from him and set it up to trap Malakar.

This strange set of coincidences makes me think that the Aeonatine relics somehow have a guardian entity that takes the shape of a larger, friendly dog. One that comes and goes as it...judges...the owner.

Let's go back to the old school and do a random female name from one of the sources that contributed to this series: Dicegeek's Great Book of Random Tables and we'll use Human Female Names #2: 43 Daisy.

"Doesn't she look like a...um, how do you say, Madeliefje? Aan je?"

"Anya?"

"Nee, um...like a flower. A pretty little precious baby flower." Faruin carefully sets the sword down to pet the dog. "I'll call you Maddie."

Barston feels too tired to stay upright for too long, so heads back inside. Hoping that Derron is not giving away too much food to the minimites.

That night he dreams. A gray dream. One with muted sound.

And in it there are a group of pilgrims from Yeule who went out into the land to find something. A quest that took over half their number. One that broke their spirit. Knowing they were gone so long as Yeule was under so much threat.

Finally, the pilgrims returned, those alive, and in their hand they carried a sword. Even in his dream, with all its gray, the sword shines bright gold.

And it was a terrible weapon. It not allowed them to fight back, it stole something vital. A great machine to channel's the sword's energy from a lighthouse like structure allowed them to slice that beam of black energy for miles.

Until the only one of those pilgrims still alive after decades of fighting took the sword and asked three goblin mages, no longer proud nor willing to fight, just tired like the pilgrim was tired, to create one last miracle. A giant stone hand rose up out of the ground and reached down to grab the sword and enclose it.

As the stone lost all its magic, the mages crafted a relic. The ability to one-day reopen the hand as long as someone was willing to suffer the consequences.