(The previous report can be found here.)
(This account was also posted on The Forge. You might find the responses from the folks there to be interesting.)
Battle is joined in the remnants! Demon armies attack! Dragons clash in the air, and below, the Knights of the Order of the Stars deal death!
At last, we return to our Polaris game. Let’s get into it.
Long ago, the people were dying at the end of the world.
Quotables
“I have no control over what your sister does with her face!�
“Hey, look what my pants do! I don’t know why!�
But First, An Aside
This AP report actually covers about one and a quarter sessions. The first part of the session was on March 1, 2006. However, we were just barely into our second scene when I received an emergency phone call. William, a teenager in our church, had been diagnosed with a brain tumor at the end of January. That night, he had taken a turn for the worse. In particular, one of William’s friends at church was very shaken and needed to talk.
We called the game early, and off I went.
On March 5, William was declared brain-dead. On March 7, he was taken off the respirator. Within 15 minutes, his heart stopped. He was sixteen.
Polaris is a game of loss. This March, as I stood at the grave of a teen, I experienced loss. I believe that William is with his Savior now, but still, I had hoped to have more time with him.
Then, Raquel traveled to Colorado, schedules didn’t line up, and soon a month had passed. Finally, we managed to assemble on April 12 to play.
This time, it was a success.
Overview of Play
Sadal had gone to the headquarters of the Order of Mesarthim to seek Maia. Instead, he found Aludra, Maia’s apprentice, whom Sadal blamed for the scarring of his sister Gemma. He compelled Aludra to come with him and heal his sister. However, as a result, it was fated that both Aludra and Gemma would die.
Then came the massive battle sequence. This was very cool.
The Knights were passing in review in a celebratory parade when a huge demon army attacked. Leading them was Muliphein, once of the Order of the Stars, now a demon himself. He rides a skeletal dragon (essentially a dracolich) but is himself the most beautiful Knight ever seen. I took to calling him “the prettiest Knight�, so the group quickly named him “the Knight of Haunting Beauty�.
Altair took to the sky on Agate, his ice dragon. Being Altair, he quickly moved to engage Muliphein. A well-placed ice blast shattered the dracolich, causing Muliphein to plummet onto the remnant wall. Unfortunately, it simply reformed on the ground, shattered bones rattling together into place. Seized with a chivalrous impulse, Altair alighted from his dragon to battle Muliphein, while Agate turned to fight the dracolich. Altair drew his sword. The two of them stood above the gate. All about them, the battle raged. Then, Altair struck.
Maia had been in the grandstand during the parade, and now she was trying to escort both Andromeda (the Chancellor’s daughter) and the Spring Child to safety. But it was not to be. Muliphein had sent a demon for the Spring Child. It took the form of a giant serpent with a wolf’s head and claws sprouting from its back. Maia fought it, stabbing deeply into its underbelly. However, the acid blood spraying from the wound burned her severely, melting one of her arms and the one side of her face. Then, in desperation, Maia reached within herself and reversed her Hand of Healing. Into this demon, she poured every disease that she had ever healed. Writhing in agony, the demon died, crumbling into dust. But both Andromeda and the Spring Child were gone.
Rastaban had also been near the grandstand when the demons attacked, and so he saw Al Bali the Swallower emerge from the shadows and slip down the corridor, following Maia. He knew that this demon was the Chancellor’s personal assassin, so something must be up.
Indeed, Al Bali had been sent to capture the Spring Child. But he had other ideas. When he cornered the Spring Child, he picked her up and consumed her. But he was unable to consume her essence. Instead, she tore herself from his stomach and continued to walk away. In anger, Al Bali impaled the Spring Child with his claws. But it was too late. The change had begun. From within the demon something burst, ripping apart his body. Poppies sprouted where the Spring Child’s blood had fallen. Where Al Bali had stood, now a tree swayed in the wind. High above in its branches, the Spring Child lay in a cradle of living boughs. Rastaban crept from the shadows and rescued the Spring Child.
This is the first tree ever to grow in any of the remnants.
Sadal took his stand in the streets, rallying the Knights to his side. The demons fell before his furious onslaught. Soon, Sadal had cut his way to the side of Captain Megrez, whom he had once accused of being possessed. Now, they discovered brotherhood in the battle, fighting back to back against the rising tide of demons.
Then Sadal saw his sister Gemma, walking through the battle. Her face was no longer scarred; Aludra had healed her. She beckoned to him, and he followed. Captain Megrez called after him desperately, but it was no use. Megrez was pulled under by the demons, who tore him apart.
Gemma led Sadal to the top of the tallest tower in the remnant. All around them, the city burned. Then, behind them, Aludra came running up the stairs, calling for Sadal to wait. With a fluid motion, Gemma drew Sadal’s sword and ran Aludra through. Then, without another word, she threw herself from the tower.
With her dying words, Aludra confessed that she had used demonic power to heal Gemma. Her last words to Sadal were, “The Spring Child….�
Altair was losing the duel. Muliphein was just too skilled. So, Altair leaped to safety, calling for Antares. But Antares was not responding. He had been courting Gemma, and he saw her fall. In the skies above, the dracolich tore into Agate, causing him to fall from the sky. The dragon crashed into the grandstand, killing Senator El-Nath’s son, earning Altair the eternal hatred of a Senator. Then Muliphein moved in for the kill. But Antares intervened. Having torn himself away from Gemma’s body, he threw himself on the Knight of Haunting Beauty. But Muliphein was too fast. With a swift motion, he cut down Antares, wounding him so severely that he will never be able to fly again.
With a cry of fury, Altair charged Muliphein. His rage gave him strength, and he ran his sword through the other Knight, pinning him to the wall of the remnant. But then Altair’s eyes met Antares’. All that Altair saw was anger and disbelief. Antares blamed Altair for his wound. He blamed Altair for Gemma’s death. Their friendship was shattered.
Altair looked at his friend, twisted and broken on the ground. He looked at his dragon, tangled in the wreckage of the grandstand. The enormity of his loss crashed in on him. He pulled his sword free and slunk away, head hanging in shame and grief.
Muliphein mounted his dracolich and sounded the retreat. Quickly the demon horde withdrew. Behind them, the remnant continued to burn.
Group Input
First, a quote from Ron. In this thread, he says, “[S]potlight time during role-playing is not monologuing, but rather being the recipient of enthusiastic suggestions, cheerleading, and a general verbal barrage. This is the norm in my current regular group, and any time the spotlight-person doesn’t feel like dealing with it, he or she just says, ‘[S]hut up, let me do it,’ and everyone else does.â€? In this session, I found that our group embraced this idea whole-heartedly.
First, certain descriptions were the result of group collaboration. The wolf-headed serpent demon is an excellent case in point. We had established that the demon was a large, shadowy serpent in a previous scene. When the time came to flesh it out, Gabrielle was the Mistaken. However, it was Ralph who suggested the wolf’s head. Did Gabrielle have to incorporate it? Of course not. However, the entire group immediately expressed enthusiasm for the wolf’s head, so Gabrielle chose to incorporate it. The inversion of the Hand of Healing was also Ralph’s idea.
Second, I found that at least Ralph and I were acting as cheerleaders in the Heart-Mistaken conflict between Raquel and Gabrielle. Not only would we offer suggestions as to potential conflict statements, we would generally heckle them as the conflict went on. I recall saying things like, “You can’t let her get away with that!� or “Roll dice! Roll dice!� I’d like to think that these interjections were helpful. At the very least, we egged them on to increase the intensity of their conflicts.
I think that all of this is an important lesson. I was talking with Crystal about various items related to roleplaying, and she said that she often feels intimidated when she has to manufacture a narration out of whole cloth. However, she finds suggestions to be very helpful, because she is able to draw on the resources of the group as a whole and merely exercise editorial oversight, when she is stuck for ideas. I’m guessing that most of us end up in that position from time to time. Encouraging kibitzing within your group can be a good way of encouraging creative input from everyone.
Final Thoughts
Everyone agreed that this was a great session. I think that it is because each character experienced a major crisis point. The one possible exception to this is Rastaban, and that’s my fault. I’m Ralph’s Mistaken, and I probably should have made him bleed more. However, the setup was too cool, and I was actually enjoying where it was all going. Oh well.
I’ll get him next time.
But that all happened long ago, and now there are none who remember it.
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