SMOOSH JUICE
Campaign Updates: Only Two
One of the players in the Dolmenwood campaign is away on a three-week trip, so we’ve elected to put things on hold until she returns. Until then, another player has offered to referee a short adventure using the Dragonbane rules for us. I was quite excited to do this, both because it’s good to take a break from my own refereeing duties and because I’ve been very curious about how Dragonbane plays. I’ll likely write a separate post about that soon. For now, though, here are the updates from my Barrett’s Raiders Twilight: 2000 campaign and House of Worms Empire of the Petal Throne campaign.
Barrett’s Raiders
Having accepted Captain Calloway’s offer to form Military Liaison Group 7, the members of Barrett’s Raiders renewed their oaths of enlistment in the US Army. However, it was quickly noted that, while nearly everything about the oath had remained the same, there was a tiny but significant change to its wording. Instead of swearing to “obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of officers appointed over me,” the new oath mentioned obeying only “the lawful orders of the officers appointed over me” without reference to the President, since USMEA does not recognize the authority of John Broward. While this did not sit well with all the characters, they had little choice but to accept it for the time being.
Resupplied, they headed out along I-64 West, a stretch of highway USMEA patrolled and assured them would be “reasonably secure.” They were, however, urged to avoid the area around Richmond, given recent events. Though their ultimate goal was Fort Meade, Maryland, they were instructed to make two stops in Virginia first: Forts Lee and Pickett. Ostensibly, these stops were to check in with the soldiers there for more current intelligence. Lt. Col. Orlowski suspected, though, that doing was, in part, a loyalty test to see if the newly minted MLG-7 was follow orders. For the moment, he had no reason to disobey and so made plans to exit I-64 before reaching Richmond.
When they did so, they saw an overpass spraypainted with a warning – “No Federal Dogs. No JCS. Keep Moving.” Not wanting to risk angering the locals, Lt. Col. Orlowski recommended they keep a low profile and do nothing that could be interpreted as aggressive. Around this time, the new radio operator, Birmingham “Bum” Farley, picked up a weak signal just within range. The message was clearly in code, making reference to railroads, even though there were no tracks within the area. Michael, now under cover as Polish national-turned-US citizen Aleksander, recognized the message as CIA in origin. According to him, it meant an operative was in trouble and being actively pursued.
Orlowski was content to let Michael follow up on the message, but he wanted it done quietly. MLG-7 had three new members whom most of the team did not know. At least one and possibly more could have been added to the team by USMEA to spy on them. Since the CIA was aligned with Broward and the (to use USMEA terminology) “unrecognized civilian authority in Omaha,” there needed to be insulation between what the soldiers did and what their comrade Michael did. Michael understood and took Radosław (an actual Pole who took up the offer of US citizenship) with him to investigate.
House of Worms
At the end of Kirktá’s grand party at the Golden Bough clanhouse, the group met with Princes Táksuru and Rereshqála to discuss their next move. Rereshqála insisted they must do whatever it took to prevent Dhich’uné from winning the Kólumejàlim, even at the cost of their lives. He urged them to unite all rival heirs in this cause, setting aside personal ambitions to stop Dhich’uné from ruling Tsolyánu.
To that end, Kirktá would need to enter the Choosing rather than abstaining. His participation could disrupt Dhich’uné’s plans, as the prince seemed to expect Kirktá not only to renounce his claim but to aid him somehow. Kirktá agreed, but Nebússa pointed out that he lacked the golden disk proving his imperial lineage. Without it, he could not enter the contest, and they had only two weeks to find it.
There was also the matter of Dhich’uné’s gift: a large, lacquered black box. To open it safely, Kirktá used the Almanac of Wába to access a remote nexus point – an ancient cavern beneath a desert on some other plane. In the box, he found ritual texts on the pariah god, the One Other, including pacts and heretical writings on the nature of the soul. Among the contents was an amulet for long-distance communication, along with a note from Jayárgo, Dhich’uné’s lieutenant: “Contact me when you are ready.”
Kirktá did so, and Jayárgo revealed a disturbing truth. Dhich’uné believed he had uncovered the secret of Tsolyánu’s origins: that its first emperor had made a pact with the One Other, sacrificing the immortal souls of defeated heirs to sustain the Empire in exchange for stability. Now, Dhich’uné sought to alter this ancient bargain. Instead of sacrificing defeated princes, he planned to offer his own immortal soul as emperor, securing Tsolyánu’s eternal stability. However, as a worshiper of Sárku, he intended to cheat the One Other, offering up his soul while preserving his body and intellect as an undead being, thereby becoming an eternal ruler over a neverending realm.
Jayárgo feared his master was dangerously mistaken in his suppositions. If Dhich’uné was indeed wrong about the One Other’s intentions, his gambit could unravel the very foundations of the Empire. Unable to openly betray him, Jayárgo begged Kirktá to prevent disaster – for Tsolyánu’s sake, and for Dhich’uné’s as well.